I have two daugthers aged 15 and 17 who have been playing volleyball for 4 years in Spain. I'm looking for a week long (aprox), in July or August, volley summer camp where they can practice volley while speaking English.

Do you organise something like that? Or in case you don't, can you direct me somewhere to find it?

Thank you
Yours sincerely
George Bistuer AAPRLSL@teleline.es

We are planning a level 1 volleyball coach course in North Devon, dates are Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd February. I know it’s a long way to travel and we are hoping to fill it from North Devon but are short of a few people.

Please email me denise@beachvolleyballinc.com or call 01271 890676 if you would like to take part.

Harry Brokking the GB Men / Martinus team coach, has an online volleyball blog, where he also includes items about the GB team, training and matches etc. It's in Dutch at: www.blogmysport.com/blog.php?blog=15 For an approximate translation, copy and paste the above URL into the Google web page translator at: www.google.com/language_tools?hl=EN

Hey, The new beach season is fast approaching, new dates for the coming season have been published, check out the website. See you on the beach ......... Jody and Robin At the beach web site: http://web.mac.com/cushygooding/iWeb/gooding%20grotowski/at%20the%20beach.html

Jody's Blog: Sunday, 17 February 2008

Australia moves ever closure, we leave for Adelaide on the 7th March, the SWATCH FIVB World Tour begins on the 26th.

This season I will be partnering Robin Miedzybrodzki who has been playing with Morph Bowes. Robin, who was named the best blocker for last season, had a great win with Morph in the Weymouth Open. Hopefully his blocking prowess will serve us well!

It's a pitty that since our partnership was announced we have been unable to train properly together, because of my injuries.

DJ and Lucy will be playing in most of the FIVB rounds but we only be playing a few, we will be maily concentrating on NESTA European circuit.

The result was clearly shown in the faces of the GBR squad, as they were victorious over Denmark in the final of the 2008 Novotel Cup. If one could measure the size of the smile in setter’s Jo Morgan’s face, after the match, you can realize that that was the measurement of her first tournament win as a starting setter for GB. This was reemphasized by the ‘electricity’ and ‘determination’ in of each one of the players who were a part of this triumph. Team GBR avenged two five game losses to Denmark this past summer and showed that they are starting to learn about playing international volleyball.

The match was an amazing 2 hours and 13 minutes long with the second set lasting 31 minutes, player of the tournament for the GB Squad was right side, Rachel Laybourne and most improved player was setter, Joanne Morgan. The set scores were: 25-22; 27-29; 25-20; 21-25, and 15-9.

The team resumes their training with Intra-squad matches on Feb 22 and Feb 29 which will help to prepare for Israel’s visit in March and the European Qualifier against Albania in Sheffield on May 8th.

From www.britishperformancevolleyball.org

The Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) team won the Barbados Triangular Challenge Beach Volleyball with 7 wins and 1 defeat last month.

NICS travelled to Barbados to compete in the first Civil Service Friendship Through Sport Triangular Challenge. The cost of the trip was funded by the competitors themselves with help from the. NI Civil Service Sports Association. A team of 12 volleyballers went : Jim Doherty, Drew Mc Gookin, Keith Carr, David Francis, Frazer Graham, Bill Harrison, Elaine Cunningham, Jenny Stuart, Lorraine Heaney, Maureen Tipping, Julie Hill and Claire Dornan. Elaine and Jim were the Top pair in the Beach Volley which was the first time ever Ulster volleyballers played in such an event outside Europe

The Challenge was set up by the NI Civil Service Sports Club and the Barbados Ministry for Sport as a first step towards a World Civil Service Games and involved teams from Barbados, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in a variety of sports from Golf to Cricket. The Northern Ireland teams took top spot in Soccer and Tennis as well. A further invitation from the Minister of Sport for Barbados has been extended to the Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and the Australian Civil Service to return to the idyllic island to compete in the next Games scheduled in 18 months time. Times are hard in the NICS !! Patrick Murphy pady.murphy@ntlworld.com

This weeks web site of the week is the women's British Volleyball Federations site at: www.britishperformancevolleyball.org As well as the expected Team News, Galley and schedual of events etc, you will also find coaching note and drills from Head Coach Lorne Sawula, plus Idea of the Month and items from the "Up and Jumping" newsletter.

USA Volleyball announced it has launched an interactive video web component on its web site called “USA Volleyball Video Channel” and accessed at www.usavolleyball.org/video/default.aspx.

Essentially, the functionality allows users to upload volleyball-related video for USA Volleyball to review and post either directly “as-is” or in post-production format video segments similar to a television show or newscast.

The first project under the USA Volleyball Video Channel umbrella will be “Ask the CEO,” where the general public can upload their video questions to the site. USA Volleyball Chief Executive Officer Doug Beal will respond via a video-streamed format to selected questions on a monthly basis. The deadline for the first responses must be posted to the site by Friday, Feb. 15.

To utilize the system each user must create a free account. After the account has been created and the user is logged into the system, videos can be uploaded including questions for the “Ask the CEO” segment. Video questions should be less than 30 seconds in length. Participants are encouraged to be original, personal and introduce themselves by name and hometown. All submitted videos are subject to the USA Volleyball website terms of use.

Future endeavors with the USA Volleyball Video Channel will allow individuals to submit custom videos from their teams, coach and player clipboards where the public asks the questions, video-streamed interviews with key volleyball people around the world and integration with current online publications such junior newsletters and Rotations. Users can set up RSS feeds to provide alerts when new material is available on the channel.

“The USA Volleyball Video Channel is still in its infancy stage, but as we roll out more projects and categories, it will become a dynamic, interactive feature involving the whole scope of volleyball for everyone to use,” USA Volleyball Director of Communications and Technology said. “This new channel of our website has nearly unlimited potential to bridge the avenue from traditional media to new media formats. The project will continue to evolve and grow as we receive input and suggestions from the volleyball community.”

We have been sent a collection of 23 volleyball stamps from around the world, an excellent example of period art work and past volleyball events. More stamps in the next issue...