The 8th of April 2016 has now been etched into my memory as the start of a new journey for Scottish Beach Volleyball. Working hard behind the scenes to coordinate the senior and junior men’s training sessions, whilst looking ahead to potential competition, I have not stopped to think about scale of what has been very quickly pieced together over the last couple of weeks.
If you have ever been to Portobello Beach you will know that there are always questions from passers by, wondering what is going on and it wasn’t until an elderly gentleman approached asking what was happening, that the scale of the session was properly realised.
He asked if the lads training were some sort of team because he thought they were very good. My response caught me off guard.
This is the beginnings of what will be the Scottish Commonwealth Beach Squad” I said
“Wow” said the old man “that’s impressive”
And I then thought ‘wow’ indeed. The importance of the session and sense of pride of what was going on suddenly hit me.
16 players turned up (with more penned in for next week), some having battled traffic for 3 hours. Most had expressed a lack of experience playing beach volleyball prior to the session but all arrived with an attitude to work and to learn.
We spoke of what was expected and what we were trying to achieve for the SCD tournament in Perth at the end of May and we got going. No time wasted on the sand.
The atmosphere was relaxed and players found themselves in a learning environment where they could express themselves and progress quickly, despite the sharp learning curve for some. The more experienced players supported this environment with their own knowledge of British, European and World Tour events which brought a nice balance to the session.
The weather was as kind as it could have been for this time of year and the players did not have to battle too much with the elements but still some frustration was evident as the desire to be successful shone through.
I have not seen this much interest from our home grown players in Scottish Beach Volleyball, since I started playing a good ten years ago and it’s great to see. We have the talent to be successful and the future looks bright. If this group dedicates itself to the sport then we will see some great things.
Special thanks to all those players who brought it to the sand: Robin Miedzybrodzki, Connor Boyle, Ryan McLeod, Jamie McHardy, Fraser Strachan, Craig Brown, Rhys Arthur, Ross McKelvie, Mitchel Brown, Ben McHardy, Ronan Harrison, Sean Harrison, Liam Darling, Konrad Krawczyk, Lenard Sobieracki, Tim Kirk.
I will always look forward to the next session and I now look forward to the future of Scottish Beach Volleyball
Barry McGuigan
Interim Mens Coach
Related article http://yzujgdt.cluster028.hosting.ovh.net/news/2016-04-07-junior-men-women-beach-training
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Published 09/04/16 by Gerry MacDonald, President Beach Commission