Email Campaign Archive

The Art of Being Reid Priddy

-By Kurt Trout


If someone asked who was the “big” hitter for the
USA Men in their quest for the Gold, most would
answer Clay Stanley. With good reason, because he
certainly was. Talking to Hugh McCutcheon though,
he was very quick to point out that Reid Priddy
played a critical role as an attacker in compliment
to Clay’s bombs. (Hugh is also quick to mention that
ALL the players contributed immensely to winning
the gold medal.) What was so different though with
Reid was that he did not possess the large frame
and tremendous power Clay had, though
at 6’4” he was by no means tiny. What Reid
possessed, was a great ability to see the court
and hit various shots, that while they did not
bounce as high, were still worth the very
important point. Until the rules in volleyball
change, if the ball hits the ground, it is a
point, regardless of how hard it hits. We talk to
our players about this, that perhaps they don’t
have the physical prowess to overpower blocker and
diggers, but can still be just as great as a hitter.

The thing that Reid used well, and is taught far
too infrequently, is vision. At one point in my
coaching career, I just assumed vision was more of
an innate quality, that was refined by massive
amounts of reps. To a degree, this holds true. I
have discovered though, that vision can be
nurtured and in some cases, even taught. When Tom
Keating, legendary former coach at Dubuque Wahlert
HS in Iowa, worked at our camp one year, he asked
our hitters, “What are you looking at when you
hit? The ball or the bleachers?” Naturally, every
one of my hitters replied, the ball. We discussed
that once the ball leaves the setters hands, its
trajectory will remain the same throughout the
flight, unless something disrupts it. While we do
not encourage our hitters to totally take all
attention off the ball, certainly significantly
less can be paid to the ball in flight, and much
more can be directed towards the defense in front
of them. This was not easy for our players to
learn. Here are a couple of drills we used:


-Shovel Drill: In reality, we don’t have a big
budget program and have to make use of cheaper
items. One we use is cheap old snow shovels taped
up to be blockers. In Iowa, snow shovels are
fairly prevalent. We take old towels and duct tape
the shovels up to make very nice blocking devices.
One of our initial drills is to tape Red colored
paper on one side of the shovel, and Yellow on the
other. With our younger hitters, we put the shovel
up early and let them see the color early. They
have to shout out the color as they begin their
attack approach. As the hitters get more and more
used to this, we will begin the show the colors
later. We will put the shovel up early and
sideways, then flip it to a color later and later
in the hitters approach, mimicking the attacker
seeing the block form and making a judgment. With
younger hitters, we do not CARE if they are
hitting the block, we are more focused on them
SEEING the block in front of them. As they
progress, we become more focused on missing the
shovel, and showing the color later and later to
make quicker decisions.  


-Digger Drill: After our hitters are comfortable
seeing the block, we add a digger. We want our
players to not only see the block, but to also see
the defense. John Dunning once said of Logan Tom,
"She hits about 90% of her shots at 50% power.
She knows WHO to attack WHERE." We will put a
digger sitting at middle back, and as the ball is
set, the digger will break to either dig line or
dig angle. The hitter must avoid hitting the
digger. For younger players, we do this without a
block, for older players, add the block in, but
make sure the block is staying “stationary” and
allowing the hitter to focus on the digger’s
positioning. The last sequence of this drill is,
for our experienced hitters, we put two diggers at
middle back with different color shirts on. We
tell our hitters we are attacking the black or
white shirt, and then run the same drill. One
digger will cover line and the other the angle and
our hitters need to identify the weaker digger
and attack them.

One last thing we talk to our hitters about is to
consistently take the same approach every time.
They need to be able to hit line or cross,
depending on the block/defense, not depending on
the set. We stress taking the same approach and
adjusting the swing in the air, not on the ground.
Many players will take an approach based on what
they want to hit from the start, then get in the
air and realize that the defense has it read, and
are stuck. If they have an arm like Clay Stanley,
this is no problem, they either melt the block or
blow up the digger. Not all of us have that player
though, nor do all of our players have that
ability. The idea of taking the same approach and
seeing what is open is critical in their being
able to hit different shots.  

With the ability to read blocks and defenses, even
the less athletic players will increase their
chances to put the ball away. One of my outsides
once commented, "The crowd doesn’t ooh and aah
when I put a ball down like they do when our
middle hits." I told her, "Big hits brings
fans, but points bring wins. And, the more wins
you get, the more fans will show up anyway! So,
win the points!"


-Kurt Trout
Head Coach-Solon HS, Iowa
Iowa High Performance Director, USA Volleyball
Author of "Volleyball For the Rest of Us"