In the world of beach volleyball, if likened to a computer game, the players are the on-screen characters, but the coach acts more like the programmer, setting everything up beforehand, unlike an indoor volleyball coach who might resemble the gamer. There`s a significant distinction between coaching indoor and beach volleyball. To shed light on the dedicated, often unseen efforts of these beach mentors for fans and provide insider perspectives, my `Secrets of Coaching Success` series features leading European beach volleyball coaches, offering insights into their methods.
Following interviews with several top volleyball coaches, this installment introduces the second beach volleyball coach in the series. Aigars Birzulis, a Latvian expert, guided Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova to victory at the 2022 CEV European Championship in Munich and led the Latvian women`s national team to bronze at the first-ever CEV BeachVolley Nations Cup in Vienna in the same year.
Aigars was born approximately 58 years ago when Latvia was still part of the Soviet Union. He played indoor volleyball during his youth, even earning a medal at the USSR Junior Championship.
He began his career as a coach and sports methodologist in the mid-1980s and has since coached at various indoor volleyball clubs in Latvia. In 2005, Birzulis`s team, Incukalns/LU, secured the national championship title.
For many years, he also served as the head coach for Latvia’s junior and youth national teams, leading them to an eighth-place finish at the 1997 FIVB Volleyball Men`s U21 World Championship. This role significantly influenced his transition to a beach volleyball coaching career.
To help his indoor players maintain peak condition, he incorporated beach volleyball practice during the summer months. In 1996, during the inaugural CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championships held in Jurmala, two of Birzulis’s coached men’s pairs reached the podium: Austris Stalls & Armins Vensbergs won gold, and Aldis Jaunzeikars & Klavs Zalkalns took bronze. This marked the formal beginning of his beach volleyball coaching journey.
Further success followed swiftly. Between 2003 and 2011, teams coached by Birzulis`s boys` teams earned six additional continental medals at various age-category European Championships. Notable wins included Janis Peda & Toms Smedins securing the U18 title in 2003 and Toms Smedins & Janis Smedins claiming the U20 title in 2005.
In 2008, Aigars Birzulis graduated as a volleyball coach from the Latvian Academy of Sports Education. Before the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, he spent three months working with Latvian Olympians Martins Plavins & Aleksandrs Samoilovs.
However, his first major international coaching success at the senior level came with Martins Plavins & Janis Smedins`s bronze medal at the 2010 European Championship in Berlin. This was followed by a fourth-place finish at the 2011 FIVB World Championship in Rome and, most significantly, an Olympic bronze medal at London 2012. Birzulis also coached Martins Plavins & Haralds Regza to a historic gold medal at the Baku 2015 European Games.
From 2014 to 2016, Birzulis achieved three international medals while coaching Latvian age-category women’s teams: a bronze at the 2014 U17 World Championship with Tina Graudina & Linda Gramberga, a title at the 2015 U18 European Championship with Tina Graudina & Paula Neciporuka, and a title at the 2016 U22 European Championship with Tina Graudina & Anastasija Kravcenoka.
Birzulis coached in Finland from 2017 to 2020. Since 2021, he has been involved with an FIVB development initiative, coaching youth girls’ teams in Lithuania.
In August 2022, the Latvian federation asked him to oversee the women’s teams participating in the season’s two major CEV events. At the inaugural Nations Cup in Vienna, Birzulis guided the national team, consisting of Anastasija Kravcenoka, Anete Namike, Tina Graudina, and Varvara Brailko, to bronze medals. Subsequently, under his direction, Anastasija & Tina dominated EuroBeachVolley in Munich, winning all six matches and dropping only a single set (in the final).
For his significant coaching achievements, Aigars Birzulis was awarded the Order of Three Stars, Latvia’s highest state honor 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 free time, the coach enjoys fishing and foraging for mushrooms and berries in nature.
Aigars Birzulis
Beach volleyball coach
Torin Vale