What if the secret to reducing ACL risk, unlocking elite speed, and fixing broken movement patterns starts at the bottom of your athletes' feet?

In this episode, we're live from Summerstrong with Cal Dietz, creator of Triphasic Training and the strength coach behind USA Women's Hockey's Olympic gold medal. 

Triphasic Training II - https://amzn.to/4iNvi9M

Cal pulls back the curtain on the methods he used with one of the most dominant teams in Olympic hockey history, and why he believes most coaches are overlooking the single most important muscle in their program: the big toe.

Cal breaks down his Spring Ankle protocol, the Three-Way Foot method, and how two simple muscle tests let him identify ACL risk before it happens. He's been texting coaches mid-game with names. He's been right every time.

Whether you coach high school athletes or Olympians, this conversation will change how you look at movement, foot strength, and injury prevention from the ground up.

Education - Captains & Coaches course, "Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com [http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com/]

Training - 15 Min Dynamic Warm Up Flow - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/warmupflow Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com [https://shop.captainsandcoaches.com/]

Strong Ankles & Olympic Feat w/ Cal Dietz

Your athletes hear the word "conditioning" and the intent dies before the first rep. So stop calling it that.

In this episode, Tex shares the full presentation he gave at the Soldiers to Sidelines [@soliderstosidelines [https://www.instagram.com/soldierstosidelines/]] Endurance Coaches Summit, a real-time breakdown of how he reframes fitness for high school athletes to actually get buy-in, raise intensity, and build something that matters beyond the stopwatch.

You'll hear why knowing who your athlete is matters more than your programming, the difference between work capacity and work efficiency (and why most coaches stay stuck in one), and three specific purposes of conditioning that filter every drill, every rep, and every decision on the field.

If your conditioning sessions feel like punishment disguised as preparation, this episode is the reframe you didn't know you needed.

Your job isn't to punish them. It's to prepare them to compete.

Soldiers to Sidelines: https://soldierstosidelines.org/

Education - Captains & Coaches course, "Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com [http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com/]

Training -
15 Min Dynamic Warm Up Flow - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/warmupflowOld Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com [https://shop.captainsandcoaches.com/]

117 - It's Not Conditioning, It's Getting Sexy

Most athletes think showing up is enough. Go to the tournaments, hit the showcases, get seen, and the offers will come. Nick Tintle has spent nearly two decades watching that belief cost athletes the opportunity they worked their whole career to earn.

Nick is a 2x All-American, MLL Champion, and founder of The Lacrosse Barn, the first lacrosse-exclusive training facility in Texas. In this episode, Nick breaks down what recruiting actually demands before a player ever steps on a showcase field, why his 8-person small group training model is developing smarter, more situationally aware athletes, and what it really means to grind in the dark when everyone else is chasing the spotlight.

We also get into the book he spent four years writing, a story born out of grief, finished through relentless consistency, and what that process revealed about resilience, gratitude, and the people who show up when you're running on empty.

If you coach athletes with college dreams, train players who think presence equals preparation, or you're an athlete trying to find your edge, this one is for you.

In this episode:

 * Why tournaments are a needle in a haystack for recruiting
 * The 8-person training model and why it beats privates
 * Skill vs. situational awareness — and why the gap matters
 * How to communicate hard work without dismantling effort
 * Burnout — how to spot it, how to address it, and when to step back
 * The book, the grief, and four years of showing up anyway

Education - Captains & Coaches course, "Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com [http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com/]

Training: 15 Min Dynamic Warm Up Flow - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/warmupflowOld Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com [https://shop.captainsandcoaches.com/]

116 - Recruiting, Reps, & Resilience w/ Nick Tintle

Matt Erdman spent 14 years in law enforcement before stumbling into a coaching opportunity he wasn't ready for. He'll be the first to tell you he didn't know a thing. So he learned.

Now he runs Veritas Athletic Performance in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska — a speed and performance facility built on one word: truth. Truth in faith. Truth in law enforcement. Truth in training. The stopwatch doesn't lie, and neither does he.

In this episode, Matt and Tex break down the real work of speed development — why athletes get slower before they get faster, how to sell that to a kid who just wants a PR, and the shift every performance coach eventually has to make from obsessing over the program to obsessing over the person.

Speed is a skill. Connection is the foundation. This one covers both.

Education - Captains & Coaches course, "Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com [http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com/]

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com [https://shop.captainsandcoaches.com/]

115 - Speed is Simple. People are Complex.

Jim Davis is the founder of the Good Athlete Project and author of Get Steady: Essays at the Foundation of Sustainable High Performance. This conversation was recorded live at New Trier High School the day before we both presented at the Beyond Strength Summit in Chicago.

Grab Jim's Book, Get Steady here: https://amzn.to/4tgb6le

We cover Jim's High Order Performance Framework, from the physiological bedrock of sleep, nutrition, and movement, all the way up to gap capacities like grit, gratitude, and resilience. We also get into the inverted U curve, flow state theory, the three V's of communication, and a decision-making model called AUIRS that every coach needs in their toolkit.

If you believe sports don't teach lessons, coaches do, this one is for you.

Education - Captains & Coaches course, "Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com [http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com/]

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com [https://shop.captainsandcoaches.com/]

114 - Beyond Sport: Teaching Lessons That Last w/ Jim Davis

Every season, coaches name captains. Hand out the 'C.' Fire everyone up.

And then the season hits, and half the time, those captains don't know what to do with it.

Not because they don't care. Not because they're bad leaders.

Because nobody ever taught them how.

This episode is the story of what happened when I decided to change that.

I'm in the middle of my doctoral program in educational leadership — and this past season, I took my five high school lacrosse captains and put them through the same process I was going through myself. Pre-assessments. Eight structured leadership lessons. Post-assessments.

What came back surprised me.

We talk about what the research says about why captain development fails, what we actually did differently this season, what changed — and what didn't. Including the moment late in the season when one of my captains walked up to me unprompted and said four words that told me everything I needed to know.

If you're a coach who's ever wondered why your leaders lead great in practice and disappear when it matters, this one's for you.

Education - Captains & Coaches course, "Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com [http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com/]

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com [https://shop.captainsandcoaches.com/]

113 - What a Season of Real Leadership Development Looks Like

What separates a good strength coach from a great one? According to Matt Nein, it's not the programming. It's the environment you create and the experience you deliver — every single day.

In his 21 years at Salisbury University, Matt has built one of the most decorated strength and conditioning programs in all of college athletics — 14 national championships, 360-plus All-Americans, and the 2018 NSCA Collegiate Strength Coach of the Year award. And he's done it without the budget, the staff, or the square footage of the programs that get all the attention.

We also go deep on his role as Strength and Conditioning Coach for USA Lacrosse's Box and Sixes National Teams, the physical demands of the fastest game on two feet, and what it means to keep a flame lit when your athletes are scattered across the country.

This one is for every coach trying to build something real with limited resources and unlimited heart.

Education - Captains & Coaches course, "Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com [http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com/]

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com [https://shop.captainsandcoaches.com/]

112 - Environment, Experience & Excellence w/ Matt Nein, Salisbury University & USA Lacrosse

You can spend an entire season with someone and still not know a single real thing about them. You know their position. You know what they do when the game's on the line. But you don't know their story — and that gap is exactly where teams break down.

In this episode, Tex breaks down the Three H's: Hero, Hardship, Highlight — a team building exercise used by Jon Gordon with Dabo Swinney's Clemson football program, adopted by elite teams across sport and military.

This isn't a feel-good exercise. It's a leadership tool backed by research, tested at the highest levels of sport, and built on one truth: you'll never have commitment without connection. A team that knows each other's story will always fight harder than one that only knows each other's stats.

Education - Captains & Coaches course, "Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com [http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com/]

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com [https://shop.captainsandcoaches.com/]

111 - Connection Before Commitment: The 3-H's That Build Unbreakable Teams

Dr. Mike T. Nelson [@drmiketnelson [https://www.instagram.com/drmiketnelson]] is a PhD exercise physiologist, metabolic flexibility expert, and one of the most applied performance scientists in the game. He's been researching and using creatine since 1995 — and today he's helping coaches and parents cut through three decades of myth, fear, and bad marketing.

Dr. Mike's Complete Creatine Manual: creatine.miketnelson.com [https://creatine.miketnelson.com/]

In this episode, Tex and Dr. Mike break down everything contact sport coaches need to know about creatine — what it actually is, why the steroid myth refuses to die, real dosing protocols, hydration in extreme heat, and the emerging research on creatine as a prophylactic for brain health in contact sports. They also get into caffeine and energy drinks, coaching leverage, exogenous ketones post-concussion, and why vision training may be the most underutilized concussion prevention tool in athletics.

If you coach football, lacrosse, wrestling, or hockey — this is a conversation you'll want your athletes and their parents to hear.

25% OFF Throne Creatine: https://www.thorne.com/u/captains

Education - Captains & Coaches course, "Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com [http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com/]

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com [https://shop.captainsandcoaches.com/]

110 - Creatine, Concussions & Contact Sports w/ Dr Mike T Nelson

Pat Riley called it the Disease of Me — and it doesn't start with losing. It starts with winning.

In this episode, Tex breaks down Pat Riley's 7 Danger Signals: the warning signs that individual ego is quietly taking over a team that's supposed to be chasing something bigger. From chronic under-appreciation to cliques forming in the locker room to players who are frustrated even when the team is winning — these signals show up on every team. The difference between good teams and great ones is whether anyone has the courage to address them early.

You'll learn how to spot each signal before it spreads, and get a specific action for each one — things you can actually do at practice this week, not just concepts to think about.

*NEW* Education - Captains & Coaches course, "Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com [http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com/]

Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train

C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com [https://shop.captainsandcoaches.com/]

109 - The Disease of Me: Pat Riley's 7 Sins That Destroy Teams

The Fast-Track to Becoming a Game-Changing Leader.

Discover how the greatest minds in sports build winning cultures. Dive into raw, no-nonsense conversations with elite coaches and captains who've been in the trenches. We're not here for fluff – expect:

 * Hard-hitting strategies to skyrocket your team's performance
 * Insider tips on building unbreakable team chemistry
 * Career-defining lessons from both victories and failures

Whether you're calling plays or taking the field, we're building you up, not breaking you down. 

Ready to raise your game? Let's do it together.

Press play. Listen and lead with purpose. Become the leader your team needs.

www.captainsandcoaches.com [https://www.captainsandcoaches.com/]

Tex McQuilkin

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