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?
I coach an open division club team and my own personal philosophy is to play smart and aggressive ball period. What that means is that every point is situational and the team should have a dynamic, living strategy that can adapt on the fly. If your opposite is in a rut, it may be wise to run the safe bet plays to your strong side hitters, but if all hitters are on point then there is no reason not to run the aggressive split block plays (double quicks, reverse x’s, etc.). Playing a conservative style ball makes your team predictable. That can work if you have a monster strongside hitter who can terminate 80 – 90% of the time. Most likely this is simply not the case.
In the above mentioned situation, it seems to me the volleyball IQ of the setter is such that she recognized a situation where she could split the block and isolate with the back slide, so she took a calculated risk which, in my opinion, was the smart aggressive thing to do. The coach could probably learn a thing or two from this.
Anonymous, I totally agree with you. There is a time and a place for riskiness. And while, it’s more fun, sometimes you have to play safe.
Thanks for your comment.
If we go down, we go down swinging. Though many times I recommend to my team to play good (consistent) volleyball as opposed to great (riskier) volleyball. The matches have an ebb and flow many times and I don’t think you generalize one way over the other 100% of the time.
I like the first point you made there, but I am not sure I could reasonably apply that in a productive way.
My wife is good huh… and we’re so much on the same page.
I actually had this conversation with my 12 year old club team last night. I wanted them to understand that I will never get upset when they are aggressive and just “go for it”, but on the flipside… I will question them when they are playing timid and scared.
My high school team knows this very well… I’m always wanting them to try something more challenging to push themselves. Play faster and more aggressive than other high school teams do.
I believe this is how your players can build confidence and also learn life lessons.