Sitting Volleyball Clinics in Vancouver

Vancouver has been chosen as the first place in Canada where regularly scheduled Sitting Volleyball "Train and Play" clinics will be held.

Following a "train and play" format, the clinics are designed to provide participants with a mix of instruction and game play. The six-week sessions started on 21 February at both the G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre and the Windermere Secondary School in Vancouver.

Sitting Volleyball is a Paralympic sport that is very popular in Europe, but is quite new to Canada. The sport was introduced at the Arnhem 1980 Paralympics and is governed by the World Organization for Volleyball for the Disabled (WOVD). A high level of teamwork, skill, strategy and intensity is needed in Volleyball. Volleyball Canada has run a national team programme for both men and women since early 2007.

The clinics are being offered through the ‘Get Up and Go!’ programme, launched by the Vancouver Park Board in conjunction with the Vancouver School Board in January 2008. Under the programme, school gymnasiums are opened on Saturdays for use by the public for recreational sport programmes that were previously only held at community centres, which have become overbooked.