Monthly Archives: January 2010

Jan 28

Sand volleyball in the NCAA?!

Posted on by

Check out this article on sand volleyball as an NCAA sport. Oh man. If I were 10 years younger…

Many, many top coaches are against sand volleyball as an NCAA sport because they think they’ll lose some of their top recruits to (let’s just say it) a more awesome, fun-in-the-sun sport. I think sand volleyball opens up opportunity for players who otherwise may not have made it to the big leagues. I’m not saying these players are less worthy to play on a top team. I’m simply saying the competition to be on a D1 team is extremely tight for a young women these days. And sand volleyball creates several new spots for players to fill. (Don’t you ever wish you could go back?)

Well, I think my opinion is pretty obvious. Yea, sand!

What do you think? Is this something that may decrease the level of competition among the top indoor teams? Will it spark a whole new slew of NCAA student-atheletes? Or will current players double-dip?

I’ll be curious to see if it catches on in the NCAA. And, what about NCCAA? NJCAA? NAIA? Will they follow?

Jan 21

Shuffle Challenge-Diagonal Pass

Posted on by

Ahhh… I can still hear the voice of my coach from my freshman year in college, “Passing and shuffling. Shuffling and passing. Passing and shuffling…” He droned on and on… and on. At the time, (which was usually 7 a.m.) it was extremely annoying. But now (10 years and 14 hours later), it makes sense! Which is why I’m going to tell you about, “Passing and shuffling. Shuffling and passing…”

In this volleyball drill, you have one passer and two tossers.
1. Tossers stand about 15-20 ft apart on the 10-ft line and toss the volleyball toward the opposite corner.
2. The passer will shuffle back and forth and position herself to receive the volleyball on her left knee and pass the ball back to the tosser.
3. After 10 repetitions, rotate positions. Everyone gets a turn!

Note: the passer should be shuffling laterally along the court and it doesn’t hurt to shuffle through the pass.

Alternative drill: Change it up and have the tossers throw the ball straight instead of at angle for Shuffle Challenge-Straight Pass.

Jan 14

Risky (complicated) vs. Safe (easy)

Posted on by

At club tournaments, when my team is officiating, I always watch and listen to other coaches. I like to see their style, strategies and simply how they keep their composure under the pressure. I learn from many and I laugh at some. But, at my most recent tournament, I was watching a coach continually ream her setter until she cried and was pulled out of the game (who really wasn’t playing poorly-just maybe not up to par). There’s more to say about coaches who yell at players incessantly but I don’t want get off topic so I’ll just go ahead with the story.

At one point, she said: “Make the easy set!” (I left out the expletives for your sake)

I may agree with that statement if she’d ridiculously over exaggerated the move and didn’t produce something playable. But, and this is important, she was running along the net toward the outside hitter and she shot the set back to right side pin for slide. We call that “jacking the flow.” And, she jacked the flow with precision. It was beautiful. The opposing team’s blockers had officially been stumped and the hitter had an open net. I even said (from the scorer’s table) “Did you see that? Wow-” But I stopped short, when my voice was drowned by the coach’s awful scream. “Make the easy set!”

Here’s what I wanted to say, “You know. If your right side was ready to hit the ball, that would’ve been a perfect execution.” But, it’s obvious the coach has a particularly conservative style.

Me? I like to take risks. I say, “Jack the flow. Jump set that ball. Jump serve. And another thing, let’s run some new trick plays.”

What do you think? Should she have set the ball straight up to the outside hitter (the easy set – safe) or should she have sent the ball to the opposite side of the court to the right side hitter (jack the flow – risky)?

What’s your coaching style? Play it safe, make the easy plays and hope for the best? or Do you take risks for the ultimate reward?

Jan 13

Sets too tight? Too far off the net?

Posted on by

Is your setter consistently setting to tight or way off the net?

There may be more to it than “squaring-up.” Not that squaring-up doesn’t have a very important place in setting (and in volleyball, generally speaking).

But, for this post’s sake…

Take a look at her feet. If all of her sets are tight, tell her to try to step forward more with her right foot. And the opposite is true. If all of her sets are too far off the net, she may be stepping too far forward with her right foot.