Who Makes you Better?

Who makes you better???

I just finished reading an article on the website positivelypositive.com written by Antonio Neves.  In his article he talks about finding people who help you achieve.  He referred to two types of people;  Allies of Glory and Thieves of Ambition. 

“Your Allies of Glory are those people that support you, encourage you, challenge you, hold you accountable, and push you to give your all without excuses.

Your Thieves of Ambition are those people that question your motives, support mediocrity, are afraid of success, enable your excuses, and accept the status quo.”

The whole article can be read http://www.positivelypositive.com/2012/07/25/who-makes-you-better/

In Canada we have our provincial team programs.  These programs are designed to keep our elite players competing during the summer.  It also gives them a chance to compete against other provinces top players.  In the last few years the prestige of provincial teams has dropped off a bit.  Coaches have not been encouraging their players to participate.(”thieves”) All the players involved in the provincial teams have made huge growths.  They have found away to make themselves better and are surrounded by like minded people.

Great examples of Allies of Glory could be found this past weekend at the National tournament. The Manitoba U-19 team  won the National Team Challenge Cup (ntcc). Derek Richels and Becky Young were the coaches of the Man 19’s.  Derek has been part of Brandon University since our inception seven years ago.  Along with Kevin Neufeld and myself, Derek has helped form the program.  It was great to watch Derek coach and see how he has created his own style and is very successful. Derek has sought out many different opinions.  He has worked with Dalhousie’s Rick Scott and spent the summer with Red River College’s men’s coach Dan Gilbert.  Becky was our captain for 3 years at BU and she was the head coach last year for 10 league matches and 5 exhibition matches.  Becky really understands the game and was a great addition for Derek.

Shanlee Mclennan was named MVP of the tournament.  I was so excited to see how Shanlee has grown.  At our end of the year Shanlee and I met and she set some physical and tactical goals.  She went home to Winnipeg and found a personal trainer and then started to train for competitive beach.  Any success Shan has some credit must also go to Wanda Guenette.  Wanda is Shan’s beach coach and  an Olympian in beach volleyball as well she played for over a decade on our indoor team.  Shanlee has definitely surrounded herself in Allies of Glory. In the semi-final and finals Shanlee had 51 kills on 114 attemtps with 9 errors.

Also on the gold medal team was Mary Thomson. Mary s a freshman coming in to our  BU program as a setter.  Mary probably could have played on the U-18 team but Derek and Becky chose to move her up so she would compete against the older girls.  Mary had the opportunity to set some against Sask in her 4 set victory.  Mary was lucky to be surrounded this summer by athletes who have played in one season of Canada West.  She was able to see how they trained and focused during the championships.  Just watching Mary play we could see the improvement in her game.  She is going to be very good.  One day she will look back on this summer and thank her Allies of Glory.

Also playing in the NTCC on Man 18’s were two of our freshman, Jodie Baker and Gillian Leech. Both Gillian and Jodie had an opportunity to play a lot and were a main stay on their teams.  Earlier this year Gillian decided she wanted to play university ball. She  knew she needed to commit herself to getting better. She also hired a personal trainer and started to get in better shape.  The volume of sets she saw in the NTCC it was a good thing.  Gillian has developed a powerful swing and has improved her jump a lot over her 6 months of training.  When she comes into our program in the fall she will have a seamless transition. Jodie Baker has grown up around competitive sports. She watched her older sister play.  Jodie ended up top 3 in the tournament with blocks.  Jodie also was selected to the Canadian Jr National Team.  Jodie will get an additional 4 weeks of excellence.  She will again see how elite athletes train and the necessary skills.

Lisa Nicol was  the head coach of the Man 18’s I was her mentor coach and she was great to work with.  We have invited her to join our coaching staff this season.  She will be able to give us a fresh insight with the team.  Lisa has  a passion for coaching and wants to be the best she can be.

Like the article said, Are we really surrounding us with the right people to help us get to where we need to be?  Am I really doing enough?