Private Lessons

 

Exciting Private Lesson Opportunities with Our Star Coaches!

I trust this message finds you well. As we gear up for the months of January, February, and March, we are thrilled to present exciting opportunities for private lessons with our top-notch coaches at the academy. Private Lesson Schedule: Given the historical trend of a relatively slow period in athlete training during the first quarter, coupled with the introduction of the new Academy League, we have adapted our private lesson schedule to accommodate the busy volleyball and life schedules of our athletes. Notably, private lessons can now cater to one to six athletes at the same price. The responsibility of combining athletes for a private session lies with the registering athlete. Private Lessons for Individuals (One to Six Athletes): Register on the website for available gyms, dates, and times. Private Team Lessons: Option 1: Utilize the gym and time already specified on the schedule (book into our time and gym). Option 2: Arrange private team lessons during the team's regular practice at their own gym and time. (Email us to set this up) The most exciting aspect of this newsletter is the incredible lineup of coaches who have generously offered their time for private lessons. We are proud to introduce:   Crystal Torgunrud - Coach Short Bio: A former middle blocker and power hitter for the University of Saskatchewan, Crystal's accolades include multiple Canada West Conference All-Star and All-Canadian recognitions. With 30 years of coaching experience, she brings a wealth of knowledge and passion for volleyball to every session. David Chuong - Volleyball Coach Short Bio: With 17 years of playing experience and 8 years as a certified coach, David's journey in volleyball has been extensive. He has coached with various clubs in Saskatoon, including the Huskie Volleyball Club, and is actively involved in the high school program. Leanne McGettigan - Volleyball Coach Short Bio: Leanne's impressive playing career includes representing Saskatchewan at the provincial, university, and national levels. As a coach, she has been involved in developmental and elite-level camps, provincial teams, and assistant coaching with universities, garnering mentorship from some of Canada's top coaches. Lori Hammel - Volleyball Coach Short Bio: Lori's coaching journey spans 12 years, with a focus on grassroots development. She played her high school volleyball in Canwood, Sk., and has been instrumental in Holy Cross High School's success, securing multiple City Championships. We are confident that these coaches will provide invaluable insights and guidance during private lessons. To book your session or inquire further, please visit our website or email us directly. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to a successful and enriching training season! Chie Imamura - Volleyball Coach Short Bio: Chie's illustrious playing career includes winning gold at the Asian Junior Women’s Volleyball Championship in 1990 and a bronze at the Women’s U20 World Championship in 1991. Known as one of the best setter coaches in the province, Chie has made significant contributions to various levels of volleyball, from Club and High School to Community and Individual practice. Crystal Torgunrud - Coach Short Bio: A former middle blocker and power hitter for the University of Saskatchewan, Crystal's accolades include multiple Canada West Conference All-Star and All-Canadian recognitions. With 30 years of coaching experience, she brings a wealth of knowledge and passion for volleyball to every session. David Chuong - Volleyball Coach Short Bio: With 17 years of playing experience and 8 years as a certified coach, David's journey in volleyball has been extensive. He has coached various clubs in Saskatoon, including the Huskie Volleyball Club, and is actively involved in the high school program. Leanne McGettigan - Volleyball Coach Short Bio: Leanne's impressive playing career includes representing Saskatchewan at the provincial, university, and national levels. As a coach, she has been involved in developmental and elite-level camps, provincial teams, and assistant coaching with universities, garnering mentorship from some of Canada's top coaches. Lori Hammel - Volleyball Coach Short Bio: Lori's coaching journey spans 12 years, with a focus on grassroots development. She played her high school volleyball in Canwood, Sk., and has been instrumental in Holy Cross High School's success, securing multiple City Championships. Register for Private Lessons We are confident that these coaches will provide invaluable insights and guidance during private lessons. To book your session or inquire further, please visit our website or email us directly. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to a successful and enriching training season! Email the Academy

Be Stronger than Your Excuses

Do not let yourself seek the excuses that will stop you from finding success. Success is small steps and takes time and effort. The academy is all about comparing yourself to your yesterday self. You need to work harder if you are not better today than yesterday. Everyone is afraid as there is always someone better; courage is when you find greater strength and desire than your excuses and put in the time and effort to improve. 

Working always with like age and skilled individuals is different from your competition. You compete against one person, and that is yourself. 

The athlete's skill level and age differ from your challenge. You are challenged by your inability to find the courage to put in the effort and time to improve. No one starts being the best at any sport without time and effort. Each session you attend will make you better. All athletes begin at different skill levels. They are all learning to compete. The hardest lesson to learn is to compare to no one but your yesterday self.

FAQ -Frequently Asked Questions

1. What happens if the Athlete cannot make the session in which they have registered? The registration fees can be transferred between sessions and between cycles. Flexibility is the key and will allow athletes to work around their playing schedule and their busy lives.

2. The ratio of athlete to coach is 10 to one. The coaches will be selected based on the skills at coaching individual skills. Dr. Darren Cannell is the head coach and will be in attendance for most of the sessions but he is aware that there are better coaches out there for some of the skills.

3. How is information communicated with the participants? Everyone who registers for a session is added to a mailing list. Anyone on the list has the ability to remove themselves at any time from the list.

4. How do I decide which session my offspring should attend? Sessions are all designed to be individual instruction which means participants can attend any session they want. The academy has had sessions in which 50 years old Master National team members are in the same gym as grade seven participants. The sessions for the same reason also have males and females in the same session.

5. How are the costs of a session used to cover the costs in the academy? Firstly, the sessions have taxes added to the cost, which is GST and fees which are used to cover the software costs and credit card fees. Secondly, the biggest cost for the academy is the gym rental fees. Third, the coaches who are the major reason why the sessions are successful are paid as it allows the academy to attract the best of the best. Forth, insurance, equipment, software development, accounting fees, lawyers fees, corporation fees, and other fees. The goal has always been to try to keep the cost of the session as cheap as possible but at the same time covering the costs of running the academy.

6. What are free or open sessions? The academy believes that participants need to touch the ball as often as possible for them to reach their potential. The academy runs many open and free session to reach this end. The costs for these types of sessions are the free or minimum cost to cover the gym rental costs.

7. Is the academy seeking sponsorship? The academy is a for-profit corporation but is attempting to bring down the costs of sessions so it would embrace sponsorship. Keeping this in mind the greatest need would be to gain sponsorship to cover the pickup game nights gym rental fees so we can offer those events free.

8. What are the reasons for canceling Sessions? Sometimes the school gyms that we rent are needed by the school and it can happen on short notice, so we send a memo out to the participants to the email with which they registered. For this reason, it is important that you use an active email so you will get these notices. The other reason sessions might be canceled is due to lack of registrations, the academy does not cancel sessions when there are enough registrations to cover the gym costs. In fact the few participants the better the ratio of coach-to-athlete and according to Head Coach Darren, he enjoys those sessions more as you see the changes with the participant's skills when you can pay more attention to their skills. This is also the reason private lessons are so popular.

Waitlist email full of code what is going on?

To get on a waiting list you need to go to the session in which you are interested in attending then registers for it.  If it is full it will state as such and then it will allow you to add your name to the waitlist.  If and when a spot becomes available due to a cancellation or the academy finds another coach to help in a session then the waitlist people will be contacted via email.  The email

will state that a spot has been open for them and they can confirm they are interested in attending by payment for the session.  It costs nothing to be placed on the waitlist but when the email is sent stating the spot is open, interested parties have to pay a quickly as possible because if payment is not made the open spot will be given to the next person on the waitlist.

It has been stated that some people do not see the necessary information on the email stating that they have been transferred from the waitlist to a participant email due to a setting on their phone.  If you run into issues with your phone displaying a whole pile of coding, then try a desktop or laptop to see if it clarifies the issue.

Here is the more technical answer to why this happens sometimes…

This is an issue on their PC and how their email program is interpreting the email message. Some email programs will display multi-part messages as garbled code. Anti-virus programs will sometimes “break” multi-part email templates up and cause them to display as raw HTML code.

This is not a common issue, but if they are using an anti-virus program, then to fix this problem they may need to change their anti-virus setting so that it accepts multi-part email messages. If they need more guidance, they should refer to or contact their anti-virus software company directly.

It is not something we can figure out for them on our end, but doing a web search like this would reveal that this happens to PC users in some circumstances or versions of Outlook or other email programs. The point is not to let the email program or anti-virus program to modify the content of the email coming in and allow the email program to display exact formatted message correctly. That is why if they use an online email service or a mobile device, they would see the correctly formatted email we send.