It's been a year
Paul Hildreth • 2 March 2021
Exactly a year ago I was with our VX family in Africa
At the end of February 2020 I flew out to help move our VX friends in Kenya and Uganda to the next level. As I left there were indications that some strange virus was approaching from the East, but the country I left in February was as normal as can be. Two weeks later, when I returned the country was transformed.
The trip to Africa itself was very successful - I love it in Kenya and Uganda and I love the people down there. In Kenya I was again hosted by St Peter's Boys School in Mumias which is to be the Kenyan National Centre of Excellence and where a large part of VX Kenya is based. The Head of VX Africa, Robert Bakaze (who incidentally is the person who brought VX to Africa in the first place) came across to join me. The head of St Peter's is the inspirational and influential Cosmas Nabungolo who is the patron of VX Kenya. We ran a training day at St Peter's and then did two days at Shibale where two of the teachers had qualified as coaches on my previous visit. We also visited Kisumu and scouted a venue for a potential future international tournament.
On the Saturday we then ran the first ever inter-school tournament in Kenya, with Shibale running out narrow winners.
From there it was over to Uganda where we were again based at Canaan School in Lugazi. This is where a large part of the Ugandan NGB is based and is also destined to be the Ugandan National Centre of Excellence. There is a group of older kids there who are heavily into VX - an absolutely wonderful bunch of young people. We spent a lot of time developing their skills and qualifying them as coaches so they can work with the awesome David Atayo. As well as the time spent in the school we were also featured on the Ugandan Broadcasting Corporation and took some students to Kampala to compete against players from the university club run by Ugandan International and Head Coach, our good friend, Didus Businghe.
I returned home with lots of plans to build on the trip but I returned to insanity. I arrived back and had a meeting scheduled. I managed to attend the meeting and then the following day everything shut down!
So what have we managed to achieve from this trip and where has Covid stopped us?
Canaan were to set up a VX Club - and they have done this. We have quite a major announcement about this to come in the next couple of weeks. Watch this space.
VX Kenya were in the process of registering with the government. We think this has been completed.
Kenyan and Ugandan players were to have participate in the World Cup - that was cancelled. We still need to decide whether it goes ahead this year or is postponed again to 2022.
We should have hosted a couple of people from Kenyan and 3 from Uganda already but that could not happen due to Covid. We look forward to hosting them as soon as possible
So - most of what came out of that trip is still only a plan:
- we look forward to hosting 3 people from Canaan
- we look forward to hosting a couple of people from St Peter's
- we are looking forward very much to revisiting them asap
- we do have an announcement to make about Canaan VX Club - watch this space
- both Kenya and Uganda are very keen for an England squad to visit
- we have discussed with VX India the possibility of an Indian VX Team playing a test match series against VX Kenya and VX Uganda
- we need to look closely at the Covid situation and timescale to make a decision on the World Cup
- Cosmas has asked that on one of my visits a couple of top players accompany me.
- On the next visit the guys in Kenya and Uganda want to push into Rwanda or Tanzania
The most important thing is - we look forward to visiting again - we miss you guys. It has been a very strange year that has hit us hard but we will be back!
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.
The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.
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!
