Bli kjent med sandvolleyball trener

Marek Sokolowski

I had a sit down with our beach volleyball coach Marek at a Coffeeshop to learn a little bit more on how his passion for the sport started. He is coming straight from his work out with a big smile on his face and a good vibe as always.

What is your name and age?

Marek Sebastian Sokolowski, 41

Can you tell me a little about yourself?
Im a carpenter and then I have a passion for beach volleyball.

Why are you in Norway?
Because of my wife and my daughter, so its not like I have a choice to be here- he laughs.

How did your passion for beach volleyball start and tell me also about your experience?
So, it started with a friend of mine that I met in London. He came to London from California and in California its just huge, thousands of courts and everyone is playing everywhere, and this is where its pretty much started. He slowly joined up our indoor club, and slowly we started to go out with him to the beach, and he like started to teach us about beach volleyball. And at first you think like, its going to be too easy, then once you start playing with someone that knows how to play beach volleyball, it’s difficult, its not easy at all.

How old were you when this started?

It was in my thirties, maybe 32.

You did indoors before this?
yeah, I did indoor before

Why did you switch?
Because beach volleyball is more fun, its outdoors, its less stressful, you get to do everything, you haven’t those specific positions, it’s a better workout for you and you get to meet a lot of people that a really relaxed and friendly. And also, the fun factor, men and women plays in the same tournaments and it get more social. So, beach volleyball is just completely different sports to indoor volleyball, you can not treat it as a waiting room for indoor season to start, you have to learn new skills, new tactics, definitely increases your speed, agility, vertical jump, your overall strength,

What is the main different you think?
There is a huge difference in setting, in passing and in tactics, so I will probably say setting, and attacking is the biggest differences, and you are only two players, when indoor volleyball its set like a certain spot, but in beach volleyball you set always close to your partner. And the set various a lot because of the conditions outside, and then you don’t have to hit the ball so hard outside, so its not so strenuous on your body, and also when you land it doesn’t damage you knees and you back so much like when you are landing on hard surfaces.

So, in that expect, you can play a lot longer beach volleyball. Example, Manuel got silver Olympic medal in 2012 when he was 39, and he was still playing until just before 2016 Olympics, so he was 43 when he retired, and he was still at very good level.

And how about the differences between having a bigger team indoors to only having to players on a team in beach?
You don’t work so much with team bonding, like on every training you can have a different partner and you don’t need to be worried about that I can’t play with this or that person. The training is designed in such way that you focus on your skills most of the time, and then you can swop partners quite easily. And then when you get to a certain level, you can play pretty much with everyone, so you only need four people to have good games, indoor- to have a good training, you have to have 12 people, and this is more difficult to achieve,

So, it can be easier to develop individual skills?
yes, definitely, and also you can have a good training with just two people and a coach, but with indoor its more difficult because you focus more on the tactics and more specific positions, and that’s the biggest differences. With beach training you can do a lot of stuff with just two people, with three people its almost better then with four people sometimes.

What are your ambitions with the sport?
For me it’s, I want to keep playing as long as possible and go to training camps and keep doing what I been doing for so many years, and enjoy the amateur tournaments, keep healthy, keep training because it gives such a phenomenal pleasure playing volleyball, its very addictive! He laughs.

Where do you find motivation?
You don’t need to find it; it just comes, and you just wait to the season to start. If you love something so much, you don’t need any motivation. One time I was like, oh I can’t go to training because I’m too tired, and that was like once in maybe ten years.

Do you have someone you look up to in beach volley?
I like to think when I compare my level, I always have to compare myself to the best players in the world. You always have to aim to compare to the best, but no I don’t haven’t got a favourite player. I think in general that the sport is just my favourite. You pick and choose like the best things from all the players and you take those things from all the coaches and the players you played against that you and then you adapt to your own game. For me its not like one best coach that I had or one best player I played against, everyone has something special and then you just like gather information and use it.

So, I take with me that you can start with beach volleyball late and still have a lot of success and fun! Thank you for the talk, I’m very excited about our cooperation and our beach volleyball future.