NUIM Volleyball Club operates at a variety of levels:
- We provide NUIM students with volleyball activities of suitable level running beginners, men and women weekly sessions.
- We take an active part in the CUSAI Volleyball League, where we have outstanding records there (our women’s team and men’s team were respectively semi-finalists and finalists last year, and we won the trophy repetitively the previous few years).
- We hold social volleyball sessions on Friday evenings, open to non-NUIM players as well. Many of those were part of the NUIM team which competed in the Men’s National League in 2008-09.
- We are active members of the Volleyball Association of Ireland (VAI), the chief volleyball organism in the country. Last year the VAI ran an Introduction to Volleyball Coaching Course in our hall. The attendance was unusually high for such a course, especially from clubs situated in the midlands. The VAI was thereby given a sample of the strategic position of NUIM to the development of volleyball in Ireland.
The club’s president and chief coach, Matthew Hodgkinson, completed in 2009 a level 1 coaching course, the highest such qualification to be obtained in Ireland. Matthew’s role as a coach this year will regard the coaching of the CUSAI men’s and women’s teams. The club’s secretary, Stephen Guyard, completed the level 0 coaching course, and this year will be assigned the coaching of the beginners.
Where beginners are concerned, the club aims to create an environment where they can develop their abilities having fun and socialising with volleyball partners. We thus want to bring them to a standard where they are familiar with the rules and the fundamental techniques and practices of volleyball. As most of them are first years, our dearest wish is to see them come back in 2010-2011 as enthusiastic, experienced volleyball players, ready to proceed to the next level.
Experienced players are formed into our men’s and women’s CUSAI teams, and each team is allocated a session (men’s on Tuesdays, women’s on Thursdays). At this level, a greater focus is put on team work. The good working of our teams will be put to trial through friendlies against clubs from the area of Dublin (e.g. Aer Lingus, Ballymun, Pinoy Dublin…) early this academic year. By the time the CUSAI finals arrive in May, we shall have reached the standards to compete with such teams as DCU, UCC and UCD.
At a regular training, October 2007