Rams Work On Building Mental Bank During Bye Week

Tom Hilbert is sticking to his guns.

At the beginning of the year, he said the season was as much about developing his roster while chasing victories, and some wondered how long he'd be able to stick with the plan.

All the way through. And it's been relatively easy for him to do so as his Colorado State volleyball team enters a weekend on the road at San Jose State – matches on Friday and Saturday -- with a 4-4 mark.

"I think I have to be that way. We can't just set Breana Runnels all the time," Hilbert said. "It's not good for her, and it's not good for the future of our team. We'll use her when we need to, but it's got to be these other guys making plays."

"These other guys" are a slew of players who are finally getting their chance on the court or are true freshmen in the program. With a bye week last week, which Hilbert felt came at an opportune time, the Rams spent a week without an opponent looming working not so much on skills – Hilbert likes the talent level and ability – but the mental approach. Of being aggressive and when, all while developing confidence.

"You have to have a vision in your head of what the proper action is and that it's going to happen. I call it a competitive memory bank," Hilbert said. "People confuse that with everybody's got to be positive all the time. This isn't all about flowers and bunnies. I think sometimes people who are not in sports will look at a sports situation and why is this guy putting pressure on someone where they're in a situation where they're likely to fail?

"The reason you do it is because you want them to go through a difficult, uncomfortable situation and come out on top. There are two schools of thought in coaches. Some are let's create a situation where they'll win, and they'll get used to winning. No, you don't do that. You create situation that simulates what you're going to see and you make them do it until they are successful. If they arent, you make them do it again until they have a memory bank of, 'oh, I can do this.'"

His particular positon of interest was a trio of young pin hitters – sophomore Jacqi Van Liefde and true freshmen Alyssa Groves and Kennedy Stanford. It is from that trio Hilbert wants to see increased production, not just in terminal swings, but in making the right choices.

Stanford confirmed unicorns and rainbows were absent at Moby practices last week.

"There are drills that are meant to make you uncomfortable, but I think it's in the mindset of a competitor to kind of be OK with that and to work through that," she said. "It's something that I, even in the moment, if I'm struggling through it, I appreciate it later. Especially if we're doing a drill at the beginning of practice and then shift that into when we're playing six-on-six, seeing opportunities to implement what we learned in the beginning of practice into the sixes. It makes it more practical, and then it gives you the understanding of why certain things matter at the beginning of practice and why you need to struggle through it.

"It's interesting, because even us in the freshmen class and being young players in practice, I think we did a pretty good job of handling the drills, some of the more funky stuff he throws at us. Even if it's something where you are kind of decent at it, whenever were able to really work on it and focus on it, then you are able to pick apart the mechanics of it and really tune into it, which can really help a lot."

For instance, he had assistant coaches intentionally feeding them sets out of system to make them think about their footwork, how to set up for a shot and decipher if they could off a good swing or just have to do their best to manage the situation.

That happens all the time in a real volleyball match, and as Hilbert noted, San Jose State is a team which will force long rallies and test the patience of a young team.

Even through the frustration, they can see the benefits.

"Building a mental bank for me means that if I make a mistake to shake it off fast, because I know the next ball more than likely is going to come to me, too," Groves said. "If I let that affect me, then I'll probably make more mistakes. Just being more aggressive … (Assistant coach) Emily Kohan has told me a lot to be more aggressive and just believe in myself and that I can do the drill that I'm doing. That builds better confidence for me, and that results in a more competitive side of me, as well."

This is all new to Groves. She will get a redshirt year this year, but not the one she was expecting. She hasn't really played competitively since her junior season of high school, first because of a knee injury, the second reason being the pandemic erasing her club campaign.

This was year to watch and grow and do it in practice. Now she's being asked to do it in a match where the results count and there are no resets.

She knows it wasn't what she expected, but it's exactly what the entire seven-player freshman class needs this season.

"The nature of the sport is that anything can happen at any time, and especially with the team we have right now and COVID, everybody has already had an understanding it could be anybody's time to have to step up," Stanford said. "In practice, we do a good job of being competitive at all times so we can see that, so we can build trust in practice, that even if somebody who hasn't played at all this year, we've seen them do it in practice and we know they can execute it."

Seeing is believing, another step for this group of young players. Visualizing success is important, but it has to be done correctly, Hilbert said.

It's not just seeing the positive result at the end, it was how it was accomplished. Their mind's eye has to see the proper technique and the skill-savvy swing all the way to the end. Skipping to the post-point celebration does none of them any good.

Kennedy said the process was new to her, but the fact assistant coach Adrianna Blackman tells she and Groves to do 10 visualization reps each has helped her keep on top of it and see the benefits.

As for the bye week, they loved it, even the hard parts. By the end, they were all feeling the benefits of being able to break down what they needed and get ready for the second half of the Mountain West season.

"Last week was really good. I thought we got a lot done in the gym that we could finally start to break things apart a little more with it being a bye week," Groves said. "Just being able to get more reps, which allows us to be more fluent in the stuff we're doing, just makes us more confident in the stuff we don't normally think of in the games."

It felt good in practice, and Hilbert was particularly pleased with the work Stanford and Groves put in. Now it's time to bank on it during match play.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results