These days I hear stories of players who decide not to play high school or club. They tend to say they will do one on one private lesson to stay in volleyball shape. While there can be legitimate social or personal issues that cause player to make this decision, we usually find it is due to players or parent’s egos. No college coach wants to hear that a player’s ego gets in the way of doing what is best for development. A one on one lesson is far less effective at developing an individual as a volleyball player. In fact we often see players who perform great in a controlled drill but can’t perform at the same level in a game. The inherent predictability of lessons pails dramatically to effectiveness of random training that happens when a team plays. Whether it be 2 on 2, 3 on 3, or 6 on 6 playing and seeing all the correct visual stimuli can’t be replaced. For all practices we seek for our drills emphasis to transfer to game situations. So what activities transfer the best?
Answer: the appropriate level of difficulty, as many game like visual & physical dynamics as possible, and high repetition.
Volleyball is a visual motor game. When a player is starting out the motor aspects (movements) require the greatest amount of attention. As a player’s movement selection and technical quality improves the visual aspects continually grow in transferable importance to performance. Eventually (after 10,000 hours) players move correctly with out thinking about controlling their movement. They move autonomously and their attention stays focused on digesting the relevant visual cues and anticipation drives their responses.
We go through four phase of learning and competence, while one on one lesson are ok in the early phases, a small group tutor is a much better choice from beginning to much later in the learning stages. The optional scenario for every phase is with a team and playing small group games which allow for higher rep counts or 6 on 6. Here is a quick guide to help you understand what you need as a player and when.
1. Unconscious Incompetence
The individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the deficit. They may deny the usefulness of the skill. The individual must recognize their own incompetence, and the value of the new skill, before moving on to the next stage. The length of time an individual spends in this stage depends on the strength of the stimulus to learn.
The individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the deficit. They may deny the usefulness of the skill. The individual must recognize their own incompetence, and the value of the new skill, before moving on to the next stage. The length of time an individual spends in this stage depends on the strength of the stimulus to learn.
During this phase private lessons can very productive at helping a player make quicker progress. Movement techniques and deliberate movement control need to be given a high volume of feed back. In this phase fairly predictable visual stimuli allows players to put their emphasis behind motor control.
2. Conscious Incompetence
Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, he or she does recognize the deficit, as well as the value of a new skill in addressing the deficit. The making of mistakes can be integral to the learning process at this stage.
Private training can be very valuable because the player still needs a high volume of feedback and a coach can slowly remove the predictability of the timing, location, and movement selection. That being said movement selection at the end of this phase is based on visual stimuli. We started out trying to control our movements and now that we can make them correctly from time to time. We need to pair our movements with their outcomes.
3. Conscious Competence
The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires concentration.
As a player you are now selecting actions based on situation recognition. The right move to achieve maximum results is driven by visual stimuli. This is point at which the lack of visual game dynamics begins to drastically diminish the usefulness of a one on one lesson. The predictability of drills in the one on one lesson also drastically reduces the transfer to game situations. Practicing the same movement over and over requires not decision making. Often the timing, location, and movements are all predicated by the coach. This type of thought less drilling will not help a player learn to effectively to observe, decide, and react.
4. Unconscious Competence
The individual has had so much practice with a skill that it has become "second nature" and can be performed easily. As a result, the skill can be performed while executing another task. (If you ever meet this player call USA Volleyball immediately)
When a player reaches this phase they are approximately 30 years old and started playing at age 11. Playing with teammates is best at this point. Think about technique will actually reduce the quality of their performance.
