Using Your Bench

Using Your Bench

by Mary Kate Boland - Franklin & Marshall College

originally published in Coaching Volleyball Magazine

Have you ever been at a volleyball match and noticed a general lack of enthusiasm and total disinterest emanating from the bench? That used to be my team. Starters played enthusiastically and non-starters sat with arms folded across chests while sitting on the bench, occasionally offering the half-hearted "Come ON LADIES!". My bench players were not engaged because they weren't playing and were kind of mad about it. The only agenda they cared about was their own. There was no sense of team, just "ME" and a bench can quickly become a toxic environment if the kids who spend the most time there have a bad mentality.

If you were to come to one of our matches today, you would almost notice the bench more than the actual game. My bench is crazy, in a completely wonderful way. We call them "Team Bench," a name they came up with themselves and something they take a great deal of pride in. They dance, they come up with individual cheers for each player, and they are the heart and soul of my team.

I truly believe that the players on my bench have won games for us. There have been times when I've been at a loss for anything positive to say to my kids. Team Bench always comes up with something funny or inspirational to say. We place a great deal of emphasis on laughter in our program. The kids play the best when they are relaxed and enjoying themselves. Team Bench keeps the atmosphere light and fun. They are indispensable and I don't know how successful we would be without such a supportive bench.

So the question is HOW do you get your bench players to understand and embrace the importance of what they do? The simple answer is that I have absolutely no idea. I do know that we've worked really hard at building a healthy team dynamic. It may be that I just have great kids who truly believe that team is more important than self, but I don't think it's that simple.

Keep in mind that I have been a collegiate coach for only nine years, have won a single Conference Championship and have won ZERO coaching awards. Thus, I am not an expert, but I do think my bench players are pretty cool and supportive kids and I would love to think the environment my coaching staff creates has something to do with that. Here are some things I've come up with:

1. Recruit kids you like (OK, so I shamelessly stole that advice from Russ Rose. Thank you, Russ Rose – this advice has served me quite well) and who understand your sense of humor. Some of those kids are going to end up on your bench and if they are fun, your bench will be more fun. Besides, you never know who is going to be on your bench from year to year. It can change drastically.

2. Make sure ALL of the players on your team have a voice, not just the starters and not just the captains. More often than not, captains are seniors and they may have a different point of view than your underclassmen. On our team, each class has a representative who comes to our captain's meeting every other week. They get to chime in about drills they like, detest, or ideas they have to make practice better. If they feel like they have a hand in the decisions that get made, they take way more ownership of out-comes than if everything was done in a dictator-like "My Way or the Highway" kind of approach (although inside I am quite dictator-like.. .1 just try not to let the kids see it).

3. Figure out what your players are like outside of volleyball. Showing interest in your kids in non-volleyball related areas shows them you care about them as individuals. I have had several conversations with my players about America's Next Top Model and Harry Potter vs. Twilight. It's what they like and understand. So I try to like and understand it too (and I totally would not watch ANTM on my own.. .oh wait, I just used an acronym. Busted.)

4. Reward them often, use punishment sparingly. We incorporate a lot of small positive reinforcements and the occasional "What the heck are you doing?" moment.

1. 1. We have a practice jersey that ANYONE can win at practice each day. It sets apart the kid who worked her hardest during the previous day's practice. Our jersey is hot pink. Most girls like hot pink. See where I am going with this?
   2. We also hand-paint little awards and give out a defensive and offensive MVP after each of our play-dates. In some cases, the person who had the most kills gets the award, but in others, it's the kid who took a smart swing or ran down a single ball when it mattered most. You would be shocked at how excited college girls get over hand-painted objects. It is something they can take back to their dorm room and hang on their wall to remind them they did something good. And trust me, I am not crafty or good at anything remotely artistic. If I can pull it off, anyone can.
      
   3. We use a competitive cauldron (again, not my idea, something I gleefully stole from reading some other wonderful coach's article in AVCA magazine). The kids go bonkers over cauldron points. Hum-drum serving drills are now the equivalent of the Preakness because they could potentially earn three cauldron points. I kid you not. Every three weeks, we wipe the slate clean, award a cauldron winner for that period (and yes, they get a small piece of wood with their name painted on it...) and start over again.
      
   4. Say thank you. Constantly. These players are STUDENT athletes (note emphasis on the student part) who make a lot of sacrifices to play a sport in college. Could some of them get higher grades if they didn't play a sport? Perhaps. Would some of them rather be going out on Friday nights instead of staying in as a team and watching a terrible chick-flick that most likely involves Leighton Meister? You bet your butt they would. Do they always feel like dropping everything to host a recruit? Of course not. But they do it. Make sure they know you are grateful – your program wouldn't be any good and your job would be agonizing if they didn't do these things for you. And more often than not, it's my bench players who are the most willing to sacrifice their time...

We tell them when they do something good, but we also get on them when they've screwed something up or not put forth enough effort. The hardest part is finding a good balance. Praise them too much and they'll think they can do no wrong. Never praise them and they will tune you out.

This is something I struggle with and will probably never master, but it is important to create opportunities for all of the players on your team to shine. Whether it is a practice jersey, cauldron points or a stupid piece of painted wood, pretty much everyone has access to these tangible representations of success. It's up to players to earn them.

5. Deliberately talk about the core values of your team. My kids are not all best friends. They don't all hang out together, but we believe in the core value of family and it's something we use to bring ourselves back down to earth constantly. Family members don't always like each other, but they find a way to get along and make things work because they care about each other and have a common goal. My team gets that because they have all embraced this idea of family.

When I asked the members of "Team Bench" to reflect on why they are so enthusiastic and crazy, one of my sophomores hit the nail on the head. This is what she wrote:

"We all want to be out on the court and to get playing time. It's what we bust our butts for all year round. But, on a team as big as ours, sometimes you have to see the bigger picture. The team is greater than us; we play for the "we." We yell and we dance and we say ridiculous things, because when we have fun, we are successful. Sometimes the starters focus so much on the outcome of the game that they forget the reason we all play this game. We play at the Division III level because we love to play volleyball. When the starters start to forget that, Team Bench will always have their backs to remind them what having fun looks like."

6. Realize how lucky we all are to have the opportunity to work with motivated young women and be willing to learn from them. If I've taught the kids on my team even half of what they've taught me (See above quote, my kids are awe-some), I am a happy camper.