What's it like playing at the British Grand Slam as part of Windfest? This is where we've training for the last three months so it's nice to play with people coming to watch instead of being stuck in California with no one supporting England. How did you get into beach volleyball?
 | | Jody in action at Windfest 2005 |
I was playing football and got to the stage where I wasn't going to make much money at it and turn professional, so I wanted a sport where you could travel the world and be on a beach so I ended up playing beach volleyball. What's the beach volleyball circuit like? It's the fastest growing sport, obviously it's a minority sport in this country so that's why we base ourselves most of the year training in places like Brazil and Australia and California. It's huge - it's the only sport that was sold out every day in the last two Olympics - maybe that was something to do with the girls in bikinis, but hopefully not! How much work does it take to get to the top? You've got to be full time - training three times a day, watch your nutrition full time - just like any professional athlete. What would it mean to you to get to the Olympic games?
 | | Jody in action at Windfest 2005 |
Oh when I was younger that's all I wanted to do, to be an Olympian. It'd be nice to get to Bejing in 2008, but to finish my career at the Olympics in London in 2012 in front of my family, that would be the ultimate really. What does the 2012 decision mean for beach volleyball? It's brilliant, at the minute the BOA are looking to have a fully funded programme for beach volleyball, and the IOC love the fact the beach volleyball is in Horseguards Parade - hopefully we can reward them with a medal. How strong are the grassroots of the sport? I coach quite a few juniors down here from 12-16 and they love it, the whole lifestyle of it. But it's the climate - kids in Australia are on the beach every day and they play sport. Here people go to the beach to build sandcastles and play in the sea. We've got to change the mentality where you can go to the beach and become an athlete. That's my aim - I want to help develop the sport as well as playing. There's probably 70 or 80 kids come down here on a Monday night and they love it - we just need some more funding and hopefully by 2012 we'll have some more teams wanting to compete. | 
