Report on Small Sided Games

Introduction

ParaVolley Europe (PVE) and VolleySLIDE (VS) are working together with World ParaVolley (WPV) regarding the implementation of a small sided game to be used for low level competitions, aimed at aiding the development of new Sitting Volleyball players.

It is planned that this small sided game will be of particular use for junior, youth and young adult players. However, the long term plan should be to develop a full pathway of modified games so that new/younger players can move through the various formats ending up at the 6 v 6 game with a fully developed range of the required tactical and technical skills.

The concept and motive behind the use of small sided games is a reduced number of players equals a higher number of ball contacts, and consequently a greater number of learning opportunities.

This report concludes a questionnaire that was written by PVE Development Department and VolleSLIDE, aimed at finding out what formats (smaller than the traditional 6 v 6) of the game coaches in Europe were already using, or they would prefer to use among younger/beginning players within their countries, both in training and in competition.

It must be emphasized that ParaVolley Europe fully believes that it is to the advantage of our sport to have a standard approach across the whole of the world and that with coaches’ input we can develop the most suitable game for our young players.

Method

PVE Development Department (Suvi Blechschmidt and Ferhat Esatbeoglu) ran the research by doing individuals interviews with representatives from all teams during 2015 Men’s European Championship in Germany and 2015 Women’s European Championship in Slovenia.

A total number of 19 people from 19 different countries participated in this study. The questionnaire consisted of questions such as court size, net height, number of players, age groups, rules, ball size, official name as well as some open ended questions such as whether the coaches are familiar with the proposed formats and any other comments that can be useful for the development of the game for young players. The means of the answers received were calculated and rounded up to higher closest numbers or to lower numbers.

Results

The findings revealed that the coaches had very different opinions on the court sizes. Some had opinions that the court should have regular length (5m per side), but be more narrow; some thought that it would be simple if the court size could be easily adapted from the sitting volleyball court size; some expressed that the beach sitting volleyball court size could be used. In general the court sizes of 4,5 m x 4,5 m/5 m were very often mentioned during the interviews.

Court size conclusion

• 4.5 m x 4.5 m
• 4.5 m x 5 m

With regards to net height, 1.00 m for the girls, 1.10 – 1.15 m for the boys was stated by the most coaches. The height for mixed teams got very few suggestions and the scale was really big between 1.00-1.15 m. Some pointed out that when a team has players from different age classes the oldest player should determine the height of the net. It was also discussed that the net height is not so relevant in the beginning and many times the higher net gives a player more time to move to the right position etc.

Net height conclusion

• Girls : 1.00 m
• Boys : 1.10 m – 1.15 m
• Mixed : 1.00 m – 1.15 m

With respect to number of players per team, over 10 coaches said 3v3 would be the most ideal number of players among youth age. This was based on the fact that there are three touches in volleyball. But also 4v4 player number was preferred by some coaches.

Number of players conclusion

• 3 v 3
• 4 v 4

We asked the coaches to tell us what would be the most ideal age groups for small sided games. The most of the coaches mentioned the ages between 14

and 21. Also age classes of 8-10 were brought up. At this point young players can not be divided to clear age categories because there is a lack of young players in many countries there are very often only few players available within the same category. Especially in small countries, and many times also in new countries, it would be a problem to have a team only in one age class. This situation is of course very much different in the countries which already have plenty of young players for all age classes.

Age groups conclusion

• 14 -21 years old
• 8-10 years old

16 coaches out of 18 were familiar with small sided games. Among the coaches the small sided games were understood as the games they use for training the tactics and warming up. Most of them also had the opinion that the regular sitting volleyball rules should be used with young players as well.

Furthermore, there were several ideas e.g. ParaSmash, ParaSitvolley, smallsitvolley of the official name for small sided games. Nevertheless, according to the coaches’ consensus, “YouthParaVolley” would be the most appropriate official name for small sided games.

It was stated when discussing the different name options that it would not be preferable to use “mini” or “small” prefixe because they make and show the sport less important.

Miscellaneous discussions

Coaches also emphasized that maturation, growth and anthropometric attributes of young players must be taken into consideration when developing the game for them.

Classification is not the most relevant point at this moment, but there were a few comments during the conversations with the coaches regarding competition. For example, a team could consist of one able-bodied player in the team i.e. one able bodied, one minimally disabled and two players with an impairment on the court.

Other conclusions

• Classification
• Maturation/growth of players
• Regular ball for > 13 years old age • Bigger, lighter and softer for the < 13 y.o.a

Another point made by the coaches was regarding the ball size. There were different views; some of them stressed out that the ball size could be the size of a regular ball (> 13 years of age) and others pointed out that ball should be lighter, softer and bigger due to the physical characteristics of the young players.

Rules

• allow a bounce
• no attacking (spiking)
• ongoing rotation
• Additional touches
• Serve on the serve line and/or close, in the court

What’s more, coaches also emphasized that there could be additional touches (3 touches in regular SV) so the rally continues and serve can be performed on the serve line, close to court and/or in the court. Also a bounce could be allowed in order to make the game easier for younger beginners. An ongoing rotation with those on the bench would give players a chance to be part of the game all the time.

Conclusion

The aim of this survey was to get the insight into the coaches’ perspectives to adapt ParaVolley rules and regulations for younger players. In general the idea to have an official international form of sitting volleyball for youth was taken very positively by the coaches.

It is important to mention that the cultural differences and traditions in each European country play a significant role in these answers. As it was noticed during the interviews the sitting volleyball countries with big number of young players do not face the same problems like smaller countries or new countries.

Some countries already have age categories and have been playing according to those already for many years. Meanwhile some countries are struggling to get six young players in one team. Not to mention that those six players would be from the same age category.

The development of the small sided games goes further and based on this study and the answers of the European key coaches ParaVolley Europe and VolleySLIDE will run the pilot of the small sided games at the ParaVolley Youth Camp in June 2016 in Elblag.

We want to thank all the coaches and teams for giving us your time and taking part in our survey.

February 2016
PVE Development & VolleySLIDE