Coaching Volleyball

On June 20th, 2013 a blog was born!

That’s right. Believe it or not, 10 years ago today the very first post of the Coaching Volleyball blog went up. Things have definitely changed since then. What started out a as a resource for coaches in England has gone WAY beyond that now. I’d like to think, though, that the underlying motivations have held pretty steady.

It’s kind of funny to think about how things have circled back now with me working in English volleyball again.

Here’s some of what’s happened in the last 10 years for the blog, and as a result of it.

• More than 1 million visitors and approaching 2.5 million page views.
• Nearly 1500 posts
• A number of posts and other content contributed to AVCA publications, and used in a number of other places (some authorized, many not).
• Started the Coaching Volleyball group on Facebook that now has just shy of 50,000 members, making it (I think) the biggest volleyball coaching group on that platform.
• Developed Volleyball Coaching Wizards, and published 4 books (so far)
• Presentations at the 2016 and 2019 AVCA Conventions, and the 2019 Volleyball England Coaches Conference.
• Did the Coaching Conversations series during the covid Summer of 2019.
• Went on trips in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2019 to visit a variety of teams and programs.

Oh, and it was through connections developed because of this blog that I got to coach professionally in Sweden. A lot of folks I know in the global volleyball community now are directly or indirectly thanks to this blog. From it’s earliest days I have been surprised at how many people it’s reached, and where.

As you can see from this map, the blog has had readership from nearly every country in the world. Just a few nations missing.

Of course the US dominates the readership. It’s interesting to see which other countries are in the top 10, especially among non-English speaking populations.

Here are the all-time most popular posts:

1. Volleyball Try-Out Drill Ideas
2. Volleyball Set Diagram
3. How to teach the overhand serve to volleyball beginners
4. Putting together a starting line-up
5. Scoring Serving and Passing Effectiveness
6. The qualities of a good team captain
7. Game: Winners (a.k.a. King/Queen of the court)
8. Volleyball Camp Drills and Games
9. Pin hitter in volleyball – what is it?
10. Are your warm-ups wasting valuable time?

10 more years?

I honestly can’t say where I or this blog will be in ten years time. I hope it continues to be a valuable resource. Technology changes, though, could mean changes. Maybe this format won’t be as useful, or some other type of platform becomes better suited. One thing I can say, however, is that I don’t have any plans to stop working on coach development.