Club Try-outs in CT/NJ
Playing some form of volleyball year-round is pretty much a necessity for any aspiring college player. Practice makes perfect, as they say, and what better way to get practice than to play organized volleyball at a competitive level? Add some coaching on top of that and you have the potential to improve greatly before your next high-school season (or in preparation for college.)
For you juniors players in CT, there are only two clubs I know of in the area: Husky Volleyball and CT Juniors. Husky is based out of Windsor, and CT Juniors is based out of Woodbridge. So it's essentially a north vs south sort of thing.
Husky tryouts for both boys and girls had first day evaluations last Sunday, and will continue try-outs this upcoming Sunday, November 22nd. See www.huskyvolleyball.com for more information. For girls, I am speaking specifically about their "High Performance" program.
CT Juniors girls tryouts begin Nov 29th. The boys do not have a posted try-out date posted on the website. Head to http://www.volleyballcenter.com/cjvahome.html for contact information.
There is a lot more to choose from in NJ, and I don't think I know all of them. TCA has completed try-outs for this year, whereas the other programs should be in the midst of try-outs. Check out the following links for the clubs I know of in NJ:
TCA
Digs
CutShot
AVVC
Allegro
South Jersey
Central Jersey
North Jersey
Legion (This one is new.)
The Jump Serve
The Jump Serve is one of the most overly glorified skills a player can learn. Used effectively, it can throw the receiving team off balance and cause them to run their first offensive posession out of system. This gives the serving team an obvious advantage in the rally, as a team out of system has less options offensively and thus is easier to defend.
I am approached by high school level players quite often, asking for advice on how to improve their jump serves, or to teach them from scratch. My response to this question is always, "Learn to float effectively and accurately to spots on the court first." However, once this skill is learned, the next question is whether or not the player uses proper attack footwork. This is essential to a consistent and effective Jump Serve.
Basic Setting Technique
Setting, sometimes referred to as an "overhead pass" is an essential technique. This is one skill that shortcuts cannot be taken in footwork, and errors are more often called by the referees. In this post we will discuss the basics of setting technique for your hands, feet, and body positioning, as well as the different in-game uses of setting.