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68. Practice videos: Dan Friend - Lewis University

What is actually happening in the training gyms around the world? Today we have Lewis University's head coach Dan Friend going over his practice.

68. Practice videos: Dan Friend - Lewis University

🔍 Intro

We already featured 30+ hours of edited practice videos with pro coaches, and today it's time for our 10th Practice video article here on volleybrains.com.

This article will review practice excerpts of Dan Friend's Lewis University.

👊 The coach who's guiding us today

Dan Friend is the head coach of Lewis University. Dan is the 2015 AVCA coach of the year and our loyal VolleyBrains members will remember Dan from a Masterclass article we did with him a bit over a year ago.

In his Masterclass Dan put a huge emphasis on the personal development of his athletes. Today we'll take a deeper look at the technical and tactical side of things.

Dan has served in various roles for USA Volleyball. Supporting USA Men's Volleyball for the VNL and coaching the USA Volleyball Youth National teams.

Coach Friend is the current NCAA Division I/II men’s representative for the AVCA and last summer's Head Coach of USA Volleyball Beach Collegiate National Team.

Myself, I find it very interesting to first get to know a coach very well during our deep-dive interviews, to then get our sneakers out and see what they are doing in the gym.

⚡
'How do coaches translate their coaching style and frameworks to the court' as you will.

Coach Hambly's practice sessions and Masterclass are another example of that.

⚡ What's inside the practice video clips?

Most of the volleybrains practice video sessions are a literal run down of a full practice day or one single session, drill by drill.

In today's clips, due to court rotation and camera setup, we cover the second (the 6 on 6) part of Dan's practices.

Those probably are also the most interesting parts as Lewis has nearly 30(!) athletes in the gym running drills.

We went deeper into that aspect of the (men's) college game as well, how to value and activate a large group of athletes at different skill and developmental stages.

Enjoy!

In the videos coach Friend will go into detail on:

  • Engaging a large group of athletes
  • The differences between preseason and in season
  • How they evaluate redshirts
  • Personal receiving activation methods
  • What their specific focus is on during this part of the season
  • Being attentive on running a smooth transition game
  • The differences between his and pro athletes
  • Many intricate details during drill overview
  • and so, so much more

Practice notes

An overview of coach Friend's whiteboard.

Dan covers his whiteboard in the 2nd VB Members-only video below

Practice clips preview

  1. Transition Excellence
  1. Receiving Activation

VolleyBrain Members only sessions

(total viewing length = 44 minutes)

💡
Quick tip: The practice videos are timestamped. Use the chapters to quickly navigate through the video for later reference.

Part 1: 6 on 6 session

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