Mark Burik (00:01.186)
Hey everybody and welcome to better at beach. My name is Mark Burik And today we got a very special guest, my good buddy and better at beach camp coach and finished second in the nation last year in the AVP league has solidified himself at the top of the AVP for the past seven years. So we're going to chat with Logan Webber before we get to that.
We have some camp dates coming up. So it is probably going to get released, but we will be in Oklahoma City March 6th. We are sold out. Five full courts sold out in Seattle, Washington, March 13th, but we're going to be heading back there again soon. make sure you are on a camps list to go and get there. March 20th, we'll be in Long Island, New York. March 20th, I have one spot left.
for my AA plus men's camp. So if you're AA or higher, there are 10 spots total. We have one spot left at my volleyball Airbnb in St. Pete, Florida. And or if you guys ever want to take a vacation with a bunch of volleyball friends or come into town to Tampa, St. Pete, Sarasota, Siesta Key for a volleyball tournament, why not stay at my Airbnb, which has a volleyball court and a gigantic hot tub. March 27th, we'll be in New Orleans.
April 10th, will be in Virginia Beach. April 17th in Fort Myers, April 24th in Scottsdale, Arizona. May 15th in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. May 22nd in Lowell, Michigan. May 29th in Long Island, New York again in Long Beach, New York. That same weekend, May 29th, we'll be at Wave Beach in San Diego. June 19th, we're working with Volley Life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
And June 26th, that is our next fourth Avenue beach in Seattle, Washington date. This one sold out. We've had two other Seattle camps sell out. It just happens to be a big place for volleyball. And July 24th, we will be in Bend, Oregon. That's the seaside warmup tournament. So if you're to play seaside two weeks in advance of seaside, come and sharpen your tools with better at beach. Logan, what is going on?
Mark Burik (02:25.1)
with this India FIVB tournament.
Logan Webber (02:29.307)
Yeah, for people that want an insight into kind of the craziness of how the FIVB operates. So the first tournament of the year was a, or is, guess, still is, a challenge event, which is kind of the middle tier of the FIVB. So there's Futures, which is kind of the bottom challenger, and then you're Elite.
what used to be Elite 16 is now Elite 24. I think they just called them Elite. But the challenge meant to Tim Brewster and I were supposed to go and play. This was kind of the first one we had marked on our calendar. And to make a long story short, the last time they played a tournament or they had an FIVB in India, apparently a bunch of, I didn't go, this was gonna be my first time to India. And apparently a bunch of,
Mark Burik (03:24.867)
Mm.
Logan Webber (03:27.579)
Athletes that played I think I think it was last year, but I think they had in the fall So it was about a year and a half ago now but hey They didn't do a great job of telling us which kind of visa to get so Sometimes when we travel to these tournaments We're basically told to get tourist visas if they don't have a specific like competition visa because We're kind of there for business, but also not
truly a business trip. not getting paid by somebody in that country. So it's not like a work visa necessarily. But there were some people who did a tourist visa last time the FIVB was in India. And a bunch of them got stopped when they were trying to get in because they told the customs people that they were there to play a beach volleyball tournament and they were on a tourist visa and they were like, you can't do that.
And so there's actually one team, think it was Jordan Hoppy and Avery Drost. They got full on rejected last time. So they flew all the way to India, tried to get in to play the tournament and they were like, nope, can't do it. Nope, can't do it. Nope, can't do it. And they ended up just coming home without playing the tournament. But that was, that was last year or two years ago, whenever it was.
Mark Burik (04:48.866)
And they're not stopping this before you get on the plane. You take a 24 hour or whatever flight it is. And then, Nope, you can't come in. There's the ticket counter. Go home.
Logan Webber (05:01.257)
Yep. And, but there were, there were a handful of American players that got there and were asked why they were there and told them. And they, got stopped for, I think an hour or so, and eventually they got let in, even though they had the tourist visas. But what we think happened was a bunch of them, because they were on tourist visas when they really weren't supposed to be, they
got flags in the system in India and basically got banned from getting any sort of visa for, I think Tim was told for at least like two years maybe. And so that was a handful of American players which included Cody Caldwell was supposed to go with Jacob Labou. So yeah, yeah.
Mark Burik (05:53.07)
Cody's been there for like indoor pro as well.
Logan Webber (05:58.752)
Tim and I were supposed to go and then I think Savvy also got rejected. And so those three, they tried really hard. I Tim, I feel so bad for Tim because he's so on top of everything. And he had the visa filled out before we even got all the detail. He was just on it. And two weeks ago, they got denied the first time.
And then they were told after they called to go to the consulate, the Indian consulate, which is in San Francisco. So the, hey, if anybody follows it, savvy, Simo is a good follow on Instagram for a lot of the, the up-to-date on this, but they, they flew to San Francisco, I think a week and a half ago, like on a whim the next day, they were like, Hey, we're flying to San Francisco, fly to San Francisco. Hi, Brennan.
Mark Burik (06:33.864)
Yaw.
Brandon Joyner (06:52.483)
Bye.
Logan Webber (06:53.813)
They flew to San Francisco, did all the paperwork in person there. They were told that they were basically good to go. Three or four days later, after they got back to LA, they were told they got rejected again. And basically their entire trip to San Francisco is for nothing. And so we found out officially this past Friday when we were supposed to leave on Saturday morning that there was basically no hope for us to get in.
Not only was there no hope for us to get in, but about half of the teams that were signed up for the tournament had also gotten denied. so it's a normally challengers are 24 teams automatically in and then eight teams out of a 32 team qualifier. So you'd win, you have to win two, two matches in the qualifier in order to qualify. Um, and instead I think there's maybe 30 men's teams in the whole thing.
So there's zero qualifier for the men and the women and the main draws in full, which is just absolutely, it's crazy. But yeah, so, yep.
Mark Burik (08:01.696)
And so that's like three points for those people.
Brandon Joyner (08:07.053)
Do, how does the like, cause it's in India, right? Sorry, I'm talking in late. Do, like, does the federation have to tell the government of what's happening?
Logan Webber (08:12.668)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Logan Webber (08:23.285)
I know. I also don't know what, like what their, regulations are for the FIBB choosing to have an event somewhere. Because you would just think that there has to be some sort of communication about stuff like this. Like if we're not, if half of the people aren't able to get into the country, you probably can't have a tournament there. So it makes it a little tough.
Brandon Joyner (08:23.651)
It seems like...
Brandon Joyner (08:35.917)
Right.
Mark Burik (08:44.844)
Yeah
Brandon Joyner (08:45.855)
And was it, cause the signup date closes what, how far in advance?
Logan Webber (08:52.601)
three weeks out.
Actually, no, signup date is a month out. And then the main draw to qualifier gets broken down three weeks out.
Brandon Joyner (08:57.772)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (09:04.364)
Yeah, that's a bummer.
Mark Burik (09:05.078)
And so for the first tournament of the year, if you bought a flight, maybe refundable or credit, maybe not. then for the Cali guys who had to go to a consulate in San Francisco, that's a somewhere between four and $800 day to get flights and maybe a hotel, depending on how much you got to spend up there. And so now you might be down.
Brandon Joyner (09:15.107)
Mm-hmm.
Mark Burik (09:33.87)
starting a volleyball season like negative 2000 that is in beach volleyball that is hard to make up in the season.
Brandon Joyner (09:38.243)
Logan Webber (09:42.357)
Well, and the worst part was each visa application was $180. Each one. And they applied three different times because they were told to apply three different times.
Mark Burik (09:50.038)
each one.
Brandon Joyner (09:50.991)
Ugh.
Mark Burik (09:58.414)
2600 ish.
Logan Webber (10:00.565)
So like I said, I give Tim and Savvy and Cody so much credit for trying as hard as they did because yeah, they made every possible effort, but.
Brandon Joyner (10:04.251)
yeah.
Brandon Joyner (10:09.655)
Wait, did you not have to go?
Logan Webber (10:15.272)
No, because I got accepted.
Brandon Joyner (10:17.283)
That would have been so hard.
Logan Webber (10:18.739)
I applied once and got it. So they like me. They don't like Tim for some reason. Tim's too smart. Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (10:22.224)
Yeah, I wonder what I wonder what the reasoning was for them not getting accepted
Mark Burik (10:24.472)
They don't like dogs.
Mark Burik (10:33.134)
botched organization.
Brandon Joyner (10:33.283)
They also don't give you any reasoning, right? They just say you're not accepted or not.
Logan Webber (10:38.505)
No.
Yeah. So pretty crazy way to start the year to say the least. And so we were originally, this is also kind of a bummer of the story. We, there's also an elite 16 in Brazil next week. And originally we had signed up for India, Brazil, and then Mexico, Mexico was like our, that was our March. And once we knew we were in the India main draw,
Brandon Joyner (10:42.755)
bizarre.
Mark Burik (10:43.543)
out.
Logan Webber (11:10.801)
And we're hopefully going to play until Saturday or Sunday in India. were like, we, we're not going to try to do this travel from India to Brazil and, you know, leave India on Sunday night, play in Brazil on Wednesday and the qualifier. And so we dropped out of the Brazil, with like a medical notice, but that was before we knew that we had all these issues with the visa and you can't take that back. now we're can't play India, but also already dropped out of Brazil.
And hopefully the Mexicos are going to happen, but the FIVs like, yeah, they're kind of both up in the air still. So we maybe went from playing four tournaments in March to playing zero. Lots of, lots of time at home right now, which is honestly pretty like when I was, I like walked to these cliffs in Palos Verdes on Saturday morning and we were supposed to be on the flight. And I was like, you know what? Sitting here watching the sunrise.
Brandon Joyner (11:44.859)
yeah.
Brandon Joyner (11:52.119)
Dang, dude.
Logan Webber (12:10.183)
on the cliffs is not the worst thing when I could be on a 16 hour flight. yeah, yeah.
Brandon Joyner (12:15.213)
You're a Californian. You finally live here. You get to experience it.
Mark Burik (12:20.598)
And are there any provisions possible for the FIVB if like a visa is denied that you can add a new teammate for that? Like could you have called at the last minute and would the FIVB have allowed a sub based on visa?
Logan Webber (12:39.655)
Yeah, so my one option that I could have done was I could have gone with Jacob Laboo because Cody got denied and Tim got denied. So he was in the same boat that I was. And yeah, Cody and him were already signed up and he had already had his visa.
Mark Burik (12:55.043)
because he was already signed up.
Logan Webber (13:01.535)
So the tough part was I pretty much would have had to play with him because if I tried to, the FIVB would allow you, like I could have tried to play with Hagen and the FIVB would have been fine with that. just, you can't like move up. You couldn't have gone from qualifier. Basically you had to, wherever your points were, you would keep those same points going into the tournament or go down, but you can't go up.
Mark Burik (13:10.211)
Mm.
Mark Burik (13:25.804)
Okay. Do you know who they would have picked? Like the bottom ranked team or the top ranked team? Like would you have pulled the boo up or would he have pulled you down?
Logan Webber (13:36.937)
He would have pulled us down, but looking at it now, everybody's in the main draw anyways, so it wouldn't have really mattered.
Mark Burik (13:44.81)
And you can't really call people last minute because if a visa in India takes at least a week or to get.
Logan Webber (13:50.506)
Well, that's the thing. was like, well, could try to play with like, maybe I could see if Hagen would have gone, but this was two days before and he obviously was never planning on going. So he didn't have any sort of visa stuff already figured out. And honestly, like Jacob and I considered it. It was just.
Mark Burik (14:05.336)
Gosh.
Logan Webber (14:10.537)
going all that way with somebody that you've never practiced with before. I, it does kind of seem like one of those stories that we would have gone, we would have won the whole dang tournament and be like, how did this happen? Like, well, this crazy thing happened and we won the tournament. But, but I've, I've been trying to, be a lot more strategic in the amount of travel that I'm doing and the amount of tournaments and trying to place a lot higher emphasis on
Brandon Joyner (14:10.584)
Thank
Brandon Joyner (14:22.893)
put three seven quarters on the board.
Logan Webber (14:40.489)
the quality of tournaments and, you know, picking and choosing a few good tournaments to like go and really put all of my energy towards these tournaments instead of just the quantity of tournaments that I'm playing in a year. And there was the two situations that kind of popped up already at the start of the year where one was, we try to send it from India all the way to Brazil to play this tournament? And
Mark Burik (14:46.766)
Mm-hmm.
Logan Webber (15:06.961)
Last couple of years, me would have been like, yeah, of course we can make it there and we'll be there two hours before we play the match. It'd be great. But looking at this year, like, let's be a little more strategic with what we do. And I've honestly been enjoying getting a lot more settled here and being able to go to see the same friends every week and go to church every Sunday and see those same people. I guess you could say I've
Mark Burik (15:19.63)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (15:34.467)
Thank
Logan Webber (15:36.457)
become a little bit more domesticated recently. So trying to pick and choose my battles, yeah.
Mark Burik (15:39.457)
you
Brandon Joyner (15:39.587)
Congrats.
Mark Burik (15:44.366)
It is nice to fall back into that rhythm like outside of tournaments. I remember, I mean, even in high school, uh, where football season or baseball season ends and all of a sudden you're not going to get home at 8 PM. You're going to get home at 3 30 and you go, what does everybody who doesn't play a sport do with all of this time? Like it was.
Brandon Joyner (15:44.513)
Sound like home man.
Logan Webber (15:55.861)
Hmm.
Brandon Joyner (16:04.899)
Thank
Mark Burik (16:11.15)
Baffling, you know, I turned into like two hour workouts, but at some point you just go That who are the people that are saying that they don't have time, you know when they're not playing a sport and lifting and doing all this and I was just it's crazy But it's so nice like the end of season like the octobers I always look back at like my Google photos and it seems like for the last 15 years every October I was in some sort of random country or destination and just getting to
ease off the throttle adventure, or in your case right now, just like, let me see what real life is like and be in a home and hang out with friends and like, and be able to, you know, go out and eat or maybe have a drink on a, on a Thursday.
Logan Webber (16:59.945)
Yeah, all the people at my other job are really confused at why everybody's getting paid on time now. wow. Wow, Logan's getting his work done when he's supposed to. That's crazy. Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (17:04.291)
You
Mark Burik (17:05.229)
Thanks
Mark Burik (17:08.93)
Ha ha ha.
Brandon Joyner (17:12.586)
Hahaha
Mark Burik (17:14.382)
No internet on the plane again. Sorry guys. Hope you could pay rent. that is fun insight to world tour life. And then also come on FIVB and like international sport federation. Like how is that not solved? if you want to run that event there.
And then also heading in that direction with all the turmoil that's going on in that area, like not directly India, India is pretty far away, but still travel just seems a little bit icky. Right.
Logan Webber (17:59.796)
Yeah, there's a, there's at least one team. so Israel's top team, I've been chatting with them because they're supposed to be here in Hermosa for a couple of weeks coming up, but they were going to go India and then come here for a couple of days. And they, they actually got out of Israel, had a layover in Dubai and then they're stuck in Dubai now because they can't go from Dubai to India. Yeah.
Mark Burik (18:24.854)
And now they're stuck in another war. Yuck.
Logan Webber (18:30.805)
So, yep.
Mark Burik (18:31.852)
Yeah, a lot of people ended up getting locked in in the Qatar, Dubai and in Qatar in those airports. They're just like held there for a little bit. So, a year. Well, aside from that, quick things on.
Brandon Joyner (18:45.539)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (18:55.328)
Since we're, since most people are just gearing their season up and you had to have a little gear up starting pretty early prepping for this tournament. how was this off season different for you or was it different since you've got that early tournament? did you go more rep based in your practice kind of like the typical winter session reps where it's like, we're just going to pass set, get touches.
or did you go kind of full throttle with your training with, USA volleyball.
Logan Webber (19:29.865)
Tim and I had a couple of weeks before, I guess, like starting probably the first week of January where we didn't know yet that we were going to be part of the like a two USA volleyball group. And so we had about two weeks where we were just passing and setting, like zero jumping, zero competition. had, we had about two weeks of that in early January. And then the first probably.
Mark Burik (19:42.274)
Mm-hmm.
Logan Webber (19:59.35)
two weeks of the A2 stuff were also pretty ground based and not really very competitive, just kind of getting like Scott and Chris's system into our heads and like what they're looking for and getting on the same page with that. And it's an interesting dynamic because you have four teams that all do some things well and do other things poorly. And it's
it's interesting to try to fit like all eight of those players into a very similar system. And so it's been interesting that having all of the resources from USA Volleyball has been really great. This is the first time that Tim's had the full extent of that. And he's been absolutely awesome at scheduling.
Mark Burik (20:36.195)
Mmm.
Logan Webber (20:54.107)
all of the things that you can possibly do through USA volleyball. And so it's, cool to like get kind of the full extent of that, whether that's, you know, like sports, psychology meetings and, know, watching film in the afternoons with Scott and Chris and stuff like that. so it's been cool to kind of like jump in that with him, cause he's never had that I've had it from time to time, but he's never really had like that full experience. And it really does feel like you have a whole.
team of people around you, which is it's strange to get used to sometimes as like a beach volleyball player because you're just so used to not having that support system that you almost have trained yourself to be more self-sufficient than we need to be right now. So just trying to make the the best use of all that stuff has been just an interesting process this year I would say.
Mark Burik (21:34.094)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Joyner (21:40.642)
Mm.
Mark Burik (21:51.598)
Can you talk a little bit about the differences, things you get, things that happen for A2 and who's in it, A1 who's in it, and then are there any levels below that for anyone listening?
Logan Webber (22:07.573)
So I'll just speak to the men's side because the men's side is a little bit different this year than the women's side is. So the men's side, you have the A2 team, is Tim and I, Cody and Jacob LeBou, Evan, Corey and Derek Bradford, and Charlie Saragusa and kind of whoever Charlie's playing with. So occasionally that's been Alex.
Uncle Berg's been in some of those practices because they're playing some futures events together. So it'll probably be Charlie and Alex. And then, yeah. And then Thomas Hurst and Gage Basie. They just joined in the last week or two because I think Gage might have moved out here. I assume he moved out here if he's joining this, which is pretty cool.
Mark Burik (22:40.96)
You guys can tend to buy practice together.
Mark Burik (22:55.342)
Okay.
Brandon Joyner (23:02.687)
think he's here until the qualifiers.
Logan Webber (23:07.861)
Okay, yeah. Yeah. And then A1 is Miles and Chase, Cayman James, James kind of been grabbing different people because Cayman's still recovering from I think a hip thing. And then, oh, who am I missing in that? Wyatt and Trevor. And then yeah, Andy, Andy has been playing with Quinn.
Brandon Joyner (23:08.865)
And Thomas lives in Irvine.
Brandon Joyner (23:29.495)
and the end.
Logan Webber (23:38.554)
Zilch, is that how you say his last name? Zilch, something like that. Who has looked absolutely spectacular, by the way. I had never really seen him play, but he is, I mean, he kind of fell into the off season of a lifetime, just getting to be partners with Andy for all of the A1 practices, but he looks really good. So think he's one that like, think people might be a little surprised by, or that they don't really know what is, you know, they don't know his name right now, but.
Brandon Joyner (23:40.003)
Yeah, I think so.
Brandon Joyner (23:44.897)
I like it. like it a lot.
Brandon Joyner (24:05.283)
Mm-hmm.
Logan Webber (24:05.821)
I could, I don't know who he's going to play the league qualifiers with, even, he might not even be able to get into the league qualifiers. don't know if he has, probably doesn't have a ton of points, but some of those like contender events, if he picks up a good partner, like he could, he could make semis, finals of some of those events. He's real good.
Mark Burik (24:23.85)
Hmm on the watch list
Brandon Joyner (24:26.605)
Yeah.
Logan Webber (24:26.837)
Yeah, yeah. And so that's that's kind of the A1 team, the A1 team. They're hiring a new head coach for that. And so it's kind of a lot of that stuff is still kind of in limbo.
Brandon Joyner (24:44.451)
Well, I think they announced they announced Ferbringer. And he's. Yeah.
Mark Burik (24:44.982)
I thought it was Herbie.
Logan Webber (24:47.945)
They did. I've been off of all the social medias. So probably not the best, best person.
Mark Burik (24:49.142)
Yeah, Matt Furbringer a couple of weeks ago.
Brandon Joyner (24:53.473)
Yeah, and he I think he has to finish out his season because he coaches one of the pro teams in I think Wisconsin or something like that, Minnesota. And then after that he'll I think the plan is for him to come out to the beach.
Logan Webber (25:03.445)
Mm. Okay.
Mark Burik (25:11.768)
So that's, that's weird. So it sounds like there are some guys there that all USA volleyball fans would be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. of course they're a one. And then some guys were getting in these practices at the a one, like the top level that EO, they're not one of our top four teams or even our top eight players. So what, are the rules there?
Logan Webber (25:39.946)
Well, a one is a one is technically done by your like ELO USA volleyball ranking. But since like technically the team would be Andy and Taylor, but since Taylor isn't down here, Andy just kind of picks up whoever he can practice with, which has been Quinn. yeah. And so that's, that's kind of in the situation there. Like Sean cook came and practiced with Trevor.
Mark Burik (26:00.974)
What a benefit.
Logan Webber (26:09.877)
a couple of times because Wyatt was out of town or wasn't practicing. So kind of like you have like your set teams, but then also if one of those teams, one of those players can't be there, it's, I guess I'm not really sure what they, what the stipulations are, but they can basically, you know, if you need to sub somebody in for your partner, like you can do that. And then the A2 is technically like the next,
three or four teams based on that ELO ranking and then one or two wild card teams basically, which is like the Charlie and then the Gageon.
Mark Burik (26:46.232)
What's ELO?
Logan Webber (26:48.125)
ELO is a new system. It's a lot like chess rankings. you have the chess app on your phone and you see that little number next to your name. Yeah, it's basically...
Mark Burik (26:56.75)
Yeah, I'm number 17.
Brandon Joyner (26:58.243)
You
Logan Webber (27:02.747)
It's basically like a, a ranking system that takes with USA volleyball. takes all of the, all of the challenge and elite level events going back like 10 or 15 years, I think. And, and it basically says like, you beat this team. So you go up. It's kind of like a strength of who you beat and who you lost to. So if I beat, yep, yep. So if I beat like.
Mark Burik (27:28.696)
Okay, like, power rating.
Logan Webber (27:32.466)
Anders and Christian, I might go up 50 points, but if I beat, if I go to India and beat some team in India that's never played a tournament before, I'll only go up, you know, two points or something like that. And so it's, it's basically a new way. They started it last year, but it's a new way that USA volleyball is used to internally rank their teams. it doesn't really, there's no play. doesn't have any sort of effect on like entry points or anything like that with the FIBB.
It's just strictly an internal USA volleyball thing. But that is now how they determined like the monthly stipends and they won an A2.
Brandon Joyner (28:12.173)
So do you have the chance, let's say you and Tim have a couple really good wins, would that put you into the A1? are they gonna be alternating those teams weekly, monthly?
Mark Burik (28:12.599)
Okay.
Logan Webber (28:27.731)
Yeah, so there's
I think there's two or three evaluation dates throughout the year. And so I think the first one went from whenever we started, so like mid January until maybe the middle of April and then similar in maybe July or something like that. So yeah, there's two or three kind of evaluation dates that could potentially move people between A1 and A2.
Mark Burik (28:57.346)
And then what do you, what do you get? like, what are the monthly stipends? Are they allowed to be released? And then what other benefits come with getting into this program? Cause again, it seems like there are other guys that are more qualified to be in there, but they just elect not to, or they're not chosen.
Logan Webber (29:21.043)
Well, there's, there's not part of it is the, the way that this system works is it's all international results based. And so a lot of the guys that people might be thinking of and be like, why are they not in this? Part of it is maybe, you know, if it's like a Sean cook or something like that, it's like, well, he can't play for the U S so he's totally outside of all the USA volleyball stuff. or like a, an Avery who.
Mark Burik (29:30.606)
Okay.
Mark Burik (29:46.478)
Hmm.
Logan Webber (29:50.624)
You know, has at times played a few international events, but isn't really, you know, he hasn't really, that's not been his focus at all. obviously Phil is done playing international. he's, totally outside of this as well. Miles Partain is taking like six months off. I think right now we're playing, he's basically not playing any international stuff. I'm just kind of taking like a reset right now. so.
Mark Burik (29:58.072)
Mm-hmm.
Logan Webber (30:19.497)
He would be obviously an A1 player based on his ELO ranking, but isn't playing right now.
Brandon Joyner (30:26.339)
So pretty much if Miles, when Miles decides to come back and he's playing with somebody, there's a good chance that he will be one of those A1 teams, which means one of those teams would get pushed down to A2. Does that also remove somebody from A2?
Logan Webber (30:48.073)
Possibly. I'm not sure how the fluidity of that is going to work necessarily. yeah, and then with that, we get a bunch of the internal support people through USA Volleyball. So we get the strength and conditioning, full-time person, the sports psychologist, the nutritionist, the athletic trainer at USA Volleyball.
Mark Burik (30:49.475)
Mm.
Brandon Joyner (30:51.703)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (31:18.111)
and it's stonestition, right?
Logan Webber (31:18.239)
All that stuff and kind of the, yep, yep. The kind of like a video IT guy who also does a bunch of the stat breakdown and scouting and stuff like that. Brian. Yep.
Brandon Joyner (31:22.391)
like somebody very talented.
Brandon Joyner (31:27.895)
What's his name again? Is it Scott? Ryan. Yeah, I thought, I thought that was awesome. The fat like, cause they're, they're recording a lot of y'all's practices and then statting your practices, which that's, I think that's a great thing. Hopefully everybody's utilizing that.
Logan Webber (31:35.125)
Yeah.
Logan Webber (31:46.356)
Yeah, that's kind of part of it is if you're, basically if you're in this system and you say yes to it, you need to utilize all the resources that are there for you, which has been, for some people would maybe be a little bit of a reason to not do it, because some people would just prefer to use their own trainer and to not be,
fully bought into all of the like boxes that you have to check through USA volleyball. So that's a potential reason, I guess, for somebody not to want to do it. But yeah, kind of outside of the players that we talked to, I would say for the most part, it is generally the top, you know, those are basically your top six teams in the country. And then plus a couple of other, you know, kind of wild card teams.
Mark Burik (32:18.222)
Hmm.
Mark Burik (32:40.558)
Hmm. Very interesting. So that's a lot of support though. Um, cause you got on court coaches. Um, and who are the current on court coaches for a one aside from our Brandon joiner.
Brandon Joyner (32:44.759)
Yeah.
Logan Webber (32:45.258)
Mm-hmm.
Logan Webber (32:56.449)
they've, I feel like they've kind of been rotating through a couple of people. So like Casey Patterson has been out there a lot. April Ross right now is kind of the head person in charge of it. and then Casey Patterson has been out there a lot. Stafford Slick has been there a couple of times this week, which is awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody's kind of coming out to coach these things right now. Rosie was out there a couple of times.
Mark Burik (33:11.736)
No worries, back in action.
Brandon Joyner (33:17.891)
Kyle's pretty consistent.
Logan Webber (33:20.371)
Yes, Kyle is basically like the head assistant and then April is the head. then yeah, they kind of, there's usually what one coach per team about there for the A1. Yeah. And then for us it's Scott Davenport and then Chris Blood and Jen Snyder are kind of the three for us.
Brandon Joyner (33:23.683)
Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (33:33.411)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (33:34.862)
Great.
Mark Burik (33:45.23)
And are those, for those coaches, is that a full-time salary role for USA Volleyball? Do you know anything about that? Like what they're making, what their arrangement is?
Logan Webber (33:58.376)
I know, I know April's spot is like a salary position. Scott.
I think Scott and Chris, maybe Scott, Chris and Jen all are somewhat salaried. I'm not sure for everybody else.
Mark Burik (34:15.99)
And does USA pay for those coaches to go to the tournaments for the players that they're working with?
Logan Webber (34:25.585)
That I also am not sure what direction they're going to go with that.
Brandon Joyner (34:28.331)
Yeah, I think it sounds like it's somewhat up in the air. Cause I know for Brazil, I heard them mention this morning that like, I know April's going and Ed will be there, but I don't think any of the other people are, Kyle, I think Kyle can, he can help, but his main gig there is still like announcing and like,
being that guy, but apparently they're pretty friendly with him on, no pun intended. They're friendly with him of when he is available to walk away and coach, they let him. So.
Mark Burik (35:02.765)
Ha!
Mark Burik (35:10.99)
Yeah, cause that would be something too. Like, yeah, I'm signing up to work with these coaches. but then do I bring another coach that I haven't worked with all week to then come and like warm me up and do some stat keeping, give me some reminders. mean, I know everybody can do zoom meetings with their stat coaches at home and you guys have access to a database, where you can pull up the people you're playing against, but it is always nice to have somebody.
Logan Webber (35:12.853)
Yeah, I-
Brandon Joyner (35:35.011)
Thanks.
Mark Burik (35:40.874)
out there on the warmup courts, to be able to run you through stuff pregame and post game. then if that's not provided within that system, then you've got to call this third party guy and say, Hey, you want to come be our coach?
Logan Webber (35:57.94)
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if I would say for us, would probably be Chris would be the main person who would travel. think Scott maybe traveled to a few last year. But especially if there's a lot of a two teams going to somewhere that's not super far away. So like possibly Mexico in a couple of weeks, I wouldn't be surprised if they sent one or two either Chris or Scott and Chris.
But yeah, don't really know. There's no like dedicated. This person is definitely going to this tournament yet that I know.
Mark Burik (36:35.03)
And all the players have to sign up for all different tournaments because everybody's got different ratings and different life plans. So at some point there might be a challenger and elite and a futures all like in the same weekend, potentially. You know, so then where do you, where do you send who?
Brandon Joyner (36:42.445)
Thank
Logan Webber (36:54.517)
Luckily we have Ed. Ed just goes to everything. If anybody listening doesn't know who Ed is, Ed Keller is like the biggest, he like was a volleyball super fan who is now transformed into a coach basically. And, and the guy travels to every single challenge or at least like he is in India right now, which is wild.
Mark Burik (36:54.53)
lot of that.
Brandon Joyner (36:56.867)
I
Mark Burik (37:13.826)
Mm-hmm.
Logan Webber (37:24.789)
and will just be most servant-hearted person ever at these tournaments and will just be out there in 105 degrees. He'll write down a schedule of when everybody is going to start their warmups, when every American team will start their warmups, and he will be on the warmup court just serving balls in like 105 degree heat. He doesn't get paid by anybody. He just absolutely loves it. It's amazing.
Brandon Joyner (37:49.153)
Dude, he's the man. The last couple of practices that I've been at, his energy is so contagious and he wants to be there so bad and he's just so happy to be there that every person there feeds off of it. They're like, wow, Ed wants to be here that much, I'm gonna be here that much too. It's extremely obvious he's a great dude.
Logan Webber (38:05.961)
Mm-hmm.
Logan Webber (38:14.813)
Yeah, having having him and Casey Patterson around at the same practices is pretty awesome. Like I'm not even like y'all's practices are completely separate from what we're doing, but we practice on courts next to each other basically. And just hearing Casey, like the same stuff that I heard when I was growing up watching him play on the court and it's like the same energy, the same like random whistles and. Yeah, he'll be standing on the sidelines and do it. And I was like, I know what's happening over there.
Brandon Joyner (38:18.979)
It's a lot of energy.
you
Brandon Joyner (38:34.787)
it
Brandon Joyner (38:38.181)
Thank
Brandon Joyner (38:42.913)
He's like on a box, he's like on a box like popping these cut shots and he's like, yeah. That's awesome.
Mark Burik (38:43.074)
We're good.
Logan Webber (38:44.361)
fold when they should not have pulled.
Logan Webber (38:51.421)
Hehehehehe
Mark Burik (38:55.157)
Don't do that. Cool. Nice. Um, I just want to pull it back, um, to a little bit of the training thing, just to wrap this up. So when you said for off season preseason, we're just passing and setting and getting ball control reps every day. Is that a, is that like a two hour, four days a week?
We're doing two hours of passing and setting reps, or is it more like, Hey, we're going to get out there quick hour, quick 90 minutes, like warmup ball control. And then we head out and we go to the gym. Like, what do you mean when you say all we're doing is passing and setting.
Logan Webber (39:36.794)
We, we did probably three to four days a week, about 90 minute practices. And what we would usually do is build basically start from you've been to our camps, right? Like basically the stuff that we do in the first day, you know, the first session on Friday morning where it's just like partner toss stuff. And then we'll get into the same exact thing, just kind of like an extended triangle over the net.
it helped that we had Kyle there for a bunch of them because we had somebody to enter the ball to us. and you know, go through some rapid fire, you know, Kyle and I serving Tim from two different corners, just kind of rapid fire and then add a little bit of a set. and each, basically each day we would focus on one kind of set because Tim and I have been trying to implement a little bit more like jump set spread offense type stuff. And so.
Mark Burik (40:10.157)
Mm.
Logan Webber (40:35.081)
The first couple of days it was like, what is your like normal up and down ball? And we're just going to set normal up and down balls when we're doing anything. and so from, kind of evolved, then the practice kind of evolves into, know, Kyle's going to hit eight top spin serves just at me. We'll pass that up and down standing shot back to Kyle. and then same things, you know, through with float serves and, just trying to like dial in,
know, sets from different spots and in what situations do we want to like push a pass wide and what situations do we not want to push a pass wide? and then typically, Tim's kind of the master at like one-on-one mini games. And so most practices at the end of it, we would end with some sort of one-on-one mini game or like a series of one-on-one mini games. And so we would go through and we'd basically be.
We're like, okay, we're going to play best two out of three with these mini games. So the first one is, you know, standing like skinny court. So you draw a line down the middle of the court, length wise, and then you can go on one, two or three, no jumping. You know, we'll play a set to 11 and then you get to pick what the second mini game is. And then if we split, we'll rock, scissors and we'll play like a third set of whoever wins that mini game. So.
We would end with a lot of that, you know, just kind of like small ball control type stuff, but also it gets you out of the kind of monotony of just like, we're going to triangle pass for, you know, 90 straight minutes. So it allows you to be like a little bit more creative and also a little bit competitive, but still within the same framework of what we're trying to accomplish. That was...
Mark Burik (42:14.172)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (42:23.404)
And you get a little micro agility speed, speed work out of it.
Logan Webber (42:26.525)
Yeah, you get your mind engaged a little bit. That was one of the things, just watching miles and Andy threw out a lot of their league matches and stuff that I noticed. They're they're like practice before the league stuff was just a bunch of mini games basically. and I, I honestly think that's how both of them became as good as players just in like these weird little touches and, being able to have, you know,
vision in weird scenarios and hit standing shots when they need to hit standing shots. They would just play like skinny court or short court all the time. And anything like that is going to get you good in those kind of weird in-between moments. And also it's just more fun than doing it.
Mark Burik (43:16.014)
but I can't find four partners to play, so I can't train, I can't get better. And there are all the world-torn AVP guys playing one-on-one, half court. Like, here you go, guys.
Logan Webber (43:31.072)
And there's so many different things you like. It's crazy when you do it a lot, you can evolve these mini games into so many different things. Like you can do skinny court, but you do it cross court. And so then it's like cut shots and jumbos instead of, you know, short line, deep line. And, there's just, there's all kinds of stuff you can add to it, but Tim's, Tim's are not always really good at, I guess his specialty is more like two on two, no jump variations. So, you know, he was, he's really good at the, like, you only get four total arms.
Mark Burik (43:46.125)
you
Logan Webber (44:00.4)
on one side or you he'll throw a tennis ball in there and somehow you could throw the tennis ball over as the other ball is coming back and I think Tim just knows he's smarter than everybody so the more he can use his brain more he can use his brain with mini games the better chance he has of winning.
Brandon Joyner (44:10.878)
you
Mark Burik (44:11.202)
Hahaha
Brandon Joyner (44:15.969)
Yeah. I've never felt dumber than when I'm out of practice at Tim's in charge of the warmup.
Mark Burik (44:16.11)
Yeah.
Mark Burik (44:22.242)
You
Logan Webber (44:23.165)
Yeah, it'd like you got to pass and then like, yeah, name some historical fact and then set the ball or it's yeah.
Mark Burik (44:30.254)
Pass pick two odd numbers your partner has to answer the multiplication question before you.
Brandon Joyner (44:36.013)
Laughter
Logan Webber (44:37.215)
Yup.
Brandon Joyner (44:39.533)
Yeah. That's funny.
Mark Burik (44:41.848)
Cool. All right, well, thanks for joining us and sharing a little insight into your training and into world tour life. Do you know when or if you're gonna be at a Better at Beach Camp anytime soon?
Logan Webber (44:57.845)
I do not know. But whoever goes, it'll be great.
Mark Burik (44:59.598)
Alright.
Brandon Joyner (45:01.581)
Well, do you want to go to Seattle this weekend?
Mark Burik (45:02.478)
Yeah.
Logan Webber (45:06.389)
How's that good? You need me to go to Seattle this weekend?
Mark Burik (45:08.93)
I think we just filled it. Yeah.
Brandon Joyner (45:11.795)
We should go talk to the visa people. It was actually us. We just forgot to reach back out to hire you for camp. Like, hey, I've heard some sketchy stuff about this Tim Brewster kid.
Mark Burik (45:15.34)
Yeah, I'm good.
Logan Webber (45:15.423)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Logan Webber (45:26.025)
This Tim Brewster guy.
Mark Burik (45:26.542)
Cool. All right, buddy. Hope everything's good. Good hanging out and chatting with you guys, even though he never ever ever posts on Instagram, you could always follow him, Logan Michael Weber on Instagram.
Logan Webber (45:30.723)
man.
Logan Webber (45:39.679)
Hehehe.
Brandon Joyner (45:42.531)
And he's got a real boy haircut now.
Logan Webber (45:46.269)
I do. Even the back. Yeah.
Mark Burik (45:46.966)
I mean, looks good. Yeah. You're looking pretty, pretty bamf out there.
Brandon Joyner (45:47.043)
He's no mullet anymore, he's a real boy.
Logan Webber (45:52.917)
They'll grow back.
Brandon Joyner (45:55.478)
you
That's good.
Logan Webber (45:58.837)
Took the hair in a new direction, you
Brandon Joyner (46:01.795)
Sometimes we need that. We've all, everybody on this podcast has been there. And I hate to say it, Logan, the next time you grow it out, it's not going to look as good as it did in the past. But hey, I'm rooting for you if you're, if you're taking on that.
Mark Burik (46:02.232)
Look,
Logan Webber (46:06.761)
Yeah.
Logan Webber (46:15.517)
Yeah, yeah, that's probably true.
Logan Webber (46:20.88)
Yeah
Mark Burik (46:22.126)
Cool. All right, everybody, we will see you on the sound.
