Steve Matthews, just back from Tokyo

 Over the last couple of months the eyes of the world have been turned to the East as we enjoyed the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, all be it 12 months late.

A number of our Volleyball Family were there in a supporting role, Mark Parkins and Clayton Lucas giving commentary, Jonathan Moore as one of the managers and our very own Volleyball England Foundation Board member Steve Matthews.

We asked Steve why he was in Tokyo?

“I was in Tokyo as part of the Data Project Support team, supplying and supervising all field of play scoring systems for the Sitting Volleyball event with my colleague Danielle Bortoletto from Italy.

Our job was to initially train the scorers, Referees and teams in the new technology introduced into Sitting Volleyball for the first time. This included demonstrations on eScoresheet, Referee tablets and Bench tablets. All of these systems are integrated together to provide a seamless match data experience(in theory – we will come to that later.”

What was your highlight moment?

“My absolute highlight was to see the new scorers from the JPVA step up to the event without any previous live match experience and to grow in confidence match by match. This was a three year journey for me after starting the training early in 2019 and then a test event in late 2019. COVID prevented any other hands on experience. The matches went smoothly from match 1 and the enjoyment they showed at the end of each match was infectious. There were many other great moments but this one is the highlight.”

What was your biggest challenge whilst in Tokyo?

“The biggest challenge, apart from the Emergency COVID measures still in place, was the teaching of the “eternal triangle” of scorers, referees and teams to embrace the new technology and to adapt to the ways of using it. If we were lucky none of the three had problems, if we were unlucky ALL three had problems. Some of the teams had never seen eScoresheet let alone control line ups, substitutions and time outs from a tablet on the bench (I’m not naming names but some were DEFINITELY worse than others). When it worked well it was simplicity itself).”

What are you most looking forward to now you’re back?

“Apart from lots of coffee (I’m lactose intolerant so soya latte isn’t quite the same), I’m looking forward to preparing for the Commonwealth Games next year with the beach officials (e-scoresheet to be used for the first time). And I think I need to use up some of the 22 days holiday I still have left to re-charge the batteries, which at the moment are pretty much on empty. And if I get the chance, a return trip to Japan to sample the country the people and the culture once again without the COVID restrictions.”

It sounds like Steve had a great time in Japan but as with all major event not much time to sit back and enjoy the people, event or country.

Thank you for sharing your experience with us, good to have you back.