Shaping the Future of Volleyball with Zoran Kedačič

At what age should young athletes start focusing on strength and conditioning, and do you believe that youth athletes today have access to better programs compared to the times when you started your coaching career?

You can start implementing practices with strength and conditioning exercises at a very young age, but the exercises should include only their own body weight. When the athletes can do all these kinds of exercises technically correctly and can manage their body weight and build a strong core, then we slowly start to add fitness programs and additional weights.

For example in our youth national team when we started with the U17 men’s team, we did all the tests about technique, we taught them first how to properly use the weights and focus more on mobility and prevention and slowly added the weights. But it should be an individual approach, not all the athletes are the same and grow and develop in the same way.

Of course, you can not even compare this part, it developed tremendously over the years, now teams in the youth categories (clubs, national teams) have already access to fitness, S&C coaches, etc. The volleyball coaches have more knowledge about this part of preparation and they pay more attention also to this part of how to help the athletes get better.

How would you rate (10- most important/ …/ 0-not important) the biomotor abilities – strength, explosiveness, endurance, coordination, speed and agility, flexibility – regarding their importance for volleyball?

They are an important part of any athlete regardless of the sport, for sure for playing volleyball some are more important than others. You don’t need to have the endurance to run a marathon, but you need to be able to jump and be explosive for 2 hours. That is why you need to know how to manage them in the correct way while playing/practicing volleyball and how to use strength and conditioning part of the practice the right way. Especially at a young age. When you are getting older and you know your body well it is a bit easier, you can take good care of some of those abilities and prevent getting injured.

What are the main differences in volleyball training young athletes go through when aged 6-9, 10-14 and 15-18 years?

This is a really good question. Volleyball is a really difficult sport to teach and to start playing immediately if you compare it to other team sports like basketball or soccer. When you are 6 years old you don’t have the strength to use the overhead set, pass the ball, or serve. You need to use lighter balls (balloons) and smaller courts, different nets (strings), etc. Kids need to enjoy and have fun, fall in love with the basic techniques of volleyball, and slowly learn the rules. From 10 to 14 years old is the right age when kids can focus on technique, you can slowly see the development and the feel for the game. Still, the balls are different, the courts are smaller the net is lower, etc. The most important part is they need to have fun and play the game, every day. You need to add also all types of strength and conditioning drills to handle their own weight and teach them the basic warm-up drills.

From 15 years old on you should start and learn different systems of playing 6 vs 6 on the normal court and getting to know the feel for staying on the court and playing a team sport with a lot of different responsibilities. And that is where the real fun starts. Volleyball.

Until the age of 18, the S&C should be also part of the athlete’s program and development.

The “More Is Better” approach is often emphasized in youth programs. What are your thoughts on this? Do you believe that pushing for more training and practice is essential to achieving better results?

No, I don’t believe “more is better”. You need to be smart and you need to know what you want from the practice. You need to have a clear goal every practice, and every exercise. You can practice for 3 hours, no problem, but you can not jump for 3 hours, you can focus on different parts of the game, with less intensity, etc. For me, focus needs to be there, even if I plan the practice for 2 hours that doesn’t mean I have to push the players and be on the court for 2 hours with the whole team if I see that some of the players are struggling. Managing the practice time, with the load and rest is the most important part, you don’t want to injure the players. The easiest thing to do is to push the players hard every day, I don’t think you will get better results from that.

What strategies or criteria should coaches employ to identify and nurture sports talent, especially when faced with the challenge of prioritizing game performance over individual development?

Volleyball is the ultimate team sport, where teamwork is the most important for a team’s success. Individuals in volleyball rarely win games. So, focus on the players that are hard-working, positive, and are trying to get the team better.

Individual development is important, but to some degree, in team sports, I will always focus more on the game and how the player is performing on the court with his teammates. You need to find the balance in everything. I try and develop every player on my team, every day, to some degree. You need to give them the feedback that everyone is important for the team’s success, regardless of playing time when the game comes. But to do that and create that team spirit you need to give your time in practice and talk to players, listen to them, and give them the right exercises to make them better players and build their self-confidence.

Slovenia has incredible results in sports: ski jumping, cycling, basketball and volleyball to name just a few. In your experience, what are the key elements of effective coach education programs, and how do they contribute to the overall development of athletes and the improvements of sporting standards?

We are a small country, still young, we were part of a big country once, and if you ask me, we are trying to prove to everyone that we can also do everything on a high level and that size is not that important if you have the quality. We are tough, hard-working, and stubborn as a people and we want to prove to everyone that we belong. And I think you can see this also through our sport.

I can talk only about the volleyball part, but to become a coach for youth in the 1st degree you have to go through an intense 2 months course, which includes not just the volleyball part of all the teaching methodologies to know how to teach the proper volleyball techniques and later tactics, but also basic S&C development of the players, nutrition, injuries, etc. It’s a tough one, and you have to know everything theoretically and practically. If you want to coach senior teams in the 2nd or 1st league, you need to do the 2-course. Which is more intense and includes a lot of topics that are part of sports coaching at the highest volleyball level. These are the courses for coaches that are all based on the Faculty of Sports and Institute of Sport.

More than the coaching education, clinics, courses, and all of that, you need to love this job, it is a tough one, and you need to be eager to learn and develop, every day, not just for your coaching diploma.

Kids in Slovenia can start to choose which sport they want to play at a very young age, from elementary school onwards. Systems in schools are based on that kids after they finish school can go to different sports immediately after they finish school in the school’s hall, where different coaches from different sports usually have 1 hour of practice to present the sport to them and try to teach them the basic rules of the sport while having fun and playing the sport. After if they want to practice and play more, they go to the clubs, where usually these coaches are coming from. If you ask me, the most important thing is also recognizing the talent, already in the elementary school and helping the kids to develop and find the right sport for them. For that, you need to try multiple sports and develop a basic set of skills that you can use also later in life if you don’t succeed in a sport.