If you’re looking for a book that gets you thinking about your training rather than just something that introduces you to a bunch of drills and systems, then look no further than Mike Hebert’s Thinking Volleyball. A 50-year volleyball veteran, the recently retired Hebert offers his latest book as something he sees as at least an attempt to fill the gap he perceives in the coaching literature when it comes to learning how to think about volleyball. and training.
The overall theme of the book is being ready, willing, and able to think outside the box. That’s not as simple as being okay with taking risks in the way you do things, though it’s obviously a requirement (Hebert considers himself something of a maverick coach). First of all, it requires really understanding what that conventional wisdom is, why it is conventional, and its strengths and weaknesses.
There are 10 chapters. One of each is dedicated to offensive and defensive philosophy. These are the only two that could be classified as technical/tactical in nature, and it’s still not the main point. The other eight, in various ways, look at different aspects of training: things like running a program, developing a style of play, gym culture, team confidence, and match training.
Personal anecdotes are a common feature of Hebert’s writing, and he has a lot of material to work with. They come from his own days as a player and from all the important programs he has run. My only small criticism is that the stories are heavily skewed towards the positive and maybe a few flaws could have been mixed in for balance. Let’s be honest. Not everything works out as planned and we coaches often find ourselves having to figure out how to recover when that is the case.
One of the most interesting elements of the book is the author’s views on the modern approach to statistics. This is both in terms of common stats and things like the competitive cauldron. Hebert describes himself as an evangelist for statistics early in his career, but has come to question his value relative to the amount of time he spends collecting them. Not that he discounts the stats entirely, but he definitely asks the trade-off question and suggests a potentially more useful way of looking at things.
Chances are at least one chapter of Thinking Volleyball will make you think critically about what you’re doing as a volleyball coach. Hebert has applied his considerable experience and insight in a discussion of almost every aspect of volleyball coaching that he can imagine, and from all sorts of angles, most of us will never get a chance to explore personally. From that perspective, I would recommend it for coaches of all levels and career stages.