A year in the life of a student-athlete volleyball

We leave Italy at the end of the summer and arrive at the college at the beginning of university classes, usually in the first days of September. During the first few weeks there is an adaptation to the rhythms of study and sport with training geared more on the physical and technical part and not particularly demanding in terms of quantity and intensity because we are in the period without official competitions said
off-season
.

As the semester progresses, training becomes more intense and more frequent, and the team begins to prepare for unofficial competitions, a series of preparation friendlies that take place towards the end of the Fall semester (November-December). In the meantime, of course, we continue to attend classes and before leaving for the holidays there are exams to be taken to close the academic part of the Fall semester, usually towards the end of November and the beginning of December.

After a very short break for the holidays, the volleyball players are called to return in early January to start the official championship. There will be additional preparation matches, but this time the matches will count towards the final scores of the season and eventual invitation and qualification to national tournaments. Immediately after these matches, the official competitions of the
Conference
to which you belong.

The competitions are usually 2 per week so, at the end of the 3 and a half months of competitions, the athletes play about the same amount of matches as in an Italian league championship which, however, lasts 8 months. By mid-April, most of the championships are over, and after the final exams of the Spring semester, the holidays begin.

In addition to having to follow very detailed physical schedules, players during the summer are encouraged to play beach volleyball or continue to play in some way so as to keep fit and maintain a minimum of sensitivity with the ball.

Although they are not usually covered in men’s scholarships, there is the possibility of doing courses even during the summer so as to “offload” some of the academic pressure in the semester of competitions. Some of these credits can also be made online from Italy.