After inheriting the program in 2017, Kevin Hambly led the Cardinal women’s volleyball program to back-to-back NCAA national titles. In 2018 he was named the Pac-12 and AVCA Pacific North Region Coach of the Year. Prior to taking the helm as the Director of Women’s Volleyball at Stanford, he was the head coach at Illinois for eight seasons, where he led the Fighting Illini to six NCAA regional appearances and the 2011 national championships.
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Inside the Huddle with Kirsten Bernthal Booth, Creighton University Head Volleyball Coach
When Kirsten Bernthal Booth took over the Creighton University Women’s Volleyball program in 2003, the team had a record of 3-23 the previous year. Since then, the Creighton women’s volleyball team has become one of only 10 Division 1 volleyball teams to be ranked in the year-end AVCA Top 25 poll each of the last five years. In 2015 Creighton had their first Sweet Sixteen appearance and in 2016 they made their first run to the Elite Eight.
The Kirsten Bernthal Booth that was hired back in 2003 inherited a team that won three games in a season. How did you convert the culture of your team to adopt a “winning mentality”.
I’ve always been a coach that believes in process. Doing the right things and not being totally locked into outcomes. To me, as an athlete and as a coach, that frees you a little bit. We’d really focus on process and taking risks. In a small way, if a player tipped, they were probably going to get yelled at. If they had a perfect set and they made a low risk decision, they were going to get in trouble with us. And if they had a good set and they went for it, regardless of outcome, we were going to cheer for that. It allowed them (the players) to go for it and know that there weren’t going to be ramifications. I know that sounds simple, but it really did switch the mentality. We’re a pretty high risk program. When you get a good ball, we’re going to go for it. It’s paid dividends because at the Division I level, if you give the other team that opportunity, they’re going to throw it down your throat, so we’ve got to seize it.
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The Gender Confidence Gap
My favorite definition of confidence is, “an individual’s belief that they can do whatever it takes to be successful in their sport” (Krane et al, 2015). In my book Headstrong, I define confidence as a player’s belief in their ability to reach a set result or established goal. In both of these definitions, belief is the key word. Nothing is going to change in your performance on the court until you believe that you can do the things you want to do. Improvement, starts with belief.
To be the best passer, you need to believe that you can become the best passer. To be the best setter, you need to believe that can become the best setter. And to win the match, you and your teammates need to believe you can win the match! We all perform differently when we are sure we can win, instead of just hoping that maybe we can win but maybe not.
In sports, and in society, masculinity is often associated with being tough, strong, aggressive, competitive and arrogant. Where as, femininity is often associated with being graceful, thin, goal-oriented or being a perfectionist, and being confident, but not overly confident. Oftentimes women who display these “masculine characteristics are accused of being angry, emotional, out of control, or feminists. Many women also confuse confidence with arrogance and are afraid to be labeled as cocky or arrogant. Confidence in particular is often rewarded in men and punished in women.
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Velcro & Teflon Theory
A neuroscientist named Dr. Rick Hanson discovered that the human brain has a natural negativity bias to internalize negative experiences more deeply than positive ones. According to Dr. Hanson, the brain is like velcro for negative experiences and teflon for positive ones.
When you have a negative, fear based, shameful experience or an insecure thought, your mind wraps around it like velcro. When you have a positive experience, for example – when you receive a compliment or somebody affirms and congratulations you, it slides off like melted butter on a teflon skillet. Our brains are hardwired to remember negative experiences and quickly forget positive experiences.
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