Competitions play an important role in the development of young players and Volleyball England provides a wide range of competitive opportunities for young people. A number of Volleyball Festivals take place throughout the summer across the country, each of which follow the guidelines of the Let's Play Volleyball programme, playing small sided games for young players under the National Competitions Framework. The Let’s Play Volleyball Festivals culminate with the annual festival held at Pontins in Southport which attracts teams of young players from across England.
The Volleyball framework contains “inclusion” boxes which indicate ways that young people with a disability can learn to play Volleyball at a pace that suits their developmental needs, but along the same player pathway as all young people. Therefore young people with learning difficulties, physical disability, and those who are visually impaired or deaf can play alongside all young people when appropriate according to their ability, or enjoy learning to play Volleyball within their own peer group. The differentiation for these young disabled people is based upon the STEP principle and built into the teaching/ learning resources at each stage (e.g. Volley Sport cards that form the first stage of the “Let’s Play Volleyball” programme).
Please note the inclusion of a framework for the Paralympic form of Volleyball, Sitting Volleyball. This framework will be more suited to those young people with mobility difficulties, but is a highly relevant learning tool for any young person developing Volleyball skills and understanding, reinforced again by its’ inclusion in the teaching/ learning resources of the “Let’s Play Volleyball” programme. Although there is no talent pathway for wheelchair users as the sport of Sitting Volleyball is based on the floor, young people using wheelchairs can play Sitting Volleyball in the context of this framework alongside players seated on the ground.
The National Championships for girls and boys at under 15, under 16 and under 18 level will be joined in the 2007-08 season by an under 14 National event. Each of these events has qualifying rounds taking place throughout the season before the finals weekend where our young players get to take to the full show court at the National Cup Finals (Under 16 and Under 18 only) on the same billing as the best senior teams.
You should be able to find all of the information that you need to know about Volleyball Competitions in this area of the website, but if you need to know more please call the Volleyball England National Office: 01509 631699.
