The document provides guidance on key aspects of coaching, including teaching skills, leadership, motivation, developing a coaching philosophy, and mental training techniques. It emphasizes controlling practice preparation, having passion for the sport, developing players' skills and physical abilities in a step-wise manner, and creating a team environment with mutual respect. Mental training includes developing confidence through preparation, visualization, relaxation, focus, and defining roles. The overall message is that coaching requires continual learning, having the right support system, and focusing on player development.

1. The basics of coaching

2. Coaching = Teaching
The ability to coach will be directly related to
the coach’s teaching ability – i.e. transferring
information and developing skill levels

3. Leadership – Coach as a Leader
• Ability to lead and direct staff and players to a common goal
• Get people to do what you want them to do

4. To train intensively by
instruction, practice and
demonstration

5. Develop, change and
maintain behaviors

6. Develop terminal levels
of performance that are
measurable, observable
and accountable

7. What does a coach control?
• Practice – planning, preparation and execution
• Physical Training – planning, preparation and execution
• Preparation for Game/Match – oversee every aspect of being prepared for “game time”
• Motivation
- define and crystallize the common goal that we are striving for
- find out what reinforces the team (what moves this group?) and each athlete
- what interaction (“motivator”) triggers the best response from the team and each athlete?
• Coach – Athlete Interactions
- communication – transferring information to players
- athletes’ roles
- individual and team meetings

8. Components of successful coaching
• Having a passion for your sport.
• Have a long term plan (vision) and the ability to implement it (organize).
• Find the way to lead this group - - leadership ability.
• Applying the appropriate teaching method
• Appropriately facilitate your message
• Knowledge of X’s & O’s - - skills (techniques) and strategies (tactics).
• Identifying general “athletic” and “sport specific” talent.
• Inter-relating to the players and staff
• Make if FUN!
• Determine how to motivate each athlete and the team as a whole

9. The sequence/phases of learning volleyball – 1) skill – acquiring
all the skills/techniques needed to become the best volleyball
player; 2) physical – getting yourself in the best possible physical
condition; 3) mental – the psychological side of the game – the
higher the level, the more important this phase becomes. 1) Skill
2) Physical 3) Mental are in rank order of importance
You control both of these. No matter where you are in your skill
development, physical conditioning and/or mental state your
attitude and effort are factors that you alone can control.
These follow from having the appropriate attitude and effort.
They must be first understood and then practiced just as you
would practice any volleyball skill.
What you do in practice relates directly to your match results. You
cannot execute in game conditions what you have not mastered
in a practice/training setting. “Practice does not make perfect –
perfect practice makes perfect.”

10. Common denominators of winning
(successful) teams
• Mutual respect and trust
STAFF – PLAYERS; PLAYERS – PLAYERS; STAFF – STAFF
• Discipline
• Athletic Talent
• Players fit coaching system/system designed for players
• Coaches are good motivators
• “Team” will beat a collection of good individuals

11. What I have learned in my
35+ years of coaching.

12. Surround yourself with the right people
Exceptional people
Players & staff
• Know your strengths, but most importantly your weaknesses then ensure
those around you make your collective staff better
• Delegate
• “Over deliver” on your promises to them
• Create a win-win situation for anyone that you work with

13. Know your priorities in life
• What are the most important things for you – wealth, family, health,
religious beliefs, value system, integrity, friendship, etc.
• Be true to yourself
• Mom – “it goes quickly – everything in moderation – most important thing
in life is your” health
• “One person’s BS is another person’s catechism”
• “The most important things in life are not things”
• Be able to make fun of yourself – laugh often and surround yourself with
others who can laugh with you

14. Develop and establish a clear
philosophy of coaching
• Write it down
• One page
• Review it at the end of each year – modify it as needed
• Make sure that it is easily understandable by your staff, players,
parents, administrators

15. Mentorship
•Find a mentor
•Give back – be a mentor

16. Work ethic – learn how to work
hard & smart
• “This is a great country - - if you work hard anything is possible.
However, always remember you may work hard and you may not get
what you want, but YOU WILL NEVER get what you want if you do not
work hard” (Taras M. Liskevych /my father/)
• “10,000 hours” – quality vs. quantity

17. Learn every day and read as much
as you can
• Enhance your knowledge with something new every year (every day)
• Seek out professional development and networking opportunities
• Keep a list of books to read
¬ both fiction and non-fiction
¬ on coaching
¬ on leadership and motivation
• Learners will not be left behind

18. Positive energy –
glass ½ filled vs. glass ½ empty
Make a conscious choice to be part of the solution,
not the problem

19. Have a basic foundation of
teaching/coaching principles
• The training environment is a key to your success. Practice is
the most important thing that you will do – practice does not make
perfect – perfect practice makes perfect
• Design a system for your players – not fit players into a system
• Do not try to do tactically what you cannot do technically
• Environment shapes the desired outcome/behavior

20. Develop a system to Identify talent
• Physical innate gifts
• Attitude, effort and work ethic
• Energy giver
• Ability to keep plugging away after failing - “The greatest glory in
living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time that we fall”
(Nelson Mandela)
“The most important ingredient of coaching
success is the athletic talent of your team”

21. Market your program
•It is our job as coaches to help expose this great sport
•“Come once and you’ll come back”
•Work to attract fans who are not just player families & friends
and/or former players & coaches

22. Concern yourself with the
things you can control or
change, don’t worry about
things you can’t

23. Take charge of your attitude
– do not let anyone else
choose it for you

24. Success is a journey, not a
destination
The difference between
ordinary and extraordinary
is the little extra

25. “Failure is the opportunity to
begin more intelligently”
Henry Ford

26. How to teach the mental game

27. Attitude
1. Control over one’s thoughts and actions
2. In order to succeed we must first believe that we can!
3. Glass ½ filled versus ½ empty
4. Enjoying the process
5. Mutual respect
6. 100% effort
7. Positive verbal communication, positive body language, and positive
self talk
8. Acknowledging feedback from coaches and/or teammate(s)
9. Life is 10% what happens and 90% is how you react to what happens
10.Every disadvantage has an equal advantage and visa versa. Look
for opportunities.

28. “We are what we repeatedly
do…excellence, then, is not
an act but a habit.”
Aristotle

29. Think you can, think you can’t,
either way you are right.”
Henry Ford

30. Goal Setting – “A How To”
SMART
– Specific
– Measurable
– Action Oriented
– Relevant
– Time-bound
3 “R’s”
– Review
– Re-evaluate
– Rewrite
SCRAM
– Specific
– Challenging
– Realistic
– Attainable
– Measurable

31. “In the Zone” / Peak Performance
•Total Engagement: sensory, cognitive, emotional
•Operating close to our potential
•Effortless – let it happen vs making it happen
•Be in control of yourself
•Timeless, in the moment
•Not “thinking” yet “knowing”
•Slow the game down
•Not holding back & not overly careful
•Tension free – “Enjoyment” versus “Tension”

32. Relaxation
Off the Court Breath Control Strategies
• Step 1 – Inhalation.
• Step 2 – Is simply a momentary pause
before allowing the process of
exhalation to occur
• Step 3 – Exhalation.
• Step 4 – Putting it all together
Steps 1 – 4 should be practiced
and used off court – do not use
during play
During play, when under
pressure, take 2-3 deep,
prolonged breaths and you
will slow down your breathing
rate and return your arousal/
anxiety levels to an acceptable
range.

33. Breathing
Breathing plays a very important role in your efforts to control and
regulate both arousal and relaxation levels
The pattern of your breathing is typically quite different when you are
relaxed and calm versus when you are tense, anxious and over activated
When over activated slow your breathing down. Take deep, long and
regular breaths
According to Eastern teachings (for centuries) the control and regulation
of one’s breathing is absolutely essential for learning body awareness
and self-control

34. Progressive Relaxation
Method developed by Edmund Jacobsen a Harvard physiologist in the
early 20th century
There is a close and direct relationship between mental tension states
and muscle tension states
As you become tense and anxious, your muscles will also become tense
If muscles are relaxed they cannot be tense
Once muscles are voluntarily relaxed, levels of mental tension also
decrease

35. Progressive Relaxation Steps
• Learn to control what you think
• Learn to discriminate increases and decreases in
muscle tension
Dr. James Loehr’s Programs for Progressive Relaxation
• Surprisingly simple 18 step technique
• Takes about 10 minutes
• Alternate tensing and relaxing muscles

36. Visualization / Imagery
ISM (A. Ahsen)
Image – cognitive template images in brain
Somatic Response – physiological reactions in
response to image
Meaning – unique significance to the individual
Different ways to visualization:
• Practice the Performance
• Pre-play the Performance
• Replay the Performance

37. Volleyball Situations to Visualize
Visualize yourself in a practice drill – perfect execution,
100% effort, etc.
Visualize yourself performing any one of the six skills.
Visualize body position, body movement (feet, arms, etc.),
track the ball, execute the skill, hear the sound of contact
Visualize the match point scored versus _____, etc.

38. Focus / Refocus
• Focus on the moment instead of the result/outcome
• Simplify the performance
• Breathe – take a deep breath
• Remove negative thoughts/negative emotions
• Only positive energy/positive thoughts/positive affirmations
• Centering – “being centered” – Eastern tradition and
martial arts “Ki” – centralized energy Japanese – “hara”
• Trust your practice
• “Next Play / Next Contact”

39. Confidence / Self-Confidence
Confidence is a result of preparation.
All of the above are achieved through
Quality Repetitions – “10,000 hours”
To improve their self-confidence, an athlete
can use visualization/mental imagery
Player can list positives about themselves.
Positive self-talk and communication

40. Jeff Janssen on Confidence
Four Sources of confidence:
Preparation
Strengths
Past Successes
Praise
Resilience Reaction to Failure – Optimism
Temporary
Localized
Changeable

41. How Coaches Can
Influence Confidence
•Praise positive outcomes
•Give corrective feedback
•“Next play”
•Focus on process/game plan
versus only the score/outcome
•Define roles
•Team Buy In
•Highlight Video

42. Leadership
A leader can:
– Lead people to a common goal
– Get people to do what he/she wants them to do
– At times get people to do what they do not want to do
• Leaders NEVER stop learning
• Create a “team” environment
• Surround yourself with the best people
• Maximize strengths and minimize weaknesses

43. Questions?

44. Please visit the website bellow to review this presentation as well as other coaching
and athletic resources I have prepared for you.
Continuing education
www.TheArtOfCoachingVolleyball.com/terry-york
Drills, tactics, techniques, philosophies, fitness tips, nutritional advice, mental training – it’s
all here at TheArtofCoachingVolleyball.com - all taken from the valuable input of numerous
coaches across the country who have mentored players at every level and every age.