Develop a "common sense" approach to attack against blockers. Options:
Through - low success rate although softer defenses or extreme power sometimes score
Around - Melrose literally lost in 2003 against a Marlboro team that excelled at using cut shots to hit crosscourt short. Another 'around' choice is down the line, think Abby Hudson versus Billerica in 2021 or Laura Irwin against Barnstable in 2009 (for older fans).
Over - not going to happen often
Tooling - attacker most commonly hits off the outside part of the outside hand of the blocker. Highly effective and unexpected. Watch Coach Donnie's video for more detail.
If you want to become a high volume attacker, understand these approaches are critical.
NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson said the one constant among winning players is being willing to fail in the summer when nobody is watching.
Every failed rep forces you to adjust and figure it out, and that is exactly what builds the self belief that shows up when the lights come… pic.twitter.com/YngmlvRdXO
Unconventional wisdom allows the neonate to walk, the pitcher to pitch to contact, the attacker to find new ways to score.
The story that resonates shares the mogul skier watched by a nine year-old who says, "I love how you ski. You never fall." At that moment, the woman realized she could not become a champion without taking more risk, having the will to fail. She became a champion.
There's a saying that the cost of an Olympic Gold Medal in figure skating is falling 20,000 times.
The conventional advice is "leave your comfort zone."
Leaving the Comfort Zone
Growth rarely happens inside your comfort zone. Improvement requires a willingness to be uncomfortable, make mistakes, and risk failure in pursuit of mastery.
1. Seek Better Competition
One of the fastest ways to improve is to compete against athletes who are better than you.
Leveling up can be humbling. What worked may not still work. Your favorite serve may come back faster than expected. Weaknesses are exposed that were hidden against lesser opponents.
Many college programs have a scrimmage team comprised of men.
Better competition illuminates gaps in your game and forces change. Great players do not avoid strong opponents; they seek them out. "Iron sharpens iron."
2. Change Weakness Into Strength
Most athletes enjoy practicing known skills. The problem is that comfort does not foster growth.
The outside hitter who struggles in serve receive needs more and tougher serve receive reps. The setter who avoids blocking should work on athleticism, footwork, and timing. The server content to "get the ball over" needs to become more intentional with better planning and execution attacking seams, sidelines, short, or weak defenders.
The will to attack weaknesses separates good players from exceptional ones.
3. Assume Leadership
Leadership can create stress, especially for athletes who are natural introverts. You don't need a title to lead.
Leadership means communicating early, loud, and often. Hold teammates accountable, encourage others through mistakes, and raise standards when hard times come...and they always do.
Leadership can improve performance though commitment to excellence and growing confidence. Teaching, communicating, and setting an example deepen understanding and strengthen commitment to the team.
The Common Thread
In each case, the athlete chooses challenge over comfort:
Better opponents instead of easier wins.
Weakness development instead of favorite drills.
Leadership responsibility instead of retreat to the background.
The comfort zone feels safe, but growth lives elsewhere.
The athletes who consistently stretch themselves - physically, mentally, and emotionally—are the ones most likely to approach mastery. Have the will to fail.
Studies show that early risers have superior productivity. And much of achievement occurs when nobody is around.
Anson Dorrance wrote this about the legendary Mia Hamm, whom he saw training alone in a park as he drove to work.
Allistair McCaw wrote, "I’ve always been in the mindset that our ability to get the best from ourselves comes down to how we manage our energy and time. Your ability to master your life is learning to control where your attention goes. Value what you give your energy and time to."
Habits define you. Craft a "morning routine" detached from the SNOOZE button.
What elements might merit inclusion in a morning routine?
Eight ounce glass of water (correct overnight dehydration)
Healthy breakfast including fruit
Gratitude moment
Offer to parents, "How can I help?" - Laundry, cleaning, etc.
Morning journaling including your "To Do" planning
Reading (what are you reading today?)
Morning walk and/or exercise
Success is a choice. Potential isn't performance and coaches want to see the "Spiderman" obligation met, "With great power comes great responsibility."
The graphic shares the complexity of your volleyball attack. Relatively few players have such a high contact point that they can hit over the block or the power to hit through many blocks.
That means the successful attacker must maximize her fundamentals and choose the "right shot" for the moment (smash, cut, roll, tip, tool, recycle, etc.).
1. Study the theory and the fundamentals.
2. Work on your "dry" approach and "dry" swings (no ball). Automate your footwork and armswing mechanics.
3. You still have time to work on your athleticism. Plyometrics stress tendons, so your work should be spaced to allow recovery.
For good reason, humans are "wired" to believe what we see and hear. On the savanna, a noise in the bush could represent an "imminent threat." Failure to respond could be a matter of life and death in a "target rich environment" for predators (snakes, lions, etc.).
As coaches and student-athletes, we usually don't have the same urgency. Take the time to review new information and see whether it belongs in our 'software'.
Sport tends toward "copycat" approaches. That can apply to anything:
Training methods
Strategies
Protective equipment
Proper wearing of protective equipment
Pregame music
How can we "parse" or filter the firehose of information?
Ask more and better questions.
Seek opinions from authorities on your sport (your coaches)
Track both process and results
Separate "signal" from "noise"
Study elite players, coaches, and programs
Use human and artificial intelligence and hybrids
Self-examine critically.
- Are you getting enough sleep? You should get eight hours minimum.
- Are you focused or distracted? Are we investing or spending our time?
- Are you tracking your process and results?
- Are you building athleticism? What is your program?
"My greatest skill was being teachable. I was like a sponge. Even if I thought my coaches were wrong, I tried to listen and learn something." - Michael Jordan
School's out. Learning's still in. Volleyball tryouts start in 68 days, giving you just under ten weeks to build on your fundamentals.
First, what are you reading today? I'll go first:
Finishing David Baldacci's "The Whole Truth"
Reading Rolf Dobelli's, "The Not to Do List"
Starting Allistair McCaw's "Habits That Make a Champion"
Reading won't make you a better person, but it can help us become better thinkers, foster academic success and career opportunities. Here's a one paragraph summary from ChatGPT:
Habitual readers and non-readers often diverge over time not because of innate ability, but because of the compounding effect of knowledge. Readers steadily accumulate vocabulary, background information, critical-thinking skills, and exposure to diverse ideas, giving them an advantage in school, where reading proficiency strongly predicts academic success across subjects. This educational edge frequently carries into the workplace, where strong readers are better equipped to learn new skills, adapt to changing industries, communicate effectively, and qualify for higher-level positions that require continuous learning. While non-readers can certainly succeed, habitual readers benefit from a lifelong process of incremental improvement—each book adding a small advantage that, over years and decades, can translate into greater educational attainment, broader opportunities, and increased career mobility.
Better reading informs speed and breadth of knowledge in academic pursuits, in careers, and in sports. The greater your foundation, the more you can build upon it.
Consider a simple volleyball toss. The higher the toss, the shorter the time interval to strike the ball accurately as it descends. That means a narrower sweet spot for ideal contact.
The basic physics equation s = 1/2 a*t(squared)
Coaching Application
A higher toss gives the server more time but also creates more variability because the ball is exposed longer to wind, gym currents, and timing errors.
For example:
A 12-inch toss falls in about 0.25 seconds.
A 48-inch toss falls in about 0.50 seconds.
The higher toss provides only about a quarter-second more time, but doubles the opportunity for inconsistency.
This is one reason many elite servers favor a low, repeatable toss—high enough to allow full mechanics, but low enough to minimize error. As coaches often say, the toss is the first contact of the serve. A consistent toss reduces the number of variables the athlete must solve before contacting the ball.
"Physics has no opinion about your serve. Every extra foot of toss height adds only a fraction of a second, but it also adds another opportunity for the ball to be somewhere you didn't intend. The best servers don't just hit the ball well—they manage time and variability well."
Volleyball is a thinking person's game. Reading creates sustainable competitive advantage.
Lagniappe. You don't need a gym to practice footwork and coordination.
Why read the blog? It fixes nothing. I agree. If the blog had a "virtual legacy," it would be, "Love reading, love learning, and use them to forge your better self."
Rolf Dobelli, author of "The Art of Thinking Clearly," also wrote the "Not to Do List." Benefit by avoiding "losing behaviors."
1. Show up late.
Einstein proved that time is not a fixed commodity. Don't worry about it. That's a terrible idea. Showing up late disrespects others. Sometimes late arrival locks you out (e.g. standardized tests). Be punctual.
2. Procrastinate.
There's nothing wrong with putting obligations off until the last minute. That will eventually bite you on the backside. The reading list unread or the term paper not completed can sink your dreams.
Work on assignments today.
3. Good enough is good enough.
It doesn't have to be perfect. "I'm good." Larry Bird and others told themselves, there's always somebody else out there working to beat me.
Former Coach and Melrose AD Ellis Lane said, "I'm pleased but I'm not satisfied."
4. Take credit. If you don't others will.
Be a credit hog. Stand in the limelight. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright lost business because he wouldn't share credit with young colleagues. Jonas Salk, principal researcher of the polio vaccine, declined to share credit with his research team. As a result he never was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and never earned a Nobel Prize.
Deflect credit to coaches and teammates and ultimately get more recognition, not less.
5. The work will take care of itself.
Let distractions get in the way. You have a life to live. That works until it doesn't.
Skill building, film study, outside reading, strength and conditioning aren't a given. Hard work is a skill.
6. Don't sweat the small stuff (attention to detail).
You can't know everything. If I don't call the ball or just make sure I get the serve in, what's the worst thing that can happen?
Dodger Manager Tommy LaSorda said, "There are three kinds of people, those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what's happening." The devil is in the details.
7. Night at the Opera (mi-mi-mi)
It's all about me. Just keep thinking that way. When selfishness and self-serving behaviors consume us, others wave "bye-bye."
Be a great teammate. Support others. Be happy for others' success.
8. Care what other people think.
All that matters is what other people think. As long as they think you're a good person, you're all set.
Coach Wooden said, "Be more concerned about your character than your reputation. Character is who you are and reputation is what others think."
9. Planning and preparation are for the other guy.
I'm good, no need for studying or preparation. I know my role. Do you? Excellence requires blueprints. You can't build a house without a blueprint or cook a gourmet meal without a recipe.
Be prepared.
10. DATU. "Doesn't apply to us."
Rules don't apply to us; we're special. Recent headline news showed that's a bad strategy.
In The Art of War, written about 2500 years ago, Sun Tzu wrote, "Every battle is won before it is fought."
11."Hang around with low character people. It will make you look good."
You know the saying, "It's hard to soar like an eagle if you fly with turkeys." Great teams have great teammates.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke said, "Surround yourself with great people." You have an excellent coaching staff. Listen and learn.
What's one of the hardest tasks in the world? Raising children. It takes decades for full physical, intellectual, and emotional maturity. Your parents don't say, "It's too hard," although they may think it sometimes.
Do. Not. Quit. History writes the story of persistence.
Lagniappe. An AI take on Rolf Dobelli's "Not to Do List"
share a dozen big ideas from Dobelli's "Not to Do List"
Dobelli's central idea is classic Charlie Munger inversion:
Instead of asking, "How do I succeed?" ask, "What behaviors reliably lead to failure?" Then avoid them.
For a coach, investor, or writer, that approach is particularly powerful because mistakes are often more predictable than success.
Here are a dozen of the biggest ideas that emerge from The Not-To-Do List:
1. Don't Let Small Problems Rot
The roof leak, strained relationship, declining skill, or nagging injury rarely improves through neglect.
Fix problems while they are small.
Maintenance beats crisis management.
This aligns perfectly with coaching: don't wait until February to address a November weakness.
2. Don't Drift
Many people live by default rather than design.
Be intentional.
Don't confuse motion with direction.
Dobelli argues that success is often the result of deliberate choices rather than passive drift.
3. Don't Multitask
You can do multiple things.
You cannot create multiple things simultaneously.
Deep work beats fragmented work.
4. Don't Start the Same Job Twice
One of the simplest ideas in the book.
Finish what you start.
Touch emails once.
Complete tasks before moving on.
Every restart incurs a cognitive cost.
5. Don't Say Yes Automatically
Every "yes" is a "no" to something else.
Before agreeing to something, imagine it happening tomorrow.
Would you still want to do it?
If not, decline.
6. Don't Chase Mediocrity
Dobelli repeatedly encourages eliminating average activities.
Delegate them.
Automate them.
Stop doing them.
Reserve your energy for work that matters.
7. Don't Depend on External Motivation
Motivation is unreliable.
Build systems.
Build habits.
Build routines.
The professional works whether inspiration arrives or not.
8. Don't Keep Bad Company
Your environment shapes your behavior.
Avoid:
Chronic pessimists
Complainers
Status addicts
Drama generators
The people around you become your future.
9. Don't Feed Your Ego
Ego creates:
Defensive thinking
Poor decisions
Fragile leadership
Humility is not weakness. It is a decision-making advantage.
10. Don't Confuse Luck with Skill
A recurring Dobelli theme.
Successful outcomes do not automatically validate decisions.
In investing and coaching:
Good decisions can lose.
Bad decisions can win.
Judge the process first.
11. Don't Consume Endless News
A long-standing Dobelli principle.
His view:
News exaggerates the unusual.
News increases anxiety.
News rarely improves decision quality.
He advocates deeper knowledge over constant updates.
12. Don't Ignore Relationships
Many people treat relationships as self-maintaining assets.
They aren't.
Invest time.
Stay connected.
Repair damage early.
Like a garden, relationships require continuous maintenance.
For your blog, the most transferable lesson may be:
Don't let weaknesses compound.
A volleyball team that ignores serve receive in August, a basketball team that ignores rebounding in December, or an investor who ignores risk in a bull market are all committing the same mistake.
Dobelli's philosophy is remarkably similar to Via Negativa—the idea you've written about before. Improvement often comes less from adding something new than from removing the habits, distractions, and errors that hold us back
