#28 - Playing Time Gets Complicated: What Parents and Players Need to Know About Confidence, Roles, and Team Decisions in Youth Volleyball S2.10

So I think one of the things that came up this weekend was actually had an old assistant coach come out to watch us, which is so great because it kind of reflects and their ability to see things differently.

and how these players have changed over three years, where I'm always comparing them to last week, you know, and it's very rare that I go back and go, do you remember what things were like when we started? And so this coach's reflections are like, wow, like these girls have come so far.

And that was just so lovely to hear and just how, you know, seeing the growth in them and how they've come together as a team.

Also how we have a lot of new players that have come in.

It's not just all the same old players.

Like we really kind of brought in girls from other places.

So it was really great to hear.

But one of the funniest things is this coach and I used to have this little acronym and it was stick with the effing plan.

So often we would come up with, okay, here's what we're trying to do.

And we're trying to win this game.

And then as a coach, we would get in situations where, well, sometimes a player that, you know, there's our number one outside hitter and she just doesn't show up and she's making errors.

And you're like, oh, okay, plan change.

Now I've got to be trying to make subs.

We've got to try to do things.

But also in some situations, things are going great.

The girls came out, they had great energy.

They're attacking the ball.

Everything's going great.

And I'm like, oh, awesome.

Now I can sub my bench in.

We were reflecting on when you don't stick with the plan.

Sometimes it's great because everybody gets in and then, oh, it's not great.

Everybody got in.

But when I kind of changed the plan and I tried to start getting people playing time and then we started to lose momentum.

Sometimes you have these experiences when as coaches, you're like, I didn't stick with the plan.