Camps
Team-based performance training with open-ended drills simulating game situations. Designed for athletes committed to year round participation in volleyball through clubs that compete in county, regional, or national competition, or who intend to eventually try for a place on their national squads. Highly disciplined and physically demanding, this 5-day camp begins to prepare the athlete for true elite-level training.
Serious training for serious volleyball athletes who have already entered the elite level of the game. The training touches on the finer points of technical form, but the main emphasis is on teamwork, tactics, pre- and post-game preparation and care, stamina and mental concentration. This camp is for athletes aged 16 to 22 years old who compete in national league teams, for universities, for national squads, or who have been invited to train with their national squad.
An intense 5-day camp for players aged between 15 to 18 years old who who want to "hit the ground running" for the coming season and are serious about their pre-season preparation, whether for a national, regional or county league, or a school varsity-level team. The camp will ensure that all the fundamental skills are in place while refining techniques prior to the commencement of formal club training.
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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
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.
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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.
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.
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.
Volleyball England Junior Grand Prix
One of the unexpected side effects of the Covid pandemic has been a surge in interest for playing volleyball among youngsters, certainly fuelled in part by a certain Japanese cartoon series.
Credit must go to Volleyball England and in particular to their Competitions Commission for first of all recognising the need for a competitive outlet for both the new comers to the sport as well as catering for the existing players and secondly devising a structure that pretty much addressed the needs of both groups.
Over 300 junior teams have signed up for the Grand Prix series which is split into two tiers and played over 3 rounds in the Under 15, 16 and 18 girls and boys competitions. This structure should see teams playing at least a minimum of 9 matches, with Tier 2 events arranged to keep traveling distances down while also playing against a variety of different teams.
In Tier 1, after the first round of matches teams are split into Gold, Silver and Bronze pools, with movement between these pools also possible after the second round of matches depending on results.
We have been fortunate to have attended (and indeed hosted) several of these events and the feedback has been positive across the board
Photographs of VbDC camp athletes in action
One of the leading volleyball photographers in the country, Steve Smith, attended our week-long summer camps in August to shoot hundreds of photos of the athletes. As usual Steve captured some superb images of the athletes in action and maybe one of them is of your child that you would like to have for the family album.
Steve has posted these photos on his website, and Volleyball Development Camps is making a request: if the sport of volleyball has given something to your child, could you give something back to volleyball? Even though Steve offers the photos free to download, our request is that if you download one could you please make an on-line donation to the Volleyball England Foundation, the fundraising arm of Volleyball England, our sport’s national governing body.
Funds raised by the Volleyball England Foundation are used to assist new volleyball clubs, established clubs which are launching youth programs, or schools that are beginning to offer volleyball as one of their after-school activities. It is all a part of helping the sport of youth volleyball grow in this country and your donations will play a big part in supporting the effort.
Our suggestion is that a donation of £5 per photo is made to the Volleyball England Foundation.
First, go to Steve’s website: www.sandsphotos.co.uk
- In the menu on the left is a link marked Portfolio, and when you hover over that you will come to a dropdown menu which includes a link for Sports.
- Click on that and you will come to a page with a number of photo collections. Click the one marked Volleyball 2021.
- That will take you to a page where you will find the VbDC camp your child attended; click that and you will find the photos. If you want to download one, there is a download icon in the lower right corner.
Once you have downloaded your photo files, you then go to this hyperlink DONATE and follow the on-screen instructions.
Thank you for helping the Volleyball England Foundation raise funds needed to expand the sport in this country.
Who is eligible to attend VbDC activities?
There has been a lot of confusion about the covid 19 regulations concerning the age limits for attending indoor sports event since the summer, in part because Government guidelines have undergone several revisions since the pandemic began. We have occasionally been asked “to make an exception.” The answer to this request is always “no”. VbDC strictly follows the guidelines set by Government and our sports’ governing body, Volleyball England.
As of 2 December there has been a slight change and very welcome to the age rule regarding Under 18s as follows:
exemption to the rule of six … appl(ies) for U18s, disabled athletes and sport for educational purposes. Supervisors and coaches are allowed into junior sessions, but spectators are not. The definition of U18 includes young people who were 17 at the start of the academic year (1 September, 2020), even if they turn 18 during the remainder of that year.
Please help us to keep our training programmes and competitive events safe, and within the law, for all who take part by following this age guideline.
Back to Business with a Bang
It’s been 5 long months but we are on the verge of getting back to playing some volleyball.
Starting on Monday 17th August we will be running not one, not two but THREE camps all strictly adhering to Government, Volleyball England and venue guidelines.
Given the long break and the restrictions on numbers training together at one time it is no surprise that the camps are pretty much sold out.
There has been an awful lot of work going on behind the scenes to make sure that everything is ready for the “new normal”, Risk Assesments have been written, all the necessary screening paperwork has been completed, sanitisation arrangements have been made and off-court social distancing procedures have been implemented.
We are ready and cannot wait to welcome you back
CoronaVirus Update-3
This is the one we have been waiting for.
Volleyball England have had approval from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) for the resumption of most volleyball activity including indoor, under certain restrictions and guidelines.
This means that we are now able to push ahead, working with our venues and coaches in planning for a safe return to sport for our camps in the middle of August.
There is still much to be done, fortunately we started planning for a return many weeks ago looking at the different possible scenarios. There are one or two points that still need to be clarified which we will be working through in the coming days.
This “Green Light” is what we all have been waiting for, so we can now look forward to welcoming you back to one of our camps.