Club Vball Special: In-Match Coaching

Pre, During, and Post

I’ve been talking a lot about teaching so far in February. When we think about teaching the game, we think about practice. That’s natural, as coaches we do most of our teaching at practice. That’s the primary platform for teaching the game. But I want to talk a little bit about In-Match Coaching today, and especially as it relates to the club world. Like many of you, I’ll be coaching this President’s Day Weekend! This is part of my annual tradition of starting the club season NOT coaching a team and getting roped into filling in for somebody somewhere along the way.

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Obligatory side note: as you readers know, I often share conversations and bits and pieces of interactions with players, teams, etc as part of articles for this Substack. Just know that I often change small details to (a) make things more clear to write out and (b) obscure personal details. The more recent the incident, the more I tend to change things. This is ESPECIALLY true when I deal with youth volleyball. So just be aware, if you think I’m talking about the match against your team, or something that happened at this clinic I ran, etc… I’m almost certainly not. I want to keep the experiences that I relate truthful, while not having everybody that comes to a camp or clinic or works with me or plays against my team feeling like they are going to get written up for blog fodder.

That said, those of you who are in DC this weekend for the Capitol Hill Classic, wander around the 14 Club and find me and say what’s up!

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I’m targeting this more toward the club end of the spectrum, because my in-match coaching is a little different in club than at the professional level. That might be obvious. It’s not just about age, but that’s a part of it. I try to treat every athlete as an individual. I think this is a Marv-ism:

Individuals never lose the desire to be treated as individuals.

Marv either said that, or some segment of my brain has turned into a ChatGPT-style AI that’s been fed enough things that Marv did say that I now just automatically think of situations in that sort of form.

See the hitter hit.

If you want to wake up early, wake up early.

Great teams play great as a team.

I think Marv said all those things but at this point reality is blurring.

Alright, where was I? Coaching 14 Club volleyball. Alright, here we go, here’s what I think is important when you’re coaching In-Match, and maybe beyond that, coaching In-Tournament at the club level.