The experiment. Carl McGown's tribute.

Julio Velasco part 2 is coming up.

April 09, 2023

Welcome to The VolleyBrains Weekly. Let's finally do some work.

Here's what we've got this week

  • THE EXPERIMENT!

  • Great Carl McGown article

JV's rule changes aka 'THE EXPERIMENT'

Last Sunday we launched part 1 of Julio Velasco's Masterclass on volleybrains.com. 

In part 2, which goes live tomorrow, Julio has an interesting answer to the question:

According to you, what rule change is necessary to make our game more attractive? Why would you want to see this rule implemented?

Except for having fewer interruptions, this was his answer...

And this is where THE EXPERIMENT comes in.

Most coaches agree we should get rid of the double contact and have fewer interruptions in our game. Those things can be implemented without a lot of testing.

But when it comes to bigger changes, like changing the number of players on the court, we can't take a decision, implement it, and hope for the best...we need to test and validate.

If we take a look at the international calendar, yeah, no space to experiment at all.

If you didn't check Velasco's clip yet, do it now otherwise you won't have a clue about what we're talking otherwise.

Today this email will go out to 1000+ volleyball coaches around the globe.

We should be able to get a few coaches interested to test this out. Even if it's just at the end of your practice...but don't make this too much of a big deal.

But always remember -> Don't get fired now!! 😄

So this is the experiment:

  1. Get 14 players on the court. (Even 12 + 2 assistant coaches could work?)

  2. Record 5 minutes of gameplay, it's all about defense here.

  3. Send an email to [email protected] with the download link.

  4. Also, write me what your own feeling was after seeing your defense in action. Could this have legs?

The deadline is Thursday the 20th of April.

We should only do this experiment with men's college or pro teams...but what the heck. Nobody should be excluded here. Upload it anyways.

Afterwards, we'll make a compilation of some great rallies and of course give you a public thank you in this newsletter for cooperating.

And we'll revolutionize our game!!

No, we won't. But somebody has to do the FIVB's dirty work, you know. 😁

And for extra info, this isn't just 'us' winging it. The '7 player defense' concept has been floating around for over a decade in the minds of many pro coaches.

I'll add a real incentive for coaches that are willing to do this experiment...but I don't want that you decide to do so just for that.

If you participate expect a nice Easter gift afterward and act surprised.

P.S.: Yeah, this could tank and it's possible nobody wants to put on their big boy pants. Happy to take that L. 😉

Once more. After uploading, send the clip and your comments to [email protected]

Carl McGown Tribute

The late Carl McGown made a huge impact on an immense amount of current and retired USA coaches.

What not a lot of coaches (in the States) know is that Carl McGown also impacted many international coaches.

Check out tomorrow's Masterclass with Julio Velasco for an great example of just that.

I enjoyed this article that came out this week. Check it out.

Former BYU coach Carl McGown put BYU volleyball on the map, but he did a lot more than that

The BYU volleyball team is on a roll having won six straight matches, but the late Carl McGown is the guy who first got the ball rolling in Provo.

https://www.deseret.com/2023/4/8/23668721/former-byu-coach-carl-mcgown-put-byu-volleyball-on-map-but-he-did-a-lot-more-than-that

3 parts I loved:

“There wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t have a book; his nose in a book, trying to read something or learn something about just everything that he was interested in. Be it finances or gardening or volleyball or skiing or golf or just anything that he got excited about. He wanted to learn everything there was to learn about it.”

“He was always ready to share (his knowledge) at any level with any person,” Dunphy said. “I’ve seen him just with a rookie, rookie coach. There’ll be 150 coaches at this clinic and he’s having breakfast, lunch and dinner with a sixth-grade volleyball teacher who got the coaching assignment.”

“I’m sure many times he was wondering what he was doing coaching volleyball and maybe he should go back to teaching motor learning,” McCutcheon said. “But he stuck with it and as he evolved, we evolved. … So like any moments of adversity, you have a decision to make and he chose to lean in and got the lessons learned and got better at his craft and we got better at our craft and pretty soon we were winning more than we were losing.”

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Thanks for your support.

That's a wrap. Have a great week!

Matias

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