Podcast Suggestion: Nancy Lorentz on Movers Mindset
Listen to this amazing lady. She’s the founder of PK Silver, and a cancer survivor. Worthwhile listen.
Visualizing NCAA GPA data
On 5 Sept 2018, the NCAA Research team tweeted out this chart : It reports the average core high school grade point averages (GPA) among NCAA Division I freshman student athletes. So, a bit of a background – the National Collegiate Athletics Association governs just about all collegiate athletic programs in America, and the Division […]
Homographic terms
Many terms in athletic coaching are poorly defined yet form the basis of disagreements. For example, the word athletic is really not quantifiable, and describes some quality that cannot be calibrated, yet is used as a basis of comparing people. In volleyball, the idea of ball control is heavily valued, is generally thought be observable, […]
Volleyball and Newton
I ignited a fierce debate a few months back by simply asking: “the higher you jump, the more force you land with, right? (Yes, it’s a trick question)” I posed the question shortly after the McKibbin Brothers released their video on dealing with knee pain, and a trainer was explaining that you could land with […]
How do you want your set?
I hear a number of common phrases during volleyball play which I discourage athletes from using. This is why. “How do you want your set?” Often advised for new teammates, this question is poorly worded and really does not address what is important for the game. What an attacker wants for a set is often […]
Becoming height neutral
The website Beachvolleyballspace covered the recent FIVB Gstaad Major with an article celebrating the winners, the currently top ranked Canadian team of Paredes and Pavan claiming the gold. The article title (Canadian women dominate Gstaad Major – Japan challenges top teams) makes special mention of the fifth place Japanese team of Murakami and Ishii. Why? […]
Improving Quads 2: Reduce seams
The convention of most teams in beach quads format is the “diamond” formation when receiving serve – the players orient themselves with three players staggered in a V formation, and the setter at the apex nearest the net. Diamond formation The idea here is that the ball is passed close to the net where the […]
In praise of being quiet
“I need to talk more.” “Talk!” “We need to talk.” Verbal loquaciousness is almost universally valued on the beach volleyball court. Coaches punish juniors for being too quiet on the court. Players proudly declare how verbal they are in a game. In the event of a miscommunication, the blame is almost always squarely put on […]
A nuclear option
On the Facebook group Volleyball Coaches and Trainers (VCT), a coach shared a rule with regards to juniors beach volleyball tournaments held in the Chicago area – an optional one, in which any team, at any time, can request that no hand setting be used for the remainder of that particular match. It’s a bit […]
Recognizing Sports Pseudoscience
In a recent discussion with BJ Leroy of USA Volleyball, I encountered a paper by Bailey et al (2018) published in the open access journal Frontiers in Psychology, titled “The Prevalence of Pseudoscientific Ideas and Neuromyths Among Sports Coaches“. Since the journal is open access, the paper is readily available to download and read. The […]