Bench Players

Russ Rose is the coach of the Penn State womens’ volleyball team.  A week or so ago they won their fourth national championships in a row and fifth overall.  A couple of days after winning the event, he was interviewed on The Net Live.  During the interview he posed himself the question “Why don’t your bench players play more?”  I really liked his answer.  “We practice on four days a week and play on two.  They have ample time to prove they should be playing.”

Which brings to mind a quote from last week’s Hugh McCutcheon interview.  A Hugh McCutcheon line to emphasise that being a successful athlete (or coach) is actually difficult is “It’s not all rainbows and ponies”.

I can just picture the meeting… ‘Why aren’t I playing more?’  ‘It’s not all rainbows and ponies, son.  You have ample time to prove you should be playing.’  I might use that.

More Russ Rose quotes here.

More Hugh McCutcheon here.

The total of 82 practical Coaching Tips can be found here and here.

Read about the great new Vyacheslav Platonov coaching book here.