RRRealealeal WWWorldorldorld olleyballolleyballolleyball Real World Volleyball Real World VVV ISBN 1-868702-98-7 9 2 1 0 0 by the Coaching Staff of the Gold Medal Volleyball Clinic 9 781 868 702985 RRRealealeal WWWorldorldorld VVVolleyballolleyballolleyball by The Gold Medal Volleyball Clinic Faculty Doug Beal, Laurel Brassey-Iversen, Greg Giovanazzi, Mick Haley, John Kessel, Mary Jo Peppler, Russ Rose, Brad Saindon, Al Scates, Don Shaw, Mary Wise The Sports Group, Inc. Concord, Mass. USA Sports Support Syndicate, Inc. Pittsburgh, Pa. USA Real World Volleyball First Edition & First Printing Copyright © 1995 The Sports Group Inc. 66 Alford Circle, Concord, MA 01742 phone: 508-371-0503 fax: 508-371-0541 For permission to re-print, reviews, and research write to the publisher, Sports Support Syndicate, Inc. 108 South 12th Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203-1226 USA office: 412-481-2497 orders: 800-869-0758 fax: 412-481-2540 ISBN: 1-878602-98-7 Softcover price: $21.00 - USA All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transcribed, in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other- wise—without the prior permission of the publisher or the author. All international copyright laws apply. For foreign distribution, translation, and reproduction, please contact the publisher. Photo credits are printed in the back of the book. Thanks to the respective coaches, media offices,Volleyball Monthly for shots of PSU and AllSport for 5 shots of UF for use of the photos. Cover design used 3 images © Aris Multimedia Entertainment, Inc. 1991-3. Images from and about space are © Aris Multimedia Entertainment, inc. 1991-3. A special thanks to Chick Agnew, head coach of the girls team at Penn Hills High School (Pa), and Ray Bobak, retired coach from Duquesne University, for their input and ideas. Contents The Authors..........................................................................7 Foreword...............................................................................10 Introduction........................................................................11 Section I — Team Cohesion Situations.......13 #1 Fundraiser & Travel as Special Event ..........................13 #2 Team Rules......................................................................16 #3 Team Cancer & Remedy.................................................18 #4 Injuries ............................................................................19 #5 Keeping Faith while Losing ...........................................20 #6 Leadership.......................................................................25 #7 Taking Three Days Off ...................................................30 #8 Encouraging Dedication .................................................34 #9 Medling Parent ...............................................................38 #10 New Coaching Job.........................................................41 Section II — Practices & Warm-Ups ............44 #11 Quick Reactions ............................................................44 #12 Practicing Alone............................................................50 #13 Practicing with Two......................................................54 #14 Practicing with Three ...................................................58 #15 Practicing wit Four .......................................................60 #16 Player Suggestions for Practices..................................61 #17 Warm-ups and Getting Ready to Play .........................62 #18 Ball Goes Into the Net ..................................................66 #19 Setting and the Overhand Pass ...................................68 #20 Hitting Practice.............................................................70 #21 Shaking Up Practices in Mid-Season...........................72 #22 A College Scout Visits Practice ....................................74 Section III — Match Situations .......................76 #23 A College Scout Visits a Match ....................................76 #24 A Rival Scout Watches Your Team’s Match ................78 #25 Calling Balls Out-of-Bounds ........................................81 #27 Dealing With a Time Out at a 13–0 Score...................83 #28 Putting Up with Verbal Hassling ................................87 #30 Keeping Statistics While on the Bench .......................90 #31 Talking to Substitutes As They Enter the Game........95 #32 Talking with Players Just Pulled to the Bench ..........99 #33 Handling a Tiff Among Players..................................104 #34 Protesting and Bad Referees......................................108 #35 Happenings After a Match .........................................112 #36 Analyizing Results from the 4th Server & Serving ..116 Section IV — Offensive Situations...............122 #37 Developing Offense Quickness and Spiking..............122 #38 Spiker Coverage ..........................................................130 Section V — Defensive Situations................133 #39 Countering a Super-Star Opponent & Digging.........133 #40 Blocking and Facing a Slide-Attack...........................142 Section VI — End Matter ...................................153 Photo Credits......................................................................153 Footwear Information........................................................154 Other Books of Interest .....................................................156 Sponsor Messages ..............................................................157 Foreword This book, Real World Volleyball, written by the faculty of the Gold Medal Volleyball Clinics offers real situations and solutions from some of the best minds in volleyball today. Many of these situations and countless others are discussed at our Gold Medal Volleyball Clinics conducted throughout the year in locations all over the U.S. Since 1984, The Gold Medal Volleyball Clinics have offered the very best in coaches’ education and training for the sport. This premier program was organized by Doug Beal and Bill Neville after the USA Men’s Olympic Team captured the gold medal in 1984. Since then, more than 7,000 coaches and adult players have attended the Gold Medal Clinics. Both coaches and players are challenged in a 12 hour course by several of the most successful and influential coaches and players in volleyball today. Discussion and individual consultations with clini- cians are provided throughout the clinics. If you have not attended one of our clinics, please call my office at 1-800-228-6290 for information on current clinic dates and sites. I hope these real world situations enhance your coaching and playing skills. I challenge you to improve and strengthen your game and coaching. Mary Ann Ferrell, President The Sports Group Inc. Introduction by Mark Rauterkus, Publisher, SSS This book is about perspectives. Everyone has one and everyone’s perspective is unique. The vision of this book is to widen your perspective. The situations found in the text and photos of this book are meant to provide you with different peeks through both telescopes and microscopes of the Real World of Volleyball. Some days you might find yourself on Mercury and gaze out to the rings of Saturn, or you could be in State College, Pennsylvania and ponder about the grass being greener in Palo Alto, California. Or, today you might be one of the pine brothers because you were on Jupiter instead of setting the double-block as you should have been. Where ever you are coming from, this book can help you by giving you a picture of what is out there and then allowing you to re-think the situation for yourself and examine what you should do. Everyone, clinic participant or not, is trying to improve their game by finding valuable information and bringing it home to use in practices and games. Each and every year for the past six years the Sports Support Syndicate, in close coordination with the Gold Medal Clinic organizers and faculty, have released a new volleyball text book. These books (a complete listing can be found on the order form in the back of this book) compliment the clinic expe- rience for coaches and players. These books plug new, technical information into your mind and refresh past experiences to help you improve. This information has staying power and is currently being put into action on volleyball courts throughout America and the world. Each coach did not write a response for every situa- tion. Some situations call for simple one-sentence respons- es. Meanwhile, other situations might hit closer to home with some authors, and they have offered strong opinions. Considering the time you spend with these authors at the clinics and the time you spend with their answers within the pages of this book, you’re bound to get to know these coaches well. Some of the greatest minds in the game have provided some interesting viewpoints and responses to the ques- tions set forth in this book. Their responses are similar in a few instances, but quite different on a whole. Learn of their coaching records, and follow their careers and the teams that they coach. We are going to keep putting news twists into the pro- gramming and the books, but we are going to try to include more input directly from the participants. Our publishing formula that relies exclusively on the clinic fac- ulty for contributions to the annual clinic book is under review. Your questions, your problems, your team’s strategies, your headaches and your