How do you win?

This week, I wanted to include this bit in the newsletter, BUT there were simply too many things to cover and this was cut to make room. So instead, it shows up here on the blog. Please take time to read it. It will benefit you.

And oh yeah, no practices on Sunday cause of Easter.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

The keys to winning at our level is pretty basic and at times we make it too complicated. The game plan for success is not complex. It boils down to everything you learned the first day of practice. We'll examine it sport by sport.

VOLLEYBALL
Take a look at our first year of volleyball and the formula was pretty simple. If you can SERVE the ball over the net, you win your games.

The only win we collected this year was the 8th grade girls' remarkable effort in their final game. No secret there. Iris and Olivia both served it over in dominant fashion in the sets they won and therefore, they won the game.

That's all it is, folks. Next year, if you could basically serve the ball over -- the game will be won. We are not at that level of bump, set and spike, so to get any more in-depth would be meaningless. One day we hope to be that good where we can talk about how we didn't set well, and that's why we lost. But for now, just hit the ball over the net.

BASEBALL

Nothing more than:

a.) Throw strikes
Don't walk anybody. Make them hit the ball in play. If they get a hit, tip your cap. But when you throw strikes, it makes them swing. Let your defense do the work.

b.) Play good defense and don't make errors
As illustrated or not illustrated in our first few games...when you don't play defense and commit errors, you can't win games.

c.) Make contact
Put the ball in play and make their defense do the work. Don't try to hit a home-run every at-bat, just get on base. The team we played on Wednesday didn't make a single good play the entire game. But we struck out way too much early in the game.

SOCCER
To be honest, I don't know what the key to soccer is other than to kick the ball far, hard and toward the net.

Soccer is not that easy to break down. You have to control the ball, not miss simple kicks (SEE: kicking and missing is a disaster).

The sport of soccer is very complex and right now, I don't have an answer.

BASKETBALL
In basketball, more than any other sport, the ingredients to be a good team are basic, and you don’t even need a coach to tell you what they are.

Make your lay-ups. You’ve all seen and been in games where lay-ups are missed left and right. When you make your lay-ups, more often than not, you will win.

Make your free-throws. Do we expect everyone to make all their free-throws? Absolutely not. But is one out of two too much to ask for? Look back at all the games you have lost in the past and how many free-throws were missed.

Don’t turn the ball over. Mistakes will always hurt you. When you throw the ball away, the other team gets a head start on their offense. It’s one less opportunity for you to score, and one more opportunity for them to score.

Basketball is such a mental game, and you need to be as strong mentally as you are physically. When you make a mistake, you can’t let it bother you. Learn from it, and do better the next time.

We have had games this year where we haven’t been able to do all three -- sometimes not even two of those, and still found ways to win. But when all three of those expectations are met, there isn’t a team out there that is unbeatable.

I guarantee that if your team is successful at those three things, 99 times out of 100, your team will be victorious.

There you go folks, easy, simple and basic. Nobody should ever lose another game.