It’s always interesting to review a book written by someone you met. Coaching Volleyball Technical and Tactical Skills fits in that category. I spent some time with its author, Cecile Reynaud at the 2013 American Volleyball Coaches Association annual convention when I sat in on a committee meeting she chaired. We also spent time together at the 2015 HP Coaches Clinic. Cecile is now retired from coaching. She spent over 25 years in NCAA Division I volleyball and accumulated more than 600 wins.
A major feature of the book is a section about teaching volleyball technical skills. Obviously, this sort of thing is found in many books. Here, though, we have a couple of elements to set this one apart.
The first is the breadth of coverage. We don’t just have a look at the basic skills of serving, passing, setting, hitting, blocking, and digging. This is more specific. It goes into the various types of serves, the different types of hitting, and different ways of playing the ball defensively, among other things.
The other differentiating element is a section included with each skill. It details common errors and ways to correct them. No doubt many readers will find this quite useful. It can help diagnose and address players’ struggles.
The novelty of the book doesn’t stop there, either. The next section looks at the tactical elements of volleyball and discusses them individually. It has a sort of “…for Dummies” feel. It comes in two separate chapters. One is for the offensive side of the game, while the other is for defense. This section includes things like serving strategy, how to use a libero, varying the attacking, and defending the slide. It also features a number of other tactical decisions. Each tactical element has several key common component elements. They included reading the situation, what to watch out for, key knowledge, decision-making guidelines, self knowledge, and strengths & weaknesses of the opposition. Collectively, they offer the reader lots of things to think about in terms of tactics and implementation.
Backing up a bit, the first section of the book focuses on evaluation and teaching and includes key things to consider. There are also tools to help in evaluations. The fact that it is the shortest section (only 9 pages) gives you a good indication that the book’s main focus lies elsewhere. Still, the teaching and evaluation precursor, followed by the technical and tactical sections which follow, does set up the fourth section. That gets into the planning side of coaching. Here, key elements of developing season and individual practice plans are introduced. There are several sample practice plans provided. There is one for a season as well.
Part V of the book is the last one. It covers in-match coaching. A rather short section, it isn’t a lengthy discussion. You’ll find much more in-depth coverage of that subject and other “off the court” aspects of coaching elsewhere.
Overall, if you want a book focused on the technical and tactical elements of the game – as the title suggests – then I think Coaching Volleyball Technical and Tactical Skills is a quite good choice.
