Monthly Archives: June 2014

Coaches Corner: Evaluating Drills For Effective Practices

Coaches Corner, Practice

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I’m a big fan of evaluating my program after each season. Everything from hotels and restaurants we used to game schedule and practice plans. I certainly don’t think that evaluation must necessarily lead to changes, though it should lead to comfort that you’re doing things in the best possible way given the tools (budget, staff, athletes, knowledge) at your disposal. As the tools change, you and your program may have to change…hence the evaluation.

While practice planning may sound an awful lot like an X’s and O’s conversation, don’t you worry, I plan to stay on the philosophical plane. When I talked to Becky Schmidt, head volleyball coach at Hope College, she talked about a change of philosophy she’s made in regards to practice.

She said she used to think every second of practice was important and needed to be planned, now she says she’s much more willing to experiment and not be afraid to waste time. As Schmidt evaluated her only practices and drills, she noticed many of her drills were old favorites from her playing days. She then had to challenge herself to innovate, because surely better (more efficient, more relevant, more applicable) drills have been created in that time span. And if not, she should create them!

This is something all of us can and should do. Drills that were great for one team may fall flat with another. Just as we have to modify our coaching styles for our athletes, we have to modify our coaching methods for our teams.

Join me in a series of interviews with successful coaches. I believe what we learn from our coaching peers can be applied to our teams, our recruiting efforts, and how we behave as professionals. These interviews will be less Q & A and much more philosophical in nature, keep coming back to see who I’m talking to and what they’ve got to say!

Coaches Corner: On Being A High Energy Coach

Coaches Corner, Coaching strategy

high energysource

Becky Schmidt is the head volleyball coach at Hope College. She’s also a professor at the college, with a Master’s in Sport Behavior and Performance. I found a quotation from one of her non-volleyball students that gave a glimpse into who she is: “Crazy woman. Sleeps like 3 hours a night and drinks lots of coffee. Bursting with energy and excitement about everything, especially volleyball.”

It turns out, while a lot of her energy is natural, Schmidt is also constantly aware of her energy output. She would say the main reason she is so engaged is because she had moody coaches in the past. Because she knows how annoying it is to be on the receiving end of that kind of treatment, she tries hard to remain the same. As a matter of fact, she says she’s even keyed in when she’s out recruiting. She’s engaged…all the time.

I was interested in how she did that, of course, but more interested in how she challenged her players and students to match her intensity level.

  1. Challenge team to give max effort. Schmidt talked a lot about how we, as coaches, can show our players how not to limit themselves. She says she asks her players to give her whatever they have in the moment. Feeling your absolute best isn’t the prerequisite for hard work…just the desire to put in the effort.
  2. Help them to stop being afraid of failure. This is one of those life skills that we tell our athletes they learn from playing our sport. This quality alone will put our athletes ahead of their competition once they’re in the work force.



What if they’re not doing those things?

  1. Call them out on it right away. I think I can do a better job of this one. I sometimes give my athletes too much leeway to pull themselves out of the mire. According to Schmidt, I need to intervene sooner.
  2. Give them the confidence to push themselves. As coaches, we can show them how much we believe in their potential by expecting more from them. If our athletes have inappropriately low expectations of themselves, it’s our job to raise them up…no matter how tough it is.
  3. Correction vs. criticism. This isn’t necessarily for the coaches, but for the players. Many times, any sort of correction is seen as criticism. For us to be able to do our jobs, our athletes have to be able receive correction in the spirit that it’s given.



Join me in a series of interviews with successful coaches. I believe what we learn from our coaching peers can be applied to our teams, our recruiting efforts, and how we behave as professionals. These interviews will be less Q & A and much more philosophical in nature, keep coming back to see who I’m talking to and what they’ve got to say!

Coaches Corner: What Is Advanced Teamwork?

Coaches Corner, Team chemistry

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Becky Schmidt is the head volleyball coach at Hope College and has had an amazingly successful run. Consistently in the top five of Division III, she’s figured out what it takes to put winning teams together. In talking to her about some strategic moves she made within her team, she used a term I’d not heard before: advanced teamwork. She talked about managing a larger than normal team and how she went about creating “a team” within that construct.

What is advanced teamwork?

  1. Hold one another accountable. This one is a doozy. The only, and I mean only, teams I’ve had that have been successful have been able to effectively navigate the world of peer management.
  2. No cliques. Another tough one, because teams have natural divisions within them…most notably, classes. Generally, your freshmen will hang out together, your sophomores, you get the idea. Part of this should be handled by the captains, they’ve got to build bridges within the team. The other part is on us, as coaches, to stay on top of our team’s chemistry.
  3. Respect one another. I think this could be underrated by our players. How many times have you had issues on your team because one player thinks another isn’t working hard? Or thinks a teammate didn’t do something they were supposed to do? Or isn’t performing up to their potential? All of those problems have respect as a root cause.
  4. Seek out greater relationships. I really like this one, it may be my favorite of all of Schmidt’s advanced teamwork tips. For players and coaches alike, we’ve got to step out of our comfort zones and really get to know one another. Not just the surface, “Susie is a senior nursing major”…you can learn that from the media guide. Let’s seek to really learn about one another.



Creating “a team” is the biggest challenge and most important duty of a head coach…and the bigger the team, the bigger the challenge. Hopefully, you learn some good tactics to help your team become closer to the coaches as well as one another.

Join me in a series of interviews with successful coaches. I believe what we learn from our coaching peers can be applied to our teams, our recruiting efforts, and how we behave as professionals. These interviews will be less Q & A and much more philosophical in nature, keep coming back to see who I’m talking to and what they’ve got to say!

Coaches Corner: Becky Schmidt

Coaches Corner

Becky Schmidtsource

Next on the docket is Becky Schmidt, head volleyball coach at Division III Hope College. Schmidt has been tremendously successful while at the helm of the Flying Dutch.

She’s never had a losing season while coaching her alma mater and holds the school record for victories at 34-4. She’s had nine 20-win seasons and a career winning percentage of .791. Beyond the numbers lie the dominance Hope College has enjoyed under Schmidt’s direction. They are a perennial national contender for not only the top twenty-five in the country, but to win it all.

Stay tuned for highlights from our conversation:

  • Evaluating and changing practices and drills.
  • Discussing advanced teamwork.
  • Monitoring her energy level.



See you next time!

Join me in a series of interviews with successful coaches. I believe what we learn from our coaching peers can be applied to our teams, our recruiting efforts, and how we behave as professionals. These interviews will be less Q & A and much more philosophical in nature, keep coming back to see who I’m talking to and what they’ve got to say!

Coaches Corner: Next Level Coaching

Coaches Corner, Coaching philosophy

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Coaching is more than X’s and O’s…I’m pretty sure most folks reading this would agree to that. So what is it, if it’s more than the tangibles?

Coaching is about leadership, teaching our players how to work well within groups, to put the needs of the team ahead of personal desires. It is also about showing our athletes how to deal with the circumstances life hands us in a positive way.

I’ll start with an example of what not to do. I met with a recruit the other day and she told me the story of her club coach who was recently fired because he was constantly belittling, cussing at, and being unprofessional with the players. His tearful excuse with the team was his rough upbringing.

Now, without negating what is sure to be the truth of his tough past, part of our jobs as coaches is to show our players how to deal with adversity on a micro and macro level. Micro: a point by point level within a game. Macro: when life deals an extraordinary blow.

Melissa Wolter, the head volleyball coach at the University of West Florida, was able to model that macro level life situation for her team. She found out she had breast cancer at a very young age and used that adversity to become a better coach and mentor for her team.

4 ways coaches can use adversity to in a positive way

  1. Don’t change your standards. Wolter says that cancer didn’t change the standards she holds for herself or her players, but how she went about accomplishing them did. Our players are on teams because they want to be pushed and held accountable…adversity shouldn’t change that, but it could make you more relatable and human for your team, which would help build trust.
  2. Right any disconnects. According to Wolter, she was much more selfish in her pre-cancer life. More about the wins and accolades. In her post-cancer life, she’s much more about positively affecting young people’s lives. When we’re self-focused rather than other focused, our team won’t receive the best coaching from us.
  3. Motivate your team. After her cancer treatments, when she was back in the gym with her players, Wolter actually performed their off-season workouts with them. I haven’t spoken with any of her athletes from that time, but I can imagine that was both a humbling and motivational experience for them.
  4. Become a better coach. Wolter is more relational with her teams now because of the adversity they’ve dealt with together. She says she’s able to find joy in the intangibles of coaching instead of just the wins.



I can’t state enough how important it is for coaches to use the adversity in our lives to improve at our jobs. We can become better coaches, we can become better mentors, and we can become better leaders for our athletes if we let life’s journey mold us. The only thing it requires is that we take a critical look at ourselves, our coaching style, and what needs to be changed. What a valuable life lesson we can teach our athletes!

Join me in a series of interviews with successful coaches. I believe what we learn from our coaching peers can be applied to our teams, our recruiting efforts, and how we behave as professionals. These interviews will be less Q & A and much more philosophical in nature, keep coming back to see who I’m talking to and what they’ve got to say!

Coaches Corner: Women Coaching Women

Coaches Corner, Female athletes

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I enjoy coaching women. Not because they’re dramatically different than coaching men, but because I never had a female head coach as an athlete and I think that’s too bad. Think about the ruckus it causes when a woman coaches men in anything. Then think about the complete lack of commotion it causes when men coach women. Men expect to be coached by men…and women kinda do, too.

That’s starting to change, though. Nowadays, women and girls can realistically have a different expectation of leadership and they can rightfully assume that it will look like them. Women coaching women isn’t necessarily an easier or tougher path than some other combination of genders, but the higher up in sport you get, the harder it is to find women coaching women or girls. I don’t really want to get too in-depth with that (you can do an internet search for “Acosta Carpenter report” for hard numbers), but suffice it to say the women’s coaching profession is like a pyramid, with the majority of females in high school and Division three…and the numbers get progressively smaller as you go up levels.

So what do you do if you find yourself leading an amazing group of women? Coach ‘em up! When I spoke to Melissa Wolter, head volleyball coach at the University of West Florida, she gave me a list of things she is sure to do that have helped her successfully lead women over the years.

3 advantages of women coaching women

  1. Identify with them. Wolter says she doesn’t play this card too often, but that it sometimes comes into play. You may decide, as a coach, that there are no excuses on your team (Got big boobs? Double up on sports bras! Having your period? Better have what you need!), but your athletes will never be able to pull the “coach just doesn’t understand” card with you.
  2. Connect on a woman-to-woman level. As a female, you’ve been where they are and understand the quirks unique to being a woman in athletics…and how your athletes can parlay that experience into a phenomenal future. This is bigger than point number one, this is guiding them from one place to another…from girl to woman, from student to professional.
  3. Show and gain trust. Wolter says that once you gain your player’s trust, they’ll run through walls for you. I’ve sat in front of many an athlete who complains about not liking her teammates, her coach, or the drama that her team is having. All of that goes back to trust and the lack of it she’s experienced in her young life collaborating with other females. A coach would do well to put the time in to show her players the benefits of trusting her teammates.



I hope more and more women get into coaching. It’s a great profession and your ability to change and influence lives is what gets us all up in the morning.

More about coaching female athletes
The Joys Of Coaching Female Athletes
3 Ways Women Can Be Effective Leaders
The 3 R’s Of Coaching Female Athletes
Wanna buy my book?

Join me in a series of interviews with successful coaches. I believe what we learn from our coaching peers can be applied to our teams, our recruiting efforts, and how we behave as professionals. These interviews will be less Q & A and much more philosophical in nature, keep coming back to see who I’m talking to and what they’ve got to say!

Coaches Corner: Creating A Successful Team Culture

Coaches Corner, Team chemistry

team culturesource

“Winning becomes the byproduct of doing all of the little things right.”
—Melissa Wolter, University of West Florida

Melissa Wolter has a very clear idea of what that quotation above means. It turns out that they’re not necessarily little things, but certainly not X’s and O’s things. Many times, I’ll chat with a young coach and they’re all fired up about their sport and can’t wait to impart knowledge. Which is a good thing…but they don’t always understand there is so much more to coaching than stepping between the lines.

Are you going to have a book full of team rules or a few core principles? What values do you want your program to be known for? How will you use your coaching staff? How will you empower your players to be leaders?

Here are Wolter’s three areas of importance when creating a successful team culture:

Team rules

  • Be on time. Being on time is a sign of respect: for your teammates and for your coach. Beyond that, it’s upholding a commitment…a great life lesson.
  • No swearing. Knowing Wolter, this is a personal value that she holds dearly. If you’re a coach out there that doesn’t mind your players swearing, just remember that part of our job is to prepare them for the real world and at the very least our athletes should have enough control over themselves that they can turn the swearing on and off when required.
  • Always give full effort. If you want to see any coach lose it, don’t work hard. Effort doesn’t require skill. An athlete may have a ceiling on their skill level, but never on their effort level.
  • Communicate. In my opinion, this is the most important of Wolter’s rules. Everything hinges on communication. Think about any problems you’ve had with past teams…I’ll bet they all stemmed from either a lack of communication or miscommunication.



Respect

  • Self.
  • Institution.
  • Team.



Encompassing all of these bullet points is doing the right thing: go to class…be active in class, work out on your own, work hard in practice, do the right thing when it would be easy to do the wrong thing. If our athletes do those things, they’ll respect themselves, the school, and the program.

Coaching staff

  • Players have input. Even the most control-freaky of coaches can do this one. Years ago, I heard a coach say he gave his team input over where they went out to dinner after a game. He really didn’t care and the players appreciated having a say…a win-win!
  • Connect on and off the court, gain trust. This is player to player, coach to coach, as well as player to coach. Wolter says that once you gain trust, your players will run through walls for you.
  • Encourage problem-solving among players. Rather than coaches always stepping in, Wolter empowers her players to stretch their leadership wings.



Want more articles about creating a culture? Here you go!

Creating A Connected Culture
Creating A “No Excuses” Culture On Our Teams
6 Steps To Creating A Passionate Team Culture

Join me in a series of interviews with successful coaches. I believe what we learn from our coaching peers can be applied to our teams, our recruiting efforts, and how we behave as professionals. These interviews will be less Q & A and much more philosophical in nature, keep coming back to see who I’m talking to and what they’ve got to say!

Coaches Corner: Keeping Your Team Motivated During The Off-Season

Coaches Corner, Team chemistry

hard worksource

“Championships are won between January and August.”—UWF volleyball

When I spoke with Melissa Wolter, head volleyball coach at the University of West Florida, about creating a winning culture, it was pretty insightful. I’d watched a video she’d put up on Facebook showing her team getting after it in the weight room in the off-season. It stuck out to me because I’ve been on a personal mission to relay the importance of off-season work to my team. The quote at the beginning of the article is based on a fall sport’s schedule, so you can adjust it accordingly.

I wanted to know what Wolter does, besides scholarship monies, to keep her team motivated during the off-season. I was floored at how intentional she and her staff are with keeping the off-season fun while the team works very hard. It’s easy to see why she’s had, and sustained, so much success over the years.

6 ideas to help keep your athletes motivated during off-season workouts

  • Minute to Win It games.
  • Random Act of Kindness video.
  • Karaoke contest.
  • Thank team for their effort.
  • Leave motivational notes in their locker.
  • Text players after a good practice.



As you can see, some of the things are for the entire group, while others are for individuals. Wolter says she introduces new ideas every couple of weeks in order to keep things fresh. For me, motivation is such an interesting topic and something we should always be on the lookout for…even adding one more thing to your repertoire could make a big difference.

Join me in a series of interviews with successful coaches. I believe what we learn from our coaching peers can be applied to our teams, our recruiting efforts, and how we behave as professionals. These interviews will be less Q & A and much more philosophical in nature, keep coming back to see who I’m talking to and what they’ve got to say!

Coaches Corner: Melissa Wolter

Coaches Corner

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Melissa Wolter is the head volleyball coach at Division II University of West Florida. She’s also an amazing lady and someone I’m proud to call friend. When I contacted all of the coaches to ask if they’d be willing to chat with me, I told them it shouldn’t take longer than twenty or thirty minutes. Wolter and I were on the phone for over an hour…conversation flows naturally between she and I.

We’ve been there for one another through sickness, death of parents, marriage, divorce, and everything in between. But the constant in our relationship is coaching. We both love it. We both have benefitted from it and I’d hazard a guess that we both can’t imagine our lives without the profession. We love coaching and the strategy, philosophy, and execution it entails. We’re a perfect pair!

Wolter is quite a decorated coach: She’s a four-time conference coach of the year and has guided her team to eight straight NCAA tournament appearances. During her time at West Florida, Wolter has coached six All-Americans, ten All-Region players, three conference All-Decade Team members and five conference Players of the Year. Her career conference record is 115-17, a ridiculous .871 average.

Some things to look forward to from our interview:

  • Creating a successful team culture.
  • Being an other-centered coach.
  • Ways to keep your team motivated in the off-season.
  • On females coaching female athletes.



Looking forward to meeting you here next time!

Join me in a series of interviews with successful coaches. I believe what we learn from our coaching peers can be applied to our teams, our recruiting efforts, and how we behave as professionals. These interviews will be less Q & A and much more philosophical in nature, keep coming back to see who I’m talking to and what they’ve got to say!