The setter is the quarterback of the offense. She has the dual responsibility of decision-making and execution. She depends on teammates to get her the ball in favorable position and must deliver it "on time and on target" to the best strategic option.
Setters are NOT the only people who set. "Teach all your skills to all your players." Elite teams often have front row players who set for each other r back row hitting.
The better the passes to the setter, the higher probability of her providing "cheddar biscuits" for hitters to feast upon.
In The Heart of Coaching, Thomas Green discusses, "performance-focused, feedback-rich" coaching for sustainable competitive advantage.
The blog gets feedback, too. A Melrose volleyball fan shared, "The team had a great year and so did the blog."
The reader added the big takeaways:
1) Be a good teammate.
2) Do what is best for the team.
I often share this concept, "Do more to become more; become more to do more." Excel in your role but aspire to increase it. Adam Grant's book, Give and Take, divides people among givers, matchers, and takers. Those at the top are ambitious givers.
2022 was an historic season in many ways. Here are a few:
10th Sectional Championship
"Third Dynasty" of at least repeat sectional titles (2003-2005, 2009-2012, 2021-2022)
Second defeat of undefeated team to win sectionals (AC 2003, Duxbury 2022)
Undefeated Middlesex League Season
Along with team accomplishments, players earned individual distinctions (courtesy, Coach Scott Celli). Worth remembering that in a team sport, players rely on teammates helping them set individual achievements.
Gia Vlajkovic vaulted into second place in single season kills. Chloe Gentile and Gia both reached the top ten in career kills.
Ruth Breen ascended into the number three spot in single season kills just behind Lily Fitzgerald and the underrated Amanda Hallett.
Gia Vlajkovic moved into a tie for the top 5 in the highest number of single game kills and etched her name among some well-known names.
"Analytics" impact the way we play sports. But does a given action, sequence, or player impact winning? This evolved partly from the work on Bill James in baseball, from Michael Lewis's best-seller Moneyball, and from Dean Oliver's Basketball on Paper.
Offensive and defensive efficiency, turnovers committed and forced, and other statistics earned focus. Tracking numbers just for numbers' sake isn't that helpful. The local writer shares, "Susie Smith led the team in defeat with fourteen points." That doesn't say whether Susie played defense, rebounded, passed the ball, played hard, took thirty shots, or whatever. It's like saying, "It was the warmest day of the Antarctic winter."
Good teams have more good possessions, make more "positive plays" and fewer negative ones. Missing shots and low attack efficiency, especially attack errors (balls into the net or out) prevent winning.
If you're not scoring on setter dumps or back sets, it makes sense to reduce them. "Do more of what works and less of what doesn't."
Sometimes you work overtime to register a kill. Gia does here.
Next season is far away. "I'll do it later." The term paper isn't due for a couple of weeks. "I'll get to it."
I've shown this formula before:
ACHIEVEMENT = PERFORMANCE x TIME
Achievement relates to quality of performance multiplied by the time invested. You may have heard Malcolm Gladwell's "10,000 hours" theory about the protracted time needed to train excellence.
Alabama coach Saban discusses the 'illusion of choice'. He often alludes to the difference between investing and spending time.
There's no guarantee attached to athletic training, box jumps, and weight training. But not training guarantees not progressing.
I spoke to a coach about a basketball player from long ago (none of you know him). The coach answered, "Great player from the neck down."
Bill Belichick was asked about coaching a player and answered that at this point in my career "I want to coach the guys I want to be around."
Coaches have enough headaches without absorbing your tardiness, inconsistent effort, or lack of coachability.
I coached a young player years ago (not a Melrose player) who didn't listen, was not accountable, and was just contrary. She had a lot of athletic and physical ability. Eventually she became a good player and her mother emailed me. She explained her daughter "figured it out" that I wasn't criticizing her, I was coaching her to be better.
Coaches want guys with character, not characters. Don't let a bad judgment become an indelible stain on your character. A bad social media decision doesn't go away.
Be on time. Be a great teammate. Outwork the next guy. Study the game. Do the right things the right way and you'll be fine.
The action that punishes us most harshly is INACTION, not doing something. That includes never starting something, not working on it, and not completing it.
Author and playwright David Mamet advised his children to do two things every day:
1. Do something to improve your craft (skill).
2. Do something to improve your business.
Alabama football coach Nick Saban has a saying, "Are you investing your time or spending it?"
Create value for yourself. Don't allow selfishness to undermine you. "The two most compelling words in the draft report are AND or BUT...don't give anybody a reason to say BUT about you."
The best version of yourself demands daily commitment to improvement.
I am unqualified to coach volleyball. Some would say I'm unqualified to coach anything.
But YouTube shares over two hundred video lessons on volleyball that help coaches and players improve in "The Art of Coaching Volleyball." If you watched ONE EACH DAY, that would take you almost to next season. If you apply what you learn, you'll gain in the framework of:
Skill
Strategy
Physicality
Psychology
The speaker emphasizes this data applies for high school varsity teams. At the "local level," (high school or off-season) do whatever your coach wants.
Get more from what we have. The trend in some sports has been prep and private schools attracting players away. That hasn't happened in volleyball.
Recruiting
Mindfulness
Technology
Simplification
Training
Coaching clinics/online education.
Notebooks. Commonplace book, blogging. Many of the thought leaders of history kept journals...Marcus Aurelius, Montaigne, Jefferson, Bill Gates. Write stuff down and go back to it.
Don Meyer thought these values improved team culture:
- Passion
- Unity
- Servant Leadership
- Humility ("Thinking less about yourself doesn't mean thinking less of yourself.")
- Thankfulness (Gratitude)
In our busy world, we may forget to appreciate those around us, family, friends, coworkers.
In "Up the Organization" by Robert Townsend, one chapter is a single sentence, "Thanks is the cheapest form of compensation."
Gratitude improves people's happiness. Professor Shawn Achor recommends the 21-day gratitude challenge. Each night before going to sleep, write down three things that we're grateful for. At the end of the 21-days review all those things about which we expressed gratitude.
"Want what you have." Winning another sectional championship is awesome." Enjoy playing the game and continued success from playing is the natural progression.
"Your reputation is who people think you are, your character is who you really are." - John Wooden
Wikipedia defines "brandas a name, term, design, symbol or other feature that distinguishes one seller's product from those of others."
Brand is often associated with style, performance, quality, attributes, and emotion that DIFFERENTIATES among products or organizations. I believe your brand flows from character, the perception defining "who you are." Some have success playing "the villain" in professional wrestling, but most individuals and organizations want brand positivity, excellence, and desirability.
We hear company slogans like "Quality is Job 1", "Coke is It", "We Bring Good Things to Life", and more which promote excellence, service, and industry leadership. Conversely, we see brands suffer after quality failures like the recent Chipotle and Volkswagen incidents. Effective branding means commitment at the individual and the organizational level. The African proverb "it takes a village to raise a child" competes with "but one child can destroy a village." Some programs like the Oakland Raiders had a slogan of "Commitment to Excellence" but a culture embracing an outlaw mentality. Fairly or not, Kentucky has become known as a "One and Done" basketball weigh station, Michigan State became synonymous with rebounding toughness, and Butler under Brad Stevens radiated discipline and overachievement. Former Coach Bo Schembechler advised "avoid the 'troubled kid' who can beat you once a year on another team, instead of beating you every day on yours." Effective branding needs a worthy product - leadership, people, and attention to detail. It exceeds customer expectations day after day, year after year. Connect with people at many different levels...everyone from custodians to community leaders. Melrose volleyball has done that. Brand leadership means commitment to sustaining your core organizational values. When you stand for anything, then you stand for nothing. Bill Walsh said it best in "The Score Takes Care of Itself", “I directed our focus less to the prize of victory than to the process of improving — obsessing, perhaps, about the quality of our execution and the content of our thinking; that is, our actions and attitude. I knew if I did that, winning would take care of itself, and when it didn’t I would seek ways to raise our Standard of Performance.
Tim Ferriss, author of Tools of Titans, has a saying, "win the morning, win the day."
In 'Titans' he explains that eighty percent of highly successful people (what does that mean?) have a meditation practice.
Mindfulness is an ancient art with no religious or political underpinnings. That means you do it without stepping on anyone's beliefs.
Nobody special used it, excepting Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, most professional teams, and Olympic athletes.
What does mindfulness do, objectively? Here is a shortened list:
Improves focus, even in elementary school children
Improved focus leads to better grades and standardized test scores
Increases brain density in learning and memory areas on MRI
Decreases brain density in the amygdala, the brains stressed area
Lowers blood pressure
Reduces anxiety and depression
Lowers circulating stress hormones
And it takes limited time (as little as ten minutes daily) and is free. I favor the UCLA Mindfulness site.
There's no magic formula or 'musts' to include in your morning routine. A few might include:
- Twenty to thirty minutes of pleasure reading
- Listening to a TED Talk or MasterClass (I do this)
- Walking or other exercise
- Online brain activation (Wordle from the New York Times is free)
- Keeping a journal (e.g. blogging)
Lagniappe (something extra).
In basketball, the saying is, "great offense is multiple actions and great defense is multiple efforts." There's a lot here with a great dig by Ava McSorley and Manon Marchais follows that up with a block.
Have definitions ready for key words. Accountability is holding ourselves to a high standard. "Showing up" means being on time, fired up and ready to go.
My goal is that when they leave here, they're able to hold themselves to that standard of excellence and not settle for less than what they're capable of.
That lives on forever because wherever they go in life, they can help others get there too.
Visualization and affirmations are techniques used in sport psychology to improve performance. There is evidence that visualization helps simulate practice. In other words, thinking about skills improves them...see the quotes below.
"Lower anxiety, driven by positive self-efficacy beliefs, boosts athletic performance."
"Researchers at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation observed increased muscle strength among subjects who performed “mental contractions” of specific muscle groups without actually doing the exercise. How was this possible? EEG monitoring during the mental training revealed elevated cerebral cortex output signal which has been linked to the control of voluntary muscle contractions. This means that visualization triggers areas in the brain that activates the muscles and consequently improves strength." This also implies that brain fatigue reduces muscle output.
Jason Selk describes creating a "highlight reel" lasting about three minutes to help your sport psychology practice. What belongs? It's your highlights, so include whatever you want.
That doesn't mean that mental play alone creates expertise. Deliberate practice of skills, competition, game study including video, athletic training, and time all contribute to your process.
You're skeptical. Who believes in 'mind over matter', especially during the fog of battle?
Only one of the greatest ballplayers who ever lived.
Lagniappe (something extra).
Nick Saban's Process Principles:
1. Commitment "How bad do you want it?"
2. Discipline "It's not about what you feel like doing."
3. Effort "You get out what you put in."
4. Toughness "You have to be able to overcome hard."
I plan to keep the blog 'alive' at least through the traditional season wrap-up, the banquet and awards ceremony. That and about $2.50 gets you a coffee these days.
Here's the "Twenty Day Challenge" of personal development. Find something you can adopt for your growth. To 'become a better volleyball player' you have to assume the identity of " committed volleyball player." That forges your story and eventually your results. "Every action is a vote for the person that you want to become." - Atomic Habits, James Clear
I'll share additional team-related information as it becomes available.
Players...ask yourself this question...how many dudes have you played with that are doing EVERYTHING in their power to be GREAT? On and off the field? Some of you may NEVER play with one of those dudes! They are extremely rare! YOU be “that guy”!
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast...fight for your culture every day."
Coach Scott Celli has remarked many times this season how much he enjoyed working with this group every day.
That doesn't always occur. A coach from another community once told me that he had the most talented group of players ever and the hardest to coach, with their own agendas.
A sign hangs in the University of North Carolina women's soccer locker room, Our Only Agenda Is Excellence. Talent, toughness, and togetherness helped them win 21 of the 40 NCAA titles.
Credit the players for putting TEAM first.
As HS basketball seasons start and we are officially in full Basketball Season mode keep this in mind. Do not get distracted by roles and titles. It’s more important to know your value to the team. Culture >X’s and Os @BallisPsychpic.twitter.com/xxbFG24Ow6
Process skills transfer across domains. Focus, commitment, research, and deliberate practice make you a better volleyball player AND a better math student, reader, and writer.
I am not a volleyball coach, never played, am unqualified to teach. As a basketball coach, I tell players, the way to perform a skill or action is how your CURRENT coach wants it done.
Doing it how your coach wants it done reflects well on you. That helps get you on the floor.
Today's video from "The Art of Coaching Volleyball" examines different approaches to serve receive including the US, Korea, and Brazil. "Platform skills" are vital. The coach emphasizes both differences and commonalities. "Your upper body is quiet."
The more you understand the theory, the better you may be able to transfer to your skill development.
State Champion Westborough feature two players, Quin Anderson and Shannon Clark on the list. Anderson has a high likelihood of earning D2 Player of the year status.
Anderson is the lone junior on the D2 roster.
Dartmouth, Duxbury, and King Philip also placed teammates on the list.
"You never build a positive life with a negative attitude."
The 20 Day Challenge encourages personal development in technique, tactics, physicality, and psychology that help you become a better player.
You've just come off an excellent season winning a sectional championship, earning the right to play in the state semifinals. That distinguishes you from most other athletes. Winning is hard. Winning big is harder. Repeating is even harder.
Celebrate big and small achievements. Create your "Jar of Awesome." The picture below is mine.
The jar isn't as important as what you put in it. Cut up an index (3" by 5") card into strips. For your first strip, label it, "Won the D2 Sectional Championship." Add a date if you want. Put it in the jar. You've started your Jar of Awesome.
Add more awesome achievements as they come along. You decide what goes in. Maybe when you can jump rope for five continuous minutes you add another strip. You get the picture. It's your "Jar" so you decide its use.
Keep it somewhere where you'll see it and work to add more awesomeness to it.
Lagniappe (something extra). Hitters learn to use more spots to attack.
Regular season opponents Newton North, Westborough, and Frontier all walked away from Championship Saturday with State Titles. Has that ever been done before?
The post-season helped validate the MIAA seeding process with a haul of four titles for number one seeds. Only Dennis-Yarmouth left empty-handed after losing in the finals to Tewksbury.
Meanwhile, the MaxPreps.com ranking process looked stale as Melrose (as of today) ranked 26th in Massachusetts. That feels wrong.
Massachusetts High School Volleyball sponsors a playoff prediction feature where participants pick every game down to the Final Four and eventual winner.
With a final round flourish, "RevengeTour" captured first place. Where do I pick up my prize?
Better habits make better people. James Clear wrote the book Atomic Habits. He emphasizes the importance of making good habits easier and bad habits harder.
Part of that is to "master the art of showing up." The short video shares Clear discussing establishing better habits.
Your homework assignment is to invest the two minutes watching the video and deciding how you start your new journey of 'showing up'.
"How are you going to improve today?" The 'organization' of sport divides among technical, tactical, physical, and psychological. You can restate that as skill, strategy, body, and mind.
Excellent players hone their gifts - size, athleticism, and skill.
Where do you start after the season?
Health and conditions permitting, pick out 4 or 5 exercises and target the ability to jump rope for FIVE minutes. You almost certainly will need to work up to it. Then do two sessions of FIVE minutes. Put on your favorite music in the background.
1. Make it a habit.
2. Even better, do it with a teammate.
3. Coach Urban Meyer described the 10-80-10 rule, how players are divided among the top 10 percent, the next 80 percent, and the bottom 10 percent. He insisted that the top 10 percent of players bring a teammate from the middle 80 percent. Pull a teammate into the top 10 percent. Do that often enough and you have a team of top 10 percenters.
"What would I do if I lost that third (Michelin) star? I'd win it back." - Gordon Ramsay
Until he won the National Championship, North Carolina coach Dean Smith got mistreated by some pundits. "He hasn't won it all." Smith brushed it aside, "I never felt like a loser." Coach Scott Celli's 2012 team put the White Whale down and teams have continued with great success since.
Coaches design and edit teams not only to win, but to compete at the best possible level. Sometimes (2012) you have the personnel to dominate strong teams. Other times you cobble together pieces to create Frankenball, a design but not artistic success.
Ask “how do I improve today?” Make yourself so valuable the coaching staff needs you on the floor.
The centrality of senior contribution creates a unique challenge for the future - rebuilding the attack, the back row, and the link...setting.
Front row:
Kills don't grow on trees. Replacing 651 kills from the top three seniors is no small order. Both current team member and junior varsity players should think, carpe diem, 'seize the day'.
Sadie Jaggers has been a fixture in the middle and even more is needed going forward both in production and mentoring, especially with freshman Sabine Wenzel showing promise. Opportunities at both outside hitter and right side abound.
"Every day is player development day." Off-season volleyball is the norm for players and families with high ambition. That's no small sacrifice in time and treasure.
Back row:
Few things disrupt a team more than inconsistent back row defense. Lack of communication, shanked balls, and poor passing initiate opposition scoring runs. Emma Desmond, Ava McSorley, and Gia Vlajkovic all depart while Grace Gentile gets an opportunity to step up. Maggie Turner showed flashes in limited action and Manon Marchais has shown well on defense as well.
Setting:
Sophomore Leah Fowke has a dynamic serve and showed soft hands in limited action at setter. Coach Scott Celli has always prioritized setter development and that investment pays big dividends. It's another opportunity for young players.
Melrose closed out a remarkable season with a hard-fought match with King Philip.
Notable -
Ruth Breen had 28 assists, a season total of 639, the third highest Melrose single season total. That's noteworthy since Melrose had two D2 Player of the Year setters, Brooke Bell and Lily Fitzgerald.
Libero Emma Desmond had 10 digs, no small feat against the KP smashes.
Melrose had only three service errors for the match, one of Coach Scott Celli's keys for success.
Sophomore Leah Fowke had no service errors in thirteen serves.
Gia Vlajkovic had 18 kills, bringing her season total to 338, second highest ever in the annals of Melrose volleyball. She also led with 15 serve receives, performing yeoman work in the front and back row.
As of now, Gia ranks seventh in the state on kills and Ruth fourth in assists.
An empty court...to remind everyone that results this season don't guarantee anyone their position next season.
Players who never started a varsity game will start next season and perform at a high level.
"It's always showtime." We are all being judged.
"The magic is in the work." UNREQUIRED work separates players.
"Toughness is a skill."
"Repetitions make reputations."
"The best yardstick for our progress is not other people, but ourselves. Am I better than I was yesterday?" - Chris Matakas, My Master, Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Winning a championship is hard. Repeating is harder. #ThirdDynasty
Melrose had a lot of great players in the past twenty-plus years. Few have outperformed their Unicorn, Gia Vlajkovic.
She wouldn't say she does it alone; it takes a team.
Here's an argument (Devil's Advocate) for Gia as having the greatest all-around single season ever for Melrose. This is a mouthful in consideration of the multiple past D2 Players of the Year from Melrose.
The "winning" test - Helped lead her teams to two sectional championships...at DIFFERENT positions...setter in 2021 and attacker in 2022
Values winning over numbers in team sports
The "numbers" test - In the top two All-Time in Melrose single season kills.
Plays all-around without a break. She can't conserve energy for attacking.
Defends from the back at a high level...
Attacks from both the front and the back row.
Has come up big in the postseason.
Magnificent in defeat to King Philip in state semifinals...greatest losing performance I've seen in twenty years
No 'weakness' in any volleyball primary skill - attack/block/serve/dig/set/receive-pass
Elite athlete by any measure (strength/power/skill)
Hyper-competitive athlete who hates to lose...
Deserving of the Triple Crown - All-State/All-Scholastic at Herald and Globe
All opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author. They do not represent any official commentary from the City of Melrose, Melrose High School, or the Melrose Athletic Department.
Sometimes the story doesn't end how you want. Melrose made its tenth appearance in the Division 2 State Semifinals since 2003 and came up short, losing 18-25, 20-25, 22-25.
The volleyball season is painfully short, starting in late August; the end always arrives suddenly.
When you face a team as tall, athletic, and skilled as King Philip, you need your "A" game and Melrose played hard but not its best. Certainly some of that followed the relentless pressure of the King Philip attack.
KP dominated the first set with the principal positive Gia Vlajkovic moving into second place on the Melrose All-Time single season kill list.
Melrose sped to a quick lead in the second set at 6-1 only to see the Warriors gradually whittle it away until taking control late.
Melrose mostly played "uphill" in the third set, having chances but unable to capitalize. When crunch time came, KP continually made the big play and Melrose couldn't.
Commentary: Melrose didn't have a good season. It had a great season.
It played tough against a merciless non-league schedule.
The team went undefeated in the ever-improving Middlesex League.
It got excellent contributions from all six seniors.
Melrose beat an excellent Billerica club to get to the sectional finals and an undefeated Duxbury club on the road to win sectionals.
In the twenty plus years I've watched, broadcast, and written about Melrose volleyball, this team likely overachieved the most.
Coach Scott Celli did a magnificent coaching job this season and the players took the TEAM message to heart.
Gia Vlajkovic was the Freedom Division MVP and among the top few players in the league, including an Arlington player with a D1 scholarship.
Gia's otherworldly play tonight was the finest I have seen in a losing performance in a playoff game. I'll have more to say about that later.
"The Positive Dog" is one of my favorite books, about the power of positive energy. Everyone in my family (?) has read it and everyone in my office reads it.
Jon Gordon shares lots of other great concepts in his books.
"Audaces fortuna iuvat." - "Fortune favors the bold."
Too few stories celebrate examples of women defined by audacity. Learn some and carry them forward.
Wilma Rudolph, one of 21 children, suffered childhood polio at age four and had to relearn to walk and later run. In the 1960 Rome Olympics she won gold medals in the 100m, 200m, and 4 x 100m relay, setting three world records.
Arlene Blum led a 1978 all-woman team of climbers in an ascent of Annapurna, one of fourteen peaks in Nepal over 8000m. Annapurna was the tenth highest mountain in the world. Two women summitted and a second pair died trying. Women have the capacity to take the risks and consequences of high adventure.
Abbie Conant broke through a glass ceiling in 1980 in a blind audition for the trombonist position with the Munich Philharmonic. Women were excluded but the organizers expected "Abbie" to be a man and authorized the tryout. They spent a decade trying to remove her.
I am not in the prediction business. Let's examine the King Philip versus Melrose matchup with some help from Maxpreps.com.
When I think of Wrentham (home of King Philip), I think first of the Wrentham Village mall (haven't been there) and former Senator Scott Brown, a former resident. I need to get out more.
King Philip isn't a new arrival on the volleyball scene, having lost in the D2 semis last year to ultimate winner Hopkinton.
Both teams won their league titles, KP tied with Attleboro and Franklin (who lost to Barnstable in the D1 quarterfinals) in the Hockomock League. Melrose won the Middlesex League.
Both KP and Melrose have six seniors on the roster.
KP had a pair of losses, one to Franklin with whom they split and once to Attleboro, another top ten D1 team. Melrose lost to three number one seeds in their divisions, Newton North, Westborough, and Frontier, and its opening match with Peabody.
KP lost only 8 sets in their league during the season. Melrose lost 6 sets in the ML12.
Both teams play on a neutral court for the first time this season.
Both teams defeated their common opponent, Stoughton.
KP has three attackers with 200 or more kills. It's top two hitters have an impressive attack efficiency of at least forty percent. That usually reflects skill, height, and quality of sets. Melrose doesn't publish attack efficiency statistics.
On paper it's an attractive matchup, two proven teams returning to the Divisional semifinals in consecutive seasons with senior leadership and quality schedules.
If our job is about winning, have strong beliefs about why teams win. What do we have to do to win?
1. Talent. If we can't acquire the talent, make more. "Every day is player development day." As Don Meyer said, "do you want two better players or two better plays?"
1b.Ability to handle pressure. Strong teams share the ability to handle and apply pressure, both physical and mental.
Core - "Get more and better shots than opponents" - Pete Newell
Be present. Play the game possession by possession. "Win this possession."
Defense - "No easy baskets/one bad shot"
Offense - Share the ball, cut and pass, take good shots.
Conversion - O to D and D to O
Add value and get a buy-in to play "harder for longer."
Be "performance-focused and feedback-rich."
3. Culture (including attitude). "Basketball is sharing." Follow your dreams. Develop of culture of hard work, improvement, and belief. It's impossible to have a positive life with a negative attitude. Winning is a culture of expectation.
4. Unity (Teamwork/Trust). Put the team first. "It's the scoreboard over the scorebook." Be happy for the success of the team and the success of teammates.
5. Sacrifice. Defense shows caring about the team more than you care about yourself.
6. Conditioning. Pledge to be the best conditioned team in your league. Condition within drills and scrimmaging. Condition for excellence not punishment. Better conditioning adds resilience.
7. Effort. Effort has to be the norm and rewarded. "I'm not here to coach effort." - Dean Smith
8. Game understanding. Pete Newell said a coach's primary job is "helping players see the game." It's a teaching profession but you don' have to be a school teacher to teach.
9. Resilience. Winning is hard which makes it valuable. Playing hard is a skill. Confidence is a skill.
10.Strategy. "Technique beats tactics." Playing fundamentally well defines success.
