Leeds Gorse Volleyball Club Keeping volleyball alive during lockdown.

Tell us a bit about your club, history, achievement over the years.

Although the Leeds Volleyball Club was established in 1973, four years ago, the Leeds Volleyball Club was extremely excited and honored to call the Ruth Gorse Academy ‘home’. And so, began a close working relationship with the school to develop a volleyball legacy. The school (driven by Sir John Townsley) wished to honour the PE teacher and volleyball player, Ruth Gorse nee Nicholls, for which the school is named, and we have since then strived to do the same. Ruth was a greatly respected player in the Women’s first team, a good friend (to us slightly older members) and a passionate volleyball ambassador and junior coach.

As we are now partnered with the Gorse Academies Trust, a full time Volleyball Coach, Elaine Brown, has been appointed to teach, coach and promote volleyball across all primaries, secondaries and the college. This is probably one of the most exciting developments we could have hoped for. Ruth’s father Keith Nicholls very kindly provided many of the schools with the equipment they needed to get started and has continued to do so as volleyball was introduced into the primaries this year. Coach Brown has developed a cohesive junior programme both across the Trust schools and within the Leeds club and Yorkshire Juniors to offer as many chances as possible for youngsters to play volleyball and has even arranged for a Gorse Volleyball League to commence once it is safe to resume play. From being an adult only club, we now have teams across all age groups, an extremely popular community social night and even an U11s beginner session.

Our adult teams have been flourishing as well! Our Women’s 1st team won Volleyball England’s Shield Competition and gained promotion to Division One in the 2018-2019 season. This year, our Men’s 1st team dominated Division One and were duly promoted to the Superleague. We really hope this team gets to play next season as some of the players are students from Leeds University who Coach Dave Speers has nurtured for the last 4 years to this level - a dream that they have all aspired to.

In order to continue to be inclusive of all players and keep up with the club’s growth, we plan to add an additional men’s and women’s team into the National League as well as a sitting volleyball programme in collaboration with the Gorse Academies Trust.

How has the COVID 19 impacted on your club?

It was a bit disappointing for our juniors as they were unable to compete at Interregionals and the last eight of the National Volleyball Championship. They do understand under the circumstances, this was absolutely the right call, but once volleyball resumes, it would be nice to see more junior tournaments or junior leagues created to support the development of younger players.

Additionally, our club annually hosts one of the largest beach volleyball tournaments in the UK, Bridlington Beach Volleyball Tournament. This serves as a major fundraiser to support Leeds and Yorkshire Juniors. We are putting our heads together to think outside of the box to raise the funds another way while abiding by the government guidelines.

What have you been doing to keep in touch with you players/ members?

We have strived to be active on social media by providing relevant content to engage with our members. Our junior boys and girls even created dig, set, spike challenge videos on TikTok. 

Our coaches have also checked-in on the well-being of their teams through Whatsapp groups. They have also been in communication informing players of any COVID-19 updates, governing body guidelines, fitness tips and award nominations for our first ever virtual awards presentation.

Tells us about any of your clubs’ members who have gone above and beyond during this difficult time?

We have had quite a few stars who have stepped up during these unprecedented times. Our Gorse Trust Volleyball Coach and Leeds Club Director of Youth Development, Elaine Brown, have been very proactive by creating volleyball tutorials and skill development sessions in collaboration with Gorse Gets Healthy (a programme created to encourage and educate students on how to live a healthy lifestyle primarily through diet and exercise). These videos are on the GGH YouTube Channel and have been shared through the Leeds Gorse Volleyball Club accounts as well. Elaine has also sent her students and players tips for staying fit and healthy and has offered support to players and their families during this difficult time.

Virag Farkas and Roland Herczeg, who both coach extra-curricular clubs within the Gorse Trust, have been creating volleyball focused workout videos as well as volleyball challenges available to all students across the trust and players across the club. Viri has even started hosting a weekly Zoom workout session open to all club members. As a top player and physical fitness fanatic, she is phenomenal at creating workouts designed to build volleyball strength and endurance!

Dave and Penny Speers took the initiative to put together and hosted the club’s first Virtual Awards Presentation! All our members really seemed to enjoy this, and it reminded them of our club’s resilience, inclusiveness and unity.

What do you think will be the biggest challenges when returning to the court?

There will be quite a few issues to consider:

- Will players feel safe to return?

- Will parents or guardians feel safe sending their children to train?

- Will players be as fit as they were prior to lockdown? We will need to access levels of fitness, then build strength and endurance accordingly.

- Skill-wise, we will also need to rebuild muscle memory and reaction time once allowed back in the hall.

- As we host a social night that is very popular within the local community, we wonder if we will be able to continue supporting this session especially with the large numbers we usually attract.

What support could the foundation offer clubs once the lockdown is over?

We would like to receive tips for keeping a clean playing environment, and hygienic recommendations before, during and after sessions. It would also be useful to know if temperature checks will be required and if there will be a recommended or limited number of players allowed per court per session.

 Thank you

Elaine Brown

Volleyball Coach - The Gorse Academies Trust

Director of Youth Development - Leeds Gorse Volleyball Club 

Leeds Gorse Volleyball Club website