Volleyball Coaching Wizards - Wizard Women: Insights and Experience from Some of the World's Great Coaches

Erin Appleman – A US college coach at Yale, where she lead her program to the first ever Ivy League team win in the NCAA tournament.

Audrey Cooper – A Scot who lead Team GB in the 2012 Olympics and has coached both professional and non-professional adult club teams.

Denise Corlett – A career US assistant coach at Stanford, where she contributed to multiple national championships.

Ann Schilling – A US high school and juniors coach with an incredible record of success.

Saskia Van Hintum – A Dutch coach who's worked across the levels from juniors to pro and national team indoors, and at the national team level on the beach.

Shannon Winzer - A Canadian who started at the adult club level and progressed to national team coaching.

What is Volleyball Coaching Wizards?

The Volleyball Coaching Wizards project is about identifying great coaches from all categories of volleyball and making their experience, insights, and expertise available to people all over the world. We interview coaches from across the globe, all age groups, coaching both genders, all competitive levels, indoor and beach. They share with us their philosophies, their thought processes, and their methodologies. We then share that with you.

With Wizard Women we take a by women, for women approach. Women in coaching have different challenges than their male colleagues. Those are thing specifically discussed in these interviews, along with everything else.

This is not about drills and games. There are other great places to get that type of material.

Instead, Volleyball Coaching Wizards is about the thinking that surrounds the technical and tactical side of things. It's about letting you see what great volleyball coaches have in common, and where they differ despite all having great success over their career.

There are two main goals of the Wizards project. One is to provide both information and inspiration to volleyball coaches everywhere. The other is to help develop a real volleyball coaching literature, one which matches what can be found in other sports.

About the Authors

Lauren Bertolacci is currently the head coach for the Swiss professional women’s team Viteos NUC Volleyball, as well as being the head coach for the Swiss Women’s National Team. At NUC her teams have won three straight league championships and three straight Cup titles, and have competed in CEV competition as well. Before NUC, she was the head coach for the Volley Luzern men’s team. Prior to taking charge of Switzerland she assisted with the national teams of both Canada and her native Australia. Lauren’s coaching career follows a professional playing career, as well as national team experience.

John Forman is the author of the well-respected Coaching Volleyball blog (CoachingVB.com) and the co-developer of Volleyball Coaching Wizards with his partner Mark Lebedew. His coaching experience includes time in all three NCAA Divisions, as well as at the 2-year college level. He also coached in England at both the university (BUCS) and National League (NVL) Division I levels, and had a stint as head coach in Sweden’s top women’s league. Additionally, John was a Juniors club director and coach in the New England area for several years. He’s also had the good fortune of being a visiting at youth, collegiate, professional, and national teams in a number of different countries.