Volleyball continues to be going strong this summer and I am sad to admit that I have missed a lot of it over the last month while on holiday. Much to my enjoyment and the annoyance of a lot of people around me I have spent the last fews days reliving plenty of the action on FIVB web tv and I am now paying the price with an intensive clean-up operation of the aftermath of my “all volleyball – no housework” binge. Missed the World League?

No problem, all the important games were there. Beach Volleyball World Tour? Everything I wanted to watch. FIVB World Junior Championships? That's right, all there (I have to admit the last one wasn't really high on my list of to do’s)

The weekend was dominated by the beach volleyball for me in Klagenfurt, where South American flair met German efficiency as Pedro Cunha and Ricardo Santos beat Julius Brink and Jonas (the wrecking man) Reckermann. I read that there was an impressive 9000 fans in Austria to watch the final and over 100,000 fans over the course of the seven day tournament. Not bad. I would like to know whether these people went there for their love of the sport or the Grand Slam’s reputation for great weather, cool locations and crazy parties. I am guessing that is is most likely the latter, but maybe this is what indoor volleyball also needs. A little more glamour and razzmatazz, more hype and overall drama to bring in the neutral, and keep them attracted to the sport. Any thoughts? This is something which other sports, such as football have done very well, and something which Klagenfurt seems to have perfected. There is of course a fine line between bringing more excitement into a sport and selling out. I do however feel, that a certain understanding and appreciation for the influence of media needs to be developed by teams and events. A professional media presence which emotionally involves and entertains the viewing public can have long-lasting effects and improve the reputation and general opinion of the sport and can help sway neutrals to becoming fans. This is something which the event organisers for the Austrian Grand Slam have understood and implemented very well.

Staying with beach volleyball, an event which may well have slipped under the radar for many is this weekends CEV Under-18 European Championships. The bronze and gold medal matches will be broadcasted on LAOLA1.tv on Sunday (14.08) and I am intrigued more than excited about watching the event. I have never had the opportunity to watch it before so I am looking forward to seeing how good the quality of volleyball is amongst the young Europeans.

The major event for me this weekend though is the continuation of the FIVB Grand Prix. I missed pretty much all of the World League so I will be giving this an intensive viewing. My pick of the weekend is the China – Russia match on Sunday at 13.30 CET, a game which should be very entertaining and a match which the Chinese should win in all honesty.

My website suggestion this week is fitting with my enjoyment of the volleyball from Klagenfurt in Austria. It comes from the Schwaiger sisters who have put together a pretty well polished site which has plenty to offer (unfortunately all in German so you might want to run it through google translate to get the full benefit). They haven’t been having the best of seasons, but I like the fact that they have put an effort in, in trying to offer something to the fans and get them involved. They also have a little bit in English :-)