Mark Burik (00:01.324)
Hey guys, Coach Matt here. Just wanted to drop in and say thank you for listening. You're our family. We appreciate you guys jumping in every week. This week we have co-founder of Better at Beach, Brandon Joyner, jumping in with us. And one thing that Brandon Joyner is really good at is setting a tone for practice. Whether he's playing or coaching, he does so well at creating a fun learning environment that stays positive and then that
and in the head space that the players need to be in that are also in the practice with him. And so we're going to be chatting through that a little bit. And I hope you guys gain some knowledge from this that you can take to your teams as a coach or as a player that is a leader on a team that you can take to your team and just create a positive fun environment to make everybody around you better. So thank you guys for tuning in. But Brandon, just got to give a rundown of who you are.
what you've done in your life, the accolades and also the coaching that you've done in your life and where you're at now, the fun adventures now. Awesome. Yeah. I'm Brandon Joyner. I'm one of the co-founders of Better A Beach. And yeah, I think as far as my
kind of resume of volleyball. It's been a while. I started playing when I was in high school. I got the chance to go play D1 at George Mason. That's where Mark and I met. And I played indoor volleyball for five years at Mason, coached for a little bit, went overseas and played professionally for think three seasons. Yeah, and then I started switching to the beach. I played
on various professional tours for the last eight to 10 years. And now I'm kind of switching to be a little bit more coach dependent. I am kind of taking a, I'm calling it a soft retirement from, from playing. We'll see what happens as far as if, if I hop back out there and play anything, it'll just be for fun and kind of.
Mark Burik (02:21.33)
Compete just with like good buddies Yeah, I think right now I'm in the middle of moving to putting my energy into more of the coaching realm so Really focusing on developing with better a beach developing our coaching system with how we coach other coaches and also Just getting out there more and and actually working with people again It's it's kind of crazy how much time
you know this, but how much time and energy playing takes out of you, you know, because we've, we've always wanted to create a product where we're able to give people as much useful information as we possibly can, give them the feedback, give them the ideas, but also try to lead them in a direction where they can get better on their own. with a little bit of help from us and
Now I'm kind of just diving full into that and kind of making myself available to the coaching world. So I think if I'm looking ahead, especially within next year, instead of competing, I hope to be on a sideline and a box for a team. Maybe one on the men's side, one on the women's side, that would be kind of ideal for me.
But yeah, other than that, just trying to see what we can do as far as now that I do have all this, I'm assuming I'll have more free time that I'm not particular spending on training and the whole volleyball staying in volleyball shape. I'll have a little bit more time to give back. So yeah, that's exciting. That's cool. And you also just picked up running too, right? Yeah. I know for a fact, just knowing who I am, I need something to.
push me forward, something that kind of gets me to get out of bed. And, I've been lifting hard for the last 20 years, Josh. So work working out is not something that is like particular. I I'm still working out a lot, but yeah, I'm thinking about getting into, like maybe the triathlon world and, and dabbling with that. yeah, it's been kind of fun. I recently, I don't have any like scheduled events or anything like that.
Mark Burik (04:42.604)
But since the last real tournament I played was Manhattan, which was like middle of August. And ever since then, I've been kind of just testing my body, trying to see how I react to long distance running, swimming, biking. And oddly enough, my body loves it. So it's been a really cool switch up. It's definitely a lot of new.
challenges and kind of just dealing with a different sport completely. But it's, been fun. I'm looking forward to it. Wow. That's fun. I can, can help you with the swimming part. thank you. Always looking for help. Yeah. We all need to learn how to swim a little better. yeah. 20, 20, four years of coaching swimming. I might be able to help you out a little bit. there you go. Yeah. I love it.
Awesome. Well, Brandon, was just thinking as we were going into today, I vividly remember a training session that I had with you with Megan, Coach Megan Bergdorf in California. And I remember leaving that practice like that was so fun. Like, I don't know what it was, but it was just so much fun. And I think of a lot of it went back to you that day and just your morale and just keeping it high.
And just chatting with you yesterday and hearing you talk about how you wanted to talk a little bit about how to keep that energy high and a good positive environment. I thought back to you as a player in that moment and how you did that as a player. And so I'm excited to hear about the ways that you do that as a coach as well. And so if you want to just kind of pop that can open.
I'd love to hear you kind of start that conversation with Josh here. What does it look like to create such a strong and fun and exciting learning environment for you as a coach? You know, I think one of the things that I've realized over the over the past, especially six years since we've been running better at Beach is the amount of people that I've gotten to work with.
Mark Burik (07:04.306)
and the amount of people I've gotten access to playing with, the common feeling as far as success goes is that there's a lot of positivity surrounding it. I know for me, I kind of had two instances where I felt this. One was as a player, right? And I got really lucky when I first moved out to California. was still kind of, I was having really good finishes, but I wasn't.
I wasn't blowing anybody's mind. You know, I was, I was having to grind through every single point, every single match that I played in. I think if I won, people were surprised if I lost, people were surprised. I was like kind of in that middle realm of like, people didn't know which brand and they were going to get, you know, and I, I got lucky enough to get pushed with a Mark had a lot of really good connections. So once I came out here and I started training with Mark lot, we would have these really, really good practices.
and then I also got kind of added into a really, really fun group with, like Eric Brannick, Andy Binesh, Casey Patterson, Troy, Rosie when he was still playing. some of these names are, are starting to retire. So it's kind of making me feel a little bit older as well, but, I, I had a moment where.
think Mark said something and another coach said something where I was going into practice and I was so intense that I wasn't actually getting better. And I think what was happening is I was showing up and I was so results driven, every single, if I lost, if I lost a point, I took it so personally. And as the practice went on, like my energy level and my ability to just communicate.
in general, just almost completely went away. And one of the things that was said to me was like, make sure if at, if nothing else, you're making the training experience enjoyable for everybody that's involved. You know, and so I think that was something that kind of really resonated with me. Because one, the coach was like, you're a great player.
Mark Burik (09:31.734)
You know how to make these plays, but one way that you can impact the practice is by like keeping everybody relaxed, you know, work hard, but celebrate the spell, celebrate the wins, get loud, cheer people on, do whatever you can. And so I kind of just like fell into that role at these practices where yeah, I was competing. I was, I was doing a good job and I, I was at a very similar level to these guys, but what made them wanting me to come back was.
my ability to make people smile, to me enjoying the process myself of like, of getting better. And if it didn't work out, at least I do, was working on something. And as I was able to kind of release this pressure of having to win every single point and like show people at practice how good I was. and instead just kind of getting out and going,
going through the reps that I needed to having the focus that I needed to, but then also just truly enjoying the experience. I noticed that within like two or three months of me training with that group, went from somebody that I didn't really feel like I belonged to somebody that it kind of revived my career a little bit. to the point where like when 2020 came around, I was actually thinking about retiring then.
I was thinking about like stopping playing just that was right when our right when better beach kind of took off and things were going really well. And I was like, this is cool. Like maybe I'll just put all my energy into this. And then I kind of refound that joy and it was crazy how, quickly I saw the improvements and it was all it was, was a change of mindset of like, instead of looking and being as serious as I was.
I was able to enjoy it, enjoy the process. Going to practice wasn't like a chore anymore, or I wasn't like nervous to compete. It was more just like, cool. I get to go hang out with like some really fun people, and then get better along the way. And so that was a really cool thing for me to experience as a player. And then as a coach, I think that's something that we have really tried to show at our
Mark Burik (11:53.07)
at our practices, at our camps, three, seven days, whatever it is, is just enjoying the process. You know, I think, especially at our camps, it can be a little tricky because it's, it almost becomes an overload of information. You know, like we, when we, whenever we go to these camps, we 100 % want to make people better.
You know, like that's our goal. And the way that we make people better is, you know, stealing the line out of DJ's book Marine is, he says like coaching is like, making pasta or spaghetti. don't remember what he, what he calls it, but like, pretty much you just like throw all the pasta on the wall and like hope that some of it sticks, you know? And, and so like as coaches, we can get really, really
involved where we're constant feedback to these players. And it's not we're not doing it in a sense to overwhelm them. We're doing it in a sense of like, maybe that last word didn't stick, maybe the next one will kind of idea. But we also have to remember that it's also our job as as coaches to keep that joy around, right, to, to make sure that the learning experience is fun.
So like there's a way that you could deliver the same feedback. And in one instance, it can promote extreme growth and comfortability. And then in another way, it can almost come off as tense and judgmental. And I think that we always want to, and there's a time for both.
It's kind of interesting because we have to balance this ideas as much as we can because, and it also depends on the player, right? Some players like maybe Josh shows up to practice and he's used to performing at a really high level, but I kind of need to get them locked in real quick. That might be one where, especially if I know Josh and I know how he, if he can handle a situation, maybe I'm a little bit tougher on them, you know, but then.
Mark Burik (14:12.714)
Once I get them locked in, then I have to go back to finding that joy and that enjoyment process. You know, maybe Matt, maybe you're a little bit more sensitive. Maybe you're a guy that like, if I mean to you, especially at the beginning of practice, maybe you shut off for the rest of practice. And now I'm, you're just kind of there. Right. And you kind of, we not only did you fall victim to that kind of.
tough mentality, but now you're outside of your atmosphere of being able to learn, you know, so for you, it might be joyfully bringing you along and like making some quick jokes, lightening the mood, using some analogies that are like kind of silly, whatever it is. But yeah, I think it is important for every coach, regardless of how you have to do it or what order you have to do it in.
but making sure that a majority of your practice is full of joy and full of like Just wanting people to be there. I think that's Yeah, cuz we I mean I came from the teaching world and I think it's a lot easier for teachers to realize this because Kids hate school, you know, it's like well, there are a couple kids that don't hate school, right? They like have really
bought into this idea of like going to school, getting good grades, and they really do understand the idea of learning. I wasn't one of them. You know, I, I was one of, I was one of those kids that like, I had to be there because all of my teachers knew my parents and like I had to go, you know, but I was, I was lucky enough to where I had teachers that were so cool.
that it kept me coming back, right? And so I think like, that's a really big thing for teachers, especially is because no matter what age of student you're teaching, yes, you're trying to teach them information. The information is important, but really what you're trying to do is you're trying to instill this idea in someone's mind that showing up and learning is the most important piece of that. And the most...
Mark Burik (16:32.02)
And the easiest way to get people to do that is by either making them have as much fun as they possibly can or tricking them into thinking that they're having fun. And so I think that that balance is something that's pretty important. Nice. Yeah, I love that. And I can kind of relate to that about the whole like going to school thing. And so for me, I can relate and kind of the church world. My parents were
My dad is a youth pastor. But a lot of times with pastor kids, it's this feeling of they feel forced to go to church. whereas for me, I never felt forced. just always wanted, I was curious. I always wanted to know what my parents had that I didn't. And I like just kept going and kept showing up. And so I think that's very relatable to like a practice. Like I never want.
player and it sounds like you're in the same headspace you never want a player that you're coaching to show up feeling forced to practice in any way like you want to just maybe lay out a platter and be like this is what it has to offer but you're not being forced to do this like you like if you enjoy it then you're gonna get the most out of it and it sounds like you do that really well and it sounds like you encourage them to know about the process
rather than the results. And I think that's a, wanted to echo that from you. Like it's so much more about the process rather than the results. Like if I went to church and they were like, it must be this, it must be that, it must be this, it must be that. Then the whole results that's going to kind of push me away, right? Whereas it's more about the process of, of like, this is what it looks like. This is what a good training session looks like. It's fun. It's exciting.
enjoy the process of learning these new skills. It's a cool, it sounds like a really awesome learning environment. And so I'm gonna give you a scenario and you just tell me, like, I wanna know how quickly, if you show up to, this morning, coaching in Hermosa Beach, I'm sure you already knew a lot of those people and the way they like to be coached. But say you show up and there is 10 new people on your court that you have never coached.
Mark Burik (18:51.788)
What are some ways that you figure out as fast as possible the way that player, each of those players need to be coached to set them up well? You know, I think the, I think the first thing is not worrying about the players too quickly. You know, I think one thing that you have to do is you have to set the environment that you want players to reflect. know, so like one of the first things that I did this morning when I showed up to the beach was I
I went around and I said, I said, hi, I said just a little hellos to every single player. said a little joke, you know, I'm, laughing. I'm, I'm like kind of moving around lightly. You know, I'm talking to as many of them as I can do what we talk about. It doesn't really matter. Right. But more than likely, I'm just trying to kind of relieve any stress that is related to anything outside.
You know, and kind of warm them up to that environment that they're going to experience on the sand, you know, and then once we do that, then you can start to understand who people are. Right. and I think it's like reading people's energy. A lot of the times that you can see it on people's faces, whether they're super serious or if they're like just there to like have fun and kind of.
They still want to get better, but it's a very lighthearted feeling. that's where it's, it's really important. And I think it's start, like, it doesn't change the way you run your practice. You know, like I always, one of the things that I'll do a lot, especially when we do our camps is encourage people to be good partners. You know, like just because, and I always, I say it in a way because like, Hey,
Use this to get out of your own head a little bit and like just say good job to somebody. You know, it's crazy how just congratulating somebody on completing a skill that they're trying to complete how much of an impact that can have on your personal energy as well. There's a really good book that I read a couple years ago called Celestine Prophecy and it's a very deep book as far as like
Mark Burik (21:18.264)
transcripts and a bunch of things that kind of tote on energy and religion and everything like that. But one of the areas that they talk about a lot is figuring out ways to use energy in your favor. You know, and I think there's a couple ways that we we can do this and like in a perfect world, energy is bouncing between people. Right. So like when you and I are talking right now, Matt, if you right now I'm controlling a lot of this conversation.
And you're not a hundred percent sure when you can step in and say something because you're not a hundred percent sure when my thought process is done. Right. So right now what's happening is I'm the one pushing out a lot of information and you guys are just receiving it, whether or not you want to or not. Right. And a co in a coaching world, what we have to do is we, have to make it a balance between if you need to hear something, sure. It's going to be for me, but
in a perfect world, if there's going to be lot of like understanding on your part, then there needs to be some form of cycle where we're bouncing this energy back and forth with between one another. And a lot of the times that happens with just asking, right, asking questions, how did you feel on that? Did you or celebrating something really, really good, you know, like
Today I did, it was a private lesson, so it ended up just being one guy, but I showed up at the end of class and I like stopped the class and I gave them a little focus. And then for the next couple of minutes, like I was just focusing on celebrating that focus. So if somebody did it right, I pulled them to the side and I was like, Hey, awesome job. What did you feel like? How, how did, and then kind of walk them through it. And so now they're taking part of that kind of bouncing of energy, which is pretty cool.
and I think it just makes it more fun. You know, I think one of the things that we've done really well with veteran beach is created a uniform, like way of coaching information, right? We know exactly what information we want for everybody to receive by the end of camp, but we still have to think about ways that we can kind of adjust that and.
Mark Burik (23:43.092)
work with people so that that understanding is like optimized. that make sense? We have to figure out a way to like, the way I coach you, the way I coach Josh, the way I coach Marine. I'm not sure who else is on this call, but like it's all going to be different, you know? And I think that that's, I think that's like the magic of, of being a coach is finding that good balance. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. The pasta doesn't change. It's the sauce that changed, you know?
Or the stickiness of the wall Yeah, no that definitely makes sense and and I Love that in the beginning you We talked a lot about especially in setting we talked about like good misses, you know Where it's like airing to the correct hitting arm and I love that you missed to the side of being encouraging and uplifting and
like creating that connection before the practice even started. I think that's a very valuable thing. Maybe that's just me as a player and I'm biased of I want to feel that my coaches care. Like I want to they're wanting to be a part of my life more than just volleyball or back in the day whenever I played soccer, I wanted to feel that they wanted to know me outside of soccer. And so I love that you missed to that side rather than
airing to the side of, hey, this is going to be intense practice. Y'all better get ready, you know, and just like completely putting those guards up and getting tense and nervous. I think that's what that causes players to do is there's a difference between like excitement and nerves. You know, if someone's excited to take a class with a coach, they're going to be loose and ready and fun. Whereas as soon as they get that feeling of this coach is intimidating.
everything gets tight and nervous. And so that's a fun way to kind of tear down that wall. kind of feeding into this next question. Real quick, Matt, before we keep going, I think it all comes down to trust. know, especially, I would assume most of the coaches in this group work with kids. And especially with kids,
Mark Burik (26:09.706)
There has to be this form of, okay, I trust this person, you know, and as long as you develop that idea of trust, like, and a lot of it comes back to respect, you know, one of the biggest things that kind of blows my mind is we, we all carry these built in stereotypes. We try, we're trying to get rid of them as best we can, but they're still around. And the one, the way that I know this is because a lot of times if I.
tell people I used to be a teacher. And then I tell them they're like, what grade did you teach? And I say eighth grade, the reaction every single time is the same. my gosh. Like that age group, which is like, there reason? Maybe, you know, like there, I'm not saying that kids that age can't be a specific way, but I think that that was one of the big things that made me a good teacher and
All the people that I was like really trying to mimic as a teacher. That the characteristic that they had the most was that they respected their kids. You know, like I, whenever I was a teacher, I treated them like adults. I, I had a lot of respect for them. And the only time I really raised my voice or did anything administrative was if that line of trust was broken. And so I think like.
especially for kids, you have to show them that you respect them. If you do respect them, that will open up this idea of a trustworthy relationship, right? It's crazy how many kids are affected by that because they don't know if they can truly trust somebody. And then now we're trying to get them to do things and we're trying to like change ways that they act.
change ways that they move, change the way that they play the sport. But there's still not this idea of like, all right, do I really trust this person or not? I think that building up that trust and that respect, not just kids, it's adults as well. Adults are usually a little bit easier because they are showing up on their own, right? Like adults are signing up for these things. They're showing up knowing that they wanna learn. So there's already a commonality.
Mark Burik (28:37.458)
but with kids, we, have to start a little bit more surface level, get that understanding, get that trust, get that respect. And then that's when you'll start to see like the improvement kind of escalate pretty quickly. Yeah, I love that building the trust. Is there any other ways that you, but apart from like the beginning of practice where you just go around and greet everyone and say, hi, apart from volleyball.
Mike, is there any other ways that you like to tangibly do that? Go that trust with your players? I mean, I think that that's where. Finding anything to celebrate, you know what they need to realize that you're on their team, you know, and so like I, volleyball is a really tough sport in this in the sense because so many things have to go right for a play to look good. Right, but there are also so many little things that we can do correctly.
but mess up one thing and then all of a sudden it seems like a failed rep. But in the end, it was just one failed movement. Right. So I think it's like, especially at the beginning, when you're first starting to work with people, you need to point out the areas of concern or the areas that are, that are kind of bothering somebody or like messing up their touch. But it's also really important to point out everything that they're doing well.
You know, like if, if I'm passing a ball and my shape looks really good, my footwork looks perfect. My platform is straight, but I'm, all of a sudden I miss my angle and that changes where the ball goes. Right.
As a coach, I could say, Hey, get your angle, right. Or I could say, Hey, that was an awesome rep. Your, your everything was perfect. Your shape, your footwork, your platform. The only thing we missed was the angle. So let's do the exact same thing. Everything else was perfect. Except now let's put a little bit more emphasis on the, on the angle, you know, and I think if you can.
Mark Burik (30:50.208)
If you can coach, it's the same exact coaching, right? You're still trying to fix that one problem area, but you've done it in a way now that makes this person feel good, right? They're like, I, did all those things, right? That's, that's a cool feeling. And now it, makes like learning how to pass, which is a tough skill. there, and there's so many different things with everything, every single skill that we work on, but it allows, it allows them to find those like kind of small wins.
and as long as you celebrate them with them, then that's how you build that trust up to. Yeah. And it is so interesting to see how many people as players don't want to hear that. Like, there's some who are like, don't beat around the bush with me. Just tell me. You know what I'm like? And that's OK. Yeah. Right? Like, if people want tough love, that's fine. But they also need to realize everything that they did well because
There are so many steps that like one thing that happens a lot at, at, especially at our camps is you'll see, and it's all body language, right? Like they'll make a pass that doesn't go where they want. And all of a sudden their head drops, their energy drops. They might say a bad word and like get upset with themselves. And I'll ask them like, Hey, why are you so upset? And they're like, well, that was a bad pass.
I'm like, okay, well, do you, do you realize that you did this right, this right, and this right? And they're like, actually, no, I didn't realize that. And so it's like, you can be tough on yourself, but you also need to realize what did you do right? Because the next time you go back to the drawing board and you're performing that same skill, you still need to do all those other things, right? Except now we're going to try to have those things on top. Nothing, nothing in the sport of beach volleyball is a complete failure or a complete success.
You know, it's like trying to find this really, really solid percentage of I did pretty much everything really well. And that's usually if you're able to do that, then the touch it, it resembles that, you know, but if you start missing out on some of these things, then you might get lucky. It might just be a bad play. but yeah, realizing it's okay if they want tough love. That's fine. I can hand it. I can hand it out.
Mark Burik (33:15.79)
The positive, trust me, the positivity is the reason I'm talking about it's because it's still something that I'm working through. I know I think it's something that we all have to work on. If you care about something enough, then sometimes it can come out quick. can come out in a way that is misread or misunderstood, or maybe your, your patients kind of ran a little thin, but making people realize that they have done stuff right is really important.
whether they want the tough love or not. Yeah, and as a player too, I have to confess at a moment where I was wearing a shirt that Seahaw gave me from Hawaii and I'd been missing serves over and over again. And thankfully she's asleep so she doesn't know I'm talking about this right now. I missed a serve in a crunch time and I just like ripped it from the neck down. And like, you guys know me, that's not me.
The thing that I cared about most or like one of the things I care about most in my life just didn't go well for me. And, and so like I let it overflow and it is easy to like let those kinds of moments shine and like flow through accidentally. And so I think this is something that, like you said, it's just, we care so much about it and we want to like convey that to our players too as coaches. And it's hard to find that balance of.
celebrate often, but also like give them the feedback that they need to make their game climb and get better. And I love, love, love just celebrating often. So I think I kind of err too far to that side sometimes of like celebrating often, but then making sure that I'm still getting feedback on the things that maybe they need to tweak a little bit.
I feel like I personally struggle with the as a coach celebrating too often. So how do you find that balance of like, is there like a ratio? know Nolan got in here and he shared a ratio that he likes to think about like 10 to 12 compliments to one feedback of like, hey, this is what you need to do better. So how do you view that of like finding the balance of celebrate often but then also
Mark Burik (35:42.498)
Set the tone in some ways. think I kind of think about it in a form of time frame. I don't know the answer to this, to be honest. but just kind of going off what, like my lesson that I did this morning, there's a lot of compliments at the beginning, right? Because at the beginning of, of a teaching you, you want
people don't know the final outcome of what you're really trying to get them to do. Right? So it's a lot of experimenting. and with experimenting, they're going, they're experimenting, doing something completely different than what they've done. Even if it's a set that they, if they've been playing volleyball for 10 years, but they're trying to learn how to handset and you're trying to get them to do it a different way. It's still the first time that they're doing that. And so I think the important part is like at the beginning,
You're trying to, that's when you're throwing the pasta at the wall, right? And, and you're trying to get those things to stick, but it, it doesn't always happen right away, you know? And so at the beginning, I think it's a little bit more compliment driven because you're just trying to get them to feel what it feels like to do what you're trying to get them to do. And so it takes a lot of celebrating, right? It takes a lot of yes.
That's what we're looking for. I like how you did this. I like how you did that. You can use that time to point out little errors of kind of.
wrong technique or whatever you want. Hey, you did this this time instead of this. This is what I'm trying to get you to. but once, once you kind of go through this idea, this process of, five, 10 minutes of getting them to completely understand what you're trying to get them to do. And it's up to you as a coach to make them realize that as quick as possible, whether it's talking them through it, whether it's walk, making them do it, whether it's you showing them.
Mark Burik (37:52.456)
would say within those first five minutes, you've done all of those things. You've shown them what you want it to look like. You've broken down the skill into multiple points. you've had them do it to where they're starting to feel the muscle memory a little bit. And then it becomes, once they have that understanding, that's when you can start to play around with the pressure.
I need you to hold your feet after this set. There's no other option. So that's when you can start to get a little bit tougher. But I think it's like.
What we do as far as, especially in the world of volleyball, what we see is that we see they are, they are here. We want them to get to here. And the way that we feel comfortable as players is we slowly make these changes. Whereas if we keep making these changes, these small little changes, we're still going to get to that final product. It's just going to take us forever. You know? And so I think.
You have to put yourself in the driver's seat as a coach to say, okay, I can see these little changes happening. How do I get them to take a big jump? And a lot of the times that comes down to the challenges, right? Where let's say with setting, I have somebody who has like really wobbly footwork and they're not getting to a strong position when they're setting. I'll say, all right, Hey, make sure you're getting your
Make sure you're getting your footwork, right? Make sure you're finishing off with net foot set. Right. And then after he does that for five minutes and I haven't seen a change, I'll, I'll say every time he holds his, every time he's able to hold his footwork, I'll say, Hey, that was it. That's what we're looking for. That was the best rep I've seen. Let's remember that one. After about five minutes of that, if he's still making the same error, then I'll say, Hey, the next five, I don't even care what the set looks like. I need you to hold your finish of your feet.
Mark Burik (39:56.502)
I need your feet to feel strong. I don't care if it's a double. I don't care what it is, but I'm going to give him something that he has to accomplish. And it's also something small. So I'm not saying, Hey, these next five have to be perfect sets. That's not, that's not what we're looking for. We're looking for, Hey, these next five feet have to be perfect. Right? We do five. does five with the perfect feet. I'm like, cool. All right, now let's get back.
Now we get back to kind of releasing him to where that's not the main focus, but now I can always come back to that. can be like, Hey, remember we just spent five reps making sure that we're holding our feet. Now we're back to just normal setting and, and you look unbalanced again. So let's, let's get back to that feet focus and then let's keep adding on on top. And so I think it's like, for me, it's what can I do and how can I say it to just make that.
meter move as quick as possible. And we see that for us, it's always big adjustments, right? Like if I'm saying don't bend your elbows, then I want to see you walking around the court like a robot or a soldier for the next 10 minutes to a point where I'm like, Hey, good job not bending your elbows. Now let's just do it in this position. You know? but yeah, I think it's just, it's a tough balance.
Yeah, totally. And it sounds like, I mean, that's, you know, in the short sentence, that's just reminding them of the process rather than the result. And that's such a cool way to lay out a practice is if we have a setting practice and we don't hit, obviously, we'd love to have perfect sets happen throughout the process. But even if we don't have a perfectly targeted set in a practice,
but they made progress in the process of creating that perfect set for themselves, then that's an awesome practice and they enjoyed doing it. So I love that you stressed that. And is there anything else that you'd like to add on top of that before we let Josh and Nicole ask questions or even if Maureen thought of some extra questions? anything that may, I always like to ask if you leave this meeting and you're like, I want them to hear,
Mark Burik (42:21.258)
If they heard anything, I want them to hear this and take it with them. What would that be before we open it up to Q &A? I would say like failing is a good thing. know, like I think one, this sport is full of failure. It is one of the most unforgiving sports in that atmosphere because every single tournament you play.
You might get some wins, but most of the time it's finishing with a loss, you know, and it's, it's really, really tough to come away with a positive spin on things because you can have your best, your best finish of your life, but you're probably still walking away losing. obviously there are a lot of people that are winning tournaments, which is great. Those people are phenomenal, right? I've played on the AVP for.
Six years, my best finishes a seventh, which means that I lost every tournament I played. You know? and it's, it's kind of, it's, it's tough because if you go into things and you're just thinking about pass or fail, or just thinking about wins and losses or doing things right or wrong,
then it can be super frustrating sport. But if you open yourself up to like going to practice and like one of the ways I know that my maturity changed is when I would go, when I would be talking to Mark or something after practice and I would, when I first moved out to California, I would be like, yeah, today we played against this guy and this guy and we beat them. I'd be like, yeah, they, they had no shot, you know?
And then I realized that I was still not beating any of those guys in tournaments. And then I, a couple of years later, be like, Hey, somebody asked me, Hey, how's practice going? And I'd be like, today was great. I really locked in my cut shot. really felt like I was contacting the ball at the highest point. And they're like, did, like, did you guys compete? How many drills did you win? I'd like, I have no idea. I have no clue if I won a single drill.
Mark Burik (44:44.162)
But I felt like I walked away and getting better. And that's, I, you have to get into that mindset. I do think that the winds follow that. Like if you're able to go into it and really focus on winning or sorry, not focus on winning, focus on improving. Then the winds they come, you know, but as far as the longevity of the sport, as far as being a somewhat enjoyable human being when you're on the court as well.
Just being willing to put your ego aside and say like, hey, I'm going to try to get better at this. Even if it means I lose a lot of points, at least I'm going to be able to say I got better at it. I love that. Failing forward. Failing forward. Yeah, it's a good one. great. Awesome. Thank you, Brandon. Nicole, Josh, if you guys have any extra questions that you'd love to hear from Coach Brandon about, now's the time. Feel free to speak up.
unmute yourself and ask them whatever you want to know.
Pressure's on. Pressure's on.
Mark Burik (45:57.536)
I thought Josh was going to unmute, but Brendan, I'm ready to be your team. Hey, I like that. The up and coming team. I would be happy to coach you guys. Yeah. Heck of a season. Yeah. But I totally relate to that because I did have a good season, but I still did not win any tournaments. I qualified to all of them, but...
Which is a huge milestone. It's amazing. It's like a bit of sweet feeling. It's like, okay, I had like one man drill in, so when is my next one? Yeah, right. Yeah, and I think just managing your expectations too. know, I think like, especially someone that's younger getting into the sport, like your mentality on
on how your finishes are should be completely different than mine. yeah. You know, like you, you should be in a position where you, I like, you should be celebrating your qualifications and getting a win in the main draw for the next, until the next tournament happens, you know? And then as you kind of continue on your career, then those expectations kind of, kind of keep growing. So like next year, if you qualified for two tournaments this year,
Next year, you should try to qualify for three. and those are wins. Like those are great. So, I don't want every, I don't want people to think that, they should be jaded by any means, know, winning is still fun and like accomplishing goals is phenomenal, but you just have to make sure that those goals are established. Yeah. And that's where a coach comes in. So I'll see you on the, I'll see you on the sand.
I have a quick little, so something that I've kind of been doing. If you, Josh, did you have a question? Nicole, did you have a question? Okay. One thing that I want you guys to do is I want you to, and Matt and Marine, you guys can do this as well. I want you to write down three things of why you coach. So just take a second and just write down three things of why you coach.
Mark Burik (48:28.312)
So for me, like if you guys just for the sake of examples, I did this last week. And one of my reasons was to give back to a community that has given so much to me. Another one was I really enjoy working with people and seeing them improve. And another one was it's So.
If you guys want to take a second, write down your theory.
I already know my three. Right. Write them down, Poppy.
Mark Burik (49:17.132)
And so I think that this is a really cool exercise, especially for coaches, because this is going to be, so eventually what you want to do is you want to narrow these down.
So if there three this week, next week, maybe there two. The following week, maybe it's just one. The following week after that, maybe it's just three words. But having something that you can come back to of why you're doing something is really, really important. And it's really, really impactful on who you are as a person and how you're leading things.
You know, so for, for my three right now, they're kind of all over the place. Like they're very different, right? So I'm in the middle of kind of shrinking down my wise of being able to focus on one specific thing that I can always come back to, know, and so I don't, I don't need to know what they are. if you guys want to share them, you can.
It doesn't always have to be an answer Marine. Sometimes you gotta let people figure out stuff on their own. But I think, and I have a feeling that most of the whys that people wrote down are probably very similar. if you ever, like whenever you're showing up to practice, think about that why. Whenever you're in the middle of a drill.
And maybe kids are goofing off or adults aren't listening the way that you think that they should. What's your why? You know, and I think being able to bounce back that we have it in the sport, right? We do these little mantras of like to bring us back. But I think that's something that's really important for coaches as well. So Matt, maybe in the next. Couple weeks.
Mark Burik (51:31.808)
especially for the coach group, maybe we start establishing those whys, have them submit their whys, and then start to work down on how we can make it more and more simple. But I think as far as today goes, just realizing that you have whys is really important.
whether it's showing up to this meeting or just being a part of this group, you know, the, the fact that people are in this group shows that they do care. They have wise. And now it's just, I think as long as you make that, that the backbone of your instruction and like the backbone of getting you to the courts, getting you to be the coach that you want to be, being able to lean on those wise and then really solidify what that why means to you.
I think it can go a long way.
Mark Burik (52:28.888)
Nice. That's awesome. there, let's see, is there anything else from Josh?
Well, I have one thing and I'm going to, the main reason I'm doing this is because that camp that I went to there and was it 22 in St. Pete? Yeah. Yeah. Him and I connected pretty well, I think anyway. And just that whole week of being involved and kind of working with him and everybody else too. mean, everybody was like,
Ernie and you were awesome. Everybody was awesome. was there. That's the main reason why I'm doing this and wanting to be part of the team. That's awesome, man. Yep. I agree. Yeah. It's like, once you find that connection, it's hard to stop, right? It's, you feel like you're helping people, which for sure happened. and then being able to.
kind of grow that and do it with more and more people is really important. It's one of the, sorry, one of the main reasons, like a lot of people think I left teaching because I didn't like it. I love teaching. If I was still an eighth grade teacher, I would be extremely happy. I would not be upset with my life at all. But I knew that I only got to influence 133 kids a year.
Once I started realizing that this impact was something really cool. I decided to grow it into something where, all right, how can I influence 134? How can I do 135? And you just keep kind of trying to grow with that. We got a little lucky with better beach where we got a YouTube channel and an Instagram that's around a hundred thousand. So that number grew a little bit quicker than I was expecting, but.
Mark Burik (54:36.034)
the impact and being able to just like be a part of somebody's life and try to give back to people and help them feel that sense of accomplishment and like push is it's something that once you once you experience it you can't really stop you can't really like go back the other way and be like no I'm good I'm just I'm not gonna help anymore it's a it's it's a cool little experience so happy to have you on board Josh it's cool to see that awesome that's cool
Well, Brandon, thank you so much for your time, man. Thanks for jumping in here. Yeah, of course. always a blast chatting with you and hanging out with you. So I know I got a lot out of it as a coach and a player. So I appreciate you. And I'm sure everybody else will too. So thank you. Yeah, my pleasure. Yeah, I'm sure you guys will, especially now that we're getting to our fall season and I have a little bit more free time, you guys will probably be seeing some more of me on here.
Yeah, we can always come with questions. Love answering questions. I love it. Yeah, appreciate you guys.
