Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Metro's summer camps:
https://www.metrovbc.com/camps

For those who have gone in the past, have they found them to be helpful for tryouts? Are they looking at the girls this early for Nov tryouts? My DD is considering the elite positional session during the last week of July but doesn’t know if this will be a waste of time and if she should focus on fall clinics instead.

Most camps / clinics / leagues are money grabs: most clubs charge fees that have little to do with their actual costs to run the camps. The costs are spiraling out of control because many people in this area can afford to throw money at the sport. You can go relatively cheaper with camps / clinics organized by the county / city, but the quality is not there (most coaches have little experience).

Let's say you have the money and you are willing to throw it away. Most clubs offer these opportunities to advertise and recruit. You learn what they do at practice and you meet club players. You evaluate whether the club is a good fit. Some activities are better than others. You will gain the most if you match the level of the camp with the level of your player. If you are not sure where your player stands, you should sign up for beginner activities (most likely that's where you are). Let's say your child played one year of rec volleyball and you believe them to be an intermediate player. You are most likely wrong: sign them up for beginner activity. If you sign them up for an activity where they are out of their league, they will end up on the second court. The real action happens on the top court, where players really benefit from being present.

We figured out pretty quickly that the Metro camps we signed up for were not a good fit. They were teaching skills designed for their top players, which were too advanced for our DD's level. I am not blaming Metro: they did what they had to do to challenge their players. I was the one signing up my DD for the wrong activity. MOCO was almost the same, except that the level was lower than Metro (but even more expensive). For us, activities organized by MVSA, MEVC, and Platform worked much better. Especially MVSA - they try really hard to place players at the level where they belong.

This is a helpful post for me- Ty!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Metro's summer camps:
https://www.metrovbc.com/camps

For those who have gone in the past, have they found them to be helpful for tryouts? Are they looking at the girls this early for Nov tryouts? My DD is considering the elite positional session during the last week of July but doesn’t know if this will be a waste of time and if she should focus on fall clinics instead.

Most camps / clinics / leagues are money grabs: most clubs charge fees that have little to do with their actual costs to run the camps. The costs are spiraling out of control because many people in this area can afford to throw money at the sport. You can go relatively cheaper with camps / clinics organized by the county / city, but the quality is not there (most coaches have little experience).

Let's say you have the money and you are willing to throw it away. Most clubs offer these opportunities to advertise and recruit. You learn what they do at practice and you meet club players. You evaluate whether the club is a good fit. Some activities are better than others. You will gain the most if you match the level of the camp with the level of your player. If you are not sure where your player stands, you should sign up for beginner activities (most likely that's where you are). Let's say your child played one year of rec volleyball and you believe them to be an intermediate player. You are most likely wrong: sign them up for beginner activity. If you sign them up for an activity where they are out of their league, they will end up on the second court. The real action happens on the top court, where players really benefit from being present.

We figured out pretty quickly that the Metro camps we signed up for were not a good fit. They were teaching skills designed for their top players, which were too advanced for our DD's level. I am not blaming Metro: they did what they had to do to challenge their players. I was the one signing up my DD for the wrong activity. MOCO was almost the same, except that the level was lower than Metro (but even more expensive). For us, activities organized by MVSA, MEVC, and Platform worked much better. Especially MVSA - they try really hard to place players at the level where they belong.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Metro's summer camps:
https://www.metrovbc.com/camps

For those who have gone in the past, have they found them to be helpful for tryouts? Are they looking at the girls this early for Nov tryouts? My DD is considering the elite positional session during the last week of July but doesn’t know if this will be a waste of time and if she should focus on fall clinics instead.

Anonymous wrote:Metro's summer camps:
https://www.metrovbc.com/camps

Anonymous wrote:Academy started advertising their summer camps: https://academy-volleyball.sportngin.com/register/form/680094839

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MOCO announced summer clinics on Facebook (they promised the registration would open at the end of February). They have no such page on their website yet. Given my previous experience with the club, I won't pour money into their clinics anymore. Way more expensive than average without delivering more than average results. And I still didn't forget how they treated my DD during the tryouts.

Thanks for the heads up. MOCO's clinics are very good. I agree that their sessions aren't cheap, but my DD improved a lot from previous ones. Not sure about your DD's experience, but IMO, my little one learned a lot from them.

Anonymous wrote:MOCO announced summer clinics on Facebook (they promised the registration would open at the end of February). They have no such page on their website yet. Given my previous experience with the club, I won't pour money into their clinics anymore. Way more expensive than average without delivering more than average results. And I still didn't forget how they treated my DD during the tryouts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

FPYCparent wrote:My kid's first club volleyball experience was with The St. James two years ago. Loved the facility (aside from parking, of course!). My kid's coaches were great, but were not retained for the next year, so most of that team left, as I think only one player went back for another year. They seem to be going through coaches like crazy. If anything, I wonder if The St. James mostly focuses on their boys' program ... to the detriment of the girls' teams.

...

I apologize to PP, but I have a different tangent to explore. What is the consensus on nearby regions? I think we all know the CHRVA is relatively weak nationally, especially outside of Metro and Paramount. Can the same be said for Old Dominion, Carolina, Garden Empire, Keystone? Are there similar clubs that tend to be the behemoths of their particular regions? For example, are Triangle and RVC the go-to clubs in North Carolina and the rest of Virginia, respectively?

Pretty much every region north of Florida and east of Ohio is weaker than the top regions, which tend to be in Texas, Florida, California, Chicago and some hot spots in the midwest. Of course there are some great clubs outside of those areas (e.g., A5 in Georgia, Triangle in NC, AZ Storm) but generally the mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and New England tend to not have as many strong clubs. The ranking of the top clubs in the country (used for determining who gets invited to Triple Crown) includes the state where the club is located and notably there are no clubs from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, or any other state in New England.
https://tcspub.blob.core.windows.net/usclubrankings/vb/2024%205%20Year%20Rankings.pdf

So, yes, it's fair to say that the neighboring regions are similar to CHRVA in the competitiveness of clubs compared to the best clubs nationally. There are of course good clubs in these states - just similar to CHRVA in that they are not quite at the level to be competitive with the open level teams from the top clubs nationally.

And similar to the examples you cited, there are some bigger clubs in these regions that tend to be better. Using the Keystone Region as an example, the bigger clubs are EC Power and Synergy which both have numerous teams at every age group (and EC Power in many different cities).

Last weekend in Baltimore, Metro 15 Travel lost to Triangle in 2 sets, and Metro 17 Travel lost to EC Power in 3.

Two weeks ago in MAPL. Metro 16 travel lost to Paramount 16 and Metro 17 travel lost to Paramount 16 in both pool and bracket. CHRVA finally get some good teams now.