I’m a big fan of beach volleyball. It’s one of my favorite sports, and one of my top sports to watch during the Olympic Games. My favorite team being, of course, Kerri Walsh-Jennings and Misty May-Treanor.

And no I’m not caught up on the Olympics since I’m traveling, so don’t leave any spoilers. (Thank you DVR!) While in LA, Teresa Duke, Amy Chandy, and I headed down to Manhattan Beach to have dinner. Sorry, no food reviews on that one. But there’s still the rest of the week yet. After stopping by The Creamery to get some ice cream between two chocolate chip cookies, because that’s how it should be, we headed down to the beach and walked along the pier.

Manhattan Beach just happens to be a very popular beach for volleyball. As you can see in the picture, the poles go on forever. And they’re not terribly far apart when it comes to one court backing up to another. Which made me laugh at the thought of a new player being on the court behind someone who’s been playing a long time.

How frustrating is it all day long when the ball from the court behind you keeps ending up in your court. I mean, it’s virtually impossible to avoid it, right? If a player from the other court kills the ball, and the player directly behind you can’t “dig” it out, then surely it’s rolling into your area. Quite possibly while you’re in the middle of playing.

That led me to thinking about how difficult it is for a new team member to get “up to speed” when they enter your team. So often we have a routine with the players around us who have been there awhile. We know how each other acts and reacts to situations. We are able to anticipate how they will handle opportunities and problems.

But not so much when someone new enters the picture. Instead, the new team member spends their time trying to learn their new job, as well as our unfamiliar system. Which if we remember, when we started, we missed digging a few shots ourselves. So here’s my question:

What systems do you have in place to make a new team member successful?