Deliberate Practice

by Mark Rosen – University of Michigan

As coaches we have all seen the famous quote "practice makes perfect". That quote was then prominently modified to "perfect practices, makes perfect". Though both are great motivating statements and fundamentally true, the focus of this article is on what I call "Deliberate Practice". Let's look at the definition of Deliberate; (adj.) 1. To take careful thought. 2. Intentional. The focus of this article is to get you to be "deliberate" when you are organizing and preparing for your teams practice sessions. The following key steps are ones that we use in our program when preparing to train our team to be the best.

PRIORITIZE YOUR TIME
I believe one of the most important concepts in practice planning is to identify and then focus on the areas that will most help your team succeed. These will be different for every team or at different levels of play. I would encourage you to evaluate what areas of the game will allow your team to succeed and then spend the highest percentage of training time on those areas. This is a simple concept, but one that I think is often overlooked. We all have limitations on training time. With that concept in mind, it makes sense that you spend the available time on the most important areas of the game. To determine this, it is important to be able to accurately evaluate what earns points for your team. Is it serving? Is it first contact ball control? Is it blocking? Is it team defense? I could go on and on, but it is likely going to be a combination of a few key skill and system areas. I'm not saying to neglect all of the other skills of the game, but I am saying, spend a significant amount of time on those key areas. For example; about five years ago we made the decision that serving was a key component in our teams success, so we started spending much more time focusing on our serving skills within our practice sessions. Prior to this decision, we typically did some serving reps at the end of practice each day. We have since moved to doing much more focused repetition, at different times throughout our practice sessions, to increase the volume and level of importance of that skill. With that focus we have seen our team become a much stronger serving team and we feel that has been critical in our team's successes over that period of time.

MAXIMIZE CONTACTS WITH THE BALL
I can't emphasize enough how critical it is to spend as much time in practice as you can with your players contacting the ball. When warming up in practice, find a way to get them moving and warm, but incorporate a ball in the process. In our training sessions we typically spend 15-20 minutes with some form of warm-up activity prior to team stretching. We utilize a ball in those activities as much as possible. Think about it, if we use 15 minutes of time each day doing movement exercises without a ball then stretching, that would add up to over 50 hours of time in the course of one season. That would add up to over 200 hours of training time over the course of a player's career in our program. In my opinion, 200 hours of quality time learning how to control the ball is invaluable!

When designing your practice plans, look at every drill or situation you create and ask yourself; how many players are involved and how many touches are they getting on the ball? I am always looking for ways to get more people involved and engaged and more touches on the ball in everything we do.

Keep the pace of your practices and drills fast! I like to think the game will seem slow and manageable for our players if we train at a faster pace than the match will be played at. Training at a fast pace will also maximize the number of repetitions that our players will receive during a particular training session and create a conditioning affect within our practices.

WHEN TEACHING SKILLS, PROGRESS FROM CONTROLLED TO
UNCONTROLLED SITUATIONS
I'm a big believer in the concept of progressions. When teaching skills I think it is important to start in very controlled situations where the players can gain perfect technique and develop solid "muscle memory" in doing skills perfectly. I also feel strongly that you then must progress the drills to uncontrolled situations that create very accurate, game like activities. This is a delicate balance that must be found where you aren't spending too much time on simple, controlled skill work or too much time on completely game-like, uncontrolled situations. Finding that balance and progressing from the controlled to the un-controlled is a significant key to helping your player's master skills within the game.

CONNECT THE SKILLS IN TRAINING
When working on a new skill, or getting repetition to reinforce technique in a skill, we tend to train in drills that focus only on that particular skill. I think it is important to then start connecting the skills as we progress to more game-like situations. This will allow us to start "playing the game" even in training. For example if we are going to work on repetition attacking we might start out off of a coaches toss to make it simple, controlled and at a high rate of speed. We would then progress to attacking off of a ball coming from a setter. Then we would quickly add a passer to initiate the play and further progress to the ball being initiated off of a serve. This allows more of our players to get contact on the ball and for each skill to connect with the previous or following skill.

COMPETE AND HAVE FUN!
I think these are two areas we often overlook as coaches. First, if we want our players to compete in matches we need to train them to compete in practice. We attempt to make as many of our training situations into competitive opportunities for our players. The ability to compete is a skill, just like serving and passing, and I think we need to continually teach and develop our players to compete. Second, we always need to keep in mind that volleyball is a GAME and therefore it should be FUN! I'm a big believer that when players are having fun they are going to work harder, compete with more freedom and continue to give their coaches and teammates everything they have! As coaches, how we go about organizing our day to day training, can have a huge impact on how our players compete and enjoy the game.

I heard someone say the other day, "one of our goals as coaches should be to make sure we aren't a player's last coach". I thought that was a very impactful way of looking at what we do. My hope is that everyone who graduates from our program will continue to have a passion and love for the game for years to come. I strongly believe that how we train can have a profound effect on the experience our players will have.

Good Luck with your team!

http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/w-volley/mich-w-volley-body.html

About the Author...

Michigan reached new heights in 2009, reaching the Elite Eight for the first time in program history and closing with a 27-10 overall record, the most wins during Rosen's tenure. The Wolverines knocked off No. 3 Nebraska to start the year, marking the first time U-M has knocked off a top-five opponent, setting the tone for the season. The Wolverines rose all the way to No. 6 in the national polls after a 10-0 start.

The Wolverines went 12-8 during the Big Ten season, tying for fourth place, the best conference finish during the Rosen era. U-M hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament, advancing to the Round of 16 for the third consecutive season after wins over Niagara and Ohio. The Wolverines knocked off No. 4 Stanford in Palo Alto in the round of 16 before falling to No. 3 Hawai'i in the regional final.

Following the successful season, the individual accolades began to pour in for the Maize and Blue. For the first time in program history, U-M had two All-Americans in Lexi Zimmerman (first team) and Juliana Paz (third team). Zimmerman's first-team honor marked the first time a Michigan player was named to the first team. Both Paz and Zimmerman were All-Big Ten first-team selections, with Alex Hunt garnering honorable mention.

Rosen was selected as one of two head coaches for the U.S. Women's National A2 Program in the spring of 2010, leading his Blue team to the title with a 6-1 record.

Rosen has topped the 20-win mark in six of the last seven seasons and has suffered just two losing seasons in his entire head coaching career, leading his teams to 30-win seasons on five occasions and 20-win seasons in 11 of 17 career campaigns.

The 2008 season was a banner year for the Wolverines as Rosen led the team to a then-personal-best 26 wins -- tying the second highest win total in Wolverine volleyball history and the most victories since 1981. Rosen became the winningest coach in program history in 2008 when he notched victory number 178 versus Purdue (Oct. 10, 2008) passing Sandy Vong for the top spot among U-M coaches. Rosen didn't stop there, guiding Michigan to a new program mark for winning percentage (.743) with a 26-9 record. Michigan tied a program record with its third-straight 13-0 start in 2008, highlighted by four straight tournament championships to begin the season.

The Wolverines reaped the rewards of their record season with Zimmerman (unanimous All-Big Ten selection), Beth Karpiak (honorable mention All-Big Ten) and Alex Hunt(All-Big Ten Freshman Team) earning postseason accolades. Zimmerman went on to earn AVCA All-Mideast Region and second team All-America accolades, becoming the first Wolverine to earn higher than a third-team honor.

Rosen has vaulted the Wolverines to national prominence, with U-M receiving votes or being ranked in the AVCA Top 25 for the entire 2007, 2008 and 2009 campaigns. Rosen helped U-M crack the AVCA Top 25 poll for the first time in program history in his first week on the Wolverine bench in 1999. Michigan remained in the top 25 for five consecutive weeks, peaking at No. 18 and earning the program's second bid to the NCAA Tournament and the first since 1997. In 2000, Michigan made its first appearance in the USA Today/AVCA Coaches Preseason Top 25 poll, ranking 24th in the country.

In 2007, Rosen led the Wolverines to a then personal-best 24 wins and the team's second-straight 13-0 start, highlighted by a season-opening victory at No. 10 Hawaii. The Wolverines reaped the rewards of their record season with Katie Bruzdzinski (unanimous All-Big Ten selection) and Zimmerman (All-Big Ten Freshman Team) earning postseason accolades, while Michigan picked up its first Big Ten Player of the Year honor when Stesha Selsky was named Defensive Player of the Year.The honors continued to flow in when Bruzdzinski and Zimmerman earned AVCA All-Mideast Region honors, with Zimmerman being named Mideast Region Freshman of the Year, while Lyndsay Miller earned All-Mideast Region honorable mention. Bruzdzinski and Zimmerman advanced to the national All-America ballot where they both earned honorable mention nods.

No stranger to success, Rosen led Northern Michigan to a national championship as a first-year head coach in 1994, posting 20 or more wins eight times. He led Cal-State Bakersfield (1992-93) to a regional final and the Division II finals in his first two seasons as a head coach before joining Northern Michigan in 1994. Rosen helped guide Northern Michigan to another berth in the Division II finals in 1995, followed by a pair of semifinals before taking over the head coaching duties at Boise State in 1998 where he led the Broncos to an 18-9 record and second place in the Big West Conference.

Rosen has coached Michigan's only three AVCA All-Americans (Erin Moore, Paz and Zimmerman) and all four of the Wolverines' AVCA All-Mideast Region honorees (Moore, Bruzdzinski, Paz and Zimmerman). Rosen has had 11 honorees on All-Big Ten squads, one Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, one Mideast Region Freshman of the Year and 21 student-athletes earning 39 Academic All-Big Ten honors, with Erin Moore earning CoSIDA Academic All-District honors in 2003 and Stesha Selsky picking up All-District honors in 2007.

Rosen heads one of the most experienced coaching staffs in the conference with associate head coach Leisa Rosen (1991 Big Ten Conference Player of the Year and one of Sports Illustrated's 50 greatest sports figures of the 20th century from Alaska) and U-M assistant coach Amanda Ault (10 years of collegiate coaching experience) on the bench. The Rosen's have coached together since 1998 and this stability has helped them take Michigan to the next level and make the Wolverines a fixture in the NCAA Tournament. Ault has been pivotal on the recruiting end, helping secure a 2008 freshman class that was one of the best in the country.

Rosen made a splash in his inaugural season with the Wolverines in 1999 when Michigan upset No. 7 BYU, 3-0 in the opening match of the season. They went on to sweep Toledo and Georgia 3-0 in the Outback Steakhouse Invitational in Athens, Ga., and debuted in the USA Today/AVCA Coaches Top 25 poll for the first time in program history. Michigan remained in the top 25 for five consecutive weeks, peaking at No. 18 after downing No. 18 Ohio State.

The Wolverines earned their first bid to the NCAA Tournament under Rosen and just its second bid in program history. Michigan defeated Fairfield in the opening round of the tournament but fell to Pacific in five games in the second round. In 2000, Michigan made its first appearance in the USA Today/AVCA Coaches Preseason Top 25 poll, ranking 24th in the country and advanced to its second-straight NCAA Tournament, pushing past Louisville in the first round before falling to Arizona.

A native of Anchorage, Alaska, Rosen earned a bachelor's degree in physical education with a minor in biology from California State University at Northridge (1985) where he was a three-time varsity volleyball letterwinner. Rosen holds memberships in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and the U.S. Volleyball Association.

Rosen is married to Wolverine associate head coach Leisa (Wissler) Rosen. The couple has two sons, Brady and Cameron.