Coaching

[Flash Bomba]

I am sorry if this sounds like a silly question, but what exactly do good quiz bowl coaches do? My school has a very new quiz bowl team (currently third year in existence, and I am the only player remaining who has played for two), and our club advisor, not to criticize him or insult him, does not know what to do with quiz bowl and has left us entirely to our own devices.

Since we do want to improve, what is there that for us to do?

[Down and out in Quintana Roo]

In practices, i read a ton of questions, and repeat important clues if i think they're not getting them. If i'm reading to novices, i read less, and i focus a lot on the giveaways and how questions are written (i.e. pyramidal) to make sure the kids understand that more knowledge of a topic = earlier buzzes about it.

I try to read different types of sets... HSAPQ, house-written, easy college sets to my A Team, NAQT only if we're preparing for an NAQT tournament soon... whatever i can find as long as they are high-quality. I completely avoid NAQT A-sets except for the early part of the year to non-A Team players. It can help integrate kids a little more and get their confidence up. I can tell you that regardless of what all the elite schools here say, kids do not like sitting there listening to 16 tossups go dead, and they won't be inspired to try harder until they realize they already do have some knowledge to show off first. At least, this is what i've noticed about most "regular" public school kids, and i have no big issue with it.

A good coach of a young (or inexperienced team) needs to learn how to balance praise with criticism, and keep the latter extremely light. He also needs to realize that his kids will never improve if they don't do a lot of individual work, so he should emphasize outside study of packets to get better.

I think a good coach needs to make practice fun too. An inexperienced team is not going to enjoy a practice of too-hard questions, a coach who derides players for lack of knowledge, and a constant monotone reading of questions with no flair or discussion of them at all. That's boring. A good coach better not just make it looks like he enjoys what he's doing, he better damn well actually enjoy it, or help find someone else that will.

Lastly i think a good coach has to provide helpful information, hints, tips, and resources. A good coach should be at least somehow tied to the "greater quizbowl community" whether that means having 2000 posts on here, or whether than means just knowing about this site in order to obtain good links and resources to direct to his kids. And a good coach has to try to take his team to good tournaments, as many as possible, so the kids can know that at any given point that there is a competition you should be working towards. If money from the school is an issue, start paying for them yourself (the coach and the players can come to an agreement on how to divide these costs) and the kids will realize how dedicated he is to be putting his own money into this role.

[rchschem]

All that, plus building a coherent strategy for player development. This means prioritizing material for the n00bz so that they get to be the most effective players they can be as early as possible. 10th graders generally can't compete with seniors on the basis of courses taken or oxygen consumed on earth, but if your 9th and 10th graders know some art or music or drama or history of science they can get some choice points against teams that are principally skimming the academic cream from their schools rather than building quiz bowl teams. We have a big notebook of somewhat standard, cheaply accessible lists and descriptions which are a good starting point for new players. Eventually they are weaned from these and have to start looking for deeper knowledge, but for the first year and a half or so they study these and are quizzed regularly.

We also make all of our players write questions for our in-house tournament. Question writing is great for player development, especially when you make them revise their questions and discuss why they aren't good. Even if you don't run a tournament (or a house-written one), this is a good practice. Writing questions helps you read them better, and vice-versa, in addition to learning quality clues more effectively.

Eric

[Flash Bomba]

Alrighty, I'll try to run these ideas with during club meetings. Thanks you guys!

[Carambola!]

Our school has been coachless since our team's conception many years back. I would have to say that frequency of practice, as well as study materials, help a great deal. The more questions heard the better players become. I'm currently bequeathing the materials I've already read to underclassmen. It helps to find the dedicated players and motivate them to stick with qb. It also helps to match difficulty to the players. For example, we read A level packets at summer meetings because we know incoming players will not be ready to work on national level questions.