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Greetings, from the Wichita State volleyball bus. The 11th ranked shockers are off to play Bradley and Northern Iowa this weekend.

Since I am bored on the bus I decided to blog again. I think the reason why I stop blogging for long periods of time is because my posts are too long and I get too lazy to type out everything in my head. The solution...shorter posts.

So get your rss feeds ready because this blog has life again and will contain shorter posts so it doesn't seem you're reading a novel. If only this bus ride was shorter also!

Until then...
That's how the Ridge rolls

So close

So today USA Volleyball almost sent me to Puerto Rico! I guess the technical coordinator for the USA Girls Youth team backed out and they needed a scout and I would have been the replacement, but I am working the World League match in Bloomington...aaaaaaah so close!

Living from hotel room to hotel room.

Me and FIVB supervisor Benito Montessi from Italy


So living in hotels for weeks is starting to get to me. I miss my room! But it's all good because I love my job! Traveling with Team USA and meeting new people....I couldn't ask for more. I have my first official FIVB match under my belt and I'm ready for this weekend against Finland which should be 2 easy wins for Team USA.



Old school Newman vball and new school Newman vball


After this weekend I fly to Dallas to coach my 171 team at nationals then it's time to catch up with my Newman bros. A lot of the crew if coming to the ICT for Ripple's wedding....prolly more for the bachelor party and reception haha. Then it's off to Bloomington, IL for USA vs Spain.

I also got hired to be the VIS manager for the NORCECA boys world championships in Miami and I will also be the Public Relations and Media Director at the event. Finally I get to put my education to use! I will also be doing the same at the FIVB High Performance Championships in Tucson. After all that I have my Gold Medal Squared and WSU camps to attend to. Turns out I'll actually be missing the first day of WSU preseason.

I must say I love my job(s). It definately beats being in the office and in the gym all day. Hopefully this will lead to a full time career for me.

Until next time...
That's how the Ridge rolls

Goodbye Olympic Training Center....Hello World League

Last night was the final exhibition match for USA vs Brazil and was it nutso! First, we got waxed by Brazil in 3; however, Brazil wanted to play 5 matches no matter what. Second, the game was televised, but we couldn't set up a statistics network for some reason and the TV announcers weren't able to get the live stats from the game! Crazy night and I wish we could have played better but it's exhibition. I love the Olympic Training Center and I met a bunch of cool people. I know I'll see some of them at the World League matches that I'll be working and hopefully I'll get to see some at the High Performance nationals and Junior Olympics. I'll be back in Wichita today (Sunday, I'm sitting the Colorado Springs airport right now), and I depart for Wilson Estates, IL on Wed. for USA vs Bulgaria. The summer madness has begun! oh yeah, I forgot to add that I will arrive in Wichita at 3:52pm and I have a practice with my 171 club team at 5pm so I'm having one of my players pick me up from the airport and drive me to practice haha...so classy

1st day with USA vball

Let's just say I love Colorado Springs and the USA Volleyball Staff. I really would love to work here full time, but we'll see. We played Brazil last night and lost in 5. Props to Brazil, ranked #1 in the world, because they lost their starting setter due to injury. Brazil plays at such a fast pace. As I was evaluating sets I realized Fafoa (Brazil's setter) probably got her hitters in 5 one-on-one situations to every one of ours. We play again on Friday and Saturday. Hopefully we'll come out of this series 2-1.

182 year in review

So I just woke up from a nap on the bus. Suprisingly the bed on the bus wasn't uncomfortable! It's exciting because I never get to sleep on a bed in the bus during the season haha. So on to my 18s season...lot's and lot's ob obstacles and challenges. First was the lack of size and not having any true middles. Secondly I lost a setter to mono, a hitter to knee surgery, and a little (defensive player) to a wrist injury. The team had a huge playing experience gap amongst players. I also had a stud senior who didn't know where she was going to play in college and she was getting offers from schools which I thought she was too good for. I learned that coaching an 18s team can be difficult because they have so much going on with their school activities and sports that you really have to accomplish as much as you can when you have everyone together...atleast for me. I had one player who was an outside and never had played middle or hit a quick set in her life but was just a physical player that can jump out of the gym. I've never had a player that worked as hard as she did. There would be nights where I'd do team conditioning and pretty much kick their ass until their body reaches failure and this girl kept trucking when everyone else might have slowed down or even stopped. I wish I could have done more to fix her goofy footedness :( fortunately I was able to grab a middle a little into the season; however, she had a stress fracture in her foot and hadn't done anything physical in a looooog time. After getting her back in the game and getting her to touch the ball she ends up being our best all around player. She ended up signing with the University Central Missouri. I was so relieved that she is going there because she hadn't really gotten any worthwhile offers because she really just got in the recruiting scene this season! She had gotten offers to schools that I thought weren't good enough for her. My setter was very easy to coach. The funny thing is that she reminded me of me when I played club. A shorter setter that had a good brain and played like she was 6 feet tall. I was able to run in system back row pipes and even biqs (back row quick attacks) which not a lot of setters would be able to handle (same with the hitters). She will be playing at Fort Hays State University next year. My littles were amazing. They we're the 2 I really didn't have to coach much. They knew what they had to do and got it done. I was able to pretty much run a 2 person serve receive passing rotation whenever I wanted to because of them. I think teams remember us for our backrow playing on defense and offense. A lot of that was possible because of those 2. One of my littles will be playing at Missouri State University next year. My outsides were the ones that improved the most throughout the season. One of them is a very solid outside player who's main weakness was defense but towards the season was digging balls like she was a libero. My other outside had a problem of over running the ball on her approach. Our last 2 tournaments she did a better job of fixing it and was lighting girls up in the backrow. She even played 6 roatations in the last tournament when she usually got subbed out and did phenomenal. My other hitter was only a sophomore in hs and didn't show intimidation at all being on the court against 18s teams. She was like a sponge that just wanted to learn as much possible so she can improve which was awesome. My 18s was a very awesome experience. I've always wanted to train girls like mens team with the in system backrow ball and these girls did it well. The last college I coached at couldn't do that as well as they did. I was also pleased with how we attempted to get a good approach and high percentage swing on every dig because free balls suck...there's that men's volleyball hitting mentality again. Though we faced so many obstacles that tried to slow us down we still improved. Even though we didn't have a lot of team practices where everyone was there, we were able to play in system as a team come tournament time. My parents were awesome supporters. There are a lot of parents that nag to their coaches as to playing time or you're doing it all wrong and they'll hound you especially as an 18s coach but I never ever had to talk to a parent about anything like that. The only parent talks I had were about recruiting and injury. So thank you parents for being so supportive and trusting me with your daughters. Well it looks like it's time for another nap on the bus :). I'll update everyone on our Houston trip soon!

Season wrap ups

So I'm blogging from my blackberry right now because I have a 9 hour bus trip to Houston ahead of me. With all this free time I figured I'd give my 182 and 121 shockwave wrap up.

I'll start out with the little ones and let me tell you that was an experience! Until now, I had never ever coached a team that was younger than 15. Well I guess I have coached at camps with younger players but never ever a team for an entire season! These girls started out at the very bottom. Couldn't serve or maintain 3 contacts. I thought it was going to be a very long season ahead of me. A lot of the girls on my team went to the same school so practice almost seemed like social hour for them. But after going to our first few tournaments the girls didn't like how we were performing and was always wondering why the other teams get to keep playing and we have to ref then leave. They started to take practice seriously and I even had girls wanting individual practice time before our practices. I was totally stoked because we then started to be a serving team. At the 12s level I learned that you place your setters where you need them in your lineup and then you start with your best server then second best and so on. I had girls actually attempting to take swings on sets! If we had only picked up on our passing and setting earlier in the season I would have had a reason to work a lot more on approaches and hitting. I had girls who were so frustrated about not being able to serve over the net and yet at the end of the season those girls probably had a higher ace percentage for the attempts they were given. I remember when we played in our first championship match. The girls were soooo excited. For me I was probably even more excited, not so much of the fact we were in the finals, but how the girls were actually setting up attacks and playing defense and covering. I had the girls promise me that no matter what happens that they can't be mad or sad because they have accomplished so much today and that winning the tournament would be icing on the cake. Sadly we lost and it hurt, but everyone was happy in the end. The parents were so happy that the girls finally made it to the finals. I was so fortunate to have awesome parents that understood what I was trying to do with the team and to support me in my vision. True we may have finished the season with probably a .500 winning percentage, but had we played in probably 2 more tournaments we probably could have finished with a .750 winning percentage. In the beginning I was freaking out because we weren't winning games and a parent came up to me and told me that I need to calm down because the girls are only 12, they aren't supposed to win games (I'm guessing she meant that the focus was not solely winning), rather learn. Coaching a 12s team made me realize that most of my club career all I really ever focused on was winning that I forgot how much more improved the became. I hope my 12s will realize how much they grew as volleyball players this season. But a coach can only do so much and I think that's something they won't realize until their older. I want to thank the players for all the hard work and fun times they have given me and I really need to thank the parent for trusting in my team vision and supporting me....also thnk you for a rediculously amazing end of the year party!!

Well that concludes my 121 season thoughts, I was going to blog on my 182 season but this bus ride is making me very sleepy. I figure when I wake up from my little nap I'll probably still have a lot of time to blog on my 18s.

Spring Update

It has been one crazy spring semester/season! So I will attempt to update you on what's been going on lately.

1. My designated club teams (182 & 121) seasons are over.

Many people tell me you have to be so relieved to have less to do now, but it's almost like we just started clicking and getting better at a faster rate towards the end of the season that I wanted to continue on. For instance, my 12 year olds went from never making it out of pool play to making it to the finals or losing to the semis. We went from a team that could make a serve over the net to serving aces. I think a reason for a lot of my girls losses is because I forced them to use 3 contacts and actually set up an attack and many teams would play tennis with us (we hit the ball over and they hit it right back). There is a lot more chance in creating errror with 3 contacts and so I think that's why we lost certain games. For those interested in coaching, you have to coach a young kids team atleast once in your career. As for my 182, I had to leave them with a replacement coach for the 1st day of their last tournament because of WSU spring vball. I was scared to death but my assistant Courtney did an amazing job, and apparently the girls did an amazing job getting first in their pool for the day. The last few practices I had with those girls were awesome. We did a lot of work and we actually had a lot of people able to attend practice. My 182 has always had a strong backrow because of my "littles" (defensive specialists), but towards the end of the season I had everyone playing defense, showing me range, making plays. It was an amazing transformation. As for attacking, we finally started connecting on our slide even in transition. My setter got a lot smarter as to thinking her setting strategy in certain rotations. It's very sad that the season is over because I have so much more I would have liked to work with those girls. But I'll have to wait another season....that's if I'm still in Wichita next year =/

2. WSU spring volleyball is almost over!!

So far we've played in Florida against Miami and Florida Atlantic, and at WSU against K-state and Oklahoma. Let me just say...the shockers are going to open a lot of eyes next year. Joining us this spring semester were Mary Elizabeth Hooper (setter) and Dana Loganbill (middle). Both of them realistically should be playing club right now but decided to graduate early and start training with the shockers. Both have made a big impact, alongside with Peyton Thompson, a transfer from East Carolina University. The shockers just might have a shot at breaking into the top 15 this year. We finish out our spring schedule in Houston in which we will play Penn State, just the defending NCAA National Champs....no biggie ;) , Rice University, Texas State, and Texas A&M.

3. USA Volleyball

http://www.usavolleyball.org/

This summer I will be traveling around the USA with USA Volleyball as the Volleyball Information Systems Supervisor. I will be doing all the in game statistics for all the men's national team World Cup matches and I will be traveling to Colorado to work an exhibition match between the USA women's national team and Brazil! The sweet part is that I found out I can get college credit for doing this hehe. Nothing like working for the national teams, getting paid, and getting college credit =)

4. Gold Medal Squared

http://www.goldmedalsquared.com/

I also happened to join the Gold Medal Squared coaching staff for this season and will be working 3 camps. The awesome thing is that one camp I will be working alongside 2 former BYU men's volleyball players who won the national championship against UCLA a couple of years ago. And then my last camp I am working with my former coach I played under at Newman Unversity.

So you can see it's been a crazy spring and looks like it's an even crazier summer ahead. I sometimes forget that I'm a full time student also! Also, I forgot to mention while all this is happening I need to find a place to live in by the end of May!! My roommate got a job in San Antonio and the lease ends at the end of May. So if any of you want to make donations to the help RJ and Wu (Bryan Wooten my other roommate) pay for May rent/utlities please feel free to get a hold of me.

Until then...that's how the Ridge rolls!

0-2

I am 0-2 when it comes to flying at 6am. STUPID BLACKBERRY ALARM!!!!!!

Crossroads

Photobucket Album

So it's been a while since my last blog and a lot has happened. I need to get into the habit of making frequent smaller blogs instead of big ones. I'm also trying out blogging from my phone which I am doing right now.

The Denver crossroads tournament was fun but sooooooo tiring. My 182 took 71st. We should have done a lot better but losing all your games the first day hurts you. But we improved as the tournament went on which was good. I also got to meet with the datavolley and usa volleyball staff to brief me on what I will be doing with the world league this summer.

It's nice to be home after the long weekend and the long drives. That drive to denver and back killed me! But I got to see a wind farm which for some reason amazed me. Well I better get packing as I leave for florida tomorrow. Two days of no volleyball and then I'm back at it again.

Laws of Coaching

Making the transition from a player to a coach is similar to the transition from being a teenager to an adult. You slowly begin to develop a new identity based on things you enjoyed in the past and people who you admired. This is also the stage in your coaching career that you grow and learn the most. I am fortunate that I have played and been around some of the best volleyball coaches in the nation to start my transition from playing to coaching in the right track. I feel that sometimes when collegiate players finish up their eligibility and decide to start coaching, they think they know it all. Yes, they may know a lot of drills from all the practices they attended in the past, but do they truly know how to make their team improve on a consistent basis? Here are some ideas that I think will help young coaches make a smooth transition from playing to coaching.

1. "Failure to prepare is preparing to fail" - John Wooden
Be organized and plan what you are going to do ahead of time. Plan out your practices so you can effectively work on areas that are weak and know what your team will be doing during pre-game warm ups. Knowing what drills you are going to run and how to run them and assigning player roles in those drills before practice will save time.

2. Explain why things are the way they are.
When correcting a player's form or movement, explain to them what corrections they need to make and why that correction is better than their previous form/movement. It is also very helpful to make an analogy to explain a correction.

3. Players can only improve when they acknowledge they did something wrong or incorrect...the same goes for coaches.
Coaches make mistakes also and a lot of young coaches have power trips because of the title "coach". If you make a mistake or did something wrong acknowledge it/apologize, learn from it, and move on. Your team will have greater respect for you in the long run. Ignoring mistakes is what hinders growth as a player and a coach.

4. "You don't know unless you go"
That was a saying my setter and one of my best friends told me (I think he heard it from Jeff Stork or Marv Dunphy. As a coach you have to be willing to take risks and think outside of the box. Maybe it's coaching your team in a totally different system than what you played in college, or training players in positions they never played before, either way you may come across something valuable. The fear of failure often keeps people restricted to "safe" ways and actions when it impairs their ability to learn and grow. "In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure."
-Bill Cosby

5. Be a sponge
Being a coach may mean you're in the gym all day seeing the same people day in and day out. You must go out and see the rest of the volleyball world. Meet and talk with other coaches, stop by and watch some tournaments just for entertainment and not recruiting purposes. Here at Wichita State I hear our head coach Lambo talking to numerous coaches throughout the day on his cell phone, talking about a different theories or philosophies. The more viewpoints and philosophies that you pick up from others will allow you to create a greater unique coaching identity that one day might influence another young coach in the future.

Kinda Good Vball Nut!!

For those of you who want to reach volleyball enlightenment...or maybe just a good laugh. Check out http://www.kindagood.com think of it as Saturday Night Live: Volleyball Style! I'm currently addicted to these guys and it turns out that they will be at the Crossroads tournament! I think I need to bust out a WSU Shocker Volleyball shirt for the Kinda Good crew.

Diving in men's vball vs women's vball

So my 182 team is preparing for the upcoming Crossroads tournament in Denver and I'm trying to expand their defensive range. I made sure all the girls knew how to dive(I taught them he barrel role because it's what I believe creates a greater range of diggable balls) properly for efficiency and safety. Then it hit me as to why men don't dive the same way women do. Now I'm aware of the physical differences between the male and female body and I know that is a big reason for the difference in diving techniques, but I wonder that if barrel rolling allows the player to have a broader range of playable balls then why don't guys do it.
The block in the men's game takes away so much more court than the women's block so maybe defensive floor range isn't a main priority in the men's game. Rather it's about siding out or first swing kills. I see women get more diving digs against the opponents in system attack as opposed to the men's game. After all an in system attack in the men's game is so much harder and faster that you really don't have time to dive. Instead you need to be in position after that set is made or pray to the volleyball gods that when you get dotted the ball goes up and is playable. Call me crazy but that's just what I think.

Why am I coaching?!?!!?! part 2

Another weekend of club volleyball tournaments. I ended up coaching a 161 team for another coach at a tournament on Saturday and lost in the semis, but that isn't the point of this blog post. At the tournament I ran into some very influential people that just happened to be at the same tournament site. First, was my club director from when I played club volleyball. Definitely much respect to him as he took a chance and started the only boys club volleyball team in Kansas City at the time. Of course we had the conversation where I asked "how are things going with the club?" and he asks "where are you at now?" Upon the conclusion of the conversation he says, "I'm really glad that you took the route that enables you to share your love and passion of the game onto others." Never really did I ever think I did this to share my love of the game. I'm ashamed to say but right now I'm just trying to learn as much as I can to become a successful coach and find a way to make a stable living off of it in the future. But then I realized, that all the work and time you put in as a coach is subconsciously spreading your affection and love for the game.

At this tournament was one of the most respected volleyball athletes in the Kansas City volleyball community. A guy which I made sure I watched play when my team didn't have a game or had to ref when I played club. He was a stud who was nationally known. He actually was on the national team until he had a career ending knee injury. I actually had a conversation with him and my old club director at the same time. My club director was actually introducing him to me when he asked "RJ, do you know Mike?" and I'm like "of course I know Mike!!!" Mike responds, "I know RJ. He was the setter that had the hands who would always be on my court watching us play. Never did I think he would actually remember me as the fan hungry to learn and enjoy by watching him bomb balls and here are all three of us at a tournament as coaches. Another example of how coaches can subconsciously spread the love for the game.

Towards the end of the tournament I notice there is a boys club team playing a girls teams. The guys just happened to be a team part of the club I played for. I sit in the bleachers in excitement as it brought back memories when my team played in girls tournaments (of course in those tournaments it wasn't about getting better or experience, but getting girls to watch you play and see how sick of a set I could dish out hehe). I grab a seat in the bleachers next to the "active" parents who love to celebrate for every little point almost as if they were one of the players on the court celebrating. I first asked if they were Mav's (my club team) parents because I definitely didn't want to sit with the opposing team. Luckily I grabbed a seat in the right section. I asked how old the team was and mom explained that they are registered as a 14s team but really only guy on the team was in the 14s age category and everyone else was way younger...what do you know, it was just like my team who was registered as an 16s team with 12-16 year olds on the team. I told the mother that I played on the first Mav's boys team and that seemed to catch the other parents around us attention. Then came the questions "What are you doing here", "did you play in college", "could you please talk to the boys". Well I gave them my story and I ended talking to some of the guys. Ya they didn't know me but they talked to me like I was some superstar when...heck I'm the developing coach (refer to my previous post about Pettits article) that was worried about when everyone will figure out that I don't know what I'm doing!!! But the guys I talked to were to fascinated that they have a future in the sport of volleyball even if it is predominately ran by girls (especially in Kansas City!!).

The last person I bumped into was my very first volleyball coach from 5th grade. I honestly wouldn't have noticed him if he weren't on the other side of the net coaching against my MAV's boys. After the game I walked up to him and introduced myself and he thought it was preposterous that I had to introduce myself because he remembered me. He told me that, "as a coach, it's one of the greatest feelings to have one of your past players get back in touch with you. It's even better to see you giving and spreading your love for the game to others". It's funny to hear that for the second time of the day. But I guess it must really mean something.

The next day (superbowl sunday!) I had to coach my 121's team in a tournament Lawrence. Let me tell you...I've never coached a team that young and it seems like babysitting!!! Anyone who loves coaching the little ones please email me or something because I need help!!! hehe But back to the post...My 12's only won one game and didn't make it out of pool play. I wanted to head on out of the gym as soon as possible so I can make the 3 hours drive back to Wichita in time to catch some of the big football game. As I push my ball cart full of volleylites through the facility, I notice my coach from my 18's year. I sit right next to him and ask "is this seat taken?" he responds with "it is now". We go through the typical protocol of conversation between former player and former coach quickly, then we get to more enticing information on volleyball theories and philosophy. Now this guy is from the Netherlands and he coached at the college I was "supposed" play at. He was a big on bringing foreign players into men's collegiate volleyball (that is a whole other topic which I can rant on but won't)...which ultimately made me not want to play for that university. So we get to talking about how USA volleyball differs from volleyball all over the world. And I begin to understand as to why other countries produce players and teams which seem a lot more advanced than the US national teams. I start to realize how hard headed I was for being so ignorant about foreign players coming to the US collegiate game and realized how I would have learned so much more if I went to played for that university. But it was awesome to exchange words with my old coach as a fellow coach.

Yes i realized that I've ranted a lot about my weekend but there was a quote in the movie Hitch that really stuck me (Will Smith is the man by the way). The character Hitch says something like "You'll never know where you are going unless you know where you've been" (I can't remember the quote word for word). This weekend I happened to see the people who influenced me most in the game of volleyball....with an exception to Karch which would have been sweeeet. Volleyball is a sport of community and fellowship, and that's what makes it so unique. It has given so much to me, that I can only hope to give some back....whether I do it directly or subconsciously. I got to remember where I came from and see who molded me, and it is nice to know I'm on the right track...at least until I have my next 12's practice hehe ;)

Why am I coaching?!?!!?!

So I finally joined the AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association) so I can become a better educated volleyball coach. As I'm just getting my feet wet in the "coaching" life, I have been observing and learning the game at a whole new level. I am very fortunate to have these opportunities of growth.

As I walk into Jeff's office (assistant coach for Wichita State Volleyball) I pick up the latest issue of the AVCA coaching magazine and an article titled "The Phases in a Coach's Life" catches my eye. The article was written by Terry Pettit, the former head coach at Nebraska. Pettit has a theory that there are four stages in a coach's career. Beginning, developmental, master, and mentor. Beginning coaches are driven by passion and pure love of the game; however, their weakness is that they don't know what they don't know. These coaches realize the coaching aspect of the job, but don't realize all the behind the scenes work such as scheduling, recruiting, system theory development, and such. The developmental coach is still driven by passion, but they know what they don't know. It is at this stage where growth is crucial. Fear is what motivates coaches at this stage, fear of wondering when everyone will figure out that they don't know what they are doing, fear of not winning enough games.

I find myself in the developmental stage right now as my fear is that my players aren't learning enough. What I mean by that is that being the coach you know what is correct and how things are supposed to look and be done. Coaches are judged based upon how correct their players perform skills. That is a problem in my eyes because I believe there are so many great coaches out there who get stuck with players that don't give them a chance. In the volleyball club scene, you also have parents that don't give coaches a chance because there isn't "immediate success". Well if these coaches aren't getting the support they deserve, whether it be the players or parents, then why bother carrying on?

My very first official coaching stint happened at a university in which it's program wasn't very strong. No matter how strategically I would plan out my half of practice it seemed the girls just didn't understand why we practiced certain drills and techniques thus leading to the "half ass" mentality. Towards the end of the season I felt like I've wasted so much time and energy in the past 4 months, until senior night. Our opposite hitter had a tendency to predetermine where she was going to hit the ball before the set was even made, thus leading to many roofs for the opposing team. No matter how many times I would tell her the tip behind the block is wide open she just wouldn't adapt. We were down 5 match points and our opposite tips the ball for a kill. She was so happy that she finally got a kill and didn't get stuffed. I was so happy because my player was finally happy. It was at that point that I mentally retracted my thoughts about how I wasted my time for the past 4 months, and instead of being happy that it was the end of the season, I was wishing the season went longer. All this after a kill off a tip!

So why do I do it?? I do it for the feeling after the tip. Ya, many people may think it sounds stupid to get so stoked about one change a player finally made at her senior night, but to me it was all I wanted. Pettit may define that as passion. But I don't think words can accurately define or describe that feeling. I'm sure my parents had dreams of me becoming a doctor or pharmacist. But that feeling is something I crave for, and that is something you can't learn through med or pharmacy school...