A year of sitting volleyball in Legnano
Legnano – Last year the Vomien company introduced the Sitting Volley which is an adapted volleyball (played sitting on the ground) and initially intended for disabled athletes. Sitting Volleyball is the Paralympic discipline that best embodies the values of inclusion and is aimed at both disabled athletes and able-bodied athletes. The Sitting Volley project is allowing us to get to know and deal with many unknown realities. We had meetings with voluntary bodies and associations and schools, bringing sitting into their structures. The first step was to train the coaches, on 22 April 2023 it was held in Legnano, at Palazzo Leone da Perego in the hall of Legnano Sports Associations the first meeting of the training course organized by the PGS National Training Area for sitting volleyball coaches held by teacher Massimo Viganò. Present at the meeting, in addition to the coaches, the President of the Milan Pgs committee Marina Oltolini, Simona Bisin, the Lawyer Anna Pontani, City Councilor of the municipality of Legnano, Anna Cargnel (National PGS Councilor) and Anna Pavan, Deputy Mayor of the City of Legnano, all intervened in the debate providing fruitful considerations.
A multi-stage journey
The birth process of the project in question unfolded in several phases.
“Priority – explain from ASD Vomien SS Martiri Legnano–was the project idea formulated by the Vomien SS Martiri company of Legnano which was followed by a feasibility study which found the support of the Municipality of Legnano, the ASSL of Legnano as well as in the sports sector by the PGS National Training Area. The time was then ripe to start the first training course for coaches. Once the training process was completed, the companies involved then organized Open Days at their headquarters to provide interested parties with the contents and methods of carrying out the sporting activity. In Legnano on Saturday 6 May we continued with the fundamentals of the game, on Saturday 13 May, with physical preparation and game systems. The last match at the Palazzetto dello Sport in Senago: Monday 22 May, with exercises and tests on the pitch. During the course, training and teaching methodologies and specific game techniques were covered both at a theoretical and practical level. Emphasis will be given to both the inclusive and social aspects as well as the competitive ones. Inclusion means that the able-bodied athlete who finds himself in a new dimension that is more open and predisposed to the acquisition of greater solidarity awareness is the one who benefits most from the advantages, but let’s remember one fundamental thing: “Inclusion concerns everyone, not just those i different. The meeting on October 14th of last year, in the hall of the Disabled Day Center (CDD) of the “Multiservizi-Fondazione Don Gnocchi” Center in Legnano, gave many smiles to the guests of the center but above all gave us volunteers the awareness that the path taken was the right one”.
Sitting Volleyball in schools
“This year we wanted to spread Sitting Volley also in the schools of Legnano by presenting the project to young people, with meetings that we held at the Liceo Galileo G., ISIS Bernocchi and the Istituto Dell’Acqua, gathering much consensus and participation. On February 3rd, the event has been announced by the Salesian Youth Sports Club of Varese, at the gym of the Santa Maria Ausiliatrice Institute in via Monte Rosa in Varese. An afternoon that brought together the presidents, managers and coaches of the numerous affiliated and present sports clubs. Particular space was reserved for the presentation of the Sitting Volley experience carried out by the Vomien sports club from Legnano, represented, for the occasion, by those responsible for the initiative Lucio Crotti and Giorgio Zanaldi. The moment saw, first of all, the screening of a short film focused on the concrete activities of Sitting Volley, on the field, in the gym. This was followed by the testimonies of Lucio and Giorgio who highlighted in particular three focal points of this experience, still in the start-up phase in the world of Italian sport in general”.
“Inclusivity, – they continue – as a real opportunity for the involvement of children, young people and disabled people. The fun, as the film had well represented, visually. Sport as competition. In this regard, there is a real Sitting Volleyball championship, which features disabled athletes with able-bodied athletes on the pitch, together on the “floor”, all on equal terms, with precise rules! Furthermore, again with the aim of disseminating information, we organized the first Sitting Volley tournament in Legnano on 11 February this year, called “Itrofeo Città di Legnano di Sitting Volley”, sponsored by the Municipality of Legnano and the Panathlon Club La Malpensa, with the presence of 6 teams from Cesena, Cuneo, Brembate, Milan and Varese”.
Volunteers, the soul of society
“The soul of our sports clubs – they conclude – they are very often made up of volunteering which is an expression of concrete civic sense and carried out by all those who passionately contribute to the existence and continuity of societies. “The objective from now on is to see more and more new faces within society who can bring further ideas, animated by the values of solidarity and loyalty represented and spread by sport.” Our objective coincides with the maxim of the great Bepe Vio (paralympic fencing champion): “It’s nice to be able to show the future to others in moments when it seems to them that the future no longer exists”. Trusting in the strength and will of all the companies and associations, our hope is to take the field together with us to continue this wonderful journey.”
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