High Performance (429)

HP stands for High Performance which is separate from club and school. It is a different program you have to try out for. There are two types of indoor HP: region and national. Our region is just Iowa, so the region tryouts would be full of players from Iowa. At a USA tryout, however, there are players from all over the country. These tryouts are usually at the convention centers the night before qualifier tournaments, where teams from all over the country come to play in a tournament to earn a bid. 

The selection for the two are different also. For the regional HP, you try out to make a camp, which happens in June. Then, from the people at the camp, they select players for the teams. In Iowa we have 2 teams: international and national, which just means that the top team will be playing teams from other countries and the other team will be playing other regions from the US. From the USA tryouts they select players to go to camps. The camps are A1, A2, A3, and a training camp. If you are on A1 or A2 then you are on that team. The camp is just you practicing with the team for a week. 

Once the teams are made, then they all train for about 5 days, then head off to High Performance Nationals at the end of the summer where they play each other. 

Personally, I've never been on a team, but I have been at the Iowa HP camp 5 times. I think it is a really fun experience and a good opportunity to play with skilled players, making it a very competitive camp. I also like the coaching staff; they try to make you a better player even in the short time that you are at the camp. They also bring Olympic players and coaches to share their knowledge of the game and their stories of playing for Olympic teams.  

The four day camp is held at a college, so the players stay in the dorms with roommates, which is really fun. There are 3 sessions a day, with lunch and dinner breaks, where we eat in the campus cafeteria. The first three days are position training, drills, and scrimmage play, and the last day is a camp tournament. We get split up into teams and play each other in a tournament and there is a winner! 

For me, High Performance is a fun opportunity to play high level volleyball with different coaches that is separate from club and school ball.