April's Beach Volleyball Log

Pro Beach player Angie Akers overcomes personal obstacles

One of the reasons I created Volleyball Voices was so that younger players can learn from the personal stories of experienced professional players.

Angie Akers has a great interactive website that all young indoor and outdoor players should visit. Be sure to visit her "Overcoming Obstacles" link which she retells the story of having to recuperate from leg injuries.

In many cases the hardest part of recuperating from an injury is the mental part. Overcoming the fear of not repeating the injury or regaining the natural normal movement that you had before getting hurt. Check out how Angie endured her experience.

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Elaine Youngs sets a FIVB beach volleyball record in Barcelona

With their 21-18 and 21-14 win in 40 minutes over fourth-seeded Talita Antunes and Renata Ribeiro, the second-seeded Branagh and Youngs successfully rebounded from an opening day defeat to a team from Cuba to win five-straight elimination matches to reach the semi-finals where the Americans defeated two teams from Brazil.

In addition to becoming only the second team to bounce back from a setback in the second-round of the loser's bracket to win a SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal, Branagh and Youngs shared the $28,000 first-place check along with improving their standing for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games where the Americans are currently ranked sixth with 4,120 points for their best eight international finishes since may 2007. Branagh also had seven of the top eight serves in the Hyundai Open Barcelona with her best SWATCH service being 82.1 km/h.

With no women's team ever winning a 32-team, double-elimination FIVB event after losing in the first round, Brazilians Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar accomplished the five-straight contender's bracket feat at the 1999 SWATCH FIVB World Championships in Marseille, France. Youngs placed third in the July event with Liz Masakayan, who is now coaching her former partner.

While Branagh was named the SWATCH most outstanding player for the inaugural Hyundai Open Barcelona, Youngs became the oldest women to win an "open" FIVB event. At 38 years, three months and 16 days, Youngs surpassed the previous mark set in July 1998 at a SWATCH FIVB World Tour stop in Portugal by compatriot Linda Hanley (38 years, one month, 25 days).

After losing 17-21, 21-12 and 15-7 to 15th-seeded Milagros Crespo and Imara Esteves Ribalta of Cuba on Wednesday, Branagh and Youngs won their last seven matches to net their first SWATCH FIVB World Tour title in their 15th international event together. While Branagh was capturing her first SWATCH title, Youngs was advancing to the top of a FIVB podium for the 12th time with her fourth different partner.

April Chapple is a freelance copywriter for volleyball products and promotions, columnist for USA Volleyball and the American Volleyball Coaches Association Coaching Volleyballmagazine and author of numerous online articles on playing and coaching volleyball. Author of the upcoming ebook "How to Stop Serving Like a Wimp" April's volleyball sites are Volleyball Voices, Volleyball Voyeur, Beijing Olympic Volleyball, Beijing Olympic Beach Volleyball, and Aprils Beach Volleyball Log. She can be reached at april@volleyballvoices.com

I know you want to learn the coaching and training secrets of how the pros play like they do.

Get free volleyball team coaching and training by discovering the secret coaching technique, strategies and skills of Olympic volleyball players and their coaches. The fastest way for you to do that is to sign up for the FREE Volleyball Voices Newsletter so you can get the inside track on coaching, training and improving all your volleyball skills, fast! Just fill out that box in the upper right hand corner to receive today's volleyball news you can use.

Free virtual beach volleyball training from Olympian Sinjin Smith

If you'd ever had questions about what the health benefits are for those who play sand volleyball, but didn't know who to ask, Olympian Sinjin Smith took the time to answer alot of your most urgent questions about the benefits of game and how to train for it.

When you get a chance to learn from a champion or an expert, you definitely should take advantage of that opportunity.

Knowledge is power. And learning how to become a powerful beach volleyball player usually costs ALOT of money especially when taught by an Olympian and all-time winning former beach volleyball professional athlete.

Can you imagine what that would normally cost you to learn what a champion takes years to learn? Finally you can do that here...and in this particular case you can learn for free! I highly recommend that you take advantage of this opportunity.

In case you don't know, who is Sinjin Smith?

Christopher St. John "Sinjin" Smith is regarded as one of the Greatest Players in Beach Volleyball History. Sinjin claimed 11 International and World Championships in his 23-year career, more than any other player and for this reason is known as the “king of the beach”. In 2001 Sinjin and Randy Stoklos, his longtime partner were named the FIVB's Greatest Team in Beach Volleyball History.

Here you can listen while Sinjin talks about the importance of choosing your Beach Volleyball Partner

· How do you go about choosing a partner in beach volleyball?

VideoJug: What is the key in having a good partnership in beach volleyball?

· Would you compare a good beach volleyball partnership to a good marriage?

· How often do partnerships break up on the volleyball pro tour?

VideoJug: Choosing Your Beach Volleyball Partner

Remember the ball is in your court. Are you ">too small to play volleyball?

April Chapple is a freelance copywriter for volleyball products and promotions, columnist for USA Volleyball and the American Volleyball Coaches Association Coaching Volleyballmagazine and author of numerous online articles on playing and coaching volleyball. Author of the upcoming ebook "How to Stop Serving Like a Wimp" April's volleyball sites are volleyballvoices.com, volleyballvoyeur.com, beijingolympicvolleyball.com, and aprilsbeachvolleyballog.com. She can be reached at april@volleyballvoices.com

I know you want to learn the secrets of how the pros play like they do. The fastest way for you to do that is to sign up for the FREE Volleyball Voices Newsletter so you can be the first person on your team to get the inside track on how to stay off the bench and gain more playing time by improving all your volleyball skills, fast! Just fill out that box in the upper right hand corner to receive today's volleyball news you can use.

Get your free personal beach volleyball training from Olympian Sinjin Smith

Have you ever had questions about how to train for sand volleyball but didn't know who to ask? Well Olympian Sinjin Smith took the time to answer alot of your most urgent questions about the game and how to train for it.

If you have a chance to learn from a champion or an expert, you definitely should take advantage of that opportunity. Knowledge is power. And learning how to become a powerful beach volleyball player usually costs ALOT of money especially when taught by an Olympian and all-time winning former beach volleyball professional athlete.

Can you imagine what that would normally cost you to learn what a champion takes years to learn? Finally you can do that here...and in this particular case you can learn for free! I highly recommend that you take advantage of this opportunity. So who is Sinjin Smith?

Christopher St. John "Sinjin" Smith is regarded as one of the Greatest Players in Beach Volleyball History. Sinjin claimed 11 International and World Championships in his 23-year career, more than any other player and for this reason is known as the “king of the beach”. In 2001 Sinjin and Randy Stoklos, his longtime partner were named the FIVB's Greatest Team in Beach Volleyball History.

Here you can listen while Sinjin talks about the importance of warming up, how increasing your flexibility improves your beach game, the facts about nutrition and he addresses the need for conditioning for beach volleyball. Listen and learn from this online training clinic as he answers these questions about "training for Beach Volleyball"

VideoJug: Training For Beach Volleyball

1. Is warming up that important before playing?

2. How much time should I give towards getting a good warm-up?

3. Does my flexibility affect my beach volleyball performance?

4. Does lifting weights or strength training improve my game?

5. How does getting enough rest and the right nutrition improve my beach volleyball game?

6. Is it important to me to have good speed and agility in beach volleyball?

Remember the ball is in your court. Are you ">too small to play volleyball?

April Chapple is a freelance copywriter for volleyball products and promotions, columnist for USA Volleyball and the American Volleyball Coaches Association Coaching Volleyballmagazine and author of numerous online articles on playing and coaching volleyball. Author of the upcoming ebook "How to Stop Serving Like a Wimp" April's volleyball sites are volleyballvoices.com, volleyballvoyeur.com, beijingolympicvolleyball.com, and aprilsbeachvolleyballog.com. She can be reached at april@volleyballvoices.com

I know you want to learn the secrets of how the pros play like they do. The fastest way for you to do that is to sign up for the FREE Volleyball Voices Newsletter so you can be the first person on your team to get the inside track on how to stay off the bench and gain more playing time by improving all your volleyball skills, fast! Just fill out that box in the upper right hand corner to receive today's volleyball news you can use.