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? Hi coaches, this is Whitney from the get the pancake podcast a podcast for volleyball coaches in today's episode. What we're going to be talking about is a way for you to structure certain parts of your practice to make sure that your teaching skills in a game like manner. I'm not specifically going to be teaching you one drill that's game like or anything like that. I'm going to be talking you through the structure that I use to quickly. Teach players new Concepts and get them implementing those into gameplay in a matter of 20 minutes or so. This works well with beginners as well as more experienced players because it's not necessarily about what you're teaching. It's about how you're teaching it now. I highly recommend listening to this full episode if you have ever been watching a match and thought what the heck is going on. This isn't what we practiced. We look so good in practice. And then why are we playing like this in a match determining this practice structure actually took me. Well quite a few years to really understand some of you may actually be doing it without realizing it but I want to make sure that it's something that you are consciously aware of as a tool to use to improve how your players play during matches and tournaments. What we're going to be doing is building up from a very Trolled environment into chaos. And the reason that we want it to be chaotic is because in a match you have very little control over really anything in the match. And so you need to know how to handle a wide variety of situations and although chaos is unpredictable. There are certain situations that we can train for that happen time and again, and I'm going to give you a lot of examples so let's Get into it. Building up to chaos creating a learning environment that prepares players for matches. I know when I first started coaching and many other coaches that I work with. We just kind of go through the motions. It's like, okay, we need to teach passing. Here's how you pass a ball. Okay. Now we need to teach setting here's how you set a ball and we teach the skills in super controlled environments all the time, especially if you are a new coach or don't have a ton of experience. Coaching you probably think. Okay. How do you pass a volleyball? Okay, like Google, how do you pass a volleyball then? You're like, okay. This is how you stick out your platform. This is what your footwork is and then you go to practice and you toss a ball to a line of players and they pass it straight back to you and you're like, okay great. Now we know how to pass a ball but then you get to a match and no one's tossing them a ball, you know, the balls flying over the net coming off the hand sideways and players are at a weird angle because there they haven't been taught how to pass the ball that's coming in at an angle or that's coming in faster than a nice toss from a coach and we don't necessarily realize it in the moment, especially when you are a newer coach you think well, we practice passing why can't they pass the ball, but we're not practicing passing in the way that it comes to them in a match. Not only that but the way it comes to you in a match can really differ. Maybe it's a high free ball that somebody Is it deep into the back corner? Or maybe it's a topspin serve that's dying really quickly as soon as it comes over the net so there are two very different techniques that players need to use and overtime sure, they'll figure those things out on their own. But if you want them to understand that really quickly and sort of move on with with the skills that you're teaching them here are the four different steps that I want you to take to get your players from a controlled environment to To being able to handle that crazy past crazy serve in a chaotic environment. So step number one. We're going to call this ultimate control. This is when we're isolating one skill or one motion with a controlled ball introduction. So we want this to be a game like the way that the ball is entered but we also want our players to have an extremely high level of success in this first level. So the first example Going to talk you through. Let's just say passing. We can always work on passing. Everyone can work on passing. Let's just say that we want to work on passing on the sides of our body. So ultimate control Step One is passing on the right side of your body in serve receive we're getting really specific here, but you can make these as general or as specific as you want. So this is just one example passing on the right side of your body in serve receive. So the way that we're going to enter the ball maybe as from a a coach down balling the ball over the net not a full-on serve at the path of the ball is going to be similar. So we're just going to be down balling the ball maybe into right back or middle back or left back or whatever and they're going to focus on passing on the right side of their body to the Target obviously before you step on the court. You're going to explain what you want that form to look like how you want them to position their body what their shoulders are going to look like how their platform is going to be angled, but we're keeping it. Namely controlled. So every time they pass it's going to be an aggressive ball coming in on the right side of their body. So it's just one thing that they're focusing on go through that for five to eight minutes depending on how many people you're working with and after we get through step one, which is Ultimate control. Then we're going to advance to step two, which is the skill alternative. So in this example, we're working on. Seeing on the side of our body step one. We were passing on the right side Step 2. We're going to be passing on the left side before we get started. We're going to explain again what our platform looks like what our footwork looks like where we want the ball to go. It's not going to be that much different than the first skill but there are definitely some changes again. We'll go through this with a controlled ball introduction. But now we're going to be hitting the ball to the left side of the player so that there Getting a lot of reps and again 5 to 8 minutes working on passing a ball to the left by now. Your players are comfortable passing on the right and passing on the left. So step number one was Ultimate control step number two was skill alternative step three is skilled decision. So it's still a controlled ball introduction, but it could be one or the other we're eliminating all other options. So we're not serving straight. To them or not serving super short or super deep. We're just focusing on moving them to the right or moving them to the left if possible. You want to show some sort of a queue to the players so that they start to pick up how to read that. This is coming before contact is actually made. So in this example again, let's say we're working on service Eve. Turn your body to show where the ball is going to go before you make contact and hit the ball over and then Way the players are going to start to learn how to read the server and sort of get an edge and know that. Okay. Well most likely assuming everything goes. Well, the ball is going to go to my right and so they can start to mentally prepare for that ball going there. You're not telling them in step three step one. They knew it was going to the right step to they know it's going to the left step 3. We're not sure where it's going. But we know we're going to have to move so they're mentally prepared and they've practiced the Reps so they know what to do. Now. We're just working on recognizing which option we need to pick. I love this step because this is when players start to recognize patterns and it almost starts to look too easy after going through this step again, maybe five to ten minutes. You might want to spend a little more time here because this is where they're starting to make all the connections in their brain about. Oh, this is how I read this this takes a little bit longer. To understand and this is where the benefits for your team are going to come. Once you feel that your team is successfully reading the ball for the most part or is having a lot of success in passing to Target. Then we're going to go into chaos. So this is just going to be gameplay. The ball is going to be introduced by players instead of a coach. And so that's kind of where the chaos comes into play because it's not as controlled but now Or pastors who are back in serve receive are going to start to put the pieces together like okay, this is what coach looked like when she was serving to my right side now Vera's back there and she's approaching the ball in the same way. So I think she's going to serve right and there's going to be a lot more inconsistencies here because I mean it's players entering the ball, but this is what they're going to see in the game. They're going to see other players entering the ball, but it's broken down in their minds on how to recognize Whether it's going to the left or whether it's going to the right and you can also have your players work on serving two seams, which is that space in between players and serve receive that way they're making sure to move those pastors around so it can still be a little bit controlled but we're really just trying to do game like drills here. I prefer that you play the ball out. So go past that hit back over the net and then maybe the next server goes just so your team gets more reps in an actual game like setting and then maybe after like 3 hits go over then you rotate who the pastor's are change servers, whatever up to you again. This isn't really about the drill specifically. It's about the structure of the skill instruction a couple of notes on how we're organizing this if you have the space and the staff you could split up your team to work on different skills with different groups of players. So I'm going to go through some more examples, but let's just say you Of your passing group, you could also have a group of blockers working on their own progressions on a different court and then you could bring them together and play a game that incorporates passing and blocking. So maybe just free ball down ball or hitting lines versus defense. I'll link to both of those drills which are on get the pancake.com, but we want to make sure that we don't skip the step of actually playing and focusing on that skill execution when you are running These drills you could award points or bonus points if skills are executed correctly. I don't necessarily think that that is required. But you should definitely point it out when players are doing things correctly. Like wow. Did you guys see that Lily went and passed the ball on her left side. She moved exactly right to the ball. That was awesome. Lily way to go and then everyone will clap and and then everyone else will want Recognition, so they'll try even harder. You don't have to give points necessarily but recognizing players for doing a good job is going to improve how everyone else kind of attacks the skill another note about this structure. So you're not going to use this at every practice. This is going to be when you're introducing a new skill or a new strategy and that's not going to be at every practice at a lot of your practices. You just need to focus on what you already know and getting better at what you already. Already know and having the coach so involved in this drill does kind of take away reps from players. So we want to do this on a limited basis, but at the same time the benefit is so high because it breaks down complicated skills. So if you notice that your players are struggling in serve receive or your Setter is really having a hard time reading where the ball is going. That's when we can do this drill just break it down for 20 minutes 25 minutes. You're really not going to be That much time on it and it's going to make a huge difference for the rest of your season. Before we continue. I want to take a quick break to tell you about anchor anchor is honestly the easiest way to make a podcast for starters it's free, which doesn't get any better than that. Second of all, they have a lot of tools that allow you to record and edit your podcast right from your phone or computer the best part in my mind. Is that anchor also helps you distribute your podcast so I don't have to go. And create an account with Spotify Apple podcast Google podcast overcast can't even list all the places that get the pancake is played from simply because I don't have to worry about it. Anchor does it for me if starting a podcast is something you're interested in download the free anchor app or go to Anchor dot. F m-- to get started not anchor.com anchored dot f m now back to our episode. So let me give you some more examples on how we could use this. And different skills if we are setting for example, our ultimate control step one could be setting from the target zone. So that's going to be where our Center is usually up in right front a little bit off the net and all we're going to be doing is just tossing to our Setter and they're going to work on setting maybe outside and back will take middle out just for Simplicity step to our skill alternative is going to be setting from the 10-foot line. So now The coach is going to be tossing so that the ball lands on about the 10-foot line and the seller is going to work on running off the net turning and facing outside or setting back if your players are more advanced and they can handle that. So the alternative is setting from the 10-foot line. Now, we're moving up to skill decision. So the player is going to have to read the ball as it's coming to them in the air and they're going to have to determine is this coming right to me. Can I stay here or do I need to Set from the 10-foot line. If you have a more advanced team or an older team, you could have the setter starting from the 10-foot line and then determining whether to run up or staying back. This is if you're running like a 6-2 and the setter is coming out of right back. This would be a lot more game like but just working through having your hitters get some reps in because you do want to have some hitters in place in my mind because that will give the setter more feedback on whether it was a good set. It or not. So now 10 minutes or so have gone by and they've worked through whether the pass is like a three option pass which is a perfect pass or it's off on the 10-foot line. And now they understand how to read the ball while it's in the air and they understand where to position themselves on the court and then we go into gameplay or chaos for our fourth step and this just happens. Naturally your team doesn't necessarily need to purposefully pass the ball to the 10-foot line. We'll just happen on its own. That's why we're practicing these things. We're not going to pick something so specific that only happens once or twice in a match. We're going to pick skills that happen pretty frequently. Otherwise, it doesn't really make sense to dedicate so much time to them. Okay, so that's my setting example. Now, let's talk about hitting when we're hitting one of the decisions that we might have to make is whether to go in for our normal approach or if the set is off the net we need to stay back. Back so that we can still take an aggressive swing at it. So our ultimate control step is hitting a normal set. So if you have a good Setter, you can have them set. Otherwise, if you're coaching younger players the coach can toss so it's a little more consistent and then our second option our alternative is going to be hitting a set that is off the net again, go ahead and have your Sutter do it if your team is older or Setter is skilled enough to consistently set off the net. Third step is when we're making that decision and the hitters are judging is this set coming to me on the net or is it off the net and they're making that decision about how to adjust their progenitor on what the ball looks like as it's coming to them and then of course the last step is chaos, which is gameplay. I'm going to give you one more example and that's going to be locking. So let's just say that our normal block to start is going to be blocking just straight in front. Of the ball so lining up so that the ball is in the middle of our hands and then our alternative is going to be blocking to the left. So if we want to shift to the left a little bit keep that right hand lined up with the ball and the left hand off to the side taking away that angle it's going to be a lot easier if you're working with boxes specifically and then we're going to be making the decision. Okay, should I block left or should I block straight on and that could depend on where the set is or what the Hit her shoulders look like you're going to have to specifically direct their attention to certain cues so that they know how to read what's going on because if you're not directing them to look at anything to notice something that is going to help them make that decision and there's really no point in doing it. So before you decide on a certain skill, make sure that you know why they're making the decision that way you can instruct them on what to look for to help them get that edge and then of course the last one is gameplay, so if we're working On blocking maybe hitters versus defense would be a great drill because there's a lot of opportunities for blocking built into that as I mentioned. We're not going to be doing this every single practice. But when you feel like there is an obvious skill that your team needs to be working on take the time to come up with what's one option. What's the second option? And how can we isolate that and direct our players attention to certain cues, so they know how to react to the ball and then making sure that you're running A game like drill that is going to give them more options to execute that skill. So in our first example when we talked about passing and serve receive if you're running a game like drill that doesn't include serving it doesn't really make sense. Right? So make sure that they will have ample opportunity to practice the skill in that game that you are working on in the first three steps as I've mentioned. I have found that I'm able to get beginner players of various ages out playing volleyball. Getting a good rally going just by breaking down the basic skills into the steps. So even though you may think oh well moving forwards and backwards is a little bit complicated for passing. We're not going to work on that yet. It's going to happen in the game. You might as well suck it up. It's going to be ugly but work on it. Now that way in a game setting, you know how to handle it. This can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it whatever you decide make sure that it's something that your players. Are ready for and that they can be mostly successful at I am thinking like a 70 to 80% success rate. Once you get them going through it if it's any lower than that, you might want to adjust just because if you keep hammering it into them and they're not being successful than that's going to become a part of their mindset and maybe they're just not ready for it. Maybe you're moving them too far ahead. Maybe you need to break it down into a simpler goal. So in my Setting example. Let's say I'm finding that the players are having a really hard time with setting to outside from the 10-foot line. Maybe I have a younger team and they're just not strong enough not coordinated enough and their minds just aren't quite catching up. I'm going to make it a little more simple and the first step is going to be a toss directly to them. And then the next toss is going to be maybe two or three steps in front of them. So still getting them moving. They're having to adjust and in a game. Game, the pass is probably are going to be on the 10-foot line, but we'll eventually get there. I want to make sure that my players are successful in our feeling successful feeling like they're achieving things before we move on to more complicated aspects of the game. Remember the game is not about how well you can pass in controlled situations. You need to practice in that chaotic environment and it's not always going to be pretty but you got to get the job done. So good luck in your next practice. I hope you find this beneficial be sure to check. I'll get the pancake.com. If you're looking for more of volleyball drills or coaching tools coaching resources. Thank you so much for listening and I will see you in our next episode.
Too many coaches teach skills in a controlled environment, and then wonder why their team can't pass, hit, etc. in a match. It's because you haven't practiced in "chaos!" In this episode of the Get The Pancake Podcast, I take you from skill introduction to gameplay execution in just 20-25 minutes. Regardless of your team's skill level or age group, "building up to chaos" is a great way to incorporate more gamelike volleyball drills into practice. —————— Support the podcast: https://anchor.fm/getthepancake/support —————— DRILLS MENTIONED —————— Freeball/Downball: https://getthepancake.com/drills-and-tips/freeball-downball-drill Hitting Lines Vs Defense: https://getthepancake.com/drills-and-tips/volleyball-hitting-lines-vs-defense —————— 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 —————— LET’S GET SOCIAL! —————— Website: https://getthepancake.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getthepancake/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/getthepancake/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/getthepancake/  ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. 