“Your assessment, really, is never going to stop with us. We are assessing you as we see how you respond to the dosing and to the prescription of exercise that we give you.” Today we are joined by Tim DiFrancesco discussing working and learning in NBA, building a business, and relationships. After a brief intro Tim starts breaking down lesson’s he learned in his tenure in the league and how they are impacting him as a business man and a coach in the private sector. Being able to work with some o...
Jan 23, 2018•43 min
“Even if the perfection isn’t attained the outcome is decidedly better than just ‘good enough’” This weeks edition of My Thoughts Monday is brought to us by Michigan’s Katlyn Haycock. Katlyn discusses with us Jon Bowers TED talk (check it out here: https://www.ted.com/talks/jon_bowers_we_should_aim_for_perfection_and_stop_fearing_failure) on perfection that hit home with her. In the talk there are multiple fantastic examples as to why aiming for perfection needs to be the goal at all times and C...
Jan 22, 2018•9 min
“To me, that’s the ultimate Litmus Test. If you got something in your weight room, or you have some sort of mantra. Go to your kids and say “can you recite that? And more importantly can you define it?” If they can’t, it’s an opportunity for you to step back and say, “ok, how strong is my culture? How am I trying to support the staff upstairs? How am I trying to create that connection so we are all speaking and saying the same thing and reinforcing on and other’s end goals?” I think if you do th...
Jan 16, 2018•48 min
“When you quantify something like sports, you have to understand that the statistical measure of how that quantifiable number relates to the sport needs to be done by someone who understands statistical measures.” This week’s My Thoughts Monday brings the return of The Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Eisbaren Hockey Club, Berlin, Germany, Jake Jensen. Jake shares with us his thoughts on implementing GPS technology as a means of injury prevention. The first point he touches upon is the c...
Jan 15, 2018•15 min
“I think were we need to continue to challenge ourselves is, just because we are good at that, we may be good at the human side of it. We still need to be able to explain why we do what we do and teach up and teach down what we are doing.” Ron McKeefrey Today we are joined by PLAE Mac Performance’s Ron McKeefrey to discuss his travels and the lessons he’s learned through them. He starts by talking about what his job with PLAE entails, and why he found it so appealing. That leads him right into w...
Jan 09, 2018•35 min
“That was something I learned early on in my career. When I tried to walk into a program and lay the hammer down and pretend like I was the one in charge, and that it was my way or the highway. That usually doesn’t go over that well, at least from what I found out.” In this week’s My Thoughts, Indiana Fever Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Chase Campbell discusses some methods he’s used for building and sustaining buy in. This “buy in”, in his opinion, starts with having an athlete led cultu...
Jan 08, 2018•13 min
“Obviously you can train harder when your younger but the philosophy is the same, which is, where are you weak and how do we fix these area’s so you’re less prone to injury, so we can train harder?” Matt Wenning joins us to discuss programming and the direction the world of training needs to move. After starting out with a brief background, Matt dives right into discussing some of the issues he sees in the world of training today. He touches upon the complexity of training, people rushing result...
Jan 02, 2018•36 min
Today's Thursday Throwback podcast is with Cal Dietz. In the conversation Coach Dietz and Coach DeMayo discuss the Sport Back Squat, how to implement it, some progressions to using it and different forms of exercises that Coach Dietz implements. I’d like to give a huge thank you to Cal for taking the time to have this discussion. Just live every other conversation with him, I walked away a better coach, and hope you enjoy it as well. Post referenced: An Insider's Look At Coach Dietz's Programmin...
Dec 28, 2017•43 min
“I don’t believe we can completely ditch the intuitiveness of the coaches. You want to use that data to help you, maybe to give you more question than give you concrete answers. It’s a combination of intuitive thinking and data driven facts.” Mladen Jovanović sits down with us to talk about his experiences traveling the world as a coach in each corner of the world. We start out discussing cultures around the world, and how those differences impact how you SHOULD work with athletes. This leads hi...
Dec 26, 2017•32 min
“Because true and always true are different things.” Val Nasedkin sits down with us to talk about readiness, preparedness, and sport mastery in today’s edition of The Podcast. We start up catching up with Val, and what he’s been up to sense we last saw him at The Seminar. We then discuss the differences between readiness and preparedness, what are the differences, why it matters? This leads up to what’s actually important to be an athlete, and what makes up athlete preparedness. Next, he shares ...
Dec 19, 2017•52 min
“The bottom line is, we are here because of the athletes. We are here because we love what we do, and that drives our passion but can also could our thoughts because we want it so bad for them. Sometimes, simple is the best. Sometimes, just hard work can be successful.” University of Richmond Director of Strength and Conditioning Scott Brincks asks the simple question to all of us today, “do we do enough, or do we do too much?” He asks this question, not just of the what’s, how’s, and when’s of ...
Dec 18, 2017•9 min
A little #ThursdayThrowback with a discussion from 2011. In the talk Dr. Yessis breaks down specialized exercises, what they are, and where the idea came from. ENJOY THE CONTENT? THEN YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT THE STRENGTH COACH NETWORK! You can find sensational content just like this in The Strength Coach Network. As a member of The Strength Coach Networks, you can access over 200 hours of the highest-level lecture content just like this one for 48 hours for only $1. Follow the link below to sign up...
Dec 14, 2017•33 min
“It’s the thought process, rather than the tech, that will help people make those decisions around the endurance, the fatigue, sprint athlete, the high intensity athlete.” In today’s edition of The Podcast Arsenal Football Club’s Ben Ashworth joins us to discuss the research he has been part of with looking at the shoulder. After a brief intro Ben starts out discussing what is going on at the club now, and how the international fortnight will impact how they handle the players with club. We then...
Dec 12, 2017•37 min
“In a lot of team sport situation mental toughness becomes a scape goat for underperforming athletes weather they lack tactical skill or physical conditioning it’s always convenient to blame mental toughness” Mental toughness is, and always will be, a point that divides our industry. Today, Jake Jensen shares his thoughts on it. Jake refers to research in to how he defines it, and looks to improve it with his athlete. This is through evaluating the athlete like we would in training and improving...
Dec 09, 2017•13 min
"There’s a lot of people out there you want to reach out the them and say, “how was it like early on?” because it wasn’t probably all the roses that they have now. They worked to get that respect. They worked there ASEES off to get that respect, and hearing how they worked their ass off, cause you’re going to be at a smaller school, or you’re gonna work for a coach that doesn’t really care for you. And you’re gonna want to know how to earn that person’s respect, and how to get it. What to do in ...
Dec 05, 2017•38 min
“So, let’s stop all the complaining. Let’s come up with a solution. What we don’t need is observations and advise. What we need are announcements. We are announcing what we are doing. Let’s start changing activity into accomplishment.” ENJOY THE CONTENT? THEN YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT THE STRENGTH COACH NETWORK! You can find sensational content just like this in The Strength Coach Network. As a member of The Strength Coach Networks, you can access over 200 hours of the highest-level lecture content j...
Dec 04, 2017•9 min
In today’s edition of the podcast we are joined by Matthew Ibrahim to discuss training and relationships. After a brief introduction, we get into Hip Hinge 101 including where the idea came from and what the goal is of the program/class. He then shares with us some frequently seen issues with clients and athlete’s and offers some simple ways to help improve those issues. Matt is putting out awesome content on social media too, make e sure you follow him here: Instagram: @matthewibrahim_ Twitter:...
Nov 28, 2017•40 min
“You got to find that balance between understanding you can’t be a slave to the numbers. You use it as information and it’s hugely valuable, but at the end of the day you have to take it in conjunction with the subjective piece, and how these players are responding and feeling.” Jason Dierking from Louisville sits down to share with us how he evaluates his soccer players and how that drives his programming. He starts out by talking about what he’s looking at by defining those parameters, the eva...
Nov 21, 2017•42 min
2017 Seminar Presenter and Michigan Tech’s Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Matt Thome joins us to discuss the idea of specificity. Having learned directly from Dr. Yessis, Dr. Bondarchuck, and Dr. Verkhoshansky, Matt has had a unique education on the topic. He shares with us some examples different ends of the “training spectrum” that can be specific for one, and complete general to the other. He then touches upon definitions and of the three Doctors listed above theories on specificity. He...
Nov 20, 2017•13 min
Sam Gardner from The USOC sits down to discuss his role in California with Paralympians. He starts out sharing his role and discussing what different types of athlete’s he gets to work with. Next, we go through each of the four different groups of Paralympians he works with, vision impaired, amputees, spinal injuries, and CP athletes. He then gets into the real day to day with working with these athletes, and gives real examples of how working with these athletes is a unique situation for each a...
Nov 14, 2017•36 min
All too often athelte’s have issues or doubts with what is going on in training. Today, Lousiville Cardinals Assistant Strength Coach Chris Hays shares with how he handles this. Chris touches upon how it has helped with buy in, and building relationships. He talks about sharing the justification behind aspects of programming, training at different times of the year, adjustments you have made, and to explain your why. ENJOY THE CONTENT? THEN YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT THE STRENGTH COACH NETWORK! You ca...
Nov 13, 2017•10 min
Today we are joined by Stanford University’s, and Strong By Science’s Max Schmarzo to discuss the world of applied sports science. Max starts out by sharing with us what his role is at Stanford, and how he got there. Next, he gives a step by step walk through on the process off how they develop the protocols they implement with the student athlete’s they work with and the collaborative effort it is across multiple disciplines within the department drives the questions that they are attempting to...
Nov 07, 2017•37 min
USA Swimming’s Keenan Robinson joins us for this week’s edition of My Thoughts Monday. Keenan shares a quote from Michael Brooks of Kings Aquatic Club, “if they’re broke at 12 they’ll be broke at 16” and breaks down his thoughts on this. He shares how he sees this connects to technique work in the weight room, movement skills in all sports, and the role of the brain in all of it. Keenan also shares a great example of a workout he ran at Zones recently with athletes, what they did, why they did w...
Nov 06, 2017•12 min
Today we are joined by Dr. Teddy Willsey to discuss the connections between strength and conditioning and physical therapy. We start out discussing Teddy’s journey from strength and conditioning to PT, the role of his time at Pitt, and how the lessons he learned working with Buddy Morris has impacted him as a physical therapist. Next we talk about social media, how he uses it, and what he’s seen from putting out fantastic content on Instagram. The conversation finishes the discussion talking abo...
Oct 31, 2017•35 min
In this edition of My Thoughts Monday Devan McConnell shares with us how his hockey guys handle things on game day. Devan shares with us some examples as to what the guys do on game day and the reasoning behind it, both from the scientific/practical side along with how it fits in with the culture of the team he works with. ENJOY THE CONTENT? THEN YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT THE STRENGTH COACH NETWORK! You can find sensational content just like this in The Strength Coach Network. As a member of The Stre...
Oct 30, 2017•8 min
What is that last step to get an athlete back on the field? This is an ever-existing question, and that is exactly what Bill Hartman covers in today’s edition of The Podcast. We start out discussing how they work with people and athlete’s at IFAST to bring them to their return to play protocols. Next, Bill discusses connecting the two (therapy and training), and how they evaluate the athletes to make sure they are safely progressing them towards being ready to participate in their sport. He then...
Oct 24, 2017•35 min
In this week’s edition of My Thoughts Monday, Jay DeMayo shares with us some recent experiences with career ending injury, and how he handled the situation. This is something that we need to talk about more as a profession, because if we are going to say that we are here for the athlete’s then we need to be there for them at their most trying times. This is most definitely, their most trying time. ENJOY THE CONTENT? THEN YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT THE STRENGTH COACH NETWORK! You can find sensational c...
Oct 23, 2017•11 min
Athletic Lab’s Mike Young joins us for today’s edition of The Podcast. Mike starts out sharing with us what is presently going on with the athlete’s he’s training down in North Carolina. He then discusses the impact that working in track, soccer, and academia have had on him, and how they’ve intertwined to develop him professionally. He then elaborates on how he has taken the work he does on the track and manipulated it to fit into the schedule of his soccer athletes. We finish out discussing so...
Oct 17, 2017•35 min
"We have to stop and think and be realistic with ourselves about how many times we are actually dealing with freaks who are both completely advanced trained and elite level athletes." In today’s edition of My Thoughts Monday Dr. Bryan Mann discusses preparedness with us, and gives advices to coaches on how and when to look at using more advanced methods with their athletes. He starts out with anecdotical examples as to why, in his opinion, simpler may be better when it comes to developing many o...
Oct 16, 2017•10 min
Today we are joined by Mike Boykin to discuss the development of a coach. Mike starts out sharing with us what his thoughts were going into his three-year mentorship/internship position that led to an assistant position at ALTIS and then coaching his own group of athlete’s. We then get into some “Ah-ha” moments and top lessons he took from his time there that carry over to each portion of developing athlete’s, and how autonomy is a big driver towards the success of the athlete’s he worked with. ...
Oct 10, 2017•35 min
