Success at the Paralympics?

Sitting volleyball is an outstanding sport in which people with and without a handicap can join together and actively pass, spike and dig for victory.

The name is misleading

Even if sitting volleyball is played "sitting" on the hall floor, it has absolutely nothing to do with "sitting around"! Sitting volleyball is probably the fastest team ball sport. Speed, fast reactions, fitness and teamwork are the most important attributes required in sitting volleyball. Many people with and without a handicap find it difficult, or even painful, to play volleyball standing up. Sitting volleyball is perfectly suitable for exactly this target group. In quite a few cases, this explains why this demanding hobby has become a passion, mainly for leg amputee athletes.

Rules of the game

In sitting volleyball, the players shuffle around sitting down on the ground, using their whole bodies, but particularly with the help of their arms and legs. Otherwise the rules are the same as in volleyball, but with minor exceptions.

       The serve can be blocked.

       The court is smaller than a normal volleyball court at 6 x 10 m.

       The net hangs lower; between 1.05 metres for women and 1.15 metres for men.

At international events, at least five players with a handicap must be on the court. In addition, a "Minimal Handicap Player“, who has "only" a minor disability, can play as well. However, these rules are not taken so seriously in Germany, where every sportsman who is enthusiastic about sitting volleyball is given the opportunity to join in and play. However, one rule does apply to everybody: at the moment of ball contact, the player must have his/her bottom on the ground.

Sitting volleyball in Germany

The sitting volleyball strongholds in Germany are Berlin, Leverkusen, Leipzig, Hamburg and Magdeburg. But sitting volleyball is also played in other cities.

Sitting volleyball in Magdeburg

Mandy Küsel, founder of the first walking school for leg amputees in Magdeburg and qualified AMPU-NOWA trainer (Nordic walking for leg amputees), also set up Magdeburg's first sitting volleyball team, the Sivobas, in 2003.
In association with Magdeburg's largest volleyball club (HSV Medizin), 12 male and female players train here regularly. This year too, the mixed team will be playing together at the German Championships in Magdeburg in mid-October. The team has developed continuously since its inauguration in 2003. This is illustrated particularly well by the fact that four of the women players belong to the German national sitting volleyball team squad.

New blood in sitting volleyball

All the German sitting volleyball teams have one thing in common; they have been plagued by the lack of newcomers for many years.
A few players have been recruited and integrated in the work of the clubs thanks to a wide variety of campaigns and events hosted by the sitting volleyball club we4sports e.V. But that is still not enough, so the search for potential players goes on.

Anybody who'd like to give sitting volleyball a try is welcome any time, even if he or she hasn't had any experience with volleyball.
Those interested can find more information at www.sivoba.de or teammanager@sivoba.de at any time.

Sitting volleyball ladies - National team

The German ladies team is certainly a special sitting volleyball project. A truly one-time only campaign was started in 2006 on the initiative of a few "volleyball madcaps", and against the wishes of the association. Under the title "Germany seeks the Sivostar" [a play on the title of the German TV equivalent to Pop Idol in the UK], potential players were auditioned and formed into a team that was to face trial by fire at the European Championship in 2007. They just missed the target, qualification for the 2008 Paralympics in Peking, but the work for the German ladies' team and their coaches Sven Ritter and Frank Weißleder goes on. The team is currently preparing for the European Championship in Elblag in Poland. In Elblag, the team wants to fight to qualify for the World Championships in the US; the first major step on the way to the next Paralympics in London 2012.

In 2009, the association awarded the German ladies' team the long-yearned for status of National team. They are now assured basic funding for several training camps and funding for the European Championship. Since they still have to finance important international competitions in preparation for the pending EC out of their own pockets, the support association we4sports e.V. is also actively supporting them and helping them out financially.

It's the same in sitting volleyball as it is in all other competitive sports: no great sporting targets can be met without the sponsors' financial support. So the support association always has its eyes open for promoters and sponsors who are willing to support the German sitting volleyball ladies.

All those who would like to support sitting volleyball, and especially the work of the German ladies' national team, with help, donations or sponsoring are welcome any time. In this case, please contact kontakt@we4sports.de or Stefan Krohn on +49 (0) 172 3 92 83 55.