Stolen Lessons (Print and Save?)

"Good artists borrow; great artists steal." - Picasso

Coaching disputes an alleged Einstein quote, "Imagination is more important than information." Most coaches learn at the feet of mentors who learned from their mentors. 

Arkansas basketball coach Mike Neighbors is both a bookworm and student of coaching. He shares a lengthy article on 25 stolen lessons. Here are excerpts from his Off the Court Top 15.

"Your players want to know that you care about them. They want to feel secure and confident. They want to feel that you care more about them than the outcome of the game/season/career. You want to feel the same way about your “coaches” don’t you? Don’t you want your administrators to be supportive of you when you make your mistakes?"

Excellent coaches earn that reputation because players respond - they listen, work to do what's right, and do it right again and again. 

"There are numerous things you can do… Situation Cards were our best use of time. We developed a “deck” of 52 cards. Each card was printed with a time/score situation. At some point in each practice, a player would draw a card, read it everyone else, then we would divide into teams with one team executing from the offensive perspective and the other from the defensive perspective."

Bill Belichick called them, "Gotta have it situations." Three obvious ones are: 

• Coming back, close and late and trailing
• Closing out sets, close and late and winning
• Getting off to solid starts in decisive sets

Situational practice matters. 

"Gary Blair told me to start a file in 1999 labeled PAYCHECKS. In that file went notes from players, coaches, parents, or fans that made me realize how lucky I was to be doing what I was doing. It was labeled PAYCHECKS to remind me that it wasn’t about the low pay or the long hours that coaching requires. It is great for those days when something doesn’t go right and you need a pick me up."

Thank you notes stick with you. They remind us that "coaches get more than we give." You never know when you may not get a chance to thank a person whom you want to thank.

"Keep what YOU do simple." 

Simple is hard. There's a "hard-to-resist" pull to do more instead of being exceptional at what we do a lot. If a magic genie gave me a volleyball wish, I'd ask for better blocking the pin hitters. 

"We all know that TALENT is the starting point… Great Lou Holtz quote… “I’ve coached teams with good players and I’ve coached teams with bad players. I’m a better coach when I have good players.” Making the MOST of our TALENT is our charge as coaches. It’s what we are paid to do."

Teams do well when all the players want to succeed as much as the coach wants to succeed. MVB doesn't have any "hobbyist" players. There are a few players who excel at other sports, but nobody on MVB is a casual participant. 

Lagniappe. Why champions win. 

I come back to this video every once in a while pic.twitter.com/stIVusmXBA

— Mindset Machine  (@mindsetmachine) April 6, 2026

Lagniappe 2. Serving tips...including the "Big Hand"...Karch Kiraly discusses that