Sub-Varsity
Volleyball
Teaching Character
And Some
“5 Things” Lists
Jason Langston
Kingwood High School
Materials and outline available at
Volleyballnotes.wordpress.com
Five Stipulations for Today’s Talk…
1.
I’m no expert…
2.
Creating good people is more important than creating
good players.
3.
The sport itself does not create character. It needs our
help.
4.
Student-athletes must be valued as whole people, not
cogs in the machine.
5.
The journey is more important than the destination.
For Clinic Outline and Materials, visit
volleyballnotes.wordpress.com
Today’s Talk
Character and Motivation in Sports
2. CLIMB: What it is and why it works
3. “5 Things” Lists
For Better Coaching
For Skill Improvement
1.
Online at volleyballnotes.wordpress.com
What is Character?
The big picture values that transcend sport.
 Cooperation
 Leadership
 Courage
 Empathy
 Loyalty
 Ethics
 Self-discipline
 Moral
 Respect
 Compassion
 Sportsmanship
 Integrity
Reasoning
 Critical Thinking
 Self Esteem
 Perseverance
 Honesty
Fullinwider, Robert K. Sports, Youth and Character: A Critical Survey. Institute for Philosophy & Public Policy
University of Maryland. CIRCLE. 2006. pg 5,6.
Character and Motivation
Similar concepts that are inseparable from
coaching volleyball… (or should be)
 Character
is the moral and ethical pool a
person has to draw from.
 Motivation
is what is drawn from the
“character pool” as a reason for action.
Example:
Two athletes similar in ability and position



Both work very hard.
Athlete A works hard to get ahead.
Athlete B works hard so her team can be
successful.
 So
what? They both work hard… isn’t that
what we want???
 What
if neither plays much? What now?
 Which one makes a better leader?
Levels of Motivation
1.
2.
3.
4.



Avoidance of Painindividual focus
Selfish Desireindividual focus
End Result- possibly
team oriented
Playing for Othersteam oriented
1.
2.
3.
4.
Plays harder to avoid
consequences.
Plays harder to
start/get noticed.
Plays harder to win
championship
Plays harder so team
achieves success.
Level 2 never truly disappears, and that’s ok.
Goal is to get them out of Level 1 as fast as possible.
Level 4 is ultimate realization of becoming “more than the
sum of your parts”.
Levels of Motivation…
What do I do with that?

Give them opportunities to show it.



Point it out:



We are an external force, leadership happens when we
make room for it.
“If Coach is loud, everything’s good. When he gets quiet
we know we’re in trouble.”
“Wow, look how fast you finished that drill after I said
you’d have to…”
“Sweet! Today I didn’t have to tell you to…”
Make them understand the team won’t become what
it could be until they understand and apply it.
CLIMB
CLIMB: Character Leadership
Initiative Balance and Maturity

What it is


Sport Specific
Flexible
Low Maintenance

(A work in progress, but it’s free)

Why it Works


Guided Discovery/Student
Led
Authentic experience
unique to each team.
CLIMB
Growing Extremes In Today’s Athletes
Struggling
Self-Image
“I can’t”
Entitled Athlete
“I don’t need to”
The
Balanced
Athlete
“We Will”
CLIMB
Entitlement Sucks.

Entitlement: (n.) The belief you deserve to be
given something without earning it.
See also: McCullough’s “You’re Not Special” commencement
speech on YouTube.

CLIMB my attempt to battle this growing
epidemic by:



Fostering Team Identity
Building Confidence and Self-Worth
Battling Arrogance
CLIMB
How it Works
You Model (initially and periodically)
First 2 weeks
1.
2.
3.
CLIMB Inventory: get them thinking.
Process-Oriented Goal Setting
Mental Toughness
When Ready:
1.
2.
Team Roles
Back Row Defender’s Checklist
CLIMB
Rest of Season
They Take Over.
Lesson Structure (pg10)
Team Lesson Notes (pg14)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Introduce: Discuss chosen category and
subset (pg12)
Media Example: Show video, read article,
tell a story.
Critical Thinking Application: Discuss how
the story applies.
Team Examples: Highlight a teammate
CLIMB
Benefits and Results
 Every
kid develops leadership.
 Every
player recognizes their value.
 Every
lesson improves team bonds.
 Every
lesson becomes proof that the
person is more important than the player.
5 Things
“5 Things Lists”
For Better Coaching
volleyballnotes.wordpress.com
5 Things
Five Suggestions for Sub-Varsity
Coaches
1.
Seek Feedback/Tell me three things:
2.
Learn to communicate; Good Way vs. Bad Way
3.
Be loyal to the kids in all things.
4.
In practice… Talk less?
5.
Stop electing/choosing captains.
5 Things
Five Principles for Practice
Type every practice, plan ahead.
1. Fewer drills are better than lots of drills and
Simple drills are better than complicated drills.
2. Every practice has a focus and flow.
3. Game-like and competitive.
4. Serve more.
5. Design drills that teach your team to stay in
system and take the other out of theirs.
5 Things
5 Questions for Practice Planning
Reducing Time Out-of-System
 How often are you out of system?
Digging ability vs. Opp. attacking ability
(highest levels are out 50% -Kessel)
 How good are you at terminating out-ofsystem? (or at least taking other team out)
 What are you doing to reduce time out-ofsystem?
 How good are you at terminating in
system?
 What are you doing to improve your insystem play?
5 Things
Five Tips for Calling Serves
First step in increasing opponents’ Time Out of
System starts with us…
In order of disruptive process
Serve the formation. Setter stack?
2. Find Sally/Test the Libero
3. Deny their first option
4. Test the strong hitter
5. Mix in the short serve
1.
5 Things
“5 Things” Lists
for Skill Improvement
5 Things
Five Things My Most Successful
JV Teams Had in Common
 Fearless,
risk-taking setters that were good
strategists
 Scoring servers
 A disciplined defense that did not give up
tips or dumps
 A first-attempt-kill team mentality
 They won the momentum points
5 Things
Five Unacceptable Serving
Errors and How to Fix Them
Universally: a straight line between hand, ball, target
One Corrective Thought
Error
1. Aim small, miss small.
1. Missing their first serve.
2. This serve goes to split _.
2. Missing a serve after a
timeout.
3. Serving into the net.
3. Hit the last 5’.
4. Missing their serve zone. 4. Hand-Ball-Target
5. Serving out after point
5. It’s 1vs 1; You vs. Her.
20.
5 Things
Five Tips to Improve Your Setters
1. Infuse these priorities in to your setter:
a.
A “defender first” mentality
b.
The touch comes first; accuracy comes after
c.
Footwork is important: L-R [or] R-Drive
d.
Hold your follow-through through the peak
Teach the setters your team strategy first
3. 2 Nets: Separate setters from your hitters in
practice when you can
4. Set 3-5 feet off the net
5. Teach them to “set to a picture”
2.
5 Things
Five Tips to Improve Your
Hitters
1.
Demand the line shot.
2.
Teach them retraction footwork on the first
day of practice: Open, Run, Hop-turn, Go.
3.
Demand speed and powerful arms on every
approach. Off hand swings up towards setter.
4.
Teach them their off-hand as a guide for their
swing hand.
5.
Hit on high nets.
5 Things
Five Favorite Hitting Drills
Explanations on blog page
1. 25 Kill Drill- DS’s dig
2. 5:00 Kill Drill- DS’s pass
3. Hula Hoop Hitting- Small Group Comp.
4. “The Drill”- Consecutive coverage drill
5. Round-Robin Positional Tournaments- USA
Cauldron-like
5 Things
Five Tips to Improve Your
Blockers
Start practice with footwork patterns
that include blocking footwork.
2. Teach them to swing block.
3. Add blockers in serve receive Drills.
4. Always communicate: “Ready, Ready
Go!”
5. Don’t block back row attacks.
1.
5 Things
Five Tips to Improve Your
Passers
1.
Focus on footwork: “Run-Run-Split-Pass.”
2.
Run the Texas footwork patterns every day.
3.
Make them pass balls to target with no spin.
4.
Doubles catch footwork drill, followed by
triple.
5.
Make them zone shadow.
5 Things
Five Favorite Serve Receive Drills
Explanation on blog site
1.
OH vs DS(+MB): Outside Hitter Group vs
Group of DS’s and Best Passing Middle.
2.
Elimination passing with hitter.
3.
Mixed passing group competitions.
4.
Doubles passing
5.
Scoring Objective Drills: 9 ball, 7 before
4.
5 Things
Five Favorite Serving Drills
Rice Progression
2. Mat serving: 5x each mat (last 5’).
3. 5×5, 5×1 no errors. Zone 6 is a wash, miss is
back to zero.
4. 2 Team Pressure Serving: 25 in a row, no
miss, no 6
5. Around the world: 2 teams. Put 5 serves in
each zone to progress.
1.
5 Things
Five Favorite Team Drills
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
In a Rows: 10xP-S-T, P-S-R.
Dig or Die
Position Battles
Set the “___” first
20 to 17 games. Practice ender.
Also…
 7 before 4- in each rotation.
 Chaos- 5 varied inputs per side. (SR, DB, FB, Go
on 2, Joust)
5 Things
Regardless…
Teaching Life is More Important…
Thank you.