TAV as a club has many rules that it follows each year to compete for Championships. Early season team meetings, training plan and player evaluations all lay the foundation for the team’s goal to compete at the highest level and win a national title.

Each team is constructed in a manor to play at the highest level with the least amount of distractions. When choosing a team, the club staff take into account several things that they are important in a team make up.

  • Physical ability
  • Personality of both player and parents
  • Past club experiences both again of players and parents
  • And also work ethic that has been documented from last season or during camps and clinics.

All of the aforementioned items make the selection process difficult and time consuming.

Once the team is picked, each team has a parent meeting where the assistant and head coaches go over the club and team specific rules. Here is a sample agenda that is used. This is the chance for parents to ask any questions they have about the team, travel, season, etc.

The season is broken into 3 parts. After the first 3rd of the year, which is the end of February, the players receive a written evaluation of their performance, things they need to work on and they are allowed to ask questions. Parents are not invited to this meeting. Here is a copy of an evaluation.

Practice the first two months is focused on ball control, defense and serving. They are called the 1st Contact skills. TAV believes if they can master those skills at a high level, they can compete with anyone in the country. Practices begin in January and are a bit slower to focus on good technique and skill development.

Sample Training Plan: January

5:30 Butterfly passing
5:45 Defense- 1. Mesh digging with two coaches attacking 2. Coach on box – Both LF and RF same time from coach on box opposite side of net
6:05 Serving- under elastic
6:15 Setters work with Joe on hand technique and go over choices
Passers working on serve receive with middles serving from boxes then add middles to receive short balls – Amanda initiate this
6:45 Pass to middle attack only. Every time middle scores, change middle and setter. Go through all 3 rotations for middles
7:05 Servers vs. passers – Captains are Kaylee and Kathryn
7:30 PT with Randy

In the early part of the season the coaches also take the kids on a half day team bonding. It’s always an outdoor ropes course where the players spend 6 hours together, usually 8am-2pm. An instructor presents the team with tasks and challenges to accomplish in order to work together as teammates, be able to look at one another, trust and believe in each other, and get outside of their comfort zone of the volleyball court.

The early part of the season is always an exciting time for the coaches and the players. The season seems long, but in reality it goes go by fast. It’s important for the coaches to advantage of each and every opportunity they have to train, develop as a team, and also to grow and improve as individuals.

Additional Coaches Resources.

About the Author

Joe Jablonski has over 20 years of experience coaching junior volleyball and guiding elite athletes through the recruiting process. As the TAV 14 Black Head Coach for many years, and now the 18 Black Coach at one of the top ranked and recruited junior volleyball clubs in the country, Joe spends time educating his players on the variety of opportunities to play at the collegiate level and the importance of being pro-active in the recruiting process. Joe has also coached at Orlando Volleyball Academy and Sports Performance.

A long time member of JVA, Joe is also a North Texas Region Junior Board Member and member of the Competition Committee. He also works in the AAU Sports Development Department.