ENCOURAGEMENT , FUN, ACCOUNTABILITY

 Our coaching philosophy is encouragement based. We coach in the present and future, not in the past.  We don’t beat athletes up for mistakes.  We DO hold them accountable for effort.   We know that if our training is fun and positive, athletes will love the game.  If athletes love the game, they will train passionately every day. If athletes give their best daily & are given good coaching information, they will excel.   Their habits developed as athletes will reflect in their lives as sons/daughters, students, husbands/wives, parents & citizens.  Our coaching provides structured play targeted at skill development, maximizing contacts, with score & reward.   We play as much as possible. Karch Kiraly, Hugh McCutcheon and others at the highest levels of USA volleyball emphasize that “The Game Teaches the Game.”  The most productive use of limited training hours is playing the game of volleyball.  Outdated old school techniques focused on isolations, repetitions and progressions, which don't transfer efficiently to actual play in the intricate game of volleyball.  We structure our drills to look and feel like games kids play, meaning they are fun, competitive, maximizing contacts per hour, with a score and a reward for winning/losing.  

• Coaches provide encouraging, limited information & modeling during play.  
• We grow athletes from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence (4 stages).  
• We foster an environment of fun, friendship, competition & opportunity– the best way to maintain long term high level work ethic

We train Monday. Wednesday & Friday, 2 hours per day (1.75 in winter).  We have balls in the air playing as much of the time as possible, with specific limited instruction.  We focus on developing strong fundamentals in each of the 6 skills.  We emphasize strong passing, tough but consistently in serving, block & pull defense, and teaching setter & attacker to see where the defense is during the attack. We discuss strategies including using math to play the highest percentage game, and geometry to know where to position and which balls to play.  We play, a lot, along with skill development drills.  Even many of our drills are competitions, which keeps it fun and focused.   We believe and have now proven that it is possible for practices to be both enjoyable AND high level, producing top level athletes.  In existence for 13 years, we have produced numerous national and state champions.  Of the 160 athletes who qualified for the 2014 state championships (2014 CBVA Cal Cup) held in Hermosa Beach, CA on September 1, 2014, 8% currently train with us and 15% have trained with us at some point.   The American Beach Volleyball Club coaching philosophy is for the athletes to feel God’s pleasure as they play.    Our desire is for the success of each athlete and their families, and that we all give God glory and please Him with our lives.  We’ll be grateful if you join us. We value that you choose to train  with us and hope that you value that we support the values of good sportsmanship and camaraderie that make our teams great.