Volleyball-- Instruction for Coaches and Teams
The Player-Centered Approach
by Coach Linda Calaicone, New York City, NY
"I'll play volleyball because it's a lot less running than cross-country and it's easier than soccer." This was a common philosophy in the minds of the volleyball players at my current school. In 2006, when I accepted the job as Head Varsity Volleyball Coach at Columbia Preparatory School in New York City, it was quite a different environment compared to where I had been. In the early 2000's, I had the opportunity to assist a State-Ranked team full of young women whose dedication was so strong it was almost tangible. Needless to say, 2006 brought some new obstacles I wasn't quite used to encountering.
Over the past 3 seasons I've searched for ways to have CP volleyball players refocus their drive to participate, increase their desire to play, and take pride in what they put they energy into. But how? How can I get them to want to be there, to want to play the sport, to want the camaraderie of their teammates and to want to learn and improve themselves? The August 2008 Issues of JOPERD (The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, Volume 79 No. 6) featured an article by Adriano DeSouza and Judy Oslin called "A Player-Centered Approach To Coaching." DeSouza and Oslin cite a myriad of research findings that support a less "Coach-Centered Approach" (CCA) to coaching and more "Player-Centered Approach" (PCA). They state that a PCA could increase your players' court engagement, communication, competence and motivation (pgs. 24 & 25). Well it was worth a shot!
The primary focus of PCA is to have players take an active role in the decision making process - less lip service from coach and more on-court critical thinking from players. DeSouza and Oslin provided tables, outlines and templates for a PCA season (which could be adapted to suit other sports). They encourage creating a safe environment for all players to share their input, even providing a "post-practice questionnaire" (pg. 27) to cultivate more authentic, relevant and realistic team assessment.
We as coaches, try not to constantly dictate when a drill will end. Coaches explain the drill, and then players start. Once the team is performing the drill with some consistency, an ending goal is decided. We, as a team, know that we can move onto a new drill; once we have performed all aspects of the current drill a specific, agreed-upon, number of successful repetitions. They count out-loud, each play that they think is successful. If the team doesn't consider it a successful repetition, the team figures out how to fix it and continues. In this simple transfer of decision-making, the team has learned to hold themselves, and each other accountable for the team's improvement. More importantly, they've raised their expectations and have begun redefining our definition of "success."
by Coach Linda Calaicone, New York City, NY
"I'll play volleyball because it's a lot less running than cross-country and it's easier than soccer." This was a common philosophy in the minds of the volleyball players at my current school. In 2006, when I accepted the job as Head Varsity Volleyball Coach at Columbia Preparatory School in New York City, it was quite a different environment compared to where I had been. In the early 2000's, I had the opportunity to assist a State-Ranked team full of young women whose dedication was so strong it was almost tangible. Needless to say, 2006 brought some new obstacles I wasn't quite used to encountering.
Over the past 3 seasons I've searched for ways to have CP volleyball players refocus their drive to participate, increase their desire to play, and take pride in what they put they energy into. But how? How can I get them to want to be there, to want to play the sport, to want the camaraderie of their teammates and to want to learn and improve themselves? The August 2008 Issues of JOPERD (The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, Volume 79 No. 6) featured an article by Adriano DeSouza and Judy Oslin called "A Player-Centered Approach To Coaching." DeSouza and Oslin cite a myriad of research findings that support a less "Coach-Centered Approach" (CCA) to coaching and more "Player-Centered Approach" (PCA). They state that a PCA could increase your players' court engagement, communication, competence and motivation (pgs. 24 & 25). Well it was worth a shot!
The primary focus of PCA is to have players take an active role in the decision making process - less lip service from coach and more on-court critical thinking from players. DeSouza and Oslin provided tables, outlines and templates for a PCA season (which could be adapted to suit other sports). They encourage creating a safe environment for all players to share their input, even providing a "post-practice questionnaire" (pg. 27) to cultivate more authentic, relevant and realistic team assessment.
We as coaches, try not to constantly dictate when a drill will end. Coaches explain the drill, and then players start. Once the team is performing the drill with some consistency, an ending goal is decided. We, as a team, know that we can move onto a new drill; once we have performed all aspects of the current drill a specific, agreed-upon, number of successful repetitions. They count out-loud, each play that they think is successful. If the team doesn't consider it a successful repetition, the team figures out how to fix it and continues. In this simple transfer of decision-making, the team has learned to hold themselves, and each other accountable for the team's improvement. More importantly, they've raised their expectations and have begun redefining our definition of "success."
