Sweden’s Elmer Andersson & Jacob Hölting Nilsson are still teenagers aged 17 and 18, respectively, but are showing maturity and good game knowledge in their first two outings, and are focused to achieve a productive campaign at the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships in Roi-Et, Thailand.
Beach U21 World Champs 2023
Andersson & Hölting Nilsson primed to reach potential
The young Swedish athletes are not yet in their 20s, but are having the luxury of learning from the greats of the game
Published 04:13, 09 Nov 2023
The young Swedish pair with coach Rasmus Jonsson
The duo defeated Brazil’s Dudu & Isac in straight sets on Wednesday and early Thursday morning 2-0 victory over Lebanon’s El Chabib & Omar.
There is substantial truth in the saying that great coaching helps young athletes reach their full potential. Such is the case for the two young men from Sweden, as they are benefitting from the mentorship of coach Rasmus Jonsson, who revolutionized the ‘Swedish jump set’ for current World No. 2 David Åhman & Jonatan Hellvig.
The benefit of his brilliant coaching is simple – these young athletes who move are the ones who move the world.
“They are young and very talented in our program, we try to educate young players in our game style and try to help them reach the top level in beach volleyball,” Jonsson said about his young apprentices.
“Of course, it’s (Swedish jump set) a big part of our game and we have to dare to use it in the beginning. It’s easy to make mistakes because of its higher level of difficulty, but we’re there to do it. Especially in the game yesterday against Brazil, we did perform. We did it really good and had a lot of jump sets and second ball attacks.”
Jonsson’s wisdom of the game has equipped the young athletes with great sense of offense, but the coach underlined that passing and precision are the most important elements of the technique, therefore, both offensive and defensive skills matter.
“It’s super difficult to defend when we have two attackers against one blocker. I also think that people must understand that the most difficult part of it is the passing to receive serves that are really tough and putting it one meter from the top of the net every single time,” the Swedish coach stated.
“It takes a lot of practice, and it takes a lot of time, but we’ve been doing it for six years with Åhman and Hellvig, and now with Jacob and Elmer. It’s in a good way. They are really talented in it, and in a couple of years, I’m sure that they can also dominated on the top level among seniors.”
Elmer Andersson
Being an indoor player, Andersson has shown a lot of versatility in the sand court. The young man agrees that a lot has improved on his game since joining the program.
“It’s hard to adjust from indoor to beach, but of course it helps to have long training camps before tournaments like these. And you have to adjust to switch your mindset completely, and when you switch back and forth a couple of times, you learn to adjust to the difference,” Andersson said.
“I’ve been in the program since the beginning of summer, which was June. I have not been in the program as long as Jacob and some other guys have, but from the beginning of summer I’ve been practicing with them a lot and it’s been good. I’ve learned very much and I’m a much better player now than I was before.”
Jacob Hölting Nilsson
For Hölting Nilsson, he feels like he could not be anywhere better, as he is in the company of great Swedish athletes and coaches. The tall blocker is playing with the best and training with the best.
“We’ve been practicing with David and Jonatan for ten days before we came here. But we always practice with them in a bunch of training camps in Stockholm. We try to develop our game, to be similar to theirs. So, we work on becoming more like them,” Hölting Nilsson explained.
“Our goal is to play well and make great performances. And if we can do that, we have a good chance to go pretty far in the tournament. If we play well, we’re happy, so I think that’s the biggest goal.”