Great Not Good Season

I tell my teams we’re going to have a great season. Not a good season but a great season.  There is a difference. 

Good is actually not good.  When a team thinks they are good or pretty good they stop trying to improve. But when they pledge to be great they will always need to improve or fall behind.

I tell my team that at this moment all our competitors are in their gym improving.  We need to keep improving simply to keep up.  It doesn't have to be a huge improvement, one more serve over the net, one more attack in bound or one more perfect pass to the setter. All these small improvements add up. 

Pledge to be a great team this year not a good team.

Read A Lot

Read a lot. Never stop learning to be a better coach.

But don’t read only volleyball coaching books and articles. You can glean a lot of information from business, medical, self help and motivational books.

Read them with your coaching brain. For example, when I read a book or article on business teams,  the same principles apply to volleyball teams.  Both teams have leaders, followers, fun loving players and clowns.  How you deal with each is similar.

Strategies on team building, competing, selecting teams are also similar for both business and volleyball.

Some of my favorites books are:

• “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg
• “Just Listen” by Mark Goulston 
• “Switch: When Switching is Hard” by Heath and Heath
• “Good to Great” by Jim Collins.  

The more you read the better coach you will become!