** Update (3/16/16) - This interview was conducted in the final month before Dulfer transitioned to head women's volleyball coach at Ithaca **
"I remember losing the first set to a team from Buffalo 25-6 during the 2012 season. While I couldn't stem the tide that particular set, it was important to keep coaching and remind my team that eventually, we'd catch some breaks and they'd start to make a few more errors ... that's exactly what happened and we won the next three sets pretty handily " ~ Johan Dulfer, A Program with Purpose
It was an amusing moment two years ago when I read this passage in Johan Dulfer's book, quickly realizing he was referring to a match against Fredonia.
We'd dominated that first set late in 2012, only to be forcefully turned back in the next three. Clarkson went on to win the New York regional title that year, and they haven't lost one since, making the NCAA Elite Eight the last four years.
Dulfer began that journey in 2007 when volleyball in the North Country was practically non-existent. He'd previously been an assistant coach at Division I James Madison, a student assistant at Minnesota, and combined with a Dutch upbringing, he's developed a coaching philosophy that artfully blends a player-centered psychology with an industrious intellect.
Our conversation last Wednesday started with the technical side of volleyball, quickly drifted into Dulfer's recruiting philosophy, and ended with an explanation of why he considers his team at Clarkson, "a program with purpose."
Ryan Maloney: Is there any added perspective you bring to volleyball having been raised in the Netherlands?
Johan Dulfer: When I started coaching in the U.S. there was much more emphasis on coaches running a drill, and coaches hitting balls, and that's never really been where I came from. I think I bring more of a player-centered approach to the game. I like to be involved, so I'll hit balls sometimes, but whenever we can the players do it. This seems to be a new trend in the last couple years, but that's how it's been in my gym for the last 15 years. Maybe it's a European thing. When I was growing up, our coach sat on a bench and ran practice from there. Our coach hardly ever entered a ball.
RM: Is there anything else that you see other coaches do that you may not agree with?
Dulfer: I've learned that we still talk about the game of volleyball as though there's one right answer to a technique, or a way to coach, or a way to run a time-out, and there isn't. I think as you get older you get more comfortable with running it your own way as long as you can validate it to yourself and your players. I'm sure if John Kessel (USA Volleyball) walked into our gym he'd have questions about what I'm doing, and I'm completely comfortable with that. I feel like I train my girls the way most Division I programs train because I was part of two before I came here. From time to time I break the mold of what people think is the ideal way to train.
RM: Can you give me some examples of what you're talking about?
Dulfer: I try to see what works for individual players. Right now there's a lot of talk about putting players on a box (for hitting drills). There's a lot of talk that boxes are evil, you can't have a box in practice. You know what? When I'm working on a girl's arm swing, I still put her on a box from time to time. I don't spend a lot of time looking at the research to tell me if it's absolutely the best way to do it. We still do serving drills where players serve to each other back and forth. I wrote a book saying you probably shouldn't do that too much, but we still do it to work on technique. I don't worry about giving them a target, or pressure. I don't worry about the fact that it's not game-like. There's a time for game-like drills and non-game-like drills, but I know there are people that disagree with me.
RM: One thing you emphasize in your book is intentionally putting players in pressure situations.
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| "A Program with Purpose", Johan Dulfer's first book, published in 2013 |
Dulfer: Yeah, the score might be 24-23, and when someone goes back to serve I'll actually stop the drill and say, "Hey Makayla, are you aware that if you miss this serve you lose the game?" It's horrible to do that to someone, but if you do that enough, they become comfortable with it. Part of dealing with pressure is acknowledging it exists and not ignoring it, which a lot of coaches do. I want my players talking to themselves in a positive, affirmative manner. I want them to acknowledge that there's pressure. If a player is about to hit a ball, she should be saying, "Alright, I've got it. I'm going to hit this ball down the line off the hands."
RM: We've also talked in the past about putting pressure on your players with statistics. We get some backlash from players with statistics because it makes them uncomfortable because they're focusing on something they can't control. How do you find that balance? What are the right things to measure?
Dulfer: Have you tried to implement a cauldron of sorts? (The Competitive Cauldron, originally developed by UNC's Dean Smith and Anson Dorrance, is an attempt to create competition in practice using statistics)
RM: A basic cauldron, yes.
Dulfer: We were in the middle of doing that at Minnesota; we measured every single touch in our gym, but I didn't think it accomplished everything we set out for it to accomplish. It was incredibly labor-intensive; definitely not worth it if you're a Division III coach and you only have one assistant. At Minnesota the players were fine with it, but I wouldn't do it here at Clarkson. I try to incorporate stats on a smaller scale. I'll put them in a hitting drill and instead of having to beat the other side, I'll say, "Here's five balls, for every three kills you can only make one error." So we're working on a .400 hitting percentage.
RM: What if they hit .100? Do you even talk about it?
Dulfer: Yeah, we might stop the drill. We'll stop a drill when we can't accomplish our goal anymore. I'll tell them, "We're going to go to five, but you have to have four kills before you make two errors." So they're not thinking about what their hitting stats are, they're just thinking about getting to four kills, which is much more positive and affirmative than thinking about errors.
RM: You also talk a lot towards the end of your book about recruiting for personality. I think a lot coaches just hope for the best, hoping to get the right blend of personalities. Especially recruiting players from so far away, do you intentionally create this?
Dulfer: I try to (laughs). It's hard, even with how much time we spend on recruiting you never know what you're going to get. You can be blinded by the talent, regardless of personality, and I've gotten away from that. We've had some really, really good players that I've actually called and told they're not good fits. And that hurts, that really hurts. I recruit differently, as you know. I still recruit like I did when I was in Division I, but now with a Division III flare. I cast a wide Division III net, but I don't send out 300 e-mails, hope to get 200 back, hope to get 100 phone calls, 20 campus visits, and three commitments. My recruiting list has three players for each of the three positions we're recruiting. So I'm actively talking to only nine girls. As soon as one says no, I'm working on a backup for that position. I'm trying to get to know these nine girls to the best of my ability. I want to make sure I know what I'm getting. I'll ask them all kinds of questions. I'll ask them what the hardest thing they've ever done is. I want to know these kids before they come to campus.
Dulfer: Absolutely. If I was just recruiting in New York I would get in the car and I would do a home visit. I would look them in the eye. I just spent a week in California and that's exactly what I did. There were four girls I was talking to, and I made sure I did four home visits. Then I went to a tournament and added six names to the list. I don't come home with 30 names and have 30 e-mails I need to send. It's much more targeted.
RM: I've never heard someone at our level talk much about home visits. Is that something you bring from having been a Division I recruiter?
Dulfer: It's gotten less frequent, but when I can I'll do it. Usually it's not actually in the home, but we'll meet somewhere, like at a Starbucks. It's nice to sit down and have a face-to-face conversation where they can bring mom or dad.
RM: You said you cast a wide Division III net while you're recruiting, but how do you do that in an individualized way?
Dulfer: What I rely on is for other people to help me out. At this point I know enough club coaches, and high school coaches, and club directors who I can ask questions to before I contact the girl. So there's a lot of legwork behind the scenes. For instance, we have a great setter coming in this year. I found her from a club director of a former player, talking on an informal basis. She knew what we were looking for, and asked if I'd like to contact this setter who was looking for a home. I found her high school coach and had a conversation, then called her father and had a conversation, and then called the girl when I verified that everything was a good match. I already knew that we were a good match before I even called her.
RM: I can imagine people saying, "Johan, I don't know club directors in California, what if I want to recruit from far away and I don't have that luxury?"
Dulfer: Here's the best advice anyone ever gave me. When I was a recruiter (at James Madison) my head coach sent me to my first club tournament. She said even if you don't come back with any specific girls, or any leads, for the next three and a half days I want you to get to know 20 people each day. I want you to write down their name, contact info, and something you remember about them, and keep a list. At the end of that qualifier I had 75 club coaches written down, people I'd introduced myself to, given them my card, told them a little bit about our school. So I came home and followed up with an e-mail to each of them. So now 75 people knew what James Madison was looking for in the recruiting process. That was 13 years ago, but ironically I'm still in touch with some of those people. That's still how I do it. When I go to a tournament I don't just stand and watch a team. I'm talking to a coach, a club director, someone about what's going on. I didn't know anybody either when I started. At some point it comes with showing your face somewhere.
RM: It sounds uncomfortable to be throwing your business card to random people for the first time. Like you talk about with putting your players in pressure situations, is it something you get more comfortable with over time?
Dulfer: Yeah, and if you don't get more comfortable you do it while you're uncomfortable. Because in my opinion it's the only way to win. This is the only way I know how to get my point across. I have to have a conversation with people to tell them about Clarkson. I have to learn to see if you're a good fit. Yeah, it's uncomfortable. I don't like it either because I'm not a super extroverted person. This isn't easy for me. But once you get to a tournament it can be really fun. By day three of a qualifier I've met so many new people it becomes a great experience.
RM: I've felt the same discomfort you describe. I've found I have to spend a lot of time learning about business, and sales, and business strategy.
Dulfer: I think it's an unintended consequence of the profession. Recruiting is sales, it's marketing. But I think the key in all of that is being perceived as sincere, and you can do that if you believe in your product. To me, marketing comes in personal conversations. When I'm talking to a club director, I don't say, "do you have any players for me?" They see right through that. Sometimes I walk away and we didn't talk about recruiting because I didn't want to ruin a nice conversation we were having. You learn to judge that. I don't want to be a person who only talks to someone when they need a player.
RM: It's very transactional.
Dulfer: I hate it, that falseness. I don't like it. As much as I want to learn all I can about my players, I want to learn all I can about the club directors, or the recruiters. I'll send a card out if someone is getting married, or engaged.
RM: We've talked before about the differences between volleyball in New York and other parts of the country, that a player in New York who is perceived as a Division I level player may be a Division III player elsewhere. Does that have anything to do with why you recruit primarily from other parts of the country?
Dulfer: I think it's based as much on the statistics of the likelihood of ending up in DI vs. DIII. I think we have a unique phenomenon here in New York where we have so many Division III opportunities, which doesn't happen anywhere else in the country other than the Midwest. DIII opportunities elsewhere are limited. Connected to that, while volleyball here is getting better, it isn't quite at the level as in the Midwest, or in California, or Texas. Those two things combined, there are many more schools that need talent, but many fewer of those players available here. It's a business thing: supply is low and demand is high, so we go outside our state looking for talent.
RM: One of my biggest questions is about building community, especially with players from so far away. It's a major sports psychology topic, and the reason I love your book so much is that it takes the concept of community and makes it very real and practical. How do you create than environment in which your players go through this community-building process?
Dulfer: It comes down to my philosophy of purpose. It's just like when we talked about strategically creating pressure situations on the volleyball court, not sweeping pressure under the rug, but acknowledging that it's there and having a positive, affirmative plan to deal with it. That applies to this as well. When we start the season I don't want our players to pretend that it's going to be all flowers and sunshine. There're going to be hard moments, and bumps in the road, and we need to be aware that it's coming. Most of it comes back to direct communication. I work a lot on that with them, and it's worked that way for us for a while.
RM: When they get to the performing stage that you describe, how do you know they've arrived? (In his book, Dulfer refers to Tuckman's stages of group development, forming, norming, storming, and performing, as a framework for dealing with interpersonal issues). I feel like every year our team get's to the storming phase ...
Dulfer: Every team does. If you don't get to the storming phase, that's a bad sign. Getting to the
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| Clarkson women's volleyball after winning the 2015 regional title |
RM: How do you know when they get through it?
Dulfer: It's weird, almost surreal. You know it when you're in it. Until then you can only hope and cross your fingers. This generation of players is so used to things being handed to them. The idea of storming is that it's not going to be easy, and you shouldn't expect it to be easy. You should expect there to be hard, interpersonal decisions you have to make. And when you get through it you reach a level of understanding. In 2012, we forced the moment in a team meeting behind closed doors. There was a lot of crying, screaming, and a lot of opening up. Afterwards I told my assistant, "we're either going to fall apart tomorrow, or we're going to win the regional championship." (Clarkson won the regional championship in 2012).
RM: I want to ask about the future. You've been to the Elite Eight four times now, but haven't gotten past the first round. I would think it's frustrating. Is there anything driving you to go even further?
Dulfer: In my mind, we're one match away. I've had too many people tell me that a New York team cannot get to the Final Four. Well the good news is that if you get to the Final Four, you can win a national championship. You're going to see the number one or number two team in the country in the Elite Eight. So what we're looking at is winning one more match, then the field is wide open. We've tried for four years now, and this year everyone thought we had a really good shot. In years prior they didn't. It might seem like we've stalled, but I actually think we've made progress. The level of volleyball has been higher from the first to fourth year, the depth was better, the mindset was better, and the appreciation from the outside world was better. I think we've accomplished quite a bit, actually. It's incredibly self-defeating to say that it's frustrating to get to the Elite Eight. It should never be frustrating, it means you've done something amazing.
RM: When you see the progression of Clarkson from 2007 to now, at least on paper you make it look easy.
Dulfer: (laughs)
RM: Obviously that's a misperception. Can you talk to me about what has been most difficult?
Dulfer: The most difficult thing is that I've had so many talented, dedicated, passionate, and adventurous young women that have seen their roles change. In any program that improves, there's enormous pressure on players to keep getting better. Some players might play for two or three years, and then suddenly a freshman is better. That's incredibly difficult because I have the same personal commitment to all of them. I recruited all of them, and I feel bad when that happens, but the performance on the court is how we're judged. It's hard to see a dedicated young woman sit the bench. At the same time, the most impressive thing I've seen happen is that so many players were willing to sacrifice their own personal experience to get the program to the next level. I truly believe that's why we've had so much success. I'm in awe of it.
RM: It's a wonderful example for players to hear about.
[Complement this conversation with the five takeaways from Dulfer's book, A Program with Purpose]