January 11, 2006

• Coaching Debut

  Last weekend I made my head coaching debut with my Minnesota Select 16-3's team.  We have practiced for the last six weeks and last Saturday morning my ladies (9 16 year olds and 1 15 year old) trotted out onto the court and proceeded to win all three matches, and did not lose a game.  So, we are 3-0 - way to go ladies! 

  
  

  I could hardly sleep the night before our first matches.  I have not been a head coach for volleyball in over 10 years and I almost forgot what it was like to watch a team, encourage a team, admonish laziness, cheer on success, etc - it was great.  It was exhilarating, and even more fun because we won.  We played well enough that they will probably move us up to a tougher division, a division where we will probably not go 3-0, but we will cross that  bridge when we come to it.  
  
  For now, we are 3-0 and the ladies are doing what we are having them do.  It is so great when you see things you drill in practice work on the court.  Our team is one where we are not going to overpower many opponents, but we can win by serving well and hustling, and playing killer defense.  So many times in volleyball I see teams working on elaborate offenses, hitting patterns, swing blocking, etc - but they can't pass the ball.  Our team, and my personal coaching style, is that you must pass the ball without fail every time before you can run an offense.  Call me simplistic - but it works.  You can always get more sophisticated, but it is much harder to start off with a super hard fast offense, and then realize you can't play to that level.  You can only play to what your personel will let you play to.  We learned that this year at St. Kates, where I am an assistant coach. 

  • 9:32 am
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