Small Victories

By Chris Beerman

With every developmental process there are those moments where you acknowledge small victories; a momentary satisfaction and pride in what you are trying accomplish and knowing you are heading in the right direction.  As Lexington United heads into the homestretch (horse racing term from here in Lexington) of our first season as a club, I’m able to take inventory of what’s been accomplished, improvements made and take a look ahead.  Our regional program has two weeks left of training and competition and the thing I’m struck by as I attend their training sessions is how excited the players are, how much fun they have with each other and how much they’ve improved.  It reinforces to me the idea that volleyball is really the ultimate team sport, one of the most difficult to coach and the sport that creates very long-lasting personal relationships with your teammates. 

As a former high school football player, I have often compared volleyball to football, which is often called “the ultimate team sport”.  I believe volleyball mirrors football in three ways.  First, complete reliance on a teammate for success; second, the anaerobic + stamina nature of the sport: explode, relax, explode, relax, etc. over the course of a couple hours and finally the similarities in the physical, mental and emotional responsibilities of the various positions.  

1. Setter (leader, distributer) = quarterback
2. Passer/digger (dirty work) = linemen
3. Hitters (glory, scorers) = skill positions 

Where volleyball differs and makes it an even tougher sport to be good at as a team is the ball can’t be held, thrown or caught, your team is confined to a small court and there is no contact with the other team. Therefore, there has to be a “connection” with your teammates.  The ball cannot touch the floor, therefore using your body parts to rebound the ball to teammates requires constant focus, trust and execution from everyone In order to be successful.

As I watched the regional players advance through their season, the vast majority in their first year of club or any kind of advanced training, those psycho-social elements of the game were most notably improved upon.  In some ways, they began to grasp the “soul” of the sport which I’ve always contended is what makes volleyball so different.   I believe above all else our regional players began to learn this part of volleyball that separates it from other sports and makes it such a popular sport for those who learn to play it on a team.  The excitement I see coming from them is that they are not only learning how to play the game, but also discovering how important their individual role is to the success of their team.  Definitely fun to watch develop. 

I also feel our regional coaches did an outstanding job of mixing skill development with fun.  Sometimes beginning players can be inundated with an overdose of intensity by well-meaning coaches, but for which they are simply not ready.  Volleyball is a life-long sport and it’s difficult enough to learn and play in the beginning without adding stress and inappropriate expectations.  When I walk into a regional practice after 4 months of training and see smiling faces and improvement, I know our coaches have done a nice job.  I’m excited to watch these kids develop even further in the future and continue to learn the game and gain confidence in themselves as players and people. 

On the other side of the coin is our elite program and the same concepts of volleyball I described in the regional program hold true for the elite teams, but there is also the very important concept of being competitively successful.  My goal going into this season was that I wanted our elite teams to make a splash immediately.  We created a scheduling philosophy that would challenge our teams and allow them to play at a higher level, with higher expectations, with the goal of peaking at AAU’s.  That 4 month process has had its share of ups and downs, but as we evaluate our current competitive standing, I feel we have perhaps exceeded even my own first-year expectations. 

As a JVA member club, we participate in the Mideast Power League (MEPL), which is a four-stop competitive league where winning is rewarded.  Each weekend if you win you move up and if you lose, you move down.  The end-game goal is to finish in the “A” bracket and have a chance to win the power league for your age group.  The MEPL is populated by highly competitive, national championship-level clubs and teams and allows for your team to compete against the best.  As we head into the final leg of the MEPL in May, three of our elite teams have ascended to the “A” bracket, 13’s, 14’s and 16’s and our 18’s finished in the “B” bracket.  I consider this a great accomplishment for a first year club from Lexington and confirms a few things: we have talented, competitive young players, we are training them in the right way, and we have coaches who are doing a great job creating confidence. 

This first-year success will create a core-group of players who will move forward believing in the system and believing they should not only be among the elite, but beat the elite.  That attitude and culture change is what I’ve been preaching all along and with these small victories I feel we’ve made great strides towards those high-level goals.  The quest now is to not pat ourselves on the back, but to keep striving to get better.  Our teams want to be peaking at AAU’s in June and we are on a steady, positive course to do just that.

Building a Culture that Wants to Get Better

By Chris Beerman


So here’s a little background on the volleyball history in Lexington as a prelude to my post today: Lexington is a city comprised of great people and great kids and there is tremendous growing enthusiasm for volleyball.  Over the past 10-12 years there have been numerous attempts to start a legitimate club for girls with mixed results.  Most clubs lasted about 2 or 3 years before dissolving into a hodge-podge of parent-run branch-offs normally due to perceived politics or disagreements with coaches.  This inconsistency in club leadership and opportunity has led to an undeveloped volleyball “culture” in Central Kentucky.  What does culture mean in regards to club volleyball?  If one thinks about the hotbeds of youth volleyball in the country, you immediately think of longevity, consistency, competitiveness and a standard and expectation of volleyball excellence.  Chicago, Louisville, Muncie, Houston, Indianapolis, Southern California, etc. all have historically early established clubs bolstered by tremendous high school programs and a history of winning championships. 

In starting a club in Lexington, my challenge is to introduce the players and parents to as many experiences as possible that move us toward establishing a culture and tradition.  Obviously this does not happen overnight and may take many years of development.  A huge focus needs to be on training our young teams at a high level, playing great competition and having early success against established clubs so the confidence and expectation begins to take shape.  One very important culture change is who you play and where you play.  I just returned from the JVA World Challenge in Houston (a great event, run very well!) and our club took two teams: our 16-1’s and 18’s team.  In hindsight, I definitely should have also taken our 13’s team, a group that has the potential to be one of the flag bearers of the club moving forward.  They have the size, ball control and setting and have already have beaten elite 13’s teams. I should have insisted they travel to Houston to be exposed to another big-time tournament experience. 

Lexington teams have traditionally played a very regional schedule, not really venturing farther than Indianapolis for any tournaments and even a trip that far was rare.  Just recently, Lexington teams have begun to play at the AAU National Championships to end their club season. Last year in the entire Lexington area and among 4 clubs, only 3 teams went to AAU’s.  This year, Lexington United will be sending 11 teams to AAU’s in Orlando.  These kinds of big, national level tournament experiences immediately move the volleyball culture and excitement forward for the community.  

Our Houston experience was awesome, flying to a tournament in another region of the country, playing at the Open level, exposing our players and parents to a big-time environment and many of the parents commented to me that seeing these teams play was very eye-opening and really made them understand more clearly what my expectation level was, and what players need to focus on to get there.  My 16’s team is comprised of four 15 year olds and we played at the Open level with mixed results, but the main thing I saw as we progressed in the tournament was how comfortable they became handling the intensity, focus and expectation of the level.  They are learning to compete at that level and beginning to love it!  And better yet, crave it! 

Once your players have gotten past the fear and begin to love the competition, they always want more.  This is the foundation of establishing a volleyball culture, where players go to practice “wanting” to get better. This is when the most improvement happens and kids go through the roof.  I thought I saw quite a few light bulbs go off above some of our players’ heads and that was exciting for me.  In the future, I will always push for all of our Elite teams to travel to at least one huge JVA World Challenge-type tournament.  This year we are getting our feet wet, introducing our community to what a volleyball culture can be and educating our parents on what makes “hotbeds” happen. 

Another thing I keep pushing this year is the pioneer tag associated with our current players and how they will be the standard-bearers for club volleyball excellence in Lexington moving forward.  One of the neat moments I had early on this spring was on the last day of our LUV Bug program (6-9 year olds). I had the players bring their parents out on the court and their task was to teach their parents how to pass!  It was amazing to watch them unprompted, take their parents forearms and create a platform, admonish them for not “being low”, and critiquing them for not saying “mine”.  Their recall and attention to detail was awesome.  At the very end of the session we got in a huddle and I told them that one thing they would always be is the very first LUV Bugs and in ten years when they are 18 and walking into the gym they will look at those LUV Bugs and think to themselves – “I was the first LUV Bug” - Pioneers of the big-time volleyball culture in Lexington, KY!  The pride and smiles on their faces with that comment was priceless and in my mind was perhaps one of the key moments in the development of a new volleyball culture in Lexington.

You Can't Please Everybody

By Chris Beerman

I think the old saying “you can’t please everybody” probably applies to directing a volleyball club as much or more than any other profession!  As I’ve discussed with my coaching colleagues for 20 years, the ultimate team to coach would have 6 players on it.  Unfortunately, that isn’t possible with all the reasons that kids have for missing practice and even tournaments now a days, Hunger Games premier, orchestra, swim meets, softball games, etc. , You need to have a roster size that allows for the missing players.  As our new club heads to the midway point of the Elite team season and the stretch run of the Regional team season, I’ve been able to do some State-of-the-Club evaluations. 

One thing I’ve learned.  Parent education is critical for them to understand how club works vs middle school or high school, as well as making sure parents understand the different levels of volleyball that can be played. The differences between an “Open” level team, a “Club” level team or even a strictly beginner, Regional level also must be explained.  For example, we just had all 23 teams play in the Bluegrass Pre-Qualifier (hosted by KIVA), a very large tournament in Louisville that supported 3 different competitive divisions per age-group.  With so many teams attending we had to put a few of our teams in the Open level of competition (or not at all) and that level was definitely above their heads.  I made sure the coaches explained to their parents and players that it might be tough going, but would be a great experience to play better more experienced teams, and it would pay off for them when they returned to their correct level of competition. 

The teams performed as I expected, but the parents could not see the forest through the trees and just focused completely on the fact that their team lost.  The lack of focus on their child’s development as a volleyball player or the fact that they were playing against great teams and players simply didn’t matter; they lost and that was all that mattered.  The negativity obviously fed down to their kids and the kids then lost focus on what the experience was teaching them.

Another interesting observation is how parents rate the ability level of their own child.  I’ve always been very realistic about my own children’s ability levels and always made sure they had to “earn” everything in athletics; nothing would be handed to them and often teammates would be better than them and they would often play superior opponents, so they would have to learn to compete all the time.  I have parents of 13 Regional kids playing in their very first club tournament ever, upset about results!  These kids have never even rotated before!  Some stunning stuff, but very educational for me as a first year Club Director, and gives me a much better perspective moving forward. 

We have definitely experienced growing pains and my administrative style may not please everyone, but we are getting to know the kids, setting a strong volleyball culture standard and developing young players and young coaches.  This will be a marathon, not a sprint and we will make sure we listen, learn and continue to do things the right way.  As always, I will coach to the highest, most motivated kid’s level and expect the others to come up to that level.  I will not “dumb it down” and put my efforts into saving situations that aren’t savable.  That said, the overwhelming sentiment of the club has been very positive and my coaches continue to do a great job. 

I continue to listen to complaints and where possible resolve problems the best way possible for all sides.  

This is not a profession for people who can’t handle criticism or be able to confront problems and be blunt when necessary.  I enjoy the challenge, and my problem-solving nature and blunt reality-based personality seems to work OK for most people and problems.  In the end, the fun part is seeing a 13 or 14 year old kid block somebody for the first time or make a great dig and get a huge smile on her face; the excitement of seeing a 12 year walk into a convention center with 100 courts for the first time and get “hooked” or a 15 year old getting her first college letter.  That enthusiasm and LUV of the game is what it’s all about and will always keep me coming back for more!

Coaching the Parents Part II

By Chris Beerman

Last blog I touched on parental involvement in club volleyball and my perspectives on that issue.  Since that article, I’ve had a couple parent meetings regarding some team issues.  The meeting started with a few very passionate comments about the level intensity during practice along with player instruction and how that was manifested in the team’s match performances.  This particular team had been practicing with less than 100% effort and in their most recent tournament, played hard but came up short at the end of each match.  The parents’ main take was that the coach needed to push the players harder, the players were not being taught the game, and they were not improving.  Sitting there at the meeting listening to the parents’ impassioned reasoning, I immediately flashed back to my last blog and chuckled to myself—I’m sure many of the club director veterans who had read my blog (if any actually had ?!), also had a pretty good chuckle.  I had painted a pretty rosy and probably naïve, picture here at Lex United, and maybe I just didn’t have enough experience to be taking the positive opinion I espoused in the last blog.  Click here to read the last blog post "Coaching the Parents."

But then I snapped back into the current, and after listening to all the different takes on the state of the team, I realized that this wasn’t a coach issue; it was a parent-player issue.  I had walked by this team’s practice many times to observe how the players and the coach.  Most of the time I saw a fairly talented, athletic group of 16 year olds going through the paces at about 70% of their capability.  I also wanted to watch and listen to the coach and determine if there was enough teaching, motivation, intensity and respect coming from the instructor.  I heard the coach say really good things, saw some nice drill ideas and segments and heard a lot of instruction and intensity relative to this coach’s personality.  I walked away thinking, these kids have got to figure out why they’re doing this.

Back to the parent meeting, I turned the conversation towards their own children and what they were personally doing to improve themselves, how hard they worked in practice, how much they were committed to volleyball and finally, what their long-term goals were for the sport.  The parents began self-evaluating their own kids and what began to emerge was the parents perhaps caring about the outcomes more than their daughters did.  Parents are always competitive because they have experienced life and know how hard the real world is, how competitive life is, and how hard you have to work to achieve success.  These players were going through the motions, blaming the coach and not taking any accountability for what THEY were GIVING to the process.  In my experience as a coach, if a player cares about getting better, they will.  The players who repeat the same mistakes every day, nod their head but aren’t listening and never seem to grasp concepts are really just there for some other reason and not truly because THEY want to be there. 

After getting off to a heated start, the meeting turned into a very reasoned, thoughtful conversation about player motivation, a coach’s responsibility to motivate and inspire, and parents coming to the realization that perhaps they want it more than their kids.  The sudden reality of this aspect of youth sports is very difficult for parents who have watched their tall, athletic daughters dominate the 4 year old soccer team, the nine year old basketball team, the middle school 200 meter track race, and the 13 and under volleyball tournaments.  As the parents sat there and began to process the fact that their daughters might be more interested in other activities and are growing away from volleyball, I brought them back with some positive reinforcement.  1). If they are struggling, talk to the coach directly about the problem and what the resolution can be. 2). Parents get off their backs.  Don’t hover at practice, scowling at their mistakes or effort; you are causing them to effectively shut down.  Yes, getting to the older age groups, 16’s, 17’s and 18’s brings more pressure, expectation and competition, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t still be fun.  Not every girl wants to play in college, so if that’s not the goal, let’s not say that it is.  There is a place for everyone in this great sport, and it’s crucial not to force all of our players to choose the same path because it’s what they are SUPPOSED to want.  Doing so only makes for lethargic, stressed out teams who don’t care. 

There are different ways to motivate, but parents allowing their daughters to play for the reasons that THEY want to play for is critical for the healthy attitude and enthusiasm of a club player.  Every kid is different and by the age of 16, parents have to begin to let their daughter forge her own path.  Guide the player, encourage the player and make sure the player knows whatever she decides to pursue, her effort and how hard she competes will be tied directly to her success.  As a post-script to the meeting, I’ve noticed fewer parents at the practice, more intensity from players, a lot more smiles, and better connection and communication between players and coaches.  Being a parent is not easy and letting your kid grow up isn’t easy either, but I’m proud of this parent group for having the discipline to let their daughters tackle this on their own, and in effect, help them take a positive step towards personal responsibility and accountability.  

Coaching the Parents

By Chris Beerman

As a collegiate coach for 20 years, one of my strengths as a recruiter was building relationships and connections with the parents of the high school player I was recruiting.   The relationship began with the recruiting process, which of course is ALWAYS positive. Just as I do now, I had a no-nonsense approach, which differed greatly from the used car salesmen style utilized by many college coaches trying to land the big star.  I believe the best part of my approach was that once a player was enrolled in college and playing for my team, my relationship with that player’s parents didn’t suddenly change.  I was still very honest, cordial and no-nonsense, so the parents and players would always know where they stood and what they needed to do to improve and/or play a more significant role. 

I also didn’t try to hide the fact that I was an intense, demanding coach with very high expectations, so that aspect of practice was also not a shock for the now-enrolled college freshman.  Players who were not into that kind of coach were not interested in my school, and I was fine with that.  I encouraged those players to find a program that better met their needs.  In the end, the kids who chose to play for me loved what it was all about and likewise made coaching enjoyable for me because I was working with my “kind” of kids (and parents).  There were always exceptions, but that was the philosophy I lived by, and for the most part, was successful with. 

The reason for this long-winded introduction is to shed light on my perception of one of the biggest issues regarding club volleyball and youth sports in general: parents.  When contemplating making the move to the club world, many of my colleagues advised against it simply because I would have too much frustration dealing with the parents.  I heard this warning from quite a few friends I really trusted who had been involved in club for many years, and it actually gave me cause for concern, or at least prepared me for what I would be dealing with.  In addition, I have read the drumbeat of articles and blogs regarding the “millennial problem” and “helicopter parents” parenting issues that experts have stated creates entitled kids, questionable work ethics, attention deficits, a lack of leaders, and overly zealous parents micromanaging every aspect of their kids’ lives. 

I believe this generation of kids is different than any other simply because they have grown up in a different world than any other generation.  The world I grew up in as a child in the 70’s and 80’s was not much different than the one my parents grew up in the 50’s and 60’s.  Neither of us had cable TV, internet, cell phones, or “club” sports.  We were all three-sport athletes, the recruiting process started when you were a junior and youth sports was relatively unorganized and done for fun and the love of playing the game.  Things have changed drastically in the last 10 to 15 years and not recognizing that fact already clouds your ability to deal with today’s youth and their parents.  (Click here for an interesting article on the generation of kids today).  In my short duration as a club director I have found that one thing holds true about parents that has remained true since the beginning of time: parents care and are protective of their kids.  How it now manifests itself is what’s different about today. 

I have had a few parent meetings, both as teams and with individuals and in both situations the thing I wanted to emphasize the most to parents was that I was there to listen.  Even the most absurd parent complaint has some truth in there somewhere and it’s important that you, the Club Director, listen to their concern and attempt to resolve the issue.  As a parent myself, I completely understand how parents feel about their children.  Giving a parent an ability to voice their concern, listen to the problem, give your take on the situation and then remedy the problem with a compromise or resolution creates a trusting parent/director relationship that puts fires out quickly and doesn’t allow the flames to be fanned.  In my first meeting with all the parents of the club, I made sure they knew that if they had a problem about anything they should come to me, not their coach.  If it is a playing time issue, they are to instruct their daughter to meet with the coach and have a one on one meeting discussing what they need to do.  If it is something else, I will listen. 

So far I have had very little if any major issues utilizing this method of parent communication and I feel the support for the coaches has been excellent.  Parents want their kids to be pushed, get better, have fun and enjoy the game.  Parents love it when they see their kids smile and get back in the car after a match or practice excited and motivated for the next one.  This is a customer service business and I think sometimes that aspect is lost in the egos of club directors.  Pushing parents away, talking down to them, or ignoring their concerns creates a non-trusting negative vibe that can destroy a club. Club volleyball is also not for everyone and possibly our club’s philosophy is not for everyone, but our parents will always know for sure that our number one focus is their kids and making sure they have the best experience possible.  Parents care about their kids’ well-being and they want their money to be well-spent.  I understand these concepts and believe it’s important that you’re honest, no-nonsense and provide an ear to listen.  There’s always at least an ounce of truth in every complaint, don’t be afraid to listen and constantly evaluate what you are providing for your customer; that’s the only way you grow, improve and provide a club culture that parents can trust.

How To Train Winning and Competitiveness

By Chris Beerman

I am a competitive person; always have been, always will be.  I am one of those guys that while driving will pull slightly ahead of the guy next to me at the stoplight just to be ahead of him!  I’m an awful loser and don’t ever believe you accept mediocrity in anything.  That said, now I run a youth volleyball club with close to 300 members ranging in age from 6-18 years old and my quest is to create a competitive culture that makes Lexington one of the volleyball hotspots in the country.  Our neighbor to the northwest, Louisville has established an incredible record of winning, high-level training and churning out confident, big-time volleyball players.  The best thing about the players from Louisville or even our partner city, Muncie, IN is how competitive they are, how hard they play the game and how well-rounded they are as volleyball players.  How do we replicate that or at least start the development of that mentality in Lexington? 

The answer seems easy: just train the heck out of your players and compete in practice every day.  Although I believe that is the foundation of creating a playing culture as I’ve described, if it was that easy everyone would do it.  Why do places like Muncie or Louisville dominate every year in national events?  Are their athletes superior, are their coaches better, is it their feeder programs?  Are there other factors?  Each of these areas had local volleyball coaches/leaders start with small programs as start-ups and then slowly built the culture through great training and competitive kids.  For the vast majority of successful club programs, the rise to the top was slow and steady and was built with a consistent philosophy, great coaching and big goals.  As a few successful teams emerged within these clubs, legacies were born and then role models and new leaders emerged.  Young children in these communities suddenly had heroes to aspire to.  Players began training at the younger ages and the idea of attending college on a volleyball scholarship and playing the game they love, made for even more motivation. 

Most of the successful club dynasties have a 25-30 year head start on Lexington United, but my competitiveness and impatience for failure, makes me want our club to aspire to greatness now.  I believe setting very high standards and expectation levels is the only way, however that must be tempered somewhat by realism.  Unfortunately setting the bar too high or expecting too much too early only leads to a lack of confidence and questions about procedures.  So expecting greatness and continuing to build confidence is the fine line we’ll be walking with our club. 

The great thing about my own team’s late practice time (8:00-10:00pm) is that I get to observe and interact with all the earlier practices.  On a recent night, I thought many of the teams were not disciplined enough in how they were executing what the coaches were teaching.  The players of one particular team were going through the motions of the drill, but the pace, focus and execution level was not making them better.   I may be slightly different in that when I see a situation like that, my first instinct is to put the onus on the players rather than the coaches.  Even the worst drill can be executed at a high level with pace and focus.  I want the players to have pride in what they do and to take accountability in themselves and avoid the blame game and obviously the coach needs to have great energy and attention to detail as well.  Was this isolated drill function making Lexington’s volleyball culture better at that moment or were we remaining mediocre? 

This is the kind of thought process I want my coaches to be thinking about and the kind of detail that I will continue to hammer home. I want our players to develop pride in how they perform in practice, in themselves and their teammates.  Nothing is more motivating and develops more confidence than playing fast, executing at a high level and personally taking pride in how your team “looks” while practicing.  This translates directly to competition.  The teams that win have pride in the details and extremely high personal and team performance expectations.  We are on our way there and the most exciting part for me is that when I or our coaches raise the intensity level or expect more, the kids rise immediately to the challenge; they WANT to be great! It’s hard right now for them to maintain the level on their own, so that’s why our coaches need to be 24/7 people in practice; the expectations can never stop for a second.  When this aspect of training and pride is player-driven rather than coach-driven, we will have the winning culture established here in Lexington.  The journey there is the fun part and the competitor in me wants and expects the journey to be a quick one!

Competition Time!

By Chris Beerman

Our season is off and running and Lexington United teams are beginning their competitive seasons with tournaments all around the lower Midwest.  Our 17’s and 18’s got an early start in mid-January at the Mideast Power League and our 13 Black and 15 Blue teams made the journey down to the Knoxville, TN area for a tournament hosted by K2 Volleyball.  Both battled hard and our 13’s made a great run on Sunday losing in the Gold Final in 3 close games.  Great competitive start and certainly room for improvement, and the greatest thing about actually playing is the results allow you to get back in the gym and train your weaknesses.  I have been very pleased with the overall practice vibes of our teams and feel all of the coaches have bought into what we are trying to accomplish from a philosophical standpoint.  I have been able to get around to almost every practice on every night, so I have a pretty good feel for the teams that are really getting it and likewise the teams that need a boost once in awhile.  

Our coaches have had good energy, been organized and are creating learning environments and generally happy players. Although Lexington had a smattering of club attempts in the past, nothing ever stuck, so our 23 teams represent an incredibly wide and diverse experience and ability spectrum.  This fact makes for a challenge when scheduling tournaments for teams.  We decided our Regional teams would literally play a “regional” schedule with Louisville being their farthest trip.  The fact is we have so many great tournament options within an hour of Lexington, not to mention the events we host, so it really makes for an affordable, yet competitive tournament schedule.  Regional teams will play 5 or 6 tournaments and wrap up their seasons’ in late April.  Our Elite teams play in 10 or 11 tournaments including AAU’s at the end, so scheduling is much more intensive and diverse.  We play in the Mideast Power League as well as various tournaments locally, in Louisville, Indianapolis and Cincinnati.  We will also have a few teams travel to Houston for the JVA World Challenge and of course many of our 1’s and 2’s teams will finish their seasons in Orlando at the AAU National Championships. 

All in all, I believe our parents are getting a lot of bang for their buck and our competitive goals for our teams in regard to scheduling is to challenge our teams, but not overwhelm them.  I’ve seen other clubs sandbag their teams by playing in lower divisions and claim easy victories and I’ve also seen clubs over-schedule, get crushed and take pride in the fact that they are playing against the best.  The problem with that is if you keep getting your head beat in, you’re losing your confidence and learning to lose a lot.  I think being as honest as possible in evaluating the talent-level of your team and putting them in the best position to be challenged, yet have a legitimate chance to win matches is the best approach.  On the other hand, we do need our top teams to play as competitive of a schedule as possible so we have “leaders” within the club.  Then our less experienced players can aspire to that level and our club, led by the leaders, can gradually make moves toward being a regional power and eventually a national power. 

The other focus regarding our competitive season is we want our teams to peak at the end;  to continually improve and through competitive trial and error, learn the factors in volleyball that decide winners and losers.  One factor of a winning volleyball team (I’m impressed with already in our club) is the close relationships and cohesiveness of our teams, and how much fun they are having.  It’s something I want to make sure I continue to see all the way into late spring/early summer.

Another really neat and important aspect of our club that we’ve been able to launch is our youth programs for both 6-9 year olds and 10 and 11 year olds.  Both programs run one day a week for an hour and a half and are run by myself and two very experienced coaches who excel at fundamental training.  As someone who coached at the collegiate level for 20 years and had very little experience with kids this age, I find these little ones an absolute blast to work with.  The kids are so enthusiastic and excited and the improvement on a weekly basis is incredible.  Introducing our great sport in a fun and fundamentally focused way to young kids and getting them hooked is the key to our community becoming the next great volleyball hotbed in this country.  The cool thing I’ve discovered in working with this age group is you don’t have to skimp on volleyball.  We’ve been able to run straight, modified volleyball skill training with kids as young as 6 years old, and keep them rolling for over an hour.  Too me the kids that age want to be like the big girls and learn how to actually play volleyball.  Kind of cool! 

Thanks again for following the blog. My 16’s team will be heading up to Muncie this weekend to launch our season at the Mideast Power League, so I’m excited to start competing.  As always, don’t hesitate to question or comment about anything.  Best of luck to everyone competing this weekend!

LUV the Game - Establishing Your Club's Training Philosophy

By Chris Beerman

Happy New Year!  Now that the holidays are over, it’s back to work for everyone, especially club directors.  This is the exciting time of the year as teams kick off their official practice schedules, get to know their new teammates, and prepare for the early competitions.  Lexington United has 23 Girls 12-18 year old teams, the LUV Bugs program for 6-9 year olds, and a Youth Training Team for 10 and 11 year olds and all of these are off and running.  Our coaches are doing a great job so far and there’s a lot of excitement, sweat and smiles at practice. 

The goal early on is to establish our club training philosophy, which focuses on ball control, speed, pursuit and aggressive-intelligence and then begin the process of developing roles on teams and creating systems for the respective age groups.  Constant improvement is the main foundational goal of the club: to create a positive-push in practice and make players better and more confident in their skills.  Our main club motto, LUV the Game, is always the backbone to whatever we do and how we train.  In that vein, I think it’s very important to have a club-wide fundamental training philosophy that all coaches adhere to and believe in. 

We also have established offensive and defensive terminology and set nomenclature that is used throughout the entire club and on every team.  The 12’s use the same terminology as the 18’s, which creates great uniformity and a smooth and educated transition between age groups as players get older.  The best teams and most successful clubs always have an identifiable and recognizable system in place.  The foundation of every successful system is a huge emphasis on controlling and targeting the ball.  Many clubs, teams and coaches espouse their commitment to ball control, but very few commit to the idea of targeting the ball. 

As a collegiate coach, I watched a ton of club practices over the years and saw a lot of fast moving drills with many touches that looked great, but often I saw very little regard to where the touches actually ended up!  The movement was awesome and the kids were working hard, but the ball was going all over the place.  The one thing I’ve really noticed about the past 5 NCAA champions is those particular teams had extraordinary ball control and tenacity, but where they separated from the other teams, was in their targeting focus, concentration and commitment.  Seems like an obvious part of volleyball, but I’m always amazed at how often I witness completely unfocused, random touches.  The past five NCAA champions and not to mention our 2008 Men’s Gold Medal team, seldom if ever, had a random touch.  Every first touch, no matter how difficult, was literally a competition to NOT make the setter move one step.  In today’s volleyball world, winners are in-system more than losers, so we will train that concept awareness more than any other starting with our 6 year-olds! 

I am also a firm believer in competitive fun vs. goofy fun.  We need to teach our players that the most fun they can have is when they are competing as a team and giving their best effort to win.  In referring back to my years watching practices, the teams that got most excited, with the biggest smiles when they began keeping score, I knew were going to be successful winning teams.  The teams that suddenly stopped smiling and laughing when the competition and expectation actually began I knew were going to struggle.  Loving, respecting and embracing competition is one of the key components of “LUV-ing” the Game. That attitude is a top-down model; don’t expect your team to compete with fun intensity if they don’t feel that intensity or expectation in practice.  Coaches that run loosey-goosey practices and then get angry at their teams when they freeze up, fold or don’t compete at tournaments, don’t really have anyone to blame but themselves.  There is a commitment to competing and it starts at the top. I’m looking forward to seeing all my volleyball friends again at upcoming tournaments.  Good luck to everyone as they get started on the 2012 club season journey.

Scheduling, Training and Why JVA Works

By Chris Beerman

As a newbie club director I am constantly amazed at the multitude of responsibilities that are a part of this job.  As a former collegiate coach, scheduling was always a part of the job, but in comparison to making schedules for 23 different teams with different competitive levels, collegiate scheduling is a walk in the park!  As a JVA program, Lexington United cannot enter tournaments that are “USAV”-only and in the past that was definitely an issue, but with the emergence of club programs either starting as new JVA members or long-time USAV clubs making the switch to JVA, the number of JVA tournament options for all levels of teams has increased substantially.  The best part about being a JVA member and hosting a tournament is that you can accept all teams and that includes AAU teams and USAV teams, and this maximizes the size and competitive potential for your tournaments.  It also allows for a much broader scope of club participation and ability to play a wide variety of teams within your region or out of region. 

Since our 13 elite teams are committed to playing in approximately 10 tournaments, including competing at AAU’s in June, their scheduling goals are much different than our regional program which is committed to 5 or 6 tournaments and a season ending in April.  All of our top elite teams will play in the Mideast Power League which includes four rotating competition weekends for 12’s, 13/14’s, 15/16’s and 17/18’s in the cities of Louisville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Muncie.  This power league includes the best club teams in the Midwest and offers great competition for our top teams.  It also allows us to use these four tournaments as a hub to revolve the rest of the schedule around.  As is the philosophy of JVA, our goal as a club is to provide the best possible competition and recruiting exposure while keeping travel costs as low as possible.  To me that is the best part of the power league concept and JVA in general. 

The farthest our families will travel from Lexington is Muncie, Indiana, a 3 ½ hour drive and for our regional teams, the longest trip is to Louisville.  Of course many of our elite parents also want to travel a couple weekends and for those teams, we will attend the JVA World Challenge in Houston, as well as the AAU’s in Orlando.  Our parent groups have already begun fundraising for those trips and in most cases, will be able to raise enough money to cover all travel costs!  We do all of our financial planning up front for our schedules and the parents know before the holiday season exactly how much their tournament fees will be and what the approximate coaches’ travel fees will be based on a set of travel criteria that we set for meals, hotels and mileage.  Knowing these amounts at the beginning of season allows for better budgeting and a more fair and balanced monthly payment plan. 

Our teams have been able to have a few practices together before the holiday season and I think that’s very important.  Traditionally in Lexington, club teams were picked and then didn’t start practicing until early January, and that lack of practice time definitely showed when the teams played in their first few tournaments.  Our teams will start the New Year knowing their coaches, teammates, what practices are like, competitive expectations and the offensive and defensive systems that they will be utilizing.  I feel like our teams will be much better prepared for the beginning part of the schedule. During these December practices, I’ve been able to observe the teams and our coaches in action and I have been very impressed with the energy, intensity and focus early on. 

The numerous coaches meetings have been great for understanding the type of practice environment we want to establish early on.  We want our players to be taught, trained and to continually show improved skill level and confidence on and off the court.  I will be at every practice to make sure as a coaching group we continually strive to positively impact the growth of our players.  To that effect, our most recent coaches meeting discussed how we will teach skills, offensive and defensive terminology/systems, and how these will be modified for each age group.  The best part of these types of discussions is they really make for some great dialogue about why we teach what we teach. Having your entire club on the same page fundamentally and philosophically is something I really think is a key element to long-term success and age-group continuity. 

As someone who puts a huge emphasis on ball control, quality targeted reps, aggressive-intelligent attacking and a groveling defensive mind-set, I love to make the point that even though Penn State and UCLA (the past five national college champions) had terrific offensive teams, the reason they won was their overall toughness, superior targeted ball control, tough serving, groveling defense and aggressive, but low error attacking.  No need to reinvent the wheel; great volleyball teams have always had these attributes and that will never change.  Lexington United’s players and teams will also the play the game this way and I couldn’t be more excited to get our season started!  Have a wonderful Holiday season and I’ll be back again in January! 

Great Start - Hindsight is 20/20

By Chris Beerman

Tryouts were very successful for us, but since hindsight is 20/20, it can be used as an evaluative tool to make the process better and more efficient in the future.  I have a few thoughts on how I’ll attack our tryout format in 2012.  Number one, how to handle the players trying out for Elite teams vs players trying out for Regional-only.  Next year I will divide the age group tryouts into the following nights: all 12’s (Regional or Elite), Elite 13’s-14’s, 15-16’s and 17-18’s  age groups will tryout by themselves and, just like this year, will also get a second tryout night.  After the Elite teams are chosen, we will then have one more night of tryouts for the Elite players who did not make a team and the Regional-only players.  This way the Regional coaches can have a fair and more thorough evaluation of the players and can form their teams in the same way as our Elite teams.  Making these changes may drag out the tryout phase a little longer than this year, but I think the end result will be better and the evaluation process will improve for everyone. 

Second change I will make is once the elite teams are picked, we will immediately post the players’ tryout numbers on our website and those players will then have 24 hours to accept. This year I had the coaches call their players to announce they made a team, and although it was a nice personal touch and was exciting for the players receiving the call, it was very inefficient for me in monitoring the timeline of the coaches making their calls; some were much more aggressive than others and some waited a couples days.  This created a headache for me as parents began calling me to see if their daughter’s had made a team. Also, the players not receiving a call didn’t know if it was because they didn’t make a team, or they just had made a team with a slow moving coach who hadn’t gotten to calling yet. 

I liked our tryout registration format, won’t change much there, but next year I will allow for about 15 minutes of slack time between the end of check-in to the beginning of the tryout to allow the evaluation sheets to be finished and printed up for our coaches to have at the very beginning of each session. I will also make sure that the on-court coaches know exactly what the drills are and how they work.  I did have a 15 minute meeting before we got started, but as it turned out, it still took awhile for the coaches to get the drills up and running at the pace and intensity I was looking for.  Regarding the check-in process, I love the fact that the players got sized for apparel at the tryout.  I was dubious about how that would work, but the folks from Munciana pulled it off flawlessly and now every player’s sizes are on record and it makes the apparel / uniform side of things much smoother and less complicated going forward. I will also give more time for the actual check-in process for each age group, moving from sixty minutes to 90 minutes prior to the tryout starting to give more time for the whole process to finish.  We also need to make sure we have multiple check-in lines and many samples of apparel to avoid the long lines.  All in all, for a first year club I felt it was a fair and efficient tryout and we got kids on the teams they should be on, but of course can be improved on.

But enough about the tryout!  Once our teams were formed, our coaches got to the business of setting up parent meetings to discuss everything from practice, playing schedules and club expectations, to the financial aspects of participating.  Our elite teams will expect to play in about 10 tournaments or more with our 1’s teams playing at AAU’s to finish the year at a national championship event.  The 2’s and 3’s teams will play in 8-10 tournaments and decide as a parent group if participating at AAU’s is an option they want to pursue. Our regional teams will play in 5 to 6 tournaments and conclude their seasons’ at our home tournament on April 28-29.  Our financial commitment is divided into four categories: participation fees (court rental, insurance, apparel, coach’s salaries, etc), personal transportation costs (how parents travel), tournament fees (the total costs of entering tournaments) and coaches travel costs (mileage, meals and hotel).  Once the schedule is determined at the parent meeting, the actual costs for the entire club season can be calculated.  We have a payment plan for each of the different costs and also fundraising options for the teams choosing to go to AAU’s in June. 

I believe the parents appreciate knowing exactly how much they can expect to pay for the entire club season in late November and specifically where those expenses are directly going.  I like this format better than a lump sum payment due to the drastic financial cost differences between the different teams depending on their schedules and how they choose to travel.  I have attended all 23 team parent meetings (except two) and felt our coaches did an exceptional job being organized, confident and high energy as a great first impression to their parents.  The vibe at the meetings was positive and all the teams are eager to get in the gym and start their training. 

Going to be a fun year!  Hope everyone reading this had a great Thanksgiving and I’ll be back again soon!