4 keys to successful coaching

[blob]

I think that there are 4 keys to having a successful program and I'm going to rank them in order of importance.

1) Recruiting (If you can't get the players, you're not going to win games. John Wooden said that coaches don't win games,players do. He also said that coaches do lose games, by not giving their teams the best chance to compete at their highest level.

2) Personel management- Not just the ability to motivate, but the ability to use the strengths of the people you have in the right way. So often I see coaches with talented players who are floundering, because they are either asked to do too much or used in ways that don't allow them to reach their potential.

3) Training - I rank this third, because there are different ways to teach volleyball, i.e. passing techniques,blocking techniques,etc. that can be successful as long as you are clear and consistent in the approach that you use. A lot of coaches waste a tremendous amount of time in practice using worthless, repetitive drills that in no way simulate anything resembling a game situation. This would be doing things like bumping the ball back and forth in the name of working on passing fundamentals. What a total waste of time. When in a game do you ever get to bump the ball back and forth between 2 players?! Also knowing when to train hard, and knowing when to back off so you are not breaking people down and making them prone to injuries. A lot of coaches don't have a clue about this.

4) Game Management- The ability to see trends that are happening during a game, and make the appropriate adjustments. Also, Having a clue about when to call timeouts,make subs,or change your starting rotation to get the matchups you want with the other team.

Agree/Disagree?

How does your coach stack up in these four categories?

[Wolfgang]

You can write a book, or volumes upon volumes of books on this topic.

Two keys (according to one Leadership guru wrt the business world):
1. Trust and confidence in top leadership.
2. Effective communication in three critical areas:
a. Helping members understand the group's overall strategy.
b. Helping members understand how they contribute to achieving key objectives.
c. Sharing information with members on both how the group is doing and how a member's own sub-group is doing - relative to strategic objectives.

Anyway, as Confucius says: A leader is like a vessel and his people are like water: if the vessel is square, the water is square; if the vessel is round, the water is round.

Golly, more on this topic...

[TheSantaBarbarian]

wolfgang said:

You can write a book, or volumes upon volumes of books on this topic.

Two keys (according to one Leadership guru wrt the business world):
1. Trust and confidence in top leadership.
2. Effective communication in three critical areas:
a. Helping members understand the group's overall strategy.
b. Helping members understand how they contribute to achieving key objectives.
c. Sharing information with members on both how the group is doing and how a member's own sub-group is doing - relative to strategic objectives.

Anyway, as Confucius says: A leader is like a vessel and his people are like water: if the vessel is square, the water is square; if the vessel is round, the water is round.

Golly, more on this topic...

And if the vessel has a hole in it, all the employees bail out?

[blob]

I'd be interested to see how people grade (A-F) some of the top coaches on these 4 areas:

1)Recruiting

2) Personel Mgmt/Motivation

3) Training

4)Game Mgmt.

How about Cook, McLaughlin, Dunning, Shoji, Rose, Haley
for starters.

[Murina]

oldman3 said:

I'd be interested to see how people grade (A-F) some of the top coaches on these 4 areas:

1)Recruiting

2) Personel Mgmt/Motivation

3) Training

4)Game Mgmt.

How about Cook, McLaughlin, Dunning, Shoji, Rose, Haley
for starters.

I doubt that very many, if any, people have been in the gym with more than one of these people enough to make a judgement on this. Ex: even if I have been Cook's asst. for a few years (which I haven't), there is little chance that I have been in any of those other coaches gym/program for long enough to make an accurate comparison. You can't accurately judge much of this from the outside. There are to many small factors, nuances that the public never hears about.

[Wolfgang]

Yup, very difficult and subjective and probably prone to biases.

Let's take game management, for example. Whenever I play sports or games of any kind, I can't judge whether someone is good or not until I actually play them. For example, chess. Only when someone makes a move or counters my move or anticipates my moves several steps before I make them can I fully appreciate his/her tactical skills. Sure, I can perhaps gauge whether someone is a good player or not by watching them play as a neutral spectator. But in almost every case, I can't make a full judgment until I've played against them, strategized and countered, step by step. There have been some players I noticed were good but only after I've played them and watched them compete against me have I totally understood his/her capabilities. Some players blew me away when I played against them, but as a spectator, they never gave me that impression. As a spectator, you can't see everything that's going on.

I talked to a top volleyball coach, let's call him Coach A, sometime ago. He made the remark that Coach B was surprisingly good, and that whatever Coach A tried, Coach B had an answer. Needless to say, Coach A was very impressed with Coach B. Funny thing is, Coach B is not well known and has never really led his team to anything beyond the First round of the NCAAs, and his team is not one of the nationally renowned programs. So, I guess the lesson to be learned is: there are many many diverse factors that go into determining coaching excellence.

That's not to say that if someone here had the answers to successful coaching, then that person should be coaching. No. Not at all.

And also, I believe in Luck, whether you make your own luck by putting yourself in position to benefit from or when luck just falls on your lap when you least expect it.

I'm sure a lot of coaches benefitted from all forms of luck, some way or another.

[blob]

murina said:

oldman3 said:

I'd be interested to see how people grade (A-F) some of the top coaches on these 4 areas:

1)Recruiting

2) Personel Mgmt/Motivation

3) Training

4)Game Mgmt.

How about Cook, McLaughlin, Dunning, Shoji, Rose, Haley
for starters.

I doubt that very many, if any, people have been in the gym with more than one of these people enough to make a judgement on this. Ex: even if I have been Cook's asst. for a few years (which I haven't), there is little chance that I have been in any of those other coaches gym/program for long enough to make an accurate comparison. You can't accurately judge much of this from the outside. There are to many small factors, nuances that the public never hears about.

You don't have to be part of a program to have an educated opinion about what goes on there. Look at the players they get, look at how players develop, watch how coaches act during games & even maybe watch a practice or two. It is possible to have an opinion
about a program. After all, that's what most players & their parents are doing before they decide what school to attend.

[Wolfgang]

I don't like a coach or a leader who plays favorites.

I don't like a coach or a leader who uses his postion for personal gain, at the expense of his organization/group/team.

I don't like a coach or a leader who takes credit for the accomplishments/ideas of his employees/players.

[foreignball]

oldman3 said:

...After all, that's what most players & their parents are doing before they decide what school to attend.

Here you may get easily misled......most players/parents go by:
- what's team record/ranking been in the last few years
- how many conference/NCAA/other banners they have hanging from the stands
- what's are the chances of the player in question to be a strater/see playing time
- how many hours of driving the campus is from their home, etc

....in general don't expect players/parents to be that much educated or excellence obsessed.

[dorothymantooth]

I'll take a shot at Cook, Rose, Dunning and Haley. These guy's are top notch. I know all of them fairly well personally and professionally , but well enough to speak to with some level of knowledge.
These are all exceptional coaches for different reasons.

Recruiting

Haley is an amazing salesman, knows how to say and do the right things, Haley is also a very good judge of talent, will take what some people see as risks and be right most of the time.

Cook, may be the hardest working coach in the country. He is very thorough, professional and more personable than most think. (still not all that personable) but much more than he is perceived. He has incredible resources as well.

Dunning strengths is he is so credible, almost everyone likes and respects him, carries himself very well and I think people (players, parents) really trust him.

Rose- very good recruiter, doesn't use the hard sell and his honesty is refreshing to players in a world of an awful lot of BS!

Personel management - Haley is an exceptional coach, but maybe the most difficult of the four to play for. I think puts players in a the best position to be succesful although they may not always enjoy the method.

Cook, very disciplined personally, very demanding on a day to day basis, not always the best at developing chemistry.

Dunning I think is (i hate the Cliche) a players coach. Pretty reserved, positive. I think he uses his strengths to relate.

Rose - players always know where they stand in my opinion the best in the business at developing roles and platooning players

Training - Haley- One of the best, players tend to reach their potential. Enough said.

Cook- his best strength hands down. Very good in the gym, doesn't leave any stones unturned.

Dunning - very good although not as good as the other three. His strength is getting players to play together, chemistry.

Rose - the least technical of the group, which I think is a strength and a weakness. He does a very good job of simplifying the game and skills.




Game Mgmt -

Haley in my opinion is the best tactical match coach in the business. I think prepares for opponents as good or better than anyone.

Dunning- His strength is his demeanor on the bench, always keeps his cool with his team, shows a lot of trust in his players. He doesn't create any stress on his team and is never an obstacle to their success.

Cook- very good in the area of match preparation, tactical decisions, has some trouble looking relaxed.

Rose - along with Haley is very good. I think Russ understands the game at a very high level and has his team ready to play night in and night out. This I believe is why he has been winning the conference. He hasn't had the best teams neccesarily, but very few highs and lows, and rarely has a match where they are caught off guard or not ready to play.

[Wolfgang]

A good leader has to believe in the supernatural; or, at the very least, be superstitious. This is true. A lot of people in power believe that they need that extra EDGE against opponents. Sure, hours and hours in the gym and film room can sharpen your coaching skills but they need that additional edge to be super-invincible. Go talk to them. Many are very superstitious. Some will believe that if they won one match while they were wearing mismatched socks, they will stop wearing matching socks to the next match.

...and I'm not saying they're superstitious like the average Joe Blow. No. Coaches are, in fact, ultra-superstitious, which is 10x more superstitious than super-superstitious, and 100x more superstitious than Ordinarly superstitious.

[Wolfgang]

My point is: you can measure the greatness of a coach by determining how superstitious they are.

[simplycurious]

wolfgang said:

My point is: you can measure the greatness of a coach by determining how superstitious they are.

Alright, this should be amusing...give us some specfic examples Wolfgang.

[Wolfgang]

Ahh, sadly, I will not. I must protect the innocent as well as the guilty by keeping real names out.

[Wolfgang]

foreignball said:

Here you may get easily misled......most players/parents go by:
- what's team record/ranking been in the last few years
- how many conference/NCAA/other banners they have hanging from the stands
- what's are the chances of the player in question to be a strater/see playing time
- how many hours of driving the campus is from their home, etc

....in general don't expect players/parents to be that much educated or excellence obsessed.

Good list!

But you're forgetting:

Will I get along with the girls on the team?

(Never mind the fact that some of those girls may not be there when the recruit finally joins them in a couple of years)