How HARD is the beach game? Part 2

In Part 1, I more or less was writing a response to Mike Dodd's AVP promo video that talks about how tough the beach game is.  And certainly from a physical point of view it is very demanding but it is not unparalleled.  To me, a sport is a mental battle that is confronted and fought with your body.  Being in great physical condition only improves your ability to express the decisions your mind makes and translate them to the tangible world so that you skills may be quantitatively compared to others.

As it is true with almost any professional sport, once you reach that level you will find that just about everyone is as good as you are (sans a few exceptions to the rule).  So the way that you as an athlete have to differentiate yourself from the pack is in your preparation, conditioning, and knowledge of the game.  I will go more in depth into the game, that most know little about, and explain just what happens on a play to play basis and why this game is so hard to play.

From the time the ball is served this is the type of thought logic that goes through a defender's mind...

1.  Identify who the serve is going to
2.  Begin to move to base position based on what the block call is
3.  Identify where the ball is passed and adjust your positioning accordingly
4.  Read the setter if they may go over on 2, or if they are in position to make a good/bad set
5.  Read the hitter's approach (angle and speed)
6.  Adjust your positioning based on where your blocker is setting up
7.  Adjust your positioning (again) based on where the set is
8.  Wait
9.  Read the hitter's body and arm swing...but still wait
10.  As the ball is being contacted prepare to make a play, being as low as possible and have your body angled that allows you to cover a roll shot but still balance to dig a hard driven ball.

All of this takes place within the span of about 3-4 seconds.

On offense, you have to try your hardest to just let the game come to you and not over think it too much.  For the first 3.5 seconds of a play it is like driving through a pitch black tunnel, and it isn't until you get at the very end that you will know if you have to turn left or right or even come to stop.  If you don't like having the pressure of being rushed on you then this sport is not for you, because you have to make tons of split second decisions one after another.

If that doesn't make the game tough enough, there is a tremendous amount of mental acuity necessary to simply put a pre-game strategy in place, and be able to adjust it as you go along based on each play, and the dozen or so things that take place during the play, while accounting for variables that can change at any moment, like wind speed and direction.  So on one hand you need to have a short memory so that you focus solely on the point at hand but at the same time you need to keep track of virtually everything that transpires so that you can not only know if you need to make changes to your strategy, but also identify if your opponent has or will change their strategy.  Oh and by the way, you are your own coach.  So while play is going on you have only you and the person next to you to make adjustments.

And to top it all off, there are no substitutions you can make for yourself or your partner if you aren't playing well.  You just have to fight through it.  You need to have at least a 30 inch vertical, be able to change direction on a dime, sprint, dive, and jump without your lungs exploding while the hot sun burns the bottom of your feet, and bakes the sweat out of your skin.  So how hard is the beach game?  Pretty difficult but there is one sport that I will always believe that is 1 up from beach volleyball.....