Controlled Scrimmages and Planning.

We have had a great week of practices.  We played 10 hours of volleyball on the weekend with organised scrimmages with U of Regina and U of Winnipeg.  This is an interesting tradition that volleyball has.  We meet up and play controlled games against other teams.  The first session we played 3 different styles of “wash” or multiple ball drills.  The basketball coaches at BU think we are crazy to get together to practice with the other team.  I always respond with the standard “ Don’t you get tired of playing against your own team?”  On Sunday we had a couple of the men’s players come in to officiate sets.  We split into two groups and would scrimmage 1 set against each of the Universities.  Then the would play each other for a set, we would then play one of them again for a set.  WE kept rotating like that. Play one set, then have a short practice to work on something specific.  Then play another set to see if we have a good feel of what we practiced.

As a coaching staff, we decided to  give the team Monday off to catch up on school work. They were expected to do a weight session. When we were all back together on Tuesday you could feel a real sense of purpose with the team.  We handed out Iphone skins to help celebrate our succesfull pre-season of learning. The practices this week went very fast and were very focussed.  Our captains decided to have a players only meeting. This was to set the record straight, to help the younger players get a sense of what it is going to take to be successful in league.  I was really excited about the group taking ownership of the year.  Tom Skinner always tells the team that they are in control of the results, as coaches we put the pieces together for success, but what they do with that information will determine where we end up.

Another thing that changed was the practice plans.  Now that we are in our new facility and have a chance to use two courts to tweak some technical things, we take advantage of that. Here is a copy of our practice on Tuesday. 

In the plan this week we controlled as much as we could; who would play beside who, who would go through the drill twice so the courts would be working around the same time.  The number of reps the drill would take.  The athletes setting their goals and working together really was successful this week.

When planning a practice, for me it is like watching a movie.  I need to see the drill in my mind before I put it down on paper.  I think what is it we need to work on.  This case it was hitting off blocks.  We moved the attenna’s closer together so the outside attacker had to hit the ball between them.  We discussed with the defense your job is to keep them in the drill forever. After doing a rough draft, I then look at the flow of the practice. Are we warm enough to swing full? Does the practice build on the previous drill? Does the game act as an accumulation of the entire practice? Once all of this is set I will then type it into our practice plan.  Then I usually find an adaptation of a drill yet again.  Being over planned really helps the success of the practice. Then we still find situations that I hadn’t thought of. In that case as a team we decide on the rules. An example was we were playing a game to 25. If you score 24 you must score 25 or you go back to 23.  This time we had the hero (A player who had to score the 25^th point).  But we hadn’t counted on the team with 24 getting a stuff block. The purpose of the game was to put pressure on the attacker, so we decided it would be a wash.  Then the team with 24 had to receive serve for their 25^th point.  This would give the player a chance to score first opportunity. 

I just find that routine in planning for practice has been successful for me.  I always feel confident heading into practice that we have an opportunity to get better.