The LAVA Mission Statement is succinctly and best summed up with the phrase “Volleyball Done Differently.”
Revolution Volleyball Club is the LAVA club volleyball affiliate serving the Antelope Valley and all adjacent areas, striving to do differently—and better—in every possible way. Our primary goal is to provide our players, parents, and families with quality volleyball and athletic instruction and education, including skills and technique training for players; support and guidance for parents on raising youth and junior athletes, communicating with coaches, collegiate recruiting, etc; and exemplary direction and leadership for teams to ensure on-court successes. Our LAVA-crafted training regimen is one of the most structured, open, and informative in the region, as we offer competitive travel teams, youth and skills development programs, private and semi-private lessons, and myriad workshop and clinic sessions throughout both the season and off-season.
In addition to the above, and even more importantly, each and every Revolution coach recognizes the exceptional responsibility inherent to coaching—the simple fact that in life, the role of a coach is second only in weight and influence to that of an athlete’s parents. Our coaches, therefore, take this responsibility very seriously: we believe the responsibility of coaching is less a weight placed on our shoulders and more an incredible opportunity to influence young people positively through the sport of volleyball; we believe every coach is charged with the duty to help his or her players become responsible, autonomous individuals; and we believe coaches should commit to improving the skills of their players, should foster a strong sense of self-confidence in their players, and should do everything in their power to help their players, and their teams, succeed.
To accomplish this, Revolution coaches work with an understanding of our Standards of the Revolution, designed to help our players, parents, and coaches know their roles, understand their responsibilities, fully realize their goals, and achieve their dreams.
To the members of the Los Angeles Volleyball Academy and Revolution Volleyball Club, there is nothing more important than the sanctity of one’s integrity. The whole of the LAVA network subscribes to the idea of “Volleyball Done Differently”, and this is not simply lip service. We work hard and make it a focal point to do better and differently in every single aspect of our enterprise, and this includes the realm of coaching, in which we ask our coaches to teach the skills, teach the meaning of teamwork, treat people fairly, answer questions honestly, and simply strive to do better. We hold ourselves, our coaches, and our players, parents, and families to a high standard, committing ourselves collectively to setting a course that holds integrity, honesty, and honor as its paramount virtues.
We are a sports-based organization; the fundamental element of sports is competition. While integrity is crucial, competition is the central component of our product—the sport of volleyball. We train and develop our athletes, guide and grow their skills, and seek to foster within them a competitiveness that will transfer onto the court and help them perform to the best of their abilities. The goal for our top Revolution age division teams is to perform and succeed at the highest of competitive levels, both in our regional mandatory season and at national travel tournaments beyond, while the goals for each and every one of our teams, no matter the level of overall skill, are to work hard, seek to improve, and compete to the best of their abilities, and to understand that winning is the ultimate by-product of accomplishing these goals.
It has been said nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion, and while perhaps this is not entirely accurate, in the realm of athletics its truth cannot be overstated—one of the primary forces separating average teams from good teams, good teams from great teams, great teams from extraordinary teams, and quality teams and teammates from their lesser counterparts is the ability, determination, and desire to play, above and beyond anything else, with passion. We make it a point to speak this truth to our players, to build their confidence and help nurture their passion for this wonderful sport, and to stoke it as we bring it forth to flourish on the court. Play together, play for each other, come to play, and play to win, but above all, play with passion.
The Los Angeles Volleyball Academy and its Revolution affiliate are not looking to reinvent the wheel with these values, but rather looking to highlight such values in an environment that focuses too heavily on the wrong sorts of philosophical ideals. At Revolution, despite myriad personalities and styles, there two universal constants amongst our coaches and admins—an understanding of our Standards of the Revolution and a subscription to the idea of “Volleyball Done Differently.”