Back in September of 2013 the last of my series of college program training visits was at UCLA. Interestingly, when I got to the gym ahead of their training session I found them reviewing/discussing of the book Crucial Conversations. Then assistant coach Stein Metzger told me they wanted to improve on the communication front. They felt it was a problem with the team the prior year. I haven’t read the book before myself, but it’s a best seller so clearly quite a few others have done. Might just give it a look to see what’s what.

After UCLA I had just about a week left in the States. I didn’t have any more visits scheduled. I wasn’t done with the volleyball before I headed back for England, though. The University of Wisconsin played at Pepperdine. Pepperdine is a beautiful campus (located in Malibu), so went. I happened to also know the Wisconsin coach from my days at Brown. He coached at Albany then and they came to one of our tournaments. I posted here about something I saw there.

I also went to the famous Manhattan Beach. I heard about a fantastic little Mexican food joint there. Oh, and it has a reputation for some pretty good beach volleyball action too. 🙂

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John Forman
John Forman

John is currently the Talent Strategy Manager (oversees the national teams) and Indoor Performance Director for Volleyball England, as well as Global Director for Volleyball for Nation Academy. His volleyball coaching experience includes all three NCAA divisions, plus Junior College, in the US; university and club teams in the UK; professional coaching in Sweden; and both coaching and club management at the Juniors level. He's also been a visiting coach at national team, professional club, and juniors programs in several countries. Learn more on his bio page.

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