Ambitious Try

This might be the most important volleyball article you'll read. 

Watch upper level soccer and commentators like Ian Darke say things like, "that was an ambitious try." That means "low reward" as in, they can't score from there. How about ambitious do?

Here's another set of quotes from the article about Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's sidekick. 

"Professionals win points. Amateurs lose them.

Professionals play a winner’s game – they win by being better than their opponent. The outcome is mostly within their control.

In a professional game, each player, nearly equal in skill, plays a nearly perfect game rallying back and forth until one player hits the ball just beyond the reach of his opponent. This is about positioning, control, and spin. It’s a game of inches and sometimes centimeters. This is not how amateurs play."

Exceptional teams win the points. They can't rely on the opposition giving them points. In the developmental settings of practice, scrimmages, and offseason play, craft ways to score more points. 

Return to first principles of 'scoring points'. 

1. Service, completely under your control. 

2. Blocking. The great Melrose teams always had "blocking power" that not only denied outside hitters points, but translated into points. Obviously, Sabine has been an impact blocker with athleticism and size. If you want a big role on MVB 25, become the next impact blocker. 

3. Attacking. Every season, 300 plus kills have to be replaced, this year mostly from Carol Higonenq and Sofia Papatsoris. Shockingly, only one MVB team ever had three players with 200 plus kills, 2005. Another way to earn the job is to "be that guy." The kills can come from the middle, the pin hitters, and sometimes from "pipe attacks." If I had to project who could become a back row attacker, I'd speculate on Elise Marchais, purely a guess. 

Nothing in the blog comes down on stone tablets. 

To become an exceptional team, become exceptional at winning points. 

Lagniappe. Pipe attack...

Skill, timing, athleticism.