Club soccer is a steal compared to volleyball.
My 12 year old and 10 year old daughters both dabble a little in volleyball. They won't be tall based on me and the wife.
But they enjoy playing and would probably be fine playing in some type of Rec/Rec+ type of environment. But as far as I can tell, that does not exist. There is YMCA ball, but not many kids play. And there is Club. For ages 8-12, the clubs offer "Club-Lite" or "Volley High" programs. A few clubs offer a rec program, but it's intra-squad and there isn't much of a competitive angle to it. And most clubs offer some sort of "Drop-In / Clinic" option during the week.
My 12 year old did "Club Lite" 2 or 3 years ago. And she did a club Rec Program last year. She wants something a little more. My 10 year old did club Lite last year and is going to play again this year.
Club Rec Program: = $150 for 8 weeks. Show up once a week, get coaching from the club coaches for 30 minutes and then play a game for 30 minutes. No playing against outside teams.
Club Lite: $1,200 for 7 months. Practice one time a week. Play in about 6 local tournaments. Local tournaments means a team will play 3-4 other teams in one day. Less than an hour drive away. No prize for winning (which is fine) but scores are kept. No other games are played.
For 90% of the games I've seen, the team that has more girls that can serve the ball over the net win the games. You get an occasional return "pass". But very few teams have anything resembling "Bump, set, spike" or even "bump, bump, bump."
Full Club: $2,800 for 2 practices per week. $3,500 for 3 practices per week. This is one of the cheaper clubs out there. Many are well over $4,000. This cost covers most tournaments, coach fees and practice facility costs. Any travel is extra. Most teams play in a Vegas tournament (Which is during State Cup) Any additional tournaments are extra. Teams only play tournaments that last all weekend.. There isn't a "league" where you just play against one other team.
If your girl will be near 6' tall and taller, I get it. Maybe it makes sense to play at this level. But for the 12 and 13 year olds that I know that are playing at the Full Club level, none of them is over 5'5" yet. And most of them won't grow another 7 inches between now and high school.
The girls playing Club in the 12/13 year old age group have decent skill. It actually looks like volleyball. I saw a friends team that struggled last season. Their coach had them running complex rotations and "plays." Part of their issue was the technical aspect of playing. Getting in the right position to pass the ball. Setting properly. Swinging to get the ball over the net. But they were so concerned with running a slide, back set or quick hit that they shanked more balls than they played.
Tryouts happened last week. Club Volleyball has a very distinct tryout period. And they charge a player $40 just to tryout. Offers can't go out until a specific date. And offers must be accepted by a federation mandated deadline (usually about 72 hours). A deposit is required at time of acceptance. Most will allow for monthly payments. $450 a month. Ouch. I'd rather buy my kid a car for that kind of money. Clubs do "pre-tryout" clinics leading up to the tryout dates.
My 12 year old and 10 year old daughters both dabble a little in volleyball. They won't be tall based on me and the wife.
But they enjoy playing and would probably be fine playing in some type of Rec/Rec+ type of environment. But as far as I can tell, that does not exist. There is YMCA ball, but not many kids play. And there is Club. For ages 8-12, the clubs offer "Club-Lite" or "Volley High" programs. A few clubs offer a rec program, but it's intra-squad and there isn't much of a competitive angle to it. And most clubs offer some sort of "Drop-In / Clinic" option during the week.
My 12 year old did "Club Lite" 2 or 3 years ago. And she did a club Rec Program last year. She wants something a little more. My 10 year old did club Lite last year and is going to play again this year.
Club Rec Program: = $150 for 8 weeks. Show up once a week, get coaching from the club coaches for 30 minutes and then play a game for 30 minutes. No playing against outside teams.
Club Lite: $1,200 for 7 months. Practice one time a week. Play in about 6 local tournaments. Local tournaments means a team will play 3-4 other teams in one day. Less than an hour drive away. No prize for winning (which is fine) but scores are kept. No other games are played.
For 90% of the games I've seen, the team that has more girls that can serve the ball over the net win the games. You get an occasional return "pass". But very few teams have anything resembling "Bump, set, spike" or even "bump, bump, bump."
Full Club: $2,800 for 2 practices per week. $3,500 for 3 practices per week. This is one of the cheaper clubs out there. Many are well over $4,000. This cost covers most tournaments, coach fees and practice facility costs. Any travel is extra. Most teams play in a Vegas tournament (Which is during State Cup) Any additional tournaments are extra. Teams only play tournaments that last all weekend.. There isn't a "league" where you just play against one other team.
If your girl will be near 6' tall and taller, I get it. Maybe it makes sense to play at this level. But for the 12 and 13 year olds that I know that are playing at the Full Club level, none of them is over 5'5" yet. And most of them won't grow another 7 inches between now and high school.
The girls playing Club in the 12/13 year old age group have decent skill. It actually looks like volleyball. I saw a friends team that struggled last season. Their coach had them running complex rotations and "plays." Part of their issue was the technical aspect of playing. Getting in the right position to pass the ball. Setting properly. Swinging to get the ball over the net. But they were so concerned with running a slide, back set or quick hit that they shanked more balls than they played.
Tryouts happened last week. Club Volleyball has a very distinct tryout period. And they charge a player $40 just to tryout. Offers can't go out until a specific date. And offers must be accepted by a federation mandated deadline (usually about 72 hours). A deposit is required at time of acceptance. Most will allow for monthly payments. $450 a month. Ouch. I'd rather buy my kid a car for that kind of money. Clubs do "pre-tryout" clinics leading up to the tryout dates.
