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Dan's Blog

11/20/2009

Volleyball Questions and Answers

Here are some great Volleyball Articles, and good Volleyball Questions and Answers:

http://www.volleyball.com/questions/overview_of_serves_in_volleyball.aspx

http://www.volleyball.com/questions/volleyball_setting_techniques.aspx

http://www.volleyball.com/questions/match_coaching_developmental_coaching_volleyball.aspx

http://www.volleyball.com/questions/the_dig_tips_keeping_the_volleyball_in_play.aspx

http://www.volleyball.com/questions/top_volleyball_skill_drills.aspx

http://www.volleyball.com/questions/serve_with_top_spin.aspx

http://www.volleyball.com/questions/essence_of_a_quality_volleyball_player.aspx

http://www.volleyball.com/questions/volleyball_strength_training.aspx

http://www.volleyball.com/questions/volleyball_spiking_drills.aspx

http://www.volleyball.com/questions/volleyball_skills_serve.aspx

http://www.volleyball.com/questions/volleyball_recruiting_to_play.aspx

http://www.volleyball.com/questions/earn_a_place_on_the_team.aspx

http://www.volleyball.com/questions/defense_volleyball_court.aspx

http://www.volleyball.com/questions/beach_volleyball_basics.aspx

Enjoy!

Dan from http://volleyball.com

Posted by Dan Aranda at 2:25 PM

Corrado's Blog

11/16/2008

Optimal Vertical

I had the opportunity to attend the ultimate sports vacation in Cancun with the volleyball vacations group. What a great concept, a bunch of beach volleyball fanatics playing 8 hours a day and being taught by AVP professionals. My main purpose for the trip was to introduce the group to the latest in hydration products. I have been on these trips before and I have seen people play from sunrise to sunset in 35 degree weather (that is celcius). Can you say dehydration!!!!!

The most important thing to remember is that being dehydrated leads to a decrease in performance. Your hitting power goes down, your arm speed decreases, your reaction time is slower, and your speed and agility decreases. A player must have a good balance of water intake, nutrition, and electrolyte consumption. In other words, you need to eat and drink to keep your body nourished and performing optimally.

In Cancun , I introduced the athletes to our Optimal Hydration product. People were getting our electrolyte drops first thing in the morning directly into their water bottles. The line started off with about 20 people. After added the drops, I decided to head out for breakfast. A couple of cappuccinos later (how ironic I am hydrated athletes and dehydrating myself) I was approached by Christine Phillips, who works for bith Volleyball Vacations & volleyball.com. She said, “Corrado where have you been, people are lined up waiting for their drops!!!” Let me tell you, I got back to the courts and there must have been over 75 people lined up. “Dr. C, we need your drops!” Even the AVP pros were lined up waiting for their drops.

Well my so called vacation turned into a week of adding electrolytes to bottles of water. All worth it, people were loving the results. People were describing an increase in energy and a decrease in cramping.

Can’t wait, we are launching our Optimal Vertical product at the AVCA convention in December. For the first time, volleyball athletes will have a supplement product that has been designed specifically to meet their needs and promote optimal performance. The product will address all phases of training, the energy cycles, the physiology, and the competition needs of the volleyball athlete. If any of you guys come out to the convention, be sure to pop by our booth!!!!! I look forward to seeing you there.

So remember play hard and stay hydrated!!!!!

Yours in health and sport,

Dr. Corrado

www.optimalvertical.com

Posted by Corrado Cultrera at 5:48 PM

Stacy's Blog

11/11/2008

Post Games

Click here for to see the original blog

Well, I have to say that things have finally settled down for me. I am happy and currently living in my home in Las Vegas. I was going non-stop for 3 straight weeks after the Olympics, traveling almost everyday. It was well worth it, but it feels good to be home and to relax a little bit.

First of all, I would like to let everyone in on something that I think is Super Dope! I am working for a company called Skeletal Metal. Skeletal Metal is jewelry made from the plates you would put into your body if you broke a bone. Sound Crazy?

Please just check it out! We have a few UFC fighters like Forrest Griffin wearing it. Dana White, the UFC CEO, rocks it among other well know celebrities. Just go to the website at www.skeletalmetal.com and see for yourself. The story about how Dr. Mike Crovetti came up with the idea is great too.

If you decide to buy you can get 10% off by just putting in the code 201210255. You can also e mail me at StacySykora@skeletalmetal.com

Go Check it out! Here are a few photos from the event...

UFC Fighter Forrest Griffin Olympic Medalist Michael Phelps VB Silver Medalist Nicole Davis

VB Olympic Gold Medalist Rich Lambourne

Life After The Olympics

As you may know, I am an Aggie. I went to Texas A & M and I absolutely love everything about my University. It is funny, I appreciate it more now then I did when I was actually there. Texas A & M has only been wonderful to me so I always find time to go back to try and give back to a University that did so much for me.

I went back for a Football and Volleyball game where they honored me for bringing home the silver medal. I have to say, standing out on that field, 87,000 fans on their feet cheering and congratulating me, holding up my silver medal and waving my hands.....INDESCRIBABLE! I never have felt so appreciated or “cool” like I felt that day standing on Kyle Field. They almost had to get security out there to peel me off the field because I did not want to leave. It actually made winning the Silver Medal a reality. That day was one of the most memorable days of my life from start to finish.

After my stop in College Station, TX, I continued on to Washington DC where all Olympians and ParaOlympians were honored. I had never been to Washington before so this trip was great for me. We were allowed in the White House and got to tour the city for a little before departing again.

After Washington DC I continued on to Denver, Colorado to visit one of my sisters. I, unlike my sister, am a city girl now. I am not much of the “outdoors” type. Well, somehow I was tricked into going on a hike with her family and the dogs. It was actually a surprisingly wonderful experience. We hiked up a small mountain in Denver that had a beautiful view from the top. I have to say that is was great and all but I do not know if I will be going on another hike anytime soon. After the hike, we went on a bike ride. I shipped my bike that I bought in Beijing to America and I love it!

My next stop was California. People Magazine, along with UnderArmour hosted a “Fun Run” in Los Angeles where a few UnderArmour athletes got together to help out. We were supposed to just start the runners off at the starting line but ended up running the entire 5k. Afterwards we signed autographs for all of the participants.

Then it was back home to Las Vegas where I am currently loving life. I decided to dress up for Halloween this year. I actually just bought some skates a week before that I had as a kid. I decided to throw them on and put some of my clothes I ACTUALLY WEAR on and skate around. I think the dog got the worst end of the deal...

Well folks, that is about it. I am trying to keep busy and stay out of trouble here in Las Vegas. Working out and working for Skeletal Metal seems to keep me occupied for now. I can not wait to get back in the gym though, I actually miss it.

Thanks for reading.... and by the way, props to my http://www.volleyball.com fans.

Until Next Time....

Posted by Stacy Sykora at 4:14 PM

Christine's Blog

11/5/2008

Dig 4 Kids Dinner with the Stars Manhattan Beach

Gold Medalists Shannon Boxx (2008 US Soccer), Dain Blanton (2000 Beach Volleyball), & Eric Fonoimoana (2000 Beach Volleyball)

So we (D4K) recently had our 2nd Dinner with the Stars fundraiser in Manhattan Beach, CA. The Stars who attended this event included Eric Fonoimoana (D4K Founder/President/2000 Gold Medalist), Dain Blanton (2000 Gold Medalist/AVP Star), Albert Hannemann (AVP Star/D4K VP), Randy Stoklos, Sinjin Smith, Tim Hovland, Dane Selznick, Marty McSorley (Hockey), Sean O'Donnell (Hockey), Shannon Boxx (US Soccer Gold Medalist), Matt Fuerbringer (AVP Star), Anthony Medel (AVP Star), Angela Lewis (AVP Star), and Keao Burdine (AVP Star). The evening turned out to be a huge success!! Thank you to everyone that helped (D4K Board members, Mira Costa D4K Service Club members, our photographers Ken & Anna, The Stars, &The Bain Family) and everyone that donated!!

Here are some pics from the event (photos by Ken Delgado and Anna Piccioni)

Posted by Christine Phillips at 8:55 AM

Hans' Blog

10/29/2008

Either You’re A Sports Fan, Or You’re Not.

It’s a pretty amazing time right now in sports. We’ve got Major League Baseball’s World Series starting Wednesday night, College and Professional Football highlighting the weekends, the NBA kicking off their season on the 28th, and the NHL already in full skate, if you will? Okay, that was bad. Terrible, actually. But the only thing missing in that mega-mix of sporting utopia is a live NBC telecast of the AVP right? I mean then we would have it all covered, head to toe. Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey… Beach Volleyball?

Oh, who am I kidding? Beach volleyball would never survive in a professional sports marketplace like the one presented to us for a few short weeks in October. Don’t get me wrong, once the Dodgers and Red Sox lost, my weeknights opened up splendidly for Emmy winning shows like House, Mad Men and Gossip Girl. I would never, ever watch a World Series involving a team from the state of Florida. Sorry Misty’s husband. I just can’t willingly support a team battling for the ultimate prize in America’s former national pastime that doesn’t support itself. Sell out a game at home, or I’m sorry, sell more than 20,000 tickets for a game at home determining the American East Crown and I might start acknowledging the Rays or Marlins as legitimate Sports Organizations. Wait, did I just try to slide Gossip Girl by as an Emmy Award winner? My bad. It should be. And hold on, Tampa’s in Florida, why the heck are they playing in a dome? They’re not the Twins. It’s not twenty-six degrees in April as the season commences. Even the Twins are building an outdoor stadium. You know why, because fans in the summertime don’t want to sit inside breathing recycled air watching athletes who are unable to get dirty because they’re playing on turf.

While I’m at it, I’ll say this; the NHL should have disbanded entirely when the strike took place in 2004-05. It’s never fully recovered and I’m not sure if it ever will; except in Canada, of course. Better yet, here’s an idea. And one I’m pretty sure I’m stealing from a more notable news source, I just can’t remember where. Get rid of all NHL teams that play in cities that don’t naturally produce ice in the winter. Ponds, lakes, weak streams, whatever; all the city has to do is have one body of water ice over, and they can have a professional hockey team. American men can still pretend they like hockey and that they might have picked up a stick as a child growing up in Duluth, but that does not mean places like Phoenix, Arizona should have an arena that has its air conditioning set to full-blast year round.

I have nothing bad to say about football or basketball, no need to worry. And I really like baseball, but I need a team with more than fifteen regular season fans in the World Series for me to watch. Now, as far as volleyball is concerned, can you get a cooler sport? Seriously! I know what you’re thinking, “You play this game Hans, of course you think it’s the bee’s knees.” And you’re right, I’m more than a little biased, that’s exactly what I was thinking! However, as biased as I am, I’m also fully aware of how many people out there think the same way as I do, and it’s not many. Which is exactly why I’m thankful we play our season in the summer months with only Major League Baseball to battle, and the WNBA, if you count it? Case in point: Manhattan Beach, September 19-21; the grand daddy of them all, or the name that has become almost banal by NBC broadcasters, the Wimbledon of Beach Volleyball. However, in 2008, attendance on the outer courts wasn’t so grand. Why? Simple, it wasn’t summer anymore. School was in session, people had to work, people had to travel for work, and the economy is shot. Oh, that has nothing to do with it not being summer, sorry, but I’m sure it affected our beloved attendance in some unforeseeable manner, even though the tournament was free. Maybe fans in Chicago couldn’t afford the flights to take their once a year pilgrimage to beach volleyball’s holy land? I don’t know, I’m speculating.

Here’s what I do know; regardless of the missing locals stacked on top of each other from court 5 to the strand, the Manhattan Beach Open Finals, both men’s and women’s, were sold out to the max. I provided live color on AVP Radio and couldn’t believe the atmosphere. It was just like every other year, or, better put, the best beach volleyball experience in the world. Even in September, matched up against Divisional Series Baseball, NFL Sundays and USC Saturdays, the AVP stacked up against the big guns and provided the first ever 1 Million Dollar Open. And it rocked. I say we make it even better in 2009, especially with a return to its usual August time slot on NBC, and no Trojan football games battling simultaneously on ABC. Pete Carroll is way better off on stage with Geeter.

Here’s what else I know…

Congrats to Jen Boss for her first open win in Glendale, AZ. She played unbelievably well the entire weekend, restrained herself from the booze and endless parties that make up the last tournament of the summer, and chose her partner for the final wisely. No one on tour is displeased to see a long-time tour vet with such a humble personality, like Jen Boss, win her first open. Also, a big congratulation goes out to John Hyden for winning his second King of the Beach in the last two years. I saw him at the player party afterwards and we discussed how amazing his career would be if only every tournament, every weekend, was the “King of the Beach” format. Fortunately for him, the Hot Winter Nights Tour starts up in January and is just that: four guys, king of the beach, one winner, and my guess is, he’ll play in more than just one weekend.

Which, brings me to another hot topic, why are the players that already make enough money to survive, the only players invited to the Hot Winter Nights Tour stops in January and February? Granted, I was invited last year to play in Minneapolis and Columbus, so I can’t complain, but that’s only because I was living in Minneapolis at the time and provided AEG with some pub for the local media. And, I was coming off a Silver Medal at the Pan American Games in Rio, but don’t kid yourself, those kind of results were irrelevant in my selection and not a single sole in the Target Center was aware of the fact that I even went. The fact of the matter is; there are only four men and four women on tour that can alter the decision making of a fan debating whether or not they should attend a Hot Winter Nights Event, and that’s our Olympic representatives from Beijing. Everyone else is just a name, and just a player. Todd, Phil, Jake, Rosie, Misty, Kerri, Nicole and Elaine are the only names that kids from club teams across the country are going to use their iPhones to buy tickets online to see. So why not use one spot in every event to fill with a young up and comer, or middle of the road guy, that people can start to follow and become a fan of when all the golden oldies retire? Seriously. Doesn’t this make a ton of sense? Three guys, or gals - sorry I’m always referring to just the guy’s side of the tour - from the top of the money list, and one guy that isn’t.

For example: Portland, Oregon and Salt Lake City, Utah
Men – Jake Gibb, Todd Rogers, Matt Fuerbringer and Braidy Halverson
Women – Kerri Walsh, April Ross, Tyra Turner and Ashley Ivy.

Three established tour vets with at least one huge Olympic name, and a 4th that will be playing for years to come. Seems like a no-brainer. The NG gets a chance to make a little extra scrill and the “names” pad their bank accounts, just like always. Best of both worlds.

This seems almost overly essential on the ladies side of the tour. All the top women want to start families at the same time, and none of them are getting any younger. Wait, that came off wrong. Just think, what if Rachel Wacholder (already prego), Jen Boss, Tyra Turner, Kerri Walsh and Misty May all sat out next season because they had little, future, superstar athletes to mind over? Who does the AVP market then? They’ve put all their eggs in one basket for so long, rightfully so, Misty and Kerri deserve every ounce of recognition they’ve ever received and have single handedly carried the AVP since 2004, but where does that leave the rest of the women once they take a break, or hang it up for good? This is the perfect opportunity to make some of those unknowns more, well, known.

Don’t think for a second that the guys side doesn’t need a youth marketing blitz almost as much as the ladies; Holdren, Fonoi, Blanton, Ceman and Kiraly have all retired in the last two years, and those are some huge names with Olympic accolades and medals to their credit. What happens when Fuerbs, Sean Scott, Lambo, Hyden, Steino, Kevin Wong, Loiola, Souza and Nygaard all retire within two years as well? The youngest guy in that whole group will be 35 by the time the 2009 Summer Season begins, and none of them are Karch, if you know what I’m saying. Nor do they have a bazillion dollar Speedo endorsement deal to hold on to and carry them through the rough patches. E.g., Dax has got more than a couple good years left in him, as seen in his epic battle for the finals against Jake and Rosie in Long Beach, but he’s phoning it in because his primary sponsor, Nautica, is out.

Either way, guys are retiring and the tour only has a handful of male athletes that will start the 2009 campaign under the magic age of 30 that finished ’08 ranked in the top 20 players, Nick Lucena, Phil Dalhausser, Sean Rosenthal, Brad Keenan and Matt Olson. Granted, those are some pretty heady names, particularly Phil and Rosie, but that doesn’t leave much as far as a future is concerned does it, especially in regards to marketing, or more specifically, those they have neglected to market and will soon be left with. Sounds like a good time to get into the game for all those kids out of college if you ask me. Unless, of course, they’re already playing indoor in Russia or Korea making half a million; if that’s the case, how fun is the sand, really?

On a side note - In regards to the Hot Winter Nights Tour that starts January 15 in Albany, NY. If you’re from either Minnesota or Iowa and read my blog, contact me in regards to tickets for Minneapolis on January 29th or Cedar Falls on January 31st. I can acquire a group rate that isn’t available at the box office and I am more than willing to help out all of my good friends, or anyone who volleys in the grand old Midwest.

hansstolfus@yahoo.com

Hopefully I can finagle a way to do AVP Radio and attend both stops and see all of those I was able to help obtain tickets. If so, see you there!

Posted by Hans Stolfus at 9:47 AM

Tyra's Blog

9/28/2008

The Final Leg of my 8 Week Journey

Week #8 Moscow, Russia
Finish 5th

This was our final event in the qualification period. By this time Rach and I are both pretty beat up. Poor Rach has been dealing with multiple injuries, but still hanging in there. Yes, hanging was a perfect choice of words. She strained a tricep in her hitting arm, but the injury seems to be moving upward causing neck pain as well as upper back and shoulder spasms. We just need a week off, but there’s no time for rest. We needed to take a podium finish to remain in the Olympic hunt. Boss/Ross was knocked out by the pesky Brazilian team and we were up against Ey and Nicole. We won the first convincingly and then fell apart the last 2. Ey and Nicole took the podium finish we needed. Disappointed is a complete understatement. I could write about it, but it would take 10 more pages and someone might try to admit me to a clinic. So, on to the next funny Russia picture. I always wanted to sit in a Mercedes Benz, I just never thought it would be during a time out????? There was so much more to this journey and I hope you have enjoyed my little tid bits. Traveling the world playing the sport I love is such a blessing and I look forward to more adventures. Many thanks to my husband Chad as well as my family and friends who have offered continuous support while I’m off playing in the sand. I love you all.

All Smiles,
Tyra Turner

TEAM USA @ THE RED SQUARE (Matt, Rosie, Kelly, Jake, Jane, Rachel, Tyra)

Our Favorite team to train with. The Brazilian sisters Maria and Carol Salgado.

Posted by Tyra Turner at 3:50 PM

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