Here are two non-volleyball books I listened too that I think can have value to volleyball coaches. Neither is very long, especially if you play them at 1.5 speed as I did. I think I got through each in just about a day’s worth of commuting. At least when I purchased them, they were also inexpensive. The two books have very different aims, but both offer useful prompts for coaching practice.
The Science of Rapid Skill Acquisition (Peter Hollins)
This book occupies the cognitive-science/learning-theory space: how people build skills quickly, what supports retention, and how to structure practice to maximize transfer. For volleyball coaches, three themes stand out.
1. Constraints that accelerate learning
Hollins emphasizes purposeful friction. That’s practice environments that make the learner adapt rather than repeat. This echoes the shift many coaches are making toward game-based, representational training. The book offers a clear explanation of why constraints work, making it a good resource for coaches still transitioning away from blocked, low-information drills.
2. Designing reps that matter
The distinction between activity and learning is a recurring theme. Hollins frames deliberate practice in a pragmatic way: narrow the focus, shorten the loop between action and feedback, and keep the difficulty at the edge of competence. This aligns well with session-design decisions such as modifying serve-receive starting positions, altering transition rules, or adjusting scoring to sharpen specific behaviors.
3. Managing cognitive load
The discussion of mental bandwidth – how much a learner can process at once – is particularly relevant for technical refinement under pressure. Hollins’ guidance supports the idea that coaches should avoid over-loading athletes with layered instructions during live play. Instead, isolate one or two priorities within a game context and let repetition handle the rest.
It’s a digestible, evidence-rooted primer on how humans actually learn, rather than how we assume they learn. Coaches with experience in constraints-led or ecological approaches won’t find anything radically new, but the framing is clean and useful.
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 (Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves)
This book is older, and the commercial layer around the EQ assessment feels dated and may turn some readers off. If you can overlook that (and it’s mainly early on and toward the end), the core chapters are useful. Here are some key themes.
1. Self-awareness as a precursor to communication
The authors frame emotional awareness not as introspection for its own sake, but as a prerequisite for consistent behavior. In the gym, this maps directly to recognizing your own emotional patterns – when you become directive, when you become passive, when frustration leaks into your tone – and how those patterns affect athlete learning and confidence.
2. Regulating responses under stress
For coaches, this is where the book still has real utility. Practical techniques for slowing reactions, re-framing in the moment, and avoiding impulsive corrections are highly applicable during matches and high-tempo sessions. Many coaches intellectually understand restraint. The book provides specific behavioral handles that help make it operational.
3. Reading social cues within the team
While somewhat simplified, the sections on social awareness provide a useful lens for observing team temperature – who’s shutting down, who’s escalating, and how interactions shift under pressure. Coaches who are strong technically but still developing group-dynamics intuition may find these chapters particularly valuable.
4. Relationship management as a coaching skill
The book’s emphasis on consistent, intentional relationship maintenance aligns well with long-term player development. Small patterns – predictable feedback, reliable follow-through, genuinely listening before correcting – lead to trust. Even if the examples feel corporate, the principles do translate to coaching.
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