Tryouts are typically one-sided. Players go and show off what they can do. They hope to get an offer to play for the club. If they are lucky, they get to meet their coach. However, most don't get to see their coach actually coach and show off their coaching skills or personality. If you are lucky to get a contract offer to play with the club, you don't know who is on the team and what your chances are to garner playing time. Then, if you sign the contract, you are committing to paying for the entire season, including your share of all the travel trips, regardless of whether move, get injured, dislike your team or coach. (Note, some regions allow players to opt-out of their contract up until a certain date without penalty). A fair tryout would be an interactive training session where the coach gets to see the players perform and where the players can see if they like the coach and their coaching style. Then, get a workout with all the girls the team wants to sign so kids can see how good or how weak a team may be, as well as their standing on the team. For example, one player spent a great deal of time and money getting training to be a setter, but the team she played on wanted to use her for a libero. When you get to tryouts, you need to realize that most players in that club are returning from the previous year and already have a position on the team. It is likely that you are competing for one of maybe two or three positions. [Recently, there were 51 middle blockers who tried out for a large club. What they didn't know was that there were only 2 open middle blocker positions in that club at that age group. The club didn't tell kids what was available. They just took their $50 tryout fee, let them play a little, then cut them.] Tell the club you won't sign a contract until you get to see your team and your coach perform together and see what happens. If you start your 'research' early in the late spring/early summer, you can gather the info you need to make a good decision. Don't wait for tryouts because most roster spots are filled by returning players (most are already promised positions before tryouts even begin). Tryouts are meant to be high pressure, like a car sales process, where you have a small amount of time to make a decision and a fear of having your spot given to someone else: Sign now or get left out.
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Last night a parent shared this story with me. Last fall, he searched around for a club volleyball program for his daughter. He met with a representative from a certain club and was told all the great things about the club. They had their own facility: Beautiful courts, workout equipment, specialized volleyball training equipment, and more.
The cost was $2000 for coaching, $600 for uniforms and more for each tournament they played. 3 hours of practice a week. It seemed like a solid deal. Then, on the first day of practice, this parent took his daughter to the facility. They put 10 teams on 4 courts. The girls weren't allowed to hit the ball over the net. When he approached the person he talked to about the club, she reminded him that he signed a contract. Throughout the course of the year, his daughter sat on the bench keeping stats at every tournament. She never received training from a head coach. Instead, it was some sort of an intern or associate coach. She was young and inexperienced. This year, I am coaching a team that costs $1800 per player, plus any extra tournaments we want to attend. We attended Colorado Crossroads, which increased our cost by almost $200 per player. Two girls who were on my team last year decided to jump to one of the area's prestigious volleyball clubs, where they pay $3700 + travel (which comes to about $6000 per player for the season). It may be safe to assume that the extra fees would result in better training, faster improvement, and greater skills (assuming the level of athleticism is equal).
It just so happened that my team and the "prestigious club team" were in the same 15 USA division at Crossroads. The difference is that their team practices an extra 2 hours a week, plus a conditioning session and specialty training. The other difference is that their entire team was 9th graders, while half of my team is in 8th grade (and one 7th grader) and our standard lineup includes two 8th graders and a 7th grader. So, you would probably guess that the extra $4000 would have bought a higher finish in the tournament. Nope, we finished tied for the same position. So, why does the other club cost $4000 more? It surely doesn't benefit the players or else they would be better than they are. It goes into the club's pockets. It goes to pay for the directors of the club to travel. Plus, it supports the allure of being in one those "expensive clubs." Spend your money as you see fit, but don't assume that you get what you pay for. If you want a good deal, you have to research it. I was watching a 7th grade volleyball game last week. Both teams used a serve receive where the left back and right back players are about 20' off the net, but the middle back player is about 4' from the baseline. The girls on the other team could barely serve the ball to the baseline, so they kept getting ace after ace whenever the ball was served to the middle of the court. I thought the coach would make an adjustment, but she insisted with sticking to her old-school serve receive. The coach should have plotted where the serves were hit and the outcome. Had she done this, she would have noticed a disturbing pattern.
The fact is, most serves can be received with all three back row players standing around the 22' line...in a straight line. The overhand receive makes those deep serve-receive positions obsolete. The same is true for defense. Most kills occur in the middle of the court, not the perimeter. So, why is there so much effort defending the perimeter of the court. Plot the hits and kills in your next match and you will see where to play defense. Remember, coach smart, not coach tradition.
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