Everyone's a coach. Okay, I'm REALLY a coach, but we can all think of a time where someone came to us for advice. What do I do? How do I deal? I never thought I was very good at giving advice, until I was put into a position where I HAD to give good advice. As a volleyball coach to teenagers and young adults, every ounce of my effort demanded that I not only be a good role model, but that each time I answered a question, made a correction, gave encouragement… that I was verbalizing things that would IMPROVE the situation. Over the years my mentalities on life have changed and my desire to inspire and do better are always clawing at me. Thus this blog was born.
It's inception was as the result of one of my athletes asking for guidance. After having graduated from the 18U volleyball program, it was natural that our discussions started to center more around life and relationships. Even at the tender age of 18, my dear athlete had suffered a tremendous heartbreak.
And in a nutshell, that's what coaching is. Coaching doesn't mean churning out varsity recruited athletes by the truckloads, or making stacked line ups, or being an authoritative slave driver (most of the time). Coaching means, moving positively. No matter what you do, everything that falls under the realm of "coaching" merely means moving FORWARD. We have practices so our players can get better. We think carefully about who we can put on the court so we can have a better game than our opponents. We advise, correct, administrate everything so that each step makes each person just a tiny bit BETTER. And hopefully by the end of the journey, each little step has meant giant leaps… for mankind.
So I hope this is what this blog will be for anyone who reads it… a positive encouragement for whatever it is that ails you right now. Sometimes it will be about volleyball, sometimes it will be about life. Sometimes things about volleyball apply to life. A blog won't fix anything overnight… any coach knows they can't fix anything overnight (except for sleep deprivation)… but sometimes you just need that tiny little push to get you moving yourself in the right direction.
"When people say to me, 'How do you get through life or each day,' it's the same thing. To me there are three things we should all do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. #1 is laugh. You should laugh every day. #2 is think. You should spend some time in thought. #3 is you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special… How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. You have to be willing to work for it… as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, 'Nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm,' to keep your dreams alive in spite of problems whatever you have... the ability to be able to work hard for your dreams to come true, to become a reality." - Jim Valvano, Head basketball coach of NCSU, 1983 NCAA Basketball Tournament Championship, 1993 ESPY Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award Winner, speech given just 8 weeks before he died of cancer
Be so enthusiastic that it moves you to tears. You won't always win every game. But you can always get better. Whether or not you win the point, don't lose the lesson.
That's what my coach says.
Best advice that can be given! Every time the Etobicoke Titans lost a point, we'd always remember to just stay positive and work even harder for the next one. What made us win our games were our spirit thanks to our coach Daphne!
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