Two a Day's for Girls Volleyball?

[GratefulDad]

Two a Day’s for Girls Volleyball? Our daughter who will be a HS Freshman this year, earned a spot on the very, very competitive Volleyball Team. Starting in Aug. they have been doing Two a Days for Girls Volleyball. Now, I am not saying the girls are not tough enough to do Two a Days workouts, however it seems a little over the top to me.

Am I just being an over protective Dad:blush: or does this seem reasonable?

 

[whatevergirl]

*Personally, I just think it wears kids out. I remember my son doing this for football–it was insane. And it seemed like they weren’t learning drills for football during the extra practice time, it seemed like my son and others were paying the price with additional exercises that were meant to serve as punishments for the other boys’ shenanigans. My son quit the team, largely due to that. Hopefully, this won’t be the case for your dd!

Congrats to her btw…that’s awesome. I do think it’s over the top, but so is how our country views sports–over the top. I like to watch some sports, but to the level of competitiveness sports has reached with high school and college level kids, it’s a little nuts to me. lol *

 

[TheDoctor]

My first thought was that it depends on what the two-a-days entail. If it is 2 hours of conditioning in the morning and 2 hours of skill/team play in the afternnon in a gym that does not sound too bad. They will be back down to a more reasonable practice schedule once school starts, hopefully. One of the reasons the team is so good is probably a hard practice schedule.

High school sports are a whole level above junior high. Our friends daughter is a varsity cheerleader and they do two weeks of all day camps in the summer. My son plays JV soccer and while they are only one-a-days, they end with suicide sprints. I think he would welcome two-a-days running the steps in a gym.

I understand being protective, but if your daughter fought to get on this team how do you think it will go if you pull her out of practice or question what the coach does that seems to be working? It is a fence to walk. I think the best advice is to stay a concerned dad and listen to your daughter - her words and actions will tell you if she really wants to go through what she is required to do to stay on the team.

 

[whatevergirl]

My first thought was that it depends on what the two-a-days entail. If it is 2 hours of conditioning in the morning and 2 hours of skill/team play in the afternnon in a gym that does not sound too bad. They will be back down to a more reasonable practice schedule once school starts, hopefully. One of the reasons the team is so good is probably a hard practice schedule.

High school sports are a whole level above junior high. Our friends daughter is a varsity cheerleader and they do two weeks of all day camps in the summer. My son plays JV soccer and while they are only one-a-days, they end with suicide sprints. I think he would welcome two-a-days running the steps in a gym.

I understand being protective, but if your daughter fought to get on this team how do you think it will go if you pull her out of practice or question what the coach does that seems to be working? It is a fence to walk. I think the best advice is to stay a concerned dad and listen to your daughter - her words and actions will tell you if she really wants to go through what she is required to do to stay on the team.

I totally agree with this–let your dd decide on her own, what her limits are, GD. This is what we did with our son, and when it becomes ‘no fun whatsoever’ as our son said, that’s when it doesn’t become worth it for the kids. All of the stringent conditioning and punishment like exercising, just wasn’t worth it to our son, or others who were talented and quit the team. I think that at some point, just have to let our kiddos make their own decisions with these situations, although my dh thinks our son’s reason had more to do with laziness, but we don’t get into that here.

 

[RosalynR]

When I played volleyball eons ago, we had two or even three a days. Come in at 8 or 9, break around 12-1, and then back again until 3. We worked out as long as the football players!

If this is what your daughter wants, then let her go for it!

 

[Catholic90]

My son runs high school cross country. They have had voluntary 2 a days all summer starting in June … morning is a 90 minute workout with weights, conditioning, and sprinting. Evenings are the long runs (5-8 miles). About 5-7 kids (of a team of about 25) regularly show up. It shows the coach who is committed and serious and also makes a difference as to which students are chosen as captains for the next year.

 

[GratefulDad]

It is pretty rigorous training so we’ll see how it goes during the regular season. Especially how much she plays. I guess it is all part of growing up. One of our older daughters played for the same HS team but quit going into her Jr. year to pursue the AP Curriculum, so we’ll see. But she did not have Two-a-Days.

 

[Cat]

Just make sure that she gets her sports physical, and make sure it’s a GOOD physical, not just someone tapping on her knee and saying, “Looks healthy to me.” Make sure the doc listens to her heart, and make sure that he/she checks her backbone (for scoliosis). Also make sure to have her feet checked, and if she is flat-footed or has something not quite right with the feet, get orthotics so that she isn’t prone to injuries in her workouts and competitions. I recommend going to a podiatrist for this exam.

When my daughter was on an elite synchronized skating team in middle school and high school, they worked hard from 5:30 A.M. until 1: 00 P.M. on Saturdays and Sundays, and again on Tuesdays from 7:00 P.M. until 10:00 P.M. IN addition, the skaters were supposed to be practicing daily on their own.

Yes, there were breaks–around 15 minutes to have some food and go to the bathroom. But for the most part, they skated hard and repeated difficult footwork passes over and over and over again. Skating a four-minute Long Program is the equivalent of running a mile, and the team skated it repeatedly.

I still remember when the team went to Colorado Springs (high altitude). They were in such good shape that they did six back-to-back runthroughs of their programs during practices. I remember the other teams (who were allowed watch) coming out into the lobby with stunned expressions, and saying things like 'Holy cr__, they just did six perfect runthroughs!" By the time the actual competition came around, the other teams were so terrified of our team that our team steamrolled into first place!

My daughter loved it, BTW. She loved being in good shape, strong, hard, and fast. She loved the tough workouts, the coaches yelling, the fierce competition to hold onto her spot on the team (a skater could lose a spot if she didn’t work hard enough or wasn’t capable of doing the skills). She LOVED the competitions.

The biggest problem with these hard workouts is that when you grow up and quit doing them, you gain weight and get pudgy!

 

[OSUbride0708]

My mom is a high school volleyball coach. They start having open gyms in May. In June, there is a one week camp from 8-4 with a break for lunch, and also they play in a summer league twice a week for 2 hours at a time. Come July they do 2 or 3 tournaments, another camp, and then in August they do conditioning for 2 hours a day one week, and 2 s days the next week and by that time it’s the start of the season and the teams need to be picked. Has your daughter done a lot of volleyball related things this summer? If she’s playing Varsity, you have to do this to have a good team. In fact, most girls will play on a Junior Olympic team in the off season starting in Jan/Feb until April, especially if they don’t play any other sports.
I was in gymnastics all year round, with volleyball and cheerleading added in in the summer/fall, junior olympic vball in the winter and track in the spring. I never felt like it was too much and enjoyed every minute. I guess it just depends on the individual.