The price of your Halloween jack-o-lantern just went up. So did the tab for your Thanksgiving and Christmas pumpkin pie. That’s because Hurricane Irene wiped out hundreds of pumpkin patches in the northeastern states. No one (except the pumpkin farmers and distributors) thought much about pumpkins when Irene was causing massive flood damage. There were […]
We just finished a TotalGamePlan volleyball camp with 16 young women at the Verona Community Center in Verona, N.J. The week went well, except for one drill. No one had any energy. No one seemed to want to improve. So not wanting to have a losing drill, the coaches made it a learning drill. Calling […]
The other day, with practice only about 10 minutes old, I spoke to some players about their work habits. One of the players protested. “But that was only warmup,” she said. Only warmup? What could be more important than a strong warmup? Warmup sets the tone — physically, mentally and emotionally — for what will […]
No matter what they major in during college years, coaches need some sense of chemistry. Not molecular chemistry, but human chemistry. Relationships mean everything to sports teams. Bad chemistry has doomed many a dream. Great chemistry can produce what seems to be an overachieving team. This subject comes up because of a report from ESPNBoston.com […]
Good news has come just in time for Christmas. The Dallas Academy girls basketball team, which made national news last year when it lost a game 100-0, broke an eight-year losing streak recently with a 34-33 victory over Johnson County. Her is another account. Meanwhile, players at Wrenshall (Minn.) High School were trying to fathom […]
My friend Jim recently told the story of a service station attendant in Watertown, N.Y., where summer lasts about two weeks and the winters are brutally cold. This particular attendant offered full service — windshield, oil check, etc., no matter what the weather. Most people would have filled the tank, collected the money and then […]
Yesterday I forgot to include the link to Dave Cross’ article on “No Surprises.” It’s here for the reading. Dave is the National Director of “Yes, I Can!” volleyball, and his article led me to think about about some definite “no’s” for your program. For instance, there should definitely be no excuses on your team. […]
Every time a fan rises to cheer the Yankees, you can bet there’s someone somewhere who doesn’t feel the love. Yankee-hating goes to another level in these tough economic times, when multi-millionaires win the World Series as millions of people look for work. Dr. John Tauer, a psychologist blogging for Psychology Today, examines Yankee-hating, using […]
By the time we see them, players in the World Series are already wearing the trappings of a big-leaguer. But it wasn’t always that way for them. David Eckstein, named the Most Valuable Player of the 2006 Fall Classic, was a college walk-on who earned his scholarship only through persistent work. Cole Hamels, who won […]
As Melanie Oudin enjoys her status as tennis’ newest sensation, a few paragraphs tucked into the bottom of an Associated Press story tell her secret. According to the story, Oudin, who has reached the quarterfinals of the U.S.Open, has followed the classic pattern for achieving expert performance. “Melanie and (her twin sister) Katherine began hitting […]