Why Did I Charge $5 For Las Vegas Volleyball Boot Camp Classes/Clinics?

I charged $5 for my Las Vegas volleyball clinics and classes when I first started coaching in Vegas and I share my 'why' so it inspires other young coaches.

When I was a professional player in Italy in the late 90’s early 2000s, because I was there for so long I saw the positive benefits of older more experienced players coming into a country to play along side younger Italian players (both male and female).

I was a USA volleyball National team player playing with and against Olympic gold and silver medalists from all over the world which was a big deal for me.

Coach April with 3 time USA volleyball Olympic middle blocker silver medalist Paula Weishoff #3 pro volleyball teammates in Reggio Emilia the same city where Kobe Bryan'ts dad Joe Bryant coached D2 Men's basketball.

Can you imagine being an Italian high school player good enough to make a Division I team (at the time) and practice daily along side Olympians and World champions for eight months out of a year every year?

I saw the benefits this had for Italy and the players who learned what to do and how to do it and what to say on the court and just how to be better learning a ton from these visiting professional volleyball players from all over the world.

Almost every summer when I was off I’d visit my parents who had moved to Vegas from Southern California once my Dad, a traffic engineer for the City of Las Angeles, retired in late 80’s.

I’d visit them when I wasn't playing and then check out local Las Vegas volleyball practices or tournaments.

By the time I moved here in 2006 I had an idea as to what was going on in the local high school scene. 

Once I decided I wanted to coach I already knew several things about Las Vegas Volleyball. 

• Despite all the annual big SCVA tournaments coming to town each year, Las Vegas volleyball teams rarely ranked high in any of them 

• It didnt seem like any of the local school and/or club players were benefitting in anyway (except 1-2 exceptions Durango/Nevada Jrs back in the day) from the influx of great talent and great coaches that was coming into the city to compete in Vegas, 2-4 times a year. Everyone wanted to come to Vegas but their presence didnt seem to have a trickle down effect or benefit any of the Las Vegas players

• No one was really incorporating strength and conditioning into their Las Vegas volleyball high school or club programs

• No one was seriously recruiting Las Vegas volleyball kids. College coaches would come to Vegas and recruit other players from other schools who were VISITING Vegas year after year but didnt recruit Vegas kids. (I knew this because I knew alot of top collegiate coaches who said so.)

• The Las Vegas volleyball clubs at the time were professional babysitters, I felt, who weren’t really educating and fixing or teaching players REAL technique and skill that they could use to play competitive volleyball at any of the next levels 

My Volleyball Motivation: Why I Charged $5 For Vegas Volleyball Classes

So when I started coaching I did it with a chip on my shoulder. I wanted to make a statement and prove these coaches wrong and send a STRONG message to the parents that basically they were not getting a REAL return on their investment. 

My Motivation For Charging $5 To Coach Las Vegas Volleyball Classes Volleycats at USA Volleyball High Performance

That’s why my first classes were $2 classes when I was at the Hollywood Rec Center. We’d get over 60 players from the area and we only had half a court to work with.

My Motivation For Charging $5 To Coach Las Vegas Volleyball Classes.

By that time my mother found and introduced me to Coach Dermot Thomas who was knocking door to door to promote his physical training services. (See how God works?)

And Coach Rick dropped in to one of my first classes and NEVER stopped coming for 7 years after that. 

I told them the only way we’d do this is with a strength and conditioning component in every practice so that Las Vegas volleyball kids would get stronger, faster, jump higher and hit harder which was needed to compete at higher levels.

My Motivation For Charging $5 To Coach Las Vegas Volleyball Classes

So the Boot Camp class concept came from that.

It became a volleyball circuit training 90 minute class with one group doing strength and conditioning and two groups doing volleyball skills.

The other thing I insisted on was coaches would learn how to coach without spending so much time talking so players would average 500 reps in an hour.

The more a player touches a ball the better they get.

At club practices most players weren’t touching enough balls and definitely weren’t sweating or working hard in their club and/or high school volleyball practices..until they came to our Boot Camp class practices. 

My Motivation For Charging $5 To Coach Las Vegas Volleyball Classes Friday Night Boot Camp class strike a pose

At Stupak everybody sweats for this reason.

Its become a thing. We dont walk in practices, we run, everywhere and we train at the speed at which a game is played. 

My Motivation For Charging $5 To Coach Las Vegas Volleyball Classes Boot Camp Class and Breakfast Club regulars Danyale berry and Pac 12 Setter of the year Kami Miner

To this day one of the biggest compliments I hear and love is “Man we dont sweat in our practices but we sure sweat and work hard at Boot Camp class and in private volleyball training sessions!”

My Motivation For Charging $5 To Coach Las Vegas Volleyball Classes Boot Camp Class and Breakfast Club regulars Danyale berry and Pac 12 Setter of the year Kami Miner

That’s one main thing that motivated me and that’s what continues to motivate me.

Because with this sweat ethic I know more kids will learn faster how to play better volleyball. Which in turn means more kids get recruited ..which has been happening in the past 3-4 years.

My Motivation For Charging $5 To Coach Las Vegas Volleyball Classes Boot Camp Class and Breakfast Club regulars Brooklyn Weidenheft, Jackie Robinson and Maggie Skinner

hope I helped in challenging Las Vegas volleyball coaches in the Valley to get better..improve their coaching skills and to really teach players how to play the game. 

14 year old Kami Miner starting setter on my Volleycats Elite 17s team and 3 year private training client now the 2022 Pac 12 Setter of the year at Stanford.

It took 2-3 years but when you charge $5 for classes and

• more of your players as freshmen are making their high school varsity team and
• making USA High Performance teams while
• other parents are paying hundreds/thousands of dollars for club volleyball and
• their kids play at the end of the season with the same skills they started with at the beginning of the season…

…parents begin to notice and people begin to talk. 

Kami Miner and Sydney Berenyi, Boot Camp class and breakfast Club regulars, private volleyball training clients, varsity high school team players as freshmen (Kami in California at Redondo Union) in Colorado Springs for USA Volleyball High Performance

One last thing that motivated me also was that rule about freshmen players not making varsity that seems to only exist here with Las Vegas volleyball high school players.

Congratulations to Las Vegas volleyball players Sydney Berenyi and Kaylynn Smith for making the Silverado High School varsity team as incoming freshmen and Boot Camp class regulars.

Congratulations Las Vegas volleyball libero Alex Payan for making varsity as an incoming freshman and Boot Camp class regular.

Las Vegas volleyball hitter Aaliah Largusa incoming freshman and regular Boot Camp class member makes the Palo Verde high school varsity team.

Everyone else around the country has freshmen players who train to make the varsity team and Gatorade even produces a National All Freshman Team.

Because of that rule no Las Vegas volleyball player could ever make that team and that didn't make sense to me. 

So I made it a personal challenge to produce better players at a younger age…and in my mind I dared the coaches to say No to players who HAD to make the team because it was so obvious they deserved to.

Those are my thoughts, inspiration and the motivation for doing what I've done for the love of this sport especially when it came to making Las Vegas volleyball players better. 

My Volleyball Motivation For Charging $5 For Las Vegas Volleyball Classes:

Follow me on Instagram @coach_apchap to improve your game even faster!

I share alot of individual, partner and easy-to-do volleyball serving drills we do in class with my followers.

Many of these volleyball practice drills you can do at home by yourself or try at your next practice with your teammates.

If you're a B team or JV player trying to make varsity next year...your goal should be to complete 1000 reps a day of at least three of the basic skills on your own...volleyball passing, serving and setting should be at the top of the list. 

My Volleyball Motivation For Charging $5 For Las Vegas Volleyball Classes: 
Where Do You Go From Here?

We know where you need to go now! Here are three options: 

1. Learn more about Training with Me by clicking one of the links in the Related Links below. 
2. Follow the suggested reading on our Sitemap page Learning How To Play (Sitemap)
3. Or visit the pages in the How to Play Volleyball section in the drop down menu at the top of the page to get started. 

1. Improve Your Volleyball Skills with Private Volleyball Coach April Chapple
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2. I Coach Volleyball Private Lessons For Vegas High School Players
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3. Why Did I Charge $5 For Las Vegas Volleyball Boot Camp Classes/Clinics?

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