Multisport Discussion Again

Multisport Argument Again.

On our last bus trip we were discussing multisport athletes compared to ones that specialize at a younger age.  The comment that was made on the bus that resonated with me is resiliency.  An athlete that is a star player of a sport at a young age and plays only that sport is always treated different.  They really don’t have to learn to adjust to coming off the bench or struggling because they are not the best yet.  Then when the athlete hits a certain level and they are required to play in a backup role to learn more they don’t have the skills to cope with this new set of circumstances.

 In the book “The Art of Learning” by Josh Waitzkin he says “Successful people shoot for the stars, put their hearts on the line in every battle and ultimately discover that the lessons learned from the pursuit of excellence means much more than the immediate trophies and glory. In the long run painful losses may prove much more valuable than wins-those who are armed with a healthy attitude and are able to draw wisdom from every experience, “good” or “bad” are the ones who make it down the road”. 

Athletes that pick up new sports struggle for a while and really have to focus on improvement. It teaches them to be resilient and to continue to try to improve.  I was talking with a bunch of retired Canadian men’s volleyball players that live in Calgary.  After they retired a bunch took up playing hockey and basketball.  They had a basic understanding of the sports but really enjoy the challenge of the new sport and get a thrill out of learning again.

To only choose to do things we are already strong at really hide our ability to cope when we get to different situation.   

Start of a New Season.

It is that time again the start of a new CIS season.  This year is a special one for us. We have won the right to host our national championships. Winning this bid process guarantees us a berth in the Championships.

With this in mind we started our season in a different way.  We decided to rent some Cabin's at Lake of the Prairies and train out of Goose Lake High school in Roblin. This was to get away from the constant discussion about nationals and allow us to focus the process of the start of the year.

The purpose of the retreat was to get to know each other and to come out of the weekend with an idea of our team image.  We schedule a few different events to compete together and against each other. Plus to begin the process of developing trust.

We started the weekend with our new assistant coach Shane Smith introducing our 3 power words. Shane asked the athletes to go  discuss what characteristics they saw in different teams that have won championships. The team went around the circle explainjng what they saw in teams they watched or played on that won. Examples from many different pro sport teams and a few peraonal experience. Then Shane explained that we need three power words that we can point to and say that's who we are.  This would be something we would look at and discuss in depth how it affects us. They are also the 3 words we will hold each other to like a covenant. We left it with the team to think and discuss. We would come back to this before we leave but wanted them to take time to discuss the ideas with each other.

We like to start our year off always with a 2's tourney. Last year we did it on the beach. Thus year we went to Goose Lake High gym.  We play for 7 minutes and then change partners and opponents. It is a linear ranking tournament.

A other great excercise for us was created by Jarret and Mary Newton. They created an amazing race for the team through the town of Roblin. That was a great way for us to over come challenges. It lead directly into an opportunity to discuss a growth mindset after the event ended. They failed at the evebt, then had to problem solve as a group and attempt it again.  It was a perfect example for growth mindset. The mental image we are hoping will be prevalent on our team this year.

The start of the year is also important for our coaching staff. As a staff we look at and discuss every system we are wanting to implement.  We want to all be on the same page.  This is always a  fun discussion and a great opportunity to learn. We encourage everyone on staff to question and find flaws in what we have been doing.  It is a chance to suggest different ideas that the coach is passionate about. We also take time to  discuss every players strengths and skills we want to stress with them. The we discuss how we can mix them altogether.

You only get one chance to make an impression at the start of the year. When the whole team is on the same page it creates an incredible vibe. 

I Love Coaching!

Today I have been sitting in my apartment on this long weekend Sunday preparing for the upcoming week of Volleyball.  Today was a great day. It was filled with connections from all different parts of my coaching career.

Former athletes and coaching colleagues have texted to say hello. They contacted me with pictures and videos.  For no apparent reason other than to just to say they were telling stories or reminiscing about their time with me.  This is a real treat and one I love each time.

Also this past week I went back to coaching a provincial team. It has been 10 years since I coached at this level.  I have to admit I was a little nervous about coaching at this level again. There are lots of things to different skills and tactics to teach. No way we could fit them all in our two week schedule.

The players were on three different teams that competed in the National Team Challenge Cup. They all were taught a slightly type of game. We decided as a coaching group the first week together the focus should be more about systems and team identity.

We started on the beach nothing like some Queen of the Beach to get the players to begin playing with each other.  We also decided to focused on getting to know each other. I decided to use a lot of  ideas from the summers with Ken Briggs and Carrie Fedun, when we used to coach our provincial teams in Alberta. We had a lipsync competition which would have made Jimmy Fallon proud. We had a parody song competition. They had to use information they received from our "speed meetings".  We had a great pool recovery session.  The athletes are taking turns cooking for each other and have had some amazing meals. We watched a lot of FIVB volleyball clips.  This is how Canada blocks. This is how USA plays defence. Look how Brazil serve receives.  Then look how Manitoba does it. Ok Manitoba isn't FIVB but maybe one day some of them might be.

I have two great assistants this year again. Sara Grona and Lisa Whyte are taking a lot of outside prep off my shoulders so I can focus on Volleyball and building trust with the players.   Between the three of us we have created a lot of laughter and have found a real joy in working with this team.  After all if it isn't fun for us how can it be fun for them.  I am looking forward to week two. I can't wait to see how far we will get and how much more joyous times we can create. It is weeks like these where I am reminded how much I love coaching..

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.