Volleyball teenager Maxime Carolan takes his game to another level after working with French Olympic coach

Rising volleyball star Maxime Carolan is feeling the benefits of a spell training with the French Olympic coach.

Carolan, 15, worked on his technique during a spell in France with Mathieu Hamel.

He’s since returned to the UK, straight into England cadet training, and there’s loads to look forward to.

The Gravesend Grammar School pupil is preparing for the Under-17 Northern European Championships in October.

That’s a tournament that serves as a direct qualifier for the Under-18 European Championships next year.

Carolan, who has confirmed he is staying with Dartford Crossers next season, has also been selected to attend a series of training camps run by the University of East London in conjunction with top volleyball club Malory Eagles.

At 15, he’ll be the youngest player there.

Carolan has an admirable work ethic to go with his talent and made the most of his invite to Montpellier to work with Hamel.

“We did a lot of personal development training,” said Carolan, who returned with a series of medals from inter-beach competitions.

“It’s interesting because you think you know all the technical movements and then you meet someone like Mathieu, the French Olympic coach, who is so technical.

“If you do something even a tiny bit off, he’ll make you redo it until it’s perfect.

“That’s really helped to implement some better technique into my play. I was quite happy with my technique before but now I can say I’m very confident with it.

“When you get to a level which I’ve been lucky enough to get to, you already have high technical skills but no one’s ever perfect. There’s always small adjustments that can be made.

“I’m still not perfect but I’m definitely in a better place than I was at the start of the summer.

“It’s all about