Disagreements in Philosophy
I've been both playing and coaching the sport of volleyball for a number of years at a variety of different levels. For any of you who may have played for or worked with different coaches throughout your careers you can all agree that there are always different philosophies behind coaching. From the technical aspects of the game, to defensive and offensive theory, coaches all have different methods of conveying their knowledge and teaching their players.
And so we start from the beginning - that is the beginning of learning this great sport we call volleyball - and this is where I tend to disagree with some coaches.
First of all, we'll start it this way...the first things you learn when you play volleyball is the bump, then set, then hitting transition/approach, and serve. That's all fine and dandy, but when your players all largely understand the basic techniques (though sometimes flawed and needing work), and they have a basic understanding of the flow of the game, there is something else that is rarely emphasized as much as it should be. And that is FOOTWORK. I'm not just talking about your transition and approach footwork, or your blocking footwork. But all your general movements on the court through out the course of a game should be done with certain footwork. This footwork is meant to make you as efficient as possible with your movements, and to make you quicker to get to your spots or to get into defensive ready position.
Yes, it is good for players to learn how to play the game by actually playing the game. But this technique of teaching has a major hole, one that has been proven SO THOROUGHLY by many volleyball programs I've been associated with - and that is the development of bad habits. If you only spend a short time teaching basic technique, then have players try to figure out footwork and the theory of the game on their own just by playing, it's inevitable that 90% of those players are going to develop bad habits. This is why drilling footwork should have a heavier emphasis when coaching young talent.
Think of it this way. If a player knows how to pass a ball coming right at them, thats fine. But what happens when the same player has to move for the ball, and still pass with proper technique? They have to move their feet to get to the ball. Without learning proper footwork to get there quickly and efficiently to keep their feet planted and their body positioning correct, they will either shank the pass, pass with improper form, or just not get to the ball at all.
Or for beginning setters: Sure, if you toss a ball directly at the setter they will be able to set that ball with good form 90% of the time, but what happens when you make people pass to the setters? You don't get perfect passes all the time, so the setters need to learn the proper footwork and aggressiveness to get to the ball quick, and still pass with the correct form (in order to get the ball cleanly and accurately to their hitters).
This is where I disagree heavily on the teaching techniques of one coach I've worked with, who takes the teachings of the Gold Medal Squared methodology and skews them into a coaching philosophy I disagree with. Yes, it is hard for players to try to learn multiple things at once, but why not drill the footwork to get ready and to the ball before you drill passing aggressiveness? How can you be expected to be aggressive towards the ball when you are not ready for the ball, and have no idea how to move most efficiently towards the ball? This is especially true with players who already have the basic concept of passing but seem tentative on the court.
This is just something that has bothered me while developing my own coaching philosophy. While I do not yet have a full understanding of teaching techniques, it is still not too early to develop a philosophy on what develops winning teams and what develops good (technically sound) players. I've taken the teachings of all of the coaches I've worked with and played for, and mixed and matched all the best that I've learned together into my own coaching philosophy. We will discuss specific form and technique in future posts.
While many may disagree with my own coaching philosophy, you can't argue that footwork is not paramount to creating good athletes - no matter what the sport.