We would like to share the following beliefs and philosophies that we have developed through our experiences and training.  

The key to improving any skill is repetition. That is, repeating the proper technique over and over until continuous success is achieved. Simply playing the game of volleyball does not offer the individual athlete the quality repetitions required to improve. They gain good experience but not good training. Training comes from breaking down every movement and action required to complete the skill successfully. Once that skill is understood; performing that skill correctly, hundreds of times, helps the athlete improve.

Strength and size MUST be considered in the proper training of any athlete.

Serving is probably the simplest of all volleyball skills. However, if you ask a weak or very small athlete to serve overhand before they are physically ready, they will fail miserably and often and also develop very bad habits that will stay with them for a long time. At Advance we focus on proper serving technique whether it is underhand or overhand. We are not shy about telling an athlete the truth about their ability and why they should work on a good underhand serve. Unfortunately, young athletes are often pressured into trying to serve overhand before they are ready. The pressure comes from many directions including peers, parents and coaches. Learning to serve underhand properly will lead to a good overhand serve when they have developed the appropriate strength to do so. We have said it many times and we don’t think that anyone can argue, “We’ll take any player that can successfully serve 15 balls in a row underhand over a player that can only serve 5 in a row overhand.” Appearance or “coolness” has nothing to do with it. Scoring is what matters!

Blocking is another skill that requires strength, quickness, technique and size. Every coach agrees that we can not teach height. There for; we must concentrate on the other aspects of blocking. That is why blocking is not taught until the later sessions and also has some “reality” factors involved in the teaching. The techniques of blocking are developed through proper movement and agility. These skills are acquired from many of the other techniques used in our training. We concentrate on these other skills and save blocking for those that we know can learn it safely and with success.