Multisport Athlete Study

I have been reading on the internet a lot about multisport athletes. The slant on the web seems to be it is one or another.  Is it possible to focus on a sport year round and still be a multisport athlete? One article in particular really caught my attention.http://www.getsportiq.com/2015/06/the-era-and-myth-of-the-one-sport-prep-athlete/

In the beginning of the article the author poses the idea that the multisport athlete is dying. “The multi-sport high school athlete is gone; we all know this. It’s a thing of the past, like black and white TV. It’s the era of specialization, of kids “focusing” on one sport, often because they (or their parents) are chasing (often unrealistically) a scholarship, or because coaches have made it too difficult to do other sports.”

I talk to athletes all the time about the amount of pressure coming from coaches to have the athletes commit to playing one sport. It feels like the athletes have to choose at a younger age. Ericsson’s idea of the 10000 hours was a catalyst for parents and coaches to begin to specialize. My question is why can’t an athlete specialize in one sport but still play multi-sports? First let’s define specialization so we have a basis to look.   “Sport specialization is defined as students limiting participation to one sport which is practiced, trained for, and/or competed in on a year-round basis” (Hill, 1991, p. 186)

Secondly, I decided to find the answer through a quick questionnaire of the women players in our top volleyball league in Canada, in the Canadian Interuniversity Sports (CIS).. For the purpose of this blog we will assume that these athletes are a good cross section of our top volleyball players in the country. For those readers outside of Canada, the CIS is our equivalent to Division 1 university volleyball. We will assume that they are a good cross section of our top volleyball players in the country.

I sent the questionnaire out to the 38 teams in the CIS that offer scholarships in volleyball. I sent the email directly to their head coaches to see if they could help me. At this point in the process I have received email and statistics back from 12 of the institutions. That is a total of 180 athletes. The distribution of the teams that replied was a good cross-section of the whole country. This is the breakdown of the replying teams from the questionnaires; 5 of the teams participate in the Canada West Division, 3 of the teams were from the Ontario division, 2 from the Quebec division and 2 from the Atlantic conference.

 I asked the head coaches of the programs to answer these three questions.

1.       How many players on your team played more than 1 sport in their last two years of high school?

2.       What were the sports?

3.       How many played club volleyball?

I was very surprised by the result.

We found that 83% of the athletes played more than one sport in high school. This is also while 97% of the athletes played club volleyball

The following chart is a breakdown of the different sports the athletes played.

SPORT	PARTICIPANTS	PERCENTAGE OF ATHLETES PLAYING THE SPORT
Basketball	75	41.32%
Soccer	58	32.22
Track	41	22.77
Softball	25	13.88
Badminton	22	12.22
Ringette/Hockey	12	6.66
Beach Vball	15	8.33
Swimming	14	7.77
Lacrosse	6	3.33
Rugby	6	3.33
Ski/Snowbarding	8	4.44
Tennis	5	2.77
Ultimate Frisbee	4	2.22
Figure Skating	3	1.66
Cross Country	2	1.11

Water Polo	1	0.05
Field Hockey	1	0.05
Flag Football	1	0.05
Sailing	1	0.05
Gymnastics	3	1.66
Golf	1	0.05
Dance	1	0.05
Trampoline	1	0.05
Martial Arts	3	1.66

With looking at the high percentage of athletes that play club volleyball it is simple to say that if you want to play high level university volleyball you must play club volleyball.  I would believe that this would be a common thought out in the Canadian volleyball community. 

The second point I derive from this is that it is still very important to sample other sports in your high school career. In discussion with my athletes at Brandon University, most felt they made the decision to play volleyball at the elite level.  Volleyball was going to be their primary sport. They said that they identified themselves more as a volleyball player than any other sport.  They chose to play the other sports for a mental break from volleyball, for companionship with other friends who they have been playing with for years, and also because they enjoyed the other sports.

Using the previous definition we quoted from Hill the athletes from Brandon University specialized in volleyball.  Most of them played high school volleyball from September to November, then they moved onto club volleyball December to May, and finally provincial team in July.  They often overlapped their season of play so they could participate in the other sports.  The athletes stated they took their secondary sports seriously; they practiced hard and set high goals in those sports as well.  It was another chance to compete.

As a university coach, when out recruiting,  I ask what other sports they play as well.  I find that multisport athletes are able to pick up new movement patterns faster than single sport athletes, but I have no true data to prove this other than years of observation.  Multisport athletes have a strong grasp of the creation of space and the understanding of locating trends of oppositions.  They also tend to have more of a growth mindset as they try to become strong in multiple sports.

I believe that athletes in high school should be allowed to sample other sports during their school years, but their main focus needs to be on the sport that they want to excel in.

What do you do all day?

I’ve recently been asked a few times in the same day… What do you do all day? Here is my attempt to explain my off-season work as a coach.  

First a little background information. I am a teacher and coach at Brandon University. I teach in the Faculty of Education in the Department of Physical Education Studies. I have to teach 6 credits a year (basically one class a semester).

When I was teaching and coaching in Grande Prairie I was a full-time teacher plus an off-campus coach at the local college. I was basically doing two full-time jobs. When I was hired to teach one class per semester and spend the rest of my time coaching I thought I was dreaming. Now that I have been coaching this way for a decade, I wish I could just coach. I really enjoy my teaching assignment and it keeps me sane. The downside is when playoffs are rolling around and I have a two-hour education class to teach that day, it becomes a real struggle.

I complete a lot of my prep for the university courses in the spring. To stay current on trends in education, and especially with the integration of technology in the class, takes some research. 

I spend some time every day in April and May on recruiting. In Canada, we don’t have very big recruiting budgets or assistant coaches that devote a large part of their portfolio to recruiting.  At Brandon it largely falls on me.  I have a great group of friends in the volleyball community; they keep me informed on different players in their area.  I will often call or text these coaches in the evening to see if they have found a diamond in the rough or changed their mind on a player they previously thought was great.

Every spring I choose one skill to research and see if it has progressed. This year I am looking at serve reception. I like to watch some of the top passers to see what they do. I also try to track passing stats for some different plositions of the server along the end line . Does a serve from one area or another have more of an impact?

Another important task is figuring out our schedule for the upcoming season. This includes exhibition travel, weight-training days, sport psych meetings, team building days, and finally league travel. We have a travel agent that books our flights for both league and exhibition travel, which takes off some of the load. With exhibition matches comes the travel advances for meal money and booking of hotel rooms. I try to get the schedule out to the players in April for the following season. The athletes then have every day that we practice, lift weights, etc. That way it is easier for them to figure out schedules for school. The out of town athletes can look at potentially booking flights home, plus it gives the incoming freshman an idea of how much is involved in being a university athlete. We often find our freshman get homesick around the end of October. They just need a quick fix of being at home.

We also run a club. Lisa Whyte is the main coordinator of the club, but I oversee the technical part of the club. I try to watch each of the 12 teams practice a little, and be involved on their bench during a match. I tend to find myself gravitating a little more to the U16 and U18 teams as we start recruiting at this age. We are hoping to have a few of them on our university roster someday. I have sat on the bench for our U13 and U14’s and each time I do I am reminded of what fun volleyball is to everyone. This means most weekends are spent in a gym, either recruiting or helping with our club teams. We have 8 of our university athletes coaching club, and some great teachers from the area also coaching. They are all in it for the right reason, to help athletes fall in love with volleyball and create strong social skills. 

Lessons from the U-14's

This past weekend I had the privilege to help coach our  U-14 volleyball teams. This year we have 9 out of our 14 athletes volunteering at different levels of club in the city.  The athletes make it possible for other young players to succeed.  The young athlete really look up to the BU girls.  It is awesome experience for both sides.

Donata our CIS libero of the year, was officiating a match and the coach sent two players to be captains. After we found out it was because they both wanted to meet Donata. Then after the match the coached asked if Donata would come and be introduced to their team.  It was another reminder to our team that they have a huge impact on the volleyball in the area.

In helping coach at this level I forgot how much we have to teach the athletes and parents at this age.  For most it is their first real experience competition that they will be a part of for any extended period of time. But also the athletes teach us a lot too. As a coach I am constantly learning, here are some lessons I learned from the weekend that I can take back with me.

Lesson's I learned

1.  Assume nothing.  The coaches handed out the draw for the players to see, They played their first game at 5:30 on Friday.  If you don't state a specific time parents will arrive with their athlete 5 minutes before match forgetting about the warmup time.

2.  Educate the parents. We have a large coaches and parents meeting with everyone in the club at the start explaining our philosophy and how communication works. Let them know that at this level our priority is learning. As the season progresses the coaches are encouraged to communicate with the parents let them know the focus of this month. This past weekend we started to use substitutions. We explained before our match to the athletes that we will do some subbing explained reasons why coaches sub. To put a player in that can serve a specific function. Serving sub, blocking sub, or an attacking sub.  A coach might sub to slow the match down, instead of using a time out. Trying to change momentum of a strong server. Not always does a coach sub because a player is doing poorly. But the first time a substitution happens though they are shocked. WE had tears even though we told the player she is going right back in after the opposition player loses their serve.

We also convinced one of our teams to run a 6-3 system. The girls love it. When they are asked what position they play we encourage them to say I play volleyball.  This is an interesting system for the parents because it is so different than what they have seen before. They have a hard time keeping track of rotations.  We have our setter set out of the right front, then the right back.

3. The Wave and High 5's are a big part of the game.   I was sitting on the bench as we scored a point the players on the bench started doing the wave down the bench.  I also learned you should change your leg cross every 5 pts very important for focus on the bench.  The players who weren't in the match were having a ton of fun on the bench.  I wonder if some time we take this a little too serious at the university level.  I need to encourage our athletes to have fun while being a support, but still remained focused.

4.  Keep in mind these girls are just beginning in the sport. I like to compare it to hockey. Parents will go watch a U14 girls hockey game and it is structured and looks a lot closer to hockey we see on tv. But then we remind them that this is their daughters second year playing volleyball. We encourage them to think back to watching a second year athlete playing hockey what did that look like.  The growth from the first tournament to the last at this level is incredible. As a coach we needed to keep reminding them where their base position was.  the ball is a magnate and they all get drawn towards it.

5. The athletes are more worried about fitting in than having success on the court.  Humour is an incredible release of tension for them.  It was interesting when I said sometimes you can do everything right and the other team just scores.  Teaching the athletes to be great teammates is such an important role for the coach.

The Reserves in Sport

At the University Level in Canada our substitution rules make it hard to play lots of players.  Unlike sports like hockey or basketball when most people on a team will get a few minutes here or there.  The possibility for some of the players will be it can be months before they get into a match.

I have found that in dealing with the substitutes we really need to be specific on roles and understandings. They are often the unsung heroes of the team. They play such an important role in helping prep for our weekend matches.  We ask our athletes to hit certain directions or to play like we expect the opposition to play.  We want them to push our starting group hard.

Early in the week we will use mixed squads with some reserves and starters on the same side.  We will want them to work together. It is also a great chance for our older players to help mentor the younger ones.  Plus when they make it on the court it is a comfortable feeling.

As the week progresses we start to do more Starters vs the Reserves.  I try hard to coach the reserves as much as I can throughout this period and ask our assistant coaches to help run and keep the “A” group on task and following game plans.  I can try to teach and show value to this group.

It is also important to talk with the reserve players to keep patting them on the back for their efforts.  I find it is the conversations in the hall way that have a greater effect than the ones on court or in the office.  The office feels so formal. 

We like to have certain types of subs.  We have the typical serving defensive specialist. Her job is just that to make serves and to play points.  We will often have her randomly serve in a practice often out of turn to what she is used too.  In theory if we were to truly train her for this role she would just play pepper every 8 to 10 minutes for a minute.  Then go in and serve.  But we try to mimic this by just having her serve randomly out of the norm. this way she still gets to play a lot in practice but still has the pressure of a random serving experience.

The second sub is our energy sub. She is to go in and try to turn our spirits around. She is to over celebrate everything. She will often sprint to hug players after great rallies and plays.  Just change the feel in the gym.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxVuySQT-eY

The bench celebrator is another role.  This person makes being on the bench or warmup area fun. Celebrate the teams success, help with keeping track of tactical things. I have attached a video of Robert Sacre from Lakers and his energy role.

Being the Role Model.

Playing university sports can sometimes be a difficult venture.  As athletes they are constantly on display.  Imagine for a moment every Friday and Saturday everything you do that week is judge on one outcome.  Then put that evaluation on TV, radio and in the paper. It can be a challenging.

We also ask our athletes to be role models for young up and coming volleyball players.  After our matches the athletes will always take time to mingle with the young girls that come to our match.  It is a great reminder of the situation they are in.  Often we get so involved with living our daily lives that we forget how much of a hero they have become to the younger girls in Manitoba.

When we have our U15 club tournament in March I remind the first year athletes to be nice, one or two of these players will be their teammates when they are in their fifth year.  The interaction they have with them can have an affect later.

This past weekend we had split with Thomson Rivers University out of Kamloops.  They are a team we traditionally beat.  But a good recruiting year and a change in coaching staff have the Wolf Pack upsetting teams all first semester.  We won in 3 on Friday and felt good about our chance on Saturday.  But found ourselves chasing all the time.  The last couple of weeks we have found ways to overcome this and push to a 5 set victory.  But this Saturday we just couldn’t. We lost in straight sets.  As you can imagine we were very upset as a group. This was not what we had planned.

We had some teams come to watch our Saturday match.  During the match one of the young girls found out one of her Grandparents had passed away and had to leave.  Her teammates had bought shirts.  They came down after the match and explained to one of the players what had happened.  The team then brought the shirt over and had all the players signed it for the girl.  The Bobcats were extremely disappointed in our play that night, but still took time to engage with the young group. They went out of their way to make sure the player felt ok.

 I didn’t know this had gone on.  When our coaching group finally arrived in the team room the signing of the shirt was finished.  We finished our debriefing and then left as usual.  It wasn’t until I received a thank you email from the coach that I discovered what the team did.

This is the kind of role models we always hope our teams will be.  After all volleyball can seem all encompassing when our season is on, but it is such a small part of whom we really are.  I can say today I am really proud to be a Bobcat.  It is easy to be a good person when your happy and winning it takes real character to put someone else first after a difficult loss.

Power of positivity.

If you find spelling or grammar errors, they are of my own doing. I am writing this at home after finishing a good book. Called the Energy Bus. 

We are now six matches into our season.  We presently sit 5 and 1. We are also ranked 3rd in Canada.  You would think from looking at this that everything is going fine.

We have gone to 5 in every match so far this year. We have shown strong resilience during this steak.  We are finding a different ways to win each time.  The first come from behind victory was against U of C. We were down 2 sets to 0 when we decided to make a change. We subbed two players in.  Both Nikala Majewski and Courtney Roberts entered the match and brought a lot of energy which helped bring the match back. This was both their first times playing in Brandon and in front of our crowd.

The next day we were up 2 sets to 1 and let the fourth slide away. Our focus became about the outcome instead of the moment.  We talk about staying in the moment all the time but the score can be a big distraction. This is something we need to get better at.

I found myself getting frustrated with the lack of success we were having.  At one point I sat down and my body language was really demonstrating my frustration.  My Assistant Coach Teagan Hunter snapped me out of this.  She made a couple of suggestion of moves we should make and helped bring me back into the present. We and I recovered our focus and won in the fifth. One would think this would be a strong lesson for me, but it took a couple more days before I truly got it.
On Monday we were all tired. Our level of practice was starting to deteriorate. I found myself starting to yell and discipline to try to get the level back up. But realistically the effort didn’t fall. We were just really fatigued. We jumped a lot on Monday as we identified blocking as one of our major issues to work on.
Tuesdays practice was even worse.  It was as if a zombie apocalypse had taken over our team.  I again ended practice with a bit of a scolding.  Two of our leadership team and a fifth were sitting around and stretching after practice.  I decided to address this issue with them.  After I said my piece about leading by example they spoke.  I was getting really negative.  They understood that they need to be held to a standard, but when they also like to know when they are playing well.

This struck a nerve with me.  I pride myself for being positive. I try to celebrate when things go well.  I needed to find a way to get back to that.
Wednesday morning I read an article about an NCAA Football team and their Energy Bus.  I found out they were bases a philosophy on a book the group read. I immediately bought the book to read.  It was exactly what I needed.
 Two quotes right near the front hit home for me.
1. "We are Winners not Whiners".  We were 3 and 1. The team was extremely tired but no one was complaining but me. I was disappointed at our level. But when I talked with our leadership team I remembered all the extra going on for them.  We talked on Thursday about our goals again. Discussed our steps in how we were going to achieving them. We left for Edmonton on a very positive note.
2.  "Positive energy positive people create positive results". It is easy to sit back and find everything that is going wrong but our mindset is something we can control. We can choose to look at each challenge as a way to move us closer to our goal.  Each time a team finds and exploits our weakness it gives us a chance to look at this part of our game and move forward.
We have a strong positive vibe within our team. You can really feel our confidence grow with each new challenge we overcome together. It is up to me the Driver of this Bus to keep the positivity going.  That doesn't mean just throw out blank “way to go” statements.  It means teaching athletes to accept challenges. To communicate making sure they understand why things are happening.  As a coaching group we encourage our team to problem solve. We ask them to find solutions to problems that the opposition throws at us.  We want them to take risks. WE need to encourage risks.
I recommend the book to all coaches.  There are so many more things that we take for granted that it reminded me of.

All around athletes

We had a decent preseason. We were 7 wins and 3 losses in our two tournaments. The preseason is used by our team to evaluate players and to train  for different situations.  One situation we weren't actually ready for happened.  The question was  what do you do when you run out of setters?  In our last 3 matches we lost a setter to injury. Already lost one to academics and have a transfer not eligible.

When Mary (setter) went down.  We went immediately to our libs (Donata) to finish the match.  Donates did a decent job but we missed her stabilizing presence on passing and defence. Then we decided to try plan B. This is a 6-2 using the left sides as setters.

When I get the opportunity to present at coaching clinics I always recommend the 6-2 but using the leftsides as setters. They would play in back right when setting but hit leftside when in the front row.

I remembered that Nikki was a setter in her high school in grade 12. She had a sore shoulder so the coach used her in a setting situation.  That kept her playing.  Vaovai the other left side was setting in a spilt court drill earlier in the week and did OK. We talked to both of them and they agreed to try it.

 The first set both Nikki and Vai tried was a 51 or a quick middle. They said it was one thing they always wanted to try.  We lost the first match in 3 but was close the first 2 sets.  23-25 and 22-25. The third or passing broke down and the two setters had to run all over the court.

The next match against U of W we played with more confidence and understood the system We ended up winning. We played Gill at libero ams used Donata in a swing sub situation.

We want all around players.  We want them to be skilled enough that they would be confident to try this.  That is why early in  our week of practice we will use two courts.We will need the attackers to act as setters or out side players to block in the middle.  This allows us to train a specific part of the game and makes everyone to be a little more refined in their over all skill.

6-2 leftsides or 6-2 middles. Give it a try.