Mark Burik (00:01.996)
Hey everybody and welcome to the Better at Beach podcast. My name is Mark Burrick and I am here with Brandon Joyner who is fresh off of the Huntington Beach event coaching his pro teams. And so we're going to get a full rundown on what that tournament experience was like with the new format with single elimination with teams that are shockingly not qualified.
for the rest of the season in the AVP league and some insights into how it went. But before we get started on that, I do want to share a couple of camp dates and show you our sweet new merch store. So as you guys know, we have, or maybe you don't know, we have our Punta Cana camp coming up in...
November. So right after Thanksgiving, we're going to Punta Cana, an all-inclusive resort for seven days of volleyball. You can sign up for that at betteratbeach.com forward slash camps. Beyond that, we have Santa Monica, May 16th, St. Pete, May 23rd, Long Island, May 30th. San Diego and Tacoma are sold out. Sorry, guys. June 20th, have Virginia Beach.
Brandon's going home and June 27th, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 18th, Des Moines, Iowa, July 25th, Bend, Oregon, August 1st, Santa Rosa, California, August 22nd, Chicago. Finally, we get a camp in Chicago. People have been asking for that for years. And then we're going to Youngsville, Louisiana, October 3rd and more. Camps are on the way along with our weekend clinics.
Brandon Joyner (01:27.709)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (01:55.338)
out here in Santa Monica, our kids classes in Redondo Beach and our King and Queens leagues and regular classes here in Hermosa Beach. But I also want to show you guys our merch store. If you guys head to betteratbeach.com forward slash merch. We have been working hard in the background and we have upgraded our shops.
So you can check out a few things there. Now it's a little sorted, but we also have an AVP Wilson discount. So if you guys want to buy a new ball, you can head to our coupon code by clicking on better at beach.com forward slash merch, and then heading to the Wilson shop. If you want water bottles, bags, flip flops, new stickers, and all of the good better at beach gear, you can buy that at better at beach.com forward slash merch. We also have slunks.
upcoming jerseys and pretty sweet hats and visors. Just head to better beach.com forward slash merch. Help us out, support the show and look cool while doing it. All right. So Brandon, you coached, you got Logan and Hagen. They got a third place. What I didn't even realize. I saw a couple of people got knocked out and I totally forgot that this new
Brandon Joyner (03:12.335)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (03:21.528)
Heritage event series is single elimination like Wow, but it was to 21 right? So it's not it's not 15 like in the qualifier So it's still fast, but it's not super fast What was a single a limb like at that level?
Brandon Joyner (03:42.757)
Yeah, it was, you know, honestly, like looking back on it, I didn't really think about it too much. Obviously it's, it's a tough format. have to show up right away. You know, I think a lot of teams, you don't realize how much they grind through that, like losers bracket and still have a phenomenal finish. And so that didn't happen at all.
Mark Burik (04:05.953)
Hmm
Brandon Joyner (04:11.621)
It also, some downsides, one, qualifier teams were in trouble. Like, you spend all day Friday trying to qualify, and then you show up in a single elimination tournament playing against the top four teams in the country. Like, that's where it is a little weird, you know, because...
sometimes those qualifier teams, if they are going to make a jump in the standings, they need to do it against the eight through 12 seats. And so usually those matchups happen on the loser's side of the bracket. And that's where we can see some big point changes. But yeah, you had to show up right away.
teams were extremely fresh. like when you watch the finals, mean, Andy and Miles hats off to them. They looked like they were on 100 % after the tournament. Like they did not look fatigued at all. Lowy and Hagan played them in the semis. So got a third. The team walked away with a third place, which ties
Mark Burik (05:34.091)
Yeah, baby.
Brandon Joyner (05:35.357)
ties their other best when they were working with you. So pretty cool to kind of have that little storyline of the two better beach coaches have each gotten a third, which is really fun. But yeah, dude, Miles and Andy, are just unreal. They are in system.
Mark Burik (05:39.125)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (05:51.948)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (05:59.244)
Is it their defense? it their side out? Like, why are they so... Why were they so dominant? Were they getting more blocks per game? We could pull up the stats at the back, but were they getting more blocks per game? Was it just cleaner side out?
Brandon Joyner (06:07.805)
Yeah, I mean and Andy was it Andy was a cheat code As far as their scoring their ability to score Andy I think every game probably generated close to eight points on his serve he like Not only was he serving hard, but like I think in the semis against us and in the finals I can count at least
for clean aces, like where people aren't even moving. The ball was just getting to the ground fast. When he's hitting that Wilson ball, he has complete control and he can tag sidelines. He can put the ball at really, really quick pace. And then he was also able to add a decent amount of blocks per set as well. Miles did his thing. Like that's a tricky part of that team is
you're seeing Andy from the service line and then anytime Miles gets a dig, he's getting a perfect set. They're always in system. Like I don't think that I saw them attack a ball from off more than 10 feet off the net the entire tournament.
Mark Burik (07:24.718)
I'm seeing this on the AVP site that Binesh in the finals, so this is two sets, he had six blocks and four aces in two sets and it was 21-14, 21-14. That's not even enough points to get that many bucks. And if you guys don't know stats at home, if you're anywhere above two blocks per set at the AVP or World Tour level, you are candidate if you average that.
Brandon Joyner (07:32.69)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (07:53.486)
for best blocker of the year. Like Andy Mole, Phil Dahlhauser and his prime, they were getting like 2.1 to 2.3 blocks per set and that's godly. And he gets six in a finals in 21-14, 21-14 against the other Olympic team.
Brandon Joyner (08:04.125)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (08:08.155)
Yeah.
Yeah. Right. And they, I think their, their closest match of the weekend was 21-18. And I think it was actually against, uh, freshman and Amato, the, one of the qualifying teams. And like, I mean, with us, I think our scores were like 12 and 11 and we honestly didn't. It's hard. It's weird to say when the scores, but like we didn't play.
bad. They just played really, really good. Obviously you want to do a little bit better. yeah. But yeah, and one of the coolest things about this event was even though it was single elimination, there was so much on the line with the two spots being open for the qualifiers or for the league.
Mark Burik (08:41.07)
Yeah
Mark Burik (09:08.846)
So this is, this was what I was talking about when Logan and Hagen won that qualifier in one day, that one tournament, or you could like, if you're in the finals, when they did qualify for the league, that one match is dollar for dollar, the most valuable volleyball match in the world, because it equals a base of $40,000 for eight tournaments. That's, that's a year's salary in one.
Brandon Joyner (09:10.33)
and
Brandon Joyner (09:28.636)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (09:38.422)
little point, like there's no other point that is worth that much money in beach volleyball. Wild. And this one had similar implications for the call for the
Brandon Joyner (09:45.565)
Yeah. and this one had two extra spots and with it being single elimination, there was, and Mark Shearman, the announcer, he put up like a thing on his story that said like what finishes beat what finishes because in order for you to qualify, one of your finishes had to come from the Huntington Heritage event this past weekend. And so
people like Sean and Brian who got second in both of the qualifiers down in Newland, even though they had a second place in both of those events, they could only use one of those. And their other finish had to come from Huntington this past weekend. So everything was really up in the air. And I mean, on the men's side,
On the men's side, Brian and it was kind of a, I think it was like a four, a four way race, maybe even a five way race between Sean and Brian were trying to get in. Avery and Wyatt, those were like the top two who eventually ended up qualifying, but they, other teams that were kind of on the outside looking in, if they had good finishes were, Troy and Theo.
Brandon Joyner (11:20.317)
Ryan Wilcox and Cody Caldwell. Phil and Trevor are already in, yeah, because they got a wild card. Yeah. And then I believe Alvaro and Alisson, they needed to do really well in the event. I think they needed to make a finals, but they were playing really well. And so there was so much riding on this game. And so the first games of the day,
Mark Burik (11:20.992)
I'll in Trevor automatically and they got wild.
Brandon Joyner (11:46.973)
And I think Tim and Tim and Paul were also in the running So after the first round everybody's already talking about a lot of this stuff because Logan and Hagan they played Paul and Tim We were lucky enough to win that one So Paul and Tim got knocked out then the other matches were like pretty big like Alison and and Alvaro they upset came and James so
Now they're moving on to the next round and Cayman James had already locked up a spot in the last round and the last qualifier because they won it. So they're already into the qualifier. They're already into the league. So now Alisson and Alvaro are still alive. And then there were two matches going against one another that were like big deciders. So Avery and Wyatt are playing against Cody and Ryan. Goes to three.
Avery and Wyatt end up winning. So now Cody and Ryan are out. On the other, on stadium court, Theo and Troy, who have not secured a spot, are playing against Sean and Brian.
and goes to three, Theo and Troy end up winning in three. now, much with that win, Avery and Wyatt kind of secured their spot and Sean and Brian are kind of just waiting to see what happens. So what happens is, so Troy and Theo, who are still alive,
Mark Burik (13:04.684)
Mm.
Mark Burik (13:18.382)
That's not...
Brandon Joyner (13:26.481)
They move on to the next round and they have to play chase and miles, to, and if they win this game, they make the league. they lose the game, Brian and Sean make the lead. And so I think this was like the biggest match of the weekend, probably in my opinion, because we, just talked about it. How point dollar for dollar point for point. Like.
Mark Burik (13:45.23)
Hmm.
Brandon Joyner (13:55.899)
the biggest game of these guys' lives. And Sean and Brian had to watch. And so they had to watch the most valuable volleyball game of their careers. Like we happened to finish, we were playing.
Mark Burik (14:06.659)
They had to watch the most valuable volleyball game of their lives.
Brandon Joyner (14:20.207)
So I had a really exciting three set win against them with Logan and Hagan. And then I walk over and I happen to like walk right up to Sean and I'm standing next to him and I'm like, dumb question here, but like if they lose, you're in the league, right? And he's like, yes, like in his own way. If you haven't talked to Sean before, Sean is like,
Mark Burik (14:45.816)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (14:49.605)
one of the most sarcastic individuals I've ever met in my life and he is extremely funny. But, so that match against Troy and Theo and Chase and Miles ends up going three. And Sean and Brian and their coach Stafford Slick who was around for the weekend.
are like standing on the outskirts. Sean has to walk away. Like he walks to the other side of the pier. He is like nowhere to be seen. And Chase and Miles, or sorry, Theo and Troy are like up in the third set. And he's like, I can't be nervous. All of a sudden Chase and Miles start coming back. Brian is screaming the loudest I've ever heard him on every single point that Chase and Miles score. And eventually,
Chase and Miles end up taking it down, knocking Troy and Theo out, Brian runs over, tackles Sean on the sand. So they end up getting in the league extremely comical just because I know those guys, or we know those guys. But like, I think in the end, on the men's side, the teams that should have qualified qualified. There was a lot of drama.
Based on based on the finishes. Another team that was that was in the running and I think they just had some unfortunate stuff. Try and try and Evan. People were extremely surprised last year and tried and get in. I think going into this season. Maybe everybody in the in America is thinking OK, try and Evan. They're going to get into the league.
Mark Burik (16:16.203)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (16:40.743)
Try gets hurt for the first qualifier, can't even play. So they and Evan plays with.
Mark Burik (16:44.354)
Mm-hmm
Brandon Joyner (16:51.165)
Who do you play with? Thomas, Fedora, Thomas Hurst. And I think they won a match, then they got a fifth in the second event that Try and Evan played in. So they needed to have a decent finish in this and they got knocked out by Phil and Trevor. So like their first round game happened to be against Phil and Trevor, which.
Mark Burik (16:54.433)
Thomas Hurst, that's right.
Mark Burik (17:15.086)
Imagine your childhood friend just ripping 40,000 bucks from your hands.
Brandon Joyner (17:18.621)
I know. Sarah, the storylines are endless. It's great. But yeah, so they don't get in. I can only imagine how upset they are. I know that they're in China, so hopefully they bounce back and are able to do something over there. But yeah, on the men's side, Avery and Wyatt, they got a third in both of the qualifiers.
And so they had really good results. Wyatt is a baller. Wyatt is so good. Wyatt is so good. Yeah.
Mark Burik (17:53.922)
Why it's a baller. When he coached Sam, he played a show match and I just kept like trying to play steeper and steeper. The angles that he has access to is silly. He...
Brandon Joyner (18:07.815)
I think he has the best arm on the AVP. James has a really good arm too, you're right. Both those young guys. But Wyatt is super impressive. And Avery showed up and battled. I think a cool thing about Avery qualifying is there's always gonna be rumblings.
Mark Burik (18:12.462)
James Shaw.
Mark Burik (18:18.35)
you
Brandon Joyner (18:36.753)
of people in the background of like, you played with Phil, you played with Phil. And so I think it was really cool for him to show up to the tournament, playing with somebody other than Phil DahlhΓ€user, who's like the goat in our sport, and to still prove that you got it and to make it in. So hats off to those guys, extremely cool.
Mark Burik (18:55.854)
Yeah, I mean, what does everybody forget that Avery has taken thirds to ninths for his entire career? So this is this like eight, like five to eight spot. That's that's where he's been. This is like his standard for Aberdeen. Yeah, he's got a couple of 13th and 17th in there.
Brandon Joyner (19:01.591)
yeah, his entire career. Yeah, exactly.
Brandon Joyner (19:13.597)
Right. With so many different partners. Yeah, it was cool to see. Yeah. But yeah, so that was really cool on the men's side. Happy that those guys got in. think it, who knows what would have happened. mean, it would have just, the storylines would have been crazy if.
Mark Burik (19:20.482)
Yeah, took a night with him in Huntington like eight years ago.
Brandon Joyner (19:41.393)
Troy, Theo, Evan try take over one of those spots and one of those teams doesn't get in.
Mark Burik (19:46.968)
So what does the AVP do without its mascot? AKA Troy Field. Do you, I'm putting money, I'm putting money on the fact that they're still coming. Right, I think they'll pay him to still come.
Brandon Joyner (19:51.931)
Thank
Brandon Joyner (19:56.141)
You know, I wouldn't be surprised if he's still there.
Brandon Joyner (20:03.675)
I hope so. think he is a great ambassador of the sport. for sure. I think that that does hurt a little bit, you know? Because I think Troy, as far as somebody who, one, is entertaining as hell to watch play, his ability to get up in the air and score is awesome.
Mark Burik (20:08.63)
He's the best nest top we have.
Brandon Joyner (20:31.259)
But two, he is so involved with the crowd. Like he's a personality that the ABP needs because a lot of the teams haven't, I mean, Sean is like extreme. But a lot of these guys are, are pretty melancholy word of the day. Where it's like they're extremely good volleyball players, like personalities on the court haven't come out yet.
Um, and, and so, yeah, I think I would love, I hope he's still at a majority of the events, even if he's MCing or, or doing kind of something along those lines. Um, you know, him, they can't, I wouldn't, it'd be a bad business decision. Um, and I think Theo, you know, Theo has been a household name forever and like he's made his way on the AVP and he's extremely entertaining.
Mark Burik (21:13.186)
There's no way they leave him at home. Like, they need him there.
Brandon Joyner (21:31.057)
But I think Theo is making his way out to coaching. I've heard that he's coaching Miles and Andy, I think. Don't quote me on that. But that's a pretty cool journey for him. Going.
Mark Burik (21:38.915)
Okay.
Mark Burik (21:45.794)
That's I love to see. There are so many, think tall, big blockers. The issue with learning blocking is there are so few people that have the height to do a lot of the elite level moves. And then the large majority of them are coached by the large majority of sizes, which is like six foot to six, three retired coaches, know, myself. Right. So it's like.
Brandon Joyner (22:12.677)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly.
Mark Burik (22:15.214)
Now, Theo was talking from experience with a blocker that can do the same moves that he did. And man, I want to be on that. Like we should do a round table with mole, Phil, Theo, uh, Logan, who can make all those big guy moves. And the only problem is the, the conversation there won't apply to 99.9 % of players moving on the ABP.
Brandon Joyner (22:22.717)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (22:41.115)
Anybody.
Brandon Joyner (22:45.381)
Yeah. So yeah, I think that that'll be that I, I see that being only successful. know Theo is, is extremely brilliant, especially with the sport. His IQ is up there. And so that I think that that would be a cool journey for him. I don't know what his playing looks like. but yeah, I think it'll be interesting to see what happens. Like now that, now that the league set, do we see any partner switches? Do we see anything that
Mark Burik (22:45.87)
Thank
Brandon Joyner (23:14.801)
that switches up on the guys side. On the women's side.
So the women's side, think is the same way. Where the teams that should have gotten in got in. The teams that needed to qualify for this one. So in the first league qualifier, I believe that was Corrine and Megan, that one. They're playing at a really, really high clip right now. Then the next one was our Spikers.
Lexi Denneberg and Julia Don and Donlin, formerly Skolls. And then the two teams that got in this weekend were Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft, who are ballers. And I was talking, it was kind of funny because I, Terese is amazing. I've heard that Megan is as well, but Terese, we have a coach here in Hermosa. Her name's Paige Hines.
Mark Burik (23:50.946)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (23:54.658)
Yeah, easily get this false.
Brandon Joyner (24:19.377)
who people absolutely love. I wish she could be at practice a little bit more because she has a real job and can only coach from time to time. But Paige and Therese are really good friends. And without me even knowing, I found out that Therese was just like coming out to our practices with Paige and just like helping out. And I'm like, let me know when that happens so I can like try to give you something. Like it's so cool. like, right.
Mark Burik (24:44.385)
I'm one of the top bloggers in the world coaching a Tuesday afternoon. Like, people should know.
Brandon Joyner (24:48.861)
Right Yeah And so I like I try to always say hi to her and she's she's a very sweet sweet girl And I'd like talked to her at the beginning I'm like, so are you in or like do you need to have a Solid finish and she's like, we need to we need to show up and I was like, alright, we'll show up and They showed up they ended up making the finals
They, I guess you would call it an upset. They upset Brandi and Melissa in the semis and looked good. Like, Therese and Megan, they're another, they're another team. Megan is like, she is physical. Like, I think she was, I don't really know a whole lot about her history, but I believe she was like one of the best blockers and I think she played at USC.
But when she was in college, she was a blocker and like absolutely crushed and then came out to the beach, switched to defense and she is impressive. Like she is not only moving around the court really well, but like anytime she gets a ball up, she is crushing and like she can bring some heat. so Teresa's serve was like pretty deadly, clearing the net. Like I've always said,
One of my biggest nightmares I could ever have would be passing a women's float serve like in front of a crowd. Like this ball would embarrass me. I want nothing to do with it. And the semis alone, I don't think Brandy and Melissa wanted anything to do with it either.
Mark Burik (26:32.544)
It's wild. Like I was telling you, I played a, the, drill where I served full time against Chloe and Marine, Kena and I could not get them out of system. The passing quality at that level is unbelievable. Like everything I threw at them, you figure short serves on a women's net should be like lethal, but the passing on the women's side is.
Brandon Joyner (26:39.847)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (27:01.297)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (27:02.506)
just, it's lights out. So it's crazy that somebody can make serving a weapon with how high level the passing is across the board. But it also shows how important dedicated serve practice is and making your serve a weapon with different flight paths and serving space, which most people just.
Brandon Joyner (27:04.999)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (27:27.798)
choose one person and they serve them instead of serving space and serving different trajectories and how far it crosses the net, et cetera.
Brandon Joyner (27:30.759)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (27:37.297)
Yeah, yeah, and so really cool to see them show up and then Kelly Chang and Molly Shaw they they had the I Think they were the other semi team that played against I Think they've had Taryn Brasher It's a believe her name her new name and Kristen Nuss Kristen and Taryn
Mark Burik (28:01.452)
Yep, Brasher. Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (28:07.471)
Once again, they're just impressive. yeah, they have quite a battle. But yeah, once again, I love shouting out Molly. I think that she, for the last couple years, the people that she's bounced around between showed up and gotten medals. And now she got a chance to play with Kelly.
Mark Burik (28:09.486)
15, 17...
Brandon Joyner (28:36.891)
really cool to see that she's now getting like super rewarded and gets to be in the league. So I think that that's a pretty cool little journey.
Mark Burik (28:48.194)
I want to take a little side venture into like.
Mark Burik (28:53.196)
Kelly Hughes has, Sarah Hughes, sorry.
Brandon Joyner (28:58.311)
Sarah Hughes, yeah.
Mark Burik (29:00.968)
man, for what a rock star she is, has just ran into strings of awful luck, injuries. You know, she's like, on paper and from the start of her career. Yeah, you go, this is this is the person who is going to be repping us for the next 1015 years. And then, okay, then the rest of the college crop just
Brandon Joyner (29:08.573)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (29:17.117)
partner switches that didn't work out.
Mark Burik (29:29.238)
came along NCAA showing its metal. when girls are qualifying for AVP at 19, 20 years old, it's like, okay, at a lot of NCAA schools, you're already at or above the current AVP level. then Savvy, Savvy didn't qualify either. like her and Evan having a sad household where it's two athletes that. In a tough year and to not get all those AVP league,
Brandon Joyner (29:31.804)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (29:47.237)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (29:51.61)
Having a tough year, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (29:57.716)
attention and, and tournaments and stuff, but they'll see their way through it. But for Sarah, Sarah Hughes, it's just, man, rough, rough patch of four or five years to say that because it is a rough patch. It's not like she's underperforming. It's just, she's had bad luck with injuries and getting knocked out and in bad situations. So tough.
Brandon Joyner (30:04.061)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (30:10.321)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (30:23.389)
Yeah, I I think on Saturday I talked to Evan a little bit and he was and and I saw Savvy walking around and You know, I understand it. I think it's For the second year in a row they were like the outside looking in you know, and I've said this I've used this at practice a couple times with Logan and Hagen where
we might get down or something like that. And I always tell them like, stay the course because like this game has a really, really weird way of correcting itself where, you know, somebody has a side switch and it's seven zero. And then all of a sudden by the middle of the game, it's still it's 1513, you know? And so I've reminded Logan and Hagen a lot like, hey, like stay the course.
Mark Burik (31:02.723)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (31:21.117)
Don't get down, don't get frustrated. Like just practice what we have been practicing and the game will correct itself. It might not be this exact set or this exact game, but like it's going to correct itself. For them, they've seen it. They went through an extremely tough point. They kept their heads down. They kept training. And then all of a sudden this year when kind of unexpectedly the game corrects itself, they qualify for that first league spot.
and so I hope for those two, mean, they're extremely hard workers. They're extreme, extremely great volleyball players. And I think good things happen to good people. Good things happen to people who work hard, work hard, be nice. And, I have no doubt that their time's coming. So thinking of them though, it's a tough situation to be in. But yeah, so first,
Mark Burik (32:08.013)
Thank
Mark Burik (32:17.099)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (32:20.241)
first tournament down of the year. And you brought this up. It's kind of funny. was talking to, on Sunday, I enjoyed myself a little bit and hung out at the AVP and had a couple drinks. I was talking to Taylor and I was really just asking about his coaching experience and stuff like that. And at one point we brought up
Mark Burik (32:38.508)
pictures of you with Taylor.
Brandon Joyner (32:50.833)
I was like, yeah, I was like, yeah, you can, like, you can do this. Like you can take off some time and go coach for an off season, your partner's playing overseas and then come back and still be one of the best players on the men's side. was like, if we had the women's, if we had boys in CAA, neither of us would be playing. We would have been pushed out a while ago.
Mark Burik (33:16.078)
Let's go.
Brandon Joyner (33:18.011)
And we're like kind of laughing about that. And it's just, it's crazy because on the women's side alone, from top to bottom, the level is unbelievable. Like we're even talking about like one of the girls that's coached for us, Camilla, she's like kind of restarting her beach volleyball journey and, she's going over these futures events and meddling. And then like,
losing in the second round of the qualifier. She's, her and Sam, like they're a good team. And like, it's just crazy that the level of play, I mean, on the men's side as well, but the women's, it's just, the age gap is just so much younger where you're seeing these girls that are coming out of college and are competing right away. It's extremely impressive. The guys better, you guys better count your blessings because
Mark Burik (33:55.278)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (34:17.533)
We're lucky that we only have to worry about the Basies and the Hursts and the Quackles and these young guys that we already know because they've been playing in qualifiers since they were 16. But we're lucky there's not an entire field of them on the women's side.
Mark Burik (34:35.278)
Yeah. There's one player in the league, two players under 30. Is Andy 30 yet? Andy Bines? He's what? 28, 29? Him, Miles Wyatt and Shaw is late 20s, right? So when you look at those ages, like everybody else is over 30. It's such a weird sport. You know what?
Brandon Joyner (34:44.517)
He's getting close. He's flirting with danger.
Brandon Joyner (34:56.445)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (35:02.721)
It's very odd.
Mark Burik (35:04.661)
What other sport is everybody's prime, like early thirties golf? that's it. When you turn 30 in tennis, people are like, you're starting to get out of there when indoor, you know, once you're like past 30, it's starting to struggle because of the pounding on your body. but yeah, not too many 30 plus year olds in other sports and ours is dominated on the men's side.
Brandon Joyner (35:11.056)
Yeah, maybe.
Brandon Joyner (35:19.129)
Right. yeah.
Brandon Joyner (35:24.989)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (35:32.376)
But then you have all those, all those women and it's 30 and under for the large majority, a couple of like, early 30 year olds, but that's it.
Brandon Joyner (35:40.989)
I mean, it's all the programming. mean, it's, I mean, on the women's side, it's obvious. All these, all these girls that are coming out to the beach competing the second they graduate, they're, they're, yeah, they're playing on teams with amazing systems, amazing coaches that are being put through repetition after repetition. They have a lot of really good competition.
Mark Burik (35:42.872)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (35:56.779)
Usually before.
Brandon Joyner (36:10.905)
On the men's side, there's nothing. We have USA that is, and it's extremely scattered and I don't really know what the organization is there, but I don't really know. It's not obvious to me who's in it. Like I don't really, I don't really know on the men's side who, who they've chosen. If I don't.
Mark Burik (36:16.023)
scattered at best.
Mark Burik (36:28.098)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (36:34.062)
There's a group of them that chain next to Hermosa Pier. They do it either once or twice a week. And it is those guys who are like pushing the qualifier level. Thomas, I consider this new crop like Thomas Hurst, his crew, I forget who, this new young kid is, he's like 6'9", and everybody's talking Bradford. Haven't seen him play, but...
Brandon Joyner (36:47.378)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (37:00.645)
yeah, Derek Bradford. He's good.
Mark Burik (37:03.534)
think he's in that squad. So they're there and getting reps, but it's not, you know, you didn't see like, yeah, you just don't have the numbers, the sheer numbers that you have coming from NCAA to train every day, two hours a day, then go to the weight room, then go to film and do all that. It's don't have that on the men's side.
Brandon Joyner (37:06.405)
Okay, good. Maybe, good.
Brandon Joyner (37:20.605)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (37:30.385)
And it's just weird that, mean, we start to, now is when you question like, should it be in Hermosa Beach or like, it's so expensive to live here. It's so hard. Like, I mean, I think Florida is starting to still show up in tournaments. I mean, you're starting to see like that whole Colorado crew of the Basies, Ian Carlson, they're,
Mark Burik (37:30.636)
and people forget.
Brandon Joyner (38:00.007)
Phenomenal and they've done it
Mark Burik (38:01.336)
They're like the, they're like this generation's bomb grins. It's like, who are you playing against? You play against the same four people you're in and you're out and you show up and just wreck people. It was like, yes, it's possible. you practice every day, they're good. They're real good. Yeah. They took me out. lost them in the finals in, what's the one in veil? Is it in veil? The mother load.
Brandon Joyner (38:04.677)
Yeah!
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (38:14.727)
Dude, and they're good.
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (38:29.885)
Mother load. Yeah. And that's when they're and that's when they're 17. Yeah. Yeah. Exciting start to the season. And now I think they're announcing the team like the league locations this this week. We already have the locations. But I think the teams are getting placed like in the end their specific home.
Mark Burik (38:31.082)
Yeah, my first time ever there.
Mark Burik (38:35.884)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mark Burik (38:56.944)
for what city?
Brandon Joyner (38:59.581)
So that'll be exciting. Hopefully I can make it to a couple I think that's kind of the plan is to kind of travel with Logan and Hagan and get to experience some of these league league stops I've heard of some cool like some cool ones. I know they're planning on doing one I don't think I can share too much and not that I know too much but The one that I know that I'll share with you that I think is exciting is they're doing one in Central Park at night with lights
Mark Burik (39:29.154)
Sick.
Brandon Joyner (39:29.753)
And so I think that that will be like, I think that'll be really cool. And so.
Mark Burik (39:34.422)
Nice. It's gotta be fall or spring, huh?
Brandon Joyner (39:37.989)
I think it's all summer. It's a, yeah. I think I had it.
Mark Burik (39:39.938)
Mark Burik (39:44.151)
so they're not doing it across the winter like these. All right. That was a,
Brandon Joyner (39:47.535)
No, they, that's why I think there are limited.
limited spots for tournaments this summer because yeah, have. Yeah, the first league, the first league matches May 23rd.
Mark Burik (40:03.022)
Oh wow, I'm getting busy.
Brandon Joyner (40:04.055)
and Palm Beach, then San Diego, Miami, East Hampton, New York, going to the Hamptons. That'll be a sellout.
Mark Burik (40:15.203)
Alright.
Mark Burik (40:21.506)
I don't, I don't know. If I know my New York crowd, it'll be tough for them to get out to East Long Island.
Brandon Joyner (40:22.205)
Los Angeles
Brandon Joyner (40:28.079)
I being sarcastic.
Mark Burik (40:31.022)
Thanks. In Central Park, you've got nine million people.
Brandon Joyner (40:35.227)
Central Park will be cool like that one would be a big one. Austin going back there and they look like they're at cool spots. They're all like little venues. Dallas, yeah. And then finishing with Chicago.
Mark Burik (40:47.224)
great.
Brandon Joyner (40:53.885)
But yeah, should be interesting. Hopefully I'll have some next week, I'll have some more news on what the league looks like and everything like that.
Mark Burik (41:04.238)
I did want to say, you know, I starting to get into like how important film work is. And especially with these single eliminations, knowing where you want to be, knowing where the other team is and that we, the amount of film that I did in my career and the film that we're still doing at the highest level. Like if you guys are not recording it, if you're
Listening to a podcast called better at beach volleyball. You're obviously at this point in the episode You should be hooked and if you're not watching yourself on video please start recording from the back middle of your court and just Take a look at your game. We've got a number of my video analysis on YouTube you can look them up or you could go to better at beach comm forward slash film session We've collected six of them right there
better at beach.com forward slash film session. You could see six really in depth video analysis sessions for exactly what you need to talk about, where you need to position yourself when the ball is getting touched at every different moment. And, that was a huge change in my career. It is a monster change for everybody who is at the highest level. So if you're out there playing, attempting to get better and you're not filming yourself and watching it go.
Do it. And then if you want us to walk you through point by point, step by step and show you how, you can check out better at beach.com forward slash film session. But if you want to go it on your own, we've got all the tools out there for you. So you can just compare those video analysis to your own. And I just want to, just before we head out.
What do you think that the good teams this weekend did better than the rest? What were the?
Brandon Joyner (42:58.493)
I could break it down to three things. Aggressive serving. The time for lollipops is over. if you're as a team, I think this goes for anybody, maybe at a specific level, but anybody who played in the qualifier, anybody who played the main draw, if you're serving balls consistently and not making the other team take a minimum of two steps.
or a lay down, you're not winning that game. Aggressive serving. It can look short, it can look deep, it can look aggressive. Hagen was on fire this weekend with his like little hybrid serve. Logan did a great job of placement. Aggressive serving. Two, trusting your attack. Like going into a swing and having an A and a B option.
Mark Burik (43:40.194)
usual.
Brandon Joyner (43:56.177)
but trusting your A as long as you can. Like you, yes, you need to look at the defense. You need to pick up on vision. You need to understand what's open. But once you figure out what's open, you have to 100 % commit to it. You have to go for it. Anytime you pull something down or you have a little hitch, it's not scoring. It's either getting thrown back at you faster than you hit it or
a defender is walking to the ball. And then.
Mark Burik (44:28.302)
It's funny, this vision, like holding gets you, if you have ball control and good vision, it gets you well beyond AA. Like you crush AA, probably locally, you're crushing your open tournaments, but then what got you there, like that vision and decision to execute has to happen so quick. It's no longer a hang, wait for a defense to cheat somewhere and then shoot to the other side. It's got to be.
Jump and hit. it's such a, such a fine, but crucial difference in winning all the way from B to low level open tournaments. And then as soon as you start hitting that qualifier pace or that the pro pace, it's like, you can't hold the vision that long anymore. need to look and execute in one half of a sentence. That's it. Accelerated. And number three.
Brandon Joyner (45:25.573)
And number three is being willing to take, this is a defensive one, but being willing to put the offense into situations where they might score easily in order to find out tendencies. You know, I think,
What we did pretty well against Paul and Tim and what we did well against Alvaro and Alisson is eventually we got to a point where we had tendencies down. I think we probably could have gotten there a little bit quicker and maybe finished both of those sets in two. But against Andy and Miles at no point, and it's hard against a team that's operating as high as they are, but at no point did we
And this is something that I wrote down on my like individual coach notes was like, you have to encourage the defense to figure out answers. And a lot of times what those answers are is like, what happens if we double up in the angle? they, are they finding an easy shot to the line? What happens if we run, if we run a four and come back and stay in the angle? Like are.
Mark Burik (46:40.108)
Yes.
Brandon Joyner (46:48.709)
Are there specific shots that if we leave it open, do they hit it or are they just swinging blind? and at no point did we have any of those answers against Miles and Andy. And I don't know if it changes the outcome of the game, but we might have at least closed the gap a little bit on points and we might've at least made them think a little bit more on offense. Whether or not we could have transitioned and scored, that's not it, but like.
You have to be willing to take chances and over to overwhelm the thinker on offense. And if people can just go up line and swing, you're not doing anything. So those would be my three.
Mark Burik (47:28.492)
It's funny how it's, you have to get to some point in your career where you're okay. Blocking cross and defending cross for one or two points blocking line and the line. Like the idea of I have to fill the opposite space that my blocker took. That's your base. That's your seven, eight out of 10, but you also need to figure out the different setups.
And say like, cause often, especially lookers, they're, they're looking at either blocker or defender, or they're just going with what they feel best in that moment. And job as a defender is to figure that out. And sometimes you got to double up just to figure that out. So creative defense is interesting. And then, you know, even on the women's side, I'm seeing some colleges.
really start utilizing like the cross peel to end the cut shots and then dig with the hands a lot. So there's becoming a lot more creativity on the women's side as well where they're running unique defensive setups, which is pretty exciting, I think for the future of the sport.
Brandon Joyner (48:28.892)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (48:45.317)
I it's necessary. Yeah, optioning is also huge. Just for the sake of setting up an offense. Yeah, but yeah, I love the amount, the skill that women have to pull and play defense is really cool. And I think you and I, like being undersized blockers, we like had to play around with that skill because we weren't big enough to like take over at the net.
Mark Burik (48:51.011)
Hmm.
Brandon Joyner (49:15.741)
and so like we would throw it. There's one video of me last year in the Huntington AVP where like it's when Alvaro and Caleb knocked me out. In the last point, I'm like, I squat and I drop and Alvaro crushes this ball. And I have, there's people in the comments that are like, what is this blocker doing? Like, is that really the guy from Betterhead Beach?
Mark Burik (49:32.839)
Heh. Heh heh.
Brandon Joyner (49:43.989)
And, and I'm like, and it's kind of funny because like, yeah, in the highlight, it looks like I'm an idiot. But I cannot tell you how many times I have won such silly easy points from doing that exact same move. And so like, that's another answer that we're talking about. It's like, put people in this situation, like, was it the right time for me to do it? Maybe not. But
Was it worth trying? Yeah. Because if I get an easy point there and possibly like, if I win that point, the, the comments are way different. So yeah, but defenses, have to be willing to feel a little bit uncomfortable in order to like really figure out an answer because the thing is, like, once you find the answer, I love having this conversation. It could be its own podcast, but once you find the answer.
Winning is easy. Like I've had this conversation in depth with Ali Denny who coaches with us and it's just crazy because sometimes the answer is as easy as they listen to the call from their setter. And it's like if you find out something like that, the rest of the game, you have such a big tool and you're in the back pocket because now you can start messing with them on defense to make them do things that you
And if you start being the puppet master on defense, then it just gets fun.
Mark Burik (51:20.504)
People who grew up or did a habit of trapping animals and figuring out where they show up, what they want, what type of food, what the food needs to look like. know, like fishermen and trappers. If you bring that mentality, what does this thing want? What looks attractive to this person and then what do they do? Then you've got it. I'm rereading.
Brandon Joyner (51:35.313)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mark Burik (51:47.416)
Pathfinder, which is a fantastic book by Orson Scott Card, by the way. It's very similar to Ender's Game, if you haven't read it. It's, it's.
Brandon Joyner (51:50.717)
You
My big Ender Scape fan over here.
Mark Burik (51:57.302)
Okay. so we're heading out guys. are currently working through our serving or passing, and serve receive block for our online members, which means they get a challenge every week. They have to do drills and they post them to our community. And then we go in there and we coach them on the drills and we have a weekly meeting, which we are about to head into. So if you want to go through a year of beach volleyball training with us while getting coached on your film and your skills and your strategies,
It is there, just head to betteratbeach.com. We've got a new section of our homepage that allows you to basically see exactly what you want. So you could follow, if you go to betteratbeach.com, you could follow the adult player route. You could follow the juniors and parents route, which we're offering new services for them. And you could find the coaches and club directors route. But, I want you to go ahead and see everything we offer. Cause most people don't know how much we offer. And if you've liked this episode.
Please go ahead and comment any questions, any little discussion you guys want to have in the comment section. We love that. Go ahead and subscribe to our podcast. And if you want to do one of two things, if you run a company or own a company and you want to reach our listeners, we've got, you know, a hundred thousand followers on YouTube, 50,000 on our email list, another hundred thousand on Instagram. So we have a
big audience that is listening. So just go ahead and reach out to support it better beach.com. And if you want to host a camp where we come to your home city, we have an application for that at better at beach.com forward slash camps. So we can come to your town, your club, your team, or just your group of friends, and we will get a private camp going for you. So it's all there in the links around this episode and throw us a like and a subscribe.
at the very least would be appreciated.
Brandon Joyner (53:54.639)
Yeah. And I want to know who you're pulling for in the league. Since this episode is coming out before the first league episode, have your early weekend. You have your chance to show that you were a day one supporter. So in the comments, write down who you think is going to win the league, who you're pulling for. We can share with them and let them know that they had, they had fans on day one. yeah, pick a team. It's going to make the league more fun. We should do like some form of like.
Mark Burik (54:10.264)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (54:24.541)
fantasy team thing or something, figure something out. I'll talk to my smart friends.
Mark Burik (54:29.912)
We'll put it on the business plan for 26. All right. From me, from Brandon, from everybody at Better at Beach, we will see you on the sand.
Brandon Joyner (54:34.287)
Yeah, right, yeah.
