Volleyball club- recap and thoughts

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Ironically, the one club clinic where she ended up on the lower court is the club she wants to play for the most. Why? Because the coaches were clear about why there were different courts. The lower court was for skills work with the goal of improving their skill very quickly. The upper court was gameplay for players that already had the skill. And the lower court was staffed and watched by the coaches for DD age group. By the end of the session both courts were running the same scrimmage - the upper court was just running it faster and more consistently. It was the only session where she came out a significantly better player than she was when she went in. It also helped that all the club's players from last year were genuinely welcoming new players into their teams/groups.

I'm sure some players left that gym knowing that they weren't going to make a team with the club. But I don't think any of them could say the club didn't take the time to really try to help them get better.

Just out of curiosity: are you talking about MOCO here? We had the same vibe there during the pre-tryout clinics. We had a pretty good experience with MVSA as well (probably the best experience in the way they split the teams, in terms of competitiveness), but some of the MVSA players were really unfriendly. They would cut each other a lot of slack, but they would be pretty mean when "outsiders" would make mistakes on the court.

I seriously doubt OP was talking about MOCO. MOCO can be super dismissive of some players at tryouts and it's pretty obvious to those on the "lower court" that they've already been ruled out, sometimes before anyone's taken a good look at them playing. And our DDs each played one season for MOCO, then never tried out with them again.

That was our experience as well. My DD had a sticker on the number saying to start on court 3 with a bunch of other kids with little experience. She felt like she was in rec league all over again with three touches being the exception rather than the rule. She felt like she was at the same level with the others because she could not find a position to make a difference. When she tried to set, the passes would go too low and at random places. She tried to pass, but the new setters could rarely set. When the setters would eventually set, the ball would be unhittable. She was never given the chance to play with more experienced kids. Most coaches were in the other gym to look at courts 1 and 2. Unlike what they said during the parent meeting, the kids on the lower court never had a chance. I wish I knew she would start on the 3rd court with no chance of moving up - I would have saved some time and money by not even signing up for the MOCO tryouts.

This wasn’t our experience at Moco. DD started out in court three but moved to court 2 quickly then to court 1 soon after. She was given an offer that night. I assume they recognized her from the clinics she did with them in the fall. She only tried out at clubs that “know” her otherwise how else do you stand out?

I am the PP you quoted above. Congratulations to your DD for getting a Moco offer! It is great that she was able to stand out. Knowing my DD's level, I was not hoping that she would make the first, maybe not even the 2nd Moco team. I was thinking she may have had a chance to make their 3rd team. I wish they moved her - even temporarily - on the second court to see her playing with better players. They could have moved her back to the 3rd court if she didn't have the skills, but - at least - I could not complain that they never gave her a shot. A few coaches knew her from Moco clinics (including pre-tryouts), but we couldn't do the fall program. I feel like they knew all along that she won't make a team and simply discarded her on the 3rd court without even pretending they were interested. This experience is going to save us a lot of money in the future because we will never do Moco clinics ever again.

Did you or your DD ask the MoCo coaches during the pre tryout clinic she attended whether she was good enough to make their teams? My DD attended the 16U-18U clinics and they was a conversation that the coaches offered to have with any player who wanted to stay after. That is definitely one way to save time and money!

We did. They offered advice on things to improve, but they never said she would not have any chance. They actually said they were looking forward to seeing her at the tryouts.

I think it's tough for coaches to tell kids they don't think they are good enough to make a team directly to their face. Much easier to have them come to tryouts and then just not send them an offer. Also, clubs have an incentive to have their tryouts as full as possible. They both get to collect the tryout fees and hedge their bets - they can queue up 4 or 5 second choices to make offers to if their first choice declines their offer.

All of that sucks for you and your DD and I am sorry she didn't at least get a fair shot at showing what she could do on one of the higher courts. Hopefully she found a team that's a good fit.

It's ok, we are back to our previous club. I never expected the coach to tell us "don't even bother to show up" because of all the reason you listed. However, if a kid is trying out, at least pretend to give her a fair shot instead of humiliating her for three hours on the third court with no coaches watching.

I completely agree with you on this. At least have some junior coaches or assistant coaches on the 3rd court or the "low court" watching and at least giving some pointers so you feel like you were at least seen and maybe even got a little coaching? But to not even have coaches watching most of the time is such a total waste of time and money.

Just having coaches watching the third court is not enough when most players on the court are close to rec level. In volleyball you depend on the team to pass, set, and hit. Even if you have one of those skills (or more than one), you still need at least one other player to get the ball over the net. That's why the move to the second court becomes important.

Pretty much every tryout has some part that is focused on individual skills rather than team skills. How did your DD do in the individual drills like passing and hitting where there was no team playing around her?

I'm not the PP you're talking to, but she pretty much already explained (and she's right) that when most players on the court are playing rec-league level in a skills exercise, like passing/setting/hitting, if all the passes and sets suck, it's very hard to show what you can do with normal passes & sets. So even on the individual skills exercises it really helps to have a coach setting the ball up for the exercise and watching what each girl can do with a well-positioned ball instead of watching everyone flail because most of the balls are impossible to do something impressive with.

What you said at the end was pretty much exactly what we saw. A 6v6 drill to warmup and then the court moved to coach initiated passing drills where the only people contacting the ball were the coach and the passer. Then hitting lines where the coach tossed the ball. Somewhere in there they did some 4v4 scrimmage for a short time. That was the first hour of the tryout. When we moved all the courts were doing the same thing.

If you can pass or hit at a consistent level in an isolated drill like passing or hitting, you probably get moved up. If you can't, you probably get moved down. Most clubs are smart enough to isolate skills in a way that allows them to actually evaluate players, especially at the younger ages where there is a huge variability in basic player skills. Talking with our DD every club we went to did something similar.

My DD is not a great hitter: that was never her position. She still needs to work on timing and approach, but she can hit from the back row (no jumping though). She has no trouble passing the ball to a target. According to your theory, she should have moved up based on her ability to pass, but she never did.

[Anonymous]

As the mother of a volleyball player for 6 years I can say that every competitive club groups players during preview clinics by skill level. That is not a CVA thing. Ask the players who get the special invites to the elite travel teams only to find that there are 99 other players who are “special” at $55 per player for 2 hours.

I have been to a CVA clinic and it was by age and skill. They also are probably one of the few that provide instruction and feedback during their pre tryouts! Lastly, many players go to pre tryout clinics at many different clubs to get looked at. By no means are all of the girls who showed up for pre tryouts going to show up at tryouts and accept. Most competitive clubs in the CHRVA region are looking at the same girls and Every parent is looking for THAT team!!! Lastly, the whole purpose of a pre tryout is to shake off the nerves of the player so that they can perform better at tryouts.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Ironically, the one club clinic where she ended up on the lower court is the club she wants to play for the most. Why? Because the coaches were clear about why there were different courts. The lower court was for skills work with the goal of improving their skill very quickly. The upper court was gameplay for players that already had the skill. And the lower court was staffed and watched by the coaches for DD age group. By the end of the session both courts were running the same scrimmage - the upper court was just running it faster and more consistently. It was the only session where she came out a significantly better player than she was when she went in. It also helped that all the club's players from last year were genuinely welcoming new players into their teams/groups.

I'm sure some players left that gym knowing that they weren't going to make a team with the club. But I don't think any of them could say the club didn't take the time to really try to help them get better.

Just out of curiosity: are you talking about MOCO here? We had the same vibe there during the pre-tryout clinics. We had a pretty good experience with MVSA as well (probably the best experience in the way they split the teams, in terms of competitiveness), but some of the MVSA players were really unfriendly. They would cut each other a lot of slack, but they would be pretty mean when "outsiders" would make mistakes on the court.

I seriously doubt OP was talking about MOCO. MOCO can be super dismissive of some players at tryouts and it's pretty obvious to those on the "lower court" that they've already been ruled out, sometimes before anyone's taken a good look at them playing. And our DDs each played one season for MOCO, then never tried out with them again.

That was our experience as well. My DD had a sticker on the number saying to start on court 3 with a bunch of other kids with little experience. She felt like she was in rec league all over again with three touches being the exception rather than the rule. She felt like she was at the same level with the others because she could not find a position to make a difference. When she tried to set, the passes would go too low and at random places. She tried to pass, but the new setters could rarely set. When the setters would eventually set, the ball would be unhittable. She was never given the chance to play with more experienced kids. Most coaches were in the other gym to look at courts 1 and 2. Unlike what they said during the parent meeting, the kids on the lower court never had a chance. I wish I knew she would start on the 3rd court with no chance of moving up - I would have saved some time and money by not even signing up for the MOCO tryouts.

This wasn’t our experience at Moco. DD started out in court three but moved to court 2 quickly then to court 1 soon after. She was given an offer that night. I assume they recognized her from the clinics she did with them in the fall. She only tried out at clubs that “know” her otherwise how else do you stand out?

I am the PP you quoted above. Congratulations to your DD for getting a Moco offer! It is great that she was able to stand out. Knowing my DD's level, I was not hoping that she would make the first, maybe not even the 2nd Moco team. I was thinking she may have had a chance to make their 3rd team. I wish they moved her - even temporarily - on the second court to see her playing with better players. They could have moved her back to the 3rd court if she didn't have the skills, but - at least - I could not complain that they never gave her a shot. A few coaches knew her from Moco clinics (including pre-tryouts), but we couldn't do the fall program. I feel like they knew all along that she won't make a team and simply discarded her on the 3rd court without even pretending they were interested. This experience is going to save us a lot of money in the future because we will never do Moco clinics ever again.

Did you or your DD ask the MoCo coaches during the pre tryout clinic she attended whether she was good enough to make their teams? My DD attended the 16U-18U clinics and they was a conversation that the coaches offered to have with any player who wanted to stay after. That is definitely one way to save time and money!

We did. They offered advice on things to improve, but they never said she would not have any chance. They actually said they were looking forward to seeing her at the tryouts.

I think it's tough for coaches to tell kids they don't think they are good enough to make a team directly to their face. Much easier to have them come to tryouts and then just not send them an offer. Also, clubs have an incentive to have their tryouts as full as possible. They both get to collect the tryout fees and hedge their bets - they can queue up 4 or 5 second choices to make offers to if their first choice declines their offer.

All of that sucks for you and your DD and I am sorry she didn't at least get a fair shot at showing what she could do on one of the higher courts. Hopefully she found a team that's a good fit.

It's ok, we are back to our previous club. I never expected the coach to tell us "don't even bother to show up" because of all the reason you listed. However, if a kid is trying out, at least pretend to give her a fair shot instead of humiliating her for three hours on the third court with no coaches watching.

I completely agree with you on this. At least have some junior coaches or assistant coaches on the 3rd court or the "low court" watching and at least giving some pointers so you feel like you were at least seen and maybe even got a little coaching? But to not even have coaches watching most of the time is such a total waste of time and money.

Just having coaches watching the third court is not enough when most players on the court are close to rec level. In volleyball you depend on the team to pass, set, and hit. Even if you have one of those skills (or more than one), you still need at least one other player to get the ball over the net. That's why the move to the second court becomes important.

Pretty much every tryout has some part that is focused on individual skills rather than team skills. How did your DD do in the individual drills like passing and hitting where there was no team playing around her?

I'm not the PP you're talking to, but she pretty much already explained (and she's right) that when most players on the court are playing rec-league level in a skills exercise, like passing/setting/hitting, if all the passes and sets suck, it's very hard to show what you can do with normal passes & sets. So even on the individual skills exercises it really helps to have a coach setting the ball up for the exercise and watching what each girl can do with a well-positioned ball instead of watching everyone flail because most of the balls are impossible to do something impressive with.

What you said at the end was pretty much exactly what we saw. A 6v6 drill to warmup and then the court moved to coach initiated passing drills where the only people contacting the ball were the coach and the passer. Then hitting lines where the coach tossed the ball. Somewhere in there they did some 4v4 scrimmage for a short time. That was the first hour of the tryout. When we moved all the courts were doing the same thing.

If you can pass or hit at a consistent level in an isolated drill like passing or hitting, you probably get moved up. If you can't, you probably get moved down. Most clubs are smart enough to isolate skills in a way that allows them to actually evaluate players, especially at the younger ages where there is a huge variability in basic player skills. Talking with our DD every club we went to did something similar.

My DD is not a great hitter: that was never her position. She still needs to work on timing and approach, but she can hit from the back row (no jumping though). She has no trouble passing the ball to a target. According to your theory, she should have moved up based on her ability to pass, but she never did.

Not the PP, but seen a lot of volleyball. Passing the ball to target consistently is the minimum requirement to play back row on any good club team. Passing consistently at the level of play the team expects is the average, and the expectations for the DS position is always to pass above the average level of the team.

You started this discussion saying your daughter was treated unfairly because she never got off a court, told us no coaches ever watched her, said she never got a chance to show how good she was because the level of play was rec level, and then finished by saying you weren't there and didn't ask your daughter what happened or how she thought she did. I'm not defending the club -- I'm sure they could have figured out a way to make it less obvious that your DD wasn't going to make a team, including telling you to not bother trying out. But it's also not right to attack clubs with no real info of what happened.

According to the other poster, it sounds like your DD started on a court where the coaches watched her for some period of time, decided that she didn't meet their standards and then had her stay on the court for the rest of the tryout. No one wants their DD to fail at a tryout, but that's what tryouts are designed to do. They figure out which players can play at the level expected of the club and which players can't. Ultimately, the club gets to choose both the level they are looking for and the players they feel perform at that level.

Sounds like you had a typical tryout at a higher level club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ironically, the one club clinic where she ended up on the lower court is the club she wants to play for the most. Why? Because the coaches were clear about why there were different courts. The lower court was for skills work with the goal of improving their skill very quickly. The upper court was gameplay for players that already had the skill. And the lower court was staffed and watched by the coaches for DD age group. By the end of the session both courts were running the same scrimmage - the upper court was just running it faster and more consistently. It was the only session where she came out a significantly better player than she was when she went in. It also helped that all the club's players from last year were genuinely welcoming new players into their teams/groups.

I'm sure some players left that gym knowing that they weren't going to make a team with the club. But I don't think any of them could say the club didn't take the time to really try to help them get better.

Just out of curiosity: are you talking about MOCO here? We had the same vibe there during the pre-tryout clinics. We had a pretty good experience with MVSA as well (probably the best experience in the way they split the teams, in terms of competitiveness), but some of the MVSA players were really unfriendly. They would cut each other a lot of slack, but they would be pretty mean when "outsiders" would make mistakes on the court.

I seriously doubt OP was talking about MOCO. MOCO can be super dismissive of some players at tryouts and it's pretty obvious to those on the "lower court" that they've already been ruled out, sometimes before anyone's taken a good look at them playing. And our DDs each played one season for MOCO, then never tried out with them again.

That was our experience as well. My DD had a sticker on the number saying to start on court 3 with a bunch of other kids with little experience. She felt like she was in rec league all over again with three touches being the exception rather than the rule. She felt like she was at the same level with the others because she could not find a position to make a difference. When she tried to set, the passes would go too low and at random places. She tried to pass, but the new setters could rarely set. When the setters would eventually set, the ball would be unhittable. She was never given the chance to play with more experienced kids. Most coaches were in the other gym to look at courts 1 and 2. Unlike what they said during the parent meeting, the kids on the lower court never had a chance. I wish I knew she would start on the 3rd court with no chance of moving up - I would have saved some time and money by not even signing up for the MOCO tryouts.

This wasn’t our experience at Moco. DD started out in court three but moved to court 2 quickly then to court 1 soon after. She was given an offer that night. I assume they recognized her from the clinics she did with them in the fall. She only tried out at clubs that “know” her otherwise how else do you stand out?

I am the PP you quoted above. Congratulations to your DD for getting a Moco offer! It is great that she was able to stand out. Knowing my DD's level, I was not hoping that she would make the first, maybe not even the 2nd Moco team. I was thinking she may have had a chance to make their 3rd team. I wish they moved her - even temporarily - on the second court to see her playing with better players. They could have moved her back to the 3rd court if she didn't have the skills, but - at least - I could not complain that they never gave her a shot. A few coaches knew her from Moco clinics (including pre-tryouts), but we couldn't do the fall program. I feel like they knew all along that she won't make a team and simply discarded her on the 3rd court without even pretending they were interested. This experience is going to save us a lot of money in the future because we will never do Moco clinics ever again.

Did you or your DD ask the MoCo coaches during the pre tryout clinic she attended whether she was good enough to make their teams? My DD attended the 16U-18U clinics and they was a conversation that the coaches offered to have with any player who wanted to stay after. That is definitely one way to save time and money!

We did. They offered advice on things to improve, but they never said she would not have any chance. They actually said they were looking forward to seeing her at the tryouts.

I think it's tough for coaches to tell kids they don't think they are good enough to make a team directly to their face. Much easier to have them come to tryouts and then just not send them an offer. Also, clubs have an incentive to have their tryouts as full as possible. They both get to collect the tryout fees and hedge their bets - they can queue up 4 or 5 second choices to make offers to if their first choice declines their offer.

All of that sucks for you and your DD and I am sorry she didn't at least get a fair shot at showing what she could do on one of the higher courts. Hopefully she found a team that's a good fit.

It's ok, we are back to our previous club. I never expected the coach to tell us "don't even bother to show up" because of all the reason you listed. However, if a kid is trying out, at least pretend to give her a fair shot instead of humiliating her for three hours on the third court with no coaches watching.

I completely agree with you on this. At least have some junior coaches or assistant coaches on the 3rd court or the "low court" watching and at least giving some pointers so you feel like you were at least seen and maybe even got a little coaching? But to not even have coaches watching most of the time is such a total waste of time and money.

Just having coaches watching the third court is not enough when most players on the court are close to rec level. In volleyball you depend on the team to pass, set, and hit. Even if you have one of those skills (or more than one), you still need at least one other player to get the ball over the net. That's why the move to the second court becomes important.

Pretty much every tryout has some part that is focused on individual skills rather than team skills. How did your DD do in the individual drills like passing and hitting where there was no team playing around her?

I'm not the PP you're talking to, but she pretty much already explained (and she's right) that when most players on the court are playing rec-league level in a skills exercise, like passing/setting/hitting, if all the passes and sets suck, it's very hard to show what you can do with normal passes & sets. So even on the individual skills exercises it really helps to have a coach setting the ball up for the exercise and watching what each girl can do with a well-positioned ball instead of watching everyone flail because most of the balls are impossible to do something impressive with.

What you said at the end was pretty much exactly what we saw. A 6v6 drill to warmup and then the court moved to coach initiated passing drills where the only people contacting the ball were the coach and the passer. Then hitting lines where the coach tossed the ball. Somewhere in there they did some 4v4 scrimmage for a short time. That was the first hour of the tryout. When we moved all the courts were doing the same thing.

If you can pass or hit at a consistent level in an isolated drill like passing or hitting, you probably get moved up. If you can't, you probably get moved down. Most clubs are smart enough to isolate skills in a way that allows them to actually evaluate players, especially at the younger ages where there is a huge variability in basic player skills. Talking with our DD every club we went to did something similar.

My DD is not a great hitter: that was never her position. She still needs to work on timing and approach, but she can hit from the back row (no jumping though). She has no trouble passing the ball to a target. According to your theory, she should have moved up based on her ability to pass, but she never did.

Not the PP, but seen a lot of volleyball. Passing the ball to target consistently is the minimum requirement to play back row on any good club team. Passing consistently at the level of play the team expects is the average, and the expectations for the DS position is always to pass above the average level of the team.

You started this discussion saying your daughter was treated unfairly because she never got off a court, told us no coaches ever watched her, said she never got a chance to show how good she was because the level of play was rec level, and then finished by saying you weren't there and didn't ask your daughter what happened or how she thought she did. I'm not defending the club -- I'm sure they could have figured out a way to make it less obvious that your DD wasn't going to make a team, including telling you to not bother trying out. But it's also not right to attack clubs with no real info of what happened.

According to the other poster, it sounds like your DD started on a court where the coaches watched her for some period of time, decided that she didn't meet their standards and then had her stay on the court for the rest of the tryout. No one wants their DD to fail at a tryout, but that's what tryouts are designed to do. They figure out which players can play at the level expected of the club and which players can't. Ultimately, the club gets to choose both the level they are looking for and the players they feel perform at that level.

Sounds like you had a typical tryout at a higher level club.

You might be correct in your assessment: she might not be good enough for Moco. I am trying to be objective about her skills (even though I understand I might be biased). Had I known that you could stay and watch the tryout, I would have stayed, but I took their word that the parents would be kicked out. When I returned to pick her up, I saw her on the bottom court, among the players with rec-level skills. She felt humiliated by the club decision to keep her on that court for the entire tryout and not give her one chance to play with better players. She was too bummed to have an in-depth conversation about how she did (actually the coaches advised everyone to avoid this kind of conversation). I am not saying that - given the chance - she would have made one of the Moco teams: that decision belongs to the coaches. But that was too much money for rec-level volleyball and not being placed in an environment where you have a chance to succeed.

[Anonymous]

Coming in late just to say that even if that’s how it goes, it is hard to feel like she your daughter didn’t get a chance. My kid has had that feeling before and it is hard. Hopefully she will have better experiences in the future. While my daughter U15 has had better clinics experiences this year, she still has times when she feels stuck and written off. She sees it now as a process and shakes it off. Good luck to her!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Coming in late just to say that even if that’s how it goes, it is hard to feel like she your daughter didn’t get a chance. My kid has had that feeling before and it is hard. Hopefully she will have better experiences in the future. While my daughter U15 has had better clinics experiences this year, she still has times when she feels stuck and written off. She sees it now as a process and shakes it off. Good luck to her!

That's a pretty low bar, I am sure most of her volleyball experiences were and will be much better. It is hard to know what happens when you are not allowed to watch. I have no reason to believe that she was lying about being on the 3rd court for the entire tryout. She said that most kids on the 3rd court had little experience (and that's what I saw when I got back to pick her up). It is difficult to make a difference when you play in that environment. We signed her up for a rec league this summer just to get a few touches and we decided we won't do that again: they were not quality touches and the level was rarely decided by the top player on the court. Maybe she did belong on the 3rd court, but she was not offered the chance to play along more skilled players. I would not be here complaining if she told me that she moved back and forth between the two courts. I would tell her that the Moco coaches gave her a chance and she blew it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Coming in late just to say that even if that’s how it goes, it is hard to feel like she your daughter didn’t get a chance. My kid has had that feeling before and it is hard. Hopefully she will have better experiences in the future. While my daughter U15 has had better clinics experiences this year, she still has times when she feels stuck and written off. She sees it now as a process and shakes it off. Good luck to her!

That's a pretty low bar, I am sure most of her volleyball experiences were and will be much better. It is hard to know what happens when you are not allowed to watch. I have no reason to believe that she was lying about being on the 3rd court for the entire tryout. She said that most kids on the 3rd court had little experience (and that's what I saw when I got back to pick her up). It is difficult to make a difference when you play in that environment. We signed her up for a rec league this summer just to get a few touches and we decided we won't do that again: they were not quality touches and the level was rarely decided by the top player on the court. Maybe she did belong on the 3rd court, but she was not offered the chance to play along more skilled players. I would not be here complaining if she told me that she moved back and forth between the two courts. I would tell her that the Moco coaches gave her a chance and she blew it.

Ok just trying to be empathetic.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, PP. I know your child said she had a terrible experience, and despite the fact that you weren't there to witness it firsthand doesn't mean it didn't happen.

That said, coaches look at other things besides skill. If you said she felt humiliated, do you think she may have let that humiliation come through in her facial expressions and body language? Coaches want to see positivity, determination, and motivation.

I've watched my DD play in county rec league where kids were letting the ball drop, and she shows a lot of negativity in that setting. RBF and everything. Put her on the court with her JV team days later and she's a totally different player. She's beaming with positivity and encouraging her teammates to play their best. I am reminding her to bring the latter to tryouts this coming weekend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Coming in late just to say that even if that’s how it goes, it is hard to feel like she your daughter didn’t get a chance. My kid has had that feeling before and it is hard. Hopefully she will have better experiences in the future. While my daughter U15 has had better clinics experiences this year, she still has times when she feels stuck and written off. She sees it now as a process and shakes it off. Good luck to her!

That's a pretty low bar, I am sure most of her volleyball experiences were and will be much better. It is hard to know what happens when you are not allowed to watch. I have no reason to believe that she was lying about being on the 3rd court for the entire tryout. She said that most kids on the 3rd court had little experience (and that's what I saw when I got back to pick her up). It is difficult to make a difference when you play in that environment. We signed her up for a rec league this summer just to get a few touches and we decided we won't do that again: they were not quality touches and the level was rarely decided by the top player on the court. Maybe she did belong on the 3rd court, but she was not offered the chance to play along more skilled players. I would not be here complaining if she told me that she moved back and forth between the two courts. I would tell her that the Moco coaches gave her a chance and she blew it.

Ok just trying to be empathetic.

Thank you for sharing and trying to be empathetic. I am still playing defense against those who tell me that I can't possibly know what happened because I was not there, the coaches know what they are doing, then dismiss the humiliating experience that my daughter went through for 3 hours. None of the previous discussions with the Moco coaches suggested that my DD has no chance: they told her what to work on, praised her attitude, and encouraged her to aim high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, PP. I know your child said she had a terrible experience, and despite the fact that you weren't there to witness it firsthand doesn't mean it didn't happen.

That said, coaches look at other things besides skill. If you said she felt humiliated, do you think she may have let that humiliation come through in her facial expressions and body language? Coaches want to see positivity, determination, and motivation.

I've watched my DD play in county rec league where kids were letting the ball drop, and she shows a lot of negativity in that setting. RBF and everything. Put her on the court with her JV team days later and she's a totally different player. She's beaming with positivity and encouraging her teammates to play their best. I am reminding her to bring the latter to tryouts this coming weekend.

She is typically loud and positive. I don't know if she kept that going for the entire 3 hours playing rec-league level volleyball, knowing that the real action happens on the other two courts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Coming in late just to say that even if that’s how it goes, it is hard to feel like she your daughter didn’t get a chance. My kid has had that feeling before and it is hard. Hopefully she will have better experiences in the future. While my daughter U15 has had better clinics experiences this year, she still has times when she feels stuck and written off. She sees it now as a process and shakes it off. Good luck to her!

That's a pretty low bar, I am sure most of her volleyball experiences were and will be much better. It is hard to know what happens when you are not allowed to watch. I have no reason to believe that she was lying about being on the 3rd court for the entire tryout. She said that most kids on the 3rd court had little experience (and that's what I saw when I got back to pick her up). It is difficult to make a difference when you play in that environment. We signed her up for a rec league this summer just to get a few touches and we decided we won't do that again: they were not quality touches and the level was rarely decided by the top player on the court. Maybe she did belong on the 3rd court, but she was not offered the chance to play along more skilled players. I would not be here complaining if she told me that she moved back and forth between the two courts. I would tell her that the Moco coaches gave her a chance and she blew it.

Ok just trying to be empathetic.

Thank you for sharing and trying to be empathetic. I am still playing defense against those who tell me that I can't possibly know what happened because I was not there, the coaches know what they are doing, then dismiss the humiliating experience that my daughter went through for 3 hours. None of the previous discussions with the Moco coaches suggested that my DD has no chance: they told her what to work on, praised her attitude, and encouraged her to aim high.

PP. I get it. It sounds like an awful experience and she really did get stuck there. You’d think they would have seen that she wasn’t a rec level player.

On another note, I drop my kid off — like you did - she doesn’t need me sitting there staring at her. I honestly think it’s bizarre when parents stay for their teenagers at that level. Plop down on the court with their chairs. I think it builds confidence for kids to be on their own. I come in at the end of clinics.
If the coaches said to leave, then parents should leave.

[Anonymous]

Btw MoVo tryouts are only 2 hours long. There’s 30 min for checkin but the rest is only 2.

[Anonymous]

Sorry typo. Meant MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Btw MoVo tryouts are only 2 hours long. There’s 30 min for checkin but the rest is only 2.

Last weekend they were 3 hours + checkin on Saturday, at least for the older age groups.

[Anonymous]

And almost 3 hours of callbacks on Sunday