Coaching Youth Volleyball

As our sport of Volleyball gains more and more popularity around the world, so must our young players be taught the ins and outs of the game. As parents, coaches and even players, nothing is as tedious as watching two unskilled teams pass the ball over the net to each other with no true offense or defense and very little skill involved. The yawns are wrapped around the off chance that a son or daughter may get to bump. Pray there is a Starbucks near by! Thankfully, there are books that help.

A Book Designed for the Volunteer Coach

With their second edition of Coaching Youth Volleyball, the American Sport Education Program, (ASEP) in cooperation with USA Volleyball has put together a comprehensive how-to manual for all of those beginning coaches and first year club directors.

Geared toward the development of grade schoolers, 6-14 year olds, Coaching Youth Volleyball is a thorough step-by-step approach to teaching the basics of volleyball in a safe and organized manner.

ASEP's goals for this read are to make a coach out of the Parent or volunteer that has never served a Mikasa before. The first third of the book deals strictly with coaching issues such as communication, liability and what type of coach you want to be. Handy little quizzes help you answer questions that arise at the end of certain chapters.

The rest of Coaching Youth Volleyball goes to the understanding of the sport, rules, equipment, scoring, positions, etc. Next comes some very basic drills and position specific instructions. The book presents these in very broad strokes and Coaches that want to teach the nuances of positions will be forced to retreat to the public library, sporting goods store or the internet.

A Great Book for Beginning Coaches

For a first timer to the sport, Coaching Youth Volleyball is perfect. It should be given to all Parents and volunteers that get roped into coaching those summer city leagues and grade school teams. It is laid out with illustrations and quick easy points that are easy to pass on to beginning players. For coaches who have been through a year of volleyball, this is too elementary to take a player to the next level.

I wish I had this book last year. Some of my rookie coaches would've gotten a lot from it. And if you are new to the sport as well, I highly recommends Coaching Youth Volleyball.