Okay, so I’ve been coaching youth volleyball for a few years now, and one question I get asked all the time by new parents is, “How long are these games gonna take?” Makes sense! People have busy lives. So, I figured I’d do a little experiment and share what I found.
My Little Experiment
First, I grabbed my trusty stopwatch – you know, the old-school kind, not some fancy app. I wanted to be super accurate. Then, I headed to a bunch of different youth volleyball games over a couple of weekends. I made sure to catch different age groups and skill levels, because, you know, a game with 10-year-olds is probably gonna be different than one with 14-year-olds.
I sat down and carefully timed everything. I mean everything the warm-ups, the actual game time (each set), the time between sets, timeouts… the whole shebang.I write down my record by hand.
The Results(It’s Messy!)
Here’s the lowdown, straight from my notes:
- Warm-ups: These usually took about 10-15 minutes. Some coaches like to get the kids really going, others keep it shorter.
- Game Time (per set): This is where it gets tricky.
- Most youth games are best-of-three sets.
- Sets are usually played to 25 points, but you gotta win by 2.
- So, a set could last anywhere from, like, 15 minutes to… well, I had one go over 30 minutes because the teams were super evenly matched!
- Time Between Sets: Usually just a quick 2-3 minute break for the kids to grab water and the coaches to chat.
- Timeouts: Each team usually gets two timeouts per set, and those are about 30-60 seconds each.
So, How Long Actually?
Based on my observations, here’s the deal:
- If you want a approximate * can plan on a typical best-of-three match taking around 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- Some of the games I watched wrapped up in under an hour. Others, especially with older kids or closer scores, easily pushed past the hour and a half mark.
Finally, I must say, it really depends. But hopefully, this gives you a better idea of what to expect!
