Volleyball clubs like A5 focus on forming teams, organized by age, to train together and compete in matches against other clubs. Club volleyball is for anyone interested in learning and playing the sport at a higher level than they might be able to find playing at school or in a local rec league or church league. Like most sports, part of the year is "in season" where we are focused more on teams practicing and competing, and part of the year is the "off season" where we're more focused on training individuals at our camps and clinics. Additionally, A5 offers small group skill training throughout the year through our VolleyPerformance training program.

Unlike some school programs, church leagues, or rec leagues, our A5 coaches are never parent volunteers, or coaches from other sports getting paid a little extra to coach eight weeks of volleyball in the fall. Our coaches are experienced and accredited, and include many current and former college, high school, or feeder volleyball coaches - people that are really passionate about our sport. Each of our teams also includes a skilled assistant coach, which is often a former A5 athlete or college volleyball player.

Yes. Our skill training is open to anyone, in the form of our camps and clinics. It's quite common to even see athletes from other volleyball clubs at A5 camps and clinics! "Camp" usually refers to a short but intense program over just a few days, such as a summer camp or holiday camp that might be six hours per day for three days in a row. Clinics are typically two hours or less per session. You can create a parent profile on our website, then add your dependent athlete(s), and register them to attend any of our training options.

Some of our camps and clinics focus on a specific volleyball skill, such as a serving clinic or passing clinic. Some are aimed at specific volleyball positions, such as a libero camp or a setter class. Finally, some are general skills camps or clinics that touch on a little bit of everything, exposing athletes to passing, setting, hitting, serving, and blocking. Our camps and clinics usually have a range of ages, although some programs may be aimed more at high school athletes, or very young athletes, etc.

Skill training is great, but of course the end goal of learning volleyball skills is to compete on a team. There's nothing more fun than playing a club season - wearing the A5 uniform, practicing with your team, and competing against other clubs in real matches and tournaments. A5 Boys offers teams for ages 18 down to age 13. To get on a team with our volleyball club, the first step is to register your athlete to attend tryouts. Tryouts

Club tryouts happen once per year, in August, to form teams for the club season, which starts in late fall and ends in the spring or early summer. Our tryouts are open to all athletes, regardless of their current or past club affiliation. We have lots of athletes coming from other clubs to our tryouts, and even kids coming from out of state, to see if they can make an A5 team, and we have to cut a lot of really good athletes. Our goal every year is to offer enough teams that we don't have to cut any youth players. For youth teams, tryouts are really just to figure out which team is a best fit for each player, to get the level of instruction they need. For our youth teams, we don't require any particular volleyball experience - as long as they are willing and eager (and maybe a little athletic!), then we can teach them how to play volleyball! Of course, attending some of our training programs is a great way to build a little bit of skill and confidence before club tryouts. When you create a profile on the A5 website and add your dependent athlete, their correct tryout eligibility age is always displayed next to their name in your profile. Use their tryout eligibility age to register for the correct tryout program.

At tryouts, we form teams for the season. A team typically consists of approximately 12 athletes, a head coach, and an assistant coach. These teams begin training together during our pre-season October through December, working around the holidays. Practices are typically two or three times per week, in the evenings. Our youngest teams may practice from 5:30-7:30 for example, while our older teams 7:30-10:00. Some teams may schedule an occasional weekend "bonus" practice as well. The regular season, January-May, will also see teams in the gym two or three times per week. One practice each week is our Master Coaching night, where all our teams are executing the same practice plan, working directly with our most experienced coaches, running the same drills, learning the same principles and strategies, doing strength and conditioning exercises together, and scrimmaging against other A5 teams - that gives us the best competition in the city, every week. The other practice each week is a team practice where each coach executes their own practice plan, based on the needs of the team.

Throughout the regular January - May season, teams will play in weekend tournaments - as few as six or seven for our youngest and as many as 10 or 11 for our older or more experienced teams. While our most experienced teams will travel out of state often to play the best competition around the country, our younger teams generally play tournaments in the metro Atlanta area, including some tournaments that are hosted in our home gym, the A5 Sportsplex. A typical club tournament might be three "pool play" matches on a Saturday morning or afternoon, followed by a Sunday playoff bracket. In a single age group, a small tournament might have 10 or 12 clubs in attendance, while large qualifier tournaments, sometimes played over three days, could have over a hundred clubs competing in a single age group.

Many club volleyball players play their entire careers without experiencing a post-season. However, as a nationally ranked club, our stronger A5 teams regularly perform well enough at qualifier tournaments that they are invited to participate in USAV Nationals - a chance for national recognition as one of the top teams in the entire country. USAV Nationals is held in a different city each year, around the end of June. Additionally, we also attend AAU Nationals in mid-June, which is in Orlando each year, an easy destination from metro Atlanta. In either case, the post-season means six or seven extra weeks of practice for those select teams, and of course that extra tournament, trying to win a national championship!

While volleyball is still viewed mostly as a girls sport, especially in the Southeast, it is rapidly growing in popularity as a boys sport as well. A5 offers tryouts, teams, and we expect to offer boys teams this year for 12u, 13/14u, 15/16u, and 17/18u. For ages 12 and below, boys are welcome to attend our girls camps and clinics as well.