Mark Burik (00:02.146)
What's up everybody, it's Mark with Better at Beach and my main man Brandon. Today we are going to talk about everything vision. How to see the defense when you attack, how to survey the court, and then making decisions on what you should hit, when you should hit it, based on your body type, who you are, what your offense is. So we're gonna get into that.
We're going to have a nice deep conversation. just created an Instagram post about it. So I'm super fired up and excited to talk about it. And, um, we're going to get going, but we also, as usual, have some camps coming when we want to invite you. So on this next weekend, we've got Santa Monica, February 28th coming up. Uh, that's a three day camp in Santa Monica. We're going to be running regular classes.
there in Santa Monica, so Santa Monikans, please get used to it, get ready for our beautiful faces to be there. March 7th, we're gonna be in Ozark, Missouri. March 14th in New Orleans. March 21st, I'm coming home to Long Island. See you in New York. And March 28th, I'm pretty excited about this one because I think it's gonna sell out. We've got four courts. It hasn't kicked up yet, but I think Las Vegas is definitely gonna sell out just because why wouldn't you go to Vegas?
Right? So that's going to be on March 28th, April 4th, Boombox Beach in Oklahoma City. And April 11th, we always have a great camp in Scottsdale, Arizona. We'll be in Scottsdale in April. And then we've got San Diego, May 30th, Tacoma again, which is two spots from being sold out again, June 6th. That was pretty wild that we had in two nights, we sold out 26 spots.
Brandon Joyner (01:56.937)
Yeah, they're hungry.
Mark Burik (01:58.132)
nuts. They are hungry up there. So we're excited to go back and then we're adding some new things along the way. But that's it. And I'm in a hiring round. So let's talk about the company for a second. Well, I've had 18 hours of interviews, which has been
Brandon Joyner (02:12.351)
Yeah, what do you, who you bringing on board?
Mark Burik (02:21.1)
Wild put a few posts out and a few people looked at the dream job page If you guys are looking for a career better beach.com forward slash dream job Essentially, i've got this page that just represents what better at beach looks like at its fullest Capacity, know, like when it's operating full throttle what positions exist and Looking for a lot of unicorns for sure But initially it was for the online coach position somebody who it's hard to replace
ourselves, you know, we did this when we were coaching the camps and the classes, like, how do we find somebody who knows how to rotate players connects with players really well? has a, I'm just going to get it done mentality in all of the outside of the beach volleyball stuff and knows the game at a high level. And for me, like with the online coaching program as well.
You've got to know strength and conditioning at a super high level. You've got to be versed in nutrition and you have to be able to connect with people online as well as be a teacher in some way where we're creating these lesson plans and challenges for them every week. So it's a challenging role. I know they're out there, you know, but it's been a big round. And so the next person that we're bringing on board.
One, maybe two, we're gonna test out a couple of guys just on an hourly basis and see what they can bring. But we're bringing in people with multiple talents and we'll start hourly, see where they grow from there, just like Maureen did. And now she's kicking butt.
Brandon Joyner (04:00.159)
I know. It's really cool. If you are interested in working with us, I think one of the things that we do pretty well, one of the things that you kind of mentioned already is replacing ourselves. And I think at the beginning of our company, we took on everything, where we were like, no, it's got to be you or I. But I think now, one,
it's a cool idea because now we're looking at it in a sense of coaching people how to become that role. So like, if you're interested in working in the beach volleyball community, if you like what better beach stands for, if you think you kind of fall in line with our values and you have a good work ethic, we can give you all the tools, like especially the coaching side, we've created tons of resources. And I know just from
Just from our list of coaches that we now have at our camps on a consistent basis, it's been really cool to see their journeys from like the first camp. mean, our journeys as well, but from the first camp that they showed up to, to now, like we're okay with sending them out to run a camp. We're okay with having our little group talks and then.
Mark Burik (05:07.822)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (05:24.529)
sending them out through their courts knowing that they're going to run the correct drills and it's not so much babysitting from us. It's more like, hey, you have the tools now, now like go be the coach that you want to be, you know, and as long as it's within our system and kind of follows our values, then I think we've done a good job of creating those resources. So don't feel like you have to like walk into it completely ready. I think it's a...
Mark Burik (05:48.718)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (05:53.312)
We like people that are willing to grow with us as well and take initiative.
Mark Burik (05:57.218)
Yeah. Cause I mean, every job you have, you have your specialist, but every job you also have to be a problem solver. Like if you can't just be handed something and say, I don't know, figure it out. Like this is, this is beach volleyball too. Okay. We're going to give you some skills. We're going to tell you straight platform. What do you do if you can't straighten your platform? Well, you figure it out. Like there's so many different ways and Marines going through this now where it's, Hey, you, you came here.
Brandon Joyner (06:19.839)
Give it a shot.
Mark Burik (06:26.958)
You got the company as it was when you joined. You should be growing it so that it looks like a different company by the time you're done with it or by the time you're six months into it. And, you know, one of the posts that I always see is the person that you had to be for the first 10 years of your company is not the same person that you have to be or needs to be running the show for the second 10 years.
Like whatever got you here, whatever actions got you here, getting to the next level, there's gotta be change. And if either you can't change or you just can't figure out how to get somebody on your team that provides that change, then you become stagnant. And we see that in pro teams all the time. You change a coach, you change a player, somebody who they call them game changers, you know? So, or franchise players.
Brandon Joyner (07:17.183)
Yeah, that's a good way to say it. Yeah.
Exciting times. We love to see growth.
Mark Burik (07:25.622)
Yeah. Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (07:29.747)
Welcome, come join us. We're fun crew to work with.
Mark Burik (07:32.014)
Yeah. and I've got, I've got in touch with a few commercial agents in a few different cities looking for a facility build out. So pretty fired up. A lot of my time is going there as well, but we are here to talk about attacking.
Brandon Joyner (07:52.403)
do it. We love attacking. It's the best.
Mark Burik (07:54.424)
We love attack. BT dubs, you know, got out with the old guys in the morning.
Brandon Joyner (08:00.479)
Don't you tempt these listeners too much with you playing volleyball again.
Mark Burik (08:05.6)
Indeed, so I'm undefeated for my last six sets of volleyball in Hermosa. I'm not going to tell you who I played, but undefeated for six sets so far.
Brandon Joyner (08:11.774)
Whoa.
Brandon Joyner (08:17.341)
Man, that's a pad on the back. We love small winds. Proud of you. Way to get back out in the sand. Yeah.
Mark Burik (08:18.328)
I love my early morning crew. Yeah, yeah, thank you. Kettlebells. Thanks, man. Okay. So this Instagram post that I have is now, it's not going off, but it's going off. People are interested. And it's nine tips to get better vision and start attacking well.
And so we're just going to go through these nine tips piece by piece and then just explain them as we go. And my top tip, the first one was definitely to look faster. And I say, take a picture, not a video. Right. think looking for a long time gave me a good opportunity to grow coming out of New York open tournaments where.
Defenders were so impatient that they would sit in the middle of the court and then they felt like they had to protect a hard-driven area. But then they also didn't want me to see them. And because they were so late,
And because they weren't in a good position, they had to make this massive move out of the middle of the court eventually, because they felt like they needed to defend hard driven. And as soon as they moved, okay, now I can just release the other way. It could be sloppy. could be slow. but because it's the right decision against a budget defender, it becomes a kill.
Now, when we got to a VP level and I started playing against guys who would not do them whole sit in the middle and then flash to their position thing. People who were super fast or just absolutely held their ground. Like if you're going to play against a shooter, one of the ways that you can beat a shooter is sitting in the middle of the court and never giving up your spot. You know, playing them to half the court.
Mark Burik (10:26.574)
And we talked about this in our camp in Salt Lake City with the top men's court. We said, if somebody's staring you down as a defender, just don't give up your spot. Like pause and hold until they don't know which way to go. And then they'll hit you some garbage that you can pick up. but that's what started happening to me when I made that move to the AVP and, the long look got me into trouble because then I didn't have this power and I was hitting everything on my way down.
Brandon Joyner (10:55.975)
Yeah. And I think good defenders, they start to, once they recognize that it's almost an automatic point for them at some point. might not be that exact point that they're doing it in. But one of the things that I've been playing around with in the last probably year and a half, two years is like answering questions as a defender and
We'll get back to the attacking in a second, but like have to talk about defensive mindset before we think about this. And there are certain things that you can do as a defender that can give you answers of what the attacker is doing on their end. Right? Like, like you said, don't like put yourself in that position, start that staring contest, make it feel awkward. Look at them, win that battle, know, win that eye contact battle. And then once they look away,
Mark Burik (11:38.232)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (11:54.099)
whatever they start deciding, that's gonna give you information. Whether they win that point or not, that doesn't matter. It's a matter of now you've understood what that is, right? And now you can use that information to help you. And the goal is now what we're gonna talk about is flipping the switch a little bit so that you're not allowing that kind of, you're keeping those answers to yourself as long as possible. And so I think it's a cool.
Mark Burik (11:59.66)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (12:23.209)
cool points to talk about.
Mark Burik (12:24.994)
It's like a little game of chicken. It's like, are you going to hit first or are you going to move first? Which one is going to show their cards? And most often, B, A, open in a lot of cities, the defender always shows their cards first. then, yep, OK, this is easy. So you can either hold your ground and be fast in a place that you can already dig from.
Brandon Joyner (12:26.886)
it's the best.
Brandon Joyner (12:31.935)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (12:52.75)
Or if you know that this person is just looking for the defender and they're trying to shoot around the defender, then don't position yourself to dig a hard driven ball. One of the guys I got this on a lot is Avery, because when Avery Jost gets into shoot mode, he'll look for the defender for a while and hope that you'll give up an open space. So if I've got a bigger blocker against somebody like that, I'll say, hey, you do whatever you want, whatever you want to read.
but he's looking at me, so it doesn't really matter. I'm gonna sit in the middle and hold my ground until he makes a half or slow decision. And then on the second point, third point, he'll be like, he's not giving me any ground, I'm just gonna hit, right? And then we readjust our defensive strategy. But the idea of looking quick and then executing a fast decision, this is like business, this is sports, this is your life, it's the wrong decision made.
Brandon Joyner (13:47.583)
Yes.
Mark Burik (13:52.342)
at a hundred percent confidence in speed is better than the right decision that takes you a half hour, three days, three months, three years to execute. Right. It's like, was my first real estate deal a huge winner? No, but it pumps through a bunch of them fast, even though they might not be perfect so that I can learn.
Brandon Joyner (14:03.103)
Yeah, I think it's huge.
Mark Burik (14:15.494)
And you execute quickly. make quick decisions and you know this from football, like, dude, if you're going to screw up, screw it up at a hundred percent speed.
Brandon Joyner (14:24.275)
Yep. Yeah, when you start slowing down too much, that's when you've lost on too many planes. I know for like the first couple years of my career, like when I was playing on the NBL, I didn't have vision, but I jumped really high and I hit really hard. And I was able to get far enough in tournaments where just trusting my heart attack,
Mark Burik (14:31.829)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (14:53.201)
was something that I could live with, you know, and I think like, especially if you're an A level player and this is kind of jumping ahead, I think to one of the other points, but when you're talking about sticking with a decision, you also have to make sure that you have a decision to stick with. And I think like for me, when I was at the beginning, it was like, all right, I'm going to go in and I'm going to actually destroy this ball cross. If a blocker blocks me two or three times in a row,
then maybe I'll think about switching it up. You know, but it like, was for the first little while it was like, I was hitting hard cross, hard cross, hard cross, hard cross. If I had a bad jump, that's when I was like, okay, this one I can go high line. But yeah, I think like too many people, we go into it thinking that we have to hit every single shot, every single, every single attack when.
You gotta lean on something, especially at the beginning of matches. Find that comfortable position, find that decision that you're comfortable with making and then kind of keep going with it.
Mark Burik (15:59.052)
Yeah. You should, you should know what you're going to open a match with. Like, okay. And then if it's closed, we talk about the ABC offense all the time. Like if it's closed, you have a switch, but you should have an idea of what the first three plays look like. I mean, basketball teams, football teams, you all do this. You all know your offense. So why is it skipped in volleyball? Well, it's skipped at the amateur level, but at the pro level.
Brandon Joyner (16:03.828)
yeah.
Brandon Joyner (16:10.047)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (16:24.651)
they're absolutely dictating their offense and they know what swings they're going to take because they know where they're strong.
Brandon Joyner (16:32.415)
And I think the different like kind of going off that a little bit more is like at the beginning of my career, I was an A option player. Like I might've had a little bit of a B, but it was like, it was lowercase, you know, might've even just been like a number. But like, I think what a lot of people will realize is like, you can, you can survive off that option for a really long time. But then I started realizing.
Mark Burik (16:33.646)
Thank
Mark Burik (16:50.808)
You
Brandon Joyner (17:01.501)
you have the same kind of realization when you've moved from New York to AVP, but I would get to the same positions and tournaments and that's when I would lose. And so like, you get to those really good finishes for a while, that's when you really have to go back to the drawing board and establish that B, that C option. And that's when you can kind of start going to the next level. But yeah, got it.
Mark Burik (17:24.536)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (17:31.391)
You gotta have that little pecking order. That's important.
Mark Burik (17:34.67)
Well, number two, this tip, I actually learned and realized that it kind of was what I was doing. But Kyle Friend got it from April Ross. And it's look at their legs and their feet, not their body. Their lower body will tell you how they're leaning. And this is one of those things that we translate kind of from other sports.
Brandon Joyner (17:49.395)
Whoa.
Mark Burik (18:01.846)
like when you're defending somebody in soccer, when you're defending somebody in basketball, you're gonna look at their hips and lower body because that's how they can move. In order to move to the right, their legs have to kick out left and their shins have to kick out left in order to move this way, same thing. So when we're talking about what way they're moving,
and what way they're going to move, what part of their body are you looking at? And you can start studying the lower part of their body to figure out that lean. Now, are you going to need that much detail at most levels of the game? No, I'd say when you get to double A open level, or if you're, you know, a junior's girl who's over 15, because now they're basically open players at 14 years old.
Brandon Joyner (18:52.799)
Right, yeah.
Mark Burik (18:54.988)
But looking at the feet is not necessarily the feet, but the angle of the legs and which way they're moving can definitely tell you if they can rebalance in one position or not. And so whatever juking they do with their upper body, if their legs haven't gone, you know they're not going that way. And so then the best defenders, they really start learning how to increase the level of their jukes and their fakes. But you can solve that problem when you get to them.
Brandon Joyner (19:23.987)
Yeah, I think, and I will say, I think this is probably one of the tougher points that is in that post. So I think for people who are learning, like this is like a cherry on top key. know, like you got everything else and now you're at the point where you're looking at body parts, you're looking at momentum, you're looking at those things. But when you're starting, like remember this is like a,
Mark Burik (19:32.684)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (19:53.075)
you've graduated to a couple different levels. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But this is one of the things, once you do figure it out, the first person that pops into my mind is Casey Patterson. I can imagine Casey Patterson picking up on somebody's movement and as he's attacking the ball, he's screaming, where are you going? And that's when you've really caught your defender off.
Mark Burik (19:54.587)
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Worry about that later. Yeah.
Mark Burik (20:15.458)
You
Mark Burik (20:21.804)
Yeah. Get old Casey. I miss watching him play.
Brandon Joyner (20:24.307)
Yeah, I know. He's still around. It's cool to see him. He was really a big part of the league and brought a lot of personality to a lot of those events, which was really cool to see.
Mark Burik (20:37.358)
Yeah. I mean, between him and Troy, they should be, you know, future voices of the AVP. they're, they're both, I'm not like, don't mean mascot in an insulting way, but like, I think mascots are cool, especially the cool ones. So you have Troy field and you have Casey Patterson, just like going around, getting everybody involved the way Geter would with like high fives and connecting with the audience. That's.
Brandon Joyner (20:42.777)
yeah, 100%.
Brandon Joyner (20:53.599)
You
Mark Burik (21:05.727)
they can easily be the voice mascots of the AVP.
Brandon Joyner (21:08.841)
There's a lot of charisma between those two, that's for sure. I'll kind of move us onto the third one. That's cool with you. I think this is something that I've had a lot of fun teaching, which is you have to look twice. Okay, and so once right after you pass, and the first thing that you said is like, that's when you take a picture, not a video. And then,
Mark Burik (21:11.598)
Yeah. Okay.
Let's do it.
Brandon Joyner (21:38.547)
The second one is just before takeoff. And so the way that I like to explain this is your first look that you have, you're taking that picture. You're not getting all the information on the planet. You don't know whether the person was smiling or not. can't read the logo. If you're wearing our shirt, you can read their logo, but.
Mark Burik (22:04.718)
you
Brandon Joyner (22:05.279)
If you're wearing a small logo, you're probably not going to be able to read it. And then on takeoff, you're kind of playing that game when you're in a bar where you have two pictures side by side and you're seeing if anything's changed. And that second time that you're looking, you're not necessarily taking a full picture. You're just going to see if that picture has changed. And I think that that's a
a really cool thing because I think one of the big issues is that people take that second look almost another way to say it is like they're trying to take a video. They're trying to see the exact same vision that they had before. Whereas if you do that, that's when you're looking too long. That's when you're gonna lose sight of the ball. But I think if you go into it in the sense of like, okay, I passed, have time.
Most of us are early on our approach anyway, so giving you something to do before you take your timing step, we're already winning. So we pass, we look, yeah, it's like, hey, slow down, smell the roses a little bit. Look at the court, and then as you're approaching, you go, you're lifting those arms up to take off, relook at that court again, take that second picture, but really you're just trying to see if anything's changed.
Mark Burik (23:08.814)
Yeah, it's a bit like Hesitator. Yeah.
Mark Burik (23:29.998)
Yeah. I like, you know, I like even the first look is just, least my mind is starting to be framed on vision is important. And that's one of those that you can definitely control easily. You know, the first look I think is easier than the second look to weave into your approach. Cause there's nothing else you're doing athletically at the same time. So at the, at the minimum, it like signals your mind to go. Vision's important.
Brandon Joyner (23:42.878)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (23:51.867)
sure.
Mark Burik (23:59.308)
And then you could weave that in, you know, on the step clothes, you can weave in the look and then ball after that. But it's just really nice to have this initial way to frame my mind and say, we're going to be looking here.
Brandon Joyner (24:10.687)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. I think that's when you're without even realizing it too. That's when your peripherals start to act. Like if you have that initial concentrated moment of saying, Hey, I'm going to look here. Then it's a lot easier for you to use your peripherals. Like, I mean, it might be hard to show on podcast or on video right now, but like, even if I'm looking up here right now, I can still see probably looks a little funny on camera, but
Mark Burik (24:19.918)
Mm-mm.
Brandon Joyner (24:43.507)
Yeah, and I think that having peripherals, that's still vision. Like, doesn't always have to be you using binoculars, looking at something through to find like exact details.
Mark Burik (24:53.198)
you
Mark Burik (24:59.5)
Number four, mine is trust what you see at takeoff and go for it fast. So don't hang. It's part of this is the ABC offense. Like what's your A shot? Go for it. If you jump not knowing what you want to do, then you're going to have to answer a bunch of questions late. And if you're trying to cycle through too many decisions to make.
Brandon Joyner (25:06.495)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (25:26.754)
You're going to be slow. You're going to be hitchy. your, your brain gets confused or locked. so then you end up making swings at 30, 40, 70 % because you weren't quite sure what you wanted to do. And so after that vision, the vision should be confirmation that the thing you wanted to go for is still open. So you're just continuing whatever you intended to do.
And then if it's closed, you've got your B solution in mind, but hanging comes from looking too long and not knowing what you want to do before you start approaching. And I think that becomes a problem to go with just a complete open window every time instead of establishing certain shots or just having a rule set for yourself of if I see this, this is my shot.
Like that can be your version of the ABC offense. When they're there, I go here. Not when they're there, I can go cut, hard cross, jumbo or high line. Like you should have a rule set for yourself. When they're in the cross, I go cut because my cuts nasty. Great. That's your solution. If they sprint to your cut, then I go jumbo or high line. Like find the other solution that's open. But, yeah, you definitely can't.
sit there and not believe in yourself or hesitate on your swing.
Brandon Joyner (26:51.005)
Right, think one of the, I think I heard this from you at one of our camps and it kind of changed my offense even like when I was playing was no matter what your offensive choices, the goal is to get the ball down to the sand as quick as possible. So like, even if you're hitting a high line, like the blocker should feel the ball crossing your fingers.
If you're hitting a cut shot, it should not be going up. Obviously, if you're a shorter player, then you're going to have to have some upward trajectory on the balls because that's just physics. I think with everything that you said, but you also keep that goal in mind of, hey, even though I have these options, my other goal is that it has to happen as quick as possible.
the time that this ball leaves my hands to the time that the ball hits the sand, it has to be as short as possible. Sometimes it's a really high ball. But if you start, if you start getting into this idea where every single shot is really loopy and you're just trying to hit the open area of the court, that's when you're going to get in trouble because you're just asking the defense to put you into a situation where now that ball that you're giving them is the easiest ball on the
planet and now they're coming at you and they're going to be able to score.
Mark Burik (28:21.806)
Yeah, and the math, every inch of height that you give them, you've given them two inches of time because the inch that it took to get to that height and then the extra inch that it take to get down. So you've got to keep it flat. You've got to keep it low or straight down if you can, but you're just, you're giving them double of the time that you think they are to be able to pursue that.
Mark Burik (28:50.722)
What's next?
Brandon Joyner (28:51.369)
Cool. Number five is we're going to stay behind the ball so you can see the defense longer. And I think that there's a couple, two components to this. One, staying behind the ball keeps all of your offensive options open as well. If you're underneath the ball, one, you're looking straight up at the ball. You're not gonna have the power that you need in order to beat a defender sitting in an open area. And two,
You're also not just the way that our vision works. If you are not behind the ball, then you're not going to be able to look down and then find that ball for the contact. So making sure this is a, I think the biggest problem in beach volleyball is that people are historically early and fast on their approaches. And we see it at every level. I think.
Mark Burik (29:45.39)
you
Brandon Joyner (29:50.559)
If we go back and watch a lot of our matches that we lost, I guarantee you the points.
Mark Burik (29:56.855)
I would love to do a video review of like my first qualifier thing.
Brandon Joyner (30:01.013)
yeah, like I can almost guarantee that a majority of the points that we lost offensively came because we were either underneath the ball too much or we were too early. so fixing that is going to help you with vision automatically. It's going to help your offense. There's a reason that we spend almost an entire day on it at every single one of our camps. It's like,
Mark Burik (30:13.698)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (30:27.443)
That whole day, even though we break it up into sections, it might as well be timing and spacing, hard driven hits, timing and spacing, shot accuracy, timing and spacing with vision. The timing and spacing is super crucial.
Mark Burik (30:42.702)
Yeah. And to do that, you're going to have to jump from slightly behind the ball. idea that beach players don't broad jump is just ridiculous. All you have to do is watch any probe video and then you will see that they're translating in the air forward. Is it as big as indoor? No. And that was the initial problem that became like why we coached all this jump straight thing was because all right, people from indoor were coming and trying to broad jump like 13 feet.
It's just not going to happen because the sand is going to push out from under you. So instead, yes, you jump from closer to the ball, but you're still broad jumping on the sand. And in order to have vision and power, you have to be behind the ball and you get another couple miles per hour if you are jumping through the ball. So there's a time where you're going to jump straight. Sure. There's also a time where you're to jump backwards sideways, you know, straight up, but you want to be behind the ball enough so that you're jumping.
through it again, not exaggerated, not huge like it is in indoor, but yes, there is forward broad jump translation.
Brandon Joyner (31:48.467)
And it's going to change like dependent on the beach that you're on. If you're playing in St. Pete, Florida, where there's maybe an inch of sand, you're probably going to be playing more like an indoor player. if you're playing in Hermosa, where it feels like you're playing in quicksand every single day, and you question whether you should be playing the sport or not, then you probably are going to want to be jumping more straight up and down. One of the cool things I think, Plummer, does a lot of coaching.
Mark Burik (31:52.91)
I'll do that.
Brandon Joyner (32:18.353)
One of the coolest like analogies that I've heard him talk about is that you should, the two ways that you can think about attacking are being an, being an airplane that takes off slowly and gradually. That's kind of like the indoor type jump, or you can be a rocket ship and a rocket ship obviously goes a little bit more straight up. beach volleyball is all about experimenting. How we kind of started this whole podcast is talking about.
Mark Burik (32:35.118)
Hmm.
Brandon Joyner (32:47.775)
Oh, you can't straighten your arms? Give it a shot. Try something different. Um, and so next time you're at practice, try a couple where you are exaggerated on being that airplane, where it feels like you're broad jumping three, four feet, something ridiculous. And then try a couple where you're doing the rocket ship, where you are jumping a little bit more straight up and then start them to mesh the two. And I guarantee you, you'll find you're like happy medium.
It's like, think that's one of the coolest things as a coach is that, especially over the last year, and I think JM's a big proponent to me thinking this way, is that beach volleyball, especially with all the elements that we have, it is so much about experimenting different ways to play the game. And I think like this one, especially on takeoff is a really easy one on how to experiment with that and have fun.
Mark Burik (33:28.237)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (33:47.252)
Agreed. Well, last couple, we got to sprint through cause we got to run this players meeting, but six make the first slow step of your approach on or just after set contact. It's weird, even though as much as we've said it online, it's weird to call this a timing step because it's technically not when you start your approach. The best metaphor that I can give is.
You're not starting to drive when you come out of a stop sign. You're just releasing your foot from the brake and you only start to hit the accelerator once you know again that there are no cars coming in the intersection. So that's what your first step should be. You can release the brake on or just after set contact.
And then you only start taking your left step and start an acceleration process. Once your brain recognizes exactly where that ball is going to land. And if you can do that well, you will be a good hitter. But if you accelerate or you quote unquote, start your approach on set contact, that's where it gets confused. People just try to start and then they match this predetermined timing.
to try to match it to a set and timing will always change. So it's just making sure that you can start the first step of your approach, but you're not going for your approach yet. It's just a slide step. You're just releasing the brakes. And then after the set gets released, then you can start actually like moving forward and pursuing the ball. But man, that left foot continuing to like letting it ride without you knowing where the ball is gonna end up.
It's tough to say and to visualize, when we see it and feel it in person and we break it down and film for our online players, it makes a ton of sense. And everybody who sees it sees it quick. number seven.
Brandon Joyner (35:51.7)
Yeah, yep, and I think this is where we're going Keep your first two steps small So you leave space in front of you? We had a really good video with miles pertain where the way that he said this and this kind of piggybacks off the timing step stuff, but giving yourself steps in the tank To catch up to your set. I think that that's brilliantly said
is we're putting down that first step, we're keeping those steps small so that we have steps that we can use in order to get to the set that is set to us. But if you keep those steps too big, then obviously you're covering too much ground and now you're making your setter be perfect rather than you being the attacker that's attacking.
Mark Burik (36:38.702)
Yeah, take a five, six, seven step approach. just go for it. mean, Nick Lucena had like a 17 step approach. He was fine. Oh yeah. I like the idea of steps in the tank to be able to adjust.
Brandon Joyner (36:48.027)
Right.
Brandon Joyner (36:56.307)
important.
Mark Burik (36:56.494)
Uh, here's a big one we see at our camps, uh, for, especially the B and A players, people who pass to where their setter is, especially, especially this happens when the ball is short. Like when they're taking a ball along the net, they try to send the ball over their right to where their setter is instead of dragging them in front of them. One of the rules that we give everybody is pass 30 degrees off the inside leg. So if you're left side passing the one o'clock, if you're a right side passing to 11 o'clock.
instead of where your partner is. Their job is to show up to the right spot. So as a passer, you should not be feeling them. You should just be easy trajectory off the inside leg. Once you want to elevate to the point where you're developing an option offense and feeding your setter a hit on a meatball. Okay, you can get to that later, but for now, do not pass to your partner.
30 degrees off your inside leg. Their job is to show up even if they're sitting on the back line. You do the exact same pass, maybe you just give it to them higher so they have time to get there.
Brandon Joyner (38:02.483)
Biggest pet peeve. The way I've been talking about it is linear offense. I think it makes a lot of sense. And especially if we're talking about vision, when we pass the ball, when we see our setter setting, we should also be able to look past them and see the defense on the other side of the net. If you pass the ball over to the other half of your court, now you are looking sideways to the to the sideline.
Mark Burik (38:06.574)
I'm happy about it.
Brandon Joyner (38:30.271)
You're not able to keep your eyes on the other side of the court So keep the ball in front of you if you come to if you ever come to one of my three-day camps Where I'm specifically running the passing and attacking you will hear that idea of linear offense. You will hear me Whoo, I don't like ping. I call it ping pong volleyball We're not here to play ping pong volleyball. We're here to set up an offense
Mark Burik (38:47.98)
Yeah.
All right. And before we head out, the ninth and final tip is to join our attacking course. We built out a 10 week offensive masterclass. We go through it live later in the summer after we go through our serve and pass, after we go through our setting or jump mechanics and our arm swing mechanics. But it takes you through tutorials, video analysis of big pro matches.
Brandon Joyner (38:55.478)
Thank
Mark Burik (39:22.164)
and amateur matches to see what happens in different moments to see what's going wrong and what's going right. It also comes with if you become a member and you get the entire complete beach volleyball training blueprint, you get the membership, which means you get community and you can submit your videos and we will help you upgrade your game. Video analysis is everything. If you ask any pro player how much film they watch,
You know it's real, we're hunting down these things for technique and strategy, and that's probably the biggest bonus of all of our courses, but we've got a one year training plan laid out for you, and we guide you through every step of the year, through your physical training, your nutrition, your mentality, your practice plans, and all of your skill and strategy. So if you want to check that out, all you have to do is if you're listening, there's gonna be a link below the video, but you could.
Also, just go to betteratbeach.com forward slash spike and you'll find all the information there and you get all of our courses if you join the membership and we'd love to work with you.
Mark Burik (40:35.798)
All right. Yes. Cool. I got to run, catch up with the members and actually go coach them.
Brandon Joyner (40:36.166)
Yes, we would.
Brandon Joyner (40:41.373)
Yeah, hey, there you go. Go have fun with those members, break down some film. Yeah, it's good chatting, buddy. I'll talk to you soon.
Mark Burik (40:49.4)
We'll do. See you, JoJo. Yeah, man. Bye, everybody. See you on the sand.
