Growing the Game Newsletter 1-16-13

Growing the Game News Vol. 2, No. 2 - Jan. 16, 2013 Important News – Each spring, USA Volleyball sponsor Liberty Mutual Insurance’s Responsible Sports awards 15 $2,500 Community Grants to youth sports organizations. The spring 2013 Community Grant opens March 1! For details on the grant program, click here.

Videos The 2012 Sports Illustrated Kids SportsKids of the Year, brothers Connor and Cayden Long who run triathlons together…

One of those special clips to share and talk about with your team during road trips or before/after practice. http://bit.ly/W7rH6A Redefine Your Mission – Remember, each of you are talent ID scouts for our U.S. Men’s and Women’s Sitting Team programs.

Here is the latest special video from U.S. Paralympics, which, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, has released a new public service announcement to urge veterans and service members with a physical disability to get involved in community sport programs and opportunities. It features U.S. Navy veteran Michael Johnston, a 2016 Paralympic Games hopeful in paratriathlon, who used sports in his rehabilitation after losing his left leg below the knee following a motorcycle accident in 2003. Redefine your mission, then find your sport and get involved. Watch the video at http://bit.ly/Y9wuJQ. Articles Sabermetric Research is a solid blog worth perusing. This blog on variance and randomness in sport focuses on basketball, while other previous posts we think are worth a look too that can be applied to volleyball. http://bit.ly/WdDG27 Exercise May Help the Teenage Mind - Researchers find that when young people exercise, their mental health improves through a more positive self-image and through gaining friends. But sports psychologists aren’t sure whether exercise makes teenagers more confident or more confident teenagers take part in sports. http://n.pr/10zjIWm The Arizona RVA Coaching Sidelines blog contains grassroots material worth all coaches’ time to read. http://bit.ly/WJciaN Giving Back to the Community - Cassidy Lichtman (Poway, Calif.), an outside hitter for the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team, is in the process of developing a series of “Play with a Purpose” volleyball clinics in California. But these clinics are more than just teaching volleyball skills. The clinics will serve as a way to connect the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team to its junior membership. However, the clinics’ purpose goes beyond just that as Lichtman is giving back to the communities in which she lives and trains with all monies from “Play with a Purpose” clinics going to Ronald McDonald House. To read her story, in her own words, as to why she is conducting the clinics, visit http://bit.ly/13wyBGL. Book/Movie Suggestions A Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankel - This is the one book worth sending to every senior graduating from high school who sends you their announcement. – A sample quote: “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

Hidden Gems Quantum Hoops – A look at the impact of coaching skills versus talent recruitment at one of the finest colleges in the USA and a documentary well worth the viewing. Team sports like basketball and volleyball share many similarities and this one has several important messages. http://bit.ly/WdF84x USA Volleyball thanks you for your help in growing the game together!