Thank you for being a reader of The Perfect Drill. Here are some supplementary materials and other resources you may find helpful in furthering your development and work as a coach. I’ve arranged them by chapter for easy reference.
Chapter 3
Skill acquisition is a substantial topic, with a few important concepts you may have already heard about. For example Blocked vs. Random vs. Game-like training. The late Carl McGown, who played a big role in introducing motor learning concepts in to volleyball, co-authored a paper in 2016 (I believe) that is worth reading. It’s title is Motor Learning Principles and the Superiority of Whole Training in Volleyball. As the title suggests, the main focus is on whole vs. part training (training a skill all together as opposed to breaking it down into parts, then trying to bring those parts together). It brings up a number of other subjects such as specificity, however, so it’s definitely worth reading. Just be prepared for a lot of academic language.
A bit easier to consume is the this Australian Swimming conference presentation by Damian Farrow. It does a really nice job of touching on a number of important skill acquisition concepts in a very accessible way. From there, you can take a deeper dive into a couple of core areas in a volleyball context through the videos on this blog post.
Here’s some Research into training hitters to attack vs. a block. And a key admonition: Don’t just cite the research, actually read and understand i
I have some additional blog posts you may find useful.
- As game-like as possible
- Player-centric doesn’t make it game-like
- Being game-like without being 6v6
- Creating Game-Like Volleyball Drills
On the subject of making drills sufficiently challenging, here are a few posts worth a read.
- Climbing Mistake Mountain
- Training must be mindful, not mindless
- Do not allow players to go on autopilot
- Repetitions v Reps (Mark Lebedew)
Turning to the topic of feedback, this video talks about the differences between Explicit vs. Implicit learning. And here are some other key things to have in mind.
- Knowing which kind of feedback to provide (positive vs. negative)
- A Major Change in My Feedback (John Kessel on intrinsic vs. extrinsic cues)
- Avoiding player feedback dependence
- The right technical feedback
I’ll throw the Psycho-Social aspect of things in here as well. Dan Abrahams is a really good one to follow in this space. I often share stuff he’s posted in my weekly newsletter. Here are some posts I’ve done around things Dan has said.
- Negative vs Positive emotion
- Some things to think about from a sport psychologist
- Thinking about their thinking, and other stuff
- You CAN influence their attitude and energy
Chapter 4
Here’s one version of the Rocks, Pebbles, Sand concept.
How to add conditioning to your volleyball practice
Here are some posts on the subject of deliberate practice:
- The Importance of Deliberate Practice in Training Sessions (Jim Stone via the JVA blog)
- Breaking down deliberate practice
- It’s not enough to just try harder
Chapter 6
Drill: Continuous Cross-Court Digging
Chapter 7
Volleyball Games: Using Bonus Points Effectively
The impact of games on development
Using competition in training, even for skill development
Chapter 8
Increasing player intensity in practice
Drill: The Hard Drill (cooperative back row drill that’s a kind of team pepper)
A Coach’s Guide to Cognitive Load Theory
Mental fatigue and focus training
Chapter 9
Chapters 10 & 11
Game: Winners (a.k.a. King/Queen of the court)
Going next level with “winners” games
Coaching from a solutions perspective
Accidentally finding a useful new scoring system
Chapter 12
Using process scoring in games
Cooperative vs. competitive for games and drills
Chapter 13
The guru effect is a real issue in coaching. It is something that came up in multiple interviews for the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project, and is specifically discussed in the Wizard Wisdom book, and its Spanish translation. Sometimes it’s a very obvious thing. You see attendees at a coaching clinic write down everything a leading coach does and says. Other times it’s more subtle. People even do it while saying they aren’t. Here’s an example of that I came across.
Chapter 14
Make sure the instructions and the feedback focus match
Setting up and sustaining your coaching focus
Volleyball Coaches – Stop talking!
The more you talk, the less they train
Book Review: The Brain Always Wins
Chapter 15
Are you a 1000-different-drills coach?
Save time by naming your volleyball drills
Volleyball Coaching Concept: Wash Drill
Thinking differently about wash scoring
Anything else?
I tried my best to anticipate where you might have a need for more info, would like an example, or simply have a desire to dig deeper, but maybe I missed something. Is there anything else from the book where you could do with more information, examples, etc.? Or is there a topic that builds from The Perfect Drill you’d like to take on next? If so, let me know via the form below.
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