Mark Burik (00:03.694)
Hi everybody and welcome to the Bitter at Beach podcast. My name's Mark Burke. I'm here with Brandon Joiner. Apologies. I've got a little winter bug hitting me. So I'm going to try to let Brandon do most of the talking. Thank God. we've been having some fun these weeks. We've been, we've been going through a lot of growth and adding new programs, especially in Hermosa. And so we'll talk a little bit about that, but
If you're here, we're really going to talk about what Brandon has been working on. So Brandon's working with J.K. Rutia and Logan Weber at practices, teaching them at the pro scale as well, course, teaching our beginners, intermediate and advanced players at the camps and classes. And so we're going to talk about some of the concepts that they're working on at the pro level and in terms of passing and ball control, and then how you guys can actually implement.
a lot of these concepts at home in an easy way. So some at home drills, some on court drills, and just easy things that you can do. And I just ran through with Anthony, who's on my one-on-one program. The one-on-one program is where we meet 10 times over the course of the year. We like to front load those and really just dig into his goals, his current game, where he's at. So he's in the middle of statting all of his passing.
seeing where it goes wrong, seeing where it goes right. And he started out as a 1.4 passer. And I think the last stats that he took was now he's getting up to a 2.1 in his last 100 passes, which is just a massive jump. Pretty awesome that we get to work with all of these athletes just by number one, showing the videos in our library and the workout programs. The people that don't
Brandon Joyner (01:48.43)
Let's go. That's huge.
Mark Burik (02:02.474)
engage fully like that, that don't commit to the one-on-one program. They're still getting all of the video analysis, just in kind of shorter spurts in our community. So if you don't know, and you're listening at home, our members go through all of our courses and workout programs. have a one year training plan where we take you all the way from January straight through December. And we treat you as if you were a pro player, with the drill design.
practice design concepts that we're working on, stat keeping, mental training, nutrition, et cetera, et cetera. So we built a program that we built for ourselves as pro athletes, you know, where we're going through that entire year. And now it's completely and fully built out so that you've got all of your workout programs in one place. You've got all of your teaching and coaching lessons in one place. And then you get to check in with us every week at a meeting.
just to see where it's going right, where it's going wrong, and how to ask questions for the next step. So if you do wanna check that out, it's betteritbeach.com forward slash coach, but Anthony's one of the ones that signed up for the one-on-one program, where it's 3,500 for the year, but he gets 10 privates with me, he gets full access to that program, and he gets to come to any class and camp after that at will, no extra charge. And I know Donnie, another one of the guys that I've been working on with one-on-one, he has come to.
Brandon Joyner (03:24.386)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (03:27.438)
six camps in the last five months. And this dude is light years from where he started. Like his hand setting is delicious. His passing, we used to just bowl balls over to the net to him and couldn't get like those three touches in a row. And now it's automatic. Like he's getting to our advanced courts in all of the camps and has really taken advantage of that program, which at 3,500 for unlimited camps and unlimited classes is.
Brandon Joyner (03:33.578)
yeah.
Mark Burik (03:56.622)
a pretty insane price, but we're trying it out and I love the way that it's going. So if you guys are wanting to check that out, you can check it out on our website. You'll see it under the one-on-one coaching tab under training. But just quick announcement for what we have for camps. This weekend, if you're listening live, this is probably the last chance that you have to sign up for it. But in Santa Monica, we have an all levels men's and boys camp, February 28th.
to March 2nd, that's happening in Santa Monica. We'll be doing a lot more in Santa Monica coming up, so just keep checking the website and or get on our email list by clicking the links below. Comes with a free drill book, 36 free drills. In Ozark, Missouri, we'll be there March 7th. We'll be in New Orleans March 14th. Long Island, I'm coming home March 21st. Las Vegas, which I think that one's gonna sell out. That's gonna be March 28th. April 4th in Oklahoma.
April 11th in Scottsdale, back to Long Island, May 30th, and that same weekend, Brandon's gonna be running a camp in San Diego at Wave Beach. That's May 30th. dude, Tacoma, Washington, sold out again in three days.
Brandon Joyner (05:11.704)
I love it. Yeah. So cool. And it's like, mean, one, it's fun for us. knowing that we have an area that has consistently, I mean, this will be our second camp there, but I think when we put it up within a week, it was sold out.
Mark Burik (05:13.166)
Like... Yeah.
Mark Burik (05:21.271)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (05:37.006)
It's a really easy way for us to make sure that that area is on our schedule. Like we weren't planning on going back there until probably next year, but because it sold out so quick. then when we talked to them in person, we were like, Hey, let's find another date and we found another date and now it's sold out again. So might need to look at.
Mark Burik (05:55.052)
Yeah. And I love that half of the people came back, came to the first one and signed up immediately for the second one. You know, so, pretty sweet. So anyway, let's, let's talk about passing. I know you've, you've taken over a lot of, Logan's kind of handing, handing him off to you. And I'm going to be working like through film with DJ and Brian Miller who
Brandon Joyner (06:00.578)
Right. Yeah, that's cool.
Brandon Joyner (06:08.364)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (06:14.882)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (06:22.082)
He's a little insecure about right now because Sean Cook is on the hunt for a partner and nobody, none of the defenders know if Sean's gonna end up stealing their big guy from them. So that's always interesting.
Brandon Joyner (06:29.382)
Brandon Joyner (06:35.512)
The Scottish Demon. Yeah, wow. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, the partner switches. I mean, there's been some cool announcements too. Like I love that we're hearing Trevor and Phil. I think that that's a fun, fun team. Yeah.
Mark Burik (06:37.292)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (06:45.932)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (06:55.15)
Right.
Brandon Joyner (07:02.414)
I just think that that matchup is exciting. I think there's a couple other ones that are blank. The women's side is like, I know Sarah Hughes is out for a little bit. So Kelly Chang's Pilla picked up Molly Turner who I have the utmost respect for in Molly. my gosh.
Mark Burik (07:06.286)
Mm.
Mark Burik (07:22.316)
Right, like, most underrated period. She just goes and quietly wins medals on the FIVB tour and like...
Brandon Joyner (07:29.614)
I don't know how many medals she has at this point, but it feels like whoever she signs up with, they're showing up and they're producing. So I'm super stoked to see that Molly has like, I think she deserves to play with like one of the top US players within the last decade. So that's really exciting for her. Yeah. And then it's getting closer to that qualification period where those qualification tournaments for the league.
Mark Burik (07:35.148)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (07:59.126)
are gonna be heated. From what I hear, it's single elimination, 16 teams only. Yeah, and it's just to get a spot in the league. And there's a lot of teams, like I know Try and Evan are in that. Theo and, who's Theo playing with? Troy, like all of these names are,
Mark Burik (08:06.104)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (08:28.438)
team.
Brandon Joyner (08:28.616)
in this qualifier, like that's another team that I can't wait to watch. All these teams are in that qualifier and it's just gonna be like, whenever that comes up, they need to market it, that people, we need to go out and see it because as far as a single day event that's happening, it's gonna be exciting.
Mark Burik (08:46.35)
And it's fast and every match counts hardcore and it's you know, it's cutthroat when it's double elimination, but then you can see, okay, you know, all right, we lost the first one. We'll work our way through that. This is, this is a $40,000 tournament. Like these qualifiers are for a $40,000 salary. So, right. There's no.
Brandon Joyner (08:49.442)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (09:00.866)
Gotta show up. Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (09:07.534)
per person. Yeah, that's like the biggest payday that a lot of people have gotten. I mean, I don't think I've made that much in my career.
Mark Burik (09:17.422)
Well, I mean, are we counting grass tournaments in Pennsylvania or not?
Brandon Joyner (09:23.278)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and the midnight tournaments up in Northern Virginia, hiya. Those are a big money puller for me back in the day. Yeah, it's been cool. This off season I've been working with Logan and Hagan a lot. You know, and the funny thing is...
Mark Burik (09:28.706)
haha
Brandon Joyner (09:44.374)
Obviously we work with a lot of different level players, but the skills that we focus on at our camps are very, very similar to what we're doing with what I'm doing with Logan and Hagen. Taking a step back, we're kind of refocusing on fundamentals. We're focusing on technique. like today when we meet, we're, we're focusing a lot on passing and setting and
One of the biggest things that...
I've kind of been harping on recently, not only at our camps, but also at my practices is finding strength. You know, I think a lot of the time when we're thinking about passing or setting, we're so location oriented where we think I have to get the ball from here to there. And a lot of times when we do that, it adds
you're not able to rely on a specific formation or like technique or anything like that. It becomes very, the way I've been talking about it is it's extremely results driven. But kind of in the sense of everything in life, we have to be like process oriented where even if the ball doesn't go to the right spot, being able to look back on
What was our foot plates placement? What was our, what was our platform doing while the ball was, while we were tracking that serve or down ball over the net. and one of the big things that I've been, I've seen a lot of solid results in is it starts with our feet. So I think that's a good, good place for us to start off with is like, if we can think about a checklist and I think with, with a checklist of passing.
Brandon Joyner (11:43.288)
Footwork has to come first. Where you put your feet has to be important. And we talk a lot about shape. We talk about like maintaining a shape. And when I say shape, you guys can all envision where you start in serve receive. And a lot of us, we start in the same exact position where we put our hands on our knees and we're catching our breath.
There's a reason that we do that. And the reason that we do that is one, it's comfortable. And two, we feel strong and stable. And so...
Brandon Joyner (12:24.556)
An easy way to think about it, when you're tracking the serve coming over the net, you should end up in somewhat of a similar balance situation and shape that you started. Obviously your hands aren't going to be on your knees. Your arms are going to be out in front of you with your platform presented. But our goal should be to find that good balance. Now, I think some of us
Mark Burik (12:51.338)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (12:54.498)
we're either footwork primary passers or we're platform primary passers. And I think that the difference between those two is whenever we're thinking about footwork, we do a good job of getting our feet to the ball. We don't feel like we're reaching for things. The ball can kind of bounce off of us. And we might, I was at our morning classes this morning in Hermosa Beach at the pier.
Mark Burik (13:12.91)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (13:24.078)
you want to join, hit me up. but it's kind of the same thing as we have to think about being strong and stable. One thing that I absolutely love that you've said at our camps, that I've definitely stolen over time is when you're passing a ball, both of your feet should feel like you're, they're rooted into the ground. imagine your feet have roots and you can't pull them up.
Mark Burik (13:47.82)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (13:53.9)
Right. Or magnet boots or, whatever we want to call it. But I like the magnet boots idea. It's kind of a funny, funny little image. Yeah. Like we're on like mission impossible kind of style. but yeah, I think starting with a strong base is super important. I think, I think that that's, that's really important. And if you find yourself having to lift one leg or you're kind of jumping through your pass.
Mark Burik (13:57.198)
Yeah.
Vroom vroom.
Mark Burik (14:05.678)
you
Brandon Joyner (14:24.29)
then more than likely, you didn't do a good job of putting your feet in the correct spot. That's what that means. And so with Logan and Hagen, we've really been focusing on, okay.
There's a bunch of different variables to this, right? Like it might have to do with how you're starting. Like some of us, we start too low. Some of us, start too high. Some of us, we were starting too close to the net. Some of us are starting too far away from the net. so just playing around with that idea, but the end goal is obviously finish with your feet being able to be planted and strong. And then we can move on to kind of our next stop with.
with the platform and then we started thinking about angling.
Mark Burik (15:09.036)
Hey, what, one of the things that Anthony, one of our players is going through, he's got this big popcorn passing syndrome, right? And given it, given him a number of cues and it's calmed down a lot. really has where somebody jumps their hips or extends their legs or their feet just pop off the ground because. You know, it comes from them not trusting that they can just slowly move.
through a flying object and that they think that they're hitting the ball instead of just sort of carrying it through the air. But he jumps a lot when he passes. What ways or cues have you battled that with players?
Brandon Joyner (15:46.924)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (15:55.266)
think simplifying the movement and the idea is really important. The first version of volleyball that a lot of us play is not even volleyball. It's like that game of keep the balloon off the ground. And whenever we do that, it's so much force. We're hitting this balloon in the air. And for some reason, when people start playing volleyball, think we concentrate so much on getting the ball up.
Mark Burik (16:04.398)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (16:25.656)
that we don't trust what the ball is gonna be able to do for us in the first place. know, like I'll be the first to say, I don't know much about physics. For anybody that does, this is probably gonna be embarrassing. But say, it's about government, I got it. Yeah, right now I don't know. But yeah.
Mark Burik (16:40.11)
civics though you nail civics
Mark Burik (16:48.77)
By the way, Brandon beat a bunch of foreigners in an American government quiz on Halloween. So this is tough for any American, but all of these guys had just studied for their citizenship and knew our entire government like the back of their hands. And thank God you were on our team.
Brandon Joyner (16:57.378)
Barely.
Brandon Joyner (17:07.502)
Yeah.
You know, but I'll say that it's kind of funny because like, obviously I went to college for this. but a lot of them were a lot more informed, like they knew answers. didn't know. And I studied it, but they also know a lot more questions than anyone that didn't study it. And so that's, that's kind of a little note as well. yeah, Tom Flaherty, my guy, he's been helping me through my triathlon training as well. So he's, he's a man.
Mark Burik (17:21.155)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (17:26.358)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (17:30.2)
Kudos to TomTherity. Miss you, buddy.
Brandon Joyner (17:40.45)
But yeah, so when we're thinking about physics, I think the first thing is like, you have to understand what happens when you don't do anything.
You know, and so like what I'm the way that I like saying it at our camps and even at these practices is like passing at first shouldn't feel like a verb. It shouldn't feel like an action. It should almost start off feeling like a now like you're just an object that this ball is coming over the net. It's bouncing off you and it's going to a new location. If you do that correctly.
Mark Burik (18:10.222)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (18:19.17)
The pass should be low. It's going to be lower than you expect it, than you want it to be. But at least you're getting that basic idea of, this ball is traveling across the net with a certain amount of energy. If I'm strong and I'm stable and I let this ball bounce off my platform, how much does it fly off my platform? I think that this also helps us with
finding a good accuracy with location because it really makes you focus on your angle of your platform as well. But I think starting with that idea and then building and saying because like when we're passing our platform movements should be
two to four inches, not two to four feet. And I think, especially when we have somebody like you explained with Anthony with people that tend to think about really swinging their platform or like jumping, they've created this problem in their mind that if they don't add a lot of energy to the ball, then it's not going to get to the spot. But.
Mark Burik (19:11.768)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (19:35.864)
you
Brandon Joyner (19:36.652)
I think we need to trust. And that's something that we've been dealing with with Logan and Hagen a lot is trust the process. Trust, trust your angle, trust your platform, trust your strength. Because like, if we, if we, if I have a bouncy ball and I hold it five feet in the air and I drop it, it bounces off the ground. doesn't get all the way back to my, to my five feet, but maybe it gets to three and a half feet. Maybe it gets to three feet. Right. And so then I can play around with, okay.
How much energy do I actually need to give it in order for it to reach that five feet? Right? And I think like a lot of us, when we start off bouncing a bouncy ball, we throw that thing as hard as we can at the ground and then we catch it as it goes up. But when we do that, if we didn't catch it, it goes up to like eight, 10 feet. Right? And so I think starting like one of my favorite quotes, I've said this a bunch, but it was written in our manual for gold medal squared.
Mark Burik (20:12.43)
Mmm.
Mark Burik (20:25.549)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (20:35.99)
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. And Leonardo da Vinci. We're dropping knowledge out here today. But I think that that quote is so important when we're thinking about beach volleyball. I ended the class today with.
Mark Burik (20:43.015)
You
Brandon Joyner (20:55.382)
A lot of the times if we have errors and we're if we're not playing the way that we want to be playing, a lot of the times we start adding movements and we start adding power when in reality what we should be doing is more than likely if we're if we're not playing the way we want to it's because we're doing too much.
And we need to figure out a way to simplify our touch. That's the only reason that whenever one of the easiest things that we say in sports, it doesn't even have to be with volleyball. The higher the level gets when you're watching pros, when you're watching whether it's NBA, NFL, AVP, something that we say a lot is, wow, they make it look so easy. They make it look so effortless. And that's because it is.
What we've done is we've figured out a way to remove all of these extra movements to complete a skill with the least amount of kind of moving parts. Like there's a reason that simple machines last longer than complex machines. And it's because we figured out a way to do it in a simple manner. And so I think kind of going full circle, you have to figure out what is your baseline and then what do you need to do?
in increments to get that ball. know, so like, I think, especially when we go to a camp, one of the things that we focus on is like, one of the first things we say when we're passing is the ball needs to be six feet above the top of the antenna. And I think that that idea, obviously we're, working in a very short manner. So we have to like get people to that spot as quick as possible. But I think for, for people that are on a longer journey of fixing their passing.
be okay with passing low at the beginning and then figure out a way to find that extra height. Because I think in a 10 rep period, you can still find that height of six feet above the net. But maybe your first pass is at the height of the net. Maybe your second pass gets about halfway at the antenna. Third pass, now you're finding that. And now you figured out the exact power and energy.
Brandon Joyner (23:08.622)
And the important piece to that is realizing that you have to read that that equation changes every ball that you get. If we're talking about, let's let's talk about like with miles per hour. If the goal is to keep the ball at 20 miles per hour and somebody serves the ball at you at 30 miles per hour, you have to give that ball a little bit of cushion. You have to take 10 miles per hour off. If somebody serves that ball at 10 miles per hour.
Mark Burik (23:33.102)
Hmm.
Brandon Joyner (23:36.898)
you need to add 10 miles per hour, right? And it's just a matter of putting yourself in a situation where you're able to read how much energy does this ball have coming over the net? And then your touch has to reflect that energy. Yeah, and it's, I mean, it's easier said than done because it's happening in a split second. But I think that that's the difference between these different levels is because a lot of times when we do our camps,
Our first drill, when we're on the same side of the net, we're giving somebody a simple toss, right? And then we elevate the drill to have it have a toss come from the other side of the nut, which now that ball already has more energy because it's having travel a further distance, right? And then we upgrade the drill even more to where it's coming from a serve. But if you watch the passers, especially at like beginner, early intermediate levels,
their passing motions look the exact same for every one of those drills. But it needs to change because the way the energy that the ball has that it's coming to you has changed. And so, yeah, I think just being able to figure that out and once again, start simple, start strong, see what your strength has and what that ball bounces off of, and then slowly in small increments add power to it.
And think it's easier to control too because now you're not thinking about swinging at this ball. You're allowing this ball to bounce off of you.
Mark Burik (25:11.628)
Yeah. You know, one of the things that I really liked, that before they let me play six on six at Mason, like my ball control just wasn't there. So they had me on a backboard. They sent me to the basketball hoop and it's just serve against the basketball hoop against the backboard and try to pass back into the rim. And that taught me so much about.
angles, you know, and it got me my own reps where I didn't need another person just figuring out like if I stand at the foul line or at the three point line, like can I roll throw or serve a ball at that hoop and then block it back and then have the finish focus on my platform and say, where was my angle facing? Where do I think it was facing? And did it go in the direction that I thought it did?
And as you're talking about power differences, I think this is, this is a big reason why we do contrast training where we'll have them say, okay, you're going to pass this ball so that it stays under the top of the net. You're to pass the next ball so that it stays between the top of the net and the antenna. Then you're going to go six feet. Then you're going to go 20 feet above the top of the antenna. And then even if you're doing it at home, passing a sky ball.
And then practicing leaving your platform out and just being like stiff, rigid. I don't want to say rigid, stiff, firm and seeing how that ball bounces off of you. And then passing the next ball high, like how much energy do you really need for a fast moving ball to get it just as far as we need. And.
Yeah, that, that popcorn passing, some people beat it. Some people beat it by reversing them. Like I knew somebody who literally was told by their coach, they have to sit down and roll backwards after every pass because they were so hoppy. So contrast, right? He's like, of course he's not going to have her do this during a match, but pass and then sit on your butt.
Brandon Joyner (27:15.438)
Interesting. Yeah.
Mark Burik (27:23.99)
Right. To reverse that motion. Okay. If you feel the reversal, now you can understand the other side of it and then just find your in-between. but I like passing to yourself super high and then just letting it bounce off you so that you start understanding, yeah, the ball bounces. Like, I don't, I don't need that. And then like you said on free balls. Okay. You're to have to add energy because you're going to have to get it back. There's, there's not enough energy in the ball on float serves.
depending on how hard somebody is float surfing, you might have to add some energy. If somebody's jump surfing with heat, you probably don't have to add anything at all. That's where you just hold. so understanding that flow of how much I got to give and how much I have to take becomes really important. I've even done a drill where you rocked balls at somebody to get them to understand how to absorb. I actually don't teach absorbing anymore. It was a big thing that...
We went through to take energy off the ball, take energy off the ball. But the only time I'm seeing that as necessary is indoor monsters who are serving 65 to 80 miles an hour. Like, okay, then I'll try to take a little bit off. But on the beach, I don't see anybody serving so hard where I've got to pull away from it or tuck my platform back.
Brandon Joyner (28:37.123)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (28:51.148)
The ball almost does that for you. Like it has so much power that it hits your platform back kind of stuff.
Mark Burik (28:53.399)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (28:57.026)
Well, one thing that I do like, though, is putting the players through one legged passing. You're talking about like how they get their feet there. And if you guys can visualize it at home, like, could you get to a spot when you're setting or when you're passing where you could confidently then lunge or squat with weight on your back?
Brandon Joyner (29:04.514)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (29:25.922)
Like, because if you're still in motion during that set or you're drifting towards the net or you hop, which means you probably got there just on time instead of early, right? You're not quite there, but the people that scoot under the ball, make like a kick slide into a stop and then set, those are the people that are stable. And if you hear Steph Curry talk about his three point shooting, he doesn't, he doesn't talk about
stopping or never being in motion, but he does talk about balance. So he's like, so long as my feet are under me and strong, I can choose whether I want to move right or I want to float left or I want to float backwards and then shoot. And getting to that point where you're no longer a victim of how the ball approached you, but you beat it there.
Now you can choose to go up, go forward, go left, go right. And, you know, one of the bigger concepts in that is timing. Like, can I beat the ball instead of meeting the ball? Again, that's been said over and over and over by any coaches, but it's such an important concept. And the people that are still kind of floating towards the net as they're setting, they haven't established their feet. So one way that I try to combat it is.
I'll spend not a long time, but five, 10 minutes saying you've got to be balanced on one foot before the ball gets there and then hold your balance to prove that you've established that spot. And if you can do that well with like pretty easy free balls, then hopefully you get that concept and you can transfer it into, okay, get there, get still, then pass or set.
Brandon Joyner (31:13.164)
I like that a lot. Yeah. We incorporate that in every practice that we do. So like one of the first drills that I'll do with Logan and Hagen is it'll just be me tossing. They're going one at a time and we're going side to side where they have to end up on their outside leg. their inside leg has to be up in the air. And yeah, I think it, creates exactly what you're talking about. That sense of finding balance because the balance doesn't, the, your placement doesn't change much.
with having one leg versus two. The only difference is now you kind of have that little kickstand where if you want to that other leg down, you can find that extra balance and that extra strength. Yeah, I think it's phenomenal.
Mark Burik (31:56.588)
Yeah. And at home, we don't want you to confuse this. Like you're not trying to pass off of one leg in the game. Right? The concept is get there so that you're stable and balanced when you're passing, not so that you're flamingo passing every time. Yeah. Earlier season when I was working with Logan, we did a ton of that too. Just like how well can you beat this ball?
Brandon Joyner (32:04.898)
Right, yeah, don't do that.
Mark Burik (32:25.534)
And it comes with early anticipation. Of course, it comes with looking at the ball straight out of the server's hands. How hard can you focus on that contact and immediately pick up the flight and then beat it there.
Yeah, I'm curious to see if there are any other fun drills that people have learned to help people get their feet to the ball. You know, like I've seen like people have like cones on their heads and catch a tennis ball, like attach it to their forehead and make sure that they can.
catch it there because it'd be tough to do that on the move or leaning, but it would be really nice, and I know we're moving on to setting right now, but it'd be really nice if you can have a really small, shallow cone so that it has to be facing up, it has to be attached to your forehead, and then be able to catch that ball. I think that's a fun one for teaching people to beat it there.
Brandon Joyner (33:21.816)
mean, you could do a very similar thing with passing. The only tricky part is like...
A lot of times when we catch, we don't catch with our arms straight. know, like we're like receiver kind of people, know, where our hands are always out in front of us. So like re-teaching somebody how to catch and passing is interesting. But I've also done a form of drill, I call it soccer. I don't know why, but imagine somebody's on the other side of the net from you and they bowl a ball and underneath the net.
Mark Burik (33:32.6)
Yeah. Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (33:57.634)
like on the ground and that ball has to go through your legs. Like your legs are the soccer goal. And when you bowl that ball, you really start to see how many people like start to get hit in a leg or they start to get hit and like, or the ball still bowls outside of their legs. And I think that that can kind of change your idea of how much movement you actually need.
Mark Burik (34:05.603)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (34:26.654)
Obviously, there's like the big debate on whenever we're talking about passing, one of the things is like passing in your midline versus off to your outside of your midline.
Brandon Joyner (34:41.238)
I think that that's a tricky conversation when we're talking to people who are learning the game, because I even I think passing outside of your midline happens naturally based on the ball flight path. There aren't a whole lot of times where that ball is going to be directly in your center line. But our footwork.
Mark Burik (34:57.656)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (35:09.652)
still needs to be in a position where we are trying to get somewhat behind that ball. And then the angle of our platform, like we, we get out of the way automatically. And whenever you start giving people targets and you start giving people the idea of like, Hey, this is your, your platform needs to angle. You're not facing. I think that that, can help, but like having the idea of footwork getting behind it so that you find that strength. That's important. One of the big problems with people who
are really, really strong on this idea of passing outside of your midline is it ends in people not doing enough footwork to where they end up reaching. that's, I think that that's almost a worst problem to have because now you're not incorporating this idea of letting the ball do the work for you. You're always having to reach and kind of scoop or like what I call like churning butter when you're passing. So yeah, once again, that footwork is super important.
Mark Burik (35:47.244)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mark Burik (35:52.802)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (36:11.343)
I, just before we close out here and go work with our members, I, we played, me and Mesko played against, Buddinger and Frank Field last week. So I'm trying to continue my early morning guys. this business conference that I went to when where it matters was awesome. Helped me clarify a lot of goals and things that I, they make you say like, you know, I am a person who, and.
Then after you say that, after you say that, the goal or the image of your person says, okay, what qualities does that person do? How does his schedule look like? What do you see when you see his calendar? And, know, for me to be good, happy, healthy, I'm just, I still need play in my life. so trying to fit it in versus making sure that I get it in. If I'm the person who I always used to envy, Masco because
Brandon Joyner (36:59.512)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (37:09.312)
I saw a guy who had wealth, saw a guy who had multiple businesses, and then somehow he's able to play on the beach for four or five hours every day. Like, what? Well, then you realize, okay, he's getting up early. He's, you know, making all this stuff happen in between. And for me, it's gotta be play first. But anyway, if you guys want to go to a winware matters retreat, I think it's invaluable.
Brandon Joyner (37:17.742)
Right.
Mark Burik (37:32.206)
2000 bucks well spent in order to get the direction my life to get the financial advice the business building advice It was so cool. So I just like a special shout out to Anne Malm and Brett Eden So Frank randomly and he beat us in what Manhattan Frank feels But
Brandon Joyner (37:49.954)
We don't talk about that.
Mark Burik (37:52.874)
He just texted me randomly. So AVP player, right? He texted me. goes, I noticed today that you're a very early platform guy when passing. Is that what you teach is best practice when you coach? And I replied to him, it works well for me.
I've been told by other coaches to put your hands together as late as possible and my passing. And when I did that, my passing was a liability. started watching slow motion of all the world's best passers and studying accuracy sports like firearms and skeet shooting. Gluing my hands together very early works best for me. And it's something I have players experiment with and most success that I see comes from an early platform. Most pros and the barrows are built by the time the ball crosses the net.
Like their angle is set, their hands are together by the time the ball crosses the net. So if you think that's late, okay, I think it's early. That's, mean, semantics. I said, when I'm passing crappy, I'll just build it before they even serve. And it always gives me good results. And so he replied, yeah, something that I just started thinking about was interesting. And I saw you doing it last week. I said, if a bad guy is running at you and you have a weapon.
And he starts running at you from 40 or 50 feet away. Do you wait until he's three feet from you to like then raise your weapon, aim and shoot? go, no, as soon as you track his trajectory, you lock on the target. And that's my metaphor and reasoning along with the slow motion research that I've done of the world's best passers. And he was like, makes so much sense. And it's also really weird that coaches teach the opposite because it was what he was always told to do.
So it's cool that he's still studying his technique, but interesting that I do it so obviously that he is able to pick on it. And when I look at guys like Billy Allen, John Mayer, Jeremy Kayspear, I mean, they're locked out, if not built, by the time that the ball is six feet out of the server's hands. So I do like that.
Brandon Joyner (39:39.683)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (39:52.184)
Right. Yeah. I had like a little, I know you'll like hold your platform in server-ceive, like even when your arms are resting on your legs. I had a little cue that I would do, especially when I would feel that trouble coming on is I would, once I took my hands off my knees, I would like link my pinkies because like it feels, just makes you feel like you're there and then.
Mark Burik (40:02.894)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (40:15.192)
yeah, I've done that. That's great. Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (40:19.95)
getting your hands together for me was a lot, a lot easier. But yeah, especially having our hands here. I don't understand this idea of when people have like this really aggressive elbow bend. Um, we call it like cow cowboy hands, like cowboy guns, like they're getting ready to like shoot somebody. Um, but yeah, I think getting that platform out in front of you is huge. Um, yeah. And shout out to Frank.
Mark Burik (40:32.343)
Mm-hmm.
Cowboys.
Mark Burik (40:45.976)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (40:47.726)
He's such an awesome dude. One, he's competing at a super high level. And I remember like, I think it was last summer in Virginia Beach, he like came up to me and was like, hey dude, just wanted to let you know, like I watched your setting video before this tournament. You know, and I think that that's like, it's so cool because like,
Mark Burik (41:05.946)
Hahaha
Brandon Joyner (41:13.516)
Especially like when we compete against all these guys and we obviously we want to win every game But they're this community is just awesome and it's cool that we've we've been able to put out some content that Unfortunately has helped people beat us But It's really it's really cool Yeah Right. Yeah, it's it's really cool when people are like willing to kind of
Mark Burik (41:29.292)
Yep.
Mark Burik (41:33.454)
There's three people that later beat me in tournaments. I'm like, this is...
Brandon Joyner (41:43.022)
bring that up. know when he said that to me, it made me feel pretty cool. So I appreciate Frank. He's a good dude. But real quick before we go, kind of something that you touched on a little bit, I think a really easy way to make sure that you're doing all these things is holding your finish before and after. like not only are we talking about having that platform out early, but be able to hold it afterwards as well, whether we're talking about passing or setting.
think for some reason people feel silly doing this. Like I'll tell people like hold your finish obnoxiously long to where people walking by are like, why is he still holding his platform? I guarantee you it's not as long as you think it is and you have the time. So like I like when we talk about, imagine when you're passing or when you're that a photographer is on the sideline and they're taking like a shutter shot of you.
two seconds before your pass and two seconds after your pass or set. Those pictures should look very similar. Like all of those shutter shots should look very, very similar and you get to go in and pick the best one, right? They should not look extremely different. And I think that if you do that exercise, you'll be able to realize how much you're moving throughout your pass, how much you're moving throughout your set. And I think like that alone could.
could help you. So just have somebody stand behind you with like the 15 shot camera. Do a bunch of pictures. And if you're able to see those pictures look very similar. Good job. I can almost guarantee you the past was good. If you look very, very different in a lot of those pictures, then.
Mark Burik (43:19.404)
Yeah
Brandon Joyner (43:36.354)
Pass probably wasn't great. So, yeah.
Mark Burik (43:36.75)
Nice and yeah, just throw a tripod put your phone and lean it against your water bottle and record yourself in slow motion for five or ten service ease and then just see if your hands are staying together for at least
Brandon Joyner (43:50.296)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (43:54.142)
six to 10 feet after the ball bounces off of you. It's so simple to just look at yourself without us being there and then go and fix at least that one thing. And then after that, come into our community, join the training blueprint and we'll help you get to the next step. But you got to start recording yourself. If you're listening to this podcast, it's clear that you want to get better at beach volleyball. So some of the tools are so easy. Just start.
recording things. And then when you do come on for our program, hey, you've got all of the videos built up so we can hit the ground running and start coaching you.
Brandon Joyner (44:32.494)
Yeah, $49 a month. It's ridiculous. It's like, I obviously we do this for ourselves, but man, if I was somebody on the East Coast, I was on the West Coast, wherever, somebody is somewhere in the world and I am trying to get from third place to a first, or if I'm trying to break pool.
If you're getting a coach right now, if you're spending money on jump programs, if you're spending money on nutrition, if you're spending money on all these things, $49 a month to guarantee you to get better. And like all it takes is us giving you feedback. Is you're silly if you're not.
Mark Burik (45:15.65)
Yeah. Us looking at 10 minutes of your passing is, promise you worth a ton of a lot more than your next tub of protein. Same price, except we will look at it for an entire month instead of 10 minutes. All right. Cool. That's it.
Brandon Joyner (45:26.732)
Yeah, yeah, that's not doing much, man. You're, yeah.
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (45:37.367)
I did.
Mark Burik (45:37.546)
we're gonna go help the members and, yeah, guys, got camps coming up. So better at beach.com forward slash camps. if you want to join the complete training blueprint online where we can help you go to better at beach.com forward slash coaching. And in Hermosa beach, we have a king and queen of the court league coming up on Monday nights. So that will be a ladder based system, which means that you advance as much as you earn it. So you'll always be at and with players at your level.
and it's gonna be super fun Monday nights. So be on the lookout for that.
Brandon Joyner (46:11.179)
Registration goes live on March 3rd. So you gotta sign up. Don't miss out. Yeah.
Mark Burik (46:14.464)
Ooh, 3rd. Awesome. All right, that's it. From me, from Brandon. See you on the sand.
Brandon Joyner (46:21.07)
Alright man. Yeah.
Have a good one.
