4X4 Match

Just finished the 4x4 match today. Phil, EY, Nicole and I defeated Ricardo, Emmanuel, Talita and Renata in 3 games. The first game was close until midway when they made some errors and we started to pull away. Our strategy was for Phil and I to serve tough jumpers and EY and Nicole to serve short balls. Their strategy was to serve me short and deep on the right side and try to keep the ball on the right side of the court and away from Phil. We won that game 21-17. The second game they switched strategies and begin serving Phil short and deep. It worked well and they won 21-17. The third game was a battle. We went up 6-4 when I stuffed Ricardo. They came back strong though on some errors and errant passes. They went up 12-9 before we sided out. Then EY served a net dribbler for an ace which got us going. The next play I believe Phil stuffed a ball to tie it up at 12. They sided out and we switched sides. Then we sided out on an angle hit by me. They were all over Phil and were late in blocking me. They followed with a sideout by Ricardo. They were now serving for match at 14-13. Phil got a 2 set in the middle with both Ricardo and Emmanuel blocking. He got stuffed but EY made a great cover and Phil put the next ball away. The next play they made an error for us to go up the match point. Both teams sided out with shots on the next 2 plays. We sided out for 17-16 and then Phil and I blocked Ricardo. Phil got the block but we were both blocking and that was game 18-16.

Have to say it was really an exciting match. The crowd was pretty good and very into the match. All in all I had a good time down here in Sao Paolo. We fly out tonight around midnight and get home midday Monday.

Brazil

Actually have some time to kill here in Brazil so i can blog away. Phil and I travelled down south to Sao Paulo on Thursday. Flew from SB to LA to Atlanta and then Sao Paulo getting here on Friday morning. Long flight. Did some media yesterday and slept for almost 12 hours that night. This morning we played Ricardo and Emannuel in a match and EY and Nicole played Talita and Renata in a match. It went good for the Americans. Phil and I won 21-19 and 21-15. EY and Nicole won 21-14 and 23-21. Tomorrow we play 4 on 4, America vs. Brazil. Not real sure what to expect. I figure we will have fun though.

I leave here tomorrow night and get home Monday afternoon. Then I take off for the HWN events next weekend in Grand Rapids, Kansas City, and Indianapolis on Wend. morning. Long 10 days or so of travelling for me. I will keep you posted.

HWN and going Private

Lot of people have been asking about what events I will be playing in the AVP HWN. So here goes.

I have a tentative schedule for HWN. I will play in 8 of them and Phil will play in 9 of them. Both Phil and I miss the first one as we both will be in Brasil. Both of us will be at the next three in Grand Rapids, KC, and Indy. I go to the following 3 in Minn., Omaha, and Cedar Falls. Phil goes to the next three in Columbus, St. Louis and Cleveland. I go to Portland and Salt Lake and then Phil does the last three in Reading, Uniondale and Charlottsville. First three weeks are kind of gnarly travel weeks for me with Brasil and the two HWN. The last HWN events are not so bad as Portland and Salt Lake are fairly close and Salt Lake even has a direct flight to SB. Should be fun.

As far as the AVP going private goes....well it is good and bad. Good in that the AVP should never have become a public company. It was spun as a good thing and that the AVP could raise money from investors ect... This was true, the bad part was that there was no volume being traded. If no one is trading the stock it can't go up or down. The average day was like 5000 shares, maybe less. Don't feel like checking my figures on that one. In reality, the investors got fleeced. The institutional investors especially. The players were fleeced as well but that is common knowledge. The bottom line is the AVP is way too small to be a public company. So going back to being a private company is better for the AVP than being a public company. The funny part is that the AVP is essentially spinning going private the same as they spun it when they went public. The wording is even similar. From a player or investor perspective it was better when the AVP was public from the perspective of you knew exactly what they were doing. You knew what funds were coming in and where the money was going. You knew how much management was being paid and what stock or bonuses they were getting. Now that the AVP is private again, it is very difficult if not nearly impossible to find out all that stuff. It makes it very easy to manipulate money to the advantage of a few people. So good and bad depending on what perspective you take.

Happy New Year

To everyone: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! in a couple of days anyways.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. Ours was good but offset by some sad news. We have 3 Labrador Retrievers. One of them, our old 11+ year male named Scout has cancer which we found out 3 days before Christmas. Great family dog and has essentially grown up with the kids and been around for our entire marriage. The vet gave him maybe 2 months to live if that.

Over the past 2 years he has really slowed down. He used to log about 20 to 45 miles of jogging a week in his prime. That was back when the wife was putting in about 30 miles a week and I was jogging 2 or 3 times a week for 5 miles in the fall. Dog is a stud. In fact, Sully our younger male dog, is Scout's puppy from the second litter that he sired. About 2 years ago I noticed Scout and the older female, Kayla, were starting to struggle to keep up with me on my jogs. She because of fatty tumors inhibiting her running motion and he because of old age. We believe strongly in getting our dogs out and exercising them. He has lived a good life considering he went to the river, beach or hiking almost every day of his life. Unfortunately he is struggling now as his internal organs are filled with cancer. As long as he isn't in pain we will keep him with us. I guess you could call this an early obit. I Love my Bubba dog.

Holiday Update

Just wanted to say hello to everyone and update everyone what's going on with me. Had a fairly relaxing last couple of weeks in comparison to before Thanksgiving. Been enjoying a lot of time with the family. We put our tree up at the beginning of the month and I put up the lights around the house. We are pretty much ready for Christmas here. Have a roaring fire going most everynight although the weather had been really nice here for the most part. Finally this weekend we are getting some cold weather for our area. Actually dipping down around the freezing point at night. I know a lot of you probably are not even getting a high of 32 degrees and are laughing at us. Personally I love the cold mornings but I suppose that all becomes relative to what your idea of cold is.

Been working out in the weight room since the beginning of November and it has been going pretty good. Feel strong and no major pains. Just some feel good soreness from the lifting. Started up at the track this past week doing our long sprints, jumps and stadium stuff. Good Lord I love to hate the track workout. It sucks but once I am done I feel like I have actually accomplished something. Been doing a lot of cardio work as well. Jogging and the stairclimber are great workouts for this time of year. Throw in some surfing and I have a well rounded off season training regiment.

Going to Omaha, NE for the Women's Final 4 this coming week. I am giving 2 presentations on the sport of Beach Volleyball to a lot of indoor volleyball folks. The NCAA is considering making beach volleyball an NCAA sport in the coming years. Would be really good for the sport in my opinion. Not to mention give opportunities to some schools that may not normally have a shot at an indoor championship as well as giving some well rounded beach volleyball players a shot at a scholarship that they would probably not have received in the indoor game. Looking forward to it.

On a professional beach volleyball level, still waiting for the FIVB and AVP to come out with some sort of schedule. Usually the FIVB has a schedule out by this point in time. Kind of shocked they don't have something out. The only thing I know is that Phil and I will be playing in the World Championships in Stavanger, Norway at the end of June beginning of July. Not shocked at all that the AVP does not have their schedule out. I don't remember the last time they actually posted a schedule the year before or even 2 months before the season started. Hopefully they will at least let the players know in a timely fashion so we don't have to pay through the nose for a ticket to Florida 2 weeks in advance because they could not confirm the stop any earlier.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

We had a nice mellow one here in Cali. Like it that way.

Sorry but my blogging is kind of sporadic these days. Volleyball news is slow in developing right now and there isn't much to talk about. If something pops I will let you all know.

Track Workout

I just started working out in the weight room yesterday, November 3rd which made me think that it was time to Blog on my track and beach workouts with our trainer Sandy Combs. Something I started last year was getting in the weight room a little earlier than in years past. I found that when I ease into my workouts my body responds much better than when I just jump in. If I start in December and we jump in hard I am sore all over. Yesterdays workout was about trying to get the muscles accustomed to lifting again. I can feel it today but not to the point where it is painful. I also got in a surf on my new quad fin at a place I call sticks and rocks. Fun little chest high or so skate park.

This year and the last 2 years I will be starting up on the track with Sandy in the beginning of December. Much like my weight lifting, I used to start come the new year, but I have found that I am much better off when I ease into it a little more. Phil has started the last 3 years in January as he is visiting family in Florida over the Holidays.

The track workout is the single hardest workout I do or have ever done for that matter. It is hard on the body and the mind. For this workout it is essential that I warm up really good. I usually jog a half of a mile then do a light stretch. Then I stride the field (100 yards) a minimum of 4 times. A strider as we call them is basically an elongated stride for 100 yards. It is faster than a jog but not a full sprint. Probably about 75% of a full sprint. I will usually do a little more stretching before getting into the track workout.

The workout in December will start off with 3 or 4 400's. I usually start off at 80 seconds per 400 with a 2 minute rest in between. We will up the 400's to 5 a couple of weeks in. Depending on how fast I am doing them, Sandy will slowly bring the time down to 75 seconds per 400. A couple of months down the road the 400's turn into 300's with faster times but an extra minute rest.

From there we go to a jump circuit. We do a bunch of jumps of which some of the are one legged hops, side jumps, forward frog jumps, bounding, sprint the stadium stairs and then do two legged rebound jumps up the stadium stairs. We also throw in ab work without a med ball and then add a med ball as we get into the workout. This workout changes as we get closer to the season. Basically we start out with quantity and and narrow it down to quality jumps. We end the track workouts usually around the end of April or into May and go to the beach to do a similar type of workout.

On a side note, everyone remember to vote today or don't complain about your politicians!