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Mark Burik:
I think it's important for everybody to evolve that to take what works, especially what works for you. I think the problem is that people don't get a full look at what works for them. They get a perception of what they think is the problem or the solution. What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Better At Beach Volleyball Podcast. My name is Mark Burik. Here on this podcast, we talk about everything that has to do getting Better at beach volleyball. And today specifically, we're going to talk about bad coaches. We're going to put a few coach archetypes on blast, and we're going to talk about what coaches normally do to ruin practices, ruin players, how a lot of coaches are really wasting time in the gym and on the sand and good ways and easy ways to fix them. And special guest with us today, Better At Beach coach and friend, former NCAA Division One coach Chad Mercado. Very nice, Chad. What's going on, man?
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Chad Mercado:
Living the dream out in California.
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Mark Burik:
Hell, yeah. You're sitting in my garage gym. It's been treating us nice. Our biceps are firing.
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Chad Mercado:
We didn't even do chest. My chest is stored. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but back and by and here we are.
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Mark Burik:
Nice. So you came out to California, you were coaching juniors tournament. How did that go? What happened? And just start by introducing yourself a little bit about your history from playing because you're still playing professionally indoor and coaching. So let's just give the audience a little insight into who Chad is.
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Chad Mercado:
Awesome. Yeah. They call me Chad and Daddy. I'm from Orlando, Florida, out in the East Coast. I actually went to school at Lee's McCray Small School up in North Carolina. Graduated from there in 2011 and started playing professionally in Puerto Rico. Won, I guess it would be a League Championship. Very first year out of College was really awesome. I got to play with Scott Tzinski from the 2008 national. Haven't heard that name in a while. Yeah. So he got to see his gold medal. That was pretty cool. But I just remember watching him play and watching that whole team that was the boy ball and all them. And it was an honor. It was really cool to be brought up during that time. And then after Puerto Rico, I actually moved out here towards Riverside to coach with California Baptist, where I was training with the team there. We finished fifth in the poll ABCA Poll men's poll that year in 2013 and trained and got a little bit better and went out to Holland, which was always a dream of mine, to play overseas in Europe. And let's see, I got
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Mark Burik:
the Holland, the Dutch, Netherlands. There's not too many countries that have that many names. Exactly. But they're such like a volleyball powerhouse. It's crazy. They just keep turning out. First of all, great beach teams kind of out of nowhere. They are per capita. One of the tallest countries in the world, if not the tallest. And their indoor teams are so legit. I think especially on the women's side, they have a tremendous indoor women's team. Was there anything different about their coaching culture or their playing culture that you could pick out? As you noticed, this is probably what makes them great because you were working for Gold Medal Squared, which is a company that we both worked for where they developed coaches for indoor, and that was created by the last three decades of Olympic coaches in the US. So you had a lot of experience in the American circuit of coaching. So was there anything different in Holland that you thought they did differently that was good or significantly worse than the US did?
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Chad Mercado:
I can't put my finger on anything specifically, but I think their philosophy is the training as well. I don't think they believe in rest as much. I'll give you that. It's pretty much train, train. And there wasn't like these like we have now kind of like, okay, here's a recovery day with active stretching and this. There was just kind of play like non stop. We want to do as many specific technical drills. We would kind of just jump into more gameplay or game scenarios where it's like triple block out of system. Okay, here's the toss from out of system, boom, you're going on a triple block and play it out. Whereas in the United States sometimes, especially, like in the off season, we are going with like, okay, how do I break down a specific skill and spend a lot on an hour or two on that? And yeah, that's the biggest thing, is there's more reps game like reps. And I don't know if that's a Holland thing. I don't know if that's a professional thing. I know from what I've heard from other professionals, that's kind of the idea behind it. A lot more gameplay and a lot more situational volleyball. But yeah, that was the experience over and on.
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Mark Burik:
Yes, you kind of hope at some point that as a pro athlete, somebody's getting paid to play that you should be technically sound technique can always get better, can always improve. But at that level, when everybody's kind of physically similar, it probably comes down to more mental and more just automation in terms of reps. But I know, for example, in Beach, Americans get kind of made fun of because of how much talking we do and how much explaining through each thing and that really want to just understand things in. I think the Brazilian style of coaching is just non stop reps. You see any film from a Brazilian practice and you've got literally six coaches on two guys just throwing in different balls and getting as many touches as you can until you just maybe unconsciously memorize that touch without needing to worry about the technique.
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Chad Mercado:
Yeah. And it's all cognitive because when you're getting that many touches and that many reps. Your body's thinking, okay, I know in this situation I've already done this a thousand times. Instead of talking about it, they've actually done it right. So it's like you're going through that drill and you're like, oh, wow, you don't even have to think about it. And that's kind of another form of training or that's an awesome form of training where your body is saying muscle memory wise and cognitive wise or mentally you're thinking, oh, this guy's going here. So I need to put the ball here. It's not even a thought. It just happens.
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Mark Burik:
Yeah. It's always interesting because it's so hard to study those or put those into statistics of which form of coaching is better or best. Can you coach an athlete without talking? If you read The Inner Game of Tennis, the guy who wrote that, he said, some of my best coaching years and some of the best times I worked with an athlete was when I refused to talk, I would just demonstrate and then have him try to mimic or demonstrate in slow motion and then have the players try to mimic. And I think a lot of players and we're going to get into this in a little bit here. But I think a lot of coaches definitely end up talking way too much. And I've witnessed it. I've probably been that guy at a few different points.
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Chad Mercado:
I know I have.
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Mark Burik:
Yeah. So it's trying to find that balance of repetition. Where do we need to rep the whole versus part conversation? Like, is a whole skill and a whole point. Are those different? Because when we talk about whole versus part, there is significant science behind the idea of progression drills where you break down one part of a technique and you only work on that that you won't acutely. You'll feel better at that single part, but you won't develop the entire skill as fast as you would over time as if you trained the entire skill. So if we're just talking about, let's say like an approach for an arm swing, if you throw your arms back and you just only work on throwing your arms back and you just work on firing them, is that going to make you better at an approach if you don't take four steps approach and jump? The science says no, the science says it won't because you have to incorporate that into the whole skill. And I'm a case study in that because coaching in Sweden, while I was playing pro, I realized that I was wasting my arm on, like these 15 year old juniors. I was just hammering them all day and I was like, my arm is gassed. So I said I got to learn how to hit lefty. So at least I got some energy for my own matches. And I ended up developing some pace lefty standing on the ground, and I could hit consistently and accurate with my left arm and I could serve. I still ended up getting surgery on my right shoulder. So I was like, you know what? Fine, let's play lefty. Let's jump and hit. So when I would jump and hit after seven months of standing and hitting lefty, it was hopeless. I couldn't contact the ball. I was slapping at it. So this one, like, little case study of your practicing a significant part of the drill, which is just an arm swing. By being on the ground and swinging, that made me know better in the air than day one would have been. And I think people need to understand that and we're going to get into that here in a couple of minutes. But that whole versus part and then in terms of skill, does that carry over to a point? If you're practicing passing and you're receiving it from over the net, can you get better just by doing the pass, or do you need to do the whole path set every time in order to get better at scoring points? And that's something that I don't think has been studied.
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Chad Mercado:
Yeah. I think with the part and the skill, I think you have to learn, like the majority, like you were talking about first, and then you can always revisit and go back and fine tune things. Yeah. But you can't just start fine tuning everything and then 20 years later be like, oh, I finally got it. It's not going to be realistic. You got to learn the broad skills, so to speak. Like you said, I got to be able to pass, but right after that you got to be able to hit. Right. So you got to learn how to pass into it. So that way when you are passing, you're not just solely focused on your approach or whatever skills coming next. You can kind of glue them together. I don't know if you need to do all bumps and actually hit, though. I don't know if you actually have to. If you're working on the footwork transitioning into your approach, I think that's a big thing. And then hitting, I think would be separated after that. If we're getting into that kind of topic, makes sense,
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Mark Burik:
like Gold Medal Square. Right. That was in the coaching manual is what's the best way to learn passing past, set, hit. What's the best way to learn hitting past, set, hit. They really wanted you to incorporate the full actions on your side of the net in order to improve in something. I think there's definitely a ton of value in that. But what we do want to talk about now and we'll probably list them off. I'll go for the first one. And in the back of your head, you just start coming up with some things that you've seen. Could you tell us just a few of the schools that you've coached at and what you're doing in terms of juniors right now?
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Chad Mercado:
Yeah. I coached men with California Baptist University out of Riverside. Like I said, we finished top five in 2013. It was our first year going into NCAA volleyball from NAIA. I think we swept UCLA that year. We split with a bunch of teams, all the old school NPSF teams. And then I also was at the University of Florida for two years under Mary Wise and debut indoor females. And that was a great experience. But learning so they don't run a gold medal square system. And so I'm somewhere in between. I played under gold medal square, coached led camps, and then I also learned from a different brilliant mind at University of Florida. And so I kind of mesh and see a little bit of both. I don't think there's any one way to do anything, so to speak,
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Mark Burik:
that's that quote right from Bruce Lee. Take what's essential, discard what's unimportant, and then make it yours. I don't know if that's the exact quote, but Hayden said it on a couple of podcasts ago, and I think it's important for everybody to evolve that to take what works, especially what works for you. I think the problem is that people don't get a full look at what works for them. They get a perception of what they think is the problem or the solution. And we'll get into that a little bit later. But let's start running down the list here of how to waste your practices. So I was privy to a juniors practice. That when it started off, I was like, yes, these people know what they're doing. I loved it. The warm up was all volleyball moves, like lateral lunges. They did these Spiderman lunges where they lunged forward and they laid out so they're like little girls getting push up moves, deep lunges, and volleyball moves constantly. And then the first ten minutes started off with them basically jogging back and forth, passing to themselves and then setting to themselves and getting some one handed touches. And I know it's not a whole skill, but in my mind, when I look at a practice, I say, what's the reps per minute? That is really one of the top key factors that I see as far as the successful practice, what is the reps per minute of each athlete? And there's a very simple way for coaches to measure that. Once you start your drill or even if you have somebody on the side, follow one athlete and follow your watch and see how many times they've touched a ball. And if you have lines, if you have waiting periods, if you have coaches who are either standing around doing nothing or feeding way too much and you're counting and you're saying one athlete is only getting one touch every two minutes, by the end of the practice, they're going to have 60 attempts in 2 hours. Now for volleyball, you can definitely maximize that. So this practice had started off with tons of passing to ourselves, setting to ourselves, sitting against the wall, some arm swings against the wall. And I was like, this is great. This is going to be a tremendous practice. And then it quickly devolved into one coach who had three assistant coaches just kind of standing and talking, not really doing anything, and one coach who was feeding. So there was a line of players, which meant that somebody had to wait a little over two and a half minutes before her single touch. When you had more than enough balls, you had access to three other people who can what adult can't do this? Like punch the ball out of their hands? And so this one line scenario was wasting. I said I could immediately forex this practice in terms of effectiveness and skill because one of the things that we have in our camp coaching manual is you do not see one court and twelve players. When you see that you need to see four courts or more and four groups of three players. As soon as you start chopping those down into small groups, then you can forex the amount of reps. So instead of for all those coaches out there, when you see a big group of players and one coach or one court, one net, no, that one net in indoor that can be up to six courts, really, you can divide it in thirds. But to be comfortable with space and everything, you can divide that and it can be four courts. Then you can divide those players and they can all do that. And what I didn't know at the time when I was playing in high school is that my high school coach was a master of this. The first thing we did every single practice was triangle. And our reps per minute in the first 30 minutes of every single practice in our high school was through the roof compared to any other coaches. And that's a small private school, medium private school that went to state Championships every single year. So if you're looking at reps per minute, get yourself out of lines. Get your team out of lines. Look at one player, count their reps in two minutes. If it's under one rep per minute, fix it, find a way. Put them on a wall, get them swinging at something, get them jumping. But to stand in line is an absolute waste of a player's time unless they are in a recovery from a Max effort and they're in a gym. That's the only reason why I would say standing around is okay. So that's number one for me is reps per minute. And how do you fix that? What's your number one or pet peeve or things where you see coaches kind of miss
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Chad Mercado:
kind of Tags along with that. If we break up into pieces just to quickly touch on that is like if we have one side, let's say we have pin headers on one side and middles on another. Usually the setter is going to get that middle, but they're hitting different angles. So like the pins can hit down the line and then the middles will be hitting 31, whatever they're going, two sides going. And then there's also defenders that are getting reps. So you're basically breaking it down into four sides of the court where everyone's getting reps. Kind of like what you mentioned.
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Mark Burik:
So you're saying like instead of people hitting from the antennas and just hitting into a high open court, completely open court, you can throw a defender down on the other side. They're getting defensive opportunities and looks and you force your players to hit line or you force them to hit diagonals. It's funny because on the court next to the one that I was just talking about, they had their grownup girls who are crazy athletic and just banging, but it was the same thing. They had three lines of people, each waiting for their turn with one setter hitting on a completely open court. So I saw like missed opportunities at reps like you're talking about for
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Chad Mercado:
Sure. And you can always switch that up outside starts hitting line. Okay, well, now they're going to hit angle. So the person sits in angle and then you just make a different middle call in a different middle set or anything like that. And you can do that with a big beach group as well. It's not just indoor biggest pet peeve. I hate shagging, honestly. I like having one of the groups kind of make sure that there's something so it's continuous where we don't have to stop every seven, eight minutes. Somebody's working hard throughout the drill, high intensity, and then they're getting a breather. And that breather is an active rest or recovery where they're shagging and making it a system where you're continuously going. You're not having to stop 10, 15, 20 times throughout practice.
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Mark Burik:
And I think that's one of those group things like group mindset because that would almost go against what we just said with his reps per minute. But that dead time in between. That's going to cost you even more reps per minute, right? You have to collect balls all of a sudden, then no one's getting reps per minute. So if one of your groups can be collecting, making sure that they don't say, but for any parents and coaches out there, enlist your parents and your assistant coaches and say, hey, parents, would anyone like to just block the balls and make sure that they get back here so that we can get the girls some more reps 100%, there's going to be at least one dad. Like, I know I would be in there saying like, yeah, I completely understand this and I'll outshag both. And like you said before, too, there was three coaches that weren't doing anything. So if that's the case, then they can stand on the online and make this a little easier and then you wouldn't have to have that would be the small group. Right. And say, okay, throw that in. All right, so we're shagging, we're talking about reps per minute. I'm going to jump into our coach manual here. One thing that I think coaches kind of ruined themselves on. It might come from a lack of preparation or a generosity of knowledge, but you have to focus on one thing. If you give an athlete advice and you say, hey, our hitting is going to get better today. Right. Because you went home and you worked on the double arm lift with your approach. So we're ready to rock and that's your focus today. Great. You've given that athlete one focus and then as soon as you jump into the first scrimmage drill, you comment of why he or she should have been on the line instead of into the diagonal. And you're commenting now on her defense because she just lost that point. You as a coach, have to focus your brain and your words in terms of your goal, for one, the team, of course, and then to the individual player, because your individual player might have unique goals compared to your team. Right. So you have to stop talking about everything for every reason. And it doesn't come from a point of you being a bad coach or being hard on players. I have all of this information in here and I want them all to know everything that I know. But that's not how learning works. You have to focus on one chapter at a time and lock that in and allow that player to work on it and to focus on it. And it's your job actually to focus their brain. Because if your brain is scattered 100%, your players brains are going to be scattered. Right. That's why dogs act like they're owners. Very similar with players. If you got a scattered brain and you're thinking and talking about all these different things and then you get into the game and you say, why aren't we doing the thing that we worked on? Yeah, we have to get back to that because I thought you were mad at me for jumping on the line instead of diagonal. Yeah. For me, it's focus plan and make sure that you give one goal per athlete. And that's where your words go when you talk to that athlete.
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Chad Mercado:
Yeah. It goes back to your example of reading. If you skim through something, you're not going to retain all the information. You might see a couple of things here and there, but you're going to have to go back and read it, which is going to be like practice. You're going to have to go back and practice that skill again and again and again because it's not going to stick. It's just going to kind of be there like, hey, we did hitting today, but would you like well, I think I was digging and no. What did you learn about hitting? Well, yeah, that's an issue.
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Mark Burik:
One thing that we do at the camps is we always say to the players, okay, rate yourself on focus and rate yourself on performance. Did you focus on what you needed to focus on? And usually that's the first key because if you don't have an eight, nine or ten out of ten, in terms of did you actually focus on it, on what you're supposed to work on for this practice? They're like, Shoot, no, I didn't. I started thinking about defense and my positioning and like where my hands were instead of what my actual goal was. And so you need to have that rating as a coach. Look at your folks. And that's also for the coaches, right? A head coach can look at all their assistant coaches, especially in a Big D one program, and say, hey, coaches, rate your level of focus on your feedback.
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Chad Mercado:
Yeah, it is tough because as a coach, you're thinking, okay, I need to get all these things done and our first match is a month from now, whatever. So you are kind of scattered. You're like, oh, my God, I'm thinking the beginning of the season, right? You're like, okay, I got Sidney this blah, blah, blah, blah. And we need to be able to do all this with them. And it's like, okay, that can be overwhelming. If you try to do it all within that month, you got to realize it's a season and you got to realize it's a year or whatever, how long your season is. And it's like, okay, slowly build up, enjoy the process. Get this through a process. Don't just look at like, hey, I need her to hit ten foot line, okay? She's not hitting ten foot line. Well, she's not digging it. What happened to ten footline? You keep going back and forth. You have more time than you think. And I think that's for younger coaches, you see that you're like, okay, all the information is out. I did my job. And it's like, okay, well, you have all this time and now they're scattered when you could have just broken it down slower. Take a deep breath. Okay, this is we're going to work through it and then not just teach them, but let them memorize it. Let their body memorize it. Let them kind of catch up to where you're at. That makes sense.
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Mark Burik:
Not 100%. You just came from a juniors tournament, right? So I'm sure that as a coach, as a long term player, you get the opportunity to look at maybe 100 teams a year and kind of in the back of your mind decide why the other coaches screwing up and how you're going to beat them and kind of egotistically, like how you're doing a better job than them. So can you pick out anything that you see specifically at tournaments, that coaches are doing too much or too little of maybe
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Chad Mercado:
I'll call myself out. I can get pretty passionate on the sidelines. It's funny because I was watching. So we are in the third set. We have beaten this team before early in the year, and now this is our fourth match of day one to get into gold. This is 18 Nationals, by the way, Jos, I see him kind of losing it or getting really upset and looking over, and I'm just kind of like, okay. And I'm quiet, but he looks really mad. I don't know why he was mad. He looked mad at me. And so I was just kind of like, I'm going to play cool this time. And sure enough, our team slowly came back as he was getting a little upset or mad and all that stuff and a little bit too fiery and ticked off looking. It was just the body language. He wasn't yelling too much. It just looked like he was just angry at the world. And I was like, you know what? Sometimes I might look like that, and it's like, oh, I got to have to check myself. And so in that moment, I fixed it. I was just very calm and quiet, but I need to be able to do that a little bit more. But your body language is a huge thing when you're coaching from the sidelines in the games, and it's hard, especially if you really do care. And there's a lot of passion there for wanting to win. You just got to kind of take that deep breath and go back and realize what's important. And for them, the players on the court, it's like, all right, I look over my coach. If he's kind of looking like that, you got to kind of check yourself, because then they're going to feel a little bit anxious or a little bit of anger or whatever energy you're giving off.
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Mark Burik:
You remember the I'm not sure if he's still the head coach or not, but the Brazilian head coach is it Resent?
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Chad Mercado:
Yeah, the Southern dad. Brazilian said,
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Mark Burik:
yeah, I think it's his last name. Like Resendi. Here's a guy who's just literally screaming every point, jumping up and down on the sides, of course, like super fiery and going nuts, both happy and both mad and like, dude, Where's his heart on his sleeve? 100%. And you look at something like that and you say, man, this guy, how is he getting away with this? As a leader who is just up and down, up and down, yet still has top three team in the world every year, where is that disconnect? Because I was also trained on a similar thing. Like, a leader should be calm, straightforward, nice and calm, but a little bit inspirational, but you can't lose yourself to your emotions, and you also don't want your players to lose yourself to the emotions.
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Chad Mercado:
Yeah, I think he could get away with it just because of culture. I think our culture is a lot different than Brazil, where they're a little bit more animated, even playing. Like, if you go watch their players, they're getting rambunctious throughout. And it kind of matches, I guess, in a way, and they understand each other. Whereas especially if we're dealing with youth, we've got to carry this, like, on the general kind of like, everything's okay, feel and nothing phases me. Our culture just wants to feel. I think our girls and boys just kind of want to feel safe. I would say when I'm coaching my girls, they want to feel, hey, I feel comfortable. And now because I'm comfortable, I can play. Yeah, they feel uncomfortable. It gets kind of like, okay, I don't know what to do now because I'm worried about too many things.
00:29:56,428 --> 00:30:02,690
Mark Burik:
I think that's probably the most interesting point is that maybe the coaching style has to match the cultural style. Kind of like Russian almost Eastern block coaching and players at our camps where we're like, this is great, guys. We're having a good time. We're on vacation. We literally have the Russians from Seattle who are like, you need to tell me how bad I'm sucking. I'm so tired of hearing everything good that I have. They're like, you need to tell me what's wrong so that I can fix it. And that's kind of their culture like, what's wrong? So they feel most natural in that environment, and then that's where they improve. I think US has definitely leaned towards safety and comfort, and so you can't make somebody feel bad, because culturally, that's what's happened in our country. I think as far as coaching style, that has to now match with the culture for better or for worse. And maybe the Brazilian where they love their emotions and they express them fully. I think that's also probably accepting the culture is accepting of that coaching leadership style. So maybe you're right. It is 100% a cultural thing, and you have to understand that. And if you do want to coach emotionally, then you're going to have to create that culture within your club and say, this is what we want. This is where we're at. So maybe that's the right direction there. And there are tons of different emotional leaders in every facet of the world and every genre. They're not all just this stoic, one emotion type person, but I think you've got to figure out the culture that's going to make your girls comfortable or your guys comfortable.
00:30:02,690 --> 00:31:38,558
Chad Mercado:
Yeah. And like research, check out some leadership videos on YouTube or different people influencers all that stuff. They kind of give you an idea of what they've gone through. And like, all right, I got to try this style or this doesn't work with the team or, okay, this is a little too harsh, but this didn't really get my point across. This is too fluffy, and you just kind of mess with it and find that balance. It's all about balance.
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Mark Burik:
Yeah. We all just want to say like, listen, your passing sucks. So here's how you're going to fix it. But instead you got to say, good job on having your hands together early. Looks like your elbows were completely closed and your fist was hitting your face. But we can fix that together. There's a lot of softness. Yeah. There's that sandwich. And it takes longer. But currently, at least where our culture is at, I think you're right. We have to fix our coaching in order to do that, especially if we want to survive and thrive in a club world where we're going to have a new set of parents every year and where the entire culture is telling everybody that we need to be very safe and very comfortable and that it's not okay if somebody's unhappy, which we can get into that in another episode. But that's where we're at right now. And I think coach need to recognize that that their emotion, their feeling, their personality might not match with the rest of culture or the acceptance of a large contingent of parents. Yeah. Somebody's looking on Instagram for 4 hours a day and they're getting coached 2 hours a day. The culture that they see on Instagram is what they're going to think is right.
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Chad Mercado:
Yeah, for sure.
00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:11,030
Mark Burik:
All right, moving on. So we talked about making sure that people get their focus and that they stay focused. Here's another one that I absolutely despise, and it didn't start out like this because I thought it was valid. Explaining Drills At no level in my volleyball experience has a verbal explanation of a drill ever been faster than grabbing somebody by the shoulders, putting them in the position that they need to be in, calling somebody out by name, saying, Jessica, you're there. Sam, you're there. Frank, you're here. Frank, you pass to Jessica. Jessica, you set to Sam. Sam, catch it and give it to Frank. Do that demonstration, the full drill. Do the demonstration while talking about it so that people see it for whatever reason. In most people's minds, the verbal explanation of a volleyball drill never makes sense. And if we're talking like our camps and clinics where sometimes somebody has never even been in a volleyball drill, you have no hope. You're going to waste half of your practice again, talking like, let's say you're coaching ten or twelve year olds. Right. You're going to waste half of that practice just talking about the drill and trying to get their rotations right. Stop. Just show them and then insert them. I think that through my experience, that has been the fastest way. So now I never explain a drill before. I show it. I either show it and explain it at the same time or I just show it.
00:34:49,730 --> 00:34:50,706
Chad Mercado:
Showing for sure. 100%, you sit there and you'll waste five minutes. Then you'll go. And then because you said something when you were explaining it and not when you were demonstrating it. Then there's another question after that. So sometimes it's three or four minutes after you've already just demonstrated. So now you've done a demonstration sandwich where you demonstrate verbal and it's like 15 minutes doesn't sound like a good idea for practice if you have a two hour practice window, like that is not essential, not efficient.
00:34:50,706 --> 00:35:25,218
Mark Burik:
And then you've also explained three different positions usually, right? Yes. And so now somebody has to think about what position am I in? Oh, wait, what were the instructions for that position? Where do I go after I'm in that position? And then they don't even know to go there. That's a struggle that we see and we use a lot of names. Now where it's like I said, Chad, you're here, you're setting for the next two minutes. All you have to worry about is delivering perfect sets. Go. You know, instead of these complicated rotations, rotations do not need to exist within drills. Do a drill for a minute, two minutes, five minutes, then put them into their next spots. The whole idea of automated rotations, I think it breaks practices completely.
00:35:25,218 --> 00:36:13,030
Chad Mercado:
Yes, I get the idea because you're getting a lot of different visuals or different reps from different spots. But I agree, if you're going to say focus solely on a skill or one thing, then you should focus on one position or one part space on the court, one place on the court. So that way you can focus on that. Hey, I'm digging to my right because I'm right side. Okay, great. Boom. Here's my dig, here's my dig. Here's my dig. Ball goes to my left. I dig it. I might not, but I'm focused on my right. It makes it a lot easier instead of going back from the right and then going over to the left and saying, well, now I can't do that on the right. Doesn't make any sense. So if you're going to break down the skill or focus on one skill, I think it's the same idea as letting somebody get multiple reps in the same position or the same place on the court.
00:36:13,030 --> 00:36:52,962
Mark Burik:
Yeah. And if you think you got a mini line, like, let's say one person is serving, one person's passing, one person setting, and you don't want to do the passer to setter to server, like you don't want to do that rotation. Yeah. There's still going to be a rotation, but you could just rotate. Okay, you three are the passers. You're going to alternate passing for the next minute. Then they don't have to think about who shags what ball. What about when a shank happens or the ball goes everywhere? It becomes a headache. And I think less rotation is going to make the volleyball world a much better place. If you look at the classic servers versus Pastors, it's ten balls, right? It's like, okay, you have three people, four people serving. You have a stutter. If they want to get reps or coach counting the past how good the past is. And then you have four passes and it's like, okay, the three are on, one comes on and you're just rotating, rotating, rotating. And you're on that same side, though, after the ten balls have to do a little consequence. You do whatever you need to do and then you switch, hey, Lucy, come over here and switch with this passer. Now she gets the reps and she can go over there. The other person gets the rep serving and they're consistently in that spot where it's quick and they know the role. Right. You got any more in the top of your head? I got one right now,
00:36:52,962 --> 00:38:21,560
Chad Mercado:
I think. Don't just say what, but if you're going to take time to explain something, don't say like the what so much like, hey, I need you to jump higher or give them a why or give them a how. Instead of just saying the obvious, you need to get lower on that ball. Yeah, the ball hit the ground. Yeah, I need to get lower. She knows that or he knows that. It's not an issue. It's like how or why. How do I do that? Oh, well, take a big forward lunge step and get a little bit lower to the ground. So that way when you get to the ground, you can collapse and be soft onto the ground instead of dropping from 5ft up in the air. And that will make you want to do it more. And then obviously keep it quick. But if you give them a quick why, a quick how, that goes a long way. Instead of just saying jump higher, do better. You're better than that or I need more from you. Sometimes you can use that if it's a motivational thing, but especially in practices, give them my explanation. Give them what's going on.
00:38:21,560 --> 00:39:16,940
Mark Burik:
Yeah, I like that. That kind of actually ties in with the one that I was thinking of is if you need to explain one thing to one person, do not stop your entire practice to do so. Correct. If one person is making one mistake and this is the problem when coaches are controlling the feeding. Right. If the only person who is controlling the feeding or initiating drills is the person who needs to be giving the most information, it's difficult on them to actually stop that practice. So there's two solutions there. Number one, you do not stop a practice or stop your group from training and getting repetitions just to fix one person. You say, Tony, come on over here. You keep repping out the drills, keep feeding them, keep that drill going, but talk to this person and correct them while the drill is still living. I don't pause the entire drill. That's actually just two things right there. You need to talk to that person individually, keep the drill going. And if you need to talk to them. You can talk and knock balls at the exact same time, right? Yeah. If you have an assistant coach, if you're lucky enough to have an assistant coach. Hi, Sarah, go take Tony and work on his arm, swing on the other net, and then you just keep going. But there's really no need to stop everybody else from doing their job just to correct one person.
00:39:16,940 --> 00:40:49,220
Chad Mercado:
Yes. And if there is, let's say it's I sequencing, or it's like, okay, you're playing, you're doing ball, center ball hitter. And it's like, okay, all my outsides can learn from this. Then it's like, okay, keep it quick. But then that's more of a group where you're thinking, okay, all my pin hitters are going to say or learn something, then I can maybe say something as a group. That way everybody is on the same page. But if it's just that solar person's left hand not being able to seal the antenna, then you don't need to go around everybody and say, hey, go seal the antenna. I'm with that. And to go back to the player driven drills, that's huge. Because whether it's a serve, whether it's a down ball, whether it's entering for others, like, they get reps through that. Yes. You're getting reps like that and you're able to coach, so you got the freedom. And you know what? It might be ugly. A little ugly at first. Good. That's one of those we're like, grow through it. Grow through it. Yeah. You need this. That's growth. That's literally what growth is.
00:40:49,220 --> 00:45:24,496
Mark Burik:
Yeah. If you need a coach to make the drill pretty or make it work number one, then the coach is controlling that. And that's not the whole point of the practice. They're not going to be able to have the coach make it look good in the game. So you've got to figure out that ugly part quick and just let them struggle. Stay out of there. Don't change your feed. So that has to be perfect. Unless you just see confidence going completely through the floor. Right? Like, all right, find a way to gather them up and regain that confidence in your players. But you have to embrace and have that conversation. You're not going to look like filled out how to right now. We're going to get there. Trust me, we're going to get there, and you're going to feel uncomfortable. You're going to feel ugly. And in the process of feeling ugly and screwing up, that is where your body and your brain learn. But if you need a coach to make it look good, then you need to get that coach out of there and say, okay, go ahead and keep training ugly until they can make it pretty. But don't say like, well, we can't even get the first pass. So how are we going to work on hitting? Guess what? You're going to need to pass in the game in order to get to that hit. So you got to start right there. All these people who work on hitting and they're like, well, we can't even get a path. Then stop working on hitting. You stop doing what are you doing, man? I see that a lot. I know my Labro from George Mason. His name is Graham Shepard. Great laborro, but his high school always turned out the top like another state Champions. And he said that the first two weeks of their season, every season, they didn't spike a ball over the net. It was passing and setting, passing and setting. And this is a team that went to state Championships every year. And it's because I think like guys and people in general, they love the feeling of attempting to spike at full power. There's something like addicting in the human body that like bringing all the force you have and jumping high. You think that that's where the glory is. But you don't realize that the only way to get there is through your pass and set. So that's going to be probably a top five advice. If you can't get to the hitting phase, don't work on it. This, of course, works very different for us, unlike vacations, because we're not going to grind our players through the three, four, five week or month process of learning how to pass before we introduce the concept of sets of attacks. But that's why we have our Journal. That's why we have them write everything down. And we say, listen, every skill that you guys learn at this camp is going to take you a few months to really hit top notch to get your 80% out of it. So your job here is to write everything down and then go and take a month or take two months to work on the one thing that you wrote down and only then can you move on to the next. Even though we go through every skill in one week, we're going to cover all of that. And the goal is to get that all written down, get yourself introduced, get one feeling of it, and then go back home and work on what you need to work on.
00:45:24,496 --> 00:47:10,228
Chad Mercado:
Yes, 100%. One thing I think you mentioned before was like building confidence a little bit back there. And I think that's if we're going to another topic right now, one of the things for coaches is like when to press for growth and struggle and when to press for the confidence or ready to perform. So at Florida, the day before or the day of serving past, I might be taking a little bit off the serve, maybe adding a little bit of top spin. So it's not floating as much or moving as much. My first time, it was not very good. They're like, don't search so hard. I was like, all right, it's just abusing, drop, drop. And I was like, okay, so that's not what they're talking about. But then finding rhythm in that. And it's like you got to do, I guess, what works for the team, not always you, because they're not the ones playing. So you got to figure out what's going to work for your team and say, hey, is it the whole week, am I building the confidence and then we play great on Saturday or this weekend, or is it just that last practice, like we practice Tuesday, Thursday, and then play on a Saturday, let's say, okay, do I need the whole week for this to start revving them up and start getting them in rhythm, confidence wise, or is it can I still give them a little push or a little struggle on Tuesday and then maybe start to build that confidence on Thursday? But you definitely need to play with that line and the preseason. That's the struggle time. That's the time to go after it. But once you're in season, you got to find that balance in that time frame of when am I going to gather this team together and when are they going to be on the same page in the right direction, going the right direction before they play?
00:47:10,228 --> 00:50:40,556
Mark Burik:
I like that. I really like that because you take a look at the Roman armies when the Roman Empire was going and these guys were fighting battles weekly. I mean, their army was so good and so dominant because they were fighting the most. They had so much war and fight experience that you could have taken any one of their privates and they could have been a general on any other army just because of experiences. And you want to think like, well, the harder we push, no matter what this is going to, this is going to make you better. But this is also a game. It's a sport. So you have to find those little opportunities to give somebody the confidence that they can succeed in that. Rome had a winning streak, so they kept winning battles and they knew they were a part of an army that was doing non stop winning, right? Yes. So that can be a part of what builds your confidence. And I think you're right. Don't just crush your players and say, you're not getting this. You're not getting this. You're not getting this because since you do that, your army feels beaten dog. You're just down in the dumps, and then you ask them to show up with energy for their match. You just told us, we felt we caused how bad we say every goal you set, we couldn't come close to achieving. So we don't know what winning is like. So I think what I would like to tag on to, what you said is let's set goals that are achievable for your players. And if you say, hey, we need to pass ten perfect free balls in a row and you're coaching a couple of eight year olds and it doesn't happen in 45 minutes, then you say, hey, our season goal is ten perfect free ball passes in a row. But for this one, it's three. Pick something that they're going to get to that they're going to struggle, but make sure that it happens. And that goal setting at the right level for your team is important. And if you choose the wrong goal, step back and redo the goal, that's it. There will be still a sense of achievement. Sometimes we felt that, like in the gym or on the court where a goal was set and we didn't reach it, and then maybe it was lowered and then you reach that and that was kind of a constellation prize, but at least you got through it. You still said like, hey, okay, we did this. And then you keep that first goal somewhere written down and be like, this is write that down high in the gym, high in the net in your player Journal and say this is where we're going to get. Okay, we're not here yet, but this is where we're going to get. And these are the increments that we're going to do it in. And then you just do little five in a row increments until you get there. But I've definitely felt that I did that with my team in Sweden, where we wanted to do plus 100, where you did set, jump, and hit over the net 100 times in a row. Because I knew the US National Team was doing that. I was like, that should be our goal. We got to like twelve, but by the end, by middle of season, we got to 50 in a row, which should have been a win, but I was too much of a hard nose as a coach then to treat it as a win. I kind of wrecked confidence as well,
00:50:40,556 --> 00:51:51,350
Chad Mercado:
for sure. And it's like with exchange, I usually start with exchange over the net. Pepper, for those of you if you're wondering what exchanges cooperative. And usually that's one of the very first deals we do for season and preseason. Learn how to talk, learn how to say each other's name, mind, and the name. It's more about a team connection with that drill, because once you're calling and making plays and doing stuff, the ball just stays up. But if you're quiet and you're this and you're that you're not going for, nobody really wants to play the ball. But the very first thing I'm like, let's go for 50. And I got it in my head and I'm like, it's preseason maybe. Well, my twelve can do. My twelve gotten 40. So you guys can get 60 right? But you got to be realistic for sure, especially with people coming together for the first time or high schools or if they're coming from different areas, let them get to know each other and have more focus on getting to know each other or building connection than actually having to hit 75. Because your other previous team hits 75.
00:51:51,350 --> 00:52:47,602
Mark Burik:
I would say the takeaway from that is when you're setting a goal for your team, start at the lowest possible goal you can consider and then go tiny piece by tiny piece forward, because there's that sense of accomplishment, it builds that confidence, and then you're building it and you never get to the phase where it's like, man, I set that goal too high. Now they know I'm giving them a constellation goal, and they know that, or they feel that they're not where I want them to be. They definitely feel that and they lose that confidence. So if you are setting goals, start at two coaches and then boost it from there, just double that. That's all. And then they'll find that middle ground. Two, then four, then eight, then 16 32. That's a very valid goal setting rhythm.
00:52:47,602 --> 00:53:28,100
Chad Mercado:
Yeah. It's like adult life, right? Like, such a promise is low. Like under promise and over delivered. Literally. It makes you feel if you say, hey, you need to get five today, they get 25, they're going home and they're throwing a party. Like, they are thrilled. And it's just the best which month best way to do that? Because if you say 25 and they only get five now, they're reconsidering playing volleyball ever again, and they're like, well, I'm no good at this sport, and I don't really want to grow because, well, I'm not good at it. It's like, oh, you're okay. It's a team drill. But that's what they're thinking. They're thinking that. So I agree. Start low. I like that.
00:53:28,100 --> 00:54:19,730
Mark Burik:
Yeah. And then if you got one of those, like, pie in the sky goals, I like putting that on the wall of the gym and then doing a little coach wager. Like, I'll shave my head if you guys reach X by the end of the season, those are always fun for kids. And like little. So I'll jump in the Lake if you guys do 100 in a row by the the season. That way they know their brand goal and they have a big, like, seemingly impossible goal. But maybe it's written up there, so maybe. And then you just push their daily goals little by little. I think that's a great question. 100%. That's awesome. Nice. Got to have a whiteboard, by the way. I love it. It's nice to have stuff to write down and giving the players or journals so that they can track their own journey so they can remind themselves. Especially one thing we do over tipping.
00:54:19,730 --> 00:55:30,350
Chad Mercado:
Yeah. One thing we do, too, is we do a player Journal, but we do player check ins throughout practice. And so you have, like a scale. I know you like scales one to ten. So we do scales, like one to five. Hey, we have an individual goal, and we have a volleyball goal for the person. We have a team goal for the person. And then you have an individual character trait. And it's like, okay, what is your focus on for volleyball? What was our team goal? And you go back and you kind of write down how you're feeling one to five and then any other notes throughout practice. So you'll have like, I think it's three check ins. A little different when I have longer practices, but it's three check ins. You start at the beginning of the day, hey, I didn't eat lunch today. My mind is kind of scattered. I don't really know. One with my focus on hitting down the line. And then they can kind of go back and review it and say, oh, you know what? I probably need to eat for lunch because every time I had lunch, I had a four or five. I was able to focus, and now I'm learning my body or they're learning their body and all that data is awesome. So just a quick little idea.
00:55:30,350 --> 00:56:03,030
Mark Burik:
Yeah, every coach should have notebooks or the very least a note section in a phone for their players. I highly again, for anybody, I highly recommend going away from phones, because as soon as they open the notes section, notification is going to come on their phone and they're going to think about who's liking their nonsense and who's following them and who said what. And like, what email came in from work. The more I live, the more I want to move away from.
00:56:03,030 --> 00:57:32,370
Chad Mercado:
Yes, we use binders. Same idea. We use binder. We may let them kind of decorate or customize how they want the front as long as it's the same word, the team word for the year. And it's like, okay, that has a sense of community and pride. But then it's also custom, so it's personal. And then inside that is our rule book, our handbook. Play calls, all the activities, all the character trade activities that we do throughout the weeks, and then all the journaling. So I don't think coaches do enough character like training either. I think we focus on volleyball a lot. And I think touching the character side, hey, accountability. Hey, honesty, these things, they learn these words, and it's kind of like a cliche dictionary. But how does that apply in a drill when you're saying, hey, I hit my target of eight is that being honest and like, training that. And it's showing them videos and showing them a path or showing them examples. I think you can go a really long way with coaching instead of just focusing on X's and O's every single time. I think you start to learn them and develop a trust or a different level of insight with your players when you're focused on the actual human as well.
00:57:32,370 --> 00:57:34,102
Mark Burik:
I could not agree more with that. I had a coach who just moved on from a very prestigious position and another school picked him up. He was hired for his ability to change and create culture. He wasn't given the opportunity to do that. And everything about this man is culture. How do you keep people motivated? How do you keep them accountable? He's the guy that will text you about how much he's squatting just to make sure that you're squatting. He'll send those videos to the friends not to say, look how much I'm squatting. He's sending them to say, did you get your squats in today? He's that type of guy. And people think that culture is just something that you talk about or that it's there. And this is something else that we talk about our clinics a lot. You have to create actively piece by piece, build your environment and your culture. And it comes through actions. It comes through rewards that are just as strong from the cultural side of it as they are from the physical performance side of it. Did you bring the team something today when everybody was cleaning? Were you the first one to step up and start cleaning along with the team? If you have a stat board in your gym, weight room, beach court, whatever, if you have a stat board, you damn well better have a person board that shows the number of times that this person cleaned up their weights, picked up weights, picked up somebody else's weights, fixed a squat rack where the weights were out of order so that it's easier for somebody else. And people don't stack that. And that's what really counts in terms of long term winning and enjoyment. If you don't create that culture, you're going to be a miserable coach. Your players are going to be miserable. Then that's going to create miserable parents and a culture around you. Like, there has to be an active hand in building that the people, especially if you call yourself a coach, you're a leader. That's your position. So it's time to lead the world.
00:59:44,490 --> 01:00:19,770
Chad Mercado:
I agree, man. Like I said, we have one a week that you're focused on and that gives them the soul, like one. So it's not like, hey, here's 15 things in your workout. Honesty is one. So all week they're talking about honesty or all week they were watching reviews and all that stuff. So it's pretty cool, though. I agree. I think building character, man, because if you build that character, then you're going to have a machine that's going to be blowing and you have a machine that's going to be well oiled. You don't you got the little kinks, you got a Bolt missing here. You got this, whatever it means.
01:00:19,770 --> 01:03:28,996
Mark Burik:
All right. If you are here live, this is our Q and A session for Live people. And let's get it rocking. So I will start from the top. Diane Marquez says hello. What's up, Diana? Good to see you back, Mark. Good. Can the girls take turns standing on the other side of the court and shag balls? Yeah, I think we went over that where, yes, they can take turns shagging and they should if that's your only hope. If you've got a giant gym and you can swing the $8150 and get a net that self shags so you don't have to constantly, like, run around 100 yard gym to shag, you're going to save yourself some time. So find systems, find methods that allow you to keep the balls close or they somehow get recycled, whether it's by a digger or like we said, a parent who can get there a wall is nice. Yeah. Aiming if you're on the beach and you want to do heading practice, learn to hit into the wind so that you don't have to chase the ball 80 yards. I mean, I think most of us kind of do that naturally once you realize that the first one is going half a mile down the beach, but a little net set up is really good. And then, yes, a shagging system where one group is shagging for three minutes and that's something that we've moved towards completely is you don't just hit once and then you rotate you guys, you're shagging for the next three minutes. You guys, you're hitting for the next three minutes. You guys are setting for the next three minutes. I will rotate you. As a coach, I want more coaches. I want them to get away from reps because when you say, hey, everybody passed yourself 15 times or 20 times, players end up doing the reps and then sitting there and holding it because that's the assignment that you gave them. So they don't expect that they have to do more. But nobody can keep track of time in their own head. So if you keep saying, all right, 30 more seconds, and I'm notorious for one more minute, that ends up becoming five more minutes. But people, no one stops. They just keep rapping. And that's what you want. So my biggest recommendation for coaching is always have a watch and do drills for time so that you can control it how you want to control it. Or if you're somebody who really wants to get through and you're a big time planner, then you can get through absolutely everything you really wanted to get through. And then that becomes measurable too. Yeah. So, yeah, that's mine for that. Mark Goodkin has coaching style. I'll let you answer this one chat. Has coaching style changed over time? One criticism is that our kids have become too coddled and that parents and teachers need to be softer, quote, unquote with them. So do you think our coaching style in the US or in the world has changed over time?
01:03:28,996 --> 01:04:36,490
Chad Mercado:
I think over time, 100%. Like, you can't say that in the 60s or 70s, 80s, that was different. I mean, look at some of those players and coaches, and it's just like if you go back to vintage videos, it's like all fire, like all passion. Like, what are you doing? That kind of stuff. I understand the choice of words saying software. I don't know if it's softer is a good word, though. I think it's maybe it's more detailed. You're trying to figure out the details, and there's a different path right now to getting to reach your player. And like we talked about earlier, making them feel comfortable. If you make them feel comfortable and you yell, they're still going to be okay. That's not the issue. That's a great point. Yelling does not equal discomfort. Exactly. That's a great point. Let's say I have three people on my team and they're really close to me, and they feel safe with me, and some other three don't. And if I yell all the same, three are going to be happy or normal, and three are going to feel not so normal. So just building that trust, man. And that goes a long way. Yeah.
01:04:36,490 --> 01:06:26,272
Mark Burik:
You know, Ray at camps, he knows when I'm tough on him that he knows that I'm smiling on the inside, and then I'm rooting for him. If somebody doesn't know that you're rooting for them yet, and then you start like yelling right away. It's a tough way to start. People need to trust that you are on their side and that you're working to get them there. And that requires some extra talking. You know, I think like Miracle on Ice, the USA hockey team, that guy hammered his team. But once they realized that, they bonded together and then he had their back. And there's a few cases in that movie where he showed that he had their back, he didn't actively show it to them, but they discovered it. Then they're like, oh, he really wants this for us. It's not for him. And that's a big point. And I think your point, too. Yelling does not equal bad. Yelling does not equal discomfort. It's helping people to explain where you are and what comfortable is for your team, for your team culture, and for your style. And what you are comfortable with as a coach might not be what every player on your team is comfortable with. And a great coach discovers that for each person that they're leading, you got to figure that out. And every now and then test it. And if you step too far in the wrong direction, have the conversation. Don't just say, oh, that was a bad step. Go to that person, be the bigger leader, and say, hey, I was tough on you because of this. But if you don't like when I yell at you or you don't like that, I have an increased tone of voice. Let's find another way. How do you best accept criticism or how do you want me to help you now that we're talking here with that?
01:06:26,272 --> 01:07:18,570
Chad Mercado:
It's like make sure you do it individually, because as a group, a lot of people will not say what's going on if you take your time. Number one, they appreciate you allowing it to be under the radar, so to speak, but coming to them personally instead of if I go up to the whole group of twelve athletes and say, hey, what's everybody stealing? Everybody will be quiet. Hey, what do we need to change? Everyone's quiet. I go up and I had a water break and I say, hey, what do you think is going on? I think, blah, blah, he's worried about this or he's worried about that. There's going to be a conversation there and they're going to have a little bit more trust because you're coming to them and they don't want to hurt anybody's feelings or they don't want to say something wrong in front of the group. So definitely break it down individually.
01:07:18,570 --> 01:08:23,298
Mark Burik:
Yeah. Even on our College team, some of us wanted our coach to be harder, some of us wanted softer. And there will be divisions in your team. Not every athlete understands how they are, and that's why the morning talks as soon as you enter the gym, before you enter the gym, having the conversations with individuals, checking in and saying how are you doing today? And you cannot stop. As a coach at how are you doing? You need to say, hey, how's that knee? I know it was bugging you. How did that test go? I know you're going through that transition whether you're going to be promoted or not, how's that going? That gives you insight into how you can treat them that day and how you can maximize their performance and that you care. You got to look at it like, I don't know, like it's a pan or something. You can touch a hot pan differently than you can touch a cold pan. I know that's a terrible metaphor, but you have to measure their temperature and you have to know what's going on so that you know how to handle them. So maybe it is a pretty good metaphor.
01:08:23,298 --> 01:08:25,180
Chad Mercado:
It's a really good metaphor, actually.
01:08:26,050 --> 01:12:08,630
Mark Burik:
Yes. So the check inspired for practice. Got to do it. All right. The next one from coach Selena McBride, she says, agreed that our culture requires us now to sandwich our point to our players. No other comment. Mark also asks, what do you think about a coach who has a group of 20 people dividing them into two to three groups for drills based on their skill levels? A coach selecting who belongs where that does create a lot of tension, but people have to understand where they stand and guys and girls work very differently. And I'm going by the psychology and the psychologists that I've learned from and the coaches that I've learned from girls and guys are different for girls. If you have them compete often and you have them try to tear each other down a lot of times. For the general average team, that doesn't work great when you sit in a non stop competitive environment. One of the things that USA Volleyball teaches is women need to bond to battle. So they need to bond with each other and know that they have each other's backs and have their talks and connect with each other emotionally before they're going to battle with and for each other. They need to know that they have that support guys in a lot of situations. The average typical statistic guy doesn't kind of have respect for somebody's care or for somebody next to them until they've had it out and until they've sorted out their position with each other. So that the language is guys need to battle to bond. We have to have been through a war with each other before. We respect each other in a lot of ways and maybe that's against evolution. Maybe we're a completely devolved species, but you see it all the time in movies and TV. Like two guys knock each other out and then they sit down and they have a beer with each other. Guys need to see that respective hard work of you're going to outwork me, you're going to perform against me, you're going to hold me accountable and then we kind of develop a little bit more closeness and that's how we have to go through we have to go through a war with each other. So to divide groups in certain ways or to have like a team of girls pick each other's teams that I don't think would go over as well as having guys pick teams. I know that I got picked last in College my first year. I got picked last in College and I was like, what you all think that Grammit is better than me? And he was like, first pick and I was last pick and I couldn't believe it because I was comparing myself to him and they all showed me with their picks, like where I stood. And to me I took that as all right, that's the gauntlet. I'm going to get picked before granite by the middle of this year. But I didn't hold on to that as Man Hudson picked him. Now I hate Hudson. That has a tendency to happen in a group of female players where there might be one pick or one side of it and you say there's something that's held onto more emotionally in that time. So I don't think that you have to be careful with that group selection and there has to be a lot more talking that goes into it and you have to figure that out first. I know I didn't say that right or completely and fully educated on this situation, but that's from the schools that I've learned from. That's how you have to approach it with care and with text for Todd. How did I meet Chad Toad? How did we meet was a gold medal.
01:12:08,630 --> 01:13:13,222
Chad Mercado:
Yeah. Because you graduated George Mason a year before Brandon, right? Or two years. Yeah, maybe two. And I played Brandon his senior year from Leeds McCray to gold in the other schools, we did lose in three, but I had 21 kills and three sets, so it was good outing. Funny story. And then we finally met at Open Nationals at Louisville. Nice. I wanted to go to George Mason, by the way. You should have. I was trying to, so I didn't really know. So I started late with volleyball at 17, and then I went to Elise McCray freshman year, sophomore year, and I was going to transfer because I started getting decent. I lost a lot of weight and started playing well. And I just emailed the head coach and I was like, oh, you know, like, you take me off a lot not knowing that I couldn't do that. I have to get a release and I need to do all this. So I didn't hear back and I'm like, well, I guess I'm staying at least. But I wanted so bad to go to George Mason.
01:13:13,222 --> 01:15:52,346
Mark Burik:
Don't feel bad. It took me something like six emails to get a response from him and then I transferred in, like, August. All right. Chantal says I tend to struggle. Hi, Chantal. Chantel from camp. I tend to struggle with measurement in our sport. What tools do you guys use and recommend to measure our skill level increase or decrease outside of the score? And that looks better from our coach. You've been through this. Check out the bedter at beach levels. So if you guys are at home and you're wondering kind of where you stand skillfully, check out bedretbeach.com. Level two test, level the number two test that will give you a written and a physical video performance evaluation that you can take yourself through. Once you pass that or if you fail it, the system will move you on to level three tests and level four tests and level five test. So we have these videos up for you. We have the knowledge test up for you. So I recommend that all of you try it out, see if you can answer all the volleyball questions correctly, and see if you can do the skills on the videos that we put our camp players through so you can assess your own level. Okay, [email protected] level the number two test, level two test. And that will be a great start to knowing where you stand as far as goals, skills, performance, et cetera. Neil Lyons says that Chad is the man. Love you, Neil. Love you, Neil. That's Neil from camp as well. My guy's hanging out with us. Yeah, he's a good dude. Just started volleyball recently and, man, he came a long way. He came a long way between his first camp and his second camp. I was going to say he had two camps, right? Yeah. Coach Selena Bride, as a coach, building the connection through interpersonal communication one on one will be life changing for our athletes and they will carry that forward 100% agree with you, Coach Selena McBride. That's 100% the one on one is what counts. Not you standing in front of a group, but you talking to somebody one on one with no one else around. That's where you can develop that bond. You have to be careful with it. Now as juniors, collegiate high school about what one on one means or the optics or the visuals with it. But the one on one conversations will hold so much meaning. Go ahead, Chad. You said some
01:15:52,346 --> 01:16:58,680
Chad Mercado:
I was just going to say it's going to be funny, too, especially for me. If we got juniors, sometimes they don't want to talk, right? It is hilarious, or I should say hilarious. It is actually really cool. It's a better phrase when you start talking individually and then you start seeing them have become like they come into their own voice in front of the group because you did that. So at first a lot of people are very quiet and timid in that. And all of a sudden you start talking them individually and you walk them through this process. They start building that confidence, but then they're able to do that in front of the group. You know what I'm saying? It's really cool, right? Like it's okay to express yourself here. It's okay to be who you want to be. Beginning of the year, it's always like that nobody will talk, nobody will do anything. They're worried about this. And then before you know it, they're like, hey, you talk to them individually and they build their confidence on their own, and then they start getting a little bit more active with expressing things. And then people get further and then there's better connections and it goes on and on.
01:16:58,680 --> 01:20:44,760
Mark Burik:
Yeah, we conquer that at camp clinics, in our classes by making sure that everybody knows each other's names. That's the first step. So if you guys are somebody who runs like local classes, local camps, I know it sounds to me it seemed childish in the beginning, but everybody learning everybody's names. However, you have to do it either by switching partners quickly or by doing the whole circle thing with an approval and then your name or an adjective and then your name that will at least allow people to talk to each other because instead of looking across the court and going, they kind of point. They get shy because they forgot a name and then they don't say anything and then nobody says anything. The energy of that practice will be completely different than if everybody knows everybody's names. So as a coach for groups, adults, people who are just coming together, if you run camps or clinics, your number one priority should be getting everybody to know each other's names. And it sounds crazy, but trust me, the rest of your day will be much better as soon as that happens. Chad Todd said that you will break forearms if you play him in reverse, kill it. You might watch out for the wrist away. Rick says, I like this quote. Girls need to feel good about themselves to play well. Guys need to play well in order to feel good. Kind of sometimes. Same line. Yeah. Similar. I know that there have been times when I have not been playing well. And I said, and something about my skill just isn't here. How do I two X the people around me? So I was like, I'm playing like crap and I know I can't get this done, but you know who can? The guy next to me, the other five guys around me. So I'm just going to make them feel thoughts and just keep the energy up and do that. I literally Pat my own back, but I think I changed the course of an entire match at Nationals without touching a ball just by saying, dude, let me get in there. I'll play defensive specialist, like, put me in the barrel. I don't need to pass or anything, but I'll get these guys going. And that emotional switch boom woke everybody up. Give them a little bit of a confidence and you can change the game without skills. Chantel said that she was looking for the intangibles beyond structured reps. Chantal still don't know what you're asking for in terms of measuring skill level increase or decrease outside the score. It's Hansible, Measurable shouts out. Maybe we should have a conversation in the mastery group so we can figure it out and we can have a talk with Joe and chat as well. But I'd love to answer that for you privately, so just send us a message by what you mean. All right. All right, Chad, thanks for jumping on, man. This is a long one. Longer than we've worked. That's all right. We're going to turn into Joe Rogan one day. It's coming, guys. Make sure that you follow Chad at I'm going to pop his Instagram up here, Chaddaddy. We spell it Chad Mercado. He's on Instagram. He's also got a company coming up in Florida called Take Off, where he will be training physically, mentally, spiritually, volleyball players, indoor volleyball players. And that's happening in Florida. Is there anything you want to mention about that? Should anybody follow Take Off?
01:20:44,760 --> 01:21:17,010
Chad Mercado:
Yes. Take off training Academy. Instagram is Tota T-O-T-A-F-L Tota Florida. It'll pop up, but we do some tips and tricks on court, inside the gym, as well as try to promote some of our athletes to get ready to get recruited. It's all College prep. So getting high school kids ready to go, given the knowledge, the skills, and the resources to step on from senior year in high school, step on to College court and be ready to play and ready to start.
01:21:17,010 --> 01:21:17,626
Mark Burik:
Nice. Love it. Good luck with that. Can't wait to help out and see where it goes. And Chad also joined us part time as a better at beachemployee and looking forward to getting everything we can get out of him. Motivational guy and just a great dude. So when you guys see him in our Facebook group and on our YouTube and on our channel, so you know where it's coming from. If you guys are still here for this coaching lesson. If you're looking for beach volleyball practice plans, we have 53 beach volleyball practice plans set up, a complete two hour completely laid out for you. You can check that out at betteratbeach.com/practiceplans. They are written, they are timed, they are separated by skill, whatever you want to work on. And we have video recordings of the drills so that you cannot get confused. So if you want to take all of the work out of practice planning and preparing for a practice, we have it set up for you. Better atbeach.com practiceplans, you want to work on passing, open the first passing practice plans, just follow the videos and you are set. All you have to do is coach your players or taking the pain out of practice planning. And currently right now you guys are here live. Our setting course is getting going. We already have people who are posting their setting testing. So basically we do pre testing where people record their hand rhythm and their bump rhythm for beach volleyball setting. And we do before and after videos and we take them through basically a 30 day course and we give you the drills that you need to do every single day. We give you the tutorials for how, where and what to set and we give you video feedback in the Facebook group. So as soon as you post your videos to our private members only Facebook group, you are going to get coached by professional athletes, National Champions, national team coaches. We really invite you to that. Currently it is only $39 a month. You get every course that we have included with that. The group is currently working as a group on setting. But if you want to dive in and work on attacking or work on passing, you can go ahead and do that. It's all under the same membership along with of course, our 60 day Max vertical jump workout program which flat out get results. If you want to add inches to your vertical, you can check that out. But all of those you can get at better at beach. Comcoaching. Right now we're going through the settings. So if you want to perfect your setting before this season starts, go grab it betteratbeach.com/coaching. And if you guys ever have any questions about the courses, offerings and coaching that we do, go ahead and you shoot us a message. We'll be happy to hear from you and you'll be seeing a lot of posts on our Facebook group and on our Instagram about the setting course coming up. So it is never too late to join and we would love to work with you and see what you can do and how far your game can get? All right, so Chad see you on the sand brother. Let's get better.
