There are times in one's life when you realize the importance of being grateful for little things.  I recently saw a story about a man who, in serious times of stuggle, started writing thank you letters to people in his life.  He decided to continue the practice for 100 days.  It's a nice human interest story, an act that I'm sure he didn't think would make him rich and successful and ultimately a little famous.  That's exactly what it did.  Think about it, how much would your perspective and mood change if you were looking for things to be grateful for?  Not just so that you can write it in a journal for you to keep, but so that you can actually create and send a letter to another person...that takes some committment and it can't help but alter an outlook.

It seems to me that I can always tell when I'm working from an attitude of gratefulness or not.  Things seem to go my way and things seem to come easier when I find time to be thankful for the people and experiences in my life.  I must have been in exactly the right frame of mind in December as I noticed several things.  Maybe these things would happen to me regardless, but I'm not sure if I would have taken the time to notice them for what they were.

Some of the highlights from the trip include a great conversation with a man I met on a plane, an airline worker's dismissing some fees for an overweight bag, super shuttle driver going around the airport twice to reuturn a forgotten bag, a late check out for 2:00 p.m., not 12:00 or even 1:00 but 2:00 p.m.! 

I didn't ask for special treatment, never asked anyone to go out of their way, things just kept popping up as I made my way through the day.  It was pretty amazing, actually.

The next time you find yourself having a day where nothing seems to go right, try saying a few extra thank you's...it just might turn the whole thing around!

 I thought I could avoid it…a final bus ride that is.  For those out there that don’t know this yet, I have accepted a position as an assistant volleyball coach at Central Michigan University.  So after six wonderful years as the assistant volleyball coach at Ferris State, it’s time to say goodbye to some pretty wonderful people.  I thought I could avoid a goodbye tour on the Ferris maxi bus with the girls.  I had gone recruiting so I had the rides all arranged.  The girls had other ideas.  What they didn’t know was that I had many hidden tears the prior weekend on the way to and from our spring tournament in Indiana.  What they didn’t know was that I knew how hard it would be to know ahead of time that it would be my final ride on that bus, with them, as a Bulldog.

                I’m so glad that they had other ideas!  I’m so thankful for them and for the experiences I’ve had in my time at Ferris State and very thankful that they made me take one last ride with them.  We have a few more times in the gym together.  We still have some goodbyes waiting….but there’s something about taking one final ride home… and I’m so glad I didn’t miss it.  If you’ve never been a member of a team, it may be hard to fully explain this, but for those of you who have, you all know that so much happens on the bus.  There is something about the travels, the times at dinners, the things teams do away from the court and field.  Those times are the special ones.

                Terry Pettit, a former volleyball coach at the University of Nebraska, wrote a whole book on it.  It’s called The Secret Life of Teams.  To me, that’s really what it comes down to, the secret or behind the scenes life of a team.  When I think of my time at Ferris State, I don’t think of the win/loss record.  I don’t think of the big wins or the tough losses.  I think of the times the players reminded me of on that final ride home.  The time I wiped out hard on a towel after setting up what I just knew was the perfect drill.  Or the time Sarah Lark set up a box for me to hit from and I walked into it backwards pulling over a ball cart full of balls spraying them all over the gym.  I also think of the day that a hand full of players came into my office with milk and Oreo Cookies to have a 3 hour chat or just last week when a different three players came in for a similar sit down. Then of course there is the time that I basically hit Lisa Tobiczyk with the van because of a stolen snack from the other half of the team.  No worries, she was sure to tell all of the parents at the next banquet.  Awesome!  Thanks for that Toby!    For all of those stories and a million others like it, I thank those girls for making me take that final ride.

                I’m excited to take on a new challenge and to get out of my comfort zone.  I’m thrilled to learn new things and listen to new perspectives on a game I love.  I know that in my career, if it’s ever easy to leave a place, you’re definitely not doing things right.  I know all of this and yet, I hurt at the thought of not being on that bus or behind the scenes with those girls anymore.  They have all left a very large imprint on my heart.  So simply put, thank you!  I feel a debt to you all for the trust, love and respect you’ve given me.  Thank you for letting me a part of your lives and for enriching mine.

 In my six years at Ferris I’ve been fortunate to have crossed paths with the following 42 volleyball players and to each of you I say thank you, you have done more for me than you know.  My hope is that I managed to enrich your life in some way as well.

                Danielle Baucher, Lauren Heine, Lindsay Tye, Karla White, Becky Thurau, Candice Marut, Molly Pickvet, Emily Clouse, Jamie Palazzolo, Jacque Edwards, Kaite Edwards, Andrea Zylstra, Sarah Miller, Emily Nemmers, Lindsay Johnson, Brittny Godlewski, Keagan Krauss, Andrea Rich, Amanda Kettlewell, Dana Ruttle, Meredith Doyle, Sarah Lark, Whitney Rupp, Kristy Gilchrist, Arielle Goodson, Leslie Swanson, Dana Fairbanks, Lisa Tobiczyk, Ashley Nugent, Danielle Hamilton, Ashley Huntey, Samantha Fordyce, Mallory Kopa, Aly Brecht, Karen Thompson, Brianna Grover, Paige Wyers, Anne Sutton, Lindsay Miller, Angi Kent, Stephanie DeYoung and Kara Hess.

Reactive vs. Proactive

Excerpt from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People….

From Pages 78 – 79

Listening to Our Language

                Because our attitudes and behaviors flow out of our paradigms, if we use our self-awareness to examine them, we can often see in them the nature of our underlying maps.  Our language, for example, is a very real indicator of the degree to which we see ourselves as proactive people.

                The language of reactive people absolves them of responsibility. “That’s me.  That’s just the way I am.”  I am determined.  There’s nothing I can do about it.

                “He makes me so mad!” I’m not responsible.  My emotional life is governed by something outside my control.

                “I can’t do that.  I just don’t have the time.” Something outside me-limited time-is controlling me.

                “If only my wife were more patient.”  Someone else’s behavior is limiting my effectiveness.

                “I have to do it.”  Circumstances or other people are forcing me to do what I do.  I’m not free to choose my own actions.

Reactive Language:                                                                                     Proactive Language:

There’s nothing I can do.                                                                          Let’s look at our alternatives.

That’s just the way I am.                                                                           I can choose a different approach.

He makes me so mad.                                                                               I control my own feelings.

They won’t allow that.                                                                               I can create an effective presentation.

I have to do that.                                                                                         I will choose an appropriate response.

I can’t.                                                                                                              I choose.

I must.                                                                                                              I prefer.

If only.                                                                                                              I will.

 

                That language comes from a basic paradigm of determinism.  And the whole spirit of it is the transfer of responsibility.  I am not responsible, not able to choose my response.(Covey, 78)

               

                A serious problem with reactive language is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  People become reinforced in the paradigm that they are determined, and they produce evidence to support the belief.  They feel increasingly victimized and out of control, not in charge of their life or their destiny.  They blame outside forces – other people, circumstances, even the stars – for their own situation. (Covey, 79)

                In coaching there are plenty of opportunities to see and work with athletes covering the entire spectrum of reactive versus proactive.  When a coach works with a student-athlete in regards to academic studies, the biggest and most prevalent task to tackle first is that of moving them into a more proactive way of thinking.  “My teacher just doesn’t like me.”  “I just don’t do well with numbers.”  “The professor’s lectures aren’t about anything to do with the class.”  These are all actual quotes from college students I’ve worked with in the last 2 years.  Moving them off of statements like that and into more proactive thinking is the challenge.

                We work to solve this problem in a few ways.  For example, we have constructed a pre-season classroom session that incorporates parts of Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People with study habits known to be successful in helping students make the transition from high school to college.  We also talk to them and help them understand the concept of getting a degree versus getting an education.  Feeling like they are doing much more than just trying to get the grade really makes a difference in how they approach their classes.  It encourages them to take more responsibility for learning materials rather than wanting to passively sit and absorb random facts for the sole purpose of doing well on the exam.  Another way we conquer this challenge is by having the students do exercises like creating class goals and action plans that will help them acheive those goals.  This is mostly to help them feel as if they are in control.  When issues arrise in the semester, we can refer to their action plans to remind them that they, and not some outside force, are responsible.

                We find this type of ownership carries over to the court as well.   When an athlete is more engaged in learning new techniques rather than just doing reps, the ability for deep practice is much greater.  The concept of deep practice can be found in a book title “The Talent Code”.  The link to that book’s website can be found on my website at www.theresabeeckman.com.

                Much more to come on this topic…

The following is from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Pages 274-275
by Stephen R. Covey

Negative Synergy

Seeking the third alternative is a major paradigm shift from the dichotomous, either/or mentality.  But look at the difference in results!

How much negative energy is typically expended when people try to solve problems or make deicisions in an interdependent reality? How much time is spent in confessing other people's sins, politicking, rivalry, interpersonal conflict, protecting one's backside, masterminding, and second guessing?  It's like trying to drive down the road with one foot on the gas and the other foot on the brake!

And instead of getting a foot off the brake, most people give it more gas.  They try to apply more pressure, more eloquence, more logical information to strengthen their position.

The problem is that highly dependent people are trying to succeed in an interdependent reality.  They're either dependent on borrowing strength from position power and they go for the Win/Lose, or they're dependent on being popular with others and they go for Lose/Win.  They may talk Win/Win technique, but they don't really want to listen; they want to manipulate.  And synergy can't thrive in that environment.

Insecure people think that all reality should be amenable to their paradigms.  They have a high need to clone others, to mold them over into their own thinking.  They don't realize that the very strength of the relationship is in having another point of view.  Sameness is not oneness; uniformity is not unity.  Unity, or oneness, is complementariness, not sameness.  Sameness is uncreative....and boring.  The essence of synergy is to value the differences.
    
I've come to believe that the key to interpersonal synergy is intrapersonal synergy, that is synergy within ourselves.  The heart of intrapersonal synergy is embodied in the principles in the first three habits, which give the internal security sufficient to handle the risks of being open and vulnerable.  By internalizing those principles, we develop the abundance mentality of Win/Win and the authenticity of Habit 5.


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Today we will continue our setup for the Ferris State Summer Volleyball 2010 Camps.  The physical setup it takes to run the camps in three separate gyms and 8 courts over the course of the next two weeks is quite extraordinary.  Players who are already in town will be at the Sports Complex to help out so it shouldn't take too much to get it going.

Some of the things included in the setup are:
Move 1200 + T-shirts to the residence hall to give out at check in
Move 1500 water bottles to residence hall
Move apparel to sell at check in/check out to the residence hall
Move 8 volleyball poles and pole pads from UREC to the Sports Complex
Set up 8 courts in 3 gyms
Tape the lines on 2 courts in Wink Basketball Arena
Put scoreboards at each court
Organize materials for check in/check out
Organize materials for apparel sales including signs/change/inventory several thousand dollars worth of Ferris State Volleyball apparel

Once the set up concludes the players/coaches will enjoy the last night of 'freedom' before a camp staff kick off meeting at 10:00 a.m. Friday, July 9th.  Stay tuned for short comments each day of this 2010 camp as more than a thousand campers will descend upon Big Rapids, Michigan in the next 15 days.

    While most of the world enjoyed an extra day off from work or saw the weekend as a necessary time to focus on their relationship with their significant other, thousands of volleyball players and coaches made their way to various sites in our nation to play, coach or recruit.  There are several very large club volleyball tournaments across the nation to take advantage of the extra day most kids have off from school.  My destination was Dayton, Ohio. 
    Dayton is a cool, crisp six hour drive from Big Rapids.  I took advantage of the time in the car by listening to a great book which I will add to my reading list.  The book, The Talent Code, investigates how talent is grown.  Although I'm not completely through it, I have heard enough to say that it is a must read for every teacher and coach.  Although it is a bit academic in nature, it captured me fully and made the trip lightening quick!  The wesite for the book can be found at www.thetalentcode.com.
    As I sat at the tournament playing sites watching the great level of volleyball in the 18's and 17's Open Divisions, I received some texts from a collegue who is a head coach in our conference.  The texts back in forth were all in great fun and had me laughing out loud like an insane person most of the time.  People there to watch the matches likely thought I was losing my mind from an overindulgence of volleyball spectating!  Later that day, at my second site, I ran into another friend.  This particular friend is a D-I volunteer assistant coach and club coach.  Before her match began, we sat and caught up on a variety of things as it had been a couple of months since seeing her at the convention.  Before her match, she had me watch her setter and give her some tips on how to solve a problem she had with her hands.  It didn't matter that I was a D-II coach, it mattered that she knew that I knew setting.  This all made me think of an entry I recently read on Volleytalk.  
    Before I go into that entry, let me explain what Volleytalk is for those non-volleyball coaches amoung us.  Volleytalk is a forum that covers everything in the volleyball world from job listings to, well, anything you can think of, really!  I don't spend a ton of time on Volleytalk and I must admit I have never posted.  I mostly have used it to keep up on job listings as I keep an eye out for the perfect next step to take.  Recently, I browsed the rest of the posts to catch up on recruiting news and other things going on in our sport.  It was during that browse session that I found a post related to a new coach's experience at the AVCA Convention back in December.
    This particular coach is a self-described youth coach who had never been to the convention.  This coach's post explained that being at the convention felt a little like high school in that the coaches there operated in a very clique-like manner.  He/she said that it felt like as soon as 'youth coach' was uttered in the introduction, coaches looking to 'move up' the ladder did everything but start to look for a fire alarm to pull to get away from the conversation in lew of finding a 'bigger' coach to talk to. There was a lot of back and forth on the forum after the initial post debating, rationalizing and joking about this idea.  I read some of it, but just scanned most of it.  I will say it reminded me of something that I feel I should share with as many people as I can.  In fact, it was the closest I ever came to posting on that forum.  Instead I saved the commentary for this venue.  
    If you have not heard of Wayne Dyer, please stop spending time reading my stuff and go directly to his website www.drwaynedyer.com.  He is an inspiration to so many people, including myself!!  He is worth every penny it costs for his books and every second spent reading them.  If you can get his stuff on audio book, do it.  He is an amazing public speaker!
    Okay so back to the story.  In one of audio books, Dr. Dyer tells a story that I have re-told to several of my own friends since hearing it.  It was on the day that Dr. Dyer made an appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.  He had filmed the show early in the day and gotten on a flight back to his home in Hawaii (rough life, huh?!).  Dr. Dyer says that later that evening, as he walked along the beach, a woman came up to him and asked if it was indeed him that she just saw on the show.  He responded that indeed it was.  She was surprised and excited that he lived there and explained that she and her family were also moving there.  She asked him what the people were like.  Dr. Dyer responded by asking her to describe what the people were like where she was from.  She went on for a while about how unfriendly and rude the people were in her current city, saying it was a big city in the midwest and everyone was always in a hurry and that noone ever had time to help each other out.  Dr. Dyer listened to her and then simply told her that that was pretty much the type of people she would find in her new destination.  He goes on in the story saying that he later ran into another women who had seen him on the Tonight Show.  This woman also excitedly explained that she would soon be moving to this great place and asked him what the people were like.  Dr. Dyer again asked the woman to describe the people from her current hometown.  Her response was markedly different.  She told him how great everyone was, how she was from the midwest and although it was a big city, it felt like a small town because of how everyone took time to help each other out.  She went on to say that it was heartbreaking to leave people so friendly.  Dr. Dyer listened to her and then simply told her that that was pretty much the type of people she would find in her new destination.  The point is, I beleive, very clear.  People have a way of acting as mirrors to our own behavior and expectations.  Perhaps that youth coach just went into that convention with apprehension and expectations of 'big time' coaches being above them.  Who knows?  I will say that I have had a much different experience at the convention.  Perhaps it was because I expected it, but I have found some of the bigger names in our sport are some of the nicer people in our sport, too.
    Life is what you expect it to be.  If you act as if there is a theory of abundance and that there is indeed enough love, money, recognition and success for everyone, chances are you will see an abundance of all of those things.  Isn't that a better way to go through life than with the feeling or belief in a limited supply?  Whether you are in the world of collegiate coaching or trash collecting, your days will go better and your life more fulfilling when you expect good things and people to enter your life.

    It's been a little time since the last entry so let me sum it all up in one entry if possible.  The last two weeks have included recruiting trips to Indiana and Ohio.  A lot of miles traveled, but all worth it.  There were some great players at both places and now the follow up with those athletes has me working like crazy!   
    There have also been several skill sessions with players on a more individual basis.  In our skills sessions we sometimes have both coaches training the players together while other times we split time so there is one coach focusing on developing a certain skill set.  Skill sessions can include no more than 4 players in the gym with the coaches at any one time.  Each player is allowed to train with coaches present for no more than two hours a week.  We work to give the players as many high quality repetitions as possible while also giving them ideas of things they can do to improve themselves on their own if they choose.  With only two hours a week allowed, it is virtually impossible for a player to reach all of their personal goals with us.  However, most players crave this time of individual improvement and put in the extra time on their own.  It is our responsibility to make sure they know the path that will get them to their goals.
    Yesterday Tia and I sat down to discuss the details of our training.  Things we discuss as often as the schedule allow include individual defensive technique, setter development, offensive system development, passing system and individual passing technique.  We talk about the ideas we have for in game coaching with the staff as well.  For instance, next season we will have a player who has just completed the program joining us on staff.  In our meeting we discussed ways to utilize her skills to make us most efficient as a coaching team.  The ideas we have are very exciting for our program, and me personally, as I have spent a great deal of time with this particular player discussing ideas about total team defense.  I believe she will grow into her role in a great way and it will help her so much in her coaching career.
    With spring practice beginning in a week and a half, I believe we have a plan of action and are ready to go!  I just hope I have enough hours in the day to get ahead of the recruiting follow up.  There is a HUGE deadline that hangs over every recruiting coordinator at this time of the year.  It is a high pressure job, but one that is so rewarding when it works out.
    On a final note for this entry, a really cool thing happened to me today.  I logged onto Facebook to check out my messages and found a note from a former player.  This is a player I coached for about a season and a half 10 years ago at Nouvel Catholic Central High School.  Her message said this: Hi! How are you? Just wanted to let you know that I just made the Wayne State club volleyball team. Med school is slowing down so I figured I'd pick up a hobby. Still using those skills you taught me!  And that, folks, is the reason that every coach who has ever blown a whistle started in this profession!

    Week two of the winter semester is underway in the Ferris Volleyball Office.  We are off to a more complete week, but before we get to that I'll take you through a quick peek of week behind us.  In 'A Day in the Life #2' you read about Monday so let's start with Tuesday.
    The day began with conditioning for our girls at 7:00 a.m. with Matt, our strength and conditioning coach.  I arrived at the gym around 8:00 and watched the girls finish up in the gym.  From there it was more recruiting plans and emailing recruits.  
    We're well into vetting our 2011 recruits while simultaneously identifying our 2012 class.  With college recruiting there is a general form of trickle down where the very top Division I programs get the most elite recruits to commit, followed by mid-majors D-I's and then top D-II and smaller D-I's and the trickle continues all the way down the chain.  Some elite volleyball recruits commit as early as their freshman or sophomore year in high school.  Generally at Ferris State we're recruiting juniors who we have been in contact with since their sophomore year.  We have gotten commitments from players all the way from late sophomore year to seniors.  Most of the time we will get commitments from players late in their junior year of high school.
    Enough about recruiting, back to the day...We had one skill session on Tuesday in the afternoon.  It was with our two setters so that was a skill session I was in charge of running.  It was a great first day of skills.  I will say, however, that if you were to ask our setters to describe the session, they might use a slightly different term to describe it.  They worked very hard, to say the least.  
    Wednesday I spent much of the day running errands and working from home.  Once the recruiting season begins, there isn't a weekend that we aren't working one or both days so Wednesday is the day in the week that is left clear of all scheduled appointments for errands and just life in general.  It isn't exactly a day off, just a day to go to the bank, get oil changes, etc..
    On Thursday there was a skill session from 8:30 - 9:30 followed by a huge block of recruiting work before taking some time to plan for the upcoming presentation at the Premier Volleyball Academy Coaching Symposium.  Friday morning was much of the same with the day starting off with a skills session with the middles (which was so fun!), some recruiting work and packing for the trip to Ohio.
    The trip to speak at the symposium officially started at 5:30.  It was supposed to start at 5:00, however, one of the setters ran into a little snag as we were about to leave.  The girls followed me until somewhere in the Lansing area where we dropped Sam's car off so they could take the rest of the trip there in my car.  With their conditioning sessions beginning at 7:00 a.m., the decision was made to only have them drive half the distance.  Paige wasn't in the car more than 5 minutes before she was out for the count so I suppose that was a pretty wise move.  I chatted with Sam about everything under the sun for the rest of the drive ending on the topic of 'Twilight' somehow.  If you aren't familiar with the 'Twilight' movies and books, just trust me when I say the series is wildly popular with today's college students.  Apparently there are two general 'camps' in the world of 'Twilight'.  If you are a female in college today, you are either a part of 'TEAM JACOB or TEAM EDWARD', and you must shout when you say the name of the team - I think it's a rule.  Anyway, I've seen the trailers for the movies and the actors who play these two characters were on the Jay Leno show together once for me to see.  So although I haven't seen them a ton, I've seen enough to not understand why anyone would EVER be on Team Edward.  Jacob is way better looking!  That's all I'm saying here, and you can imagine the conversation as Samantha patiently tried to explain to me why there are some fractions of people on the Team Edward side of things.  This is the conversation Paige awoke to, and needless to say, she was confused as to where in the universe she was at that point.
    So pulling into the hotel after a wrong turn that created the need for a u-turn - it was the navigator's fault - we all piled out of the car to check in. Right away the girls spotted some nice, warm, soft cookies for quests to snack on while they're checking in and immediately grabbed one each.  Very early in the check in process two things became very apparent, #1: we were wound up from being in the car for 3.5 hours and #2: we were thoroughly entertaining to the person attempting to find our reservation.  Another thing became clear as we were working on checking in.....we sure were at the WRONG hotel!    I pointed at the Courtyard Marriot and drove towards the Courtyard Marriot, we did, however, walk into the Country Inn and Suites.  The nice lady behind the counter kindly pointed us in the right direction to the hotel next door and we thanked her for the cookies.  The bummer of it is I was planning on trying one of those cookies on for size after we were done checking in.  I thought it rude to help myself to one after the scene we just brought in!  Nevertheless, it all worked out and from there we got ourselves checked into the correct hotel, grabbed some dinner and went to our rooms to get a good night's sleep.
    The next morning we were scheduled to be the second presentation following the Head Coach from Ohio State.  The girls got themselves warmed up and went over the outline of the presentation.  We had fun presenting the 'out of the box' ideas of the Long Beach State setting style.  The girls buy into it and that was so obvious in the way they worked during the hour.  It was such a pleasure to work with the girls in this environment.
    After the hour, we went to lunch, they departed for Big Rapids and I returned to watch the rest of the presenters and participate in a question and answer session at the end of the day.  The following day, the club also hosted a recruiting showcase which I stayed for.  The weekend ended with my return to Big Rapids at 9:00 p.m. Sunday.
    Look for last week's happenings in the 4th installment of 'A Day in the Life' coming soon....

    Today was the first day back to school for students at Ferris State.  Our players had physical testing at 7:00 this morning.  That aspect is handled by other members of our staff. Not being a natural morning person, I gladly sat that one out.  I did, however, get up at 7:30 to get things ready for the day.  Before making a quick breakfast, I checked my email and dealt with some recruiting emails that needed to be addressed.  Then it was off the work out at 8:30.  I was finished with my workout and into the office at 10:00.

    To start my day in the off-season, the first thing I do in the office is check my email for recruiting related correspondence.  At this time in the season, not only am I working on ironing out the exact recruiting schedule for the next several months, I am also setting up phone calls with various recruits on our shortlist.  NCAA rules allow us to call recruits one time per week after June 15th of their junior year.  However, if a recruit calls us, we are allowed to talk to them.  Since making a personal connection is so important in the recruiting process, it is my goal to get our prospects on the phone as early as possible.

    About 11:00 I met with Tia, our head coach, for about 20 minutes.  The meeting covered a variety of topics including player academics, scheduling notes for the upcoming week and semester, NCAA interpretations regarding using players as demonstrators for my upcoming appearance at the Premier Volleyball Club Coaching Symposium, etc..  

    After that meeting I went back to working on recruiting paperwork.  We use a web based software program to organize our recruits called Front Rush.  Front Rush is the best thing that happened to my job at Ferris.  We first started using the software last January and it has more than proven itself worth every penny.  The story behind the creation of the company is pretty cool, too.  Last month, I actually had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Front Rush Co-Founder Brad Downs.  If I ever find myself without a coaching job, I wouldn't surprise myself to end up working for the company.  

    Anyway, all of that is for a later time.  Back to the day.... I spent about an hour writing emails to recruits, tagging them for easy recall, organizing our shortlist and reviewing the grades of our players from the fall semester.  I finished calculating our team GPA before leaving for the next part of the day.  One of the bigger responsibilities of my job is serve as an academic monitor for our players so these grades mean a great deal to me.
    
    At around noon I left the office to go to a hair appointment.  Hey, I've been out of town for almost a month, this WAS an absolute must!!  This was followed by a great  lunch with one of my favorite people in the world!  It was great to catch up and just chat about some coaching stuff and just life in general.
    
    From about 3:00 until 6:30 I worked on several tasks.  90% of them were in some way related to recruiting.  The other 10% included directing our 3 student workers on their current projects, catching up with a player who stopped in to say hi, and filling out a travel request for the upcoming weekend of travel to Ohio.  

    So you might say this sounds just like a regular office job.  Much of the time, it is.  There is a difference in that, tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. I'll be able to mix that up by spending a lot of the day in the volleyball arena.  Much of the reason I was so drawn to coaching as a profession was the variety it included.  I love being in the gym, but just like anything else, it loses its novelty at times.  It's a great balance to have responsibilities in an office setting as well.  

    My job is not quite done for the day.  When I finish writing this, I will spend about an hour or so on my recommendation for our spring setter training plan.  I enjoy the planning part of it because it allows for vision and creativity.  It requires me to know exactly what the team needs from the setters and what the setters need from the their touches on the ball and feedback from the coaches.  This part of coaching allows us to focus on building the house from the foundation up.  It's an exciting journey that we'll begin tomorrow.  The results won't be truly known until the end of the 2010 fall season.

   Finally, before going to sleep, I will work on my personal development.  Traditionally, I am reading a few books at any one time.  The one I am most focused on working through right now is The 8th Habit by Stephen R. Covey.  I'll spend some time talking about some of the content of it at a later time.  Until then...thank you for indulging in my day!    

As I said in my previous blog, 'A Day in the Life' is my attempt to give people a sneak peak into the day to day actions of a college volleyball coach who is out of season.  The idea was actually sparked by a local reporter who came in to the volleyball office earlier in the week and asked what we were up to during this time of the year.  We began talking, along with the program's head coach, about the fact that many people don't understand what must be done to create a successful collegiate program. 

So here it is, the first installment of my attempt to help people outside of college athletics understand the rigors of the schedules.  Please feel free to leave comments or ask questions. 

Today's blog is going to sum up the week that's just ending.  It is Friday, January 9th at about 6:00 p.m. as I begin to write this.  We have just concluded our first week back since the holiday break.  Tia, our head coach, and myself were last in semi-work mode at the annual American Volleyball Coaches Association Convention in Tampa, Florida on December 16th-20th.  The players also wrapped up their final exams that week and left campus to go home.

The first week back is a little slow and unscheduled, after all, the students don't return to Big Rapids until Monday the 12th.  I spent most of my week putting together the recruiting calendar for the staff and catching up on literally hundreds of emails, most of them from potential recruits. 

The recruiting calendar doesn't sound like much, and maybe it's not.  However, coordinating a schedule that ensures a staff of two people maximum exposure for the program while allowing us to see all of the players we are interested in, that can get a little tricky.  In addition, through experience, I've learned that if I take care of some of the little things, such as mapquest print outs and hotel shopping, it makes it much better down the road.  All in all, it takes a decent amount of phone calls and emails and if done right, time to get it just right. 

Although is has very little to do with coaching people, motivating, working with people or anything else that you normally think when you think of coaching a sport for a living, I do enjoy this part of the job.  It's a bit of a break from the gym and a nice change up that helps me ease my way back into the swing of things after the holiday rest.

The other part of the week was spent preparing for a talk I am going to give at a Coaching Symposium on January 14th in Ohio.  The topic is setter training.  Not too long along, Ferris adopted a new style of setter training from Long Beach State.  Long Beach has a way of training their players that is very different than many programs in the country.  Prior to my arrival at Ferris, they had already adopted Long Beach's style of serve reception passing, so after my first year here I thought I'd go out and see it for myself.  I signed up to work all of their camps so I could see all of their training styles first hand.  From that, I fell absolutely in love with the way they train their setters!  In a week, I'll present that setter training style to other coaches. 

The biggest challenge with this presentation will be trying to fit the information into an hour.  When I have presented this material in the past, it has been through camps and clinics to both coaches and players.  The setter's camp includes around 20 hours of instruction and I'm unable to fit it all in there. 

So that's this past week in a nutshell.  I am off to somewhat enjoy the last weekend I'll have off for the next 5 months.  Monday begins at 6:00 a.m. with conditioning followed by three sets of individual skill sessions ending at 10:00 a.m.  Once out of the gym, it's back up to the office for quite a few other things that are still on the list!  Stay tuned, I can't wait to walk you through it!