Successful Volleyball Coaching – Four Tips For Maximum Team Performance

When I was younger, I had a lot of volleyball coaches that I really enjoyed. They pushed me and made me want to be a better player. I listened to them, followed their lead, and I improved as a player.

I also had coaches that I couldn’t stand. I couldn’t wait for practices to be over so that I could get away from their attitude and personality.

Now that I am older and coaching, I have thought back to those things that I liked about the coaches I enjoyed playing for. I have found myself trying to develop those same characteristics to have my players perform at a higher level. As I thought about it, I found four things that I could identify that I enjoyed about the coaches. These four tips will also help you get more out of your players because they respect you.

Four Tips For Coaching Success

1. Be prepared – This means being prepared for everything…practices as well as games. The message that you are sending to the players is that they are not important enough for you to be prepared. So, you have to come to practice with a plan of what you are going to do to help the team improve.

You also need to come to the games prepared. This means with your starting rotation, your volleyball lineup sheets, statistic sheets etc. This lets your team know that the game is important to you and that they should be as prepared to play as you are to coach.

2. Run the team by the numbers – What I mean by this is that you really need to keep statistics of some kind. The stats are going to identify weaknesses that need to be improved. If you find that your passes are not going where they should (based on your passing point average) then you need to spend a little more time focusing on passing during your practices.

If you will run your practices by improving the trouble areas (identified by your team’s stats), then you will be more prepared for the next match.

3. Create expectations – If your team thinks that you are just there to pass the time, they will have no expectations to live up to. If you want them to improve and increase their skills, then they must know what you expect of them. Then, you must hold them accountable to it.

I have seen teams where the only expectation is that the coach is going to play their favorite players instead of the ones that perform well. This is really damaging to the team and doesn’t help with the healthy expectations you want to create for your team.

4. Inspire, inspire, inspire – I have always gotten more out of my teams by having confidence in them. There is nothing that will build up a player more than putting them in a stressful situation, with their coach believing in them, and then they meet the expectation. This builds confidence and their respect and trust. I have seen many coaches who insist on yelling at their players and demoralizing them. This doesn’t work for my style and I always get more out of players by building them up.

I hope these tips help you improve your team and have more success on the court.