Logbook of England Indoor Performance Director – September 2025 – Coaching Volleyball

This is a periodic update in my role as an indoor performance director for volleyball England. I have set the high -level priorities under which I work in my first post.

Continue with my last update, it has been a busy period for the national teams of England.

U22S in the qualification of the European Championship

Both U22 teams from England played in July in their very first euro qualifying tournament. The women traveled to Slovakia where they played both the hosts and Poles. Israel was also in their group, but they had to withdraw because of the conflict that took place at that time. This resulted in a forfeited victory for us. Not the way you would prefer to win, but you never know if those ranking -points will make a difference with a seeding perspective. The other two games were losing 3-0. Not unexpectedly considering our shortcomings of physical and experiences. However, there were some clear pieces.

The men went to Italy where they also had Denmark and Ukraine in their swimming pool. Again, all three competitions were losing, but they were not without some positives. The most striking was that the boys resigned, Ukraine, who won the group. They also had good play periods against Italy. I think everyone, however, would agree that they did not play against Denmark at the best between the two. Perhaps that is because they have seen Denmark a number of times in Nevza U17 and U19 tournaments over the years.

Global challenge

Also in July we sent a group of U19 women to Croatia in the Global challenge. This was the first time that the tournament came in for an England team, although individual players have participated there in recent years. All in all it was a good experience for everyone who went. We can see that it will be an annual fixture, although we have to see where they eventually fall with their age groups.

Northern cup

At the end of July/beginning of August the senior men went to Denmark for the Nordic Cup for the second year in a row. The Norway and the France U22S next to the host Danes. Although they probably missed their top oh, who will play in the 1. Bundesliga this year, they generally had a good tournament.

The team started with a 3-0 loss to Norway, but the first set went 28-26. If the memory serves, they were never so close to a set in last year’s edition. The next evening they brought Denmark to five sets and eventually fell 15-13. Unfortunately they played France the next morning the next morning in a short turnaround, and never really started. Yet the coaching staff was very happy with how the team progresses how they want to play.

Juniors camp Augustus

Last weekend we held the U17 and U19 Zonal Championships Squad Selection Camp (see below). It ran more than 3 days and was the last event for the near future in what our national training center has been, because we moved our center of operations to Loughborough University (also where our office is located). It was bittersweet in the keys when I left on Sunday at the end of things.

When they come from the camp, the coaches put their selections forward. An official panel meets, after which players are aware of the decisions. The teams and coaching staff are then publicly announced.

Work outside the job

There are two large projects that we have in mind (from an indoor perspective) to start this time next year – ideally. We call one of them talent zones. See them as a regionalized feeder system for the U18s. The other is a residential national academy. That would cover athletes in the last two years of school before the university in the British education system (Age 16-18). We have done a lot of work to map out what needs to be done in the coming 12 months. Now it’s about implementation.

Upcoming

The big thing in the coming months will be the annual U17 and U19 Nevza championships in October. This year the U17 tournament will also be a first round Zonal qualifying match for next summer’s euros. The winners go directly to the main drawing, while 2nd place in April will continue to the second qualifying round.

We know that the U17s have a limited area of ​​Just Denmark, England, Finland and Sweden who compete for Euro places. The U19 participants still have to be announced during this letter, but rumors also suggest a smaller than normal field. We’ll see.

This year a new development is intended for their advantage on the Senior/U22 front. The VE competition team left for free in the competition calendar for about one weekend a month. This allows the squadrons (at least the domestic players) to come together for training. We have also worked with Scotland, Noord -Ireland and Ireland on having open weekends in all our competition calendars to enable our teams to play friendly matches, do joint training sessions, etc.

Further watch out, in my last update I mentioned getting FIVB financing for a number of national team coach development. We have now put a few people in line to do that for us – 1 on the beach side and 1 inside. We are currently working on plans to carry out a combined event with the two at the beginning of June.