Mark Burik (00:02.204)
Hey everybody. Welcome to better at beach. My name's Mark. We got Brandon joiner on the line and we want to tell you to stop running the diamond formation. When you play four on four volleyball, if you're in a fours league, no more diamond. are going to teach you how to play fours the right way and how to position players in the right positions to help you be successful.
when you do go and win your fours league. And then you can thank us for putting you in the right positions. We played a lot of fours. There's been a lot of fun. And it's shocking how many people just don't have the right setup. I guess there's less of a model out there than there is like on the AVP. So you're not constantly watching four on four tournaments and how the pros would actually set it up.
Brandon Joyner (00:41.133)
We have.
Mark Burik (01:00.57)
when they do, but we're going to do that because we are going to be running some force events in Santa Monica and Redondo. We're going to be running some, extra classes and camps there. We're starting our Kings and Queens league, on Monday nights in Hermosa. So if you are an individual in the South Bay who wants a steady play session.
Brandon Joyner (01:02.328)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (01:27.248)
just playing Kings and Queens every Monday night, 5.30 to seven, bring it on. I'm excited because it means that I get to play. I've recruited a bunch of the higher level players in our neighborhood. So we got a good, good top court and it's, you know, for an adult, now I have a family figuring out how I can stop texting people to get exactly four at the right time and just know that a play session is set up.
Brandon Joyner (01:44.577)
Ahem.
Mark Burik (01:55.94)
And all I got to do is show up after I sign up. That's perfect for me. So.
Brandon Joyner (02:01.282)
Yeah, I think it's gonna be cool. some of the questions that I've been getting, and it's been pretty cool is like, one, this is the first time we're ever running it. So it's super exciting. And it's like the ground breaking time of the league. And so if you have a group of friends that are all the same skill level, and you all sign up, you're guaranteed that you're going to have fun. Like the signups that we have right now, I think as of
I think right now we're right around like 25, 30 people, which is fantastic. I think it'll probably get even higher by the, by the time it starts next week.
Mark Burik (02:41.254)
That's at least like three, maybe four chords.
Brandon Joyner (02:44.534)
Yeah. And like that alone is going to allow us to have different levels on those courts. And the way that we have the format allows people to move up and down so that they end up in the spot that they should, but also get to challenge and, kind of work their way around, keep it competitive. And so, yeah, if you have a group of friends looking for consistent night of play league format, you show up, we tell you where to go. You just play for a certain amount of time. You meet a bunch of new people.
I think it's going be really special.
Mark Burik (03:16.538)
And then the ladder system moves you up and down every 15 minutes, which means that, you know, if you perform and you knock out all the players on your court, you get to go to the higher court. If you don't do as well for a round, you drop down to the lower court. And so you're always playing at your level. So I'm like super excited for this.
I've built it into my projections and plans for the facility that I'm trying to get in Florida, which has been a crazy project. got lots of people who are messaging me about investment and, really gearing up to go and, and give us a home, in Florida. So it'll be nice. Yeah. Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (03:58.414)
pretty cool. Can't wait.
Mark Burik (04:02.394)
I do want a quick announcement before we get into the force lesson and some other fun tournament structures for anybody who wants to fix their passing. If you don't know about the complete training blueprint, we have a one year schedule. I take.
The people in the program, on our online program, they're my team, I'm the head coach. We've set out a one year schedule for everybody and we flow just like we do with our pro seasons when we were playing and the way we're building up, like the Logans, the DJs, the world tour players. So right now, during this next part of the year, we're about to get into a heavy serve and pass sequence, which means every week we have the live Q and A, we do that Tuesdays.
And then we issue a challenge. So it tells you, Hey, watch these tutorials from the serve, receive and serving course. Then do these drills. You can do them at home against wall. You can also do them on court and then you submit your videos. And then we actually go in there and we coach you on those videos. But for the next five weeks, this is now Tuesday, March 18th for the next five weeks, we're going to be going into our serve, receive block. So if you have.
trouble with your serves. If you don't think you're locating them well, if you don't think you're getting power, if you have trouble with your passing, float serves, give you problems, short serves, give you problems, or you're just inconsistent. I can guarantee you that if you work with us for the next five weeks, we will fix and upgrade your passing.
through the drills that we give you, through the videos that we can watch of you, and through our online meetings. So that's the segment that we're going into with our online members now. After that, we go into a big 30 day setting block. So if you've ever been nervous about hand setting or you feel like your setting is not exactly on point, that's what happens after that.
Mark Burik (05:56.218)
Then we go into our jump and arm swing mechanics section. And then in the late spring, we get into offensive tactics, strategy, positioning, and then mid summer we go into defense. So the online members are our team. are guiding you through the whole season. And I'm talking to one of my one-on-one members and I'm like, Hey, like, how did you find us? Why did you sign up for this one on one-on-one program?
And he was just like, well, I tried everything. I couldn't find coaches near me. the people that I kind of relied on for advice, they're kind of hit or miss, don't really know what I'm getting. And he's like, I searched for a long time, but I finally found your program. said,
There is a pro world tour, AVP level coach who is sitting there looking at your film and giving you the exact adjustments. Yes, I'm in. And he's one of the guys that signed up for my one-on-one program where we meet and we go super in depth into every match he plays, every practice, every drill, all of his workout programs. But even if you just sign up for the complete training blueprint, uh, it's very similar. It's just now we meet once a week, uh, in a group setting instead of working one-on-one for an hour at a time.
Brandon Joyner (06:46.638)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (07:08.838)
So if you want to your past sign up right now, cause that's the block that we're going for.
Brandon Joyner (07:09.463)
Yeah, I had a-
Brandon Joyner (07:15.406)
That's awesome. And it's kind of cool. I was in New Orleans this past weekend for running one of the camps. Went awesome. Great crew. I love that facility. White Sands, Corsigar. They're gearing up for FUDs, which all of my FUDs people, you're gonna love this forest conversation so that you can win and still have a blast. But one of the people asked me like, what gave you guys the idea to...
start these online programs. And I was like, you know, Mark and I, we kind of forget it because we've been in this world so long, but you and I were both so like, self dependent on our growth, where we were extremely lucky. Like I think Fred Schaal, our coach at Mason was, and is probably one of the best technical coaches I've ever experienced in my life. The way he was able to break down people.
and get them to change their technique was fantastic. But he was running a program, you know? And so like, and you and I both came into that program in a position where if we wanted to see the court, we had to get better on our own. And we kind of had that same mentality when we moved on to the sand. And really, the my answer was, why do we create it was because it's something that you and I both wish that we had when we were coming up.
Like we loved where we were. We were both very talented players. We were athletic. But if we would have had somebody that would have sat on a computer with us and told us what to do, how to do it, like it would have saved us so many times, so much time, so many hours. And it kind of became like our focus even more than like our playing. think like you and I, even over the last 10 years, mean, five years.
specifically, have been focusing more on helping others than we were ourselves just because we wanted that so much when we were kind of coming up. And it's a cool product. I love that we're doing it and getting to help a lot of people.
Mark Burik (09:25.958)
And then midway through my AVP, know, when I sat those coaches, I sat them down. I was like, I don't want you on the court. I need you to look at my film, watch my match and show me what I'm not seeing. And those sessions were like bonkers. They led to some of my best wins, biggest improvements, biggest positional changes, where they're, you know, we're showing you on film.
where the world's best players are positioned when they're getting there, how they're set up. And then where you are as a BA, AA open player, you know, there's a huge difference. And as soon as you make those quick fixes, you're like, why am I getting so many digs now? Like, my God. So yeah. Yeah. And then that, you know, the one hour session is now good for the rest of your life. Cause you, you've locked it in.
Brandon Joyner (10:10.466)
The light bulb moments, I love them.
Mark Burik (10:20.536)
Anyway, if you guys want to fix your passing now is the time to sign up. and then we're getting into setting later, but let us help. we will. Anyhow force. Why do people play diamond? Why did they play one in the front to halfway up and then the third like way deep. Where'd that come from?
Brandon Joyner (10:38.561)
oars.
Brandon Joyner (10:49.93)
Maybe people want to feel that like that's the way that they feel like they're covering the most amount of the court or they don't feel like they're right next to somebody I Have no idea I haven't seen it anywhere else like
Mark Burik (11:05.19)
And then it's like, well, who's going to get the short ball? That's the, that's the one thing that I, that I hear is won't have these receivers up. Who's going to get the short ball? And it's like, well, if you're playing two on two, like both of them have the short ball as well. Now you just have less cover.
Brandon Joyner (11:08.526)
Yeah
Brandon Joyner (11:20.718)
Yeah, and I think it's it's kind of tough because I think we we have an understanding of and I think if you watch high level fours Which fuzz is actually like a pretty good level of fours, which is super awesome a lot of those people at least have a little bit of a background in indoor and I think there's a lot that you can pull from six on six and force
Like especially like your passing formation and your defensive structure and movement, like it's extremely similar to sixes. I think for some reason when we put fours out there, it's just people think it's a completely different idea. So yeah, I think it'll it'll be fun to break this down.
Mark Burik (12:06.876)
You
Okay, so in serve receive, all right guys, in serve receive, you wanna have one setter and he's gonna be at the front. He shouldn't take any short balls aside from some random trickler that he might be there for a second, right? Setters.
Brandon Joyner (12:31.886)
Setter set,
Mark Burik (12:34.716)
So whoever is at the front middle, your job is just set. Okay. I'm actually check this out. I've got a little, I'm going to do a court diagram. Yup. Yeah, I am. Okay. I'm going to share this screen here. All right.
Brandon Joyner (12:45.634)
Are you a drawn board? Are you drawn boarded it? Nice.
Mark Burik (12:57.83)
Let's do it. So sorry guys, if you listened to the podcast, apologies, but you can check this out on YouTube. We're just going to do a little screen sharing video here and, show you the right way. So that's, that's court, right? We'll do the pen. That's the Ooh, good drawing ability. Okay. So when you're setting up these weak circles.
Brandon Joyner (13:12.662)
next level.
Brandon Joyner (13:20.396)
Ugh.
Mark Burik (13:27.588)
two, three. They're all in a straight line. Just imagine that they're all in a straight line.
Brandon Joyner (13:28.439)
You
Brandon Joyner (13:32.982)
You can't use shapes or something?
Brandon Joyner (13:39.982)
You might be able to use the little arrow and move them now.
Mark Burik (13:45.326)
You might be right. Yeah. Okay. So this is where we are going to set people up. Boom on that line. my.
Mark Burik (14:00.034)
Maybe I should have practiced on this whiteboard first. Yeah. But.
Brandon Joyner (14:01.952)
practice run. you're good, now just copy and paste that guy.
Mark Burik (14:07.484)
copy paste. Nope, he's not doing it.
So this is where the three people are set up. Okay. All even in the back row. And then we've got our little setter guy up front. Boom. Boom. You're going to be there too. Perfect. Okay. This is going to be your setup. Now you can have this setter position just to the right of middle.
Brandon Joyner (14:18.548)
look at us. Wow.
Mark Burik (14:44.634)
So got three people even in the back row. Those three people are responsible for short and deep in their lanes. Okay. Just want to make sure that that is clear. Right.
Brandon Joyner (14:57.994)
For our podcast people when we say lanes, we're gonna divide the court into thirds Long ways so like from the net to the end line
Mark Burik (15:12.526)
And these three are responsible for passing. Like that's it. I would say if you're going to do a setup where you have definitely one passer type, somebody who, you know, kind of let's talk about a typical force team, like the smaller player that has a ton of passing ball control. Sometimes you can find like a college libero. that's a, one of the girls on your team. Put that person in the middle. The best passer.
so that they can take the majority of the balls. Okay, they can take over from the passing standpoint. Their job is to pass forward to the setter at the net. And then it's so simple. All we got to do is we all have our hitting lanes. So the person on the left should be saying outside, outside, outside, calling for the outside set. The person in the middle, if they are a hitter type, should be running
right in front of the center. So now we've got two options. You've got your middle hitter, your outside hitter, and then your back set or your right side hitter. Okay. Now, if all things are equal, cool. Let's just put our best, passer in the middle, but I would say always put your best attacker on the left side.
That's where I think it's going to be the easiest for people to set, especially when you're in trouble. You want your outside attacker taking most of your transition swings. That means that when you have a bad pass or you're not in a comfortable position, we have to set to the antenna or close to the antenna so that that person can take bigger swings. If you leave your biggest hitter in the middle,
they're going to be available for spikes the least. So in general, I think that's a big mistake to put your biggest baddest monster hitter in the middle because they're going to get the least amount of sets unless your passing is somehow just automatic every time. But then they won't get to swing in transition during scramble plays.
Mark Burik (17:30.436)
So that's our basic design. And then there's like a number of questions, like what type of players do I need in each position?
I think, you know, the way, how did they do it at, what is it 16th street or, or 22nd street in Hermosa where they have the AB, ABDC player, the A player is like a close to pro B is solid. How did they do it?
Brandon Joyner (17:57.09)
Yeah.
Usually the A is your best player and they're usually the left side, like you said. Or, and I'm assuming we'll probably talk about this, but there's the, your best hitter should play on the best side for attacking. And sometimes that can change. Like in California, we have a very strong like West to East wind. And so.
Mark Burik (18:19.964)
Boom.
Brandon Joyner (18:30.188)
Like where Mark has the drawings drawn right now, let's imagine that the water, yeah, the wind is blowing that way. So from the right side of the court to the left side of the court. And so where the people are currently set up, the far left circle where Mark originally said should be your best player. that should be your strongest hitter because then they can hit back into the wind.
they're gonna be able to kind of let loose and swing. But when they're on the opposite side of the net, like usually change sides just like in twos where it's like maybe sometimes forced tournaments can be a little funky where you switch on a certain score or maybe you switch it halfway, whatever it is. But whenever you go to the other side of the net, this strong attacker would actually
just stay on their side. So this has a couple different terms. Sometimes people call it like Hawaiian style, where you just stay like you or railroad tracks, like you just go under the net. So where Mark just wrote good side to hit from that, that side of the court next to those words is a good side. So when we flip to the other side, the right side player would now be your strongest attacker.
So in the ABCD format, usually what we would do is the A would be the hitter that's always on the good side. The B is usually the setter because you need somebody that's gonna be able to give the ball in a really good spot as much as possible. The C is usually the person hitting on the right side.
Mark Burik (20:31.616)
you think so?
Brandon Joyner (20:32.012)
And then the D is usually the one in the middle. Yeah, because we want to put a lot of the times our kind of thought process behind it is either B or C is also going to be digging a lot of the hits from A.
Brandon Joyner (20:52.184)
So that's the way that those tournaments are usually set up. Obviously you can do it differently. Like if you're playing in a tournament and all of you are about the same, then more than likely your setter probably wouldn't be blocking anyway. So we're kind of getting ahead of ourselves talking about defense, but...
Yeah, you could kind of, you can play around with it, but we want the A's would normally be blocking each other. And then that leaves the B's, and D's digging, right? And eventually we'll get to a point where we set up defense responsibilities. But I think like one of the, one of the big takeaways with fours is like, especially if there's a good side and most time there is a good side or there is a stronger player.
Mark Burik (21:41.275)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (21:45.058)
Like, if you're trying to compete, you should be setting that good side attacker. I don't
80, 90 % of the time. Like even when we like when we play tournaments out here and like if you're an A, you are walking off that beach hurtin because you just got set 99 % of the balls every single day. Sometimes the C's and D's don't even approach because they're just setting the balls to the A's. if you have like, like our team at fuzz a couple of years ago where we had, we had pretty strong attackers.
Obviously you can float it around a little bit, but you still got to lean on the good side player as much as you can.
Mark Burik (22:35.1)
It's tough because, you know, A might be your strongest hitter, your strongest defender, your best player. You really need...
In that back middle, you need a defensive ball control type because the back middle player is going to get a lot of the digs. They're, they're, they're playing free safety. know, they'll probably go opposite of where the A hitter is. So if the A hitter on the top of my screen is about to attack on that antenna, this D would play free safety kind of back on this line. they're going to
be the ones getting a lot of those digs trying to take control. So if you do have that little college or high school libero who just has immense ball control, but isn't really your hitter, you've got to put them in the back middle so that they can control the serve receive and so that they can fly around and get digs. Right. This C position.
Brandon Joyner (23:36.748)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (23:45.362)
the one on the right side or the one who would play on the bad side, they're not our ideal set. They're there for some passing some defense. If you're playing at a super high level, of course, if everybody's a rock star, like it doesn't matter. likewise, if everybody sucks, it doesn't matter. Right. if you've got.
Brandon Joyner (24:07.886)
Yeah, might as well play Diamond. No, I'm just kidding.
Mark Burik (24:12.156)
But like the D and the B people, a lot of times they're like the same person, know, the same type, because you need somebody with a lot of ball control that can create settable or hittable balls. And so you need a setter who can move and deliver consistent sets. Like they don't have to be the absolute fastest, but they need to set well.
Brandon Joyner (24:18.669)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (24:37.262)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (24:37.55)
And then that D person should be somebody who can absolutely fly around the court and just puts their body on the line, gets a touch on everything, is an incredible defensive reader, and it can get a lot of those digs. But this back right person, as we're looking on our screen, the C, I'm not saying they're an afterthought because we'd like our pin hitters to both be rock stars, but
Guys, I know that a lot of you are playing social volleyball and you're trying to spread the game around, but the title of this video is how to win your force. So if that means that you're putting the ball in Michael Jordan's hands every single time you come down the court, then that's what it means. Like let your hitter hit, set them big balls or fast balls, whatever they need to absolutely deliver and take the best swings for you.
Mark Burik (25:37.776)
We should talk a little bit about defensive setup because there's a lot of different ways to do this. We can run two blockers. We can run three blockers, one blocker or no blocker. Guys, if you are playing with all B players and nobody has ever frightened you with a spike, you don't need any blockers. Leave everybody on the ground. Put your setter right here. You can't see my mouse. Move your setter.
to over here, right? If A is attacking and have them play for short tips, right? And then we'll put this guy on the line. We'll put your A hitter on the line. We'll put your D hitter back here and your C hitter defending this cross. You can, again, this back middle, they're going to play pretty much free safety. So they're a heavy read, right? But that C is responsible for the diagonal. And then the A is a...
It's right, it's right there. But if they do have a hitter, a big time hitter.
Now your setter, if they're tall and if they can block that would be awesome because they're usually already at the net. They can block in multiple positions and then recover for the set. But if you're playing with one big monster defensively, one of your adjustments might be to defend or block against that other monster hitter.
Right? So we'd like this person going one-on-one against my top person.
Mark Burik (27:21.538)
I would say you could have them block the line, and then we don't really have to worry about anything except for the high line. And if we can dig a high line in twos, we can definitely dig it in fours. So then we can flood the diagonal side without a line defender and say, all right, bring it on against our three defenders.
Or one other setup that you can use since most people do like to attack diagonal is have that outside hitter.
Brandon Joyner (27:47.661)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (27:57.004)
Let's go back for a second and really set up that angle one just for the people that are watching the recording. think that getting that little cup set up is really important. So yeah, this is the line blocker. then pretty much these circles are, yeah, so that the person at the front right where Mark used to have a B.
Mark Burik (28:03.536)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (28:08.284)
So if we find blocker on the left.
Brandon Joyner (28:27.682)
That person is like our setter or blocker or whatever. So if they happen to set the other side, that guy would stay up. But since they're not blocking, they would pull off the net and get to where they currently are. And the cool thing that I like about this is, Mark, can you draw like a little like cup kind of like a little like almost like a rainbow between those three? You know what I'm talking about? Like a little pocket.
Mark Burik (28:52.004)
I do know what you're talking about, but let's see like this.
Brandon Joyner (28:57.824)
Yeah, yeah. So like what you're doing with your defense and obviously you got to find the correct spacing, which you guys will have to do on the court because this clip art is as limited as it can be. like what you're trying to do, especially if you have the blocker blocking the line is you're trying to create this little like cup shape because that's a majority of where that hitter can attack the ball. You know, and I think
This is what I was talking about at the beginning of the video where it's extremely similar to indoor defense, where these three players, this is exactly how they would look in indoor defense because the block, the offside blocker would pull off the net to the 10 foot line and defend your back right player is shuffling into like the really hard deep cross. And then that other, that like middle back defenders kind of playing free safety back there.
getting any touches off the block, any like low seams if there's a gap that opens up or something like that and ready to run down. The only difference is that you don't have that third back road defender that's like camping out in the line. So that's where you have to kind of play around with your strategy to see if this player can't, if they can hit over the block, then maybe this back middle person has to shift over a little bit to kind of.
get ready for that hard driven hit. But if the blocker is big and the A hitter can't go through it, then I really like this cup style. Cool. Okay. So that's if your attacker's hitting your blocker's blocking line and your defenders for the most part are digging cross. And so now we're ready for the second strategy.
Mark Burik (30:44.444)
So you want is you can always defend that cross where most people are comfortable swinging. And then we leave this solo defender here. So if our center was already at the net, right. Then my right side takes a diagonal. My back middle takes this free safety position. And then my left back is taking that hard driven line. Now.
I think the one blocker can be successful in a lot of levels of, of women's volleyball, but I think there's also space to have two blockers or three blockers when everybody is a big time hitter. And this is more likely what you would see at fuzz. Like the final court is you would see, okay, we'll put my.
Brandon Joyner (31:31.427)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (31:37.549)
Set her in the middle.
Brandon Joyner (31:38.488)
Let's show like a base position.
Mark Burik (31:42.396)
Okay, so if we're on defense on the bottom of my screen, right? The other team has three attackers, we might put three blockers. And in that case, when A attacks or when the left side attacks, my middle will move over. So we got a double block on them.
The person who is not blocking the offside blocker, they'll peel and play diagonal defense. And then again, my back middle who's super movie and can read everything and dive and control the ball. They're playing free safety. All right. They can run and they can get the tip over the block. If they read it well, the blockers can also turn and play all those tips.
this short spot over here on the sideline, it might be a liability, you know, it might be something that you have to cover, but if you force a big hitter to hit soft, you're probably doing something right.
Yeah. And then the same thing. Thanks, man. We could also float if they have another big hitter that's hitting from the opposite side. So if they're hitting from the right side or the wind side, then we would have the exact same setup. The other option that you have instead of running the three blockers. So let's say that they're not super powerful.
Brandon Joyner (32:40.792)
Beautifully done.
Mark Burik (33:08.846)
Or everybody on their squad is not super powerful is. You can have, we still want our a hitter to be blocking because he's going to be probably our best blocker or big time hitter. And then we can start in the middle like this. So I have my back middle in back middle. I have my weak side hitter just floating around also kind of, you know, playing a little bit of free safety.
Brandon Joyner (33:38.062)
or setters or setter sometimes.
Mark Burik (33:38.063)
And then.
or setter, yeah, this person on the right can also be a setter. But then you have two blockers. Now those two blockers, they can block the middle hitter. They can together move and block the right side hitter, in which case my free safety has to move very far left. And now my right side or my offside defender is.
floating around playing for tips or maybe high lines, right? Or if they hit from the other side, boom, we just move these two over and we float back the other way. Okay. Where we defend these open spaces if we're getting from there. So you can run one blocker if they don't have more than one strong hitter. You can run
Brandon Joyner (34:35.744)
or if the set's bad.
Mark Burik (34:38.138)
Or if this is bad, yeah.
Brandon Joyner (34:40.534)
Yeah, like if the sets bad and you don't and you still like it's still normal volleyball, right? Like if the sets bad and you're used to blocking with two people, then you would just revert back to that. What like instead of the blocker blocking from the middle there, they would just pull back and when they pulled back, the other defense would kind of shift and restructure to be that first option that we showed. So it does take some kind of reading on the defensive.
on the blockers part of being like, okay, is this attacker a threat? If they're a threat, then maybe it's okay to have two blockers up there. If they're not a threat, then you need to pull back and help your defenders defend.
Mark Burik (35:20.155)
Mm.
Mark Burik (35:27.974)
So in summary, if there's no big hitters, don't throw a blocker up there that's pointless. If they have a big hitter, try to put your best blocker lined up defensively so that they're covering that big hitter. If they have multiple big hitters, then we can put two or three blockers up if we have blockers.
If we don't have people who are jumping high enough and getting their hands over the net, that person just, can't put them at the net. They're more valuable on the ground. Okay. And that's what we teach. Like also our beginner intermediate players, like if there's no hitting threat and you're not a threat as a blocker, you can't get your elbow creases over the net. You're not a blocker. Like
Go back to the gym or eat some broccoli. You'll get taller. And then you can come back and train yourself as a blocker, but you've got to start getting your elbows over the net. If you want to consider yourself a blocker, elbows might be aggressive, like midway through your forearm is also substantial. but you just can't be up there. If you're a shorty, you're more valuable on the ground for sure, because then you can float around, cover the cover, more court behind you.
and then if they're passing is super high quality and they've got three big time hitters, then you need to have three big time blockers. Okay. But your setter should be fast. They shouldn't, they shouldn't be your worst athlete. They should be probably your second, maybe tied for second best athlete. Your back middle should be a lights out passer and defender.
And your biggest, baddest hitter and blocker, they should be on one of the antennas that is easiest to set. And if you've got wind, you want that hitter hitting into the wind. That means that your setter is setting with the wind. So sets are easier to hit, and you can hit a lot harder because you're hitting into the wind.
Mark Burik (37:34.032)
think we've.
Brandon Joyner (37:34.222)
Have a little set a little setting thing that bugs me with force you mind if I chat about that for a second? Okay, so mark we put the put the people back into like a serve receive position
Mark Burik (37:39.33)
yeah, let's go for it.
Mark Burik (37:47.728)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (37:50.529)
Yeah.
Yeah, there we go. And we can go ahead and grab that A and put the A in that left side.
Okay, so this is like a very typical setup One thing that I would I would try to convince a lot of people to do is Have your setter Start closer to the wind side sideline
allowing that setter to move into the middle of the court to make this set. Okay? And it's okay for you to always face your best hitter. Okay, so I think sometimes we get locked into like that setter being in the middle of the court and then our passers kind of spray our, yeah, just like that. And they're kind of just facing these three people. That's a really tricky position to put yourself in as a setter because
Mark Burik (38:51.516)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (38:55.566)
Now you could put yourself in a position where your momentum is going away, sorry, is going away from your biggest attacker. Whenever you set, whether you're an indoor setter, whether you're a beach setter, whether you're just a setter setter, I don't care, your momentum has to be going in the direction that you want to be setting. Okay, right now we're wanting to set the A. If we want to set back,
Mark Burik (39:07.484)
Thanks
Brandon Joyner (39:25.624)
to like the C player, then we still want this forward momentum going towards that A because you're going to be able to push the ball back, but we don't want to just have your momentum going in all directions every time you're setting. It has to go towards that big hitter. And then the same thing, we happened to flip to the other side of the court and now my big hitter is on the right side, then
So ahead and move that A. Yeah, perfect. So we don't need to move everybody, but that would be the setup for that A hitter and that setter. So just because we're on the other side, there's not like a setter location. We're going to put the setter in a position so that they can move into a set and have their momentum going towards that big hitter. I think this is like whenever we're at our camps, we get a decent amount of people that like
that come and they mostly play fours. Obviously at our camps we do mostly twos. We do allow people to play fours a decent amount, but this is like one of the easiest conversations that I have with people that are saying like, our setters are really inconsistent or I'm really inconsistent. And this little setup will allow you to feel like you are in a lot of control.
When I was a setter in college and overseas, one of my biggest transitions was instead of starting in the setter's position, I started starting a little bit closer to the antenna, allowing myself to move into place. And there was like, it made my job of setting so much easier. And I think that that's like the biggest thing that you can think of in floors. And it's like one of the easier switches for you to find consistent setting.
and consistent passing too, because now you have a bigger range of where you can pass because as long as you keep it in front of that setter, they're gonna be in a good position.
Mark Burik (41:28.38)
Thank
Mark Burik (41:37.852)
I like it.
Brandon Joyner (41:37.976)
So don't pass to your setters, still pass to the middle, but setters you set up outside of the middle, allowing you to move into the middle.
Mark Burik (41:46.976)
And if you want to be a ball hog and you're a right handed player, these two people can pass. You might be able to run an option swing and set your A. So let's say you only got two hitters. This is getting super deep, but let's say that like your center is also. Yeah. Now we'll start a little bit off the net. Then we could come maybe forward into the pass if they mistakenly serve our A.
Brandon Joyner (41:57.304)
See?
Now you're talking daddy's language.
Brandon Joyner (42:07.374)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (42:11.854)
And now we've got a jump set, jump swing threat from the setter and we can flow it to the A hitter.
Brandon Joyner (42:19.182)
crowds going crazy, you're going crazy, your hitters going crazy, everyone's going crazy.
Mark Burik (42:25.148)
Margarita's flying through the air.
Brandon Joyner (42:30.006)
Dude, I love it. If you're not going to FUDS, go to FUDS. I'm starting to sweat right now because I'm like, man, maybe I should buy a flight.
Mark Burik (42:32.261)
All right.
Mark Burik (42:37.276)
That's a good time. that we put that right before fuzz. I hope people listen to it. watch it. but yeah, force is fun, but there's a way that you can set it up so that you win. And of course, if you're setting one guy, your entire, every league night, and then you're kind of ignoring the other people. Yeah, they might become disinterested. But Hey, when it's championship is on the line.
Brandon Joyner (42:46.85)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (43:05.638)
We're putting the ball in Mike's hands, you know?
Brandon Joyner (43:08.268)
Yeah. And it's also okay. Like if you do want to spread around the love, cool. I love that. But change the positions of where they are, you know, like if Mark and I are the A and C player and like, I'm the one that was sitting on the right side and Mark's the one hitting on the left side and we're setting Mark every single ball because he's a good player and we want to give Mark a break and they want to set me a couple of balls. Then Mark and I would switch sides. It wouldn't be like,
Hey, let's just start setting back. Like that just, it's tough. puts me in now. I haven't gotten a lot of swings. I'm ready to swing except now I'm hitting from a bad side. haven't, the setters not even facing me. And now I'm trying to get taken care of and be happy, but I'm not scoring and now I'm just pissed. And then, and then now it's just, we're just, it's just bad. So yeah, then we just flop.
Mark Burik (44:01.18)
trouble.
Brandon Joyner (44:05.344)
Now I'm getting all the sets. can chill out for a little bit. He can go sit with his... Dude, I still love that story of you diving into the crowd at FUDS and I'm like, look over and I, okay, won the point. I look over, I'm like looking for you and it's like three older women and Mark with his legs crossed holding a daiquiri. Dude. It's like one of my favorite volleyball memories. I love it.
Mark Burik (44:19.132)
you
Mark Burik (44:25.18)
Somehow I saw it in a daiquiri in my hand. That was awesome.
Mark Burik (44:35.204)
Good times at fudds go to fudds guys. It's worth it. All right. Um, so we ran out of time talking about our, our other fun tournament formats, but, uh, we can cover that in a, another one. are running a king and queen style, uh, king and queen of the court style tournament in Austin. So we have a two day camp coming up in Austin.
Brandon Joyner (44:39.16)
Go to fards. Yeah.
Mark Burik (44:59.004)
And then on the Sunday, we're going to throw a big tournament. So if you want to come to the camp, you can come to the camp. If you want to come to both tournament and the camp, come to both. If you just want to come to the tournament, come out and ball. Uh, and that's going to be fun at ATX beach, which is becoming the absolute hotspot in Austin. Such an awesome facility. If you guys are ever flying into Austin, you have to visit ATX beach, full bar.
it's got a cool shaded area. It's got nice lights, perfect sand. LJ is doing a hell of a job running that. So, absolutely.
Brandon Joyner (45:36.534)
Yeah, and that Kings and Queens event, right now it's set up into two divisions. There's a fun division and there's a competitive division.
The reason we did it that way is because we want the fun division to be a blast. Like this is like a Cinco de Mayo party that we're running. I still want to look into like getting like a taco truck and I know the bartenders there to make some margaritas. So we're good there. But the fun division will just be good time. The way I'm thinking about it is like, if you're like double BB, that's probably the spot for you. If you're a double A, triple A open.
Then we have a competitive division and even that tournament is going to get separated into like silver gold championship bracket But the fun divisions playing for prizes competitive division is playing for money So if you want to win some money Come on out If you want to win some prizes come on out
Mark Burik (46:40.123)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (46:44.112)
You want to get some smiles from Brandon coming out. by the way, guys, Brandon, can you show the show the new hat guys? We got new hats. If you want to check this out or you want to order it, just DM me or Brandon on Instagram. Get on us. We'll ship it out to you. Really happy with the way the new hats came out and we are coming out with a full line shorts, tank tops, t-shirts and other hats as well.
Brandon Joyner (46:47.746)
That's it, yeah.
Brandon Joyner (46:53.672)
yeah.
Mark Burik (47:11.664)
which you'll be able to find at betterbeach.com forward slash shop. We're almost done setting up our merchandise and apparel line. So if you want to order that hat in particular, just DM one of us and we will get it to you.
Brandon Joyner (47:25.688)
Limited supply right now. I think we only have 30 left. So get after it.
Mark Burik (47:29.419)
nice.
Mark Burik (47:32.828)
All right, guys, I'm headed to catch our online players and finish up the mental training portion of our year and then get into serve and serve receive. So we'll see you later. Yeah. For me. you stole it. All right. Bye.
Brandon Joyner (47:34.168)
Cool.
Brandon Joyner (47:45.112)
All right, see you on the sand.
Brandon Joyner (47:51.318)
I had to. See you guys.
Mark Burik (47:54.972)
.
