Aggressive Volleyball is an excellent book. Full stop.
Even as an experienced coach there was plenty to get me thinking. For an inexperienced coach, or even for a player, there is loads of very useful material.
It’s probably worth noting that you might be better thinking of the “aggressive” part of the title as proactive rather than what the term normally implies. It isn’t about things like hitting or serving the ball hard so much as playing volleyball with purpose. This is as opposed to playing in a reactive fashion. To that end, there is at least as much philosophy as there is technical and tactical discussion in the text. It makes for some dense sections of the book, but ones which give the reader plenty to think about.
After the conceptual introduction, the book is broken into seven sections:
- Assessment
- Offense
- Defense
- Out-of-System/Transition Play
- Player Competitiveness
- Communication
- Match Coaching
There are collections of drills at the end of most sections (and some mentioned in the text as well), They are of the “Here’s how you can train the stuff I’ve just been talking about” variety. Where technical discussions take place, there are also photos to provide visual support. And interspersed through the book are little stories from other coaches speaking to the importance of the particular subject being explored.
I honestly think this book has something for just about everyone. OK, maybe not if you’re Russ Rose or John Cook, but for us mere mortal volleyball coaches Aggressive Volleyball is a great source of information and advice – maybe even inspiration – and reminds us of all the different facets there are to coaching volleyball successfully. It’s easy to forget them sometimes in the heat of a season. I can honestly see myself referring back to it again from time to time.
In short, get your hands on a copy, read it, and keep it handy.
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