Volleyball’s Biggest Names Explain Why You Should Use Video to Develop Your Players
Feb 13, 2018
1 Min Read
We caught up with Karch Kiraly, Kerri Walsh Jennings and John Speraw to learn how they view video as a tool to develop top talent.
USA Volleyball’s mission is to lead, grow and serve all areas of volleyball. It’s the pinnacle of the sport in the United States, and the organization is committed to developing top talent.
“I don’t think you can emphasize enough how [much] video development has impacted player performance,” said John Speraw, head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team. “The ability to go back and reflect with players on what actions they performed, the fundamentals of how they did it, the decision making process of why they did it—the learning curve is so much better when they have the ability to do that.”
When you’re looking at performance at the highest levels of the sport, there’s no better example than Kerri Walsh Jennings. The beach volleyball champion utilized video throughout her career, not only to make adjustments match-over-match, but to develop and improve her own technique. “The more involved I am with video… the better I perform,” Walsh Jennings said. “As an athlete, I don’t want to be thinking, and when I watch video my brain is going through a practice, and I’m getting to see my tendencies.
“I don’t think you can emphasize enough how [much] video development has impacted player performance."
John Speraw
“I think it’s really amazing that you have these young kids, from early on, planting this seed of the importance of watching video.”
Former women’s national team coach Terry Liskevych raves about video’s ability to help you connect with players, and how it empowers your feedback process. “The key to being a great athlete is to do it consistently all the time. If you’ve done it once, you can always do it… Utilize video to catch them doing good, and to me, that’s as powerful a tool as anything.”
And clubs are already making progress with video as a key tool for their players’ development. “During the club season, the ability to go through all the players on my roster and see their passes, attacks, blocks, is amazing,” said Chris Leonard of Pilipa’a Volleyball Club in Hawaii. “It allows me to see a much closer look at my players.
“It has gone from being used primarily as a recruitment tool to being a tremendous learning mechanism for our players.”
