A defense of running lines (not really) – Coaching volleyball

I came across the following on social media:

This is what people don’t understand about club volleyball.
Running lines is not a punishment, it is conditioning.
It’s discipline.
It’s responsibility.
It prepares athletes to compete when they are tired… not when they are comfortable.

Girls don’t lose games because they can’t play.
They lose because they are exhausted halfway through a tournament.

Loud coaching, conditioning, accountability, none of it personal.
It’s intentional.
Because average teams don’t win.
And we’re not here to be average.

Be honest: do you want a coach who prepares athletes… or one who avoids discomfort?

There’s a lot to unpack here.

I completely agree that we should not avoid discomfort. Our job as coaches is to push our athletes to places where they don’t feel comfortable (yet).

Loud coaching, conditioning and accountability are not inherently personal – that’s true. Although they can become personal when coaches make decisions based on their own emotions rather than what is best for the athlete(s).

I see the point, but the whole average thing is kind of nonsensical. Of course average teams win. By definition, they win some and lose some. To say you don’t want to be average belies the fact that some teams necessarily need to be average—or at least closer to average than high- or low-performing teams. And of course the average depends on the population included.

While it is true that teams lose due to player fatigue, this is just one of many possible factors that could contribute to this – certainly including the fact that they cannot play as well as the other teams. You can be the best-conditioned team out there, but if your players aren’t as good at volleyball as the other team’s, you’re almost certainly going to lose. And if you’re the better team, it generally takes less energy and effort to win, requiring less conditioning.

Finally, if running lines is a consequence of something negative (dropping a ball, losing a match, etc.), then it is essentially a punishment.

As for running lines that prepare players for matches when they are tired, I would prefer if that fatigue comes from having done volleyball stuff. That ensures that we develop the right energy systems during the game and that I don’t take time away from developing them as volleyball players to do things that I could do off the court.

I am absolutely not against conditioning, responsibility, discipline, etc. I prefer to condition as much as possible through volleyball, and to develop the other things more in context