[00:00:00 - 00:02:14]
Mark Burik:
If you have somebody who has a great cut shot, here's something that you can do. You can limit the space available for their cut shot because if they're hitting from an antenna, they can hit that that ball middle, they can hit it sharp. They can even add some stank to it so that it goes down kind of wide right that has a lot of space for their favorite shot when they hit from the antenna. So how do we get them to not hit from the antenna? Hello guys, welcome. We are here for another edition of our beautiful Get Better Volleyball podcast. We're going to get going live on Instagram as well and we'll give you guys a second to join in. I know you're all getting notified. Alright, guys, today we are talking about serve strategy. So we wanted to make sure that we cover all the topics, of course. But something that not enough players talk about is how to start winning points from the service line and to go deeper into whatever strategy you're using. I know that personally for me I would think we have to serve this person or the secondary was we got to be aggressive, just serve aggressive. That's how we'll win. And then once the other team gets a great path, all of a sudden there's nothing to do, right? We don't have anything. So Brandon, can you hear me? So serving strategy is what we are talking about today. And we're talking about what to do and what situations against certain types of players and to win with certain ways. Now most people play checkers when they're serving. In other words, they think one move in advance and they just kind of move that needle forward. But when you are talking about real serving strategies, talking about what you are trying to do, that's going to lead to a dig and a kill five or six touches later. So that's what we want to do today. And before we get started, Brandon, how you like in camp so far?
[00:02:14 - 00:03:36]
Brandon Joyner:
I mean, I think every single time I come out here I'm expecting it to go great and it always overjes. That something about coming to Florida where it's sunny and it's warm. That alone makes this environment great. And then this week we are extremely blessed to have another phenomenal coaching staff. I know. I think we say that every single time, but not only do we have a great staff, but they've kind of completely bought into the way that we coach things and the way that we kind of approach practices and how much energy we expect from them. And these guys are just absolutely killing it. So I feel like a proud father, even though a lot of these coaches are all the same age as us, but it's just really cool to see people hop on board and not only hop on board, but absolutely crush what they're doing. It's just been really cool. And all the campers this week are phenomenal. And I know next week will be just the same, if not better. Somehow I think I'm always surprised of how good it is out here.
[00:03:36 - 00:04:14]
Mark Burik:
And next week we got our open component. So we got a very special group of men's Open players, and we're going to see some big Ballers come to our camp next time. And that's going to be pretty exciting as well. Fun to work with the whole gamut of players because we always get a few players in our camp who have never played before. And then we usually get three or four kind of open players. But this time we really focused and we brought in those open players. So it will be fun to see that crop next week. And yeah, can't agree more. The coaching staff, JM Plumber, Chad Mercato, Ally has been absolutely crushing it.
[00:04:14 - 00:04:30]
Brandon Joyner:
Alison Ally, Denny. Yeah. Energizer Bunny. I can't get enough of her. Sometimes I find myself just staring at the court, watching her coach, because the amount of energy she has, it makes me want to hop out there and play really cool.
[00:04:30 - 00:04:30]
Mark Burik:
Yeah. And Logan Weber is crushing it, too. I mean, Logan Weber is growing as a player. He's grown as a person. He's just like each month he seems to gain more confidence. Just knows all of a sudden that he's like he is a big dog. And that's nice for him to notice as a player, as a person, and then as a coach, he's just taken charge. So it's going to be fun to be able to send these guys around the country on some better at beach clinics. So if you guys are interested in ever hosting a better at beach clinic with a fantastic coaching staff, we've got that available for you. That's betterbeach.com/clinics. If you ever want to host a clinic in your hometown, you just need at least twelve players to sign up for three sessions on a Saturday, and then we will be there as well. If you go to camps, if you ever want to join in the St. Pete beach camp, as well as some other cities. And we are still still looking for people to sign up for our athletic foundations program, which starts next week. Just getting the year to correct perfect athletic start with mobility strengthening, so that when you start pushing big weight, when you start moving fast, your body is prepared for that in terms of mobility and in terms of strengthening and balancing your body. So if you're looking for that, that's going to be seven dayathletic foundationschallenge at betterbeach.com/foundations and January 3,
[00:05:53 - 00:06:46]
Brandon Joyner:
we've been getting a couple of questions about that, and a lot of the questions are like, oh, I'm looking for a workout about this program. And I keep telling people this is what you need to make sure that you are healthy and ready to start working out. So if you're one of those people that is like, I'm just looking to get strong right away. There's a really good chance that you might mess up your body and you're going to start with the muscle groups. That, to me, aren't as important as what this foundation course is going to offer. So if you're one of those people that's looking to get a little bit stronger and really take off for your preseason, like, I know Mark and I are this foundation course is definitely for you guys as well.
[00:06:46 - 00:09:57]
Mark Burik:
Hope to see you guys in there. All right, we are going to talk about serving strategy, and we're going to go through it quick. Again, we are in the middle of camp, so we need to move through this and get to the Q and A portion of the show quick. But serving strategy, when we talk about serving strategy, serving strategy is the very first thing, like the most elementary, 101 type of thing you want to think about is which person. Right. But there can be a number of reasons to serve somebody. One, are they a bad passer? Two, are they a bad hitter? Right. You can have a great passer but a bad hitter. And so you're not going to get an ace on them, but you're going to get a dig or a block or maybe they make more hitting errors. You can also choose to serve somebody if their partner is a bad setter, even if that person is a good hitter. Maybe the setting is so inconsistent that you should serve the person who is the better passer, the better hitter, because the setter is so bad. Right. And just remember that when you guys are looking to score points in beach volleyball Championship players. Yes, of course, we're talking about the highest level, but Championship EVP and Fib players are getting five to six digs per set and the set 21 to 18. So you're thinking 39 points. That might be one big every seven or eight points. That's what people have to remember, that you can't just get so upset every time you don't get a dig because a strategy is what works over time. It doesn't work every time, but you implement the strategy, and that's what you have to commit to, even if at some point you lose a couple of points. Right. So push yourself to find a strategy and know that it's not designed. Nothing in beach volleyball is designed to work every time. It's designed to work more frequently over time. So that's 101. Who do I serve because of skills? Bad passer. That might be great. But if they have an unbelievable setter and the bad passer is still a good hitter, that might be the bad choice, right? Bad setter. So we're going to make sure that we serve tougher to the passer, even though he's a good passer and a bad setter, we're going to serve him tough because we don't want the good passer to make an easy ball for the uncomfortable setter. So if you just give that person a lollipop, all of a sudden, now the setter doesn't have to be so nervous because the passer can basically place it into their hands. So high, deep or hard spin serves is usually that, like, if you can put some heat on that with a jump top spin or even a standing top spin, then that will be a spinning ball and uncomfortable setters. Don't like them both spin, or you can send it high, deep, but definitely don't serve short when you're trying to pick on a bad setter because that just makes it too easy. So that is kind of one on one.
[00:09:57 - 00:13:10]
Brandon Joyner:
My second portion, before we get into tactics and ideas, is just really understanding that you need to make the passer move. You know, I think a lot of times we kind of covered this. I think it was last week when we were talking about different types of serves and, like, float serves, but a lot of people are just okay with popping that ball in, and it tends to go right to their service location. I think one thing that you can definitely pick up on is trying to make sure that you're making this passer move. And then again, it becomes kind of an experiment. A lot of times you can watch somebody and warm up and see if they have trouble moving short, if they have trouble moving back, if they have trouble moving to their sideline or to the seam. But I think having this idea of challenging the pastor to actually take a couple of steps before they make their pass is really big for us, especially if you're a beginner in an intermediate. Sometimes that accuracy for sideline or seam can be a little tricky. But I think that they definitely have the ability to try to do this long or a deep serve or a short serve, and that's just it takes a lot of practice trying to figure out, okay, how hard do I need to hit this ball to get it to the back line? How hard do I need to hit this ball to get it to drop over the net? And at that point, it takes a little bit of pressure off you as a server because you don't really care too much how good their passes. The goal is that you're just trying to make that pass or move, you know? And what I say is, like, a lot of times whenever these servers are trying to take in this information, they're only thinking about the first 510 points. And one thing that I don't think anybody can argue is that throughout a match, you get more tired, right? So at the end of the match, like, somebody might be moving really well for that deep serve or that short serve at the beginning of the game because they're fresh, they're energetic, the adrenaline is pumping. But then at the end of the game, they might start thinking a little bit more about their endurance. And if they think they can save themselves by not taking that extra step or something, then that's where you see, like those common errors of a shanked pass. And especially sometimes it happens on the easy service. It's just, all right, I'm going to serve this guy short or I'm going to serve this guy deep over and over again. And eventually he might think that he's gotten too good at passing those and he might forget about his technique a little bit. He might forget about just finishing his pass, and he's thinking a little bit ahead to the set. I think you see that in kind of every single sport, whether it's football and a receiver taking their eye off the ball and looking up field a little too early, a basketball player not showing off their finish or something like that. But yeah, if you can kind of really focus on just making that pass or move throughout the match and then along the way picking up like, okay, they don't like short serves, but then that doesn't necessarily mean that you serve every single ball short. You can kind of keep that in the back of your mind. And when you need points, put them in that troubled situation.
[00:13:10 - 00:14:46]
Mark Burik:
Yeah, I like that. And then when you know that somebody does get fatigued, I always used to be of the mindset. I was like, the fatigue. The conditioning part of volleyball is like it's garbage. Everybody's in good enough shape because there are such long rests. When you're in a local tournament, you can take five minutes to walk to the service line so you can get that gas going again. But what I kind of didn't count on was that we're pushing our bodies to an extreme level. So the idea that we don't get tired, we force ourselves into that mindset and into that body condition. But if you're playing a local tournament, people aren't working out six days a week, so you will get them tired. And if you are playing at the highest level, yes, by the end of the match, somebody is going to be jumping half an inch lower because that fatigue, it does build up. They won't be jumping as high at the end of the match. Most likely, if they warmed up in the right way, they won't be jumping as high at the end of the match. And then for sure, if you're looking at match three or four late in the day, like one of those Saturday AVP afternoon matches, and you get somebody moving on every plate, then the compound from their early matches all the way until now is going to bust them up because think of it this way. If you know that you're going to play somebody early in a tournament, you might play them later. Why not start that fatigue cycle for them? And even if it's a one and they seem to be tired, you're going to run into them again later. So just keep them moving. I really like that idea.
[00:14:46 - 00:16:53]
Brandon Joyner:
Yeah. And I mean, I think it doesn't matter what you were kind of saying before. If there's a dominant player, then obviously sometimes you might serve them if they have a bad setter or if they're not as good at passing or attacking. But we're starting to see at the highest level that even if the blocker is the better player and they're bigger and they're stronger, sometimes people are serving them the whole game. And just on the pure fact that they're like both of these teams are going to side out at a really high level. We're not going to win that many points when we are serving. So let's try to serve this blocker because they have to run up to the net after they serve every single time. And by the end of the game, especially if you're serving them every ball, they might get a little tired. So I think we're starting to see it and a lot of aspects. I know Christian Storm and Andy Mole, they have been one of the best teams in the world for the last what, four years, five years. And just now, like this past year, I think in the Olympics, even they were like, all right, we're not serving Christian anymore. Andy is a monster. But let's see if he can handle these surge for a whole game and see if he can still have the energy at the end of it. And obviously, those guys are phenomenal gold medal. Unbelievable to watch. It didn't work yet. Right. But I will say that I haven't seen Andy act as tired as he was at the end of some of his Olympic matches. And I have seen him in the past when he's on the ground and he's laying there and his partner has to come pick him up as a team that is playing against those people. When you see that happening to a player, you're like, okay, I kind of like that. That's a good little view. If you're seeing him get that fatigued. And it's like, all right, he's that tired at the end of this match, which I mean, they still won, but if somebody's going to make some errors, they're going to do it when they're extremely exhausted.
[00:16:53 - 00:19:45]
Mark Burik:
So I think it's pretty big, definitely. Okay, let's move on. We're going to kind of run through these, but we want to talk about hitters who we're trying to get a certain dig on. So if, you know somebody wants to hit a certain shot or somebody's known for that shot, raise your hand back there at home. If you know that player who just has a great Cutty, right. Or fantastic Highline or somebody who just juices, like absolutely bounces the ball every time. How do we serve these different types of players? If you have somebody who has a great cut shot, there's something that you can do. You can limit the space available for their cut shot because if they're hitting from an antenna, they can hit that ball middle. They can hit it sharp. They can even add some stink to it so that it goes down kind of wide right. That has a lot of space for their favorite shot when they hit from the antenna. So how do we get them to not hit from the antenna? One of the ways is we serve that ball middle. We make sure that we bring it in middle. You can go short, but sometimes the short serve people really like to take a small approach for cut shots and they get very comfortable there. But either way, if you serve middle now, that person has to move into path. Okay, it might go to the other player, but you can still serve the inside shoulder. Once they serve middle, they're probably going to approach from the middle of the court. That means that their available space for their favorite shot is now half as big. So you put a little bit more pressure on them to either make them choose another shot that they're not as good at or don't have a sloppy or easier to dig shot. So if you can take somebody who has a great cut shot, see if you can overtime. And again, we have to talk about over time, this isn't going to work 100% of the time. But if you implement the strategy and you keep going, keep going, keep going. You're going to get those five or six digs per match that you need. Right? So you serve somebody who loves to hit cut shots into the middle and you try to lock them there. One way to lock them into the middle is usually that short middle serve because it's hard to back up and then get back out to the antenna. If you serve them high, deep middle, like the deep middle, then they have more time because their path is usually going to be higher and longer and they can run a very roundabout route to that antenna and then hit that sharp ball. So you want to take on somebody and like, say, you know what, I'm going to dig this guy's cut shot or I'm going to take it away. You can serve the middle and they won't have the space available for their cat shot.
[00:19:45 - 00:22:27]
Brandon Joyner:
Yeah, I like that a lot, especially if you're listening to this episode and you are going to go out tomorrow and you're going to try to play. I think one of the best things that you can think about is if you are able to make that serve, go short middle and then that person's cut shot is available. And even if it's not a perfect set for them and a perfect idea where they should be going, cut shot, but they score. Don't abandon the idea. It's almost better for you that they scored on that because now they've got a heightened sense of confidence, which is fake because you know that you're like, all right, I'm going to try to do this so that they won't make this shot. But then when they do it, even if they score, it's like, okay, they're still going to go for that shot. And then later in the game you can kind of use that information to help you out. So, yeah, I like that a lot. My next one would be like, sometimes if we're serving a team where there's an obvious shorter player and there's not a huge skill discrepancy, right? Like, they both passed similar, they both set similar. They both even attacked similar. Sometimes what I will do is I will serve the short player short. And the main reason for that is because if you serve a tall person short, they can get away with their height and most of the time their athleticism to still get up and be a threat at the net. But a shorter player, when I say shorter player, I think that this rule can really account for anyone that is right around that six foot Mark and lower. So if you're anywhere below that or you're playing against people below that number, then this would be very good for you. Or if you're playing against somebody that just doesn't move very well, if you can serve them short, then a lot of people have a really hard time getting back off the net and making themselves a valuable option. What I mean by a valuable option is having multiple shots. A lot of times when you serve somebody who's short short and they don't have that ability to get back before they make that approach to go hit, they've most likely eliminated one of the shots that they would normally have. Maybe it's a high line, maybe it's a cut shot, depending on where they made that path. But most of the time if you serve that person short, they're going to have some of their options taken away, which on defense, you love that because now it's like, okay, they're not back behind the ten foot line, they're probably not going to hit this ball hard. So now that blocker can either Peel or that defender can sit in the middle. And now if they do go over that blocker, it's got to be so high that as long as the defender's stable, they should be able to make a really good read on it, make a really good pass, probably not even have to die. Now you're in control of the game.
[00:22:27 - 00:24:34]
Mark Burik:
I love that. On the right side, I feel like so many right sides, they put the small guy on the right side, and they put the bigger guy on the left side and serving that short corner right by the antenna for the right Sider, making them come all the way up, jamming them against that antenna, making them go all the way back. That is I love running a two block on that and a very obvious two block, because that means that my blocker will show super early, that the line is wide open. And this little guy who thinks he can hit really hard, we've taken away a couple of inches of his vertical and we've rushed his approach and he sees a wide open net right in front of him. And often they're not really big enough, they're not strong enough, they can't get out of the sand. And you get them either burying it into the net or taping or hitting you some kind of slow, easy ball. It's really nice to run that two block one and let them feast like open net, knowing that the defender's job in that is to get the hard driven dig. The defender only has one job if that person goes Overcross, okay, don't worry about it. We'll try this again in a couple of points and see if this guy gets thirsty enough to hit right when a little dude gets real thirsty and you show him something that is theoretically wide open that he's seen on TV and Amazon Prime, and he's like, yeah, I'm going Thunderdome right now. I got this. It's a very easy way to get somebody to tape hit into the net or hit you kind of a nice slow ball, one more defense, really, just to kind of make sure that he doesn't do that easy over crossball. If you just kind of sit on the edge of the two left thirds and then shift over right, don't run a four, don't have that defender running anywhere but sit right behind the blocker so that the defender can't really see you. But they do see the daylight that the blocker gave, then shift into that. And no, that your only responsibility is that hard driven dig, which is probably going into the tape anyway.
[00:24:34 - 00:25:27]
Brandon Joyner:
Right. I think the thing that I wanted to point out to you is I love the idea of running the cross block there because most of the time what happens, especially if the attacker is right handed, because if you're making them go short, they're most likely going to push this path a little bit to the middle so that their setter can get it. And then one of the most common things we see for right side players who are right handed, if they do get in a slump, is more than likely that setter is not finding their attacking shoulder. And if they're left inside now, that cross block is completely swallowing them up. And like you said, over exaggerate right, get over there so that they know that the line is open because most likely they're going to be in a situation where their only option is cross, but then they're going to see that blocker and now they're trying to avoid that blocker. And if you're making them avoid you, then that's when errors come, especially out in the net on not even making it over the net, whatever it is.
[00:25:27 - 00:26:00]
Mark Burik:
If we're going like this deep into defensive strategy, I would move my blocker over and then I would Peel him really late because this guy like, if he does want to go for that over crossball, I want my blocker to dig it instead of the defender because that guy is going to see all of that space on the other side of the court and he's going to hit a high, slow, lazy shot and then my blocker is peeling into his cut or over crossball. And that play works on a regular basis a lot. You just need a very fast backpedaling blocker.
[00:26:00 - 00:26:12]
Brandon Joyner:
Right. And they don't have to have to be tall. It's just a matter of the attacker just needs to feel their presence on the other side of the court so that they know what is open and what isn't. So I think that's pretty big.
[00:26:12 - 00:29:36]
Mark Burik:
Yes. I like that. Here's something that people don't do enough when they serve the line to line straight down the line, surf one flat, fast, float serve. Nailed it. You got it. I love it if you keep that clicking on a straight line, first of all, people are going to be moving outside. So there's a good chance that they shank the ball outside the court. When a player Shanks the ball outside the court, you're at an immediate advantage, right. Or they're going to over exaggerate trying to get the ball back to the middle. So they have to move one way while dragging the ball back in the opposite direction. And a lot of times they overshoot it and they pass it way past that middle line and then they have a backpedaling setter. And really what happens a lot is the setter moves towards that serve, the setters get attracted to where that service. So they start running way across the middle line thinking that that's where the play is going to happen. And then as the passer tries to pass to me, it goes behind the head and they have a back pedal instead of who's probably going to struggle to make that set. So I've seen this happen a couple of times, but people don't just lock it in, lock it in, lock it in, lock it in. Me and Marty Lorenz went to one star in Slovenia and we were down, I think, 11 14. And there was this younger kid, Zach from Australia, who is now Schubert's like a beast. He went through a couple of knee surgeries recently, but athletic beast, but he was young. So I was like, young guy, you're going to have to be the one that finishes this game. You're probably going to finish it, but I'm going to make you guys. And so I just went straight down the line and I looked at him and the whole Stadium could have told you that that's who I was going to serve, right? So I'm hitting that line straight down the line. Everybody knows that I'm serving down the line and I'm just going to aim at this little two foot marker right inside that sideline. And the struggle with that serve, just a flat moving service, especially with the Mccaska ball, which is going everywhere, that puts so much pressure on him that he couldn't get a pass instead of got off balance. Another time he shanked the ball outside, just keeping it flat and fast enough and right on his sideline, we were able to come back. We won 16 14. It was a great comeback, but putting it on somebody and saying, look, you guys, I know that you are going to have to be the one to finish this match and a lot of people just can't handle that pressure. First of all, when you stare at them and you very obviously serve them, people don't like that. They like it. They get self conscious. Like, why is he choosing me? Does he think he's going to get a dig? They start questioning themselves, right? And then when you make them struggle, like you were saying, making them take three steps just to get to touch the first ball, it's going to work. So if over time you guys can just learn to aim 2ft from the sideline, straight down that sideline and just hit that ball flat, flat, flat, flat, flat. That is a very successful serve. And in the 2008 Olympics, it was the most successful serve was the line to line, pick a sideline and serve down it because it leads to the most points and it gets a lot of people in trouble.
[00:29:36 - 00:32:08]
Brandon Joyner:
Yeah. And to be honest, I really like doing that same exact strategy in the seam too, because especially if you have a lot of accuracy with your float serve. I know with me specifically, I don't have enough power in my jump serve to really put a lot of pressure on servers. So for me, I'm not really worried too much about hitting the server as hard as I possibly can. I'm more of an accuracy person, but I feel like I have a lot of accuracy. It's built up over years of practice and if I'm standing the seam and I want that ball to land in the seam, I'm going to be within a foot of that. But I think that that's a really good option too, because now you got people having to communicate while that speed is happening too. Because if you serve in the line to line, yes, you're putting that pressure on that person. But another way to do it is serving the seam. And now nobody really knows who's going to get it. You still have that idea of like, oh, my middle. But I love that because now if someone says my middle, I can step one step over where now it's no longer that person's middle. And now I can put some pressure on that guy who maybe thinks that they're not getting the ball anymore because it's not their middle. So I think that idea can kind of work and kind of one last thing. I know we got to kind of close up really quick, but I think one last strategy that we can kind of all think about is I think we all can be okay with missing a little bit more serves because we're trying to be meaningful with our serve. And whether it's you trying to be aggressive, whether it's you trying to be very particular on trying to hit the surf deep or short or seam, whatever it is, most of the time, if you're starting to be safe, then you're just putting that ball in play. And if they're able to pass that ball well. And now, yes, you're getting the serve in and they're having to earn a point. But at some point, you don't want that team to get into that kind of rhythm because they start to get confident. Now they start passing a bigger range every single time that they're back there, every single time that they make a good pass, I'd say their range increases about maybe six inches to a foot. That makes difference. Yeah, it's huge. So any time that you can be really aggressive, even if they have a good pass, but they're like, oh, like, that ball got to be quick. It's like that little hesitation. Can do wonder. So if you miss a serve, don't think it's the end of the world. Think about like, hey, I was trying something different. My bad. I'll try again next time.
[00:32:08,296 --> 00:33:25]
Mark Burik:
Yeah. At some point you have to start making service. Yeah, for sure. And one kind of safe way to miss these services is pick statistically better spots. So if you're trying to serve down the line, like I said, aim for that spot 2ft inside the line, you're probably going to miss by two to 3ft. What we want to pick is targets that even if I miss, it's a good surf. So if I pick my spot 2ft inside the line and I miss 2ft to the right, hey, I got an ace on the sideline. If I try to pick the sideline and I miss one inch to the right, it's out of bounds, the points lost. I have no hope. Right. So when you guys are thinking about choosing those spots, pick a good safe spot that is again, accurate and has a window of success. So when you're hitting your cut shots, when you're hitting your hard angles, your high lines, don't aim for the buckle, don't aim for the sideline, don't aim for 2ft from the net. Always pick a spot that's 3ft inside the court both ways and then even your misses, your misses will be excellent shots and the rest of your balls will just be good shots instead of your misses being lost points.
[00:33:25 - 00:34:55]
Brandon Joyner:
I like that, especially when you're going back to serve. We have a serving course with our online program, and one of my favorite topics that I was able to make was talking about accuracy versus power. And no matter what server you are, it's never going to be 100% one or the other. Like something that comes to mind is like Jeremy Kasepeer phenomenal server. I think he's one best server on the AVP. Like what, four or five times now, 27 times, maybe more? I don't know. But he's got a phenomenal jumpsuit. He is known to live and die by it. But even Jeremy, when he's probably at his most confident, he's probably only serving about 90% power and 10% accuracy, probably more accuracy than that because he's been doing it for so long. But maybe he's okay with like missing a little bit larger than he normally would. But when he starts to miss a couple of serves, that ratio or that percentage changes a little bit, maybe he bumps it down to where now he's only going 60% power so that he can get that accuracy up to 40%. If we're always working with 100%, I don't know if that actually works. I'm not a mathematician. I think it's important to realize what type of player are you? Are you an accuracy player? Are you a power player and then finding the right kind of ratio of accuracy to power to match your skill?
[00:34:55 - 00:50:12]
Mark Burik:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, guys, we just want to make a couple of announcements again. April 3. We still have, I think, eleven spots in our training camp in St. Pete Beach, Florida, where we are right now. So St. Pete Beach, Florida, April 3 to 10th. I think it's down to ten because our boy Tim from last camp is using his free camp. So he's going to be coming back in April. And so I think we're down to ten. Awesome. Starting next week, starting January 3, our seven day Athletic Foundations challenge. Because for me personally, I know that I have not treated the last two years like I should have. I absolutely kind of fell down physically. I had an opportunity. I had a chance. I could have been absolutely jacked by now. Right. But chose to build this company, chose to build some teaching systems. And I think a lot of you feel the same way, where the last two years could have been better, you could have been in a better spot. And now we have this motivation. We get the sense that things might just be opening up and then we can finally tackle our goals. So if you're interested in tackling your goals, do it with us. We've got a big group starting. We got private Facebook coaching, so you're going to put your videos up there and we are going to critique you. We're going to help you with all your exercises. I'm going to give you warmups and all of your pre workout exercises that you should be doing for all of your workouts and all of your matches and all of your practices. So we're going to be doing that for seven days in a row starting this Monday. And you're going to get an eight week nutrition challenge. You're going to get tournament and practice nutrition checklist, which tells you what to eat. How soon before a tournament? The night before a tournament, two days before a tournament, what do you eat after a tournament? We have all of these printouts waiting for you and you get three full complete vertical jump workouts. All of this is happening next week and it starts January 3. You have to sign up by January 2, it's www. Dot better atbeach. Comfoundations go and sign up so that we can start this year the right way. Get mobile, get strong, fix your imbalances so that you can be in a better spot. And you set the foundation for everything that you need to be a better athlete. Okay? I promise you that a lot of your pains, shoulder pain, knee pain, back pain, this one week you will feel different. And you'll know why you feel different? Because I'll be teaching you and explaining why every move is important for different volleyball. So better beach. Comfoundations that starts January 3. You need to sign up. Go ahead. And then I'm going to work with you. We're going to meet live every day. If you're not there, live, that's okay. You can just post all of your questions and videos on the Facebook group, and I personally will be answering them and helping you work through your pre seas. All right. Well, guys, that's it. And I am going to hang out with the chat group. So if you guys want to stay and ask some questions, I'll be running through those. Brandon is going to start getting our coaches here at St. Pete up and running so that our campers can have a good practice. And I will be there shortly.
All right. Q and A. Guys, if you are sticking around with us, we are going to open up this Q and A, and I'm going to just go from the top and all the way down. You said what kind of equipment is needed for the challenge? Great question. Right now, all that you're really going to invest in is going to be a band. Okay. If you can get any type of therapy and some sort of stretch band or a mini stretch power band or just working with light bands, because the majority of what we're going to be doing is body weight exercises and mobility, I'm going to teach you how to strengthen, how to increase your mobility just by doing body weight stuff. So a lot of people think that my personal warm up should be the entire workout. That's how intense some of our warm ups are. And that's what I'm going to be taking you through piece by piece. I'm going to grow your warm up routine so that by the time you're done with your warm up, you feel like you've done a full workout. And that is how you should start a match, start a tournament, start a practice. You need to be prepared to play that point from the first serve. Most people say it takes me a little while to get into a match or they lose five points and then they joke and they say, okay, we're warm now, that is not the way to win in volleyball. And we're going to help you just make your body feel better, feel better in your own body. And we're also going to be doing a lot of goal setting and promises to ourselves. So I really want you guys to try it out, see what it's like to be a part of a team, to be a part of a group that is motivated and will hold you accountable. Okay. Betterbeach. Comfoundations Peter says hello from Poland. Hi Peter, I got Polish in my background. Did you know that my father's name was Bert Chick, which is a Polish name, so used to be Polish. Maybe I could go play for the Polish National team. If Ganter and Loziac want a new partner, I'm there. Joshua Samsung, an open player. He says what's an open player? An open player is essentially the highest level player. So open player is that spot just below professional. So there's professional, which means that you're really making money. Open level is just that ranking right behind there where you can win money at tournaments, typically tournaments in the US, they give money as prize money for only the top level. Everything below that, you get like little prizes like chairs and umbrellas and stuff like that. But open level should be the highest amateur level in the United States. Alright, question from SM, what's the best way to serve near or close to the net? I want you to go back and talk. So SM, we just filmed this episode last on Monday and it's the different types of floats here. So look at our YouTube channel and scroll down those live episodes. And we talked about the different types of float serves and I gave that answer all through that episode. We talked about the four different types of float serves. So go ahead and look at that episode. If anybody here is on the YouTube chat and you already have that link, if you could post it for SM, that would be great. Pam, thank you. I appreciate the support and I can't wait to see all of your who's who in volleyball grow and see what it can do and be a fan of your travels. Rad wise what's up, man? Huge fan of serving tough on every serve. Dot lines, middle, short, Skyballs. Absolutely. Serve tough and serve tough guys. Serve tough does not always mean serve aggressive or faster or harder. Surf tough means make it tough on the other team, not just hit harder. You guys have to make sure that you have that difference in your mind. Gwenole says, Should I switch from jump serve, jump, float serve, standing float serve during a game or a set? I know the receivers start shanking when a serve type change, but changing serve can result on more serves. Yeah, you have to find your balance. So when you're trying to decide which type of serve you should use or if you should be changing, obviously you don't want this password to get into a good rhythm. That's why we mix up spots. Even if one spot is working for a long time, like next time we serve them, we might want to throw in what Staffords like in case Patterson called a wrinkle. Just one little change to get them slightly off balance. That's going to be a big deal if you are changing serves, but you don't have a reason, that's a big problem. You need to have a reason. It has to go in line with your strategy. And if it's not in line with your strategy, that's a big issue. It means that you're just picking up the ball and making something up in that moment. And that is not a game plan. Every other sport has a game plan. You need to have a game plan for the game, not just pick it up and say nothing's been working. I'm going to try this. That's not a plan and that's not intelligent volleyball. So make sure that if you are saying we're going to pick on him because he's a bad float serve receiver, okay, I'm going to throw in one jump serve every ten balls just to kind of keep them off balance. Or I'll serve his partner once every ten balls just so that he doesn't get into a complete rhythm. But you should change and it should be a part of the bigger picture. So I hope that helps. Gwenoli Pam says communication is a successful life skill attributed to success in volleyball, for sure. Absolutely. Okay, Mike Zidalo in line, move around or use one spot. That depends on if you want this. So should we serve somebody in the middle, the corners of the inline or straight over their head? Where do we want them to hit from? You have to take a look at this person's biomechanics, what they look like when they hit, what their favorite shots are, and then serve them in the location. That makes it difficult for them to hit their shot. Or if you want to bait them into hitting their favorite shot, then you allow your serve to allow them to hit that. If you want somebody to hit a great cut shot from the other side because you're planning on bait and switching them or something, then you're going to serve them deep to that spot and you're going to bait them into it. Okay. So in line, you can get the ball there. Just make sure that it goes over their fence so that they have to step back or Tomahawk if they Tomahawk and serve receive. You've already won the first battle and then choosing where to serve is going to be dependent on your game strategy. The high deep middle serve is great for uncomfortable setters because they get frozen and then they have to run for a far distance. It creates a longer pass setter struggle. Okay. Thank you, Pam, for being so involved in the conversation. I appreciate it. Do you have any clinics in DC area? Guys, if you're ever interested in a clinic with us, here's what you have to do. You have to go to bedrebeach.com clinics, get us in touch with the facility manager, owner, a community head, something, and we can set up a one day clinic. We usually do Saturdays. We do three, two and a half hour sessions, and we need a minimum of twelve commitments for the full day. Twelve commitments for the full day, which is all three sessions or something kind of equal to that. All of that information is on betterbeach. Comclinics and you can sign up so that we can email you, get in touch and we'll have a phone conversation and see if we can bring some coaches there. All right, David, you bought that seven day course. When do you get access to it? January 3, yes. So, David, you should have already joined the private Facebook group for the foundations course, and I will continue to send emails. You're going to get a few more emails in the next few days and we are going to start our meeting on Monday. I'm going to tell you when the live meeting is. If you miss it, that's okay. If the schedule doesn't work, that's okay because I'm going to post that live into the Facebook group and you can always catch up with the meeting whenever you have time during that day and then that's when you're going to get your workout for that day. Okay, David. And if you have any questions after this, just DM me or shoot me an email. Happy to answer. Michael says I typically jump serve. Should I serve from the corners or the center? If from the corner. Which corner? It depends on your body mechanics. If you like this wrist away swing, you want to serve more from the left. If you are more of a cross body swinger, probably you want to serve a little more from the right. It also depends on where the wind is. If you want to jump serve, you usually want to serve into the wind. Sometimes winds coming from the side, so you have to hit from that side in order to make that ball dive. So again, where you serve from needs to fall in line with your bigger strategy of where you want that team to hit from and who you want to serve. Generally, the diagonal straight diagonal serve that lands in the diagonal passers lap. It's the easiest ball to return, so I advise against it. Ok. Just make sure that you don't just serve a kind of meat, slow, generic cross top spin ball into somebody's lap because all they have to do is reflect it back to right where it came from and it's going to be a perfect path. They don't have to make any angles. It's not a challenging surf. All right. Mark says, I keep telling my players, serving wins games and also trying to get them to learn a solid, slow serve first. Any pointers about jump serving? They love to try that. Mark the jumpserve specifics and details on how to teach it and what we teach for jump serving and all of the different versions of jumpservs. This is where our serving course comes into play. So if you want to sign up and get access to that serving course and become a member so that we can help you out and help you coach. We have a few members that are coaches in our group, and they don't use these drills for themselves. They use them so that they can teach their players better. I want you to go to bedterbeach. Comcoaching. And within that giant program, we have a passing course, a setting course, an arm swing specific course, an approach, an attack course. We have a defender course, a serving course. I know there's a lot. We have a blocking and peeling course. We have 50 plus practice plans and of course, the 60 day Max vertical. So all of that is included in our coaching program. And if you join that program, we will be there to help you every step in the way because we have two live meetings where we're going to be face to face videoing each other every week. So it's a better beach. Comcoaching. I want you to look into it, see if you like it. And Mark, if you have any questions, just shoot me a message, okay? All right, guys, that is it. Thank you so much for your questions. Thank you so much for your time going to get to our campers. If you want to join campbed atbeach.com camps, and as always, just make sure that you are sending me messages. Let me know if you need help, shoot us an email. I would love to keep making the show better and better and design it the way you guys want it. We want to teach volleyball and we want to teach high level volleyball. And we think there's a little bit lacking of information out there. So we're trying to pump it out there to see the next evolution of the game. And to provide awesome fun opportunities for players everywhere. And that's usually where our camps and clinics come in. All right. That's all from me. Have a great day and happy new year, everybody. I appreciate your time and we will see you I believe next Monday, January and for anyone joining the foundations course, I will see you a lot next week we're going to be seeing a lot of each other. So looking forward to it. Bye guys. Have a great day.
