Ways to Grow the Game

So a little while ago I wrote a blog criticizing some coaches for selfishness and abdicating their responsibility to the sport of volleyball for the sake of personal glory and their pocketbook.  That blog is here.  If you haven’t read it already, you should for context’s sake.

With that taken care of, have you considered purchasing my book “Like Heck She Isn’t a Volleyball Player”?  It’s 20+ essays on coaching and it’ll cost you less than a fast-food value meal (under $5.00).  You can buy it here.

There are some coaches out there who aren’t high-level/elite but want to ‘grow the game’.  I love that.  One thing I’ve heard though is the question, “What can I do?”  The first step is always the hardest–that’s the unknown, that’s the point you worry about failing.  Take it!!  It’s liberating!   I decided that I could brainstorm a list of things to help people help the sport.

So what can you do to grow the game, to improve the sport?  Tons!  –and sometimes it doesn’t even require you to have great technical knowledge of the sport.

1. Learn how to film/edit ‘proper’ highlight and match videos for athletes (shot from angles college coaches prefer to watch).  Help everyone with this–not just your own child.

2. Learn how to do proper stats.

3. Get certified as a scorekeeper–jr. high and high school programs are always desperate for volunteers and a lot of colleges will pay scorekeepers (and need willing workers, too!).

4. Go to a local clinic.  –This helps you network with coaches in your area.  If the clinic becomes something regular, attendance will grow AND you’ll be more likely to get presenters who provide what the attendees are looking for.

5. Don’t have a local clinic–START THE CLINIC.  Yes, you’ll have to put in the work to start, but this will create the benefits of #4 for everyone else.

6. Get past the idea of hoarding knowledge away from competitors.  “A rising tide lifts all boats.”  Our personal greatness is reflected in what we do for others–so share what you know!

7. Teach a class as a volunteer someplace like the YMCA.

8. Host a Parent/Fan Explanation night where you go over rules and common misconceptions.  Go into strategies and tactics.   You’ll create better fans this way and maybe intrigue someone enough that they go into coaching.

9. Get your high school athletes involved coaching 8-9yr olds.  It’ll reinforce their own knowledge, but more importantly, you create leadership experiences and an understanding of role-models.  …and you get young kids going “Hey, I WANT to be a volleyball player!”

10. Become a referee.  There is a critical shortage at the jr. high and high school levels.  There’s a serious shortage of club officials and there’s starting to be a squeeze on college officials, too.  With college at least, I know there are TONS of good officials happy to mentor novices, too!

11. Start coaching a school team whether doing 6th grade, fresh-soph, or varsity.

12. If you already coach, can you find ways to increase playing time below the varsity level?  Can you pre-plan it so that more kids get court time, so they stick with the sport?

13. Are you willing to coach a 12-u or 10-u club team?  A ton of “elite” coaches only want to coach where they’ll be seen/get to talk with NCAA D-1 coaches.  Want to grow the sport–coach the 10s.  (Just remember, you’ll need to coordinate your hair scrunchie and socks with theirs)

14. Take photographs.  Provide them to newspapers and media.  Get them to the schools/coaches/kids (as permitted by local law, etc) so they can post them and share with friends.  …shoutout here to Dana Hunt, Tammy Wienke, and Vicki Black especially, three parents I’ve had who took tons of great pictures.

15. Take players to a match from an age above them–take 8yr olds to a high school game, take high schoolers to watch any level of college match.

16. Coach older kids?  Have them go to a YOUNGER match and cheer for a team!

17. Have older kids put on a free mini-clinic (1-2 hours) for young kids…whoever shows up, you coach ’em up!

18. Learn your rules.  The more you know the rules, the better you coach–and the more you can educate others.

19. Agitate with emails, calls, messages to places like ESPN or NBC-Sports.  It’s kinda embarrassing that volleyball is relegated to ESPN+, but the “College Slip and Slide Championship” will get 30 minutes of air time (and don’t give me crap about bought-time, etc…they treat VB with the same disrespect at espn.com…good luck finding anything on VB there most days)

20. Take things like SafeSport seriously.  Keep your eyes out for improper behavior.  Volleyball needs to be a safe place for young competitors.

21. Get involved with Special Olympics.

22. Uncomfortable with S.O.??–why not consider things like para-volleyball.

23. Start a club if there isn’t one near you.  One way or another, make it affordable.

24. Live in an area where money is tight?  Consider Starlings Volleyball.

25. Don’t throw out old gear–see if there are groups who could use a donation!

26. Don’t throw out old balls, poles, pads, stands, etc.  There are likely places where those would be an upgrade!

27. Get involved with online coaching forums.  If you have expertise, post and share.  If you aren’t sure–sit back and lurk.  I learn more from “Volleyball Coaches and Trainers” and “Volleyball Teachers and Trainers” (closed groups on Facebook) than I do at the national coaches convention.

28. This will sound crass, but if all else fails, donate money.  There are a ton of not-for-profit clubs out there looking for help, willing to take sponsors.  For a small club, a $1,000 donation may cut fees for kids by 10% across the board.  That’s huge.

29. Host a tournament.  USAV doesn’t make this easy with paperwork, but this is a playing opportunity for kids in your area.  Get a school involved with a good concessions stand and they may be happy to run a series of tournaments–they make money and you’re going to give a ton of kids chances to play.

30. Blog.  It doesn’t have to be high-tech, geeky stuff (Jim Stone just started a new blog that’s on the high end of things, discussing things like deviation from the mean…but it makes you think!!)….sometimes the best advice is from others in your shoes.  Who has the best advice for coaching a 10 yr old?  Someone who’s done it before!  Write about that.  Heck–write about cool volleyball videos you’ve found, players you admire, whatever you like.  If you are passionate–it’ll show through.  That grows the game! (You can throw podcasts and streaming and all that in here as well)

31. Do a presentation at a clinic/conference.  This forces you to really cut off all the fat from your ideas, distills things to the central meaning.  Go for it!  You’d be surprised who will come to your presentation (scared the crap out of me back in 2012 when I started mine and watched Russ Rose and Karch Kiraly walk in…I kept looking there and Karch-Frickin’-Kiraly is taking notes on what I said…most nervous I’ve been in a volleyball setting in my life).  Be ready for feedback–some good, some not.  Use that to make you a better communicator.

32. Find ways to showcase the sport.  We host a HS All-Star Game for seniors every November when the season is done.  We take hundreds of pictures–and we get a huge crowd.  It’s one of my favorite days of the fall every year.  Can you host one in your area?

33. Does your state have a coaches association?  How do you get involved?

34. Making six-digits from coaching?…have you donated to the AVCA‘s Coaches-4-Coaches scholarship fund to help train young coaches? [Sadly, this rarely happens.  Most Coaches-4-Coaches donations come from lower level coaches rather than ‘big time’ ones]

35. Are you involved with the administration of your USAV Region?  Maybe you aren’t the greatest coach–but if you’ve got organization skills, there’s ALWAYS a place for organized people.

36. Read a book relevant to coaching or learning the game.  Then find someone else who could benefit from it–and gift it to them.  Knowledge should never be squirreled away or kept secret.  Simply ask them to pass it along when done to someone else who can benefit from it.

37. Take time to get your athletic director involved–make them a fan.  A lot of administrators don’t know much about sports.  Want to grow the game–get the bosses on your side.

37 possibilities.  What have I missed?  Has to be countless other ways. Please put other ideas into the comments section here on the blog–that way other coaches can see them, too.

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