Good morning, beach volleyball fans,
And greetings from Baltimore-Washington Airport, where I am hoping, but only modestly expecting, my flight leaves on time. I was back home for a funeral before somewhere between 10-13 inches of snow dumped down and pretty much closed the world and kept me in front of the fireplace, watching football, reading books, and penning a reflection on the sadness and beauty of death.
Don’t tell the rest of the FSU staff — or my wife, home with two kids — but it was quite lovely. Even got some snow training in, just in case I want to resurrect my snow volleyball career. It’s never too late!
Last week, as the weather folks promised a major storm to shake up the country, we promised a major partnership move to shake up USA Volleyball. Taylor Crabb delivered, scooping up Andy Benesh, and now the ripple effects will be felt all the way down. Where does Miles Partain go? Trevor Crabb? Taylor Sander? What happens after that?
We don’t know.
But it’ll be fun to see how it all pans out.
It was fun, too, answering some Fan Qs on this week’s podcast, our first fan question episode of the year.
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This week was the first solo episode of the year, as I took fan questions and answered a few that have popped up a few times and we’ve never really taken the time to properly dive into them, one being: How do I get points, starting from zero, on the Beach Pro Tour? You can find the rest of the episode:
Lift Like a Professional Beach Player
My trainer, Nathan Michaels, is the man who saved my knees, and also turned me into a legitimate-ish professional athlete. He asked if we’d give him a platform to talk all things weight lifting and conditioning for beach volleyball, which was a 1 million percent green light. His first episode, an overview of lifting for beach volleyball, is up on our YouTube Channel and is getting quite a positive response. His second goes up this Friday, and if you’re a member of our Channel, you can already watch:
News Around the Beach
- Another volleyball power couple! Shout out to our good friend Chaim Schalk, and another good bud in Toni Rodriguez, who joined the ranks of volleyball power couples by getting engaged sometime this weekend. Stoked for them. Two good people in the sport, joining forces. Should we do a volleyball power couple power rankings? Delaney and I are plummeting. Gotta get back to work.
- Volleyball World still doesn’t have a schedule, but it has a metric sh** ton of futures. Twenty-nine Futures on the 2026 schedule! That’s a lot. For Americans, they’re mostly a waste of time and money, but it’s something, I guess. Still waiting for the full schedule to drop.
- Watch SANDCAST Episodes Early! Become a member of our YouTube Channel and you’ll get every piece of content days or weeks or, now, months, even, before anybody else.
- Coming up on Wednesday we will have Carl Massey, Tri Bourne’s life/mindset coach who sprinkles in a heavy dose of golden nuggets. Fun one, and I recommend you listen/watch with a notepad. Lots of wisdom in this one.
Much Love to the sponsors
We’ve been with Wilson Volleyball since day one, and we love the products they make — the best ball on the market, hands down, no questions asked. Use our discount code: SANDCAST-20 for 20 PERCENT OFF.
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Back again with AG1! Joining forces again with AG1, the best supplement in the world, and we’re not too shy to say it. So if you want to stay healthy AND help the show, please order with this link, which comes with a billion free things when you subscribe. Just do it.
We’re officially partnered with Better at Beach! If you want to get Better at Beach, use our code SANDCAST for 10 percent off all of their products, from online classes to in-person camps and more.
Appreciate y’all for listening, reading, and loving the beach like we do.
Have a great week!
SHOOTS!
SANDCAST Team
