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 repetition. We were doing eight hours a day, sometimes more, and it becomes second nature.

“That’s what training does. It’s not a case of doing it until you get it right, it’s doing it until you don’t get it wrong.

“The plan is to go back and work with Mathieu again.

“He really liked me so he’s open to doing more camps.

“The only way to get better is to keep pushing yourself.

“A quote I like is ‘the enemy of excellent is good’.

“If you’re good you might think I don’t need to train hard because I’m one of the best here but if you want to be excellent you have to keep pushing yourself because good isn’t enough.

“That’s a quote my England coach told me and it’s one I’ve really taken on and understood.”

Carolan, who credits personal trainer AJ Sodhi, of Ajile Health & Fitness, for his development, is also busy off the court.

This month, he’s working with Gravesham Council on their summer fun programme which will see him share his experiences in sport with youngsters aged four to 11 in a series of talks.

He’s also linked up with Meopham Parish Council and the Cyclopark to inspire young people.

The teenager remains committed to his charity work, too.

In October, he’ll once again be raising money for Sport in Mind, the mental health charity, by organising yoga retreats at Cobham Hall alongside mum Sophie.

Carolan, who’d like to thank Cascades Leisure Centre for their support in his volleyball career, has also been boosted by a message from a star of a different sport.

Boxer Viddal Riley, who has 1.2m subscribers on his YouTube channel, got in touch after hearing about his efforts at a SportsAid event.