QuestionQUESTION: Losing didnt taste to good. Nvr does. All my girls were having an off day. They lost focus. I couldn't get them to focus, my best servers were shanking the ball, i dont think ive ever seen them make rhat many mistakes. It was a frustrating game. My question is how do i make the girls shake this feeling? The nxt team is one of the worst. But, this game was big to them. My weak players were getting in the way of plays. I guess u got the point. It was not good. What would b good to say or do at nxt practice?
ANSWER: Welcome back to www.allexperts.com! It's great to hear from you.
* Coaching is "the big picture". There are so many other things about your team, about the individuals, about their future, etc. that are more important than winning one particular match. Here are few:
- Are the girls having fun?
- Are their skills improving?
- Are they learning about sacrificing for the team?
- Are they learning reliability, responsibility?
- Are they learning how to get homework done while on a team?
- Are they learning to watch what they say....yep, it's called a filter.
These are the big picture things. If you concentrate on them, then when the little things don't go well, we can handle it better. :) Plus, you be more admired by every adult who any dealings with your team.
* At the next practice? That's easy!
Here are some of my team's disappointments this year: lost in the finals of our region's bid tournament, lost in the final of the Rumble tournament 2 weeks ago, lost in the quarterfinals of Shamrock in March, etc. In each situation, we left shaking our heads. "We could have, should have, didn't, would have"..... you get the picture. Next practice? Right back to work on serving, serve receiving, "Hit the good set," digging, "That ball comes up!", etc. Confidence comes from believing, then doing. At practice: I believe, I expect/ask/hope that they believe, then I expect the players to do. When they do what I ask, they believe even more, and they try even harder. You will never have a season w/o disappointments unless (a) you expect nothing of your team and the players expect very little of themselves. For 6 of the past 7 years, I've coached teams that had as their goal to qualify for Junior Nationals. Three times we've done it; but, 3 times we haven't. Disappointing? Yep! In 2 of those 3, we finished runner up in the tournament that qualified us for Nationals. :(
* The next team you play.
"Take Care of Business". That's one of my themes when we play a team that's much weaker than we are. "Let's get out of here. We have homework to do. Let's beat them, shake their hands, and get on the bus and go home. And if you guys take your opponents lightly, I may make some subs who will take them more seriously. Clear?"
After 2 weeks off, my Nationals-bound team will have our first practice tomorrow after taking 2 weeks off. :) I've missed them, can't wait to see them. And, now I know how I'm going to speak to them, what I'm going to expect, etc. Thank you for your questions.
If you have other comments/questions, please contact me anytime.
I hope you have a super weekend, and ..... here's a reminder..... Dec 1st is first day you can reserve a week to bring a STAR volleyball site camp to Texas! Just let me know what we can do for you!
Coach Houser
www.coachhouser.com
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Tell me more about STAR Volleyball camp in Texas?
I really appreciate all this great advice!!!
AnswerGood afternoon Shawna!
This summer all of our camps are in Virginia. So odd. This is the first time since 2004 we haven't been to Pa, Del, Alaska, SC, etc.
We could still manage adding a camp in Texas. I may be available August 13-16, I'll have to check.
If you, or anyone, is considering hosting a STAR Volleyball site camp for the upcoming summer, a lot of information can be seen here. http://www.coachhouser.com/StarCamp2012.htm.
But, here is the short version:
* You decide the number of days, the number of hours and the format: standard, high expectations or maximum expectations.
* We will come to your school, take care of the warmups and stretching, and plan the activities each day. The assistant coaches will have extensive vball experience and will be outstanding role models.
* The typical player to coach ratio is 6:1.
* On December 1, I will start awarding weeks for 2013 summer site camps from any coach/parent/club director/etc. who didn't host a STAR camp in the summer of 2012. A $250 deposit is required to reserve time for your camp. Do it sometime in the fall b/c it's first-come, first-served.
If anyone has questions, they can contact me, on my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/coachhouser, or email me at
[email protected].
Thanks Shawna for the question.
I hope you have a great weekend.
Tom Houser
www.coachhouser.com
