Haha awesome! I think it's so cool that it's possible! :) The times I want to rest my shoulder I can also somewhat keep up with this type of attacking, I feel like this might be the key to be able to play competitively until you're 70 years old hahaha.
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast I feel like this and poke shots. It feels so hard to hit accurate line shots with proper footwork the traditional way as everything as to be correct, which makes it also tough for me to read the defense. And for binge playing for hours I go for more and more tomahawks and pokeys anyway.
@@tonybowen455 Makes sense! Yes, this is a very energy efficient way to play hahah. I personally love playing womens games with no jump and tomahawking. Simply, they can play full on, womens height net and I don't jump, except a 50% jump if I block. Can be super competitive and fun! :)
Taking the tomahawk to the next level! For most people the tomahawk is mostly used for defensive overhead passing. For me, this is was like a slap in the face to wake up and realize how this old tool can be when used effectively for offensive attacks. I feel like I just pulled a fresh new power tool out of my toolbox that has been sitting unused for far too long. Great analysis and strategy of how to improve your game quickly for players at all levels!
Hahahaha! What did I say in the beginning, "this video will be for some people mind opening or even inspirational" or something like that! 😅 Thanks a lot for this comment, love reading stuff like this! Feel free to let me know how it goes! I also think I'm going to have to make a tutorial for this soon!
This is a very helpful video. Thank you! I've been playing off and on, but have trouble hitting the ball effectively. This shows a good way to score points rather than just make weak hits to the middle of the court that turn into free balls.
Thanks for the comment! Absolutely, I agree. Everyone has a different starting point with physicality, injuries, time one is willing to invest into technique training etcetcetc, and for some people I absolutely believe becoming as competitive as possible basically without even jumping is the way to go. I myself went down this route for a summer when I had a shoulder injury and it was a lot of fun, and I still pull out a tomahawk here and there that makes people wonder what just happened.. :)
Watched this again being better now than when I first watched it. The playing clips the first few min are really impressive. I can appreciate the shots way more now. I'm struggling doing this for grass doubles, but my contact point needs to be higher and short shots shorter and long shots longer and more on the line. The advice you gave in the new video for deep shots helped, but I'm still working on it. Oh, and this is just the best thing ever for playing everyday, thank you so much for this!
Hahah amazing to hear, the perception/attitude change is really interesting. I agree that some of the more skeptical commenters here in the comments and in other places, probably have never experienced playing against this in real life, because when it is done well it is actually quite impressive. Making the short ones shorter and the long ones longer is definitely a task of fine-tuning, I hope you succeed! Would be fun to see video one day if you end up reaching a level where you are really happy about it! :)
Actually to play alternative styles require much more training to be able to hit the target consistantly. I am not talking about to be able to hit one of the four corners. You must have accuracy to the point where you can land the ball with no more than 5 cm error from your desires. Otherwise will simply be free ball to the oponents. Takes a lot of time, in fact requires even more than the normal style. Especialy when you want to return heavy spikes at you with tomahawks,pokes,fists etc, I have similar style to this and require a lot of training to be able to obtain accuracy to good enough level. Also you can pass the ball to the partner via strike. Poke,fist and many other ways such as knee hit,head,shoulder. You can kick the ball, strike the ball, uppercut the ball... and is much faster than handsets but much more difficult to obtain accuracy to good enough level.
Interesting! Yeah, I can see one can spend a lot of time perfecting this playing style too, and whichever becomes the most effective with the least amount of work depends a lot on the level of the players! When I coached some intermediate level girls that couldn't really get the ball down steeper than straight into the defenders lap with the normal attacking style, all it took for them was to spend 1,5 hours practicing erics style and they immediately played 2-3 levels better volleyball. But you should definately bring a camera next time you play, I want to see! :)
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast I'll try to get some footage of me doing it on grass. I might have some older clips I can find. I do a much more dumbed down version of it as I pretty much only go line. I'm at a much lower level, but I think it's a good attacking philosophy especially for indoor players coming to beach. Luckily we have nuss to watch right now, too. Also I wanna keep bothering you for more footage of Eric!
@@tonybowen455 Nice! If you get video of you doing it, send it to me, I tend to think these kinds of videos are interesting to watch and analyze! :) The next video I'm about to upload is a new Eric video! :) And wait you mentioned Nuss.. Does she play with a similar style?
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast Any luck with this? Can I can see more footage of entire games? I thought I'd have to drill this to get it, but just doing it rarely in game over several months, I can feel it out and it's good for a point a game even at A-AA if they have no idea how you play, which is so good since it's so hard to get a point at that level at my skill level. My control is still really bad with it, too. I'm assuming you've played against him as well, what are your thoughts on defending it?
@@tonybowen455 Hey! I was definately hoping I'd have had this video done by now. Unfortunately I became one of these young people that didn't suffer much at all from the coronavirus but basically saw my life fall i shambles in front of my eyes because of all the restrictions in the world. So I ended up losing a lot of money and even more time this year which unfortunately has slowed this project down big big time. It's been more about survival for me in 2020, unfortunately. But I am slowly getting back on track again, and this video and another one where I actually interview Eric himself about the game strategies he uses (I already recorded it but haven't edited) are some of the higher priority videos on my list. So sorry for the delay, and thanks for still being here. I never in my wildest dreams thought the world would react like this to the virus, I've never been this punished for being a person that takes care of his health and works in an industry that makes it easier for people to enjoy their lives. Anyway, sorry for the rant, hopefully life will become better soon and I will get the chance to actually make all these videos I've been planning to make.
@@tonybowen455 But yes, your other question..! Really good defenders can defend most of the tomahawks if they are disciplined, stay still before contact and hustle hard. The defenders pretty much need to be off balance or tired for this attack to work at the higher levels like AAA etc. But as you say, A-AA levels where defenders maybe aren't as disciplined or lazy or whatever, it can work very well. I think for maximum benefit of this technique, you really need to couple it with some strategies like who to attack with it and when, stuff Eric talks about in the followup video that isn't released yet. For defending against this, learn to stay still before contact yet still be quick once you know where the ball is going, hustle hard and have good stamina, you might get exausted or tired physically from playing against this. Probably I think it's better too to have very staggered feet to the point of atanding sideways, so you can quicker make it all the way to the back AND front of the court once you know which direction the ball is going.
very clever video. I think it also raises the question about learning to play vs learning to win we all learn more or less the same way but maybe hitting, playing 3 touches, is not the best way to win for all players
True! :) In reality it's a very complex sport and there are so many ways to make it happen! Carambula and Rossi are a great example to look at for creativity at almost the highest level in the world! :)
Actually definitly something I was looking for! Through being pretty athletic I can attack so so via spikes/ jump shots and always wanted to broaden my attacking arsenal. I'm glad in theory it's pretty simple. As I'm on 5'3 in height I intuitivly used tomahawks when I need to save energy, but it was more of a back up option for me. As pretty much every volleyball trainer I met so far teaches the classic way I never thought of investing more time in the tomahawk and make it a tough weapon to deal with it. All the best of coming up again even Corona is still around. I really like your videos as you show stuff no one else does which is unique. Many thanks.
Nice to hear! Thank you for the kind words! :) I have a few followup videos planned for this and they are quite high up on the priority list so hopefully I'll get all of them done during the 2021 season, but a quick hint is to learn to topspin the tomahawks which does 3 things: more control over how much force you put into the ball (important for the short balls, why this gives you more control will be explained in one of those followup videos), secondly if the short balls hit the net they are more likely to trickle over with topspin and lastly the long loopy ones of course are more prone to drop into the court with topspin. Anyway, good luck with your exploration! :)
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast I‘m honestly surprised that there are other channels with more followers. I‘d say you produce ideas for the „normal player“, which is not that tall, but eager to get better. Many thanks for that. We tried it with the tomahawk today-the version where you form your hands as „one fist“. We feel more control this way. If I saw it correctly Eric is using the open hand version to also be able to topspin? Definitely looking forward to the series. Are there any other ways to support you and the channel ? Cheers!
@@yearningforpeace83 Thank you so much for the kind words! :) The other channels are mostly bigger because the people behind them are better known and also they have been at it for longer than I have so they simply have more momentum. But obviously I wouldn't be creating videos if I didn't believe I had something to bring to the world that they aren't and won't bring to the world, so here we are! :) Hopefully one day my striving for quality will make me outrun the others but we will see, I am definitely playing the long term game here! "One fist made with two hands" is a somewhat good explanation what Eric does actually. I agree it works better than the open hand method, and Eric is not doing the open hand method. The technique is basically what you say BUT there is an important detail, the side of the fist that touches the ball is "cracked open" so that there is a small type of platform formed by the oedges of the hand. Imagine you are holding a tennis ball with your two handed fist but the tennis ball is so heavy that it wants to escape from your hands when you hold your arms in front of you (thumbs up), basically the way your hands would be right before the ball slip out of your hands is how Eric holds the hands and how I teach it. The surface that touches the volleyball is basically the ridges of the hands slightly separated which is not a flat platform at all, but the impact on the ball becomes very similar to a flat platform maybe 4 inches/10cm in diameter (depending on your hand size.) Regarding support, thanks a lot for asking! Many ways to support, the free ways are basically sharing videos, talking about the videos with people, liking commenting and subscribing (help with UA-cam algorithms) etc. All these help the project grow faster and the bigger the audience becomes the easier it becomes for me to make a living from this as well as starting to hire help so that I can produce content even faster. Then there are money based ways to support, by puchasing coaching, courses or donating via patreon (which can be used as "credits" to buy courses once I launch them so in a sense it is like a pre-purchase.) Then there is actually one more kinda cool way to help.. If you are someone who buys stuff on amazon normally, whether it is one time purchases every now and then or something more regular, you could actually use my affiliate links to do so which sends me a little commission without costing you anything. So in a sense it is free for you because you are only spending money that you were going to spend anyway, but the Learn Beach Volleyball Fast-project gets some funding. There is a part of me that thinks it would just be insanely cool if the whole project could run on only this financing model hahah but I don't know if it's realistic. Maybe if I one day had a lot of people who liked my project but also had recurring toilet paper orders through amazon and would be willing to set it up so I get the kickback?? Hahah I don't know. Anyway, if this would be something you wanna do let me know, or just go to the booklist on my website (www.learnbeachvolleyballfast.com/blog/2019/12/10/recommended-books-for-beach-volleyball-players-the-learn-beach-volleyball-fast-booklist), click any of the amazon links to the books and then find what you actually want to buy on amazon instead and order it within 24 hours of clicking my link. But definitely let me know if you'd attempt to do this with a recurring purchase, I'd very much like to know how possible/easy it is as there is still that side of me that would love to see a big part of this whole project being funded that way.
Loic Ferreira Absolutely! :) I already have the followup video to this (where Eric himself shares a lot of tricks and tips that goes together with his playing style) filmed, I just need to get time to edit it! There will be at least 2 follow up videos on this one, I am also going to do a video where I share some thoughts about actually learning the tomahawk! :)
I’ve watched many of your videos, man, and they are really good. Thank you. Unfortunately, I still don’t know who you and where you are from. Maybe start each video with a brief introduction?
Hahaha damn, you have a point. I need to think about how to do that. Other people have said they want to see me play, and I'm working on that except I've been injured now for a while so haven't been able to record and proper games. But I'll think about how to make some sort of brief intro, it has to be brief though otherwise some people will stop watching the videos... Anyway, I'm Alex, partially raised in Finland, partially in Sweden, today I sometimes live in Sweden, sometimes Norway, sometimes travel to other places. As a kid I had almost 0 interest in ball sports and did skateboarding and snowboarding instead, which culminated into a semi professuonal snowboarding career. However, at 24 I decided snowboarding was sort of unsustainable for my life in general (high injury risk and took A LOT of time from my life) so I decided to stop. But I still wanted to be engaged in some sort of physical activity/sport daily. I am a guy that likes challenges, and would rather become good at one thing compared to semi good at a bunch of things, so that in combination with beach volleyball having a relatively late peak age (people are playing professionally even after 35 and in their 40ies!) I sort of just chose beach volleyball and went for it. I really took the nerdy, thought through approach on how on earth I would do it if I was actually to have a chance going from a complete beginner with minimal ball sport experience to pro all as an adult. I read all sorts of stuff like how our bodies learn new skills, psychology, personal development strategies etcetc.. So that's why I approach things the way I do. Today (when I have a healthy shoulder) I'm at a level where I start being able to compete with people at the highest level in Sweden without embarrassing myself and even winning occasionally, but I still have parts of the game that I haven't had time to address and trust me when I say I know how to learn new skills at this point, so I'm stoked to see what will happen in a year or two more once I get time to address those things! :) Hope that gives at least a little clarity! Thanks a lot for the feedback, it's one of the best ways for me to get even better at this. :)
For sure! I will definately post some of myself playing this summer, I am currently reworking my armswing/spiking technique and getting my shoulder back in shape again but once I start getting familiar with the new technique there will be footage! :) And I think Eric is rehabbing a knee surgery at the moment but he will be back to annoy people soon enough too! :)
Hahah it is! :) Did you check out my second video on the technique where I break down sort of all the "levers" that control the distance which makes it such a precise skill? I think you might find it interesting!
Of course you can be relatively successful with this kind of volleyball style. We sometimes do drills where you're not allowed to jump and it can be very hard to defend thoses shots because you can usually place them a bit better. However you need to ask yourself whether you actually want to play this style? I don't think you'll enjoy it much other than mabye scoring points. If the result is all that matters to you then you might enjoy it. But if you play because you like the athleticism and aesthetics of beach volleyball and the different shots and techniques then I don't think you'll enjoy this style. Secondly I could image that you will have a hard time finding good training partners. I personally wouldn't want to play on a regular basis with/against someone who plays this style. Same thing with those players who hit on 1 or 2 all the time. Very effective too but you get sick of it quickly. If you want to win a tournament you might give that guy a call but if you just want to have a good session you probably won't.
Hahaa, yeah this is not for everyone! But in general people underestimate how effective you can get with the tomahawk (I THINK one can get more accurate+consistent+hard to read with the tomahawk compared to any other type of standing shot that people use in no jump games.. can't prove it but once you learn it it feels easier to control than other shots, but I can of course be wrong here!) Anyway, since people in general underestimate it, for certain people it is a better option than alternatives. I see the athleticism/aesthetics point, but I'd actually wanna add something more to it, which is finesse. Finesse and "feeling" can also add plenty of fun to the game, which definately makes you able to enjoy the game when tomahawking your way to victory, not only from the winning aspect but also from the playing of the game itself. Sure, it's not the same "testosterone boosted athleticism" type of fun, but it's actually not that far away, there's definately similarity I'd say! :) As for playing with/against someone like this.. I'll play with whoever can kill the ball when they should, and set me well when they should. In a way it doesn't matter for me so much how they do it. But this is a mindset I've adopted more and more with the years from seeing people with "wrong" techniques still be successful. For example there are plenty of really tall players that barely jump and have some ugly ass armswings, and I used to be slightly "allergic" to that.. Until I realized their barely junping and ugly armswinging is high enough, but so damn quick that they can decide where they jump and then hit much later than "normal" people, which makes them harder to read and at the same time gives them more time to see the court and read the court.. So yes it looks ugly, they could jump higher, reach higher and hit harder and look much better if they practiced a "better" technique... but ultimately, is it better for scoring and playing well to be able to jump higher and hit harder (maybe at some point height and speed becomes unnecessary?) or does the ability to make ypur attacking decisions later than everybody else give a bigger advantage? Is their ugly ass technique actually ultimately better, for their bodytype for playing volleyball? The game is a points game, not a style game, and somehow actually realizing that can have huge implications for the game. Now at the same time, I love things that look good, I did extreme sports where all you have is "style" for 16 years or so. I actually made a video about this how I wish there was an extra league with style bonus points in beach hahah.. it would actually be another sport to a point. I'm rambling away here, but hope there's some value in it. As for playing against someone who plays this type of style, I'd wanna say one should mostly be thankful for the tons of diving reps one can get - a part of beach volleyball full of both athleticism AND finesse! :) I get it, it might be good to have most of your reps against "normal" players because thats whats going to happen most of the time.. But one should be prepared against the weirdos too (they are no fun to get kicked out from a tournament by), so playing against someone like this every now and then is probably quite smart. Be prepared for pretty much everything that the rulebook allows people to do! :)
+Learn Beach Volleyball Fast I usually poke with one hand, but I often give it a little too much, so it goes higher in the air than I want, because it gives the other team an extra second to dig it. I can seen the advantage of more control with using two hands. I don't have a problem hitting a down ball, this will just give me another tool for the shed. :-) Thanks!
@@volleyballvideos6426 Absolutely! So one of the things I've learned with doing the ultra short balls with the tomahawk is to actually hit the ball a little off the "middle of the ball" so that the power going into the ball gets a bit easier to control with how far off the middle you hit it rather than trying to hit it "softer", plus that it gives the ball topspin so that it's more prone to climb over the net if it hits the net.. Does that make sense? Try it, it gives another "dimension of touch" which makes it easier to control the hit! :)
@@luisorozco6529 Hmm, basically just "a little bit higher" than the middle of the ball, just think about how you would do to topspin tomahawk the ball! :) Does that make sense?
Yes! Haha I ended up practicing it myself this whole summer because of a shoulder injury and ended up understanding it on an even deeper level, maybe it's time I start making the videos about how it's done! It's so much fun making people frustrated with it hahaha!
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast I can feel when it's a good idea to use it to have a good chance to get a point if the set is low and drifting outside when I'm on the right side. Against B and lower it just always works so well. I think AA+ get lazy since I'd prob be at best in mid to low B in california so it's a solid way to get a point until they see it once. I'm still working on it as I'm only good hitting that short side corner on the right when I'm on the right. It's harder for me to do with the new optx ball, but I think it's hardest with the mikasa. I'm impressed he makes it look so easy.
@@tonybowen455 Good analysis! :) Yes it takes some practice to find the feeling to hit the other corners too (the closest corner is the easiest to hit), and try to do that without showing which corner you will hit really until you contact the ball! Try putting some topspin on the ball and then just find the right feeling! :)
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast I've been doing this a lot since I've found it. It's pretty potent! I'm surprised they call blocks against him, but seem to pull off a lot in the clips even though the sets are tight. I know I've asked before, but have any more footage of games? Even uploading unlisted and unedited would be amazing!
@@tonybowen455 More footage of games with Eric? I personally don't, but I can ask him! :) One of my personal goals in my beach volleyball career is to win one of the lower/mid level tournaments in Sweden (still very competitive level though, not sure but my guess is it would be considered a A or AA tournament in the American system maybe?) together with Eric hahah. Not sure if he quite knows it yet though, I have told him but he might have taken it as a joke.. :) One day I hope I can post that match!
Yes! That is one of the followup videos I have planned for this. Corona and 2020 has slowed me down bigtime in my progress but hopefully soon enough I will get this video done! :)
Yess, it's coming soon! I planned the video the other day, will try to record next week and release within a few weeks! :) Also have already recorded about 20 mins of content where Eric himself shares a lot of the strategies he uses in combination with this technique! :) Also coming soon! :)
Hahaha! 😂 It's very frustrating to have someone score against you this way.. But it's damn fun to be the one who scores and gets to watch the frustrated/dumbfounded/confused faces on the other side of the net! 😅
Hahah! Well.. technically, learning to react without any delay and having optimized your defensive techniques definitely helps. Tactically, Eric told me sometimes people play "one person takes short balls and the other takes long balls", and that it becomes much harder to be successful with this attacking when that happens. He said to counter that, you (as an attacker) need to start playing more "normal beach volleyball" again, which is easy if people are playing one in front one in the back..! Maybe your friend won't be smart enough to figure that one out if you play one in front one in back? 🧐
@@sjsupa Ah yes sorry, hope you didn't get offended like as if I answered as if you knew nothing! :) That specific one is actually an interesting one I agree. I am 99.9% sure he contacts the ball with the "backside" of his fingers (the side where the nails are), but the fingers are indeed a bit soft at the touch. I actually can't remember if we discussed this or not a couple of years ago when I did a referee course, but I would personally not call this one. If one would "drag" the ball with soft fingers (even if it was the backside of the fingers), then I'd call it but in my eyes this action falls under what I think is OK but I see it can be controversial.. Maybe I need to go find the rulebook again and see how they have worded this rule.. But I'm fairly sure this is a bit of a blurry line, similar to handsets unfortunately..!
I can spike, but I choose to do it only once or twice a set. I'm not the tallest, so I my percentages are much better if I roll and pokey accurately, with a disguise. Playing like this requires a slightly different mindset. Ss you mention in the video, it doesn't have to be an instant kill - you can just gradually stretch the opponents out of system, just like tennis players do.
Nice! Good point about the tennis, I have never thought to compare it like that actually! Sometimes also physical fatigue kicks in for people when they have to hustle their asses to pick up well placed shots and pokeys, and then they might not have the energy to do that with one more well placed ball! :)
Hahah, bra fråga! :) Alltså man får ju kanske inte ut detdär powerspike-adrenalinet precis, men man kan istället få ut en massa njutning av "finessen" och finkänsligheten som krävs för att sätta dom precisa slagen, och så är det ju kul att ha tävlingsinstinkt och tävla liksom. Ofta är det också väldigt kul att se hur förbryllade folk blir när dom inser att dom får spö i volleyboll av någon som inte hoppar samt spelar med ett slag dom aldrig sett användas som anfall (tomahawken). Så allt är ju relativt, jag spelar ju hellre "fullt ut" så att säga men tillexempel förra sommaren då jag hade skadad axel hela sommaren så var det ju mycket roligare att spela såhär än att inte spela alls! :) Finns ju också massa folk som vill slå hårt osv men inte kan det (antingen har dom inte lärt sig tekniken eller så av fysiska skäl) utan slår i nät eller ut väldigt ofta, och då kan man ju också fråga sig hur kul det är att göra massa misstag hela tiden! :) Men som sagt, väldigt olika från person till person, livs/hälsosituation osv, detta är verkligen inte en spelstil för alla, men jag tycker det är ett bra komplement för många! :)
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast "Finns ju också massa folk som vill slå hårt osv men inte kan det (antingen har dom inte lärt sig tekniken eller så av fysiska skäl) utan slår i nät eller ut väldigt ofta, och då kan man ju också fråga sig hur kul det är att göra massa misstag hela tiden! :) " Varför beskriver du mig och min spelstil så obarmhärtigt??
@@sananton2821 Hahaha, det var inte meningen! 😅😂 Dock så är det ju fortfarande så att för väldigt många så är ju den rätta vägen att gå att bli bättre på spiketeknik ifall man har problem med det snarare än att ta den helt andra vägen och börja köra ståspel på heltid hehe. Jag lärde mig tomahawka mest bara för att jag ville kunna spela och känna på tävlingsinstinkt lite iallafall förra sommaren när jag var skadad! :)
this is amazing we have a old man who has played for awhile and messed up his shoulder so much he only tomahawks and hes almost as good as this guy
Haha awesome! I think it's so cool that it's possible! :) The times I want to rest my shoulder I can also somewhat keep up with this type of attacking, I feel like this might be the key to be able to play competitively until you're 70 years old hahaha.
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast I feel like this and poke shots. It feels so hard to hit accurate line shots with proper footwork the traditional way as everything as to be correct, which makes it also tough for me to read the defense. And for binge playing for hours I go for more and more tomahawks and pokeys anyway.
@@tonybowen455 Makes sense! Yes, this is a very energy efficient way to play hahah. I personally love playing womens games with no jump and tomahawking. Simply, they can play full on, womens height net and I don't jump, except a 50% jump if I block. Can be super competitive and fun! :)
Taking the tomahawk to the next level! For most people the tomahawk is mostly used for defensive overhead passing. For me, this is was like a slap in the face to wake up and realize how this old tool can be when used effectively for offensive attacks. I feel like I just pulled a fresh new power tool out of my toolbox that has been sitting unused for far too long. Great analysis and strategy of how to improve your game quickly for players at all levels!
Hahahaha! What did I say in the beginning, "this video will be for some people mind opening or even inspirational" or something like that! 😅 Thanks a lot for this comment, love reading stuff like this! Feel free to let me know how it goes! I also think I'm going to have to make a tutorial for this soon!
This is a very helpful video. Thank you! I've been playing off and on, but have trouble hitting the ball effectively. This shows a good way to score points rather than just make weak hits to the middle of the court that turn into free balls.
Thanks for the comment! Absolutely, I agree. Everyone has a different starting point with physicality, injuries, time one is willing to invest into technique training etcetcetc, and for some people I absolutely believe becoming as competitive as possible basically without even jumping is the way to go. I myself went down this route for a summer when I had a shoulder injury and it was a lot of fun, and I still pull out a tomahawk here and there that makes people wonder what just happened.. :)
Watched this again being better now than when I first watched it. The playing clips the first few min are really impressive. I can appreciate the shots way more now. I'm struggling doing this for grass doubles, but my contact point needs to be higher and short shots shorter and long shots longer and more on the line. The advice you gave in the new video for deep shots helped, but I'm still working on it. Oh, and this is just the best thing ever for playing everyday, thank you so much for this!
Hahah amazing to hear, the perception/attitude change is really interesting. I agree that some of the more skeptical commenters here in the comments and in other places, probably have never experienced playing against this in real life, because when it is done well it is actually quite impressive.
Making the short ones shorter and the long ones longer is definitely a task of fine-tuning, I hope you succeed! Would be fun to see video one day if you end up reaching a level where you are really happy about it! :)
Actually to play alternative styles require much more training to be able to hit the target consistantly. I am not talking about to be able to hit one of the four corners. You must have accuracy to the point where you can land the ball with no more than 5 cm error from your desires. Otherwise will simply be free ball to the oponents. Takes a lot of time, in fact requires even more than the normal style. Especialy when you want to return heavy spikes at you with tomahawks,pokes,fists etc, I have similar style to this and require a lot of training to be able to obtain accuracy to good enough level. Also you can pass the ball to the partner via strike. Poke,fist and many other ways such as knee hit,head,shoulder. You can kick the ball, strike the ball, uppercut the ball... and is much faster than handsets but much more difficult to obtain accuracy to good enough level.
Interesting! Yeah, I can see one can spend a lot of time perfecting this playing style too, and whichever becomes the most effective with the least amount of work depends a lot on the level of the players! When I coached some intermediate level girls that couldn't really get the ball down steeper than straight into the defenders lap with the normal attacking style, all it took for them was to spend 1,5 hours practicing erics style and they immediately played 2-3 levels better volleyball. But you should definately bring a camera next time you play, I want to see! :)
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast I'll try to get some footage of me doing it on grass. I might have some older clips I can find. I do a much more dumbed down version of it as I pretty much only go line. I'm at a much lower level, but I think it's a good attacking philosophy especially for indoor players coming to beach. Luckily we have nuss to watch right now, too. Also I wanna keep bothering you for more footage of Eric!
@@tonybowen455 Nice! If you get video of you doing it, send it to me, I tend to think these kinds of videos are interesting to watch and analyze! :)
The next video I'm about to upload is a new Eric video! :)
And wait you mentioned Nuss.. Does she play with a similar style?
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast Yes, thanks! And watching nuss has helped me with shot placement instead of blindly swinging.
@@tonybowen455 Nice! I have never analyzed Nuss' game, but I will now! :)
Oh my god! This was so inspiring. How about a follow-up video on how to do a clean tomahawk? perhaps drills and stuff.
Hahahaha yes! So cool you think that! :D I think its inspiring too! Will definately make a followup! I'll try to get Eric on it too hahaha!
badem I have to learn how to do this! Please update and teach the tomahawk technique. Thank you.
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast Any luck with this? Can I can see more footage of entire games? I thought I'd have to drill this to get it, but just doing it rarely in game over several months, I can feel it out and it's good for a point a game even at A-AA if they have no idea how you play, which is so good since it's so hard to get a point at that level at my skill level. My control is still really bad with it, too. I'm assuming you've played against him as well, what are your thoughts on defending it?
@@tonybowen455 Hey!
I was definately hoping I'd have had this video done by now. Unfortunately I became one of these young people that didn't suffer much at all from the coronavirus but basically saw my life fall i shambles in front of my eyes because of all the restrictions in the world. So I ended up losing a lot of money and even more time this year which unfortunately has slowed this project down big big time. It's been more about survival for me in 2020, unfortunately.
But I am slowly getting back on track again, and this video and another one where I actually interview Eric himself about the game strategies he uses (I already recorded it but haven't edited) are some of the higher priority videos on my list.
So sorry for the delay, and thanks for still being here. I never in my wildest dreams thought the world would react like this to the virus, I've never been this punished for being a person that takes care of his health and works in an industry that makes it easier for people to enjoy their lives. Anyway, sorry for the rant, hopefully life will become better soon and I will get the chance to actually make all these videos I've been planning to make.
@@tonybowen455 But yes, your other question..! Really good defenders can defend most of the tomahawks if they are disciplined, stay still before contact and hustle hard. The defenders pretty much need to be off balance or tired for this attack to work at the higher levels like AAA etc. But as you say, A-AA levels where defenders maybe aren't as disciplined or lazy or whatever, it can work very well. I think for maximum benefit of this technique, you really need to couple it with some strategies like who to attack with it and when, stuff Eric talks about in the followup video that isn't released yet. For defending against this, learn to stay still before contact yet still be quick once you know where the ball is going, hustle hard and have good stamina, you might get exausted or tired physically from playing against this. Probably I think it's better too to have very staggered feet to the point of atanding sideways, so you can quicker make it all the way to the back AND front of the court once you know which direction the ball is going.
very clever video. I think it also raises the question about learning to play vs learning to win
we all learn more or less the same way but maybe hitting, playing 3 touches, is not the best way to win for all players
True! :) In reality it's a very complex sport and there are so many ways to make it happen! Carambula and Rossi are a great example to look at for creativity at almost the highest level in the world! :)
Actually definitly something I was looking for! Through being pretty athletic I can attack so so via spikes/ jump shots and always wanted to broaden my attacking arsenal. I'm glad in theory it's pretty simple. As I'm on 5'3 in height I intuitivly used tomahawks when I need to save energy, but it was more of a back up option for me. As pretty much every volleyball trainer I met so far teaches the classic way I never thought of investing more time in the tomahawk and make it a tough weapon to deal with it. All the best of coming up again even Corona is still around. I really like your videos as you show stuff no one else does which is unique.
Many thanks.
Nice to hear! Thank you for the kind words! :) I have a few followup videos planned for this and they are quite high up on the priority list so hopefully I'll get all of them done during the 2021 season, but a quick hint is to learn to topspin the tomahawks which does 3 things: more control over how much force you put into the ball (important for the short balls, why this gives you more control will be explained in one of those followup videos), secondly if the short balls hit the net they are more likely to trickle over with topspin and lastly the long loopy ones of course are more prone to drop into the court with topspin. Anyway, good luck with your exploration! :)
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast I‘m honestly surprised that there are other channels with more followers. I‘d say you produce ideas for the „normal player“, which is not that tall, but eager to get better. Many thanks for that.
We tried it with the tomahawk today-the version where you form your hands as „one fist“. We feel more control this way. If I saw it correctly Eric is using the open hand version to also be able to topspin?
Definitely looking forward to the series.
Are there any other ways to support you and the channel ?
Cheers!
@@yearningforpeace83 Thank you so much for the kind words! :)
The other channels are mostly bigger because the people behind them are better known and also they have been at it for longer than I have so they simply have more momentum. But obviously I wouldn't be creating videos if I didn't believe I had something to bring to the world that they aren't and won't bring to the world, so here we are! :) Hopefully one day my striving for quality will make me outrun the others but we will see, I am definitely playing the long term game here!
"One fist made with two hands" is a somewhat good explanation what Eric does actually. I agree it works better than the open hand method, and Eric is not doing the open hand method. The technique is basically what you say BUT there is an important detail, the side of the fist that touches the ball is "cracked open" so that there is a small type of platform formed by the oedges of the hand. Imagine you are holding a tennis ball with your two handed fist but the tennis ball is so heavy that it wants to escape from your hands when you hold your arms in front of you (thumbs up), basically the way your hands would be right before the ball slip out of your hands is how Eric holds the hands and how I teach it. The surface that touches the volleyball is basically the ridges of the hands slightly separated which is not a flat platform at all, but the impact on the ball becomes very similar to a flat platform maybe 4 inches/10cm in diameter (depending on your hand size.)
Regarding support, thanks a lot for asking! Many ways to support, the free ways are basically sharing videos, talking about the videos with people, liking commenting and subscribing (help with UA-cam algorithms) etc. All these help the project grow faster and the bigger the audience becomes the easier it becomes for me to make a living from this as well as starting to hire help so that I can produce content even faster.
Then there are money based ways to support, by puchasing coaching, courses or donating via patreon (which can be used as "credits" to buy courses once I launch them so in a sense it is like a pre-purchase.)
Then there is actually one more kinda cool way to help.. If you are someone who buys stuff on amazon normally, whether it is one time purchases every now and then or something more regular, you could actually use my affiliate links to do so which sends me a little commission without costing you anything. So in a sense it is free for you because you are only spending money that you were going to spend anyway, but the Learn Beach Volleyball Fast-project gets some funding. There is a part of me that thinks it would just be insanely cool if the whole project could run on only this financing model hahah but I don't know if it's realistic. Maybe if I one day had a lot of people who liked my project but also had recurring toilet paper orders through amazon and would be willing to set it up so I get the kickback?? Hahah I don't know. Anyway, if this would be something you wanna do let me know, or just go to the booklist on my website (www.learnbeachvolleyballfast.com/blog/2019/12/10/recommended-books-for-beach-volleyball-players-the-learn-beach-volleyball-fast-booklist), click any of the amazon links to the books and then find what you actually want to buy on amazon instead and order it within 24 hours of clicking my link. But definitely let me know if you'd attempt to do this with a recurring purchase, I'd very much like to know how possible/easy it is as there is still that side of me that would love to see a big part of this whole project being funded that way.
Perfect for short players like me. More videos for small people please :) congratulations!
Loic Ferreira Absolutely! :) I already have the followup video to this (where Eric himself shares a lot of tricks and tips that goes together with his playing style) filmed, I just need to get time to edit it! There will be at least 2 follow up videos on this one, I am also going to do a video where I share some thoughts about actually learning the tomahawk! :)
Followup video is finally here! :) ua-cam.com/video/eypJXdZEI7U/v-deo.html
this detail I love it!
Sttammina Haha good to hear it's not only me who enjoys details! :) There is way more to come!
I’ve watched many of your videos, man, and they are really good. Thank you. Unfortunately, I still don’t know who you and where you are from. Maybe start each video with a brief introduction?
Hahaha damn, you have a point. I need to think about how to do that. Other people have said they want to see me play, and I'm working on that except I've been injured now for a while so haven't been able to record and proper games. But I'll think about how to make some sort of brief intro, it has to be brief though otherwise some people will stop watching the videos...
Anyway, I'm Alex, partially raised in Finland, partially in Sweden, today I sometimes live in Sweden, sometimes Norway, sometimes travel to other places. As a kid I had almost 0 interest in ball sports and did skateboarding and snowboarding instead, which culminated into a semi professuonal snowboarding career. However, at 24 I decided snowboarding was sort of unsustainable for my life in general (high injury risk and took A LOT of time from my life) so I decided to stop. But I still wanted to be engaged in some sort of physical activity/sport daily. I am a guy that likes challenges, and would rather become good at one thing compared to semi good at a bunch of things, so that in combination with beach volleyball having a relatively late peak age (people are playing professionally even after 35 and in their 40ies!) I sort of just chose beach volleyball and went for it. I really took the nerdy, thought through approach on how on earth I would do it if I was actually to have a chance going from a complete beginner with minimal ball sport experience to pro all as an adult. I read all sorts of stuff like how our bodies learn new skills, psychology, personal development strategies etcetc.. So that's why I approach things the way I do. Today (when I have a healthy shoulder) I'm at a level where I start being able to compete with people at the highest level in Sweden without embarrassing myself and even winning occasionally, but I still have parts of the game that I haven't had time to address and trust me when I say I know how to learn new skills at this point, so I'm stoked to see what will happen in a year or two more once I get time to address those things! :)
Hope that gives at least a little clarity! Thanks a lot for the feedback, it's one of the best ways for me to get even better at this. :)
i agree. would be cool to see a full video of the match to see how he plays. and you
For sure! I will definately post some of myself playing this summer, I am currently reworking my armswing/spiking technique and getting my shoulder back in shape again but once I start getting familiar with the new technique there will be footage! :) And I think Eric is rehabbing a knee surgery at the moment but he will be back to annoy people soon enough too! :)
His distance control is crazy with tomahawk from the ground lol
Hahah it is! :) Did you check out my second video on the technique where I break down sort of all the "levers" that control the distance which makes it such a precise skill? I think you might find it interesting!
Of course you can be relatively successful with this kind of volleyball style. We sometimes do drills where you're not allowed to jump and it can be very hard to defend thoses shots because you can usually place them a bit better. However you need to ask yourself whether you actually want to play this style? I don't think you'll enjoy it much other than mabye scoring points. If the result is all that matters to you then you might enjoy it. But if you play because you like the athleticism and aesthetics of beach volleyball and the different shots and techniques then I don't think you'll enjoy this style. Secondly I could image that you will have a hard time finding good training partners. I personally wouldn't want to play on a regular basis with/against someone who plays this style. Same thing with those players who hit on 1 or 2 all the time. Very effective too but you get sick of it quickly. If you want to win a tournament you might give that guy a call but if you just want to have a good session you probably won't.
Hahaa, yeah this is not for everyone! But in general people underestimate how effective you can get with the tomahawk (I THINK one can get more accurate+consistent+hard to read with the tomahawk compared to any other type of standing shot that people use in no jump games.. can't prove it but once you learn it it feels easier to control than other shots, but I can of course be wrong here!)
Anyway, since people in general underestimate it, for certain people it is a better option than alternatives.
I see the athleticism/aesthetics point, but I'd actually wanna add something more to it, which is finesse. Finesse and "feeling" can also add plenty of fun to the game, which definately makes you able to enjoy the game when tomahawking your way to victory, not only from the winning aspect but also from the playing of the game itself. Sure, it's not the same "testosterone boosted athleticism" type of fun, but it's actually not that far away, there's definately similarity I'd say! :)
As for playing with/against someone like this.. I'll play with whoever can kill the ball when they should, and set me well when they should. In a way it doesn't matter for me so much how they do it. But this is a mindset I've adopted more and more with the years from seeing people with "wrong" techniques still be successful. For example there are plenty of really tall players that barely jump and have some ugly ass armswings, and I used to be slightly "allergic" to that.. Until I realized their barely junping and ugly armswinging is high enough, but so damn quick that they can decide where they jump and then hit much later than "normal" people, which makes them harder to read and at the same time gives them more time to see the court and read the court.. So yes it looks ugly, they could jump higher, reach higher and hit harder and look much better if they practiced a "better" technique... but ultimately, is it better for scoring and playing well to be able to jump higher and hit harder (maybe at some point height and speed becomes unnecessary?) or does the ability to make ypur attacking decisions later than everybody else give a bigger advantage? Is their ugly ass technique actually ultimately better, for their bodytype for playing volleyball?
The game is a points game, not a style game, and somehow actually realizing that can have huge implications for the game. Now at the same time, I love things that look good, I did extreme sports where all you have is "style" for 16 years or so. I actually made a video about this how I wish there was an extra league with style bonus points in beach hahah.. it would actually be another sport to a point.
I'm rambling away here, but hope there's some value in it. As for playing against someone who plays this type of style, I'd wanna say one should mostly be thankful for the tons of diving reps one can get - a part of beach volleyball full of both athleticism AND finesse! :) I get it, it might be good to have most of your reps against "normal" players because thats whats going to happen most of the time.. But one should be prepared against the weirdos too (they are no fun to get kicked out from a tournament by), so playing against someone like this every now and then is probably quite smart. Be prepared for pretty much everything that the rulebook allows people to do! :)
wow, i would get so frustrated by such plays.. but respects for making own style
hahaa! :) frustrated defending against it, or frustrated playing like that?
I'm going to try and incorporate this technique. Thanks for sharing!
Hahah awesome! I promise you, it's a lot of fun! :D
+Learn Beach Volleyball Fast I usually poke with one hand, but I often give it a little too much, so it goes higher in the air than I want, because it gives the other team an extra second to dig it. I can seen the advantage of more control with using two hands. I don't have a problem hitting a down ball, this will just give me another tool for the shed. :-) Thanks!
@@volleyballvideos6426 Absolutely! So one of the things I've learned with doing the ultra short balls with the tomahawk is to actually hit the ball a little off the "middle of the ball" so that the power going into the ball gets a bit easier to control with how far off the middle you hit it rather than trying to hit it "softer", plus that it gives the ball topspin so that it's more prone to climb over the net if it hits the net.. Does that make sense? Try it, it gives another "dimension of touch" which makes it easier to control the hit! :)
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast What kind of spots on the ball would you aim at?
@@luisorozco6529 Hmm, basically just "a little bit higher" than the middle of the ball, just think about how you would do to topspin tomahawk the ball! :) Does that make sense?
this is very interesting !
still waiting for the video where you'll explain how to master the tomahawak !
Yes! Haha I ended up practicing it myself this whole summer because of a shoulder injury and ended up understanding it on an even deeper level, maybe it's time I start making the videos about how it's done! It's so much fun making people frustrated with it hahaha!
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast hell yeah ! let them eat sand !
@@aymaneitreb Hahaha! 😅
@@aymaneitreb Not the quickest thing I have done in my life, but now the followup is finally done! :) ua-cam.com/video/eypJXdZEI7U/v-deo.html
So glad I found this.
Nice! How do you think it will help you? :)
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast I can feel when it's a good idea to use it to have a good chance to get a point if the set is low and drifting outside when I'm on the right side. Against B and lower it just always works so well. I think AA+ get lazy since I'd prob be at best in mid to low B in california so it's a solid way to get a point until they see it once.
I'm still working on it as I'm only good hitting that short side corner on the right when I'm on the right. It's harder for me to do with the new optx ball, but I think it's hardest with the mikasa. I'm impressed he makes it look so easy.
@@tonybowen455 Good analysis! :) Yes it takes some practice to find the feeling to hit the other corners too (the closest corner is the easiest to hit), and try to do that without showing which corner you will hit really until you contact the ball! Try putting some topspin on the ball and then just find the right feeling! :)
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast I've been doing this a lot since I've found it. It's pretty potent! I'm surprised they call blocks against him, but seem to pull off a lot in the clips even though the sets are tight. I know I've asked before, but have any more footage of games? Even uploading unlisted and unedited would be amazing!
@@tonybowen455 More footage of games with Eric? I personally don't, but I can ask him! :)
One of my personal goals in my beach volleyball career is to win one of the lower/mid level tournaments in Sweden (still very competitive level though, not sure but my guess is it would be considered a A or AA tournament in the American system maybe?) together with Eric hahah. Not sure if he quite knows it yet though, I have told him but he might have taken it as a joke.. :) One day I hope I can post that match!
Interesting. It would be nice to see the drills for tomahawks and ways to improve the ball control when using it
Yes! That is one of the followup videos I have planned for this. Corona and 2020 has slowed me down bigtime in my progress but hopefully soon enough I will get this video done! :)
Finally! here it is! :) ua-cam.com/video/eypJXdZEI7U/v-deo.html
it also makes sense if you want to play in old age...
Exactly! I know exactly how I'll be frustrating young players when I'm 70 years old! 😂
Please do a video with actual tips and drills to develop this attacking style!
Yess, it's coming soon! I planned the video the other day, will try to record next week and release within a few weeks! :)
Also have already recorded about 20 mins of content where Eric himself shares a lot of the strategies he uses in combination with this technique! :) Also coming soon! :)
Now, the video is finally here! :) ua-cam.com/video/eypJXdZEI7U/v-deo.html
i just like to say it out right that THIS WILL PISS ME OFF big time :D :) but awesome though, love it
Hahaha! 😂 It's very frustrating to have someone score against you this way.. But it's damn fun to be the one who scores and gets to watch the frustrated/dumbfounded/confused faces on the other side of the net! 😅
Any ideas on how to defend this? It’s what my friend does and I can’t beat him for the life of me (been playing for 3 years)
Hahah! Well.. technically, learning to react without any delay and having optimized your defensive techniques definitely helps.
Tactically, Eric told me sometimes people play "one person takes short balls and the other takes long balls", and that it becomes much harder to be successful with this attacking when that happens. He said to counter that, you (as an attacker) need to start playing more "normal beach volleyball" again, which is easy if people are playing one in front one in the back..! Maybe your friend won't be smart enough to figure that one out if you play one in front one in back? 🧐
That would be awesome if you make a video of tips and tricks in learning Eric's strategies.
Videos on their way! Was doing some editing work on 2 of them today! Hopefully soon! :)
Can't wait! Thank you!
@@felicia5620 Now it's finally here! :) ua-cam.com/video/eypJXdZEI7U/v-deo.html
Thankssss
Hope it helps! :)
But his open hand tips are illegal, right?
Oh the pokeys? They are not open hand tips but played with the knuckles instead, completely legal and quite common! :)
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast Of course I know pokeys are legal. But at 2:03, are you sure he played with knuckles? Looks like fingers to me.
@@sjsupa Ah yes sorry, hope you didn't get offended like as if I answered as if you knew nothing! :) That specific one is actually an interesting one I agree. I am 99.9% sure he contacts the ball with the "backside" of his fingers (the side where the nails are), but the fingers are indeed a bit soft at the touch. I actually can't remember if we discussed this or not a couple of years ago when I did a referee course, but I would personally not call this one. If one would "drag" the ball with soft fingers (even if it was the backside of the fingers), then I'd call it but in my eyes this action falls under what I think is OK but I see it can be controversial.. Maybe I need to go find the rulebook again and see how they have worded this rule.. But I'm fairly sure this is a bit of a blurry line, similar to handsets unfortunately..!
I can spike, but I choose to do it only once or twice a set. I'm not the tallest, so I my percentages are much better if I roll and pokey accurately, with a disguise.
Playing like this requires a slightly different mindset. Ss you mention in the video, it doesn't have to be an instant kill - you can just gradually stretch the opponents out of system, just like tennis players do.
Nice! Good point about the tennis, I have never thought to compare it like that actually! Sometimes also physical fatigue kicks in for people when they have to hustle their asses to pick up well placed shots and pokeys, and then they might not have the energy to do that with one more well placed ball! :)
Är det verkligen roligt att spela såhär? Blir det inte tråkigt?
Hahah, bra fråga! :) Alltså man får ju kanske inte ut detdär powerspike-adrenalinet precis, men man kan istället få ut en massa njutning av "finessen" och finkänsligheten som krävs för att sätta dom precisa slagen, och så är det ju kul att ha tävlingsinstinkt och tävla liksom. Ofta är det också väldigt kul att se hur förbryllade folk blir när dom inser att dom får spö i volleyboll av någon som inte hoppar samt spelar med ett slag dom aldrig sett användas som anfall (tomahawken). Så allt är ju relativt, jag spelar ju hellre "fullt ut" så att säga men tillexempel förra sommaren då jag hade skadad axel hela sommaren så var det ju mycket roligare att spela såhär än att inte spela alls! :) Finns ju också massa folk som vill slå hårt osv men inte kan det (antingen har dom inte lärt sig tekniken eller så av fysiska skäl) utan slår i nät eller ut väldigt ofta, och då kan man ju också fråga sig hur kul det är att göra massa misstag hela tiden! :) Men som sagt, väldigt olika från person till person, livs/hälsosituation osv, detta är verkligen inte en spelstil för alla, men jag tycker det är ett bra komplement för många! :)
@@LearnBeachVolleyballFast "Finns ju också massa folk som vill slå hårt osv men inte kan det (antingen har dom inte lärt sig tekniken eller så av fysiska skäl) utan slår i nät eller ut väldigt ofta, och då kan man ju också fråga sig hur kul det är att göra massa misstag hela tiden! :) "
Varför beskriver du mig och min spelstil så obarmhärtigt??
@@sananton2821 Hahaha, det var inte meningen! 😅😂
Dock så är det ju fortfarande så att för väldigt många så är ju den rätta vägen att gå att bli bättre på spiketeknik ifall man har problem med det snarare än att ta den helt andra vägen och börja köra ståspel på heltid hehe. Jag lärde mig tomahawka mest bara för att jag ville kunna spela och känna på tävlingsinstinkt lite iallafall förra sommaren när jag var skadad! :)