When I was 14, I made up a game with my older brother.

We were in the backyard of our parent's house peppering the volleyball around like we normally would. These pepper sessions would always last about 10-15 minutes before one of us would get bored. Something different happened during this pepper session; I shanked a pass and it went rolling up onto the roof. As the ball reached the top and began to roll back down my brother Brian passed it right back to me without skipping a beat.

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Earlier this week my favorite software company Kajabi asked Bay to Bay to be a part of their "Thank You 2020" campaign. (We host all of our digital learning and marketing funnels with them). 

While this year has been less than ideal for most of us, they are looking to shine a light on finding positives in a tough situation. The question they posed to us was this:

• How has 2020 been the year of opportunity for your business?

From the outside, it is easy to see how 2020 has been a...

Whenever a kid picks up a new sport or hobby, there is always the question mark of "How serious are they about this?". There are plenty of stories about kids picking up an instrument like guitar or the drums for a couple months, buying that fancy new Fender stratocaster, and then promptly losing interest allowing for that guitar to collect dust in the garage (yes, I am talking from personal experience - sorry Mom).

Club volleyball or sports in general are no different. Parents often ask...

When thinking about what to look for in a college volleyball school, there are a multitude of factors that go into each individual athletes decision making process. Here are some of the most common factors:

• Academic reputation of the school
• Strength and reputation of the program (you can check out college volleyball recruiting rankings for this type of info)
• Division of play (DI-III, NAIA, etc.)
• Relationship with the coaching staff
• Pipeline to professional leagues
• Location 
• Size (big...

Let's start from the top. What is a lead magnet? A lead magnet is a marketing term for a free item or service that is given away for the purpose of gathering contact details (Investopedia).

How valuable are a leads contact details to you? As a volleyball club, the answer is very valuable. If a potential athlete starts with your club at the age of 12, that is 7 potential years worth of customer value (club dues, uniforms, camps, clinics, etc). You can do the back of the napkin...

Coaches are in the business of teaching good habits. Both in your specific sport and life on the whole.

In volleyball, we coaches are constantly harping on athletes to get their feet to the ball, to angle their shoulders to target, or to extend their transition further pst the 10 foot line. All of these skills could also be described as habits.

It takes around 21 days to form a new habit, and around 66 days for it to become automatic (source). Therefore it is useful to think of your training...

When I was 16 years old we added two new players onto my Bay to Bay team that were starters at our rival club. One of those players was Beau Barron.

Right away Beau battled with our starting setter Trevor Rowell for playing time. During a big qualifying tournament, Beau was having the match of a lifetime in the quarterfinals before he went down with a brutal ankle injury. He battled his way back through months of rehab to be ready to go for Junior Nationals.

By that time Trevor had...

Whenever I plan a practice, I always prioritize speed and efficiency. I aim to maximize our time so that we can squeeze even more reps out of our allotted time. After a few practices, my athletes get the hang of this accelerated tempo and come to crave that speed. The downside is that sometimes my athletes "get sloppy" on the fundamentals like serve receive, defense, and blocking footwork.

That is why I tell them, whenever I slow something down it is because it is extremely...

I believe that culture isn't created, it is nurtured. You can plant the seeds of culture within your club or team, but there is no guarantee that the roots will take hold. As such, you must provide consistent opportunity and nourishment for club culture to grow. 

First things first: decide what you would like to see in your club culture. Another way to think of this is to answer the question, how would you like a college coach to describe your team or club?

• Do you want to be the fiery...

During this weeks Leadership Development session, Coach John Castillo brought up a great point for our young athletes: remove the barriers to entry.

Quite simply, make it as easy as possible for you to get in some extra reps whenever the spark for play arrives. Do this by:

• Putting a volleyball out in the open in your house wherever you spend the most time (family room, bedroom, etc)
• Put a grass net in your backyard
• Makeup a game that you can play by yourself or with a friend at home

If...