Aiming High Matters

Here is a great video that speaks to our ability to achieve what we are actually capable of! We are big fans of those who shot for perfection. Chances are you will end up achieving quit a bit.

The "Eyes" Have it - part 2

Reading is the premier skill in volleyball. A few posts back we presented some volleyball specific research about eyework and a great article about eyework in baseball. Here is a video clip about eyework and the althete is a star soccer player. This video highlights the importance of eyework and the associated cognative processes. It also uses the same eye tracking hardware as the study we posted previously. They preform two eyework tests and the second test results blew our minds!

Parents and Mindset

Liberty Mutual has a program that is unfortunatley not to well know. It is call Responsible Sports and it is sharing the most important messages in sports. Having a growth mind set and learning to manage adversity in a health way is one of the most powerful lessons this program promotes. Here is a video of a USA national team player and Silver Medalist Courtney Thompson talking about the perspectives she brings to volleyball because of her parents. Courtney has a clear list of priorites that every player can learn from.

 

 

 

The "Eyes" Have it

Here are a few things that look into the “Visual” aspect of motor learning and performance. Volleyball is a visual –motor game and coaching a player’s vision is of the highest importance. Image how well you could play if a had been coached on how to see the game as much as you had practiced the movements of the game .

Article one from SI: Click Here

Research about passing and digging Click Here then open the pdf

Sustained Effort Matters

There is an interesting article on the Harvard Business Review site, which details the most effective strategies for achieving success. The author list nine possible strategies in order, the strategies that are most impactful are listed at the top. To see the article, click here. This work is the follow up to a previous article, which explains how the author’s research revealed nine strategies. To see the first article, click here.

The punch line of this is work is that persistence is king. Having the ability to stick it out good or bad will help you prevail over your challenges. Goal achievement and skill mastery are the result of effort; they are not accomplished with some mythical talent you’re born with.  Here are few quotes we enjoy about effort.

“Success is dependent on effort.” – Sophocles

“Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.” - Winston Churchill

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” – Confucius

“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my lord do you learn.” - C. S. Lewis

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” - Mahatma Gandhi

“Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.” - Napoleon Hill

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.” - Napoleon Hill

 

Seeking Greatness

A friend of our club is always saying that people just do not know how to commit. To find some one who will stay focused, pay the price, and forgo all the distractions of life, is rare. To give a sustained effort is very difficult, and it seems that work ethics often falter when there are challenges. That being said, for those with a growth mindset it is the effort and intention that counts.  Here is a clip from a very inspirational movie of a man whose commitment has produced amazing results. We highly recommend this film!

Here are few quotes we love and we think Jiro would to:

“the essence of boredom is to be found in the obsessive search for novelty. Satisfaction lies in … the discovery of endless riches and subtle variations on familiar themes” - George Leonard

“At the heart of it, mastery is practice. Mastery is staying on the path” - George Leonard

In this clip you will gain a greater understanding for how Jiro views work and what keeps him motivated.

Helpful Perspectives

Here are a few articles that every player and coach can benefit from. The first is from Dr. Rick McGuire, it's about managing your focus during competition. We have posted some work by McGuire before and we are still big fans of his work.  Click Here 

The second article is by on of McGuire’s students and it is about goal setting. This is a great read for an athlete and his comments are really on point. We strive to get 1% better with each skill we perform at each practice. The article by Rich has a similar theme and it explains the benefits of this approach nicely. Click Here

Lastly, on the subject of perspective, here is a video clip about making mistakes. All too often coaches find that their efforts aimed at improving results, teaching productive work habits, and advancing learning becomes derailed by defensiveness. This defensiveness is often rooted in the athletes fear of "being wrong". "Being wrong" is the moment you realize you have been making a mistake. For some, the only thing worse than knowing they were wrong, is realizing everyone else is aware of their error as well. Many players have been socialized to have a "fixed mindset" and their perception of mistakes becomes destructive to learning. One of the goals of our staff is to help players learn to love corrections and to see the opportunity for change once our errors are understood. We will all make mistakes and our focus must be on improvement. To keep making progress at a high rate we must be willing to face our messy reality and learn from our mistakes, for as the saying goes " to error is human". I hope that this clip will improve some perspectives and allow players to open up to the potential for change that exist in learning when we were wrong.