Gaithersburg or MVSA?

[Anonymous]

I have a 10 year old DD. She loves sports but isn’t super competitive, but she loves being athletic. I’m looking for an alternative to soccer and basketball because slight asthma is aggravated by running. I’d appreciate people’s thoughts about volleyball options. We live in the Kentlands in Gaithersburg (MD) and don’t want to travel for practice beyond 20 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Do MVSA. She’s young and athletic and will likely make a U-10 team. The training is excellent.

[Anonymous]

You’ll need to define “good” and “worth it”. At 10, your player is very young. Are you trying to build skill? Love for the game? Fun? And how much will make you happy?

Here are the similarities and differences:

Instruction:

MVSA: the beginner levels play newcomb. It’s not volleyball, but a precursor to volleyball. It helps with throwing mechanics and eye/ hand coordination. Instruction is on a set curriculum and it is mainly carried out by parent volunteers. There is a coach who knows about volleyball but that coach is working between 2-3 teams each practice. The parent volunteer may not know anything about volleyball…

Gaithersburg rec: the instruction by team is going to vary wildly. This is because it’s mainly staffed by volunteers. You’ll have some good folks like Coach Juan who typically coaches there in the fall (look up bears vc- he’s also varsity coach at CEDJDS) but most are parent volunteers. I also think that Coach Juan is for 7th grade and up. You can request a specific coach and team when you sign up. Some teams have been together for a bit and others are placed by the staff office. If you are going this route, your kid will have more fun if they are placed with someone they know, eg entire teams are made up of people from certain schools.

Learnings:

Neither one of these experiences will prepare you for club play even at the u10 or u11 level. It’s really meant for exposure, interest, etc. we have done both programs.

If club is what you want, you would be much better off going to a more technical fall season / clinic. I’ve spoken to folks who had a good experience at RVA, Bethesda Volleyball Academy and Metro for this age group. A few clubs are opening up new experiences for this fall so you can try that out too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’ll need to define “good” and “worth it”. At 10, your player is very young. Are you trying to build skill? Love for the game? Fun? And how much will make you happy?

Here are the similarities and differences:

Instruction:

MVSA: the beginner levels play newcomb. It’s not volleyball, but a precursor to volleyball. It helps with throwing mechanics and eye/ hand coordination. Instruction is on a set curriculum and it is mainly carried out by parent volunteers. There is a coach who knows about volleyball but that coach is working between 2-3 teams each practice. The parent volunteer may not know anything about volleyball…

Gaithersburg rec: the instruction by team is going to vary wildly. This is because it’s mainly staffed by volunteers. You’ll have some good folks like Coach Juan who typically coaches there in the fall (look up bears vc- he’s also varsity coach at CEDJDS) but most are parent volunteers. I also think that Coach Juan is for 7th grade and up. You can request a specific coach and team when you sign up. Some teams have been together for a bit and others are placed by the staff office. If you are going this route, your kid will have more fun if they are placed with someone they know, eg entire teams are made up of people from certain schools.

Learnings:

Neither one of these experiences will prepare you for club play even at the u10 or u11 level. It’s really meant for exposure, interest, etc. we have done both programs.

If club is what you want, you would be much better off going to a more technical fall season / clinic. I’ve spoken to folks who had a good experience at RVA, Bethesda Volleyball Academy and Metro for this age group. A few clubs are opening up new experiences for this fall so you can try that out too.

MOCO and MEVC both run fall programs as well. MEVC appears to be more of a rec league, MOCO is more of a training program. If you want club coaches directly involved in the coaching then you might look at those first. Both are very reasonably priced compared to normal clinic costs, especially clinics run by clubs.

[Anonymous]

Another DP who tried both. I would pick the MVSA rec league. The Gaithersburg league can be fun, but the skill development is almost non-existent. You would be lucky to have a coach who know what they are doing. If you end up in club, you will have to correct a lot of bad habits developed during rec. I can't talk much about the MOCO or MEVC alternatives that a PP mentioned.