So I moved home Saturday and on Sunday I went out to 4 Lakes and played beach with my friends Kari, Aprille, and Karly. It was just the 4 of us and we played 8 games. It was a nice first day back. We were all getting our sand legs back so no judgements were being made when you wailed a ball out of bounce or into the net. It was also nice that we were able to change the net to women's height and we had a pair of lines instead of having to dig them with our feet. Anyway the games were competitive and there were some really good rallies. Kari and I were partners against Aprille and Karly. I have never really played beach with Kari before and it was a good experience. She was very talkative and we didn't get mad with each other. In fact I would say we complimented each other very well as players. Kari was a setter for her college and is an extremely smart player. We had a lot of fun playing together. I definitely noticed things I needed to work on. Aprille's serve definitely made me struggle. There would be streaks where I would either completely shank a serve or the pass was extremely difficult to get to. Her serve is a great floater. I would never get my body around the ball and it would hit off one side of my platform. It's my serve receive that frustrates me most so it's something I am definitely going to get extra reps in. The other thing that was noticeable was that I was using an indoor approach rather than a beach approach. You can't glide in the sand like you do indoor and that's what I was doing and my vertical was absolutely nothing as a result. All in all though it was a great first day and I had a huge amount of fun!
Tuesday I had a lesson with Bryan. Bryan McDermand is one of my good friends but he is also my coach. He is a great beach player and has such a great work ethic. He is always striving to get better. He's really someone I look up to and I love working with him. Anyway, we went out to Woodstreet and worked on fundamentals. We started off peppering and warming up. Then we worked on my dreaded serve receive. He adjusted where I start on serve receive. He had me move back and towards the sideline. That way I force the competition to serve me shorter and inside, so towards where I am going to pass. He also noticed that I don't move my feet. I tend to just lunge or pass off of a knee. He really made me focus on taking that extra step and getting my feet to the ball and making sure I turn my body to where I want to pass the ball. It was definitely a little frustrating because I feel I should be better but Bryan just reminds me that it's only my second day back on the sand. He also reminds me to keep my frustration hidden so I can't become an easy target for the other team. After I did around 50 reps for serve receive I got to serve at Bryan. He definitely is much more fluid in his passing movements than me and any frustration that he may have felt he kept hidden. He is definitely someone I can watch and learn from. We then worked on setting. As we did more and more reps my sand hands began to return. Bryan had to remind me that I want to keep the set more inside and not push it all the way out to where the pin would be. He also told me to keep my hands up and to keep my elbows at the height of my shoulder. My sets were also a bit too high so we readjusted the height of them so that they wouldn't be taken by the wind as much. Then Bryan and I switched and Bryan became the setter and I was the attacker. First thing I had to do was shorten where I take my approach from. I was taking too long of an approach and I was being late to the ball. After I shortened my approach Bryan helped me with the foot work and not gliding. He also had me use more of core when I jumped. After I took a couple approaches without the ball so I could get the feeling of the approach we worked on roll shots. He had me focus on hitting the ball towards the back corner down the line. At first it wasn't so pretty but after a couple reps I was improving and it was feeling more natural. However when we changed the shot to sharp cross along the net I struggled immensely. I tended to not put enough on the ball and it wouldn't even be close to crossing the plane of the net or I would just hit along the net on our side. Bryan reminded me that I needed to still use my wrist. I couldn't just let the ball hit my hand. I had to get my hand underneath the ball and snap my wrist. I got some good ones in but it's still something that I'll need to work on a lot. It's an effective shot and I need to master it. Overall the lesson was extremely beneficial and helpful and can't wait to keep working with Bryan.
Later that night I went and played indoor at an open gym in Elk Grove. It was competitive and fun. I always love playing beach all day and then playing indoor at night. However, that does mess with your approach because instead of consistently using a beach approach, I had to go back to using an indoor approach. I doubt I'll be playing much indoor this summer.
I also played beach yesterday. I met up with Jimmy, Timmy, Steve, Kari, and Meghan. At first we played some triples just goofing around but then we split into co-ed double teams. I played with Steve. We went undefeated, although we actually only played 2 games. I definitely felt as though my serve receive was better and my hitting improved as well from the day before. I was hitting shots and actually was able to put some oomph on the ball and actually hit it. I was fairly pleased with myself because we were playing on a men's net, which is higher than a women's obviously. My defense wasn't terrible but that's definitely something Bryan will be helping me with. I tend to cheat either short or deep and get burned a lot. Jimmy gave me a helpful hint reminding me to stay on the line where you would in indoor when the opposite is hitting so that I don't get burned on a ball landing behind me on the sideline and so that I can run through the ball. I love playing with my friends because we're all beach fanatics and everyone helps everyone. There isn't a day that I play that I don't learn something or get help with something I am struggling with.
There will be lots of blogs going up now because lots of tournaments and pickup will be happening. Tomorrow I am playing with a group of about 10 girls and then on Saturday I have a 4's beach tournament. Then next week will be some serious training because next Saturday I will be playing in a doubles pro tournament in Michigan hopefully. I may be playing women's doubles on Saturday and possibly co-ed on Sunday with Bryan. Nothing is set in stone yet but that would be ideal and amazing! I will keep you updated! Wish me luck!
