|
Coaches Perspective
By Daryl Kapis
 Being this the 2nd year I have taken a team on the New Years Bash, one might
think it wouldn't be as exciting. This was completely on the contrary as I had
more fun as a coach helping my new team with the experience I had from the
previous year. The trip was also fun for the reason of being a little more
comfortable with my surroundings and being able to share the fun and exciting
places with my team. (i.e. best place to eat, or to get hot chocolates in each city)
The play this year was even better than last year, even with roughly the same
level of team that I brought the previous year. The scores were indicative of
the competition level, but the experiences are something that one can't
ignore. Understanding the philosophy of play and mentality of the European style of
training really helps me be able to coach whatever team I will coach in the
future with different philosophies of thought. Learning that there are many
ways to coach from different experiences such as this only makes those who do
something like this become better educators of the sport of volleyball. One of
the things that is evident in the competition we play is learning how to deal
with the power game. Learning to dig the hard driven ball first and to be able
to recover and be good out of system, then to bring it back hard to the other
team is key to your success. I've learned the importance of covering even more
as the European teams we play are very physcial, and if you are not ready to
pick your teammates up after a big swing, then you are just playing into their
hands. All and all learning how to play more of a physical/agressive style of
volleyball only will help those junior level players who come on tour
understand what will be needed if they take the next step in their college volleyball
careers if they plan on being successful.
|
