Motor Learning: A Scientific Approach to Volleyball Coaching

It goes without saying that performing Volleyball Coaching based on scientific evidence is essential.

However, how would coaches currently working on the court respond to this question:

Are you consistently planning and implementing practices, asking questions, and providing feedback based on scientific principles of learning?

Few coaches, including myself, can answer with an unreserved “Yes.”

It is precisely for this reason that I consciously dedicate time daily to study volleyball and engage in discussions with other coaches and players (though I still feel I never have enough time).

In that spirit, I recently encountered an excellent book on volleyball and felt compelled to share its key learnings, especially on Motor Learning, with other coaches engaged in daily trial-and-error.

Featured Resource: The Science of Coaching Volleyball 

The book that inspired this article is The Science of Coaching Volleyball by Carl McGown, a respected figure in American volleyball. This book is based primarily on insights gathered from the US National Volleyball Team.

While the book is a bit of a vintage text, the content I particularly want to share with coaches focuses on Motor Learning. I thought I had a basic grasp of the term, but reading the book made me painfully aware that I had been blocked by the “Wall of Stupidity”—the belief that one already knows something, preventing further learning.

What is Motor Learning?

Let’s begin by considering the definition of the term.

The book defines Motor Learning as below:

This definition is admittedly complex and a bit abstract. In the plainest language possible, I interpret motor learning as the process of acquiring a new motor skill.

It is one of the most critical jobs for a coach to optimize the learning process for a player acquiring a new motor skill.

Despite this, few coaches systematically study the knowledge required for this optimization and apply it to their coaching practice. I hope this article can contribute, even minimally, to addressing this perceived challenge in Volleyball Development.

The 4 Processes for Optimizing Motor Learning

To optimize motor learning, what should a coach consider and execute? There are many tasks, but let’s start by looking at the overall process, which the book organizes into four main stages:

Let’s examine these sequentially.

1. Presenting the Player’s Learning Goal

The first step is ensuring the player understands what they need to do. The coach must clearly define the target skill execution ability and present it in an easily comprehensible manner.

A common pitfall for coaches here is over-teaching or providing too much information. A crucial principle in motor learning is that the learner’s (player’s) capacity for information processing is limited. Even if a coach’s instruction is logically sound and accurate, an overwhelming amount of information hinders learning for players challenging themselves to acquire a new skill.

The Power of Demonstration

The coach’s first task is often to provide a good model—a demonstration. Consider the use of the five senses in human experience: visual information processing stands out, with various studies suggesting it accounts for over 80% of all information processing. Research also indicates that memory stores motor information in the form of images.

If the coach cannot perform the ideal demonstration, they can ask a player who has (or is acquiring) the skill, or use a video.

A highly insightful quote shared in the book, originally from The Inner Game of Tennis, is worth remembering:

“Image is better than words, showing is better than telling, and too much instruction is worse than none at all.”

Coaches must be consistently aware of the potential harm of “too much instruction.”

Providing Necessary Cues (Clues)

A good demonstration alone is not enough. Players need cues (clues) to guide them toward the learning goal. While excessive instruction is harmful, no instruction is mere neglect.

The coach must provide the minimum necessary information, which requires careful pre-planning and deliberation. The coach must strip away unnecessary information, leaving only the most useful information for the player to reach the goal.

This is a tough job. The following four criteria can help coaches determine the effectiveness of a cue:

Coaches must check these criteria while preparing effective cues, and even consider the optimal sequence in which to deliver them. The coach’s crucial job—the essence of teaching—is to skillfully balance and organically combine “providing a good model” and “providing cues.”

While no single “perfect” teaching method exists (as the optimal approach changes significantly based on the player’s age, experience, and level), adhering to the fundamental principles of motor learning will prevent a coach from straying too far afield.

2. Developing the Player’s Motor Program

The term Motor Program refers to an internal central representation (an image in the mind) that controls movement.

More simply, I interpret it as the internal visualization of a specific action. Developing a player’s motor program means helping them form a more specific and accurate image of themselves successfully executing the new technique.

If the motor program is vague or incorrect, the player will struggle to acquire the new skill. Therefore, the coach has the vital role of facilitating the development of the player’s motor program. Five core concepts are essential for this task:

1. Specificity and Generality

The fundamental concept is that specificity is inherent in the technique of that sport.

Sports skills are diverse. Even within ball games, specific techniques—like the underhand pass in volleyball, which involves controlling a ball off two unstable forearms—are highly specialized. Mastering the underhand pass, for example, will not translate to successful dribbling in soccer. Coaches must understand this inherent specificity in every skill.

2. Transfer from Practice to Game

This is a simple but critical viewpoint: Does the motor learning from practice transfer to skill execution ability during the game?

Japanese players are often praised globally for their technical proficiency in team ball sports, but they sometimes struggle to win internationally. This is often attributed to physical differences, but I suspect the core issue is the failure of transfer from practice to game. Players may excel at executing techniques in a practice environment but struggle to apply that ability functionally in a match.

Skills that only work in practice are utterly worthless.

To gain in-game skill execution ability, practice must replicate the environment and situational context of the game as closely as possible. Does the drill include a net, boundary lines, scoring, and the sound of a whistle?

Coaches must constantly ask: Does this practice truly transfer to the game? Have I included the maximum essence of the match?

3. Whole Practice vs. Part Practice

Japanese coaching often leans toward Part Practice, which involves breaking a motor skill down into smaller components for isolated learning. Whole Practice is the opposite, teaching the motor skill in its entirety without decomposition.

When considering these two methods, it’s helpful to recall the concepts of Structuralism (Whole Practice) and Element Reductionism (Part Practice), which you can explore further in related theoretical articles.

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Which method is more effective for motor learning?

The answer, aligning with system thinking and the structuralist approach, is the Whole Practice method.

4. Setting the Stage for Learning Memory (Emotion, Environment, etc.)

The ability to perform a skill is enhanced when the context of the initial learning (e.g., emotions, environment) more closely matches the context of actual performance (the game).

Consider a player who can easily serve in practice but tenses up and misses during a tight moment in a match. This demonstrates a failure to perform because the learning context (practice) was too far removed from the performance context (game pressure).

5. Random Practice vs. Blocked Practice

Random Practice involves drills that incorporate the unpredictable variations found in a game. Blocked Practice (or repetition/patterned practice) involves repeatedly executing a fixed action.

Which method is more effective for the development of a player’s motor program and the overall process of motor learning?

Considering the principles of Specificity, Transfer to Game, Whole Practice, and Learning Context, the answer is clear: Random Practice is more effective.

3. Improving the Player’s Response (Enhancing Success)

We’ve reached the third stage of the 4 processes. Improving the player’s response is essentially about maximizing the number of successful experiences the player (learner) has during practice.

Coaches can design practice to foster more positive successful experiences by focusing on three areas:

1. Setting Drill Duration

Concentrated Practice (or Massed Practice) is continuous practice without rest.

Distributed Practice is intermittent practice with rest breaks.

Which method allows players to accumulate more successful experiences, maintain focus, and learn efficiently?

Research spanning over 90 years suggests that Distributed Practice is more effective. Studies on human concentration also suggest it cycles every 15 minutes. Distributed practice, which avoids the inefficiency of long, unbroken drills, aligns with the goals of effective motor learning.

2. Managing Physical and Mental Load

To allow players to accumulate the most successful experiences, the coach must consider how and to what extent to apply load.

Research consistently shows that excessive physical fatigue slows the learning process and lowers performance. While this may seem obvious, many practices intentionally create states of high physical fatigue. Constant high physical load not only hinders effective motor learning and performance improvement but also significantly increases the risk of injury.

Similarly, while less visible to the coach, excessive mental load is also predicted to negatively affect learning and performance. Coaches must diligently observe the player’s situation to manage both physical and mental fatigue.

3. Implementing Mental Practice

Most people associate Mental Practice with imagery or visualization training. Effective mental practice can promote motor learning.

To maximize the effectiveness of mental practice, the book suggests six conditions:

The common thread here is the importance of linking the physical and mental aspects during the motor learning process. Mental practice should not be an independent activity but performed in conjunction with physical practice.

4. Providing Information Feedback to the Player

The final stage of the optimization process is providing Information Feedback.

Information feedback serves two primary purposes:

Coaches must recognize that providing information feedback is a critical and substantial part of their job, as its quality significantly impacts the quality of the player’s motor learning.

The book outlines three key principles for providing information feedback:

I particularly stress the importance of providing Knowledge of Performance/Process (KP). KR (e.g., “The serve was out”) is easy to provide because the result is clear.

However, providing KP (e.g., “Your shoulder rotation started too late in your serve motion”) requires the coach to have a refined eye for the execution process. As volleyball is often called a “sport of preparation,” improving the quality of the pre-result process is key to generating better outcomes.

Practical Methods for Feedback Automation

The book details three practical methods for delivering feedback:

1. Setting Goals for Each Drill

The goal setting for each drill is the information feedback. Too often, a coach’s primary focus is simply running the drill on time. This leads to neglecting the most important element: defining what response (what successful experience) the player should be aiming for.

A clear goal requires the coach to: verbalize the drill’s purpose and provide concrete, easily understood metrics that allow the player to self-assess their success. This automates the feedback loop, reducing the need for constant verbal instruction from the single coach to multiple players.

2. Introducing the Principle of Competition

Incorporating competition into practice also significantly contributes to feedback automation. Examples include scoring drills (e.g., 2-on-2 serve-receive games) or using drills with clear win/loss conditions (e.g., Wash Games).

While internal competition can accelerate team growth, coaches must be careful not to introduce an excessive level of rivalry, which could turn the team’s safe haven into a stressful competitive environment. Competition without a sense of psychological safety can suppress the willingness to challenge oneself. Too much of anything is not good.

3. Providing Opportunities for Response (Trial-and-Error)

Information feedback requires the player to have opportunities to respond, meaning they must engage in frequent trial-and-error.

Enhancing the Quality and Quantity of Trial-and-Error

The book offers four methods for increasing the quality and quantity of trial-and-error opportunities:

1. Technical Warm-up

This is the “you can have your cake and eat it too” approach: setting the main objective as warming up while simultaneously acquiring technical skills. Instead of just running laps, incorporate elements that involve ball control. Since no team has unlimited practice time, pursuing and achieving two goals simultaneously is a necessary mindset.

2. Individual Coaching Opportunities

Individual coaching is unique because its effectiveness hinges entirely on the trust between the coach and player. It is distinct from other feedback methods as it allows for pinpointed feedback on the player’s specific, inherent challenges. Strong individual coaching can also be highly effective for boosting player motivation.

3. Small Group Play

The main goal of playing in small groups (e.g., 3-on-3 instead of 6-on-6) is to increase the frequency of situational judgment and ball contact. Players are directly involved in more decision-making opportunities and touch the ball more often. This approach is highly effective for teams with many members or strict time constraints.

4. Game-Like Drills (e.g., Wash Games)

Volleyball is a point-scoring game with alternating periods of in-play and out-of-play. If you simply play practice matches, the out-of-play time (huddles, rotation changes, etc.) consumes a large portion of the practice. While the out-of-play time is important, using drills like Wash Games drastically reduces this downtime, maximizing the time players spend in trial-and-error—an effective strategy given time constraints.

Practicing Evidence-Based Coaching

Let’s return to the question I posed at the start of this article:

Are you consistently planning and implementing practices, asking questions, and providing feedback based on scientific principles of learning?

How does this question resonate with you now? If your perception has shifted, then the time you spent reading this long article was worthwhile.

It is difficult—perhaps impossible for humans—to always practice coaching based on scientific evidence. But there is a world of difference between giving up because it’s impossible and striving for it despite the impossibility.

As long as I coach, I will continue to aim for that goal.