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Trouble Shooting the "Little Things" on Your Team

-By Tom Houser


A couple of weeks ago, I went to see two matches
in the same night. A private school match started
at 4:30. Then a public school match began at 6:30.
I had directed a STAR camp in the summer of 2009
for one of the teams involved in each match.

During the matches, I was making notes. Then after
the matches, I spoke to the coaches about a few
things that I thought would make their teams
better immediately. I think they’ll make your team
better also.  

Maybe your team doesn’t have these “head shaking”
issues. But these teams did.
 

Head Shaker #1: Playing The Positions Correctly

It takes no athleticism, no strength and no height
for a girl to play her position correctly. Over
and over again, girls were out of position. “But
Coach Houser, maybe they were reading.”
 

The Free Lancer: Well, from the looks on the faces
of their teammates when screw-ups occurred over
and over, I don’t think these girls were reading.
I think they were free-lancing. A free-lancer is a
person who just plays her position the way they
see fit. Sometimes they’ll play up close to the
net, sometimes deep. They don’t tell their
teammates. Their coach doesn’t tell them. It’s
often as random as, “Today I feel like wearing my
yellow underwear.” Yep, there’s often no reason
behind what they’re doing except, “I just decided
to play deeper tonight.”
 

Coaches: You decide where your girls play. Yes,
you can allow them to adjust, or you can give them
the power to adjust; however, their teammates must
know when an adjustment is occurring and their
teammates must be able to adjust also. So, if the
opponent’s OH is constantly beating you with a
short sharp crosscourt tip, then yes, your OH must
take that away from her. So you short left
defender will be ready to “have her back” if a hit
gets over her head. I try to prepare my players
for these situations at practice. However,
sometimes you must make adjustments during a
match, and you can help your girls with it. But,
no, at no time will one or two or three girls just
change what they’re doing and not inform their
teammates.  


The Deeply Religious Player: I also saw girls
execute the “hope and pray” move: The ball is
falling close to a line, and they stand there,
hoping and praying it goes out. This is something
that college women and high level high school
players never do. But I imagine I’ve seen 20 balls
fall in high school matches this fall that were
playable, but the diggers just hoped and prayed
they were going out.  

Teach your players to follow the ball. There are
consequences for the hope and pray defense on my
team. Even if the ball goes out, there are
consequences. Hustle is a habit that you can
instill in your team. But, also, if a girl wants
to be as good a player as possible, if she says
she cares about her team, why would the play the
hope and pray defense? It’s unacceptable, and it
must be purged from your team!
 

The Bashful Player: This is the girl who stands in
the shadow of her teammates’ blocks. She cannot
see the hitter, thus doesn’t dig anything except a
tip (which she would have dug anyway!) Over and
over on this night, I saw girls stand where
“they’re supposed to stand,” and not move a foot
to their right or left so they could dig a ball. I
imagine 10 balls were spiked a few inches outside
a block and landed 2 feet from the “bashful” digger.  

You know the sign on the back of trucks that read,
“If you can’t see my mirrors, then I can’t see
you”? Well, if your digger can’t see the hitter,
then she cannot dig a big hit. If you can’t stop
your players from being bashful diggers, then put
someone else in for a while. Bashfulness will stop
when the brain is stimulated to work harder! Haha
And the bench is a great stimulator!
 

The Awe-Struck Player: This is the girl who thinks
her hitters are so freaking awesome that she
stands on the court and watches them hit. “Oh, I
was supposed to cover. I NEVER remember that.”
We know.  

When I want to make a point to my players, I ask
them to answer this multiple choice question: “Why
doesn’t a girl cover her hitter? (a) She doesn’t
care (b) She’s never been taught (c) She’s
awe-struck by the incredibleness of her teammate
(d) She refuses because of her bad attitude.” Then
as the season goes on, I’ll ask them during a
match with a smile, “a, b, c or d?” Sometimes I’ll
say it during a rally.  

Coaches, what I’ve just shared so far has nothing
to do with athleticism. It’s all about caring,
being taught and re-taught, and making certain
volleyball skills a habit. Don’t be satisfied
until they are!  


Head Shaker #2: The Setter Position

Oh, my. There are just skills that setters are
supposed to exhibit. If they don’t, maybe they
need an a, b, c or d quiz too!  


Use Your Hands: That night (and nearly every night
I watch a high school match), the setters don’t
use their hands enough. To a setter, their hands
are their best friends. The girl at the private
school had decent hands, and the refs were being
very generous (didn’t call a double all night),
but yet she would use her arms 40% of the time,
rather than hustle and use her hands.  

Coaches, arm passing and arm setting are unnatural
actions for our body. Over the millions of years,
our body was become designed to run, catch, chase,
climb, jump, grab, etc. From the time we’re born,
we use our hands for everything, while our
forearms are used for one thing: to pass a
volleyball starting at about 12 years old. So,
encourage your setters to use their hands. One way
to do this is to tell them at practice, “If you
don’t use your hands, then your team can’t score.”
You can also run a drill where, “First team to get
x spike kills off a hand set scores.”
 

Dumping: In those matches, I didn’t see a single
setter dump, unless she had no choice.  

I teach my setters how to dump at soon as they
make my team. And we try to dump 2 times each
game. My assistant will call for the dump is as
soon as she’s sure of the spot that’s open. If
they fall, we dump 3 times the next game, then 4,
then 5, etc. I’ve coached teams where my setter
was my best attacker! You probably have also. So
she looks for her opportunities! If you don’t
teach your setters to dump (as both front row and
back row players), then you’re giving up 1 or 2
points every set.
 

Defense: Your setters MUST learn to play defense.
Even at the division 1 level, I’ve been surprised
at how the setters (who do have wonderful hands)
are very poor defensive players. And so it was on
Monday night. The setters were digging with one
hand, one arm, wouldn’t bend their knees, wouldn’t
get on the floor, etc. I guess when coaches are so
mesmerized by a youngster with gifted hands, they
don’t expect much else. Yep, it even occurs at the
D1 level!  


The List Continues: (a) Expect your setters to
face their OH. Yes they must learn to back set.
(b) Teach your setter to stay at target position
until she KNOWS that the pass is going to be bad.
Stop “cheating” on the pass. In one match, the
setter cheating directly resulted in 6 rallies
ending in favor of the opponents. (c) Your setter
must get to the target area on a free ball and on
serve receive. Don’t allow your setter to get half
way, or shuffle to get there like she’s hurt. If
it’s your serve receive formations that keep her
from getting to target, then change them!
 

Head Shaker #3: Serve Receive

Expose Your Best Passers! Yes, in my first 2 years
of coaching, my teams passed in a W formation. But
that was it! I saw other coaches pass with 3 or 2
people. Those coaches passed with the same girls
in every rotation. And I wanted to win so badly
(and not be an embarrassment), that I copied what
I saw them do. If you know volleyball, yet you’re
going to pass with 5, or pass with inferior
passers just because it’s too hard to create and
teach a better method, then your team will lose
unnecessarily.  


Adjust Your Serve Reception: This took longer for
me to do. But after about 5 years, on each game
night I’d have all 6 serve receive formations
scratched up in my notebook in black ink. Then in
red, I’d have arrows drawn where I could change my
serve receive between rallies without creating an
overlap for my team. Now I can do it without
notes, but if you can’t, then do what I did!  

For you younger coaches, what am I talking about?
Let’s say you’re passing with 3. And let’s say the
passers are the girls in the 1, 6, and 5. Let’s
say 5 is having a rough stretch. So you make 5 a
helper, and ask 4 to take her place. I will say,
“Janice helping, Jenny take her spot.” Janice has
to realize that if she’s a back row player, she
helps along the back line or in one of the back
corners. I will randomly do this at practice so
the girls aren’t stunned at a tournament thinking,
“WHAT?” And yes, if you don’t go over this at
practice, you will confuse your players if they’re
u15’s or younger.  

Coaches, you cannot sit there and watch the other
team pick on one particular girl over and over
again. You must be able to adjust your serve
reception. Some coaches allow their players to
change it. Some coaches give their setter the
power to change it. My stepdaughter is an
incredible player. She’s been serve receiving
since she was in the 7th grade. But even she is
sometimes taken out of the formations because
she’s having a rough day. But more common is that
she’s in every serve receive formation, regardless
of whether she’s a libero, an OH, a right, etc.

If you have great passers, create the formations
so that they can pass. In 1995-1997, Pepper was a
5’8” MB who played doubles nearly every weekend
during the summer. She was a GREAT serve receive!
So she passed in every rotation. In 1993-95,
Heather was a great setter and a gifted passer. I
think she could pass with her eyes closed. So we
tried each year to run a 4-2. She was that good.
She still is!  

In the matches I saw, the coaches sat there and
watching certain rotations be blasted by an
opponent’s serve. You can’t do that! You must not
allow your inferior receivers to touch a ball. And
you must make adjustments during matches.
 

Not Hiders: They’re Helpers. I try to use as few
negatives as possible. For example, I’ve
completely gotten out of the habit of saying,
“Don’t give up!” Likewise, it’s been 20 years
since I called the girls who aren’t passing
“Hiders”. They’re “Helpers,” and it’s not just a
spin. They actually are helping with the serve
that ticks the top of the net and might fall. They
actually are along the back line saying, “Play,
PLAY!!!” Your helpers have an important job. Keep
telling them this!  

In the matches I saw, the helpers weren’t helping
at all. In their heads, they were under orders not
to touch the first hit, so they weren’t really
paying attention. They could have just as well
been taking a water break. Balls fell as these
girls said nothing. Serve receivers struggled to
pass a ball that was landing 2 feet from the
helpers.

I guess on their team, they were actually hiding.
I’ve never had a player who was THAT bad. Maybe
they’re told, “Phyllis, you’re hiding!” “Ok,
Coach, I can do that.” I expect more from my
players.


Finally: If you are in your 2nd or 3rd year of
coaching, you are probably saying, “Give me a
break, Coach Houser! Rome wasn’t built in a day!!”
You’re right. But it also wasn’t built by people
who sat back and hoped that it built itself. I’m
not asking you to teach your players 3 different
defenses, to run a quick offense, or to teach them
rolls or jump serves. I’m asking you to accept
that there are dozens of little things that you
can expect of your players (regardless of their
athleticism or age) that’ll make your team
immediately better! If you say you want to win, if
you say you want to be the best coach you can be,
then the little things I’ve listed above will help
get you there, will bring respect to you and your
players.  


-Tom Houser
Director, STAR Volleyball Camps
Author, “I Can’t Wait” Drill Collection and Ebooks
www.coachhouser.com