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Erin Tsai
Instructor: Malcolm Campbell
English 1101
6 November 2014
The Day in the Life of a Volleyball Coach
Coach Tsai starts his day off by making a large cup of boiling coffee. The aroma pours
into the kitchen as it overfills into the surrounding rooms. He takes a large gulp and the caffeine
starts kick into his system. Coach George Tsai is now ready to take on the daily and fulfilling
tasks of coaching and managing Raleigh Volleyball Club.
Raleigh Volleyball Club (RVC) is a Junior Olympic Volleyball Club based out of Raleigh,
North Carolina. RVC is a member of the Carolina Regional Volleyball Association. They provide
teams for girls, ages 12-18. The minimum amount of players that is required per team is six and
the maximum can range from 10-12 players. There are four to six different teams per year, per
age group. It is a smaller organization compared to the other volleyball clubs in the North
Carolina region, which can usually have a minimum of six to eight teams. The official club
tryouts start in October, the official season usually starts in the beginning of December and ends
around March-May (depending on the team). The club director is George Tsai. George Tsai has
over 30 years of volleyball playing experience and over 20 years of coaching experience. RVC
started in 2009, after his daughter (me) started to spark interest in the sport. Coach George Tsai
hires around three to five coaches per year (both new and previous coaches) and each coach can
coach one to two teams, depending on the amount of teams available.
Coach Tsai meets the other coaches at the North Raleigh Christian Academys (NRCA)
gym, which he rents out for practices. RVC coaches and players meet for two hours, twice a

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week for practice (usually Mondays/Tuesdays and Thursdays, depending on the team). Coach
Tsai gets there 30 minutes prior to set up the volleyball nets. The other coaches join him in
setting up the net, a daily ritual for the RVC coaches. The coaches are wearing either the official
RVC t-shirt, the official coaching RVC polo shirt, or a random t-shirt. All the coaches are
wearing some sort of athletic shorts or athletic pants with a pair of athletic shoes (usually of
Mizuno or Nike brand). This is the official RVC coaching uniform/attire.
After the nets are set up and the players have arrived, the coaches start everyone off with
a warm up. There are three different gyms in NRCA to use for the practice of four to six teams.
The coaches start the warm up in one single gym and then split everyone up by teams for
individual practice. Each gym can have two nets set up. The atmosphere of the gym is loud with
the resonance of whistles, volleyballs hitting the floor, the communication between players, and
the communication of the coach to the players.
Volleyball, according to Wikipedia, was invented in 1895 in Massachusetts in a YMCA.
The physical education director, William G. Morgan created a new game to be played in an
indoor court and had the characteristics of both tennis and handball. Volleyball had its first
exhibition match in 1896, and the game quickly picked up the name volleyball and spread around
the country to many other YMCAs. Spalding created the first official volleyball in 1896. The
game eventually evolved through the playing of multiple countries and the game became an
Olympic sport in 1924.
Two things I noted while observing was that the club was very organized and that the
main focus the coaches seemed to have were fundamentals. Fundamentals are the building
blocks of volleyball, was the main thing the coaches were telling the players during tryouts. The
coaches follow under the lead of Coach George. Coach George tells the coaches which drills to

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implement for maximum coverage of different fundamentals. All the coaches have different
coaching styles. One is friendlier, one is stricter, and one just follows what the head coach is
doing. All the coaches are between the ages of 40-60. They all have enough physicality to be able
to implement the drills. The coaches were all supportive and giving advice to the players for a
positive environment.
I was previously both a coach and a player of RVC, so I was able to observe the coaches
both on and off the court. I observed the coaches on two separate occasions before the season of
club volleyball started, during the tryouts. Since I was previously a coach, I was able to use prior
knowledge of the RVC coaching staff. I interviewed George Tsai, the founder of Raleigh
Volleyball Club, who also happens to be my father.
The first question I asked Coach George was why he liked to coach, he told me he liked
coaching because he loved spreading
the knowledge of volleyball to others
and seeing players improve is why
he does it. He said the major cons to
coaching are the pesky parents that
constantly pestering about their
childs playing time, managing the
money/making sure parents are
paying on time, and lastly when he
Coach George Tsai and his team
after winning a tournament

invests so much time into players

and they join a different club the next year. Coach George

believes that a lot of other volleyball clubs overcharge the players and are only in it for the

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money. He believes that teaching volleyball fundamentals are the most important thing. In
comparison to other clubs, Coach George considers that he makes the biggest bang for players
buck. I asked Coach George what he believes is the slogan for RVC, and he responded with
Its not always about winning or losing, its about how much you learn and how much fun you
have.
Spoken language is very important in the RVC coaching community. They must
communicate about which drills to do, which days they will practicing on, and talk about certain
players (coach gossip). Coach gossip happens before practice, after practice, and in between
drills. Coach gossip consists of improvement on players, other coaches, and other clubs. Written
language is also very important. Written language exists through emails and texts mostly. Their
purpose of meeting is to improve the overall quality of the volleyball club and to teach
volleyball. Their beliefs are all similar, in that they want to improve players ability of volleyball
and create a team like atmosphere. All the coaches all seem to have interests of sports
including volleyball, basketball, football, etc. They all at one point played volleyball or had a
daughter who played volleyball. They all treat one another with a lot of respect for one another
and one anothers team. Coaching staff is mostly hired by connections (connection with Coach
George). Whether through high school volleyball (other high school volleyball coaches) or a
previous connection to Coach George (previously played volleyball with Coach George,
daughter played with their daughter). Coach George hires on a basis of their knowledge of
volleyball.
The RVC coaching staff is a tight knit group that comes together twice a week to improve
the quality of volleyball. They all love the sport and they all have previous experience with
coaching. They all have different coaching styles, but their overall goal is the same. They do not

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want to take away the fun from playing volleyball by drilling them repeatedly. RVC coaches also
believe that you should not do the fancy tricks before you learn the fundamentals. From what I
have observed, RVC really invests time into their players.