Adding Value

 “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” - Benjamin Franklin

Adding value is a concept across sport, education, business, and life. Add value to get buy-in, trust, and loyalty. 

Dismiss the big lie of 'self-made man' theory. "I came up from nothing. I had nobody, no money, no resources, nothing." Professor Cornel West says it well, "born into the world, our first expression is a cry for help." 

Share lessons from each collaboration. We add value across multiple dimensions. Be specific. 

Community

• "It takes a village to raise a child." - African Proverb
• Community is a vital part of Servant Leadership
• "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." - John F. Kennedy, inauguration 1961    

Action: How do we engage better with our community? 

Administration (Athletic Department)

• The best way to get respect is to give it. 
• Anticipate when and how our decisions will create waves.
• Choose collaboration over confrontation. That doesn't mean there won't be "walk away" issues.

Action: Cultivate great relationships with the AD.

Coaches

• Professional develop of assistants is also part of the job.
• Development includes education, delegation, and soliciting their input.
• We are sales people. Obsess the product. "Make it. Sell it. Build brand awareness." 

Action: How does my action impact assistants?

Players

• How does it feel to be coached by me? "Never be a child's last coach."
• Everyone gets coaching, "caring and challenging." Brad Stevens says to be "warm and demanding." (Radical Candor of Kim Scott)
• Give and get feedback. Remember to be "performance-focused, feedback-rich" to create advantage.

Action: Be relationship-oriented AND task-oriented. 

Parents

• Remember the "Prime Directive" that nobody advocates for a child more than parents. Their chief concern is almost universally the well-being of their child over the good of the team. 
• Be mindful of "The Triad." Parents are concerned about minutes, roles, and recognition. That makes them human, not bad. 
• Consider "The Empty Chair" concept of Dan Pink. Be aware that in our 'directors' meeting' there is an empty chair for our customers. 

Action: Be mindful that hard conversations are inevitable because of economics - the deployment of limited resources. 

Lagniappe. Saban's two questions. 

1. Will I do what I must do to be my best? "Can you make yourself do it?"

2. Will I avoid doing what I shouldn't be doing? "Can you keep yourself from it?"

Quick Hitter - Squats Versus Lunges

This article examines technique and value for squats versus lunges. 

Remember the context of sport improvement:

• Skill
• Strategy
• Physicality
• Psychology

Do whatever it takes. 

Becoming Antifragile

"Antifragility is a property of systems in which they increase in capability to thrive as a result of stressors, shocks, volatility, noise, mistakes, faults, attacks, or failures." - Wikipedia

Can we become stronger after trauma in sport? 

• Physical development (e.g. muscles)
• Resilience process (learning how to come back from adversity)
• Transformation from experience (the 2012 team won a championship in part from lessons learned in the Finals defeat in 2011). 

Clear thinking comprises an important part of antifragility. 

Clear thinking verifies the accuracy of facts, takes 'point of view' and bias into account, and considers consequences. 

Clear thinking takes ranges of probable outcomes into effect. Some factors are not independent variables. Imagine you have the best hitter in the state but your setting is mediocre or impacted by injury or illness. One affects the other. Hitting is 'fragile' with impaired setting. 

"Options" promise outsized payoffs for low frequency events. Put options on a market represent "insurance" or a "gamble" on a market crash. Life insurance is a put option on one's life. Insurers spread their risk over many customers.  

What are examples of teams becoming 'less fragile' but not antifragile?

1. Create depth. Solid reserves reduce risk. 

2. Create balance. Overreliance on fewer players creates risk. 

3. Be able to play a variety of styles. 

4. Have strong development and offseason programs. 

5. Have input from a capable coaching staff. 

Lagniappe. Work on process. Without rain, we have no rainbows.

 

Lagniappe 2. Can AI make us antifragile? (AI input)

Antifragility is the concept of being able to not just withstand, but actually benefit from, unexpected and challenging situations. While AI can certainly aid in analyzing and predicting certain aspects of sports performance, it may not be able to fully assist in achieving antifragility in sports.

The reason for this is that antifragility often requires a combination of physical, mental, and emotional resilience, which can be difficult for AI to replicate. While AI can provide data and insights on an athlete's physical performance, mental and emotional factors such as motivation, grit, and adaptability may be more challenging to measure and optimize.

However, AI can still play a role in helping athletes become more antifragile by providing real-time feedback and insights during training and competition. For example, wearable technology and sensors can track an athlete's movements and provide immediate feedback on their technique and performance, allowing them to adjust and improve their approach in real-time.

Additionally, AI can be used to analyze an athlete's performance history and identify patterns or areas of improvement, allowing for targeted training and development. This can help athletes build up their physical and mental resilience over time, which can ultimately contribute to their ability to thrive in unexpected and challenging situations.

Overall, while AI may not be able to fully achieve antifragility in sports on its own, it can certainly be a useful tool for athletes looking to improve their performance and build up their resilience over time.

Be Good at What We Do a Lot

How does a team excel? Execute fundamentals at a high level.

Never leave fundamentals:

• Serving
• Digging
• Passing
• Setting
• Attacking
• Blocking

Not all skills belong equally to each player. For example, in basketball, a short point guard shouldn't invest major minutes in post play. Full time defensive specialists won't be blockers. 

Tailor your training. If you don't see yourself in the serving rotation, then don't expend huge minutes in practicing serving. If you're a short defensive specialist, then don't invest time on front row attack or blocking. 

Every player benefits from platform skills, strength, agility, and conditioning. Choosing not to work on those means choosing to be less effective. It's your choice.

"I want to play all-around." Many top Melrose players played front and back row, served, attacked, blocked, set, and defended. In the past few years Elena Soukos and Gia Vlajkovic played all-around at high levels. In the remote past Karen and Paula Sen, Hannah Brickley, Jen Cain, Victoria Crovo, and others have. The disadvantage if you're an attacker is expending energy on defense. The best answer is develop multiple skills and let Coach Celli sort it out.  

Sarah McGowan had the skill to play all-around but teamed with great back row players like Jill MacInnes, Allie Nolan, Amanda Commito, and Jen Cain, Sarah got to expend more energy on attack and service. The coaching staff 'figures it out' to deploy players best. 

Lagniappe. Serving basics including simple footwork, toss, and contact tips. 

 

Comments on Competing

Melrose won ten sectional titles and a state championship in twenty years. Have the will to compete and the humility to be gracious in victory and defeat.

The hard work of your families, coaching staff, and players allows Melrose to be "in the conversation" most seasons. 

Outstanding players such as Victoria Crovo never had the good fortune to win a sectional title. Success depends on many factors including talent, health, luck, and whom you play. 

The goal is always to win the final game of the season. Giannis comments that Michael Jordan played fifteen years and won six titles. Losing the other nine meant failure? Dean Smith won a pair of NCAA titles as coach at the University of North Carolina. He explained that he never felt that he was a loser because they hadn't won a title. 

John Wooden's "Pyramid of Success" defines success, "Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming."

Ask whether you did your best, prepared, and competed to the best of your ability. It gets back to developing skill, implementing strategy, and being physically and psychologically your best. "Repetitions make reputations." 

Success works from the top down AND the bottom up. Communities decide whether athletics, music, art, robotics, and other extracurricular activities have value. Schools hire the coaches they feel will best reflect their philosophy to create cultures of success. As an individual, you decide how much work you'll do. Nothing works unless you do. 

No Ball Workout

You don't need a gym or a ball to work out. 

Explosiveness, combining power and acceleration play. 

 

Expectations Are Non-Negotiable

"As the twig is bent, so grows the tree." 

As a boy, Nick Saban worked at his father's service station washing cars. His father taught him to do it perfectly. If he didn't, his father had him wash the whole car again. Saban became a creature of habit, driven for perfection. Do it right the first time, every time. Set the bar high. 

Do you aspire to make the team, to contribute, or to impact success? 

• "Best way for you to improve is when you make a mistake."
• "Nobody talks back to a coach in this camp."
• "We are not criticizing you. We're trying to teach you." 
• "Teach me. Tell me how I can do it better."
• "You need to listen." 
• "You have to stick with things."
• "We don't want to see any negative body language."
• "What are you selling? What are you telling the guy you're playing?"
• "Be positive."
• "Overcome adversity."
• "It's not going to be easy."

How you do anything is how you do everything. Attend to details.

Melrose volleyball graduates go places. 

Lagniappe. Pay attention to symmetry. Score more on service or by defending service better. Better serve receive optimizes the next attack.

 

Quick Thoughts from a Video

Stay open and 'fresh' to new ideas. I am NOT an expert. Here's a video on defense...

Find ideas that you agree with and those with which you disagree:

• Keep the ball up! 
• Play the ball high (but under the ceiling) 
• Use the middle of the court. That depends, I think.

Challenge yourself. "Is that the best way? Is that true? How does it apply to our situation? 

Serve Pros

Few sports have the defense initiate play. And volleyball isn't the same as baseball as the server can score.

Melrose often uses 'designated servers' with a specific role, such as Leah Fowke last year.

What is the 'risk-benefit' of attack serving? Accurate attacks don't always mean hard serves or risky serves.

Brooke Bell scored with "rotten grapefruit" (short float) serves sometimes. Have you tried to return a rotten grapefruit? 

Alyssa DiRaffaele had a combination topspin/sidespin serve that proved nightmarish for opponents. 

The 2012 state title team got mileage from hard, low serves from Cassidy Barbaro. 

Elena Soukos, like Fowke, was another player with impactful hard serves in more recent seasons. 

Some coaches want to capitalize on hard serves and others prefer higher percentage float serves. What nobody wants is a high percentage of service errors. 

Listen as well as watch to know when you hit the center of the ball. 

Leading Minds - Eleanor Roosevelt and More on Serving Options

All opinions in the blog are solely my own. They do not reflect those of the City of Melrose, the School Department, Melrose High School, or the Athletic Department.

"In spite of a lack of special talents, one can find a way to live widely and fully...I have had only three assets, I was keenly interested, I accepted every challenge and every opportunity to learn more, and I had great energy and self-discipline." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Mentioned with the death of Harry Belafonte were his friendship with a pair of leaders profiled in Howard Gardner's Leading Minds - Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King. It was coincidental as I reread parts of Gardner's book. 

Part of my coaching ethos includes women's empowerment stories, such as adventurer Arlene Blum and labor advocate and first Cabinet member, Frances Perkins. 

Leaders impact thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. In other words, they exert influence. Leaders make leaders. 

Gardner described three types of leadership - ordinary, innovative, and inspirational - Roosevelt fell into the latter. 

Eleanor Roosevelt held special significance in American history, as perhaps the most powerful and beloved First Lady, although not without detractors. Some wanted a quieter, more passive First Lady, objecting to her prominence, her platform, or both.  

Roosevelt was a strong advocate for the dual role of women during WWII both as workers and often as heads of households. She supported Civil Rights in a time when that was unpopular, advancing the cause of Black Americans in the military, the workplace, and home. 

Later she became an early representative to the United Nations. Journalist Raymond Clapper called her, "the most influential woman of our time." 

A Gloucester fisherman said of her, "she ain't dressed up and she ain't scared to talk." 

Gardner described a key message of hers, "reach out and try to help those who are less fortunate." She was highly principled, resigning from the DAR when they refused to let black contralto Marian Anderson sing in Constitution Hall in 1939. She listened and cared for people, sending support and sometimes a check. 

She understood her critics. "Every political woman should develop a skin as thick as a rhinoceros hide." Her life deserves study as an inspirational leader for both women and men. As student-athlete leaders, consider how you impact others. 

Lagniappe. Serving options. One of the most underrated servers in Melrose history was Alyssa DiRaffaele with a standing topspin 'slider'. You don't need a jump serve. DiRaffaele literally demolished Lincoln-Sudbury with her service game. 

Lagniappe 2. Topspin serves. 

Lagniappe 3. The 2011 sectional highlights. Note the use of hitting angles. 

 

Productivity

Investing our time or spending it?

During World War II, the efflux of men into the military created a shortage of industrial workers. Women stepped in an became 60 percent of the workers in airplane manufacturing and shipbuilding.

Managers asked, "how are these women going to be able to operate these complex machines and tasks? How will they impact productivity (what is accomplished in a given time)?" 

Women INCREASED productivity. Managers surveyed employees to find out how. "Women asked questions." 

Where can productivity arise? 

"Possession enders"

• More aces
• Higher attack efficiency 
• New sources... e.g. setter dumps (unlikely to be high volume)

Defense 'sustainers'

• More digs 
• Elite blocking (attack disruption)

Reduce the opponent's strength (e.g. by defending outside attacks) or attack the opponent's principal weakness (e.g. weak defender) are alternatives. Limited scouting may prevent that. 

To earn bigger roles and make contributions to the team, "ask questions." Understanding productivity is a start. 

Lagniappe. The legend, Karch Kiraly tells players to find more solutions. 

Study Video

 Short video 

You’ve seen many setups here. 

• Note the steps - medium, long, short
• Note the launch and arms thrown back
• Note the arm swing preparation 
• Note the follow through

You can practice a lot of this without a gym.

Radical Candor (Plus Volleyball IQ)

Coaching is about relationships. MasterClass professor Kim Scott suggests ways to manage hard conversations with her term, "Radical Candor." 

She uses a '2 x 2 matrix' to assess communication style through "care personally" and "challenge directly." 

At our best, we are in Brad Stevens terms, "warm and demanding" equaling RADICAL CANDOR. 

At our worst, uncaring and confrontational we use OBNOXIOUS AGGRESSION. Two problems with obnoxious aggression are 1) ineffectiveness and 2) personal hurt. 

MANIPULATIVE INSINCERITY results in backstabbing, passive-aggressive behavior, or political malfeasance. 

RUINOUS EMPATHY results when we care but fail to tell people what they need to know. It's silent failure. 

Scott recommends using the framework for better conversations, not to 'name names'. 

She asks us to consider, "how can I be better?" Don't see managers, peers, or subordinates as enemies. Not engaging, not communicating is not an option. 

Coaching is the art of communication through connection, teaching, psychology, reassessment and revision. 

Critical components:

• Education changes behavior. 
• Engender loyalty through trust, trust through caring.
• "Speak greatness" by doing the work of inspiration.
• Be accurate and specific. 
• Use feedback sandwiches, "Kiss me. Kick me. Kiss me." 

Skill development can be a form of "pure coaching," impacting winning without game management. 

Candor may bump up against reality. Economics is the 'allocation of scarce resources' which occurs during coaching. The limited resources are minutes, role, and recognition. Coaches navigate those waters based on experience and personalities. 

The AI Take: Radical Candor is a management philosophy created by Kim Scott, which emphasizes the importance of providing honest feedback to employees while also showing that you care about them as individuals.

Radical candor involves giving direct and constructive feedback in a way that is both kind and clear. It encourages managers to be truthful and transparent while also showing empathy and concern for their team members.

Radical Candor is based on the idea that creating a culture of open communication and trust can lead to better results, stronger relationships, and higher levels of job satisfaction.

Lagniappe (something extra). Raise your volleyball IQ. 

Lagniappe 2. A little too much standing around for my liking... 

"If You Want to be Good..."

The opinions expressed in this blog are solely mine. They do not represent the City of Melrose, the Melrose School Department, Melrose High School, or the Athletic Department. 

"If you want to be good you really don't have a lot of choices. It takes what it takes." - Nick Saban, Alabama football coach

Nick Saban is a polarizing figure...staunch supporters and determined detractors. I get it. 

He's famous for winning National Championships and developing NFL players. He's less well-known for raising over half a billion dollars for the University and attracting among the most National Merit Scholars of any public university. 

Some of you will become accomplished volleyball players; others will not. Regardless of where you are in the journey, ask yourself whether you did your best. 

Lessons from a Hockey Legend

Learn across disciplines. Scotty Bowman won nine Stanley Cups as a coach and was the winningest coach in NHL history.

One of his key principles was always trying to improve himself, using Flyers' coach Fred Shero as his model. 

“Try to find out as much as you can about what is working and what isn’t working.”

All-Time goaltending great Ken Dryden wrote a book on Bowman and challenged him to name the eight top teams in hockey history and discuss why..."sharing his insight on players, strategies, tips on how he would coach with and against these players and lines combinations." Studying opponents was a major Bowman concept. 

We don't get all the answers we need, "What did Scotty see that others didn’t? What did he know that others didn’t know? How did he find ways to last so long?" Dryden says that winners want to play for winners. 

Not everyone likes Bowman (an understatement). "Bowman’s motivation can, at times, be described with one word — if that word is “psycho” — yet his team plays better than any other team has in decades." 

He understands psychology. "He felt young Sergei Fedorov needed a kick in the pants, so he acquired Larionov, 35, an esteemed, soft-spoken Russian — and a guy Fedorov adored — to turn Sergei around."

Learn from the legends:

• Improve ourselves
• Find what works and doesn't 
• Study opponents
• Winners want to be with winners
• Be a little 'psycho'
• Understand psychology

Lagniappe (something extra). Even if you haven't read the book (Toughness), you'll get the main points here. 

Lagniappe 2. Multifaceted drill with a priority on defense. 

Separate Ways

Separate yourself from the pack. You can't outperform by doing the same things as everyone else. Kevin Durant wakes up asking himself, "how do I get better today?"

Return to your performance matrix:

• Skill
• Strategy
• Physicality
• Psychology

Be intentional. Be specific. Brad Stevens grabbed video of over a thousand games, studying the final four minutes (strategy). By examining what worked and didn't, he developed strategies on playing those 'crunch times' better.

How much can you improve your vertical jump? The article contains tips and suggestions. 

Strength workouts that include squats, lunges and deadlifts will give you the ability to jump higher. Aim for 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions each.

You don't need expensive equipments.

• Strengthen quads with step ups on a stair.
• Lateral jumps work over a 12 inch newspaper stack.
• Lunges don't require any equipment. 
• A gallon (jar) of wet packed sand weighs about 17 pounds so you could make your own 'weights' with an empty milk jug. 

It doesn't matter what you say you'll do. Nothing works unless you do. 

Lagniappe. Volleyball drills you can do at home. You don't need a gym or a partner. 

Lost in Translation

Part of team culture is unique language. I don't know the local volleyball lexicon. But there surely is one. 

Some words are hard to define and have to be studied and experienced.

Zeitgeist, "the spirit of an age." For example baseball followed the "Steroid Era" with "the Analytics Era" and may be in transition to a new era with fewer "true outcomes" (walks, strikeouts, homers) and more balls in play and speed. The volleyball Zeitgeist is about athleticism and faster more powerful play. 

Gezellig. Gezellig has no 'literal' English translation. It has meaning in Dutch society as a special intimacy with a group or community. Special teams experience 'gezellig' of togetherness, unselfishness, and shared meaning. 

Duende. Duende has been applied to magical or almost mystical figures. Writer George Frazier applied it to sports figures. Some discussed duende in term of Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant in the 1970s. Pele in soccer, Big Papi, and Mets reliever Edwin Diaz had duende. Charisma would be a synonym although perhaps less emotional.  

Why it matters. Many are called but few are chosen for greatness. A great chasm divides ordinary and extraordinary. Bridging it requires athleticism, skill, work, and luck. Control what you can control. Do the work. 

Lagniappe. You don't need a gym or expensive equipment to practice footwork. 

Life Rules: Guide to Hard Conversations

Everyone has hard conversations. Kim Scott reminds us that understanding begins at the listener's ear not the speaker's mouth. 

Having always coached girls, I believe in complete transparency... contact the players via the parents, open practices, open pre- and post-game conferences. Develop your own policy. 

1. "Anger can be a potent fuel but it does cloud the mind."- Sherlock Holmes in Elementary

Have a "24 Hour Rule." Widen the space between hard events and hard conversations. More time allows more clarity and more nuance. Remember Lincoln's "hot letters," never signed, never sent. 

2. "He said, she said." Always have hard conversations with another adult in the room. Narrow the gap between what is said and what gets said. 

3. Be specific. Accusing a player of a bad attitude or poor effort is serious. Share examples and suggest a path for improvement if the relationship is to continue. 

4. Get feedback. Sustainable competitive advantage follows "performance-focused, feedback-rich" culture. Effective communication doesn't have street signs. It flows both ways. 

5. "Never discuss another person's child with a parent." Our coaching contract is with each individual player. It is the infrequent parent who values the team first and can praise other players dispassionately while seeing the limitations of their own. Don't poke the bear. 

6. "Look for the helpers." - Fred Rogers  Sometimes an issue and a conversation are so daunting that we not only feel helpless, we are underpowered. While maintaining needed confidentiality, ask a trusted colleague for their thoughts. 

7. Remember the 'Prime Directive'. If parents don't advocate for their child, who will? The triad of "minutes, role, and recognition" underlie most dissatisfaction. 

8. Secret agent man. Agree to hear secrets only when willing to maintain them. 

9. Listening is an art. Listen for content, for context, and for ways to apply what we hear. Imagine a coach says, "would you consider using a matchup zone?" We could reflexively say, "No" or ask for more details about why the suggestion and for pros and cons. "LISTEN FOR IDEAS, AS WELL AS FACTS. Instead of getting lost in a string of disassociated fragments, make an effort to understand what the facts add up to by relating them to each other and seeing what key ideas bind them together."

10.Most big problems begin as small ones. See them and act to defuse or limit them. Assistants and team leaders are invaluable in helping us avoid blindspots. 

Hard conversations will be there as surely as there is always Pietra being robbed to pay Paula.

Lagniappe. Whenever possible, work out with a partner. Partner practice improves multiple people, builds camaraderie and competition. Get to the top ten percent of players and drag someone else with you. 

 

Develop Your Personal Brand

Branding offers opportunities to increase your 'footprint' and for some to monetize their platform.

Kris Jenner is synonymous with brand expansion with over 44 million Instagram followers. Expand our 'Circle of Competence' using her MasterClass. 

I knew an ICU Physician Assistant who asked everyone for one tip or core value. My brand is "Learn and share." It could be a book, website, quote, movie, recipe. Anything. 

Ideas are future currency. Each of us has tens of thousands of ideas daily. Identify and share some of the best. 

• Learn every day, crossing disciplines. 
• Be a "learn-it-all" not a "know-it-all." 
• Use analogies to leverage creativity. Find "escape velocity" from ordinary.
• Be a builder not a destroyer.
• Create better habits like reading, journaling, and growth mindset. "We make our habits and our habits make us." 
• Steal. "Good artists borrow; great artists steal." - Picasso  
• "Advance the story" as "the film is made in the editing room."

Study 'industry leaders'. Read great biographies and biographers like Walter Isaacson who wrote, "Einstein," "Benjamin Franklin," and "Leonardo da Vinci." 

"What science teaches us, very significantly, is the correlation between factual evidence and general theories, something well illustrated in Einstein's life."

Learn and share. 

Lagniappe. Here are my notes from her second lesson. 

Lagniappe 2. "Power tip." Think about a 'change up' from a full attack to a solid tip that looks initially like a full swing. Two Melrose players who used variations on this were Hannah Brickley and Sarah McGowan. 

 

Speaking Greatness

Being an ATHLETE today can be Hard.

The words we tell our kids & athletes are critically important.

Here are 10 "phrases" that ALL ATHLETES need to hear.

THREAD [🧵}

— Greg Berge (@gb1121) April 18, 2023

Athletic careers fly by. Some teammates become lifelong friends. Others don't have that privilege. We lost a high school teammate when he was thirty-six years old. 

It's as a easy to be kind as clever. The Greg Berge account above recommended these ten statements to athletes:

1. "I believe in you." (There's nothing more powerful to an athlete, a friend, or a child.) 

2. "I love watching you play." (Share the joy.)  

3. "Do your best." (Remember the fourth agreement of The Four Agreements... "Always do your best.")

4. "Be great at what you are good at." (Focus on your strengths.)

5. "Love your teammates." (Life is too short to commit to rivalries.)

6. "Next play." (Don't let one bad play bleed into the next series of plays. Also known as "Be here now.")

7. "Make memories." (Coaches help take teams where they cannot go by themselves.)

8. "Pass the mirror test." (Do you respect the person in the mirror?)

9. "Lead by example." (Model excellence.)

10."Lead out loud." (Be a connector and a communicator.)

Lagniappe. "Pass-set-tip" drill to build multiple skills and involve a lot of players. 

"To Go" Tuesday

Having "ups" is a "Holy Grail" skill. After your warmup, there's value to becoming a more explosive athlete.

It's your 'school vacation' so there nothing keeping you from working on your physicality.

The video demonstrates: 

• "Depth jumps"
• 'Kneeling jumps' with variations (pop, broad, lateral)
• "Maximum jumps" 

Remember, working out with a partner builds skill, relationships, and competitiveness. 

Avoiding Mistakes

Charlie Munger (above) says avoiding being stupid is a skill. 

"Negative Thinking" has power, too. Knowing what "not to do" is part of the Pareto Principle, the 20% of action has 80% of benefits. 

Think about 'simple' mistakes:

• Skill/decisions - stay out of the net, avoid overaggressiveness on downballs, no 'campfires' via bad communication, no foot fouls on serves, no rotation errors
• Strategy - do more of what works, less of what doesn't...if setter dumps or opposite attacks aren't working, why? 
• Physicality - strength and conditioning are year-round
• Psychology - strengthen or repair resilience through mindfulness

What destroys teams? 

• Culture failure..."Me" overpowers "us" 
• Complacency. "I'm good enough. We're good enough." 
• Deafness. Teams stop listening to coaches.
• Inconsistency/overconfidence with hitting and service errors.

Lagniappe. At home. 

Lagniappe 2. Common setting mistakes. 

Lagniappe 3. More wisdom from Charlie Munger:

"If all you succeed in doing in life is getting rich by buying little pieces of paper, it's a failed life. Life is more than being shrewd in wealth accumulation. A lot of success in life and business comes from knowing what you want to avoid: early death, a bad marriage, etc.

Just avoid things like AIDS, racing trains to the crossing, and doing cocaine. Develop good mental habits." 

Non-Negotiable

Stick with the fundamentals. Wyc Grousbeck introduced an aerospace engineer (my wife Ellen) to Brad Stevens. Stevens answered, "Well, basketball's not rocket science."

Ignore the noise. Volleyball season is too short to miss "the signal." Know what's non-negotiable.

1) "You own your paycheck." Your readiness determines your minutes, role, and recognition. Be ready every time you 'cross the red line' onto the court. Be stretched out, mentally focused, and ready to go. 

2) Be in condition. Exceptional players are highly conditioned. Be able to play five sets in the late summer heat. 

3) Build skills. Everyone benefits from "platform skills" to serve receive, dig, and pass. (See the bonus material today). 

4) Study the game. Study and copy great players. Websites to follow:

• Art of Coaching Volleyball
• Elevate Yourself
• VolleyCountry

5) Become more physically explosive. 

• Step ups
• Lunges and reverse lunges
• Side jumps
• Tuck jumps
• Jump rope (helps with conditioning, too)

6) "Character is job one." Take care of business at home and in the classroom. Be a great teammate. Be an "AND" player not a "BUT" player..."she's a good player BUT..." 

Lagniappe. Coach Jiri explains the benefits of wall drills. 

Lagniappe 2. Conditioning drills.

 

Double Bonus: Do the Work

"Champions do extra." 

Post 2600. Do. Not. Quit.

The opinions expressed in the blog are solely mine. Do not blame the City of Melrose, the Melrose School Department, Melrose High School, or the Athletic Department. 

As a coach, I valued our teams being worthy competitors. Serena Williams described a match in Asia, trailing 0-5, her opponent serving for the set, up 40-15. Serena told herself, "I can't lose this point." She ultimately won the point, the set, and the match. 

Each year brings a new team. And each team must learn how to win. 

Melrose enjoyed great comebacks through the years, most recently against Billerica in the 2021 sectional championships. 

Comebacks arise by "playing present," remaining engaged, and focusing on process rather than on result. 

In 2011 Melrose had an epic comeback to win at Central Catholic despite trailing 23-13 and 24-16. For years Central had become the "white whale" of the program. 

Melrose achieved the comeback scoring 11 kills over its final 13 points from trailing 23-15. They fought by winning points. 

Most of the top "early history" games didn't involve epic comebacks. This 2011 post chronicles some of the best matches. 

Not every comeback yields a win. In a State Title loss in 2005, Melrose trailed Medfield 0-2, 16-23 and rallied to win the third and fourth sets. Jen Cohane sustained a concussion during the comeback. Do. Not. Quit. 

Lagniappe. Teams with high ambitions need technically sound blocking. 

Court zones