As it’s Children in Need time and you all appeared to have enjoyed Eleanor’s India item, you may not know that we have also sent Helen off to Zambia with a heap of Volleyball Equipment as well. It’s a slightly longer trip and you can keep up to date via her blog.

Excerpt below……

I’ve also done another week of Kids Club, this time at Natebe Primary School (Zambia). We always start with just playing games with the kids. I had the volleyball kit out again, and was teaching some of them how to play.

Some of them picked it up really fast and were actually quite good! I certainly wasn’t expecting to be encouraging them to move on from Catch-Push volleying to properly volleying in their first session!

Similarly I was able to have the second group playing a mini-game of 4s, with a basic “setter takes the second ball” structure. When it got to the lesson (somewhat later than planned as the teacher was enjoying playing volleyball too much and she wanted to keep going!), we were doing the same as last week, which meant I was able to lead a different section of the “Team Player” lesson.

Helen Mylne

http://zambeziadventures.blogspot.co.uk/

In October, I went to India with 13 other students from my school (Kings School Ottery St Mary). We spent 5 days in an orphanage in the mountains in Tamil Nadu (in the south of India).

With me, I took some volleyball equipment that had been bought with money donated by the Exeter Challenge fund. I took out 7 balls, 2 nets and 2 pumps, as the plan was to take the equipment to two different places.

The first place where we donated equipment was the orphanage where we were staying, which was home to 100 girls and boys between the ages of 5 and 10.

We put the net up between 2 trees, as there were no posts there, and nowhere really to put posts up. We tied the net pretty low, as the kids were young so as to make it easier for them.

To start with, it was mainly the boys playing, as there seems to be a pretty big split between girls and boys, but we managed to get the girls playing after some coaxing, and ended up with a girls against boys game.

It was pretty hard to explain anything to them because of the language barrier (they spoke almost no English and we spoke no Tamil!), so it ended up just being a knock the ball around with little technique game. They did seem to get the basic of what to do though which was good, and so we ended up playing quite a bit with them.

Secondary School

The second place where we played quite a bit was at a secondary school supported by the same charity that supported the orphanage. They had posts and a dusty area that seemed to suggest a volleyball court, but no ball or net.

We put up the net, and then the children came out for what I guess was a break time. I didn’t really expect them to have much idea of how to play, but I was pleasantly surprised!

They split themselves into 2 teams, both of which had at least 12 people, so there was little rotation – they all just stood and took the ball if it was near them!

Some of them had surprisingly good skills, particularly in terms of volleying and hitting, although digging was much more swinging arms wildly at the ball and hoping it went up somewhere, and so we managed to get a decent game going.

They also seemed to have a good idea of the rules with more than three touches definitely not being allowed. If that did happen, the other team would immediately grab the ball and serve to start a new point (although little scoring went on). They were also very strict about net touches, with any net touches being immediately penalized!

As well as playing, they were all very keen to show us their hitting and blocking skills, with people running up to the net and jumping (often fairly well). This also happened a lot when there was a ball involved, with everyone wanting to hit, although it generally seemed to work and the ball would get over the net!

I would not have been able to do this without the money donated and so I am very grateful for the equipment that I was able to take out and donate.

Eleanor Sheridan

Click below for a short Video:

I went over to Namibia on a school trip, we had a variety of activities lined up, one of which was working at a school for 5 days doing general repairs. I was lucky enough to receive some volleyball equipment (portable net and some balls) from the Exeter Challenge project fund plus a ball, some pens, badges and a variety of coaching cards from Volleyball England to give to the school.

I thought I would be able to write this report before I went, saying how energetic and active the kids were, yet didn’t quite get the hang of volleyball. However, I was quite wrong.

At the school there was a skeleton of a volleyball court, which consisted of a cleared area, surrounded by small spikey bushes, and two posts, no net. The ground was a thin layer of sand on more hard sand, with occasional stones, nothing you would want to dive on, that didn’t stop them trying.

In the afternoons at the school we went out onto what was their field and played with the children with the donations that we had brought for them. On the first day I didn’t put up the net, but took a ball.

I thought this would be used as a football quite quickly, however just saying volleyball they knew and started to dig and volley the ball to each other. This attracted a bit of a crowd and soon the older ones had joined in and drawn a line in the sand for the net. They played with a ‘give it to the tallest player’ system, from watching this and talking to some of the children I found out that they are taught volleyball in school, and know who serves and do a simple everybody plays everywhere rotation.

Photo: Kirsty (with hat) setting the ball 

The next couple of days I set up the net, with help, wanted or unwanted. Quite quickly, even before the net was stable, a game had been established, with equal teams, although numbers consisted of around 8+ people on each side.

The sand became the score board, there was no rotation, but we did swap sides and there was very loud and aggressive arguments about net touches. More than 3 touches were not allowed and you must always go around the post, not under the net when swapping sides, otherwise you would be laughed at and told off.

The younger ones only knew what to do from watching the older ones, and would soon get bullied off the court when the elder ones came out.

Some would lock their fingers whilst digging and volleys where more fingers than thumbs, however, they were happy to receive any help, but I did find it hard to correct them whilst I was being called ‘The American’.

There was very little shouts of ‘mine’ happening, it was more everyone ran for it. The girls were the worst for this, people would come flying out of nowhere, landing on people as they came, just to get the incoming ball. The older boys just appointed spaces, of it’s in your space you get it, if you don’t they give you a very disappointed look, I found out.

From this experience I have learnt how differently those children viewed sports compared to children over here. They will try anything and put their full effort into whatever it is, even when they may not fully understand what it is that they are doing, they will still try.

I would not have been able to do this without the Exeter Challenge fund providing me with a net and some balls. I also received some items from Volleyball England, which included another ball, some pens and badges and a variety of coaching cards.

I gave these to the school when I left, I think the school will benefit hugely from the coaching cards as they had a variety of drills and techniques, with helpful pictures. The cards were in English, however, this should not be a problem as their English was very good and they learnt a lot by seeing actions rather than being told.

A short 20 second video….

Kirsty Tapp