How have Bristol Spikers Volleyball Club been working towards getting back on court?

1. What was your biggest challenge to getting back on court?
 Sports Hall Bookings. We used to use a sports hall run by SLM (Everyone Active). The Sports centre (St Pauls) is now open but the sports hall is now unavailable to us. The reason is that SLM closed two sports centres (Kingsdown & Easton) that are within a two miles of St Pauls. The gyms from those two sports centres have now been moved into the sports hall at St Pauls. We have now moved to another venue.    

2.      What new precautions have you put in place following VE guidance?

 We have followed the advice exactly as provided by Volleyball England.

3.      Have most of you club members returned?

Every single member has returned except one & this is for medical reasons.

4.      Have you had any new members start?

Yes. Our numbers post lockdown have very nearly trebled. It has been quite extraordinary! Huge demand for junior grass roots volleyball! At all ages.

5.      Can we support you to promote you activities – provide dates, times and location?

We are running sessions at U10, U13, U16 and U18. We don’t advertise our sessions locations for Covid-19 reasons. We just don’t want people to just turn up to a session. We insist everyone completes a Contact / Emergency Contact sheet & return for our records. We then provide details of the session & they have to pre-register for the session.

6.      What can the foundation do to support you getting back on your feet?

We urgently need funding for upskilling coaching staff. Courses too! We have gone from one junior mixed age session to six split age sessions per week. We need help making this growth permanent and sustainable.

Thank you Bristol Spikers Tim Clifford