Home Page - Volleyball Development Camps

8 Simple Rules
8 Simple Rules - 12th February Eight Simple Rules, or 8SR, will help the recreational player get greater enjoyment from their game and improve their performance by concentrating on eight basic concepts that help the individual understand the game better. These “rules” focus on principles such as “Movement”, “Communication and Linking”, “Rhythm and Timing”, and “Anticipation”, and teach the athlete how to incorporate these into their game. The workshop is designed for people [...]
2022 Camps
2022 - Make it a year to remember Planning for our camps in 2022 is well underway with dates already provisionally set for the first few camps. Share the Passion Workshop: A Day of Parent and Child Volleyball 21 January, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. Eight Simple Rules 12 February, 10a.m. – 4 p.m. First Stepz/Pathways Weekend 19 and 20 March, noon – 3 p.m. In addition to these camps we are waiting [...]
Junior Grand Prix 2022
Junior Grand Prix 2022 Launching in January 2022 Volleyball England junior competitions have had a face lift. With the new tiered Grand Prix style series of events, quite a lot has changed since the competitions last ran. The new-look U15, U16 and U18 series have created a level of play that is ideal for new or inexperienced teams while also creating competitive playing opportunities for the country’s most talented junior athletes. The VBDC-Club [...]

Camps

Share the Passion Workshop: A Day of Parent and Child Volleyball

January 29 @ 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Parents: Have you ever wondered what skills your child has to master in order to play volleyball effectively? Are you aware of how coaches teach those skills to your child, and how your child can progress from beginner to intermediate player, and possibly on to an advanced level of competitive volleyball? Athletes: Would you like your parents to understand just how difficult it is to master the skills of volleyball, and how hard you train in order to become a competent athlete in the sport? [...]

8 Simple Rules

February 12 @ 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

8 Simple Rules is an innovative volleyball camp designed for intermediate level players competing at a local league level, it covers 8 key areas of the game in an enjoyable, practical and rewarding programme. The concepts will be presented in an easy to digest format covering techniques, theory and tactics of the game that participants can take back to their clubs and teams. 8SR, will help the recreational player get greater enjoyment from their game and improve their performance by concentrating on eight basic concepts that help the individual understand the game better. These “rules” focus on principles such as “Movement”, “Communication and Linking”, “Rhythm and Timing”, and “Anticipation”, and teach the athlete how to incorporate these into their game.

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Emerging Elite is for committed volleyball players aged 14 to 17. The week-long camp will concentrate on a team-based, game simulation curriculum.

Emerging Elite is led by one of our experienced coaches and takes place in West Surrey’s best volleyball facility and features a coach-to-player ratio of approximately 1:6; all coaches are either experienced at national team or national league level, or participate in US university volleyball or national league clubs. The camp is international and will include residential players from other countries, many of whom attend to take the English language tuition that is available as an option.

For the elite athlete, the camp concentrates on specific skills for each position, game preparation, and tactical awareness. It is for players who have several years’ experience in competitive play and who want to refine their skills and tactical awareness in order to play at club or university level.

The week long camp will test the athlete in a high intensity training environment under the watchful eyes of our coaches

Pathways is the VbDC program for 10-to 14-year-olds who have some limited experience of volleyball, either as a recreational game or their first years of competitive play.

The curriculum is designed for those who have decided they want to make volleyball one of their regular athletic activities and who are prepared to commit to long- term training.

Open Bookings

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About us

Deb Pickens – VbDC Finance Director

Deb has been a volleyball player all her life, although in her high school years in Lamoni, Iowa and Blue Springs, Missouri, basketball competed for her sports attention, too. When she was offered a place on the Graceland University volleyball team, that became her main sport. After two years there she transferred to the University of Missouri, and played on the pre-Title IX varsity squad – when the team travelled to away games by bus and made their own uniforms.

She graduated with a degree in education, and started her career as a coach in the rural Grain Valley, Missouri schools, taking the high school team to the state playoffs in her second year there. She was soon recruited by an international school in England, and in 1980 she and husband Bob left Missouri to start a new life abroad.

Deb spent her first two decades building up the school’s varsity program, as well as raising two sons who played volleyball at a high level – one of whom managed to pay for most of his university degree with a sports scholarship and has, himself become a leading club and school volleyball coach in St Louis, Missouri. In recent years she has set up a “seamless” volleyball program at her school that enables youngsters to enter the sport at age 8, and work their way through to the varsity level by progressing through a series of linked interscholastic and club activities. The school’s club permits students, faculty, members, parents and alumni to all play in local leagues and tournaments.

Deb’s main responsibilities at VbDC involve sales and logistics, coaching, and managing the VbDC finances. She is also leading the effort to introduce a sports scholarship search service which is currently being piloted, and will be offered to the public in 2014.

Deb Pickens, VbDC-Club

John Biddiscombe – VbDC Technical Director

Like many people in the UK for John the exposure to volleyball in school was limited to only a few PE lessons. Badminton and squash were the main sports that he played, but in 1986 the desire to take part in a team sport saw him sign up for an adult education course in volleyball.

Fortunately within weeks of the course finishing a new club was just starting up in Guildford and he quickly signed up as a member. The club grew quickly and John volunteered as a committee member serving in several roles eventually becoming club chair person.

Starting in 2000 Guildford hosted several events for Volleyball England such as European Championship matches and Cup Finals which John was instrumental in successfully managing. Continuing his work with Volleyball England he served as Marketing Director on their board for 2 years.

John is active in local volleyball with roles on the committee of both the Surrey and South East region associations. He has played for Guildford in the National League, is a qualified referee and coach, having coached Guildford womens team in the National League.

He was active at the London 2012 Olympics as part of the team providing statistics for the indoor tournament at Earls Court, the highlight being to “stat” the Womens final between Brazil and USA.

John’s main duties with VbDC are as a coach, with a special interest in technology having had a series of articles published in 3-Touch magazine and also helping with the logistics of running the camps and managing the VbDC website.

John Biddiscombe, Guildford International Volleyball Club

Bob Pickens – VbDC Marketing Director

Bob had only had a passing awareness of volleyball as he grew up in Mississippi, but while attending the University of Missouri a chance meeting in a car park introduced him to a player on the Mizzou varsity women’s team who agreed to a date, showed him the game and eventually became his wife. After graduation Bob and Deb played in local leagues in the Kansas City area, and in 1980 he took a leave of absence from his job as a newspaper reporter and followed his new wife to Britain when she was offered a job as a volleyball coach at an international school. Soon after he was asked to edit a newspaper, and he and Deb have lived in England ever since.

During that time he has helped form a club in Farnham, Surrey, where they live, raised two sons in a volleyball-minded household who went on to play for the England juniors and England national league teams, and became involved in local leagues. One of his first activities was to join the Farnborough Volleyball Club, a small group of players in a work-based club at the Defense Establishment Research Association, and as the club’s chairman created a plan to take the club into the community, tripling its membership and establishing it as the major volleyball club in north Hampshire. He also became qualified to referee national league matches and obtained his coaching certificate.

Bob works with the South East Volleyball Association’s regional youth development programme by coaching beginning boys’ teams, and has chaired the Surrey Volleyball Association for two years, concentrating on efforts to revitalise the SVA’s infrastructure, bring new area clubs into its competitive schedule, and introduce a plan for junior development in the county.

Bob’s main duties at VbDC involve working on external communications and marketing, and providing logistical support for the growing number of camps, and helping as an assistant coach.

Bob Pickens, Your Content Goes Here