Technical Timeout - The Podcast on Coaching Volleyball

Vincent Pichette is the assistant coach on the Canadian National team but he is in charge of coaching the future prospects of the Team during the winter while Head Coach Glenn Hoag (episode 1) is in Turkey with his pro team. That’s why I really wanted to have him on the show.   Vince is very knowledgeable and super technical. He really knows his stuff because he studies the game like no one else I know.     He has a long term vision of the athlete development and that’s what he shares in this episode. He also share with us his 4 steps to planing a practice and tells us why a training session is like an iceberg!! 

This week I talk with Dave Preston, head coach of the McMaster University Men’s Volleyball team and former assistant coach of the Canadian National Team. Dave is the kind of guy who has done it all. He has coached at pretty much all levels, so he has a very good understanding of how young players develop into the best players they can be.     In this interview, we talk about lots of stuff but one of the most interesting part is the one where Dave talks about coaching with nature instead of against it. His whole coaching philosophy revolves around that principle and he shares it with you guys in this episode. At the end of our conversation, Dave also explains what basic skill is the most important one to teach young players according to him, and why that skill is so important…curious to know what it ??   Listen to the whole episode and I promise you will learn all the way until he shares that tip. Check out our Website Follow us on Facebook

Today’s athlete is someone who is used to be on a podcast since he has his own show called the Tip…you know who that is, it is Dallas Soonias. Dallas has been on the Canadian National team for more than 10 years and he has had an impressive professional career. In this episode, I ask Dallas to go back in time so he can tell us about how it was for him to grow as a volleyball player in Alberta. He in turn shares some stories about his college coach and obviously compares Volleyball to Hip Hop, which turns out to be a very interesting analogy. Dallas is a well spoken dude with a caramelized voice…yes, that’s right, a caramelized voice…you will know what I mean when you hear it. So I’m sure you guys will enjoy. Without further ado, here’s Dallas Soonias!!!  

You could be looking for a while before you find a coach like Brenda. Why, Not because she is the only women coach a men’s university volleyball team in Canada. Not because she has been coaching the Queen’s university team for 28 years. Not even because her team made the playoffs for 27 out of these 28 years.  No, you won’t find a coach like her at every street corner because very little coaches work harder than she does. She says it herself in the episode. She is on top of the coaching trends and she doesn’t let anything stand between her and her goals. In this interview, Brenda shared with me what she is looking for in a young volleyball player when she recruits for her team. This led to a very interesting conversation about young players development and I’m sure you will enjoy. But the one thing you don’t want to miss is the part where she talks about playing without the ball. Now that’s something we don’t hear often and that is soooo important.

Larry is the current University of Winnipeg Men’s Volleyball Team Head Coach and if you are 35 years old, you are probably to young to remember anyone else coaching that team because he has been there since 1989. Amazing!! Now the reason why I have Larry on the show is not only because of his super long career as a coach but it is because of how knowledgeable and humble he is. Larry learns from other coaches as much as he learns from his own players, whether they are international players or 16 year old players.  I have had an amazing experience being coached by him and the chat we had was eye opening for me. He told me about why he doesn’t see himself as a leader and about when he realized he had been “ flat out wrong”.

Brock had a super successful volleyball career as a setter. He won national titles in the CCAA and in the CIS, played on the Canadian junior national team and the Canadian Senior B team before joining the Senior A team in 2004. Brock played many years as a professional player and retired in 2012.  Now I’m not having Brock on the show because of his playing career, but because he decided to give everything back to the volleyball community by becoming a coach. The reason why you need to know about his playing career is that it demonstrates how much Brock loves to learn. No one can play that long without being passionate about learning.   Now that he coaches, Brock has that same desire to become the best. He proves it by coaching in 5 different places/clubs/teams, and he will tell you all about them in the show. In this episode, we talk about coaching but we focus on developing young setters. Brock shares some of his favourite exercises for setters and even compares setting to golf. I was blown away by that and

Tauri is a very humble guy. He has been coaching young athletes for more than 20 years. He actually started coaching volleyball when he was in high school and went on to become an assistant coach on the Brock University Women’s Team for many years.   What’s awesome about Tauri is that he also coached Martial Arts for many years so he’s got the coaching thing down. So this episode is not just about volleyball, it’s also about coaching in general. In this interview, Tauri shares how making mistakes is part of being a coach. He also reveals his trick to jack his players learning curve, you’ll see, it makes so much sense it is shoking coaches don’t do it more often.

Heather is a former international player who represented Canada on the national team between 1999 and 2002. She played professionally for 6 years in countries like Spain, France and Portugal. She played at that level because volleyball is her passion. Her hard work and discipline made her a top level middle player and she now shows the same kind of dedication towards coaching.   In this episode, you will find out who is the legendary coach who inspired her to become a coach herself and you will learn her tricks on training middle players. We also talk about communication and mentors and a lot of other stuff.

  Glenn is one of the most respected volleyball coaches on the planet. As a professional coach, he has won many national championships in Europe and has won the prestigious Champions League. He is currently the Canadian men’s National Team Coach and has lead the team to their best performances of the last 25 years.    Glenn’s success as a coach comes from his great passion for volleyball but also from his never ending quest for improvement. He is always learning even though he’s one of the best in the world and he is always willing to share ideas.   In this episode, you will hear Glenn talk about his biggest challenge when he started coaching. He also talks about developing young players and what he learned from the development of his own son and Team Canada’s upcoming outside hitter Nicholas Hoag.

Welcome to Technical Timeout, the Podcast in which I dig into the habits of successful volleyball coaches.   My name is Louis-Pierre Mainville. Sounds a little french?? It is! I'm a former Team Canada volleyball player and I am now on a journey to become the best coach I can be and I want to take everyone who wants to get better with me on that journey.   This episode explains everything. You should definitely give it a listen and let me know what you think.   Enjoy the ride!!