King of the Court + Queen of the Court | Playa del Carmen, Mexico by Volley Catchers
(🇧🇷versão em português disponível)
It was a short (but meaningful) goodbye message at first but ended up becoming a blog post.
It's time to say thank you as I'm leaving! A huge thank you to the entire beach volleyball community in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. You fall in love fast here. I'll be back soon to see good friends and more volleyball soon!
Now the question is: Playa del Carmen 🇲🇽, Miami Beach 🇺🇸 or Cabo Branco 🇧🇷? Now the ❤️ is divided.
I have spectacular videos of most of the players here! Sign up for our community (instructions on our profile), especially those who played #kingofthecourt here in Playa de Carmen. Join our worldwide community and meet communities in other countries to play beach volleyball a lot!❤️🏐
A little bit of my experience in the volleyball community in Playa del Carmen:
Volleyball here is growing fast. Players of different levels build their own networks and sometimes each network has different rules. Sometimes the rules are different because some are still learning some more advanced rules (like redirecting when blocking). Like any volleyball community, you may need a little patience to play as the number of volleyball nets and space on the sand is limited. I found games from BB to AAA (including OPEN players). The juice and coconut water stands are wonderful and very cheap ($1) if you walk a few blocks away from the beach. The Marley Hotel is a wonder to work in and is located a few blocks from the beach.
My humble feedback to the community:
1- Some people are more inclusive than others. #fact I couldn’t get a game the first day I got here, but was invited to play after a few days. Bear in mind that a volleyball addict will find his/her ways. 😂
2- Most places I’ve been to people bring their own ball. I understand that this community is still growing but having more balls would come in handy!
3- Some players are resisting the change but the reality is that there is no way that this community won’t grow. The weather is great at a time that is winter everywhere. It’s also cheaper than many places in the world. Having a strong communication/community will definitely make things easier for all of you.
4- When nets and lines belong to the city (which might be the next step) there is no “owner of the net rules”. It’s WORKUP time baby! You stay if you win. period. If you lose you go to the end of the line or drop to a lower court in case of many courts. Natural selection. Might be a great idea to start implementing this system slowly.
5- The rules of who plays and who doesn’t might apply differently when the level of a specific player is higher than the owner of the net or the group. This is not my opinion, just reality in a lot of places. (Could discuss this topic forever)
6- The burden of setting up the net could be shared with other people in the group. That would make things easier on them, but then the real question would be: would a net owner give up his kingdom?
7- Net owners VS good players VS not even have a ball players—the saga continues…
Thank you Playa for the good games and I’ll see you at the end of the year for sure!
Much love,
Zander
Volley Catchers