EP #170 From Cameroon to International Beach Volleyball | Bruno Ngueuche's Journey

Hey everybody and welcome to the Better It Beach podcast.

My name is Mark Barric Brandon is busy coaching today and if you haven't heard it by now, we

have a special announcement coming up but since you guys are listening to the podcast,

maybe this will be your first taste of the news.

We're super excited for Brandon.

He is listed now as one of the assistant coaches for the USA Men's Beach volleyball national

team.

Along with that, Matt Furbringer just got the national team head coaching job.

I would love to get him on for a future interview and hear about his thoughts and the future

of USA Men's volleyball.

Brandon has increased his coaching hours yet again and he's helping out with the men's

program along with April Ross and Kyle Friend.

So we're super excited for him.

Hopefully he's not too busy all the time from now on to come on to the podcast but a huge

round of applause and congratulations for him.

However, we have a really special guest for you today and I'm going to introduce him

in just a second.

Before we get to that, we have upcoming camps in Oklahoma City, March 6th, Seattle, Washington,

March 13th, Long Island, New York, March 20th, St. Pete, Florida that is for men's AA and

above only so you can only get into that camp by application and showing us performance

standard but as a high level men's camp, there will only be 10 spots.

We already have eight of them sold out.

If you want to come and hang out with me down in St. Pete, please start the process DM me

on Instagram at markabaric or email support at biterabiche.com.

March 27th, we will be in New Orleans, Louisiana at C. or Sanbar, April 10th, Brandon's going

home to Tidewater volleyball center in Virginia Beach.

We'll be back in Fort Myers, April 17th, April 24th will be in Scottsdale, Arizona, May 15th

in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, May 22nd in Lowell, Michigan, again in Long Island, May 29th along

with that same weekend, May 29th in San Diego, California and the last camp on our list

is June 19th in Milwaukee, Wisconsin so we've got a lot for you Midwesterners.

If that's what we're calling you and we hope to see you there, we're bringing top level

coaches and would love to work with you.

In person, if you can't make it to a camp, head to biterabiche.com.

Check out our online coaching.

It is the way to go and I don't want to convince you on this podcast of how valuable film

work and steady accountability can be but that's also a part of the conversation that we're

about to get in with our special guest.

So he played for and is from Cameroon, he moved to Canada, a professional player and he

has turned into a coach and is now a volleyball influencer with over 55,000 followers on

his account and we've developed a little relationship off camera on the side and it's been

a pleasure getting to know him and I want to hear a little bit more about his story in

this episode.

So this is Bruno and Gace and it is an absolute pleasure to have you on.

I know we just talked a couple minutes ago but thanks for coming on the show, man.

Thanks for having Mark.

It's so early on on the biterabiche podcast like listening to it for a few years now and

then having each other here and being able to hope when you're so cool.

Yeah.

I appreciate it.

I want to hear so the only and I try to exit myself from these conversations but most people,

most Americans don't know the absolute international threat that Cameroon presents as a national

team.

We played, we had a training session against them during one of my pro tryouts where it

was just a rag tag bunch of us versus a Cameroon national team and I mean absolute thunderbolts

on their team.

This was like 15 years ago.

So kind of what I want to hear is how you came up in that system through that system

and what it's like to be a budding and then growing volleyball player in Cameroon.

Yeah.

Thanks for saying that volleyball in Cameroon has gotten bigger and bigger over the years

and I think it's probably the national sport or even it's just so huge and I think what

makes the difference is just the fact that it's very physical.

Like the demands of the sport growing up when you're studying out in Cameroon, it's

so physical and I started out as a soccer guy so I played soccer growing up and then I

eventually made it back but volleyball was in the family and so my older sister played

volleyball for the junior national team, my older brother same thing and so I ended up

picking a little bit later but once I got into it I discovered that there's just a big

culture around it and especially in the capital of Cameroon like the demands is everybody

wants to be able to play pro and the only way to do that is really by leveling up and

so the system is it's very different from anything we have here in Canada.

So we have a lot of volleyball is still very much outdoors but it's a lot of pickup

volleyball and so we have mythical stadiums and we have one in yawning that we call Misa.

So it's an outdoor stadium with like concrete floors, you have a concrete floors.

Yeah, we have like concrete floors and then you have metal barriers around it and then

you have the road just passing by the court but what is so mythical about that court is

the fact that at the end of the season during the off season you have all the posts from

overseas would come back and play there just like nothing ever happened so the guys

you watch on TV so you got the opportunity to be able to help shoulders against those

guys and it was a opportunity for young guys that was to show like I can also ball and

maybe this guy will have a link with a contract somewhere I was like okay this kids are coming

up so that's kind of the feeling so it gets really intense and I always say

we never really play volleyball for fun in camera and it's always are you trying to win or not

as like what you always want to play to win. I love that. So is there is there club system?

So I mean so it's outdoor are you when I played or I got to coach for a month in India

they had it was kind of dirt courts and they would like just lay chalk powder for the lines before

every practice and before every match. Do you guys have set lines there? I mean there has to be

indoor gyms where people are practicing because the level is just insane. Yeah we do have we do

have indoor gyms so majority of teams like it's changed a lot when I started in 2014

most of the so you have every every province has a club so every province has a club that

plays in the national league and so we have a national league that runs for almost six six months

and so you have yeah so you have league games you have club games and then you have

other open championships in between so like it's it's well organized it's well structured and

facility-wise majority of teams to practice outdoors but we have gymnasiums and so

so in the only we have the palette of sport the municipal stadium that is a multi-facility stadium

that hosts many sports and events so that's where they would play the most important pass but

then we get to like play-offs or the camera on top they would happen there indoors and other league

games would happen more outdoor so every team had its own practice ground it would probably be at

at a school or at a university that they would rent out they would have that and so I was

fortunate enough to play with PAD which is the biggest club in camera right now and the only

club that had the the the financial means to be able to train indoors all season because we're

trying to win the African Champions League so so we would train indoors all season. Who who's

the main competition for African Champions League? That would be I would say Arab Africa put it

in general you'll have the clubs from Egypt and the clubs from Tunisia are usually the ones that are

up there so al Ali Esperanza Tunis yeah so those are the clubs and a fun fact that is where I met

Garrett Garrett Mago Teteer who played for USA at a Champions League so that was my first time

meeting him there he signed a contact with al Ali that season and so it was so cool like I'm

sitting in the restaurant and I see Garrett passing by I'm like I think I just saw Garrett Mago Teteer

in Africa it's so guy it's there but it's a sorry moment that's cool okay so there's no like in

the US you know all of our stuff is at the juniors level there's club volleyball but there's also

school volleyball and then above high school level it just turns into college college college

do you guys have associated school teams in Cameroon or all of Africa or is it just like sports club

all right so I did junior level the sports clubs is once you've really made it to the higher level

so so at the junior level you have every from elementary school all the way up to high school

every school has its own school team and so you took part in the school team and we had

and so we had tournaments so we called them for an ass call like a huge sports events every year

and so they are not league based the same way we have them here where it's like this school

play for entire season is usually we have like one tournament for like a weekend or for a week

and all the schools will find the winner yeah so and that's the same way that the university system is

so you have that at the elementary school level the final scores where scores were practiced so

they would have your friendly games and games against all the schools but you have the one big

tournament during the year where all the schools from all the 10 provinces in Cameroon would

maybe travel to let's say California and young will be hosting the tournament and so you get

lost in in the school so you just have like dominant choice and so you would travel be there for

like a week and you're just competing for like one weekend for one week to to get the winner of that

tournament for the year so that's the format at that level and then at the university level

it's it's similar in terms of the season is long so it's like the whole academic year but during

that season university teams are allowed to have they are affiliated into like the club system

so once that when I started out our university university of Boyar could play we had an affiliate

team that could play in like the national league and then for the university games you have two

weekends and every eights a different province that hosts it so two you have two weeks where the

best teams in Cameroon go against each other the best universities go against each other and so you

go around a lot of information and then you have playoffs and then you get the win of the of the

university season that's crazy so there's no like standard season it just all wraps up into either one

weekend or one two week event for exactly that's how it is mentally how do you prepare for that

because usually you talk about seasons like because you do a lot of coaching now yeah how do you

shape that for an athlete when there's one event because I know some of our listeners like

they play a little bit but they'll play one bang or tournament like we have seaside the seaside

beach volleyball tournament there are some people that that's the only tournament each year

that they come out for and that's their fun thing the other one is potstown like the big grass

two on two tournament for a lot of people these might be the only two tournaments that they play in a

year but how did you shape training or stay motivated to practice for so long knowing that it's

only going to be a weekend or maybe a two week event yeah that's that's such a great question

because we we always said you could have you could have the worst weekend of your life and that's

the season like you don't have that yeah you you could show up for that one weekend and if you don't

ball like there's really no there's no there's no other game to catch up with so um the motivation

comes from the pride of being able to take part in that tournament so you imagine the entire

university of like hundreds of thousands of students just being able to make it to the school team

it's so difficult because you have to go to a trial process and then there's a lot of hundreds of

thousands in one university yeah like the University of University of Boyars is pretty big and so

it's that big I might be I might be exaggerated on the hundreds of thousands but definitely in the

in the thousands for sure um okay yeah thousands let's let's go with thousands so the University of

Boyars is really big and so making it to the school team is it's it takes a you you get a lot of

pride from being able to do that and the university games on its own is it's the biggest tournament

of the year we always call it like it's the it's a Cameroon Olympics it's like everybody you have

the you have the clubs isn't any championship but there's a lot of bragging rights to be able to

do that to be able to take part in that tournament so we have friendly games in between um that

season is punctuated by the it's punctuated by the league games so you get to play club games while

you're preparing for the university games so your season is like okay well we're getting ready

for the university games by by practicing and getting better for these club games so

um so it it was at the back of your mind but the fact that you also knew it's almost like the

Olympics the fact that it's just it's once every year and you don't have to you don't get to do

it again until the next year you stay motivated for those six months just getting ready so that

once it's time to go you you go give your best shot and you also get bonuses for winning because

we got paid to go playing those so that was a no yeah cool time out all right I need two minutes

because somebody's working on my house so stay here I've got my next question but I just

got to take care of myself and I'm just going to go to

all right so either playing for university in Cameroon how then do you end up in Canada

that's a that's a very good question all right so um that's where my beach volleyball

journey kind of begins so it takes over so I played indoor for for most of my career and in 2018

one of my former teammates Oben Darby Sanger he moved over to the US in 2000 and I think 2010

yeah 2010 by that point played NCAA and he had just this we just noticed that on the beach

volleyball scene like we had some other small African countries like Cameroon is a big volleyball

country we had other small African countries playing on the the proto like try to qualify for events

but it was nothing like Cameroon was not really invested in that and so he addressed out to me in

2017 I was like um would you want to qualify for the Olympics or Cameroon I'm like good I

was like I'm an indoor guy I think at a point he just seen me play beach volleyball like that was

my first year playing out beach volleyball like a body he was missing a partner and I was

waiting for an exam and he was like oh I don't have someone to go play with do you want to go

play there was like there was an international event in the only in Cameroon so I went and

played so I posted a few pictures and he saw that and so he addressed out and was like yeah

there's no one in Cameroon doing anything in beach volleyball would you want to hop on this

project with me I want to see if we can make a run for the 2020 Olympics so um so we got onto that

journey together and I just fell in love with beach volleyball at that point I started practicing

and it was hard because it nobody really played so it was in Cameroon it's indoor guys

will go play beach volleyball for like a tournament and then back to the indoor scene so there

thought wasn't really big at that point like it's getting so much better but it was usually

someone organized one tournament I would go play or there would be an international tournament

qualifiers somewhere in Africa and they'll pick the best two guys so the guys will play the most

to go play that tournament and so um so it was a lot of personal sacrifice and a lot of

investment and so by then we're getting closer to the Olympic qualifier um I had a friend who lived

here in Canada who lives here in Canada and so um got the opportunity to get an invite because

he lives in Baltimore so like okay we used to do him living uh Baltimore uh living the US

traveling down to Cameroon we'll practice for maybe one weekend and then go play tournament

and so what yeah and so we were doing pretty well but it was really tough and so uh the same

way that we got uh my first opportunity on the protor like I was literally practicing on my own

like I would grab teammates in your own they would reach out to people like do it up I have to go

play an event in Italy can you come and help me practice and so I had a few teammates who would

come out with me and so uh Obi would leave a fly from the US who would meet in Italy and then

click a few tournaments and then I go back to Cameroon and we just did that dude I mean the people

that I get to talk to are like I can't find a partner like I can't start because like I can't

find a partner your partner was in Atlantic Ocean away and a continent and you're still playing

international tournaments with him that's insane yeah did you guys like do any uh like video

meets or organize your practice or was the mentality kind of yeah you just work hard our

card we'll see what happens when we play yeah so it was it was a big exactly one it's a project

for crazy people like you needed two insane people to be able to hop on that and be like yeah we

can make this work and we also needed a trust that um the work ethic you needed a really trust

your partner that we because one it was we had to invest a lot of our our own money because

the federation would not pay for us to travel so we were not getting handouts to go for holidays

in Italy we had to invest our money into it and it only happened because Obi uh

Obi and I this song game invested a lot of his personal money to be able to make this happen

and so he trusted that I had the work ethic to be able to put in the work because I was I was playing

indoors and so he would send me he was already playing beach I think he just finished NCA he was

playing more beach than he was playing indoor at that point so he was kind of coaching me to it and

it was like okay I want you to work on this you send videos I was like work on this and I'll send

videos you you get feedback and you're like okay you need to load more on this side you need to

do this for your hands and so we just got coached through that process and then one would go to

Italy we always went at least one week before so that we could get reps um together before we played

the tournament yeah wow then the question still stands okay so you're living in Cameroon

your buddy who recruited you off of a picture from i guess instagram says let's play internationally

together um and so you're throwing down your own money traveling he had a couple of pieces of film

advice uh from him in Baltimore which is not a volleyball hotbed although shout out to Baltimore

beach um there they have those like nice five courts right on the bay there it

out of those tournaments go like okay so you're stepping into a sport right you played indoor

a lot of people play indoor before beach and you're trying to figure out beach on your own by

getting other indoor players out there and then your partner who has got some experience is also

trying to teach you over video like what you need to work on what were the biggest hurdles that you

had coming from indoor and then trying to just make it up on the beach uh what others did I not

have like everything like when I watch back I do games and I watch back I do games in Italy I'm like

oh my gosh I don't know how he played with me like I was so bad like it was so bad but I so

in the beginning everything the same things are all indoor players will move onto the beach spacing

like I would still trying to pass title the net um still trying to split the game so wide um didn't

have any beach hands like my hands like I had very indoor hands they were really bad like if you

watching me said now I had to put in so many hours to be like okay we got to make this work if I

have to be a better teammate I have to improve so what's everything about this sport the

kind of learner oh it looks like volleyball but it's a completely different sport like it was just

like yeah it's it's the same sport it wasn't the same so I had to I had to learn new things and so

here he did a good job and really being patient and just coaching me and being patient on the

sand because of the experience that he had and where he expected me to be and the competition

we're playing against we're playing against guys that that had been that either playing beach

all year round or had so much more experience than us so the result was the first the first few

tournaments were very good and then the more we played and I felt like okay I'm beginning to

understand this thing a little bit more and it was just a lot of watching other players on the

portal and we would go practice I would watch a lot of what the other guys on the tour would do

and I took a lot of videos and I would go back and I'm just trying to replicate the same things

so and then it got better there so it was it was a lot of it was a lot of work a lot of

difficulties adapted to the game what was if you had to pick the hardest transition was it attacking

was it passing was it defense was it setting like what what was the most difficult thing for you

or the thing that you need new needed to change the most passing and passing and setting whether

whether to be guess like I was I was pretty good at hitting and once I figured out my footwork

that got easier but really moving on the sand because of how much more space I had to cover in

terms of passing and being mindful of the location of the passes and it was just like yeah I haven't

in those Saturday I can just jacket up to him is still barely move but now I have a partner

who is beside me and setting was also very difficult because now I was outdoors the the

conditions were changing you had the wind you had the sun and just thinking about where I wanted

to put the ball all the time again it was I think those were the biggest challenges I had

okay so kind of so passing and then figuring out the offensive design and where you wanted to be

versus instead of like spreading to the pins every time figuring how to how to connect and there's

a couple of different offenses there that you can run like you can you can spread pin but

you also have to have it substantial amount of footwork exactly I didn't have the ball for it like I

I didn't have the ball control for us to do that consistently and be successful okay cool so

so now transition to yeah you're you're moving to Canada was this an indoor move was just just a life

move so it was it was a it was a beach move because we want I was we're going to get closer closer to

each other to prepare because we had there was a portal event in Halifax and so we're going to play

the portal event in Halifax and then get more reps my visa was six months so I had a six-month visa

so I was like okay we're going to try and make the most of the six months he could drive down he

has an uncle lithium Ottawa was it just easier to do the visa in Canada than it was U.S since he was

in Baltimore or yes it's it's we get into the U.S. from Cameron that was getting to Canada

okay so you're like hey we'll be within a two-hour flight of each other exactly probably like a 15-hour

drive or and that's that was easier than doing the whole like U.S. visa stuff yes I was

it was better than we saw like it was better than me being in Cameroon and not having to practice

with each other and getting a little bit closer and still have the opportunity to to be able to get

more than a couple of reps before autonomy okay cool so I was under the impression that like you

I don't know kind of typical like came for college in Canada and then like ended up staying there

because we have a lot of players like that where they'll come over for school they'll stay there

we know a few of our better beach coaches like marine who does all of our marketing she came over

to U.S. college university from France DJ Clasnick who's now on the AVP as well he came over four

volleyball for sure from Serbia which is a low beach volleyball country and he got a student visa

so he ended up getting his masters and and doing all of that while playing volleyball so like they

all found educational excuses to come and play a higher level than was in their country at the U.S.

but you went a different different route it wasn't for university yeah it wasn't and so I had

it was I had my six months on on my visa but during that six months I came here I did a lot of

networking and so I would go out to the beach and whenever I went I would play I just she know

when you're just moving into a new country I was just on Facebook or some looking for places to play

and so people would invite you what city did you move to I moved to Ottawa the capital here okay so you're

and you're still in Ottawa I'm still in Ottawa and that's where all your coaches and your training

and everything like your personal lessons and I know you've got a few places where you coach and

people that you coach in Ottawa so that's that's your center and that's your hub and where people

can find you right yeah that's yeah everything's happening in Ottawa nice yeah so um so when I moved

here I I met um so just networking and then I got linked to Derek Deadman and Derek Deadman

is the the fund of Deadman's Beach which I'm currently wrapping and so I've heard I think I've

seen it on Instagram Deadman's Beach yeah yeah so um so I I I show up one day playing with these

guys and so I was like oh I'm I live in Canata I just give up my head so I live in I live in Canata

I'm looking for a place to play um and someone called it's just like oh there's this guy who has

a beach volleyball court in his backyard and it's like we we play there on Mondays would you I'm

I'm just gonna reach out to him so cause Derek is just like oh there's this guy here who plays in

Camarons is he playing with a national team um can I invite him can I give him your number he's

like sure so when I took Derek's place we played on Monday I was like Monday 10 a.m. I had

so these guys are crazy what's playing volleyball at 10 a.m. on Monday

being jobless people a beautiful facility beautiful home with his beach volleyball court so

we played there and after I just got to share with him I interact a little bit and I think he's

one of the most passionate volleyball people you would ever find like this man loves volleyball so

much that when there's any event anywhere here in Canada he buys phone or seat tickets and he's

there with his family to watch every game like he would travel to go to Halifax to go watch the

the the the portal at the the future's events like he would watch anything that was volleyball

so um so I just got to share my story a little bit about what I was doing and the challenges were

facing and we connected there and then luckily tore him he had just established a dead man's beach

as a company so um that is how I ended up staying so I got hired by Derek to stay in Canada

to coach for dead man's beach and so you got in there I mean you got in there as a player but

you're also coaching there yes so once I was in Cameroon um I don't know like the last few years

you know when your your runs is something like it's always been there I come from a family of

teachers like my my family it's a big family of teachers my mom won't let me go to a teacher

training college I I didn't want it I didn't I didn't want to be a teacher but I don't point

once I was playing in Cameroon I was doing a part-time I was doing online teaching so I was teaching

French I was doing translation online so I did a lot of freelance work on my own and so I was

already teaching and then with the Cameroon the female national team when they're preparing for

the African nation's African nation's cup so I would I would go out and volunteer so I worked

with them for a couple of years like whenever they would prepare those tournaments and so I was

lucky enough to the head coach Jean-Rénaille Côneaux brought me on to the staff and so I stayed

with the squad for like the three months of preparation leaving in the hotel practicing with the girl

so I got to so I started rubbing my shoulders we coaching a little bit more even though I was

still playing and so just in between both worlds and I think just moving here Canada the fact that

there's no poly and Beach volleyball was now on the focus I was like okay with Beach volleyball

I have more time and coaching just became the natural the next natural progression all right cool

and then okay smooth to Canada to try to play get some connections by posting on Facebook and

hunting people down on Instagram so now you've got your play crew um and you're you're starting to

coach now next how do you end up with 55,000 followers on Instagram

yeah that is uh that is that is uh I mean I I love I love everything so I think when I was

back in camera and sometimes when I look at my I look at my Facebook page like the all ones like

I watch some of the videos that I would post like do push-up challenges like I've always been

I've always been drawn to that I've always wanted to create stuff like I'm very creative um and so

I've always wanted to create stuff and when I came here I was just like all right I have no more

excuses like I can easily have a camera here um there's facilities available things that I

couldn't have in camera why would I not create here and then um I I love a good challenge and so

I always ask myself like how do people grow massive accounts like how do people get one

it don't follow us and so I ask myself that question I'm like I we've come to the the land of

a long way things happen because as immigrants we always feel like yeah it's this is where there's

opportunity and so I came here without mind that I'm like there's an opportunity I'm gonna try

so it started it started as that like I'm just gonna put out the things that I did back in

camo on here and so the inspiration was I we didn't have big facilities like outside of the

practice time you didn't have access to the gyms so you couldn't really get any reps and so I

lived with my uncle and he had like a big year and so we had a wall at the back of the house

and so um I'll wake up every morning we had we used cement blocks to mold like a barbell

and so I would do squats with it so I had my life that we just created in the back of the house

so I'll wake up in the morning do my strength work do some passing and hitting those on the wall

shower uh walk on the do my freelance stuff and then go for practice so that was my routine

so when I came here I'm like yeah everything is so much more sophisticated but I grew

and I got better doing that so that love sharing us okay I'm gonna share how I got better

and I'm gonna find ways to be able to do it with what I have here and that's it's kind of the

nature of it right it's like if you can find more reps than somebody else can find no matter

where it is no matter when it is like we just did it um we said in our last podcast but like

Phil Dowhouse or was giving us hey how did you become the world's best setter for like seven

years in a row and he was just like I don't know kind of laying on my couch leaning back and setting

to myself for like three hours like uh no kidding you got thousands of reps like just sitting in your

living room and then on the court and then in the backyard and all of these touches count like

yeah you got to implement them at some point um but like finding a way to get reps and that's

why like we both have online courses and online programs right you have a substantial arm swing

program uh that you're running and we have like all of our beat volleyball courses and coaching

but so much of it and the question that we always get is how do I get you know I can't get to a court

I can't get to a court so how do I get better it's like dude there are so many ways to get

better without a court um if you have a wall and or a ball like there are thousands and thousands

of reps that you're missing on by just not touching a volleyball because you don't have a court like

that's that's not an excuse even in college when I was coming up um I use the squash court

like the indoor racket ball court um because we couldn't set up the nets on our own we didn't have

gym time the basketball guys had it and well how do I get better volleyball all right we're just

sitting here in the squash court I'm gonna hit against the wall I'm gonna set against the wall

I'm gonna serve against the wall and pass it and me and my buddy actually figured out that since we

had such terrible ball control that if we peppered in the squash court we spent like less than half

the time actually chasing the ball so we got double the reps so okay so you created you love

creating um you wanted to show people how to get better from home um and then you created this

arm swing and then uh we we ended up meeting through Instagram and now we're kind of working

together on the back end uh through like the business stuff so what's the next evolution for you

because for anybody out there who's like oh I don't have the credentials or the contacts to

become a coach well somebody just moved to a brand new country had zero contacts um now has 55

thousand followers on Instagram and has his private lessons and personal groups sold out like

someone figured it out people at home you can too right so now what's the next step for you are

you continuing beach volleyball are you more focused uh on coaching more focus on building the online

courses tell me a little bit about that all right so um it's it's a mix it's a mix of both

um at least what I know right now is I I want to make one more run for LA 2028 so um so thanks to

the internet once again there's another Franco Camaroney and got to him lives in France and

he saw he saw me posting like more content and he had reached out I think the year before

even when I was playing with my partner and so he was like dude I think we got a solid shot I

want to I want us to partner together to make uh see if we can make a run for LA 2028

I was like all right we we got another bottle on our hands we're not in the same one I

want to live in the same country he's in France I'm in Canada it's going to be at another order

but I think I have accepted that um the fact that we are not a big beach volleyball country

and this is on our Olympics it's a it's a it's a personal dream and so you got to make

these sacrifices for it and so if this is how it's going to be I think Obi and I had had that

conversation which was like dude we're gonna we're gonna stop making excuses about the fact that

we only practice two times together we got to find a way to make this work we chose to do this

and so um so got to Manaya working on the back and to make sure that we're getting everything

sorted so big thing for me was getting my paperwork sorted here in Canada so um that is going

in a really well and then um so the plan is to be able to go to France and uh get some training

camps he's he's in Montpellier they got they they have a really good Montpellier it's got a nice

facility yeah like he he's really good all of those young guys are coming up all over the

end France and so um so I'm really looking forward to it so on the spot at the side of it like

I want to make that run and on the coaching site I want to keep getting better at coaching but

on grow the business so long time it's gonna be to create a little bit of more like what you've

done people get them I want to be my own facility and Canada it's a really big dream I'm like if

you don't dream big then you might as well not dream so I want to build my own facility that's

going to be like a one-stop show for everyone you come in yeah you get your reps you get training

conditioning you get physios and then you get uh firm breakdowns so that's the that's the goal

right now is try and get more people to hit the ball better um so with the the program that we're

working on um just try to get more people to be able to hit the ball better reach more people

being Canada and outside um uh that's the goal like I'm I've been getting a lot of invites from

teams to be able to run practices for them so I've been coaching other teams now so people have

it to know for me to come coach their teams so that's something that has added itself that I didn't

initially have and so um so I'm really looking forward so I think we spoke about it so I'm like

I would love to take the show on the order at some point and and be able to coach people from

different places awesome well maybe we can get you at a better beach camp coach in uh one of our

one of our camps and squads for a little bit uh that would be fun yeah now um and just like spoiler

uh so for me if you guys listen to podcasts you know that occasionally I do very occasionally I do

business mentorship uh and coaching and me and Bruno we got to meet on Instagram through friends one

of his good buddies Guy he came out to a couple of camps and training sessions and he's like hey

you know maybe you should have a chat and um so now we're working together in like a mentor

mentee relationship on the online business side of it and how to get good information and training

programs into people's hands uh would you could you share like like two things that you think

we have worked on together from for the people who are here trying to grow their coaching

business uh people who don't think that they belong as a coach or or they think they're in the

wrong area uh what do you think we're doing or the best things that we've worked on so far that

have helped you from the business or developing as a coaching business side yeah um first of all

up the the world we're doing together has been awesome like the changes have been great but I'll

just go I'll go piece by piece just kind of give people more perspective on the world we're doing

I think the the first thing was just how you show yourself on the internet how you present yourself

that's a big one so when I started um you asked me the question are you trying to be an influencer or

are you trying to be a coach and when I looked at my account I discovered that it was I was lost in

between the two I was just like oh yeah I'm trying to be a coach but I'm presenting myself as an

influencer and so my message to people and the people I'm trying to address was lost like it

someone came to my pictures like nice is getting videos but who is he and so I think that's one

of the biggest things that people are getting lost in terms of you you you you need to understand

who you're trying to be and you need to show that version of yourself on the internet and so just

changing like the first conversation we had just me changing my bio to say who I was it's so

funny like even Derek saw that and he was like hmm okay something has changed that like he saw

he didn't say anything until like part of the conversation I was just like I noticed that you

changed your bio and it says this and I was okay people that know me can already see the change

then I'm imagining people who don't know me and just like okay I'm coming here because this is

what this guy can do like that was the that was a big one like the first one just showing my

things to self like what am I trying to be on the internet what am I trying to talk to what is my

audience like the second big one was just asking me just figuring out what my goals were like

sometimes you you set out and you don't really know what your goals are but asking me what my

goals were were also brought me back to looking at what I am doing like I think I'm doing it right

now and bringing me closer to my goals away from my goals and those questions just kind of hit

checkpoints I'm like all right I'm trying to do this and do this but everything that I am doing

is taking me away from what I'm trying to do versus close out to my goal that was a big one like

you just changed my mindset and I think one of the biggest ones to without putting so much is just

the fact that there's no one else if actually if anyone who's listening that is trying to be a

better coach was trying to get the know how you're trying to bring that knowledge to people like

you have been in the space so long that you know what works and what doesn't know that what doesn't

work in terms of the directions we're supposed to be taking the kind of conversations we have to

be doing and just setting priorities or just like little things like that it's just it just it

challenged me in the way I was looking at the business side of it and and it's been challenging

every day like the homework and we'll check that just like okay you got to do this so I don't

think there's anyone in the space that is more knowledgeable about being a great coach one

which you are and being a good business might which you've been able to blend both and like

it's it's already changing it's like I was able to make I was able to make six hundred and I

think six hundred and forty nine dollars without working with you and so I know for sure like once

this program gets going we're going to be making big bucks because of the changes I would for

them maybe because I can already feel it yeah yeah I'm excited to see the progression especially

you know that the little changes that we make now it's investing it's compounding right so it's

like if you invest a hundred dollars today it might not be anything but in a year it's a hundred

and ten dollars in thirty years it's you know ten times ten you know it becomes thousands and every

little change whether you make it in volleyball your sport and then you keep adding to that investment

bank through workouts through reps those compound upon each other and then that's how you develop a

good business that's how you develop a decent bank account that's how you develop like fitness

is these consistent deposits into the right account and so with your programs with getting arm

swing reps at home and learning how to attack and then training yourself how to learn how to attack

online and watching videos and then getting input from a coach that like make sure you don't head

in the wrong direction or deposit it into the wrong account like it's it tying sport and business

and life together is something that not enough coaches do but once you realize that the common threads

of hard work reps and then compounding interest in the right area get you a long way

it's a big deal and it's exciting to see like your many chat you're getting like a 95

percent open rate and I know that this is volleyball podcasts but like it's exciting to see that

people are now signing up for your programs getting your free downloads and if you guys haven't

followed him or heard of him please check out beast mode underscore volleyball and follow Bruno and

follow his path and we're rooting for him in the 2028 Olympics hope you get that that African spot

that would be really nice the continental spot I have to head to a player meeting right now but I

would love to have you on again and we'd love to have you come to a better beach camp and see if

you can give some of your knowledge to our campers so and then we'll see in a few months if I'm

as good as a business coach as I am a volleyball coach but just been a fun journey

cool thank you thank you thank you thank you so much for having me this is really fun thank you

appreciate it and have a great day and for anyone out there listening make sure you follow beast mode

volleyball on instagram check out his arm swing programs he's got a lot of at-home drills and coaching

programs and follow his journey to the 2028 Olympics fingers crossed for your buddy thank you very much

you're welcome