Coaching Volleyball, Training Your Athletes to Trust

When a basketball player gets on a roll and hits 3 pointer after 3 pointer making his effort look real easy, someone might say, "he's unconscious!"

This is what happens when players trust. The athlete allows their body to react naturally to situations, without deliberately trying to control movements consciously. When an athlete trusts, they play "in the moment" and act on an instinct level. Athletes simply play and allow their body to do what is neccessary to succeed.

With trust, athletes confidently and aggressively look to make plays that will help your team be successful.

Without trust, athletes second-guess themselves into making mistakes and missing opportunities.

Basically, the more an athlete can stay in the "present moment", the more they are spending their time in a state of trust.

For instance, worrying about past mistakes can keep an athlete from executing a play. Worry about making another mistake in the future takes you out of the present moment which makes it much more difficult to execute a play.

Many volleyball players suffer from big-deal-itus.

How well do you play in big games? Are you worried about making a mistake in a big game or when the games on the line?

Worrying about how you play will often contribute to you not playing well and making mistakes.

Thinking this particular game is a "big deal" takes your mind out of the present moment.

1) Paralysis by Analysis

Jamming occurs when athletes think to much. Excessive thinking takes you out of the present moment and interferes with trust. When an athlete overanalyzes a situation, they end up locking up and paralyzing their efforts.

2) Aiming

Aiming can be good at times, for example, when you're in practice and teaching passing to a target. Aiming is good in this situation because you are developing the mindset of thinking from the end (not focusing on technique passing, but focus on the end result - getting the ball to the target). But aiming can get in the way of trust when the goal is to "play in the moment". Aiming can hurt your game when you are overly conscious of your goal. This excessive preoccupation of a goal leads an athlete to control their movements consciously.

In volleyball, a hitter could focus too much on trying to hit the ball down the line perfectly instead of trusting their armswing to hit the ball to the correct spot.

3) Controlling and Guiding Movements

Guiding occurs when an athlete tries too hard to control their movements instead of trusting them. This often happens when players change their technique of how they serve when the game is on the line. They try to guide the ball when they serve instead of trusting that they'll hit the serve just as they always have before.

4) Forcing

Forcing is when players try too hard to get the outcome they want rather than letting it happen and trusting the process. You see this happen when a hitter swings extra hard thinking they will hit harder if they swing harder. This is usually a mistake because the best contacts and hardest attacks are made when the hitter is relaxed, not tensed up trying to hit hard.