Setting the Standard for Elite Volleyball Training
A Philosophy of Improvement
Our program isn't just about teaching volleyball - it's about demonstrating how to exist and thrive in an ever-complicated world. We want your daughter to grow not just as an athlete, but as a person.
At Courtside Volleyball Club, we are committed to providing developmental coaching that not only seeks to improve skills, but to help players understand the game.
Our club formed in 2018, after branching off from CTS volleyball club, and has grown each year since, hosting travel teams and teaching girls from age 11 all the way up to 18. We play out of our home gym, Marx's Court Time, and positively impact the Pittsburgh volleyball community by organizing tournaments, clinics, and open gyms.
We strive to give local girls an opportunity to grow and develop their skills in an environment dedicated to making sure each player gets the attention she needs to improve, no matter how much experience she's had or how much of a 'natural' she is. We like hard-working, dedicated players, and we want to give them everything they need to succeed.
Our philosophy for improvement is simple: when we perform skills in a specific way we get more power and control, and when we understand the mechanics behind performing those skills, we become stronger, smarter, and more capable players.
Building Up Our Players and Teams
When skills are taught without pointed direction coaches leave room for confusion and the development of flaws, handicapping players who might have been strong competitors if they had just been taken through the skill a little more slowly and with a little more explanation. Because of that, we believe in 'building up' rather than 'tearing down,' giving our players solid fundamentals that we can expand on as they grow and develop in their volleyball journey.
Many coaches teach from the top down, showing a skill in full and then expecting players to grasp it through a few demonstrations. When a player doesn't understand, the coach then critiques them, 'tearing down' what the player has copied. Often, with this approach, the coach doesn't know how to explain why the player is succeeding or not succeeding and instead recycles phrases which don't help improve performance.
For instance, coaches will tell players to 'swing harder' on their serve without elaborating on how the body should move in order to actually swing harder.
The reality is that there are many reasons why a serve may not be going over, and it isn't always just about having a stronger contact. Is the player's elbow high enough? Are they engaging their hip? Are they tossing the ball to the right spot? If a player's elbow is too low, for example, the serve will almost always be in the net no matter how hard they swing at the ball - unless they then develop another bad habit to make up for the original bad habit.
What the coach ends up with is either a player who loses their confidence and thinks they will never be able to succeed, or a player who has so many bad habits that she risks injuring herself performing the basics.
Courtside's approach is different.
While we may demonstrate a skill in full for a reference point, we break it down into more easily-digestible parts and start with basics - how should you hold yourself? Where do you get your power from? When and where should you move to to have optimal contact with the ball?
We take players through each step so that anyone can grasp how to play and not just figure it out by accident. Not only that, but we demonstrate how to know when one's performing a skill correctly or incorrectly and teach how to see and analyze those movements in others, leading our players to better understand the game and how to improve at it.
By 'building up' their play, step by step, we aim to develop players who can better predict where an opponent may strike and know exactly how they should react.
Developing Strong Women
At Courtside, we don't just aim to improve our players' skills, we also strive to help prepare them for the real world.
Sports teach conflict resolution, problem solving, and how to navigate having a 'boss' and a team that the player is accountable to, and our club strives to make sure we provide this experience in an environment that supports our players' growth and development.
We want to help our girls understand how to become strong women who can speak for themselves, demonstrate empathy and compassion, and learn how to work through mistakes and deal with any potential consequences, just as they will have to as adults.
