News

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

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.

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.

The Under 15 girls narrowly missed out on qualifying for the semi finals of the Volleyball England Under 15 National Championships. The team have visibly improved through each match, rapidly gaining in confidence as they progressed.

U15 Tournament Results
1st Boswells
2nd Newcastle Staffs
3rd VbDC
4th Ashcombe Dorking

We are all looking forward to an exciting 2020 with some great new projects and events which are in the development pipeline.

For now though booking for our first set of camps is now open (more will follow shortly) offering some great Early Bird discounts.

It’s not about winning at volleyball… it’s about enjoying the game

You don’t have to be an elite athlete to enjoy volleyball, but you will get more pleasure from it at any level if you follow

EIGHT SIMPLE RULES

By popular demand, Volleyball Development Camps is offering a two-day workshop for adult recreational volleyball players who want to start the coming season with improved confidence in their skills, and a better understanding of the teamwork required to play a satisfying game. We call it Eight Simple Rules, or 8SR.

The new 8SR workshop takes place at the ACS Cobham International School Sports Arena on Saturday 21 September and Sunday, 22 September. The workshop begins at 10 am and concludes at 4 pm both days. Deadline for registration is 20 September.

Have you recently started playing volleyball? If so, ask yourself these three questions:

• Would you like to step your game up to the a higher level?
• Is being more satisfied with your on-court performance a personal goal?
• Would a better grasp of the fundamental tactics for an effective game help you improve?

8SR is not a team developmental camp, nor is it coaching individual ball-handling skills, although we’ll provide advice on those if you want it. 8SR is a 10-hour session of informal instruction geared toward adults. It follows eight points identified by VbDC Director of Curriculum John Biddiscombe which, if followed, can quickly help a recreational player find a greater degree of personal satisfaction from their game.

BOOK YOUR PLACE NOW

Time for a news update as there are so many exciting things happening for our former campers, mentors and coaches.

• Ben Lucas won his first England senior cap against Scotland at the beginning of June, successfully making the often difficult step up to the senior squad.
• Alice Brand and Carla Hulme paired up as one of the two England teams competing in the MEVZA (Middle European Volleyball Zonal Association) U20 Beach Volleyball Youth Cup along with another camper, Leah Blight in the other team for the competition in Slovenia.
• Coach Will McDonald had a busy weekend of coaching with Richmond at the National Finals in Kettering where they were represented in every age group and along with several campers, winning 2 out of the 3 girls finals.
• Another of our coaches, Rachel Hynes, managed the difficult role of Player/Coach to steer Dartford ladies to the South East Region championship.
• Hannah Carey, a great friend of VbDC who has now settled the USA, battled back from an injury to compete at the USA Volleyball Nationals Women’s A division in Columbus Ohio and come a very credible 31st place, considering there were 482 teams.
• One face that we sadly probably won’t be seeing this summer, but who’s voice we hopefully will be hearing a lot of is Clayton Lucas as he is busy providing, seemingly non-stop, english language commentary for the FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL).
• Finally Ailsa McDonald who started as a camper, progressed to become a mentor and then a coach, currently working towards her level 2 qualification and culminating her time at the University of East London (UEL) was recently awarded the Service to Sports Award, no doubt taking into consideration the work she does with GB Sitting volleyball. Incidentally Ailsa’s multi talents also stretch to filming and producing the videos on this site.