In the spirit of food for thought and In advance of tonights AGM, what do people feel about how to best split the volleyball courts at training? In recent weeks weve pretty much done it on ability, with the inevitable consequence that there are some left over who may feel they are just being dumped on a remote court. Recently weve had very few women players down there - 5 one week and 6 or 7 the next I think? This has made it impractical to split women/men. Furthermore the mix of abilities in our club is such that several of the women players are more experienced/technically more able than some of the men in the club anyway, making an ability - rather than gender - based split more practical. In a mixed ability club such as ours, we have to try and strike a balance between providing a competitive environment for the better players as well as a learning environment for those who arent at that level at present. This means that on occasion, the better players will have to have a gentler/slower session than they would like and the beginners will sometimes be pushed past their comfort zone. From a beginners point of view, it is always better to play with more able players provided that those players limit their aggressiveness on court. I well remember when I was a beginner that it always led to better games and drills when the better players were included than when the beginners/less able were left to their own devices, which usually resulted in a deteriorating game/drill. Conversely from the better players point of view, having to limit their aggressiveness and compromise their gameplay when playing with beginners is often frustrating and unchallenging, leading to getting cold and poor performance as it can be quite hard to play at a slower/softer pace. Also bear in mind that a beginner/less able player playing in a competitive game or drill *may* be unable to defend themselves from powerful hits and could potentially be injured, which is something we must avoid. We have a 30/40 minute period at the start of training when we play mixed ability 4s, Whereas this can be a good warm-up, from a coaching point of view it is only of some use if people put into practise some of the skills we have learned in previous weeks. To this end I would encourage the more experienced players to continue to pass on brief hints and tips to the newer players in order to help them improve - whether this be positional or technical (digging/serving/spiking) information - and for those hints/tips to be taken in the spirit they are intended, even if occasionally it may come across as sounding patronising! We have regional men and women who need to practice and play in highly competitive games in order for them to compete at a high level and challenge for the league title. It would be reckless and inappropriate for some of our players to be involved in drills and/or games with these players until they are of a standard where they can look after themselves. We also have local and mixed teams where our beginners and less able players need more basic practise including rotation systems and basic gameplay. This is not something that requires the presence of the better players en masse and perhaps this is something that should be done regularly by the coaches where the beginners get half an hour or so of gameplay skills including rotations. Whilst this is happening, the more experienced players can do higher-level drills more appropriate for their skills. One of the things that us coaches hear very regularly is I want to do some work on rotations... or can we go through the rotations again? and it is something that, yes, we *could* do, but its something that we, as coaches, would encourage you to learn about yourself too. As a club, we play what is called a 5-1 system. The arrangement for this is clearly shown in this simple youtube video: https://youtube/watch?v=xys9P4KQUd0. Its important to understand that there are minor variations on this (for example Kevin intends the mens regional team to pass with only two passers next season, not the three shown in this video and also at a higher level, its normal for the middle players to defend at position 5 back court, not deep 6 as shown in this video). I realise that rotations are confusing (and it took me too long to learn too)! but there are so many variations on line-up that its impossible to give you a one solution fits all to where to stand on court at any one time. Its essential that you read up on the rules to find out the basics (a page such as strength-and-power-for-volleyball/volleyball-rotation.html looks confusing at first but stick with it and it should make sense).
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 13:24:27 +0000
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