John's 2019 European Volleyball Coaching Adventure
Content from my August and September 2019 travels exploring coaching in several parts of Europe
How cool would it be to visit clubs and teams all across Europe, from youth to national team to see how they operate and to talk with their coaches?
Well, that's exactly what I did in August and September of 2019. And I'm using this platform to share that experience with you.
Here's what I did.
In England: Attended a camp for high level juniors and young adult players, attended and England Youth/Junior National Team training weekend, presented at a coaching conference, spent time at one of the top UK university programs, and visited with the folks at the first English team ever to play in the Champions League.
In Hungary: Spent nearly 3 weeks with the men's professional club FINO Kaposvar.
In Italy: Visited with Team Spes, the girls' and women's club based in Conegliano.
In Spain: Visited Spanish men's national team training, spent a couple of days with the Alcobendas club outside Madrid, and visited with CV Barcelona. In both the latter cases, the clubs are female ones with professional teams at the top of the pyramid.
In Switzerland (near Zurich): First I visited with the Näfels club, which is the oldest in the country. I also visited Volleya Obwalden, which has teams at a variety of age levels.
In Holland: Attended training for the BeBetter Volleybalschool program in Tilburg.
In Germany: I visited the national youth volleyball academy (VCO) in Berlin.
The Content
Below you can see the full breakdown of all the content I developed during the trip. There are nearly 170 items, including:
- 21 Practice plans
- 45 Drills
- 31 Games
- 11 Warm-up variations
... if I did my counting correctly.
There are also some full and near full training sessions for younger groups (U10s, U12s, U14s) where the exercises tend to change quite frequently.
Here's the full listing. Anything with a Preview button is something you can access for free.
Course Curriculum
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PreviewCamp Overview (2:35)
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StartGame: Don't Drop the Baby (0:43)
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StartDrill: 10-player Serve Receive Drill (0:37)
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StartOne Court Three Exercises (0:17)
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StartDiscussion of serve receive with campers
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StartThinking about how we discuss errors (8:57)
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StartConflict between words and training in a serve receive drill (0:34)
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PreviewKaposvar Overview (4:23)
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PreviewIntroduction to Ruben Wolochin
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PreviewBasic calendar structure
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Start4-week Workout Plan
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StartPractice Plan - Day 1
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StartDrill: Dig-to-Self and Downball (0:13)
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StartPractice Plan - Day 2, Ball-handling
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StartDrill Combo: Serve-Pass-Attack plus Defense-Set (2:50)
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StartPractice Plan - Day 2, Full
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StartDrill: Dig-to-Set (2:20)
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StartDrill: Blocking footwork (4:16)
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StartGame: OH-MB vs OPP-MB reception and freeball (5:00)
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StartGame: 6 v 6 freeball entry game (4:38)
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StartGame: 6 v 6 with toss on miss and 2nd ball at 3m (10:27)
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StartPractice Plan - Day 3, Ball-handling
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StartMobility-Prehap Example 1 (30:09)
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StartGame: VolleyTennis - Teams Short-Court (1:59)
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StartNo bouncing balls in shoulder warmup (1:25)
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StartDrill: 2-player reception with second ball to non-receiver (2:05)
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StartPractice Plan - Day 3, Full
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StartDynamic Warm-Up (7:57)
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StartDrill: 5-player dig-to-set (3:30)
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StartDrill: Attack over the string (2:42)
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StartGame: 5 v 5 focus on middle quick and pipe (10:00)
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StartPractice Plan - Day 4
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StartPractice Plan - Day 5, Ball-handling
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StartMobility-Prehab Example 2 (31:29)
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StartDrill: Line-Cross Serve and Pass (4:19)
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StartPractice Plan - Day 5, Full
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StartDynamic Warmup Version 2 (4:48)
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StartGame: Full-team Rotating Don't Drop the Baby (4:50)
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StartGame: 4v4 Backrow with fixed setters and liberos (3:42)
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StartGame: 2 v 2 2-touch (4:47)
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StartPractice Plan - Day 6, Full
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StartGame: 3-player 2-touch (5:04)
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StartGame Play with Rotating MBs and OHs (10:00)
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StartPractice Plan - Day 7, Full
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StartDrill: Full-Court Middle Back Pepper (2:27)
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StartDrill: 3-player Dig-Set (2:30)
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StartWash Game - 2nd ball if receivers win (5:00)
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StartGames: VolleyTennis variations (1:24)
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StartMobility-Prehab Example 3 (25:19)
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StartTraining Aide for Passing Platform Work (0:21)
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StartDrill: Cooperative 2-touch, 2-player with rotation (1:46)
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StartPractice Plan - Day 8, Full
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StartDrill: 5 v 4 offense vs defense (5:24)
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StartDrill: 5 v 6 serve plus 2 balls (10:00)
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StartDrill: Serve & Pass with defense (5:14)
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StartPractice Plan - Day 9, Full
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StartAnother Warmup Variation (10:10)
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StartDrill: Serve and Pass with Middles taking short serves (5:00)
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StartPractice Plan - Day 10, Full
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StartPractice Plan - Day 11, Full
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StartGame: 6 v 5 - 5 play without MB and receive serve + freeball (10:24)
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StartPractice Plan - Day 12, Full (2:05)
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StartDrill: 2-player cross-court reception with setting and 2nd ball (5:10)
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StartGame: 6 v 6 with 3-balls per attacker (5:31)
You can use the down arrow above to expand the listing.
What I'm asking for
The downside to a trip like this is, of course, the cost. Just
getting me to Europe and back again was about $1300 in airfare. And I had another 8 flights, 13 inter-city train rides, numerous buses, subways, and taxis added to that.
And that's just the cost of travel. Add in having a roof over my head each night and keeping myself fed, and I'm sure you can see how the final price tag was significant.
What I'm asking in return for sharing all the content I developed during the trip is that you help me recoup those costs a little bit.
As noted above, there are nearly 170 pieces of content. I could probably quite reasonably put a $199 price tag on this collection based on what I've seen in other places. I think, though, $139 is fair. That's about $0.85 per update.
If within 30 days you find the content not to your liking, let me know and I'll issue you a refund.