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The two 'big' clubs in Staffordshire are Newcastle and Tamworth. Here's an introduction to them plus links to other volleyball clubs in the county.

Newcastle Volleyball Club

The Newcastle Volleyball Club men's team has been going for over 23 years when two 2 local school teams merged.

They've been successful ever since with promotion after promotion until they reached National League status!

The Ladies team has been going around 4 years and also play in the National League....top stuff girls!

Tamworth Volleyball Club

Tamworth Volleyball Club was established over 25 years ago. They operates five competitive teams at local and regional level for ladies, men and mixed fixtures.

They also have a Junior Academy and Adult Recreation sessions details of which can be found on the website.

Players of all standards and all ages are welcome. Call Ian Wall on 07730 201176 for more information.

Volleyball England

There are many other clubs, schools, colleges and universities in Staffordshire where you can play.

Volleyball England is the national organisation. It's easy to search for a local club on their website:

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Local journalist Brad Clark looks at why volleyball is not overly popular in the UK...

It has 800 million players worldwide and is the second largest participated sport on the planet. More Italians play it than football, and it has more affiliated national federations than any other sport. So why is volleyball such a small sport in the UK?

Not so far away in some European countries, volleyball is the national sport and attracts thousands of supporters every game.

Just across the channel in France, volleyball is seen as a huge sport and teams there compete at the highest level in Europe while in Hungary, Russia and Italy, crowds of between 6,000 and 10,000 turn out every week to watch their local side play.

Over here however, British volleyball has found itself in a vicious circle. Lack of public interest means media coverage is small, and because of the small media coverage, public interest is lessened.

But, perhaps there are some underlying reasons as to why volleyball has never been a big sport over here?

Blame the weather

Perhaps it is our climate that is responsible for poor volleyball participation. We lie in the middle of the climate scale; not too hot, not too cold. In countries where volleyball is massive, they have one extreme of the scale. Poland is too cold for outdoor sports while Brazil is hot enough to play volleyball outdoors regularly.

In England, where weather allows us to play sports such as football and rugby near enough all year round, is there no space in British society for volleyball?

Will Roberts

Will Roberts, captain of Newcastle Staffs Volleyball club and one of the best volleyball players in the UK, thinks that awareness is the main factor for volleyball being such a small sport.

鈥淥ne of the reasons why more people don鈥檛 come along and watch volleyball is because of knowledge. Not many people in this country know about it.鈥�

2012 Olympics

With Great Britain entering a team for the first time in the 2012 Olympics, maybe it is now that Britain should begin to open their eyes to this unknown sport.

Roberts admits that volleyball will never be as big as football or rugby over here, but thinks it can become a bigger sport; perhaps if people learnt about it.

鈥淧eople have these beliefs that all volleyball players are giants at 6鈥�8 and above when that鈥檚 not true.鈥�

鈥淭o play volleyball it obviously helps to be tall but this is not a definite requirement and players can certainly be successful using other attributes.鈥�

Roberts can use himself as a worthy example. At 6ft tall he is no giant, instead Roberts credits his other attributes to his successful career.

鈥淰olleyball is all about ball skills so if you are someone who has played a ball sport then you will pick up volleyball quickly. It鈥檚 about how you respond to a volleyball coming at you. Your body needs to be in the right position so you need to understand how to move your body.

Transferable skills

鈥淭here are loads of transferable skills such as movement around a court. If you have played tennis, squash or badminton then you understand how to move around a court and this is the same as in volleyball You need to have short range dynamic movements which allow you to travel round court quickly.

鈥淵ou also need to have a good jumping technique. It may sound silly but lots of kids we teach don鈥檛 know how to jump. It isn鈥檛 all about muscles in your legs; it鈥檚 also about your jumping technique. All height does is give you a slight advantage, but to be a good player it takes so much more.鈥�

So there we have it; volleyball. Perhaps a sleeping giant in this country waiting to be awoken with an alarm clock set for 2012. If it is good enough for 800 million people worldwide, it might be good enough for you.

Brad Clark