Brandon Joyner (00:01.665)
We've kind of figured it out, but not at all. know, the whole IT side of things, you know, that was great. Yeah. Yeah.
Mark Burik (00:07.424)
Yeah, we'll figure it out. need that production company. Okay. it looks like. Yes, we are live. Okay. So one more click of a button for Facebook.
Mark Burik (00:26.874)
And we're live everywhere. Awesome. Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Better at Beach podcast, YouTube channel, Instagram, Facebook, volleyball group. If you're not in any of those, just let us know where you need to be found and we will certainly get you there. But we are currently live streaming on the Better Beach YouTube channel. We are on Instagram live. We want you guys to participate.
Brandon Joyner (00:42.571)
you
Mark Burik (00:55.884)
We have a chat in our Facebook group, Volleyball Tips for Players, Coaches, and Parents, and we have a really special episode. So if you're listening to this on a podcast, okay, I really, I want you to keep listening. I know you're driving in your car or maybe falling asleep to our sweet, sweet voices, but on YouTube and on Facebook, if you look for,
all -inclusive Punta Cana camp resort tour. We're going to post it everywhere. Brandon just got back from his scout visit where he headed to the Palma Real Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. If you guys don't know, we are running a seven -day all -inclusive event, an international
event and originally we had invited only alumni and once all of our alumni got their tickets, we actually only have eight spots left for men and 12 spots left for women. But for the people who are already signed up, this video is for you just to get you a little bit excited. And if you haven't signed up, well, we're going to take you through a little tour of what it's going to be like. Brandon took videos.
Brandon took pictures and we're gonna get a nice little tour, walk around and introduction to our all -inclusive camp that's coming up. Again, is going to be October, no, sorry. That camp is going to be November 30th to December 6th. So if you guys want to spend a little post Thanksgiving celebration with us, you can turn it into a nice little, I don't know, 10 day, two week vacation or you can come.
right at the end of all of your Turkey leftovers, just finish off so that you can get, get all the all inclusive eats and drinks you want. But again, November 30th to December 6th, we were going to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic at this all inclusive resort. Brandon just ran his scout trip. And so we're excited to have him present. We're going to watch a video guys. If you're on Instagram live, I know that you can't see it. So we're going to be talking through it. However,
Mark Burik (03:16.306)
if you want to join and you want to see where this video is, I recommend that you open up our live stream on YouTube, which is at better at beach volleyball YouTube channel, or you can go to our Facebook group, which is called volleyball tips for players, coaches, and parents. There's a little line there better at beach. So
We are in both and I want you guys to come and get the most out of this. We're going to be talking through it, but I think the visuals are going to be cool. And so if you're on Instagram right now, you might be missing out on the visuals, visuals. Okay. So what we're going to do here is we're going to share the screen and then Brandon is going to walk us through this resort. Now, Brandon, how was it?
Brandon Joyner (04:05.453)
Nice.
You know, it was exactly what you would expect from an all -inclusive resort. No, was honestly, it was great. We kind of, it's been a long time coming. I think we started having these talks with the Palmarial like in January, right? When we were wrapping up all of our stuff, we finalized it, camp went on sale. And then it was time for me to go actually check it out.
Maybe should have done that a little different. But we're lucky. Everything's great. The hotel itself is beautiful. The sand is amazing. I know we have a lot of people that always have questions about that. I think I explain it pretty well where it's the depth is deep enough where we won't get hurt, but shallow enough where we'll have some fun. So it's not like Florida where
your dive in might find the bottom. It's definitely not like Hermosa where you can train for six months and still feel like you haven't played volleyball before. The sand's just, it's fairly powdery, it's really nice, it's a good depth. But yeah, I'm excited. So the reason that I ended up taking this video is because every time I tried to take...
Mark Burik (05:33.496)
Hmm.
Brandon Joyner (05:34.829)
Video of like the different areas. I just always felt like I was missing something So even though this video might seem long we're gonna try to scrub through it and eventually we'll fast forward through the through the times that I'm just Talking even though we're not gonna have me talking at all on this But it was kind of nice to just be able to give you guys an idea of what the property looks like and it's Big enough small enough where in 15 minutes. I was able to walk around
the entire property and see everything. So yeah, I think we can kind of get going if we want. And we can just, we can kind of just start from right here. So all we're looking at right now on the camera is, Mark, let's go ahead and stop for a second. Maybe go back a little bit. I know, it just gets better and better. Go back a little bit more.
Mark Burik (06:11.212)
I love it. Look at this view.
Brandon Joyner (06:36.553)
Okay, so there we go. All right. So this is looking at the entrance. Okay, so this is where when you guys, I'm gonna talk a lot right now to people who are.
Brandon Joyner (06:55.575)
Two people who are already signed up for the camp. If you're not signed up for the camp, get signed up. Like Mark said, there's a limited space. But whenever we get dropped off, this is where we're gonna get dropped off from. Okay, so we've already, we're in the middle of arranging a shuttle service so that you guys get picked up from the airport so you don't have to worry about all that stuff. You're going to be driven from the airport straight to the resort. When we walk into the resort, this is what you see. Okay, to the left.
Mark Burik (07:24.364)
Okay, so there is a little check in area if you happen to come
Brandon Joyner (07:26.133)
There is a little check -in area. If you happen to come by yourself and you're not with the entire group, then that's where you're going to be checking in. And to the right.
We go forward a little bit. This is just like a fun little hangout area. I got coffee here a lot in the mornings. It's called the Gin... Free everything. Everything's free, man. There is one place that's not free. So this is the Ginger Bar and it's open 24 -7.
Mark Burik (07:49.419)
Is it free coffee? It's all inclusive. forgot.
Brandon Joyner (08:04.363)
Okay, they have coffees, have alcoholic beverages, non -alcoholic beverages, juices, smoothies, milkshakes, anything you would want. And it's nice. It's kind of, it's a little bit of kind of separated from the hotel, but I ended up finding myself there a lot. It's one of the places that has like prepared cappuccinos, lattes, all this stuff. Okay. Once we start going and we start moving downstairs, now we're starting to get to...
Mark Burik (08:29.752)
We're moving downstairs now, we're to get...
Brandon Joyner (08:33.143)
kind of the main area of the resort. Okay, I kind of talked about this on the video a little bit more, but we're gonna do a little U -turn real quick. All right, and this is where we're gonna come in and actually do our check -in. Okay, once again, if you get there by yourself, there probably will be people down here that you can check in these two counters. This is really the only time that you guys will use this area.
Mark Burik (08:38.636)
We're talk about this on the video a little bit more, but we're going to do a little U -turn.
Brandon Joyner (09:03.115)
back in back there a little bit where you saw those people coming out. That is kind of a conference center. So we won't be using that. And then the only other thing to really show on this end of the resort is a little gym. So.
Mark Burik (09:03.566)
Ooh.
Brandon Joyner (09:21.899)
Yeah, for you.
Mark Burik (09:22.314)
Is it like a quality hotel gym or is it one of the small ones? want to, you know, disappoint people right away, but I'm a bit picky with my gyms and hotels.
Brandon Joyner (09:28.695)
I know, see? I know you are. And that's what I was wondering what it would look like. I think it's okay. Size is all right. Floor space is a little limited. But as you see, we're walking in now and we have nice little cardio machine. So to the left, that's where we have all of our free weights, some areas to get down to the floor, kettlebells, dumbbells.
little squat rack, little bench press. And then when you turn around, a lot more space. We have our cardio machines, bikes in the middle, and then like the typical machines that you would see at every hotel. I worked out here. I made it a point. I was going to work out every day. I made it in every day. I got a full workout in. It didn't stop me from like, there wasn't really anything I couldn't do. And that was the most people that I ever saw in it. So I think it was like,
three or four people, most of the time it was just me and maybe one other person. So I think it does the job. And there's like little things, little add -ons that you can get in the gym, like a little massage. It's with one of the TheraGuns, but it's like $15 for a five minute or 10 minute little like massage gun. Bunch of other things that you can do as well. All right. This is just a...
Mark Burik (10:47.426)
Okay. Nice. Is that the gift shop there?
Brandon Joyner (10:55.167)
Yeah, a little gift shop and then there's like sun they sell sunscreen. They sell like some snacks and stuff like that shirts hats. It's pretty big didn't even go in there once because. Everything was provided so didn't need it alright. So this this area is really cool. So it's it's it looks great during the day, but at night.
Mark Burik (11:14.136)
Whoa, look at this.
Brandon Joyner (11:24.135)
One, these fountains make a lot of noise. Okay. So even though we're not getting, getting the sound, it's a very like relaxing area and at night, the lighting is really, really cool. a lot of people, so when I went, it wasn't very, wasn't very busy. And at nights before dinners, this area is where people were like hanging out before they got their reservations or some people afterwards, they get a drink to go, go sit in a little area and kind of hang out.
So I have a feeling we'll be hanging out in this little area quite a bit So go ahead and pause the video mark All of the so when you were looking out at that I Don't really even know what to call it main area Everything along it like within the walls of that of that area like what we're looking at right now these are all restaurants, so
Mark Burik (12:02.669)
Yeah, yeah.
Mark Burik (12:17.942)
of that area like what we're looking at right now. These are all restaurants. So right straight ahead of us, I think that's like a Mediterranean place.
Brandon Joyner (12:25.877)
Right straight ahead of us, I think that's like a Mediterranean place. And then as you kind of keep going around.
Brandon Joyner (12:36.951)
Cool.
Brandon Joyner (12:42.573)
These are more restaurants. So the only thing that's not included in the bar other than like upgraded steaks and stuff like that if you're at the steakhouse, this is a wine bar, which the wine bar is not included, but I saw people in there every day. It looks like a really cool environment. Looks relaxing. Looks like a fun night. Then all of the along this side where we're currently going, these are more restaurants. So they had
Mark Burik (12:43.672)
These are more restaurants. So the only thing that's not included in the bar other than like, concentrated dates and stuff like that, you're gonna have to take out. This is a wine bar, which the wine bar is not included, we've got people in there every day. It looks like a really cool environment. It looks relaxing. looks like a fun night. And along the side where we're currently going,
Brandon Joyner (13:11.051)
I think the only place I didn't eat is an Italian place. Mainly just personal preference, not a big pasta and pizza guy. they had one night I ate at like an Asian fusion restaurant. That was delicious. Then one night right next to that is a steakhouse. And then a little bit further down there is a Mexican place.
Mark Burik (13:19.606)
I'm
Brandon Joyner (13:40.813)
and then Italian Okay, so those are all the restaurants that you need to either have a reservation for or that you're gonna be walking up Just being okay with waiting if you want. I think one
Mark Burik (13:55.866)
So.
You said that the, the, if you wanted to reserve it with a group specifically, that's larger than one, two or three people, they ask you to make a reservation, which is just like a phone call, but you could walk up no matter what.
Brandon Joyner (14:11.883)
Yeah, so you could do both. I think really it's just going to depend on how, how busy it is. Once again, like my, the time that I was here, there was nobody there. so we had plenty of time, but, one thing that I, that I really want to do is we're going to create a reservation, maybe one hour, two hours per night at like two restaurants each. And then people can go on, they can sign up.
for whichever night or whichever reservation they want to attend. And then that way we're gonna help people kind of sit together, be with a better Beach family. I think that that's always one of the most fun things that we do is having our dinner. So I didn't wanna lose that aspect and I think that's the best way that we're gonna get to do it. So obviously if you're going with somebody and you wanna have dinner on your own and you just wanna get away from us.
You can book that however you want. can book it on the site, do whatever you need. But yeah, we will definitely be having group dinners. Just might be a little bit smaller than we're used to. All right. Okay, so this building to the left right now, I'm getting ready to walk into is, this is the like big dining hall. Okay. One thing, so this is where breakfast, lunch, dinner, if you're not getting a reservation anywhere,
Mark Burik (15:20.366)
So, this building to the left right now, getting ready to walk into, is, this is the like big dining hall. Okay, one thing, so this is where breakfast, lunch, dinner, if you're not getting a reservation anywhere, this is where you're gonna come eat. Okay, there are hours where the buffet is open, so it is buffet style.
Brandon Joyner (15:36.769)
this is where you're gonna come eat. Okay, there are hours where the buffet is open. So it is buffet style. One thing that I absolutely loved about this, about the whole resort is everywhere I went, the first question that I got asked was, do you have any food allergies? So I think that they do, I don't have any food allergies. I tried it a couple of times, just being like, no tomatoes and.
Mark Burik (15:45.738)
Yes.
Brandon Joyner (16:04.565)
I think they did change up the way that the meals were made. but I think they, they really do care about that. And in the buffet, so you can ahead and pause it a little bit more. in the buffet area, there is, there's ready -made food and then there's also like ready to cook food. So kind of like an omelet bar station. I know I went in there for lunch one day and they were doing like, and,
Mark Burik (16:14.444)
in the buffet area there is ready made food and there's like ready cooked food so kind of like an olive bar station
Brandon Joyner (16:34.145)
kind of like a pad Thai station where you can make your own. so I think that they're very, very willing to work around specific allergies. and all the food that I had was, was really good. You know, I, I don't think that there was a meal that I had where I was like, this is below par. I mean, I'm not a great critic as far as food goes. I'm more of a sustenance guy myself, but
Mark Burik (16:56.026)
This is below mark. I mean, I'm not a great critic as far as studio is more obsessed with this guy myself, but...
Brandon Joyner (17:03.79)
but I did enjoy the food. and if you need to go a little bit more specific, so Mark, you can kind of keep going.
Take our way outside now.
Brandon Joyner (17:21.965)
And around back here, so this is another restaurant that's, I think they call it the snack bar, but it's open almost all day and it has its own specific menu where you can tell them like, if you have an extreme allergy or something like that, this is probably where you're gonna be eating a lot of your meals. All right, and then this is where our courts are gonna be. So, yeah.
Mark Burik (17:43.342)
Look at this.
Brandon Joyner (17:48.253)
It's a, if you look on the side there where those fences are, and then to that Palm tree, that's kind of sticking out in the middle of nowhere. That is plenty of space for a court to go. Okay. So it's, think it's kind of hard to, hard to tell, with that, but we're going to be able to put probably a couple of courts in this row. See, I'm kind of explaining it as I'm going at one point, I pick up some sand and throw it and I'm like,
Mark Burik (17:59.534)
the estate for a point in time.
Brandon Joyner (18:17.429)
I don't know if it's doing anything, but yeah. Yeah. So it's, mean, it's nice. we will certainly have a couple of courts in that row and then some, some courts down by the water as well. one thing that I really liked. that's, that's going to be where our volleyball is. if you want to pause here for a second, that's a good place. So, this pool, go back.
Mark Burik (18:20.028)
That's groomed. yeah.
Brandon Joyner (18:50.477)
Okay, there you go. So this pool right here, where are going?
There you are. Perfect.
All right, so this pool is like the main pool area. Okay, so there are parts of this resort that are kid -friendly and then there are parts of this resort that are adults -only. Okay, so this side is going to be the kid -friendly side and this is where they'll do like obstacle courses, little fun races, paddleboard yoga, a lot of different.
Mark Burik (19:13.318)
This is where they'll do like obstacle courses, little fun races, paddle board yoga, a lot of different activities. One thing that I really like about horror movies is
Brandon Joyner (19:31.571)
activities. One thing that I really like about where we're going to be playing is if you can see the building in the top left of the video, those are bathrooms. And there's a couple along the property here, but right next to the courts we'll have bathrooms and we have showers. So I think that that worked out pretty well. All right, let's keep moving.
Mark Burik (19:36.718)
the building at the top left of the video. Those are bathrooms. There's a couple along the property here, but right next to the courts go my bathrooms and we have showers. So I think that that worked out pretty well. All right.
Brandon Joyner (19:58.765)
All right.
This is where I say how cool it is that we have bathrooms. This is a little like kid pool or jacuzzi something. Should be holding swim lessons by then. Yeah, and then this is kind of the, just the other side of the resort. So the pool is beautiful. It really is nice. It's separated by that bridge. There's another restaurant like right.
Mark Burik (20:06.562)
that's a nice kiddie pool there for Mackenzie. Nice.
Brandon Joyner (20:31.713)
to the right there. I didn't get a chance to eat there. It was closed when I was gone, or when I was there, but apparently it's like another style of the buffet.
And as you keep going.
Maybe I'll skip ahead here in a second. But just on the other side of this, so those two tiki huts, the tiki hut to the left, the one that's in the water, that's a pool bar. We love a good pool bar. A bar's just better when it's in the pool. I don't have any other statement other than that.
Mark Burik (21:00.117)
Yes.
Mark Burik (21:11.734)
I the wrong year to get off alcohol.
Brandon Joyner (21:14.165)
I know. Well, it's not, it's not too late. You can just finish the last, the last month strong. but there are a couple of little like beach bars around the property. this one is a pool bar, that little building right in the middle there. That's, that's a restaurant that I don't think we're going to have access to unless you're upgraded to kind of like a, it's a kind of like VIP suite. but that food at that restaurant is good enough.
Mark Burik (21:18.771)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (21:43.777)
So that might be worth it. All right. You can probably skip maybe. Yeah, you can go through this a little bit.
Mark Burik (21:55.522)
it's so nice.
Brandon Joyner (21:56.717)
So this little area, this is where I spent a lot of time on the site visit was the kind of cabanas. Your room comes with one of these. So like when you walk up, you can go sit wherever you want. Usually there are people out there that kind of direct you to where you want to go sit. And then they will deliver drinks to you, which is, you know, really made my week. There's only one thing.
Mark Burik (22:22.872)
Nice.
Brandon Joyner (22:25.197)
better than a pool bar and it's when somebody brings you a drink from the pool bar to your seat on the beach. All right. You can probably go like 20 seconds ahead, Mark. Keep going, keep going, keep going.
Mark Burik (22:44.312)
place looks massive.
Brandon Joyner (22:46.381)
You know, I even kind of think this is a part of the video where I even say that, but the resort itself is, it is big, but it doesn't, it's never like daunting. You know, I think you can get from anywhere in the resort to that area on the beach, like within a five, 10 minute walk. Okay, so.
Mark Burik (23:00.685)
Mm.
Mark Burik (23:12.076)
That's great. Sometimes I've been to resorts where it was, you know, it's a three quarters of a mile walk from your room to wherever you're playing or hanging out. And you're just like, I'm not going back.
Brandon Joyner (23:20.629)
yeah. Yeah, or there's like 28 stories that you have to wait on the elevator, which is not a bad thing if you're at that counter resort. I'm sure you're still having fun. So these little pool areas, this is now we're over to the adults only section. Okay. So this pool was full when I got there. A lot of people were hanging out here.
This pool as well. It almost has like a lap pool feel to it, but the rooms to the left The bottom floor is actually walk out to the pool, which is kind of But all adults could be here they can hang out and in the lawn chair and the chairs and the little cabanas Cabanas you might have to get an upgrade for or something but Yeah, so pretty nice little area
Mark Burik (24:10.658)
That's nice. So there is, so there's an adult side and there's a kid's side, but, so this is just a place where if you do have kids with you, it's like, okay, this is where the adults can relax in their own pool without kids screaming or throwing anything ideally. and then the other side is just welcome to all of them. So they're not even separate resorts. They're just like, Hey, we prefer if you've got kids, they stay on this three quarters of the resort.
Brandon Joyner (24:14.092)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (24:24.407)
Right.
Brandon Joyner (24:28.506)
Mm
Brandon Joyner (24:37.505)
Yeah, so there's a sign if you walk inside where it literally just says adults only. There's nothing on the outside. Like when we were the tour that we took in this video, there is not another sign that said adults only. but everybody kind of abided by it. All right, we're almost done.
Mark Burik (25:00.428)
Now, are there any other sports? they have any tennis courts or pickleball courts or anything like that? It's just the gym and the beach. Okay.
Brandon Joyner (25:09.4)
Just a gem in the beach, yeah. There is a partner hotel.
That's also Malia, which is, guess, the big name over it, which we might have access to. But I didn't ask that question. All right. So this is the last thing that we're really showing in the video. So this little area to the right, this is the spa. So this is where they do massages of all types. And I think can get packages.
That also include like the stuff that's at the gym and everything like that. And then this is the big pool for the adults only section. Okay, that little building underneath is another little pool bar. And then also the rooms around this is where majority of our rooms are gonna be put. Okay, unless somebody is booking with family.
Mark Burik (26:08.782)
Okay.
Brandon Joyner (26:14.077)
If you're coming with adults only, they're going to put you in the adults only section. Yeah. so yeah, it's, yeah. So that little area right there to the right is a little pool bar. it was kind of funny because when I was taking the video, were doing CPR training. So it was like, they're like pulling people out of the pool and you couldn't really get it on the video, which was kind of nice. I'm sure it would have, there's your guy.
Mark Burik (26:18.732)
interesting okay
Mark Burik (26:23.415)
Is this another bar here?
Brandon Joyner (26:44.737)
Yeah, so, but overall, like I.
Brandon Joyner (26:52.941)
It's kind of funny. think I had these built in expectations of what the resort would be. And even though this place is wonderful, it meet every expectation I was having. I think I was like, I had high hopes. I was like, man, like this is great. Our first resort or our first all inclusive camp in the Dominican. I've been in the Dominican before, loved it.
Mark Burik (27:09.557)
Nice.
Brandon Joyner (27:22.669)
played in the Dominican, loved playing there, was hot obviously. But when I got here, I was like, okay, this is gonna be really, really fun. One of the things, a couple of questions that I got even when I was there, how's the wind? And I don't think that the wind is much different than Hermosa. So I think it's very similar.
Mark Burik (27:47.714)
rate.
Brandon Joyner (27:51.597)
There will be times of the day where it's between that five to eight mile per hour range, okay, which if you've ever played in that, that's pretty much a normal day, no wind. A majority of the day will be between that eight to 12, eight to 13. And then some occurrences, it'll pop up, but I personally like,
the way I talk about it is would I have canceled a class? And I wouldn't, the whole time that I was there, I wouldn't have canceled a single class. And I think that that's really cool because even in November, and I asked the guys how the weather was in November and he was like, it's perfect. So he said the wind should be very similar to where we are now. We kind of get past that little hurricane season and then
Mark Burik (28:29.537)
Great.
Brandon Joyner (28:50.541)
The only time that it did pick up, the wind picked up a little bit was when a storm came in. Storm lasted 20 minutes and then it was back to normal. yeah, it just seems like a great little venue. Every staff member I met was beyond inviting, answered any question. It didn't matter if I was asking somebody who was working at a restaurant about the hotel or the hotel about
Mark Burik (29:14.91)
I it's far as the people go to food. I said that already. Food is great.
Brandon Joyner (29:20.105)
specific restaurant or whatever the question was about, everybody was willing to find out the answer. So I think it, as far as the people go, the food, I said that already, food was great.
tested out the drinks, that's for sure. And okay, so now we're looking at the rooms and the rooms, they might be a little different, but I have a feeling that they're super simple. Like even when I talked to my main contact, Chris, he told me that the room that I was in could be photographed because that's what is gonna be given to everybody.
Mark Burik (30:07.257)
Got it.
Brandon Joyner (30:09.459)
I was in the little reserve section, which the only difference he told me was that I got access to that little restaurant that I told you guys about, and I was closer to the beach. But I had a king size room or king size bed, and it was a good size, you know.
Mark Burik (30:33.082)
there's a little office kind of desk space right behind the bed so you can work. How was the internet?
Brandon Joyner (30:34.828)
Yeah.
Yep, internet was fine. I wasn't really holding me back from too many things. I was able to get on and check any work stuff that I needed to do. Sending videos and stuff like that was a little bit of trouble. But those were just the videos that I was trying to send you. Which I also probably could have figured out if I gave a little bit more time. This is the little cabana that I spent most of my days at.
Mark Burik (30:44.578)
Mm
Brandon Joyner (31:07.381)
It was pretty nice. I did go on this trip solo and it was quite refreshing and relaxing. So it wasn't too shabby. But yeah, a lot of these pictures are just kind of still frames of the tour that I gave you guys with the walkthrough. We'll include all of those. But yeah, property was pretty phenomenal.
Mark Burik (31:18.824)
Awesome. Amazing.
Brandon Joyner (31:35.409)
A couple things that I would say are important are They do have laundry Okay, so that is something that we are gonna be able to do we're definitely going to be sending out some information about theme nights because this place has the ability to have some good theme parties and then While I'm thinking about it
Cash, mainly for tipping purposes. never, I always get kind of funky when I'm at an all -inclusive place because I don't know if we should, like sometimes we go to countries where we should be tipping after dinner, sometimes we shouldn't, blah, blah, blah. I never felt like tipping after dinner was a huge thing.
Mark Burik (32:08.612)
Okay.
Mark Burik (32:15.734)
was in place because I don't know if we should, like sometimes we go to countries where we should be after dinner, sometimes we should, all along. I never felt like tipping after dinner was a huge thing because one, they never really gave you that option.
Brandon Joyner (32:33.003)
because one, never really even gave you that option. It was kind of just like gave you your food, didn't even give you something to sign at the end, you just kind of left. But the place where I did feel like I wanted to tip somebody was like when the bellboy delivered me to the room when I had to get a taxi by myself. I didn't set it up ahead of time, surprise, surprise. But
The taxis only took cash. My guy did allow me to use a credit card, but I had to go to like a gas station and do it some weird way. So we're going to avoid that. And that should.
Mark Burik (33:15.176)
But that's taken care of because everybody is getting the pickup from the resort, right?
Brandon Joyner (33:20.201)
Yes. So the only thing that I could see if somebody has to travel to the resort by themselves or on their own is if you get there a day where we're not offering it, because we're most likely going to offer that shuttle service for one day to and from. And so if you're coming outside of that window, you might need to do something on your own. But we do have information. Now I have the links.
if you have to set up your own pickup, then we can do that ahead of time and you guys don't have to deal with the taxi drivers like I did. Although I have very amazing league good slash bad luck with taxi drivers. I don't know if you've ever heard my story, but it is, if anybody watching hasn't heard a good story in a while and you want to ask me about my taxi story, it's worth hearing.
Mark Burik (33:58.584)
Heh.
Mark Burik (34:19.309)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (34:20.442)
to just like putting it in there a little bit, you Yeah.
Mark Burik (34:23.156)
Exciting. Well, guys, the first thing is if you haven't already booked this again, we've got eight male spots left. You saw there's limited space on the beach. So, initially we scheduled for four courts and we should be able to fit six and we're going to do it slightly differently than we've done it in Florida where we're actually going to do it in waves. So we're going to be training in waves. So we're going to have.
The ladies have the early session one day and the guys have the later session. And then we're going to flip that onto the next day. We're again, nice little two hour practice. Now during that two hour practice, we're going to give you guys an optional mobility flow warmup that we'd like you to come to before leading up to each practice. So if you have a 10 o 'clock practice, we're going to say, Hey, show up at nine 30 for this mobility flow and warmup. And if you have the
early practice, we'd like you to show up, you know, 730 for the, for the full warmup. And that way we hit the ground running with a full on to our practice. Okay. The way to book this, if you haven't yet. So if you're watching or if you're listening and you haven't booked it, just go to better at beach .com forward slash camps. The link is also around this video. can click in the description and you'll see a bunch of our camps, of course, but
This one specifically is November 30th to December 6th, and it is in Punta Cana. And you can check that out there. We know that it's not always possible every year to take off seven full days to take a full trip. So we do have other camps available on that page. And specifically, I know this, we're talking just about the one in Dominican Republic, but I do want to remind you that we've got
a lot of dates coming up. we've got a three day camp in New Orleans, September 6th to eighth. We've got a three day camp in Asheville, North Carolina, September 13th to 15th. And we've got a really cool one in Miami, September 23rd to 27th. So if you don't know, or if you've never heard of the king and queen of the court competitions, they feature pro athletes from all countries and often partnered up with.
Mark Burik (36:44.75)
teams from other countries. So it's kind of almost like a fantasy league where you get to see some athletes who are like playing with somebody they would not normally play with and have never played with and King and Queen of the court is timed rounds. So you play King and Queen of the court and at the end of a timed round, the winners of people who have scored the most points on the King or Queen side, they get to move on to the next round and it's a huge stadium.
huge party, there will be a ton of international athletes and we've partnered with them and we're running a five day camp leading up to that. So that our camp is September 23rd to 27th. And the competition I believe is, let me take a look at my calendar. the competition is going to be the 27th Friday.
Brandon Joyner (37:37.825)
27th to the 29th.
Mark Burik (37:42.26)
28th, 29th. And the cool part about that is if you sign up for our full camp, you're going to get a custom made pro Jersey from the King and Queen of the court event. You're going to get tickets into the event. So train with us leading up to it. If you don't have the full week, then you can come for one day. Those trainings are going to be in the morning, the earlier part of the day, and just very relaxed, do it on your own type evenings. So you can consider it as single day clinics.
or you can join us for the entire thing. And we will be playing training, meeting up with a bunch of pros and getting some ball out there. So there's no doubt that you will be able to see and hang out with some pretty awesome volleyball personalities and athletes. So that is again, September 23rd to the 27th. And then the actual event is the 27th, 28th, 29th.
Mark Burik (38:38.632)
And that is going to be a really, really fun event. we have opened up further. have opened up some of our smaller private courts. Now, as our coaches have gotten used to our system and as we've been able to grow, we've been able to offer some smaller camps, smaller events. So a few of them will be, you guys might've heard that I have an Airbnb out in St. Pete, Florida with a single court. And so for those, we're going to have.
Single gender, single level camps there. And those are very small private camps, way different than our big group camps, like we're talking about here. So we invite you to those. then October 27th to November 3rd, our Halloween camp at the postcard inn in St. Pete beach. That's going to be another big one. So that's available if you are a volleyball junkie, or if you just don't have your passport yet and can't come to the Punta Cana.
Brandon Joyner (39:36.813)
That was on my list. Make sure if you are coming to Boone Togano, make sure you have your passport.
Mark Burik (39:44.8)
Yes, passports are important. for those of you who are watching who have booked, you need to book your rooms and you need to book your flights. Remember that the volleyball training fee through us includes a lot of includes your swag. We're going to be delivering and shipping some balls and some, some of your, your equipment, your t -shirts, hats, and a big gift bag from us. So that's coming soon. we're going to probably reach out and make sure that we have your address so that we can send it to the right place.
Brandon Joyner (39:45.811)
End, period. Yeah.
Mark Burik (40:14.584)
But make sure that you book your flights. The reason that we need to do this is so that we can coordinate your travel, your pickup and everything. So if you have not yet do it, do it this week. We're going to be sending a couple emails. Please just keep a heads up. Like your travel is going to be important so that we can make sure that there are no hiccups when hiccups or hiccups, when you're getting picked up.
from the airport and dropped off. So you're going to need your, your arriving flight and your return flight. We're going to need that information. We're going to be sending it out in a form. So if you haven't booked it already, please, please, book it this week and you need your flight and you need to book the room, which those links are on the thank you page after you opt in for our camp. If
You don't know where to book or how to book using our code because you get a discount for going with better at beach that make sure that you get in touch with us and you get your room sorted and you get your flight sorted. Super, super, super important. Okay. if you are planning on coming with a group, like a private group and you guys want to be on your court. Also, please email Brandon at better at beach .com.
If you think that you have four or more players who want to be on the same court, we might have room for one more small group where you can have your own court. If you want, you can also get a group booking and we can sort of disseminate you into the groups. But if you want a discount and you know that some friends are planning on coming with you or you can convince them to come on an international trip, if you want to save a little bit of money, you can get in touch with us.
and we can give you some group booking links, just email Brandon at better at beach .com.
Brandon Joyner (42:08.493)
Love a group.
Mark Burik (42:11.148)
Absolutely love a Yes.
Brandon Joyner (42:11.435)
Always have, always will. If you wanna get on my good side quickly, come to a camp with a group of people.
Mark Burik (42:18.958)
That's man, that's going to be a fun trip. And I'm so excited that that trip is coming on the back end of me and Janelle and our grandmother and and kiddo little Mackenzie. We're going to be traveling to Spain and Portugal and we're going to be. Vacationing slash investigating some resorts and beaches there.
Brandon Joyner (42:26.923)
It really is.
Brandon Joyner (42:48.493)
It's only fair. I got to do this one, so you get to do the next one. Yeah.
Mark Burik (42:48.545)
But let's make sure that this first international trip is just a banger.
Only fair, only fair. Guys, the links are around this video or around this podcast. If you do want to check out the video where we're showing the pictures and the videos of the, of the resort, you can also watch this in our Facebook group. We've posted it and we've pinned it to our Facebook group, volleyball tips for players, coaches, and parents by better at beach. You can also find it on our YouTube channel. And if you have not yet,
Go ahead and join that group. have FIVB and USA referees who are trained. They train the entire nation. wait, the entire world in how to referee volleyball. So if you're ever thinking that you need rules questions answered for whatever reason, they have decided to dedicate their time to this free public group and they answer a lot of those questions.
and it's a great way to stay in touch and keep up with what we are doing in that public Facebook group. If you're not subscribed to our YouTube channel, please do so. And you can also follow us on Instagram at better at beach volleyball. We're also starting to get our tick tock and Twitter and everything up and running because we have added Marine Kidda to our team. So we're super excited to have her in charge of our marketing. And she's going to help us really get
Brandon Joyner (44:04.523)
You
Mark Burik (44:17.944)
coaching into places that don't have coaching. That is one of her main prerogatives. It's, know that it can be tough to travel. know that it's not always the easiest, but we also know that people love volleyball and they want good high quality information. And so that's why we do so many of those three day camps so that we can bring them closer to people who don't have that level of coaching so that we can introduce the game in a high level way. And, you know,
Most importantly, we just give opportunities to people who want to dive into and be a part of the game. And the cool part about those is I'd say 30 to 40 % of the people who attend our three day camps. Aren't even from those cities, which is bonkers to me. People travel. And I know one of my friends and campers, Mark Spellman, he comes to camps and he dictates his work schedule based on
Where we're going because we keep going into new cool cities, like Austin, like bend, Oregon and Hermosa and New York. And so he actually. You know, makes his travel schedule in accordance with our camp schedule. And the cool part is because he does travel a lot for work, he gets friends, teammates, competitors, training partners, tournament partners in all of these different cities. So that any time he travels, he already knows somebody there, somebody to stay with somebody to play with and.
That's, that's so cool. We talk a lot about community and we can create this global and international community where you can find players wherever you're going, traveling to visiting family, cetera. So check out one of those three day camps, but make sure that you have booked this all inclusive camp. I will say one more thing that is a new program that we've introduced that we've been introducing. So if you are a B, A or AA level player.
And you are hoping to win tournaments and see your level jump this coming season. We've started the elite player program and I'm coming up on the end of the intense phase with my roster. So in three to four weeks, excuse me.
Mark Burik (46:39.246)
closer to like five to eight weeks after I get back from Spain, I will be opening my roster to four more players who want to dive in for 10 weeks. So it's 10 weeks of one video lesson a week with me or Brandon. And then it's one lesson a month, one Q and A lesson a month for 10 months after that. What we do there is we customize your training plan. We customize your workouts. We give you all of the
must hits for your skills and your technique. And the players that I'm working with are already seeing just massive breakthroughs in their games and their skills because we finally given them direction, right? People think that you can't really improve if you don't have that coach in person and that that's absolute trash because if that were true,
You know, Tom Brady, Kobe, LeBron, they wouldn't be spending all of this time watching films, studying their game and learning from the people who can help them with their technique. So we've got performance enhancement specialists. We've got nutritionists. We've got me and Brandon and Matt and Marine's a good backup and Logan Weber and DJ are always jumping in as well. So along with those 20 one -on -one meetings throughout the year in the course of the season with us.
planning and helping you and guiding every step of your training, programming, physical, mental skill, technique, strategy, et cetera. Okay. Along with that, you're also going to get access to two group meetings every week. One from our coach Academy, the complete coach Academy, and you'll get access to the complete player program, which is just group meetings where you can check in with video analysis and see some other players also.
on their journey and getting their videos analyzed. Okay, so if you head on over to betterbeach .com forward slash film session, we just opened up that page and right now me and Brand, well, Brandon's available right now. I will be available at the end of October after I finished the intense phase with my current players. So if you're interested in actually legitimately
Mark Burik (48:53.452)
getting your next level, your next rating and playing above where you are right now and fixing all of those mistakes. Go ahead and check that out. Betterbeach .com forward slash film session. And we can work with you one on one for a full year. So that's super exciting. I think the one thing that we've left out is our coaching roster. Now for the Dominican Republic, I'll be there.
Brandon will be there. Okay. and we're bringing back basically our camp and coach favorites from all of our camps. The coaches who we know have absolutely given the most to the players who are getting requested the most for the private lessons at camps and who are dedicated coaches as well as crazy good athletes. So JM plumber.
and Ali Denny, our little spitfire ball of energy are going to be there. Logan Weber, who's coming off a few great finishes in the FIVB and the Elite 16, he is going to be there. Matt Hazel, who is about to have a victory, he is going to be there. He's the head of our Complete Player program and runs that community and group. And of course,
Brandon Joyner (49:56.045)
in a pub or yin and yang.
Brandon Joyner (50:13.453)
You
Mark Burik (50:21.688)
We've got Marine Kena and DJ Klasnik and DJ Serbian National Championship and FIVB player for Serbia and AVP player as well. So right now.
Brandon Joyner (50:32.801)
No, Maureen might be catching up to all these players pretty soon. She had a couple qualifications this year and I think she decides to want to play volleyball. Yeah, don't get any ideas, Maureen. You're stuck.
Mark Burik (50:40.354)
Yeah, as soon as Marine just like really wants it. Yeah, yeah. But we've got a great, great squad of women's coaches, great squad of men's coaches who love coaching are damn good at it and will be there to have fun and enjoy that time with you. So we've got a great roster built out of coaches. And if you do want to ever become, if you're a coach and you're listening to this and you want to become a better at beach coach,
First step is joining the complete coach Academy where you can start learning our systems and we will get you coaching at a few three day camps to start. You'll be an assistant coach. We'll tell you what you need to do in terms of reps per minute. basically your geography where you're standing on the court, how to run a drill type of feedback. That's most influential. And we do that all year long in our complete coach Academy, but
If you want to turn this into something bigger and coach for better at beach at our three seven day camps and our all inclusive vacation camps, way to start that is through the complete coach Academy, which you can find on our website. So a lot of things.
Brandon Joyner (51:46.081)
Yeah, don't just email us and say, hey, I want to come coach the Dominican camp.
Mark Burik (51:51.31)
Yeah, we all do.
Brandon Joyner (51:54.497)
Like that joke's only good for dads and family.
Mark Burik (52:01.497)
Cool. moral of the story, head to betterbeach .com forward slash camps. Make sure that you book this trip to the Dominican Republic. Again, we have eight men's spots left and 12 women's spots. It's gonna be a banger. And if it's sold out by the time you get there, take a look at our Halloween camp in Post Card Inn, as well as our camp in Miami, Florida with the King and Queen of the Court event. Those are gonna be awesome. And if you can't make any trips,
Check out our three day camp schedule. We might be in New York. We're going to be in Cincinnati every month this year, which is pretty cool. And if you want us to come to your town, your court, your group, just email support at better at beach .com and we will set up a training with you and your crew. Happy to go and coach and bring coaching where it's not. really, really have some fun traveling and meeting new people. So.
I think that's all from us. Brandon, you have anything else?
Brandon Joyner (52:58.989)
That's it. Yeah, I think if you are signed up for Punta Cana, be ready for some emails where we're going to gather some information from y 'all. As far as if you've booked your hotel room, if you haven't do it, the hotel gets on me and says, Hey, we're this many days out. Does that mean you want to get rid of these amount of rooms from your room block? I don't have to make a decision on that for the next couple of weeks, but
Eventually I will so I need you guys to book those rooms immediately And then Get your flights I in the next week or two weeks. I'm going to be sending out a form like Mark said Asking for that information and that is so that one we can meet our Contract that we have in place with the resort and two so that I can set up a shuttle for you guys To get picked up and taken to the airport
at the correct times. all that information is pretty important. And I'll share everything else I have. Yeah.
Mark Burik (54:05.71)
Nice. Awesome. Brandon, thanks for taking it upon yourself to make that arduous journey to Punta Cana.
Brandon Joyner (54:13.899)
You know, it was a lot of travel. I flying from California to Dominican. was, it was like two, four hour flights. So you can feel a little bad for me, but once I got there, man, it was just, I think I got, I got most of my work done in the first like three hours and then it was four or five days of just really getting to know the resort, you know,
I just, knew I had to be the one to do it and I took that challenge on and I think I succeeded. So.
Mark Burik (54:49.682)
I love it. Okay. Doesn't look like we've got any questions in our chats, which means that we did a perfect and flawless job of explaining everything. But of course, if you guys have questions, you can head on over to our Facebook group, our YouTube channel, or just email support at better at beach .com as a final, final little piece of information. Our app is finally fully up and running. So if you search.
for the better at beach on line app, better at beach online. If you have never signed up for app before, or you don't have any of our courses, we have included a 10 day intro to volleyball, the beach 101. It's a 10 day course that comes with 10 lessons. And it also comes with 10 drills as well as three free vertical jump workouts and our drill book.
30, 60 central drills for beach volleyball. So all you have to do is search for better at beach online and the app. There's a couple of better at beach apps, but this one is better at beach online. Make sure you down that. And as soon as you opt in for that, you got a free 10 day course so that you can know what it's like to train with us in the full program online. And, we really want to, we're really pretty excited about the fact that that app is now available on Google play.
and in the iOS app store. So check it out if you want a free 10 day course, a free drill book and three free vertical jump workouts. We're happy to share that with you guys. Just download the Better at Beach online app. And that's all for today. Guys, thank you so much. Hopefully we will see you in Punta Cana. And if not, we'll see you at a camp or somewhere online. And thank you for listening. Thank you for following Brandon. Thanks for doing the trip and giving us the rundown.
Brandon Joyner (56:42.155)
My pleasure. Had a blast.
Mark Burik (56:43.586)
From me and Brandon, that's all. See you on the sand.
Brandon Joyner (56:46.859)
That's all folks, see you on the sand.
