Moving On: Sabine Wenzel Is Prepping for the Season

Sabine Wenzel's sister Zuri shares some images from East Texas A&M.  

Can We Not Tell?

"Can we not tell, the next day, if we won or lost?"

 

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MVB 26 doesn't have an identity yet. That's expected at this point in the offseason. 

Once the ball goes up, teams must assume an identity. 

Years ago, Over twenty years ago, Melrose basketball was playing at Wakefield. A Wakefield coach approached me saying, "Against Melrose you know what you're going to get - five girls running full out all the time. That's tough to match." 

Craft your identity around competition, connection, and toughness daily. 

Non-Negotiable

All opinions expressed in the blog are solely mine. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose organization.

Image created with ChatGPT Plus.

Seek full harmony between individual and team goals. It's seldom possible to find total alignment, but that's a reasonable goal. 

1. Be a great teammate. 

Commit, energize, support, work. 

2. 1% daily improvement

Be coachable. Focus. Advance your skills to offer the possibility of improving the team and your teammates. 

3. Help the team win. 

Everything in practice aligns with team success. Better passing improves setting and hitting. Better blocking helps the back row. Better serving puts the opponent in bad position to counterattack. 

4. Excel in your role. 

Whether your role is initially smaller or larger, "star in your role." Your best raises the ceiling of the team, perhaps imperceptibly at first. 

Remember the 'starfish story'. "Standing along the edge of the sea, a man catches sight of a young woman who appears to be engaged in a ritual dance. She stoops down , then straightens to her full height, casting her arm out in an arc. Drawing closer, he sees that the beach around her is littered with starfish, and she is throwing them one by one into the sea. He lightly mocks her, "there are stranded starfish as far as the eye can see, for miles up the beach. What difference can saving a few of them possibly make?" Smiling she bends down and once again tosses a starfish out over the water, saying serenely, "It certainly makes a difference to this one." - Rosalind and Benjamin Zander in The Art of Possibility  

5. Win big. 

Win every day by always doing your best. Stack good days. Become more. Be positive. Create an ecosystem where anything is possible. Most athletes are not so special that they can individually win titles. But the committed group makes the whole greater than the sum and special can happen. 

Lagniappe. You will never know if you never act. 

pic.twitter.com/oNPS8I2M48

— Mindful Maven (@mindfulmaven_) August 2, 2026

Leadership - Ideas from Jocko Willink

Everyone says: "Leadership is about building relationships."

But no one actually tells you how to build them.

Jocko Willink did.

He broke it down into 4 components - and the 1 thing that destroys them all.

Here’s how to actually build real relationships as a leader:🧵 pic.twitter.com/fDbDbRoxje

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) August 7, 2026

Leadership flows in multiple directions:

Coach - coach

Coach - player

Player - player

A player may see a teammate struggling with something and notice a change in attack footwork or armswing.

Sadie Jaggers said that Gia helped her passing by suggesting she focus on good passes instead of great ones. 

Care for each other, listen, and build trust. 

Lagniappe. Don't "block" at the net; "press over the net." 

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Rotella’s Rules - Short and Simple

Simple is hard...and trainable. 

Adopting rules - or as some say guidelines - increases your probability of success.

Sports psychologist Bob Rotella has rules that I’ve adapted for volleyball. A volleyball player's potential depends on three elements:

• Attitude 
• Short game (either attack or platform skills)
• How well a player thinks

Attitude 

Attitude impacts everything - confidence, energy, resilience. Own an attitude of excellence. Choose to be a great teammate and to excel in your role, while working to enhance your role. 

Coach Scott Celli has said that the team goes over "ten deep." Only six players can be on the court at a time. Setters are generally fixed and some players have the skill to play "All Around" or "All six" as your assistant Coach Gia Vlajkovic did. Embrace and excel in your role.

Short Game 

For most professional golfers, 60-70 percent of shots are putts and wedges. Therefore the saying, "Drive for show and putt for dough." 

Do well what you do a lot. 

Attackers need to excel not only at smashes but tips, rolls, cut shots, tools, and recycles into coverage. 

Defenders have to pass well to setters and in "out-of-system" play. They seldom get to attack. 

Think

Volleyball is a thinking person's game. Sure, pass-set-hit to score is ideal and not so easy. Play with intent: 

• Serve strategically
• Read defenders 
• Choose your attack 
• Get to the block instead of "ball watching" 
• Anticipation boosts efficiency and effectiveness. 

Keep it simple with elite attitude, short game, and decisions. 

Lagniappe. Tip...watch long videos at 1.5 speed. 

Simplify

There’s an old Chinese saying that I love:

“The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”

— Reads with Ravi (@readswithravi) August 5, 2026

Abraham Lincoln apologized for the length of a letter because he didn't have time to shorten it. The Gettysburg Address most often is cited as 272 words.

Comedians spend a lifetime 'shaving syllables'.

Occam's Razor says, "The simplest explanation is preferable to one that is more complex." 

Pride yourself on MVB simplicity. "Pass. Set. Hit." 

 

Lagniappe. What was the greatest six word story ever written? "For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn." Brevity is the soul of wit. - from Hamlet, Shakespeare

Sometimes it takes four sets to get it done. 

A Coaching Conversation with AI

All opinions expressed in the blog are solely mine. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose organization. 

One recurrent blog theme here is, "as you advance, become your own coach." Rams Coach Sean McVay says, "everyone benefits from coaching."

Curiosity and openness are growth pathways. We choose whether to walk them or be wedded to conventional wisdom.

Here's a conversation with AI (Chat GPT) using lessons from "Misaeng: Incomplete Life" blending coaching lessons. 

PROMPT: In Misaeng S1 E8, first year employee Baek-ki is disaffected. He feels unappreciated, hated by his superior who has emphasized the fundamentals of the steel industry. It reminded me of "The Karate Kid" where Mr. Miyagi preaches "wax on, wax off" and his pupil, Daniel, embraces process. Baek-ki seems to want to "skip steps" to put in Gregg Popovich terms.

(You may say, TLDR - too long, didn't read. That's fair.) 

I think that's an excellent reading of Episode 8, and I noticed something else that fits your coaching philosophy almost perfectly.

Baek-ki doesn't simply want to skip steps.

He believes he has already earned the right to skip them.

That's an important distinction.

He graduated from an elite university, speaks multiple languages, and entered One International expecting his credentials to translate into immediate responsibility. From his perspective, repetitive work feels like underutilization.

His supervisor sees exactly the opposite.

He sees someone with impressive ability but an incomplete foundation.

That's the conflict.

Miyagi and fundamentals

Your Karate Kid analogy is apt because Daniel initially thinks:

"Waxing cars isn't karate."

Mr. Miyagi knows:

"I'm teaching movements before I'm teaching fighting."

The student judges the task by its apparent relevance.

The teacher judges it by its developmental value.

That tension exists in virtually every coaching environment.

A volleyball player asks:

"Why are we doing another serve-receive drill?"

The coach thinks:

"Because if you can't pass, the offense you want to run won't exist."

Popovich's "skip steps"

You've mentioned Popovich before in this context.

His point has never been:

"Don't dream."

It's:

"Don't bypass the work that makes the dream possible."

Every accomplished player can tell a similar story.

The fundamentals eventually become invisible because they've become automatic.

The novice mistakes invisibility for unimportance.

Baek-ki's deeper mistake***

I think there's another Adlerian layer here.

Baek-ki measures his worth by recognition.

He's asking:

"Why am I not being appreciated?"

His supervisor is asking:

"Are you becoming dependable?"

Those are different scoreboards.

If your identity depends upon being recognized as exceptional, routine work feels insulting.

If your identity depends upon becoming excellent, routine work becomes indispensable.

That's a profound difference.

Contrast him with Geu-rae

This is why Misaeng pairs the characters so effectively.

Geu-rae lacks credentials.

Baek-ki has credentials.

Geu-rae assumes he has much to learn.

Baek-ki assumes he has already learned much of what matters.

Ironically, the less qualified employee becomes the more teachable.

That's a recurring pattern in sports.

The coaching parallel

Every coach has encountered two players.

Player A:

"I've always been the best player."

Player B:

"What do I need to improve?"

The second player often passes the first—not because she begins with greater talent, but because she remains coachable.

John Wooden used to say that it's what you learn after you know it all that counts.

Baek-ki thinks he knows enough.

His supervisor thinks he's just beginning.

Something I suspect you'll appreciate

Episode 8 isn't anti-ambition.

It's anti-entitlement.

There's nothing wrong with wanting responsibility.

The problem is confusing:

potential with readiness.

That's another theme you've written about repeatedly.

You have no seniority system.

Freshmen can contribute.

Veterans can lose playing time.

The question isn't:

"Who deserves the opportunity?"

It's: "Who is prepared to help us win today?"

Preparation precedes opportunity.

This connects with your "become your own coach" idea

The athlete who eventually becomes her own coach has first spent years mastering fundamentals.

Nobody becomes an autonomous learner by skipping the basics.

That's why Popovich, Miyagi, and Baek-ki's supervisor all sound strangely similar despite living in different worlds.

They are saying:

The fundamentals are not delaying your development. They are your development.

Perhaps the coaching lesson is this:

Beginners want variety. Experts understand the value of repetition. Masters discover endless depth in the fundamentals.

Or, borrowing from Miyagi:

There is no "wax on, wax off" phase and then volleyball. The fundamentals were volleyball all along.

That last idea also explains why your blogs return repeatedly to serve receive, communication, footwork, reading, and blocking. Twenty years later, you're still teaching fundamentals—not because you've run out of advanced topics, but because you've come to believe the advanced game emerges from extraordinarily well-executed basics. 

***One historic criticism of Melrose was the volleyball was "simple." The reality of Coach Celli's system is that it's about execution of simple, not trying to trick people with complexity. 

In every industry, "employees" have to master the basics. Then you have to prove yourself with 'routine performance' and when that happens, you earn more complex tasks, responsibility, and trust. 

Lagniappe. Find more ways to say, "Yes." 

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Department of Redundancy Department

THIS: pic.twitter.com/IVDomsoZBj

— Reads with Ravi (@readswithravi) August 3, 2026

Goals inhabit a lot of literature. Goals sometimes feel "over the horizon." Process isn't. Process prioritizes the here, the now, the "this is what we're doing today to improve."

One percent daily improvement earns 37+ fold improvement over the course of a year.  

Discipline defines destiny.

Consistency in process fosters unimaginable gains.  

Belief is earned through discipline and consistency. 

Strong cultures help ordinary people accomplish extraordinary things together.

Enduring Lessons - ChatGPT Plus Extracts Messages from Over 5,000 Posts

Ten Enduring Lessons from 5,600 Volleyball Posts

After writing more than 5,600 volleyball blog posts over the past two decades, I've become less convinced that success comes from discovering the next clever drill or offensive wrinkle. Those matter, but they aren't the foundation.

Championship programs tend to share enduring principles. Here are ten that have stood the test of time.

1. Character Is Skill Number One

Talent opens doors.

Character determines how long they stay open.

Teams improve faster when players are accountable, coachable, dependable, and willing to put the team first.

Everything flows from your ability to "get after it" even on days when you don't feel like it. 

2. Every Day Is Player Development Day

Improvement isn't reserved for practice plans labeled "skill work."

Every repetition, every film session, every conversation, every match is an opportunity to improve.

Development is a daily habit, not an event.

What is your improvement plan for today? 

3. The Game Rewards Reading

Volleyball is more than execution.

The best players read the setter, anticipate the hitter, recognize tendencies, and solve problems before the ball crosses the net.

Seeing the game is often more valuable than reacting to it.

Volleyball is a thinking person's sport. Attention to detail pays dividends.

4. Hard Work Is a Skill

Effort is not merely an emotion.

It is a habit.

Players learn to communicate early, pursue every ball, recover after mistakes, and compete when they don't have their "A" game.

Champions rarely rely on motivation alone.

Hard work is an extension of toughness.

5. Process Produces Performance

Scoreboards measure outcomes.

Championships are built through preparation, communication, discipline, recovery, and attention to detail.

Focus on the process.

Results usually follow.

Trust the process. 

6. Become Your Own Coach

The best athletes gradually require less external instruction.

They evaluate themselves honestly.

They solve problems during competition.

They make adjustments before someone tells them to.

Eventually, they become active participants in their own development.

Develop the ability to "train yourself up" with outside resources. 

7. Contribution Is Bigger Than Recognition

Every player wants to contribute.

Not every contribution appears in the box score.

A timely communication, a disciplined block, an intelligent cover, positive energy, or making a teammate better all influence winning.

Strong teams ask, "How can I help us win?"

"It's great to be part of a team."

8. Adversity Reveals More Than Success

Anyone can be positive when everything is going well.

Championship teams reveal themselves when momentum changes, mistakes happen, injuries occur, or expectations aren't met.

Resilience isn't built during easy days.

It's revealed during difficult ones.

Do. Not. Quit. 

9. Leadership Is Service

Leadership isn't about status.

It's about responsibility.

The best captains encourage teammates, uphold standards, tell the truth, and consistently show up.

They make the people around them better.

Serving your "community" is a worthy priority. 

10. Never Stop Learning

The greatest coaches and players remain students.

Books, clinics, opponents, history, psychology, military strategy, business, medicine—wisdom has many sources.

The sport evolves.

So should we.

There is a continuum of achievement - "legacy" - that you belong to. "Leave the jersey in a better place." 

---

Melrose Volleyball has earned a tradition of excellence because generations of players embraced these ideas.

The uniforms change.

The opponents change.

The rules occasionally change.

The principles rarely do.

The challenge for every new season is simple:

Honor the standard.

Improve every day.

Leave the program stronger than you found it.

What I find most interesting is that, despite writing thousands of posts, your philosophy has actually become simpler, not more complicated.

Almost everything you've written can be traced back to three recurring themes:

• Teamwork
• Improvement
• Accountability

Those aren't just slogans. They are the operating system from which nearly every lesson in your blog naturally follows. 

Lessons from the Sidelines

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Make learning your superpower. That includes learning to read the game. 

Opponent strategy

• Where do they attack? 
• Where is their defense weakest? 
• Do they have a player to attack with the serve? 

Opponent personnel

• Who are their top players? 
• Do they have a weaker blocker? 
• Where do they serve? 

Reading the opponent

• Does the setter telegraph location? 
• Do hitters reveal their intent (e.g. tips)? 

Make your time on the sideline useful so that when you get your opportunity, you're ready. 

Standing Up - Symmetry, Strategy, and More

Symmetry. Sports often show symmetry - give and take, the yin and the yang. 

Consider baseball. Hitting is timing, pitching is disrupting timing. Or basketball. Offense is about creating advantage with spacing, cutting, and passing. Defense shrinks space and tries to limit the separation created by cutting and passing.

Volleyball has its symmetry:

• Serve-receive opposes serve.
• Blocking opposes attack.  

Yet coaching isn't all about technique and tactics. Successful coaches excel at a variety of responsibilities such as:

• Teaching
• Listening 
• Motivating

Coaching is correction and sometimes discipline. Coaches who take discipline seriously also backstop players, "standing up" for them:

• Networking 
• Writing recommendations 
• Supporting them for recognition (e.g. all-star teams, etc.)

According to Leading with Strategy, three types of gap occur in an organization:

• Identity gap
• Marketing gap
• Capability gap

The best 'teams' address all three. Solve for who you are, what is your market, and boost performance. 

Here's AI input on Leading with Strategy by Timothy Tiryaki with volleyball application:

An identity gap occurs when a volleyball program says it values one thing but consistently behaves another way. A team may preach “team first,” resilience, and accountability, yet tolerate poor body language, inconsistent effort, or status-based favoritism. Identity is not slogans on a wall. Identity is what repeatedly shows up in practice, film sessions, conditioning, and pressure moments. The strongest programs align behavior with stated values until “the standard is the standard” becomes cultural muscle memory.

A marketing gap emerges when perception and reality drift apart. Some programs market themselves through social media, uniforms, hype videos, or selective storytelling while neglecting actual player development and competitive substance. Conversely, strong developmental programs sometimes fail to communicate their strengths clearly to players and families. In volleyball, trust grows when messaging matches experience: organized practices, honest communication, visible improvement, and consistent culture become the best form of recruiting and reputation-building.

A capability gap appears when aspirations exceed current skills, systems, or preparation. A team may want to run a fast tempo offense, aggressive serve pressure, or complex defensive schemes without possessing the technical skill, volleyball IQ, or communication necessary to execute them. Coaches close capability gaps through deliberate training, representative practice, repetition under pressure, and incremental mastery. Vision matters, but execution determines whether philosophy survives contact with competition.

Miscellaneous MVB Musings

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The best way to get respect is to give it. 

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"Fight for your culture every day." 

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You can do this three times a week (to allow tendon recovery). Volleyball rewards explosive athletes.