Philosophy

Getting more professional.

Volleyball has to compete with other leisure activities, like for example danceschools, fitness-schools, tennis-schools, music-schools and swimming-schools. What shows is that these branches of leisure activities work with professional people and can therefore guarantee a constant demand for quality. With volleyball it is a constant coming and going of coaches, because at most clubs there is no career oppurtunity, most of the time you are dependent of the arbitrariness of volunteers, who want to do something for their club next to their work.

If the NeVoBo want to make a move, I think it is necessary to start with semi-professionals. The education of coaches has to change, the professional te be has te be able to train at all levels, so that he/she can work enough hours in one club. In contradistinction to what we see nowadays that coaches search for a "safe haven" and train and same level for many years.

Properly spoken their should be one person within every club who guards the long-term thinking. Ofcourse this will be more difficult with smaller clubs, but here also the people responsable should be able to come with a solution. For example, tennisschools, work with a kind of temp-agency where small clubs can hire their coach.

The knife should cut both ways, the clubs have a capable coach. The NeVoBo should direct coaches according to their learning-principles, because they are very good, therefore the education-level and the inflow-level to the NVS (Dutch Volleyball School) is rising. In practise I know only of examples like Sudosa Assen and Flamingo's in Gennep. Is it a by chance that these clubs are educating so well for many years now? 

Ofcourse I hear the critics calling: it will be too expensive! Why are people paying at the above mentioned leisure activities double of what they have to pay for volleyball? Reserach by the NOC/NSF (Dutch Olympic Committee) show that people are willing to pay more for a better product. At my present club people pay an average of 300 Euro. This has never been a problem. In recent years at Flamingo's only a few member left the club and most of time because of the fact that they moved away to go to college.

I am very convinced that: we have to put a good product on the market and we have to sell it. Just like other commercial institutions we have to offer a productmix that touches a string (what people want). Their are many chances: day-recreation (50-year olds, the grow-market of the future), out-of-school daycare, circulationvolleball, minivolleyball, probably you have many ideas yourself. 

The professional has to be the centre of the club, but alone he can do nothing. With help from many volunteers he might be able to get most of his goals.

A EDUCATION CULTURE BY Adrie Noij 19 june 2003

The other day I heard a view colleagues say: The east of Holland has a education culture! Eighty percent of all team in final of the Dutch championships came from the east of Holland. You hear a lot: "This club has a education culture". You can also ask the next question:

How does a education culture come to exist?

I think you can speak of a education culture when you produce good players on a regular base. To realize this a few condition have to be met. First you have to get a coach with good technical and educational skills. When you have such a coach, it it important, that knowledge transfer takes place, the whole club has to profit from this. Also the club needs to make sure their is sufficient means. You have to pay such a coach very good. It is often for such a coach more interesting to coach the first team of the club. It should be normal that you invest a lot in your youth, because they are your future. For such clubs is valid that they have a good youth-plan for many years already. Often you see results when coaches for a certain level commit to a club for a long period. They don't have to re-invent to wheel all over again. The can analyze the result of the previous season, and when necessary make adjustments to the programm. 

Sometimes the education culture skips to other clubs in the region. It all start with one club who fulfil an example-role. Because clubs do not want to miss the boat or clubs want to do better, this success formula is copied. This is the shortest and best way. I see it in my own region, with much pleasure.

If he leading club start to train two times a week at level 4, the rest will follow with some delay. If this club works with a written plan, all clubs want to work with such a plan. If this club works with semi-professionals, another clubs want to do that too. By means of parents-meetings the plans are made known, because these plans bring with them that the parents have to pay more subscription and they have to be convinced of the usefullness of this rise in subscription, more quality. More hours of training, means more subscription to be paid, next to the increase because of the better, more professional coach.

In our region one can see a division. They who want quality and they who can not keep up. The last will leave everything as it was. I am happy that most are choosing for quality and slow but sure a education culture develops in our region.