カーリー・ウォパットのインスタグラム(carlywopat) - 5月19日 21時09分

Relentless hearts.

If I had to choose one thing that sets professional beach volleyball athletes apart from the rest of the world, it would be our stubborn hearts. They just don’t give up.

To start with, our lifestyles are uniquely oriented, everything driving in one very narrow direction - towards ultimate success. But on top of that, many of us have to balance families, second jobs, and other odds & ends of life. We don’t have the luxuries that athletes of other sports have; we have to plan our own training, book our own travel, pay for everything out of our own pockets. We are constantly jumping hurdles, climbing barriers, clawing our way through battles to get to where we want to go. The fight never ends.

Come competition, our hearts are on the line; it’s exposing, it’s vulnerable, and when things don’t go our way, it’s heartbreaking. Money, career, & dreams at stake, all preparation or lack thereof put on display, and the ball is in your hands. Not to mention, you’re in the middle of a gladiator-esque sand pit, with hundreds of people watching, while you stand alone apart from one other teammate, close to naked in bathing suits. Talk about exposed.

Sometimes you win and get to experience the pure elation of dreams breathed to life & the grind coming to worth. Sometimes you lose. And you question everything.

Yet we continue to fall in love with another chance to succeed all over again. We fall in love with the dream, hearts break in defeat, we process & grow, and we fall in love again.

We are the crazies, the dreamers, the doers. We endure all kinds of physical pain and push our bodies on the daily, but our true strength lies in what we endure emotionally. Hearts break time and time again, yet we will keep coming back for more. For the love of the game.

#beachvolleyball #professionalathletelife #relentlesshearts #thejourney #thegrind #fortheloveofthegame

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dnewthegiant Only 4 people walk away from tournament day feeling on top. The rest all have something that is obvious they have to work on. Thus- It’s a sport that for the majority of those they must have a love for the nearly unattainable and must have a passion for the game itself to want to keep coming back for more challenges. Other sports the money motive means many other motives are in play. This one almost all players must live and thrive off the challenges.

centerformovementfluency Well said. One of the most, if not the most, mental, physical and emotional sports and the athletes deserve far more recognition and support than they receive. A study was done a few years ago and beach VB athletes were the lowest paid of any team sport! We got to change this!

bpc.loplop so well said, as always... ???? stay strong, keep smiling, etc., etc., (you've chosen a very hard path, but obviously because you're doing what you love, and you're improving at the game all the time - in my very limited opinion that's pretty good going).

williamkennedy65 I'm not quite sure, but sleeping in the sand doesn't seem very comfy..???

ginabob You’re so awesome on the sand, just as you were indoors! ?

1called_haelder @vball_life99. Read this ❤@vball_life99. Read this. ❤

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