National Team

I have accepted a short position with our National A team.  I have an incredible opportunity to work with Lupo and the team for three weeks then head to the PanAm Cup in Mexico City. I am hoping to blog more often trying to keep a journal of this experience. 

The team is coming off qualifying for the world championships in Italy. There is a super positive vibe with the group.  

Our first responsibility is to help select a B group of athletes to help train with the A squad. We had 47 athletes tryout for 8 spots. This was going to be a difficult selection process as a lot of athletes were close in levels. There were 8 NCAA athletes, 5 CCAA athletes, and 34 CIS athletes. In this group there were 9 Liberios, 17 outsides, 8 setters, 13 middles.  This includes 4 A team players who had commitments before the world qualifiers. 

The first session is always testing. http://bit.ly/L0jxtD. Here is a link for Volleyball Canada testing protocol. They also added some basic fitness levels that athletes can use as test for themselves. The first test was taken from the Canadian Military. The athletes are required to do 30 military push-ups in 2 minutes. The second test was taken from Bobsled and skeleton national team.  There is a tremendous amount of crossover between sprinting and jump training.  The athletes were asked to complete 200 skipping double unders in 5 minutes. This test always shows quick improvement as there is technique that improves fast.  The last test was 75 second side planks. If the hip dipped twice they were eliminated.

The rest of the sessions were game like.  Either a type of wash or just straight games. Lupo wanted us to stat everything. I once heard the expression you can't trust your eyes. I once saw a rabbit been pulled out of a hat, not sure how it got into a hat.  The stats help show what really happens.  I know I personally see players that jump high and hit a hard ball. That sticks in my mind, when you see the whole story sometimes we're surprised.

The first meeting we had as a coaching group, we were asked to select our top 10 athletes regardless of position. After we submitted our list then we were then given the stats to compare with. That was an eye opener for a lot of us.  After we got a group of maybes Lupo and Scott designed drills that focused on the outside attackers hitting against a trouble block.  We wanted to isolate this group and get a feel of what each brings.  Over the years of working with the national team one of the main topics that comes up is that we needed to hit the ball harder. That is one of the reasons VC started to implement the radar gun on attacking.  I found the athletes who hit the ball harder on the gun also had more success in the out of system drill.

In the end Lupo and Scott take our suggestions look at their needs and select the group. It is a really positive experience and hearing the groups discussion is always great professional development. 

Why we should encourage outside interests.

During our individual year end meetings we  always discuss life balance with our team.  We asked about the outside interest they have. We ask about friends they have met that aren’t involved in the university athletics.

I recently read an article out of Australia  by Nathan Price, Nadine Morrison and Sharyn Arnold titled Life out of the Limelight. Understanding the Non-sporting Pursuits of Elite Athletes. It made me think about how we train and teach life balance.  There is a perception that the athletes have to be totally committed and passionate to have success in their sport.  In this article they suggested the opposite.

I personally think during their sporting careers most athletes see themselves in relationship to the success they have on the court.  If I am successful on the court, then I am a success as a person. They have an extremely high sense of identity from sport. At BU we are trying really had to have the athletes understand that being an athlete is just one of the roles that they play in their lives.  The characteristics that they demonstrate in training and playing can help describe them but are not all of who they are.   Cresswell and Eklund’s (2006) study has shown that players not engaged in something meaningful outside sport were less likely to experience instances of positive accomplishment and self-esteem from sources other than sport; which they argued can attribute to player burnout. Price and his colleagues from the paper I read found the vast majority (90%) also stated that these activities helped to lengthen their sporting career.  In the study they found that the athletes felt they gained a better sense of team work and patience as they had to interact with different personality types than those typically found in sport.

If a player or a coach only has friends within the team when things don’t go well they feel very lost. By having other interests outside sport this can help them focus on other success when things aren’t going well within the sport. It will often help transition into a different life when the sporting ends.  Many athletes after they finish their 5 years of eligibility are lost for awhile as they try to figure out how to fill their time. We try real hard to help the athletes with this transition. This year we actually had some of our athletes goal set meeting people in their class that aren’t involved in BU athletics.  Not just someone to borrow notes off of, but to truely invest some time into them and learn about their lives.  In our year end meetings they have found that having this new group of friends has allowed them a break from the intensity of being around the team.  The athletes on our team truly like each other and have fun together.  They believe in the same things and have the same experiences so it is easy to want to hang around each other, but it is nice to get away and talk about other things.

This semester two of our athletes decided to take a pottery course.  This was a real challenge for them, as they are typically very deft with their hands. In the pottery class they had to spend many extra hours struggling to get the project completed.  But when it was finished it seemed they were proud that they accomplished it.

It is my hope that when the athletes finish at BU they leave feeling fulfilled whether they set new records or just played a role. We hope that they find lifelong friends, are in love with sport and are constant learners.

Why Year Plan?

While I am currently waiting for our playoff opponent's video to download I am getting pressured to write another post.

This past weekend I was in Calgary for our last league matches.  I had the opportunity to go and watch an Alberta Volleyball Association Premier Event.  It was an U-17 and U-18 combined event.  During this time I was able to talk with a few coaches and discuss scheduling and planning.

For me the year plan is a crucial part of the planning process.  It helps guide you through your season, it helps us as coaches develop a well rounded volleyball player. If you take the NCCP coaching classes they teach you in detail how to year plan very well.  In this blog I am not going to do this I will be very generic and talk more about planning for tournaments within the year.

I like to look at the end of the season and work my way back to the beginning. When are the National Championships? When do we have to be performing at our best and have our roles in place to be successful? What style of systems are we going to need to be successful at this level? What level of skill is necessary for us? What is the team culture will we need to be successful?

Once I have answered those questions with myself and our coaching staff we will look at the overall schedule.  We will plot in our tournaments and practices.  Then we will decide at what level we want to see our team play at each tournament. Not necessarily wins and losses but more consistency in systems and skills and showing some understanding of the game. (Side note: Kevin Neufeld a successful high school and club coach here in Brandon will often run mock tournaments with his team.  Rather than enter a tournament he will practice and play intrasquad matches matching a tournament schedule.  An example of the day would be; play/practice for an hour, 15 minute break, play for another hour, two hour break, play for an hour, hour off, play for an hour.  He will invite the parents to come for the final match to cheer the team on. This is so all 12 of his players are getting contacts rather than six at a time.  He can focus everyone on the same task at hand).

I was talking with a parent  on Saturday and it was the team’s first tournament and her daughter had yet to get into a match.  Even though this was the team’s third match. The parent was not upset her daughter was U-17 playing on a U-18 team, she expected it.  I was shocked; the first tournament of the year in my mind is used to play everyone.  To make sure all the players understand the basic systems.  I recommend to our club coaches that they choose a different system each a day and really focus on this.  The feedback the athletes receive then is relevant to the game but specifically to a system. An example would be block and defense responsibilities, the feedback we give during the match and during the timeouts are all related to positioning on a certain set, spacing between athletes and cues they should be looking for. 

Often in the first couple of tournaments there are so many things coaches can comment on that they will try to fix everything and the players get overloaded with information.  I also recommend to our club coaches to hand out who’s going to start which matches ahead of time the first tournament.  That forces our coaches to play the different players.  I know when we are in pre-season I get competitive and want to win, but because I have laid out who plays a head of time I am forced to stick with the plan.  I believe in the long run this helps.  

I had a chance to talk with a group of coaches later to discuss what I saw.  There are a lot of pressures on the coaches to succeed. Many provinces have gone to points systems and use the points to then power pool the remaining tournaments.  If teams don't get into tier 1 after the first tournament they might not make it back into that tier for 2 more tournaments.  Also with club volleyball and recruiting of athletes being so competitive that they are scared they will lose their top athletes to other clubs the following year if they end up in division 2 even for 1 tournament. 

These are all valid reasons I understand. I believe/hope if the philosophy is laid out in the parent meeting and explained properly to the team everyone will buy in to this. I also still think it doesn't have to be a totally different line up each set, maybe one or two players can come on the floor.  You still can sub and put players into different situations. That will make them successful.  No athlete wants to be directly responsible for a loss. A discussion about why coaches substitute is also important with athletes and parents.  Not always is a sub because someone is playing bad.  

As the season progresses coaches then start to develop roles within the team. It is important for athletes to know that they will have an opportunity to contribute, whether it as a serving sub, a blocking sub, or even an energy player.  The way our National Championships are set up it is really hard to have one group of athletes play every match and still be able to perform at the end.  A team is going to need to use everyone at some point. If this is planned for from the start it is easier to make it happen.

Feel Bad First Theory.

First, I need to discuss our weekend.  It was another first for the program.  We went into the UBC T-Birds War Memorial Gymnasium and finally won.  They haven’t lost there since 2010 season.  This win was a total team effort and was a great snapshot of how the team is developing this season.

We lost the first set as they came out firing on all cylinders.  We fell down 7-1 but manage to fight back to tie at 18 before the T-Birds kicked in another gear to win.  The second set we started to find our range with our serving game and put pressure on them.  Winning the second set was a great feeling on the bench.  Our 3^rd set has been difficult for us all season.  Something happens between the break. Friday was no different.  We made every kind of error we could. At 16-6 technical timeout we subbed in some of our younger players, hoping they would battle and try to get some energy back in to our group.  Down 21-10 things changed.  Our rising star rookie Regan Dahl got a stuff block. Everyone was really excited for Regan it was her first in her CIS Career.  She has been primarily used as a serving defensive sub this year. 

Then Shanlee Mclennan went back to the serving line and put  pressure on them.  She served 9 serves in a row and got us tied up at 22. The team was rolling and you could see the stress on the T-Birds.  This doesn’t happen to them very often.  It was as if they relaxed just a bit when the subs went in.  Not expecting them to battle as hard as we did. We won that set 25-23.  It was an amazing comeback that showed the resiliency of this group of athletes.

The fourth set we fell down again, but this time we had lots of confidence in our serving and defensive game. We double subbed to try and get our middles open more and they took off.  Lexi and Meaghan were blocking everything.  With the final point coming on a Meaghan Robertson stuff block to win 26-24.

Saturday was a different match.  I believe we came to play a volleyball game and UBC came to prove a point.   A point they did prove.  They controlled every aspect of this match.  We struggled from the serving line and never gave our self a chance to gain any momentum.  The match was filled with long rallies and good volleyball. We would win one of these long rallies and then go back and serve the ball into the net. Totally crashing all the effort we put in to the point before.

There was some shining lights in this match though.  Rookie Vaovai Aiono was .348 efficiency at leftside. This was the best she has played and to do it against the top team was awesome.  Lexi Loewen in the middle also scored over .350.  We know if we can get the rest of the team on the same page we do have a fighting chance against them the next time we play.

With our the amount of travel we have done in the last couple of weeks, it always allows me time to read.  One of my favourite blogs is the Talent Code by Daniel Coyle.  This week he discusses the “Feel Bad First Approach” of the Green Berets.  Here is a sample but the whole article can be read here. http://thetalentcode.com

Teams spend weeks training for a mission (most of which happen at night). On the day of the mission they follow a two-part routine.

First, they spend the entire morning going over every possible mistake or disaster that could happen during the mission. Every possible screw-up is mercilessly examined, and linked to an appropriate response: if the helicopter crash-lands, we’ll do X. If we are dropped off at the wrong spot, we’ll do Y. If we are outnumbered, we’ll do Z.

After some hours of doing this, the team takes a break and has lunch together. They socialize, relax, and maybe take a nap.

Then they spend the afternoon in phase two, talking about everything going exactly right. They review each move, visualizing each step, and vividly imagine it going 100 percent perfectly.

You might call this Balanced-Positive Approach: equally split between negative and positive, and ending on the positive. Notice the complete wall of separation between the two phases. They don’t toggle back and forth between positive and negative. The two phases are kept as separate as night and day: first comes all negative, then all positive.

I find that most coaches I talk too are engaged in this approach, we are always looking for plan B,C,D,E.  Most matches I start out hoping we will win one set.  If we win one set then we can win 2.  If you win 2 then 3 only seems natural. But when I address the team it is from a position of confidence.  We spend a lot of time making sure the team is prepared so that they feel this confidence and when things do go wrong they have the confidence to try something different to solve the problem.

After covering all the possible things that can go wrong we are then prepared as a coaching staff to make adjustments that will bring confidence to our group.  So we go from bad to great. Just like we did in the 3^rd set last Friday.

Recruiting

A large part of the season for most coaches is made up of recruiting.  For myself and our BU program recruiting never really stops. When we finally get our recruits finalized for the next season we have to turn our thoughts on to the next set of grad classes. Since  last January most of our coaching staffs attention is on the 2014 grads and beginning to identify the 2015 class.

In discussion with some of my NCAA colleagues I found that our recruiting process as a Canadian University is very different.  For most of Canadian schools, finding potential players is often through word of mouth and by building of a reliable net work of coaches and friends. We can contrast that to most NCAA programs who have one or 2 assistant coaches where that is a large portion of their workload.

 I rely heavily on other coaches. My first set of eyes are often coaches from Brandon High Schools, Derek Richels and Kevin Neufeld.  Derek has been an assistant coach with us since the beginning of the program and is highly respected in Manitoba. Kevin has been an assistant coach but now primarily acts as a consultant for us. Kevin is a very successful high school and club coach in Brandon. Derek runs one of the top club team in western Manitoba. They often see the athletes for the first time and create our first evaluations.

We have many other friends of the program who will take time to recommend a player or will answer questions about players they know. WE use this network a lot in other provinces where it is harder to watch the athletes in person.  A lot of the recruiting time is talking with these coaching and to start developing a data base of who fits our needs.  Once we get a list of potential athletes we take time to  narrow it down to the type of athlete that will fit into our program and school.

At Brandon University we look for a specific type of player.  We want fast dynamic athletes.  Size of the athlete is not as important to us as the height at which they play the game.  All of our middles and most of our outsides were over 9'9" or 298-300cm on their measured spike approach. The athletes on our team that don't jump that high have special skills, they are very strong in ball control, and/ or hit a heavy ball.  When we are narrowing down our data base for recruiting grade 11 we first look for speed, then spike touch.  It is common for athletes to put 2-3 inches on their spike in their first two years.  Usually the growth happens because of  the athletes commitment to fitness.  

Once we have determined they are athletic enough to play at a Canada West level we then turn to the process of finding out what kind of person they are. We all want strong character players and athletes that will get along with the team. We will discuss the potential athletes with their coaches, opposition coaches, teacher and other parents of athletes on the team. Of course we are in discussions directly with the player and her parents

At the beginning of the recruiting process we are involved a lot with the parents. But I feel the sooner we can work directly with the athlete the better.  This allows us to learn more about the personality of the recruit at a faster pace. After the athlete joins the program our interactions with the parents will drop off to quick visits in gyms or restaurants.  We rely on the athletes to keep their parents informed on what is happening with in the team.  When a parent speaks for the athlete a lot during the recruiting process it often slows down the process more than it helps it. We really don't get a feel for the athlete's personality. I personally believe the athlete should make the decision (with the parents input) of where they feel they fit the best.  I know the parent will do their jobs and will make sure the athlete is safe and going into a good situation.

At BU we hope the parent feel as much a  part of our program as the athlete does.

Every coach will talk to many different players in a certain position.  We have our dream list of who we want but we also have back up plans.  Coaches understand that not all athletes will end up at your school.  WE have to talk to many athletes.  When an athlete decides to join our school we make a big deal out of it.  Luckily for us we have very supportive media.  It is big news in Brandon when we sign a recruit. It will be in the paper and on the radio.

So far this year we have signed 3 prominent players from Manitoba.  Nikki Majewski an outside hitter from Winnipeg, Sara Barker another middle from Winnipeg and Jamie Campbell a libero from Brandon.

The International Trip

I am waiting at the Vancouver Airport. We have been delayed for 17 hrs because of a cancellation of our flight. I am getting heckled by Shayne White from Ontario to post a new blog.

We just returned from a tournament in Barbados over the New Year.  We try to do a warm trip every three or four years.  This particular trip started two years ago at the National Team training camp. Olivier Trudel from University of Montreal was explaining his experience in Barbados the Winter break. We decided then we would join them.

We find that there are many benefits to the international trip. The first benefit is that it creates an "us against the world" mentality.  When we travel within Canada most of the time the athletes will have family and friends that will come and watch. But on a trip to Barbados it is just our team. We had 8 days to really connect.  I always enjoy watching the different groups head out together. When I was first starting out in coaching I would plan every waking minute for the athletes, but now I leave a lot of free time.  I find that this is the time when true bonding takes place. This is because people are choosing to do things together  A perfect example was Donata and Regan taking surfing lessons together. They both had fun and really grew to know each other as they struggled and succeeded together.

Second benefit is that we can work on different volleyball situations without the pressure of league involved. We can play different people in different positions or use different subbing combinations.  This tournament was set up perfectly for us. We would practice in the morning have lots of time for beach and exploring. Then play a match at night.

The third benefit is learning to adapt to different situations.  We are pretty spoilt with are ability to maintain routines. But on this trip a bus driver showed up 40 minutes late, humidity was incredibly high and we went through more practice clothing than we thought.  There was a party on the deck of the hotel and we just had to roll with it.

We also learned a lot about responsibility and respecting the game of volleyball. The idea of managing their time in the sun, getting enough food, making sure each other is in a safe situation.

This was the best team trip I have taken. I have been on a lot of great ones in the last 20 years. Even though we finished 3rd the benefits heading into our second semester is tremendous. This is going to be a grosz finish coming up.

Where did the confidence go?

We have just finished our first semester of our season. Presently we sit 3rd in Canada West at a 9-3 record.  This is one of the best records we have had at this point in a long time.  We had reached as high as #2 ranked team in Canada.

This year’s version of the Lady Cats is one full of passion and commitment; it is fun to go to work every day.  The athletes and coaches are all working at pushing themselves to new levels of skill and knowledge. What more can a coach ask for.

In our last match of the first semester we played an extremely scrappy team in U of Sask Huskies.  They are an unranked team that really makes you earn ever point.  Friday night we were able to sneak out with a 4 set victory and felt pretty good about how we played.  On Saturday for some reason things changed.  The Huskies came out serving and defending extremely well.  The match felt as if we were on our heels all night.  This year, the team has been able to overcome adversity and come from behind to win matches like this. Instead of making the big confident plays we found ourselves making  lots uncharacteristic unforced errors the more the match progressed. A good example of this was the second set we were up 24-19 and couldn't side out. Losing the set 26-24. This is the first time all year we haven't been able to close out a set we were up. We ended up 2 sets to 1 and then confidence disappeared again. In discussions with our players they felt that their routine was good after they committed an error, but struggled to regain focus after their teammates made a couple errors in a row.

After the match during our team debriefs one of the athletes stated "it felt like we were always chasing the ball, when we played the other matches we were ahead of the game." That is some great insight. We constantly talk about remaining in the moment.  When an athlete or a group of athlete are fixated on the last error, the last play they find themselves reacting to the next.  It is human nature to question and to focus on the error but in this moment it helps no one.

The question now was after the loss do we get right back in the gym and continue to work or do we take the couple days offs we traditionally take at this time of year. Both had valid reasons.  If we get back in the gym we have a chance to show our commitment to each other.  We have a chance to talk directly about the mental side of the game and create situations where they need to be aware of the next play.  In contrast this is a crazy time and with no bye weekends the team has been going for 10 weekends straight, they have major final projects, final exams and look tired. We need to build back up our confidence.

Building confidence in a player is difficult. Wayne Goldsmith, the author of Coaching Brain Blog, states that Confidence = Self Belief X Evidence. The whole blog can be read here http://www.sportscoachingbrain.com/coaching-self-confidence/

Self belief we can't control, but evidence we can. Wayne Goldsmith says of course evidence occurs when you're winning.  It is easy to see and understand that. But when winning doesn't occurs evidence must be found. Evidence is what the athlete does on a daily basis. What are the situations that athletes are put in? What are the standards the athletes are held too?  We have been discussing as a team how we feel our fitness will come into play late in the second semester and into the playoffs.  Instead of practicing on Monday and Tuesday we decided to have team workouts weights or circuit training.  This way the athletes can see each others commitment directly in this situation.  They can see how hard each of them tries in the circuit. If they see a player giving their all it is hard to go half speed beside her.  This is a great way to build back our belief in each other’s commitment.

Athletes can also contribute to the evidence by helping each other out. They need to be engaged in each other’s success. This is easy when things are going well. It is when things are difficult that the positive words and pats on the back are most in need.  This is something we have to keep working at and pointing out every day.