Volleyball club- recap and thoughts

[Anonymous]

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

Isn't it great when you suggest that someone's DD was humiliated for 2 hours only, but then you realize there is a possibility that 3 hours was still a possibility?

[Anonymous]

We had a similar experience at Mojo. There were so many girls and my daughter was relatively new to the club and didn’t get a look from the start. We left. Ironically they were still supposedly looking for players and having more clinics afterward but we had accepted another offer from a club that actually watched her play and saw her value. It was a total money grab. No question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a similar experience at Mojo. There were so many girls and my daughter was relatively new to the club and didn’t get a look from the start. We left. Ironically they were still supposedly looking for players and having more clinics afterward but we had accepted another offer from a club that actually watched her play and saw her value. It was a total money grab. No question.

That's too bad, its hard to get noticed at a club tryout if you are new to club but great she accepted an offer from another club.

Every year after tryouts we see posts on this forum about how a player didn't get a fair tryout or was on the bottom court or wasn't watched enough by coaches. While I don't think the PP story that started this discussion checks out because they weren't actually there, I'm sure there are tryouts where it does happen.

Genuine question for DCUM. Would you rather have tryouts open and available to everyone or closed and invite only? The other option in between those is for clubs to tell people they've not to show up to tryouts, but if they haven't seen you they can't do that.

[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.

That's a snarky comment for someone who doesn't know the player. Tryouts are supposed to sort out the players and figure out which of them are the best matches for the club. You want to give each player the best environment to succeed rather than design it for players to fail.

I feel like many clubs play this unethical game by asking as many players to come to tryouts as possible. In many cases they know the players from clinics and they have a really good idea that those players have no chance. But they want the money and they want to brag how many players they had at tryouts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a similar experience at Mojo. There were so many girls and my daughter was relatively new to the club and didn’t get a look from the start. We left. Ironically they were still supposedly looking for players and having more clinics afterward but we had accepted another offer from a club that actually watched her play and saw her value. It was a total money grab. No question.

That's too bad, its hard to get noticed at a club tryout if you are new to club but great she accepted an offer from another club.

Every year after tryouts we see posts on this forum about how a player didn't get a fair tryout or was on the bottom court or wasn't watched enough by coaches. While I don't think the PP story that started this discussion checks out because they weren't actually there, I'm sure there are tryouts where it does happen.

Genuine question for DCUM. Would you rather have tryouts open and available to everyone or closed and invite only? The other option in between those is for clubs to tell people they've not to show up to tryouts, but if they haven't seen you they can't do that.

Personally, I think open tryouts are better, but I do think there is lots of room for improvement in the process. Clubs should be transparent about what to expect at tryouts, especially with players who they get to know during clinics and camps. If they don't believe a player that has been coming to clinics has a realistic chance of making a team at their club, and the player/parent asks the question they should be ok with delivering that message. Similarly, players and parents also need to be realistic about the level of play/team that they are trying out for. It's fine to tryout for a stretch team, but have a backup plan. And parents need to try and educate themselves on how this process works. It's still shocking to me to hear about players at tryouts who didn't go to a single clinic or have any exposure to the club ahead of time. Sure, sometimes these players will make a team, but for most clubs (especially the more competitive ones) they have a pretty good idea of who they are making offers to before a single player steps into the gym at a tryout.

The funny thing about the tryouts money grab perception, is that it wasn't that long ago that some tryouts were free. Clubs with no tryout fee would get an insane number of girls at tryouts, most of whom were just there to have another option in case their first choice fell through.

[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.

We didn't have that experience. We started on the 3s court too. Didn't attend any prep clinics. DD tried out for both U13 & U14. Coaches from all three teams for each age group were on the 3s court at the start in the back by the stage and on the sidelines. We talked to some of the parents watching and some of the players on the 3s court at the start were returning club players. They ran a 6v6 drill to start and then switched to individual passing & hitting drills. For U13 DD got move up during the passing drills ~40 minutes in and stayed on the 2nd court for the rest of the tryout. For U14 she moved up about 50-60 minutes in, and then came back down about halfway through the tryouts. In both tryouts there were a lot of players moved up from the 3rd court and down from the other courts in the first hour or so.

Watching the U14 top court was almost like watching a completely different sport. We went into tryouts thinking she had a shot at 14s, we walked out knowing she didn't. Ended up getting a 3s team waitlist for U13 and no offer for a U14 team.

The hardest part about tryouts at every club we've tried out for is that eventually they have to separate players by ability level. There aren't many times in a 13 years olds life when they get immediate feedback about how someone else views them. If your DD isn't in the upper group at any of those tryouts, its hard for them to handle and often just as hard or harder for parents. We did 4 different clubs and every one of them sorted players. We dealt with some tears after several of them.

Just curious, what's your previous club that you are back at?

Wait a second: the coaches made it clear that no parents were allowed at tryouts. The parents I saw watching the tryouts were in the registration area, but they could only watch the 3rd court. How did you get to watch the top courts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a similar experience at Mojo. There were so many girls and my daughter was relatively new to the club and didn’t get a look from the start. We left. Ironically they were still supposedly looking for players and having more clinics afterward but we had accepted another offer from a club that actually watched her play and saw her value. It was a total money grab. No question.

That's too bad, its hard to get noticed at a club tryout if you are new to club but great she accepted an offer from another club.

Every year after tryouts we see posts on this forum about how a player didn't get a fair tryout or was on the bottom court or wasn't watched enough by coaches. While I don't think the PP story that started this discussion checks out because they weren't actually there, I'm sure there are tryouts where it does happen.

Genuine question for DCUM. Would you rather have tryouts open and available to everyone or closed and invite only? The other option in between those is for clubs to tell people they've not to show up to tryouts, but if they haven't seen you they can't do that.

So you think the DD is lying about being stuck on the 3rd court with no opportunity to play among other players with decent skills?

[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.

We didn't have that experience. We started on the 3s court too. Didn't attend any prep clinics. DD tried out for both U13 & U14. Coaches from all three teams for each age group were on the 3s court at the start in the back by the stage and on the sidelines. We talked to some of the parents watching and some of the players on the 3s court at the start were returning club players. They ran a 6v6 drill to start and then switched to individual passing & hitting drills. For U13 DD got move up during the passing drills ~40 minutes in and stayed on the 2nd court for the rest of the tryout. For U14 she moved up about 50-60 minutes in, and then came back down about halfway through the tryouts. In both tryouts there were a lot of players moved up from the 3rd court and down from the other courts in the first hour or so.

Watching the U14 top court was almost like watching a completely different sport. We went into tryouts thinking she had a shot at 14s, we walked out knowing she didn't. Ended up getting a 3s team waitlist for U13 and no offer for a U14 team.

The hardest part about tryouts at every club we've tried out for is that eventually they have to separate players by ability level. There aren't many times in a 13 years olds life when they get immediate feedback about how someone else views them. If your DD isn't in the upper group at any of those tryouts, its hard for them to handle and often just as hard or harder for parents. We did 4 different clubs and every one of them sorted players. We dealt with some tears after several of them.

Just curious, what's your previous club that you are back at?

Wait a second: the coaches made it clear that no parents were allowed at tryouts. The parents I saw watching the tryouts were in the registration area, but they could only watch the 3rd court. How did you get to watch the top courts?

Weight room.

[Anonymous]

My DD is new to MOCO and only did their invite-only pre-tryout clinics. She has never been to MOCO's Fall clinic or Rec sessions before. Last season, she was a mid-tier club player, but she did a bunch of summer camps, rec leagues, and clinics to prep for this year. She liked the vibe at MOCO from the pre-tryout clinic, so we went to every clinic we got invited to. I could tell some of the coaches were keeping an eye on her, and a few even came up to ask her questions. I thought she might have a shot at making the team.

At tryouts, she started on a lower court (that’s what she told me), but she was quickly moved to the higher court and stayed there the rest of the time. She said there was a lot of movement in the courts, with kids moving back and forth as directed by coaches. It was an intense, long tryout, and coaches told the players that they wanted to see how their mindsets and attitudes changed as they got tired.

My DD was feeling pretty good afterward, and the next day she got an offer from MOCO (plus a waitlist spot for the upper team). Despite some previous negative comments about MOCO, our experience has been great so far with how they split up practice teams, their coaching style, and how they encourage positive attitudes. I really feel like MOCO is looking for players (AND parents) who get their volleyball philosophy.

[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.

We didn't have that experience. We started on the 3s court too. Didn't attend any prep clinics. DD tried out for both U13 & U14. Coaches from all three teams for each age group were on the 3s court at the start in the back by the stage and on the sidelines. We talked to some of the parents watching and some of the players on the 3s court at the start were returning club players. They ran a 6v6 drill to start and then switched to individual passing & hitting drills. For U13 DD got move up during the passing drills ~40 minutes in and stayed on the 2nd court for the rest of the tryout. For U14 she moved up about 50-60 minutes in, and then came back down about halfway through the tryouts. In both tryouts there were a lot of players moved up from the 3rd court and down from the other courts in the first hour or so.

Watching the U14 top court was almost like watching a completely different sport. We went into tryouts thinking she had a shot at 14s, we walked out knowing she didn't. Ended up getting a 3s team waitlist for U13 and no offer for a U14 team.

The hardest part about tryouts at every club we've tried out for is that eventually they have to separate players by ability level. There aren't many times in a 13 years olds life when they get immediate feedback about how someone else views them. If your DD isn't in the upper group at any of those tryouts, its hard for them to handle and often just as hard or harder for parents. We did 4 different clubs and every one of them sorted players. We dealt with some tears after several of them.

Just curious, what's your previous club that you are back at?

Wait a second: the coaches made it clear that no parents were allowed at tryouts. The parents I saw watching the tryouts were in the registration area, but they could only watch the 3rd court. How did you get to watch the top courts?

Weight room.

Can you see from the weigh room? I had the feeling that it's just the door that connects to the gym. Did they allowed parents in the weight room despite being clear that parents were not allowed at the tryouts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD is new to MOCO and only did their invite-only pre-tryout clinics. She has never been to MOCO's Fall clinic or Rec sessions before. Last season, she was a mid-tier club player, but she did a bunch of summer camps, rec leagues, and clinics to prep for this year. She liked the vibe at MOCO from the pre-tryout clinic, so we went to every clinic we got invited to. I could tell some of the coaches were keeping an eye on her, and a few even came up to ask her questions. I thought she might have a shot at making the team.

At tryouts, she started on a lower court (that’s what she told me), but she was quickly moved to the higher court and stayed there the rest of the time. She said there was a lot of movement in the courts, with kids moving back and forth as directed by coaches. It was an intense, long tryout, and coaches told the players that they wanted to see how their mindsets and attitudes changed as they got tired.

My DD was feeling pretty good afterward, and the next day she got an offer from MOCO (plus a waitlist spot for the upper team). Despite some previous negative comments about MOCO, our experience has been great so far with how they split up practice teams, their coaching style, and how they encourage positive attitudes. I really feel like MOCO is looking for players (AND parents) who get their volleyball philosophy.

I am not surprised your DD had a great time, especially after she moved up, stayed on the top court, then got an offer. You are likely to have a good experience when everything works out. Congratulations to her for making the team!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a similar experience at Mojo. There were so many girls and my daughter was relatively new to the club and didn’t get a look from the start. We left. Ironically they were still supposedly looking for players and having more clinics afterward but we had accepted another offer from a club that actually watched her play and saw her value. It was a total money grab. No question.

That's too bad, its hard to get noticed at a club tryout if you are new to club but great she accepted an offer from another club.

Every year after tryouts we see posts on this forum about how a player didn't get a fair tryout or was on the bottom court or wasn't watched enough by coaches. While I don't think the PP story that started this discussion checks out because they weren't actually there, I'm sure there are tryouts where it does happen.

Genuine question for DCUM. Would you rather have tryouts open and available to everyone or closed and invite only? The other option in between those is for clubs to tell people they've not to show up to tryouts, but if they haven't seen you they can't do that.

So you think the DD is lying about being stuck on the 3rd court with no opportunity to play among other players with decent skills?

I truly feel your daughters pain. Its never a good feeling when your DD feels like a tryout didn't go well. As parents our first instinct is to protect our kids from harm and always believe them and support them.

I don't think your DD is lying about being on the 3rd court. I do think the conclusions you reached that never getting moved up = never being observed by coaches and/or unfair treatment isn't fair or accurate. If her tryout mirrored ours, then she started with a lot of players that eventually were moved up and some who stayed and ended with a players that were there from the start or moved down. We've been to a lot of tryouts over the years and there are issues with most of them. I've done my fair share of criticizing clubs about things, but this process is pretty standard at all the large clubs that run multiple teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a similar experience at Mojo. There were so many girls and my daughter was relatively new to the club and didn’t get a look from the start. We left. Ironically they were still supposedly looking for players and having more clinics afterward but we had accepted another offer from a club that actually watched her play and saw her value. It was a total money grab. No question.

That's too bad, its hard to get noticed at a club tryout if you are new to club but great she accepted an offer from another club.

Every year after tryouts we see posts on this forum about how a player didn't get a fair tryout or was on the bottom court or wasn't watched enough by coaches. While I don't think the PP story that started this discussion checks out because they weren't actually there, I'm sure there are tryouts where it does happen.

Genuine question for DCUM. Would you rather have tryouts open and available to everyone or closed and invite only? The other option in between those is for clubs to tell people they've not to show up to tryouts, but if they haven't seen you they can't do that.

So you think the DD is lying about being stuck on the 3rd court with no opportunity to play among other players with decent skills?

I truly feel your daughters pain. Its never a good feeling when your DD feels like a tryout didn't go well. As parents our first instinct is to protect our kids from harm and always believe them and support them.

I don't think your DD is lying about being on the 3rd court. I do think the conclusions you reached that never getting moved up = never being observed by coaches and/or unfair treatment isn't fair or accurate. If her tryout mirrored ours, then she started with a lot of players that eventually were moved up and some who stayed and ended with a players that were there from the start or moved down. We've been to a lot of tryouts over the years and there are issues with most of them. I've done my fair share of criticizing clubs about things, but this process is pretty standard at all the large clubs that run multiple teams.

You are saying is that my DD never earned the chance to move up. I am saying is that the coaches had 3 hours to move players around and provide at least the appearance that they want to give everyone a chance to do well. She cannot do any miracles in a rec type environment, where balls fly everywhere in a very uncontrolled fashion. But the message was loud and clear: "you are here for the tryout money and you don't matter enough to give you any chance to do better."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a similar experience at Mojo. There were so many girls and my daughter was relatively new to the club and didn’t get a look from the start. We left. Ironically they were still supposedly looking for players and having more clinics afterward but we had accepted another offer from a club that actually watched her play and saw her value. It was a total money grab. No question.

That's too bad, its hard to get noticed at a club tryout if you are new to club but great she accepted an offer from another club.

Every year after tryouts we see posts on this forum about how a player didn't get a fair tryout or was on the bottom court or wasn't watched enough by coaches. While I don't think the PP story that started this discussion checks out because they weren't actually there, I'm sure there are tryouts where it does happen.

Genuine question for DCUM. Would you rather have tryouts open and available to everyone or closed and invite only? The other option in between those is for clubs to tell people they've not to show up to tryouts, but if they haven't seen you they can't do that.

Tryouts are already limited to those who a) know about them; b) can pay the fees and get to them; c) register in time for the ones that fill up. As a family we're in year 7 of volleyball (3 girls), and if I ran a club there is NO WAY I'd want the club to be closed & invite only. MVSA doesn't even do that, but they do tell people not to show up on Day 2 while also saying only those who they're still looking at need to come to both days. Only the absolutely best clubs could even think of doing closed/invite only tryouts, but that also means you'd miss, say, the headed-for-D-1-skill level player who just moved to DC and so is largely unknown as a player here but kills it on on the court. Or the tall girls with natural talent who've never played club before but do pretty damn well and would be good for regional. You don't see them if you don't know they exist to invite them. So closed/invite only seems like a horrible idea unless you're Metro Travel or Paramount, and even then you might miss some killer unknown players once in awhile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD is new to MOCO and only did their invite-only pre-tryout clinics. She has never been to MOCO's Fall clinic or Rec sessions before. Last season, she was a mid-tier club player, but she did a bunch of summer camps, rec leagues, and clinics to prep for this year. She liked the vibe at MOCO from the pre-tryout clinic, so we went to every clinic we got invited to. I could tell some of the coaches were keeping an eye on her, and a few even came up to ask her questions. I thought she might have a shot at making the team.

At tryouts, she started on a lower court (that’s what she told me), but she was quickly moved to the higher court and stayed there the rest of the time. She said there was a lot of movement in the courts, with kids moving back and forth as directed by coaches. It was an intense, long tryout, and coaches told the players that they wanted to see how their mindsets and attitudes changed as they got tired.

My DD was feeling pretty good afterward, and the next day she got an offer from MOCO (plus a waitlist spot for the upper team). Despite some previous negative comments about MOCO, our experience has been great so far with how they split up practice teams, their coaching style, and how they encourage positive attitudes. I really feel like MOCO is looking for players (AND parents) who get their volleyball philosophy.

Parent who had 2 girls play for MOCO: Make sure you come back at the end of the season and let us know what the experience was, both for your girl as a player and you as a parent. I hope your experience is better than ours, but I'm not holding my breath.