If beach volleyball were a computer game, the players would likely be the on-screen avatars. However, unlike indoor volleyball where the coach might be the active gamer, in beach volleyball, the coach acts more like the programmer, meticulously coding all strategies before the game even begins. This fundamental difference between indoor and beach volleyball coaching warrants a deeper look. To offer fans a firsthand understanding of the dedicated, often unseen efforts of these mentors in the sand, my series, “Secrets of Coaching Success,” profiles accomplished European beach volleyball coaches, delving into their insights on how they achieve greatness.
Following discussions with several elite indoor volleyball coaches, I am now introducing my second beach volleyball specialist to this series. Aigars Birzulis, a Latvian expert, guided Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova to a continental title at the 2022 CEV European Championship in Munich. He also led Latvia’s women’s national team to a bronze medal at the inaugural CEV BeachVolley Nations Cup 2022 in Vienna.
Born approximately 58 years ago when Latvia was still part of the Soviet Union, Aigars played indoor volleyball in his youth, even earning a medal at the USSR Junior Championship.
His coaching and sports methodologist career began in the mid-1980s, where he coached various indoor volleyball clubs across Latvia. In 2005, Birzulis successfully led the Incukalns/LU team to a national championship victory.
For many years, he also served as head coach for Latvia’s junior and youth national teams, steering them to an impressive eighth-place finish at the 1997 FIVB Volleyball Men`s U21 World Championship. This role implicitly paved the way for his transition into beach volleyball coaching.
To ensure his players maintained peak physical condition, he incorporated beach volleyball practice into their summer routines. His formal beach volleyball coaching career took off in 1996 when, at the inaugural CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championships in Jurmala, two of Birzulis’s men’s duos achieved podium finishes: Austris Stalls & Armins Vensbergs secured gold, while Aldis Jaunzeikars & Klavs Zalkalns earned bronze.
Further triumphs quickly followed. Between 2003 and 2011, Birzulis’s male junior teams amassed six more continental medals at various age-category European Championships. Notable victories included Janis Peda & Toms Smedins’s U18 title in 2003, and Toms Smedins & Janis Smedins’s U20 title in 2005.
In 2008, Aigars Birzulis completed his volleyball coach degree at the Latvian Academy of Sports Education. Prior to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, he spent three months working with Latvian Olympians Martins Plavins & Aleksandrs Samoilovs.
His breakthrough international coaching success at the senior level came in 2010 when Martins Plavins & Janis Smedins secured bronze at the 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’s coaching prowess extended to Latvian age-category women’s teams, leading them to three international medals: a U17 World Championship bronze with Tina Graudina & Linda Gramberga in 2014, a U18 European Championship title with Tina Graudina & Paula Neciporuka in 2015, and a U22 European Championship title with Tina Graudina & Anastasija Kravcenoka in 2016.
Birzulis coached in Finland from 2017 to 2020. Since 2021, he has been actively involved in an FIVB development project, coaching youth girls’ teams in Lithuania.
In August 2022, the Latvian federation appointed 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, comprising Anastasija Kravcenoka, Anete Namike, Tina Graudina, and Varvara Brailko, to bronze medals. Subsequently, under his expert direction, Anastasija and Tina achieved victory at EuroBeachVolley in Munich, winning all six of their matches and conceding only a single set in the final.
For his exceptional contributions as a coach, Aigars Birzulis was honored as a Cavalier of the Order of Three Stars, Latvia’s most esteemed state award for distinguished service.
Since July 2020, Aigars Birzulis has also been coaching at the sports center in Marupe, a town near Riga.
In his personal time, the coach enjoys outdoor activities such as fishing, mushroom foraging, and berry picking.
“If beach volleyball were a computer game… the coach would not be the actual gamer… but rather the programmer who had to put in all the code ahead of the game.”
Aigars Birzulis
Beach volleyball coach
For more details, look for: Secrets of Coaching Success: Aigars Birzulis (Part 2)
Discover the previous episode: Secrets of Coaching Success: Spiros Karachalios
Finley Blackwood