Hi all,
It’s been a little while since the last newsletter, time to catch up.
Dave Reece
SW Vets Results 2014
Wiltshire Mavericks came out top in this years SW Vets handicap tournament, beating last years winners Yeovil in the event final.
Third place went to Kernow with City of Bristol in fourth, the remaining places went to Old Speckled Hens, Old Peculiars from Torexe, PMVC and the Exeter Dream Team respectively.
Junior Grand Prix – Taunton
Another reminder that the next Junior Volleyball Grand Prix of the season takes place on Saturday 15th November 2014 at Wellspings Leisure Centre in Taunton. It starts at 1 pm. and expected to finish around 5 p.m. You can enter using the link https://www.swva.org.uk/junior-grand-prix-entry-form and the cost of entering is £15 per team.
Teams are generally made up with three players, but two can play together or you can have a team of four where players rotate in. It is also allowed to include one younger boy in a girls team or one girl up to one year older in a boys team. The weight of balls should be appropriate to the age group playing and the team with the youngest player will always select the weight of the lightweight balls if there is a dispute.
I would like to make the closing date for entries the 11th November at 6 p.m. All players must be registered to take part in the Junior Grand Prix. Player registration can be done by clubs by logging into the SWVA web site with your club login details (available from your club sec or coach) and fill in the Player Registration Form (Name & email adress required). Print off your Team Sheets and hand them into the event organiser. Direct registration to the SW Junior club is only for players who turn up from non VE clubs.
I look forward to you attending the next event and hope that everyone enjoys it.
David Walrond, dc.walrond@ntlworld.com.
New Net Rule on it’s way
Many of you may have seen or heard that the latest FIVB Congress have made a few changes to the match rules. Most of these are for senior international events but the net rule (11.3) may well be brought into our game. The FIVB will start to use the rules in the new year, member associations will be asked to do the same, any changes to our match rules will first have to be approved by VE & the SWVA, hence at the moment there is no change to our match rules (also see email from Steve Evans below).
Dave Reece
All, I have had many questions about the introduction of the new rules passed at the world Congress at the weekend. New rules are rarely introduced midway through a season.
Discussions are currently taking place between Competition, Coaches and Referee Commission Presidents on this issue. Until instructed otherwise please continue with our Current rules.
Steve Evans
President
Refere Commision
To read more about the rules changes, see: new-rules
New SW Girls Training Nets
The SW IRC U14 Girls squad took deliver of their new training nets this weekend. Following the change of venue from Burnham on Sea to Exeter this season, we have been without a long training net. The venue has seating and fire doors located where you would normally fix wall fixings to support a training net.
We have therefore gone for three 6m Decathlon Kipsta BV300 nets which we attach to badminton posts and interconnected with some light weight bungee cored (just to add a bit of extra support). They works well, look appropriate, fully adjustable and will support antenna’s (although not shown in the above photo).
FYI: Kipsta BV300 Nets system £39.99 http://www.decathlon.co.uk/bv300-set-id_8129156.html
National U15 Championships
Entries for this year’s U15 National Championships are now open. The entry form this year is web based, so please click on the link below to view the specific competition information and begin the entry process (the entry form link is on the left of each page):
https://volleyballengland.org/competitions/junior_competitions/national_u15_championships
Payment will still need to be sent via cheque or bank transfer as per previous years, however we hope to be able to finish the transition to a complete online entry system next year. Feel free to distribute this further to any parties you think may be interested in entering.
Please come back to me if you have any further queries.
Regards, Will Westwood, Competitions Officer, Volleyball England
Go Spike Beach Activation Programme
Volleyball England is delighted to announce a significant grant from the FIVB/CEV to help support recreational beach volleyball for the next three years.
Volleyball England applied to the FIVB Development Fund for financial support to develop a Go Spike Beach Activation Programme. The FIVB & CEV have now confirmed that the application has been successful. Volleyball England will receive US$84,000 (£52,500) over the next three years to fund a Go Spike Beach Activation Programme starting in May 2015 and fully funded until August 2017.
The key objectives of the programme are to:
- Create regular opportunities for individuals to play recreational beach volleyball during the summers of 2015 – 2017
- To work closely with the permanent beach court network to offer the tools and funding to upskill workforce in return for delivering a minimum of 6 hours per week of activity
- The 6 hours of activity will ideally take the following format: 3 hours of coached activity per week for local schools, under the Let’s Play Volleyball brand, and 3 hours of Activator lead recreational activity for the 16+ age group, via Go Spike
- The goal over the 3 years is to have offered 7,680 school children and 3,072 16+ year olds the opportunity to experience beach volleyball on a regular basis and encourage them to become long-term beach volleyball players
- The programme is projected to support at least 12 permanent beach sites, offering 4,032 hours of volleyball during the next 3 years
The specific programme plan is being developed and will include consultation with permanent beach court operators and key people in the beach volleyball community.
In the meantime if you any questions please contact Samantha Harding, Adult Participation Manager on s.harding@volleyballengland.org or 01509 227742
Volleyball Tracking System offers new insight for fans
Fans can relive the excitement of the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship with a different insight thanks to the innovative new Volleyball Tracking System.
Continuing its efforts to technologically develop the sport of volleyball, the FIVB has invested in the VTS which provides state-of-the-art real-time statistics and live data from matches. Supporters can now access this information for the two semifinals and thrilling final between USA and China from Italy 2014.
The tool provides statistics on movement, the speed of players and the ball as well as the strike angle from spikes. All this information was available throughout the two semifinals as well as the bronze and gold medal match. Fans can relive the match through the Volleyball Tracking System point by point on the Italy 2014 website.
Developed by the start-up PlayfulVision, the tool has already been tested at the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship 2014 in Zurich as well as at the Montreux Volley Masters.
More details at: volleyball-tracking-system-offers-new-insight-for-fans
Oxford gets a Beach!
Oxford Volleyball Club announced today that they have gained £57,890 of National Lottery funding from Sport England’s Inspired Facilities fund to build Oxford’s first two beach volleyball courts. The courts will be ready for action by summer 2015.
The courts will provide a much-needed training facility for the nationally ranked players in the Oxford area (three ladies in the top 30 and one man in the top 6 UK beach volleyball players, and a total of 15 players in the top 200), contributing to the London 2012 Olympic legacy for beach volleyball and raising standards in the sport in the UK. In addition, the courts, which will be built to Volleyball England specifications, will be freely accessible to the general public, making beach volleyball available to the Oxford community. We anticipate being able to provide coaching and structured play for those interested in developing their skills further. In addition, we are in discussion with other local sports clubs regarding how best to maximise the benefit of these new sand-based facilities across a range of sports.
Club Chairman, Jonathan Williams said, “We are delighted to have secured this investment, which means we can now bring beach volleyball to Oxford. This project, which will take a small area of Council-owned land and turn it into a beach volleyball facility, promises to make beach volleyball accessible to the Oxfordshire community. We hope to attract new players to this exciting sport, fulfilling the potential of the London 2012 Olympic legacy”.
Calendar of Junior Events 2014 – 15
These are the provisional dates for SW Junior Competitions this season:
Please enter online at https://www.swva.org.uk/junior-grand-prix/junior-registration
The Grand Prix will include all age groups U12 to U15. It will cost £15 per team. The events confirmed are:-
Grand Prix Bookings
Saturday 6th December 2014 12 – 4 p.m. – Hutton Moor
Saturday 24th or Sunday 25th January 2015 1 – 5 p.m. Hutton Moor
U15 SW Regional Qualifiers
Saturday 31st January 2015
These are the dates put aside for the regional qualifiers (SW) for the regional rounds (S) of the U15 national cups. It has been decided to follow the VE directives this year and let individual clubs ‘bid’ to hold the events. If you are interested in doing this, please let me know and I will make sure you get the relevant information when it becomes available.
South- West Mini-Championships
Saturday 14th March 2015 1 – 4p.m. Wellsprings Taunton
Please keep an eye on the competitions section of the SW website for information on the various events and ways to register for them.
( https://www.swva.org.uk/calendar )
I look forward to you attending the next event and hope that everyone enjoys it.
David Walrond, dc.walrond@ntlworld.com.
FIVB Web TV – Women’s World Championship Final
FIVB Womens World Championships Final- USA vs China:
http://www.laola1.tv/en-int/video/final-china-usa/241759.html
New Loughborough School
Loughborough College is embarking on a new project- setting up a Sport Studio School offering quality provision for 14 – 19 year old students. The proposed opening for the new school is September 2016, however the website is now live, enabling prospective students to register their interest.
The school will be aimed at two groups of students:
1. Students who complete in a team/individual sport and are looking to take this to the next level. In the recent Commonwealth Games, the college, represented by their past and present students, won a total of 31 medals- if the college were a country, it would have been 10th in the medal table.
2. Students who aspire towards a career in sport, for example, teaching, coaching, or in the sport/fitness/leisure industry.
As both a local project for us, and as a sports initiative for our talented athletes, we at Volleyball England are fully endorsing this new school, and would like to make our club members aware of this- if you have young people in your community or team who you think may be interested in the new school, please do visit the following website:http://www.loucoll.ac.uk/sport-studio-school where, as mentioned, registrations of interest are now open.
Many thanks,
Hannah Winsbury
Membership Administrator
T: 01509 227723
h.winsbury@volleyballengland.org
