In 1981, the USA Men’s National Team was the 19th-ranked team in the world. In three short years, this team would represent the USA in the Los Angeles Olympics. In his book, “If Gold is Our Destiny,” author Sean Murray chronicles how the USA Men’s Volleyball team went from international “also-rans” to Olympic Gold Medal…
I am developing an affinity for baseball. Other than the normal Little League play growing up, I’ve never followed the game too closely. This newfound interest is the direct result of listening to the baseball announcers analyze the strategies, offer insights, and make predictions about the events on the field. Their expertise allows a novice…
I don’t believe any coach intentionally coaches with full knowledge that their methods might be inefficient or may not lead to quality learning and consistent improvement on the part of the athletes. Although their heart may be in the right place, it is not unusual for coaches to operate under false assumptions that will negatively…
In recent years, the mental health of athletes has been in the limelight. Gymnast Simone Biles, tennis player Naomi Osaka, swimmer Michael Phelps and countless other athletes have exhibited tremendous leadership in expressing concern about this aspect of athlete development and performance. Athletes and coaches are on the front lines of dealing with stress and…
New Stuff This Week JS Consulting Blog Post – This week, we focus on teaching forearm passing and some thoughts as to how we might make some changes that will positively impact performance. The velocity of the serve and attack is putting a lot of pressure on the passers. Some changes in technique might be in order. READ MORE…
I spent much of my early coaching days preaching to my athletes to be stopped when passing or defending. As with many of my earlier coaching cues, I’ve reshaped what I value in both serve-receive and defense. In recent years, the increased velocity of the serve and attack places a lot of pressure on the…
New Stuff This Week Quote of the Week – “Our level of improvement often has much less to do with our innate limits than with what we consider an acceptable level of performance.” ~Bill Stainton, 29-time Emmy Award Winner Blog Post This Week: One of the things that drive me crazy is when coaching is the off-speed…
It is a challenge for players or teams to excel at all aspects of the game. In many cases, teams that win are good at one or two aspects of the game that might offset a skill or system weakness. Coaches determine how time is spent in practice and the areas of the game they…
Quote of the Week: “The game is ninety percent mental; the other half is physical.” ~Yogi Berra, former NY Yankee catcher New Blog Post– This week, I talk about visual keys and the concept of If/Then as an essential component of skill development. So many players will only focus on the ball during play and miss out on…
If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it.” ~Albert Einstein When using an Excel spreadsheet, the concept of “if/then” is a condition-specific set of instructions that will initiate a response, simply put, “if condition A is met, then B is…