"There are somebody jobs, & there are everybody jobs. Everybody has to play with effort and energy. Young players get hung up on whether they are scoring points or not. The way you get on the court is with effort & energy."
Everybody won't get the "somebody job." But even the "somebody" guys who attack, block, and set have to do the everybody jobs.
Play unselfishly.
Play with energy.
Make good decisions.
Support your teammates.
If you do the "everybody jobs" and work hard, you will get opportunities at the "somebody jobs."
What matters most for your individual training is to discover who you are at any given point - and whom you want to become to fuel your dreams. Then, to work to reveal the truth and to narrow the gap between 'A' and 'B'.
All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose organization.
What Is Social Proof?
"Social Proof" has another name, "herd instinct." It's behavior that leads parents to ask, "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?"
It's not irrational. In another era, if the "community" started running when one member perceived danger, running might save you from that hungry lion.
Social proof is one of the core principles in Robert Cialdini's classic book, "Influence." Social proof drives trends in advertising, in fashion, music, and more. If our friends say "ABC" is a great song, book, or movie, then we're more likely to check it out.
Why It's Useful
The value of social proof depends on its use. It drives charity (think international disasters) and bullying (the unacceptable becomes normalized). Learn to recognize it's use as inspiration or manipulation.
Social Proof in Volleyball and Team Sports
Team leaders leverage social proof for good. They promote unselfishness, togetherness, toughness, and sportsmanship.
Social proof drives action. Working out with a partner or as a group creates value. "Group behavior" might drive participation in Summer League or volunteering at a Food Kitchen.
Social proof permeates the gym. When top players lead in effort and communication, others follow. “Your hustle standard is not what you say. It’s what your best player does.”
When the best players "lift," others are more likely to come with. When the leaders "do five more," the crowd is more apt to see that "champions do extra."
When "hitting the floor" for diving digs becomes the standard, the program floor and ceiling both elevate.
When the bench is engaged, that reinforces teamwork and unselfishness. When parents root for all the team, not just their children, that builds culture.
Summary:
Social proof answers the question every athlete asks:
“What do people like us do here?”
If the answer is:
We work.
We communicate.
We dive.
We serve tough.
We celebrate teammates.
That is who you are...and our community knows it when they see it.
Lagniappe. Know the responsibilities/zones that Coach Celli wants.
Lagniappe 2. More on confirmation bias. Imagine that your math teacher provides a series of numbers such as 2, 4, 6... and asks you the "rule" for the sequence. Seek disconfirming evidence. If you say "-3" your teacher will say, "That is not it." But what if you say, "9" and the teacher says, "That works in the sequence." The number 9 disconfirms "generate by adding two" and works for "the next number is higher than the previous." The moral? "Seek disconfirming evidence.
Develop tools of your trade and become an architect of excellence.
See the Game
"Dig, set, spike" morphed into "Pass, set, hit." What is your responsibility in that context? Are you a DS whose main job is passing - to initiate the sequence or "set" an out-of-system attack? Or are you a hitter who must read the set, read the defense, and execute one of many types of attack?
Control Your Emotions
Excellent players channel excitement and enthusiasm into controlled action. Learn to bring the "right" amount of activation to play. Every elite Melrose athlete learned emotional activation and regulation.
ChatGPT Plus generates both text and graphics to illustrate the relationships among different "arousal" levels and performance.
🏐 Arousal & Performance in Volleyball (Inverted-U Applied)
LEFT SIDE: 🔵 Low Arousal (Flat / Passive)
What it looks like in volleyball
Late to close block
Slow transition off the net
Casual serve receive platform
No talk, no eye contact
“Hope the ball comes to someone else”
Language athletes use
“I feel tired.”
“We just don’t have energy.”
Coaching lever
Increase intensity: short competitive drill
Force first-contact accountability
Use quick scoring games to create urgency
Comment: "Low energy" athletes seldom get over the performance hurdle to make teams and get on the court. They simply lack "activation energy" to build and translate skills.
PEAK: 🟢 Optimal Arousal (Calm Intensity)
What it looks like
Quick read on hitter’s shoulder
Balanced block footwork
Aggressive but controlled serving
Clear, early communication
After an error: quick reset, next ball
Language athletes use
“I’m locked in.”
“The game feels slow.”
This is your “calm fire.” High energy. Low noise.
Comment: Even within the "optimal activation" zone, there are levels. Someone like Dr. Victoria Crovo was "fire" and another player like Elena Soukos was "ice."
RIGHT SIDE: 🔴 Over-Arousal (Tight / Rushed)
What it looks like
Service errors long
Net violations from tension
Over-penetrating block
Wild swings out of system
Emotional swings after mistakes
Language athletes use
“Don’t miss.”
“I can’t mess this up.”
Muscles tighten. Vision narrows. Timing suffers.
Comment: For athletes who trend toward "overactivation" tools like mindfulness (stop and take a breath) and softer music choices before games can help.
🏐 Task-Specific Nuance (Important for You as a Coach)
Different volleyball skills have different optimal arousal zones:
Skill
Optimal Arousal
Serving
Moderate–Low
Serve Receive
Moderate
Setting
Moderate–Low
Blocking
Moderate–High
Transition Attack
Moderate–High
A libero’s peak zone may look different than a middle blocker’s.
Athleticism
Athleticism links skill, strategy, and emotion. Every exceptional MVB player is an excellent athlete. Motivation and competitive character are necessary but insufficient.
Bo Jackson was an All-Star in both pro football and baseball. In high school, someone suggested he should try decathlon. He "walked on" to the state decathlon competition in Alabama, not knowing what all the events were...and set the state record.
It's a disservice to name individual exceptional quick twitch/power MVB athletes because there were so many. Some players rely on guile as well.
Summary: Find your MVB tools that will get you and keep you on the court. Technique, tactics, physicality, and emotional regulation are the keys that unlock elite performance.
Coaching Translation for Melrose-Style Culture
ACE: Attitude, Choices, Effort.
The inverted-U fits perfectly:
Attitude regulates arousal.
Choices (breathing, self-talk, routines) stabilize it.
Effort pushes you out of the low zone.
The best teams don’t just “play hard.” They learn to self-regulate.
Lagniappe. Get a running start... advice from Kelvin Sampson.
Kids don’t want things to be easier. They want structure, clear routines, clear expectations, and consistent follow-through. But, structure without relationship is just control. High standards only work when we pair them with high support. Demand more. Teach more. Care more. pic.twitter.com/3nRSwUTGt1
The idea isn't to become a "gym hero." Develop functional strength, quickness, vertical jump, and conditioning that pays off late in games.
Elite fitness that you've seen in players like Elena Soukos, Gia Vlajkovic, Sadie Jaggers, and others comes from work.
When you return for tryouts in late August, leave an impression. Always warmup before getting into strength and conditioning.
Lagniappe. Become a habit master.
Little things done consistently make a big difference: this is true with good and bad habits, behaviors, and decisions! Do anything enough times and it will move you in one direction or the other!
Coaches want players to succeed and practice is where that starts. Success begins long before the first serve of the season in September.
Clarity
"Compete." When you "cross the red line" onto the court, "be the best version of yourself."
Specificity
What helps you to "always be your best?" Be focused. The last point, won or lost doesn't matter. Win this point. "Don't cheat the drill."
Coachability
Whatever the task or skill, do it however your current coach, club or MVB wants it done. That's a vital part of building trust and trust gets you and keeps you on the court.
Excel in Your Role
Maybe you're not a "fully-formed" player with skills across the range of serve, pass, attack, block, set, dig. You might have the skill set needed to contribute at right side, e.g. block, hit. If Coach Celli needs you to be the "jack in the box" because you can, be that guy.
Lagniappe. Part of leadership and "influence" as a teammate is likability.
All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose institution.
Ben McCollum: "I think some coaches, they come in here and they (say), 'Ah, it's unacceptable.' And it is. We need to play hard. We need to play better than that. But you don't sit here and say, 'I'm embarrassed.' Because I'm not. I'm not embarrassed. They kicked our butt for us.… pic.twitter.com/VQi9KqaY9R
In twenty-four years, I have not heard or read Coach Scott Celli say, "We don't have good players; we don't have enough talent."
Excuses don't win games, league titles, or championships. Nothing has less value than excuses. John Wooden simplified, "Dont whine. Don't complain. Don't make excuses."
"Control what you can control..." vintage Stoicism.
"Make every day your masterpiece." - John Wooden
"Be a great teammate." Teamwork is a choice.
"Always do your best." Your best leaves no room for regret. Sometimes our best won't be as good as the other guy's.
"Don't back down." Whether you're playing the top seed or a low seed, bring the same fight. When Melrose had a powerhouse basketball team, an opposing coach told me, "They're hard to play. You're always going to get five girls who are good players running up and down the court. That's hard to match."
Regardless of the situation, be a worthy opponent, the kind that will fight and claw and scratch your eyes out.
Volleyball is a thinking-person's sport and it's a 'reacting-person's' sport.
Many sports break down as offense, defense, and conversion (the moments between offense and defense). And scoring divides into point production and point prevention.
Serve-receive is a vital part of point prevention and conversion as it begins the ideal "pass-set-hit" sequence.
The video (watch at 1.5 speed for efficiency) shows defenders reading and reacting to serves with an emphasis on eye work. Batters watches a pitcher's release point seeking clues on velocity, direction, and spin. So should volleyball defenders.
If defenders can access "end zone" video (contact your coaches), you can study opponents and apply your knowledge to "early warning" of serve type. Gary Klein discusses this in great depth in the book Sources of Power. Military radar operators have to judge rapidly profiles of velocity, direction, and acceleration to identify aircraft from missiles.
AI take:
PROMPT: In "Sources of Power" Gary Klein discusses recognition-primed decisions, especially for radar operators detecting airplane versus missile. Can you break similarities for volleyball serve receive?
Yes. And it’s not a stretch at all.
Klein’s recognition-primed decision making (RPD) is about making good decisions fast when there isn’t time to compare options. Experts don’t “analyze” in the moment. They recognize a pattern, pick the first workable action, then mentally simulate it for a split second: Will this work here? If yes, they go.
That’s radar operators. It’s also great serve receive.
The core similarity
Radar operator: “Is that blip an aircraft or a missile?”
They don’t run a spreadsheet. They scan for cues (speed, trajectory, signature, context), match to a prototype, then act.
Serve receive passer: “Is this serve seam? Short? Flat and fast? Late float? Jump-topspin to 1?”
Same deal. You’re solving a high-speed classification problem with noisy data.
1) Cue pickup under time pressure
RPD depends on noticing the right cues, early.
In serve receive, the best passers don’t wait for the ball to “tell the truth” at the last second. They read pre-contact cues:
Server’s starting spot and preferred lane
Toss (height, in front/behind, left/right drift)
Approach angle (straight vs. across)
Shoulder line / hips at contact
Contact sound + contact point (clean/topspin vs. float)
Immediate ball behavior: early wobble, flattening, topspin dive
That’s the volleyball version of “signature” and “track.”
2) Prototypes, not options
Klein’s experts have a library of patterns: “This looks like that.”
Serve receive prototypes might be:
“This is her flat float to seam when she’s under stress.”
“This is his jump-topspin to deep 5 when we’re in rotation X.”
“This is the short serve bait to pull our OH in.”
A novice sees “a serve.”
An expert sees a known kind of serve with an expected next behavior.
3) Expectancies and anomaly detection
Radar operators don’t just look for what is there; they look for what should be there. When reality violates expectations, alarms go off.
Great passers do this constantly:
“Her toss usually doesn’t drift—why did it drift?”
“That approach is more across than normal—seam is coming.”
“Ball is floating but not wobbling—it’ll stay truer and travel faster.”
The best passers are great at ‘something’s off’ detection.
4) The first workable action, then a quick mental simulation
RPD is not “pick the perfect option.” It’s “pick the first good one and test it fast.”
Serve receive version:
Recognize: “Deep float to my right hip.”
Action script: “Beat it with feet, angle platform to target, hold line.”
Mental sim (split second): “If I lean early I’ll shank—stay centered, move late, absorb.”
No deliberation. Just a script plus a check.
5) Scripts are team-based, not just individual
Radar decisions often happen in a system with shared language and procedures. Same in serve receive.
Serve receive RPD improves when the team shares:
Seam rules (“mine/yours”)
Short-ball rules
Overlap priority (libero vs. OH)
Emergency rules (“if it drops inside 10-foot line, take it with hands if possible”)
Without shared scripts, recognition doesn’t translate to clean action. It translates to hesitation.
Where volleyball differs (important)
Radar operators often have more time and can re-check. Serve receive is one-and-done: you’re judged by your first solution.
Also, servers can intentionally “spoof” you (change toss rhythm, go short after deep, etc.). So your recognition library must include deception patterns and “anti-patterns.”
How to train RPD for serve receive
If you want your athletes to “see it faster,” train like Klein would:
1) Build prototypes (pattern library)
Scout tendencies: zones, pressure choices, favorite serves by rotation
Give passers names for patterns (“late float,” “fast flat,” “drop-short,” “seam sniper”)
2) Train cue pickup (pre-contact)
Video occlusion: pause at toss / at contact; passer calls zone/type
On-court “call it early”: passer must call type + zone before the ball crosses the net
General George Joulman greeted superiors and subordinates with "one team, one fight.," That places everyone on the same team and leaves no ambiguity.
It's not always agenda-free in team sports. Recall the sign in the University of North Carolina women's soccer locker room.
Excellence is our only agenda
It doesn't read, "my playing time" or "my stats" or "my All-America campaign." They won 22 National Championships through commitment to team excellence. And you know that every woman on those elite teams wanted to play.
The "Team First" standard is a big ask in a world of scholarships and NIL money for some. "Team First" attitude comes as part of the culture promoted and nurtured by Coach Scott Celli and his staff.
Former UNC basketball coach Roy Williams shared a story about watching a recruit who fouled out. The player didn't sulk. He sprinted to the water cooler to get water for the four guys still on the court during the thirty second substitution period. Williams knew he had a keeper. UNC legend Dean Smith said he didn't recruit superstars who didn't help their team win. And he said if a recruit was dismissive to his parents, then Smith didn't want him either. Character is Job One.
I keep an eye on what's going on with reserve players during games. Are they dialed in, studying the game and supporting the team.
Leading 2-1, late in the fourth set of a playoff game, Emma Desmond makes one of the great plays in MVB history. Watch the bench.
"One team, one fight."
Lagniappe. The roster and lineups for MVB 26 won't be known for over six months. What is certain is that trust earns opportunity.
LEADERS…. 3 things your team wants from you:
1. Clarity: Provide clarity which leads to focused action. 2. Belief: Encourage and let them know you believe in them and what they can accomplish. 3. Trust: They want to know you trust them and that they can trust you.
Lagniappe 2. The non-schedule is coming together. Included are: Marblehead, @Newburyport, @Ipswich, Lynn Classical, @Methuen. There is room for seven non-league games.
Full commitment helps elite operators make faster, better, instinctive decisions. Total commitment "takes a lot of work," the opposite of multitasking.
“I’m letting the team down because I turned the ball over, I’m letting the team down because I missed a shot
No, you’re letting the team down when it parlays into 4-5 possessions after that.”
Remove the cellphone from our immediate environment. Schools recognized this and banned cellphone use during class.
Input from AI (ChatGPT Plus)
Attention Wins Points
Volleyball is not chaotic. It only feels that way to the unfocused mind.
The ball moves fast. The rallies are short. One lapse becomes a point. The scoreboard is an honesty machine.
We talk about skill, vertical, strength, speed. All matter. But attention may be the most undertrained skill in high school sports.
You can be strong and distracted.
You can be talented and late.
You can be athletic and unaware.
Attention is the separator.
Focus Is a Trainable Skill
Attention is not a personality trait. It is a habit.
Five minutes a day of quiet breathing — count from one to ten and restart when your mind wanders — builds the same muscle that allows a libero to read a hitter’s shoulder or a blocker to hold discipline on a slide.
If you can’t hold your attention in a quiet room, you won’t hold it in a loud gym.
Shrink the Target
“Play better” is useless.
“Low and loaded before every serve receive” is actionable.
“See the setter’s hands before I move” is actionable.
“Call seam early and loud” is actionable.
Attention improves when the cue is specific.
Big goals distract. Small cues anchor.
Pre-Decide Under Pressure
Great teams reduce thinking in the moment because they’ve already thought before the moment.
If we give up three straight points, we huddle and reset.
If I miss a serve, I breathe and repeat my routine.
If I feel tight, I exhale and say my cue word.
Pre-decisions protect attention from emotion.
Respect the Routine
Watch elite servers. Same breath. Same bounce. Same target.
Routine reduces randomness.
Before every serve:
Deep breath.
Visualize zone.
Cue word: “High and hard.”
Routine shifts attention from fear (“Don’t miss”) to execution.
Eliminate Attention Leaks
Sleep matters.
Phones fragment attention.
Emotional drama drains bandwidth.
A tired brain makes more unforced errors. A distracted athlete misses seams and tips. A reactive player chases the ball instead of reading the play.
Attention requires recovery.
Make Focus Measurable
If you want attention to improve, measure it.
Track:
Serve routine adherence.
First contact quality.
Communication errors (“campfires”).
Late transitions.
Film should not be passive. Show ten clips. Ask one question per clip:
Where were her eyes?
What cue was missed?
What happened first?
Attention sharpens when thinking is active.
Process Before Outcome
Scoreboards are outcomes. Attention lives in process.
Control what you can control:
Attitude
Choices
Effort
Every rally asks one question:
Were you present?
The teams that sustain focus win the long match. The ones that drift lose tight sets.
Talent sets the ceiling.
Attention sets the floor.
