Just the other day, the Ligare Sendai Juniors’ U12 team competed in their first official tournament and finished as runners-up. I’ve been involved with the team, primarily through coaching, since April of last year. I’ve also had daily discussions with the U12 coach about the team’s progress and goals, so I was thrilled to see them achieve such a great result.
While I’m certainly happy with the outcome, I honestly feel that the value lies much more in the process that led to it—the things we’ve prioritized as a team. I want to use this article to document those key principles.
What We’ve Valued as a Team
1. No Fixed Positions: Experiencing Every Aspect of the Game
A major focus for our team has been to avoid fixed positions, ensuring that every player gets to experience all aspects of volleyball. In Japan, the U12 category uses a “free position” system, which exempts them from the rotation rule that is a core feature of volleyball.
However, under a free position system, prioritizing winning often leads to a “positional stagnation,” where taller players only play at the net and more experienced players handle most of the receptions from the center of the court. I’ve taken to calling this phenomenon “positional fixation due to the free position system.” The problems with this are as below:
- It limits the types of plays players can experience during a period of remarkable neural development.
- It robs players who are less experienced (or have less innate ability) of the “joy of playing volleyball.”
I believe that for coaches to specialize players or their positions during this foundational stage of volleyball is to stunt their future potential. Our team’s program is designed for every player—regardless of experience, height, or grade level—to practice every single position.
2. Practice Based on Small-Sided Games
Small-sided games are games played with a small number of players in a limited space. Our team practiced two to three times a week for two hours, and each session included about 30 minutes of small-sided games, primarily 2-on-2 and 3-on-3.
The reason small-sided games are at the core of our training program is because we believe it’s crucial for players to “learn through the game and learn the game.”
When coaches create a practice program, they introduce constraints like varying the number of players or the court size (If you are interested in the ecological approach, please refer to the article below.).
Players then try to adapt to these changes through trial and error. Through this process, they discover their own optimal solutions.
In our small-sided games, coaches rarely give instructions or direct teaching. Instead, we have a few breaks where players can discuss a theme set by the coach or reflect on the game.
3. No Rote Learning of “Forms”
In our coaching, we strongly believe that there is no single, correct way to perform an action like a spiking or receiving form. Every player is different in terms of their athletic experience, physical development, and muscle composition.
Therefore, our coaching philosophy is that players must discover their own optimal movements through countless trials and errors.
That said, there are logical principles of motion that make certain plays more effective, and these have been articulated in great detail. The most comprehensive resource on this topic is likely the book (Coaching Volleyball (Basic Edition)).
Our coaches learn and understand these principles and then make a conscious effort to explain them as simply as possible, using key terminology to guide our players.
