Footvolley.

I've started taking footvolley (here known as futevolei) lessons out in Ipanema on Mondays and Wednesdays. Futvolei is essentially beach volley, but rather than using your hands to create a volley, you use your feet, legs, head, chest, and shoulders-- that is, the same techniques when playing soccer. It's not as easy as it looks-- and trust me, it never really looks that easy.

Futvolei was apparently started in Rio de Janeiro in 1965, when soccer players wanted to practice but couldn't because of the football ban during the time. They found that playing on the beach, using the volleyball courts, was a way for them to keep the spirit of the game alive and use the techniques of soccer-- without breaking any rules.

The running on the beach is not the difficult part-- it's actually getting used to the weight of the ball, which is decently heavy (it is, after all, a soccer ball). On top of that, there's a certain balance that you need to find between being aggressive, and waiting for the ball to come to the exact position you want in order to volley it over. I'm still learning the basic techniques, but I can feel myself improving in just one week. I haven't had the courage yet to join in an actual game-- the other students always stay later to play-- but maybe by the middle of next month.