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Post by downtheline on Apr 27, 2017 12:36:55 GMT -5
Not too many beach coaches recruiting at JO's or regional indoor events. Wearing Beach shirts are fun but I don't think it gets you anywhere with the beach coaches who are now looking below 9th grade to track prospects. Well I have two girls likely headed for a PAC 10 school, and medaling in the JO's will do just fine for the colleges we are looking at. They were there. If your trying to push some "get noticed" or BVCA tournament for out of towners go right ahead. The best competition for their ages is at the JO's, hands down. Not a single top CBVA player skipped it in their age bracket. The problem with the AAU JO's is nobody makes money promoting it. PAC-12 now. I was referring to JO's as in: USAV indoor national championships. Gino's AAU national championship is not JO's in my mind but I agree that event is a good beach event to compete in. AAU's in CA tend to be excellent events and solid proving grounds for athletes to compete in. Congrats on your daughters playing beach, it is a wonderful opportunity to play and attend great schools.
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Post by sevb on Apr 27, 2017 12:50:19 GMT -5
Id say - ask you daughter what she would like to do... then do that
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arwen
High School
Posts: 13
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Post by arwen on Apr 27, 2017 18:55:41 GMT -5
She wants beach so we know her answer. Just helps to see what the experts think before we make the final decision!
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Post by beachbum96 on Apr 27, 2017 19:46:00 GMT -5
Your post is a Deja vu so I figured I would chime in as someone who has been there done that. The advice so far has been pretty good and I can only speak for how it turned out for our daughter. She fell in love with the beach game early. We were doing all the indoor things, playing on the best clubs, traveling nationally to all the big tournaments for indoor. It was a grind. It was her sophomore year in HS when she asked to quit indoor and do beach only. She was a top middle in our area and when she wanted to quit it was a "disaster". We were throwing away her career! How could we do that!? She wanted to pass, set and hit.....not just jump and block.
We ultimately let her make the decision since it was her game, not ours. She stopped club indoor and we instead used the funds to make a run at beach.....and like you, we are not from the coastal hot beds of the beach world so this was going to be difficult to make it on the national stage. In reality, the beach season is half over and the beach players were months into their sand legs when the June indoor club season ended so its really hard to do both. The girls that tried to play beach coming out of indoor were in such poor beach shape it didn't matter how good a player they were, they didn't have the legs to get it done in the sand. We loved playing them! So that's my first observation....the seasons at the junior level don't really let you do both successfully.
I agree with whoever said let her play HS Indoor if she wants. That worked for us and our daughter finished playing HS for us since we enjoyed watching her so much. However, the agreement with the coach was if we had a beach tournament to travel too, that took precedence. Coach agreed and it worked out pretty well. In hindsight, she admits the friends and memories of HS were worth it for her....her HS coach is still one of her biggest beach fans!
Next, you have to go where the good players are and that means the coasts. Yes they are getting better everywhere, but there is no place like Hermosa, Huntington, Clearwater and Pompano. In our case, that meant summers and lots of airfare during the school year....no more indoor costs remember!? Play USAV, AAU & BVCA but play in the strong fields.....not all tournaments are equal.
Coaches, now that's a topic I could write a book about. The short version is don't let any one coach own you....and some will want too. Learn from everyone. Our experience is the best coach's wanted you to experience others because each have their own tricks of the trade to teach. Soak it all up from everyone.
Lastly, its my observation that the beach game is much easier on the joints and shoulders. My informal survey after college beach matches is the girls wrapped in ice from head to toe tend to be dual indoor beach players. As a sport, I think the dual player will become less common but right now, it seems the indoor girls are walking wounded in comparison.
Hope this helps some. Its been a great ride and I think our daughters decision was wise beyond her years. It was the right decision for her. Best of luck to yours!
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Post by downtheline on Apr 27, 2017 21:23:24 GMT -5
The athletes wrapped up in ice, aka every player on USC are doing it for injury prevention not overuse.
It is a smart move since everyone is swinging at the ball.
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Post by geddyleeridesagain on Apr 27, 2017 21:25:09 GMT -5
Your plan is perfect. Play high school indoor and concentrate on beach. Understand there are a lot of beach programs that have little or no scholarship money so save club dues for college tuition- and enjoy the drama free and enjoyable beach game Hahaha, good one.
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arwen
High School
Posts: 13
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Post by arwen on Apr 28, 2017 5:56:57 GMT -5
Beachbum 96, thank you for the insightful and encouraging post about your experiences. What a perfect assessment of transitioning from indoor/beach to beach-only. We know we will get some slack for encouraging our daughter to make this switch but we have dealt with a lot of greed, hypocrisy and yes, DRAMA, at our indoor club - and since most clubs don't see themselves this way, they don't understand how easy it can be for families to give that scene up when an athlete has another option for playing in college! Not to mention the amount of money we'll save and, as you mentioned, less injury risk.
So this leads me to another observation and question. The club our daughter has played for seems to be somewhat anti-beach. There are coaches there who resent the girls who play both because of how it affects their indoor game. I realize this is probably the minority viewpoint, as most coaches seem to APPRECIATE the indoor players who have beach skills. I believe this anti-beach viewpoint is more of a front for these coaches being somewhat greedy about how the athletes and their families choose to spend their time and money, since the indoor coaches would prefer the athlete spend more time and money with the indoor club on lessons, clinics, team dues, etc. So maybe it's a business/profit thing? This is particularly annoying for us since her club is supposedly a nonprofit and shouldn't take that view.
Thoughts on that or should I repost as a new thread?
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Post by rockhopper on Apr 28, 2017 8:15:30 GMT -5
Some of the beach clubs also have recruiting showcases and holiday/spring break camps that are very good. BeachDig comes to mind. While many beach only clubs are popping up now, BeachDig has been doing this for at least 8 or 9 years.
I haven't been to a juniors tournament lately as daughter (who played beach and indoor in college) graduates in 8 days, but she really liked playing against women instead of juniors. Those "old" women who looked out of shape were such smart players. So crafty. She learned a lot when playing against them.
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Post by slackerdad on Apr 28, 2017 8:51:49 GMT -5
There's a common misconception that non-profit means charitable or altruistic. Not-for-profit means no shareholders so the organization doesn't make a profit. Directors, employees and consultants can be paid (egregious) salaries and fees. The heads of the PBS and the American Cancer Society, for example, each make around $2M/year in salary. That's definitely not people "just volunteering their time." Many volleyball clubs organize as non-profits to 1) appear less greedy and 2) avoid personal liability.
It's not universally agreed upon that beach helps your indoor game. For instance, the step-close beach approach is very different than the broad-jump indoor approach. So your coaches' anti-beach sentiment may not be totally disingenuous. However, it's for you and your daughter to decide what's in her best interest. Not playing a season of indoor club is not going to remove her from opportunities to play indoor in college. I might argue that it might make her a more passionate and laser-focused indoor player once she realizes that what she wants.
There is still drama on the beach. It seems you can't escape it when females are involved. But at least there is much less politics and no coach deciding who is playing. You (or your daughter) will need to take more control of her training and competition as well as find your own partners and tournaments. Beach volleyball is not just-pay-your-money-and-watch-someone-train-and-play-my-kid sport. Be aware that there are coaches and organizations trying to control players and access (like they do indoor) so they can leverage their exclusivity. They may succeed in places where you don't have access to free courts.
If you don't live where good players play on free courts, becoming skilled at beach probably won't be cheaper and it may harder than the indoor route if you can't find a source for good competition.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2017 11:40:38 GMT -5
We've encountered that too. Our coach told me at the beginning of the season the lesser indoor players drop out for beach. I didn't disagree with him. I've seen at the top clubs. Girls that are not making the Open level 1st team, or even starting for the 1st team leave for beach. That make sense. But he was trying to dissuade us from playing beach altogether, not because it effected their indoor play, but because he didn't want to lose his starters a few seasons down the line to beach.
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Post by downtheline on Apr 28, 2017 13:04:32 GMT -5
Never let an indoor coach help you make a decision about beach.
If they are trying to persuade you one way or the other they most likely don't have your athletes best interest in mind, from my personal experience.
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Post by beachbum96 on Apr 28, 2017 17:06:32 GMT -5
Arwen, As somebody already pointed out, there is a lot of profit in non-profit organizations! That may or may not be a factor in how they treat their players. However, what we found is that you have to take control of your own destiny. Find your own coaches, partner(s) and make your own schedule. We actually started with a beach club and then it turned into a my way or the highway situation which was holding our daughter back. We said cya, hate to be ya when it's us on the other side of the court. OH that was fun!
Partners are a big consideration, especially in what seems to be your part of the country. After all this is a partners game. If you can find someone like minded, like talented and like funded to make the journey with you, then that's a bingo....thank your lucky stars! We were lucky enough to find that....albeit in some of the strangest places. Occasionally we would travel to the west coast without a partner, but the great thing about the beach game is its a great community and as we made friends and contacts we never struggled to find someone talented to play with when our regular partner couldn't make it. So get to know everyone! Check out camps and clinics....Get Noticed and Beach Dig are highly recommended.
Some of the posts mentioned drama. We were lucky in that we never really had any drama (once we said cya to our initial beach club) in the Jr ranks.....I actually see more of it at the collegiate level. So I guess, drama is what you make of it.
Play up as much as you can! We quickly outgrew the Jr tournaments....as someone said, those crafty old (30!) ladies are where it's at. They can teach you a lot....get your AAA as soon as you can. College coaches will take good showings in AA or AAA over a bunch of USAV, AAU junior wins.
Most of all, enjoy the journey.
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arwen
High School
Posts: 13
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Post by arwen on Apr 28, 2017 21:25:07 GMT -5
I can't tell you all how helpful all of this info has been. We are heading to a beach tournament tomorrow and feel a renewed sense of excitement and inspiration having read these posts. We will take all of this advice and feedback into consideration as our daughter pursues her passion on a full-time basis as soon as her club season ends in June. Thank you again!
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