(Based upon the upcoming Brazilian Mini Volleyball DVD by JVA) By John Sample and Dave Weitl

hat if your coaching in Rio de Janeiro, where his te assignment this year was and coaches were spending t Wa 14 & under team ­ final day in Brazil before heat and you wete told that you could back home to the USA. only play 4-on-4? What ifyou had The JVA had assigned us an 11 & under team and you were task ofcollecting video footage told you could only play 3-on-3? terviewing experts and researd What if your 14 & under and 15 the world of "Mini-Volei", as & under teams required thar every called in Brazil, for the proJUCI player must play every posirion) of a DVD for JVA member CO~ What if your charter was to teach es. We had done our research cooperation, responsibility and scheduled our appointments respect as rhe primary mission we knew that it was going to and you were instructed to use busy week for us. volleyball as the tool to do it) Our first stop was in Rio Welcome to Brazilian volleyball. be allowing us to watch and film mini and we lost little time in finding I There has always been mystique sur­ youth volleyball training. We were both ing oppottunities. Driving by the beau rounding Brazilian volleyball, whether ir is curious to see how much impact the mini beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana at rhe youth, junior or adult level. In the volleyball programs in Brazil had on rhe encountered miles of beautiful beach, past 25 years, Brazil has dominated rhe po­ success of the Brazilian Narional Teams and even more impressive to us were the dium at vitrually every world competition the Brazilian "Superliga," one of the top volleyball courtS that stretched as far a: at all levels of both male and female divi­ professional volleyball leagues in the world. eye could see. We got some great fOG sions. One might argue that Brazilian vol­ Our assignment was to bring home infor­ as we drove, then walked and filmeJ a

leyball has been the best in the world. \X!hy mation to help USA Clubs with the train­ watched volleyball being played by SCI' is this? Is it because of the training, the ing of mini volleyball (8 - 12 year olds) here juniors, totS and coeds of every age. W players. the pipeline for younger players, or in the United States. A formidable task, but saw "futsal" being played (a ver~ion of possibly the nature of Brazilian culture) one we were fully prepared to execute. on-five soccer played on a small court!~ TIlese were my thoughts on the long Dave was already in Brazil because over aIso available in the US) along with faa flight from Dallas to Rio de Janeiro. Waiting the past six yeats he has been taking ju­ ley. Foot volley is an amazing game of for me at the airport in Rio was my friend niors teams to Brazil to train and compete on-two soccer using three contacts pel and fellow club director from Seattle, Dave rhrough a unique exchange program with and pJayed on a sand volleyball COLlrt­ Weitl of Washington Volleyball Academy. rhe Minas Tenis Clube of Belo Horizonte. using soccer conract rules: feet only. Yo We were given access to some of the top He had been in Brazil for 10 days before see this game on Youtube at www.you youth programs in Brazil, and they would r arrived. We were meeting at the airporr com/watch?v=ROptRgOpIcg. All a athletic action was taking place on literally hundreds of courts. That's right; I said hun­ dreds of beach courts! In many places the courtS were four and five deep between the densely packed rows of hotels and the crash­ ing waves of the Atlantic Ocean. It rook a full 25 minutes ro drive from one end of Copacabana Beach to the other end of Ipanema Beach. It was then that we knew: this was going ro be one tough assignment. Volleyball in the United States is one of the fastest growing sports for girls, and there are currently over 400,000 junior club players. Volleyball trails only soccer as the number two sport in Brazil, which may be described more appropriately as a religion than a sport. Volleyball in BrniI is played by over a million juniors and an­ other half million adults. During our stay in Brazil, we visited four cities and watched many hours of mini-vol­ leyball training, juniors training and com­ peting, as weH as observing while the men's national team and some professional teams trained. We focused primarily on youth training (ages 8 to 12). What we found was a little confusing because there was very little six-on-six being played anywhere by players under 14. Generally, the young players are divided into groups of 8-9 year olds, 10-11 year olds, 12-13 year olds, and over 14 year olds. The level of volleyball in each of these age groups was not as high as we expected, and although we saw hundreds of players, we saw very few with exceptional skills at the younger ages. Trying to reconcile the level of volleyball we are accustomed CO seeing from Brazilian professional and national teams with the level we were seeing in these clubs was confusing to say the least. Being the in­ ttepid explorers we are, we decided to delve deeper into what makes Brazilian volleyball so great. What we learned has caused both of us co rethink the way our club imple­ ments volleyball at the younger ages. Brazilian volleyball is run by the Confederas:ao Brasileira de Voleibol (Brazilian Volleyball Confederation) and takes part in national and international vol­ leyball competitions. For most volleybaH enthusiasts in Brazil, the cultural leader of the sport is Bernardo Rocha de Rezende, also known as Bernardinho. Since 2001, Bernardinho has been the head coach of Brazil men's narional ream and, prior ro rhar, was rhe head coach of rhe women's narional ream. As a coach, Rezende is rhe grearesr champion in rhe hisrory of vol­ leyball, accumularing more rhan 30 major rides in his 20-year career direcring ehe Brazilian male and female eeams. In an effon ro bener organize rhe junior side of Brazilian volleybaJl, Bernardinho be­ gan a yourh movement rhar divided ehe play­ ers inco ehe 8-9, 10-] 1, 12-13 and 14 and older caregories. Foregoing rhe normal erain­ ing rechniques, each age group was organized around a culeural objeceive, wieh voUeybaU serving as rhe cool co implemenr ir. Bernadinho formulaeed a progression of objeceives to focus on as rhe young players move rhrough ehe age divisions. Wirh 8-9 year olds ehe focus is cooperation-wirh mose drills being organized around one-on-one and cwo-on-rwo acrivieies co maximize cOntacrs. Mosr drills are designed co require acrions rhae are dependenc upon whae is occurring on rhe orher side of rhe ner, i.e., "reading" rhe opponenr's movemenrs. 1he couns are scaled down co accommodaee ehe sm,Jler size of rhe players and rhe ner is lower co facilieaee lors of successful coneacrs. Faccors: smaJler coun, lower nee, seeeing to score, ripping co score, coil shoes co score, underhanded serving, pass­ ing, reperieion, placemenr over rhe ner based upon rargers or acriviry across rhe ner. The 10-1 1 age groups are designed around responsibility. Noe only are rhe players responsible for rheir team and coach, bue they must demonserare respon­ sibiliry at home, school and wirh friends to gain a passing grade and progress. Their drills are designed mainly around a three­ on-three format and rbe focus is respond­ ing again to whar is happening wirh rhe three players on the orher side of rhe ner. Faccors: smaller cou rt, lower net, setti ng ro score, fronc sets, ripping co score, rolls shors co score, underhanded serving, passing, repeeirion, placement over net based upon opponenes' aceiviry. Ages 12-13 organize in four-on-four for­ marions and focus on rhe cultural of respect. The respecr is again d irecred rowards rhe for drills wirh insrrucrions ro help rhe orher game, rhe ream, rhe coaches, rhe opponenrs player improve, meaning thar both players as well as family, school, and even friends. learn to become better teammates. Games of four-on-four are again rhe rool ]he focus of 8-13 year olds was on both rhar is used ro reach respecr. Facrors: smaller rechnical and tactical volleyball skills as well courr, lower ner, serring ro score, fronr sers, as the developmenr of social and cui rural back sers, ripping ro score, hirring ro score, skills through drills with very litrle com­ underhanded serving, passing reperirion, petition. We were also surprised to see rhe one-rhree or rhree-one (fronr row-back row) high level of play emerge suddenly when courr alignmenr, placemenr over ner based rhe players are hnally allowed to compere upon opponenr's movemenrs. once rhey reach 14 years old. Apparenrly In each of rhese age groups, rime was wairing for G years ro compere in six-on­ spem ralking among rhe parricipanrs abour six play awakens an eager spirit EO go along rhe social progress rhey were making, how wirh rhe grear ream antrude of coopera­ rhey were responding ar home or school rion, responsibiliry and respecr, nurrured in and whar skil! drills, comperirive drills or these players through their paniciparion in games rhey would be doing in pracrice Mini-volei. rhar could relare ro respecr. Some common For more information on our research denom inarors in each of rhese age groups and Brazilian mini volleyball, drills, rech­ were serving underhanded, tipping and roll nigue and rhe conceprs behind rhe culrural shors, serring on borh sides of rhe ner and aspecrs of Brazilian volleyball, warch for rhe passing ro rarger. In addirion, rhe besr play­ new OVO, "Brazilian Mini VoJleyball" pre­ er was always placed wirh the worst player senred by JVA, available in January. C