Al Taylor - Technical Director,
NCCP LEVEL 4/5
Meet Ace Volleyball Club's Technical Director
Al has had a life of volleyball and continues to help develop skills and personal characteristics for life. Volleyball is such a special sport with its high skill levels, interpersonal relationships, and teamwork. No other sport involves speed, precision, changing levels of play, very short contacts, power, and finesse. When you add in the factor of interpersonal relationships the game reaches new levels of difficulty. Even substitutions are brief and limited, creating more dynamics for
both players and coaches as they work to find the correct mix.
Al began his career with 5 years at University of Calgary. At completion of his degree, he made the Canadian National Men’s Team and was team captain for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. He remained with the National team for the next 5 years competing in several Pan Am Games, 3 World Championships, 5 NORCECA championships, Commonwealth Games, and many other world tournaments. Upon returning to Calgary after several years away he helped form the first
volleyball club in Calgary for young male and female athletes.
Teaching in Calgary for the next 31 years saw Al work with hundreds of high school athletes and coaches resulting in several provincial championships. Club development, coach workshops and volleyball camps filled days, evenings and weekends throughout the years. His work with the National team led to one year as an assistant coach and then 4 years as the head FISU games coach completing a cycle with the World Student Games in Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
Al is a level 4-5 coach, and after his retirement from the Calgary Board of Education he became the assistant/mentor coach for the University of Calgary Dinos Women’s Volleyball Team for 8 years. Working with the Dinos young women has been very rewarding and the team has competed in the National Championships for several consecutive years. Working to help develop coaches has become the latest passion.