Experience Is the Best Teacher

Experience Is the Best Teacher (But the Tuition Is High)

“Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.” - Vernon Law

Coaches teach both sports and life. The best players, coaches, and teams all go through setbacks - no matter their commitment, preparation, or effort.

We all pay tuition to experience. Take notes. Here are lessons learned, taught, and valued - the three drawers in every coach’s toolbox.

Lessons Learned

“A smart person learns from his mistakes. A wise one learns from others’ mistakes.” - Otto von Bismarck

1. Being a good teammate is a choice.
Putting the team first isn’t easy. It means sacrificing comfort and credit, listening more than speaking, and doing the unseen work that builds trust. Great teams are made of great choices.

2. A positive attitude is contagious.
Energy spreads. Negativity short-circuits connection; positivity re-wires it. It’s hard to build a positive life with a negative outlook, and harder to build a winning culture that way.

3. Simple is not easy.
Mastery lives in repetition. The best players embrace fundamentals - serve, pass, footwork, focus - and find satisfaction in refining them daily. What looks simple is rarely easy. Winning is hard, always has been and always will be. 

Lessons Taught

“How you do anything is how you do everything.”

1. How you play is how you live your life.
Sport mirrors character. Work habits, resilience, humility - they travel together from court to classroom to career.

2. Everyone can grow leadership skills.
Leadership is not a rank. It’s service. True leaders make teammates better, build leaders beside them, and uphold standards worth following.

3. Surround yourself with great people.
Great programs are built on great company. Mentors matter. Teammates matter. Culture matters. As Mr. Rogers said, “Look for the helpers.” They raise the bar and keep standards high.

Lessons Valued

“The scoreboard fades. The relationships don’t.”

1. Sport creates lifelong relationships.
That’s why being a great teammate and maintaining a great attitude matter so much. Teammates can become family, and family lasts.

2. Sport builds lifelong learners.
Volleyball teaches discipline, curiosity, and adaptation - habits that translate to every arena of life.

3. Sport becomes a storehouse of memories.
Bus rides, locker-room laughter, tough losses, shared wins - the emotion anchors the memories. The best moments are both joy and ache, connected through effort and heart.

Every season is another class in the School of Experience. The good news: we never graduate.

We keep learning, teaching, and valuing - together.

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Lagniappe. Reading the block...work on it during the offseason.