It can sometimes be hard to find a suitable playing partner for the beach volleyball court. You need to find someone in your area, at a similar skill level, perhaps in your age range and hopefully sharing a common vision, especially if you wanna play competitively.

There are not unlimited options to find this person, there are rather a few strategies that you should pursue consistently. We collected the ones that you can apply instantly and that will yield results fast.

1.) Post in existing beach volleyball groups to have maximum reach

There are already lots of existing beach volleyball groups out there. If you join them, it will be easy to connect with the members or simply create a post that describes what you are looking for. Since these groups have already been there for a while, you will have a rather broad reach. The best places to find this type of groups are Facebook and Meetup, but you can also try Internations and Couchsurfing. You will usually find more and better results with the former two.

So go these social networks and use their search function. Type in the name of your city or area and “beach volleyball”. Especially with Facebook and Meetup, several groups should come up. Choose the ones that fit your criteria in terms of location, age, level etc. and join them. As soon as you are accepted, you can create a post specifying what you are looking for. In Facebook and Meetup the discussion board is usually open for all members to post. If that’s not the case, you can also send a message to the administrator and ask him to approve your post or to send out a group email for you.

For finding existing groups, you may also want to check out our group listings of about 150 beach volleyball groups worldwide.

2.) Create your own new group that attracts the right players

If there are no existing groups in your area, you have a great opportunity. You can be the one founding a new group and building a local community from scratch. Don’t panic. It’s actually not that hard. And there are quite some benefits to starting your own group. You are the one making the rules and deciding whom you want to attract. Out of this group, you will also be able to recruit your new playing partner. This approach requires some more effort but the benefits are huge. So how to do it?

Go to Meetup and create your own account if you don’t have one. Navigate to “Start a new group”. Select your hometown and choose “beach volleyball” as your topic. Then you define the name of your meetup group, something like “Beach Volleyball Hometown” should work well. Next you will add a short description about your group. You could say something like:

“This is a beach volleyball group for advanced players. We are planning to organize regular events at (add location) and are looking forward to any of your suggestions as well.”

Creating a new meetup group

That’s it. Having done that you can officially launch your new group. Meetup will spread the word and members will start joining. To speed up the process, you might also want to schedule a first meetup in a few weeks so that potential members see that it is an active group. Starting a group and managing it is for free up to the point where you have 50 members. So get started!

3.) Post an ad that describes your perfect partner

If you think creating your own group is too much effort, you can also go for some quick wins. One is simply posting a search ad in a forum where others can find it and contact you. There are several forums out there. Most of them have a local/regional focus such as OpenPlay. Therefore we hope you don’t mind that we recommend our player match forum that has no regional restrictions. Here you can either browse the existing ads or you can create your own ad.

Player match forum

Post an ad

Type in your name and select your skill level and location. Then specify what you are looking for. Be as specific as possible. Instead of writing “Looking for a player in Dallas”, you can say: “I am an indoor player that moved to the beach two years ago and I am looking for a male playing partner between 25-30 to compete in leagues and tournaments in the Dallas area. Planning to play twice a week. Shoot me as message if you are interested.”
Submit and also feel free to post a link to the ad on the Beach Volleyball Space Facebook page.

4.) Use an app and get a perfect match

Wouldn’t it be great to have an app that finds you the right playing partner? Like Tinder or Bumble for beach volleyball?

Actually, there are some apps out there! The most recent one is Court which is still being tested. With this sport app you can find other players and schedule beach volleyball sessions at public courts. You can search for courts in your area, create new ones and look for other players in your area. Especially in post-Corona times, this looks like a nice way to organize, document and track beach volleyball sessions.
Other apps we’ve tried not yet working properly or have not been launched. BeachVolleyGo was crashing on Android when we tried it. Beach Partner looks great but has not yet been launched. We will update this section as soon as there are further changes. In case you want to be informed about any updates, feel free to subscribe to our newsletter.

5.) Check out universities and get connected

Finally, you can also simply get involved with local organizations such as universities, schools or clubs. Many universities and schools offer courts and playing options to students and non-students. Check out the extra-curricular activities of these institutions in your area. This is usually a great opportunity to get connected with the local beach volleyball crowds. You can find training courses, groups or individual players that are all potential sources for your future playing partner. Signing up for a beach volleyball training course with a licensed trainer is in our experience one of the best ways to meet other players on your level. You get to know your partner in a training setting and can decide quite easily if they are a good match.

In a nutshell: Get started now!

On your mission to find a beach volleyball playing partner, you don’t have to try all the strategies outlined here. In your area and for your skill level, some strategies might work better, others don’t. Just get started right now and pick the strategy that does appeal to you the most. Get a first small step done right now and soon we will see you at the beach!

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