In Coaching volleyball successfully, you have to be prepared to devote a lot of your time and energy. A successful coach must be a good planner in order to ensure all his/her personal, professional and coaching responsibilities are taken care of.

As the saying goes: “failing to plan is planning to fail” so it’s imperative for the coach to carefully plan of the year. You might be thinking that that’s a lot of work and why can’t I just do my thing around the volleyball season.. right?

Well for starters, a good coach will be review his and the teams performance from the previous season and clearly identify what aspects of the game, strategy, drills and plays that worked well and what didn’t. Identify any problems that occured and develop solutions to ensure they don’t occur again.

Of course, there is also the important issue of the off season training and preparation for the players. Be sure your players are preparing themselves during the off season and can start the season in a strong position.

The single most important planning task for the coach is to ensure that he/she is planning him/herself. Ensure you are reviewing your performance honestly and try to improve on your weaknesses. Also be honest with you time commitments. It’s easy to over commit yourself and find that you are suffering in other parts of your life. This is often referred to as “coach burn out”. Trust me, you don’t want to be in this situation and your team doesn’t want you in this situation.

In the next article, we’ll discuss how to coach volleyball to kids.