Q & A with Chinese beach players Xue Chen and Xia Xinyi! Take note, Xia is ONLY 17 YEARS OLD & she already has a bronze medal to start her career + $6,000. Enjoy!
New Chinese beach volleyball partners Xue Chen and Xia Xinyi made great strides at the first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour of the season, winning bronze at the Fuzhou Open and proving they’re a team to watch this season.
To get to know Chen, the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Champion, and her new 17-year-old partner, Xinyi, the FIVB hosted a Q&A with the home-team at Fuzhou, with questions collected from fans on Facebook and Chinese social media sites Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo.
Q: What’s your hobby?
Xue Chen: I like music, movies and books. Because training is very tiring, I prefer not to hang out.
Q: What do you usually do right before the games?
Xue Chen: I usually imagine in my mind all the different situations and difficulties that might happen during the game. When I feel extremely nervous, I like chewing gum while doing stretching exercises.
Q: Can you talk about your new partner Xia Xinyi with us?
Xue Chen: I think that it’s not easy for her to make it. She is much younger than I am. She is the youngest player in the FIVB Open. But she is making a lot of improvements. In only very few years, she has to face the challenge of the Olympic Games in Rio. It’s a great chance for her to practice, but it’s also huge pressure on her.
Q: During the Fuzhou Open, the weather was not very ideal. Did the weather condition influence on your performance in the games?
Xue Chen: To us, we’ve experienced a lot of different weather situations, like the games on windy days and rainy days. If it’s not storming, we will still play the games. So, this time, the weather was still fine for us.
Q: Compared to the games on sunny days, if it’s raining, will you adjust your technique or strategy for the games?
Xue Chen: On a rainy day, the volleyball becomes heavier and slippery. So when serving, we usually raise the hitting point. Meanwhile, we need to lower bodies to catch the ball, because it gets heavier. This is different from how we usually play. If it’s on a windy day, we prefer to hit the ball lower, in this way that we can control it easily.
Q: Do you have confidence to reach the champion of the Olympic Games in Rio?
Xia Xinyi: Yes, I’m confident. At this moment, my individual capability is still not good enough, but I’m always improve and perfect myself.
Q: What do you like doing when there’s no game?
Xia Xinyi: Watching movies or listening to music.
Q：The beach volleyball games are usually going on in the big sun. Do you have any special protective measures?
Xia Xinyi: I just put on some sun cream.
Q: In each beach volleyball team, there’re only two players, does it mean that the difficulty is much higher than the indoor volleyball games?
Xia Xinyi: I think that the beach volleyball games have higher requirement on players’ individual capabilities than the indoor volleyball games.
Xue Chen: The beach volleyball games are more challenging. The players must be very decisive.
Q: Which beach volleyball player is your idol?
Xia Xinyi: “Piggy Sister” (It’s the nickname of Xue Chen.)
Extra! Extra!
Xue and Xia take Beach Bronze in 2014 Fuzhou Open
(image: FIVB)