Using Time

I don’t think I manage my calendar the same way other college coaches do, certainly at the two-year college level.  Have you ever noticed how many coaches equate spending tons of time in the gym or in the office with success?  Is that true?  Or is it for looks–to show other coaches, “Hey, look at me putting in 15-18-20 hour days!”  Football coaches do that silly sort of stuff.

So I figured, “Hey, I’m procrastinating today…got some other writing already done and seeds for Nationals(!!!)don’t come out until tomorrow, so why not blog?”   See how that worked out as a happy convergence–thinking about how time gets spent while I’m procrastinating….perfect!!

So anyways, the one thing I’m going to start with before going into details.  We don’t ever do anything on Sunday.  Everyone needs a day off.  The NCAA demands it even though the NJCAA does not.  These are kids–they need time to do homework, laundry, or sleep.

And now onwards…

So our season goes like this:

• 3 weeks of pre-season practice, M-F (15 days) 

• One pre-season scrimmage (1 day)

• 11 weeks of regular season (66 days including Saturdays)

Thus, out of 98 possible days (14 weeks), I’m able to work with them 82 since I’ve pre-determined Sundays are off along with two full pre-season weekends. 

So how many of those 82 days do you use?  I know a bunch of schools that use more–that go on Sundays as well.  I know some that will do a rest day here or there.  Honestly, I go far beyond that.  I’ve only got the numbers for last year and this year

2018: 13 additional days off  69/82 used            Total days off = 292017:   9 additional days off   73/82 used            Total days off = 25

This means I’m giving up roughly 15% of my available time with my players to do absolutely nothing volleyball relatedabsolutely nothing volleyball related.  I’ve been doing this since 2015 though I admit it got lowered by happenstance rather than intentionally that first year–we had a team cancel a tournament we were supposed to go to, so I said ‘What the heck’ and cancelled five days of stuff.  We came back mentally refreshed.  Our records in the last four year:

2015: 40-62016: 40-92017: 37-72018: 29-14 (oh, the bizarre, non-VB injuries this year…)TOTAL: 146-37

Taking that time off hasn’t dented our ability to win at all.  This year we’ve had a zillion injuries.  In the first half of the season, we went 0-5 against teams qualifying for the Big Dance.  In the second half, 3-0.   Ranked teams in the first half, 3-7   Second half, 7-1.   Obviously some of that is we strive to continually improve, fix mistakes, etc., but I’ve wondered–are we playing teams that are going full-out and failing to rest?  Are we simply fresher, so that we maintain our athleticism rather than wear out?  –And this isn’t just a volleyball thing…consider what happened to the Chicago Cubs and their schedule to end the 2018 season; they had no off-days for less than a month and they wound up quickly out of the playoffs because their offensive output dropped by something like 20% over that time period.  Elite athletes need rest as much, maybe more so, than they need hard training.

Just a thought.  Consider some extra time off for your players.  They’ll appreciate it more than you realize.  It may also prevent you from burnout as well.

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