Tag: coaching skill

The off court demands of coaching

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In this excerpt from his Volleyball Coaching Wizards interview, US college coach Bob Schneck discusses the administrative and other off-court demands of coaching at the collegiate level which most new to the occupation don’t quite realize.

In a 36 year career, all spent at the University of Rhode Island, Bob Schneck amassed over 600 NCAA Division I victories. His players included 32 all-conference honorees, 6 conference Rookies of the Year, and 2 Players of the Year. Bob was twice selected as NCAA District I Coach of the Year. He is a long-time member of the USA Volleyball CAP cadre and prior to his college career was a very successful high school coach in Pennsylvania.

The most important skills for a coach

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In this excerpt from his Volleyball Coaching Wizards interview, Australian beach volleyball coach Craig Marshall shares his views on the skills that are most critical for successful coaching.

Australian coach Craig Marshall is a fixture on the world beach volleyball circuit. He has coached teams on the highly competitive World Tour for nearly two decades, with eight podium finishes and a World Championships medal. He has also coached multiple medal wins on Continental tours, including a historic clean sweep of medals at the 2016 Asian Championships. He coached the Australian men in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympics tournaments, and was on-hand in 2012 as well.

John & Mark expand on this subject in Episode 25 of the Podcast. It is also a feature section in the Wizard Wisdom book.

Coaching players as they are

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In this excerpt from her Volleyball Coaching Wizards interview, US college coach Peggy Martin shares her view on adapting yourself as a coach to the personality and motivation of your players rather than expecting them to be like you.

Peggy Martin has over 40 years of college coaching experience, primarily at the NCAA Division II level. She’s accumulated more than 1200 career victories and has won more than 20 league titles. Her Central Missouri teams made 25 straight trips to the NCAA tournament, reaching six Elite 8s and a national championship match. Peggy has been named Coach of the Year 22 times, including earning NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year honors in 1987. She is a member of the AVCA Hall of Fame.

This topic is one John & Mark expand upon in Episode 18 of the Podcast.

Coaching beach vs indoor volleyball

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In this excerpt from his Volleyball Coaching Wizards interview, German coach Axel Büring answers the question as to what he took from indoor coaching to working with beach players and what he took from beach coaching to working with indoor players.

Axel Büring spent more than 20 years coaching the women’s team at USC Munster in the German Bundesliga. During that time his teams won four titles, 5 cups, and a European Cup. He also coached a world Top-20 ranked German women’s beach team for most of a decade.

Judging player character in tryouts

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In this excerpt from his Volleyball Coaching Wizards interview, Jim Stone shares his thoughts on how to go beyond judging player skill and athleticism during the tryout process and to also assess their character, coachability, etc. These are things he uses in his work with the USA Volleyball youth national teams.

Jim Stone spent 26 seasons as the head coach at Ohio State where he amassed over 500 victories. His teams won 3 Big 10 titles and made 15 trips to the NCAA tournament. Jim coached two AVCA Players of the Year and 19 All-Americans. He was selected regional and conference Coach of the Year four times.

Which is more important – coaching in training or match coaching

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In this excerpt from his Volleyball Coaching Wizards interview, Redbad Strikwerda answers the question whether he feels it is more important what a coach does in training or what they do during a match. His answer is perhaps different than what many coaches might think.

Redbad Strikwerda has won 6 league, Cup, and Super Cup volleyball titles in his native Holland. He has coached teams in the CEV Champions League, the CEV Cup, and the CEV Challenge Cup. At the national team level, he has coached in the European League and European Championships.

This topic is one John & Mark expand upon in Episode 7 of the Podcast.

Differences in coaching female vs. male athletes

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In this excerpt from his Volleyball Coaching Wizards interview, Scottish coach Craig Faill shares his views and experiences with the difference in approach required when work with female vs. male athletes. In particular, he talks about the socialization aspect of team management.

Craig Faill has over 30 years of coaching experience in his native Scotland. His club teams have won multiple national championships. He is currently the Head Coach of the Scottish Women’s National Team. He previously head coached the Scottish Men’s Junior National Team and was an assistant to the Men’s full national squad.

The importance of consistency

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Stelio DeRocco talks in this excerpt from his Volleyball Coaching Wizards project about how important it is for the coach as leader to be consistent in their demeanor, attitude, effort, and character.

Stelio was the Australian National Team coach during the 2000 Olympic cycle. He later lead the Canadian National team to a NORCECA championship and coached in a World Cup. As a professional coach, he won 2 Euro Cups with Montichiari (Italy) and 2 leagues and 3 cups with Constanta (Romania).

Note: This discussion of consistency is something John & Mark expand on in Episode 4 of the Podcast. It is also a feature topic in the Wizard Wisdom book.

Managing cultural diversity in a team

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In this excerpt from his Volleyball Coaching WIzards interview, Vital Heynen talks about how a coach can go about managing a team where the players are of different nationalities and/or are of a different nationality than themselves. His discussion of language use may be of particular interest.

Vital led the German National Team to a bronze medal at the 2014 World Championships, then Poland to gold in 2018. He won numerous league and cup titles coaching in his native Belgium, and has also coached professionally in Germany, Poland and Turkey.

Wizards on the Web: Jim Stone

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Wizard Jim Stone has a website you’ll want to check out – https://jimstoneconsulting.com/. Definitely worth giving a read. He earlier had a different site, though, which featured an article titled The Man (Coach) in the Arena. It doesn’t look like it’s available anywhere any longer. It was based on a quote from Theodore Roosevelt on the subject of critics, however, which comes up in a video from Brené Brown.

If you’ve read Craig Marshall’s interview in our first book, you’ll know he talks about Brown’s discussion of vulnerability with respect to coaching skills. We used those comments from Craig in our second book as well.

Here’s the TED Talk referred to by Craig.

There’s also a longer presentation on Netflix titled Brené Brown – the Call to Courage. It runs 1 hour 16 minutes, and is a good watch.

From a coaching perspective, there’s an interesting podcast episode worth listening too in conjunction with the stuff above. The podcast is called EconTalk, but don’t be put off by the name. This particular episode specifically links to what Brown talks about with a really interesting twist. It’s one that we need to think about as coaches.

Here’s the link: https://www.econtalk.org/david-deppner-on-leadership-confidence-and-humility/