Braidy Halverson

The Pursuit of Courage

2010-05-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

Do you feel out of place, like you don’t belong? Are you having a hard time sleep walking at night? Do your clothes make you look silly? Are you slowly starting to forget the specific heat capacity values for many of the transition elements?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, maybe it’s time for you to Pursue Courage. Don’t take this lightly. This workout will, without a doubt, break off the out-of-shape “crust” that has slowly been growing on your body.

I have been doing this workout every Wednesday evening for several months now with Dan Madden and John Wankner for a sand training workout. If I wasn’t for my teammates, I would have probably stopped doing it after two weeks. Accountability has kept us all pursuing. That been said...

Here are some important Team concepts behind this adventure:

-This workout is ideal for a team of three. Two people will work, but three will give you just the right amount of rest time.

-It is your responsibility as a teammate to keep each other accountable to do it each week and to work hard while pursuing.

-When you achieve courage (more to come on this), a group hug is all the celebration you will need.

There are two phases to the Pursuit of Courage. The Steve Cahn Pursuit of Courage is named after The Matsa, a grizzled Navy Veteran who spends many of his days challenging anyone to games of various derivatives of volleyball... using his “altered rules,” of course. This pursuit embodies the fortitude of the athlete. The Yariv Lerner Pursuit of Courage is named after a man who is an ambassador for the "beach volley dream.” He has put a roof over the heads of many players who were once up-and-comers, and who today, are top-tier players.

On to the workout. After each description, I have added a video to demonstrate a single round for each phase. Remember, you will do each phase (Steve Cahn and Yariv Lerner) three times.

Components Needed

One Poison Ball (we use a 20 pound medicine ball with handles)
The Conclave (Beach Volleyball Court lines set up in the sand)
Jumanji (A circle drawn in the sand roughly 5 feet from one of the poles)
Timer (must be able to record laps)
Determination

Steve Cahn Pursuit

First person starts on the ground beneath the net on one sideline. When the timer begins, bear crawl backwards to the endline, bear crawl forward to the starting point, sideways bear crawl across the court, and sideways bear crawl back to where you started.
Grab the poison ball (which will be waiting in Jumanji) and complete 10 Earth-to-Sky Poison Thrusts. (Squat, touch the med ball on the ground, stand and press the ball to the sky 10 times.)
Sit down and complete 20 Jumanji Ab Twists. (Butt on the sand, feet 6 inches off the ground, knees slightly bent, twist side to side and touch the sand with the poison ball 10 times on each side.
Stand back up and complete 20 Poison Ball Hip-Hops. (Jump forward and backward over the med ball 10 times and side to side over the med ball 10 times)
Finish this round with a round of conclave agility drills. (With the Poison ball, start from the pole next to Jumanji. Side step to the endline, ski hops back and forth over endline to other sideline, side step in the other direction to other pole, back peddle to opposite endline, criss-cross footword across other endline, and sprint back to jumanji to drop the poison ball and hit “LAP” on the timer.

*When you drop the poison ball in Jumanji, the next person starts the round.

For a reference point, a really good time for a single round of the Steve Cahn Pursuit would be in the range of 1:15 to 1:30. The first time I did it, my time was in the 2 minute range. Everyone’s time will be different. The goal is to try to beat YOUR best time for a round every time you pursue. This is the key to removing the “crust.”

Each person will do the Steve Cahn round 3 times. When everyone has completed all three rounds, it’s time to begin the Yariv Lerner Round. There is no break time between the finish of the last person’s Steve Cahn round and the first person’s Yariv Lerner round.

Yariv Lerner Pursuit

This round begins with Conclave agility drills (with poison ball) that are slightly different than the Steve Cahn round. Start from the pole next to Jumanji. Move laterally with feet hopping over line (forward and backward with feet always on opposite sides of the line) to the endline, two footed leaps to other sideline, move laterally with feet hopping to the other pole, launch poison ball to opposite endline with two hands from a squat position, launch poison ball again to other endline, and launch poison ball again back towards Jumanji.
Return poison ball to Jumanji and do 10 Poison Plyo-Pushups on the ball. (Right hand on the ball, left hand on the sand and PUSH. Then left hand on the ball and right hand on the sand and PUSH.)
Then do 10 reverse Jumanji lunges while holding the ball above your head.
Then do 10 Ooptie-Oops in each direction. (Hold the poison ball out in front of you, arms fully extended and draw figure eights in the air.)
Go to the net and do 5 poison drops. (Jump as high as you can with the poison ball and try to drop it over the net. If you can’t drop it over, jump and throw it over without it touching the net.)
Finish the round with 4 Conclave rippers. (from outside the court at the net, sprint around the outside of the lines until you reach the net on the other side, then turn around and sprint back... that’s two)
Press “Lap” and catch your breath. Only two more Yariv Lerners.

For a reference point, a really good time for a single round of the Yariv Lerner Pursuit would be in the range of 1:45 to 2:00. Again, everyone’s time will be different. The goal is to try to beat YOUR best time every time you pursue.

How do you achieve courage?

The answer to this question varies from team to team. For us, we set a goal that if we accomplish the workout in under 30 minutes, then we would have successfully “achieved courage”. This was very challenging and it took several months before we reached our goal. On May 5, 2010, we got a time of 29:54. The celebratory group hug was literally all we could muster. Actually, we could lay on the sand panting like dogs too.

I am assuming that next time I see any of you, I will probably mistake you with Heman or Sherah.

Lame Duck Partner

2009-08-12T14:18:00.000-07:00

When a new President is elected into office, he doesn't take over right away. There are a few months when the previous president is still in office, but he just hangs out and kicks it until it's time to be cremated. The media has given the term "Lame Duck" to this presidential position. Most recently, Obama was the new president elected into office and Bush was the Lame Duck who was eventually cremated.

I'll come back to the Lame Duck thing later... Yesterday Billy "The Merman" Allen sat me down in the hot tub after practice and tried to drown me. He foolishly believed that because he can breathe underwater that he'd be able to hold me under for aslong as it took. Well, news flash Merman, they don't call me Donkey for nothing.

Donkeys are great swimmers and I escaped the grasp of his Merman tail with the utmost of ease. Also, I could stand up in the hot tub.

After the hot tub incident I asked him why he tried to drown me. He responded, "Matt Fuerbringer asked me to play with him in the last few tournaments of the season and I couldn't turn him down. I knew that you would be really hurt if I dumped you so I tried to drown you instead." Hearing that made me feel a lot better about the situation. Billy actually cared so much about my feelings, he tried to murder me. How could I be mad? I said the first thing that came to mind... "If you eat a live frog in the morning, nothing worse will happen to either of you for the rest of the day." I just hope he took the time to truly find the inner meaning of my advice.

Despite my kind-hearted mood yesterday, today I found myself sitting on my couch, blinds drawn with a box of Aloe Kleenex, eating rainbow sherbert (Billy's favorite) out of the box, listening to my Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne mix tape, and watching game film of Billy and I playing Mayer/Nygard in Hermosa. I'm not proud of my actions... (like I have any control over what I do). But it got me thinking... "Yo B-Blog, you still have one more tournament to play with Billy this weekend in San Francisco."

Let's go full circle... Billy has elected a new partner (Matt Fuerbringer). But I am still his partner for another 4 days. Does that make me a Lame Duck partner? Am I like George W. and is Fuerby like Barack? Does the AVP cremate players? Shit...

Don't get me wrong. I am stoked for Billy. He has worked very hard to put himself into a position to get picked up by a player as good as Matt Fuerbringer. Plus, I am a big boy. I can find a new partner. I will be fine for the Muskegon and Chicago events. I can't wait. It's fun to mix it up and play with different players sometimes. The only real issue I have is that I am basically S. out of L. for the Cincinnati event (Less teams, more money per player). To get into that tourney, the AVP will take the best 10 finishes from each TEAM throughout the season. 16 teams make it into the event. It doesn't matter who I play with, I can't get in because I haven't been playing with that person for at least 10 events. You might ask, what about Billy and Matt? Well, they will get the wild card into the tournament.

Fortunately, I believe Billy and I have come to an agreement that we both can appreciate. Either Billy dumps Fuerbringer before Chicago, but after they sign up for Chicago (That way Fuerby can blog about his own experience as a Lame Duck), or Billy makes me the best man in his wedding in November. We have agreed that the outcome of the poll to the right will be the ultimate decider. So, my friends, the choice is yours...

Dear B-Blog

2009-08-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

This is an anonymous letter I received from an adoring fan. I thought it might be fun to post it and add a response.

Dear B-Blog,

I am writing you this letter in hopes that you will discontinue your efforts to "write" blogs online. I am embarrassed for you each time I read your entries. Not only that, I think you are making your readers dumber with every post. Please, please, please adhere to my request... Drop the blog and just volley. After all, you are better at volleyball than you are at writing, if only slightly.

Thank you,

Jason Hodell, AVP CEO*

Dear Anonymous Adoring Fan,

Hee hee. Thank you for the kind words. I will try to pump out blogs more often. I am quite confidant that there are more fans out there who feel the same way you do. And at your request, I will stick to writing about volleyball. I'll call it Bloggeyball. How about I focus my bloggeyball today on the Manhattan Open...

Manhattan Open:

They call this tourney the Grandfather of them all. It's like a grandfather clock... or was it grandfathered into the AVP from somewhere?... To tell you the truth, I don't know why they call it the grandfather. But I do know that it is the only tournament with 64 teams in the main draw for each gender. This made for a very crowded players tent. I thought it was awesome though because quite a few of my buddies qualified for the main draw.

In our third game of the tourney we played the Brooklyn Open champs, Ty Loomis and Casey Paterson. They out yelled us, and they out hair-doed us, but fortunately Megan Pura from Oakley gave me a pair of orange Oakleys to play in so we won in a tough three game battle.

Next, we met our match against Sean Rosenthal, Jake Gibb, and Rosie's Bromance (A.K.A. Rosie's Raiders). Those guys kept calling me sweetheart. Why did they say that? Does Rosie know they were saying that to me? Do you think that he was jealous?

In the finals Sean Rosenthal had one of the sickest hits I have ever seen in my life. Please read Hans Stolfus' blog about it. Eight of my top ten favorite spikes have come from one of the palms of this man. Rosie and Gibb finished off Olson and Wong in the finals to get their names forever etched on the pier. I'm going to make a chocolate milkshake now.

Cordially,

B-Blog

*First letter not actually written by Jason Hodell

Epic Journey

2009-07-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

The landing gear clunked open and the 10 seater prop plane, operated by an affiliate of US Airways, slowly made it's decent to the Salisbury Regional Airport. I was on my way to the AVP event in Ocean City, Md. As I often do when I travel to the east coast, I gazed out the window to admire the lush greenery of the expansive deciduous forests lining the coast. It was a magnificent sight, full of wonder and enchantment. How could I have known that I was about to embark on an epic journey through the woods of Salisbury, Md.

Betty Would Go

The plane touched down and all 10 of us filtered out into the main atrium in the J terminal. OK, there wasn't really an atrium... or a terminal. I'm not even sure it was a legit airport. No food. Just a single toilet and a drinking fountain. The worst part was that my partner, The Merman Billy Allen, wasn't going to pick me up for over 2 hours. Just then I heard something that I feared... A grumble in my tummy. Darn It!!! I was hungry and there wasn't a food establishment for miles. By that time the other passengers had been picked up by their loved ones. I looked around for my loved ones but I didn't see anyone who I loved or anyone who loved me. Alone, cold, tired, hungry, and wet (don't ask me why I was wet) I sat on the floor weeping, like The Weepies do when they sing songs. Things looked grim to say the least. I was just about to give up, when I remembered something that would eventually save my life. I brought my iphone with me on that trip. As a matter of fact, I never leave home without it... duh. I Flipped it on, opened Maps, found my location, and typed in food. Turns out there were several food establishments about 3 miles away. "YES!!!" I screamed into the nothingness surrounding me. The excitement didn't last long after I realized that I didn't have a means to get there. Not only that, I looked around and all I could see was miles of deciduous trees. If I wanted to survive that day, my only option was to walk on a road. Fear kicked in instantly. When I'm afraid to do something, I always remind myself of an old Hawaiian legend... Betty Would Go. Guess what?... I went.

The Sparkle

It was just about dusk when I set off down the empty road. As I walked, I kept on seeing flashes of sparkle appearing in the grass. I had never seen flashes of sparkle like that before. I so desired to harness that sparkle and use it to guide my path throughout the night. Fortunately I had a plastic bottle, and I thought if I could put the sparkle into the bottle, it may act like a night light so I could feel safe. I figured the only way to capture the sparkle would be to clap it between my open palms. Unfortunately, every time I thought I had caught a sparkle, I would open my hands only to find what seemed to be squished bug guts. So much for my night light.

The Troll Toll

As I pranced through the meadow trying to catch the sparkles I ran across a friendly little mole. He kept popping his head out and saying the same thing over and over... "You have to pay the troll toll to get in this mole hole." He never explained the exact amount of this "troll toll." I really wanted to get in that hole and check it out so I just kept putting stuff in front of him until I was all out of stuff. Apparently it wasn't enough because he kept telling me that I needed to pay the troll toll. After a while I just gathered up all of my things and left.

The Stranger

By this point, it had been about an hour and I had barely gone a mile. I figured I should probably quicken my pace because it was almost completely dark and it was starting to rain. So I began to run. Actually, it was more like a gallop. Imagine a full grown man galloping like a horse with a duffel bag along a dark back country road in the rain. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Well, at one point a car had slowed down next to me and said something out the window. What I heard was, "You lost Boy? You ain't welcome here!" They said it again, but the second time it sounded more like, "Is everything OK? Do you know where you are going?" My only response was to sway back and forth a few times while cradling my bag and then quickly gallop towards the woods away from the road. Once I felt that I was at a safe distance, I crouched in the tall grass and watched the car slowly drive away. Lucky? Nope. I call that Street Smart.

The Discovery

Still crouching in the grass, something caught my eye in the distance. It was a yellow Illuminati symbol. Crazy you say? Impossible? Inconceivable? As I drew closer in the cold dark

night, I discovered it was actually not an Illuminati symbol as I had previously believed. Rather, it was a Denny's sign. I had made it! People doubted me. I doubted myself. But in that moment, I had never been more impressed with man's will to survive. I am an inspiration to myself.

I walked through the door at Denny's, sat down at any booth I wanted, and feasted on a mediocre Santa Fe Steak and mashed potatoes. To the victor go the spoils! Well, Billy picked me up at Denny's and we drove to Ocean City for our tournament. We got a 13th. Lost to Mark Van Zwieten and Duncan Budinger.

The legend

I'm pretty sure people still tell that story back in ol' Salisbury. Some swear it's a true story while others claim it's an Urban Legend. You really want to know the truth? Make your way back there some day. Take a walk down Hobbs rd, halfway between the airport and the old ballpark and you might find a meadow in the middle of a deciduous forest. There you'll find small mole... just doin' his his job.

AVP Houston

2009-05-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

The Advanced Volleyball Players Tour made a stop in Houston this past weekend. As one of the most [insert adjective] bloggers on tour, it is my responsibility to recap the finer points of my weekend for those who may have missed it. Feel free to stop reading at any point…

Billy Allen and I (12 seed) matched us up against Paul Baxter and Joaquin Acosta (21 seed) in the first round. Needless to say, Bax and Joaco should not have had such a high seed. Honestly, the only thing Acosta could do was serve girthy jump serves, smash spikes like it was candy, and block my best tuna with effortless effort. Unfortunately, they defeated us in a three. They went on to lose two heartbreaker matches to Olson/Wong and Loomis/Patterson. Maybe they should have been seeded way higher after all.

After a healthy five hour break, we were back at it again to claw our way through the contenders bracket. This time we matched up against Mike DiPierro and Adam Roberts. Dippy and ARob won a great match against Loomis and Patterson in the first round with 26-24 game three victory. The best part about watching that match was seeing the 6’0” Roberts running up to block after serving while the 6’6” DiPierro stayed back to defend. That tactic didn’t work against Billy and me because we blasted off on our rockets the entire match. Not real rockets though…

Next, we smooshed Stein Metzger and Joey Dykstra on our way to meeting Hans Stolfus and Anthony Medel. I’m thinking that Anthony may be the most ridiculous athlete on tour. He jumps so high and hits so hard that it makes an undersized blocker like me look quite silly... like a blocker trying to play defense. They took the first game and we came back to win the second. On the first play of the third game I spiked the volleyball straight into Hans’ left eye resulting in a medical timeout. After his eyeball stopped bleeding, the medic put a patch on his eye. For some reason they also put a parrot on his shoulder. My instincts told me to serve Hans. I had a feeling that the eye patch would obstruct his vision and the parrot might affect his cutty. But I trust Billy and he insisted on serving the guy who jumps higher and hits harder than anyone else on tour. We lost the third game and finished the tourney with another ninth. That parrot heckled me the entire game.

Other Potent Potables:

I watched Lisa Rutledge this weekend to figure out how she made the jump to be the best blocker on the women’s side. Let me tell you, she is all that her stats make her out to be. She stuffs many volleyballs.

The newly established partnership of John Moran and Evie Matthews nearly ended in a physical battle to the death this weekend due to words that may or may not have been said about one another. Instead, it was merely a verbal battle to the death.

A shout out to Doc Ricky and Chris Ligi. Doc, along with Alicia Polzin, set several of us players up in houses of local volleyers in Houston. It’s fun to stay with locals when we travel to different cities. Billy and I were fortunate enough to be put up at Chris Ligi’s Bachelor Pad. It was Bitchin’. Thanks guys. Let’s do it again next year.

Is Corey Glave worth it? Last year Billy and I had a nice finish to the season partly due to the help of our coach, Corey Glave. Glave is well known for showing up at AVP events. This year Corey decided to increase his coach’s fee from $0 to $1. We have yet to decide whether he is worth $1.

I’m sure there were other, more important things that happened. However, I am subbing for a ceramics teacher right now at Torrance High School and I am going to see if I can instigate a clay fight… to the death!

John Mayer is Officially Kinda Good

2009-05-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

What's the worst thing that could possibly go wrong for the beach volleyball world? Obviously a common thought might be a rule allowing blockers to use a Black Legion Battle Axe as a blocking tool. Let's be real, unless the hitter was carrying Glamdring, Sword of Gandolf, there would be no way to compete with nearly any of the Black Legion weapons. But I digress... What happened at the San Diego AVP last weekend was probably the last thing anyone wanted to happen. If you missed it, I'll analogize...

Let's go back to high school for a moment. You are a senior utility player on the varsity boys volleyball team. You are pumped to finally be on the varsity team because last year you were the only junior on any JV team in the entire league. That was then, this is now. You've made it to The Show and you are going to prove yourself tonight... Senior Night! Your team fell well short of making the playoffs so you're definitely getting some serious pt tonight.

You get to game three and you're down big so your coach looks directly at you and yells out "Hey you, you're in!" That was the moment you knew you were going in. So you hop up, run to the entry line, sit down, and try to take your sweat pants off over your shoes. Eventually you give up and take off your shoes first.

Game three, match point, your team is down by 13. This is where you thrive. As you line up in serve receive for the first time this year, you happen to look across the net and see a scrawny little freshman lined up against you. And guess what... he's left-handed. You just shake your head, smile, and say to yourself, "What a joke, I'm going to bomb OT on this fool."

The serve comes over, the pass goes up, and the set is right in your thunder zone. You go up and smash as hard as you can, but before you can finish yelling "Boomshakalaka," the ball has hit the floor at your feet. The little left-handed freshman just housed you, then walked to the bleachers and picked up where he left off in his latest Dostoevsky novel.

To make a long story short, John Mayer (along with partner Jeff Nygard) won the San Diego AVP Open last weekend and he is now the best beach volleball player in the world. That is the worst thing that could possibly happen to beach volleyball... because he is LEFT-HANDED. We are trying to teach todays youth to not be left-handed, and now we have a public figure setting a bad example. (Long sigh!!)

How to Beat Phil and Todd Every Time

2009-04-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

Picture this... You are arguably the 16th best beach volleyball team on the AVP Crocs Tour. One day you get a call from the commissioner of the AVP. He tells you that there's going to be a pro beach volleyball tournament in Riverside, and HE WANTS YOU THERE! Turns out the Commish wants to set up a second round exhibition match between

your team and the Olympic gold medalist team of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers... Are you nervous yet? Hold on to your mouse, there's more... He wants to put it on one of the outside courts and he says there will be tens of people watching. The tension can cut a knife. My question is this... How are you going to beat the Beijing Beast and the Professor in front of all those fans? Are you picturing it? Unbelievable scenario you say? I think not.

Turns out that's actually a true story and it happened to me no more than a little while ago. You're probably asking yourself, "Yo B-Blog, how did you beat them?" Actually... we didn't. The Olympic gold medalists apathetically had a tea party on back line while Billy "The Merman" Allen, my partner, and I frantically tried to bury our heads in the sand like terrified ostriches. However, after reviewing the game film, I discovered all of Phil and Todd's weaknesses and I now know how to beat them every time. If you aren't ready to accept what I say as the absolute truth, please turn around now. But if you are, by all means, follow me to the easy, step-by-step method to beating the beast.

If you are having trouble internalizing these steps, please watch the video clip at the bottom to aid as an instructional tool.

How to beat Phil and Todd in 5 Easy steps.

1. When Todd Rogers serves the ball to your partner, the first thing you do after setting him is call out "Bald Head." This will remind your partner to hit Phil with the ball on top of his bald head. Now, don't get the "bald head" call confused with the "face" call. We don't want to hurt him... He's a national icon. Just hit the ball on top of his head so that it bounces towards the Omega Nebula.

2. After your partner dongs the ball off Phil's head, Todd should easily be able to run it down and give Phil a perfect set from 40 feet off. That's why you want to stay up at the net just in case. But don't show too much interest in being ready. Just wait until the last second and then proceed to joust living daylights out of Phil so he almost falls to the ground.

3. After the joust, Phil will most likely still be able to easily get the ball up for Todd to set him again. However, this is where you throw in a twist and drop on Phil instead of putting up another block.

*Note - It is a good idea, whenever possible, to drop off the net when Phil is hitting.

4. After you drop off the net, go ahead and dig Phil's thunder as if to say... "Is that all you have to offer? Because if so, maybe you should offer more of a selection, like AM-PM or Costco. Then maybe your customers will come back more frequently, thus resulting in a greater net profit."

5. Finally, your perfect dig should result in a great set in which you rise up and smash the ball down to the earth on their side with all your might... and Boom Goes the Dynamite!

If you follow these five easy steps, then you will score every point in the match, and you will win handsomely. Please view this educational video as an aid to help you dominate Phil and Todd every time.

Also, don't forget to vote for me in the Paul Mitchell Hot Shots challenge... Or Billy because then I get free conditioner.

Elephant or Eagle?... and Paul Mitchell

2009-04-22T15:50:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that there is a poll to the right of this blog. The question is, "Who would win in a battle to the death, an eagle or an elephant?" This question was first posed to me by fellow volleyball player, former beach partner, and Best Man in my wedding, Sean Allstot. At the time I thought it was a stupid question... because let's face it, it is. However, once you talk about it enough, it almost becomes interesting. People seem to be quite divided and set in there opinion about which animal would actually win.

My current partner, Billy Allen, being the pro-elephant that he is, decided to do some research on the topic and take it to another level. What he stumbled upon may just be the nail-in-the-coffin for all you pro-eaglians out there. In Billy's original doctrine, he believed that the elephant would simply outlive the eagle. (Elephants can live to be about 70 while eagles may live to be about 40 if they're not shot out of the sky by poachers.) Now it's hard to say what he believes anymore. Here are his legit research results found in the internet...

Eagles, believe it or not, have the capability of doubling there life-span through a process called leucocophalus regeneration, a.k.a. debeaking. During leucocophalus regeneration, an eagle will repeatedly fly nose-first into rocks until it successfully removes it's beak. Once the beak is gone it takes about 8 months to regenerate a new one. The eagle then uses the new beak to pluck out all of it's old feathers. When, and if, new feathers grow back, the eagle has successfully completed leucocophalus regeneration and has just added an extra 30 years to it's lifespan. The elephant and the debeaked eagle now both live to be 70 years old.

At this point, who's to say that the elephant will outlast the eagle or the eagle will outlast the elephant? Until we put the two in a cage and let them literally battle to the death, we will have to rely on this blog poll.

Oh, one more thing... The AVP and Paul Mitchell Hair Products have put together a contest online to find out who is the Hot Shot Pro Beach Volleyball Player. They have selected me and 7 other guys for the contest. The winner gets a nice sponsorship package from Paul Mitchell. You can vote as many times as you want and I encourage you to check it out and vote for me everyday, 1000 time a day, until the end of the season. The link is http://www.avp.com/Paul-Mitchell/Home.aspx

Also, keep an eye out for my next blog. I am going to explain exactly how to beat Phil Dalhauser and Todd Rogers, the olympic gold medalists.

I am now on the BLOG-TRAIN

2009-04-20T16:37:00.001-07:00

I have a hard time writing about myself. I think that is partly due to the fact that deep down I am a boring person. Now some of you might be thinking... 'No way B-Dogg (that's what most people probably call me in their thoughts), you are a professional Beach Volleyball Player. You get to travel around the country and live the life of a rock-star...' Nope. I'm unoriginal and I have a terrible sense of fashion. However, that is all about to change because I AM STARTING A BLOG!!!

So, buckle your safety harnesses and get ready for an arousing journey. Check back every 10 minutes to see if I post anything new. No one can make fun of me now!