Timing the Attack

Players have to adjust to the situation. In basketball, it's better to wait for the screen than to cut early.

In volleyball, superior athletes explode to the ball to execute.  

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Say "Yes" to Learning Opportunities

Embrace and thrive in a learning culture. That works for you across domains - home, school, work, sport.

Leadership QOTD: pic.twitter.com/CtORPbHVQA

— Allistair McCaw (@AllistairMcCaw) February 23, 2026

Examples:

• Disciplined study sessions with classmates
• Teacher "Office hours" for extra help or clarification
• Reading beyond 'required reading'
• Acquiring life skills (e.g. cooking) - "Everyone has to eat"
• Study individual and game video
• Strength and conditioning (MHS has equipment)
• Self-assessment (see below)

In The Leadership Moment, author Michael Useem presents a framework for "after action review." 

1. What went well? 
2. What went poorly?
3. What can we do differently next time?
4. What are the enduring lessons? 

The MVB '25 year was 'transitional' after graduation of many seniors. The team played competitively, young players got experience*, and learned what needs to improve. 

*Experience is what you get when you don't get everything you want.

Lagniappe. A basketball article that should resonate. Possessions! "Win this possession." 

Put another way, don't give away possessions:

• Lack of communication (mental error)
• Service errors (unless team has high ace percentage)
• Serve-receive errors
• Not closing the block 
• Low quality passing ("one bad pass leads to another")

Balance aggression with good judgment. 

Reduce errors. 

"Teams Call Seams"

Celtics' coach Joe Mazzulla says that one reason to watch film is to find ten to fifteen possessions that could be executed better.

Exceptional players and teams learn from mistakes and reduce them in the future. Teams don't get do-overs for lack of communication. 

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"Our Character Will Determine Our Ceiling"

“All year we have been saying the talent is our floor but our character will determine our ceiling.
And I am just so confident in their character, and that’s what determined how they played today.”

Talent makes you comparable.
Character makes you unforgettable. pic.twitter.com/taXxTZpTnd

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) April 5, 2026

Success requires talent, excellent coaching, and both working together. Celtics Coach Brad Stevens looks for players with competitive character. 

What does that mean? What separates the player with character from the player with talent? 

A talented player blocks shots. A high character player reads the play, gets to the spot early, and the block becomes a kill.

A talented player delivers a serve with pace and movement. A high character player delivers the serve with purpose -to a seam, to a weak player, or to the setter to force an out-of-system attack. 

A talented player makes a dig to keep the ball alive. The high character player resets quickly, gets to her runway for a dynamic attack from the set. 

A talented player gets kills. A high character player inspires her teammates and helps them win the next point. 

Elena Soukos was not only a talented player but a high character player. Her high quality attack from the back kept Billerica on the defensive, allowing MVB to go, "pass, set, hit." 

More on Slant Board Exercises

Strength and conditioning exercises can help with rehab and injury prevention.

Definitions:

VMO (vastus medialis oblique) - inner thigh muscle helping stabilize the knee and extend the knee

Posterior chain muscles - The posterior chain is the group of muscles and connective tissues on the backside of the body, extending from the base of the skull down to the soles of the feet. 

These muscles work as a kinetic chain for hip extension, resist flexion, and stabilize the spine, pelvis, and hips during movement. 

Slant board exercises can help with the VMO (especially descending squats) and calf strength, Achilles stretch, and ankle mobility (ascending board)

Inexpensive equipment that is easy to use. 

Goal Setting

Control process to achieve goals. Excellent habits consistently applied yield a chance at great results. 

Excellent teams have excellent habits. Winning players have winning process. "Protect your process." 

Achieving Short Term Goals

Focus. Excellent players are fully engaged..."play harder for longer."          Openness. Be coachable.                                                                      Sharing. Communicate. Encourage teammates. Energize. 

Reaching Volleyball Goals   

SMART. Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Realistic. Timely. Write your        plan down. Execute and track results. 

Self-Test  

• How do you rate your attention?
• Do you have a written plan? 
• Are you tracking progress (e.g. reading plays, serving, blocking)

Lagniappe. Everyone has ups and downs, even exceptional players. What is your process when things aren't going your way? 

Dawn Staley shares the question every recruit should ask and almost none of them do.

"Everybody's good on the good days. It is who you can trust, who you can talk to and communicate with on your worst day."

Then she explained what she tells every recruit:
"We're gonna make you… https://t.co/z0bINWQw9J pic.twitter.com/4bf2X0tfSo

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) April 5, 2026

Under the Radar But not Underperforming

In the past 25 years of NCAA men's basketball, the names many hear the most often are Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, and Villanova. Which program has won the most titles during that quarter century?

Connecticut. The Huskies are the Top Dog.

• Connecticut 5
• Duke 3
• Carolina 3
• Kansas 2
• Villanova 2

Louder isn't always better. Good coaching comes in many forms but always teaches concepts, effort, and accountability. 

 

Joy

"Light bulbs, that's what I call them. Light bulbs. There's an intangible feeling a coach and a player have that you can delight in. When Armond Hill was at Princeton and he'd go up and down the court in warmups, that's excited me. Frank Sowinski walked onto the court in practice. I could be dead tired: I saw him, I felt good. Billy Omeltchenko. Craig Robinson. I call them light bulbs. They walk on the floor, the light goes on." - February 6, 1991.

"Every season ends in tears - tears of sadness or joy."

The best teams play for each other. Joy is fundamental. Exceptional teams don't walk onto the court with the idea that it's work. They play. 

There's an old saying, "Play hard. Play together. Play smart." Remember the fourth part, "Have fun." Practice informs the laboratory where teams "build the monster." 

Fundamental starts with fun. Not accidental. Don't ever tire of doing the little things, the details that foster improvement. 

MUDITA - a foreign word and a vital concept. "Your joy is my joy." When every teammate does well, the team does better. Winning never gets old. Be happy for your teammate's success, for every player's success. 

Nobody felt sorry for MVB not winning the ML12 Freedom Division last year. Nobody. Behind the scenes, plenty of people said, "they've won enough; they've won more than their share." Sympathy is in the dictionary. 

Coach Ellis Lane told us, "I'm pleased but I'm not satisfied." Don't be content with a good performance. Demand your best. 

Walk off on your terms. 

Lagniappe. She is a "bad girl." 

"Ode to Joy" by Beethoven

 

MVB in Boston This Weekend

One volleyball Mom said, "There are only two seasons in our family - volleyball season and offseason volleyball." 

Photo courtesy of Lee-Anne Dautovic

MVB sends a large contingent of players from a variety of area club programs to the Boston Convention Center three-day tournament. 

"How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything"

"Writing is easy. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Ernest Hemingway

Everyone wants to play, earn a role, and be recognized. Coaches know who's been naughty or nice.

How do you play better? 

• Build skills. 
• Learn the game by studying and playing. 
• Focus. Challenge yourself every time you step on the court. Serve better. Read better. Block better. 
• Become stronger and quicker. Track your vertical and measures of power like standing broad jump. 
• Be fierce. Compete. Impact the game. 

Demand more at the desk.  

• Build skills. Write with purpose. Stare down assignments. Imitate a legend like Hemingway. 
• Study technique...be clear, simple, and strategic using action verbs, vivid pictures, alliteration, and other rhetoric. Shun "weak words" and banal adverbs such as really, very, truly. 
• Focus. Have a "writing spot." Dustbin the distractions. 
• Power your words. Sabine was more. She was a monolith. 
• Be a writer. Care. Refine your $#%@ first draft (Anne Lamott) into art.

Claude.ai rewrites the above in the style of Hemingway. We're all here to learn and grow. 

Bleed on the Page

Writing is a fight. You either show up for it or you don't.

Build something. Every assignment is an opponent. Go after it. Study Hemingway — not to worship him, but to take what he knew and make it yours. He bled on the page. Now you bleed.

Learn the craft the way you learned to serve. Clarity. Simplicity. A strong verb hits harder than an adverb ever will. Really and very and truly — cut them. They are the shanked passes of writing. Use words that land. Sabine wasn't tall. Sabine stood like a monolith. You feel the difference. That's the difference.

Find your spot. Close the door. Kill the noise. A player who can't focus in practice won't focus when the score is tied and the gym is loud. Same here. Sit down. Do the work.

Care about the words. A first draft is ugly — Anne Lamott called it something unprintable, and she was right. Every writer has written garbage. The ones who matter didn't stop there. They came back. They cut. They rebuilt. They cared enough to make something true out of something rough.

You are not just an athlete. You are a person who does things with full commitment or not at all.

How you do anything is how you do everything.

Now write like you mean it.

Happy Easter! If you're playing today, fight for special. 

Hal Moore's Second Principle

Learn from exceptional leaders, like Lt General Hal Moore in "Hal Moore on Leadership." 

Principle #2: 

There’s always one more thing you can do to influence any situation in your favor. And after that, there’s one more thing. And after that, there’s one more thing. And after that, one more thing. The more ‘One More Things’ you do, the better your chances are for achieving success in any situation. A leader must create time to detach himself mentally and ask:

 “What am I doing that I should not be doing? And what am I not doing that I should be doing to influence the situation in my favor?” 

A leader is paid to do three things: 

1. Get the job done and get it done well. 

2. Plan ahead - be proactive, not reactive. 

3. Exercise good, sound judgment in doing all of the above." 

- "Hal Moore on Leadership"

Sport applications of Moore's second principle:

What am I doing that I should not?

• Overcoaching and under teaching 
• In developmental settings, overemphasis on winning
• Micromanaging - As Coach Krzyzewski said, "Basketball is about making plays, not running plays." 

What am I not doing that I should?

• Maximizing player development 
• Making practice as efficient as possible (Brad Stevens said that watching Belichick's practices helped) 
• Assuring that everyone is on the same page (the most painful losses often come from mental mistakes)

What can players not do too much?  

• Block aggressively.
• Rebound. "Rebound selfishly."
• Make aggressively appropriate attacks.
• Communicate. 
• Pass unselfishly (rarely a team overpasses). 

Advanced planning

• Find a mentor/trusted advisor.
• Have a "fallback plan."
• Attend to details of player development, study, video review. 

Good judgment

• "Don't follow a lit fuse." - Get in front of toxicity when possible.
• "Avoid giving away games with mental errors"
• Attack selection and many errors relate to judgment

Write it down

“The faintest ink is better than the best memory.” - Chinese Proverb

Have a clear philosophy that stands on its own. 

Keep a record of decisions and their rationale. It doesn't have to be public.

Track what worked and what didn't and why.

Summary: 

Hal Moore’s second leadership principle is simple but demanding: there is always one more thing you can do to influence the outcome. Effective leaders ask two hard questions: What am I doing that I shouldn’t be doing? and What am I failing to do that I should? Eliminate overcoaching and micromanagement. Prioritize what wins games - player development, efficient practices, shared understanding. Share fundamentals teams can never do too much:  block shots, cover, communicate, pass unselfishly, and take quality attacks. Plan ahead - seek mentors, prepare fallback plans, study film - and exercise judgment, avoiding toxic distractions and the mental mistakes that give games away. The final discipline is reflection: write decisions down, track what worked and why, and build a philosophy grounded in evidence -because the faintest ink is better than the best memory.

 

Lagniappe. Study exceptional. 

🚨 10 coaches that will TEACH YOU MORE than any book or YouTube video will:

📝

1. Tuomas Iisalo - both sides of the ball, one of the most innovative coach’s I’ve ever seen. Will be an NBA superstar.

2. Brad Stevens- I’ve input every piece of my culture around what Stevens…

— Chris Steed (@steeder10) March 6, 2026

 

Tips from a Reformed (Old) Sports Parent

Sports parenting is often a thankless job. It's time-consuming and gawdawful expensive.

Adolescents often play offseason games at inconvenient times (e.g. early), when they're barely awake. And depending on how they played, their mood varies (IYKYK).

Here are a few tips that may resonate:

1. Be positive. Maybe the best words you can say or they can hear are, "I love watching you play." 

2. Pack the gym bag the night before with a list (e.g. uniforms, sneakers, extra socks, extra shoelaces, tape, hair ties, band-aids, personal products, meds, contact solution, snacks, hydration, etc.). 

3. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Fatigue shows up before thirst. 

4. The most useful, least expensive training equipment is a jumprope. Jumping rope helps with coordination, balance, and stamina. 

5. Find ways to occupy yourself on the long days sitting on the hard bleachers. 

6. Someone loaned me a six part cassette series (late 1980s) on "How to Say No." I only got through one cassette. Big mistake. Adults have to say, "No." That's being the adult. 

7. Bonding with the other sports parents was a great part of the experience. They experience the same hopes, dreams, and frustrations as you. 

8. Keep a scrapbook. Take pictures and videos and whatever clippings you have from print media. Your children will thank you later. 

9. Injuries are unavoidable, one of the worst parts of being a parent. Stretching and proper warmups probably helps. Encourage your children to take ownership. 

10.Children hear everything. It's impossible to contain everything all the time. Here's a method for avoiding negativity or 'oversharing'. Talk about baseball. "The Red Sox are killing me" or "Cooperstown isn't casting the bust of Roman Anthony yet." Or another favorite, "Elbow strain? That's the pregame show for ulnar collateral ligament damage and Tommy John surgery."

Good luck. 

Attention to Detail

"We pay a lot of attention to detail. We're not sloppy."  

Attention to Detail

Every great program 'suffers the details', sweating the small stuff. Bill Belichick emphasized detail. Nick Saban emphasized detail. Geno Auriemma lives the details.

Attention to detail supports sustainable competitive advantage. Attention to detail fine-tunes process. 

Process is Old-Fashioned

Detail is old-fashioned. In the early 1970s, Coach Ellis Lane handed out mimeographs before every game with scouting reports of opposing team offense and defense, personnel, and three "keys to victory." His attention to detail helped him earn multiple championships and election to the New England Basketball of Fame. 

Process Must Precede Conclusions

Never allow conclusions to drive your decision-making process. Process should drive conclusion. In the early 2000's, NASA's Mission Management Team concluded, despite engineering's safety warnings, that debris risk to the Space Shuttle Columbia was not significant. ‘You know, if there was any real damage done to the wing, there is nothing we can do about it.’ Columbia broke up during reentry. Seven astronauts died and careers died with them.  

Detail Touches Every Team Member

Detail (process) touches everything. 

• Court conditions impact play and safety. 
• Communication includes knowing the details of your role.
• Every practice activity impacts winning. 
• Preparation leads to skill, strategy, physicality, and psychology. 
• "Strength and conditioning" impact execution and confidence. 
• Proper recovery includes sleep, rest, hydration, and nutrition. 

"How you do anything is how you do everything." 

Lagniappe. "What would make you believe that I'm an incredible coach...what if my job as a coach is to hold you accountable for your dreams? 

Lagniappe 2. The two best servers (in my opinion) in MVB history were Alyssa DiRaffaele and Cassidy Barbaro with aggression and consistency. Neither had a jump serve. Both had pace and movement on the ball. That said, a lot of you have a jump serve. In the video, Coach Artie explains the "jump toppy" and rationale. The analogy for baseball/softball players is pitcher extension. Release closer to the batter and shave microseconds off of reaction time. 

"Ethical Hoops University"

Derrick White looked surprised when I announced to him that he was the subject of my postgame story last night, after he tallied 6 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists: https://t.co/6dtYiUN7G2 pic.twitter.com/8vvz3a8OdP

— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) April 2, 2026

Coaches and bloggers are always on the lookout for special players. Derrick White fits the mold.

He was lightly recruited out of high school and only had a breakout season as a senior at Colorado. He was a back end of the first round NBA draft choice. Traded to the Celtics, he was "discovered" and became both an NBA and Olympic champion.

In the video above, after getting an assist late in the first half, he sprints back and takes away an easy layup just as the horn sounds.

How do you want to be remembered as a player?

As someone who:

• Scored points?
• Or someone who changed possessions?

Because long after the stats fade, what remains is this:

Did you play for yourself - or did you play for the team?

Derrick White’s answer speaks without words.