Patience

"Sometimes players tell me they are sick and tired of hearing me say that they must be patient and keep believing that if they do all the right things, the results they want will follow. That's just one more thing they have to learn to be patient about." - Dr. Bob Rotella in "Golf Is not a Game of Perfect"

Top of Coach John Wooden's Pyramid of Success

Ralph Labella and I coached Melrose's Lauren Joyce, who later attended Austin Prep and the United States Naval Academy. Her mother said that Lauren kept a laminated copy of the "Pyramid of Success" that we distributed in her gym bag. Lauren was a standout student and three sport captain -volleyball, basketball, and lacrosse player at AP. 

Flanking the top of the Pyramid of Success are the words "FAITH" and "PATIENCE." From 1948 to 1975, Coach Wooden's teams won ten NCAA National Titles at UCLA. They won their first in his 16th season there. He understood 'patience'. 

Overnight success is a myth. Patience and work fuel success. 

Patience implies waiting. "Wait your turn" or your time. Success comes not by waiting, but by working. We're lucky to have lamps with the twins having "bumped" the volleyball in the family room for so many years. 

From Wikipedia, ""Patience is a virtue" is a proverbial phrase referring to one of the seven heavenly virtues typically said to date back to Psychomachia, an epic poem written in the fifth century."

It is noteworthy that Benjamin Franklin's original 13 virtues, which he tracked in a memorandum book, did not include patience. 

Think of "patience" as a component necessary for fire - not the oxygen of family and peer support, or the burning substrate, or the heat of desire, but part of the fuel needed to succeed.  

Lagniappe. What are your volleyball affirmations, your self-talk? 

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You believe what you train yourself to believe. 

You can do 1-person 'pepper' at home. 

You can also work on your footwork and quickness.