Premises To Ingrain To Dig More Balls, Between Set Adjustments When Falling Behind, and the AVCA

0:00Good evening and welcome to the volleyball. How are you today, Todd? Davis fired up back at it with you in the pod cave and in the middle of the season. And how many times am I coaching now in the high school, mass and pick, you know, this is perfect fodder for the volleyball. It's so fun. Yes, we both are in a killer league or both of our teams are doing well. We're going to be meeting next week, I think, and the loser leaves town match absolutely in shame. Absolutely. Oh, but you guys had a killer tournament. Right. So we went to Hawaii and we went to Hilo. And I have a great effect on the team, Davis, when I don't go to the tournament, I stayed here and the team are little bishops, nice one, the turning. That's so awesome.

1:08Yeah, it's really good teams against some very good teams. So on the last day, we played Kahuku is a Hawaiian team kind of a kind of a classic small Hawaiian team and handle ball, dug a bunch of balls, you know, made us play a bunch of volleyball, which was good. And we were lucky to sweep by them. And then we played redondo union class and the funny story about that is I'm watching the match. They're streaming it right, but I get there late. I missed the first set and I don't know who wins, but I get there in the second set and we're down 14 to 4. Okay. And then they win going away, I think 25 to 13 or something like that. And I see the team and I turn it off. I think we lost. I just assumed we lost the first set because we lost by so much. Right. But we won the first set. And then we won the fifth. And then I turn back on I see like a little check on my phone. Like, oh, we're in the fifth month. Our third set. We're in the third set. And then we won the third set. So we get by redondo union and then we play a little school called Cathedral Castle. We lost to them a couple of weeks ago in a match 15 13 and fifth. And then we lost to them on day two of the tournament. Okay.

2:22And then we come back and play them in the semi and we got them. All right. And as a big I mean, our kids are fired up. That's a big win. And then we played this team Montelo in the in the final. And then we played this Hawaiian team that, you know, handled the ball and they were physical and we were able to sweep by them. And nice come back in the second set. We were down I think 20 to 14 came back. So nice win for the for the nights. Yeah. Nice turning. That's really cool. That is so fun. So yeah. Really cool. Right on. Awesome. So that's it. I think you're up on the skill to start. I'm up on the skill of the week. And we're going to kind of extend one of the ideas that you got me thinking about on the last pod. And you were thinking on the last pod going beyond ball set or ball hitter or defense. Right. Floor defense, but especially but defense in general. But so my thought here is these are 10 well known premises that we should all be on the same page about in order to dig more balls.

3:22Yep. Okay. And so when I say the first one, you're going to get what I mean. But these are sort of more general things that if we look at most kills, they will fall into these these categories and be readable. Therefore, you know, I'm saying. So let's give them some foundational guidelines. That's what these are. I like it. You ready? What do you got? Okay. First hitters hit where they're facing. Okay. Okay. In general. Okay. If they hit there, we should not be surprised. We should be in front of those balls defending aggressively. Right. And so we're not going to be surprised when they strike the ball straight. So simply put can you be in front of where they're facing their belly. Basically. Okay. Simple. It seems simple, but not easy simple, but not easy. But when we're on the same page defensively with the team, meaning, you know, they hit that ball straight. We should have someone in front of their straight every single right. Right. And so let's be really good at recognizing these things. I like.

4:30And working with these premises. Okay. So number two. Again, simple, not easy, but definitely something you should practice when hitters have less than a perfect approach. They tend to do more shots. Simple. Right. I think all the time. goal for every time we've said that this year, I'd be a rich coach. You know, I have many of those out there. And I like the idea of putting it simply in straightforward as a principle to them, meaning like I think a lot of times we go. Well, that was this. And that was this. Okay. What was it a perfect approach. Yep. Yes. No. If not, they're probably going to shoot. Let's be ahead of it. Right. Well, and when you talk about being ahead of that. It's left front digs. My goodness. So. When you see left front dig and you'll wait a minute left front is on the five foot line. And they just picked up a ball. They're not going to have a very good approach. Right. Right. You can be ahead of it early. Be ahead of it, even before the sat. And I think this is not going to be a good approach. Right.

5:32And even compounds that idea that you're talking. Yes. Absolutely. I think that's a really good point. Number three. Hitters do more short shots than deep shots. Okay. If you think they're doing it, you know, you think they're doing a shot. We cannot get beat short. Okay. That that is just it has to be clear that that's not going to happen in our defense. Okay. They're not going to go over your head with it. This is not beach. We should bunch in. We should be ready to run. We should be alert and not get beat short. When they're going to be doing a shot. So if it's not a perfect approach. Okay. So maybe that means your hands got to be higher. Maybe it needs you to do a bunch in. We're not going to let those shots. Make them hit the ball hard to score. Hit the ball hard to. If they hit them all hard to a corner. Hey, we'll say good shot. Right. You know, your players look at you. What? That's a good shot. Right. And they don't want to get us away. The offense can. Offences are good. All these kids are good. They're good volleyball players. They're going to get some kills. Right. But let's play the lesson. Make. Make a good shot to get a kill. Exactly. Exactly. Number four.

6:40And we're starting to get a little bit deeper. But let's keep going. Hitters pull the ball cross body more than they risked away. In general. Yep. Okay. So most hitters. I'm going to oversimplify it. But in general, most hitters are going to go. If you're right handed, they're turning to their left to torque and hit the ball hard. So they're going to pull the ball in this ray. Right. For a right to left ray more often. Yep. Then they're going to push the ball over there. It's more advanced to do it. It's harder to do it physically. Right. They're going to make more air. They're going to make more airs. Maybe not be able to hit the ball as hard a lot of times. And so let's be ahead of when their body starts turning in. We may even want to be on the angle side of that slightly. Yep. Because they're going to pull the ball cross body. And that happens way more. Okay. You don't have to be as good to do it. Yep. So let's play the watch hitting lines watch high school hitting lines. Right. So I got to do it. Just watch a high school hitting line.

7:42And get out your heat map and just put where the ball lands on both sides. No matter who's playing. Right. And just see where the ball lands. Yeah. I think your premises will be proof. Yeah. Cross and then cross here. And that's it. And you know, that's you have to be pretty advanced to do things other than that. Yep. And so it's all good. So number five. And we were we talked about this one a little bit with the ball setter ball hitter one. But hitters tend to hit where the set takes them. Yep. Okay. So if I'm inside like let's let's go back to your example. If I'm inside and the set is outside, I will tend to go more line. And if I'm outside the sets inside, I tend to go more angle. Let's just be clear on that we're not going to be surprised again. If and it happens all the time. Right. Right. That the setter that the set is going to pull them in one of those directions. Yep. Let's be ahead of it. Okay. Number six. And you got me thinking about this one a lot. That's especially the term. I love this term.

8:43It's hard to hit small parts of the court. If you're a hitter, it's hard to hit small parts of the court. I love the term you use sniping. Right. So the slug. And if they can snipe good for them, like you were just saying, if they can hit a perfect shot to a small part of the court, then great. It's hard to do that though. Consistently. Right. Exactly. So let's. We're not going to we're not going to go sit on that. Right. And give up the middle of the court with a bunch of bad shots. Exactly. Can you? That's the problem. Yes. It's hard to do everything and you do nothing. Exactly. Right. And it doesn't mean we're not going to contest that ball that's hit to the part, small part of the court either. It just means you're going to try to put the bulk of your range in the big part of the court. Yep. Right. You know, in fact, at that point, one of my early mentors, Mary Jo Pepler, used to do this drill on the beach. Where she basically just drew a line about a foot and a half inside of each side line and end line. Yep. And just said, this is our court. If they can beat you into this deep part of the quarter edges of the court,

9:48then great for them. But we're not going to let anything in the middle of the court drop. And that's where you know, let's kind of like the philosophy sample. Right. Number seven, it's easier to hit low than to hit high. So most hitters are hitting very low, very often. Yep. Okay. It's way harder to keep the ball high. So if they work over the top of you and it's more for a blocking one, then good for them. But most of the time, it says kind of do with block alignment. Most of the time, the block's not just not left or right aligned side to side. So if they can kick the low part of the net away from them, then the defense can defend way easier. They'll defend balls. So don't reach high get bad blocks just low and tight. Okay. Next. I'd like this one. Hitters have a bailout shot. Okay. You know, what do they do when the set's not perfect? Right. They tend to have one that they want to go to. It's just their bailout shot. Right. Did you have a bailout shot as a player that you

10:51were called? All my shots for bailout shot. That wasn't a terminator. That's a whole bunch of like that. That's what when you don't have, when you don't get killed every shot is very a lot. That was a little different type of hitter. Yes. Okay. So like, but the one I think a lot of times is like, especially out of left front outside hitters, they're going to try to go angle. And then if they can't hit an angle, they're just going to drop tips to the line. Right. So they're going to have a bailout. Let's be ahead of their bailout. Yep. Now a lot of times they won't show that in hitting lines, right? But you can tell right away because they're going to do it early and often. Right. Number nine, offhand hitters tend to pull the ball even more. Right. When you're offhand, it is harder to hit away, wrist away. It's harder to hit line. Right. So harder to hit, especially with heat. Yes. Absolutely. And I just think it's a more difficult play to execute the balls in the window shorter and etc. So can we be ahead of that? Like, let's not be surprised when they hit the

11:51ball sharper, even sharper. Let's be ready because they're offhand. That's going to happen. And number 10, alignment, alignment, alignment, balls on their right. They're going to probably hit it to their right balls on the left. They're going to hit their left. Now when you have that plus tendencies, you're going to have some really good reads and you're going to dig more balls. And so if we can get on the same page as these on these concepts with our teams, I think we're going to do even better. And you know what? We'll help us, Davis. I have a good feeling. I do. When you take huddle and you work with your defenders and you start when the ball is touched by the setter. Yes. And then you start clicking it. It's like, what do you see? Right. Right. And then you go for it. What are you looking for? Number one. And then what do you see? Where is this ball going to be hit? And you try to mix them up so they don't really know. You don't start at the beginning of

12:53the match with them, right? Right. And so they don't have kind of recollection. You just start with the setter setting and you start clicking. And that's the great way you know, you can take with huddle, right? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. You can learn so much in such a short time with huddle. It's fun to work with your players with a super. No, we have a couple kids who are, you know, they're, you know, I'm pretty consumed with video. And now we have a couple players who are getting into it. Yeah. So it's fun. It is super fun too. Like when you can make those realizations about your team and stuff, huddle really is amazing. Guys, check them out at huddle.com, hudl.com. They're an amazing resource. You can learn a lot in a really short time and show your players they might get obsessed with it. That's it. And check it out. And Todd, that means you're up on the scenario. Scenario. Yes. Between set adjustments when falling behind. Oh, I like this. So you lose the first set. You're down oh one. And now we're in high school. So we're in best of five. But this can

13:55be for club two. So you lose the first set. Maybe it's one one and you lose the third set. So you're down to one or you're down oh two. Right. So any of those scenarios when you fall behind. What are there adjustments that you should do between sets and how should you be thinking of those adjustments? This is a good one. Really good. All right. So number one, do nothing. Do nothing, Davis. It's like, Hey, we just lost the first set. They had a server who went off. And you know, we were late to change our passing formation. But once we did, we got it the second time she went through. They got an early lead and kind of we just traded points. So we're not going to panic. Our stadium reports, right? You guys are doing a good job. We're fine. Right. And there's times when you don't need to change. And so you don't want to have your team doing a bunch of stuff when they don't need to. I think that's a really good way. It can panic your team a little bit if you do too much. Right. And if you did a good, if you feel like, Hey, we had a

14:58scouting report kind of on target, but a bunch of stuff happened. You know, we they had a bunch of balls that just twizzled off the block. They had two clippers. I mean, just hey, stuff happens in volleyball. You see, you know, the number won't, you know, you see top teams in the nation losing the teams that are ranked 100 in sets because stuff happens. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. You know, Josh, I mean, I'm, you know, Josh, our buddy at Villanova, I talked to him. They just played Penn State. Hell on this. They lost the first, I think 25 14. They won the second 25 23. And then lost the third, like 23 25. And I mean, Penn, you know, Villanova's ranked, you know, and, you know, I think like 80 or something and Penn State's ranked in the top 10. Yeah. And so that's what happened. Right. And you know, parents, how could this, you know, everybody's like, freak you now, how could you be losing this team at day more kids are playing volleyball, right? Kids can go back and hit floaters and they can give you, they can cause you trouble. Yeah. I don't know. So it's only yeah, do nothing. Number two, keep a positive vision strong and clear.

16:02So it's easy to get caught up with all the stuff you're not doing and all the mistakes you're making. But you need to have an overall vision when you're behind. Let's say you lose the first two sets. How many of you have had a five set match in a reverse, have won a five set match in a reverse suite? What did it feel like after that match? Right. Yeah. Can you keep that vision? Okay. That's what we need to do now. And we can do it. There are a bunch of reverse sweeps. I just saw on the, you know, they send out the list of reverse sweeps that happened in college on that 900. He says that all the reverse sweeps. So they happen a lot. That's so cool. Can you keep that in your player's heads, right? As like, Hey, we can get there. We have to get there point by point. So let's just start. We're in the third set. Now we're going to start point by point. And we have that vision. We have this positive vision of winning this match. And you know that when you have a lead and you start to lose it, you'll pressure. Can we get the point where they start

17:03feeling pressure? I like it. Yes. Absolutely. So that's cool. That's number two. Keep a positive, keep a positive vision. Strong clear. Number three, spin the wheel. Okay. Maybe you want a bigger block in front of their best attacker. Maybe you want a smaller block in front of your best attacker. Maybe you just want a different feel. And let's just get some different matchups and shake this thing up a little bit and not do the exact same things. So they're going up. I'm comfortable. I say everything I see, right? So you spin the wheel. Well, uh, December three, number four. Maybe you don't want there's a bunch of reasons why I mean, I don't like spinning the wheel for a bunch of different reasons. Number one, and I usually have my servers in the best order, right? So instead of spinning the wheel, how about if you flip your outsides or middles or setters, you flip those positions. So now you're in the same, you're starting in the same rotation, but now your server sort of changes a little with those two positions, but everybody else stays the same. Yes. So your best

18:06two servers are there. And now, you know, they have a different look with a middle who's doing a different thing. And so it's just it changes it up like spinning the wheel, but you're just flipping that. Yes. I like that. That was really cool. And little precursor before moving on, what that is, it's important you practice this stuff. Yes. You don't want to be going, oh my gosh, we're in trouble. Let's try this. Right. You've never done it. Well, now I was going to mention that too. So like one of the things that I have done with some of my better teams is we're just going to spin it all the time. Every game we're going to be in a different row. Yep. Right. And that can work to your advantage because teams, like you said, they don't have, they don't know what you're going to do. Yep. Right. I feel like already I can know what to do, but but it doesn't work if you're not used to it. Right. And just doing a practice. We're going to start in row two. We're going to start row three. We're saying, you mean just, yep. There's different reasons for why. Right. Yeah. Number five, when you're behind are the kids feeling pressured? And especially if you're behind or a team you think

19:06you should, you should, or it's a big rival, right? And you're behind. Can you relieve the pressure? And is there a way to do that? And part of that might be you take it somewhere, or it's like, Hey, I didn't have you ready for what they're doing. They're doing a couple of different things that we didn't have on the Scat of Airport. But you guys have adjusted now, you know, we've adjusted. So now it's our time. And we'll take control of this match now because they did these different things. It's my fault. I didn't have you prepared. I didn't think they were going to do this. But you guys have figured it out now. We'll be fine. Right. So can you take some pressure off of them like, you guys screwed up. You're piling on, right? And as a coach, you don't want to pile on when they're behind. Number six, change your blocking scheme, especially against maybe the hitter who's going off, who's maybe hurting you the most. And you know, we've talked about Lambo and Lambo for us is it's a little acronym for left as middle

20:08blocker. And we might say, Hey, let's move our left into the middle to block middle, chase the right side or don't block the right side because they don't rarely set it. And then we're going to make sure we get four hands in front of this outside hitter who's hitting 900 things. Absolutely. Mix it up. Yep. Number seven, change your defensive alignment. Maybe your a team is always in perimeter and you go, Hey, this person is chopping all these balls down the line and throw tipping balls and is able to jump over our blocking kind of throw tip them down over the line. Let's rotate. Right. And let's just stop that shot. Yes. Right. And let's not be like little as you got to run that down. Well, hey, we got to we run it down. I mean, the defense is predicated on the fact that that tip or that shot has to have some, you know, trajectory over the block and say, but if they have a hitter, it can just jump over and throw it down the line. It's going to be hard to do something different. Right. So change your defensive align.

21:11I like it. Yeah. All right. Number eight, we talked about this one earlier. Substitute. Yeah. Right. Hey, it's time to put a sub in, right? Maybe one player is not 100%. Maybe a player is a little nicked up. Maybe a player is sick. Maybe a player is and sometimes you don't find that out. You know, you find it out when that player is here. It's all I only got two hours of sleep last night. I had five tests and I've been I didn't have any coffee. Wait a minute, you're telling me this now after the second set. But it's like, hey, sub, right? And maybe someone's having a bad match. Maybe you're going to give us six rotation players some relief in three rotation and just go, hey, just sit, watch a little bit of the game. And then I'm going to put you in the front row and see if you could kind of get your moto back. How old is it? So there's just a different maybe you have an energy kid. You go, hey, we're going to start that kid in the game. She's not our best volleyball player, but he's a love playing with her. She's going to have fun. I'm going to put her in for two rotations and then take her out front row and just to start the match and the more than that when

22:12you get the momentum right a little bit from some energy. Yes, that's a good point. I like it. Number nine, do something different from the service line, right? Maybe you're serving well, but they're just passing well. Hey, yes, several bunch of short serves or we're going to go back and bomb or we have somebody who can hit us spinner or I mean do something different. Don't do the same thing. And once again, this is another one of those things where I have a little note here to make sure you practice it. Right. You know, you're not going to be okay. Let's have you ever try to jump spin. Yeah. Well, to that point, I like the idea of some specialists, meaning like, you know, you have a jump top, man, and maybe she's not playing all the time, but you're going to put them in and spin serve at the end because why not? Let's go for it. You know, I think that's really good. Makes it up. Okay. Lastly, you'll like this one, Davis. Do something stupid to ease the tension. Can you do something stupid? Yes. And there's a bunch of stuff you can do. So my one example is let's say you're not digging a bunch of balls you should do. Every time we get a dig in this next

23:17set, I'm going to go high five, a different DS on the bench. The number of digs we have in that set. Hey, there you go. So if Davis, if you're a DS, it's on the bench and we have our seventh dig. I'm going to give you seven high five. So that kid that is on that kid that gets the dig is going to be looking out there. And then if we get three digs in a rally, I got to go down to the bench and they're going to be looking over and laughing and it just it eases the tension. It's doing like, Hey, we're going to do something different. Can you can you do something that gets them out of this? Oh my God, we're going to lose this match. Right? Absolutely. That's it. That's a great list, man. I love the. And some videos. What do you got? Yes, I got some awesome videos. These go along with reading, right? And the first one comes from Karaj and his video. It was a little bit by Valtable. Yes, it's just called reading the game and it is a great discussion from him about all that awesome stuff that he has been doing with reading the game. And this is

24:18from a whole video. I mean, the whole game standpoint, not just defense, but it's a great video. It's all right. Next. Then I just have some training players to read, right? So we're just focusing on the read. And then Christie Johnson Lynch has an awesome video teaching technique, reading and mindset. Okay. Defense is awesome video. I'll leave those in the show notes for everyone. And yeah, in Europe on the resource of the week, old school resource, nothing new. And we've had a bunch of new stuff and you always get all the Instagram stuff and you got me on Instagram now. Kind of old guy on Instagram. Pretty good. But this is the AVCA. Okay. I just signed up for the AVCA convention in December. Yes. And got on their website and they just have so many new coaching resources on their website. So if you haven't checked it out, we will have it in the show notes at www.avca.org slash resources. And you can check them out. They have a bunch of stuff. I think they have some stuff that's free. I think he is naked there. And then if you,

25:18you know, you know, you remember the AVCA is a lot of blogging. I think it's, you know, they do it. They do a nice job of supporting coaches. Oh, absolutely. They really do. So that's awesome. So include that in the show notes and you guys check it out. And once again, Todd, super fun. Todd, thank you so much. Guys, check us out at Instagram at aoc.gov. Thank you to our sponsors. Huddles. You can check them out at hudl.gov.com and the article coaching volleyball. They're amazing resource. You can check them out at thearticocenevolivol.com. Send us an email at volipod.gmail.com. And we'd love to have you as a patron and contribute to the pod and join the community. So check us out. We'll put that link in the show notes. Todd, thanks so much. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.