As a volleyball instructor, you must show control by providing your players with a set of rules and requirements that they must know and adhere to. Establishing the law during the initial week will be crucial if you want to run a well-oiled machine. I have produced a summary of some tips that I think would be the essential ones.

UNACCEPTABLE behavior

1. Participate in anything other than watching and cheering when players are on the bench. Players shouldn’t be talking about the Jersey Shore or their boyfriends. They need to be paying attention to the game.

2. Distracting a player who is trying to play a ball. This is in line with good sportsmanship. Don’t let your players fall for this, as you really don’t want other teams to dislike you. You will quickly make a name for yourself.

3. Shouting or using in anger. Once again, sportsmanship. A player yelled the “F” word during a close game with many people watching. The most unfortunate aspect was that it was so quiet because it was such an exciting play. An extremely uncomfortable moment without a doubt.

4. Question or criticize the summons of an official. Almost nothing annoys me more than seeing players ask for a call after every play. Don’t let your players do that. Let them understand that this is their job.

5. Throw or kick the ball in anger. If you’ve ever coached kids, you know what I’m talking about. They really like to kick the ball as far as they can. Also, isn’t this like the first volleyball rule you learned? That and rolling the ball under the net (I really like to pass it to the server).

6. Talking to the officers. You definitely need to make sure everyone knows that only the captain can talk to the officers. It really isn’t fun to get a yellow card at a critical part of a game.

7. Negative greetings. Remember this one?: We want a pitcher, not an itchy belly. None of that please.

8. Blaming teammates. Another thing I feel like I observe too much. Every team has a player who loves to look at the person who made a mistake and say something. That is the coach’s job. Don’t let that get out of hand.

9. Pouting after a bad move. In the event this happens, simply take the player out. This is really not going to benefit the team.

Here is a list of points to encourage:

1. Help your teammates get up off the ground

2. Praise teammates and opponents for good plays

3. Roll the ball under the net

4. Run to catch a wandering ball and bring it back to the server or umpire.

5. Cheer at the end of each point (win or lose the point)

6. Cheering from the side (“Jenny’s on fire, Ooh, Ah,” “Keep it up, Sara, keep it up,” “Here we go Red, here we go”).

7. Motivate the player who makes a mistake (“Don’t worry, you’ll understand next time”)