The other “I” word…

Inspiration.

To inspire…

• To affect, guide, or arouse by divine influence
• To fill with enlivening or exalting emotion
• To stimulate to action; to motivate
• To affect or touch
• To draw forth; elicit or arouse.
• To be the cause or source of; bring about.
• To stimulate energies, ideals, or reverence
• To breathe life into

 

I’m not going to lie – I never have been so inspired by reading the dictionary.  Above is a list of the many definitions of what it means to inspire.  In my first post, I wrote about imagination – such a powerful tool.  But just as powerful and simultaneously as important is inspiration.  When I posted my first blog for this site, there were so many that were quick to reach out, encourage me and also let me know what it meant to them to read what I had wrote.  I have been writing my whole life – it is one of my greatest passions, but it is never an easy thing to pour your heart out onto a page for all to see.  So the response that I received was just that to me, inspiring.  Thank you to all of you who took the time to let me know your thoughts – means the world to me.

Of course it got my wheels turning about what it means to inspire and be inspired.  Some things that come to mind…

• A song that makes my heart do cartwheels
• Uncompromising Faith
• Nature – all of it, so complex and magnificent
• A teacher who puts their all into each and every student, everyday
• All who work diligently at thankless jobs to provide for a better life for their family
• A child saying an excited “hello” to the homeless man on the street.
• A Peace Corp worker who dedicates years of her life to help a small village in West Africa
• Precious moments with Family
• A heartfelt poem that leaves me wanting more
• A good book that leaves my thoughts racing
• A mother who sacrifices everything for the good of her child.
• The miracle of life itself and its endless intricacies
• An athlete that rises above all challenges to achieve their dreams and does so with unmatched humility and grace.
• The coach that spends countless, unrecognized hours building these great athletes
• Most of all, Love – raw, unconditional, unreasonable, crazy love.

These are just a few of the things that inspire me, I could go on forever, but I think you get the point.  Another thing that inspires not only me, but billions of people world-wide, is happening this summer – the Olympics.  I get excited just seeing the commercials – there is nothing like watching people put it all on the line, everything they have worked for, years and years of time dedicated to training, sweat and tears spent, all brought to climax in one moment – simply invigorating.  The Olympics are a genuine symbol of what it means put your all into something you love, without hesitation; to me there is no greater inspiration.

Speaking specifically about beach volleyball and the Olympics, we had an amazing race take place for the men’s #2 spot between the teams of Matt Fuerbringer /Nick Lucena and Sean Rosenthal /Jake Gibb. The process to qualify for the 2012 Olympics in Beach Volleyball is a long and arduous one.  To try to sum it up as simply as possible, athletes who desire to qualify for the Olympics in beach volleyball this time around must be ranked in the top 16 in the World rankings, in which points are determined by your top 12 FIVB (Federation of International Volleyball) finishes.  However, only the top 2 teams from each country are allowed to go.  Therefore, teams hoping to qualify for the Olympics must travel on and play on the FIVB Tour for multiple years at a time to improve their ranking and work toward the goal of qualifying.

These two teams started off the 2012 qualifying season separated by a mere 60 points, with Fuerbringer and Lucena leading.  Both teams flip-flopped having the lead and at one point throughout the race were even tied.  And it came down to the last qualifying tournament to determine who would go.  We saw such heart exemplified by both teams with Sean and Jake pulling off a Grand Slam victory to secure their spot as the #2 team to represent the US.

Talk about inspiration – a huge congratulations to both teams for showing us all what it means to fight for what you love – lay it all on the line and not give up until the bittersweet end.

We couldn’t have written a more exciting story and some more exciting info about beach volleyball and the Olympics that you may or may not know  – volleyball was recognized after Athens 2004 as one of the most popular Olympic sports on television, with 3.5 billion viewer hours according to official figures reported by the International Olympic Committee.  Even further, 47.2 Million people in the USA watched Todd Rogers/Phil Dalhausser and Kerri Walsh/Misty-May Treanor captured gold medals at 2008 Beijing Games.*  It was kind of a big deal.

 

And, just to give you a quick snapshot of how many volleyball peeps there are out there:

• 1.1 Billion participants worldwide
• 13.5 Million participants in the USA
• 7 Million indoor, 8.5 Million outdoor
• 173,000+ Volleyball Club teams
• 16,000+ High-School Varsity teams*

In 2010, 17 Million Americans participated in outdoor volleyball activities.*  Such a large figure is no surprise, I mean, can you think of a more social and inviting sport?

Many of the responses I received from my first blog post were from people who are as in love with this sport as I am – it was fantastic to hear each one of these passionate responses.

So the question is, for me and so many others, how is it with all of what I listed above that in the US, the sport of beach volleyball is barely keeping its head above water and its athletes struggle on a day by day basis to make ends meet?  We have some of the finest athletes in the sport worldwide – gold medalists on both sides from the last Olympics and all.  To me and to many others, this is quite a tragedy.

Those of us closely involved know that the sport of beach volleyball within the US has been in a bit of a crisis.  The AVP collapsed at the end of the summer of 2010, but the sport had been in turmoil far before this tragic fall.  What can I say, when you build your house on a foundation of sand, well, you know how the story goes.  The AVP was recently acquired this year by Kingston Executive Donald Sun and very recently announced news of their return with 2 events in 2012 and more to come in 2013, so we are hoping for the best.

Like I said, after I received so many heartfelt responses from just a simple blog post, I myself was inspired.  I have been dying to figure out a way that I can make a significant impact in helping revive this great sport and all of you with your responses have inspired me to take action in ways that I know how and try to make a difference.

Even further, there were many of you that responded to me on a deeper lever, just telling me that hearing a small amount of my story was motivating and again, in turn this was motivating to me.  In my life, one of the principles I try to live by is – no matter what it is that I chose to do – that I do it with all of my heart.  I have always wanted to find an impactful way to use any success that I have received in my life to give back, to make a difference in the lives of others and reach out to those less fortunate than myself.

All of you have inspired me to make a difference, both in the sport that I love and in the lives of those that I meet on this journey.  I have already been making some great headway on this objective and have met some fantastvisionaries who have similar desires – to create a positive change in sport and in life.

So, I have decided to take action in ways that I can to raise awareness about how great the sport of beach volleyball really is and how amazing the athletes’ are as well.   The athletes that participate in this sport are more than just athletes – many work fulltime jobs while trying to travel, train and play and there are also many that are engaged in making a difference not only in their sport, but in the world around them.

So, in effort to highlight the sport and these athletes, I am putting together a small tour/campaign that will sponsor several athletes and will include a wrapped RV that will follow these athletes along their journey as they travel to tournaments on the circuit. This tour/campaign will be present at many events come 2013. The athletes will be followed by a film crew in order to feature the athlete’s life in the midst of competition. The video footage will illuminate the road-tripping experience of the featured Professional Beach volleyball players and all that is involved in training, traveling across the country and of course some fun behind the scenes extras.  Footage will be distributed through the sponsoring websites, social media sites and all athlete websites.

The unique element to this campaign is that we will be partnering with two amazing organizations called PlayHard GiveBack and Think Kindness.

Play Hard Give Back is an organization that sponsors and supports GAME CHANGERS – here is their mission statement: PlayHard Giveback has aligned itself with exceptional people, who happen to be outstanding athletes in order to positively influence world.  We base ourselves on a Social Profit model, which is a fancy way of saying dollars earned go back to our communities with the leadership of an athlete role model.  These athlete role models have goals bigger than their own and they are committed to making a difference, utilizing their fitness of mind, body and passion to elevate more than themselves. Yes, you guessed it – Our athletes Play Hard and Give Back.  Our commitment is that every dollar that goes to our athletes has a buddy-dollar that gets put towards their social cause or project.  Check them out at http://www.playhardgiveback.com/.

Think Kindness  is a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring measurable acts of Kindness in schools and communities around the world.  Each year the organization inspires over 65,000 students to compete to see who can make the biggest difference in the world in 15 Days! They have been working hard and campaigning all across the country to try to get anyone and everyone to shift their focus – to carry out random acts of kindness for total strangers, make this a part of their every-day life and inspire others to do the same.  The organization also carries out Global Acts of Kindness throughout the world and their Kindness Crew takes to the streets to make their individual communities a better place. . . all through simple kind acts – you can check them out here: http://www.thinkkindness.org/

These two partnering organizations, Think Kindness and PlayHard GiveBack, will provide each participating team memeber or the tour/campaign with $100 and Kindness Cards at the beginning of every week. The touring teams will use the $100 to fund random acts of kindness to strangers in need as they tour across America. Following each act of kindness, teams will leave behind a Kindness Card. These cards allow the recipient to go online, enter the card’s ID, and follow every act of kindness associated with the card  and see where the card has been, sort of an online pay it forward system if you will.

This tour/campaign is bringing on many different partners and sponsors as we speak, but one of our first partners to come on board in full support of the effort is The Ultimate Yogi and we are incredibly excited to have them on board!  The Ultimate Yogi is a comprehensive yoga DVD set that provides 14 Thematic Yoga classes comprised of creative sequences that will challenge the expert and encourage the beginner; The Ultimate Yogi provides the full at home Yoga solution.  Check them out at http://www.theultimateyogi.com/.

So stay tuned as I will continue to provide updates via all of my sites – www.laryssabeachvolleyball.com, www.facebook.com/laryssaprofessionalbeachvolleyball.com (if you can like my page, that would be super) follow me @LaryssaAnnM for you tweeters –  and I will have more info to share about this effort in the spring of 2013!

 

 

*Research in this post conducted by independent 3rd party SMRI