Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast

Podcast Episode 32: Killing the Player Inside

In our interview with Glenn Hoag, he shared a comment from legendary coach Julio Velasco. It was that in order to truly be successful a coach must kill the player inside

Podcast Episode 31: Observations from the 2016 AVCA Convention

First of all, if you have not already seen our In Memorial post about the passing of Wizard Carl McGown, please check it out. We are making the text of Carl’s interview f

Podcast Episode 30: The roles of a coach with Jan De Brandt

In his interview, Jan De Brandt shared what he thought of as the three roles of a coach. They are the dictator, the creator, and the observer. In this episode of the podc

Podcast Episode 29: Playing time and expectations with Vital Heynen

In this episode we take a look at playing time and the expectations related to them. Vital Heynen provides a starting point for the discussion. He shares his thoughts on

Podcast Episode 28: Starting a new season with your team

What do you do at the start of a new season? Sometimes you have a lot of returning players and only a few new ones. In other cases you have a lot of turnover, if not a co

Podcast Episode 27: The first Volleyball Coaching Wizards book

The first ever Volleyball Coaching Wizards book was recently released. In this episode of the the podcast we talk about the book, and about the whole Wizards project that

Podcast Episode 26: Player-Coach relationships, with Athanasios Papageorgiou

The relationship between player and coach could be the most important aspect of being a successful coach. In this episode of the podcast we explore that idea. It starts o

Podcast Episode 25: Important Skills for a Coach, with Craig Marshall

What are the most important skills for a coach? Craig Marshall shares his thoughts in this episode. We start our discussion there, and eventually circle back to end there

Podcast Episode 24: 2016 Olympics Review

We’re back! After a busy Summer full of volleyball, work, and book development, we’re back with a new episode of the podcast. The 2016 Olympics have just ended, so we de

Podcast Episode 23: The qualities of a good assistant coach with John Corbelli

What are the qualities and characteristics of a good assistant coach? In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we get the views from long-time NCAA Divi

Podcast Episode 22: Jump Counts with Ryan Mitchell

In baseball, managers use pitch counts to help them make decisions on when they might need to replace their pitchers. Could we do something similar in volleyball? That’s

Podcast Episode 21: The psychology of training with Anders Kristiansson

Player psychology is an important consideration for coaches at all levels, and in all sports. How much does it factor into how you put together your practice plans and ho

Podcast Episode 20: Training A side vs B side with Arnie Ball

Playing 6 v 6 games in practice is something we all do. It’s a fundamental part of preparing our teams to play in competitive matches. The question is how best to make th

Podcast Episode 19: Avoiding being the scapegoat for losing as a coach

This episode of the podcast actually takes a different course than most in that it features a question submitted by a listener. He basically asked the question how as coa

Podcast Episode 18: Coaching the players as they are with Peggy Martin

One of the struggles we can face as coaches is having to work with players who have motivations different than our own. In some cases it’s because they are different type

Podcast Episode 17: Better results from random training with Tom Tait

The benefits to be had from incorporating more random or distributed (game-like) training in your practices as opposed to the old-school block style of training (basic re

Podcast Episode 16: The characteristics of great setters with Bill Neville

When it comes to the history of the game, few can beat Bill Neville’s experience and knowledge. In this episode of the podcast he shares his favorite setter of all time,

Podcast Episode 15: Coaching your best players with Joel Dearing

It is often the case that we, as coaches (and teachers), either coach to the middle of our squad or focus more attention on the weaker players to try to bring them up to

Podcast Episode 14: Talking to the team after the match with Tom Turco

Pre- and post-match team talks have long been the subject of interest and attention, both by those involved in them (players and coaches) and those observing from outside

Podcast Episode 13: Breaking the game in to parts, with Mike Lingenfelter

In volleyball, as in life, it is often beneficial to break things down in to smaller, more manageable chunks. Mike Lingenfelter talked about this in his Wizards interview