Practice and Pressure

"Make practice hard so that games are easier."

Continually raise your standards. Coach Nick Saban emphasized practice with immediacy (now), intensity, and intelligence.

Nobody and no team raises its performance under pressure. What happens is that excellent players and teams have less dropoff, less degradation under pressure.

Coach Auriemma elaborates.  

Pressure doesn’t create mistakes.
It reveals what you practiced.
Your talent doesn’t take over.
Your standard does.
And if your standard is “sometimes,” that’s what you’ll be when it matters.
We do what we trained. pic.twitter.com/B6MEWiFE2G

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) December 12, 2025

What are some ways that Auriemma makes practice hard? Years ago, Coach Ralph Labella and I attended a special invitation UCONN practice. 

• Winners are trackers. They compete within drills. During "team" free throw competition, the managers track results.
• During shooting practice - two teams compete to see who can make the most shots in a given time.
• During drills, the team continues until they have executed the drill properly with consecutive makes. 
• During both scrimmage and some 'breakdown' activities, the women compete against a team of select men...men that could potentially beat the women. 

There's no comfort zone...only adjusting to being uncomfortable. 

Attitude

"Attitude is what makes a great putter." - Dr. Bob Rotella, "Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect"

Control what you can control. Attitude stands alone at the head of the line.

Believe in your game, whether it's serving (total control), blocking, attacking, or defending.

Rotella tells about a young golfer, Gary Player, telling a playing partner that he loved slow greens. The next week he told him that he loved fast ones. What he meant was that you must love the greens you play. 

Playing a league game? Fantastic. Non-league? Fantastic. Road game? Fantastic. Home? Fantastic. Love the situation you're playing.

Coach Celli can't hit the ball for you. Your family and friends can't. It's about you and the ball. If you're lining up a putt, it's going in. If you're attacking, it's landing. 

Think of it another way. Is believing the opposite, "this shot won't work," going to help make the shot? Of course not...

When you're on the service line, tell yourself, "I'm the one we want on the line." When you're set for serve receive, tell yourself, "Hit it to me." 

Lagniappe. Find what works for you...short, positive, relevant. 

Lagniappe 2. Seven affirmations for athletes. 

Don't Change for Change's Sake. Change for Yours.

James Clear: The ability to bounce back quickly is a key skill in life. pic.twitter.com/0RkGlxv9ym

— Reads with Ravi (@readswithravi) December 11, 2025

Stop and pivot.

"The first thing to do when you're in a hole is to stop digging."

"If you have a headache, stop banging your head against the wall." 

"Dot b." Stop and take a breath. 

Return to the framework from "Game Changer." 

1) Build skill. 

• What does that mean for you? Build upon your strengths and work on 'relevant' skills. At elite levels, such as National or Pro teams, there are no short back row attackers. For the excellent DS such as Anna or Dani, investing a lot of time on "pipe attacks" is unlikely to be "worth it."   

2) Raise your volleyball IQ. 

• Blend better knowledge with focused skill. Serving short, seams,  sidelines, and to weaker defenders (if done without increasing risk) adds value to your skill-strategy profile. Adding value to your skill set increases the chance of earning and maximizing your role. 

3) Boost athleticism. 

• Tired of hearing "sport rewards athletic explosiveness?" Vertical jump, lateral quickness, and hitting strength show up on the scoreboard. MVB fans and students of MVB history know who the elite athletes were - many were All-State honorees. 

4) Become more resilient. 

• There's a basketball adage, "The game honors toughness." That plays for volleyball, too. Every successful MVB player brings physical and mental toughness to the court. In baseball, they're called "dirt dogs." You know it when you see it. MVB 26 should field a bunch of them...not always the biggest but the most bruised. She might not come to mind at first, but J-Mac, Jill MacInnes was one. Jill was the standard for libero play. 

Video Worth Watching

I keep coming back to this question:

Are you willing to sprint when the distance is unknown?

In 2021, Georgia Tech strength coach Lewis Caralla delivered this epic speech to the football team.

If it doesn’t light a fire under you, check your pulse…

He starts with a series of… pic.twitter.com/sUqbr7yBUS

— Sahil Bloom (@SahilBloom) September 16, 2025

Invest 48 seconds to watch Coach Caralla's speech. 

Here's a nugget of truth, "when you find a group of good athletes willing to work hard because they want to succeed as much as their coach does, then you've got something."  

What Does Being a "Team Player" Mean?

Selfishness is the root of almost every team problem.

— Alan Stein, Jr. (@AlanSteinJr) December 7, 2025

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."

Not sure who coined the wisdom, "Play smart, play hard, and play together." Many have shared it.

Selfishness is one of the "Killer S's," - selfishness, softness, sloth. What's worse in team sport than being called selfish, lacking toughness, or lazy? That doesn't indict our ability, our game knowledge, or potential. It's a frontal attack on...character.

Golf, chess, or bowling are individual sports. You can't be 'too selfish' in the PGA unless you're playing Ryder Cup. 

The Prime Directive in team sports is "Team First." In baseball it's literally called a sacrifice, bunting to advance a runner. In football it's blocking for a teammate. In basketball, it's setting screens or providing defensive help. 

Most of us will never know the feeling of being a great player. God forbid we live the label of "bad teammate." 

I asked ChatGPT Plus for a consult. Here's what it came up with:

This is a hard topic - but an important one - because selfishness in volleyball rarely looks like ego. More often, it looks like subtle choices that help the individual while hurting the team.

Below are clear, concrete examples, organized the way coaches actually see them.

1. Offensive selfishness (the most obvious)

These show up loudly on film.

• Low-percentage swings
  Hitting sharp into a set block instead of recycling or using the high hands to keep a rally alive.

• Demanding the ball in bad situations
  Calling for sets out of system just to stay “involved,” rather than trusting a teammate with the better option.

• Serve-first ego
  Jump-serving every time at full risk without regard to score, opponent vulnerability, or momentum.

• Stat chasing
  Caring more about kill totals than efficiency, point scoring, or set location quality.

2. Energy and effort selfishness (quieter, more corrosive)

These don’t show in the box score - but they tilt matches.

• Selective effort
  Sprinting to attack but jogging to cover, block, or chase a free ball.

• Ball-watching after your contact
  Watching your attack land instead of transitioning immediately to defend.

• Saving legs for last row
  Avoiding tough defensive moves or pancake attempts to “stay fresh” for offense.

3. Communication selfishness

Selfishness often sounds like silence.

• Not calling the ball
  Assuming “someone else has it,” leading to campfires and confusion.

• Late or vague calls
  Calling “mine” too late, or using unclear language in tight spaces.

• Withholding information
  Not sharing blocking or serving cues that could help a teammate succeed.

4. Emotional selfishness

This one drains teams fastest.

• Visible frustration
  Eye rolls, hands up, slumped shoulders after a teammate’s mistake.

• Sulking after not getting set
  Body language that signals disengagement: no approach, no transition, no cover.

• Holding grudges mid-match
  Letting a single play hijack multiple points.

5. Role selfishness

This separates good teams from great ones.

• Resisting role clarity
  Complaining about touches instead of mastering what the team needs right now.

• Ignoring the “invisible jobs”
  Avoiding blocking discipline, serve-receive responsibility, or coverage work because it won’t be noticed.

• Needing recognition to invest effort
  Playing hard only when praised or spotlighted.

6. Behavioral selfishness (extends beyond the court)

These undermine trust.

• Being late or unprepared
  Forcing teammates to adjust because of your habits.

• Violating team policies
  Academics, conduct, or social media behavior that creates distraction for the group.

• Undermining the team narrative
  Complaining to parents, friends, or online instead of addressing issues internally.

A clean definition players understand

Volleyball selfishness is choosing what feels best for you over what gives the team its best chance to win the rally.

It’s a moment-by-moment decision, not a personality trait.

The useful flip (this is how you coach it)

Selfishness isn’t cured by lectures. It’s cured by replacing it with shared standards:

• “What helps us score this point?”

• “What makes the next contact better?”

• “Who needs this ball more than I do?”

Or my favorite Phil Jackson inversion:

“Basketball is sharing.” Volleyball is no different.

Mental Toughness

What it is and what it isn’t  Don’t leave home without it. 

Codify Leadership - but Don’t Confuse It with Leadership

pic.twitter.com/q8mFrvfC6w

— Jon Gordon (@JonGordon11) November 30, 2025

Teams love to talk about leadership. We create captains, titles, and  committees. We “codify” or “formalize” leadership because structure helps set expectations. Your captains will do a great job and you can make their work easier. 

But titles do not create leaders. They do not replace leadership.

A famous quote captures the truth:  “Your actions speak so loudly that I cannot hear a word you say.”

Leadership in volleyball always comes back to behavior. You lead by what you model, not by what you announce.

What Leading Without a Title Looks Like

Leadership is not mysterious. It’s not reserved for seniors. And it’s not something you inherit. It is built daily, choice by choice.

Leaders do things like:

• Encourage teammates daily. Make someone better because you showed up.

• Be the best teammate possible. Humility and generosity win locker rooms.

• Bring energy and energize others. Your presence should elevate practice.

• Be positive. Negativity drains; positivity multiplies.

• Give your best effort. Effort is the one skill nobody takes from you.

• Be coachable. Feedback is a gift. Accept it with gratitude.

• Never be a distraction. Don’t steal attention.

• Model excellence in the classroom. Discipline travels.

• Do the dirty jobs. Leaders sweep gyms, chase balls, and take extra reps.

• Be the first to ask, “How can I help?” Service is leadership’s core.

These behaviors define your leadership qualities. They answer the leadership question that matters:

"Are my actions making my team better?"

You don’t need a title to lead. You need habits.

Because on every team, in every season, leaders reveal themselves by consistent, selfless action.

Lagniappe. "Keep the middle honest." 

 

Stop Abusing These Words

Earn your STUDENT-Athlete status with better creative and critical writing.

Communicate better with stronger verbs and fewer adverbs. Stephen King informs abuse of adverbs in his seminal work, On Writing. Read On Writing and assimilate the messages. 

MVB has produced an abundance of talent both in the classroom and on the court. Academic excellence pays you. Education elevates the value of "human capital."

Strike these words from our vocabulary, especially "low value" words - really, very, nice, and thing.

Damn a player with faint praise? She does really, very, nice things on the court. You don't want those labels.  

Earn praiseworthy descriptions:

• She serves with the skill of a Samurai archer. 
• She attacks like Cerberus at the gates of Hades. 
• Getting a serve past her presents a challenge greater than slipping the sun past a rooster. 
• Defeating her block reminded us of eating soup with a fork. 
• Her indefatigable will rivaled that of James Cameron's "Terminator."

Elite preparation requires work and specificity. Nora Roberts wrote, "Butt in the chair, hands on the keyboard,” and the related line, “I can fix a bad page, but I can’t fix a blank one.”

Lagniappe. Five top messages from "On Writing" via AI

1. Read a lot. Write a lot. There is no substitute.

King is blunt: if you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time to write.

Reading builds:

• Vocabulary

• Rhythm

• Story sense

• The internal “quality bar” you measure yourself against

Writing daily builds fluency, not inspiration. This is reps over motivation.

Coaching translation: You don’t “feel your way” into skill. You accumulate it.

2. Talent is cheap. Discipline is rare.

King doesn’t romanticize writing as genius. He frames it as skilled labor done consistently.

His personal rule:

• 1,000 words a day, minimum

• Door closed → draft phase

• Door open → revision phase

The magic isn’t talent—it’s showing up even when the work feels flat.

Excellence is a habit, not a spark.

3. Kill adverbs. Choose strong verbs.

King’s most famous technical lesson: clarity beats decoration.

Adverbs often:

• Signal weak verbs

• Mask indecision

• Dilute voice

“He ran quickly” → weak
“He sprinted” → precise

This is about trusting the sentence.

If the action is clear, the reader doesn’t need help.

(Coaches could replace “adverbs” with empty praise or over-coaching.)

4. First drafts are supposed to be bad.

King defends the ugly first draft. He even gives you permission to write badly—on purpose.

Why?

• Drafting is discovery

• Revision is improvement

• You can’t fix what you haven’t made

He calls the first draft “writing with the door closed.”

You can’t revise a blank page.

This lesson alone frees people to actually produce work.

5. Write the truth as you understand it.

King insists that good writing comes from:

• Emotional honesty

• Personal conviction

• Willingness to be uncomfortable

Don't write to impress. Instead, write what you believe, clearly and directly.

The job isn’t to be safe. The job is to be honest.

Readers (and players) can sense authenticity instantly.

Bottom line (King would like this):

Writing isn’t mystical.
It’s craft + discipline + courage.

The Slowest Zebra in Lion Country

The most precious commodity is time. Escaped time cannot be retrieved. Here's a thin slice of reality: MVB '26 may have the most competition for spots in the history of MVB. Fierce competitors inhabit 360 Lynn Fells Parkway. 

Here's how to get nothing done. 

• No plan
• Lack of focus 
• Let distractions win
• Low energy work
• No accountability..."It's not my job." 

Remember the great mathematician, Carl Jacobi, who recommended a central mental model, "Invert, always invert."

• Detailed written plans  
• Attention to detail with laser focus 
• Sideline distractions. No phone...no background noise
• High energy...not a good time to be the slowest zebra in lion country 
• Team ownership of process, of hard work, of standards. 

Return to Dr. Fergus Connolly's four factors:

• Skill
• Strategy 
• Physicality 
• Psychology 

Ask great questions.

- What is my skill that gets and keeps me on the court? 

- What is the need, the slot for which I provide the answer? 

- What do I have to do to earn that spot, winning the internal competition for minutes, role, and recognition?

- What is your choice? 

- Am I willing to pay the metaphorical price to do that, the dedication, the blood, sweat and tears of sacrifice? 

It's an exciting time for Melrose volleyball with many talented players who work hard and manifest a fierce competitive ethos. 

Lagniappe. In some measure, we are here because of the commitment of the few. A "middling student" at West Point, Ulysses Grant was selling firewood on a street corner before the Civil War. All he did was to preserve the Union. Winston Churchill's early career was marked by failure at Gallipoli. It resulted in his resignation from his position as First Lord of the Admiralty. He recovered and his steadfast leadership in some measure was responsible for preserving Western Civilization.  

Unforced Errors

“What you can do, however, is strive to make fewer unforced errors over time by using sound judgment and techniques to make the best decision at any given time.”
— Super Thinking, Gabriel Weinberg & Lauren McCann

Life is full of unforced errors - mistakes that aren’t caused by overwhelming pressure, but by lapses in judgment, execution, or preparation. They are often painful and sometimes game-changing. They separate success from failure more often than raw talent ever does.

We all know them:

• Missing an exit on the highway

• Leaving out or mis-measuring an ingredient

• Misreading a test question

• Missing a page on a standardized exam

• A scheduling misunderstanding that means missing the bus

• A breakdown in communication at the worst possible moment

Volleyball is no different.

At its core, winning comes down to a simple truth:
Against good teams, you must score points and give fewer away.

Unforced errors are points donated.

Unforced Errors in Volleyball

Unforced errors generally fall into three categories:

1. Decision-related errors

These reflect judgment.

• Attacking a low-probability set

• Swinging at an unattackable “free ball”

• Miscommunication that creates “campfires”

• Service time violations

• Rotation errors

• Failing to cover an attacker

Good decisions don’t guarantee points — but bad ones almost guarantee losses.

2. Execution-related errors

These reflect skill and consistency.

• Service foot faults

• Overpasses

• Missed or wide sets

• Double contacts over the net

• Shanked serve-receive balls

• Defensive plays into the net

Execution errors shrink with repetition, focus, and attention to detail.

3. Behavioral errors

These reflect professionalism — and they matter more than we like to admit.

• Poor academic habits

• “Missed movement” (late for practice, missing the bus)

• Violations of chemical health policy

• Breaking team rules

• Misuse of social media

These errors don’t show up on the stat sheet — but they always show up on the scoreboard eventually.

The Separation Point

Exceptional players - and exceptional teams - reduce unforced errors over time. They sharpen decision-making, improve execution, and hold themselves to standards of professional behavior.

Talent scores points. Judgment protects them.

The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is fewer self-inflicted wounds - today than yesterday, this season more than last.

That’s winning the hidden game.

Lagniappe. Bring "competitive joy" to the court. 

How Coaches Look Beyond the Boxscore

When I watch basketball, and I’m informally and unconsciously evaluating a player, regardless of talent or skill (which are obviously paramount), here are the 10 questions I ask myself:

Does he play hard
Does he have a good attitude
Is he a good teammate
Does he listen to his… pic.twitter.com/uOFNX6TMsr

— Alan Stein, Jr. (@AlanSteinJr) November 21, 2025

Coach Stein has been a trainer and a leadership expert. Coaches see everything. When coaches have asked me about players, they don't ask about a player's athleticism, their statistics, or their GPA. They've done their homework on the player.

They want to know about a player's character - who they are beyond the measurables? Are you a worker, a good teammate, a leader? Are you a problem solver or a problem person? Commit to becoming an answer. 

Lagniappe. Easy game to help you 'read the ball'. 

Lagniappe 2. Repeat and repeat. 

Underrated leadership hack: Repeat yourself. Almost no one hears you the first time. Your team is focused, driving, and probably overwhelmed. Say it once and they miss it. Say it ten times and they'll hear it for the first time. Repetition isn't boring. It's strategic clarity.

— Dave Kline (@dklineii) December 5, 2025