VX - the best sport you've never heard of!
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Lookback 2020
Paul Hildreth • 27 December 2020
Hint - this year's 'Lookback' is going to be a short one ...
The main thing to report this year is the trip to Africa in Feb/March because everything else got cancelled - no school sessions, clubs suspended and all competition cancelled - so no champions.
The year started normally enough - we had heard bits about a virus in China and were concerned for our friends in Hong Kong but apart from that all seemed normal as I flew off to Africa work with our friends in Kenya and Uganda.
I arrived in Kisumu and had a good meeting with a new contact there and we looked at a possible venue for future international events. From there it was back up to Mumias to St Peter's School. We had a busy couple of days there running sessions with the students and then had a couple of days at a school in Shibale - on our previous visit we had qualified a couple of teachers there and they wanted to now introduce the sport to their students so that they could compete against St Peter's.
After a couple of days coaching the students we got both schools together for the first Kenyan Schools Competition. Each school put two teams in and we ran a tournament between the 4 teams with a Shibale team running out winners.
And then it was on to Uganda and back to our friends in Canaan High School in Lugazi. We had worked with a small group of the senior students before and this time they were to lead on coaching other students as part of their coach qualification programme - and they did an awesome job!
Whilst in Uganda we also had meetings with VX Uganda, and VX Africa and were invited into the UBC studios to be featured on a sports programme.
Finally we took some selected students through to Kampala to compete against some students at Makerere University who are coached by our old friend Didus Businghe who is now Head Coach of the Ugandan National VX Squad.
Then it was back home to insanity - restrictions and things closing down. I arrived back on the 16th, had a meeting on the 17th and then everything locked down. Global VX cancelled all competition and took the decision that the World Cup programme would be moved back 12 months - so all VX and V2 leagues stopped - so no champions to compliment this year. All school sessions stopped and all club sessions were suspended. As we came out of lockdown one or two clubs got started again, but this only last 4 weeks or so before everything had to lock down again.
Sadly, VX fell through all the cracks so got zero support from the authorities. Even the £20m fund that Sport England had opened up to help sport - refused to VX, but we are still standing. We took the chance to catch up on some of the backlog, Global VX has been working to become a charity, we have had regular Zoom meetings with VX Africa planning the next visit as they are making big plans over there, we have rebuilt and relaunched our VX International website (still some tweaks to do but at least it is up and running); we have been migrating all of the VX domain names (this has proved to be more time-consuming and complicated than expected) and, thanks to our friend Stuart Stead, have been helping Global VX totally restructure all the Global VX and NGB web offerings (and this has also proved to be more complicated than expected but watch this space). Of course, a lot of time was also taken up sifting through the restrictions to be able to advise clubs as to what they could and couldn't do, producing procedures and updates. We have also been in discussions with Pete from the North East who is now ready to hit the ground running when things improve. More to report soon, we hope! Finally, the guys in Hong Kong continue to push forward and as part of that we now have a new Ambassador for VX - the lovely Natalie Chan has taken on the role!
So - just a short 'look back' this year. It has certainly been a strange year that has hit us very hard and we know we will need to reboot in 2021.
It just remains to say a big thank you to all of our players, volunteers, officers and coaches around the world for their involvement and for their efforts on behalf of our amazing sport. Thank you to all those people who support us and what we do.
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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!
Well, that was a fantastic event – our thanks and congratulations go to VX Hong Kong for a wonderful V2 World Championships. As we continue to rebuild after the Covid pandemic we have finally managed to have our first V2 World Championships. The Covid restrictions were lifted late in Hong Kong which meant that the organising committee were under immense pressure – they could not postpone for Covid reasons any longer otherwise they would have lost their deposit so had to organise the event with a short lead time. This also put other countries under pressure for getting things in place to travel. We had 6 countries confirming that they wished to participate – Hong Kong, England, Kenya, Uganda, India and Pakistan, however the short lead time and other circumstances conspired to make it very difficult for them. The cost of flights from the UK has more than doubled so a number of players were forced to pull out as they simply could not afford the flights. Kenya were unable to get the funding they had requested, the visas for Pakistan did not arrive in time and India suffered catastrophic flooding affecting the players who were due to travel. Uganda got some funding but not for all the players they wanted to send. This meant that the event went right back to our first ever V2 World Championships! That first event had only three countries, too so, as things turned out, this was hugely symbolic. So how did it go? The event was well-organised by VX Hong Kong- they had organised a superb venue with accommodation and squash courts – the HillTop Country Club. Players registered for the event on the Thursday and had the briefing and then things kicked off on the Friday with group matches, four groups of six players each. The top two in each group would go through to the knockout stages, the next two would go through to the knockout of the Craig Buttery Trophy and the bottom two would be eliminated. What was impressive was the progress that the players in Hong Kong have made. It was wonderful to see some old faces and to meet new faces who are making great progress with a number of players attracting a lot of interest and admiration. England’s Paul Hildreth, who had come out of retirement specifically for this event, had a shock in his first game, winning by a mere four points as Hong Kong players gave a statement of intent! Into the knockout stages and Uganda’s Mukaga John ‘Brilliant’ Brian was making spectacular progress, former World Champion Tom Hildreth was giving a masterclass as he moved through his matches. Then we reached the semi finals of the V2 World Championships – Ka Lok of Hong Kong against Mukaga John ‘Brilliant’ Brian of Uganda, and Englands Tom Hildreth and Paul Hildreth faced each other. We think that this is the first time a father and son have competed against each other in a V2 World Championships. Although Paul fought hard Tom won by 20 points to progress to the final. The other semi was a high-octane affair between to high-energy players. Unfortunately for him Mukaga caught Ka Lok in the face with the VstiX and attracted a penalty (for being too close) and then also attracted a penalty for travelling and ended up losing 70-68 and going into the 3rd place play off against veteran Paul Hildreth. The third place play off proved to be an interesting contrast of styles – Brian using his energetic style to try to overwhelm his much older opponent, however Paul brought all his experience to bear to try to control the game, doing enough to win 69-65 and grab a podium place. # The penultimate match was the Craig Buttery final, contested between Sonny and Oscar, both of Hong Kong. Oscar took the match 88-75 to claim his first trophy. Then came the final with Tom taking no chances and calling on all his experience to dominate the match and beat Ka Lok 102-56. All that remained were the presentations to be made by the Guests of Honour and then the end of tournament celebrations hosted by VX Hong Kong. Our thanks go to the Guests of Honour and to the team at VX Hong Kong. Our congratulations go to Tom Hildreth for becoming World Champion for the 4th time, to Oscar for winning the Craig Buttery trophy, to ALL the players and officials for their participation, and to VX Hong Kong for organising the rebirth of the V2 World Championships.
Paul recently drove down to Kirkby in Ashfield in Nottinghamshire to spend the day at Outwood Academy Kirkby for the launch event of the Academy as a VX Centre of Excellence. This development has been driven by the awesome Steph Kennedy and her enthusiastic colleague Paul Smith - the dynamic duo! The day saw students from across the year groups come for dedicated VX sessions. After the school day, Steph had invited local primary schools to come along for a taster session. Paul thoroughly enjoyed the day working with the students and sports leaders, saying the youngsters were a credit to the school and staff. Steph and her colleague Paul have great ideas and big plans to represent and grow our amazing sport in the local area, thinking of a regular school club, primary school competitions, secondary school competitions and regional Outwood competitions. VX is already embedded in the Outwood curriculum and Steph and Paul use it to deliver a number of areas. We could do with more 'champions' like these two who recognise the benefits that VX brings. Well done to Steph and Paul and to Outwood who gave their backing to this initiative. Thank you also to the youngsters at Outwood Kirkby for their enthusiastic participation.
OK, this is not one of our normal blog posts – it’s not VX news, but it IS something we feel we really have to write about. One of our good friends and supporters is called Stuart Stead. He runs Creative Software Limited, has developed our membership system and sponsors Global VX. He’s just launched Business Guardian Angel. What’s that we hear you ask – well it isn’t an app to protect businesses but to improve the safety and security of people. The first version is aimed at the business market. We think back to Suzy Lamplugh who was an estate agent and was murdered by a prospect she met at a property. This app is designed to give people added security and peace of mind in such situations and in many other situations, too. When an organisation implements Business Guardian Angel they will set up a ‘group’ of users. The app has two functions – HelpMe and TrackMe. With HelpMe, if a user feels threatened or intimidated or needs help urgently they can activate a call for help by a simple button press or a voice command. The system will immediately start an audio recording and send a notification to the group, one of whom will take ownership of the call. This sends an audible notification to the user that the call for help has been acknowledged. The supervisor can listen to the first short recording and decide what action to take – eg initiating a video call from within the app or calling the police. Simply hearing that help is on the way might deter some perpetrators, but even if the situation continues the system will continue to record (gathering evidence) and showing the location on a map. The supervisor can continue to monitor the location and liaise with the emergency services. This is perfect for any organisation that has employees out in the field – care workers, council workers, social services, estate agents, just to name a few. It is an ideal tool for the HR department to look after workers in their organisation – if someone is being subjected to bullying or harassment this system can gather evidence. The second function, TrackMe, can be switched on at the beginning of a journey. Again, a member of the group will take ownership and will be able to monitor the journey. There are far too many occurrences where a person goes missing on the way to or from work or to some other destination. This app would be invaluable in those cases. Following the release of Business Guardian Angel, Family Guardian Angel is also due to be launched. This is intended to be a free version (funded by advertising). Stuart tells us that times are hard and that he doesn’t want anyone to have to compromise their safety because they can’t afford it. As far as we are concerned every business and every family should have this – it’s perfect for families with kids - parents can track the kids on the way home, it can solve playground bullying situations. It’s even useful in cases of domestic abuse. Women walking alone, university students – there are so many applications. Everyone should have it. At VX International we are very proud that we were the first business to sign up for this for our core staff who travel and are out on the road. www.theguardianangelservice.com Please share this – everyone should be using this!
We get it - times are hard for everyone, families and businesses and in schools and colleges budgets are ever more squeezed. We have therefore decided that it is time to hold a Spring Sale. We've never held a sale before - we've not needed to, but we thought this was maybe a way in which we could help. For our Spring Sale we are offering 30% of all VstiX and Carry Bags. That includes VstiX Pro, XVstiX Junior and the remaining limited edition Predators. We have already had a great response to this from people who are delighted with the reduction and we hope that it will make a substantial difference to any individual or organisation considering purchasing VstiX. The sale will run until April 30th 2023 and until then it will replace all other discounts. If you want to take advantage of the sale please email Paul on pmh@vxinternational.com
We wanted to take the opportunity to offer our heartiest congratulations to England International Dan Shuker who was recently named as Global VX's Person of the Year for 2022. Dan has been a VX-er for many years now and was taken to an England trial by his then coach Matty Horsfield. He hasn't looked back and has been a stalwart of the England squad - in fact Dan has participated in every tournament since becoming a member of the squad, including every single foreign trip and competition. Most recently Dan was one of the three people who travelled to Graz to represent VX as a demonstration sport at the Racketlon World Cup. It is this dedication and commitment that convinced Global VX that Dan would be a worthy recipient of their annual reward - and we totally agree. Well done. Dan! Very well deserved.
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!
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