Elson’s Tips and Traps

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The coaches at Elson Volley have extensive experience coaching with the Australian Volleyball Federation, Volleyball SA, Secondary Schools Sport, Mt Lofty Volleyball Club and Heathfield High School.

USA release 2014 volleyball skill series

John Kessel has just let me know that the 2014 USA skill video series are now available. USA volleyball, in their typical thorough fashion, has presented all the skills of volleyball both for standing and sitting volleyball on the one web page. This video series is...

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Serving

Try and tell the coach of any losing team that serving is not important. After a full week at the Australian Schools Cup, I have come to the conclusion that the most poorly done skill at the event was serving, and I do not mean the technique. I think significant gains...

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What to do with benchies

It is likely that you will have some players that will be harder to get on the court than others. Two points that I have heard from coaches are important here:“You picked them, you play them” - Sue Dansie“A player will never surprise you sitting on the bench” - Alexis...

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Using Statistics at the Australian Schools Cup

There are thousands of ways available to take stats; laptops, iPads, iPhones, flow charts, etc. The best, without doubt in my opinion, are the Ribbon Stats we developed for use at Heathfield High School. They're designed to be easy to use for everyone from the coach...

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Time Outs

One gem of advice I received when I started coaching was to listen to other coaches’ time-outs. Some of the rubbish I heard was important in increasing my level of confidence.To paraphrase Winston Churchill:“Never has so much crap been spoken by so many, so...

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Playing Like a Dog: It happens, and we can help

If you have a team or a player having a poor tournament, and they have lost their confidence, then you as the coach need to step in. This is a realistic and common problem and it eventually happens to all of us. It is a serious issue and thankfully there is a simple...

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Not another signed volleyball?

If you are going to the Australian Schools Cup this year you are getting dangerously close to getting another signed volleyball from your team. If you already have 20+ signed volleyballs, another one may not be what you need. If you coach a boys’ team, chances are...

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How to be successful at the Australian Schools Cup

Last year was the first time that I have ever attended the ASC in a role other than that of a coach. Working on some of the younger divisional courts, I was amazed and disappointed at the way some of these younger kids were being treated. For some of them, I thought...

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Why do good teams lose on Wednesdays?

It is hard to go through a tournament undefeated - but not impossible.  In the first round of the Australian Schools Cup, everybody is pumped up. In the last matches of the tournament on Friday, a coach is also working with pumped up teams. These are the easy matches....

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66% of kids at the ASC do… what?

My 30 years of stats at the Australian Schools Cup show that if you call a time out, you have a 66% chance of getting a service error in the next point. Unfortunately, your team has the same chance of stuffing up when the opposition's coach calls a time out. This is a...

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