Aylesbury Vale Volleyball Club

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Coach AGM Report 2005

This season was my first back coaching volleyball after a long break. I was also new to Vale and not quite sure what would be wanted, expected or even tolerated! The AGM had endorsed a training period of warm-up, stretching, individual and team skills (but no conditioning) for the first hour of club sessions to be followed by recreational games. Generally I think from the feedback I received that the coaching sessions went well and were about the right level.

I set some coaching objectives for the season and here's how I think it went:

Make playing volleyball more fun for everyone in the club: very subjective, but I think everybody enjoyed playing with a bit more structure to the session and with a bit more of a system in matches
Get more out of training by warming up and stretching first: a necessity and good to see late arrivals doing individual warm-ups and stretching before joining in the drills
Play the same way throughout the club: everybody seemed OK with playing a simple 4-2 system with wing cover, and could slot into a familiar system in matches
Serving: reliable 100% overarm service for everyone, with a stronger version to pressurise the opposition: serving was more consistent, but more practice is needed to convert to 100% overarm
Digging: reliable service and spike reception, digging to the setter: this was patchy, and we need to do more work here
Setting: setter to dictate the attack and be able to set both middle and outside: setters differentiated between sets and hitters a lot more
Spiking: outside hitters to hit both cross-court and down the line; middle hitters to hit halves and shorts: hitting was generally not a problem in matches but we still don't often hit fast balls - halves and shorts need more work
Blocking: actually block, with 2 blockers on wing hits: just trying to block improved blocking dramatically, but we still don't block enough and the middles get tired.
Cover: keep low and learn wing cover: the need to cover needed constant reminders; we can keep low and cover - but just need to do it more often.

I'm willing to stand as coach again for next season but should like a slightly different remit to include non-playing match coaching including organisation of the starting six and substitutions (but not organising the match squad itself or home referees/scorers/linespeople which would still be the captain's responsibility).

I also think we should try out receiving on 4 rather than 5 to improve service reception, and also using a libero in matches to provide more focus on digging/cover whilst resting the middles back-court for an all-out effort on front-court.

Nigel