Episode #14 - What did we Learn: Summer 24' Edition

In this episode we use a plethora of Ben Josephson quotes about golf and explain how they relate to high level volleyball performance. We talk about the power of efficiency, extension, and acceleration when performing a skill and we debate the use of boxes in a practice. 

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Transcript

Jesse 0:00

And you work backwards from the serve that you want to produce as opposed to not backwards.

Oog 0:06

That is a pretty hot take

0:09

Hello and welcome to the Pit the Pro podcast. Jesse, Matthias, and Aaron Elson. This podcast is meant to guide young athletes on their journey to high performance. Join us as we share our first hand experiences in an effort to help you reach your own valuable goals.

Jesse 0:25

And we're live. Welcome back everyone to the pit, the pro podcast. This is episode 14. Um, and today we're going to be talking a little bit about what we learned over the summer, some things, some ideas, uh, that have been ruminating in our heads. and, uh, discuss some cool topics. I'm going to start us off right now with a bit of a hot take. But, I stand by this. I think the use of boxes in practice is useless. Interesting. I'll tell you why. Maybe you disagree now that you've kind of moved into a little bit more of a coaching role. I don't know if you use them in your sessions in Calgary, but I think there's a time and place, but I think the time is like right. 10 minutes max, like maybe four times a season. I think they teach bad arm swing mechanics. They injure athletes. They are not game or they're not like live volleyball specific. It doesn't teach you good reading skills. And I think there's way more, more enjoyable and More, um, creative end game, like drills and things that you can do to replace the boxes, like digging off a box doesn't help the digger or the spiker. The only reason I think maybe is if you put a box in the middle of the court to replicate like a shorter distance on a float serve, but if do that, then I think you put a coach on the box. I don't know. That's my take. I, yeah, I don't know what you guys think.

Oog 2:10

That is a pretty hot take. Yeah, I think that's probably correct like it does not exactly helping the person on the box But yeah Like you said those those shorter distance float serves or even like trying to get ready for a big spin server like Having someone just bomb balls at you. Well if you don't have a certain machine, but yeah I definitely think there's ways to phase out boxes

Mathias 2:42

Yeah, I think, uh, there's a time and a place. They probably get used too much. I definitely agree with the injures athletes part. Um, because On your shoulder, we're not used to hitting that many balls consecutively in that short amount of time. And also, I think I've torn, not torn, I've strained my abs more times on the box than any other situation. And I don't know why, but

Jesse 3:17

it seems to always be the case.

Mathias 3:19

I learned

Jesse 3:19

why this summer, I'll tell you why, I brought it up. It's because your feet are planted. You never spike with your feet or when your feet are plants, you have no rotation. So it's all like core and shoulder and there's no rotation. Cause you're not in the air.

Oog 3:33

Right. So it actually messes with your, with your spike mechanics.

Jesse 3:37

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That was my first thing. So that's why if you're going to do that, put a coach on the box, but I still don't think it's that beneficial for the defenders. it's like, you're never going to, someone's not going to toss themselves or slap the ball and then you know when to go, like, there's no reading involved.

Oog 3:54

Yeah.

Jesse 3:55

Like. I think you can, like, we would in last year in Germany, we would do like self tosses. So someone would self toss and then you could read, you could wait, you'd get in the way and we could do a bunch of reps that way. But like blocking off the box to me is just not very game realistic. And maybe, maybe if you want to lock down the, the forward pattern or the hand penetration, sure. You do it for like 10 minutes max, but like, I think like TSC said, boxes are way. I

Mathias 4:28

do really enjoy getting digging reps when someone's on a box, but I think that might just be one of those ones where it's good for the ego and the confidence rather than the actual skill of digging. I think maybe technique wise, like you're saying, if you're working on, blocking footwork or digging technique, then a couple of box reps can help you with that. But the hard part of volleyball is making the right move in the right situation. Um, and that involves reading the ball. So you'll definitely lose quite a bit of that when you're, When you're working off the box.

Jesse 5:15

But that's my hot take slash what I learned.

Oog 5:19

You got any more hot takes in the bag? Um,

Jesse 5:26

yeah, sure. I got another hot take. I think, especially for young athletes, this is about gear, specifically shoes, I think you should find the shoes that work right for you, not the shoes that everyone else is wearing or that the pros are wearing, because I actually think the shoes you wear are very important. And for a long time, I wore tennis shoes. Because I thought I could move lat or not I thought, I felt like I could move laterally way easier. I don't know if that's a hot take, but I tested it out. I was like, oh, look how fast I am.

Mathias 6:03

Dude, I also think the same thing You're in you're in sport check. I think the same thing with knee pads. Because I think the choice is often do I want to be a kneepad guy or not? But I think it should be do I need them to play well or not? Yeah, I think most people should wear knee pads because in order to dig properly Your knee is going to hit the ground pretty hard, and I think some people limit their, their ability to dig because they're afraid to hit the ground. Yeah. And so if, I think just popping a pair of knee pads on could increase people's dig percentage by a good amount.

Jesse 6:46

You

Oog 6:47

know, we, like in, in my first year, we, we gave Liam Rample a lot of flack for wearing knee pads as a middle. But he did, he, he did dig more balls. Maybe not with quality, but he got more touches when he was wearing knee pads. So there is something to it, like, and I also think, Like, nowadays, like, you gotta have the, the swag of, of playing youth volleyball and, like.

Jesse 7:15

No, no, that's what I'm saying. No, no,

Oog 7:16

I know, they, like, they. Don't go for swag, go for functionality. I know, but they're saying, like, they want swag, so that you see people wearing, like, one knee pad. Or, like, you know? Yeah. Guy only digs to his left. If you're gonna, if you're gonna, if you're gonna be a knee pad guy. You wear the right gear. If you don't want to be an e pay guy, that's fine. You just dig the balls. You better dig the ball. You better hit the

Jesse 7:42

floor. Yeah. But the moral of the story is And that's just in a gear context, but I think it applies to a lot of things, but find out what works for you. And, and run with it. Uh, yeah. What about you guys? You guys learn anything? Got any hot takes?

Oog 8:01

I don't really have a hot take, but I just, I've been noticing a lot of things. Well, mostly, mostly one thing. Um, now this kind of relates to work, but in a sense, it's also volleyball. controlling your emotions well, when times are not favorable, If I see someone that is incredibly real in those moments where it's not like an animated thing, it's just like, Hmm, all right, this kind of sucks. Like what's big picture, what's really happening. I think it's much, much easier for me to be like, Oh, that's someone who's, who's strong and, I want to be his teammate or I want to be his employee I don't know how to say that, but like,

Jesse 8:50

Well, dude, I'll give you an example. Yesterday, uh, my roommate and I were watching Olympic high jump. And the, the favorite I guess was from Qatar and he missed out on whatever, two 32, his first jump, he had three attempts missed on the first jump. And it looked like he got shot. He was like on his knees, like yelling to the sky, like, aah, banging on the mat. And then this other guy who was like cool, calm, collected, he was about to start his run up and he smiled. And he also didn't make the height. And he just kind of looked at the bar, gave a little shrug and walked off and smiled again. And he ended up winning because he was just so, and, and, uh, my roommate Kofi, uh, we, we said at that moment, we're like, this guy's not going to win. Like you can't win with that attitude. And this other guy, every, every attempt, he smiled before he looked at the crowd and just went and went about his business. If he made it or didn't make it, he almost had the same reaction. I thought it was really, really cool. And we could tell before the, the event was over that we, we, we guessed he would win.

Oog 9:55

and I think that's like, I'm gonna do a work example here, but like two days ago, we got brand new combines and the unload auger fell off the combine. No, the unload auger? Are you kidding me? But instead of being just ridiculously mad that This had happened. My boss was kind of chuckling and he was like, ah, I've never seen anything like that. And the way that you carry yourself in stressful situations can help dictate the emotions and the, the feel of everyone around you. So I think that's, especially when you're on teams, if you're someone who is in a leadership role the way you act or react has a big effect on other people I think it's kind of just the gist of it. But

Mathias 10:49

yeah, that's cool. I was listening to podcasts the other day and The guest was talking about stress And how stress has kind of just become accepted and it's like a it's a price you need to pay for Success basically of any kind But he was saying that he disagrees And that as long as your actions Remain equal the result will be the same whether you're stressed about it or not as long as your actions remain equal, then the result will be the same. And the reason I bring that up is because I think it relates to what you just said. Whereas you could change up the quota a little bit and say that the result will be the same if your actions are equal, whether you're emotional about it or not, For example, if you're getting reps and. You miss a pass, and you get all angry about it, but the next rep you make the adjustment, and it goes better. If you did the same thing, just minus the anger, you would end up in the exact same place, and you just saved yourself a bunch of, like, emotional toll, essentially. Right.

Jesse 12:07

And energy. I don't know if there's the actual science, but I think getting angry and frustrated takes a lot of energy.

Mathias 12:15

Yeah, it does one guy who's amazing at this is is Brett Walsh it's it's sweet when watching him get reps just if if his emotional state was measured on like a Graph or whatever one of those heartbeat things it would just be flat. He'd be dead. He'd be dead Emotionally, and I'm sure yeah, I'm sure he starts to feel things when he misses his set or whatever, but he's just really good at Getting back to that spot where he'll just try again on the next one because that's really all you can ever do No matter what happens. Your only option is to try again on the next one and that's the action and that doesn't change Yeah, that's cool. That's really

Jesse 13:04

cool. All right. Well speaking of Actions, I want to move into a little bit of more volleyball specific skills I don't know if I've talked about this on the pod before or not If I have, then we're going to do it again. Cause I really realized the importance of this throughout the summer. And Ben had a quote that said, volleyball is best played with extension and acceleration. And there's not a single skill in volleyball that is better done without accelerating or without extending. And for me, it was my, my serve and my passing, just thinking about being extended as long as possible. That one simple word and one simple cue was so helpful for me. Um, and I, yeah, I really wanted to share that. And maybe, Teeth, I don't know if you use that quote when in your setting clinics and stuff too. So I think it applies to setting as well. You're trying to accelerate the ball and you want to get it to extension. Um, but that simple two words were like a great reset for me. If I was at the baseline serving, if I was in defense, if I was, I don't know, getting ready for reception, like anything, even in practice. Like I was just extended. I was forward. I was trying to take up as much space as possible. I was spiking at extension. I was spiking high and it was accelerating. I wasn't slowing down. And, uh, I had a lot of success, uh, this summer. And I think a large part of it is due to those two words that I kept repeating.

Mathias 14:43

Yeah. I use that a ton when I'm coaching setters, especially maybe definitely more the acceleration portion than the extension portion. But, As setters, the timing of your move is really important because I mean, just like most skills, right, but the ball is coming down and we are moving up and we need to make sure that we're using all of our energy efficiently to put it into the ball to make it to go where we want it to go. And that requires a lot of timing and us to be accelerating through the ball. So a lot of times setters will. Run to the spot really quickly be standing underneath the ball have their hands up ready to go Which is probably how they were taught which is not a bad thing But then you've just lost all of that acceleration because you're just stopped underneath the ball So giving yourself just like in spiking a little bit of approach into the ball so you can Use your your mass behind it and get more energy into it

Jesse 15:52

Well, I guess you could even add a third word. You could say extension, acceleration and efficiency I think that all those three apply to all, all, uh Skills, volleyball skills, or even probably most sports skills, really. Like, I don't think there's a single sport where you want to be slowing down before you perform a skill

Mathias 16:11

Golf, too. When you're chippin that's why people are duffin chips all the time, including myself. Yeah, like, like me. You had a huge round yesterday, hey? Yeah, it was not bad. 78. Gettin back to that scratch. Back to back bogeys to finish up, though. Yeah, that'll happen.

Jesse 16:36

Do you think your, your setting has helped you become a better golfer?

Mathias 16:45

That would be a stretch, if I were to say yes. I don't think so. actually I really do believe that golf helps with your mental game or maybe The other way around even but mentally golf and volleyball feel similar. I think just because that's what I was getting at I didn't mean the actual Okay That's hilarious yes, then Yeah, I do because I think that, what I've learned is the best place to be for performance is just present. And I think golf is golf is one of those sports where you can't erase your mistakes. They're literally written on the scorecard as soon as you finish the hole. And so all you can do, like we just said before, is try again on the next one. And I think that's really hard to do. So it's because if you double bogey the first hole and you want to shoot whatever four over you're already thinking ahead, okay, I can only make two more bogeys. I might need to make some birdies here. And your mind just starts going all the way to the end of the round after the first hole. And so I think that it's really good. It's a really good training ground to just stay present. Hit each shot as its own most important thing in the world. Just like you would play each point the same way Yeah, well, you

Jesse 18:21

know, what's funny is Brett is an incredible golfer So I probably guarantee you that's part of the reason why he's so good as being mentally or emotionally Stable when he's doing reps because he's okay. He go for a long time right when he was young. Yeah. Yeah. He's a great golfer

Oog 18:41

So, moral of the story, hit the links. Hit the links. Hey, keep going on this golf knowledge and I don't really want to go back to this, but like, you guys ever, been in a twosome and you get hooked up with another twosome and, and one of the guys is just losing his noodle after like three shots. and you're just like, this is going to be the longest round If this keeps going and I think that's the same with a team is like if you're in the middle of a set and you guys like it's one point out of 50 points in a set. You don't need to lose your mind. that makes your other teammates think, Oh, this is going to be the longest set of life.

Mathias 19:24

for sure. And also I think, there's a cool golf analogy. Benjo used a couple, but one that, that I remember is, uh, play the day. If you're, if you're missing the ball to the right or to the left on any given day. Instead of trying to fix your swing while you're out there competing and trying to do your best, you just aim to the left or aim to the right and that translates to volleyball in the sense that some days your skills will not allow you to perform exactly how you want to and you got to go out there and perform with what you have on that day. So if you're having a really hard time with your hand contact, for example, On a certain day, maybe today's day you get creative when you're spiking and you start using your roll shots and your edge wipes and your dumps to the pot and that kind of stuff. Same thing serving. If you go back there and you miss your first two, three serves. And you're killing your team that way. And maybe today's the day where you pull out the float, where you pull out the tactical, whatever. So just playing the day, reading, reading the situation as fast as you can, and then taking advantage of things that you do have on that given day. And that's, that's compartmentalization

Jesse 20:46

at its finest right there. Yeah, well, since we're on this golf kick, another one of Ben's golf analogies has to do with serving. Like you just said. And it was, uh, green to tee instead of tee to green, right? So amateur golfers such as myself are just trying to hit it as hard and as far as I can. And get near the green, and then I'll get on the green in two and then I'll four putt, whereas professional golfers will be like, I want to land here on the green, so I have to hit my drive here on the fairway, which means I have to use this club from the tee box, and they work backwards, because they're so precise and where they want to put it. And so the same thing applies for serving. Instead of just hitting the ball as hard as you can. And hoping it goes where you want it to go. You're going to say I want to hit this seam with this kind of serve. So you work backwards. I want to travel this fast, so I want to give it this toss and I want to contact the ball with a little bit of, uh, rotation or whatever. And you work backwards from the serve that you want to produce as opposed to not backwards.

Mathias 22:01

It's regular.

Jesse 22:02

Yeah.

Oog 22:03

Yeah. That's a good one too. Oh, I kind of like this golf analogy.

Mathias 22:10

That's where I get my competitive fix these days, so. Okay, my last thing that I have been thinking about is that it can always get better and it can always get worse and I'm thinking about that on a day to day basis. So, right now, I'm working a remote job on my own hours, so the amount of freedom there is, it's too much, to be honest. A little more structure would be good. Basically, everything I do in a day is my decision, and sometimes I'll start off a day quite poorly. I'll sleep in, I'll be just sitting on the couch for a while, I won't even leave the house And, like, It's pretty easy to write that day off, as soon as it starts poorly, but I think you already know. Always, always have a decision. There could be one decision in your day that completely flips it on its head. And it doesn't have to be a big decision, but even if I didn't do anything that day, but then I go to bed on time, and grab a nice sleep for the next day, I've completely flipped that day around. So I think it's just like, never giving up on a day is, is part of that. and anytime that you're presented with a decision, just making the right one. And if not, this goes back to our thing with, that we talked about earlier. It's just, do it better on the next one.

Jesse 23:52

I resonate hard with that. I would do that too, here especially. And like, even this morning, so like it's three o'clock here. You guys just woke up, but this morning I was going to have such a productive day. I was going to go to the store. I was going to get a bunch of stuff. And then I wake up, check my phone and I realize that it's Sunday, so all the stores are closed. And I was like, all right, I guess I'll watch a movie. I opened my laptop. I'm like, no, what am I doing? And closed my laptop. And then I still went for a walk outside. And so like, I think like just simple things like that, it's actually huge. Like starting the day outside, getting some sun in your eyes, getting that vitamin D flowing. Like it's actually really, really helpful. And it sets you up for success.

Mathias 24:33

Well, I think we all know what it feels like when you just put together a good day, you know, you just stack good decision after good decision after good decision and you feel really good after the end of that day. And I think that's the goal, but I think I would summarize this just by saying, never give up on a day, no matter how undisciplined or poor you start the day, and how long that persists, just never give up on the day. There's always The next decision that could be the game changer for you. That's a heater. Alrighty. That's sweet. I believe that wraps up episode number 14. Thanks for listening to us ramble, guys. Yeah, that was a fun one. I like when we can kind of just roll off the cuff. And chat about what's been going on with us. So thank you everyone for listening. This has been episode number 14 of the Pit to Pro podcast. Signing off.

25:39

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