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?