Moco thoughts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just tried to register for Moco tryouts, it’s waitlist only. Do they usually move people off of that?

I think they want to give the illusion of high demand, so they open only a small number of spots for the tryouts and place everyone else on a waitlist. Later on, they give pretty much everyone the chance to try out. All the players on the waitlist will feel special because the club finally accommodated them. They don't have any incentives to block someone from trying out. They would potentially lose good players who didn't sign up on time, or they lose money from beginners who are kicked out after the first they and never called back.

-1
Demand for club volleyball is so high that clubs like MOCO don’t have to create any “illusions”. They’ll have no problem selling out tryouts and having a long list of players still waiting to get in.

This issue was discussed in another thread. You can only see so many players at a tryout due to limited numbers of courts. There a some clubs without waitlists will put 100+ players onto 2-3 courts. You don’t want to be in those tryouts, you’ll spend most of the time standing around.

I will have to disagree with this. They know from now that they will get more than 100 players trying out at the most popular age groups and they can plan for it. MOCO is known for having these waitlists, then accommodating everyone. I am not aware of any other club that has a waitlist for the tryouts.

Totally agree. The waitlist is just for the illusion of being "elite", but they definitely let everyone in.

Last year a number of popular clubs with multiple tryout times had time slots fill up. Some of them ran waitlists, some removed those times from their registration options. One club even allowed players to register and then had so many players they had to send a mass email to the entire age group just before tryouts telling them they had too much interest and players should consider not coming.

I’m not sure why anyone would believe that having a waitlist is a marketing ploy to give the illusion of being “elite”. It’s definitely not in a club’s interest to keep players from trying out, they lose out on revenue and the chance to see the player.

The popular clubs barely market tryouts at all, generally just a social media post and a few emails. Yet they still have hundreds of girls trying out for each age group.

It’s much more likely it’s just simple logistics. Demand for girls volleyball is much higher than the supply of teams. Court space is limited, especially on tryout weekends.

MOCO is definitely using manufactured scarcity. They open registration for fewer spots than they can really let in, which makes it seem like space is very limited. Then they put people on waitlists and eventually accommodate everyone. The waitlist creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity, but the fact that all players are later accommodated shows the limitation was not real. They don't seem to be learning from prior year data to organize the tryouts. If they are not using the manufactured scarcity ploy, they must be very disorganized. Whether they use scarcity marketing or they are disorganized, neither makes them look good. Except (maybe) to those who fall for scarcity marketing.

23:53 PP here.
Just went to their website and went through the registration process. When you register, you choose the timeslot that you can make. If its full, you select waitlist. That process is used at virtually every other club. MVSA is the exception where this year you don't choose your Saturday time for U12-U14, you are automatically assigned into one of the two options, regardless if it conflicts with other tryouts you are planning on attending.

MOCO has had registration open for a while now. If try to register for U13 tryouts, the Friday tryout is on a waitlist. Saturday is open. How are they creating scarcity if they have an open tryout that you can still register for? Slots are available, you can register.

To paraphrase your earlier post, not sure why you're such a fierce attacker of them. The argument you are making makes zero sense: somehow they are "limiting tryouts to create artificial scarcity", but at the same time you can register for a tryout right now without being on the waitlist. Or they are "incredibly disorganized" because they aren't able to plan well, but they have plan multiple tryout times for almost every age group and you can still register for most of them. The time may not work for you personally, but that is no different than every other club in CRHVA (see the conversation about U15+ tryouts earlier on this thread).

I'm not a fierce defender or attacker of them. For comparison, we registered for 4 tryouts last year. 3 clubs had a waitlist for the time we wanted. All 3 eventually got us into tryouts from the waitlist. Some got us into the time we requested, others offered us another option. MOCO was one of the ones that offered us a different option, even though we wanted to get into their Friday tryout.

[Anonymous]

Our daughter was older but our experience was great with MoCo all around. Athlete liked the team and we thought coaches and parents were supportive. We spent 2 years at another club and we felt MoCo was a better fit for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just tried to register for Moco tryouts, it’s waitlist only. Do they usually move people off of that?

I think they want to give the illusion of high demand, so they open only a small number of spots for the tryouts and place everyone else on a waitlist. Later on, they give pretty much everyone the chance to try out. All the players on the waitlist will feel special because the club finally accommodated them. They don't have any incentives to block someone from trying out. They would potentially lose good players who didn't sign up on time, or they lose money from beginners who are kicked out after the first they and never called back.

-1
Demand for club volleyball is so high that clubs like MOCO don’t have to create any “illusions”. They’ll have no problem selling out tryouts and having a long list of players still waiting to get in.

This issue was discussed in another thread. You can only see so many players at a tryout due to limited numbers of courts. There a some clubs without waitlists will put 100+ players onto 2-3 courts. You don’t want to be in those tryouts, you’ll spend most of the time standing around.

I will have to disagree with this. They know from now that they will get more than 100 players trying out at the most popular age groups and they can plan for it. MOCO is known for having these waitlists, then accommodating everyone. I am not aware of any other club that has a waitlist for the tryouts.

Totally agree. The waitlist is just for the illusion of being "elite", but they definitely let everyone in.

Last year a number of popular clubs with multiple tryout times had time slots fill up. Some of them ran waitlists, some removed those times from their registration options. One club even allowed players to register and then had so many players they had to send a mass email to the entire age group just before tryouts telling them they had too much interest and players should consider not coming.

I’m not sure why anyone would believe that having a waitlist is a marketing ploy to give the illusion of being “elite”. It’s definitely not in a club’s interest to keep players from trying out, they lose out on revenue and the chance to see the player.

The popular clubs barely market tryouts at all, generally just a social media post and a few emails. Yet they still have hundreds of girls trying out for each age group.

It’s much more likely it’s just simple logistics. Demand for girls volleyball is much higher than the supply of teams. Court space is limited, especially on tryout weekends.

MOCO is definitely using manufactured scarcity. They open registration for fewer spots than they can really let in, which makes it seem like space is very limited. Then they put people on waitlists and eventually accommodate everyone. The waitlist creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity, but the fact that all players are later accommodated shows the limitation was not real. They don't seem to be learning from prior year data to organize the tryouts. If they are not using the manufactured scarcity ploy, they must be very disorganized. Whether they use scarcity marketing or they are disorganized, neither makes them look good. Except (maybe) to those who fall for scarcity marketing.

23:53 PP here.
Just went to their website and went through the registration process. When you register, you choose the timeslot that you can make. If its full, you select waitlist. That process is used at virtually every other club. MVSA is the exception where this year you don't choose your Saturday time for U12-U14, you are automatically assigned into one of the two options, regardless if it conflicts with other tryouts you are planning on attending.

MOCO has had registration open for a while now. If try to register for U13 tryouts, the Friday tryout is on a waitlist. Saturday is open. How are they creating scarcity if they have an open tryout that you can still register for? Slots are available, you can register.

To paraphrase your earlier post, not sure why you're such a fierce attacker of them. The argument you are making makes zero sense: somehow they are "limiting tryouts to create artificial scarcity", but at the same time you can register for a tryout right now without being on the waitlist. Or they are "incredibly disorganized" because they aren't able to plan well, but they have plan multiple tryout times for almost every age group and you can still register for most of them. The time may not work for you personally, but that is no different than every other club in CRHVA (see the conversation about U15+ tryouts earlier on this thread).

I'm not a fierce defender or attacker of them. For comparison, we registered for 4 tryouts last year. 3 clubs had a waitlist for the time we wanted. All 3 eventually got us into tryouts from the waitlist. Some got us into the time we requested, others offered us another option. MOCO was one of the ones that offered us a different option, even though we wanted to get into their Friday tryout.

You are definitely not a fierce attacker, but you seem to go to great lengths to defend them. MOCO overuses these waitlists and not only for tryouts. You can interpret them as you wish. I think scarcity marketing is a good way to describe their approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
1) No one said no clubs have waitlists. They said no one posts waitlists and then lets everyone in off of them.

2) For a club that you consider good and that "barely markets tryouts", I've gotten more notices about signing up for MOCO tryouts than any other DMV club. And we've never been to any of their clinics although DD did try out for them once awhile back. So not sure why you're such a fierce defender of them but you're pretty much making up facts now. My inbox says they market their tryouts a ton.

Not the PP, but we've tried out for MOCO.

In our experience they do have a waitlist and like almost every club they do work with you to give you alternative options. Last year we registered for a Friday tryout on the waitlist. They reached out telling us Friday was full and that they could accommodate us in a Saturday tryout that was still available, but if we couldn't make it then we would have to wait until someone drops.

Since we tried out for them before we are on their mailing list too. Just checked my inbox and we've received two emails: one saying tryouts are open, one announcing fall clinics are open that included a tryout link. That doesn't seem like an excessive amount of marketing.

I went back and looked at my emails too: five emails. One for prep clinics; two saying tryout registration is open; and two (not identical to each other) saying “slots are filling up, register soon”.

For other clubs whose lists were on, we get 2 emails most, but most we only get one email. Also MOCO’s announcement of tryout registrations has been the first notice from any club for the last few years. Nothing wrong with that, and I’d say no one can say MOCO is “excessive”, but the idea that they are so in demand that they “don’t have to advertise” is clearly not what the club itself thinks. And having waitlists and then letting everyone in off of them certainly begs the question “Why have waitlists at all?” It’s n that case?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do Moco tryouts usually look for? What do they look for in players?

I've been told that they care more about a players skill and attitude and ability/quickness to learn over actual skill so keep that in mind.

[Anonymous]

Is it true that MoCo has a preference for SR kids? I've been told this multiple times.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that MoCo has a preference for SR kids? I've been told this multiple times.....

What is SR?

[Anonymous]

SR = Stone Ridge?

[Anonymous]

it looks like some coaches are from stone ridge, I guess that's why they prefer stone ridge kids for certain age group. A lot of club coaches are also head coach of certain school. However, good to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that MoCo has a preference for SR kids? I've been told this multiple times.....

A lot of club coaches also coach high school or middle school. For example, MVSA with @ Churchill and other public schools MD schools, Metro @ Flint Hill, GDS & Bullis, VAE/VA Juniors @ O'Connell, Potomac, Episcopal, etc. It means players at those schools generally have a bit more exposure to the coaches from the particular club. But clubs won't usually take a player just because they play for the school. The player has to be good enough for the team they are trying to make. All of the clubs I mentioned have very good top teams and they can't really bias towards a specific school and still remain competitive.

It may be a little different at the lower team level where the focus is more development at the younger ages. Then its generally more of a "tie goes to the runner" type of situation where if the players are equal then they may bias towards the one they know better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that MoCo has a preference for SR kids? I've been told this multiple times.....

What is SR?

Stone Ridge. It's where many practices are held.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that MoCo has a preference for SR kids? I've been told this multiple times.....

It is true. Not even for the SR player but once they here that you go to SR they automatically drift towards you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that MoCo has a preference for SR kids? I've been told this multiple times.....

It is true. Not even for the SR player but once they here that you go to SR they automatically drift towards you.

The club’s founders are the coaches of SR MS and JV teams so of course they know the SR girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that MoCo has a preference for SR kids? I've been told this multiple times.....

It's true. Even if you didn't make the SR volleyball team/didn't try out you basically already made it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that MoCo has a preference for SR kids? I've been told this multiple times.....

It's true. Even if you didn't make the SR volleyball team/didn't try out you basically already made it.

Don’t make things up, please. We know of SR players that haven’t made a MOCO team, including varsity players. We know SR players that have. It’s not different than other clubs.