CARAMBULA RAURICH Adrian Ignacio

Previous teammates
Jakob Windisch, Paolo Ficosecco, Paolo Ingrosso, Pasquale Gabriele, Alex Ranghieri, Stafford Slick, Steven Grotowski (fivb.org, 06 Jun 2021; usabeachranking.org, 28 Apr 2012)

General
SERVING TECHNIQUE
He is nicknamed 'Mr Skyball' because of his serving technique, in which he launches the ball up to 30-metres high to the opposite side of the court. "When I was little I had a lot of time on my hands, so I just started throwing it up there and saw what it did and it works. There's no more Adrian on the streets and the tournaments - they call me 'Mr Skyball', so it's pretty funny I think. It's part of my game because it's different and people don't really train against it. It's just a movement that for me comes naturally. I just know that I want to put the ball up. I feel the wind, and then I let the ball and my body and everything come naturally. I never thought about technique, I just do it and my body moves." (smh.com.au, 07 Aug 2016)

PLAYING TO SURVIVE
He says he did not have any affinity towards playing beach volleyball at the start of his career, but saw it as a means of gaining an income. "It could have been bowling or tennis, anything could have grabbed my attention at that point [at age 16]. I lived close to the beach, saw some courts, and I'd never touched a volleyball before then. I started slapping the ball around, four against four, and that was it. There was no cool story. I just needed to do something sports related, otherwise I'm going to die. It was more like surviving for me. I knew I had to get good fast to have some sort of income, so that's when I started putting in the hours, without really knowing where I was going. At that age, you don't really have a plan, it's more a dream or a vision, or you see stuff on TV and that's where you want to get to. I took it one day at a time and I tried to play as much as I could." (volleyballmag.com, 26 Aug 2020)

FAMILY HERITAGE
He was born and raised in Uruguay until age 13, when he moved to the United States of America. He is eligible to represent Italy through his grandmother and was offered the chance to try out in front of national coach Paulao Moreira in 2014 before making his international debut the following year. (volleyballmag.com, 26 Aug 2020; bvbinfo.com, 24 Jan 2014)