Goldilocks Method: Passing

Other articles in the Goldilocks series:

Goldilocks Serving
Goldilocks Setting
Goldilocks Spiking

Differential learning is a thing. There’s some specific definitions and debate about the best applications and the scientific basis behind some of the effects. But let’s not get bogged down in that. Let’s focus on some simple takeaways for volleyball coaches. The best summary to me is:

By introducing some noise into the system, we can hear the signal better.

Adding (the right amount of) randomly placed dots makes the initial signal easier to see. (Picture courtesy of Rob Gray’s amazing book, “How We Learn To Move.”)

Much of that research has been done on literal noise in audio signals. It also makes me think of the fact that minor misspellings or missing letters can help you better learn vocabulary words. And the noise can also be movement noise introduced to a system of volleyball movements. So when we, as volleyball coaches, think about this concept of differential training, we’re thinking, “how can we introduce some deliberate variability into how a player will perform a skill, to help them better learn an aspect of that skill?

What is the Goldilocks Method?

Goldilocks is a practice technique I like to use for helping a player understand an aspect of her technique. Like the character Goldilocks, we’re looking for volleyball oatmeal that’s not too hot, not too cold, but, “just right.”

You can use the Goldilocks Method for any skill. The idea is to do a 3-rep sequence where one rep is, “too hot,” one is, “too cold,” and the third is, “just right.” In the first two reps, the athlete is thinking about a piece of the technique and deliberately performing them out on the boundary that she knows isn’t ideal. On the third technique, she isn’t thinking about her technique, she is just focusing on the result; she’s trying to make the ball go, “just right.”

Goldilocks Passing

I appeared as a guest on a recent episode of The Volleypod where I shared some strategies for coaching passing. Here were some of the concepts I shared if you prefer a list rather than audio:

Goldilocks The Posture

To me there are 3 primary elements of a passer’s posture:

(1) The width of the stance
(2) The bend of the knees
(3) The bend at the waist

Each of those can be Goldilocksed to help the athlete find an ideal posture. It can also help you see what an athlete thinks is “just right” which may or may not match your definition. At that point, you can decide if they are finding a unique solution that works for them or if you need to steer them to a better solution.

Goldilocks The Arm Prep

Passers have to do something with their arms, right? I see 3 elements of arm prep posture:

(1) How straight are the arms?
(2) How wide are the arms?
(3) How high are they prepped?

Connection Time

Connect your arms too early, as soon as or before the server makes contact.
Then connect your arms too late, just as the ball is getting on your platform.
Then do one just right.

Movement Time

Similar to connection time, this Goldilocks is something I use quite a bit with advanced passer. The first rep the passer moves not just their arms but their whole body too early, essentially guessing as early as possible what the line of the serve will be. The second rep has the passer waiting as long as possible to even move to the ball. Third rep, just right.

I find that changing some of the time constraints in an action is particularly powerful for advanced players. Beginning players often have mechnical issues that cause their timing to be very variable anyway, so this deliberate timing variation isn’t quite as powerful. But advanced players can sometimes be so consistent with their movements that they can actually be pretty vulnerable to timing disruption.

For example, any of you NCAA coaches have probably had a volunteer coach or a manager with a janky arm input a ball and somehow the 34mph float that crawls through the air sometimes disrupts a passer’s timing and causes more trouble than it should, especially the very first time it comes at a passer.

The manipulation of how passers eyes process movement (Tau.dot amirite KC?) is a whole other article for another time. But manipulating the start time constraint is a good piece of that.

Turn/Sweep/Tilt

This is less of Goldilocks and more of an error-amplification strategy. In all of these, you’ll have a passer stand in zone 5 (or 1) and serve a ball slightly to their left (or right) and they need to redirect the ball back to their right (or left) to the target.

(1) Move the ball left-to-right only by turning your whole body toward the target and bringing your arms along with it.
(2) Move the ball left-to-right by keeping your shoulders upright and sweeping your arms left-to-right.
(3) Move the ball without turning your body or sweeping your arms but instead by tilting at the shoulder. (aka angling your platform)

Don’t Back Up / Get Behind It

When the ball is served deep on a passer, they can either drop-step and try to stay behind the ball

Or you can open up, move laterally and take the ball high.

That’s what this exercise asks the players to do.

(1) Don’t back up at all. Take it high and find a way to angle to the target.
(2) You CANNOT take it on an angle. You must find a way to move quickly and get behind the ball.
(3) Just pass.

Often we see passers combining a bit of (1) and (2) on that third rep, which is fine. Good even.

Tape/10/Perfect

Pretty self-explanatory:

(1) Put the pass right on the tape
(2) Drop the pass on the 10’ line
(3) Perfect

Too High, Too Low, Just Right

Again, you can figure that one out.

I like those 2 for platform control and angle manipulation. Along with…

4-Way Angling

Not a Goldilocks, but it feels similar to me because of the changes from rep to rep.

Imagine a passer in 6 with a target right in front of her. She goes through a 4-rep sequence:

(1) Ball is served on her left, and she passes the ball to her left (3/4 seam)
(2) Ball is served on her left, and she passes the ball to her right (2/3 seam)
(3) Ball is served on her right, and she passes the ball to her right (2/3 seam)
(4) Ball is served on her right, and she passes the ball to her left (3/4 seam)

This is a go-to for me in warmup and tutors for higher level passers and it’s great as a teaching method for novice passers to understand the idea of: the more I angle, the more the ball moves laterally.

Spin/Float Contrast

Again, we’re getting away from Goldilocks here, but any passing tutor where players are getting balls coming at them in varying spins has a nice training effect. Spin, float, dirty float, sidespin, etc.

There we go, a few ways to add deliberate variablity to your passing tutors and drills. Give them a try and let me know which you like best.