Lesson FAQs

You mostly have lesson time-slots on weekdays between 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.  This doesn’t work for my daughter.  Why are there no lessons in the evenings or weekends?

During club season we have no court time available after 5:30pm on weeknights due to our club teams using our courts to practice.  Our facility (Midwest Volleyball Warehouse) is full with tournaments and leagues from 7am – 9pm most weekends.  The only time we have available for lessons is after school lets out on weekdays and before our team practices begin.

I am attempting to register for a lesson outside of club season (mid-June through late October).  There is nothing in your system when I look for availability.  Are you not offering lessons?

Outside of club season, our lessons can be very hit and miss.  This is due to several factors:  (1) volleyball nationals and our staff/coaches being out of town in June and early July, (2) camps, clinic and skill sessions occupy much of our court space and coaches’ time in July, (3) high school volleyball takes place in the fall and many of our coaches not only coach high school volleyball, but want to go watch their formers players as they compete.  Keep checking as our lesson availability is released month-to-month, but those limited spots go quickly.

How do I request a lesson with a specific coach on a specific date at a specific time?

Our lesson time-slots are first come/first served.  Each lesson coach gives us their availability each month and we publish those openings to our registration system.  You cannot request a specific coach or date or time.  What we have in our registration system is what is available at the present time.

I went to the registration system and there is nothing showing in the pulldown box for the week I want.  What am I doing wrong?

If nothing appears in the pulldown box when you go look for lessons it either means that no lessons were given to us by the lesson coaches or that all of their available lessons have already been taken by other players.  When lessons are taken, they are no longer visible to other people.

Is there a deadline to register for a lesson?

Our lessons will remain open to registration until midnight the day before.  For example, if there is an open timeslot in our registration system for 3:00PM on Friday the 23rd, it will close to all registrations  at 12:00AM on Thursday the 22nd.  This is approximately 1.5 days ahead of when the lesson is scheduled to take place.

My daughter is 12 years old and I want her to take a lesson with a coach who has an age range of 13-18.  Can I sign her up?

Our coaches are able to set the age ranges for their lessons.  Please do not sign up for lessons unless you meet the age guidelines that they have set.  The age ranges are actual ages and not age groups (i.e 13U, 14U, etc.) unless specifically written that way.

I want my daughter to take a group lesson with you.  You stated that lessons can be for 1-3 people.  How do I sign her up for that?  

The lesson belongs to the player who is registered for in www.signuptoplay.com.  That player is open to bringing up to 2 additional players.  Often a hitter will bring a setter with her to set her in the lesson.  Or, two sisters of similar skill level both want to work together in the same lesson.  If two parents both want to go half-way in on a lesson, one parent can register for the lesson and the other parent can pay her back independently of Northern Lights.

Why did my daughter’s lesson disappear from her www.signuptoplay.com account?

All Northern Lights lessons must be paid for at the time of registration.  No exceptions.  Often we will send a friendly reminder that you have not paid for a lesson yet and give you a few hours to pay for it before removing a player’s name.  However, that is a courtesy only; we do reserve the right to remove any lesson registration that is unpaid.

If you have a credit to apply to a lesson, please email the office immediately after you have registered requesting the credit be applied so we do not delete your “unpaid” lesson.

Can I call the Northern Lights office to register for or pay for a lesson?  Can I give you my credit card over the phone?

No.  The entire process is online through www.signuptoplay.com.  If you call us, we will simply tell you to register using our registration system.

My daughter wants to work on serving and defense during the lesson.  How do we inform the coach?

Simply have your daughter discuss her goals for the lesson with the lesson coach at the beginning of the lesson and the coach will proceed to help meet those goals. Coaches have a repertoire of drills that they can pull from no matter what it is that your daughter wants to work on.

How do we know which coach to pick?  We are new.

All of our coaches can effectively coach all of the volleyball skills.  We encourage you to read their published bios.  Beyond that, if you plan on registering for lessons in the future, please do not hesitate to “try out” different coaches to see which ones you feel are the best match for your daughter.  Many of the players who come for lessons at Northern Lights like to pick one coach to work with and many others are open to just about any of our coaches so long as they get their reps in.