Three new programmes to mark VbDC's 21st anniversary

In addition to its three week-long Emerging Elite and Elite Camps, and the pre-season Boot Camp for local athletes a training camp designed specifically for British university volleyball athletes will be introduced. 

There will also be a course for Under-12 beginners and a trial programme to create a volleyball discipline for youngsters with neurodivergence issues such as cerebral palsy, mobility issues or learning disabilities. 

One of the summertime Emerging Elite performance camps has already taken place at the end of June, and the second occurs at the end of July. 

It is immediately followed by the annual Elite Camp the first full week of August and the Boot Camp in mid-August. 

University Performance Camp

The new University Performance Camp is scheduled to take place from 1st to 4th September at the Northumbria University Sports Central Gym. 

It has been created in response to the growing number of British university volleyball athletes attending the other summer training programmes, many of whom asked VbDC to start a pre-season activity nearer to the start of the university year so they could prepare for team trials and the forthcoming season’s training regime. 

The initial VbDC university camp is being offered at a low tuition that will provide generous discounts for multiple registrations by athletes who are current members of a university team. 

The number of participants is being limited in this first year despite some athletes indicating that full squads from their school would like to attend. 

Limiting the number of athletes enables coaches to provide one-on-one work with the athletes, a hallmark of the VbDC coaching philosophy, which aims for a 1:6 coach-to-athlete ratio. 

Registration can be completed at the VbDC website, www.vbdc.co.uk. 

New Kids on the Court

The New Kids on the Court course is for eight to 12-year-old beginners, has been two years in the making and has included consultation with young-athlete coaches from Brazil, The Netherlands, USA, Belgium and Germany. 

New Kids launched at the Three Rivers Academy in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey in July and will be offered Saturday mornings on a rolling basis until the end of this year. 

Coaches interested in offering this programme to young athletes at other locations in London and the Home Counties are invited to contact VbDC at vbdc.volley@gmail.com. 

F6it trial programme

The third new offering is a course being created with the F6it (pronounced “fit”) charity of Guildford, Surrey, which organises inclusive sports activities for young people with mobility problems and other disabilities. 

F6it already conducts frame football for youngsters with cerebral palsy, seated boccia and wheelchair sports, and in the spring approached VbDC to explore ways to add a programme of modified volleyball to its repertoire. 

The project has received support from Sport England and The National Lottery. 

VbDC, which has organised “air volleyball” sessions for OAPs, made contact with Richard Osborne of GB Sitting Volleyball to discuss the idea, and an evaluation of the proposed venue’s suitability was made. 

The current challenge is to determine how the game can be adapted for F6it’s athletes, many of whom are wheelchair users and cannot easily move if sitting directly on the playing surface. 

The organisers plan to launch the project in early autumn and will use the coming weeks to promote the programme and research ways to adapt volleyball to the athletes’ mobility requirements. 

They would like to hear from anyone who may have observed a wheelchair adaptation of volleyball being played.