New Mexico Beach Volleyball Videos

Aspen Battle, 2007 Part I Part II

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

A New Decade of Volleyball: 2010

I never did get to write a reflective post on last year's season.  I was glad to recover enough from my abdominal tear to be able to start playing in April.  No travel, though.  Loric moved to Santa Barbara with his family where they are all very happily working and living near a real beach, where, I am happy to say, he can play real beach volleyball!  Last season was very disappointing.  Physically, the previous year of inactivity manifested itself in the physical weakness I displayed on the court.  Worse, the sand volleyball scene in the state seemed to head into a tailspin.  While we were excited for GAV to come into the state, some poorly run and canceled tournaments along with poor efforts to engage players and an explosion in the grass scene created a very weak season.  Still, somehow, I wound up finishing 3rd in the GAV west coast bonus pool and Matt took 4th, bringing bonus checks to each of us.  Not really a fair proposition given the level of play and number of teams in this state compared to those in California.

This year, I have returned to good physical condition following extensive off season training with Russian Kettlebell programs.  While I have a torn meniscus in my knee, the pain has subsided greatly over last year and my leg strength is back to full, equating to having some old explosiveness and vertical jumping ability back.  No travel plans this year, however, and my season will be a short one as I am happy to say that my wife and I are expecting our first child in mid-July!

There has been an effort by local players to revive the sand scene here, and it has led to the formation of the New Mexico Volleyball Underground.  The group aims to create about two well run sand tournaments in the state per month.  With the first event coming up this weekend, there has been a great response with more than 20 teams signed up between the men and women.  If you haven't checked it out already, here is the site:
http://vbunderground.blogspot.com/

The Sandia Mountain Classic will be another great event this year.  It's now a 3 day event May 7-9 and will be held at Sneakerz, with lower divisions in the grass at Montgomery park.  That new website is:
http://www.smvclassic.com

Well, I just got back from a week's vacation in sunny San Diego where I managed to get some games and practice in and am now definitely ready for a new season!  Let the games begin!