Life’s a Beach
15 Dec 2009 10:00
Lucy Boulton, 24, is one of 1200 athletes in Team 2012. Originally from Hornchurch, Essex, she currently lives and trains at the University of Bath for the Great Britain Beach Volleyball team. Beach Volleyball is an emerging sport in the UK and since entering into the FIVB World Tour in 2007, the GB Team are progressing up the world rankings.
How and when did you get into Beach Volleyball?
I played indoor volleyball originally; I started when I was about 12 and played all through school, college and then at University. I was playing for the national team and then in 2006 my playing partner, Denise Johns, came over from America because she’s got a British passport and needed a beach volleyball partner. I thought it was a good opportunity and so switched over to beach volleyball.
What’s been your personal highlight of your career so far?
Actually quite recently we had a tournament in Blackpool, which is a fine destination [she says with a cheeky smile]. It was a European Tour event and we got fourth so we just missed out on a podium finish but that’s still our best finish to date. That was in September this year.
What is your ambition for next year?
We’re just going to go back out on the World Tour, which is where we’ve been for the last two or three seasons. We’d really like to get a Top 10 finish on the World Tour because we haven’t got one of those so far. We’ve done well on the European side but when you’re going up against the Americans, Brazilians and Aussies they are obviously much tougher competition.
Is that your ultimate ambition?
No, I want to keep going and do better than that but you’ve obviously got to take small steps. It’s difficult with a big draw; you end up at the bottom so you get a tough game but you have to play above your level to get shock results and that’s when you start progressing up the world rankings and the tables. So obviously we want to play in London in 2012 and we want to qualify in our own right, which basically means being in the Top 24 in the world and then I’d love to get a podium finish there – and a podium finish at any other World Tour events on the way.
How are you progressing towards London 2012?
Yeah, we’re doing really well; this is only our third season on the tour and every year we’ve finished better and better. You know you have your ups and downs – we played in 15 events this year so there are some events that don’t go well and you lose in the first round, but on the whole we’re getting better. We missed out on the last Olympics by 8 places and though you can’t really compare it to this year we would probably have been closer this year to getting to the Olympics. It was a good learning experience going through the 2007 and 2008 process because it’s going to give us experience when it comes down to 2011 and 2012 for the next Olympic qualification.
What’s going to make the difference and put you on the podium? What’s in your control and what’s not?
It is difficult because obviously we’re part of a programme so you don’t have that much control and a lot of teams in the world are a lot more independent and employ their own coaches and base themselves wherever they want to be based. Ours is a lot more structured but it also gives us a really good support system. We’re based at the University of Bath and there we have all the support systems we need, like strength and conditioning, physios, nutrition and all our coaches are based there so we are in a really good position. I think we realise that we can’t get to the top really quickly; it takes a lot of hard work and commitment. So, yeah, I totally think we’re doing the right things and we’re always getting better and I guess in a sense 2012 is almost coming too quickly for us. If you look at teams and the way they get better and progress, the top 10 teams in the world now have been on the tour for 7 or 8 years and they’ve taken that long to get there. There are the teams that shoot up [the rankings] really quickly but on the whole it does take a while to do. So with 3 years left it’s going to be a real battle and a struggle, so we are trying to do a bit of an impossible task; but I think that makes it even more exciting. Also, because it’s here in London it makes you want to do it so much more and you are willing to give everything for the next three years to be part of it!
What’s the most fun part of being a volleyball athlete?
Everyone always thinks it’s such a glamorous lifestyle but we do have to work hard. It’s brilliant though – the game itself brings together lots of elements with it being on the sand obviously, and it’s got a bit of a party atmosphere with the music and dancers. It’s just a good spectacle, a good spectator sport; for the right reasons most of the times, for the wrong ones other times [laughs]. I love the whole idea of the tour, and how you get to go to all these different countries and you always see the same teams week in and week out, and you get to make some really good friends. You see some of the most amazing countries and places! The sport as a whole is brilliant.
What’s the least fun part?
The airports – we’ve seen lots of them. It’s the waiting around and jetlag more than anything but you do it because it’s worth it for the places you get to go to.
What’s with all those hand signals?
[Laughs] People always ask that. It is basically the person on the net who will signal the player serving what blocks are needed, so telling their partner what they need to do in defence. That’s all it is; it’s pretty simple. You only do it when you are serving because that’s when you need to be defending; you give a 1 or a 2 which is a line or a cross block. So if you call a line block the defender will stand on the cross corner, if you call a cross block then the defender will run down the line. It’s pretty simple [laughs]. You can get more advanced but let’s keep it simple.
Are you guys cooler than the Indoor Volleyball players!
[Laughs] Of course we are!
If you had to give up Beach Volleyball and take up another sport, which of the other Olympic sports would you take up and why?
Well, I’d quite like to be a rower but then I don’t like the idea of spending the whole day on the rowing machines! So I like the idea of the sport but not the training they have to do. I would like to try it though at one point in my life – I know it’s a team sport with individual challenges; you really have to push yourself. It might just be a challenge for after 2012.