The second edition of The VolleyBrains Weekly.

John Wooden walks in.

January 01, 2023

Happy New Year!!

And welcome to The VolleyBrains Weekly, while you were making resolutions you can't keep past 5 o'clock tomorrow afternoon, we were putting together the second edition of 'The VolleyBrains Weekly'.

Let's get this one started.

Here's what we've got this week

  • Hugh McCutcheon talks to his younger self

  • Another Carvel clip (we just can't get enough of it, not even sorry)

  • 2 big name coaches switched spots

  • Consistency is EVERYTHING

  • John Wooden walks in

For the smoothest 'viewing' experience press the 'read online' link at the top right of this email. Over there all of the video clips (except Greg Carvel's) will play in your browser without redirecting.👍

Hugh McCutcheon's teachings.

My favorite question to ask coaches we interview for VolleyBrains is this one:

"What advice would you give yourself as a starting coach? A piece of advice that is so clear and logical for you now, but that you had to develop over the years."

This was Hugh's answer:

You can check out our talk with Hugh over here.

Greg Carvel part 2

Last week we mentioned our deep dive into a company talk by the University of Massachusetts' head coach Greg Carvel. Thanks to Terry Liskevych for recommending it. 🙏

The next clip is a great one, maybe it isn't for everyone but...it's GOOD. (this weak wordplay will only land if you actually watch the clip below 😅)

SWITCHERONI!

Instagram game on fire

Two of the winningest coaches in the pro game switched national team coaching spots.

Giovanni Guidetti, long-time NT coach of Turkey and club coach at Vakifbank and Daniele Santarelli, Imoco Conegliano's head coach and fresh World Champion with Serbia changed NT benches.

Why is this interesting?

Guidetti has been a big component behind the success and development of Turkish volleyball.

The Turkish squad is ranked 7th in the world and has a good amount of young talent in the outside hitter and setter positions.

We're very curious to see how Santarelli will go about things.

Guidetti, well, Serbia is the number-one-ranked team, so...

Consistency is key by Lauren Bertolacci

Last week we've launched the training sessions of Swiss top team Viteos NUC with Australian head coach Lauren Bertolacci.

In the clip below Lauren talks about the importance of standing by your 'philosophy' at all times. (is that a serving one, receiving one, etc)

Mr. Wooden enters The VolleyBrains Weekly

I re-listened to a John Wooden talk which was recorded at TED2001. Coach Wooden was 91 years old at the time, his clarity and insights were clear as ever.

A truly exceptional talk by a truly exceptional coach.

We wanted to close out today's newsletter with one of his most important messages he mentioned in there.

There are some things that helped me, be better than I would've been. I know I'm not what ought to be and not what it should be, but I think I'm better than I would've been if I hadn't run across certain things.

And one was just a little verse that said: "No written word, no spoken plea, can teach our youth what they should be, nor all the books on all the shelves, it's what the teachers are themselves." That made an impression on me in the 1930s and I tried to use that in my teaching.

John Wooden

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Ok, this is the spot where we're promoting volleybrains.com. It's New Year's day and I want to send this email to you guys and close the computer to get back to the family, so for now...

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And once again.

Happy New Year!