How to Make Your High School Volleyball Team

One of the first steps to becoming a well developed volleyball player is to know the game, along with its rules. The first thing you’re prospective coach will be looking for is if you’re knowledgeable on the game. There’s no sense in offering a position to a player who doesn’t know that double touching the ball or running into the net will cause you to make your team suffer with outs or fouls. According to WikiHow, searching the web for the basic rules of volleyball as well as relevance to your part in the game will be helpful starts before even walking on the court. One of the most helpful sites available on the web would be playerssports.net, where they can give you a more intense run down of all the ins and outs of the game, because if you don’t know the game and how it runs, you’ll be confused during the game and will only put your team to a disservice. There’s also a difference in rules from on the court volleyball compared to beach volleyball, so stay cautious of that as well.

Being prepared before tryouts is also a key to your success in the long process. Studies show that at least 60 minutes of practice a day 2 weeks before your tryouts will be more beneficial than practicing all day long. Taking interval periods of time throughout each day to prepare by practicing the basic skills like bumping, setting, and spiking, will increase your chances of making the team if you can show ability to perform in these simple but very crucial aspects of the game. According to wikihow, running short distances each day will also help with building up your endurance, but warns that running long distances can affect your vertical jump in a negative way. Whether you believe it or not, coaches can actually tell if you have come prepared for tryouts or not, and are more likely to show interest in a player who is willing to put their own outside time into practicing. 

Building up your endurance as well as muscle and strength will set you apart from someone who is weak and unable to keep up with the intensity that the game of volleyball asks from a player. Steps to increase your strength would be simple tasks such as doing 30 to 50 pushups a day, to help with serving and spiking depending on your position of choice. As stated above, running a short distance and time a day will help you build your endurance to keep up with the fast pace level that the game of volleyball has. With making a high school level volleyball team comes training and workouts. If you don’t want to stick out as someone who can’t keep up with the rest of the team, starting to prepare early on with working out and training will only increase your chances of making the team. 

Most high schools offer camps for youth taught and mentored by high school coaches and athletes with experience on those teams. Summer camp provides not only mentoring by a high school coach, but also new training techniques and teaching of new skills to develop, coming from the coach themself. The most crucial part about a summer camp is that if you do take one with high school coaches, you are already knowledgeable on how they are as a coach, and this will expose you to the coach as well. If you are a memorable player, perhaps the coach will remember you and will increase your chances of making the team. Summer camp also helps you develop skills in teamwork, as you are learning how to work with the other players in your camp. Teamwork and sportsmanship are important aspects of your personality as a player to expose to your potential coach when trying out. You could be the best player on the team but do not work well with your teammates, and you will only bring your team down by performing this way. Exposing yourself to a new coach and new instructors also helps develop your self esteem and trust within the system, as you will be doing so when trying out for a new team, like your high schools. According to Spookynetsports, the developmental skills that are most commonly taught and perfected in sports camps, especially in volleyball are blocking, serving, sliding and setting. 

One of the most important steps to potentially making the team is being at the tryout and getting noticed. Some suggestions for getting noticed would include wearing bright colors, potentially a name tag to identify you more personally, as well as being preppy and energized. A coach is going to notice your positive energy and want that for his or her team more than someone who is nervous or so concerned about making the team that it takes away from your own personality or game. Another positive way to get noticed is to ask questions. This shows that you are willing to try harder and also take critiques and want to learn more. A prospective coach wants a player who wants to expand their growth in the game, not just stay the same.  

High School sports tryouts can be a crucial time for some athletes, potentially deciding their fate on what they are going to really focus on in high school. Following a few of these key steps along with being confident going into tryouts will set you apart from your competitors and make you feel strong leaving tryouts knowing you did the best you could!