OC Sand Volleyball Club...The Next Level?

Up to this point, beach volleyball has maintained the status quo more or less, without much deviation to expand, develop, or progress the game significantly.  But all of that may change in the immediate future.

We all know that beach volleyball was born and started in Southern California, and from that same region, we have seen some of the greatest players of all-time in both the indoor and outdoor game, but as the popularity of beach volleyball spread across the country we also have seen talent spikes (no pun intended) in different regions like Florida, and the Midwest.  Even with those talent spikes Southern California has remained head and shoulders above the rest, and remains the place to be to take your game to the next level.  Being anywhere else doesn't necessarily make it impossible, just improbably and illogical.  It is like being an NFL player and practicing and training in Canada with CFL players.  To be the best you gotta play against the best.

Before I expanded my thoughts on the NVL's money grab to develop beach volleyball athletes at the junior level with their Club Med facilities.  Consider their philosophy (volleyball not business), to be a growing trend in the years to come.  Here we have the next major development, the OC Sand Volleyball Club, started by Brad Keenan and April Ross.

With beach volleyball still in its infancy stages in the NCAA the talent pool is still very much spread out due to the fact that for the most part these are just indoor players playing on sand.  Outside of the few exceptions, the sophistication of beach volleyball skills and intellect is basically on par and in proportion with that of the players' indoor skills and intellect.  Expect that to change.  Yes, the SoCal school are still holding down the majority of top beach programs, but that is also because they also have some of the top indoor programs as well.  This year's AVCA Collegiate Sand Championships featured teams from Georgia State, FIU, UAB, and Jacksonville University, which let's be honest aren't the first names that come to mind in terms of volleyball, indoor or beach.

So why should be see a growing gap between the elite and the "very good" in years to come, and what does the OC Sand Volleyball Club have to do with it?  Well as you may have taken note of, top programs like UCLA and USC have brought on retired professionals Stein Metzger and Misty May-Treanor for their school's team respectively.  Schools that identify the need for specialization, that being the identification of the stark difference between the indoor and beach game and the resulting consequence of hiring different people for those jobs, will likely see exponential growth in success and development.  

The OCSVC has gotten their foot in the door first, and now has the inside track with professionals who have had very successful careers in the hot bed in the world for beach volleyball talent.  It will make it all the more likely that they will graduate athletes to nearby schools on the West coast, and as the old adage goes, the rich will keep getting richer.

But hey, prove me wrong Nebraska and Penn State.  But I think you will find that transitioning from the indoor game to the beach is just as hard for the players as it is for the coaches, so it won't be long until there is a noticeably higher class of program.  Basically, you can only drink Jameson for so long until you discover single malt Scotch.  For the athletes, there may be more money in playing for international clubs post-collegiate career, but the competition to earn roster spots is much stiffer.  With the beach game literally open to anyone who can make it through qualifiers (i.e Summer Ross), the incentive to pick a program with great indoor AND beach programs will be higher than ever, but ultimately it will be the schools that invest now that can see dividends pay out in the near future and long-term.

The Easiest Diet Rules To Follow

I could go on forever on complete vs. incomplete proteins  good fat vs. bad fat, glycemic indexes, artificial sweeteners, and sodium content, but for those of us who don't have the time, or are in a rush and don't the time to scrupulously probe line by line on the nutrition guide and ingredients list I've comprised some of the easiest rules to follow when buying, making, and eating food.

1. Protein (g) + Fiber (g) > Sugar (g)

This is probably the one that I abide by the most because these are 3 key components for a very active athlete.  We all know the benefits of protein, but fiber helps regulate blood sugar and ultimately the metabolization of the sugar you intake.  Plus sugar is an inflammatory so if you struggle with joint pain ingesting a lot of sugar will only worsen your condition.  

Think about if you were to consume a product with 20g of sugar but with no fiber.  What happens basically is that all that sugar is going to try to be processed all at once and if you are not burning significant calories then you will inevitably store it away as fat.  A similar product with fiber will have to be broken down and the more fiber there is the more sugar that will be broken down as well.  This is why apple juice is bad for you where as apples are perfectly healthy.  Without any of that flesh or pulp, there is a sugar rush that your body simply can't handle.

This rule is something I came up with myself, so this is by no means an industry standard (that I know of at least), but I found that I would be putting more items back on the shelf that were questionable than I was putting into my cart, and when it comes to health and diet that is usually the side you want to side on.

2. # of minutes to make meal > # of ingredients 

There is probably a slew of ways to abuse and circumvent this rule, but this rule isn't meant to be broken, but to be understood at face value.  The intent of this rule is to avoid highly processed, quick to make meals (think of Kraft Mac and Cheese).  Of course you could cheat and take 20 minutes to make Mac and Cheese to offset the 17 ingredients, but that isn't what you should be aiming for.  

When you get right down to it, you shouldn't be thinking about the time portion but the ingredients portion.  A simple meal of choice of fish, salad topped with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, and a baked sweet potato will accumulate an outstanding 5 ingredients.  So really this rule isn't about saving time (because you should take the time and care into preparing a nutritious meal), but cutting back on the unnatural preservatives, dyes, and contaminates, and adding whole foods will make this rule easy to follow.

3. Nothing in life is "free"

When is the last time you saw an stalk of celery have a label on it that said "Fat Free!"?  I'm sure you haven't and the point here is that if a product has to officially claim on its label to be lacking one thing, there is probably issues elsewhere.  Usually this is interchangeable with sugar and fat.  Sugar free?  Look for fat content both saturated and unsaturated.  Fat Free?  Look for how much sugar it has and revert back to rule #1.  And don't forget that if you see 0g of sugar, don't forget to check the ingredients list for often used artificial sweeteners (hopefully by now you know that zero-sugar means your body pays a larger toll in the long run).  Really the only "free" labels you should be excited to see are "GMO Free" and "Gluten Free".

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I don't want to necessarily delve much deeper into questions like "white rice or brown rice?" (but the answer there is always quinoa), because this is just supposed to serve as a starter.  So when you contemplate pasta for dinner, consider just topping off your pasta with freshly cut garlic, tomatoes, and olive oil instead of store bought sauce.  Don't expect your budget to take much of a hit either because you can actually save money on healthier alternatives, although I don't think there will ever be a substitute for Top Ramen.

The End Is Nigh

On my last drive home from work, I received the signal that every beach player dreads.  Leaves falling off of trees.  This momentous occasion for most people marks the time for pumpkin flavored everything, the affinity toward hoodies, but for beach players it basically means that summer and the beach season itself is now over.  (Here is Chicago the weather is still insanely nice for some reason, but regardless of that, many players have packed it in looking forward toward indoor season.)

But with the end of one thing comes the beginning of another.  I previously talked about physical preparations you can make in the off season that can pay huge dividends toward next year, but I want to add a few things to that list that you will inevitably procrastinate on.

Vitamin D

This is big one for multiple reasons.  Vitamin D is the number 1 vitamin deficiency in the US.  It is critical in maintaining many bodily functions as well as warding off any potentially serious complications.  Our evolutionary background has allowed us to produce Vitamin D by absorbing the sun's UVB rays (no, there is not any Vitamin D IN sunlight.  Vitamin D gets produced by your skin).  Credit this deficiency to work days that take place during day light hours, and poor diet.

Lucky for you, you know that through sun exposure (i.e. beach volleyball) you can easily obtain 90% of the Vitamin D you need.  The science on how much any individual needs and can absorb is still a bit fuzzy and your weight, genes, and even location on Earth factors into what you need.  A very general rule of thumb says that for every 25 lbs of weight you should be getting 1000 IU of Vitamin D.  So a 150 lb me should be aiming to get 6,000 IU daily (150/25 = 6, 6 x 1000 = 6,000).

Insufficient Vitamin D intake has been linked to seasonal affective disorder aka "winter depression", where a lackadaisical numbness of unmotivated nonchalance underwhelms you.  Winter can be cyclical time for good or bad.  Not getting enough Vitamin D making you less motivated in turn will make you work out less, eat less healthy, and continually compound on itself.  If you start building good habits now, you will be able to get the work out you need, boost your metabolism and endorphin and in turn your mental state.  Keep in mind though that Vitamin D is not a magic pill to cure this disorder.  Sunlight is also a big factor which directly affects your pineal gland or "third eye", whose hormone secretion is directly affected by sunlight exposure.

One thing to be cautious about is that the Vitamin D consumption goes hand in hand with Magnesium consumption.  Vitamin D needs Magnesium to be converted into its active form, so if you are Magnesium deficient (like most people are in the US), taking just Vitamin D will exacerbate this problem, and many people have reported adverse effects when taking Vitamin D.  But don't run out to your nearest drug store and pick up the first bottle of Magnesium you can find.

Magnesium supplementation, can be a bit tricky.  The cheap version, magnesium oxide, is essentially useless to you.  What you need is chelated magnesium so it can be readily absorbed by your body.  In the next blog post I'll talk more about chelates, how they work with magnesium supplements, and how you can work this in with your beach season.