Beach Volleyball Tips

First lets go over the person digging the ball. Where you stand depends on your blocker. If you have a huge block you can plant where you are going to be digging. This means if your blocker is blocking line you can just be at angle planted, even if the hitter sees you right there. You want to do this because then the hitter will try for line and get blocked by your partner.
If your blocker is an average blocker and doesn't put up a huge block then your defense changes. You can't just plant on the angle if your blocker is blocking line because the hitter will then hit line and might not get blocked every time. Another thing is that if the block isn't huge they can do a high line right over the hands and you won't have time to get there. The bigger the block the easier it is for the guy on defense. Beach volleyball defense changes with every partner and against every team, so you always have to be aware of how you can capitalize on every team.

Sand Volleyball Workouts

So you want to play beach volleyball in the AVP but you can't get your armpits over the net?
Well, lets look at some workouts you can do so you can learn how to jump higher. Jumping factors in both leg strength and speed which equals power. If you don't have strong legs then you will benefit from strengthening your legs in the gym with weights. You will want to keep reps fairly low because we don't care much about endurance for jumping. Some of the main exercises you will want to do include squats, calf raises and cleans. Now the best way to go about your workout is to do 3 sets where you lower the weight slowly and then go as fast as you can when pushing the weight up.
Now if you already have really strong legs, you aren't going to benefit much more from lifting weights in the gym so you will need to focus more on training those strong leg muscles to be faster. This is done through plyometrics, which are jumping exercises. You will want to do your jumping exercise in sand for 2 reasons. One, you will be playing in the sand so it will transfer over to beach volleyball better. And, 2 because it is much easier on your knees when landing. You want to keep these reps low as well and jump as high as you can on each jump. Some exercises you want to do are jumping at the net 6 times fast (as soon as your feet hit the sand jump again) do 4 sets of six. Then do 4 sets of 6 where you actually let yourself land and adjust before jumping again. Take a chair or something about knee high and sit on it then explode jumping up as high as possible. Do 4 sets of six of this. This will help you squat lower before exploding up to block.

Conditioning For Sand Volleyball

Sand Volleyball is all about jumping. There's not a position that isn't allowed to jump like in indoor volleyball. If you play you have to be able to jump no matter how tall you are. But how do you learn how to jump higher? Very easy, you jump. Anything you want to get better at requires you to practice. But there are more efficient ways to train for jumping than others. In Sand volleyball you need an explosive maximum height jump, not a bunch of repetitive sub-maximal jumps. For this reason, the way you should train for jumping in beach volleyball is different than jump training for other sports. When doing plyometrics (jumping exercises) you shouldn't be doing high reps but rather low reps and giving each rep all your strength. Also, you should let yourself get well rested in between sets.
Most of your jump training should be in the sand because that is how you will be jumping in the game. The approach is much different than on a hard court. Also, because plyometrics are of a very high intensity, training in the sand will be much softer on your joints which will prevent injuries.