Talented Players

[Bert 0]

Hello everybody,

High gifted children do have a very own opinion about almost everything. It shows that this look like very nice, but it isn't, because, how should you react?

A child can also be high gifted in sport, the so called very talented kids. This is sometimes also not very easy for the coach. How should you handle a very talented child, a child who is better then the rest of the team, who ask question about almost everything you tell (as coach), who is right the most of the time (you find out) after that .......................................

What do you do? Are talented kids always also kids with a bad attitude (by the way this isn't my opinion)? How do you handle with those kind of children?

I am very curious what other coaches think of this 'problem'?

Bert

[St_TJanet 0]

"What do you do? Are talented kids always also kids with a bad attitude (by the way this isn't my opinion)? How do you handle with those kind of children?

I am very curious what other coaches think of this 'problem'? "

I have a couple of girls who "think" they are better than what they are. They all know I'm new to volleyball, and a couple of them tell me "well, that's not what we were taught at volleyball camp, .....". Volleyball camp is for a week in the summer. Some girls went to two different camps where they were taught two different things. They were also taught differently in P.E. class.

My reply to these attitudes are "I am the coach of this team. What you are doing is not working with "this" team. We are going to try my way and work with it for awhile and see what works best with "this" team. " I can tell when they are actually trying to change their habit and when they are going through the motions. I've had success with this method. We have corrected one girls' forearm pass and one's serving with this "direct" approach.

Janet

[Connie 0]

I have dealt with a couple of players like this in my years of coaching. I always explain why we are doing things that way we are so they understand the basic concepts.

For example, I explain why we are taking a step when e overhand serve as it adds to the momentum. If you can explain why sometimes this helps end some questions.

I also explain that there is more than one way to explain things and different coaches explain things differently. A sign of a good player is their ability to adapt to this.

Are they acting out toward the other players? If so, what I have done in the past is pull the good player(s) aside before or after practice and commpliment them on their skills and say that I would like them to work on developing a leadership role on the team. ( IE. Alway be positive with the team and encourage them. Show good sportsmanship at all times. Basically be a rolemodel for the other players.)

Sometimes the better players do get bored if all of the drills are aimed at the lower level players. I try to make my drills the skill level of the mid level players I have. This way it challenges the lower level players and it is not way below the abilities of the better players. Every now and then I throw in a drill that challenges everyone - you would be amazed at how many player step up and execute very well.

Connie

[Bert 0]

I have a couple of girls who "think" they are better than what they are. They all know I'm new to volleyball, and a couple of them tell me "well, that's not what we were taught at volleyball camp, .....". Volleyball camp is for a week in the summer. Some girls went to two different camps where they were taught two different things. They were also taught differently in P.E. class.

My reply to these attitudes are "I am the coach of this team. What you are doing is not working with "this" team. We are going to try my way and work with it for awhile and see what works best with "this" team. " I can tell when they are actually trying to change their habit and when they are going through the motions. I've had success with this method. We have corrected one girls' forearm pass and one's serving with this "direct" approach.

Janet

Hi Janet,

I agree with your're sollution on the problem you wrote about, but this was not what I mean, I am sorry, perhaps my question wasn't clear enough.

What I mean is 'realy talented children', so children who are realy good. I don't mean those children who only say that they are good, but where every watcher could say that they are not.

P.e. a girl in one of my teams. I don't say that she is very good at this moment, this is what other coaches sometimes say. I do think that is is very fast in learning volleyball. She is just 9 years old, she play volleyball since 4 month. She started at our level 4, after one month she was ask to play with level 6 and even on this level all goes well. When someone ask here what she want to do when she is older, she always tell them that she wants to play in the national team. In here own team she is, no discussion the best player, no discussion about that, but ............... because the level she want to reach is so high, because she only want to win, because she ask other girls in here team to join here to reach this goal, it sometimes difficult to deal with......

Bert

[Connie 0]

What may help with the girl who is so focused on playing for the national team is helping her focus on more realistic goals for now. Practicing may not always be a challenge for her but have her set up daily goals for herself. (I will get 90% of my overhand serves over the net. I will pass 90% of the ball to position 3.) Having these goals helps take the focus off winning all the time. If all the players are setting realistic, reachable goals and working toward them the winning will happen in time. The trick is to be sure the goals are something that the players are in control of - therefore winning cannot be a realistic goal for one player.

Connie

[Bert 0]

What may help with the girl who is so focused on playing for the national team is helping her focus on more realistic goals for now. Practicing may not always be a challenge for her but have her set up daily goals for herself. (I will get 90% of my overhand serves over the net.  I will pass 90% of the ball to position 3.) Having these goals helps take the focus off winning all the time. If all the players are setting realistic, reachable goals and working toward them the winning will happen in time. The trick is to be sure the goals are something that the players are in control of - therefore winning cannot be a realistic goal for one player.

Connie

Hi Connie,

I agree, with you're sollution of setting realistic goals! Of course a coach should talk about realistic goals for every player, this will be the best. On that youth clinic, I wrote about in another topic, with that former headcoach of the dutch national team, this coach said that we must set personal goals for every individual player.

Are there coaches who do so or are the just working with setting goals for a whole team?

By the way, I am sorry, but what are realistic goals? Could a realistic goals of a talented child be a problem for the coach. P.e. this girl I wrote about, she is good, she learn very fastm she wants to play in the national team when she is older, she is ask for a higer team, after just one month of playing ....... when she left our team, my team will be not so good as before. Could is be possible that realistic goals for a child can benot so welcom for the coach, so that the coach won't help her with really setting realistic goals for here? What will be the sollution for this problem? Are there coaches p.e. who have a consultation with other coaches to talk about this kind of problems?

Bert

Questions, questions, quenstions, I am still very curious.

[Connie 0]

I always have my players set indivual goals that they want to meet. But the goals must be things that the players can control. A goal cannot be winning every game as the players are only in control of their own actions. Improving my overhand serve so that it goes over 75% of the time is realistic. If a player sets a goal that a coach knows they are not going to be able to reach it would be best in my opinion to break that big goal into smaller ones and take the steps to go in the direction of meeting the bigger goal.

I do not think that playing for the national team is a realistic goal for a 9 year old as a short term (seasonal) goal. I would encourage her to work for things that will get her moving in the right direction to meeting her long term goal. Maybe have her serving to areas of the court on command. Have her focus on her defensive skills so she can pass 90% of all balls hit to her. It all comes down to fundamentals. I would keep her focused on the little things as they really do mean alot when you play the game.

[fmfjohn 0]

Bert,

It is amazing when one of these players comes along. In 25+ years of coaching, I suppose I've had two who matched their own expectations with their performance. But it sure does present the coach with an unusual set of problems.

I would say from your description that the young lady has been able to quickly improve her skills to the next level, each time she has been "moved up". Good for her, probably not good for the coach who's team she left. And I know how hard it is for a coach at any level to let go of a player who is really head and shoulder above any other player on the team or in her division. Unfortunately for the team, in most cases, I think you have to move her up. In my view, it is just like having a student in a math class who is well past the level of his/her classmates. If you don't accelerate the student, they almost always get bored, which probably will result in behaviorial problems - disrupting the class, etc. - and eventual loss of interest in math. (or in our case, volleyball)

The real question, to my mind, is how far ahead do we allow the player to go? Do we simply use skill level to determine it, or do we add social and physical development to the equation? If I were to have to make a decision based on very limited information, I would let the child move up until he or she was successful "most of the time".

I would also let her keep the national team in her intermediate goals list, because, if your volleyball association is anything like ours, she could be playing on a national juniors high performance team in two years, which isn't so far away.

One question, what do you mean when you use "p.e."?

Another great discussion! Thanks for the input.

john

[Bert 0]

One question, what do you mean when you use "p.e."?

I mean 'par example', isn't that good english? Plaese let me know.

Bert

[fmfjohn 0]

Bert,

I teach math and science, not english (as you can probably tell from my comments) so I may not be the one to answer. However, I think most Americans would say simply, "for example" or abbreviate it as "e.g." = example given. For many of us - especially coaches - P.E. generally means "physical education" another term we use for gym classes.

Dank u voor uw hulp.

john

[Bert 0]

"The real question, to my mind, is how far ahead do we allow the player to go? Do we simply use skill level to determine it, or do we add social and physical development to the equation?"

Hello John,

There is maybe another level we must deal with, namely the mental level of a child. I have coached for example the first woman team of a local volleyball club. They play, in those days in the highest regional competition, just under the national competition. I was not so old my self also, I was 23 when I coached this team. In this team played some veterians, two or three woman in the age between 32 and 36, 6 girls in the age between 18 and 22 and one, very talented, 14 years old girl. Beside this there was also one girl, also very talented 12 years old, who don't play in competition but who join our lessons. This girl was maybe even more talented that that other 14 years old girl. This last girl do have played in the national youth selection. When I coached this team I sometimes sayd to others: "I have two mothers in my team, 6 girls I go out with and two kids who go to bed after 'Sesamstraat' (I hope you know this TV programm for kids in the USA). What I mean by this is that in this group allmost every player do have the same volleyball level, about power volleyball, the highest hitters where those two young girls, but there was a big difference in the mental skills. Those girls were very, very talented volleyball players, but ........ they were also children and not adults.

Sometimes I think we select, specially girls, earlier and earlier and I don't think this is always a good idea, just because there is more than volleyball skill or physical skills.

Bert

[tcvbcaoch 0]

"The real question, to my mind, is how far ahead do we allow the player to go? Do we simply use skill level to determine it, or do we add social and physical development to the equation?"

I think that moving a player up to her skill level is always a great option. If the girl is mentally below the rest of the girls, it will help her to grow into that mental state more to be with older girls rather than staying with the girls who are 'holding her back' in a sense. The more experience a player gets in her skill level the more mentally prepared she will be.