Mark Burik (00:00.322)
Hey everybody and welcome to the Better at Beach podcast, YouTube channel, and of course to our members who are in the Complete Coach Academy watching this live. We are going to have a chat with Kristoff Dressler. And before we get into that, I want to let you guys know why I'm really excited about it. First of all, he does some coaching on the side. So for our Complete Coach Academy members, we're going to get some lessons from him. Second, he's competed and competing at
the highest level of the world. And we really want to dive into how he thinks about the game, how it's different from our current theories and philosophies, and then what he thinks are good or better philosophies in terms of training and in terms of coaching. Now, if this is your first time to the podcast or the YouTube channel, you guys are getting the edited version of this. Our members who are currently in this meeting,
they get to ask me and Kristoff any questions that they want live. And so if you wanna become a member of that, you just go to betteratbeach.com forward slash coaching, you get the complete beach volleyball training blueprint. And we have two meetings every week, just like this, where you get to talk with other coaches, other players, pro players, pro coaches. And we also do nonstop.
video analysis. So if you want get our workout programs, our beach volleyball courses, and anything beach volleyball or fitness, you can sign up there and we guide you along the way because everybody who works for us is just a natural born coach and we want to help you and we want to figure out your best way forward in this sport.
So before we get into the interview and video analysis today, I just want to announce a couple of our upcoming dates in case you guys want to come and ever do a three or seven day camp for us, with us. January 17th, we are going to be in St. Pete, Florida. January 24th, we'll be in Revland, Ohio. January 24th, we will also be, this is a personal camp of mine. I'm going to be running at St. Pete in our private.
Mark Burik (02:12.271)
with only 10 spots for that one. Our Tacoma, Washington camp is sold out at the end of January, but we are in Salt Lake City, February 14th, March 7th, we will be in Ozark, Missouri. And March 21st, we will be in Long Island. And then April 4th, we will be in Oklahoma City. We also have camps coming up, another one in Long Island in the spring, Virginia Beach, Milwaukee.
Bend, Oregon and we are adding one to two camp dates a week and we're hoping to get to your city if you want to bring us to your city shoot us a DM write us an email and Make sure that you have some bookable courts that we can reserve and be there with you so Without further ado, we're gonna get into some video analysis and talk some shop with Christophe Dressler Christophe. Hello and thanks for brother
Hey, thanks for inviting me. I was excited to chat with you. I still know you from, think, eight or ten years ago we played against each other on the World Tour. It was a very, very close game. I still remember it. Were you playing with Koenner at that time? Yes, yes. This also kind of shows me how long I'm in the game now. I think I'm playing now since over ten years on the World Tour.
I I've had over 100 competitions. So yeah, it's and for me, it's always nice to share this experience. I've had big losses in my career. I've had some great wins. I'm now playing for the Austrian national team, which gets me really excited. yeah, and I also always enjoyed passing on my experience, like learning about the sport itself, but also learning about the...
mental and physical aspects about the sport. Also, it's almost four degrees in sports and psychology and neuroscience. I'm currently doing a PhD. So I'm quite deep into the topic also when it comes to the mindset of beach volleyball and how to train psychologically for the whole thing. That's awesome. Yeah, that follows. I never went as deep
Mark Burik (04:32.722)
as master's degrees or PhDs, maybe one day, you know, when I grow up. But I also have the education in exercise science nutrition with minors in psych as well. It was always interesting to me to figure out how to maximize the human body and the human mind. Like that was always such a cool endeavor. And then since I was always
playing and competing, never felt like it was schoolwork to me because anytime I was studying sport or kinesiology, you're going, okay, well, tomorrow I'm going to use this. I'm going to use what I just learned. So it's only making me better. So I was lucky enough to be able to marry my education with my true passion, which is sport and coaching. And I can't wait to dive into it with you because I also want to talk about, you know,
maybe the differences between coaches internationally, how they structure mentality, how they structure emotion, as well as just basic practice design from a human learning standpoint. very nice points. I'm here on the same side as you. I also always had the experience that
you learn way more if you learn by interest. The degrees are actually not necessary, but if you have a question and are going to research about it and talk to your buddies, colleagues, coaches and friends about it, that's the way how you learn best. Yeah. So I'm totally on your side when it comes to this. Well, let's start with this. Did you start by playing beach volleyball or were you an indoor player first? So...
Actually my first experience was beach volleyball but I'm not sure how this counts. I was seven and there was a local beach kids camp in my village. So I come from a very small village of 1,500 people and they had a beach volleyball camp there when I was young. So that's where I really discovered my love for the sport. I knew really from the first moment on that I want to continue in the sport.
Mark Burik (06:52.342)
And I didn't have this feeling with any other activity. I was also doing soccer and skiing. But then as soon as I met this sport, I always wanted to continue. And then my first long experience was indoor volleyball. But at the age of 18, I decided for beach. You were 18 when you went full-time beach. Yeah. Yeah. How in Austria, if you can share?
the pathway from being a junior or a young person all the way up to becoming World Tour. What are the different processes and systems that you have to go through? Because in the U.S. we have high school and then you have club as a junior and then usually you would go and you play in college and then you find your way to the pros. for the U.S. national team, all it is is show up and win.
You know, there's no real sign up. We get to sign up as many people for as many international tournaments as we want. And if you win, okay, you got the back of the federation. And then if you win a lot, then you get some financial incentive from them. But what does that look like for Austria? Yeah. So in Austria, we unfortunately don't have a school.
school sports system or college sports system. So that's what we admire about the US. But we have a good club sports system. So typically as a kid, you would sign up for a club. Yeah. And mostly indoor volleyball. So usually, you know, in winter we practice indoor volleyball and in summer on our clubs, let us practice beach volleyball. So until you're 18, that's typically your path. Yeah. In the winter, indoor and summer beach.
So you grow up with both sports and then when you're 18, maybe some years before, you typically decide if you want to go professional in one of the two. Going professional in both is pretty hard. Maybe not even possible. But typically you would say, okay, I go for the beach volleyball national team if they want you. Or you go to a club and play somewhere in either Austria, somewhere else in Europe.
Mark Burik (09:12.897)
and go for club sports. Yeah, I know one pretty popular indoor player, Florian Schnetzer. He's a friend of mine. He came out to Hermosa for a little bit when we trained. I helped coach him and we played against each other. It was also weird, but he's a good dude and he had success in indoor. He also played indoor and then eventually had to make the transition to beach. But I think he was trying to play both for a while.
Yes, he's one of the few examples who really manages to do both. But I think it's still hard to do. I think this is impossible to do both at the complete highest level. Because then when you do indoor in the winter, you miss the preparation for beach volleyball and the other way around. You still can get good and think floated amazing.
He was, I think, one of the best in the indoor league. played a lot of good tournaments on the world tour. He's a really great guy. But I remember talking with him and it's a struggle. If you train fully indoor, try to prepare yourself for beach. It's struggle to do both. Well, so then let's dive into some of your education with motor learning science and exactly that topic because
So here in the U.S. often the indoor clubs and the beach clubs are not the same and they fight against each other because they're usually fighting for the same athlete. Yeah. Yes. For my experience in sports, first of all, as a kid, play anything and everything you can play it because you love it. If you love three or four sports at once, go ahead.
When you're starting to get to like 16, 17, 18, to me, okay, that's a reasonable time to specialize. But, you know, I don't even know what my favorite food is when I'm 14. No, that's a sport. So that's not like my time or recommendation to really specialize. But have you found that
Mark Burik (11:36.466)
athletes should play multiple sports up to a certain point. And after that, I want you to talk about if you think indoor or beach hurts the other sport, aside from becoming a professional. Okay, very, very good questions. Okay. I still remember the lecture about kids and youth sports, and I have a similar opinion. So as I see it,
I think kids should do a lot of different sports until the age of 14. So that's kind of the benchmark I learned and I find good. And I think especially a track and field, knowing how to run and to jump, because this is beneficial for a lot of sports. I wouldn't specialize in endurance sports in youth, because when you're young, I think you should train your fast muscle fibers.
If you train too much, your slow muscle fibers, like if you, for example, are a professional swimmer between the age of 10 to 14, you may be fully train your slow muscle fibers and have a hard transition to go into a sport like beach volleyball where you need fast muscle fibers. So that's something to think about. So they found an actual growth and limitation depending on what you grew. And if you do fast Twitch sports early,
your nervous system and your muscle fibers continue to grow that beyond 14? Yeah, yeah, I mean you you have those fibers, the one who can decide to become either fast or slow twitch and if you do a lot of let's say endurance sports, then your muscle fibers decides to go slow twitch and you cannot reprogram them. So really? Yes, yeah.
Thank you. Yeah. Now I knew that that was a cute, you know, so I knew that it was like in a, in a small window of let's say a year to two years, you've got some reprogramming to do, but I never knew that there was an issue getting a endurance athlete, you know, after two years of training or something like that to then become a, think for the, um, uh, for the exact timeframe, I would still needs to do more research myself.
Mark Burik (14:04.922)
I think it's not a big deal if you do one or two years of this and having a certain base is important. I'm not saying endurance training is very important for all kinds of sports. What I was just saying or what I would actually like to say, it's good to do a lot of different sports. Of course, it's important to learn to swim and run. just saying if you, for example, like between the age of eight to 14, if you do five times swimming per week.
Then you will have developed slow twitch muscle fibers. Then you will have a hard time transitioning and become a very good jumper. That's more my point. My suggestion would be ball sports, soccer, football, track and field, maybe gymnastics. A lot of different types of sport because the more...
movement programs you have, the more talented you can also, or the better you can also become at a specific sport. yeah. And I like that. So if you've got multiple motor programs, one thing that I hear from indoor players and beach players and the indoor coaches excuse or reason why they don't want their kids playing beach is I don't want them developing bad habits. But the way you said it,
is how I believe it is you have multiple programs. You have a different program for this. Like I'm not going to try to have a remote control on my computer and turn on Netflix. I know that this is a computer. I know that my TV that has Netflix, right? That is controlled by remote control. So I'm not going to sit here and stab at this. And the whole reason for indoor coaches then just saying like, well, they're going to have those bad habits and I'll have to
Retrain them. I don't believe that I don't need you're not going to have a slower progression in a skill just because somebody's learned a different a different way to do that skill and either way When I'm on the sand, I don't try to do indoor stuff when I'm on the indoor. I don't try to do each stuff Well, what were your thoughts on that and the research? I also think
Mark Burik (16:32.978)
early specialization is not necessary. I think it depends on the age we're talking to. At which age in the US are they fighting already over the athletes? Like seven years old. No, mean, typically like clubs start getting serious in some states at like 12. And then after that, it's all the high school age. So the 14 to 18. Yeah.
Yeah, I think when they're 12, it would be way too young to fight over them. as I said, until 14, let them do as many sports as possible because the danger of an early specialization is that they lose the fun for the sport. And this I've experienced a lot that players who were doing volleyball since they were kids and nothing else, they lost their fun about the sport when they were 18.
I okay, I want to experience something else. But if you do a lot of different sports, then you also learn what you really like. I still would say deciding at the age of 18 when you want to go professional and in which sport, I think it's a good time because there's a reason why you're an adult with 18.
Mark Burik (18:03.9)
competence to take such decisions. So I wouldn't want to influence kids too much because I think actually kids have a good feeling for themselves what they want to do and I would want to make them learn more following their inner intuition than learning to follow the coach who wants to pull them into their club. Yeah, right. I think that's not the right approach. Yeah, and I think just kind of a last point on that that I
just thought of here is if volleyball or soccer, anything is your only sport, and then you start to not like it, you might not think that there are other options for sport. And therefore you start thinking, I hate sports. I hate team environments as opposed to like, you might have the same coach for two or three years growing up.
And that coach just destroys your passion for any sport. But if you're looking forward to two months from now where you get to have a different coach and they're reset and they teach your body how to work in a different way. Yeah. You you get to hold onto that, that passion. I loved some of my coaches and I really did not like some of my coaches, but I liked the sport, but you know, I didn't have to be with them for six or seven months. could.
keep them at an arm's distance for a certain amount of time and then say, listen, I still love this sport and I'm going to be rid of you in two or three months. So I can, I can last versus looking at an entire year with one guy who's a tyrant and you're just like, I'm not going to deal with this, know, and then you just drop out of sports completely and now you're losing health benefits and interest in your potential. Yeah. Yeah. I've made a similar experience. with volleyball I've met.
great coaches and great friends. really liked the environment because I always felt like beach volleyball and volleyball. It's such a family environment. Kind of everybody almost is friends. You train with each other, you compete against each other and then you're friends again. So that's really a nice environment to grow up. And I've also played soccer and tennis in my youth and was different. Tennis was one versus one and it was kind of, yeah.
Mark Burik (20:30.68)
Yeah, always against each other. Yeah. And soccer, the environment was always in soccer team, everybody picks on everyone. It's a kind of a funny culture. Yeah. And I felt always more comfortable with the volleyball environment. So talking about coaches then, what are the qualities
in coaches that you've appreciated, you've loved, have turned you on to the sport. So if you could think about some of the best coaches that you've had and their qualities, what does a coach do for you or has done for you that have really turned you on to the sport and who you wish to almost emulate when you become a full coach?
It's a very good question. Just do you hear me good? Is there some background noise? There's a little bit of water or something happening. Yeah. Maybe can I shortly switch location that we have the... Sure. Yeah. It won't interrupt the video. All good. Yeah. Okay. Let's take a tour of house Jassler. Yeah. Yeah. I'm currently in Canada, the house of my fiance. nice. So...
Mark Burik (22:04.331)
Man, I might come to your house. This looks nice. Yes, it's beautiful.
Mark Burik (22:19.937)
Okay. Do you see me good? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Regarding coaches. to stay fair, will because I have had different coaches who all followed different philosophies, which also matched the question you had in the beginning. So if that's okay, I would tell about different philosophies and what I found really helpful for me.
Yeah, think we'd all love that. Yeah, we've got a little audience here in the meeting. we're all aboard for these conversations. Okay, awesome. Awesome. So as of right now, I think I have a very well known coach in the senior, which I really benefit right now. It's Martin Oleniak from Slovakia. was coaching, I think Edas Vickre was coaching a Polish national team.
and really brought a lot of players already to the Olympics. And as a second coach, we have Georgios Quotzianos, the Greek guy, he also used to play on the World Tour. And those two guys, they form a really well team together. So what kind of their philosophies are, Martin, he has a very good tactical knowledge.
So before every game we get really a very good analysis of the typical patterns of our opponents because as we know in beach volleyball, most players play according to a specific pattern. They have certain hits and shots and you can sometimes see already in how they approach or how they use their arm which shot is going to come. So when just to...
Not interrupt, piggyback on that. When he's giving you that analysis, okay, and he's giving you your game plan, does he do it with film where he shows you certain body positions or certain positions that they're hitting from? Does he do it with shot charts where he's like, Hey, this is where most of the things go. And then when you need to stop it, do you change your positioning?
Mark Burik (24:41.528)
Or do you use a different play call in order to bait them into hitting that shot? You know, would you rather just take it away upfront or would you rather let them think that their favorite shot is open and then steal it for a point later? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Uh, so, so for the last question, I think we would stay with our tactic in most cases. So if I show a line, yeah, I go for the options, which, which I can reach on the line and, um, Philip.
we'll cover the angle. But we have this call that we would call switch. So if something changes, we maybe sometimes switch the tactic or even we also always have a certain degree of freedom, we call it, where if we see something, that we go for it. Even if I block line, if I see,
this guy's going for sure to the angle. Yeah, I can switch up. Yeah. When you say a certain degree of freedom. Yeah. The way I try to teach players is exactly like you said, Hey, if you know that you can steal that point right now and you know where they're going. Yes. Take it. And then when they're in perfect positions and they have all of their options.
That's when you stay more true to your call. So is that what you're saying certain degree or is there a certain point where like, even if he's going for this shot and I know it the whole time, I can't touch it. Yeah, that makes sense how you said it. That's similar on how we do it. Yeah. And also, yeah, what Martin also tells us is that before, he's in a good position, trying to speculate too much.
that's where you often mess up. So here it's really better than to stay with your game plan and trust the statistics because if this guy is hitting 70 % angle, at some point the hit will come. Okay, cool. So are you more likely to change your defender's positioning when there's a certain shot chart or?
Mark Burik (27:05.773)
Again, is it just more play calls? Because there's so many, there's so many ways to stop hard cross. You can run a regular cross block, which in that case, he's probably not even, he's going to have a whole new decision tree. You know, once he sees a definite cross block, he probably won't go for it. Or you can sit your defender where most of his swings go and your defender will get hit a bunch of times, but he'll be getting hit a bunch of times, which means that one of them will come up.
What's more likely when you see that one guy just hits the same spot every single time? Yeah, we would probably decide on how we can stop him more likely. If it's more with block or defense, we would base our tactic also on our strengths. So if this is a guy where I have a good feeling on him and also our opponent cannot read me that well, then I would probably go more for the hit.
but also to make it not too obvious. Yeah. Also, Philip needs to take it sometimes or when we know, okay, this is easy for my partner to defend. Yeah. I would play more probably that's the defender takes the crossbow. Yeah. So it's depends on our strengths. Okay. Good. Yeah. So, you know, there's sometimes like when I used to play indoor and I was playing libero, I would tell my blocker, don't touch his line.
I will dig him, he can't hit hard, like bring him to me and I promise you all get a dig. And then sometimes blockers can absolutely feel and just completely understand for whatever reason. You know, I played against those guys who no matter what I tried, they got a touch. And I was like, what am I giving away to you as an individual that I don't give away to anybody else? And so we played those, but it's interesting that you say, okay,
It can be for the defender or it can be for the blocker depending on your feeling for the opponent and you know for the people who are listening your skill level. You know if we know that we can block him but our blocker is 150 centimeters tall we can't block him no matter how good you read him. It's better to put both in defense.
Mark Burik (29:32.441)
Yeah, so I think this is where I'm currently learning a lot, tactical also about block positioning, defense positioning because I think it's very important what picture you give your opponent because at some level your opponent has more and more core vision and looks at what you're doing so you often try to give him a certain picture, yeah, it looks like you're blocking cross but in the last moment you just move one hand.
or two hands, is very hard to see. So those are kind of the things you start playing with at some point. that in itself is hard to do, to do a block jump and then have individual hand movements. I think Andy Mole did something really good for volleyball with his Kermit the Frog style hands.
Then I'll see these tiny little blockers, you know, maybe they're 190, 185 and they're trying to do the same moves. I'm like, Hey, this is his style of play for his body. Yeah. You need to find out a different way to do that same play, but knowing that you're not going to take up half a meter here or a foot and a half here and a foot and a half here. You have to do it maybe with your feet.
or with your dives instead of just your hands. So when people look at one type of blocker and they're like, I'm going to do that. And I'm like, you don't have the same physicality. You don't have the same jump. You don't have the same body. You shouldn't try to make yourself into a player that looks, jumps, and moves nothing like you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think maybe two things to this.
I think it's good in general to look at others how they're doing and learning from others. I think that's a good thing. But I'm also not a huge fan of trying to completely copy someone. I think you need to base your game on yourself, on your own strengths, what you're comfortable with, what you actually can do. Because right now the jump set is very popular.
Mark Burik (31:56.087)
I think it's a good thing, it's great, yeah, you can use it. But I also think completely changing your whole game, yeah, and maybe introducing a lot of mistakes if you're trying to copy this game style is maybe not the most successful part. So I think you can use it in some situations, yeah, and if you get better at it, you can use it more and more. But it's not completely necessary, yeah.
still Molsorum won the world finals and yeah are not the they do jump sets but they do not always use it like the Swedish guys so I think there's some kind of danger to trend hopping yeah it's yeah beach volleyball develops and it's great yeah I'm not not against it yeah but I think you don't need to change everything about yourself because someone else is doing it yeah and then
Any new skill or tactic at that level when you're beyond 18 or when you're at a pro or elite status, that might be two full seasons of you in the learning process versus the perfecting process. Yeah. Yeah. know, and like perfect, close to perfect is better than close to good. And so if you're trying to do something like that, where you're trying to add
new shots, new plays to your game. First of all, the next partner, if it's totally revolutionary like jump setting, your next partner, they might not be ready. So then you've got to train them up to that style. And second of all, you're going to go through at least a year of pain. And are you ready to lose those tournaments and willing to say, okay, in two and three years, then we'll get to perfecting this. And that's a call that people
have to make and understand, you know, like try, try born. He started trying to jump set when it came about, but it ruined a bunch of his plays and he was playing quality ball. And then he went back to a little bit more normal, but he was like trying to implement it in these crazy situations. It's like, Hey, you don't need this. Like you go back to what you're close to perfecting and just make it more perfect. Yeah. Yeah.
Mark Burik (34:21.042)
Yeah, that's what I also was trying to say. Yeah, think Chamsit is great. I'm not speaking against it, but it needs time to really use this to perfection. Ideally, you start as a kid with it. You learn this from the youth. So I think it takes some time to adapt this successfully. Agreed. Agreed. What? So what's...
one skill that you're either currently working on or you added to your game that was really uncomfortable for you when you were learning it. know, something that you knew you needed or wanted, but it took you hundreds and thousands of reps to be able to add it in comfortably. For me, it was honestly, it was a cut shot. Yeah. I mean, I spent months.
in preseason because I just didn't use it. I didn't have it. And so people would sit on my line and like a narrow cross defense and they'd be closer to my line shot. So I needed to add some type of competence to a cut shot. And I did, but it took me months of a preseason every day. And it took me a full season of opening matches with cut shots just to prove to myself that I could do it.
Yeah, and then finally it started getting some rhythm, but it's not one of my natural comfortable shots. Yeah, two things came to my mind. Now, when you said like when I was way younger, the only thing or like say when I was 20 or 18, yeah, the only thing I actually could do was hitting angle.
Yeah, so this was the only leaf on my tree of possibilities. But I could do this very good. But this I could do. And what I've kind of forced myself over the years to have more and more options. And I think this is a really hard thing to incorporate all kinds of hits. Like you said, it's to don't care anymore if you hit line or angle.
Mark Burik (36:39.421)
Of course the hit angle is just a useful hit because you have a lot of space. can use middle, long, can go on the fingers, you can go sharp. So it's actually not just one hit. But to incorporate more shots, this was always important to me and also hard to learn because you also need to learn to look or to look while you're attacking or before you jump.
that takes really lot of practice. the second thing which maybe completes the question before about the philosophies. So I think the one philosophy is to have tactical, to look at the game tactically and the other one is more technical based. And my second coach, the Greek guy, Kotsylianos,
What I really liked about him and he was training me for five years already, we did just so many repetitions. And also, as a kid, I always struggled with reception. And until the age of 25, I was also just bump setting. I was not using my hands. And the confidence for using this, for getting better in reception and setting, it was really just repetitions.
to have a certain understanding on how you move in reception, how your leg work and how your platform is. But I think this is really a topic where it's a lot about repetition. So it was clear every Monday we did like 100, repetitions in reception, the double of it in setting. On Tuesday we did settings again. So like every week we were accumulating so many reps.
just with very simple basic drills, but a lot of repetitions and it's a simple coaching philosophy, but I think it really works. Yeah. To have, simple drills, but watch that you have understanding of the correct movement and just keep reinforcing it, keep optimizing the movement. Yeah. important practice to you for what you consider a quality practice.
Mark Burik (39:03.057)
one of the qualities should be very high repetitions or is that just for a certain type of practice? Like you said, Mondays and Tuesdays ball control, passing and setting. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Here, here too, we, we also need to talk about periodization. So in your, in your, in your buildup phase in the first phase of your training, yeah, in your preseason,
there I would recommend higher numbers of repetitions. But the closer you get to competition, you need to train more game-like, more and more. So you need both. You need the game-like training and the competition. But in pre-season and during some phases, it's also important to have the correct number of repetition. Would you...
So that's like macro for the whole season. So, you know, it's December, January, February. I'd say most of the players I know are following that they get out for an hour to 90 minutes. They don't jump. It's pass set, pass set, pass set, some serving. I think people should do more serving. but pass set. then we play in California, we play a lot of standing game because most people are going so hard in the gym.
that you don't even want to try to jump and spike because it's embarrassing because your body is so beat up from the weight room. Like I'm not going to try to spike a ball today. and so that's macro, but do you also do that in a micro cycle? So let's say that, you know, you, you just finished a tournament on a Saturday on Monday and Tuesday is your practice design. More high rep based early.
and then gameplay or because you're in season, is it all is it just all gameplay? Yeah, yeah, I think in season it's also very valuable to put in those recovery practices. So for example, if you just finished the tournament, give yourself one day rest and then when you start training again, maybe even make a train without jump again, or you just focus on the basics, reception setting, maybe some standing shots.
Mark Burik (41:21.728)
Because you can't training every day competitive. Yeah, it's I think very hard on your on your body So it depends a little bit on what type of athlete you are Because some some can endure it Yeah, some some athletes can jump every day and they love to play all the time for them. It's fine. But for most It will get very hard on your knees and your back and your shoulders if you train game like every day
Yeah. So yeah, I would recommend putting in those practices where you're not jumped and focus on your technique. Yeah, I like that. I, so one of my, one of the guys who was on my college team, he said that for the first two weeks in high school and in high school you get maybe two and a half months with your team, but every year until their first match, they weren't allowed to jump and spike a ball in practice.
They only pass set and then they could send the ball over from standing and the coach was just absolutely demanding that they learned how to pass and set first because teenage boys all they want to do is hit hard like he's like you're gonna learn how to hit hard if I turn my back for a second you guys are be getting your own spiking reps so I don't need to instill those so he would do that and these guys were state champions like nearly every year.
And they only started reviewing full attacking after the first match, which is pretty crazy. And we tell our people at camps, hey, on day one, we're doing passing and ball control. Your expectation, I'm not saying that this happens every camp, but I tell them your expectation should be that you won't jump for the next six hours of training. have that expectation.
Then we'll talk about it. If we do be happy, but today master the first touch. And I promise you at the end of this weekend, your hitting will be better. Even if we didn't teach you hitting, your hitting would be better because we taught you how to pass and set properly. Yeah. Yes. I think that's a very good thing what you do. I'm the same opinion, because if you get better at passing your attack automatically improves. Yeah.
Mark Burik (43:42.561)
If you're calm already after the reception, can prepare your approach better. And if your pass is already on the baseline, or somewhere in the middle of the court, you don't have all the options anymore. So, yeah, I also think the base in beach volleyball, that's very important, passing and setting. And then once this is on a stable level,
then you actually can learn to improve in the tuck. Yeah. Then you have better court vision. Yeah. And so. Okay. So let's go back to the, to the qualities of the coaches that you've most enjoyed working with and that have turned you onto the sport. Cause a lot of our, our audience here, coaches, juniors we've got some people who own clubs, but, and I want to give them the tools to make sure that they're not turning too many athletes off and
somebody elite like yourself, what allowed you to get to that process both from an emotional standpoint of your leaders and just from a practice design? So what personal qualities attract you to a The personal qualities of the coach.
Mark Burik (45:03.363)
I mean, of course, I think the major thing is when you feel this person has competence. When you kind of from the way he talks, you know, okay, this guy knows what he's talking about. Maybe the second thing, maybe even more important would be if you have a certain problem.
if you have a problem in passing or you always hit the net tape when you attack, yeah? If this person is able to assess your problem and give you a correct solution, yeah? If he is actually able to see where you're struggling, yeah? And then either, yeah, can do a quick fix, yeah? So see something which you can improve immediately. That's the one option. Or if he can...
design you a way, give you a program on how to improve on this on the long term. Yeah. So I think that's that's a major thing. If a coach can make you to a better player and yeah. you, do you and your partners have separate plans? Cause what I internalize that as, okay. A somebody who knows what they're doing.
Usually they demonstrate organization. And if they're going to fix a skill or they have the ability to give you a plan, it means they're thinking long term. They didn't show up to the court saying, this is what we're going to do today. As opposed to, hey, remember where we're going, Christophe? This is step 13 out of 100 of where we're headed. So to me, it's about
The comfort of knowing that they have a plan and they know where I'm headed and they know where the team is headed and every practice and every drill has a reason for getting there as opposed to you're just showing up and assigning random drills that have nothing to do with our process. And one of the weaknesses that I see as a coach in other coaches is they think about last week's loss and then the entire game plan or practice plan changes. And it's like, wait a second.
Mark Burik (47:30.091)
I thought we were becoming better passers for a month and we just spiked for three hours because I missed a cut shot on match point. I get it, but there should be the patience in a coach to have the plan and stick to the plan. And you need to, yes, be flexible, but at the same time, you need to know what's most important in the longterm and ignore the bunch of little errors that come along along the way. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
That's a very good philosophy. I would also say that what it first needs between you and your coach is a common goal. So it needs to go what you really want to strive for. It also doesn't help if the coach puts your goal. You also need to agree on it. So you and your coach needs to define on a common goal. And then, as you said, you need the plan to getting there. You need the organization and
where to put the focus on which topic. Because if you're deciding reactively, so if you decide based on what was last week or there, you're always in reaction to something. So this might not lead you to your goal, this might divert you a little bit from where you're heading. But it's still important to look at the games and what happened.
to see where you're standing. So I wouldn't say it's not important. You still should analyze your games and see, OK, where are the weaknesses? Where are my strengths? And you can always adapt the plan. So that's something good, I would say, to update your plan. Because I think it's almost important to make a plan for a year without any changes. For example, for us on World Tour, we
The calendar schedule even changes sometimes. So your plan needs also to be adaptable. would say. Okay. How are you mixing your fitness with your training? This is one of the most common questions that I get. And so for you on a typical pre-season week and then a typical in-season week.
Mark Burik (49:50.132)
What do your lifting or conditioning days look like and what days are you also practicing or resting, recovering? Yeah. So to give an overview, to start with the pre-season, we would in generally go probably three to four times weightlifting. Yeah. Probably three to four times.
and maybe two times conditioning. Yeah. So, certain intervals, endurance training and six times volleyball, five to six times. So six days a week, you're playing volleyball in some way. Yeah, probably. Yeah. Monday to Saturday. it depends. There will always be micro cycles where you say, okay, one day in the middle is off. Yeah. So that's, we would more say, okay, four to six times volleyball.
three to four times gym, one to two times endurance. So did you have some breaks in between? And if you're lifting four times a week, it two leg days? Is it too light, lightweight with fast? Are you lifting heavy? I mean, I know everybody's different because some people love lifting heavy and it gives them hops. Some people like to use lightweight and just move it super fast. What's your structure?
There are different splits. One which I was using in the last years quite often, if I go four times, I would do two times upper body, two times lower body. And the upper body also includes core. So as a general rule of thumb, I would say if you want to build up muscle, you should train every body part, every large muscle twice a week.
I don't like the splits where you go training three times a week and you're training each muscle once. Let's say Monday chest, Wednesday pulling movements and Friday legs. Because I think you should train each big muscle twice a week. So if I go three times, I go more hybrid in my workout. So I would mix upper and lower body exercises.
Mark Burik (52:15.303)
In season we would go more two or three times and it starts to get more and more explosive and fast. So let's say in preseason we would train with repetitions from 8 to 12 repetitions with the major exercises and 3 to 5 sets, so a large volume. When we are transitioning to let's say
8 weeks before the competitions we would reduce our repetitions and increase the weight. So we would prepare ourselves for maximum and explosive strength training. And in season or before the season we would train with quite low reps, 3 to 5 and very high weight. Or the other option just with lower weight but very fast movements.
And when you're doing conditioning, you separated, it's interesting that you separated practice, lifting and conditioning as a separate thing. what does conditioning mean to you and how are you implementing it? Yeah, it's true. The lines, they are sometimes not clear. But with conditioning, would mean to improve our endurance on the court. And this can take several forms.
So again, in the pre-season, we would maybe do more general conditionings and go running or go on the air bike or cross trainer. But we would also do specific conditionings where we do conditioning exercises on the beach. So we run, we do sprints on the beach or we make some, I don't know, we surf, sprint to the net, make a pulling movement, surf again. we do specific conditioning drills.
Um, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Cool. I like that building, building it into the practice. We've got a workout program in our library and there is a, you know, a speed and agility portion. I say, listen, you can go to the gym and do your lifting. then before you play or right after you play, then you can get your speed and agility there. Right. Like you should be warm enough in either, in either session.
Mark Burik (54:44.956)
to be able to do both for your sprint agility. And if you warm up for volleyball that day, like if you do a full mobility routine and warm up for volleyball, then right after that, or later in the day, you don't need that full warmup session again. You need like a tournament style quick warmup, and then you could get into your lifting again. you shouldn't, for me, you shouldn't be lifting for more than 40 minutes in season.
Maybe off season when you've got one of those bigger programs and you're higher reps and you're also fairly high in the sets. okay. Workouts are going to take longer. Maybe there'll be 40 to 60 minutes, but I've gone through in season lifting programs where it was like 18 minutes worth of lifting and then you're out. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. It makes sense. I would also recommend to not tie yourself out too much in season.
It really makes sense to design the programs shorter here. Yeah. What was the other question? That was it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So out of a coach, you're looking for somebody who's competent and organized and set a plan for the team. And that's specific to you that you also agree with, that you have a say in a part and an understanding in.
Yeah, maybe to put in four qualities, I think the common goal setting, the planned organization, then what we haven't talked about, it also needs the emotional connection and the trust. It's also important in a coach that you know when you talk with him, he really gets you. He gets your point and he takes this into his consideration. So some form of emotional connection and trust.
And that he also know he is motivated to bring you there where you want to go. This, think as an athlete you want to feel this, that your coach wants to support you and gives his effort. And the fourth thing, I think the ability to technically and tactically help someone or change or improve at these points. That he has certain knowledge about techniques and tactic.
Mark Burik (57:09.891)
and he sees you and he can bring you from point A to point B. What's one or two qualities that have made you lose complete faith in a coach, fire them or just not want to be on their court at all? I have never done this myself. I think here I'm lucky, but I've
experienced situations or of course there were moments where I was unhappy. I've once experienced that a coach did not really respect us or treat us as kind of know as lower. So like a very...
I think of course you want to listen to your coach, but if he doesn't treat you with respect, yeah, I think that's a problem. Yeah. So kind of this, this is not okay for me if someone doesn't treat, treat you with respect. Yeah. And you think they were treating you with less respect compared to the other athletes or teams or that he or she was better than you?
No, I think not compared to someone else. I think this was a general thing what I observed here. He or she, won't put any names. It's just an example. It was a dream I once had. Sorry? It was a dream you once had. Yeah, but it just felt for me...
Yeah, not a form of communicating. Yeah. I think it's good to tell someone, okay, what your mistakes are. But if you say it in an insulting way, that's where there's a line. Except if the players really want this. If it's in a kind of fun way, at the military or something. Yeah. Yeah. You know, this is about...
Mark Burik (59:37.287)
Yeah, if it gets personal, yeah. My Russian players always tell me to tell them that they suck. Yeah, yeah. If it's in their mouth, they're like, stop talking about all the good stuff I'm doing. I'm here because I wanted to hear everything wrong. And I'm just like, it's not my style, but I'll hammer you if you want. Yeah, that's OK. It just kind of needs to be in agreement. You know, that's why I'm saying it.
I think the coach needs to have the ability to assess what you need and how you also need your feedback. Some like it to to say, okay, you little pig run faster. Some like this, they get motivated. But for some it's the opposite. So I think you need to be able to assess what your player needs.
Yeah. Important message for the coaches out there who are listening. Just remember that you can have two players on the same court who receive and hear feedback totally differently and want it differently. You know? And so if you have the same language and I, I personally am not recommending that you change who you are. just recommend that you study yourself, study personalities and psychology for a little bit. Just pick up any
psychology book or sports psychology book and at least get an understanding so that you don't have to go so far away from who you are. But if you have the tools to understand that there are different types of athletes, different types of learners, different people who have completely different senses of humor. If I use me and my brother's humor around my wife, it's not going to be a good situation. Right. But I love them both. So I have to be
You know, I get to use my humor in different ways around different people. And if you're only teaching in one specific way as a coach, okay, you're allowed to do that. But just remember you won't be as effective for as many athletes as possible. I think that's a good lesson for coaches to learn and for ball to bed partners. You know, however you get fired up is not necessarily how your partners are going to get fired up. Yeah. Yeah.
Mark Burik (01:01:59.678)
Yeah, that's a very good message. Also here, as a volleyball player, experience different kinds of partners. You have very cold ones. Maybe, think, Dale Hauser is probably one of the greatest examples. Very cold on the field, but destroys everything. And then you have the opposite, players who are very energetic. don't know, Sam Moilers, I think, was a great example.
Yeah, it's good to know your partner and what your partner needs. So I think then you can be a great teammate if you support what your partner needs. Yeah, or allow them to do their thing. You know, you don't need to like, if you're Casey Patterson's partner, you don't also need to be a break dancer, but let him do his dancing. like that's where he's operating at high level.
Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. So we, you know, I would love it if you wanted to come again next week. I know that the members were kind of begging for a video analysis and we didn't have the opportunity to get to that. So if you ever want to stop by another time, I would love to chat more with you. I think you're super smart and you've got a good outlook on the game. So I think you're an asset to any beach volleyball player or coach and you're always invited back.
But for the people who are listening at the end of this episode, if you want to be able to do what we're about to do and have live Q &A with our special guest coaches and have access to them inside of our private community, just head over to betteratbeach.com forward slash coaching. And if you ever want to come for a camp with us, just head to betteratbeach.com forward slash camps. And now that I know you're in Canada, I might have to.
pull you down somewhere for a three or seven day camps with us. might be a little thing. We should talk about it. Yeah, I'm in. Okay, so we're gonna end this podcast and we're gonna go into our live Q &A with our members. And I just want to thank you for coming. It's been cool talking to you and cool battling against you out on the world tour. It seems like yesterday, but it also seems like another lifetime. Yeah.
Mark Burik (01:04:21.842)
Yeah, I remember you were hitting the service pretty hard. Yeah. Yeah. I also enjoyed it a lot. Yeah. Thanks for the invitation, Mark. Yeah. We can do this again. Yeah. So we can schedule another appointment. So I'm totally open to it. Yeah. And I had a lot of fun too. Awesome. Cool. From me, from Christoph, from all of us here at Betterhead Beach, thanks for watching and listening and we'll see you on the sand. Okay. Okay.
Hang out for a little bit and just in case any of the guys have questions. So members, I want you guys to pop on your cameras. And if any questions came to mind during that, or they're coming to mind right now, just pop open your camera and your mic and dig in.
That included.
Mark Burik (01:05:12.527)
Christophe, that was really interesting, man. Thanks for jumping into all of that. Very intriguing. Thank you.
Mark Burik (01:05:24.277)
All right, Nicole, Austin, John, and Konstantin. Let us know if you have any questions or if we're on in the background of your car. And if you don't, we can of course let Christoph finish the rest of his day in his mansion. What's up, Konstantin? Rainy Vancouver today. You coming back for the Vancouver Open? Uh-huh.
Konstantin, I think I remember coaching you last year. Yeah, thanks for the coaching. You're welcome. Almost as good as Marks, I'd say second best Marks. Yes, I take the compliment. So it depends on our world to calendar. So we just have a tentative calendar so far. So if we would be able to...
play in Vancouver depends on the elites and challengers throughout the year. Well, it'll nice to see you guys again if you come. Yeah, make it. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks, Yeah. Thanks, Rene. Of course. Thanks, Justin.
Mark Burik (01:06:41.066)
All right, cool. If you guys don't have any other questions, awesome. I see your camera popping up. Yeah, can you hear me? Yep. Cool. Hang on one second. Sure.
Mark Burik (01:06:54.252)
Dogs are fighting in the background. So kind of a quick question. I don't know if you've ever had to kind of deal with coming back from any injuries or anything like that, but just kind of maybe like a motivational question on how to kind of get back into something when you haven't really been able to operate at your best for probably many months. But yeah, yeah, very good question. I had actually tough injury. I was playing a two star in Morocco and at the first game.
someone jumped sideways into my knee and I ripped my lateral ligament and my meniscus and I actually completed the whole tournament with this injury because the knee was still intact and I didn't know at this moment I had an injury so yeah but and we actually became second it was a kind of great experience and also a bad one but yeah regarding the injury so
The most important phase for me was to immediately go to rehab. So after your injury, after, it depends on what it is. But to me, an injury always has also a chance, potential for you because when you're injured at some body part, you have time to train everything else. So for me, this injury was really valuable because
Okay, I had problems with my knee, but I could train everything else. I could train my core, my arms, my stability, my right leg. I did a lot of, I watched a lot of games. I could do a lot of mental training. So usually an injury is also a time to work on other things. Yeah. You anyway practice volleyball all the time. So if for a certain period of time, you're not able to do it.
practice the other skills. So because overall it will enhance you as an athlete. Does this answer your question? Yeah, no, it's great. Thank you.
Mark Burik (01:09:06.081)
Yeah, some of the worst surgeries and seasons that I had where I was out for eight, nine months, it just became, had a AB surgery and a shoulder surgery in the same year. I AB ripped off of my pubic bone and I had like something going on with my shoulders. And for me, film watching Todd Rogers day in and day out and figuring out how we won points. You know, I was able to come back my first practices and.
win points that I hadn't been able to win the last year because I saw how Todd won certain situations. You know, so for me, film was everything, studying and like taking stats. And then I picked up other stuff. You know, I've always sucked at soccer, like terrible. And I just said, I can't call myself an athlete unless I can juggle a soccer ball a hundred times.
And so I would be there like in my cast with my arm wrapped up and I would just try to kick the ball to myself until I got a hundred touches. And it took me like two weeks and it at least gave me some other goal to where my mind is moving forward instead of focusing on the things that I can't do. Yeah. Right. So like, what can I achieve here that I've wanted to do in my life and figure out in a different way? And for me, it was just
something so simple, but like the win that I got two weeks in when I finally got the 100th touch, I was going nuts. I was alone in a soccer turf area in an empty gym at 10 a.m. And I was just like, yeah, you know, I'm an athlete. Yeah, and it's so important that you figure out a way to get a personal or mental win. And it doesn't have to
home necessarily from volleyball, it can still be in another athletic endeavor. Or, you know, if your shoulders busted, like start timing your one mile times on a bike or three mile times on a bike. break some records, write them down, write them down. Day one of the injury, say how many squats can I get in a minute? Just go crush that, you know, and, beat it. And,
Mark Burik (01:11:28.012)
I know that not all injuries and sicknesses and times away from the court are the same and we don't have the ability to always do that. But what we do have the ability to do is find something that we can win or improve at and then your brain and your spirit move in a positive direction instead of being focused on the things you can't do. Yeah. Yeah. I would totally agree with that on shifting the focus on what you can do and not on what you can't do.
Mark Burik (01:11:59.856)
All right. Cool. Matt, any blocker questions for, Christoph before we leave? I know you're, you'll be busy recruiting some big hands up there this year. I was about to say, if you want to head to Vancouver, let me know. Cool. Yeah. And if we can get you on, I don't know if we're going to do a meeting next week with a New Year's Eve or Christmas Eve. Probably not.
But if we can get you on and do like a full, maybe either a defensive or offensive analysis of that video you sent, I'll save it to my computer. And you can just rock down like your game situation mindset and a couple more detailed strategies. think that would also be cool maybe for the players meeting Matt. absolutely. Yeah, also, yeah, let's just schedule a meeting and then we can talk about the game. Yeah, I also, I do have one question and it's really fast.
The first thing that pops into your head, just let it fly. What are the main characteristics of a defender that you look for as a big block?
the main characteristics of the defender.
Thank you.
Mark Burik (01:13:20.931)
There's...
Mark Burik (01:13:24.911)
Yeah, I think let's make it simple. You usually agree on a tactic, yeah? And if you can rely on that your partner takes his part, yeah? So let's split it in two parts. The first thing is, okay, if you agree on a tactic that you know you can rely on your partner. if, yeah.
whatever it is, you're taking the line that he's taking the hard cross and maybe one shot or if you talk about before that you know you can rely on your partner here. And the second thing is that he's able to read the game. So that kind of contradicts but also does not. So that he's able if someone really changes to see it, if something changes. So those two things that you have a certain stable base
on what you agree in your tactical plan. And the second thing is to be able to see and read the opponent. basically reliable and disciplined, but also risky in a way. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it's not, I wouldn't call it risky to, to anticipate. Yeah. If you're, if you're able to read someone, it's actually not risk to me. Yeah.
It would be more risk not to do it. makes sense. Are there any signs that you see when you're watching an offender where you see them play, like even a one point example where you see them play and you're like, he knows what he's doing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Two things. The first, which comes to mind is you notice a good defender when someone hits at him.
I think the really good defenders, they stay calm in their body. Yeah. To make a short, controlled movement and control the ball. Yeah. Someone who like splashes his hip forwards or rips away. Yeah. Yeah. He still, I think needs to learn to stay calm when someone hits hard. And I would say the second thing, if, if you watch how a defender looks at the attacker.
Mark Burik (01:15:48.228)
and finds the right time to move. There's a certain point in time where the attacker has taken his decision and that's where good defenders move. And maybe not so good defender would move earlier, the attacker sees it and just takes the opposite shot. That's gotta be frustrating when you're a blocker and you know that the defender behind you is always giving away
like the bait and switch calls or the things where they're moving. know, I played with a couple of guys who were younger than me. and I had the expectation like, okay, I know how to run this play. know how it looks, but they weren't at the stage where they, where they knew how long they needed to hide or where they needed to hide. And so even the plays that you want to run, you can't because your buddy's acting is
Yeah. It's not acting at that point. So their timing is off or the way that they give it away visually. There's not a deep enough understanding of how it's supposed to look and even how they look, you know, to the other team. Yes. Speculation can get dangerous in defense. Yeah. If you run too early, yeah. A good opponent will just notice what you're doing. Cool.
All right, cool. So we'll set up another video analysis and That's it. If you need anything from me or want anything from me Message me reach out. That's easy. And if you really do want to come and coach any camps We would love to have you We've got a ton of dates and I could we could just send them to you all and if there's any that you're interested in We can get you there. What part of Canada are you? I'm currently in Calgary
Upper West. I think right now, you know, I have the engagement celebration with my Beyonce. So it's probably hard right now to run away. But we can for sure. Yeah. I can for sure check the dates and if it's now or at a later point in time. Yeah, I think I also if it's in some years. Yeah, it would be awesome to stay in contact. Cool. Great.
Mark Burik (01:18:15.557)
Yeah, we'll get you one and I'll send you some ideas for some. thinking about the mat that one in Tacoma, Washington, which is a small enough flight for him. And maybe me, Brandon and Christoph can get at it. There it is. That'd be awesome. All right. We'll send you some dates and then if you're interested, cool. If not, we can, we we've got a number of coaches we can fill it with and then yeah, we'd love to, to have you out for a few, if not many. Okay. Awesome.
Awesome, yeah, I'm happy to stay in contact and see where we can collaborate. Great. All right, we'll set up the next meeting. We'll go straight into video analysis next time. And that might be on a Wednesday or a Tuesday, but it won't be next week for sure. OK, awesome. Yeah, looking forward to it. All right, thanks, Rizzov. See you guys. Bye, everybody.
