Month: October 2015

Advice on careers and coaching development from the Wizards!

Posted onAuthorVolleyball Coaching Wizards

How would you like to ask some the world’s top volleyball coaches for their advice on becoming a better coach and/or moving forward in your coaching career?

We’ve gone ahead and done that for you!

A regular feature of the Wizards interviews is to ask them what sort of advice they would offer to developing coaches. What they have to say is always interesting, and in some cases might be surprising or not quite what you’d expect.

Want to hear it?

Well, you can do just that – for free!

We’ve taken clips from the interviews of several of the Wizards we’ve interviewed so far and put them into a single 25-minute audio just for you. Each Wizard shares their own unique perspective and collectively they offer some great advice, no matter where you are in your coaching and career development.

To get your copy of the audio just complete the form at the right.

Podcast Episode 5: Cultural Differences in Volleyball, with Ruben Wolochin

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The main underlying purpose of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project is coaching education. This episode is the first of two based on a conversation between John and Mark and Ruben Wolochin following Ruben attending a coaching conference in his native Argentina. That conference featured some of the most accomplished and renowned of that nation’s coaches, including the likes of Julio Velasco and Daniel Castellani. In this part of the discussion the focus is on cultural differences in volleyball and coaching.

Ruben Wolochin is the head coach at German Bundesliga men’s team TV Bühl. Along with having coached in Argentina, he coached professionally in Denmark and Finland before moving to Germany.

Feedback, questions, comments, etc. are always welcome!

Podcast Episode 4: The Importance of Coaching Consistency, featuring Stelio DeRocco

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During his interview, Wizard Stelio DeRocco took one of Mark’s questions in a different direction than Mark had intended. It ended up being one of the most interesting and insightful bits of conversation we’ve had thus far. In it Stelio talks about how important it is for the coach to be consistent in how they present themselves and work with the team.

Stelio DeRocco was the head coach of the Australian National Team during the 2000 Olympic cycle. He later went on to coach the national team for his native Canada, leading them to a NORCECA Championship and to compete in the World Cup. His coaching career followed almost immediately on the heels of his career as a player in Italy. He lead Italian side Montichiari to two European Cups and was multiple league and cup titles in Romania with Constanta.

Feedback, questions, comments, etc. are always welcome!

Podcast Episode 3: Three Wizards on Copying What Others Do

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There are some standard themes which come through from the Wizards interviews. One of them is the subject of this episode of the podcast. The subject is copying from other coaches and/or coaching gurus. Tom Tait, Iradge Ahrabi-Fard, and Giovanni Guidetti all shared their thoughts on the subject during their interviews, some of which we’ve excerpted from this show.

Actually, we apparently were going for some kind of coach name-dropping record, as at least seven different Wizards were mentioned somewhere along the way! Mark tossed in a Big Bang Theory reference as well. :-)

Tom Tait is basically the father of Penn State Volleyball. He was the first coach for both the men’s and women’s teams, having handed the latter off to Russ Rose. He developed the men’s program into a consistent NCAA championship contender before eventually also handing that off. Since then he’s been focused on coaching education, working with the US national team program, and continuing his work as a professor at Penn State.

Iradge Ahrabi-Fard is Iranian-born, but has sent the majority of his career in the US. Like Tom, he too has primarily been a university professor. His views on coaching have been widely published in both academic and coaching circles. Iradge is a member of the AVCA Hall of Fame, won over 500 NCAA Division I matches as a head coach, and consults with the USA national team program.

Giovanni Guidetti is currently the head coach of the Dutch women’s national team and of the Vakifbank club in Turkey. Internationally, he also coached for Germany and Bulgaria. At the club level, he has won two CEV Champions League titles (plus a runner-up) and has won gold and silver at the World Club Championships. In his native Italy, he was twice named Coach of the Year.

Feedback, questions, comments, etc. are always welcome!