Add Value to Expand Your Role

Great players don't desire the star role.
Great players focus on starring in the role that their team needs.
Most players want to be the best, but many fail to figure out how to be the best at what the team needs to win. pic.twitter.com/vnOUq6fXXU

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) April 3, 2025

"There is always a pecking order." - Erik Spoelstra, Miami Heat coach

"Star in your role." Whether you are the 'star player' or a role player, know your job and add value to the team. 

• Make your teammates better to impact winning. That is the ultimate mark of exceptional players.
• Put the team first.
• Be a great teammate, positive and encouraging. 
• "Always do your best." 
• Have a great attitude and be coachable. 

 Lagniappe. Follow these guidelines. 

~ via @CoachBobStarkey pic.twitter.com/N9V27uAQlL

— Coach the Coaches (@WinningCoaches) April 2, 2025

Are You Ready for More JEOPARDY? Offseason and More

Jeopardy has been a longstanding quiz show favorite, first premiering on March 30, 1964. The current syndicated version has aired since September 1984.

As you know, your answers should be in the form of a question.

Let's play JEOPARDY (from JeopardyLabs.com) 

Make Your Own Jeopardy Game with JeopardyLabs!

Why Not Get on the Bandwagon?

Baseball season is here. Volleyball season is coming. 

Reasons to play/watch MVB

• Positive culture, superior player experience
• Fun
• Sustainable competitive advantage - exceptional coaching
• Winning - 1 state title, 10 sectional titles, TNTC league titles
• (TNTC = too numerous to count)
• Player development track record (19 All-State players)
• Watch elite young women athletes 
• Every play results in scoring

Image from MVB Instagram

Lagniappe. Playing the low ball. The hips are below the ball on contact.  

Post #4500 - Things Worth Having

Getting a great education - hard.

Graduating with honors - hard.

Navigating successful relationships - hard.

Raising a family - hard.

Achieving your athletic goals - hard. 

"Most things in life-that are worth having-are hard.
You have to work for it.
The other side of hard is usually something really good, but most people can't push through it."

Many want to be great, but few want to do what greatness requires.
That’s the difference. pic.twitter.com/4QsItT2CHh

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) April 2, 2025

Do hard well. 

The Most Important Time in Your Life

All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. Not an official publication of any organization. "Excellence is our only agenda." 

Seize the power of today. Invest in yourself. In math, English, or history class ask "what did I learn today?" and "how can I apply this going forward?" 

Read great books. Director Werner Herzog shares a simple message. "Read. Read. Read. Read. Read." The opening line of Anna Karenina summarizes the following 1205 pages. "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Understand that topic sentence. You can skip the rest.  

People ask, "what books do you highly recommend?" Jon Gordon's Positive Dog resonated about the power of positivity. "The Boys in the Boat" weaves a narrative about the Great Depression, the rise of fascism is 1930's Germany, and the true story of a boy who grows up to row for the 1936 US Olympic team. 

Then, "What are you reading now?" I always read multiple books, currently "The Innocent" by David Baldacci, "Originals" by Adam Grant, and "The Program" by Eric Kapitulik.   

Learn every day. "Learn five things every day and soon you know a lot." Of course at your age you learn far more. Once volleyball was summarized as "dig, set, spike." That evolved to "pass, set, hit." Score with service, attacking, and block-kills. Read the play to CARE - concentrate - anticipate - react - execute. The only way that matters is how your current coach wants it done. 

Make friends with the dead. Only about seven percent of the people ever born are alive today. Ignoring the wisdom of past lives misses out on a lot. Look up Eleanor Roosevelt, Frances Perkins, and Herstory. 

Sport is a microcosm of life. Your primary team is family. You have other teams - school, community, volleyball, workplace. Years ago I complimented Kayla Wyland to her parents. Her mom said, "she's every bit as nice at home." How you do anything is how you do everything. 

Choose to invest your time instead of spending it. 

Summary: 

• Read great books. 
• Learn every day.
  
• Make friends with the dead. 

Lagniappe. Become an original. 

Making Decisions

Your effort today tells your coaches everything they need to know about how prepared you are to help the team tomorrow.
Great teams aren’t made of players who get what they want — they’re made of players who give what’s needed. pic.twitter.com/w9fKoHrbgP

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) March 31, 2025

With a little more than four and a half months until tryouts, how can players get the odds on their side? 

1) Commitment. Commit to Anson Dorrance's continual ascension. Should volleyball be important to you? That's entirely your call. 

2) Collaboration. "Look for the helpers." - Mr. Rogers  It's hard to do the work unless you know what work is needed. Find an MVB resource or another player to attach yourself to like a remora on a shark. Watch and learn from the shark. 

3) Command. Work to master the fundamentals. Make consistency your brand. Refine the relevant core skills - serve/receive, attack/block, set, and pass. Break them down into the pieces such as footwork, armswing, et cetera. Then play as much as you can. 

Lagniappe. There is no secret.

 

Be a Curator of Wisdom

All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. Not an official publication of any organization. Blame no one else. 

Acquire and share accumulated wisdom over your lifetime. Webster's definition of curator includes: "a person at a museum, zoo, etc. who is in charge of a specific collection or subject area."

Here's an excellent collection of concepts from Dave Kline: 

21 leadership lessons I revisit weekly (you should too) pic.twitter.com/GMAZUUKdJp

— Dave Kline (@dklineii) March 30, 2025

Several particularly resonated:

1) Set high standards. Believe your team will meet them.

2) Reasonable people will draw different conclusions without a shared picture of excellence. (Making a team is not enough...chasing excellence is a shared vision)

3) Small feedback given regularly is coaching. (Coaching is not criticism. Coaches mentor players and teams to translate process into excellence.)

4) Subtracting is 10x harder than adding. Which is what makes it 10x more valuable. (Do more of what works and less of what doesn't).

5) Your culture is the sum of everything you celebrate minus everything you tolerate. (What we tolerate sets the floor of achievement.) 

6) Trust people with the truth. (Coaching advances players and teams toward the truth.) 

7) Your team will mimic your actions before they follow your words. ("Your actions speak so loudly I cannot hear a word you say.")

8) It's not real unless it's written down. (Be clear and concise. Share.)

Benjamin Franklin informed these in seven words. "Well done is better than well said." 

When you find someone who shares productive content, check in. There may be more than one nugget in that stream. 

Lagniappe. Loaded jumps will increase your block touch. 

Lagniappe 2. Martin suggests ways to make warmups fun, competitive, and productive. 

  

 

Coaches See Everything

Geno is talking about recruiting MUDITA.

Finding players who…

- Play with joy
- Love the game
- Are WE-first not me-first
- Celebrate their teammates

Are getting harder to find.

ATHLETES: Body Language screams.

Coaches are looking 👀.pic.twitter.com/LmBoacCiFT

— Greg Berge (@gb1121) April 1, 2025

As I've discussed, "mudita" means being happy for others' success. "Your joy is my joy."

Nobody enjoys being around negative, self-absorbed, sulking people. Your energy and enthusiasm impacts your teammates. Energize yourself and your teammates.

It's common for players who had success at a young age to expect immediate success in high school sports. It's also variable. Dominating against thirteen and fourteen year-olds doesn't always translate to dominating seventeen, eighteen, even nineteen year-olds who are bigger, stronger, faster, more experienced. 

Years ago a Middlesex League basketball team (not Melrose) was favored to go deep in the playoffs. The day before the tournament, a girl "stole" the boyfriend of a teammate. The team fractured immediately and lost their opener. One and done. 

Stay humble; stay hungry. Be team-oriented and be a great teammate. Your coaches see everything. 

Becoming Your Own Coach

Mike Leach said, "Everybody can work harder than they think they can."

"Everybody's a little better than they think they are."

Growth starts when you push past what you thought was your limit.

Great coaches see your greatness before you even realize it's there. pic.twitter.com/mmqD1LkRAr

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) March 12, 2025

Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden didn't win his first championship until his 16th season. Excellence takes time. And work. You don't read the same books as a first grader or write like one.

Years ago on a steamy Sunday night at Horace Mann School, I taught Cecilia Kay reverse layups. It wasn't pretty. The next Sunday she had figured it out. In the State Championship game she made two. This week she was named to the Patriot League All-Rookie Team. 

Anders Ericsson emphasized "deliberate practice." He discusses this in this Harvard Business Review piece. 

Expertise is made. "All the superb performers he investigated had practiced intensively, had studied with devoted teachers, and had been supported enthusiastically by their families throughout their developing years. Later research building on Bloom’s pioneering study revealed that the amount and quality of practice were key factors in the level of expertise people achieved."

"The development of genuine expertise requires struggle, sacrifice, and honest, often painful self-assessment. There are no shortcuts."

Two possibilities emerge. "This is too hard" or "I will do this." 

Here are the facts. Coaches don't choose teams. The players do. The coaches don't choose who gets the minutes, the role, and the recognition. The players do. It's up to you.  

Lagniappe. Always warm up before starting practice. You don't need hurdles. Imaginary hurdles work fine. Draw a chalk line. 

4 Plyometric Drills For Athletes pic.twitter.com/y2eAkwPkLC

— Joey Bergles (@JoeyBergles) March 12, 2025

Lagniappe 2. Author and playwright David Mamet has a phrase inscribed on the back of a new wristwatch. "What hinders you?" Everyone makes that choice. 

 

Everyday Lessons (Print and Save)

How to build a Great Reputation pic.twitter.com/cCuBbE603c

— Always Keep Learning (@AlwaysKeepL) March 23, 2025

Use your high school student-athlete experience a training ground for character and competence. 

Character allows you to do the right thing all the time, not just when it's easy or convenient. 

Competence means having the intellectual, physical, and emotional skill that drives high performance. 

Integrity, excellence, and accountability make a winning combination. 

Lagniappe. Karch Kiraly looking for "fleen" serves. 

 

Belief

Believe in yourself. Believe in your coaches. Believe in each other. Belief makes amazing results happen.  

I just think belief is really way more important than people think. Your belief in your team and your team’s belief in each other no matter what’s stacked against you, that you can find a way to win. These guys really do look at each other with a lot of confidence and know they… pic.twitter.com/OpmVOTWxUu

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) March 28, 2025

Metaphorical Fight

Team records depend on multiple factors - talent, performance, health, luck, scheduling. MVB always faces tough non-league competition. "Iron sharpens iron." 

Be the team that always shows up to fight, not run.

Last season's playoffs at Longmeadow, Melrose showed up a bit undermanned but brought the fight in a 19-25, 26-28, 25-17, 21-25 defeat. Sofia Papatsoris and Sabine Wenzel combined for 40 kills against a team that had lost only three sets all season. 

Limited highlights are available.  

Athletes choose the fight or something less. Competitors "bring the rain" in metaphorical fights.

In 2005, Melrose trailed 2-0 in the State Championship and fought off triple match point to extend the contest. 

Notice several features on this video:

• the powerful hitting approach of Medfield's Molly Barrett
• the spectacular point at 23-21 where Jen Cohane got concussed as she hit the floor. MVB players are strewn on the deck like bowling pins
• the remarkable hand-eye coordination of setter Amanda Hallett...how she picks the ball off the net
• the comeback from 16-23 was one of the great sequences of Melrose volleyball, possible because the coaches believed in the team

Stay in the fight. 

Anyone Can Be Average

Anyone can be average. #DailyWisdom via @BallIsPsych pic.twitter.com/txozO7d5rP

— Coach the Coaches (@WinningCoaches) March 27, 2025

Melrose is one of twelve in the ML12. "Average" means 6th or 7th. MVB usually has 12-14 players on the roster. That means somewhere around 6th to 8th will be average. 

Average doesn't get you on the floor. Average doesn't get you deep in the playoffs. Average doesn't get you on the Honor Roll. Average doesn't get you into the school you want. Average doesn't get you the job you want. 

Above average might get you onto MVB but it probably won't get you in the lineup. 

Make excellence your agenda. This is simple and clear, "don't put in the time, put in the work." 

Developing Leaders

Leadership books, courses, and articles are everywhere. When developing leaders, specificity matters. Telling others to 'earn respect' and 'model excellence' is good advice but not specific.

Return to specifics:

• Carry out the assignment/task/mission. That could be small (cleaning up the bench or locker room daily) or large (supervising offseason training)
• Take care of your teammates. That entails communicating expectations, providing specifics needed, monitoring progress, and reviewing the results (give and get feedback). 

"The Process of Developing Leaders"

Select some upcoming leaders whom you want to develop. 

1) Assign them a task to accomplish. 

2) Explain the conditions they must work under and the standard to which the task is to be completed. 

3) Hold those teammates personally accountable for the results. 

4) As they develop as leaders, give them increased responsibility and more challenging tasks." - from "The Program: Lessons From Elite Military Units for Creating and Sustaining High Performance Leaders and Teams" by Eric Kapitulik, Jake MacDonald

MVB has produced a myriad of exceptional players and talented leaders. How did they do that? 

• Excel at communication with clarity, simplicity, specificity. 
• Inform new players of the importance of identity (this is who we are) and process (this is how we do that). 
• Give and get feedback. What is your understanding of how we cover during attacks? Commit to being the hardest worker. 
• Ask "how can I help you be a better player?"
• Set high expectations. "We don't go out of rotation or have 'campfires' because our communication doesn't allow it."

The best teams have player ownership of process and results. 

Lagniappe. Outside hitters don't grow on trees. To be a great outside you have to excel at receiving. 

Confidence Building, Conventional and Unconventional

"You can only be as good as you believe you are." Confidence propels athletes and teams to achieve what they cannot without it.

What clear, repeatable actions boost confidence?

1. Self-talk. "I can do this."

2. Mindfulness. Mindfulness increases focus, decreases anxiety.

3. Sport psychology techniques like "Ten-Minute Toughness"

• Mindful breathing
• Identity statement - "I am a confident, prepared athlete."
• Highlight reel - visualization of high performance activities
• Performance statement - "I show up and make plays with athleticism and relentlessness.
• Mindful breathing 

Of course, there are "unconventional" approaches. "It's been a minute" since the 1986 World Series. 

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