[00:00:00 - 00:00:29]
Brandon Joyner:
If you are the person that says, But I'm not a blocker, I don't care. Get your butt up to the net. Show me what you're planning on taking away. Once you see that you are not going to be a part of the play at the net, then you can pull back. But I need you to be up there so that the defender can establish themselves on their side of the court or have an idea of where they're going to be moving to. And then it also makes the offense have to look on the other side of the court and figure out what you're doing.
[00:00:32 - 00:01:02]
Mark burik:
Today we're going to talk about defense. We had practiced yesterday. We practiced with Hagen Smith, Simon's son. He was looking bulky as usual and good. Then we had DJ Klasnik, Georgia Klasnic from Serbia, who was with us at our camps. We had Jacobudya, our Jersey boy, and we have left Prima. Prima.
[00:01:02 - 00:01:58]
Brandon Joyner
Yeah. We had a lot of Europeans yesterday. Eastern Europeans, right? No, Eastern Europeans. Yeah. Sorry, I had to do my quick little never eat shredded wheat kind of thing. Yeah, it's fun. It's crazy because especially for me, coming off an injury, just getting back in the sand, taking a nice little break that I definitely needed. But now it's so cool to be back out there playing. The second that my toes touch the sand, we evolve up in the air. I feel like I'm back at home, which is great. My body, on the other hand, is feeling pretty freaking sore. So I'm still doing the 75 heart. I think I'm on day 17 or something like that, which is great. Already feeling and seeing differences, which is really cool. And now this week, you and I, we started up the Max vertical program or not started it, but kind of continued onto it where now I think we're in. What are we, week three?
[00:01:58 - 00:04:17]
Mark Burik
Yeah, I kind of skip ahead to week three because I've been balancing for a while. I feel good. So the first two weeks are just all about essentially making sure that people's bodies are woken up. So we did that foundation challenge, a seven day foundation challenge two weeks ago, where take everybody through mobility and then an introduction into the prehab and rehab all of the bands. And it's important that they go through that because if they would have started on week three, where we're at, I'm in pretty good shape right now, and I'm sore. Yes, you look strong, but whenever our first text in the morning isn't about work and it's about how our bodies feel, that's when you know the workouts doing its job. But if you would start with that strength and you would just blast yourself from the start, that's a bad place to be before you can fix everything under lightweight. Like if you can't do good, if you can't perform good technique with lightweight in a controlled environment, there is no way that you should be pushing heavy weight. And that's what the first, I guess four weeks are about for the Max vertical program, and it works. It keeps people healthy. We had somebody from our camp who gave some critique and she said the warm ups are too long and she felt tired just doing the warm ups or she wasn't looking forward to it. And for me, for us, for our company as somebody who did all of the personal training certifications, performance enhancements specialist, certified strength and conditioning specialist, a five year degree, supposed to be four year, five year degree in exhaust. Right. But I have a responsibility as a coach to make sure that our athletes stay healthy. If somebody comes to us and they're trying to learn beach volleyball, I would be doing them a disservice if I didn't teach them how to take care of their body so that they can take what we give them on the volleyball court in terms of ball skills and strategy. And then they can apply it without worrying about being knocked out for six weeks, eight weeks because of an injury. And if I don't equip them with that, then I'm not equipping them with the foundation that allows them to succeed. And so do that. If you're listening out there, thank you for the advice and the critique, but it's not something that we can stop as coaches. We cannot stop taking care of people's bodies. And that's why we have the programs built that we do.
[00:04:17 - 00:05:28]
Brandon Joyner:
And not to be harsh, but I think a lot of us feel weight. We've had this conversation before about warm ups, but you shouldn't be completely comfortable during your warm up. By the end of your warm up, you should feel like you did a hit workout almost where you're sweating, you're a little out of breath. You're going to recover very quickly as long as you're not overdoing it. But with the workout that we do at our camps, yes, it is a little tough, but it's necessary and it gets people's bodies moving the way it is and knock on wood. Hopefully we can keep this going, but haven't had a whole lot of injuries at camps either. And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that we're spending a lot of time warming people's bodies up, letting them know what stretches stretch specific muscles, allowing them to focus more on areas of concern. And then as they're doing that, they're learning about their own bodies and they're learning a very quick warm up. So I think it's awesome. I know I hop in there and do it every now and then, and by the end of it, I'm feeling good and I'm a little out of breath. I'm a little sweaty, but my body feels amazing. So it's not always about just feeling, oh, yeah, I'm loosening it up.
[00:05:28 - 00:06:45]
Mark Burik
No, definitely not. And to be repetitive with it, I just got somebody on Instagram Live who just said, like, I'm still doing that warm up from camp. The exact same warm up from camp. And great, because I keep telling people at camp that's the same warm up that we do before every lift, every lift practice. It's not like it's something little that you should skip. It's something that gets you to the next level, keeps your body healthy. And if we can continue to educate people on how to use their body and how to use it, well, we're not only doing our part in volleyball, but we're doing our part against this illness that has been striking people for the last two months. We're doing our part for the future diseases and sicknesses because we're equipping people without any weights. We're equipping them with how to keep your body healthy, how to move, how to stay mobile. And if you only did our warmup every day, you would be better than 90% of the people in this country who don't really know how to take care of themselves. And therefore, we're making our students players healthier for the rest of their lives. And that's something that increasingly I can hang my hat on. And I say, you know what? We're doing this. We're keeping people healthy. Our company is keeping people healthy and happy and educating them to how to do it. Do we have that warm up anywhere?
[00:06:45 - 00:06:55]
Brandon Joyner
I see Ted asking where he can find it. I know we shot it at the last camp, so I'm assuming it will be a YouTube video pretty soon.
[00:06:55 - 00:07:00]
Mark Burik:
If you YouTube best beach volleyball warm up ever. I'm pretty sure our video comes up.
[00:07:00 - 00:07:28]
Brandon Joyner:
I think that one has a lot to do with the volleyball, though. I think that's like the ten warm up. But regardless, Ted, I believe there's a post on our Instagram that has the exercises, at least. If not, try to get that video up as quick as we can because it's definitely something that we're going to be referencing from time to time. And I know it was 100% shot this last camp, so it's just a matter of time. So you come to camp and see it in person.
[00:07:28 - 00:08:29]
Mark Burik:
Yeah. Anyway, Max vertical is going good. Everybody should be doing a warm up or mobility series in their lives. If you're not doing hours, okay, if you haven't signed up for Max vertical or you haven't recorded any of your warm ups, fine. But get a mobility series into your life quick so that you can have a lot more athletic years. That will give you athletic years, the ability to lunge, bend, squat, et cetera. And we would all like to be mobile late into life and not losing points because we don't have a good warm up routine. People think that they're losing points because they just need a better Catholic or they don't know how to read. You read it. You are just too slow and too Immobile to get it. Sorry. Yeah, it hurts. How do I get the shortfall? If you were doing lunges all year long, your steps would be powerful and strong enough to get you to that ball. It had nothing to do with your reading or anything like that. It just has to do with taking care of your body instead of just playing. So tough love. I get it.
[00:08:29 - 00:08:39]
Brandon Joyner:
You said the same thing to me. Say it to everybody. All right. Today's topic is a lot of defense, right? And mainly block calls and assignments.
[00:08:39 - 00:08:40]
Mark Burik:
Absolutely.
[00:08:41 - 00:10:40]
Brandon Joyner:
Okay. If you're a person that has been looking at the court, you show up to a class or you show up to play with some friends, and all of a sudden there's somebody standing at the net and they're holding signs behind their back, and you ask yourself, what the heck does that mean? There are two basic calls that I believe every beginner and intermediate should be using, and those blocks are most likely going to be a one or a two block. A one means that the blocker whenever a blocker is showing you a sign, they are showing you what they plan on doing, what they plan on taking. So if I'm the blocker at the net and I have my two hands, then both of my hands are assigned to the players that are on the other side of the court. Or if you want to go a little bit more specific, you can say the side of the court that they're on, depending on if people are going behind. But that's kind of an advanced topic. So let's assume that the attackers are going to say if they're a left side hitter, they're going to stay on the left. If they're a right side hitter, they're going to stay on the right. So my right hand would go to the player that's to my right, my left hand would go to my player that's to the left of me when I'm looking at them. If I hold up a one, then that means that I am responsible for the line behind me. Okay. If I am holding up a one, that means that I am going to take the line hit of that attacker. For those people who have never done it before, what does a line hit mean? So that would mean that whatever the sideline that is closest to them. So if they're a left side player and my left shoulder is closest to my sideline and the attacker is blocking line in front of me, then that means that if I was to run in and hit a ball straight down the line in front of me with the sideline that I'm currently standing on, then that would be a line hit from me. The other option is that I can hit cross, which would mean that if I'm going into the court instead of hitting straight in front of me, I would hit angled into the cross court.
[00:10:40 - 00:11:12]
Mark Burik:
I like the way you put that the line hit is the one that gets hit closest to that person's sideline. That's their line. If they hit to the half of the court sideline that's closest to them, that's their line. It's a really tough concept for somebody who's never played like a tennis or volleyball. What is lying? Because I know we've got a lot of beginners out there who have they say, yeah, okay, line, but they still don't know what it means. And maybe sometimes after years, they still don't know what line means, but everybody kind of picks up on diagonal.
[00:11:12 - 00:12:53]
Brandon Joyner:
Yeah. And I think as long as you think about, let's divide the court in half. Right. And I mean a long way. So if we put a line and make a line straight down the center of the court, that would cut through both halves of the court, then if I'm on the left side of the court, if I hit the ball to my left side, then that would be a line hit. If I'm hitting it onto the other half of the court, that would be a cross court. And so kind of going back to the block calls, when I hold up a one, that means that I'm responsible for the line. It doesn't always mean that I'm necessarily always going to block line. It just means that that area of the court is my responsibility. And the reason I say that is because if I decide that the attacker on the other side of the net isn't a threat, meaning that they can't hit the ball hard, down like a really fun spike, that you see somebody hitting really hard and afterwards are really pumped up about super fun. Yeah. If they can't do that, then I don't necessarily need to be blocking at the net. That's my decision as a blocker if I want to stay. But if I decide that they're not a threat, meaning they can't go up and kind of make the crowd go OOH, and I then I can pull back and defend the same spot on the court that I was planning on taking with my block. So if I hold up a one block or a line, this is a line as well. That will make sense in a little bit. So one finger is also a line. You can remember it that way. If the person is going up and I see that they're going to hit hard and I'm just going to jump up, I'm going to put my hands over the net, I'm going to block, and I'm going to take away what would be that straight down the line? Down their sideline hit,
[00:12:53 - 00:13:07]
Mark Burik:
I'm going to jump in real quick. If you're big enough to be a blocker. Right. So that person has got to hit hard enough and down enough for you to merit a block, and you got to be big enough to merit a block. And if you cannot easily get your full hands over the net. Just don't block, period.
[00:13:07 - 00:16:58]
Brandon Joyner:
But I want to get through this a little quick. But if you're not a blocker, then you turn into a net protector and you're pretty much going to run up to the net. You're going to look the exact same as a blocker until you see that set. And then if you're a blocker person who can get your hands over the net, like Mark was saying, then obviously you have the option of jumping and blocking if you are not a blocker. If you're what we call a net protector, then you're just looking to see if that set comes over the net or if it's tight enough to where you can battle up there. Then you would pull off the net and defend the same area of court that you called with that line with that block. So it's really important for even if you're not a blocker, if you consider yourself a net protector, meaning that you're just looking for the overset and then you're retreating back to play defense, it's still important for you to give signs. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I see a short person standing in the middle of the court holding two fists behind their back, saying that they're not blocking anything and I hate it. Get up to the net, tell me what you plan on defending so that I can get established as a defender on my side because I need to know my responsibilities at all as well. And if you tell me that you're not blocking, all I know is that I'm going to run onto an area of court that you're not currently taking. So we need to establish what you plan on taking, even if you consider yourself a nut protector. Okay, so that's one, two is the exact same concept, except now you are looking at if that attacker decides to hit to the opposite side of the court that they are currently on, then that is going to be a cross court hit. And if you hold up a two sign, if you're at home listening. Yeah, your fingers will make an angle, meaning that you are going to be blocking cross. When we talk about it, we say ones or twos. But if you're looking for a little bit more understanding, you can think about a one looking like a line and a two making an angle. Okay. So you would set up yourself in an area where when you get up over the net and you penetrate your block that you are taking away that attackers cross court hit or the opposite side of the court that they're currently on, which will allow your defender to now take that line hit. And the same thing, if they're not a threat, you would pull into that cross court, still taking away the side of the court that you said you are responsible for taking. There's a lot of debate on this. I hear a lot of coaches say that no matter what, if you're pulling, you should pull line. And I think that for me specifically as a coach, it's a lot easier for me to get my point across by just telling you that when you're [email protected] and you show your responsibility, whether it's a line or an angle. So one or two, that you stick with your responsibility unless your partner tells you otherwise. For instance, when I play with Mark, we're very good on take your responsibility. If you show me a one and you pull take line. If you show me a two and you want to pull, take cross. But when I play with people like JM, he tells me no matter what pool wine, and that's just his specific style that he likes. But it took him having a conversation with me before I changed. And it's something that you just need to work on as a team. But if you are just starting out, if you were thinking about establishing these block calls into your game, which you definitely need to, don't be the team that just has two defenders in the back. You're slowing down your process of improving your overall game. I promise you that. So go with your responsibility, pull your responsibility that you call, and then that's the basic defense. So if we're just looking at basic understanding ones and twos or line blocks and two blocks
[00:16:58 - 00:18:57]
Mark Burik:
and a couple of things that I'll add on there a GM, as a defender said, always pull line. Even if you give me this call right when you're the person in the back there and the person in front of you peels, just move out of their way. Take that one or two shuffle steps to cover the other side or the middle of the court. It's not that big a deal. But throwing your arms up in the air and saying like, come on, you should appeal to the other side. Now, you would rather whine that the other person didn't do what they said, then you would win the point, right? Win the point, adjust in the moment, adapt and overcome. You have to stay in that moment. And instead of saying you're doing this wrong during the point, win the point first, then have the discussion. Yeah, Jam, one of the things that when you decide to Peel line across, that does not mean that the person who is not the peeler that the defender shouldn't still pursue every ball. If your peeler gets stuck at half court and the other team still hits a high line, you can still get it. There are plenty of times where a blocker peels down the line and the defender still digs the high line. So just because you see somebody peeling or they have one half that doesn't shut off your defensive instinct to go and get the ball, you're 100%. Should we get every single ball you can until you clearly see that the other person is more comfortable than you and taking the ball. And if everybody would subscribe to that simple thing, get every ball no matter what, until you see that that person has it, not that it's on their side, but that they have it, people would win so much more. Right. Or we'd have more valleys and then the whole world would be in better shape.
[00:18:57 - 00:20:28]
Brandon Joyner:
There's an increase in endurance over here. The people that listen to us will be winning so much more. Exactly. Which is thousands. Cool. All right, so I think that was a pretty good understanding of the basic ones. And twos, just remember, once again, if you are the person that says, But I'm not a blocker, I don't care, get your butt up to the net. Show me what you're planning on taking away. Once you see that you are not going to be a part of the [email protected], then you can pull back. But I need you to be up there so that the defender can establish themselves on their side of the court or have an idea of where they're going to be moving to. And then it also makes the offense have to look on the other side of the court and figure out what you're doing. So that alone causes a lot of issues for the attacker. If you start to put them in a position where they have to say, it looks like the defenders digging cross and the blockers taking line, now you've gotten them to think something before they actually attack. If you just have two people down there playing defense deep in the court, attackers love that. It's called hitting lines. People love hitting lines. They go out, wow, people go up and warm up for 25 minutes, just bouncing balls as hard as they can, and they look great at it. That's the best that any player looks hitting. And you are allowing them to do that by just sitting back there and playing defense. So don't be that guy or girl.
[00:20:28 - 00:27:29]
Mark Burik
Yeah, the moving defense. When you have that person and you don't need to be glued to the net, you don't need to be on top of it. You can be 10ft from the net and still be a net protector. But knowing that the defense is going to move slightly or is in motion as a hitter, that adds their first layer of doubt and insecurity. Instead of seeing just two people in the same spot the entire time, now they're just all right, they're moving. I don't know where they are, so they're a little less secure. Please. For the beginners out there, the BS, the as who are watching, listening, you are not a side on defense. You're not a right side. You're not a left side. Defense is moving 50 50. So you cannot say, I'm a right side. So I'm going to wait on the right side of the court because you're going to end up trying to cover your side of the court instead of going for the ball and the responsibility that's in front of you. So get rid of the idea 100% that you are a side on defense. You can block signs, you can cover signs, but not sides. A lot of emphasis on syllables. Yeah. All right, a three for a blocker, and we have these different moves, and this is where we get really into the fun stuff. A three can be a set play for the blocker and the defender. It can be a move for the blocker, or it can be a move for the defender. And over time, since you're now at the level where you might start using a three or four, which should maybe only be at the AAA level, if you're at that level, then you have to decide what's more important to you. Am I trying to get a block? Am I trying to get a dig? Am I playing somebody who's hitting or somebody who's shooting? But in its essence, the basic three is that I'm going to fake the diagonal defense set up, so I'm going to fake the set up. That is the two, which means the blocker is going to line up in the diagonal and the defender is going to line up down to that hitters line. The hitter thinks, My hard line is open and my Overcross, my over the blocker cross is open during the jump. This is when we switch places, right? Ideally, if you do it late enough, you leave after take off, showing no liens or movements or inclinations that you're going to go there. You can even continue to slide into that fake call during the jump. But after that, hitter can no longer see you. Then the blocker who was lined up in the cross dives so that their hand takes down that hard driven low line. The defender who was in the line now start shuffling or sprinting over to the diagonal, hoping to get a good early bite on the Overcross. If we separate these two moves, my defender doesn't necessarily have to do all that stuff, because if the hitter is not looking, then there's no need for you to be running around. Right. You can still just kind of be stable or hang out in the middle of the court. Maybe that hitter is somebody who likes to hit against blockers, so they only feel the blocker in their peripheral. Or maybe when they shoot, they only look at the blocker and they say, I'm going to hit over where the blocker is because the defender is probably not there. I remember Brad Keenan, who was finishing top ten nonstop. He said, I never look at the defense. I look at where the blocker is, and when I need to shoot, I shoot over them because almost no one doubles up. And if they do, they only do it once or twice a match. And if they get me more than three times. All right, then I'm just going to hit the rest of them. This is the top ten player who is basically giving away his thought process. And I thought that was really telling that you can do that. So the three for the blocker is faking the diagonal and then popping down into the line. You can do this by lining up their stable in the cross. You can do this where just before the jump, the blocker moves into the diagonal, a little pump fake, and then dives back into that line. Or you can find any number of fakes that end up with you blocking the line. But the key is to make the hitter believe that you're either moving or you are sitting in the cross as a blocker. The same thing goes with the defender. If they're running a three, then they're doing the reverse where you're trying to make the hitter believe that you're going to end up down the line when in actuality you're going to go into that diagonal. So that's a three. And now the four. The four is the exact opposite blocker is going to start down the line or pretend that they're going to block that line and then at the very end they're going to jump into the diagonal to block the hard driven. I would say that the most blocks that happen and I don't have any stats to support this, but I know how effective it is because everybody loves to hit hard cross. The most blocks will happen on a forward move by the blocker because there's a lot of court over there. The hitter wants then they know that there's a lot of court over there and there's so much space that they go and they try to hit that. So if you want to get more blocks, I suggest that you run more force. Now that defender is showing that the attacker that they should be in the diagonal. And then at the last minute again, they're going to sprint or shuffle down into that line, and that's where they can get that. Most people, I can get frustrated because they give it away a little bit too early. Either the blocker gives it away or the defender gives it away. And so that hitter hits a fast ball down the line, it's usually not your job to be there in time for the fast ball down the line. So if you run a four, the blocker dives into the angle and that hitter bangs the line. It's not really the defender's job to defend that they're trying to get you to hit high line, right. You can allow yourself to slide into that so that you can actually get the hard driven dig. But that means that you're going to give away something because you have to be there so early that you might give yourself away and they could just shoot over. Now let's get even more advanced. Let's go heavier into threes and fours before you keep going. And this might be what you're going to cover, but the timing is huge.
[00:27:29 - 00:29:46]
Brandon Joyner:
I think for blockers, obviously you have to hold your position pretty long, and then if you're big enough, you can just do that really solid move with your hands if you're an undersized blocker. So for me, I'm around 65 and I'm considered undersized. And if I'm running a four, I need to add in a little shuffle step, then complete the move, allowing that to happen. But if the defender and the blocker are not on the same page, then especially as you're leveling up as a team, players are going to see that offness of the rhythm with you and that defender. So whether it's the defender leaving too early, whether it's the blocker never establishing, there's specific area, you just need to make sure I'm looking at my blocker, I'm picking up the rhythm that he's going on and I'm going to make the same move. I think a lot of defenders, when they're starting out, they find success with threes and fours and they're walking to that big. But if you're doing that too much, if you're still walking to almost every single three and four as a defender, my guess is that the defender is actually leaving early. And as you level up and the attackers vision gets a little bit better, if you start to leave early, then it's a pretty easy way to lose a point, especially on a four, because the cut shot can be almost a jumbo to the middle of the court on the other side. So just really concentrate on the timing and kind of dare yourself to still be okay, to make a defensive move and a lay down to pick up the shot and you're just increasing your chances. Yeah, I would say I love playing those kind of low level open tournaments where the defenders just book it so early as I'm taking off, they're running. I can still see you. I can still see you half of the way up into my jump. At least if you're going to get me, you got to leave on my contact when I'm already committed to moving that hand through that ball. Or if you know you're early, this is a little bit deeper as well. But that could be an opportunity for a double move. Where that defender, it's like, oh, the attacker thinks that they see you moving, so maybe you stay and you double up.
[00:29:46 - 00:31:17]
Mark Burik:
Absolutely. But that's a little bit default to the line, return and then run again because then the hitter thinks, oh my God, that was such an early fake, and they relax and they now hit that high line because you faked it and came back so early. Then you can rip out of there. So this is stuff that I just wish, I wish people went over in my early 20s the proper juice and what you're actually really trying to do and that you can move and fake twice. You can throw a bad fake. You can tell a story, whatever story you can tell, then it starts becoming a lot, a lot more like basketball, where we're throwing faints and timings and everything. Let's go back to what I want to talk is hook place. Guys, you can use whatever sign you want for this stuff. Whatever finger signs you want, you and your partner go for it. Make up your own hand language or just talk about it before you serve. But for me, a hook play is getting somebody who wants to shoot and probably digging them using the blocker. It's either going to be a SWAT for the blocker, which means that they jump real high, throw their arms high instead of pressing them, and they reach as high as they can, or we're going to run a late deal and my blocker is going to dig the shot. If I throw hook down the line, right? I have to tell.
[00:31:17 - 00:31:28]
Brandon Joyner:
And when he says hook, for those of you that can't see, all he's doing is bending his finger so that it looks like a hook. It's not a straight finger. It's just he's making it into a hook.
[00:31:28 - 00:36:25]
Mark Burik:
Thank you. Yeah, I got my line call, and then I just bend my finger. So what I have to tell my defender is that they have to show the hitter that they have a football field to hit into. I mean, by telling my defender, if I'm blocking, I'm going to tell them you have no responsibility for Highline. And I want you to show the blocker that high line is wide open. If that defender goes far enough into the diagonal or they even jump into the diagonal, very obviously and very early, that hitter should slow down, relax a little bit and hit a sloppier ball as the blocker who's peeling, I'm going to squat down. I call the squat and drop. We've got a YouTube video on it, and we also got an Instagram reel on it. If I squat down at the exact same time that I would jump to block, but then I backpedal hard out of there. This isn't the crossover step. You don't have time to cross over on this. This is the big, powerful explode backwards with my hands next to my ears, ready to dig a pokey or use a slap or a Tomahawk, then that ball should go into my lap. You're going to get beat. If their high line is fast, crispy and perfect. If it stays high, it stays deep, it stays fast. You're not going to get this. And you already told your defender, hey, you got no responsibility for Highline. So if they still hit their best high line, probably not going to get it unless you're like 69 and you can cover with really long arms. Right? But if they slow down and they just really hit. It kind of lazy because they think it's wide open. You're going to get somebody if it's the person who hits that high line, but they hit it only like to half court. Some people use the corners for their high line. Some people just kind of waterfall it over the blocker. This is a really good way to get them using that hook. You can also do that same exact thing in a cross, right? So if you take your fingers and you hold that piece sign and then you make quotes with them, we call it a hook across. You're going to do the exact same thing with your defender, say, hey, defender, we are going to show them that Overcross is wide open. There's a couple of things that you want to watch out for or that you could do it or why you would do it. Somebody's always beating you with cut shots, like really good cut shots. And then your defender, once they bank on that cut shot, they can hit that high line. Okay? I know the hitters more comfortable hitting a cut. So once they're more comfortable hitting a cut and I know my defender is basically like, it's too much for him to cover that and to cover the high line. What I'm going to do is I'm going to show this defender that they overcut or Overcross. I'm sorry. I'm going to show the attacker that the overcut or Overcross is wide open and I'm going to position myself into that cross and I'm going to say, hey, defender, you are responsible for nothing but hard line because I have to show this person that their line is wide open and the Overcross is wide open. Once you do that, then you can do that same squat and drop and Peel, either into the cut if you think they're a cutter or deeper into the court if you think that they just go Overcross, the players that go overcut are the better attacker because the pursuit lines for the defenders, it does not work out in the hitters favor. If when you go over cross, you use the back corner. The back corner is only for jumbos, right? But if you're trying to beat a blocker, go over cut so that it lands in the front half of the court, that ball stays further away from the defender. So now that we've got these hooks where my blocker can either wait really long, reach high and SWAT, because they know that they design display that makes the attacker want to hit over them. You can either delay and SWAT or you can Peel really late. But if you Peel early when you do this and the hitter is athletic, they're going to make you pay the price and they're going to hit hard on an open net. That's why we squat at the same time that we would jump for a block and then use all of that strength that we've gotten in our quads from all of our great warm ups and from all of our A Max vertical by better at beach. And then we can get out of there by pushing hard off of those quads with our hands up. Okay, so we got those hooks right there that you can use where the blocker is the person who's digging the shop. And those are really valuable for anybody out there who just gets beat by shooters. If you're getting beat by a shooter, you got to Peel that blocker. Yeah.
[00:36:25 - 00:37:59]
Brandon Joyner:
And it just adds one more level of the cat and mouse game or chess, whatever strategy that can be a beach volleyball. And if you get an attacker to shoot a ball to you, that is easy. And you're the blocker. It does a number on that attacker, especially for the rest of that game. They're now thinking, okay, if I'm going to hit my high line, it has to be crisp, it has to be strong, it has to be deep. And maybe that creates an error, or maybe they start swinging a little bit more because they're embarrassed that one of their easy shots got picked up. But I think it's just important. I love the ones twos, threes, fours, the hook plays, they're all amazing, and they can all add points. But you have to remember that your whole game has to be made up of a specific strategy that you plan on using to help you score more points. And with each of these plays, there are some shots that you are giving up. So there are ways that other teams can beat you. For instance, when you're doing that line block and the defenders in the cross court and somebody does an overline shot as you're blocking, theoretically, that is the play that you are giving up. So obviously you don't want to give up any points, but if you're going to lose, you want the team to be beating you in the right way.
[00:37:59 - 00:39:31]
Mark Burik
Yeah. Every play is designed to have one kind of weakness, and you can't just get so pissed off that they keep making the right decision because you're choosing to give that up. If you defend in the diagonal as a defender, you can choose to defend hard cross and high line by shifting to the middle of the court. Or you can choose to defend hard cross and cut shot by shifting a little bit wider. But you have to give up something, and then you have to be okay with losing that point and gathering the information of why the hitter did that. What are they comfortable? What do they see instead of just being pissed off every time you lose a point? Every defense has a hole, so you have to be okay with losing that point. Stop getting so pissed off every time you lose a point. Treat it as information gathering and statistical sets instead of damn it, we lost again. Especially when you're thinking about the threes and fours, if you're at the level where you're going to start using those, before you say a sentence like, the three block is not working on this team or the four block is not working on this team,
[00:39:31 - 00:40:52]
Brandon Joyner:
you have to first talk answer the question that Mark brought up earlier is what is the attacker looking at? Did the four block not work because the defender went too early? Are they looking at the defender? Did the four block not work because the blocker didn't get to block enough cross? You have to be able to answer these questions because the threes and fours, they can work. You just have to figure out what is the way that it can work. So, for instance, if an attacker is really looking at the defender, then that defender needs to wait a lot longer. It needs to throw in these on purpose Jukes to kind of mess with that attacker a little bit more. So even if you're running a four, this happened to me and DJ last week when we were playing together is we ran a four, they shot cross, they scored the point. And then afterwards, when I got back again, I told DJ, I was like, hey, let's run the same play. But I want you to jump to the line and stay in the cross. Just that kind of conversation allowed us to see, okay, what is this attacker actually seeing? And now how can we use that information to possibly beat them? It's not just about the call that you're making or what strategy you're using. It's about understanding what the other side is seeing, too, because obviously you can't ask them, hey, what did you see there? We gave that away in practice. You should, you should ask that because they might give you a free answer. People are crazy uncomfortable with holding onto their secrets on the corner. Yeah. And I'll do that sometimes, especially if I get blocked. I'll ask, was that a four or something? And most of the time, the blockers will be like, especially if they're buddies, they'll be like, yeah, it was just wanted to throw that in there.
[00:40:52 - 00:44:04]
Mark Burik:
Yeah. Because you can use the correct strategy and have the wrong execution. Right. If you're using the right strategy, but your defender leaves too early, just like you said, your blocker give something away. Or they were just like a half a second too early in giving something away. The strategy worked or the strategy can work, but the execution was not there. So that doesn't necessarily mean change the strategy. It just means execute at a higher level. That's a lot, I think, for people to digest the ones, the twos hook ones, hook, two fours, you can use all these variations, and then you can also literally just play ball up and say, blocker. You take what you see defender, you take what you see. And that shockingly. Can give you a lot of points without calling a one or two. Just say, believe in what you see and try to read them. Instead of getting stuck into one of these strategies and thinking that you have to dive into the angle when you could grab the ball right now, don't dive out of the way they had an overset, grab it, take it, and finish that point. So just remember that you can just be athletes and read. If you have a great sense of reading, you can park your defender in the middle of the court and have him do nothing and have your blocker take over somebody who is detonating on balls. You can sit that defender in the middle if you're playing a shooter, don't defend cross, don't defend line. Make this hitter make a 50 50 decision where they don't know if you're taking line or cross as a defender, and that's a great way to beat a shooter. It's just do not go into the line. Do not go into the cross, sit in the middle and hold until that player freezes because they don't know which side you're giving up and which side you're taking. This has been a high level talk, and there's a lot to unwrap, and I recommend trying one new defensive play and the versions of it, doing it with just your blocker, then doing it with just your defender, and doing it with both. But don't take this episode and then go and Chuck in every single new thing into your defense because it's going to be hard enough just to get one. So I recommend flipping with one of these plays and then your line call, base line call, and then one of these place. But don't try to add the entire defensive playbook in one practice. Yeah, and you won't know where you're going wrong. And just one last thing, just because you call something doesn't mean you have to stick with it. So for instance.
[00:44:04 - 00:45:11]
Brandon Joyner:
if you're running a three or four block, then those plays, the team on the other side of the net needs to be in system. So if they pass the ball poorly and they're off the net and now their vision is gone and possibly their heart attack is gone, then you running a trick play does not make sense. So that's when you go back to basics, you go back to letting your defender know that whether it's you holding up a sign behind your back of a one or a two, depending on what you like in that situation or something that we commonly see in the AVP and Top tournaments is people will slap a butt cheek one side or the other, allowing the defender to know what side of the court you plan on taking. But for one's and twos, those can kind of stay strong no matter the set, because you're going to be pulling if it's not a threat anyway. Threes and fours make sure that the other side of the net is in system, or at least has the ability to see you and be aggressive. If they don't have that ability to be aggressive, then you're kind of just wasting one of your strategic plays.
[00:45:11 - 00:47:45]
Mark Burik:
So, guys, if you want to see all of these strategies, play out in video and a bunch of scenarios, video analysis of pro matches, Championship matches, et cetera, and get your own match critique and have us watch your strategy and your gameplay and your practice. You can go to betterbeach. Comstore right now. Better. Atbeach. Comstore. We talked about a few things today. We talked about defense and blocking, and the ultimate defender course in there packs a punch and gives you those strategies and shows you the film along the way. And you can take the drills that we give you that you can do at home and on the court. And you can film them because we want to look at your defensive footwork. We want to look at your shuffling. We want to look at how low you can squat and everything that you can do physically. We also need to look at your ball control, like your hand slaps, your Pokeys, your Tomahawks. Are you doing these things the right way? We can coach you through our Mastery program. If you just want to look at the pre recorded course, we have the ultimate defender, and you can learn a lot about that by going to Better Beach.com Ultimate Defender. That will show you a lot about that defensive specific course. And you have the option of taking all of our other courses as well. If you sign up for the Mastery program, Beach Volleyball Mastery, we coach you. You post your videos, you put them in the Facebook group, and we can help you on your game. If you're not interested in being coached at that level where you actually have somebody helping you and guiding you through, then you can take one of our prerecorded courses. And again, those are on Better at beach. Comstore. If you have any questions, reach out to us. Shoot us a DM. Shoot us an email support at [email protected] and we'll tell you even more about those courses. If you want to jump on the same exact workout program that Brandon and I are doing and Sarah Shermanhorn, she's on the Max vertical, then you can go to better beach. Comstore and check out the 60 day Max vertical program. It's specific for beach volleyball players who want to protect their shoulders, get strong, cores, get faster, get more agile, and of course, increase their vertical jump. And all of those exercises you can do at home. We show you all of the modifications so that you can do it with either dumbbells barbells bands or just body weight. So if you feel like you don't have a gym that you can go to or that you're comfortable going to, we show you how to do it in home. And that's it. Yeah. Good job.
[00:47:45 - 00:48:08]
Brandon Joyner:
I will say it is one of the best workout videos I've had the pleasure of watching, mainly just because I get a kick out of listening to Mark, but not only does he push you and make you better, but he'll give you some laughs along the way, which is always important, especially during court. It's good. It makes you feel like you're working out with someone, which is half the battle for a lot of people, which is nice.
[00:48:08 - 00:49:01]
Mark Burik:
I think that's what people have liked most about that program is that it's not just here's your schedule of exercises. You work out with me, and then also Janelle jumps in there for a bunch of our workouts. So you're working out with me and my wife, and we take the breaks with you. We tell you when to stop, when to rest, and then motivate you to say, okay, let's get going. And since the video keeps playing, you get that consistent feedback throughout your exercise. So when you start losing your technique, losing your form for any of the exercises, I remind you because I was doing the workouts while I was recording them. So every feeling that you're going to feel during that workout, I felt it along with you. And it's a great program. I'm super proud of it. And if anybody wants a beach volleyball specific program, look no further. Cool. Agree. I'll handle the Q and A. You handle your landlord.
[00:49:01 - 00:50:12]
Brandon Joyner:
I will. Yeah, I'm going to hop off here. Guys, I appreciate you. One thing I do want to say to our IG crowd is it's hard for us to the comments from Instagram don't come up on our stream. So if you are watching on Instagram and you are just listening, that's amazing. It's just one more Avenue that we want to allow people to listen. But if you have questions, make sure you hop on YouTube, Facebook so that you can actually ask us questions. Because I saw a couple of questions rolling in on Instagram, but it's a little bit harder for us to go back and find those. So just tune in on Facebook or YouTube. And hey, the 40 people who are guys, we have a podcast now like you're listening to it, but you can subscribe to it. Our episodes are being uploaded, so we're not on Google yet. Hopefully that happens today. But on Spotify and on Apple podcasts search get better at beach volleyball and you can download our episodes and you can listen to our heavenly voices talk volleyball all day long. All right, I'll see you guys later.
[00:50:12 - 00:59:51]
Mark Burik:
I'll stick around and I will answer questions.All right. You can pick your friends on the stream, Joy, but you shouldn't pick your nose. Oh, Brandon was picking his nose. Okay. Checking in from Virginia. Thanks, Mike. Good to see you. Our Virginia boys. Brandon would be happy, and I was a Mason, Cat, Go GMU. Max. Still feeling warm ups from the camp? I love it. Max, keep using those warm ups. They will make you better, more athletic. They'll help you last longer. Tucson coach listening in. Awesome, Ted. Appreciate it. Ted, we do have a coach specific email list that we're going to start going through. Some coaching reminders, advice. We know that there are tons of coaches that are better than us, more experience, have different teams. Brandon and I have both coached NCAA, but we've coached indoor NCAA and we know that the beach NCAA coaches are going through a lot witheverything. But we do throw a lot of tips, reminders and coaching to our coaches and we always think, man, more coaches should hear this. So if you sign up for our email list, just make sure that you fill out that you are a coach and we can start sending you just some little goodies, some things that might help you or that remind you of good stuff. Guys, I don't understand what you're talking about. Can you put Portuguese subtitles? We'll try. We'll figure out how to do that someday. Where can I find the warm ups you're discussing? Sorry, I'm new here. Okay, Ted. Yeah, I will see. Ted, if you go into volley chat right after this, I'm going to see if I can find our warm up videos on YouTube. I'm pretty sure we have them, but I'm going to post it if we have it on YouTube. And if you want to do our full 60 day Max vertical program, just go to Bitter Beach.com store and you will see it right there. Can we talk ABP schedule? I would love to talk AVP schedule. No player can say that we're not disappointed that we don't have a schedule yet. It's frustrating to try to plan to try to plan our workouts, try to plan our weeks, our lives without a tournament schedule. But we hope that they're coming out in a week, couple of weeks so that we can start doing it. And we have no idea what the future is going to look like. Valleys is the new owner. We got a lot to see, so it's really all I got to say about that, but I hope it's going to be good. All right. I'd love to come to Florida. You should come to a camp, Ted. I'm going to be in Golfport tomorrow. I leave tomorrow to go to Gulfport, Florida and run a clinic there. So if you guys are ever interested in bringing me out for a clinic, I'll tell you one thing. We have twelve people there. Twelve all you need twelve people for a full day to bring out me, Brandon, one of our coaches. And if you want to take a look at how those clinics are designed and what you need, we need it minimum twelve full commitments to be able to go there. And you can check that out at bitterbeach. Comclinics. Great explanation. Thank you so much for your efforts. I always struggle with that as a hobby player trying to get better. Thanks. Forget David Cook at lower levels when facing teams that aren't great at hitting, should I still go up for a block or Peel back? David, I would not try to base your defense on winning through blocking. You want to base it through ball control, especially when teams can only pass and set and time their approach well enough to get consistent hard hits. Some people can hit hard if it's perfect, but the majority of the time they're not passing, setting and designing their offense well enough to be able to get that so it doesn't work out for them. And the more you get stuck blocking against people who can't consistently get big hits, you're going to give up those points. So I recommend learning to Peel early. And then as you work your way up to the AAA and Open level, then you can start throwing up blockers there once you start playing those physical players that have consistent pass and set. Oh, Brad Wise, maybe this is an AVP schedule that he thinks. Is this a leak? I don't know, but he says Phoenix Clearwater, Austin Hermosa, Atlanta, Manhattan, Chicago, Atlantic City. That does sound like potential ABP schedule. We'll see. I would love to come to Germany. I would love to come to France. We will get Joe Rogan on our podcast soon. Thank you. Always record. I 100% agree with you Ted. Record your videos for playing and lifting. It will help you get better so much faster. It does have value to leave the Q and A on the recording. Thank you Eric. Yeah, maybe it's just like a post after the credits roll. Then you can stick around and hear the live Q and A. That might be cool. Okay Eric, thanks. Doing great with the videos. I am started with beach now and I'm playing indoor cool. Good luck in your endeavors Leon. Let us know if we can do anything for your game. What is a great job for improving defensive quickness? What is the biggest mistake players make in their footwork sprints? Shuffles side to side shuffles. In our Max Vertical program, we have one drill where literally all you have to do is put two obstacles 15ft apart, 5 meters apart and you get 20 touches right? You get 20 seconds to get as many touches as you can. So it turns into like a 22nd sprint. But it's all shuffles. And if you just teach yourself, train yourself to move faster, changing directions, you're going to be in a better spot. So we put a ton of other agility and speed drills in 60 days Max Vertical and we also have some defensive drills that you can use on YouTube or you can go to Bitterbeach Comblog. It's actually way easier to search through our videos on Bitterbeach Comblog because you can search them by keyword on YouTube. A bunch of other random stuff will pop up. So head tobetterbeach comblog. Use any keyword or search the way that you would in there and our video and our article should pop up. Nicole how often should A-B-A player be blocking in women's? Nicole I would say if you're a B or an A women's player, the answer should be never should you be blocking if the ball is not on your side? If you can touch the ball, if it's tight enough where you can physically grab it, touch it. That means a part of the ball might be coming over the net. That is when you should throw that block up. But at the B and A level, players are not hitting hard enough or fast enough to require a blocker. So the only time you should be there is when you can physically grab it and stop [email protected]. And if you're not tall enough to do that, then you shouldn't be there, period. You would hang out near the net and wait for that overpass or that short poke that happens when people get set tight. Okay, Mark, can I subscribe to your membership on a monthly payment instead of annual? Mark, we don't do that anymore. If you are going to commit to the Beach Volleyball Mastery, we start you off with a full year subscription so that you actually dedicate yourself. We find that when people are ready to commit, then they're ready for us and our program. So if you want to go there, if you want to join Beach Volleyball Mastery and you're ready to commit, then you had better beach. Comcoaching. It is priced the way it is, and it is expensive upfront. But what it does in expense, we give you so many hours of coaching. It is nonstop all access coaching for less than $500 for a year. So I very much recommend our program. Is it for everybody? No. Is it for the person who wants to maximize their improvement quick? For somebody who wants to stop making the same mistakes over? For somebody who doesn't know what they're doing wrong or the things that they are doing wrong, then our Beach Volleyball Mastery program is 100% for you. And you can just absorb all of those courses. And you can talk with us twice a week where you have full conversations through videos. And you can post all of your questions on our group. You can post your videos on our group, and we're in there and we're coaching every single day. You have all access to fantastic coaches, National Champions, continental Champions. So I 100% recommend that if you are the person that wants to take the next step in your game, our Beach Volleyball Mastery program is the fastest way for you. There's no doubt in my mind about that. Darryl, nice explanation today. Thank you. And that's it. All right, guys, hope you're having a great day I will be in Florida starting tomorrow. I got a nice long flight. Luckily I got upgraded and I will be in Gulfport so if you are around the Gulfport courts, you guys just come say Hi, give me a wave and I'll be back in California on Saturday. All right I will talk to you guys later. Have a great day and we'll see you next Monday. Remember, I see a bunch of people still watching subscribe to our podcast. I think that's a big deal. I know you're here right now but maybe you'll miss it one day and then you can see the episodes that we upload. Alright, take you later. Bye.
