Inside a preseason tourney

Preseason is upon us already.

This past weekend we travelled to Briercrest College and University of Regina to play our first set of exhibition games.  We scheduled the Thursday Briercrest match and the Friday morning Med Hat College matches so our young athletes would have a chance to play in some matches before the first Canada West tournament in Regina that weekend.

Our first two months we prioritize fitness ahead of results at the preseason tourneys.  In CIS there are no wild card berths.  The amounts of teams for Nationals from each division are based on the results from the year before. With Canada West teams meeting in the final we know we have 3 births.  The preseason record counts towards the top 10 rankings, but ultimately teams win the right in.  For this reason we rank conditioning ahead of the result.  Of course we want to win, but we don’t base theteams rest on peaking for the tourney.

WE set team goals for the weekend around our systems and the learning of them.  We want this weekend to confirm our different defense and the player’s communication within the system. As the errors build up players and coaches tend to get quiet.  I know as my frustration builds up that I always find myself sitting down and clamp up.  I have asked my assistant coaches to recognise this in me and to ask me a question.  “What’s next?  This simply jogs me back to reality and then I start coaching again.  We ask the same from our players.

We discussed in depth the 5 r’s of volleyball.  I’ve mentioned this in a past blog. http://coachingbobcats.blogspot.ca/2011/10/5-rs-of-volleyball.html

But we really emphasised the during rally communication as well.  Saying what you see is the habit we need to have happen.  I equate it to writing a test together.  If one person in the group knows the math part of the exam really well but refuses to communicate the whole groups mark will go down.  This is the same in volleyball, what we watch and say out loud has effect on our team as a whole.  We explain even if it is the wrong read at least your teammates know you made the wrong read and then can adjust accordingly.

What do we say?  Well our defense is based on whether the setter is front row or back row.  We will also adjust later in the season based on what the tendency is in each rotation.  We will bunch in one situation and against another team we will spread block.  Everyone has to know the rotation.  We have some very creative coaches in Canada West and they will have different rotations.  Alberta the defending silver medallist run a modified 6-2 system, plus their se3rve reception is more of a trapezoid shape than a line or the traditional 3 player passing.  So it is important in that situation to confirm who is responsible for the attackers across the net.

Once the ball is set we want our back row then to identify what the opposition middle is doing.  To try and pick up the read as quickly as possible, The middle is going 30!  That is because we feel that will be the middle is the quickest a ball will come over, we have less time to react to it than the outside set.  Then when head back to the ball, is it in system or is it off the net.  Then the set, what is the hitters approach like, where are our blockers, will the middle be able to close or are they committed? Then our defense moves accordingly. We want this to happen with vocab,  hitting cross or line, roll or swinging, closed, seem or triple block. 

Last week maintained our weight training and track workouts till Weds.  We then travelled 4 hrs to Briercrest.  The Briercrest and Med Hat matches were good, we were fresh and won 4-0 both matches.  We won 3 straight and agreed to play a fourth both matches to make sure everyone played.

When we entered into our matches in Regina against Manitoba we were feeling pretty good but as a coaching staff we could see fatigue creeping in as the match went longer.  We lost in 4, won the first set 25-21, then lost 22,22 14.  The last set we were tired. 

We then went and watched video as a group, we had 2.5 hours off before we played Sask.  We clipped all the attacks of Manitoba and showed the set we won.  As a coaching staff we wanted to show our team executing the systems properly.  We were able to get 5 triple blocks which showed we were focussing on the right cues.

We played a bit of a younger group against Sask and lost in 4 again.  Win or lose we start every team debrief with what went well.  We ask for specific plays that stood out.  Not just we closed our blocks well, we want Lexi came a long way to close that block in the second set.  I want them to recall the exact play.  I feel this helps build team confidence but it also helps them begins to help them replay the match in their heads.  The second part of this is to teach athletes how to take a compliment.  We have a tough time taking a compliment, quite often we feel we need to justify it with a negative situation to balance the compliment, or we feel we need to compliment the person back.  We teach our athletes the appropriate thing to do is just to say thanks. Nothing else. 

We then discuss what we need to work on; this one was tough on us as we feel that we need to be able to beat Sask if we want to play in the playoffs. We used this opportunity to show our young players that Canada West every match is up in the air.  I also took this time to thank some athletes; we have a few athletes that are working extremely hard to fix technical errors.  One in particular is trying to learn new footwork as she had left-handed footwork for her right handed approach.  She has worked very hard at this, right now she is not jumping as high as she did with the other footwork, but it will pay off in the long run.  We pointed this out to everyone.  It is important for her teammates to support the change to make it worthwhile for her.

Saturday morning we watched video of our match against Sask, this time we showed 20 mins of the set we won, but really noticed break down in our systems and defensive postioning.  We then went to play Alberta.  Again we lost in 4, we went back to watch video again before we played Regina in the consolation semi.  The video showed improvement with our defense when we were serving but we were sloppy off serve reception and in transition.  Alberta was able to take advantage of the errors often.

The amount of video we watched is beginning to pay off we really notice the improvement.  We were able to win the Regina match in 5, some of our younger players played a big role in the win.  Mary our freshman setter started the entire match and played well for us.

Sunday we loaded the bus for a rematch with Sask.  This was an important match for us we needed to send a message to ourselves and to Sask that we were better than our last match.  We played our best match winning 14,14,20.  It was a good bus ride home.

Beginning Typical Week Being a Bobcat.

Start up of the 2012/13 season is well under way.  As always with this time of year the athletes are working hard and improving Daily.  The first week of school we gradually built up the volume until we are at a super high level right now.

A typical week for the athletes right now is

Monday

They have weight training in small groups with our Strength Coach Sean.  Right now it is a very basic program making sure everyone is caught up to speed.  Then we will have practice from 4-7pm.  Usually a small group from 4-5pm, example would be setters and middles.  Then from 5-6pm the whole team will train together.  The hour with the whole team is dedicated to our systems. We focus  a lot on the defense to transition part of the game.  With the Mikasa ball we feel the game is played a lot more out of system than it used to be played.  Then the second group will work on skills from 6-7.  This way everyone has 2 hours of practice but also a good hour working on things specific to their positions.

Tuesday

Morning starts with a track workout.  This is a great team builder.  It gives each player a chance to see how each other work.  It also has lots of positive peer pressure when an athlete thinks they are done but see their teammates keep pushing, they keep pushing too.  The photo’s are from this weeks track work out.

Tuesday we also practice 4-7, different groups than Monday as we have to juggle around some class schedules.

Weds

The athletes are asked to work out on their own with weights today.  With Brandon being a small school we have only a limited number of courses.  This makes it very hard to get everyone in the gym at the same time.  So we trust the athletes to get this done.  This is an important part of our program and the athletes must understand that they need to lift or do the circuits on the days scheduled.  We have planned this for optimum recovery and results.  During the pre-season physical training is a priority over being fresh for tournament matches.  If the athlete skips a day it affects the whole team.

This week we have our first meeting with Dr. Skinner . He is coming in to create our standards.  We have three over riding values on our team.  Be loyal, Bring honour to the program, Put the team first.  These are brought from the last year to the next year.  But each year is different so we have to have  adifferent set of standards for the team.  With Dr. Skinner we come up with these standards.  We have already discussed what each of the values look like and don’t look like.  For example what does being loyal mean when you are coming off the bench?  The team came up with; cheering for the players on the floor, looking for weaknesses within the oppositions defense, being ready to go when called upon and also knowing the game plan so you can execute it when you have a chance to play.

Know as a team we have to decide on all the things we brought up which are the most important ideas and methods.  These we want to write down and hold each other accountable for.  Each year the team comes up with their own.  Last years can be seen here http://coachingbobcats.blogspot.ca/2011_09_01_archive.html

We also normally practice from 4-7pm the same as we have all the way through.

Thursday,

Thursday the team is required to do a circuit in small groups.  This one involves a little less jumping and more bungy cords, working on footspoot and trying to create an overspeed situation with the team.

Then we will practice from 4-7.

This week we are travelling to Briercrest to play our first exhibition matches.  WE play Briercrest College at 8pm.  This team competes in the Alberta Colleges League. It is a good chance to for our rookies to compete before they face CIS competition in Regina Fri to Sunday

Weekend.

This weekend we play in the University of Regina Tournament.  We have a great pool.  We play University of Manitoba and University of Sask on Friday.  Round out pool play with last years national silver medallist U of Alberta.  Then depending how we do play an A side of B side playoffs.

I will update how it went next Tuesday.

We also had the opportunity to take our team photo's, head shots and video introductions for each player.  We had a fun time with this.  Alex Beshara he is our Communications Officer Social Media.  He documented the event for us.

Welcome to BU "Rookies initiation thoughts"

On Tuesday at 6pm central time on twitter there is a volleyball tweet up or discussion. It is facilitated by @goodtouchvolleyball.  This past week one of the topics was hazing. If you want to join in it is #gttalk   It led me to think about our first years and their welcoming to BU. I am happy with how our first year players are fitting in with the team so far.  With the addition of 6 first year players this leads us to the idea of rookie initiation and the dreaded word hazing.

I am not naive to think that our team won’t have some form of first year welcoming.  I like to talk to our captains beforehand. Personally I believe this is the Captains first real challenge as leaders.  They have to be strong enough to make this a fun and safe activity.  I believe the purpose of a welcome to BU experience is to team build, to bring the athletes officially into our family.  By having the first years singled out and make a fool of themselves does nothing to endear them to our school. It also can be a source of stress on a student who already has a ton of stress placed on them. The idea that you have to earn your way on to the team is very archaic.  The athletes today have put a ton of time into their sport already, hired person trainers, played provincial and national teams just to get to this level.

In the discussion with the Captains I mention three guidelines.

1. Captains and the rest of the team are personally responsible and accountable for all the actions.  They need to make sure it is a safe environment.  I also ask it not to be limited to First years.  It needs to be inclusive; if the first years do it then the Captains or veterans should be doing it too.

2. The activities chosen are genuinely voluntary nature, first year athletes have the choice to participate or opt out of the activity without fear of any negative consequences. If an athlete makes a positive choice to limit alcohol, or food intake, we should celebrate this activity instead of ridicule.  This is a committed person who wants to be able to train. Alcohol takes 48 hours to leave your system, if overconsumption occurs, that is two days of training and recovery wasted.

  3. WE do not have special dress up activities and then head out around town.  We want to be seen as mature place of learning.  Whenever anything negative happens around the athletes it is “Brandon University Bobcat arrested” or “Former Bobcat in trouble” as headlines in the paper.  They lose a bit of their own identity and have to think of the larger group.

So far in our 8 years of existence our welcome parties have gone pretty smooth. But I still worry about the ramifications every year.  It only takes bad one to put tarnish on the program forever. 

I am not in favour of this type of activity and let it known to the team.  WE live in a small community and when it comes to athletics it is even smaller.  Coaches find out eventually all the things that go on. 

We recruit athletes that are quality people and this is their time to prove us right.