Fanatic Volleyball Players.

Full-time athletes at the academy is a question I get often.  We are trying to avoid the subscription academy model where you pay X amount of dollars to attend a daily session.  It is not a bad model, I just believe that it attempts to place the sport above everything else in their life.  Family, school, religion, other sports and many other aspects of the busy youth of today should be placed higher than my academy.  Other sports teach skills which are transferable to volleyball, I have found soccer players to have very fast foot speed, tennis players have great spike and serve technique and eye-hand coordination, while dance and gymnastics athletes have good jump training and body awareness and video gamers are good at strategy, communication, and sometimes leadership.  The athletes who select a single sport too early in life tend to be lacking in some elements to make a well-rounded athlete.  For all these reasons, the “come to the sessions” you want model put the ownership in the athlete and their support group to make a skill development plan which fits into their busy lives and into their ongoing skill development.  Only pay for the sessions you attend and only pick the ones that fit your skill level.  The skill level is determined by the athlete and their support group and not the academy coaching staff.  Some athletes will attend every session for a year to try to prepare for a future tryout to a team, some athlete use the academy to supplement the coaching they are getting on their current team, and some athletes just want to hear a different coach’s view on how to do as skill.  Exposure to a variety of different coach styles is important in an athlete”s development.  In short, fill your life with music, arts, sports and people and a well-round human will emerge...too much of one sport, art, Fort nite or any aspect of life will create a fanatic single-dimensional human, variety is the spice of life.

But as a businessman, I welcome the fanatic volleyball players who attend every one of my sessions.