summer volleyball- week 3

Monday of week 3 started off very slowly. Players were dragging in practice and with Vern's workouts. At the end of the session on Monday, we talked to the players about bringing everything they had to practice and leaving it all on the floor. We have many inexperienced varsity players next season and it was important that they knew that you cannot take plays off at the varsity level and expect to be successful. Each and every play is important because many volleyball games are won and lost by a two and three points. Needless to say, they came back the next day and the rest of this week ready to work hard. One of the nice things about this group is that they are excellent listeners and all we have to do is say things once. I think this trait will come in handy in big matches this season.
We concentrated on ball control this week and being a smart volleyball player. Many coaches just tell their players what to do and don't explain why they are doing it. At Venice, we want our players to know why a ball spins a certain way and what opposing players tend to do in certain situations. I can best explain this with an example. When I was a young gun playing doubles on the beaches of Santa Cruz, the older guys always used to knock us off. They were slower and could not jump that well and they took forever to stretch out before a match (I understand that now). I could never figure out how they did it. They won because they were smarter players. They knew that the young players just wanted to go up and spike it as hard as they could and show everyone how high they could jump so the older guys would situate themselves on defense on how to handle it. But the older players had to use their brain and make different types of cut shots to hit where the other team was not. They also had to have outstanding ball control to make up for their other physical weaknesses. So the question is, how does a team beat another team with more talent? The answer is outstanding ball control, make less mistakes then the other team, work harder, and be smarter more knowledgeable vb players. That is our playing philosophy in a nutshell. It does not matter who knows it or what other teams read this blog but it is a lot harder to do then just talking about it.
For the last 3 weeks, we have been breaking down skills to the smallest detail especially in the early part of each session. Our focus in summer is the individual over team play which consequently (big word) makes team play better. Not that i know how to make a cake but it is like it. You have to have all the ingredients for the cake to turn out right. If one ingredient is missing, then the cake suffers. Players get better in their prospective positions and and when all the players come together, the cake comes out of the oven and you get what you get. Today, we took a peak into the oven to see our defense and offense as we put some things together. I can tell you that things are coming together well and we are very excited to open the season in 61 days. I'll bet that you did not know that I am so philosophical!
On a lighter note, Jay and I brought in 400 water balloons that 2 girls filled up during practice who were on the Injured Reserve today (Thanks Hannah Revels and Aubrey Court!). At the end of practice, we snuck out to the football field and bombed the football players. The only problem was that word must have leaked out because the football players all had eggs and were ready. I will let you imagine how that went. Over and out!