If you are interested in playing sitting volleyball, check out Essex Pirates in the Our Clubs section.

Sitting Volleyball - An Outline

A Paralympic sport and part of the volleyball family, sitting volleyball is team sport where all abilities can compete together in a small area with simple equipment. Fast and exciting to play and watch, it is easy and fun to learn and play at a beginner and recreational level, whilst offering more challenge as players gain technical and tactical skills. 

Sitting Volleyball especially at the social level is an inclusive sport.  It should be seen as a sport in its own right rather than a disabled sport.  It is a variation of ‘running’ or ‘standing’ volleyball played by seated players.  As a result of sitting, differences of gender and many so styled disabilities are reduced. The game can be played by anyone who can both support their bodyweight upright sitting on the floor and has a degree of arm (one or two) movement.  It is well suited to those with lower limb disability and rehabilitation of those with lower limb injury.  It is the only game I know where having no legs can be an advantage. The only real restrictions are for those unable to see/react to ball movement or sit upright on the floor with a limb free to play the ball.  

It is possible within a team to mix players by gender and ability.  Only at top level are there restrictions on team make up.  At international and Paralympic levels, teams have their players ‘classified’ as to the ability/disability spectrum and there are limits on who can play with the able bodied not eligible.  However even at some European Club level events and below, this does not apply and all can play. 


Sitting Volleyball in Essex

Sitting volleyball in Essex goes back to 2006 even before London had been awarded the 2012 Paralympic Games.  Jozef Banfi – coach the Dutch silver medal women’s team from the Athens Games held an introductory session in Kent and one of the Chelmsford VC standing players Ken Edwards attended.

Since then and in the run up to 2012, Essex became even more deeply involved with the county providing the Secretary of the British Volleyball Federation, Sitting Volleyball Committee, that group’s Volleyball Development Manager (Pete Guernari) and the GB men’s coach at the Games (Ian Legrand).  Ian has gone on to coach the GB Women’s team and the most successful club in the country London Lynx.

Players in Essex formed Essex Pirates which has competed in the national Sitting Volleyball Grand Prix series since 2009 including winning one of the cup competitions in 2012.  The team has over the years included  a number of players of all abilities who have commuted from Peterborough and Barnstaple to play for them – so they must be doing something right.

Essex coaches Pete Guernari  and Ken Edwards have over the years provided  a number of sessions where people have come and tried the sport although at time of writing there is no regular training session open to

Where can I find out more?

The following will provide information on the sport at various levels.

Volleyball England – the game in England www.volleyballengland.org/getintovolleyball/sitting_volleyball_centres

Paravolley Europe– the European body                      www.worldparavolley.org/                

World Paravolley – the world governing body           www.worldparavolley.org/

VolleySlide -as starter pack covering all aspects of the game          http://volleyslide.net/home/4577643228

Local contact – Ken Edwards, Essex Pirates    01245 474425 Email ken.edwards@volleyball.co.uk

A History of Volleyball for the Disabled

The Origin of Volleyball

While a game which somewhat resembled volleyball was being played in England as far back as 1591, it was only in 1895 that the American William G. Morgan developed a game, which was to be the predecessor of our present-day volleyball.   Spread by the U.S. troops and the YMCA, this sport which had meanwhile gained some momentum, reached the rest of the world.

The start of Sport for the Disabled

Sir (then Doctor) Ludwig Guttmann – Neurologist and Neurosurgeon – emigrated with his family to England in March 1939 as a refugee from Nazi Germany. At the beginning of 1944, while he was doing research at Oxford University, he was asked by the British Government to set up a Spinal Injury Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. At this institute, he put into practice unique ideas of treatment and rehabilitation of spinal cord paralysed patients – hitherto regarded as hopeless and helpless cripples with only a short expectation of life. That he was successful in establishing a spinal cord injury service, a model to the whole world, is a matter of history. But there was a particular aspect of his philosophy and foresight that was to have far-reaching influence on the lives, not only of spinal cord paralysed persons, but to many other types of disabled persons all over the world.

Sir Ludwig Guttmann used to say: “If I ever did one good thing in my medical career, it was to introduce sport into the treatment and rehabilitation programme of spinal cord sufferers and other severely disabled”.

In 1948, the first Stoke Mandeville Games were held with a participation of 16 paralysed wheelchair competitors in archery. The Games became “International” in 1952 with the participation of a Dutch team of war veterans.

Sitting Volleyball

The first sports club for the disabled was established in the Netherlands only as late as 1953. Athletics and Sitzball – originating from Germany – were the main sports. Soon it was found that Sitzball, which is played sitting down in one place on the floor, was too passive; the search was on for more mobile forms of sport.

In 1956, the Dutch Sports Committee introduced a new game called Sitting Volleyball, a combination of sitzball and volleyball. Since then the gam has grown into one of the biggest sports practised in competition not only by the disabled in the Netherlands, but also by interested “able-bodied” volleyball players with an injury of the ankle or knee.

Development

Since 1967, international competitions have taken place, but we had to wait until 1978 before the International Sports Organisation for the Disabled (ISOD) accepted Sitting Volleyball in its programme.  The first official International Tournament – under the umbrella of the ISOD – took place in 1979 in Haarlem (the Netherlands).

In 1980, it was accepted as a Paralympic Sport with the participation of seven teams. It has become one of the main team-sports in the Paralympic Programme. It is a fast, exciting and crowd pleasing sport, which can show the athletic skills of disabled sportsmen and women.

The international development can be called tumultuous. Clinics have been held all over the world and regular World, European and Regional Championships are organised annually.  Since 1993, Sitting Volleyball championships are organised for men and women.

Sitting Volleyball has the potential to grow into a sport in which the disabled and non-disabled persons can play on a high technical level.

Standing Volleyball

Standing Volleyball was played by disabled sportsmen long before the International Federation was founded. It has its roots in Great Britain and was originally only played by amputees. Due to the variations of amputation, a classification system was set up and players were put into one of nine categories. To encourage those with a more severe amputation to participate, a point system on court was introduced – each player received points for the degree of amputation – and 13 points was the minimal team requirement on court.

In 1984, it was decided to open up the game to allow other disability groups to take part, thereby encouraging more nations to participate. Although this initially created more classification problems, the WOVD finally, after four years, established criteria for classification, which includes those players with various arm or leg disabilities.

Development

Small international competitions have taken place since the 1960s, although it was not until 1976 before volleyball was accepted into the Paralympic Programme in Toronto. Since 1980, volleyball has had a regular international calendar. 

Copyright ©1997 WOVD

Main differences between Sitting Volleyball and Volleyball:

  1. The court is smaller — 10m x 6m (2m attack zone)
  2. The net is lower — 1.15m for men and 1.05m for women
  3. Players must remain seated on court during play including spiking
  4. Service can be blocked
  5. The passage of play is quicker due to reduced court size and flatter trajectory of attacks

Sitting Volleyball in England

Sitting volleyball is an adapted game for people with disabilities, it has enjoyed full Paralympic status since 1980, with a Great Britain Team competing at the highest levels until 1991.  The game is an excellent vehicle for players returning from injury during rehabilitation.

The game ceased to exist in the UK in 1991, except on a small recreational scale in East Kent. As part of an effort to promote the game in Kent, Kent Sports Development Unit (KSDU) has purchased a purpose made transportable Taraflex floor for Sitting Volleyball, the only one of its type in the UK. Since then more have been purchased.

During 2005 a number of demonstration events were held notably in Kent led by Tom Middleton and assisted by the purchase of floor and posts. In January 2006 two new clubs were formed “Sitius Pent Valley” in Folkestone and “Sitz in the City” at Canterbury High School. These initiatives were recognised by the British Volleyball Federation and a Paralympic summit was held in Loughborough for interested parties hosted by Volleyball England. As a result a British Volleyball Federation working group was established, chaired by Gordon Neale (CEO Disability Sport England) to develop both participation and elite squads in preparation for 2012.

Taster sessions were run in Essex, Suffolk and Cambs, demonstration events run at National Finals in Sheffield in April 2006 and a number of other festivals and regular training established including the London Lynx Sitting Volleyball Club based at Mile End which has become the base for the GB squads.  This group has competed in international competition including the Europeans(2007 in Hungary).

Much of the early promotional and development activity was actively supported by members of the Volleer Club, based in Holland whose coach (Joze Banfi now sadly deceased) and players some of whom were in the Dutch women’s team who were 2004 Paralympic silver medallists and World champions in 2006.  Joze was the first coach of the GB squad.

In August 2007 Sheffield hosted a WOVD/ECVD Referee and Classifier courses which were attended by two English referees and there is now a strong group of such referees several of whom officiate at major European and World events.

The appointment by Volleyball England in July 2009 of Matt Rogers as an officer dedicated to the development of sitting volleyball gave impetus and sitting volleyball has become a significant activity within the family of variations of volleyball overseen by Volleyball England. Although Matt has now moved to Europe and launched VolleySLIDE an impressive resource for learning and developing the game development in England has continued with the establishment of a monthly Grand Prix series over the winter season where many of the team compete. Teams include Battleback (the armed forces team) who in September 2014 successfully won the sitting volleyball competition in the first Invictus Games founded by Prince Harry.

Web sites

World Paravolley. VolleySLIDE formerly WOVD (World Organisation for Volleyball for the Disabled)   www.volleyslide.net/

European Committee Volleyball for the Disabled (ECVD) www.ecvd.eu

Volleyball England www.volleyballengland.org/sitting

Personal thoughts

There are more similarities than differences between sitting volleyball and other forms of the game with the main differences to my mind being around movement.  Tactics are affected by the rule differences e.g. service blocking allowed, and also the speed of the game requiring quick reactions.  

The availability of specific information for coaches on sitting volleyball is improving with Volleyball England running sitting volleyball workshops and a coaching booklet in English having become available.  The VolleySLIDE information available through World ParaVolley is also a comprehensive and helpful resource.

Having played sitting volleyball, and got the bruises in the appropriate places, I can recommend it as an inclusive sport for players both with physical disabilities and not together on the same team. Even gender differences are reduced as no jumping is allowed. Sitting volleyball features in Volleyball England’s VolleySport and Mini-Volley courses and in the National Schools Competition Framework. If you want to try it out, keep in touch with or know more about what is going on, watch the Volleyball England website or let me know. ken.edwards@volleyball.co.uk