But you'll have trouble finding athletes who have achieved more in a short amount of time than Shoalhaven quartet Malia Barrele (16), Parri Barrele (14), Alexandria Smith (14) and Mireille Smith (12).

The Barrele sisters, from Callala Bay, only started playing beach volleyball in November and they are now about to take on the top competitors in their age in the country, at the Australian Junior Beach Volleyball Championships.

"Growing up, Parri and I have played all types of sports including tennis, basketball, netball, rowing, swimming, athletics and cross country," Malia said.

"But after mucking around in the backyard with our uncle who is a volleyball coach in Fiji, we decided to enter ourselves in our first proper volleyball tournament in November.

"We loved it straight away and a lot of that had to do with how naturally the game came to us, largely due to our tennis background.

"Serving and court positioning in tennis and volleyball is very similar."

"We just loved the light-hearted nature of the sport - being on the beach, playing while listening to music is great," Malia said.

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Malia and her sister, Parri, are Illawarra Academy of Sport Lonestar scholarship recipients for tennis.

But after falling in love with beach volleyball at that first tournament, the sisters decided to trial for the NSW squad to train for the nationals.

Malia and her Wollongong-based partner, Kaia Brienen, were recently selected as the under 17s wildcard team while Parri is the under 16s shadow player.

Meanwhile,Callala Beach's Alexandria Smith was selected for the NSW under 16s team and her sister, Mireille, made the under 14s age division.

The Smith sisters started volleyball in April 2019 after long stints in taekwondo and competitive artistic gymnastics.

Also accomplished indoor volleyball players in the Combined High School and state indoor volleyball squads, they train together at home as well as travelling to Sydney and Wollongong.

The four girls play on the same local indoor volleyball team competing at the new Shoalhaven Indoor Sports Centre.

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"It's great to have four players from the same area that play," Malia said.

"We can drill and play against one another in Callala, which is much easier than travelling to Sydney."

"In beach volleyball, your relationship with your partner is crucial, you both need to be on the same page at all times," Malia said.

"Thankfully Kaia and I have come together well, constantly talking tactics and training together in Wollongong.

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At Gold Coast's Coolangatta Beach from March 14-18, teams from each state will play multiple round games prior to finals.

"Heading into the biggest tournament of our career, Kaia and I want to play to the best of our abilities, hopefully winning enough pool matches to make the finals," Malia said.

"I'm really looking forward to playing against the top junior players from around Australia.

"This championship is a massive stepping stone to where I want to be in the sport of volleyball - I can't wait to get up there and compete."