Mark Burik (00:00.59)
Hey everybody and welcome to the Better at Beach podcast. My name is Mark Baruch and we are back. I took a vacation. went, well, kind of a work vacation, went to Miami to run one of our camps with King and Queen of the Court event. That was awesome. Then went to Spain where I was in Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla for a night and Granada.
Yeah. And Granada. And then we went over to Portugal and I'm going to do a whole podcast on that. Just telling you all about Spain, Portugal, the volleyball life there. And,
We had such a good time and it helps us realize that the things that we're doing, the content that we're putting out, it's got a global reach. just if you're listening or if you're watching this, thank you guys so much. It was such a breath of fresh air to get out from behind the desk, get out and do some volleyball and touring and realizing the impact that Better at Beach has had. So before we get into today's podcast, and today is another hybrid podcast where we are in our complete.
coaches meeting. And if you want to be trained as a beach volleyball coach, then you go to better beach.com forward slash coach. have live meetings and then you get to ask me, my staff and our special guests, any questions you want after we do our little podcast interviews. So if you're interested in that, head over to better beach.com forward slash coach. comes with all of our workout programs. It comes with all of our skill programs. And of course you get to post.
all of the videos and drills that you do in our private community so that we can help you with your technique and your strategy. We do have some upcoming camps and we are rocking with a lot of three day camps. So I want to just announce them. We are the weekend before Thanksgiving, November 22nd, we are in Long Island, New York, and we are in Scottsdale, Arizona, right after Thanksgiving. I think we have two, maybe three spots left.
Mark Burik (02:10.765)
But we're going to Punta Cana Dominican Republic for seven days at an all-inclusive resort at the Paradisus Palma Real. That's going to be awesome. It's mostly alumni, so it's awesome people and all-inclusive in the Caribbean. Can't go wrong. After that, we're in Loveland, Ohio at Grand Sands, January 24th to 26th. Then I think as of now, this camp has sold out, but we're in Tacoma, Washington.
with the keen volleyball and March 7th to 9th, we're coming back to VB beach, Ozark and Ozark, Missouri. And in June, we've got some dates far out, but June we are heading back to Virginia beach, which is becoming just a monster camp. Every time we run there and June 27th to 29th, we are going to go to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We are adding a lot of dates. want you guys to try to keep.
The new year's open. It's not going to be like our normal years where we run a full seven to 10 day camp, but we are trying to get a four day camp off the ground. The hurricanes plural stopped us in St. Pete and the hotels are struggling. The beaches are struggling. So we're still trying to get a January 1st camp off of the ground. So just keep checking better beach.com forward slash camps. And if you want us to come to your town.
If you want us to run in your neighborhood or at your facility or run a three day camp for your team, your club or your coaches, just get in touch, email support at better at beach.com. All we really need is reservable bookable courts and we can be there for you. All right. So today we have Marley Montserrat and Marley's got a pretty interesting path.
I don't know a ton about her, so I'm really excited to have this conversation. But she played at the University of Florida. She played indoor there. And then she ended up playing beach for two years at UCLA. She ditched beach, hated it, and then moved back to playing pro indoor at one of the new professional women's indoor leagues that are in the US. And I know a ton of people are so excited about that.
Mark Burik (04:34.146)
We want pro volleyball to exist on our turf and there have been at least a dozen attempts at it, but it feels like this one's strong. And even with two leagues kind of competing, there's still strength and there's attendance and people going. So I'm really interested to hear about that and hear about Marley's journey through indoor to beach to indoor. So hi, Marley. Hi, thank you for having me. You're welcome.
Thanks for coming. Appreciate you taking time out of your day.
So you are, which pro indoor league are you playing for? And let's introduce me and anybody who's listening to the current landscape of pro indoor, at least for women in the U.S. Yes, I'm playing for the Pro Volleyball Federation, so PVS. We did the first season already. It was awesome. I loved it. They have a great group of girls involved in it. So it's been really fun.
How many teams are there in the Pro-Volvo Federation? There were seven the first year. They added Indy this year. So Indianapolis will be a new team. So now they'll be eight. Okay. And the competing league, which, you know, shall not be named, but we got to name it, is Love, L-O-V. And do you know the differences mainly between those two leagues? Are they like really competing? Is it going to be like a CFL NFL type deal or AFL NFL type deal where they end up
combining or merging at some point? you think about that? I think they're set up pretty differently at the core, but I mean, honestly, they haven't started yet. So I think we'll have more answers at the end of the first year where everybody kind of has a season ahead of a season behind them. So I don't know how much I can add to it because they haven't had a season yet. Man, they've been promoting so heavily and like while I'm not on top of
Mark Burik (06:35.498)
indoor really at all anymore, even though I do think indoor highlights are way better than beach highlights. Love has been promoting hardcore. On my feeds at least, they're really going. So forgive my ignorance for not even understanding that they're not up and running yet. Yes, their marketing team is awesome. So we will see this fall or they already reported.
We all both leagues report either already have or report in the next few weeks and we both start in January. So we'll kind of just see. So what's that season like then? You're going January to what? We are opening weekend is the January 8th, 9th, 10th, and then we go till mid May. Okay. So it's kind of a shortened season like the European seasons back when I was playing, which seems to be farther and farther away nowadays.
We, you I reported for one team I reported in August and wasn't let out until May, which was long. And then for some of the other leagues that, you know, showed up in October and then it ended mid April. So sounds like it's a bit of a shortened season, kind of half a year, but longer than the college season. I think that is part of the appeal for some women coming back from overseas. It's not as long. It's livable pay.
So I think spending holidays with family and just kind of being able to have your friends and family come watch you is a big thing for everyone. Nice. And it's salaries? Is it we're putting you up in a room, in an apartment, in a dorm? Can we consider this a job for that part of the year or can we consider it a job for the entire year? You get paid. So they have it broken down online, but this year,
There's salary tiers. So it starts at 60, then there's a 75 spot, a 125 spot, a 175 spot. So, I mean, it's livable and they pay for housing or provide you a stipend. think it's, they're doing it all the right ways. They're trying to go about it like other pro sports are. And you get paid by game. So they just break up whatever your salary is by game and you get.
Mark Burik (08:59.598)
whatever percentage that game is compared. Okay, what if you get hurt for a game? Is there like an injury insurance or anything like that? Similar to other sports in America, there's an injury reserve. You're on an injury list. You do get paid less, but you still get paid. You don't just get cut out and you're done. But there's different tiers to injury reserve. Nice. So 60k as a base is not bad.
No, that's, I mean, when you're talking like a lot of the European leagues and what I was making some of my years, there's, there's a, there's a football book called playing for pizza. It's about, a semi pros, semi pro football player living in Italy, playing for their pro football team of which there were like maybe four, you know, and literally it was his salary came out of the local Italian restaurant where he just had pizza.
He's got a bunch of stories like that. And that was a couple of my years for sure. Or you're just, you don't have much to put away. I had a ton of spare time now that I figured out it. And I'm like, man, what an idiot. could have been learning a lot more at that time, but that's livable 60 K for five, six months. That's nice. Yeah. I think it's really nice. And I think they do a really good job of trying to.
do what they can to get athletes to leave overseas and come back. And I think they're doing a nice job at it. Yeah. It was, you kind of wonder or like hope because a lot of those European teams will hire teams for the second half of the season or for playoffs. But, maybe it was the thing where they didn't want to compete with the attendance at the college season in the fall. I'm just kind of wondering, cause that, that would be really nice. Like if you could play summer.
all the way into winter, you get paid your American salary and then those teams, after seeing a bunch of game footage from you, is like, come play the second half of the season and our playoffs with us, it could be a nice gig, but didn't line up that way with this season. Do you think it was because of the NCAA kind of mashup with massive attendance at NCAA women's games now?
Mark Burik (11:21.376)
I think it was a big, it helped step forward and show that there's so much interest. I think, you know, we just in one year attendance was great. mean, weekday games obviously aren't great. Some games were pretty empty, but I mean, almost every weekend game we averaged around 6,000 people coming to the games and well, average throughout the league, throughout the league. wasn't every, like Omaha sold out every time and they have
They had like 12,000 people there just because it's such a great community. Atlanta did really well, for sure in the thousands, mid thousands. But, you know, it was really cool to see how many people were interested in volleyball. That's great attendance. I mean, you got a dog or a cat back there making some noise. It's okay. Good. We love animals. A better beach.
that's such good attendance. mean, you don't see, you really don't see those numbers in the men's game for sure. Unless you're Hawaii or UCLA versus USC, you know, and Penn State when they're playing some teams, but 6,000 as an average, that's big attendance. Yay. Volleyball. Yeah. It was really cool to see. mean, it definitely wasn't every plate.
You know, Omaha is such a hotbed for volleyball. So they really did bring up the average, but you know, it was fun. Even when there were only a few thousand, I think the fans that were there were really interested and really made it fun. So it was cool. Nice. So you played at the University of Florida, indoor. And so let's just kind of talk about that. Do you think...
Because in my experience, some of the leagues were definitely a step down in skill level when I went overseas. And then some of the teams, especially in Croatia, that I got to play for was a significant level up. So from your college experience at University of Florida to this pro league, what do you think is the difference in skill level? Is there any, are you playing basically the same people?
Mark Burik (13:45.644)
I would say you're playing a few of the same people. was surprised it being a first year league, how competitive it was. Definitely people we grew up playing against. My team had a ton of girls from the SEC. So it was rivals and we were playing together. I think it was way more competitive than we all initially thought, because you're skeptical of going into a new league. And I thought it did a really nice job.
teams worked really well together and put up a really good product. There definitely were really good foreign girls that came and played. So we were allowed two per team. This year it's three per team. So that helps the level as well. I would say it is a step up from where I was at Florida. We were a Sweet 16, L8, team.
I would say like in this league, you definitely had like the best players on the teams in college were playing. So there wasn't, there weren't as many weak links as you have in college or I think there was more people that cared and like really, really competitive. It's like you got every competitive kid from college and then they're like, you're going to go play pro. So the people that wanted to be in the weight room that wanted to be in the gym extra. And plus you don't have the
17 year old who has never been in a weight room, but kind of needs a starting role because your senior just graduated. I mean, I remember my coach is telling me like when you're 21, 22, you think you're at the pinnacle of volleyball and you're graduating college and they're like, you're not even close to your potential. Like not remotely close. Like wait until you're 30 and you don't have to try to get kills.
You just know how to get it and you can do them in smarter ways and you learn about energy conservation and upbeat and downbeat sets and swings. And I was like, yeah, right. And, know, like now, I'll be scared to say, but I'll be turning 40 this year. Like I would wipe the floor with 22, 25, 30 year old Mark. Yeah. Wipe the floor with them just from, from a knowledge of the game and strategy standpoint. And so now I understand what he's.
Mark Burik (15:57.774)
talking about, but you get those players at the pro level where they can do some things on autopilot that in college you're still thinking about and, trying to perfect or get really good at. We definitely have some of those in our league. There was an outside Betty Delacruz Mejia and she's an Olympian and she's, she's been playing for forever. I mean, I've looked up to her since I was little, but he will look like
there's no way she'll get a kill on this ball and she doesn't even try and it hits the ground. there's almost every time she would swing, it's a kill. Like, how did she do that? Well, she just sees it. So, you know, it was really cool and really a fun experience to play with so many women that just have so much more knowledge from all the years of playing. there anybody that you're looking up to right now or tips that you've received in this pro league at that level that
Have opened your eyes to something you wish you would have had in college?
Mark Burik (17:05.454)
I, that's a great question. I think almost not the pro league. I think beach volleyball taught me to not care as much. think I was like a really stressed volleyball player throughout my college. And once I went to beach volleyball, Stein Metzger, who's the coach at UCLA would always say, it's one step above ping pong. And that just stuck with me. Like every day I'll go into the gym and I'll be like, it's one step above ping pong.
Like it's not that serious, it's not life and death. So that's something I wish I knew when I was playing even in undergrad, let alone playing in high school. I wish I knew that it just isn't that serious. You definitely have to work hard. You should be the hardest work in the gym, but it's one step above ping pong and it is for fun in the end. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. It's tough to remember, you know, because you're also, you're giving your life to it and you figure.
I give this many hours and this much effort, there should be these results that I'm seeing. And if you're honest with yourself, if you're honest with the effort that you're putting forward, if you're watching your own film, if you're hunting down your own coaches, your own trainers and getting all that information on your own, then yeah, you should see results in it. And it's painful when you don't. And one thing that I've...
got to remind the players that I work with long-term is this wavy increase in our ability and our finishes, you hit those bottoms and you think because you were able to do it yesterday and you can't do it today, you're trending up. It's still going up and you have to release that day to day like, man, I...
this shot yesterday or I hit these weight numbers last week, why can't I do it again? But the consistency in everything in life and sports and fitness, that's what pays off. And so when you look at things on a month to month basis instead of a week to week basis, and then sometimes with beach volleyball, especially pro circuit, you don't get to look at it month to month because you have a tournament. So then you think about it as tournament by tournament basis.
Mark Burik (19:29.848)
which is really tough because you might be hitting one of your down waves on those dates, even though you're better every day in practice, you're better every day at the competition. It's not always about that immediate result, but are you getting consistently better each day? And yeah, that's something that I guess everybody can learn from. Is there something that you tell yourself other than,
It's a step above ping pong to calm yourself mentally or emotionally when you start feeling stress come I Actually do I normally I'll either write it on my hand or Just say it. I just I say to have joy like to play with joy be grateful I'm like a really energetic person when I'm playing so if I'm not having fun, I don't think it's worth it
I, after I went and played beach, I loved it so much that I was like, I'm not going back. I don't, I don't really want to play anymore. might die. I'll just end here. You know, like this was great. I had two years at UCLA. It was amazing. but I'm good. I'll just go get a job. And then the season started to end and I was like, wait, I can't be done with sports. And then I didn't.
The opportunity to play indoor came back and I was like, okay, fine, I'll try, whatever. What's the worst that can happen? So from going from beach back to indoor, just the thought of not having joy, because before I left and went to play beach, I wasn't the happiest. I played my senior season and it was fine. It was good. I loved the program, but I was ready to be done. And then I played beach and it was like a new revival of being an athlete again.
And then I wanted to keep playing. wanted to keep doing it. So then when I went back to indoor, there's just no negotiation of if I'm have, if I'm not having fun, I'm not doing this because I got my masters from UCLA. I, can go get a job. I can coach. can do whatever. I don't have to do something if I'm not happy doing it. So I remind myself every day to have joy in it and be really grateful because it's not, it's not something you have to do. Volleyball is a gift and it's something we all get to do. That's cool.
Mark Burik (21:44.366)
I like that. And more people reminded themselves of that of, is this, even if it's not volleyball or sport, is this bringing me greater joy over time? You can change. He can very quickly change. You know, I got a friend who went from a, some, think like a four 50, maybe a $500,000 salary.
to he was so depressed and now he's got only a base of like 250,000. I'm like, what are you kidding me? Are you having fun with the activities you're doing? Like you're set for life, dude. You are more set than 99.9 % of the people on earth. You're doing fine. And so like that kind of talk just like calmed him down a little bit because yeah, even if you do take a pay cut in some job.
Are you still set? Are you still fine? Are you still making good decisions? Like don't look at it like that because he left his other job because he was hating it. And I go, you're going to be so much happier. And at that level, once you're like the difference between 250 and 200 or 250 and 300,000 a year, like that is not a life changing. It's what you're thinking about, what you're dreaming about, what you're doing throughout the day. And are you smiling when you're doing it?
And so, you know, he's was able to calm down a little bit after that, some high level salary talk. I'm just like, do you know how many hours I work to not make nearly that much? But I like what I do. You know, I love what I do. So I get to wear a smile on my face. What are the, what are the skills that you think we're going to take it the opposite direction that people normally do?
What do you think skills that ruined or that people should definitely not do from sport to sport? So something that you do in indoor, they like, man, I could not and should not do that in beach and same thing for beach. Like, what are you doing beach that you cannot, should not do? Or once you're on the hardcore, your mind has to completely reset and say, don't go into beach mode. would say for me as a fetter.
Mark Burik (24:05.158)
It I didn't have to unlearn or relearn hitting stuff because I hadn't hit in so long. I hit in high school. So I would say something that you don't want to from beach to indoor as a hitter would be you don't want to just become really shoddy indoor because at the end of the day you kind of just you can have shots and be really good at them. But it's not as important as it is in beach. I think you got to be able to go and bang a ball indoor more times than not.
setting is just completely different. I think I was going back to.
Just I, my brain just didn't really even compute that they were the same skill almost. So it wasn't as difficult because I was like, they're completely different. Like one you're holding at one you're not. so.
funny enough when I transitioned back from beach to indoor, I had to relearn how to hold it longer because I use, wanted to use like the Florida coach and I sat down and talked and we're like, how can we make this transition better and be better at the end of the day than I was when I finished at Florida. And it actually was holding the ball longer, which made it almost easier to transition back because I had been holding it in beach. So it became like, keep holding it, but just put your hands where you would
put them in indoor. So like I took hands really high and then I would receive the ball kind of a ton. But I would say for most people, you don't want to lift the ball in indoor. That's probably the non-negotiable don't do that. But now almost beach settings changing too. It's becoming so much faster. It's becoming less holding. I was talking to one of my best friends, Lexi Denneberg last week.
Mark Burik (25:56.736)
Yes. she was like, I don't do that anymore. Mar, like I don't lift the ball anymore. I set really fast talking about like comparing it to indoor. She's like, no, it's more comparable now. And I'm like, well, that is really cool to see. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's definitely more comparable. It'll take a while for it to get into like the grassroots of saying like, Hey, we're actually only going up and people, they also make that mistake of
You know, okay, I have to be fast. It's no, you only need to have upward motion with your elbows and arms. Like calm down. They're just looking for you to not drop your forearms heavily with the beach set. And yeah, they're, they're calling less doubles. They're calling more lifts and it freaked out and bothered some of the players that had been setting a certain way for their entire career. Now they have to change it. And then there's, the old school people who
will never ever ever be happy if there's half a rotation on a ball. And if you say that that ruins the game, it's just the game. It's, you know, your version of play is is a different than wherever the game is going. So it's becoming. What's interesting to me is the the no doubles scenario in the NCAA that there.
drying out or moving definitely towards? It's done. Yeah, there's no doubles on if it stays on your side of the net. So if you set it over the net and you're a it's a double, you're called for a double. That's a double. I just think like a lot of professional leagues too, like overseas, they're not really calling doubles anyway. Like it has gotten more lenient and I'm okay with it being taken out of the NCAA because I think some of the subjectivity is just, it gets annoying where you're like, well, that girl just set that ball at spun once.
and you just called a double and it wasn't a double. It's just fun. Yeah. So I'm okay with it just because I think that's one of the subject subjective things of the game that is annoying when you're a spectator. I want to people are very upset with like as setters, it ruins training, but I completely disagree. I think you have to learn how to set without doubling and yeah, it can't be a double. I've got to rewatch the podcast that sandcasted.
Mark Burik (28:25.23)
With Travis and and the ref were they said that the majority of the balls that would have been called mishandled anyway I think the other the opposite team was winning The majority of that's I'm like 75 80 % I'm missing the stats on it, but I want to rewind guys If you haven't seen the referee podcast on on sandcast They they go over those setting rules and he actually comes to you with stats because these people are not just changing rules
They're looking at it, studying it, saying what effect is it going to have on the game? What effect is it currently having on the game? And then making that move. It's not arbitrary as you might think it is. Cause if it's actually a bad set. Yeah, right. That's a bad set. If you, you mingle it, you mingle it. But so if you, if you watch Loy ball, one of the greatest setters in history, he didn't set many clean balls. I mean, it was.
always spinning, but it was always in the right spot, the right decision quick, you know? So, well, let's get back to a little bit of the transition because we have so many indoor players that are beach now converted to beach. And I love what you said where you said they're just different skills. I never tied them together as like, okay, now I have to adjust my setting. It's this is beach setting.
this is indoor setting. So when you made that transition to beach from indoor, what were you telling yourself on the beach? you saying, relearn or don't relearn? Like this is a completely new skill. And did it, was there anything that you had to consistently remind yourself of something that you do as a setter in indoor that you're like, please stop doing this in beach. Cause I know that there's a few pet peeves where I'm like,
I see that you can definitely do that in indoor, but you're gonna mess your hitter up on the beach. So what did you find?
Mark Burik (30:31.566)
I really did look at them like they were completely different. There's no instance where I would set a ball indoor and completely bend my legs. You know, it's just like a different motion. I think sign was a great teacher when it came to setting. Lexi helped me a ton as well. And it was just relearning a skill like an indoor volleyball. You have to square up and set, but if you don't square up, that's fine. But in Beach, if you don't square up, it's like, well, that's now you. I don't think that's going to be very good when you're learning.
So like squaring up or taking the ball in front was something I really had to learn because I couldn't, I didn't really understand how to set a ball on the beach from here. And that's where I set an indoor. So that's how I kind of differentiated. Like I'm never going to set a ball with my hands. If it's right here, I'm going to panic and do something else, but I will not be setting with my hands if it's above my head. And I think kind of like the rocking through it that Stein would talk about.
It just separated the skills. Yeah. I also, so I hope I get quoted in a few years, but I think squaring up is people are going to get rid of it. Because if you watch hitting onto jump sets in order to be a real hitting threat,
You need to be facing the net and dishing it off the side of your shoulders. I know the Japanese, of, in indoor, they used to just face. They would never square up and turn to the net. They would have their back to the net the entire time, and they would set off their shoulders. But they did away with that because then you can't actually see the people you're setting against, so you can't make decisions. But if that's going to keep going, if jump setters are going to learn to jump set and be effective, yeah.
We have to set off our shoulders. We have to back set. So is squaring up going to become like super basic? Is that going to be like, Hey, yeah, of course. When you're shooting a foul shot, you know, face the box, like make sure that you have the same type of set and type of motion every time. But if you're in action, yeah, you need to pivot step. need to hit some drop back shots and fadeaways and you need to learn how to be versatile. So I think.
Mark Burik (32:55.81)
I don't think scoring up, we're gonna get rid of it, but I think coaches are gonna understand and practice more setting off of the shoulder, setting sideways, because now it seems like most people need some form of jump set, or at least it's making things easier if you can do it well on the beach.
we'll see if the whole square up because no one's ever run the test. Like no one sat there with an experiment and said, okay, if my setter faces the passer and then sets off their shoulder. And then we gave that to 500 athletes and had them each set a thousand balls. Are they more consistent or less consistent than somebody who is, facing directly where they're setting and allowing the trajectory of the ball to come from the side of my head, which is something that Steven Roche, it's from Texas. He's like, it never made sense to me.
Because like I can set off my shoulder super accurate, allowing a ball to cross my face and then intercepted is weird because that's what we do in indoor, right? You open to the set first, you look at your passers and then you kind of get to a pivot point in the air. So.
Man, I could talk about sitting for hours. would say squaring is dependent on what level of the game you're at and what skill you're looking at it for. think it's important to square like in server-ceive if it's an easy thing to square. Or I'm saying like, sorry, I misspoke. I would say in server-ceive, you don't probably have to square as much because then you can be more deceptive. But in my brain, when I was thinking squaring, I was like, you're coming down from a block. You have to turn around and find it.
I do think squaring would be important in that instance, because you're not being deceptive anyway. So you might as well be consistent. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like when you can be consistent, when you have to set in one place. Yeah. Square up. You know, I always compare it just to basketball. It's when you have the chance, are you going to throw the ball off your shoulder or are you going to face the rim and then shoot? Yes. When you have a chance, but they don't not teach or like yell at you for not squaring up in, in basketball after a certain level.
Mark Burik (35:04.59)
So when you reach that level and you have the understanding of the principles and you can apply them, then you're fine. But for basics, for juniors, for coaches who are listening, keep teaching, squaring up, but then dedicate a part of the practice to setting off the shoulders. Set some from your left ear, set some from your right ear. Try to open up the level of your hands so that, yes, you can get your feet there, but then also teach them how to handle a ball off the side of their face if they need to.
so for the coaches who are in here and who are listening, I want to hear some pivotal pieces of feedback that you've gotten and that have really, really truly been influential. And we can go with indoor and we can go with beach, but attitudes, keywords, or somebody who just broke a belief system that you had where you had to relearn.
one of the skills are just completely do it in a different way. Does any, for me, a few of them like stand out when I got this piece of advice, it was like, shoot. I've been doing that wrong for three years. Do you have any of those moments, where coaches can pick up since they're listening and say like, okay, maybe that's something I could add to my toolbox.
Mark Burik (36:37.646)
Marlee, can you hear me? Yes. I'm sorry. You cut out for a minute. okay. So, the question was pivotal moments from coaches where they gave you a specific piece of feedback that broke an old belief that you had or an old habit that was just so light bulb that you're like, man, I had learned that, or I'd been trying to do it this way for three years.
this fixed it or this got me back on the correct course. I would say.
season, was right before COVID season, actually, going into my junior year or halfway through my junior year, I was not doing well. It was COVID season. It had just happened. It was like the worst mental place. Probably anyone in college volleyball was in, but I switched coaches in college. So same coaches, but one of the coaches took on the setting responsibility and he was the defensive guy, but his volleyball brain is
just so good. It's Dave Booze at Florida. And he was like, you know what, we're just going to work together and we're going to fix the setting. And it just became like, be athletic because growing up, like I never even really had setting training. Like you do like your setting clinic before club practice. But other than that, I didn't have like formal setter training a ton. So I grew up just being athletic, like just go set, just do this. So then once you get to college and you're trying to learn some things and then it's just.
sometimes it's overwhelming with like you have to do this, this, this, this, this, this, and this. What? Like what's a, what's a check down for, for an indoor setter? What's a check down series that you would have to go through like piece by piece or a system that you were trying to fit in. It was like your feet have to be the ball. No questions asked. You have to be squared. You need to set this person in this situation, this person in this situation kind of just like
Mark Burik (38:40.878)
over analyzing every piece of it rather than get to the ball, set the ball, feel who's open. Kind of like take it as like every player is different though. Like some players need the, I'll set this person in this situation, this person in this situation, this in this situation. But for me, it's kind of like, I'm going to get to the ball as fast as I can and then I can feel what's happening. And so I believe like Dave allowed me to just like be athletic rather than trying to fit in a
almost robotic setting mold. All right. So he gave you more options, more freedom and a little bit less. This is how your feet move robotically. And there's a lot of, you know, internal versus external feedback for coaches as well. Like if you're so worried about your feet, you're not going to set well over time. You won't be able to perform well over time. Like we, we'd like to, as coaches give these type of
external feedbacks and allow us to think about what's going on in the environment around us and how we're trying to affect it instead of what's going on in my body. You actually problem solve worse like that. So, yeah, know what the technique looks like, but then be able to utilize it in your environment and have an effect on the outside environment. And then when I went back like a year later or two years later after I'd gone
I went back and trained with Dave and the mindset switched again and it was kind of like beat the blocker. Like how can you? Obviously we work on technique a ton, but once you're playing you just want to win. So how can you beat the blocker? So now every time I go into play volleyball, I'm like, OK, how do I beat someone? How do I make someone guess how you just like? Not you don't embarrass people, but you're like, how do I get it to where somebody committed somewhere else? And then I'm like, woo, I got it.
So I think just making that kind of the focus takes out from, because I setting some, you don't want to like double, you don't want to like mess up these things, but I think putting it on the opponent to be like, well, I'm going to beat you. Then I think it makes you play free a little bit more. Yeah, I like that. Getting them to move, getting them seeing where they're set up and seeing if they're baiting you. mean, indoor setting.
Mark Burik (41:04.654)
If you don't study it or you're not familiar with it, it is such a chess match. I blockers can move to a zone to pretend that they're there only to commit to another zone. You know, they can defend a middle far from you or pretend that they're not there and do a reach block. So most people, mean, people recognize setters are the masterminds, but you don't know how much has to go through your mind and how you're constantly studying the people on the other side of the net. And I think.
I think that vision, that awareness on the other side of the net, even though you spent a few years not passing and not attacking, but just being able to have the vision and the recognition on the other side of the net, I feel like it makes indoor setters have the ability to be lethal on the beach because their attention has been on the other side of the net for so long.
or as for us, know, in outside or a libero or a middle, it's just like the ball is here, block or there, boom. There's a lot more going on that you should be studying movements. So I do like a setter's ability to come to the beach.
Cool. Well, Marley, we're not going to hold you for too much longer, but this is the part of the show where, guys, if you are in the Completed Coach Academy and you are listening or you join the Complete Player program, we have two live meetings a week. We alternate between our staff hosting them and bringing on a guest, but we're going to open up our cameras and our mics now to anybody who is in the live meeting. So if you guys want to turn on your mics and cameras,
and ask Marley some questions about indoor, about setting, about being a professional athlete, about influential coaches. Bring it on.
Mark Burik (43:01.184)
Other question. Did you ever think of after UCLA to start playing on the AVP or you can
Maureen, are you partner hunting right now? I'm always. No, but it's interesting. I think it's rare. Once people play beach usually they're like, my God, I love beach. But now she went back to Inderstone. Yes, I did love it so much. think if it was...
I think it was more financially feasible. It definitely would have held more weight. Indoor coming back and it being like, well, that's actually a livable salary that I would be really comfortable with. And then my thought process was like, well, it's only a few months so I could play beach in those off months too. you know, cause beach is just something that I find really fun, really enjoyable because I think it's so challenging.
But I think it kind of did come down to, I'll give Indoor another try because it's more financially feasible.
Mark Burik (44:15.918)
which I wish it wasn't. I do. mean, if you can get into the league now, the AVP league is now financially viable. mean, a 40K minimum to play for. it should be. mean, it's such a market that's untapped and I'm really excited to hear about that. Yeah. And it seems like the players and everybody involved is pretty excited. I know people are also exhausted from.
you know, back to back playing and traveling after what, five months of indoor beach season, or sorry, of a beach beach season. But it looks from the outside like it was going well, and they've just got a buttload of content and the McKibbins are going to be due for a two month vacation after this for the amount of work that they're doing. So yeah, pretty crazy.
If you were, if you could cherry pick the partner and you came to the beach.
who is the partner that you would pick up. You get any girl on tour or not even on tour anymore, maybe you're retired.
That is a crazy question. That is a really, really hard.
Mark Burik (45:37.582)
I don't know, probably Sarah Sponsal. I've seen her a few times playing against her. She played for Grand Rapids. I played for Atlanta. Super, super cool person and I think one of the best volleyball players of all time ever. Cool. Sarah Sponsal, bring her back to the beach. Yeah, we could use her. We could use a few more of her scorpion kicks and weird body positions when she's making crazy athletic plays. It was fun to see that cheat.
you know, made something and completely dominated on the beach. And then she's like, I'm going indoor. Yeah. And she was awesome. I mean, she's going to play this year for San Diego. So I think I would bet she's excited to be back in California. that's my two favorite games of the entire year when we get to go out to San Diego. I get to see all my UCLA friends and, I'm really excited actually. That's awesome.
So when is your first match and how do people go to games and attend them? Our first match is the weekend of January 8th, 9th, 10th. We're at home. And people, it'll just depend on which game. I know we have a deal with CBS, so some games will be on CBS. Others, last year they were on YouTube, so they're actually really easy to stream. were just on regular YouTube, which was...
really easy to watch. And then we play every team four times. So I play for the Atlanta Vibe and you play two home, two away. And that's just kind of how it goes. We're playing mostly on the weekends this year, so they're hoping for more attendance. I think they'll definitely be more of a draw. And then Big South, the indoor qualifier comes to.
Atlanta. So last year we got a ton of a ton of teams there, which was so cool. hope to have that again. Big South is a massive indoor tournament. It's gotten even bigger in the last 10 years. It's crazy how big it is. Cool. All right. Cool, Marley. Well, hey, thank you for your time. Really appreciate you spending with us and thanks for your knowledge and talk and shop on on setting. Really appreciate it and kick some butt this year.
Mark Burik (47:53.134)
I'm looking forward to seeing some indoor games. It'll be nice to flip them on the TV and see pro level ball flipping it out, which I know like NCAA is exciting, but when you start seeing people who are not just introduced to, but are really comfortable with every skill that they have, it's fun to see it at that level and it brings it to a whole new light. So good luck.
Well, thank you so much. you for having me. Yeah, you're welcome. Anytime. And do you have an Instagram that people could follow? Maybe check out some highlights? Yes, my Instagram is just my name Marley and then Mons, M-O-N-Z. And that is I post some volleyball stuff, actually mostly volleyball stuff. It's almost like I don't have a life outside of volleyball, but I try to. Nice.
Yeah, for a while that was me. People were like, my God, he's the volleyball guy. And I'm like, that's actually probably what I talk least about in my life, but it's what I post most about. I would say I am the same way. All right. Cool. Well, thanks again. Appreciate the interview. was nice getting to know you. And yeah, I'll be following you and checking you out. So good luck. Thank you so much. Great to meet you. You're welcome. Everybody else.
from Bitter at Beach, we wanna see you at a camp. And if you do ever want to learn how to set in beach volleyball, we do have a 30 day at home setting program that you can sign up for. You can buy it as a standalone course or you can join the complete player program or the complete coach Academy. And then you can post all of those drills, your techniques, your game footage into our private community where our staff will then go in there and analyze your videos and help you get to the next step.
That's it. Hope you had a great listen or watch and enjoy the rest of your drive or nap. From me, from Maureen, from Matt, Brandon and Cheryl.
Mark Burik (50:05.049)
This is Better at Beach, we'll see you on the sand.
