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Youth

Delaware Juniors Youth Academy

Delaware Juniors Youth Academy (DJ-YA) is a co-ed developmental program geared towards our youngest budding athletes in the region. These courses are for children 10 and under and divided into two age/skill sets. Kids are taught in hour long sessions to keep attention and to prevent restlessness... and of course to allow your kids to be kids!!!

 Each session is 9 weeks long. Juniors will practice from 6pm-7pm and Seniors will practice from 7pm-8pm.  It is our mission to provide the correct training for our youngest athletes so that they understand fundamentals from an early age. It is important for our smallest bunch to have positive reinforcement, fun activities and basic understanding of fundamentals.

In order to grow a sport, you must first love it!

Juniors (6-8 years old)

DJ-YA Juniors is geared for young athletes who are new to the sport of volleyball, typically ages six through eight. The following is a course guide to our program: 

  • Intro to Passing
    • Children will be able to provide the correct passing platform and “ready position” stance
    • They will be able to rudimentarily pass a ball that is tossed to them from a short distance 
       
  • Intro to Setting
    • Will know how to hold their hands to set a ball
    • Will be able to push a ball, overhead, away from them
    • Will know basic stance for setting
       
  • Intro to Serving
    • Will have an understanding of motion to serve the ball underhand
    • Will begin work to get the ball over top of the net from the 10 foot line
    • Will be shown how to turn and use hip rotation to get the ball forward
       
  • Intro to Hitting
    • Will be able to show arm position for hitting
    • Will work on hand-eye coordination
    • Will be able to make contact with ball while standing
       
  • Intro to the Court Awareness
    • During this session we will go over the basic positions on the court, by number.
    • Understanding the boundary lines on the court
    • Moving around the court
    • Communication on the court

Seniors (8-10 years old)

DJ-YA Seniors is for children who know the basics, or are between the ages for eight and ten. Kids that are already able to complete the course guide for our Juniors level, or have already completed our Juniors level, will develop in the following areas:

  • Advanced Passing
    • Children will learn to pass a ball back and forth with a partner
    • Children learn the footwork for moving to pass the ball (Left, Right, Up & Back)
    • Children will learn how to pass a ball thrown from the other side of the net to a target
       
  • Advanced Setting
    • Will learn to set with a partner
    • Will learn the footwork for setting
    • Will learn how to set the ball to the different positions on the court
       
  • Advanced Serving
    • Will work on getting the serve over the net from the alternative serve line, underhand
    • Will begin to understand the fundamentals of serving a ball overhand
       
  • Advanced Hitting
    • Will begin to learn foot work for hitting
    • Will be taught how to jump and make contact with the ball
    • Will be taught to hit off a live set
       
  • Advanced Court Awareness
    • Understanding what the positions in volleyball are
    • Letting balls go out of bounds
    • Moving around the court
    • Communication on the court