Summer School Part 1

Learning and stuff

2 Years ago, I dedicated a big chunk of a 3-month content to Learning. How do we, as coaches, help our athletes learn better? How can coaches better understand the skill acquisition process?

I shared that I keep 3 books in physical copy and take them with me:

The Language Of Coaching - Nick Winkleman
How We Learn To Move - Rob Gray
Coaching Athletes To Be Their Best - Rollnick and Fader

That was a more meaningful endorsement when I was nomadic and lived out of a backpack. They were just about the only 3 books I kept in physical copy. Space mattered. Now I have recently broken a personal record by being on the 13th month of my current lease. I’ve got bookshelves and stuff. Also, I no longer have a physical copy of How We Learn To Move. I lent it to someone and never bothered to get it back. I have it on Kindle now, along with Rob Gray’s other books.

But I still put these 3 as must-haves in any coach’s library. You can check out what I wrote previously, inspired by these books:

The Language Of Coaching
And Now For Something Completely Different
Cueing Doubles
Goal - Intention - Cue
DDCDD
99 External Cues Part 1
99 External Cues Part 2
99 External Cues Part 3

How We Learn To Move
Learning To Move
Error Amplification
Sometimes Things Don’t Fit
Constrain To Break Through
Specifying and Non-Specifying Information
Peripheral Vision

Coaching Athletes To Be Their Best
Coaching Athletes To Be Their Best
Affirmations
Character > Confidence

Summer 2025

For this summer, I want to refresh on why I consider those 3 books to be a starting point for coaches who want to teach better. I’ll also bring in some topics inspired by the book Teach Like A Champion. This book is specifically for classroom teachers, so not everything translates perfectly to volleyball coaches. But there’s quite a few techniques outlined in that book that coaches can crib to improve how they run a practice. Throughout the summer, I’ll share some of what I’m trying.

But for now, let’s get back to one of my Big 3 books.