The Court Dimensions and Rotation

The volleyball court is 9 m (29.5 ft) wide and 18m (59 ft) long. The court is divided into 9 m x 9 m halves. The top of the net is 2.24 m (7 ft 4 in) for women’s competition and 2,43 m (8 ft 0 in) for men’s competition. There are variations for junior competitions.  The 3 m (9.84 ft) line from parallel to the net is the “attack line” and separates the court into “front row” and “back row” areas.

The volleyball game has six players on the court. The back row (five, six, one) is responsible for receiving and defending the ball. The players are serving from position one. The front row (four, three, two) is responsible for hitting, blocking and setting the ball. The main hitting position is four. The blocker is on position 3. The setter sets the ball from position two. 

Court dimension

Court rotation 

Interview with the Volleyball Men's Team Captain Calvin Fellow

What do you want to achieve this semester with the volleyball team?

Well so far, I believe this season has been a real success. We currently stand 2nd in our BUCS League and have a semi final of the cup this Wednesday (12 March 2014)! I would love to at east reach the final of the cup and maybe even go on to win it!



How/Why did you start playing volleyball?

Well volleyball is far from a popular sport in the UK but for some reason we always had a net in our back garden whilst growing up. I used to play with my friends and siblings but never played in an actual league. My brother played Volleyball at his University and told me it was a lot of fun so I joined the Anglia Ruskin team in the first year. It’s amazing how a few years down the road I am now captaining the team! I never saw that coming.




Which kind of training has the most positive impact for the team?

I think that when we have an extremely intense session it brings the team closer as a unit. We all work hard together and we all ache the next day together. I have played many different team sports at a high level and none of them require the level of teamwork that Volleyball does. If we are all working together in training and staying focused then I believe success will naturally follow.



Why do you think are the ARU volleyball teams so successful?

There are a few factors I can think of. For a small university it is amazing that we can compete at such a high level. I personally think it is because ARU has a wide range of international students from all over Europe. As I stated before, in the UK volleyball is not such a big sport but in other European countries it is taken more seriously. Every year we have many different nationalities such as Germans, Bulgarians, Brazilians, Italians and many other countries. Because we are a University that attracts international students I think this works in our favour when recruiting players. We have had players who have played at very high levels in their home countries which is a massive bonus to the team. Also, the University has changed the management of the sports department and made it far more organised and functional. This has made it easier for Lilly and me to concentrate on playing matches as opposed to filling out forms and arranging transport to venues.




How important is winning the game for you?

Well everyone wants to win. It always feels great when you are on the bus home celebrating a victory but personally, I am actually more concerned with how the team plays as opposed to the final result. There have been some matches this season where we have won comfortably but I have still been angry. I would rather the team play to the best of their ability and lose than win without breaking a sweat. As long as my players always give 100%, whether in training or a match situation then I will always be proud of them. I guess it is not so much the win, but more the manner in which we win.

Game report Cranfield vs. ARU (1st March 2014)

After playing the previous evening against Cranfield we had to play against them again. The drive to Cranfield took us 1:15 hours but it was alright because we used the time to talk about tactics and what we can improve in this game. The gym was pretty fancy and brand new, but freezing cold. Everybody was still a little bit tired after a whole week of uni, with games on Wednesday, Friday and now Saturday too. Thankfully the Cranfield girls started to play nice music during the warm up and our team was able to motivate themselves and to wake up. The game was awesome. We played as a team, had a lot of fun and were able to dominate the whole game. We won the game in three sets (25:12, 25:11 and 25:12).

Nevertheless, we had a very scary moment after the game. My teammate Amelie called me to say she and two other teammates are locked in the elevator. Thankfully the door opened by itself after a couple of minutes and the WHOLE team was ready to drive home.

ARU Volleyball Girls' Team

Team Introduction

The ARU volleyball girls’ team has nine main players. Lilly (9) is our captain and setter. Nicole (13), Pamela (6), Mimi (12) and Sabrina (not in picture) are our blockers. Jovanna (8), Amelie (3) and myself (14) are outside hitters. Vanessa (15) plays opposite. The team is very international. The players are from: Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Germany Unfortunately nobody is from Great Britain.

The ARU volleyball men’s team has nine main player as well. The captain of the team is Calvin and blocks with Guy’s and Patrick’s support. David is the setter. Jan plays opposite. Enrico is the libero. Dara and Bill are the outside hitters.

Jean Jaquet is the coach of both teams.

ARU Volleyball Girls' Team 

ARU Volleyball Men's Team 

Strengths Training at Core Cambridge

Another benefit of the scholarship is the weekly personal weight training at Core Cambridge. Every scholar got an individual trainings program to improve his or her own fitness and to fix problems from earlier injuries. My trainings program has eight different exercises. I repeat every exercise three to four times, dependent on the exercise. My coach Sarah watches me throughout the whole session to monitor my form, check the weights I’m using and offer encouragement. The Core Cambridge sessions are very intense but really effective as well. After just a couple of weeks I already noticed big differences in my body.

Squats

                             

Lunges

Volleyball Skills

The most important six basic skills are: pass, attack, serve, set, dig, diving and block. Each of these skills has different specific techniques which have been introduced and standardized in to high-level volleyball.

• Serve: underhand, sky ball serve, topspin, float, jump serve, float serve
• Set: it’s usually the second contact that a team makes with the ball. The setter can differentiate the setting with high, fast, behind and back row sets
• Attack: backcourt, line and cross-court shot, dip/dink/tip/cheat/dump, tool/wipe, off-speed hit, quick hit, slide and double quick hit
• Block: aims to completely stopping the attack of the of the other team
• Dig: ability to prevent the ball from touching the ground

You have to Work Hard - to Play Hard !!!

The Scholarship

ARU offers around 30 sport scholarships every semester. The application process is actually very easy. You have to download a document from the homepage and hand it in by a specific date. After the selection process the scholar candidates were invited to an interview. The interview was all about why you want this scholarship, what is your background, why are you the best candidate for receiving a scholarship. A couple weeks later ARU send me an email that I received a scholarship. I was so happy. The scholarship includes: membership to ARU fitness facilities, strength & conditioning training, physiotherapy, circuit training, performance lifestyle support, sport scholar polo shirt, sport scholar seminars, coaching, equipment, training and competition expenses and a performance target cash reward.  I am very happy to be one of the 30 other ARU sport scholars. It is an amazing program and helps hugely to improve my sports and ARU experience in general.

http://web.anglia.ac.uk/anet/staff/sec_clerk/scholar.phtml

Myself in front of the Scholar-Wall

What is Volleyball all about?

In volleyball it's all about the team who wins 3 sets first, it doesn't matter what the other team does in the meantime.  It's a race to the finish, so if the opposition starts faster it's always possible to over take even if it's right near the end. The team has to engage with each other and has to play together to build a strong unit, single players are not able to win by themselves. It is all about the team energy and spirit.

German National Team, European Championship 2013 

How everything begun

In my family everything revolves around sports. Track and field, cycling or volleyball… my whole family got addicted. That’s why I started playing volleyball at the age of 8. I played volleyball for a Berlin sport club named TSC. At the age of 11 I got accepted for a school that specialises in professional sport and aims to prepare its students for a career within these sports. I trained up to ten times a week and played for the Berlin federal state team. During these years volleyball became my whole life: training, school and competition. It was a tough time but I learned valuable life lessons and gained a lot of self-confidence and discipline. These skills prepared me perfectly for my future. I would like to share with you, how awesome it is to be a sports scholar at ARU and to be a member of the ARU volleyball team. Additionally I would like to show you what kind of training sessions we have and the benefit of being a sport scholar.