British Volleyball has endured a meteoric rise over the last two years as its gears up for the start of the World Championships in January.
It has become one of the fastest developing Great Britain performance programmes in the lead up to the London 2012 Olympics.
In April 2006, Great Britain was not even recognised by the sport’s international governing body, the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), and the country was well behind many others in what is the second most popular sport in the world today, behind football.
Two and a half years later it is a very different story and the FIVB can not seemingly get enough of GB volleyball.
A complex and multidisciplinary Olympic and Paralympic performance programme has been created from scratch, establishing teams in both the indoor and beach disciplines, while creating a side in the paralympic sport of sitting volleyball.
This has culminated in the FIVB making Great Britain the host nation to stage the first round of the indoor World Championships. It will be Great Britain’s first appearance in the competition with matches against some of the top countries in Europe at the EIS – Sheffield (EISS), January 2 – 4.
To reach this stage of development the British Volleyball Federation (BVF) has worked its way through a stringent list of requirements, such as:
Establish world class training bases, tick. The EIS - Sheffield has become home of British volleyball with the facility providing a base for the British indoor squads, while Bath houses the beach volleyball programme.
Create a sound infrastructure, tick. UK Sport has given its backing to British Volleyball and provided the money to recruit a dedicated performance programme management team, which now works closely with all home nation associations.
Appoint internationally renowned coaches, tick. Harry Brokking leads the men’s indoor team and Lorne Sawula the women’s. Matt Grinlaubs appointed to manage beach volleyball and Josef Banfi joined the sitting volleyball team.
Deliver an international competitive programme, tick. The indoor men have enjoyed success in the European Championships 2008 by beating Denmark and Sweden, accessed the Euro League gaining wins over Greece and Portugal and also secured their first victory over a nation from another continent, Egypt.
The international achievements of the men’s team have led to ten players gaining professional contracts in club volleyball around the world.
Switching sexes and the women’s indoor squad has enjoyed competitive experience across 30 international matches at home and away during 2008, including success in the Novotel Cup in January.
They too gained achievements in the European Championships, beating Albania at home, while also overcoming a team from another continent, Nigeria - a key level of development outlined by the FIVB.
For the beach discipline, Britain established competitive presence on the FIVB World Tour, secured qualification for the main draw in the FIVB World Tour events, while players Gregg Weaver and Steve Grotowski and Denise Johns and Shauna Mullin are making steady progress through the world rankings.
Meanwhile, the Paralympic Sitting team initiated into a multi-nation talent identification programme to recruit athletes.
Establish an event hosting programme, tick. British Volleyball has already staged the indoor European Championships at EISS and World and European beach events in Brighton and Blackpool, ahead of the World Championship matches in January 2009.
All the events have provided an opportunity for Great Britain to showcase their facilities to the world and now countries such as Egypt, Norway and Sweden have visited EISS for training camps.
Kenny Barton, Performance Programme Manager at British Volleyball Federation based in Sheffield, said: “In the space of 30 months a vast amount has been achieved to help firmly put British Volleyball on the international stage.
“Our ultimate objective is to ensure effective and successful participation in all Volleyball Olympic and Paralympic disciplines. We are now well on the way to achieving this.
“All the GB players have shown incredible commitment by relocating to participate in two separate centralised training programmes, in Sheffield and Bath. This has seen a highly creditable and constantly improving competitive results achieved at European and World levels
“It is therefore pleasing that both the world and European governing bodies have expressed their recognition of the progress made in such a short period.”
Tickets for the first round event in Sheffield are priced at £8 for adults and £4 for concessions. They are available in advance by visiting www.volleyballengland.org, calling 0114 223 5742 or from the EIS - Sheffield reception, Coleridge Road, Sheffield, S9 5DA.
For further information visit www.eis-sheffield.co.uk.
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