Changes to TASS, the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme

TASS is changing as it enters the next phase of its journey. Over the next three years, the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme plans to nearly triple the number of athletes who will benefit from its support.

The same world-leading support services that are delivered across the unique TASS network will now benefit more athletes at the 'performance foundation' stage. These services will be enhanced with a greater emphasis on personal development.

The number of athletes receiving TASS support will increase from around 450 to 1200 by the end of year three.

As a result, from the 2022/23 season, TASS’s new objectives are:  

• Athlete-centred services: delivery of world-leading age-and stage-appropriate sport science and medicine services at the 'performance foundation' stage, which is aligned and complementary to NGB pathways.
• Enhanced experience: to enable athletes to have a meaningful and impactful experience while progressing through the pathway. 
• Inclusive and responsive environments: to increase capacity in the delivery network and remove barriers to provide accessible talent development environments that enable athletes and practitioners from all backgrounds to thrive. 
• To deliver progression: to ensure that more English athletes and practitioners, from all backgrounds, are better prepared to transition to, and thrive within, high-performance sport and excel in the next stage of their lives.

These changes will impact how Volleyball England and our national team athletes access the programme, namely:  

• Athletes must be competing at a world level.
• Athletes no longer need to be in education to benefit.
• Beach athletes qualify if they are ranked within the top 100 in the world.
• Indoor volleyball athletes do not currently qualify for support.
• Sitting volleyball athletes must demonstrate world level participation.
• There are no financial benefits, only support services.

Based on these changes, to match the new requirements, Volleyball England has allocated our eight spaces to the eight athletes with the best beach volleyball world rankings.

We will work with TASS and our coaching teams to secure more places for next year, but selection will have to be made based on those playing at a world level.

For more information, please visit the TASS website or email talent@volleyballengland.org.