Volleyball Over Everything: Practice Ready

   This week we’ll be discussing practices and what they mean to the overall turnout of play. We’ve all heard the expression “You practice how you play”, but what about when practices are excellent and game time is awful? Where or how should that be addressed in practice? As a coach, there should be a time in a practice period where the players are allowed to think about why certain drills are being ran and how to transfer that knowledge of play into the game.

There are a couple of key facts that will help our players in practice to game transfer.

• Reading the situation and analyzing what skill to use.
• Preparing to use that skill in order to have the best outcome.
• Executing that skill with proper technique and form.
• Making sure that practices are age and skill appropriate.

As a coaches, the drills we give should in some way prepare our players to easily transfer these skills into the game and eliminate doubt and confusion. We want our players to be able to coach themselves on the court. I was told a quote from one of my mentors, “Practice is where a coach earns their pay, but games are where a player shows their worth.” Meaning, you as a coach should prepare your player in practice so that you will not have to coach them on the court and they can show their skills and understanding in a game.

Lastly, while preparing for a practice make sure you address where activities and drills will fit in with overall goals of your program and if they will effectively improve performance, technique, transferring these set skills into game play. Remember, practices are not effective if skills and techniques can not be transferred. Players should move in such a way that seems effortless when it comes to this element, and that is when you know as a coach you found a good fit in practice.

References

1 Sports, S. N. (2015). Incorporating Game Situations Into Player Development.

2 White, J. (2016). Planning Purposeful and Pertinent Practices.