This article and other helpful coaching tools can be found at Coach Dawn Writes
By Dawn Redd-Kelly, Head Volleyball Coach at Beloit College.
How do you handle the situation, when a player isn’t performing at an acceptable level.
The Answer: SCAMPER. Let’s look at how we’d apply SCAMPER to our teams.
First things first, what the heck is SCAMPER? The letters stand for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Magnify/Modify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, Rearrange, though I won’t talk about combine or magnify/modify here.
I’m sure we could use this technique with all sorts of problems, but let’s stick with our problem player.
Can we substitute?: This is the easiest solution to an underperforming player…put someone else in. Though, if the player is a starter and impact player for our team, keeping her off of the court isn’t a smart long term solution.
Can we adapt to her?: I worked with a team at a summer camp with a pretty dynamic hitter, though she struggled with slower tempo sets. The only problem? Her head coach put her in a position to work only in her weakness and hit those slow tempo sets. After watching her crush fast tempo after fast tempo ball, we changed the offensive system to work in her strength and she excelled.
Can we put her to another use?: Our players come to us with a certain amount of training in their particular position, but can they do other things? Would it be better if they played another position? Until we answer, “yeah, I can put her to another use…right here on the bench next to me”, we’ve got to figure out a way for each player to have a legitimate contribution to the team’s effort.
What can we eliminate?: Maybe the coaching staff has come up with a sweet offensive plan for the team…they just can’t execute it! Perhaps it’s time to scrap that plan and simplify. Is there something going on in her personal life that’s keeping her from performing up to snuff? We’ve got to help her eliminate the causes of stress if possible. If nothing works…maybe we’ve got to eliminate more and more of her playing time.
Can our team be rearranged into something else?: Sometimes we’ll play a team that funnels eighty percent of their offense through a couple of players and I always wonder what they do when those players have bad days…besides lose, I mean. For that player who has lost their mojo, the coaching staff can restructure the offensive season so that player doesn’t carry so much of the burden.
I got the idea for this post from a Psychology Today article about creative thinking and I can see how SCAMPER could initiate the creative thinking process. Sometimes the obvious answer isn’t the best option and we’ve got to dig deeper.
This article and other helpful coaching tools can be found at Coach Dawn Writes