Sitting Programme
BPA defers Host Country slot decision for Women’s Sitting Volleyball
10th November 2011
The British Paralympic Association today announced that it has deferred the decision to until February 2012.… read more
Recent News:
| Title | Published On |
|---|---|
| GB Sitting Women at European Championships | 12th October 2011 |
| GB Sitting Men at European Championships | 11th October 2011 |
| Paralympic Tickets On Sale Friday! | 9th September 2011 |
| ECVD Continental Cup - GB 3-1 USA - Day 6 | 16th July 2011 |
Programme History
Sitting Volleyball is an adapted game for people with disabilities and is an excellent vehicle for players returning from injury during rehabilitation.
Sitting Volleyball has been a recognised Paralympic sport since 1980. Up to 1992 Great Britain regularly took part in competition and prior to the Barcelona Paralympic Games the Men's team was ranked in the top eight in the world, though did not attend the Games. As a consequence focus on sitting volleyball lessened and only gained momentum again with the announcement of London as the host city in 2012. The rebuilding process has continued since and in 2007 the appointments of Jozef Banfi as Head Coach and Peter Guernari as Sitting Volleyball Performance Development Manager were made.
Since April 2009, Volleyball England has taken over the management of the Great Britain Sitting Volleyball Programme. The programme has been shifted from the BVF to sit within Volleyball England's Playground to Podium Initiative funding within their 2009-13 Strategic plan.
These are encouraging times in Sitting Volleyball with a number of new appointments to help strengthen GB's chance of medals in the Paralympics 2012. Ian Legrand has been appointed as the Great Britain Men's Sitting Volleyball Head Coach. Ian has been involved with coaching standing Volleyball at all levels, with his most previous appointment being in charge of the England Men since 2001. Steve Jones is Great Britain Women's Sitting Volleyball Head Coach.
Dan Griffin has also been appointed as the Sitting Volleyball Development Manager, following the great work done in the role by Matt Rogers, to oversee all aspects of the development of the sport from youth through to Great Britain.
"Project Roehampton", based at Roehampton University ( London) Project Roehampton has two main objectives:
1) To provide a top quality training venue that is accessible to players on the World Class Programme.
2) To provide a coordinated approach to support services provision and delivery
Project Roehampton then operated and supported the Great Britain Men and the emergence of the first ever Great Britain Women’s Programme into the 2010 World Championships. After this, it was decided that another new initiative was needed to support those people who needed further training and support. So nine players were identified and relocated to Roehampton and began daily training with Head Coach Ashley Trodden, who is also Great Britain Men's Sitting Volleyball Assistant Coach.
Players that are currently resident in Project Roehampton are: Amy Brierly, Charlie Walker, James Roberts, Rob Richardson, Jess O’Brien, Jess Frezza, Jolita Urbutiene, Ivan Cosic, Justin Phillip and Netra Rana.
The players spend their days training 6:00am-08:30am each morning and then follow this up with some off court training and then one more session in either the afternoon or evening. To help the players, GBSVhas the use of a bungalow and a block of student flats on campus. There are extra beds provided for those who are not able to commit to relocating to Roehampton (called ‘hot beds’) that can be booked out so that different athletes can access different training sessions through the week around their work and family commitments.
