Club Volleyball Tournament Weekends: The Brutally Honest Parent Survival Guide
Wake up at 5:30 AM. Drive 45 minutes to a convention center that smells like a mix of popcorn, desperation, and 47 different kinds of energy drinks.
Pay $20 to park. Pay $10 to get in. Find a seat in a room with no windows where the bleachers were clearly designed by someone who has never sat on bleachers.
Your kid plays three matches. Each one takes about 45 minutes. The total play time? Maybe three hours. The total time you will spend in that building today? Seven to nine hours.
Welcome to club volleyball tournament weekend.
The Math They Do Not Show You
A 13s team in Boston played nine tournaments last season. One was local. The other eight required hotel stays. Five required flights. That is not a season — that is a part-time job in logistics.
For families with multiple kids, having a parent gone eight weekends per season is not just inconvenient. It is disruptive. If both parents work, someone is taking Fridays off. Repeatedly.
What Actually Happens at These Events
Players sit for hours between matches. They eat concession-stand food (or nothing). They get overstimulated, exhausted, and then have to play their best volleyball. The American Academy of Pediatrics has raised specific concerns about this exact tournament culture — multiple games in a single day with little recovery.
And for what? The “exposure”? College coaches are at maybe two tournaments a year. The rest is just volume.
How to Survive (and Maybe Enjoy) Tournament Season
- Pack real food. You will thank yourself at hour six.
- Bring a camping chair. Not all venues have seating.
- Set expectations early: some tournaments will be great. Some will be a slog. Both are normal.
- Protect at least one true day off per week. No practice, no extra reps, no “light work.” Just rest.
The Question Worth Asking
Before you sign up for a national-level team with five fly tournaments, ask yourself: is this for my kid’s development, or for the club’s revenue?
The honest answer might surprise you.
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مصطفى
مصطفى writes about evidence-based mental performance training for volleyball athletes, drawing from sports psychology research and coaching experience across club, high school, and collegiate levels.
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