Becoming Your Better Version

“Better ingredients, better pizza.” - Corporate slogan

I often ask young people where they see themselves in the next five or ten years. I then ask what are they doing today to fulfill that dream. 

Better players make better teams. Ask how you plan to transform yourself. 

1. Imagine a vision of your future self. Be specific. Dream big. 

2. Develop a plan. Write it down to make it real. 

3. Establish habits (study, exercise, reading, writing) that advance your personal narrative. 

4. Apply those habits daily. As author James Clear (Atomic Habits) says, "don't miss twice." 

5. Track and monitor habit results. 

Use the study habits previously discussed, like Pomodoro Technique (twenty-five minutes on, five minutes off), 'spaced repetition', and self-testing. 

Share with others what you are reading beyond required work. I'm rereading John Pollack's Shortcut which explores analogies. 

AI Take on 'Shortcut'...

"Shortcut" is a book written by John Pollack that explores the history and significance of shortcuts in various aspects of life. The author delves into the concept of shortcuts as a means to save time, effort, and resources, examining their impact on human behavior, innovation, and decision-making.

Pollack shares captivating stories and examples of shortcuts from different fields, including science, technology, sports, and everyday life. He explores the psychology behind our fascination with shortcuts and why we often seek them out. The book emphasizes that shortcuts can be both beneficial and detrimental, depending on how they are employed.

Throughout the book, Pollack emphasizes the importance of balance when using shortcuts. He acknowledges the potential pitfalls and risks associated with taking shortcuts, such as overlooking critical details or sacrificing quality for expediency. He encourages readers to develop a nuanced understanding of when and how to apply shortcuts effectively.

"Shortcut" ultimately invites readers to reflect on their own relationship with shortcuts and offers insights into how shortcuts shape our lives, both positively and negatively. By examining historical anecdotes and contemporary examples, Pollack prompts readers to consider the role of shortcuts in their decision-making processes and encourages a thoughtful approach to navigating the complexities of shortcuts in various domains.

Lagniappe. Diving...you're doing it wrong.

Apply AI to Improve Our Coaching

Human performance expert Dr. Fergus Connolly argues that all coaching and training should impact winning.

Ergo, ask how to apply new or enhanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

For example, suggest ways to improve:

• Defending the outside hitter
• Blocking 
• Digging 

or whatever other areas translate to winning games against high level competition. This is consistent with the structure of improved skill, strategy, physicality, and psychology/resilience. 

Yes, this poses 'rhetorical' questions, yet AI gives dispassionate answers independent from the 'White Whale' framework. 

Here's an AI (ChatGPT) answer: 

Improving defense against outside attacks in volleyball requires a combination of individual skills, teamwork, and strategic positioning. Here are some ways you can enhance your defense against outside attacks:

1. Anticipate the attack: Encourage your defenders to read the opposing team's hitters by observing their approach, body position, and arm swing. Anticipation allows defenders to react more quickly and be in a better position to make a play.

2. Quick reaction and footwork: Emphasize the importance of quick reactions and agile footwork. Defenders should be able to move laterally and forward/backward rapidly to reach the ball effectively. Practice drills that focus on agility, such as ladder drills and cone exercises.

3. Proper positioning: Teach your defenders to position themselves in the right spot on the court to maximize their defensive coverage. Generally, defenders should align themselves with the attacker, a few steps away from the net, and be ready to react in any direction.

4. Communication and teamwork: Effective communication among teammates is crucial for successful defense. Encourage constant communication between players to ensure everyone knows their responsibilities and can coordinate defensive efforts.

5. Train defensive techniques: Work on specific defensive techniques, such as digging, rolling, and sprawling, to improve your ability to keep the ball off the ground. Focus on developing good body control, balance, and a solid platform when digging or passing the ball.

6. Increase reaction time: Incorporate reaction drills into your training sessions. Use tools like reaction balls or random ball machines to challenge your defenders' reaction time and improve their reflexes.

7. Video analysis: Review game footage to identify defensive weaknesses and areas for improvement. Analyze the positioning and movement of defenders to identify patterns and opportunities to adjust defensive strategies.

8. Scrimmage against strong attackers: Arrange practice sessions or friendly matches against teams or players with powerful outside hitters. Challenging your defenders with high-intensity attacks will help them improve their ability to read and defend against strong outside attacks.

9. Mental focus and discipline: Remind your defenders to stay mentally focused throughout the game. Encourage discipline and remind them to maintain proper defensive positioning even during intense rallies.

10. Conditioning and physical fitness: Good physical conditioning is crucial for effective defense. Improve your overall fitness, agility, and endurance through regular conditioning drills, such as interval training, plyometrics, and strength exercises.

Remember, consistent practice, communication, and teamwork are key to improving your defense against outside attacks in volleyball. Encourage your players to work together and support each other to achieve the best results.

Lagniappe. It's about the physics.

Work to Understand "The Other Side of the Trade" - The Echo Chamber

Expressions may inform more than one meaning. Consider "echo chamber." 

One meaning:

• noun A room or enclosure with acoustically reflective walls used in broadcasting and recording to produce echoes or similar sound effects.

Another definition: 

Our coaching "echo chamber" reinforces our core values or system:

• Teamwork, improvement, accountability
• Communicate on and off the floor.
• "The game honors toughness."
• "Do more to become more; become more to do more." 
• "The magic is in the work." 
• Take care of your business - family, school, then extracurriculars.

These are non-negotiable values, part of the conditional love that coaches and teammates share. 

But a negative echo chamber can have devastating negative impact. 

• Players can ostracize, harass, or haze a teammate. "She's different than we are." 
• A negative culture of seniority can take over the room. As coaches, we preach "this is not a union job." 
• Players can reject coaching. "We know what's best for us." 

The strongest teams are player-led. That demands exceptional maturity, collaboration, and commitment to each other's well-being. 

At another school during tryouts, a player's $20 bill disappeared from the locker room. After the workout, a team leader spoke up. "That is not who we are. Whoever did this, don't come back tomorrow." One player didn't return. 

Good leaders need good followers. Seek understanding, not validation. Do the work to understand both sides of issues. 

Lagniappe. Concentration warmup. Hoop ball.

 

 

"How Do You Know?"

We're 'wired' to believe what we hear or see. "Trust but verify." Perhaps the epitome of failure occurred during the space shuttle Challenger flight. A fuel leak around 'low thermal tolerance' "O-Rings" caused a fiery explosion. Engineering 'knew' yet nobody knew enough to reschedule the launch. 

The rhetorical question becomes, "how do you know?" By extension, coaches ask:

1) What's the best way to teach? 

2) What's the best way to learn? 

3) Think again that no one way may be best for everyone.

Considerations:

• Visual learning, watch video or demonstrations
• Attend a lecture 
• Participate in active learning (e.g. laboratory or project)
• Prepare and deliver a lecture

In Think Again, Adam Grant shares that students' grades rose 'half a grade' with active learning. Twenty percent of grades in his class came from student projects, lessons, or videos. One group of students did a brief "TED Talk" entitled "The Problem with TED Talks." 

How good is your teaching? Penn Professors learned feedback from student versions of Mean Tweets.

 

Have a goal not of "best practices" but better practices. 

Lagniappe. Be intentional in warmup. 

Doing the Thing Right or Doing the Right Thing?

After rescuing a stricken climber on Everest, Gelje Sherpa said, "money can be earned any time."

Adventurers pay over $50,000 for the privilege of trying to climb Mount Everest...or die trying. Sherpa guides receive a pittance for the responsibility of helping.

May is the month that offers the best chance of summiting, although deaths occur regularly during the climb.

Mr. Sherpa found a Malaysian climber near death in the 'death zone' of cold and low oxygen several thousand feet from the top and became the principal rescuer.

Few are called to make life or death decisions and even fewer have the physical and moral strength to do so. Professor Adam Grant describes givers, matchers, and takers on life's journey in his book "Give and Take." Givers make others better yet often prosper by doing 'the right thing' over doing things the right way.

As a student-athlete, you face choices to mentor and lead teammates or leave them behind. The Navy SEALs have a saying, "two is one and one is none." It means both work together and have a backup plan. Remember that "mentoring is the only shortcut to excellence." 

Work out with a teammate and two people improve. Challenge them to improve and improve both yourself and the team. 

Lagniappe. Excellent video on the subtle art of directional spiking. 

Who Are You Reading?

Whom should you read to learn, to think better? This is a central, profound question, probably something you should ask around. 

There are thinkers and there are talkers. A lot of whom you hear on media are talkers. You learn nothing, it's spin transmission. Sometimes you learn LESS than nothing because of false information.

Being on television a lot doesn't define you as a thinker. Get under the hood and hear people explain how a domain works. 

Coaching and writing are distinct skills. I've read basketball books by famous coaches (without naming names), that taught little about life or basketball. I let my time be wasted. That's on me. 

Exceptional coaches inform exceptional leadership. Serious people do serious things. Doris Kearns Goodwin explains how four great presidents - Lincoln, the Roosevelts, and Lyndon Johnson - operated. Johnson went to Everett Dirksen the GOP Senator from Illinois and talked about legacy. He told Dirksen that he could be part of the Civil Rights legacy by supporting the Voting Rights Act.  

Dean Smith's writings share how basketball works, that better shot selection required practicing shot selection. 

Michael Lombardi informs unusual insight into player evaluation and team development. His "Gridiron Genius" helps any coach in any sport. 

Bob Woodward excavates the dirt to unearth 'the best obtainable version of the truth'. He doesn't claim it's the whole truth, because that's unknowable. But he writes provable, documented (confirmed) truths. He also explains where and how to go off track. 

A Supreme Court clerk challenged Woodward about a passage in his book, The Brethren. Woodward invited him over and showed him the passage in the clerk's own handwriting. The clerk was dumbfounded. 

Adam Grant explains the value of unlearning and rethinking in Think Again. Keep a scorecard of what you rethought. He explains how teaching our children to think again matters. 

Neil DeGrasse Tyson distills ideas into value. If you asked him about investing in space exploration, he'd share that the US lip balm market is almost $800 million dollars. Is space exploration as important as lip balm? He'd share that his father said, "it's not enough to be right, you have to be effective." 

Newer isn't always better. Preparation and patience matter. In The Art of War written in the fifth century B.C., Sun Tzu explains that "every battle is won before it is fought" and "If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by." This literally happened recently in a regional conflict. 

Summary: 

• Think about whom you read. 
• Great coaching isn't synonymous with great writing. 
• Serious people do serious things. Study great leaders. 
• "Unlearn and rethink." 
• Find "the best obtainable version of the truth."
  
• Work to become effective, not just right. 
• Newer information isn't always better.

Lagniappe. 3 setting drills from Elevate Yourself. "It takes what it takes." 

Lagniappe 2. Remember the video about hitting down the line. This applies similar concepts about body openness. 

“Best Practices”

“Best practices” vary because it generates process versus outcome discussion. One area high school won consecutive state basketball championships. Their best player hails from far out of area. That’s becoming the rule not the exception. Talent aggregators earn notoriety as coaches. 

Own "practice accountability" over "outcome accountability." Outcomes are subject to a myriad of variables - talent, schedule, health, even luck. But coaches control tryouts, player selection and development, strategy, game planning, and so forth.

Ideally, the team entering the post-season evolved in cohesive consistency and 'toughness'. 

Process links to outcome nonlinearly. An “iceberg effect" exists as performance in higher stakes contests links to 1) talent and 2) offseason training. 

Grant writes, “Focusing on results might be good for short-term performance, but it can be an obstacle to long-term learning.” Weak scheduling doesn’t harden competitors. Young players' growth may propel them past upperclassmen.

“The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” Unreliable players tend to remain unreliable. 

Excellent coaches place team first. In 1986, Dave Stapleton usually replaced Bill Buckner defensively late in games. Bill Buckner’s critical error in the World Series occurred by varying from proven success. Eighteen years passed before the Red Sox won their first title in eighty-six years.

Commit to refining constantly. 

Lagniappe. Dig, roll, and recover. 

Pressure

"The wind blows strongest at the top of the mountain." - Stefan Edberg

David Hemery wrote in Sporting Excellence that with evenly matched teams, the one most likely to win is the one that handles pressure. Pressure degrades performance. Handling it well means less drop off from pressure. 

In our "core four", focus on skill, strategy, physicality, and psychology, meaning resilience or handling pressure. 

Former PGA pro golfer Lee Trevino explained, "pressure is playing a $5 Nassau with $2 in your pocket. 

Ask "how can I learn to play under pressure?" Three 'simple' ways are:

1) Sport psychology training like Jason Selk's "Ten-Minute Toughness" which involves controlled breathing, identity statement (who I am), mental highlight reel, performance statement (how I play), and additional controlled breathing. 

2) "Optimize activation" by using "pump up" or "calm down" music according to your mental needs. 

3) Mindfulness training decreases stress hormones, lowers blood pressure, and decreases heart rate variability. 

Part of handling pressure is "playing present" to focus on the 'here and now' to make the 'next play'. 

Women have long been underestimated. Tennis great Billie Jean King accepted Bobby Riggs' challenge before an Astrodome crowd and ninety million television viewers. King dispatched him 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

 

Pressure is a privilege. Bad teams have no expectations and no pressure. Be thankful for the opportunity to perform under pressure. 

Lagniappe. "Fast hands" 

Step 4: Resilience

Do. Not. Quit.

Remember four elements for success:

• Skill
• Strategy
• Physicality
• Psychology (resilience)

Resilience means different things 

- "Always do your best..." even when it's hard. 

- "Stay in the moment." Others say "next play" or "play present"

- Bring energy and energize teammates.

- Play "harder for longer" than opponents.

- Maintain an aggressive 'mindset'.

- Persevere through minor injuries.

- Metaphorically, be able to 'take a punch'. 

What techniques train resilience? 

• Conditioning. "Fatigue makes cowards of us all."
• Team spirit. "It's the scoreboard, not the scorebook." Believe the African proverb, "I can go faster alone, but we can go farther together." Remind yourself, "the strength of the wolf is the pack."
  
• Mindfulness. Train yourself to be more resilient. 

In "Ten Minute Toughness" Jason Selk favors performance and identity statements for his athletes. The identity statement explains "this is who I am" and the performance statement informs "this is how I play."

Say it and become it. Six years before it happened, a former Melrose player shared, "I will be the valedictorian." Mindfulness increases self-awareness and happiness.  

You can only be as good as your self-belief. Those who do the work know they deserve success by investing in themselves. Dan Pink teaches, "Do five more." Five more minutes studying, five more pages, five more sprints, five more lifts all add up. "Self-confidence is the number one variable for human performance. If your confidence is genuinely high, this is a really good sign that you will be performing or playing at or above your potential. If your confidence is low, it will be very difficult to perform successfully."

Lagniappe. Do the work. 

Lagniappe 2. 

• Focus
• Bend, "Let your opponent know, 'I'm here.'"
  
• Explode
• Press
• Squeeze

Analogies to Think Across Domains*

*Adapted from my hoop blog. 

Learn across domains. Analogies help us relate unrelated domains. Analogies help you to think better, think again. The great inventor Thomas Edison said the keys to inventing were imagination, persistence, and analogies. 

1. Work ethic...the iceberg. What we see in a player is the part of the iceberg above the water. Player development, unseen actions comprise the bulk of the stuffing inside.

2. The court is a laboratory. Develop a hypothesis, conduct experiments, and define results. I thought that run-and-jump defense (I like to call it trap and switch) would work well with our small, athletic soccer-playing guards. It didn't. 6-2 didn't work in the opening game last season. So you move on. 

3. Learn to fly. "Basketball is a game meant to be played fast." Developing transition offense or playing "The System" requires both mindset and practice.  

4. Get more arrows in your quiver. Empire of the Summer Moon informs the rise and fall of the Comanches. Their horsemanship was unparalleled. Comanche warriors, as early as teens, could wheel their horse around and deliver a dozen arrows with deadly accuracy in a minute. Aspire to add more and better arrows in your playing or coaching quiver. 

5. Put your program under a microscope. Examine both the big picture (the bird's-eye view - another analogy) and the granular detail. 

6. Help fix your program with a fine-toothed comb. The closely set 'teeth' on a comb have special value in removing parasites. Turnovers are parasites, flies in the ointment, a clog in the machine (more analogies). 

7. Season on the roller coaster or the merry-go-round? Coaching helps elevate both level of play and consistency. The roller coaster season speaks for itself. 

8. Sports leave scars. It's not war, but it leaves scars. Who among us has no leftovers from dislocated fingers, arthroscopic or open surgery, and more? It comes with the territory (another analogy). 

9. Volleyball is "Darwinian." Competition is 'survival of the fittest'. Darwin's quote is about adaptability and flexibility. Players adapt to the opponents, different styles of coaching, and also to the officiating. 

10."Junkie" equals addict. Are you a volleyball junkie, competition junkie, adrenaline junkie? "I can quit anytime." 

11.Most seasons end with disappointment. Either the Heat or the Nuggets emerges as the NBA champion. Most end with a postmortem examination, an autopsy. Nobody died except a team's dreams. 

"What never lies? The evidence." - CSI

12.Words have multiple meanings. A reporter asked football coach John McKay about his season, "how do you feel about your team's execution?" Coach McKay quipped, "I'm in favor of it." 

Lagniappe. Movements work across sports. "Turn and run" with a crossover step is used at cornerback, to steal bases, and on basketball defense. Many call this athletic movement "hip turn."

 

Lagniappe 2. Homework. Come up with one analogy to apply either positively or negatively. Imagine the story of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun. If our ego becomes untethered, it can lead us into dangerous territory. It's tricky. 

Attitude

"If they don't bite when they're puppies, they won't bite when they're grown." - Bill Parcells

"Control what you can control" - attitude, choices, effort. Everything begins with attitude. Players have different level of skill and will. Become a high skill, high motor player. 

Adopt an aggressive approach. Practice and play with force. Toughness is a skill. Remind yourself, "how you do anything is how you do everything."

"Crossing the red line." Ohio State coach Urban Meyer talked about crossing the red line onto the field. Make the statement about having complete preparation and full engagement once you cross the red line onto the court. 

"Get to," don't "have to." Get to do the hard work of strength and conditioning. Get to achieve in the classroom, earning a broader range of possible futures at work or higher education. 

In "Give and Take" professor Adam Grant explained how the most successful people operated in a world of givers, matchers, and takers. The higher performers function as ambitious givers. 

At your leisure, read this story about attitude. 

Lagniappe. Great tip. Forget "nicey, nicey." 

Lagniappe 2. Extract daily lessons from this brief summary of "Give and Take." 

Get Inspired. You Have the Illusion of Choice

“No mud, no lotus.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh #Quote #Quotes #QOTD #ThinkBIGSundayWithMarsha pic.twitter.com/66gUZ9J3vw

— vegy🍎power Ⓥ (@VegyPower) May 28, 2023

Power up. 

"Nothing works unless you do." 

"Do the unrequired work."

"Champions do extra." - James Kerr, in Legacy

"Old men grow great by planting trees in whose shade they will never sit." - Greek Proverb

When given an opportunity to improve, "say yes." Little frustrates coaches more than hosting workouts with almost nobody showing. 

"Never cheat the drill." 

"Do five more." - Dan Pink  (Read or write five more pages. Do five more sprints or reps. Make five more calls.)

"Always do your best." - Don Miguel Ruiz in The Four Agreements

"You can run with the big dogs or sit on the porch." 

"Are you investing your time or spending it?" - Nick Saban 

Lagniappe. 

• The illusion of choice
• Develop relationships.
• Finish. "It's about what you're willing to do."
• Communicate individually.
• Value second chances.
• Trust the process. 
• Set standards for yourself. 

 

"All I Ever Needed to Know"

Learn across domains. You learned sports lessons in kindergarten. 

Robert Fulghum wrote a best seller, "All I Ever Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten." Book banning is a smaller problem than lack of reading.  

Apply the lessons. 

Share everything. Share your time, energy, and experience with others. Be a mentor to younger teammates and be willing to listen to experienced voices. 

Play fair. Melrose volleyball won the MIAA Sportsmanship Award in the past. Be enthusiastic for each other. 

Don't hit people. Communicate. You run into problems when you run into each other. 

Put things back where you found them. Leave the gym in better condition than when you found it. Remember Legacy and the All-Blacks New Zealand rugby team and "sweep the sheds." 

Clean up your own mess. And another thing. "Were you raised in a barn?"

Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody. Every team runs into some rough patches in relationships. Say "I'm sorry." 

Live a balanced life. Sports are important but they follow family and academics in importance. "Take care of business." Another theme from James Kerr's Legacy is "better people make better All-Blacks." 

Take a nap every afternoon. LeBron James gets twelve hours of sleep a day. More sleep equals higher performance. 

LOOK! Everything you need to know is there somewhere. Be coachable. Your coaches will put you in position to succeed. 

Stick together. Everyone can't be a great player. But everyone can choose to be a great teammate. You're on a lot of teams, starting with your family. Not many people can put the team first all the time. But coaches and teammates remember those who can. 

Lagniappe. Keep line shots in play. Check your technique with cellphone video.

Mindset: "I Need This Job"

The difference between interested & invested players shows in the summer. Interested players need perfect circumstances(too hot/cold, no music, too busy). Invested players just need a place to work & get better (gym, track, weight room) & they do. How do you use your off-season?!

— Jon Beck (@CoachJonBeck) June 4, 2023

Coach Celli reminds players at the banquet that every job is open. You decide to 'kick the door down'. You need to 'really need this job'. 

Stand out at tryouts.  

• Don't be on time. be early. 
• Be enthusiastic. 
• Be vocal...communicate. 
• Hustle. Sprint to every activity. 
• Be in shape. Come to 'camp' in shape. 
• Commit to being your best self. 
• Seize your opportunity. 
• Wear bright colors. Don't hide on the court. 

Find a Mentor

Everyone benefits from mentoring. I'm especially grateful to Coach Sonny Lane, former Federal District Judge A. David Mazzone, and medical mentors CAPT Tom Walsh and CAPT Bill Baker. Life is a team sport. 

Let's share examples of mentoring. 

1. Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote "Team of Rivals," which explained how Abraham Lincoln beefed up his cabinet by enlisting political competitors. Preserving the Union outweighed the difficulty of working with opponents.

2. Mr. Rogers reminded viewers about teamwork. "Look for the helpers." Requests for help flatter the person sought. "Mentoring is the only shortcut to excellence." Some insecure coaches don't want help. They worry that others will seek credit for 'their' achievement. I've shared examples of how being a 'credit hog' hurts, such as polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk who never got a Nobel Prize or entry into the National Academy of Sciences because others perceived him as selfish. 

3. Basketball Coach John Calipari meets with a "Personal Board of Directors" periodically. He discusses ideas about basketball and life with them. Develop relationships and trust with others and they'll help each other grow. "I hadn't thought of that." Others help us ask, "what if?" 

4. Alexander the Great became great through the mentoring of the famous philosopher Aristotle, who benefited from the teachings of Socrates and Plato. The myth of the self-made person persists because of ego. 

5. Atul Gawande has written multiple great books - Better, The Checklist Manifesto, and Being Mortal. One of the best commentaries he wrote was "The Coach in the Operating Room" where he shares how a coach made him a better surgeon. 

Embrace help. Be a sharer of anything great. Be open to the possibility of being wrong. 

Lagniappe. Barbarians ask Tolstoy about the greatest leader:

“‘But you have not told us a syllable about the greatest gen­eral and greatest ruler of the world. We want to know some­thing about him. He was a hero. He spoke with a voice of thunder; he laughed like the sunrise and his deeds were strong as the rock and as sweet as the fragrance of roses. The angels appeared to his mother and predicted that the son whom she would con­ceive would become the greatest the stars had ever seen. He was so great that he even forgave the crimes of his greatest enemies and shook brotherly hands with those who had plotted against his life. His name was Lincoln and the country in which he lived is called America, which is so far away that if a youth should journey to reach it he would be an old man when he arrived. Tell us of that man.’"

Lagniappe 2. Be more efficient and faster to the ball.

Three Tips from Adam Grant on Rethinking

Adam Grant authored a marvelous book, Think Again. In the appendix he shares tips for better thinking, an executive summary.

Use these three tips to 'unlearn and rethink'. They serve you well at home, school, and sports.

1. "Think like a scientist." (Or like a detective...)

Resist the temptation to preach, to prosecute, or politick when promoting ideas. Newton North's volleyball program, SMASH, teaches 'intentional' hitting, emphasizing power and then adding direction and strategy. That's carried them to the upper echelon of Division 1 powers. 

Ask whether that's the best way or their way. 

2. Define your identity with values, not opinions. 

Communication can be opinion-driven or values-driven. In the Navy, we carried out investigations with a format:

- Facts - the who, when, what, how, why, and where.

- Opinions - this 'evolution' happened as a result of these circumstances.

- Recommendations - the actions or treatments did or did not follow protocols or standards. Possible remedies included the following... 

When senior officers would inform me of their opinion, I worked to understand how Navy values meshed with their opinions. A fellow physician told me about having to relieve a ship's Captain of his duties for cause. The individual's habits risked compromising the safety and well-being of the ship. Values drove action, not his opinion. 

3. Seek disconfirming evidence.

Am I wrong? Is there expert information on the subject? Form a hypothesis, seek experimentation, and decide what is true. For example, are safe serves or aggressive serves preferred? 

Confirmation bias is our use of information or readings that reinforce our opinion, as opposed to challenging it. If we only expose ourselves to 'more of the same' we can harden incorrect beliefs. 

Here's an AI take: 

In volleyball, both hard serves and safe serves have their advantages depending on the situation and the player's skill level. Here's a breakdown of the advantages of each type of serve:

Hard Serves:

1. Difficulty in Reception: Hard serves are powerful and fast, making them challenging to receive for the opposing team. They can put pressure on the receiver and potentially disrupt their passing accuracy.
2. Potential for Aces: Hard serves that are well-placed and difficult to return can result in aces, which means the ball hits the ground untouched by the receiving team. Aces earn points directly without giving the opponent an opportunity to attack.
3. Offensive Advantage: Hard serves can force the opposing team to play defensively, limiting their ability to set up an effective attack. This can give your team an advantage by disrupting their rhythm and preventing them from executing their desired offensive strategies.

Safe Serves:

1. Consistency: Safe serves, such as float serves or short serves, are aimed at minimizing errors and keeping the ball in play. They have a higher success rate in landing inbounds, reducing the risk of serving errors like serving out of bounds or into the net.
2. Strategic Placement: Safe serves can be targeted to specific areas on the court, such as serving to a weaker passer or exploiting a gap in the defense. By placing the serve accurately, you can limit the opposing team's options and force them into a less effective offensive play.
3. Set-Up Play: Safe serves can set up your team's defense by forcing the opposing team to pass predictably, making it easier for your teammates to read and anticipate their next move. This can lead to better defensive positioning and more effective blocking.

Ultimately, the choice between hard serves and safe serves depends on the player's skill level, the specific situation in the game, and the team's overall strategy. Skilled servers often incorporate a mix of both types to keep the opposing team off-balance and maximize their effectiveness on the court.

I have a bias, but what matters is what your coaches want based on their training and experience.

Lagniappe. Defensive details from a Team Canada libero