In 2013 I attended a coaching conference run by Volleyball England. It wasn’t an educational event so much. It was more like as an opportunity to hear about where they were looking to take things. We also had the opportunity to share thoughts and ideas toward that end. For me the objective was to get a big picture view of what’s happening in the English volleyball community where coaching – and youth development, as it turns out – was concerned.
The overarching objective the V.E. folks told us they have is to create a world class volleyball coaching systems (their words, not mine). We were given handouts diagramming how coaches could progress through the various levels of certification. We talked about all that. Examples from other sports like cricket and rugby were provided. Then we broke up into little groups to generate discussion points for future consideration.
For me there was one glaring issue in the structure of volleyball coach developing in England. Namely the lack of mentorship. An educational structure is valuable, but there is nothing like learning at the side of an experienced individual. Outside of small pockets, that doesn’t seem to exist. Certainly I didn’t see much evidence of it in the South West.
Learning from those who’ve been there and done that
My own coaching career began as an assistant to the head coach of the girls’ team in my high school. Basically, I just helped out running a few drills in varsity team practices. That later extended, though, to helping out the team’s assistant coach with junior varsity training. After graduation I helped with the boys’ team as well.
Later, after a lengthy break during which I focused on playing and then my professional career, I became a part-time assistant coach at a 2-year Junior College. That was my first collegiate position. From there I moved on to assist on a full-time basis for a pair of Division I universities. I learned a massive amount from the experience.
Don’t get me wrong. I went through USA Volleyball‘s equivalent to VE’s coaching certification program (CAP). I also attended conferences and seminars, read coaching books, and watched videos by prominent collegiate coaches. Think of me as a big a sponge.
That’s not the same as seeing all those things (drills, systems, etc.) put into action by an experienced head coach, though. Even more so when you are involved in doing it yourself as an assistant coach. There’s a lot of nuance to running a team, especially when you add in an organizational structure on top of it.
And importantly, getting to work under multiple head coaches lets you see things from different perspectives. We all coach a bit differently and we all have different coaching situations. A female coach is likely to have a different approach to certain things than a male coach. Coaching for a major university is not the same as coaching for a small local school, which in turn is not the same as coaching a Juniors team.
Learning by coaching
Please be aware, though, that this is not me saying one must just be an assistant or apprentice coach. During my years coaching collegiately I was often also the head coach for Juniors teams. That allowed me to put what I was learning into practice and to start developing my own coaching style. At the same time I could bring that experience and perspective back to my work as an assistant.
And of course my own experience is not the only way one can develop as a coach. There are many examples of P.E. teachers who took on a high school team and became very good coaches with long careers teaching and coaching. You can find examples of this in the Volleyball Coaching Wizards interviews. Some of them eventually progress into the collegiate ranks and work their way up by demonstrating success.
There are also former players who moved into the coaching ranks at a lower level after their playing careers were over and started working up from there. I actually worked under two coaches who started their careers running high school teams, one of whom had previously been an All-Conference player in her own right.
There is no doubt, though, that it helps to head coach at a given level if you’ve spent some time assisting at that level. And having someone there along the way to help you navigate your way in developing your coaching knowledge and talent can only accelerate one’s development.
Putting it into practice here
All of what I said above was a major motivation for developing this website and its related social media outlets. I wanted to see a structure develop whereby coaches could learn from each other. Most especially I wanted to see a system unfold where mentoring of new coaches by experienced ones could take place.
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