Identify key tournaments
In 2025, the Vietnamese women's volleyball team will return to the familiar arena of the AVC Challenge Cup. Currently, we are the defending champions of the tournament. Only by winning the AVC Challenge Cup will the representative of Asian women's volleyball receive a spot in the FIVB Challenge Cup.
Most recently, the Vietnamese women's volleyball team was officially awarded a place to participate in the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB).
Previously in July 2024, we were determined to win a place in the 2025 Women's U21 Volleyball World Cup. Thus, Vietnamese women's volleyball has two opportunities to participate in two world championships officially organized by FIVB (according to levels).
Coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet expressed that the opportunity to participate in the world championship of Vietnamese women's volleyball has never existed, now we are making history with this and each Vietnamese women's volleyball team will have to prepare most carefully.
Of course, the world championship is an opportunity for Vietnamese women's volleyball in general. Vietnamese women's volleyball players in particular have the opportunity to demonstrate their expertise. Everyone is excited. But clearly, our most important task is the 33rd SEA Games.
Next year, the 33rd SEA Games will be held in Thailand (expected in December 2025), and Vietnamese women's volleyball will continue to hope for the best results. In history, the Vietnamese women's volleyball team has never won against the Thai women's team on Thai soil.
How to avoid overload?
Player Nguyen Thi Bich Tuyen shared after the final match of the VTV Cup 2024 International Women's Volleyball Tournament: "It is regrettable that my teammates and I did not win this time. However, we will still be determined to try harder to return in the next tournaments with the highest goal."
The coaching staff of the Vietnamese women's volleyball team has been using about 14 or 15 familiar players in international tournaments since 2023. Head coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet sees that the Vietnamese women's volleyball team is overloaded, without much rest to recharge or maintain peak physical condition.
In 2024, after nearly five years, Vietnamese women's volleyball will focus on the Vietnamese women's volleyball team and the Vietnamese U20 youth women's volleyball team at the same time. We focus on specific performance tasks. Without tournaments and international competition tasks, volleyball will definitely not focus on the national team.
Mr. Kiet was assigned by the Vietnam Volleyball Federation to build a professional training program for both teams (including the senior team and the youth team). Therefore, everyone clearly understands that even if the U20 Vietnam women's volleyball team changes the coaching staff or the head coach position, they will still implement the professional tactics built and responsible by head coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet.
In 2023, the Department of Physical Training and Sports and the Vietnam Volleyball Federation have focused on the Vietnam women's volleyball team 1 and 2. In essence, the coaching staff wants to have enough players to practice and change, creating competition within the national team to choose worthy players to participate in tournaments.
In his intention, head coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet said that the coaching staff always wants to call up 25 to 30 players to concentrate. Only then can the expertise be guaranteed to allow the players to intermingle and not be overloaded.
A clear demonstration of the need to gather a large number of players is that in 2024, the Vietnamese women's volleyball team participated in international tournaments including AVC Challenge Cup 2024, FIVB Challenge Cup 2024, SEA V.League 2024, Future Stars 2024, VTV Cup 2024, but the regular squad had 14 players without any changes.
In 2025, the Department of Sports and Physical Training and the Vietnam Volleyball Federation will refocus on two Vietnam women's volleyball teams, the Vietnam U20 youth women's volleyball team. Players who have proven their skills will participate in the 2025 Women's Volleyball World Championship and the 2025 Women's U21 Volleyball World Championship.
