Beach Training

The video says it all. Check this crazy “foot up” out.

Here we go! The final year of Olympic qualification. This year the FIVB World Tour will be super charged with every team battling for available Olympic positions.

The 2011 World Tour kicked off last week in Brasilia and from first impressions, looks very much like the end of last year.

In the Womens, Larissa-Juliana BRA defeated May-Treanor-Walsh USA in a close final, 15 – 12 in the third set, while Rogers-Dalhausser USA beat Emanuel-Alison BRA in a fairly one sided affair.

View the full womens results here. FIVB Brasilia Open | Women

View the full mens results here. FIVB Brasilia Open | Men

In the weeks to come we will look more closely at some of the new faces that have emerged in the last few events, and find out who has the best chance of qualifying for the upcoming Olympic games.

From Australia, the team of Bawden-Palmer finished a respectable 9th, proving that their streak last year was not a fluke. They are building their game nicely, and started the tournament with a huge win over Kessy-Ross from the USA.

Other “locals” performing well are the kiwi boys Lochhead-Pitman from New Zealand, finishing 13th. Although they might seem to lack the power game to overcome the top seeds, their consistency makes them a chance to beat any team that isn’t 100% ready to play. It will be interesting to see how these guys do over what is likely to be the toughest year of beach volleyball ever.

We have just been forwarded a document from a group of prominent beach volleyball people who are creating a new organisation called the Australian Beach Volleyball Commission (ABVC). The idea here seems to be to get control of the sport of beach volleyball into the hands of the people who are actually involved in the sport. (As opposed to the organising body who seems a lot more interested in indoor volleyball).

We have had similar organisations sprout up occasionally over the years, usually in the form of a Players Association, but in the past they have not achieved much.
As far as I can see, the big difference here is that the ABVC has a broader purpose than it’s predecessors in that it is concerned with the entire sport rather than just the players.

It is outlined in the attached document:ABVC.pdf

The ABVC’s primary purpose will be to represent Australian beach volleyball’s constituent interests. This will include but not be limited to players, coaches, event organisers, indoor sports centres, umpires, administrators and private enterprise within beach volleyball.

I will be very interested to see who is behind this group, but on the face of it, it looks like a step in the right direction for Australian beach Volleyball.
Check it out the discussion here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Australian-Beach-Volleyball-Commission/124163024324915

If the new rules laid out by the FIVB are interpreted by referees the way I read it, then anyone who learned to set a volleyball longer than two weeks ago is going to need to change their technique.

Here is the opening paragraph of the new definition:

“During the action of players setting overhand with fingers, the ball must be played with one quick motion. There must not be any significant movement of the ball downwards whilst in the hands and the ball may not visibly come to rest in the player’s hands.”

Now if you take the second highlighted section literally, “ There must not be any significant movement of the ball downwards whilst in the hands”, then even players like Phil Dalhausser might need to speed up his action.

So one of two things will happen. Either players will change the way they set, or referees will choose to interpret the words “significant movement” as “more movement than what we consider a good set.” (i.e. no change in the rules)

See the AVF video and explanation here: http://www.avf.org.au/index.php?id=1361

What do you think? Are these new rules going to help simplify the hand setting rule, or is it just another argument on centre court waiting to happen?