REC It is a bit different than most volleyball programs when it comes to the coaching department. The biggest pet peeve for coaches is when they give a correction and the Athlete responds with, “I know.” We know that you have heard it a thousand times, and that makes you think that you know it, but why do you keep hearing it? If an athlete hears a correction over and over again without applying and understanding it, that means that there is a major disconnect in the coach/athlete's communication. The response of “I know” is the problem. It is what we call a “reflexive response”, which is when you hear something, think you know it, you stop listening and shuts down the communication.
When we train our coaches, we have the mentality that we cannot stop every athlete from saying I know, and that is okay. We structure our corrections so the athletes cannot respond like that. Instead of telling them what they did wrong, we ask them why something happened. If they actually know the answer, then they will answer it, and that conversation reinforced the existing neuropathway in the brain. If they don’t know the answer, then the athlete wants to hear it because they don’t want to make that same mistake again when the coach asks in the future.
Ultimately, we want to create an environment where the athletes can bond with coaches through conversation. They learn better when they talk with the coach instead of having a coach talk at them. This method helps athletes self-coach themselves when they are older. It also prepares them to become coaches in the future.
