Denise Austin's Blog

I am loving this 'what's the first thing I am thinking about as I wake into the day?'

Today it was preparing students for the beach student cup.

Amongst other things i am the head coach at PETROC the north devon college. We have just come back from the British College Finals where we took 6th in the girls event and 3rd in the boys

All year we have been thinking about going to the student beach cup but due to lifes pressures and priorities we may only have Jack Constable and Tim Latcham able to commit.

However one team is better than none and while Jack is in France playing with his family for two weeks this mornings thought was let's get Tim training on the sand.

And while I am at it let's see if we might just get the others there too.

So starting next Monday at 2:00 pm there will be daily training for students from PETROC attending the student cup.

Monday 2:00-4:00 games at 4:30-6:00
Tuesday 10:00-12:00 games at 2:30-4:30
Wednesday 10:00-12:00 games at 2:30-4:30
Thursday 10:00-12:00 games at 2:30-4:30
Friday 10:00-12:00 games at 2:30-4:30

Let the beach season begin.

Today I woke with my memory of an elevator moment with Jenny Price

I was at the launch of the Kelly Holmes trust in Leeds and the chief exec of sport England called out for volunteers to sell their sport.

Not being shy at these points I successfully volunteered and managed my 30 seconds to convince her that having volleyball courts littered across our countries beaches would create more of an active nation when holidaying and would drive people into our sport through their experiences of playing beach volleyball while on holiday, not just when they went abroad.

VE outdoor officer #showcaseshilton has done a marvellous job in starting this process with lots of new courts this summer, along with the Olympic sand recycling of the new courts in London and courts littered along the South west coast by beach fans. But more are required ahead of 2012.

I am working with the CSP Active Devon Active villages project and we are aiming to site a permanent grass volleyball court in all 16 Villages.

I hope I can manage that by the time everyone is inspired to play from watching London 2012.

Have you got an open space near you?

It's funny the first thing that's in your mind when you wake up!

It could be something you have forgotten to do, a play you should have made, a kill you did make or the error of the last game being played again...

Today it was me reading the recent article from the BBC when the GBR Beach Volleyball coach Morph Bowes was saying how little money the programme has. And how mad I was about that.

They really do have money. To my knowledge and I will stand corrected in recent months they have flown to Tenerife before Christmas, then New Zealand, then Tenerife, Fuerta Ventura then Los Angeles before finally heading off to Brazil for the first leg of the FIVB tour.

If a programme has no money then one flight to Brazil would have been better value for money. Please don't plead poverty when GBR volleyball are buying flights at that rate.

How I would love to sit down and talk money. In 1999/2000 I played in 18 world tour events. I received £500 pounds in sponsorship and £1000 from the beach commission backed by Richard Cannon (which was held onto by the board of VE until I begged on the phone to Lynne Allen, the only board member at that time I knew, to release the money-which they did after our 9th place finish in Italy in 2000)

That's it.

The rest was from working and my flexible friend Visa. I paid for both myself and my partner, Monique Oliver, flights through the European and Asia trips for both summers on my visa which led to me running a ledger to get her to pay me back which caused me endless worries with the £6k she owed me at the start of 2000.

Please get real and who ever is looking at those finances think again. One flight to brazil ahead of the world tour event might have saved them a whole heap and given them more training time in arguably the toughest and best training environment.

I hope that they really do prove my concern wrong; and had I had the money in 1999 and 2000 instead of spending 5 months in Rio and six months in LA I should have taken the expensive around the world short trips.

The BVF are having to spend money to secure the two births and if this is what happens then bloody great.

But don't plead poverty with that spending, to the non funded athletes of the past and present it just doesn't add up

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The count down for 2012 Beach Volleyball began in earnest at the start of this year. Having witnessed a few Olympic battles for qualification seeing it being played out for our home turf is exciting.

Two years ago the race might have seemed a done deal but it's anyone who wants it! Although there are early leaders the good result to leap frog into contention is never more than a top 9/7/5 position away.

Who will we see on horse guards parade?

Less than a year to go ....

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Location:Horse Guards Parade

Find the names of
Dampney and Mullin with the Olympic rings beside their name http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/Competitions/WorldTour/2011/OlympicRanking_W.asp only 5 names above them you could almost remove the H beside their name and they will have qualified for the beach volleyball Olympics in their own right.

Mo Glover and I have known all along since starting to coach them as juniors in 2001 through to the BVF programme that the athletes had the potential to be world class. Now yet again with a 17th in Norway at a Grand Slam to add they are showing their capabilities on the world stage.

Professionals showing what can be achieved through determination and hard work.

The best of luck to secure that spot in your own right, not just because we are hosting the olympics, in doing so it truly says that despite all the odds yet again Britain with the right athletes can hold it's own.

Matthew Pinsett we are waiting for an apology?

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Location:Frogstreet Hill,,United Kingdom

Packing up waiting for the womens 2nd division final to finish at 7pm in near perfect conditions on Sunday was the most apt way to end a weekend that had it all.
Highest ever tides pushing us almost into the dunes to play on far too sloping courts.
25-35 mph gusts.
Torrential rain.
An escaped cow swimming in the sea being rescued by the life guards.
Nick Thorne paddling 30+ miles around Lundy.
A 9th queen title.
Sam Dunbavin our first junior picking up a glass head trophy.
The easiest happiest pack down ever.
A brilliant fathers day for Joe constable, Mike Evans and Nick Austin getting to play or watch their kids in action while they also played.
For those that know
Beach volleyball

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Location:Croyde

Anyone one else been notified of their olympic tickets? Just logged onto my 2012 account I have nosebleed tickets to both of the beach volleyball semi finals mens and womens

Now who will it be......anyone else going to be there?
Exciting times


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Location:Horse guards

Hello Beach Volleyballers,

The gold coast won't be quite so golden today but the sun will shine later and all day Sunday not quite as magical as in past years but not too shabby!

I am always so excited to play and to organised this year promises to be harder with a new baby in tow but all our club members have really stepped up and so far so good

Already had four people pull out of event so my reserve list is gone and the day hasn't started yet.....

Layla sleeping soundly after a wake up call at 2 but brain in running around with the details.

Good luck if you are playing, organising, refereeing or watching beach volleyball anywhere today

Denise
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Location:Croyde

K&Q 2010_140 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
If you click on the link you will see my look of surprise that i managed to pull another win out of the bag. When i entered into my fourties I wanted to win an event in that decade that was a goal, i managed that at 41, the urban tour wins didnt count. Although the top players are on the FIVB and of course i know they would userp the crown if they could its still a pretty tough battle since losing the title to Gabi Medricka in 2008, winning back to back titles against her has been good, thanks Gabi for the competition.
I guess my goal now is to be competing into my 50's not sure if by then i will be able to take a career win but maybe division 2 title might be called for then!?
Thanks to all the lovely people who came and made it so great.

Wow, what a week and we are only at Tuesday! Gold Coast this weekend, largest number of people ever.

The Wild Card meeting and organisation last night took from 21:30-23:45, I wonder if anyone who doesnt do this kind of thing ever knows what goes on to make this event happen?

It all started on Friday, well not really maybe thursday night when I had to do the admin until 1:00 am, we had our Braunton feeder primary schools beach volleysport competition, 96 teams on 24 courts, 388 matches all refereed by the U11's, 8 division winners, 4 in the senior yr 5-6 and 4 in the junior. It was one of the best days of my coaching life to date.

Saturday was our LPV http://www.swjbt.co.uk/ Croyde Open, and one of the players there Haydn Lawson took part in the first ever primary school competition in 2007 in yr 6, now in year 9 he has represented the SW as a libero and is one of our key players in the U15 team. When you see the children realising their potential through sport, the effort you put in will be endless.

Sunday saw me and Ruth Lovell-my partner in crime in coaching-off at the Volleyball England Conference for coaches in kettering, a brain storming and networking day hectic and intense.

Monday and Tuesday i am running a coaching camp for the Brighton Beach Players led by Pete Dowdell, and here i am with Ellie sick in bed and been up since 5:30am hoping there are enough hours of sleep in my schedule this week?

So my blog asks, do you know what goes on? Can you be gentle when you need to be because when you come to the event there will be one very tired tournament director who will need some TLC

If any of you were there last Friday night you'll have seen a different coach to the one you were used to. It was an Academy U18 session and as with most younger children and those who you are developing, the way in which i push them, (read encourage, challenge, excite and motive them when I say push) has a certain path I direct them.

This Friday was different, this group in particular are a really talented bunch, they have potential and they are really able athletes, they have done an amount of technical development to get them to a good standard for their age, they are competing and winning events in their age groups and starting to get that buzz of being good, recognised and seen as a threat.

When I have athletes who come to work with me from out side of our club, they are usually the best in the country and are used to being part of a National Talent Squad and have been pushed harder before, this group I am working with are just starting to see what that feels like and they did on Friday.

Were they ready for the new me, I am not sure I was ready for me, as its taken me a few days to stop feeling sorry and start thinking that is perhaps what they need. I am a bit of a mother and matronly at times, and I am told quite scary, but the parents actually dont mind me disciplining their children but today was different.

I half expected this one person to walk off and to their credit they took the challenge that it was them that needs to work harder and not be looking to everyone else to have the focus and drive. I was proud of them, staying with it and playing on, only time will tell if it was the right thing to do and as with developing your coaching methods my self reflection to learn will be able to let me know.

GBR did not fair too well in Brazillia, the opening event of the FIVB world tour 2010, the teams of Brown/Herbert and Weaver/Miedzybrodzki were the only teams to pick up a set in their match losses.

Dampney/Mullin results showed little of their great results from the end of last season.

Today they are in China, Shanghai and the mens team have already lost their first round in the qualification. We will have a team to follow on the world tour this season, who will pick up the early lead in the GBR teams, nothing is as exciting as refreshing the page and their names are highlighted in black, follow them today on the www.fivb.ch

How unlucky must the top team of Liliana and Elsa ESP (1) the top seed in the qualification tournament consider themselves right now? Had they won their first round match and lost their second they would have been given the unlucky losers birth into the main draw as were the teams of Nystrom and Nystrom FIN (3)Laboureur and Lehmann GER (5) Denise and Lucy GBR (4) would have just missed out on the lucky ride into the main draw.
The Icelandic Volcano might be the cause of the two missing teams, from here its difficult to say but I am taking a guess that might be the reason, as to why a team doesn't take up a place in the main draw in Brazil?? Anyone know different please let us know.

So far in Brazillia the GBR team of Brown and Herbert are the only team to have won a set against SLO, Dampney and Mullin lost in 2 to the Brazillian(Georgian) team and Boulton and Johns to the young GER country quota qualifying team of Schmacher and Huttermann.

Mullin and Dampney now play Acevedo and Santiago from PUR in the 25th place play off. Although seeded lower they won two tough 3 set matches to earn their main draw birth.

Today is the first day of the last season before Olympic Qualification becomes real.