Seems like a lot of you liked last month’s May Media Wrap, so we’ll keep it as a regular feature.
I enjoyed Loren Anderson’s When Coaches Treat Effort Like A Moral Issue. I particularly enjoyed his Final Thought. I won’t spoil it, so read the article. He frames it perfectly in my opinion.
That said, a couple disagreements: I don’t entirely agree with this section:
Effort ≠ Character
Somewhere along the way, we’ve collapsed effort and morality into the same bucket. And that’s a dangerous place to live.
We praise “gritty” athletes as if they’re role models for the rest.
We label quiet ones as lazy, unmotivated, or even uncoachable.
We say things like “want it more” as if desire is measurable on a stopwatch.We’ve turned effort into a status signal.
But effort isn’t character.
(I had to slightly change the formatting in order to quote-format)
In the short-run, I do agree with that. Which is why I agree largely with the tone of the piece and, in particular, his Final Thought.
However… I do think that effort is part of character, and part of our job as coaches is to help develop character in our athletes. I’ll use an example that is extreme but relatable for many of you: being a parent.
If you’re anything like me, you weren’t (aren’t?) confident in your ability to be a parent. Whether it’s trying to feed a newborn, sleep-train a toddler, play with a young kid, or have a difficult conversation with a teenager, you likely have parts of parenting you feel confident in, and parents of parenting that you approach with fear or uncertainty. And yet… it’s your job as a parent to at least try. Get in there, give it a shot, be willing to make a mistake, learn from your mistakes.
We shouldn’t expect the players we coach to be fully-formed and perfect in their character. Because none of us are! And yes, players will come into volleyball practice with different levels of character developed. Some have tried hard and put out in a sport before, seen improvement, and been rewarded. In a real sense, “trying hard” is easier for them, because they can visualize the reward. They have played good volleyball before, they know that trying hard at practice will help them play better, and actually that trying hard kind of feels good even in the moment. Other players haven’t really gotten into that process yet. They’re going to be at a lower level of trying-hard-ability.
That’s okay, but it’s also our job to teach that. Short-term, we need to meet athletes where they’re at. But I think we also need to teach them that, long-term, putting out effort even when you’re scared or nervous is part of having good character.
Now I guess, that said, I want to unpack this statement:
We say things like “want it more” as if desire is measurable on a stopwatch.
Because I do disagree with it, but maybe in a way that kind of agrees with the overall tone of the article. I think some players do want it more. For some reason, certain people really do care more about volleyball than others. It doesn’t make them morally superior. But certain players (and if we’re talking kids, we can include their parents) do care more about being successful on the volleyball court.
Where I think that’s important as a coach is to meet players where they are at. The reality of modern times is that rec ball is kind of a thing of the past. Many kids are playing high school or even travel club ball who are totally fine with a C effort, because volleyball is only a C on their importance scale. I think it’s okay to meet those kids where they are at. Maybe you design a practice that doesn’t push them out of their comfort zone the whole time. You keep things a little more strength focused. You have a little more slack in between drills, etc. Maybe over time, they start enjoying things more, they see some improvement and they want to step up to a C+ or a B-. Great. On the flip side, if you have kids who want to give an A, you need to give them a practice that demands an A or they’re going to be bored.
And this is the basic gist of Loren’s post anyway. Just giving my own 2 cents there.
The great Tom Black has a Substack as well. In his article A Great Teacher’s Most Important Skill, he talks about the need for coaches to have skin in the game when they are coaching. Any time somebody talks about a Taleb principle, I’m on board.
Coach Your Brains Out had a couple good episodes this month.
Their Prep For Postseason was a 2-parter. Some good stuff in there. Listen to the episode. There’s a lot of good talk about preparing for the post-season, preparing for big notes, etc. Some of my takeaways were toward the end when they discussed the phrase:
Low expectations, high standards.
I’m a big believer in that. Part of what I liked there was the idea that expectations often come from the outside and standards come from the inside. Bernie talks about Clint Hurdle taking over the Pirates and needing to retrain everybody in the organization on how they talk about things. Remember that you aren’t the only voice in your players’ ears. In particular, if you coach club volleyball, the parents of your players are very influential. Rather than trying to convince your kids to not listen to their parents (which is kind of questionable, from a moral standpoint), you should do your best to train those parents and get them on board with your message.
“There are no rearview mirrors on a pirate ship.” Love it.
Their Question Your Brains Out episode was good as well. John Mayer’s general practice template of:
Start practice with some sort of differential learning
Competitive small-game with long-term cauldron scoring
Exploratory lab with no scoring
Games-based activities and pressure games
Looks a lot like The Template that I suggest for most club teams:
10’ - Self-Toss Spiking (or sometimes: an individual skills tutor)
10’ - 4-Ball Passing (or sometimes: Dig-Set)
10’ - Doubles (or sometimes: Transition 4s)
25’ - 2-Way Hitting (usually First Ball, but sometimes Transition)
20’ - 1-Way Sideout (or sometimes: BSBH)
45’ - 6v6 (ex: Aceball, GP Sideout, etc)
Self-toss can be competitive (if radar’d) or differential — if you add a variable task. 4-Ball Passing is ofen done Goldilocks style. Doubles is a competitive small-game. 2-Way Hitting is best done as an exploratory lab. 6v6 games are obviously competitive and generally have some sort of constraint or emphasis.
The Volleypod had a bunch of episodes that I listened to. I didn’t get to the episode where they discuss Tod’s new book, The Volleyball Journey. But I contributed to the book so… it must be good! Some thoughts on their other episodes:
Improve Your Private Lesson Coaching
I wholeheartedly agree that the goal of a lesson is not really to “get better” within the lesson. It’s to give them tools to keep improving after the lesson is over. For example, when I do small-group (more on that in a second) lessons for hitters, I always do about 5 minutes of instruction on strength exercises like club mills:
In terms of what will get you better in one session, that’s about the least productive use of 5 minutes. You’ll be no better at the end of the session for having done 5 minutes of that. But… long-term, it’s really valuable. Players get little no instruction on this stuff at normal practices. And a player who does some of this stuff for 5-15 minutes before or after every practice will see plenty of benefit over the long run.
They also mention getting more people in lessons. I couldn’t agree more. A 1-person lesson is almost a waste of time. 4 is the sweet spot to me.
Lessons From Club Nationals
In this episode they quote the great Mark Massey (SmarterVolley subscriber!) about some lessons from Nationals and his first one is basically “hit the outside hand.”
I love it! To me the first test of your offense is, “can you hit line.” A team that cannot hit line does not stress the opposing defense. Most club blockers struggle to seal the edge. If you habitually slap the ball cross-court you get much easier to defend.
But something I disagree with! Focusing on serving the interior seams and avoiding the sidelines. I like serving sidelines. Good discussion and good episode.
Their episode on Undersized Hitters was fun too. An obligatory note that a 5’10” outside who touches 10’ wouldn’t be considered undersized for many club teams! One thing I liked was her talking about really rotating, almost to a full 360, to tool the line with power. I like that a lot and teach that to players as well.
What else should I be checking out?
Joe, thank you for reading and sharing my article, and for taking the time to engage so thoughtfully. I appreciate your perspective. I agree it’s part of our role to help athletes learn to give effort when it’s hard. Where I still stand firm is that effort isn’t a moral virtue—it’s an outcome shaped by environment, safety, and clarity of purpose. Meeting athletes where they are is part of helping them find that effort, not demanding it as proof of character. Thanks again for adding depth to the conversation.