COACHING THROUGH A RUT with Trevor Johnson (2 of 2)

I wanna go to the, the lineups part of it.

Um, I wanna see if you can go into that more.

I'm picturing if I'm maybe pushing for a spot, I don't know if you have any positions where there's a battle, and I'm a player and like, "Come on," like, "let's make a change.

We're, we're not doing well," like, "take a look at me." Um, how, how do you if...

And if, I don't know if you have this exact situation, but I have a player I know I wanna stay with, uh, but we've lost again in five.

Um, how do you navigate that sort of situation?

Yeah, you know, um, I again got this from Marv, but, um, you know, I always tell our girls, "I'm not gonna be fair, you know, or equal, but always be honest." And, um, [lip smack] and so I think they know, like, where I stand as a coach, and I never want them to assume that, that they know what I'm thinking.

You know, so my door's always open, and if they have questions, you know, they can come talk to me.

And, um, maybe it's gonna be a difficult conversation, but, you know, they, they need to happen and, and they need to ha- happen often.

So, um, I, I try and do, um, I try and do a good job of, like, reaching out to them first 'cause I, I can just sense that, uh, you know, that something's off.

So, um, whereas years prior, maybe I would wait to them-- wait for them to come talk to me, but, um, I feel like I've done a pretty good job of going to them first and, and just, "Hey, let's, let's chat," you know, "Let's just go outside real quick," and, "Hey, like, what are you thinking?" Um, you know, "Here's, here's what I'm seeing," you know, "Do you agree or disagree?" And, uh, oftentimes they're like, "No," like, "you're, you're pretty spot on." So, um, you know, just I think, again, like, trying to be consistent as I can.

I, I think that, that, that helps them and, um, and especially in these, these losing times.

Yeah.

No, I think that openness, that honesty, that trying to get ahead of, you know, being aware of the, like, having the pulse on your team and, and having those individual conversations.

So I, I ask too, I, I've observed, um, seeing and probably common with lots of coaches, but observe my daughter's team, it's like, "Oh, we didn't do well." The first thought is, "Okay, now we gotta run a six-two, or we gotta do this, like, three middle offense," instead of, you know, "No, we, we gotta, like, train serve receive, and we gotta be better at, at serve and pass." Uh, so I think sometimes there's, uh, like, natural, and I'm, I'm sure you've experienced that too, is there, like, a quick fix or an easy fix to wanna, to wanna change things.

Is there any advice for coaches, um, who have those sorts of scenarios?

Yeah.

I think just-- I think you have to ask yourself, like, "Okay, did we lose because of, like, maybe, like, they had a, a run of, like, three or four aces?" You know, like, "Did we..." You know, "Do we need to actually change things up that much?" Um, you know, maybe there was just you weren't connecting with the, with the hitter, and so maybe, maybe certain rotations just weren't working.

And so being able to flip the outsides maybe for one set or, or, yeah, maybe throwing another setter just 'cause you weren't connecting well with, with her.

But, um, yeah, I, I've, I've, I've gone from, like, five-one to six-two, six-two to five-one, and, and so sometimes it's based on, like, who's healthy.

You know, we, we've, we've been battling injuries, you know, already all season and, you know, so I've been without two starters, so we're trying to fill those voids, you know, already.

But-

Mm

... um, you know, luckily for us, we, we have a, a pretty deep team.

You know, we, we've got 18 strong and, um, you know, they're, they're-- we're pretty deep at each position.