8th CEV School Project webinar series inspires coaches and teachers from across Europe and beyond

As many as 327 people from across Europe and even overseas attended the 8^th CEV School Project webinar series run by the CEV Development Department earlier this week, thereby drawing inspiration for their daily work with kids at the entry level of the game.

Virpi Ojakangas of Finland opened the series with a lecture discussing what kind of leadership attracts young people to sports. Virpi insisted that coaches/teachers should constantly be asking themselves this question, as different generations of players value different leadership styles. Therefore, coaches and teachers shall make sure that they establish and nourish an environment where open communication and dialogue is welcomed, which, if it is honest and respectful, will facilitate better conflict resolution amongst members of a team.

Teaching players and especially young children requires mindfulness of how their personality affects others and how it affects the group dynamic. This is especially important to help them identify their positive traits and play up their strengths. Moreover, Ojakangas presented her expertise on emotional regulation, feedback and exchange, responsibility of own development and other various components which can help coaches find a more well-rounded approach to their work in sports, even at the grassroots level.

On Wednesday, Spaniard Ana Vidal delivered the second webinar of this series, emphasising that kids love challenges and games, so coaches/teachers should love and use them extensively too! This means that anyone working at the grassroots level should focus on keeping the children in the sport, not necessarily jumping into performance and specialisation stages. Vidal’s coaching philosophy discussed during the webinar encompasses fun, team building, self-improvement and personal growth, creativity, learning opportunities, action, variety, and an anytime/anywhere mentality. Ana did breakdown the general principles of task design which she follows when planning a training session, using many videos as well as diagrams as demonstration/examples.

On Friday, in a webinar focussed on the ‘Physical Development of Young Players’, Bulgaria’s Yordan Georgiev stressed that it is never too early to start teaching the kids healthy habits outside the gym - food, sleep, and recovery are just as important as the volleyball skills! A good/perfect age in Yordan’s professional opinion to start physical development training for boys/girls is age 12 and the main 10 categories of physical development which Yordan and his colleagues practice are endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy, power, and speed. Being mindful of the variance in players’ physical development is crucial and coaches/teachers should pay attention to this in order to not overload them too early. “Train for strength, practice for coordination” and “Keep the flame going” were some of the key mottos shared by Georgiev. In other words, coaches shall find a way to make the exercises as exciting and motivating to the players as possible - and they will respond positively!