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Good morning. Nebraska volleyball lands a performance director with a unique resume, what Norway's "don't keep score" youth model says about building champions, and a new guide from TeamBuildr on getting started with AI. Let's get into it...
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Nebraska volleyball has hired Sean Smith as its Director of Volleyball Player Performance and Development, head coach Dani Busboom Kelly announced. Smith will run the strength and conditioning program and lead individual player development plans.
He ran S&C for Busboom Kelly's Louisville volleyball program from 2018-23, then took an unusual detour - performance coach for the Arrow McLaren IndyCar team via Hintsa Performance, plus an AHL stint with the San Diego Gulls. Busboom Kelly called it an "innovative new position" and Smith "the ideal fit."
In a new piece tied to Norway's World Cup run, coach and author Steve Magness laid out how a country smaller than metro Houston keeps producing world-class athletes with a youth system that's the opposite of America's.
Norway's youth model:
No keeping score in the early years, and no national championships through age 12
Trophies only if every kid gets one; posting youth results online can draw a fine
Local-first leagues, minimal travel, motto "Joy of Sport for All"
The result: 93% of Norwegian kids play youth sport, versus 58% in the US. Magness's argument is that protecting intrinsic motivation and delaying specialization develops more elite athletes - early "winners" often just reflect training age and birth month.
In a new TeamBuildr guide, coach Teofe Ziemnicki laid out a practical starting point for strength coaches using AI, with one through-line: AI is only as good as the question you bring it.
The gist:
Start with a question, not a dataset - dumping data in to "find something" is the classic trap
Treat AI as a tool, not a calculator; it approximates and can be wrong with numbers, so verify every calculation
Best uses: polishing reports, writing athlete-facing summaries, and exploring pointed questions with clean data
Don't present math you can't check yourself, and mind data privacy with individual athlete profiles
In a recent Frontiers in Sports and Active Living study, 60 college basketball players did eight weeks of either instability resistance training - lifting on unstable surfaces - or traditional strength training.
The unstable-surface group came out ahead on static and dynamic balance, core muscle activation, and a stop-jump shooting task, including shooting late in sets when fatigued. The authors conclude that for the dynamic stability basketball demands, this kind of training is a more effective complement than traditional strength work alone.
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