New coach 3rd - 4th grade needs urgent help

[infotime]

Looking for advice. I'm new to coaching volleyball but have played recreational volleyball for over 20 years. My son is 8 years old and in the 3rd grade. His school system has a short volleyball season for boys. It started this week.

We've had two practices this week and then two matches today. I've got 11 8-9 year old boys on my team and they have little to no experience. The league is for 3rd and 4th graders but my guys are all 3rd graders.

At this level winning is about who gets the serve over the net. Out of 5 games we played today there was only one point where one team made a successful bump, set and spike (well not really a spike, but it resembled a controlled play). Of course that was the opposing team. Other balls came back over the net but usually on the first or second contact. The opposing teams also had several players who could serve overhand quite well.

Our league has a 5 serve limit. If a player serves 5 serves in a row his team must rotate and another server takes over.

We have three more weekends of matches which means three more weeks of practice (1 hour on Tuesday and 1 hour on Thursday).

So, my question is: WHAT SHOULD I FOCUS ON?

(I have some thoughts, but rather than go on and on I'd like to get some fresh ideas from those of you who have much more experience than me)

Thanks!

[vbc1]

I was going to avoid any commentary tonight. However, this post intrigued me enough to say a few thoughts:

1) What should you focus on? These are 3rd graders you are talking about. Focus on what flavor juiceboxes they are going to get afterward. Which pizza place; Shakeys or Pizza hut should I take them to a couple times a year. Just let them have fun. The last thing we all need is for another kid to not enjoy the game, and then leave it to play basketball. Fun. Period.

Now, if you would like my advice on what I think you could work on at practice in order for them to win a match or two? Sounds like you should come up with some creative service games to help them get the ball over the net. Sounds like your league is just like every other at that age: Get the ball over and in, and you probably should win. There are a ton of ideas out there for you to choose from. Keep it fresh (change the goals every week or so after they get good at previous drills), and keep it fun.

5 serve limit or not, if your kids can serve it in, their chances go up with every kid being able to get it in.

Have fun. enjoy

[preschooler]

What should you focus on? These are 3rd graders you are talking about. Focus on what flavor juiceboxes they are going to get afterward. Which pizza place; Shakeys or Pizza hut should I take them to a couple times a year. Just let them have fun. The last thing we all need is for another kid to not enjoy the game, and then leave it to play basketball. Fun. Period.

Read more: volleytalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menvb&action=display&thread=48437#ixzz2Ln1itLUB

+1
We got very far in cyo v-ball on serving for M & M's

[infotime]

OK, my focus is on three main areas in order of priority:

1) Fun.

What I've gathered so far in my reading and surfing trying to give myself a crash course in volleyball coaching to be sure the kids have fun. Along with that is to keep them moving and playing to practice. After our first two nights of practice I thought I was doing a pretty good job of it because I saw this:

The 5th and 6th grade boys were practicing right after us. Every time after the team of 6 missed a pass they all dropped and did three pushups! Sure they're a little older but I thought that was a little brutal. Prior to that I'd read a commenter on a Youtube video who said they wished their coach was like one in the video. She said "thats amazing! my old coach made us run down and back our gym for every dropped ball or missed serve...and we were 5th graders..Wich was like 35 sprints...al it did was made us tired and we did it all practice! Thank You!"

Before our second practice I went to Costco and bought a big bag of mini candy bars. I would toss them out whenever someone was super cooperative or landed an excellent shot. Kept their attention

2) Serving.

First of all it has to go in - duh. Not sure we'll be able to teach them to overhand serve effectively in three weeks of practice at this level. So we're sticking with underhand serves. I set up a scoring system in practice the other night. You got a point if your serve landed between the 20' and out of bounds line on the opponent's side. My thinking is that if you can serve a ball that will land on the back line it's not coming back over. Saw this play out a few times today.

Conversely, when our serve just crossed the net and headed for about the 10' line it was often easily bumped right back to us.

I think I'm going to devote about 1/2 or more practice time on underhand serving the ball deep to the left corner.

3) Serve receive and passing

Close to 50% of the points we lost were the result of nobody even touching the ball on serve receive - deer in headlights. I've always cringed when I see teams line with two lines of three players straight across. Who's going to receive the pass? Anyway, at this level I thought we'd just focus on trying to send it over the net.

But, after today I think I'm going to teach them how to line up to receive serve the way I play in rec leagues.

CF - scoots to net to wait for second ball to set
RF and LF - drops back near side line, around 10' deep
CB - comes up slightly but behind where RF and LF are
RB and LB - drop back and come inside of RF and LF

I'll keep them like that for the duration of the play. Dropping CB to cover back and bringing up RB and LB after serve receive will probably too much.

I made up a game I called bump to the basket. We put them three-across at the 10 foot line. Put the ball basket at the setter spot. The coaches tossed the ball from just across the net. Then we moved it to the opponents side and had them try to hit it. After about 10 - 12 minutes of this drill / game we only had one direct hit and a few more rattle in.

Anyway, if you think just focusing on fun, serving and passing - and virtually nothing else is a good idea or not feel free to comment.

And, would love some ideas for some fun games to play with them to teach these skills.

Thanks again!

[Deleted]

a few ideas for you, info:

assets.usoc.org/assets/documents/attached_file/filename/20021/USA_Minivolley_English_12259.pdf

sites.google.com/site/durhamattackrecvball/peewee-triple-ball

www.ontariovolleyball.org/indoor-mainmenu-47/youth-mainmenu-18/triple-ball-mainmenu-471.html

[infotime]

Thanks cvvcdad - those links to Mini Volleyball and Triple Ball have given me some ideas for our next practice.

Our gym can be set up with two volleyball nets. I could have two games going on at once. Four teams of three players each. Have them all play each other - a total of 6 games where every team plays every team. Keep score. Keep it moving.

Only problem with that is we have only 11 players - assuming they all make practice. I could put a coach or maybe borrow another kid somehow to fill the 12th spot. Or use one court with a team of 3 vs a team of 5 and rotate people in and out between both teams.

The idea would be to keep them all playing, experiencing real game like conditions. The more I read the more important this becomes. On one of those links they talk about the importance of being able to read the serve:

"READING
–
THE Most Important Skill in our Sport
I have addressed this fact at length, and urge you to visit the USA Volleyball website to download several articles on this topic to learn more. For the purposes of this minivolley book, the reality is simple. Reading must take place OVER the net, with a served ball coming in, so that the passer can gain the time and anticipation/judgment skills needed, to be able to perform the actual skill. You see, passing as a concept/no ball skill involved is apretty easy skill to do. Two year olds can be taught to hold their hands right, and make simple, minimal movement to “pass” a ball. Throw it right to them, and voila! they pass the ball. The problem comes in when they have to track and move to the ball, and get their arms in the right place and time to deflect it to the setter target. THAT takes years of skill development to be great at. . "

I think trying to keep them playing for the entire hour would be the best use of practice time. It would address my three top criteria:

1) Fun - they'd be playing a game the entire time. Not sitting around. Not doing boring drills. Active.
2) Serving - they'd be practicing serving just like they're in a real game. They have to make it count. I'd have four boys serving at a time (since there'd be two games going on). Well two at a time. But, maybe a fun variation - have both servers serve at the same moment. You get two balls coming over the net from each direction at the same time. That would be a blast - and might help them learn to concentrate
3) Serve receive - With three on a team I'm only going to have two passers. The setter is going to be up at the net. We'll get a lot of practice reading serves and placing passes.

Am I on the right track?

[Deleted]

Feb 25, 2013 0:29:09 GMT -5 infotime said:

Am I on the right track?

absolutely, info.

one of the most influential articles i've read re coaching vb was by john kessel, about how "the game teaches the game". i used to think that just letting the kids play was lazy coaching, so when i started to coach vb i found, and ran, all kinds of drills; when we played, i only did 6v6 so they'd learn how to play "real" vb to prep for tournaments. but mr. kessel opened me up to a new way to teach/coach young kids. in a nutshell, you drill the skill -- i.e., do some drills to show the kids how they should try to execute a vb skill -- and then you let them play, preferably short-sided games of 2v2/3v3/4v4, praising (a lot) and correcting (briefly, and as needed) their effort, technique, decisions, etc. this, of course, is a simplified description, but i think you understand the positives of this approach.

one last thought -- mr. kessel, in his blog on the usa vb website, told about a 14s boys team he coached. they were basically beginners, so he taught them the basics and then just let them play these small-sided games. that was basically practice. he didn't have an offensive "system", but just let whoever was in position 2 set, whoever was in 3 hit middle, etc. the only 6v6 they played was at tournaments. what did they learn? how to do everything, as they played small-sided games with lots of touches and multiple responsibilities. how did they do at tournaments? according to mr. kessel, quite well. i've never had the courage to go quite this far -- we do do some 6v6 work in practice -- but i do appreciate the efficacy of small-sided games and now use them a lot in various forms. i believe they do a great job at fulfilling my responsibility, as a coach, to teach every kid how to do everything rather than limiting them to certain roles/positions. but on gameday, my players do have certain role(s), as i try to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.

hope this helps...