2008 Olympic Gold Medalists

2008 Olympic Gold Medalists
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser at Cincinnati Players Championship, 3-5 September 2010

2010 Cincinnati Players Championship

Hahana Beach, 7605 Wooster Pike, Cincinnati, Ohio 45227 
(Just West of the Newtown Bridge), 513-272-1990

16-team main draw tournament

Phil Dalhausser, Todd Rogers, Misty May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh, Nicole Branagh, Annett Davis, Jake Gibb, Jenny Jordan, Jen Kessy, April Ross, Angie Akers, Dianne DeNecochea, Matt Fuerbringer, Brittany Hochevar, John Hyden, Casey Jennings, Brad Keenan, Nick Lucena, Sean Scott, Tyra Turner, and Rachel Wacholder, along with other volleyball stars.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE :
Qualifier

   Thursday, Sept. 2 Day Session 7 AM – 7 PM
Main Draw

   Friday, Sept 3 Day Session 9:30 AM - 6 PM
   Friday Sept 3 Evening Session 7:30 PM - 10:30 PM
   Saturday, Sept 4 Day Session 11 AM – 5 PM
   Saturday, Sept 4 Evening Session 7:30 PM -10:30 PM
   Sunday, Sept 5 Day Session 9:45 AM - 4:30 PM (Finals at approx. 2:00 & 3:30)

Tickets : http://www.cincyticket.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=357


MORE Information : http://Volleyball.ORG/2010Cincinnati

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser at Barefoot Wine AVPNext Championship Cup in Milwaukee, Wisconsin 28 August 2010

BAREFOOT WINE AVPNEXT CHAMPIONSHIP CUP
Bradford Beach
2400 N Lincoln Memorial Dr.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202

Saturday, 28 August 2010
9:00 am - Single elimination tournament featuring 48 Barefoot teams
2:00 pm - Barefoot Championships for Men (center court) and Women (court 3)
3:30 pm - Kerri Walsh/Rachel Wacholder Scott vs. AVPNext Women's Champions
4:30 pm - Todd Rogers/Phil Dalhausser vs. AVPNext Men's Champions
6:00 pm - Live music by the X-Cleavers

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Todd Rogers interviewed by Bev Oden

From Beverly Oden, your Guide to Volleyball
This week I had a one-on-one with The Professor himself, Todd Rogers.

Q & A with Todd Rogers
Todd Rogers is one half of the top U.S. men's beach volleyball duo, an Olympic gold medalist and the recently crowned winner of the FIVB World Tour with partner Phil Dalhausser. This week, I had a one-on-one interview with Todd and got to ask him about his thoughts on the collapse of the AVP, what he thinks needs to happen next, what the future looks like and the pro boycott of the Manhattan Beach tournament. Here is the interview in Todd's own words.

Finland

Won in Finland but not without some sparks and fun. Beautiful island by the way. Wish I had more time to check it out. We went to Stockholm for a day to do media for the promoter in Aland so didn't get into Aland until late Tuesday night. Then Wednesday was pouring rain all day long and didn't feel like exploring in the cold rain. Thursday through Sunday was pretty nice though. A touch of wind but no big deal.

Played two matches vs. a Swedish team and then Estonia. Sweden we smoked in the first and then they were up 15-9 in the second as we got a bit complacent. Came back and won 21-18 though. Estonia we were in control by a couple of points most of the game and won by a couple of points. Friday we played only one game vs. Brazil's Benjamin/Bruno. They played great in the first game and won. Second game we were smoking them by 6 or so points when Benjamin hurt his shoulder. He finished the second game and then forfeited the third game to us. Saturday we played one match against China. Had not played them since we lost to them in the finals of Moscow, Russia. We played very well and beat them handily in 2 games.

Sunday we played the Spaniards in the semis. We again played very well and won both games by 5 or so points. In the finals things got more interesting as we played Marcio/Ricardo from Brasil. The first game was back and forth. Neither Marcio or I were siding out very well so there were a lot of points. We ended up winning the game in overtime 25-23. In the second game at 4-4 we lost a controversial call and I went balistic. Not sure why, but I can tell you it felt really good. No hard feelings towards the ref either. Good ref who in my opinion made a bad call. We ended up getting smoked in that game as I was in the weeds. Sometimes it is good to get it all out in one shot. I collected myself in the third game and we ended up winning 15-13 on a short line shot I shot over Ricardo to sideout. Good way to end a long FIVB season.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Big Guy on the Big Court

Lots of speculation on how Phil would do on the big court. I have my opinion on that and will share it but first lets take a look at examples that would be applicable to Phil as well as go over his skillset and how that would apply to the big court. By the way, all of this is a moot point seeing as how the professional rules are short court, but I have a fair amount of time to kill here in Finland and figured I would exercise my brain a bit. Domestically speaking it is really a moot point as the more important issue is having a legitimate professional tour that will train American players to be in a position to get a Gold Medal at the Olympics.

First off, examples of players that can be used to somewhat compare Phil too from the big court era. There are a fair amount of them to choose from. I'll pick Pat Powers, Mike Dodd, Tim Hovland, Rob Heidger and of course Mike Whitmarsh. All 5 of these players were a tall 6'5 to a small 6'7. Phil is a small 6'9 for reference so he has all of them by 2 or 3 inches in height. All of these guys are pretty agile for their size and all of them tend to be of the skinnier variety so are not weighing in at 250 pounds. Much like Phil not weighing 200 pounds soaking wet. All of them were fairly successful on the big court and won multiple tourneys with the exception of Heidger. He never won an AVP event but did win a USAV event. PP won a dozen or so events and of course Whitty, Hov and Dodd are legends of the game. So moving on to Phil's skillset on any court, let's compare vs. what the 5 aforementioned players skillsets were on the big court.

Passing: Phil is a very under rated passer mostly due to the fact that I get served 90%+ of the balls. I can tell you that his technique is excellent from a coaches perspective and I think he would have been an absolutely dominating outside hitter on the indoor side of the game but that is another story. Compared to the 5 other guys, the only guy I would probably give the nod over Phil is MD. I would say Phil is a better passer than Heidger and PP with no question and about on the same level as Hov and Whitty. I realize that those guys had to pass more court than Phil currently does, but Phil grew up playing on the old school court as well. From a purely technical standpoint he ranks ahead of all of them in my book.

Setting: Have to look at this from two points of view if looking at it from the big court point of view. Clearly Phil has better setting hands than all 5 of these guys. Heidger would rank second and all the rest of the guys were basically bump setters. But you also have to look at it from a bump setting perspective as well. Right now, when Phil bump sets, he has to be exact since the court is smaller and I need a better set than most to sideout or score a point. I think his bump setting is actually pretty good. But, I think he would struggle the most with this skill to start off with. I would probably rank him ahead of PP but behind the rest of the guys. I know Whitty was an excellent bump setter as was Dodd. Probably the top two. Hov and Heidger were good bump setters as well.

Hitting and Shots: I think clearly Phil's hitting is better than all of them except maybe PP. I would rank him ahead of PP though as Phil's range is amazing. PP could hit the ball harder than Phil though. Heidger and Hov had wet noodles for arms and Whitty's wasn't much better. Dodd could hit a pretty pacey ball but I don't think he hit as hard as Phil. Shot wise Phil would have to get better for sure. He has an excellent deep line shot and an okay cut shot. He would probably have to develop a few more shots in his repertoire. Although I don't think PP had great shots nor did Whitty. Dodd and Heidger had good shots and Hov was solid as well.

Blocking: Phil is as good if not better than all of them. (Dodd blocked some but I see him as a great defender) Phil is clearly huge at the net. Probably bigger than all the other guys although I have seen pictures of PP and Whitty in their prime and they were way up there. Phil is also a very good reader as to whether the hitter is going to shoot the ball or hit the ball. Where Phil would suffer to start off with is pealing off the net. He worked hard on it this past year and is much better than he was. But I would put him way behind Whitty, Hov and Heidger. Can't speak for PP on this one. I do believe that with a year or two of practice and games where he is working on dropping off the net, that he would be on par with those other guys. Dropping off the net is athleticism and Phil has a lot of it just like those other guys.

Serving: Only PP had a great arm and ability to bang a jump serve out of all 5 of the guys mentioned. Hov, Whitty, Dodd and Heidger all had below average jump serves. Phil would be above all 4 of those guys and I know his touch from the service line and ability to spot the ball is really good on the little court so I would imagine it would be even better on the big court.

Others:
Defense - Phil is pretty quick and light on his feet and I think he could play defense behind a block pretty well. Give Dodd a pass on this one since he is one of the greats at defense. I think he would be better than Heidger and PP for sure. Whitty never played much so tough to say but he was the last guy cut on an NBA team so you know he is athletic as all hell. It pains me to say it, but Hov was a ridiculous athlete so I am sure his defense is pretty damn good and I would give him the nod over Phil.
Transition Setting: Give all of these guys the nod over Phil for now. Much like bump setting, it is something you have to do over and over again. Phil is pretty good but there just are not as many opportunities to bump set in the current game. If Phil got his hands on the ball then clearly he is way better than all the rest. I think he would quickly catch up though with a year under his belt.

Don't think I forgot anything unless you want to go to the intangibles like mental toughness ect... Don't think I want to go there so will leave it alone. End result for me is I don't think Phil would be as dominant on the big court as he is on the smaller court, but I do think he would immediately be one of the best players and within a year or two of playing exclusively on the big court I would rank him in the top 3. His athleticism is NBAesque and certainly on par with any of the 5 guys I mentioned.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

2010 Manhattan Beach Open

I am 110% on board with the players who are boycotting the Manhattan Beach Open. I grew up on the old school court and am one of a very few players that played on the old school court on the AVP. I enjoyed playing on the old school court with the old school rules when they were the accepted rules of all beach volleyball. The old school is no longer the way the pro ranks play the game. Mike Dodd wrote a fantastic email to the city of Manhattan Beach detailing why the MB Open should be a current pro tour format, not something from 10 or more years ago. Here is an excerpt from that:

The legacy of the Manhattan Open is that it is the ultimate test, to determine the best players in the sport of Beach Volleyball. The tournament and Mr. Saikley in each and every era submitted to the prevailing rules of the day because (for whatever reason, be it cultural or institutional) those were the rules under which the best players were training and preparing.

I agree with Kerri Walsh, Jake Gibb and April Ross. The Manhattan Beach Open is not a pro tourney if you are using antiquated rules. It is an amateur event that is run in the throwback style. A great niche that I personally love and enjoy, but not a professional tournament as determined by the last 10 years of professional tournaments held throughout the USA and the World.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Kristiansand, Norway

First match in Kristiansand we played the Under 19 or former U-19 World Champions from the Ukraine. Pretty good young team. Little bit small for the world tour but I can see why they won the U-19. Good ball control and didn't make many errors. We won in 2 games and in the second game I went up and blocked. It worked as we were tied with them and we scored 4 or 5 points over the course of the next 3 or 4 serves we had. They hit out and Phil scooped a couple of balls. Stuffed a guy in transition as well. In our second match we played Georgia. Tight first game that we came in strong mid-game through the end. The second game the big guy played great. Usually serve him but he was playing so well that we served the little guy and ended up winning the third game because of it.

We played Norway on Friday evening. Probably the loudest match and most attended match of the tourney. The fans are pretty close to the court and the speakers for the music ect... are right on the court so you can't hear a thing. Gave up trying to talk to Phil during that match. Just used hand signals. Won in 2 games though. Saturday we played Harley/Pedro in the winners semis and won in 2 games.

Sunday we played Marcio/Ricardo in the semis. As usual it was a gnarly 3 game battle. Seems like all of our matches against them are crazy that way. We won the first 21-18 and they the second by the same score. The second we went down in the beginning like 9-2 or something like that. Got it back to an 18-17 us serving switch but they scored a point and 2 sideouts for game. The third was back and forth. We were down 9-6 receiving but made a mini comeback to win 17-15. In the finals we played Harley/Pedro again. We were up the entire game. Started off strong in the first up 13-8 at the timeout. They came back behind Harley's serving to have a chance to tie it at 18 but Phil stuffed Harley after he had scooped me and we ended that game with 2 straight points. In the second we jumped out to a 9-2 lead and never looked back. Harley still had like 3 or 4 aces in the game but we were just up by to much.

Some notable finishes were the Kiwis taking a 5th and upsetting Marcio/Ricardo and the Chinese guys in back to back games. Good on them. Also, Nick and Matt took a 7th. Lost to Pedro/Harley and the a tough one to Marcio/Ricardo 15-13 in the third. Nick retweaked his leg in that match unfortunately and he was visibly struggling to jump and move.

Really nice town. Similar to Santa Barbara or maybe Santa Cruz. Kind of touristy downtown area and a nice harbor. As always the people are very nice here in Norway and the scenery is really beautiful. I love the rock formations and stuff here from all the iceberg/glacial stuff that happened ages ago. All in all a good time.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Updated 2010 Schedule

Updated 2010 Schedule  for Todd Rogers & Phil Dalhausser.  

Upcoming : Norway, Finland, Chicago, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Mexico City.

On Friday the AVP announced the termination of  the 2010 season.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Stare Jablonki

Note: If any of you are interested Tom, the man who runs my website, was able to retrieve my post from Long Beach. It is about 5 posts below this one.

Stare Jablonki is very similar in beauty to Klagenfurt, Austria. The event is set on a lake in the woods. The difference is that Klagenfurt is a town of like 100,000 people or something like that. Stare Jablonki can't have much more than 250 residents. It is a tiny village. Pretty cool that they pack 'em in for the weekend.
It was a good weekend for Phil and I. We never lost a match, lost one set the whole tourney but that set ended up being a record breaker for the men's game. In pool play we first played a young Polish team. Good players but inexperienced as you can imagine. We won 19 and 15. I was impressed though. The Polish Volleyball Federation is clearly putting a lot of money into their beach programs as they have a lot of really good young talented players coming out. The top Polish team was the #3 seed in the tourney. They ended up at 25th losing 3 tough matches but one of them broke his big toe or something like that. Our second match we played Switzerland and won in 2 tough games. Our third match was against Pedro and Harley. Really high level match from both teams. We won 19 and 24.
In single elimination we had a bye first round and then played the Netherlands just like in Austria. The games were not quite as tight as in Austria. We played better and won both games by a couple of points. We played Alison and Emanuel in the next match, a round earlier than we played them in Austria. They were neck and neck until about 16 and then we pulled away in both games.
On Sunday we played probably the highest level match we have played this year and probably top 5 if not top 3 I have ever played in. The semis were against Marcio and Ricardo. The first set we lost 41-39. Longest set ever in men's play surpassed only when Kerri/Misty beat Larissa/Juliana 42-40 in Acupulco in 2006. Crazy high level game. We came back and won the next two games 21-19 and 15-12.
In the finals we played Reckerman and Brink from Germany. It was a tight match but we prevailed 19 and 19 in front of a packed house. Energy from the crowd was great. Not quite at the level of Klagenfurt but edging up there.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser at FIVB Beach Volleyball Tournament in Kristiansand, Norway, 12-15 August 2010

Current Day and Time in Norway :

Austria

Austria was as always an awesome event. A little bit of rain from Thursday through Saturday morning but other than that beautiful weather. My brother and his wife came to watch from Japan and it was nice to have their support there. I know they thoroughly enjoyed it and are hoping on coming back next year. Had some good battles all weekend long and none closer or better than with Jake and Rosy in our first match. Usual game going 3 against them. They ended with a 5th place finish which should put them out of our pool area in Poland. Second match was vs. the Austrians on center court with the crazy Austrian crowd. They played well and gave us all we could handle. Environment is so fun to play in with that crowd cheering for their home team. Third game was a forfeit.
Elimination saw us get a bye in the first round and then play the Netherlands. Won in 2 tight games. Reindeer and Richard are great guys and I have the utmost respect for them. Transitioned from the indoor game to the beach and were immediately one of the top teams out here. Good to see another country winning outside of the usual ones winning tourneys. They have been a bit banged up this year so have not done as well but still a formidable team. Then we played Spain for the millionth time and then Emanuel and Alison for the millionth time. Spain we played well and won in 2 games. I think they might be a little banged up as well. The Brasilians were tough as usual. Emanuel tweeked his knee in the 1st game and we won by 4 or so points right after that. In the second game he was struggling and we were up by 6 or more points. They made a furious comeback though to have a swing to tie it up at 20 all. Fortunately for us, Emanuel hit it wide down the line on the left side for a 21-19 victory.
In the finals we played Matt and Nick. They had a great tourney taking down 3 Brasilian teams out of the 4 elimination games they played. Not an easy feat and impressive! Both games were very tight with great rallies. Not a ton of blocks or aces but a lot of digs by Nick and I as you would expect seeing as how we trained a lot with them this past offseason. I think the crowd would have rather seen 2 different countries, but I think we gave them there moneys worth with some of the crazy rallies.
Klagenfurt, still the best tourney. Oh, and they brought back the amazing food for the players for lunch. Players were stoked about that.