Your boy landed his first volleyball win!!! I played in a small 4 v 4 volleyball tournament set up by Phoenix beach last Friday. 6 teams. 24 players draw (meaning you sign up individually and then get teamed up randomly). The competition level was pretty spread out; there were C level all the way to A level players.
It only took 20 tournaments and like 5 league city leagues to get me here, and I say it that way because it’s taken me that long to realize what it takes to be good at a sport. While I do believe there is a little bit of luck involved to win in a competition, the skills you develop and work hard on play a bigger role in securing a win. I was quite the arrogant player when I first picked up beach volleyball in 2018 – I thought my talent was enough to get me wins. Boy was I wrong. I learned how much I still needed to learn and grow my beach volleyball skills after brutally losing my coed doubles league two seasons in a row to the same teams.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to celebrate because we finished around 11:30PM and many places that sold food closed (I was famished…all I had to eat during the tournament was 1 egg, some mixed nuts, and maybe 2-3 french fries). I also had to drive back home, which took 2 hours. So I just got my prize money and gas and drove back home. Nonetheless, I wanted to share some highlights and thoughts about my first win!
MEET THE TEAM.
I’d say my team was more on the experienced side because everybody on my team was at least BB. We were also pretty balanced…meaning there wasn’t one person who was like a super star or was carrying the team. Everybody was playing there best role too. What made everything better too was that everybody was pretty chill during the games. If we screwed up or shanked balls, we didn’t get super pissed at each other. We’d either just shrug it off or laugh it off. There was a match where we were down 0-12…That’s right…a big fat 0 and down 12 points. Instead of getting all pissed, we were all just bantering with the other team and amongst ourselves about how unlucky we were. Although we lost, the match still felt like a good time.
Connor was our best hitter…and he…according to this picture, was the shortest out of the 3 guys. I guess I can’t complain about not being tall enough to hit.
Ken was super good at shooting the ball. He’d tag the back line consistently with crazy accuracy.
Serena played solid defense and was pretty good at passing. I didn’t have to move that much to get to the ball so that made setting accurately a lot easier.
And me…well I just goofed around at the net, gave some good sets, and made some cool blocks, which I thought was my highlight of the tournament :).
Highlight: JV blocker at the net
My personal highlight from the tournament was my blocks. I averaged 1 block a game, which doesn’t seem like much but it was a lot for me because I’m usually not playing at the net. In most beach formats, I’m playing defense in the back (sort of like a libero in indoor). I’m also pretty short, which is why I’m usually not at the net. I’m pretty sure my blocking form was poor, but I used my reading skills as a defender to read where the ball was going to go. There was always this unexplainable urge to really just swat back the ball like a fly. I got several touches and control blocks (control block is when the ball comes off your hand in a controlled manner where your team can pass the ball for another set). When I got kill blocks, it definitely felt amazing. I dare say that it felt better than digging a hard driven ball. Having my teammates amped up after I get a block was awesome. It was like an adrenaline rush. I think I got anywhere between 6-8 blocks at the end of the tournament.
A well balanced team > a team with 1 super star
There was a team we played in the quarter finals that relied mostly on one person to put away most of the points, which I think was the main reason why they lost. This guy could slam and bounce balls; I remember trying to block the guy and my hand was so red after the ball came off my hand that my hand started sweating. After that block, I really tried my best to avoid him at the net. He was like Ushijima from Shiratorizawa in Haikyuu…but with an additional mustache.
To be quite frank, this was probably the one team in the tournament who had a solid chance of beating us. We played this team in pool play and we barely squeezed out a 21-19 win. They were playing more loosely and consistently then. Both hitters were hitting balls and the defender was digging balls.
They decided to change up their game in bracket play by having only one of their hitters hit like 90% of the balls. The guy was also trying to pass all the balls too instead of letting their defender/libero do the work. The funny thing is is that I’ve played on such a team before. I actually even told the setter to set our other hitter because he could hit and put away balls more, but when you put more pressure and weight on one person to carry the team, the person gets tired faster, which leads to more errors. The 2nd time we played this team, the guy was starting to hit the ball into the net more. He was also being dug more by my team. His passing was becoming more inconsistent throughout the game and the other outside setter would often have to step in to help set. We could tell he was getting frustrated, but we spared no mercy and maintained the same serving and defense pressure. We beat them 21-16 in the quarter finals.
Talent will only get you so far
You need both hard work and talent to become better at a sport because talent will only get you so far before you reach a certain limit. As I mentioned in the beginning, I thought that my talent or knack for picking up the sport quickly was enough for me to win games. I thought I could just improve “magically” without practicing outside my usual leagues. It sounds super stupid but I was SUPER ignorant because I was losing every tournament and league I played in.
I was making the same mistakes during games. For example, I was always running underneath the ball so I would either hit it out or hit it with some high roll shot that was easy to dig. My side out percentage was so low, which isn’t good in beach doubles or 4’s. I was also feeling very inadequate with people who I’ve played with for over a year. I felt like they were getting better while my skills were plateauing. After getting fed up with losing constantly in my city leagues, I started practicing in my backyard sometime in 2021. I’d practice passing, hitting, and setting against the wall. Since I didn’t have somebody to set me, I’d just practice getting behind the ball by throwing the ball up and timing my jumps.
Ever since I started practicing in my back yard, everything about my game just got better. My spike form. My setting control. My passing. I would honestly say that the work I’ve been putting in did make me more confident playing in the tournament. While I’m still correcting a lot of bad habits and growing my skills, I’m really understanding more and more just how much hard work is involved in becoming better at something. It’s not just talent alone.
Shoutout to Phoenix Beach
Shoutout to Phoenix beach for hosting the small tournament. If you’re ever in Phoenix, this guy sets up weekly draws and small tournaments. The competition level is usually specified. In the tournament I played, the requirement was C and up, but most of the players there were at least B. I think maybe 1 or 2 people out of the 24 people were C level.
The beach volleyball community is massive in Phoenix so there’s always a tournament, pickup, or league going on each week. Sometimes I wish I could just move to PHX just to play volleyball. If you’re looking for more competitive competitions, I’d check out the competitions at Legacy. Funkalicious is also a super popular league and often holds weekly competitions. I would say Funk and Phoenix beach allow for more lower level players to play compared to what is held at Legacy (often more geared toward A and above level players).
Now I have a question for you! I’m a B/BB level player and I often shoot my own volleyball videos to analyze and improve my game. Would you be interested in watching an analysis of some of my games? Comment below 🙂
As always,
Be Confident. Stay Curious.
