The Volleyball By Design Podcast

Most coaches spend hours hunting for new drills when the drills they already run could be giving their players twice as many quality touches.In this episode, I break down rep ratio, a concept I learned working alongside national team and professional coaches, and show you how to restructure simple serve receive and blocking drills so the ball never stops moving and no player is standing around....

More and more coaches are leaving the game for one reason: they’re done dealing with parents. So I’m going back to the vault to re-air one of my most requested episodes, on five strategies to prevent parent issues before they ever start.Before we dive in, I added a new intro on something I didn’t cover the first time: no-cut policies. If you can’t remove a player who’s poisoning your culture, you...

Designing your offensive systems is one thing. Training them so your players know exactly where to be and get the most quality reps is another.In this episode, I break down how to train your team’s systems in practice. That starts with knowing every scenario your players need to recognize: in-system, out-of-system, medium pass at 8 and 12 feet, sideline, the 3–4 zone, and the corners.You’ll...

Every coach eventually faces it: a player who’s talented, maybe even your best, but is quietly dragging the whole team down. In this episode, I share the story of cutting my best player at Seneca, the step-by-step process I use when a player’s behaviour starts damaging team culture, and what to do when cutting isn’t an option. We dive into:Why one player can derail a volleyball team faster than...

In this episode, we go back into the vault. In 2021, I sat down with John Speraw, former head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team and UCLA, and now President and CEO of USA Volleyball. Recorded around the Tokyo Olympics, this conversation is packed with lessons from one of the best minds in the game that hold up just as well today.In this episode:Behind the scenes of the Tokyo OlympicsHow John...

Most players think showing up to practice is the sacrifice. It's not. In this episode, I show coaches how to teach their athletes what a serious competitor actually looks like.In this episode:The line in the volleyball manual that every player signs, and why most don't understand itWhy showing up is the floor, not the ceilingThe ladder every athlete has to climbHow Daenan went from club to one of...

Most coaches pick their starting rotation the same way every match: setter serves first, best hitter up front, and go. But your starting rotation quietly decides which rotations get extra turns in close sets, and that can be the difference between winning and losing.In this episode, I break down how to analyze your rotation data and build a strategy to improve your sideout and breakpoint...

Every parent knows Lego instructions are so clear a five-year-old can build the set on the box without help. What if you taught your athletes the same way? In this episode, I break down the exact method I use to teach skills so clearly that any athlete on your team, at any level, can pick them up faster, using passing as the live example so you can apply it in your gym this week.Why most coaches...

Your practice plan has drills, reps, and systems on it. But there's a second curriculum running underneath your entire season that no one writes down and it might be shaping your team more than anything you actually drew up.In this episode, I break down 5 unwritten lessons every coach is teaching whether they mean to or not, and the exact moments in practice where you're either building your...

In this episode, I share my journey from knowing very little about volleyball to building a career coaching at the high school, club, and college as well as eventually working alongside some of the best coaches and athletes in the game.Along the way, I share some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned about becoming a better coach and building a successful volleyball program.In this episode, we...