2022 Look Back
Paul Hildreth • 29 December 2022
It's been a strange year - but we have made progress
This will sadly be another short report as we still continue to try to recover from the damage caused by Covid.
Let's get the bad news out of the way to start with. The first bit of bad news is that the world's most successful VX Club has had to close. You may remember that, last year, club coach Carl Alsop had to step down for personal/family reasons and that Leigh Branton was stepping in to keep the club going. Leigh has kept it going for a year but finds himself in the same boat and is also having to step down because of external pressures. We are very grateful to Leigh for his hard work in keeping the club going. At least some of the York players will now be training as guests of Easi-RockIts VX Club but keeping their York identity.
We have unfortunately not been able to hold the postponed World Cup in Hong Kong as Covid restrictions have remained very strict. These have recently started to ease a little so we are hopeful of running the postponed World Cup in Hong Kong in 2023.
The last bit of bad news is that we had hoped to welcome coaches from Uganda and Kenya to the UK. This hasn't happened for various reasons but is still planned and we hope it will happen in the coming year.
And now on to better news:
VX Hong Kong are World Record Holders! Have a look at this link https://sdgs.un.org/goals
VX Hong Kong are working on goals 3 and 5 in their development of VX in the region, and have already achieved goal 10! Congratulations to VX Hong Kong.
News from VX England now. We are delighted that Pete Gonsalves from Sunderland and Leah Drake from near Ripon are joining Ian Crosby on the Board of VX England. Leah has been playing VX since she was 7 and is going to be events organiser. The first events she will be looking at are the V2 National Finals and the 365 Invitational Trophy. Pete has been involved in VX for a while now and was keen to take a larger role. He also heads up VX North East.
We now have a new NGB! Mr Sardar Z M Hassni contacted us and as satisfied all the requirements and has set up VX Pakistan. We are delighted to welcome our friends from Pakistan to the VX Family and look forward to seeing them at international competition.
The big news from 2022 is that Tom and Paul along with England International Dan Shuker went over to Graz for the Racketlon World Championships where VX was to be a demonstration sport. They were there for four days and demonstrated outside to passers by and inside on the squash courts. VX was very well-received (as usual) and the guys at Racketlon put a nice little video together. You can find it on https://tv.vxinternational.com. Not only that, they wanted to keep the VX equipment to use when they go into schools to introduce Racketlon. They thought that VX would an accessible, fun activity to get the kids started.
More big news is that VX has partnered with WiiStream so that VX can provide its own video-streaming platform. You can find it on https://tv.vxinternational.com. This is a massive step forward for VX. Please go and have a look at it- you need to sign up to view the videos but it is free to do so. We look forward to getting more and more video content up on there.
In 2021 VX International was named Regional Sports Organisation of the Year - well, we only went and won it for the second year running! 'The judges praised the simplicity and inclusivity of VX as a sport ... Those taking up the sport for the first time quickly become seduced by the non-stop, fast and furious fun, which is especially appealing for those who sometimes find other more proscriptive sports more difficult. The gender-neutral and respectful game comes without the baggage of more traditional sports and it is therefore able to give opportunities to a wider range of people.'
Finally - we are entertaining hopes that the 2023 VX and V2 World Cups will go ahead in Hong Kong. Covid restrictions have started to ease back a little and we are hopeful that we will finally get our postponed World Cups. The 2024 V2 World Cup is already scheduled for Uganda.
All that remains now is to thank you all for your support and wish you a healthy, happy and successful 2023!
The proactive and inspirational patron of VX Kenya is very keen to see VX spread through schools in Kenya and then into the rest of East Africa. He has just messaged to inform us that they will be showcasing VX at high profile school games that are to be launched by President Rutto. Kenya is to host the East Africa High Schools Games in Western Kenya - there will be participants from Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, South Sudan and Tanzania. We hope this goes well and VX experience the usual response!
The team in Hong Kong continue to push forward with the sport and we are delighted to hear that they were one of the sports featured in the Government's Sport for All event. If you remember VX Hong Kong hosted the most recent VX World Championships and this gave a great boost to their efforts. Our thanks go to the team in Hong Kong for their hard work in growing and developing the sport.
I have been working closely with some organisations in Africa, predominantly Kenya and Uganda. I did a lot of work with the inspirational Cosmas Nabungolo who was principal of St Peter’s Boys’ School in Mumias. Cosmas has now moved to St Joseph’s nearer Nairobi and is working hard to improve the school and the provision to his young charges. Cosmas has worked hard to develop VX in Kenya and, as you can see, is keen to develop it further and spread it further through East Africa. As part of this he wishes to obtain digital cameras and equipment and, if possible, a drone Is there anyone out there who has any such equipment lying unused and unwanted? It could be put to very good use in Kenya. If you are in a position to help, please get in touch Many thanks
You probably don't know but VX was actually launched at the Youth Sport Trust Conference in Feb 2006, in its previous guise as Rock-it-Ball. We attended several YST Conferences but hadn't been back for several years until last year where we met Lucy from PE Office. This year Global VX were back - and Lucy came to join them on the stand. The conference itself was great and having Lucy there was a great help. Not only that, the materials that VX and PE Office have created were available as a free download. VX created a lot of interest, we had several people throwing balls around and we made lots of contacts. Thank you to the YST for a great conference and to Lucy and PE office for their support
Last year at the Youth Sport Trust Conference we met Lucy from PE Office. She was interested to hear about VX and we had a good chat. She suggested we should collaborate on the development of VX materials and over the past year we have been doing just that. Between us we have developed a six week module with scheme of work, detailed lesson plans and video clips (filmed at our Regional Centre of Excellence, Outwood Academy, Kirkby - thanks, guys!). The resources are free to download from PE Office - just click this link and follow the instructions: https://zurl.co/XgArD We are delighted with this new relationship and look forward to working more with PE Office in the future.
VX is making great strides in Kenya under the leadership of it's inspirational patron Mr Cosmas Nabungolo. In order to support this we were looking forward very much to welcoming two Kenyan players in January so we could qualify them as coaches and give them a thorough VX education. We had a full programme planned including coach qualification, going into schools and VX clubs. We also had sessions planned with some of the top players. We had written letters of support in which we undertook to provide accommodation and subsistence over here and to cater for all their travel needs. We guaranteed to collect them from the airport and then return them to the airport at the end. We found out today that the visas have been refused - on the grounds that (a) they didn't demonstrate enough of a tie to their home country and (b) they don't earn enough therefore the bureaucrats decide they probably aren't going to return to Kenya. One of the girls is a businesswoman with investments and her bank statements have helped people get visas to the US. Knowing it was going to be cold she had bought a whole load of warm clothes and is now well out of pocket. Let's contrast this with what happens to people who come across in rubber dinghies illegally - they are accommodated in 3* or 4* hotels, given smartphones, food, spending money and free access to immigration lawyers. They are also provided with free medical and dental care on site. We are told this costs the country £41,000 per year per person. Like most bureaucrats this lot want an easy life - dealing with the hordes of illegal immigrants is too much like hard work so, to 'show they are tackling immigration' and to go some way to meeting their targets they take the low-hanging fruit, the people who are trying to do things legally, the right way. They're an easy target and this isn't the first time this has happened to us as we try to grow the sport abroad. We have been hit with many problems as we have tried to grow VX but the single biggest obstacle to our development has been - bureaucrats. We are very sorry for the two young ladies who were due to come over and who were excited to spend a couple of weeks gaining a VX education. Girls- we can only apologise.
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VX has entered into a collaboration with PE Office to produce teaching materials for VX. The first will be a 6-week module of lesson plans with video clips to accompany. We have spent time with the guys from PE Office filming teaching points and skills & drills for the first batch of resources. You can find PE Office at https://peoffice.co.uk For any purchases made through PE Office there will also be an additional discount over and above the standard education discount. vXciting times ...
We have just heard from Global VX that the 2024 V2 World Championships that were due to be held in Uganda have unfortunately had to be postponed until 2025. This is due to circumstances beyond the control of Global VX. Global send their apologies to the VX Community and look forward to seeing everyone in Uganda in 2025.
This is where it all started. VX, or Rock-it-Ball as it was called then, was launched at the Youth Sports Trust Sports Colleges Conference in Feb 2005 where it was an immediate hit! This was in the days of Sports Colleges, School Sports Partnerships (SSPs) and Partnership Development Managers (PDMs). PDMs couldn't get enough of it - it ticked all their boxes. Best of all was it helped increase participation as it is a sport that is accessible to all. Suddenly there was something for the less-sporty kids. PDMs and schools all over the country adopted the sport at a rate of knots. The YST loved the values of the sport and included it in a number of their programmes including TOP Activity that was supported by Sainsburys. Since then the landscape has changed - no more SSPs and PDMs. There has been changeover of staff and some schools have the equipment but no longer know what to do with it. Even though the landscape has changed VX has made amazing progress: a presence in 26 countries clubs, leagues, tournaments different versions international competition - test match series, annual singles World Cup, 4-yearly team world cup ... The BBC called it 'the best sport you've never heard of' - If you're going to be at the conference why not pop along and see Global VX on stand NGB15 and find out what all the fuss is about - and ask them about the conference discount!
