Ever play against the “old team”? The team of men or women far older than your team, far slower than your team, that could not jump as high as your team, or hit as hard as your team, but always seemed to beat your team? I thought “Bigger, Faster, Stronger” was the way to victory. Why do the young teams often not win? What is the ideal equilibrium between youth and age, strength and experience?
I read a fascinating article in Seed Magazine called Rethinking Growth. The author claims, “Bigger isn’t necessarily better”. Our current jaded belief of the economy is that it will continue to grow, indefinitely. The stock market is based on constant growth and society deems the best stocks as “Blue Chip” stocks; companies that maintain a steady increased rate of return every year (typically a 5% to 10% return on investment each year). Society fails to recognize that continued growth is impossible based on the the physical world. We will eventually run out of natural resources that cannot maintain the world in which we live. One day, it will be physically impossible for our economy to grow.
The same holds true for our human body. At some point, the human body cannot physically continue to grow “bigger, faster, stronger” and that is when we subconsciously place a greater emphasis on developing. That’s when the “old teams” use their knowledge and experience to beat the young teams. “Growth is more and more of the same stuff. Development is the same amount of better stuff.”
John Kessel adopted a saying, “Teams that know why will more often beat teams that know how”. The sooner we start developing players, the better our teams will be. I think it would be a fascinating case study of Olympic and professional volleyball players on when they achieve their absolute peak physical level and where they are in their careers. Not all players on any team will be at their physical peak at the same time, but some team has to win. I think the 2012 USA Women’s National Team will certainly have some incredibly interesting dynamics. The experience of Lindsey Berg and the youth of Alisha Glass. Or the experience of Logan Tom and the high flying Destinee Hooker. I think the mix of youth and experience could help the USA Women’s Team win a Gold Medal and I think Hugh McCutcheon is the right coach to develop this team to that victory.
Kerry Walsh and Misty May are another interesting study. We can’t believe that Kerry and Misty are at their best physical level as they approach their third Olympics. In fact, Misty just returned from China where they had to forfeit a match because Misty sprained her MCL. A freak incident or is she no longer at her peak?
“Growth really should be a temporary process to arrive at some level of sufficiency.” As coaches, we should have goals for levels of growth and allow our players to be satisfied with their physical gains so they can focus on developing their game.
