This is an entry in my volleyball coaching log for the 2017-18 season.
This was a rather choppy week thanks to a variety of factors.
Monday
The team did their morning workout with the Strength Coach. Because of some availability issues, and me not feeling particularly well, I cancelled group sessions. This was roundly applauded by the team. 😀
Tuesday
We had another 2019 recruit on campus. Unfortunately, our practice session was a pretty poor one. Balls were dropping between players. There was a lack of readiness. Basically, the little things just didn’t get done. If we didn’t have the visitors (recruit’s mom was there too), there would have been some sharp words coming out of my mouth. As it was, though, the players recognized at the end that it wasn’t good enough. They said so in our final huddle before I even opened my mouth. So there was that bright spot.
The practice itself started with 3-player over-the-net pepper, followed by some serving. Then we did rounds of 3s Neville Pepper. First it was back row only, then we allowed front row attacking. The rest of the session was given over to 5 v 5 play. We started with 3 up/2 back playing 22 v 22 for four games, allowing for the OHs to flip between front and back row. The last game was 2 up/3 back normal play.
Wednesday
No practice on this day. The team had morning strength training, but the annual sports banquet meant no volleyball.
Every team had honorees for Best Teammate (voted by the team) and top academic marks. Our sophomore setter garnered both awards. The Student Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) moved to introduce a new award the year, which they dubbed the Maverick of the Year. Think of it as the Newcomer of the Year. One female and one male were selected, and our sophomore transfer OPP was one of the winners.
There’s a big final award that is essentially the Student-Athlete of the Year. It takes into account academics and community service, along with athletic performance. Each team’s coaching staff nominated a member of the squad. Tuesday morning I had to record a video about our nominee, which was our senior setter. That makes two years in a row as our selection, but no joy.
Thursday
This session was abbreviated for a couple of reasons. Between that and the fact that we only had one other practice up to this point I wanted to make it a higher tempo session. We started off with something new to get them moving and to give them a new challenge. That was the 2 v 2 side switch game. It served it’s purpose well, as they were definitely sweating at the end and I saw some good thinking about how to win.
From there we moved on to doubles Speedball on about a 2/3rds width court. There were two teams to a side and we played a combined side scoring game to 25.
After a couple of minutes of serving, the next exercise was a 4 v 4 game played using dig-or-die scoring. We played two games to 8. In the first one we started each rally with coaches initiating balls across the net on an alternating basis. To up the challenge some in the second game, we changed the ball initiation. This time the winner of the prior rally received a bounced ball and had two contacts remaining.
We had time for one more game after the second dig-or-die, so we put in 5 v 5 game, 2-up/3-back. I opted for ladder scoring, so if a team reached 24 and failed to win their score reset to 19. Serves initiated play.
Friday
Back on the sand for this session. I had to change things up due to player injury and absence issues. As a result, we only ran a single group rather than the two group structure of the prior two sessions. I kept the same Neville Pepper base, but shifted to triples rather than doubles, with four players rotating on the challenge side.
Strength & Conditioning
This was the last really training week for the team in this regard. Next week they do their year-end jump and lifting tests.
Recruiting
It was the last big recruiting tournament for us on Saturday and Sunday – the Lone Star national qualifier in Dallas. The event started on Friday, but because we had team practice we didn’t leave until after that. That meant missing the first day.
Community service
Saturday was the last of our community service dates for the year. Since we coaches were off recruiting, the players were on their own.
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