A
few years ago, I heard the phrase "You are the sum of the five people you
spend the most time with". I use that phrase a lot with our athletes. Are
the people who surround yourself with helping to make you a better player
and person?
I have a great group of friends involved in coaching. Not all of them are volleyball coaches. These people allow me to discuss situations and help make my decisions. I have great colleagues that also love to improve their sport and enjoy talking coaching and science of coaching. This is my main source of professional development.
However, over the years I have not taken many opportunities to pursue other professional development. I tend to just stay in my own gym and rely on books I read about coaching and leadership. I am a voracious reader. I love finding books. I tend to have 3 or 4 books on the go at one time. But specific volleyball professional development has been hard to come by. I discovered my love of learning later in my coaching career.
When I lived in Alberta at the end of the season I would evaluate the year and write down some recommendations fo myself. Then I would move on to the next team. I was coaching year round. I loved coaching and wanted to be involved in everything. College would finish then club practices would start. When Club finished Team Alberta would start. Every experience with those teams made me a better coach but I didn't have time to go back to those recomedations. I was stuck in a perpetual cycle of what I knew as best practices.
When I decided to start my Masters in Coaching at University of Victoria I found my best practices challenged by what science was saying. Dr. Van Jean taught our motor learning class and her class literally blew my mind. It allowed me to rethink all the drills we used. Was this the best use of their time? Did it transfer from practice to matches? Was my feedback being a help or was I hindering learning with my constant chatter? It changed the way I coached and small success followed.
After I finished my Masters I was able to work in small chunks with our Canadian National Women's Team. Here Arndt Ludwig ( Lupo) was putting the science we learned into practice. It was refreshing and I wanted to see more. A lot of my time with the national team my role was to stay behind and train the athletes who didn't travel. Again, I was in my own gym.
When I was selected to travel with the team I saw volleyball played at an incredibly high level. The speed and power of the game again was a catalyst for change. It allowed me to change the way I looked at the game. I realized we can ask our athletes to do more. Our Canada West is a very good league and filled with incredible athletes but we can play faster and stronger.
I believe every coach and athlete need to watch the level above them. Know what that is like and try to mimic it when possible.
Finally, after 20 years of being in my own gym and running my own program I felt stagnant. I longed again for that catalyst to help me improve as a coach. I applied to the University for a Sabbatical. I wanted to travel and discuss with different coaches’ about how they run their programs. I also want to see how they make game plan decisions and how they practice for these. I want to ask them what they personally do to stay current. How do they find ways to challenge their ideas?
Luckily, Ken Murphy at Northern Arizona (NCAA Div 1) has offered to open his gym for me. He agreed to let me sit in on coaching meetings. Be around the team at practice and watch how his coaching interact. He has been incredibly accommodating.
I have also reached out to a few professional coaches in Europe who have agreed to meet with me. I have found that most volleyball coaches are very accommodating and love to talk volleyball. I know I enjoy it when I can sit around with coaches and banter ideas back and forth.
I love coaching and my career at Brandon University and hope to return a new and improved version of myself.
My goal is to share some of my thoughts and discoveries on this blog as I travel around in search of coaching best practices.
I have a great group of friends involved in coaching. Not all of them are volleyball coaches. These people allow me to discuss situations and help make my decisions. I have great colleagues that also love to improve their sport and enjoy talking coaching and science of coaching. This is my main source of professional development.
However, over the years I have not taken many opportunities to pursue other professional development. I tend to just stay in my own gym and rely on books I read about coaching and leadership. I am a voracious reader. I love finding books. I tend to have 3 or 4 books on the go at one time. But specific volleyball professional development has been hard to come by. I discovered my love of learning later in my coaching career.
When I lived in Alberta at the end of the season I would evaluate the year and write down some recommendations fo myself. Then I would move on to the next team. I was coaching year round. I loved coaching and wanted to be involved in everything. College would finish then club practices would start. When Club finished Team Alberta would start. Every experience with those teams made me a better coach but I didn't have time to go back to those recomedations. I was stuck in a perpetual cycle of what I knew as best practices.
When I decided to start my Masters in Coaching at University of Victoria I found my best practices challenged by what science was saying. Dr. Van Jean taught our motor learning class and her class literally blew my mind. It allowed me to rethink all the drills we used. Was this the best use of their time? Did it transfer from practice to matches? Was my feedback being a help or was I hindering learning with my constant chatter? It changed the way I coached and small success followed.
After I finished my Masters I was able to work in small chunks with our Canadian National Women's Team. Here Arndt Ludwig ( Lupo) was putting the science we learned into practice. It was refreshing and I wanted to see more. A lot of my time with the national team my role was to stay behind and train the athletes who didn't travel. Again, I was in my own gym.
When I was selected to travel with the team I saw volleyball played at an incredibly high level. The speed and power of the game again was a catalyst for change. It allowed me to change the way I looked at the game. I realized we can ask our athletes to do more. Our Canada West is a very good league and filled with incredible athletes but we can play faster and stronger.
I believe every coach and athlete need to watch the level above them. Know what that is like and try to mimic it when possible.
Finally, after 20 years of being in my own gym and running my own program I felt stagnant. I longed again for that catalyst to help me improve as a coach. I applied to the University for a Sabbatical. I wanted to travel and discuss with different coaches’ about how they run their programs. I also want to see how they make game plan decisions and how they practice for these. I want to ask them what they personally do to stay current. How do they find ways to challenge their ideas?
Luckily, Ken Murphy at Northern Arizona (NCAA Div 1) has offered to open his gym for me. He agreed to let me sit in on coaching meetings. Be around the team at practice and watch how his coaching interact. He has been incredibly accommodating.
I have also reached out to a few professional coaches in Europe who have agreed to meet with me. I have found that most volleyball coaches are very accommodating and love to talk volleyball. I know I enjoy it when I can sit around with coaches and banter ideas back and forth.
I love coaching and my career at Brandon University and hope to return a new and improved version of myself.
My goal is to share some of my thoughts and discoveries on this blog as I travel around in search of coaching best practices.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am learning so much from reading your blogs. They are challenging my thinking about my own coaching practices and challenging me to push my athletes harder because they can achieve it, perhaps I have been the one holding them back!
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