Any Canadian coach who has been running drills and strolling a sideline for any amount of time can tell you one thing about the level 3 technical course; it strikes terror into the hearts of even the most experienced coach. Horror stories about crazy instructors, confidence destroying evaluations and late night drill planning sessions are the norm. Well Volleyball Canada has done some tinkering in the past few years, and I recently had the opportunity to take the "new" Level 3 Technical course.

The long weekend of May 22-24, fellow coach Eugene Tan and I packed up our valuables and trekked to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island for the Atlantic Coaches Seminar, and our date with the dreaded "Level 3".

Upon arrival, Saturday night consisted of a brief session and an overview of what our weekend would consist of. It turns out the course is not as "dreaded" as it used to be, but still challenging. The majority of the course would be spent in the gym running athletes through drills and than being evaluated by our fellow coaches and instructors.

Maybe I should introduce our instructors. First up was Ken Bagnell, a legend in Atlantic volleyball coaching circles. Our second instructor was Saskatchewan prairie boy Miles Kydd. Miles is the coach of the women’s 18 and under club powerhouse Regina Radz. As well as coaching them to a variety of medals in the past decade, Miles has also coached university ball, as well as a stint as a guest coach for some of our national teams. His dry sense of humour, impeccable timing and quirky grin was a breath of fresh air in every session.

Sunday was spent in the beautiful confines of the University of Prince Edward Island’s gymnasium. Each coach designed and ran a variety of progressive drills with young midget and bantam aged athletes. Instructors Bagnell and Kydd, along with the other coaches, evaluated your drill design and coaching abilities throughout. I will be the first to admit that it is an unnerving experience at first, but the instructors and coaches were very supportive of each other, and gave excellent feedback and advice.

Besides the gym learning experience, the weekend also gave the coaches a chance to talk to each other, share information, and generally build relationships that can only make themselves and the teams they coach better. Unfortunately because it was the long weekend and the majority of the town was closed, the coaches "strategy session" ended up being held in a Dooly’s pool hall over libations and pizza.

So what are a few of the things I learned? Well apparently I talk too much. I am sure you readers out there are saying, "Did he just figure that out?" But seriously, keeping drill explanations to a minimum can make for a more efficient coach. When designing a drill to work on a specific skill, try to keep your feedback to that skill. The hardest thing for a coach is to be working on a skill, see that an athlete is not doing another skill correctly, but say nothing. Keep your feedback relevant to the drill, because it is too easy to get off-track.

What about those long nights I mentioned earlier? Well it turns out the nights were long, thanks to the buzz saw in the other bed. Thanks Eugene. What about those mean instructor/coaches who fail you without a second thought? Not exactly true, although "Dictator Miles" was a little miffed that I beat him at the eyes closed free-throw shooting competition. Better luck next time prairie boy!

On a serious note, the weekend taught me a lot about what is expected of elite level coaches. The feedback from the instructors was invaluable, and watching other coaches operate gave me plenty of ideas of how to improve my own practices.

On behalf of the Nova Scotia contingent at the Atlantic Coaches Seminar, I would like to thank the organizers of the weekend, the host committee, the volunteers who made the event run smoothly, and most of all the athletes. Not everyone can suffer through 5-6 hours of practices in a day and come back for more. I hope you learned as much from us as we did from you.