Be Part of a Team

pic.twitter.com/ytBoM3LbmN

— PickandPop (@PickAndPopNet) April 14, 2025

You never know when your opportunity to make a difference will arise.  

"Not Without My Guys"

Watch this valuable video. 

What makes your MVB experience? It's not the number of wins or a statistic like assists, kills, or digs. Great teams have exceptional chemistry, team spirit. They enjoy being with each other in school, at practice, on the bus ride. They share joy. 

It's intentional that "Team Spirit" is one of the central building blocks of Coach Wooden's "Pyramid of Success." 

Melrose's Lauren Joyce didn't go to MHS, but she carried her laminated copy of the Pyramid with her each day in her gym bag to Austin Prep. Maybe she carried it with her at the United States Naval Academy. Maybe it hangs in her locker before she goes out to work each day as a Navy helicopter pilot. 

Team spirit makes all the difference. "Not without my guys..." 

 

Level the Playing Field

All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. Nothing within is the official opinion of any Melrose Department. 

Hi – I'm reading "Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World" by Adam Grant, Sheryl Sandberg and wanted to share this quote with you.

"...when I looked at the evidence, I was dismayed to discover that even today, speaking while female remains notoriously difficult. Across cultures, there’s a rich body of evidence showing that people continue to hold strong gender-role stereotypes, expecting men to be assertive and women to be communal. When women speak up, they run the risk of violating that gender stereotype, which leads audiences to judge them as aggressive." 

In other words, organizations often see men as assertive and women as "witches." Do the right things, the right way, all the time. 

Sport helps women's empowerment adding value to society and your community, regardless of your role. 

Everyone leads, directly or indirectly.  

• Always be on time.
• Be stretched out and ready to go when practice starts. 
• Listen actively. 
• Be positive. 
• Never be a distraction with poor academic or behavioral issues. 
• Never "bigfoot" underclassmen. 
• Know your identity (this is who we are) and performance (this is how we play).
• "Touch the line." Cheat the drill and you cheat the team. 
• Leave the gym better than you found it. "Sweep the sheds." 
• "Leave the jersey in a better place." Leave a legacy. 

Remember the Greek proverb that "old men plant trees in whose shade they will never sit." You have accountability to the present and the future.

The effort you show the little girls in the stands becomes the future standard. 

Lagniappe. You don't need a gym to practice footwork. REPOST. 

Code of Conduct

Good ideas from a basketball site

 

Resilience

"Every storm runs out of rain." - Maya Angelou

Adversity comes and goes. Often the key is to focus to prevent a drop of blood from becoming a torrent. Just as one bad pass can lead to another, a shanked receive can become a series of mistakes.

Focus allows players not to "double down" on errors. Watch any basketball game and see players take a bad shot or commit a turnover and then compound the mistake with a foul. 

In "Legacy" author James Kerr shares a secret of the New Zealand All-Blacks rugby team. Keep a "blue head," calm in the face of adversity, instead of the frustrated, angry out of control "red head." 

Top players recover instead of experiencing system failure, emotional meltdown. Play fueled by emotion not ruled by it.

Leadership requires you to bring teammates into that posture, too. That's not "it's okay" or "don't worry about it." Say "refocus" or "next play." Leaders carry on and carry their teams.

Lagniappe. Leading with a "blue head." 

Lagniappe 2 (video). Line attacks against blocks...

Better Listening

 

Listen actively. Listen to understand, not to respond. Listen with empathy, with genuine concern for another's position. The best leaders listen well and give constructive feedback (backward looking) and advice (forward looking). 

Build a Better Player

"Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right."

— Henry Ford 

Supposedly, a Ford engineer visiting a poultry processing plant came up with the idea of the assembly line. There's no assembly line turning out volleyball players in Melrose. If there were, what would belong?

Restated, how would you build a special player? 

1) The "competitive cauldron." Legendary soccer coach Anson Dorrance believes that competition drives excellence and has daily player performance rankings. How did I improve today?

2) Skill development. "Every day is player development day." Improve something every day. 

3) Athleticism. Athleticism, strength and conditioning, make you a better player and a more confident player. 

4) Confidence. "You can only be as good as you believe you are." Do the work to earn belief. The Yiddish chutzpah reflects audacity which can be either good or bad. The Romans said, "fortune favors the bold." 

5) Practice. Play a lot. This develops skill, game understanding, experience, and fosters "intuitive play" as players 'read' plays instinctively. 

6) Teamwork. An African proverb says, "we can go faster alone but farther together." Choose teamwork over selfishness. 

7) Mentoring. Along the way to becoming your own coach, learn from all the teachers and coaches around you.

8) Standards. Goals are aspirational. Standards reflect performance. Raise your standards. "Champions do extra." 

9) Do a 'software' upgrade. What makes that player, coach, or team effective? What one thing will make me better? 

Lagniappe. Don't guess. See. 

Reduce to Three

"One group is tasked with writing three good things about their lives; another group has to list twelve good things. Everyone expects the twelve group to be happier: the more blessings you count, the better you should feel about your circumstances. But most of the time, the opposite is true. We’re happier after we list three good things than twelve." - Adam Grant in Originals

A lot reduces to three, including the rhetorical technique of tricolon. 

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears." - Mark Antony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

"...duty, honor, country." Douglas MacArthur in his famous West Point address

"Teamwork, improvement, accountability."

"Dig, set, kill" became "pass, set, hit." 

Score with "serves, attacks, block-kills." 

Win with three dynamic hitters, a middle and two outsides are common although Melrose had two excellent middles last season. 

There's something magical about three. 

Lagniappe. Use it in your presentations. 

Not Average

"We all have a thousand excuses for why we don’t achieve our goals in life. There is one reason: because we failed to prepare properly. There are no excuses." - Erik Kapitulik, The Program

Being part of MVB means commitment to "not average." Excellence requires "more," more time, more discipline, more effort, and more will. Average players never make an MVB roster. 

Think about professional athletes. Most were the best player on their team for most of their lives. Even if they outworked others, they still have limits. 

Consider former Celtic Henry Finkel. He averaged 27 points a game in his senior year at Dayton, was selected an All-American, and became a second round NBA draft choice. 

He was a journeyman center in the NBA, traded to the Celtics in 1969. Later, he was understudy to Dave Cowens, helping the Celtics to an NBA championship in 1974. During his nine year NBA career he averaged five points and four rebounds a game. He is a champion. 

Don’t do the easy wrong; do the hard right.
You have to go against your nature.
It’s not in everybody’s nature to get up every morning & work.
When we don’t have a challenge, we are not our best. That’s what drives us." -Geno Auriemma
📽️@WDWconvo pic.twitter.com/cFDO5Isnuz

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) April 7, 2025

Excellence is hard. Do hard better. You're not average. 

Lagniappe. Develop 'refocusing' habits. 

"Develop better habits so that when we are under stress, we don’t have to make good mental or emotional decisions—we do them habitually." - Erik Kapitulik in The Program

Some refocusing ideas:

• Focus on a fixed point (e.g. a point on the net)
• Dot b. "Stop and take a slow, deep breath" (cleansing breath)
• Shake out your hands or dry them on your socks.

Everyone Can Lead

Leadership QOTD: pic.twitter.com/Cd1jT1SiNX

— Allistair McCaw (@AllistairMcCaw) April 8, 2025

Choose to lead, regardless of your age or status. 

• Energize teammates. 
• Be positive. 
• Support a 'team first' culture.
• Excel in your role.
• Never be a distraction. 

A Polarizing Figure, Coach Saban Simplifies Behaviors

Nick Saban with one of the best definitions of self-discipline:

(🎥@Elitesportsos) pic.twitter.com/PLPuNfoEaL

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) March 24, 2025

"Here's something I know I'm supposed to do that I really don't want to do...can you make yourself do it...here's something you know you're not supposed to do...can you keep yourself from it." 

Quotes don't make players. Actions do. Make choices that promote success. 

"We make our habits and our habits make us."

"Discipline defines destiny."

"Leave your comfort zone."

I heard it a thousand times. "There's nothing to do for us in Melrose." Don't make bad choices because you think you have none. 

• Alcohol impairs adolescent brain function, muscle function, and recovery after exercise.
• Don't text and drive. Studies also show that using your phone to send a text while driving can have the same effect on your reaction time as drinking four beers before getting behind the wheel. 
• Be intentional about sleeping at least eight hours a night. "Prioritizing sleep in athletes’ preparation and recovery routine is not an easy task."

There's One Way to Play

Are you playing to win or playing not to lose? #DailyWisdom pic.twitter.com/JuwS2pnceJ

— Ball is Psych (@BallisPsych) April 7, 2025

Historically, MVB is at its best against better competition. It's never perfect. "Chase perfection."

Every match has potential for growth. Even opponents who are not as strong present an opportunity to work on something - serving to zones, setter dumps, hitting off fingertips or try for tools at the pins. 

Step up in the moment. Against Lexington last year, Emme Boyer made a number of game changing plays. Leverage that experience, carrying it forward to 2025. 

Lagniappe. Play with purpose in your offseason volleyball. Have intent to improve every practice and every match.  

Get on Top of Your Mental Game

"The mental to the physical in basketball is four to one." - Coach Bob Knight

Ask players about their strategies to fortify their mental game.

Entrepreneur Sara Blakely shared in her MasterClass that her father asked the children each Saturday dinner, "what have you failed at this week?" Failure is our companion on life's journey. 

Kelvin Sampson said, "The first step on the ladder of success is always failure."

Growth starts when you stop avoiding failure - And start learning from it.

"Immature people don’t understand that there is going to be failure."

(@PawdSlamaJama) pic.twitter.com/sPWo8ciCPw

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) April 8, 2025

Examine a few well-known techniques:

1) Visualization. See yourself succeeding. In "Ten-Minute Toughness," Jason Selk proposed a three minute mental "highlight reel." 

2) Mindfulness. Most professional athletes and teams have a mindfulness program. Mindfulness reduces stress hormones, increases focus, and decreases anxiety and depression. 

3) Self-talk. We behave as we believe. Train ourselves to deliver positive thoughts, positive identity and performance statements. 

4) Body positioning. Expansive body positioning is controversial. Studies by Amy Cuddy show that increases in testosterone and decreases in cortisol (stress hormone) occurred after two-minute expanded body positioning. 

Actionable: a three minute "body scan" from Chat GPT

A three-minute body scan can be a powerful tool for athletes to enhance performance, recovery, and mental focus. Though often associated with mindfulness practices, a quick body scan is particularly useful in sports because it helps athletes develop body awareness, reduce tension, and improve movement efficiency. Here’s how:

1. Heightened Body Awareness

A short body scan encourages athletes to check in with their physical state—where they feel strong, where they feel tight, and how their body is positioned. This awareness helps with injury prevention by identifying small discomforts before they become significant issues.

2. Enhanced Recovery

By systematically relaxing different muscle groups, athletes can release tension built up from training or competition. A brief scan can promote muscle relaxation and circulation, aiding in recovery between efforts.

3. Improved Movement Efficiency

Athletes often carry unconscious tension in areas like the shoulders, jaw, or lower back. A quick scan helps detect these inefficiencies, allowing them to move with greater ease and coordination.

4. Increased Focus and Readiness

A body scan doubles as a mental reset, helping athletes clear distractions and direct attention to their bodies before a game or practice. This can be especially useful in high-pressure moments.

5. Stress and Anxiety Regulation

By pairing the scan with controlled breathing, athletes activate their parasympathetic nervous system, reducing stress and fostering composure.

How to Implement a Three-Minute Body Scan

1. Find a quiet space (or use it courtside or in a locker room).

2. Close the eyes (if possible) and take slow breaths.

3. Move attention from head to toe (or vice versa), scanning for tension, discomfort, or asymmetry.

4. Release tension where needed, adjust posture, and refocus.

5. Finish with a deep breath and a moment of intention-setting.

5) High, low, gratitude. Each evening review the day for event highs, lows, and gratitude. Highs reinforce our capabilities. Lows allow us to make physical and mental changes. A gratitude practice increases our motivation, resilience and positive culture. Shawn Achor advised the '21-day Gratitude Challenge'. Write down three things each night for which we are grateful. 

6) Stop sign. Don't double down. Pressure to perform often becomes anxiety. Anxiety can translate to mental or physical mistakes, tentative play, or sequences of errors. Think about how often one mistake (e.g. a turnover) turns into a second (frustration foul). 

Pressure degrades performance.  

Use more tools to reduce anxiety and improve play. 

Lagniappe. Great players do the work. 

Lagniappe 2. Lee Child explains Jack Reacher's mentality in Never Go Back. "When it comes to fear, my DNA is the same as anyone else’s. I trained myself, that’s all. To turn fear into aggression, automatically."

Lagniappe 3. Everything that matters requires quality decisions. 

With your children, when they disagree, be thankful. Don’t expect them to agree with everything. Decision making is lonely, suggestion making is simple, anybody can make suggestions. Decision making when it affects others is difficult. You have to do it with courage. pic.twitter.com/X2EkaQBMGu

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) March 28, 2025

 

Sports Character

Competence and character drive results. Sports character includes caring about your teammates, preparation, winning, and coachability.

The little things stand out!

• Eye contact
• Head nods
• Positive touch

How you receive feedback speaks to your character as an athlete. pic.twitter.com/h55Mk3Fajh

— PGC Basketball (@PGCbasketball) January 8, 2025

Culture and coaching provide sustainable competitive advantage. And these depend on both the implementation from coaches and the reception from players and teams. Don't tune your coaches out or roll your eyes. Listen and adjust. 

Lagniappe. Be coachable. 

Lagniappe 2. Leave your comfort zone. 

Craft Your Life

Shape your journey. The beauty of adolescence is the lifetime potential to craft a long, meaningful life.

Learn every day. Embrace gratitude and contribution. 

Here is advice from author Sahil Bloom from his "10 Favorite Ideas." 

1. Identify Situations: Identify the situations where you'd like to show up as the best version of yourself. This can be as big as performing in front of millions or as small as having dinner with your family after a long day. Any situation where you want to be your best.
2. Envision Your Character: Envision the character you would like to embody in each situation. What traits do they possess? How do they appear and interact? What is their mentality and energy level?
3. Get in Character: Nothing works without practice. Get yourself some reps by turning on this character in those situations. See how it feels to show up as your best self in these moments.

Remember that daily actions shape your identity. When you embrace this, your whole world changes.

Decades ago someone reportedly asked legendary journalist Walter Cronkite how to be trustworthy. He said something like, "act like you are trustworthy and eventually you will believe you are trustworthy."

The quote misattributed to Aristotle is Aristotelian. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is not an act, but a habit."

Visualize your MVB self and make her special. 

Lagniappe. Elite setting tips 

Appreciation for Teammates and Mentors

Learn from the examples surrounding us.

The power of teamwork 

The power of mentoring

“He's the basketball version of what we talk about with Pep — he has the ability to outcoach you tactically, manage the best players, manage talent.” 

The Power of Practice

You don't win 12 national women's basketball titles by accident. From his MasterClass, Coach Geno Auriemma discusses practice:  

Geno Auriemma: If you want to play a certain way, you have to practice that way.

If not, you are hoping you get lucky.

When you practice and train hard, you might slip, but it won’t be far.

(🎥 via: @MasterClass ) pic.twitter.com/ywXJ6zZ9at

— Coach's Diary (@ACoachsDiary) April 6, 2025

Powerful stuff. 

As a former coach, I loved practice. Practice is the laboratory, the proving ground where theory becomes reality.

"Make practice hard so games are easy."

Make practice competitive so you know who the competitors are, the kids you need on the court when it matters most.

"Don't cheat the drill." 

"You can't practice like hamburger and play like steak." 

"The best teams play harder for longer." - Dave Smart   Be that team. 

Years ago a coach asked why I kept hyping this kid, Cecilia Kay. Then he coached her for three days at a camp. "Best prospect ever to come out of Melrose." Make Coach Celli and the staff see you with 'coaches' eyes'. Make them put you on on the court. 

Earn the Love

Matt Campbell said, "If you fall in love with the process, eventually the process will love you back."

"You've got to be prepared for your opportunity when it's ready to love you."

The process tests your patience before it rewards you.

It means stay committed and prepared. pic.twitter.com/TXZjNdpSE3

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) April 4, 2025

Love to read. You'll read more and derive more from reading.

Embrace learning. You'll learn more and enjoy it more. 

Experience joy in doing the work. The work will pay you. 

Aspire to Toughness

What does toughness mean to you? It's not trash talk, standing over fallen opponents, or stare downs.

Tough players prepare, study opponents, train hard, and rise to meet challenges.

Urban Meyer shares the success equation. E + R = O

Event plus Response = Outcome 

Competitors want big outcomes and that means major events and big responses. 

Big responses require toughness. 

According to Kapitulik's The Program, here's who tough players are.

Master your habits. Make good "reads" leading to good responses. Be excited not anxious about the moments. Celebrate the opportunity to compete. 

Lagniappe. Make training hard with constraints, disadvantages (e.g. scrimmaging with scoring disadvantage), weight-loaded lunges and jumps. 

 
 

Own Your Athletic Development

Choose exercises that you will do - step ups, serial broad jumps, box jumps, whatever.

Record baseline measures (e.g. spike touch, broad jump) and remeasure after six weeks of training.  

Plyometrics in speed training pic.twitter.com/ERDe5iAdW6

— Fred Duncan (@Fred__Duncan) April 4, 2025

Life is about making adjustments. 

 

There Is No Cure

 

Image from Two Thoughts: A Timeless Collection of Infinite Wisdom

Players get in trouble when they say they are bored, that there is nothing here for them. As children we heard this a lot, "bored people are boring."

Tell them what you're going to say, say it, and summarize what you said.

You want improvement:

• Build skill (play and practice)
• Raise volleyball IQ (play, read, watch video)
  
• Become more athletic. Do the work. 
• Lift your mental game. 

Imagine that you live surrounded by an apple orchard. And then you tell me "I'm not hungry" or "I don't like apples." Apple turnovers? Apple crisp? Apple pie? The Baby Apple (pancake)? 

Whether it's volleyball, math, or psychology, knowledge surrounds us. But we have to pick it. 

Lagniappe. This is culture. 

Pat Riley said, "A culture is simply a shared vision of what it is you want to do to get to where it is you want to go."

Culture isn’t what you say—it’s what you reinforce daily.

It's shaped by your actions and what you allow.

( 🎥The Why with @DwyaneWade) pic.twitter.com/lG0m32wQSi

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) March 21, 2025

Lagniappe 2. Coach Dave Brady told the player. "I'm the second most hated person in the Middlesex League. You're the most." She was All-League in the Middlesex League twice, the North Shore Volleyball Player or the Year, and an All-State player. Toughness plays.  

More on Toughness

"Our ultimate success in mountaineering (and life) is based not on our performance when everything goes well, but rather in those moments when little or nothing does; when we are faced with adversity." - Erik Kapitulik et al. in The Program

Toughness is a skill. Commit to becoming tougher than you are and tougher than your opponents. Tough players and teams summon the physical and emotional resources to do more when adversity arises...which it always does.

Part of toughness is elite physical conditioning. 

1) Make conditioning part of your training. Long rallies and long matches require conditioning. 

2) Toughness is focus, "being where your feet are." Focus allows you to read and execute "low probability" plays. 

The 2022 team showed maximum resilience during a postseason match with Billerica. 

Set 4, Melrose leads 23-22. Ruth Breen slows an attack, Emma Desmond makes a running one-handed save going out of bounds, and Chloe Gentile gets a kill with an athletic adjustment. 

3) Toughness is doing what must be done, the right way, when it needs to be done. Go back to the video. Watch the bench. They are engaged. 

Toughness means doing the work. Toughness means leaving your comfort zone. Toughness means sacrificing what you want now for something you want more later. 

Be conditioned. Learn to anticipate plays and get to the spot. Be focused and relentless. 

Lagniappe. Be coachable. 

Add Value to Expand Your Role

Great players don't desire the star role.
Great players focus on starring in the role that their team needs.
Most players want to be the best, but many fail to figure out how to be the best at what the team needs to win. pic.twitter.com/vnOUq6fXXU

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) April 3, 2025

"There is always a pecking order." - Erik Spoelstra, Miami Heat coach

"Star in your role." Whether you are the 'star player' or a role player, know your job and add value to the team. 

• Make your teammates better to impact winning. That is the ultimate mark of exceptional players.
• Put the team first.
• Be a great teammate, positive and encouraging. 
• "Always do your best." 
• Have a great attitude and be coachable. 

 Lagniappe. Follow these guidelines. 

~ via @CoachBobStarkey pic.twitter.com/N9V27uAQlL

— Coach the Coaches (@WinningCoaches) April 2, 2025

Are You Ready for More JEOPARDY? Offseason and More

Jeopardy has been a longstanding quiz show favorite, first premiering on March 30, 1964. The current syndicated version has aired since September 1984.

As you know, your answers should be in the form of a question.

Let's play JEOPARDY (from JeopardyLabs.com) 

Make Your Own Jeopardy Game with JeopardyLabs!

Why Not Get on the Bandwagon?

Baseball season is here. Volleyball season is coming. 

Reasons to play/watch MVB

• Positive culture, superior player experience
• Fun
• Sustainable competitive advantage - exceptional coaching
• Winning - 1 state title, 10 sectional titles, TNTC league titles
• (TNTC = too numerous to count)
• Player development track record (19 All-State players)
• Watch elite young women athletes 
• Every play results in scoring

Image from MVB Instagram

Lagniappe. Playing the low ball. The hips are below the ball on contact.  

Post #4500 - Things Worth Having

Getting a great education - hard.

Graduating with honors - hard.

Navigating successful relationships - hard.

Raising a family - hard.

Achieving your athletic goals - hard. 

"Most things in life-that are worth having-are hard.
You have to work for it.
The other side of hard is usually something really good, but most people can't push through it."

Many want to be great, but few want to do what greatness requires.
That’s the difference. pic.twitter.com/4QsItT2CHh

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) April 2, 2025

Do hard well. 

The Most Important Time in Your Life

All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. Not an official publication of any organization. "Excellence is our only agenda." 

Seize the power of today. Invest in yourself. In math, English, or history class ask "what did I learn today?" and "how can I apply this going forward?" 

Read great books. Director Werner Herzog shares a simple message. "Read. Read. Read. Read. Read." The opening line of Anna Karenina summarizes the following 1205 pages. "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Understand that topic sentence. You can skip the rest.  

People ask, "what books do you highly recommend?" Jon Gordon's Positive Dog resonated about the power of positivity. "The Boys in the Boat" weaves a narrative about the Great Depression, the rise of fascism is 1930's Germany, and the true story of a boy who grows up to row for the 1936 US Olympic team. 

Then, "What are you reading now?" I always read multiple books, currently "The Innocent" by David Baldacci, "Originals" by Adam Grant, and "The Program" by Eric Kapitulik.   

Learn every day. "Learn five things every day and soon you know a lot." Of course at your age you learn far more. Once volleyball was summarized as "dig, set, spike." That evolved to "pass, set, hit." Score with service, attacking, and block-kills. Read the play to CARE - concentrate - anticipate - react - execute. The only way that matters is how your current coach wants it done. 

Make friends with the dead. Only about seven percent of the people ever born are alive today. Ignoring the wisdom of past lives misses out on a lot. Look up Eleanor Roosevelt, Frances Perkins, and Herstory. 

Sport is a microcosm of life. Your primary team is family. You have other teams - school, community, volleyball, workplace. Years ago I complimented Kayla Wyland to her parents. Her mom said, "she's every bit as nice at home." How you do anything is how you do everything. 

Choose to invest your time instead of spending it. 

Summary: 

• Read great books. 
• Learn every day.
  
• Make friends with the dead. 

Lagniappe. Become an original. 

Making Decisions

Your effort today tells your coaches everything they need to know about how prepared you are to help the team tomorrow.
Great teams aren’t made of players who get what they want — they’re made of players who give what’s needed. pic.twitter.com/w9fKoHrbgP

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) March 31, 2025

With a little more than four and a half months until tryouts, how can players get the odds on their side? 

1) Commitment. Commit to Anson Dorrance's continual ascension. Should volleyball be important to you? That's entirely your call. 

2) Collaboration. "Look for the helpers." - Mr. Rogers  It's hard to do the work unless you know what work is needed. Find an MVB resource or another player to attach yourself to like a remora on a shark. Watch and learn from the shark. 

3) Command. Work to master the fundamentals. Make consistency your brand. Refine the relevant core skills - serve/receive, attack/block, set, and pass. Break them down into the pieces such as footwork, armswing, et cetera. Then play as much as you can. 

Lagniappe. There is no secret.

 

Be a Curator of Wisdom

All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. Not an official publication of any organization. Blame no one else. 

Acquire and share accumulated wisdom over your lifetime. Webster's definition of curator includes: "a person at a museum, zoo, etc. who is in charge of a specific collection or subject area."

Here's an excellent collection of concepts from Dave Kline: 

21 leadership lessons I revisit weekly (you should too) pic.twitter.com/GMAZUUKdJp

— Dave Kline (@dklineii) March 30, 2025

Several particularly resonated:

1) Set high standards. Believe your team will meet them.

2) Reasonable people will draw different conclusions without a shared picture of excellence. (Making a team is not enough...chasing excellence is a shared vision)

3) Small feedback given regularly is coaching. (Coaching is not criticism. Coaches mentor players and teams to translate process into excellence.)

4) Subtracting is 10x harder than adding. Which is what makes it 10x more valuable. (Do more of what works and less of what doesn't).

5) Your culture is the sum of everything you celebrate minus everything you tolerate. (What we tolerate sets the floor of achievement.) 

6) Trust people with the truth. (Coaching advances players and teams toward the truth.) 

7) Your team will mimic your actions before they follow your words. ("Your actions speak so loudly I cannot hear a word you say.")

8) It's not real unless it's written down. (Be clear and concise. Share.)

Benjamin Franklin informed these in seven words. "Well done is better than well said." 

When you find someone who shares productive content, check in. There may be more than one nugget in that stream. 

Lagniappe. Loaded jumps will increase your block touch. 

Lagniappe 2. Martin suggests ways to make warmups fun, competitive, and productive. 

  

 

Coaches See Everything

Geno is talking about recruiting MUDITA.

Finding players who…

- Play with joy
- Love the game
- Are WE-first not me-first
- Celebrate their teammates

Are getting harder to find.

ATHLETES: Body Language screams.

Coaches are looking 👀.pic.twitter.com/LmBoacCiFT

— Greg Berge (@gb1121) April 1, 2025

As I've discussed, "mudita" means being happy for others' success. "Your joy is my joy."

Nobody enjoys being around negative, self-absorbed, sulking people. Your energy and enthusiasm impacts your teammates. Energize yourself and your teammates.

It's common for players who had success at a young age to expect immediate success in high school sports. It's also variable. Dominating against thirteen and fourteen year-olds doesn't always translate to dominating seventeen, eighteen, even nineteen year-olds who are bigger, stronger, faster, more experienced. 

Years ago a Middlesex League basketball team (not Melrose) was favored to go deep in the playoffs. The day before the tournament, a girl "stole" the boyfriend of a teammate. The team fractured immediately and lost their opener. One and done. 

Stay humble; stay hungry. Be team-oriented and be a great teammate. Your coaches see everything. 

Becoming Your Own Coach

Mike Leach said, "Everybody can work harder than they think they can."

"Everybody's a little better than they think they are."

Growth starts when you push past what you thought was your limit.

Great coaches see your greatness before you even realize it's there. pic.twitter.com/mmqD1LkRAr

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) March 12, 2025

Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden didn't win his first championship until his 16th season. Excellence takes time. And work. You don't read the same books as a first grader or write like one.

Years ago on a steamy Sunday night at Horace Mann School, I taught Cecilia Kay reverse layups. It wasn't pretty. The next Sunday she had figured it out. In the State Championship game she made two. This week she was named to the Patriot League All-Rookie Team. 

Anders Ericsson emphasized "deliberate practice." He discusses this in this Harvard Business Review piece. 

Expertise is made. "All the superb performers he investigated had practiced intensively, had studied with devoted teachers, and had been supported enthusiastically by their families throughout their developing years. Later research building on Bloom’s pioneering study revealed that the amount and quality of practice were key factors in the level of expertise people achieved."

"The development of genuine expertise requires struggle, sacrifice, and honest, often painful self-assessment. There are no shortcuts."

Two possibilities emerge. "This is too hard" or "I will do this." 

Here are the facts. Coaches don't choose teams. The players do. The coaches don't choose who gets the minutes, the role, and the recognition. The players do. It's up to you.  

Lagniappe. Always warm up before starting practice. You don't need hurdles. Imaginary hurdles work fine. Draw a chalk line. 

4 Plyometric Drills For Athletes pic.twitter.com/y2eAkwPkLC

— Joey Bergles (@JoeyBergles) March 12, 2025

Lagniappe 2. Author and playwright David Mamet has a phrase inscribed on the back of a new wristwatch. "What hinders you?" Everyone makes that choice. 

 

Everyday Lessons (Print and Save)

How to build a Great Reputation pic.twitter.com/cCuBbE603c

— Always Keep Learning (@AlwaysKeepL) March 23, 2025

Use your high school student-athlete experience a training ground for character and competence. 

Character allows you to do the right thing all the time, not just when it's easy or convenient. 

Competence means having the intellectual, physical, and emotional skill that drives high performance. 

Integrity, excellence, and accountability make a winning combination. 

Lagniappe. Karch Kiraly looking for "fleen" serves. 

 

Belief

Believe in yourself. Believe in your coaches. Believe in each other. Belief makes amazing results happen.  

I just think belief is really way more important than people think. Your belief in your team and your team’s belief in each other no matter what’s stacked against you, that you can find a way to win. These guys really do look at each other with a lot of confidence and know they… pic.twitter.com/OpmVOTWxUu

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) March 28, 2025

Metaphorical Fight

Team records depend on multiple factors - talent, performance, health, luck, scheduling. MVB always faces tough non-league competition. "Iron sharpens iron." 

Be the team that always shows up to fight, not run.

Last season's playoffs at Longmeadow, Melrose showed up a bit undermanned but brought the fight in a 19-25, 26-28, 25-17, 21-25 defeat. Sofia Papatsoris and Sabine Wenzel combined for 40 kills against a team that had lost only three sets all season. 

Limited highlights are available.  

Athletes choose the fight or something less. Competitors "bring the rain" in metaphorical fights.

In 2005, Melrose trailed 2-0 in the State Championship and fought off triple match point to extend the contest. 

Notice several features on this video:

• the powerful hitting approach of Medfield's Molly Barrett
• the spectacular point at 23-21 where Jen Cohane got concussed as she hit the floor. MVB players are strewn on the deck like bowling pins
• the remarkable hand-eye coordination of setter Amanda Hallett...how she picks the ball off the net
• the comeback from 16-23 was one of the great sequences of Melrose volleyball, possible because the coaches believed in the team

Stay in the fight.