Do I discourage and save her embarrassment?

[Anonymous]

Yes! As someone who's failed at EVERYTHING, I wish my parents had discouraged me more. Mutiple failures only led to depression.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rising middle school DD has never been into sports, and just isn’t coordinated in an athletic way in general. We did try pretty much all the typical sports on less competitive-type teams when she was younger, but nothing stuck. COVID happened and she sort of lost interest in sports all together.

Soon there will be volleyball tryouts at her small private school. All of the girls who will be trying out are “cliquey and popular” and already play on expensive travel teams. DD isnt, but is adamant she wants to try out. I don’t want her to be embarrassed if she doesn’t make the team. I can just picture how she will feel if she doesn’t, and I want to spare her that feeling. She thinks it’s all in fun, but our school is SUPER competitive at this level and I know she won’t make the team. She doesn’t know the first thing about the game, and the school is out to win.

What’s a mom to do?

Let her try. There are SO MANY camps and clinics this summer offered by travel teams. Loudoun Elite has beginner programs: https://www.loudounelitevb.com/clinicsandcamps If she is interested, I would put her in tons of clinics/programs this summer. My daughter is a senior (graduation is this week), plays 2 sports, soccer and volleyball. She played travel soccer since she was 11 years old. She started volleyball in middle school doing one season of NVVA galaxy league. She was horrible, but interested, so I placed her in these clinics they have 2x a week (usually 2-6 kids) and they work on individual skills. I also paid for some privates when she had time outside of soccer. And her summers became all volleyball, camps, individual classes, clinics. She LOVED it. She has NEVER played club volleyball, is only 5'4, made the freshman team her freshman year and made varsity her sophomore year. It is not too late to prep her this summer. With tons of classes (try every other day or more) she'll make the team! If you want to work with her, take her every week to a sand court near you and work on her overhand serve. Most girls in middle school have that skill. Our daughter saw how all the best players could overhand serve and asked us to help her learn. My husband (who never played volleyball) watch a bunch of videos, found a court, and took her many times. In 3 months, she had a strong overhand serve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes! As someone who's failed at EVERYTHING, I kwish my parents had discouraged me more. Mutiple failures only led to depression.

How do you fail at EVERYTHING? Do you have severe learning disorders?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rising middle school DD has never been into sports, and just isn’t coordinated in an athletic way in general. We did try pretty much all the typical sports on less competitive-type teams when she was younger, but nothing stuck. COVID happened and she sort of lost interest in sports all together.

Soon there will be volleyball tryouts at her small private school. All of the girls who will be trying out are “cliquey and popular” and already play on expensive travel teams. DD isnt, but is adamant she wants to try out. I don’t want her to be embarrassed if she doesn’t make the team. I can just picture how she will feel if she doesn’t, and I want to spare her that feeling. She thinks it’s all in fun, but our school is SUPER competitive at this level and I know she won’t make the team. She doesn’t know the first thing about the game, and the school is out to win.

What’s a mom to do?

Let her try. There are SO MANY camps and clinics this summer offered by travel teams. Loudoun Elite has beginner programs: https://www.loudounelitevb.com/clinicsandcamps If she is interested, I would put her in tons of clinics/programs this summer. My daughter is a senior (graduation is this week), plays 2 sports, soccer and volleyball. She played travel soccer since she was 11 years old. She started volleyball in middle school doing one season of NVVA galaxy league. She was horrible, but interested, so I placed her in these clinics they have 2x a week (usually 2-6 kids) and they work on individual skills. I also paid for some privates when she had time outside of soccer. And her summers became all volleyball, camps, individual classes, clinics. She LOVED it. She has NEVER played club volleyball, is only 5'4, made the freshman team her freshman year and made varsity her sophomore year. It is not too late to prep her this summer. With tons of classes (try every other day or more) she'll make the team! If you want to work with her, take her every week to a sand court near you and work on her overhand serve. Most girls in middle school have that skill. Our daughter saw how all the best players could overhand serve and asked us to help her learn. My husband (who never played volleyball) watch a bunch of videos, found a court, and took her many times. In 3 months, she had a strong overhand serve.

As someone with a HS and club volleyball DD, I second this advice. If your DD intends to try out, but needs to improve her skills, have her attend as many camps and clinics this summer as she can. There are loads offered by area club teams. Not sure where you're located, but Metro volleyball has many summer programs too: https://www.metrovbc.com/