#14 - Kent Steffes And Olympic Lessons On Winning 

Agree, a lot of interesting takes on things..!

Thanks! I will! :)

I shouldn't talk for Kent, but I'm sure he appreciates that you took the time to listen and engage! :)

Yess, agree. Some of the things he shared were sort of so out of the box that I really wasn't able to say approve/disapprove as I was doing the interview, but the more time I get to experiment with these ideas, the more I end up on the "approve" side hahah. Still have a number of experiments left to try out though! :)

@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast I was just trying out the basic "hit it where they're not" yesterday. Just going high line every time it was open it was fun and seemed quite effective

@@talanky Hahah I can imagine! Playing with that focus in attacking solely is still one of the experiments i need to try! I can imagine for most people thinking like that will make them not hit many hard hits, but still score a lot, but I need to try before I say too much! :)

@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast You're exactly right, I noticed focusing on placement, my approach and jump were much less explosive so that's what I'm going to work on next. Have fun experimenting!

@@talanky Makes sense! Do you have a more explosive attack normally, if you don't focus so much on seeing things?

Really like the gears analogy, and agree with for example the handsetting progression you mentioned! I myself learned to handset both quick enough and clean enough from having learned to set cleanly but with too much lift first, and then I ended up playing for 3 months at a pickup court where people got called for lifts but not for double hits. So I had to speed up my setting to not get called, but I aimed to not lose my "cleanliness" from my liftier sets. In the beginning I doubled a fair amount of balls that nobody called at this court, but over the course of these months I was able to figure out how to both be clean and quick in a big variety of game situations. It is possible I could have learned the same thing from what Kent explained (learn the handsetting technique itself from drills against walls etc and then play with all the pressure of losing points etc), but I can't know for sure because I can't run that parallell universe experiment! :) Anyway, I am happy for those 3 months at that court and what they taught me (and this is where my idea of playing without calling hands or calling them differently originated from), but of course I am open to that there could be other ways to reach the same result! :)

Thanks man! Appreciate the feedback, and you bring up a good point! Maybe I'll just start being more "selfish" and go at it "harder" and see what happens! There's definitely a fair bit or skill that goes into interviewing, and it's interesting to learn! :)

Hahah thanks! Yess, my perspective is just about handling the time when you will be riding the learning curve, which inevitably is going to be there for some time. How long that time is, might be different though. Maybe one does a lot of drills outside of game situations, and then finally the "implementing stage" into the game is just a few points and after that it works well in all your games after that, well, in this situation I'd say "just do it", no need to communicate with your partner about it. However, if you somehow know that let's say you want to implement something to your game that will probably take 3 months before it "works well" or "pays off" in the games you play, meaning for the next three months you will each time you play have to decide whether to: 1. Do what you already know how to do, which gives a better outcome today but probably a worse outcome in the long run. or 2. Try to implement something new, which will probably make you less likely to win today but probably pay off in the long run. If you in this case decide to go for the "new thing" which means you will be playing worse beach volleyball than you technically could for the next 3 months, I'd say you are a fool if you never in these 3 months take a few minutes to explain to your partner what you are doing and why. If you explain, your partner will probably support and help you during this 3 month journey. If you don't explain, he/she might even get second thoughts and leave the partnership because from his/her perspective you just unexplainably started making a whole lot more errors and playing worse than before, and it seems like it has become a consistent thing. I hope this makes sense.. And if anyone doubts that there are changes that could take 3 months before they start paying off, I believe coach Rasmus said that the Swedish team worked ontheir jumpsetting system for about 4 years before it became sophisticated enough to make them play better with it than a traditional system, and this year they won among other things the European championships, beating several of the worlds top ranked teams in the process. I dunno, I feel like everything is a scale.. There's different levels of everything, and one action (for example communicating with your partner) might make sense at one "level of intensity" (for example change in game so intense it will take months before it pays off) while it doesn't make sense at another "level of intensity" (for example change in game so unintense it takes just 5 minutes for it to pay off.) :)

@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast awesome. I understand completely. We all have different learning curves, different goals, different levels and etc. Communication is really key. You could get into an agreement with you partner, for example: you train your jumpserve and your partner train handsetting. You both practice these for the whole game. It could also be half game or until 10 and give your very best to get it back after that if you're loosing (which would go against Kent's idea but.... it's also worth it! 😂)

@@volleycatchers Hahah yess, that's also a possibility! The "switch of intention" mid match if you are losing also for me seems like a decent mental training of some kind, sometimes natural circumstances change mid game (for example it startsraining heavily) to the point where you have to change your techniques/tactics (let's say you don't want to handset a heavy slippery ball), and in a sense you artficially training for something similar with your changeup in the middle of the set strategy.. Haven't tried it myself but can imagine it could help!

@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast I LIKE IT! 👏👏👏😀

Thanks! :) Could definitely bring some of these up if we end up doing a followup episode! Regarding the angle approach and wristaway hits, I wrote a pretty long and in depth answer to "J", so I'll be slightly lazy and just copy it into here, rather than take the time to type out all the reasoning once again! :) (But let me know if this reply to "J" actually doesn't address something you were thinking about in regards to this topic!) Here we go: @J Yess! So I guess when hitting from the right it is better the have the setter error on setting too wide than too much inside, to avoid the "trap" that you are mentioning. There is always a sort of a "backwards pokey" where you twist your hand in a quite stange way that you can send the ball towards the line with even if the set is inside and you want the ball to go that way. Realizing as I write this that I only use this type of pokey for short cuts back into the line on the right side, but it would probably be possible to learn to send balls to the deep line with this technique also? Need to explore this a bit more.. Regardless, my personal biggest reason for approaching angle in on the right side, at least before recording this episode, was that it is easier to see the setter, and the arch of the set ball. If you approach straight forward or even move more in from your serve receive position, if your serve receive is a bit off the net it becomes more problematic to see the set. And this as a consequence I think leads to more errors or "worse than good"-situations than necessary, and it also makes it more difficult to see opponents side of the court. So in a sense it is the vision argument, plus a little extra. But then theres a pros and cons thing happening.. Someone who can hit hard wristaway (for sure not every player, but for example Mol, Sørum, Åhman, Patterson are some international players who can, Patterson here: instagram.com/reel/CYc4j6uApvQ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= ) can still hit hard everywhere on the court even if approaching at an angle, in this case I think the pros outweigh the cons. Then theres a lot of people who cannot hit hard wristaway but they can still make the ball go that way without pace. In this case the cost/benefit analysis gets a bit more neutral possibly. I think a possibly important point too could be that back when Kent played, the court was bigger. Does that mean it was easier to get away with just a "softer" wristaway shot/hit in your repertoaire than today? I don't know.. I haven't played big court maybe ever (?!) so I am not sure. So yeah, I think it's a bit complex. Vision is easier with coming in at an angle, especially if the serve receive is not perfect, but for many people a bigger range of power hits is available if you do not come in at an angle. The two extremes I can think of are: One guy who has a perfect serve receive every time, but has a very limited ability to hit wristaway (hit to the right out of the body line for a right hander) and a really good ability to hit over the shoulder (hit to the left out of the body line for a right handed hitter), he also has a partner who for some reason struggles to set the ball wide enough. This player I'd at least for the time being advice to not come in at an angle (might change later if he/she learns to hit wristaway and gets a partner who can set better.) The other extreme would be a player with a so-so serve receive and really good abilities to hit wrist-away, and a partner who basically never makes the trap set inside. Hope that clarifies some things. Could make a video about this topic, I think it is super interesting. This reasoning is also why I have myself invested a lot into figuring out how to learn to hit a good wristaway hit (my opinion is that it doesn't "by default" destroy shoulders like so many claim, but it will destroy shoulders if you try to force yourself to do it without having learned how to actually do it.) But I am sure there are more details to this that I haven't uncovered yet! :)

@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast so the coming in with an angle, for a righty, I think we all agree we must do so on the left. I thought the debate was from the right (as it reduces the chances to HIT line - shoot is possible)

@@fredDeclerck Yes absolutely. I was referring to hitting on the right side in my answer, I hope I didn't word anything wrong. But that is why I think it is somewhat crucial to have the technique that enables one to hit hard "the the right outside of your bodyline" or "wristaway" before using the strategy of coming in with an angle on the right side as a right handed player. Not sure if Kent would agree with me on that of if he thinks it is a good idea regardless of if you can hit hard in that angle or not..!

@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast it all made sense , until... the instagram was patterson hitting... from the left lol

@@fredDeclerck Ohh damn yeah now I understand. Yes he was hittingfromthe left, didn't think about that, the whole point with the video was to show someone who hits outside ofthe body line to the right!

Thanks! All the books are in the video/episode description, about halfways down the text! :)

@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast I am currently reading The Inner Game of Tennis and practice to numb my Self 1 (Ego) to give my Self 2 opportunity to learn and experiment on the court. This book seemed to come at the right time. It connects other spiritual researches of mine with sports techniques. Simply fascinating. Thank you for the recommendations.

@@netghost07 Amazing! Yess I agree, it is a profound book. In my personal life it paved the path to a previously unchartered territory for me (learning about how your thoughts/brain/psychology/similar things work by learning from others) and I could not be happier for it, it is one of the defining moments in my path in life towards making it what it has become. There are a few little small details in the book I don't 100% agree with regarding the usefulness of drills and technical advice (when given at appropriate times and in appropriate ways whicv is an art in itself), but all in all it is an absolutely fantastic book that has and will keep changing lives and sports careers. Funnily enough I realized that one of my first ever videos on this channel is very much Inner game of tennis inspired: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-b8gC65td3Jg.html Have you read any other "profound" books regarding similar topics? I'll end this comment by saying/hinting that in the second part of the Kent interview we end up going to some very interesting territory regarding the mentality/spirituality during games which was at least new for me. :)

Mike? I'm guessing you mean Kent? :) Other than that, I am not 100% sure but I have a feeling he was mostly talking about shots in this case, things that should be out of reach for the blocker anyway, so it's more a game against the defender in that case. But I'm not going to say anything absolute about what Kent actually thinks about things, I learned during the episode that I do not know what he thinks! 😅 But if we ever do a followup then I could bring this up!

@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast Kent, sorry was listening to this while working so you got a coworkers name :) ! Yeah I would need to see diagrams or video from him to really be sure of the situation. I do like thinking outside the box, that's where innovation occurs, pushing stuff, then when it works the whole field tries to catch up but hey not always

@@Itstime1231 Hahah makes sense! 😅 Yess. This is one of the parts of the game that I feel myself like I need to get out on the court and try it out with these ideas in my head, experiment with it, re-listen to this part of the podcast, and try again and repeat the cycle until I feel I know exactly what he is talking about. I do for example come in at an angle on the right side most of the time (although my reasoning for that has been different than Kent's), but I have never done that and mentally paid attention to the stuff Kent talks about. Anyway, he has hinted that we could possibly do a followup, so maybe one day I can ask him more about this! :)

@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast I like to come in at an angle on the right side, but I do it from an indoor perspective. It lets me hit the angle/hard angle and then I "cut" the ball well really hit it on the left side to go line. It can work okay, but some people would say to bring my approach more inside the court giving me the opportunity to adjust to a set that is more inside since if it is too far inside it will be very difficult to cut the ball back and I'm limiting my options if I can't get my shoulder to the ball as a righty from the right side, if that makes sense. Also it is easier for me to open up and hit the ball harder on the right that way. A bit verbose as I don't articulate the game a lot, but hopefully you understand. Why do you like to approach at an angle?

@@Itstime1231 Yess! So I guess when hitting from the right it is better the have the setter error on setting too wide than too much inside, to avoid the "trap" that you are mentioning. There is always a sort of a "backwards pokey" where you twist your hand in a quite stange way that you can send the ball towards the line with even if the set is inside and you want the ball to go that way. Realizing as I write this that I only use this type of pokey for short cuts back into the line on the right side, but it would probably be possoble to learn to send balls to the deep line with this technique also? Need to explore this a bit more.. Regardless, my personal biggest reason for approaching angle in on the right side, at least before recording this episode, was that it is easier to see the setter, and the arch of the set ball. If you approach straight forward or even move more in from your serve receive position, if your serve receive is a bit off the net it becomes more problematic to see the set. And this as a consequence I think leads to more errors or "worse than good"-situations than necessary, and it also makes it more difficult to see opponents side of the court. So in a sense it is the vision argument, plus a little extra. But then theres a pros and cons thing happening.. Someone who can hit hard wristaway (for sure not every player, but for example Mol, Sørum, Åhman, Patterson are some international players who can, Patterson here: instagram.com/reel/CYc4j6uApvQ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= ) can still hit hard everywhere on the court even if approaching at an angle, in this case I think the pros outweigh the cons. Then theres a lot of people who cannot hit hard wristaway but they can still make the ball go that way without pace. In this case the cost/benefit analysis gets a bit more neutral possibly. I think a possibly important point too could be that back when Kent played, the court was bigger. Does that mean it was easier to get away with just a "softer" wristaway shot/hit in your repertoaire than today? I don't know.. I haven't played big court maybe ever (?!) so I am not sure. So yeah, I think it's a bit complex. Vision is easier with coming in at an angle, especially if the serve receive is not perfect, but for many people a bigger range of power hits is available if you do not come in at an angle. The two extremes I can think of are: One guy who has a perfect serve receive every time, but has a very limited ability to hit wristaway (hit to the right out of the body line for a right hander) and a really good ability to hit over the shoulder (hit to the left out of the body line for a right handed hitter), he also has a partner who for some reason struggles to set the ball wide enough. This player I'd at least for the time being advice to not come in at an angle (might change later if he/she learns to hit wristaway and gets a partner who can set better.) The other extreme would be a player with a so-so serve receive and really good abilities to hit wrist-away, and a partner who basically never makes the trap set inside. Hope that clarifies some things. Could make a video about this topic, I think it is super interesting. This reasoning is also why I have myself invested a lot into figuring out how to learn to hit a good wristaway hit (my opinion is that it doesn't "by default" destroy shoulders like so many claim, but it will destroy shoulders if you try to force yourself to do it without having learned how to actually do it.) But I am sure there are more details to this that I haven't uncovered yet! :)

Yess, I actually linked it in the episode with Steve Anderson.. Wait a sec!

Check out the comments of this post..! m.facebook.com/photo.php/?set=gm.5743414045668821&fbid=10166554953730361

@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast Thanks, dead link for me. Any others?

@@jeffsmith3388 Yess, just yesterday I found another link.. Here, see if this works! vimeo.com/730209979

I hope I'll get it done in a few days! Had to both move and do an intensive 1-on-1 weeklong beachcamp so it got a bit delayed, but I have everything recorded so just need to throw it all together! :)

@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast Nice. Cheers.

@@robertbucks5537 Part 2 is out! :) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VVqUlmLmeBU.html