Fun fact for you guys 65,000 coaches turn to get the pancake in 2019 for advice volleyball drills and coaching resources. That's like a lot of coaches whether they were looking for free stat sheet downloads goal-setting worksheets to use with their team or just a fun warm-up to start practice with I'mProud to say get the pancake delivered in this past year. We've added tons of valuable information to get the pancake.com new digital downloads free handouts and of course more drills and tips. There's a lot planned for 2020 and I don't want you to miss it. If you want to continue growing as a coach sign up for the get the pancake newsletter by going to get the pancake.com. There's a sign-up Link at the top of the home page. You can't miss it come and join our thriving community and let me help you have your best season yet? Hello, hello coaches. This is what need from the get the pancake podcast a podcast for volleyball coaches in this episode. I'm going to be sharing my personal playing time philosophy. Now, I know playing time is always a tricky subject no matter what level what age group you're coaching. And so today what I want to do is talk about the two different extremes when it comes to playing time. So we have completely equal everyone gets to play the same amount and then on the other hand, we have 100% based on performance. Typically just the best players play and that's it. My personal philosophy falls in the middle of that and I'm going to be talking about the pros and cons of each. I think it's important. If you have not already decided your personal playing time philosophy to take all of these ideas into account and try and come up with something that works for you. What's Thing that you can stand behind and why are you choosing to play players the way that you are? I always encourage coaches to think critically about why they are making the choices that they're making. This is a process that we're all going through at all times. I know I'm still learning things about myself because with get the pancake I always am sitting down thinking about why I do the things that I do and it's been really beneficial to helping me develop my own coaching philosophy in a addition to playing time philosophy and I just feel so much more confident on the court when I'm talking to parents when I'm going into interviews for coaching or leading programs. I have a very good idea of how I coach and I'm able to communicate that clearly just because I sit down and I think about it. So I'm going to walk you through these three different playing time philosophies. I'm sure there are many more philosophies out there and I would love to hear what your personal playing time philosophy is in the Facebook group volleyball Coaches Corner if you'd like to join there's a link in the show notes for this episode. It is a closed group so you'll have to request to join but as long as you're a coach you should be approved. All right, let's talk playing time. As I mentioned there are sort of two different extremes when it comes to playing time philosophy on the one hand. We have equal playing time and on the other hand, we have 100% based on performance. The studs are out there. They're playing all the way around or Subs are set in stone and there's not a lot of variation throughout the season the way that I figure out playing time for my players is a mixture of the two and we're going to get into that but first, Talk about equal playing time quick side note as I go through. I don't think that any of these are better or worse than the other. I think it completely depends on your situation. I'm going to share what I think is the best situation for each philosophy. But if you have thought about it, and maybe you use one of these strategies at a level that's different than what I say. That's okay. There is so much variation in volleyball teams. I have moved all over the US. Yes, and it's sort of mind-boggling to see the different skill levels different Tendencies and different areas. And so what works for a high school team in Oregon, for example, maybe that's going to work for a 7th grade team in Texas and vice versa. All right. So let's talk about equal playing time and my opinion younger teams or teams who are full of beginners are going to benefit the most from equal. Anytime there's nothing wrong with equal playing time. I know a lot of particularly competitive coaches who are against equal playing time and that's fine. They those coaches just need to probably coach older teams or very competitive teams. It's all about finding the right fit for you. You don't want to be somewhere where your preferences go against expectations. So if you really enjoy equal playing time, I'm because you like to give all of the players a chance to get on the court to experience what it's like to compete during a match equal playing time is great. I've also found throughout my experiences that equal playing time is more acceptable or preferred in a school situation think middle school teams or freshman teams again, not at all schools. Maybe this doesn't apply to you, but I'm going to say 80% of Middle school and freshman teams will benefit from equal playing time or very close to equal playing time. This is because at these ages usually pretty large rosters and in school volleyball it's about access to that competition when parents are signing their kids up for school volleyball you sign up expecting competition in club volleyball, that's not necessarily the case. Case we'll talk about that a little bit later, but I do think in school, you're sort of expected to provide equal playing time opportunities to all players regardless of ability and let's be honest. I know that I have coached players who maybe weren't that gray or weren't that refined when I first started coaching them or when I coach them at younger ages and then they developed over the years and became maybe not the best players on the team, but they definitely earned a starting role. On their team, especially in middle school and high school. There are going to be players on your team. Who either can't afford Club volleyball don't have the time to play Club volleyball maybe their basketball players as well. And we want to make sure to give them an opportunity to be on the court with those large roster sizes. Let's say you have 12 players on your team 14 players on your team when I was coaching a JV to team which is mostly freshmen, maybe one or two sophomores. I used equal playing. Time because I had 14 players on my roster. So I had six that would play in the first set along with a libero designated for that first set. So seven players in set one and then the other half seven players in set to if we went to three whichever team one. That's who would get to play again. That is not my personal preference and that's sort of why I've gotten away from coaching school because I am not a huge fan of equal playing time, but that was right for that situation. That was what the head coach wanted. You always have to do what the head coach or varsity coach wants even if it's not your own preference, of course, you can have conversations about that. But in this case this is what was best for this group. If you're Coaching Club, maybe 12 and under you might start with equal playing time, but maybe towards the end of the season if you have players who are developing quicker than others. Or who are making a bigger impact you might get away from equal playing time, but it's not a bad place to start so benefits of equal playing time. You never really have to have meetings with parents or players when you start the season and say everyone gets equal playing time and then you execute your playing time so that it is actually equal. There's no room for complaints. You set the expectations early some people might complain that they don't get to play more but All you have to say is that we do equal playing time and that's sort of the end of the discussion another benefit of equal playing time. As I mentioned is that more players get touches on the ball in that game experience playing in a game is so much different than playing and practice you actually feel the pressure you get to have a crowd cheering for you. There's nothing worse than having your family come to watch you and then not getting on the court. So a benefit of equal playing time is that you might increase Fan and parent participation or increase your crowd sizes because people know that their child is playing so they're going to come and watch the biggest benefit though is just that experience on the court and competition as I mentioned. I'm not a huge fan of equal playing time and that's because I think it has a lot of drawbacks. So let's say you have a couple of great players on your team. So whether this is Middle School freshman even JV level if you're doing equal playing time, what is the incentive for? For your good players to get better. Why does it even matter if I practice hard or not? My playing time isn't going to increase on top of that those better athletes are going to get frustrated because it's not fun to go out and lose to someone that you quote on quote should have eaten just because the quote unquote bad players are in now. I've been the good and the bad player on teams before I'll talk about how those Experience has helped me as a coach in a little bit, but when you're watching players struggle on the court, and you know that you could go out and do it better or that maybe Mallory is your top Setter and you're watching Amanda struggle. It can get really frustrating and maybe you get mad at Amanda because it's just like why are you playing so bad? Like, why can't I Mallory go in? Obviously, this is like a 14 year old mindset not not an adult mindset, but that's what they think. Okay, and just as this situation is frustrating for your top players the players who are struggling it's not great for them either. If you go out and you'd perform poorly you definitely see the eye rolls the heavy sighs the upset phases of your teammates. That doesn't help you feel great about yourself and it's not really motivational to keep you in volleyball. So although equal playing time does get everybody on the court. Some that game experience makes your life a little easier as far as having to talk to parents about playing time goes equal playing time and my opinion isn't something that I plan on using unless I'm coaching a very low level or young team or even a wreck team just because I think the frustration that can happen between players. It's not worth it. I'd rather deal with a parent who is upset about playing time then have my girls getting mad at each other for something that they can't control. Okay moving on. So that is one end of the spectrum moving on to having that set lineup of this is your best outside hitter with your best Setter. You have the rotation it never changes. This is great for teams where performance and win-loss record is the most important thing. So this could be High School varsity teams. This could be elite club programs where national titles. Rankings are critical to the club success. So this is going to be for all their teams where players can sort of handle their emotions a little bit better not grade still but a little bit better or Club programs where when parents come to tryouts for this club College scholarships are on the line winning is important to these coaches and the players on these teams and I think it's obvious one of the main benefits is that if you do have a very strong Wrong lineup. You're probably going to go out and win a lot. Especially once you're outside knows how your middle reacts and your libero can tell when your middle is about to duck out of the way or or your players just understand each other because they play next to each other every single day every single practice every match. You don't forget about subs and you can get into a routine. You know, what's coming up? That's great because it makes life a lot easier your team really turns into A well-oiled machine, you know when Sarah rotates into front row. She's going to be the best hitter to said to and Kari knows that she has to maybe try a little harder. The ball goes towards Ashley because Ashley is a little bit shy when it comes to certain place. You just learn more about each other. So the biggest benefit here is performance and I'm going to say that's one of the only benefits to this which is a pretty big benefit for a lot of programs, but Team bonding can be really high and these teams can get along really. Well if the sub players or bench players are kind of able to understand their role and fulfill their role without taking it too personally, but that's a challenge. So let's talk about the negatives here. If you have a lineup that never changes why in the world if you're a sub or even just a Practice player. Why would you work harder because it's not going to change anything. So why am I going to show up and go all out? Why am I going to run hard during conditioning? Why would I try to get stronger during weight lifting because most likely even if they do work harder and get better. They're still not going to get on the court. So what's the point and that can be a tough spot for players to be in likewise for the players who are always on why would they try to get better? Of course, you're going to practice hard and you're going to get better through repetitions. What's the internal drive? You're a starter you play all the way around getting better is a good goal. Maybe you want to beat another team, but if you're not challenged in practice because everyone's kind of good with where they're at or settling into their role. It just doesn't make sense to train as hard as you possibly could of course, there are athletes who can motivate themselves. Or their parents are motivating them to work harder. And then of course if you have a coach who's pushing you that's going to help too, but if you are on an average team or a team that wins most of the time or maybe the coach thinks like oh well, we're already winning most of our games. I don't need to push you harder as I said, I've been in this position myself, and I know that once you are one of the top players on your team, depending on how you view competition and your reasons for needing to get better if you Give the role of starter. What's the point to work harder? Like you got your goal? And I hate it. That was my mindset as a player. I was like, oh, I'm a starter. I play all the way around. I never come out. I'm going to go up and try and hit the ball harder, but I'm not necessarily working on my technique more focused on strategies. My main goal was go up and hit it harder. I think the biggest drawback here when you have a set lineup is that your starters are constantly competing against And players and if that's who you are practicing against you're not necessarily going to be ready for those top dogs when you get into a match. So imagine your team is working on serve receive. That's something we always always need to work on and yeah, you can have your coach serve but it's most likely going to be those bench or sub players who are entering the ball and there's a reason they're on the bench or that they're solving it's because they're not as good as the people who are starting that's just how it is at this level. Oil and if your bench player who has never played in a match is just back there tossing the ball up and just trying to get it over instead of sending a tough topspin serve into seams or serving a mean floater that drops right over the net your service Eve is going to struggle because you're not facing the type of serves that you would see in a match your bench player isn't going to be working hard to get their service better. They know they're not going to come in and your team back. Serve receive is going to think. Oh, well, we're getting this up easy. We don't need to work on service Eve anymore. So I think there are a lot of drawbacks to never changing your lineup and only having your best players play a lot of that is mental as a coach. You are also going to deal with a lot of parent phone calls and a lot of Tears most likely and team drama because starters or people who never come out can sometimes be mean to people who are on the bench and talk bad about each other. You have to do a lot of team building if this is your playing time philosophy, so just be prepared to manage a lot of teenage emotion. If this is how you want to run your team the best time to set goals with your volleyball team the beginning of the season the next best time today goal setting improves overall performance and positively impacts player motivation and confidence. Studies also report players feeling more united by the end of the season if they participated in goal setting just because you didn't use goal setting at the beginning of your season doesn't mean you can't shift gears and get into a new routine download the goal setting packet from get the pancake.com and watch as your team improves their focus at practices and kicks the season into high gear just follow the link in the show notes to learn more and get ready to have your best. And yet before I talk about how I sort of combine these two different philosophies, I do want to take a couple of minutes just to talk about my own experiences as a player because I think that that shaped how I coach pretty dramatically. So I have the unfortunate experience of being the player who never got subbed out and I've also been the player who was riding the bench for For most of our tournament and then on larger teams. I also had the role of only playing front row. And so I kind of know how it feels to be in each situation. And unfortunately, I don't think I was very mentally tough. And so some of those situations were harder than others, but it definitely benefits me now because I when I see the look on a player's face when they're just bombed that they're not starting or if they're not playing and Set I know I know how that feels. I know how to handle it. So looking back. I'm glad that I got those experiences. But if you didn't have a wide variety of experiences, you might not understand what that child mindset is, like for each situation being a sensitive kid and being someone who I very rarely got out of my own head and was able to really look at the big picture. I know that not all of our players are able to to accurately assess their performance in relation to their teammates. So for example, if you have a set lineup that you're using it's very likely that players who don't ever get subbed in or maybe they rarely get subbed in they probably think that that's not fair and you hate them and you don't know what you're doing and you work so much harder than those other girls and if the coach would just give you a chance and then if you get if you do get on the court, Do bad. Well, it's not your fault. It's the coach's fault because they never put you in any way. So how can they expect you to go out and play, you know, it's just it's a mess and a lot of players aren't willing to take personal responsibility. And that's part of the reason why you end up on the bench and so as coaches we kind of need to be aware of that and try and help players get through this. We don't want to sit them down and tell them look you're the worst pass are on the team. There's no way I'm going to put you in there is obviously a nicer way we can They that message that they have a lot that they need to work on as I mentioned. I've also been the player who never got subbed out. And I know that you come into practice differently you come in thinking you're all cool. You know, you're so good. You got so many kills and the last match for like the game-winning Ace and so you're so cool. And one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't try harder to improve when I was one of the better players on my team because Think well, I'm the starter. I'm the captain. I never get subbed out. What what could I possibly need to work on? You don't realize that there's competition outside of you side note. That is why I recommend the common enemy team bonding activity from get the pancake.com and I recommend that because then you come up with something to fight against that's outside of your team. Not just oh, I'm better than Susie. So that's all I need to worry about as long as I have my starting spot. I'm fine. Okay enough about my playing experience. Says let's talk about what I do for playing time. So as I mentioned playing time typically depends on age and skill level and sort of performance expectations my playing time philosophy. I'm not sure which came first the age that I coach or my playing time philosophy, but I think they're a good match for each other and that's why I don't really coach outside of this range. I like to do what I consider Fair playing time, so it's not Equal but it's not lopsided. So everyone gets on the court a fair amount if not more and I'm always working to improve that weakest link on the team whether that's hitting passing always trying to bring those players up because I know if I can coach them up a little bit that's going to make our team practice harder. So how do I implement this Fair playing time? Probably the most successful way that I have implemented. This is having about 3ish lineups that I like to use we can for Simplicity purposes call those lineups one two, and three one being when I have all my studs out there three would be when I know we're playing a low level team and I want to get some players playing time and then I'm going to use that second line up when I know we're pretty evenly matched against another team and I want to try and push those lower players. I want to get them out on the court, but I want them to be Successful out there. So so they're going to be sprinkled in rather than all on the core and my preference is to always use that second line up if I can that means that even if you don't get in the first set you're definitely playing in the second set and depending on your performance. You might be in the third set if required even when I go to third sets. I don't necessarily want to use that first line up. I want all of my players to experience. What it's like to be in that high pressure situation of a deciding set. So why do I do this? I'm typically coaching 14 and under club. That is my bread and butter. I love this age group. I think it could work for 12 you and 16 you as well that 16 you you start to kind of get into that never changing lineup or rarely changing lineup. So I think this works best app for teen youth or you might even use it at eighth grade or with freshmen and Or JV teams are developing all of your players and letting everyone contribute. This is really important to me to get buy-in from my athletes because you care more about whether the team does well or not because you're part of the team if you're sitting on the bench all the time. It doesn't really matter. If you're doing equal playing time. It's kind of seems out of your control. But in this case, I feel like everyone contributes and you're also pushing players to try and get that starting role. So let's just say we're using that second line up. Maybe halfway through the season my first choice for lineups against those really tough teams or when we really need the win depending on a player's performance when I'm using that second line up. They might get bumped up into that first line up. So it doesn't stay the same throughout the season. It does fluctuate a little bit but there's opportunity for players to improve and practice get better do better in tournaments and really make an impact on the team and be chosen. Be trusted with the responsibility of being on the court in important matches. I don't tell my players that it's lineups number one two, and three it might be obvious to parents but I don't think players necessarily notice it in the moment. You could also call them lineups red white and blue if that's something if you wanted to let them know that there are different lineups. I don't really tell them but I do have it written in my notebook like, okay. This is line up one line. M2 and M3 for this tournament as I said, it can fluctuate throughout the season but stays pretty consistent and I do different practice situations using those different lineups at practice. So as I mentioned you're improving players for practice and that's so important because when your quote-unquote starters are playing against bench players, they're not going to be challenged. But if they're playing against teammates who have seen competition and they know that they're battling it out for playing time. I have seen higher Overall performance from my players. So what are the drawbacks here? Because not everything is perfect. And I understand that one of the downsides to my personal playing time philosophy of fair playing time sort of you get what you earn is that my team's don't always build up a rhythm because I'm sort of testing experiments on them or changing. Let's say that Natalie has really stepped up and now Now I want her to be my second outside hitter. So I switch her with Marta and now the lineup is completely different and people don't know how to play next to each other and sometimes I can really blow up in your face if two players are next to each other who don't cohesively play together. So sometimes you might ruin a rhythm and I accept that I think that that's an okay trade-off for the benefits another downside that I've experienced with Fair playing. Time is that at the end of the day you probably do end up losing some of the games that you quote unquote should have one. So let's say we're going up against what I think is going to be an easy team. And so I put my third line up out there and something falls apart or maybe our communication is off for the day and then we lose that first set. So in the second set, you know, it's still a bad team. That went blank. So I only put my second lineup out there because I think okay. Well something fell apart with that third group now, I'll put my second team out there and maybe just like mentally this group isn't getting over that loss. And so maybe we lose or maybe it goes to 3 and and so we have an extra set loss. Even though we might come out on top and we'll beat this team in the end. We do have that set that we lost that can come back to bite you at the end of Season there was one season where I was coaching and I loved this group of girls. They were Scrappy and they just loved volleyball. They were really dedicated. It was a great group and at our final tournament if we would have won one more match, which we could have if we would have won one more match than we did that day. We would have been the division Champions. But because we lost we were in like a way or five way tie it was insane and because of the number of sets that we had lost. I think we ended up number for technically even though most of the teams we had be one-on-one and I attribute that to my willingness to let players go out and lose a set because I wanted to get players on the court in competition instead of just go out and Crush everyone and so looking back would I change anything? No, I would still make the same decisions because I think even though it kind of stinks to be playing for Division champion and then end up getting forth because of a technicality like that stinks, but we had a great season. I think all of my employers improved more than if we would have just had a set lineup or I would have played to win a little bit more but a lot of that depends on the culture of your Sub and what is expected from you and this was okay for my club? Obviously first place would have been better. But the way that the girls developed that was more important at 14 and under than winning. I'm preparing these girls to go into high school to try and make something beyond their freshman team. And so I'm okay with that. It depends if you're going to be okay with that. Maybe you just play your first line up a little bit more often than your And third I love using Fair playing time though because it does reward players for trying harder and players are pushed more often to become better. Everyone gets the chance to see the core. Everyone gets the chance to be a starter they have to earn it and it has to be the right situation, but I'm able to justify that if parents get upset for whatever reason and when you're making these judgment calls about who gets to play who doesn't you probably will have a lot of parent and player. Ins you might have some tears, but if you can show like okay Alyssa, these are your stats throughout the season you're not improving and the team overall is going up in passing. I need you to step up your passing. Here's what you can do to get better. Let's work on that and then you can probably see some more playing time. So you're going to have a lot of conversations like that. If this is the playing time philosophy that you choose to use I'm biased and this is my favorite. This is what I think is best but it all depends on you your personality. And the age that you're coaching and sort of this the environment that you're in so I hope you take this information use it to come up with your own playing time philosophy determine what's going to work best for your situation for your age group for your organization for your own personality and that way everything just feels right. If you're a real softy and you like coaching younger players may be equal playing time is what's going to feel the best for you. Or if you're coaching an elite-level club and you don't really have a lot of tolerance for poor performance coming up with that stud lineup. That's what's going to feel most natural for you and I think at the end of the day, it's all about coaching consistently with your own values. So whatever obstacles you have because when it comes to playing time, you're going to have obstacles as long as you feel good. And you feel like you can defend your choices. That's what's most important. Thank So much for listening to the get the pancake podcast. Be sure to subscribe if you havent that way, you know when a new episode comes out, and if you have coaching friends, I would love it if you shared your favorite episode with them, whether that's this episode or last week's episode or like our number 8 episode. We're on number 34 right now, and I'm really excited to keep adding episodes and have more in-depth conversations with you. All again. Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you in next week's episode. sewed
Have you sat down and determined your playing time philosophy for your volleyball team? Or, are you just making adjustments as you go? Listen to this week's volleyball coaching podcast episode as I discuss the pros and cons of equal playing time, playing time based strictly on performance, and my own personal playing time philosophy which I have developed over the years. —————— Support the podcast: https://anchor.fm/getthepancake/support —————— HELPFUL RESOURCES ——————   📖 “Coaching Volleyball: A Survival Guide for Your First Season": https://amzn.to/2LGqVRw  🏆 Volleyball Goal Setting Packet: https://getthepancake.com/products/volleyball-season-goals-worksheets   📋 Coaching beginner volleyball players? Read “The Ultimate Guide to Coaching 5th and 6th Grade Volleyball Players”: https://getthepancake.com/drills-and-tips/ultimate-guide-5th-6th-grade-volleyball    💕 "Common Enemy" Team Bonding Activity: https://getthepancake.com/products/volleyball-team-bonding-common-enemy   🏐 Volleyball Coaches Corner closed Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/322963254922796/  —————— LET’S GET SOCIAL! 