Mark Burik (00:04.464)
Hey everybody and welcome to the Better at Beach podcast. My name is Mark Burke and we are here with Brandon Joyner and we're going to have a guest today. Her name is Tanya Moreno and she played for the Olympics. She played for Spain in the Olympics and she is currently at TCU playing the NCAA beach volleyball. So if
All goes right, we will have her here on screen and what we want to do first is just get into some of our upcoming camps, which is pretty cool. So first things first, in Hermosa, we've got lots of things happening. We have a King and Queen of the Court League happening on Monday nights. We have a six week course happening on, is that Tuesdays and Thursdays, Brandon?
Brandon Joyner (00:59.874)
Yep, Tuesday, Thursday morning, 715 to 845.
Mark Burik (01:04.774)
So if you guys wanna join a six week course that is a contract with the city that we got, so that's gonna be in the mornings and we're hoping to get that firing up. That'll be Tuesdays and Thursdays. And then we also have our small group training, our regular classes. If you know them or have been there before, then you know what those are all about. And we are opening up locations in Santa Monica and Redondo Beach. So if you are not on
If you're in the South Bay or you're headed here and you're not on our local events email list, that's at betteratbeach.com forward slash hermosa. You could also type in forward slash hermosa beach volleyball.
It's on our website and you can sign up for that individual email list because we have two email lists, one for everybody in the world and then the other one just specific to the South Bay. And as far as training camps, we got three day camps coming up. We are in the process of going back to the Dominican Republic next fall around Thanksgiving. So save after Thanksgiving for a better at beach camp in the Dominican Republic.
And upcoming camps, we have New Orleans happening March 14th, Long Island, March 21st, Las Vegas, March 28th, Oklahoma City at Boombox Beach Club, April 4th, Scottsdale, Arizona, April 11th, Austin, Texas. We have a really cool two-day camp on May 2nd and 3rd. So we're doing two days of training and then we're following it up with a tournament on that Sunday. So May.
second, third and fourth. You can sign up for one or two days of the camp and you can sign up for the tournament individually. That is all on our website at better at beach.com forward slash camps. And then we will be in Long Island and in San Diego, May 30th and then June 20th headed to Virginia beach followed by June 27th in Milwaukee. And then we will be back in Bend, Oregon at the end of July and we're going to Raggle Beach.
Mark Burik (03:10.508)
August 1st. So in Santa Rosa, California, if you want to come hang out with us up in Northern California, we will be there. And if you are interested in getting coached online, then we are about to finish our mental training for this season. So we've got two more weeks of going through our mental training and mindset for the rest of the year.
And then we're heading into our passing, serving, and ball control section. So if you're looking to upgrade your passing, now is the time to get the complete beach volleyball training blueprint that is on our website. And we're going to do five weeks of serving and passing where you guys watch the tutorials, shoot the videos that we tell you to shoot. Then you post them to our community and we go in there and we analyze them.
We also have a couple pricing changes coming up so that people can access our library at a discount if you don't want the coaching and we are also going to have a package for the coaching and then if you ever want to work with us one-on-one where we become essentially your season and film review coach then you can check out betteratbeach.com forward slash film session and if you sign up for that you get to come to every single better at beach event for free after you sign up for the one-on-one program so
We got about 10 guys on that who are loving it and loving the ability to just sign up for a camp whenever they want after they sign up for the 101 program.
Brandon Joyner (04:38.264)
Yeah. And, real quick before we, before we intro, little podcast special will offer is, this is off the cuff. if you are in Hermosa and you sign up for the King, Queen of the court or the six week morning training sessions, I want you to email support at better at beach.com. And if you do that, I'll give you two free classes to our small group training.
Mark Burik (04:39.0)
So.
Mark Burik (04:42.502)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (05:07.086)
Okay, so that's a little podcast special. We'll see if anyone takes advantage, but yeah, just email support at better beach.com. Take advantage of that.
Mark Burik (05:15.182)
Nice. know Ben Chessing is listening and he's ready. He listens to every single podcast. So shout out to Ben.
Brandon Joyner (05:21.646)
Spread the word, Ben, and sign up for our King of the Court. We need people like you.
Mark Burik (05:26.79)
Yeah. Tanya. Hi. How are the Olympics?
Tania Moreno (05:29.891)
Hi. The Olympics were amazing, of course, as anyone could have seen on TV or on stage, but the Olympic race, the journey, that was beautiful. And I think that was the most special thing, trying to fight for that spot. I think we started in the rankings around the hundreds or something like that. And we knew we had to qualify to...
Brandon Joyner (05:34.03)
you
Tania Moreno (05:57.526)
the world champs with six good results and then from there keep playing as many tournaments as possible. that pressure, that sacrifice, that consistency that we had to show every day was what really made it special once I was there at the Olympics. So yeah, if I had to say something, like the biggest takeaway was trying to qualify. And once we were there, just enjoy the experience.
Mark Burik (06:26.758)
That's awesome. You did this while, so you to the Olympics representing Spain, but you're also playing beach volleyball at TCU. You're in your senior year, right? So this is your final year coming up. Maureen told me that you had to take off of school. So she said that you ditched school just to go to the Olympics. Is this true?
Brandon Joyner (06:28.47)
So cool.
Tania Moreno (06:52.243)
We took a gap year, Danny and I. We had to go through some paperwork, review the NCAA rules because I think maybe only Tina Gaudina did it before. So we were trying to get some background to how to do it. And once we found a way, everyone was super supportive, super helpful. We just sacrificed one academic year. It wasn't such a big deal, but we knew we were coming back.
The feelings of course were weird because it was like a long summer knowing that after 12 months you were going back to school. So yeah, we didn't do too much. At least I didn't, I wasn't enrolled in any other classes or studying. I was fully focused on achieving our athletic goals. And yeah, it went great.
Mark Burik (07:46.694)
That's awesome. What was the hardest part about? Was the hardest part leaving school or making the decision to do that or how did your team feel about it? Did they feel upset? Were they happy? they like kind of both? Were they like, yeah, we're super proud of you, but we're gonna miss you.
Brandon Joyner (07:49.912)
paid off.
Tania Moreno (08:10.277)
I think as I said, they were not just the coaching stuff, but the team, the teammates, players, super supportive and excited for us. Like they wanted us to shine and to get this opportunity to see if we could make our dreams come true. And it's true that we left them with our one season here playing with them, but
They were also putting everything they had to keep the team united with the connection of the family identity that we have. it was nice to stay connected even we were at different parts of the world. We followed their season and they were watching every single game that we played at the, not just on the Olympics, but during the entire beach pro tour. So the connection was still there and yeah, and the love. So that's what matters.
Mark Burik (09:06.5)
I love that. What do you think is harder? I hope this connection stays, but what do you think is harder? The pre-season that you go through for a college team or for your college team at TCU or the extended grind of the world tour where you know that you're on the road.
for this many months constantly going there. know, they're two very different beasts, obviously. Like one of them, all right, like heavy strength and conditioning, we're playing a ton of volleyball. And the other one is just this long drawn out phase with a whole lot of question marks. What was tougher for you?
Tania Moreno (09:51.614)
Completely different as you said at the end when you're on the beach for two is just your partner you
maybe some coaches or I don't know, physios. And you're just there with that people. And with the team, you share with 24, 26 more people, more emotions, more sacrifice. So it's completely different. And I think adapting in both scenarios, it's what can make you actually better, like taking the best of each to apply it later.
to the next one. for me, it was pretty hard to put all the talk that you can hear from other people actually talking about, okay, these two young ladies are trying to, they're doing great. They're gonna qualify to Paris. But you didn't know till the very end because we were not in a comfortable spot. We were between the 14th the 17th in the ranking. So we were...
there and had to play as many tournaments as possible to don't give the chance to other teams to get a good result. I don't know, I think both scenarios are completely different and challenging and just taking advantage of the adversities that you have there, learning and adapting is what actually it's going to help you find solutions and overcome problems in a different scenario. So I don't know, to be honest, both of them.
Mark Burik (11:22.214)
Mm. Yeah. Did you ever feel...
Brandon Joyner (11:25.55)
And just for, sorry, Mark. and just to kind of help out our listeners, because I think we know, but is, is it the top 18 are guaranteed a spot or how does that work? Top 17.
Tania Moreno (11:36.869)
Top 17 have their spot and then one extra is for the house country. In this case, France qualified by ranking, so France too got the extra spot as a house country.
Brandon Joyner (11:51.704)
Okay. And when you're playing in those tournaments, you're, you, you get your top six finishes, right?
Tania Moreno (11:59.994)
For the ranking, everything counts. For example, I mentioned before that we need to get six good results to qualify to the world championships. And normally, the rule is that if you get into the world champs, you have a better chance of qualifying to the Olympics. that was our first, very, very first goal after leaving college in May, 2023. So, yeah, we started with that and then tried to play.
Brandon Joyner (12:01.39)
That's how it works.
Okay.
Six good results.
Tania Moreno (12:29.602)
and play and gain that sport by playing.
Brandon Joyner (12:33.858)
Very cool.
Mark Burik (12:35.61)
Did it ever feel coming from a team environment where obviously you have your team? I'd like to hear how many coaches and physios you had from Spain to help you out, but did it ever feel more lonely being on the world tour compared to the team environment within college?
Tania Moreno (12:59.297)
It feels different, but it's true that Dani and I, love making connections with other players from all over the world. So even though you're not sharing that daily bond with your teammates at lift, at practice or team bonding, you do feel like there are less connections for sure. But once you're at the tournament, you're focused knowing that there are people, they're also sharing a goal like in a different way, but
At the end, it's some sort of family too, because we share the exact same sport all over the world in different environments, and then we adapt to compete to to all achieve our goals. So it's like a special connection. I don't know. Of course I feel different because the team identity that we have here at TCU is something that I cannot have anywhere else. And I love it, but also...
Having friends on tour makes it even even better. Yeah
Mark Burik (14:02.19)
It is pretty cool getting the friends around the world scattered there. then it's for sometimes it becomes a reunion whenever you show up at the same tournament and you're like, yeah, I like those people from Italy or some of them you just don't want to see.
Brandon Joyner (14:14.069)
Hahaha
Mark Burik (14:19.344)
For your coaches, what, so what were the name of your head coaches for Spain for the Olympics and the World Tour?
Tania Moreno (14:29.398)
Our head coach is Fran Marco.
Mark Burik (14:32.026)
Okay.
What was the difference between those two coaches and then Gutierrez and Maho at TCU? Did they ask different things of you? Were you more in the driver's seat when it came to the world tour and the Olympics? Did their styles clash or do you think that you just kind of benefited from different or were they the same?
Tania Moreno (15:00.712)
You know, as I mentioned before, here we're 25 in the team, 26. So sometimes it's hard for the coaches to get the best of each player. Sometimes the goal is more for the team, try to get the best of the team. So you don't have that just one practice, what you're just practicing or what you need or your weak spots. It's more as a global thing. And it's true that
Even at the beginning was hard adapting to such a big team practice when we came for the first time here to TCU. We also learned how to adapt and to get the best of those hard situations where we felt we were completely out of our comfort zones. And for example, in Spain, when we practice with our coach, sometimes it's just Danny and me with him or our second coach might help, but it's just us and maybe a team joins us, but it's more specific, more to take.
Customized more individualistic. So I don't know. We always say that it's good to have both things. Coming to TCU was a great opportunity and it was risky at the beginning because we were going to jump into a different system, different philosophy. So of course we were scared at the beginning, but I think we made a great decision by coming here and learning also from this team culture that we never have in Spain.
We're gaining other values and we learn how to fight as a team. You're not just competing on your court. You have four more next to you and the duel is done when you get three points. So it's not enough to just win on your court. You need more people there. So yeah, that's something that you will never find in Spain. At least at this moment, we don't have it.
Mark Burik (16:53.274)
Were there any techniques or strategies that opposed each other between your Spanish coach and your TCU coaches? Like, did they have you play defense or emphasize a certain part of your offense in a different way?
Tania Moreno (17:09.349)
It's true that we're lucky with the connection between our coach from Spain and Hector. They're good friends and they every now and then share some information about us. So it's not that Hector was completely changing our game, our system. There was a slight connection there. So we tried to keep it as we came. Let's say like...
Hector actually wanted to help as much as he could. He also didn't want to step in and change something completely in a crazy different way. It's true that he, for example, started incorporating more sets to the pin for me, for example, or go option for Danny. I think a great example was the quarterfinals game at the Olympics against Brandi and Melissa.
Brandy was so aggressive with the second with the option with the second touch there. So we know that beach volleyball is evolutionary like in an evolutionary moment right now and we also need to Improvise in Adapt to what's coming new. So it's true that Hector is now trying to work on that open pass so Danny can go on on to or
then open the set a little more to the pin so I move the blocks and things like that. It's true that Hector was a little more insistent there. And I think I started handsetting consistently here at the US. When I came for the first time, the ball is different, I don't know. I was always bump setting. So every now and then I was trying to handset and both coaches want me to handset but Hector was the one actually that, I don't know, take me.
I was on court and just started hand setting and it was softer than before, I don't know, it was different and I actually gained some confidence and yeah, here I am, hand setting.
Mark Burik (19:11.206)
Do you like handsetting better? Do you feel like you have more control of it now that it's a part of your game or does it still have that like discomfort?
Tania Moreno (19:19.984)
I feel pretty confident and some always I don't want to say sometimes but always my coach from Spain encouraged me to be brave to be fearless like to don't keep anything to myself so if you have the opportunity to have said just go for it it's true that now in the beach pro tour there's a lot of drama with the lifts and they're making a lot of calls I don't have a problem with that I don't
leave the ball at all super quick contact and that's when sometimes the ball spins a little bit because of the quick contact. I'm not afraid of that on tour because I know they're not gonna call it. For me I've had so many times where I had a double contact for setting, handsetting and I knew they were not gonna call it because it was quick. Here in college it's way different. People leave the ball more and every time the ball spins a little bit they call a double contact.
Mark Burik (19:52.226)
I set perfect too.
Tania Moreno (20:18.371)
But it's okay, I'm also adapting to the reps here, I don't know.
Mark Burik (20:24.41)
That's interesting getting used to the two different set calls and then seeing, you know, expecting like, no, no, that's going to get called. And then you have to finish the play because you don't know if it's going to get called based on world tour standards or on NCAA standards.
Brandon Joyner (20:26.488)
Yeah.
Tania Moreno (20:37.068)
I
Brandon Joyner (20:41.986)
Do you normally set the exact same way in a collegiate match versus a World Tour event? So you just do the same set.
Tania Moreno (20:49.102)
Yeah, maybe, maybe I try to grab the bowl a little bit more here. Also because it's a different type of bowl, it's softer. when I try to...
Tania Moreno (21:10.253)
Thank you. Sorry. So here on college, when I tried to lift the ball, it's true that it looked cleaner, but every time I was handsetting quick and the ball spin, they called it like no doubt. think it happened in Hawaii. Yeah, I think it happened in Hawaii. Two or three sets called in one set, but I'm not going to like change that much or be afraid of not handsetting anymore. So.
Brandon Joyner (21:21.408)
Okay. And collegiate, right? Okay. Yes.
Tania Moreno (21:40.116)
I just keep trying and hope that it doesn't spin. But yeah, I work on my quick contact with the ball. Yeah, I don't try to lift it that much.
Mark Burik (21:50.51)
Why do you think it's important or what if people told you the reasons for why it's important to handset? Because there are so many athletes that never did. Some still don't, know, Ricardo still doesn't handset, right? John Hayden almost never, never handset and Misty May and Kerry Walsh didn't handset and still won. So I wonder if it's cool.
Brandon Joyner (21:51.607)
Thank
Mark Burik (22:18.904)
if it's necessary or if it's when handsetters say, I have better control, is that actually true? So what reasons do you have for handsetting and why did your coaches encourage you to do it so much?
Tania Moreno (22:38.261)
think you said one of the main reasons, like you can make the game more controlled, faster. You can actually set a target and have more precision to just go for that target. We can see it in the jumpsets now or all these open to ping sets with the men's like Norwegian teams or Swedish teams. Like there's more speed and the block ends.
off system. Like if you can actually have that speed on the set or that precision, the block sometimes isn't going to be perfectly aligned with the hitter. So I think it gives speed but also controlling the game where you can actually, sometimes you have like these rushed plays with the handset you can, okay, I'm having this moment to put exactly the ball where I want to not just bump it in.
I think that can give more precision there and calmness. Control, speed and then the effectivity for the heater when it's struggling with the block to have more options and to be more precise.
Mark Burik (23:56.432)
Okay.
Brandon Joyner (23:56.578)
Did you guys ever do a breakdown of like pre-handsetting for your like world tour finishes versus when you guys started handsetting? Like did you guys notice that you were able to beat teams that maybe you weren't before that or anything along those lines?
Tania Moreno (24:13.585)
Yeah, 100%.
Tania Moreno (24:18.973)
cannot think about an example right now, but personally, I think I can give my partner more handsetting than bumsetting. And I love bumsetting and I think I'm pretty good at it. I have a lot of control bumsetting balls that are off system and I liked it and I've done it since I was a kid. it's not about what I like, it's about what the team needs. And in this case, Danny, for example, can go to the bean and
Brandon Joyner (24:21.165)
Mm-hmm.
Tania Moreno (24:49.242)
And it's better for her if I give her that calmness and speed at the same time with the position of a handset. If they don't call the double, of course. But yeah, I think there was a big change in how the game looked. More organized, more options at the same time. So yeah, I think there was a big, big difference.
Brandon Joyner (25:13.506)
Yeah, I think that there's like a little battle that players have to play around, especially when they're first learning how to set, or deciding that they want to be handsetters, is deciding like, okay, are my number of doubles in a set losing me games, or is my imprecision of a bump set?
Mark Burik (25:13.766)
It's interesting.
Brandon Joyner (25:37.556)
losing me more points. You know, I think that like that's a that's an interesting battle. I'm sure you kind of went through that.
Tania Moreno (25:43.366)
Yeah, that's interesting actually because if you get a double skull that's like losing a side out. It's like the other team getting a defense. So that's hard. Yeah, of course. But if you want to get to the best level, I think you need to make at the beginning a couple of doubles till you get the confidence and the you know, get rid of the fear and then whenever the time comes.
Brandon Joyner (25:51.022)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (25:57.038)
you
Tania Moreno (26:13.251)
you'll have, boom, enough confidence to set whatever ball scam with your hands. yeah, for example, with the wind, exactly the same. Sometimes it's so windy and our coaches encourages to handset. Even if it's blowing everywhere and the ball is always off system, just work with your feet to get under the ball and quickly have with a ball contact, just like.
get rid of the ball and you'll have more precision than if you were like, I don't know how to explain it, but I windy situations, it's a great example that you can give more control and precision with the handset.
Mark Burik (26:58.266)
Yeah. I like, yeah, it's probably a little, you know, it's two, two to four feet less of, of time in the air, right? Because you're taking it higher. So maybe there's a shorter, shorter amount of time for it to get affected by the wind. I, somebody's got to run this study at some point of.
taking a look at bump sets in system, bump sets versus handsets, and then like back of court handsets versus bump sets, and then find a measuring stick for what a good set actually looks like. We do the work with our online group, we'll pause it when the setter is touching the ball, and then we put the cursor where the ball should go on the hitter's arm. And so then we have them rate themselves on their setting efficiency
Brandon Joyner (27:22.796)
Mm-hmm.
Tania Moreno (27:45.22)
Okay.
Mark Burik (27:48.226)
for any set, like just good or bad. But did it land somewhat where the cursor was or way off from that? And most people think they suck at hitting and it's no, you're hitting fine or we're not even up to that stage because you feel like you suck at hitting because your set isn't getting to the right spot ever. So we have no reason to work on your hitting until we fix team setting.
Tania Moreno (28:00.547)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (28:00.917)
you
Tania Moreno (28:14.691)
That's interesting. don't know. For sure some studies will come and we'll have the exact measurements and that stuff.
Mark Burik (28:25.262)
Yeah, ball time will do it for us. I you got enough stats. Is the lifting program any different? So when you're doing strength and conditioning and you're preparing for a tournament in college with your team versus being on the road and doing doing all the world tour, what is the strength and conditioning part of that look like for you?
Tania Moreno (28:27.639)
Yeah, for sure.
Brandon Joyner (28:27.65)
Yeah.
Tania Moreno (28:56.47)
I've talked about it so many times because that's probably one of the most important parts to prevent injuries, to be strong, to be quick on court. And again, the biggest difference is that here you're 26 in the weight room. And even the plan is to prepare us for season, to be at our best at the national championship at the end of...
of the, not the year, of the season. The biggest difference I think is that you can get your own private strength coach, for example in Spain, or work with your Federation strength coach, and customize your work. For example, you have a limitation on your shoulder, you're gonna get exercises done to gain more mobility, or to strengthen your shoulder in a way that helps you to get rid of that limitation. If my hips are...
I don't know, same, have a limitation. Let's see if we can work in the weight room with exercises that can be transferred into the sand so you can perform at your best on the sand. So I think that's a positive thing about just being on a one-on-one work plan with a strength coach. But also we've learned that, for example, after our first year here,
that if you wanna be professional, you also need to do things that help you for your own self-purpose. Like I said, if I have shoulder problems, okay, I get my work done with the team, it's something good. If I find something that is making me feel discomfort and I let the coach know, but I get my work done with the team and then as a professional, you go on your own time and do your shoulder exercises.
or you go to treatment or rehab and you get your hip exercises done. So you complement the work that it's been done. So it actually makes you feel better and prevents injuries or other stuff. That's a little bit easier in Spain because of the reason that you're just working one-on-one with a strength coach.
Mark Burik (31:10.008)
If you have a tournament that starts Saturday, what does Friday, Thursday, Wednesday look like for you in terms of weight room and practice?
Tania Moreno (31:22.6)
Okay. TCU, college or beach?
Mark Burik (31:26.662)
If you were to design it so that you feel it best for you.
Tania Moreno (31:29.375)
Okay.
Okay, so if I'm playing on a Saturday, the day before, for sure I'm not lifting. I'm just getting our practice done with a team of the tournament or with my own teammates here at TCU. So that's just like ball practice. I wouldn't mind, for example, on Thursday getting a lift, explosives lift. Normally we work with speed. So...
we wanna lift not as heavy as we can, but to move the weight to that corresponding speed of that day. For example, if I wanna work at 0.9 meters per second, I'm gonna adjust the weight to work on that speed. If I'm feeling great, maybe that day my weight is gonna be more than if I'm feeling a little bit more tired, that day I'm gonna be lifting less weight.
but I'm going to be working at that speed because I want to be at that speed on on Saturday. So it's not more about the weight. It's more about the speed for us, for me. That's how I think I perform the best. And I think my body feels great when I'm doing those explosive or adjusting the way to get the speed that I want for for the goal of that week. So, yeah, the day before just some ball practice the day before practice, a quick lift and also some practice.
And I think I would also leave probably Monday and Wednesday. Not too heavy, but something similar. Like that week is to transition what has been done in the previous weeks to get explosive, to get quick. And yeah, I'm probably at regeneration session after playing or something like that.
Mark Burik (33:22.808)
What are you using to measure the bar speed when you're operating at 0.9 meters per second? Do you have any tools or equipment that you're attaching or even traveling with?
Tania Moreno (33:35.471)
Yeah, we used to travel for the beach pro tour with a, it's like a box with a, who, with a rope. So you attach that to the bar. Tendo, it's like a tendo. Is that a word in English? Like an, yeah, I don't know. So it's the machine that measures the speed of the bar. So you just attach the rope, the thin cable. It's like a cable. You attach it to the bar if you're squatting, for example.
and the box that measures the speed is just on the floor. So you just work there and as you're going up and down, the cable is going up and down and it measures the meters per second of the movement. I'm a communications major, but I think that was, yeah.
Mark Burik (34:19.328)
Awesome. Yeah, I've worked with that in a couple of gyms. like a little, it's a box. It's like maybe the size of your hand. it's usually got a, sometimes it has a magnet that you can like strap onto another weight and then you tie it to the bar. And then once you goes up, just measures how fast you went to the top. Cool. I've never seen somebody traveling with those on the, on the world tour, but that's so smart. mean,
Brandon Joyner (34:23.574)
was amazing.
Tania Moreno (34:32.623)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Tania Moreno (34:39.706)
Exactly. Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (34:42.85)
Yeah, a ton.
Tania Moreno (34:47.834)
Now, yeah, I think now more teams are starting to travel with that because it's how you adjust the weight for that week. Like there's no better way of seeing, he or she is tired because he or she is not getting to the speed that he's supposed to get. Less weight. Let's work at the speed, but with less weight. So it doesn't actually really matter to.
Mark Burik (34:48.75)
You have to be on the road forever,
Tania Moreno (35:16.556)
be working with less weight. It's what your body needs at that moment. Sometimes we travel, go to China, your body feels so bad. Okay, there's no need to push here with more kilos or more pounds. So yeah, we just use that as a tool to adjust our needs for that week.
Brandon Joyner (35:36.974)
I love that. think a lot of volleyball players can listen to that sentence. like one of our strength coaches in college is he used to always say, don't get blinded by weight. And I think that that's very well said. I like that.
Mark Burik (35:37.135)
Awesome.
Tania Moreno (35:48.122)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (35:54.214)
Tanya, what's one thing in the last two years, aside from handsetting and bumpsetting, that you've changed about your game, whether it was mindset, serving, the way you pass, or the cues you give yourself, or even like an offensive or defensive tactic? What active change have you made that was one of the biggest?
Tania Moreno (36:19.296)
changes for example for these past two years the serving I need to be aggressive with the serve like me and also Danny it's the best tool you have to it's the only tool
Mark Burik (36:41.478)
the sound just cut out now we're back yeah
Tania Moreno (36:43.899)
Okay, coming.
Brandon Joyner (36:45.282)
Yeah, you're good.
Tania Moreno (36:47.77)
Okay, so you initiate a play with the serve. That's the thing that you can control. You cannot control the passing just on the moment, but someone is gonna serve stop spin, someone is gonna serve floating. you control the moment, but not like how it's gonna come the ball. With the serve, it's just the ball in your hands and you have the chance to, boom, make a good serve and put the other team in trouble. And that's how you win points later. can, because I think we have a pretty good side out, but you cannot rely on that for the entire game.
side out, side out, side out without getting any points on defense. And the best way to get points of defense is being aggressive with the serve. So that's a mindset that I've worked a lot, starting, initiating the point, being aggressive with the serve. Like it's fine to miss two to three serves in this case, that's how we plan it. Like be aggressive, miss two serves per set. And if you finish the serve and you didn't miss a single serve,
Maybe you were not being that aggressive or you didn't risk that much. So I tried to have that in mind during this last year. I finished the set, we didn't win. Our side out was great. Let's be aggressive on the serve. So that's one thing that I was working on. And then defense, just finish on the ground, finish on the sand. Even if it's a great highland that is not even yours or it's just like...
a great high learn from the other team. Just try to be active. Finish on the ground, even you don't touch it and you get a little bit sandy. You're there and you want to get the ball. So the next one, maybe you did the same and you actually get it. So having that rush of, I'm just gonna touch every single ball. So that was a way for me to stay active in defense. And maybe sometimes the other team even sees, this girl is just.
crawling and running everywhere and it's putting pressure on us. don't know, something like that. You never know. yeah, serving and staying active on defense, trying for balls, it was one of the keys that I tried to work or to have in mind 100 % and shooting, shooting more. I just attacked and sometimes even people make fun of me or make some jokes like I'm not gonna...
Tania Moreno (39:09.815)
throw a catch shot on an important point I'm gonna go for the kill so be a little bit more balanced there combining shooting with hitting like my coach doesn't want me to be 50-50 but at least like a 65-35 or something like that 60-40 so combine shooting with with hitting yeah
Mark Burik (39:29.786)
When you say serve aggressive, does it mean, does it always just mean more, more speed or are you trying to get closer to sidelines or are you thinking, just thinking constantly, like how do I mix it up? What are they passing? Well, cause just had this one tournament where they're passing everything perfect. And then I was like, well, let's try this. And then I threw in a jump serve and I was like,
They just don't like top spin. So then we just top spin the rest of the match, got the meta system. When you're thinking, but I wasn't being like super aggressive. They just didn't like that style of serve. So are you saying more sidelines, more seams, or just more heat?
Tania Moreno (40:02.4)
Mm-hmm, cute.
Tania Moreno (40:13.439)
For me, how I understand being aggressive on the serve is just not like going as hard as you can to the player because that's like a wall. If you hit so hard to a wall, a wall is going to return the ball. So sometimes being aggressive means serving to the right arm because that's the weakest spot that that player has. Line to line or final middle, serve short, like move the player that is receiving the ball. So it gets in trouble.
Or maybe just every now and then go boom, go for a hard serve or change it into a topspin where it's more of a power serve. So depending on the player and the win, situation, being aggressive on the serve can include looking for the spaces that the players are in. Or just, yeah, I don't know, getting the other team in trouble. Doesn't have to be just hard, but yeah.
Mark Burik (41:09.52)
So are you looking for when you serve and you and Danny, if you talk about it, do you say, hey, this girl doesn't like serves on her right arm. Is that something that came from stats or are you figuring that out in game as it goes?
Tania Moreno (41:28.304)
Normally from stats and scouting like we just maybe we have a perception during the game if we haven't Prepared our game plan before and when we surf to the right shoulder she misses. Okay, let's keep the right shoulder But normally for example for the Olympic Games we had a time to prepare our pool games that were like published I think I don't know three weeks two weeks before starting the competition so
We had the time to prepare, to analyze with stats. think every team has their own way of going through stats and taking notes with teams. yeah, and you see tendencies. We look for tendencies. if a player has trouble in the middle, and then we can get rid of her best, I don't know, high line or whatever, we're gonna start from the middle. Even if she passes right in the middle, then she's not gonna.
play that much on the pin maybe, I don't know. Things like that, so yeah. Normally we prepare our games looking for tendencies, going through stats, and then for the serve, as you said, if that player has a weak point somewhere, being aggressive doesn't mean just boom, going hard on her, but less power, more precision on getting that line-to-line serve, something like that.
Mark Burik (42:49.382)
I think a lot of people get blinded by the word aggressive for serving and they'll turn to each other and say we got to be aggressive and then they just serve as hard as they can but it still ends up right in the person's lap where I've changed since
Since I was younger, changed my perception of what does it mean to serve aggressive? Now it means like serve thoughtfully, aim at very specific spots. And then once I get that spot, see if I can add extra speed to it, as opposed to just going and hammering jump serves and like very, different mentality that I've switched in the past 15 years.
Tania Moreno (43:25.358)
Yeah.
Tania Moreno (43:30.929)
Well, that's good.
Mark Burik (43:33.486)
Yeah, we're all trying to grow here. Okay. Last question. And then we just get to go hang out with our members, but I really appreciate you being here and taking the time. It's been super fun to have you on again, cause it's fun talking to you. What is one thing that you think the majority of people mess up on defense? What do they get wrong?
Brandon Joyner (43:35.534)
You
Tania Moreno (43:47.653)
Enjoy!
Mark Burik (44:02.426)
defensively.
Tania Moreno (44:07.482)
defense just by defending the ball or by finishing the entire transition because sometimes just getting a dig, defending a heart attack, it's meaningless if you don't finish that defense and that's when frustration comes. So imagine I run a high line, I get such a nice, beautiful dig, I get the picture I can see from the photographer back there and then transition set of the net. I approach earlier than I used to.
ball is behind, I don't get the point. Then you just go to the side out again. So for me, defense involves a lot of things. If you just want to talk about defense, I can answer your question just about defense. If you want me to go a little bit more there, you let me know. don't know.
Brandon Joyner (44:55.203)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (44:56.634)
Let's go for this episode. Let's just go basic. Like just, just defense, either positioning tactics or what people's feet or hands are doing, whatever you can figure out.
Tania Moreno (45:00.537)
Great. Okay.
Tania Moreno (45:10.231)
I think a great defender first needs to believe it's a great defender. Have the courage and the passion of defending. I think that helps a lot. And then we have our tactical, technical things, but feeling inside here, deep in your heart that you're a defender, it's actually gonna help you later go get all those balls. So that's the first thing, like believe you're a defender and have that feeling. And then...
I am a type of defender that doesn't move that much. Don't cheat. Like run. Maybe sometimes you have some reading and some people are more talented there reading other teams. But if you don't have the skill, be patient. Patience is also such a good skill for defense. if it's, I guess it depends on the player on who you're playing against. But as I said before, stay active.
like finish running even if you think you're not getting there. That's gonna help you later to believe you are almost there. And then technical, shoulders. Shoulders are think they're pretty important. You're trying to defend at a hard driven angle, fix your shoulders. Even if it's one arm, stay strong with your shoulders so the ball doesn't go back. Or I think your shoulders have a lot of control there and keep slow.
your your booty to to the sand just stay low there and connecting that hip hip movement with your shoulders is gonna have make you have the control of the ball and when if it's dynamic defense i would say same thing first steps don't go to the sand too fast and that's something that always my coach tells me because i have that mindset of just finishing on the ground and sometimes i just forget of boom
initiating with two strong steps and then crawling and diving. yeah, think shoulders, hips staying low and initiating for the dynamic defense with two or three strong steps. And here's something that I've noticed in America. don't know. I don't know. It's just like the flying defense. Some defenders just like fly and get the ball. like, I don't even know if I can do that.
Tania Moreno (47:36.437)
For example, Haley Howard, think she's one of the best defenders that showed that. She cannot even get there and then she jumps, flies, and she's diving into the high line. That's impressive. I think that's a skill that you need to have it too. It's hard to teach. Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (47:55.342)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (47:57.862)
Awesome. Yeah, like, I like, you know, from the basics, like I like the patience talk that you gave of like not moving too much, just sit there and then challenge the race. We see a lot of beginner and intermediate defenders, like they sit in the middle, they sit in the middle and then they run to one side and then they run to the other. it's like, even if you end up in the right position, your body's not actually going to be ready to make the dig. Like, let's see if this person actually has an accurate highline.
Brandon Joyner (47:59.374)
That's really cool.
Mark Burik (48:26.394)
that can beat you in a running race before we start doing all the movement and everything back there. But yeah, I love the hip and shoulder talk. That's hips low is massive. Cool. I love it. Thanks, Tanya. Good tips. Yeah. I loved events. I was a born libero who was forced to hit, you know? Yeah.
Tania Moreno (48:39.849)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (48:42.232)
That was great.
Tania Moreno (48:42.451)
Great. Do you like playing defense?
Brandon Joyner (48:53.964)
just hate running up to the net. that's a defense has become more The more I hate running up.
Tania Moreno (48:57.447)
you
That's good. Yep.
Mark Burik (49:03.768)
Yeah
Mark Burik (49:07.654)
Well, before we head out, where can people follow what you're doing, keep up with your career and see you take down a few championships at TCU?
Tania Moreno (49:18.547)
Well, we have the TCU Beach volleyball Instagram account. They post a lot about our regular season on that Instagram account. I use my Instagram too to write down their posts and we have a team Instagram, Dan Tan, starting with the Dan from Danny, Tan from Tanya. yeah, follow along on Instagram and yeah, yeah. Love beach volleyball.
Mark Burik (49:44.806)
Awesome. Ryan, thank you so much. This is such a great talk. We'd love to have you back. Fantastic. Good luck internationally. Good luck with TCU and finishing up your college career. It's special. It's fun. Enjoy the hell out of it and really appreciate you coming by and spending some time with us.
Brandon Joyner (49:44.878)
Come on.
Tania Moreno (50:03.559)
I enjoyed so much so thank you for having me and maybe till next time
Brandon Joyner (50:10.829)
Ha
Mark Burik (50:11.608)
Yeah. All right.
Brandon Joyner (50:14.604)
Awesome. Thanks, Tanya.
Tania Moreno (50:16.54)
Go frogs!
Mark Burik (50:17.798)
Frogs. All right, from me, Tanya and Brandon and everybody at Better at Beach, go frogs. We'll see you on the sand.
Brandon Joyner (50:18.184)
There you go.
Brandon Joyner (50:28.974)
you
