In these cynical days, we often bemoan the status of "modern sport". We speak in hushed tones of these elusive beasts called "modern sportsmen and women". We express our dismay about the way things have changed and how "in my day they used to ride public transport to the matches with the fans!"

Well, if you're pining for the good old days of sport, when athletes were accessible and earned less than you did, then look no further than your very own Great Britain men's indoor volleyball team.

After spending eight months separately plying our trade across the globe for various clubs, the summer international season is upon us. Individually we have endured many hardships, from months of Siberian like weather in the far east of Poland to the slightly less perilous conditions of Tenerife in Spain. Members of the team have endured injury, illness and instant unemployment when a club went bust.

We have left friends, family and loved ones behind. We have had to make our best attempts at languages from your standard romance languages of Western Europe to the far more challenging tongues of Finland and Turkey. Many of us have had to try our best to receive technical and tactical instructions from coaching staff who didn't share even a word of a common language, and the majority of us have embarked upon journeys as difficult as this knowing we could have made more money driving a minicab at home. It has been said that there is "no success without hardship", in which case we are in line for a boatload of success soon!

I would personally like to invite everyone to join us for our 2011 summer international season as we continue to promote the sport of volleyball here in the UK. We have a fantastic summer of volleyball lined up with some truly world class competition to test ourselves against with an eye on the Olympic volleyball tournament due to take place at Earl's Court in 2012.

Once again we will be entering the yearly European League competition and have been placed in a group alongside Belgium, Slovenia and Croatia. With previous wins against Croatia and a couple of close matches against Belgium three years ago - we have improved immeasurably since - it should prove to be a very competitive group in which we have a real chance to surprise some people. A top place finish in the group would garner us a ticket to the final four of the competition in Slovakia for the first time and would let the volleyball world know that we are for real and do not just plan to turn up at Earl's Court and take photos and collect autographs. This competition consists of home and away weekend fixtures over six weeks with two weekends planned in Sheffield and matches versus Belgium at the K2 sports centre in Crawley.

When the European League concludes, we have been fortunate to be selected to participate in the Olympic test event at Earl's Court at the end of July. This event will be run by LOCOG and promises to be a fantastic opportunity to not only get our first taste of what might be in the 2012 event proper, but also to play a series of friendly matches against some of the best teams from around the world that we might not normally face. Discussions are ongoing as to how many spectators Earl's Court can handle for this test as it will not be fully converted to the 2012 standards until just before the Games commence next summer. So watch this space! I encourage everyone to check with www.britishvolleyball.org for updates on all of our volleyball teams and for how you can be a part of the action.

We will be concluding our summer programme with a three-week overseas tour, the first two of which will be in Mexico. Our head coach Harry Brokking has designed the schedule to try and simulate the length of the Olympic tournament and to train the players to remain focussed and on task in what could be described as a suffocating environment. Last summer we went to Egypt and the Middle East, and despite injuries and suspected food poisoning, we managed arguably our best result to date with a win over then 13th in the world Egypt. We are looking forward to a similarly challenging trip to the Americas this year.

With the Olympics growing larger on the horizon by the day, a cynic might say that these are false tribulations regurgitated here to garner sympathy and support for our "pampered" prospective Olympians. Rather, behind these little glimpses of what it's really like for a British volleyball player, I aim to illustrate just how normal and everyday people are doing amazing things in the name of Britain and volleyball in our country.

As volleyball is not yet a "mainstream" sport in the UK, it isn't just about Olympic dreams for most of our guys. I would be lying to you if I said I've always dreamed of Olympic volleyball for Great Britain. It simply wasn't an option growing up. We aim to change that. We are not in this for money, in fact, most of us are in debt! Many of us simply want to prove that we too can play this most beautiful, powerful and athletic of sports whilst wearing a Union Jack on our shirts and singing our anthem. We are just normal people. Come join us this summer.

Andy Pink is Britain's vice-captain

British Volleyball is represented by www.davidwelchmanagement.com