Friday 12th June 2020. Today marks the end of an inspiring and energetic week for Scottish Volleyball. The second week of the coaching month had two Scottish pioneers as guest speakers. On Monday our webinar series featured Simon Loftus, and on Thursday our guest was Morph Bowes.
On Monday we had a conversation with Simon about “stuff”. We had the opportunity to discuss what the role of the coach is according to him. He is currently the head coach of the English Men’s National Team. Simon touched on very interesting topics, from the importance of values, to how to deal with victory and with failure. Moreover, Simon spent a few words to stress the importance of having a growth mindset in everything that you do. Loftus says that results will come eventually if you work hard. In the meantime, we must not discourage ourselves and fully embrace the process and what comes with it.
In a coach-athlete relationship, he says, it is important to give the player ownership of what they are doing, by giving them more responsibility. It is important to allow people to make mistakes, and a coach should be there to support them in coming out of those situations. He highlighted the importance of travelling around to learn to see what other people are doing. It is very important to learn from other perspectives. He leaves the webinar with a precious advice: have the audacity to ask. Take the risk. The worst that can happen is that people say no.
On Thursday Morph Bowes came on our webinar. He is the current head coach of the German Women’s Beach Volleyball National programme. Morph started the chat telling his story and took a trip down the memory lane. He explained how he became a coach.
Later on in the discussion he explained that according to him psychology plays a vital role in sports and especially in the development of the athlete. He gave really interesting insights on how he analyses the correlation between movement and the psychological approach a person has in making those movements. He says to analyse the experiential side of the movement is a key part in how he deals with his athletes.
Morph then talked about communication and how to overcome cultural bias. He stressed that for him how you communicate with the person you are dealing with is fundamental. Not only you have to hear what they are saying, but you also need to understand where they are coming from in order to build something good by working together.
He finished off the chat as well by giving advice. He referred to young athletes and told them that the best thing they can do to get to higher level in volleyball is to play as much as they can.
So far, the coaching month has been truly inspiring and we are looking forward to the next webinars we have prepared for our members. If you are not a member yet, you can join Scottish Volleyball for as little as £3!
The next webinars coming up are:
- USA Women’s national team staff, 18th-19th June
- Celso Assumpcao, 23rd June
- Steve Florio, 25th June
- Joel Banks, 29th June
Sign up through Azolve here!