EliteVBTC Continues to Grow

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Elite Volleyball Training Center is proud to announce that we will be reinstating our satellite club, Elite Juniors. Elite Juniors will be home to regional teams in the 11-14’s age groups.

Tryouts will be at Elite Volleyball Training Center, but practices will be held at the Ball House in Plain City, OH. The program director of Elite Juniors will be Sandra Borer. She is our current 14 Black Coach and 13-14 tier coach. Borer played collegiate volleyball for Eastern Michigan University. She has 17 years coaching experience. Borer currently sits on the board for the Ohio Valley Region, the governing body of the Ohio area volleyball programs under the direction of USA Volleyball.

“I’m so excited to be part of the expanding volleyball community here in Columbus and the surrounding areas,” said Sandra Borer. “I could not be happier to have this opportunity with my Elite family and the supporting staff that has made this all possible. In the 2017-18 season alone, over 1,600 Juniors registered for a tryout membership and never upgraded to a full, active OVR membership. This means 1,600 athletes either did not make a club team, or chose to go a different direction. With the expansion of Elite Juniors, we will be giving more Junior players the chance to learn the game of volleyball and become leaders both on and off the court.”

Elite Volleyball Training Center strives to encourage and prepare young people to reach their highest potential in athletics and in life. Our professional coaching staff provide age-appropriate training in a fun, safe and competitive environment.

Our philosophy is to prepare our athletes to compete at the club, high school, collegiate, and international level. We do this by teaching the most successful and proven techniques in the game today. Elite’s coaching staff represents experience at all levels, including collegiate and professional playing experience, club coaching experience, and collegiate coaching experience. Traditionally, the athletes within our program exemplify the utmost character, respect, and competitive spirit on and off the court.

The goal of the Elite Juniors Volleyball Club is to provide an organized program with great coaches. We are looking for athletes in the Central Ohio area who would like to continue to grow in the game of volleyball. Elite Juniors will still be a part of the Elite Volleyball Training Center family. We strive to make each athlete from the national level to the regional level feel like they have a home at Elite Volleyball Training Center.

Tryout information for Elite Junior and Elite Volleyball Training Center will be posted at www.elitevbtc.com on September 1, 2018. You can reach the Elite Volleyball Training Center staff by email, elitevbtc@integritygym.com, or by phone, 614-504-5363, if you have any questions.

Are You Starting?

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Picture this…the volleyball team is huddled before the start of the set. The coach comes into the huddle and says, “Here’s the line-up…” As she reads off the names of the athletes starting the set, the huddle is filled with silent fist pumps from the starters, and groans of disappointment from the non-starters. What if I told you that there is… NO… starting line-up in volleyball.

ESPN sports analysts and parents who love basketball have tainted the mindset of our youth volleyball players. In basketball the best players are always the first five to be on the court. This is not the case in volleyball. There are many outside factors that a coach needs to consider when deciding the starting line-up. The good thing is they have several tricks up their sleeves when it comes to who plays where on the court.

Things to consider:

  • Did we win serve or receive on the coin toss?
    • Younger teams typically what to win the serve, in the coin toss, so their best most consistent server can serve first. With serving being a strength and passing being a weakness, a coach for a younger team is hoping to get a run of points early in the game so the other team cannot catch up. Older more advanced teams typically want to choose the chance to receive the ball first. In rally scoring the receiving team is more likely to score than the serving team. This gives your team the best chance to score the first point. Then the coach may have his best server in right front so that she can rotate back and serve first.
  • Who is the other team’s best hitter, best blocker, and weakest blocker?
    • Coaches want to match up their best blocker with the other team’s best hitter. They are also trying to match up their strongest hitter against the other team’s smallest blocker. Usually this requires a coach to watch previous matches or game film on a team to see what the tendencies are of the other coach’s starting line-up.
  • Coaches must spread out their strongest players.
    • See the image below for a better reference. Typically, a coach wants to have his best setter sandwiched between the best outside hitter and the best middle hitter. In the diagram below you can see that the setter is starting right back, the O1 (strongest outside hitter) is in the right front, and M1 (strongest middle hitter) is in middle back. The opposite, or OPP, is usually a very strong hitter also.
    • So, if your best middle is starting middle back and the libero typically comes in for the middles in the backrow, that means the best middle is on the bench at the beginning of the set.

  • Who do the setters connect with the best, and who is the best passer?
    • A two-setter offense, such as a 6-2 or 4-2, may mean that one setter connects with a certain middle better than the other. The coach may set up the line-up to allow that setter and middle to be in the front row together more often. This throws out the strategy listed above of a M1, or O1.
    • A coach never wants to get stuck with multiple weak passers passing against a strong server. A coach may rotate the players, in the starting line-up, to avoid a situation where the weakest passer is passing against the best jump server in the gym.
  • Which line-up won the last set?
    • Sometimes you can have your worst players on the floor, but for some reason they are winning. Volleyball is a momentum-based sport. The athletes on the floor may be carrying the team because they are pumped up, supporting one another, and creating a positive playing environment. A coach probably won’t change the line-up for the next set because the current line-up is winning. Usually the statistically analysis of the game will show who the best players are, but stats cannot show you who carries the team’s momentum.

As you can see, there are many factors that help a coach determine who plays when and where. Make sure you son or daughter knows that groans of disappointment are not appropriate when the coach reads the starting line-up for a set. Each athlete should move into their current role and give 100%. If he or she is on the bench, that bench better be the loudest most supportive bench. If her teammate stuff blocks the other team’s best hitter, she should be jumping up and down in excitement for her teammate. The moral of the story is… don’t waste your energy trying to know what is going on in the coach’s brain. Roll with his or her strategy and win every time you touch the ball.