The Stuart Hall Volleyball Team has experienced some tough losses this season, but through it all, they have seen improvement. Coming from varied backgrounds can make it difficult to work optimally together, but the Dragons have made wonderful improvement with closer games and a couple wins.
When speaking to Coach Tori Kennedy about her overall coaching philosophy, she stated: “Coaching Stuart Hall athletics is always a little bit different than what other teams and coaches experience. We blend individuals stemming from various skill levels including highly trained, competitive athletes along with beginners who have no knowledge of the sport into one team to compete for a season. While winning is an obvious goal, I approached this season as a building year.”
She further went on to explain how “[there] is a Japanese business philosophy I learned in business school that I implemented into my coaching this year called kaizen. Kaizen focuses on continual improvement for all employees and systems. For the volleyball team, I really focused on improvement for all players (regardless of skill level) and the team as a whole. I've been extremely pleased to see that strategy producing real results.”
Motivation can be tough to foster in sports. It can be hard to motivate players that are frustrated with themselves and the team. Most of all, it can be challenging to instill motivation in others when things that may personally motivate may not motivate others on the team.
On the topic of motivating her players, Coach Kennedy explained, “Motivation is a hard value to completely instill into somebody else. Motivation often must come from within one's own mentality. What motivates me may not always motivate you. Instead, I focused on several factors- mindset/mental competitive strength, celebrating small wins, and working one-on-one with the athletes to make sure they recognize their strengths. The combination of the above allowed the individual athletes to harness their strengths while improving on their weaknesses. I won't say it's been easy. There have been some really tough moments throughout the season for both the team and individual athletes. I am extremely proud of them for continuing to find their own motivation to keep pushing forward."
When inquired about a lesson she has learned this year from one of her players, she said, “It's hard to pinpoint one thing and only focus on one athlete when looking at an extremely talented and hard-working team as a whole. I think the biggest thing that has really helped me improve as a coach is adapting to challenges where the first solution wasn't working. There was one match early in the season, maybe our fourth or fifth match where I decided to try a different rotation for one of the sets. It made me realize that I wasn't harnessing our team's strengths in the right manner and now it has led to a much better rotation that has given us the ability to earn more points overall.”
Thank you to the Stuart Hall volleyball team for an exciting season. We look forward to seeing them play and grow together next fall.
B Burdick