Fight one, Fight All

Teaching confidence and fight.

When I was coming through Jr. Hockey our coach Bruce Osland created a rule for us  “Fight one fight all” This made even the smallest player on the team act tougher.  When you knew that 20 other guys had your back, you would stand up to the biggest guy on the other team.  This year in the NHL it has been highly documented that the Boston Bruins are doing the same.  They are playing extremely tough and solid hockey making them one of the top teams in the NHL.

How does this transfer into volleyball? The above analogy works the same, if a player in volleyball knows the rest of the team has their back then they play bigger and stronger.  The trouble is how to demonstrate that.  I personally feel that if a player makes a bad pass, but the setter can create a decent scoring opportunity from this then the pass is forgotten. If the setter makes a bad play then the attacker makes a good play out of it then the bad set is forgotten.  But if no one attempts to better the ball then everything is magnified.  A great example of this is a low set to a middle hitter and they hit the ball as hard as they can into the bottom of the net.  The middle just magnified the poor set instead of fixing it with a controlled shot. When a team is playing together they work hard to better each ball, relieving the pressure off the player who made an error.

Another way to help build confidence and fight is through the words we use as a team during the match.  I was watching The Canadian Men’s FISU team play this summer and was able to listen to them talk during their matches.  There was a lot of encouraging conversation going on.  When a blocker would find their self one on one, a teammate would yell “get them”.  A person is hitting a trouble ball and the person behind them yells “go after it”.  Little simple things like that would let people know they are together.  Teaching athletes to do this is often difficult. They have to believe in each other. When I was coaching college at Grande Prairie, we were in a provincial championships and one of the opponents said something rude across the net to Jen Telfer.  The rest of the team suddenly rush to her defense.  The team was suddenly at the net and it brought an unbelievable sense of energy for the team.  No longer was it just a playoff game, it was a match to defend Jen.  I am not a believer in trash talking I think you celebrate with your team and earn what comes your way.  The team took celebrating together to a whole new level and we found our fight.  We just rolled over the opponent.

The same thing happened with that team in our National semi-final.  We ended up crossing over against Malasapina from BC.  Their coach had cut one of our more popular players Kelsey Kosick from his Canada games team at their Christmas tryouts early that season.  That semi-final game meant so much more to our team.  We were out to show the coach how wrong he was for cutting her.  It became a revenge match.  As a coach I could feel the difference in the team in warm-up.  Everyone had a higher sense of purpose.  Malasipina had an old team they had groomed this team to win a national championship.  We had a young team but a mission. We ended beating them in four 37-35 with Kelsey getting the winning kill.  That was a team on a mission. When the final ball hit the floor the gym exploded and everyone ran to Kelsey.  It was redemption.

It was a definite feeling of playing for a cause bigger than themselves.  A person would think playing for a championship is enough motivation in itself, but both teams then would be equally motivated.  It is the team that know they can rely on their teammates to help them in any situation, where they know that one error will be solved by another person rising above to help fix that error, instead of letting that error become a distraction to them as well.  You hear it in every championship team “we never gave up on each other.” “WE believed in the team” WE knew we had to do it for them”

That is what I feel “Fight One Fight All” means in volleyball.  The issue is can you teach it, or does it just evolve. WE are tied right now for the last playoff spot.  The first two tie breakers are tied, so this weekend will determine our fate.  Will we be able to find the fight and confidence to acheive our goals?  I know everyone on the team truly has hopes and desires to achieve our goal of making playoffs, so I bet yes.