Session selection

 I just realized that the clinic on the 28th is for advanced.  My daughter is not quite 14, and is not what I would consider 'advanced' in her hitting technique.  Is this going to be a problem? Will she be in over her head?  I know of another one of her teammates that is the same skill level as my daughter, and was also interested in this clinic.  Please advise!

We never stop someone from attending a session or not as we are trying to not evaluate the athletes in that way.  They get enough of that from tryouts and team play.  Each session is designed to be individual training so athlete at all different levels can benefit from the session.  The hitting harder session builds on the basic hitting style and is considered advanced as it is meant for the athletes who have the ability to spike but just want to increase the power.  Athletes who attend a session too advanced for them do tend to be frustrated attempting what the coach is asking them to do and they are physically not there.  However, it can allow a more mature view of where they should be heading in the skill as they progress which can be used to form goals.  Each athlete is different in their approach to skill development.  Some are very skilled at development on their own and take the instruction given at sessions and go home and will work on it until it becomes muscle memory others will only strive to better themselves when in front of a coach in a formal practice setting.  Some athletes are very self-motivated and others are peer-motivated and then their are the coach-motivated athletes, each brings a style to the Academy session.  This variation makes it difficult to develop an evaluation or suggestion for individuals who have only been seen in a few sessions.  When working in developing a team a coach needs to work hard in determining a current skill level in each athlete to allow the use of said skills in a unified team.  At the academy we look at the athlete’s current skill level and suggest changes based only on the focus of the session without comparison of the athletes skills to other athletes or a team’s need.  This is a unique coaching perspective but does force the ownership of which session to attend to each individual athlete and their support group, like their parents, team members and team coach.

Now if that is not the best non-answer I have given today I don’t know what is...lol

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.

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What session do you think is suitable?

This is a question that I am asked often by parents and participants.  I try my best to write up the descriptions of the sessions to help interested people understand the level which is taught.  This email response is one that I gave to a parent in the last few days.

I try not to make a suggestion based on the skill of the players as they get enough of that with their tryouts and team coaches, I do my best in the session descriptions to describe the type of session which will be offered and hopefully the athletes will be able to decide if the session is for them.  For newer players, the word Basic will be used in the session as the footwork will be taught and a step by step instruction.  Sessions with the work advance on them or where I state the player should have an ability to attend the session, for instance, the setting session is for high school starting setters and will be for players who can set and are looking for the next step of the instruction, not the basic hand position or footwork.
 
Having said all that, sessions are for all genders and all ages, we will not refuse attendance to anyone, if the players and the parents think the session is good they can show up.  The lack of politics, evaluation and individual instruction at the sessions is refreshing for both the coaches and players.  We try to make the session individualize enough and challenging enough that everyone will benefit from any session we offer.  Yes, some athletes will be in way over their heads but it is not a competition, each athlete should hopefully leave a session better than when they walked in, they should not compare their skills with others and then it is fun for all involved.  
 

Basketball Elite Academy

We have a vision for the Academy which states “Taking the Skills to the Next Level”.
The academy’s next level is the introduction of the Basketball Elite Academy.  It will begin offering sessions on the week of January 6^th, 2020.  We are seeking interested Basketball coaches (mature, good at working with school-age athletes and willing to coach the odd sessions every so often).  If you know any such person please pass on my name on to them.
All the systems and methods learned while building the Volleyball academy will be used to make the Basketball Elite Academy.  We hope to develop the same level of sessions and coaching making it as popular as the Volleyball Elite Academy.  I (Dr. Darren Cannell) will be the head coach for the Basketball Academy setting up the sessions and assigning coaches.

Taking Your Skills to the Next Level

Sessions are selling out. Today I opened the academy manager page and this image was what I saw.  Thank you to all of you volleyball people for helping to make and develop the format for the academy.  Your suggestion, comments and feedback help to shape the format.  We tried developing our own system, used about four different systems and researched close to 13 others before settling on the current Corsizio system for registration.  During the last three years, we compiled a list of interest participants, developed a communication program, recruited a great list of interested coaches and a list of sessions that fit the needs of the athletes. We will continue to request suggests and comments to help us continue to improve and make the academy better tomorrow than it is today.  But if you don't register early you will not be able to attend a session as we do not want to mess up our coach to athlete ratio as it drops the level of instruction at the sessions.

Register now for future sessions