Where I Came From and Where I am Going

Hello everyone! My name is Amy Reichel. Nick asked me to blog about what I am doing in order to make it to the professional level in beach volleyball. I, of course, accepted. Before I catch you up on what I have been doing I'll tell you a little bit about my past.

I started playing volleyball in 7th grade. I only played for school though. In high school I made the sophomore team as a freshman and my sophomore year through my senior year I was on the varsity team. I started club my freshman year at GLC Select, a branch of Sports Performance for multi-sport athletes. I went back to GLC my sophomore year but got an invite to try out for Sport Performance's 16-1's team and play under Ping. In order to do that I had to stop playing basketball and commit 100% to volleyball. I ended up making the team. To this day I still believe that Ping is the reason I am as good as I am. He worked with me before every practice on my arm swing. Most the time I wasn't even jumping and swinging. It was strictly hand contact and trying to hit the ball in the same spot on the wall. My junior year I made the 18-3 team at Sports Performance. Then my senior year I moved to Sky High and made the 18-1's team. All through out high school I played middle and got recruited by Bradley University to play middle.

My freshman year at Bradley I played middle for the majority of the year and contributed to the team right away. Toward the end of the season I was switched to the right side because the slide was my most powerful attack. My sophomore year I played right side the entire season. I enjoyed it. I loved running slides and coming around for a quick or a 2. Then our coaches were fired and we got a new set of coaches. My junior year I was switched to left side. It was completely new for me but I enjoyed it. It took me a while to get my timing down because I was always used to the quick approach. My junior year I had a lot of kills but also a lot of errors. It was a learning year for me. My senior year I was switched between right side and left side until our big freshman left side hurt her shoulder. Than I became left side again permanently. I was a lot smarter with my shots and hits. I still had quite a few errors but I had teams that would triple block me or not even pay attention to our middles. I was Bradley's go-to hitter and other teams knew it. It was a lot of pressure. I took it as a challenge though and did the best I could. I ended my career at Bradley as number 15 on Bradley's all time career kill list, I was the Country Financial Scholar Student-Athlete of the week twice, and was a Honorable Mention Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete as well.

Now that I am done with volleyball at Bradley I am on to bigger and better things! I am currently training for the approaching beach season! I got into beach about 3 years ago. I have competed in EVP tournaments at the BB level. This year I am going to try competing in Gold, one level below Pro in the EVP. I am going to train with a new partner this summer because my previous partner and I just couldn't click on the court. When we would get into a slump we could not get out of it. Anyway, this spring I have been hitting the gym hard to work on my legs and work on some fast twitch muscle and to help my vertical. I have a trainer who has me doing squats, dead lifts, lunges, and other leg exercises. I work on legs every Tuesday and Thursday. I have already seen a difference in the power in my legs and am extremely excited to test them out once season hits. Monday, Wednesday, and then either Saturday or Sunday I do sprints in the sand and also up a hill. It's intense and hard but it's worth it. When I get tired I just think about where I want to go and what I want to accomplish. It's amazing how a dream can help give you that little bit of extra that you need at the end of a workout.

I am going to be posting blogs about what I am doing in my training. They will get more exciting once summer hits and I am back home and can train with my partner and tournaments approach. Until then I hope you can bare with me while I continue training here at Bradley. There are a lot of exciting things to come and I am very optimistic about this summer and where it will take me. I hope you join me on this journey! If you have any questions just ask! :)