The agony. Leaving the gym after a less-than-stellar performance is one of the worst feelings for a coach. You start questioning everything, wondering why you even signed up to coach this year, start doubting if you’re a good coach, wondering what exactly went wrong (and in these situations, it’s usually everything)… It’s just not a good time.

Depending on your personality, you may feel depressed, angry, apathetic, or a whole host of other emotions. You might even yo-yo between a few! 

That’s alright. Give yourself the rest of the day to feel these emotions and let them pass. Repressing them will only extend their shelf life! But once the next day rolls around, it’s time to roll up those sleeves and get to work.

STEP #1: VENT + REGROUP

Alright, your pity party has officially ended. Now it’s time to pick yourself up and dust yourself off! We’re going to take some time to write down all the things that went wrong. It doesn’t matter how trivial it may feel at the time, if something happened that you weren’t pleased with, make a note of it. 

This first step serves two purposes:

1. We create data (that we’ll be analyzing in the next step), and

2. We get all of our venting out.

A list of things that went wrong after a particularly bad tournament might look something like this:

• No one was standing in the right place.

• Our serving was pathetic.

• Our hitters sent half of their swings out of the court.

• Miranda missed half of our tournament, throwing off our lineup.

• We let so many balls drop!

You get the idea. Don’t hold back, if you need to write more, go all out. Notice I’m not trying to be politically correct or anything (you wouldn’t normally share that your team’s serving was “pathetic”) and that’s ok! Again, part of this is venting, so be honest with your feelings. This is going to stay private, so let ‘er rip.

Once you finish up your list, you’ll most likely feel a sense of calm wash over you, and you may realize you lose some tension you’ve been feeling. After you get the sense that you can’t think of anything else to add and you feel almost “empty” of your anger, it’s time to move on to step #2.

STEP #2: CLARIFY + SOLVE

Now that our minds are clear, it’s time to go back to our list. Give yourself a small break if you need it, but I recommend addressing your list sooner rather than later. We’re going to do our best to describe why we believe the problem happened, and clarify if necessary. I’ll do a sample review of my list from above to show you what your notes might look like.

Clarify:

• No one was standing in the right place. -> We released into defense too late and were caught off guard often.

• Our serving was pathetic. -> We missed critical serves when there was pressure.

• Our hitters sent half of their swings out of the court. -> We didn’t use any other attack options, we only swung 100% all out on every ball.

• Miranda missed half of our tournament, throwing off our lineup. -> A player got sick the morning of, and I had to make last-minute changes.

• We let so many balls drop! -> There was a lot of miscommunication between front row and back row on freeballs.

Next, let’s spend some time coming up with possible solutions based on the real problem.

Solve:

• No one was standing in the right place. -> We released into defense too late and were caught off guard often. -> We need to practice reading the opponent’s setter and improve our footwork speed.

• Our serving was pathetic. -> We missed critical serves when there was pressure. -> We need more high-pressure serving drills in practice.

• Our hitters sent half of their swings out of the court. -> We didn’t use any other attack options, we only swung 100% all out on every ball. -> We need to learn how to tip and do roll shots, and learn when each shot is appropriate.

• Miranda missed half of our tournament, throwing off our lineup. -> A player got sick the morning of, and I had to make last-minute changes. -> Emphasize healthy habits like eating whole foods, staying hydrated, and getting enough sleep so this happens less often.

• We let so many balls drop! -> There was a lot of miscommunication between front row and back row on freeballs. -> Practice when the front row should take the ball and when the back row should take the ball. Teach front row to stay out of the way and back row to call the ball early.

STEP #3: PRIORITIZE + PLAN

With a long list of things to fix and a clear mind, we can now start the process of planning future practices. But first, it’s important that we look at each solution we came up with and prioritize this list.

Depending on your own personal preferences and strategies, you may value one skill over another. According to my own assessment of the example list of issues, I’d want to work on serving under pressure and reading the opponents setter before I start focusing on hitting options with my front row. Why? Serving happens much more often (particularly at younger ages which I typically coach) and the process of learning how to read a setter is long and complicated. Might as well get to work on that first, since it will take time for my players to develop in that area.

I also feel that hitting decisions and improving communication between front row and back row will only take a drill or two to improve, so these are lower on my list of priorities.

Depending on how much time you have before your next tournament, you might have enough time to address all of the issues. If that’s the case, at least make sure to introduce more complicated items earlier. This will give your players time to process the information and give them time for it to “click.”

When you’re planning your practices, it’s easy to get lost scrolling through website after website looking for the perfect drill. However, the best drill for your team might just be one that you create yourself! Especially if it is to fix an issue specific to your team!

I personally love creating drills, and wrote an article about how you can create your own, too!

STEP #4: EXECUTE

You’ve come this far… make sure to actually schedule your drills into practice! I know many coaches who head to practice without a plan and think they will remember everything they want to work on, but I also know that any time I try to just “remember things” I usually fail.

Write out your practice plan, and be sure to include all of your new drills that you’ve designed/found to correct the issues from your last tournament.

It may be worth it to sit down with your team to share your analysis (now is when we share a politically correct version haha) and tell them the solutions you’ve thought of. Unless your own analysis was way off, you should get agreement and buy-in from your team. This will help build trust in you as a leader following a poor performance.

In the end, you’ll always find something to work on. There’s no way that you can teach your team everything they need to know in just a couple of weeks or months leading up to where you’re at now. Even by the end of your season, you’ll be sending them off to another coach who will find plenty to work with them on! It’s a process, so just accept that now.

When you’re executing your well thought out drills, be sure to keep a positive and optimistic attitude. Your players will probably start out in these drills poorly (you’re working on these skills for a reason, no?) so help them progress by reassuring them that they’ll get it.

By the time your next tournament rolls around, you should feel more prepared and ready to take on the day!