Ed Ratledge (00:00:00):
I had this conversation with Casey Patterson about a difficult partner that he had played with at one point. And I'm like, how were you able to play with him and everybody else? Like wasn't? And he's like, dude, I'm a great actor. I'm like, , you know, I might, might need to brush up on my acting skills a little bit, but I think to some degree I will find person that I need to be with any given partner too, because it is, it's on me to be the best player I can be for my partner. You know, I try and there are just some people I don't want to be like, I do not want to be Blamy guy. Like, it just goes against everything I stand for to put on someone else something that might be my fault. Yeah. Like, and so it's hard for me to be that guy, but there are certain players that thrive on that. Like
Mark Burik (00:00:43):
Right, you know, you know, you see like Adrian, you see like kind of Casey Jennings sometimes John and Todd, right? And you look and you say, as a young player, I remember looking at these guys going, you know what, they, they can be pretty tough on their partners and real hardnosed and outta college coming outta college and through what funny stuff,
Ed Ratledge (00:00:59):
Why that? Cause they're partner like that thrived on that. Has Phil won any gold medals since Todd uh, saddled him up?
Mark Burik (00:01:08):
Hey everybody and welcome to the Better at Beach Volleyball Podcast. My name is Mark Burrick and today we have a really awesome guest. He is an A V P champion. He is one of the most tenured players on tour and he is a volleyball entrepreneur. So I have a ton of questions for him. He's run classes, he has run beach volleyball tournament software and slowly and quietly and perhaps sneakily taking over the beach volleyball world, which is really exciting. So can't wait to talk to our guest, Eddie the Eagle ratledge, what's going on? But yet,
Ed Ratledge (00:01:47):
How's it going Mark? Good to see you.
Mark Burik (00:01:49):
Good to see you. So, hey, what was your day like today? Uh, you've got a few businesses going, you're still competing on tour, still doing quite well. So what was your day like today? This is Wednesday and it's 1:00 PM It's
Ed Ratledge (00:01:59):
Okay. So, so far today it has been an eventful day. Not on the business side. On the family side, I would say this summer I've been a lot more dedicated to my family than I have been. I've got two kids, 12 and seven and we live in the Huntington Beach area and the Huntington Beach School District, which remarkably is still out on summer break. So everybody in the country seems like they're back. We are on summer break until Thursday of next week, which is great because this is the best time of the year in California. Like the water's
Mark Burik (00:02:28):
Warm, local
Ed Ratledge (00:02:29):
Summer tourists are gone, like parking spots. Were a plenty down at the beach this morning. So I took my seven year old daughter out, uh, surfing and my 12 year old son, William, he went out surfing as well. And it was an eventful day because uh, while I was out there I stepped on a stingray and I got, oh no, a fantastic souvenir. Yeah. Uh, this is my third time being hit by a stingray. What, uh, the first time hurt really bad. The second time was the worst pain in my life. And the third time this was not that, that bad. It's actually already a zero, which having happened only about three hours ago, like that is not to be expected. Like my second one hurt for like two weeks cuz it was like full puncture wound and like the venom got way in there and it was brutal. Uh,
Mark Burik (00:03:13):
This one, are you stepping on them or are you jumping up? Why are they all finding you? I
Ed Ratledge (00:03:17):
Don't, well, I mean, I do spend a fair bit of time in the ocean at places with little waves, which is where stingrays like, you know, with little kids, you don't take 'em in the big stuff. And so today we're at a place called Blackie's Beach. Uh, Newport Pier, very gentle slope down which stingrays love. The waters warm, there's no one there. So I knew it was a stingray day and I literally was shuffling my feet the whole time the way you're supposed to. And all of a sudden I just felt a little prick and I'm like, oh no. But uh, thankfully it's already a zero and uh, just a little one. So maybe all that stingray shuffling kept me from getting the full puncture wound that you get when you actually step on one. Cause I don't think I stepped on this one. He just wanted to check out what my big toe taste
Mark Burik (00:03:57):
Was. Take a fight with with the biggest guy in the ocean.
Ed Ratledge (00:04:01):
. Yeah. Yeah. Well he won. I spent the next hour in the, uh, lifeguard shack putting hot water on it to
Mark Burik (00:04:07):
Dang sorry,
Ed Ratledge (00:04:08):
Man, with the pain, which was intense. But it's gone now, thankfully . So got the kids in the water and uh, then grabbed some breakfast burritos with them and yeah, just good family time right now. Gonna be in Chicago flying out there tomorrow. Cody, my partner for Chicago is already on a plane today, otherwise we would've been practicing this morning, but he had a earlier flight, so I had some time for the kids.
Mark Burik (00:04:30):
Cody is, is he your second or third partner this season?
Ed Ratledge (00:04:33):
Yeah, I've played with a bunch of guys this year and it really started with Casey Patterson. Uh, I was lucky enough to get to play an event with an Olympian and I highly recommend doing that if you have the chance because the way those guys who have played at that level, the way they think about the game, like even if like we weren't the best team together and I, God, we could have been so good if we just had good conditions for the one tournament we got to play in. They have so much to teach at that level. And Casey's such a talker about strategy and he is always thinking. And I actually thought we could do really, really well just because of that. And unfortunately we ran into like the hottest weekend of the year in Austin and it was just, it was survival mode, volleyball and neither of us could really get in the groove and the flow and the fun and the celebration that kind of drives us both to be great. And we just kind of had the quietest like trudge back to serve, don't celebrate because it's too hot to do anything
Mark Burik (00:05:25):
That is not either of you. Yeah,
Ed Ratledge (00:05:28):
No, it was brutal. Like that was just like the, I I did not imagine that, you know, I, you know, Austin has been warm but it's never been like humid and like, just like staggeringly hot and you know, I just imagined, you know, getting into it with those Austin fans that are always so good,
Mark Burik (00:05:46):
They're so knowledgeable, they're so rowdy. I love the Austin fans. I love 'em man. Like it would've been been
Ed Ratledge (00:05:50):
So much
Mark Burik (00:05:50):
Fun to like, and if they don't like you, that that's like aside from the Raiders, if the Austin fans don't like you, you're in for it all day long. And personally I love that, you know, like if you care about what's happening on court and you're willing to, to say it vocally, this is gonna be a fun day.
Ed Ratledge (00:06:05):
Yeah, yeah. And I really wish we could have gotten a couple more matches in there and like, and celebrated and had, you know, that success that, that you wanna celebrate. And, but uh, so it started with Casey and uh, then he got to be playing with Phil mm-hmm. and you know, I'll be sloppy seconds to Phil any day. That's fine. , uh, played a few with Miles Evans and did all right with him and yeah. Then got to pick up Cody for a couple of these. And I'm excited about Cody. He's got a bright future ahead of him. I mean he
Mark Burik (00:06:34):
Yeah, we're talking about that a couple years ago. Right. We're we're
Ed Ratledge (00:06:37):
Saying he fans blocking, like he's,
Mark Burik (00:06:39):
You were, you actually, uh, said this to me. You, you said Cody might be rings quality, you said, I think those were your exact words. You're like, I'm talking, he might be rings good, which like talking about Olympics for him and when you see his movement and how high he gets the angles, he hits his arm swing when he gets his jumper going, sometimes he gets inconsistent, but when it's getting going, oh God.
Ed Ratledge (00:07:04):
Scary to be on the other side of that. He's
Mark Burik (00:07:06):
A threat, that
Ed Ratledge (00:07:07):
Dude. Absolutely. And uh, you know, he's a high level side out player and he wants, he wants to play defense, he wants to do that Casey Patterson path, long tall defender, which, you know, at the international level you, that's kind of the standard now. 6 5, 6, 6 defender. And so it's possible for him cuz he is young and he is, he's after it and he's got a good, I really like his situation cuz he, he's got a girlfriend that's real good for him. Mm-hmm. and I look at all of these things as a holistic matter and before she was around I just felt like there was a piece missing for him, just kind of here and she's there and it like, he just seems right and
Mark Burik (00:07:46):
It's nice to have some kind of rock in your life no matter what it is. Right. You know, like something steady.
Ed Ratledge (00:07:52):
My dog loves me no matter what I do. My dog loves me. Even if
Mark Burik (00:07:56):
You got a dog that's Yes. I a hundred percent. Yeah. We talk like dog gloves, beautiful, loves one. Right. That's your rock. There you go.
Ed Ratledge (00:08:09):
. Yep. Uh, my wife too. Uh, Jessica, you're, you're amazing. Like none of this would've happened without you. So Yeah.
Mark Burik (00:08:16):
Out of the guys that you've played with this year, who had your favorite mentality to play with or like the way that their demeanor was and why? Like what do you think was the best fit for you? I don't know. Socially, mentally, emotionally.
Ed Ratledge (00:08:31):
Well I did get to play one with Rafu in, uh, early March or like, maybe even February. We played a for Florida event and uh, we played that one together and I had so much fun with him. Obviously we have that success. He was who I won the, that event with, had so much success with him. He moved to Florida, which broke my heart, but I got to go out there and play with him and I'm just like, God, it's magical the way he touches the ball, the way he thinks and moves. Like, it's just a magical connection for me. And so I'm always looking for the opportunity to get back with him because I mean, he's was that special like, special player for me. I got to play one with Chase fisherman. That was really cool. He flows really
Mark Burik (00:09:12):
Socially. Like what, what do you think, what do you think mentally Rafu does well for, for you that like other than touch other than like he's nasty side out his arm moves, you know, a million miles per hour, even if he's hitting a cut shot or a high line. So it's so hard to read what he's doing and everything is controlled from setting to passing. But what does he do from a social mental standpoint that you,
Ed Ratledge (00:09:34):
In Rafu mind, it's always Rafa's fault, which is, it takes off so much pressure from me because from in my mind it's always my fault too. Like, you didn't side out a ball. Well, I could have set that better. Like that's my mentality for better or for worse. And, and in some ways that can be for worse. You know, you get an egotist that's just like, yeah, that was your fault. And it's like, well, you know, maybe you're fascinated to be a little better
Mark Burik (00:09:57):
Too. I was just trying to take something off for you, but now that you're throwing it all over me, like
Ed Ratledge (00:10:02):
rafu is like Yeah, exactly. Rafu, he has such an internal locus of control. It's always up to him about whether his team is doing good. It's, he's not that guy that you know that it's your fault. Which is so nice because it's my fault enough in my head. And so him taking it off of me sometimes felt and always has felt really good.
Mark Burik (00:10:27):
Do you think there are any players that are like that with some partners but not with others? You know, like I, there's always like that different mix of personality and sometimes you just get a different version of somebody. A
Ed Ratledge (00:10:38):
Hundred percent agree. And I had this conversation with Casey Patterson about a difficult partner that he had played with at one point and I'm like, how were you able to play with him and everybody else? Like wasn't. And he is like, dude, I'm a great actor. I'm like , you know, I might, might need to brush up on my acting skills a little bit, but I think to some degree I will find person that I need to be with any given partner too because it is, it's on me to be the best player I can be for my partner. You know, I try and there are just some people I don't want to be like, I do not want to be Blamy guy. Like, it just goes against everything I stand for to put on someone else, something that might be my fault. Yeah. Like, and so it's hard for me to be that guy, but there are certain players that thrive on that. Like
Mark Burik (00:11:23):
Right. You know, you know, you see like Adrian, you see like kind of Casey Jennings sometimes John and Todd. Right. And you look and you say, as a young player, I remember looking at these guys going, you know what they, they can be pretty tough on their partners and real hardnosed and at a college coming outta college and through his twentie.
Ed Ratledge (00:11:38):
Why that cause their partner? I liked that. Thrived on that. Has Phil won any gold medals since Todd, uh, saddled him up?
Mark Burik (00:11:45):
, I talked to him yesterday and he didn't necessarily love it. He's he was saying, yeah, well Todd, everything was my fault. and he like the commentary on my blocking. He let me know for sure a hundred percent anytime I did something wrong. So he didn't love it. But yeah, he thrived on it and he said that Nick's the same way. He's like chirpy and talking a lot behind him and, and let him know it best friends, but they drive each other crazy.
Ed Ratledge (00:12:09):
What does Herm Edwards always say Lay to win the game. So if that's what it takes, maybe that's what it takes. I feel like zn would ride me and I felt like I probably dealt with that better than a lot of other players like that couldn't deal with that. Sure. Yeah. Um, and you know, we had some success. The thing is you like, like all things, you gotta find the right amount of balance. There'd be times where I'd be like, bro chill. Like it needs to stop now. But even in doing that, like that's kind of summoning up that boundary setting. Like, all right, we're done with this, this is over. But that only kind of brings out more masculine energy, which can kind of be good.
Mark Burik (00:12:45):
In your career, were those conversations, did you have a lot of outside practice and match conversations about how we should act, how we should talk to each other, what we should do? Or was it kind of more like in my, in my experience, guys just kind of don't want to talk about it outside. It'll be something quick that happens at practice or quick that happens in a match and then you don't really address it because you can't talk about it for very long or, or uncomfortable talking about it for long. Yeah. In your experience where you're taking care of it outside the
Ed Ratledge (00:13:14):
Court, I think, I think that's gonna change as male vulnerability becomes en vogue. Like 20 years ago, male vulnerability was nowhere. Like that's just not something that you'd do. And in order to have that conversation, there has to be vulnerability and you know, the vast majority of my career was before that was cool, but I think the male humans that we're turning out now are better at that stuff than, you know, the males of my, our generation were. And so I do expect a change there. I can tell you one thing I've done in the past when I really didn't want to have that conversation. I was a tournament day, I would make sure we had somebody in our box, having a third person in your box in case things get heated or things get cold or like just things feel wrong. Having a third person, especially one that's like good at addressing those things, it's worth looking at having a coach.
Mark Burik (00:14:06):
You think that's important for, for practices too? Is it more important for you to have a coach in your box during a tournament or at practices? Like if you had to choose one or the other?
Ed Ratledge (00:14:16):
At my age now, I would choose in tournament it was, well my first couple of years I would've killed for a coach in practice there weren't really any like, it was just get three guys out and have a foursome go play back then now it's come a long way where there's a lot of coaching and there's a lot more knowledge.
Mark Burik (00:14:30):
And who do you think was your favorite inbox coach? What did they do?
Ed Ratledge (00:14:33):
Well, LT Truman was in my box in Hermosa this year and he ran a couple practices for me and Miles beforehand and those were two of the best run practices I've ever been part of. And then the warmups that he put us through, like on game day were like the best run warmups I've ever been a part of. And the things that he, he noticed about me and Miles and how we interacted were some of the best and most insightful things. And the stuff that he noticed about our opponents were some of the best and most insightful things that both me and Miles had missed and he was right about them. And like, so Lt Truman, I'm really glad I met you this year and actually gonna check right now and see if he's gonna be in my box in Chicago. , um, not out yet. That popped up literally just right now. That's funny. Okay, so he may or may not be in my box. Look out
Mark Burik (00:15:20):
. All right.
Ed Ratledge (00:15:21):
He's out in Florida, maybe running some tournaments with him in Florida. We became pretty good friends over that Hermosa thing and he's got, you know, obviously I, the biggest part of my volley OC business is that upside down and backwards. Can you fix that or, yeah, the biggest part of that has always been the youth volleyball tournaments. And so this is a good way to segue into the volleyball life thing. And uh, anyway, he and I were talking about the west coast of Florida needing some youth volleyball tournaments, uh, this coming spring. So he and I may run a little series out there, the one a month, something like that. Nice. Just to be well run events, you know, we both have a lot of experience in doing that
Mark Burik (00:15:56):
And I think, I think so many directors are not, maybe not directors, but tournament organizers. I'm gonna hold 'em to it, you know, I don't think we have enough quality tournament directors in the country. I see kinda amateur events, you know, and, and open like weekend events playing until 8:30 PM when you had 16 teams. How did you not finish this disorganization? I think a lot of the online things, I mean, I'll hold AVP to it too, like trying to navigate right now the like avp AVP America's site and understand where the tournament is happening. There's, in order to see the practic, to see the brackets, you have to click on a button called nav and it's like, ah, we have to fix some of these things to make, first of all, it easier for people to track B V B info is still in my mind, like the leader in, in online. Like yeah,
Ed Ratledge (00:16:46):
That's where I went to see where my next match was in Manhattan. And like, I, I can't wade through the AVP stuff. Yeah. Like I just can't, none of it's really mobile friendly, you know, the, the smaller events that they do on Bracket Pal, like, yeah, no, uh, but volleyball life, that's, uh, I mean you and I talked before about that volleyball life has taken over probably 70% of the tournaments in the country. All five of the biggest amateur events. Seaside, alpaca boat ride, um, Potstown Rumble, FUDS is on it. Mother loads I think on it. They're like all the biggest ones. Mm-hmm. are all on volleyball life. And what we've noticed is that some of the smaller ones are shrinking and some of these bigger ones, because they now have infrastructure that's really mobile-friendly, easy for the tournament director to like run and describe what's happening and where times it's easy to put all that stuff in. It's mobile friendly so everybody who's in the tournament can easily pull up their pages and, you know, see who they're playing and where and yeah, they've got ING assignments and all that. Like it's, it's, it's making those bigger events. Like everyone wants to play the big events now because they're all well run because they're all on volleyball life. And I'm very happy to be part of that
Mark Burik (00:17:57):
Company. And this is, I I mean, it's your second company that I know of and it seems like you've become a serial entrepreneur, you know, perhaps like, are you just like loving creating volleyball businesses because AVP still going, I mean, since your early twenties, right? And then started VO c I don't know if there was anything before that. And then you're just in Huntington from the outside view crushing it with big, huge juniors tournaments and then saying like, you know what, maybe it's a, it's a little bit difficult to track what's happening in brackets in tournaments and getting people to sign up in the right place. So then you worked to create volleyball life to, to make that easier. Do you have any other companies or, or anything in mind? You
Ed Ratledge (00:18:43):
Know, that is about it. On the volleyball side, I see other companies coming along like Chase Freshman's Flight School, like such a cool concept. I've always wanted to do exactly what he's doing where he's just got all these like different locales that he can go to and run a clinic and have a flock, you know? Yeah. I mean, look at Jesus. He had a flock of 12 guys that followed him around and learned from him. That's cool. Like, that's a cool way to be. Chase has kind of built his flock in each of these places that wanna learn from him. Like I always wanted to do that. Having a family and kids, like that's like being away as much as, as he has to. Mm. Like it's not that feasible for me to go and do that. And, um, and you to some degree you've got the same thing and you've crushed it with yours. Like, I mean all the business, I mean, how many businesses do you have in volleyball now?
Mark Burik (00:19:27):
Oh, well it's all still one. Um, it just, it just morphed and now it's just got a lot of different sections under one umbrella.
Ed Ratledge (00:19:34):
Right. Yeah. And that's what I did with volleyball life, or, or sorry, with VO c i I was running adult volleyball classes. I had some private lessons here and there, obviously volleyball tournaments, summer camps. I wanted one umbrella company for all of that. The very first thing I did was summer camps and my last name being Ratledge, I called it the Rat Camp. And I still have cool little rat stickers that, uh, that are around. But you know, in 2010 or 12, somewhere in there, I was like, yeah, rat Camp doesn't really describe volleyball tournaments. It doesn't describe adult volleyball classes at all. I need an umbrella brand that's kind of neutral in vanilla. That's, you know, it says, Hey, I'm in Orange County, it's about volleyball. And that's, you know how VO C was
Mark Burik (00:20:16):
Born? Oh, we went through that same process where we changed volley camp. Hermosa Volley. Okay. That was in it Hermosa. Okay. But then I said like, yeah, we gotta, we have to grow and be able to grow beyond Hermosa scale. And we also got so many , we got so many phone calls for people looking for, uh, for tent spots to camp like volley camp. They were searching it and they, they thought it like camp. That's hilarious. Beach. And I was just like, all right, well we can change this a little bit.
Ed Ratledge (00:20:43):
, how big's your backyard? Did you ever put tents in there? People are like, I'll give you a thousand dollars to let me set up the 10 in Hermosa Beach
Mark Burik (00:20:50):
Backyard on, well at one point we were, uh, renting four different apartments and them for our camps. That was wild. I was doing Airbnb arbitrage before it was like an actual business that people talk about . That was fun.
Ed Ratledge (00:21:04):
As is per usual. Whenever I've got something important going on, I've got Gardner guy out front, so let me close these windows so I'm not throwing a bunch of interference shit left to you with a view of Benji. He's so cute. Right.
Mark Burik (00:21:17):
, he's your rock. . Let's talk about how you approach partners when, when you're emotion. It sounds like you are recommending a little bit more of like a chameleon type mindset, right? Where you're looking at partners and you're saying like, who do I need to be for this relationship? Yeah. Uh, is that how you approach it? And do you think there's any room for the people who are 100% themselves no matter what, no matter who they're around?
Ed Ratledge (00:21:43):
I think there's room in the middle for them. I think you might need to have a little bit broader capability if you wanna make it to the top. Just always wearing your heart on your sleeve. There are times where it needs to come out and there are times where like, push your heart down for a quick second. Be smart about a longer term view here. Yeah. A chameleon I think's a helpful way to be. I think knowing what role you're comfortable at assuming is important. Yeah. I think, uh, especially on the women's side, that ability to communicate well without getting into blam this, that judgment free zone, it's vital, I think, to be able to go there and not have people's feelings get hurt and have them, you know, go into defensive mode against you. So volleyball can be an indictment on your whole person. You know, not just your willingness to train hard, but like if you were raised and you're not a very social creature, volleyball is gonna picket that and you'll struggle to find the right partner because they'll like somebody else and feel more comfortable with somebody else. So like most things like the more you can grow at all the facets of it, bigger, better your game can be.
Mark Burik (00:22:50):
How do you explain the, let's, let's pick on 'em a little bit. Uh, the Adrian's uh, and the Todds where didn't seem to chameleon esque, right? Adrian and Nick for, for a long time before he got all jolly and silly with Phil.
Ed Ratledge (00:23:02):
Is that how Nick really is all the time? Or is that the best player he could be for Phil? Yeah,
Mark Burik (00:23:07):
That's a because right with Phil, like he, he seemed to get like a little bit fiery with furry and uh, with Theo and then Phil when they started playing together, Nick was almost goofy. And then we saw Phil like starting to laugh mid match for the first time ever. I don't know, ,
Ed Ratledge (00:23:23):
It could be a good long term strategy if, uh, Phil wants to retire, make it fun for
Mark Burik (00:23:27):
Him, right? Yeah. Not a bad idea,
Ed Ratledge (00:23:29):
But no fair point. Like these guys, uh, I mean truly special Nick Luciena, I mean his ability to side out every single ball for tournaments at a time, like mm-hmm. truly special. I'm reading the comments, get the man some pancakes. T 20 s give me some pancakes. . Solid human cuz I'm left-handed. Yes. Appreciate you commoners.
Mark Burik (00:23:49):
The, the partnership with Ryan Mariano it, looking at it, when I first came on to a p like you were already playing with him. It, you guys were together for what, seven years?
Ed Ratledge (00:23:59):
Seven ish years? Yeah, there were like six really solid seasons where we played every event together and then he took 2013 off and we played another event in 2014. So yeah.
Mark Burik (00:24:09):
What do you think you attribute sticking together for that long? You know, you're always finishing right? Somewhere right between the seventh. Seventh, right? Yeah,
Ed Ratledge (00:24:17):
Yeah. Third, we had a bunch of thirds in the Cuervos in 2012. But
Mark Burik (00:24:21):
You were one of the longest partnerships in the a v AVP at that time. I mean, and and you stuck it, you stuck
Ed Ratledge (00:24:27):
It out. Yeah. Outside of the, uh, the folks, I mean, shoot, we might still be playing together if he hadn't, uh, you know, moved to Arizona and uh, started his club that's kicking everybody's butt. What do I attribute that to? You had two guys that were the same age that were in the same tier that did corresponding things. You know, he is a blog or he's a, uh, left side defender. I'm a right side blocker. We, and we lived in the same hometown. You know, we both called Huntington home. I mean there were so many days where I just, you know, called him up, Hey, what are you doing? You wanna go down? Okay, let's go down. And we just go down and hit some balls and like, it's so easy when you live close to each other. And so that was part of it.
(00:25:03):
And we got along well off the court. Were friends, were, you know, just kind of in the same mode of life. And so we had a pretty good base understanding of each other. Neither of us were gonna like make a lateral move out of that. And neither of us were really interested in spending six figures a year to go chase a wild Olympic dream against guys who were beating us on avp, you know, but we were kind of at the top of the main draw outside of the international guys anyway. So why mess that up?
Mark Burik (00:25:30):
So for you, was it like kind of a, a personal promise like, Hey, I gotta, I have to beat the guys on the home soil first and then if I can do that, I would go international. I feel like there's a lot of players that definitely don't do that route. You know, they'll, they'll try to go overseas and, and it is true, right? You, you haven't beat the guys that you're gonna have to beat in a country quota and now you want to go and take on the world.
Ed Ratledge (00:25:51):
The thing to think about at that time period was there was no way onto the international tour either without playing with somebody who had points. Like there weren't one and two stars. Like Norceca did not give you f I beat points. Hmm. And so, you know, we couldn't even get into like country quotas cause we had no fib BBB points if we had wanted to. And maybe we could have like snuck in somehow and maybe we could have really, but like there's also a duty to your family when you're me and like, you know, I'm a newlywed. I don't have a gigantic income and blowing all this money to go, you know, to Croatia to play a, an event that I'm gonna potentially lose to a team that's beating me here. Like that just didn't make sense When I'm the breadwinner for my family and, you know, I'm making okay money on the AVP and doing what I gotta do as an entrepreneur to like, so it didn't make sense financially, it didn't make sense in a lot of ways and it was extremely difficult back then to really chase those international dreams.
Mark Burik (00:26:48):
How are you balancing that now? Uh, we get a lot of questions that have to honestly have to do with timing and scheduling. I just got an email that said, how do you balance working out for volleyball, playing volleyball, uh, having a family, having a job, and then doing the, the, the rest of everything, right? So how are you finding time to have two companies be still be a professional athlete and you know, a father of two husband? That's a lot. And then forget it. People don't even talk about friends, right? Like for me, my friend and like unfortunately like my brothers, my, my, my family. Like that's dropped off in the last two years because got married. So now I wanna give as much as I can to my wife, but I'm still lots of business and, and still playing volleyball. How do I fit friends back? And so how do you manage your schedule training, working, working out very
Ed Ratledge (00:27:41):
Carefully. Um, and I gave a big shout out to my wife earlier Jessica. Like there are a hundred different things that she wanted me for this summer, you know, a camping trip here, uh, you know, a friend's trip there. And she's thankfully been okay with me prioritizing volleyball all these years cuz I'm chasing my dream and like, you know, my dream is to stay a pro volleyball player as long as I can and like she's been supportive of that. So first off, choose wisely in someone that's going to support you in your dreams and don't waste the time of somebody who you don't think is going to support you in your dreams. That's huge.
Mark Burik (00:28:16):
Are those individual conversations or is it can't volleyball or is, is there like a little bit of negotiation or is she completely, oh, there's volleyball. Okay. No questions asked. We're good. You know, cuz I, now I'm finding myself, I'm having conversations where I'm like, should I go to this tournament? Like what's the over, what's the under? How much can
Ed Ratledge (00:28:33):
I do? Well this year's AVP has really like pushed that and, and given her a lot more leverage there. I'll give start on this season, you know, two years ago, three years ago where every tournament this I signed up for, I brought home 1500 bucks of cash. It's just, it's not a question about whether I'm being a breadwinner by going and playing that tournament. But, you know, I played AVP Michigan, I took a fifth place, I lost, uh, two main draw teams, uh, on route to a fifth place there qualified for Hermosa, which is cool, but I think we split like 800 bucks and it was like, so
Mark Burik (00:29:04):
That's a $500 loss, plus family plus, uh, opportunity thing,
Ed Ratledge (00:29:08):
Right? Right. Like, so the way the AVP is right now with, you know, having to play these little tournaments to maybe make it into a big one where you would actually make your money back for having played the little one that's not making money. And I like what they did in some ways because it really does open up the field and it's going to like, it's gonna create churn. It's percolating guys in and out and that's okay. It makes it harder for somebody like me to like really commit to playing all these. And I've, I've actually missed a p events this year for the first time ever where I'm just like, you know, I've got, got a family commitment that's important and I don't know if that I'm really gonna be a breadwinner by going to this event. So yeah, I think I'm gonna just do the family thing. See, it's got upsides for sure, and I, I, especially on the men's side, there needs to be young blood, there needs to be young, you know, newer players getting in and, and I think that it is.
Mark Burik (00:29:58):
Yeah. But then you're asking a 23 year old to fly to one tournament when you know that their bank role is coming from maybe bartending or personal training. So now to get into one tournament, they have to go to two tournaments, right? And if you're just getting started, you take the 13th, you take the ninth, um, you take the the fifth losing money now you spent two weeks and maybe come out a hundred bucks on top, you know, so what's the hourly rate there? I, I didn't like the system this year. I'd like to, you know, go to one tournament, qualify for one tournament, they're cutting a lot of the financial ability. And I think a lot of teams dropped off and started making those questions financially being like, it's August and now I can't really afford to play any more tournaments because I've been all those. And then you could argue, all right, well then don't pay. Maybe
Ed Ratledge (00:30:44):
That's why the spread, this is out all the way to December .
Mark Burik (00:30:49):
Um, I I hope it changes next year and I hope they at least allow us into the conversation of what's happening and how it's gonna run. Or maybe we should just step up and get in the conversation more.
Ed Ratledge (00:30:59):
Yeah, I mean there's positives and negatives and I, I try to see all the positives and all the negatives, positives, these guys that are making it into the main draw by qualifying, uh, aren't beat to hell from five matches the day before. There's positive, you know, you got guys all on equal footing, that's kind of a positive, you know, you've got more content that's being created, you know, that you think got that's fun. Yeah. The fact that there's more matches out there to stream, like
Mark Burik (00:31:25):
I'm stoked about the AVP channel. I think the AVP Instagram is doing well. I love that there's like that the AVP finally committed to, um, what mission Beach volleyball YouTube channel was years ago. You know, like, hey, now every pro match is, or, or a match with pro players is on YouTube and easy to find. I I love for
Ed Ratledge (00:31:44):
That. It's uh, that that's a good thing for sure. And I mean, I just look forward to valleys hopefully adding gambling at some point and monetizing this sport. That's why they bought us and that's what needs to happen for us to really go big is that monetization. And you know, that happens, you know, part of me is hoping that I can hang around long enough to like part of that where prize money is way bigger because there are more revenue streams for the owners.
Mark Burik (00:32:10):
Yeah. I always kind of feared that. I'm like, all right, you take guys who have been playing for 10, 15 years and the prize money, they can get $4,000 if they win the tournament. And then you have a gambler who likes gambling and as a bank roll and he is like, all right, you know, throw this game and I'll give you more than you've gotten in any season in your life for this tournament. There's a little bit of that possibility I guess that that's possible in any sport. Right?
Ed Ratledge (00:32:33):
Right. A hundred percent. And then peds, there's another question. I've never been tested my whole career and do I think some guys that I've played against have been on 'em? Yeah. And do I think if the sport goes huge, there'll be more guys on it. Yeah. Kind of gotta add some point. Little money goes huge doing everything they can to win.
Mark Burik (00:32:51):
Yeah. And I mean even on the world other, uh, even on the world toward the end
Ed Ratledge (00:32:54):
Plug in the laptop here, why do these laptops need
Mark Burik (00:32:57):
Electricity? There's your next business,
Ed Ratledge (00:32:58):
Figure
Mark Burik (00:32:59):
Out the new, but like I right. Worlds where there's not a ton of of money, but they're testing all the time still it's not absent of, like you said, performance enhancement, but it just seems like, man, there, there needs to be some, some more influx of catch. And to me this season, and it's interesting that we're going down this road, but this season didn't feel like Bally's had any sort of input or action. It was almost like we bought it. Now let's wait a year and we'll get going in a little while.
Ed Ratledge (00:33:27):
You guys wanna say hi to Adeline ? This is Adeline.
Mark Burik (00:33:31):
Hello. Hi. Welcome to the show.
Ed Ratledge (00:33:34):
You're on the internet now. Okay. Adeline seven. And uh, she was very kind to sit with me for like an hour while I had my foot in hot water with a stingray and now my 12 year old's gotten his finger stuck in a bottle. Oh. Maybe find some grease or something. Yeah.
Mark Burik (00:33:50):
the adventures of daddy.
Ed Ratledge (00:33:52):
This is, this is Daddy . So what's you thinking at? Are you bored? Well, you guys know almost my whole family at this point. Uh, we can go to the pool when I'm done with this cool podcast. I know. 20 minutes. Your friends at the pool? Yeah. Okay then we should go there soon. Aline, say goodbye to the world. Mark's got a few more questions for me.
Mark Burik (00:34:10):
Bye Aline. So going back to that question, how do you manage your time? You know, how, how often are you working out now? How often are you practicing between business volleyball, staying in shape for volleyball, which is separate from actual volleyball and then family?
Ed Ratledge (00:34:23):
Well, having, uh, thrown a little garage gym in has been helpful. So before I go to bed at night, like I hate lifting in the, in the morning because I'm just kind of tired all day, like from that big exertion. But if I lift at night before I go to bed and I was gonna be asleep anyway, so now I'm just gonna get more of that deep wave sleep and hopefully recover my body a little bit more. So I've been doing that and that's very efficient because I don't have 20 minutes running over to the gym, 20 minutes running home, like cutting out that like is efficient so that, that helps me stay in shape. Little garage gym and you don't need a ton of stuff in order to do that. Like I literally bought two by fours and uh, home Depot buckets and concrete and attached 'em to my rafters and now I've got a squat rack because of, uh, because of that . Now look up, uh, YouTube, uh, it was a great pandemic project. Did that and that's, that's really helpful. I got a bunch of yoga mats for a floor with a rug over 'em. So it's not on concrete, it's on like a, a soft padded floor, so any kind of,
Mark Burik (00:35:22):
Oh yeah. Okay. So you stacked some yoga mats on top of a,
Ed Ratledge (00:35:25):
I have 16 yoga mats that were given to me by somebody for whatever. And so I just put 4, 4, 4 4 and a rug that fit perfectly over the top of 'em, so it's kind of seamless. Seamless. And so it's a brilliant floor. It's perfect. Anything I want to do that I, you know, gotta go down to a knee, it's padded. I want to do plank on my elbows. It's padded so it's kind of perfect.
Mark Burik (00:35:46):
Are you doing that, is there any mindset there with like jump impact as well? Like are you doing jumps in your gym or is it more kind of body
Ed Ratledge (00:35:52):
Work? I do some jump stuff. Uh, I'll actually go out, uh, outside the garage for that because I would hit my head on the rafters for, uh, for like true jumps, but I don't do a ton of jumping in the gym. I do a little bit like, I like to do a trainer that kind of describe a French contrast method where you do a heavy something, either a squat or a deadlift or, or a something that's heavy. Mm-hmm. with it uses every, like every one of your muscle fibers there and then you go and you do an aided jump where you actually have yourself like hooked up or you're just grabbed onto a rubber band that pulls you up. Mm. So you get that neurological component of all the muscles firing at once. Right. Plus, you know, you've basically told your muscles all of you are are gonna be used right now, all those muscle strands. So that's the kind of jumping stuff that I like to do the most. Um,
Mark Burik (00:36:46):
It's kind of like, uh, over speed training in, in sprinters. So they'll Oh exactly that they'll tug them with a, with an elastic band to make them run faster than they could under their own power. Yes. And then their body experiences that speed.
Ed Ratledge (00:36:58):
Yeah, they've got like harnesses that they put swimmers in so that swimmers can get used to going a couple miles an hour faster than they would and because that's a different neurological cadence that they have to have in order to do that. And so, um, yeah, part of it's the strength and in order to pull that hard and then part of it's just the neurological, like firing patterns that you need to go at that speed. So yeah, that's the mentality there.
Mark Burik (00:37:24):
And, and so, okay, so you're working out at night, you've saved at least, uh, and I'll say like just driving to a gym 10 blocks away, that that saves me at least an hour a day by having my own garage gym and there's no commitment there, but some people like to get outta their house. They feel like they're in a better mind space when they have different locations for different activities. Not me. But so you're doing that in the evenings cuz it just feels it's better for your day. How many times are you getting into the gym versus how many times are you on the court? Uh, you're in your forties now, right?
Ed Ratledge (00:37:54):
I'm 45 years old and I'll get on the court at two, three times a week and I'll get in the, in the garage gym two, three times a week depending on, you know, what stage it is. But uh, yeah, and that's enough. That's enough for me because so much of it's just about maintaining strength and not having to relearn how to play volleyball as a weaker athlete. Like that's
Mark Burik (00:38:14):
Important when you are at practice, you know, you know the game by now, you know every scenario. So when you're practicing, where does your mind go in terms of practice? Is it learning how to connect with the new partner? Is it just making sure that you're feeling all of your touches? So you're trying to get 10 perfect passes, 10 perfect high lines, 10 slap slap angles.
Ed Ratledge (00:38:35):
I'm a big meditation guy and just trying to be in the moment in every circumstance. I've got a certain couple of cues that I'm trying to like be on, you know, so when I'm about to receive serve and you know, the opponent's holding the ball before they get into their serve routine. Oh, remember how we were talking about, uh, my son just brought me these, he's like,
Mark Burik (00:38:57):
,
Ed Ratledge (00:38:58):
I wonder if this is gonna work.
Mark Burik (00:39:00):
Nice. Mm-hmm. . Oh, you got your gaming headset now, right?
Ed Ratledge (00:39:03):
Oh wow. This sounds better. I like this.
Mark Burik (00:39:06):
This you hear is incredible hear. Yeah. It's like you're whispering here
Ed Ratledge (00:39:08):
Williams the day saver, but my hair, can everyone even tell it's me without the flowing locks?
Mark Burik (00:39:13):
I doubt it. Well we can't even see your dangling arms. We had a, uh, wacky inflatable flailing arm guy from the, from the used, used car lots and we we were like, should we post this to advertise the, the podcast
Ed Ratledge (00:39:25):
Don't Mean look on my Instagram. Uh, you will find my Halloween costume from a couple years ago. I was that. Oh and it was perfect.
Mark Burik (00:39:32):
Where do we find you on Instagram? What's uh, what's your name so people can
Ed Ratledge (00:39:35):
Follow at Ed Ratledge. All one word I got in early
Mark Burik (00:39:38):
Easy. Very nice. Yeah,
Ed Ratledge (00:39:40):
So at Ed Ratledge and uh, yeah back in the, if you scroll down far enough you'll see one of me and William Bull, he was like mini fla, inflatable tube man. And I was obviously maxi.
Mark Burik (00:39:51):
Okay, so take me back to that, that meditation during practice. Um, you're saying when the server's holding the ball.
Ed Ratledge (00:39:56):
Okay, so if a server's holding a ball and they're about ready to serve, re-serve routine that I want to just do every time just I wanna look back and make sure I know exactly where my sideline is and where my end line is. I want to get into that squat to the point where like my knees obscure the view of my ankles, which means my knees are just bent enough if you look down because it's very easy to kind of get low and just do that with a hinge at the waist and not really, especially if your legs are a little tired or whatever, not really get enough of that, you know, knee bend to get good triple extension in an explosive move toward wherever the ball might be going. And then as the server uh, tosses the ball up, I wanna simultaneously be trying to find the bottom point of that ball that I'm gonna try to track and I want to have my arms go out into that serve, receive ideal position in case it comes directly to me and then right on contact, I wanna make sure my feet kind of flutter to make sure that I'm on top of the sand and equally balanced.
(00:40:54):
If I was leaning one way that flutter gets me back on top of my feet so I'm upright.
Mark Burik (00:40:59):
So you're taking a couple steps during serve contact, like um, a little bit of movement instead of being planted?
Ed Ratledge (00:41:05):
Yes. Uh, I think most, most contacts that might be coming your way, you do wanna flutter your feet to make sure that whatever Leann you have gets taken out because your feet, if you're leaning your feet will come under you without you having to think about it. Right. And then you'll be back to balance. I call that the butch may shuffle. Butch May was Misty's dad and he always prescribed that to pull your feet out of the sand right on contact of a serve of a hit. And I've always taught that to all my athletes because I just think that it creates a more balanced athlete that's not gonna have the lean overloading one of their legs that they can't then get out of.
Mark Burik (00:41:41):
We had Tryon a few days ago and he was talking about starting deeper in the court, everything on defense and Unserved Eve and actually kind of like walking or stepping forward and it kept his weight more forward. And so I started playing with that today a little bit in serve receive. And I did, I felt lighter when I wasn't completely a hundred percent planted in serve receive. It felt like it was a little bit looser. My, my weight was more forward so the ball didn't feel like it was attacking me. It felt like I was going at the ball, which was a, to me it was a nice feeling to play with.
Ed Ratledge (00:42:09):
Right. And I wonder if Nick Luce was on that with his like super deep start. Like he pretty much has his heels on the end line walking forward. So
Mark Burik (00:42:18):
Okay. Similar just did, I mean like just slightly different applications
Ed Ratledge (00:42:21):
But for each phase of the game I've got like that I've got those cues that I'm trying to, you know, those 3, 4, 5 things that I'm trying to do every single time and it's just basically a battle to keep my focus on those things that I'm supposed to be focused on so that, you know, I get into a, a match in a tournament and I know that I can just do it like I did in practice and things are gonna come out okay for me. So
Mark Burik (00:42:46):
It doesn't matter to you to design like a reps practice or a competition practice or wash drills, anything like that? I
Ed Ratledge (00:42:53):
Think those all have their place. There is one rep's practice that I succeed a lot more when I've had one in my tournament week. Okay. Um, I call it solo day where it's just me and a partner, maybe a third person. And the focus of that practice is largely the blocking and defense component where I get a lot of blocking reps because that blocking Surf Eve is great cuz I can go through those four things and there's time to think about everything and just do it blocking's harder because it all happens so fast. And so having done a day where I have a chance to really think about it in between reps and just like be on, you know, my, my cue progression, you know, where are my eyes looking? You know, what are my hands doing on this block? What's my, you know, what's my body movement like on this block?
(00:43:38):
Having a day like that in my tournament week is really important for me. And then part of that day as well is transition set. And I like doing it in the wind too because different wins you have to like be conscious of different things, you know, when the wind's blowing it at you, you know, a high dig you wanna make sure you don't get too close to because it's gonna get too close to you and then you're gonna have to roll it away more than you wanted to or, or you know, your angles kind of go wrong when you unhinge because it came too close to you. Getting a, getting a day, like an afternoon day where I get some of those reps in, in blocking and defense is vital to me. Uh, I think less important is like doing a day where you've got practice that's competition, but it's just like doing wash drills. Like wash drills are cool. All right. I especially like 'em when there is an unevenness of, uh, of players. Like if you've got got somebody in your group that's probably not gonna be able to beat you in a, uh, in a scrimmage say doing something where where's a shorter game
Mark Burik (00:44:40):
Or something. Yeah, right.
Ed Ratledge (00:44:41):
Yeah. Where it's a shorter game and they can succeed, you know, in, in shorter intervals and they can push you to have to really make sure you beat them.
Mark Burik (00:44:49):
So that's a good way for better players out there who are trying to make a good practice when they don't have all the best players around them. Design a game where you need to, you know, you start at 1515 and you play to 21 or you always have to end with like two points in a row or three points in a row to get a point because then you're challenging your consistency and ability to focus. Right. That's good advice for players out there who can't always build the training groups that they want to.
Ed Ratledge (00:45:16):
I don't know how Tim Almgren does it. I'm sure there are good players in Minnesota, but it's not Hermosa Beach out there and he's still like top of his game crushing everybody. So he's
Mark Burik (00:45:26):
Got Shamrock and his brother and there's a, there's a couple bar I think Van Ort is is out there. He, he's got a, a like five guys who can play ball there
Ed Ratledge (00:45:35):
If you're good. And from Minnesota, I apologize for what I just said, ,
Mark Burik (00:45:41):
We're gonna get phone calls about this angry emails and phone calls.
Ed Ratledge (00:45:44):
Yeah.
Mark Burik (00:45:45):
Ed Rat on his, it's
Ed Ratledge (00:45:46):
Crapping on sos to you guys keeping at the top of his
Mark Burik (00:45:51):
Game. The whole state is, uh, so okay, so you've got two to three workouts. Two to three and and I like that the French contrast that people can, can definitely search that. And I've had some fun with that too. Lifting heavy and then going out and then like light jumps. Like I said, you feel like you're firing and that overspeed training is, is key. Cuz when you lift heavy, you're recruiting neurons. It's not a, it's not really a physical. You're actually recruiting more neurons and teaching them to fire. And then when you jump afterwards, now you're associating those neurons with an actual jump. That's nice. And then you're trying to make sure that you get one, at least one good reps or, or solo day per week when you really wanna lock down and be successful. I feel like it's so tough on blockers, you can share your experience with this, but for four people or even, you know, two people to dedicate a 20, 30 minute session to saying, yeah, we're gonna get this guy or these two guys just blocking reps, you know, you, you don't get full points and you know, we're focused on, on the blockers.
(00:46:46):
It doesn't really involve anybody else. So I feel like it's, it's so hard for blockers to be able to practice
Ed Ratledge (00:46:52):
Blocking. Well the drill that I like to do on that solo day and it's good that you brought, you know, everybody else in there. The drill that I like to do, I call it the, the four touch or the, it's the four-way drill where the first ball, the blocker gets a clean stuff opportunity, you know, the ball is going to be hit off of a box to the line. The blocker's gonna be blocking the line, clean stuff, opportunity, second ball. It's gonna be a hard driven dig opportunity for the defender, which turns into a transition set opportunity for the blocker defender, gets to go hit third ball. It's a pull for the blocker. That's really important. Making sure we practice our pulls. I, you know, I, I need every pulling rep that I can get. LT helps me with that a little bit. He kind of gave me permission to just backpedal a little bit. I was always trying to open my hip and you know what, just, yeah,
Mark Burik (00:47:39):
Just pedal with hands up. I, it's underweight.
Ed Ratledge (00:47:42):
Especially when you're tall. Yeah, yeah. You can get away with that Two
Mark Burik (00:47:45):
Big backpedal steps. You're already at half court and your hands are, so your chest is facing them. We made that adjustment with Hudson like really early on, cuz he kept getting literally hit in the shoulder and I was like, dude, like just backpedal. Um, stop, stop trying to cross over because I think women in the women's game, they can make the decision to peel earlier. So that's of available to them. Like, sometimes women are peeling because they can't grab it. I think guys peel because at some point, oh shoot, he's off balance or he, he, so we have to make that decision a little bit later. I don't think in mid-game a lot of open men have the opportunity to cross over plant.
Ed Ratledge (00:48:20):
Yeah. It's all so fast and yeah. So yeah, it's tough. But the, so that's the third one. And then the fourth one is just a shot either direction and that turns into another transition setting ramp. And those are the ways, those are the four ways that you score points. Mm-hmm. , you know, uh, outside of an ace. Like those are the four ways that you score points is doing those things well. And that can turn into several points in a set. Having some, whoops, doing just that. And so that's, that's my big solo, that's the drill that I'll literally spend an hour doing, do it from all four corners of the court. So you get a different feel for the wind each time. And yeah, that's, that's big.
Mark Burik (00:48:59):
Even there, it still seems unfair to you because it's like, all right, now, 25% of the time in one drill you get to study your blocking, you know, it feels like there should bem more opportunity for you to, to tweak and adjust. I, I know you gotta run in a little bit, but would you share some of the things that sense,
Ed Ratledge (00:49:18):
This one's coming back. I dunno,
Mark Burik (00:49:21):
We gotta go.
Ed Ratledge (00:49:21):
Wasn't even on camera, was she?
Mark Burik (00:49:23):
Uh, I, I saw a little, little munchkin
Ed Ratledge (00:49:25):
Hand
Mark Burik (00:49:25):
Coming shoulder. Uh, when you are blocking and you're studying your blocking and for everybody out there who's practicing, if you've never attempted to only just work on blocking and saying like, I'm going to block, I'm gonna work at my structure, my feet, how deep I jump, how fast I jump, you need that opportunity. And if you don't then you can't keep blaming yourself for not getting blocks in game. But what are the type of details that you, in your head tell yourself when you need to make blocking fixes? Like what are, what are you telling yourself most
Ed Ratledge (00:49:52):
Frequently? A lot of it's just I work and for me, if like the single best cue that I can give myself is to try to see the ball over the net. Let me see if I can do this on camera. If this is the top of the net and this
Mark Burik (00:50:05):
We gotta visualize cuz it might be a podcast.
Ed Ratledge (00:50:07):
Yeah, well if, if you've, if you've got the top of the net and you're looking up and you see the apex of the set, it's up here, the ball's up right where this better at beach thing is here. Okay, I dunno if that's gonna be there, but you're looking up and you've got this eye line to the ball. So think of a, uh, teeter-totter where the ball is falling and you are rising at the same time so that you keep that ball over the top of the net as you rise.
Mark Burik (00:50:30):
Interesting. Yeah. So that you always have a clear view of the ball over the net. Right?
Ed Ratledge (00:50:34):
Huh. Now there'll be a a point where, you know, you're gonna go to the, the hitter to see if they're like leaning one way or the other with your eyes, but timing the ball is, is vital and you know, the hitter's gonna try to throw a shoulder fake whatever at you, but the ball doesn't lie. The ball shows you exactly where it is. Um, and Whitmar always talked about that. He was like, I don't really look at the hitter that much, I just look at the ball and try to time it well. And some part of you does have to pay attention to whether you think the hitter is shooting or hitting, but just having a good feel for like wind to penetrate the net because you're on your way up and the ball's on its way down. That's a, a good way to get stuff blocks on hard hits. What
Mark Burik (00:51:16):
Would you change in terms of timing based on if you thought someone was shooting or you thought someone was hitting you
Ed Ratledge (00:51:21):
Generally go later when they're shooting, cuz it's gonna take the ball a little bit longer and want to present a little bit higher, less, less penetrative block. Because as you do that, it's gonna give your defender more time to go up and over the top of you.
Mark Burik (00:51:33):
Okay. So wait, if you're playing a shoot or wait a little bit longer so that you can do the, the high reach, maybe touch a high line, uh, because you touch
Ed Ratledge (00:51:41):
The high line over
Mark Burik (00:51:41):
You,
Ed Ratledge (00:51:42):
Especially if you're gonna be on hand, you know, for your partner to dig it up to you to spike, you know, you want that touch.
Mark Burik (00:51:48):
I think that's some in the beginning when people are playing or they come straight from indoor, it's always penetrate, penetrate, penetrate. And they forget that like a blocker also has to read and adjust where they are. So it's not all about penetrating, sometimes it's about reaching to the heavens and trying to climb a ladder and, and just touch something.
Ed Ratledge (00:52:05):
Sometimes it's about surprising someone with how high you can get. You know, you make 10 block jumps at, uh, 10 feet, six inches, and then you go up to 11, that's gonna change things for them and they're gonna feel a little funny about that. So,
Mark Burik (00:52:18):
Uh, and then they get a little frustrated as soon as you touch a high line and then they think they have to hit it faster or higher. And then just that mindset from the hitter gives your defender more time the next time, which is really nice. Good talk. Hey, I appreciate all the lessons, all the advice. It's, it's cool to see the, the entrepreneurial spirit is still kicking butt. Um, nice to see that vo life, volleyball life is successful for all of the tournament directors and organizations. And if somebody ever came to, to Huntington Beach, can, can they look, can they look up vo OC for classes and private lessons?
Ed Ratledge (00:52:51):
For sure. Yeah. Um, yeah, come out, try one of our adult classes. We've got four classes a week right now, Tuesday and a Wednesday class, uh, that are in the evenings, uh, six to eight usually. Then we've got, uh, weekend classes that are like mid-morning, 10 to noon or 11 to, uh, one on Sundays. And that's, most of those are in Huntington. I do one in, uh, Irvine as well. We've got some kid stuff that we're gonna be doing in Irvine on Wednesday afternoons before our evening class there. Um, so yeah, there's, there's lots of IOC programming. If you wanna come learn directly from me, I'm reading the comments. And, uh, the Fury of 1000 Lakes upon you from, uh, clearly a, a Minnesota player . Love that.
Mark Burik (00:53:33):
That's
Ed Ratledge (00:53:33):
Fantastic. Mea entertainers, star power aspect. The volleyball players interact, the audience and when you interact with the audience a little, so much more fun for everybody. So much more fun. And uh, you know, at some point we're all so mm-hmm. good on, uh, the mes and the Casey Pattersons and the you for talking to people and boring guys that like are like, Ooh, gonna stay in my zoom. I don't want to get distracted. Eh, learn, learn how to do it all. Yeah. Can't,
Mark Burik (00:54:01):
Hey, win the
Ed Ratledge (00:54:02):
Focus you even doing. Yeah, . All right. This,
Mark Burik (00:54:05):
Uh, they knew it way back.
Ed Ratledge (00:54:06):
This one's not gonna, lemme have my freedom. This one wants to go to the pool. So appreciate your time too, mark. Great job. Have a great rest of your day everybody.
Mark Burik (00:54:12):
Awesome. You too. Thanks for your time, ed. Have a good one. Nice guys. Pretty cool interview with, he's such a steady, consistent part of the sport, part of the game. Uh, this is, uh, correct me if I'm wrong, over 20 years on the AVP tour. So he's been through the ups, the downs, the long schedules, the short schedules, the years where we didn't have schedules. And he's played with a lot of partners and always, always, always in the top 10 teams in the country. Um, so a lot of success. And you can see that he's figuring it out. He's figuring out how to travel, he's figuring out how to compete, how to work out, run two businesses and, you know, live his life and then be there for, for his family. So it, it is possible. It takes work, not gonna lie, it takes having a great partner both on the court and in your life, your life partner who's understanding and and supportive of that.
(00:55:08):
And it takes a lot of conversation and then some, sometimes negotiation, but you can do it. And there are little cheat codes. You know, one of the cheat codes we got from Ed was say, garage Gym, you're gonna save an hour with a garage gym. And then to me, if, if you guys head over to better beach.com/shop, we, we have a bunch of recommendations for equipment and basically our staff picks our favorite Better beach.com/shop that shows all of our favorites. And if you click on those and you buy 'em, we get like a little affiliate thing. But having a garage gym, a place where I can work out in my home, it leaves me no excuse, it leaves me tons of opportunity. And you're paying a gym monthly, right? To be able to have that. So if you have some sort of space, you can get interchangeable, dumbbells.
(00:55:52):
Those interchangeable dumbbells will not take up a lot of space, even if you don't have a garage. And they will be so valuable for you for the times when you can't get to the gym or it's too far away, you don't have a car, whatever, you'll still be able to get something in there. You know, there's always, there's a number of body weight exercises that you can do that can simulate some Olympic lifts as well, if you ever wanted to check those out. By the way, we have a great program. It's called 60 Day Max Vertical. Uh, you can find [email protected], but it, it, it's our vertical jump program. When we show you how to do things with bands, dumbbells, barbells, and body weight, so that you have no reason not to do them. And you would be following along in the workouts, in the workout videos with me.
(00:56:33):
So we'd be working out side by side. I'm on screen telling you what technical cues you need to do, how long you need to rest, and what exercises next. And you just put the work in. That's just one cheat code, right? Where in your life can you save time, become more efficient, you know, stop losing? Or are, are we on Instagram a little too much? Are we on Facebook a little bit too much? Are you netflixing for two hours? Sometimes that's a part of your bonding, you know, with your partner. And sometimes you're just wasting time. Uh, there is an opportunity for you to figure out how to lift so you can stay in shape and stay healthy. How to play volleyball and how to live the rest of your life as well. Uh, our last guest, Heidi, she said, you know, she wakes up two hours earlier than the rest of her, her family, just so that she can have that moment and be efficient in the mornings.
(00:57:20):
For some people it sucks waking up, right? . Um, I know that I don't love waking up early, but for sure I know that my days are better when I make that micro sacrifice at the beginning of the day. Everything falls together in an easier way. And I think you guys can search through your lives and find out some way to make yourself a little bit more efficient, have great partner communication, let them know where you are, what your dreams are, where your goals are, and um, yeah, create some systems that, that allow you to do it for us at Better. At Beach, a lot of the systems came in for me, investing in more people, more employees, more coaches, and saying, listen, I can't keep doing this task because it's, it's crushing my whole day. So I don't know if this is going to make money.
(00:57:59):
I don't know if this is investment is gonna worth it, but at least I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna try it for three months or six months, and I'm gonna hire you. Here are the jobs you're gonna do, and let's see if we have continued growth or if we can just ditch it in six months. It's a, it's an investment and it's a gamble, but if it pays off, then your life becomes better. So it's a little bit of business and, and life and timing advice. Uh, just so you know, we have a volleyball workout program ready for you, 60 day max Vertical. You can find it on Better beach.com. And we show you how to do all the exercises from home or at the gym. So if that's one of the efficiencies you need to find, then happy to help you guys with that.
(00:58:35):
From Ed being able to be a chameleon and communicate in different ways with different people will make you a better volleyball partner. He mentioned the way that you're raised, the way that the way that you learn how to interact with people will help somebody maybe enjoy your presence more, right? The way that you can communicate them, uh, communicate with them, they, you, if you're a better people person, you'll have the opportunity to actually have more partners. Maybe your personality outweighs your skills, but great. You gotta find the wins when you can find the wins and utilize the things that you're strong at. Pretty cool episode. Love getting to talk with Anna. And, and I like his mindset about what he goes through. I like that he has one reps practice per week where it's just reps and he gave us an hour of drill that we can use.
(00:59:19):
Those four different scenarios. Block peel, dig hard, dig soft, right? Um, that's a, that's a great three person drill. You don't need four people for that drill. You can run through that for an hour, hour and a half with three people and have one of the best practices of your life. So go ahead and, and take that from him and then reach higher on shots, penetrate less and jump a little bit earlier when they're hitting. Jump a little bit later when you think they're shooting. And that's it. All right, hope you enjoy the episode. If you guys wanna see any other guests or you want to hear us talk about different things, I don't know, get in touch, reach out. Uh, my Instagram is at Mark Burke. Our, uh, company Instagram is at Better Beach volleyball and you can always shoot us an [email protected]. And if you ever want to upgrade your skills and take one of our full fledged skill and strategy courses, I want you to head on over to better beach.com/coaching.
(01:00:15):
We have a full coaching staff that will look at your videos and actually coach you on your skills, on your decision making, on your positioning, on your workout technique when you post into our private Facebook group. So you take the course along with the course, it is live teaching, basically, consider our course like a textbook and then us as the teachers being able to tell you when you're going wrong, when you're going right and how to make adjustments. Would love to have you on our team. That's better at beach.com/coaching. Other than that, guys, have a great day. Thank you for your attention. Hope you guys love the podcast. If you do, give it a like, share, share it with your friend and uh, subscribe. That kinda helps us. So yeah, yeah, easy peasy. Great, thanks. Have a great day. See you on the sand.