Kristen’s heading to Houston Baptist University in 2 months. We decided to finally retire the 2006 Sportage in our family (thank you Mom) and get her a new Kia Sportage with the latest collision avoidance safety features standard in the Sportage 2020. Doesn’t look too bad either!
Kristen has chosen not to play Club Volleyball next season. Though the primary reason is she got hooked on Sand Volleyball this past summer, it doesn’t hurt that she won’t be subjected to the long repetitive indoor season. She wants to continue to play basketball for her High School this year and next. Sand will afford her a more flexible schedule and perhaps more options in the summer. She skipped the Spring/Summer Select Basketball season this year. Last year, she played on a Club “Lite” program to allow her to play Select Basketball in the Spring.
Here are some excerpts from the article linked above:
More and more college volleyball players are showing up on campus already broken or they break down once they arrive.
But everyone has a responsibility to take care of the players and nobody wants to be the person to give the kids rest, not the high school coaches, the club coaches, the college coaches. The problem is not going to be solved until everyone takes a joint responsibility in giving the players the rest they need. Everyone wants to complain, but everyone’s equally responsible.
I think a lot of people will say playing on cement all the way through is a problem, It is a problem and with kids starting younger and younger, and there are some positives, but there’s also a cumulative effect of playing on bad surfaces all the time.
Athletes train more than ever before and “they’re training the same motor patterns over and over and over. There’s not as much recovery time and there’s not as much general athletic training, just getting away from the sports-specific components. And that’s everywhere.
I think cross training is really important, especially for younger kids, It so good for your body to be doing something different.
We play too much volleyball at the junior level. Only volleyball. What I mean by that is I would rather recruit a kid who is playing some basketball, some softball, track and field, or maybe soccer, because I think we overuse the same muscle groups in that one sport. So if you’re only playing volleyball you’re wearing out the shoulders and the knees. In basketball, you have some different things and you’re running. In soccer you’re doing more cutting moves.