2 weeks Ago By Matt Weiss | The Guam Daily Post
Rarely does Guam attract high-level sports figures willing to teach the island’s young athletes and coaches. So when former U.S.
women’s national team assistant volleyball coach Nicole Lawlor agreed to conduct a three-hour coaches clinic and a three-hour training session Saturday at iLearn Academy Charter School in Harmon, several eager student-athletes and well-respected coaches seized the opportunity. “It was a really productive time with the coaches,” Lawlor said. “They're open to some new ideas, asking great questions, really trying to set them up in a principle-based way, where, when they do ask a question, we want to think about: OK, what's the principle behind it?” During the classroom portion of the clinic, Lawlor instructed coaches to become more deliberate with instruction and practices.
“If we design practice a certain way with some set activities, and we can vary those activities, we're going to use our time more efficiently. We're going to make more progress, and we're going to get a lot more opportunities to use game-like situations in practice,” Lawlor said. Al Garrido, the founder of Legacy Volleyball Club on Guam, and the person who organized the clinic, said that Lawlor's teachings were welcomed and necessary.
Months in the making Lawlor and her husband, an active member of the U.S. military, have been living on Guam for two years but will be transferring to his next duty station in May.
Garrido, who is also a real-estate agent, met the Lawlors in November 2024 and had been trying to organize a clinic ever since. “We finally were able to get it done,” Garrido said. “I'm just really glad, because the concepts that she's bringing is something that we're not necessarily used to on Guam,” adding that she taught the Gold Medal Squared volleyball program, calling it “a proven practice.
” Same principles apply Whether a volleyball player is an aspiring national team member or a professional or a teenager on a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean looking to improve, the same principles apply. “I would say volleyball players are the same all over the world,” Lawlor said. “You can go from a middle school team to the highest level and the principles are the same.
The speed of the game changes, right? We might do some things differently, strategically, but the fundamentals of the game, the way you design practice, it's the same for all levels, all over,” she said. “It's more about your approach to the game, your attitude towards the game, and working with what you have, knowing your strengths, your weaknesses. “Hard work beats talent, all the time,” she said.
“You can reach really high levels, and we see some elite volleyball players that are not all that tall, and they're a little bit more rare, but they do exist,” she said. Green and eager Jasmin Green, a 15-year-old student-athlete who attends Simon Sanchez High School, told the Post she enjoyed how Lawlor emphasized the importance of teamwork and how her individual teachings merged cohesively. "In the end, it all tied in together, and it made one fluid motion,” Green said.
“Something about this camp that I really enjoyed was how attentive she was to each person and how much she influenced us. And, as young athletes, she inspired us to keep going and keep putting more into our volleyball career,” Green said. Throughout the intensive live-action training session, where nearly 30 young athletes received the education of a lifetime, Lawlor taught and encouraged each participant to try new techniques and helped advance skills they already possessed.
For a bit more than 180 minutes and without taking a break herself, Lawlor helped instill values and hone techniques. “I was actually hoping to improve on not only my footwork, but also my mindset going into games. And she definitely helped me with both personal and teamwork skills.
And it was, overall, a great camp,” Green said..
