BobcatsRule commented on November 6, 2012 at 10:18 p.m.: report abuse

Who brought to the hardwood?
BOBCATS DID THAT'S WHO!
Way to take Jupiter down!
28-1 yea you earned that record!
Who's Walking the Walk now!

alleigh smith commented on November 6, 2012 at 11:12 p.m.: report abuse

Dang definitely would have loved to see Wellington in that game tonight instead playing for regional semifinals! Congratulations Boca! Represent at states!

Say What commented on November 7, 2012 at 8:13 a.m.: report abuse

I cant believe a so called "Coach" would instigate a hate rumor. That is ridicules. The Boca team plays with players from all over the county during club and they were all there last night to cheer them on!! Dont let your petty jealousies cloud your mind and poison the young players you are suppose to lead. Be a model for good sportsmanship.

Dr.Feel Good commented on November 7, 2012 at 10:07 a.m.: report abuse

Someone please explain to me how Wellington lost to Jupiter twice this season?
Wellington is a much better team than Jupiter!
Boca played Jupiter 3 times, beat them 2-1 then 3-1 and last night 3-0.
Improving each time. That's what teams strive for, becoming stronger during season!
Kudos to Boca! What happened Wellington? Jupiter should never have been in the semis it should've been you

sportsfan commented on November 7, 2012 at 9:18 p.m.: report abuse

not sure what Say What is talking about. was there a comment deleted? it's really too bad we get through the season with not a lot of drama on the vball articles, and now we are down to the wire and the angry people come out. let's try and keep it classy people

Sports Psychology 101 commented on November 8, 2012 at 7:04 p.m.: report abuse

I don't believe for a minute that Jupiter came into this game feeling complacent or over confident. How could they since they previously lost two matches against Boca who had a cumulative record of 27-1. Where is there room for complacency or over confidence? Complacency and over confidence is when you have accomplished something like beating a team twice and then not putting in the same effort the next time but expecting the same results. Sure Jupiter beat Wellington in three and it took Boca five sets to get the win against Wellington in the first round of Regional's. So what! I will submit to you that a talented Wellington team was playing for their season, their playoff lives and stepped up to the challenge against Boca. To Bocas credit, they bent but dd not break. They were able to re-focus after each set they lost and ultimately win a hard fought match. Bocas Sr. leadership on the floor will continue to carry this talented team through tough matches. A good coach will tell their team that Jupiter 3-0 win vs. Wellington and Boca 3-2 win vs. that same Wellington team means absolute ZILCH, ZIPPO, NADA.

At this point, you have to dig a little deeper and understand sports psychology. I will submit to you it was Jupiters lack of MENTAL TOUGHNESS. A teams mental toughness is learned by the tough battles you win or lose. How does your team respond when they get blown out in the first set? An experienced team that has been tested by close matches will have the mental toughness to shrug the 1st set loss off and re-focus on the next set. If you went to the game, did you observe the coach for Jupiter? What was his demeanor during the first set losing 25-10? Ill tell you. FRUSTRATION. I watched him get up from his chair next to the scorers table and go to the end of the bench and just watch in dismay. I will submit to you that his young team needed his leadership most at that point, not a despondent coach that looked like he lost faith in his team. His non-verbal communication and his actions spoke volumes. A team senses and picks up on this. As a coach, you have to keep pumping your team up. The coach seemed like his head was not in it. The team was already at a low from losing 25-10 in the first set and out of it mentally. At this point,a good coach will truly earn his keep and admiration of his team and motivate them. "It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it." John Wooden, arguably the greatest coach and motivator of our time.

How many time-outs did Blane take in the second set and pump up his team and try to motivate them? I was there and I don't remember one time-out he took in that crucial 2nd set especially as Boca got closer to their 20 point. I agree with the coach that "the team picked a bad night not to play well". That happens, they are a young team. Conversely, the match is based on the best of 5 possible sets. You have four more opportunities to win the match! It is the coaches responsibility to get his team ready and keep them focused and motivated. I think the coach should shoulder some of the blame and admit he too picked a bad night not give his best coaching effort and motivate his team. As a coach, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY not only to prepare your team physically but mentally. You are their leader so LEAD!

In closing, Jupiter has a talented young team and will grow. The question is whether the coach will learn from his mistakes and grow with them?

Frustrated. commented on November 9, 2012 at 3:05 p.m.: report abuse

Mr. "Sports Psychologist",

First of all, I'd like to know how many of Jupiter's practices you went to this year; specifically how many did you go to in the week leading up to this match up. I'd like to know if you were with the team pre-game, listening to what the coach was saying and observing the teams’ demeanor. Additionally, of all the timeouts Jupiter's coach did take, how many were you listening in on? Do you know what was said? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say none, no and none to those questions.

I agree with you about the aspect of mental toughness. That is a learned ability based on experience. If you know a drill you can use to coach mental toughness in practice in one day, please share that with me. A coach can preach about being mentally tough all day, but in the end that's up to the player to decide whether or not they can/want to stay in the game mentally.

Jupiter's coach didn't come out of the gate "frustrated." He was motivating them from the sideline the way he knows how to. There is not one way to coach. Bob Knight was psychotic; Bill Belichick is stone-faced; then there’s every other successful way to coach in between. Obviously Jupiter's coach is a good coach as he's coached his team to a regional quarter final last year and a regional semifinal this year, only to run into very good powerhouse teams (Wellington last year and Boca this year). He's allowed to show frustration on the sideline, but he did not check out of the match and give up. Just because he's not jumping up and down on the sideline doesn't mean he no longer cares. If he really didn't care at all he would have sat down on the bench, crossed his arms and just stared at the floor as his team played. He did NOT do that; he coached...the whole time. Not only the head coach, but the entire coaching staff coached the whole time. The assistants were constantly yelling from the bench.

How do I know (or at least why do I feel) the coaches were coaching the whole time? Adjustments. Effective coaching is about making the right adjustments on the fly. Did you notice what strategic adjustments the Jupiter coaching staff implemented after the first set? Let’s break it down:

Who is Boca's go-to player? Ruth right? That's who gets the vast majority of the sets. And if it’s not Ruth, its Charlotte when she is in the front row. Yes, they set their middles and their right side. But the percentages say they rely heavily on their outsides; specifically Ruth. She didn't end up with 1000+ career kills by accident. So essentially Boca’s comfort zone lies in Ruth. Jupiter's coaches, being the knowledgeable coaches that they are, realized that and tried to take Boca (and Ruth) out of their comfort zone.

How? First, serving: Ruth might be a great hitter but her serve receive is not great. It's not bad, but she can be exposed in serve receive, specifically when she is in the front row and she's pulled back to pass. When Ruth is in the front row and serve receiving, she would obviously prefer not to pass so she can get right to the spot where she would start her approach. If you serve her, that delays her from getting into her preferred position. Not only that, but if you serve her deep, you make the distance she has to travel to her approach position even further. Ruth plays pretty shallow on serve receive and she tends to get caught up high on deep serves. That makes for a bad pass, it takes her a lot longer to get to her comfort zone, it takes Boca out of system and forces the setter to pick a different option on offense (in theory). This is a coaching strategy Jupiter implemented to try and take Ruth out of the offense and force other hitters to come through for Boca. Whether those other hitters actually do come through or not is not up to the Jupiter coaches. They can only implement a game plan AND THE PLAYERS HAVE TO EXECUTE. So that's one way I know the Jupiter coaches were focused on their jobs.

Next, offensive strategy: if you can't affect Ruth with serving, another strategic way is with your offense. Jupiter implemented a very creative strategy to try and neutralize Ruth in the front row using their offense. In the second and third sets, who did Jupiter start setting a majority of the time? Their right side. Who has to block the right side? Ruth. If Jupiter sets their outside, Ruth pulls off the net to play defense. If she doesn't have to dig the hit, she takes a couple steps back and to her left and she's loaded up, ready to hit. But, if Jupiter sets their right side, Ruth has to come up to the net and block. This creates extra distance for her to travel and a shortened time for Ruth to get to her comfort area for her approach. Jupiter’s right side hitter did not hit the ball very often. The majority of the time, she tipped it right over Ruth's head. Now, Ruth can either reach back to play that ball or the person playing left back defense can cover the tip and pass it (as they should). Some of the time Ruth played it with her hands. Because she did that, as the ball is getting to the setter, Ruth is still running back to try to get in a position to make her approach (Ruth takes her approach from off the court about 2 feet behind the 10 foot line; an average place for a strong hitter with a big approach). If the setter sets Ruth, she more than likely will not get a full approach; therefore she has a higher probability of not getting a strong hit and potentially making an error. The other option for playing the tip was the back left defender. If you noticed, most every time that happened, Ruth had to alter her path off the net or couldn't get off the net at all because the person passing was completely obstructing her path. This took her out of the offense altogether. Just look at how much closer the games were after these adjustments were made. That my friend is great coaching.

A key point in coaching is to find an opponent’s weakness and expose it. Also, you have to figure out their strength and comfort zone and reduce the amount of times said opponent can go to that strength. But to Boca's credit, they made an adjustment as well. They said, "Ok, we won't force the ball to Ruth, we'll set all our other hitters." And those other hitters came through, got kills and played great. Ultimately they deserved to win.

I want to touch more on a coach’s demeanor. Judging by what you said, there must be only one way to coach, yes? Only one certain way you’re allowed to appear TO THE FANS when you’re on the sideline? And if you don’t look that way, you must be despondent, overly frustrated and have given up all hope, yes? How, in your oh so knowledgeable mind, are you “supposed” to act. Is it just a mere clap with a “c’mon girls, you got this” constantly throughout a match? Is it jumping up and down wildly every time your team scores a point? What is the archetype coaching persona? When your team is losing, is crying on the sideline before a match is over an example of good coaching demeanor? I’ve seen that out of an area coach last year and quite recently this year. How is that for “non-verbal communication and actions”? You’d think that team would probably lose because they saw their coach crying, which could only mean acceptance of defeat right? You’d have to clearly draw that conclusion sitting in the bleachers as a fan, right? Because ultimately, the fans know more than the coaches, right? Were you at the Wellington-Boca match? Wellington’s head coach was forced to sit on the bench for the entire match after the first set because his team received a yellow card. He could not get up at any point to coach his team from the sideline as is normally allowed (and this is in an elimination playoff game against the best team in the area). If you didn’t catch the yellow card you’d probably say, “Gee, this guy doesn’t care because he’s just sitting there.” But everyone’s coaching strategy is different. You do not know what he was saying in his timeouts. But Wellington did push Boca to 5 games. The girls could have given up with their coach stuck on the bench. But they stayed in the game mentally, regardless of what the coach was doing. Jupiter’s coach and Wellington’s coach could have been saying the exact same things in the huddle, but Wellington just responded differently THIS TIME. You’re gonna say that the Jupiter coach is going to earn the admiration of his players in the regional semi-final match? Shouldn’t that have happened in the very beginning of the season? Now isn’t the time to earn admiration. The Jupiter players spent all year with their coaches. Minus the three Boca games, Jupiter was 24-1. Obviously, somewhere along the lines the coaches were doing something right and the players were buying in. Some very good teams have a kryptonite; for Jupiter, that kryptonite was Boca.

Coaches can give speech after speech. They can try so hard to motivate their players. They can be perpetually optimistic. But when the players step on the court, how they play and execute is up to them. Competitiveness, heart, focus, mental toughness, determination, energy and effort are not coached skills. They are all choices the players make on the court. They’re learned abilities through experience. You either have them or you don’t; and for some (ESPECIALLY teenage girls) it can go game by game as to whether or not they decided to be focused, energized, determined, competitive and mentally tough. Jupiter’s girls decided not to play with all those things against Boca in the regional semi-final match. All three of these teams (Boca, Wellington and Jupiter) all have exceptional coaching, as is shown by how their teams have performed throughout the year. The combined record of these three teams is 72-10. That’s no accident. That’s great coaching by all three head coaches and their staff. Each of them has their own style of coaching because no one way is the “right” way. I cannot wait to watch these three teams next season as it should be another great season with three great teams fighting for one spot to go to Kissimmee. I hope you all have a great weekend. Thanks for reading.