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| Clockwise, from upper left: Brockport's Steve Pike, Geneseo's Amber Dunn, Ithaca's Johan Dulfer, Baldwinsville's Mary Jo Cerqua, and Calvin's Amber Warners |
I've never been turned down for an interview. People are almost always eager to tell what they know, reconfirming the idea that knowledge, if not freely shared, tends to rot inside.
Below are five favorite ideas that five volleyball coach's have shared over the last five months:
January - Brockport's Steve Pike on how a coach's expectation can change a player
In 1968, Robert Rosenthal completed a study showing that if a teacher expects a student to perform well in the classroom, the student tends to do so. Likewise, if the teacher expects the same student to perform poorly, the student also tends to do so. The student conforms to the unconscious expectations of the teacher.
The "Rosenthal effect", or "Pygmalion effect", is now widely taught to teachers in education programs. Brockport's Steve Pike, a teacher by training, acknowledges the effect in his coaching:
Ryan Maloney: Is there anything else you'd want other coaches to know? Maybe something you wish you'd known when you were younger?
Steve Pike: Great question. One of them would be that initial ability and final ability are not directly connected. So that kid who's not very good right now in your gym, you don't really know how good she'll be.
RM: Even in college?
Pike: Even in college. Having spent this many years seeing how much kids can either improve or regress, it's become important for me to keep that in mind. The other thing I wish I'd known is the fact that the kind of feedback we give our athletes, and the way we give it, can be different whether we think that athlete will be successful or not. So Suzy, who is our star, makes an error and we talk to her one way, and then Jane, who is maybe last on our roster, makes the same error and we talk to her differently, or we don't even talk to her. We may not even spend much time on her in practice at all, and that leads to the expectation in her mind that she's not very good.
February - Ithaca's Johan Dulfer on the best coaching advice he's ever received
In To Sell Is Human, Daniel Pink argues that most employees in the American workforce are now engaged in some form of sales. In a study of 9,000 respondents, Pink found that employees across are wide variety of professions are, "spending 40 percent of their time at work engaged in non-sales selling - persuading, influencing, and convincing others in ways that don't involve anyone making a purchase."
A coach is often woefully underprepared upon hiring, quickly finding out that the job involves a lot of selling. Motivating, recruiting, and teaching all involve some form of persuasion, and improving on persuasive ability goes a long way.
In considering the best advice he's ever gotten, Ithaca's Johan Dulfer reflects on the advice he got about selling while a recruiter at James Madison:
Ryan Maloney: 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?"
Johan 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, and 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 uncomfortable 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 ... 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.
April - Calvin's Amber Warners on why winning doesn't necessarily make you a good coach
In Seth Davis's biography of UCLA's John Wooden, Wooden: A Coach's Life, Davis describes a man who deviated very little in his coaching methods throughout his career. Wooden's meticulous attention to detail in his practice planning has become legendary, but it was hardly the only reason for his ten national championships.
The prominence of UCLA in the 1960's, an extremely competent athletic director in J.D. Morgan, and an assistant coach who did the bulk of Wooden's early recruiting, had as much to do with his success as his own abilities.
That a coach's win-loss record is not necessarily a reflection of ability is a counter-intuitive idea, one that Calvin's Amber Warners described in April after her team won two national championships:
Ryan Maloney: I told you in an e-mail that I've been reading the most recent John Wooden biography, and I was surprised to learn that the years Wooden was winning national championships were actually the unhappiest of his life. I don't want to put that experience on you, but since Calvin Volleyball has ascended in the public eye, has it changed your experience of coaching?
Amber Warners: The last five years have been some of the best of my life, but I'm constantly bombarded about how important it is to win it all. I don't get offended, but I get a little sad about it. We were really good before 2010. We would have 29-5 seasons, but nobody cared. Nobody around here cared, nobody anywhere else cared. We weren't doing anything different then. So now when people want to know what we do, I'm flattered because I feel like I have stuff to share, but I had stuff to share in 2009 too.
April - Geneso's Amber Dunn on how tragedy leads to connection
Our cultural mythology tells us that in the face of public disaster, we become fragile, afraid and cut ourselves off from the rest of humanity. In the uncertainty, we revert to a "survival of the fittest" mentality.
But another story can emerge out of tragedy, a hopeful one in which the shared experience leads to greater connection rather than less. Geneseo's Amber Dunn describes her own experience of tragedy during her first year on the job:
Ryan Maloney: With the two athletes who passed away at Geneseo this year, how has that affected you and your team?
Amber Dunn: It's been really tough. They've done a really good job here of putting the right resources in place for students, but I think Geneseo will be dealing with the effects of that for a very long time. Our team really struggled with it. Our team is close with the women's basketball team, and there were a few players who were really close with Kelsey. A couple things have come from it, though. For us, I've been forced to get to know our players on a personal level.
RM: What does that mean? That it's forced you to get to know your players?
Dunn: I think as a head coach you can have that wall between you and your athletes. I knew them, but I didn't know them on a personal level. I didn't recruit them, so I don't know mom and dad as well. I knew them for face value. But with what's happened, it wasn't uncommon where a player would come into my office and just break down. There was a player who just came in and fell to her knees and cried. I sat down on the floor with her and hugged her, and just let her cry. That was a big thing for me, I was able to get to know them on that personal level where they feel comfortable enough to come and sit in my office, or sit at a basketball game together as a group, trying to work through something really difficult. I was there to support them and be available as a resource. If that situation didn't happen, I probably wouldn't have gotten to know them.
May - Baldwinsville's Mary Jo Cerqua on the need for coaches to teach communication
Social psychologist Amy Cuddy's TED talk, Your body language shapes who you are, has been viewed more than 34 million times, making it the second-most popular talk ever. Her premise is that 'power poses', such as having your hands on your hips or spreading your legs, can actually make a person feel more powerful, even changing the body's hormones associated with power.
It proves there is a very tangible reason to teach athletes what their body language is communicating; it helps them understand how they're being perceived and changes how they feel about themselves. In May, Baldwinsville's Mary Jo Cerqua described how she uses this idea as a fundamental part of her coaching:
Ryan Maloney: Can you tell me about how you bring out your players' personalities? Particularly how you get them to communicate with each other in uncomfortable moments?
Mary Jo Cerqua: High school athletes are most uncomfortable with any kind of face to face communication. They would rather text. Unfortunately that doesn't work very well on a volleyball court. So, during different offensive and defensive game play situations, we are progressively teaching what to say and how to say it.
[...]
Our staff also explains that body language is an important negative and positive communication tool, especially with young women! We show them how or what their body language is communicating to their coach, teammates and also to the other team. We also show them their body language on video and have them tell us what they are communicating to the other players. The hardest part of bringing out their "personalities" or having them be competitive, is explaining to them that they probably know what someone is thinking or feeling by looking at their eyes. With that being siad, they should also LOOK directly into their own teammates' eyes when talking tot them. VERY HARD TO DO FOR A YOUNG HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE! They poke fun at it to start out but realize as the season progresses that it is a team expectation that results in team bonding, unity, trust, confidence, and WINS!