England Talent Pathway

Volleyball England has a clear ambition to have a Talent System & Pathway that provides opportunities and supports players to realise and reach their potential. We have spent a significant amount of time assessing our current programmes, delivery, outputs and in addition, have undertaken a survey which has highlighted strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.  

In summary, it’s quite clear that their needs to be fundamental reshaping of pathways, programmes, and workforce across all 3-formats of the sport to ensure that we have an optimised position in relation to: 

·         A clear view of what talent is, what it looks like at all ages and stages and how we support clubs to nurture talented players and coaches. 

·         Having domestic competitive pathways that support talent-based outcomes and identification. 

·         Clear and consistent talent behaviours that contribute to an easily definable identity for English players and coaches.  

·         A top-down, fully integrated and aligned coaching support network. 

·         Talent pathways and programmes that are progressive and placing our players and teams in a position to qualify, compete, and win on the international stage. 

In line with the above, we have recently recruited a new Strategic Manager for Talent who will be tasked with taking the insight and learning from the survey and devising a 5-yr plan in line with the ambitions outlined in our Game Plan strategy. 

To allow us the time we need to review and rebuild, we will therefore take a short pause in activity after the Junior NEVZA tournaments in October 2023. It is our hope that we will be in a position before the end of 2023 to announce our new plans, workforce (Coach, Sport Science, Team Manager etc) recruitment processes and player trial opportunities.