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102 - Coach Fed, Player Led: Inside Texas Baseball's Standard w/ Matt Couch
57 Plays17 hours ago
Most teams are coach-led.
The best teams are player-led.
We sit down with Matt Couch of University of Texas Baseball to break down what it actually means to build a coach-fed, player-led program—and why that standard separates elite teams from everyone else.
This isn’t about motivational speeches or surface-level culture.
This is about ownership, accountability, and daily behaviors that hold up under pressure.
We get into:
- What “coach fed, player led” really looks like inside Texas Baseball
- How elite programs shift from compliance to ownership
- Why leadership can’t live only in the coaching staff
- The standards athletes are expected to uphold without being told
- How to build a locker room where players drive the culture
If you’re a coach trying to develop leaders—or an athlete who wants to stand out—this episode will challenge how you think about culture, responsibility, and what it actually takes to compete at the highest level.
Because at the end of the day… the standard isn’t what coaches say—it’s what players live.
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Transcript
Introduction and Motivation
00:00:00
Speaker
It's something that drives me every single day is I want to make him proud. And I know he's smiling down. He loved coming to the field. Like he absolutely loved he he would call it working out, um but he would just come and hang out with the guys in the weight room. And, yeah, it was just incredible to kind of see this not only the baseball program, but the you know all of University of Texas kind of rally around us and really kind of help us.
00:00:22
Speaker
go through that because it was no one should have to go through that at any point and it was really really difficult but we we try to make him proud every single day. Welcome to the Captains and Coaches podcast we explore the art and science of leadership through the lens of athletics and beyond. I'm your host Tex McQuilkin and I'm joined by Matt Couch and I've been trying to get this guy on a pod for many years and if you know Matt you know he's worth the wait.
00:00:47
Speaker
He's one of my favorite people in the entire coaching industry. a former collegiate pitcher at University of San Diego, a guy who bet on himself when there was no clear path, built a career from the ground up, and is now one of the best strength and conditioning coaches for baseball in the country as the associate head athletic performance coach for Texas baseball.
00:01:08
Speaker
But more than any of that, Matt is a husband, a father, and a man who's walked through some of the hardest moments life and hand you with faith and grace. This one's personal, it's real, and I've been looking forward to a a long time. With that, let's throw out to Matt to help us raise the game. Ready, ready, and break.
Career Beginnings in Strength Coaching
00:01:27
Speaker
Action, Matt Couch, welcome to Dripping Springs. Yeah. I mean, this is a long time coming. I've been texting you every day for don't know how many years, but it's been a minute. Yes, it has been a minute. Yeah. And I mean, we have so many friends and our network and connection is continuing to grow. Sure.
00:01:45
Speaker
Because now the closer I get to Logan, the closer I get to his network, yep which just so happens to be a lot of your network. Yes. Logan is one of my very, very closest friends. Probably my one of my best friends. Yes. yeah And then you also went to college at USD, University of San Diego, where you had Coach Jay Johnson. I did. that was just at LSU. I know. You sent me the picture. It was amazing. And then, i mean, the Train Heroic guys. Yeah.
00:02:10
Speaker
Josh and Ben, you were colleagues or students? Yeah. We were both athletes together. Athletes. think... I might have coached them one year, i believe. um I might not have. It might just have been... hi puppy. It might have just been we were all athletes together. It it kind of all gets blurred 20 years ago. so And you had Turley.
00:02:31
Speaker
i did have Shannon Turley. I had Shannon Turley. He is incredible. um Very intense, to say the least. We have so many... turley isms that we That's it. King of the one-liner.
00:02:43
Speaker
we still talk about all of those days yeah yeah and and take us through your strength coach journey sure what did you study strengthing conditioning kineinesiology yeah was it i did not or you were a weight room guy i was a wait room guy um So I had probably some of the best strength coaches to you know ever go.
00:03:04
Speaker
I had, shoot, we had five in my five years that I had there. So it was kind of like a revolving door. um So I had Shannon Turley. I had Hans Straub, who ended up going with ah Coach Turley to Stanford, has then moved on to went to South Florida, I believe.
00:03:19
Speaker
He was the football guy at Rice for a long time. And then they my mentor, Stefan Roche came in after them.
Unique Baseball Experiences Abroad
00:03:26
Speaker
He was huge into CrossFit when that was kind of a big deal. And he kind of became not only just a ah father figure for me, but also just a great mentor.
00:03:38
Speaker
Still talk to him this debt to this day. He's incredible. And then, so I went and played it overseas for a year, of all places, Sweden. Interesting. Didn't even know they had professional baseball there. I wouldn't even, I don't know if I would call it professional baseball. Were paid? It was baseball. I was paid. So that that is professionalism. Well, it was. Yeah, right. um So I went over there for a year, tried to get back to come back and play in the States, and it just didn't happen. Ended up having a bunch of injuries. Yeah.
00:04:05
Speaker
I went back and I started, i wanted to try to find an outlet for my competitiveness. so for me, it was it was CrossFit. And so I got into CrossFit, went back to my alma mater. Stefan was still there. and I was kind of utilizing that space as kind of my training ground to to kind of get into CrossFit. And I was trying to. What year was this?
00:04:24
Speaker
Gosh, this must have been 2010, maybe 2011, early 2011. And, you know, I was just kind of a gym rat. I was kind of there a lot. And stepfa Diego is the right place.
Coaching Challenges and Development
00:04:36
Speaker
Yes, it was a tough place to be. Someone's got to do it. So, yeah yeah, I loved it there. Yeah, it was it was great. um And Stefan just, I was, I was kind of coming in there. I was spending a lot of time really, really getting into the Olympic lifts and they were kind of running a CrossFit gym out of that facility. And so he asked me if I kind of wanted to be a part of it.
00:04:55
Speaker
Um, so myself and JP Bolon, who was ex Navy SEAL, who was also with HQ and stuff like that. He and I kind of, feel like the name familiar yeah, he's incredible. Um, he's out in Hawaii now, Kauai, um,
00:05:08
Speaker
Great guy. And so he and I kind of ran this CrossFit gym on the outskirts and Stefan was kind of overseeing it. He was like, Hey, you kind of have a knack for this coaching thing. Like you want to, you know, potentially intern with us for a little bit.
00:05:22
Speaker
Had no clue what I was doing. Didn't really have a path at that point and was trying to, you know, do some things. I was kind of getting into the baseball side of things already with, I was a pitcher at the university of San Diego. So I kind of wanted to do that.
00:05:33
Speaker
and So I was kind of coaching with that a little bit. but this was just a, just a huge passion of mine. And so, um, yeah, he invited me, he said, Hey, show up the gym at five 15. We're going set up for for our football lifts. And that was kind of it. And, uh, started doing that, started getting a a little bit more teams, a little bit more responsibilities.
00:05:55
Speaker
And then what's great for me at the university of San Diego is they only had two strength coaches for 17 teams. So, uh, there was two full-time And there was a couple of interns that were there and the assistant, so Stefan's assistant, just picked up and left. Had another opportunity, left in like October and he needed help. And so- Now. Yes, tomorrow. um So he was like, hey, I don't know if this is really gonna work. You're an intern, you know you're not paid.
00:06:24
Speaker
but can you help me out? You know? And so ah just a ton of responsibility. He tried to, you know, show me the ropes as quick as we possibly could. And this is probably six or eight months down the line from when I first started as an intern and just got thrown in the fire. And,
00:06:38
Speaker
You know, you learn pretty quickly that, you know, managing a 30 or 40 group, you know, team is very difficult when it's just a one man show. So, yeah, I learned a lot.
00:06:49
Speaker
And I was. It's not just a group. These are scholarship. Oh, yes. Without a doubt. Yeah, without a doubt. So it was a, you know, I was definitely thrown into the fire and just had a blast with it. You know, it was my alma mater. So I knew the ropes a little bit with that. knew a lot of the coaches. So they were pretty comfortable with me. And it ended up being great. um I really did well. had kind of a knack for a coach's eye at the beginning.
00:07:13
Speaker
And Stefan kind of showed me the ropes and pretty much eight months later offered me the position. Did not go to school for any of this stuff. I did all of this afterward afterwards. And I think I'm the only...
00:07:27
Speaker
NCAA Division One Strength and Conditioning athlete or Coach to get hired with a non-CSCS at the time. They didn't have to have it back then. So um I have obviously since gotten that. Yeah, I've obviously since gotten that. Without a doubt, they're the best.
00:07:43
Speaker
ah But at the time, it was it was kind of, you know, they needed help and right place the right time. So yeah, it was great. And from USD, what's the journey to Texas? Because you don't just walk on. Sure. Yeah. So, you know, baseball background was was huge. um When this job opened up at at Texas, I reached out to basically my network and just all my old coaches. And you're still at USD. I'm still at USD. So I was from at USD 2011 up until 2019 when I got the job here at Texas.
00:08:15
Speaker
Um, reached out to all my old coaches. Does anybody have a connection with, it's now the previous staff, uh, coach David Pierce, his staff and Jay Johnson of, um, of course, you know, who I'm super close with very, very, very connected with. He was one of my favorite coaches to ever be around as a player.
00:08:34
Speaker
was like, Hey, I know everybody. Um, so I at least had a foot in the door and then Logan, ah knew our director of ops, Drew Bishop. So they played together. Drew was also a player at Texas. They played summer ball together in Santa Barbara. So they were kind of already some things in play before I even knew it.
00:08:51
Speaker
And at least got ah you know an interview, came on site. This was, gosh, July of 2019. Sorry, June of 2019. And was offered the job and had to be out here in two
High Standards and Mental Toughness in Coaching
00:09:04
Speaker
weeks. So um had to pick up. My wife was pregnant.
00:09:08
Speaker
ah Basically had to get out of our apartment in San Diego, move across country. She had to quit her job. Like we did all the things within a two week little stint. And so got here to Austin and have been here ever since.
00:09:21
Speaker
Yeah. And we're a beautiful place. And you've seen Austin grow. Oh my gosh. In this short time COVID. I mean, we got here in 2019 and once COVID hit, it felt like everybody followed us from California, which I know is a...
00:09:35
Speaker
not a great thing, but, um you know, but you marryer yeah the more the merrier. They followed you. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Trendsetter. Exactly. And so, I mean, you've had some great coaches. sure So we mentioned Jay, the great opportunity to interview Jay. Yeah. and And now on my bucket list is to interview your former head coach, who's now in hawa how and Hawaii. Oh gosh, Rich Hill. You will have, that will be one of your most um I'm just looking for excuse to go whole life. Memorable. Memorable. Experiences. He's incredible. He's best. So, I mean, you've had all these coaches. Yeah. And you get the opportunity to now lead. Yeah. So what lessons are you still maintaining from Coach Hill, Coach Johnson? Yeah.
00:10:18
Speaker
That, I mean, still brings you motivation each morning. Yeah. To help instill these gentlemen. You know, I think, especially at San Diego, you know, it was a mid-major school. You know, not necessarily the... the upper tier when it comes to baseball at the time, they've since now become, and and we were a part of that, kind of grew that into becoming you know a mainstay and in college baseball.
00:10:41
Speaker
And something that all of the coaches, Coach Hill, Coach Johnson, Coach Roche, Turley, Hans Straub, all these guys, it was such a ah big proponent to all of us as athletes, as athletes,
00:10:54
Speaker
the work ethic and just really, really, really diving into the work and and being almost obsessed with the work. And so that's kind of been my driving factor as a player was no one's gonna outwork me. No one's gonna out you know hustle me. No one's gonna do more work to get um the success on the field. And so that was always kind of a driving force for me as an athlete.
00:11:15
Speaker
And then when I got into coaching, that's really, really what I wanted to instill in our players. And it's something that's difficult, especially now, you know, this day and age is a lot of these players have been kind of given everything from the get go. And so we really want to instill. And it's a big proponent from, you know, the coaches at Texas, you know, from the baseball side is work ethic and consistency and and really, really, really trying to dive into the work to, you you know, almost earn the right to be out on the field and earn the right to get that win and stuff like that. So that's always been a huge proponent for me is the work ethic. Mm-hmm.
00:11:47
Speaker
And now work ethic and you're entering into a world class. Sure. Program. Yep. So whether it's Texas or the University of Texas as a whole.
00:11:58
Speaker
And I mean, i would joke it's the it's the the Yankees. Yeah. Of a strength and conditioning profession. doubt. So now stepping into the the standards, the culture, the expectations. Yep. How did this work ethic prepare you for the true expectations of the the pressures of just Texas? Yeah, I think, you know, the pressure's real, right? Like, you definitely feel it. you We feel it as coaches. The athletes feel it.
00:12:24
Speaker
um I think we what we try to do is get our guys to embrace it, right? Like, you either have to have a target on your back because you're the University of Texas, or you put targets on other people's back by trying to actually – not almost make up a scenario, but it's like, yeah, yeah, exactly. But you know, like that was, there's always been a target on your back and and that'll be when we're gone at Texas, you know, it'll always be a thing. And so what we've tried to do is, is, is try to embrace that and try to almost, Hey,
00:12:56
Speaker
This is their Super Bowl, right? Like every time that they're going to come and play us, we need to outwork them because we're going to get their best effort. And, you know, something that Coach Hill talked about a lot as players was the other team is nameless and faceless. Like it doesn't matter. We're playing against ourselves.
00:13:11
Speaker
How can we build? best give ourselves the the best possible scenario to to win this game. And more times than not, the other team is gonna lose the game than necessarily win the game, right? Like, and so you just almost have to play your best as best you can. And Logan talks about this all the time is the standard's a standard. And we talk about it at Texas all the time.
00:13:30
Speaker
The standard doesn't change. We need to upkeep that standard. And it doesn't matter if you're up 10, down 10, you know, it's tie game in the ninth. We need to play at our best every single pitch, every single inning, every single game. And that's what we try to get our guys to. And it's such a mental like ah it's a mental toughness thing is Can you stay in the moment? Can you stay present?
00:13:52
Speaker
Especially with baseball, long, long, long games, long, long season. um You know, if you break it down, not necessarily a 56 game season, but just win this pitch, you know, like we're going to attack this pitch. And then if it's successful, great, let's do it again. If it's not, all right, let's adjust.
00:14:07
Speaker
And then now we got the next pitch. And that's something that Coach Hill did from a great, he, instilled in that from a very, very early, early, early stages of this like mental side of baseball. And he was a big proponent of it and really, really instilled that in in us as players and what we try to do currently as well.
00:14:25
Speaker
Time out. Observation, new coaches getting into the field are really smart and intelligent when it comes to programming or understanding practice plans and their sport, and really bad at people.
00:14:38
Speaker
They have high IQ and low EQ. I spent the past 14 years traveling the world teaching people how to teach people lifting weights, understanding sport, but most importantly, connecting with people.
00:14:52
Speaker
I've taken all those lessons from all over the world and put them into a new course, Why They're Not Listening, Coaching Today's Athlete. If you want the first lesson free, head to the website listen.captainsandcoaches.com.
00:15:06
Speaker
to learn more. And now, back to the show. Ready, ready, and break. That's cool. And playing Division III lacrosse, we had our Texas, which was Salisbury. It's located in Ocean City, Maryland. And I just went to over Christmas break to interview the head strength coach there. okay When I was a freshman, he started his first year as a career there. cool And amassed this ultimate thing. But they've embraced that anti-hero. They've embraced the villain. right So when they walk out to the field, it's the Imperial yeah Death Star nice i love it March. that's great They've embraced that. So it was cool for me to get behind the curtain and sit down with Coach Nine. sure
00:15:47
Speaker
But I just know too many good guys in Texas. just don't see them as that evil team. I think it's just a... You have to almost embrace it. you know Anti-hero. Yeah, exactly. and and you know Everywhere you go...
00:16:01
Speaker
it's Texas, right? Like it it's it's a thing. And so, you know, we try to literally try to get them to embrace it and like, all right, all eyes are on us. Let's go give them the best. I mean, the eyes of Texas are upon you. Yeah, yeah. it's ah It's, I mean, it's in our saying. So, you know, it's something that we really try to embrace and really try to push on our guys almost in a positive way. Like, hey, you're going all eyes are going be on you. You can do anything that you want to do by putting in that work. And so it's really become something that we try to embrace.
00:16:33
Speaker
So now as, as a former pitcher, do you have an affinity to working with the pitching staff? You know what? You treat them a little bit different. You know, I, I almost, or you're harmless. I'm almost harder on them. Like I i know the grind of that. And um I know what it takes to to pitch at this level. And and so I'm almost,
00:16:53
Speaker
like especially if they're not giving their all, you know, like I really, really, really try to get on them a little bit more. But yeah, you know, it's's it's one of those things that from our side, like being an ex-pitcher, knowing what that grind is. And that's really honestly probably why I got this job from the very get-go was I had that knowledge. I had that understanding and it's gotten a lot better. You know, the strength conditioning on the baseball side has gotten a ton better. Zach Deacon's done a great job. Eric Cressy's done a great job of just getting information out there to a lot of strength coaches.
00:17:22
Speaker
um And it's different. Like it's a different game. It's a different calendar. When you look at it, we, I mean, we play all year long. um So you really have to take that into account, but you know, it's it's one of those things where for me, I have such a knowledge and understanding of what game 30 looks like compared to game number one, right? Like, yeah so that kind of gives me a little insight into, into their preparation and really just a baseball side in general.
00:17:48
Speaker
And just understanding the game and having a, a, in in In baseball, you' you'd say that that guy has great feel. I feel like I have a good feel for for the game and for you know kind of a snapshot of our guys and on any given day.
Resilience and Adaptation in Training
00:18:02
Speaker
So now combining the the outwork, the grind philosophy, but now just with the the style and finesse that is baseball, whether it's pitching or, I mean, some of the great athletes that are in the field. Yeah. Like infield, I'm an Astros fan, infield. Right.
00:18:20
Speaker
That's amazing stuff. Yeah. Whether it's Altuve or Bregman, just seeing that style of yeah flair. Yeah. So how do you combine the understanding of there's fundamentals where we're going to grind, we're going work, ye but I still want you to be you?
00:18:33
Speaker
Yeah. you know i think I think that's where the individualization comes in. you know I think you know what makes these athletes great is what makes them great. right like They know their abilities and they know um maybe what they think is their their ceiling and we want to try to break through that. And so for us, we want to have, let them, you know, have their style, have their kind of flair, especially nowadays. Like, you know I can't stand it. Banana bowl. But well, the banana bowl, I actually kind of, i think it's kind of fun. But like the bright cleats and all the flash and all that stuff. Like it's, it's to me like an old school, I'm old school when it comes to that. Like it's fun and I get it. i understand it.
00:19:12
Speaker
um You know, and our guys love it, which is great for them, I guess. But, um you know, i think, Our identity, and and we know we have an incredible hitting coach, Troy Tulewitzki, who was a 15-year big leaguer.
00:19:24
Speaker
um you know I think he's on the Hall of Fame, you know potentially potentially going to be a Hall of Fame inductee. And his, i mean, if you put one thing for him, it is work ethic. Like, he's going to be a grinder. And that's what he wants out of our guys. And so, yes, you can have the flair. Yes, you can have all the, like playing and, you know, the doubles dance. i don't know if you've seen that. Like they hit a double and they do like this.
00:19:49
Speaker
dan I don't know. it's It's interesting. It's kind of taking off in college baseball, but a particular dance. It's like every Dodgers are mixing up. Yeah. yeah So they do. They have their thing. And, you know, I think every team has their little.
00:20:02
Speaker
move, I guess you could call it. But, um you know, it's, it's we want we want them to have this ability to to be themselves, right? Like, and so I think that's that's a huge proponent for for what we try to do. But underneath the umbrella of like, hey, that's great.
00:20:18
Speaker
We also need to put in the work. So now, as what I love about the strength coach, it's a controlled environment where you're going to fail. Yeah. You're going to fail fast. Sure.
00:20:29
Speaker
And we get this opportunity to work on learning how to fail and get into the next rep. Right. And I mean, the analogy of baseball mindset, baseball mentality, next pitch,
00:20:40
Speaker
So that is the weight room. Sure. How are you using the weight room to truly apply that and not just make it ah a metaphor and make it a true mentality of the next pitch? Right. You know, I think, you know, a lot of times for our guys, right? Like, you know, where I very much use percentages. I'm a big component for percentages, but I also know that you know, 85% for you on any given day might not be 85%. And so, you know, we really try to get our guys to have an understanding of where they're at today, right? Like, how can you get better today? And, you know, our coaching staff uses all the time, 1% better, get 1% better today. And in 10 weeks, hey, that's 10%, right? Like, and obviously that's an analogy, but I'm not a math guy. It makes sense. It makes sense to me. But we're trying to get our guys to understand that. And so when they do fail, right, like we don't look at it as failure. We look at it as an opportunity for why did we fail?
00:21:36
Speaker
Right. Like, you know, maybe their sleeping's off or maybe their stressors are too high, um you know, especially in baseball. Right. Like. You take a week, right? We're playing Tuesday, potentially playing Wednesday. Maybe we're on the road. We leave Thursday. We play Friday, Saturday, Sunday, wash, rinse, repeat. We do that again for 16 weeks. So for us, we can't look at, even if we lose one game, that's not necessarily the end of the world.
00:22:02
Speaker
But if that continues and we keep making the same mistakes, that's when it becomes a problem. And so for us, we try to look at, you know whether it be a technique thing or whether it be a nutrition thing, maybe it's a sleep thing. We really try to get our guys to understand like, hey, this is the standard for what we were trying to do today. If that didn't work, let's try to get better at it. Let's understand why.
00:22:22
Speaker
and then attack that for the next time that we go at it. So that's something that we really try to preach to our guys is like, there's a reason this didn't work. There's a reason that it you know you failed at that rep or whatever the case may be. Let's figure that out. Let's come up with a game plan to adjust from that so we don't make that same mistake again. And then we we really try to preach that on our guys.
00:22:41
Speaker
And as a strength coach, you get access year round. Is that still true? Correct. Okay. Yeah, correct. So help us understand that a calendar year for a collegiate baseball player. What's that look like? Yeah, it's probably the most unique outside of maybe major league baseball, you know, in professional baseball. It's the most unique experience.
00:23:01
Speaker
calendar that might be out there, right? Because they're literally playing, ah counted it the other day, I think it's 40 to 42 weeks out of the year, they're doing some type of, you know, playing baseball.
00:23:12
Speaker
um Let's just to look at it from like ah an athlete incoming. We bring our freshmen incoming class three to four weeks before we start. We're able to get them into classes, be able to get them to kind of acclimated with you know the weight room and get them to know where they, you know tank is where they go and eat. Like we want them to understand and get a you know head start on where they're at. So they'll have four weeks with me,
00:23:35
Speaker
um you know That takes us up until, let's just say it's September 1. That's when everybody comes back, right? like So we'll have basically about three to four weeks of basically a...
00:23:50
Speaker
almost like a spring training. And it's like a, we call it a transition phase, get them as close to ready for fall ball. Cause we'll have six weeks where we're playing either inter-squad scrimmages or we'll play some outside competition. So there's six weeks in fall where we'll do that.
00:24:07
Speaker
That kind of takes you, let's just say it's November, November one. that's, you know, eight weeks there. Okay. you'll have three or four weeks on the back end of that right before Thanksgiving. So really some big training there. That's when we'll really get into, all right what didn't work in the fall? You know, we need to make this adjustment for this athlete, you know, you know,
00:24:26
Speaker
and we'll run down the list of, you know, our 45 guys that we have and really try to make some changes in those four weeks and they go home for Thanksgiving and they come back for maybe a week and then they're right into finals and then they go home for three weeks. And so their biggest time for training is when they're home yeah for the most part, right? Like, and we try to,
00:24:47
Speaker
ah push our guys to stay as long as they can here in Austin, which obviously they love the city. Why wouldn't you want to be here? Yeah. So a lot of, lot of our guys stay, but you know, there's 45 guys, you know, 20 of them probably are out of state, 25, maybe are out of state. they're going all over the place.
00:25:02
Speaker
They come back. It's what, December 31st today. So our guys will start reporting back next week. And then we're off and running basically three weeks and we're right into season.
00:25:13
Speaker
It's a 16 to 18 week season. If we make it all the way to Omaha, it's 72 games, I believe. And then that takes you up until I think the final game for Omaha this year, the college world series is June 24th, let's say it.
00:25:28
Speaker
And then they go play summer ball, right? So they're, they're continuing to play, for another six to eight weeks in summer ball. And then wash, rinse, repeat. They do that for three to four years and they're gone. Um, you know, some guys with transfer portal, we might even have them for,
00:25:41
Speaker
six months, eight months, whatever the case may be. So it's, it's a very, very condensed schedule when it comes to training where we have to kind of pick and choose our times where we can really go at it because, Hey, we got a game tomorrow. you know yeah We got a, we had a big game against Texas A&M, right? Like our big rivals coming in. So, um, excuse me, we, we gotta always take that into account of we're constantly playing games. And so,
00:26:07
Speaker
One thing that Coach Lassenegel always talks about for our guys is your best ability is availability. And we're huge on that, right? Like, yes, we want them bigger, faster, stronger, more explosive. Every strength coach does, right? Like, and that's the name of the game.
00:26:20
Speaker
But how can we keep them? We call it, how do we give them body armor? You know, like, how do we keep them on the field the best we can? So that's something that we try to dive into with our guys. and We're able to utilize a lot of different things to do that.
00:26:34
Speaker
Tech and sports science and and a lot of those things that, we're super lucky to have at Texas to make it really easy to kind of navigate. But for us, we really, really, really try to under get our guys to understand of like, all right, this window, this six weeks, we can really push.
00:26:52
Speaker
this 18 weeks, right? Like we gotta, yes, we're gonna train, but we're gonna train less, way less volume.
In-Season Training Management
00:26:58
Speaker
High intensity, we'll we'll still keep the intensity up in fall ball and in our in season, but you know the volume's gonna be way, way, way down. And we really try to make sure that our guys are good to go out on the field.
00:27:08
Speaker
Yeah. How's that conversation go? Are they sneaking bench press down at the right center? You know If they're from Texas and they have that football background, yes. Yes. they That's something that we always got to kind of fight.
00:27:19
Speaker
But for the most part, they're pretty good and they understand. you know the like If you just take like a normal day, right like ah a Friday night game for us, right like we'll play at 630. Our guys will to class. They'll come on over probably around noon. We actually lift on game days on Fridays.
00:27:35
Speaker
um It's much more kind of activation, get the body kind of primed and ready for a game that night. They'll eat. And then what basically our warmups at 2.30, right? like So our our dynamic warmups at 2.30, our BP will start at 3.15-ish. We'll hit till 4.15, 4.30.
00:27:54
Speaker
We'll feed the guys again. We'll go back out, play. three to four hour game. And then guess what? We got another game tomorrow at two o'clock, you know, and then Sundays at one o'clock. So um it's ah it's just a long day. And so they're on their feet a lot. And I know baseball gets a bad rap on,
00:28:11
Speaker
you know, it's not that explosive or it's not that, you know, hard, but you know, when you look at it from like a six hour standpoint, they're on their feet, they're moving around. And, you know, we're we've been lucky enough to have catapult, um, you know, the tracking device.
00:28:24
Speaker
And it's incredible to see how much these guys are running and it's not, they don't even, it doesn't even count, right? Like just our center fielder running from the dugout to center field back and forth nine times, that stuff adds up and it's not even in game, right? Like, so it's something that we try to track and try to keep, a you know, a good, you know, a thumb on of the volume that these guys are getting without even really thinking about it. So, yeah, you just brought up a question that I forgot to write down, but I know I have.
00:28:52
Speaker
Coach Augie's old conditioning test. Oh, you know, I don't even know what it is. It was two miles. Oh, really? Two time, two miles. Oh, I didn't know that. Wow. That's great. um Yeah, that that doesn't fly anymore. um But, you know, I mean, it's a standard that he had set. and Exactly. Augie was incredible. We got to play against him.
00:29:12
Speaker
There's there's a a great clip, and all my teammates would be remissed if I didn't say this. But, They came and played us. This is 2006. They won the national championship in 2005. They opened up against. street Yes. Yeah. Houston street. here Houston street. Yep. Yep. um So they came and played to us in 2006 in San Diego. They're the number one ranked team in the country.
00:29:35
Speaker
We were this mid-major private school. We really hadn't made a name for ourselves Yeah. And we played the villain and we, yeah we sweat, we won all three games. Um, there's a big, if you look up YouTube of Augie Garrido blow up on a baseball field, uh,
00:29:53
Speaker
It's on our stadium. it's Yeah, it's at our field. I actually pitched that game. So was actually, yeah, it's pretty fun. I let our guys know that all the time. But um yeah, it's incredible. He was in unbelievable. i mean, he's a ah legend around here. And so it's it's, you know, we're trying to get back to that standard. You know, I think we our last national championship in 2005, We've been close, you know, in in the years that I've been here, we went to Omaha in 21, Omaha in 22, probably should have gone in 23. We lost in a super regional at Stanford. And then this new coaching change, um you know, we won the SEC last year. I think we're trending in the right direction. And, you know, we're hoping to get back to that, you know, legendary status of of what Texas baseball is.
00:30:36
Speaker
Conditioning test. Yeah. Yeah. That's what we need get back to. I'm kidding. That's joke. Yeah, won't happen. I know. Yeah, just my time at the collegiate level, ah Georgetown University of La Crosse, we had a younger coach who won a championship with Loyola. Yeah.
00:30:53
Speaker
And he credited to his conditioning test. Wow. So he came in and told our strength and conditioning staff how to do our job. This is the test that we're This what you have to do. That's what won us a national championship. Yeah.
00:31:04
Speaker
No, it didn't. You're really good. And your teammate that just so happened to be playing on the Warriors yeah right may add something to it. We had one... um It was called three minute conditioning coach Valenzuela, who I think prepared us the best. he was our pitching coach. He's at St. Mary's now. He's incredible.
00:31:26
Speaker
he He had a boxing background. His dad was a big, big time boxer. And so he was huge into the the long, long distance running. And, you know, we, I could go on stories after stories about long distance running and and our pitching. But we had a conditioning test. it was called three minute conditioning. So you started at home plate.
00:31:45
Speaker
You had to run to left field foul pole and then go straight across to the right field foul pole back to home plate. was like a triangle. Okay. And you had a minute to do it. You had a two-minute rest.
00:31:57
Speaker
And then you had to repeat it three times. So in every single time, I mean – First one, you could you could probably get by if you didn't do anything. Second one, if you did not prepare for that, you were hitting a wall right at center field. Like you could just visually see it.
00:32:13
Speaker
But yeah, and and and you know, I mean, but it was a mindset, right? Like you knew that was coming. You knew you had to be prepared for it. And you know, it led up to what you did beforehand so that you knew that you were prepared for it. So I think there's some value. And when it comes to like, all right, this is the standard. This is what you need to do.
Mental Resilience and Recovery Techniques
00:32:29
Speaker
um I think there's better ways of doing that. But, you know, from mindset mentality, I think there's there's definitely some you know, some good that comes out of it. Time out.
00:32:42
Speaker
I get two a half. This one's all about training. I'm talking about my old bull strength conditioning program that I have available on Train Heroic. This is Training with Wisdom. It's the program that I am following. I understand who you are You don't have a lot of time.
00:32:58
Speaker
You're a busy leader and you're beat up from years of athletics, years of training. Here in this program, we target hips, ankles, knee, back health with the barbell. We have fun variations of the squat and the programs, sexy Fridays, bodybuilding. It is an amazing time.
00:33:16
Speaker
It will keep you engaged. It will keep you involved and keep you on a wise program that keeps you coming back for more instead of digging you a hole you can't come out of that affects life outside a training.
00:33:29
Speaker
Come check us out for a seven-day free trial in the Old Bull program, a link in the show notes, or you're watching on YouTube, just click right here. All right, and now back to the show. Ready, ready, and break.
00:33:42
Speaker
I've written on conditioning tests, i presented on conditioning tests, and then I usually highlight different coaches. I like this three-minute one. yeah One of my favorites is Al Vermeel's conditioning test when he was a strength and conditioning coach for the Bulls. Okay. And for our listeners, Vermeule was the NFL's first strength coach. Yes, he was.
00:34:01
Speaker
For Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers. And Bill Walsh entrusted him because he knew his brother, Dick Vermeule. Right. And then he wanted him. he Bill Walsh as a man knew that if he had a teammate, a player that could jump 10 feet, he'd versus a player that could jump ten one foot ten times, yeah he could will him to repeat that effort. Sure, sure. So then it was responsibility of Vermeule to build the max correct one yeah of the individuals, and then Bill Walsh would just be a leader of men. Yeah, exactly. So then Vermeule took that to the Chicago Bulls,
00:34:40
Speaker
and it's a different beast in the nba right and his conditioning test with the bulls it's a different player yeah basketball versus football sure so that will wasn't necessarily there so his conditioning test was maybe it was a 20 inch box jump okay but it was box jump over so if we're facing a box like this table yep i'm going to jump forward i'm gonna turn around and jump back got it 90 seconds how many reps could i get interesting But it was that was the test. huh There's not as a benchmark. This is pre-CrossFit. It's could yeah you as a player right play with the intensity in 10 cities for 90 seconds gotcha of jumping over. right So it was more of an attitude and a mindset test right that he would relay to leadership for the Bulls to say,
00:35:27
Speaker
This guy doesn't want enough. Yeah. He's too good for this test. Interesting. So little things like that. Yeah. Fascinating. yeah Yeah. For sure. Conditioning test. And the fact that Augie had a two mile. Yeah.
00:35:39
Speaker
Like this is from the movie Miracle. Yeah, right. You knew the test. Yeah, sure. You didn't prepare for it. Whether it's two miles or... We gave you the answers, right? Exactly. yeah like Yeah, I'll take your stupid test, Terp. So um yeah, just fascinating components where some people get wrapped up in the the physiology of it all.
00:36:00
Speaker
I just love the psychology it. Yeah, yeah. Without a doubt. Without a doubt. Oh, the mentality, right? Like it's such a... you don't have that, you can have all the talent in the world, but if you don't have, you know, the six inches between your ears, you know, figured out, I think the guy that has the mentality will at some point overtake the guy with the talent. Um, I think it's such a big proponent, especially in baseball, you fail so often, right? Like you fail 70% of the time you're a hall of famer, right? Like what other sport is like that? there's There's not a lot. And so, you know, our guys fail a lot, but we fail quick and we fail fast and we learn from those things. and try to get our guys to bounce back as best we can.
00:36:37
Speaker
So then what are some of the things that you look for to test their response to failure since it happened so much? Yeah, you know, I think body language is such a huge proponent, especially in baseball, because there is a lot of downtime. Like, you might see a guy, you know, you can go 0 for 2 to start the game and hit two home runs in the late late innings. You had a great day, right? But those first two innings, or the first first two at-bats, right, like, might be down in the dumps. And so what we don't want is ah that to carry over into our defense, right? Like, we don't want that to carry over into another set of, you know, part of the game. And so
00:37:12
Speaker
um you know, it's it's such a big deal for for our guys to be able to bounce back and understand that, hey, I have four more at-bats today, you know? like And again, right, you go two for four, that's a great day. And so you have the opportunity to stick to stick with the next pitch, next pitch mentality.
00:37:30
Speaker
Can I get to that next at-bat? Can I get to that next pitch? um And we really try to get our guys to understand that. And, you know, we put our guys in scenarios where, know, you know, in practice, right? Like, you know, when you you go into an at bat, right, the count's zero, zero, right? Like no strikes, no balls. We'll put our guys in o two counts to start an at bat so that they're almost offensive and they have to react to that. And so we we put our guys into these scenarios where um we can kind of train that out of them and and they get much better at it. And, you know,
00:38:01
Speaker
Like I said, they they play so many games throughout the year. They get that feel. They get that understanding of, you know, not that it doesn't matter, right? Like, okay, i went 0 for 1 today. How do we get back to 3 for 4? You know, like how do we get back to that next next pitch, next at bat for the next game or that kind of thing?
00:38:19
Speaker
Yeah. And so then when you read the body language and and you see the confidence takes a hit, what are your words as coach to get them back in the game, whether it's weight room – I think i think what we've done, you know, we have a sports psychologist that we work with. So a lot of our guys have, ah you know, visual cues that they they go to and we know a lot of them. And so, you know, for, you know, let's say mine as a player, because we we had a sports psychologist as well when I was a player was the flagpole on the very top of flagpole.
00:38:52
Speaker
Every stadium. you're going to do the national anthem before the game, right? And so what's big about a visual cue is you need to be able to repeat it wherever you're at, whether you're at home, on the road, whatever. And so for me, every field, there's a flag, right? And so for me, that was, all right, if I just gave up a home run,
00:39:10
Speaker
take a breath, look at my visual, get back into, all right, next guy's up. That doesn't matter. And we try to instill that in our guys and our our sports psychologist does an incredible job. And so, you know, a lot of our guys, we do a lot of imagery stuff like coach too low before the game. He'll walk our guys through an at bat, get our guys to breathe, get our guys to understand that. And so it's part of our culture. So they know that. So we might know what that guy's visual or what that guy's cue is. We'll say, Hey, you know,
00:39:40
Speaker
I can't remember what team it was, but they had a, they had like a small ceramic toilet that they put in the dugout. Like it was super, super small, like maybe the size of this cup and it had a flush on it. And so when you failed, right? Like,
00:39:55
Speaker
say got struck out, you were frustrated, you hit the flush button, that was over, you know, and then it was move on to the next thing. And so what we try to do is each guy's going different, right? And so we try to understand that. We try to get to our guys to, you know, have their own and they have a say in all that.
00:40:09
Speaker
But we know a lot of them. And so we can, you know, help guide our guys back to that and get them back to center, get them back to neutral. Yeah, I like that. In the Astros' old stadium, I guess technically the same stadium, but different name. Enron Field, Ben and Maid. Right.
00:40:24
Speaker
They had the Pesky Pole. Okay. Flagpole was on the field. Okay. Did you ever see this? ah Shoot, I don't think so. They had hill center field. remember the hill. And there was a pole. That's right. It was on the field. Why? Yeah, that's that's a... Nobody knows. That's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Yeah, so the old pe Pesky Pole, they called it. Right. um So...
00:40:45
Speaker
what's What's an example of a a memorable tough coaching moment? This is any point in your career, either of the schools that taught you more just in this, that that there are levels to this game mentally. It's not just about baseball. It's not just about the weight on the bar. Yeah. It showed you that, hey, you're accomplishing more than what appears from the outside. um You know, we had a, we had, so in 21,
Leadership and Identity Beyond Sports
00:41:12
Speaker
we went to Omaha. we went to the College World Series.
00:41:15
Speaker
22, we went back. 23, we had a really, really good chance of getting back to that. And we were at Stanford. It was super regional. um We had won the first game. They won the second game. Because when you get to super regional, it's a three-game series. So you've got to win two of the two of the three three games.
00:41:30
Speaker
So that it was tied And... and You know, we went back and forth with Stanford that that that day, and i think we went into extra innings. um I'm probably bringing up a lot of emotion for for Texas baseball fans right now because we ended up losing the ball, or we lose we lost the game. Ball got lost in the lights. The a Marine layer came in, and Palo Alto, and lost the ball in the lights. None of our players knew where it was. but what I think I took from a, from a coach's perspective is those kids gave everything that they possibly could.
00:42:05
Speaker
We had our Friday starter come back and he threw in in like it just stuff that you don't necessarily see. um And what I think I took from that, I think what our, a lot of our players took from that is you can do everything right. You can put all the effort into it. You can have the greatest fall ever. You can have the greatest season ever, but a ball gets lost in the lights and you lose a game, right? Like,
00:42:26
Speaker
It's such a, I guess, life lesson in that regard. of like You can do everything right and something might bat something bad might happen. like And I think that's such a ah lesson that anybody can learn from is you put all this work and effort into it and you come up short. like How do you respond from that? And you know a lot of our guys, um it stuck with them for a long time, yeah but then it became the driving force for the year after. And so I think for us,
00:42:55
Speaker
especially as a culture side, for especially from the strength conditioning side is like, Hey, remember that time? Remember that feeling? Let's not let that happen again. And it drives you and it pushes you and it it really kind of gets more out of you and it drives you to, you know, I don't want that feeling again, right? Like, let's not do that again. So, you know, i think that really was a ah benchmark for a lot of our guys because, you know, up until then it had been pretty easy, right? Like 21 Omaha, 22 Omaha, 23 looks like we're going to go to Omaha and we fall short. And so,
00:43:26
Speaker
um It became kind of a driving force for a lot of those guys to put in that extra effort, put in that extra, you know, oomph to get back there. And I mean, it's in such a long year. Sure. Just the roller coaster of emotion.
00:43:39
Speaker
When you're down here. yeah You got this card to pull out. Yeah. Any of those guys still left on the team? Not currently. Not currently. Oh, you know what? There might be one or two. 23. Not this coming year. Last year. Last year. Yeah. Last year we had a couple.
00:43:54
Speaker
So yeah, you have that card. You can always pull it out. Yeah. And I start to see this a lot where coaches over coach or they feel they need to say something or they feel that tension. Yeah.
00:44:06
Speaker
And then what I've, uh, What I've really tried to do now is allow leaders to try to lead and then coach them up on the outside yeah versus me just being the guy every single time in huddles. This is this for the sport of lacrosse. When have you experienced where silence is more powerful sure than instruction or mentorship? Yeah. You know, i I think something that, especially since I got to Texas, especially with this new staff that I'm working with, a big proponent is coach fed player led.
00:44:37
Speaker
And so what we try to do is give our guys the best resources possible so that they can then huh be the ones in charge. Cause guess what? They're the ones that play, right? Like, you know, our coaching staff gets to make all the decisions, that kind of thing, but, you know, make the lineup, you know, say who's pitching that kind of thing, but they get to go out and actually do it. And so what we try to do and what I try to do, especially in the weight room, and it's so simple, I think in my brain, um is every day i try to pick someone new to break us down, right? After a lift, you know, maybe it's a freshman that has no clue what to say, but the next time he does it,
00:45:15
Speaker
That's a little bit of leadership, right? Like it puts them in that position, gets them uncomfortable a little bit. The guys might give them a little jab like, hey, man, what are you doing? But then they learn from it and they move on and they go from there. It's just simple little things like that where if you don't put them in positions to lead, they'll never lead.
00:45:32
Speaker
so um Especially, you know, these younger players that they've never had to be in that situation before. And so. you know, we want our freshmen to then become great sophomores and our great sophomores become our leaders for juniors and seniors. And so if you don't put them in those situations, I think you're probably doing them and a disservice. And so super, super simple things like that go a long way. And our guys have really enjoyed it.
00:45:54
Speaker
um Some guys fail at it and it's fine. And then they learn from it. And the next time they do it, that they're much better at it. So yeah very, very simple, but easy ways to get guys into leadership roles and You know, we we had a we had a transfer player this year, big-time catcher, um and he was a little quiet at the beginning and started doing this, and he started kind of finding his voice, and now he's one of the biggest leaders on our team. And, again, it's not from that. I mean, it's going to be kind of naturally he was getting more acquainted with the team and stuff like that, but he just gave him a voice. And, you know, those instead of just, all right, horns on three, one, two, three, horns – it became, right, we got come back tomorrow. We got to get better. And then they are now leading the group and and saying what needs to be said rather than
00:46:38
Speaker
you know, big, bad strength coach yeah telling them what to do. so Yeah. Yeah. I've found that, that, that same evolution where I start with a 10 count pushups, for example, so four, five, four count pushups is 10 pushups. So start up yeah one, two, three.
00:46:54
Speaker
And the group says one. Yep. So now as a leadership, I'm still finding my voice, yep but I don't have to be creative. Sure. Not the pressure of what do I say? Right. Then the break, like you mentioned, and then and instead of just take break us down, it's,
00:47:08
Speaker
Break this down. What do we to say? Close out the day. Yeah, right right And they can find their words. Yeah, yeah. But if I just started with the words without numbers, right then they shut down. Yeah, and I think it just gives them ah an opportunity to have that platform, right? And and sometimes they don't get that. And and especially a younger kid, like he might not ever get that until maybe his junior senior year when he's asked to do it. But if he doesn't know how to do it,
00:47:32
Speaker
you're not really sure what you're going to get. So yeah we try to put them in scenarios where not only do our our our main leaders do that, but we we try to almost... progress leadership as well. Yeah. yeah now do you have a sense of that in your mind or have you mapped it out to connect to the strength program?
00:47:48
Speaker
Has this ever entered? It hasn't. We're going be at this leadership moment at this stage in our 40 leading up to you know what periodizing leadership. Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So ah what we have done, actually stole this from my old boss at USD after Stefan left. I had a great... head coach Mark Lamoureux, who actually was under Turley cool at with football at Stanford. And so he came over and I think Turley did this as well, but he he did that. It's called the jump rope series, which
00:48:22
Speaker
Um, sounds kind of odd, but you, you're basically the whole team is doing this as a group and, um, you know, you're calling out different things and everything's 15 seconds and it ends up being two and a half minutes of jump rope, which you've never done jump roping.
00:48:36
Speaker
It can fatigue you a little bit, but it's on cadence, right? Like, so you're telling them, all right, at the 15 second mark, you're doing, you know, two foot hops and then one foot hop or whatever. And it's two minutes of that. Then you get to the two minute mark, you get them back into just normal jump roping.
00:48:50
Speaker
the 215 mark, there's no misses. Coach calls out no misses. You start them off at you know five misses that they can get as a group. And then the next week, it's four. Next week, it's three. and Next week, it's two. Then you have a captain that can't miss the entire time. So now that i think about it, it is kind of periodized in that regard of,
00:49:08
Speaker
There's some voice being made. There's some, you know, leadership happening within the group to make sure that the guys are ready for that. And and it's kind of, you know, sounds silly, but at the same point in time, like they know it's coming. And so if the guys that are struggling on jump rope, again, it's two and a half minutes, like it shouldn't be that hard. And really, they only have to not miss for 15 seconds on the back end, the the front two minutes and 15 seconds just to fatigue them. But there's some mental toughness that's getting built into that. Then, you know, say they fail, say they get more misses than they're allotted.
00:49:41
Speaker
Leadership pops in, you know, like this can't happen again, you know, and and we try to stay out of the way on that. Right. Like if they fail on that, you know, horns lose that day. They jump in, they kind of bark on the guys that messed up and, you know, it kind of.
00:49:56
Speaker
Again, go back going back to your point about periodization of of leadership in that regard is that's getting smaller as they're getting down to no misses and there's a captain and that kind of thing. So I never really thought about it that way, but it kind of progresses them into at least some type of leadership. But I've never thought about it from a a full calendar year like that. I think that's pretty smart.
00:50:16
Speaker
Yeah, the this has got my wheels spinning now. So for a lot of my leadership education, lean into child development and make the connection there. So then the the big phase, I call it social emotional leadership, but it leans into social emotional learning, which is big at the elementary school education where it's self-awareness, social awareness, and self-management.
00:50:41
Speaker
Then you have relationship building skills gotcha and then responsible decision making. So if we're looking at why we're coaching, yeah ultimately, all these guys are going pro at something other than sports. Yeah, right. Everyone's athletic career ends. Sure.
00:50:54
Speaker
Can we make the appropriate decision or self-sacrifice now for the big yeah gain in the end? were there For sure. Whether job, family, yeah of course. Of course. So... Yeah, i'd I'd map it out into, okay, this block, we're focusing on self-awareness. Yeah, right. Then we're getting into social awareness and yeah reading my teammates' body language. Sure. Can I control my body language when I'm tired? Right. Am I resting hands on yeah yeah head or knees? Yeah.
00:51:19
Speaker
Doesn't fly with me. Yeah, exactly. we we We definitely do that. Yeah, then next phase, yeah can I call a teammate out? Sure. And then yeah progress throughout the year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's great. Decision-making. Yeah.
00:51:31
Speaker
There's spitball in here, I like it. Time out. Tech's here at Train Heroic headquarters meeting with the team to talk about the coaching experience that I'm able to provide for my athletes. So if you're a coach and want to put your program out there on an app that athletes actually enjoy using, Train Heroics for you. I've been using it since 2014.
00:51:51
Speaker
delivering literally over tens of thousands of workouts to athletes. And Train Heroic allows me to provide the unique coaching experience that I want to. Uploading video, providing coaching feedback, directions, and building a community, that's why I love Train Heroic. And if you want to take your athletes where they can't take themselves, that they want to go, head to trainheroic.com slash captains and check out how you can deliver programming to them.
00:52:17
Speaker
And now, back to the show. Ready, ready, and we're in.
00:52:23
Speaker
Speaking that, developing the whole athlete. Sure. And, I mean, you've been you've been a baseball player. You tried to go pro. Yeah. And you found a different career path. Yeah. I mean, just the numbers game. Yeah. All these guys maybe stepping onto to campus as freshmen or first-year guys. Sure.
00:52:41
Speaker
With the hopes of going pro. Yeah. So how do you help them understand that there's more to life than ball, but yeah still getting the most out of them for the field? Yeah, I think, you know, at a place like Texas, right, like you're going to get – you know, the top tier recruits, right? Like you're gonna get the best of the best when it comes to that. And everybody has these big expectations. Everybody has these wild dreams, which we promote. Like we want them to have that. If you don't wanna be a big leaguer, you're in the wrong place, right? Like, so we want them to have that.
00:53:11
Speaker
I think what we try to do and what I try to do is set them up for success of not only understanding their body, but how to actually move. And I think so often, you know, early specialization, I think is the worst thing that could happen for athletic development.
00:53:28
Speaker
Um, and it's, it's just, we see it so often it's, you know, especially in pitchers, right? Like, um we might have a pitcher that's, that's all he's done. And really, I mean, you think about it a mound, right? Like,
00:53:42
Speaker
ah big of an area that they have to maintain. So what well what I try to do, what I really, really think is my job is to make the best athletes possible so that then when they get to their position coach, they can make them the best pitcher. They can make them the best infielder, catcher, whatever. So how do we make them the best athletes? And so I try to get them to understand Like, yes, we're going to squat. Yes, we're going to bench. Yes, we're going to do all these different things, but there's so much else to it. You know, when it comes to mobility, when it comes to core training, when it comes to plyometric, all these different things that we try to implement with it.
00:54:15
Speaker
But when you think about it, it's just discipline, right? Like you're really coming down to, You're following a plan, you're trusting in that plan and then building towards something. And so that's, I mean, really all life is, right? Like you have, you you create a blueprint. All right, this is my goal. I'm going to work backwards from that.
00:54:32
Speaker
This is step one. All right, let's create all these different steps. um You know, for us, those main goals is to win a national championship and we work backwards from that. And you know we have ah basically an eight month span where we can kind of do that. And what we really try to get our guys to understand is like, yes, that's the end goal, but there's all these different markers that we have to hit beforehand to actually reach that goal. And sometimes I think we put the carriage before the horse, right? And so we have to actually get our guys to understand Today matters, you know September 2nd, right? like It's so far away from opening day, which is February 13th this year.
00:55:10
Speaker
We have to get our guys to understand that that's not that far away. And every day is a stepping stone to get to that. And I think that's really life, right? like um i think it it sets them up and i think that's why collegiate athletes make such great employees when they they move on is because they understand that discipline discipline they understand the the timeline of a week and like being able to understand all right i got study hall i got you know i got to go to weights i got to go to practice i got to go all these different things um we make them the best that they possibly can so yeah i love it and
00:55:45
Speaker
How are you now, i guess, planting the seeds to help them understand their identity outside of sport? Yeah, I think that's a great question. you ever have that? Yeah. i mean, as as soon as I stopped playing, that's why I got into CrossFit, because I needed that competitive to to to get it out.
00:56:03
Speaker
um You know, and I think... For our guys, you know a good amount of them will go on and play. A good amount of them won't, obviously. Only a select few will ever make it and you know sign that big contract and you know'll be set for life, right? like That's just the reality of... It's baseball. Yeah, it's reality of sports. It just gets harder and harder as the higher you go. But um you know I think for us, and you know we... we We preach a lot to our guys' mental health. We preach preach a lot to our guys about being able to um you know just try to get better. And I know that's like cliche, but it sets them up so that when they get to that next you know corporate job or whatever the case may be, a lot of our guys go in and climb the ladder really quick because they're very goal-oriented. They're very, very driven.
00:56:48
Speaker
And so we try to give them the opportunity and the I guess, game plan to actually go about that. And, um, I think that's why they're so successful. Yeah. Yeah. And then, I mean, you mentioned earlier 1%. Yeah. I mean, 1% every week. Yeah, sure. By the end of this it's quickly year, we're a freaking thousand. Yeah, so right. Yeah, exactly. Um, oh, I get it. Yeah. But it, it, it's making almost that connection literal. We can't assume that they're going to make that connection. Yeah. Without a doubt. You know, I think, you know a lot of our guys, you know, and, and,
00:57:19
Speaker
I hate to break it to them, but they're not going to make it right. Like they're not, but having that goal, right? Like I think everybody needs that. Everybody needs to be able to set goals and go after things that they want and to try to achieve.
Lessons from Baseball Movies
00:57:30
Speaker
Um, you know, and, and, you know, kind of like going back to that Stanford super regional, right? Like they did everything right.
00:57:36
Speaker
And it was, it came up short. And so, you know, you have to kind of veer off and make different selections or different, um, I guess, pathways for themselves. and And again, we try to get them in situations where they can actually understand that it's not just about baseball sometimes, it's about, you know, self-improvement and, getting our guys to be better. Again, 1% better every day.
00:58:01
Speaker
Yeah, I'll drop a quote from Nan McQuilkin here. Reach for the stars and you'll land on the roof. yeah Reach for the roof and you'll remain on the sidewalk. Yeah, of course. Yeah, without a doubt. Even if we miss our mark, yeah we still progressed and develop as for sure a person. Yeah, without a doubt. Yeah, I think there was some backhanded compliments when she said that. Yeah. That's beside the point. All right. Some some rapid fire, some fun. Okay.
00:58:28
Speaker
Favorite baseball movie of all time? ah For Love of the Game. Augie Grito's actually in it. So he made his acting debut, I think. I could be wrong. But he was the manager of the Yankees in that movie. But I used to watch it before every single game that I – I was a starting pitcher.
00:58:45
Speaker
And before – the night before, that's the the movie that I watched. Every single time. I don't know if I got all the way through it, but he throws a perfect game in it. So it's like I get my mind right. And um Kevin Costner stars in it. he's He's incredible. And yeah, it's my it's my favorite movie of all time.
00:59:01
Speaker
Favorite fictional coach of all time.
00:59:06
Speaker
Oh, man. It's hard to – Coach Carter's pretty good. Yeah, he's incredible. I just saw a social media clip. ah The student athletes, there was a scene where they took over a house. Oh, the pool. Yeah. I saw this the other day. Yeah, I saw that actually within the week, actually. That's pretty funny. So I watched it today or yesterday or today, but then the moment where Samuel L. Yeah, he walks in.
00:59:32
Speaker
He walks in and the contract they weren't allowed to get in the pool. Yeah, right. Whoever owned the house. Sure. And all the dudes were in the pool. oh That was real acting. so Yeah. Yeah. that that was That was pretty good. um Gosh, Denzel in Coach Boone. Yes, Coach Boone. he That was pretty incredible.
00:59:53
Speaker
That one's pretty good as well, so that might be up there. do Are you a Ted Lasso fan? I am. Ted Lasso's great too. Ted Lasso's got a lot of um quality quality coaching one-liners in there. that ah yeah And just humorous as well, so it's a lot of fun.
01:00:09
Speaker
Yeah, that is fun. d I lean into Chubbs Peters. Okay. Yeah, can't go wrong. Steeds in the tension, baby. um Yeah, yeah, that's that's my favorite.
01:00:20
Speaker
So, yeah, For Love of the Game, that's the first For Love of the Game I've got. Yeah, there you go. Have you seen it? of course. Okay, all right. And I've heard Cosner on Bill Simmons' podcast. Oh, really? And they talk about...
01:00:34
Speaker
just the the scene and the yeah moment, because he basically pitched like a bullpen session. Yeah. So that was the the full, I mean, yeah one take and he was yeah so he going through the work. i might be I might be wrong on this, but my understanding is that he played at Cal State Fullerton, um I think under got Auggie. And so I think that's the connection and it might, there might be a,
01:01:00
Speaker
just a connection there that he didn't play underneath him. But, um, yeah, Augie's in that movie. It's pretty cool to actually see him out there. And, and, uh, yeah, it's one of my favorites. It's the best. I'll, I'll send you that Bill Simmons interview. Cause it's fun. yeah Cause I mean, a lot of those actors were sure pro guys at any level. Right. So that,
01:01:17
Speaker
Pro guys at Bull Durham. Yeah. For Love of the Game. Gotcha. So then, of course, you know, baseball culture. Yeah. They're all like, who is this guy? Yeah. And so each movie he had to prove his gusto. Yeah, sure. these actors. So whether it was at the plate. Yeah.
01:01:32
Speaker
Or like, I think it was for Love of the Game where he caught behind the back. Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah. So then that was that was ah that wasn't in the script. Sure. Okay. So he just did it, threw it out there. Gotcha. to like If I recall, and it's so coming back to me, there's a fan in the stand that's heckling him. Yes. Because they did it at a game. Yep.
01:01:53
Speaker
And so he decided to just one-up this guy at this moment in time. Gotcha. They it behind. There you go. And then they use it. Yeah. Perfect. Beautiful. How can you not be romantic about baseball? Yeah. How can you? think it's the best sport that translates over to movies. Yeah. Yeah. It's incredible. Lacrosse doesn't figure it out. So it's too much of a skill. Baseball is a great game. Yeah. Yeah. Without doubt. I'm kidding. kidding.
01:02:16
Speaker
Well, cool, man. We're, we're representing Carter strong yes on our shirt yeah and you gifted me our see the good band here. Yes. And you just came off a tour,
Raising Awareness for Epilepsy and Community Support
01:02:26
Speaker
toy drive. Yes.
01:02:27
Speaker
So I appreciate if you took a moment to to share about Carter strong and your mission. Yeah. Um, so my son passed away in 2022. He was two and a half years old, Carter. Um,
01:02:41
Speaker
he was diagnosed with epilepsy and tragically passed away to in his sleep from SUDEP, which is sudden unexpected death of of epilepsy. And, um you know, in all of our different, you know, we he started having seizures at at one and a half. So was about a year that we were kind of dealing with it. And every doctor, you know, kind of dismissed us a little bit, which is really frustrating as a parent, as, you know, seeing your your son,
01:03:11
Speaker
go through some of the things that that he went through and not really having answers. And we finally found this neurologist. She was incredible, but none of them ever even brought up SUDEP.
01:03:22
Speaker
I had never heard of it. and It was never anything that that we should have been worried about or looking for. And um you know part of what we're trying to do is is spread awareness to not only epilepsy, but, but SUDEP, a crazy stat. And I almost don't believe it, but the more people that i run into when I bring this up, one in 26 people will actually have a seizure in their life, which is crazy to think about, but um it's something that, that is very, very near and dear to our hearts. And, you know, we, we teamed up with the Texas one fund, which is NIL collective at at the university of Texas. And we, we created a toy drive in his name and,
01:04:02
Speaker
you know, this is year four that we've done this and we've, we've raised, I believe over 5,000 toys for, um, we partner up with RBI Austin, which is an incredible baseball, softball development or youth development in, um, you know Austin and they get to come and pick out a bunch of toys. And it's, it's, it's a double-edged sword because it's, it's incredible for us to be able to do this and remember my son in this name. And my wife and I always look at each other on the way home and and just in tears, right? Like it's,
01:04:32
Speaker
we get to do these things, events, but it's always difficult when we go home, right? Like yeah it's just a hard, hard drive home. And so, um yeah, it's something that drives me every single day is I want to make him proud. And I know he's smiling down. He loved coming to the field. Like he absolutely loved, he, he would call it working out. But he would just come and hang out with the guys in the weight room. And yeah, it was just incredible to kind of see this, not only the baseball program, but the you know all of University of Texas kind of rally around us and really kind of help us go through that. Because it it was, no one should have to go through that at any point. And it was really, really difficult.
01:05:13
Speaker
But we we try to make him proud every single day. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And, um, Josh Sutra and I sat down with you yes a couple of years ago, that's right talked through it and I was part of a pediatric cancer for eight years, executive director and yeah connected with a lot of families. Yeah. Yeah. And then they, they always shared that sentiment. yeah they I mean, their love was, was just so powerful yeah that they wanted to to keep the representation, keep the name alive. And this is a great opportunity. Yeah. You know, I think it's a, um, my biggest fear is that
01:05:48
Speaker
people will forget him. and And, you know, for us, it's a way to not only give back to the community, but to bring his name to light. And, you know, really, really, really blessed to be able to do that with with Texas and with our baseball program. And the coaching staff has been incredible. Every year I get to share um Carter's story with the team. i hand out bracelets to the entire team. A lot of them wear them. a lot of them put it on their locker.
01:06:14
Speaker
And so, you know, it's ah it's a special way for us to kind of connect and create a bond, but also for them to kind of understand who he was. You know, 99.9% of the time, this little boy was the most perfect and normal little two and half year old.
01:06:33
Speaker
And that 0.1%, point one percent you know, he was dealing with this epilepsy disease. And unfortunately, a lot of funding doesn't get to that. And a lot of research doesn't go to that. And so what we've really tried to do is you just create opportunities for people to understand it. And, you know, we have a website, see the good.org that you guys can check out and kind of shows Carter's story and a way to kind of get involved. Mm hmm.
01:07:00
Speaker
and and And awareness is real. Without a doubt. Because if not, it's never going change. Exactly. So that that that was a big thing that I learned is it it doesn't have to be the dollars and cents. It doesn't have to be the the research. yeah Awareness does go a long way. Yeah.
01:07:16
Speaker
And the amount of families that would then through the podcast or through a friend or a T-shirt. Sure. they linked it us that that's how they found us to provide us for private resources for a family that was just a one-off yeah so ah i wanted to to provide this platform yeah i appreciate that because you never know yeah and you know it's it's led us down a path to be able to meet people that are going through the same thing and create connections with them and um you know we had this incredible family that you know we got gifted a a week in crested butte colorado um
01:07:51
Speaker
just like a little getaway for Sophia and I, you know, a month or two after everything happened. And we met this family there and they were just, they had lost their son maybe two or three years prior.
01:08:04
Speaker
And they really took us and and kind of kept us underneath their wing. And we really, you know we still talk to them to this day and we want to be that for somebody else as well. So, not only bring Carter's name to light, but also be a ah resource to other people as well. And again, no one should have to go through that. But when you have a sense of community in that, it's the worst community to be in.
01:08:24
Speaker
But when you have that kind of community, you can at least go through it together. And so it's really been a driving force for Sophia and I to find other families and and and really try to you know, be that community for them.
01:08:37
Speaker
Yeah. And, and lean into each other. Yeah. Without a doubt.
Internship Opportunities and Guest Speakers
01:08:41
Speaker
Well, uh, I'll link everything up in the show notes. If people want to reach out to you directly, continue to learn, support the team or potential interns, you take interns. Yes, we do. Um, I'm not a part of our internship program. Donnie Mae. Donnie Mae. Yeah. Everybody emailed Donnie. Uh, he'll hate me for that. But, uh, yeah, if you go,
01:09:02
Speaker
what is it, Texas Athletic Performance on the Instagram. um That'll kind of give you a route to get us into an internship. We are always looking for more. um I think we had four or five this past fall. I think we have four or five coming in. So that's a revolving door and those guys go on to other positions. So we're super excited about that internship program and our guys do a great job with it. And you were a part of it, weren't you? 2013. That's crazy. Foosball. Yeah. theyre Right. So so was Donnie with football that time? Donnie had just transitioned to Olympic. To Olympic, yeah. But then i i had some pals, good friends that played Texas football. So Dallas Griffin, Alex Spears. Okay.
01:09:43
Speaker
Who had great relationships with Donnie. Right. So then he'd pop over at the other end of the stadium. Yeah. just And I'd get a lot of Donnie time. Yeah. And I've maintained that mentorship for a long time. so Yeah, he's incredible. Yeah.
01:09:55
Speaker
Yeah, but I had Mad Dog, I had Benny Wiley. Yeah, yeah. And, I mean, a whole bunch of adventures. Yeah, i can imagine. Yeah, I can imagine. When you had two head strength coaches. Yes.
01:10:06
Speaker
Benny is lightning one of a kind. Who was a teammate of Rafael Ruiz. Really? Sam Houston State Football. Oh, i didn't know that. ah Wow, interesting. Yeah. world We're all connected. really is. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty incredible. So, ah yeah, yeah, shout out Benny. Yeah. I got to do pod with Benny. Yeah.
01:10:25
Speaker
Yeah, he's back in Texas now. He's back in Texas. He's ah a short drive away. Yeah, yeah, he's not far at all. No. Yeah, he's incredible. Yeah, he during COVID, we did a, ah you know, Donnie is incredible. He does, he's always thinking outside of the box. And during COVID, we tried to do, I want to say it was like once a month, maybe once every couple weeks, we'd have a guest speaker for the staff. And, you know it was all Zoom and everything like that. And,
01:10:49
Speaker
one of the most memorable was with, but with Benny. And so, um, yeah, he, he's just incredible. It's got so much passion, so much energy. I don't know where the energy comes from. He's just incredible. So, um, yeah, he's great. It was, it was again, the most memorable one that we had had. So yeah, he's, he's awesome.
01:11:05
Speaker
Yeah. Cool. And yeah, my goal is get Anna Craig out here too. Yeah. i'm just going to get all the the Texas staff. Yeah. She's, she's great as well. She's doing an awesome job and,
01:11:16
Speaker
Our staff is one of a kind. um You know, Donnie does a really good job of not just bringing in in great strength coaches, but great people. And I think that's, you know, the key to any good hire is getting the right people. Yes.
01:11:27
Speaker
Right people on the bus. yeah Especially for the Yankees of college athletics. Without a doubt. Well, we had ended on a baseball punt. So thank you very much for tuning in. Thank you for making the drive, dude. appreciate you. yeah Thanks for having me Appreciate the effort to come out of here today. Yeah, of course. And happy new year. Yeah, happy new year.
01:11:43
Speaker
All right. Perfect. Sweet. It was great. All right. Oh, yeah.