This entry is not about the DWU program it is for all athletes and coaches to help get yourselves on the same page for your upcoming season.
As I have gone through my years of coaching many different divisions of college volleyball and coaching high school players at teams at summer of camps. I keep looking at some of the differences between those programs that annually seem to be at the top of their game and achieve their goals. Of course all of us know that talent and skill development are a big factor in successful programs. How do we ensure that there is going to be quality development of talent and skill? I have found that for most teams that struggled with quality development there was a lack of leadership throughout the team. This lack of leadership came from both the coaching staff and players. In recent years I have started to get rid of the phrase "team captain" from our program. I wanted it to be more specific and more responsible and accountable sounding so we call them "team leaders". We want these people to lead the rest of the team in the right direction for accomplishing all of our goals on and off the court.
However, it is a learning process for both coaches and players. There are natural leaders out there as well as those that need to be nudged into leaders but for both those leadership skills have to be discovered and then developed. One thing I am still learning is to be specific with my leaders as to what I truly want from them. What their responsibilities are and how to get them to follow through with handling their responsibilities. A lot of times us as coaches just seem to say "be a leader". I have taken responsibility for not leading or teaching my "leaders" how to lead. I look back and past seasons and sometimes realize that all I said to my team or leaders was, "figure it out" or "you need to be a better leader". Unfortunately it is not that simple (oh how we wish it were) young athletes need direction so that they can give direction.
I have put a major focus this summer in learning about how to develop great leaders for my team. I want to develop responsible and respected team leaders. Here are some of the things we will be looking for out of our team leaders this upcoming season:
* We set high standards and hold teammates accountable to follow the rules
* Inspire teammates to work hard, overcome obstacles, and stay focused
* Refocus teammates when they are distracted, down, and discouraged
* Minimize and manage team conflicts, cliques, and problems
* Encourage teammates to act responsibly on and off the court
There are many styles of leadership out there. Every single person can be a leader in their own way. It does not only have to be seniors either. The greatest quality I have seen in the best leaders is their demand (in a positive way) for excellence from their teammates on and off the court.
I wish all of you the absolute best with your upcoming seasons and I look forward to updating you on the DWU Volleyball Program as we begin our journey for a GPAC Conference Championship.
-Coach V
July 24, 2009
July 2, 2009
Summer of Volleyball
Hello everyone,
I hope your summer is going well and that you are getting plenty of sun in your days. If you are getting a lot of time outside and getting a tan on a daily basis, I'm jealous of you. I have not had too many opportunities to spend extended time in the sun but when I do I take full advantage. You may be asking, "Coach why are not getting outside in this wonderful time of the year that often?" I have been coaching camps for the entire month of June and therefore have been inside a building all of the time. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the camps I have done so far.
My staff and I have already been to 6 high schools in the month of June teaching them some advanced methods of team and individual play. We also have hosted a Youth Camp and Team Camp at DWU in June. We have had great responses from all of the coaches and players that have gone through the camps so far. There is nothing like seeing young athletes improve in multiple areas of their game in such a short amount of time. We still have another 5 camps in July that we are anxious and excited about. With all of our camps we will have traveled to Northeast SD, Southern SD, Southwest SD, Minneapolis, MN, and quite a few schools around Mitchell, SD.
We have coached camps for a wide variety of teams this summer ranging from State champions to teams that have relatively new programs. Everyone is looking for some advantage above the competition and we given each team a little something that can focus on to help them achieve their goals. I hope all of you are taking the time to improve your personal game, whether it be physically or mentally. Being mentally tough to handle the ups and downs of a season is a very important part of being a top tier athlete.
My last part of this entry is to invite all of you to take some time and watch our USA Men's National Team compete in the World League. The USA team is the defending champions of the World League and Olympics; they are defending these titles with a relatively new team. They are going with younger new players in preparation for the 4 year process for the Olympics. They are still extremely talented and gifted as athletes and volleyball players. We are being given a great opportunity over the next few weekends to watch this great level of competitive volleyball on TV. The matches are shown on ESPN2 & ESPNU. I watched the match from this past weekend and felt lucky to see a 5 set match win by the USA over the Netherlands. This upcoming Saturday they play against Italy in an important matchup with their pool match is being shown today on ESPNU at 1pm or 3 pm and this Saturday at 11am on ESPN2. I will be DVRing it on Saturday to watch on Sunday; oh the great beauty of DVR, lol. They do show the matches in the evenings during week occasionally as well. On July 14th the match vs. China will be shown on ESPN2.
I hope everyone continues to get plenty of sun and enjoying their summer. I will be doing another post later on in July to recap our camps and setup our preseason camp for the fall season. I wish all of you a great 4th of July.
-Coach V
I hope your summer is going well and that you are getting plenty of sun in your days. If you are getting a lot of time outside and getting a tan on a daily basis, I'm jealous of you. I have not had too many opportunities to spend extended time in the sun but when I do I take full advantage. You may be asking, "Coach why are not getting outside in this wonderful time of the year that often?" I have been coaching camps for the entire month of June and therefore have been inside a building all of the time. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the camps I have done so far.
My staff and I have already been to 6 high schools in the month of June teaching them some advanced methods of team and individual play. We also have hosted a Youth Camp and Team Camp at DWU in June. We have had great responses from all of the coaches and players that have gone through the camps so far. There is nothing like seeing young athletes improve in multiple areas of their game in such a short amount of time. We still have another 5 camps in July that we are anxious and excited about. With all of our camps we will have traveled to Northeast SD, Southern SD, Southwest SD, Minneapolis, MN, and quite a few schools around Mitchell, SD.
We have coached camps for a wide variety of teams this summer ranging from State champions to teams that have relatively new programs. Everyone is looking for some advantage above the competition and we given each team a little something that can focus on to help them achieve their goals. I hope all of you are taking the time to improve your personal game, whether it be physically or mentally. Being mentally tough to handle the ups and downs of a season is a very important part of being a top tier athlete.
My last part of this entry is to invite all of you to take some time and watch our USA Men's National Team compete in the World League. The USA team is the defending champions of the World League and Olympics; they are defending these titles with a relatively new team. They are going with younger new players in preparation for the 4 year process for the Olympics. They are still extremely talented and gifted as athletes and volleyball players. We are being given a great opportunity over the next few weekends to watch this great level of competitive volleyball on TV. The matches are shown on ESPN2 & ESPNU. I watched the match from this past weekend and felt lucky to see a 5 set match win by the USA over the Netherlands. This upcoming Saturday they play against Italy in an important matchup with their pool match is being shown today on ESPNU at 1pm or 3 pm and this Saturday at 11am on ESPN2. I will be DVRing it on Saturday to watch on Sunday; oh the great beauty of DVR, lol. They do show the matches in the evenings during week occasionally as well. On July 14th the match vs. China will be shown on ESPN2.
I hope everyone continues to get plenty of sun and enjoying their summer. I will be doing another post later on in July to recap our camps and setup our preseason camp for the fall season. I wish all of you a great 4th of July.
-Coach V
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