NJ and the Netherlands

We started our crazy traveling schedule with a trip to Pt. Pleasant, NJ, where we played in the Corona Wide Open beach volleyball tournament.  It was a fun weekend of "old school" big court volleyball.  The Corona Wide Open uses the old system of the larger court (3 feet longer and wider on all sides), no antannae, and also the service-scoring system.  They also use a much heavier ball than is currently used internationally.  After 9 games in two days, we made it to the finals, where we played in a rain and wind storm, playing completely drenched!  We ended up 2nd place, and then hopped on a plane the next day to the Netherlands.

After flying overnight on Monday night, then connecting and finally arriving in Amsterdam Tuesday afternoon, we rushed to the tournament site to make the qualification team meeting, where we found a beach with 30-40mph winds and crazy rain!  This tournament is the FIVB international beach volleyball tour (the tour that qualifies for the Olympics) where the modern system of playing is used - short court, antannae, and the newer and very light balls.  We played our first match against an Italian national team and we beat them in 2 sets.  The weather was much better than the night before, but there was still quite a bit of wind.  We felt as though we handled the jet lag quite well.  Then we had nearly a 4-hour break before our second match against a solid Dutch national team.  By then, the 9 hour time difference had set in and we started to feel the zombie-like effects of jet lag, having slept very few hours on a plane only two nights before, and the rush-rush of our schedule....  We lost that match to eliminate us from the qualification tournament.

It was a disappointment, but a lesson well learned!  In speaking with more teams, nearly all of them arrive at a tournament site 4 days to 2 weeks earlier than the start date to adjust to the new conditions (time zone, court conditions, etc.).   We had been through something similar three years ago when we played for Greece and arrived in Montreal, Canada, from Greece at 3am the day before playing.  We had a 10 hour time difference to deal with along with exhaustion.... and had a similar "zombie effect".  These two tournaments we had to leave late, but from now on, we will arrive early and be much more prepared and enjoy much more success!  This is part of the process of becoming a top team.  Teams usually take years to get used to the greuling schedule of traveling and adjusting and performing at their peaks.  And we know we will expedite this process and learn and grow and improve with each time we step on the sand court to train or play!  It is such a beautiful process of developing a team and a partnership in all of these interesting conditions! I am so excited about what we have ahead and of our success to come - and they will very quickly!!!!

Thanks for following us and I will post more soon!