Christian Hartford is changing the culture at USA Volleyball

Christian Hartford is changing the culture at USA Volleyball

Alex Brouwer sought the source of the voice. The one that perpetually stood out from among 13,000 screaming Germans at the World Championships in Hamburg. The one that was always heard by any player competing against an American team.

When he found the bearded face of Christian Hartford, the Dutchman pumped a fist and said “Let’s go U.S.A.!”

That is but a brief but encompassing glimpse into the enthusiasm that Hartford has brought into the gym at USA Volleyball.

“We’ll be on the bike, and he’s always screaming at you,” Tri Bourne said on SANDCAST: Beach volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter.

Never is Hartford screaming in a negative light. He’s not a Navy commander, barking orders. He’s lifting up, encouraging, pushing, to the point that even someone like Alex Brouwer, the defender on the Netherlands’ top team and a former World Champ, can buy in.

“I remember my first couple months, Trevor [Crabb] was like ‘Who the hell is this guy? He never shuts up!’” Hartford recalled, laughing. “That was my job. I want to make that weight room the most positive, engaging environment possible. That doesn’t mean we’re going to have full out conversations of how your wife and kids are doing or your boyfriend or girlfriend. But when you walk through the door, I’m going to greet you. When you’re in there training, I’m going to engage and music is going to be blasting.”

Hartford knows, both from personal experience as an elite athlete himself and from half a decade of training college teams, it’s not a one-size-fits all approach. His day might consist of working with 44-year-old Jake Gibb in the morning on the sand, shifting to helping 23-year-old Sarah Sponcil in the afternoon and prescribing a weight program for indoor convert David Lee in the evening.

“We always talk about individualization and how you’re going to be able to do this program because as beach volleyball players, you’re all going to need certain characteristics,” said Hartford, who walked on to Wake Forest as a quarterback and received his masters from Northwestern. “Athlete A may get it a lot differently than Athlete B but also Athlete C might have a much different strength in their game that needs to be focused on than Athlete B. So you have to take into account all these individualizations.”

In that sense, it is perhaps Hartford’s greatest strength that, prior to USA Volleyball, he had little to no experience on the beach, but was an expert in virtually every other sport. As a quarterback at Wake Forest, he knew how to train football players. As a strength and conditioning coach at Northwestern, he worked with 115 athletes across a wide variety of disciplines. At Maryland, he helped with gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, wrestling, softball, and indoor volleyball.

All of that switching made his ability to pick up a new sport, reverting back to a beginner’s mindset, that much easier. He didn’t walk onto the beach proclaiming to know everything. Instead, he acknowledged he knew little. He asked questions, attaining his own unofficial Beach Volleyball Certification through coaches like Rich Lambourne, Jen Kessy, Jose Loiola and Tyler Hildebrand.

“Being around all these different sports as the strength coach, you don’t have any other choice but to learn everything about that sport,” Hartford said. “Diving in headfirst into whatever sport you’re working with and being at practice and asking coaches questions, watching film, going to competitions to see the environment and just the pure nature of each sport, I think that type of diversity in my coaching background helped me a ton with the transition to the beach.”

Most athletic performance coaches would be able to do that, in some form or other. Some might take longer. Some might pick it up as quickly as Hartford, who is immensely popular among the athletes, has. But what separates Hartford from the other candidates who sought the job is that he brings more than an ability to prescribe a quality training regimen.

For the first time in Bourne’s memory, there’s a tangible culture being set at USA Volleyball.

“When I got here I asked Tyler Hildebrand ‘What are we trying to create here, culture wise? What environment are we trying to create?’” Hartford said. “We were striving for a new culture.”

He acknowledges that it won’t be akin to a college team, that he’ll be working with Gibb and Bourne at the same time, despite them both vying for the same spot in the Tokyo Olympics. But still, you can find Chaim Schalk and Sponcil competing in Spikeball contests in the weight room. Athletes cheering their fellow athletes in pull-up contests. Others pushing one another on the assault bike.

“Try training 18 gymnasts at 5 in the afternoon after practice,” Hartford said. “You need as much positive energy as you can in that moment so I’m used to creating that and that’s always been a part of my mission is to create the most positive, productive training environment possible.

“To be in this environment where we have 25-30 athletes, it’s been incredible to build all of those relationships. Whenever you’re able to do that, you’re able to dive a lot deeper into the training process and thought process of what you’re doing. You’re also able to get a little more creative with your process as well. A huge piece has been being able to watch and talk to and see every single athlete as an individual perform and see what that person needs from a strength and conditioning side to get better. For me to be working with a specialized crew in a much smaller volume, it’s been a blessing because now I can see them practice, see them live, see how they jump, see how they swing and also talk to their coaches. You can really dive a lot deeper into these training programs.”

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The fun is only just beginning for Sarah Schermerhorn

The fun is only just beginning for Sarah Schermerhorn

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features good friend Sarah Schermerhorn, who has had a circuitous previous two seasons. After playing the majority of her career with one partner (Kim Hildreth), Schermerhorn played with more than 16 – 16! – in 2021. Now she’s back to having a stable partner in Corinne Quiggle, and it has been an auspicious start to the season, with a in an AVPAmerica event in Florida and a ninth in the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenger in Tlaxcala, Challenger. On this episode, we chat about: Her great finish in Tlaxcala, and how it sets them up for the rest of the season The craziness of playing with 16 partners in 2021 How her and Corinne Quiggle partnered up for 2022 What her goals and focus are for this year ENJOY! *** Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/ If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/ This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB

6 Huhti 20221h 18min

Brett Favre, Shawn Taylor, and the growth of Southern Miss beach volleyball

Brett Favre, Shawn Taylor, and the growth of Southern Miss beach volleyball

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is one heck of an episode, because on this one, we expanded outside of beach volleyball a bit and onto the gridiron, bringing in venerated guest Brett Favre. Yes, it’s that Brett Favre, the Gunslinger, the man who started a record 321 consecutive games for the Green Bay Packers, an 11-time Pro Bowler and a Hall of Fame selection. And yes, that Brett Favre is a beach volleyball guy now, the father of Breleigh Favre, a 6-foot-2 senior who is starting on court one for the Golden Eagles alongside Kellie Garraway. On this episode, Favre and Southern Miss beach volleyball coach Shawn Taylor joined the podcast to chat: How Shawn Taylor is launching the Southern Miss beach volleyball team The value Brett Favre is bringing to the Southern Miss beach volleyball team, mainly in the mindset it takes to become great Favre’s rise from the seventh-string quarterback at Southern Miss to one of the greatest of all time, and why that’s applicable to Southern Miss How Shawn Taylor became the coach at Southern Miss And so much more. ENJOY! *** Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/ If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/ This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB

30 Maalis 20221h 12min

Aleksandrs Samoilovs: 16 years into his career, the Latvian Lion King continues roaring

Aleksandrs Samoilovs: 16 years into his career, the Latvian Lion King continues roaring

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is SUCH A BLAST! On the show this week is Latvian legend Aleksandrs Samoilovs, known to most as the Lion King. A veteran on the World Tour for 16 years now, Samoilovs has achieved more than anyone could have ever imagined, hailing from a tiny country the size of Idaho: three Olympic Games, No. 1 ranking in the world, medals of every color. And he’s still playing – and playing dang good volleyball. There was so much to chat about on this episode, including: How Samoilovs was dubbed the Lion King, and his embracing of the nickname A wild story from South Africa in which Samoilovs and Janis Smedins became No. 1 in the world Why working in a bank for two months was all he needed to know that he needed to become a beach volleyball player His ability to entertain and add value to the sport And so, so, so much more. Such a blast with Samoilovs, one of the greatest sportsmen in beach volleyball. ENJOY! *** Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/ If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/ This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB

23 Maalis 20221h 18min

Sam Schachter and Dan Dearing: From considering retirement to the honeymoon phase

Sam Schachter and Dan Dearing: From considering retirement to the honeymoon phase

This episode of SANDCAST features the new-look Canadian team of Sam Schachter – an Olympian at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games – and Dan Dearing. This team is going to be FREAKY athletic – and also one that’s a bit of a surprise to many. Schachter considered retiring after falling short of the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games; Dearing was literally retired for seven years. Now they’re back. And we chatted all about it, discussing: Schachter’s experience during the 2021 Tokyo Olympic quad Dearing’s retirement, and why he is back on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour now What Dearing learned about the work ethic and commitment it takes to compete at the highest level Why Schachter plucked a guy seven years retired as his running mate for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games And, as always, a whole lot more. ENJOY! *** Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/ If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/ This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB Be sure to check out some of the coolest beach volleyball gear in the country at Vollis Beach! Recently partnered with LuLu Lemon, Vollis is offering high quality, good looking apparel, and you can get it at a discount using Travisfans to get 15 percent off! https://www.vollisgear.com/ SHOOTS!

16 Maalis 20221h 9min

Kim Smith never imagined beach volleyball in her life, ’now it is my life’

Kim Smith never imagined beach volleyball in her life, ’now it is my life’

This episode of SANDCAST features, for the first time in a while, a fellow writer! Coming on to chat is longtime AVP player-turned-AVP staff writer Kim Smith. For four years, Smith was a solid presence on the AVP Tour, making six top-10s, competing alongside Olympians and promising up-and-coming talent alike. But when the pandemic hit, and she found herself two spots out of the AVP Champions Cup, her role flipped, from AVP player to AVP staff writer. On the show, we chat about all of that: How she got into beach volleyball in the first place, being from Zionsville, Indiana Her transition from indoor to beach, and why her passing drove Jose Loiola positively crazy How Sarah Sponcil allowed her to see the insane work ethic demanded of being an Olympian Becoming the AVP staff writer, and how everything just ‘feels right’ in her life And, as always, much more. ENJOY! *** Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/ If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/ This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB Be sure to check out some of the coolest beach volleyball gear in the country at Vollis Beach! Recently partnered with LuLu Lemon, Vollis is offering high quality, good looking apparel, and you can get it at a discount using Travisfans to get 15 percent off! https://www.vollisgear.com/ SHOOTS!

9 Maalis 20221h 10min

Drinking Whiskey with the Crabbs...and Nick Lucena...and Taylor Sander

Drinking Whiskey with the Crabbs...and Nick Lucena...and Taylor Sander

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is, without a doubt, our most hilarious one to date. It’s not just SANDCAST, this time, but a combination of our usual podcast and Drinking Whiskey with the Crabbs, as Taylor Crabb and Trevor Crabb brought on a 10-year bottle of Widow Jane. It wasn’t just shared but us, either, but also Nick Lucena, who was in town, and Taylor Sander, who swung by for a few drinks and some funny stories. It’s not often you get four Olympians and three Manhattan Beach Open champions on a single show. It’s different, this show. As you might expect from that cast of characters, and the two bottles of whiskey we crushed, it’s not so much a podcast as it is a bar conversation that happens to be a podcast. But we did cover some very real topics, including: A behind-the-scenes look at the Tokyo Olympic Games, from Taylor Crabb’s quarantine experience to Trevor Crabb’s injury that kept him out, from Nick Lucena almost needing a substitute to Tri Bourne’s wild ride as a last minute fill-in. How Tayor Crabb and Taylor Sander became a team Nick Lucena’s hilarious story about almost playing for Qatar with Phil Dalhausser in 2003 How Drinking Whiskey with the Crabbs was started Note: If you have a young listener in the car, maybe it’s best to skip this one. There is an abundance of profanity, so if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, we’d encourage you to wait for next week’s family friendly episode with AVP writer extraordinaire Kim Smith. Until next time... SHOOTS! *** Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/ If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/ This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB Be sure to check out some of the coolest beach volleyball gear in the country at Vollis Beach! Recently partnered with LuLu Lemon, Vollis is offering high quality, good looking apparel, and you can get it at a discount using Travisfans to get 15 percent off! https://www.vollisgear.com/ SHOOTS!

2 Maalis 20221h 19min

Nick Lucena has (at least) one more chapter in his beach volleyball journey

Nick Lucena has (at least) one more chapter in his beach volleyball journey

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Nick Lucena, one of the most humble, genuine, fun people in the sport of beach volleyball. As any conversation with Lucena is, this one was an absolute blast – funny, introspective, humble. On this episode, we chat about: How Lucena intended to retire a decade ago, and why he’s still playing now How he had given up on the hope of qualifying for an Olympics – and then qualified for two, in Rio and Tokyo His thoughts on playing with Andy Benesh, with whom he’ll be playing this season Why working out before matches works so well for him And, as always, so much more. Such a fun episode with Nick. ENJOY! *** Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/ If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/ This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB Be sure to check out some of the coolest beach volleyball gear in the country at Vollis Beach! Recently partnered with LuLu Lemon, Vollis is offering high quality, good looking apparel, and you can get it at a discount using Travisfans to get 15 percent off! https://www.vollisgear.com/ SHOOTS!

23 Helmi 202258min

February Mailbag: Why we LOVE the AVP schedule, best surprise teams, biggest wins this offseason

February Mailbag: Why we LOVE the AVP schedule, best surprise teams, biggest wins this offseason

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features our always-popular Fan Question mailbag episode, hosted, as always, by the wonderful Savvy Simo. We had A LOT to talk about this week, including: Why we LOVE the AVP schedule Why the barrier to entry to the main draw getting higher is a good thing, for both qualifier and main draw players alike Who our surprise teams of the year are Biggest wins of the off-season And, like always, so, so, so much more. ENJOY! *** Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/ If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/ This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB Be sure to check out some of the coolest beach volleyball gear in the country at Vollis Beach! Recently partnered with LuLu Lemon, Vollis is offering high quality, good looking apparel, and you can get it at a discount using Travisfans to get 15 percent off! https://www.vollisgear.com/ SHOOTS!

16 Helmi 20221h 21min

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