Dan Mickle’s distinction is helpful for volleyball coaches: strain isn’t depth. Strain pulls consideration towards outcomes and penalties (“don’t miss,” “this one issues”). Depth is excessive engagement in execution – clear cues, fast resets, and tight rhythm. The lure is that strain seems like good coaching (noise, urgency, rating). Sadly, it usually produces the precise end-game behaviors we don’t need: dashing, forcing, tightening up, and enjoying to not lose.
If you need game-like, construct depth with readability and construction, not penalties. Give gamers one job per rep (serve seam 1/6, go balanced, swing excessive arms), shield routines (pre-serve, post-error reset), and let constraints create problem. Wash scoring is a clear instrument right here. It makes reps matter whereas conserving consideration on execution moderately than punishment or coach emotion. (See additionally Pondering in a different way about wash scoring).
Right here’s a easy model: begin each rep at 22–23 and play a wash to three. The down workforce should win two in a row to attain; the up workforce scores on any rally win. Require a declared serve goal and seam accountability earlier than the whistle, then implement a brief reset window after every rally (breath + cue, then go). It’s going to really feel intense as a result of the atmosphere is tight and significant, not since you manufactured strain.
Fast verify: after the phase, can gamers inform you what they had been executing, and did errors result in higher resets or extra emotion? If they’ll’t title the cue, you most likely skilled strain.
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