You may have noticed that in recent times there has been a proliferation of coaching… er, let’s call them tools, on social media. Many of these are AI generated. These ones are a pure delight. Or absolute trash. I always get those two things mixed up. Other social media accounts are varying degrees of better. One topic that I have seen a few times is some version of ‘How to train out of system play’. What normally follows is a series of drills or drill explanations. And what is common to all of these posts is a structured drill, the purpose of which is to create a system from out of system play.
This seems a little bit strange to me. A working definition of in and out of system is that in system has a predictable starting point, and out of system has an unpredictable starting point. From a predictable starting point, systems can be developed. From an unpredictable starting point, systems are not possible. It is surely axiomatically impossible to train an inherently unpredictable situation in a systematic way.
To master out of system play, players, and importantly teams, must be able to:
1. identify a unique situation
2. decide on the best solution, in conjunction with 5 teammates who are simultaneously facing the same unique situation, each of whom will have a different role in the selected solution
3. perform the required skill, most likely in a way they have never practiced before
In short it is a team problem solving exercise where the team never knows the problem before it is presented and must solve it in real time.
If you want to improve out of system play, you have to practice with an appropriate drill framework. Which means, logically, that the coach has to use drills where the starting point is unpredictable, or as unpredictable as possible, and where there are no, or few, fixed decisions. Put one ball in, let the players figure out the solution. Give them feedback on the decisions they make (NOT on the outcomes). Put another ball in differently, let the players figure out solution. Give them feedback on the decisions. Every 6v6 drill includes an out of system component, give feedback on the out of system component as well as the drill goal.
Out of system play takes a long time to master, as it requires a different technical skillset and demands individual AND collective experience. There are no quick fixes, or magic drills. However, once the team starts to develop these skills the coach can watch the joy on players’ faces as they find spontaneous solutions they had never would have thought of, when they do something totally unique. And the greatest joy of all is when they find a solution the coach hadn’t thought of.
About Mark Lebedew:
Mark Lebedew authors the At Home on the Court Blog. He coaches professionally in Poland, from january 2021 with eWinner Gwardia Wrocław, in season 2019/20 with Aluron Virtu CMC Warta Zawiercie and in the period 2015-2018 with KS Jastrzębski Węgiel. That follows five seasons Germany where his Berlin Recycling Volleys won three straight league titles and a CEV Champions League bronze medal. He has prior professional experience in Belgium and Italy. Mark was also Head Coach for the Australian Men’s National Team. From 2021/2022 until the end of the 2023/2024 season he was at the helm of VfB Friedrichshafen, while in 2022 he led the Slovenian national team during the Volleyball Nations League. In the 2024/2025 season, Mark Lebedew takes charge of the Netherlands’ team, Nova Tech Lycurgus. Starting from the 2025/2026 club season, he took charge of the Polish team PSG Stal Nysa S.A.
Mark partnered with his brother and father to translate and publish “My Profession: The Game“, the last book by legendary Russian coach, Vyacheslav Platonov.
With John Forman, he is behind the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project (link http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/) which identifies great coaches from all levels, making their experience, insights, and expertise available to people all over the world. The project has produced multiple books, a in e-book format available here ( link to http://bit.ly/34yakou ) or at Amazon here (link https://amzn.to/2JRqTE6).
In 2021, he launched project Webinars and Presentations on Demand. If you are interested for coaching presentations and webinars available on demand, click here.
