QuestionHi, I'm a second year teacher at a middle school and I am coaching our grade 8 boys volleyball team. I have played volleyball for many years and love the sport however I am a bit nervous about coaching since I was the type of player that just loved to be told what to do. I did the drills thought about the plays but never really took the time to think about the time our coaches spent planning out practices. So here I stand in the position of my once coaches and seeking some guidance. I'm pretty sure I am only taking 12 boys (this will be hard since this year there is a number of very talented athletes) and I have some drills that I like and have used while teaching in camps. My questions are: How do you pick a rotation? When do you pick the rotation? Is there a type of structure for practices that works well? I know I can't be that "perfect" coach however I really just want these guys to fall in love with the game. Part of this is also my pride getting ahead of me since our school is more known for basketball. I like basketball but I would just like to see the kids take volleyball as more than just conditioning for basketball or a filler. Anyway, that was a lot. I'm sure I'll be sending you messages in the future but I thought that I would start here. Thanks!
AnswerAleida,
You have a lot of questions, so if I don't answer them all to your liking feel free to e-mail me at
[email protected] and I will give you number for you to call me.
I would take 14 kids for a number of reasons. With a libero we now play 7 on 7 so I take enough to do that. Also during the season kids will get sick, parents will punish kids (and sports always seems to be a punishment), and there is always school trips or tutoring.
Pick your rotation depends on the athletes you have. Usually you would want your tallest (and agile) players to play middle. We use out 2 OH and Libero to pass so they need to be able to pass and the OPP (RF) needs to be able to block and set. In a perfect world you would want to set up your rotation as follows......
OPP MH(2) OH(1)
OH(2) MH(1) S
and we use our libero's for the MH's and play them in 5.
You need to start getting your rotation down (for JOHNS) about two to three weeks before your first league game. You can fool around with it for your scrimmages earlier.
At the JHS level I would find as many passing and serving drills as possible because this is what will score you the most points. The more drills you have to do the same skill the better.......this will help stop them from getting bored.
Then find some wash drills (which are drills that make you do specific things....such as two kills in a row, or a continuous free ball drill where they are moving and playing a ball over and over without stopping.
The last two thing that are important is that you have at least one ball for every kid.......two would be better. Always let kids warm up in pairs, never (if possible) have a group of kids passing one ball in a circle. The more touches the better. You, as a coach need to learn three skills.... how to toss (which sounds easy but it is not), how to hit down ball to kids and serve (you want the kids to serve but if they are having trouble you may have to step in).
Hope this helped.
Good luck with your team.
Steve
