Learning and Relief

Learning and relief.

This was a big weekend for us as we played Regina Cougars.  They were tied with us at 2 wins.  This has playoff implications for both teams.  Traditionally 8 wins would get a team into 7^th spot. With the addition of UBCO from Kelowna to the league it could mean a team would need more.  So with this weekend marking halfway point of the season we needed both wins.

We continually preach team first and doing what you can do help the team become better.  This is easily portrayed with the main players.  As they have a chance to show it on the floor. It becomes tougher when you are a reserve.  How can they contribute to the team concept? WE keep telling them that they make us better in practice and that they have an opportunity to learn the game in a practice situation.  At some point they will be needed to come on the floor and perform.  This is tough because every player at this level has been the starter and go to player on their highschool teams.  Many see other players on oppositions getting opportunities to play and are having success and they know that they are as good as them.  But in our situation we need them to help keep getting us better and their time will come.

In the first match against Regina this happened.  We lost the first set again Jumping out to a decent lead to watch is dwindle away losing the set by two.  This was tough on our team emotionally, they did their best not to show it.  Held their heads high on the side switch and ran into the team huddle, but what went wrong continued to haunt us.  Our passing went out the window.  Late in that set Becky and Sara made a lot of subs and gave the starting group a chance to rest.  Our reserves lit it up.  They played with tremendous energy and put pressure on Regina.  Shanlee in particular was a force passing and scoring. We lost the set but earned some respect.

Becky and Sara went back to the first group but left Shanlee on the floor.  It was a great adjustment.  Regina was well prepped for our team so having a new player on the floor seemed to change their focus. Shanlee was their passing target and she was able to hold her own allowing our middle and rightside to get going.  WE came together and won the match in 5.  That was a huge relief for us. It was a total team effort.  To be able to put that in our mental back pack and know we can pull through.  To also see that our young team members are still improving a lot adds to our confidence.

Tori was in the same situation as Shanlee last year, she played spot duty and usually in situations where we needed an emotional lift.  When you are practicing a player doesn’t realize how much they are improving.  For Tori it was the New Years tourney at Laval.  We had the opportunity to play against FX Garneau a CCAA team that won the silver medal at Nationals.  Tori played in all those matches as did our young players.  WE were able to sweep them both times we played them.  She was then able to understand the level of volleyball she was playing at everyday.  It changed her focus.  Tori  also committed to doing her physical training this summer and has improved drastically. Now in her second year she is a valuable member of the team and rarely will be off the floor.

After the match we found out the strike was over!!!!  I was able to get back with the team officially after midnight.  I was so excited, the reaction of the team surprised me.  Of course the first thing they thought of was the unknown.  What is going to happen with classes, I have missed 7 exams are we going to have to write them all in one week? How many assignments are due?  This was going to be a big distraction for tomorrow.

We went into practice and had a good conversation about dealing with what we can control, and that was our team prep for todays match.  We also talked about what would be the best thing for the team, Should I take over immediately as head coach.  After talking as a coaching group and with some of the players we decided that Becky would head coach the team one last match.  I would assist her.  I haven’t been at practice in 7 weeks.  I am not in the best situation to make decisions based on athletes ability in certain situation.  Plus it is a great opportunity to show team first. To practice what we are preaching all the time.  I wanted to be back coaching so bad, but it was better to assist.

We really emphasized defense and being able to release to off speed shots or balls of the block. Forty minutes of our hour was dedicated to that type of drills.  We also took some time to make adjustment to block their rightside player.  We moved inside and defended one and relied on the player in 5 to dig the line shot.

Last week we talked a lot about communicating and then making adjustments as a group.  Well Saturday it all fell together.  We played great the team was able to make the adjustments.  Early in the first set Jaryn was able to chase down a ball that went sideways off a block and we were able to win the long rally. Kellie was so loud on defense that it became contagious and everyone was talking. It was fun to watch the team play.  We decided to start Chloe again.  WE had a good discussion about her focussing on passing a defending.  Her attacking would take care of itself.  The better she passed the more opportunities we would have to run middle and rightside.   The more seams she would have in the blocks.  Chloe knows she is a strong ball control player so this wouldn’t be hard for her.  We also know that Shanlee is breathing down her neck...Competing together makes us better.  Having fun with the competition makes us better.

We won 3-0 which leaves us at 4 wins and matches this weekend which we can reach .500 ^ wins going into Christmas break gives us a chance.

Close but no Cigar

We just returned home from another road trip, this time it was to Calgary to play the Dino’s.  The Dino team is an older team in the league and fairly deep in talent so we knew it was going to be a tough weekend.

The union has allowed the head coaches to travel so we can monitor the athletes, help drive them to and from the gym.  Not an ideal situation but better than nothing for now.  We have gone 41 days now without being able to be fully engaged with our teams.

We had a tremendous recruiting class last year and are very excited about our young players.  The weird part of this year is that I really feel disconnected from our first year players.  If we were teaching classes and in a normal routine the athletes traditionally stop by the office and we have a chance to discuss their development athletically, mentally and socially.  But being away from them for this length has hindered this.

This weekend for us will go down as lost opportunities.  We played fairly decent volleyball for most of the weekend.  But unlike last weekend against Trinity this weekend we had trouble closing.  Two sets we had 24-22 leads but were unable to win that last point.  This really wears on a team.  We also would go on big runs, just to watch the Dino’s edge their way back.

Being in the crowd was a tough time for me to sit and watch us lose confidence in our team concept and ourselves.  Winning in those situations is about playing for the people around you.  The power of helping a teammate will stand out in any situation.  Since I couldn’t be in the gym during our serve and pass practice in the morning, I went for coffee with Rod Durrant the Dinos men coach.  He said something that really sticks with me.  An athlete has to give back to their team in some way.  It is your responsibility to make sure the group is functioning smoothly.  It can be as small as telling the setter the last couple balls were tight, or a large as helping a teammate through a tough family situation. 

Communication is a life skill, there is no way a person would survive in the workforce without being able to communicate.  In the sporting situation it transfers directly.  When the team is in trouble or a teammates confidence is down it is the entire teams responsibility to help that teammate out.  As a coach we spend a lot of our time evaluating the athletes and we talk in such a way.  That was a really tough time for that error or that error is unacceptable.  As a player we can’t judge our teammates actions.  Too often in post game talks we hear judgment statements about our teammates. We should just accept it as an error and then do everything in our power to make the next ball better.  Helping the error become just a blip on the day. Losers assign fault, winners accept blame.

We talk with our team about the few times we have to give a free ball that we run to the net and are in a strong position.  We want to commit to our team that we will get the ball back.  Instead of going to the net tentatively and be back on our heels expecting the other team to score. 

Body language is such an important part of being part of a team.  From the crowd I could see the teams shoulders sag, head drop to the floor, and our walk slow down.  We were up 20-15 in a set when Becky called a timeout because of a 3 point run the dino’s went on.  We walked to the time out like we were already defeated. I don’t think I could notice that if I was on the bench being part of the competition.  Head up walk into that timeout with a sense of purpose.  Create the difference. 

I understand that this is hard to do when you’re struggling personally, but Fake it till you make it.  People who look confident and talk confident will often be confident. Run on the court with  sense of purpose.  Run off to the timeouts with pride. Give energy back to your teammates.

We played well enough to win for most of the weekend.  This is encouraging, we just need to play 2% better for this upcoming weekend.  No drastic changes, just have a purpose and trust our teammates. 

This is the fun time to be a competitive athlete.  We still have a chance to be 6 and 6 at the xmas break.  8 -9 wins traditionally get a team in the playoffs because there are so many split weekends in Canada west.  So opportunity is still there.

Highlights.

Meaghan had 19 kills on Sat out of the Middle

Chloe maintained her 11 kills

Lexi came in and had 3 stuff blocks

Shanlee came in and had 4 kills on 7 swings.

Lindsay is starting to look comfortable in the Libero spot and made some huge digs for us.

Trinity Day 2 Grinding

After our successful Friday we knew that Trinity will come out with some adaptations.  This match would become about adjustments and learning to score.  Or Grinding it out.

We have talked all year that our team is about ball control and winning the long rallies.  We have become very proud on the lack of unforced errors we commit.  WE really discuss knowing the right time to go after it. (Green light) the time to take a chance (yellow light) and the time when all you can do is protect the ball and try to disadvantage the opponent.  This match would become about unforced errors.

Trinity really focussed on Meaghan in the middle and wanted to limit her scoring.  They decided to take more risks on serving with the hope of our passing breaking down.  The first set started off with Trinity Jumping out to a fast lead. Trinity went up 8-5 with us already having 3 unforced errors.  A quick little team meeting in the middle with a reminder about protecting the ball fixed the problem quickly.  

As a coaching group with met with the outsides and showed them shots  that they hit hands on  Trinity was able to dig.  We explained if we could add 5km more to the shot they wouldn't have time to chase the balls down.  Jaryn Reuther really discovered this and it would work wonders for her.   We battled back and found ourselves up 24-23.  Trinity refused to quick, a huge stuff block for them and a confusion between Kellie and Meaghan had Trinity up 25-24.  A strong defensive play and a huge kill by their all star middle gave Trinity the first set.

With yesterday going so well for us and everyone scoring at a high percentage, when Trinity came out with their defensive adjustments we seemed to panic.  We forgot about what worked for us.  The coaches had a good chance to remind them of what our game plan was.  We knew we could win some long rallies, so lets not be scared to protect the ball.   The second set was extremely exciting for our fans.  We found ourselves tied at 13.  Then the teams traded points and went after each other.  We  also discussed during video that most of our serves we falling around the 5 meter mark of the court.  We need to get them moving more.  As the game was tied 20-20 Larissa went back and made a great short serve for an ace.  A couple points later Tori put one in the back corner for another Ace.  With Meaghan closing out the set for a 25-23 win.

At that moment we discovered how to win a close set.  We can manufacture points and if we have to we can win matches on tactical serving.  It looked like a huge weight was lifted off the team. The next 2 sets wouldn’t be any easier.  As we won 25-23 again and 25-21 in the fourth.  After the match we looked at the box score.  Trinity had earned more points than we did, but we were more efficient and won the plus minus battle.

We will not be the team that overpowers opposition, but we will be the team that waits for it opportunity to pounce.  When the light turns green we can bounce the ball.  When the light turns yellow we can score off hands or put the other team in trouble.  Then we know we can win the long rally.  Grinding the opposition down is not the easiest way to play volleyball.  It takes an everyday commitment to ball control and fitness.  But the Bobcats have shown they are willing to do that, at least for thar weekend.  Up next is the Dino’s in Calgary the question remains can we remember what got us to the victory last week?

http://bit.ly/vkqef4   box score of match

Overcoming Adversity

Bouncing Back.

Nothing is predestined: The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings- Ralph Blum

This was so true of the Brandon Bobcats this past week and weekend.  A Week ago we were coming off a trouncing by the Winnipeg Wesman.  Everything that we feared about our young team came glaring through.

But to the teams credit they started to search for what the individual could do to make it better.  With the BU Faculty strike on our recovery started with a Monday practice with no coach.  The athlete, captains ran the practice.  It was not a smooth practice.  I had numerous players call in frustration.  They demanded more and better.  As mentioned in a previous blog, As coaches we are Faculty and have been told in no uncertain terms that we cannot coach or be part of anything to do with practice.

The athletes decided  to fight this, they formed a coalition with all the teams.  They organized a formal meeting with both the University and the Union. They called a press conference, did research on why people are declared essential essential so  that we can start coaching again. I was extremely impressed with their determination towards this.   I believe that by standing up for themselves was the start of our turnaround. We are still waiting for the Unions response, the University has said "if the Union is ok with it we are too".  So it is in the hands of the Union executive.

Next as a coaching staff we decided that we need to implement a lot more video.  We wanted to show the athletes the systems and how they looked executing them.  Explain in depth what we are looking for.  Especially since the upcoming weekend we were playing the number 6 ranked team in the country.  As a coaching staff we started to look at potential line-ups.  Which line-up was our most effective?  When we broke it down by set scores we were surprised by which line up was our best.  There is something to be said about the feeling on the court. When each member of the group can help create confidence in each other, then that is often most important factor. Athletes tend to play for each other, especially in tough situations.

WE didn’t spend a lot of time discussing Trinity Western’s offense.  This week we decided it was about us.  In the practices the coaches implemented our serving game plan, blocking and defence plans, without it being in relation to Trinity.  We really emphasized what our vision patterns should be.  When to be stopped on defense.  We want our athletes to stop when the attacker jumps.  We used to say on the attackers arm swing, but we found that we were always late.  We found if we ask for jump then we are stopped well enough to react to the ball.  The biggest difference in experienced athletes and our young players in the range the athlete can go on defense. We felt if we can get our ball control game back to where we believe it should be we had a chance.

Friday was an exciting day for us, everything seem to fall in place. The first set we played strong defense and scored a lot early in transition.  We had challenged Lindsay Mclaughlin, who would start a libero, to have a big presence in the game.  Allow the players around you to feel your presence.  She is normally a focused quiet player, but we need her to change some.  She is our second setter when Kellie digs the ball.  Lindsay took charge and help lead us to a 25-22 win.

The second set was a marathon as both teams went after it. Trinity is ranked number 6 in Canada for a reason.  They jumped out to a 13-10 lead, when Meaghan Roberson had a huge kill for us.  Then Chloe Reimer went back and executed our serve plan and put TWU in trouble. We were tied 15 all.  Now it is a game. Becky had sub in Lexi Loewen in the middle.  Lexi is a bit smaller but fast middle who can close to the outside.  She is a strong outside blocker.  Our serving and offense was keeping the ball outside so this was a great sub. Lexi put up a solid block and we were able to defend around her.

TWU ended up with a 24-22 lead.  Kellie made a courageous dump to get us to within one.  Then Kellie went back and put some tough serves in.  This helped us make some big digs as we tied up the match and went ahead 25-24.  Teams then traded points. We found ourselves tied at 27.  Meaghan our second year middle took over offensively and we were able to get her the ball in transition and we won a big 31-29 set.

After that type of game it is often hard to comeback. Meaghan had found her groove and away we went.  When a player is hot a setter will set them until their arm falls off or the opponent stops them.  Meaghan went off for 6 kills this set.  We won 25-16.  We were carried by a group of 2^nd year players.  Chloe Reimer our libs turned leftside had 13 kills, Tori Dakin had 12 kills on the Rs and Meaghan had 16 kills.  Which really is exciting for our future.  Of course it was more than those three as we needed some strong leadership in tough situations from other players. 

We now had rebounded well, the test will be tomorrow.  Can we do it again?  TWU is a well coached team they will make adjustments and we will have to find another way to win.

I put a video of Meaghan and Alicia Perrin going head to head.  Alicia played on the FISU games team this summer.  

Here us the box score link    http://bit.ly/uvQiOm

Confidence is a Fickle Friend

Strike Day 28.  We are coming off a very troubled weekend.  We played a home and home series with the University of Winnipeg Wesmen.  The U of W entered the matches ranked 8^th in Canada.  We struggled both days against them. We didn’t perform up to our expectations.

The strike is really playing havoc on all of our confidences.  We have missed 48 contact hours of on court volleyball. This is time that we haven’t been able to have our coaching staff together fully. To look at it in terms of academics this is more than a three credit course.  For a lot of athletes this is one of their most important courses.  The trouble with this statistic is we can’t make up this time.  For the rest of the academic world when the strike ends we will have a solution to make up the class time missed.  For athletics everything proceeds as normal. This is a tough situation on all of us.

 As a coach you preach  the concept of team first all the time to the players but in this situation the coaches are not able to fulfill our end of the bargain and it feels terrible. The assistant coaches and athletes have been impressive as they have tried their hardest to make something positive out of this.  I don’t have a large ego that makes me think that I alone can solve our problems right now.  But I do believe that if we had our whole coaching staff together we could.  Six sets of eyes are better than two.

When we first went on strike a month ago we were starting to really gel as a team and our basic philosophies were starting to show as a group.  We played those two exhibition matches against Regina and we felt this upward momentum. Ashley, Becky and Sara did a good job preparing for Manitoba and we were close on Friday, but then Saturday the cracks started to show.

Confidence is a fickle friend.  When athletes are confident they play above their head.  Athletes will play with no fear in their game.  As the confidence starts to deteriorate in them or worse confidence in their teammates/  When this lack of confidence start to show then problems follow.  In hockey to explain this lack of confidence coaches and athletes use the term squeezing the stick too tight.  This means that they don’t have the subtle feel for the puck and are trying too hard.  Same thing happens in volleyball, athletes start to second guess their decision or the system. They will over swing try to make something out of nothing.  A player will then try to do too much like covering for another teammate on defence, leaving themselves out of position.  The ball always seems to find the player who isn’t doing their job properly. 

When this starts to happen players often start to look for solutions, usually this is within the team or with one of the coaches. In our situation this is hard for the athletes, because the head coach cannot really interact with them, the assistant coaches are out student teaching and involved with their own education.  They are trying to figure out their own life as well as trying to problem solve the team.  Becky, Ashley and Sara have made me extremely proud to have worked with them.  They have a vast knowledge of the game.  Becky really understands the game especially  from the point of view as a setter, Ashley  has a strong grasp of all positions  but excels as a middle coach and Sara  is the same but has a strong background as an outside attacker.  Together they cover all necessary knowledge of the game.  The difference is a more experienced coached would have a few more ideas on how to get this knowledge across.  Plus the assistants are in a tough situation as they have friends on the team.  Other than the freshman all the coaches would have just finished playing with them.  To ask Becky to get on Jaryn and Claire is not fair to her.  They are some of her closest friend.

So as mentioned above the athletes start to look elsewhere to find solutions and gain confidence.  If coaches are not available then the athletes talk to parents, former coaches, friends playing on other team, and other sport coaches.  The athletes are then given a new set of information on how that person would fix their situation.  These people are often a good resource for the individual player when it comes to dealing with mental and emotional situations.  These people will have an understanding about the athlete from past dealings and will help them through those tough mental situations.  But when it comes to blocking and defensive schemes this source of information often gets the athletes on two different pages.  One player is moving one way when the other is expecting them to move another.  It creates more harm than good. Every team has different philosophies on what is correct and a coach has to be passionate and confident about their system.  Many different systems have won in volleyball.  Russia won an Olympic championship playing six up defence.   In Canada that is considered a Jr. High defense.  It would be hard to convince outside coaches that this would work for us.  But if a coach was passionate about it with the correct personnel it would work.

How to build back the confidence? 

We are continuously asking the athletes to talk to each other during the match.  This creates a stronger understanding in each other, and alleviates any confusion in what each other are doing.  Just talking out loud saying what you’re thinking during the match will make a world of difference for each other.

 We need to celebrate when we do something correct.  The team needs to focus on the things we do well and find a way to use this in our situation. We passed very well last weekend.  We were in system quite a bit.  If we can maintain that we should be ok.

Simplify what we are asking people to do.  We need to pull back on the number of options and ask athletes to do the basic first.  In the movie “For The Love Of The Game” There is a scene where Kevin Costner (baseball pitcher) is struggling to throw a strike.  He stops centers his body and says “one more time, like you’ve done a million times before”.  He doesn’t try to throw harder, or try something tricky.  He just went back to a basic pitch. Just find the basic system and keep focussing on that.

We need to find this confidence fast.  If both sides of this strike can find it in their hearts to solve the issues fast it would go a long way to solving some of our confidence issues.  I hope and pray that this doesn’t go much longer.

Bison's day 2.

Day 2 Adjustments were made and seemed to be working.  Just sticking and trusting game plan is important.  We started the line-up that we finished with one exception, Kellie, Jaryn, Larissa, Tori, Chloe, Meaghan and rookie Brianna as the libs. 

As a coaching group we felt that this ball control line up would work for us.  We also spent some time with the middles talking about taking risk and looking at trends that Manitoba runs in each set.  We did a very good job on defence and blocking.  We struggled offensively; we were down 14-11 when Becky made a double sub. Jenna and Claire came in and brought us back to a 19-18 lead.  Kellie and Tori came back in we were riding a high.  But a missed serve and 4 hitting errors cost us the set 25-21.  But blocking we had held both Tricia and Kristy to even 3 kills and 4 errors.

Second set Becky decided to reward Jenna for fighting back for us and she got her first ever set start in the CIS.  The team responded and came out flying, we jumped out to a 9-5 start.  Then we got stuck in a rotation. It was suddenly 9-9 and we struggled with passing.  I was watching in the crowd and I commented, if we can get the ball to even go forward we have a chance.  We shanked or passed straight up 4 balls.  Then we got a bad match up with Kristi Hunter matched up with Jenna and Kristi had success swinging at and over her.  This adjustment made our defence a little more difficult.  We fell down 14-12 when we doubled subbed.  Kellie brought us back to tie it up at 16.  Then a serving error and a hitting error on our side we found ourselves down 18-16. WE battled back to a 19 all tie.  We had really found a way to limit Tricia and our serving and trouble balls had kept her out of the match.  Now with the set on the line we became happy to put the ball in play and their libero Nicole Hall was able to take over the match.  Suddenly we were serving her and they were in system, then when we were in trouble we started to just put ball in play to 5 where Nicole played.  Tricia was able to score 4 of their next five points.

Then the wheels fell off.  Becky made a good choice and changed the line-up around for the third set.  She started Jenna, jaryn, Tori, Claire, Lexi, Meaghan,Chloe at libs. We then forgot what we have been working on as our identity.  We really want to be the team that it is difficult to play against.  We want the opponent to earn all their points.  We try to do this by making wise choices and pt the other team in trouble.  This set we had 11 attacking and 3 serving errors. Manitoba just had to earn 11 points on their own.  This was a tough lesson for us.  Mentally we need to be better and need to be aware of situations.
Jaryn and Meaghan each had 10 kills and a hitting efficiency over 30 percent

Lessons Learned

1.        Believe in self and keep trusting new strategies

2.       Remember what we stand for, make the other team earn points

3.       Better perform on the floor because we are deep enough to bring people off the bench

So back to the drawing board, learn from this and work hard to get ready for Winnipeg.  Even though this is the second weekend of the year, it could be the make and break point for playoffs.  We are still on strike so the prep still falls to Becky and the team.  They have done a great job so far... Go Bobcats