‘Make volleyball easier for your teammates’

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. — Kyle Friend compares the 6-foot-5 33-year-old he is today with the 6-foot-5 30-year-old he was in 2019. Can he jump higher now? Not really. Hit harder? Eh. Lift more? His numbers are about the same.

Tangibly, there is little that is physically different from when Friend enjoyed what was then the best season of his professional beach career and today. His 2019 season was one in which he took a career-high on the AVP, finishing ninth in Austin with Duncan Budinger. He won a pair of NORCECA medals — one silver, in La Paz, Mexico; one bronze, in Bonaire — and set his personal high-water mark for prize money.

This year? Friend has made 2019 look downright pedestrian. With two events remaining on the calendar — a Tour Series stop in Huntington Beach, Calif. and a Pro Series in Tavares, Fla. — Friend has nearly quadrupled his previous career-high in prize money. He finished fifth in the Chicago Gold Series, stunning Chaim Schalk and Theo Brunner on the way, and nearly doing the same to eventual finalists Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander. He’s flown up the rankings, now tied for 16^th in the country alongside his precocious partner, Tim Brewster, jumping a host of veterans and AVP champions such as Billy Allen, Jeremy Casebeer, Nick Lucena, Rafu Rodriguez, Ed Ratledge and John Hyden, among others.

What’s different?

Nothing, honestly.

And, also, everything.

“Over the last three years, has my body really changed? Not really. I’m lifting just as much as I was before, I’m training just as much as I was. Now the difference, what I feel, is when I go into matches, the mind is more calm,” Friend said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “Of course I have these butterflies and I’m excited to play, but it’s a different calmness, it’s a different confidence.

“It’s come from losing. Just reps of tournament play. Playing against top level guys, getting our butt kicked in Manhattan Beach this year, a nice little smack in the face. As I’m getting older, I realize how much I love this sport, and how blessed I am to be able to play. I have this different gratitude, relaxation just to be able to play, and I don’t feel that stress, ‘Oh my God I have to side out!’ The tighter you get, the worse you play.

“Playing with Tim, I feel like I want to be that person who’s a little bit steady in my…