CT Adult Volleyball
In my 3+ years living in Connecticut, I have had a great deal of difficulty finding opportunities to play. 18+ leagues and open gyms are scattered across the state, and often times are difficult to join because of a lack of available information. I will use this post as an ongoing listing of available adult opportunities in CT -- split among Open-Gyms, Tournaments and Leagues.
If you have additional information on any of the following Open-Gyms and Leagues, or if you know of any other opportunities to play, please leave a comment, send me an e-mail, or respond to @volleynut on Twitter.
*Disclaimer* Please double check either by web or by phone with each of the venues/town recreation departments on the times and schedules. Some of these may have changed since I last checked.
Last update: Jan 25th, 2012
This post is out of date. Please verify with the individual venues to see if the offerings are still valid.
Club Tryouts in NJ/CT
It's come that time of year again...
High school state tournaments are in full swing with the top teams knocking each other out for a chance to be crowned champions. Meanwhile, club and college coaches are scouting these tournament matches looking for top players to add to their programs.
The club options in Connecticut are fairly limited, and the same year to year. But in New Jersey there are a few new club options out there (and coach attrition to and from different clubs...but that's a whole different story...)
For those high-school aged players out there with aspirations to play in college, or even just improve your game, the best way to do so is to play more volleyball. And the best way to play more quality volleyball? Join a club team. Seriously. Do it.
(I apologize for being late on this post. Many clubs have already begun try-outs.)
Here are the options (known to me) available in Connecticut:
CT Impact (Boys/Girls) Bethel, CT
CT Juniors (Boys/Girls) Woodbridge, CT
CT Volleyball Academy (Girls) New London, CT
Eastern CT (Girls) Pomfret, CT
Husky Volleyball (Boys/Girls) Tolland, CT
Mizuno East (Boys) Bridgeport, CT
And here are the programs I know of in New Jersey:
Allegro (Girls)
Atlantic Valley (Girls)
CJVA (Girls)
Central Jersey Heat (Girls)
Cutshot (Girls)
DIGS (Girls)
Essex (Girls)
Jersey Shore (Boys/Girls)
Legion (Girls)
North Jersey (Boys/Girls)
Phoenix (Boys/Girls)
TCA (Girls) Contact Rich Pickrell at asics77@optonline.net
Warren SixPak (Boys)
West Windsor - Princeton (Boys/Girls)
Others listed here: http://geva.org/juniors/club-tryouts
NCAA D1 Men’s Championship
Officially booked hotel and tickets to watch the NCAA Men's Division 1 Championship match at Penn State on May 7th.
I will also be attending the US Men's National intra-squad scrimmage on May 6th at Penn State, and attending the USAV Coaches Clinic on the morning of May 7th. (Clinicians to include Alan Knipe, Karch Kiraly John Kessel and Tom Tait.)
UPDATE 5/6/2011 3:21PM: I have reached Penn State, exploring the area and will be updating here and on Twitter. Follow me @volleynut
UPDATE 5/7/2011 3:00 PM: The USA Men's National Training Team intra-squad scrimmage was last night, I have a few pictures up on my twitter feed so go take a peek. Lots of familiar faces in the gym last night with the Penn State men's team, some alumni, as well as the women's team coming to watch.
USA Blue swept USA Red 4-0 (they played four straight sets guaranteed), taking the first two sets in dominant 25-15, 25-15. The next two sets were closer at 25-20, 26-24.
USA Blue was led by the Shoji brothers, Kawika setting and Erik as the libero. Garrett Muagututia (UCLA) was certainly an offensive standout from both the front and back row, and seemed to have a very good connection with Kawika on the bic set to the pipe.
Overall it was an impressive showing of current NCAA stars playing together in an exhibition match. Played a lot more like an all-star game than a competitive match, so neither team was especially sharp. But you can easily see the vast difference between this squad and the USA Men's National team which will be competing in the World League coming up (With three stops in the USA.)
Looking forward to the NCAA Men's D1 Finals tonight at 7PM. Tune in to the match on ESPN2 to watch Ohio State (3) take on UC Santa Barbara (4)!
The NVL
A new professional beach volleyball tournament series has sprung out of the ashes of the now defunct AVP. Check out The National Volleyball League. The first event is set to kick off on May 21st in Baltimore, MD!
Give them a follow and a "Like" on Facebook as well. https://www.facebook.com/thenvl
Approach at an Angle
One of the easiest keys to correct for any hitter is the angle of their approach. Often times you'll see players approaching directly at the net when hitting, regardless of if it's a match situation or merely a drill. It's a common mistake for under-trained players, and one that is easily corrected. Once corrected, the hitter will find themselves having an easier time hitting, an easier time adjusting, and with the ability to diversify the angles of their shots.
If taught correctly, a player will transition or slide off the court when preparing to approach and hit. This gives them the ability to approach at an angle, regardless of quality of the set.
Giving Feedback
As a coach, giving feedback to your players is one of the most important steps you can take to facilitate proper learning. Without adequate feedback, the learning process can become stunted, and improvements will be minimal - even for highly motivated athletes. In order to prevent this from happening, you must ensure that you have established your key principles in a manner that allows you to give feedback to your players in a short, concise manner.
The Butterfly
One of the most commonly used drills by any volleyball team would be the butterfly. This drill can be modified in so many variations, that it can suit any team's goals for practicing a technique. As a coach, you can uses this drill to focus on passing, setting, hitting, blocking, defense, footwork, technique, reading hitters/passers/blockers/servers. It's really exponential.
During the "early development" phase of coaching beginning volleyball players, this drill is extremely useful in progressing from a static toss and pass, toss and set, toss and hit "blocked practice" drill into more random practice - where your players need to learn to read and react to touches on the ball that might not be perfect.
Basic Blocking Technique
There is a general misconception in the beginner volleyball community that the most important part of blocking is reaching high. The fact of the matter is, the most important aspect of blocking is how far your penetrate into the opponent's territory.
For this post, I am going to discuss (as simply as possible) the basics of form, technique, and positioning for "heads-up" blocking, where you are already positioned to jump straight up. "Heads-up" blocking implies 1-on-1 blocking, attacking the ball.
Relevance of Physical Benchmarks
Often times as a coach, player, or fan of a sport you will be bombarded with physical benchmarks and athletic performance metrics. At the professional levels of sport you will hear about so-and-so player's vertical leap, 40-yard dash time, or bench press. Think of the NFL Combine where they have potential NFL draftees go through a series of physical tasks in order to rank their athletic potential and performance.
But that is at the professional level, where the athletes would have already developed the necessary skills and knowledge to perform at the highest level. At that level, physical traits can differentiate between a good player, and a great player.
How is this relevant to the high-school juniors level of volleyball?
AVP Tour Ceases Operations
It is a sad weekend for volleyball and the volleyball community in the United States, as the AVP Tour has officially ceased operations and cut the 2010 season short as of 8/13/2010.
This saddens me on multiple levels, as the AVP tour has had ups and downs over the last three decades but seemed to always bounce back. Popularity of the beach game soared after Misty, Kerri, Beast and Professor swept the gold medals at the 2008 Olympics for the United States and we were even seeing some prime-time television coverage of the sport.
But now where do we go from here? The majority of the athletes who compete in the AVP tour did so on a part-time basis. Now they will have to return to full-time jobs to support themselves. They may decide to join the EVP tour and play in some USAV open tournaments just to keep their dreams alive, but the AVP Tour was really the top level of volleyball you could reach in the United States.
There is so much talent in this country, the AVP Tour gave us a chance to showcase it, and now most of it will go to waste. The top pros will undoubtedly move overseas to places like Germany or Switzerland to make competing in the FIVB easier and we will never get to see them play.
Unlike in Europe and Asia, there are no professional indoor leagues to speak of in America. Our top athletes play overseas for leagues in Russia, Korea, Germany, Greece, then come together to compete as a national team every couple of years. And again, we rarely get to see them play. Beach volleyball was our sport's exposure to the country, and now it will exist primarily in grassroots efforts.
So who will our high school and college athletes look up to? For the die-hard volleyball players, they will continue to look up to the top college athletes, and the international players that have gotten publicity. But what of the larger population of volleyball players in America? Those who play the sport and enjoy the sport but never get exposed to the highest levels of play. Who will they look up to? Where will their inspiration to improve come from?
In a year where beach volleyball has just been recognized as an official NCAA pilot sport program, for the AVP Tour to shutter operations can only mean the inevitable rejection of beach volleyball as an official NCAA sport in the future.
I have been fortunate enough in the past few years to attend the AVP Tour events in Belmar, NJ and Coney Island, NY. It was always a dream of mine to attend the Manhattan Beach Open as well. But now it will never come to fruition.
Financial hardships for a large organization such as the AVP, which is a publicly held entity (at a share price of $0.02), are hard to overcome. The low profile of volleyball as a sport in this country combined with the economic recession has pushed the AVP beyond the point at which the owners and investors could afford to buoy it anymore. And it is as damn shame. A damn shame.
http://www.avp.com/News-and-Media/2010/08/AVP-Tour-Suspends-Operations.aspx
Functional Warm-ups
One of the major draws to the boys' and girls' volleyball programs at my old high school was the fact that the coaches rarely made the players run. In fact, it was one of the defining characteristics of the program which drew me into the sport to begin with. It wasn't a matter of being lazy, more a fact that running was boring, repetitive, and had no immediate "fun" factor to it.
But this wasn't the reason why we rarely ran before or during practices. No, the reasoning was much more logical, and wouldn't be revealed to me until I began to coach under them a few years later.
The fact of the matter is, especially at the high school/juniors level of competition, that running provides very little benefit. You can even consider it a complete waste of time. If I haven't already blown your mind or completely offended you, please hear me out...