Start of the 2014 Beachvolley season not far away....

Me and my mate Mat' (2012)

The first of march is the official start of the meteorological spring and so I really hope that in a month or perhaps a little bit earlier the beachvolleyball season can start here in Luxembourg. Everybody still remembers the last season with horribly cold temperatures just up to June and so I personally never got really in it, not even in summer.
But hopefully 2014 will be different and for the lucertola, it will be a little bit of a comeback season after 2 years of injuries and a lot of professional work prohibiting a regular training.

Lucertola team in reception trouble (2013)

Remembering 2013....
Nevertheless 2013 was quite remarkable with the GSSE hold in Luxembourg, seing the Goodbye-Tournament of Norma and Anne, and seing the first official big competition for Ben and Djamel.
Then, in July, the World Championship took place in Polonia with big changes in the hierarchy established during the last seasons. With refereing more indulgent with pass play, the game is getting much quicker and tactically different with men playing a
lot more fast passes and with a lot of women teams changing from the digging pass to the overhead pass.
Then it's also important to notice that the playing mode at the World Tour tournaments has changed a lot too, and after some not really important pool games (a lot of 3rd-places teams in pools of 4 will continue in the tournament) there is a straw to decide which teams have to compete against each other. So getting first in your pool gives you no guarantee to get an easier way to the finals. And after the pool games, the following competition is a single out mode competition.
From an occasional spectator's point of view this is perhaps quite interesting, but I think that from a beachvolleyball player's point of view there is too much hazard as strong teams may eliminate each other quite early in the tournament.
But I give it another chance in 2015 when the Worldchampionships will be hosted once again in Europe (6 times in a row after Berlin, Gstaad, Stavanger, Rome and Stare Jablonsky), more precisely in the Netherlands.

Looking forward to 2014....
But, lets come back to Luxembourg. The tournament calendar is almost ready and will be published very soon. What can already be announced, is that the season will probably start the first weekend of June in Walferdange with a 2x2 Men / Women tournament, and will be closing the next to last weekend of August.
Some new beach courts have also appeared these last two years, with hopefully some new clubs starting some serious beachvolley activities this year, and so it will be great time for me to make some updates at the court list. Coming next weeks....

So finally, I wish you all a very soon and good start in the new season, a lot of big fun, no injuries and satisfying results if you fix some goals for you and your partner.
See you soon, sand under our feet..

And the best news to break it off....

the weather forecast for Luxembourg - March 2014 !!!