Rachel Potopa

Professor Vudrogovic

January 9, 2017

Artifact 4

For ten of my diverse field hours I had the opportunity of coaching volleyball for some 7 th, 8th and
9th grade girls. I worked with Bob Kasun, the head girls volleyball coach at Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic
High School in Altoona, PA. For the time that I coached the girls, we had two practices and then
participated in a tournament. During the practices, Bob and I would do some work together with all the
girls and some of the time they were separated where he had the 7 th grade girls and I had the 8th and 9th
grade girls since this would be the girls I coached for the tournament. Thus, I had the opportunity to work
with girls from all three of these grade levels.
The first practice I had with the girls was Monday, December 26. Since I was not very familiar
with all of the girls, I had them all introduce themselves. Following introductions, we all gathered
together for a prayer. Since I was coaching girls from a local catholic school I think its always important
to incorporate kids faith into anything they do, whether that be in the classroom or outside of the
classroom participating in athletics. Its good to show them that no matter what you are doing your
identity is found in Christ and it is possible to incorporate your faith life into your athletics.
Once that was done it was time to get the girls started with practice. I had them start off by
running two laps and stretching their legs and arms to get warmed up. When everyone was warmed up
we moved on to passing the volleyball. Before the girls started I made sure they understood what was
expected of them and what they were to be doing for the drill. I demonstrated what a proper passing
platform should look like and emphasized how important using your arms and legs are to passing. I
passed a few balls so girls had a visual representation of what the passes should look like. Then I broke
them off to start working on passing with a partner. The girls were all mixed together still so Bob and I
were walking around watching the girls pass and correcting them anytime it was necessary. With
coaching its so important to correct any mistakes that you see because you dont want it to become a
habit for a player if it will negatively affect their playing ability.

The girls passed until I felt they had enough reps and everyone improved at least a little bit.
From here we moved onto spiking. To get a great spike it always starts with the footwork, thus I spent a
few minutes demonstrating the footwork involved in spiking. When I felt that they saw enough examples
I had them all stand on the ten foot line and work on the spike approach footwork themselves. The girls
worked on this for a few minutes while I walked around and made sure that everyone was getting the
proper technique down. When I saw that some girls were struggling a little more than others I was able to
pull them aside and slow it down for them. Once I was able to slow it down and walk through the
footwork with them I recognized the girls were already starting to improve. I think it goes to show that
sometimes a girl is going to need a little more explanation whereas others may get it right away. This was
something I kept in my head as I am sure it is going to be something I see in a future classroom as well.
The girls seemed to get the footwork down so I began to toss the ball to them as they would each
come in and do a full spike approach and hit the ball over the net. Each time a girl stumbled or seemed
confused on the footwork, I would pause and have them try again and they would usually get it right that
second time around. After spending about half an hour on spiking we moved on to serving. I showed the
girls how you stand, how to hold the ball out in front of you and how to work on getting the perfect toss.
I demonstrated for the girls and then gave the opportunity to serve over the net. As I was walking around
observing the girls serves, I was able to give each of them a little piece of advice on how to improve their
serve. For the girls who were more advanced I was able to give them pointers about how they could
change little details about their serves to make them even better and stronger. I would give them advice
to maybe just work on having a stronger hand on their serve to increase their power a little. For the girls
who struggled a little more I was able to offer more coaching what they needed to be doing such as
stepping with the wrong foot, or not turning and using their whole upper body when they serve instead of
over-swinging. I noticed that throughout all of practice the girls really improved their serving most of all.
Todays practice consisted of a lot of time reviewing and going over those basic volleyball skills
since this was one of the girls first practices. However, its always good to get the girls moving around a
lot more and playing in a higher action game. Therefore, for the last little part of practice the girls just

scrimmaged each other a little as Bob worked specifically with the 7 th graders and I had the 8th and 9th
graders. During this time I paused the game a few times to correct girls on any of the little details we
talked about that day regarding, passing, spiking and serving. Overall, it was great encouraging them as
they scrimmaged to see them in some live play and see what they were capable of doing.
The second practice took place on Wednesday, January 4. This practice started off very similar as
to how the first did. When one is coaching a team its really important to get a routine of warm ups going
for them. This way they know what they are expected to do for the beginning of each practice. There
were a few new girls at the practice that werent at the previous practice so I had the girls go around and
introduce themselves and tell me a fun fact about themselves. We gathered together for a prayer and then
the girls were off doing their two laps and stretches. Since the girls are in 7 th, 8th and 9th grade they still
are at an age where they need to really work on the basic skills of volleyball that include passing, serving
and spiking. These skills must be achieved before a really high play can be achieved.
For this reason, this second practice was designed in a very similar way as the first one was. I
wanted to focus on the same few items as the first: passing, spiking, serving and scrimmaging a little.
Just as the first practice the girls broke up with partners and passed a little as I walked around offering
words of encouragement and teaching the girls what they could work on to improve their passing such as
their arm swing or footwork. We then moved onto spiking. The first practice the girls just worked on
their approaches and a toss, however, this time I had the girls work on hitting off of one of their
teammates sets instead. Each of the girls got a few reps and then I had them switch to working on
serving. I reviewed the footwork and toss for a serve and then served a few balls myself to show them
what to do. Then I had them serving over the net from both sides. Just as I did for passing and spiking, I
walked around and pulled the girls aside who were struggling and talked to them about a small thing they
could work on to improve their serve for the next time. Once each of these skills was gone over we spent
the last hour of practice scrimmaging where Bob had the 7 th graders and I took the 8th and 9th graders.
Scrimmaging was so important to the practice especially since we were preparing for a
tournament. Through scrimmaging I also had the opportunity to teach the girls about the different

positions on the court and the role of each position. This was definitely an area that the girls needed a lot
of help with and I could see the confusion on their faces when working through it. The girls began
asking questions and I knew they were interested in learning what I was trying to tell them and they were
very attentive to what I had to say. After the two practices were over I was feeling pretty good about the
tournament that we were preparing for and knew it wouldnt be perfect, but that itd be a great
opportunity for the girls and for me to coach them.
The tournament that I coached the girls in took place on Sunday, January 8 and it lasted from 17pm. During this time the girls had the opportunity to play three games against three different teams with
a few breaks between games so they didnt get too tired out from playing. Each game against each team
consisted of two sets which were played to 25 points. The first game for my team of 8 th graders began at
2:00pm with a lot of warm up happening beforehand. From this point on I began to realize how tough
and exhausting being a coach can be as I was faced with a few trials throughout the day.
The afternoon started well. I had nine girls who filled the needed positions, so I had two setters,
two middle hitters, two liberos, and three outside hitters. When the game first began we were doing well,
however, a few points into the game things started to fall apart. This is when I realized a tough aspect of
coaching. I realized I was going to run into situations where my team was down by a lot and it was my
job to keep them positive and motivated and not to give up on the game or themselves. I began to wonder
about what would be the proper things to say to them and how I should go about saying it. I realized that
sometimes those words dont come easily. I did the best that I could encouraging the girls to continue and
we ended up losing the first set by a lot of points. Before the second set started I talked to the girls about
how they could improve. I also tried to stress to them that it was the first game of the day and they need
to look at it as a warm up and look forward to the other games of the day. The girls took this advice well
and it showed in their game play. They lost the second set, however, they didnt lose by as much as the
first set and showed much improvement in their play and how they worked together as a team.
I continued to stress these same ideas to the girls throughout the rest of the day. For the third and
fourth set of the day a few of the girls on my team had to leave and so I was only left with 6 girls. This

posed a difficulty because I didnt have any substitutes and some of my girls were strictly back row or
front row players that were now being forced to play the whole game. At first, the girls had a little bit of a
negative attitude about this, but as a coach its my job to keep the whole team positive. I explained how
important it is to have an I can attitude when playing and to always believe in yourself because if you
dont believe in your own abilities how are your teammates going to. The girls took this well and I
noticed a much more positive mindset from them. However, the girls soon began to get confused about
the rotations because a lot of the girls were playing positions they dont normally play. Instead of being
able to correct the girls on technique and helping them improve their skills, I had to spend most of this
game teaching them about the rotations and where they needed to be.
The last two sets of the day showed much improvement. I had another girl show up to play
which meant I had a substitute on the bench and that eased the minds of my players and myself. They
ended up losing one set and winning the other. After the long day was over I was able to teach them a
little about the day. I explained to them that even though they only had two wins, they were still able to
show much improvement throughout the day and they were a much better team when they ended than
when they started which is so important.
Overall, I recognized how tough coaching can be. To summarize this volunteer experience I
would say that it took a lot of effort, energy and enthusiasm. I had so many thoughts running through my
head and I constantly had to be attentive to the girls and any ways that I could help them. I think I was
surprised to find how much help they could really use. I dont think I would have had such a good
volunteer experience without enthusiasm. I realized if I wasnt excited then the girls wouldnt be excited.
The girls also need a lot of encouragement. Coaching required a lot of critique and helping girls, but
without positive feedback and enthusiasm towards what they were doing they didnt react well. Finally,
the amount of energy required to be a coach is amazing. I realized I would be so drained at the end of the
days because I spent hours just talking to girls and helping them with all of their skills. Overall this
volunteer experience was fantastic and I hope to continue working as a volleyball coach someday.