2026 MNVBCA Coaches Clinic Preview - Greg Ueland (Roseville Raiders/Clinic Director)

The 2026 MNVBCA Coaches Clinic is on July 29th and 30th at Mounds View High School.  Interested to know who is going to be there? Wondering what they are going to talk about?  Join Greg Ueland (Roseville) and Darin Swenson (Litchfield) as they preview this year's schedule! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Why do we do three at the same time? I mean, it's so great. So we have options, but I also I'm making this schedule based on lots of different things, but I'm like, I want to go to all of them.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Welcome back, Minnesota Volleyball Coaches. All right, it's the summer of 2026. It is a middle, getting close to the end of uh June here, uh, which means we are about a month away from the annual uh Minnesota Volleyball Coaches Clinic. So we're here today to uh kind of preview that a little bit, talk about uh what's it what it's gonna be like this year, uh, and to help me, we have the clinic director himself going on, I think his fourth year maybe, right? Greg Uland of Roseville. Greg, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 0:52

I'm doing great. Thanks for having me today. Greg, is it is it your fourth year? I actually think it's my third. Third? Feels like the fourth, right? Yeah, it feels like maybe the seventh.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Yeah. No, you do it, you've been doing a great job uh since you uh kind of took over the responsibilities of organizing the clinic. Um, and we talk about this all the time behind the scenes, but we know that it's um there's there's a lot of people involved uh with the with the process of putting the clinic together, and uh we don't have time to uh go through that list because we're here to talk about a different list today. We're we're here to kind of go through a little bit of a preview of uh who we have coming to the clinic uh this year, which will be July 29th and 30th at Mounds View High School. I get the dates and location correct. You got them. Yeah, I always tell my kids like sometimes uh um when they're in the gym, I'll say something. And I think I said what I meant to say, but I said something else. Right. So I always have to check and um then I always followed up with uh do do what I mean, not what I say, right? Because they know what I meant to say, so let's just let's just do that, right? So just double checking July 29th and 30th, Mountsview High School. All right, Greg. So one of the big tasks that you have as a clinic director is uh finding a big name, a keynote speaker uh that's gonna that's gonna pull people in, get people excited about uh the clinic. Um and it's it's a challenging task. You know, we've talked about that over the years that uh one of the things that's difficult is uh you know matching it up with people's schedules. And you know, a lot of times we try to get uh you know a big name college coach in, but the end of July doesn't really work well with uh most collegiate schedules. Um so that is always a challenge. But uh I think the the coach association has been doing an awesome job getting some pretty pretty uh uh respected and well-known and accomplished coaches uh coming in. So who do you got for us this year, Greg?

SPEAKER_00 2:47

So we have Kirsten Bernthal Booth, the the former great Creighton coach who's now working in the professional volleyball ranks and um in kind of an executive role in that, but she's phenomenal, and I know so many people have requested her throughout the years. And to your point, it's hard to track down some of the college coaches, and especially the last couple of years with their change in schedule. Um, it's hard to align it. So it's the timing for her is perfect, and she was going to do it a few years ago. Um, I remember that. Yeah, it was the Summer Olympics, and then she had to help us find. We got Craig Skinner out of it from Kentucky because she was connected and helped us land him. But one of her players was playing in beach volleyball in the Olympics at the last Summer Olympics. So she's like, I I promise you I'll come back. So she is back and just has so much great things to offer us. And I'm really excited about it and and sometimes maybe even better because now she's done with her college coaching career and can kind of look back on lessons and and be more introspective, probably, and and even have more to offer um all of us in the coaching world.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Right, because we've had a number of college coaches that uh were retired, right? You know, we had uh Mick Haley one year, we had uh Russ Rose one year, um, and and Berthaw Booth isn't retired, so to speak. She's no longer the coaching at Creighton, but she's still involved in volleyball with uh the L O V kind of movement that's been building uh the past couple years. So yeah, it's it's exciting to get her uh involved in the clinic. It is kind of cool, I think, to think that our clinic has ties in a in a roundabout way. Like our scheduling, you know, is conflicted with the Olympics, you know, that you know, just we're intertwined so tightly with the Olympic volleyball scene that it it affects our clinic schedule. Um, but maybe that's uh think a little too highly of ourselves here.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

But what what are you most excited to hear uh from Kirsten? I mean, I I think everything, as as many people are aware, I mean, uh, she blew up on social media, went viral for a lot of her post um or post-game conferences for some of the things that she talked about. And I think she's just such a well-respected coach. It's so funny. Um, like when you reach out for coaches and and the people that know each other, and everybody brings up her name as someone we should get to speak at the clinic. And so I think she's not only well respected by us, but amongst her coaching peers. And like you said, she's not quote unquote retired because she arguably is kind of stopped coaching in the prime of her coaching career. Um, but I'm excited to hear her auditorium sessions. Um, her title one is From Crisis to Chemistry, Creighton's Evolution in Training, Team Culture, and the Mind. Um, I mean, I think at the forefront for so many people. And then her other ones, which I think her other auditorium session is leading better before, during, and after the match. And I just kind of love the kind of breakdown with that. And then on the court, um, she's gonna do a whole session on out of system um and all of the the different um like focusing in on that and locking in. Because I, you know, we all know that's that's where we play a majority of our game. And then last but not least, blocking. Something um, you know, when I reach out and ask coaches what they want, most blocking and setting tend to be two of the higher requested things. So she is going to talk all about blocking, breaking it down, bringing drills, things like that. So four amazing sessions by her. We're very lucky.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Yeah, I like the variety that she's gonna be bringing too. Um, I love auditorium sessions. I love a good auditorium session. Um, the encore session is a blocking one. Um, it's it's something that I know, I know I need to learn more about because I'll I'll just be honest. It if you go to the basic volleyball skills and what you emphasize, it's probably the last thing that I emphasize. And then our opponents just pounding balls down. And I'm like, why aren't we stopping any of those? And then I'm like, oh well, maybe it's because we don't work on blocking a whole lot. So yeah, so that'll be good. That'll be good. It'll be it'll be fun to um get her here, get her interacting with the Minnesota coaches, and yeah, it's that's gonna be I'm excited for that one. I was disappointed a couple years ago when I uh when I heard we were gonna have her um here and then it didn't work out. Like, say Craig Skinner was a great uh uh runner-up um replacement. You know, that that turned out awesome. But I'm glad that we got uh booth back, so that's gonna be that's gonna be exciting.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

I love how I just love sorry, one more thing. I I just love how down to earth she is just in our communications, like just makes things work. And I I feel like that's really cool from uh, you know, sometimes I think we don't give some of the elite college coaches enough credit, but you can just tell like she understands what it means to be a high school club assistant junior high coach. Like she gets that, and and that's really cool when you bring people like that to our clinic.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Yeah. You know, that reminds me of last year when we uh were talking about the clinic and even years before, you know, I had I had the uh pleasure of communicating with Russ Rose and uh McHaley, uh Craig Skinner a little bit. And last year we got to do a podcast with um uh Kelsey from Michigan State. And like you say, the the thing that always amazes me is how you know we we sometimes see them as these, you know, these national champion level coaches, you know. But when you talk to them, like they're they're a coach, they're a person, and it's it's it's fun to see how grounded they are. Um, and that just makes it really enjoyable to have conversations with them and and learn and ask them questions because they're yeah, they're always very willing to um give you some feedback on stuff and give them give give us their opinion and their kind of their views on things. So yeah, that's that's always been fun. That's been something that's been uh pretty enjoyable for me to experience. So speaking of D1 coaches, uh we got another one coming back. It looks like uh Keegan Cook, the gopher coach, is gonna be uh joining us for a day. Um, what do you what do you uh what do you hear he's gonna be talking about?

SPEAKER_00 8:59

So Keegan this year is gonna be talking about skill development. And you know, and if you've gone to Keegan sessions before, I mean, obviously you can get a lot of practical approaches, but I love how deeply he makes you think about the game as a coach. You know, sometimes we just like put our practice plan together and whatnot, but I think he just really makes you take a pause sometimes and think a little bit deeper. So like he's gonna break down like how you do skill development in like the structured, unstructured, and constrained environments, which you know as a high school coach or club coach or or um junior high or or JV coach, whatever it is, you all know we have those different constraints. And sometimes it has to be more structured and sometimes more unstructured. So I'm always really excited about his like creativity in sessions and kind of making you think at a higher level as a coach.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Yep. Yeah, I remember two years ago when he was at the clinic and he did a session on it's basically a six-on-six drill, but it was a very, very well thought out six-on-six drill. Like every every element of the drill had a purpose and how they rotated, you know, it wasn't just like you know, a traditional wash, like six off, six on, or you know, the easy way. Like it was a very uh structured way. And I remember we used it with my with my team that following fall, and we still do. Um, and I remember the first time explaining it to the kids, you know, it was a little overwhelming to them. But once they got the hang of it, um, it was a very effective way to run a drill, and I felt we got way more out of it, you know. Uh also made it a lot easier to um just manage and watch uh for specific things that you're working on. Um so yeah, I'm I'm excited to hear hear what he has to say again. Um, because it's like he he's not, I would say this, he he's not like a super fast talker. You know, sometimes you get you know um speakers that I mean they just they got just energy through the roof and they're just flying through stuff. Um but he is he is very just calm and very deliberate and very like he chooses his words very well and very wisely, and it's it's it's you get a lot out of it, you know, which I've I've always been impressed by. So I'm I'm looking forward to uh watching his skill um or his session again too.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

So and just appreciative that he's always willing to give back, you know. It could be easy for him to say, I'm busy, and and it is their first report day. And so for him to to come to our session and and him even reaching out to me, really wanting to do this, I think speaks volumes about him and and what he wants to do to contribute to the Minnesota volleyball community. Yep, absolutely. Um, all right.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

So moving on, uh the next one we got is kind of a fun one. I'm I'm looking forward to, and I think a lot of people uh are also gonna be excited about this next presenter because last year at the clinic, uh we were able to, you know, every year we give a um like a not it's not a prize because everybody's getting it, but everybody who signs up for the clinic and comes to the clinic gets you know some swag or something, right? You know, sometimes it's a clipboard, and one year is like ball pumps. Um last year, uh everybody who attended the clinic got a copy uh of this coach's book, right? And we're able to keep the line of communication open open with him. Uh so he's gonna be flying in from California. So we got Todd Maddox uh from Coast VB and a number of other volleyball entities over there. But uh yeah, Todd Maddox is uh gonna be joining us. What do you what do you know about what Todd is gonna be uh teaching us about?

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Well, I have to give you a lot of props for helping us land him. And he's just so excited to be here. And and I am excited for everyone because when you talk to him, he is just like he wants to like share his volleyball knowledge, he wants to learn from other people, he wants to be immersed in he's heard a lot of great things about the Minnesota volleyball community and wants to connect and and whatnot. And I bet he's gonna be the type of person people are gonna get so much from his sessions, but I feel like you're gonna be able to just have so many great one-on-one conversations outside of his sessions because he's fully coming for the whole thing and for himself to be immersed and and participate. So um I know it that'll be exciting. When he gave options for what he could, it was totally like this guy is the most um creative outside of the box volleyball thinkers are one of the most that I've encountered. And just our little conversations on the phone have been really exciting. Um, one of his sessions, and I'll just tell you the names of them because I I'm excited to kind of see where they go, triple your net length, triple your fun. So again, like for for some of us who don't always have the best facilities and all of this and that, um, I think he's just about maximizing um your time, your space, your whatever level you're working with. So I'm excited about that. And then he's also doing one drill, 10 variations, again, kind of teaching out of system offense and defense because that's a majority of where the game is played. And then um he's gonna do one auditorium session. And this one is kind of like the Keegan realm, the deep thinking, but exploring ecological dynamics, speeding up the process for skill development. So um, I think we all would be excited to find little tricks and tips um to help kids pick up some skills a little bit quicker. Because we all know for some it can be really easy and some more complicated. So I'm I'm excited to hear some of his um ideas on that as well.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Yeah. So that last session there that you mentioned that uh ecological dynamics, um, for those listening, they may be familiar that uh Todd is one half of the uh the volleypod um with uh with Davis, and they talk a lot about ecological dynamics. They they often uh abbreviate it, they just call it ecod. Um and I remember last summer mowing the lawn, I I I listened to their podcast a lot while I work outside and and do stuff and and they started that's the first time I had heard of that eco D. Um and I immediately just thought it had something to do with defense, like uh specifically defense. Uh but then I find out that it's just no, it's it can involve defense, but it just it's it's a very um, like I say, it's a very thoughtful way of how you structure um just your overall practice plan, I I guess I should say. Um, because it's not necessarily a a drill, right? It's just your approach, how do you how do you run a drill? Like what does that drill look like, you know?

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Um or what drill do you even choose to do, or what what works with your kids and like how can they pick it up quicker?

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yep. Yep. Cause it um and you can you can kind of still against my uh lack of knowledge about it yet, which is why I'm excited about this one, because it you know, from what I gather, it's kind of like um learning a skill, like breaking down a skill and learning it like step by step, like in lines versus all right, we're gonna play, uh, but we're gonna teach a skill through through play, right? You know, it it almost kind of sounds similar to the that old adage, the game teaches the game type thing. Um but I don't think it's that simple. I think there's a little bit more thought behind it. Um so yeah, I'm I'm excited. Um I'm excited to uh to meet Todd in in person. I met him, you know, through the phone, through email. He did a podcast with us uh last year as we are leading up to the clinic. Um so I'm I'm excited to you know get to get to meet him, learn from him in person, and have those conversations. Because I agree, he's he he seems like just a great guy, uh, loves volleyball, loves talking to volleyball, loves um, loves experiencing other places too, you know, because he's you know, as he's communicated with us, he's like, hey, what what do you have to do in Minnesota? Like he's and not like in the sense like is there anything to do? He's like, what I I want to experience, I want to experience uh what it is like to be in Minnesota. So he's gonna be here for a little while uh after the clinic well as well. So um yeah, so that's gonna be that's gonna be fun. I'm looking forward to seeing meeting and and learning from Todd. All right, so that's those are our um I won't say the big three, uh, you know, but those are our our keynote and kind of our featured speakers. Um and then we're gonna have a bunch of uh presenters, and some of them are first-time presenters, some of them um are presenters we've had before. So I'm just gonna start kind of going down the list and um kind of give me give me a little sense of what this coach is gonna is gonna bring to the clinic and why people should attend uh uh to hear from them. All right. So first one we got Erin Horn from uh Cretan, Cretan Durden Hall Durham Hall.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Well, um, for those of you who don't know, Erin um is a former Golden Gopher great uh volleyball player. Um she was on one of our our early Final Four teams and just a phenomenal player. I remember watching her, but even more so, like I they are happen to also be in our conference, and I just have seen what she's done with Creet and Durham Hall and kind of transformed that program. You can just tell she is truly a transformational coach, and she's gonna be talking about building team culture, and I I think she can speak volumes to that, but also her volleyball experience. She has told me, well, I'm not a presenter or whatever, but we finally got her locked in and I'm excited that she's gonna have a lot to offer, I think, because she truly has um done an exceptional job at Cretan since she has been there.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Greg, how often do you get that response that when you ask somebody to present, they're like, I'm not a presenter, I don't know, I don't even know what I could talk about. Get that a lot?

SPEAKER_00 18:44

And that's even like legendary people, college coaches who've been doing it forever. So I mean, that just goes, there's so many of you out there that are listening to this that are going to be coming to the clinic that would be phenomenal speakers. So don't sell yourself short. And that's what I told her, and we finally got her locked in to do this. So uh I I hear that a lot, Darren.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Yeah. No, I'm I'm excited. Like say it, and uh a first-time presenter, you know. Um we have a we have a fair share of presenters that we've had before that are uh that are fan favorites that the the coaches uh request to have them present again because they enjoyed them so much. But it's also awesome that we get to hear some of these new voices that we just haven't haven't heard from and can provide uh some fresh perfect perspective on stuff. So yeah, that's that's exciting that uh we got a number of them. All right. So speaking of uh uh first-time presenters, another one uh coming from Centennial, we got Nicole Christensen.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Yeah, Nicole um is awesome. And we also I I get a firsthand look in into her coaching because we do happen to play them each year. But I think Nicole um has just a wealth of experience. She, I think the cool thing about a lot of the coaches too is they've taken on a lot of roles. Not all of them have just been head coaches. Like I know Nicole has lots of club experience. She especially has a lot of youth experience, which I think for some of our coaches who are like coming to the clinic, like, what can I get for, you know, if I coach um middle school or upper elementary, or I do a lot of camp work with little kids, or I coach younger club, like she has that club experience. She's actually been coached at the college level a little bit, um, and now is a head coach at Centennial. And a lot of people saw her team play in the state tournament last year. Um, but I think Nicole, one of the strengths of Nicole is she just comes with some really like um innovative and creative things. And especially she, her and I talked, and and her idea is she's gonna be talking a lot about like the kinesthetic and tactile learning. Like she's gonna be in introducing a lot of the tools she uses in her gym, which I think is kind of cool, especially for those of you out there who love your tools and gadgets and and things like that, and and some complicated, but also just simplistic things that we have sitting around. I'm I'm really excited to to hear her presentation and and a lot of the things she's gonna talk about.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Yeah, like I say, it's uh uh some of these coaches I'm not super familiar with because we don't cross paths uh during the season. Um and they're I would say they're um maybe a little bit uh earlier in their careers, you know, uh, but it's exciting. Um it's exciting to to hear these new voices. And like I said, I like I like a little tools. I like a lot of anything that we can use to uh help a kid learn a skill or just maybe bring a little fresh energy to it, fresh excitement to something. Um yeah, so that'll be fun. That'll be fun.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Well, I got a first on hers. She even had on her outline a list of all the tools and gadgets she uses and is gonna you a lot of them that she's gonna use in the in her presentation, which is great for those of us that wanna go watch it so we can kind of see, oh, what do I need to order or what do I want to investigate a little bit more. So That was great.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

She'll have to get some Amazon affiliate links going. I think so.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

She's going to have to get sponsored.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

Yep. Yep. Okay. Moving on. I'm going to skip the next one on our list just because the next one on our list is actually the last presentation that we're going to have. So I'm going to I'm going to save that one for then. Coming from Eau Claire, we have Kim Woody. What can you tell us about Kim Woody?

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Well, um, Kim is the, like you said, Darren, the head coach at Eau Claire. And obviously her success speaks for itself. And, you know, a longtime coach there. Um, I have to admit, like I went to her many years ago at an MVI clinic, and it was one of the best presentations I've ever been to. And I've tried to get her many times. Our her schedule is never fully lined up. So I'm so excited to get her. And many coaches are excited about it and have kind of requested her as well. She's going to do competitive warm-up drills. I think that's always something that we are all looking for to kind of build that comp competition while warming up and being more creative. And I I'm just really excited to see what she's going to bring in that. So I'm very excited to have her.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Yeah. That one, that one resonated with me right away because we were doing a I think it was, yeah, was it yesterday? Yeah, it was yesterday. We were we were in the gym and the the kids were warming up. And and some days, some days I feel our warmups are really good. There's a lot of energy. And then other days I look around and like everyone's just kind of going through the motions and it's not it's not a good start. We're not developing good. Uh I don't even know if we're getting warmed up, and we're definitely not developing developing good technique. So um yeah, getting getting some new ideas for warm-up drills um is is very, very exciting for me because I I'm always looking for something new. Because I think there's good in routine, uh, but then I think sometimes kids just want something new, you know, something to something to spice it up, something to keep it fresh. So that'll be that'll be good. And like I said, um you speak very very highly uh of her, so um I'm a I I trust your I trust your instinct on this one here. What you gotta remind me though, because I uh when I was looking up some information um about Eau Claire, what is their mascot? Or what is their isn't it just like the blue or something or blue golds, I think.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Bluegolds, yeah. I can't remember exactly. Sorry, Eau Claire people out there. Um I I think it is the bluegolds, but I don't know exactly what that is, if it's like some kind of bird type of mascot that they have.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

So yeah, it's just there's some mascots that there's there's I'm sure there's a story, right? I just don't know the story, but there's just some that you hear out sometimes like, huh, that's interesting. All right. So we'll have to have her share. Yeah, we'll have to ask her. All right. Um, then we have uh one of our uh co-presenter sessions. There's gonna be two presenters uh at this one. One uh actually both are gonna be familiar to Minnesota. One one name probably resonates a little uh a little more easily uh with Minnesota uh coaches because many probably coached against her or watched her, and then everybody watched her for uh for a number of years uh for the Gophers. So we have a uh co-presenter session by Cece McGraw and Pedro Mendez, who are now with MLV Minnesota, one of the other professional leagues uh that is just getting rowing uh around the country. So what what can you tell us about what Pedro and Cece are gonna are gonna bring to the clinic?

SPEAKER_00 25:30

They are um very excited to present, and I think a lot of people will be excited to have them. I they have such great experience. I mean, people will probably recommend or recognize Pedro as well as being a assistant coach for the University of Minnesota women's um team. And then Cece, too, with all of her great experience, obviously as a player that a lot of us got to coach against or um experience just her great play, and then obviously at the University of Minnesota, like you said, and then her college coaching experience, which she has a lot of great college coaching experience and coach at Louisville, didn't she? Yep, Louisville, and I believe at at um some other places as well. But um, they're gonna talk a lot about like that first contact and defensive breakdown, which I know so many coaches um always love that, and you know, because that to me that's such an important aspect of the game that a lot of us love to teach. So any more tricks and and tools that we can take on that first contact and and defense um will be great. And I think they're obviously two experts in the field to give us a little bit more on that. So super excited. I I also appreciate kind of like Keegan, their eagerness and willingness to be a part of the Minnesota volleyball community and the high school club, all et cetera, um, which I appreciated so much.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Yeah, yeah, that's gonna be a fun one. I'm gonna have to ask them how uh defensively uh speaking here, okay, how I can improve my my personal defensive uh skills so that I don't uh keep popping my hammy when I try to dig a ball that's in front of me. Uh because that that took me out of co-ed uh rec league last year. I I got in there, I was gonna dig this ball, and I went for it, and my hammy just gone. So I must be doing something wrong. It's probably uh aging is probably the primary uh culprit there. But anyways, all right, let's move on. Uh another um another crowd favorite, Minnesota favorite. Uh she switched uh positions uh uh a couple years ago here, uh, but still very heavily involved in Minnesota volleyball. Uh we got Jackie Richter coming back to the clinic, uh, now representing St. Thomas, uh a former former Lakeville North North coach, but now an assistant coach at St. Thomas. So what's Jackie gonna bring uh to the clinic this year?

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Jackie always brings the A game. Um just so many great sessions. And this year she's gonna focus on serving. And uh I again have taken a lot of ideas from Jackie and her from everything, to be honest. Um have so much respect for her and one of the coaches I I most look up to. But um her her ideas and strategies and things around serving are just like so practical and very easy to incorporate. And I think we're always like, as coaches, sometimes the serve gets underappreciated in how we think about it, how we plan to do it in um practice and matches. And um, she I think will just have a wealth of things to bring to the table. And it's kind of fun that she's gonna be kind of breaking down that skill a little bit and um giving some cool ideas.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Yeah. I always appreciate when a so it's a coach at a D1 program and like, hey, what can you what can you offer Minnesota coaches as a way to improve uh their players, their team? And it's a you know, seemingly as simple as a serve. I know it's it's not, I don't want to undersell it as simple, but like the emphasis on such a um, in my opinion, overlooked skill. Um so I I'm excited to hear what she has to say as far as you know the because there's her session is titled The Serve Where Pressure Begins, right? As you said. Yeah um, you know, and that and you could read that two ways, right? Where pressure begins, like on the player serving, you know, so there's gonna be a there's gonna be a mental aspect to the person actually completing the serve, especially if it's like 13-14 in a fifth set and you're going back there and and you got you got to get your team new life here. Um but at the same time where pressure begins, the idea of putting pressure, you know, on the opponent, right? You know, because the serve is the first opportunity to score, right? Um, so yeah, I'm I'm interested to see. And I'm I'm sure she'll talk about both elements of it, but I'm I'm interested to see. And I talk about this like I'm gonna have some magical ability to get to all of these sessions because some of them are gonna run um uh concurrently, of course, but yeah, it's gonna be tough to pick. And that's I'm gonna make a plug for uh all the coaches listening here. Bring your staff. Try to get as many uh members of your staff to the clinic because you can't you can't be at every session. Uh so if you can get your whole staff there, you can come up with a game plan and you guys can cover this entire clinic and then get together during lunch, get together, you know, afterwards, um in the summer to kind of go through all the things that you can take from this clinic and incorporate into your programs to make your make your program and make your teams better. So yeah, so that's that's gonna be a good one. Jackie's awesome. Jackie's great. All right. Um, another one, not necessarily volleyball specific, but I think a a growing in growing demand in not only volleyball, but all sports. Uh, we got Jason Call from Premier Sports Psychology. Uh, what do you know about what Jason's uh gonna be bringing?

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Excited. Um many people may not be familiar with Jason, but um Jason graduated from Blaine High School a little while ago and then he played football at Stanford University and now is back, and he's a mental performance consultant with Premier Sports Psychology. Um, they primarily do work with high school, college, all of the things. Um, he is an amazing guy, and I know he's gonna bring it in his sessions. Um uh I little fun fact, he also is a uh trainer and runs some classes at a gym that I go to, and um his classes are great, and he's great at doing that. But the cool thing is he works with a lot of the top gopher teams. Like I know um when in our conversations, he works with a lot of the University of Minnesota gopher teams on all of those things. And and the two topics that he's gonna speak on, he's actually gonna speak twice, which is awesome. One is gonna be on re resilience and failure and response after a mistake. And I can't think of a sport where that is needed more than volleyball. And I'm I'm excited about that. And then his second is confidence strategies before, during, and after competition, um, which I think is also, you know, really needed. And sometimes we we maybe talk about confidence during, but like, what are we doing to set the stage before? And what are we doing then after to build it? If, you know, but I love both of those topics and um yeah. And then he also, you know, also on the on the side, I mean, they do offer um opportunities for people to work with them during the year. So that is a cool thing. If you decide your program or your school wants to work with them, they do have different ways that they can come in and work with you.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

I know they already work with several high schools, so yeah, those those sessions that you know, that first one you mentioned, the resilience, failure, and response after mistake, um, working with just some young players yesterday, you know, or incoming fifth and sixth graders, and you know, doing a lot of skill stuff, and then at the end, you know, we're doing a game and we got two of these kids. They're probably the two hardest workers, um, you know, just uh objectively speaking. You're watching them and they're flying around, they're diving for stuff. I mean, they're just they're getting after it. But we start playing a game and now there's a score involved, and if they made a mistake, it was it was very apparent that they they now carried a heavy uh heavy burden, you know, in their mind that they just oh, you know, they just let themselves down, let the their team down, you know. So I, you know, talk to them afterwards like, hey guys, that volleyball is a game of mistakes, right? You're you're every time you play, you're gonna make a mistake. A game's a point's gonna end because you, you know, made a bad hit, somebody hit it at you, and you didn't pass well, whatever, right? You got weren't in the right spot, whatever. Um you know, but how you respond after that's gonna it's gonna determine how far you go in this game. No, this is these are little fifth graders and whatnot, so I don't know how how much they went home and took this this conversation to heart, but I know it's something that now I know uh with all the kids, but I know those two especially, um, gonna have to keep working with them on on that resilience because um you know it you know as well as I do um once you get to the varsity level, if you uh if you haven't built that resilience, it's varsity sports are gonna be very tough, very tough for you. You know, so yeah, so that'd be fun. All right. Um next one, uh we don't have them every year, but we have them uh you know on a on a good cycle, and I think it's always really well received because um you know you you and I were talking uh before we got on here that we have them come to our our schools and work with our athletes too, right? Um so we got Rick Russ here uh uh joining us again from next level coaching, right? So you and I know him really well. Like, say we've worked with him before. My my players uh got to know him pretty well. Um they actually quick funny story uh about Rick here. Um so he lives uh up in the St. Cloud surrounding area, and we had uh some girls, they were uh going to a football game. So this is a couple weeks after we had done a training session with him last summer or uh last fall at the beginning of the season. And they're on a Friday, they're driving up to a football game and they're stopped at a uh stoplight, and right behind them, they notice this truck with a kayak on top of it, and they they turn around and all of a sudden they see it's Rick, you know. So they're they're waving at him and whatnot. They, you know, they took a picture and you know sent it to me, so I said I passed that along to him or whatnot. But they, you know, he made an impact in their in their season and uh hopefully their lives, you know. Hopefully it's um the the message he has is not just a a message to help you get through the day, you know, it's hopefully it's a message that you can implement in your life. So um I can't I kind of stole the the the thunder there on the on the Rick speech, but what else you got about uh uh Rick coming to the clinic?

SPEAKER_00 35:47

No, I think you hit it on the head. I mean, he's always a fan favorite and just works with so many high school and college teams and has all the fun things. And I love how it's active learning. It's not just listening, like you are actively learning um strategies and skills and and just being more thoughtful about how you approach it. So and we haven't had them in quite a while, so it's great to have him back.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

Yep. Yeah, so that'd be a good one. If you're looking for like just little activities that you can use as warm-up games or just little little breaks within a practice, but then that it there's always a there's always a meaning or a lesson tied behind it. It's not just a game-to-play game. You know, he's always got a really, really well thought out uh message uh for each of his activities. So that's that's a good one uh to go to as well. All right. Then we got uh Jackie Richter's uh uh a replacement. Uh that sounds that maybe sounds like the wrong word, but uh the coach who followed Jackie at Lakeville North, uh John Yunker. John Yunker, he's presented before, uh hasn't presented for a few years. Um so what do you know about uh uh John coming to the clinic this year?

SPEAKER_00 36:53

Yeah, I think it's been several years. I know it was probably the last time in in St. Cloud, but you know, if I'm thinking about coaches in the state um out there that just are super creative and and maximize what they have and and think outside the box, putting lineups together or coaching strategies or whatever, that is John. And John is a funny guy. Um, he's gonna be a direct speaker and have lots of um humor and sarcasm um to his presentation too, as well, which is always a little bit fun. Um uh so I I know John will have a lot of creative ideas that he's gonna bring to the table, and we're excited to have him back.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Yeah. He's I've known John for many years. Uh I first met John uh early, like one of my first maybe first or second year of coaching and teaching. Like, so I'm a year or two out of college, and I was working at a a coaches clinic up north that I think it was NDSU uh with my brother, and John was also working there. So that's how I that's how I first met John. And then we've we've kept in touch over the years and um gotten to know each other, got to know each other a lot better through the coaches association and uh being on the board of control for the the coach association. So yeah, John, John's great. He's fun. Um always always an entertaining and uh informative speaker, so that'll be a good that'll be a good one. All right. All right, speaking of fun, right? Been bringing fun to Minnesota volleyball for four or five decades or more, all right. I'm guessing. We got uh Ami coming back. So Dennis Ami Amundsen um is gonna be presenting. He's he hasn't presented for a few years, but um, I know he's excited to get back to the clinic and uh share some more information. So what do you got? What can you tell us about Ami?

SPEAKER_00 38:42

Well, I happen to be watching some of my players at a club tournament, and he cornered me and he's like, I have to get back to present. I have all of these creative setting ideas that I want to bring to the coaches in Minnesota. Um and a couple of my players throughout the years have had the opportunity to work with him, and I know they speak nothing but like the best about him and and just love working with him and and his level of knowledge at all things volleyball, right? But it's specifically the setting is is next level. And so he gave me like seven different ideas. I'm like, I don't know if we can do all of these in in one, but I think he's gonna really lock in on specific exercises and progressions designed um to develop those setter skills. So I'm excited for that session and especially for those people craving, you know, more knowledge on how to coach and teach setting and and what maybe more to do with your setters. So I know he'll be a fountain of knowledge and I know he'll be hanging around and he is always willing to talk volleyball and setting.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

Yeah. I remember how many years ago, I can't remember how many years ago it was, but he he made some type of uh I I it's been a long time, so I'm I'm probably gonna uh get this wrong, but he said something along the lines like if you can't dance, you can't set, you know. And I think he was making some, you know, he was uh making a reference to like the importance of footwork and how you have to have rhythm in your in your feet and how you're going after a ball and and things like that. But it's it was something like that. If you can't dance, you can't set. Um so yeah, I've I've always enjoyed Ami. He's a fun guy. Um, so it'll be fun to get him back at the clinic. All right. Um a couple more here, a couple more sessions to highlight here uh with boys volleyball. Um now you know underway. We just got done with uh the second official state high school league state tournament for boys volleyball. Um we we've been hearing more of a uh a request to get some uh boys volleyball coaches and some just boys volleyball sessions. Um, just if you don't coach boys volleyball, it doesn't mean that this session is gonna not provide you anything, but uh we got Ryan Donnell from Eastview, uh, who's gonna be uh joining us, who's the head coach uh of the boys volleyball team. And I know Ryan's been out uh I don't think he's currently coaching a girls team. I could be wrong on that, but that's where I first met Ryan was he was he was coaching, I think, uh St. Michael, uh St. Michael Albertville back in the day. Um so good guy. So what's what's Ryan gonna be talking to us about?

SPEAKER_00 41:14

Yeah, Ryan I remember going to one of his sessions. I actually use a few of his really creative things from one of the sessions I went to that just I distinctly remember. Um so I always uh tell him that and I appreciate that he did that. But um, it's good because yeah, we wanted to bring in, we always like to try to bring in some of the boys' coaches as well, and we want to keep building that bridge. And I mean, obviously, coaching volleyball is coaching volleyball, but there are unique things to both. You know, there are there are there are things that are great pluses and things that are maybe more um challenges for things. So it's great to have some boys' coach voices um involved, and he's gonna talk kind of how they got to the whole um path of being the state champions this past year and kind of the whole journey. Um, so I think especially for the boys' coaches out there that are building a program or wanting to start a program or all of the above, that's great. But also for us girls' coaches, um, you know, how did he get there? And I think that probably resonates across any any group or any level. So I'm excited to hear him speak and he always does, he's always so thoughtful and has lots of really um great things to add.

SPEAKER_01 42:22

Yeah. Yeah, that'll be that'll be a good one. Like I say the the subtitle of it, decision and habits, you know, that helped us achieve excellence. I like I like those first two uh main words there, decisions and habits, you know, because if our if our habits aren't made by a decision, uh they're probably not good habits, right? Um so yeah, so that'll be a good one. All right, so two more that we're gonna talk about. One is a panel, right? So we we've done these over the years, um, and they uh they're they're well received. That's why we keep doing them, right? Just so you guys know when we plan these sessions, if you give us feedback that a session is bad, uh, we don't uh keep force feeding it to you, hoping that eventually you'll like it. Um, you know, we we try to we try to listen to the feedback of our uh coaches that are part of the association that attend the clinic, and you know, we try to build that clinic around that feedback. So this is something that has always been uh requested uh and people really enjoy. So we're gonna have a head coaches panel, right? We've had uh other panels uh revolving around other topics, but this is gonna be just a specifically uh head coaches panel. Uh so what head coaches uh are going to be uh on this panel this year?

SPEAKER_00 43:38

And we should probably even name it coaches panel because I know a lot of the coaches um have been different roles and uh things like that. It's it's great though that we have a wide variety of coaches. We're having Dan Westby from Marshall, Steve Willingham from Lakeville South, Becca Roo from Delano, and Missy Foslin from West Central area. Um so just to Good variety of coaches that and again, like I think the reason why I asked a lot of them too is because of the variety, because of the different school sizes. Some are metro, some are outside of metro, some are bigger outside of metro. Um, we have coaches who have coached, all of them have coached quite a while, but like many have been assistants for a long time, or they've done club or they've done younger, they've done youth programs. Um, so again, maybe we should retitle it a coaches panel because so many can people can get so much out of it. One thing that I think will make this panel great is um Darren is gonna create a QR code where people can ask questions in advance, or we will allow people on the fly to ask questions live. And so bring, I think it's a great session for people who really have like little um niche kind of questions or things that that they really want to get out or that that they've been wanting to to pick brains of of coaches who have been there and and probably different perspectives, right? So you're gonna get different perspectives on a lot of topics. And even if you don't ask the question, you're probably gonna get a lot out of that session.

SPEAKER_01 45:10

Right. You know, and and trying to maybe help people as they're as they're thinking about what type of questions to ask. Um, you know, I think it I think it'd be pretty easy to see the coaches on there and have a specific question for a specific coach. Um, but I think, you know, if you if you're trying to think of questions, maybe think of in more broader terms like, hey, what do you think about this? And then get perspective from four different coaches on it, you know, you know, rather than, hey, when you were in the state tournament at uh in this match at this point, you called a timeout. What did you say in that one? Um you know, the other three aren't gonna have much uh much input on that that moment. Um yeah, so think about like, you know, what kind of questions you want to hear multiple perspectives about uh about that question or about that scenario. So um that'd be my kind of encouragement uh to get the most out of that that session there. Yeah, and we'll like say we'll have uh that QR code in the in the book uh because that is gonna be uh that session is gonna be on day two. So it's gonna be something that you can uh get the book, scan the QR code, you know, put some questions in there, and then we'll we'll go through there and try to find what are some common threads, some common themes that people are looking for and and can help moderate it uh that way. So yeah, that'll be good. All right. So that takes us through the bulk of the clinic. And then the last one, um, so 2 p.m. on Thursday, so the last session, uh, we are fortunate enough to bring back uh what I I don't think it's just my opinion. I think it's a uh a shared opinion by many coaches. Uh, but we're fortunate to have uh Dan Westby leading a session again. And um the title of it is Tiger Practice 2.0. Now I know what Tiger Practice 1.0 looked like. I'm wondering what and Tiger Practice 1.0 won him 10 state titles, right? So I'm wondering what uh Tiger Practice 2.0 is gonna do. Um, but I'm excited, I'm here for it. What do you know about it?

SPEAKER_00 47:11

Well, we hadn't had Dan for a while, and honestly, he's so highly requested. I think if people could hear him present several times each year, they would be very excited. Um, and one session, and I think this was one of the ones you led, Darren, or that you um kind of oversaw, and it was at Concordia Academy, he led a session on the Marshall Tiger practice. So kind of what the typical um practice was. And there just was so many good takeaways from there, right? Whatever lens you were looking at it as an audience member. So he actually suggested, hey, would it be possible if we kind of do something similar to that, but then kind of some new things that I maybe bring in, or just reviewing some standard things that work so well in our practice. And I think a great takeaway as everyone's approaching these clinics too is like what people present isn't necessarily just going to be a copy and paste into your gym. You have to kind of look at it through a lens of like what's gonna work. And I know for a fact, I I can remember sitting in that session. And there are two things we do in our practices now directly because of that, but it's not copy and paste. It was ideas generated or sparked because of things that Dan um did. And those are things that are so important in our practice now, and I think have really helped our team elevate. Um, so I just I appreciate presenters like Dan and and a lot of our presenters because they're going to kind of drive that creativity in all of us or spark that interest, or you know, and some things are cut and paste, like some things you are like this is gonna be great. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:49

Yeah, I I know the session you're you're referring to. Yeah, it was at Concordia Academy. Um, it was a pack gym, a pack gym, and it was just it was fun. It was fun because I I it it was also one of those time those um unique experiences where I think a lot of coaches would love to be able to have the time um to be able to go to another gym and just just watch a practice, you know, just what goes on in that gym. And that's kind of what it is. I mean, it's a condensed version of it because it's only 50 minutes long, but you get a real you get a real good sense of kind of how they operate, how they do things, what what's allowed, what's not allowed, um, how the culture has been uh built and how it's reinforced and what they do. Uh so yeah, so I I I agree with you that you're not just gonna go in and say, all right, all right, we're just gonna uh change the name on the top of this paper to uh the dragon practice, you know, and all of a sudden we're gonna win 10 state titles. Um it's it's not that easy. Um, but it does give you it does give you a really good opportunity just to get a peek, peek behind the curtain, um, which which you can then take it for what it is and and go from there. So and that's that's really what the clinic is all about, right? You know, you're gonna go there, you're gonna get, you know, you know, a fire hose of uh ideas, you know, and you're you're hoping just to bottle a couple uh a couple of those up and help it to improve your uh your program, you know.

SPEAKER_00 50:19

Anything else you got uh to add there, Greg? No, I I appreciate this podcast because I think it's such a good way for people to get an introduction to what the the clinic is, you know, um, and maybe kind of inspire like what direction you want to go. I agree with an earlier comment you made about like, why do we do three at the same time? I mean, it's so great. So we have options, but I also I'm making this schedule based on lots of different things, but I'm like, I want to go to all of them. Why am I putting these people competing against each other? But I think that's the beauty of it. Like, you have a lot of choice, you can narrow into things that you're really wanting to focus on. And I loved your idea is bring all of your coaches and you can divide and conquer. And and that's what we do. And and a lot of times it's some of the best ideas have come because of that. Because as coaches, my coaching staff gets to get gets together, and a lot of my coaches take ownership over things or really like this, and and we introduce a lot of things because of that. And it's some of our best conversations each year. So I love that strategy um that you brought up.

SPEAKER_01 51:22

Yeah, and I'll just, I'll just uh in this discussion uh or this question, we do not film and post any of the sessions online. Um, I know I get that question every year. Uh we're just we're just not there. We don't have the the resources, the technical resources, um, the manpower. Um, you know, just because we got like I said, we we've talked about this before. We got a ton of people that help work behind the scenes uh to get this up and running and then to pull it off the um the two days of the event. Um but we also like we we encourage people to come and attend in person. And I know it doesn't always work out that way, and that's why some people would like to have the ability to watch it later. Um, but it's um it's just not it's not in our it's not in our wheelhouse uh yet, maybe down the road sometime, but not this year. Um but then also uh just a reminder, put this on your calendars for August is I haven't asked Greg yet, but I'm sure he'll he'll be game for it. He has been the last uh couple years, and then we'll have to get Rue uh Pull you, pull you back on it. Wrong Rebecca. Um but uh after the clinic, uh Becca Pulyu, Greg Ulan, and myself, we we generally get together and do another podcast and kind of break down our highlights, what we enjoyed uh about the the clinic. We make a list and then we each go through our list, and sometimes we have different things, but a lot of times we have uh some some common threads that uh we pulled from from the clinic, so that's always a fun way to uh break it down as well. So look out for that one. And uh, Greg, I'm just gonna assume you're you're in. I'm in. All right. Well, um, if you're interested in attending the clinic, once again you can go to our website, www.mnvbca uh.org. Um you also have likely be getting some emails from me about the clinic, about some of the presenter previews. Um, and there's some registration links in there uh as well. But like I say, the the kind of home base for all things clinic is our website. Again, that's www.mnvbca.org. All right. Well, Greg, I appreciate all the time you uh put in uh over the past year. You know, this isn't something that you just school year gets done and hey, let's let's throw a clinic together. It's a it's a year-long process, you know, you know, communicating with coaches, getting coaches to commit uh to present and then working out all the logistics, you know, securing a location and all that. So on behalf of all the Minnesota uh volleyball coaches, want to say thank you for the the work that you do to uh to help organize this and make it a great event for uh for all the coaches.

SPEAKER_00 53:58

No, I appreciate that. And I always it's one of my highlights through the years. I mean, I just am so appreciative of our community and I just love how collegial it is. And you know, some of my closest friends are your coaching competitors, right? And you you just develop these great friendships over the years, and uh I just love it so much. Great ideas are exchanged, a lot of fun, a lot of laughs, all of the things. So very much looking forward to it and seeing you all um in Moundsview on Wednesday, July 29th and Thursday, July 30th.

SPEAKER_01 54:30

Yep, absolutely. All right. Well, Greg, uh we're gonna end it there. You enjoy um the next couple weeks here until we see you uh in about a month in Moundsview. Thanks, Darren. Awesome. Take care, Greg. Yep, bye.