Hi players and parents,

I hope you enjoyed the first few weeks of beach training.

For some of you, you will be learning and playing beach volleyball for the first time and for those with more experience it will be your chance to improve your skills and start to compete in tournaments. While beach volleyball is similar to indoor volleyball, it is also a very different sport. Your expert coaches will train you on how to play this fast-growing and exciting sport.

Tournaments:

The UKBT (UK Beach Tour) is an organisation which Volleyball England uses to organise Adult and Junior Beach tournaments in the UK. These tournaments will run all summer long giving players many opportunities to compete. The age groups this year are Under 15 and Under 17. Players need to be 14/16 or younger on or after 1st January 2024.

Players will receive individual points based on entering tournaments and their performance during the tournaments. The more you play the more points you get!

In addition, each club also receives points based on the number of players attending and playing in the tournaments and of course we would like to be the top beach club in the country so…. Let’s Go Richmond!

We will be hosting two Junior Grand Prix events over the summer and I encourage you all to enter these local events early as well as those organised by other clubs around London and the UK in order to gain valuable beach competition experience.

We also encourage many of our juniors to enter the UKBT Junior Championships taking place in Sandbanks (Poole) on 1st and 2nd of July. There will be separate competitions for U13 (4-a-side), U15 (2 and 4-a-side), U17 (2-a-side) and U19 (2-a-side) boys and girls.

Upper intermediate and advanced level juniors may also gain experience by entering 1-3 star adult tournaments:
– 1 star is either mixed (adult all levels) or single gender (adult beginner/intermediate level)
– 2 star is adult intermediate level
– 3 star is adult advanced level

Tournament Schedule: For the junior tournaments hosted in Teddington see: https://www.richmondvolleyball.co.uk/beach/junior-grand-prix

Our Junior Grand Prix dates are: - 3rd/4th June 2023
- 22nd/23rd July 2023

I have attached the competition dates, locations, clubs who are running the tournament in the attached PDF document. You can also check on the UKBT website for more junior tournament dates (https://www.ukbeachtour-playerzone.com/tournaments) and information

How to become a UKBT member (requirement to enter tournaments):
You will need to register with UKBT to enter any of the tournaments.

UKBT membership fees for under 15s: £5
UKBT membership fees for under 19s: £15

Membership is valid for the current season only, so if you already have a UKBT membership number please make sure to renew it before entering a tournament.

To register or renew your UKBT membership go here: https://www.ukbeachtour-playerzone.com/register

If you have any questions about your UKBT registration, please contact them directly by emailing info@ukbeachtour.com.

Partners Selection (for 2-a-side events):

One question many players have is who will be my partner as beach volleyball is a 2-a-side team sport. At this early stage of development your partner does not need to be permanent and there is no harm and possibly some benefit in playing with different partners in order to find a good fit, have fun and also to make sure you can play as many competitions as possible.

During your training sessions you will find yourself in pairs most of the time and coaches will be mixing and matching you around to assess each player’s skills and abilities.

Who you are paired with during a training session are at the discretion of the coach however pairings for UKBT tournaments are open for players and parents to decide. The reason for this is that the logistics required for entry, transport and then playing in a tournament are better left for players and parents to sort out and as such will not be organised by the coaches or the club.

Team Selection (for U15 4-a-side events):
If you are under 15, our coaches will try and form and enter a team from within your training groups to our 4-a-side tournaments.

For entering 4-a-side teams at external events, we are looking for parent volunteers who can help coordinate this. If you can help, please email beach@richmondvolleyball.co.uk

Find a partner/team:

If you haven’t got a partner or a team to play with, but would like to take part, please fill in this form https://forms.gle/UvwCpvMqzNHSkgmX9 and we will try and match you up with a suitable partner or team.

Playing Kit:

While there is no mandatory kit for any of the junior beach tournaments (you can wear whatever sports wear you are comfortable to play in), we would like to encourage all our players to wear Richmond Volleyball t-shirts or vests at tournaments. We especially like to see that at our home tournaments! These can be beach or indoor kits. As our amazing success in recent years showed, we are the best junior club in the country, so you can wear our kit with pride! New t-shirts and vests are on order and if you ordered some you should receive them in about 2-3 weeks time.

Should you have any questions, please ask either your coaches or myself. Hope you all have a fun and successful summer season! Martin