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Minnesota Warrior Heart Program Serves as a Model for Inclusive Rural Volleyball Programming
Living in a rural area, Len saw how difficult it can be for kids to access club sports and [...]
Blog Categories
An Official’s Impact: Changing the Narrative By Teaching the Next Generation
When Daniel was 10 years old a friend from school invited him to play volleyball because his team needed one more player. Although he'd never played before, his friend assured him it was easy, [...]
JVA Grant Supports FaR Out’s Inclusive Volleyball Vision with Special Olympics
Two years ago, FaR Out Volleyball Club partnered with Special Olympics Michigan to create a volleyball program to build lifelong relationships and teach lessons that extend far beyond the court. Through support from the [...]
Business Solutions: Navigating Tryout Stress and Related Lawsuits
No matter how long you’ve been in the game, tryouts evoke a range of emotions — excitement about building this season’s team, apprehension about which athletes will show up for tryouts, anticipation for helping [...]
News
JVA’s Dig Pink Campaign Raises a Record High for the Side-Out Foundation
The JVA is thankful to be a long-time partner of The Side-Out Foundation and its Dig Pink® Program. Each year, the JVA raises funds for Side-Out that go toward research specifically for patients with metastatic [...]
JVA Sponsor Program Returns for 2022-2023 Season
The JVA is thrilled to announce the return of the JVA Sponsor Program for the upcoming 2022-2023 junior volleyball season. After taking a pause in mid 2020 amidst the pandemic, the JVA is pleased to [...]
2022 JVA Boys Watch List powered by Fivestar is Released
(Milwaukee, Wisconsin) The JVA proudly announces the 2022 JVA Boys Watch List powered by Fivestar featuring nearly 500 boys indoor junior volleyball athletes from 55 JVA member clubs. The players nominated are among the best [...]
Club Directors
Technology Solutions: 8 Tips to Avoid Email Phishing Scams
For most of us, it’s hard to remember when the term “phishing” wasn’t a part of everyday language. Yet, recognizing an email phishing scam is harder than you might think. Email hackers are great [...]
The Absolute Volleyball Academy of Texas Wins JVA Club of the Month
The Absolute Volleyball Academy (AVA) of Texas has quickly risen to become one of the top volleyball clubs in the Lone Star region, known for its competitive teams and commitment to player development. AVA [...]
Beach Solutions: Creating a Budget for a Beach Volleyball Club
Budgeting is a process of guestimating what your business will look like for the next 3-6 months, 12 months or more. It's important to create a budget because it gives you a roadmap for [...]
Coaches
Coaching Mental Performance: The Neurobiology of Development and a Coach’s Impact
As coaches, our goal is to facilitate a “safe” environment not just so the athlete does not get hurt, but so they learn healthy attachment, which in turn helps them positively adapt their game to [...]
2022 JVA Club Management Track and Convention Highlights
Competition makes us better, but collaboration is the glue to success. JVA Club Directors and Coaches compete against one another across the net all season long, but behind the scenes they are working together to [...]
Are your volleyball athletes doing the wrong kind of yoga?
All athletes, no matter the sport, have a training program that changes throughout the year. There is a base period (pre-season), a build period (in-season), a peak/competitive period (post-season), and an off period (off-season). Strength, [...]
Boys
Growing a Boys Program and Maintaining Quality During Growth
Division1 VBC started as a boys only volleyball club, working to develop and adjust its club model before adding girls in the 6th year. During the decade of the club's existence, D1 has averaged 25-30% growth per year. With 12% more boys participating in high school boys volleyball than four years ago, let's examine the business factors that are critical to the growth and maintenance of a boys volleyball program.
Make Boys Volleyball Appealing
In Nebraska, the sport of volleyball sells itself. After all, it's the home of Cornhusker volleyball, the 2015 Division I National Champions. However, in Lincoln volleyball is only viewed as a women's sport. VCNebraska is looking to change this perception.
Ultra Ankle Named Title Sponsor of JVA Player Awards
JVA is pleased to announce the renewal of its partnership with Ultra Ankle®, the new title sponsor of the JVA Watch List, JVA All-National Team, and JVA AthLeader Awards.
Girls
Post Season Yoga for Volleyball Athletes
There are different types of yoga for the different times in your season. Most volleyball training programs contain an off-season and base period (pre season), a build period (season), in which work intensifies, and a [...]
3 Ways Volleyball Athletes Can Overcome the Social Media Timelines
“The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you somebody else” - E.E Cummings “Should I post the picture at 3:00pm right when everyone gets out of [...]
JVA Proudly Releases the 2021 Ultra Ankle JVA All-National Team
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN (June 2, 2021) The JVA is pleased to announce the 79 student athletes selected to the 2021 Ultra Ankle® JVA All-National Team, which recognizes the top female indoor volleyball players competing for a [...]
Beach
Warm-Up Drill That Will Elevate Your Beach Game
Having a great warm-up routine is an important step toward being a successful beach athlete and competitor. Brooke Niles shares one of her favorite beach warm-up drills and why it checks off all the boxes when it comes to preparing...
Beach Club Duals: Formatting Options to Adopt Club vs Club Competition at the Junior Level
A fast-growing beach volleyball tournament format is the “Club vs. Club” or “School vs. School” format, generally referred to as a dual tournament. This is the format that made it practical for the NCAA to adopt beach volleyball. The Club...
4 Serving Strategies to Score More Points
Serving is a critical part of the game. By using certain techniques, a team can optimize the ability to use the serve to score points. Here are 4 beach serving strategies that will help you score more points from the service...
Culture
Events
From the JVA Office: Considerations for Planning and Hosting Competition in the COVID-19 era
Many junior volleyball clubs are coming to the realization that the large scale tournaments we are accustomed to may not be possible in the near future. In states where the phases of re-opening began earlier [...]
Virus Precautions and Recommendations
May 15, 2020 Update We are all closely following the evolution of the COVID-19 coronavirus, and based on the most recent updates, the Junior Volleyball Association is recommending that all JVA member clubs and tournament [...]
From the JVA Office: JVA Hosts First Boys Summit in Chicago
One of the resources that JVA brings to our members is advocacy. A conversation that is continually brought up by our Boys Club Directors and coaches is a dissatisfaction with the current split season for [...]
Awards
JVA Announces the Recipients of the 2021 JVA Junior Club Service Award
“Coaching is something that takes place only when learning does. No matter what you are doing in your practices, if your players are not learning something significant, you're really not coaching. If a player [...]
JVA Selects the 2021 JVA Best in Beach
(July 7, 2021. Milwaukee, Wisconsin) The JVA is pleased to announce the 2021 JVA Best in Beach that recognizes the nation’s top female JVA beach athletes for outstanding achievement during the competitive beach season. [...]
2021 JVA Beach Watch List Announced
(June 28, 2021. Milwaukee, Wisconsin) The JVA is pleased to announce the 2021 JVA Beach Watch List that recognizes the top female beach athletes from JVA member clubs across the country this season. This year's [...]
Training
The Life-Changing Coach
There is no greater or more important person than a coach. And while I often state that everyone is an athlete, but our office is just different, everyone is also a coach. When things go bad with people and society...
Anxious vs. Confident: How to Instill Confidence in Your Athletes
A volleyball coach is all too familiar with the dread that can affect a player in serve receive during a tight match. Coaches see it on the athlete’s face and the athlete certainly feels it. The face seems to...
4 Essential Skills of Mental Toughness Needed for Success
Mental toughness will not necessarily win you a championship, but not having mental toughness will lose it for you. Let's dive into the 4 skills in the hierarchy of mental toughness, and why it's important to develop one skill in order to progress to another.
Parents
Choosing a Volleyball Club
You’ve figured out what age division you need to play in. You’ve identified a few clubs in your area. Now for the hard part: picking just ONE club to play for during the upcoming season.
Can a Parent Council Help Your Club?
By Sharon L. Galonski, Club Director, Next Level VBC (This article is Part II. To read Part I click here.) I did it! After tryouts were completed, teams were selected, uniforms were ordered, and practices began, each competitive team within...
The On-Going Struggle to Introduce Volleyball at an Early Age
By: Meg Davis, Youth Academy Director at Southern Performance Volleyball When I was first told I would be officially in charge of the "Youth Academy" at the club then known as Team Sting Volleyball Club, and now Southern Performance Volleyball...
Recruiting
Recruiting Club Level vs. High School
Current polls tell us that over 85% of college coaches recruit at the club level versus high school. There are legitimate reasons for the majority of collegiate recruiting in the sport of volleyball to be tied to club volleyball. Of course...
Don’t Push the Recruiting Panic Button
This time of the year can be emotionally challenging for seniors who are still engaged in the recruiting process. Here is some reassurance that there is still a lot of time on the recruiting clock.
Beyond Athletic Abilities
There are volumes of information on the How To’s for everything…especially in the recruiting realm for collegiate sports. I have even written some over the past few years with the goal of aiding athletes and parents on the...
Travel
