K I L L E R TOURNAMENT

[clifford20]

"A great club system and consistent coaching are the difference."

 

OK, define consistent coaching.  Do you mean coaching strategies or experience level?  Do you mean philosophies or tendencies?  Draw me a model of the "perfect coach" or "perfect club". 

 

Hard to define and build it...but easy to criticize, especially in anonymity.  A great club takes time to evolve, and that is happening here in Nashville, and in Chattanooga, and in Memphis, and in Knoxville.  The state's vb is getting better every year.  Fact is, you only get out of it what you put into it.  More kids are playing club every year, thus the level of vb in TN is getting better all the time.  There is more parity now than ever, as should be evident from this weekend's Brentwood Invt.  Some of the state's best teams got together and put on quite a show.  BGA beat Ryan.  HH beat Germantown.  Both unlikely in recent history.  Because of the coaching?  Maybe.  But more than likely because of the talent.  BGA has a great coach, but also a great bunch of Freshman that are contributing plus some upper classmen with tons of experience in club.  HH has a good coach.  But would they have won and reached the finals without Taylor?  Maybe, but not likely.  Germantown beat Brentwood a game 25-9.  25-9!!  Is that because of the coaching?  The same two coaches have been there for over a decade.  No, because of the play of the kids.

 

And as far as TN vs Alabama or TN vs KY....BHS and Grissom have been swapping blows for years.  It goes back and forth.  This year Grissom won, barely.  Before it was Brentwood.  McGill came to the BIVT in 2003 and didn't make the Gold division, but won the AAAAAA State Championship over in Alabama.  Does that mean that AL was inferior to TN that year? 

 

This weekend my team went to Louisville for a tournament and won, (not losing a game) and beat Sacred Heart in the finals 25-18, 25-19.  Does that mean that all TN is getting better than KY?  Of course not.  My point STILL is that each team is different, each club is different, EACH COACH IS DIFFERENT, even in Kiva or Nasa.  There is no "perfect" system.  You cannot generalize that this area or that area is better or worse in coaching, on the whole.  There are too many variables, yes including talent, and more importantly EXPERIENCE of the players.

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How did Assumption do in Vegas?

[becool]

"A great club system and consistent coaching are the difference."

 

OK, define consistent coaching.  Do you mean coaching strategies or experience level?  Do you mean philosophies or tendencies?  Draw me a model of the "perfect coach" or "perfect club". 

 

Hard to define and build it...but easy to criticize, especially in anonymity.  A great club takes time to evolve, and that is happening here in Nashville, and in Chattanooga, and in Memphis, and in Knoxville.  The state's vb is getting better every year.  Fact is, you only get out of it what you put into it.  More kids are playing club every year, thus the level of vb in TN is getting better all the time.  There is more parity now than ever, as should be evident from this weekend's Brentwood Invt.  Some of the state's best teams got together and put on quite a show.  BGA beat Ryan.  HH beat Germantown.  Both unlikely in recent history.  Because of the coaching?  Maybe.  But more than likely because of the talent.  BGA has a great coach, but also a great bunch of Freshman that are contributing plus some upper classmen with tons of experience in club.  HH has a good coach.  But would they have won and reached the finals without Taylor?  Maybe, but not likely.  Germantown beat Brentwood a game 25-9.  25-9!!  Is that because of the coaching?  The same two coaches have been there for over a decade.  No, because of the play of the kids.

 

And as far as TN vs Alabama or TN vs KY....BHS and Grissom have been swapping blows for years.  It goes back and forth.  This year Grissom won, barely.  Before it was Brentwood.  McGill came to the BIVT in 2003 and didn't make the Gold division, but won the AAAAAA State Championship over in Alabama.  Does that mean that AL was inferior to TN that year? 

 

This weekend my team went to Louisville for a tournament and won, (not losing a game) and beat Sacred Heart in the finals 25-18, 25-19.  Does that mean that all TN is getting better than KY?  Of course not.  My point STILL is that each team is different, each club is different, EACH COACH IS DIFFERENT, even in Kiva or Nasa.  There is no "perfect" system.  You cannot generalize that this area or that area is better or worse in coaching, on the whole.  There are too many variables, yes including talent, and more importantly EXPERIENCE of the players.

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I think you know what I mean by consistent coaching. Why be difficult? There are way too many dissatisfied customers of the current club system here in Tennessee for you to win this argument. Since you obviously are associated with one of them, you have taken offense. I absolutely can generalize that this area is worse in coaching. At least in the club system. Sure, each coach is different, but that's not necessarily a good thing in the club program. The great clubs teach their coaches to teach in the same methods. It's pretty simple and very effective. That is the point I keep trying to get through to you. Maybe the newest club, Williamson County Select, has that in their business plan. Let's see...a model of a great club, though probably not perfect, would be A-5. They did their homework and their focus is in the right place. They have "evolved" almost immediately. This is my last comment on this subject. Obviously, I've touched a sore spot.

[becool]

I think I'll continue to stay out of this one. becool, please either email me or enable the email option on your profile. The function only allows emails to be sent- your address is not displayed or seen.

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I'm sorry, I don't understand. Do you want to email me?

[ivolly]

Why be difficult?  There are way too many dissatisfied customers of the current club system here in Tennessee for you to win this argument.

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Because you are trying to define all coaching in TN vb by YOUR experience. Who's the judge of this arguement? Each kid and player would have to decide for themselves. You cannot decide FOR them. Yes there are probably many dissatisfied customers, but there are also many happy and GRATEFUL and RETURNING customers. Why? Because as stated earlier, each has a different team, coach, talent level, and therefore each has different experience. Stop being so negative. A-5 didn't evolve immediately. They had a good plan. But they took all the good players that had been training at Atl Jrs and other clubs for years.

[TheGreatLineJudge]

I'm sorry, I don't understand.  Do you want to email me?

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If it is something you would permit, I'd like to have the option.

[KYdigsTN]

How did Assumption do in Vegas?

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Assumption won the tournament. I believe they beat #2 ranked Mira Costa in three in the finals. That should but an end to any doubt as to who deserves to be ranked as the top team in the nation.

[KYdigsTN]

Stop being so negative.  A-5 didn't evolve immediately.  They had a good plan.  But they took all the good players that had been training at Atl Jrs and other clubs for years.

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Have to agree with the A-5 statement. Like he said, all the great players had been playing for years for other clubs before they came to A5. That's just not a fair comparison.

 

I've been around club ball for about 7 years now. Last year was my first with a daughter in the KIVA system. KIVA is very impressive! The coaching is absolutely top notch and seem to all train with similar methods. They even have a former NFL player as a strength trainer that looks like he could still play. Take one look at the thighs, calves, and glutes on those Red team hitters and it's obvious he knows how to train.

 

In the case of most clubs, a #2 or #3 team will be weak. Not at KIVA. They wont even put a team on the court unless it can be competitive. Most every KIVA white(#2 teams) made it to nationals and most won qualifiers to get there. My daughter played on the KIVA 17 Black(#3) team, but still had two INCREDIBLE coaches and the team won over 65% of their matches, two tournaments, and made it to gold almost every time as a #3 team. They also played UP to 18's in most tournaments because that's another KIVA philosophy to not play their age groups in order to get better competition. If there is a finer model anywhere I'd be amazed.

 

With regards to Impact, all I know is their #1 teams have seemed to do VERY well in tournaments I have seen them in. I was also happy to see them participating in the Central Zone tournaments last year. The best of the best play there and to my eye Impact clearly belonged there. Somebody is doing something right. To compare them to KIVA may not really be fair, because really...just how many clubs out there do compare to KIVA. A5 is not even close.

 

My guess is the complaints with Impact are the usual complaints from family's of girls that do not make the #1 teams and suffer through difficult club seasons losing because the overall talent just isn't good enough to produce two competitive teams. That's a complaint everywhere. Even on KIVA #2 teams that are winning.

[KYdigsTN]

Consistancy in coaching from a young age is also what makes Ky. clubs like KIVA and MAVA successful.  I wish someone had made note of that when my daughter was 12 yrs. old.

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One other thing to consider is just how committed do you as parents want to be for your area to actually catch up to KIVA. Financially, it's not cheap. The amount of travel is mind blowing. I dont know how many tournaments Impact plays in over the course of a club season, but my daughters KIVA team played in 16 tournaments and over 100 matches. Imagine starting your daughter out in the 12 age group and doing this for 7 straight years in addition to high school ball. That's what KIVA and MAVA girls do. That's why they are so good.

[ComPassion]

This has been a good string for all of us to think through.

The consistency issue is a good one. Obviously, if a club or HS program is in touch with great standards, great teaching philosophy, great skill execution, great offense/defense, great practice planning and great unifying principles to pull all of that and all of their people together THEN consistency is a good thing.

 

BUT, we ain't so lucky in our neck of the woods. Even those of us who know a little, don't know much ..so, whose consistency are we gonna adopt?? As it is now one coach in a club may be versed in defense but not up to date on building setters while the next coach may be skilled at team blocking but behind the times in service reception strategies ..and so on. With the paralyzing factor being that we don't know what we don't know! So, we are stuck here not knowing who to listen to or even that we "should" be listening for these consistent standards.

 

..and, there are so few who have been exposed to higher level standards that it's hard to create the vision and buy-in for a program that the masses don't know can exist ..much less how to get there. I hate admitting this but 2 yrs ago when Nationals came to Atlanta, we tried to organize a bus to go to open Chattanooga's eyes to what's out there ..we were gonna pay for it ..just get on the bus ...and 3 coaches and 3 players are all that would go. So, KIVA standards are not in our reality ..we don't know what we don't know ..so, talk of consistent, higher level standards isn't even "heard" by most because we (self included) seem to be content to be big bass in our Tn lakes and are clueless, or in denial, about how much faster the sharks are swimming in the ocean.

 

I hope you sharks keep giving us your perspective, our players need us to hear what hurts us to hear.

 

And, for us locals ..Nationals is in Atlanta again this summer.