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!)

Acrylic nails hurt when you are trying to spikes ball. My daughter never got them for this reason. No jewelry is allowed while playing in her club and high school

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.

You are not running like in soccer, but you are likely to be in a sprint-like position for a lot of balls that come your way. You have to change directions really quickly, have good reflexes, and not be afraid to throw yourself on the ground to dig balls. If you are not sweating on the court, you are likely not putting in the effort - this would be pretend volleyball. I would agree that a lost of volleyball teams have a lot of pretend-players.

Anonymous wrote:Many girls on our club soccer team have left to play club volleyball. All are athletic, fast, and tall -- volleyball is "easier" than soccer once you hit 7th-8th grade IMO and a lot of girls start to get lazy (puberty, periods, wanting to look pretty) and so prefer an indoor sport that allows fake nails, jewelry, etc over the brutal physicality of soccer. No judgement. My DD has made this choice and I understand it.

As if girls on soccer teams don't wear fake nails and jewelry. I bet you will find girls who want to look "cute" in any sport, so this is not specific to volleyball.

Anonymous wrote:Every player on the Olympic womens VB team had full hair/makeup, acrylic nails, booty shorts (basically underwear), multiple pieces of jewelry/bling. If it's allowed at that level, why not in middle school and HS teams???

It’s against the rules that almost every HS conference follows to wear any jewelry. USA Volleyball loosened up their rules relating to jewelry a few years ago. But what sort of misogynistic bs is it to judge athletes by what they choose to wear? Are the female Olympic track and field athletes who choose to wear makeup or jewelry less impressive because of how they look? What about Noah Lyles? He certainly spends a lot of time on his appearance. Does that make his gold medals less valid?

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!

Every player on the Olympic womens VB team had full hair/makeup, acrylic nails, booty shorts (basically underwear), multiple pieces of jewelry/bling. If it's allowed at that level, why not in middle school and HS teams???

Damn volleyball a joke

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many girls on our club soccer team have left to play club volleyball. All are athletic, fast, and tall -- volleyball is "easier" than soccer once you hit 7th-8th grade IMO and a lot of girls start to get lazy (puberty, periods, wanting to look pretty) and so prefer an indoor sport that allows fake nails, jewelry, etc over the brutal physicality of soccer. No judgement. My DD has made this choice and I understand it.

I guess it depends on how you define “easier”. I agree it’s less running and less contact, but to play volleyball at a high level requires a lot of skill. Around the age you cite, there starts to be a huge differential between the players who are good and the rest. Also, with the explosion of the popularity of volleyball and the smaller roster size versus sports like soccer and softball, making a competitive team is getting harder and harder. You can see this play out in collegiate recruiting. A high school girls soccer player has 1 in 41 odds of making a D1 roster while a high school girls volleyball player has 1 in 83 odds of making a D1 roster. https://scholarshipstats.com/varsityodds

Yeah, agree, shouldn’t be tossing “easier” into it. This was a weird post.

But fake nails and jewelry!

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:Many girls on our club soccer team have left to play club volleyball. All are athletic, fast, and tall -- volleyball is "easier" than soccer once you hit 7th-8th grade IMO and a lot of girls start to get lazy (puberty, periods, wanting to look pretty) and so prefer an indoor sport that allows fake nails, jewelry, etc over the brutal physicality of soccer. No judgement. My DD has made this choice and I understand it.

I do agree that volleyball is less physical than soccer, plus you avoid the contact with the players from the other team, who are rarely kind when they try to get the ball from you. That's one of the reasons why my DD didn't want to have anything to do with soccer (or basketball for that matter). We were happy that she discovered a team sport that she liked and the indoor part is just the cherry on the cake (even better for the parents). However, fake nails come right off when you contact an unexpected ball and you are not allowed to wear any jewelry (a ref stopped a JV game and asked a player to remove a necklace before he allowed the game to continue). These are not the best reasons to switch to volleyball.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many girls on our club soccer team have left to play club volleyball. All are athletic, fast, and tall -- volleyball is "easier" than soccer once you hit 7th-8th grade IMO and a lot of girls start to get lazy (puberty, periods, wanting to look pretty) and so prefer an indoor sport that allows fake nails, jewelry, etc over the brutal physicality of soccer. No judgement. My DD has made this choice and I understand it.

I guess it depends on how you define “easier”. I agree it’s less running and less contact, but to play volleyball at a high level requires a lot of skill. Around the age you cite, there starts to be a huge differential between the players who are good and the rest. Also, with the explosion of the popularity of volleyball and the smaller roster size versus sports like soccer and softball, making a competitive team is getting harder and harder. You can see this play out in collegiate recruiting. A high school girls soccer player has 1 in 41 odds of making a D1 roster while a high school girls volleyball player has 1 in 83 odds of making a D1 roster. https://scholarshipstats.com/varsityodds

Yeah, agree, shouldn’t be tossing “easier” into it. This was a weird post.

Anonymous wrote:Many girls on our club soccer team have left to play club volleyball. All are athletic, fast, and tall -- volleyball is "easier" than soccer once you hit 7th-8th grade IMO and a lot of girls start to get lazy (puberty, periods, wanting to look pretty) and so prefer an indoor sport that allows fake nails, jewelry, etc over the brutal physicality of soccer. No judgement. My DD has made this choice and I understand it.

I guess it depends on how you define “easier”. I agree it’s less running and less contact, but to play volleyball at a high level requires a lot of skill. Around the age you cite, there starts to be a huge differential between the players who are good and the rest. Also, with the explosion of the popularity of volleyball and the smaller roster size versus sports like soccer and softball, making a competitive team is getting harder and harder. You can see this play out in collegiate recruiting. A high school girls soccer player has 1 in 41 odds of making a D1 roster while a high school girls volleyball player has 1 in 83 odds of making a D1 roster. https://scholarshipstats.com/varsityodds

Many girls on our club soccer team have left to play club volleyball. All are athletic, fast, and tall -- volleyball is "easier" than soccer once you hit 7th-8th grade IMO and a lot of girls start to get lazy (puberty, periods, wanting to look pretty) and so prefer an indoor sport that allows fake nails, jewelry, etc over the brutal physicality of soccer. No judgement. My DD has made this choice and I understand it.