LOOKING FOR A healthy CHANGE IN YOUR YOUTH SPORTS EXPERIENCE?

If you or your child just got cut from a team, the below is a one-stop-shop on how they can bounce back/get the result they want next time. I speak from experience, I hope this helps! As a kid that got cut from a sport twice in high school, I can say honestly at that age it was one of the most devastating feelings I had experienced. I know this week many other kids are feeling that same thing. If you were just cut from your respective volleyball (or any sport for that matter) team, I want you to know: Getting cut from a sport does not invalidate who you are. It does give you some questions to answer. The answers to those questions will determine whether or not your athletic journey will continue. And after going on to have a successful collegiate/adult career as an athlete, I speak from experience when I say I believe you have full control on bouncing back and getting your game where you want it to be. Your path may be different though. "Playing Club" is no longer enough to make a school team given how many athletes now do it. Also, many youth sports coaches aren't mentoring in a manner where the athlete is getting the specific training/development they need. Many of you are going to need to figure out how to optimize your development by putting work in on your own - because every successful athlete I know follows an equation similar to what I've shared below. Let's go over the questions and if/then's that come with the answers. 1) How badly do I really want this? "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you want" - Randy Pausch, Last Lecture Getting cut comes with an uncomfortable truth: Whatever the coach was looking for, they felt someone else was more qualified to provide it. So, to build on question #1, am I willing to dedicate my fall to my game on my own? Do I love this sport enough to continue to participate even if it isn't alongside my classmates/playing games representing my school? I think there are valid reasons for the answer to be no. Some kids have another sport they love that they can play instead. Others may benefit from working a part-time job to afford things they want/need. Perhaps you've just played a full club season and you could use a few months to lift/rehab your body to build athleticism/fix any underlying issues from the previous season. If the answer is yes, let's continue! 2) Are you accurately aware of your biggest areas of improvement? I've seen posts of a lot of parents talking about politics at their programs. But if you're of a certain caliber, those politics only help your case. I'm not defending it, I just want to be transparent that when "politics" burn a kid, the underlying reality is they still have things in their game that can be improved. Complaining about things outside your control does not help you narrow the gap between the person that got the spot you wanted and yourself. Putting all your efforts into improving your game does! While you may have some idea already of what you need to work on, I think there are a few ways to make sure you're on the right path: I think it's fair to reach out to your high school coach, thank them for the opportunity to try out, and ask what things they felt you may need to work on between now and next year if you wanted to try out and make the team again. You can even go as far to ask on things you can do on your own to improve on those skills. If you or your child are nervous to do this, I encourage you to push through it - if a player wants to make the team next year, they cannot be afraid to ask basic questions to the person who will be responsible for making that decision. And it benefits the athlete to be on the coach's radar as time goes on so that they are looking for them next year at tryouts. If this isn't an option, or a coach gives a destructive answer (more on this below), look for a reputable private lesson coach in the area for an evaluation. Find someone that not only can tell you your biggest areas of improvements, but can clearly explain what's breaking down (I call it a STIM statement - Spacing, Timing, Intention, or Mechanics), how to do it right, and how to practice this on your own/with a friend. A good private lesson coach should both give you a lot of growth opportunities at practice as well as tools to continue improving on your own, but sometimes you need to ask for that type of feedback. SO: We've committed to improving our game, we know what we need to work on... 3) Am I controlling my controllables each day to catch up to/keep up with/surpass my peers? I preface the below by saying I am not a licensed professional when it comes to nutrition/lifting: I'm just sharing areas/habits that helped me optimize my growth when I was competing. Here's a simple checklist of things that tie into the above question/I found helped me along the way: Rest: Am I taking care of my sleep? Am I going to bed at a reasonable hour given how early I need to wake up? Am I stretching every day? Do I push my body properly to its limits while giving it the appropriate breaks when it's telling me I need to ease up? Nutrition: Am I eating healthy vs. processed foods? Am I eating at times/ratios that make sense given my training schedule? Am I hydrating properly throughout the day? Simply put, is the fuel I'm putting into my body aligned with my training/goals? Athleticism: Have I prioritized protecting my core strength/flexibility? Do I have any deficiencies with my body's ability to perform? If so, is this more of an issue than my actual volleyball fundamentals? Based on that answer, am I balancing my ratio of days in the weight room vs. days on the volleyball court appropriately? Is my work in the weight room properly reflecting what my biggest areas of improvement require me to improve on? If not, how do I change that? Fundamental Work: As a passer, am I able to pass deep/short serves, flat/loopy servers, move laterally to the sideline/middle seams and still control the ball? Can I do it from all 3 spots? As a setter, can I set pin-to-pin, can I set any tempo balls my respective program runs, how good is my footwork to out-of-system passes, can I still set both pins when pulled from zone 7? As a hitter, can I hit different tempo/routes for my respective position? Can I take a good approach to sets in/out of system? Can I make good decisions on hard-driven/off-speed depending on the situation? Can I tool off the block? There are more (blocking/digging/serving/etc), but these are examples of how I think about one's ability to perform a skill. Based on the things we learned from question 2, are we putting the proper time/work into those areas? Game Film: Who are successful athletes that play my position that are somewhat comparable from a size/athleticism perspective? Watching film of them, what do they do differently than me in the areas I need work? Is it spacing, is it timing, is it intention, is it mechanics? Based on where I'm at, what are things I can work on to make my game look like theirs? Watching one's own film can be uncomfortable - I also think it's a great way for players to recognize things they can improve as they continue to work on their game. Game Play: Are there adult open gyms in the area? Do local clubs host open gyms with other kids I can attend? Where are playing opportunities within my area that I'm able to work on my game? Bonus points for taking film of your games so you can review, recognize improvements, and identify the next areas of improvement to work on. If a player is truly being honest with themselves on the above and taking care of all that, I promise they'll get there eventually. I started as a high school athlete at 5'5", 95 pounds and wore a size 12 shoe. After 18 months of not playing after high school, I picked the sport back up and played 3 years of collegiate indoor volleyball. I started all three years, I was all-conference and had over 1000 kills in my career. Most of my growth leading up to my college career came from the work I did in adult leagues/open gyms before transferring from community college to my 4-year school. To conclude, I believe in you. If I can get where I got to after my high school career, there is no limitations to what YOU can do if YOU put the work in. But many times we're going to have to do the legwork ourselves. So if you truly want to try out again and get a different result? Or give yourself the best chance possible to have a good club season come November? Dust yourself off, pick yourself up, believe in yourself, evaluate the above, and get to work. If deep down, you have other things that would bring you more happiness, that's OK too. Do what makes YOU happy. You are enough regardless of whether or not the above path interests you or not. You are not defined by how well you hit a leather ball over a net, or how well you prevent a ball from hitting the ground. Some of my happiest athletes stopped playing years ago - not because they were "quitting volleyball" but because they were focusing their efforts on areas of their lives that made THEM happy. I wish you luck. - Coach Bryan Coach Bryan is a former 2-time cut athlete. Later on he became a indoor collegiate athlete/coach who also played beach volleyball semi-professionally. Athletes in the Chicagoland area looking for a Fall/Winter Program can learn more here , for parents/players that may want a virtual evaluation of their skills/college guidance, contact him directly at Bryan@progressionvolleyball.com

Look at this photo from last year's summer program. I'd like to use it to explain the difference between coaching 11-18U pay-to-play athletics vs. every other level I've coached, what I believe the ultimate goal is at this level, and my vision for a better youth sports experience as we move forward as an industry. This is my 23rd season as a coach, and aside from international ball I've experienced it all - from AVP tournaments, to NCAA Division I ball, junior college, indoor travel ball - I've been incredibly lucky to have gotten to see the good/bad/ugly at all levels. There are pros and cons to each level, but one thing that's unique to youth sports is an athlete's "why". When you coach at other levels, the "why" is pretty straightforward. If you play for your school team, there's an understanding that you are there to fulfill a role that ultimately compliments what's best for the team's greater good. This is the case in high school, it's certainly the case in college. At the collegiate/pro level, when an athlete came under my programming, there was an understanding that they were there to be pushed to their peak potential - and sometimes that meant taking feedback that they really didn't want in the moment. I certainly remember that in my own collegiate career, and I'm grateful to have had coaches that knew when to crack the whip as well as when I needed a little pick-me-up. But youth sports? The truth is, every single athlete that comes into my program has their own unique set of priorities. Sometimes volleyball is very high on the totem pole - and sometimes it's secondary to other things. Going back to the picture above, each athlete here has different reasons they're playing with us. A few truly do have the motor/drive to play collegiately. They train year-round, lift weights, watch film, communicate with college coaches - we've had over 30 athletes go on to play at the next level, and some of these girls will be added to that list in the next 1-4 years. I also see athletes who play badminton. One athlete tried wrestling her senior year because she wanted to try something new. Another took 2nd in state for weightlifting, setting a PR in her final competition. Some prefer to play for their high school but beach instead of club. Others love their club but for various reasons prefer to train with us instead of play for their school. Some have families who literally have no time/financial restrictions to what they can dedicate to the athletes' youth sports experience. Others need to be as efficient with their dollars as anyone. Some athletes need our program to learn how to push themselves to be the best they can be. But others have other areas of their life that already do that, and volleyball is a healthy outlet to blow off steam / get an escape from those areas of their life. Some people need volleyball to be their 'hard', while others need to to recharge from it. Every athlete you see above has their own preference of where volleyball should fall into their lives. All of the kids that come into our program want volleyball to be a part of their life in some capacity, but the majority of them do not want volleyball to be THE most important thing. That's where I believe Progression has created something special. Our job is to give them ownership of what they want volleyball to be, and provide them the same quality of instruction regardless of whether or not their the strongest or rawest athlete we work with. We're a program that can look at every single one of these kids, and we can accommodate them in a manner where our training bends to their lives instead of forcing their lives to bend to fit into our training. I believe in the things we tell parents about youth sports: That it's a great place to learn how to work through adversity. We teach athletes how to experience failure, pick themselves up, assess what went wrong, how to properly train to improve in that area, and how to compete with confidence when they try again. I believe our program can offer that experience to both our year-round specialized athletes, as well as the ones we may only see 10 weeks a year because they're going to be better. I believe youth sports programming can be truly "elite" without costing an arm or leg, or forcing players to abandon everything else in their childhood that may light their soul on fire. Personally, I was a late bloomer. High school athletics was not kind to me. I took the sport back up at 19 at the recreational level, worked my butt off, and through a lot of sacrifice/hard work, had a high-level collegiate/adult career. Coaching is now my profession. I watch constantly as systems look at kids for what they are now vs. what they can be, and I can't help but wonder: How many athletes are slipping through the cracks that just need more time? I hope you've found yourself in a program that truly sees you or your child as more than just an athlete to utilize for their program. I hope you've had mentorship that inspires athletes to feel more confident/determined than ever before in their lives. And if not, and if you're in the Chicagoland area, I hope you'll consider letting US try out for YOU vs. the other way around. Because in 2026, I believe in a youth sports environment that prioritizes the well-being of each athlete regardless of level or experience. And I hope if you're a like-minded player, parent, or coach, you'll join me in the mission to ensure no kid is held back, and no kid is left behind.