June 26, 2024 • 33 mins
Welcome to Unbreakable! A mental wealth podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today’s episode, Jay welcomes in 3-time Olympic Indoor Volleyball Player, 2-time Silver Medalist, the GREAT Lindsey Berg to the podcast. Absolutely no one better to chat with while the Olympic trials are in full force!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental Wealth podcast
build you from the inside out. Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome into Unbreakable mental Wealth podcast with Jay Glazier.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I'm Jay Glazier, and I want to welcome in somebody.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
You know, when I think of Unbreakable, it's actually who
I think of and the reason why she is my
partner in Unbreakable Performance seven that we opened up.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
But she's also she is a gee, she's a gangster.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
We are in the middle of the Olympic trials right now,
so who better to have on than my partner in
Unbreakable Lindsay Burg. Lindsay Burgh has been on three US
Olympic women's volleyball teams. She was the captain of two
of those US Olympic Women's volleyball teams, and she has
two silver medals as well. One of those teams was
like an eighth or nineth seene, right, Lindsay, And look,
(00:53):
you and I have been around each other a lot,
and you know, and we first opened Unbreakable too.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I wanted to partner with a very hour woman, and man,
are you ever like you are?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
If I could bottle up what you have behind your ribcage,
in between your ears, which is what we try to do,
and give it to these other athletes and every other sport,
there'd be a lot more champions out there.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
So, first of all, thank you for joining me.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Thank you for having me Jay, such an honor. Obviously,
it's been great to be a business partner and just
see both of us go through so many times that
could have broken us. Let's put it out here we are.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I wanted that because I've had a lot of Olympians
out I've had Michael Phelps and early on obviously that's
my guy, and Michael h very public.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
How much we still help.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Each other mental health wise, like we lean into each other,
we call each other when just to check to make
sure you've done that for me.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I've done that for you.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Lindsey Vaughan, she's been on who also is one of
my mental health buddies.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
But you have been so consistent in my life being
there for me. And it's cool because I got a
lot of friends in the NFL whose.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Daughters played volleyball, and I was like, oh, we should
have work with my partner Linda Berg, and they're like
your partner, like they go crazy when they hear your name,
which is wild. So I mean, there's so many ways
you and I could start for our listeners who don't
know you kind of give an overview of you know
why I think you're such a gexter face basically, but
(02:17):
what your career has been, and it's been an uphill
battle for you.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Yeah, for sure. I think what people a lot of
people don't know is I'm from Honolulu, Hawaii, born and
raised there, come from an incredible family and incredible support system,
and even in Hawaii, volleyball is one of the biggest sports.
Not many people know the support there, even in the
college level, is ridiculous. So one my first unbreakable moment
was when I went to the University of Minnesota from Hawaii.
(02:43):
So I almost broke at that moment.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, why did you go to the coldest place ever?
Speaker 4 (02:49):
You know, I had a really interesting recruiting process being
from Hawaii. To go on my recruiting trips, it was
so far. I didn't want to leave my volleyball team
in varsity in my senior year, so I just couldn't
plan these these visits and so slowly schools were like
checking me off, like she wants to come here, but
we can't get her here and we need to sign somebody.
(03:10):
And then also people really doubted my size and my
athletic ability. So some of the schools that I did
want to go to, I was like maybe third on
their lists, on and so forth, and I just got
really sick of the whole process. And my dad knew
the coach and he's like, please, just like go on
a visit. And I was like, the coach was great,
and I want to assume you went this summer like August.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah, guy, it's beautiful in August.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Gorgeous, right, Yeah, So I went and I kind of
was just like defeated in the whole process of recruiting.
And I was like, I can go to business school.
I know I'm going to play all four years. I
can build this program, and I just I picked it
and I did it.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
So yeah, I'm back then and you're like I could
build this program.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Yeah, because it wasn't They weren't the Final fourteen yet,
and so I could go. I could walk on to Stanford,
go to a team that's been in the Final four
and who knows if I would have played all four
years even if I was good enough or deserve to,
and would I would have had a hard time on
the bench. So I chose to build a program.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
But one of the things, and I'm going to jump
all over ahead to your Olympic career. Yeah, and we
talk about you and I'll feel battle if you will
you don't. There's something you shan and I want you
to kind of say it were people got to judge
you by your cover.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yeah, for sure. That was my whole career, even starting
at home in Hawaii. Of course, in the real real life,
I guess five eight is tall for a woman, but
five eight was definitely not tall in the volleyball world.
I was also it's a thicker set and not like
just like a small string bean, and my body didn't
look as athletic as people especially wanted it to, and
(04:46):
so they would judge me first by just that for
how I was going to play and how good I
was going to be. And I mean it was still
till my third Olympics. I was people were talking shit
on the internet about how I looked, so like one
wasn't even enough, two wasn't enough. Even in my third
you know, I had to read the blogs and still
still trying to prove myself while I was on that team.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Wow, So take me through trials.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, and I know it's like for track and field
and those sports, and we'll get there. Because it's unbelievable
to me that Olympians have to wait four years for redemption,
where like I lost the fight and I talked to
that promoter that night, I'm like, I want on your
next card.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I gotta waited four months to fight again.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Or in the NFL, you just got to wait a year, right,
or you wait a couple of months and you start
training again for it four years. We'll get to that
a little bit because that's that is maddening to me.
But give me the process of making the Olympics.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Yeah, volleyball. Team sports are quite different obviously than the
individual sports like track and field, where there's a core
group of us. You either get invited or you make
a tryout to train what we call is the national
team before you're actually on the Olympic team. So Olympians
are the only ones that are considered on the Olympic
team before that those four years here on the national team.
(06:02):
So you get invited, there's a core group about twenty
five women that are every summer together and we're just
like competing with each other, and we have tournaments every summer,
and it's not only just the summer of the Olympics,
Like we're together every summer. And it's just about twenty
five twenty four core women that are rotating. Some make
(06:22):
the traveling team, twelve to fourteen make a traveling team,
some are always staying back. And you do that for
four years until about a month before the Olympics the
team gets announced.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
So is there one final thing that go, Okay, we're
gonna we're gonna judge them and pick them or is
it really over those four years.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
It's definitely over the four years. Well, I'd say going
into the last year, there's maybe a core of eight
of the twelve that you know are gonna make it,
just because they've been the starters for the whole years
or certain things like that. The team just got announced,
you know, eight or nine of them were from the
last Olympics already this coming year, so sometimes you kind
of I know, and sometimes there's like one or two
(07:02):
that are like a huge surprise and they are competing
against each other that whole four years, and it comes
down to when the coach wants to pick the team.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Did you always know all three year Olympics or were
you ever?
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Yeah? I did know all three of them. The first
my first Olympics. It was obviously, I think more so
a question mark, but our coach had Yeah, Athens two
thousand and four, our coach had been traveling with kind
of the same team for most of that summer, so
you could kind of tell that that was going to
be the team. And then the other two I was
more of a vet and I was a leader and
(07:35):
a captain, and it's been pretty clear. But I did
have a little hiccup which we might talk about at
the Unbreakable moment before two thousand and eight. But yeah,
so that's that's it. You just are together all summer,
you are working hard, you're competing and trying to be
a good teammate at the same time with someone that
you're competing with to make the team. And about a
(07:56):
month in advance they announced the team.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
How are you surviving during these twelve years?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Yeah? So luckily USA Volleyball found a way to fundraise
and pay us not a huge amount of money, but
for the time that we are with the team, there
was a Stipe in and then in the other seven
to eight months, we're playing professionally overseas. Okay, where we
make our money. So I played seven years in Italy
and a year in Turkey and they paid well and
(08:22):
they pay even better now. And interesting enough, there's going
to be three leagues now in the United States starting
after the Olympics. Two have already kind of started and
going on. One of the biggest, one League one Volleyball.
I'm an investor in. It's really cool. They're starting from
ground up, working with like young ladies, picked the cities
where to be for the professional teams because of how
(08:44):
many kids were playing volleyball there. It's really cool. They've
done a great job. So that's going to start in
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
So your first Olympics has happened. Yeah, what's it feel
like those opening ceremonies.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Oh, you burst into tears immediately, so we have to wait.
You're just like in a holding arena, and you know,
United States is not the first people to walk, so.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Sure with every US Olympian, you're.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
With every US Olympian, you're around the other countries that
are before after you all go together from the village
and in these buses to wherever it is. Obviously it
depends on which Olympics and where it's being located and
so on and so forth. But it's just exciting and
you're taking pictures with fellow Olympians because at that moment,
no matter how famous you are or not famous as
(09:29):
an Olympian, you are there being an Olympian.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So again, tell me because I want to I want
you to take our listeners into this.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Okay, I got to you as you are. You're walking
in a tunnel normally, because it's say, you know, kind
of like a football stadium. You're walking in a tunnel,
and then as you get out in the tunnel, the
whole stadiums filled, so normally it's maybe like a it's
normally like a soccer stadium, so like one hundred thousand,
one hundred to one hundred and twenty thousand, and then
all of the other Olympians are already in the middle
(09:58):
of the field that walk before. So you just walk
out into like the biggest cheers, seeing every walk of life,
like every walk of life you could even imagine that
are Olympians, you know, from every country around you live
a completely different life than you and you cannot help
but cry like as strong as you are and want
(10:18):
to keep it in and be cute because the camera's
on you. There is no stopping the tears.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Really yeah, oh, are you trying to focus something to
keep it together?
Speaker 3 (10:30):
You're looking for family and the stands or what?
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Were you just you're just trying to keep it together,
but not you're also trying to enjoy the moment. Like
our first one, they didn't really want phones out that much,
and we didn't have great phones either. In two thousand
and four they were the best, you know, So now
I think, like, you know, everyone's on their cell phone
and filming and catch free moments, but you're really just
like you're hugging your teammates or you're looking around. Not
(10:56):
many family members go to the opening ceremonies. It's like
hard to get tickets, very expensive, all of the above.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
But it's just special, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
So then after that, well, first we'll tell me what
the Olympic village is like.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Yeah, well interesting enough. We're always in a very interesting
position of many reasons. We played always the next day
after opening ceremonies. Oh really we yeah, God for you, Yeah,
we would never stay for the whole ceremonies. Once we walked,
there was a way to usher us out and leave,
so we did that just because it always so happened
(11:33):
that women's volleyball played the first day of the Olympics,
and then the Olympic village also very different for us
as well, because we made it so far. Each Olympics.
We went all two weeks, so there wasn't like, hey,
we played a game and now it's time to celebrate
and party. We played a game and then the next
day we're practicing, watching video, everyone's recovering their bodies. So
(11:55):
we didn't experience the village as we hear the village.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
That's why I'm getting that right here. Yeah, I hear it.
I read it. It's like sex best left and right.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
You know you are, I'm sure that's happening. But with us,
like we were so locked in, like we're expected to
win even if we're not ranked high. You know, USA
is like expected to do well in the Olympics. So
and also as women's sports, they also i would say,
not baby us, but kind of. So it's like we're
on a schedule, we're on video, we're at practice. Well
(12:26):
you better do your rehab all of those things. So
we maybe see people when we go and eat in
the cafeteria, but other than that, sometimes we'll see some
other Americans and like watch an event in like the
little watch room that we had. But I don't know
anything about the craziness on the village.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Okay, you were the captain, did you have to prevent
from your players from trying to.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Seek out to the village.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
There were a couple incidents that we had to address
and needed people to be getting their rest, and not
that it was a curfew, but kind of we have
a big game tomorrow or every game is big, So
there was definitely a few a few things that had
to be addressed in my three Olympics, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
So now what I love about you also was like
in the story that kind of always I like to
brag about you about.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Is that the Olympics, you guys think were in eighth
or ninth seed and you were the captain and pushed
them and led them to a silver medal.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Yeah, talk about that. Yeah, I will talk about that
because there's benefactors to that one. I was actually co
capain with our other setter, same position. We're both from Hawaii.
She's one of my mentors, someone I looked up to
my whole life. We played in both two thousand and
four and two thousand and eight together Robin Amo, and
so during that Olympics, actually we had a really huge
(13:46):
tragedy happened right before our first match. So we got
woken up during our naps before our first game and
got told that one of our close members she went
to the two thousand and four Olympics with us, and
then she she's married to the men's coach at that time,
but she was just there with her and her family.
Her family got attacked at a tourists venue and her
(14:09):
father passed and her mother survived, and so God. Yeah,
So we get that call before first match against Japan.
We're told to call all of our families and we're
talking like four hours before first invasion.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Were invasion?
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Yeah, and then the man also ended up killing himself. God,
a random act at a tourist venue. It's not the
Great Wall. I forget where it was. But so, so.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
They weren't targeted, just a random.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Attack, just a random attack.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Was your teammateer, No, she was not.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
So we get that call and they've been our volleyball
family forever. Not only is was she at the Olympics
with us in four her husband is currently coaching the
men's team, you know. And so we were just like
and we all together and we knew why we were
going to win, and that was why we got silver.
(15:08):
We were definitely not even close to a metal team
of like our skill compared to others.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
You know, why do you say that's why you got silver.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Well, we dug deep for her and her family, and
we had like another purpose of why we were there
and why we were going to do this and why
we were going to let everything of our troubles or
things that we had in the last four years go
as a team and just like dig deep. And we did.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Do you remember what you said to your team after
that first.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Practice, I mean we were well, we were mass immediately
we had team meeting. I mean we're all crying, We're like,
we got to play for four hours. We were a mess.
But we were just all like, we're going to do this.
Whizz is our teammate. We're going to do this for Whiz.
We're going to do this for the Bachmanns. That was
the family. So yeah, it was a consistent. We're just
(16:01):
gonna dig deep, and wow, it's bigger than us, you know,
so as you're.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Then, you know, helping lead this team from being an
underdog on take me through that a little bit.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Yeah, So that year, Robin and I actually were both
playing a lot. It was like who is the better matchup.
My coach at that Olympics was really good about, Hey,
if something's not working, we're about to switch it. Everyone's
good on this team. Everyone can play together. She was
really good game time coach of making substitutions. So both
(16:33):
Robin and I played a lot almost every match. But
it came down to actually have one of the most
memorable matches of my life that Olympics. It came down
to We're playing Italy in the quarterfinals. Italy is maybe
number two in the world, supposed to beat us. Robin's
playing the first two sets. We get down to zero
and we're playing three out of five in volleyball, and
(16:55):
I get put in and talk about me being in
the zone. I was in the zone, the zone that
we talk about as athletes where nothing like you're not
hearing anybody else, you were seeing just this and your goal.
And I got put in and we came back and
we beat them in five to make the semi finals.
And I definitely had one of the games of my life,
(17:17):
but mentally it was like the game of my life
of how locked in I was, my purpose, of why
I chose to We'll talk about my moment again. I
told you I had an unbreakable moment that actually broke me,
but I got out of it. I came back to
the team and that we won that one, and then
we knew we had Cuba next. We beat Cuba all
(17:39):
the time, and even Robin played that one, she plays
all the time. We beat them, and then we were
in that gold medal match against Brazil, who's the number
one in the world, and yeah, that's how we got there.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Is it heartbreaking to lose the gold medal match when
you're not supposed to be in the first place?
Speaker 3 (17:54):
So you're able to like a silver medal? You're a badass?
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Are you able to appreciate a silver meta?
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Yeah, that year we really did. I'd stay twelve was
harder for us, so we really did appreciate it. It's
not that we didn't believe in ourselves going into the Olympics,
but we kind of like it proved our level during
the year before, you know, and so we believed in ourselves.
But we weren't supposed to be there, but we got
(18:21):
there and we played our hardest and Brazil it's just
so good, so good, but we appreciated that sober.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
What are some of the coaching tips you can give
us that that you know it works? Obviously, you've also coached,
you've coached college. What colleges have you coached?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
I went to Hawaii for one season and Pepperdine for
a season, so.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
You've coached also, But what are some of the coaching
tips I guess that you have seen that works for
volleyball players from the Olympic level all the way down.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Yeah. I think the number one thing is you got
to be a good teammate. I mean when you're on
the court, so you got to find trust, You got
to be a good teammate. You got to make each
other better. And it doesn't matter maybe you don't like
each other off the court, that's like completely fine, but
when you step on the court and you step into practice,
you need to be a good teammate for your team
to be good. And you know, sometimes there were good
(19:12):
teammates on my team and sometimes there weren't. And being
in my position the setter, who is like the coach
on the court, practically we call the place we touch
every we touch a ball in every rally, we're setting
everyone up for greatness. That I just knew to be
on the court or to make the team that I
had to somehow make my teammates better. If not I'm
(19:33):
physically not as good as them, they already have this
mentality about me that I'm not as good as far
as like coaching in the volleyball world. So I really
had to be different, and that was my leadership and
making my teammates better. So when I'm able to as
a player, I can really tell these young ladies because
they look up to me as a player as well,
that I've been through it. So when I'm telling them,
(19:55):
you guys got to be like stop being a bitch,
like be a better teammate, They're listening because I've been
through it. I've been through it all, you know. That's
the main one. If you can get a tight knit
on the court as a team, it's really really big,
especially for women, I think in the women's game, and
that is just in volleyball is always trying to make
the next hit better. So you're trying to better the
(20:15):
ball every time. So I'm the setter where I touch
the second ball to set up the hitter. So say
my pastor doesn't get me a great pass, which is
one of the most difficult skills first of all, to pass,
I'm always trying to make that pass better with my
set so you're always I would always tell everyone try
to better the ball. So if I don't set up
my hit, are good, they're really trying to save me
(20:37):
and get a good hit, do something with it, do
a shot, do their best to better my ball. So
those are like the two things that I really would
engrave in all the young ladies that have coached.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
So now we talked, we get on a little bit,
so you get silver and eight and then go back
at twelve.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Then yeah, like killing it in twelve, we're killing it
like the whole quad in twenty eleven and twelve we're
just we're on fire.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Wait, but.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
I just want to hit this like again. In the
world of football, you're back. You know you're playing six
months later. Yeah, well we don't have to wait four
years and fighting. You could wait you can go, hey,
I want I want to the next card if you're
not too banged up.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Is always kind of like amazed me about the resilience
of somebody to have to wait four years for that
shot of redemption and drive me crazy.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Yeah, I mean, it is what it is. Let's put
it that way. We've we've got to understand what we
can control. We can't control the Olympics not being in
four years. It becomes addicting. As unglamorous as it is,
especially for smaller sport athletes say us or I mean
the things for wrestlers I saw go through we were
(21:45):
living in Colorado Springs. It's from the wild. It just
becomes addicting. And if your body is okay enough to
keep going, you're going to keep going. And then at
that part of time, that's our job too, you know.
That is how we're making more playing overseas, we get
paid more overseas. If we're on the Olympic team, it's
like goes together, you know. So it just becomes addicting
(22:08):
and you want it more and it's a thrill when
you're there, and it's not much of a question if
someone wants to continue to go again it's more so
if someone wants to say, start a family, then maybe
they'll stop. But some people have started a family while
playing and just took a year off. I was forced
to stop pretty much because of my knee, because I
(22:29):
still after losing that twenty twelve, I was like, no,
I'm going back and I could barely walk. But yeah,
I think it's just you are mentally prepared for what
it is. You know that it's every four years, so
as much as you want it to be the next year,
there's other tournaments we play in, and we have a
long time to prepare, and so at least for playing competition,
it's not just practice for four years. We do have competitions.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
So now you're going to twelve of your favorites. Oh yeah, right,
where is that Olympics.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
That's in London? Through pool play like I can't. We
barely lost sets and like we were on fire.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
How is it when you get to those Olympics when
you walk into that stadium as a favorite as opposed
to an underdog.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Yeah, not a different feeling, I'd say.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
It's a different feeling. I say USA in general, though,
everyone's out to get us, So even if we're an
underdog in a ranking. We're still USA and everyone wants
to beat us. So there is that feeling of we,
no matter what, have to be in our game. Because
everyone that made the Olympics, there's only four I think
there's fourteen total teams. Twelve or fourteen total teams. Everybody's good.
(23:40):
Maybe we're run yeah, I mean in London, so the
post city, the host country gets a team no matter what.
So London, the UK hadn't been known to be a
great volleyball team, you know, so they might have been
one of the underdogs. But everybody else is like amazing.
But twenty twelve, we yeah, we thought we were this shit.
I think we were just really good. We had a
(24:03):
really good mix of vets and Brookies and it was
a good time and we were flowing right now.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
I cut you off before.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
And so first that we're flowing. I think we beat
Brazil like twenty five to fourteen in the first set,
and I'm like, we might have like awakened a monster
because Brazil, no matter what, they're good, they're good. They're
so good, and they were pissed and their team had
(24:32):
more vets than our team, so they started picking on
our rookies just picking on them and we couldn't we
couldn't recover.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
And what do you mean picking on?
Speaker 4 (24:42):
Like talking, there's serve a certain person and keep going
at them, keep going at them. We've played them so
much also that they know now where some of our
younger players are hitting because they're not as experienced. So
Brazil is so good and they're such a they've been
playing their whole lives. They're very mental. They've been to
(25:02):
the gold medal match so many times. They're just in
that match a little more experienced than us, and they
found a way to pick our team apart, and they
beat us three to one. And I said, I want
to play right away right now. We would beat them
because we're the better team. But you know, it's like
the Super Bowl sometimes the so called best team doesn't win.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
As the captain and you see that starting unravel, go
the other way. What are you? What's going on?
Speaker 4 (25:31):
I'm trying to keep everyone together. At one point in time,
I told my coach, subbed me out and try to
like switch it up, like you know, because they play
against me all the time. You can get predictable at moments,
especially in my position of where I'm going to set it.
So there was a point I'm like, we got to
switch something up, you know, And you know, I was
(25:51):
just trying to keep everybody positive and keep everybody going
and try different things and pick them apart too, but
it just we fell apart.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Were you able to appreciate a silver still, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
I mean, yes, gold would have obviously been better. I
truly believe that is the best team I've ever played
on that we did deserve gold, you know, So knowing
that also, I know I gave my all. I did
everything I could possibly do, so yeah, looking back at it,
obviously these are accomplishments I never thought I would ever
(26:27):
ever have and the goal would have been super cool.
But it is what it is. My dad always says,
silver lining, you're going to be golden in life, and
so we'll see, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I marvel that you like. I just think a livid
medals to me, there, I don't all. I look at
them like the Holy Grail. It's just man, it's just
it's majestic. Yeah, so majestic.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Give me some of the lessons as a captain that
equate to life, whether it's business, life anything. Lessons as
a coach, that equate to life, business, the world life.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Yeah, I think they are both similar. For me, I've
always like really loved the word collaboration in general. I
even have a tattoo that represents collaboration for me, I
believe working with people, relationships with people, collaborating with people,
things are just going to be better. I don't believe
you can do things on your own. I think when
(27:19):
we kind of go to ourselves and on our own,
we're not at our best. And so I think teaching
when I coached was that you need your teammates. What
is the best way for you guys to collaborate together?
And I feel like that in business, I feel like
that in life. And then also definitely the communication aspect
of it really goes into business and life as well
(27:40):
of being trying to be the best communicator you can
be the best person you can be, and just always
trying to make each other better.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Be a good communicator. Though can have a lot of
meetings of course, dive into.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
That, well, it starts with one first, actually communicating. I
think that is the first thing of you know, you
can get through things, so not all the time you're
going to agree on things, have the same picture of
what something's going to look like to you. You can
agree to disagree, but if you don't talk about it,
then there's no way to get through it. So I
(28:12):
guess that it would be the biggest thing of the
communication aspect.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
A couple more questions.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Give me something about the Olympics that we don't know,
experience anything.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
I don't know, like most people don't get paid right
for any of it, like any of it. But maybe
people know that we stay in little dorm rooms if
we're not famous, or the USA basketball teams small dorm
rooms and you have a roommate and you walk down
the hall to the bathroom. My college dorms, well, it's
like you're in an apartment with like three rooms save
(28:44):
one bathroom for six people. Kind that's probably what so
not glamorous.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
It's not glamorous.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
It's not a glamorous life. There's some who you live
a glamorous life, but it's very few, but most don't.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
By the way, the Olympic village are is it only
Olympics or outside of it?
Speaker 4 (29:01):
You can have like a family pass. You can give
a family pass to come and say hello, but definitely
to sleep. Those are certain hours so it's just staff
and athletes.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Interesting, have you gotten tight with Olympians overseas or you
guys just to yourself?
Speaker 4 (29:17):
No, because a lot of us play overseas during our
professional league. So a lot of the women that we're
playing against are either our teammates overseas or we play
against some overseas as well during our professional league. So
I definitely have lifetime friends that I were my teammates
overseas that are born. And Yeah, this one thing I
definitely do miss about being retired is not having those
experiences again because I really loved playing overseas. I think
(29:42):
some people didn't have as good of a you know,
time as I did. But I was always on great teams.
I always like tried to learn the language and embrace
the culture, and I had a blast to change my
life playing overseas.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Right, My last question for you, which I ask every
one of my guests, give me your unbreakable moment, the
moment have broken you could have and didn't, and as
a result, you came to the other side of that
tunnel stronger forever.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Okay, what if it broke me for a second and
then I had to reevaluate it.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
It didn't break you. You're still stronger. Are you stronger
from it?
Speaker 4 (30:15):
For sure?
Speaker 3 (30:15):
And that didn't break you great, It.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Broke you means you're broken and you lay in pieces
on the ground and that's that right.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
So in two thousand and seven, we were really struggling
as a team. We had a coach and some of
the vets didn't like the coach. I was the captain
at that time. We were just having a lot of
problems and I would walk to practice and like literally
want to cry. I was when I was at practice.
It was so overwhelming. I wasn't enjoying volleyball anymore. I
felt like I couldn't be the player or the leader
(30:44):
that I was anymore. And one day the president in
the USA Volleyball just came in and was like, how
are you doing? And I just started bawling, like right
before practice, and he had no idea about anything I
was feeling, not many people did. Just started bawling. He's like, okay,
let's you know, go and go into the room. So
I went into the room with him and the coach
(31:05):
and I just was like, I can't. I can't do
this anymore. I think it's best if I leave the
team right now. Wow, I'm not giving the team everything
I can give. I'm not playing well, I'm not being
the best leader I can. I need a break, And
so they didn't obviously want me to, but I was like,
I don't think I can walk into this gym again
(31:25):
and not just be crying every time I'm playing. And
so I took a break.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Sure, your teammates would just talking with it.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
No, I was talking with the president.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Of you saying no, no, but what was getting you to
that point?
Speaker 4 (31:36):
All of it? So our team just like wasn't getting along.
Some believed in the coach, some didn't believe in the coach.
So we just could not get on the same page.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
But it wasn't anything. They weren't attacking you.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
No, no, no, no, no, okay. And then so I
took a break and I had a month off before
going overseas to play professionally. While I was overseas, they
gave me a call and I was like, I need
to think about it. But I knew if I was
going to come back that I might not be starting anymore,
I might not be captain anymore, and I need to
go and just be the most selfless person and why
(32:09):
I'm going is to help the team and be there
for the team. And I made that decision and it
was the best decision of my life. I got there. Obviously,
my teammates were happy to have me back. Sure, I
wasn't starting initially and wasn't the coat, I mean, the captain,
but Robin and I then were captains together. We were
both playing a lot, and I just was there to
(32:30):
give me to be a good leader, to make people better,
to give my all. And I worked really, really hard
to get my spot back and I really was happy
about it. And then obviously went on to do twelve
and we got that silber. But I thought it was done. Wow. Yeah, Wow.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
So what did I show you about yourself.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
That I wasn't done that I am no, But.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
You thought it broke you. I didn't break you. Sometimes
you took reset.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
Yeah, it showed a reset. It showed I needed a break.
It showed I needed to, like mentally have a reset
of why I'm there. What is important to me about
being there, and it's always been about helping my team,
and the fact that I felt in those moments that
I couldn't help my team, that was the hardest part
for me because I felt like I was letting them down,
(33:23):
letting myself down, and yeah, I needed a reset.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
I love it. Lindsey Burgh, three time Olympian, two time captain.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Of the US Olympic Women's volleyball team, two silver medals
and a gangster thank and one beautiful business partner of mind, Lindsea.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
I appreciate you so much, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I wouldn't have all this, I wouldn't be called and
breakable without you, So I appreciate you all right.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Jay
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental Wealth podcast
build you from the inside out. Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome into Unbreakable mental Wealth podcast with Jay Glazier.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I'm Jay Glazier, and I want to welcome in somebody.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
You know, when I think of Unbreakable, it's actually who
I think of and the reason why she is my
partner in Unbreakable Performance seven that we opened up.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
But she's also she is a gee, she's a gangster.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
We are in the middle of the Olympic trials right now,
so who better to have on than my partner in
Unbreakable Lindsay Burg. Lindsay Burgh has been on three US
Olympic women's volleyball teams. She was the captain of two
of those US Olympic Women's volleyball teams, and she has
two silver medals as well. One of those teams was
like an eighth or nineth seene, right, Lindsay, And look,
(00:53):
you and I have been around each other a lot,
and you know, and we first opened Unbreakable too.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I wanted to partner with a very hour woman, and man,
are you ever like you are?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
If I could bottle up what you have behind your ribcage,
in between your ears, which is what we try to do,
and give it to these other athletes and every other sport,
there'd be a lot more champions out there.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
So, first of all, thank you for joining me.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Thank you for having me Jay, such an honor. Obviously,
it's been great to be a business partner and just
see both of us go through so many times that
could have broken us. Let's put it out here we are.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I wanted that because I've had a lot of Olympians
out I've had Michael Phelps and early on obviously that's
my guy, and Michael h very public.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
How much we still help.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Each other mental health wise, like we lean into each other,
we call each other when just to check to make
sure you've done that for me.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I've done that for you.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Lindsey Vaughan, she's been on who also is one of
my mental health buddies.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
But you have been so consistent in my life being
there for me. And it's cool because I got a
lot of friends in the NFL whose.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Daughters played volleyball, and I was like, oh, we should
have work with my partner Linda Berg, and they're like
your partner, like they go crazy when they hear your name,
which is wild. So I mean, there's so many ways
you and I could start for our listeners who don't
know you kind of give an overview of you know
why I think you're such a gexter face basically, but
(02:17):
what your career has been, and it's been an uphill
battle for you.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Yeah, for sure. I think what people a lot of
people don't know is I'm from Honolulu, Hawaii, born and
raised there, come from an incredible family and incredible support system,
and even in Hawaii, volleyball is one of the biggest sports.
Not many people know the support there, even in the
college level, is ridiculous. So one my first unbreakable moment
was when I went to the University of Minnesota from Hawaii.
(02:43):
So I almost broke at that moment.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, why did you go to the coldest place ever?
Speaker 4 (02:49):
You know, I had a really interesting recruiting process being
from Hawaii. To go on my recruiting trips, it was
so far. I didn't want to leave my volleyball team
in varsity in my senior year, so I just couldn't
plan these these visits and so slowly schools were like
checking me off, like she wants to come here, but
we can't get her here and we need to sign somebody.
(03:10):
And then also people really doubted my size and my
athletic ability. So some of the schools that I did
want to go to, I was like maybe third on
their lists, on and so forth, and I just got
really sick of the whole process. And my dad knew
the coach and he's like, please, just like go on
a visit. And I was like, the coach was great,
and I want to assume you went this summer like August.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah, guy, it's beautiful in August.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Gorgeous, right, Yeah, So I went and I kind of
was just like defeated in the whole process of recruiting.
And I was like, I can go to business school.
I know I'm going to play all four years. I
can build this program, and I just I picked it
and I did it.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
So yeah, I'm back then and you're like I could
build this program.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Yeah, because it wasn't They weren't the Final fourteen yet,
and so I could go. I could walk on to Stanford,
go to a team that's been in the Final four
and who knows if I would have played all four
years even if I was good enough or deserve to,
and would I would have had a hard time on
the bench. So I chose to build a program.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
But one of the things, and I'm going to jump
all over ahead to your Olympic career. Yeah, and we
talk about you and I'll feel battle if you will
you don't. There's something you shan and I want you
to kind of say it were people got to judge
you by your cover.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yeah, for sure. That was my whole career, even starting
at home in Hawaii. Of course, in the real real life,
I guess five eight is tall for a woman, but
five eight was definitely not tall in the volleyball world.
I was also it's a thicker set and not like
just like a small string bean, and my body didn't
look as athletic as people especially wanted it to, and
(04:46):
so they would judge me first by just that for
how I was going to play and how good I
was going to be. And I mean it was still
till my third Olympics. I was people were talking shit
on the internet about how I looked, so like one
wasn't even enough, two wasn't enough. Even in my third
you know, I had to read the blogs and still
still trying to prove myself while I was on that team.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Wow, So take me through trials.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, and I know it's like for track and field
and those sports, and we'll get there. Because it's unbelievable
to me that Olympians have to wait four years for redemption,
where like I lost the fight and I talked to
that promoter that night, I'm like, I want on your
next card.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I gotta waited four months to fight again.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Or in the NFL, you just got to wait a year, right,
or you wait a couple of months and you start
training again for it four years. We'll get to that
a little bit because that's that is maddening to me.
But give me the process of making the Olympics.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Yeah, volleyball. Team sports are quite different obviously than the
individual sports like track and field, where there's a core
group of us. You either get invited or you make
a tryout to train what we call is the national
team before you're actually on the Olympic team. So Olympians
are the only ones that are considered on the Olympic
team before that those four years here on the national team.
(06:02):
So you get invited, there's a core group about twenty
five women that are every summer together and we're just
like competing with each other, and we have tournaments every summer,
and it's not only just the summer of the Olympics,
Like we're together every summer. And it's just about twenty
five twenty four core women that are rotating. Some make
(06:22):
the traveling team, twelve to fourteen make a traveling team,
some are always staying back. And you do that for
four years until about a month before the Olympics the
team gets announced.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
So is there one final thing that go, Okay, we're
gonna we're gonna judge them and pick them or is
it really over those four years.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
It's definitely over the four years. Well, I'd say going
into the last year, there's maybe a core of eight
of the twelve that you know are gonna make it,
just because they've been the starters for the whole years
or certain things like that. The team just got announced,
you know, eight or nine of them were from the
last Olympics already this coming year, so sometimes you kind
of I know, and sometimes there's like one or two
(07:02):
that are like a huge surprise and they are competing
against each other that whole four years, and it comes
down to when the coach wants to pick the team.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Did you always know all three year Olympics or were
you ever?
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Yeah? I did know all three of them. The first
my first Olympics. It was obviously, I think more so
a question mark, but our coach had Yeah, Athens two
thousand and four, our coach had been traveling with kind
of the same team for most of that summer, so
you could kind of tell that that was going to
be the team. And then the other two I was
more of a vet and I was a leader and
(07:35):
a captain, and it's been pretty clear. But I did
have a little hiccup which we might talk about at
the Unbreakable moment before two thousand and eight. But yeah,
so that's that's it. You just are together all summer,
you are working hard, you're competing and trying to be
a good teammate at the same time with someone that
you're competing with to make the team. And about a
(07:56):
month in advance they announced the team.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
How are you surviving during these twelve years?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Yeah? So luckily USA Volleyball found a way to fundraise
and pay us not a huge amount of money, but
for the time that we are with the team, there
was a Stipe in and then in the other seven
to eight months, we're playing professionally overseas. Okay, where we
make our money. So I played seven years in Italy
and a year in Turkey and they paid well and
(08:22):
they pay even better now. And interesting enough, there's going
to be three leagues now in the United States starting
after the Olympics. Two have already kind of started and
going on. One of the biggest, one League one Volleyball.
I'm an investor in. It's really cool. They're starting from
ground up, working with like young ladies, picked the cities
where to be for the professional teams because of how
(08:44):
many kids were playing volleyball there. It's really cool. They've
done a great job. So that's going to start in
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
So your first Olympics has happened. Yeah, what's it feel
like those opening ceremonies.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Oh, you burst into tears immediately, so we have to wait.
You're just like in a holding arena, and you know,
United States is not the first people to walk, so.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Sure with every US Olympian, you're.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
With every US Olympian, you're around the other countries that
are before after you all go together from the village
and in these buses to wherever it is. Obviously it
depends on which Olympics and where it's being located and
so on and so forth. But it's just exciting and
you're taking pictures with fellow Olympians because at that moment,
no matter how famous you are or not famous as
(09:29):
an Olympian, you are there being an Olympian.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So again, tell me because I want to I want
you to take our listeners into this.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Okay, I got to you as you are. You're walking
in a tunnel normally, because it's say, you know, kind
of like a football stadium. You're walking in a tunnel,
and then as you get out in the tunnel, the
whole stadiums filled, so normally it's maybe like a it's
normally like a soccer stadium, so like one hundred thousand,
one hundred to one hundred and twenty thousand, and then
all of the other Olympians are already in the middle
(09:58):
of the field that walk before. So you just walk
out into like the biggest cheers, seeing every walk of life,
like every walk of life you could even imagine that
are Olympians, you know, from every country around you live
a completely different life than you and you cannot help
but cry like as strong as you are and want
(10:18):
to keep it in and be cute because the camera's
on you. There is no stopping the tears.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Really yeah, oh, are you trying to focus something to
keep it together?
Speaker 3 (10:30):
You're looking for family and the stands or what?
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Were you just you're just trying to keep it together,
but not you're also trying to enjoy the moment. Like
our first one, they didn't really want phones out that much,
and we didn't have great phones either. In two thousand
and four they were the best, you know, So now
I think, like, you know, everyone's on their cell phone
and filming and catch free moments, but you're really just
like you're hugging your teammates or you're looking around. Not
(10:56):
many family members go to the opening ceremonies. It's like
hard to get tickets, very expensive, all of the above.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
But it's just special, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
So then after that, well, first we'll tell me what
the Olympic village is like.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Yeah, well interesting enough. We're always in a very interesting
position of many reasons. We played always the next day
after opening ceremonies. Oh really we yeah, God for you, Yeah,
we would never stay for the whole ceremonies. Once we walked,
there was a way to usher us out and leave,
so we did that just because it always so happened
(11:33):
that women's volleyball played the first day of the Olympics,
and then the Olympic village also very different for us
as well, because we made it so far. Each Olympics.
We went all two weeks, so there wasn't like, hey,
we played a game and now it's time to celebrate
and party. We played a game and then the next
day we're practicing, watching video, everyone's recovering their bodies. So
(11:55):
we didn't experience the village as we hear the village.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
That's why I'm getting that right here. Yeah, I hear it.
I read it. It's like sex best left and right.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
You know you are, I'm sure that's happening. But with us,
like we were so locked in, like we're expected to
win even if we're not ranked high. You know, USA
is like expected to do well in the Olympics. So
and also as women's sports, they also i would say,
not baby us, but kind of. So it's like we're
on a schedule, we're on video, we're at practice. Well
(12:26):
you better do your rehab all of those things. So
we maybe see people when we go and eat in
the cafeteria, but other than that, sometimes we'll see some
other Americans and like watch an event in like the
little watch room that we had. But I don't know
anything about the craziness on the village.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Okay, you were the captain, did you have to prevent
from your players from trying to.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Seek out to the village.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
There were a couple incidents that we had to address
and needed people to be getting their rest, and not
that it was a curfew, but kind of we have
a big game tomorrow or every game is big, So
there was definitely a few a few things that had
to be addressed in my three Olympics, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
So now what I love about you also was like
in the story that kind of always I like to
brag about you about.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Is that the Olympics, you guys think were in eighth
or ninth seed and you were the captain and pushed
them and led them to a silver medal.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Yeah, talk about that. Yeah, I will talk about that
because there's benefactors to that one. I was actually co
capain with our other setter, same position. We're both from Hawaii.
She's one of my mentors, someone I looked up to
my whole life. We played in both two thousand and
four and two thousand and eight together Robin Amo, and
so during that Olympics, actually we had a really huge
(13:46):
tragedy happened right before our first match. So we got
woken up during our naps before our first game and
got told that one of our close members she went
to the two thousand and four Olympics with us, and
then she she's married to the men's coach at that time,
but she was just there with her and her family.
Her family got attacked at a tourists venue and her
(14:09):
father passed and her mother survived, and so God. Yeah,
So we get that call before first match against Japan.
We're told to call all of our families and we're
talking like four hours before first invasion.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Were invasion?
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Yeah, and then the man also ended up killing himself. God,
a random act at a tourist venue. It's not the
Great Wall. I forget where it was. But so, so.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
They weren't targeted, just a random.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Attack, just a random attack.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Was your teammateer, No, she was not.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
So we get that call and they've been our volleyball
family forever. Not only is was she at the Olympics
with us in four her husband is currently coaching the
men's team, you know. And so we were just like
and we all together and we knew why we were
going to win, and that was why we got silver.
(15:08):
We were definitely not even close to a metal team
of like our skill compared to others.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
You know, why do you say that's why you got silver.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Well, we dug deep for her and her family, and
we had like another purpose of why we were there
and why we were going to do this and why
we were going to let everything of our troubles or
things that we had in the last four years go
as a team and just like dig deep. And we did.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Do you remember what you said to your team after
that first.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Practice, I mean we were well, we were mass immediately
we had team meeting. I mean we're all crying, We're like,
we got to play for four hours. We were a mess.
But we were just all like, we're going to do this.
Whizz is our teammate. We're going to do this for Whiz.
We're going to do this for the Bachmanns. That was
the family. So yeah, it was a consistent. We're just
(16:01):
gonna dig deep, and wow, it's bigger than us, you know,
so as you're.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Then, you know, helping lead this team from being an
underdog on take me through that a little bit.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Yeah, So that year, Robin and I actually were both
playing a lot. It was like who is the better matchup.
My coach at that Olympics was really good about, Hey,
if something's not working, we're about to switch it. Everyone's
good on this team. Everyone can play together. She was
really good game time coach of making substitutions. So both
(16:33):
Robin and I played a lot almost every match. But
it came down to actually have one of the most
memorable matches of my life that Olympics. It came down
to We're playing Italy in the quarterfinals. Italy is maybe
number two in the world, supposed to beat us. Robin's
playing the first two sets. We get down to zero
and we're playing three out of five in volleyball, and
(16:55):
I get put in and talk about me being in
the zone. I was in the zone, the zone that
we talk about as athletes where nothing like you're not
hearing anybody else, you were seeing just this and your goal.
And I got put in and we came back and
we beat them in five to make the semi finals.
And I definitely had one of the games of my life,
(17:17):
but mentally it was like the game of my life
of how locked in I was, my purpose, of why
I chose to We'll talk about my moment again. I
told you I had an unbreakable moment that actually broke me,
but I got out of it. I came back to
the team and that we won that one, and then
we knew we had Cuba next. We beat Cuba all
(17:39):
the time, and even Robin played that one, she plays
all the time. We beat them, and then we were
in that gold medal match against Brazil, who's the number
one in the world, and yeah, that's how we got there.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Is it heartbreaking to lose the gold medal match when
you're not supposed to be in the first place?
Speaker 3 (17:54):
So you're able to like a silver medal? You're a badass?
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Are you able to appreciate a silver meta?
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Yeah, that year we really did. I'd stay twelve was
harder for us, so we really did appreciate it. It's
not that we didn't believe in ourselves going into the Olympics,
but we kind of like it proved our level during
the year before, you know, and so we believed in ourselves.
But we weren't supposed to be there, but we got
(18:21):
there and we played our hardest and Brazil it's just
so good, so good, but we appreciated that sober.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
What are some of the coaching tips you can give
us that that you know it works? Obviously, you've also coached,
you've coached college. What colleges have you coached?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
I went to Hawaii for one season and Pepperdine for
a season, so.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
You've coached also, But what are some of the coaching
tips I guess that you have seen that works for
volleyball players from the Olympic level all the way down.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Yeah. I think the number one thing is you got
to be a good teammate. I mean when you're on
the court, so you got to find trust, You got
to be a good teammate. You got to make each
other better. And it doesn't matter maybe you don't like
each other off the court, that's like completely fine, but
when you step on the court and you step into practice,
you need to be a good teammate for your team
to be good. And you know, sometimes there were good
(19:12):
teammates on my team and sometimes there weren't. And being
in my position the setter, who is like the coach
on the court, practically we call the place we touch
every we touch a ball in every rally, we're setting
everyone up for greatness. That I just knew to be
on the court or to make the team that I
had to somehow make my teammates better. If not I'm
(19:33):
physically not as good as them, they already have this
mentality about me that I'm not as good as far
as like coaching in the volleyball world. So I really
had to be different, and that was my leadership and
making my teammates better. So when I'm able to as
a player, I can really tell these young ladies because
they look up to me as a player as well,
that I've been through it. So when I'm telling them,
(19:55):
you guys got to be like stop being a bitch,
like be a better teammate, They're listening because I've been
through it. I've been through it all, you know. That's
the main one. If you can get a tight knit
on the court as a team, it's really really big,
especially for women, I think in the women's game, and
that is just in volleyball is always trying to make
the next hit better. So you're trying to better the
(20:15):
ball every time. So I'm the setter where I touch
the second ball to set up the hitter. So say
my pastor doesn't get me a great pass, which is
one of the most difficult skills first of all, to pass,
I'm always trying to make that pass better with my
set so you're always I would always tell everyone try
to better the ball. So if I don't set up
my hit, are good, they're really trying to save me
(20:37):
and get a good hit, do something with it, do
a shot, do their best to better my ball. So
those are like the two things that I really would
engrave in all the young ladies that have coached.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
So now we talked, we get on a little bit,
so you get silver and eight and then go back
at twelve.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Then yeah, like killing it in twelve, we're killing it
like the whole quad in twenty eleven and twelve we're
just we're on fire.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Wait, but.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
I just want to hit this like again. In the
world of football, you're back. You know you're playing six
months later. Yeah, well we don't have to wait four
years and fighting. You could wait you can go, hey,
I want I want to the next card if you're
not too banged up.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Is always kind of like amazed me about the resilience
of somebody to have to wait four years for that
shot of redemption and drive me crazy.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Yeah, I mean, it is what it is. Let's put
it that way. We've we've got to understand what we
can control. We can't control the Olympics not being in
four years. It becomes addicting. As unglamorous as it is,
especially for smaller sport athletes say us or I mean
the things for wrestlers I saw go through we were
(21:45):
living in Colorado Springs. It's from the wild. It just
becomes addicting. And if your body is okay enough to
keep going, you're going to keep going. And then at
that part of time, that's our job too, you know.
That is how we're making more playing overseas, we get
paid more overseas. If we're on the Olympic team, it's
like goes together, you know. So it just becomes addicting
(22:08):
and you want it more and it's a thrill when
you're there, and it's not much of a question if
someone wants to continue to go again it's more so
if someone wants to say, start a family, then maybe
they'll stop. But some people have started a family while
playing and just took a year off. I was forced
to stop pretty much because of my knee, because I
(22:29):
still after losing that twenty twelve, I was like, no,
I'm going back and I could barely walk. But yeah,
I think it's just you are mentally prepared for what
it is. You know that it's every four years, so
as much as you want it to be the next year,
there's other tournaments we play in, and we have a
long time to prepare, and so at least for playing competition,
it's not just practice for four years. We do have competitions.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
So now you're going to twelve of your favorites. Oh yeah, right,
where is that Olympics.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
That's in London? Through pool play like I can't. We
barely lost sets and like we were on fire.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
How is it when you get to those Olympics when
you walk into that stadium as a favorite as opposed
to an underdog.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Yeah, not a different feeling, I'd say.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
It's a different feeling. I say USA in general, though,
everyone's out to get us, So even if we're an
underdog in a ranking. We're still USA and everyone wants
to beat us. So there is that feeling of we,
no matter what, have to be in our game. Because
everyone that made the Olympics, there's only four I think
there's fourteen total teams. Twelve or fourteen total teams. Everybody's good.
(23:40):
Maybe we're run yeah, I mean in London, so the
post city, the host country gets a team no matter what.
So London, the UK hadn't been known to be a
great volleyball team, you know, so they might have been
one of the underdogs. But everybody else is like amazing.
But twenty twelve, we yeah, we thought we were this shit.
I think we were just really good. We had a
(24:03):
really good mix of vets and Brookies and it was
a good time and we were flowing right now.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
I cut you off before.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
And so first that we're flowing. I think we beat
Brazil like twenty five to fourteen in the first set,
and I'm like, we might have like awakened a monster
because Brazil, no matter what, they're good, they're good. They're
so good, and they were pissed and their team had
(24:32):
more vets than our team, so they started picking on
our rookies just picking on them and we couldn't we
couldn't recover.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
And what do you mean picking on?
Speaker 4 (24:42):
Like talking, there's serve a certain person and keep going
at them, keep going at them. We've played them so
much also that they know now where some of our
younger players are hitting because they're not as experienced. So
Brazil is so good and they're such a they've been
playing their whole lives. They're very mental. They've been to
(25:02):
the gold medal match so many times. They're just in
that match a little more experienced than us, and they
found a way to pick our team apart, and they
beat us three to one. And I said, I want
to play right away right now. We would beat them
because we're the better team. But you know, it's like
the Super Bowl sometimes the so called best team doesn't win.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
As the captain and you see that starting unravel, go
the other way. What are you? What's going on?
Speaker 4 (25:31):
I'm trying to keep everyone together. At one point in time,
I told my coach, subbed me out and try to
like switch it up, like you know, because they play
against me all the time. You can get predictable at moments,
especially in my position of where I'm going to set it.
So there was a point I'm like, we got to
switch something up, you know, And you know, I was
(25:51):
just trying to keep everybody positive and keep everybody going
and try different things and pick them apart too, but
it just we fell apart.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Were you able to appreciate a silver still, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
I mean, yes, gold would have obviously been better. I
truly believe that is the best team I've ever played
on that we did deserve gold, you know, So knowing
that also, I know I gave my all. I did
everything I could possibly do, so yeah, looking back at it,
obviously these are accomplishments I never thought I would ever
(26:27):
ever have and the goal would have been super cool.
But it is what it is. My dad always says,
silver lining, you're going to be golden in life, and
so we'll see, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I marvel that you like. I just think a livid
medals to me, there, I don't all. I look at
them like the Holy Grail. It's just man, it's just
it's majestic. Yeah, so majestic.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Give me some of the lessons as a captain that
equate to life, whether it's business, life anything. Lessons as
a coach, that equate to life, business, the world life.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Yeah, I think they are both similar. For me, I've
always like really loved the word collaboration in general. I
even have a tattoo that represents collaboration for me, I
believe working with people, relationships with people, collaborating with people,
things are just going to be better. I don't believe
you can do things on your own. I think when
(27:19):
we kind of go to ourselves and on our own,
we're not at our best. And so I think teaching
when I coached was that you need your teammates. What
is the best way for you guys to collaborate together?
And I feel like that in business, I feel like
that in life. And then also definitely the communication aspect
of it really goes into business and life as well
(27:40):
of being trying to be the best communicator you can
be the best person you can be, and just always
trying to make each other better.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Be a good communicator. Though can have a lot of
meetings of course, dive into.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
That, well, it starts with one first, actually communicating. I
think that is the first thing of you know, you
can get through things, so not all the time you're
going to agree on things, have the same picture of
what something's going to look like to you. You can
agree to disagree, but if you don't talk about it,
then there's no way to get through it. So I
(28:12):
guess that it would be the biggest thing of the
communication aspect.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
A couple more questions.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Give me something about the Olympics that we don't know,
experience anything.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
I don't know, like most people don't get paid right
for any of it, like any of it. But maybe
people know that we stay in little dorm rooms if
we're not famous, or the USA basketball teams small dorm
rooms and you have a roommate and you walk down
the hall to the bathroom. My college dorms, well, it's
like you're in an apartment with like three rooms save
(28:44):
one bathroom for six people. Kind that's probably what so
not glamorous.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
It's not glamorous.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
It's not a glamorous life. There's some who you live
a glamorous life, but it's very few, but most don't.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
By the way, the Olympic village are is it only
Olympics or outside of it?
Speaker 4 (29:01):
You can have like a family pass. You can give
a family pass to come and say hello, but definitely
to sleep. Those are certain hours so it's just staff
and athletes.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Interesting, have you gotten tight with Olympians overseas or you
guys just to yourself?
Speaker 4 (29:17):
No, because a lot of us play overseas during our
professional league. So a lot of the women that we're
playing against are either our teammates overseas or we play
against some overseas as well during our professional league. So
I definitely have lifetime friends that I were my teammates
overseas that are born. And Yeah, this one thing I
definitely do miss about being retired is not having those
experiences again because I really loved playing overseas. I think
(29:42):
some people didn't have as good of a you know,
time as I did. But I was always on great teams.
I always like tried to learn the language and embrace
the culture, and I had a blast to change my
life playing overseas.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Right, My last question for you, which I ask every
one of my guests, give me your unbreakable moment, the
moment have broken you could have and didn't, and as
a result, you came to the other side of that
tunnel stronger forever.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Okay, what if it broke me for a second and
then I had to reevaluate it.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
It didn't break you. You're still stronger. Are you stronger
from it?
Speaker 4 (30:15):
For sure?
Speaker 3 (30:15):
And that didn't break you great, It.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Broke you means you're broken and you lay in pieces
on the ground and that's that right.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
So in two thousand and seven, we were really struggling
as a team. We had a coach and some of
the vets didn't like the coach. I was the captain
at that time. We were just having a lot of
problems and I would walk to practice and like literally
want to cry. I was when I was at practice.
It was so overwhelming. I wasn't enjoying volleyball anymore. I
felt like I couldn't be the player or the leader
(30:44):
that I was anymore. And one day the president in
the USA Volleyball just came in and was like, how
are you doing? And I just started bawling, like right
before practice, and he had no idea about anything I
was feeling, not many people did. Just started bawling. He's like, okay,
let's you know, go and go into the room. So
I went into the room with him and the coach
(31:05):
and I just was like, I can't. I can't do
this anymore. I think it's best if I leave the
team right now. Wow, I'm not giving the team everything
I can give. I'm not playing well, I'm not being
the best leader I can. I need a break, And
so they didn't obviously want me to, but I was like,
I don't think I can walk into this gym again
(31:25):
and not just be crying every time I'm playing. And
so I took a break.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Sure, your teammates would just talking with it.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
No, I was talking with the president.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Of you saying no, no, but what was getting you to
that point?
Speaker 4 (31:36):
All of it? So our team just like wasn't getting along.
Some believed in the coach, some didn't believe in the coach.
So we just could not get on the same page.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
But it wasn't anything. They weren't attacking you.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
No, no, no, no, no, okay. And then so I
took a break and I had a month off before
going overseas to play professionally. While I was overseas, they
gave me a call and I was like, I need
to think about it. But I knew if I was
going to come back that I might not be starting anymore,
I might not be captain anymore, and I need to
go and just be the most selfless person and why
(32:09):
I'm going is to help the team and be there
for the team. And I made that decision and it
was the best decision of my life. I got there. Obviously,
my teammates were happy to have me back. Sure, I
wasn't starting initially and wasn't the coat, I mean, the captain,
but Robin and I then were captains together. We were
both playing a lot, and I just was there to
(32:30):
give me to be a good leader, to make people better,
to give my all. And I worked really, really hard
to get my spot back and I really was happy
about it. And then obviously went on to do twelve
and we got that silber. But I thought it was done. Wow. Yeah, Wow.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
So what did I show you about yourself.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
That I wasn't done that I am no, But.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
You thought it broke you. I didn't break you. Sometimes
you took reset.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
Yeah, it showed a reset. It showed I needed a break.
It showed I needed to, like mentally have a reset
of why I'm there. What is important to me about
being there, and it's always been about helping my team,
and the fact that I felt in those moments that
I couldn't help my team, that was the hardest part
for me because I felt like I was letting them down,
(33:23):
letting myself down, and yeah, I needed a reset.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
I love it. Lindsey Burgh, three time Olympian, two time captain.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Of the US Olympic Women's volleyball team, two silver medals
and a gangster thank and one beautiful business partner of mind, Lindsea.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
I appreciate you so much, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I wouldn't have all this, I wouldn't be called and
breakable without you, So I appreciate you all right.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Jay
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