Author: Volleyball Coaching Wizards

Volleyball Coaching Wizard Paulo Cunha

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High Level Coaching While Teaching During the Day

Paulo Cunha of Portugal may have coached professionally and at the national team level, but through it all his day job was as a teacher. So he knows how to balance the demands of the two careers. Not only does he have a track record of success as a coach, but he has also directed coaching education at the national level.

His resume includes:

  • Winner of 8 league titles, 7 cups, and 6 Super Cups in Portugal
  • First Portuguese coach to lead a team to a European cup final four.
  • 3 times Portuguese Association of Volleyball Coaches Coach of the Year
  • Coached the Portuguese Junior National team

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

– Teaching and coaching at the same time
– Making career decisions
– Managing a team with players of different status levels (pros vs. non-pros)
– Coaching the genders
– Cultural differences in coaching and players

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

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

You can also get Paulo’s interview as part of these bundles:

Volleyball Coaching Wizard Stelio DeRocco

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Pro and National Team Player to Pro and National Team Coach

Similar to Vital Heynen, Canadian Stelio DeRocco became a coach following a career playing volleyball professionally in Italy and for Canada (fellow Wizard Jefferson Williams was a Junior National teammate). He has gone on to have a career at both the club and international coaching levels and has as a coach mentor.

His resume includes:

  • Coached the Australian National Team during the 2000 Olympic cycle.
  • Coached the Canadian National Team from 2001 to 2006, which includes coaching in the 2003 World Cup
  • Won 2 Euro Cups with Montichiari (Italy)
  • Won 2 leagues and 3 cups with Constanta (Romania)
  • Won 4 cup titles coaching in Dubai

Here’s some of what Stelio share discusses in his interview:

– Transitioning from player to coach
– The importance of being consistent as a coach
– Developing a team philosophy and approach
– Training focus over the course of a season

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

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

You can also get Stelio’s interview as part of the following bundles:

Podcast Episode 7: Coaching vs Training with Redbad Strikwerda

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Back to our regular programming with this episode!

The thoughts of Redbad Strikwerda feature in this show – in particular, on the subject of whether it is more important to be a good training coach or a good match-day coach. Comments from the likes of Hugh McCutcheon and Vyacheslav Platonov are included in the discussion.

Redbad Strikwerda currently coaches with Landstede Volleybal in the top men’s division of his native Holland. He has won 6 titles, 6 Cups, and 6 Super Cups in Dutch volleyball. He has coached in the CEV Champions League, CEV Cup, and CEV Challenge Cup. He has also coached in the European League and European Championships with the Dutch National Team.

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

Volleyball Coaching Wizard Giovanni Guidetti

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Italian Eloquence

Italian Giovanni Guidetti, who currently coaches professionally in Turkey and internationally for the Netherlands, has probably made most of his reputation since leaving his native country. He’s done so at both the club and international level. Though English is obviously not his first language, he speaks quite eloquently on the subject of coaching.

His resume includes:

  • 2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League Silver Medal as Head Coach of the Turkish Women’s National Team
  • 2016 Olympic Semifinalist as Head Coach of the Dutch Women’s National Team
  • Former Head Coach for both Germany and Bulgaria.
  • Mulitple CEV Champions League gold medals and FIVB Club World Championships coaching at the professional club level.
  • Twice named Coach of the Year in his native Italy

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

– The need for a coach to be true to themselves
– Being a teacher and a competitor
– Training philosophy
– Developing the concept of team

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

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

You can also get Giovanni’s interview as part of the following bundles:

Additionally, Giovanni’s interview is featured in the first Volleyball Coaching Wizards book.

Volleyball Coaching Wizard Vital Heynen

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Professional Player to National Team Coach

Belgian Vital Heynen became a coach after a distinguished career playing volleyball for club and country. His experience as a player has strongly influenced his coaching philosophy, though perhaps not in the way you might think. This is something he talks about in his interview.

His resume includes:

  • Gold Medal coaching Poland in the 2018 World Championships, Bronze at 2019 Volleyball Nations League
  • Bronze Medal coaching Germany in the 2014 World Championships
  • 4 league titles, 5 Cups, and 4 Super Cups in the Belgian league.
  • 2 CEV Cup medals
  • Additional professional coaching experience in Poland and Turkey

Here’s some of what Vital share discusses in his interview:

– Managing cultural diversity in a team
– His philosophy of training
– Putting together a coaching staff
– Developing the concept of team
– Expectations and playing time

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

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

You can also get Vital’s interview as part of the following bundles:

Podcast Episode 6: Being a Humble Coach and Coaching Education, Ruben Wolochin

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This episode of the podcasts is a continuation of our discussion from Episode 5 with Ruben Wolochin from German men’s team TV Bühl (then in the 1.Bundesliga, but relegated after Ruben left). We continue to talk about what Ruben saw and heard in the big coaching conference he attended in his native Argentina. The conversation here turns to coaching mentality and coaching education. You will hear the term “humble” used several times!

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

Advice on careers and coaching development from the Wizards!

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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!