Who will be April Ross’s partner in 2018? That and more in our in-depth interview on this week’s SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter presented by Marriott Vacation Club Rentals.
Ross has become the icon of the women’s side of professional beach volleyball.
Her list of accomplishments includes: A Gatorade national player-of-the-year award at Newport Harbor High School, two national championships at USC (where she never even planned on playing, but more on that in Part 2), a two-year stretch with partner Jen Kessy between 2008-2010 in which she medaled in 17 of 20 FIVB events, an undefeated AVP season in 2014 with Kerri Walsh-Jennings, two Olympics medals — one silver, one bronze.
And every time Ross thinks it’s time to unwind, to relax, to maybe, just maybe, not hit the weight room or the sand, well, there’s always another mountain to climb.
“It’s so hard. It’s so hard. What I find happens is I convince myself to find that balance a little bit and not stress about it and not work so hard,” she said. “And then I’ll go to a competition, underperform, and I’m like ‘F this! I’m going to home, step it up. I’m not training hard enough, not focused hard enough. If you just want to win that bad –- it’s so hard to take a step back and find that balance.”
This season was, as Ross describes it on SANDCAST, full of “hiccups.” A last-minute breakup with Walsh-Jennings, with whom Ross won a bronze medal in the 2016 Olympic Games, along with a toe injury that had more of an effect that she realized until she watched video of her approach, made for a mercurial year, though certainly not a bad one — not by most standards, anyway.
But Ross is not most athletes.
Listen in to the full interview at VolleyballMag.com!
