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Kyle Bolton: Training Loads & Velocity Based Profiling
633 Plays17 days ago
In this episode of The Speed Lab Podcast, Les Spellman and Kyle Bolton dive into how athletes can unlock new levels of performance by rethinking training loads, recovery, and the role of velocity-based profiling. From balancing intent with execution to how coaches can make training data meaningful for both athletes and parents, this episode is packed with insights that bridge science, coaching, and real-world application.
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Episode Timestamps
- 00:00 – Intro Setting the stage for today’s focus on athlete development and training insights.
- 02:15 – Training Loads & Velocity-Based Profiling Why profiling athletes by velocity matters and how it can impact speed and strength outcomes.
- 08:40 – Recovery & Adaptation Discussion on balancing intensity with proper recovery so athletes can actually progress instead of burn out.
- 15:05 – Communicating Data to Parents & Athletes Breaking down “coach speak” into simple, practical terms so parents and athletes buy in.
- 22:30 – Event & Camp Preparation How AI tools and structured planning can reduce guesswork for coaches organizing camps and clinics.
- 29:45 – Closing Thoughts Final takeaways on bridging the gap between science, coaching, and athlete results.
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Transcript
Introduction to Kyle Bolton
00:00:03
Speaker
right, guys, so first podcast back in the mix, I had to bring my guy, Kyle Bolton. Speed coach, performance coach, number one team in the country, Oregon Ducks.
00:00:17
Speaker
Probably doesn't need much of introduction. ah If you don't know who Kyle is, and probably not in this industry. um So, yeah, man, i again, I told you before the call, I'm like the most anti-podcast podcast guy just because I have a ah very limited attention span.
Podcast Format
00:00:35
Speaker
So what I was hoping today was like to have a conversation and like we call each other all the time just talk. And i was hoping it would be that. So we're just talking, having a conversation, we're flowing.
00:00:48
Speaker
um I got a couple of questions I want to ask you. you probably got a couple want to ask me. um have no agenda. and don't know how much time you got, but I'm going to take it all. And, ah yeah, that's really it. So thanks for coming on, bro.
00:01:02
Speaker
Yeah, man. Anything for you. You know how it is. I appreciate that.
Kyle Bolton's Personal Journey
00:01:07
Speaker
I'll start off with the Triple H, just real quick, just so people can understand your brain. I got this from Coach Feld.
00:01:14
Speaker
Hero, hardship, highlight. Hero, hardship, highlight. My hero, man, we talked about this one earlier in the year here Oregon. My literal hero is my dad. um When I was a little kid, I fell into a pool and went and did not swim yet and he jumped in to save me.
00:01:31
Speaker
So, I mean, he's literally my lifesaver. um i was a knucklehead growing up. I got a lot trouble so at times and he got jammed up ah so I could get out trouble when I was younger.
00:01:43
Speaker
um so I owe him a lot. You know what I mean? um um I have a clean record because of him. You know, he kept out trouble and he saved my life. So, that's my hero. My hardship...
00:01:57
Speaker
I dealt with depression once in my life, like real depression. And it was a time around me when me and you met, we were training for the NFL together. And then all I've known and all I've been doing is football forever.
00:02:13
Speaker
And when I thought that came to an end, when I got cut by the Vikings, didn't know what to do myself because coming from a small school with like no expectations and everyone telling me like, and I'm just from high school, I'll never make it to the NFL or whatever.
00:02:26
Speaker
finally get there hearing all of them say different things, jumping back on the bandwagon and getting cut after you like, mini camp. Uh, and it is feeling like I proved them all correct.
00:02:39
Speaker
That dealing with depression for a little bit was a while. Like I didn't want to get out of bed. i didn't want to do anything, you know? Um, and really, Funny enough, talking with you and like getting back with you and getting back to Prolific actually got me out of that. So training and getting myself ready got me back out that I ended up playing in the CFL, so it wasn't the end of it.
00:02:58
Speaker
You know what mean? And what was the last one? Hero Hardship. Highlight. What's the highlight of your... Other than being the number one team in the country and being the best coach in the world and all that, you know?
00:03:10
Speaker
and My highlight, I guess, um ah for me would just... Yeah, think it's still being written. Like right now, I guess would be just getting married, you know? um Paige has been so supportive of me.
00:03:22
Speaker
So think up to date, my highlight is ah finding Paige and marrying her. But I think the story is still being written. yeah I'm not like you yet. don't have a kid yet. So think that'll be my highlight once I want to have a kid.
00:03:34
Speaker
No, for sure. It's a highlight for the first couple of weeks and then reality hits you and it's no longer a highlight. It's
Systems in Sports and Life
00:03:40
Speaker
like, that's your heart. My hardship, you asked me the same question. My hardship is my kid. Yeah, all three, huh?
00:03:46
Speaker
No, I love that. Yeah, so obviously, like, dude, I just spent five days in the Cayman Islands with Stu. And he destroyed my brain and then rebuilt it.
00:03:57
Speaker
And I questioned, you know, came back and I questioned everything, man. But one of the things that I've been looking at is like systems. So we're a part of, where you know, we're part of multiple systems at once. Like our body is a system.
00:04:11
Speaker
Our body's within another system, which is our family life or whatever, our work life. our football system. You could even get into your performance or your ah skill coaching or whatever. there's There's systems on top of systems.
00:04:25
Speaker
And it's funny because like the whole time I you know i was down there, I'm presenting as well, which is crazy. A crazy experience to be presenting, but also like having all your thoughts on what you did was important, destroyed at the same time.
00:04:38
Speaker
I'm looking at it like, damn, what's important, right? And then obviously i have this podcast scheduled for profiling. Now, like my thoughts on profiling didn't really change after i got my brain obliterated by Stu, but I really feel like profiling is the thing that everybody attaches to in our industry.
00:04:58
Speaker
It's the coolest, sexiest, most visible piece of everything we do. And um I hate that, to be honest, because I think it's such a small piece of it.
00:05:09
Speaker
um But yeah, what are your thoughts on that? Like, let's think just talk
Athlete Profiling and Holistic Development
00:05:14
Speaker
like broadly about it, you know? Yeah, I think it's a good tool to have if you're unexperienced with like how athletes like to train or like what their strengths and weaknesses are.
00:05:24
Speaker
i think it really helps you narrow it down. um I think you and Stu and you know I think there's a bunch of good people out there and they might call it different things like elastic versus muscular, fascial driven. you know what mean?
00:05:37
Speaker
um I think everyone is the same language. It's just different ways of getting there, if that makes sense. So the profiling part, I think it's cool. I think you're right. i don't think you need it specifically to get people faster, bigger, stronger. I think people generally figure it out.
00:05:51
Speaker
But I think the biggest takeaway I found is how people kind of like to train what they don't like to train, and what's like gives them superpowers and what's like a kryptonite to them, right? And then from there, it's like how do you amplify all those and dammit into weaknesses and then just go from there. And it doesn't have to be specifically for, you know,
00:06:12
Speaker
Just sprint training. That could be in the weight room. That could be like on the football field where they're good at or not good at on the team sport side. You know what I mean? Why are they good at this? Their approaches to different things. Why they do that. I think understanding how they move and how they play the sport and what they like to do helps give you better insight than if you just went out there and said, okay, today we're doing...
00:06:32
Speaker
three by 10 or, you know, three by six. And it's generally prescribed like that. Um, and figuring out what these guys like to do and why, and what feels good for them, especially in season. That's where my head's been at obviously right now, but in season, um, helps them get a little buy-in and, want to be in the weight room and do little bit more because they feel better in there. You can see it transferred to the field.
00:06:54
Speaker
Yeah, I love it. And we'll come back to that because i want to get deeper into it. But like thinking about University of Oregon football as a system, like, and and And really when I'm talking systems, I'm talking like how things relate to each other.
00:07:09
Speaker
It's not very reductionist in the sense like we're not looking at profiling as profiling. We're looking at how profiling impacts, you know, what what the purpose of your system is. So like at University of Oregon football, like what's your what's your purpose? Like you guys are trying to win or like what what is it? Like what what do you guys talk in the hallways at Oregon?
00:07:29
Speaker
Yeah. so our system here is like, we want to develop like a complete football player and human being. Right. So where that comes in any phase, we want to, you have standards and you want to be the best of what we do, wherever it is. So we walk down the hallways, you know, you'll hear people talking about mostly football stuff, but then at at the same time we do get real. So where we get in small groups and we all open up to one another. So I told you, I ah told the guys here about my heroes, my dad will,
00:07:56
Speaker
we talked about each other's why and kind of like each other's background and story. So you get to know a little bit more, your teammate, your coaches. Um, think that makes it more of a connected group. And like you hear coach Wayne say like connected group and a strong group. they go out on the field, know, why they're doing you know, their backstory to make kind of understand what they're doing.
00:08:14
Speaker
And that, that kind of helps you figure out the athlete a little bit more too. Right. So you're someone comes from a different background and, you know,
00:08:24
Speaker
they don't like eating some of the food that's here. Well, then why is that? You know what mean? like at what point is this? Like, they don't vibe with this food or they don't do this or that. Understand their background and why can help you connect more to athlete and figure out ways to be able to connect with them on nutrition or to carry body and stuff like that.
00:08:42
Speaker
um And the same thing is like what makes them tick, what makes them want to go out here every day and work. um It's a cliche that it sounds. I think it's a really big piece of kind of what we do around here.
00:08:54
Speaker
But then at the end of the day, you know, it's growth mindset, always getting better. Not every single day you have to be looking at what can I get better at? You know, being number one is what other people tell us.
00:09:05
Speaker
You know, you know what mean? Like, uh, our thing around here is Oregon versus Oregon. No one else really matters. It's, we measure our own standard against each other. and like, is this good enough today to be considered like Oregon standard or can we get better?
00:09:20
Speaker
And there's some good days, there's some not so good days, but we have to keep pushing that and make sure that we keep growing every day. What can I learn? Where can I get better? And Coach Lane talked about today, it's like, where he gets amped up is people getting better walkthrough or in film and seeing and talking about like how they can play technique or what they can do better rather than just like making big plays and practice.
00:09:41
Speaker
But seeing the little technique right or talking about in film or what they're seeing and the tendencies and stuff like that. And I think that's what makes the system a little bit better. And then being a better person and like just growing as a human and in general is like, how can I carry this over to my everyday life?
00:09:58
Speaker
how can i take the same focus and what I do here and take that out into the real world? Because
Behavioral Challenges in Athlete Development
00:10:04
Speaker
when the ball goes flat, you have to fall back on something. Yeah. and I love that.
00:10:09
Speaker
And like what I'm hearing is like, how you guys have developed relationships and like learn, like your profiling initially is like the interpersonal relationship side of things. Like how, what makes you tick, what makes you you.
00:10:22
Speaker
And I, and I feel like as a coach, you get into the industry and you feel like your value is like what tech you know how to use or like, how you can make decisions based around like a decision tree or algorithm.
00:10:37
Speaker
And we all go through that. I mean, i'm I've been in that, I'm probably still on that stage, but like it's, it's kind of what drives like your value as a coach. And it it helps feed some of the ego side of things where you're just like, I know how to do this.
00:10:51
Speaker
And, um, what, you know, I remember, uh, I think it was two years ago, we had like, every single piece of tech you could think of for Kanban training. And we spent so much time trying to turn it on and turn it off and upload stuff that we never had conversations.
00:11:06
Speaker
And like, that's the least connected I've ever been to a draft class. And I can always tell by who comes back. And like, obviously we have some guys come back, but not everybody, like not a high percentage.
00:11:17
Speaker
Um, it's like, it, it, it kind of disrupts that connection sometimes. Like when you don't have that base of like, what makes you tick? Um, Because like if you're trying to optimize, nutrition's a part of it. like you You've been talking me about nutrition forever, and my diet's terrible.
00:11:34
Speaker
But that's a whole other story. But you've been talking about nutrition for a while, and it kind of reminds me of a story about John Benetti. He owns Precise Nutrition.
00:11:47
Speaker
And he was saying that he gave a speech to Bobsled. And basically he was talking about nutrition and all this, all that, and what to do, what timing to do it. Here's the macros, whatever.
00:11:59
Speaker
and next day, everybody walked in with fast food. Stu was telling me this story and came in. Everybody walked in with fast food. He said, it's not an information problem. It's not an information problem at all because and people have the information.
00:12:11
Speaker
And I feel like in our field, it's kind of the same thing. Like people have the information, but that doesn't necessarily change behavior, you know? And um yeah, I'll stop there because like my next question.
00:12:24
Speaker
Well, you're onto it. Like, I mean, you met Coach Kha. You mentioned Coach Kha. You met Coach Kha at TCU. And one thing he always told us was information doesn't lead to behavior change.
00:12:36
Speaker
So it's like, like, just exactly what you're saying. Like, I can sit here and present all day about something, but it's not going to change it, right? But I think the growth mindset and while i' approach taken with a lot these guys, you know, they're learning how to eat and learn how to develop is small wins.
00:12:52
Speaker
So you want to go get fast food? All right, let's do it. But make sure you put like the greens and the tomatoes and the stuff on there like that. You know, um if you want to eat candy, okay, but let's like limit how much we do.
00:13:05
Speaker
You know, don't always eat it so much. And just small ones like that. Like if I go in and we're in the cafeteria and I'm like, hey, you got any greens on your plate? You can show me. yeah Yeah, like now like some of the guys like show me all the greens and fruit they have.
00:13:17
Speaker
To me, that's a small win. You know I mean And if I can take keep taking those small steps, sooner or later, I'll catch on and change a little bit more. Yeah. No, love that.
Role of a Speed Coach
00:13:26
Speaker
It's funny because like people listening to this probably thought we just talked speed the whole time.
00:13:32
Speaker
I think all this ties into it, in my opinion. You what I mean? It does, yeah. But it like I think the part of... um my criticism in college football, and i'm I can criticize because I'm not technically in it, but like, it's very reductionist. Like there's very siloed departments within college football, like that don't speak to each other and don't understand what each other does. So like everyone's trying to optimize their part.
00:14:00
Speaker
So like, if you're the speed coach, well, you're judged on how fast people run probably, right? Or if you're nutrition, you're judged on weight. I feel like those are the wrong things. What would you say your real job is?
00:14:16
Speaker
like Speed is a thing, but what is your real job? I mean, obviously, like that's that was that's the title, right? like Speed coach. But really what it's more is like are my guys available and to performing well?
00:14:29
Speaker
right At the end of the day, it's like my job is to make sure these guys are healthy, available, and still maintain their same power and speed and ability that they had coming in like 15 weeks in the season.
00:14:45
Speaker
you know How i look at what we're doing is like if we're barring major contact injuries, right now I think our starting group is 96% healthy, not including contact injuries. You know what I mean? so for me, like that's that's a win this far in a season.
00:15:04
Speaker
And I think that's what ah transitions in season. This is where my maintenance and where it comes in to where we can really shine more. I know practice, coach head coach and everyone, design practice has a lot to do with that.
00:15:16
Speaker
But what can I do on the supportive end to help my athletes not feel as stressed and their body not feel as taxed? That way they can be their best on Saturday. Yeah, the health and performance part, which is like, we're very, very, very, like our industry is over indexed on the performance side and really pushing like quantitative numbers. Like how fast do you run, how much do you lift, how much power, whatever.
00:15:42
Speaker
um And not as much on does this movement lead to better health.
Movement Quality and Performance
00:15:48
Speaker
So like how important is quality of movement to you? I think it's huge. Um, you know, if if I can help them be better and movers, I think it translates over to the game because if they're in weird situations, um, it'll help them out. Like I, I,
00:16:06
Speaker
I really enjoy listening to Bobby Strew. um And every time he comes around, I love hearing what he says or what he writes about. i think how he trains Patrick Mahomes is unique.
00:16:17
Speaker
don't think anyone can do it that way. And I think he says that too. like It took a while get there. But his approach and putting him in different variable variables and different situations has shown to help Patrick Mahomes. Now, I understand Patrick Mahomes is like up here. Everyone else is like maybe down here. But I think that thought process is along the right lines where once you get a good foundation down, you can start adding a little bit durability.
00:16:41
Speaker
And what do you like? What are the ways you go about doing that? Like for you in your environment? I really don't know the answer to this. I'm actually asking for myself. Yeah. So right now how we do it is like everyone builds that same base.
00:16:54
Speaker
Um, but we do a general base for the entire team. And then as we start progressing and close to season, um, it's almost like everyone calls it a force port, but ours a different. we call it like the climb, um,
00:17:09
Speaker
And we do different variable loading to these athletes where like maybe they have like one of those little water bags on them, you know, where they're jumping and have to be stable in uncertain positions. It's nothing too crazy yet. I think, uh, me and Ben would talk about getting little more crazy this next year, but having a brace in different situations, um, like um'm reading this book by, Bill Parisi right now is fashion training one, which it's crazy. It talks about a little bit, um,
00:17:38
Speaker
like combat sports. And I know you know how to box. So yeah a lot of this stuff works with what you kind of do and touch on. But the wrestling aspect, I'm not too sold so much on contact prep 100%. I believe there's something to it, but I think sometimes people do it wrong or not the right way.
00:17:56
Speaker
But What he was talking about in there is like just being able to be stable on those two feet whilst you're engaged with someone and being able to switch, I think the wrestling switches and being like not just tip over and be, you use a full body. I think there's actually something to that.
00:18:11
Speaker
You know what i mean? Yeah. So we're on a we're in a very beginner stage of stuff like that. Nothing too crazy yet. No, yeah, I love that. That's the piece that guess it takes coaching to understand the quality side takes an eye. It's like, I think there's probably a group of humans right now that are like, am I going to be replaced by bot one day? Like in coaching, like, and night I can tell you, I mean, maybe, i don't know.
00:18:39
Speaker
I can't really say yes or no to it, but. We were talking about this. We were talking about this the other day. It's like, how strong you have to be um trying you have to be to be successful at our sport?
00:18:53
Speaker
I think remember back in the day, it was like, oh, you have to squat right at least two and a half times your bi-weight. That's good. Two and a half is elite. yeah But like do you need to be there? like I mean... What if like one and a half or 1.7 is like good enough?
00:19:06
Speaker
You know what mean? it kind of makes you think like there's guys out here that are excelling in the sport, but then you bring them into the weight room and they're terrible. Yeah. but as So does it matter like how good they are in the weight room if they're doing really well in the field and not getting injured and they're you know they're performing really well?
00:19:24
Speaker
ah think that's something I've been diving more into is... When we look at profiling, you know, if I had back in, it's like if if some of these guys are waiting warriors, but they they excel at jumping and doing different different things, how can I put that in my program and help them out on the field?
00:19:39
Speaker
Now, I'm still going to lift them to the weights to make sure they're stable so when they take contact and stuff, you know, it's not just skin and bone. But at the same time, I don't want to take away what makes them so special because they've been doing it for years, you know?
00:19:51
Speaker
yeah And we have ah we have a few guys here. i mean, you're in California, so you know, coming from TCU, all the guys that came in had a high school science coach. yeah California and West Coast kids come in, don't have anyone.
00:20:03
Speaker
So the first time they're doing weights might be in here, but they're like a ah four or five star athlete and they can hang with some of the vets, but they've never been in the weight range. You know, so stuff like that of like interests me.
00:20:17
Speaker
Yeah, it's like what makes you what makes you good. And if you look at all, like you look at the continuum of different possibilities, like this is where the capacity coordination stuff that Stu's talking about, like structure plays a part in it. So like if you're built a certain way, like you have, you build different capacities than someone that's, you know, maybe a long femur, tall,
00:20:43
Speaker
athlete's going to be completely different than a short shorter athlete. And that will determine some of your movement patterns, but also like my physical driver standpoint of like where physically you might need to work or what makes what makes you good. Like some people can produce high amounts of force.
00:20:58
Speaker
Some people can produce high amount of medium level force, but produce it really fast. yeah there's different There's different recipes to get to the same thing, um which is super interesting.
00:21:12
Speaker
It makes it really difficult sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. And one thing that we're trying to work with the coaches on you know um is utilize these schools and immediately right away what they want to do is throw a bunch of weight on you. You're like, oh, he needs be X-mounted weight.
00:21:31
Speaker
You know, and like, I'm not saying coaches are ever wrong on that because have more football knowledge than do. But at the same time, it's like, you have to know that sometimes adding that weight, if it's not done properly, can take away from what made him really good and why in the first place.
00:21:47
Speaker
Yeah. So if you shoot him up and he gains that freshman 15 real quick, he's not going to be the same freshman that you saw or the same as senior in high school that you saw early in recruiting. Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:59
Speaker
yeah Yeah, that's, ah it's interesting because it going back to the systems thing, so like the head coach is part of that system, but there's like a disproportionate amount of control that the football staff has on the entire program in determining like each of the parts. And like, it's just common, like, oh, it's a contact sport. We got to throw a weight on this guy.
00:22:22
Speaker
If you go to another sport, let's say track and field, and you have these guys that can't lift very much, aren't very strong, but are extremely elastic. And a lot of people might go to that with a football mindset and say, well, if we take this really elastic, fast, reactive guy and just get him a little bit stronger,
00:22:42
Speaker
We're going to make him better at what he does. And what happens, they they do worse. Like you've seen it tons of times. Like, I don't know if that's what happened to Christian Coleman. I'm not in the track space that well, but I would assume it probably happens a lot.
00:22:54
Speaker
It's like, let's just get him stronger. And it actually detrains the thing that they're gifted at. Like most of the guys that come to you, by the time they come to you, they pretty much determine what some of their gifts are.
00:23:07
Speaker
They're there they're at University of Oregon for number one school in the country, probably the top recruiting class ever. Like you're there for a reason. And it always, not now I'm kind of questioning myself, like when would i when would i choose to work on a weakness versus highlight their strengths?
Balancing Strengths and Weaknesses in Training
00:23:26
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like, that's the question i always run into. like what would you say? Man, man, was, uh, I was just listening to, uh, Andrew Paul on a podcast and gee was talking about this. He got asked the same question, you know? Um, and it was phrasing him like most people work on weaknesses furthest away from season, which, you know, I think that's the traditional model that I've been doing. Like I work on that furthest away.
00:23:51
Speaker
And as we get closer, our build up their strengths. Um, I do the same thing, but then like in season, it's almost like you have to touch, and you have to keep touching off.
00:24:02
Speaker
um We get it off season and then, you have touch it in season. So I know I'm going to hit myself right now, but so say like we have a super elastic person. And Andrew Paul does a great job talking about this. I'm basically stealing his words because I'm an ultimate thief on this stuff.
00:24:18
Speaker
But basically he's saying like, so for example, Tez is super elastic. So if I always train him elastic and we're always doing elastic stuff, always sprinting, always doing stuff like that.
00:24:29
Speaker
What elastic people end up doing is like they get like more tendinopathies like in those knees. You'll see a lot of like, oh, my knees, stuff like that. You know I mean? And so you have to train the opposite what they like to do, which would be like load, right? So more force production, a little bit more with that and pushing a little bit more, but you have to do it with caution, right? Because the tendons want to feel that, but you can't do too much. Otherwise, it'll be a little bit bad for them.
00:24:54
Speaker
and And vice versa, you're muscular guy. i think we were talking about this earlier. he gets a little jammed up from always like doing too much force. Well, what we do for that? Okay. Maybe a little bit more fast plyos, stuff like that to get him loosened up, you know? So I think like in season, you still need to work both sides of it, but obviously cater to what they're good at, what they like to do.
00:25:15
Speaker
But I think, yeah, in season, you still have to touch the weakness as well. Yeah. Give me some more Andrew Paul wisdom. Yeah. So sell me, sell me. I'm like, I'm not hip. I want to, yeah, I want to know.
00:25:30
Speaker
i want to know. Okay. So, uh, Andrew Paul, right. Came from Mizzou. So he, ah he's tied into like kind of the tree that I kind of came from. He had, he worked with Pat Ivey with Brian Mansoe. He knows all the BBT, right.
00:25:41
Speaker
Uh, he went, oh, homie, so he comes in. and I think he just passed here and the year before he got, um NBA strength coach of the year. So dude's been on it. He's been on a tear, right. Um,
00:25:53
Speaker
And he'll be the first to admit, like, some of the people he's looking at are specialized by the time they get to him. You know, they're passing the developmental stage. you kind know what they like to do. He's only dealing with, like, 15 players.
00:26:05
Speaker
But he also touches on, like, profiling athletes. And the way he does it is kind how we've all said it before, right? But he talks about, like, rib cage angle, like, angle. Wide rib cage, more muscular and narrow, little bit more elastic. But then he puts those into two subcategories.
00:26:21
Speaker
I don't do the subcategories because we have so many guys it's been easier for me to go like muscular or elastic. But the way he talks about putting the together a training system and his in season, off season and how it takes care of his athletes and what he's looking for because he's a DPT. So there's dude who's wicked smart.
00:26:38
Speaker
um the way he puts together program just sounds, you know, it just clicks in my head. Now he does give that caveat. If you listen to him, like it might not work for every sport, but it does for his, right. It might not work at lower levels, but does for his. I think that's something that everyone has to take in what you do versus what I do.
00:26:56
Speaker
sound similar, but it could be like different. You know what mean? Um, just because you got, there you get to be more hands-on with your guys and get to spend more time in a smaller group where me ought to see a bigger lens.
00:27:09
Speaker
And then I have to pick and choose, okay, this is what we're going to work on. Maybe it's not exactly what this guy needs, but it's what like this guy needs. So it's going to help everyone in general. Um, yeah.
00:27:20
Speaker
And I think that's something where like, I can improve on is getting more individualized. I think we're getting better. and We're nailing it closer and closer right now in season. And think by next season, we'll have it pretty dialed in.
00:27:33
Speaker
I love that. Yeah, i think that's why i like doing these talks because my environment is pretty unique in terms of like the training. Like it's more like golf.
00:27:43
Speaker
Like if you've ever had an individual golf trainer take a couple of swings, they talk to you, ask what you ate the day before, what vacations are going on next. It's like completely different tempo.
00:27:57
Speaker
Also, I talk slow. So it's just like me, you know what i mean? Like you just have, like, i was just i was just doing a training session with one of our soccer players. Like we have a table out there, you know, we'll do some adjustments, we do some things, we run, we'll do a couple more adjustments, we run, we video, we talk about it.
00:28:14
Speaker
you know, whereas like you're locked into a timeframe, you're also locked into a bigger goal outside of just performance. Like you have to get to a win and you what you what you do has to connect directly to the bigger system of winning. I guess mine does too, but people come for a specific need.
00:28:32
Speaker
um One of my obsessions right now, like on the health and performance subject is just really tying those two things together.
Improving Movement and Performance Health
00:28:40
Speaker
And I've almost like thought about it from this way. Like,
00:28:43
Speaker
your movement should make you feel better. a lot of like what we're doing from a drill standpoint, like should make you feel better, but also like our drills should actually like drill. if you do a drill and someone can be really good at the drill and really poor at running,
00:28:59
Speaker
how valuable is that, that drill? Like, right I've, I've kind of been looking backwards at a lot of the things we've been doing, especially cause I've talked to you about the spinal engine stuff that pretty much shifted our, our whole perspective on the pelvis and the spine and all that.
00:29:15
Speaker
from a drill perspective, what are you doing now? I don't know the answer to this. Yeah. Man, it's crazy you said it. So I've been watch so watching Coach Landry Pax and stuff and being in a staff meetings.
00:29:26
Speaker
He actually helped give me more ideas to it right? Kind of on the same concept line you're thinking. So we do this thing here. called daily skill. Right? So during practice, they do daily skill. Then we break up and they do indie.
00:29:38
Speaker
But he wants your indie to be very intentional and daily skill to be very intentional. So much so that he'll bring it up in team meetings and staff meetings and And show real examples like, okay, we're doing this. Why?
00:29:53
Speaker
Right. And if it doesn't show up on game day, then we need to take it out. it's If it's not something that they can, that they're going to get better at use on game day, then we should be doing it. And we can't show the guys like why they're doing it, that we shouldn't be doing it.
00:30:05
Speaker
um I think Coach Keegan's at North Texas, they've been putting out some good contact with the kind of similar aspect. Like they show, think they've been big on a gallop, yeah, gallop checking and then they show in and game situation.
00:30:19
Speaker
So i think that's a good connection. So what i'm looking at there is the same thing you're talking about. Drill-wise right now, in season, what we're using, I'm doing basic things just to make sure the guys keep their running form little bit better and stay a little bit more frontside.
00:30:34
Speaker
um So we do typical, uh, high knees, high knee butt kick, but the high butt kick is a little bit different than its normal butt kick. We do the mini prime toms and then we do like the big straight leg bounce to get that front side.
Offseason Training Strategies
00:30:49
Speaker
Um, Those are kind of like the little primers and drills we do right now. And then we do some med ball work to get like different lines, the actual lines going. so As far off season, I think we're going to revamp it and kind of look at what we really need to do or what really need to work on, like you're saying, right? So if it doesn't transfer over and it's not really helping us, then let's move off of it.
00:31:11
Speaker
You know, I still think that, I still think like the boom booms and everything else still has a good place, but we'll probably transition off that to something else um after a couple of weeks. Yeah.
00:31:22
Speaker
No, and this is part of like my brain exploding the past two weeks, but one of the things that I've been looking at and also I've been, I had confirmed from like Stu and some other coaches is like our industry really focuses on the sprint pattern of front side or thigh flexing or hip flexing.
00:31:43
Speaker
Um, And what are, but most athletes are poor at the hip extension pattern. Like most. And like, I've been videoing a lot of athletes. Obviously I don't have much to do right now. So I've been going back and looking at videos and, you know, as I'm prepping for combine and stuff and I've been looking at the extension pattern.
00:32:04
Speaker
That's been the biggest limiting factor. And I look at how much time we've spent doing vertical drills that, really emphasize the front side range of motion, which really emphasize hip flexion.
00:32:18
Speaker
and And really I'm like, we're not doing a lot of extension stuff. And I look at the extension patterns, like lot of them will externally rotate the femur to try to get the space to to get hip extension or they'll create the extension in the lumbar.
00:32:34
Speaker
like, damn, we're really poor at this. Like, every athlete, there's only, like, actually, interestingly, and not to, like, hop on the Jaden Daniels line, but, like, Jaden Daniels was the best mover I've ever seen in my entire life.
00:32:47
Speaker
Like, the best, he had the best pelvis motion extension, whatever, like the, the functional patterns guys would freak out right now. if they heard this podcast, the, the go to guys will go insane. Like everybody would be like, this is the goat, the greatest athlete of all time. guys yeah yeah But then I look at other athletes and I look at how their pelvis is moving and how they create extension patterns and I'm like, this is a really bad, like bad issue. And it's probably leading a lot of the things that we're seeing that are poor health, like poor performance, like, you know, so I've been over indexing on that pattern and I've been over indexing on the range of it, being forceful with it, how fast we can move it. Like,
00:33:35
Speaker
those things. um I've just been playing around with our youth athletes and spinal engine stuff. And I've seen completely different types of athletes emerge from it. um I don't have a question from that. I was just reacting. No, no, I think, I think you're onto it because, um,
00:33:50
Speaker
You know, Griff and Coach Roof were in a group chat and ah we were kind of talking about like stuff like that, like what you could do, exercising in the weight room and kind of help with a little bit with that. But then like really the big one where it's helped me out is working with Ben with the return to play guys here um and just seeing like that they need to get more extension and work in different cues and seeing that like even some guys like when you just watch them, we do sir like similar drills right out here with healthy guys. Yeah.
00:34:17
Speaker
they might not be able to do it just like our injured guys. Our injured guys might even look a little bit better because we're coaching them so hard on it. you know so That was another one that me and Ben were talking about is maybe we need to focus a little bit more on this in offseason now.
00:34:31
Speaker
For us, it's like we're trying to figure out where to place all these different things, right? Because you don't offseason is going to look like anymore. Yeah. no It's crazy because like I think a lot of people think the hip extension pattern is a technical thing.
00:34:47
Speaker
I don't think it I'm strongly like thinking it's not that. I don't think it's something you can drill. don't think it's, so i mean, in a way, indirectly. I think it's a physical, it's a capacity issue.
00:34:59
Speaker
It's something physical or structural. And a lot of people, it's a pelvic thing. Yeah. i I can't remember. i was, I just sent it to Ben. I got, I'll send it to you the minutes if I can find it. Uh, it was a research paper talking about, um, like the adductors have something to do with it as well.
00:35:16
Speaker
I don't know how, but like they were saying like what you're telling about the internal rotation is like if they're not strong enough, like you're saying in those positions and they won't be able to do it. You know what mean? Yeah. Which kind of falls into everything we're saying.
00:35:27
Speaker
Yeah. um I think the sample size, if i can rate if I'm remembering correctly, wasn't like huge though. And it was like normal folks, not athletes. So I think that's like the... not so great, but it's just interesting to hear because like, I think me and Ben were kind looking for that same reason something isn't really working out, you know?
00:35:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And it it's, well, I can tell you eight percentage, i don't know what percentage, is the over-indexing on the hip flexion pattern.
00:35:59
Speaker
Because what we're training ah hip flexion pattern, whereas, like, it's generally not the problem. Like, generally the problem with the front side is poor management of the back side.
Physical Capacity and Movement Quality
00:36:10
Speaker
I think, I mean, I might be wrong on this and I i don't want sprint coaches to like destroy me after this, listening to this, but obviously front side is extremely important. Like, don't get me wrong.
00:36:22
Speaker
how you get to that front side is also very important. So like if I, from toe off to to peak flexion of the hip to high front side, what happens there, yes, is important, but a lot of it is determined by what precedes it.
00:36:37
Speaker
And a consistent issue that I'm seeing youth athletes all the through pro athletes is that ability. And it's a lot of it is lack of internal rotation. It's poor pelvic control.
00:36:50
Speaker
It's the spinal engine, you know, can't side bend, can't rotate, can't flex and extend. It's a lot of what are physical systems end up being in the weight room, which is heavy concentric lifting, heavy emphasis on front side drills, heavy and emphasis on, um yeah, just like heavier, bigger, faster, stronger.
00:37:12
Speaker
And there's less emphasis on the quality of movement and having screenings for the capacity stuff, like the structural and physical stuff. Yeah. You know, I think like that's a, that's what we've been working on. And obviously like it's easier to see what the small samples are. I think what we have to do is kind what you've been doing is like film more.
00:37:31
Speaker
We film enough, but I think, What we have to be able to do here is film it and then be able to send it. I think after your combine, you do a good job. Can you send the film to the guys? he thought been I think if we got to that point, we'd be pretty good too.
00:37:44
Speaker
Oh my God. You guys would go crazy trying to figure out how to do that. Cause we have 15 guys and we freak out doing it. So just you got to hire 32 people to do that. No, I didn't bet. Ben dan gets bored, so i'll he'll be able to knock that out. Yeah.
00:37:59
Speaker
But filming from different planes too, like the back angle, the front angle, like the side angle is great. you't You'll get to see that the typical positions. like yeah yeah we're doing it right Yeah, we're doing it right now with our return to play people. i think we have front, back, and side. And I think...
00:38:20
Speaker
What have you ever seen from the top? I know Derrick Hanson's big on the top. Yeah, yeah. You see the rotation. We brought a drone out and put it over top. How'd that go? It was pretty dope. was dope. Yeah, it was actually pretty cool. We did it over the wickets. Oh, that's what's good.
00:38:37
Speaker
We wanted to show them like how they're like, your shoulders don't rotate. and I'm like, yes, they do. Your hips don't. I said,
Video Analysis in Performance Improvement
00:38:44
Speaker
yes. they They're like, we run like a refrigerator. Like, yeah, you just forward and back.
00:38:47
Speaker
i was like, okay, watch this drone. Yeah. Then they look like this when they're running. Yeah. You know, i think we have, we have some guys that need to see that too. We have a re return play guy. Like, you know, he's into that rotates. It's crazy because i when does sub max, it looks like he perfect form.
00:39:05
Speaker
You know, okay. He's looking good. They're like, right, want you to build up and then fly. then you can just see it. Like, he's just all over the place. He's like, all right, so what changed? You know i mean?
00:39:17
Speaker
I think it's like us having to dial him back just a little bit. His form cleans up. um But for him seeing that video is good him because he can't feel it. He thinks everything feels the same. But for him seeing it and then seeing it from different angles has been really good for him.
00:39:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's like the... um effective versus efficiency conversation. Like you could be effective at something, but it may not be the most efficient. Like when um parents come to me and they're like, this happens to me all the time. i don't know if this happens to you, but people come up to me and they're like, my son's arm straightens right out to the side when he runs just the right one or this. And they're like, can you fix it?
00:39:55
Speaker
And I'm like, probably too deep of a conversation for a supermarket but I'm like yeah like his hips and this and that but like what a lot of people think are technical changes are usually physical capacities or structural things that we have to like address like if you see like a weird thing happening like further away from the midline like you're distally like it's probably an issue that's closer to the pelvis.
00:40:21
Speaker
It's probably an issue that's closer to the spine. probably an issue somewhere in that region that's affecting, like you're missing something. So it's trying to trying to grab it from somewhere else.
Technical Flaws vs. Physical Issues
00:40:31
Speaker
um I think like when talk to Alan Murdoch, he does a really good job of like seeing that stuff that I can't even see.
00:40:38
Speaker
So I've been trying to spend more time on it, but guys like you don't, you don't have enough time. Yeah. No. Yeah. We've had this talk before, you know, um and it's one those things, like, is it worth like pouring into? I know you told me like coach path, which day yes. Yeah.
00:40:53
Speaker
But like here it's like, ah you know, we get a lot of the wrist flare from guys. And then just like you were saying, um we have a couple athletes here that do the straight arm out and they run. It just locks out and it's just going straight, right?
00:41:06
Speaker
And some of these guys we get, we only have for, you know, maybe a season. and And if it's not anything, think we have this talk, like if it's not anything too terrible where it's like taking away from them and okay, maybe they gain like a 10th of a second on their 40 or something.
00:41:22
Speaker
well, I'm not worried about their 40 right now. You know what mean? Is taking anything away from them playing football? and No. Then, okay, it's not a big issue. I guess the question is, does it affect their health? Correct.
00:41:32
Speaker
Correct. And i if it does, and yeah, let's fix it. But if it doesn't, then let's keep staying on bigger things than this. you know Yeah. So the question would be, is there is there a more effective model that people should use?
00:41:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good one. you know Especially in football. You can answer that for track all day. Everybody's using 100-meter final runs. pretty so Obviously, they're different. But like if my mom were to watch it, she'd say, everybody looks the same.
00:42:02
Speaker
Does that exist in football? don't think so. Because you look at ah get all these different athletes coming out and like how they run routes and and how they look. Not everyone's the same, but like some are able to play at like different levels than others. You know what mean? Like some guy might look completely terrible, but be a complete freak.
00:42:21
Speaker
And like he's staying healthy. Well, it's like, okay, is that the best strategy to copy? Probably not, but it works for him because he's been doing it since he was what, like five years old running around.
00:42:33
Speaker
Um, and that's where like, it comes in. I think, I know we've had this chat billion times, like, what do you change to but then make sure it didn't take away from him being who he is or yeah her, who she is, you know?
00:42:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's tough. i think it's I think it's always good to kind of like look at the track model, but then understand that these aren't track athletes. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder how many people looked at Tyreek like, man, if I just got my hands on Tyreek, like, all right, bro, you probably mess him up.
00:43:05
Speaker
Yeah. But then, then the question goes into, right. So if you were to look at different patterns, like we talked tip extension, um, we talked tip flexion. You also have like the attack to the ground.
00:43:18
Speaker
Right. And, um, I could probably argue out of all those patterns, um, like for a field sport, soccer, football, lacrosse, if you don't have a good hip extension pattern,
00:43:31
Speaker
then you're probably not you're probably lacking health somewhere, and it's going to show up another place. So I kind of did a loop on this, but I think if you looked at the standard track model, what most of track figure works on the hip flexion pattern and how they attack the ground, especially from like a top angle, like at max speed. like If you don't have a high max speed in track, I don't care how great your acceleration is. I don't care how much resisted stuff you do.
00:43:59
Speaker
you're not going to run fast. You can have the greatest start in the world, still run 11 flat. So yeah the upright side of things, like, yeah, I get it. But I think from the standpoint of health, like the hip extension pattern directly affects the pelvis, which directly affects the spine, or it could be the other way. I don't know.
00:44:21
Speaker
But my question now is like me going into this period of draft training is like, If I were to look at one thing, i think that's the thing I'm to look at.
00:44:33
Speaker
I think that's the thing I'm going to try to influence the most from a capacity standpoint, not from a technical standpoint. I'm thinking I'm removing all the technical jargon and coaching as crazy as that sounds, but that's kind of where my head's been going the past three months.
00:44:54
Speaker
Yeah, my question would be, so like we're because we're in different spaces, right? like Obviously, in offseason, I want to get these guys to football and get them faster. But my goal is to make them be better on the football field because that's where they're going to make most of their money in plays, right?
00:45:10
Speaker
It's like, so if we're training the extension portion with these receivers and you've watched enough football, like don't think very many of them actually drive out without giving somebody the line nowadays. You know what I mean?
00:45:23
Speaker
Especially the way we've been seeing it. There's a lot of like man or like, you know, off man where they still have to like come up and kind of like play a little
Hip Extension in Sports Performance
00:45:31
Speaker
bit with them before they go. I don't think there's a couple of times where they still drive, but then like they wouldn't even be able to too much extension because they're already waiting for that guy to throw hands.
00:45:40
Speaker
So yeah they have, they can't get to that full extension. So my thing is like, you know, it's equitable and sprinting, but is equitable for football until they get away from people.
00:45:53
Speaker
But if someone's up in their face, you know, I'll argue with you for sure on this because I i could definitely see like the lateral and deceleration, multidirectional movement and all that. But,
00:46:03
Speaker
when we we're talking extension, extension just isn't the full range of extension. Right. Every, when you walk, when you walk, when you walk out of here today, you have an extension pattern.
00:46:14
Speaker
And if you have a poor extension pattern like me, you got to grab some space from your lumbar spine. got ti your pels You to You got to, you got do something. So like, ah every movement you do, walking, running, jogging, sprinting, all of that, I think it's involved in and that space.
00:46:31
Speaker
Now, I see the importance of the deceleration part of it. that like that's you know I'm like way too deep on that side. i don't want to bring it up right now because I'll go on a subject a whole other subject. but um No, but I think you're right because see a lot of guys when they're walking with with bad extension on it, but I always think like,
00:46:52
Speaker
Sometimes I look at them, they're always in this weird squatter. They jump up and then squat back down and then reaccelerate. You know what i mean? So kind of that's where I'm looking at it. I understand like the walking gate and like, you know, any movement we have, there's extension. But I think the biggest one for if you're hitting attacking it, well we when when I was talking about earlier, it was like if we're driving off, you know what i mean?
00:47:14
Speaker
Yeah. No, definitely like the full force, the full speed, the full range. Yeah. That's, that is a thing. Like, do you hit that full hundred degree split every, no, you don't, you know, but how many, but i I feel like I can think of it. Like, um, I played basketball growing up. I wasn't very good. So if you're listening to this, don't DM me, I could be doing basketball. You probably can, but that so the game of basketball doesn't require like maximal accelerations too often. I mean, you do have some moderately high accelerations, but it's not like a sprint acceleration, but you, you still have that pattern.
00:47:55
Speaker
You still, you still are extending the hip or still in light. I grew up and I had, um, probably obsessed with this subject just from the reading I've been doing on the pelvis, which is completely unrelated to any of this talk. But, um,
00:48:09
Speaker
I always had this like really bad, like but like lower back lumbar area pain. And I remember when I was like probably 11, I had this coach that just told me to move my feet as fast as possible.
00:48:25
Speaker
but Just go. And that's literally how I ran. I wish I had tape. I wasn't good enough to have any game tape, but I would just spin. really i had this amazing flexion ground interaction pattern and no extension.
00:48:38
Speaker
Didn't go anywhere. I could actually beat people in a race until I was like 14, but then everybody beat me from length. um But yeah, it wasn't really a question. I've just been obsessed with reading about the spine and pelvis.
00:48:51
Speaker
um Dan Path, who, well in my mind if I have this conversation i have to like i I've realized now to learn from Dan I have to know a certain level I've been like trying to like get to that level where I can directly learn from Dan ah same with Stu so it's something I've been thinking about he's on a different level bro Dan Papp is on different level It's actually crazy. It's actually crazy. Like, if aliens came down here right now and were like, okay, who are the, like, top five smartest humans right now?
00:49:23
Speaker
Right. Dan, Dan's, Dan Bath, for sure. remember he, he asked, we were on a call and he asked a simple question. I can't remember what put it. I remember feeling so nervous. It was simple. It was like, it wasn't a trick question.
00:49:37
Speaker
ah I felt so nervous to answer because was like dude, he's going to tear me up. Mm-hmm. Just because the way he explains things, I'm just like, I don't know if I'll get to that point. Yeah, i don't I don't know if I'll ever be that smart.
00:49:50
Speaker
ah I don't know if I have the capacity do that. The things that he can see. um Which is crazy because so um his mentor was Tom Tellez.
00:50:04
Speaker
Do you know Tom? Yeah. and um it's It's taken me a long time to realize how amazing Tom, and not like, obviously he's great, but like the simplicity of his coaching.
Evolution of Coaching Practices
00:50:17
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to say, I'm one of his books, and like reading that is easier to understand than having a conversation with Coach Papp sometimes. Yeah, yeah. it's And it he's gone down, and Dan went really far, and then Dan obviously taught Stu, and Stu's gone through his evolution of complex to simple.
00:50:39
Speaker
And like now it's like very, it's very clear system. And like, I'm learning from it. And I keep thinking about my coaching career where like started out and I was like, drills make you run faster. i just did drills and people ran faster. So i was like, cool.
00:50:55
Speaker
Not knowing that if I just told them to brush their teeth every night, they will get faster. Like just because time is a factor. Time was probably the best factor in all this stuff. Right. And then you get deeper.
00:51:06
Speaker
i keep thinking about that book, Thinking in Bets, because i read that after you mentioned it. So like I kept thinking about the game of checkers where it's very linear. like I know how to beat you in checkers, period.
00:51:17
Speaker
Get to chess. It's a little bit more complex, but i still know how to beat Poker, it's like, it's really like chaotic because you don't know what hand you're going to get dealt. And I think about the training that I was doing is very checkers-based, like very linear drills, whatever.
00:51:32
Speaker
Then I got into the force velocity profiling, load velocity profiling, profiling acceleration. I could tell you every interaction that happened in the body per step, whatever. It was a lot.
00:51:43
Speaker
And then now... you get, you get into college. I worked with Arizona. So I got into the college football scene and just saw how chaotic it was and how many parts there were. And I was like, Whoa, if I try to optimize this part, then these six other ones are going to fail.
00:51:58
Speaker
I don't have enough time, you know? So I, I've been thinking through that a lot lately.
Preparing Athletes for Competition
00:52:03
Speaker
And I obviously talking with you, like, tell me how in your chaotic environment,
00:52:10
Speaker
you make sense of that environment. Like it is crazy over there, man. Uh, it's a great segue because I think we talked about this before. I've had a conversation with you because we got off schedule in our season training.
00:52:22
Speaker
Um, and you mentioned earlier, we're limited by time and our time was kind of getting ah little jammed up, uh, in off season. So, what we have to seek out is like a lot of drill work, right? We would touch it a little bit, you know, of like our daily skill, like, hey, what we're doing today, here's the shapes, bell bla blah, blah, blah.
00:52:43
Speaker
But then like we spend most of our time with the meat and potatoes of spurting, right? To try and get them faster and do and get to where we need to be. Because like you said, like if I spend all day doing a series or doing wickets and stuff is it going to help.
00:52:57
Speaker
Sure. But it's not going to move the needle. Like rather if we just were sprinting, you know, give them more, more optimum time on that and coaching that up. Um, so I think that's where we looked at it. And then like, it also came out back, you know, because we got off schedule, I shifted my focus from being so, how I say it?
00:53:20
Speaker
like output focused, like we're always concerned about them hitting like the biggest speeds, right? Always concerned about like moving the most weight. What I was concerned about was making sure they're prepared to handle the loads for practice while still maintaining ah decent amount of speed at a high rate over and over again.
00:53:41
Speaker
yeah Rather than pushing the, like trying to, oh, boost my ego. Oh, we got X-MAL X-MAL
00:53:47
Speaker
and That's cool. But I want to make sure that these guys can survive camp. um So yeah, so that was where my focus went all season. and I think it actually worked out for us because I think we had one of the healthier champs we had and ah this past year.
00:54:00
Speaker
Yeah. i I mean, I look at that. I watch college football from like a different lens now. I just like, we'll get to know a couple of players and just see how available they are. And I've been judging that as like, you know, whatever they're doing is working.
00:54:15
Speaker
ah You guys are one of the teams that I've stayed healthy and available. um It always makes me think about what I do, like from a combine perspective, because the older I get, the less I like it.
00:54:27
Speaker
um Mainly because I have two kids and like, it's crazy. But also, it's like, is what I'm doing like hurting them?
00:54:38
Speaker
I always think about that. So like, if you're a PT, they're like, number one rule, do no harm. Doctor, do no harm. Like don't, if you don't do anything else, just don't hurt them, right? So one of my my things over the past couple of years that I i now use in all my pitches that I have to do is like, I have the highest percentage of guys playing as a rookie.
00:55:01
Speaker
Like, I think that's a big thing. But now I'm going into this rabbit hole, like I said, and I'm like, yo, If I can get you to run a for that's important.
00:55:14
Speaker
But then I weigh the cost of it. If I spend eight weeks and I just ah don't touch this ability and this capacity and then say, okay, you just ran a right? Okay, in six weeks, you're going get drafted and you're going to go to so rookie OTAs a week later.
00:55:30
Speaker
And you're going to do, in three days you're goingnna or two days, you're going to do 65 snaps. You're going to play football. And if you're not prepared for that, and then you're going to turn around 12 weeks and come back and go to training camp, if you're not prepared for that, like, I probably messed those dates up. But you get the picture, like, right you're not you're not ready.
00:55:53
Speaker
You're not ready. So, like, there's there's a health component to it. Like, we could ragline and get a result.
Training for Professional Success
00:55:58
Speaker
And I could be like, I got this guy's full Or I could say, what are all the pieces that we got to fill? What are all the components that go into you playing as a rookie?
00:56:08
Speaker
Because if you play as a rookie in your first 12 months in in football, i you've played, you've you've got player performance checks coming in, you've got whatever, you're in a really good spot to potentially get a second contract if you're first.
00:56:24
Speaker
like 20 months go really, really, really well. And I, you have to look at that whole picture. Like I've been, I think working in college football changed my perspective a little bit on that, just seeing all the pieces that have to go into it, you know?
00:56:37
Speaker
Yeah. You know, I think a big part with college athletics is like still from our standpoint, we still want to develop. So yeah, I've had this talk about a bunch of times because like the pro model seems to fit more and more as I get older. I love, like, I like listening to how people do it and what they're doing, but at the same time, I'm still kind of with you, right? Where I still get little bit output, right? These guys still want to get faster, so we still need make them faster, but at the same time, what's more important to me is making sure you guys have improved a little bit, but you guys can perform on Saturdays and withstand camp, withstand everything else. so
00:57:14
Speaker
And then looking back at it, I think you talked about it. You were saying that what what is speed? And it's not just top end. It's just not just acceleration, it's also the decel, the change of direction, like in and out of brakes, like rate of force development from different angles, stuff that. And like...
00:57:30
Speaker
To me, that that is football, and that's a little bit more important sometimes than just like output. you know and I know we're in the output industry, and it's like, oh, everyone likes to do their own horn. Oh, he did this. He maxed out of this. He moved this much weight.
00:57:44
Speaker
But again, at the end of the day my question is, like okay, but so we power clean 315. How does that make him... better at his position.
00:57:54
Speaker
Yeah, that makes you a better football player. Yeah, I'm obsessed with that right now. It's defining speed. Yeah. Now, I love it. Like, we have you have guys that hit stuff like that, and I'm like, yeah, great, you know, but then always make sure they know what the main thing is, you know?
00:58:07
Speaker
And i tell my I tell everyone comes through here, like, if the weight room isn't, like, what we do, right? It's not like I want you guys to be weightlifters or powerlifters and I'll watch you guys move the best numbers. Now, we're going to move some weight at some point and we're going to do some good things, but I want you to be confident and available on the football field and be able to perform out there.
00:58:29
Speaker
And if we're winning in the weight room and not winning on the field, as far as having a good day for skill, right? If we're doing really in the weight room, but really poor on the field, then I have it backwards.
00:58:40
Speaker
you know? yeah And so that's how I look at Like I can sacrifice, so it can be a okay day in the weight room, but a really good day on the field, that's a win for me. Yeah. You know, it's what transfers. And I, this, this whole idea of like your role, for example, like I, I remember when, um,
00:58:58
Speaker
i don't know I don't know what the first, I guess Coach Rad was like the first, probably the first speed coach in college football or one of them. Like, I'm sure there's others, but Coach Rad is a legend if you don't know who he is. Yeah.
00:59:12
Speaker
Legend. And if you look at the skill set that it takes to to do your role, you you have to kind of have to be in all pieces of the of a system, which is like, obviously I'm like making a pitch for speed coaches right now, but like, I think i think it is one of the stronger pitches because you have to understand quality movement.
Comprehensive Role of Speed Coaches
00:59:33
Speaker
You have to understand the output side of things. Like quality is important. How important is it? Depends. For me, super important for you. you may not have the capacity to do everything. So like, you're going to have to look at it, but not everything.
00:59:46
Speaker
Same with the output side of things. Like you do need to get outputs. Like guys want to go to Oregon because you're there. Cause you know, they know exiting. They're going to run fast. I know when you send me a guy for combine this year,
01:00:00
Speaker
I don't like, I'm, I'm going to teach you to start and then tell you to eat good. And we'll, we'll be chilling until March. I'm not worried at all. Right. But then you have the other piece of it. You have the football side of it.
01:00:12
Speaker
You have the nutrition side of it. You have the lifestyle and like, you kind of sit across all of those things. And I think what's going to be really cool after you guys do what you do is how many other schools start adapting that model.
01:00:26
Speaker
Because you understand ah load, the volume and intensity of the work that's happening. You understand the movements that are involved in all these things. You understand the football side of it. like I think it's just like, why wouldn't you have a Kyle Bolton at your school? you know Why wouldn't every NFL team have a Kyle Bolton?
01:00:44
Speaker
just Just so you guys know, Les Bellman my agent. So... i Yeah, I wish I could tell that story, but somebody from your... Yeah. that Yeah, somebody might be listening. But yeah, that's crazy. No, but... No, I think you're right. You know, I think...
01:01:03
Speaker
The movement of literacy, I think, is is a big deal. you know And again, I think like if people are looking at it, I think they need to look at like you, like Coach. um Bobby Stroop is someone. you know He goes pretty far on some stuff, but I think you can pull a lot of what he does to your program. um The guys at his ah APEC i still do a good job. So if you find their Instagram, um they do some good work with some of the stuff that Bobby like has principles, and that it transfers over pretty well, I believe.
01:01:30
Speaker
um But I think you're 100% right. The movement literacy part is huge. And then knowing when to do full movement stuff and then when to do partial range of movement and then when to get back to full movement, I think is um something that a lot of people would miss out on. Because I think some people would just get in a routine and they'll okay, this is what we're doing.
01:01:49
Speaker
And then they kind of miss out on like, okay, we're beating the guys up. When to pull back, but we can still get good, like, output from them, right? Like, we limit the range of motion. We still get good output, but it still feels better on them. They're not as hard, you know?
01:02:03
Speaker
Yeah. And what you're saying is like, and i' going back to the Kyle Bolton pitch and Speed Coach pitch, like, you you help make decisions based around based on that, based around your relationships, based around your knowledge.
01:02:17
Speaker
I'll be honest. Like, we... um We've done heavy, like a lot of tech stuff. Like obviously like I have time. So I've done a lot of force plate data, a lot of like even HRV and all that stuff.
01:02:30
Speaker
And you know, it's crazy. I went back, always do a season review. Like what what did I do wrong? Would I be right? And I try to make it ah as objective as possible. So like I'm looking at everything, but nothing is safe. So looked at force plates and we did force plates twice a week, every week, all year.
01:02:50
Speaker
And when I matched it up with the data, It was the same, literally are we the same, like correlation was like 99%. And I'm like, yo, what?
01:03:02
Speaker
And then I go back to what you talking about in the beginning is just relationship. Did I even need to send them a questionnaire or is there 15 dudes and I could just have a conversation? So yes, it is valuable.
01:03:13
Speaker
Like obviously the forest blades do tell you something. I'm not saying don't get forest blades. I still use them, but like understanding the pyramid of like, like, the complexity like yes that is kind complex and if you don't have it you're okay if you do have it use it but the relationship and the conversation it brings it full circle to what we started with it's like that part is way more important than our industry gives credit to you know yeah you know i think i think you hit it right the head do you like there's a lot pressure you kind of like silo and they're like okay it's this how we're doing it today this is your lift for today you have to do this xyz
01:03:53
Speaker
With some of these vets, once we get, like, once we got to know each other and everything, um if there was something that, like, bugged them or they didn't enjoy doing, like, dude, this kills me, this does this, like, I don't like this,
01:04:05
Speaker
we have a conversation and we find out something that they'd rather do in place of it, then I'm okay with it. You know what i mean? Um, now some of the younger guys, the, the fret, very new freshmen, the little babies that came in here, they got kind of stick to it unless there is like, they actually have something wrong with them.
01:04:20
Speaker
But some these vets, right? If they're like, Hey, yo, know this is bugging me today. I can't, I'm not feeling this. Like I have X, Y, Z going on. Okay. Let's move on. Let's do something else. Because for me again, like, okay, we missed one day of like squatting.
01:04:35
Speaker
Not the end of the world. do you have a good day on the field? Yeah. Okay. He's coming off a practice, kind of banged up. What's he deal with? Oh, he did like bench press. He kind irritates him today. Okay. We'll figure something else out. or Hey, we still got to get a lower body and we can do some of these ISOs, like cluster our ISOs.
01:04:50
Speaker
We can do a pit sharp, something else. you know i mean And the guys here have been really good with the body understanding. Cause we said the president early of like, You know, skill players on the West Coast, sometimes they come from different schools, might not be like so fond of lifting, especially in season after a long practice. But we set the precedent of early on, like in season, and we got to lift.
01:05:12
Speaker
So early in the off season, it was hard day. Spring ball, super hard day, super hard practice. forced to have one-time lifting out of the bar. And I told I'm going to pay off come season. Sure enough, comes off in season, you know, everyone's still lifting at a high level.
01:05:26
Speaker
Everyone's still moving. Now, winning and being number one helps that out a lot, tremendously. Don't get me wrong. I'm not, I believe it's that fact. But, I think being able to connect with your guys and make showing them, making them understand that leg strength and maintaining leg strength all through season, especially later on in the season, you want keep them healthy, has been huge for us. you know so i mean Even things that not everyone likes to do, we've been doing. so We do groin bar, we do nord ward, we still do stay all that stuff. Four sets, we stay on And we make sure we hit all of our prehab and and everything. is Even though like and it seems like it takes a lot of time in here some days, but the guys know like they've been staying healthy and we've been doing well on it. So we can't keep doing that. yeah
01:06:11
Speaker
Yeah. let's Let's dive into the decision-making process around like some of that, like how you might customize it. So force plates, obviously, growing bar.
01:06:23
Speaker
um What else are doing? um We have the Nordboard right now. um And those are the main three that we're kind of looking at. Obviously, like um we have Perch, but I mean, as in the end, we have VBT too. What's your decision-making process on that?
01:06:38
Speaker
Really, you know what we look at is... is the jumps, Contelos, who's fatigued and stuff like that. Now, we do our jumps on a weird day. um We do our ours on a Wednesday. So, we do door board.
01:06:51
Speaker
Plus four. but plus Plus four. but Sunday, Monday, it's Tuesday, Wednesday. Minus four. Yeah. Yeah. So, we go... Nordbord will be on Sunday for the Devo guys and then Monday for the vets when they come in lift. And that kind of tells us like, all right, fatigued hammies. Or, you know, if they're kind of shying away from it or not pulling too hard.
01:07:12
Speaker
Again, it just allows us to have a conversation with them, right? You ignore it, they're ISO, like prone ISO or ISO 32. So for some of the guys that have issues with the Nordic, we do prone ISO 30.
01:07:25
Speaker
um Other guys, we just kind of keep having to do the Nordic and we only do one set on So it's really just for the test. And then we do um an ISO or an eccentric hamstring slider ah for the other set. But you can see that the fatigue there.
01:07:38
Speaker
And that just raises up a conversation with them to see, are they tired? Is there something going on like with the hip, knee, maybe the calf or the ankle? There's a bug in them, why they can't pull on it? um And then that just opens doors to kind of go down that rabbit hole.
01:07:50
Speaker
Then the jump process, we look at that, we just kind of look at fatigue, right? So Wednesday is our high-speed running day on the field. So we hit a top speed on there. So we look at guys there.
01:08:02
Speaker
Then they come in We do a fast lift here. so it's um more ballistic and then we do we also have our main upper body on that day too so ballistic lower and then our upper body but they also do four stick domes then we kind of see who's up and down on that. And then again, just opens questions, right?
01:08:20
Speaker
Is that ankle still bothering? Is that knee or hip kind of still going issue? Does it not bug them when they jump and sprint? Okay. Are the power levels up? Okay, good. Is it kind of down or is it in mid range? What do you have to do within these next like 72 hours to get them ready for game day?
01:08:36
Speaker
You know, um, if they're like, Hey, I'm not jumping. Something's bugging me. Okay. Now what can we do to help you out with that? Right. Yeah. And then yeah our yes, no, really from that it is just like, our guys are still going to go, but we just know we have a conversation with them and the coaches of like, hey, this is what it is, this is what doing. So what's the down staff meeting um with the coaches and be like, all right, these are the numbers.
01:08:59
Speaker
XYZ down, XYZ is up. Okay. So tomorrow, just keep an on them and maybe not give them as many reps. So can kind of bounce back. And then you match it up with the external load as well.
01:09:11
Speaker
Like you did a lot and you're well, or you did a lot, did a little and you're well. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Evaluating Practice Loads for Health
01:09:18
Speaker
So we'll look at like, okay, so we'll look at it. So we'll sit down after the jump to get on here, on some more base, kind of look through it and say, okay, this is his practice loads, but he was still up, right? So, okay, so he must be feeling good. Probably going to feel little bit tomorrow, which he found it, or he did a lot and he's down or he did a little on the field and down. Okay, what's going on with him?
01:09:40
Speaker
you know, and then where can we intervene on our side? Maybe it's like, he's sick. Maybe it's, uh, he's dealing with something. we got with the ATs and make sure we'll cover all our bases. Like make him go to the tenure. Like sometimes the guys don't want to ever be in training room, but it's like, walk him over there.
01:09:54
Speaker
You know what I mean Yeah. Um, let me ask you something real quick on that. So, um, Dan Landon said he listens to the podcast. So don't give away, don't give away all the secrets. Cause then you're in trouble. I'm in trouble.
01:10:09
Speaker
whatever. But, um, how involved is, is Dan and the coaching football staff in on this, like having these conversations and, and all of that.
01:10:20
Speaker
Oh man, they're, they're involved. Uh, coach Lenny actually likes the data that you like sharing. And he knows like ritual war, which is awesome. And, you know I think working for a coach like that is indelible. Someone has your back and understand risk versus reward um and what we're looking at and what we know. and And he's been really good about you know saying, if we him some information, like, hey, I still need to push here though.
01:10:43
Speaker
Can I push? Or, hey, out but we can pull back now. And I think that's been key to our success. um But the coaches are bought in too. So I work closely with the receiver and DB coaches and they'll always say like, hey, if theres something comes up, let me know what we got to do. So what we do is, you know, if there's some new guys in meetings, they'll have meetings at four or five o'clock at night. so we'll be up here and we'll make sure like, hey, we got to normal the normal techs, we got heat packs, we got XYZ. So if you guys already went to treatment, now they're in meetings for another hour.
01:11:17
Speaker
While they're here, we can hit recovery again, you know, and then nutrition has shakes and stuff ready for them while they're sitting there. um Or we'll do like extra like prehab rehab work with them. So with some of the DBs, do extra shoulder work or myofascial stuff with them while they're just in meeting at at night.
01:11:37
Speaker
So it just maximizes everyone's time, I think. Yeah, I love that. All right, couple quick hitters and then I'll let you go back to your life. got ah No, I've been i probably been rambling, bro. I got like associates with you there. No, it's been great.
01:11:52
Speaker
It's been great. It's been great. That's why I said I forget that you're on a podcast and just let's talk. All right, most underutilized tool.
Listening to Athletes and Nutrition Focus
01:12:03
Speaker
in college football training?
01:12:05
Speaker
It could be a tech, it could be a phrase, like I don't whatever. What's the most underutilized thing you think that has a bunch of potential to be great?
01:12:18
Speaker
Like tech or anything? Anything.
01:12:23
Speaker
I think for me it would be like, um
01:12:27
Speaker
I think just your ears. ah Like if, we see things and stuff, but I think people hear things and they just hear. And then whether it's running, jumping, whatever it is, you can hear different sounds when people move or even just like listening how people talk.
01:12:41
Speaker
um I think we, we hear things, but you're not listening, if that makes sense.
01:12:49
Speaker
And then, you know, I think like, you can hear a lot when people are talking or or the way people are moving, you know, even if they're shuffling their feet or like how they, if you just close your eyes and listen to how the guys are coming into the weight room, you can kind of tell what kind of day it's going to be right until it gets going.
01:13:06
Speaker
Um, if you're on the field, you can, you can hear when people's feet get heavier or like they're moving slowly. So you know, okay, we're kind of getting a little bit tired. and We're like, if they're stepping wrong on things, you can hear it there or how they're jumping. It should sound a certain way for looking for certain aspects or like, you know,
01:13:20
Speaker
To me, I think people don't listen enough. And I think it's like, don't know, sounds kind of how of cliche when you kind of say it but I think it's kind underutilized. Everyone looks to their eyes, but then you I think you can use your ears too while you're around in the weight room. And like when you listen on the field and listen to the coaching instruction and how the football coaches are coaching a drill or what to how they want their feet, maybe that could help you out when you're coaching them in the off season.
01:13:48
Speaker
If makes sense. Yeah, I like that. but to and We're all in the same language. Yeah. Alright, last thing. you can You can go back and you can coach young Kyle Bolton.
01:14:04
Speaker
And it's strictly from a physical standpoint. Alright? What are you doing? You were pretty fast. You ran a 4-3. Yeah. Man, I'm still kind of getting back. I still want to get back to that point too. Man.
01:14:18
Speaker
matt
01:14:22
Speaker
That's good question. I think I had good mentors you know and good training partners like you. you know i think ah Ryan Fleury was a good someone learned from and someone I trained with. What I think I could do in college better was pull more into training and take care of my nutrition.
01:14:42
Speaker
That way it didn't just have to start up right when I left college. Yeah. You know I mean? Yeah. think that's what I kind of tell these guys too is like, if you, why wait till like the last like two, three months?
01:14:53
Speaker
And I try to tell them like, we're expecting to go, you know, if you're going to the National Championship and it's the end of January, then say you have the Senior Bowl. said, you want in the Senior Bowl? like, yeah, want the Senior Bowl.
01:15:06
Speaker
Okay. How much trade does that leave before Combine?
01:15:11
Speaker
And like, oh, I didn't think about it like that. Well, yeah. So yeah if you only have x amount of time, you think that's going to get you ready to run the 40 you want and look like the shake you want to be in. Or if you do it now and kind of get ahead of it keep on that track. I wish more people thought like that because...
01:15:27
Speaker
We don't make people fast. Yeah, right. you don't yeah i I'll say that again. and this is This is marketing against myself. I'm not going to make you... I mean, I might bring out a quality you already have, but I'm not going to make you fast.
01:15:43
Speaker
you Your strength coach is going to make you a combine-ready athlete. We're going to help you and optimize it But Kyle Bolton is your combine speed coach.
01:15:54
Speaker
hey Okay. I'm going to help you as much as I can, but if Kyle doesn't exist, then neither do I. Like I said, Len's my agent. so You should hear me on some of these recruiting calls. I'll just be like, yeah, bro, it's ah if you don't if he don't come in running this, I'm sorry. It's game over. There's no magic bullet.
01:16:16
Speaker
Meanwhile, everybody else in the industry is like, I'll get you to run a 43. I'm like, you don't even know the guy. All right. All right. so you talked a bunch of coaches all over the world.
01:16:28
Speaker
Yeah. What is what is like one of the biggest takeaways you've taken in life for training or just life advice?
Systems Thinking in Coaching
01:16:37
Speaker
systems thinking.
01:16:39
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Versus like reductionist. Like, so, and I'll explain like reductionist thinking is you're optimizing a part, you're going very deep into that part.
01:16:53
Speaker
And I think, um, I think it's necessary, especially as a young coach, cause you, you kind of like go in spurts of learning. Like you don't really learn from a linear fashion. you kind of learn as like you you fail.
01:17:06
Speaker
So like you you go through a scenario and you fail at it and then you learn and you go really deep to try to protect yourself from that failure again. And like, that's kind of how we learn. And um it's very reductionist in nature because you're learning in a silo. You don't really know how that thing connects to the other thing.
01:17:23
Speaker
you don't really understand it. And as you get older, you zoom out. So like a lot of young coaches are very knowledgeable on like one thing, but can't connect it and can't connect it to winning. And they look at older coaches and they're like, this guy doesn't know anything because he's so simple.
01:17:39
Speaker
But the the real brilliance is in the simplicity and it's in the basics. And it's almost like this curve you go through you go from complexity back to simplicity. um So that's that's where I think systems thinking comes into play where you have all these parts and they all connect.
01:17:56
Speaker
And um I've been learning a lot of it from Stu. I've learned a lot of it from Dan. um Griff is a great systems thinker. Like these people that have these,
01:18:08
Speaker
these incredible skill sets that are very narrow at times. Like Stu's a great therapist, John's a great coach, but they can do all the other parts too. And they understand how they all work together and facilitate. So I think that's where um I'm guilty of getting very zoomed in and then I try to zoom out and then go back in and then go back up.
01:18:29
Speaker
um And I think what we try to do and sports is we try to solve very complex problems with was very reductionist viewpoints.
Broad Skill Set in Sports Coaching
01:18:39
Speaker
Like I get calls a lot where a team or a coach is like, we just need to be faster.
01:18:45
Speaker
And I just ask them like 19 questions, like why? Why? Why? and then I make them realize, like, I'm not going to help you. You're going to help you. Like, you don't really need me to come in and do profiling. It's not going to help you. You're going to, I'm going to get a check and you're going to lose.
01:19:00
Speaker
And then you're going to be mad. Like, it doesn't make sense. So a lot of times, um I think we we approach these things as very reductionist viewpoints versus a wider, broader systems thinking viewpoint.
01:19:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think... No, I mean, you're onto So, ah I know that everyone says, like, I'm i a speed coach, you know, but I'm really a strength to this year, a performance coach, right? That happens to, like...
01:19:26
Speaker
enjoy speed and that's like my passion right and i think that's one thing coach kyle taught me is like don't pigeonhole yourself as this because then people think you're just like damn near track coach when really you're a full performance coach that can do science that can do uh programming in the weight room x y you know i mean rehab um so i think it touches back on what you're saying right like it's still a general systems approach you know um And then when you're talking about like working at different aspects, I don't know why mind went to this, but like Miyamoto Masashi talks about like everyone's like black belt or a master at their craft, right?
Cross-Disciplinary Learning in Coaching
01:20:04
Speaker
So we talk about like samurai and those guys are masters of the sword, masters the bow and arrow, stuff like that. But then you have, if you look at any profession, a painter could be a master painter.
01:20:16
Speaker
and And the way he, and like what Musashi was able to do is take like, okay, he's really good at this. How can I take that? And like his brush strokes and put that with my work of what I'm doing. Or like there's a wood crafter and okay, what makes him a master?
01:20:29
Speaker
Okay, how he picks his wood, right? has to have certain wood. Now, if there's a deficiency in this wood, where is he going to put it? And how is he going to use this wood that has a deficiency? I think like that thing for me, took me a while to understand it, but like finally understanding that has helped me make a full systems approach. Like, okay, we have all these different parts.
01:20:49
Speaker
So you have a bunch of interns. This intern's good this. He's good at this. He's at Where can I put them to be most successful? And how can they help everyone grow and then them grow as well?
01:21:01
Speaker
You know? and I think that's way I kind of look at it. Same thing with like, how can I put these players in the best spots? Where can I take from other people and learn from them to make myself better to make sure I'm growing every day?
01:21:13
Speaker
Yeah. I think it kind of goes back to what you were saying too. You know what I mean? Like, don't just be a niche in the one spot, you know? yeah I kind of try to like look over and what can Ben doing and see what Ben is doing so I can be smart.
01:21:25
Speaker
Yeah. No, Ben is, I think every podcast we get on, and we talk about how he's probably in that five group of five people that the aliens come down, right? Who are the five smartest? Dan path. Ben is in there.
01:21:37
Speaker
I'm sorry. There's find like three people from Oregon that might end up in that conversation. But yeah. yeah um The things he comes up with, the things he comes with here, I'm like, dude, I didn't even think about that. I was like, let's do it. It's massive. Yeah.
01:21:48
Speaker
But I think, um, last thing on this is like, a lot of our industry is built around like a specific skillset that someone can hire you for.
Specialization vs. Broad Skills in Analytics
01:22:00
Speaker
and I, we end up getting very, very, very smart at one thing. And like, Everyone knows now, well not everyone knows, but like teams are hiring to bring in this guy that's like, let's say a GPS expert, force plate expert, whatever.
01:22:16
Speaker
And looking around the other 22 hours of the day, like, how can I use this person? And it's like, it gets really hard because they've gotten so deep into their thing. The other pieces haven't grown as well.
01:22:27
Speaker
mean, it could just be relationships. It could be, can I put this guy over here to work the quarterbacks also? Can I put this guy over here to, you know, whatever it is, like, it's it's crazy, but...
01:22:38
Speaker
I think that's what's missing in our industry is like the broad strokes of learning, you know? You hit it, you hit it directly on the head. Like we were, was having this conversation with one analyst over here. Um, and he's saying like what coaches look for, you know, out of like assistance and stuff like that is like, what value does he bring?
01:22:56
Speaker
Not just in his role, but then outside of his role. Right. And if you, the more value you can bring to his organization, the longer and more people want to keep you around. Um, and I think, dude, you hit right the head. Like,
01:23:08
Speaker
we're talking about speed. Like if I'm a speed, if you're a speed coach, right? Okay. People would think you want to get them faster. Like you were saying earlier, right? Team calls you. We got their arms faster. But running fast in a straight line in a closed setting isn't the same as reading the field and being able to react and see different things. Understand the plays. i can't play fast if I don't understand the plays.
01:23:30
Speaker
I can't play fast if I don't know what's going on on the field. I can't play fast if like I don't have good reactions. You know I mean? So yeah I think all that has to build into it.
01:23:41
Speaker
I think like what... where we can find value is how can I help improve that? You know, just get out of the thought process of speed is just running in straight line. Yeah. I'm building, I'm building the engine.
01:23:53
Speaker
That's great. But then how can I make you faster on the field with where it's chaotic and stuff? And I think we're, it's kind of a long tangent, but like I pulled stuff from like, you know, F1 drivers and fighter pilot training and just seeing like their peripherals and like how they, their proprioception and how they get little bit quicker with their reactions and how they think.
Neck Strength and Athletic Performance
01:24:13
Speaker
you know? Yeah. Damn. That's lit. Yeah. I like the F1. like the F1 stuff for sure. And that fighter pilot, but that's like, yeah, dude, it's, it's insane. I don't know. This, this one's kind out there, but like the, the thing that both of have in common with the, because of how fast they turn and move is like, they both have good neck strength.
01:24:35
Speaker
yeah So when I look at neck strength, I don't look neck strength as preventing concussion. right Because I think some research showing that neck strength doesn't really prevent too much concussion. and It can help but not like you know take it away.
01:24:48
Speaker
But if you want, I'm hypothesizing that if we have a good neck strength, I can make cut and change direction a little bit better. And because I have a stronger neck to be able to turn and look and whip around faster than if like- I think it's proprioceptive of having a stable base to turn from.
01:25:05
Speaker
Yeah. I think about that lot too. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. think it's having a center point that you can you can arrange your body around. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. yeah But yeah, that's that's kind of like the rabbit holes that kind of go down for better for worse.
01:25:19
Speaker
No, I love that. and you know what's funny is like, all right, you've been on here for an hour and a half. We're supposed to talk profiling, but we successfully avoided it hey talking about kinematics and profiling because it's not what people think.
01:25:34
Speaker
Right, right. A hundred percent. And to be fair, I feel like there's so many people talked about it. know you do. You have a full course on it. You know what mean? Like, I know I got to update it.
01:25:45
Speaker
or Remind me. Yeah. No, it's true because that's, that's what people want. And it's almost like, And I've been guilty of driving people that into that box. But what you talked about was like, you talked about talking to an analyst, talking to a head coach, talking to a strength coach, talking to a therapist.
01:26:08
Speaker
And every single one of those things that you just mentioned is a relationship you had in front of you that you just asked questions about. And that's the true profiling process. Like that is your profiling, right?
01:26:21
Speaker
yeah And it changes. Like, yeah, like I'm going to do like my world. i do sprint profiling. And if you want to know more about it, got a course on it. But if I'm working at of O, I don't know how much of it am I doing.
01:26:38
Speaker
where am I doing it? Why am I doing it? And um it's I really appreciate it your perspective on it. And I was ah know you're probably thinking we're going to get really technical on this. And I tried to avoid that as much as possible. but so was there I to be inside and avoid it as much as possible anyway. So...
01:26:56
Speaker
Yeah, all anybody that has a title of speed coach right now is probably avoiding it because man it's just not what people think, you know? I know I was rambling, but for anyone who's listening, I know like I just rambled for an hour and a half, but that's about me and Les kind talk when we go out.
01:27:15
Speaker
it just kind of started going down rabbit holes. Yeah. yeah I have like, there's always like three rabbit holes and like, should I just bring this up? Or I haven't even thought through it completely to form words around it.
01:27:26
Speaker
A lot of my stuff right now is on the pelvis and like, yeah, it's crazy. Like I've been doing some weird stuff, but it's, it's working. So yeah. I appreciate you, bro. This is great. Yeah.
01:27:39
Speaker
yeah You go home to the family and stuff. Have fun. I know, I probably kept way too long. I got a job, I don't know what you guys do over there. I have i have a job. no I appreciate you, bro. We'll catch up. Appreciate it, bro.