High school coaching problems

Question
QUESTION: My daughter is a 5'9" high school junior playing varsity as a right side hitter on a team with 10 girls. She has played club for 4 years ans has been playing for school since 7th grade.  Her issue is that she has gotten almost no playing time this year and she is really struggling mentally.  The girl that plays rt side over her is her club teammate who has normally played outside. She is 5'5" with limited vertical and a very average hitter.  My daughter has asked the coach what she needs to work on, and he just tells her to be more consistent with her hitting.  She is a very good blocker and a good precision hitter who plays smart. However, she seems to have gotten worse over the season.  She basically feels invisible to her coaches, because she feels like the coaches have their "pets" that they favor and get all the coaching help and playing time.  She feels like no matter what she does, how great a practice she has or how much team spirit she shows or how much better she plays than the other rt side, that she never gets playing time.  She feels like quitting.  What can she do?  I am not inclined to contact the coach, but I feel like he is playing games with her head, and she's not even sure that her senior year will be any better.  Volleyball has been her passion and its so hard to see her lose heart.

ANSWER: Good evening:
I started typing, and I thougth:  I've answered something just like this before. So, I discovered that I wrote this article a few years ago.  I think it's spot on!  
If there's ever anything else I can do for you, please contact me anytime.  

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Coach Says One Thing, Does Another.  Playing Time Is Incomprehensible.
August 20, 2006

Coach Houser:
My daughter isn抰 a great passer, but her club team last spring sure thought she was better than her high school coach does now.  I don抰 understand how she is never in serve receive this fall, yet was in serve receive most of the time last spring at Big South, at NorthEast, etc.  What抯 up with these coaches?  Her high school coach said a year ago that she foresaw my daughter being a great player in the future; but, now we don抰 know if my daughter can even keep her front row playing time.  These things confuse me, but the next issue makes me see red.  What is up with some kids who are playing just as bad -- OR WORSE -- than my daughter, yet they never come out?  

Dear Parent:

What Coaches See In Players.

Aren't coaches interesting?  Maybe I should say irritating!  It抯 amazing how coaches see something different in players?   There was a girl on my club team in 2006 who played front row only, then in 2007 she played all the way around for her club coach, but now I she抯 playing almost none for her high school coach.   I sit in the bleachers and am amazed by how us coaches see such different things in kids.  Amazing.  

Giving Players Chances.

I don't give my players chances during games, unless the game is a blow-out situation.  My players get hundreds of chances at camps, open gyms, practices, etc.  That's how I determine who plays.  My assistant coaches and I are constantly talking and emailing each other about what we think about how certain players look at practice.  In addition, I tell the players, "Every warm up drill, every hustle, every time you're on the floor:  they're all important because the assistant coach and I know that this will indicate what you will do in a game."

Why Do Coaches Leave Certain Players In The Game?

Some girls stay on the court after making mistakes because their coach believes in her heart that those players have other skills (setting/passing/digging/blocking) that are essential to the success of the team.  I probably do the same thing with nearly all my teams.  Here抯 an example.  I had a girl named Jocelyn on my 2007 club team.  If she got aced 3 straight times, I couldn抰' take her out because she could set/hit/dig/serve, she was respected by her teammates, she was a quiet leader, not loud, but intense and quiet and competitive.  After the 1st month of the season, she was pretty much going to be in the court unless one of her arms fell off.  haha.  In 2006, it was Jessica.  The year before, it was Lindsey.  On my 2002 high school team it was Rachel.   

I抦 not trying to minimize your feelings, but if a front row specialist (like your daughter) is taken out, the only thing the team loses is hitting/blocking.  But if I would have taken out Jocelyn, Jessica, Lindsey, etc., then this will have so much more of an impact.  Sorry, but your daughter will be one of the first ones taken out, even is she hasn抰 even touched a ball at all!   

The Coach Told You What She Foresaw.  Oooops!

I'd mention this to her in private sometime when both you and Coach aren't upset about anything.  I wonder what she'd say if you repeated to her what she told you?  If you came to me with this inquiry, I'd tell you, "Back then, that was what I thought.  I wasn't lying to you so your daughter would stay on our team.  I told you what I actually thought at the time.  But now, things have changed."

Here抯 a foot-in-mouth example.  This past February I said to anyone who would listen, "Of the 9 girls on my team, any 6 could start!  This is great!? But a month later, one girl was playing very little.  So the dad made an appointment to talk to me after a practice one night.  He had the same questions for me that you have for your coach.  I told him carefully that I shouldn't have said what I said in Feb.  I was wrong.  It was hard to explain to an upset dad and a crying player.  What I didn抰 say was that, from the point of view of the assistant coach and me, his daughter was now obviously weaker than the others. Jeeeeeeeze.  Yep, after all these years, I抦 still learning.  

What Must Your Daughter Do To Stay In The Game?  

What will keep a front row specialist (who抯 not a serve receiver) in the game?  If your daughter can get 30% of her attacks to go down, and let's say only make errors with 15% of the sets that she hits/tips/rolls, then she will benefit her team greatly.  But if that error % and kill % get close together -- or forbid the error % gets higher than the kill % -- then coach will be looking for someone else to do the job.  

Furthermore, your daughter MUST keep 95% to 99% of the bad sets in play.  (When I say 揵ad sets,?I抦 not talking about the ones that are so bad that Houdini couldn抰 get them over.)  She CAN'T bump bad sets out of bounds, or tip a bad set into the antenna.    

If you want to privately discover if your daughter is accomplishing these hitting goals, you can get out a little pad and make 3 columns at the next match.  The column names are:  balls killed, balls dug, errors.   At the end of the night, subtract the errors from the kills, and divide by the sum of all three columns.  We're looking for .100 or higher.  .200 for a season is GOOD!   .300 for a season could make a girl 1st team all conference.  .400 for the season could make a girl district player of the year stuff.  After the 1st three tournaments, my stepdaughter was right .049.   Dreadful.  She抯 been moved to libero and the girl who抯 taken her place is presently .125.  Better!!

Your daughter may hit .000 one night, .300 another night, .050 another night, .400 another night.  So don't judge her on one night's performance.  Coaches don't.  At least they shouldn't!   When your team plays the best opponent in the conference, I don抰 expect your daughter to hit .300.   But when you guys play the worst team in the conference, I expect the entire team to hit .300.   For a girl like your daughter who's right now playing front row only, she needs to hit at least .100, or the coach may no longer even give her a chance (like my stepdaughter).   As you may have guessed, .100 isn抰 very good.  If a team has OH's who are only hitting .100, then the team probably won't have a winning record in their conference, unless they have very very good MB's and they have great passers/diggers and servers.  

Remember I said 損rivately?!  Parents who keep stats are usually the ones who are looking out for their children only, and have no interests in the team抯 success.  They抮e the selfish ones who are trying to prove something to everyone.  On my club team in 2003, I had a parent videotaping a tournament.  I knew why.  He wanted to have proof that the girls who were playing in his daughter抯 position were making mistakes.   Jeeeeeeeze.   No, you抮e taking stats ONLY to see if you can verify your coach抯 point of view.  That抯 it.  Nothing else.  If you want to keep stats of the other players, that抯 fine but:

a) You will NOT go around saying, 揗y daughter hit better than Janie and Phyllis and Tammy.  I don抰 know why Coach took her out.? If you say that, then you haven抰 read this email very closely and you ARE indeed one of those selfish parents.

b) I抳e already explained to you that a front row specialist will be one of the first girls taken out.  So if your daughter is hitting .100, or .200 or .300, she may come out before the setter, the serve receivers, the team leaders, etc.   That抯 what I would do.  

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What else can I do for you?
If you have any followups, please contact me anytime.
I hope that this has helped some.  
Coach Houser




---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I do have a follow-up question.  Since my daughter never gets any playing time at all, even with only 10 girls on her team, she has no stats.  I asked the coach if they keep stats during practice, and they don't.  He says he doesn't need to, which speaks to my concern that he plays favorites.  I'm not saying my daughter is a superstar, but she is 4 inches taller than the girl that regularly plays over her at right side -- she can block, if nothing else, which the other girl can not do at all.

My main concern is whether or not she should play next year, since it's apparent she won't be playing any more this season.  Do you think he is sending her a message that she shouldn't bother trying out next year?  Maybe a meeting with him at the end of the season would be helpful?       

I guess you have been very fortunate to have players like Jocelyn, Jessica, Lindsey and Rachel.  On this high school team, I don't see any players like that, who are indispensable.  They all make mistakes, and there is no substituting or changing the line-up, even if they get on a run of errors and lost points.  And regarding the player who turned out to be weaker than the rest of the team, why would't you tell the dad that?  That way you could have all focused on what to work on to make her stronger!

Answer
Good evening!
Another week done of teaching high school math!  Seven weeks down.  Shew.  
* Most coaches don't keep stats during practice.  I keep some serve receive stats, but that is to corroborate my belief in who are my best serve receiver.  I only keep stats in game situations if I have enough coaches.  
* Again, I believe there is a reason that your daughter isn't playing.  (a) Yes, it could be to send a message.  And I would want to talk this over with the coach at the end of the season.  "Coach, be blunt.  Is there any need in her coming back next season?" I would push for answers. Like, when we were leading 15-2 vs. Central, why didn't she play?" or "When we played Western, which was 0-15, or the night we played Northern, which was 16-0, did she not play.  Both contests were decided before the first whistle."   Or, (b) it could be that even though she's taller, he doesn't see her as being able to help the team as much as their girl that's in.  This is not to be argumentative, but I have left taller girls on the bench when I feel in my heart that they will lose more points for us than gain for us in the long run.  
* The girls I mentioned above were not error-free; but, they were so important for us to have a chance to win, that they weren't coming off the floor...unless the set was decided (we're up 16-3, up 22-6, we're down 5-21, etc.)  
* On the other hand, there's no need to keep the starters in the team is being demolished.  I have taken teams to very very good tournaments, where we might be losing 4-16.  The subs went in.  When ELSE would they play?   

I hope that this helps some.
Please keep asking.  Or if I didn't answer something to your satisfaction, please contact me again.  
It's great to hear from you again, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Coach Houser