Coaching Tip #35

Tagged – Tip of the Week, Coaching Practice, Season Management

Two things are fairly obvious to anyone who has spent time around people.  People love to receive things for free.  People hate to have things taken away from them.  The ‘things’ here are not important.  It can be virtually anything, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a thing of enormous value.

For a volleyball (and probably any team for that matter) team the most prized thing is a free day.  That is, a day free from training AND any other team activity.  It is clear that days free from practice are welcomed but perhaps less so that during a long season any time away from the team is prized.

The coach needs to understand these simple concepts when going about their programming.  If you want a reasonably happy team, never take anything away (especially a free day) and always be prepared to give something (especially a free day).  In practice that means it is better to programme practice when you are not sure you will want to, and give the free day later, than to programme a free day and take it away.

To paraphrase the famous truism, over programme, under deliver.

The collection of Coaching Tips can be found here.

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