Chris Burns
Chris Burns has been a professional beach volleyball player for 9 years representing Australia in Thailand and Bali. As a player Chris’s best results include being the Victoria Open titleholder of 2008 and a 3rd in the National Tour event in the Gold Coast that same year amongst numerous other top ten finishes nationwide and Victorian titles.
Chris’s coaching acumen include taking the Victoria team to the national junior titles in 2008 and coaching many of the junior athletes to medal performances over the past 5 years. Chris’s coaching philosophy is that what happens on the court is a metaphor for what happens in life. Therefore he believes that in order to achieve greatness as an athlete you must also look to achieve greatness as a person. It is this holistic blend that makes the sessions vary from perfecting skill to looking at and exposing the demons inside. Some of Chris’s most important beliefs to his coaching include:
- Understanding that beach volleyball is a two person game and as such you must perform as one unit not two individuals.
- Technique perfection requires repetition and a keen awareness of what it is you are trying to rep.
- The game is all about movement and moving to the rhythm of the ball.
- The game is an athletic game and that you need to build explosive endurance to be able to play out a tournament to the best of your ability.
- The psychology of the game is very much like boxing. You must learn your opposition, know how they throw their punches and at the same time have such an understanding of your own combos that you throw them without effort or thought.
Beach volleyball can be played at all levels and Chris’s training sessions includes opportunities for all levels from beginner to advanced to succeed in achieving their goals.
Chris is the current manager of Insportz Sandringham and a co-founder of 2 ducks volleyball and co-director of Brutal Training. Chris also was president of Beach Volleyball Victoria for 3 years and ran the Victorian tour in the 2007/08 period when VicBeach first took on the project helping to grow the tour to where it is today.