Our Self Awareness Inventory is a very powerful tool to use with your team in guiding them toward setting specific goals. This is in our book "Volleyball Cybernetics," but what I'm going to do here is explain to you specifically how to use it to produce the best results possible. Basically, I'm going to explain what I've learned from using the Inventory with my own players over the past six years.
Give your players each a copy of the Inventory and have them follow the directions at the beginning on how to fill it out. I'm not going to repeat the directions now since you have a copy of the Inventory in front of you. However, there are a couple of points I'd like to emphasize. First of all, the athletes are told to rate themselves on a scale of one to 10. I always stress to the group when I am introducing the Inventory at a camp or clinic that everyone is somewhere between a score of two and nine on each skill. I tell them a one is like, "go play soccer," or "they have pom-poms on sale at K-Mart." In other words, a "one" is someone who would be better off spending their time learning another sport. The point is you don't want any of your players feeling as if they are as bad as they can be on any skill. A 10 is "Has the National Team called yet?" In other words, you also don't want any of them thinking they can't improve any more.
Another very important point that you must stress to your players is that they must be honest in their self-evaluations. The number one key to self-improvement is HONEST SELF-EVALUATION!! Think about it. If a player cannot evaluate themselves honestly, how are they going to motivate themselves to improve? I can't tell you how many players I have run into over the years who thought they were better than they actually were. And typically what happens with a player like this is they never even come close to reaching their potential - why? Because they have always thought they were better than they actually are, so it takes away from their drive to improve. Players like this usually blame their lack of success on their coaches or teammates. It has to be something besides themselves, because they are convinced they are already at a high level of play. They have to justify the gap between their beliefs and the reality of the situation somehow. So make sure you stress to them to be honest with themselves when doing the evaluation. Point out they shouldn't "beat up" on themselves either. There's no need for being really hard on themselves. Just be honest!
Here's a tip for you that I highly recommend. Tell your players you will never ask to see their completed Inventory. They can show it to you if they wish, but none of your staff will ever ask to see it. Why? This frees them up to be totally honest in their self-evaluation because it takes away the need to try and impress you with inflated scores. And they also won't feel the need to underscore themselves to keep from appearing cocky.
When they bring their completed Inventories back to you, the next step is to have them pick out two skills from each of the three categories that they want to improve at right away. These are the skills they feel if they improved at, it would improve their game dramatically. Why two from each area? That gives them six goals to work toward. That makes it challenging, but possible. You don't want to spread their focus too thin by having them set too many goals at once.
(The actual Self-Evaluation Inventory is included in "Beyond Volleyball Cybernetics")
More of This Feature
| In 1997, Stan Kellner and Dave Cross co-authored the first volleyball book that went beyond the simple instructions on the mechanics of playing and coaching volleyball. Their book, “Volleyball Cybernetics,” explored the psychological aspects of the game and how retraining your mind could lead to volleyball success. Now Dave Cross has launched “Beyond Volleyball Cybernetics.” This is a two-volume ebook that expands upon the psychological aspects volleyball players struggle with. |
