Fellow Coaches, we are trying to put three things together that are all pretty challenging all by themselves, teens & girls and coaching. As we coach longer and longer and if we are astute, we will see some patterns emerging. I want to spend some time discussing one of those patterns that we MUST realize and accept. If we refuse, we will make both our players and ourselves miserable.

Neither coaches nor players can produce incredible results every minute of every match at every tournament. It does not happen. It is not going to happen. So do not stress over it.

A team's sense of urgency will come & go. A team's motivation will come & go. These warnings will occur more with younger teams and less with older teams. So even though we can expect incredible effort at all times, communication, playing smart, etc., we won’t get incredible results every time. It is not possible and it will not happen. I even watch college women play the game..........sometimes they make the game look easy; yet, at other times the same six girls will look lost & frustrated…...against the same opponent that they destroyed the day before.

About motivation & focus: We must accept that even though our teen female players LOVE volleyball, their passions, & thoughts often lie elsewhere. During our junior season, our girls are playing soccer/softball/lacrosse/track/tennis, dating boys, going to parties, having arguments with parents, attending the prom, playing with teammates from other schools who they may not like, have jobs, have horrible cramps, are being fussed at by the adults in their lives, are upset by their performance, etc. We not going to get an adult result from them...why expect it?

Here are a few examples..........all coaches have some of these!

• We played a team from Pennsylvania...they had not lost a match ALL YEAR, but they lost to us 16-14 in the third at [link url"http://www.shamrockfestival.org"]Shamrock[/link]. What an incredible match.
• On the other hand, we were in the Silver Club finals at NEQ in Baltimore & lost to a team who appeared to be weaker than the two teams we had just beaten to advance to the final match.
• At Asheville we came back from down 8-10 in the third game of the semifinal to win, and then came back from down 10-12 in the third game of the final to win. Wow!
• Then in the finals of 16's open at Virginia Beach, we were up in the third 8-3 at the switch, but lost 11-15.

Now when the girls get back to their high school teams, you should see/expect a consistently higher level of play more often. Reason: coaches & players have no excuse not to be ready to play one match twice a week. There is no excuse! A ninety-minute match is shorter than most practices. Playing at a high level for 90 minutes is doable (refer to my articles on effort at practice), but playing at a high level for five matches over a 10-hour span is very difficult…nearly impossible.

Hey, Coach, after coaching juniors since 1991, I am constantly in touch with the "girls/teens/tournaments" rule.

As long as the girls are caring, hustling, busting their butts, trying............I am OK with winning or losing.