The beach beginner series is designed to teach basic movement and technique for excelling in beach volleyball. The beginner beach series is lead by Rob Long, Director of Ohio Valley Next Level Beach. Many coaches and directors interested in starting beach programs fear they lack the general understanding of the beach game and why certain skills are done differently than the indoor game. That general lack of understanding keeps many coaches and directors on the side lines. The JVA Beach Beginner Series is designed to help your club implement a beach program and for coaches to have the resources to teach the game to your players.

There are 3 parts to introducing beach to beginners:

  • Basic stance and stepping
  • Posture and pursue
  • Platform and spacing

We always begin with a short discussion on movement. No one is used to running and jumping in the sand so we discuss the how’s and why’s of the most effective movement positioning in the sand.

Stance
The verbiage for this varies from place to place but the idea is the same. Next Level Beach calls it “Gunslinger.” The stance indoor would be called an intermediate stance. In this stance the athlete should not be too low that he/she has to come up to take a fast first step or too high that to have to drop down to push on the first step. This stance can vary slightly with every athlete. The key is to be able to step quickly in all directions right out of your stance with length and balance. This is necessary because beach is a two person game and a lot of area has to be covered.


Posture and Pursue
The beach posture in stance is shoulder’s slightly shrugged and weight slightly over your knees. Neither should be so extreme that your weight is lunging you forward. In the beach game, movement is very much in all 4 directions so even weight distribution is important. Once we make our first step toward our destination(the ball), our shoulder closest to the destination leads our body and we push and stride to the destination point with almost a lateral body position to the destination point. When we stride we do not come up with our shoulder. Our arms are straight out from our bodies with palms up and our head is up looking at the ball at all times.

Have your players in a line working through stance and posture- stepping with speed one, two, three and four steps in all directions.


Platform and Spacing
Platform in beach has to be more up than indoor because we want the trajectory of the pass higher so our partner has time to get to the ball. The kids generally will have indoor platforms down in order to pass to the indoor target (the setter) when you begin. Bring the platforms up to a 45 degree angle, which will make the shoulders come back (the opposite of indoor). The actual platform is still stiff and flat and extended slightly away from the body.

In the sand, we want to front as many balls as possible so we can get the trajectory of the pass up and down. Rebounding the ball outside the body tends to create a bad platform trajectory that is too flat and forward, so instead we get around the ball and face our target as much as possible to get lift on the ball. Spacing in the game of doubles is very important. We generally want to play as beginners around 12 feet apart. The reasoning behind this is to shrink the space that ball touches need to be pushed in order to get to the destination. Touches closer together are obviously more consistent and controlled, Which is what we are looking for. Kids will play pin to pin and really high and spread apart which is problematic. This happens when players have a really hard time getting their feet to the ball with balance in the beginning, so touches spray off un-level platforms that are not up and down. Work smaller spaces and stay connected in the 15 foot spacing.

Once your players are ready for a more advanced drill to work on stance, stepping and pursue – try this drill!

For more education on coaching beach volleyball click here.

About the Author

Rob Long is the Club Director for Next Level Beach in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Rob began playing volleyball at the age of 5 with his father (a member of the southwestern Ohio volleyball hall of fame) and continued to play both indoor and out from the juniors club level, collegiately and professionally. Rob Played in College at Ball State University and was on the NCAA final four team in 1991. Rob continued his volleyball career by playing Professional Beach volleyball all through the 90’s on virtually every Pro Beach tour out there including the AVP, FIVB, MPVA, Cuervo gold and Molson tours. Rob Has won over 100 open titals over the years and still competes at the pro-am level.