Coach Love's wisdom
Posture
TRANSFORMATION BEGINS IN POSTURE
The way you hold your body broadcasts how you feel about yourself, whether you want anyone to know or not. Posture is the "body language" that dares speak the truth you do not. It says things that perhaps you don't even know. Most people have some problems with posture especially as youthful elasticity fades. Habits, time, wear and tear and various traumas can combine forces to create glitches in the way you move and hold yourself upright. The little unconscious actions you perform always caring a bag on one side, slouching, cradling a phone in your neck, leaning into one hip and standing back in your legs help carve out your posture.
So lets just say: "The chains of habit are too weak to be
felt, until they are too strong to be broken."
And Now...
The way you hold your body broadcasts how you feel about yourself, whether you want anyone to know or not. Posture is the "body language" that dares speak the truth you do not. It says things that perhaps you don't even know. Most people have some problems with posture especially as youthful elasticity fades. Habits, time, wear and tear and various traumas can combine forces to create glitches in the way you move and hold yourself upright. The little unconscious actions you perform always caring a bag on one side, slouching, cradling a phone in your neck, leaning into one hip and standing back in your legs help carve out your posture.
So lets just say: "The chains of habit are too weak to be
felt, until they are too strong to be broken."
And Now...
The Power zone
ln this land of discipline and effort, there is a paradise, a place of ecstasy you might discover by accident and perhaps visit at will. Some athletes call it "the flow:" or "being in the ZONE." In it there's clarity sense of extreme focus and control. Yet the energy seems to flow effortlessly, as if you are tapping into a source of power greater than your own. Doubts, fear and obstacles slide away. In their place come confidence, precision, and balance. You can almost see what's going to happen right before it does, (the ability to read). Whatever the motion, the weight, the ball, your legs go exactly where you want. If there are other players involved, they too go just where you need them, as if you're all tuned to the same station or on the same page, as you will hear me mention often.
Athletic activity isn't the only vessel that takes you there, yet it's one of the most celebrated. It really doesn't matter what you do-- lead, cheer or hammer a nail. The zone is the same. Your senses heighten your abilities sharpen; even rise several notches above the usual. Every movement serves a purpose. Nothing is wasted. The ego slips into the background, diminishing any need to win or prove something. In fact, results become irrelevant. The focus switches to the doing, exquisite combination of motion, balance and timing as if you're moving in sync with the universal laws of motion. Games get won this way and records broken. But the real prize is the zone itself. The focus turns into self satisfaction, the win and the desire to prove something. This may, in fact be our natural state, unimpeded, with no static on the airwaves. I suspect that most everybody has the ability to experience the zone or at least recognize when someone else is in it. Perhaps this is one reason why there are so many sports fans--for the thrill of living vicariously. When you watch an athlete perfectly execute a move, your muscles twitch in sympathetic rapture. When one takes a nasty fall, you cringe. Deep down in your instinctual belly, you understand this type of ecstasy (or agony), even if you can't verbalize it or get into state yourself. The first time you enter the zone, you probably won't realize it until later because in the moment itself, you're too busy experiencing it. Self consciousness would upset the flow. But in retrospect, you'll know when you were there. You may remember exquisite sensory details-- sunlight pouring in through a window, the sound of your breathing, steam rising off your skin or a volleyball hanging in the air seems like a minute, energy flooding through your fingertips, and infinite, gushing source.
Once you experience this you'll want to do it again. But it's not so easy. The question is, how did you get there? I'm not sure it's a journey you make with your will. Yet it isn't a matter of luck, either. It comes after time invested, after developing a certain amount of understanding of the necessary movements and skillz. You no longer operate off what I call "level 1" consciousness, reminding yourself of the perfections. (Spontaneous breakthrough into the zone seldom happens, at least on "level 2" or above when the movements are natural and ingrained. Mostly it comes from putting yourself into a natural, receptive state, trusting your ability. This all boils down to BELIEVING. Consequently I hit the zone quite frequently. It may sound cocky but it's just a state of focus so intense that time seem to bend. I can remember the first time I entered the zone, it happened by accident. It was the year of 1988 at Volleyball Nationals in Miami Florida. I seemed to generate power with every movement, as if someone had just injected pure crystallized energy in my veins. I've learned that I can't force myself to get there. I can only create the right conditions. I've hit the zone at the beginning, middle and end of practices as well as my games. A quote from my college coach and mentor: “If you don't get what you wanted, it's a sure sign that you didn't really want it anyway, or that you didn't want to pay the price to get it." You are what you think you are no more and no less! Remember only the strong can survive; the weak will be eaten and devoured.
Love,
Coach Love
Athletic activity isn't the only vessel that takes you there, yet it's one of the most celebrated. It really doesn't matter what you do-- lead, cheer or hammer a nail. The zone is the same. Your senses heighten your abilities sharpen; even rise several notches above the usual. Every movement serves a purpose. Nothing is wasted. The ego slips into the background, diminishing any need to win or prove something. In fact, results become irrelevant. The focus switches to the doing, exquisite combination of motion, balance and timing as if you're moving in sync with the universal laws of motion. Games get won this way and records broken. But the real prize is the zone itself. The focus turns into self satisfaction, the win and the desire to prove something. This may, in fact be our natural state, unimpeded, with no static on the airwaves. I suspect that most everybody has the ability to experience the zone or at least recognize when someone else is in it. Perhaps this is one reason why there are so many sports fans--for the thrill of living vicariously. When you watch an athlete perfectly execute a move, your muscles twitch in sympathetic rapture. When one takes a nasty fall, you cringe. Deep down in your instinctual belly, you understand this type of ecstasy (or agony), even if you can't verbalize it or get into state yourself. The first time you enter the zone, you probably won't realize it until later because in the moment itself, you're too busy experiencing it. Self consciousness would upset the flow. But in retrospect, you'll know when you were there. You may remember exquisite sensory details-- sunlight pouring in through a window, the sound of your breathing, steam rising off your skin or a volleyball hanging in the air seems like a minute, energy flooding through your fingertips, and infinite, gushing source.
Once you experience this you'll want to do it again. But it's not so easy. The question is, how did you get there? I'm not sure it's a journey you make with your will. Yet it isn't a matter of luck, either. It comes after time invested, after developing a certain amount of understanding of the necessary movements and skillz. You no longer operate off what I call "level 1" consciousness, reminding yourself of the perfections. (Spontaneous breakthrough into the zone seldom happens, at least on "level 2" or above when the movements are natural and ingrained. Mostly it comes from putting yourself into a natural, receptive state, trusting your ability. This all boils down to BELIEVING. Consequently I hit the zone quite frequently. It may sound cocky but it's just a state of focus so intense that time seem to bend. I can remember the first time I entered the zone, it happened by accident. It was the year of 1988 at Volleyball Nationals in Miami Florida. I seemed to generate power with every movement, as if someone had just injected pure crystallized energy in my veins. I've learned that I can't force myself to get there. I can only create the right conditions. I've hit the zone at the beginning, middle and end of practices as well as my games. A quote from my college coach and mentor: “If you don't get what you wanted, it's a sure sign that you didn't really want it anyway, or that you didn't want to pay the price to get it." You are what you think you are no more and no less! Remember only the strong can survive; the weak will be eaten and devoured.
Love,
Coach Love
Volleyball prayer |
6 D-Motto |
Lord, help me to stay low,
Give me the knowledge to know where to go. Remind me to stay on the balls of my feet, And never let me look like I've been beat. Help me pass at a degree of forty-five, And when I play middle back, Remind me to pay the line. Help me jump so high, So I can 6-Pack it in their face, (oops). And when I am up to serve, Lord, let it be an ace. Let me dig the impossible ones, So the play never stops. And when I attack it, Let me hit the very top. Help me pass directly to my setter, And if I do good, Next time, let me do better. Let me always keep up my head, To talk and cheer until the ball is dead. I don't ask for perfection, Only that I do my very best. Because to be a winner, YOU CAN NEVER SETTLE FOR LESS! |
DEDICATION
DETERMINATION DISCIPLINE DESIRE DIRECTION DEPENDABILITY |
COACHES No-NO's
NO PROFANITY!!
NO JUNK FOOD - cookies, candy, pop, chips, hot-dogs, hamburgers, French fries, etc., any questions please don't hesitate to ask. Substitutes are: fruit, rice cakes, fruit roll-ups, crackers juices, turkey and ham just a few examples of things to eat and not to eat. Help your parents help you make better
choices.
Keep in mind! You are what you eat...
NO SOCIALIZING DURING PRACTICE
NO SMOKING OR ANYTHING THAT IS HAZARDOUS TO YOU OR YOUR TEAMATES
NO STAYING UP LATE ON TOURNAMENT NIGHTS
NO MISSED PRACTICES - unless excused by a parent or teacher. Missed practice will be made up on the weekends, Saturdays, Sundays or when convenient for the coaches. Excessive absences and or tardiness without legitimate excuse may result in termination. Remember girls, this is for your benefit for the short and the long
run. Right now you condition your mind and your body for what it will be later in life.
NO JUNK FOOD - cookies, candy, pop, chips, hot-dogs, hamburgers, French fries, etc., any questions please don't hesitate to ask. Substitutes are: fruit, rice cakes, fruit roll-ups, crackers juices, turkey and ham just a few examples of things to eat and not to eat. Help your parents help you make better
choices.
Keep in mind! You are what you eat...
NO SOCIALIZING DURING PRACTICE
NO SMOKING OR ANYTHING THAT IS HAZARDOUS TO YOU OR YOUR TEAMATES
NO STAYING UP LATE ON TOURNAMENT NIGHTS
NO MISSED PRACTICES - unless excused by a parent or teacher. Missed practice will be made up on the weekends, Saturdays, Sundays or when convenient for the coaches. Excessive absences and or tardiness without legitimate excuse may result in termination. Remember girls, this is for your benefit for the short and the long
run. Right now you condition your mind and your body for what it will be later in life.