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.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. Wholesale NFL Jerseys . The incident occurred at 19:56 of the second period of the Kings 4-2 road win over Edmonton on Sunday. Nolan punched Oilers forward Jesse Joensuu in the jaw in front of the Kings goal during a scrum. Cheap Authentic Cam Newton Super Bowl Womens Jersey . The Olympic champion curler and TSN curling analyst immediately went online to look at the Halls long list of honoured members. Thats when the enormity of the honour sunk in. http://www.cheapsjerseys.com/ . Darren Helm scored on Detroits sixth attempt in the shootout and then Jonas Gustavsson stopped Andrew Shaws shot, lifting the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. Wholesale NFL Jerseys Online . With the first unit struggling of late and Amir Johnson - one of the teams iron men - hobbling on an injured right ankle, Patterson knew he could get the nod in a challenging matchup against one of the leagues up and coming players at his position. Cheap NFL Jerseys China . -- Stanford squashed Oregons national championship hopes again, schooling the Ducks in power football. Which Test bowler called his quicker ball Mill Reef? asked Daniel Cooper from England I wouldnt have known this one but for a chance conversation with Yajurvindra Singh, the former Indian middle-order batsman perhaps best known for taking seven catches - equalling the Test record at the time - on his debut against England in Bangalore in 1976-77. Reminiscing about Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, he recalled: Another delivery was what he called Mill Reef, after the Derby horse. That was his quicker one - he bowled John Edrich with it at The Oval in 1971. The next ball was the dreaded fast, rising googly - the hardest delivery of his to face, I always thought - to Keith Fletcher, who was caught at short leg. Chandrasekhar was on his way to figures of 6 for 38 as India closed in on their first Test victory on English soil. Mill Reef (the horse) had won the Epsom Derby earlier in 1971, and a few months later came home first in the prestigious Prix de lArc de Triomphe in Paris as well.How many people have been out for 199 in a Test, as KL Rahul was in Chennai? asked Hemant Karmarkar from India The Indian opener KL Rahuls dismissal for 199 against England in Chennai on Sunday was the ninth instance of this in all Tests, all of them since October 1984, when Pakistans Mudassar Nazar was caught behind against India in Faisalabad. The next one - and the only other Indian to be out for 199 - was Mohammad Azharuddin, against Sri Lanka in Kanpur in 1986-87. Since then it also happened to Matthew Elliott (1997), Sanath Jayasuriya (1997-98), Steve Waugh (1998-99), Younis Khan (2005-06), Ian Bell (2008) and Steven Smith (2015). Neither Azharuddin nor Elliott ever did make a Test double-century. Andy Flower (for Zimbabwe against South Africa in Harare in 2001-02) and Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka v Pakistan in Galle in 2012) have both been left stranded on 199 not out.At Chennai, Parthiv Patel kept wicket for 157.2 overs and then came straight back out to open the batting. Was this a record? asked Rahul Yadav from IndiaParthiv Patels impressive effort in the final Test against England in Chennai turns out to be some way short of this particular record. In the third Test against New Zealand in Cape Town in 1953-54, South Africas John Waite kept wicket for 165.3 overs then came out to open. And those were eight-ball overs, so he was behind the stumps for 1323 deliveries to Parthivs 944. But Parthiv did much better in one respect: he grafted to 71, while Waite was out for 8.I noticed that Dan Vettori took 116 Test wickets while he was captain. Is this a record for (a) New Zealand, and (b) everyone? asked James Morton from New Zealand Daniel Vettoris 116 wickets while captain is a record for New Zealand - next comes John Reid, with 54 - but hes only fourth overall. One wicket in front is Garry Sobers, with 117 from 39 matches in charge, while Richie Benaud took 138 in 28. But top of the list is Imran Khan, whose 48 Tests as Pakistans captain brought him 187 wickets. There are four others with more than 100 wickets as skipper: Kapil Dev (111), Wasim Akram (107), Bishan Bedi (106) and Shaun Pollock (103). Akram leads the way in ODIs, with 158 wickets while captain; next come Pollock (134) andd Imran (131), before Waqar Younis with 97.dddddddddddd Virat Kohli scored a double-century against New Zealand in October, and another one against England in December. Was this the shortest period between Test double-centuries by a player? asked Allan Alexander from the United States I was rather surprised to discover that there have been as many as 17 instances of a batsman scoring two double-centuries in a Test series. But I was slightly less surprised to discover that Don Bradman did it four times - in England in 1930 (when his scores included 254, 334 and 232), at home to South Africa in 1931-32, and in successive Ashes series in 1934 and 1936-37. Wally Hammond managed it twice: in Australia in 1928-29, and in New Zealand in 1932-33, when his two innings there were 227 in Christchurch and 336 not out in Auckland. Since then, only Michael Clarke has done it more than once: both at home, against India in 2011-12 and South Africa in 2012-13. The following have managed it once: Vinoo Mankad (India v New Zealand in 1955-56), Glenn Turner (New Zealand in West Indies in 1971-72), Viv Richards (West Indies in England in 1976), Gordon Greenidge (West Indies in England in 1984), Graeme Smith (South Africa in England in 2003), Ricky Ponting (Australia v India in 2003-04), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka v Bangladesh in 2007), Thilan Samaraweera (Sri Lanka in Pakistan in 2008-09) and Brendon McCullum (New Zealand v India in 2013-14). Of these, the closest pair were scored by Smith, who in 2003 reached 200 on his way to 277 at Edgbaston on July 26, and by the end of August 1 had 214 of his eventual 259 at Lords. The quickest repeat double-centuries for India were, like Kohlis, not scored in the same series: in 1993 Vinod Kambli was out for 224 against England in Mumbai on February 22, and reached 227 against Zimbabwe in Delhi on March 15. Mankads pair in 1955-56 were completed on December 3 and January 7.Apparently Liam Dawsons 66 at Chennai was the highest score by an England No. 8 on debut. Who held the record before? And has anyone from another country scored a hundred from there? asked Elliott Wilson from England Before Liam Dawsons plucky 66 in the fifth Test against India in Chennai, the highest score by an England debutant batting at No. 8 was 59, by David Bairstow - Jonnys father - also against India, at The Oval in 1979. Dawsons effort, however, comes well down the overall list, which is headed by the New Zealander James Neesham. He marked his debut with an undefeated 137 against India in Wellington in 2013-14. Six other Test debutants have scored centuries from No. 8: Azhar Mahmood (128 not out for Pakistan v South Africa in Rawalpindi in 1997-98), Roger Hartigan (116 for Australia v England in Adelaide in 1907-08), Deepak Shodhan (110 for India v Pakistan in Calcutta in 1952-53), Scott Styris (107 for New Zealand v West Indies in St Georges in 2002), Bruce Taylor (105 for New Zealand v India in Calcutta in 1964-65) and Thilan Samaraweera (103 not out for Sri Lanka v India in Colombo in 2001).Post your questions in the comments below ' ' '