A recent tournament of Europe-located US Department of Defence high school teams held at RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk brought several VbDC camp alumni back to England. Coach Brian Swenty, who has led two summer camps, brought his girls varsity squad from the US Army base at Vilseck, in southern Germany.

Swenty’s team, listing several freshmen starters from a school of just over 400 students, held their own against schools more than twice that size, including a tight-scoring three-set loss to the tourney’s dominant team from Kaiserslautern Germany, which had two more VbDC camp veterans on its roster: Bella and Marlee are ow in their freshman year, the athletes – who have attended two summer camps each – are already sharing starting setter duties for their varsity team.

The K-Town–Vilseck game was described as Kaiserslautern’s toughest match of the two-day event. Swenty and other coaches expressed an interest in partnering with VbDC to form an all-star travel team for a summer youth tournament in Europe in 2025.

Volleyball is one of the fastest growing team sports in England, but there are few opportunities for athletes under the age of 12 to receive training from qualified coaches. Volleyball Development Camps aim to do something about it this autumn.

A new programme will address that gap in order to introduce youngsters to the game and prepare them for participation in new youth leagues being created across the country. Volleyball’s value as a high energy sport is just beginning to be appreciated in the UK for it’s demands on physical development in movement and coordination, and it’s requirement for teamwork and communication.

The programme consists of short periods of training in basic ball-handling skills, followed by structured small-sided games.  The days’ activities last one and half to two hours and will start in early November running through to December.

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.

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.