Volleyball and Crossfit

I just got back from a vacation to LA, and as expected, it was wonderful. LA has become my go-to vacation spot of late because of the amazing weather and beaches there (primarily Hermosa and Manhattan) and the opportunity to watch/play volleyball. It was also incredibly relaxing and therapeutic to walk along the beach with no agenda.

It would be remiss of me if I neglected to mention that I also got a chance to visit good friends of mine, so I feel very blessed to have experienced a bit of everything on vacation. The only thing I don’t like about LA is the traffic and the driving (although renting a Silvercar helps).

Ironically, one of my volleyball training sessions with Mark was almost canceled due to inclement weather — there was thunder and rain on the beach! My weather app told me it would go away in 40-50 minutes, so we decided to just stick it out. Amazingly, the rain died down pretty quickly, so it didn’t affect the training at all.

I found out about Coach Mark Burik and VolleyCamp Hermosa earlier this year on Facebook. The tagline was a bit intimidating: “VolleyCamp Hermosa offers affordable elite beach volleyball training + housing for all beach volleyball athletes who wish to train in So Cal.” By no means did I consider myself an elite beach volleyball athlete, but I loved playing and I wanted to get better. I confirmed with Mark that he did welcome all levels, and went down for the first time in March. It was awesome, so I signed up for a few more training sessions after that.

Back to my vacation and almost-canceled-training. Mark invited along one of his volleyball buddies to be a practice dummy since I was his only trainee that day. I should also mention that Mark is a stud volleyball player himself, having played professional indoor volleyball for several years before transitioning to beach. That’s not what’s special about him, though…professional volleyball players are a dime a dozen. I was truly impressed by how good of an instructor he was. He breaks everything down to basics and focuses on only a few things at a time so that you know what to work on and how to improve.

His volleyball buddy turned out to also be a stud volleyball player, having played division 1 volleyball in college (the same one that Mark played at), so it felt super intimidating to be warming up and practicing with him. Granted, he wasn’t really there for Mark to coach…he was getting his reps in as part of his own training. Nevertheless, he was super encouraging and helpful, complimenting me when I had a good set or hit, and apologizing when he gave me a “bad" set.

Interestingly, this positive volleyball training experience reminded me of a negative Crossfit session I had in the beginning of the year. If you’ll recall, I enrolled in an on-ramp Crossfit class at the end of last year, and began my regular membership shortly thereafter. In one of these regular Crossfit sessions, I was having some issues with the squat, and the instructor came over to help me. This random guy (let’s call him Jack) next to me noticed how the instructor was coaching me on doing a basic exercise, and remarked to her, “Didn’t he go to on-ramp?”

The instructor replied, “I don’t know,” and turned to me asked, “Did you go to on-ramp?” I said yes, and she said something about how they probably didn’t stress the mechanics enough.

In that moment I felt…so belittled. First, why did he talk to the instructor as if I wasn’t there? Second, was I really expected to master every Crossfit movement after going through an intro class?

The funny thing was, Jack wasn’t even that great at Crossfit. I noticed later on that I was better than him on some exercises. The whole experience made me appreciate the people in my life who never made me feel small while playing volleyball or lifting weights at the gym.

I ended up canceling my Crossfit membership ($220/month yo!), but it wasn’t because of Jack. And I know that Jacks aren’t unique to Crossfit…I did have a few positive experiences in Crossfit with other people who didn’t make fun of me. It’s just funny because it’s usually never the superstar athletes who are belittling other people in their sport, and for that I am grateful.