There are a lot of volleyball coaches, many of whom are good. But there are not many who are Volleyball Coaching Wizards.

It is difficult to define exactly what makes a Volleyball Coaching Wizard. I am not even sure that we knew the answer to that question when we started the project. But after 15 odd interviews, there already seems to be a few themes emerging. None of these themes should be terribly surprisingly, but they are worthwhile pointing out. The coaches love volleyball and love their work. They are lifelong learners. They are open to new ideas and possibilities.

One coach who exemplifies all of the qualities is German National Team Vital Heynen, who was incidentally one of our first interviewees. Exactly how open he is to new possibilities is currently in the news as he begins a ‘Hellweek’ with his team in preparation for the European Championships. Interestingly, he is not doing it with the express purpose of improving his team is the short term.

„I don’t think there’s a direct effect of the rules to winning the European Championship. My hope is that in five years some of the guys will tell me – Hey coach, we learned something in that week, we learned something about ourselves…“

Read more about Hellweek here.

Below is a snippet.