Ben Pipes is the captain of the Great Britain men's volleyball team. He is providing regular posts for 606 as the team build towards competing at London 2012.

I found out recently that I've been selected to go to Beijing on the Olympic Ambition 2012 programme.

I can't wait! It's going to be absolutely amazing. The British Olympic Association are sending a group of people from the smaller sports to get a taste of the Olympics and I'm going with my team-mate Andrew Pink as well as our coaching team. We'll spend two days with the British team in the holding camp and then watch the volleyball at the Capital Indoor Stadium.

The GB volleyball team have never been involved in any big tournaments. The closest I've come, in terms of a multi-sport event, is the World Youth Games when I was 15. Even then, you were carted away to a sports hall and you never saw anyone else.

When we go to Beijing, we'll be kitted out and travelling with the team so we'll almost feel part of it. It will be a real eye-opener.

I've just had a very welcome two days off after finishing our European League games. To sum up, it was hard work! We set out to be competitive against these teams, who thought they were going to walk all over us, and I think we did that. You can see all the results here:
www.cev.lu/mmp/online/websit...

The highlight was definitely the round we played in Sheffield when we won two out of the three games, against Greece and Portugal. No one thought we would do that - not even our coach Harry Brokking! We found out afterwards he told the governing body that we might win a set in the whole league. We managed not just that but to win two games as well, so I think we can be quietly proud of what we achieved. It's not something we can be content with, but, although we stumbled a bit, we've come over a hurdle. There are a thousand more to go.

Next up for the British team is a series of away matches against Egypt. I'm hopeful we'll beat them.

Then I'm off to Spain. Today, I should be receiving my contract to play for Puerto Real, who are based in Cadiz in the south. It's the ideal place for me. They're an ambitious team, pushing for promotion to the top division in Spain, so they'll ask a lot of me. The weather might be a bit of a shock for my pasty white, northern skin! I'm really looking forward to it and I'll be keeping you up to date with how I get on when I'm out there - once I return from Beijing.

Ben Pipes was talking to Caroline Cheese.

Read Ben's earlier 606 posts:
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A34356...
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A36153...