Too Early College Volleyball Recruiting Focus

My daughter will be a freshman in high school this fall.  She has been in club 2 years and was MVP at her middle school.  What are some things that we can be doing now to prepare us for trying to get her recruited for college volleyball ?  At what age do we start communicating with colleges? S.M.

NOTHING!!!!  I mean that - DO NOTHING NOW!!!  Your baby girl is just finishing junior high and sounds like she has talent, and is already in club volleyball.

The best thing you can do is to educate yourself (which is exactly what you are starting now by sending me your question - Great Job!).  I suggest you visit my collegevolleyballcoach.com website for some of the older posts, which will have a wealth of information about recruiting and training (and also my Inside College Volleyball book).  You may also want to consider joining NCSA Athletic Recruiting because they have a wealth of information (no kidding, I was blown away by what they have for families), and as it is a one time membership fee, it makes sense (and dollars) to join early to maximize the value.

By educating yourself about all the To Do's and Don'ts, along with the various NCAA rules and terms, you will be in a more comfortable position to manage the process when crazy college coaches start sending your VolleyPSA emails.

If you really want to prepare for the upcoming recruiting craziness, prepare by focusing on developing talent in a positive and consistent manner.  Talent will create opportunities.  In terms of developing talent, this current time frame from the 8th grade to end of the sophomore year is critical; these young players can make huge gains in ability within proper training environments.  Again, Talent creates Opportunity.

My saying is that Freshman is Free and Sophomore Go Slow.  Don't get ahead of the game now.  Just get educated and support your VolleyPSA by encouraging a positive environment to become a better player.  Too many times, I see VolleyFamilies get so into the development of talent, that it easily burns out their VolleyDaughter.  Positive and consistent is the key to developing talent; better to practice a couple times a week over the summer, than slam a 5 day super intense camp three times a month on a  developing player.

I believe that the Fall of her sophomore year is the time to start reaching out to collegiate coaches with her contact and player information (along with a short skills video).

I really caution VolleyFamilies against starting outreach efforts before their sophomore year, just because there is so much which can change about their VolleyPSA and about collegiate athletics, along with the fact that keeping up an intense recruiting effort for 4 years can just wear families out!  

Using the Freshman year is a barometer for the recruiting future is a smart move.  For instance, if your VolleyPSA is getting a bunch of contact emails from mid-major NCAA Division I programs, then this is a de facto evaluation of her skill sets and her being in the "view" of college coaches.  If her Freshman club season passes, and she does not have any emails from colleges, then you will need to create her being 'seen' by reaching out with video/contact information her sophomore year and making sure you are reaching out to her appropriate level of potential college play.

But, but, but........before you do any of this, remember that right now I want you to slow it down or I will come find you and I am rather good at giving the stink eye!

Coach Matt Sonnichsen

Small Town, Small Volleyball Club Recruiting Question

Hello my name is G.Z., I am a junior in high school in a smaller town in South Carolina. I started playing volleyball in 7th grade and have fallen in love with it ever since. Can you give me any advice on what I might be able to do to get notice so I can contiune to play throughout my college career? 

Volleyball is my passion and I've have tried to go further with it. I joined a traveling team in my county and it has helped me imporve my footwork and simple skills a whole lot. Please get back to me as soon as possible.

Thank you!

Great to hear you have the bug for volleyball and are passionate about taking your play to the collegiate level.

One of the changes we have seen in collegiate volleyball recruiting these last few years is the great increase in quality high school age volleyball players.  You are a part of this change, because the foundation of this increase is the growth of club and high school volleyball in the southeastern region of the USA.  

Because there is such an abundance of good volleyball players, it can be a challenge for Prospective Student Athletes (PSA's) to get noticed by collegiate coaches.  In an economic sense, supply has risen above demand in college volleyball recruiting.  Talented PSA's have greatly increased, but the number of collegiate roster spots has barely risen at all.

A few suggestions:

1.  Play the highest level of club volleyball possible, even if it means having to travel a bit to participate with a team.  You may need to go to Columbia, or up to Charlotte or down to Charleston, but joining a club team which plays and trains at a high level will increase your abilities and collegiate exposure.

2.  Make sure your club team has a national type schedule.  If you are currently on a club team which plays a dominant or exclusive regional schedule of small local tournaments, then you will not be seen by many coaches outside of your region.  The current down economy has limited the recruiting travel ability of many collegiate programs, and coaches can see more players for less money by attending a National Qualifier, than by attending regional tourneys.

3.  Continue to push yourself to improve your abilities.  All players can improve, even if you are a starter on the USA Olympic team, you can still improve.  As a PSA, your talent will create your opportunities.  The greater your skills, the more you will get noticed by collegiate coaches.

4.  As you are from a smaller town in SC, and are not currently with a big club, you may wish to consider joining NCSA Athletic Recruiting, as they can greatly assist you in your outreach efforts to collegiate coaches, along with providing valuable educational resources to help understand all this craziness.

5.  Video will be your best friend to reach out to coaches.  Never be shy about sending out video; does not have to be fancy or long, just a couple of minutes of your current play or practices.

6.  As you reach out to collegiate programs, be sure to properly match your skill sets with your possible colleges.  For instance, if you are a 5'8" outside hitter with a good jump, and solid all around skills, that is wonderful but you will not be able to play in the SEC.  

Lastly, be sure and read through some of the previous collegevolleyballcoach.com posts, as it will provide a ton of useful information as you navigate the challenges of college volleyball recruiting (or if you want some wonderful reading material while icing after practice, then pick up a copy of my book, Inside College Volleyball)!

Coach Matt Sonnichsen

Wed Webinar and College Volleyball Recruiting Advice for Late Developing Player

Tonight's Wednesday Webinar is on Recruiting During the NCAA Division I Quiet Period and May.  The Webinar begins at 9 p.m. Central time, and if the internet connection is fast, I won't look like Max Headroom over the camera!


To join in, simply cut and paste the below link into your browser:


 http://connectpro96398706.adobeconnect.com/msonnichsen/


On the next page, click Guest - Type your name (or the name of the 15th President of the United States) and enter.


Please note, that tonight's webinar is the last one of the of the spring club volleyball season.  Starting in May, we will commence on a once a month webinar schedule, with the dates promoted on collegevolleyballcoach.com and via the NCSA Athletic Recruiting network.


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I'm a volleyball player who currently plays Club in Michigan. I am 6'2" with my court shoes on, I play MB, I've only been playing for a year, and I'm a sophomore. My school doesn't have a volleyball team, but right now I am trying to get onto the intramural volleyball team at the local community college. 

My goal is to play college volleyball, but the schools that I am looking at are mainly on the Pacific Coast. Since I live in Michigan and am not on a National team (though I'm going to try out for one this coming fall), do you have any suggestions for improving my chances of getting recognized by those coaches? Also, do you have any overall tips for improving as a newbie? 

I feel like I improve and learn something new every practice, but the other girls on my team have all been playing for 3-7 years. Do you have any advice for how specifically I can improve in a short amount of time (no matter how hard or how much I have to work for it, I'm willing to go for it)? 

Thanks so much for your time (I know you must get tons of emails), A.B.

Thank you for your email and I am happy to assist you!

A few things:

1.  Take a read through older posts within collegevolleyballcoach.com, which will provide some good recruiting and training advice, along with my book, Inside College Volleyball.

2.  I would not pursue the intra mural team at the community college; the NCAA may have issues with you competing on an organized college team, even if it is just intra mural  teams; better to be on the safe side with the NCAA and just do club volleyball (don't worry that your current school does not have a team; more and more players are skipping high school volleyball to concentrate on club).

3.  If you are not a client of NCSA Athletic Recruiting, then I would strongly suggest you consider joining because NCSA will have all the west coast school's contacts and program/academic information.  As you are in Michigan, you are probably not going to be on the radar of the all the west coast programs because your state may not be a high priority in their recruiting travel.

4.  Making a national team, which will attend the larger events and National Qualifiers, will provide valuable exposure, along with exposing you to a higher level of competition thus elevating your playing level.

5.  As you have only been playing for a year, you have a big upside in your training, and being a sophomore, you have time to achieve that upside.  In addition to trying to get on a National club team, I would concentrate on attending a specific MB camp(s) to focus your training.  As you have this big potential, you need to get into the gym to get the repetitions you need to improve during the summer.

6.  Be patient in your recruiting efforts, especially the west coast; a number of west coast programs will recruit a bit later than most people think.  You have good height, and a big upside, so the more you reach out and the more patience you have, the more time you will have to improve and thus become more attractive to college programs!

Again, take a look at my collegevolleyballcoach.com site, take another hard look at joining NCSA's service, and keep working hard to improve; you can attain your goal but it takes hard work, focus and patience.

Coach Matt Sonnichsen

College Volleyball Camps

At the conclusion of my Volleyball Recruiting Education Talks at events with NCSA Athletic Recruiting, I usually receive a question about college volleyball camps.  I have written about college camps in Inside College Volleyball, but as this is the time to make plans for the summer, I thought it good to share my omnipotent thoughts on college volleyball camps.


There are three instances in which I believe attending a college volleyball camp makes sense.  


1.  If you like the Kool Aid - This is when a specific university has an emotional draw for the VolleyPSA or VolleyFamiliy and the volleyball camp presents an opportunity to spend time on campus.  I will use Texas A&M as an example (and it is a positive example because TAMU is one of my dream jobs, but I have such respect for Laurie Corbelli, I can't wish her anything but tremendous success).  There are so many Aggies in Texas (sounds like the start of a joke....) that the opportunity to be on the A&M campus, to live life for a spell as an Aggie, to play Volleyball, to be in the facilities, to get a camp t-shirt and hang out with the Aggie Volleyball team is a wonderful experience.  The same example can be made about Penn State, Notre Dame, Florida and a hundred more schools.  This is what I call a volleyball camp social experience.


2.  The skill training is very good.  There are any number of volleyball camps where the campers will receive outstanding skill training and improve as volleyball players.  This camp example has no easily defined pre attendance characteristics.  Some of the best skill camps I have seen are at small non-Division I schools, while some of the worst skill camps I have seen can be at power conference programs.  The key with these type of camps, is that the skill sets are clearly defined and demonstrated, and then the campers are being coached by quality camp coaches who are focused on player improvement.  Some erroneously think that physically demanding camps are the way to go, or camps which have a zillion repetitions make you better.  I can't completely agree with these two thoughts because there are plenty of camps which can teach poor skills and bust your spandex doing it.


3.  Volleyball program evaluation.  When I say evaluation, I mean the PSA's evaluating the collegiate volleyball program and not the other way around.  In this instance, if a VolleyPSA has it narrowed down to just a couple of programs and either has scholarship offers or is realistically expecting scholarship offera, and just can't decide on a school/program, then a collegiate camp provides the opportunity to evaluate the program longer than on an unofficial visit.  A PSA can better see the personality of the coaching staff, the behavior/conduct of the collegiate players both on and off the court and the facilities which will be used by the volleyball players.  Coaches are very good about presenting their best, pretty face during unofficial visits because we don't have to keep it on very long if it is not our true look.  But, keeping up the facade over the course of a multi day camp is another situation.


I absolutely don't believe in collegiate camps as a recruiting exposure vehicle simple because only one program is going to see the PSA play.  In a broad statement, it is disingenuous for collegiate volleyball programs to use recruiting potential to increase their summer camp numbers.  


College volleyball coaches know within 10 minutes of watching a PSA play at a club tournament if that player can help their program; it is a yes or no litmus test.  After that initial viewing, any additional time spent watching a PSA is to rank them within their program's recruiting database or to show facetime at a tourney.


Of course, there are those unique instances where a PSA gets discovered at camp, but with today's club volleyball schedule and the ability of coaches to travel or use technology, we are talking Las Vegas odds of this happening and you have spent your Las Vegas vacation money for camp!


When you are considering how to spend your summer volleyball camp allowance, please take a moment to consider the above three instances;  please do not fall into the bait and switch of recruiting used to drive up camp attendance.  Collegiate camps are not cheap; I know because I ran them for 15 years.  


If your camp desires do not clearly reflect one or more of the above examples, you would be better served to use this camp registration fee to buy gas for unofficial visits or consider private lessons with a recommended coach.

Volleyball Recruiting Communication

Our daughter is a 6’0” junior OH in her first year of club volleyball with a highly regarded club and a very connected club director.  She has played high level HS VB (4A state championship 2 years ago), but has played AAU basketball since she was 10.  She decided to concentrate on playing VB in college.  She has contacted 30+/- schools that are of interest to her.  We have visited 5 schools so far with several others to come.  She emails the schools each week with new video links and/or reminders of her upcoming club schedule. 

Our question is how to determine if schools she has not heard from have no interest.  Should she stop contacting them?  Should she try to call the coaches at their offices and ask if she should continue to contact them?  We feel there are opportunities still out there, but given she is just a junior it might be early to throw in the towel on these programs.  Thanks for your help.

Sincerely, D.H.

Good question - I would create three avenues for your Volleyball recruiting communication:

1.  Your initial outreach to schools/programs which fit the broad parameters of your VolleyPSA's academic and volleyball goals.

2.  Programs which are in consistent email contact with your PSA.

3.  Programs which have not responded, but are of interest to your PSA.

With these three categories, you will have a different interaction plan.  With group 1, this should be a low key, but consistent effort to reach out to new programs with information about your daughter.  Could be one program a week or 20, depending on her parameters.  

Group 2, continue your current efforts, as they seem to be working.  

Group 3, dial it back to one email update every 2 weeks or so.

Remember that many times coaches can just be forgetful or overworked during a certain segment of the year.  I found that my busiest time of being a coach was right now, in April.  We are in our heaviest recruiting cycle, we are trying to train our team during the non-traditional spring season, we are traveling for spring season matches, we are hosting visits from PSA's, and let's not forget the 10 thousand pieces of paper we must fill out to document everything.  Too many volleyball programs don't have a second assistant, much less a director of operations or access to a secretary.

Unless a program has responded to you by saying "we are done recruiting", I would keep them on the contact list, but just not as often.  The rationale is that recruiting needs are constantly in flux in today's collegiate volleyball environment, and many times the athlete which stays in some form of communication may be in the best position if a program 're-starts' the efforts for a particular year.

I would not call group number 1 or group number 3; email is your best avenue.  Calling is best for programs with who you are in active communication with, not those you are reaching out to.

My compliments to your efforts and continue the communications.

Coach Sonnichsen

Volleyball Armswing and Technique

Hey Coach, 


I have a few questions on my arm swing, approach, and timing for the hit. Whenever I swing at the ball, I can never seem to hit it as hard as I think I can, and I have a hard time with timing the set. 


I play on a highschool team, but I dont get a lot of playing time. Is there any thing I can do for my arm swing that will teach me to hit it high? Because most of the time I hit the ball with my arm bent, not straight and fully extended. 


And do you have any tips on how to pull my arm back when I'm going up for the hit? And what can i do to help my timing as the ball is set? BTW, I play outside and sometimes do a little bit of opposite. 


Thanks for taking the time to read this, T.M.

Glad to help and I provide a number of training tips in my Inside College Volleyball book!

For Armswing, do the wall hitting drill.  So much of hitting hard is making consistent contact with your hand upon the ball.  Stand about 7-10 feet from a brick/hard wall, hit the ball into the ground, so it bounces up into the wall, then rebounds off the wall and up high enough for you to immediately attack it back down again. The goal is to be able to continuously hit the ball down and off the wall, and it sounds easier than it is. 

Back in the day, this was how hitters warmed up their arms and practiced their armswing's.  When you do this drill, it is easier to 'pre-load' arms (off arm up and forward, attack arm up and back), to keep the ball bouncing continuously.

While you don't want your arm bent when attacking, I don't know if fully straight is optimum.  I usually see just a hint of bending in the arm upon attack, which I think gives a little more control and opportunity to change attack angle at the last minute.  Again, the wall attack drill will help with this.

When you say 'pull back your arm to hit', this is called loading your attack.  The motion is the same as if you were playing catch with a baseball.  When you play catch with proper technique, your off arm moves forward and up, along with your left foot stepping forward, while your right arm/elbow lifts up and back behind your head.  The pre-throw/attack position looks a little like those Greco-Roman statues of spear throwers.  Then, the throw/attack motion is just pulling your off arm down into your body, rotating your hips and throwing the ball.  

For your approach, after you know you have the correct footwork (if you are right handed, your left foot should be your last step and should be in front of your right foot), I suggest the high bounce drill.  Use a partner or the wall (if using a wall, be a good 30 feet from it).  Toss the ball super, super and I mean super high, into the air and so it lands about about 10 feet in front of you.  As the ball bounces up off the ground, slowly start your approach, and time it so you can jump and attack the ball as it nears its apex.  

This is a tough drill to do, and took my collegiate players a bit to get it, even though I swiped it from a 12 year olds practice I saw down Brazil!  As simple as this drill may seem, it forces you to hit the ball with timing.

A challenge with our great sport is the ability to practice skills individually.  These two drill suggestions allow for quality repetitions and you don't need a partner, much less a net.

Good luck!

Coach Sonnichsen

The Traveling Coach

Thought I would take a moment and provide a few updates:

1.  This Wednesday, I will be down in Rockledge, Florida presenting my Volleyball Recruiting Education Talk to the Cape Coast VBC and all interested regional VolleyFamilies; click here for more information and I hope to see a few collegevolleyballcoach.com fans there!

2.  On Saturday, April 28th, I will be conducting a volleyball camp in Greenwood, Arkansas.  Morning session is for Junior high age players, and the afternoon session is for high schoolers.  At the end of the afternoon session, I will be presenting my Volleyball Recruiting Education Talk.  To receive more information or to sign up, please click here (camp information/sign up in upper left of page).

3.  For our Puerto Rican readers, or at least VolleyFamilies who may wish to take a Volleyball Vacation to Isla del Encanto, I may be at the Jeep Volleyball Championships in San Juan in mid June.  I hope that NCSA and the Jeep Championship directors can work out the details, because I would love to get back to experience Puerto Rican Volleyball once again and assist all the VolleyFamilies wanting to understand the craziness of college volleyball recruiting!

4.  There will be no Wednesday Webinar this week, because I am traveling.  Next Wednesday, the 25th of April, the topic will be on recruiting focus during the NCAA DI Quiet Period of May and the lead in to the club championship events.  Please check the site on the Tuesday before for join in information! I hope VolleyFolks have enjoyed the webinars, and it has been great to answer the quality questions I receive during these.

Keep those questions coming and I hope all my VolleyFamilies and Friends are hanging tough in the busiest time of the year for Club Volleyball!!!

Be afraid, be very afraid.....

The below article, reprinted from espn.com, is exactly the mentality which should frighten VolleyFamilies and illustrates the new model of collegiate athletics.

PHOENIX -- Lisa Love is out as athletic director at Arizona State, replaced by longtime sports executive Steve Patterson.

Love had headed the Sun Devils' athletic department since April 2005. While the university said in a news release on Wednesday that Love is leaving to pursue other career opportunities, The Arizona Republic said that university president Michael Crow told her she was being replaced at a meeting on Tuesday.

Love, senior associate athletic director at USC when she was hired at Arizona State, hired two football coaches -- Dennis Erickson and Todd Graham -- and men's basketball coach Herb Sendek. The two highest-profile sports on campus have struggled. Erickson was fired after a 6-7 season last year. Sendek's Sun Devils went 10-21 last season but he was given a two-year contract extension.

While Crow put a positive spin on Love's time at the school, calling it "seven years of excellent service," he signaled that the record in those sports was unacceptable.

"Is there happiness over the performance of football over the last few years? The answer is no," Crow said at a news conference. "Is there happiness about men's basketball? It goes unanswered. How could you be happy about 20 losses in a single season? And so it is our expectation that none of our teams and none of our programs will be in the bottom tier of anything."

University spokesman Mark Brand said Love's contract ran through June 30, 2014. He said the buyout terms had not been determined because of the nature of her contract, which includes bonuses and other factors.

"But we expect it will be several hundred thousand dollars," he said.

Patterson already held a major post in the department as chief operating officer of Sun Devil Athletics and managing director of the Sun Devils Sports Group.

Patterson has held executive posts with the NFL's Houston Texans and the NBA's Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers. He joined the Arizona State staff last July.

"In his time at ASU, Steve Patterson has shown a level of sports management expertise rarely seen at the college and university level," Crow said in the university's announcement. "He is the ideal person to build on the foundation Lisa built and to take Sun Devil sports to the next level -- to the highest level."

At the news conference, Patterson likened the situation at Arizona State to the one at the University of Texas when he was a student there.

"We had a football program that had fallen on hard times after a great run -- many, many years of tremendous success," Patterson said, "and a guy named DeLoss Dodds came to town and he wasn't so popular when he first got there and he was there when I was a student and he's still there today. And he's built one of the great athletic departments in America, one of the great sports enterprises in America. I think we've got all the resources to do that here and I don't see why we can't do it."

Crow said Patterson will evaluate how best to support the football program of new coach Graham and the readiness of the men's basketball program to return to the NCAA tournament.

Patterson served notice that coaches will have no excuse for a lack of success.

"If you can't figure out how to come here and be successful, it's not ASU's fault. It's the person that's coaching," he said. "If you can't convince the best athletes to come and play here, with the business school that we've got, with the communications school that we've got, with the Barrett Honors College that we've got, with the great weather, with the great city, there's something wrong."

Under Love's administration, Arizona State won seven national championships, all in so-called minor sports -- two in softball, one in women's golf, two in women's indoor track and field, one in men's indoor track and field and one in women's outdoor track and field.

My thoughts after reading this article:


1. Football is all that matters, but a little love thrown in for Men's Basketball; the worst kept secret in NCAA Division I sports is not even attempted to be kept a secret any more.

2.  Arizona State won 7 NCAA Championships under Lisa Love but they don't matter because football was not winning.  ASU has won more NCAA Division I Championships the last seven years than these other schools have TOTAL (Alabama, Baylor, Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, Missouri, North Carolina State, Oregon State, Purdue, South Carolina, TCU, Texas Tech, Vanderbilt, Washington - Just to mention a few); but it was not enough to allow an AD to keep her job.

3.  The new Athletic Director has zero athletic department experience before joining ASU in July; he is a sports management executive which shows in the article quotes.  This is about business and not athletes or the coaches who lead and mentor them.

4.  ASU is a nice campus in a nice city but the comments of the AD show the disconnect...ASU's academic ranking is no where near Pac 10 members Stanford, UC Berkley, UCLA, USC, U of Washington, or Colorado.  Their budget may be good but Oregon, USC, Washington, and Stanford are Fort Knox compared to them; collegiate sports are not like professional sports where you can trade players and contract a winning team.  If I am an Olympic Sport coach at ASU, I am just staring in disbelief at this article.  Football is getting everything, but we all need to win even though 5 to 6 schools in the Pac 10 are academically and/or financially superior to us.

5.  I am still trying to understand the connection or should I say disconnect, with the Texas Athletic Department reference?  The U of Texas has more money than the European Union and one would almost have to be stunning in their lack of talent not to be moderately successful at Texas.  Very much like a Volleyball coach who is in a superior location at a well funded, academically elite school will be successful to a certain degree with marginal ability.  I guess the AD wanted to try and demonstrate his connection with collegiate athletics because he was a student at Texas; a smart student indeed, but not an athlete.

6.  This is exactly the athletic department situation in which coaches are encouraged to cut players who are slow to develop or have not lived up to their recruiting evaluation potential.  Win or get fired is the message from the AD - Nothing was mentioned (maybe omitted?) about the academic pursuit of excellence by student-atheltes, the representation of the campus community, the responsibility of athletes and coaches being role models, etc.  Student-Athletes are just ammunition for the success of the program, to be used and discarded as needed.

7.  How much support in marketing, promotions, funding, staffing, facilities is for Volleyball when you read the AD's comments?  Again, I hope lengthy pieces of the AD's speech or comments were omitted.  But from what was printed, I got a clear picture that Football is King, Basketball is the Prince; everyone else shut up and win because you have enough as it is.

I wish I could say this is an isolated example at Arizona State, but the AD just put into words the now too common mentality shared by too many athletic directors and school presidents - All money to Football and Men's Basketball; everybody else win or you will get fired, no matter the level of support you receive.


I would think that the new Arizona State AD has great management ability; one would not have built the resume he has if you were poorly skilled. I wish him the best of luck in building ASU into a mirror of the Longhorns and their tremendous support of all their sports.  My concern is I have seen this movie before, and like the guys wearing the red uniforms in the old Star Trek episodes, Olympic Sport coaches come to a unpleasant end.


These are challenging times VolleyFamilies...more than ever, you have to do your homework on potential athletic departments.

Club Volleyball Team Folded - Now What?

My daughter is a junior and wanting to play college volleyball.  Due to a unforeseen series of events, her club team (she plays up on an 18's team) has had to withdraw from their last tournament (Lone Star Classic in Dallas) so her season has ended abruptly. 

 

She was hoping to have several schools come watch her play at that tournament.  She will definitely contact them to tell them her team will no lonter be attending that tournament.  What else should she do at this point?  She is very worried that she is now "dead in the water" as far as being recruited.

 

Thanks so much for your help! K.H.

That is just bad luck with her club team folding before Lone Star, and I have heard of 18's teams losing their focus with the older players going in 'different directions' late in the club seasons.

Immediate suggestion is to see if she can join another club team for the remainder of the club season - Lone Star is big tournament, along with the early summer tournaments with pre-nationals, Nationals/AAU's.  If the club team folded, then this may allow her to join another team.  The best avenue is to talk to the Regional Commissioner of your USA Volleyball region to see what your options are.  Now is the prime recruiting season, and as a Junior, it is important she get 'seen' to be evaluated by collegiate coaches.

Make sure that you are sending out the most current video of her skills/matches.  Collegiate coaches know things happen with club, just like they know that many times their budgets get cut and it does not allow them to attend as many tournaments as they would wish.  Video is the only solution available.  

She is not "dead in the water", but if she can't get onto another team, video will keep her on the radar with college teams as she moves into the summer months.  A few thoughts as you move into the summer:

1.  How much interaction has she had with collegiate programs?  For instance, as a Junior, is she getting emails from coaches?  Has she been invited or gone on any Unofficial Visits?

2.  What is her position.  Liberos are last in line, OH's are first, second, third, etc.  If she is a setter or Libero, she still has time to play out the recruiting process because collegiate coaches tend to recruit these two positions a bit later.  If she is an OH, she needs to stay very aggressive sending out contact information because this position is continuously active in the recruiting efforts of coaches.

3.  You must stay patiently aggressive with your outreach efforts, and don't get frustrated.  A key to this is reaching out to college program's which are the appropriate fit to your PSA's talent level.  For instance, if your VolleyPSA is a 5'8" OH with a good jump, good passing skills and ball control; that is wonderful but she won't play in the SEC or Big 12.  But, she could have a great career with financial support in D2!

The bottom line is you can't control what happened, but you can control how you react to it.  Find out if she can jump in with another team, and/or continue your outreach efforts to collegiate programs while being patient.  There still a bunch of time left in the recruiting cycle for the 2013 class, with many great opportunities out there!

Coach Sonnichsen

Volleyball Training Question (and Wednesday Webinar)

Reminder about tonight's webinar - The Telephone Call.  What to do when you call one of us crazy college coaches!  Joining in the webinar is as easy as dialing that college coach.


The Wonderful Wednesday Webinar will begin at 9 p.m. Central time!!!  




Cut and paste the below address:


http://connectpro96398706.adobeconnect.com/msonnichsen/




Click 'Guest' and type your name, or at least something creative and hopefully funny.




Click Enter




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Coach,
 
I am inspired to write to you after reading today's post (original post here) about the importance of early generalized training (v. specialization), and the lack of this philosophy in the club volleyball world. 


My husband and I completely agree with this perspective and want our daughter to not only learn and develop a broad skill set, but also are concerned about the lack of a developmental perspective, which recognizes that not all techniques/training are appropriate for athletes of any age. 


What are we to do when the only club options in our community fall into the category you describe: they specialize players from the earliest ages, they coach 12 year olds to (especially) hit exactly the way an 18 year old hits, and their coaches do not have a long-term approach to developing players? 


We see this club taking good young players and, to be blunt, ruining them by the time they are graduating from high school. Injuries are rampant and the club leadership, as well as the majority of coaches, are completely confident that their approach is not only right, but perfect.
 
Our daughter loves the game and shows early promise but we are very worried about her having to play and be coached in this environment. This club is really the only viable option in our area. What should we do?
 
Any guidance would be very appreciated! I am a big fan of your book and your blog, so thanks for being a sane voice amidst the chaos!
 
VolleyMom

Thanks for the compliments on Inside College Volleyball and collegevolleyballcoach.com.  My impression is that many club directors/coaches are 'trained' by USA Volleyball to specialize player skill sets, and then seeing collegiate coaches specialize (which is a result of the rule changes of a number of year's ago), tricks them into also mimicking this specialization.  If your daughter grew up playing in Puerto Rico or Brazil, we would not have this conversation.

Your options; 1) Drive the distance required to participate in clubs with the general skill set development.  2) Augment your daughter's selective club training with private lessons to develop her all around game, 3) Move to Puerto Rico.  Unfortunately all three options cost money, but #2 may be your only viable option.

You can also use summer camps to develop all around abilities, but again, these are expensive.

The radical option is to form your own club team - You would be surprised how many VolleyFamilies in the past decided they wanted a better option and formed another club; not the simplest choice, but it has been done many times.  I would recommend you visit the Junior Volleyball Association website (here), as I have heard positive feedback from junior clubs who used this resource.

I wish I could give you the immediate easy solution, but there really is not one.

Hang in there, and you have already figured out part of the solution; you determined that the current training environment was not acceptable, you identified the problem.  There may not be a complete solution, but you may well be able to mitigate the problem.

Coach Sonnichsen

More Feedback from a VolleyFamily!

Again, I believe it is important to share the feedback which I receive from VolleyFamilies which have completed the crazy journey called college volleyball recruiting because they can shine a certain light on it all.

Hey Coach:

Now that we're in the middle of the college spring season, maybe this is a good question to add to the list for PSAs or their parents to ask potential college coaches, to learn a little more about their coaching philosophy:

"What is your philosophy on spring ball playing time / how do you use your players during spring competitions?"

Having had two daughters play in college, I found that their respective coaches took very different approaches to spring ball. As a parent, I assumed that spring was a time especially to play the young players & reserves, hopefully creating opportunities for newer players to gain experience & for the team to develop depth. 


I was therefore dismayed to find that DD #1's coach still played his starters in spring ball and continued to sit the reserves (those who didn't have a starter graduate ahead of them). DD #1 played a little her first spring, but very sparingly, while the (injured) starter ahead of her played every match, packed her knee in ice immediately after each competition & had surgery the day spring ball ended.

DD #2 's coach plays his whole roster every match in spring. If a kid isn't on the floor in set 1, she's out there in set 2, and for the whole set, not just a few rotations. Both programs are high-achievers in good conferences. So it's safe to say that both coaches want to win and are working towards being as good as they can.

Just something to pass along from a parent whose kids' recruiting days are in the 'rear view mirror".  VolleyMom

Very good information and pertinent questions which VolleyFamilies must ask of potential collegiate coaches!