Head Coach Report 2019
My job as Head Coach is to plan the Sunday evening programme, and to coordinate our team of coaches. Along the way I have the privilege of coaching the juniors (age 9-15).
A year ago we polled our members, and most said they would like the opportunity to train or play every week, so we changed the structure of our Sunday club sessions for the 2018-19 season:
- We made the main court available for adults for the full three hours.
- We split the three hours into two 1.5 hour sessions so that men and women train separately with no overlap (previously we had two overlapping 2-hour sessions).
- We hired the end of the hall so that the juniors could have their own space and more time.
The outcomes appear to have been positive (mostly) or neutral, with no obvious negatives:
- More training hours for everyone.
- More men/mixed attending training and playing matches.
- No change in women’s attendance.
- More juniors, huge performance improvement, and the extra hire cost was financially viable.
- No change in overall number of regular club players, but more casual/irregular players.
If anyone has noticed any problems with this trial, please let me know. Otherwise I propose to continue with this arrangement next season. One issue to discuss and decide:
- The women would prefer to train at 7pm every week (instead of alternating 7 or 8.30pm with the men) – due to travel distances of some players, others having school next day, and to help develop U15s.
- Is this OK with the men, or would they consider it unfair?
Statistics for Sunday night club sessions
|
Dedicated hours (Sunday evening)
|
Men/Mixed
home matches
|
Men/Mixed training
|
Women
training
|
Junior U14
training
|
|
2018-19 season
|
18
|
45
|
35
|
48
|
|
2017-18 season
|
14
|
28
|
30
|
23
|
|
2016-17 season
|
14
|
32
|
27
|
16
|
|
2015-16 season
|
8
|
29
|
30
|
17
|
|
2014-15 season
|
18
|
24
|
26
|
19
|
Women play their home matches at Lavington School
|
Attendance
Average (low-high)
|
Men/Mixed
|
Women
|
Juniors U14
|
Total
regular
players
|
|
training
|
match A
|
match B
|
training
|
SWL match
|
training
|
|
2018-19 season
|
10 (5-14)
|
8 (6-9)
|
8 (6-10)
|
9 (6-13)
|
8 (7-10)
|
8 (4-10)
|
35
|
|
2017-18 season
|
8 (73%)
9 (69%)
8 (73%)
8 (73%)
|
9 (60%)
|
5 (83%)
|
32
|
|
2016-17 season
|
9 (56%)
|
6 (66%)
|
38
|
|
2015-16 season
|
9 (69%)
|
5 (42%)
|
33
|
|
2014-15 season
|
8 (44%)
|
5 (38%)
|
38
|
‘Regular players’ excluding a number of casual or irregular players
Special thanks to everyone who has taken responsibility to coach or organise teams: Pablo, James and Laura (men); Cliff, Kat, Laura and Pablo (women); Charlotte (WLJ); Julie, Charlotte, Donna and Angel (juniors); and huge thanks to Julie, whose role as club welfare officer should not be under-estimated.
Planning ahead
Summer 2019
- Playing for fun at Lydiard Park, adults and juniors, starting May – Mondays will be best for me?
- Whitefield Tournament, Bristol (grass), 21-22 July – we need more players!
- Other sand and grass tournaments, local and nationwide – just get together and enter!
Indoor season 2019-20
- Indoor training will start on the first Sunday in September – watch club website for announcements.
- We’ll decide league entries at or soon after the AGM.
Team performance 2018-19
Juniors
U14 Girls – SW JuVoTo series winners, SW Mini-Championships winners.
U14 Boys – SW JuVoTo series winners, SW Mini-Championships winners.
Another great season, and we all loved it. Our junior players certainly benefitted from increased training hours – they keep on improving individually, played some great team volleyball, and attracted many compliments from other SW coaches. Our SW Mini-Championships performance was so good it brought tears to my eyes! Now we’re taking a big leap to play in the national U14 JuVoTo on 5 May.
Many congratulations to all our champions: Anna (14), Hannah (14), Gabriella (13), Julia (11), plus Kuba (13), Ben (12) and Alberto (his first season, age 9). And to our newer or less regular players who are all learning fast: Josh (9), Millie (12) and Hannah (12).
Women
South West Championships (May 2018) – 7th place out of 14 (missed the play-off very closely on sets - same match points as 6th)
South West League – played 14 of 18 games – currently 7th out of 10 teams (won 6 lost 8)
From Kat: We have had a slow start to the season losing our first 6 matches and also slightly injury plagued! Kelly and Sara have joined some training sessions recently and Kelly played her first match with us giving the team a boost of confidence. Training attendance is slightly patchy and we probably have not quite enough to get good match practice without the men in all session. Cliff has coached most sessions working hard with us on hitting and blocking. Anna has had her first season in the South West and although has not played every match has shown really great potential and resilience when she has played. Anj is also new this season and fits in with the team very well. For the first time in several seasons Laura might not get the MVP, unfortunately due to injury rather than form. We are just finalising the squad for the SW Championships in Plymouth which should be great fun as every year!
James kindly arranged a taster session for new players, which was well attended but unfortunately not many have come back.
Wilts Ladies & Junior League
This provides a safe and friendly, but competitive opportunity to develop younger players and gain match experience. Unfortunately the dates clashed with SW JuVoTo, so we couldn’t introduce our U14s to 6-a-side or field regular teams. However Anna, Anj, Hayden and Charlotte have played on a couple of occasions, mixed in with Salisbury and Calne.
Men
Wilts Mixed League Premier Div (A team) – played 9 of 12 games (6 wins), currently 3rd out of 7 teams
Wilts Mixed League Division 1 (B team) – played 11 of 14 games (4 wins), currently 6th out of 8 teams
Hayden – England Junior trials, SW Junior Boys squad
It’s heartening to be running two teams again in the Wilts League, giving more members the chance to play regular competitive volleyball. Our A-team remains strong, against fierce opposition, and is starting to challenge Devizes and Swindon Reds for the top places (Andrew, Carl, Pablo, Laura, Sergejs, Ed P, Hayden, Josh, Seb, Jimmy, Dave – with Pablo winning 5 MVP nominations so far). Our B-team provides extra opportunity to play and develop new players (Charlotte, Dave, Seb, Hayden, Jimmy, Josh, Ed B, Maisie, Anna, Reg, Joby, Angel, Donna – to date Charlotte and Hayden lead the MVP race with 3 nominations each).
Special congratulations to Hayden for reaching the heights (get it?!) at regional and national level.
Phil Heads (Head Coach)
April 2019