Coaches doing “what works” – Coaching Volleyball

As an argument against physical consequences in practice (e.g. sprints after losing a game), someone posted in a coaching group a 2002 paper titled Correlation Between High Rates Of Corporal Punishment In Public Schools And Social Pathologies. Here’s part of one of the comments posted in response:

I know this has been debated thoroughly on this group before, but some of the best coaches in all sports use drills with “consequences.” In one of my previous coaching positions, the team (college women) actually asked for more drills with “consequences” I agree with the premise of not doing things just because “they have always been done this way.” It is healthy to question and re-evaluate coaching methods. By the same token, coaches should not stop doing what works because the latest “science” says so.

That last sentence is what motivated this post.

What works

The argument we most often see in favor of outdated coaching methods is something that leans heavily on the idea of, “It’s working, so why change?” I’d argue, however, that a great many coaches don’t actually know what’s working. Success in coaching involves multiple factors. Oftentimes, a coach is successful because strength in one or more areas offsets weakness elsewhere.

In the above example we have a case where there is a clear body of research (much more than just the attached paper) telling us physical consequences aren’t helpful. We purportedly have a number of examples of successful coaches who use them, however. Don’t we also have loads of examples of “unsuccessful” coaches who use them, though? If so, perhaps the use of physical consequences isn’t actually a driver of success.

So maybe coaches are successful in spite of using physical consequences. Maybe they’re really good in other areas that offset the negatives of physical consequences. If so, imagine how good they’d be if they didn’t have that holding them back.

And this doesn’t just apply to physical consequences. You can insert any number of coaching methods here – like I talked about in this post.

Players wanting consequences

I too have had teams that have asked for consequences. In some ways this can be related to players saying they want to be yelled at. Here, though, I think it’s more about built up expectations. Prior coaches did it, and those teams won. Just like misguided coaches, these players falsely equate good performance with physical…