External Focus in Volleyball

Hybrid Class Presentation and

Application
*Presenting Dec. 9th
Timeline of project: September- November (3
months)
Participants involved: WOU Volleyball Team
and Coaching Staff

Timeline
Changed serving: standing in the middle only and hitting short and deep slot serve.
Changed serving: some back to jump serving and others to just more deep serves
Changed serving: just get it in vs. tough and ok to miss
Sept 7 post match Min Manketo: drinks with Diane and James: psychological
aspects of player problem solving, conceptual coaching, she saw our biggest issues
was that our players were afraid to make errors, james saw our serving as an
issue. Her setter isnt great but she modified the mentality of the hitters and
passers to compensate for it. Learn to hit anything and learn to control the first
touch.
Sept 21 CWU at home
Sept 19 NNU at home


Timeline (continued)
Sept 25 (Concordia Match): Dr. H tells us at crush about this class and
external focus
Sept 28 Saint Martins away: Started reading the inner game of tennis
book
Oct 3 Anchorage match away: reinforced prayer for passing week before,
put balls in the corner to focus on serving target (becky hit first time),
Jordin/Erin Rainbow set analogy, Christie, trace the ball from setters hands
for blocking, Sam dent the floor,
Oct 4 Fairbanks Practice: clock to hit the ball
Oct 4 Fairbanks Match away
Oct 7 Erin, Cover the ball, stamp it clean wasnt until 10/30/11 that she
understood the stamping after asking how to keep the shape when she
runs to ball it becomes harder
Oct 10 Simon Fraiser at home
Oct 12 Western Washington at home


Timeline (continued)
Oct 14 Shifted passers to trajectory based on distance effect, all but Lani
should have kept more of them at prayer stage.
Oct 17 SPU away
Oct 19 MSUB away: shifted to structured mindset during matches, runs of
3, responding to points
Oct 19-Oct 26: practiced runs of three during 6 on 6 drills did 6 on 6
whole practice
Oct 26 SMU at home
Oct 28: changed to faster sets, added quick 2s
Oct 29: had horrible practice due to changes and high pace environment
Oct 30: switched back to fundamentals based on the multi-tasking article,
and insights from motor learning research about variation in a single-task
vs. varied tasks.
Oct 31 Fairbanks at home
Nov 2 Anchorage at home


Timeline (continued)
Nov 4-Nov 6 practice
Nov 4
th
: motor learning class talked about Gentiles
categorization (spatial/temporal) tried it with jump
serves today (11/5) in practice and it seemed to have a
positive effect. Also reflected on sams sequencing of
hitting (breaking down arm, jump, timing etc. and how
much less frustrated she was).
Nov 6 practice at WWU
Nov 7 match at WWU
Nov 8 practice at SFU
Nov 9 match at SFU

Timeline (continued)
Nov 14
th
home vs. MSUB
Nov 16
th
home vs. SPU
Nov 21
st
away at NNU
Nov 23
rd
away at CWU
Alaska Anchorage/Fairbanks
The week prior we did passing
prayers and while at Anchorage
we did serving targets and
while at Fairbanks we did clock
ball
External Focus for Hitting Varied Shots
We used the face of a clock to represent the location on the ball that
would need to be hit for a specific shot. At this time it is worth noting
that we had all hitters (both right and left sides) hitting on both the
right and the left. Traditionally, the right side hitters hit the majority of
their balls on the right while left side hitters hit on the left. The added
complexity of 4 different shots and two of which being mirror images
depending on the side they are hitting left the external focus
ineffective.
Montana State Billings 11/14/13
The structuring of responses
After Saint Martins, and the success of both
billings and smu we shifted back to faster sets
Christie and I worked on hitting high on the
ticker
Theories
Dynamic Systems Theory
Individual (Cognitive Theory)
Task (Motivation, Perception, Goal Theory)
Environment (Learning Theory)


Skills
Serving
Passing
Setting
Hitting
Blocking
Defending





Journal
Video Organize folder
Research articles that support findings
Comparison to traditional
Coaches perspective
Players perspective
Differences between skills


Good but not in right spot
Player assessment
Coaches assessment
translation
Distance effect
Performance focuses
Translation from tradition-compressed version