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The Rice Lady Raiders volleyball team hit the court for the first time this season for their first practice of the season.
This was going to be an intriguing practice because the Lady Raiders lost a couple of key players and also, they have a new coach.
So, there was some interest to see what the Lady Raiders look like in their first practice and what are some of the new philosophies the new coach is introducing. Let’s look at the coach’s philosophies first because that will have the biggest impact on the team going forward.
The first noticeable philosophy new Lady Raiders Head Coach Morgan Hunter has introduced to the team is being positive and uplifting towards each other. She could be heard shouting things like, “If your teammate misses the ball we are not going to say, ‘Oh my God you suck’ we are going to tell them ‘That’s ok we will get the next one.’” The girls started to buy into that message more and more as practice went on, but she did not stop there. After a drill that worked on the girl’s footwork and positioning, she made them high five after the drill and say something positive that they worked on in the drill.
She told her team, “Tell your teammates, ‘Good footwork’ or ‘good positioning.’” It promoted good team comradery from day one. Since they were being so positive with one another the communication within drills between the players got better and better as practice went on.
They started out doing drills where they had to shift to a certain area of the gym and “Right” or “Out” depending on where they were shifting. At the start of practice, it was silent in the gym and by the end of it the echos of their communication were ringing throughout the gym.
It was fun to see and definitely did its job by adding some excitement for the season ahead and the debut of the new look Lady Raiders.
