It takes a certain kind of person to willingly expose their naked feet to blistering heat in the name of entertainment. So the following statement should come as no surprise: Beach volleyball players are a unique breed. Most are helpful and friendly, but some are not. Teaming up with specimens belonging to the latter category can be hazardous to your beach career.
Distinguishing which type of players should be avoided is largely dependent on personal preference. You may have a high tolerance for players who yell, but little patience for someone who tends to roll their eyes when things go south. Here are some descriptions of difficult types of players and their corresponding behavioral patterns:
The Blamer
The blamer is confrontational and angry, and most often it’s your fault.
The fact is that wins and losses in beach volleyball are always the product of a team. In other words, the credit can never be fully bestowed on single person because both partners contribute to the end result. Unfortunately, the Blamer doesn’t see it that way. These types of players have a knack for finding faults in others, but rarely in themselves. In the Blamer’s eyes your mistakes are usually the reason a game is lost.
Playing the blame game is rarely productive and it’s certainly not fun. One thing that all successful beach volleyball partnerships require is communication. And an individual who is eager to assign blame is clearly not interested in communicating. So don’t get caught up in playing the blame game, it won’t pay off.
The Eye Roller
Eye Rollers are expert communicators. They may not express themselves verbally, but make no mistake, the Eye Roller will get her point across. This type of player is fluent in the art of body language. When a teammate of an Eye Roller makes a mistake, you can be sure a gesture will soon follow.
The Screamer
Screamers like to be heard, and if that means raising his or her voice to ridiculously high decibel levels, so be it. But it isn’t these players’ affinity for audibility alone that makes them poor partner choices. If Screamers exclaimed only encouraging sentiments at the top of their lungs, they would probably find themselves excluded from this list. But that isn’t their nature.
Screamers are notorious for yelling at their partner and/or the officials in a manner that is meant to induce shame. Making mistakes is already painful enough, the last thing you need is someone rubbing salt into your wound by yelling. This type of behavior is harmful to team chemistry and can quickly transform a fun game into a nightmare.
The Erratic Player
It would behoove you to avoid partnering with all the player types listed above, but this player is perhaps the most dangerous of the group. The reason is simple: The Erratic Player is unpredictable.
Success in beach volleyball requires the ability to persevere through the ups and downs that all teams experience during a match. Erratic Players make that goal almost impossible because you never know how they’re going to react.
Bad Behavior or Bad Person?
A player who exhibits one of the behavioral patterns outlined above can be a difficult teammate but it is important to remember that people are not their behavior. It is the person’s behavior that is loathsome, not the actual player. This is an important distinction because it allows for the possibility of change, and people embody a spectrum of possibilities. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should wait around for a prospective partner to get his or her act together.
Beach volleyball is supposed to be fun, and since playing with someone who exhibits the qualities outlined above is likely to take away from your enjoyment of the game, it would probably be best to avoid those types of players. And at the very least, you can now make an informed decision.
Fun Fact
Most people, at one point or another, have been lectured on the importance of using precise language when speaking: “Don’t beat around the bush, say exactly what you mean.” However, this is much easier said than done. A recent study found that body language comprises 55% of total communication, whereas verbal context only provides 7%, the other 38% consists of intonation and tone.
