It’s match time. As coach, what should you do with yourself? That’s what the following coach wants to know.
What have you found to be the most effective area to focus your attention during a match as a coach? I’ve found that it’s easy to get distracted watching the “game” like a spectator. I was just wondering what you smart people focus on or how you are practically spending your time (charting, calling plays, whatever).
For example, as a head coach, do you spend most of your time watching the other team’s defense so you can lead the offense? Or do you spend your time watching your team to see who is doing well or losing points at X, Y, or Z?
I think a lot of us, especially early in our careers, probably found ourselves watching the game like a spectator. As you get more experienced, though, your vision changes and evolves. You learn to take things in even while watching the game as a whole.
That said, there are a couple of ways to get more out of watching from the sidelines.
Focus on your priority
What is the most important information you can provide your team during the match? This should dictate where you focus your attention. Is your team still learning its defensive responsibilities? Then you should focus more on their movement and positioning and not focus much on the other team. Do you need to help your setter with their decision making or your hitters with finding ways to score? Then you likely need to focus more attention on how the opposition is setting up their block and defense.
You may even have situations where you need to focus on just one player. Maybe there is an injury question. Maybe you are worried about their mentality. This usually isn’t something you do for long periods, but it can be very important for the team’s performance overall.
This isn’t to say you can only watch one thing. I’m merely suggesting that you should give more of your attention to that area of the court which will give you the information you need to provide your players.
Taking stats
If you don’t have another source of statistics, then taking at least some of them during a match can be quite helpful. The trick is being able to do so while also giving enough attention to what’s happening on the court. I personally have always struggled when a head coach to also take stats – even end of rally type stuff. I always feel like I’m missing something when I have to turn my attention away from the court, however briefly. You may find it easier.
Regardless, you must decide what information would be helpful during the match and not worry about stuff you could later pull from the video. You also want to make taking those stats as simple as possible, and that you are able to reference and interpret them at a glance.
Delegating
If you are a head coach then maybe you can delegate part of what needs to be watched to someone else – assistant coach, parent, etc. Statistics especially can be delegated quite easily. You just have to provide very specific and clear instructions on what you want collected and in what format you want to see it. For example, if you have someone take serve reception stats, make sure they know exactly how to score each pass.
At some levels assistant coaches are responsible for certain parts of the game. One may watch the block and defense. One may focus on the offense. This allows the head coach to focus wherever they think is most important at the time, while still collecting other information.
Avoiding Overload
One thing to make sure to avoid is overloading your players. This can happen when multiple people are telling them different things. This can also happen when you give the team too many different things to focus on. Players – individually and collectively – can only keep so many things in mind. And the less experienced the players the lower than threshold is. Keep this in mind both as you prioritize your focus, or what you delegate, and in information transmission.
Overload applies to you as coach also. If you try to look at too many things you’ll probably not actually take in anything meaningful. In that case you’re back to being a spectator.
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One Response
Really enjoyed reading this article. I’m in concurrence with your information. Now club is a lot different than college and high school. Normally most programs have only one coach and it’s a challenge to cover what one deams priority. As you stated I pick one thing and if that is going well and the team is following, I can pick another specific area.
Our high school program with four coaches have specific priorities during a match. When a time out is called or side changes then coaches can address their specific focus with individuals they need to communicate with. The head coach beside his focus to address the overall progress. What I like is that he will turn to one of the other coaches and ask, for their overall input. We know to be on the same page and focus only on the specific of our segment focus. I have game plan (tactics) and setters. So my team input is only on those issues.We don’t want to put out too much info because the team will have too much to address.
We have been complement by opponent coaches, fans, and officials how we look as a staff. Winning back to back state championships seems to say we are doing a good job as a staff. One sports writer stated after this year’s championship, ‘The coaching staff keeps the team flowing. Everyone seems to know what they are suppose to be doing at the right time. [Opponent Name] had no clue in how to respond. Coaching staff looked confused as the the couldn’t mount a offense or defense.’
Keep ’em coming as I enjoy all postings.