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Billy Allen

Sep 3, 2026

12:25
Billy, what do you remember about playing with your dad?
12:29
Um, like he said, he was very aggressive.
12:31
Um, he would grunt when he hits.
12:34
[laughs]
12:34
Uh, he'd get in, get in fights.
12:36
[laughs] Um-
12:39
I didn't have fights.

1 HR 22 MINS LATER

95:07
Uh, but, uh, yeah, any, any final thoughts as we wrap up?
8:42
So that being said, how-- like could you walk us through just kind of your approach to learning and growing as a coach? And not just from like that, the, the physical and technical piece of it, but also those, those other components that emerge in coaching too.
9:00
Yeah.
9:01
I think one thing this podcast, doing it for 10 years, has taught me is just how important it is to be, like I said, curious and a learner.
9:10
And for me, it's like a superpower that I feel as a coach, you have this burden to be an authority and an expert on stuff.
9:19
Um, and you wanna have all the right answers, um, otherwise you're a fraud.
9:23
And I just-- My mindset is just, just be learning.
9:28
And like it just gives me so much freedom to, you know, go into a meeting with my notebook in hand, and all I'm thinking about is like, how can I learn from this? Um, how can this, you know, get something out of this? Um, even if it's like I'm speaking to the team, like just be upfront about it.
13:22
But let's start with just kind of that origin and inspiration behind it.
25:12
Is, is that something you could talk a little bit about in terms of, like, how you've seen this approach, this kind of ecological systems approach to coaching now influence the freedom through which an athlete play-- competes with?
25:28
Yeah.
25:29
I-- So I think to give you an example, in the past, um, one thing in beach volleyball we see a lot of players struggle with is a deep serve that's kinda like at their neck, right? Um, that's kinda hits their body in the midline.
25:43
And I would get very prescriptive and wanna s- you know, give them the answer and say, "Hey, you need to open up your side and, you know, set up an angle outside your body and like tilt all the..." Like all these little things which, you know, one of the quotes I like is that the body cares very little what the coach tells it.
25:59
[chuckles] Like it, it's just reacting to the environment and so, you know, it's hard to remember all these things about what to do with your elbow.
26:06
Um, but now it's more adding the freedom in is, you know, we call it it's the constraints-led approach.
26:14
So you give them a constraint like, "Hey, you need to start shallower," and so you're gonna get a lot more interactions and it just naturally happening to you deep.

7 MINS LATER

32:52
And I wanna, I would be curious kinda what that experience has been like for either you as a player and/or now in those that you coach and kinda what have been the main-- Have there been certain things that you feel like have created the best, um, conditions for a breakthrough to occur?

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