When recalling an answer to the oft-asked question of beach volleyball serving -- "Is it better to serve with power or with accuracy? -- two images come to mind. 

The first is of Jeremy Casebeer. If you missed AVP Seattle this past year, where he won with Canadian Olympian Chaim Schalk, that's perfectly fine. It's on Amazon Prime if you'd like to re-watch. Or you can simply read...

To run through the list of the all-time greats in beach volleyball is to also run through some of the fittest individuals in the sport's history.

Karch Kiraly's sand workouts pre- and post-practice are the stuff of legend. They're also what led him to a 40-plus inch vertical and a career marked by more victories than anyone in beach volleyball. 

Brazilian beach volleyball gold medalist Emanuel Rego, perhaps the best player in the country's storied history, practically floated on the sand, so agile, limber and explosive was he. Ditto for Sinjin Smith and Mike Dodd, a pair of Hall of Famers. When looking at the current generation of beach volleyball players, the top is marked by much of the same characteristics. 

Anders Mol, the FIVB Player of the Year two years in a row, is an athletic marvel. Taylor Crabb, one of the best defenders in the world, is second to none when it comes to quickness and leaping. Troy Field flew up the AVP ranks behind an astounding...

A little more than a month ago, gyms and beaches across Southern California closed, bringing the same question to the forefront of nearly every beach volleyball player's mind: What now? 

How could volleyball players of all shapes and sizes and abilities, ranging from the beginner beach volleyball player seeking his A rating to the pro beach volleyball player seeking his first AVP Sunday, stay fit? 

How could they stay tournament ready? 

The volleyball community has proven, as it always has, remarkably resilient. Garage and home gyms have popped up. Roofs and walls are the new partners. Stretching and remaining mobile, helping to prevent injury, is the new heavy squat.  

It has proven that, honestly, you don't need a loaded up trap bar to be jumping higher and hitting harder and pier-bouncing in Huntington Beach. You just need a little bit of space, and the mindset that, no matter the adversity, you're going to become the beach volleyball...

Welcome to Better at Beach, where we are dedicated to helping you become the best beach volleyball player you can be. Doesn't matter if it's A, AA, open, or professional, whether you're located in Hermosa Beach, CA or Salt Lake City, Utah., we're here to help you get fit, serve tougher, hit harder, and, in this case, breathe most effectively. 

It has perhaps reached the point of being a vogue topic, not just in beach volleyball or in sports, but in life in general. It isn't a fad diet, or a "get fit quick" workout program, rather much the contrary. It's something we do every day, every moment, awake or not, conscious or not. 

It's breathing. 

Mindfulness and meditation, as ancient a practice as it is, has quickly become one of the biggest topics in health and sports, including, if not especially, beach volleyball. The vast majority of professional and NCAA teams travel their sports psychologists who espouse, among a number of practices, breath work....

If this beach volleyball blog is of interest to you, you may also be interested in our Beginner Membership, which can be  of benefit to anyone, living anywhere. We'd love to have you take one of our beach volleyball classes, private lessons and training camps for adults and juniors in Hermosa Beach, CA and Salt Lake City, Utah. We run volleyball vacations in exotic locations around the world. We can even run beach volleyball clinics for your group, club or team in your hometown! Send an email to [email protected]

Sometimes we can't get out to play beach volleyball with our real partner -- but we still have plenty of options. We can play with the roof. The wall. The street. Those, of course, are also not our real partners, but at least they won't complain about a bad set or pass. 

Even better, however, than our ever-reliable inanimate objects and surfaces around our houses and neighborhoods, are our roommates,...

If you're interested in this blog on beach volleyball, and how to play defense in beach volleyball, you may be interested in our serving course, which, of course, is the first line of defense in beach volleyball. It will have you serving more accurately, with more power, in just a few weeks! We'd also love to have you drop by one -- or more -- of our beach volleyball classes, private lessons and training camps for adults and juniors in Hermosa Beach, CA and Salt Lake City, Utah. We run volleyball vacations in exotic locations around the world. We can even run beach volleyball clinics for your group, club or team in your hometown! Send an email to [email protected]

There are any number of different aspects that could make a beach volleyball defender great. You could watch a dozen different teams play, and pick out a dozen different attributes from each defender that you'd like to implement in your own game -- and that's great....

If you're interested in this practice match between Riley and Madison McKibbin and Mark Burik and Curt Toppel, we think you'd love our beach volleyball classes, private lessons and training camps for adults and juniors in Hermosa Beach, CA and Salt Lake City, Utah. We run volleyball vacations in exotic locations around the world. We can even run beach volleyball clinics for your group, club or team in your hometown! Send an email to [email protected]

THE BEACHES ARE OPEN! Do something other than workout at home or in the garage or wherever your new home gym may be. 

In light of that, we decided to celebrate practice -- we're talkin' about practice, y'all.  In the video below, Mark Burik and Curt Toppel are playing Madison and Riley McKibbin in a practice match. 

It might not be a real beach volleyball match. It might not have any high stakes involved. It might just be practice. 

But it's beach volleyball, y'all. 

...

There are two drills I would consider as the bedrock of a beach volleyball practice, the foundation upon which a player’s skill-set is based: rapid fire passing – or any type of passing drill; rapid fire is simply my favorite for its expediency and volume – and Triangle Setting.

During the off-season, which was unfortunately roughly 348,190,520 days long during COVID-19, Mondays were what I called “meat and potatoes” practices: We repped out passing and setting, what I consider the two most important skills in the game over and over and over again. Dial those skills in, and the rest of your week, whether you’re playing or just training, is going to be infinitely smoother.

We’ve gone over rapid fire passing before. Now, then, we’ll turn to Triangle Setting.

Triangle Setting is the perfect beach volleyball drill. Players at every level, from beginner to world champions, will (and do!) reap immense benefits from it. It lightly works on...

Guess what everyone? The beaches are open! I repeat: The beaches are open! Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Huntington Beach, Redondo Beach -- yep, all open. You can put up a volleyball net anywhere you want. Good news, however: For this beach volleyball drill, you don't need a net. You don't even need two full teams, though it certainly wouldn't hurt. 

All you need to become a better setter in beach volleyball is a ball, an open mind ready to learn, and a partner. The more the merrier, of course, but for now, two will do just fine -- and you're not even breaking any old Covid-19 rules if you keep it to within the people in your household. Everyone wins. 

If you'd like to become an expert setter in beach volleyball faster, consider enrolling in our setting course. And if you'd like the strength to be able to set as well as possible, consider trying out our 60-day strength and conditioning program!

Here is a Basic Setting Drill for all you coaches and players....

If you're interested in this blog on beach volleyball serve receive and passing, you may want to take a look at our passing and serve receive course! And, now that the beaches are open again, we'd love to have you drop by one -- or more -- of our beach volleyball classes, private lessons and training camps for adults and juniors in Hermosa Beach, CA and Salt Lake City, Utah. We run volleyball vacations in exotic locations around the world. We can even run beach volleyball clinics for your group, club or team in your hometown! Send an email to [email protected]

One of the trickier elements of serve receive is the timing of your platform: When do you put your hands together to form your platform? Every player has his or her own technique. Watch a video of John Mayer, an AVP champion and former MVP and now the head coach at LMU, and he puts his hands together before the serve. Watch Kim Hildreth and Sarah Schermerhorn, AVP finalists...