13th august 2008
Beijing (CHN)

In the last few year, Beach Volleyball reached an astonishing popularity all around the world due to its distinguishing wonderful and joyful atmosphere.
The Chaoyang Park, the Beijing’s Beach Volleyball Olympic Venue, with the sun (a blurred sun to say the truth), sand, music, great cheering audience and, last but not least, wonderful athletes is one the most enjoyable Olympic site.
Each time I attend a BVB (Beach Volley Ball) event, I get pleasure from the nice environment but, above all , I’m actually impressed by the players easiness -out of the court- and by their unbelievable physical and tactical talent - on the field -.
Many fans could be attracted by the charming and entertaining ambiance but, from my perspective, what is actually remarkable, are the players' skills.

Let me start from the classification of BVB, which is defined a team sport.
I think that BVB is an individual sport, played with a team mate.

During a BVB match, the possibilities to cooperate, assist or help the team-mate are limited by the inner characteristics of this game. If one athlete has a weak point (for instance poor passing or hitting) the opponents can easily exploit this weakness.
In the BVB being a full skilled athlete (I means in all fundamentals) is necessary.

Then, the weather conditions (temperature and humidity) are extremely demanding mostly concerning the physical endurance. The sun and the sand quickly drain off the players’ energies and the crises come suddenly. The athletes affected by those setbacks become an easy target for the opponent team, overturning in a few second a trouble-free match into an unpredictable defeat.

Try to put yourself in the player's shoes who knows perfectly that he is the sole responsible for the defeat. He has to deal with his disappointment and irritation and also with his team-mate frustration.
In the indoor Volleyball (VB), it never happens. A single player can’t ever be blamed for a defeat, even if he missed the last crucial point. The coach can substitute the players or change some positions, that’s why the responsibilities have always to be shared.

Lastly, let me outline the technical skills of the modern BVB players pointing out the rare successful transition between BV and VBV.

In the eighties, Karch Kiraly (the Us player awarded by FIVB as the Best Player of the Century) won two VB gold medals (in 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games) and a BVB gold medal (1996 in Atlanta).
He was actually an exceptional and unreachable champion but, since then, only Ana Paula Connelly (BRA), R. Nummerdor and R. Schuil (NED) succeeded in the transition between VB to BVB. Many others athletes played in both disciplines with fairly good achievements, but only those above mentioned were actually successful.

By the way, no one BVB player was doing well starting from BVB and going to VB.

The different psychological abilities and technical skills are the principal reasons of this rare and tough passage. In the last fifteen or twenty years, due to the enhanced level of the game, both sports were subject to a the deep technical and tactical specialization. The time needed to familiarize with different environments, techniques, ball and life style, became longer in the last years, so the athletes have to decide in the early twenties which sport to play.

Next days I’ll write more specifically about the technical and tactical distinctions, also mentioning the different game rules distinguishing VB and BVB.

Bye bye andrea zorzi