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Hey everybody and welcome to better at beach my name is Mark burck and we have one of our favorite players and coaches here with us on the podcast live streaming and recorded DJ klasnic now he claims that he’s not the oldest ever AVP Rookie of the Year there is some debate

We need to actually go back into the books and check out if Ricardo Santos was indeed the oldest rookie of the year but he is the 2023 Rookie of the Year and uh we’re excited to have him he’s a volleyball junkie I spent a lot of time with him

He’s a good buddy and we just want to welcome him to the show so DJ what’s up brother what’s up Mark thanks for having me and uh thanks for nice introduction uh you just made me feel old you are man it’s becoming a young man’s game but

You got you got the young energy so your desire to still be out hour after hour doing you know threepers evening rep sessions uh it’s inspiring reminds me when I was chasing it and going after it and it’s important I don’t think I don’t think people really really understand

What it could and should take to get to the top of the sport yeah I um I feel that when you say it’s a young people sport um I think the people who are good now which is Swedish guys and nerian when they show up it’s

When they show up they they are young but the thing is like they put in so many hours really early and I was not like the reason why I have to put in the work now is I had no qualified coaches or Pro Beach players in Serbia to learn

From so uh and another thing is we didn’t have IND facilities so I only play Beach during summer so my time is limited so in in my let’s say like uh 10 when I was 10 till 20 years old I didn’t really get the max that I could from the

From the practices so I feel I’m still learning and I feel we’re always going to keep learning but I feel there’s plenty of things I can’t learn and improve right now where when I watch them I see like oh they’re already doing it you know like there’s things that I’m

Trying to fix that they’re already doing even though they’re younger because they were taught the right way and spend hours and hours like Swedish guys started when they were kids when I start playing indoor you know so maybe instead of playing indoor if I was those first

10 years playing Beach maybe I would be on a higher level right now or at least higher like a technical strategic playing level let’s play a game uh would you rather okay so would you rather have the unlimited access to the coach of your choice right now having the same

Life that you’ve lived or would you rather have had three years with that coach when you were 15 to 18 that is a good question I think I would rather have have someone when I was 15 I did go through a lot and I feel

I learned a lot on my way but the reason why um I like helping people uh you know on the beach my girlfriend coaching her and you know people around and you know the reason why I like posting tutorials is because I had to learn it a really

Like hard way like it took for so long that I wanted to make it shorter for other people and now I’m 28 29 and for example my Federation consider me old and you know don’t really don’t really want to help out uh in my career internationally because if if they would

Help out because they don’t help anyone right now it would be someone who is younger um and you know I just wish that if I could at least be on the level where I am right now like eight eight years ago that would be nice it just

Took a really long time gaing old informations learning from Partners like yourself and Ricardo and P and whoever I play with uh I was really learning a lot and you know like I would not change anything right now but if I could ever get an extra coach at the at the young

Age I think it would help a lot yeah I think you know and then like you talk about compound interest you know you’re able to see and accumulate way more knowledge wealth when you have a great start so like you know somebody who starts with a

Million dollars is going to be so much richer in 10 years than somebody who starts with 500,000 or 100,000 or a thousand bucks so if you get those if you if you are the athlete who actually absorbs what coaches are giving you at a young age you know and that

Coach is getting you to a high level early then I think you can see a lot of different paths way easier than if you get that late because you might get stuck in your ways hopefully you don’t hopefully you go in with an open mind

But if you sit into the same process for I don’t know 10 years it’s not impossible but I think it’s it’s tougher to make fast adjustments yeah I completely I completely agree I I also think like especially in us not having a cach you end up playing a lot which is not

Necessarily bad it’s you still get the Reps and you get better in playing but just learning something new or even what’s even harder in my opinion is correcting your Technique modifying maybe changing your arm swing or the approach or the way you serve that takes

Time and it takes reps and if you don’t have a coach who’s gonna see that from the side and if you don’t have set practice where you can practice that instead of everybody wants to just play all the time now you’re really slowly changing those things where instead of

Having a coach let’s say and you you jump on that for like a month or two and boom now offseason you used offseason to change that you’re already like one step ahead so I feel not having a coach is also a tough situation uh myself I coach

Myself a lot which helps but a lot of people are not like committed enough I feel to record yourself all the time watch yourself you know try to figure out then compare yourself to someone else and stuff like that but I think because of the life that I lived and the

Career that I had where it was mostly myself alone um with my partner or Changing Partners or me alone in US Changing Partners I had to learn how to coach myself otherwise I would just be stuck where where I was um but I feel it’s a really good skill to have is um

It’s not even a skill I feel it’s good to push yourself to try to coach yourself you know and just you know I I talked to my roommate a lot Tyler um like do you do you do everything you can in order to be the best player you can

Like did you watch your practice from today did you try to watch someone who you know plays is similar like you so you can learn from them like if you did and okay now you practiced today you went to gym you watch your tape now you

Can do whatever you want you can play video games you can you know do whatever there there needs to be a time when you’re not doing volleyball but the question is like are you doing everything for volleyball because a lot of people are just like oh I practice

Every day yeah but also all the other teams on doour practice every single day so so that that’s not going to help you win like everybody practic so what are you minimum yeah tell like high school and college kids like well I’m not starting I’m doing everything the coach

Asks everything the coach asks and being on the team and showing up to practice is the minimum requirement just to get a jersey not to get on the court sure it’s great yeah so yeah so that was my point is like um you if you wanna like that that’s my motivation you

Know if I wanna with my like right now 28 years old and I’m still kind of future Challenger level fighting to get up there circumstances right not a lot of Partners in Serbia no can really practice with any of my partners because they live in Serbia and you know but

It’s not excuses I’m just thinking like I’m there and if I ever want to get to Elite I have to do way more than Mullen sorum and Swedish guys and everybody else out there you know yeah because they have coaches they have system they practice every day they have good

Competitive games they play high level tournaments how do you expect to catch up if you’re not doing insane amount of work or I can just say like you know what they they were really lucky because they’re they were born in a country with a federation and this and that and you

Know like it’s okay that they’re better than me oh for me that’s kind of my motivation okay let me try to put in everything I can and see if I can catch up because if I can that’s sick yeah that is sick I mean that’s the

Same way I started uh you know I played one season in high school my junior and then when I started playing in college I really got into it like the end of freshman year beginning of of sophomore year and I then wanted to go and play D1

You know I want to play for a university and I said to everyone who’s in University played Juniors like they played on a club Juniors team where they got coached consistently and I was just like you just start doing basic math you you okay a club you get to practice two

Times a week maybe three times um for two hours each time and usually it’s like six months a year so let’s just call it like 20 time n right these guys got 180 hours how do I get 180 hours of volleyball to get even with them and

Then how do I get 180 more to surpass them because now I have to like catch up for multiple years yeah and a big part of that for me was always film just like you uh I was a gym junkie probably like too much time in the gym and maybe I

Could have used more technique analysis but the the coaching was one of the hardest things to find because you would have to find somebody to spend extra time with you and pay for it for sure and so now you need that bonus to hit that other level and we see it at all

Levels like you see you know all of the greats have a multi-person staff just for them you know it’s like their specific trainer their specific dietician because they take all that stuff out and if you have somebody cooking for you and this is starting to get crazy because I mean what ap’s got

Like a personal chef but if you have somebody cooking for you that’s another hour and 15 minutes that you could be watching film or just chilling in other words getting off your feet resting your legs you know and and getting to that level so there’s it’s basic math for

Anybody who’s trying to get better and if you’re just sitting there wondering why you’re not getting better than anyone around you but you literally show up the same amount of time that anyone next to you shows up no kidding like there’s no there’s some Secret Sauce but there’s no secret

Sauce for sure for sure no I’ve been I’ve been kind of U upscaling my uh my system and everything and um every year I try at something and you know like for a couple years I didn’t have a coach um but I have a friend who’s a fysio who’s

Helping me uh Panos and then I have um stretch Zone in herbosa where I go to get again some treatments and then I have a strength conditioning coach from Serbia who I’ve been working for 10 years um and then I have my personal chef Marine Kina my girlfriend

That as you say saves a lot of time and this year I also added a coach where I go with h with Abby currently a couple times a week and then uh I coach myself couple times a week where I still have a hard time just doing stuff what coach

Wants because in my head I already have something that I want to do so I kind of try to find a balance of like okay Coach I need help with this but I also want to fix this and I need reps where sometimes I think I get more reps if it’s just

Let’s say me and my roommate or three of us where I can kind of like just run through the Reps rather than consistent feedback and then when I’m with a coach I kind of really enjoy feedback and and stuff like that it is a little challenging now since like I don’t have

A partner in in here so you know some practices on alone some practice on with a partner um but you know once I would be set with you know and committed to one person I think it’s a little easier to go with a coach because then you can

Work on your kind of game style 100% so it’s it’s a lot of factors but I I’m really happy with this offseason I spend a lot of time uh trying to work on my defense and optioning and I feel I added another thing that I added to my

System is a Brazilian condition coach who I’ve been working twice a week my conditioning so nice hopefully you’re going to see me running for some shots this year you chase shots so yeah well we’ll see but uh yeah I’m excited it’s been a really long off

Season I mean I’m a I’m a workaholic I can I can practice volleyball every single day but yeah last tournament was I think half a year ago and I’m really excited I’m I’m flying to Tahiti in two weeks uh soite I’m I’m excited to uh to play that

World Tour I’m playing with Nemo uh comr if you know from he used he used to live in Hawaii and now he’s in Denver so I’m excited just the season is starting you know AVP is going to start in a couple months and World Tour I’m going to

Probably go home to play a couple events in Europe and then back to play VP so uh plenty of volleyball and hopefully you know like everything that I spend time in the offseason can can pay off what are you what are you adding to your game

Right now so you said that like you’re practicing you’re working on changing things what are you changing at at 28 years old who you know you’ve one of the best players in Serbia um probably maybe the best beach player in Serbia and you know only the only reason you’re not

Getting consistent top 10 finishes uh on the AP is probably because people can’t travel internationally with you like I I don’t know who wouldn’t want you behind them as a Defender so that’s one thing that’s I guess hurting your stock the fact that it’s tough to play internationally and so then somebody has

To choose to basically have half a partner for the season but aside from all that what are you actually adding to your game or changing about it right now and how did you get to that point yeah that’s that’s a good question thanks for

Asking uh as I said I I am a kind of a little a little workaholic and I always try to change something uh there’s a couple of things one big thing that I was trying to change for this year was um not going forward or crossing my arms

On the approach on the Second Step um because I feel if you watch jump Setters it’s mostly just arms back and then they’re ready to to set which I feel like makes you way faster on approach and allows you to option then second thing was optioning because I was always

Optioning my whole life I would hit the ball that goes close to the net but I never practice so I came to just realization I hit at least one to two Bowl per set on as option and I don’t practice it so I try to kind of like get

A a little more consistent with approach and you know knowing what ball to hit what ball not to hit um I practiced at the beginning of season a little more jump setting just if the if there’s occasion so I can use that and then probably the biggest thing was changing

My armst string um I think from bow and arrow it was before where the left arm was up and right elbow was down I tried to go a little more like Snap which M miles Spain does and he sent sent out the link uh the arm swing research that they did

And that most of the indoor players are transfered to that just because it’s a little faster so if you watch M pain his arms usually end up like kind of parallel loads and then he sets or hits but his arm doesn’t really go super high so I’ve been kind of focusing to change

My arm string a little bit um and then I added kind of serve practice where my serve usually goes too high over the net so I try to go I try to go as close as possible and if I can trickle I would be the happiest uh so I kind of I’m I’m

That guy that you know like tries to Ser trickler oh hell yeah you know they ask you like do you practice serving tricklers I’m like currently yes like I actually want to Ser A trickler you know right if I if I can Ser A trickler that

Means the ball is gonna go as close as possible to the net which means it’s going to come as fast as possible to the other side and it might actually surprise the other team where usually my serves are kind of a little loopy um especially if I’m sering skyo then

They’re really loopy even if you’re 5050 with that like teams at the AP level their side out for first ball side out is between seven and eight out of 10 for sure for sure if you serve in right and it doesn’t hit the net they’re at 75%

Let’s just say if you get good enough at serving flat where you miss half of them and the other half hit the tape and go over the net for an ace you’re statistically so much better yeah pretty much pretty much I mean you still you still have to like kind of find a

Consistency but but yeah there were that that was a couple of things and then of course I was working on my defense trying to to go from flat foot to stand more on the kind of on the toes being able to grab the sand kind of I think

You were talking to Maren about that and then marine and I been trying to figure out my body posture and you know leaning a little more forward still work in progress but you know instead of staying upright being more forward more in the toes and then kind of adding those

Brazilian drills where I’m kind of like hovering and moving left and right change of Direction so um yeah I I spent this offseason like really working on on different things trying to like let’s say what I have upgrade that you know just go to higher level on all the

Elements that I have working specifically on on the things that I feel are hurting my game so I didn’t really work a lot on my passing just because I consider myself a good passer still obviously I mess up some passes but I feel I lose most of the matches

Because of you know not hitting high enough or quick enough because of you know not digging enough so I was kind of focusing on on things that I feel can improve my results because okay you know it’s time is limited you know I I you’re always going to feel there’s not enough

Time you cannot work on everything so you have to really pick and choose so I always try to like analyze and choose the things that are primary like problem like yeah the main problem let’s fix that and then maybe later on which is pretty much now like two weeks before

The season I start working on passing again just to get into that rhythm of like pass at hit pass that hit but in the offseason was mostly either free bowl or a really easy serve just so we can practice the progression the approach but not really like focusing on

The pass yeah and you’re getting those reps all the time anyway you know it’s not like your body like you’re dialing into that touch every time you pass and I think some of the I forget who uh we were talking to but they’re like the Brazilian style of

Coaching in terms of technique is more we will fix it if it breaks your game but if it’s currently operating or functioning we’re not going to talk about technique we’re just going to rep it out until you feel it feel it feel it and even if your hands are you know

Facing backwards or they look like a shark when you pass like they’re not going to fix it unless they see that it’s costing you points and I think it’s pretty interesting because then it does it it gives you like a way to attack the biggest problem instead of saying I need

His technique to be thumbs together when he’s passing well all of his passing is perfect he’s bleeding points because he just keeps hitting low so that’s the one technique that maybe we’ll focus on and just getting somebody to hit as high as they can over and over and over without

Talking about their hands for passing because whatever doesn’t cause an issue doesn’t cause an issue and I think it takes a really mature coach to actually choose to do that yeah you know to to overlook something that he thinks is weird technically but is it costing you

The most points and then it also takes I think a ton of patience in working with a player because you have to be able to sit through three four five practices watch a few matches and then decide if this is the thing you want to fix it’s

So weird for players or coaches to come into one practice and try to fix three four five things from a player it’s like slow down you don’t know anything about this player right now right you don’t know if that technique is costing them any points and then now you’re trying to

Change something that really is not going to give you bang for the buck so I think coaches got to calm down and observe more and you know you and me are probably not great examples of this um but talk a little less to make sure that we’re seeing what really needs to be

Done I think for you and me you know every now and then when you see a players or you see a double A or a B player it might be easy to just pick out oh of course this is costing points immediately because you see the shanks happening right but when you’re talking

About open players people have played in college or gotten through college Pro players you really got to calm that down for a few practices before you actually open your mouth and make a decision that is true yeah yeah I’m definitely not a good example of that I

Uh I I am just I’m perfectionist so for for me it’s like if I see it’s broken I’m like I don’t think that is going to give you a long kind of long-term result yeah uh if you watch top 20 teams right now there’s almost no broken technique

Like people on if we talk talk top top level there’s there’s no room for that because if there is they’re GNA abuse it like if you have I mean a little bit there’s so many weird arm swings there’s so many weird and then when you get to the top like the freaks

Why does Phil aler still have a goofy foot approach and some oofs um they chose not to fix it you know Casey Patterson basically held his wrist with one hand when he was passing and left the other one open so there these little things that people harp on

Um that didn’t cost those players and again if Phils siding out nine out of 10 balls and he’s got a goofy foot approach smart coach just shuts up and says we’re not going to change this it’s not causing you an issue dude I think my opinion is uh you have to feel

The player how what’s their personality you don’t want to push a player that doesn’t want to change something to change something because then they just get frustrated they’re gonna get frustrated and they’re it’s not going to work um for myself for example if I would have a goofy approach

I would change it like no matter if it works or not thinking about bio mechanics how left leg in front allows you to open up your shoulders and so on and so on my my thought would be I want to try everything that I can in order to

Be the best as I can and maybe goofy approach for Phil it can work because he’s so tall but what if what if Phil spent one offseason trying to change that and maybe got even better maybe not again we never know but what if he did

What if he could option more balls what if you know maybe he could go to another Olympics and win it you know and you know so you wanted to yeah I feel I feel there’s a there’s a a room for improvement always and it really depends

On the person how willing they are to work on it and I do agree if if you’re happy with what you have like if you’re holding your platform like different and you and you’re still passing good that’s it’s it’s on you it’s on you if you want

To keep that you know like Le Prima is a good example like he every time like separates his arms on the pass but he’s a great passer you know and for him he likes it it’s passing good okay keep it but I even if for me if would work I

Would eventually start that’s a really hard-headed example Le asking Le Prima to change anything is that is true but but for me you know like changing in stuff I I like changing stuff I think uh anything that I can fix one or 5% more I feel can give me that

Extra you know catch up to these top guys that’s at least how I see it so you said you said you’re working on being able to chase more balls on defense and then uh also choosing what option balls to hit and where to hit and which ones

You can’t so for those people who are listening and might want to be working on the same thing what drills or specific exercises are you doing first let’s cover defense we’ll cover option later but what specific drills are you actually doing to help yourself be able

To move better yeah so for that defense practice it’s mostly that condition we call it conditioning with that Brazilian uh guy robertinho so he usually sends me the practice but uh first part is leaner Sprints so it would be let’s say today I just did it so it would be let’s say

Um open and close your feet so quick like open and close and on the sign Sprint 8 meters that that would be one exercise then another one would be um what was it like a shuffle to the right and then Sprint like one Shuffle and then Sprint eight meters Shuffle to

The other side Sprint eight meters um and then we would have after that lanar progression which every practice it’s a little different Sprints but it’s linear which means straight and then second second part would be like change of Direction which would be let’s say cones uh in a square and the partner is

Showing you to what cone you need to go and you’re running touching the cone and then at at any moment they can toss you a bow that you have to dig kind of so it’s kind of like change of Direction plus reaction so you always have to look

Kind of looking on on the other cord um which forces you to change the direction and then once you see the ball bail on whatever you’re doing and start like running one of it that should be everybody’s drill if if you could have two or three people constantly throwing balls at you

While you do agility and and maybe I’m speaking from like my pain because I so worried about the timing of my move how this person was looking at me the position that I was getting to and sometimes I would miss very simple digs because I wasn’t digging at all times at

The same time that I was moving it’s like either I was moving and shifting or digging and to marry those two so that you’re constantly digging no matter how you’re shifting or moving and you’re constantly reading that should be everything for Defenders I love that drill shifting and having people just

Throw balls at you so that you’re constantly aware it’s like um there’s that movie where there’s somebody I think it’s Pink Panther his assistant always like tries to attack him to keep him in a constant state of Readiness yeah I remember that yeah um I don’t know what else like I one of

My favorite which is really simple put the cones in the straight line and just do zigzagging between and your partner can toss at any moment so kind of just moving zigzag and then you have to run and get it and usually we would do like

Two balls so you would need to run and get dig and then get up and run to other side and dig just so we have that change of Direction yeah um and to get more tired which would kind of like represent you know like you dig and now you have

To hit and then the last the last part would be volleyball related exercise which would be pretty similar so let’s say a serve a square what we just what we just talk about so a square dig one bow and then a partner will toss you and

You need to jump in hit um or for example a serve jump over the Rope go under the Rope dig the ball and then hit it so something that is kind of like volleyball related but still focused on you digging first and then hitting okay but hitting would be kind of just

Because that’s why it’s called conditioning hitting would be there to to work on a hard rate you know so so you can like recover a little faster and do another round yeah which would be let’s say that time in between points that that you would go to your service

Line or whatever and now you need to play another point so it sounds like you’re not using live drills or like a player hitting uh a shot and then having you chase you’re not doing that as much to get to get better at that situation it’s more preparing your body

Yeah so so this part is like the conditioning part is mostly like I mean you’re still chasing balls that your partner toss you don’t really know where it’s going to go but it’s mostly kind of fixing technique again um kind of how your body is going to position you know

How do you Shuffle what angle do you take you know like how are you using your feet when you’re running to dig the shot you know the touch what touch you’re using to dig that ball you know so once that ball actually comes in the

Game after so many reps that I did in the offseason you know once I actually have a chance for dig usually it’s a better thing than it was before um but yeah I do agree there’s no Reading part in this so reading I I try to kind of I

Try to focus on when I play so when I was doing a partner exercises or like a team exercise against the other team with eie we were actually working on that mostly was the positioning in the court um the moves so what moves am I making to to confuse the attacker and

Then seeing what the attacker is doing so I was trying to like work on conditioning alone by myself and then reading with eie that was kind of the goal okay has eie changed any of your onc court positioning or given you new ideas compared to where you thought you

Should be standing where you’re comfortable standing and where he wants you to or have you just like at least discussed Poss possibilities yeah for sure I mean we talk about where am I currently standing and where I should be like sometimes I just go too W too wide

Or I would make a late step to the angle which would be early so they see me but late so I can’t really move um which kind of so you’re like in the middle and then you shift into the angle away from The High Line yeah but I I would shift

Too late but too late for me to run the high line but too early so they would still see me so let’s say if I would want to shift I would need to shift even later so at least I don’t give them the information where I’m going to be um

Like Heiden used to run that a lot like I watched his tape recently he used to run middle to middle and just bail in the last second but if you make it late enough it’s just hard to to know where it’s like 5050 you know yeah um and

Again talking about highest level I swear that for me 50/50 is higher chance than me being on angle when I’m on the angle I I dig maybe 20% where 5050 is talking math way better way better chance for us to get a dig than 20% just people right

Now are you know hitting too high like shooting really accurate um they challenge the blockers so they play with the timing they like we practice with Taylor a lot Taylor crap would just go late and then go quick and then go away from the body so even trying to read him

You don’t really get much because he was just fake you out and you know he would see you then so sometimes he would see you so he would make a normal shot and then sometimes he would trick you so you fall for it so it’s like you can’t

Really believe in what you see because it’s not always the same there’s no really exact pattern um so it it was really good like offseason for me to understand how to position and what to do in a certain situations I mean I’m still obviously learning and I feel

We’re going to keep learning until end of our career um you can just keep getting better in reading right but I was one of the things that I was kind of trying to focus on and I still don’t do it but when I really focus I can kind of

See it is if I see let’s say the bow and then the hand coming around it knowing that it’s coming that way and then seeing that I’m here but it is even though you try to see it it’s so hard because it’s such a like short short

Moment the and it doesn’t happen always like sometimes a lot times people just go straight so for me it’s like I need to learn that once somebody gives early information now I need to go so pretty much bail what exactly the same drill what we just talk about the square right

In square you’re running and then once you see the ball bail whatever you’re doing in run that’s kind of what I want to translate this to whatever I’m doing if I see the hand here bail on whatever you’re doing and run kind of almost cheap because you read it you know it’s

Coming there run and go to that Highline for example a little earlier instead of what most of the players do is we we see it but we’re like okay I see it but I still have to protect my spot first and then you’re late instead of like okay I

Saw it I’m going for it now if they do something like this okay at least yeah you’re obsessed with the position that you have to get to instead of being obsessed with the Dig and then making the positioning secondary like yeah it should be dig and read first plan for your position in

Play is secondary um but that’s hard to do because you know that you have to get somewhere and so that takes the first place in your mind instead of just knowing that you have to constantly read and speaking of like those readers the guys who are always hands ready I mean

That’s hid to a tea right like the amount of balls that he digs with his hands because he was always on the move and he just always just had them ready and in front of him and when you watch him play defense his hands are constantly present like right in front

Of packs you know and they’re just I love watching him play defense because it’s not that traditional like hands out Palms up defense it’s always like you know he’s fiddling with something but again I’m gonna use the the the opposite example like because I’ve been trying to

Figure out how is Taylor Krab so good in defense he stands he stands with his arms like this like just just Dum there’s no positioning there’s no anything it’s arms are next to the body they’re ready and and then he’s just reacting next to him in front of him so

Sometimes I even feel when I put my arms in front they almost want to connect and then my reaction on the side is not good where he’s just keeping his arms on the side I think there’s no there’s no right way there’s different ways that you

Should try and see or what I’m trying to maybe understand now is there’s different ways to stand according to your positioning so when you’re shallower maybe like kind of bringing your arms up but when you’re deep maybe keeping them a little lower when you’re let’s say bailing on the line on the

Angle block maybe already turning your arms on the side rather than just staying neutral yeah I feel I feel there’s defense is so complex like the more I’m trying to learn the more I’m understanding like I’m bad in this and then my girlfriend Marine she’s she’s always saying you’re a great defender

Like you know you just hard on yourself and I say I do agree that I can dig like I would not be here if I don’t know how to dig like yeah obviously I don’t think about myself that I’m bad but I think about myself that I’m bad because I see

How many improvements I could make and how many digs I could make more if I could fix technique so we’re not even talking about other team is doing great okay but I’m saying this ball if I technically if I approach this technically the right away I would dig

It if my arms were ready if my body was turned if I slide one second early or later and that’s what I that’s that was the main focus on do season is learning these things and I feel we covered that 10% of it right I need like 10 more off Seasons

You know and and it it’s like it’s like jiujitsu you know there are there’s your base positions and then there’s a million and one different configurations hand positions leg positions that you can be in just based on somebody’s movement and and what you’re feeling from them and the I mean the ultimate

Solution as always is you just got to be adaptable like can you figure out how to adapt quickly and then get those answers instead of being so stuck in a rut so there needs to be that balance of experimentation but then at the same time not constantly changing everything

That’s already working like what what 90 or 80% is already working and what’s the little thing that I that I need to change not uh I want to get more digs I’m going to completely rebuild my defense it’s like wait a second this you need one more D for set

And then and then we’re at Championship level so how do we get one more dig per set because you’re almost there for sure and I I think like I get really into technique that I would like for example I would think same what you what you

Mentioned that you used to do I would think about the move that I’m doing and the timing and you know I don’t even know what else I would think that when they would hit the ball I would I would figure out like I didn’t really try to

See their hand for example you know because I was so and then I would try to see a hand but I would not make a move and or like I would be stiff because everything I’m doing I’m thinking about it and then I would just it’s why you

Get the most digs when you’re hung over the day where you’re exhausted like after leg day and you’re showing there and you’re just like youve got a stomach flu whatever you’re trying to be as lazy as possible all of a sudden you start getting all of these digs because you’re

Going what is the least that I can do right now and you don’t want to run all those threes and fours uh you know when you’re not feeling too hot but but a good good person that I watch is Hagen um he’s completely different from other people on the on um

On the defense you know like he’s just standing wide wide arms and just doing this just swinging like how his dad used to play defense yeah um and it’s impressive like I know that when I play against hi and I cannot hit to him or anywhere on his arm

Length because he’s just so good in just waving on the side just W waving sideways and that’s one of the things for example that I don’t do is like I’m here I’m ready if you hit to me I’m gonna dig you but everything is watch wi

Is like oh it’s fire you know and I I feel like he the way he just stands and covers the court you know like horizontally is really good and he would be like another person that I watch and try to figure out like how did he cover

That wide range of of the of the court with his arms you know I mean he’s fast he is really fast he is fast and you know a lot of a lot of the stuff like when we played last year the Manhattan Beach when he started really kind of

Turning on his defense was we had to like corral all of that we had to bring his athleticism back in because he’s so fast that he uses it very often right and he does a lot of these Jukes and balances and bounces out and he’s one of

The players that we had to go in the other direction we we’re like okay let’s calm down the athleticism so that you can actually use the athleticism you know um and sometimes if he got himself off balance he was too late to be in a position where it’s like yo you got so

Much speed maybe you don’t use it when you’re shifting when you’re redirecting like go to your spot a little bit earlier and then say can I be balanced enough because I’m sast let me be balanced enough to go chase it and so against certain teams that really worked for him

Uh and against a couple others we did the exact opposite you know um the cool thing about him was he was able to make these really quick adjustments and still get Diggs when we changed his positioning entirely so yeah yeah he’s he’s a sick Defender he’s a great

Defender yeah um what do you think American players take for granted coming from a federation who has legendary indoor volleyball right Serbia has just always turned out World MVPs what you know what’s missing on the beach side but what do you think the US has and really you look at us and you’re

Like you guys are so spoiled you have no idea well I mean first things first uh Serbia doesn’t have a league anymore so we are definitely like behind on that where here no matter how MVP is you still have MP you know it’s a it’s a re

It’s a reason to practice to prepare to get excited for the season you know to spend summer enjoying doing what you love where a lot of a lot of countries don’t have that I think AVP is no matter in what shape AVP is it’s still the best

Tour in the world probably AV and Brazilian tour but a AP is just you know I got to play it finally like a full year last year and it’s just something it’s a special place you know they treat volleyball players the right way um and

I’m not even talking about AP as AVP I’m talking about fans and you know you just you just feel special you feel that um that you’re some someone in the sport you know and coming from from Serbia where beach volleyball like we don’t have facilities to practice during

Winter um so beach volleyball is not a real sport you can’t say I play beach volleyball when you cannot play it full year so saying that I’m a beach level player people almost laugh at me in Serbia like they they don’t know who I am like nobody ever heard about me because Beach

Is not a sport where here I feel since I was in Miami before but I feel like people respect me from who I am because of what I achieved so far um on the world tour and on the AVP and you know just in my career um and that’s kind of

Like something that I feel that people in USA don’t don’t understand that you have true fans they make you feel as a beach volleyball player they make you they make you kind of feel your success you know like you feel confident you’re like damn I’m a good player you know

Where like coming from where I am like you’re winning and you’re still feeling like you’re no one because you’re watching people in the world tour and you’re just trying to be as them but you know you don’t get no recognition for from the country where you are you know

So that’s definitely one thing that I feel people here don’t don’t understand enough how fans are valuable in the whole and AVP in the whole thing to for us to be a beach table players like without without AVP and without a league there’s no fans you’re not a

Beach LEL player you’re just trying to play on the wheel tour you know and it and it’s really little yeah so I think that’s big and then um I think a chance to play um coming from the country where I am where salaries are really low uh we

Could not afford to fly to to multiple International tournaments so we would play Europe and we would maybe have enough funds to go one tournament to Australia or to China and that was it um where I’m pretty sure everyone here can afford to travel and play any tournament they want China Australia Thailand

Doesn’t matter how far is it people can go so I feel I feel everybody’s just like oh yeah you know I’m going to World Tour like you know we’ve been practicing for a month where for us was like we’ve been practicing for a year because that’s our

Only chance you know to get points so we can play next year so we would practice every single day twice sometimes twice a day you know like we would really go for it where here there’s only couple of teams that actually do that and there’s a lot more teams that consider

Themselves like oh we’re competing on the world tour and we’re doing this and that but for me it’s like if you want to compete on the world tour and if you want to achieve this like you got to respect yourself and you got to you know like give everything you can and you

Know sometimes I just feel people here like oh that I’m partying and you know I practice twice a week and now I’m hang overed and you know like this and that and it’s just it doesn’t feel professional enough and it kind of makes me almost upset because we never had that yeah I’m

Like guys you have all these opportunities you have money to travel you have good weather to practice every single day and you’re like barely using your chances like you know I I am happy now that more and more teams are going to World Tour you know like jakia just

Went and uh Joiner went and you know like Logan and Hagen are going to Challenger and you know like there’s multiple women’s team that practice with Marine here on the on the eth street they just went to Australia and New Zealand and now you can see more teams

Kind of going for it and for me it’s like why wouldn’t you go like yeah you practice every single day or at least three times a day you call yourself a beach player you live in California because you want to play Bey ball you

Know like a lot of teams a lot of girls and and guys that I know moved here for beach volleyball and you’re not doing it like what stopping like I can barely find a partner right now and I still want to go I want to I want to like I

Spend a whole offseason in order to play you know but you have all these partner opportunities in front of you and what’s stopping you know so for me I feel people in us don’t use enough chances and don’t take it serious enough it’s it’s more like tourism than you know

Like hey we can actually go and win this you know I think a lot of people treat those good as tourism and I’ll be honest like a Nora qualifier if another one pops up and I get to go to you know whatever it is Jamaica uh Trinidad

And and I get to bring my wife and kid and then I’ll just stay there extra few days like yeah I would I would actually go and compete because it’d be something fun to do you know USA volleyball would pay for it it doesn’t seem right to say

That that I would take that spot but if I could take that spot you know finishing fourth or eighth for an Nora because USA does pay for a lot like the continent tour USA volleyball pays for the majority of that I mean fivb registration fees that’s covered when I

Heard that the Canadian teams had to pay all of those fees themselves I was like oh we’ve got it really good you know and and it is a case where I think a lot of people do take it for granted but there there is so much that we have that is

Impossible for other federations Plus you know financially like monetarily USA is doing generally better and and has a higher value than a lot of countries in terms of you know finances so if you’re thinking that like you’re from the Philippines and you’re making a great salary you’re kind of making nothing for

When you have to go on the world tour for sure because you need like five Philippines salaries in order to afford the flight that goes from Paris to Italy well that that’s exactly what I said for Serbia and and just just for the for the list listeners to know like we don’t

Have Federation like our Federation is indoor volleyball Federation and indoor volleyball is so big that we don’t have mut volleyball Federation and we don’t get the support like there’s no currently there’s no one team in Serbia that is uh helped by Federation like no guys no girls no help for Federation and

Even even it went further where they actually didn’t sign us up for a Olympic qualifier so we didn’t even get a chance to to compete for for Olympics on the Continental cup because our Federation didn’t sign us up so just thinking told them to sign you up and they didn’t or

They just they signed us up every single time so far and now when the pools came out for Contin cup we were not on it and we asked like what’s going on and they’re like oh well we didn’t sign you up oh my God yeah so so just you know

Like understanding how your Federation is not the worst Federation and there’s always like you know you you talk about Kuba and you talk about you know I know multiple federations that have problem with their players like USA is doing really well and that’s what I’m saying like teams should use that chance to

Compete uh internationally where the jersey with the flag of your country you know and you know just it’s it’s a special place like there’s there’s nothing in the world that I like more than wearing the jersey for my country you know and you know competing and representing I’ve got a Serbian national team

Jersey yeah ni an oh no that’s not Serbian my bad that’s Croatian I’ve got a Croatian team jersey yeah it’s still it’s still yeah pry pretty similar thing still B in yeah Balan national team uh do you do you think that the Florida beach volleyball culture is better than

California like if you if you think that somebody needs to move so somebody’s like let’s call it in the midwest you know Grand Sands Volleyball right uh they’re sitting in Cincinnati and they should move to Florida or California where would you tell them to move well

Do you know any coaches in Florida I know a few except JM who Moved now there I don’t see any coaches there they’re actually like for me at least or let’s say for me to recommend for marine um worth moving there when I used to live on South Florida there was no coaches

Who were actually like open level coaches okay um there is couple of coaches for youth I know Dave pal is there for Youth and you know couple of like I think quality players who are coaching but open level there’s there’s not really that many coaches where definitely California has some

Brazilians and you know a couple of couple of other coaches um EV is there you coach sometimes and you know there’s definitely like people who who have the knowledge coaching knowledge and playing knowledge that I would recommend anyone if they want to live anywhere to pursue the beach volleyball thing it’s here and

You know I’ve been I’ve been hovering around here like we were in paa and we were in Huntington and now we’re in Hermosa and it’s not even close like this was the this is completely different living in Hermosa and being able to you know like practice every single day in this

En yeah it’s just it’s just completely different different so I would recommend it to anyone who who want to pursue the dream you know that I understand now why they were always saying like oh you need to move to like since the since the first year when I was in Florida they’re

Like oh you need to go to to you came all the way to America you know from Serbia why didn’t you just go the extra 3,000 miles dude yeah but you know find my way yeah and it’s for sure I mean cheaper cost of living is an argument that has to be

Talked about you can’t afford to be in Florida much longer whereas out here it’s getting tougher and tougher man I mean I don’t want to move I’m I’m in a nice lease and I’m not trying to move anytime soon because if we move to a smaller place we’re going to pay way

More than our current rent is so it’s not getting easier to live here and that’s what’s so shocking it’s I don’t know I I wonder if beach volleyball players here would be better because everybody’s got a backup plan you know so many of these guys have a have a backup plan the last

Guy who I didn’t who I knew didn’t really have a backup plan was Rosenthal like volleyball that was it it’s what he wanted to do and then he started you know playing some golf later on but no backup plan wi 100% after it everybody else has kind of got something in the

Works they’re understanding an audience they’re understanding sponsor they’re coaching on the side they’re getting like little accounting jobs and stuff like that but I think that also hurts you I mean I know it hurts you to have an available backup plan it hurts your volleyball game but

It does leave you prepared in case it doesn’t work out so it’s you got to choose one of those you know I think you’re one of the guys that came and you said I don’t have a backup plan I’m going there for volleyball and I’ll do

Some other stuff along the way so that like when I grow up I’m there and now you’re getting uh your degree in what software Tech what you geek right that that is my backup plan uh I I finished my bachelors in software engineering and then I went when I moved here I said

Okay I’m not gonna waste two years I’m gonna spend on my masters in computer science yeah but my my backup plan is is I think good enough that if this all fails I can still find a job and uh and a live good life but uh I do agreee with

You like it is kind of like you’re almost hesitant in what you’re doing because you’re like I don’t know I have this waiting for me like how long do I want to play this and then you know people around you some people obviously there’s always some people like that

Like how long you’re gonna keep doing this you know like how long you’re gonna keep playing the sand but you know I feel it really depends on the person how passionate you are and how much you want it for me there’s there’s no place that

I feel like on the court you know so for me as long as I can play and I want to play but but you know like you cannot just expect that beach volleyball is going to give you life in the end you know like once I think once the kids are

There and once you have family it’s definitely not sustainable so Qui for me yeah you have immediately yeah so you definitely have to have something that is like ready for you if you want to actually have family and stuff if you you want to live alone and you know live that beach life

Forever then maybe it’s possible but uh I feel all all all the players kind of planned that as well cool hey who’s been your who’s been your favorite uh us partner to play with so far and you can’t choose me um when you say us playing in us or

It has to be American let’s call like at least American Green Card citizen I would always choose I mean I would choose Ricardo no matter what like Ricardo was by far like my my best experience just that guy is you know he’s he’s really genuine loves beach

Volleyball like he’s you know what I told you about not feeling anywhere like how I feel on the court that’s him like I saw Ricardo after winning three medals celebrating a point in St Pete on beach bomb tournament uh like like he was the main the the most important point

And you know just like the joy that he would tell me like hey next Bowl hit middle and I would hit middle and the joy that he would have because I listened and he worked you it’s just like I didn’t get that from other people just you know he he’s already achieved

So just for me it was impressive seeing someone already who achieved everything still loving the game and then on the other hand obviously like he’s a great player he was a great mentor like he kind of like explained me everything and and I consider him a good friend so that

Was a great experience but um on the other hand on the AP I don’t know it was it was fun you know like everyone I play with was fun you know yeah I had ups and downs and you know like I end up blocking with Leela that was pretty fun just just

Finding myself on the net you know doing end up peeling with yeah peeling with Leela yeah end up doing doing some weird stuff and you know surprising teams and you know with Brian obviously I finally had a really tall blocker um that I never had in Serbia we don’t have a

Person that tall playing beach volleyball it doesn’t have to be good we don’t have a person that tall playing beach volleyball so that was fun kind of playing against behind the big blocker and obviously like I had a couple more Partners like I play with bill in lagona

Bill is insane Setter so I was just running my fast plays all all over the court he’s such a good Setter you know and and like he’s he’s a always wanted to play with Bill for a couple years just to understand how he thinks and he’s a big thinker i’ I’ve been

Practicing with him a bunch now and you know we we both like kind of have a lot in our heads kind of like plan and situations and stuff like that so I feel like everyone I played with was it was really good experience you know just just learning wise you know yeah no

Favorites super de uh diplomatic there I there there’s there’s no uh there’s no a perfect partner right if there was a perfect partner I would already win a tournament but uh you know there there’s uh there’s partners that that you do you could have like the one

That matches your style the best you know like some people the way they set it bugs me because of the speed of the hands or whatever you know um the way they think about it certain mannerisms you know I can I can tell you easily like the worst

Setter I’ve played with is Kurt toppel but he was my best best favorite partner for sure you know we just got along we could we could be upset with each other but in a but in an easygoing way um and just hold expectations in the same way

And he I knew that he could do his job better than I could and he knew that I could do his job or that I could do my job better than he could and so um yeah it was awesome would I have changed did I change every day try to change his

Setting yes but like I would I would play with him 10 times out of 10 just because he’s a big Goofy lovable monster yeah for me for me what I like about my partners is just having energy um I did have really good energy with Brian I

Feel he’s the closest to what I am okay just we had our strategy was let’s get fired up so we scream and we just hit hard than usual CU I felt when we played together we were a big team like toll you know like hitting high and our goal

Was like get fired up so we so our hits are not weak you know yeah and and it worked and I had the best time like just screaming you know like he was screaming so it was neutral energy kind of spreading on the court and it was fun

You know I like I like energy you know I’m seran you know how serbians are you guys can both lay into the ball you guys have some heavy hands yeah quite different than me just hitting the outside pinkies of people’s play it’s only on the last couple of

Years H I was always going for that I mean as an as an indoor outside I was like I came into the to my team as the defense and not passing guy but the defense and serving guy so I was there to like get Diggs I guess talk a lot of

Smack and and serve I could do uh but when they sent me it usually meant our team was in trouble in some way like we don’t have our best options now or they’re trying to keep me warm for just in case you know so I’d like see a

Double block or even a single block and I be like how do I use the hand because I don’t know how to hit around people um and then I was able to take that like I love getting those antenna sets when people just don’t quite close down that

Antenna oh it’s my favorite but yeah no it’s fun and I I got out there and played a little bit again and now I’m going to the Dyno in Hawaii so that’ll be fun if anybody’s listening and you guys are going to the dyo I’ll see you

There uh and I I’ll play some fours but if you want to get out don’t hesitate to call I I’ll say no 90% of the time but uh but I like the invite to exercise you know and I could still pass in set so nice

Nice well good to know yeah yeah out the Sun and have McKenzie do some motor learning watching us all right brother we’re gonna head out we’ll wrap this up uh appreciate your time how do people find you what’s your Instagram what are any YouTube channels you got

Going um just my my first name last name DJ o DJ Georgia clnic and mostly use Instagram um a little bit of Facebook but it’s mostly for older people from Serbia uh my family members and you know friends and Friends of my parents pretty much but everything I do is usually on

Instagram that’s a it’s a main main uh social network where I communicate um probably uh on YouTube soon again kind of posting some videos but we’ll see um kind of really really busy with a whole green card and you know preparation and you saw how much uh technical stuff I have on my

Plate for season yeah fix in a few things good all right man great talking to you uh guys if you are listening we’re gonna let DJ go but uh just before he does we’re going to tell you about some of the camps that we’ve got coming

Up so April 6th to April 12th we’re going to St Pete Beach in Florida we’ve got a Six-Day Camp there uh April 7th in Hermosa we are going to have some fun with a Sunday six-hour clinic so come out and join and a really big one uh

We’ve got so far 31 people signed up which is insane to be this early and that many signups but May 31st to June 2nd we’re going to be in Long Beach Long Island in New York for a three-day camp and that thing is blowing up if you are

Near or in San Diego and you are a man or a boy we have a three-day mini camp for men’s ba a and doua players in San Diego uh coming up June 14th to 16th and as always if you guys love this podcast if you hear it just give us a subscribe

Throw five stars under the rating share it with a friend and uh if you want us to coach you and to give you our 60-day workout program our 21-day Mobility Program and come through all of our courses we will watch your film we will coach you through the season and we will

Give you our entire knowledge library and you can be a member sit in live meetings with us and get your film analyzed 247 so head on over to better beach.com or just click one of the links around this video and uh thanks for watching and always send a message let us know

What you like what you hate and how we can make it better for you all right that’s me I’m Mark and DJ thanks for coming man thank you Mark I’ll you I’ll see you later see you soon bye guys bye