Back from the Beach!

It was a successful outing to the heart of the world for beach volleyball - Hermosa Beach. My wife and I flew in Thursday night, and after a 2 1/2 hour delay that got us to our hotel around 1:30AM, we met up with Loric the next day on the sand. He had tested his knee out with some peppering with his wife, and it felt OK, so he was ready to give it a go. We did some peppering and drills over by the pier. The AAU beach nationals was going on, and the girls were playing this day. AAU has amateur divisions for different age groups all the way up to 20 and under. There were a bunch of kids there representing Puerto Rico that were playing in the boys division the following day and they wanted to get some games in, so we obliged. It was a good chance for us to get our sand legs in the deep Hermosa pits, and helped them to get some playing in. We went further down the beach later in the day and did some drills with just the two of us - hitting shots, jump serving, passing, etc. Back up to the pier later and tan into those kids, still playing and still wanting to challenge. To be 18 again - those kids played all day long, the day before their big tournament. Not much competition for us, but fun games. Worst part was I noticed that night that even though the sand was just warm, I had blistered my feet pretty bad. How stupid, first day and I blister. Just had to throw on some sandsocks. Next day, we met up with somebody I've know through the AVP forum and email for some games. Decent players, but Loric and I started to get our game on and had no problem adjusting to the sand. We ran the court all day, playing probably close to a dozen games, followed by copious amounts of ocean swimming. Of course, I was relegated to sand socks and my feet just seemed to be getting worse. Loric's knee, however, seemed to be holding up just fine. Sunday we went back out to meet up with the same group and continued to run the court, creating a meltdown on an opposing team that caused a partner swap and left Loric and I playing against each other. The guy I knew coaches a number of players on tour and had one of his men's players coming for a practice session later that morning. He asked if we'd stick around and help run him through some drills. We did, taking tons of swings, digging, passing, plaing things out, etc. Good workout for sure. It's amazing how many players there are in that area, and how many of them get to workout on a regular basis with a coach, train and drill. No wonder it's where the top players all go! We definitely had our fill, but could have kept going for weeks longer. The games and practice should really be a big boost to our game as we return to NM for the Taos Solar Spike Tourney, local events and of course Motherlode in Aspen. My feet got so bad by the end that they were swollen for days and could barely fit into my sneakers. Some treatments and they are back down to normal size and the blisters are healing, ready for more practice next week when Loric returns!