Volleyball England is launching a Satellite Academy programme as part of their Excel programme. The aim of the programme will be the development of talent pathways at club, divisional and national levels with a particular emphasis on youth programmes.
The new programme is part of Volleyball England s commitment to ‘Increase the number of English Volleyball players engaging in high quality (daily and monthly) training environments and feeding into performance clubs and the Senior National development programmes (Indoor & Beach).’
To ensure we can continue to compete with our European neighbours and increase success at junior international level a significant step change is required in the way that our talented junior aged players are prepared. Craig Handford, Head of Excel and Development said, “For number of years the ‘powerhouse’ nations of European Volleyball like France and Italy, have put in place networks of full time training centre’s for junior talent development, where players are housed and educated centrally with professional coaching and support services. More recently, nations similar to ourselves in stature like Norway, Finland and Sweden have started to follow suit and as a result countries that we were once competitive with are now starting to move away in performance terms.”
You can down load more information about the scheme plus details and how to apply from the SWVA webs (www.swva.org.uk) members page.