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Articles by Dave Cross @ yesicanvolleyball.com

Scrimmaging Without Officials | By Dave Cross.

I've noticed something interesting lately at my club team's practices-and frankly, I don't understand it. It seems that when we scrimmage another team from our club, my colleague coaching the other squad feels the need to call infractions on our team. This has happened to us with two different opponents on more than one occasion.

Now, don't get me wrong, obvious infractions should be called or the girls don't realize many times that they have committed them.

But, to me, it's an unwritten rule of scrimmaging that team's call their own infractions. I look at it this way: If I want the foul called to make a point, I'll call it. Fouls on the other team? I'm not worried about them-my focus is on my team and what we are doing. And if I start looking for these infractions, so will my players-that's just natural.

Keeping the focus on what we are doing trains my team to play the ball through to the whistle without hesitation. If a team is hoping for a whistle against their opponent, they are much more likely to hesitate when something happens that might be called. If they do this, and the whistle does not blow, that momentary pause may cause them to react just an instant too late on the ball to make the play-and thus, the play is lost. We focus on playing to the whistle. And in a scrimmage without officials, we play until the ball is down-no exceptions.

In a scrimmage, what good does it do to call a foot-foul on a jump server (who is playing on a cross-court net that doesn't allow the normal room behind the end line) when you could be talking to your players about what they have to do to pass the next serve better?

After all, if a player can pass a jump serve that traveled 28 feet to cross the net, that should make it easier for them to be able to pass one that travels the normal 30-31 feet because they will have a little more time to react, right?

I know that during the summer when we scrimmage another school, each team calls their own fouls. And I stress to my girls to be honest out of respect for the other team. If our opponents don't call something on themselves, we just use it as motivation to play a little harder.

Here's a good story for you:

We were scrimmaging a state power two years ago during August. The coach is a long-time friend of mine, and is one of the most ethical, stand-up guys I know.

They were definitely better than us that year. But, instead of going out and performing to their level to beat us, his players tried to win numerous points by reffing them. You know, calling balls in or out that were too close to call in many instances (and always calling them in their favor), calling net fouls and hand calls on us, etc. Each time, I stood up and said, "Sorry, we don't see it that way, it's a replay." I did this because I felt they were being very disrespectful to our program- "We don't have to play hard to beat you, we'll just call everything our way- because we are the better team and it's obvious these calls should go our way."

Yes, they beat us-no big deal- we played very well-one game went 24-26.

Afterwards, I approached my buddy and spoke to him about his team's cockiness- and how I felt it was very disrespectful to our program. I was honestly trying to help him-I saw something in his kids that day I didn't like, and I was trying to get him to see it so he could nip it in the bud. He really hadn't noticed it-he was totally focused on his team's performance-the man is a master of making adjustments based on his own player's strengths and weaknesses. He didn't like what I said, but he did address it with his team the next day back in his gym-I recall he told them he was embarrassed another coach had saw this in his players-and they ran quite a long time.

The point didn't get across, and his team underachieved that year for this very reason. Too overconfident. Later, he knew it and told me so himself. Before last season we talked, and he told me he was instituting the "Character Counts" program with his team. He was never going to go through another season like that. The result-another appearance in the state final four last fall.

Even though in this case it was the players, not the coach, playing official-the result was still negative.

Coaches: During scrimmages, keep your focus (and your team's) on your own play-if the other coach doesn't want to call an infraction on his team- he probably has a reason. Respect it and help your kids to understand how they could have won the rally anyways, and then turn their focus to winning the next point-that's how they are going to improve anyway-and if you win the next rally it's a wash!

Of course, during a match, as coaches we do sometimes have to let the official know we feel a whistle should have blown on something our opponent did-and yes, I do that myself- probably more than I should. But my players know that is my job - not theirs. They are still not allowed to say anything to the officials-it's simply not where their focus should be.

Article Source: Dave Cross
Yes I Can Volleyball
National Director

From Yes I Can Volleyball.com

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