68 years Sittingvolleybal

The International Start

of

SittingVolleyball 1981

24 april 1981 founding meeting   " International    Volleyball Committee for Disabled "

A meeting is called for the team leaders of the participating countries to install an International Committee for Volleyball in the ISOD
Present: PieterJoon Chairman. The representatives of: Luxembourg, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, Germany. Apologies have been received from Finland, Yugoslavia, Denmark and Austria.
The chairman shows and explains the structure of the new committee

1. The committee's board will consist of 6 people with 2 subcommittees for trainers and referees. The chairmen of the trainers and referee committees are members of the Board.

2. The trainers committee will collect all technical materials and training methods for training trainers in all countries.

3. The referees committee. will try to select the best referees from all countries for the Championships. During these championships they are responsible for guiding and appointing the referees. They are responsible for training the referees.

4. The Board will establish a schedule for Board elections. They will make proposals for changes to the rules and the organization and allocations of Championship and a policy to develop the Game world wide.. The committee is responsible for all matters relating to volleyball in the ISOD

The members of this committee believe that they, together with Mr L. Softley, (England Standing Volleyball) are authorized to also represent the interests of Standing Volleyball in ISOD.
The chairman informed the representatives that the ISOD has indicated by letter that this selected committee will be a recognized ISOD volleyball committee.

The Countries then elected the following persons to the Volleyball Committee
Chairman Pieter Joon (NED), Knut Aga (Nor) secretary, Heinz Haep (Ger) member, Arie 't Hart (Ned) trainers, Lasse Barlund (Swe) referees, Len Softley (GBR) Standing Volleyball.

foto:  Pieter Joon receives the congratulations from  Heins Haep (GER) , wishing him all the success to develop  Sitting Volleyball  world wide.

ISOD classificatie voor Sitting Volleyball :

The Chairman does not want a medical influence on athletes who want to play sport.  Is there a medical limitation to play Indoor Volleyball than that is  enough for us. This is also the minimum handicap required by IPC to participate in the Paralympics

No personal classification and no points system, as is customary in other Paralympics sports.

This concept of Sitting Volleyball allows athletes to show their abilities and not the disabilities.. The position that a disability must be visible is discriminatory and denies thousands with a serious permanent  injury the right to sport.

In every official international tournament there must be a competent Volleyball  classifier present. for the purpose of new players

Three important decisions taken by the Assembly for the upcoming international championships.

1. The height of the net decreases from 1.20 m to 1.15 m.

2. There is no classification/point system in Sitting Volleyball, as used in Standing Volleyball. In Sitting Volleyball only a "minimum handicap" description. Standing Volleyball may use their existing classification model

3. Develop a clear classification description to determine the minimum handicap for the "Sitting Volleyball" group. Have this minimum handicap determined on the advice of players, coaches and physios.

A memorable decision: Dutch sitting volleyball, with its own character, becomes an international sport.

Classification systems ISOD , ISMGF and "les Autres" are not followed, but only a minimum definitive handicap.

The Chairmen asked the countries their views on the ISOD, ISMGF classification rules and the proposal for "les autres" disabled athletes with motor disabilities made by med. classifier of ISOD. After a small discussion, all countries came to the following advice to the ISOD medical committee:

""All disabled athletes classifiable according to ISMGF, ISOD, CP-ISRA and all other disabled athletes with a definitive sports disability should be allowed to play National and International Sitting volleyball."

The proposal that athletes should have at least a "visible" disability is not recommended by the chairman. He stated that there are more athletes in the disabled and les autres category than just those with a "visible disability". All countries present agreed that the ISOD Medical Committee can create an international player ID card for Volleyball, whereby these "indicated" athletes can participate National and International Sitting Volleyball.

Point system and classification. (ISOD proposal): All countries do not want a points system for the players and for the composition of a team, especially no classification per player for the above reason