UBVR “In Depth”

Development

-Brand new player

-Developing basic motor skills  (sports movement in general, running, jumping, shuffling, lunging, hand-eye coordination below shoulder level and above shoulder level)

-Learning basic court & ball feel (basically peppering and getting used to moving in the sand)

Beginner

-Familiar with fundamentals (2 arm forearm pass, overhand 2 hand “setting”, underhand serving, overhand serving, overhand hitting)

- Working on making rallies happen (sustained rallies much more common with more than 2 people on the court, or a smaller court - playing games with a full width but only half depth court can be a very useful activity, successively lengthen the court to full depth as control becomes better)

-Developing ball control (figure out good individual platform mechanics https://youtu.be/P30pmdNh2FA , advanced peppering)

-Developing basic teamwork & communication  (communication can happen both during a rally but maybe more importantly between rallies - agreeing with your partner(s) about where the ball should go on each hit, openly discussing how we as a team can get better - hopefully without anyone taking offense)

Intermediate

-Dependable serve and basic hits (a serve that goes “in” almost always, can be an underhand serve and these can still be relatively “agressive”, for overhand serve tips check out https://youtu.be/iHdWomaTkJU )

-Understanding of basic movement patterns on the court in 2vs2 play - defending with/without a block, blocking signs, basic “ideal” locations for serve receive and setting

-Basic understanding (not necessarily technical mastery) of rules unique to beach volleyball - for example handsetting faults, various attacking faults, screening

-Relatively strong attacking skills in perfect set situations. Usually consists of either raw & relatively uncoordinated athleticism or not very athletic but “smart” attacking or a semi athletic player with some technical training. (If one doesn’t want to end up being a “goofy footed attacker” this level or earlier is a good time to get used to a 4 step “regular” approach - right, left, right, left for a right handed attacker)

Advanced

-Strong ball control - even in unexpected situations (the person that sometimes “just happens” to “throw an arm” at a ball in a weird situation, and the ball actually goes where it should go, https://www.instagram.com/p/BsYujNvnUzb/ and similar drills both easier and more difficult can be good for developing this, even if not all coaches will agree with this https://www.learnbeachvolleyballfast.com/blog/2022/11/21/the-dark-ages-of-volleyball-coaching )

or

-Unusually strong blocking and attacking skills (usually partly consisting of strong athleticism or tall stature) can partly replace some ball control (sometimes tall players who intuitively can block and hit a volleyball relatively well can play “advanced beach volleyball” even if they do not have so much training and in many ways are “intermediate” players without very fine tuned ball control, especially if they play in windless conditions)

-High attacking success rate in situations where the set is perfect

-Strong established strategy (using the wind for your advantage, knowing how to deal with the wind, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcXm5p6EBtw )

-Comfortable in high stress competition (usually comes down to being used to competitive environments, either through a lot of competitive activities in childhood, or by learning it later in life https://youtu.be/mqVV0zLOk7Y https://youtu.be/cA9J15AHdwk https://youtu.be/8H0AnlqstJg )

Advanced+

-Exceptionally high success rate in getting into a perfect set situation - strong first ball and setting combined with good “sync” or “feeling”, and communication within the team (usually people won’t reach this level without also learning to be “in system” also in strong wind - which in my opinion includes the skills of knowing in what wind directions a high vs low set is possible, attacking low sets as well as the utilization of spinning bumpsets)

or

-High attacking success rate even in less than ideal and bad set situations (usually means world class attacking mechanics or good mechanics in combination with very good attacking decisions+vision)

-Strong skills as either a blocker or defender

-Usually the highest level to be found on most domestic tours, comparable to the lower levels of international world tour FIVB tournaments

Pro

-Highest level of competition (higher level international world tour FIVB tournaments, or top finishers in strong beach volleyball nation domestic tours)

-Elite active play over many years

Developed in 2022 by Learn Beach Volleyball Fast in collaboration with supporters of the project and independent contributors. Learn more/find more detailed version/help improve even further at www.learnbeachvolleyballfast.com/levelchart

addons:

Things I’d like feedback on: 

Should the criterias be different for women? 

Would need help syncing different regions level explanations.

Are these levels easy to understand? When you read through the levels, can you picture players you have seen play fit into these categories?

Any wordings you’d change? Any ways to reword what I have written so that it becomes shorter without losing its meaning?

Tennis rating systems named:

National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP)

International Tennis Number (ITN)

Universal tennis RATINGS (UTR)