Mornings are mostly mundane. Waking up just in time for the 8 am class- sitting in front of the laptop the whole day attending online classes is mentally taxing. My routine used to be different back at college. From waking up at 5:15 am for the football practice to attending classes (and sometimes having evening practices), my day used to be busy but fun.
While talking to my teammate over the phone, I realized how much I missed that routine. Even though we had few online group fitness sessions during the lockdown, nothing compares with meeting them and playing with them!
During the evening practices, we did not have access to the football ground (due to ladies hostel in-time), we would end up playing on the basketball court that was inside the ladies' hostel boundary. A lot of my teammates got injured during the evening practices owing to the concrete surface; nothing deterred us from training hard under such risky circumstances. To make our evening practices less-injury-some, we used to play different variations of football, one of them was footvolley.
Video from our evening practice session. Video Courtesy: Nidhi Choudhary
We made a make-shift footvolley court by using the basketball court. It was different from the authentic footvolley court but it was a lot of fun!
What exactly is footvolley?
In 1960, when the people in Rio de Janeiro couldn't play football on fine sand (either because of a crowded beach or it was prohibited on some beaches), they started playing football in the beach volleyball courts. From the sands of Copacabana beach, footvolley soon spread too many coastal resorts and caught the attention of landlocked states as well!
The rules are similar to that of beach volleyball. Each side (consisting of two players) can touch the ball three times- the players are not allowed to use their hands or arms for service. However, they are allowed to build a small sand hill to keep the football and kick. The head, shoulders, thighs, feet, and chest can be utilized to pass the ball to the opponent's court and score points.
Now, a lot of people play footvolley. The sport has spread across continents with an increase in the number of competitive tournaments. Yet to be announced as an Olympic sport, it has already caught the attention of many football players. This game demands ball controlling skills and good body conditioning. To promote the sport, the local beach authorities in Brazil even supplies the net. Those wishing to play the game need to bring a football and hope that a court is free!
On 25th October 2020, Natalia Guitler and Bianca Hiemer won the 15th edition of Team Aguia Footvolley Cup, the first leg of the Brazilian Footvolley League held in Brasilia. After scoring the winning point, they lay on the sand court, trying to absorb their win as they hugged and cried!
Natalia Guilter and Bianca Heimer celebrate their win
Natalia Guitler even won the Best Women Player award for the Championship.
Natalia Guitler with the Winner’s trophy and the best women player trophy (via Instagram)
Natalia Guilter, the former tennis player was introduced to this game by her eldest brother. She instantly fell in love with the game (she used to play football alongside tennis!). She is a two-time South American champion and six-time National footvolley champion in Brazil with Bianca Hiemer, her doubles partner for ten years. She has been crowned as the ‘World Footvolley Queen of the Beach’ three times now. In 2018, she even won her first World Championship in Israel with her doubles partner, Josey Souza.
Her fan club consists of eminent players- Ronaldinho, Neymar, Zico, Kaka, Rivaldo, Marcelo, Douglas Costa, and Vinicius Junior. Her videos of Footvolley matches and table soccer matches against Neymar, Ronaldinho, and even Nene has taken the internet by a storm.
Natalia Guilter with Ronaldinho
She graduated in Business Administration- that was her profession with footvolley being her hobby; something to look forward to playing on a weekend. But things changed in 2017 when she visited Ronaldinho for a friendly footvolley match. She saw a teqball table in Ronaldinho's house and ended up playing teqball instead of footvolley. She then decided to pursue teqball and footvolley professionally.
By the end of 2018, she played her first teqball doubles World Championship in France (Marquinhos was her double partner) and ranked 4th. She competed against men's doubles team as there was no mix-doubles category at that time (This competition had only three women out of the 43 total participants). At the beginning of this competition, she got a lot of you-do-not-belong-here stares; many male players would not even greet her! After seeing her skills on the court, everyone started respecting her and even asked her to train with them.
Marcos Vieira and Natalia Guilter in action during 2019 championship.
Picture courtesy: FITEQ
With a lot of practice, she improved her techniques and returned for the 2019 Teqball Championship held in Budapest. Natalia and partner Marcos Vieira emerged as the inaugural mixed doubles champions with their stellar performance!
The 2019 Teqball Champions-Marcos Vieira and Natalia Guilter with Ronaldinho. Picture courtesy: FITEQ
In December 2019, she was appointed as the Chair of the FITEQ (International Federation of Teqball) Athletes' Committee. She is actively working on FITEQ’s project to increase the number of women teqball players!
When back in Brazil, she runs a clinic with Bianca where they teach footvolley to the footvolley enthusiasts. She is happy to see many people getting inspired by her game. She feels honoured when people on the beach gather to watch her play and take photos with her. Some of them even wait patiently to get a chance to play with her. She never really imagined that all this was even possible!
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