{"id":1006,"date":"2013-10-02T09:08:59","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T08:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coachingvb.com\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2013-10-02T09:08:59","modified_gmt":"2013-10-02T08:08:59","slug":"book-review-talent-and-the-secret-life-of-teams-by-terry-pettit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testsite.coachingvb.com\/index.php\/2013\/10\/02\/book-review-talent-and-the-secret-life-of-teams-by-terry-pettit\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Talent and the Secret Life of Teams by Terry Pettit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Talent and the Secret Life of Teams<\/em> (available at\u00a0[amazon asin=1427635358&text=Amazon] or the author’s website<\/a>) is a collection of essays penned by former University of Nebraska<\/a> head coach Terry Pettit. As such, it’s not really a unified coaching text in the same way as other coaching books. The subject matter of the essays is varied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The very last chapter, which shares its title with that of the book, is the longest by a healthy margin. It is also probably the meatiest from a volleyball coaching perspective. By that I mean it goes deeper specifically into volleyball coach thinking and decision-making. That is done in the context of what happens during a season and in matches. Specifically, it’s a look back on the 1995 Nebraska NCAA championship season. Naturally, there is a lot of focus on what developed in the tournament and finals. Personnel management is as much a focus as match strategy and tactics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second-to-last chapter, Pettit shares a letter he received from another volleyball coach. I would classify it as a “this is why we coach” type of story. It’s the sort of thing that happens that times in a coaching career. It reaffirms to us exactly why we do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the chapters are a mixture of humor and studies in leadership. The lighter stuff is often specifically related to life as a collegiate volleyball coach. That means there’s an element of inside joke to it. This may be lost on readers not experienced in that arena. Even without that reference, though, I think readers will get a few chuckles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not your classic coaching manual, and shouldn’t be approached that way. Still, it offers some nuggets throughout to make it a worthwhile read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While not a volleyball coaching manual, this book provides a lot of interesting and thought-provoking tidbits, interspersed with a fair amount of humor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[67,365,366,380],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-volleyball-coaching-product-reviews","tag-volleyball-books","tag-volleyball-book","tag-volleyball-book-review","tag-volleyball-coaching-book-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testsite.coachingvb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testsite.coachingvb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testsite.coachingvb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testsite.coachingvb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testsite.coachingvb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/testsite.coachingvb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testsite.coachingvb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testsite.coachingvb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testsite.coachingvb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testsite.coachingvb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}