Tryouts discussions

[Anonymous]

Since Tryouts are in a few months I thought I'd make a thread talking about different clubs and people's experiences club tryouts/ the weeks leading up to tryouts at clinics and how they went. Even though most are similar they usually have some differences (such as number of players, skill set of players, etc....). please talk about past seasons and this upcoming one if you'd like.

I just thought I'd make this thread as I wish I had something like this when I first became a volleyball parent and maybe a new volleyball parent wants this.

[Anonymous]

How are the MOCO tryouts like?

[Anonymous]

Hi! What do tryout usually look like. What do couches look for? Is it different for each club?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi! What do tryout usually look like. What do couches look for? Is it different for each club?

You will be shocked at the number of girls at attendance. It will become apparent quickly, at many, that tryouts are a formality and teams are already formed.

They are separated after minutes or onto courts. The coaches only look at the top court. Sometimes they are separated by court at sign in, without any initial drills at all.

This is why it is so important to attend clinics before tryouts. Sometimes they give out offers for invite only clinics and then there is a better chance your daughter will get an offer at a tryout.

Even still, some team with hundreds of girls will have additional tryouts after all of them are over. Maybe they didn’t give out enough. Maybe everyone turned them down and their alternates accepted other teams. My daughter didn’t get any initial offers and went to one of these last chance tryouts and that’s how she got a spot last year.

It can be a stressful process. DCUM was helpful with posting info in real time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi! What do tryout usually look like. What do couches look for? Is it different for each club?

You will be shocked at the number of girls at attendance. It will become apparent quickly, at many, that tryouts are a formality and teams are already formed.

They are separated after minutes or onto courts. The coaches only look at the top court. Sometimes they are separated by court at sign in, without any initial drills at all.

This is why it is so important to attend clinics before tryouts. Sometimes they give out offers for invite only clinics and then there is a better chance your daughter will get an offer at a tryout.

Even still, some team with hundreds of girls will have additional tryouts after all of them are over. Maybe they didn’t give out enough. Maybe everyone turned them down and their alternates accepted other teams. My daughter didn’t get any initial offers and went to one of these last chance tryouts and that’s how she got a spot last year.

It can be a stressful process. DCUM was helpful with posting info in real time.

So DD has basically no chance unless she goes to the clubs clinic??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So DD has basically no chance unless she goes to the clubs clinic??

Pretty much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So DD has basically no chance unless she goes to the clubs clinic??

Pretty much.

But even attending a club's clinic is still far from a chance. There will be 30 other girls at the same clinic with the same strategy.

[Anonymous]

I posted that rather depressing overview of tryouts and it’s some positive news is every girl we knew who had some experience and wanted to play found a team last year somewhere.

Some of our lessons learned. My daughter, with years of experience, isn’t going to Paramount or Metro. There are too many there and tryouts are too hectic. She thought about it but prioritized other long shots last year and this hurt her. She then, also prioritized back up clubs she didn’t really want to play for because she thought they would be easy offers. She hadn’t gone to clinics. They weren’t.

This year she is only looking at a small handful of mid range clubs and going to the pre season clinics. We will see how that goes.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the posters above who said not to spend too much time at reach/dream clubs’ pre-tryout clinics, with the exception of one. Definitely try a Metro positional clinic. That was so eye opening. As good as you think your DD is, she will get a pretty good picture of how much better everyone is, how competitive the tryout process can be, and it will reset your DD’s expectations. It’s a reality check but also a really good workout.

[Anonymous]

08:07 here. I’m not affiliated in any way with Metro. I’m just a mom of a 16U player who was put on a cliiic court with girls much younger than her. Having lost the earlier volleyball years during COVID, DD got a late start at volleyball. The clinic motivated her to work harder but also be realistic as to her skill level.

[Anonymous]

How is Platform for a 14U Beginner/intermediate.