I mentioned a couple weeks ago on social media that I’d committed to attending this year’s USA Volleyball High Performance coaching clinic next month at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. The clinic fee is extremely reasonable when you consider it comes with room and board. The big expense for me is the travel from England. Ouch!
Actually, it was the prospects of developing news contacts that ended up being the bigger factor in my decision to commit to the cost. The educational side of things is important, of course, but right now I’m in the middle of trying to get myself back into full-time coaching, as I’ve been documenting in my job hunt log. Contacts could come in quite handy in that respect. In fact, one of the head coaches whose assistant position I’ve put in for is a clinic presenter (though I would imagine she’ll have finished the search by then).
Anyway, the other day I got the schedule for the event, which covers an evening and two full days. It looks like this:
Thursday (Feb 5th)
| 18:00-18:40 | Welcome and Opening Remarks | |
| 18:40-19:40 | Flashback to Fourteen | Women’s and Men’s national team staffs, Women’s Junior and Girls’ youth national team staffs |
| 19:45-21:30 | Welcome Social |
Friday (Feb 6th)
| 8:00-9:10 | What Does it mean to Play Well? Blocking | Julio Velasco |
| 9:15-10:15 | First Things First: The Competitive Power of Serve Receive | Laurent Tille |
| 10:15-10:40 | Small group topic discussions | |
| 10:45-12:15 | Game On | Steve Shenbaum |
| 13:15-14:15 | Promoting More Process: Bingo with the National Team | Karch Kiraly |
| 14:15-15:15 | Getting the Most Out of Your Practice: Practice Planning and Motor Learning | Jamie Morrisson |
| 15:20-15:40 | Small group topic discussions | |
| 15:55-16:40 | Mindfulness and Performance | Mark Aoyagi |
| 16:45-17:40 | Same Continent, Different Coaches: Playing for Team USA Over the Decades | Stacy Sykora, Tracy (Stalls) Insalaco, Christa Dietzen, Kayla Barnworth |
Saturday (Feb 7th)
| 8:00-9:05 | Structure and Spirit in Defense | Laurent Tille |
| 9:10-10:10 | High Performance Championship Team and Technique Training | Rod Wilde and Shelton Collier |
| 10:10-10:30 | Small group topic discussions | |
| 10:45-11:30 | A Legacy of Success – Program Development Across Cultures | Julio Velasco |
| 11:35-12:20 | Volleyball Decision Making: Combining the Art and the Science | Joe Trinsey, Nate Ngo, Jesse Tupac |
| 12:25-13:10 | Collegiate National Team Training | Bill Neville |
| 14:15-15:15 | Scouting to Win: Developing Strategies in Match Preparation | Jim Stone, Tom Hogan, Lindsey Devine, Brook Coulter, Erin Virtue |
| 15:15-16:15 | What Does it Mean to Play Well? Offense | Julio Velasco |
| 16:15-16:35 | Small group topic discussions | |
| 16:45-17:25 | The French Touch: Practice Organization the French Way | Laurent Tille |
| 17:25-18:10 | Empowering Your Staff | Karch Kiraly, Doug Beal, Jim Stone, Tom Hogan |
| 19:30-23:30 | Attendee Social |
Pretty intense, eh?
Along with the official socials and the small group discussions, there are the shared meals and Friday night to spend time with fellow attendees. Should be an interesting couple of days.
Naturally, I will provide a full report. 🙂
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