J UNIOR J OURNAL Club vs. high school: Different in good ways
Learning to adapt to varying coaching styles and training philosophies can be a big challenge, but it will help you become a better volleyball player
by Kendall Kipp
LIKE A LOT OF VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS my age, I’m a two-season athlete. In the fall, I play for my high school, Corona del Mar, and in the spring I will be playing for Laguna Beach Volleyball Club. It’s a lot of volleyball, but I love it. And it’s a great way to keep improving my game year-round. To get the most out of it, though, I’ve had to learn to embrace the differ- ences between school volleyball and club volleyball. They’re definitely not the same. For example, the high school season is significantly shorter than club season. While club lasts approximately six to seven months, high school season is only three to four months. In high school, it can be a challenge to develop quickly into the best team you can possibly be within a month or so before high school games offi- cially start. To make up for the short season, practices are longer, more intense and more frequent. During high school season, games can also occur twice a week and very close together. It all comes with the smaller time window of the season. This means you have to take care of your body and be able to recover quickly to be ready to perform at your best back-to-back. Time spent off the court and recovering is just as important as the time spent in the gym training. It is the responsibility of team members to take care of themselves so they’re ready to fulfill their individual role on the team. On a high school team, you get to play
with your school friends and some of the kids who you have grown up with your whole life, where in club you have more of a variety of people from all over because clubs draw from a wider geographic area. One of the best parts about the high school season is getting to play in front of a crowd and your commu- nity. It’s fun representing your school. Playing in your home gym with all your friends, family and school watching is an amazing experience. Another one of my favorite things about
high school volleyball is getting to play on a team with older girls. As a freshman or sophomore, you don’t always get the op- portunity to play with juniors and seniors. School volleyball is a special opportunity to play a faster game with more developed and experienced players. There’s a lot to learn from them, including skills and leadership. When you play
club volleyball, you have a longer season, allowing you to re- ally get used to your team and bond with your teammates. My favorite part of club volleyball is getting to play with people from different schools and areas. Club is also dif- ferent than high school volleyball because you’re in a smaller
division, so the teams you play are almost always at about the same level as your team. Sometimes your club team is better than
your high school team, or vice versa. When playing on the less talented team, you have to try to still improve and work hard in order to be ready for the next season. Your goal should always be to play to your poten- tial, not to adjust your effort to the level of the team. In the sport of volleyball, you have to
learn how to adapt to different systems if you are going to be successful. Your high school coach may run a different offensive, blocking or defensive system than your club coach. It’s important to be coachable and work with the system if you want to have success. In the high school season, you don’t have as much time to adjust. Everybody has to be on the same page working together! Embracing the differences and learning
from the diverse experiences in both high school and club will make you the best vol- leyball player you can be.
Kendall Kipp, who played middle last
season for Momentous VBC, resides in New- port Beach, California. She recently helped the U.S. Girls’ Youth Team earn silver at the 2016 NORCECA U18 Continental Championship and qualify Team USA for the 2017 FIVB Women’s U18 World Championship.
24 | VOLLEYBALLUSA • Digital Issue at
usavolleyball.org/mag
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