Robin Miedzybrodzki is no different from any other Scot this time of year in that he yearns for time on a Spanish beach, but the Edinburgh volleyball player is no tourist.

He has spent recent weeks honing his beach skills with new partner John Garcia-Thomson on the sands of Tenerife.

Spanish-born Garcia-Thomson has huge experience on the international circuit and GB beach coach Matt Grinlaubs expects the new pairing to take some notable scalps this summer.

Miedzybrodzki, from Edinburgh, has been training full-time with the British squad at Bath in the build-up to the 2012 Olympics.

He has made outstanding progress since he gave up a promising indoor career to play under blue skies but his new partner is expected to propel him to new levels.

The pair will be clocking up the miles in the weeks ahead to establish a foothold in the sand.

Miedzybrodzki, who started playing indoors with Pentland NUVOC in Edinburgh and played for Scotland's Under-21 side, certainly believes the Spanish lifestyle is suiting his game.

"I live in an apartment that belongs to the local indoor volleyball club close to the beach where we train and the gym that we do our physical training three times a week," he says.

"Most days we train twice on the beach working on technical aspects of our game.

"We train with a Spanish team who also train out here who bring a good level to practice which is ideal for our improvement!

"Training with John has been very good. He is an experienced player and brings a lot of knowledge and talent to the partnership and has been fun to work with.

"We are working hard at the moment in preparation for the World and European tours that we will begin in August at the Poland World Tour event.

"We will then travel to Norway, Finland, Holland and Italy before heading to the European tour event in Blackpool in front of a home crowd which is something we are looking forward to!

"Most of the time between tournaments this summer will be spent in Tenerife training because of the excellent environment for training here.

"However, in the off-season I will still be based in Bath but will travel frequently in Tenerife to train with John and he will also come to Bath quite a lot, so we can train and do our physical conditioning together.

"Our long-term goals are to become a main draw team on both the European and World tours.  The ultimate goal is to qualify for the Olympics in 2012."

The 23 year-old knows he is in a privileged position, doing a job that many envy after recently graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering.

"Playing volleyball on the beach circuit is fantastic," he continues.

"You play the sport you love in some of the most amazing places around the world with the top athletes in the world.

"It's both inspiring and motivational and drives you to train harder.

"Experiencing top level volleyball week-in, week-out helps British teams learn more about the game and what it is to be a world-class volleyball player. We are making progress towards this.

"The only negative of the beach circuit is that you are away from friends and family for months so at times that is difficult but the world of "Skype" solves that problem.

"I don't get back to Edinburgh often at the moment because it is during the season. However, at the end of the season I plan to head home for a week to catch up with friends and family."

The recent funding cuts to the GB Olympic programme could hit Miedzybrodzki's ambitions but he is not letting that deflect him from his goal.

"The funding cuts have been disappointing, especially since we have shown results that underline our prospects to compete at London 2012," he concludes.

"However, we have continued to train as normal. It does have implications for how well we are funded at tournaments for travel and accommodation, but it doesn't affect how we train and how we prepare for the world tour so nothing has really changed for us.

"We keep training and learning to work towards our dreams!"

RM
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Thanks to Michael McConville for images
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