Month: March 2016

Volleyball Coaching Wizard Arnie Ball

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Coaching to your personality

USA coach Arnie Ball spent over 30 years coaching at IPFW, primarily with the men’s team, though he also coached the women for several years, and prior to that coached boys and girls in high school. He is father of legendary US national team setter Lloy Ball.

His resume includes:

  • Nearly 800 combined NCAA match victories, more than 500 of which came on the men’s side.
  • Six trips to the men’s NCAA Final 4, including a runner-up finish
  • Three-time conference Coach of the Year and 2007 AVCA National Coach of the Year
  • AVCA Hall of Fame inductee
  • Worked for USA Volleyball in a variety of coaching roles.

Here’s some of what Arnie discusses in his interview:

– Being a demanding coach
– Coaching men vs. coaching women
– Developments in and the future of men’s NCAA volleyball
– Having a star player for a son
– Being professional as coaches

Play this excerpt for a taste of the sort of insights and ideas you’ll get from the full interview:

Get access to Arnie’s interview now for just a $4.99 contribution to the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project.

You can also find Arnie’s interview as part of the following bundles:

Podcast Episode 16: The characteristics of great setters with Bill Neville

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When it comes to the history of the game, few can beat Bill Neville’s experience and knowledge. In this episode of the podcast he shares his favorite setter of all time, Katsutoshi Nekoda, and what characteristics made him so good. Nekoda was the setter of the Japanese team which in the 1960s revolutionized the sport by introducing multi-tempo sets.

Bill Neville has been a fixture for USA Volleyball for decades. He was on the coaching staff when the men won Olympic gold in 1984, has been Technical Director, and National Commissioner of Coaching Education. In the latter role he lead the development of the Coaches Accreditation Program (CAP). Bill coached the Canadian national team in the 1976 Olympics, and also spent over 15 years coaching NCAA Division I women’s volleyball. He authored the book Coaching Volleyball Successfully.

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

Volleyball Coaching Wizard Peggy Martin

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Tried retirement, but didn’t like it

USA college coach Peggy Martin spent 33 years at NCAA Division II Central Missouri before retiring. That retirement only lasted a few months, though, before she was back on the court at a new school with the same level of success.

His resume includes:

  • Winner of more than 1300 college matches (mostly NCAA Division II)
  • More than 20 conference championships and 25 straight trips to the NCAA Division II tournament (6 Elite 8s)
  • 22 Coach of the Year Awards including the 1987 NCAA Division II National Coach of Year Award
  • AVCA Hall of Fame inductee

Here’s some of what Peggy discusses in his interview:

– Early-career coaching development
– Changes in the coach-player dynamic
– Working with and managing captains and team councils
– Recruiting good people
– Hiring good staff
– Dealing with the pressure to maintain a high level of success

Play this excerpt for a taste of the sort of insights and ideas you’ll get from the full interview:

Get access to Peggy’s interview now for just a $4.99 contribution to the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project.

Peggy’s interview is also featured as part of the following bundles:

Podcast Episode 15: Coaching your best players with Joel Dearing

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It is often the case that we, as coaches (and teachers), either coach to the middle of our squad or focus more attention on the weaker players to try to bring them up to everyone else’s level. From the perspective of maximizing gains, this can make sense. As Wizard Joel Dearing points out, though, we cannot ignore the best players in the team along the way. That is the focus of this episode.

Joel Dearing coached at NCAA Division III Springfield College for 30 years and accumulated over 700 wins. That’s good enough for a Top-10 standing in the record books. He mainly coached the women at Springfield, but also coached the men for seven seasons, and in his last had the team end the year ranked #1. Joel was five times selected AVCA Regional Coach of the Year and coached 10 All-Americans. He is a member of the board at the Volleyball Hall of Fame, a long-time part of the USA Volleyball Coaches Accreditation Program (CAP) cadre, and author of the books Volleyball Fundamentals and The Untold Story of William G. Morgan – Inventor of Volleyball.

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