Professional beach volleyball player Phil Dalhausser doesn’t really practice anymore. He mostly works out in the gym he’s set up in his garage in Florida and keeps a close eye on his diet.
Dalhausser has spent 20 years on the AVP Tour and, after more than 600 career AVP Tour wins, few are qualified to question his methods.
“After thousands of reps of doing something over and over and over,” the 6-foot-9 Dalhausser said, “you don’t really have to put too much time into it.”
Dalhausser and teammate Avery Drost got out to a 3-0 start – sweeping each match – in this week’s Manhattan Beach Open. The pair almost didn’t end up together. Dalhausser, known as “The Thin Beast,” originally had intended to play with a different partner for each event, but decided to stick with the 6-foot-5 Redlands native when promising sponsorship opportunities arose.
Drost’s rookie season was in 2009, which makes him somewhat of a tournament veteran as well, but he still learns from the 43-year-old Dalhausser, who has won an AVP Tour event 62 times – including seven Manhattan Beach Open titles – and was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame earlier this year.
“Phil is naturally such an under-control kind of person,” said Drost, who turns 37 next month. “He’s really steady and balanced. He’s also obviously been in this situation so many times, he’s won everything there is to win and he’s been through the highs and lows of big games. He really stays cool.”
Dalhausser has seen not just the Manhattan Beach Open change over the years, but also the sport of beach volleyball itself.
“When I first started playing,” he said, “if you won, you got sponsored, basically.”
Now, prize money and sponsorship opportunities have shrunk, which Dalhausser attributes to competition from the amount of sports in which athletes can earn money and sponsorships. When he first turned pro, players could compete in 20 tournaments each year and earn a living.
Social media, which Dalhausser reluctantly takes part in, has changed the way athletes secure sponsorships and establish a personal brand. Beach volleyball is ever-evolving but the 2008 Olympic gold medalist still sees it very much as a serious business where winning is vital.
Rain and wind are in the forecast for Sunday’s championship matches, but the Switzerland native said he’s played in worse conditions like snow. Tropical storms and hurricanes don’t rattle the Florida resident.
“These storms are normal for me,” he said. “But, you know, you could feel there’s an energy. (People here) are like, ‘Oh my god, a hurricane’s coming.’”
Dalhausser has dialed back on some aspects of beach volleyball to spend more time with his family, but will keep his playing career going, as will Drost, who until recently had been coaching boys volleyball at Mira Costa High.
“This volleyball community is second-to-none as far as community relationships,” Drost said of Manhattan Beach. “So that is what makes it continually so fun for me is like the relational part of it and then just the environment on that court surrounded by people who love the game and cheer for you.”
Dalhausser and Drost advanced to the quarterfinals of the winner’s bracket Saturday morning by sweeping Miles Evans and Chase Budinger with identical scores of 21-19 in each set. Dalhausser hit .750 in the match with two aces and four blocks, one of which secured the first-set win.
It seems as though he’s found his fountain of youth by playing on instinct and with a scaled-back training regimen.
“I’d like to get another plaque up there,” Dalhausser said of winning his eighth MBO and earning another spot on the pier’s Walk of Fame. “Age is just a number.”
