Volleyball question- where did all these athletes come from?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Damn volleyball a joke

You can cry about it or just jump on the bandwagon.

I get it, NOBODY wants to see their daughter quit softball but trust me, there is just as much character building going on with volleyball as any other team sport.
And have you watched a game? It is wild.
The games are wall to wall action and when the whistle blows you can't tell who got the point because BOTH teams are high fiving each other.
Sure the basketball uniforms and soccer uniforms are more modest than the sprayed on spanks they use in volleyball and they smack each other on the butt way too much, but as dads we're just going to have to get comfortable with the fact that our little girls are not little girls anymore and unfortunately volleyball is the gateway drug to fake nails and jewelry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the risk of starting an 'online war', I just want to first state that I'm a total volleyball dad and have and continue to support my daughters playing school and club volleyball.

With that being said, I acknowledge the benefits of volleyball:
- a team sport where individual players learn team dynamics (in comparison to an individual sport... but I'm not slamming individual sports. Just good to know what it means to be a "team player"
- relatively "non-"contact compared to other sports like soccer and basketball. (Crashes can still occur as evident by my daughters' teammates with broken bones and concussions after colliding.)
- the indoor part is great when it's below freezing outside and/or the wind is >15 mph...
- development of athletic and technical skills, communication, and flexibility/decision-making on the fly

However, I have to acknowledge quite a few cons of the sport:
- it's a sport that biases towards those with height. The shorter players have to work 'harder' to get notice and are often limited to certain positions (i.e. DS, libero, setters for coaches who are ok with shorter setters...).
- unless coaches are willing to work on this (and not every coach is the same, but that also applies to other sports), volleyball is not a sport that lends itself to cardiovascular development. Quick reflexes and twitch muscles are key but players do not need to 'run' as much. I have observed many close matches that went to the team with better endurance and conditioning. And, unfortunately, it's not often 'fair' when the teams have to play 3 matches straight (with 3 sets) while the opposing team had the easier bracket and has been resting.

(Ok, let the tomatoes fly!)

Geno Auriemma: "The big difference between a really good player and a great player is: great players don't get tired. They just don't. And what makes them great is when the good players get tired the great players kick their ass. That's the difference. So everyday we're working on that. Everyday we're working on that. We can coach ball screens, passing into the post, cutting, and play defense, but we're just not here to coach your energy level or your effort. That's a given. You wouldn't be here if I had to coach that. That's what other coaches have to do, they have to coach energy. I don't. Ya'll know that, ya'll know that."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the risk of starting an 'online war', I just want to first state that I'm a total volleyball dad and have and continue to support my daughters playing school and club volleyball.

With that being said, I acknowledge the benefits of volleyball:
- a team sport where individual players learn team dynamics (in comparison to an individual sport... but I'm not slamming individual sports. Just good to know what it means to be a "team player"
- relatively "non-"contact compared to other sports like soccer and basketball. (Crashes can still occur as evident by my daughters' teammates with broken bones and concussions after colliding.)
- the indoor part is great when it's below freezing outside and/or the wind is >15 mph...
- development of athletic and technical skills, communication, and flexibility/decision-making on the fly

However, I have to acknowledge quite a few cons of the sport:
- it's a sport that biases towards those with height. The shorter players have to work 'harder' to get notice and are often limited to certain positions (i.e. DS, libero, setters for coaches who are ok with shorter setters...).
- unless coaches are willing to work on this (and not every coach is the same, but that also applies to other sports), volleyball is not a sport that lends itself to cardiovascular development. Quick reflexes and twitch muscles are key but players do not need to 'run' as much. I have observed many close matches that went to the team with better endurance and conditioning. And, unfortunately, it's not often 'fair' when the teams have to play 3 matches straight (with 3 sets) while the opposing team had the easier bracket and has been resting.

(Ok, let the tomatoes fly!)

VB mom here and I approve this post.

😂

And who cares if this particular sport is cardio heavy! Baseball certainly isn’t, and no one is talking about the bball players chewing tobacco or growing beards etc. I think it’s kind of sexist when people slam VB for what the girls wear and for not being cardio heavy. Who cares. I think certain parts of society love very particular kinds of “sporty” girls who like the contact of soccer or basketball and get sweaty etc … I know of one dad who praises this about his soccer daughter constantly… because he wishes he’d had a boy and is doing all sorts of mental stuff around that.

Anyway- agree, VB dad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sport for non-runners.
Indoors so no bugs or extreme heat or cold.
Non-contact sport.
Minimal sweating, so you still look cute while being a badass on the court.

Minimal sweating because you're indoors? Have you ever played volleyball in a high school gym in the early fall? It is hot as hell in those gyms!

I’m sure you’re right—but my kid played travel in late elementary and middle school so that was Dec-June and didn’t have sports teams at school. She dropped vball by high school (wasnt passionate about it so not that good, and she did theater instead)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the risk of starting an 'online war', I just want to first state that I'm a total volleyball dad and have and continue to support my daughters playing school and club volleyball.

With that being said, I acknowledge the benefits of volleyball:
- a team sport where individual players learn team dynamics (in comparison to an individual sport... but I'm not slamming individual sports. Just good to know what it means to be a "team player"
- relatively "non-"contact compared to other sports like soccer and basketball. (Crashes can still occur as evident by my daughters' teammates with broken bones and concussions after colliding.)
- the indoor part is great when it's below freezing outside and/or the wind is >15 mph...
- development of athletic and technical skills, communication, and flexibility/decision-making on the fly

However, I have to acknowledge quite a few cons of the sport:
- it's a sport that biases towards those with height. The shorter players have to work 'harder' to get notice and are often limited to certain positions (i.e. DS, libero, setters for coaches who are ok with shorter setters...).
- unless coaches are willing to work on this (and not every coach is the same, but that also applies to other sports), volleyball is not a sport that lends itself to cardiovascular development. Quick reflexes and twitch muscles are key but players do not need to 'run' as much. I have observed many close matches that went to the team with better endurance and conditioning. And, unfortunately, it's not often 'fair' when the teams have to play 3 matches straight (with 3 sets) while the opposing team had the easier bracket and has been resting.

(Ok, let the tomatoes fly!)

This is correct. We've been to several clubs for clinics / leagues and most of them don't do anything cardio. Some lazy warmup, then the players get the ball for drills and games. Among all the clubs we've had experience with, the only exception was Metro, where the warmup is followed by a drill that drains you. You get a set of hurdles at one end of the gym that keep going higher and higher as the drill progresses. The players then sprint toward the coaches who throw a ball (most of the time out of the reach of the players). The only chance of getting that ball is to run like hell and dive.

[Anonymous]

Evolution is holding their tryouts tomorrow and Wednesday. It’s a smaller club, they do this purposely to catch the talent that didn’t make it into the bigger clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out softball league has a vague sense that we are losing athletes to volleyball.

No offense, but softball sucks, no wonder girls are looking for a different sport.

Yeah. I played softball when I was 9-12 as a kid and I was always irritated we weren’t just playing baseball. I even asked my mom if I could do little league but she said no. Now I see they’ve added full face shields to the sport and it just adds to the insult. No other sport besides football/hockey is doing that. Are we teaching girls to the that scared? I digress…
OP- a lot of these athletes popping up in Volleyball are kids who had their sport shut down or minimized during the pandemic. They tried to stick with it or maybe tried to do something else that was available. My daughter has tried every sport out there and stuck with a few for more than 1 season but recently discovered a love for volleyball through a school team. She had an athletic background so picking up volleyball wasn’t hard for her.

I'm a mom to a volleyball player and a softball player, and your post sounds really sexist. Softball is great and harder than baseball in many ways. It's a very supportive female-first sport. The face shields are super important because if you get hit with a softball coming hard off a bat, it will shatter your nose and cheekbones and orbital socket. Please don't act like girls are wimps for wearing important protective gear. Typically only the pitcher and maybe some infielders wear them. If you are on the mound, that ball is coming at you hard and fast. One of the skill sets for a pitcher is being able to hit the dirt in a split second so you don't end up concussed. Softball is different than baseball because with the heavier ball, you see more hard line drives (so more active play) -- you don't get those big sailing home runs much in softball.

[Anonymous]

My vball player and her friends played soccer all through grade school but mine just didn't enjoy the big field play of soccer, or the players on other teams kicking her shins or elbowing her chest all the time. I think the small, close-in action (but without players from the other team trying to foul you all the time) is more her speed. She's also not really a sprinter, so that held her back in soccer, but she's training cardio and weights for volleyball.
One thing I don't like about vball is the emphasis on height -- the college players, even at Div 3, are all over 5"10' except the librero (who still is typically taller than average). So a lot of girls get pushed out because they just aren't going to be that tall -- you basically have to be within the top 5% of women by height to be able to keep playing. My daughter is 5'7" as a 13 year old, but that's apparently short for a volleyball player.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the risk of starting an 'online war', I just want to first state that I'm a total volleyball dad and have and continue to support my daughters playing school and club volleyball.

With that being said, I acknowledge the benefits of volleyball:
- a team sport where individual players learn team dynamics (in comparison to an individual sport... but I'm not slamming individual sports. Just good to know what it means to be a "team player"
- relatively "non-"contact compared to other sports like soccer and basketball. (Crashes can still occur as evident by my daughters' teammates with broken bones and concussions after colliding.)
- the indoor part is great when it's below freezing outside and/or the wind is >15 mph...
- development of athletic and technical skills, communication, and flexibility/decision-making on the fly

However, I have to acknowledge quite a few cons of the sport:
- it's a sport that biases towards those with height. The shorter players have to work 'harder' to get notice and are often limited to certain positions (i.e. DS, libero, setters for coaches who are ok with shorter setters...).
- unless coaches are willing to work on this (and not every coach is the same, but that also applies to other sports), volleyball is not a sport that lends itself to cardiovascular development. Quick reflexes and twitch muscles are key but players do not need to 'run' as much. I have observed many close matches that went to the team with better endurance and conditioning. And, unfortunately, it's not often 'fair' when the teams have to play 3 matches straight (with 3 sets) while the opposing team had the easier bracket and has been resting.

(Ok, let the tomatoes fly!)

How is that different than a tournament in any other sport?

A lot of times brackets are set up to pave the way for the highest seeded teams.

For example in Baseball tournaments, there is usually a slaughter rule so if you are much stronger than your opponent, your pitchers only have to pitch maybe 4 innings and will be available to pitch again on the third day of the tournament. A mid ranked team has to burn through their pitchers and figure out how to save their best pitchers in case they advance.

[Anonymous]

So my point is being proven. VB is for girls who are "lazier" than girls who do other higher cardio sports.
My DD included. No shame!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So my point is being proven. VB is for girls who are "lazier" than girls who do other higher cardio sports.
My DD included. No shame!

I get it. There is a hierarchy of cardio output required that determine how valid a sport is. So does that make cross country (or maybe distance swimming or middle distance track events) the pinnacle of all sports? Is an athlete lazy because they choose to play soccer instead of running cross country?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So my point is being proven. VB is for girls who are "lazier" than girls who do other higher cardio sports.
My DD included. No shame!

I get it. There is a hierarchy of cardio output required that determine how valid a sport is. So does that make cross country (or maybe distance swimming or middle distance track events) the pinnacle of all sports? Is an athlete lazy because they choose to play soccer instead of running cross country?

Is that why someone was complaining earlier today that the answer to everything on the Sports General Discussion board is "switch to cross country?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sport for non-runners.
Indoors so no bugs or extreme heat or cold.
Non-contact sport.
Minimal sweating, so you still look cute while being a badass on the court.

Hahaha yes. This is my ex-soccer player.

Mine too. She always does her hair before a tournament lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My vball player and her friends played soccer all through grade school but mine just didn't enjoy the big field play of soccer, or the players on other teams kicking her shins or elbowing her chest all the time. I think the small, close-in action (but without players from the other team trying to foul you all the time) is more her speed. She's also not really a sprinter, so that held her back in soccer, but she's training cardio and weights for volleyball.
One thing I don't like about vball is the emphasis on height -- the college players, even at Div 3, are all over 5"10' except the librero (who still is typically taller than average). So a lot of girls get pushed out because they just aren't going to be that tall -- you basically have to be within the top 5% of women by height to be able to keep playing. My daughter is 5'7" as a 13 year old, but that's apparently short for a volleyball player.

I don't know how many sports are geared towards smaller athletes. Size helps in pretty much every sport.

Some sports have weight classes so you have a trade off between lower center of gravity and longer reach/arm of momentum.
Some ports specifically require balance and lower center of gravity helps, gymnastics, skiing, etc.
Some sports are easier if you are lighter, equestrian sports, cycling, etc.

To the extent that smaller size leads to greater quickness, you generally see smaller liberos and smaller baseball infielders, smaller soccer forwards, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the risk of starting an 'online war', I just want to first state that I'm a total volleyball dad and have and continue to support my daughters playing school and club volleyball.

With that being said, I acknowledge the benefits of volleyball:
- a team sport where individual players learn team dynamics (in comparison to an individual sport... but I'm not slamming individual sports. Just good to know what it means to be a "team player"
- relatively "non-"contact compared to other sports like soccer and basketball. (Crashes can still occur as evident by my daughters' teammates with broken bones and concussions after colliding.)
- the indoor part is great when it's below freezing outside and/or the wind is >15 mph...
- development of athletic and technical skills, communication, and flexibility/decision-making on the fly

However, I have to acknowledge quite a few cons of the sport:
- it's a sport that biases towards those with height. The shorter players have to work 'harder' to get notice and are often limited to certain positions (i.e. DS, libero, setters for coaches who are ok with shorter setters...).
- unless coaches are willing to work on this (and not every coach is the same, but that also applies to other sports), volleyball is not a sport that lends itself to cardiovascular development. Quick reflexes and twitch muscles are key but players do not need to 'run' as much. I have observed many close matches that went to the team with better endurance and conditioning. And, unfortunately, it's not often 'fair' when the teams have to play 3 matches straight (with 3 sets) while the opposing team had the easier bracket and has been resting.

(Ok, let the tomatoes fly!)

Geno Auriemma: "The big difference between a really good player and a great player is: great players don't get tired. They just don't. And what makes them great is when the good players get tired the great players kick their ass. That's the difference. So everyday we're working on that. Everyday we're working on that. We can coach ball screens, passing into the post, cutting, and play defense, but we're just not here to coach your energy level or your effort. That's a given. You wouldn't be here if I had to coach that. That's what other coaches have to do, they have to coach energy. I don't. Ya'll know that, ya'll know that."

Funny how bad a coach he is when he doesn't get the best three recruits every year