Coaching a Club Team

[volleysota]

I may be jumping the gun but you can never be too prepared. It sounds like I may be brought in to coach a men's college club team that is starting their club program this year. I have coached plenty of JO volleyball, but my experience is with the younger age groups (11s-14s), and have not been a club director or anything along those lines.

Have any of you coached club in college, played, or anything along those lines? Any advice or resources you have would certainly be appreciated, as this is a new adventure for me!

[lineshot2016]

I'd recommend getting on social media(instagram and maybe tiktok) and finding as many Volleyball accounts as you can that showcase ideas for drills, skills and technique. A lot of the pro guys like Jendryk, Averilli, and Dustin Watten have some really good stuff out there that show off high level drills and ideas.

Also, if it's a mens club team, a lot of those guys may just be playing for fun. You could do 30-45 mins of positional skill work and then 60-75 mins of games/game like drills to keep them engaged.

[rogero1]

Back when I started my men’s club in the early ‘90’s, we were only able to get together to practice once a week during our season. All of us were playing either in a co-ed league or two or a men’s league during the week. We did a lot of serve and pass (our biggest weakness), blocking, a few simple play sets, and scrimmaged the rest of the time. I watched any videos I could find, went to any coaching clinics & conventions, saw as many matches as I could, and adapted what I seen to our team(s). We were one of the first teams to use a 3 man serve receive and used the ‘slide’ with our middles at that time.

[wilbur]

Nov 29, 2023 22:27:35 GMT -5 volleysota said:

I may be jumping the gun but you can never be too prepared. It sounds like I may be brought in to coach a men's college club team that is starting their club program this year. I have coached plenty of JO volleyball, but my experience is with the younger age groups (11s-14s), and have not been a club director or anything along those lines.

Have any of you coached club in college, played, or anything along those lines? Any advice or resources you have would certainly be appreciated, as this is a new adventure for me!

If you have the time and connections the best move would be to find a boys 17/18 team or a college program in your area and offer to volunteer your time once per week to help at practice and watch and learn what they are doing. Find the best coach you can, good coaches will welcome this, especially if they are under staffed.

When you make your practice plan be sure to maximize touches, competitive drills, gamelike situations, deep court attacks, serve recieve, passing freeballs.

Minimize any speech or discussion that lasts longer than 60 seconds, drills that have players standing in lines or waiting/watching off the court, non competitive drills with no score, straight scrimmage without a wash ball(s)

[coy]

Find a GMS clinic close to you and take it.

[volleysota]

Nov 30, 2023 13:59:03 GMT -5 wilbur said:

Nov 29, 2023 22:27:35 GMT -5 volleysota said:

I may be jumping the gun but you can never be too prepared. It sounds like I may be brought in to coach a men's college club team that is starting their club program this year. I have coached plenty of JO volleyball, but my experience is with the younger age groups (11s-14s), and have not been a club director or anything along those lines.

Have any of you coached club in college, played, or anything along those lines? Any advice or resources you have would certainly be appreciated, as this is a new adventure for me!

When you make your practice plan be sure to maximize touches, competitive drills, gamelike situations, deep court attacks, serve recieve, passing freeballs.

Minimize any speech or discussion that lasts longer than 60 seconds, drills that have players standing in lines or waiting/watching off the court, non competitive drills with no score, straight scrimmage without a wash ball(s)

A lot of what you said here echoes what they drilled into us when I did my CAP I and CAP II carts with USAV. It’s a great reminder!

[volleysota]

I'm raising this thread from the dead! We've had a solid go of things so far being a new program. We won our first tournament and had a couple of close losses in the regular season matches we've had. We have some work to do defensively which is no problem, I can coach the heck out of that. I'm open to feedback in the men's game with how we can improve/augment our game offensively.

Our team has a very pin-heavy offense. Our outsides are insanely good. We should set them the majority of the time, they can terminate with consistency. However, we're a bit lacking at middle hitter. Our middles are a bit undersized and still very raw as they're new to the game. I'm working to get them up to speed but it will take time. What are some strategies I can implement with the team, as I know our opposition will be camping out on our outsides as soon as they learn what's up. I'm not worried about giving our setter too much, his skill level is incredible and he's arguably our team's best player. I don't want to necessarily force the team to spread the ball out, but rather look for some ideas/plans we can use to keep opposing defenses honest and open things up for the pins?

Thanks again for all your help!

[photogirl]

Being an effective middle is all about quickness if you are undersized. They can beat the block with speed. Drift routes are also a great way to get them away from a bigger blocker on the other side of the net.

The setter can also call plays that use the middle as a decoy but spreads out the blockers on the other side of the net and frees up your Pins to be one on one..

[staticb]

Club Volleyball has wildly different levels from just above rec/intermediate to almost D1/2 at the highest parts. What level of club and what divisions are you entering in tourneys?

[wilbur]

Feb 26, 2024 11:16:57 GMT -5 volleysota said:

I'm raising this thread from the dead! We've had a solid go of things so far being a new program. We won our first tournament and had a couple of close losses in the regular season matches we've had. We have some work to do defensively which is no problem, I can coach the heck out of that. I'm open to feedback in the men's game with how we can improve/augment our game offensively.

Our team has a very pin-heavy offense. Our outsides are insanely good. We should set them the majority of the time, they can terminate with consistency. However, we're a bit lacking at middle hitter. Our middles are a bit undersized and still very raw as they're new to the game. I'm working to get them up to speed but it will take time. What are some strategies I can implement with the team, as I know our opposition will be camping out on our outsides as soon as they learn what's up. I'm not worried about giving our setter too much, his skill level is incredible and he's arguably our team's best player. I don't want to necessarily force the team to spread the ball out, but rather look for some ideas/plans we can use to keep opposing defenses honest and open things up for the pins?

Thanks again for all your help!

not an uncommon problem to have less skilled middles and/or undersized. It is a balancing act during a game to spread sets and distribution enough to optimize offense. If your setter is good and your pins good they should be able to figure it out the balance each match on their own with a little encouragement. Train your middles so that they can at least put a ball into play when set with no block or half a block, learning to tip and throw balls down with sets that are intentionally set tight and when the the other team has ignored your middles. Nothing wrong with tight sets and power tips to the corners or campfire spot if they can't yet take full swings and find court consistently. You can practice push sets to beat the 1on1 block to the left and on top of the setter to beat to the right. If the setter runs plays with predetermined directions for the middle to hit it can help and allow the setter to read the defense and decide early which way to send the ball and take one less distraction from the middle who is still learning.

The primary thing I would do as a coach to develop your team; create drills in practice the influence the team to develop what you want but allow them to figure out the details on their own.

One example would be to set up a 6v6 and with a score (I like a serve to start and multiple wash balls entered after), only allow kills by the middle to count as scores and pin kills or middle errors are just pushes. It would be easy to score but may end up being a slow scoring drill and not fully teach how to use the middle to open up the offense. A more complicated scoring system may be the use regular rally scoring except:

1. ever play a middle gets set and is not an attack error and the other team is able to counter in system, the middle's side gets a +1 to the score
2. ever play a middle gets set and the other team counters out of system, the middle's side gets a +2 to the score
3. ever play a middle gets set and the result is a kill, the middle's side gets a +3 to the score

This would require a score keeper that is really on it and the scores will go fast as an unlimited amount of points can be scored in any rally if they can keep the ball alive. My experience is the boys will figure it out pretty quick and in an effort to win start engaging the middles and become more comfortable and the fast pace will be fun.

That is just an idea, there are a lot of variations that modify rules of volleyball to nudge behavior if the players are being creative and problem solvers. I don't like to install penalties, rather bonuses, so the penalty being the other team beat them because they were more creative.

[31shoot]

Feb 26, 2024 15:06:00 GMT -5 wilbur said:

Feb 26, 2024 11:16:57 GMT -5 volleysota said:

I'm raising this thread from the dead! We've had a solid go of things so far being a new program. We won our first tournament and had a couple of close losses in the regular season matches we've had. We have some work to do defensively which is no problem, I can coach the heck out of that. I'm open to feedback in the men's game with how we can improve/augment our game offensively.

Our team has a very pin-heavy offense. Our outsides are insanely good. We should set them the majority of the time, they can terminate with consistency. However, we're a bit lacking at middle hitter. Our middles are a bit undersized and still very raw as they're new to the game. I'm working to get them up to speed but it will take time. What are some strategies I can implement with the team, as I know our opposition will be camping out on our outsides as soon as they learn what's up. I'm not worried about giving our setter too much, his skill level is incredible and he's arguably our team's best player. I don't want to necessarily force the team to spread the ball out, but rather look for some ideas/plans we can use to keep opposing defenses honest and open things up for the pins?

Thanks again for all your help!

not an uncommon problem to have less skilled middles and/or undersized. It is a balancing act during a game to spread sets and distribution enough to optimize offense. If your setter is good and your pins good they should be able to figure it out the balance each match on their own with a little encouragement. Train your middles so that they can at least put a ball into play when set with no block or half a block, learning to tip and throw balls down with sets that are intentionally set tight and when the the other team has ignored your middles. Nothing wrong with tight sets and power tips to the corners or campfire spot if they can't yet take full swings and find court consistently. You can practice push sets to beat the 1on1 block to the left and on top of the setter to beat to the right. If the setter runs plays with predetermined directions for the middle to hit it can help and allow the setter to read the defense and decide early which way to send the ball and take one less distraction from the middle who is still learning.

The primary thing I would do as a coach to develop your team; create drills in practice the influence the team to develop what you want but allow them to figure out the details on their own.

One example would be to set up a 6v6 and with a score (I like a serve to start and multiple wash balls entered after), only allow kills by the middle to count as scores and pin kills or middle errors are just pushes. It would be easy to score but may end up being a slow scoring drill and not fully teach how to use the middle to open up the offense. A more complicated scoring system may be the use regular rally scoring except:

1. ever play a middle gets set and is not an attack error and the other team is able to counter in system, the middle's side gets a +1 to the score
2. ever play a middle gets set and the other team counters out of system, the middle's side gets a +2 to the score
3. ever play a middle gets set and the result is a kill, the middle's side gets a +3 to the score

This would require a score keeper that is really on it and the scores will go fast as an unlimited amount of points can be scored in any rally if they can keep the ball alive. My experience is the boys will figure it out pretty quick and in an effort to win start engaging the middles and become more comfortable and the fast pace will be fun.

That is just an idea, there are a lot of variations that modify rules of volleyball to nudge behavior if the players are being creative and problem solvers. I don't like to install penalties, rather bonuses, so the penalty being the other team beat them because they were more creative.

This is a good advice. Whatever I want to emphasize in 6 on 6, I will add bonus points for doing xyz. I try to keep it as simple as possible so everyone can grasp the scoring right away. If we want to emphasize middles scoring, every middle kill is worth 2 points; if we’re struggling to cover hitters, every coverage dig is a worth a point, etc.

One super easy thing that I do with underdeveloped middles is have them hit and block every time we do a serve receive drill. Setter can only set middle or backrow when we’re working on serve receive (or whatever other constraint you want to use). Gives the middles lots of reps at timing and reading passes offensively, and the blocker gets lots of reps at reading an opposing middle with limits on the amount of different things they need to read.

Learning to block middle is very hard, so I like to put constraints in so it limits the number of particular things that can happen. You don’t want to eliminate the reading aspect because it’s the hardest, but instead of focusing on pass, setter, and 4 attackers, maybe make it just two hitters they need to focus on covering etc.