This is an entry in my volleyball coaching log for the 2017-18 season.
As this post goes to press, so to speak, the team has begun its trip to Buenos Aires. Look for updates – for sure on Facebook and Twitter. I’ll eventually post something here on the blog as well, but I don’t know when. It’ll depend how things go. Definitely look for a comprehensive piece afterwards.
Preseason continued
Last update I talked about what we did through our first four days of preseason sessions. We had already planned to give the team Friday (the 5th day) off. Saturday was going to be back to two session, but we decided to add in a little more rest by dropping the morning session. It definitely seemed to pay off. We heard the players took advantage to sleep in and get some additional recovery.
In Saturday’s session we did target serving for the first time, having the players work on serving seams. We did some work on transition offense on two courts by having attackers self-toss and attack at the block and defense in a controlled fashion. That was a bit ugly, but so be it. We ended with some 6 v 6 play. It was interesting in that to note the serve reception stats were down from what we saw in the first four days. Not sure how much of that was linked to a little rust from the time off and how much might have come from better serving.
Sunday it was back to two sessions. The morning one was more technical work. We did more serving, some serve & pass, and had the setters working to get the tempo and placement right on the outside sets. We also did the Continuous Cross-Court Digging drill for the first time this year. This is something I suggested to work on our dig control as I’ve not been happy with it.
Monday featured an early practice (6-8am) because of the afternoon high school event and the needs to avoid conflicts with player classes. It was not a great session. Very sloppy. We did a combination of control and competitive exercises, concluding with 22 v 22. Honestly, none of it looked great. The only sort of positive was that our transfer Right Side was finally in training, having missed the first week. Not surprisingly, she was up and down between her own rust and having to figure out the court connections with her new teammates.
Tuesday we were off, but we were back in action on Wednesday. We did once more do split groups on Wednesday morning. The first was middles, setters, and right side attackers. They worked on blocking and setter-hitter connections. The second group was the outsides and defenders. Perhaps not surprisingly, they focused ball-handling skills. That work paid off when we had everyone together for game play in the afternoon. The passing was the best we’d seen to that point and the attack was much more fluid. It was, for me, the first time I watched our offense and could see envision where it could be this year.
Thursday and Friday were also two session days. Here, though, we made all the sessions full-team affairs. The mornings had more of a control focus, though with a bit of competition mixed in. The afternoons were straight game play almost exclusively. There’s plenty to be worked on, for sure, but we’re making nice progress toward being the sort of team we want to be this year.
High school event hosting
Monday and Tuesday we hosted I think 15 high schools playing in the opening matches of their seasons. Mostly it was varsity play, but we had a few JV and freshman fixtures mixed in as well. The deal we made with the teams was that they would cover the cost of officials, we would supply line judges and score table personnel, and we would keep the gate plus concessions.
That might not sound like a great deal for the schools, but consider a couple of things. First, a number of our alumnae are coaching at local high schools, and this event is a fund raiser for our program. Second, it’s a chance for these kids to play in our coliseum, which they might otherwise not get. We did host a high school playoff match last year (one which featured one of this year’s freshmen), but otherwise it’s not something we can often do.
Between the gate, concessions, and t-shirt sales (mainly pre-sales to teams) we netted about $6000.
Buenos Aires trip prep
After Saturday’s practice we had a team meeting. It was mainly just to go over some team stuff, but we ended it talking about trip details. Primarily, that had to do with packing and non-volleyball clothing selection. Our itinerary was still a developing thing in terms of some of the event details along the way. I did on Monday, though, send out to the players what I had to that point.
Recruiting
A 2018 prospect was on campus Friday for a visit. She’s from a state where high school season hasn’t started yet. That means she could play in with the team. NCAA rules prohibit “tryouts” during a prospect’s season.
Obviously, we won’t get much recruiting done while on our trip. Though one of the clubs in Buenos Aires has brought up the idea of player exchanges. A formal university exchange program is a necessary component for something like that, though.
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