This is it…the Most Wonderful Time of the Volleyball Year. The NCAA VolleyMadness is in full swing, the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight are this weekend. Certain matches of the Sweet Sixteen will be viewable online and the Elite Eight matches will be shown on ESPNU (NCAA Volleyball Championship Schedule).  The following week is when volleyball mayhem Continue Reading

In the book How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer (recommended by John Kessel), one subject he brings to light is the neurological insight to optimize learning. He studied some of the top athletes, chess grandmasters, backgammon world champions, and even a 30 year veteran soap opera producer to understand how they became great. The common theme with these greats is their constant search for their own errors. Even if the error is not easily visible to an untrained eye, these greats would continue to study film to find the slightest imperfection. The soap opera producer was not satisfied in his review until he found at least 30 errors for each new episode. It is through this constant study of mistakes in which a person finds regular positive patterns within their craft. The neurons in the brain continually learn the correct patterns. It is a tiny break in these common patterns (the brain neuron receptors recognize a misfire), that an expert emotionally senses (they do not have to logically comprehend the reason) the opponent’s error or weakness during battle.

I have heard that Russ Rose breaks down all the mistakes of matches (win or lose) to review with his players. Is this one of his competitive advantages?