40. Timeouts: Effective communication.

⚡ What's inside this article?

We edited the timeouts out of this year's Mens VNL semi finals. Of course we only used those where you could figure out what was said by the head coaches.

Ending up with 2 video clips which we subtitled or translated and subtitled.

⛔ What we shouldn't do...

Coaching greatness can only be achieved when being effective in your communication.

(read that again while I pat myself on the back for writing it)

This article is NOT about pinpointing who's the 'best' communicator out of the 4 coaches in these matches.

Culture, individual understanding between players, the coaches and their players, internal rules...we lack the entire context.

But there is always something to be learned from the highest level of matches in the world.

So let's zoom in.

💡 What do we look for?

Effective communication during a timeout is reached by being:

• Concise; time is very limited, use it wisely
• Clear; fuzzy messaging destroys confidence
• Considerate; 'putting yourself in the shoes of your players'

We could throw in more 'C-words' here...completeness, concreteness, etc.

But I think we can agree that hitting the first 3 would be considered a win.

Let's dive in!

Poland 🇵🇱 - USA🇺🇸  ➡️  0-3

Game recap semifinal 1:

Poland had difficulty maintaining their lead(s). Depending heavily on an outstanding Kurek in set 2.

USA's serving game became more letal while the match progressed. In set 2 they managed to target Poland's OH Semeniuk very, very well.

Set 3 became a serving showcase with 8 serve aces. Christenson was running a very tight distribution. A quick look at the 'points by set' in the picture below also shows that.

Timeouts:

Notes:

At 16 - 13 in the 1st set coach Grbic of Poland mentions 'just keep the ball exclamative'. Meaning to keep the ball up, focussing less on 'perfection'.

He references the 'exclamatory' input in Datavolley concerning the score (and therefore quality) of a receiving action.

Datavolley (2019) has 7 receiving inputs: perfect (AE#), positive (AE+), exclamatory (AE!), negative (AE-), poor (AE/), error (AE=)

Semifinal 2: Italy 🇮🇹  -  France🇫🇷  ➡️  0-3

Game recap:

France missed 7 serves in the first set, but that wasn't nearly enough for Italy to get in the game. You can even say that Italy never got into their side out groove because France didn't give them the chance to receive.

(While watching the game it seemed like a tactic even)

With France having a block - defense game which is second to none Italy never stood a chance. The only moment in the game where Italy had 2 outsides being efficient in spiking was in the 2nd set.

France their side out game was excellent, their opposite Patry had an attacking efficiency of 40%, the other hitters where around 50% or way, way over. (picture below)

Timeouts: