Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
046 - Delayed Gratification & Team Building w/ Derek Woodske
115 Plays7 days ago
Derek Woodske challenges everything you think you know about athletic success. While the sports world obsesses over superstars, Derek reveals why championships are actually built by the "glue guys" - the unsung heroes who hold teams together when everything falls apart.
Drawing from his experience coaching across multiple sports and levels, Derek shares the raw psychology behind delayed gratification in sports, the moment when athletes realize their careers are over, and how great coaches help players find their true purpose within the team dynamic.
This isn't motivational fluff - it's honest, psychological insight into what actually makes teams work. Whether you're a coach, athlete, or simply fascinated by human performance, Derek's philosophy will challenge how you think about success, failure, and finding your role in any competitive environment.
Old Bull Training Program - 7 Day Free Trial: https://bit.ly/old-bull-train
#SportsCoaching #TeamBuilding #SportsLeadership #AthleteMindset #PerformancePsychology #SportsMotivation #TeamCulture #CoachingPhilosophy #AthleticDevelopment #SportsSuccess #delayedgratification #sorinex #summerstrong #glueguy
Recommended
Transcript
The Social Impact on Sports Success
00:00:00
Speaker
So the corrosion of good and the corrosion of success, in my opinion, in athletics and ability, isn't a physical corrosion. Rarely ever, it's a social corrosion that distracts or takes away from their ability to work as hard as they did, um which is potentially just ah an energy timeframe deal.
00:00:19
Speaker
Outside injury, I have not really seen too many examples where 10 becomes a six that doesn't have influence from other twos and
Introduction to the Captains and Coaches Podcast
00:00:30
Speaker
threes. they like Welcome to the Captains and Coaches podcast. We explore the art the science of leadership through the lens of athletics and beyond. I'm your host, Texel Culkin, and today I'm sitting down with Derek Woodski, a veteran coach whose philosophy on performance goes far deeper than sets and reps.
00:00:47
Speaker
Derek has guided athletes across multiple sports and levels from collegiate track and field to professional environments, and he's here to share some hard-earned wisdom about the psychology of competition.
Building Teams through Delayed Gratification
00:00:59
Speaker
We're diving into the brutal reality of delayed gratification in sports and why not everyone is meant to be a 10, and how the greatest teams are built on players who embrace being a glue guy.
00:01:11
Speaker
This isn't your typical sports talk. It's about the mental game that separates good from great and why sometimes the most important players are the ones you never hear about. Now, let's throw it off to Derek to help us raise the game. Ready, ready, and great.
00:01:26
Speaker
Action. Sitting down at SummerStrong18 with Derek Witzke. Longtime friend. I remember talking goals here way back when, and you gave a phenomenal presentation to the team just on your thought process for goals.
00:01:41
Speaker
And that that's kind of what I want to explore now. Since, I mean, you gave that presentation mean four or five years ago? i think it was four years ago. it might even have been in the pre-COVID or the post-COVID.
00:01:55
Speaker
It was in before or after. So it was either going to be, what, 19 21. I can't remember. I'd actually have to go back and look. Yeah. I feel like the entire, like talking about goal setting timelines and everything, regardless of what topic, it's it's the same thing I think about with COVID.
Time Perception in Sports
00:02:13
Speaker
It's like, how can time become so manipulatable that, you know, we forget that two year period. It's almost like,
00:02:20
Speaker
ah That was like three years ago, right? No, no, that was five years ago. And it's all psychological state. And I think about that a lot, especially when we think about where we're going to go with this conversation in terms of how do you manipulate time psychologically?
00:02:35
Speaker
positively or negatively. Right. And that's kind of a it's a conundrum that we have as coaches and athletes, I think. Sometimes it feels like it takes way too long.
00:02:46
Speaker
Right. So you start to get into a weird headspace. Sometimes it happens too quickly and you miss your opportunity for greatness because you weren't prepared. Right. So, yeah, I think when I think about just a simple introduction question like, hey, how you doing? It's like, oh, by the way, here's a philosophical answer. But yeah, I think we're i think we're probably going to cover that topic a little bit today. Yeah. And then what I felt was the right topic for you was delayed gratification.
00:03:12
Speaker
Right. In a sense that I just finished up lacrosse season and we had seniors. They, we lost our first game and the whole season was over. Right. So it's arm wrestling these kids to care for so long. Finally, we get to the season. It's like, oh, I care.
00:03:28
Speaker
And then one thing went wrong and now we're
Retirement as the Ultimate Loss
00:03:31
Speaker
out. And so the the season, of course, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. of Everything they said they feared would happen, unfortunately happened, despite of the coach's arm wrestle trying to get them to believe.
00:03:44
Speaker
And then i'm sure you experienced it that last game, any athletes that you had, here come the tears and realizing my career is over. Yeah. Or our retirement at the very end, right? Like it's all different stages of that same same evolution.
00:04:01
Speaker
It doesn't matter how successful an athlete's been from high school through college to pros. Retirement is their last loss. And it's kind of a weird thing to think. So if that is the ultimate end goal, it doesn't matter if you're Peyton Manning, who finishes, I believe his career as a Super Bowl champion, he still has to take a loss against time.
00:04:22
Speaker
Right. And it's like, well, now let's work back all the way to like the micro level, the the simple week to week, month to month. It's like, you know, you put in your four months, five months,
00:04:35
Speaker
12 months for a loss, or maybe you're in a program in high school where you develop for two years, knowing that, you know, you're getting better each season or three year season that ah by the time you're a senior, that you guys are going to be champions.
00:04:50
Speaker
Well, someone's going to be a champion, right? And we hope that everything works out in our favor, but there's no guarantees. And when we kind of think about that from the perspective of a coach, it's like,
00:05:02
Speaker
How quickly can you rewind that tape so that you can get them back into a growth mindset for the next season, especially after that loss? um Because it's not about just like cleaning the wounds ah of defeat. It's like, how do i get them healed?
00:05:19
Speaker
Like psychologically, emotionally, physically, you know, because some it's sports you get dinged up, but how can you get them reset on all those different levels so that they're like, okay, so this is my new zero.
Resetting Athletes Post-Competition
00:05:32
Speaker
So my new zero is the second best team in conference state nation. Right. And I, from my perspective, because we had a couple of athletes, I had an athlete in college that barely made it into NCAAs.
00:05:47
Speaker
And I say barely just because they ended up being very good. Right. So that first go around, they barely made it into the NCAA championship and then still felt really defeated when they were mid-pack.
00:05:59
Speaker
Because they they put in the same amount of work, right? It's not like they didn't crush and and push hard. But I remember having a very real conversation with him and being like, listen, I know you had higher expectation.
00:06:12
Speaker
I know that others won. I know that you performed very well, but your very well was kind of right here in the middle. Mm-hmm. You have to remind yourself as soon as possible, right? Without being a sociopath, right? And just having no ah concern about who you were.
00:06:31
Speaker
Be like, you know, because like that's not always great too. There's a time and place, but be like your new zero, your new starting point is a mid-pack NCAA national contender.
00:06:44
Speaker
Until you got to that meet and stepped on that field or got out of those blocks, you can't claim that. Like you were just another athlete trying to get to a place.
00:06:56
Speaker
So that is a positive for sure. And so in second place, I think it's an easier thing than say someone that gets knocked out of attorney, like in fourth, fifth, eighth or 10th, because then you're having this weird conversation about, well, where were we really?
00:07:11
Speaker
Because they get into that mindset. Well, if we had to been matched up against this team who we beat before we would have been no it doesn't work that way right it's it's more you have to be a little more big picture than that but at the very least you're now tier right and that i think has to be reminded in the beginning you have to remind them of how good they actually are Like losing sucks for all of us, but ah good coach in my opinion, and I haven't always had good coaches. I've had some great coaches and I've had some bad coaches.
00:07:44
Speaker
The really great coaches, always were able they always had the ability to put in perspective where you were when it was done good or bad and it was rarely uh a tough pill to swallow you get that conversation done as close to the competition as possible yeah like if you got to give them a sour pill give them a sour pill when they're sour don't right like don't wait for the sick horse to get better before you give them as medicine be like cut like this sucked we did this bad this is what we got to fix yada yada get that all out of the way but as soon as that's done now the healing starts and the healing is how to like okay our new net zero is second best in the state
00:08:31
Speaker
Well, we only got one rung on the ladder. We have to kind of reach for the next go around. no Yeah. I like that. Sticking with the sour when, i mean, instinct doesn't actually try to lift them up from the the the head down, the the sense that they're in yeah But it's still grabbing their attention and and let's be present. This feeling sucks. This feeling sucks.
00:08:54
Speaker
yeah Yeah. And I remember I had an athlete Adams State. She went on to be quite a good discus thrower. Yeah, she threw 180 feet as a D2 discus thrower. Eventually i made it to NCAAs again. Had an okay NCAAs, but had a really good season as a whole.
00:09:10
Speaker
But a year previous, um like she was on, she should have opened indoors with an automatic qualifier f for NCAAs in the weight.
00:09:21
Speaker
And just really didn't do well, like like in any aspect of it. Terrible opener, terrible competition mindset, terrible performance, which is crazy because she ended up being quite good.
00:09:34
Speaker
But I remember like... knowing her psychology and she was not a yeller screamer intense girl. Like she was very subdued, very introverted. um like almost you would, you would think she was meek, but she wasn't, but it was just, it's the energy she gave off.
00:09:53
Speaker
Um, some of it was cultural, right. Being native American and just how she grew up. It was just, ah it's almost like this quiet stoicism was her war face. Right. And I didn't understand that in the beginning, but that's, that's her culture.
00:10:06
Speaker
Um, And it's funny. So what I, as soon as I just had this inkling of so of suspicion, right? Early on with her. And as soon as that meat went bad, I mean, we didn't even move out of the throwing area.
00:10:20
Speaker
Like we, like it was in front of everyone. um I just walked up to her quietly and I'm like, do you journal? And she's like, yeah, I have a journal. And I'm like, not tomorrow, not an hour from
Emotional Processing and Goal Setting
00:10:34
Speaker
now.
00:10:35
Speaker
You need to sit down right now and write down every aspect of this that makes you feel horrible. I'm like, you need to take all of this energy you got trapped in you.
00:10:46
Speaker
And because I know she's not a yeller, screamer, a wall puncher. I'm like, you need to get this out. I'm like, I don't care what you do with it after. I don't care if it's you fold it up and read it before every meet for the rest of your life.
00:10:58
Speaker
But you have to you have to acknowledge what happened, own it and get it out. Right. And for her, i remember looking over like maybe 10, 15 minutes later and she had like a page. And I was like, oh, there was a lot there.
00:11:12
Speaker
that That was a lot. So in in that sense that, I mean, that takes high EQ by you, did you get a sense that there was something trapped in there or just in your mind, if I was in that position, I would be feeling this. So maybe it's there? a combination of both.
00:11:27
Speaker
um I think like personal experience of having been an athlete for so long, definitely played in there. But, you know, I think also just being around her for enough in the off season that year, and she was a new athlete to me at that time.
00:11:42
Speaker
And I remember just thinking to myself, okay, she's put 150 pounds on her back squat this year. She's really athletic, good looking athlete.
00:11:53
Speaker
I'm like, there's there's it's there right it's all within her but for whatever reason she's not extroverted in any sense of the word like there was not a single aspect of that personality makeup that presented ever quiet talker uh no talker right like um so in my mind i was just like if i reprimand her I just, I had, maybe i it was experienced from my coaching past, like coaches I had, but for whatever reason, I knew that if I, like the old saying, like tear her butt in front of everybody and be like old school coach, I knew that I would lose her from that point forward, probably for the rest of our time together.
00:12:39
Speaker
I just knew it was going to be like the absolute failure for us. So I just put the onus on her and I knew she had really high grades. I knew she was academically really clever and I just kind of took a shot in the dark, but at the same time, just had a feeling that the solution for her was not going to be the same solution I used later that afternoon with my giant alpha meatheads that had the same kind of experience. Those guys just got the bro talk locker room, like,
00:13:10
Speaker
guys, like, what the heck did you do? Like, how can you, like, where are you at? Like aggressive, aggressive, aggressive, maybe occasional, you know, ah profanity.
00:13:22
Speaker
And they're like, yeah, coach, next time we'll get them. Right. And it to them, that's all that mattered. Like fight, five fight, fight. Yeah. Yeah. I did bad because I did bad. No clue. Taking that perspective and then reflect on just the preseason and all the time spent up to lead to meets.
00:13:37
Speaker
Yeah. To be able to have the hard conversation. Think back to when you just started with this group and even the first time with the female athlete, were you talking about goals? Were you talking about meets that were down the road?
00:13:50
Speaker
You know, so when I first took that program on, um, It's kind of the same mindset I've always had. Like, I'll be very honest with people and I'll be like, not everybody's meant to be a national champion.
00:14:02
Speaker
um And I think as soon as you learn that is not a negative, right? Some people are meant to play the sport at a high level. Some people are meant to play it at an Olympic level. And some people are meant to be the greatest of all time.
00:14:16
Speaker
All along that road, each one is extremely... beneficial and positive to not only that individual, but that individuals ah give back to society, right? Like if I can take ah a zero and make them a five and knowing full well that they're going to be tens, right?
00:14:38
Speaker
Tell me one example where fives are less of ah a positive add to society than a zero. It doesn't exist, right? And so, and for me, um I had a lot of the most important people in my life were not always tens, like athletically, right? So like I think of my teammates, like some of the most influential teammates I ever had were maybe sixes, fives, threes, right?
00:15:01
Speaker
And so when I look at that type of thinking and I start looking at like planning for my athletes, I don't tell them there are three. Like everybody's pushing for tens, right?
00:15:12
Speaker
But I will start to look at how they're developing. And then based on how they're developing, I'll start to focus on tangible goals that are going to be more in line with them getting from two to three to four to five.
00:15:26
Speaker
Because especially in team sports, you can't have all tens, no right? And you may have all tens over time that go to different places. That's pro sports, right? So let's says say Florida State has let's just hypothetically on some team has three tens and a bunch of fives, right?
00:15:42
Speaker
Well, those three tens aren't going to go to the Patriots. They're going to go to three other teams potentially where they're all tens, right? That's that's kind of how the whole world works. But those super high achievers in team sport will not have the opportunity for success unless all your fives, six, and sevens show up with the same mindset as well, right? Because they're the support staff, right?
00:16:05
Speaker
You know, it's like Zac Brown sings, but somebody has to play the drums. Right. So it's just how the world works. And there's been a lot of times where I know full well that I'm a solid five at something.
00:16:16
Speaker
um And i i know that my solid five is going to allow my eights, nines and tens to be successful. And I love that position. They're support staff. Right.
00:16:27
Speaker
So I start to look at that early on with my athletes. And when I do so, I start to help them choose goals. Like, for example, I may have an athlete that their goal is going to be to get through to conference, right?
00:16:42
Speaker
Your goal is to get through to conference and be a team point supplier for the national championship potential team or conference championship team. That's your rule. You need to do X, y and Z. These are your like metrics that you have to meet.
00:16:58
Speaker
If you can do that, You're going to win as a whole through your ability to provide as a team, right? Track is great for that. So you take like, hey, bro, we need you to get seventh place at conference or we're not going to win conference.
00:17:14
Speaker
And they're like, really? Yeah, that, yeah, really? They're like, okay, coach. And then maybe they get a sixth or a fifth. They just had 10 score. Out of their five.
00:17:25
Speaker
Right. So now they went from being like, this is what we expect of you. We need this from you to be like, you stepped up, bro. Like you stepped up big time. And so I'll work with that level. And then my high achievers, and may you might get one every couple of years, might get one once a year if you have a great program.
00:17:45
Speaker
They carry burden. They carry heavy load. Time out. Let's take one minute to talk training. I'm presenting to you the Old Bull Program. This is the program that I am writing for myself, former collegiate athlete, former guinea pig of all sorts of training programs. I've seen and I've done it all and my body is feeling it in order to recover my joints, still continue to build muscle and look the part as a coach leading the way, I'm offering you Old Bull Programming.
00:18:14
Speaker
This is what I'm following. It is fun. I'm having a great time bringing in former athletes and colleagues into the party. Meet us out there for a seven-day free trial. Click the links in the show notes to give the Old Bull Program a run.
00:18:29
Speaker
Now, back to the show. Ready, ready, and ready. Which I want to introduce. don't if you've heard of Pat Riley's disease of me. Disease me, yes. That's been a long time since I thought about it. yeah Big, big friend of Pat Riley all around. yeah But that that's what I'm hearing is you're communicating expectations of their role, where they are, your level set on their skill set, but there's still room to grow for each person.
00:18:54
Speaker
100%. And then those tens... They don't see that they're better than anybody else. Right. it's They have a responsibility as this 10 to execute. to Execute. And then the 5s got a responsibility to execute to get the 7th to continue to help the team overall. 100%.
00:19:10
Speaker
one hundred percent and And Pat Riley, you know, it's a funny, this Pat Riley. So my coach bought Pat Riley's book back in the day, took it to him to get signed.
00:19:20
Speaker
and And Pat Riley was signing it. You know, my coach was a four-time Olympian, And Pat Riley started to sign it. And it was like, good ah good luck.
00:19:31
Speaker
And then he stopped and looked at him. You won't need it. I remember that's a powerful book. Get it up, dude. Isn't that amazing? that That's awesome. Yeah.
00:19:42
Speaker
How about that? How about that? Yeah. So talk about a guy that, you know, Pat Rowley knew. he knew what he knew. Right. Yeah. Good luck. You won't need it. Yeah. It was kind of wild. But yeah that was always one of my favorite stories that Judge used to tell.
00:19:56
Speaker
But Judge was the king of that, right? Like, he was the king of taking twos to six and sixes to ten his whole career. And that why and in my opinion, that's why he's probably been the most successful track and field coach in the U.S. in a lot of regards.
00:20:09
Speaker
Because he had that ability to pull out. You know, and that's really it. Like I was never a 10. I had aspects of a 10. I went to Olympic trials. I was a national champion.
00:20:20
Speaker
But in my sport, 10 is Ryan Krauser, like world record holder, Olympic medalist, right? So that if that's your standard a 10, yeah, you want to push for that. Joe Kovacs is pushing for that every day.
00:20:33
Speaker
Um, but at the end of the day, and especially in some of those individual worlds, there's one 10 in team sports. There's one 10, right? Not the same, you know, NFL only one Superbowl team a year, yeah all those cliches, but you're pushing for that, but you might operate very well, seven through nine. And when you understand that, as long as you never let your athletes reset to fours and fives and their ability chart,
00:20:59
Speaker
You're moving in the right direction. Yeah. And you've been in a lot of different sports, a lot of different teams.
The Pitfall of Believing the Hype
00:21:06
Speaker
Has there ever been a sense that you got when that 10 started to getting treated like a 10?
00:21:12
Speaker
yeah And then now he's not held to the same ah expectations, behaviors, rules yeah as everyone else. I used to see that a little bit like in my brief stint in the NFL. And then when i was working in private sector, i often so.
00:21:28
Speaker
And this is kind of like inside mid 2000s chit chat type of stuff. But we had some guys get big contracts in Cleveland. And some of the veteran guys that had gotten big contracts or whatever, but stayed the course, they would all kind of refer to it as the, hey, he got paid, probably won't play this year.
00:21:50
Speaker
Right. And so what they noticed within the team, and this wasn't like an administrative thing, this is players talking to players about it. But like, man, he he got the money. I hope he shows up this year because he got treated. He finally got recognized. I shouldn't even say treated because he's probably earned it at some point, right, where he kept progressing, and progressing, progressing.
00:22:11
Speaker
Gets to that level where now he's being recognized for his ability through finance and they shut down, right? And that or behavioral issues show up, right? Because for whatever reason, the money gives them false sense of freedom and hope of of life. Like, you know, because maybe they had nothing, right? Or maybe like any human being, you put enough money in front of them, they're just like, do the rules still imp apply, right? Do I have to do this to get this?
00:22:40
Speaker
And so when that starts to happen, all you can hope in some cases, because they're adults, that you put in the groundwork or you know the people that can reach out to them and pull them back.
00:22:52
Speaker
um At the collegiate level and the high school level, a lot of times it's not it's obviously not ah ah not a financial thing that makes them kind of start to believe their own hype, but it's community, school members, community.
00:23:06
Speaker
yeah Other people at the, uh, from other teams being like, oh, that's the guy wait until so-and-so shows up like the shoot scenario from, uh, from vision quest. yeah Right. Like, you know, the idea that, oh man, he's the guy, he's the guy.
00:23:22
Speaker
And maybe he is or she is. Right. And maybe they will remain undefeated like Arnold Schwarzenegger and have that work ethic. That's one of like being number one was more important than anything else that comes after it.
00:23:33
Speaker
But if you start to see the corrosion occur, it's typically start social. Right. So the corrosion of good and the corrosion of success, in my opinion, and athletics and ability isn't a physical corrosion rarely ever it's a social corrosion that distracts or takes away from their ability to work as hard as they did um which is potentially just ah an energy time frame deal right they don't have the time anymore to put in the work because they're socially a response or whatever a y and z and ah
00:24:08
Speaker
And that's usually the the breakdown. um Outside of injury, i have not really seen too many examples where 10 becomes a six that doesn't have influence from other twos and threes. Extracurricular activities. Yeah, right. and And they don't often even always know that they're pulling the legs off out of his chair.
00:24:32
Speaker
They just want to be around it, right? They want to be around people doing great stuff. It's... it's like a lot of false leadership is simply the byproduct of individual success, right? So someone really does well at something and then they have no intention of being a leader, right? So they were just an individual climbing the ladder and they're kicking butt and doing great things.
00:24:53
Speaker
But because they're the best, Others will be like, oh, that's our leader. So this this is going to lead to the next set of questions in respect to teammates picking team captain. Often it's he's the best player.
00:25:05
Speaker
Right. So then they feel he's going to be team captain. So it's helping establishing expectations. How ah i was able to combat that is a job, like a ah job resume.
00:25:16
Speaker
Yeah. Here's the expectations. And simple enough, similar to any entry level 16-year-old job. Yeah. Where they can, okay, do I want that? I'd rather just be the cool kid. Fine. Then it's not you. Right.
00:25:28
Speaker
Yeah. And it's funny because i it's it's really interesting you say that because being a 10 in one area doesn't mean you're 10 in all areas. Right. And there are great, great players that can come out, say a defensive player that's not a captain.
00:25:44
Speaker
or a defensive player that's not leading the show, but without that player, you're not winning the Stanley Cup. Like we know he's gonna he's goingnna beat everyone's butt, he's gonna get in fights, he's gonna prevent scores, he's gonna be the guy that crawls off the ah ice every night.
00:25:58
Speaker
And we know that in the locker room, everybody follows that dude. The NHL's great for that, right? You'll have this one crusty old dude who just smashes. And you're like, he's our guy, he's our leader, but he's not captain, doesn't matter.
00:26:13
Speaker
He doesn't want to be captain because he knows his personality is not captain material. He doesn't want the burden of of all the other stuff that goes with that position.
00:26:27
Speaker
He's going to lead through example and people may never give him, oh well, Gretzky kind of did it all, but it's like no one will maybe ever remember him as a Gretzky. He doesn't care.
00:26:39
Speaker
So on paper, they'll be like, Oh yeah, dude was a solid eight. His whole career, like superstar. He went to all-star games, solid eight, not a 10. No, there's something missing.
00:26:51
Speaker
Well, what was it? I don't know. Maybe there was nothing missing. Maybe his position in life was best to be without some of that intangible fluff. Right.
00:27:02
Speaker
the Yeah. Not the best guy on the team, best guy for the team or the team. Yeah. And I think that gets overlooked a lot. Like, um,
00:27:11
Speaker
Like maybe it's age for me now a little bit, but iphon like I've always wanted to win, especially playing an individual sport. I love to win. But in team sports, I love being a solid at seven.
00:27:25
Speaker
I love being a guy. Glue guy. Yeah. Glue guys. Right. Like I loved it. I loved being a part of everything. And I knew at times where in team sports, if I tried to become too much in one area, which was kind of my personality at times, I've always felt a little unstable.
00:27:42
Speaker
Right. Like I didn't feel stable, hyper-focused in team sports. I wanted to be the guy that was like just in it all the time. And I knew that I would have to give up some of Like I would have to kind of almost mute certain things and not focus on like kind of sharpening that edge because I wouldn't get to do some of this other stuff. And that's a weird psychological state too.
00:28:05
Speaker
Like how do you become a glue guy and maybe not get all the attention? You know, the old joke about centers in the NFL, right? They... They'd be like, Hey, do you recognize me? No. And he's like, Ben's over. And he's like, how about now? And he's like, Oh, right. It's like, is there's some truth to that. Like without that guy, the game does not exist.
00:28:23
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Yeah. Then there's similar positions in lacrosse. It's what I love. And then ah just so happened to play that position, but then there's responsibilities. We had to drive team vans. yes We got to talk to the referees before the game. We got to do the coin toss. So when the the best players listen to his music and doing his shadow boxing, right it's like, all right, well, we'll get everything going yeah and let you be you, you be the dude.
00:28:47
Speaker
And I'll just make sure everybody's ready to be ready. Be ready. When I worked with Zach, so when I was on the road with Zach Brown for that year, he talked about that a lot. Now, he is literally at the tip of a spear in an industry, but it's just like the parallels. So we had this giant staff, including his band, and the band was all famous, but they would also tell you flat out, I'm famous for the 150 feet around the stage. Don't get it confused, right? They were pretty funny dudes.
00:29:14
Speaker
But Zach a superstar, right? It is what it is. And he knew and talked about it in depth. He said, he goes, this entire thing is a giant machine of parts.
00:29:26
Speaker
And he goes, and each one of these individuals is an expert in their area, but you would never know it. Like when he introduced me to his world, like there were so many people. And he goes, they're all absolute experts at what they do, but any one of them may be not so noticeable.
00:29:42
Speaker
Right. Or they, you know, would go a whole year. And at the end of the year, I'd finally meet someone. i'm like, what do you do? They'd explain it. I'm like, oh, this doesn't exist without you. How have I never met you? Right. And Zach was very cognizant of that.
00:29:54
Speaker
And he really treated his people well because of it, because he's like, hey, I can't go stand on the anymore. at all if these 35 other people are doing stuff when i'm asleep right yeah and that's again now going back to sports we see that the disease of me in miami and pat riley but butler became that guy demanded a trade and then Yeah. So hes he's able to see it because he's seen it so long. Yes.
00:30:25
Speaker
At such a high level. High level. Right. and And it's kind of interesting. And I think some of these people that get pulled down by the social or maybe can't stay in the in the world or they want more for themselves at the fault of another, that they're like, op you know what? You got to trade me out of Cleveland. I need to get traded to...
00:30:43
Speaker
and X, Y, and Z, doesn't matter because they've been to a Super Bowl recently or they have a good shot at going to a Super Bowl. And then magically, the team they left gets better and performs better and the team they go to performs worse.
00:30:59
Speaker
It happens a lot, you know, and I think it really comes back to glue players because there's their their resentment. They're just like, hey, man, I built this building for you and you left it.
Foundational Players in Team Success
00:31:13
Speaker
It's like. No one waiting for you right now has the foundation of you. Right. And that's a part people don't realize teams are built on foundation. So if you have your pinnacle player represents a certain skill set that is all based on not only good coaching and good skill development and all those good things.
00:31:31
Speaker
But it's also based on the foundational understanding of his teammates or her teammates that have all these goals and all these jobs to do that. If they do them perfect, that superstar gets way up here to do what they do, which is called score goals. Super simple mindset. Right.
00:31:48
Speaker
Yeah. And without if those foundational blocks of those players are missing, it's really hard for that those pinnacle players to do what they do. Gretzky is not a Gretzky without his Oilers or his LA Kings or whoever he was with over those years doing all their jobs. There's a reason why you know like like a Wayne Gretzky had to play with Messier for a while.
00:32:12
Speaker
The first chance he got to be with him again, it was like, oh, we got the team back together. not the Oilers, the team. So that represents individuals that had Messi as a superstar.
00:32:23
Speaker
Or, uh, yeah, yeah. yeah god I'm going way back. Make sure my brain still works. Right. But they had, uh, their roles were so, important to each other that Gretzky is not Gretzky without those guys.
00:32:36
Speaker
You know, like he'd always be a superstar. He's not Gretzky. Yeah. Yeah. Time out. Tex here at train heroic headquarters meeting with the team to talk about the coaching experience that I'm able to provide for my athletes.
00:32:49
Speaker
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, 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.
00:33:09
Speaker
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.
00:33:23
Speaker
and check out how you can deliver programming to them. And now, back to the show. Ready, ready, and written. I think there's some truth that. You can the same analogy probably with Michael Jordan. And and many other greats in respect to to many other games. And then, so now think about with, how would you aim to communicate that to 16 to 18 year old with limited life experience? Limited life experience. I think sometimes you have to give them super big picture examples and you might even have to bring in people that can resonate with them, right? Especially in the modern world that we're in.
00:33:59
Speaker
and show them that these individuals or these individuals are, were dependent on these scenarios to hold true. And then you have to make them see how fricking important it is for a support role on a team.
00:34:14
Speaker
And that's not, you're not just a defensive player. Like that is a really cool and really important job, right? Like, and you have to make that as much of a priority as a coach, because if not, you're going to fail.
00:34:28
Speaker
And as cool as possible for them to understand that it's like, oh yeah, like, it's a silly hockey analogy, but some guys are really good at fighting.
00:34:39
Speaker
They're not going to score goals, but man, Don't ever hurt the guy that scores the goals because this guy is going to come out of his cage and wreak havoc. You have to make that okay. Whatever that equivalency is in sport, right?
00:34:55
Speaker
um Like you have to make people understand that your role may be a protector. Your role may be a leader. Your role may be somebody that keeps everyone together off the field. Like there are there are guys out there that were sixes on the field, that were tens in the locker room, and maybe hundreds when no coaches were around and people were about to make some real bad decisions.
00:35:19
Speaker
Right. So those, you have to cultivate that culture, right? It's, it's okay to be the guy that is like grabbing your superstar and throwing them in the back of the truck at 1am on a Friday night because he's had too much to drink or he's going to get in trouble.
00:35:34
Speaker
And everyone knows that that's our, that's our quote unquote sheepdog of our team. Like that is, he's going to protect the herd and make sure the flock gets home that night without that player.
00:35:46
Speaker
Good luck. There's no season. There's no season, right? And we see that a lot. Again, social degrades performance, right? Yeah. And then oftentimes how that 10 treats the sheepdog, he lets him go sometimes if it's not treated well.
00:36:02
Speaker
Yes. 100%. Yeah. It can go both ways. And I remember being on a team where was coaching, and it was a pro team where the quarterback at the end of every season bought something of extreme value for his entire offensive line.
00:36:20
Speaker
Right. It could be Rolexes. could be cars. It could be something, but it's like, listen, I'm not this without this. And these individuals are not going to be who they are without their support staff below them. Right.
00:36:34
Speaker
And it just, it all builds on itself. Yeah. No matter how the season turned out, here's a sign of respect. Sign of respect. Yeah. Like, yeah, Everything's a tribe.
00:36:47
Speaker
Every team is a gang. And on some level, improper use of the word or not, every team that works well together and is successful, they have to start thinking of themselves as gangsters because they're out there to achieve and win and overcome.
00:37:06
Speaker
And they need to bond hard with what it is that they are. And they have to own who they are. Like, and then when the losses potentially could happen in a season, right?
00:37:17
Speaker
It doesn't matter because they're just, they're hardened. They're like, they have each other, you know? And it's, ah it's like the best image i ever saw. And I wish I could find it again.
00:37:30
Speaker
was ah it's said, it showed, what would you rather be? Would you rather be on this team or this team? And it showed a picture and ah And it was like cartoonish, but it was cool.
00:37:42
Speaker
And it showed a row of men standing facing the same direction, like like Spartans, right? All facing forward. And then in the other photo, it showed the same guys and they were in a circle. All their shoulders were touching and their backs were almost all touching, right? And i said, who would you rather be with?
00:38:00
Speaker
And I was like, oh, Spartans, that looks cool. And then I read what it was breaking down the information and it said, In tough times, you want to be in that circle because in that line, yeah, you're all facing the same direction. You're all maybe going to battle, going to war. But you know who's to your right and left and you probably know who they are. But what the other photo represented was people that were in the crap, like they were getting hammered. Life was breaking them down.
00:38:28
Speaker
And their response wasn't to spread and run or to get apart from each other.
Unity and Resilience in Teams
00:38:32
Speaker
They circled up. Every single human was touching another human. And if they tried to back out or they tried to get away, they'd back into somebody else.
00:38:41
Speaker
So there was no way for any one of them to leave the other. Like you could either go forward into adversity or you would push back into each other for support, but there was no other option.
00:38:52
Speaker
Yeah. Right. And I remember seeing that image and that one is stuck with me and I've never been, yes, who knows where I saw it, but it just resonated. Right. I'm like, you can go forward, but no one's going back. No. Yeah.
00:39:03
Speaker
Yeah. I love that. And I feel that's a strong visual representation to close out on. Perfect.
Conclusion and Further Engagement
00:39:10
Speaker
And you're continuing to do amazing things, educate, pontificate, speak yeah while you're having a cup of coffee in the morning.
00:39:17
Speaker
So where can people go to continue to to learn from you? Yep. They can still follow me on Instagram just under my name. um I'm not as active as I used to be, but I'm still active. Like getting into law enforcement just takes time, right? Which is cool.
00:39:30
Speaker
um They can still go to my website, DerekWitzke.com. ah There's workouts that they can download. There's an ebook on there that they can download. So there's still stuff and I still try to be active on that.
00:39:42
Speaker
It just comes out a little more periodic. Yeah. When you're inspired, feeling it. Inspired. yeah Flow state. Well, right dude, I appreciate your time. Thank you. but Yeah, thanks having me. just being you. Yes. Cool. Thank you for tuning in. you next time.
00:39:55
Speaker
See you.