2010 USA Volleyball Girls’ Junior National Championships in Reno!

After 10 years since the last Big event in Junior Volleyball, is once again host by Reno Nevada for the USA Volleyball Girls’ Junior National Championships and USA Volleyball Boys’ Junior National Championships which Formerly was USA Junior Olympic Girls’ Volleyball Championships, and now USA Volleyball has renamed its junior events

This 31st Annual Event will be participating around nearly 9,500 athletes annually to the event hosted by USA Volleyball. “With participants representing all 50 states, this prestigious sporting event is significant for the region” said Ellen Oppenheim, RSCVA president and CEO

This biggest little city offers wide variety of entertainment, like outdoors events that can enjoy parents and compatitors and is bolstering by USA Volleyball with the quality of the event for share a nice moment Family-Team without lose sense play, further a International airport located 17 minutes just from Championship’s facilities

A tournament that it will show out a category high level competition and more endeavour add that there will be hundreds of college recruiters looking for the next top players for their programs.

The competition is being held @ the Reno-Sparks Convention Center,
June 24 to July 3

Articles provided by:

R. Dinarte

The Number One Key to a Successful Club Season: Team Chemistry

We are reaching the point in the upcoming club season where the teams are being formed, the practice and tournament schedules are being set, and practices have either already begun or will shortly. As a coach, things are now settling down and it’s time to start getting the team ready for competition. Your focus turns to what offense and defense to run, how you will serve receive, and what your best lineup will be. Unfortunately, if this is as far as your focus goes, I feel you are overlooking one of the most important components to leading your team through a successful season: team chemistry.

How many times have you, or a coaching colleague of yours, painstakingly went through the paces of assembling a team that will do very well – only to struggle through a very frustrating season while watching your team simply not “click” as you figured they would?

This happens all the time, and usually at the end of season the less than satisfactory results are simply written off- “They just didn’t play well together”, or “They just didn’t get along” are a couple of rationalizing explanations that will be repeated across the country many times come the summer.

Yes, we have limited time to work with our teams, We only see them a couple times a week at most, and many feel there just isn’t time to implement the team building strategies that we might normally use during a school season. But I ask you: What good does it do to fine tune your team offensively and defensively, drill their passing, and put hours into finding the best serve receive to fit your talent, if your players don’t gel and play together as one unit-focusing on a common goal?

You see, we bring these young ladies together from different programs, different backgrounds, different approaches to the game and then simply expect all the pieces to fit together perfectly-without making sure they are all on the same page in terms of the approach this new team of theirs is taking. Many times, it comes down to trying to fit a square peg into a round hole!

Coaches: If you truly want to give your team the best chance at reaching their potential this club season, if you truly want to see them bear the fruits of the seeds you plant-you need to take the time to guide them through growing into one cohesive unit. At “Yes, I Can!” we call this building “team synergy”. Synergy means, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. Focus on developing the “power” your girls can produce when playing as one. In the long run, you’ll find that they will play harder and with more focus because they are playing together as one tight unit-each one doing everything they can to help the “whole team” succeed. Besides, it also makes the entire season much more fun for everyone involved-which is the exact reason your girls are playing club anyway-they love to have fun playing our great game!

Give the following steps to building team chemistry a try, or dig into your own arsenal of team building ideas. In the long run, both you and your players will be very glad you did!

TEN KEYS TO DEVELOPING TEAM CHEMISTRY

1. Develop a questionnaire each girl must fill out about themselves. Include questions like favorite food, music group, current and dream boyfriend, favorite hobby (besides volleyball), future career goals, favorite pet peeve-you get the idea. Collect them and read them aloud to the group-have them guess who each one is and write down their choices-then go through and identify each person and ask them to elaborate on their most interesting responses.

2. Run a lot of team oriented goal drills with a consequence for not reaching the goal. But also add a team prize for achieving a certain number of the goals-like a team pizza party, or subtracting a certain number of minutes from a practice-or skipping a hated conditioning drill.

3. Schedule a fun team outing-and make sure everyone can go-maybe take them to the movies, or bowling, etc.

4. Run the Findlay Progressive Drill:

-Findlay Progressive

Format:

This is a progressive drill, you will start with three players per side and at least three more per side ready to rotate in. Eventually you will advance to a full six on six setup.

Setup:

-Three players per side: a setter, left back, and left front.

-At least three more players per side ready to rotate in.

-One coach is needed with a ball cart with at least 12 balls-positioned off the court at the ten foot line (on either side).

-Allow at least 25-30 minutes to complete.

-How it works:

-The coach puts each new ball into play with a free ball toss into the opposite court.

-Each side must keep the rally going with a three contact series that ends with a controlled over hand attack from the strong side that is played successfully on the other side.

-All players count out loud the successive number of attacks after each successful one.

-Each time a side sends a ball over the net they rotate LB to LF, LF to the end of the line on the other side. (The setter stays put).

NOTE: Once the progression reaches five players per side the players rotate only on their side of the court.

-The Goal:

-A specific number of contacts that must be achieved is set at the start of the drill. (We use 15). A specific number of free balls is also set to achieve the 15 (for example) attacks. (We use 5) If the number of successful attacks is not reached in the given number of free balls the drill starts again.

-Each time the goal is reached another player is added to each side, in this order: CB, RB, RF. (Once a player has been added they are never removed.)

-Once the 15 good attacks has been reached with five players on the court, a six on six 25 point rally game is played. The side getting the free ball to start each play should be switched every five points.

-Hints:

-Stress to the players that any ball close to in bounds should be played.

-Even if a ball can not be sent over with an overhand attack on the third contact, the players should do everything possible to keep the ball alive. (Remember, they only get 5 balls to reach the goal of 15).

-The players must practice controlled attacks.

-Designate a consequence for losing the 25 point rally game-such as pushups, etc.

-Variations:

Vary the number of attacks played and the number of free balls to achieve the goal according to your team’s level of play.

-Rationale:

This is an excellent drill for ball control, sticking together in pressure situations and handling frustration. At first they will get frustrated and start to get on each other- guide them to realize they must stay calm and together to achieve their goal. The first time I used this was at the camp Findlay U. did for us this summer-and it took the girls quite awhile to get to the rally score game. They will feel a great sense of accomplishment when they succeed in getting to the game. The game serves as the reward- because all players love to play games in practice!

5. Do “The Focus Circle” before each match:

The Focus Circle: Have the girls sit down in a circle before the match and hold hands (if this is a problem for them point out the NFL defensive players hold hands in their huddles between plays). Tell them to think of something the person to their right needs to focus on in the match to come to be successful-give them a minute or so to think of something. Then pick someone to start and have them turn to the person to their right and tell them what they want them to focus on in the match (hopefully it’ll be something you have been trying to get this girl to do). Tell them it must be something specific. They then proceed around the circle until they are finished. When the last person finishes have them finish with your team cheer-or some other cheer you want them to do. Then during the match when things get shaky remind them to focus on what their teammate asked them to do-this can be between plays or during a time-out. At some time you may want to throw in that if they don’t do as they are asked they are putting themselves before the team-thus being selfish. No one wants to think of themselves as being “selfish”.

6. Have them sit down together and develop a set of team goals for the season. Have a team list put together and posted at your practice site. Encourage them to add color and design to this list. Then before the start of each tournament, review the team goals and identify specific mini-goals to be focused on during the day. During the breaks in the schedule, re-visit these “goals of the day” and evaluate what is being achieved and how-and also what needs to be given a greater team focus in the next match.

7. Play competitive team warm-up games at the beginning of practice. Pick the teams yourself and integrate the returning and new players. Place a reward or consequence on the outcome of the game-such as pushups or sit-ups.

8. Have the girls get together and colorfully decorate your team balls-making sure to include something that identifies the balls as belonging to your team. This also helps to ensure you won’t lose a ball at a tournament-no one wants to take home a ball that clearly belongs to another team.

9. Ask the parents to volunteer to schedule a series of team dinners-or possibly just take turns picking up the check for taking the team out to eat. There is tremendous team bonding in food!!

10. Be quick to point out, whenever the team does well, how each team member contributed to the “team win”.

Articles provided by:

Dave Cross National Director
Yes I Can Volleyball

A Unique Method for Improving Skill Performance

Recently our club just wrapped up another ten session skills clinic. As usual, I directed it and ran one of the courts myself. During one of the last sessions, we were teaching the girls what we call the “cobra tip”.

Basically, it is a disguised attack where the key is to “camouflage” the tip as long as possible by keeping the attack hand up high and behind the head as long as possible, then pushing the hand straight forward to tip the ball with a “cobra” strike type motion. When perfected, it is a very effective skill.

We were teaching this skill to middle school aged players and, no matter how many times we explained and demonstrated the skill, the majority were having a hard time keeping the attack hand back behind the head long enough to disguise the upcoming tip.

So I decided to use a different approach to get them to understand. I’ve used this approach many times over the years with great success and I thought I’d share it with you today.

I told the girls to pull their hand far enough back behind their head that it “felt weird or stupid”, to them.

Immediately, they all started performing the skill much better. As usual, this unique approach worked like a charm, and here’s why:

Without getting all scientific on you here, the basic concept involves how the brain controls movement patterns. When an athlete makes the decision to move in a particular way, the brain sends out signals to the muscles involved to make the movement happen.

The key here is that the brain has to learn the specific signals to send out to command the muscles to move correctly so that the specific movement pattern can be performed correctly. This is accomplished by a repeated trial and error process until the exact movement pattern is found and done over and over until it becomes an automatic response.

This is easy to observe happening in athletics. Whenever an athlete is learning a new skill, and thus a new movement pattern, the movements appear slow and calculated. This is because they are consciously thinking about the movements to be performed, and the brain is trying to figure out what to tell the muscles to do. As the athlete “learns” the skill the movements become more fluid and automatic- because the movement pattern is becoming more and more ingrained in the body. Once the skill is learned, it becomes totally automatic and the athlete only has to consciously think of the movement and it is performed automatically. Just watch an accomplished high school hitter attack a ball, and then compare it to a young, novice player and the difference becomes very obvious.

Ok, so what does this have to do with telling a player to make a movement feel “weird” or “stupid”?

Whenever we try to get a player to change a movement pattern, (like keeping their hand way back until the last moment when tipping), they have to “consciously” think about the movement being performed-because it hasn’t been adequately learned enough to be performed automatically.

What they are doing is “forcing” their body to move in a way it’s not trained to. When this happens, the brain is forced to figure out the new movement pattern the player is trying to perform, causing a sensation of confusion. When this happens, this “confusion” is interpreted as feeling “stupid” or “weird”.

So, when you tell a player to move in a certain way so that it feels “stupid/weird”, they are breaking the old movement pattern and beginning to learn the new desired one. As the repeatedly perform the new movement pattern the brain starts to learn what instructions it should send to the muscles and the sensation of confusion slowly dissipates, and therefore, so does that “stupid/weird” feeling.

This method works like a charm in teaching a player to change skill execution. Look, you don’t even have to understand the science behind it, and neither do they. Just get them to perform the movement that produces the “stupid/weird” feeling. When they acknowledge that’s what they are feeling, reinforce that feeling as being a good thing by connecting that feeling to the fact they just performed the skill correctly.

For example, when one of the players would perform the cobra tip correctly for the first time, I would say to them, “Felt weird”, (or stupid), “Didn’t it?” They will always confirm that it did (many times with a funny look on their face). Then you simply tell them, “that’s good, keep making it feel that way-you’re doing the skill right now.”

This is so easy to do, and such an effective way of getting a player to change and improve how they are performing a skill when the usual methods of explanation and demonstration just aren’t working, that you’ve simply got to give it a try.

You’ll be glad you did-and so will your players!!

Good Luck!!

Articles provided by:

Dave Cross National Director
Yes I Can Volleyball

The “Big Match” Game Plan: BE SMART COACH!

As we reach late October, many teams across the nation are approaching huge, season-determining matches. As a coach in a situation like this, you have to be smart, and careful to not “over coach”.

In most cases, you have either played your opponent before, or you’ve at least scouted them once or maybe even twice.
You know their strengths and weaknesses. You know their tendencies-and of course, you have to prepare your team for these.

And many times you will be tempted to try something you’ve never done before to counteract what your opponent does, or attack what they can’t do. This is where you need to be smart-and careful.

There is a fine-line between preparing a solid game-plan to win, and over-coaching and hurting your team’s chances.

PREPARING A SOLID GAME PLAN:

Follow these keys in your preparation and you are being “smart”:

1. Has you team executed what you want to do successfully in match conditions before? Or have you had time to throw in a post-season scrimmage against a quality opponent to work on your strategy?

2. Can you implement your game plan WITHOUT taking away from what your team does well? Does your game plan keep your players in situations that allow them to execute their strengths? Or, have you taken away your own teams strengths to matchup against your opponents strengths? Are your changes going to give up enough points that it makes your changes a “wash”-even if your team executes your plan well?

3. Is your team confident in your plan? Are they experienced enough at implementing changes to their normal game to do what you want under pressure?

4. And finally, if your plan starts to fail, are you in a position to adjust back to what you normally do? Or have you changed your normal approach so much that getting out of your new plan is impossible until you lose the first game? And, are you confident that if you do lose game one, that your team can adjust back and even the match up?

Coaches: Unless you are totally over matched and know you have very little chance of pulling off the win unless you do something drastic, stick to your teams strengths and make sure any adjustments you do implement still give your team the opportunity to do what has gotten them to this big match.

Making too many changes from what your team does well rarely works, coach. This is where you really need to be “smart”.

AVOID THESE RED FLAGS OF “OVER COACHING”:

1. Changing your base defense to something other that what your players have been doing well all season. Team defense is all about reading and reacting aggressively. If you put them in situations they are not familiar with, they will start thinking too much-and there goes their aggressiveness right out the window!

2.. Making big changes in your offensive plays/alignments. Executing an offense is all about confidence and timing. If you change or add too much new stuff you are taking away from what got you to this match. And again, if they aren’t confident, they won’t be aggressive, and their timing will suffer.

3. Putting in a plan your players simply aren’t confident in. If they aren’t confident-well, there goes that aggressiveness again. When was the last time you saw a team win a big match if they weren’t playing aggressively?

4. Implementing anything because you know you will have to have it in place for the “next opponent” down the road. What if it hurts you in this match-and you never get to that “next opponent”? If you don’t need it to win now-keep it in “your pocket”, unless you really have the match in hand. And, even in this case, why “tip your hand” to those scouts in the stands?

Finally: Please, please, please be aware of your “coaching ego”. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen coaches implement things that would work, IF their players had the ability to execute them successfully-but it’s obvious they don’t.

Seriously, what good does it do to show what “you know”, if your team simply can’t execute it? Absolutely NONE!!

Be SMART, coach:

1. Prepare your team to do what they do best, what they are confident in.

2. Only make adjustments to counteract what your opponent does well that stay within your own successful scheme.

3. Get your players believing in your plan.

Then go at it, and let the chips fall where they may!

Good Luck!

Articles provided by:

Dave Cross National Director
Yes I Can Volleyball

A Fundamental Progression to Improve Passing at Any Level

At our camps we use the following progression to teach passing, no matter the experience level or talent of the players. Of course, how much time we spend on the following is dictated by the passing prowess of the players. However, I have never conducted a camp where the passing fundamentals of even the most experienced players could not be improved with a little more focus on technique. Typically, the better the players pass when we begin, the faster we run the drills, as most players passing accuracy decreases as their speed to the ball increases.

This passing progression has improved the passing accuracy of every team I have ever worked with, so… here we go:

THE STANCE:

-Feet wider than shoulders with rt. foot slightly in front of left (big toe on lt. foot lines up to instep of rt. foot)

-Ankles flexed or bent forward so that weight is on front of feet and heels feel like they are barely touching the floor. (This will cause their knees to bend naturally-but telling them to “bend their knees” will not guarantee their weight is on the front part of their feet.)

-Hands waist high with elbows bent in front of hips, palms facing each other.

-Hips up, shoulders forward, so that the back is flat and parallel to the floor.

Tip: You do not not want them to bring their heals off the floor in their stance. USA Volleyball did a study awhile back and concluded that if the heals are off the floor in the ready position, the first thing that happens when the player begins to move is that the heals go down to the floor anyway, thus slightly slowing down the start of the movement to the ball.

Tip: Each time they get into the ready position, have them lean forward and “swipe” the floor with their right hand with a sideways motion, touching it with their finger tips-this tells them they are low enough and helps to ensure their weight is forward on the front of their feet. Do not let them “squat and poke” the floor, make sure they lean forward and swipe instead.

THE RHYTHM STEP/PASSING PLATFORM:

-As the all comes in to them, they take a small “left-right” step to the ball. It’s almost a shuffle, as the left foot should never come totally in front of the right foot.

-As they are doing this, the arms/hands are extended straight out from the body.

-Hand position: lay the right hand across the inside of the left hand so that the first knuckles of the right hand are just outside of the pinkie of the left hand, then bring the base of the thumbs together and rotate the wrists so that the thumbnails are pointing toward the floor.

Tip: This hand position guarantees that the fleshy part of the forearm will be exposed to the ball. This leads to more control of the ball upon contact than if the ball were to contact the bony part of the forearms-which is what is most exposed to the ball if the old “make a fist and wrap your other hand around it” technique is used.

THE PASS:

-Keep the ball between their hips
-Point their passing platform at their target
-Watch the “bottom-half” of the ball into the fleshy part of the forearms.
-If the ball were to somehow pass right through their arms it would hit them right in the mid-to-upper thighs.
-Hold the platform to the target until the ball reaches the target (or gets far enough away from them that it misses the target)

Tip: After they pass, have them stay low and again lean forward and swipe the floor with their right hand. This keeps them from bringing their shoulders up, and thus producing too much arm motion on their follow through, which produces too much force on the ball.

PRACTICE:

-Start them with the “Stanford Passing Drill”
-Pair them up with a ball for each pair.
-One girl from each pair is 15 ft. off the net, the other is at the net as the tosser/target.
-Give them a goal of so many good passes in a time period, and make sure to define for them what counts as a good pass.

Tip: As their passing level progresses, move the passers to the ten foot line. (The closer they are to the target, the harder the drill becomes.)

Next go to “Short/Long Passing Drill”:

-Same alignment as “Stanford” to start
-First ball is tossed so that the passer has to shuffle three steps minimum to make the pass
-Passer then holds that position until the tosser tosses the next ball at least three steps minimum to make the pass
-Passer holds that position until next toss is made in front of them like the first toss of the drill
-Go for 30 secs with a “total good pass goal” and make sure everyone goes twice.

Next use the “Passing Footwork Progression Drill”:

-A coach stands at center net on the same side as a single file
line of players on the endline at middle back. Two players are to the left of
the coach at the net. One serves to hand the next ball to the coach and one
is at the target.

The drill starts with the coach rolling a ball to either corner. The first player in line must shuffle to the ball in their passing stance and let the ball roll through the center of their legs (mid-line of the body) while keeping their hips and shoulders square to the net.
The player then turns and runs to retrieve the ball and moves to the target position to the left of the coach. The player serving as ball hander gives the coach the next ball and runs to the end of the line at middle back. the target player moves to the ball hander position, and the drill continues in rapid fire fashion.

Progression:

-After a few times through the line, the coach moves to bouncing the ball
on a low and quick path.
-After a few more times through the line, the coach moves to tossing the ball and the player passes the ball to the target.
-After a few more times through the line, the coach moves to the opposite side of the net about twenty feet back and throws the ball overhand to the corners, and the player passes the ball to the target.

Tip: Stress “beating the ball to the spot”. This gets the players to focus on moving quickly enough to be in correct passing position when the ball arrives.
This is a great drill for teaching shuffling to the ball while staying in the passing stance and square to the net. The progression allows the players to apply the footwork and body position to actually passing a ball immediately.

Next use the “Triangle Passing Drill”:

-Groups of 3 girls/two balls-aligned in a triangle formation with the two tossers about 10 ft. apart and the passer about ten ft. away and in the middle of them.
-One tosser tosses ball directly out in front of herself and passer must shuffle over and make pass back to her.
-As soon as the pass is made, the passer starts shuffling to get in front of ball tosses by the other tosser, who tosses it as soon as the first pass is made.
-Go for 30 secs. and the score is the total of the good passes to both tossers added together.

More Tips:

-During this entire progression, periodically have them take off one knee pad and place it between their shoulder blades. This keeps them from bringing their shoulders up, because if they do, the knee pad falls off.
-With each of these drills, be sure to make sure they remember their scores and then set a goal to beat that score the next time the drill is run.
-Any time the ball is more than three shuffle steps away, they need to break down and run to get behind the ball and then quickly get back into their stance to pass the ball. Make sure they focus on “beating the ball” to the spot, not “meeting the ball at the spot”.
-As you move into drills that are more of a combination of skills, make sure to demand they continue to focus on their passing fundamentals. Usually the more involved the drill is, the more they let their basic passing fundamentals drop off.

Good Luck!

Articles provided by:

Dave Cross National Director
Yes I Can Volleyball

Do you Speak Portuguese??

By R. Dinarte

It was amazing nice and hard to see the expression of President Brazil Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva cry after have hearded the last words of Jacques Rogge IOC president: “The Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016 will be organized by Rio de Janeiro”

sparking the joy of the delegation from Rio, that won third round with bids of Chicago that stroked the idea to take in hands the Games but was eleminated at first round, next in second round: Madrid was who said good Bye, and last round with all expectation on Tokio like one favorite that not won over votes to favor ….
Meanwhile USA Volleyball Chief Executive Director Doug Beal said in his own words:

“I felt the city put together a remarkable bid package that would have produced a great event for the athletes to compete in and the world to enjoy. Never before in the history of the Olympic movement has there been four such remarkable bids competing to host one Olympic Games,

and I congratulate Rio de Janeiro and Brazil for earning the right to host in 2016.
USA Volleyball knows Rio and its Olympic organizers will produce a spectacular Games, and indoor and beach volleyball will be showcased very favorably much like it was at the recent 2007 Pan American Games. Rio’s bid was very volleyball-centric, including its committee leadership. I want to pass along my personal congratulations to Rio’s bid leader Mr. Carlos Arthur Nuzman, who was a long-time serving president of the Brazil Volleyball Federation (1975-99) and was a member of the FIVB executive committee. Also, Mr. Ary Graça, the current Brazil Volleyball Federation and member of the FIVB executive committee, played a key role in Rio winning the 2016 Olympic bid.”

“.. Conditions Geopolitics and Economics are the that can explain the victory…“

Rio de Janeiro had not even been a finalist in the competition for the Olympics in 2008 and 2012 was not technically a review average of 6.4, a grade rather modest compared to its competitors: Chicago (7), Madrid (8,1) and Tokyo (8,3).

That disadvantage was that led the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) to emphasize the non-technical issues in their campaign to defend the candidacy of Rio. The condition of South America as one region in the world, with Africa, which has never staged an Olympics, was an argument over which hammered several times both like in the campaign and the presentation of the nomination and in the speeches of all Brazilian delegates.

According to the Brazilian president, while Spain and Japan already held an Olympics and U.S.A. organized four, and the European Union prepares to host the 17th, London 2012, Latin America, only hosted the 1968 Mexico.
Lula, in his pronouncements and interviews, claimed that the time had come from South America have now the opportunity and the IOC to correct this “imbalance” in granting geographical Games and IOC voters were asked to understand that “South America has 180 million young people, deserves to make some Olympics and prove a really good moment in their lives.”

Brazil enjoys a moment “magic” with an economy “strong” that has enabled 30 million people out of poverty in recent years, Lula recalled in his presentation to the IOC and after claiming that the recent summit of the G-20 recognized the importance of Brazil as an emerging country and capacity to overcome the crisis.

The current economic situation, an argument that was recently put forward during the campaign, became an ‘ace’ in the last week, in which Lula insisted on airing the statistics indicate that Brazil will be one of the few countries that will end this year with economic growth.
Brazil will organize two major world sports events in just two years: the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016.