Choosing a Volleyball Club Tip #1 – Does the coaching style match your learning style? ​

We all learn and process information in unique ways, and for volleyball success, it’s really going to be important to choose the right coach. 

I really want to see you and your son/daugher make the right decision here, because if you end up with the right program, you’re really going to see your young athlete blossom in an incredible way, so I put together a series of 5 considerations when choosing a volleyball club to help you decide on the right place to play club, whether with Vegas Volley (oh! please say it is!) or elsewhere.

It’s broken into 5 parts to keep these blogs from becoming overwhelmingly long: 

1. What learning style does my son/daughter respond best to and who will offer the appropriate teaching style? 

At Vegas Volley, my coaching style is going to be on the mellow end and more focused on helping athletes learn and understand the game. It’s almost become a meme among parents of teams I’ve coached because no matter the game situation, even in the most intense battles being tied 20-20 in a third set that just won’t end, I will stand on the side with a very calm demeanor and analyze the best way my team can pull off the win… No yelling.

In 15 years of coaching, I have never once yelled at an athlete for making a mistake. Instead, I try to utilize phase 1 of my teaching philosophy – Kinesthetic Awareness – to help them learn. So if an athlete makes an error, the first thing I do is ask them “What happened?” followed by “How can you correct it next time?” (More on that philosophy here)

Errors are part of the learning process and all doing a million burpees after a missed serve will do is make the athlete hate burpees and by extension fitness, which is a crucial part of the game that they need to embrace, not hate. Instead, I’m a much bigger fan of error correction — if you make an error, correct it before moving on. 

At Vegas Volley, I’m all about technique, also. Athletes will be taught proper technique in such a way that not only makes them more efficient on the court, but also helps minimize the risk of injury. (Check this out to learn more about how I do that).

Finally, volleyball should be FUN!!! We play to win (otherwise why keep score?), but it is still a game and needs to be treated like a game. It breaks my heart every time I see a young athlete stray away from a game that is so fun just because of a coach who got a bit too aggressive and forgot the meaning of volleyball. 

There are, of course, other styles of coaching that may or may not be conducive to your child’s style of learning, but hopefully, this gave you some insight into what you can expect as an athlete who plays for Vegas Volley – A fun environment where players will truly learn the proper skills to be successful in volleyball! 

See ya in part 2 – “What are the coach’s COACHING credentials?” 

If you have any questions please email me back or give me a call (702) 758-3313.

-Coach Adam