If you've ever watched a beach volleyball match with someone who doesn't play beach volleyball at a decently high level, you'll inevitably be asked the question: What do those numbers mean? 

By "numbers," we are referencing what the blocker at the net is signaling to the defender. Typically,...

If you're interested in this blog on beach volleyball, and how to play defense in beach volleyball, you may be interested in our serving course, which, of course, is the first line of defense in beach volleyball. It will have you serving more accurately, with more power, in just a few weeks! We'd also love to have you drop by one -- or more -- of our beach volleyball classes, private lessons and training camps for adults and juniors in Hermosa Beach, CA and Salt Lake City, Utah. We run volleyball vacations in exotic locations around the world. We can even run beach volleyball clinics for your group, club or team in your hometown! Send an email to [email protected]

If you are to peruse the best beach volleyball teams of all time -- Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers, Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos, Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor, Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos, Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal,...

If you're interested in this blog on peel digging and how to play defense in beach volleyball, you may be interested in our serving course, which, of course, is the first line of defense in, ahem, defense. It'll will have you serving more accurately, with more power, in just a few weeks! We also run beach volleyball classes, private lessons and training camps for adults and juniors in Hermosa Beach, CA and Salt Lake City, Utah. We run volleyball vacations in exotic locations around the world. We can even run beach volleyball clinics for your group, club or team in your hometown! Send an email to [email protected]

Blockers block in beach volleyball, right? They're the big goons at the net who are supposed to stay at the net. Correct? 

Yes and no. 

In an ideal world, a blocker would never have to leave the net -- or peel, in volleyball vernacular. In the ideal world, a blocker stays at the net, and the defender covers whatever the...

20 Practice Plans: The Ultimate Beach Volleyball Training Companion!

This is our latest and greatest product in the Better at Beach, beach volleyball training series!

Have you ever planned to do drills with your friends or team, then show up to the beach and wonder what you should be working on? This practice plan will give you a minute-by-minute printable guide and video examples of each drill. We take the guesswork out of it for you!! All you have to do is show up and focus on improving your game!

The program was created by current professional beach volleyball players Brandon Joyner and Mark Burik, who have years of combined coaching and playing experience on the AVP and FIVB and NORCECA world tours.

There are five areas of concentration: Passing, Setting, Attacking, Defense, and Gameplay. The drills progress from basic to advanced, and is great for coaches and players of ALL LEVELS!

We know you will absolutely LOVE this comprehensive training guide to help you get...

Block Touch Footwork for Attacking

(This is a transcript of the video below. You can skip to the video if you like.)

A lot of times beach volleyball as a blocker, we find ourselves stuck at the net. When a bang bang play is happening. Maybe I'm a blocker and I just touched the ball that went behind me and I need to make myself available to hit. We just have a simple backwards or lateral leap to create that space from the net. I'm going to block, I got the touch. Now I'm landed and I'm going to step and hop, a big lateral leap, off of the net to create space for my hitting shoulder. One more time block, step-hop and right now I've created about 14 feet of space between me and the volleyball net. All of that is setting window for my partner. If you don't open up, your partner is pinched. If you land and you just wait by the net, now your setter has to be so perfect that they've got a two foot window. Instead, can use a block and a step-lateral leap sequence.

I've gotten good...

We hear it so often in sports, and beach volleyball is certainly no different: Fix your mistakes. It makes sense. There's no way we're going to improve at our sport, whatever it may be, if we can't fix our mistakes. But what if we don't know them? What if we continue to struggle without realizing what's going wrong? 

That's why we're here, to teach you the 7 deadly sins of beach volleyball defense, so you can recognize, fix, and improve your game from them. 

In the beach volleyball video below, filmed in Hermosa Beach,...

The following video is a video analysis that Mark had done with one of his players. Our video analysis sessions are designed to have professional AVP athletes/coaches sit down with our players and they go through 45 minutes of tape review. Our coaches look at the player’s game film, the techniques and what decisions the player makes in a game. Watch a sample of Mark’s video analysis in action.

Make sure to subscribe to Mark’s YouTube channel and social media accounts if you want to see more of these.

Our Complete Serve Receive course starts at the bottom and takes you all the way to the top. Whether you are a true beginner, or you've been playing for decades, this course will offer you a chance to build and re-build your basics and take the next jump. Take the time to follow the course and do the drills. We guarantee you are going to Get Better at Beach! https://www.betteratbeach.com/offers/LYbwq3yL

Hey beachvolley fans and players!  If you've come to this page, it means you are ready for a deep dive into how to win beach volleyball matches. Beach volleyball players from around the world send us their videos and we give them private lessons. Most private lessons for volleyball take place on the court but after a decade one tour, I know 100% that there are times when video lessons and film study can win you more points than actually continuing your physical practices.

In Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan beach, you can wake up any morning and see tons of pro practices, volleyball classes and lessons happening but what you don't see is the hours every top level player spends on their phones and computers watching their video. Every FIVB and AVP player tent is just a coffee shop full of tall people watching their previous match to check for strengths and weaknesses. We also study our opponents to find their tendencies.

If you are trying to become a...

You guys asked, and we're going to deliver: You wanted to hear more about defense in beach volleyball, so that's what we're going to cover today. 

The video below is our match -- Mark Burik and Ian Satterfield -- vs. Sean Rosenthal and Chase Budinger at AVP San Francisco. One of the reasons that this video will be valuable to you is that it's an AVP professional beach volleyball match, and you can learn just about anything you'd want by watching AVP volleyball. The second, and most important, reason, is because is features Sean...

Hey everybody and welcome to another Better at Beach video analysis. This is a match showing beach volleyball pros Mark Burik and Tri Bourne playing against Brazil but did you know you can get your game analyzed by real pro's right here?! If you've ever wondered how  an AVP or World Tour player would fix your game, looking no further than our one on one online beach volleyball coaching. We guarantee you will have a deeper understanding of beach volleyball strategy.

Open a tab by clicking one of the links above, then come back and let's show you how much you can learn through online beach volleyball coaching.

We have about a minute of clips here and we just want to go through the details of each point with you and see if we can pick up some new skills, new tips, and discover how the pros are doing it.

In this video we take a look at what goes into scoring points in beach volleyball at the World Tour level. This is one of my qualifier matches in 2016 in Rio....