Mark Burik (00:00:00):
Was that culture grind mentality? Was it family? Was it were learners? Um, was it your individuals go out and do all of your work and that'll be the necessity? Like what, what type of culture did you have at?
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:00:13):
It was very family oriented. It definitely wasn't kind of that individualistic, we're gonna work hard individually and then it's gonna come together and all work out. It was a lot of that kind of family oriented culture and I mean it was wasn't only the team bought in, it was the support staff bought in, every coach was bought in. It was really a collective kind of this collective effort and we, this collective understanding too of we are all on the same page and we are. And I think that's why, you know, we found a lot of success my freshman and sophomore year was we were all bought in the entire time and um, I think a big part of our culture too was we were really loud and annoyingly loud. I know we were annoying to a lot of other teams.
Mark Burik (00:00:58):
My name is Mark Burrick and today we are going to bring on one of the youngest coaches, uh, that we've had on the show, which I'm excited for because she's got a huge history, uh, in beach volleyball, in indoor volleyball. Uh, she is already an NCAA coach. She has run a program for one of the most historic players in history, syn Smith. And she's gonna have a lot of insight into what it's like to try to get to the college level, what it's like playing at the college level, maybe the differences between indoor and beach as well as I'm gonna pick her brain because she is getting to work with one of my favorite humans on the planet. Pat Santiago, who is the current head coach at Columbia for women's volleyball. Before we get started, just want you guys to know that our camps, our seven day adult training camps are currently on sale.
(00:01:55):
So you can go to Florida with us, a bunch of AVP players and pro players and learn train and play, as well as meet a ton of other volleyball players and coaches. We have seven day training camps. They are in Florida right now. They're in Florida, but we could go anywhere. So if you know any hotels, let us know. And we have October 30th is already sold out. We are more than halfway to selling out our November, December, and January camps. So if you want to sign up for one of those, go to better at beach.com/camps and our complete player program, our online training program is firing currently we are working on the Ultimate Defender series, which takes you all the way from posture and basic positioning to elite strategies where we give you tutorials, we give you drills to do either on your court or at home in front of your house.
(00:02:49):
And then when you film them and send them to our private Facebook group, we get to actually coach you on your game. So if you are looking to take your game to the next level and you are really digging in to beach volleyball, head on over to better beach.com/coaching where you'll get all of our courses and tutorials and uh, we can help you out and make you a better player. And if you are a coach, for sure help you become a better coach. As we're filming, we are on the week of the Manhattan Beach Open, but this episode won't have too much to do with that. I just, you in the future wish me in the past. Good luck at our upcoming tournament and hopefully we do some cool stuff. All right. Today's guest, Franky Rooseland-Harrison played at South Carolina for beach volleyball four years and then went to Duke to play her last year as an indoor player. And currently she is the assistant coach at Columbia University of New York. Big round of applause for Franky. Hello. What's going on?
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:03:58):
Oh, hello. Happy to be here.
Mark Burik (00:04:01):
Good, happy to have you. I wanna know right off the bat, what made you stay or attend another college for one year to go play it? It is a different sport, it's a similar sport, but to go play indoor and you went to two prestigious universities. So what was that, the thought process of when you decided, hey, I'm gonna go and play my last year. Just take me through that thought process of what it was like to say, I've been playing beach for a long time and now I want to get back to indoor for one season knowing that it's only one season.
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:04:35):
Right. Well, I didn't play beach much growing up, so I was an indoor player. I grew up playing indoor, was comfortable with indoor, played in a few beach tournaments, so going to play beach in college was kind of new for me and was a new experience. And pretty early on in my beach career at South Carolina, I just knew that I wanted to get back to indoor and thought I could do that through grad school. I just thought it would be a fun opportunity to, I knew that there was five years of eligibility that you could use and I thought why not use all five since I have them and go to grad school, try and see if I can play somewhere. At that time, you know, I was thinking some small school by the beach was gonna be cool with me. That was kind of an early decision that I made in college and talked with my college coaches throughout that process and got into the recruiting process that way. Then Covid obviously hit my senior year, so that kind of threw things outta whack a little bit. But that whole decision weirdly enough had kind of been in my head for a few years and it luckily worked out that way and I was able to go to Duke and that was an incredible experience, but I kind had always wanted to try it out and get back to indoor because I'd grown up comfortable in that arena at least.
Mark Burik (00:05:47):
Here's what surprises me. You said you had like no beach experience, but you got to go to university to play beach volleyball. How, how does that happen happen?
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:05:57):
I mean I played in a few tournaments growing up. I'm from Tennessee so that was kind of always the weird thing when I would tell people I played beach volleyball in college, it would be, where are you from? What beach? That whole thing. And when I said Tennessee, it definitely registered in people's brains like how, I don't know what you're talking about, um, what beach is nearby, but I just played in a few tournaments. Uh, my college coaches at South Carolina had seen me play a couple times when I was younger. I think I had a little bit of natural athleticism that transferred over to the beach and you know, I had fun with it with one of my best friends. We played in a few tournaments and then when the recruiting process kind of came around when I got older into high school, indoor, I, you know, fully invested into playing indoor in college.
(00:06:42):
But I think I had the thought process of really wanting to go to a big school. I was from Knoxville where University of Tennessee is, I was kind of accustomed to that big school city feel at least. So that that was kind of where I was looking for indoor and it just wasn't panning out for me as much. I'm would say I'm tall, but I'm not tall for volleyball, as we all know. And volleyball tall is like six four and I'm five 10. So in that recruiting process, not short, not short, definitely not short , but, but I just started reaching out to a lot of beach schools because it was kind of a new growing sport in college. When I was in high school it was definitely emerging. Uh, so I just reached out to a lot of beach schools and said, you know, I played in a few tournaments, I don't know too much, but here's a skills video that I made.
(00:07:28):
And lucky for me, you know, I got picked up by a couple beach schools in South Carolina being one of them. And you know, I, I went to campus and fell in love pretty quickly. So it really was a unique recruiting experience. And I think when people ask me about my recruiting story, it is a little bit different because I, you know, it wasn't the, they saw me play growing up on the beach and kind of got recruited that way. It was a lot of, we see a lot of potential in you and we think you have the athleticism to be good at beach, so we wanna teach you. And that was, you know, where I went from there.
Mark Burik (00:07:59):
The film and the skills video that you sent them, was that, uh, was it an indoor skills or did you just have an assortment of clips from the sand?
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:08:07):
So I, my club growing up in Knoxville, we had a beach court actually outside that we would use for conditioning. We would play, I mean my club coaches were very, they were fans of beach. My, one of my club director that we had, he played beach. He's, he's been on the circuit a little bit, so that was nice kind of getting into that process. Bless you. Um, getting into that process of the skills video, I kind of just asked him and a couple other male coaches at my club like, can we go out on the sand? Can you guys, can we play a game? And it was my skills video consisted of a few drills with that coach and then it was a full on game of me and three grown men playing on a men's net outside my club. No way. And that was my skills video. So I also think that, you know, part of that was look at this kid who didn't really play beach much and she's playing with these dudes on a men's net and I wouldn't say killing it, but I was trying my best. So I think that helped. I think that had something to do with it too, was, you know, I wasn't scared to go out there and just compete and try and have some fun with it. And I think that showed through the video, I
Mark Burik (00:09:12):
Hope. Did you ever talk to your coach at South Carolina and say, what about my video or what about me allowed you to say yes for this program? I, I definitely had those conversations with my college coach. It wasn't very complimentary, but like once he, he met me, that was more when he allowed me to be on the team. But did you ever get to have the conversation of what from your film or video or just like your person or how you presented yourself caused him to say Yes?
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:09:41):
I, well I do not remember asking about the film because I think at that point I was like, please just, I hope the film was good and
Mark Burik (00:09:47):
Maybe he made a mistake and it was somebody else's film, but your name,
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:09:51):
That wasn't me out there actually, no. But I don't know if I ever really asked that about the video, but I, I think when I came on campus and, you know, met with Moritz and rj, the coaches at South Carolina and just her, you know, at that point they were really, it was a new program, it was a couple years old. They were, you know, really wanting to build something special and they made that very clear on my visit. And I think coming on a campus that I loved and being able to talk with these coaches that it wasn't, you know, I'm not, I wasn't joining some dynasty program that had been, had had years and years of success. It was very new and I think that was really exciting to me. And I think they just, we all, we both just gravitated towards each other's personalities.
(00:10:33):
I think they liked the energy that I brought and I think they were hoping that the athleticism was gonna follow suit, but I wasn't, I, I do think a lot of it was just kind of that excitement and that energy that I brought to the visit and just wanted to learn as much as I could about what they wanted to do and what they wanted. And so I think ultimately that was, I probably asked them too many questions and finally they were like, fine, we'll take you, I guess. Yeah, I think, I think it was just a lot of, we connected on a lot of value related things and, and culture related things that we wanted for the program and it, it went from
Mark Burik (00:11:06):
There. Yeah. It sounds like you had a, a little advantage in that it was a new program, so maybe there weren't, and this is not taken away from you, but maybe there weren't a ton of applicants going and saying like, you know, they had that hundreds of people that they needed to turn down or sort through, but also that your in person presence was something that stood out to them. And I think a lot of players can learn from that. For me personally, my skills video, my coach literally said, you are very far behind the rest of our team. You might have some athleticism based on what I'm seeing. I think you have some raw athleticism, but you would have to, he told me, but you would have to transfer here just to try out. And I was like, that sounds like an invite to me. . Yes, that's normal. No, you know, like when somebody throws a party and they're like, yeah, we're having a party, it's kind of full, right? Um, gonna be a lot of people and it's like mostly family. So, and then that's one guest is like, great, I'll see you .
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:12:06):
They're like, maybe you could swing by later ,
Mark Burik (00:12:09):
You're
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:12:10):
There 15 minutes early.
Mark Burik (00:12:11):
Yeah. And that was my experience. And then when I showed up, I, it was similar, I brought the energy and he was just like, you know, if you bring this much fire and hustle every time, maybe it'll be infectious for the rest of the people so your skill isn't gonna bring anybody up, but at least your, your chatter and your energy did. And I was able to solidify that tryout spot in two years into a partial scholarship, which I was like, you know, I actually cried when he told me that I was getting a partial scholarship my senior year. You know, , it was a pretty cool feeling, but it, it's so big for players out there to, and not, and not only college players, right, people trying to get into a school, but anybody who is just willing to show up and put themselves out there and say, you know, to even better players, players where they know they don't belong on the court. Like, Hey, I can play with you. Do you want me to hit you some balls over the net? Do you want me to shag for you? And not enough players do that. And there are stories upon stories about AVP players who did exactly that just hung around higher level courts to be there. And so I guess it's a shoot too for the moon land land among the stars. Like if you go for it, something good's gonna happen.
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:13:17):
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. I think that that was very indicative of my story. I think too, I had no idea what I could do in college and especially, you know, being able to go to Duke after that, that was something I never expected. And so I think a lot of it was just my ability to be in the gym and, you know, wanna work hard and be coachable. I think it was a lot of the intangibles that I brought, I was def I wasn't breaking records at South Carolina or it's not that I, you know, it wasn't my skill but I think put me above certain people. I think it just, it was a lot of the intangible things that a lot of athletes do look past. So I would agree there. I think it, those are really important and they're looked past a lot.
Mark Burik (00:14:01):
A lot of athletes look past those things that they think it all rides on skill and what you can do in your hitting percentage and your number of wins and how hard you can hit. And it's just like how many people can get a kill? Any number of people can get a kill on a net, right? But like who can you build your program around? Who can you build your team around and who are you gonna look at and say, I wanna spend every day with this person that is so much bigger than somebody who can pound a ball, who can block a ball. Like there's exceptions if somebody's, if there's a, a female out there who's jumping in touch in 11 six and like her belly button's over the net, all right, you might deal with some, some flack from her or less than culture building, right?
(00:14:45):
But then you're gonna need to pad that with a bunch of culture athletes to make sure that you kind kind of override, you know, whatever her personality comes. And then any coach and any teammate, you're gonna spend four years of your life with that person. So if you haven't worked on your personal skills as a teammate or as somebody who's looking to like get into college or get into team or get into a company, it doesn't matter what you can do unless you are the zero 1% of what you can do. Right. But if you're in like just the top 1%, you better be a nice person too. fun to hang out with. Gotta
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:15:18):
Have both
Mark Burik (00:15:18):
There. Okay, so you always wanted to go back to indoor, played four years of beach. Were you playing indoor during that time?
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:15:25):
No, not definitely Not at all. I think once I was thrust into the world of beach and it was this new, I, I mean I really hadn't played organized beach volleyball or really been taught much beach volleyball until I got to South Carolina and it was just, I was a sponge at that point and learning a lot. So I think very quickly fell in love with beach and really invested everything into my beach and kind of that that indoor grad school thought was really just in the back of my head. You know, I remember sophomore year of college going in to talk to my coaches and just bringing it up. I mean right, we, I still had three years of college left and I kind of was just putting the idea out there of, I just want you guys to know I think this is something that I would wanna do eventually.
(00:16:07):
And that was the only conversation we had that year. And then every year it was a little bit more of, okay, how do I actually do this? You know, what advice do you have? Things like that. So when I was in beach, it was beach only. That was kind of my only focus at least and wasn't playing much maybe when I had gone home a couple times with my club, but it really was, I fell in love with beach. I, I loved it, I wanted to do it all the time. And then the indoor had, it was, I had to shake a little rust off when I was, I had to make a girls video for indoor too when I was kind of back in the recruiting process the second time. So that was interesting. And that was November of my senior year. And so that was right before Covid hit. It was a whirlwind of a recruiting experience for grad school too. So that was kind of when I started to get back a little bit into the indoor
Mark Burik (00:16:52):
Game. What do you think after taking such a hiatus from indoor, what do you think was the fastest and what was the slowest to come back in terms of getting back into the rhythm of the, of the indoor game? Was it having to, you know, the team culture being with that many other people on the court and, and like was it emotional? Uh, was it your hands or your setting? Was it the speed of your approach? What do you think?
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:17:18):
I think the hardest part, so I was an outside hitter growing up. Uh, and then at Duke I was kind of, I was mostly whatever you need me to do, I will do on the roster, it was outside hitter ds. So there was a few games where I did have to hit and then practice. I was an outside hitter so I was, you know, hitting against my teammates a lot. And I think the hardest thing was realizing, oh I have to hit against six people on the other side of the court and I can't just hit the highline shot and it drops. It's no I have to beat through a block, I have to hit, hit as hard as I can. And I'd already had a lot of shoulder problems kind of throughout college. So that was, I think probably the hardest part to get back to was the ball is very different.
(00:17:58):
I have to hit it way harder and I have to hit it against way more people. And so I think that was something that was kind of hard to get back to. And then easiest I think was honestly just kind of the mindset that I gained through my experience at Beach. You know, I used to be a very stressed out athlete and I didn't handle pressure very well growing up and I think beach really, not that it drilled that out of me, but I think it really allowed me to kind of take a step back, change my perspective a little bit as an athlete and just deal with pressure a little bit more. I was able to breathe. I think I gained a lot of trust in myself and kind of that translated with my teammates. And so I think just going back to indoor, that that carried over, which was really cool because I struggled with indoor a lot growing up and the stress of it and it was, it's tense.
(00:18:45):
And so I think going back to it at Duke, it was surprisingly easier a little bit. Obviously there was still a lot of things I struggled with out there, but it was just nice to go out there and service Eve and just feel a little bit more loose, feel like I, it kind of came to me a little bit better and the rhythm of it, I just felt a little smoother cuz I was used to two of us on sand running around and you know, now I, I can be on a court and it's a lot easier to run and jump and I think that maybe was the easiest part was just being able to kind of have that experience from beach and it is a little bit more laid back in a certain way. And so kind of that translating over, it's like I was looking around getting stressed and remembering it's okay, it's not the end of the world if I shank the ball, it's all good. The kind of that lae mindset from beach sometimes I think really helped me out. Nice.
Mark Burik (00:19:32):
I like that. You know there I, it's interesting when you go back to indoor and then you go back to beach again because every now and then you'll play some indoor, you'll play with like fours or sixes and you'll be like, yeah, there's two or three people in front of me and my job right now is to swing as high and as hard as I can and make it like tag the back line, put them in trouble even though there's this wall in front of me. And then in the beach, typically people look at the one block and they do everything they can to avoid it. You know, they look at it and they take so much speed off and aggressiveness. And then, you know, recently I just started playing some fours and I am not known for any sort of vertical jump, but I'll just scream over you before I start swinging.
(00:20:13):
Like I know that I'm coming at a single or double block doubles if, if I'm playing fors but a single block and I say, why can't I hit the same way that I did in indoor where triple block rip as hard as you can and then cover yourself or somebody else will cover you, you know, instead there's this whole fear of getting blocked and I think the fear of the embarrassment of getting blocked holds back so many players from being better offensive. Just some blockers will make you feel right, like they're in complete control. But if you consistently hit right where the blocker is, like in their zone, I think most people would be shocked by how many blocks don't happen. It'll rattle off the hands, they'll be able to cover, especially if you decide to cover, like for me, I was in oh two if we were setting me we were in trouble or giving somebody else a break, right? So I just learned to chip it off the block and play my own cover. So I think one of my skills that doesn't necessarily translate into a lot of wins is hitting off the block and then covering my own stuff. Right? And now we can can do it, but if more beach players swung the same way they do against a triple block when they played indoor, they'd be fine.
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:21:25):
I couldn't agree more. I, there was a time when I first started, well cause I, right, I went right over to beach in college and I started learning about these cut shots and these poke, everything was just so cool and finesse. Oh
Mark Burik (00:21:36):
Yeah. So obviously
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:21:38):
Screw the swing, I'm gonna just be cool and fancy and learn all this new stuff. So there was a period where I really did stop swinging and I just wanted to learn all the shots and kind of develop my shots. And then there was a point where my coaches at South Carolina were like, you know, you can swing, right? Like that's, you're allowed to do that. And so I kind of had to build that back in. And then once, and I think that dawned on me too, it's like I can swing really hard just like I was when I was an outside hitter and still be scoring. I can go after blocks like that. That was my bread and butter too when I was, especially growing up as an outside hitter, I'm not massive. So it was a lot of tooling off the block trying to work high hands, finding the holes and a lot more of, you know, having a little bit better vision and having to kind of see what's happening.
(00:22:22):
Mm-hmm. . So I think when I started to develop that and bring that back into the beach game and I was like, there's only one blocker up here. Okay, this is easier. But I think that does get lost a lot. And when I was coaching beach, that was something that I really tried to drill into. The girls I was coaching is like, go for the block. Like these girls are, they, a lot of blockers are scared to, they don't feel as confident in their block as you think they do, right? And they're going after it. Then there's a very high probability that you could score if you're doing it right. So
Mark Burik (00:22:51):
For somebody to be an elite blocker where when it comes into their zone, their hand angle, their penetration, their height is actually at a level where the ball goes down for a point. It, sorry everybody, but it just doesn't happen. Yeah, you're gonna get block touches, but if you pay attention and you cover, I we, we had some fun at six man, uh, the Manhattan six man. But I just challenged my team and talked a bunch of smack and I said, I'm going to lead the team in covers this weekend. I said, none of you will beat me in covers. And so I challenged like one of those little parts of the game, you know, where it's like not the tangibles, I didn't tell anybody I was gonna get more kills or more blocks of them. I said, you have liberty to swing because no matter what I'm covering it.
(00:23:32):
And it reminded me of first of all being liber in indoor. A lot of hitters love me because bailed them out a bunch, but then, hey, we can do this in beach too. So if you have somebody that after they set, they actually focus on their body position and they get low, they don't squat, they drop a knee to the ground, right? So that they can actually move around. These are the things that are going to actually lead to legit more points. And do you know how good it feels as a hitter? How confident you can be if you know that when you swing at a block, your partner's right there to bail you out? Like anytime you get, that's huge. And the covering is screamed about in indoor and it's kind of like an afterthought in beach. And I think that's a huge mistake by a lot of people.
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:24:14):
Definitely. And I just think it's, especially when I'm playing somebody and I'm watching them and they're covering, it just seems like such a disciplined thing that so many people don't do. And I think absolutely right gets lost and if someone's setting immediately turning to cover, you're like, okay, that's legit. They, they mean business. Like they're, you know, they're, they're there, they're ready for whatever's coming back. So I think it also just adds this level of a little bit of more pressure on that other side. Like they, they are covering the ball, they're gonna come back at us. If I get this block, it doesn't necessarily mean I'm getting the block. So I think it just add, not only is it a great skill to just work on, I think just having that discipline just adds a little bit of that pressure to the other side. And they're a little bit more scared too. So I think we worked a lot of cover drills at Duke and Indoor, obviously we didn't do as much beach wise, but every time I do them i, one, they're exhausting and tiring. But two, it's always just, this is so helpful. Like why don't we do this more? This is, this is gonna add so much to our game. So, um, I definitely have always not liked working on them, but then when they come in handy in the game, it's definitely nice.
Mark Burik (00:25:20):
, oh man, it's, there's a couple of feelings that are really like energy. They take your energy away. One of them you get blocked, that hurts sucks. Everybody saw it, you know, all right, fine. But when you, when you get a great block and then the other team scrambles and covers it like, I did my job and it's still not and you know, it's, it's still not a point. And then they do that too, or three or four times in a match. Yes. And all of a sudden you're like, these guys are gonna make me work my butt off just to get one point. Yeah. And uh, that's, that's a big energy swing covering. I'm not gonna say it's the most underrated, but it is highly underrated,
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:25:56):
Huh? It's
Mark Burik (00:25:57):
Up there for beach, but you don't get to do it that much in the women's game because you're peeling more than you're blocking, aren't you? I
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:26:03):
Don't know the statistics on that. I've heard yes, that in the women's game we peel a little bit more. I will say weirdly enough, I was a full-time blocker in beach and I probably should have peeled far more, but I didn't. I just thought I should stay up and block everything. And peeling and digging also was something, a skill that I did work on, but it, it was hard. So I just decided to stay up. I worked a lot on my timing. I think I became a decent blocker on the beach, but I was definitely more of a blocker that would just hang out and wait and kind of hide and then rather than pull. But it's definitely I think a little bit more popular in the women's game. I
Mark Burik (00:26:39):
Guess we'll go back to you were learning beach and you did, did what a lot of indoor players do you think beaches needs beachy shots? You started with all of the finess stuff, the high line, the cut shot because you think that beach is about finesse and I will warn everybody listening that you should hold on to the things that you did really well from indoor. Don't completely switch your game up. Like if I were to take somebody from the national indoor team and I were to say, Hey, I need you to be my partner this weekend, I know you've never played beach. I would not encourage them to hit highlines or cut shots. I would say go up and rip and do what you've been doing for the last four or five 10 years. You know? Yes. Over time in practice, yeah you could, you could learn the other stuff but if you got to that level playing indoor, just keep doing it.
(00:27:28):
There's, there's really no difference. Except now you got a little bit less area, tiny bit less vertical and only one block. That's great. You so start banging. So anybody who's playing indoor out there and you move to beach, don't just completely become a different player because you're playing a different sport. Like do what you do well and if your thing is, well I think we're similar in that, like using the outside blocker's hands, you know, being able to use that hand and then either cover or get a tool. There's no reason to not stick with that when you move on to the sand.
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:28:01):
Absolutely. Don't listen to me. Don't do what I did, but I brought the swing back. That's okay. But absolutely I think, I think there is such a, yeah people do think, you know, beach is the finesse, indoor is the, and I think that that just, you know, comes down to yes there's less people on the court, but I mean, yeah for me, my swing kind of got lost because I got so caught up in the, okay I need to do a little cross body high line here and really, you know, look like I'm a beach player. I think that's where a lot of people get caught up to is do I look like a beach player, do I not? All of those kinds of things. And at the end of the day, a win's a win if you're getting it swinging off the block every single time. Do your thing win.
Mark Burik (00:28:41):
Yeah. No one says that there's a rule that you have to shoot. Yeah, right. There's no, like if you've gotten four kills in a row going high, hard cross, don't randomly throw in a high line or a cut shot. Like just completely continue with whatever you're doing. That's scoring points. I wish a lot more people would hear that when they first come out to the beach game from indoor especially.
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:29:02):
Yes, absolutely. We need those indoor players just swinging. Don't worry about it. They get so worried that they dunno what they're doing on the beach and it's like, just keep doing, you keep swinging, you'll
Mark Burik (00:29:11):
Be fine. What did you bring from the, in, from the beach game back to indoor that you don't think you had before? So you played indoor all, all through high school, right? Then you went and played four years of beach, now you returned to the sport, of course you're older, stronger, more experienced, hopefully you've got a better head and, and and personality about you. But what do you think that those four years of beach brought to your indoor game that was helpful to you?
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:29:36):
Honestly, I think a lot of kind of what I touched on before was this, I think indoor for me growing up, I kind of let the moment get top of me a lot. I was very, I would get in my head a lot and I think indoor that can happen because of just the nature of the sport, the intensity of the sport, kind of all of that. And so I think going through beach and having that, it was a lot of mindset shift for me. I think the greatest thing that beach did for me was a lot of mentality shift and just the way I thought about the game, the way I thought about myself while I was playing the game, the way I talked to myself while I was playing the game. So I think unfortunately skill, I think skill wise, um, there was just a little bit more looseness to everything that I did.
(00:30:20):
It wasn't as kind of maybe robotic as it used to be. It was a lot more fluid. And I think I gained that a lot from being on the beach. Otherwise, I just think coming back indoor, it would've been really easy for me to kind of go back to that. I'm really stressed out all the time and there was a piece of that. But I just think being able to play beach and, I mean there's, there's only two of you out there, right? So a lot of it comes down to you and you're touching the ball every time it's coming over unless your partner's just passing over the net every single time, which probably wouldn't go well. I think just coming back into indoor and you know, having had a lot of pressure on me in a lot of moments in beach and being able to kind of un overcome those moments, like I wasn't able to so many times it really translated back over into, into court and there would be times I would again do a servicey rut or whatever it would be. And I think it was just so much easier for me to pull out of those. And so I think a lot of it was a mentality and more of like a mental game kind of shift for me, which I needed and which was really good for me. So that was kind of where the transition really helped.
Mark Burik (00:31:21):
Do you think the intangibles like culture and like the inter team stuff, do you think it's more difficult? Cause I'll, I'll say that both are difficult, but do you think that it's more difficult in indoor or in beach, you know, is it easier to, to get along with 6, 12, 15 girls or you know, just the one partner that you have? Cause they're, they're very different to get along with a group versus getting along with one single person. Plus of course you have to have the team culture if you're gonna be in the end successful, you need everybody to be on board. But to be successful in a micro, you gotta find that partnership that really works well, which was harder from a culture standpoint each or
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:32:03):
Indoor. That is a really good question. I think I was very fortunate at South Carolina to kind of show up and I obviously contributed to the culture, but I think they had a good idea of where they wanted their culture to be when I got there. And for me and kind of my, my freshman class that we came in with, it was a lot of, okay, this is the culture we are hopping on board. What can we do to help? What, what do you need us to do?
Mark Burik (00:32:30):
Was that culture grind mentality? Was it family? Was it were learners? Um, was it your individuals go out out and do all of your work and that'll be the necessity? Like what, what type of culture did you have at at South Carolina?
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:32:45):
It was very family oriented. It definitely wasn't kind of that indu individualistic, we're gonna work hard individually and then it's gonna come together and I'll work out. It was a lot of that kind of family oriented culture and I mean it was wasn't only the team bought in, it was the support staff bought in, every coach was bought in. It was really a collective kind of this collective effort. And we, this collective understanding too of we were all on the same page and we are. And I think that's why, you know, we found a lot of success my freshman and sophomore year was we were all bought in the entire time. And um, I think a big part of our culture too was we were really loud and annoyingly loud. I know we were annoying to a lot of other teams. Um, because in beach, right, you're, you've got your five pairs and you're playing against the other teams five pairs.
(00:33:32):
So it's a little bit different in the sense that it's not just one game with six people on the court, that's your team, you're playing and it's over. It's you've got different games going on. And you know, I think a big component of our culture, those like during that time was we're constantly eyes on every court who's playing? We are locked in, we are invested in that court and we're moving on to the next one. It was, I mean we, it was a well-oiled machine and it really had a lot to do with that support that family feel. We had really, really great leadership. Could
Mark Burik (00:34:03):
You give a tangible example? See the problem is a lot of people talk about culture, you have to develop culture, you gotta develop culture, right? But no one ever dives into very specific tangible examples of here was a problem or here was a situation. And this is an example of what we're talking about when we're developing a team culture. So do you have any memories or situations where you remember like the way we or our coaches or our staff handled this is why or how I define that culture as like a a, a useful example that is
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:34:40):
Repeatable? Absolutely. Actually one perfect one comes to mind kind of like I just referenced. We had that really good leadership my freshman year. We had a senior class and prior to us, my freshman class getting there, South Carolina didn't have a whole lot of success. They were growing and, and kind of building every senior year, which was exciting. And that senior class had kind of been in that lineup and, and growing and, and my freshman class as we came in, we all were in the lineup, basically kind of took over the senior spots from those lineup spots and wow, as you would imagine being a senior and having a freshman come in and take your lineup spot, probably really frustrating and annoying and you'd probably be pissed at that freshman. And I think the best example of culture that I could ever think of is how that senior class handled that situation. We were nothing but welcomed into the team and the fact that we really had a lot of success that year. I mean that group of seniors were beyond supportive in the way that they were just so excited to have so much success and so excited for us to come in and, and bring some new talent to the team.
Mark Burik (00:35:45):
I think how did they show that?
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:35:46):
I remember two or three of them, we had a tournament in, I wanna say St. Augustine, Florida, I think it was our, it was our first tournament that season and there was three seniors who used to play in the lineup, but then I don't think were anymore. And they drove themselves to St. Augustine to come cheer on the team. And granted, I don't remember how far it was, but the fact that they went out, like they came, the whole team does not travel and they came to the tournament, they were so excited, so supportive and just seeing them there and them, they were just so selfless. It was the coolest thing ever. I had not really experienced anything like that or really seen a senior class or a leadership class do anything like that. And that was consistent through the whole season. It wasn't even just that one tournament.
(00:36:28):
They showed up. We went to both boards that year. We went to NCAAs, all the seniors came, the whole team. It was so cool. It, it was something really unique and I think they just set the standard for leadership because it doesn't mean leaders aren't always the best on your team and they are the star studs. They're breaking records. Like that's not the case. And I think that really showed me what leadership can look like. And it can be a group of girls who these freshmen came, took their spots on the lineup, but they didn't miss meet and they were, I mean they set the standard, they set the culture, they set our expectations of what, you know, we were supposed to do on that team. And so all of us were like, yes ma'am, what do you need us to do? And that was really cool.
(00:37:10):
So I think every time I think of culture and every time I talk about culture or team dynamics, that group of girls, it's always my first thought because every year after that I was trying to emulate what they were doing. I didn't wanna be them. I wanted to make my teammates feel the way they made me feel. And so that I think was just a huge part of our culture was they established it right off the bat. And I mean, that's a tough position to be in. I they just didn't care. They said, well what are our roles now? What, what do we
Mark Burik (00:37:39):
Do? One of the guys that I came in initially kind of competing against was very intimidating for me. My first year of college, it kind of thought he hated me or just like, I don't know, ignored me. Ended up being one of the best friends I ever had in my life, you know, like I was best man at his wedding. This is one of the guys that we would, we'd go to help for and back. And I remember after our first year, something so easy that just changed how I felt. He called me and wished me a happy birthday, just called me and wished me a happy birthday on my birthday, right? And this was a guy who I was still like a year into competing against. I knew he was better than me, but we were going be in the same year, so we're going to be leadership on the team eventually.
(00:38:19):
And uh, called and said, Hey man, happy birthday, blah blah. How's it going? Something so small changed how I felt about that relationship immediately. And it took me, and now he's, it's Hudson Bates, he's the, uh, associate head coach for Ohio State men's program. But it was just like, man, this guy like actually has my back. And it was just like a call on a birthday or something like that. I remember another senior at the time, he was like, Hey man, you got this. He goes, you know what you are, you're gonna be my project. I'm gonna make you a stud this year. And like he, he kept saying that, but this guy was three times the player I was at that time. But just him putting his arm around me and saying like, I'm gonna get you better. Cool. You know, and I was, I was just from that moment on, you're always looking at him and these little tiny statements of humanity or support, I guess they go such a long way, whether it's work, whether it's just being a decent person or, or a neighbor, but a hundred percent on a team when somebody just reaches out and does something little, those scorecards aren't kept, but they're the most meaningful points you can ever get.
(00:39:25):
I think a lot of people can, can definitely learn from that. And, and I fail at that a lot because I am not that way. I, you know, like the whole reaching out or asking, you know, how your foot or how your injury is feeling, that's very much a learned skill or or trait from me. I'm always like, tough it out and let's get back on the court and work. You know. So for me, I was more example of hard work rather than that was my version of, of culture building instead of like bringing the team and the family. And now that I've recognized some weaknesses and strengths, I try to build that and I try to say like, you know, let me reach out to this person. Let me send them a text, let me know that, let 'em know that like I love 'em any like best friends I have in my life. Every now and then I'll just think of them out, shoot 'em a text and be like, Hey man, happy birthday or Happy Monday, who cares? You . Yeah,
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:40:13):
Well it could be anything. Hope you had a good lunch. But yeah, no, you're so it, it goes such a long way and I think that's something as I've gotten older too, that I've just valued so much more and we, all right, life gets so busy it's really hard to be able to have that. But I think when you're aware of it and, and when someone does it to you, right, someone reaches out to you, someone shows you that little, just little bit of, Hey, I thought about you in my busy Tuesday. It does go super long way. And I think that's something I've really tried to learn and tried to make a part of my, not daily practice, but just being aware of it. And I mean those girls that I talked about, those seniors on the team, they, some of them live here now and in the city with me. And I mean that will last me the rest of my life. I will never forget about that group of girls and what they did and I've told them a million times and they're just always, well no, but it's for life. It was made a very lasting impression on me and impacted how I view leadership, how I view young women. It's just cool. It's very cool how those little things good and bad, but they can have those lasting impressions
Mark Burik (00:41:18):
On you. It's meaningful, it's important. People can take it to their relationships, their teammates, their their work wherever. But just a little bit of reach out just goes such a long way. And then, you know, what's tough is my business partner slash best friend slash teammate, now we have to have so many kind of lines of separation that will override like, we'll we'll have an absolutely crap practice and want to kill each other. Like absolutely kill each other. And then a lot of people, teams can go at that and not be able to separate that and not be able to say, all right, that's our court selves. That does not mean that we hate each other as people. It means we hate each other in that moment cuz we're both family, right? Yes. Now let's avoid that. And then we also have to work together and build something together.
(00:42:03):
And sometimes people let the volleyball side of that person encompass their, their entire thought of who that person is. I think too many people get like emotionally attached to what it's like playing with that person or competing with or against that person instead of who the person really is. And that can be that too, you know, you play like crap with somebody on the practice court, but then you're still a team and you have to figure out how to still reach out in ways outside of that volleyball stuff to let 'em know you have their back. And that in the end will help them be a better volleyball player on the court. Right? Cause at least they feel some support somewhere in their life.
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:42:40):
Yes, absolutely. And I think feel like when you talk about that whole culture team dynamic thing too, a lot of people it gets lost that not everybody is going to be best friends. Not everybody's going to like each other. It's not realistic when you have 16, 20, however many people you have on your team. It's, and I think that's something too when I feel like I talk about, you know, good culture teams. It's not like everybody was best friends all the time and, but there's that, there's that difference. And I think that's what separates teams, the great teams from the teams who just can't get over those kinds of things is it's not always gonna be sunshine rainbows. You're not always gonna be best friends. You're gonna get pissed, you're gonna get upset, you're gonna get frustrated, you're gonna hate them for a day. But yeah, it's, it's the ability to take that step back and, and it, it's hard.
(00:43:25):
I think what I've found too with our sport is it can really be, it can feel like it extends into a lot of other areas of life and it could be a little overwhelming and all encompassing at times. So I think being able to look at the bigger picture a little bit, take a step back and, and have that separation is huge because then it can get a lot and it can feel like it's everything. And in reality, you know, you're, you're not always gonna love everybody you play with. And that's important to acknowledge and important to kind of understand too how to navigate those relationships. Cause that extends to real life too. It's, you know, you're not gonna love everyone you
Mark Burik (00:44:01):
Work with all the time and who have you had the most screaming matches with in your life? Like usually it's the ones you love the most, right? That's unavoidable. It's just sometimes you look at family, a lot of people, the lucky ones get to look at family as something that will never leave them. You can be as mad as hell for as long as you can, but you're gonna be there for life. And no matter how mad you get right now, there's of course a line that everybody should not cross, right? But you're gonna have them for life. So you can get mad, get pissed, but still live in the same house, but still come back to wherever for Thanksgiving. And sometimes people don't treat best friends or teammates or anything like that, you know, but if we did, if we said we can get mad at each other, but we know that we're still in it, you know, we're not gonna bail on each other, that that, that's gonna go a long way for them as well.
(00:44:50):
Let me give you a quick second here just to show our viewers something cool that we like. But guys, we're talking a lot about partnership dynamics and how to talk to your partner, what they need to hear, what you need to hear, and how to develop your teamwork and what you need on the court, off the court verbally. And that's one of the hardest part of beach volleyball is how to talk to your partner and how to get exactly what you need physically and skillfully out of them and how they can give that back to you. So we've developed a questionnaire with Better At Beach and if you go ahead and you check out better at beach.com/partner profile, we develop a series of questions that you and your partner can both answer. It's easy, it's simple, but you both answer it and you look at each other's answers.
(00:45:38):
So this is just an online questionnaire that asks you the most important questions that partners need to know about their partners. And if you can't answer the questions in this partner profile, better beach.com/partner profile, if you can't accurately answer those questions for your partner and for yourself, then you know you're leaving a lot of points and a lot of joy and teammanship on the table. So if you wanna become a better partner, this is free. This isn't a paid anything. This is just an assessment that I want you guys to have just for listening. Go to better at beach.com/partner profile. It's a series of questions that teammates need to answer in order to perform better with and for each other. One more time, better at beach.com/partner profile. We'll link it below as well. But check it out. It's a fun, easy questionnaire. Some of the questions might stump you and if they stump you, it means that you gotta find those answers and so that you can give them to your partners so that you guys can become a better team coaches.
(00:46:43):
If you're looking for a tool to develop your players and teammates, I guarantee this will spark fantastic conversations with you and your team. These have been some of the most influential conversations I've had with groups of players that I've trained and they have changed the course of our season and our training programs. So I highly recommend that you check this out, do the assessment, have everyone on your team do the assessment, and, uh, develop those conversations that need to be had better at beach.com/partner profile. All right, back to the show. Thanks for the, uh, commercial break there. It's a fun little assessment that, uh, we've done with quite a few teams and the questions that come from it are always, oh, I don't know. Or that they become vague, you know, like, what kind of set do you want? I see players go through this all the time.
(00:47:32):
They'll play one tournament with somebody and they'll pass it in warmups, they'll set and they'll say, yeah, that's good. That's perfect. That's not an answer to what kind of set you want. Yeah, just like that. What about that? Was it the fact that it was 10 feet high? Was it the fact that I bump set it instead of handset it or vice versa? You know, there's a lot of problems that are brushed over because people don't want to be demanding with what they need, but if you can't articulate what you need, your partner will never be able to accurately give that to you. And that's a, that's a relationship, friendship, and for sure teammate thing. Like, you have to be able to say very specifically what your idea of perfect is and define it. And then of course, like what you hate hearing. Some people like to cheer in a certain way. Some people wanna be quiet the entire game and just silently dominate. Right? And if you don't know that that person loves silent domination, you're gonna be like fired up and you're gonna look at her and you're gonna like, man, she's just so bored. She must hate me. She's not talking to me. And meanwhile, they're as fired up as they can possibly be. So it's a great tool that I, I like using and sharing with coaches and players.
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:48:38):
Yeah. I wanna take it. I'm ready.
Mark Burik (00:48:40):
Oh yeah. Oh, we might have time to go through a couple. That'd be fun. Okay. Now then you go to Duke, you're playing indoor, right? You play a season of indoor at Duke. You meet Pat Santiago, who's the assistant coach at that time, and then you end up following him, or did he recruit you or how was the process of you going from senior indoor player to now moving up to New York City, going to Columbia and being the assistant coach with him up there as, as he is developing, he gets his chance to handle another program in New York, which he brought Iona College from next to Nothing to a powerhouse when their school should not have been. So he is a big culture guy. What led you to going up to Columbia and, and how's that going? Right,
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:49:26):
Love Pat. Great dude. Shout out to Pat. So I finished volleyball at Duke. I was working on kind of a master's project, and so I went back to Raleigh and was coaching Beach for a while. And then graduated from Duke a couple months ago, actually in May. So my program lasted two years, and right after I graduated, I was kind of figuring out what to do with life next, post volleyball. Uh, and I was on a walk one day actually. It was kind of a, it was a very introspective walk of what am I gonna do with my life? I have no idea. I'm a little scared. And of course, Patrick shoots me a text and it's essentially just kind of, Hey, congrats on graduating. Bet you're killing it. Thoughts on coming to coach in the big city.
Mark Burik (00:50:11):
And that was the text. Thoughts on coaching,
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:50:13):
Honestly, that honestly might have been word for word because I was, I read it so many times and was shocked by it. That might be it word for word. But he sends me this text when I'm on this walk, like literally this introspective extra, it was crazy. It was, uh, it was wild to have that text. And I was like, are you, what are you, are you sure? I don't think I'm very qualified for that. I, okay. And he just responds back with such a Patrick text, which was so awesome. It was like, what did he say? He said, number one, I know the head coach, so I think you'll be okay. Number two, you cool.
(00:50:49):
I was like, alright, sweet. Um, and then he said, you just got your masters from Duke. He said, you have work ethic and determination, which is exactly what I'm looking for. Like just of course, a really reassuring Patrick text. But we hopped on the phone a couple times. I was still living in Raleigh and it came together really, really fast. Never had I imagined my next step or journey would be including college coaching. But I mean it, the opportunity was just way too good. Way too perfect to say no to. And so I said yes, and I moved up here very quickly after that and been here for a month and a half and here I am.
Mark Burik (00:51:24):
It's wild. What a trip it was. I mean, Tennessee, South Carolina, duke, and then New York City. Uh, that's for a lot of people that can be severe culture shock.
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:51:35):
Yes.
Mark Burik (00:51:36):
How are you handling
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:51:37):
It? A lot of people have asked me this recently and I am choosing to be very honest about it. It is brutal. It's a really tough city to move to. Lucky for me, I took a trip here last year and fell in love with it. I've always wanted to move to a big city. I knew I wanted to get out of the south, love it. But I needed a change of pace. And so I knew I wanted to come here at least. But nothing can really prepare you for actually moving here, especially kind of post pandemic or middle still to wherever we're at there. It's just a, it's brutal. And I think I needed it. I needed to be toughened up a little bit and I'm still in the process of being toughened up from the city, but I mean, it's an incredible place. The opportunity, the just everything about it is crazy and fast paced and what I need, but it is, I'm still in a transition period. So it's a little brutal tough, but I am loving it and I've
Mark Burik (00:52:28):
What's the brutalist part? Is it how, how people talk? Is it lack of saying hi to one another? Uh, the, the crowds or just not seeing the Stafford Slick said this a while ago. He goes, I can't stand not seeing a horizon. He's like, that's why I hate cities. I hate New York. He goes, I just can't stand not being able to see a horizon. You look enough far enough in one distance and there's just metal in your way. Right? So what, what specifically is the, the tough part?
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:52:56):
I think the toughest part, surprisingly, a lot of people gave me all the kind of, I think New York assumptions that everyone just says when you're moving there, they're like, do you know how much it is? It's cold. People are mean, it's dirty. Like that's all kind of, I think it's all wrapped up into one bundle of what people say. So I kind of just brush those off. But honestly, I think the most brutal part is the city. Just really, it's not that forgiving in the sense that you just have to learn lessons and move on. And, and coming from someone who I internalize a lot of things, I overthink a lot. That's just something about me that I've always been trying to kinda work on and coming to the city, like you don't have time to internalize.
Mark Burik (00:53:37):
So when a cab driver curses you out, like you start thinking about that for the next two hours. like, why did they beep at me? Did they not like me? Maybe they think
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:53:47):
Yeah, definitely working on, not ever. It's not all my fault. Um, yeah, maybe
Mark Burik (00:53:51):
They're just angry and they don't hate something about me. Like .
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:53:54):
Yeah, maybe, maybe they had a rough day. Um, no, but it's, it's really just, it's just things are always moving, right? It's very fast paced and you just have to learn fast. I, I've made mistakes and I've had to learn through them and I can't dwell on them. I really have to just move on because I have to go to the next thing. And that also comes with being a college coach now we're really, we're about to get into preseason and like, I don't have time to dwell on the last thing I just did. I have to move on. So I think the most brutal part is just that it's all being thrown at me at once, which is really good for me and I needed that. But it's tough. It would be tough to deal with I think for anybody. So luckily I'm learning how to ask for help and ask questions and annoy pat with questions. And so I think it's just been a lot all at once and I'm learning to compartmentalize a little
Mark Burik (00:54:46):
Bit more. Yeah. And you know, I mean, pat as head coach, he's a boss, right? But he's one of those guys that will no matter what, go out of his way to make sure that you're there, you're involved, you're, you're with the family. And I would say that you have like kind of a support system cuz you're built into a team, but you're also in an odd position because you can't exactly lean on your, uh, student athletes, right? It's not like you can just start being like sharing all of your problems or dumping all of your problems with them, even though there is that family culture, right? Right. You gotta, you gotta find your tribe to know that, that you're supported or just have a really good supportive tribe somewhere in your life that you can call and text and just just dump on, you know?
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:55:29):
Absolutely. I think that is too where I'm obviously going to be learning and navigating as we go through this first season of me being a college coach. But it is weird that I, I just finished this process. Like I, I just got out of college athletics over a little over a year ago and I think there's obviously benefits to that, but on the, the half of that's kind of, you know, with these girls and I'm their assistant coach now and, you know, I wanna be able to guide them and, and mentor them kind of through this process cuz I just got out of it. But at the same time I'm thinking, I don't know what I'm doing. I just got out of here and I have to, you know, step into this a little bit more of a leadership role. So that's definitely be been a tough part of this transition too, is how do I balance feeling like I have no clue what I'm doing, but still wanting to be this mentor of sorts to these young women.
(00:56:21):
And it's gonna be an interesting thing to navigate. And I get where they're coming from to a certain extent they are I Ivy League young women, so that's a totally different ballgame, but I think that's something I'm learning how to navigate and I think it'll just continue to, to challenge me this season. And it'll be cool. It'll, it's a great experience and I think that's too why Patrick wanted to bring me on. You know, I, I just was in their shoes and I think that's, there's something to be learned there for, for them and for Patrick and our other assistant coach who have never been division one women's volleyball players. So there's, there's a lot of cool opportunity there.
Mark Burik (00:56:56):
What's one thing from South Carolina and from Duke, so individually, one thing from those experiences, each one that you want to take and make sure that you implement with Columbia?
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (00:57:09):
That's a really good question. I think my year at Duke was very unique because it was right smack in the middle of the covid season for at least for, for college athletics. So it was very unique in the sense that we weren't able to do a lot of team related things. We weren't allowed to spend a whole lot of time together. We, you know, we were in our apartments, we went to the gym, we went to games, we went home, my classes were on Zoom. I was basically in my apartment at all times, except for when I was practicing or playing in Cameron or away games. That was it. It was a really tough experience for me. I struggled a lot, but with that struggle, I think came a lot of independence and came a lot of just reflection on who I am, what I need, what I'm good at, what I'm not good at.
(00:57:57):
There was just so much reflection time and I think that's the case for everybody kind of during the last few years of, of our lives. But I think just in terms of being a student athlete, that is really something that I kind of wanna carry over to this team is is that sense of, you know, let's talk about things you're struggling with. I didn't tell anybody that I was struggling really bad at Duke. I didn't tell any of the coaches, I didn't tell any of my teammates. I just isolated myself and did it on my own and thought that was the way to do it. So I think definitely from that experience, I really want to try and instill a little bit in this team. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about what you're going through volleyball, not volleyball, what you're thinking on the court, how you're feeling outside of it.
(00:58:39):
I just want that dialogue to exist. I want those conversations to be had and I want them to feel comfortable enough to have those. Obviously they're not being forced in any way, but I think I just could have benefited more from speaking up and talking about it and, you know, that could have changed my experience a little bit more and it was exactly how it was supposed to be and I loved every moment of it, you know, after I was able to kind of reflect on it. But I think that's something huge that I wanna bring to this team and, and I think to college athletics in general could use a little bit more of that. And then, you know, as far as South Carolina goes, I think I kind of watched the ebbs and the flows of our culture throughout the four years I was there.
(00:59:18):
You know, we lost that senior class and then, you know, we got different pieces added and things like that. So I think just a lot of those team dynamics that I watched changed through my time at South Carolina. I think I got in my head a lot when I was playing and I think that prevented me from really enjoying what I was doing sometimes and being able to kind of look around and say I'm on the beach in Miami, playing my college sport. Like this is pretty dang cool. Yeah. Um, and so I think kind of from that, you know, also reminding, you know, these, these Columbia athletes, like, let's take a moment too and look where we're at. This is pretty cool. Like, we're playing in the middle of New York City and you all are such badass young women at an Ivy League school. And so I think it all comes down to me really wanting to just instill confidence in these young women and, and you know, obviously they, they have it, but I think that's what I struggled with the most.
(01:00:13):
And, and I think to have, if I had had myself maybe throughout my, like my older self throughout my time at South Carolina, duke, just, just a little, it's okay, it's all good. You don't, I know you're really going through it, but it's, it's okay. You're gonna be okay. I'm here if you need anything. And so Patrick knows the volleyball. I know the volleyball not as well as him, but I think for me, a big part of why I wanted to take this job and why I wanted to take this opportunity was I wanna help these young women through a really hard four years. It's not easy, otherwise everybody would do it. Um, so I think a lot of it is kind of those little intangible things that, that mental struggle I think that I can see a lot in athletes. Those are the things that I wanna bring to the team if I can.
Mark Burik (01:00:57):
Have you seen Ted Lasso?
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (01:00:59):
I need to, everybody tells me I need to watch it and I haven't.
Mark Burik (01:01:02):
It's, it's interesting because, you know, there's so many coaches that are like how as a coach do you ride that fine line? Keeping people positive, working happy and confident, also fixing the things that are destroying them, you know, in terms of skill development, uh, in terms of, you know, what the choices that they're making. And it's so hard, you know, he goes completely over the top. Like that's his character in, in the show to just be like, you got this like the ultra positive coach, but you don't ever see him coaching. He just creates this, this fantastic positive like warming team building culture. At some point somebody needs to teach a skill, which that that show doesn't, doesn't really cover. Like, it becomes difficult for coaches, I think to try to create that huge positive environment and say like, look what you get to do and be there kinda like Dory from Finding Nemo every day, like just positive and all the time, you know, like super happy.
(01:02:00):
But at some point somebody needs to fix something as well. You know, that's, that's that tough line that all coaches need to ride. But I, I don't know if it's a three to one balance or a, or a four to one balance, but for sure I think in our, the American culture, for sure, you need to be, you need to pad all of, of your corrections with multiple positives mm-hmm. , right? Like every correction you give them or mistake that you try to correct. You know, then you need to surround that in our culture, in today's culture with a bunch of compliments and supports and, and backpacks and everything, um, yeah. Might not be the same everywhere in the world just because the culture is different. Mm-hmm. , you know, a bunch of niceties might come off as fake to, to some cultures in some countries and then they won't trust you. But here for sure there needs to be that the padding of now go get 'em, you know, . Yeah.
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (01:02:51):
Yeah. And I think that's, that's tough cuz I think I've heard, I, I feel like I've talked to people and I've heard kind of people addressing that same thing that we've kind of, I don't know, evolved to this sort of time where yeah, we have to be a little bit more sensitive and cushy in that way of, and that's hard for me too because I, I grew up, you know, in my club coaches that was nonexistent. There was no cushiness, there was no niceties, there was none of that. And so I think it, it is hard to find this balance, you know, I, I think there's an element of, and not as much this nicety of just this kind of like positive everything's gonna be fine, we're fine. I think it's just being a little bit more real about what we're doing, what we're going through, and instead of, you know, the we're athletes, we grind, we just don't, we put our head in the sand, we just keep going.
(01:03:44):
And this whole, this whole idea that that's what an athlete should be, and I think especially male athletes, I've found, you know, through my time of talking with male athletes and being around them in college and stuff. And so I think it is hard to find this balance of there. You don't, we don't have to just grind and not talk about how we feel after the fact or how we feel before or during, you know, like there's a time and place to not talk about that kind of stuff and, and talk the skill and teach and learn. But I think that's the cool dynamic that I'm hoping our coaching staff will have is, you know, pat isn't the rah go. Nope, not at all. No, he's not. Nope. And I wouldn't, he shouldn't be, I wouldn't want him to be, that's not the type of guy he is, that's not the type of coach he is.
(01:04:29):
But I think that's why there's such a beauty to, I think our coaching dynamic. I hope what will be our coaching dynamic is that, you know, I can bring a little bit more of that and we can just compliment the three of us can just compliment each other. And so I think that's maybe what some coaching staffs are missing or some groups are missing is you have to have the balance. You can't, you can't always just have this, we're grinding, we're grinding, we're grinding, that's all we gotta do and we're gonna win, we're gonna be fine. It's, there's, there's a lot of mental mentality into this game. I tell a lot of my, I told a lot of my old beach girls, that beach in my opinion is like 40, 50% mental. Like it's a very mental game. There's, there's a point where if your mental stability is not there, you're done for. Right. So I think just being able to find that balance however you can, and it's a learning game every single day that we're gonna make mistakes and we're not gonna handle every situation great. But I think just learning what I've learned from my time in the game, that's kind of why I wanna bring a little bit of that mental, mental game into it.
Mark Burik (01:05:34):
Yeah, you're smart. I mean, I think you're learning kind of what I, around the same age, what I learned is that I was that worker. I was that, okay coach, you want me to bang my head against the wall for three hours, I got it, I'm on it. What else? You know? Um, and there's no forgiveness. And then I would look at other people who weren't banging their head against a brick wall and being like, what the, come on guy. Yeah. Like, get it together. Right. But there needs, I realized that after a bunch of screw ups that I needed somebody or, well, first of all, I needed to add to my skillset, how are you doing today? Mm-hmm. from New York, I'm from Queens. Like, we open with an insult. And if you can get past that and throw me an insult back, then we're going to start talking.
(01:06:13):
Didn't work everywhere. , like, you need to, you need to go through a few rounds of that before we actually have a conversation that does not work as a coach, does not work for the very vast, large majority of athletes. So I had to learn how to start doing that, how to release my sarcasm, be a little bit more supportive, ask some more questions, but then more importantly, I was like, man, I need a coach. If I ever took over a head coach program, I need a coach who knows setting, you know, knows setting for indoor and can really do that masterfully and is great at like, you know, tying hair ribbons and buying stuff for the team and bringing donuts on Halloween and all of that little intangible stuff that actually like makes people happy instead of bringing them to work. Like for me, that was my joy coming to work.
(01:07:06):
Mm-hmm , it's not everybody's, you know, everybody needs a little bit extra something, something else. And so that would be my focus on bringing somebody as, as my assistant. And it sounds like you, you're that assistant, you're, you're that to Pat is the higher energy. Like let's build this, let's build the energy and where, where Pat is setting the, the direction in terms of culture, and I know he's huge on reading lists for his team, what teammates can do for each other. And he's a little bit learned too, right? Because me and him are probably cut from the same cloth where he just wants to grind. And if you can still feel your legs after leg day, you failed yourself. Like in his soul , that's what he feels, that's what I feel. But then we need to, we need to take a shade of ourselves and, and be able to present that so that it, it helps a team or a group of people grow.
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (01:08:00):
Absolutely. I'll, you know, you guys enjoy the leg day and not being able to walk and I'll be over there cheering you on and, but I think that's exactly how he, I've seen him operate and you know, ha having him as a coach and now having him as a boss slash coworker. It's been a cool transition for sure. I'm excited to be the energy of the team, hopefully.
Mark Burik (01:08:25):
All right, so we're gonna start wrapping this up. Uh, I do wanna know for, for one kind of last little anything. If somebody is trying to decide whether they should continue playing indoor or continue playing beach or they're trying to combine them, do you have any tips that you've learned from your time about the mix of those two sports, either as a coach or as a player
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (01:08:51):
Mix of beach and indoor? Good question. Honestly, I think people have different opinions on it. I know a lot of people who don't like the beach. I've heard people who say the beach isn't even a real form of volleyball, it's just funsies on the sand. So I've kind of heard it all. Uh, and just the way I see it, you know, I think I don't see really the reason as you're younger and just learning the game to really feel like you have to be one or the other. I think it can be a hard balance to try to do too, especially with club now and kind of how that's, that's grown a lot. But I think both have helped me with the other. I, there's been beach things that I've seen have helped me with indoor. Indoor, I've gone back to beach. I just think for me, being able to be around both so much, I've been able to see the value in both and kind of how different they are, how similar they are.
(01:09:42):
So I think just being able to involve yourself in both if you can. If that means playing in a beach tournament once on a Saturday and then going back to your indoor practices, it's just a breath of fresh air. I think being able to just take a second away from one, put your effort into the other a little bit, even if it's just for fun, out on the beach for fun, on the indoor side, whatever that looks like it, I think it can just change your perspective a little bit on it and help you learn something new maybe. And it maybe helped develop your skill in a, in a way that you didn't expect. So I think I've just, I've experienced a lot or seen a lot of, you know, people act like you've gotta be one, you've gotta be the other, or that one's not gonna help the other. And in my experience, it's been so amazing to be around both and meet so many people through both of them and see how they intertwine. And so I would say, you know, try and enjoy both if you can try and get yourself involved at the very least, if it's just for fun once, then I think you'll learn something from that. So don't feel so pressured at having to make a decision between, do I love Beach more? Do I love endure more? There's room for both. There's room for both in here, you know?
Mark Burik (01:10:50):
That's right. There's finally room to have multiple loves ,
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (01:10:55):
You can love both people love grass now you know, everyone's, there's snow volleyball, who knows,
Mark Burik (01:11:03):
Right? Soon we'll have like water volleyball, maybe they'll put the jet packs on people's things with the hose and they'll figure out a way to do something that sounds a little outta control, but hey, time
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (01:11:11):
Up.
Mark Burik (01:11:12):
Honestly, you know, that'll, that'll go viral.
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (01:11:14):
Eyeballs will be literally side
Mark Burik (01:11:17):
Balls. Yeah, the, the old version of Slam Ball where everybody's on trampolines, put a nice net with everybody on trampolines. That'd be
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (01:11:24):
Fun. There's a version of volleyball for everyone, so that's
Mark Burik (01:11:26):
True. Even if it's a balloon over a couch,
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (01:11:28):
Literally don't let the balloon touch the floor. That's where we were all taught at like five
Mark Burik (01:11:33):
Years old. All right. Hey Frankie, thank you so much for coming on. Uh, if anybody wants to reach out to you or know what you're doing or keep up with you, how would they find you? Follow you, reach out to you,
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (01:11:44):
Please reach out. Please follow me if you want. Hopefully I think I have a fun aesthetic on my Instagram. Follow me on in stuff. It's my name Francis Harrison with three ends in Harrison. I'm not a crazy social media gal. I made a TikTok, but I don't really post on TikTok. So mostly just Instagram kind of stuff. I love chatting, getting to know people. If you got any volleyball questions, non volleyball questions, whatever I'm happy to answer. So social media, maybe my name on Twitter, my name on Instagram, that kind of
Mark Burik (01:12:16):
Stuff. Frank, you thank you so much for coming on, really appreciate you. Good luck this season in the new adventure in the new city and the new role. Sounds like, uh, big things are on the way for you.
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (01:12:26):
Thank you for having me. It's been fun to chat volleyball. I'm not, haven't chatted volleyball in a minute, so it's been fun. Thank you.
Mark Burik (01:12:34):
You have a great day.
Franky Rooseland-Harrison (01:12:35):
You too.
Mark Burik (01:12:36):
Bye-bye. Awesome. So guys, cool interview. It's, uh, it's cool to see somebody who's so young but has experienced so much of the game from, you know, a junior's club, just kind of got a little taste of beach and then ended up becoming a player for major university and then went to another major university to play indoor and is now coaching. So sounds like we're gonna be hearing a lot more of her name, uh, from years to come. And she is, I'll admit I was biased, she is coaching for one of my best friends, uh, in the world. Pat's just an amazing guy and now he's got the head roll at Columbia. So I'm wishing them all of the best luck and success and of course focus. I kind of usually wish people focus before I wish them luck, because a lot of times that's just what's required.
(01:13:33):
Consistency and focus is what gets you to the next level of success. And if you do consistency and you do focus, then if you happen to be lucky, you get something real nice. If you happen to be unlucky, then you can still ride on the fact that you've developed those skills, you've developed your discipline and that will carry you onto whatever else you need in your life, in your career, coaching, playing, et cetera. From me. Uh, our camps, like I said, the beginning of the show, our camps are firing. So if you want to come out October, November, December, January, and we will be opening camps in February, March and April. If you want to come hang out with a bunch, bunch of volleyball pros and having awesome seven days, this is a quote from several campers. This has been the best week of my life.
(01:14:19):
It's so cool to hear that from people who come to our camps, the people who say like, I didn't know really. I thought a vacation for me was just kind of partying, drinking, hanging out and relaxing. One of our members, I remember Josh, he said at the end of the camp, he goes, I had no idea that going on vacation to come be active for all these hours during the day, train and learn and then compete with people who also want to compete and then have a good dinner and some drinks. But wake up early the next day doing it all over again, being in shape and being active and, and playing a cool new sport. And this was somebody who only played for like two or three months before our camp. He said that that was the best week of his life and better it Beach helped him, I guess, reconceive or come up with a new idea of what a vacation is.
(01:15:09):
You know, I'm lucky enough that I got to be able to build a company that provides the vacations that I love, that I'm passionate about. I'm not the type of person that wants to go on vacation and sit on a lawn chair. That frustrates me. It makes me mad after about 45 minutes of me sitting on a lawn chair laying on a beach, getting hot in the sun. Not for me. I love playing and being active and being forced to meet people who have the same passion. That's what we do at our camps. You get to interact with people who share a passion. So you're automatically friends, you're automatically already hanging out and you're forced on that court with them. So there's this kind of built in friendship and camaraderie that we get. So our camps are just, they're so much fun and you're gonna meet such good people, uh, and you're gonna get a lot better at beach volleyball.
(01:16:01):
So if you want to come to any one of those, go ahead, make sure you're on our email list, first of all, so that you hear about all the updates. The people on our email list get first dibs at early bird pricing. Uh, they get first Ds basically on everything. If you're one of our members in our Complete Player program, which means that we coach you online all year round, uh, we help you get better through tutorials, videos, and actual coaching on your videos. If you're there, then you actually get the first release for all of our discounts and early bird specials. Then come the people on our email list as a thank you for following. And after that we release to the general public. I hope you come to one of those camps and I would love to work with you in the Complete Player Program.
(01:16:46):
We have fantastic coaches who are getting people to new levels. We have a 60 day max vertical program, which if you're looking for a volleyball specific workout program that has everything you need, just need to head [email protected]. If you ever want to reach out to me or us, you can search for VO chat on Facebook. We might be changing that name. Hopefully it, it sticks around. But VO Chat on Facebook, that is our public group. People ask questions, rules, questions, technique questions all the time. And we have a ton of people giving fantastic answers. And then of course, we have our private Facebook group for our members where we dive deep into the actual learning of strategy and skill and technique. Or you could follow us on Instagram better at beach volleyball. If you wanna follow me personally, follow Mark Burrick, B U R I K at Instagram.
(01:17:35):
And if you ever want us to run a clinic in your hometown, your area, the first thing you need to do is know where we're gonna host that clinic and have legal access to that. Whether it's renting a court from a restaurant or just getting a permit. Or if it is in your backyard, you have 12 people who are ready for a full day of training, it's two 50 a person for a full day. We need a minimum of 12 to be able to do that. Head over there to better beach.com/clinics. As always, thank you for your attention for listening, for hanging out and Giving my Life meeting, providing a living in the sport that we love, in a healthy environment for all the people that work for Better At Beach. Our team is just growing. If you ever think that you have anything to offer or you want to change careers or you want to start a career in a company that promotes beach volleyball, health vacations, clinics, learning opportunities, et cetera, please just reach out, shoot an email to support it [email protected].
(01:18:39):
The way that we hire is so far, we've been lucky. People find us. I've never hired someone really outright, but it's somebody who has been in our community, started helping on something and then once I realized that they did something extra, they had this special talent, I was like, Hey, would you also like to do this? And then they do that plus a little extra and then I give them more. And now we've got, uh, four full-time and seven part-time employees, which is crazy to me that we're growing like that. So if you wanna become a part of the team and, uh, really just have a good time and and love what you do, get in touch, share whatever skillset you have, uh, whatever you want to do and would love to hear from you and add you to the team. Most of all of our hires are invest slash gambles, which means that it sort of proved, hey, you got some skill and you got some passion and you did this.
(01:19:35):
And now, alright, you know what? I think you're gonna continue that. Let's give you a bigger role and see what you can do with it. If you wanna start looking at that, check out better at beach.com/dream job. I know it's a funny but better at beach.com/dream job. It'll explain what we're looking for, the type of person that we're looking for and how to get started initially. Check it out if you are a coach or just a volleyball enthusiast and you want to get into it. All right guys, thank you so much from me, Mark Burt, from all of us at Better at Beach. We will see you on the sand.
