Sit through one of my practices and you'll work out my favorite thing to teach. It's the mental side. Skills are the easy part. Resetting after a mistake is what's hard. Ann Rush here, coaching 12s in my third season at CVA. I'll happily spend an hour on blocking too. I've been coaching the better part of a decade, five of them with this age group. I trade ideas constantly with our club director — the best coaching in this club happens out loud, between coaches. Watch one practice and you'll know exactly what your athlete is getting.
The way I run a session: built around fundamentals and technical work. When your athlete makes a bad error at a bad moment: I don't narrate the error. I give one thing to change on the next ball.
Playing time is where a lot of coaches go vague, so plainly: everybody plays real minutes at this age. Getting better matters more than the final score. Worth saying out loud, I'm not right for everyone, and specifically not anyone hoping I'll say their kid is a lock for a college roster.
My athletes' one standing complaint is the one phrase I repeat about four hundred times a practice. Outside volleyball: Director of Programming for Career and Technical Education at Butler Tech. I played middle blocker through high school varsity. My greatest accomplishment as a coach comes from an athlete realizing skill or potential that they did not know they possessed at the start of the season.
You should never have to guess where your athlete stands with me. Always happy to talk, with one exception — not right after a match.
Certified: SafeSport · Background screened · College degree · Active teaching license
Email me with questions. Come see whether it's a fit before you sign anything, and you can reach me any time at amrush22@gmail.com.
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