How is your volleyball club keeping in touch during the lockdown?

Keeping in touch during the lockdown.

As our volleyball season ended abruptly and training and playing stopped, the focus for most clubs was how to use this time to benefit their club.

For most clubs keeping in touch through WhatsApp and Zoom became the norm. Other clubs became a little more inventive, here are some of the things that your club might take this time to do.

Manchester Marvels produced a volleyball-specific exercise programme to do at home. The gave out balls so members could practice at home. They conducted a club survey to get feedback and advice from all club members, to assist the committee to make improvements to ensure the club is stronger and ensuring the club provides what our members want.

SideOut beach volleyball club are keeping in touch in a variety of different ways. For example, we are helping everyone keep fit at home through our SideOut Fitness online sessions, run twice a week on their Facebook page. They recently launched the new “InSideOut” chat series, where our viewers have the opportunity to get to know athletes, coaches and other personalities from the global beach volleyball community.

Boston Kings of Court have created a group chat where we share thoughts and practice ideas, the coach sends out videos and they keep everyone update on the latest government guidance.

Skyball have been keeping their social media active, they have run several mobility sessions to try to keep people active throughout this difficult time.

Malory Eagles VC are keeping in touch through their WhatsApp groups and delivering Zoom Zumba classes, others are sharing the best rehab and training videos, humour and banter is abundant in the many TikTok challenges and memes.

Perhaps the most inventive has been Dartford VC. Apart from the usual social media and Zoom catchups, Katie Marriott organised a weekly "Taskmaster" challenge, including build tallest tower, camouflage yourself and create a volleyball scene.

 The team of coaches at Darkstar meet (virtually) on a bi-weekly basis and have team WhatsApp groups to keep in touch with players/parents. They have established two fitness sessions every week via Zoom, which are really well attended, the session taken by Olympic GB captain Lynne Beattie and followed by a Q&A was well received. We’ve also held quizzes and set challenges. Keeping a social media presence is vital and we’ve shared the load including passing the reins over to our juniors, they tend to be good at it!

Moss Side have given members a chance to stay in touch doing a weekly video calls to keep track of everyone during the lockdown, and also a weekly 30 minute workout we named “NO HIT? LET’S HIIT!” (HIIT: High Intensity Intervals Training). They also have other lockdown projects, which are slowly developing: making a funny video together, have some STRAVA challenges.

Like most other clubs Invicta have been trying to keep active on social media and have asked members to complete a survey and they got back 44 responses, we used these to produce a development plan for the future. We have also award Player of the Year Awards to recognise players who have contributed positively on and off the court to our club. This year these awards were won by Sara Tomkin and Dan Robbins and we awarded a Most Improved Player Award to Megan Hardy.

Newcastle Panthers sent out their usual email to all of the members via MailChimp and also shared on our Facebook page old photos of our club and lots of tips for staying fit and healthy. Players have been keeping in touch via social media, holding virtual quizzes and ‘pub’ nights.

Athena have been using their WhatsApp groups to keep in touch and having one to one session with club coaches. They have a weekly Zoom sessions and are using Zoom for committee meetings, planning for the future.

If your club is doing something innovative and would like to be featured on the VE Foundation website just drop me a line at foundation@volleyballengland.org.

Keep active, stay safe, protect our Volleyball family on the frontline.