Women’s Tour Remains a Chisholm Trail : Beach volleyball: At 36 she maintains a strict training regimen that helps keep her among the top money-winners.

At an age when many other professional athletes are thinking about life after sports, Linda Chisholm, the 36-year-old pro beach volleyball player from Van Nuys, does not think beyond her next match.

Her focus dims when she talks about life after volleyball--it seems like a lifetime away. But it sharpens again when the conversation turns to her next opponent, whomever that may be.

Chisholm’s concentration is undeniably present, and so is her success. She and her partner, Linda Hanley, finally won two tournaments after four second-place finishes earlier this season on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals women’s tour. They will go for their third victory when the Seal Beach Open begins today.

Nothing can change Chisholm’s age. And the toll that age has taken on her body has been unavoidable as well. But Chisholm has remained among the sport’s elite with a tireless work ethic and a veteran’s savvy from eight years of professional experience.

“You have people around you saying, ‘God, you played great, even though you’re 36 years old,’ ” she said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, thanks. You’re not supposed to know that part.’ ”

How Chisholm has remained in peak physical condition is no secret--through hard practices and a disciplined workout regimen.

Where she does it is somewhat of a secret.

Chisholm and Hanley practice at a pair of volleyball courts that are tucked snugly between a deserted beachfront club and a small cafe that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Joggers, bicyclists and even pigeons pass the little nook and pay little attention to Chisholm, who stretches on the sand, away from the noontime beach traffic.

Many pros practice several miles north at the courts clustered on Will Rogers State Beach. But she likes this place, just out of sight of Pacific Coast Highway. All of the championships and prize money can only come if she’s out there, jumping and hustling for two hours. Then she follows up by sweating some more lifting weights at a local gym.

“She’s not a young player anymore,” said Dane Selznick, Chisholm and Hanley’s coach. “Even her partner, who’s a mother, can’t get out there as much as Linda Chisholm can. She’s always wanting to work out with me any chance she gets.”

Everyone on the tour, however, is a good athlete--the weekend warriors and less-dedicated players were weeded out long ago. Chisholm’s edge is her experience after two seasons in the AVP and six seasons in the Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn., another pro beach volleyball league.

She held the No. 1 ranking on the WPVA tour in 1987 and 1988. Her $219,147 in career earnings is No. 1 among AVP women, and her 33 career victories is second.

“She’s a veteran and she’s in great shape,” Hanley said. “If she makes sure the physical part of her game is there, then we’re fine.”

Chisholm teamed with Holly McPeak for three tournaments in 1993, and the pair won the Chicago Open. McPeak is No. 3 on the AVP women’s tour with $22,279 in prize money this season. “She’s very difficult to read and that comes with playing for a long time,” McPeak said. “She’s got a lot of range on her offense, so she’s pretty difficult to play against.”

Chisholm’s court demeanor is equally unflappable, even when a ball slips through her block or when a serve lands out of bounds.

“She’s very even keel,” Hanley said. “In the middle of the game she might be having some trouble, things might not be going her way, but I know that I won’t lose her.”

At the beginning of the season, it looked like Chisholm and Hanley would never be able to get past second place. They were runners-up four times, and finished third once and fourth twice.

“It was like we had a jinx,” Chisholm said. “Can we ever get past second place? Can we go out and win a tournament?”

The doubt continued until Chisholm and Hanley finally won two consecutive events in the middle of the season in late June and early July--the Baltimore Open and the Manhattan Beach Open.

But three weeks separated Manhattan Beach from the next AVP event, the Chicago Open, where Chisholm and Hanley finished a disappointing fourth. At the New Jersey Open, which followed Chicago, they placed fifth, their worst performance of the season. They blamed the long hiatus preceding Chicago for their poor recent showings.

“You really wanted to start playing because you were on a roll,” Chisholm said. “You wanted to continue that feeling. In three weeks you kind of lose that a little bit. We couldn’t conjure up enough energy to get going again.”

After Seal Beach, there are only two more tour events--the San Diego Open and Hermosa Beach Open. Chisholm and Hanley hope they can finish in midseason fashion--with a pair of victories.

Chisholm only started playing volleyball as a senior at Birmingham High before going on to College of the Canyons (1975-77) and Pepperdine (1977-81).

During the summer before her junior year at Pepperdine, she was introduced to beach volleyball.

“I really preferred playing on the beach than indoors,” Chisholm said. “The surface is a lot easier to play on and you don’t get sore. And it was a more individualized sport, two-versus-two rather than six-versus-six.”

Back then it was just a hobby, a far cry from the career she has managed to shape out of it.

“It’s a job, it’s how I earn a living,” she said. “How much money you make depends on your success. You really have to try to win the tournaments in order to make a living at it. And it’s stressful.

“You think of exercise not being stressful, but it is because you want to win.”