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14 Participate in FIVB Grassroots Beach Volleyball Training Course

posted Apr 9, 2013, 12:00 AM by Unknown user
April 3 - 7, 2013, Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) in cooperation with local national federation Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association (NMIVA) and sponsors Fiesta Resort & Spa along with DoCoMo Pacific hosted a Grassroots Beach Volleyball training course, which is part of a series of FIVB Volleyball Cooperation Programme (VCP) courses. This is the NMI's third course since 2008.

According to Helgi Thorsteinsson, FIVB's Technical & Development Director, national federations are welcome to take advantage of VCP courses every other year simply by making an application. Applications are approved according to need and development status. To this end, VCP courses are prescribed in a specific order that allows development and capacity to build over time. "Since NMIVA has already done Coaching Level One and the Teacher's Training Course, the next course for you is Grassroots Beach Volleyball," Thorsteinsson explained to Laurie Peterka, NMIVA president and Gabriel White, NMIVA training and development director.

"We received notice that we were eligible to receive this free training course, so we set to work scheduling and then working with PSS to see if professional development credit would be available for PSS teachers. Eventually PSS Human Resources confirmed, so PSS teachers who participated earned 31-contact hours for completing this course," said White.

"In 2008, FIVB gave us Level 1 Coaching. In 2010, they gave us Teacher's Training. This year, we received Grassroots Beach Volleyball. All in all, Thorsteinsson and other in FIVB have recommended that we focus on further developing beach. We are doing so, while also doing everything we can to provide support to MISO for indoor development. When they first informed us that we would be given Grassroots Beach as our next course, I wasn't really sure how much benefit it would be for us given our current programs and experience, especially when so many people are interested in referee courses," said Peterka. "However, I am trusting that FIVB knows best how to guide our development."

"I have to admit that I wasn't thrilled when I heard the title of the course that we were being offered, but from the first hour on, I was hooked," said Russ Quinn, NMIVA's head coach. "Lauren's knowledge and training advice helped me see how we will improve our beach training program in the very near future."

Lauren McLeod, from Adelaide, Australia, was the instructor sent to the NMI by the FIVB. She brought with her a wealth of knowledge and experience both as a former Olympic-hopeful Australian athlete and as a current Olympic coach for the Vanuatu women's national team.

The five (5) day 31-hours course consisted of 10-hours of classroom lecture and discussion covering FIVB structure, international competition pathways, and national federation development to athlete assessment, training program design, structured goal-setting and more. The remaining 21-hours were hands-on practical implementation of theory. The week finished with a junior's training tournament on Day 5 (Sunday) where 28 youth turned out for a fun, hot day of beach volleyball coached by training course participants who helped everyone improve their games.

NMIVA would like to thank Fiesta Resort & Spa and DoCoMo Pacific for their kind sponsorship in helping make this training course possible.