AVP Riverside and CBVA Tournament Wrap Up

My partner and I entered into the AVP Qualifier as the 44 seed and our first opponents were the 21 seed, both of them had recent AVP main draw experience as well. Our match went three games and we ultimately won in the third set 15 – 12. In beach volleyball, I think the team that adjusts first eventually wins…and I feel that’s how we won – but it was definitely hard fought by both sides. In any case, it was great to get the upset win and advance another round in the single-elimination tournament.

I got most of the serves in our first match. I like getting served despite the stigma that it comes with (perceived as the weaker player) because then I feel the match is in my hands.

My passing was great all day and my side out ability was pretty good but not as crisp as I would have liked it. I’m still getting used to playing the right side but it’s going pretty well thus far and playing on the right has improved my ability to put away balls in transition. My high line shot was going down and that opened up my cross-court hit. Their net play (blocking) was solid and I had to do a handful of tool shots off the block when other shots just weren’t available. The tool off the block is a great last-second “get out of jail” play…and is better than getting stuffed any day.

Siding out in beach volleyball is like driving the lane in basketball. It’s very athletic for one thing and deception is used to create shot options (i.e. show angle all the way, then turn line at the last second). Both moves involve making last-second decisions based on a moments worth of various input…like where is the defender (holding middle, cheating to one side, leaning, juking), what’s the wind doing (blowing cross, front/back, gusty), how close to the antenna am I (how much room is there to work with), what’s the blocker doing (show and take, late move into the angle, dropping off the net, up early and exploitable), etc. All of this gets processed in a split second and a decision is made, hopefully the right one.

It felt great to have a win under our belt and that settled my nerves. There is so much pressure to win in a single-elimination tournament. You don’t want to lose because so much has been invested in performing well when it counts. I haven’t felt the juices flowing like that in a long time. All kinds of thoughts were racing through my mind as I mentally coached myself during the match trying to not only play well but to also improve in my fundamentals and game strategy. I even tapped into various sports psychology methods of thinking to encourage a favorable outcome and performance worthy of  being deemed “professional” in my approach, execution and sportsmanship. Working hard to improve on each and every play, giving full effort from start to finish. While there is something to be said about this approach, it’s also nice to enter into a tournament with confidence in your stuff and playing relaxed. Somewhere in between is the sweet spot for me and the more tournaments I play, the better I’ll be at the mental as well as the physical components to the game.

We had about two hours to wait until our next match. My wife and I went next door to our hotel room where she got in some work and I just rested and fueled up on water, G2 (my favorite sports drink) and some complex carbs. During this down time, I was able to digest what had just happened on the court and it helped me put everything in perspective with respect to this comeback effort of mine. I’m one step closer to my goal of playing in another main draw on the AVP, and I’m feeling like I belong amongst the best players competing to do the same.

Our second match was against another team I hadn’t seen play before. They played steady ball but didn’t do anything to wow us…yet they won in two games. Again, I got most of the serves and did almost all of the blocking. I was feeling pretty good entering into the match but quickly got tired. I’m in shape to do this but think that my body was dealing with so much in our first match that I fried my system up. The ref also had a quick whistle that we were playing to and that didn’t allow much time for recovery after each point. I was huffing and puffing a lot during the match and even used all of our timeouts to catch my breath when it got really bad. In the end, I don’t think I had the gusto needed to win this match and that’s why we lost.

it’s no fun to know that it was likely your fault for losing, but whatever happens we win as a team and lose as a team and as long as full effort is given with a never say die attitude, it’s all good. That being said, I learned that I need to train for that situation (quick whistle) so this doesn’t happen again. I intend to be more relaxed in mind and body at the next Qualifier and that will help me get through an entire event playing at a high level.

Riverside was a cool little town and the people were very nice. I’d recommend Duane’s Steakhouse at the Mission Inn Hotel, amazing food! We watched a little AVP action the next day, then headed back home to Redondo Beach where we unpacked and prepared for another tournament the next day in Hermosa Beach.

Hermosa Beach is our “home beach” and it’s always nice playing in tournaments there. My wife played in the women’s A and ended up taking 3rd place! I played in the men’s A and ended up taking 2nd place. We won our pool and earned a bye in the playoffs, then made our way to the finals. My partner played his heart out but cramped in the finals and we lost by 6 points. All in all, a great day of volleyball and my confidence was boosted by going 7 – 1 on the day.

It was nice to get more time in the sand since we wouldn’t be back in the South Bay until the following weekend. I blocked all day long and got to work on my timing and footwork. As a result, I think I’ll be more effective in the next tournament, which is April 25th in Manhattan Beach. It’s being run by Great American Volleyball and I’m playing in the Open-level. I’ll be playing with a new partner and going back to my strong side, the left. The competition will be fierce but I’m intent on taking my game up a notch and upsetting some teams. Tune in again soon to see how it went.

Me spiking past the block