Josh Court
Court/Schumann Australian Beach Volleyball Team - Road to Rio Ep. #4
Listen to this Episode:
Background:Josh Court is a Beach Volleyballer and one half of the dynamic duo with Damien Schumann. They are current Australian title holders who are well on their way to representing the green & gold on Copacabana Beach for the big show. They have a few massive competitions on the horizon before then. Josh goes in depth of how Beach Volleyball is played, some of the great places he’s played around the world and also the big fundraising event they have on the horizon.
Background:Josh Court is a Beach Volleyballer and one half of the dynamic duo with Damien Schumann. They are current Australian title holders who are well on their way to representing the green & gold on Copacabana Beach for the big show. They have a few massive competitions on the horizon before then. Josh goes in depth of how Beach Volleyball is played, some of the great places he’s played around the world and also the big fundraising event they have on the horizon.
Linkworthy items from this Episode:
Full Transcript
This was transcribed and therefore might contain a few typos. With some long episodes, it's difficult to catch some minor errors. Enjoy!
Abid Imam: Firstly, thanks for joining me Josh. You are a volleyball player with Damien Schumann. Would you please start off by telling us where it all started for you in beach volleyball?
Josh Court: It all began back in Western Australia, where I was at Aquinas College, Salter Point and I was a rower back at school. It was a big rowing school and that was the thing. It wasn’t until a little bit later than most, say in year 12 where I probably got a little bit sick of rowing and a lot of my friends at the time were playing indoor volleyball. I thought, alright, sounds like fun you know. We only have to train once a week. We play the game for one hour too on the weekend. You got the rest of the week to hang out with your mates and, you know, enjoy the last year of school. So, I made the changeover and our coach at the time, Paul Prindiville was one of the state coaches for indoor. He saw me as a tall skinny kid walk in and thought, he might be alright. I had a little bit of coordination. I used to play the drums so, I could kind of get my hands and feet where they needed to be. Yeah, it just took off. My love for volleyball just stemmed from there and it wasn’t until about two or three years later when I jumped on to the beach and I haven’t looked back. Abid Imam: Throughout this Road to Rio series, we are looking at a variety of sports to educate ourselves. Can you paint a picture of beach volleyball and some of the vital rules that novices, beginners should know?
Josh Court: Beach volleyball is very different to indoor volleyball. Beach volleyball is played on a court 8m x 8m. The net height is the same and there’s only two players on the court for beach volleyball. Usually in the team, you’ll have one blocker and one defender. I am the blocker in the team and Damien is the dedicated defender. You’re only allowed three contacts. Usually a dig, set, spike sort of situation but you don’t have to use all three contacts either. I’ll kind of head up to the net, make my blocking move and he’ll try to dig the ball if it gets past me. But apart from that, it’s just whoever can get the ball to hit the sand and that’s all there is (laughs)
Abid Imam: So, really is the blocking position advantageous if you’re taller?
Josh Court: Certainly is. There’s not one stereotypical style of player or, you know, height of player that plays any particular position, but traditionally the blocker is definitely taller. Damien and I are a slightly different team. Were a little bit shorter than the norm. Usually, blockers kind of around the world, are somewhere between 6 ft 5 and 6 ft 8 or 9. Defenders are usually 6 ft 2, 6 ft 3. Damien is actually 6 ft tall and I am 6 ft 3. We’re a slightly shorter team, but we make it work.
Abid Imam: You mentioned Damien Schumann there, who is your partner/team mate. How did you link up with him?
Josh Court: That’s a good story in itself. I moved to Melbourne, Victoria about three years ago and I moved in with his family for about 6-8 months. They took me in and I found my feet, got a job and a car and a few things. At the time, Damien’s partner, Owen had some back issues. So, you know, he wasn’t training. My partner at the time was away working. Damien and I found ourselves training together quite a lot. It was in late 2014 we played our first world tour event together over in China and made the main draw, which is the top 32 teams in the world and found ourselves doing quite well over there. It wasn’t until we were on the plane on the way home and we decided that it was a good idea that we play with each other as we had a little bit of instant success and our two volleyball partners were, you know, one was injured, one was away and we thought this just might be the direction to go.
Abid Imam: It’s amazing how things work out like that. Just going back on the rules, how do you win a match of beach volleyball? What’s the set structure like?
Josh Court: So, the set structure is best of three sets. The first two sets are first to 21 points and the third set is first to 15 points. In all three sets, you need to win by two points each set. There’s no drawing of matches or anything like that. You’ve just got to win by two, once you get to 21. You get one time-out per team. Usually in the higher grade matches, you’ll have a technical time-out as well.
Abid Imam: Thanks for providing that picture for us. If we can look into the training you do, what does your typical week look like?
Josh Court: It’s been quite busy at the moment with the Australian national tour. A traditional week, we try to get on the sand as much as possible around work and, you know, living in two different places. Usually we aim to do about 6 hours a day, 6 days a week. That’s a mixture of some sand training, skill work, work in the gym and also just some cardio fitness work with our coach.
Abid Imam: Are there any exercises and strength areas you particularly emphasise to improve your performance?
Josh Court: Absolutely, beach volleyball, being on the sand, you know it’s a lot of hard running and resistance in the sand so we do a lot of leg work and a lot of cardio in the sand I suppose is the main one because some of these matches, the longer they go it becomes a bit more of a physical battle and a mental battle and it’s whoever can last the longest running around on the sand. So, we spend a lot of time in the sand training and doing our fitness work.
Abid Imam: Something you really appreciate after interviewing a lot of athletes on this Road To Rio series is the support team behind the scenes that make it happen for you guys. Can you take us in to some of the people who are really key in your preparations?
Josh Court: Yeah, we’ve had many different people come in and out in the last couple of years. Both of our families have been right behind us. Beach volleyball is not a big sport in Australia but it’s certainly growing. Both of our families have helped us put on fundraisers, being there late at night making dinner, washing clothes, however they can support us from home. Our coach Hayden Ellis has been a massive support. He’s done a great job on and off the court. He’s also a bone therapist so he helps us with any injuries, any dietary requirements that we might have. He goes and tests the waters and lets us know what’s good and what works.We’ve also got a fundraiser coming up in May back in Western Australia and we’ve got a little fundraising committee that’s been put together by my sister, my mum, my aunty, a few work colleagues who are in marketing for Stocklands and a good family friend of ours whose a jazz singer, who does perform on the night. So, we’ve got a little myriad of people helping us behind the scenes that not many people know about.
Abid Imam: Fantastic. One thing I really love seeing is the sneaky sign language between beach volleyballers when they communicate with each other. Do you have your own sophisticated code or do players have a pretty similar set of signs?
Josh Court: It is a reasonably similar set of signs. Usually, I think 9 times out of 10, players like to have one hand as a position on court, we cut the court up into 6 different spots. And then the other hand will position what the blocker is going to block. Whether it’s cross or line, whether they’re going to step out line and then jump into the cross. Then other teams will have two hands which indicate each player on the other side of the court and what they’re going to block on each one of those players.
Abid Imam: We all love our cricket and the tennis. You see the fast bowling and serves. How fast does a serve go in beach volleyball?
Josh Court: I think, on average, we’re looking at somewhere between 100-110km per hour for a jump serve. I think the fastest recorded beach volleyball serve is around 150km per hour. So, it gets fast. You know, there’s different varieties of serve on the beach because of the nature of the ball. You can’t get a cricket ball or a tennis ball to float and move around, whereas a beach volleyball is a little bit bigger and softer so we can get a bit more movement. Having a slower ball in there with no spin can put a little bit of pressure on the other team. So, it’s not all about speed.
Abid Imam: That’s surprisingly quick, I didn’t expect 150km, that’s got a lot of venom on that. Respect! Looking at Rio 2016, how do you qualify? What’s the landscape competitively here in Australia and what sort of competition hoops do you need to jump through to get there?
Josh Court: So, at a regular beach volleyball event, we’re looking at a 32 team main draw, but for beach volleyball in the Olympics, there’s only 24 teams that qualify around the world for the Olympics. It’s a slightly different qualification process. You’ve got the top 16 teams in the world, which comes down to world tour ranking points, will make up the top 16 at the Olympics. Then there’s 8 more spots up for grabs around the world. Then the world is broken into continental zones and you have, essentially a playoff within your zone for one spot. Australia is in a reasonably good position at the moment. We got a few really strong teams working hard. Our continental cup finals are actually in Australia. The top 8 teams in Asia will be playing off for that one spot. I think Australia is the top seeded country at that event which will be a great advantage.
Abid Imam: Awesome, whereabouts will that be in Australia?
Josh Court: I don’t think it’s been announced yet but I have a feeling it might be up in Cairns in Queensland which will be nice and warm because the event is being played in June. If it was in Melbourne, it would be a little bit chilly I think.
Abid Imam: You mentioned Cairns there and I imagine you would have some awesome offices to play in. I call them offices because that’s your work spot. You travel quite a bit around the world. Where do you particularly love playing? What are your favourite beaches and arenas that you’ve had experience on?
Josh Court: Umm, there’s been a lot (laughs). Thailand is fantastic. The people there are so humble and welcoming for visitors to their country. Quite often we’ll play on a beach that’s not in the middle of the hustle and bustle like Phuket or somewhere there. We’re a little bit more secluded and we’re on a nice little hotel resort. The beach we play on is right on the resort beach and really quite beautiful. Other places, we’ve been to Turkey, down in Antalya and the beach down there is not really a beach I suppose. It’s more just pebbles, but they bring sand in so we can play on the sand there. That was amazingly picturesque with mountains in the background. I don’t think many beaches beat Australia. We’re pretty spoilt for choice here so, playing around Australia is still one of my favourite places to be.
Abid Imam: At London 2012, the Germans became the first European pair to win Olympic gold in beach volleyball. Give us a bit of an insight into some of the other powerful countries that produce competitive beach volleyballers.
Josh Court: Well, currently I think Brazil are sitting on top of the world rankings and they’ve been a powerhouse for the last few years. They won the world championships last year. On top of that, you’re looking at countries like the USA. Europe’s really made a big push in the last few years with their top teams. They’re really coming to the surface as well. Beach volleyball is one of the biggest sports in Europe, aside from soccer. Everyone really gets behind the beach volleyball and indoor volleyball in Europe. You know, there’s been a couple of other countries popping up around the place. New Zealand has got a really good team at the moment, they’re going well. We’ve got a few new Asian teams that are really starting to push the levels, Japan, China, Kazakhstan, even Iran getting some really good players come up through. This is good because it means the Asian tournament which we play in is getting stronger. You know, it means we’ve got to work harder for that Olympic spot.
Abid Imam: That’s where you’re off to tonight, you’re off to Thailand. Is that competing against some of those nations you mentioned?
Josh Court: That’s exactly right, we have Thailand this evening and it’s just all the teams and countries within the Asian continental zone. There’re roughly 12 to 15 countries representing in the Asian tour we’re about to play in. There’ll be a lot on the line for these next couple of events because it’s good practice against these teams before the continental cup coming up in June.
Abid Imam: A couple more questions left. Rio and beach volleyball go hand in hand. Your sport will be contested on the legendary Copacabana Beach. Have you been there before for any competitions?
Josh Court: No, I haven’t. I only ever stopped in Brazil very briefly and we had to stay on the plane on the way to Argentina. I only ever looked at Brazil through a little square window on the place. That’s as close as I’ve been (laughs).
Abid Imam: I can tell you, it’s pretty amazing and to see the arena they’re planning to have on the beach, it’s really exciting. I’ve heard it’s actually the most in-demand ticketed event at the Olympics, the beach volleyball so it’s going to be big. Tell us a little bit about the event you have one the horizon, the black-tie fundraiser. How can fans help you get to Rio through that event?
Josh Court: We’ve got a lot of beach volleyball events to play between now and then, even beyond that. You know, our goal is to get to the Olympics, but we also want to be full-time athletes. To get there in our line of sport, we need to have a lot of funding behind us to give us that kick start we need. We have a fundraiser coming up on the 20 May at the UWA Club. It’s really exciting. It’s the biggest fundraiser we’ve put on yet. We’re looking to sell 200 tickets. It’s $160 a ticket, but includes a three-course meal, drinks package, we’re going to have plenty of door prizes, silent auctions. We’ve got entertainment on the night. We’ve got a jazz singer coming in for us to do a couple of sets. We’ll have a dancefloor going. Plenty of entertainment and you’ll even get to hear about our journey. Where we’ve come from, what’s happening with the Olympics, everything leading up and even beyond. Where we’re heading into the future. You know, it’s an exciting part of being an athlete is sharing our story with with everyone and letting them know where we’re going.
Abid Imam: Josh it’s been a pleasure to speak to you. All the best to you and Damien on the Road to Rio. Have a great day and thcau as they say in Brazil.
Josh Court: Beautiful, thank you very much mate.
Josh Court: It all began back in Western Australia, where I was at Aquinas College, Salter Point and I was a rower back at school. It was a big rowing school and that was the thing. It wasn’t until a little bit later than most, say in year 12 where I probably got a little bit sick of rowing and a lot of my friends at the time were playing indoor volleyball. I thought, alright, sounds like fun you know. We only have to train once a week. We play the game for one hour too on the weekend. You got the rest of the week to hang out with your mates and, you know, enjoy the last year of school. So, I made the changeover and our coach at the time, Paul Prindiville was one of the state coaches for indoor. He saw me as a tall skinny kid walk in and thought, he might be alright. I had a little bit of coordination. I used to play the drums so, I could kind of get my hands and feet where they needed to be. Yeah, it just took off. My love for volleyball just stemmed from there and it wasn’t until about two or three years later when I jumped on to the beach and I haven’t looked back. Abid Imam: Throughout this Road to Rio series, we are looking at a variety of sports to educate ourselves. Can you paint a picture of beach volleyball and some of the vital rules that novices, beginners should know?
Josh Court: Beach volleyball is very different to indoor volleyball. Beach volleyball is played on a court 8m x 8m. The net height is the same and there’s only two players on the court for beach volleyball. Usually in the team, you’ll have one blocker and one defender. I am the blocker in the team and Damien is the dedicated defender. You’re only allowed three contacts. Usually a dig, set, spike sort of situation but you don’t have to use all three contacts either. I’ll kind of head up to the net, make my blocking move and he’ll try to dig the ball if it gets past me. But apart from that, it’s just whoever can get the ball to hit the sand and that’s all there is (laughs)
Abid Imam: So, really is the blocking position advantageous if you’re taller?
Josh Court: Certainly is. There’s not one stereotypical style of player or, you know, height of player that plays any particular position, but traditionally the blocker is definitely taller. Damien and I are a slightly different team. Were a little bit shorter than the norm. Usually, blockers kind of around the world, are somewhere between 6 ft 5 and 6 ft 8 or 9. Defenders are usually 6 ft 2, 6 ft 3. Damien is actually 6 ft tall and I am 6 ft 3. We’re a slightly shorter team, but we make it work.
Abid Imam: You mentioned Damien Schumann there, who is your partner/team mate. How did you link up with him?
Josh Court: That’s a good story in itself. I moved to Melbourne, Victoria about three years ago and I moved in with his family for about 6-8 months. They took me in and I found my feet, got a job and a car and a few things. At the time, Damien’s partner, Owen had some back issues. So, you know, he wasn’t training. My partner at the time was away working. Damien and I found ourselves training together quite a lot. It was in late 2014 we played our first world tour event together over in China and made the main draw, which is the top 32 teams in the world and found ourselves doing quite well over there. It wasn’t until we were on the plane on the way home and we decided that it was a good idea that we play with each other as we had a little bit of instant success and our two volleyball partners were, you know, one was injured, one was away and we thought this just might be the direction to go.
Abid Imam: It’s amazing how things work out like that. Just going back on the rules, how do you win a match of beach volleyball? What’s the set structure like?
Josh Court: So, the set structure is best of three sets. The first two sets are first to 21 points and the third set is first to 15 points. In all three sets, you need to win by two points each set. There’s no drawing of matches or anything like that. You’ve just got to win by two, once you get to 21. You get one time-out per team. Usually in the higher grade matches, you’ll have a technical time-out as well.
Abid Imam: Thanks for providing that picture for us. If we can look into the training you do, what does your typical week look like?
Josh Court: It’s been quite busy at the moment with the Australian national tour. A traditional week, we try to get on the sand as much as possible around work and, you know, living in two different places. Usually we aim to do about 6 hours a day, 6 days a week. That’s a mixture of some sand training, skill work, work in the gym and also just some cardio fitness work with our coach.
Abid Imam: Are there any exercises and strength areas you particularly emphasise to improve your performance?
Josh Court: Absolutely, beach volleyball, being on the sand, you know it’s a lot of hard running and resistance in the sand so we do a lot of leg work and a lot of cardio in the sand I suppose is the main one because some of these matches, the longer they go it becomes a bit more of a physical battle and a mental battle and it’s whoever can last the longest running around on the sand. So, we spend a lot of time in the sand training and doing our fitness work.
Abid Imam: Something you really appreciate after interviewing a lot of athletes on this Road To Rio series is the support team behind the scenes that make it happen for you guys. Can you take us in to some of the people who are really key in your preparations?
Josh Court: Yeah, we’ve had many different people come in and out in the last couple of years. Both of our families have been right behind us. Beach volleyball is not a big sport in Australia but it’s certainly growing. Both of our families have helped us put on fundraisers, being there late at night making dinner, washing clothes, however they can support us from home. Our coach Hayden Ellis has been a massive support. He’s done a great job on and off the court. He’s also a bone therapist so he helps us with any injuries, any dietary requirements that we might have. He goes and tests the waters and lets us know what’s good and what works.We’ve also got a fundraiser coming up in May back in Western Australia and we’ve got a little fundraising committee that’s been put together by my sister, my mum, my aunty, a few work colleagues who are in marketing for Stocklands and a good family friend of ours whose a jazz singer, who does perform on the night. So, we’ve got a little myriad of people helping us behind the scenes that not many people know about.
Abid Imam: Fantastic. One thing I really love seeing is the sneaky sign language between beach volleyballers when they communicate with each other. Do you have your own sophisticated code or do players have a pretty similar set of signs?
Josh Court: It is a reasonably similar set of signs. Usually, I think 9 times out of 10, players like to have one hand as a position on court, we cut the court up into 6 different spots. And then the other hand will position what the blocker is going to block. Whether it’s cross or line, whether they’re going to step out line and then jump into the cross. Then other teams will have two hands which indicate each player on the other side of the court and what they’re going to block on each one of those players.
Abid Imam: We all love our cricket and the tennis. You see the fast bowling and serves. How fast does a serve go in beach volleyball?
Josh Court: I think, on average, we’re looking at somewhere between 100-110km per hour for a jump serve. I think the fastest recorded beach volleyball serve is around 150km per hour. So, it gets fast. You know, there’s different varieties of serve on the beach because of the nature of the ball. You can’t get a cricket ball or a tennis ball to float and move around, whereas a beach volleyball is a little bit bigger and softer so we can get a bit more movement. Having a slower ball in there with no spin can put a little bit of pressure on the other team. So, it’s not all about speed.
Abid Imam: That’s surprisingly quick, I didn’t expect 150km, that’s got a lot of venom on that. Respect! Looking at Rio 2016, how do you qualify? What’s the landscape competitively here in Australia and what sort of competition hoops do you need to jump through to get there?
Josh Court: So, at a regular beach volleyball event, we’re looking at a 32 team main draw, but for beach volleyball in the Olympics, there’s only 24 teams that qualify around the world for the Olympics. It’s a slightly different qualification process. You’ve got the top 16 teams in the world, which comes down to world tour ranking points, will make up the top 16 at the Olympics. Then there’s 8 more spots up for grabs around the world. Then the world is broken into continental zones and you have, essentially a playoff within your zone for one spot. Australia is in a reasonably good position at the moment. We got a few really strong teams working hard. Our continental cup finals are actually in Australia. The top 8 teams in Asia will be playing off for that one spot. I think Australia is the top seeded country at that event which will be a great advantage.
Abid Imam: Awesome, whereabouts will that be in Australia?
Josh Court: I don’t think it’s been announced yet but I have a feeling it might be up in Cairns in Queensland which will be nice and warm because the event is being played in June. If it was in Melbourne, it would be a little bit chilly I think.
Abid Imam: You mentioned Cairns there and I imagine you would have some awesome offices to play in. I call them offices because that’s your work spot. You travel quite a bit around the world. Where do you particularly love playing? What are your favourite beaches and arenas that you’ve had experience on?
Josh Court: Umm, there’s been a lot (laughs). Thailand is fantastic. The people there are so humble and welcoming for visitors to their country. Quite often we’ll play on a beach that’s not in the middle of the hustle and bustle like Phuket or somewhere there. We’re a little bit more secluded and we’re on a nice little hotel resort. The beach we play on is right on the resort beach and really quite beautiful. Other places, we’ve been to Turkey, down in Antalya and the beach down there is not really a beach I suppose. It’s more just pebbles, but they bring sand in so we can play on the sand there. That was amazingly picturesque with mountains in the background. I don’t think many beaches beat Australia. We’re pretty spoilt for choice here so, playing around Australia is still one of my favourite places to be.
Abid Imam: At London 2012, the Germans became the first European pair to win Olympic gold in beach volleyball. Give us a bit of an insight into some of the other powerful countries that produce competitive beach volleyballers.
Josh Court: Well, currently I think Brazil are sitting on top of the world rankings and they’ve been a powerhouse for the last few years. They won the world championships last year. On top of that, you’re looking at countries like the USA. Europe’s really made a big push in the last few years with their top teams. They’re really coming to the surface as well. Beach volleyball is one of the biggest sports in Europe, aside from soccer. Everyone really gets behind the beach volleyball and indoor volleyball in Europe. You know, there’s been a couple of other countries popping up around the place. New Zealand has got a really good team at the moment, they’re going well. We’ve got a few new Asian teams that are really starting to push the levels, Japan, China, Kazakhstan, even Iran getting some really good players come up through. This is good because it means the Asian tournament which we play in is getting stronger. You know, it means we’ve got to work harder for that Olympic spot.
Abid Imam: That’s where you’re off to tonight, you’re off to Thailand. Is that competing against some of those nations you mentioned?
Josh Court: That’s exactly right, we have Thailand this evening and it’s just all the teams and countries within the Asian continental zone. There’re roughly 12 to 15 countries representing in the Asian tour we’re about to play in. There’ll be a lot on the line for these next couple of events because it’s good practice against these teams before the continental cup coming up in June.
Abid Imam: A couple more questions left. Rio and beach volleyball go hand in hand. Your sport will be contested on the legendary Copacabana Beach. Have you been there before for any competitions?
Josh Court: No, I haven’t. I only ever stopped in Brazil very briefly and we had to stay on the plane on the way to Argentina. I only ever looked at Brazil through a little square window on the place. That’s as close as I’ve been (laughs).
Abid Imam: I can tell you, it’s pretty amazing and to see the arena they’re planning to have on the beach, it’s really exciting. I’ve heard it’s actually the most in-demand ticketed event at the Olympics, the beach volleyball so it’s going to be big. Tell us a little bit about the event you have one the horizon, the black-tie fundraiser. How can fans help you get to Rio through that event?
Josh Court: We’ve got a lot of beach volleyball events to play between now and then, even beyond that. You know, our goal is to get to the Olympics, but we also want to be full-time athletes. To get there in our line of sport, we need to have a lot of funding behind us to give us that kick start we need. We have a fundraiser coming up on the 20 May at the UWA Club. It’s really exciting. It’s the biggest fundraiser we’ve put on yet. We’re looking to sell 200 tickets. It’s $160 a ticket, but includes a three-course meal, drinks package, we’re going to have plenty of door prizes, silent auctions. We’ve got entertainment on the night. We’ve got a jazz singer coming in for us to do a couple of sets. We’ll have a dancefloor going. Plenty of entertainment and you’ll even get to hear about our journey. Where we’ve come from, what’s happening with the Olympics, everything leading up and even beyond. Where we’re heading into the future. You know, it’s an exciting part of being an athlete is sharing our story with with everyone and letting them know where we’re going.
Abid Imam: Josh it’s been a pleasure to speak to you. All the best to you and Damien on the Road to Rio. Have a great day and thcau as they say in Brazil.
Josh Court: Beautiful, thank you very much mate.