Samuel Smallwood '25 Recruiting Profile

Playing with the England Volleyball Under 17 national squad (2021-23) and training with the Sheffield Hallam Super League men’s team (2021-23) has helped me to learn how to quickly and effectively adapt to playing with athletes who were much better than me at the start. The skill gap between me and older players was my motivation to improve my technique and physical athleticism rapidly. This also improved my mental resilience. My aim is to continue to progress as an athlete and I believe there are more opportunities in the USA, where the standard of volleyball is much higher than in the UK. My goal is to become an elite athlete while studying in the USA. 

I have also been selected for the DiSE programme by Volleyball England (2023-24) and is an additional, independent and academic programme, established to improve the skill sets needed for volleyball; both on and off the court e.g. mental skills, nutrition and dealing with injury.

My academic grades have always been of a high standard; achieving 7s and 8s in UK GCSE’s ( or A’s in US terms) and they have remained unaffected by my volleyball training. Now, in 6th Form at school, I am currently studying Physics, Geography and Mathematics and I hope to take either International Business or Physics at University in two years time