Today, I will take you to an investigation into how many staff members are there in a professional volleyball club.
Volleyball players around the world have surely experienced different numbers of staff members. The higher the level of the club, the more means the club has to expand their coaching possibilities.
In this post, we will check the staff situation in the greatest clubs in Europe and realize that there is a reason behind why top women’s clubs tend to beat men’s when it comes to staff members.
King Football shines brighter, for a reason
Let’s zoom out to something bigger – football. It is the most popular sport in the world and therefore has the most finances to hire a person for every possible job.
Let’s take 14-time UEFA Champions League winner Real Madrid, for example. Their coaching staff consists of 8 people, 6 of who are coaches and 2 of them are called analysts.
To make a long and impressive list of them, there’s a head coach, assistant coach, technical assistant coach, fitness coach, assistant fitness coach, goalkeepers coach, technical analyst and recovery analyst.
And this list doesn’t even include people like team managers or physiotherapists.
This makes sense when looking at the sheer size of a football team.
They play with 11 ballers on the field with as much as 12 additional players waiting for their chance on the bench. So the size of the whole squad on game days is 23, not including players who helped out in trainings but did not quite make the cut for the match roster.
Volleyball teams, however, are allowed to set up 14 players for a match, with six players and a libero being on court. A squad this much smaller does not require that much staff power.
„The Office” of volleyball staff
Most volleyball teams get their work done with 6 basic staff members.
Head Coach is the boss, who runs the trainings, figures out the tactical plans, and is the main man for how the team performs.
Assistant Coach is in terms of „The Office”, the assistant to the regional manager. They are the right hand person for the head coach.
Fitness Coach makes sure the squad has the highest physical abilities to perform on the court. You could say they are conducting special trainings for employees to have a higher work performance.
Statistician is like an accountant in an office job. They crunch the numbers during and after matches and produce data compilations.
Physiotherapist takes care of players’ bodies outside of trainings and games. They could also sometimes be considered the HR department of a club, because who doesn’t love a little rant about their life when on the massage table?
Team Manager is the receptionist, but leveled up. They book all appointments, deal with the issues of players and staff, and make sure the operation is running smoothly.
For top volleyball clubs, however, only 6 staff members is not enough. They often double some position and add extra ones as well.
Why do women have it better?
The recent 2-time Champions League winner, Grupa Azoty Zaksa Kędzierzyn-Koźle from Poland, does not especially shine in the amount of staff members.
In total there is 8 – 4 coaches (head coach, 2 assistant coaches and a fitness coach), statistician, 2 physiotherapists and a team manager.
The coaching staff is half as small as Real Madrid had it, but then again, the team of players is smaller as well.
However, the winner of Champions League’s women’s edition has the same amount of players, but runs their coaching with no less than FOUR assistant coaches.
VakifBank Istanbul works with a head coach, FOUR assistant coaches, fitness coach, statistician, physiotherapist, osteopath and masseur.
Why do they need four assistant coaches in the first place? Do their assistants need assistants?
The answer is a lot more practical and logical than you might think.
Women’s teams often hire more assistant coaches for training purposes. Men have the abilities to practise along with women, even when they are not professional volleyball players themselves. The net is lower, the attacks are not as strong.
Long story short, male coaches can make a pretty good impersonation of a strong female volleyball player.
So that’s why women’s top teams often have a high number of assistant coaches. They can replace injured players in practise or just be a strong attacking power before high-level matches.
AC-s for the win!
In conclusion, women’s volleyball often hires a higher number of coaching staff to use male coaches as an upgrade for the team’s training.
Assistant coaches are an important part of any volleyball team, not only in women’s volleyball. So in reality, they are more „assistant regional managers” than „assistants to the regional manager”.
If you’re a head coach or a team director, do not underestimate the power that a well completed coaching staff has on your team’s performance!
How many members of staff would you see as optimal for your performance? Let us know!
