I just think the whole mindset of Pilates is huge. Pilates 101 is just to use your core in the right way. A lot of us don't use every little detailed muscle in our core. We all use the big muscles in our body and don't focus on the little ones. That mindset and awareness is huge. I take that with me wherever I go.

The advice I will give my children, if and when they have Olympic aspirations, will be to go for it.

I think educating myself has been huge. I feel like the way it's presented in the media is that if you got to Brazil you're flipping a coin on your health. I don't think it has to be that way. If I were wanting to have a baby right after the Olympics I would take precautions, and then when the Olympics were over I would get tested to make sure I didn't have the virus in me, and then I'd go for it.

At some point you're like, gosh, this rehab is never going to end, and then all of a sudden I'm full strength and I'm about to go to my first competition. So I feel really great.

That's a very privileged job and I love it with all my heart. I'm planning on playing my best volleyball to date throughout 2016 and certainly during the Olympics.

We have to fight the entire time, we can't start at the end when it's getting down to crunch time. We can't leave anything on the floor.

At the point when I switched from indoor to beach I had been playing indoor for 12 years. And, to be honest, to make a living indoors you have to go overseas. I am such a family girl and just wanted to be home, so that didn't appeal to me. Misty May was looking for a partner, I was looking to stay at home, and the beach just came calling. And mostly I stuck with it because I loved the challenge of it, but also just the autonomy of it. It's two on two, just you and your partner, you're not one of the herd. And the lifestyle is unbeatable.