THE Emerging Elite Camp is for athletes who have made the commitment to year-round intense training and competition. The athlete may have played competitive volleyball sporadically or on a seasonal basis, but now considers volleyball their pre-eminent recreational activity.
For the elite athlete, the camp concentrates on specific skills for each position, game preparation, tactical awareness and mental focus. It is for players who have a minimum of four years’ experience in organized competitive play and who want to refine their skills and tactical awareness for effective participation at the highest levels of volleyball.
First Stepz An introductory course for beginners which runs over two consecutive days, for two hours each day. For youngsters entirely new to the game or those who have had only limited exposure to it. Pathways The second level of training for young athletes who have already been introduced to volleyball basics provided in the First Stepz curriculum and have shown an ability to move on to more complex training requiring greater concentration and stamina.
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.
News
A New Way
A new way to learn about Volleyball Development Camps programmes has been introduced.
Called Open Court, it is an invitation to attend a regularly scheduled video conference at which VbDC representatives can answer questions about the camps, seminars and workshops, where people thinking about attending can meet former campers, and where ideas for new programmes or additions to current ones can be shared.
Open Courts will be scheduled for different days of the week and at differing times, so people from time zones around the globe can participate. The dates of forthcoming Open Courts will be announced on the VbDC website. Click HERE for an invitation to an Open Court session; or you can also email us at vbdc.volley@gmail.com
The first series will run until mid-summer 2024. After that they will take place with lower frequency until the start of the winter 2024-25 when they will again start a fortnightly or weekly schedule.
Summer 2024 Residential Camps
How does a summer volleyball camp sound where you train with other volleyball players from around the world, receive five days of top quality coaching and stay in one of England’s oldest universities.
Oh, and how about staying for a few extra days to be part of our innovative and immersive English Language programme.
Don’t for a moment think that this is a typical Summer Language School with days spent in the class room – oh no !! Students will be out and about putting their language skills into practice in a variety of locations and situations. For example if the group is heading into London to visit a museum, the tutor will expect the students to look up the opening times and plan the train and underground journey as well as navigating their way there.
On the way to and from London (just over 40 minutes on the train) the group may pick up a newspaper and with prompts from the tutors discuss one of the stories.
Over the weekend our language campers will be joined by our week long residential campers at Royal Holloway university where they will enjoy dinner getting to know each other ahead of a week of hard training. Various evening activities are organised for both groups which could include a cinema trip, an evening bowling or scrimmage matches against local clubs.
Residential options are currently available for the Emerging Elite and Elite Camps
Of course we always welcome day campers who will travel to the venue each day for training.
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
