Here is a question for you: If you're coaching an older age group, shouldn't you be teaching the girls how to interact with adults, how to ask questions, etc? Don't 1 on 1 meetings with players replace meetings with parents?

...Nope, two separate animals and should be two separate conversations, agendas, and purposes.

There are three unique groups associated with any volleyball team: the coaches, the players and the parents. All have a common purpose, the development of young athletes in the sport of volleyball, BUT all have different responsibilities.

To ignore or, (if you want a "positive-spin") not energize the parent group (a.k.a. the bill payers) by opening and keeping open a communication channel between the coaches and parents is a significant error in coaching judgment and has a direct link to parental discontent during the season. Let me give you an example.

Had a couple of parents that were just beside themselves due to playing time of their player. Met with the parents group as a whole and went through different line-ups, player roles, substitutions, associated JRVB rules (who can subs for whom, how many subs allowed, etc.), competition and the basics of the offense we were running (6-2, two short 17U setters)....basically just coaching insight and thought process.

Questions I got and answered, "Well why can't Mary just stay on the front row and just not rotate?"; "Why can't our other middle on the back row just come up and help block?"; "Why can't the libero set in that one rotation?"; on and on and on...Once explained, the parents were OK, believe it or not they are rationale people, and the frustration level decreased for the remaider of the season to the point that we had monthly meeting to just talk volleyball.

For any coach to not meet with the parents, answer questions and help educate the parents so they can enjoy and understand the game AND in the process defuse potential problems several times during the year is a huge error in club/coaching judgement.

Also note, there are some very sharp parents in JRVB whether through playing themselves, coaching themselves, having an older child already in JRVB, etc. Personally, I have a pretty good background in VB but have no problem with my player's coach saying "we did this" as long as the next statement is "and here's why." I don't need to agree with the "why", just an indication that there was a purpose, "method to his madness if you will"...

Where most coaches fail is not being able or willing to communciate that second statement when asked.

ignoratevb wrote:

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imma going ask the dumb questions here.

why do da parents and coaches ever have anything to talk about? is it the coaches team? did she/he (the coach) recruit the players and make promises to the parents about training players for a specific position? did the coach recruit the players for a certain team and state that if a player tries out and is placed on a team this team is expected to perform at a certain level? (ie:qualify at open) did he/she as coach even have any say or vote about who get placed on the team in the first place?

if the answer is yes to any of those questions then i say yes the coach should have meetings about this, that and every other thing yous guys have been talking about...

...the answers to the questions you ask are not only a "YES" but an empathic "YES".

Very few clubs I've known or been associated with are provided any guidance from the Club Director. In those many instances, the club director found coaches, set the club fee, found gyms for practice, ordered gear, paid salaries, set up tournaments and collected money.

As far as the individual teams within the club, while there may indeed of been some "broad-brushed" guidance, the selection of players, recruiting, tournaments selected, playing time, practice emphasis, etc. were solely the responsibility of the coach. Two instances to demonstrate:

On out first year of volleyball I was quite impressed during the Open House presentation by the Club Director who preached trained coaches, consistency in methods, vigilant oversight and assured his involvement in every step of the operation. After that initial meeting we committed and never saw him again. That was followed our second year in the club where my player was taught elemental skills completely contrary to what the first coach had taught...in other words no consistency at the program level from one year to the next, or even one coach to the next.

Understanding the pratfalls of "generalizations" know that the majority of clubs are little more than a collection of teams playing in the same uniforms under a club logo with the coach do his/her independent "thing". Again, a generalization...