We sent KMTV reporter and indoor volleyball player Finn Macdiarmid to meet the beach players looking to make a hit of the sport in Canterbury.
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00:00Brazil, Spain, France and now Kent. While volleyball is highly played and watched around
00:05the world, here in the UK it falls short when compared to our other national sports.
00:10One club, Invicta Volleyball, are looking to change that, starting with a three-day
00:14beach training camp in Canterbury, despite being an indoor team.
00:18It's a fantastic opportunity to train, to get a different experience of volleyball,
00:23to play outdoors, it's quite a social aspect to this version of the game as well, and this
00:30is an opportunity to play a different version of volleyball.
00:33It's great for development because it's two-a-side as opposed to six-a-side, so you're getting
00:36a lot more contact on the ball. You're able to experience the whole game, whereas indoors
00:41you've got a specialised position. Out here you're doing everything, you're passing, setting,
00:45hitting, defending, blocking, you're doing the whole thing.
00:47This beach volleyball court is unique in that it's the closest to Calais, which has more
00:52registered volleyball players than the entirety of England, showing just how popular it is
00:56in other countries.
00:58Along with this training, the club has increased their efforts to get volleyball on the map,
01:02starting with outreach programmes in schools.
01:05I've just signed an apprenticeship with Invicta Volleyball, and that entails I'm going to do
01:10a lot of coaching, a lot of advertising and having them work behind the scenes. And the
01:16outreach programme, we're going to be going to schools ages 7-11 with Volleystart, delivering
01:23coaching at schools or independently here. It can be indoor volleyball, beach volleyball,
01:30and it's just to get kids into volleyball and expand volleyball in the community.
01:35Invicta, who have training sessions in Maidstone and Canterbury, are hoping to move away from
01:39their more recreation-based model after their promotion to the National Volleyball League,
01:43which will start in September.
01:45Now I've played volleyball for three years, but I'd never tried the beach version.
01:49Now beach volleyball has a few key differences to its indoor counterpart, you know, aside
01:54from all the sand. It's actually perfect for training. Because of the sand, it's harder
01:59to move around, and there's also only ever two players on it once, meaning you've got
02:03more time to set, dig, spike or whatever you feel like doing. So I'm going to see if someone
02:09like me, who's been, you know, sitting behind a desk all this time, can still play.
02:13I normally rely on my height for indoor volleyball, but that didn't help me much, as the sand
02:17was a less solid surface, and my legs certainly felt the burn. It didn't help that I was just
02:22plain out of practice, but it was nice to get out into the sun and get some exercise.
02:27Well, don't be put off by my skill level. It's not quite as hard as it looks.
02:33Finn McDermid for KMTV in Canterbury.