Friday Q&A + John Mayer + Riley Salmon

I dedicate the first three weeks of each month to indoor volleyball and the fourth week to beach volleyball. Since there’s 5 weeks (or at least, 5 Mondays) in November, I’ll use this week for some random odds and ends that don’t quite fit into full articles.

ALSO: On Wednesday, Dec 8 I’m doing an online workshop with the one and only Riley Salmon. We’re going to talk Serving and Passing and break down some video. We’ll also do some live Q&A and open it up to Smarter Volley subscribers. I want to keep the session small enough for everybody to participate and get the chance to ask questions and interact, so the first 10 subscribers to post a comment can join the session. (Update: 5 spots left.) (Update update: all full) No cost! The session is at noon PT, 3pm ET. I’ll put the video up later that week.

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Reader question:

I’m really interested in finding a better way to evaluate my setters in match when we are in a 6-2. I started looking at our Assist %age, but outside of comparing them to each other, I don’t know how to find a good range for them to be at or what that would even be. Is there a better way to quickly evaluate setter success using a basic box score (so we don’t have to take more numbers down on the sideline)?

First thought that comes to mind is the balance between training and evaluation. I’ll share a recent experience I had and how I handled it and link it back to your dilemma.

In August I coached our USA National Team in the NORCECA Championships. This is an important tournament for USA, but due to the proximity to the Olympics, none of the Olympic staff or players would participate. We had a great crop of young players looking to break into the USA program and I had the honor of being the substitute teacher chosen to hold down the fort for the competition.

We only had a 2-week training block before leaving for the tournament. We had a few cuts to make from the training group to the travel group, as well as decisions to make about starting lineup. So a big consideration was: how much of the training time would be used for evaluation and how much for training? Let’s be specific and talk about setters, because that’s what this question referred to.

In international volleyball, your opposite is a big part of the offense. Due to sub rules, you basically have to run a 5-1, and you need the opposite to be an effective attacker both in the frontrow and backrow. This obviously requires timing and connection between your setter and opposite. You also are going to have a backup setter and backup opposite who you might have to bring in as subs, either individually or part of a double-sub, where both the setter and opposite come out for the backup setter and opposite. (Basically, like doing a 6-2 one time.)

The decision I had to make was, “how soon do I figure out my starting setter and starting opposite and start pairing them up more in drills?” The longer I mixed everybody together, the better evaluation I would get, but the less time each setter and opposite would get to pair up and get in synch with each other. You only have so many reps and so many swings each practice, so how much each opposite would get off each setter mattered a lot to me.

What I settled on was to mix everything equally for the first week, make some evaluations, try to get my best guess of a starting lineup, and spend the second week honing in on specific combinations of players. It wasn’t perfect, but I felt it balanced things the best.

What were the primary criteria I used to make this decision?

1. Winning % in scored drills at practice.

2. Hitter Efficiency off each setter.

3. Non-setting skills. (Serving, Digging, Blocking)

One of the biggest monkey wrenches is who the setter is setting. If one setter is paired up with an All-American opposite, or your best outside hitter for 2 rotations, that’s going to skew things. Running Position Tournaments or other competitions where teammates are the same and two setters have a chance to set the same hitters gives you a good comparison.

But you asked about setting in a match! So you’re obviously not mixing that up too much. Maybe you’ll do so a bit in the beginning of the season in order to find your best lineup.

Once you’re in a match, you can look at hitter efficiency. If you have the GMS Stats app, you can look at efficiency and sideout % by rotation, which helps you see the efficiency off each setter. But again, you have to compare relevant hitters.

Post-match, you should be able to look up your Sideout % by rotation. You can compare your rotations with one setter with your rotations with the other. But keep in mind quality of hitter. This is why running position tournaments at practice is helpful if you’re trying to figure this out.

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Reader question:

Is there any easy way to pull Triangle Stats from DV or do you have to make a worksheet?

Unfortunately not! You can run Analysis by Skill for you and your opponent and it will get you most of what you need. It will show you aces and errors for each team, attack after reception kills and errors, and transition kills and errors. And then you can add them in your head to compare. But that’s about the best you can do natively in DV.

When I coached that NORCECA team, I had our scout (shout out to Mike G!) create a simple worksheet that had the triangle information on the bench.

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Reader question:

Do you have any good ideas for how to best utilize a manager in practice? I want her to feel valued. Right now she is in charge of our whiteboard and she is an extra partner if someone needs it but her skills are significantly below the rest of the team. Would love any tips on how to help her feel valued and create the most meaning in her position for the team.

1. Whiteboard, scoring drills, etc.

2. Train her up on keeping stats during scrimmages and matches.

3. Video equipment.

With regards to 3, are you filming practice and matches? If not, this is a nice upgrade for you and an important role for a manager. Even if all you do is mount an iPhone/iPad on a tripod and capture 10 minutes of 6v6. Realistically you and your players probably aren't watching hours of practice video anyway.

Just remember, your goal is not to make her feel valued. Your goal is to run a great volleyball team. If she is adding value, she will feel valued and/or it will be very easy for you to make her feel that way. But one of the things about managing people is that you don't want to start from the, "what job can I give this person to do?" Start from, "what does the team need to get accomplished and who can do those jobs."

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Comment Highlight from Ryan Hofer:

The process that we like after a match is to create a little separation from the actually game. Right after the match is completed the players have a time of connecting with family, friends and fans. Little mix and mingle. We then meet up in the team room and I start every meeting with the same simple question. What are their thoughts? I typically do not say much, I find that my perspective on the game right after is not often very correct. I really enjoy rewatching the game that night and part of the next morning.

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Finally, here’s a video workshop I did with John Mayer earlier this summer. If you enjoyed this session, I think you’ll enjoy next week’s session with Riley Salmon. I’m aiming for the same format: small group, a lot of discussion and brainstorming.

One of the best questions posed in this session was essentially, “hey that’s great that you can create all these individually designed games for players on the beach, but how do you do that for an indoor team of 6+ players who might have some pretty different strengths and weaknesses?”

Check out the video for our discussion on that topic and more.