During a game of Volleyball, balls are hit at amazing speeds. How to control a volleyball hit at speeds up to 100kph was the challenge presented to coaches at a recent workshop held at the ASB Stadium in Whangarei.

This Coaches’ workshop, that targeted new and upcoming coaches was led by Rob Tarr, Volleyball New Zealand’s Development and Performance Lead and was supported by Sport Northland Coaching Lead Grant Harrison.

Rob, as a former professional volleyball player and member of the USA national team from 2006-2014, has played for 10 club teams around the world, making him well versed in competitive indoor and beach volleyball.

Northland has a number of enthusiastic players who have good attributes for the Volleyball game however the game suffers, like many other codes, with a lack of skilled coaches. There are few new coaches for the numbers of players wanting to play. Teacher managers operate in some schools however some are not skilled in the modern coaching techniques.  Without student coaches, the game will stagnate as they fill the void created by a limited number of adult coaches volunteering.

The workshop attracted 15 coaches, nine of whom were secondary school students. Following this workshop, 40 students attended a player clinic focussed on the serve and pass where the coaches were able to practice some of the “hows” (methods) of coaching along with some of the “whats” (drills and skills) discussed during the coaching course prior.

“I hadn’t thought too much about breaking down the serve into those parts – its so much easier focusing on each step” said one of the young coaches.

“We’ve always been taught that the energy comes from the legs – this approach focussing just on the arms is different and more logical’

Rob was impressed with the energy and enthusiasm of the participants.  Key points he made on the day included ‘less is more, biomechanical efficiency and repeatability’. Rob explains “young coaches tend to coach the way they have been coached and when there are some changes to techniques, these tend to take longer to embed”. Another key point highlighted was to focus on the ‘Game teaches the Game’ concept, meaning making drills game-like, rather than long drills that focus on a single skill in isolation.  “Keeping things simple and clearly communicating using feedback and questioning is now preferred over complex instructive drills” he says. The way volleyball coaching is heading, it is not just drills with no feedback but structured activity with questioning and using different key phrases that athletes can identify with when they perform the skills e.g. “hands move in one direction”, “face the ball not the target”, “lead leg passing”.

“It’s amazing the changes” said one of the coaches, “The changes aren’t big, but they make a lot of sense. Just angling your arms to get the ball to the target is easier and able to be repeated more consistently. I’ll start this with my new players.”

Grant Harrison, Sport Northland Coaching Lead also comments “I was pretty happy with the turnout of young coaches,” says Harrison, “in particular it is great to see the students put back into their sport at such an early stage in their playing years.  I think it certainly enhances their own playing and creates real good opportunities for others.”

For more information on Coach Development contact Sport Northland’s Coaching Lead, Grant Harrison email granth@sportnorth.co.nz