E7: Coaching Young vs. Old Kids, NCAA Bracket, Club Resources

Strap on your knee pads and join us for a rollicking journey through the world of youth volleyball coaching, with peals of laughter and sage advice served in equal measure. In our latest episode, Bob, Ariel, Chad, and I, Matt, trade stories from the court with the same energy and spirit as our U-14 athletes bringing their all to the game. From the rush of a tournament weekend to the invaluable lessons imparted to young, eager players, we're sharing the playbook on how to foster a sense of community and cultivate the next wave of volleyball stars.

As we set up the conversation, we delve into the coaching strategies that hit the mark with the 12-and-under crowd. It's not just about the skills—it's about communication, motivation, and the kind of 'compound interest' effect that can set a young athlete on a trajectory to greatness. Chuckle along with us as we recount creative coaching incentives, the smoothie bet that won't be forgotten, and the profound satisfaction that comes with mentoring young players. Our anecdotes are a testament to the joy and challenges of coaching, sure to resonate with seasoned coaches or those contemplating picking up a whistle.

For the final spike, we tackle the broader world of volleyball, discussing the potential expansion of the NCAA Men's Volleyball Tournament and advocating for more inclusive competition. We also highlight the importance of leveraging resources like YouTube and Volleyball World to enrich club experiences. As a bonus, we take a timeout to reminisce about our own childhood hobbies, from video games to sports, bringing a personal touch to our shared volleyball narrative. Whether you're here for the volleyball insights or the nostalgic trip down memory lane, this episode promises to entertain and enlighten.

Transcript

Coaching Youth Volleyball Teams

Speaker 2 0:00

Do, do, do do, do, do, do, do do do Do, do, do, do, do do.

Speaker 3 0:08

That's not ESPN or sounds like Fox.

Speaker 2 0:10

Whatever you did last time was definitely NFL Fox.

Speaker 3 0:13

That's not NFL.

Speaker 2 0:14

Yeah, you know, I don't box what's that? I thought it was final countdown.

Speaker 1 0:24

It's the final countdown, it was like with a big, a big robot.

Speaker 3 0:28

Should I go up or hood down?

Speaker 4 0:30

Can you unplug and re-plug?

Speaker 3 0:31

We're asking the hard-hitting questions here. Chad smile.

Speaker 1 0:35

Duolingo's annoying me.

Speaker 3 0:37

Are you learning a language?

Speaker 1 0:39

Yeah, what I'm picking up? Japanese again.

Speaker 3 0:42

Really.

Speaker 1 0:43

I was trying to pick up Polish before, which obviously makes a little more sense.

Speaker 3 0:46

But Polish is fucking hard, so you just switched to Japanese.

Speaker 1 0:50

I took to use Japanese in high school, hmm.

Speaker 3 0:52

So you're in kindergarten in Japanese. I'm in first grade.

Speaker 1 0:56

Yeah, colors and shapes Did you try Did you blow on it A little bit. Yeah, it does work.

Speaker 2 1:09

All right people. Episode seven of the coaches group chat. Yeah, it's been seven weeks. We've done this seven times. Now we're here with producer Bob behind the screen Doing his thing. I'm Matt. We've got Ariel rocking a hat today and we've got Chad the volleyball this is so much better than last week. All you guys like that. You like that.

Speaker 1 1:29

All I can hear is last week's intro.

Speaker 2 1:31

We got an important docket today We'd come back from.

Speaker 3 1:34

As opposed to last week. Yeah, last week was no docket.

Speaker 2 1:38

And we were just going off the rails.

Speaker 1 1:41

We were halfway off the rails.

Speaker 3 1:42

Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 1 1:45

I thought it was still great. Oh, I mean, I'm sure the fans loved it. My mom loved it. My mom found the podcast actually like a week ago.

Speaker 2 1:53

It's not my grandma's. Heard it Shout out grandma, grandma Gordon, is it grandma Gordon?

Speaker 1 1:59

Larson, grandma.

Speaker 2 2:00

Larson in Minnesota, mom's mom, we got fans of Minnesota.

Speaker 3 2:03

We also have very, very young fans on our podcast now.

Speaker 2 2:08

We were at Soco Cup, the Equinox World's Worst Tournament Name. Sorry, billy, if you listen to this, we were at Soco.

Speaker 1 2:16

Cup this weekend.

Speaker 2 2:17

Equal day U-14 under tournament and all three of us were coaching.

Speaker 3 2:21

And a 13 year old came up and was like I love your podcast. And I was like, whoa, you're a child.

Speaker 2 2:29

Got to be careful what we say out here. But what a weekend, u-14s. I mean I've been doing littles for a while but you guys have not made a little's return and quite some time. Chad's the last. Last time you coached 12 twos, yeah, 12 twos. The probably the greatest 12 twos team of all time, though.

Speaker 1 2:45

You know, we didn't know it at the time, but those kids panned out. They're all good humans and excellent volleyball players.

Speaker 2 2:51

Yeah, just for. Can we let's go down the list or you probably know it, the list of kids from that team that are going to playing college or are playing college.

Speaker 1 2:59

Rowan right. One of the current liberos on the 18s, prince Theron was on that team Stanford. Yeah, cameron Costy.

Speaker 2 3:07

UC Irvine.

Speaker 1 3:08

Yeah, I think those were the three JT. Hansen.

Speaker 4 3:12

Oh.

Speaker 1 3:12

JT Hansen yes, long Island, let's go. Yeah, massive. I think he's going to exclude him because he abandoned us, but that's fair.

Speaker 2 3:19

We'll give him his parents choice. Half one JT is a beta, beta kid. He's sorry. Jt's ours.

Speaker 3 3:25

Last time I coached 12s was Owen Smith on 12s that could have been any of five years.

Speaker 1 3:33

That doesn't count.

Speaker 2 3:33

Oh you coached for a tournament. Yeah, what's the last time you coached a 14s team during COVID?

Speaker 3 3:39

Oh yeah, I did.

Speaker 1 3:40

Yeah, the team I currently have.

Speaker 3 3:42

Okay, yeah, I guess that was the last time I coached 14 and unders. It was Migo, though I was like six foot seven.

Speaker 1 3:48

So I didn't seem like it was 14. Still six foot.

Speaker 2 3:50

Yeah, still big boy. Yeah, but how did we feel making the return to the younger age groups?

Speaker 3 3:57

I had 12s, chad had 13 premiere. And Matt had 14 ones.

Coaching Youth Volleyball Experience

Speaker 2 4:05

It's an interesting dynamic, I feel like, between little kids and old kids. Did you change anything? Let's start with Chad. Did you change any of the way that you approach? I see different setup because you kind of were like you were hired gun. It's not like these kids spent all year with you, but coming into a tournament, how you approached it with them.

Speaker 1 4:22

Yeah, I mean it's, it's not my team, right? So, like you know, Brennan is, you know, kind of flying solo and I'm just kind of here to kind of be the bumpers, like if things are starting to go sideways or something like that. But yeah, I mean you're just you're trying to help them on on some of the easy stuff or you know, giving them a serving target or helping them. Hey man, like if you want to toss it over here, you should probably like look over there and you know go that way, or something like that. And then you know just giving high fives and trying to keep the bench into it and all that normal stuff. But yeah, it's, it's, it's certainly a different. Uh, barrel of monkeys might be the appropriate metaphor.

Speaker 1 4:58

Because, yeah, I just, I forget like there's a lot of, there's a lot of Unregulated passion at those younger age groups. They're just, they're loving it and they're loud and they're just into it all the time and you know, it's just, it's cool to see them with the highs as well as the lows, right, like it's just. They just they fluctuate way harder than some of the older kids do, so it's, it's fun to be reminded of what that kind of Free spiritedness looks like at that at that youthful age.

Speaker 3 5:25

Was that where you are, like when you were 13?

Speaker 1 5:27

I Didn't start playing until I was on the 14 twos were you?

Speaker 3 5:31

were, you, did you cry? No, did you laugh?

Speaker 1 5:35

Yeah, the good old days laughter is good.

Speaker 2 5:41

It's healing for the soul. You said a good week ago like lost in the finals.

Speaker 1 5:45

Yeah, I know it was, I think, a really strong showing for that team. I'm not super familiar with how they had done, you know, previously in the year, but yeah, we, we lost in the finals. It was a good match and, yeah, just I think a good weekend overall and by the by the last match so you could see them like legitimately getting better matchup or match like that's. That's cool to see. Yeah, no today two-day thing.

Speaker 2 6:07

I sat with Brendan on the flight home and so I asked him was like, how was having Chad on the bench? He's like I mean it's Chad, it was awesome, I loved it, but he's like the thing that I'm taking away from this weekend and I told he's like I told Chad I'm stealing this was Words and names. We just need more words and names out there and that was the constant Chad thing during the timeouts words and names. Guys like speak, use your voice, call a name, call out who needs to go get the ball. Like communicate.

Speaker 1 6:32

I mean I think Ariel posted something earlier about yelling about fruits or something like that. But yeah, I just, you know, at that age, like if you can just yell the person's name of who you want to play the next ball, that's 80% of the deal, like just directing traffic in, you know, yeah, I mean it's, it's pretty universal until you get to a level where it's just like automatic.

Speaker 2 6:52

So yeah, yeah and you went with the even little list of little's 12 ones. America's team, america's team.

Speaker 3 7:01

Yeah, it was super fun. I just always I, I don't go anything. I don't go into anything with a plan. So what I never Challenge from the producer producer Bob saying cut that real quick.

Speaker 2 7:21

I'm over planning and she has no plans, so it works great.

Speaker 3 7:26

So we love, we love it, we love it into anything.

Speaker 2 7:28

the plan it's week six of the podcast.

Speaker 3 7:35

Yes, please continue you so I don't go into anything with a plan and then, once I get rolling, I'm so excited about how they've never heard anything I've said before, because I have so many like things that I think are great in my back pocket and it's like I'm getting reminded. Oh, they've never heard me say this spiel about watermelon before and I'm excited to say it again. And so it was. It was a Refreshing weekend and they're also really good at volleyball, so like they're super good.

Speaker 3 8:08

They're super good, so like they already have Really good things in place already with what they're doing. But they were all just like super nervous that I was on their bench and it was very. It was just like really cute stuff going on all the whole entire weekend. So it was. It was a great week. We lost in the finals to MB surf and A kid hit me in the face of the ball and then said I follow you on Instagram. It was super cute and, yeah, it was like super fun.

Speaker 2 8:42

I Was that practice we do. We do a Thursday practice before we left for the tournament and I told the 12s there that that you were gonna be the fill-in coach because their head coach, bj, coaches Bellarmine and so he was out for a tournament and their other assistant, katie, had a girls tournament, so she was gonna be there till Sunday. And so I was like, yeah, we're bringing in another coach to help out coach mark and be there, and you guys better be ready to go, cuz it's coach Ariel. And the eyes on these 12 year olds were like yeah, what.

Speaker 2 9:11

I was like, yeah, you better be, you better be ready. Like Ariel's gonna be there, yeah, and she's gonna be. She's gonna be helping you guys out all weekend. So, number one, you're gonna be on camera all weekend. So you better, like, do something cool for the camera brush their hair. Yeah, oh yeah, they were they were bringing their best, their best hair game.

Speaker 2 9:26

Yeah they were looking. They were looking proper, that's for sure. But it was just, it was funny to watch them Get excited and that's a cool thing about like just having like Chad hop on the bench Right. Like I talked to James James, james pal, james pal came up to me. It was like coach Chad is Is amazing. Can we keep? Can he stay on our bench forever? I was like no, but like that's awesome that you got, like that you get to have an experience with different coaches. Like that's such a cool Part of the club scene is is the ability to just get different personalities in there. I don't even know what I did. I have no idea. You just for yourself. I clearly felt like I didn't do that much.

Speaker 2 10:02

But, yeah, but they see you at skills practice every week and so they kind of like look up to you as they know that you know.

Speaker 3 10:08

Older kids games and they listen to the podcast.

Speaker 2 10:15

Obviously subscribed. Yeah, no, yeah, that was it was. It was really cool to see that dynamic of like just the personalities of you guys but just personalities in our club in general, of of how that kind of plays out amongst different age groups, of little kids going up Throughout the club right and moving towards being the older kids.

Speaker 2 10:33

Yeah you had a great thing that you had posted about of that idea of you're not allowed to be sad Until you're 18, and I can think about every single 18 season Like I can vividly remember that last day pretty much with every 18th team, and what that looks like and how much there's just there's a ton of love, there's a ton of tears, happiness, sadness at the end of Eclipse season, because it's just a big part of a lot of kids' journeys through an interesting time in life.

Speaker 3 11:01

I think, another thing that was really cool for me this weekend I had, I wanna say, four kids on my 17s team, have younger brothers that were in the 14 and under age groups.

Speaker 3 11:13

And so I actually had a bunch of parents from my team that were there this weekend too, and it was I mean, I obviously had Carter Flynn on my team and I've had Zach on my team for two years and just like having a little kid be like super scared, coming into it, being like, oh my gosh, I don't like I've heard all these horror stories or all these things that people like that my brother has been telling me.

Speaker 3 11:37

And then like first game, of course, like I'm having some sort of competition on celebrating, and then I'm buying the kid gummy worms afterwards and he's sending a picture to his brother being like she bought me gummy worms, like it was like this, like totally different experience, and they thought they were gonna have, which, of course, is. However, experience is always different than what you think, but it was just like a really fun weekend to do it all.

Coaching Strategies for Youth Volleyball

Speaker 2 12:03

It is super interesting Cause I think one of the things that you that you kind of hit on is that idea of like. We all have our spiels of like things that we kind of repeat over and over again, and how I was talking to Dustin this weekend about like. I always encourage all of our coaches, I challenge them and be like. Every single one of you should come coach 12s at some point, because it's such a different coaching muscle that you have to flex your ability to communicate. A concept has to be like crystal clear.

Speaker 1 12:31

It's a real concise moment. You have their attention. You get 30 seconds max, not even you get 10 seconds.

Speaker 2 12:39

It's like a tweet. Like you, better be able to get what you want to say out in 140 characters.

Speaker 1 12:43

You better lead it off well. There better be like an image or like a gift or something Catch yeah.

Speaker 3 12:48

Just a PowerPoint. You better catch that attention, cause it's going real fast.

Speaker 1 12:52

No stale PowerPoint presentations.

Speaker 3 12:54

I was editing a bunch of content from this weekend and I said at the beginning like people think that you have to know what you're doing more at the older level, but it might be different, Like it might be. You need to really know what you're doing at the younger level because like it's so impressionable, what's going on with that? Like they are taking, soaking everything up so much and you have to be very, very specific on what you're telling them and it's not this just generalized, oh, go out and have fun thing. Like you have to really make an impact because it changes so quickly. So I almost think that it's like put your better people down.

Speaker 2 13:31

It's worth 1000% Club directors. Put your best coaches down there and club directors go down there Like. That's why I always say like I love coaching, 12s compound interest.

Speaker 1 13:42

I mean yeah.

Speaker 2 13:44

You get in with those kids early, you teach them good habits, you show the families what it's like at the highest level quote of the club and they're having that experience and they build from there. Then it's easier for the 13th coach and the 14th coach after that. They have all these good things already instilled and you're able to just get to work.

Speaker 3 14:00

That's why BJ is so good at that. Is that like BJ is?

Speaker 2 14:02

fantastic. Frank at 13th is incredible. Yeah Right, Aaron at 14th. Like those all that back to back that group Brendan and John at 13th premiere.

Speaker 1 14:10

Oh, I mean, I don't know how they do it. Those guys are amazing.

Speaker 2 14:13

Yeah.

Speaker 1 14:14

They have so much patience and are just hammering the phone like all the time. Yeah, it's great, yeah.

Speaker 2 14:19

You got Colton, who's been in the finals of like every turn. Colton and Cassie, we got to sit on their bench for a long time Like they're running their teams, like one's teams. Right, their kids are playing at such a high level, they're super into it, they're super competitive and they all are enjoying it, like those. That's what you want at your youngest age groups. And then, as you bring in new people, you want to start them in like 15s and 16s and see how they do. And if they do a good job, then you move them back, move them lower, because that's where you get the highest return.

Speaker 2 14:46

So, yeah, it's been, it was super interesting. But the that idea of like the things that you kind of play off of, you develop these bits for your coaching style. And at the younger kids age groups there's some of the things that you use like to keep their attention of hey, if you can get 10 serves in a row or you can get 20 serves in a row, smoothies, baby, let's go. Bo Baron comes up to me literally in the middle of the tournament.

Speaker 3 15:09

It was against the team before he played us and I watch it.

Speaker 2 15:12

He walks up to me and he goes you owe me $150. I was like, why, so what?

Speaker 3 15:17

happened was that the kid goes back and it's 20. It was like he made a bet that if you got past one it was like 20 to zero or something.

Speaker 2 15:28

Can I rewind this? Bo called me a year ago before he started coaching for Wave and he goes hey, wave wants me to coach 12s. Can I pick your brand about it, cause I know you've coached a lot of 12s Like, what are the things that you've done? And I give them the full rundown, I say it's absolutely amazing, like you would be fantastic for it Do it. Here's some of the things that I do, and one of the things I told them was the rule of 20, if you can get a kid who could serve 20 balls in a row like you just say this at the beginning of the year you can serve 20 balls in a row, I will buy everyone on the team smoothies. If you can serve 10 in a row, I will buy you a smoothie. So you give these kids this like little incentive and then all of a sudden, like a kid gets two serves, kids on the bench are like he's that too.

Speaker 3 16:06

He's that three.

Speaker 1 16:07

And so on and so forth. At dawn we ride, and sure enough 24 to zero.

Speaker 3 16:12

24 to zero. The kid misses a serve at 24 to zero. It was out of control. I was like this is a problem for you guys. Like 24 to zero and he misses a serve. That's some pressure, right there. So then he goes and buys them all smoothies, comes back with the receipt goes $150 for that.

Speaker 2 16:30

For that bet that I made. You doored ass Jombages. So I said you take a picture of that receipt.

Speaker 3 16:33

right now you send that to Brendan Dean and say you want me $150 right now.

Speaker 1 16:37

Do you want the winner? Do you want 150 bucks? Come on, we buy wins, we buy wins?

Speaker 2 16:41

No, but it was awesome.

Speaker 3 16:42

So this is a PSA for Brendan the UO, Boe Bear and $150 right now.

Speaker 2 16:47

Yeah, but shout out to 12th Boe just coming in Boe's killing it. Coming in big, coming in big over there. But yeah, that was the rundown on the little guys. A good weekend overall. All the teams made gold from 12-1s to 12-2s, all the way up to 14-2s, 14-1s Everyone was in the gold division.

Speaker 3 17:02

That 12th's final was popping. It was Dustin Watton was hanging out at the 12-spot. Old Brad Keller was hanging out Just scouting future talent. It was just like a, it was just the sighting of everybody. It was great.

Speaker 2 17:13

Yeah, it was good stuff. Yep, all right, I think it's time to maneuver onto the updated rankings.

Speaker 4 17:18

Bippity, boppity, boop Chaz, you can't move me here.

Speaker 3 17:22

Matt's gone Time for NCAA rankings, or we could just talk badly about Matt.

Speaker 1 17:29

He's the worst.

Speaker 3 17:31

That'd be funny.

Speaker 1 17:32

All right, where do you want to start?

Speaker 3 17:35

With Hawaii at number one.

Speaker 1 17:37

Yes, movement just really in the top three, Do we there? Yeah, top four, sure Do we support Hawaii at number one?

Speaker 3 17:47

Honestly, this isn't power ranking. So yeah, sure Do you?

Speaker 1 17:54

I think based on. I mean so the fear of going down is tough, it's huge, yeah, but they're not factoring that in.

Speaker 3 17:59

We haven't done anything with that yet, but yes, that's hard.

Speaker 1 18:02

I mean for clarity, right. I mean you know UH won the Outrigger Classic or you know whatever. Invitational right? I mean in beat three really strong teams.

Speaker 3 18:11

Sure.

Speaker 1 18:12

Close with Irvine. You know went down to the fifth set.

Speaker 3 18:15

Yeah.

Speaker 1 18:16

Aye, I mean you could split hairs and be like hey, with Spiros going down Tread's got a broken finger. It should be Long Beach. They've been playing pretty well. But also, you know, like Long Beach like went four and went five with Santa Barbara this past weekend, um coaches almost fought each other, players were fighting each other Like it's a whole, it's a whole thing. Um, so I'm fine with one too, and the great news is they played each other twice, friday and Saturday. So we'll see for sure.

Speaker 3 18:45

I've got Grand Canyon over UCLA. I just didn't. That's just cause.

Speaker 1 18:49

And you think they just got docked cause they just they took two L's on the weekend.

Speaker 3 18:53

Yeah, I just don't think that. Uh, I don't think that you can. You deserve to go from number one to number four just based off of that.

Speaker 1 19:02

Yeah, I mean it's probably the Irvine loss that that hurts them. Um, but to be fair, like Irvine right, just kind of found their stride a little bit and, you know, had had a great weekend as well. So yeah, I think I don't know I'm not sweating the order of any of these teams at the top, not at all. I mean I think Hawaii and Long Beach have earned the right to be at the top. Ucla has got some, some losses, grand Canyon just coming off a tough weekend, um.

Speaker 3 19:30

I can't move Grand Canyon that far, just based off of one road trip.

Speaker 1 19:33

Sure, that's fine. Um, not much movement elsewhere. Um, yeah, kind of everybody seven and below, I mean I guess BYU and Sanford swap spots.

Speaker 3 19:45

Sure, I would. I don't know, I think that the no Easy Buckets one has Stanford as significantly lower than that. I think they're at like nine there. Um, I would probably put them in the middle of both.

Speaker 1 20:00

Yeah, I mean they're in, they're in the top 10 somewhere. But yeah, I mean where? Where exactly? I don't know how much you're sweating the small details.

Speaker 3 20:08

Like. The more that we go through the season, the more I just think that this year in almost every content or conference it's just like a cluster of like expand the bracket Like. This is ridiculous that there are going to be. It's going to be when your conference. You have to win your conference, and then it's going to be an actual toss up.

Speaker 1 20:31

I would. Who gets in? I would just love her to be a clean 16 team bracket of like cause I'm looking at those teams from 16 and up and I'm like look sure, you all deserve to be able to play at the end. Sure, so you're going to take in a couple of teams from some of the newer conferences. That's okay.

Speaker 3 20:46

Right Sure.

Speaker 1 20:47

You get Damon in there, or something like that. Give them, give them a great shot, because that's a great team a great program and then take, you know, the whoever doesn't win their conference. Take the other 12 teams to fill out, boom 16. Sure, and then you and you just go from.

Speaker 3 21:01

There.

Speaker 1 21:01

Yeah. There's no, like weird double buys into the semis or any, like it's just.

Speaker 3 21:07

I think it's a consensus that everybody would be okay with that.

Speaker 1 21:11

Yeah, it's, it's more exposure for all of these teams. Like, if you're worried about winning your conference right and you aren't able to do that, then you're trying to like worry about the like, the AQ, and like that automatic qualifier is what is the con of all of this Costs? More money to have more rounds set. Oh, both producers agree Money yeah.

Speaker 3 21:34

It's weird, it's just money.

Speaker 1 21:35

Money seems to drive a lot of these things.

Speaker 3 21:37

That's what a shocker but breaking news in the sport that would be willing to pay for it. Matt wants to come back in now it costs money, a portion Okay.

Speaker 2 21:46

So it's the NCW has to pay for it. Uh, so you're saying fundraise?

Speaker 3 21:51

Yeah, what if the NCAA got money from certain people to expand the tournament? How much money are we talking?

Speaker 2 21:59

I mean, I don't have the exact number.

Speaker 3 22:01

We need to find out what that means.

Speaker 1 22:02

I mean you're talking about adding one round.

Speaker 4 22:05

Yeah.

Speaker 1 22:05

I mean, I get, I get where you're.

Speaker 4 22:08

What's your game?

Speaker 1 22:09

What.

Speaker 4 22:10

You're saying one round, so how many games?

Speaker 3 22:13

It all does not have to be played at the same place either. How many days?

Speaker 1 22:17

I think. I think it should be in the same place, though that's my thing.

Speaker 3 22:20

Okay, if it should be in at 16, a 16 team tournament at the same place. Well, there's reason. There's a reason why the NCAA regionalizes at the women's volleyball level.

Speaker 2 22:30

So it just split it in half. Yeah, just keeps the cost. It keeps the cost lower. East and west have regionals on a travel trip You're talking right. It's food, it's flights or bus, it's hotel stays, it's referees.

Speaker 3 22:45

It's yeah, we have enough money in this sport to be able to figure that out, so you're talking maybe let's be conservative and say 40,000 per match.

Speaker 2 22:53

That's being added Right, so we're adding another. What?

Speaker 3 22:56

really Is that wrong.

Speaker 2 22:58

If I'm a Ohio state and I'm hosting, right you're. You're covering the gym, Okay.

Speaker 3 23:04

So there's a cost for hiring people to work. We're not going to the four schools that would for sure support this because you still need to pay for the flights, the food, the and so if the NCAA got? A check from whoever in support of men's volleyball saying you know what? We want to expand this. Why is that not happening? Every single person on this list is on board with that.

Speaker 1 23:29

Who's cutting that? Check, though, right.

Speaker 2 23:31

I'll figure that out, there's no question. And if you're the NCAA, you can't cut that check for just one year, right, like they're going to want that? For If you expand the bracket, you can't retract the bracket in two years. So you're going to want that check for a decade, right? You're in front of her a decade to show that you're committed to it. If it comes from a funding, place. I'm telling you.

Speaker 3 23:51

I think that there is enough money in volleyball for us to expand this. Okay, if there's anybody who's watching our podcast who knows more about what it's going to take like actual numbers on what it's going to take to expand this, send us a message.

Speaker 1 24:08

I'm sure we could ask anybody on the women's side, right? Because, like, really, all you're talking about is the round of 16 for the women, just like. Hey, it's in four venues one weekend, right, you play a round of 16, round of eight and then boom, you have one final site for the four teams and you make it a bigger events and you do it like the women Thursday, saturday, whatever it is right. Where do you want it? At Top, would you put it at the top four teams?

Speaker 3 24:32

Regional events. Yeah, I would say Penn State, Ohio State, Sam Riedig, no, no, Penn State, Ohio State. Or Loyola Chicago and then a maybe two California.

Speaker 2 24:55

This is my red meat of the.

Speaker 3 24:58

Red meat.

Speaker 2 24:59

Yeah, like your, the protein, it's the protein.

Speaker 1 25:01

It's the entre form, you know.

Speaker 2 25:03

This is what I like to talk about Best club resource. So this is. It goes into like all right, if you're, if you're, a volleyball club, yes, you run teams, you have coaches, you go to tournaments, you run practice, there's, there's your schedule, but what are the other things that come into it? And there's a number of them, right beyond just the coaching, beyond just going to practices and tournaments. What else can a club provide that makes it an even better experience for either parents, players, the coaches or everyone altogether? There are a few that kind of came to mind.

Speaker 1 25:37

We're going to go to chat. My, I mean, my first thought was YouTube, because that's free.

Speaker 1 25:43

You can fight all volleyball. And then I was like, okay, if you actually had something like you needed to purchase, right Volleyball world, like subscription right, it's like $7 or it's like laughably inexpensive. You can watch Italian League, you can watch VNL World Champs, you can watch beach stuff and it's it's the highest level in the world. So for me, like I wish Volleymetrics would sell their access to that portal and all of the video and and let guys, you know, maybe not a hundred percent of it, just happy, but like give us like 10% of it and like let us tap through and like let it. Hey, man, let me look at Heno only off speed attacking or whatever right, and you could just tap next one tap be done in five minutes, right, and you could see something from the highest level immediately.

Speaker 3 26:28

How do you get on that?

Speaker 1 26:30

I, I will never say Okay next.

Speaker 3 26:37

I need more friends.

Speaker 2 26:40

I mean number one. I love that and, yes, I agree, I think, honestly, I think one of the best things we did during COVID was video review. I thought that was fantastic.

Speaker 1 26:48

I mean, it's really how we were just training with our guys, right? It was like look like we need to pass better, we need to be more creative here. It was like, okay, like, let's just pull up France playing Serbia.

Speaker 2 26:58

Yeah, let's watch the best dude.

Speaker 1 27:00

Yeah, let's go watch Ingepath. Like hit roundhouses and you know two hand jams and stuff and it's all right here it's great, it's so easy.

Speaker 2 27:07

Yeah, so we've been giving that access to that out for free for the past couple of years to everyone in the club.

Speaker 1 27:13

Am I getting my? You're one and a half percent on the zero dollars.

Speaker 2 27:16

Yeah, awesome, yeah, we've been giving that out for free because it is. It's like you want kids to go watch the best players we talked about it last week of, like our favorite people and you think back. I was thinking back on it. I was like, wow, like so much of my game was just trying to be Jeeba. Like I was just trying to be that, I was trying to look like that, I was trying to play the same ways and I was trying to be creative in the same situations that he was using. Like that is such a hack to improve Um.

Speaker 2 27:41

But I was also thinking something that you said as well was just volumetric in general. Like I think that's been one of the best club resources we have because it's giving you access to yourself and saving you so much time when you can just click like show I'm Matt Hulahan, click Matt Hulahan's name and I want to see all of my receptions from this match Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and I can see all of them back to back and save so much time, like that was. I think that's one of the best tech resources that's available for clubs. Like Cuddle has some stuff, but it's just a Poor version of volumetrics.

Speaker 1 28:13

Thank God they went out and bought volumetrics, so, but but still pros and cons versus still.

Speaker 2 28:18

Yeah, not, not, not quite the same in terms of the two products. Guys like Dana Rassai and guys like Scott Morris. Who Scott Morris?

Speaker 3 28:28

is our parent liaison.

Speaker 2 28:29

Dana Rassai is kind of our director of human performance, I guess would be the title to title is no, I mean snacks director of snacks. Director of the head. The brain yeah.

Speaker 3 28:41

Director of yes, you heard me right.

Speaker 2 28:45

Yeah, she says director of head.

Speaker 3 28:47

Director of Well-being.

Speaker 1 28:53

So Performance, well-being Performance.

Speaker 2 28:55

Yeah, that's, that's a snacks. So Scott Morris on the parent liaison side and there's kind of two, two pronged approach. Scott Morris was in charge of just basically going out and making sure parents were good, having conversations. The number of things that Scott Morris would just squander, just squash like small issues, small fires that he would put out just by going and just checking in with parents at tournaments and going and being around, was incredible.

Speaker 3 29:18

Yeah, you just need somebody that's like checking in with people. Yeah, that's such an important thing with a club that somebody that wants to be there is like I just want to be here because I love all of you guys and like.

Speaker 2 29:28

And I want to make the experience good. Yeah, like I want to check in with people and talk to people and like, yeah, and so Scott was the guy who kind of like he put me onto it of the idea of, like the team, parents are your number one thing of making this good because, they are.

Speaker 2 29:43

They are the ones that are actually in charge of your team. They know everything about that team, what issues there are, who needs what, who's thinking about, like who's who's having an issue with the coach or whatever it may be. Like whatever thing make might come up, they know. So you want to be checking in with them. And so he would constantly just be going around and he drilled that into me as well like, make sure you're checking in with your team parents and that you have a clear and open line of communication with them so that they can always bring something up to you because they are the real deal.

Speaker 2 30:13

Daniel Rassai directly to the kids. And so he talks a lot, like during skills practice with Chad and I and Ryan. Like he talked a lot about the mental side of the game, mental health, right, like how, basically, how difficult it is for young guys in our world right now growing up, how to deal with these different pressures that are coming along and how to improve as an athlete, while also understanding that you aren't going to be perfect. And so he does a lot of just coaching the whole person, which is you know, everyone says that the holistic side of things, but Daniel practices what he preaches and is just one of the best communicators when it comes to that side of life that I would follow Daniel off a cliff and I hope.

Speaker 1 30:59

I hope that he doesn't take you there, yeah.

Speaker 2 31:03

I hope 10% of our players get something from Daniel as much as I do, because just one of one of the best resources. But having someone who specifically kind of in charge of that and is an available resource to players to be able to have a conversation, I think is a really good thing to add to any kind of programming.

Speaker 3 31:20

I love having somebody who is into sports psych but isn't a technical sports psych in our club. It is the best version of trying to help kids. When you are a sports psych it can go down a path. Sometimes that is just too much, it's too clinical, it's just too much. But there are people who place value on sports psych. That's where that's the happy medium that I like to be with. Mental health side of this. It's just a huge value on it. But it's not so far down the path that you can't see anything outside of it. I think that's what Daniel does so well. Is that? He's just? This is his passion, this is what he loves. Is that? What are you laughing at?

Speaker 2 32:14

I just was having a thought of. There's not many professions where you want someone who's just interested in it but is not like a professional. I wouldn't want the guy who's interested in knee surgery but is not a knee surgeon.

Speaker 1 32:28

You're totally right. I've been dabbling on the weekends in my garage.

Speaker 3 32:31

You're totally right, I'm very passionate about flying airplanes, but I'm not a pilot.

Speaker 3 32:39

You're totally right. I think that that's. The best version of a coach is somebody who is interested in all of these different facets of it but isn't just so down one side of it that they can't see the other side. That's why coaching is such a broad spectrum of different things. I think that that's what Daniel does so well is that he values something that a lot of other people don't see that side of it being that important, and also the people that think that that is the only thing, it's just too much and it's not enough of the other stuff too.

Speaker 2 33:14

Alright, I think that's the end of episode seven.

Speaker 3 33:18

Should we do a tequila zipper to go? Yeah, that's one of the weirdest things that show up on your four-year page.

Speaker 2 33:24

Oh, is this the possum of the girl? Hold the possum.

Speaker 3 33:29

Oh my god, I got that too Wait.

Speaker 1 33:30

I'm not on tiktok.

Speaker 3 33:31

Wait, have you seen the video of the guy that's like talking about what?

Speaker 1 33:35

I'm barely on his looks like.

Speaker 2 33:38

My algorithm is no wait orcas sharks and like a volleyball. I don't know, I'm out. It's like orcas season. They're coming, they're coming close to shore, I don't know what it is.

Speaker 1 33:48

You know what season?

Speaker 2 33:48

it's not great but, they have really good answers. I watched a video of a guy getting bit by like a crocodile on a golf course, so I've gotten like I've got like probably 20 crocodile videos in the past two days.

Speaker 3 34:13

I'm definitely on one day tiktok right now.

Speaker 1 34:16

I get that, I get the yonk guy yonk. Oh yeah, he's like he's like in the, he's a florida everglades or whatever and is like looking for like a 20 foot long Burmese python and he just like yonks random.

Speaker 3 34:30

What's yonk?

Speaker 1 34:32

Like either like grabs or like just like boops. He like he boops the crocodile. Do you come up with the word? No, no no, I promise you. I promise he says it yeah, yeah, yeah. And so like they're boops, spiders, snakes, little frogs, small crocodiles, I mean, he like and he's all over your 40 page.

Speaker 3 34:52

I'm on girls volleyball tiktok now and I hate it. It's the worst, like because I post girls like volleyball. I'm a girl that posts volleyball things now. I'm on girl for yeah.

Speaker 4 35:02

There's 52 weeks in the year. Have you ever had any pets?

Speaker 3 35:06

I've never.

Speaker 4 35:07

Not one. Do you have a fish?

Speaker 3 35:08

No pets lizard, no siblings.

Speaker 4 35:10

What do you think? No pets, the like you like. Try to like. Bring a lizard home, for it Did you ever come home from school.

Speaker 3 35:15

And we were like mom, I want a hamster. So bad.

Speaker 4 35:20

Not even a fish Ever. You've never flushed a fish down the drain.

Speaker 1 35:24

No, my, I have. I've never had pets any animal. What the fuck do you think? No pet means no Nothing insects. We got ants every once in a while. Come on Like jimmy. No, you're being friends growing up. No, honestly. Well, life is hard. Why would you twist the knife?

Speaker 4 35:47

Have you been building charts for?

Speaker 1 35:50

Because I don't have any friends. What were?

Speaker 3 35:51

you super into as a child.

Speaker 4 35:53

That's a good question What'd you do before you played volleyball?

Speaker 1 35:59

I mean I played like all, the, all the sports.

Speaker 2 36:02

What was your second at a hardware?

Speaker 3 36:04

Yeah, I mean so when you were like a little kid, you were in soccer.

Speaker 1 36:07

Yeah, I was playing like more, like like football and stuff like that football. Well it's flag, it's like sixth grade, like let's calm down. Yeah, it's harker.

Speaker 3 36:15

Okay, so you play like seven man football when you were like a five-year-old.

Speaker 1 36:19

I don't know, I have no idea.

Speaker 4 36:21

There's no like nine.

Speaker 1 36:22

What a what? What grade, what grade?

Speaker 4 36:24

are we in first?

Speaker 1 36:25

first grade Were you into pokemon. Yeah, I was in a pokemon. That's a good guess, okay.

Speaker 2 36:30

Yeah.

Childhood Hobbies and Video Games

Speaker 1 36:30

I love pokemon. Yeah, look for those teams. I'm in the. I'm in those photos at like black fruit and stuff. Probably really poor, wasn't like that into basketball like we play like pick up stuff you ever get in a fight.

Speaker 4 36:41

No, it's harker, Whatever you ever get in a fight.

Speaker 2 36:44

In high school.

Speaker 3 36:44

Yes, no fights ever for you college.

Speaker 2 36:49

No, he's a lover.

Speaker 4 36:53

Damn. No fights for bob either.

Speaker 3 36:55

No fights for bob.

Speaker 4 36:56

That surprises me actually none.

Speaker 3 36:59

I like to talk a big game. I want to.

Speaker 2 37:03

I want to know more about Chad at like 10 years old yeah, what was like okay, like for me, I loved playing Uh, warcraft 3 and starcraft, like I loved computer games when I was a kid.

Speaker 3 37:18

Super weird. Yeah you're welcome.

Speaker 2 37:19

That was your friend, that was my other, like other thing that I loved to do.

Speaker 1 37:23

What did you like to do? I was playing like a lot of like n64 and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 37:26

Yeah, I think that's when like that stuff came out. Yeah, never had a gaming console my entire life.

Speaker 1 37:31

Really. No ps3 and you guys got on me about no pets.

Speaker 4 37:35

First one I ever had was we had the we the we and then after that nothing. And then I'm the next one I had was no ps3. That.

Speaker 1 37:44

I was like ps2.

Speaker 3 37:46

I mean, I mean, I had a game boy.

Speaker 2 37:49

Do you have a game boy? I had a game boy. Yeah, that's a game in console. What was your game on game boy?

Speaker 3 37:54

Mario yeah.

Speaker 2 37:56

I never played Mario, it was all pokemon.

Speaker 4 37:58

Oh, mario for sure, I never, never, mario.

Speaker 3 38:03

Mario tennis on game boy.

Speaker 4 38:05

Yeah, I was a big. I was a big Pokemon guy too.

Speaker 2 38:08

Yeah, pokemon, it's fun.

Speaker 4 38:09

You also really good to see pong, you guys.

Speaker 2 38:12

Are you? Yeah, yeah, you crushed ping pong.

Speaker 3 38:14

I was a big arctic thunder on ps3 player the racing game. Yes.