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How to Build Athlete Buy-In Within Your Training Facility: Matt Erdman, Veritas Athletic Performance
578 Plays1 month ago
In this episode of The Speed Lab Podcast, guest host Darren Hansen sits down with coach and mentor Matt Erdman for a powerful conversation on the art of coaching. Matt Erdman Owns Veritas Athletic Performance and is a Universal Speed Rating Speed Lab Director.
They dive deep into building trust with athletes, the power of positive communication, adapting coaching style to the individual, and why relationships—not just programming—drive long-term results. This episode is packed with practical insights for coaches, gym owners, and anyone looking to create a stronger training culture that actually lasts.
Timestamps00:00 – Intro & why Matt Erdman stands out as a coach
03:30 – Opening a facility: lessons learned & early mistakes
06:20 – Systems, organization, and why clarity matters
07:20 – Transition into The Power of Positive Selection
11:10 – Coaching delivery, trust, and athlete relationships
14:15 – Universal Speed Rating milestone & impact
15:25 – Individualizing coaching styles (men vs women, personalities)
18:05 – Building culture & uniting rival athletes
21:10 – Being approachable without lowering standards
24:10 – Consistency, clarity, and losing athlete trust
27:20 – Coaching less, saying more with fewer words
29:15 – Meeting athletes where they are mentally & physically
33:10 – Creating “wins” even on bad training days
35:05 – Communicating progress to parents
37:20 – Building resilient athletes beyond speed & strength
39:15 – Final thoughts & closing remarks
If you'd like to learn more about how to working with Universal Speed Rating in your facility, schedule a call: https://universalspeedrating.com/learn-more-partner-with-universal-speed-rating-speed-lab-podcast
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:06
Speaker
What is up? Welcome back to another podcast with your substitute host, Darren Hanson. We've got my man, Matt Erdman on the call today. I'm super stoked to share him and his information with you guys.
00:00:17
Speaker
I've known Matt for what, five, six years now, and he's genuinely one of the ah best coaches and humans that I know. And it's really important for me while I've got this role to put the Speed Lab directors on as well.
Matt Erdman's Personal Journey
00:00:31
Speaker
So he's a Speed Lab director in our USR network.
00:00:33
Speaker
So to kick it off like we've been doing, we'll do the hero hardship and highlight and I'll pass it over to you, Matt, for that. No, I appreciate Thanks for having me. um Man, hero, I want to have to go.
00:00:47
Speaker
gosh I would have to go just go kind of simplistic, just go with my parents, man. I had two amazing parents as I was growing up and we grew up in rural Nebraska and farmed and worked our butts off and never really realized until I got older how much like work my parents did and like how much of a struggle it actually was to just be able to do everything as best as possible, which is a huge piece as to why right work ethic and just certain morals and values have been instilled from them to this day. um I mean, to this day, my dad will still outwork me no matter what we do. It don't matter. Right. I got basically run to try to keep up with him. So those two right. I've been a huge piece of it um and hardship.
00:01:33
Speaker
Right in the same boat, like four years ago, lost my mom. And about six months ago, we actually moved back close to where I grew up. And so it's kind of a bittersweet piece to where we're in a spot where, right, there's some familiarity to it, but yet i I get to see parts of my family. But then that big one is still...
00:01:52
Speaker
missing right. And writing for my kids, you know, to, to lose the grandparents, um, at a pretty early stage of life for them, um, has been a little bit of a, of a hardship.
00:02:03
Speaker
You know, I knew it was going to be a good thing with the move, but that's been a little bit of a struggle with them just to kind of cope with loss at the, at their ages. Um, so that would probably be the biggest piece there. Uh, dude, hit me with what was the third one?
00:02:17
Speaker
Highlight. Highlight. Gosh, man. Um,
00:02:24
Speaker
We're just going to have to like kind of attach it with, we'll theme these all together. right We did a family move about six months ago. The highlight has been, like this has been the best thing that we've done for our family in the existence that we've all been together.
00:02:36
Speaker
So we move, we have a new space coaching wise that has been um doing amazing right with the the youth and the kids and schools and different clubs that are letting us come in and hang out with them.
00:02:48
Speaker
Kids are doing amazing with school and finding other kids and activities to be a part of. So the highlight is, man, thank the Lord that that things have been progressing really well with this move.
Coaching Philosophy and Facility Management
00:03:01
Speaker
for all of us as we keep going. So now we're just excited to see what the whole 2026 brings. I love that, man. And I want, I want people to know it's hard to outwork Matt Erdman. So your dad is definitely an animal for sure. Right. I literally, I have to like semi jog everywhere we go with him still. He's almost 70.
00:03:22
Speaker
And, uh, I still got my kids. Like, why does grandpa move that fast? I'm like, I don't know. I wish I had it. I just don't. So we'll keep trying. I love it. um Real quick, totally off topic. It made me think with the move, there might be some listeners that this is beneficial to. Is there anything you did a little bit different as you opened up your location again and kind of kicked it off versus when you had your facility in Colorado when you started? Like, did you know did you do anything different and did you notice that it helped?
00:03:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, I knew Like organizationally, I wanted to do things a little bit differently. When we just started up in Colorado, we were there for about three years with the business front before we moved moved over here to Western Nebraska.
00:04:05
Speaker
I just streamlined processes, right? Graham would probably be happy to hear that ah business-wise. So, I mean, first thing was we got over here, we got involved with PushPress to be able to make like the CRM stuff way easier.
00:04:19
Speaker
I feel like an absolute moron for not doing that when I first opened up because that has been So simple just to be able to point people to a spot where they can just click a link or a button on an app and say, Hey, here's all the information that you need for your kids training.
00:04:38
Speaker
Um, feel free to take a look at it and then still reach out if you got questions, but this should answer 90% them. Yeah. Um, so that was a big piece. I think the other big piece that's been helpful is the vast majority of the training that we provide is right? What do you ever want to call it? Quote unquote movement. It's it's sprint, jump, land, start, stop, change direction.
00:05:00
Speaker
So we don't really focus a ton on lifting. And it's not because we don't think it's important. It's because there's so many schools that still, that are getting coaches to be able to run stuff during the school day. i mean, where we're sitting now, the high schools have every class period has a weights class.
00:05:23
Speaker
So, i mean, if you put 25 kids in there, that's 200 kids that are going to be lifting every day. And a big piece was I didn't want to come into a community and just be like, well, my squat's better than your squat.
00:05:34
Speaker
How about let's just come to a common ground with if kids aren't getting hurt, which are doing a super good job, how about we just teach you how to use your strength? And so the stuff that we do is is exactly that. We supplement what the schools, clubs, and teams are doing.
00:05:47
Speaker
And it's been... very receptive from the standpoint of just being able to
Building Trust Through Coaching Techniques
00:05:53
Speaker
collaborate. I mean, shoot, I'm actually once a week helping a wrestling team be more athletic as part of their practice. So we built that into the first part of their practice. And the second we're done, they jump right into live, right, their live drills.
00:06:07
Speaker
And right, it's been just super cool to see just the connection of being able to kind of focus solely on that spot where a lot of people don't have as much confidence to be able to just come in and help them out with that to make their job easier as the head coach.
00:06:23
Speaker
I love it. I think you hit, I think both those things are super important. We were doing Google sheets for like five years and we, we took forever to get into push press too. And then I'm like, wow, you know, what, what, what was yeah thinking? So I did the same files. Like how in the heck did I do it for three years on a spreadsheet? This is dumb.
00:06:40
Speaker
Yeah. So shout out Push Press. Unfortunately, they're not paying us for this conversation, but we do love their product. And then the second one I think is huge, too, of like fill buckets, man, like in your community, what buckets need to be filled.
00:06:55
Speaker
And i would say ninety nine percent of the time it's it's that they're lifting weights at the school. Like that's the that's the box that gets checked for most, especially your male athletes, you know,
00:07:06
Speaker
they're They're lifting weights. Now, how are you going to provide value? And so I think you're right on the cue. And that's how our facility is trended, too. So I think both those are huge. So if you're a facility owner and you're struggling or you're thinking about starting a gym, I think both those nuggets can really help you kick it off in the right way.
00:07:24
Speaker
yeah So let's transition into the actual topic of today. I love this one because i I'm super passionate about this one and I feel like it's been always been my strength in my coaching. Like my technical knowledge has always took more work.
00:07:39
Speaker
And then, you know, the connecting with athletes and being able to coach them in a positive way has always been the easier side for me. So when we talk about the power of a coach's voice and positive cue selection, you know, what is the first thing that pops to your mind and what you want to share?
00:07:54
Speaker
on the podcast? No, I mean, I think it's something that, um you know, everybody kind of wants out of a coach, right? I mean, when we're saying positive, you know, with you positive cueing and the power of a coach's voice, like this isn't, let's not get carried away and think that this is, you know, pat everybody on the butt and tell them good job, even if they're doing terrible and participation ribbons, but this is the spot to be able to Realize that ah as coaches, right, and especially in the private industry, families are bringing their kids to you with the trust of not only are you going to make them better, um but the fact that they're going to improve right outside of that. Because realistically, if you made a kid better on the field, but they're they're kind of an a-hole, I don't know how long you're going to keep having people come around.
00:08:44
Speaker
um just because you get uh an improvement on right a 40 time or a 10 flyer a vertical jump and so when we improve right the environment the atmosphere of what these kids are experiencing like that's a huge part uh a lot of times we'll talk about right if you go back and you think about coaches that you've played for or that you've that you've been under or right whatever you're doing with and you think of who was like that voice for you that kind of launched you to the next step.
00:09:15
Speaker
And we could probably all go back and think specifically like, okay, at this point, it was this person and this person and this person, like we have them as we keep growing throughout our our careers, at least hopefully we do.
00:09:28
Speaker
And so the big piece for me to like kind of kick this off is the thought of like when kids come in, if they have never had someone to speak positivity in them and like give them the confidence to be able to accomplish what they want to, then this is the very first place it's going to start.
00:09:44
Speaker
And it's going to happen from here. and we're going to see where it is that that confidence can take them by me solely just having an intentional focus of, we're going to make sure that we focus on the the good
Positive Reinforcement in Coaching
00:09:58
Speaker
things. We're still going to get you better. We're not going to ignore things we need to improve, but we're going to be able to phrase this and attack it in a way that makes it so we're not just tearing you down and just saying rep after rep, this was wrong, this was wrong, this was wrong. um Some of this, like my my wife was a gymnast through her college career. She's coached it forever.
00:10:19
Speaker
My kids do gymnastics. If you want to join a sport that is full of like everything you do is wrong, gymnastics is your world, right? If you just, you know, you watch the Olympics or you watch any the college stuff on online,
00:10:34
Speaker
And you listen to the commentators, like everything that they talk about is, oh, that one wasn't quite good. This will be a deduction that was there. And you watch this and like they just did a double back with two twists. And you're talking about that toe didn't line up perfectly. And it's a tenth of a deduction.
00:10:51
Speaker
And so many times we get caught up in that tiny little thing that went wrong that, yeah, sure, we probably still need to address it. But how about we look at all these other things that went right and we start to build on that And then say, hey, here's our foundation. Now with that, if we can get this other piece to catch up, man, you're going to be really good.
00:11:10
Speaker
Yeah. A lot about the delivery. one of the One of the, I don't remember the exact quote, but I've got it in our our internship training model manual. And it talks, it essentially says, you know, show me the depth of the the relationship with the coach and the athlete, and I'll show you how deep they can coach them. Like how many levels they can get in and start helping these athletes.
00:11:30
Speaker
um And I love that because I feel like the athletes that you are able to develop relationships with, um that trust is there, right? um That trust that the feedback you're giving them is to help them.
00:11:47
Speaker
Right. And you don't have to. And when they trust you, you don't have to deliver it in any kind of excessive manner of, you know, some people choose ways that will really stick, like oh screaming at them is an easy one or um embarrassing them in front of their peer, like saying it in a snarky way around their training partners. That's going to they're not going to forget it. Right. Because the way you said it was you made them feel a certain way or feel a little bit embarrassed. Right.
00:12:13
Speaker
So i think that that's a big part of what I've seen from all my, all the coaches that are in my network that are successful is I think we do a good job at just relating and, and being kind to the athlete in a way that pills back some layers. And when you ask them to do something, um, they want to do it because they, they value their relationship with you.
00:12:34
Speaker
You know, is that something that you've, you've noticed as well, like with your athletes and. Yeah, absolutely. mean, I, um, Man, if you talked to me 10, 12 years ago, like I think emotionally I would have been much more of a excited rah, rah, let's go lift heavy, you know, kind of your traditional environment of loud noises and let's make it happen.
Adapting Coaching Strategies
00:12:55
Speaker
And then the more I keep doing this and get older probably doesn't hurt, but you just kind of look like that, you know, what was the point of it? Was it to make the kids get excited? Was it to make me get excited? Like where's, where's this, this show going?
00:13:09
Speaker
And the more I was looking at, was like, why? I think we can probably do the same thing if I just actually know who these kids are and understand a little bit more about their story and why they're doing this.
00:13:20
Speaker
And ever since then, like that's been a huge piece, right? Kids come in, you have a conversation, you check in with them, what they do today, how their games go. And right now they understand what they're doing, right? There's, there's definite excitement, right? We do good things. You're darn right. We're getting excited. We're going sign signs. We're going put our names places where we hit record books.
00:13:39
Speaker
ah But that relational piece To be perfectly honest, it is one of the only reasons why I'm still keeping doors open um all the time because you can get people that make you better.
00:13:50
Speaker
But the best compliment I've ever had is when a sibling comes into trade because older brother or sister came and now they trust you enough to send kid number two right or number three.
00:14:01
Speaker
And right. So that is a huge understanding of me as a coach. Like, OK, they have trusted me enough to do this and don't take it for granted. Now let's keep building these bridges with these new right. The next generation that keeps coming.
00:14:15
Speaker
All right. We got to take a second to talk about the universal speed rating because I literally just found this out and it blew my mind. We just hit over 500000 verified speed tests inside the USR software, half a million.
00:14:29
Speaker
That's coaches all over the country testing, tracking, and proving athlete progress with this system. It's not just data. It's giving athletes confidence and giving coaches real proof of results. I remember running our first speed lab test back in 2019 in a closet that my uncle helped me build, now half a million.
00:14:46
Speaker
If you're not testing speed yet, or you're doing it without a system, this is your chance to check it out. Hit the link in the description, book a free consult, and see how the USR could work in your program.
00:14:57
Speaker
Yeah, I think to the end of so everybody, well, the space is always hot on like individuality of programming, training. And I'm like, what about the individuality of coaching? Like, so there is a time and place, you know, I don't necessarily think of like embarrassment or but there's some athletes that like the rah-rah and that's the way that they and they communicate the best. Like I have some guys that want to get want me to hype them up.
00:15:25
Speaker
And then I have girls that don't want me to do that at all. So that's where the relationship piece comes in is you have to understand what tone and what delivery method with your athletes, depending on the athlete, is going to garner the best result or outcome for the athlete or just learning environment. Right.
00:15:47
Speaker
And I think that is truly the like the art of coaching is, you know, can you have 10 different athletes in a class and know how to speak to each one of them? Yeah. No, I think you're a hundred percent right. Because right. For the most part, you get kids that come in groups that are coming from different schools, clubs, teams, environments, all this stuff.
00:16:05
Speaker
And you get, maybe you get some new people coming in and there's like, wow, this is intimidating because your place is, is big and there's eight other people I don't know. And you look at them, you're like, you're a stud. Like you do, you do all this stuff really good. And you like, I've seen what you've done outside of here and they're coming in. Like, what are we nervous about?
00:16:25
Speaker
And then that's for me is to take a step back like, well, this is new. it's It's a different environment, right? They've got to find their comfort level. They've got to trust you. And when that happens, right, now you can start to see all the things that we see out on the field or the court or wherever they play start to come through in training because now they've built, right, this network of connection with, you know, the coaches and then probably with the kids too that are coming to training.
00:16:51
Speaker
And so it's kind of a full circle piece for, for everyone to build, right? We had a kid ah last night, middle school kid been working his tail off. And he was in there with some guys that are, shoot, couple them are going to go play college this fall and some track kids that are stupid fast. And he was, you know, one of the slower ones out of there, but guess what? He hit 15 miles an hour for the first time last night in this fly.
00:17:15
Speaker
You had everybody and their brother jumping up, giving him a high five because they were excited for him. even though he was you know three, four years younger than everybody else and very quiet. like He hardly says a word to anybody, but they know he's been there.
00:17:28
Speaker
And like you couldn't have wiped that smile off his face if you tried. And like those are the moments where you kind of look and say, okay, we're we're getting ourselves in the right spot. Yeah.
00:17:39
Speaker
And I think it's like that is a good example too, because it makes me think of just some instances that have been catching my eye in my facility. It speaks a lot to your culture. um and what kind of environment you're creating. And one of the most gratifying things of like adopting these things we're talking about and building those relationships is I've seen my older kids starting to communicate with the younger kids in the same way inside the facility and being leaders to them, but in in a very...
00:18:08
Speaker
positive under my wing type of way, getting excited for them, pushing them. Like it's it's been really interesting to see because when we first started, you know, we were like the first facility in town that was mixing all these different teams and sport like rivals from across town that play basketball against each other in the same groups and stuff like that.
00:18:26
Speaker
And I just remember no like bad instances, but instances of like they would kind of, shy away from the other one or or not stop talk to them or there'd be like a little bit ah of beef or weird energy with them and over the years it's just become like they're all there with a shared purpose and grind and um you know it's fun to go watch them play against each other because they just like have that respect for each other um and it's just it's that's how you know you really like have a good culture and you're kind of affecting your community too i think in that way um one question i wanted to ask you is
00:19:00
Speaker
um with with your athletes are there certain ways or things you can point to that you feel have allowed you to for the athletes make them feel like you care more about them as a person than an athlete like what are some of the little things you do or where you spend your time or how you engage with them that would make them think that like hey he cares about me you know yeah um you know think i Nothing is ever too little for them to to go unnoticed, right? they They notice if they walk in, they get ah do they get a hello?
00:19:32
Speaker
um you know Are we asking about how things went, if they had had the competition? ah you know Even if they're out of season, like, hey, how'd your lifts go? you know You guys had this going on today at school. How'd that work?
00:19:45
Speaker
And you know showing up at at events is obviously a huge piece to do that. and i it's It's a hard one because they happen at... right especially in the winter time they're tuesday thursday nights a lot of times maybe some saturdays they're late right you have coaching or you got family obligations but that's a a big one right just be able to show up and right be present for them and for the times that aren't right technology is amazing um you know you got all your huddles and everything else right a simple thing of
00:20:16
Speaker
Right. Catching a film or catching them play someplace you can't see in person, man, just shoot them ah a text or a message like, hey, this was a good night. Right. Good job. And those have been the things that have been right. The biggest.
00:20:31
Speaker
Kind of connection points, especially as we're getting started, kind of fresh over in a new place and just letting kids know like, hey, we're we're keeping track on you, not like we're stalking you, but we want to see how you're doing and perform and and celebrate with you.
00:20:45
Speaker
and the stuff that you're doing. And if it means that I can pop on huddle and and watch it a little bit here and there, and I can send you a message because you did an awesome job, then man, that's a pretty simple thing for me to be able to accomplish.
00:20:57
Speaker
Yeah. My next one would, for you kind of stemming from that would, you know, we talked about, you know, you mentioned at the beginning, okay. I'm not trying to be a too soft, right? I'm not trying to be the coach that, you know, kind of gets pushed over, which we'll get into a little bit later. I have a cool graph that i want to share with with the listeners. But what are so what are some tips you have when it comes to being approachable, having this connection, but still kind of ah garnering that respect for your standards of your facility?
00:21:30
Speaker
And I think a huge piece comes with, right, one, do you actually know what you're doing? Um, and that is always going to be a big piece because kids see through, right lies and ridiculousness a lot faster than anybody wants to give them credit for.
00:21:46
Speaker
It could be the fact that they have to deal with it nonstop, whether it's in person on social, but like they can pick on that stuff pretty quick. And so for me, like I'm the same person out there running a group as I am talking to them individually, as we would be watching them on the sidelines.
00:22:04
Speaker
right? Anywhere as it goes through there. So, right. I'm the same person one way or the other that is going to show up and cheer them on and be in their corner and work on getting them better.
Holistic Development of Athletes
00:22:14
Speaker
um Right. Very rarely do I have to kind of get that, that stricter voice out where we got to like dial things in because like, let's be honest, kids are coming for a purpose to get better and they're there for the same purpose. And it's not like someone's getting drug along or someone's forcing them to show up.
00:22:34
Speaker
um And so when the environment sits there, right, there's this, this nice little expectation that when they come in, man we're, we're going to make sure that we get better um with this, right? There's no question about, you know, who's in charge. It's not a hard question. The kids are coming in, they know what they're doing.
00:22:53
Speaker
And, but it is, it's like, if you can be authentic across the board, right? I don't need to change who I am on a daily basis, right? Like we've talked about, I may change how I communicate with someone, how I interact with this person, but like I am who I am. I'm a goofball. If I do something dumb, who I'm going to own it in front of the kids. And it was like, wait a second, he made a mistake.
00:23:17
Speaker
that mean I can make a mistake? You're darn right. You can make a mistake. Like that's the expectation. i'm trying to teach you something probably new that you haven't done before. My expectation is that you're not going to do well. And right. So now if you understand that and I understand that and everybody else knows it, now you can fail freely and we'll be just fine. And now we can start to learn a little bit better.
00:23:36
Speaker
I love that consistency is what like stood out there to me. um The obvious nugget out of that was, you know, being consistent with the way that that you show up. i think I think presence also falls in that. How present are you and how consistent are you with those sessions? are you Like there's some days as coaches that are a little harder than others and you just, you know, you really have to stay and as consistent as you can with paying attention the session, being off your phone, dialing in and and really going with them. The other the other part of that,
00:24:05
Speaker
I think is that you hit hit on those a little more deep in there was the clarity side of it. That's the one thing I've noticed as I'm trying to get interns ready to coach new coaches.
00:24:18
Speaker
um obviously their knowledge base is lower, but when they go in and try to give cues or try to explain things, it's not very clear. It's very, it's very confusing or they kind of talk around in circles.
00:24:31
Speaker
And what I've noticed is with this, at least my kids is that is one of the quickest ways to lose their trust in you. Like, Even if you aren't quite sure of what you're saying, just say it really clear and ask them to do something and tell them exactly what to do. You know, like if you, yeah if you even kind of float about it, all my kids will like, look like I'm in there while the intern's coaching and they'll look at me like, are you serious? Like, like they did it's just, they see it.
00:24:58
Speaker
Yeah. And, and, and maybe it's part of like, I think these kids are, I mean, they're exposed to so much social media. and I don't know. I just feel like they are really good at sniffing out BS.
00:25:09
Speaker
Like you're getting better. Like I'm not saying they're good at it. Right. It can be hard, but when it's face to face, I feel like they're really good at just being like, nah, I don't really want to pay attention to this Cause he doesn't really know what he's talking about. Like pretty cool. and that Yeah, I have. And I think, um, man, there's a huge part of this. So like,
00:25:27
Speaker
the coaching cue piece that I do my best at is to always try to coach exactly what I want them to do and avoid saying all the things that they are making mistakes at, or that I want them to not do. Right. Cause this coaches, we see the stuff and like, Oh, you're doing this, you know, stop doing that. And I need you to do this. Well,
00:25:50
Speaker
All they heard was the first part where you just told them stop doing stuff, but that's all they heard. And then additionally, like if we even demonstrate it to that next level, like, like, oh, you got way too much leg whip on the backside. This is flailing out here. Your chest is dropping.
00:26:04
Speaker
And I sit there and demonstrate that while I'm talking. Well, that's all they see while I'm trying to give them corrections. Right. And so now they have no idea what they actually should do. They're just like, oh, well, that's what he just told me.
00:26:17
Speaker
That's what I was just thinking about. And then I think like in my mind, I'm like, oh, on this next part. Now, here's what I want you to fix. Well, here's a brilliant idea. Eliminate all of the stuff that they're going to screw up. They're screwing it up on their own. They don't need help seeing it, hearing about it.
00:26:32
Speaker
Right. Doing any of the other stuff. You can watch them do what they're doing. And then as the right on the positive side is like, hey, cool. We did that. I need you to be more of this. Right. I want more of the the thigh punch with the shin here and your foot here. We don't need to reinforce the stuff that they just probably didn't do great or that they have bad habits in the first place.
00:26:55
Speaker
Because they've already doing it. So if we can just focus on how do we get them to hear and see what it is that we want them to do as many times as humanly possible.
00:27:09
Speaker
Now that learning starts to take place a little bit quicker. And then we don't muddy the waters too about having to go back and forth about bad movement, good movement. No here. Yes here. We can just be like, this is where we need to stay with this. Quick pause here. i want to talk about the universal speed rating. So many coaches I meet are just overwhelmed.
00:27:29
Speaker
They're running sessions, programming, dealing with parents, and trying to prove their athletes are actually getting faster. One of the reasons why we built USR was to take some of this stress off the table. One software solution to help coaches test, track, and show improvement without adding hours to your week.
00:27:45
Speaker
If you feel like you're guessing with your speed training or drawing, trying to make sense of your data, hit the link in the description. Schedule free consult and see how the USR can help. Yeah, I think i think of ah as I've become better at coaching, that's exactly, i i it sounds funny, but I coach less.
00:28:03
Speaker
Like the better I've gotten at coaching, the less I try to fix everything and the less I try to jump in and give, you know like you said, five things to focus on, it's like, man, i you know even an elite athlete's not gonna be able to, even a professional athlete doesn't want five things to focus on in a rep, right? So, you know keeping it concise, clear. And like when we first when I first went down and watched, I forget if you were there, you I don't think you were in yet, but we went down and watched some combine training ah with Les, like right when we first came to Speed Lab over at UCLA.
00:28:35
Speaker
And I thought they were going to be like, boom, boom, boom, like nailing them, right? Dude, like maybe less said less than like 20 words in a session. You know what I'm saying? Like it's all just like.
00:28:47
Speaker
quick, concise feedback. And then afterwards, after the session, he would spend a lot of time breaking stuff down and then planning what's going to go into the next session. So I think it's important that when you're on the floor with these kids, that is not the time to figure everything out, right? It's still like, try to get them a little bit better.
00:29:06
Speaker
And then if you're really serious about helping this athlete out, you know, some some some thought after or before the session on, you know, what am I going to do ah to try to get this better, you know, and try to get this better? So I think that's really interesting. And I think that's ah the but the more I've watched better coaches around me. I'm like, oh, yeah, like when I was younger, I was just coaching way too much. Like needs to be concise. um I think a big part of building trust that we've been talking about with these athletes to be able to coach them to a high level.
00:29:36
Speaker
is lies with adaptability as well. So what are some examples for you or ways that you approach, you know, adapting to the athlete based on these conversations that we're having with them when they come in and they're like, you know, they come in and maybe some days they're like, man, I don't feel very good. Starting to get sick. ah Basketball, I got fried last night with conditioning. Like what are some examples of stuff that you do to match the athlete where they're at?
00:30:03
Speaker
then i mean, I think that's a huge... A huge piece what you have to do because you have kids that are right practicing their sport sometimes six to seven times a week with clubs and high school. like Everything else seems like it overlaps anymore.
00:30:19
Speaker
And so a lot of times you're getting them and they've already been right pushed as as much as they can reasonably make it And it comes down to like having that conversation, right? For the most part, our warmups too, uh, is the same thing every day. So we can kind of see how kids move and operate, um, right. If range of motion looks, looks off or balance is a huge piece. If they can't stand and hold their knee hug or their leg cradle and they're tripping over themselves, like that's going to be a huge clue that man, they ain't ready to to fire a whole lot today.
00:30:45
Speaker
And right. Then that leads to the conversation like, Hey, right. They just told me, man, we just ran, Shoot, right. Johnny left his jersey out at this and the ball was out. So we had to run an extra 20 minutes of practice. like my Gosh, that's that sounds terrible.
00:30:59
Speaker
Right. um How are you feeling? Like, man, I feel pretty shot. Cool. Guess what? You don't get to run times today. Right. You're going to today's an acceleration day. You get at most three steps. Right. We'll let you push your three steps. And right. With everything else that you've got going on, we'll still be able to make progress with write your power and short burst. But we're not going to let you push out and write keep running.
00:31:20
Speaker
hammering yourself just because you're here and that's what we have planned for the day. um And so it's just being able to communicate with them how it is that they can still make improvements without having to do the same thing as everybody else.
00:31:35
Speaker
And right. The, a huge piece too, is like the, we got a chart up in our place with, Right. The, all the splits for your fly tens and then a 5% window on it. And it's like, Hey, when we were running today, like, here's your chart, find your time. If you don't know what it is, like, let's make sure we know what it is. Our goal is within 5%. And the first time we started doing it, it's like, well, coach, that's kind of slow. I said, well, it's not kind of slow. It's just not a PR.
00:32:02
Speaker
was like, if we can't set PRs every day, i said, if that's the case, we'll join the Olympics in 28 and you can go run a seven, seven second, hundred meter dash. I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen. And right. So that's been a huge one of just education of, of we can still get a really good day of training.
00:32:20
Speaker
even if we don't feel, amazing And we're not setting records, but like we can still make progress in either our coordination, our timing, our rhythm.
00:32:30
Speaker
Maybe we do a little bit more technical work with less volume, but we still make it. And that's the piece of where you have that conversation because it's hard for kids. They think that if they don't walk out either setting a record or feel like they can't move, that it was kind of a waste of effort.
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah. And I think like all those points are amazing. And I think it just builds the trust of the athlete. Like if you have an athlete feel like get in a couple experiences where they come in blasted and you don't, and you just shove them into the workout and they leave feeling worse.
00:33:03
Speaker
um When we talk about like long-term athlete development, a lot of times I feel like you're going to lose that athlete because they don't trust that. that you're going to create an environment where they can come in and feel better no matter where they're at and and get a win. Right. I always say like every time an athlete comes to my facility, they win.
00:33:19
Speaker
And that doesn't mean, like you said, it's a PR, right? It doesn't mean they could have their, one of their worst training days, but if we can find ways to, you know, hey, you did a little bit better on this, even this cue that we were working on today. Or I could tell you, you put a lot of effort into improving this. Like, I feel like there's always a way to frame for the athletes um that that day they got a little bit better.
00:33:43
Speaker
You know, whether it was they got a lot, lot better or they just barely got a little bit better. And sometimes it's just that they showed up. Like, I've literally, I've literally been like, wow, that was awesome that, you know, you felt like you did today and you showed up. Like that, that alone could be their win and the reason they walk out with a smile tell their parents they enjoyed it and are excited to come back the next time but yeah which i think is massive no i mean it absolutely is i mean not just business wise but just you know what is it that you're trying to produce i mean i think if you ask someone it's like hey if you have a
00:34:20
Speaker
crazy successful gym, but your turnover is high. Or would you rather have like a pretty successful gym where you have kids that always are banging down your door to keep coming back? Like, give me the kids. I want to keep coming back all the time because that tells me that we're doing stuff. That's, that's right and good. And they have fun.
00:34:37
Speaker
And like, that's, that's it, man. If you can trick them into having fun while they're still getting better. Right. I mean, it's huge. yeah And I want to highlight, too, because I so i saw this. ah It was more like aimed towards parents. But um these things we're talking about, like the way you praise the kids is important, too.
00:34:57
Speaker
um I think sometimes if we're just like... hey, we're proud of you. Hey, you know we think you did a good job today. ah In some ways, it can take away some of that win from the kid.
00:35:09
Speaker
So I've been like trying to pay attention to the way that i deliver the information. And a lot of lot of it will be like, they'll come in, like for example, a kid came in, had a good basketball game last night. was like, man, you should be proud of like all that hard work you put in, like that you put in to, you know, achieve that outcome.
00:35:25
Speaker
So just the way you frame it, instead of like taking that work from them be like, I'm proud of you. No, like you should be proud of this work that you've put in. And I think that that ah enables them to take a little ownership of that work and ah build their confidence in that.
00:35:44
Speaker
Any thoughts on that? No, mean, I love it because it is right. We get caught up a lot of times of, of, you know, doing our best to support the kids and tell them all these good things that they're doing.
Fostering Resilience in Athletes
00:35:56
Speaker
But you're right. It almost, it doesn't quite always put the light on them as much as it should. i love, i love that, right. You should be proud of it to kind of put it on them of like, this, this is your feeling that you should have based on what I'm seeing. Like, this is how your response would be appropriate.
00:36:14
Speaker
Another thing that's cool too that kind of builds with that is, right, just to go back to like flipping kids' mentality with positivity is, right, if you ask a kid how a game went, I would say nine times out of ten, they're going to tell you the stuff that they didn't do very well right off the bat. They'll be like, oh, I didn't, you know, I didn't rebound as much as I could have. I fouled too many times. I'm like, I'll be honest, like I'm to the point if kids start giving me anything negative off the bat, like we're done. I said, stop, we're done, quit it. You got to give me three good things.
00:36:43
Speaker
They're like, what do you mean i said, you have to give me three good things that you did at that game before you can tell me anything about what you didn't like. And like, it takes them forever usually to come up with stuff that they did well.
00:36:57
Speaker
And a lot of times, right, we're just so wired to look at the negatives of what we want to fix, or I wasn't as good as this person, or I'm not at my goal yet. And we lose the sight of these little victories of of growth and progress. Like we forget that they even happened, right? We forget that that we even can celebrate it.
00:37:14
Speaker
And right. So I like that. So I'm going to steal that too. Like, Hey, you should be proud of this. And here are the things that you said you did well. Let's make sure we can reinforce those. Yeah, I love what you just said, too, in terms of you want to talk about how to build the resilient athletes that you know can take hardship and keep coming back.
00:37:32
Speaker
it's It's literally just the way people frame things. You know, I've met people that have had really hard lives. I've met people that have really easier lives. And, you know, the really successful ones from either way are just the ones that focus on.
00:37:45
Speaker
you know, what did I do right? Sure. What do I need to get better at and improve? But also like, Hey, I can hang my hat on, you know, I hustled that game or, you know, I played good defense or whatever.
00:37:56
Speaker
It's not, ah it's not the first thing I said is, well, I didn't score as many points as I want. Right. So it's like mindset. And as coaches, i truly believe like, that's our calling is like, we can help out these get faster and stronger. That's not really, in my opinion, the hard part. The hard part is,
00:38:12
Speaker
getting them like we're talking about to take ownership of, of their performances and look for the good things and find ways to bounce back. And because things are going to go wrong, no matter how gifted of an athlete they are.
00:38:24
Speaker
And sometimes the more gifted athletes, they're going to go wrong in bigger settings with more lights and more pressure and, all of all of these things that are going to make that feel even bigger and and worse so you have to really prepare them they might already be the fastest the strongest but they're also going to be the ones that when they fail more people are going to know about it so if they're not resilient and they haven't been taught those you know when it comes to athletics and their performances if they haven't been taught that lesson you know, it can really crush it can really crush kids and even ruin like really bright
Episode Conclusion and Appreciation
00:38:57
Speaker
careers. so
00:38:58
Speaker
No, I take your spot on and that's a huge a huge point, especially the ones that have been successful like early through middle school, early high school, right? They've just smashed everybody and now they're playing against kids a couple years older and they kind of are realizing they can't just be a really freak athlete and win everything.
00:39:16
Speaker
um And it becomes a little bit more of a challenge. Well, thanks for hopping on, Matt. I really appreciate it. think this has been one of my favorite episodes I've done. Again, people love the technical stuff, but I truly believe like if you're going to own a facility or you're going to be a coach that really impacts lives, you've got to get this side dialed in. So I appreciate your time, man.