It’s been a while since I wrote about beach volleyball. I am still playing. More than ever in fact. And by more than ever, I mean three times a week.

I have played since 2007, that’s crazy long, but unfortunately my promising career as a beach volleyball pro ended before it could even start due to university studies (I know many can do both, but I couldn’t and decided that it was more important to get a good degree in a reasonable time and have fun in school while doing it), moving abroad also halted my progress a lot. Even if it happened to be to California, where I still played, but not seriously.

So now when I have been back for a long while, have finished my studies, have a good routine on my life with a nice job and salary (beach volleyball is very very expensive here in Gothenburg), I thought that it was time to put some effort into this sport again. Therefore, since January I am practicing twice a week and play in the series once a week. Which totals up to 5,5h every week. Not too bad for a busy project manager who also tries to write a book.

First of all, I want to send out a huge ‘thank you’ to my beach partner, Alice. She is the most supporting partner one could wish for. She brings out the best in me while playing and we are just so positive towards each other and we are extremely generous with encouragement. She is the perfect partner and a big reason why I find it worth paying 7000 kr per semester for this sport. Since day one we have been synched in game and we are developing together. And I felt that these past three months led up to tonight. When we completely owned every single set we played in the series. Last turn (the past 5 weeks) we got 3 points in total, we were hanging on a thread of being sent to the series below us, but we pulled through and managed to stay around for another five weeks. 3 points, for those of you who don’t know, is really bad. One period is 5 weeks, each week you play 2 games, each of two sets no matter who wins them, and you get 1 point per won set. So 3 points in a whole period is really bad. Today, we walked away with 4 points, we got more points in one night than in the past 5 weeks. And no wonder, we played like gods. Both of our serves were perfect almost every time, countless of esses. We played tight and communicated like never before. And what was best, in addition to the amazing serves, were our transitions (when we get the defense and have to counterpunch. We perfected transitions today! So many amazing saves, incredible sets from both of us and attacks that were beyond this world. I usually have a very good spike and am not very good at shots and placing the ball, but today I skipped the spike and placed all shots and they were all so very well placed. I can’t believe it. It is unbelieavable!

The only thing missing from today’s play was a block from my part. I have managed to do 3 successful ones this spring (that is 3 more than I have ever done in my previous ten years). But that takes practice, and it is hard when the coaches don’t really teach us women to block, with the argument that most women don’t block because we are short. Stupid argument. How am I supposed to learn then?

Nights like this is why it is so worth spending 7000 per semester on this sport.