If you haven’t already, take a look at my recap from Day 1.
This was the first day of the convention proper, and it was a busy one. I spent part of the morning working on the last elements of my presentation for Friday (Day 3), before heading over to the convention center. I attended four total education sessions.
Strategies for Coaching Success Beyond X’s and O’s by Shelton Collier. This was all about the things that can go wrong in coaching. Think of all the stuff you hear coaches complain about and/or get fired for these days. Those were the focus points of Shelton’s talk. Actually, some of it overlapped with stuff from my own presentation the next day!
Scouting: Less is More by Luka Slabe. Luka is an assistant for the USA Women’s National Team. He began the session talking about how coaches probably spend too much time scouting the opposition. Of course, he then went on to talk about the kinds of scouting the USA staff does. And, importantly, what they share with the players. A key point of the talk was the need to spend more time watching video of yourself. I wrote more about this all here.
Using Volleyball Performance Index Metrics to Improve Your Recruiting and Training by Kyle Norris. This one was about making use of the avcaVPI. I have an academic interest in the VPI, so I wanted to attend this session. It wasn’t the most exciting, but it gave me some things to think about. Essentially, a core focus was on using VPI as a developmental benchmark kind of thing for players and teams.
Rethinking Feedback: Creating More Effective and Efficient Training Environments by Harjiv Singh, with some contribution from USA Men’s National Team coach John Speraw. Singh is a PhD student in the motor learning area. This was a very technical presentation. Basically, Speraw’s job was to help with the understanding. There was some interesting stuff worth delving into more.
In every case I had to make a decision between multiple potential seminars. Guess I’m going to have to go back and listen to some recording when they go up.
I ran into a bunch more friends and contacts making my way around the event. In fact, two of them were folks I met during the first part of my EuroTrip. I didn’t know they were attending. I also met up with one of my former Exeter players who now coaches high school and juniors ball.
Had another business oriented meeting as well. Hopefully, I can talk about that later on, but not right now.
Click here to see my report on Day 3.
6 Steps to Better Practices - Free Guide
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter today and get this free guide to making your practices the best, along with loads more coaching tips and information.
