TV shows more Olympic beach volleyball than U.S. Amateur

[ForkaB]

Is it mud wrestling, Huck?  If not, It oughta be.

[THuckaby2]

Is it mud wrestling, Huck?  If not, It oughta be.

Well now I guess that is the logical equivalent of beach volleyball, to a guy like shivas anyway... but no, is is normal on the mat stuff.  And they wear a LOT of clothes.

Of course no offense intended to the fine female athletes who participate in this, but let's just say they are not physically as fun to look at as the beach volleyball players.  

[johnk]

Besides the clothes, here's something else that
beach volleyball has in common with golf - need for perfect sand

http://slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2105504&

[Lynn_Shackelford]

Shivas and Tom
You are both right.  Women's volleyball is a sport with outstanding athletes.
The Olympic beach volleyball scene is all about sex and hoping to draw an audience.  When I announced beach volleyball on ESPN, we always encouraged the players not to wear t-shirts or shorts.  We knew what we were selling.  In the Olympics I have noticed only bikinis, not shirts by anyone.  NBC controls all.
By the way, Walsh wouldn't intimidate me on the court, but M. May would drive me nuts.  She makes no mistakes and has a classic arm swing.
Shivas, in California we take a sport, volleyball, and go further, in this case beach volleyball, and create something new and in some cases better.  And yes, we have 6 man beach tournaments too.  Don't knock it just because the Midwest culture stays 30 years behind the times.
The Midwest was knocking women's volleyball indoors 25 years ago.
Shivas, in Santa Cruz, they used to have a competition annually.  I one day golf tournament at Pasatiempo, and a one day beach volleyball tournament at main beach in Santa Cruz.  Now you can't knock that.
Maybe Huckaby can get you Walsh as a partner.  Then one player on your team will be able to hit down.

[THuckaby2]

Great stuff, Lynn.  And I have no doubt Walsh wouldn't intimidate you - power is her thing after all, and you don't bow to her there - but great point about Misty May.  She seems just so damn SMART to me and so agile and quick, as well as powerful.. well.. I can see how she'd drive good players nuts.  She seems damn tough too....

In any case, I'm glad also you got the gist of what I was trying to say about Walsh vis a vis normal joes like us.  I most definitely got a kick out of:

"Maybe Huckaby can get you Walsh as a partner.  Then one player on your team will be able to hit down."

 

I'll tell you one thing:  I've never met Kerry, but some good college friends of mine are close to her family... My kids are so darn into this now - they go around the house batting balloons around pretending to be Walsh and May - that a meeting is gonna need to be arranged, if at all possible.  And oh yes, I will tag along.  

TH

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I can see porn,nude women or bikinied women doing anything I can think of 24/7 365 so I do not see how anyone would trade the US Am for beach volleyball. I do give volleyball its due outside of this post. My daughters high school won our state championship the last 13 years. I think televised Beach Volleyball as Lynn says is about sex. It is still great fun but not in the same class with the US Am. The US Am to me is the #3 event of the summer after the Open and US Open. I love the event and wish the Golf Channel would get it and give it the time and coverage it deserves. I am moving back home today and the Golf Channel (directv) will be hooked up by 5 this afternoon.

[THuckaby2]

I just think that 2 vs. 2 is not really the purest form of the game.  That's just not what the game is supposed to be.

Absolutely agreed.

But is it THAT impure that it shouldn't be included in the Olympics?  Come on, by that logic the only race that should be run is the 200 meters (the original "stadia" race) and we should still contest the standing high jump.

Again, this isn't any of the X-games type crap that gets included in the winter Olympics, 98% of which is pure American invention.  This is a version of a great sport that gets played world-wide, with a very well-organized and well-followed tour.  Sure it has a circus atmosphere and they sell sex.  But good lord, if that's a measure for disinclusion, then there are a LOT of other sports that are in big trouble!

Long live beach volleyball.

And Misty and Kerry just won the gold.  Can't wait to see how tonight.

TH

[Rick Shefchik]

I'd watch if they were wearing parkas and pants.

I don't think I've ever had a harder time believing something I read on this board.

But because I have a 19-year-old daughter away at college, I'm going to choose to believe you, Tom. I'll sleep better at night knowing there might be more guys like you out there...somewhere...

[THuckaby2]

Rick:

I realize that must be hard to believe... and I am not immune from making wild exaggerations in support of a point... but I swear to you, I am sincere in that.  I do love the sport far more than I love the eye candy.  Of course the latter doesn't hurt, but man what has impressed me in the last week has not been the bodies of Misty and Kerry, but rather how they play the game.  I am not kidding.

I have a daughter as well - maybe that helps explain things a bit better.  She's only 9, but she acts like she's 19.  

TH

[THuckaby2]

shivas:

I never saw GOOD players play beach volleyball until I saw them on TV.  I guess you got me there.  But I've been playing it since I was a kid.  I lived in SoCal after all.  

As for the rest, you're again interesting, but off base.  Beach volleyball remains a smaller version of a great sport, and has its own world-wide, well-followed tour.  None of the other things you mention come close to that.  The comparison is invalid.

Shit, more people have jumped on trampolines than have played beach volleyball also.  More people have certainly eaten hot-dogs.  Does that make either of those more valid as Olympic sports?

Your usually impeccable logic is failing you.  Face it - you're just jealous because Kerry and Misty could make you eat sand.

 

[Mike Benham]

I sense that some of you may be straying off topic slightly ...

When Huck mentioned that Kerri Walsh may take on Lynn S., was Huck proposing a game on the beach or on the court?  Ms. Walsh was an All-American hoops player at Stanford ..

Ps:  I suspect I will remove this post in a few hours ...

[Mike Benham]

Think about it.  How does the mere change of venue create a new sport?  What if they started playing "beach baseball" ...  

Shivas -

Now you are talking ... OTL (Over-the-Line) is BEACH BASEBALL and San Diego reigns as the venue of choice ...

And you need to find out about Ms. Emerson ...

http://www.ombac.org/over_the_line/

[THuckaby2]

shivas:

Your zeal remains fun, but you remain dead wrong.  Once again, none of the things you mention have a world-wide well-organized tour, nor world-wide following in terms of spectating, not doing. The comparisons remain completely invalid.

The trump card is this:  the Olympics are really just a stop on the world beach volleyball tour.  A very important stop, sure, but not the be all and end all of the sport.  The sport is bigger than the Olympics, not the other way around.  And you still want to say it doesn't belong?

If anything, in terms of interest and organization, beach volleyball has more of each than the six man game.  This is not necessarily a GOOD thing - remember I am with you that the 6-man game is the more pure and better version of the sport - but it just is more fuel for the argument that beach belongs as an Olympic sport.  If anything gets deleted, it's sadly the six-man game.

But there's little chance of that happening, as the 6-man game is firmly entrenched.

So there remains no problem.  Come on man, focus your zeal on the crap they've added to winter games.  Now there are some shams and circus atmospheres.  Beach volleyball is positively staid compared to the snowboard pipe competition!

TH

[Scott_Burroughs]

After I read Lynn's statement about beach volleyball and the start of 6-man beach volleyball, I was going to post about the possibilities of adding Over The Line as an Olympic sport, but Benham beat me to it.  

My ex-brother-in-law played OTL.  Don't want to be a ground ball hitter in OTL....

Some announcers have mentioned that the beach volleyball at the Olympics has been the only event to be consistently sold out.  Golf architecture analogy: Beach volleyball is more strategic (more finesse, dink shots, etc), with slower surfaces, yet firm, uh, bodies, indoor is a lot of powerball today.  Roll back the ball!  (soften it, or raise the net!)  So many can kill from the back row now, it's hardly funny.  But still fun to watch.

[Mike Benham]

Scott -

I would propose 4 on 4 on the beach.  At times, the 2 on 2 doesn't provide enough rallies ... I do agree with raising the net, rolling back the ball or limiting players to less than 6 feet tall.

(I spent my college years watching Women's Volleyball at SCU and boy has the game changed ...)