Lessons Learned From 8 and 9 year olds

As you may alrady know, I coach my daughter's volleyball team at the YMCA. It is a team made up of primarily 8 and 9 year olds. I have coached them now for almost 4 weeks. It is a real low key program to introduce them to sports, yet it gives them some quality instruction.

Even though these girls are mostly new comers to the sport and some may never play the sport when they become older, I take it as my responsibility to give them the best instruction I can.

What amazes me every time I work with youngsters like these girls, is if you set expectations for them and keep them motivated they will rise to the occasion.

Let me give you an example; it is so common at this level for volleyball players to pretty much stay in their spot on the court and not move much to get to a ball hit near them. I tell my girls when they serve, aim for the middle where no one is standing. Most of the time the ball will hit the floor before anyone takes a step towards it. The first thing I did on day one is talk about moving to the ball all the time. The exercises I gave them in practice were geared toward chasing the ball down before it hit the ground. Yesterday, I had the girls perform a drill where I threw the ball off the net and one partner had to move up quickly to bump it into the air so the other partner could hit it over. It was a fun drill that put them in a position they will see in the games.

I continuely try to make it into a game or low competition. Why?eBcause they ask for it. They like to see how many they can get compared to their teammates. I put very little into who wins or losses but I do keep track of points, speed in doing something, or who hit it best. It is all about fun with an underlying message that I want them to move and play each point well.

If you have ever watched any youngsters sports programs from youth soccer, volleyball, basketball, or softball, it can sometimes be like watching paint dry. To prevent this, I simply gave the little girls fun games that taught them how to compete for every point.

Here are some fun cues I use and some fun things I do to encourage effort. I always tell them to not let the ball hit the floor on our side. When the other team serves the ball, it can't hit the ground without one of the player moving to hit it. I don't care if it goes back over, I just want them moving to hit it. The other concept they understand now is when I say "Fill the Hole in". The volleyball rules for this age group is to play 4 on 4, so there is a natural hole in the middle of the 4 players. But, I make them adjust so there is not such a big opening. The girls now yell from the bench to their teammates with out me saying a thing..I love it. The other thing I do is to encourage them to "give some love" to their teammates when the serve well or make a good play. What I mean by this is to clap for each other. They get such a kick out of that but it encourages them to do well so they "get some love" from their teammates- fun stuff!

The biggest things they have to do is call "MINE" if they are going to hit the ball. This again encourages them to move and communicate. We do it during our practice warm ups, therefore it naturally carries over in the games.

I tell you what, it is amazing what 8 and 9 years olds will do to raise to a higher level if you make it fun and just part of the expectations. I never yell or even get upset with them. I simply tell them this is what I want and get excited each practice to motivate them to do it all the time.

We have a great time in practice and the games are the icing on the cake. I know each girl now understands they can accomplish anything if they work for it. The best thing is everything we do has "FUN" attached to it.

I would love to hear from you on the cool things you are doing with your athletes to keep them motivated. Send to info@LeeTaft.com

Yours in Speed,

Lee

PS: I have so much fun hearing success stories of people who have invested in their knowledge and improvement by joining the Speed Insiders membership http://www.speedinsiders.com/

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He offers a FREE trial for those of us who are unsure of joining. Through the first 6 weeks he held a tele-seminar and would answer any questions that we had. I'm not sure if anyone else would offer this kind of bonus. We are also able to contact Coach through a special e-mail with any questions or concerns that we may have and he responds quickly.”

-Michael Labuanan