Stop Planning Practices. Start Planning Seasons.

# Stop Planning Practices. Start Planning Seasons.

One of the first questions new coaches often ask is:

*"What should I do at practice tonight?"*

I think that's the wrong question.

The better question is:

**"What does my team need to become by the end of this season?"**

Once you can answer that, planning practice becomes much easier.

Because practice shouldn't be a collection of drills.

It shouldn't be whatever you found online that afternoon.

And it shouldn't completely change every Monday because of what went wrong at Saturday's tournament.

Practice should be one small piece of a much larger developmental plan.

That's the difference between planning practices and planning a season.

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Start With the Team You Want to Have

Before I plan the beginning of a season, I want to think about the end.

What do I want this team to be capable of doing three, four, or five months from now?

That answer will obviously depend on the athletes.

A developmental 12U team shouldn't have the same goals as an experienced 17U national team.

Age matters.

Experience matters.

Physical ability matters.

Volleyball IQ matters.

But the planning process can remain the same.

**Determine where you want to go. Then work backward.**

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Let's Build a 14U Team

Imagine I'm coaching a 14U club team.

After evaluating the athletes, one of my major season goals might be:

**By championship season, I want us capable of running a fast-paced offense from both free-ball and serve-receive situations.**

That's the destination.

But I can't walk into our first practice and simply say:

*"We're running a fast offense."*

Too many things have to happen first.

We need passers who can consistently put the ball in a location that allows the setter to run the offense.

We need setters who can get to the ball efficiently and deliver consistent sets.

We need middles who understand approach timing and can become legitimate first-tempo attackers.

We need pin hitters who understand their tempo.

We need communication.

We need transition.

We need hitters who can recognize what's happening on the other side of the net.

And eventually, we need a setter capable of making good decisions among multiple attacking options.

The offense is the finished product.

All of those individual skills are the pieces.

**Great season planning identifies the pieces before trying to assemble the finished product.**

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Work Backward

If my end goal is a fast three-option offense, I begin breaking it down.

Our passers need to:

* Move efficiently.
* Control their platforms.
* Communicate seams.
* Read servers.
* Consistently deliver playable balls into our offensive system.

Our setters need to:

* Move efficiently to target.
* Establish consistent location.
* Understand tempo.
* Develop footwork patterns.
* Make increasingly better decisions.

Our middles need to:

* Develop efficient approach mechanics.
* Understand first-tempo timing.
* Become available consistently.
* Transition quickly.
* Learn to attack different locations.

Our pin attackers need to:

* Develop repeatable approach patterns.
* Understand offensive tempo.
* Transition efficiently.
* Become available early.
* Learn to attack intelligently.

Our entire team needs to:

* Communicate.
* Recognize free balls.
* Transition immediately.
* Understand offensive responsibilities.
* Play with increasing speed.

Now I have something I can actually teach.

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Build the Pieces Before Expecting the System

This is where coaches sometimes become impatient.

We see what we want the finished product to look like and immediately try to practice it.

But if the pieces aren't ready, the system breaks down.

Then we become frustrated.

The setter can't run the middle.

The middle is late.

The outside is waiting.

The pass is off the net.

Everyone is confused.

And the coach starts correcting everything at once.

That's not development.

That's chaos.

Slow down.

Build the pieces.

Then connect them.

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Your Season Should Have Milestones

A season goal without milestones is just an idea.

If my championship-season goal is a fast offense, I need to determine what progress should look like along the way.

Maybe early in the season our goal is simply:

**Consistently pass a free ball to target.**

Then:

**Connect the setter and middle on a controlled first-tempo attack.**

Then:

**Run the middle consistently from quality serve receive.**

Then:

**Make multiple attackers available from in-system passes.**

Then:

**Transition into the same offense after defensive plays.**

Then:

**Make intelligent offensive decisions under competitive pressure.**

Each milestone moves us closer to the larger goal.

That's how development becomes intentional.

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Every Practice Should Connect to Something Bigger

Before practice begins, I want a coach to be able to answer four questions.

1. What is our season goal?

Where are we ultimately going?

2. What is our current milestone?

Where should we be right now?

3. What is today's objective?

What specifically are we improving today?

4. How will we know whether we improved?

What does success look like?

For example:

**Season Goal:**
Run a fast three-option side-out offense.

**Current Milestone:**
Develop a consistent setter-middle connection.

**Today's Objective:**
Improve setter location and middle timing from in-system passes.

**Success Measure:**
Our middle is available as a legitimate attacking option on most quality passes.

Now practice has purpose.

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Stop Collecting Drills

Young coaches sometimes believe becoming a better coach means collecting more drills.

I've never believed that.

A drill is simply a tool.

The question isn't:

*"Is this a good drill?"*

The question is:

**"Does this drill help us accomplish what we're trying to develop?"**

A fantastic drill that doesn't address your team's developmental needs may be useless to you that day.

A simple drill that directly teaches today's objective may be incredibly valuable.

Great coaches don't collect drills.

They understand **why** they're using them.

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Don't Let Saturday Write Monday's Practice

This is one of the biggest traps in coaching.

Your team plays poorly Saturday.

Serve receive struggles.

Monday becomes an entire serve-receive practice.

Next tournament, blocking struggles.

Tuesday becomes a blocking practice.

Next tournament, your hitters struggle.

Now you're spending the week attacking.

Every tournament creates another emergency.

Before long, you're no longer developing a team.

You're putting out fires.

Competition should absolutely influence training.

But it shouldn't completely control it.

Use tournaments as information.

Ask:

**Why did this break down?**

Was it technique?

Communication?

Decision-making?

Pressure?

A specific rotation?

Something we haven't taught yet?

Then determine whether the developmental plan actually needs to change.

Sometimes it does.

Often it simply needs a small adjustment.

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Don't Confuse Recent With Important

Whatever happened last weekend feels important because it's fresh in our minds.

That doesn't necessarily make it the most important developmental priority.

Maybe your 14U team struggled blocking a sophisticated offense.

That's worth addressing.

But if your primary developmental goal right now is establishing passing fundamentals, abandoning that work for an entire week may hurt the team more than it helps.

Great coaches must be disciplined enough to distinguish between:

**What needs immediate attention**

and

**What matters most long-term.**

Those aren't always the same thing.

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Development Is Not a Straight Line

Your plan shouldn't become so rigid that you refuse to adjust.

Athletes develop at different speeds.

Injuries happen.

Skills take longer than expected.

Sometimes teams progress faster than anticipated.

The season plan is a roadmap.

It isn't a prison.

Adjust when necessary.

But make those adjustments intentionally.

Don't allow every bad match to convince you that the entire plan is broken.

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Plan More Than Volleyball Skills

A complete season development plan shouldn't only contain technical goals.

I want coaches thinking about three areas.

Technical Development

What skills are we developing?

Passing.

Setting.

Serving.

Attacking.

Blocking.

Defense.

Tactical Development

How do we want to play?

Serve receive.

Side-out offense.

Transition offense.

Serving strategy.

Defensive systems.

Out-of-system volleyball.

Human Development

Who do we want our athletes to become?

Better communicators.

Better teammates.

More resilient competitors.

More accountable people.

Independent thinkers.

Leaders.

Emotionally controlled athletes.

Those things shouldn't happen accidentally.

We can intentionally develop them too.

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From the Sideline

Over the years, I've seen coaches run incredibly organized practices that weren't really developing anything.

The drills looked good.

The athletes were moving.

There was energy.

There were whistles.

There were competitive games.

But if you asked:

*"What are you building toward?"*

There wasn't always an answer.

That's something I want new coaches to understand.

**Activity isn't the same as development.**

I don't want to walk into the gym wondering what we're going to work on tonight.

I want to know what we're trying to become months from now.

Then tonight's practice becomes one more step toward getting there.

That mindset changed the way I approached coaching.

Instead of coaching one practice at a time...

I began coaching the entire season.

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Common Mistakes Coaches Make

* Planning one practice at a time without long-term goals.
* Choosing drills before identifying objectives.
* Trying to install systems before developing prerequisite skills.
* Allowing every tournament result to completely change training.
* Measuring development only through wins and losses.
* Failing to establish milestones.
* Ignoring leadership, communication, and emotional development.
* Confusing activity with improvement.

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Key Takeaways

* Start season planning with the athlete and team you want to have at the end.
* Work backward from long-term goals.
* Break complicated systems into teachable components.
* Establish milestones throughout the season.
* Connect every practice to the larger developmental plan.
* Use tournament performance as feedback, not as the entire curriculum.
* Develop technical, tactical, and human skills.
* Adjust the plan when necessary without abandoning long-term development.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Should coaches ever change their plan because of tournament performance?

Absolutely.

Competition gives coaches valuable information.

The key is determining whether the performance exposed a true developmental need or simply a temporary problem.

Make intentional adjustments rather than emotional reactions.

How many season goals should a team have?

There isn't a perfect number.

Choose enough goals to create direction without creating so many that everything becomes a priority.

Goals should also match the age and developmental level of the athletes.

Should every practice work directly on the main season goal?

Not necessarily.

But every practice should contribute to the overall development plan.

Sometimes you're building a foundational skill that won't become part of the complete system until weeks or months later.

What if the team isn't reaching its milestones?

Evaluate why.

Maybe the athletes need more repetitions.

Maybe the teaching progression was too fast.

Maybe the milestone wasn't realistic.

Maybe your teaching method needs to change.

Adjust the pathway before automatically abandoning the destination.

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Continue Learning

* Start With the End: Building Your Season Goals
* Work Backward: Turning Season Goals Into Teachable Skills
* Building a Season in Phases
* Milestones: How Do You Know Your Team Is Actually Improving?
* Every Practice Needs a Purpose

Don't walk into the gym asking:

**"What should we do today?"**

Walk into the gym knowing:

**"This is who we're trying to become—and today we're going to take another step toward becoming it."**