American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA)Rezensionen

Well shoot I thought I had reviewed this already, but I guess not.

As far as a volleyball book goes this had a lot of information for volleyball players and coaches. It really didn't helpe me as I had hoped for but the information provided seemed pretty through and organized.

I requested this book because I thought it might be useful for my college bound volleyball player. We both agree that it is interesting and covers a wide range of topics by some excellent coaches, and we wish we had access to Volume 1 to see what might have been previously addressed. There were lots of practical suggestions but like other reviewers, I felt some of the chapters could have been much longer, and we would like to have seen more on Beach Volleyball Doubles, which is in its first year as an NCAA sport. Overall, a valuable resource for parents, players, coaches and fans of volleyball.

Fantastic book! It taught me everything I need to know about the basics of volleyball and coaching the sport.½

Received a copy in exchange for honest review.

I began reading this book with absolute zero knowledge about the sport. However, The Volleyball Coaching Bible was quick to make an impression on me, especially since the pages are filled with so much detail and pratical information from knowledgeable coaches of the AVCA, from team formation to statistics. Though in general the book is great, it has one major mistake: this should be made into a specific book of volleyball tactics, not short chapters on different subjects since I thought it was not definite enough, personally.

This is the second Volleyball Coaching Bible. Unlike the first one, the emphasis of this book is on the more advanced aspects of coaching. Basic skills and concepts of indoor volleyball play had been covered earlier in Volleyball Coaching Bible I. The four main areas of coverage are: Coaching priorities, Program Building and Management, Positional Training Strategies, and Match Preparation and Strategies. The segregation of subjects is rational and welcomed, as the audience for this book is the advanced beginner to intermediate level coaches. Their knowledge of the game is more advanced and their initial obsession with drill collecting and command and control of the team has subsided. their focus now turns to some more complex and involved topics. The lead off chapter by John Kessel is an excellent way to motivate the coaches. It gives a short history of the sport and it gives the reader a very unique and refreshing view of coaching. The chapter is full of ideas on how to get around limitations, both in terms of resources and in terms of physical space.

One excellent characteristic of both Volleyball Coaching Bibles is that the authors are all experienced and credentialed practitioners in the subject that they are speaking to. Chris Catanach, Randy Dagostino, Charlie Sullivan, Shelton Collier, Bill Neville, Salima Rockwell, et. al. are all veteran coaches and administrators well experienced in their respective topic areas.

The problem that I had, and the only reason that I did not give the book a five star rating , it that even though the topics are well chosen, each topic constitute wells of significant depth, some are deeper than others but each topic is capable of generating a book by itself. It is very difficult to adequately discuss and inform the audience on every nuance and subtlety associated with every topic. For example, there are already books written on mindsets and on deliberate practices, a short chapter does not do justice to the depth and breadth of some topics. In a manner of speaking, the authors were attempting to facilitate the reader in their task to drink from a fire hydrant: it was an impossibility.

Yet, for as impossible a task as the authors were given, the book does introduce the topic to the reader. I hope that the reader is motivated to continue their education beyond this important but incomplete compendium of chapters, to further their coaching education by researching and reading further about some of these topics.

In the end, this is a valuable and well intended tome of great amount of coaching knowledge.

It has been a long time, since I played volleyball for CCS Hillsdale High School, previously at middle school, but an enjoyment I still appreciate. This bible, manual, coaching book, reference, first hand accounting is quite friendly and easy to read and access. it is result driven, both for win and loss, encouraging all levels to play, and fostering a good will amongst players, coaches, parents, and fans. A refreshing look back and forth to rules, regulations, fundamentals, that apply to life as well as to sport.
"The word coach comes from the term, "carriage", a vehicle used to carry valuable people from where they were to where they wanted to be." "For the younger players, the Brazilians have a great statement: Your first coach should be the game."
The book is written and divided into sections, each subject, topic, addressed by volleyball pros, specialized by their field of expertise, and it forms a nice networking and following. Thank you very much to Human Kinetics, for sharing this knowledge.

All coaches loves drill book. Actually, they need drill books. They need it to bolster their confidence, they need it to brainstorm drill ideas, they need is as a crutch. And there are a bunch of drill books out there to suck up people's cash and time, and attention. But, there isn't another drill book that combines the talents of two of the foremost Division III coaching legends like this book.

Actually, to designate Teri Clemens and Jenny McDowell as just Division II coaches is really denigrating the impact that they have had on the game of volleyball. While their primary coaching milieu is in Division III, they are both highly respect coaches in the American college game. The critical distinction of Division III though is that these two coaches have worked with true student athletes who are incredibly intelligent and are extremely dedicated. They have also had amazing successes with players who are monsters in the classrooms, and they did it without scholarships.

The book is structured similar to most drill books. Broken down by various volleyball topics, including individual skills and team systems. There are a few very unique touches.

There is a table of all the drills described in the front with the drills split up by chapters and identified by one, two or three volleyball icons, These are to identify the drills by the player's level of play. A very nice touch.

While Serving, ball handling, and setting are named as such in their respective chapters, the other skills in volleyball: hitting, blocking, and defense and scattered around the rest of the chapters which emphasizes offensive and defensive drills. There is a chapter on transition skills. This may not seem to be a large leap but it is. The classification of the drills emphasizes the mindset that those specific skills needs to be thought of as a part of a continuous set of action, the rally. This emphaiss is important because it take the coach and player's mind off of the individual skills and put it in the realm of the continuous action that goes on in the rally that is purely volleyball.

There are two chapters, Competitive Multiplayer Drills and Team Scoring Drills that sneakily places the emphasis on competition as well as developing the offensive systems and team play that is so critical in teaching volleyball. The point is made by the book's structure, to stop thinking in terms of the skills as a decoupled part of the game and more of the skills as an integrated part of a series of continuous action. While isolating the skills has its place in the training pedagogy, the skill as a part of the holistic part of the game action is the key to understanding and training the game.

The final chapter: Mental Toughness and Team Building drills is worth the price of the book. This is where the two veteran coaches gives us a peek behind the curtains at their training secret, their ability to train and teach kids how to compete and play tough, hard nosed volleyball. Remember that these two coaches coached some great competitora that are sometimes less than phenomenal natural athletes. So it is that they have had to train their players to be the best at what they do and to be disciplined enough to execute the game plan. This chapter defines this book in my mind.

The drills are all well illustrated and clearly described so that the instructions can be followed. The explanations at the beginning of the chapters are informative and also gives the reader some excellent insight into the mental processes of these two legends.

In the end, the success of the volleyball teams and their coach relies on the intelligence and adaptability of the individuals who are coaching. This book gives a significant leg up for the coach who reads it, digests it, and makes the book a basis for their own thoughts and practices.