Mark Burik (00:01.73)
Hello everybody and welcome to the Better at Beach podcast. It's me, Mark Burik and Brandon Joiner. And today we're going to talk about the absolute non-negotiables for preseason. What you should be thinking about right now, how to set the groundwork to actually have a good season. Season doesn't start in June guys. Sorry, season starts right now. And if you get
behind on your schedule, you won't even be able to peek when you should be peeking. So we're going to talk about all that and more on today's episode before we get into that. Just our quick camp announcements. February 6th, we're going to Orlando at the Phil Dahouser Academy. He's going to be making some special appearances. February 13th, we're going to be in Salt Lake City. February 15th, we have a one-day clinic in
Brandon Joyner (00:54.101)
Thanks.
Mark Burik (01:00.174)
Santa Monica, California. So if you're in California or you just want to hang out for a weekend, you can go there. You can take some extra classes at Better at Beach and maybe get a private with Brandon if you're lucky. February 20th, we're to be at 608 Beach at their brand new facility in Madison, Wisconsin. March 6th in Oklahoma City, March 13th in Seattle, March 20th in Long Island, March 27th in New Orleans. Just so you know, March 20th, I might.
be running a high level men's camp. So if you are interested, if you are a proven A at least, okay, I want you to just DM me, let me know. I've got a private group of my players, so it's almost, we've almost got full commitment, but we might have an extra couple of spots. And that will be in St. Pete Beach, March 20th, if we do it. Text me, more people that text me, the more likely it is to happen.
March 27th in New Orleans and April 10th in Virginia Beach, Virginia and April 17th in Fort Myers. And we've got a few other on the list. If you want to find them, go to betterbeach.com forward slash camps or click the link below. And just so you know, I do have an upcoming webinar this Wednesday, right after the, episode gets released. So if you want to know how to work out for volleyball and get all of those keys, I'm running an online training live.
and that's going to be Wednesday so we will include the links you can also sign up on the Better at Beach homepage. Brandon, you played NCAA, Virginia State Player of the Year before that. You played professionally indoor and some trips to the AVP as well as Norsecas. This is February.
Brandon Joyner (02:36.885)
Yes, sir.
Brandon Joyner (02:42.101)
Thank
Brandon Joyner (02:55.958)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (02:57.602)
What's important now for everybody that needs to perform in the spring and summer?
Brandon Joyner (03:04.031)
Yeah. So I think February is like grind time. you are realistically, you're going to feel terrible this month. You're to beyond sore. You're going to be tired. You're going to be going to bed early. yeah. So I think, we're kind of chatting a little bit before this and I think I would go about it in three different stages. Okay. And so I think for
Mark Burik (03:14.891)
You
Brandon Joyner (03:33.513)
Might even be a little late right now, but if you have not done so, I think the first step in kind of planning out your preseason and working towards a better season than you had last year is you have to establish and define your weaknesses, you know, and it's a very honest conversation with yourself or if you have a coach or if you want to reach out to us and have us review your game film.
I think there's two areas that we're trying to find those focuses or the find the kind of pain points of what we're going through. One of them should be basic movement. like, were there specific plays that put you in trouble? You know, I think one of the things that I always think back about Mark is like, one of my weaknesses was my receiving a short serve, you know, my, my hips, my strength of being able to get underneath that ball.
I needed to do a lot of work throughout my career to make sure that I was able to put myself into those positions. So with that idea, I was able to sit with you. I was lucky because I always had a built-in trainer. But I was able to sit with you and kind of define these workouts that were going to fix the problems that I found last year. You know, there's always going to be the basic ones of like,
I need to be able to jump higher, I need to be able to maintain shoulder health and shoulder strength and all those things. Those things are always going to be the case, but there are little miniature workouts that you can add or change. You and I would do different workouts sometimes because my weaknesses were different than yours. So I think establishing, I can't hear you.
Thank
Brandon Joyner (05:28.01)
I got you now.
Mark Burik (05:29.432)
Okay, when you were doing that, and we talked about, I don't remember, did you know that short balls were like a weakness or was it a feeling that you had or did me or did somebody else like kind of had to point that out or was it just getting beat up in some situations over and over again?
Brandon Joyner (05:50.689)
I think I would I think I was like every like most athletes is I was extremely stubborn to it I didn't like to talk about the things I was bad at, know, so like people would pick on me and by the end of practice I would be worthless just because I would Fight through that pain so much, but I think it was an it took an honest conversation from you of being like hey This is a hole in your game that people are exploiting like let's fix it
But yeah, I had to have that conversation with you.
Mark Burik (06:25.89)
So it wasn't something that you were feeling. It was just like an annoying play, didn't, what it, no one like brought noise to it in your own, your own body was like, that's just a great serve. Nothing I can do.
Brandon Joyner (06:40.297)
Right. Yeah. Yup. Exactly. Yeah. But then the cool thing about it was, I think it was noticeable. Like once you and I went through, cause I think we did the 60 day max vertical program together when we first put it out. Like that was the coolest thing about it. It's like we were selling something that we know worked. And I went from kind of avoiding conversations about the short serves to now.
I was getting there a lot more comfortable. My pain in my body, I didn't feel that show up. Like having to drop down to that knee and then rise and kind of get back. But I think it was pretty noticeable, like on your end. And I started noticing people started doing it less, which usually that's a good indicator that you're kind of taking care of that issue now.
Mark Burik (07:33.74)
You just thought everybody was a short server in every moment.
Brandon Joyner (07:36.449)
I'm like, man, should I be short serving every ball? If you talk to Syngin, that's the answer to everything.
Mark Burik (07:42.135)
Yeah
Yeah, I mean even when me and Hudson were playing together, you know, we would be teams up for the first match, but they knew that he was blocking and he didn't really have the body problems, but it became more of an exhaustion problem from running up blocking jump serving and getting short served every ball. It was one of those things where I was like, what's happening in the second set? Why can't we close teams after we match them?
Brandon Joyner (08:02.582)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (08:15.058)
but then later on, kind of wondered, did everybody have this long-term tournament plan against Hudson that like he'll eventually tire out, they're not going to hit on two. and so even though we'll like get behind early, he'll get behind in the long run, from a conditioning standpoint, where you think like short serves aren't a problem. Look what I did the first set.
Brandon Joyner (08:40.993)
Yeah, yeah, and I think that that's when a lot of people can point out your weakness You can't avoid it anymore, you know You just yeah, you can't avoid that. So I'm sure like if Hudson was listening to this and we love Hudson these are he's our boy But you probably would have been like, all right Let's avoid this next year
Mark Burik (08:51.182)
You
Mark Burik (09:08.002)
Yeah
Brandon Joyner (09:09.151)
I don't want to have to call the medic in set three of the first match of the tournament. Like, let's see how we can figure out a way to make this a little bit easier.
Mark Burik (09:15.309)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (09:20.726)
Okay, so it took enough honest people looking and then hearing that and then saying like, maybe that is uncomfortable. Okay, so that was one weakness early that you decided to in the off season figure out how to fix.
Brandon Joyner (09:30.687)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (09:40.917)
Right. And for me, like I knew how to pass. I knew how to move on the court. I knew how to do all these things, but I wasn't doing a good enough job of putting myself under strain in those positions. So I think like that was a cool thing about the workout designs that you made for me is like, I started having to like hold these uncomfortable positions for an extended period of time.
Mark Burik (09:45.208)
Hmm.
Brandon Joyner (10:07.265)
instead of just doing like a rep of something, it was like hold a banded clamshell for 45 seconds. Yeah, like I needed to feel that pain because in games I wasn't willing to sit into that pain either, you know? And I think like that's one of the biggest things I see with volleyball right now is when people are comfortable, they're very good. When people are uncomfortable, they get really bad.
Mark Burik (10:13.208)
feel the shaky legs.
Mark Burik (10:33.326)
Hmm.
Brandon Joyner (10:37.289)
You know, and it's not that you can't perform the skill, it's that you don't feel comfortable holding that uncomfortable position in order to accomplish the skill. Yeah. And so I think kind of going along with what I said about the physical weaknesses, I had to go through the same thing with my volleyball touches as well. So like, I remember this was like a light bulb moment to me that I share with everybody.
is, you know, like I was a setter and in college and in pro overseas, I got to a point where I was extremely happy with my skill level. So like I associated my definition of a volleyball player as a setter. I was like, oh yeah, I'm a volleyball player, but I'm the setter, you know? And at one point you and I did our player evaluations that we have online under our free tools. But one of the weakest
scores that you gave me was my setting. And I was like, but what do you mean? Like, I am a setter. Like, how is that my weakest thing? And I didn't realize that there like, and then that opened up a lot more conversations with you where it was like, it's not actually just about putting the ball into the spot. It's about my attacker being able to read my rhythm because like I had really high quick hands, which
Mark Burik (11:41.997)
What?
Brandon Joyner (12:04.779)
caused a tempo issue, which also was starting to mess with my accuracy. But if I didn't have that honest conversation with you about the weakness in my game as far as setting goes, then I never would have thought about changing that. So then like going into the next season or the next couple weeks of practice after that conversation, it was like, I need to take the ball lower. I need to make sure that I'm making my finish feel the same every time.
But again, like I didn't even know. There's a common theme with those things is like a lot of the times we know our weaknesses and we might say them, but we're not, we don't dive into them well, especially when it's solo, you know, but like with someone like you or somebody that I trust. like if any of you are out there listening to this podcast and you're like, wow.
Mark Burik (12:39.278)
not gonna
Mark Burik (12:49.486)
Hmm.
Brandon Joyner (13:02.283)
I would actually love an honest review of somebody that doesn't care. Yeah.
Mark Burik (13:06.23)
Instead of the partner who's like, no, no, that's fine. I'll fix it. I love hearing that. Like, no, no, no, you're good. I'll fix it. I can get that. Like that means right there. That means something was wrong with it. And you didn't tell me, like, don't tell me that you can fix it. Tell me the perfect version of it until I have this clear picture. it drives me insane when people do hitting lines and warmups like
Brandon Joyner (13:22.176)
Right.
Mark Burik (13:34.688)
No, no, no, that's fine. That's fine because they're trying to be nice to their partner. and they don't want to seem picky when picky is everything you need on offense. Like this is exactly where I'm the best hitter. This is the height, number of feet and inches if you want, number of feet from the antenna or the center. If you run relationship or fixed point sets. and then situationally, like if I pass to the opposite antenna.
Brandon Joyner (13:37.825)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (14:04.034)
Where am I gonna end up? Where should you try to make the ball end up? If I pass to the back line, how does that tempo change? And instead, people hit a 10 % down ball to somebody eight feet away from them, and then they say, no, that's good enough, I'll fix it. Like, that's not an answer, and that's not the answer you should be satisfied with. I always tell this, but Adam Roberts framed it in the best possible way for me.
Brandon Joyner (14:25.121)
Right.
Mark Burik (14:31.854)
he set a ball, I mashed it, and he's like, hey, was that set an eight or nine or a 10? And I was like...
yeah, I was like nine. He's like great, what would make it a ten? You know? And that's it, like just asking the right questions and so that's a good takeaway for anybody listening. Like if you ask the right questions in the right way, then you get way better answers. But if you hear somebody say, I'll fix that, you gotta pause.
Brandon Joyner (14:43.617)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (14:52.808)
You
Mark Burik (15:03.182)
sit for 10 minutes and just toss balls and do like a little bit of half movement until you do that. One of the one of my one-on-one guys right now, he just sent me a text because I gave him the exercise of, listen, you think that you're hitting the stinks, it's not you're hitting at all. Like the set is not finding the right location, even though you are saying to yourself, well, I feel like I should get that. You go, yeah, maybe you should be able to get that. But do you want to have to?
force yourself to get that or do you just want to be set butter? And so we gave him the drill where he needed to pass, do his approach movement, but not take an approach. And then his setter would set and we would see if it landed on his right column. And then he sent me those videos. It took him, you know, 10 minutes. They actually discussed it, which is good. I'm proud of him.
And we saw like half of them were straight on his body line. And like two out of 10 were even in this drill, we're landing on the right side of his body. And I told him like the ones on the right side of your body, those are gold. The ones that are landing head up or on your left shoulder. Uh-uh. Um, but I had to sit him down where he thought his hitting is a weakness. I'm like, Nope, not your heading. Um, it's the sets that you're getting, even though you think they're good enough with my eyes. I'm like,
They're not close to perfect. So he did that drill. Good takeaway drill. Like pass, shuffle, start the first step of your approach and then see if the set lands on the right side of where your right toe is pointed if you're righty. And if you can do that, then you can have that discussion of where you want it. And so it makes it, makes it have to be really specific. And so he was happy that him and his partner who he's playing with the full year.
Brandon Joyner (16:50.529)
Okay.
Mark Burik (16:55.886)
like finally got on the same page and they could talk about exact sets instead of good enough sets.
Brandon Joyner (17:02.593)
Yeah, and I think that just hearing you say all that stuff, I'm sure there's some people that are like, but I'm an introvert. again, it's the way you communicate. know, if you're one of those players that every single time your player does something wrong, you're throwing your hands up in the air, you're sagging your head or something like that. And then
Mark Burik (17:13.192)
You
Brandon Joyner (17:30.529)
they set the ball and you try to give them a minuscule change, sure, they're probably gonna listen to it and be like, oh my gosh, all this person does is complain. But if you're a supportive partner and you're like, realize that your partner's trying to play as good as they possibly can every single point, just like you are, and you celebrate those things, and then if they do something wrong, you pick them up, then your communication style of,
Mark Burik (17:35.053)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (17:59.393)
being able to ask for a set that's a little bit further out or a little bit higher or a little bit further off the net. That conversation now becomes a conversation that's awesome because now you're actually helping each other play in your best lane. So yeah.
Mark Burik (18:03.831)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (18:16.354)
Yeah. I'm so picky with my questions when I'm setting somebody like I'm like, you want faster hands or slower hands? Like you want the two feet higher? Was that perfect? and it, over time they're kind of forced because I'm so questioning when I'm setting somebody early, like I need to figure out the puzzle if they won't give me the flat out answer.
Brandon Joyner (18:27.126)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (18:39.51)
And so I'm like, you faster hands? You want deeper hands? You want higher hands? Like, do you want me to use more legs? Like, I'll change whatever you want. Like, you're the one who has to eat. I'm serving you dinner here. Just tell me how you want it cooked.
Brandon Joyner (18:46.805)
Right.
Brandon Joyner (18:52.961)
And yeah, yeah, I think people do need to they need to be open more to having that positive those positive conversations, but a lot of times there's there is some vulnerability to it, you know, and so I think now and now Yeah
Mark Burik (19:07.234)
There's vulnerability and there's idiots who are talking about getting them a type of set when they say like, that was perfect because they mashed it. and only their feet to ball or their approach lane. And it was a totally different situation. And I've heard people giving setting commentary that I'm like, I'm not even going to get involved in this. Like I know I'm a coach, you know, but like this, you don't know how to talk to people. You don't know what you're asking for. And then you're asking her.
Brandon Joyner (19:17.589)
Right.
Brandon Joyner (19:28.75)
I'm going stop.
Mark Burik (19:37.358)
to try to set this in a changing environment and you're giving your bad information so i'm just like i'll wait for them to ask me for my feedback not not interject here but i hope they don't get a divorce
Brandon Joyner (19:46.315)
Yeah.
Mark Coach. Yeah, I'm sure. You just call him out. Okay, so I think that that's pretty good. And then I'm gonna kind of leave this one into you is because you create a lot of these and you've kind of helped me out is so we've talked about establishing your weaknesses, not only with movement, but also volley. And then my second thing would be to
Mark Burik (19:58.35)
You
Brandon Joyner (20:18.913)
create a concrete plan. And you know, for me, I always had your help in doing that. So for you, like if I was a player and I asked you, hey, Mark, I want to create a plan for my off season. These are my weaknesses. And then I give all those things to you or you help me find them. What would your next steps be? And like, what would that look like?
Mark Burik (20:42.966)
Well, this is out. Like, so we just had another one-on-one spot and filled up. So I've got two more. and I work with 10 athletes a year because it's intense, for the one-on-ones. But the, what we're going through now with three of my athletes is just their assessments. so along with skill assessments, like we have a number of standardized tests where they have to perform certain passes, certain sets, certain serves, certain attacks, and we see their actual numbers.
After we get that baseline, then we take a look at it in-game way and we stat everything that they did so that when they tell me, hey, I'm an awesome setter, then we look at stats and we take a deep look at how many times in this match was your hitter uncomfortable. And that then leads to that next skill conversation. But along with the skill assessments that we do, we also do
physical assessments. at the beginning of our 60 day max vertical, at the beginning of our mobility and strength foundations, there are a number of physical assessments that you should test your ankle mobility, should test your hip mobility. One for experienced lifters will do a one rep max on their squat. We'll do a pull up max in one minute. And I don't like doing the one rep
bench max, it just doesn't make sense for volleyball players. So we just do pushups in a minute. And then for legs, for the inexperienced lifters who aren't doing a one rep squat max, we just do squats in a minute. So pick a 12 or an 18 inch box, make sure your butt hits every time, make sure your hips get extended every time and however many squats you can get in a minute. That's a good baseline that most people can do unless they tell me they've got an injury.
And so we take a look at those and from there we see, okay, now based on your gameplay and based on like your physical tests, what is costing you the most points? Is it conditioning? Are you just getting gassed out in sets two and three? Is it leg strength or like unilateral leg strength where you're having a lot of trouble on short serves? Are your glutes firing? even know how to?
Mark Burik (23:08.354)
control your core, activate it and fire your glutes so that you can have side to side movement. So all of these tie in and it's why my one-on-one program is exhausting but rewarding because we dive so deep into these and everybody gets this thick journal where they record everything. But a big thing is taking those physical, the mobility assessments, the strength assessments and the conditioning assessments and getting a baseline for where they're at.
And we have a baseline for our players, but I don't really focus in comparing them to other people. More, I say, what's the weakness in your game? Where are we losing points? Okay. This exercise, this stat, this physicality part.
needs to upgrade in order to succeed to that. So it becomes similar to like where you started, which is where are we bleeding points? What's our weakness? And I need to see gameplay in order to truly establish that because as we already said, everybody assumes they have a weakness and then somebody with experience comes along and goes, that's not it.
And so then, then we build them a customized workout program from there. Like we've got our workout programs that they work for most people as a generic. Yeah, go through this. Of course, you're going to be stronger. You're going to be better. But if somebody's got an injury, if they get a knee problem, back problem, or if it's their foot speed versus their strength. Okay. We're going to take the model of our workout program, but reshape it and design it for that specific person. And so that's what I'm doing with.
three of the athletes right now, that's the phase that we're in. As they just finished their mental assessments and now we're building into that.
Brandon Joyner (25:01.697)
It's kind of funny because like what it's making me think of is like It's funny too because I'm one of these people but you start feeling sick you know and It's like the difference and I'm talking like real sick I'm not talking about the sniffles or anything like that, but like you're you're vomiting you're something's going on. You're like, oh you're a little scared
And instead of going to the doctor, you go to like WebMD and you like, try to find all your issues and stuff like that. And it writes you like, make sure you're getting hydrated. Make sure that you're taking vitamin C, make sure you're seeing sunlight, you know? Yeah. It's like, typed in the wrong thing versus like going to, not that I think everybody should.
Mark Burik (25:34.21)
Yeah!
Mark Burik (25:45.718)
You probably have cancer. Like, my God.
Brandon Joyner (25:57.995)
be very healthy and not that I think the healthcare system is very interesting, but the difference between going to a doctor, especially if you're very sick, and they're like, hey, take this medicine, in three days you're gonna start feeling better. It feels very similar to that, where it's like, we try to tackle all these things all by ourselves, but if somebody can literally give you like, hey, this is a problem, this is the answer, this is a problem.
Mark Burik (26:26.508)
Mm-hmm. That's why I laugh at the people who are like, I've learned everything I know about volleyball from your YouTube channel. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I'm like, man, I wonder how much of that stuff you misapplied to your own game. Like one video, selfing one problem for one person. Yeah, it shines a light on it, but then you might just go into your own backwards rabbit hole with these, with these self
Brandon Joyner (26:27.253)
This is the answer. I think that that's you.
Brandon Joyner (26:34.762)
Yes.
Brandon Joyner (26:40.224)
Right.
Brandon Joyner (26:44.661)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (26:51.829)
Right. Yeah.
Mark Burik (26:56.032)
self-inflicted like echo chamber type beliefs, where you tell yourself something for so long that, yeah, that's what you pride yourself on, or you tell yourself for so long and you think that that's your weakness. And it's not at all. And it's easy to see these things when you've got experience and you've worked with, know, 2,000 athletes at some point. But then people like,
you know, attack us on a single video on Instagram or on YouTube. They're like, oh, this is exactly my problem. And I always look at those comments and go, no wonder.
Brandon Joyner (27:34.611)
Is it? Yeah, it's kind of funny because even when we go to camp, we're like, you know, when we do our group demos and everything, everybody listen, everybody pay attention. But when we're going around and we're giving individual feedback, you can hear it, but it might not be for you. Like I might tell one. Yeah. Yep. Exactly. Yeah.
Mark Burik (27:55.956)
yeah. This is for him, not for you. Like, don't you close your eyes. You do what you're doing. Like, this is for him specifically. Like, don't listen to these words.
Brandon Joyner (28:03.755)
Like I might tell somebody to like set the ball only using their legs. I might go up to the next person in line and say, hey, you're only allowed to use your arms. It's like extremely different ideas, but that's how we kind of bring it everybody into the same zones because we're all at different spots. Cool.
Mark Burik (28:14.563)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (28:24.494)
It's like coaching is always like a coach, a hands-on coach. You know, we even did this with our ads recently, where I was like, yes, I've read every book. Yes, I've like gone to all the podcasts. I listen to business stuff all the time. And then you have somebody who's seen thousands of pages and actually works for them.
For all of those companies he goes this is the most successful page that we've had across all of our ads This works for this reason and yours doesn't show this this this this Thank you like done no more hours of comparing advice on different YouTube's Forever like you gave me an answer. Let me act on it and test it done Yeah coaching that's I think our
Our business is safe. you know, for any coaches, trainers out there, like from accountability standpoint, no one's ever going to be held accountable or feel accountable, from software, you know, or something where like a human, you know, that a human is not asking you to do something. the only thing that I can think about that's actually tricked to that system was, the duo lingo app with my wife. Like it held that.
the daily streak and she had done like 600 days and she's like, I can't lose my streak. And then she had a friend who called the company because something happened with internet or whatever, but she called the company and said, listen, it was impossible for me to get on my phone, blah, blah, blah. Can you please? Yeah. And she's like, can you please reopen my streak on my profile?
Brandon Joyner (29:44.417)
It's always free camp.
Brandon Joyner (29:49.983)
We will.
Brandon Joyner (30:03.675)
She lost her streak.
Brandon Joyner (30:11.324)
So, I mean...
Mark Burik (30:12.302)
She's like, I didn't miss it. I still practice. Like I need that number. But that's the only like, you know, thing or okay. But even again, like did she, after 600 days, did she learn Spanish? No, because there's not a coach forcing her to, you know, have a conversation and do these things.
Brandon Joyner (30:17.392)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (30:33.401)
and that kind of leads me to my last point of, and I think my third, the third thing that I think is important in this kind of goes along with that training plan, but making sure that you have accountability or a way of tracking, that way you're like, it does feel nice to go on there and have that streak. You know, it's kind of fun. and so for you with.
Mark Burik (30:57.431)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (31:01.929)
the programs that are the people that you've worked with in the past are what are some tips and or some things that you currently do to hold people accountable.
Mark Burik (31:11.438)
well, I text them and I say, have you done the drills yet? Have you done this assessment yet? Hey, can we have another meeting? I want to review this. Like, did you do the assignments? That has to be primary. We've got for our, for our standard online members, I hired during one of the meetings, set two accountability partners. Cause one guy was like, I really want to develop a jump surf. And I go in the last.
Brandon Joyner (31:17.173)
great one.
Mark Burik (31:41.038)
10 matches you've played, how many times have you jump served? Like, you wanna learn to jump serve and you're not doing it. You're not doing it because you're bad at it. Like there's one way to get better at it and it's by doing it. And then there's another woman who is super shy about handsetting. And I set them as accountability partners where they needed to post.
video every week of either them just getting lonely jump serves or handsetting in any environment on her wall in her street, whatever and so Once I said hey John
Amy's waiting for your post. Amy didn't tell me anything. But he's like, OK. So he posted a clip of jump serves. And then I saw that Amy didn't post for a second. And I was like, don't leave your accountability partner hanging. And then she posted two of her videos. So we had a laugh about it in the meeting. But.
Brandon Joyner (32:18.561)
Thank
Mark Burik (32:33.654)
Yeah, so like accountability, you can do it in a few ways. One of them, like the strongest is with people. Like when we were working out, you, me, Mike and Chris, it was these guys are gonna show up at my garage, we're gonna get the workout, cool. They're showing up, it's accountable. And then when one person was late, the rest of the group dogs him and says like, come on, dude, let's see, you quit on us.
So that's one way, but some people are pretty also good at holding themselves accountable and they're willing to put in the work. So the only thing that happens there is stack tracking. And that's why we do our assessments. If you guys check out our homepage, just go to betterbeach.com and then scroll down to the bottom. You'll see something called free tools. Free tools holds a number of assessments there.
And these are physical tests that have standardized numbers that you can say, OK, did I perform a high line six, seven, eight out of eight times? And then if you're willing to put in the work and do the drills, those numbers should improve. So long as you have them written somewhere and you say, I am going to improve my accuracy this month, period.
We're doing this on the business side too. Like what are our goals, strict goals this month and how do we solely focus on one thing? And those, you can make up whatever test you want.
Like really, like set a basketball hoop and see how many times you can set into the basketball hoop. Fine. Just write it down and give yourself the number of efforts. What we've done is we've given you guys an easy path to do that with the free tools. So you could just take those numbers, write them on a piece of paper or write them on a whiteboard that you pass often enough, and then do it again.
Mark Burik (34:22.29)
and if it's not working, then your process isn't working. And that's where you find somebody else to help. If you want to do it on your own reps, we'll do it. There might be something really easy to fix that you're not seeing, but you can rep to re to high results with bad technique. You can do it like.
You can pass perfectly with a garbage platform. You can set perfectly with no like beautiful rhythm. Whatever you just do over and over, there will be a limit to it based on technique, but you can reach, I would say advanced level in anything just by doing it nonstop. But if you're not tracking, if you didn't take the stats or you didn't like take one of our milestone assessments, then.
You're just going to have to make up drills that might be useless. And then you don't actually know if you're improving at them. And therefore you're not ready for spring summer tournaments. and you trained and you think you put in time and so then you're pissed at all the time that you did, but Hey, it wasn't directed anywhere.
Brandon Joyner (35:30.549)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (35:34.239)
Yeah, that's a, it, I think it's, it's just a cool journey too. You know, like I, I think as I've gotten older and as like, see my friends getting older, my parents are getting older. one of the challenges that like, I had a conversation with, one of our campers in Ohio and she came up to me, to a lot of camps. I was gotten so much better over the years.
which a lot of the times we don't recognize, but she came up to me and she was like, oh, I feel like I'm still held back in this position to where I want to play like these people. And I was like, cool. And she was like, yeah, I feel like my passing or my setting or, all this stuff. And I was like, can I interrupt you real quick? I was like, yeah, was like, saying this with love, but the passing setting, the attacking, it's not the issue.
Mark Burik (36:22.19)
We do honestly hour.
Brandon Joyner (36:32.433)
It's your personal health and strength. And so I think it's a really cool journey to go on right now. And I feel like there's a little bit of an uptick in this, is that people are curious about finding their optimal health. And that's a really, it's a scary journey because you know it's gonna be challenging. It's gonna push buttons on you that you've never pushed before. You're going to be living in an uncomfortable.
Mark Burik (36:49.026)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (37:01.959)
state of life because you're trying to perfect something. But that journey is so awesome. I've gotten to witness it firsthand with you, especially when Mackenzie was born. I saw your workouts get smarter and more often because I think you put this idea in your mind of like,
Mark Burik (37:22.574)
to our heads.
Brandon Joyner (37:31.361)
you know what, I'm not being healthy for me anymore, I'm being healthy for my family. And I thought that that was such a cool little switch for you because, and I'm sure you probably feel like this a little bit too, it's like, if you would have done this kind of training when you were 26, 27, like you probably would have avoided injuries, which you probably would have played in more tournaments, you probably would have been happier.
Mark Burik (37:35.554)
Hmm. Hmm.
Mark Burik (37:52.097)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (38:00.366)
Thank
Brandon Joyner (38:00.769)
There's all of these things and so that would be like kind of one of my challenges for anybody that listens to the channel or that sees this is be curious about what you're capable of, you know, and chase that. Don't chase the perfect pass. Don't chase the perfect set. The game happens. It's a different play every time. It's going to feel different. But like if you go about it of
Mark Burik (38:16.398)
you
Brandon Joyner (38:29.407)
challenging yourself to find the best version of yourself. I think that's just like, it's cool. Like it, I think that's what pumps us up is a lot of the people that we work with are, they're committed, you know, and they, get happy when we get on the phone with them because they're, they know that they're going to keep taking steps in the right direction. So I think it's, yeah, that's my challenge for everybody going into 2026.
Mark Burik (38:56.47)
Yeah. And it's, it's also, it's a headache and an endeavor because if you want to go the free version, you're, you're just, you're going to lose so many hours that you could have saved by somebody else. Like I always tell the Mike Dodd story where I was like,
Well, it sets on my left arm. Nothing I can do. Nothing I can do. And he's like, well, how about you just approach like this, like wrap your feet around, get your right arm around it. And then working with Isaac Newball for 45 minutes, like the arm swing specialist. He's like, just load bigger and swing harder. I mean, there was way more, way more of a lesson in that.
Brandon Joyner (39:36.801)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (39:38.776)
But like all of a sudden these inside sets that I was useless on and getting dug on from one from a self belief and then two from a technical adjustment. Well, like those two guys increased my hitting percentage to where I wasn't bottom third of the AVP tournaments. now my offense all of a sudden was, okay, my offense is now in the middle of the pack and my digs for game has always been set. like this is starting to lead to better finishes and wins against some bigger teams. But.
You know, if you just stay in that echo chamber, you try to piecemeal advice that isn't particular to you, you just get pushed and pulled in the wrong direction. And then with the health talk of like, how do I optimize my health?
I mean, even if you're searching that, the algorithm is gonna hunt you down and it's going to find you all of these people from all of the different skills that are talking at such a high level that, hey, all you need to do right now is stop eating ice cream every night. step one, don't talk to me about peptides and like which peptide is the right one for me because like I have this testosterone count, like.
Brandon Joyner (40:44.329)
You
Mark Burik (40:57.678)
Let's start from a baseline and then people always get lost in social media and videos where they think they're educating themselves. you're educating yourself. You're just not getting something that will improve you specifically.
Brandon Joyner (40:57.707)
Right.
Mark Burik (41:16.494)
Yeah, good episode. all that. That was our pitch. Like I said, guys, I now have almost a full roster of my one-on-one players. So got two more spots that I'm leaving open because I picked up a few business coaching clients. And so if you want to do that, you can check out the home page and check this out. Mackenzie, come in.
Brandon Joyner (41:16.577)
like it.
Brandon Joyner (41:20.181)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (41:45.726)
Mackenzie's got her first ever gymnastics practice. So this is the first time that my daughter is going to have another coach and I'm going to be super judgmental. So she's got her gymnastics leotard and tonight is her gymnastics training. we're excited. Say thank you.
Brandon Joyner (41:52.225)
you
Brandon Joyner (41:56.129)
Mmm.
Quiet little mouse in the back. Hi Mackenzie.
There you go.
You look very pretty. You're gonna be the prettiest gymnast out there.
Mark Burik (42:16.685)
Are you strong? Say I'm strong. I'm strong. Yeah. So, yeah, I've got two spots left for anybody who is considering the one on one program. It can you get down for just a second while I finish up this episode? And if you guys do want to sign up for that, we've got a new page. So it's an application process. You have to be the right type of person. You have to be willing to.
Brandon Joyner (42:17.961)
You
Brandon Joyner (42:22.483)
I love it.
Mark Burik (42:46.722)
this, you have to be a hungry player because it's the time investment is significant. But then when you look at the fact that it comes with an all inclusive camps pass and classes in Hermosa or wherever I am here in Florida, it's, it's kind of a no brainer. But if you're willing and ready to like say, this is my year, if you are thinking
This is my year. I've had enough. I want you to go over there and sign up at least for the application process. and that website is better beach.com forward slash apply for coaching. can also find it on the homepage, on the header. and yeah, I'll take the, the people who are ready and willing, but when we got a couple of spots left and if that sounds like you fill out the application, let's see if you're the right fit.
and maybe we'll work together this year.
Brandon Joyner (43:48.609)
Happy grinding everybody, it's February, get after it.
Mark Burik (43:50.251)
All right. Keep grinding. Yes. Get after it. Test. Find your weaknesses. Test them. Set a plan. It doesn't have to be rocket science. You just have to be honest with yourself. And then if you need and want help and guidance, you guys know we're here. But I have to go to my first ever gymnastics class.
Brandon Joyner (44:17.594)
Nice. You're not allowed to participate, Mark. You have to sit down and let all the kids play.
Mark Burik (44:18.616)
Super excited.
Mark Burik (44:23.276)
I'm going to take over for that coach if she doesn't follow learning principles.
Brandon Joyner (44:26.705)
Yeah, right. She's gonna teach you things. You're about to learn a lot of somersault. Yeah. All right, well have fun, bud.
Mark Burik (44:30.83)
can't wait.
Mark Burik (44:37.752)
Cool, will do. Thanks for listening everybody. If you liked the episode, share it with somebody, please subscribe. I know a lot of you listen, but don't subscribe, but it helps us. Go and subscribe and give us a rating. know ratings are supposed to be, we're not trying to be the most popular podcast. We know who we serve, but it does help us build our ego a little bit if we see a subscribe from you and rating would be nice. Other than that, we'll see you on the sand.
Brandon Joyner (45:00.587)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (45:06.475)
See you on the sand.
