Answer: The rules of Beach Volleyball are governed by the Federation of International Volleyball (FIVB) and then administered through USA Volleyball.  It is our policy to make every effort to keep our application of the rules consistent with FIVB when possible.

There is no real secret to learning what ball handling faults are on the beach, it just comes down to gaining the necessary experience observing competition.  The beach game is played at wide variety of skill levels and therefore must be officiated according to the level of play.  The ball handling standard for double contacts has become a little more lenient (a little bit of spin is normal) while much more emphasis has been placed on the caught/held ball during the setting action.  The intent is to bring the ball handling standard closer to that which is used in the indoor game; therefore allowing both players and officials an easy transition between one game and the other.  Open hand reception of serve is legal (not a good technique to teach), but must be judged very strictly.

Steve Owen; USAV Beach Officials Commission Chair

Our time in London has been exciting and full of once in a life time experiences.  It felt like something new or special happened every day:  we toured around London, rode the “Eye” almost alone in the bubble, took the Thames river cruise, saw Wicked on stage, went to the opening ceremony practice, became regulars at the Balham pub where we ate so many chicken sandwiches that they knew our order as we walked in, got to watch the women’s indoor team play Korea, saw Patty work a match, watch Dan work many matches,  found some of our beach ref friends from over the years (Maria, Miguel, Darrel, Jose), went to the Swiss House with our Swiss friends and ate a lot of Swiss Chocolate, got to watch all of the beach medal matches from the stands, and talked our way with our accreditation into the Women’s indoor gold medal match.  Thanks to our USAV friends, we were allowed to experience the USA House.  We met a lot of new friends and got closer to many that we met last year at the test event.  We became very good raising and lowering nets and at preparing the sand on our courts to be smooth as glass.  We loved it when refs and players said our warm up courts looked better than center court.  Of course, all of the women field of play attendants (Sue, Terry, Jolanda and Connie) were on the warm up courts.  Not one women was down on center court after the second day of competition when we got promoted to team leaders on the warm up court.

Our little house in Balham was quite a place.  Jolanda had friends from Switzerland coming over so often we learned Swiss/German…ok…that did not happen.  With a core group of 6 men and 6 women, we had over 25 people living with us in the flats at some time during the month.  Oh yes, one women had her 8 year old daughter stay with us for a week.  Getting into the shower was our most challenging task.  Our final toilet paper count was somewhere near 55. (:-)  Today we are packing, cleaning and drinking what is left of the beer and wine.  This will be our last message from London as I must go help with the beer and wine chores.  Take care and we will see many of you soon.  Our best to everyone and thanks for taking the time to share our experiences here in London.  We promise to make a reasonable slide show of our pictures and not bore you with the 800 or so pictures that we have (we shared pictures with our flat mates)  See you all in the USA soon.

It was a good match.  Brazil was strong but the German men were more consistent and had fewer errors.  We were happy to see that Dan Apol from the USA was the R2 on the Bronze match.  He had a good tournament.  Sue successfully exchanged one of her purple shirts for a light blue FIVB ref shirt and I was able to exchange for one of the light blue technical officials shirt.  We did not need 2 (each) of those beautiful purple and poppy red shirts.

After a major tournament like the Olympics end, it is interesting that there is a let down.  Not only are you exhausted but this exciting and full experience is just suddenly over.  There is a little time to slow down with fewer matches toward the end but then you say good bye, hugs and kisses and walk away.  No need to get up early in the morning or late nights.  We are staying a couple more days to try to see the indoor medal matches.  The USA women play for Gold tonight.  We have been in this match before but only come away with Silver.  The feeling is that tonight will be the time to win the Gold.  Interesting that only our women will have medals in USA volleyball in 2012.  3 here and a chance for another with the women’s sitting team competing in several weeks.

As we left the venue for the last time, we looked around at one of the 2012′s most spectacular venue.  Horse Guards Parade grounds will return to an open area with pea gravel instead of sand.  David Cameron will be able to get to sleep before 2 am.  Soldiers instead of volunteers, spectators and athletes will be marching around the court yard where 15,000 people sat in temporary stands.  The sound of the clock chiming on the quarter hour will not be mingling with the cheers of “Ole” from 15,000 fans or the noise of a “wave” going around for the 9th time.  The dancers have finally kicked up our perfectly smooth sand for the last time…The athletes never actually saw perfect sand on center court just on “OUR” warm up courts.  Sue and I walked across the sand on our warm up courts leaving our footprints and taking away many memories of our experience here in the London 2012 Olympic Games and the many new friends that we met.

A lost ball from my court that I finally found...

They all fought hard and their desire for the gold was evident.  We had Prince Harry and Beckham in attendance today.

The match was earlier today so we all headed home somewhat early (11:30 pm).  The boys and friends from Switzerland came over to the flat and we celebrated until after 2 am.  We had 20 people eating pizza and sharing a glass or two. Just finding a seat was a challenge.  We have a venue party today at 3 pm and then off to prepare our courts for the men’s bronze and gold matches.  It is our last day of competition and then we will try to get indoor tickets before we head home.  If we can not, we may try to head south to visit the home of one of our new friends for the weekend where we will watch the closing ceremony.  We think it will take a day or two to clean the flat and pack.

And what an incredible feeling to hear my National Anthem played last night, with TWO American flags on the display!

I have worked 14 matches so far, and had a great time, but I am ready to come home to my beautiful wife, who along with stuffing notes in many parts of my luggage, sent me cards that arrived today, just in time.  For sure I wouldn’t be here without her support.

A bit of an early surprise today, The GB referee arranged a photo shoot for us in our formal gear.  We all arrived, but didn’t know the location.  Turns out it was at 10 Downing Street, the home of Prime Minister David Cameron!  He wasn’t home at the time, but I did get to see him at one of the matches.  Also present yesterday at the Women’s Medal Games were David Beckham ‘football’ star, and Prince Harry. All the famous folks sit in our section, but we don’t really get too close.

All for now, time will tell if I work tonight, on the way home tomorrow, via Miami, and got the upgrade from Miami to Denver.

We do not have to be at the venue at 7 am but can arrive at a leisurely 3 pm for the evening matches.  That sounds amazing but remember the TV wants to show these matches live in the US and China so the last match scheduled for 11 pm London time.  By the time we get home it is near 2 or later.  Our flat mates then cook, eat, clean up and do laundry before they sleep.  Sue and I are already asleep by the time they slow down.  There is another tradition that occurs at the end of these games…every group of workers want to play volleyball on the courts.  So when we get to the venue, we find that the courts are no longer prepared for the day and we get to re rake them before the athletes come.  UGH.  We had a count down for the number of times we had left to rake but we seem to be adding to the count instead of subtracting.  Last night they warned us that the line judges want to play this morning so we did not prepare the courts in the rain.  We will go in early and do it in the light of day and hopefully the sun.

We were able to watch the men’s last matches and were disappointed that both of our teams were defeated.  They played well, but it was not to be this time.  Our women are both in the Gold Medal match today.  We are assured a Gold and Silver!  They both deserve their medal no matter who actually wins.  Misty and Kerry had a tough match against the China.  They played consistently and came back from a five point deficit and slowly put together the win.  Kessy and Ross played their match against the #1 ranked Brazil team in the pouring rain.  It was about 16 degrees C and very cold on the sand.  It was a tremendous effort on their part to come back from a one set defeat and win that match.  It was so exciting.  Everyone here has been very kind and sends us off to center court to watch the USA play.  Our friends would watch Switzerland and/or Germany when they played.  It is getting harder to be able to watch.  At first, we could go up to the top of the stands and watch from the back row.  Now they are getting very tight about security and people in volunteers uniform just standing around.  It is not the look they want for TV.  We can take an empty seat but we have never had a lot of empty seats.  Beach volleyball is a hot ticket.  They now announce to the crowd that it is the number one venue.  I do not know how they judge that detail.  Maybe an exit poll?

Yesterday, I watched a tall blond man walk on my court with a small boy and girl and a volleyball.  I was ready to run out and stop him from tossing the ball over the net to his children when I noticed he had a signed volleyball.  So, I waited.  Yes.  It was the Prime Minister, David Cameron and his children.  No wonder there were so many people standing around just off the court.  I watched him leave the venue and smiled as he popped through his back gate right next to my court.  We always see his police guard with a very big gun back there and speak to them often.  Now I have seen the man himself.

It is difficult to believe that our time in London is coming to a close.  We have had a wonderful time and made some very good friends.  People are amazed to learn we traveled all the way from America to volunteer at our own expense. We smile and think that to be a part of volleyball in America often means you volunteer and work for the sport on your own time and expense.  It is for the love of the sport and the people in our volleyball family that is important.

The time demands of match assignments, meetings, keeping up with the documentation and going back and forth to the arena eventually takes its toll. At other events that last 7-10 days it’s normally not too bad, but when you are here for three weeks and its as intense as the Olympics can be, you feel it. Many of the other officials are showing some signs of fatigue, but everyone is carrying on.

The first stage of the tournament ends today, with the last men’s matches in pool play. The real tournament begins tomorrow with the eliminations: quarters, then semis and finals. USA’s teams have come through the pools in great shape and will have the best seeding for the quarterfinals. The refs are holding up through the tough matches, and now will get to see the pressure switch dialed up a notch. The national technical officials (scorers and line judges) are basically doing a good job, though some of the line judges haven’t seen this high a level of competition and are wilting. The choice of line judges in the elimination rounds will be a little more selective.

One benefit of getting to the elimination rounds is that the schedule changes, with four matches a day instead of six in the quarter finals and only two matches per day in the semis and finals. This should give everyone a chance to rest and recuperate to get ready for the big show.

The atmosphere inside the arena remains really positive. The average attendance has been over 11,000. There is a lot less whistling and booing than there has been at other events and a lot more cheering. There is great representation from a lot of the participating countries, including Poland, Brazil, Russia, China, USA, Germany, Turkey, Bulgaria, Japan and, of course, Great Britain. Most of the yelling has been positive cheering for their own team. It’s nice to see it that way.

Things going pretty good on my side, but lucky enough not to have real strange things happen to me in my matches.  Today I was the first referee for a Women’s quarterfinal, China against Austria.  Pretty straightforward match as far as reffing goes, and no problems.  Tomorrow (Monday) I work the first session, and the only match I can work is Brazil v Poland, as the other match is USA v Latvia and I can’t work the USA matches.  Not sure what position I will be for the Brazil game, I will find out when I get there tomorrow.

Finally getting some free time; matches from now on don’t start until 6pm, so we get to see some stuff.

Yesterday I went with my friend from New Zealand, Sooty Casutt to ride the London Eye.  I think it is London’s version of Da Yoopers tourist trap (Michiganders know what I am talking about).

After today’s match, I was invited to tour the TV truck by a guy named Al that I sat next to on my flight.  Turns out he is the one responsible for all of those super slow motion replays they show during timeouts.  It is a brand new system for these games, and really cool to see how all of that is done.  I got to stay for the whole USA match of Kessy and Ross. It was pretty funny to be in there, because none of those guys know much about volleyball, so I helped explain a bunch of things, and they said I could come hang out anytime I was free.

All for now, 1:30 in the morning so I better get some sleep.