MASON, Ohio -- Dont let the sun and the sand and the beach party atmosphere fool you: An Olympian is an athlete first, even when shes wearing a bikini. Jose Abreu Jersey .While covering beach volleyball at two Summer Games, I heard plenty about the sex appeal of the sport, with the skimpy suits worn by the women attracting most of the attention. I knew there was much more to it, but it wasnt until I got on a court with an Olympic gold medalist that I understood just what makes the sport so difficult: Its the sand itself -- slowing every step, cutting short every jump and conspiring with the beating sun to wear down even the fittest bodies.Or even one belonging to a fortysomething sports writer.During a professional tour event outside Cincinnati this spring, I had a chance to hit the ball around with two-time Olympian and 2008 gold medalist Todd Rogers. Aptly nicknamed The Professor, Rogers is the coach at Cal Poly, where he took over a team that had won one match in each of its previous two seasons and led it to an 11-12 record in his first year.This would prove to be an even bigger challenge.I gave Rogers and his teammate, Robbie Page, a ride over to the practice facility that was the warmup area for players in the AVP Cincinnati Open, the last American stop for the FIVB tour before the close of Olympic qualification. Page, at 7-feet tall, could barely avoid kissing his knees in my midsized rental car.Rogers asked if I had ever played volleyball before, and I told him I had hit the ball around enough to know what I was supposed to do, if not how to do it. But my limited experience in a gym class on a hardwood basketball court did not prepare me to play outdoors, on the sand.Rogers started out by just tossing the ball over the net to me, under-handed, and that proved easy enough; I was able to return a few serves back to him, and pass most others to where my partner would be waiting. Then he stepped back and lofted some easy serves in my direction, and I really figured out what makes the sport so challenging.First there was the movement of the ball, which from a skillful server comes in like a knuckleball in baseball, darting around and confounding any attempt to hit it squarely. The wind also plays a part; many times I thought I had the ball lined up, only to see it drift off course.The hardest part, though, proved to be just moving around.While I lacked the spatial judgment and reaction time of the elite athletes on the courts next to me, even when I correctly determined where to go to hit the ball it just took me too long to get there. I seemed to be moving in slow motion in the 16-inch layer of sand, like in those movies where the sound didnt quite sync up with the actors lips.As Rogers began to speed up his serves -- though still closer to batting practice than full-speed -- more often than not the ball would bounce past me for an ace or, if I was lucky, carom wildly off my increasingly reddening forearms onto a nearby court.On one serve, I didnt even bother. Instead, I watched the ball bounce off the sand a few feet away, turned back to Rogers and said: That was my partners. (This is an old stand-by in beach volleyball, so common it has a name: The husband and wife.)My only problem: I didnt have a partner.Still, Rogers was impressed at how quickly I was picking up the excuses, if not the actual skills.Afterward, he told me some of the things I was doing wrong.Although much of it was due to physical shortcomings, I was also awaiting the serves with my hands together, ready to pass. A pro -- actually, pretty much everyone -- knows that its easier to move with his arms free and only lock them when the ball clears the net. (Young players who make this mistake are often told to run laps around the court with their hands locked, to remind them how much more difficult it is.)I thanked Rogers for the lesson and wished him luck in the tournament. Later that day, I bumped into him back at the venue, where a fan was hoping for a picture with him. I offered to take it.Youre really doing it all, he said, running through the tasks he had witnessed that day: Driver, writer, photographer.And beach volleyball player, too, I reminded him.Nah, he said, better leave that off the list.---Jimmy Golen has covered Olympic beach volleyball for The Associated Press since 2008. You can follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jgolen. Chris Beck Jersey . The Dane followed up his first European Tour title last weekend with eight birdies and just a single dropped shot on Thursday for a one-stroke advantage over South Africas Allan Versfeld and Portugals Ricardo Santos. Bill Melton Jersey . LOUIS -- Valtteri Filppula assisted on three of Tampa Bays four goals, and the Lightning beat the St. http://www.whitesoxteamshop.com/White-So...ez-Kids-Jersey/ . But Bourque, who has missed three games with a lower-body injury, wont be in the lineup when the Habs travel to Buffalo to take on the Sabres on Wednesday. HOUSTON -- With right-hander Collin McHugh producing six scoreless innings on the heels of the scoreless start delivered by rookie right-hander Joe Musgrove the evening before, the Astros might be on the brink of creating the momentum with their starting pitching that theyll need entering a rigorous stretch of their schedule.After completing their three-game series with Oakland on Wednesday, the Astros (70-62) will contest a make-or-break run of 13 games against first-place teams in Texas (away and home), Cleveland (away), and the Chicago Cubs (home). And while the Astros will need help from their inconsistent offense and exceptional bullpen, their rotation will set the pace over the next couple of weeks.Were going to need our starting pitching to pitch well to get where we want to get, Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. Were going to expand rosters in September and bring up a little more velocity and have a couple different options, but the tone has always been set on this team by our starting pitchers. And weve always felt very comfortable with a lead so we all have to work in conjunction. The tone that the starters have been able to set getting into games, we generally win those games.Right-hander Mike Fiers (9-6, 4.40 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Astros in the series finale with Oakland, against whom he has struggled in two starts this season.Fiers, whose last scoreless start came on July 1 against the White Sox, is 0-1 with a 6.74 ERA against the Athletics, having allowed eight runs on 12 hits and three walks with 10 strikeouts over 10 2/3 innings. Fiers is winless in five career starts against Oakland, going 0-2 with a 4. Harold Baines Jersey. .76 ERA.Left-hander Ross Detwiler, selected from Triple-A Nashville on Aug. 10, will make his fifth start for Oakland (57-75). Detwiler (1-3, 5.74 ERA) has allowed 14 runs in 14 innings over three starts, all losses, after tossing eight scoreless innings in his first start with the Athletics. He was traded to Oakland from Cleveland on July 17.Detwiler is 1-0 with a 2.38 ERA in five career appearances (three starts) against Houston. While the Astros are seeking to build momentum through their rotation for a postseason berth, the Athletics are looking toward development, with right-hander Kendall Graveman pitching well yet again despite taking a 3-1 loss Tuesday.Graveman is 9-3 with a 3.36 ERA over his last 17 starts. Entering Tuesday, his eight wins since June 23 were tied for third most in the American League, and while the Astros bested him with a pair of home runs from Colby Rasmus and Evan Gattis, Graveman showed again that he just might be turning a developmental corner.This is a guy that we felt like when we made the trade (with the Blue Jays on Nov. 28, 2014) had a high ceiling, Athletics manager Bob Melvin said. Hes shown spurts similar to the ways hes pitching, maybe not this consistent, but hes really taken ownership of the fact that hes the last of the Mohicans here as far as the starters we have and has really pitched like a guy who wants to pitch in the top of the rotation. His numbers would suggest he has here recently. 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