Zoe Bell is also currently a coach/travel & training coordinator at Carolina Juniors Volleyball and was previously a coach at Ardrey Kell High School (NC).

By: Alan Stein, Jr.

Originally Published in: Raise Your Game

I don't believe there's such a thing as a "million-dollar idea." The phrase implies that all you have to do is come up with an idea and the money will start flowing in. But that's not how it works. It's never once worked like that. Vision doesn't stop with coming up with an idea; if it did, there would be way more billionaires sitting around thinking up more ideas. It's about executing that idea, and that execution requires others' help. You have to sell your vision by building a dedicated and tight circle that feels strongly connected to you and to it. True leaders live and die by their vision and get others to do so as well. Communicating your vision is a must. According to the Carnegie Institute of Technology, "85% of your financial success is due to your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. Only 15% is due to technical knowledge."

Vision is about carrying both the big and the small, the now and the later, the intangible concept and the tangible steps. "The most productive people push themselves to come up with big goals," wrote Charles Duhigg in Smarter Faster Better, "and then have a system for breaking them into manageable parts." Draw a connection between what you ultimately want to accomplish, along with what you want your organization to be, and then break it all down into the manageable steps it will take to get there.

"Any vision, however far-reaching, remains only a fantasy unless steps are taken to realize it," Maury Klein wrote in The Change Makers, a book that profiles the greatest entrepreneurs of the last 150 years. "What separates the great artist from the ordinary practitioner is not only grandeur of vision but, even more, the ability to bring it to fruition." Remember, the word "vision" in business is usually associated with predicting the future, but the word itself is simpler than that: it just means to see. No one will see exactly what you can see. Keep your eyes open.

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By: David Emeott

Author of: Beyond the Finish Line: The Art of Transformational Coaching - Click Here

The parents' role is simple: encouraging their athlete and the team, being positive, and remaining present. The child needs their parents the most when things don't go as planned. When athletes fail, they experience a lonely moment, one where they need their parents' support more than ever. Their job is to be there for them-not to fix everything, but to let them process the emotions of falling short.

As a parent, I have attended countless competitions, traveling long distances to watch my children and their teammates compete in both high school and college. My mindset has remained the same, with two things particularly emphasized:

• I am there to support when support is needed.
• I know I am needed most when my kids fail.

When my kids win, they are surrounded by friends and teammates celebrating. But when they lose? That's when the car ride home feels the longest. That's when I am needed most.

It is not a parent's role to do the following three things:

• Criticize officials
• Criticize other athletes
• Criticize coaches (especially during an event)

There are a time and place for discussing concerns with a coach, and it is never from the stands in the third quarter. I have never met a player who enjoys hearing their parents yelling from the stands. I have often wondered what drives this behavior when I witness it. Is it a learned response? Maybe one time, they yelled "Shoot!" and their kid took a shot and made a basket, unfortunately reinforcing the belief that their input was necessary.

From a coach's perspective, I have seen how this unfolds. Almost every time, the athlete is embarrassed. Too often, the parents' vocal comments from the stands contradict what the coach is saying. And even when a parent's advice is technically correct, the athlete is left in an impossible situation, with two conflicting options:

• Do they listen to the coach, the expert the school hired to lead
  the team?
• Or do they listen to their parent, the person who has raised,
  fed, and provided for them?

It's a lose-lose situation. Coaching an athlete is a bit like co-parenting, because it takes a village more than just two biological parents to raise a well-adjusted, successful child. When two voices are in direct conflict, the young athlete is caught in the middle, and that rarely ends well.

As competitors themselves, coaches do everything they can to improve their chances of winning. I have never seen a situation where an out-of-control, disruptive parent made an athlete play better. I have never seen a coach put a kid in the game or offer a scholarship because a parent pushed them into it by yelling from the stands. I have never seen a parent criticizing another athlete
lead to more wins.

Most parents are passionate, and that's a good thing. But passion without purpose or control is a problem. Every parent has moments of feeling like their child should play more, that the coach made a bad decision, or that the refs blew a call. I have felt those things too. But I have also realized the following three things:

1. Everyone is doing their best, even if their best doesn't meet my standards.
2. If my child's current situation isn't good enough, there are options beyond acting like a fool in the heat of the moment.
3. If a coach is truly holding my child back from earning a full-ride scholarship, then I need to consider my options - a transfer, training differently, seeking additional coaching - but I need to do so with prudence and perspective.

The reality is that most kids aren't on the verge of a Division I scholarship, and the coach is probably less responsible for their future than you think.

In the same vein, it never helps to yell at an official. Coaches can sometimes work an official to get a call, but this is never helped by a parent's reaction. And criticizing another athlete? It is completely out of line for a parent to publicly berate someone else's child, and it almost always leads to unnecessary conflict in the stands.

A few years ago, college coaches started asking one question before recruiting an athlete: "How are the parents?" Without naming names, I've seen firsthand how much this matters. Early in the transfer portal era of college sports, I would casually mention to a college coach that a kid might benefit from "getting away from home” because their parents were overbearing and never satisfied. I didn't realize at the time how much weight those words carried: Coaches would immediately cool on that athlete, and the recruitment process would stop.

College coaches have had to make huge adjustments in the way they recruit. Club and AAU coaches have known this for years: You are recruiting the parents as much as you are recruiting the kid. If a player's parents are difficult, the chances of them transferring after a year or two are significantly higher. At the college level, coaches invest time and effort into freshmen and sophomores with the expectation of a payoff in their junior and senior years. If they believe an athlete's parents will constantly look for something "better," they are far less likely to offer a scholarship.

With the transfer portal and "name, image, and likeness" deals changing college sports, coaches are more concerned than ever about what parents will do when their kid isn't playing or is benched. One college coach told me that when they scout players, they also watch the stands to identify the parents. If they can't figure out who the parents are by the end of the game, that's a good thing-it means they aren't a distraction.

From time to time, coaches will need to step in and play the role of a parent. But I have yet to meet a parent who needed to take on the role of a coach in the third quarter.

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About the Author

David Emeott has served as the head track and field coach at East Kentwood High School since 2004, leading the program to eight state championships and a 2010 national title. Under his leadership, the team maintained a 100% graduation rate while competing at the highest levels. A passionate advocate for transformational coaching, he has mentored hundreds of student-athletes who have gone on to success in college, military service, and careers nationwide.

  ]]> https://coachesinsider.com/volleyball/parents-know-your-role-10/feed/ 0 127320 https://coachesinsider.com/volleyball/passing-footwork-with-amanda-majstorovic-volleystar-volleyball-academy/ https://coachesinsider.com/volleyball/passing-footwork-with-amanda-majstorovic-volleystar-volleyball-academy/#respond Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:05:05 +0000 https://coachesinsider.com/?p=126968 Watch as Coach Amanda Majstorovic discusses passing footwork for younger athletes. She explains how to practice proper movement and mobility while passing. She includes progressive drills that will help build proper passing footwork technique.