October 26, 2018

Robert Meeuwsen and Alexander Brouwer: 'You win together, and learn to lose together'

Robert Meeuwsen and Alexander Brouwer, world beach volleyball champions, are ambassadors for the Youth Fund for Sports & Culture.

With the whole family

Brewer: "I had to get my swimming diploma first, then I could choose a sport to play. Like many boys, I chose soccer, which I played from age six to fourteen, even though my father and two older sisters played volleyball."

Meeuwsen: You don't just start playing volleyball as a kid; you don't play that on the street. So yes, I started playing soccer first. I started playing volleyball when I was nine, and then switched to beach volleyball when I was sixteen.

Brewer: "When you're five or six years old, volleyball is just too hard, I think. And I think the rest of the family thought so too; no one ever pushed me to play volleyball. But after my soccer games, I spent the rest of the weekend at the sports hall. Or with my dad, or with my sisters."

Meeuwsen: My mother played volleyball, and I often went with her. I really enjoyed that as a child. My father wasn't as involved. Although he was 2.04 meters tall, he didn't play volleyball himself. He wasn't very athletic anyway.

Brewer: When I was about sixteen, I trained every Sunday with the national team in Zeist. I had to report there at nine in the morning, and we lived in Groningen… My father and I would get in the car early in the morning, when it was still dark outside and no one else was on the road. I have fond memories of those two hours together in the car.

Meeuwsen: My father only started enjoying volleyball later, and then he started following me everywhere. The whole family would go with me to matches. I thought that was perfectly normal back then, but now I see how special it is. I'm grateful to them for it. These days, my parents also go with me to tournaments abroad, which is really cool.

Brewer: I definitely realized how special it was that my father did all that for me, and I even expressed that. Ha, and on the other hand, I also saw that Dad loved doing it. He's a real sports and volleyball fanatic.

Without the ball

Meeuwsen: I was perfectly fine without a ball. I still am. I wasn't someone who got ready in my sports kit in the morning; I also enjoyed playing computer games. Alexander finds it difficult not to exercise; he has to hit a ball even on vacation. I don't have that problem as much.

Brewer"When I'm on vacation, I don't sit still for a second. I have to move. Otherwise, I get grumpy. Lying still on a beach lounger for a week isn't for me. I already had that as a child. I played tennis, went out on the ditch in canoes to collect beer caps, played baseball; we came up with all sorts of things. I was a true outdoorsy child."

Kick in the ass

Meeuwsen: Volleyball has given me so much. My entire group of friends, in particular; I know everyone thanks to volleyball. Even my girlfriend! That's also the best thing about playing for a club: you make friends, there's a sense of camaraderie, and it's fun. You win together, learn to lose together. Well, I've learned to deal with losing now, although I still find it difficult. In beach volleyball, you're immediately eliminated from the tournament if you lose, so that's quite difficult. I'm getting used to it, but it's not easy.

Brewer: Volleyball was largely my upbringing. I started at Lycurgus in Groningen and, in just a few years, progressed through the teams from the Men's 9s to the Men's 1s. As a boy, you spend entire evenings and weekends hanging out with grown men. I absolutely loved it.

I don't feel like I ever really hit puberty. When I started playing volleyball, I found school a bit less interesting, so that did worry my parents a bit. That was the only problem. I never had any problems with coaches. I'm a bit less stubborn and headstrong than Robert, I think.

Meeuwsen: "It was quite necessary for coaches to give me a kick in the ass every now and then. I had a reputation for being quite stubborn, and I regularly had confrontations with coaches who pointed out how things should actually be done. I learned a lot from that."

Through rain and wind

Meeuwsen: "We only got our first sponsor, Red Bull, after we won the World Championship in 2013. So we had to perform first. Before that, we had to invest a lot; we only had small sponsors: glasses, sunscreen, that sort of thing."

Brewer: That was part of the time. We started very simply. What did we really need? Sunglasses. I emailed every optician in The Hague asking if they would sponsor us, what our goal was, and what we needed. Until one responded enthusiastically: Hofstede Optiek. We still visit them, they still come to matches, they give us advice. They're part of a group that empathizes with us, that follows us at tournaments. They're people who support us. That's a special feeling as an athlete. I'll never forget Nermin Cosovic, a coach from Groningen. A man with such a passion for sports, who did everything for us. He towed us in his little car to qualifying matches all over the country and far beyond, through all kinds of weather.

Far-from-my-bed show

Meeuwsen: We live with some of the squad in a working-class neighborhood in Scheveningen, where there's quite a bit of poverty. It took a long time for us to be accepted. Everyone knows each other, and we stand out quite a bit with our sportswear and national team-themed cars. Since last year, they've suddenly started saying, "Hey neighbor, I saw you on TV." They know who you are. Secretly, they think that's nice.

Brewer: Robert lives in a neighborhood where some of his neighbors live on welfare, and he's a top athlete. That's pretty strange. My situation is completely different; I live just down the street, with a different demographic. My sister is a gym teacher in Assen. From her, I hear stories about children. Stories that make us, as a true sports family, think: how is that possible in the Netherlands? I never used to think that parents wouldn't be able to pay the membership fees for a sports club. That was a distant concept for me.

Meeuwsen: To be honest, I just can't imagine not being able to play sports as a child. It's simply not possible in my experience; it doesn't exist.

Volleyball through the Youth Fund

Follow Robert and Alexander

Website: www.brouwer-meeuwsen.com
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