This is an entry in my volleyball coaching log.

The team played last year’s league champs at their place not knowing exactly what we were going to see. I’d been told they had a very limited squad in terms of numbers, which proved to be the case. Still, they had a couple useful players, so it wasn’t like a team of scrubs.

The match was a decidedly mixed bag. We won the first set easily, and had a hitting efficiency of over .500. We hit slightly negative after that, though, largely because we weren’t getting enough kills. The opposition gets part of the credit for playing good defense. We loss the second set after falling behind early. I had some concerns about the team’s mentality crumbling during a frustrating stretch. They did enough, though, to claw their way to a win in the deciding set. Winning in this fashion might just be the sort of result that gets them over the mental hump.

Our defense was solid and our serving game created all kinds of problems for the opposition. Unfortunately, we just weren’t able to put that to good use. We couldn’t turn those free balls and down balls in to points, and that’s something we need to fix. Getting faster in the middle and working in some other things for OH and OPP to go more aggressively at the opposition. Unfortunately, we have Student Cup play on Saturday before our next training session on Monday.

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John Forman
John Forman

John is currently the Talent Strategy Manager (oversees the national teams) and Indoor Performance Director for Volleyball England, as well as Global Director for Volleyball for Nation Academy. His volleyball coaching experience includes all three NCAA divisions, plus Junior College, in the US; university and club teams in the UK; professional coaching in Sweden; and both coaching and club management at the Juniors level. He's also been a visiting coach at national team, professional club, and juniors programs in several countries. Learn more on his bio page.

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