Action and Example...

Leadership.

We hear this word brought up in every team sport, from pee wee leagues to  juniors to the Olympics and Professional Leagues.

We listen as coaches praise their team leaders, players who pay homage to those leaders and in some cases, when teams don't fulfill promise, it is often due to a lack of leadership.

John Kessel's coaching philosophy has been culled to just three words: "Develop amazing leaders!"

So why is it so hard to find them? Some schools have developed leadership academies. Some teams have leadership councils. Leadership in that buzzword that helps separate elite teams from the average.

Scanning the media world from the last few weeks might help us understand why.

The Arizona Cardinals lost their first 2022 playoff game last Sunday. Immediately after, their on the field leader, quarterback Kyler Murray was skewered by the punditry. The highest paid voice on ESPN called Murray's performance, "Atrocious!" He was labeled "too short" and that he "choked."

A couple of things to bring to light. First, the Cardinals posted an 11-6 record, the best record for the team since 2015. Murray missed a few of those games with an injury. As late as Thanksgiving, Murray was mentioned prominently by this same media that spent the week eviscerating him, as an NFL Most Valuable Player favorite! 

To his credit, and as a leader should, Murray took responsibility for his play, calling his play "disappointing." He gave credit to the Rams and made no excuses. He was being the leader of his team.

His coach, Kliff Kingsbury, was the Coach of the Year favorite in December. He was hired just three years ago, compiling 5-10, 8-8 and 11-6 seasons in his first three years. That in itself shows a definite trend upward. However, after the loss to the Rams, the calls for his firing began. 

What a difference a month makes. Or maybe, a loss? One loss...

The Los Angeles Lakers, perhaps the premiere franchise in NBA history, was supposed to contend for a title this season. They added an all-star point guard to a team already with the best player in the modern era, Lebron James and one of the top 10 players in the league, Anthony Davis. This team won the Championship two years ago and adding Russell Westbrook would certainly put them on top again.

However, with the Lakers playing just .500 ball this midseason, and Davis injured for the past month, everyone is blaming their leader Frank Vogel and James for their dyer situation. Calls to fire Vogel are mounting. James is blamed for helping build a team that doesn't seem to work. While he can't be fired, the media blitz is relentless.

Even the youngest of players hear and see these criticisms. They are hard to miss as "content" becomes the bedrock of modern attention. It doesn't matter the people in positions of punditry have never played professional football or basketball, have never been in the locker rooms or know these coaches and players personally, it only matters that they make headlines spouting their ill conceived opinions for all to hear.

So why would anyone, ANYONE want to step into this maelstrom?

They don't. 

For every leader being pummeled by the unintelligencia, there are others out there that have shown amazing leadership. But that isn't news. That doesn't drive likes and sell ads. We love the dirt. 

How Karch Kiraly lead the women's USA team to a gold medal victory in Tokyo last year is a model of leadership. So too is the "Gov," Jordan Larson. the veteran on that team who put together zoom calls during the pandemic to keep the team together, who worked as hard or harder than anyone on the team to be in the best shape of her life for the competition and who appropriately killed the gold winning point for this country's first Olympic gold for a women's team. 

What about the leadership shown by Lora Webster during the women's sitting Paralympic march toward a repeat gold medal? A calming voice, a mentor and mediator, she helped the team overcome their anxiety before the Games and their confidence during. Leaders are made, not born. 

Every exceptional leader is different. Some call attention to themselves while others show humility and grace. They compliment others and stay out of the spotlight. Some are vocal and directive while others are quiet and lead by example. Sometimes a leader is born out of a life changing event or a part of their life that was a struggle. 

It's no secret that humans don't like to be criticized. It often enlists a backlash of animosity and negative feelings. And leaders must endure this from time to time. Yet, every day is a new journey. Every match, every game, every serve is something different to learn from, take from and lead with. 

Make it a priority. Give your team leadership opportunities before, during and after the season. Show them that criticism can be helpful, and that the carping from the uninformed critic is just noise. Help them learn to separate the valuable from the din. 

"Leadership is not a position or a title, it’s action and example." Donald McGannon.

Let the search continue!

PROactive, not REactice coaching at next week's practice...

 The official week one is in the books. 

Many of you played this weekend and much was learned. As a coach, you began to conjure up the next few weeks practices and what to work on before or on the drive home.

The team served terribly, so Monday will be serving practice for an hour and a half and the conditioning, working on shoulders and arms since we can't seem to get a ball over the net or in bounds.

Or maybe our passing was rough. Forget about the fact we were playing teams that were maybe older and better than we were, but come Tuesday's two hours, we will break down passing again! Starting on our knees so we know what a platform should look like! Then tossing balls to partners or maybe even the coaches tossing the balls so our players learn to move their feet, all the while calling out all the things done wrong over the weekend's play!

Sound familiar?

Take a second and absorb this quote from author Todd Beane: "The problem with creating training sessions merely as a response to a match are numerous. 1. It is reactionary 2. One match is unreliable data 3. It thwarts a cohesive learning journey 4. It will leave massive development gaps."

In other words, be PROactive, not REactive.

Volleyball is a random game. Sometimes teams serve great, sometimes terrible but most of the time, probably, in between!

The Brooklyn Nets, as of today, are the number 1 free throw shooting team in the league with a 81.9% conversion rate. Yet, the best free throw shooting team in the Association in its last 10 games had the following free throw percentages:

93.8%

75.0%

81.5%

68.8%

77.8%

84.0%

80.8%

89.7%

95.0%

86.4%

Um...68.85? 77.8? 75.0% This can't be! This is the best professional free throw shooting team in country! (as of 1-9-2022) 

But it not only can be but it IS. It's called regression to the mean and it helps you understand why you don't need to work on serving for the rest of the month after having a rough match from the line.

Another factor is the biases a coach has imbedded in their subconscious. A text from a high school coach a few months ago exclaimed her frustration, after having lost a close and important match in five sets, with "...how do I get a good pass served between zones 6 and 1! It cost us the match tonight!"

With a little follow up, it didn't cost them the match that night. Inexperience, a better, stronger and more experienced opponent cost them the match. But two of the last three points were mishandled serves to the zone 1-6 gap. 

Recency bias in action! Defined, recency bias is a cognitive bias wherein we give more importance to the most recent event. If your team missed their last three serves of a match, chances are you are thinking serving is your biggest hurdle to winning in a few weeks.

It's hard not to get lost in these human thought processes but stop and think, "what is best for my team next practice?" If serving is a rough spot, are you serving in all your games and drills? If it's serve receive, how many serves are going over the net in games or drills or the infamous "serve and chase" with no reception opportunities?

Don't panic, it's a long season. Do you have a season plan drawn up? Where your team is starting and where you want them in May or June and most importantly, what- by month- are you doing to get them there? If you don't have one, buy your assistant and another outside observer a cup of coffee and have them help you put one together. Use this tool as your compass to what to practice and when. 

Don't allow biases and the idea of regression to the mean to dictate next week's practices. Stay the course toward what you want your team to look like in the end and plan accordingly. 

(Speaking of staying the course, apologies to those few who read this blog. After some time spent looking at other avenues, this blog will continue. Please let us know if you have questions or subjects you would like to address. Outreach@azregionvolleyball.org)