Two Great Setting Sessions

Fundamentals, tactics, and relationships

Over the past couple years I’ve had the chance to lead small-group Coaches Workshops with some of the best coaches around. If you’re like me, there’s nothing you like more than talking shop with a coach you respect. I think one of my big levels-up as a coach was when I started traveling to other gyms to sit in on practices and learn from what some of the best coaches were doing.

We had a great workshop on setting earlier this year during the AU season. That session revolved a little more around the player perspective, since the guests were two USA setting legends: Alisha (Glass) Childress and Carli Lloyd:

Setting Workshop

Before I started this Substack, I used to do this sessions in a more a la carte format. Since there’s a lot of new subscribers to Smarter Volley, I wanted to share these sessions with any premium subscribers.

In the first session, I sat down with Dani Busboom Kelly, who knows a thing or two about setting. Some of the main takeaways:

Louisville has a strong emphasis on their setters getting to the ball early, jumping straight up and down, and squaring up to their target in order to put themselves in a position where they can set any hitter on the court.

Another setting key they emphasize is having their setters finish to where the hitter is going to hit the ball, regardless of foot and body positioning.

Louisville’s offense incorporates different set locations for slide and outside attackers in order to keep blockers guessing.

They also stress “Jill Rule”: setting the closest attacker with fast tempo in order to beat the opponent’s block.

Finally, Dani emphasized the importance of a strong coach-setter relationship; having honest and open communication allows them to collaborate and run a successful offense together.

She also answered questions about:

1. Do you start with training hands or feet with a new setter?

2. What footwork do you like when the setter comes off the net?

3. How do you video sessions with your setters?

And a lot more!

In the second session, I had Keegan Cook as the guest. Some Key Takeaways from this session:

When recruiting, Keegan looks for setters who display consistent behavior when interacting with different people, who can locate to the left side on a variety of passes, and who have the ability to deal with stressful situations.

Some major concepts for Washington setters include: being neutral on contact, “going when you know” off the pass, letting the hitter do the work, and allowing attackers to hit high in medium pass situations.

Keegan stressed the importance of communication throughout the workshop. He noted that coaches sometimes fail to share their vision effectively and then get frustrated when athletes don’t paint the picture they envisioned. He later touched on the topic of communication when discussing taking tough conversations with his players outside the gym and again when trusting his assistant coaches to make decisions during matches.

When giving feedback to players Keegan, has learned to focus on letting the athletes do what they're great at and then building on top of that. If they aren’t ready to make a particular change, then move on – there are plenty of other things that they are more open to work on. Coaches should make sure their non-negotiables really are non-negotiables.

Finally, Keegan provided some great guidelines for setter-hitter communication, including having hitters affirm good sets and having setters enter the space first – either by asking what the hitter needs or by telling them how they’ll set the next ball. Setters and hitters should physically close the distance when exchanging feedback and hitters should never give feedback when they make an error, ever!

I think the most impactful part of the session, to me, was Keegan sharing his journey as a coach. I can remember being a young club coach looking at these coaches who were coaching the best teams in the country and thinking they must know everything and must have always been that way. But when Keegan took over the UW program in 2015, he was on the young side for a Pac-12 Head Coach and following a legendary coach at a successful program. Most of us won’t be Pac-12 Head Coaches, but a lot of us can relate to the pressure of taking over a successful team and wanting to balance (a) not changing what’s been working with (b) needing to coach the way you know how to coach and not just being a clone of what came before.

That discussion was worth the price of admission to me.

Both these session include a 10-page mini-book with notes and diagrams, as well as download links, and a Youtube streaming link. Below the paywall!