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049 - From Platform to Professor w/ Allison Brager
137 Plays23 days ago
What happens when a CrossFit Games competitor trades the podium for the classroom? Dr. Allison Brager joins us to share her remarkable journey from elite athlete to neurobiologist to military leader, and now professor at West Point.
Neurobiologist specializing in sleep and circadian rhythms, former CrossFit Games competitor, Army officer, and author of "Meathead: Unraveling the Athletic Brain." She currently serves on advisory boards for NATO, US Special Operations Command, and multiple research organizations, and is heading to West Point to teach leadership psychology.
We dive deep into the identity trap that ensnares athletes who build their entire sense of self around competition, exploring why backup plans aren't just smart—they're essential. Allison shares hard-earned lessons about the evolution every athlete must face: from competing to coaching, from personal achievement to developing others.
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#FromPodiumToProfessor #LeadershipDevelopment #WestPoint #AthleteEvolution #CrossFit #MilitaryLeadership #CoachingMindset #ArmyFitness #CrossFitGames #SummerStrong #neuroscience
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Transcript
Introduction to PL 100 and Dr. Alison Brager
00:00:00
Speaker
I'll be one of the leads for it's a course that every cadet at West Point has to take called PL 100. um It's the psychology of leadership course. So whether you are a psych major or not, you have to take it.
00:00:13
Speaker
um So for three years, I literally get to teach, coach, mentor and develop every cadet that walks through those doors that, you know, someday when I'm 80 years old or turn on the TV, maybe the joint chiefs of staff.
00:00:29
Speaker
or or president Or the president of the United States, right? Welcome to the Captains and Coaches podcast. We explore the art and the science of leadership through lens of athletics and beyond. I'm your host, Texel Koukkan, and today we find ourselves back at SummerStrong with Dr. Alison Brager, a neurobiologist whose journey from elite athlete to military leader to educator embodies the transformative power of purposeful movement. As a former CrossFit Games competitor and Army team member, who's now heading back to West Point to teach leadership psychology, Allison brings a rare perspective on what authentic fitness really looks like beyond the social media highlight reels.
From Athlete to Coach: Building Identity
00:01:08
Speaker
In this conversation, we explore the evolution from competitor to coach, the critical importance of building an identity beyond athletic performance, and how the lessons learned under the barbell translate directly to leadership in life.
00:01:24
Speaker
Allison shares hard-earned wisdom about avoiding the pitfalls that derail young athletes, the reality behind fitness influencer culture, and why presence, not perfection, defines great leadership. Now, let's throw it out to Allison to help us raise the game. Ready, ready, and break.
00:01:42
Speaker
Allison, we are live at SummerStrong 18. Yes. You're participating in all the fun events. You throw already. You're going to lift. And now we're listening and engaging to some amazing speakers.
00:01:56
Speaker
Absolutely. And you yourself are an amazing speaker and educator and ah wide range of athletic endeavors and experiences and
Lessons from Athletic Career and Beyond
00:02:05
Speaker
professional development. So we got a lot to cover. We got a lot to learn.
00:02:08
Speaker
And we can start with where are we connected through some fitness. Yes, through something that calls itself the sport of fitness. That's right. Interesting and enough. And it's facing a lot of ah competitions lately. Mm-hmm.
00:02:23
Speaker
Pun intended here with different roles. And yeah, you, you, you participated in the games. You've been at the top of that and continue to then just progress and evolve and find new adventures as an athlete, as a competitive edge person and educator.
00:02:40
Speaker
So, I mean, let's hit the ground running your perspective, your fun, your competition drive and where did it all begin? And what's that connection with this sport of fun? So i had wanted to be a professional athlete my whole life.
00:02:54
Speaker
And I was able to achieve that, ironically enough, through the army, right? The army had a CrossFit team. They still do. um But I did that for two, three years where that's all we did. Full-time, dedicated training, competing around the country, the world, until the world shut down. And then we went to states that didn't really believe in COVID to do competitions and I love that.
00:03:19
Speaker
um But that was my life goal for a very long time was to be an athlete. And I was very fortunate to do that, compete at the highest levels in track and field throughout college. Again, trying tried to make an Olympic team, never did.
00:03:35
Speaker
But it's OK. That's life. um Same with CrossFit. I was able to compete in the CrossFit Games. um But at some point, you got to give back, right? You got to be a leader and a coach and give back to the next generation.
00:03:49
Speaker
And that's my goal now, right? I sit on the safety advisey advisory board for CrossFit HQ. um I still coach in pole vault, gymnastics.
00:04:03
Speaker
mentor. um I'll be doing that at West Point. um And ah ah to me, that's the evolution of an athlete. Yeah. And continuing to grow and give back. And once maybe the body is not where it was competitively, now we aim to to mentor, to lead, and almost try to teach the different perspectives and angles that we see as leaders to then, I mean, just beat some perspective into these younger athletes who think they're invisible until they're not.
00:04:31
Speaker
Exactly. And plus, just don't make the same mistakes we did. um I think in women's sports, the biggest mistakes we made because we didn't know better. And it's also because I was a gymnast since the age of two. And I did ah dance as well as Fueling, right? I was told that eating was bad.
00:04:50
Speaker
Calories were not good. So we just thrived nothing, right? Our body had to produce energy in order to exert
Trust and Social Media's Influence on Fitness
00:05:00
Speaker
energy. And honestly, the early days of CrossFit were like that. Like, we were so dumb.
00:05:05
Speaker
to follow the paleo diet to a T thinking it was performance enhancing. It's not. um So like, those are the other lessons that with young athletes um and students I have that I tried to impart on them is don't make the same dumb mistakes we did.
00:05:22
Speaker
And communicating that is much more difficult than just saying and telling them don't make these same mistakes. So what do you feel is a good way to either show and tell or help lead them to a small lesson to develop this connection where they'll just take your word on everything because they they believe and trust in you as a leader.
00:05:42
Speaker
Well, I think it's easier now because of social media, right? Like they use that as their... ah sort of sounding board and and guide. um And then I'm more or less there to do is this fact or is this fiction to provide the sanity check.
00:05:58
Speaker
um In the past, right, it was just more my word against theirs. um And that's why it's so important as a coach to establish that trust and rapport early on and establish credibility with them.
00:06:11
Speaker
But I think it's easier nowadays because they are getting exposed to a lot of this that, you know, we weren't exposed to. And what's interesting is social media allows just highlighting these, I mean, fit, amazing looking people.
00:06:26
Speaker
And then the training that they're doing is not necessarily what got them looking amazing. And then people try to mimic said training because, oh, they they equal one to one. We know and that's not the thing.
00:06:38
Speaker
Oh, yeah. So what are some fun fads, coincidences, different trends that are out there that you're just like – Here we go again. Because you've been in it so long. Yeah.
00:06:51
Speaker
Well, I will say, first and foremost, I learned through being on the Army's CrossFit team that the people who are considered the most fit in the social media world They literally take days to curate that content.
00:07:07
Speaker
And oftentimes they're not the athletes that you think they are. um We had that when ah we sort of fought against it, but thea the army decided to bring out like mainstream social media influencers in the fitness space.
00:07:22
Speaker
And it was just very disturbing to work with them because, you know, what could have been two hours of content taking them through the army combat fitness test or taking them through an army training exercise or a day in the life of the army and ended up being like four or five days of filming because everything had to be perfect. Turns out they're not as athletic as you think they are.
00:07:47
Speaker
And like, if they don't, move They don't speak. They don't act the way they want. It's like, it's not good. Yeah, exactly. Next take. You realize that they truly spend their week just coming up with these strategic plans to generate the most likes and content. And I'm not saying I think everyone does that, but I think the most popular ones, that's what they're doing. And I can you know say that with complete validity because I've worked with them.
00:08:16
Speaker
Yeah, working with a lot of high school kids, they see that and then they believe it's truth and reality. And what's interesting to me, I always try to figure out where they're going to school next, what do they want to study, and ask these underlying questions, not as a parent, just coming from a coach, respectful position to maybe add value to what their parents are asking.
00:08:35
Speaker
Yeah. And then what do they want to do with their life? And there's a lot of, and I'm not kidding when I say this, want to be an influencer.
CrossFit, Education, and Balanced Life Plans
00:08:44
Speaker
I just want to make videos. And it's like, what?
00:08:47
Speaker
Go study biology. yeah I don't know. Go try to be a dentist. Something. Anything. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think you see that. Okay. We'll go back to the the sport of fitness. Like I think one of the, again, we can go into that. Why I don't really think of it as the sport of fitness. I think of it as a training methodology, i.e. CrossFit. Yeah.
00:09:09
Speaker
But like you saw that in the CrossFit community, right? When i was started getting into CrossFit, competed in regionals, then eventually made it to the games. Well, all of us had competed with or against each other in college as well.
00:09:24
Speaker
yeah Division one all the way to division three athletes like that's why I got into CrossFit because When I was in graduate school at the time I would get kicked out of the weight room or the rec center for doing Olympic lifts or plyometric balls and all of that um And I was like I still want to do athletic things and feel like an athlete not understanding that CrossFit was this own competitive space and But now you have this whole generation of, you know, new generation of CrossFitters.
00:09:53
Speaker
That's all they do. They don't go to school. They're not thinking about their education. They're just thinking about in the moment, just like these kids who want to be social media influencers. They're not thinking about long-term sustainability and financial stability for their family, ah for themselves, and like retirement.
00:10:11
Speaker
Yeah, that you actually just, I had a flashback to an interesting conversation and experience I had leading seminars for CrossFit. And I would meet kids that were, they were homeschooled so that they could spend more time within their local CrossFit gym training to then reach the games.
00:10:32
Speaker
Yeah. I, what I really need to do is now follow up because this is 2017. yeah And here we are 2025, their college window is over. Maybe they're there, maybe they're not, because i don't stay connected to the the competitive realm in that respect. So I'm going to look that up. But then 2017, that was just
Collegiate Athletics and Military Service
00:10:52
Speaker
blowing my mind. You're going to homeschool so you could exercise more, but you're not playing team sports.
00:10:58
Speaker
Right. And like there's IMG Academy where I go to only play tennis and then maybe get four hours of school so I can get my GED then go play tennis in college. Right.
00:11:09
Speaker
They were doing that, but for fitness. ah Right. Exactly. It's not an Olympic sport. Right. I understand. That's the Olympic development model. I understand that. I've worked with kids in the Olympic development pipeline.
00:11:23
Speaker
Right. That's what Simone Biles said. And it's a necessary trade-off of wanting to be an Olympian. But I just, I think that's where I always struggle with this. It's like, to me, CrossFit is still a training methodology. And actually, i laughed once when, um so, you know, I am on staff and coach with Power Monkey Fitness. And I'm always humbled there, right? Because I am in the presence of giants, right? Everyone there, with the exception of me, is in a former Olympian of some sorts or
00:11:54
Speaker
American record holder and stuff and I like I remember one time but Wes Kitts captain and coaches yeah podcast alum. Yes, Wes Kitts amazing person, ah but Lindsay Shoup she was a Olympic gold medalist the first part of the first American boat to win and women's rowing in 2008 and I remember one she just blurted out. She's like Yeah, why would CrossFit be an Olympic sport? That's how us Olympians train it was like it made me laugh but it's I mean, it's true.
00:12:24
Speaker
Yeah. In my opinion. ah We're aligned there. What was interesting, and I want to ah move towards goals, because even today I've met individuals whose their goal is to make it to the games.
00:12:38
Speaker
So, i mean, the likelihood, the percentage of that is even less than making it to, I mean, the NBA. Right. Which is crazy, which is also mind blowing to me. Right.
00:12:48
Speaker
And at the same time, this, their, their personality They are. that their Their identity is a CrossFitter. Yeah. And they're putting it out into the universe. They're going to make this, you know, whatever 2026 years games.
00:13:03
Speaker
the What if it doesn't happen? Their whole identity will collapse in on itself. Exactly. Yeah. And I think that's really what we're starting to see already with this generation that has invested. Like they have a traumatic injury.
00:13:17
Speaker
that is career ending. um Or they try to come back too soon. um It's just they don't they don't have that backup and plan. You should always have a backup plan. You know, that's why i love, like, Mike Tyson's quote, like, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
00:13:32
Speaker
But the point of that is, like, well, what's your backup plan even after you get punched in the face? um And, you know, I think one of the the saddest things I started seeing in CrossFit were,
00:13:47
Speaker
athletes who were division one athletes, um, who were like, you know what? I'm not goingnna play football. I'm not going to do this anymore. I would want to do CrossFit instead. Like you have the rest of your life. And in fact, you're probably going to be like ah better athlete because right women, we start peaking peak athleticism, 29, 30, same with men, right? It's like 26, 27. Like you have the whole rest of your life to do CrossFit. And to me, having been a former D1 athlete, like having that opportunity to travel the country
00:14:20
Speaker
And to play sports um around the country and the world like for four years and not have any other responsibilities outside of being a good student, like best four years of I feel my life. you know And I still feel like I try to live the identity as a college athlete through serving in the army. like That's what I tell people. Serving in the army is like being a college athlete all over again. Mm-hmm.
00:14:45
Speaker
Except you're paid. Except I'm paid very well. Correction. Yes. Now their kids are paid. Yes. But I'm also paid very well in the Army, too. Yeah. Yeah. I concur. I mean, those are – they're all best friends for life. And I would have sacrificed that for ah just workout buddies, workout partners. yeah It's not the same. It's not the same. You're not – you know, we were talking about this earlier about like – the 14-hour bus rides. Like, those are the things you don't talk about. I'm sure it's different, but um I remember every year we'd compete at the Duke Relay. So we'd drive from Providence, Rhode Island. And, you know, this is an Ivy League university. We would drive from Providence, Rhode Island to Duke on a 14-hour bus trip.
00:15:25
Speaker
We'd wait for the last person to get on the bus. And, like, we'd literally turn back and drive back to Providence through the night and stuff like that. But those memories and those bonds forged on trips like that are, like, when we...
00:15:36
Speaker
Got to go to England to compete with Oxford and Cambridge. And I was 19 at the time. Drinking age in, you know, England is 18. So it was like nice to, you know, be legal and drink. And like those experiences we had. um Or just like, you know, the late nights in the dining hall or um tutor but in the library and all that. Like you can't replace those bonds.
00:16:00
Speaker
Dorms, yeah housemates, all of Yeah. great, great experiences that are potentially lost for, ah for this goal. 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.
00:16:26
Speaker
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00:16:44
Speaker
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.
Teaching Leadership Psychology at West Point
00:16:51
Speaker
Now, back to the show. Ready, ready, and rake. you're You're taking on a new goal this year you're at West Point. Yeah.
00:16:59
Speaker
And I really want to unlock this course just for our listeners. And then where do where do goals come into play? So as a leader, you see potential or you create potential in an individual where they didn't think they could make this. Yep. So almost we help them see or create goals that they want to accomplish.
00:17:17
Speaker
And now you're going to be working with these college-age students Students that are going to go on and to do amazing things. Like yeah i know West Point is a different person, but at the same time, how are you going to help them understand their responsibility as leaders creating goals for not only themselves, but start to introduce others to that as well.
00:17:37
Speaker
So i think it goes back to like some of the things we talked about here at Summer Strong. don't know what Sergeant Major Payne, the Medal of Honor recipient, was talking about yesterday was like, you know, and inspiration. And that's what ah one of the things i am very fortunate enough to do when I go there is I'll be one of the leads for it's a course that every cadet at West Point has to take called PL 100. Wow.
00:18:01
Speaker
um It's the psychology of leadership course. So whether you are a psych major or not, you have to take it. um So for three years, I literally get to teach, coach, mentor and develop every cadet that walks through those doors that, you know, someday when I'm 80 years old or turn on the TV, maybe the joint chiefs of staff.
00:18:24
Speaker
or president Or the president of the United States. Right. um And so that to me is just a really cool opportunity. And then again, carrying on that lead, that inspiration into varsity sports. So ah more than likely i will be one of the um academic advisors, you could say for the men's gymnastics team. So in one of their,
00:18:44
Speaker
High level teams where they have kids um who are in the Olympic development pipeline may have served time on the national team um and just providing them with that mentorship um and that guidance in terms of like, OK, this is how you can be successful now, but this is really how, you know.
00:19:04
Speaker
The years of dedicated time and service to your craft now and the discipline and the other attributes and values you've acquired from being a varsity athlete, that's how you will be successful in life thereafter. um And that's really what I see myself doing at West Point is just inspiring the next generation to take their intelligence and their initiative and their drive and to do good in the world.
00:19:30
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And they're they're going to be learning and practicing and just making it instinct a lot of behaviors that are our are foundations for leadership.
00:19:42
Speaker
So now from your experience, and then what are you going to take to the students that are these small wins, these small behaviors that then stack up to amazing things, whether they realize it or not?
00:19:54
Speaker
So when it comes to leadership, I... I don't know if it's because I haven't thought about it or read about it or am educated enough about leadership, but to me, leadership is simple.
00:20:07
Speaker
And when I look at some of the greatest leaders in my life, What is one overlapping factor of all of
Qualities and Development of Great Leaders
00:20:15
Speaker
them? They're all coaches, right? Whether it's a high school coach, a college coach, even one of my CrossFit coaches when we were competing and and training for the games, like those were those are people that I would follow into battle.
00:20:29
Speaker
um And I really think it comes down to the like their attributes, right? Big one is presence, right? They they were there and they... They wanted to be there, they dedicated their time, um and they showed passion and compassion.
00:20:45
Speaker
um The other thing is, is um like they were hard on us, but not for the reason to be mean or ugly because they knew that we could do better.
00:20:56
Speaker
And so they would, you know, craft ah sometimes like what they said to make us do better. um You know, I think my college track coach, I credit her to like who I am in life.
00:21:11
Speaker
um I dedicated my book Meathead to her. ah She was four foot nine. All right. Maybe four foot ten. Like. tiny little old white woman. Like she's just, she's like anyone's cute little grandma, but she can make men who were like six, two, six, three, like massive humans completely break down and cry. She had that, you know, cause she had carried that commanding presence, um, that they overlooked her statue. Um, and you know, her being
00:21:42
Speaker
their coach as a female, like an older female. And like, that's why, you know, she's a legend today in the sport of track and field. And like any alum of of Brown who was under the reign of Ann and her husband, Berg, like,
00:21:57
Speaker
They still regard her as the most influential person in their life um because she always wanted us to bo do better. Like when we had a bad meet, I used to remember she'd always say like, if we started making excuses, like coulda, shoulda, woulda, you didn't do it. So figure it out, you know?
00:22:14
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. that The presence that that does take, I mean, it it takes confidence, it takes reps, it takes years. So they even looking at these 100 level people, do you have you had a vision yet or approach that you're going to try to take to then teach presence?
00:22:31
Speaker
Is it a fake it till you feel it kind of thing? I think that's what it It's a fake it until you feel it, right? um but Or just trust your gut. That's what I think it it comes down to. Like that intuition piece that Sergeant Major Payne was talking about yesterday. It's just like that trust in your gut, that how your life turned out, um and if you're content with it, like that's how you impart on the next generation.
00:22:57
Speaker
um So those lessons I learned, um thanks to all my you know parents, mentors, coaches, Just trust that it's going to be the same with this generation.
00:23:08
Speaker
Because I think people at the end of the will follow those who do care, who literally will you know die on the sword for them or die on the hill. um you know the Same thing like when I was a company commander in the army, like people always try to give me advice in terms of like how to do it and what to do, especially since you know I was a direct commission, I didn't grow up in the army.
00:23:30
Speaker
But at the end of the day, I literally just took the same strategy that my high school track coach, also a very successful coach, um ah nationally renowned, took. And then what Anne instilled in me, and I just led my troops like, you know, ah Coach Gorski and Coach Rothenberg used to, you know, lead us.
00:23:50
Speaker
Yeah. And that's, that is the beauty of, of coaching and leading. You're taking all these lessons, personalities, mannerisms, stories, experiences, and then adding your own style to it.
00:24:04
Speaker
Yeah. And I think, you know, I've read a few leadership books here and there. and at the end of the day, it's not like a peer reviewed scientific manuscript, like these leadership books are are anecdotal stories. That's all they are. They're just like different life experiences where they had to take initiative and have intuition and inspire people um and make hard decisions. And it's just a recounting of that. And to me, and leadership is is learned. It's not really taught.
00:24:36
Speaker
I mean, yeah. Until now. Until now, right. Yeah. You're going to put them in a position to experience the different lessons and then to get to feel it and then hopefully embody that and take it and turn it into their own style.
Responsibilities and Challenges in Coaching
00:24:53
Speaker
Exactly. Like I see more or less this course is like, sure, there's curated content we have to teach and there's a textbook. It really is just like a psychology introduction to psychology course through the lens of military operations.
00:25:07
Speaker
But in teaching the course, it's just going to be a lot of shared stories. And you know what? They've had they want to have gotten into West Point. Right. um For it's right. In order to get into any military academy, you have to have the endorsement of your congressional representative.
00:25:23
Speaker
um They wouldn't have gotten to that point without having some life experience, ah traumatic or some setback in life um ah to get there. And then the even the lesson there and the ask...
00:25:37
Speaker
Is to take experiences and turn them into experience, ah into experience. Yep. If that makes sense. Yep. So that I like that there. One thing I do want to highlight for coaching, and you said presence and this triggered something that I learned from one of my mentors, Rafael Ruiz. We had to sign a pipe pledge when coaching with him.
00:26:00
Speaker
So this is to responsibility of coach and physically sign it. So the pipe was presence, IQ, professionalism, and EQ. And representing like I'm going to do my due diligence to understand the demands of the sport, et cetera, IQ. Yeah.
00:26:17
Speaker
Then professionalism. going to model a lot of the behaviors that I'm going to ask of these athletes versus being hypocritical. And then eq Like remembering these are humans. Yep.
00:26:28
Speaker
So with big goals, but they also got lives outside of the said time that we're training. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think ah that's I love that as a coach because professionalism, right?
00:26:41
Speaker
Like you're not there to be their friend at all. Right. Like even my soldiers. I stay in touch with soldiers that I've commanded over the years, but I'm not there to be their friend. I'm there to make the unit successful and them to be successful professionally and personally. But, you know.
00:26:57
Speaker
So talk us through that experience because this first time leaders, a lot of the things I speak about within the captains and coaches realm is that entry level leadership. So your first time as a team captain, you go from, hey buddy, buddy, we're on the same level yeah to now I got to car start calling you out for your stuff instead of just making fun you.
00:27:18
Speaker
Yeah. So I think um i started having that experience um not actually before I became a company commander, which really is like your first entry level of leadership, at least in the army.
00:27:32
Speaker
ah But when I was um chief of the sleep research center at Walter Reed, which I believe is when we first met, was the same thing where I It was very humbling because i literally was the boss of someone who used to be the deputy of an institute at the and NIH. Like he was the deputy of the National Institute of Mental Health, and I was in charge of him.
00:27:55
Speaker
um But then I also had um colleagues of mine. We grew up in science together. We went to grad school, postdoc together. You know, we hung out at conferences together. And so, right, I had to separate myself then and be like, I'm in charge of...
00:28:10
Speaker
you And like, yes, like i will be fair. At the end of the day, have to be fair and unbiased. And so you cannot have hard feelings. If I make this decision and it's not in favor of you because I am focused on the mission and like where people and where talents need to go in order to make the mission successful.
00:28:32
Speaker
um So it's it really is like I think entry level leadership is always the most challenging because you have the most people who are at your level um and you may have known from your past at that time.
Tribute to Coaches and Their Lasting Impact
00:28:45
Speaker
And so you have to be really disciplined about not going back into the friend zone um and favoring people because you know shared previous life experiences with them.
00:28:56
Speaker
Yeah. Friend zone. Nobody wants to be there. Nope. No. Time out. Text here at Train Heroic headquarters meeting with the team to talk about the coaching experience that I'm able to provide for my athletes.
00:29:08
Speaker
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00:29:28
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 and check out how you can deliver programming to them.
00:29:45
Speaker
And now, back to the show. Ready, ready, and
00:29:50
Speaker
This weekend has, as you know, dax has been really, really hard for us um because we lost one of our coaches who was headed here. he um unfortunately um was killed on impact in a motorcycle crash early yesterday morning.
00:30:07
Speaker
um And so there is a GoFundMe page ah for um Nick Vettel. um and his you know surviving family, so his wife um and his two-year-old daughter, Emerson.
00:30:20
Speaker
um i know that we'll probably do a shirt fundraiser, much like we did for other coaches who have supported and given their selfless service to um the special operations community.
00:30:33
Speaker
um But, you know, we made a decision to stay this weekend. um We know Nick would have wanted it. um You know, I think, you know, fitness and competition, that's what we all live for.
00:30:45
Speaker
And um I, you know, I i think it's, ah we'll get through it, but we have definitely been very appreciative of all the support the community has given us.
00:30:57
Speaker
And i'll I'll put a link to that in the show notes yeah for people to take the action step on there. And i mean, it's representative of of coach. He's he gave everything he had to to the team. Yep.
00:31:10
Speaker
He was starting that to to raise that family. but he still had family outside of that within the community and was doing what he could to be here. So it's, it's, well, it's funny you say that because, um, or I'm, I'm not funny, but I'm thankful you said that because that's what one of the the sergeant majors of the army's larger holistic health and fitness program was saying yesterday. He's like,
00:31:34
Speaker
That's the thing. Like when something happens to even our coaches within the military, not to dismiss death of like our own soldiers or peers um or people who do serve in the military, but it hits differently because, you know they are our relief from the stress and the demands of military life. Right.
00:31:57
Speaker
We go to coach either in the morning or after work. Right. And that's It's part of us getting better as humans, maintaining our physical fitness, but also just right when we see them, like automatic positivity because we know that part, stressful, demanding part of our military day is over. um And so they leave, I think, a greater impact and they also inspire us.
00:32:23
Speaker
um In ways that I think leaders and peers and our work colleagues can never. Yeah. um And, you know, and I agreed with them. It's like, yeah, it's it's it feels a lot harder. I mean, unfortunately, i have lost soldiers um before, but it it hits differently because he was a coach.
00:32:42
Speaker
Yeah. And then, i mean, move movement leadership is so connected. Yeah. So even when it doesn't feel like he's leading or guiding when we're in stressful situations in a workout underneath the barbell.
00:32:57
Speaker
Yeah. Like he's helping solidify that you are capable of handling that stress outside of the weight room. Exactly. And ye making that connection. That's what a coach does. Like this is training for life Yep.
00:33:11
Speaker
Yeah. Well, like ah when we were talking to Travis earlier today, I love, you know, that Carl Johnson quote that he quoted was, you know, ah the only way to have a real conversation with people is through beer and a barbell.
00:33:24
Speaker
Right. Like that's where where you're going to get the ground truth in those states of like vulnerability, you know, and. I think a lot of hard things mentally are forged through hard physical training and that coaching and and guidance through it.
00:33:42
Speaker
I believe it.
Future Endeavors and Staying Connected
00:33:43
Speaker
Where can people continue to follow your journey, pick up the book, and then see the awesome things that you're always just taking on? Because it's endless goals. It's endless awesome.
00:33:52
Speaker
um So my book, Meathead, Unraveling the Athletic Brain, it it just hit its 10-year anniversary, which is crazy. um You can find that on Amazon. You can find me on Instagram at DocJocZZ.
00:34:05
Speaker
um I realized we didn't talk about another topic. that's it and This is not the last time we'll... Yeah, that's true. That's true. have any conversation. So yeah, that is true.
00:34:16
Speaker
Yes. give Give Allison a follow. And then, I mean, endless goals. And I'm excited for the the West Point opportunity. And then even seeing how your teaching and perspective evolves as you go through one, two, three years, because growth is inevitable oh yeah as a teacher and a mentor.
00:34:31
Speaker
Yep. No, absolutely. and And that's how it could be. It's like, right? Like it could be like the Mike Tyson quote, like I have my plan, but I might get punched in the face and I might have to completely change my plan.
00:34:44
Speaker
um either on the spot or, you know, year after year. Yeah. Or Dead Poets Society, where you read the first chapter then... That is true. Throw it out.
00:34:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. yeah Yeah. Leadership is chaos or whatever you want to spin it. Exactly. Yeah. there's no There's no formula for leadership. I'm sorry. there's We'll end it on that. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you for joining us.
00:35:07
Speaker
And thank you. course. we're in person, we can... Yes. We can shake hands. Shake hands.
00:35:15
Speaker
And seam.