 Hey, what's up, you guys? Welcome back to my channel. My name is Coach Coco, and I love volleyball. So much so, my channel is full of tips, tricks, hacks, and anything you could ever need to know about volleyball. So today, I wanted to do more of an informal video and talk a little bit more about it's a new year. Happy new year. And what does that mean for us who are playing volleyball? What do I do? What are you supposed to be doing? What should you be working on? Let's get right into it. You didn't already know it is a new year. It's 2022 and it is crazy to me how fast time is flying. But this means that you might not be in your volleyball season right now. And what does that mean for you? Are you supposed to be playing right now? Should you be practicing something right now? Who knows? I do. So my coach once told me a long time ago that the off season was for learning new things and during the season was for playing. This is the time for you right now to be practicing new concepts and skills that you don't know so that way you can start practicing things during the season that you do know. So one of the things that I highly recommend to players in the off season is to get involved in some kind of volleyball program in some kind of capacity in which allows you to be able to get some touches on the ball. One of the things that you guys see me do a lot is I play recreational. I play recreational quite a bit. I haven't done that so far as of this year yet because I am in graduate school. So one of the things that's important for me is to be able to get touches on the ball so that way I can get involved in more things with the ball. So that means recreational. If you don't know what recreational is, if you look at your local recreational center by doing a Google search you are able to find different recreational centers in your city in your town typically in which what volleyball programs that they have here. So I'm going to show you a sample of what that looks like so that way you can get a better idea of what kind of recreational programs there are and what kind of recreational things that they do. So I live in Charlotte, North Carolina and in Charlotte, North Carolina we have a lot of different programs here. So I'm going to do a simple Google search and see the different kind of programs that are offered to me here. They're usually typically go by city and then after you look by the city you're able to see okay the city's here listed, okay the level is listed and a lot of the times you see a lot of beginner to intermediate programs you might not see too many advanced programs but you often see a lot of volleyball programs offered during the summertime as well because at this time we're seeing a lot of basketball happening however it's not unbelievable there are still volleyball programs that you can participate in now. The next thing is maybe you should think about getting involved with a club. So club volleyball and school volleyball are two separate entities. A lot of the times we'll see people who are playing club volleyball and school volleyball at the same time. Sometimes we'll see school volleyball go to one season or one point and then club volleyball starts right after that. We just want to make sure that you're involved in some kind of volleyball in order to keep your skills year-round developing so that way you have the best chance possible to grow as a player. One of the things I recommend is when you're looking at a club is to look at a club has values that you really align with. If you would like me to make a video more about club environments and how to find a volleyball club for you I would be more than happy to do that. Just leave a comment down below but you want to find a club that aligns with your values. For example if your club is a local club and they only play clubs in your area and maybe you don't want to travel as much maybe that's a club that you should think about participating in or let's say your club is more of a nationally ranked club and they travel all over there's clubs who even go overseas if that's something that excites you or you see yourself wow that's something that you just really want to be involved with then maybe you should think about going to a larger scale club and they have those it's all about the way that you do your research. Now club can be a little bit more demanding than our in-school programs because club is more of an environment in which volleyball is the main purpose. That means that when you are going to a club practice you have a volleyball coach that might not be a secondary teacher or a teacher and the volleyball comes second. When you're going to club your club coaches specialize in volleyball and they are there for volleyball and that is their main focus is you. Also you'll see in a club environment you might see players that are a little bit of a higher level and I know that that sometimes for new players can be a little bit intimidating when you see players that are a higher level than you are and you feel like you're completely new. Believe me I've been there but we want to make sure that when we are looking at that club environment that we are finding an environment that fosters growth in us. Are the people there who are playing or participating in the club are they nice? Do you feel like you can connect with them? Do the coaches feel like you align with their values? Is the coach going to give you an opportunity that you agree with? Do you think that you can really grow as a player there? You want to make sure that you're going with a club that will go with you. Another thing that you can do during your off season is making sure that you are investing in practice yourself. One of the things that I did when I first started playing was figuring out how am I going to be able to get enough net time if I don't have a net or if I don't know anybody else who plays volleyball. What my parents did was they got me a really affordable net and I'm going to link some in the description box below. They got me a really affordable net and what I used to do is pop it up in my backyard or the side of my house and just try my best to learn the concepts that I learned at practice that day. So this was the time before volleyball was readily available online and there was an opportunity for me to see things online so I didn't really have the chance to see tutorials or videos like that. So I really had to learn what I learned in practice and then go home and try to translate it then because I wanted to be prepared. I wanted to study before the test and sometimes that's something you really need to think about doing. So I'm going to link a very affordable net down below in the description box so that way you can see that's something that you want to work on in practice. Another thing is you really need to define the goals that you're going to be setting for yourself especially if you think that you want to continue playing. If you haven't made the team, if you want to make a club, if you want to make, if you want to start next year, if you want to try for the first time, you really needed to define your goal and that means smart goals so that way you can better understand where you want to go. Setting a goal one thing is one thing. Setting a smart goal is another thing. If you don't know where to start, that can be the hardest thing even for me. Sometimes I don't know where to start and I'm just like you know what it's a lot of work. I don't really want to think about this. It's a lot of work to start. I want you to start thinking about how am I going to start the process of learning? How am I going to start the process of practicing? When am I going to practice? Define when, where, and how you're going to practice so that way you know how to do it. I think that these are some really good and helpful tips to be able to, for you to be able to get some, some touches on the ball. One other thing that was a runner up is to get a private volleyball coach. If you don't already know in the Charlotte North Carolina area, I do train individuals one-on-one. One of the reasons why I advocate for one-on-one coaching is because it gives you the chance to ask questions in a very safe environment. I remember how it felt to be able to ask questions and I'm asking a question in front of my whole team and I was afraid to ask a question because I didn't know how other people were going to perceive me asking that question. I was afraid of the thought process behind that question so it was really scary. When I ask one-on-one I know my coach is avidly listening to me and that my thoughts mattered. So that's one of the reasons why I really like one-on-one coaching and there are a lot of different platforms that you can find coaches. One of them that I really like is called CoachUp. I was a coach on CoachUp and I'm going to leave that description in the description box below so that way you can better understand and maybe you can find a coach in your area. So if you have any other tips that you think may be helpful to some of your teammates or peers and on our channel, please link it down below. Link it. I'm going cuckoo. Please comment down below so that way others can get some more information and we can better understand exactly what we need to do. All right, please like, comment, subscribe and I'll see you guys next time.