What is club volleyball?

Volleyball clubs like A5 focus on forming teams, organized by age, to train together and compete in matches against other clubs. Club volleyball is for anyone interested in learning and playing the sport at a higher level than they might be able to find playing at school or in a local rec league or church league. Like most sports, part of the year is "in season" where we are focused more on teams practicing and competing, and part of the year is the "off season" where we're more focused on training individuals at our camps and clinics. Additionally, A5 offers small group skill training throughout the year through our VolleyPerformance training program.

Club volleyball coaching

Unlike some school programs, church leagues, or rec leagues, our A5 coaches are never parent volunteers, or coaches from other sports getting paid a little extra to coach eight weeks of volleyball in the fall. Our coaches are experienced and accredited, and include many current and former college, high school, or feeder volleyball coaches - people that are really passionate about our sport. Each of our teams also includes a skilled assistant coach, which is often a former A5 athlete or college volleyball player. The resumes of each of our club coaches is available on our website.

Can anyone participate?

Yes. Our skill training is open to anyone, in the form of our camps and clinics. It's quite common to even see athletes from other volleyball clubs at A5 camps and clinics! "Camp" usually refers to a short but intense program over just a few days, such as a summer camp or holiday camp that might be six hours per day for three days in a row. Clinics are typically two hours or less per session, but may span several weeks, such as our Fall Youth clinics that run Monday and Wednesday evenings for six consecutive weeks. You can create a parent profile on our website, then add your dependent athlete(s), and register them to attend any of our training options.

Skill training

Some of our camps and clinics focus on a specific volleyball skill, such as a serving clinic or passing clinic. Some are aimed at specific volleyball positions, such as a libero camp or a setter class. Finally, some are general skills camps or clinics that touch on a little bit of everything, exposing athletes to passing, setting, hitting, serving, and blocking. Our camps and clinics usually have a range of ages, although some programs may be aimed more at high school athletes, or very young athletes, etc. You can view a list of our current training options here.

Team volleyball

Skill training is great, but of course the end goal of learning volleyball skills is to compete on a team. There's nothing more fun than playing a club season - wearing the A5 uniform, practicing with your team, and competing against other clubs in real matches and tournaments. A5 offers teams for ages 18 down to age 10 and below - it's pretty common for us to have some 8-year-olds and 9-year-olds in our 10's program, getting a head start on their volleyball careers! To get on a team with our volleyball club, the first step is to register your athlete to attend tryouts.

Tryouts

Club tryouts happen once per year, in the fall, to form teams for the club season, which starts in late fall and ends in the spring. Our tryouts are open to all athletes, regardless of their current or past club affiliation. Tryouts are in mid-October for younger athletes. High-school-aged tryouts cannot be conducted until after the high school volleyball state championships are completed in early November. Because of the strong reputation of A5, tryouts for our older teams - starting at age 13 and 14 in particular - are extremely competitive. We have lots of athletes coming from other clubs to our tryouts, and even kids coming from out of state, to see if they can make an A5 team, and we have to cut a lot of really good athletes.

However, part of our secret sauce is the huge size of our youth program (ages 12 and under). Our goal every year is to offer enough teams that we don't have to cut any youth players. For youth teams, tryouts are really just to figure out which team is a best fit for each player, to get the level of instruction they need. Where many local clubs offer only a single team or two for younger athletes, we typically have more than a dozen teams in our youth program. Additionally, instead of lumping all younger players together, we offer separate teams for the 10's, 11's, and 12's age groups, allowing players to train with other athletes their own age.

For our youth teams, we don't require any particular volleyball experience - as long as they are willing and eager (and maybe a little athletic!), then we can teach them how to play volleyball! Of course, attending some of our fall clinics is a great way to build a little bit of skill and confidence before club tryouts. Your tryout eligibility age for the upcoming 2022-2023 season is the age you will be on June 30, 2023. When you create a profile on the A5 website and add your dependent athlete, their correct tryout eligibility age is always displayed next to their name in your profile. Use their tryout eligibility age to register for the correct tryout program.

Register for tryouts here

Club volleyball season practice schedule

At tryouts, we form teams for the season. A team typically consists of 11 or 12 athletes, a head coach, and an assistant coach. These teams begin training together during our pre-season in November and December, working around the holidays. Practices are typically two or three times per week, in the evenings. Our youngest teams may practice from 5:30-7:30 for example, while our older teams may have longer or later times in the gym, like 6:00-9:00. Some teams may schedule an occasional weekend "bonus" practice as well.

The regular season, January-April, will also see teams in the gym two or three times per week. One practice each week is our Master Coaching night, where all our teams are executing the same practice plan, working directly with our most experienced coaches, running the same drills, learning the same principles and strategies, doing strength and conditioning exercises together, and scrimmaging against other A5 teams - that gives us the best competition in the city, every week. The other practice each week is a team practice where each coach executes their own practice plan, based on the needs of the team.

Club volleyball season tournaments

Throughout the regular January - April season, teams will also play in weekend tournaments - as few as six or seven for our youngest teams, and as many as 10 or 11 for our older or more experienced teams - very roughly, it might be every 2nd or 3rd weekend. While our most experienced teams may sometimes travel out of state to play the best competition around the country at large "national qualifier" tournaments, our younger teams generally play tournaments in the metro Atlanta area, including some tournaments that are hosted in our home gym, the A5 Sportsplex. A typical club tournament might be three "pool play" matches on a Saturday morning or afternoon, followed by a Sunday playoff bracket. In a single age group, a small tournament might have 10 or 12 clubs in attendance, while large qualifier tournaments, sometimes played over three days, could have over a hundred clubs competing in a single age group.

Post-season

Many club volleyball players play their entire careers without experiencing a post-season. However, as a nationally ranked club, our stronger A5 teams regularly perform well enough at qualifier tournaments that they are invited to participate in USAV Nationals - a chance for national recognition as one of the top teams in the entire country. USAV Nationals is held in a different city each year, around the end of June. Additionally, some of our teams choose to attend AAU Nationals in mid-June, which is in Orlando each year, an easy destination from metro Atlanta. In either case, the post-season means six or seven extra weeks of practice for those select teams, and of course that extra tournament, trying to win a national championship!

Boys volleyball

While volleyball is still viewed mostly as a girls sport, especially in the Southeast, it is rapidly growing in popularity as a boys sport as well. A5 offers tryouts, teams, and separate camps and clinics for boys ages 8-18 as well. For ages 12 and below, boys are welcome to attend our girls camps and clinics as well. We expect to offer boys teams this year for 12u, 13/14u, 15/16u, and 17/18u. More on A5 boys volleyball

Beach volleyball

A5 offers a year-round beach volleyball program with tryouts in October. The beach season runs from November to June. During the spring, summer, and fall, we also offer seasonal beach programs. These programs run for four or five weeks and meet twice per week. Indoor volleyball players often take advantage of the seasonal beach programs for some additional training in the sand - it's fun and it's a great workout. More on A5 beach volleyball

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