Mark Burik (00:01.902)
Hello everybody and welcome to the Better at Beach podcast. While Brandon sneezes in the background with his camera on mute. Today I want to share some amazing Phil Dauhauser stories from our camp at the Phil Dauhauser Beach Volleyball Academy in Orlando, Florida. It was awesome. We had 53 campers.
Brandon Joyner (00:09.263)
I'm blank.
Mark Burik (00:31.614)
A coaching squad built of four coaches of people who came to us as campers first, learned, hung out, stuck around, trained themselves as coaches, came as volunteer coaches, then came as paid assistants, and now are running their own courts and absolutely crushing it. So Alex Bryant,
Jorge, wherever you are, if you're listening, you guys are rock stars. You made people so happy and so much better. And it's been so much fun to see kind of like the full life cycle. You we have some players that start with like one online course and then they build along their way. They come to a camp and then now we're doing the one-on-one program. We have the people in our coach academy who just came to learn how to coach and then they're running their own.
clubs and their own companies after being with us for a while. And then we bring them on as camp coaches. And then we have these unique guys who came for a camp, loved the vibe, loved the people, and figured out a way to stick around and are now ridiculously awesome coaches. If you guys are ever interested in that. Number one.
show up. If you see a camp on the schedule and you're like, hey, I can't afford it or I can't take it as a player, but I want to be around this. want to absorb as much information. We will always take extra hands on deck. If you are a cool person, if you're the person who loves giving out high fives for free, please join us and we are building up our coaching staff as we grow more.
More camps and more events, we like to have more hands on deck, but those guys are examples of coming to a campus camper four years later, they're now fantastic coaches who are continuing the vibe.
Brandon Joyner (02:40.27)
Yeah. And kind of, kind of to keep on that conversation, it's also been really cool. Like we've had a couple of coaches, like, uh, Matt Hazel just got hired. He's been coaching with us for a long time. Just got hired for university position. Um, yeah.
Mark Burik (02:56.398)
Yeah, Winyard University, he's got two jobs. He's an assistant coach for the women's program and he's head coach of the men's club program. Cool to see him get that role after starting four years ago from just being a hungry player coming out to California for some coaching.
Brandon Joyner (03:04.194)
Right.
Brandon Joyner (03:08.899)
Right.
Right. And I have no idea. I have no doubt that like one he'll absolutely crush it. I would trust him with my university, my, we trust him with the company itself. We'd be like, Hey, Matt, just take it.
And I think that those running those camps, being able to get through a lot of stuff in three days, five days, I think it's kind of, it's been cool to see how comfortable he's gotten. So I have no doubt that he'll absolutely crush that. Yeah. And then we have Ali Denny and JM that are also working for a university down in Southern Florida. And
Yeah, so it's pretty cool. It's so cool for me. Like one week we get to see the Bryant's and the Alex's that are players that we've coached and then they come back and they start just absolutely crushing it as coaches. And then the people that like JM, I think JM was a part of our first week long camp that we did in Salt Lake City a couple of years ago. And so to see him go from that to now like
I get so much information from Alley and JM just because they've studied the game so much over the years. It's cool to just see that little pipeline that is starting to happen. Yeah.
Mark Burik (04:34.514)
We're old enough where we get to see like life cycle. Like when's going to be the first time that somebody comes as a child or as a son or a daughter of somebody who was a kid when we go like that.
Brandon Joyner (04:48.56)
yeah. We're getting close. Yeah. Wow. That's funny to think about. Yeah. Second generation Babbers.
Mark Burik (04:55.518)
but
I do want to share a hysterical Phil LaDowell Hauser story. So that's coming up. And today what I want to do is talk about building and understanding your offense and the number one things that you guys have to be able to answer. Most players don't ever get to these answers, but they're massively important for you to be able to actually develop an offense and play better with your setters.
Okay, before we get into that, just a couple of quick camp dates. February 13th, we're in Salt Lake City. February 15th, we've got a one-day event in Santa Monica, California. February 20th in Madison, Wisconsin at 608 Beach. March 6th, me and Brandon will be in Boombocks Beach in Oklahoma City. That's March 6th, Oklahoma City. March 13th, Seattle, Washington at 4th Avenue Beach. March 20th.
We'll be back in Long Island at North Beach volleyball, March 27th at Seeger Sandbar in New Orleans, April 10th in Virginia Beach and April 17th in Fort Myers. and we've got a couple of new ones that just popped up. I haven't seen these yet. April 24th in Scottsdale, Arizona and May 15th in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. So lots of camps coming up. That means.
Guys, we need more coaches. We would love to have a lot of coaches. So if you coach, if you're hungry, if you love hanging out with positive people, please, please, please get in touch. We will start you through that pipeline of volunteer to assistant coach, to head coach, to lead coach. And we would love to add some people to the staff. So Phil Dahauser, if you guys have never met him.
Brandon Joyner (06:28.718)
We need coaches.
Mark Burik (06:53.642)
He is the most laid back, chill guy you could ever have a conversation with. And he goes through it like he, he let us use his facility for free. He said, come, all I'm trying to do is build beach volleyball in Orlando. Like it gave me a lot as a kid growing up. And I noticed when I went out to California, like it started dying a little bit in Orlando. And so.
Brandon Joyner (06:54.616)
is awesome.
Mark Burik (07:23.47)
He's trying to grow beach volleyball in Orlando and he's just like, I want people to use these courts, like bring them on. And so he stopped in for about an hour. I thought it'd be like 15 minutes. You don't want to take his time because he goes off season. It's family time for me. Like this, I travel, I want to be with my family. So he came in and gave a speech and he breaks out his gold medal for all our campers. Passes it around. Like he took it out of a, like a sunglasses bag.
I was like, that's what you carry. You like not even a plaque or a plastic case. Yeah. Yeah. And then he like passed it around and people felt it. So like everyone at our camp got to hold and see and feel a gold medal from Beijing. That was, that was funny on its own. Seeing him take it out of a sunglasses bag. And then in a very chill, fill way.
Brandon Joyner (07:54.735)
It's like an old, like an old Oakley sunglass case.
Mark Burik (08:22.156)
he starts giving us like a trivia lesson on the types of gold that are used in the Olympics. And he started talking about like jade gold and green gold and that it's plated, it's not made of gold. And so there are those. And then eventually like I led with some questions to kind of open it up. And an hour later, Phil's still there answering questions for our campers.
Brandon Joyner (08:51.02)
Gold? Did he go home?
Mark Burik (08:53.302)
Not about. No, then it got into like volleyball partnerships. Who do you play? Who do you think you play the best with? What do you think is a great partnership? And where do you think partnerships die? So he gave a bunch of gems, but he's so chill. He's so laid back. And me and the coaches at the Airbnb. Like we re we impersonated him for like an hour that night.
of just laughing because one of the campers said, Hey, what, what's one skill that really like saw an upgrade that was so important for you success. And for the first time he gets like a little bit of energy. Like his head goes, passing. And, he talks about when Jason Lockheed was his coach, he was competing against Jason Lockheed. Lockheed, Lockheed.
Olympian from New Zealand. And he's like, yeah, we did this one passing drill for hours, you know, like every practice every day. And then he kind of pops up, goes, you guys want to see it? And everyone like gets his like, yeah, let's do it. Let's see it. And we're like, okay, Phil's about to get physical. Like we're going to see Phil Dauser play. And he's like,
Brandon Joyner (09:57.495)
Zealandia.
Brandon Joyner (10:13.765)
I'm
Mark Burik (10:20.31)
Mark, do you want to do it with me? He goes, maybe you want to do it. I'll say, nah, do you like, you do it. I'll feed. and so I get pumped. I'm ready to get active. And he goes, okay, so, yeah, I would stand about here. Coach would stand at the net. So he's in a serve received position. I'm on his side at the net. And he goes, Mark, just give me like a chest pass to my right leg. And in the slothiest, like slowest, laziest movement, when I give him the chest pass.
He puts his arms in kind of a platform, doesn't act on it, doesn't like pass it, just lets it hit his arms. It rolls towards the middle of the court and he goes, that's it.
Brandon Joyner (11:04.782)
Dude, I love that.
Mark Burik (11:08.674)
with feedback. And then like he explains a little bit and he goes, okay, okay, but like now do it to my left side. And like, maybe he's going to get a little bit more active, a little bit more exciting. And he lets it hit his forearms again, it rolls a little air into yours. See that? That's my feedback. Didn't use the right angle. All the campers were like, what's your number one passing drill? Like,
Okay, this is the one that changed your game, made you an Olympian, made you dominate the world. And he lets a ball hit his arms and just roll straight to the ground. All right. This guy's mind, first of all, is hysterical. And then also from a coach's standpoint, look at the detail of what he's looking for and the direct feedback. But the funniest part was that everybody got so excited for him. He just wanted to see the drill.
And we're expecting something so fancy. And then he just lets a ball hit his platform and he goes, that's my angle. That's a good.
Brandon Joyner (12:08.078)
You
Brandon Joyner (12:14.766)
I've been trying to get that point across for months. I think that's actually my Instagram video today is if you're starting out, what's the biggest piece of advice? And it's like start simple movements. And I even say, start out by just letting the ball hit you and see where it goes. I absolutely love that. I can only imagine him just like one, every time I watch him play, I'm like.
my gosh, this is it. We get to watch the, and just for him to go out there and just like barely do anything and let the ball hit him. And then I can imagine how happy he was like when it hit his arm and it rolled and he was like, he crushed it. And and his body's probably like crushed it.
Mark Burik (13:02.35)
Oh man, we laughed at that for like hours that night. The coaches were playing this board game. We just cracking up at it. So it was awesome to have him, awesome to talk. He spoke a lot about partnerships and like what's a good one. He's like, yeah, I'm kind of laid back. He goes with the Sean thing, like me and Rosie were on the same page. But I think we were just both a little too laid back.
Brandon Joyner (13:11.645)
That's so awesome.
Mark Burik (13:31.266)
So we asked like what his favorite partnerships were and it like, it wasn't Nick, wasn't Todd. Like he really liked playing with Casey. He goes, yeah, Todd and Nick just ride me, just, he's talking. And then he goes, but you know, I guess if you look at it, they got the best out of me. And yeah, he goes, it's easy to ride somebody. And this is where I started.
Brandon Joyner (13:51.822)
In that same town.
Mark Burik (13:58.84)
Cause I looked at Nick as like kind of a model. looked at Casey Jennings as a model and Todd Rogers and I'm like, yeah, they're hard nose guys. So like I can be hard nose. He goes, it's easy to ride your partner when you're He goes, the second you stop winning, if you keep riding each other hard, that's going to break, quick. And so he's like, you can be tough on each other emotionally and get, get chippy with each other.
And when it comes to guys, and he said this specifically, when it comes to guys, hey, we went on the court, we're golden. He talked about like, Stephens and Karch and that they kind of hated each other. They both banged heads, but won. You know, they won, so no problem. And he said like, what I noticed sometimes with like the women's side or the female side is that if you're not on the same emotional page, it's no matter winning or losing, that's more important.
that relationship is gonna break. But guys, you can be tough on each other if you're winning. But if you keep riding somebody when you're not getting those Ws, that'll break.
Brandon Joyner (15:09.742)
Yeah, especially in this sport, just with what's the cost of finding someone that you're going to enjoy being on the court with, you're going to make the same amount of money. Yeah.
Mark Burik (15:23.086)
So it was so good. He's got six courts there. If you guys are ever in Orlando, hit him up. He's running classes. He's running juniors events. We will definitely go back there. We'll also be in Fort Myers. And I think through our camp, Phil might have just hired Alex. So Phil poaching another partner. So he took one of our guys. like, hey, I saw them. They're doing a great job.
Brandon Joyner (15:27.874)
Cool.
Brandon Joyner (15:47.438)
But for that one.
Mark Burik (15:51.516)
we just had a coach leave. Do you mind if I contact one of your coaches, to help out with our juniors program? So I think Alex guys are now working under Phil Dowhauser, coming from coming to a camp alone four years ago, and now maybe coaching for the Phil Dodds or Academy, which is
Brandon Joyner (15:57.838)
Thank you.
See ya.
Brandon Joyner (16:05.772)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (16:12.258)
That's awesome. And well deserved, Alex is a man. He'll, once, dude, I could see Alex and Phil getting along so well because they're so different, but they're both so patient when they talk. Like, I think that's gonna be awesome. I would love to be a fly on the wall in a room with them having a conversation. That's gonna be.
Mark Burik (16:25.645)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (16:35.218)
I know.
You wonder if everybody's rate of speech and all their kids are just going to be really slow talkers.
Brandon Joyner (16:42.286)
Gonna have a bunch of Brandon McLaughlin's out there. That's awesome. Cool man.
Mark Burik (16:47.342)
Yeah. so great camp, go to hang with Phil for a little bit and, and just also like witnessing the pipeline of camper to coach to getting more opportunities through something that we built a bunch of years back. It's, it's been a pleasure. So thank you guys to everybody. And thank you guys. We just today.
finally hit 100,000 subscribers on Instagram. It's been a target. It's been back or front of our minds, depending on what month it was. We know we're giving a bunch of free content and a lot of good tips along the way, but like tricking that algorithm to get subscribers, it's not what's most important to us. We want to make sure that we help people get better and that we can...
Brandon Joyner (17:20.686)
Do it.
Mark Burik (17:45.09)
show you what we can do online and in camps. But finally hitting this 100K mark was huge for us. If you're listening to this podcast right now and it's before February 13th, we're doing a giveaway. So check out our Instagram, look for the 100K giveaway. We're doing a very special giveaway. We're giving away a camp, we're giving away a Better Beach shirt and a Better Beach hat. So check it out. And if you haven't subscribed to this podcast or to the Instagram, please do so.
Brandon Joyner (18:12.942)
There you go. We did it.
Mark Burik (18:15.65)
We did it. And we're two months away from 100 on YouTube. I'll get to hang a plaque on that back wall.
Brandon Joyner (18:22.862)
There you go, that'll be nice. I'm gonna take a picture of it and hang it on my wall, a picture of the plaque. But it's gonna be huge, I'm gonna get blown up. It's gonna take up this whole wall, yeah.
Mark Burik (18:29.966)
my god.
Mark Burik (18:37.314)
Brandon is a fangirl.
Mark Burik (18:43.726)
Okay, so I wanted to give you guys a really fast run through of what we just went through with our online players. So if you haven't seen this link, it's at the bottom of a lot of our pages, but it's free tools. So better at beach.com forward slash free tools. Remember that because we've given away a lot of our tools and we want you guys to use it. Okay. Now what we did today with our group, because we are working our way
through mastering the volleyball mind. This was our last week of conquering our, our mental training as a group, as we lead them into the season. And this one specifically talked about building your offense and knowing when and where you want to hit. So you have the choice of listening to this podcast and doing it on sprint mode or
going to betterbeach.com forward slash free tools, finding the build and understand your beach volleyball offense and filling it out for yourself. This is a prerequisite for you if you're playing with somebody new or if you have never had these conversations or locked in your set and your exact tax. Sorry for the hiccups guys.
So I'm going to lead you through these questions. Again, it's going to be on sprint mode. But if you're listening, if you've got a pen and paper or you just want to, you know, you're in the car and you want to think like, okay, what is my best location? What is my best set? Here's what we got to talk about anytime we play with a partner and make sure that they know and they can lock in. First question is what side do you think you side out or attack best from? You got to know this. Don't, don't be equal.
And if you don't know, or if you think you're equal and that's what you subscribe to, take three matches, ideally five, maybe 10, stat them. And that means that you take your attempts. How many times did you swing? You sub, you take your kills. How many of those were kills? So you do kills minus errors and errors when you get blocked into the net or hit out of bounds. So kills minus errors.
Mark Burik (21:04.91)
and then you divide that number by total attempts. The lead players are hitting at 60, 50 to 60%. That means that every time you touch the first ball, you are getting an immediate point 50 to 60 % of the time. The lower the level, the lower that percentage goes. But if you don't know what side you side out best from, you have to, because you have to know your answer for if everything else is equal.
I should definitely attack from the right side or if I get in trouble, I've got to attack from the right side. I know my hitting percentage is better from the right side, slightly lower from the left side, but then you take a measurement of who you play with and say like, are they really bad on the other side? I played with Shane Donahue in Jersey and I was like, come on, challenge yourself. Like play from the right side, play from the right side. We were like losing in pool when we were both open champions.
And he's like, Mark, stop making me do this. Stop making me do this. I know where I'm good from. And I'm like, challenge yourself, challenge yourself. And then like, I think it was 16-16. And I was like, all right, let's not lose a full play game. Let's go back to our sides. And then he played automatically. So like this tremendous champion level player, he knows, dude, I'm better. I'm good from the left side. This is where I'm most efficient. Let me hit there. And you guys need to know that.
Brandon Joyner (22:09.88)
way.
Mark Burik (22:32.429)
Okay, so are you, do you think you side out better from the left or the right? No, for, you can build this for left and for right, but you have to go through both. Okay, so this assessment leads you through from the left side, what's your best and most reliable swing when you're in system? When you have a perfect pass, what single swing, if you had to, like somebody forced you to bet $10,000 on one swing,
Knowing nothing else, what do you think you would go for that statistically has given you the least amount of errors and the most amount of kills? What's your A swing, your best swing? If you don't know that, you need to. You need to know where you're good and where you're efficient on offense so that in pressure times, you can lean on that swing and say, I'm gonna go back to doing what I'm good at and I have
a good reliance on that. What are your A swings? Like your best? Because you're typically an A swing player.
Brandon Joyner (23:39.032)
From the left side? Yeah, if I was going with my right side, I would say my one option would be like a pretty hard cross. And then my option two would be like a cut shot.
Mark Burik (23:50.049)
Hmm.
Mark Burik (23:55.95)
I think you're hard cross it. Like I wouldn't even dial it down to your sharp cross. Hitting from zone five back to the T.
Brandon Joyner (24:00.652)
Yeah, yeah, that like, yeah, that like on the front half of the, of the core towards the sideline pretty quick. Yeah.
Mark Burik (24:11.724)
Yeah, that's something anytime we're playing together, like I have to protect that. I'm like, all right, either I'm going high line or I got to be extremely sharp across. So I've got to make some, some sort of guess.
Brandon Joyner (24:18.976)
Yeah. I haven't, I haven't saw people playing cross and I was like, nah, I still got them. Even if I don't, I'd rather just hit it. I'm okay living with it.
Mark Burik (24:25.204)
Yeah
Which is a case and why you have to answer this. Like Logan Weber, when he plays against Phil, it's like, dude, what's your best swing? What's the number one swing that gives you the most kills? High, hard, cross. Do that every time. And then when he starts moving away from that, that's when he starts getting tight matches. When he just goes high, hard, cross, it's going to work out. He doesn't make errors on that. He might get a couple of digs, even though two people are standing there, but that's a lot of power to deal with.
Brandon Joyner (24:41.624)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (24:47.662)
yeah
Mark Burik (24:59.534)
So you have to know what your number one swing is.
Brandon Joyner (25:01.102)
It's Just kind of adding to that like it's pretty funny if you guys ever go out to I think a lot of times people think their arsenal has to be huge it doesn't go out to the drill go out to the court and literally make a drill where Blockers have to block cross and defenders have to dig cross
And as an attacker, I guarantee you still score. Like, it's, don't have to worry about the other side too much, but yeah, like having a confident swing is way more important than being super strategic and like having a bad, having a bad swing.
Mark Burik (25:35.587)
Yes.
That was my, so the online group that I work with, that's their homework this week. They have to spend two sets of their play this week, only hitting two swings, period. That's it, you have this choice or this choice, nothing else, put it on film. Let's look and let's see if this made you more successful just subscribing to two swings. And then if you get into tournament time, all right, you know what to lean on. It's not a guess.
You know, we say that like NFL Super Bowl just happened. There are passing teams, there are running teams. They know who they are. They do it more. Same thing for volleyball players. Like know who you are, set yourself up in that position and execute what you're good at, regardless of who you're playing against. And then the second question is, know, what is your second most reliable swing? So do you have a plan B?
because that's where your shot chart should be super thick. Now the next question that you guys should write down and have to understand is, do you like a relationship set or a fixed point set? So in other words, do you wanna be a certain distance from the setter or do you want to be a certain distance from the antenna or hit from the same location on the net the entire time? A lot of coaches teach
Like, we're always gonna be within 10 feet or we're always gonna be getting 10 feet of space as a left side. That's a great base. That is a great system base. But then we had the question, Stephen Stacey asked, well, what if I have a low accuracy setter? Does that take things into account? The answer that I gave him was if you got a super low accuracy setter, make it as simple as possible. I think smaller sets.
Mark Burik (27:34.318)
for weaker setters are better, easier. And as they progress, then you can give them bigger farther away targets. But that was my base answer to him. But what do you think? Do you think a weak setter should still focus on a target no matter what, or should they get used to smaller touches?
Brandon Joyner (27:56.694)
I like smaller touches. The way I've been doing this with our classes here in Hermosa, and we have a pretty solid intermediate level of players. And the last two weekends that I've been running classes, I've done drills where whatever zone they pass in, they also have to hit from.
And so it's like if they pass into zone two, they should expect a set in zone two. If they pass to zone four, they should expect a set in zone four. That little fix alone, like in the past couple weekends with this group that I'm working with, has elevated everybody's game. like, one, it's made them realize that their pass should dictate where they're getting set up for their offense.
And then two, setters are able to control the ball a lot better. Putting the ball up and down is easier than pushing a ball across the court. And then also, I think it makes it easier for the attackers as well. Like if a ball is going straight up and straight down, think timing that ball up to make contact is easier than a ball that's going up, down, and sideways. So yeah, I think that that's a good call.
But for me, I was really lucky. I played my whole career with phenomenal setters and I ran a fixed point set. No matter where I was, I wanted to be three, four feet from the antenna. I wanted it dying inside of me. I was pretty particular of what kind of set I wanted. But I was also fortunate enough to play with people that could put the ball in the same spot no matter what pass I gave them.
Mark Burik (29:32.483)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (29:41.656)
So that was nice.
Mark Burik (29:45.166)
Okay. Yeah. I'm, I'm a little bit more relationshipy on the left. but definitely the fixed point on the right. Like I know my sweet spot.
Brandon Joyner (29:54.402)
Huh, yeah, I would say I'm a little bit more relation on the left as well. Now that you say that. Yeah, but on the right.
Mark Burik (30:03.086)
Okay, so that's a question that you guys have to answer. Like, are you relationship or are you fixed point? Are you gonna change that based on the capability of the guy you're playing with or the guy or girl you're playing with? And how do we operate around that? But before that, you need to know where you actually should be because if you do run a relationship set, so if you do do the drill, do do, if you do do the drill that Brandon just said,
Brandon Joyner (30:26.542)
I heard that too.
Mark Burik (30:31.34)
Which is a drill. We're not saying that this is the overall long-term answer, but if you have to hit, you know that you hit better from zone two and you want a relationship set that might change your passing target. So this is why it's the build your entire offense assessment. It's I want, I know I hit well from zone two. I know I liked a relationship set and that's really close to the setter. So that's where I should aim.
my passes. Okay. Generically, yeah, we should pass into like, probably zone three, most often keeping the ball relatively on your half. But if you're, if you know what type of offense that you're best at, then you can design your pass so that it ends up in an advantage location. If you like seeing a set fly across the court, and you'd like to cut it off. Cool. Like
do it if you're efficient like that. And then change your passing location, but let your setter know this is where I pass so that I can run this type of set. Without these answers, your setters are just shooting in the dark hoping they find your perfect set. And if you can't give them specific numbers, which we're about to get into, they're just guessing. And you're going to have arguments.
Left or right side, since we're only gonna do one side here, but at home, you should know these answers for both left and then separately from right. But how many feet from the setter, if you're a relationship, or how many feet from the antenna, if you're a fixed point, do you want to contact the ball on an in-system pass? Massively important.
Give them the logo on the net where they have to meet. Give them an exact target. You also need to know this number. How many feet from the net and how many feet above the antenna. If you have never locked in on those numbers and said them out loud to your teammate, this is priority number one. The next time you get out and play volleyball, give somebody the exact target that they should aim for.
Mark Burik (32:59.904)
so that they actually can aim for something.
Brandon Joyner (33:03.406)
And when we say tightness from the net, make sure that you're thinking about how you can complete swings over the net. I know a lot of people like to have tight sets, but the real reason that you like to have tight sets is because you see that you consistently get that ball over the net, but it's not by choice, it's by reaction at that point. like,
When you're talking about that, if you say a number closer than two feet in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, I'm not sure about that. Like, I think.
Mark Burik (33:39.822)
That's exactly what I said today. It was two feet or less. If you say two feet or less, I'm going to encourage you to space that out. Like you're going to get a lot of oversets automatically because you're asking for a tight set.
Brandon Joyner (33:47.885)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (33:51.308)
Right. Yeah, I like those numbers three to five, three to six, depending on your size. so.
Mark Burik (33:57.293)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (34:02.318)
Okay, and then again, these need to be separate answers from left and right, but what's your most reliable swing? Least errors, highest kill percentage when you are out of system. That means that setters diving or they're on the back line, the back half of the court. What swing should you go for when you're blind, you're in trouble. This is huge too, because this,
Having a different pass or a pass coming from behind you should change your swing selection. Some swings might not be available. As a generic piece of advice, I tell people ditch cut shots when the ball is coming from the back half of line. You need to be so precise, so quick. You're aiming in front of an offender where they're faster and it's a slower moving ball. like pass.
and set are going to be easier on them if you miss by just a little bit. So I prefer keeping the ball high and deep when I'm in trouble. And I have basically two swings. I'm either going high kind of hard, not full all out swing, but like a high snappy swing, deep middle. Or if I know that the blocker there, I'm just defaulting to high line.
Like that's a tough enough transition for the defense where they're not likely to come back super hard. and that's also, you know, Nick Lucena didn't have the highest hitting percentage in the AVP, but he always consistently put players into trouble. and then they had to come back and deal with Phil like in a transition situation. So what's your most reliable swing when you're out of system? And then when you're looking at all these.
Well, the assignment that our players have right now is they have to go to a match and they have to stat it. So film your match. Here's what I did before, like ball time existed or any of those tech things. I draw a square on a piece of paper. I draw the dot from where I hit and the dot to where it was intended to land. Sometimes you get blocked, sometimes you into net, sometimes you get stuck. And I drew a dotted line if it was a shot.
Mark Burik (36:24.054)
and I drew a hard line if it was a hard swing. And then at the end of that dot where it landed, I would draw either an X, a circle, or an E. So an X would be a kill, a circle would be they dug it, and E would be an error, like into the net and the block out of bounds. And then I get to see my own shot chart. I do this for my opponents as well. And then you say, OK, based on me giving the answer of this is my best swing.
Did you do that in your last three matches? Did you actually consistently go for the thing that you know you get the most kills on? Or is your shot chart just all over the place, where you're trying to make up a new solution on every game that might not match up with your strengths?
So, easy, pen and paper, draw a square, dotted lines for shots, circles for continuation, Xs for kills, Es for errors, and then see if your shot chart lines up with what you say is your best.
Brandon Joyner (37:30.77)
I think we even have some attack accuracy shot documents you can download on the free tools page as well.
Mark Burik (37:38.988)
Yes. Yeah. We got little maps and PDFs that you guys can download for that. So those are the big questions that you have to answer. And then like one of the bonus answers is when the setter is out of system or has to set from far away, what shape of set do you like? Do you like it coming across flat? Do you like a small arc that you can pick off or do you like a big arc so that you can ensure that you get feed to ball? People have different flavors, different tastes.
In general, again, I'll give you base statements, but until I see your game, we don't have answers until we have stats. We don't have true answers. But in general, I think a higher set when you're farther away, allowing the hitter to get their feet to ball a little bit better and make a wise decision is going to be better than a smaller shootier arc where they're already in trouble. Now you might panic them with a lower set.
Generic advice remember until we see your game know what type of player you are And then finally Special plays so this came from like a pain point and I shared it with our players, but I was playing with Avery Dross We had in the AVP it was for to go to fifth. I think we finished seventh Marine game three We had two days of practice with each other. We'd been running the same offense the entire time
And at some point at like 11, 11 or 12, 12 and the third, he calls for the first back set of the game when he had a first in system pass. we hadn't rehearsed it. I didn't know he ran a back set. He called for a back fast set. I jacked up the set. You know, it caught me by surprise. He didn't say before the play like, Hey, I'm probably going to go back here. It just surprised me. And at a crucial point and I jacked it up. So.
not good by me, also not strategy, not good strategy by doing something that was unrehearsed in a high pressure situation. Right? So what you should do as a player is when you're with your partner or your teammate in special or unique situations, and here's how you frame it. When I pass from X location, then I like to do
Mark Burik (40:02.49)
X. So my partner should X. Okay, like if I receive a short ball, some teams like to just wing that ball across the court, give it to the antenna and try to get an open net kill. Some people on short balls like to run a bang, bang, bang, short pass, short set, quick hit. I personally hate that. Even if I get a low dig on a short ball.
you need to get me to the same height, even though we're standing right next to each other, you need to get me the same height as all the other sets. That's my type of offense. So you need to cover those unique situations that you like to run in rehearsal, which means storing your warmup. Don't, when it gets down to the wire, run some random fancy play that you haven't practiced again and again and again. Stay simple. Execute the offense that you know best and you've done the most and you have...
the highest advantage there. The whole surprise at the end of the game to maybe get an off balance blocker is not worth the errors that you could produce on your side in comparison to maybe getting that kill that you've never even attempted with your teammate before.
Mark Burik (41:18.76)
and that's it. like, if you name those from both sides in system, do I run fixed point or relationship? How far from the net? How far from the antenna or the center? How high above the net? If I've never given those numbers to my teammate, you're missing, you're missing something unique situations. Okay. When this happens, like when I pass a short ball, Hey, we're running and gunning, or it is normal.
when I pass all of this, like there's nothing that changes in my offense. And then you as a player, knowing your A swing and your B swing, where do you score the most points and the least errors? If you've never started your own game, we already told you how, look back at your last three to five games and see if you're actually executing the things that you're best at or attempting the things that you're best at. And if your shot chart isn't at least like,
70 % aligned with what you say is your best, go out there, play a full match using only the two swings that you say are most advantageous, no matter what the defense does, and see if you still win.
Brandon Joyner (42:33.282)
Yeah, one of my favorite drills that I've started doing at camps, it's usually on the defensive day, but it brings up a lot of offensive conversations is I'll have a team of two on two, right? And I'll, I'll create it where they play a game to nine. And the whole goal, we don't really put a whole lot of emphasis on who wins or who loses, but the defense before the game starts, I give two shots or hits to each team.
So like if you were on one team, would say, hey, Mark, for this game, you can only hit hard cross or shoot high line. And as the game's going on, the defense, by the time the game's done, they have to be able to tell me, they could hit, they could only hit hard cross and high line. And.
That's a really cool defensive mindset of drill, but we also have a lot of conversations about the offensive side too, because during those drills, we also see a lot of errors come down. And I think those errors come down just because I've locked them in to just having two options. And so yeah, I think it's a, it's a cool drill to just try. it allows the conversations are really fun on the defensive side. And then on offense, people just look so much more comfortable.
because they're actually setting themselves up to do the two shots that are their favorite for that game. So I love what you said there, that's cool. And it's kind of funny because I think a lot of people, when they listen to this, their thought might be, I can actually choose what my offense looks like.
Mark Burik (44:17.1)
Ha ha!
Brandon Joyner (44:19.17)
Cause I think volleyball is a very reactionary sport, especially if you're lacking on control. And so it does, it does turn into a lot of times of like, I passed it here. got set here. So I hit here, but we can change that. Like we can decide, Hey, I'm going to pass here so that my setter can set this, allowing me to have this option available. yes. Yeah.
Mark Burik (44:45.742)
Yeah, you're on offense. You dictate. Like, you design your own offense. It's not like, oh, that's what I get from the pass. It's like, no, aim your pass, aim your set, and then execute your offense. NFL, basketball, every play, ball is designed.
Brandon Joyner (44:49.634)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (44:57.11)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (45:09.582)
The play is designed to have the ball in somebody's hands from a certain location so that they get a chance to score.
Brandon Joyner (45:17.866)
And Mark, without, we haven't talked about this, but what happens if you get up to the line and you see that that option's taken away? What does the quarterback do?
Mark Burik (45:26.734)
He's got a check down sequence.
Brandon Joyner (45:28.086)
Yeah, he calls an audible. He's got a check down sequence. He's able to make another decision because he sees that that first option was gone.
Mark Burik (45:34.53)
Yeah. A's not open. B, not A's not open. Crap, what do I do?
Brandon Joyner (45:43.077)
Not a is not open okay 60 feet
Mark Burik (45:47.086)
Unless you're the Patriots and the Seahawks' defense is just stifling you.
Brandon Joyner (45:50.446)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (45:55.246)
That's where instead of your setter setting you, they're just spiking the ball at you. All right.
Mark Burik (45:59.276)
Laughter
All right, guys, so hope that was helpful. Just as a recap, if you guys want to learn how to coach and start being a part of the family and be traveling for camps, we need and want thicker coaches, but know if you are the positive person, if you love giving out high fives and smiles for free, that is you. We'll teach you how to coach no matter where you're at.
Some people it might take a little four year journey of coming to some more camps, being a part of the online programs and learning the game in a deeper way. Some people you've already got the coaching chops. We just want some great people out there who are continuing to create awesome experiences. So please get in touch. You can DM us, you can email support at better at beach and we would love to grow the family.
Brandon Joyner (47:00.43)
sure. The more the merrier.
Mark Burik (47:03.904)
Mm-hmm. All right, dude. I've got a gymnastics class with Mackenzie. So, yeah. Today might be bars. Yeah. Today might be bars, so she might get to, like, hang and swing for stuff.
Brandon Joyner (47:08.462)
Let's go. I love it. did you say?
Eugh.
That's cool. What did she work on last week? Because last week was the first class, right?
Mark Burik (47:24.056)
Just little obstacle courses. had to walk on balance beams, do a little fun stretch routine and roll around and climb off of different paths. So it's kids, you know, it's under three years old. Yeah. It's just like, you know, even in our TOTS program, like the kiddos program, goes, does this look like volleyball? Maybe not.
Are we doing the base movements that are gonna make a kid more athletic and more capable? That's what we're chasing. Do you enjoy it so that you come back the next day? And is there some base level of, yeah, they're able to lunge, like stand up off of one leg? Great, this is a necessary movement in volleyball. And if you want some, like, if you want your kid to start playing volleyball way earlier and you're listening,
Brandon Joyner (48:10.179)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (48:21.528)
have a bag of 100 deflated balloons and just make sure there's always a balloon somewhere in your living room and just keep it up with them. It's the best.
Brandon Joyner (48:33.262)
How would she how would she as a listener? She'd do all right
Mark Burik (48:37.39)
She kept looking at the older girls swinging from the bars and trying to go there. So she's like extra hyped up.
Brandon Joyner (48:42.446)
So she's got her eye on the prize. She's ready to compete. She's talking about her competition already.
Mark Burik (48:49.022)
Yeah, yeah, she's like one the top four.
Learn your basics first,
Brandon Joyner (48:58.894)
Alright, well have fun. Give the fam a hug for me. And I will chat with you soon, buddy.
Mark Burik (49:03.552)
I love it.
Cool. Everybody else out there in podcast land, we'll see you on the sand.
