Phoenix Volleyball Festival

As you know I coach Nicole's city volleyball team for 11-12 year olds. Occasionally, Nicole has taken some side training classes through a local competitive club called "Club Zia". Last week, Eric of Club Zia and Marketing Director for the AZ Region Volleyball gave a "shout out" to us coaches and invited us to participate in a demonstration drill at the Phoenix Volleyball Festival in downtown Phoenix, AZ. The Phx Volleyball Festival runs an entire week and is one of the largest volleyball events in the United States.

Eric asked us to bring a handful of players to demonstrate a drill called a "mini-tourney" or "Mini volleyball". Basically, one or two volleyball courts are turned on its side and a rope is strung along the top. So one volleyball court now becomes 4 mini courts and two volleyball courts become 8 mini courts. The objective of the training is to have players play 3 on 3 and allow them to touch the ball as often as possible. The demonstration was to encourage other school leagues and clubs visiting the festival to incorporate this drill into their practices.

I along with Coach Brenda brought our kids and friends: Nicole, Izzy, Delaney, Brittlen, Caroline, and Gavin to demonstrate this drill for a straight two hours, along with some other players. Afterwards, we had the opportunity to watch the club leagues compete. AZ Desert Storm is an 18 year old club team, one of the top in Arizona, and you can see a bit of their game at the end of the slide show. I do encourage you to stick through the short video for their outstanding play.