Secrets of Coaching Success: Aigars Birzulis (Part 1)

After getting some insights from several top-level volleyball coaches, today I introduce my second beach volleyball guest in the series. Aigars Birzulis is a Latvian specialist, who coached Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova to the continental title at the 2022 CEV European Championship in Munich and Latvia’s women’s national team to bronze at the inaugural CEV BeachVolley Nations Cup 2022 in Vienna.

Aigars was born some 58 years ago when Latvia was still part of the Soviet Union. He played indoor volleyball in his youth years and even won a medal at the USSR Junior Championship.

He started working as a coach and sports methodologist in the mid-1980s and has since coached at various indoor volleyball clubs in Latvia. In 2005, Birzulis led the team of Incukalns/LU to the national championship title.

For many years he also head coached Latvia’s junior and youth national teams and even steered them to an eighth place finish at the 1997 FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship. In a way, that job served as a stepping stone towards his career as a beach volleyball coach.

To keep his players in good shape, he had them practice beach volleyball during the summers. In 1996, when the inaugural CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championships were held in Jurmalа, two of Birzulis’s men’s duos made it to the podium – Austris Stalls & Armins Vensbergs with gold and Aldis Jaunzeikars & Klavs Zalkalns with bronze – and this is how his coaching career on the sand formally started.

More success was soon on the way. Between 2003 and 2011, Birzulis’s boys’ teams picked up another six continental medals at various age-category European Championships, including Janis Peda & Toms Smedins’s U18 title in 2003 and Toms Smedins & Janis Smedins’s U20 title in 2005.

Meanwhile in 2008, Aigars Birzulis graduated as a volleyball coach from the Latvian Academy of Sports Education. Before the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, he worked with Latvian Olympians Martins Plavins & Aleksandrs Samoilovs for three months.

His first major international coaching success at the senior level, however, came with Martins Plavins & Janis Smedins’s bronze at the 2010 European Championship in Berlin. They followed that up with a fourth place at the 2011 FIVB World Championship in Rome and, most importantly, with an Olympic bronze at London 2012. Birzulis also coached Martins Plavins & Haralds Regza to a historic gold at the Baku 2015 European Games.

Birzulis celebrating the London 2012 Olympic bronze with Plavins & Smedins

From 2014 to 2016, Birzulis claimed three international medals coaching Latvian age-category women’s teams – a 2014 U17 World Championship bronze with Tina Graudina & Linda Gramberga, a 2015 U18 European Championship title with Tina Graudina & Paula Neciporuka and a 2016 U22 European Championship title with Tina Graudina & Anastasija Kravcenoka.

Birzulis coached in Finland from 2017 to 2020. Since 2021 he has been involved with an FIVB development project coaching youth girls’ teams in Lithuania.

In August 2022, he was asked by the Latvian federation to be in charge of the women’s teams competing at the two major CEV events of the season. At the first-ever edition of the Nations Cup in Vienna, Birzulis steered the national team consisting of Anastasija Kravcenoka, Anete Namike, Tina Graudina and Varvara Brailko to the bronze medals. Then, under his guidance, Anastasija & Tina triumphed at EuroBeachVolley in Munich after winning all six of their matches and dropping a single set (in the final) along the way.

At the 2022 CEV Nations Cup with the Latvian women’s national team

For his achievements as a coach, Aigars Birzulis was made a Cavalier of the Order of Three Stars, Latvia’s highest state award for special merits.

Since July 2020, Aigars Birzulis has also been coaching at the sports center in the town of Marupe near Riga.

In his leisure time, the coach likes to go fishing and picking mushrooms and berries in nature.

“Cranberries are the same shape as volleyballs, so they always bring me a lot of good thoughts, because no matter where I am beach volleyball is in my head and heart.”

Aigars Birzulis
Beach volleyball coach

Secrets of Coaching Success: Spiros Karachalios (Part 3)

The fifth episode of the series is the first one to feature a beach volleyball coach, Spiros Karachalios, the Greek specialist, who mentored his teams to three European Championship titles and numerous prestigious international podiums, led Poland’s Bartosz Losiak & Piotr Kantor to the top of the FIVB World Ranking in 2018, and recently steered the Swiss women’s national team to a historic trophy at the inaugural CEV BeachVolley Nations Cup. Here is the last part of the interview he gave for cev.eu.

Continued from Part 2

The CEV Nations Cup you recently won coaching the women’s national team of Switzerland was something different. Please share your experience at that competition.

“It was a nice and interesting experience for me as we had the chance to compete in a different format. I have to say that I really liked this format for this kind of event. The CEV and the promoter in Vienna made some adjustments to the Continental Cup format and, in my opinion, the result was much more attractive. Big shout-out to the CEV and the organizers for including the coaches in the awarding ceremony, showing some recognition for our work! About coaching, I already participated in some events in the past (Brazilian tour, Continental Cup, junior tournaments), where the coach was allowed to be in the players’ box and interact with them in a similar way as it was at the CEV Nations Cup. Even the FIVB tested it on the World Tour at the 2005 Athens Open.

“As a coach, I feel much better when I can also be part of the game and have the chance to help my team win the game. In addition, competing against fellow coaches live during the match is much more interesting than just watching the games of your team without having any chance to influence and have an impact on the result. I believe that, more or less, most of the coaches just feel helpless, when they watch their team play from the outside. Another benefit I could experience and see is that the learning process for the players is much faster, when the coach can interact with them in real time during the matches. In my opinion, practice is very important, but the real games offer us the examples and the opportunities for growth. When you can connect your trainings with the different game situations in real time, you are learning and growing much faster as an athlete.”

There has been a trend of introducing more and more team competitions like the Nations Cup, the Continental Cup, the World Beach Games 4×4, national leagues, etc. Will this trend increase the importance of the beach volleyball coach role?

“To be honest, I don’t believe that these kind of competitions mentioned above should be the main product of our sport in the future. I can see them more as complementary events, adding something interesting and perhaps some extra value to the whole package. In this sense, I also don’t believe that, in the end, they can really increase the importance of the beach volleyball coach role. However, these events are great opportunities to introduce the role of the coach during the matches, which helps the media and the public to better understand the importance of the beach volleyball coach role.”

Name something about the coaching profession in beach volleyball you think the general public knows little about.

“Always, the first impression of somebody hearing the word ‘beach’ brings in mind summer, warm weather, beautiful places, holidays… However, for us there is unbelievably too much travelling all year long, which automatically means too little time at home to spend with friends and family. The weather conditions can also be very extreme, much different from that first impression! I will never forget that it was snowing during some matches in Moscow in June 2017!”

What has been the key to your coaching success so far?

“Success is a result of multiple factors and sometimes it is difficult to determine what the key is. I would say that there are even different keys behind different success stories. However, I can describe what I feel was important for me. I believe that one of the most important things I try to do is just keep learning, keep developing, keep questioning everything and brainstorm. Always be willing to go a step further. I try to have a vision for every new team and then build a tailor-made plan for them with the way to get there. Of course, it is normal to have one philosophy, but you need to keep in mind that you need to make small or big adjustments according to the players and the team you are coaching. When I look at it now, I am happy that most of the time I could communicate and pass this vision to my athletes and my staff. For that, I had to find different ways, different ideas, different plans… After all, we have different athletes, different people, different teams… Finally, in my opinion, building a strong TEAM is fundamental for success. My short definition of this is ‘a group of people with common goals, where every member acknowledges exactly his/her role in the team and is working daily with precision and maximum effort to increase his/her efficiency, in order to reach the common goals TOGETHER as a team’.”

Some champagne for the coach too!

What is the main thing you try to teach your players?

“If I have to limit it to one or two things, I would say self-responsibility and solution-oriented mindset. Self-responsibility is the base for building a strong team. I always say that building a team starts from the moment the members have awareness of their self-responsibility. In addition, I believe that in beach volleyball it is very important to teach the players to think solution-wise. Beach volleyball is a sport of many different situations, which you need to be able to recognize without the coach during the game, and then make fast decisions to anticipate what is going on at the moment. Players need to orientate much more towards solutions. It will definitely help them in efficient fast decision-making, which will eventually lead to reacting successfully in real time, according to the specific situations in every game.”

Is there a coach, from beach volleyball or another sport, you look up to and follow as a role model?

“I don’t try to follow somebody as a role model, because I believe that you have to be authentic and build your own way. However, at the same time, I can tell you that I look up to so many coaches from beach volleyball and other sports as well. It is very interesting and beneficial for me to find out other perspectives and new ideas. There are so many great coaches out there, who share their stories and experiences, and you can always catch something new, which in some point perhaps will help you in your unique way. I prefer not to mention specific names, because my list is really endless.”

How do you rest and recover outside your job?

“That’s a tough one! There are many moments when your vision keeps your mind active even when you have a day off or some holidays. Through the years and different experiences, I realize more and more the importance of disconnecting from volleyball for some periods. I can’t say that I am always successful at that, but my family and especially my young son help a lot in this direction! I really enjoy spending time with them, making short trips or just doing various activities. I also enjoy riding my motorcycle around Athens. It relaxes me and brings some peace to my mind.”

Secrets of Coaching Success: Spiros Karachalios (Part 2)

The fifth episode of the series is the first one to feature a beach volleyball coach, Spiros Karachalios, the Greek specialist, who mentored his teams to three European Championship titles and numerous prestigious international podiums, led Poland’s Bartosz Losiak & Piotr Kantor to the top of the FIVB World Ranking in 2018, and recently steered the Swiss women’s national team to a historic trophy at the inaugural CEV BeachVolley Nations Cup. Here is the full interview he gave for cev.eu.

What prompted you to become a beach volleyball coach?

“I love beach volleyball, but I can’t say that it was a conscious or planned decision to become a beach volleyball coach. I would say that it was more a sequence of coincidences, together with the passion that I have for the sport, that shaped my way and drove me there. I started playing volleyball at the age of 11 in a local club in my neighborhood, Ambelokipi, located in the center of Athens. The funny thing is that as juniors we were only playing outdoors, because the club didn’t have an indoor facility. My teammates and I used to play 2×2 tournaments on that outdoor volleyball court all day long. This was my first contact with something that was somewhat like beach volleyball and I really enjoyed it much more than volleyball. Soon I also started competing in national youth and junior categories in beach volleyball and I was quite successful. I kept playing both versions also as a senior and I could make a living doing what I loved, while studying economics.

“In 1998, Efi Sfyri & Vasso Karadassiou decided to quit indoor volleyball, focus only on beach volleyball and make a run for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. At that time, it was already decided that the 2004 Olympic Games would be held in Athens, so the Greek volleyball federation started to invest in beach volleyball. They hired a beach volleyball coach from USA, Jeff Alzina, to train the girls and develop one of the first professional federation beach volleyball programs in Europe. I was just there, trying to get every opportunity I could to play beach volleyball, and one day Efi and Vasso just asked me if I could join their trainings on a more regular basis so that I could help the new coach as an assistant and as a training partner. Sure, why not… and that was the turning point and my first contact with coaching. Of course, at that time I still was a passionate player and I was seeing this part-time coaching as an opportunity to learn things and develop myself as a player. At the same time, I was also really enjoying this new role and kept doing it also with the next coach, Alemao from Brazil. For me coaching is much more complex than playing, which at the end makes it really, really interesting.

“Finally, the girls qualified for the Olympics in Sydney and I was so excited… I remember I would stay awake at crazy times, because of the time difference, just to watch their games live, and Ι already had a coaching perspective. After the Olympics in Sydney, it was very clear to me that I wanted somehow to participate in the next Olympics in Athens. For various reasons I didn’t see a chance as a player at that moment, and I guess that subconsciously I made a choice to invest more and more in coaching. As a person, I am ambitious and I like to keep developing. Looking back now, I believe that, in my case, there were much more opportunities to develop as a coach and this definitely played a role to make the transition from playing to coaching at a really young age.”

In many cases, a coach is an employee of the duo he/she is coaching. Please explain the psychology of such a relationship with the players.

“Perhaps I am not the best person to explain the psychology of such a relationship, because I see the coaching job in a very specific way. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter so much who your employer is. Anyway, as a coach, you should be able to inspire, develop the players and the team in order to meet some specific goals. In case the interaction between the players and the coach stops being productive, for me it does not matter who the employer is – it has to end. Players, a federation or a president of a club can be your employer, but you need to be yourself and just play your coaching role in the best possible way. In this sense, the psychological part of the job and the interaction with the players remain pretty similar for me, no matter who the employer is. I strongly believe that, in order to be a successful coach, you cannot be afraid of losing your job. On the contrary, you MUST be willing to risk or change your job, when things are not working in the right way.”

When coaching a beach pair, do you focus more on improving the individual skills of each player or on improving the interaction between the two?

“It depends on the period and the phase of the specific team, but you definitely have to focus in both directions. In beach volleyball, we are much more limited in terms of solutions, when things are not working. For example, you don’t have substitutions during the match, you can’t just select or buy new players for the next season, you can’t coach during the match… You just have two players and, when you want to improve, you need to keep working on improving the individual skills. However, the interaction between them is also very important, especially with the absence of the coach during the official games. As a coach, you should usually find the right balance between the tasks that you need to work.

“As I see it, there is no magic recipe. Every athlete and every team is unique! My experiences showed me that, in our sport, it is essential to keep growing as a team. Otherwise, there are always other teams that catch up and eventually pass you. You can’t just stay the same, even in moments when you are already good and successful. At least you usually have more time for improving the individual skills of the players than you do with professional indoor volleyball teams. Luckily, there is also such a wide range of skills which the players need to master that there is always something to work on and improve. In the end, improving the individual skills and building some tools for anticipating the many different situations that our game offers is also helpful for improving the interaction between the players.”

Spiros Karachalios during a CEV Nations Cup match

Unlike indoor volleyball, coaching during beach volleyball matches is generally not allowed. What is the reasoning behind this rule and would you change it?

“I don’t think that there is a specific reason; it just comes from the roots of the game. For sure, I would change it. Beach volleyball progressed a lot during the years and professional coaching played a huge role in the growth of the playing level. We need to keep evolving as a sport and I believe that the interaction of the coach during the games will further improve the level and could make the matches even more interesting. Even in tennis, which is a much more traditional sport, they are making more and more steps to include the coach in some parts of the game. On the other hand, I am sure that I wouldn’t like constant interaction like there is in volleyball nowadays, because it would kill the character of beach volleyball. My proposal would be that the coach can interact with the players only between the sets and during timeouts.”

Because of that rule, beach volleyball coaches are hardly ever in the media spotlight and generally unknown to the wide public. Is this good or bad for the sport?

“I can’t see any reason why this is good for our sport. In general, fans are interested in having access to more information about their favorite teams. Hearing the coach’s perspective can give you extra insight or a different view on a game. As a fan of other sports, I definitely like to know more about the coaches and find it really interesting to watch or read interviews, post-game reports, etc. Anyway, coaches have a role in the team and are also part of every success and every failure. Why should we hide them?”

Secrets of Coaching Success: Spiros Karachalios (Part 1)

After hearing from several top-level volleyball coaches, today I introduce my first beach volleyball guest in the series. Spiros Karachalios is a 43-year-old Greek specialist, who recently steered the Swiss women’s national team to a historic trophy at the inaugural CEV BeachVolley Nations Cup.

Spiros was born in 1979 and started when he was 11 years old. The local club in Athens did not have an indoor facility, so Spiros and his teammates had to practice their favorite sport, playing two on two at an outdoor court. It was not on sand, but close enough to the beach version of the game.

As he grew up, Spiros competed in both disciplines, but it was beach volleyball that he enjoyed the most. He and his partner Dimitrios Nerantzis represented Greece at the inaugural 1999 CEV U23 Beach Volleyball European Championship in Schinias and finished fifth. In 2003, Karachalios made a couple of more international appearances at FIVB tournaments as a player, but at the time, he was already more drawn to the coaching profession.

In 1999, he started as an assistant coach to the Greek women’s duo of Efi Sfyri & Vasso Karadassiou, helping them on the road to qualifying for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Karachalios stayed on as an assistant coach through 2004, when Sfyri & Karadassiou finished ninth at the home Olympics in Athens. During that period, the Greek pair also topped the podium at the 2001 CEV European Championship in Jesolo.

For the next Olympic cycle, Karachalios was promoted to a coaching position with the Greek women’s national teams. He claimed two more EuroBeachVolley titles at Moscow 2005 and Valencia 2007 with Vasso Karadassiou & Vasiliki Arvaniti, as well as several medals on the FIVB World Tour, including gold at the 2005 Stavanger Grand Slam. Karachalios also led Efthalia Koutroumanidou & Maria Tsiartsiani to a ninth-place finish at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

During that period, the Greek specialist also had his first coaching assignment abroad, working with Finnish twins Emilia Nystrom & Erika Nystrom.

In 2010 and 2011, Karachalios worked with Greece’s youth national teams and, in 2012, he coached the Polish men’s pair of Michal Kadziola & Jakub Szalankiewicz steering them to a fourth place at the European Championship in the Hague and bronze medals at the CEV Continental Cup and the FIVB World Cup Finals.

As a coach of the Greek men’s team of Georgios Kotsilianos & Nikos Zoupani, he took a fifth place at the 2013 FIVB Grand Slam in Xiamen and a couple of continental medals, silver at the 2015 CEV Satellite in Skopje and bronze at the 2014 CEV Satellite in Vaduz. They also won the 2014 BVA Balkan Tour.

At the helm of German women’s duo Chantal Laboureur & Julia Sude, Karachalios celebrated with a number of prestigious international podiums, including gold medals at the 2016 FIVB Porec Major and at the 2016 CEV Jurmala Masters, helping the team reach as high as the number three spot in the FIVB World Ranking.

Spiros Karachalios’s coaching career peaked during the next Olympic cycle, when he drove his Polish pair of Bartosz Losiak & Piotr Kantor to the number one position in the men’s World Ranking for several months in 2018.

His achievements as a coach of Poland’s men’s national teams included World Tour four-star gold medals at Warsaw 2018 and Sochi 2021, a five-star silver at Gstaad 2017 and a EuroBeachVolley bronze at Vienna 2021 with Losiak & Kantor, as well as Doha 2020 four-star gold, a Vienna 2018 five-star silver and a Tokyo 2020 Olympics ninth-place with Michal Bryl & Grzegorz Fijalek. Amazingly, he had both of these pairs on the podium at the 2018 World Tour Finals in Hamburg, with bronze and silver, respectively.

After the Games in Tokyo last year, Spiros Karachalios took over women’s bronze medalists Joana Heidrich & Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland. They made it to their first Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour semifinal at the Ostrava Elite16 event in May. Just a few days later, the Swiss were well on their way to the FIVB World Championship podium at Rome 2022, after a 21-16 win in the first set and a 10-7 lead in the second set of the bronze medal match, when Heidrich received a grave shoulder injury as she was serving, which forced them to forfeit the game and settle for the fourth place.

With Menia Bentele stepping in as Verge-Depre’s partner while Heidrich is recovering, Karachalios led the Swiss women’s national team, also including Nina Brunner & Tanja Huberli, to triumph at the inaugural 2022 CEV BeachVolley Nations Cup in Vienna this summer. Shortly after that, Verge-Depre & Bentele also finished fifth at EuroBeachVolley 2022 in Munich.

“I believe that one of the most important things I try to do is just keep learning, keep developing, keep questioning everything and brainstorm. Always be willing to go a step further.”

Spiros Karachalios
Beach Volleyball Coach

Beach Volleyball Coach – Israel

The Israel Volleyball Association are looking to recruit a beach volleyball coach to join their team of coaches within the National Team Programme.

The deadline for any applications is Thursday 22nd December. Please see document below for further information.

Vacancy: Budapest Beach Volleyball Coach

Position Overview:

UTE, one of the biggest sport clubs in Hungary, located in Budapest (the capital) is looking for a Junior Beach Volleyball Head Coach. The club’s volleyball section has one of the most successful elite junior indoor volleyball programs in the country. They also have a professional women’s indoor volleyball team, which plays in the Extra League (best 6 teams in the nation).

Last year, the club built 4 beach volleyball courts and started to introduce beach volleyball for their athletes. They would like to establish an elite junior beach volleyball program and look for a HEAD COACH.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

· Design a training program for Elite Junior Beach Volleyball Players.

· Organize, mentor, and supervise the coaching staff to assure that the program is properly

implemented.

· Coordinate and supervise the Beach Volleyball program and the teams.

· Help to harmonize the club’s Junior Beach Volleyball Program with Indoor Volleyball Program.

· Have coaching responsibility for the best and most talented beach volleyball teams.

· This position will report to the Director of Volleyball, who oversees the direction of both the indoor and beach programs.

· Support the philosophy and vision of the club.

· Communicate effectively with the management, staff, coaches, and the athletes.

· This position will be required to work nights and weekends and travel when necessary.

Minimum Qualifications (Including Certificates and Licenses):

· Certified volleyball coach (advantage: University degree in volleyball coaching, any certification in beach volleyball)

· At least 5 years of beach volleyball coaching experience (preferably elite junior players who play at the highest level)

· Head coach experience is an advantage

· Knowledge of individual and team skills with the ability to teach these skills

· Use of English at a conversational level

Position: Full-time position Contract period: 15 May 2022 – 15 August 2022

Compensation: salary + housing provided (salary is negotiable)

If you are interested in this position: Please send us an application to utebeachvolleyball@gmail.com , a cover letter indicating your interest and qualifications for this position, a resume/cv that includes employment history (including dates of employment) and if you have, professional references with contact information.

Scottish Volleyball to host FIVB Beach Volleyball Coaches Course for first time

Scottish Volleyball, in partnership with FIVB, are delighted to announce their first ever International Beach Volleyball Coaches course, which will run from March 29 to April 12.

The course is an opportunity for current and future coaches to receive the best tuition from a world-renowned tutor. With the establishment of more Beach Volleyball clubs than Scotland has ever had before, Scottish Volleyball are supporting the development of this discipline of the game with the guidance and knowledge of FIVB.

The course will be delivered online, with the support of FIVB Tutor, Vangelis Koutouleas. Vangelis is a former Greek professional athlete and current coach with a wealth of experience at all levels of Volleyball and Beach Volleyball. He has coached Volleyball in the European Championships, the Champions League, the CEV Cup, the Greek professional league, and the Volleyball England Super League. His Beach Volleyball coaching experience includes a bronze medal in the 2018 Commonwealth Games, a silver medal in the 2017 Youth Commonwealth Games and he has coached several British, Cypriot and Greek teams featuring on the World Tour, the World Championships, the European Championships, the Greek Pro Tour and the UKBT.

“Scottish Volleyball is delighted to announce our collaboration with FIVB and the highly experienced and talented course tutor, Vangelis Koutouleas. I urge all Scottish and international Beach Volleyball coaches to grasp this opportunity and register your participation. As CEO, I offer Vangelis all of Scottish Volleyball’s support and wish him and participants a fantastic course.”

Margaret Ann Fleming MBE
CEO of Scottish Volleyball

Scottish Volleyball Interim Coaching Officer, John Scrimgeour describes the course and the value it has: “This is a fantastic opportunity for coaches to engage with a high-quality tutor to develop and increase their knowledge of Beach Volleyball teaching, tactics and techniques.”

The programme of the course includes three parts:

  • Part 1 will be a series of e-learning modules via the FIVB e-learning platform. This part must be completed before commencing Part 2.
  • Part 2 will be a series of online webinars, which all participants must attend. The programme for these webinars will be released in due course.
  • Part 3 is an online examination in which candidates must meet a certain pass mark, which the tutor will explain during the webinars.

Registration

To register for this course, please click here. The cost for Scottish Volleyball members is £ 250 and £ 300 (approximately € 356) for non-members.

Offensive Strategies

March 10, 2022 // Los Angeles 12:00 PM, Rio 5:00 PM, London 8:00 PM, Tokyo 5:00 AM (+1)


It’s that time of year when we have the opportunity to review what and how we teach. If you missed January’s session, Victor Anfiloff, former Head Coach of the Dutch national program, shared different defensive tactics. It was such a great session that we didn’t get to offensive strategies. Join us in this second take as Victor shares his ideas on how to disrupt blockers in side-out. This hour long (you might want to schedule a bit of extra time if it goes like the defensive session) masterclass will be beneficial for coaches at all levels.


Masterclasses are one-hour live virtual sessions that serve as a platform for professional coaches to showcase their research, share their experiential learnings, and present approaches to advancing the game. This is the art of coaching at its core. They are designed for current and aspiring professional beach coaches who are looking to enhance their approaches and to learn from the panel of speakers. It is hosted by an AVCA or IBVCA member moderator and participants can submit questions to the speakers. Each Masterclass is awarded 1 BEACH ACE credit. There is no charge for AVCA and IBVCA current members. The registration fee for non-members is $10. For more information on Beach ACE, including how to become a member, click here.

VICTOR ANFILOFF Olympic Coach

Victor Anfiloff is currently the Head of Education with the International Beach Volleyball Coaches Association (IBVCA). He is a three-time Olympic coach for the Netherlands (2008, 2012 and 2020). Victor was also the Talent Coach for the Netherlands for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Victor is an advocate for developing educational opportunities and professional sustainability for beach coaches globally.

Offensive and Defensive Tactics

#beachACE Masterclass 1

January 20, 2022 // Los Angeles 12:00 PM, Rio 5:00 PM, London 8:00 PM, Tokyo 5:00 AM (+1)


It’s that time of year where we have the opportunity to review what and how we teach. Join Victor Anfiloff, former Head Coach of the Dutch national program, as he shares his ideas on how to manufacture break/defensive points and also how to disrupt blockers in side-out. This one-hour masterclass will be beneficial for coaches at all levels.

VICTOR ANFILOFF Olympic Coach

Victor Anfiloff is currently the Head of Education with the International Beach Volleyball Coaches Association (IBVCA). He is a three-time Olympic coach for the Netherlands (2008, 2012 and 2020). Victor was also the Talent Coach for the Netherlands for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Victor is an advocate for developing educational opportunities and professional sustainability for beach coaches globally.

Beach ACE – Coaching in the Box: Scaling Performance Up

 

SPEAKERS

LEWIE LETT (HOST) Olympic and FIVB World Tour Commentator, Beach Coach Team GB

Lewie Lett currently works full-time in sport. His roles vary between broadcasting and coaching. Lett is experienced in both areas having commentated on multiple volleyball world championships and world tour events for the sports federation, the FIVB and also having coached Beach Volleyball for Team GB at the first European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Lett has vast experience, not only in elite sport, but also within developing athletes. He has worked in football, cricket, and skiing and also as a multi-skills coach. Lett mentors coaches and has run many coach development programmes. He studied sports psychology and also sports coaching and athlete development. His educational background and experience help aid his role as an educator but also as a sports broadcaster.


JEFF CONOVER Olympic Coach and AVP Senior Director

Jeff Conover is currently the AVP Senior Director for Sport and Competition driving the development of coaching in the box for the professional tour in the US. He has continued to enhance the role of the beach coach and offers a unique insight into how the AVP has advocated for this competitive advantage.

Jeff, a former player, turned coach and continues to hit the sand with some of the best talent in the US. He also coached and prepared Team USA for the London Olympics with April Ross and Jen Kessy who won the silver medal.


ANNA COLLIER Olympic and Former Head Coach at USC Women’s Beach

Anna is an Olympic beach volleyball coach who led the University of Southern California to three National Championships with an overall record of 206-38. She is the 2019 NCAA Beach National Coach of the Year and has coached numerous teams representing the USA at home and abroad.

She has seen and advocated for the continued development of the professionalization of beach coaching and offers a unique perspective on how it has advanced the game over the years.

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