Elson’s Tips and Traps
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The coaches at Elson Volley have extensive experience coaching with the Australian Volleyball Federation, Volleyball SA, Secondary Schools Sport, Mt Lofty Volleyball Club and Heathfield High School.
How do I give constructive feedback and improvement suggestions without sounding like a “know it all”?
Always refer to it as OUR TEAM. Get into the figurative team boat with them and stay in the team boat no matter what. If the kids see you bail out of the boat they may not let you back in to the boat. It annoys me greatly to hear coaches - “We won” - “They...
Are penalties (e.g. push ups) a worthwhile way to motivate kids to play better.
Penalties in trainings… are they the right thing?
How do I keep kids interested in passing practice which is necessary, but can be considered boring?
Another great question. If you have to do passing drills then you have to do passing drills. - Kids will be motivated if they can see they are getting better. - Tell them how good they have to be to win the nationals (Average of 2.4) - Train to be at 2.4 –...
Question #1 from Eldo’s New Zealand coaching tour
When coaching a group that has a range of skill levels, how can I use time most effectively to ensure that all players are benefitting from the session? Excellent question. This is not often addressed by coaches well enough and is a reason why some of the better...
How do I keep the children’s spirits up/focus when they are not doing well in a game?
If I was taking a group of beginners I would like to see us be able to do a dig, set, spike over the net. For a junior group 3 per set would be great, 5 per set would be fantastic. I would keep the score of these spikes and that would be about all I would...
It’s only a week away!!
The National Schools Cup is fast approaching with teams having one or maybe two training left until they hit the big stage. As a coach what should you be working on to ensure that your team plays to its potential in a weeks’ time? Changing a player’s technique or...
Defence.
To D or not to D, is not the question. The question is which defensive structure do you use? There are many to select from but how do you chose which one is right for your team? First, let’s look at the different types: Line or 22 defence: position 1...
What are you coaching?
What accidental habits are you teaching your players by the drills that you do regularly? For example: A warm up drill that is done regularly in my trainings is the "back court hitting drill", fairly self explanatory. However, this drill, if not done right...
13 Random tips for Melbourne.
Make sure your trial matches and trainings at the moment are as close to what you will get in Melbourne. I even had a tape playing the Melbourne background noise I had recorded one year to make the trial match/training experience as real as possible during some...
Be Consistent – not like the cricket commentators
PLEASE BE CONSISTENT: Watching cricket over the summer, I realised just how inconsistent and unfair we can be as coaches to our players. Players can do exactly the same skill the same way and in the same match context and we give them different feedback...