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Vision U16 Week 1

By Assistant Coach, 01/14/19, 10:30AM CST

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January 14, 2019

Hello Vision U16 Parents

Our club completed the first week of practice. For many of the new athletes that are new to our team, they are acclimatizing to new teammates and a new methodology in techniques specific in volleyball. Coach Ben and Luc have been working with the athletes on the foundation skills of footwork, setting, and passing with very little line hitting as we feel all the girls need to develop footwork and footspeed first before we start doing hitting. We believe in training in the proper sequences to develop all the players with the sufficient skillsets to become proficient on the court.

We sent out journals (2 each) to all the athletes and we asked them to outline their personal and team goals for the season. We feel that having the girls state their goals (personal/team) will help them focus on long-term achievements and helps us coaches measure progress throughout the season. We also have the girls write out what they did during the week's practice and how they felt and what they've observed among their team mates and themselves. On Sunday, the girls would hand in their completed journal and continue with second journal for the following week. They would rotate and the coaches will review and comment on all the journals handed in.

We sent out a SportsEngine notice to do an optional Wednesday practice this week at Carpathia. The main reason for the practice is, because we are working on fundamentals, we want to get in some practice time to prepare for our first Tournament, Premiere Feb 15-16 (One Month away!!). Our goal this week is to get the girls more proficient with the foundation skills so we can start moving forward with positional play as we get ready for the competition phase of our season. Please RSVP so we have an idea of head count and preparing a practice plan.

 

Strengthening Team Trust:

Team chemistry is such an elusive thing. It lies at the very core of successful team performance. I find that it is more important than the skill base of a team. Every athlete brings to the table a uniquely different personality. 

Each player deals with frustration differently, responds optimally to different motivational techniques and each player sees a different path to resolving interpersonal conflicts. All coaches must tirelessly attempt to acquire the skills to identify these differences and to unify everyone around a common set of ground rules. Hence the team handbook, the journals and our player advocate, and team manager.

I learned the process of cultivating skills required to resolve conflicts actually draws a team together, even if a total solution is never reached. Just getting a full commitment to the process is generally enough. 

And with this last point, Mackenzie's mom, Tracey has sent out an invitation to a team get together for Jan 19, at 4:30 pm. Just getting the girls together not talking volleyball and learning a little about each other will help foster that team trust which in turn will power them through tough moments on the court or help sweeten that winning feeling when our team comes out on top. 

Have a good week.


Regards,
Ruben Cervantes

Not a sociology major...