Breaking Old Habits: Timeouts

So a couple months ago, with the help of Mark and Ben (more like me piggybacking on them…), some research got done on the value of points. It raised some interesting questions…

*Why do timeouts rarely seem to have value during a contest? *Why do coaches only emphasize the final 5-10 points scored in a contest?

Using the numbers from the research, I came up with 25 score combinations where it greatly improves your chances of victory if you score the next point. If ever there’s a time to have your stuff squared away–those 25 are it! I *know* mathematically that those are the key point combinations in a volleyball set…that the others don’t matter anywhere near as much…so that calling the timeout down 5-11 isn’t going to do much good in normal circumstances…and certainly not when you wait until the opponent is up 24-18. Those are silly, useless (and very traditional) timeous.

These 25 situations aren’t the scores you’d expect and there’s not really a way to memorize them–so I did what you’d expect–I wrote them down and then keep that list handy while we are playing.

Since the article/research, we’ve played 10 sets of scrimmages and I’ve coached about 25 sets of regular volleyball and you know what conclusion I’ve reached??

IT IS REALLY FRICKIN’ HARD TO BREAK HABITS BUILT UP OVER DECADES!!!!

First scrimmage: I called all of them at a designated score-combination. Second scrimmage: I called timeouts at the designated score-combination.

First competition: Nope, didn’t call a single one at a key point, even though key points happened 15 times during the match. Instead, I sat on the timeouts…my brain’s conditioning SURE it was better to just hold onto them ‘just in case’. In the end, I only used three three timeouts total (out of six possible) and none were at key points. Indeed, all three were called at ‘traditional’ moments where you would expect a timeout.

Second competition: It went four sets. I called three timeouts and…even though I knew I held on for no good reason in the first match (earlier that day), I did the same thing with the first two timeouts I called. On the third, I used it at an alternative, non-traditional point (not a key one) to emphasize a point we’d worked on in practice. And then…did I use one as we rolled past six different key points with our opponent on a 10-point run??? Nope–I fell into that ol’ coaching saw of “Just one more, just one more…we’ve got this”…except we never did.

And after that? I’ve changed–but not in the way the numbers say I should change. What’s happened is that I have simply reduced the number of timeouts I call. Instead of calling a TO when an opponent goes on a roll, I just let it go. Is that better? Worse? I don’t know. Like I said–changing ingrained habits/conditioning is REALLY hard.

So all of this post is admitting to a screw up. I know what I’m supposed to do–yet I didn’t do it, still haven’t really. The first step is to know you made a mistake–and then you go right back to working on it again. If you don’t change, don’t seek improvement, you fall behind…even when you make mistakes or fail–don’t lose your growth mindset!!