Our t-shirts for Making the Cut camp

Making the Cut Camps provide a shirt to every participant...this year's design is shown below.

Ohio US Open Championship

I got to coach the Canadian 55+ Master Women's team in Ohio.  We finished sixth...not bad at all.

Volleyball Canada Rep in Ottawa Nationals and Regina Nations

In May I was lucky enough to be the Volleyball Canada Rep for the National Championship in Ottawa and in Regina.  Meet some great coaches, athletes, and parents.  I was honored to hand out coaching awards to four different talented coaches as shown in the images below.

No gym times all summer...what does that mean.

The Canadian Elite Academy views summer as a time to rest and relax and play some beach.  For this reason, we do not offer planned out sessions.  However, we do organize private sessions for those athletes who want to work on a skill during the summer.  The private sessions are organized when requested by an athlete and they are done at the beach courts.  The sand on the beach courts forces an athlete to really be aware of their footwork and it can be a great way for an athlete to perfect a skill.  The sand, wind, and sun force an athlete to work on getting their body into the right location to perform a skill, the little cheats that one can get away with on the hard court will not work in the outdoor elements.  This makes the sand a great location for private lessons and a great time to schedule the necessary time to help guide one's training for the summer.  The other great thing about private beach sessions is that we can offer them cheaper as we do not have the gym costs.  So, private lessons are $125.00 instead of the indoor private sessions which are $149.00

Plan a session

Beach Elite Academy begins

June 4th 2019

Come find out why this training is Elite.  Many of the high skilled athletes are back.  The best Beach coach in the province is back and we are looking forward to another successful season.

https://canadianeliteacademy.corsizio.com/c/5c57d78812ea579823e990a0

Coaching Professional Development

The Canadian Elite Academy has offered sessions to over 319 different participants in the last couple of years.  Currently, the success of the academy is based on the fact that team coaches spend so much time on building the team they do not get the opportunity to help with the individual skill training needed to build skilled volleyball players.  The whole mandate behind the academy is to break down the skills, spend two hours teaching a single skill, to give the athletes the skill instruction which they can then take and work on when they get a chance.  The academy tries to give the young athletes the foundation to develop the skill correctly so when they get older coaches are not spending their whole practice trying to break bad habits. During this time we have utilized some of the best coaches in the province to offer these sessions.  If sessions have small enrolments then Dr. Darren Cannell is the head coach but if the sessions warrant the use of other coaches to teach specific skills.  During these sessions, we have had numerous requested from coaches who wish to use the sessions as professional development opportunities and watch the sessions from the side and take notes about the talented coach’s approach to teaching the individual skills.

Here are the parameters that Volleyball Canada considers necessary to approve a Non-NCCP event and award Professional Development points:

• 1-3 hours
• Instruction takes place
• Opportunities for discussion and reflection are available (30-100% of the time)
• Instructors/Coaches are NCCP Certified in the context that they are working, and are using current VC coaching methodology (to be verified by the PSO, NSO, or PSO representative). If coaches are not certified within the NCCP, they must possess other professional or international certifications or designations.
• If the learning environment is a practice in which instructors work with coaches, the training sessions must be delivered in small-group (minimum 4) or large-group (12-16) settings, and not in individual sessions.

Coaches will be able to watch the practice and the academy coach(es) will share any plans they have available.  If the Academy Head Coach is not the one coaching then he will sit and explain the process, the drills and the approach as the practice is in progress.  All the Academy practices are coed, and players are of all skill levels, all instruction is individualized and designed to take a skill to the next level.  For each athlete, this level might be different.  The pre-brief will happen during the 15 minutes before and if the presenting coach wishes they will be available 15 minutes after the session to answer questions. The head coach will be available for most of the two hours to answer questions when the head coach is coaching, then he would invite the coach to join in with the practice as an assistant and then they can be involved with ball tossing and activity but a silent observer.  If the head coach knows the coach and their level he might encourage the observing coach to be more vocally involved.  The observing coach during the sessions will be able to see the approach to skill development, the practice pace, how the instructions are given and the cues and feedback are given.  They will also see a wide variety of different drills to used to help instruct the skill being taught.  Currently, the academy have this happening with a lot of different coaches and parents as we have open practices and anyone can watch and ask questions of the sessions.  Many bring notebooks and take notes during practice.  The only change that would make to process is the administration and registering the coaches before they attend to achieve the coaching professional development point.  The academy coaches are asked to help complete teams with individual skills and we then attend their practices and the team coaches write down our whole process and pick and choose what they like and how they might incorporate it into their team practices.   

There are so many different ways to teach each of the different volleyball skills and using a variety of coaches allow the academy to share these different methods.  Different is not always wrong, but one method might work with one athlete and not with another.  The more coaches I get involved in the academy the more drills and approaches I have learned which has greatly improved my coaching and we would like to share this professional development with other coaches.  I know I am a visual learner and I have learned more about coaching volleyball by watching others coach during practices and I know there are others who also learn that way