The Wisdom Of Julio Velasco – Part One

As I posted by last post, on the opposite side of the world, David Cordes was posting notes he took during a recent presentation by Julio Velasco on the Volleyball Coaches and Trainers facebook page.  I thought the notes were worthy of a wider/different audience.  I include them exactly as they appeared in the original, which David assures me is exactly as he noted them in real time.  I think they are useful as they stand without commentary.  Below the post is a short video of Velasco’s Panini Modena team that started the revolution in Italian volleyball.

– Don’t teach volleyball but teach how to play volleyball.

– Talk about how the game is – not how it should be.

– Coaches must know and visualize the level of play of their team. Don’t try to teach 14 year olds to play like the National Team.

– The video in your head has to be what your team can do, or is doing now, not how you think they should play in several years.

– Communication – i.e. serve receive, “Mine” means ‘I got it’. Saying nothing means ‘you got it’.

– When a player makes a mistake do you talk about technique or the decision making that led to the mistake?

– Is the problem technical or playing decisions?

– When you train – train, don’t talk so much!

– Skills Techniques and ‘how to play’ are equally important.

– Coaches need to coach themselves to see a match and understand what is happening.

– Train yourself to see a lot of things at the same time.

– Use the right solution for the problem.

– One thing is to play volleyball – not to play with a volleyball.

– Being rigid and inflexible squashes creativity and imagination.

– Difference between ‘skills’ and ‘game skills’. ‘Game skills’ are the skills used in games.

– Improve the skills they use, not the ideal stuff.

– Teach the basic skills to beginners, but start using and copying game skills as soon as possible.

– Go to where the ball goes.