Indoor Programme

Men

After the announcement by UK Sport of funding for all Olympic sports in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics, the Great Britain Men’s programme was re-established in June 2006. After three training camps the first internationals were played in August against Australia. In April 2007 the former Dutch National Team Coach, Arie “Harry” Brokking, was unveiled as the Head Coach.

11th June 2007 was significant as the start of a full-time training programme at the EIS-Sheffield. Shortly afterwards the squad embarked on its international programme with matches in Egypt, Tunisia and Poland. The latter was remarkable for taking a set from their Polish hosts. At the end of September the squad relocated to Amstelveen in Holland where they played a season in the Dutch Pro A League as Club Martinus.

The 2008 International season began with matches in the European Championships – victory at home, and a close defeat away to Denmark ensured qualification to the second round in which they beat Sweden on one occasion but lost both times to Belgium and Greece.
The team also entered the European League and were drawn against the Netherlands, Greece, Slovakia and Portugal. Victories were recorded against Greece and Portugal at home in Sheffield.

January 2009 saw Great Britain enter the World Championships for the first time, narrowly losing out at home to Israel and Belarus in the first round. The focus of the 2009 summer International season was the European League, and the squad warmed up with matches in Denmark, and at home against the visiting Australians. In the European League the men scored their first away victories in Croatia. The summer finished with a friendly series in Albania.

As per the previous year, the winter club season 2009-10 saw a number of the top athletes playing in the European Professional Leagues, with a full-time development squad based in Sheffield, increasing the talent pool available to select from.

Women

The Women’s programme was also re-established in June 2006 and like the men they held camps over the summer period taking time to evaluate the potential. To assess progress the team played successfully against Scandinavian opposition. In late April 2007, the former Canadian, Swiss and Australian National Team Coach, Dr. Lorne Sawula, was appointed as the Head Coach.

After a series of camps in Sheffield, disrupted by the severe flooding, the team played Switzerland in their first full International. The main focus of the summer of 2007 was a visit to Russia and Kazakhstan, training at the Luch Sports Club in Moscow and finishing 3rd in the Kazakhstan President’s Cup.

At the same time as the Men were going to the Netherlands the Women’s squad relocated to Sheffield to start a centre-based training programme. In an intensive winter training season the squad won the Novotel Cup in Luxembourg in January, defeating Denmark in the process.

The 2008 International season began with matches in the European Championships against Albania which resulted in victory at home, but a defeat away, thus being eliminated on sets difference. The programme continued with training and friendly matches at home and away, and a return to Russia and Kazakhstan.

In the Winter season 2008-09, the Women trained daily at their centre-base in Sheffield. November saw them travel to Japan, hosted by the Japanese National University team for a 2 week camp.

Like the Men, January 2009 saw Great Britain enter the World Championships for the first time. First up was Portugal, who took the match in the fifth set, but the Women scored Great Britain's first ever victory in the World Championships a day later with victory over Montenegro. In their final game they lost to Israel, who took the ticket to the second round.

After the resignation of Dr. Sawula in March 2009, Audrey Cooper moved from the Assistant Coach position to Head Coach. The GB Women were part of the inaugral CEV Women's European League and played matches at home and away against Turkey, France and Romania. For most of the squad this was followed by the World University Games in Belgrade, where they faced both finalists (Serbia and Italy) as well as Brazil in their pool. They visited Kazakhstan for the 3rd consecutive year to participate in the President's Cup and came away with the Bronze medal. To finish the summer they visited Japan on a 10-day tour playing matches against a number of Premier League teams.

The 2009-10 winter club season saw seven athletes based overseas, whilst the remainder of the athletes continued to train in the daily programme in Sheffield.