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.