Beach Sports

There are many sports that are now becoming popular activities at the beach.  There’s beach volleyball, Frisbee or Ultimate, beach football, and even beach tennis.  The beach is no longer just a place to lie around in the sand or to build sand castles in.  It has now become a fitness and sports haven as well.

Beach tennis is a relatively new sport as it was officially formalized as a sport only in new York in the year 2005.  By 2007, the Beach Tennis USA was formed and it became the official organization in charge of standardizing the sport.  

Beach tennis is played in the same court where beach volleyball is played and it uses standard tennis rackets.  The tennis ball used in beach tennis however has significantly less pressure than that of a standard tennis ball.  Beach tennis balls are pressurized at 6 lbs whereas standard tennis balls are pressurized at 12 lbs.  The net used in beach tennis stands at a height of 5 feet and 10 inches.

Scoring in beach tennis is the same as standard tennis i.e. 15-30-40. A score however is immediately made the first time the ball touches the sand, a player is not allowed to hit the ball after 1 bounce such as in standard tennis.  

Beach volleyball is probably the most popular beach sports; it is actually an official team sport in the Olympics. It is very similar to the standard volleyball game with only a few differences. Among these differences, foremost of all is of course the playing surface: beach volleyball is played on sand while standard volleyball is played on a hard, even surface.  Also, beach volleyball is played with only 2 players on each team and the court is smaller than that used in standard volleyball.  Furthermore, the ball used in beach volleyball is bigger, softer, and has less pressure than the ball used in standard volleyball.

There are no substitutions allowed in beach volleyball, the two players on each team get to play the entire game.  During service, the players are required to alternate.  With regard to positions however, they are not required to rotate.

The sport of Beach Frisbee is now officially called “Beach Ultimate” because the term Frisbee is a registered trademark of a toy making company.  This sport was first introduced in the 1960s.

The sport of Beach Ultimate is played similar to a game of football where the object of the game is to get the disc or the Frisbee across the end zone of the opposing team where a team mate can catch it.  An additional caveat is that players are only allowed one of their feet for as long as they are holding the disc.  Teams for Beach ultimate are usually composed of 4-5 players.

Beach soccer is played in a much smaller area than the field where regular soccer is played.  Thus even though the sand is much more uneven than the field, beach soccer usually results in much higher scoring results than regular soccer.  Teams for beach soccer consist of a goal keeper and 4 other players.  They are not allowed to wear shoes during play but leg supports and ankle braces are allowed.  A game is made up of three periods lasting 12 minutes each.

This article is about Beach tennis and beach volleyball and how beach is going to be a popular venue for exercise. For similar articles like this you can visit Fitness Holidays Europe website.