OVA News

Ashbridges Bay Beach in Toronto has been serving as the outdoor training ground for Canada’s top beach volleyball athletes. From July 1-25, athletes hailing from all over Canada, showed their fierceness as competitors and strived to earn their ranks among the Canadian beach volleyball greats.

Under the direction of recently appointed head coach, Lennard Krapp, the new Beach National Program has been implemented with the purpose of subjecting athletes to the same physical and mental load they will face on the international tournament scene. The intensive camp consists of long training sessions with only a few hours of recovery in between. Such little down time forces each of the 19 Training to Compete athletes to deal with the realities of working hard and recovering quickly in order to be able to perform for the next session.

“Sleep, eat and play volleyball,” says Ben Saxton, is a popular and accurate description of the camp format. With up to 22 hours of training per week and tournaments on weekends it simulates the real conditions the athletes will face while on tour. “It is great to have everyone here from all across the country playing and training together,” stated Kacie MacTavish in her recent blog entry.

Lennard Krapp, while coming from a different sports system with different styles of implementing drills says that the athletes are responding well and are very open to his new methods. He also stated, in a recent interview, that he was pleased to see that  “almost everyone [athletes] is playing internationally.”

These past two weeks have been jam packed with training and more training. The days are long and grueling at times. It is hard to stay mentally focused during our “2-a-day” trainings sessions. However, seeing my teammates encourage one another to perform at such high levels inspires me to demand more from myself. All the players here are extremely talented and athletic; nonetheless, everyone is very down to earth and easy to get along with. We are like a family, everyone looks out for each other on and off the sand. Beach volleyball is still relatively new for me, but with great coaching and talented athletes surrounding me, I hope to keep learning and improving.
Written by : Steven Kung – Beach National Team, July 16, 2009
Read more athlete’s blogs

Beach National Team Athletes who will be playing internationally at these tournaments this summer.
Steve Marshall (BC) / Sam Schachter (ON) Under 21 Worlds – Blackpool, England
Garrett May (ON) / Will Sidgwick (ON) Under 19 Worlds – Alanya, Turkey
Rebecca Crosier (ON) / Annie MacGlaughlin (QC) Under 19 Worlds – Alanya, Turkey
Kacie MacTavish (ON) / Cate Eckhardt (ON) FIVB Open – Stare Jablonki, Poland
Ben Saxton (AB) / Jessi Lelliot (ON) FIVB Oera Open– Kristiansand, Norway
Chaim Schalk (AB) / Dan Dearing (ON) NORCECA – Mexico
Myriam Aboumerhi (QC) / Julie Rodrique (QC) World Francophone Games – Beirut, Libanon
Jill Blanchard (NB) / Cherie Campbell (NB) World Francophone Games – Beirut, Libanon
Melanie Savoie(QC )/ Marie-Christine Mondor(QC) FIVB Satellite – Cyprus