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088 - Building Speed & Setting Golden Standards w/ Loren Landow
104 Plays14 days ago
Coach Loren Landow, Head of Football Performance at the University of Notre Dame, joins Tex to share his approach to speed, culture and leadership development for the Fighting Irish.
Coach Landow shares his approach to teaching agility, acceleration & transitions, why he makes freshmen train in tennis shoes instead of cleats, and how he builds a culture where "if not now, then when?" isn't just a saying—it's a standard.
Learn Notre Dame Football's Golden Standard—the three pillars of Challenge Everything, Unit Strength, and Competitive Spirit—and why consistency in leadership is the hardest skill to master.
Key Takeaways:
- Why consistency is a superpower and how it builds trust with athletes
- The transition assessment that exposes movement inefficiencies
- How to make every athlete faster (and why "you're born with it" is a lazy excuse)
- Leadership lessons: repeating yourself without getting sick of your own voice
- Training philosophy for developing efficient movers across 113 athletes
- Managing dual-sport athletes competing at the highest level
Whether you're coaching high school athletes or leading a performance team, this conversation is packed with practical wisdom on movement, leadership, and building a culture of excellence.
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#NotreDameFootball #SpeedTraining #StrengthAndConditioning #FootballPerformance #CoachingPodcast #AthleteDevelopment #SportsPerformance #LeadershipDevelopment #StrengthCoach #CollegeFootball
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Transcript
Foundational Pillars and Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
challenge everything and what he means by that is find a better way You know, don't fall into that pattern of what worked last year or we did this because we've always done this and coach Freeman wants us to challenge everything and that's coach to coach coach to athlete athlete to coach like he wants to make sure that we challenge everything.
00:00:17
Speaker
Number two is unit strength and unit strength is you choose to love, you know, love love is unconditional and you choose to love and you love your your teammate you love your unit you love your side of the ball and you love your team. And those are the big things he he champions. And within that, like, you know, you know, trust is earned at the same time, like love is unconditional, but trust is earned.
00:00:40
Speaker
And then lastly, his competitive spirit find find a way, find a way to win. Making sure that we reach our full potential is something that we always talk about, but it's find a way to win and competing in everything that we do. So those three pillars are really what hold together the golden standard.
00:00:58
Speaker
Welcome to the Captains and Coaches podcast where we explore the art and science of leadership through the lens of athletics and beyond. I'm your host, Texan Kilken, and today we are joined by Coach Lauren Lando, Head of Football Performance at the University of Notre Dame.
00:01:12
Speaker
I had the incredible opportunity to visit South Bend to check out the training facilities and attend my first Notre Dame football game with my pops. Coach Lando's journey is incredible from working with NFL Hall of Famers to future Hall of Famers, six years with the Denver Broncos, to now leading 113 student athletes under the Golden
Philosophy and Leadership Approach
00:01:33
Speaker
Dome.
00:01:33
Speaker
In this conversation, we're diving into his philosophy of service over self, why consistency is a superpower, and how Loren and his team develop speed and leadership at the highest level.
00:01:45
Speaker
If you want to learn how to make your athletes more efficient movers, lead with intention, and build a culture of excellence, this one's packed with gold. Let's hand it off to Coach Lando to help us raise the game. Ready, ready, and great.
00:02:00
Speaker
Action. Coach, thank you for the the opportunity, touring the the the facilities, checking out the weight room, and just the overall football experience that is Notre
Journey to Notre Dame
00:02:11
Speaker
Dame. So I'm grateful for...
00:02:13
Speaker
for opening up your doors and just taking me in. So that first off, thank you. I appreciate you saying that, but I'll tell you what, Tex, I love anytime somebody's in town, I love to show them around Notre Dame. It's so special and, you know, it's near and dear to my heart now and really getting to experience just the the culture here and the history here. It's like now I just want to show everybody. So the pleasure was mine, but I'm glad you enjoyed it.
00:02:37
Speaker
Awesome. And Your journey didn't start here. And to get into the seat as the the head performance for Notre Dame football, it had to start somewhere. And there's no better person for that experience. You and I first connected in 2017.
00:02:53
Speaker
This is at a play speed summit at your facility in Denver. That's right. That was myself, Jimmy Radcliffe, Dan Paff. Like we had the the Mount Rushmore there. That's for sure.
00:03:04
Speaker
Yeah, derek Derek Hanson, who I've learned a lot from, and then Brett Bartholomew has become a good friend over the years. So that was a ah rich experience. Yeah, happy happy to kind of tell you a little bit about my path and what kind of led me to where I am today. But...
00:03:21
Speaker
you know you know some things that most people don't know is I started in the field in cardiac and pulmonary rehab in 1996. I came out of school and that was a direction that at that time i was like you know there there weren't a lot of options coming out of school in 96 as far as as far as the what education was setting you up for and it was really where I went to school in northern Colorado for my undergrad It was you go PA school, you go to PT school, you come come out and be a trainer. And I was like, well, hold on. Like, I'm definitely not going to PA school or PT school. So I set my eyes on cardiac and pulmonary rehab, did that for about six to eight months and realized being with ah an unhealthy population wasn't what filled my cup. And I had to, I had to find people that were motivated. A lot of people in that population, they didn't want to get better. They weren't going to change their habits of smoking, drinking, eating. And so it was really challenging to work with that population. So I found myself like just grafting for people that want to achieve more and achieve better and to change habits.
Mentorship and Career Development
00:04:25
Speaker
And I got into really the early stages of performance training in 96. I mentored under a guy who was working with the best of the best at the time. He was working with the Barry Sanders and Willie Rofs Jerome Bettis and Steve Atwater. And I basically was learning from him. um you know he was my mentor and you know he would run into opportunities where he couldn't make the session and it was an opportunity for me to take over the sessions. And so here I was working with these elite Hall of Famers.
00:04:59
Speaker
And I didn't know yeah you know the the ceiling from the floor. But I cut my teeth there and just really started to learn the process and dove into other mentors and and really just you know went on to become a director of performance for Velocity, where I was doing NFL combine prep for over 20 years. I did NFL offseason prep for over 20 years. Found my way during that time working with a lot of elite athletes as well. from the MMA side, you know, I've been ringside for m UFC championship bouts.
00:05:31
Speaker
I've been able to be on the pool deck at Olympic trials. I've been a consultant for various Olympic sports. So my my path has been unique and it's led me to where I am now. And then obviously I had the six years in Denver as well in the NFL. So learning a little bit of the NFL model and just the the team model from there and then coming to college. Every step along my way has been prepping me for my journey. And so when the opportunity arise to come to Notre Dame and my agent called me up said, you know, would you ever go back to college? And I said, well, it depends what what colleges are open. And he said, well, potentially Notre Dame. And I said, absolutely. I said, tell the NFL teams I'm not interested that I'll definitely I want to, you know knock on this door and
00:06:21
Speaker
I had interviews with John Waggle here and Ron Paulus and Coach Freeman. And it was just really some really great conversations. And it was like hand in glove. And, you know, as they say, the rest is history.
00:06:34
Speaker
Yeah. And I've heard you describe your philosophy as trailblazer, but has shifted to service. when yeah When did that occur? and then how does that anchor into now you leading others with your great staff at Notre
Shift to Service-Focused Philosophy
00:06:50
Speaker
Dame?
00:06:50
Speaker
Yeah, I've always been really I've always enjoyed performance training. And I would say it was probably right before my time I went to Denver where I really started to understand, like, this whole thing isn't about me.
00:07:03
Speaker
um I think for so many years of my career it was about where am i presenting next and who am I working with and what elite athlete. And i was realizing, like, it wasn't about that. Like, it's about them.
00:07:15
Speaker
And i think I really started to realize in my journey that the more I made it about me, the less it filled my cup. And so, you know, I think that I think there's a natural wisdom and fluidity in your career path where that happens or you end up you end up not doing that career path anymore if you're not doing it out of service. And so for me, it was probably closer to 10 years now where I really felt that that's what my calling was, was to serve. And, you know, and it's perfect to be here at Notre Dame because that's how I view it with our student athletes. We have 113 kids on on the team. And, you know, I want to make sure that every athlete feels as though I'm there to serve them, maybe in different capacities. But that's ultimately what my role is to serve. But it's not only to serve the kids, but it's to serve Notre Dame is to serve Coach Freeman, to ah to serve our administration like it's about serving everybody.
00:08:09
Speaker
hmm. And. The NFL has certainly prepared you for Notre Dame, a very professional environment. So one of the tool what are the tools that you learned jumping into that true professional athlete realm that you now hold on to for developing this whole team of of pros that are at the college level?
00:08:30
Speaker
Yeah, so I think it goes even back further. You know, one thing I kind of glossed over is I actually still own my own training facility in Denver. And so, you know, that's where service really had to come from. Like if I made it about me, I wouldn't have grown that business.
00:08:44
Speaker
um But I think, you know, I have 30 trainers there. So leading a group of 30 and trying to get everybody to row in the same direction, like that's not always easy. So I think like leadership and the service, it really started within that. But then when I got to the NFL, it was pretty cool because you know, instead of having this fighter getting ready for this fight and this athlete in this Olympic cycle and, you know, working through all these different calendar of events, now I could sit there and get get laser focused and say, we're going after this one thing. And, you know, I would say one of my superpowers is consistency. Like I operate and I can be the same person every day, you know, you rain or shine, I can be that same person. And so I have to really drive that into my players. I remember in Denver, You know, we had a challenging time. We went through, gosh, I think we went through four head coaches in my six years. And so I was the only constant. And so I had to maintain consistency. I had maintain morale. And so, um you know, I think it really comes down to your consistency of behavior leads to your leadership traits.
00:09:50
Speaker
Coming here, it's easy because Coach Freeman is as consistent as anybody. He's as consistent as anybody. And you just want to follow a guy like that into the fire because he's got so much passion and it comes from the right place. So the leadership traits that I brought from Denver were certainly different coming here, where I was that leader for so many years with the transitions. And now I can, you know, you know I can just follow the leadership of my head coach and champion the things that he has and just to bring my skill set forward.
00:10:23
Speaker
And I've heard NFL is referred to as not for long. College sports, completely different story. And a key word that Coach Fred Hale was throwing around when we were talking and catching up was preparation.
00:10:37
Speaker
So now Notre Dame, it's similar to the service academies where guys are, so they're sticking around. Once they're there, they're there for four or five, maybe three years if they're really special. So now how are you investing in preparation and helping them understand long-term gratification, delayed gratification for long-term girls, for freshmen. Hey, maybe you're not playing now, but if you keep it up, there's potential here.
Athlete Development at Notre Dame
00:11:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think the history of Notre Dame really lays that foundation of delayed gratification. But I will say this day and age, I think everybody's looking for the right now, the right now. And especially the age of NIL, I think you look at that even more. But I think for for me, the way we do is like, this is our process. Here's how we do things at Notre Dame. You know, when the freshmen come in, You know, they're they're in their own lifting time and we're really pulling back the loads. We're teaching them and training them our way of doing things, how we set up our racks, how we break down our racks, how we do exercise. We do them under tempo so they understand and have intentionality into the lifts. You know I'm sure a lot of these guys, our first couple of weeks are like, where's the weight? But we want to make sure that they understand our process in the Notre Dame way.
00:11:48
Speaker
And to me, it's like you take advantage of what is the gift here at Notre Dame. And that's you've got you have hardworking kids, you have type A kids and you have really smart kids. So for me, I'm going to educate the kids to the why of what we're doing. And that just aids in the buying and the intentionality. So I think that delayed gratification comes in so many different ways as a freshman. It might come from, hey, I've put on 10 pounds this spring. i've I've added X amount to my bench. My vertical jumps gone up two inches, whatever that is that that carrot right then and there.
00:12:22
Speaker
But they see that their their opportunities can come in a moment's notice. You know, so things happen. You that the future is uncertain, like our head coach will always say, and um you you don't know when your number is going to get called. And so we tell them If if you're if you're if you're if you're always working to be prepared, you don't have to get ready.
00:12:41
Speaker
And so when that opportunity proceeds itself or or shows itself, you've got to take action. that's That's awesome. So now walk us through a what does a training calendar look like?
00:12:53
Speaker
And we can we can start from offseason, going and preparing for spring ball that then leads into your big offseason during the summer and then to to in-season training, which I have a few questions about.
00:13:06
Speaker
Sure. So you have your offseason calendar, which, you know, with the way the CFP is right now, that can that's going to be fluid of when you start. We really started in February. We had we we built out different tiers. Guys who had a lot of reps, a lot of game reps this year, we we tiered them out. And we had some guys start, you know, February 2nd. We had some guys start February eleventh And so we just managed that and then what we did is we built them into the similar block of training.
00:13:34
Speaker
We had about anywhere between two to four weeks of of just a straight block before we got into what would be spring ball. Once we got into spring ball, we hybrid our strength and conditioning. But I understand that I've always believed that whoever owns the time owns the adaptation.
00:13:51
Speaker
So February, early March, I own the time, so I own the adaptation. And then when we get into spring ball, you know football really proceeds in that. And so I need to make sure that my work complements and not gets and doesn't get in the way of football.
00:14:07
Speaker
So after once we get through our four five four to five weeks of spring ball, Then we get into, um they'll have a ah down period of about three to four weeks, and then we come back in for our summer program. Our summer program is typically about seven weeks where I control it.
00:14:24
Speaker
You know, the players will run their their player led practices, their player run practices. But at the end of the day, I own the adaptation. So, you know, I'll get into some really good doses of block training in my June and July calendar.
00:14:38
Speaker
um All the while I'm working on all the biomotor qualities that we look is as important from strength, power to speed, but ultimately laying that that greater foundation of work capacity through the summer getting ready for training camp.
00:14:52
Speaker
Once we get into training camp, really it's retention based work. um You know, you're just trying to not get in the way again of practices and football development, the adaptation that's happening on the specific side of things. So we're usually down to two days a week of training and we'll have a third day where it's really a regen day.
00:15:09
Speaker
And once we get through training camp, then we morph right into our in season calendar, which is a two day a week training split. We'll have three to four days based on our Devo guys, but our our guys who were are gonna play and travel, they're usually getting two lifts a week. And so you're trying to, you're trying to have your retention qualities and you're trying to make some adaptations coming out of camp. But ultimately i i run off of like a daily undulated model. Once i get into in-season model.
00:15:39
Speaker
And speaking undulation, how have you seen technology supplement that and help you, your coach's eye to then make the call to help them understand where they're at each day? Cause Sometimes those weights are tempting for those kids, but the data says otherwise in your eyes as otherwise.
00:15:58
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's like, I think a good coach who's been there long enough, you kind of see it when it comes in the door and you use, I usually have two different gauges, right? You have the subjective and the objective gauges. And, uh, you know, when guys come in for their lift and I'll watch them warm up and I'll watch how they usually come into the lift anyway and say, okay, are we just kind of feeling sorry for ourselves? Is it a Monday morning? Am I tired? or is this truly overreaching and under recovered? And so I kind of make a lot of my considerations based on what I'm seeing. But what we do is we we data point everything. you know We're gonna jump our guys two times a week. We're gonna Nord board. We're gonna Dari screen. You know, yeah every quarter we have the GPS where we're going to look at all these numbers together and we're going to sit there and say, OK, are these numbers telling us a story as an end of one of an individual or are they telling us as a bigger trend?
00:16:51
Speaker
If I see bigger trend, then that's where I need to come in and I need to. I need to make adaptations to my program. I need to communicate clearly to our performance you know director sports performance, John Waggle, and then we need to communicate back to the coaches of what it is we're seeing and what we need to how we need to mitigate. But we'll use our velocity-based training as well as a proxy to use that as a proxy as well to readiness and recovery. we'll our jumps we look at three different alerts on our jumps we will look at is it a performance decrement is it an asymmetrical decrement or is it um is it a um a body weight change and so they'll flag on those three things and or fourth is it a trend is it multiple times and is it you know our performance is it greater than one standard deviation and And those are just different things that we work off of to say, okay, we need to have further conversations. This person, you know, are they are they a little banged up from the game?
00:17:51
Speaker
Do they need extra recovery? Was it just, you know, do they have testing fatigue? You know, are we late in the year? And the last thing they want to do is jump on a force play. So, you know, as coaches, we make those subjective conversations happen and we we come up to our landing point. But ultimately, really what it does is it allows our performance team to talk together. From our our football nutritionist to our head athletic trainer to our team doctor to our head coach to our sports psychologist. And we all meet once a week. And that allows us to really sit down and say, what is it that we're seeing? Where are the guys at? And how do we need to adapt?
00:18:28
Speaker
Man, that's the proper use of data is is connecting it to the the the kids' performance and just their their well-being overall. And i ah leaning into guidance and advice here, a lot of the listeners here at their high school level, they they don't have resources. They're going to lean into that coach's eye, that that subjective note.
00:18:50
Speaker
So what are some things that you either lean into that you know work for you or that you've taught to? i mean the the many coaches that have worked with you and under you and interned for you to help them bridge that gap to to develop this subjective coach's eye for laying the foundation for performance.
00:19:12
Speaker
Sure. I think every coach has a good understanding of their, the theme of their team and who the players are. And so as the players come in, if a player is off, it's end one, you know, i'll start paying attention to that. um You know, coaches can use readiness surveys, which are pretty inexpensive and it's a good way to get some, some ideas of how guys are doing. But I think watching guys warm up,
00:19:35
Speaker
you know as i mentioned earlier like a few things you you watch ranges of motion you watch the how their movements look um you know they're isolated and their integrated movements but also like are they laughing are they chatting up i always say my biggest red flag is if the athletes aren't john and and talking a little bit of trash to each other like all right they're smashed and so those are little things that i've picked up over the years like players are always going to talk back and forth to each other. yeah And if they're not doing that throughout the warmup, that leads me to believe like, all right, these guys are a little bit under recover or they're, they've overreached a little bit too far.
00:20:12
Speaker
I like that. And, how How do you operate different position groups? So I know quarterbacks are special, but then different coaches have different groups. Is it bigs? Is it big skills at speed? How are you operating these different teams to then manage that weight room? Well,
00:20:32
Speaker
Sure, so all my coaches, they have a position group that they're liaison to and we're responsible not only for the racks, but also for their movements on the field when it's offseason training and also the recovery in season. So, like, for example, I oversee the running backs, linebackers and quarterbacks. And so my responsibility is to make sure that any of the adaptations adjustments that need to be made to their program, the card is made, but also any of the modifications that need to be made on making those I make those team wide. So I don't put that onto my coaches. I i do that team wide.
00:21:06
Speaker
But my coaches then are responsible for their racks and reporting back to me the recovery days that they're working with the guys, ideas that they have when it comes to different things in the offseason program for, you know, whether it's the movement side. You I'm pretty I'm pretty selfish with the skills and mids, you know, the guys that need to run and and change direction. I'm going to spend a lot of time with them personally.
00:21:26
Speaker
um So I make sure that my hands and my eyes are on them. And I trust, you know Coach Hale and Coach Gerasio to be with my bigs. And I trust Coach Fusco and Coach Duffel to be with my mids. And i selfishly a lot of times will take the skills, but I'll hybrid back and forth with the skills and mids.
00:21:43
Speaker
So now leaning into your expertise with change of direction and recommending this towards high schoolers, how would you change the preparation for those quarterbacks, those skills versus our bigs?
00:21:56
Speaker
Funny enough, right? I think there's a there's a lot of like KPI differences. So if you're in a high school setting and even in what I do in the collegiate setting is my bigs are down the far end of the field. My offensive line, defensive line and my my skills, you know, wide receivers, DBs are right with me on another part of the field.
00:22:15
Speaker
and my mids are at another part of the field with my other coaches. And really, a lot of the KPIs of movement have a lot of similarity. So you don't have to sit there and say, this is specific to my wide receivers. This is specific to my defensive backs. There's a lot of similarity in the KPIs, um especially when we look at acceleration, transition, and maximum velocity.
00:22:35
Speaker
But when we look at COD, then it becomes a little bit different. like The defensive side is going to be a lot more reactive, where the offensive is is very, you know, they know, you know, for the most part what they're going to do out of the shoot. They might have to change how they run some things based on how the defender is covering them.
00:22:52
Speaker
But a lot of the manipulations of those movement variables are going to be similar. So I bucket them based on skills, mids and bigs, and then we'll we'll we'll slice the onion a bit further based on what their needs of their their true KPIs are that are specific to the position. So we'll build it out independently, but I will put my skills together, my mids together, and my bigs together, and then i'll I'll create hybrid drills at each group that are a little bit more specific to what their tasks are going to be on game day. Now, when we get into the conditioning side of things, um you know, I build out metabolics and I have my coaches and my players, you know, you know, stationed around the field and I'll build out drills that are very specific to the needs. My defensive backs, I'm going to take them through, you know, 50 plays of metabolics as we're going through our summer program.
00:23:41
Speaker
it's It's a lot of different back pedal, break at 90, break at 45, break at 135, shuffle, shuffle, sprint. I'm going to mix it up. So it's, it has a lot of variation, but it has similar KPIs to what they're going to do on game day.
00:23:54
Speaker
I follow the work to rest ratios. They're going to be similar to how we run our offense the, the, You maybe the upcoming opposition, to how they run their offense. So our defense needs to be ready. So you need to make sure that there's specificity in the movement pattern, but there's also specific specificity in the energetic side of things as well.
00:24:14
Speaker
Yeah, I think people when it comes to change direction, I think people get way too cute. I think that they they really miss the boat. They just come up for drills with drills for drill's sake. And my goal is to make people better movers. And really what making someone a better mover how do you make them transition better?
00:24:30
Speaker
I'm not going to have the fastest players in the country at every position. But my goal is to make them the most efficient so they express the fastest transitions to be able to get from point A to point B quicker. Mm-hmm.
00:24:44
Speaker
And that's being aware of how you blend linear mechanics to multi to decel, to multi directional, to reaccel. That's the X factor. I love it. Yeah. i wrote down keyword transition because that was something that jumped out to me. Acceleration transition, then max velocity into those buckets. I feel that's, that's a key a component that people can bring into their, their preparation phases, especially if they're, they're out in the field and football.
00:25:12
Speaker
And yeah, so And that's one thing I talked to our players in the entire office and said, there's nothing that bothers me more when I watch an athlete move than somebody on their rear end on air. Like that tells me that you were out of position. Like anytime you change direction, you fall or you slip, that tells me you didn't understand like the premise of the deceleration transitional angles and how to re-excel. I get when we get on contact, those things are gonna happen, but on air, they should never happen.
00:25:38
Speaker
you're just unaware of where your base of support should be relative to the position, the direction you're going next. And I'd love to highlight your maybe your transition assessment for freshmen.
00:25:52
Speaker
They're coming in, they're very talented. There's a lot of potential there, but they got away with very inefficient movement. They were just able to make up for it by being a great athlete. So what's your transition assessment for when people are coming to you for the first time?
00:26:06
Speaker
So if we're looking like trend like transitional mechanics and multi-directional work, like one of the things I did when I first got here, January of 24, is I told the players I wanted them out of their tennis shoes for two weeks.
00:26:19
Speaker
Because cleats cleats allow you to have bad mechanics without knowing it, right? They're the cheat code. They allow you to to do things that you probably shouldn't be able to do because you have the cleat bed. Well, if I put them in tennis shoes, I can really expose how they're producing force, how they're absorbing force, how they're redirecting force. What type of mechanics do they come out of a break with? Is it more... you know, truly more acceleratory or is it more maximum velocity cyclical pattern, which, you know, you put somebody in tennis shoes and that's going to expose somebody really, really quick, but you put them in cleats and they can get away with it. And so for two weeks, I kept them out their cleats and I assessed, I assessed just frontal plane movement. How well do you shuffle stick, shuffle stick, shuffle stick? And, you know, you
00:27:00
Speaker
It's not shocking, but guys are s slipping and sliding all over the place. you You get them to understand principles of edges and angles and how to how to bend and how to accelerate out of you know just frontal plane movement. And that's one of my e earliest and easiest onboarding assessments.
00:27:16
Speaker
And then you get them to understand the efficiency being out of the cleats, you put them in the cleats, and now their efficiency is is X. And going back to the efficiency model that I spoke about, you know I know I'm not always going to have the fastest guys in every position group, but I can make them the fastest in their transitions.
00:27:31
Speaker
And I love to combat this with a lot of high school coaches. It's where they feel speed, they're born with it. Or they're not. yeah So that label has negatively affected a lot of kids' potential. So what would be your mindset approach when communicating, hey, yes, this this talented kid was born with speed, but these are still your athletes.
00:27:54
Speaker
Let's get them faster. How would you combat that conversation with a high school coach? Yeah, you can make everybody faster, first and foremost, because most people are are mechanically truly unaware of how to produce opt produce force, produce force well. You know, you can get people stronger and they'll get faster. You can, you know, make their strength gains in the weight room into convert that into a little bit better power capability, which allows them to have maybe a better first step, first two to three steps.
00:28:23
Speaker
But there's so many different things that you can do to make people faster. um and people are going to have their genetic ceilings without a doubt. But, you know, to sit there and blanket statement that you can't make anybody faster, you're born with it. That's lazy. um that's ah ah That's a lazy statement, in my opinion. And it's somebody who doesn't understand biomotor ability development well enough, whether it's mobility, whether it's strength, whether it's power, whether it's pure just mechanics awareness, there's so many things that you can do to influence somebody's speed.
00:28:54
Speaker
Tech's one thing that I always do is I'll pull out my stopwatch. I'll have a skill guy hit the stopwatch. You probably saw me do this. Hit stopwatch as fast as they can. And almost always, it's going to be 2 tenths of a second. And I tell somebody right there, that's the difference between a 4.6 and 4.4.
00:29:10
Speaker
What you just did with your finger as fast as you could was the difference between those two speeds. So when you look at it, when when you put um when you put speed under context of time like that um or an action to a time, i think it shows people that you can influence those things. so But there's plenty of people that can make people slower by giving a wrong cue.
00:29:31
Speaker
i see it all the time. yeah you know i spent a better part of my career watching kids that I sent off to college come back slower. and you know sometimes it was the chase for more weight sometimes it was the chase for the wrong mechanics sometimes it was the chase of the wrong qualities at the wrong time of year and uh so it's easy to make people slower um you know you've got to be careful that you don't over coach but you've got to make sure that your coaching cues matter and that they they they are truly representative the the physics that you need to create
00:30:02
Speaker
h Is there, do you take a different approach between off season speed development and then speed training and in season? 100%. Like to me, the work's been done. You know, to me, I'm going to support the speed in the weight room and the way we practice, you know, you practice fast, you're going to play fast. And so your practice habits are going to determine how you play.
00:30:24
Speaker
And, you know, our kids fly in practice. So, Now in the off season, you know, I'll always start the off season with a lot of teaching of it. I'll reteach every off season. And then we get right into the real deal. Like I'll spend time drilling, but then we get into expressing force and doing, you know, expressing force in different ways. But I'm not, you know, I'm not a I'm not a, I'm not a wicked guy. You know, I think that you that's great if you want to do some one on one speed work, but when you're working with a team setting like wickets have to be very, very specific in distance and when you have that many different athletes with different femur lengths tibial lengths, you know, flight times ground contact times like now you're just stereotyping a slower run.
00:31:06
Speaker
So for me, I'll work on speed development, but it's really about applying force. If I've built out your mechanics correctly and now I say go apply the force, boom, I've done my job.
00:31:20
Speaker
And the that's that's a great approach. And speaking of speed in a team setting. principle of individuality, but I still got 113 guys I got to manage. So what's that mindset and approach that you take?
00:31:35
Speaker
So I still need to get each 113 dude faster, but i have a set amount of time in training today for speed. Yeah, if vertical jump profiles went up in the off season, I know they got faster, first and foremost. um But that's why I spend so much time, we spend every Monday and Thursday in the off season program going over mechanics. That's how we prime. We just go over mechanics ad nauseam, whether it's piston based actions and acceleration, and then we put it to the real deal action or it's more cyclical based with our max V stuff or type of our our different dribbles that we do. um One, I prime technical all the time.
00:32:14
Speaker
And so by that time, my coaches know there's a model that they're looking for. We know that models are all wrong, but they set the stage of of what kind of shapes or positions should happen when we look at speed. And so if you do these drills right enough, long enough, they stick.
00:32:31
Speaker
And so now if I've got a ah sticky movement pattern now, something that's held and I get somebody stronger, more explosive, I think people make speed development way too complicated.
00:32:42
Speaker
yeah To me, it's like get to the right positions, you know understand where we produce force and then how we recover the limb um at different phases of the sprint and get them stronger and more explosive and everything takes care of itself.
00:32:57
Speaker
Love it. So now coaching and communicating that to the athlete, they're going to do same drills consistently and that's how they get better. But there's also needs to be intent there.
00:33:08
Speaker
And we're working with 18 24 year olds. How are you communicating the value of focus? How are you putting the fun in fundamentals that gets them to to attack these with intent?
00:33:21
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not good with fun, right? I'm like, i'm like here's the objective and here's what I got to get across. And I will say this is like, I've always been a big believer of showing, being able to show is a big deal. I think that, you know, it aids in the buy-in. If they see me at 52 being able to do these drills at a high, high level, like, whoa, coach can move. Like, yeah, they'll still all beat me in a race, but like just showing them conceptually what I can still do and that the speed and the repetition and the precision, um I think it gives them a character to chase, number one.
00:33:53
Speaker
But number two, I think that you know it goes back to how well do you tell the athletes, here's what we're doing, here's the why. Again, it's breaking down the why because I use the analogy all the time, you know I don't fear the man who who practices 10,000 different kicks, I fear the man who practices one kick 10,000 times. I kind of build out those types of analogies, metaphors for them to understand. It's not how many different drills you do for speed. It's how well do you do the one or two? And oh, by the way, when you get really good at these, can you still replicate and duplicate under fatigue? Because that's what I'll do as we get further into our off season. Now we'll start our session with good drilling.
00:34:35
Speaker
Now put a little bit of workload on them. Now i'll come back and say, get back to your drilling. Can you reproduce these things in a fatigue state? Everybody can do them once learned. They can do them fresh. Can you do them under fatigue? And to me, that's important.
00:34:48
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. i I take that same approach for particular stick skills in practice. And then we get to add the stress of an opponent. So now maintaining ah these fundamentals with the stress, fatigue, and here's an opponent.
00:35:03
Speaker
So how are you integrating reactions and open loop into this speed and transition agility to development? So ironically enough, what I do is my my Monday and Thursdays are my linear days, right? Those are the days I'm going to groove things. I'm going after speed exposures. I'm going after force.
00:35:21
Speaker
Well, my Tuesdays and Fridays become more of my COD days, which ironically enough are are still built off of the same principles. Now i'm just transitioning because I believe this is really what change of direction is, is how quickly can I get back to acceleration? So if it's a Tuesday, I say, hey, everything that we just did Monday, now we're going to put into pure application and I'll build out drills of reaction. I'll build out drills of of shadowing. I'll build out drills of you know reaction off of a coach decision making, but making them understand that all the mechanics they just worked on are going to bridge
00:35:53
Speaker
when they get into their change of direction. So it really becomes hand in glove where I, that's where I see a gap. I don't see a lot of coaches understanding that usually when I come out of some sort of break, any, well, let's call it like a shuffle. Anytime but a shuffle going straight ahead, lateral, ah going backwards, like I'm going back into acceleration.
00:36:11
Speaker
So now is it a crossover? Is a drop step? Is it a, is, you know, is it ah a rhythm step? Like there's so many different things that set up my acceleration, but ultimately i just,
00:36:23
Speaker
Tell them, hey, everything we just did on Monday, now I i need the same mechanics with a reactive component to it. Yeah, yeah that's that's awesome. So now how how are you helping them communicate sometimes that these where these drills connect to their position, their sport?
00:36:40
Speaker
I don't. You don't? Okay. don't. I don't. I believe in training the skill, get it efficient, get it sticky and say, go play. and set them free.
00:36:51
Speaker
Awesome. to Set them free. And I've always believed that in my entire career. I don't care who I've worked with, whether it was, you know, the McCaffrey's or the Eckler's or the the Von Miller's like, I'm going to set you up into these positions to do these things. Now go play.
00:37:06
Speaker
Now go play. Because what happens now you're there hearing too many voices. I'm not their position coach. I'm not going to tell them how to do this. You know, I see coaches do that all the time where they'll say, here's great acceleration position. And they're teaching a running back how to be tall through the hole. And it's like, no, like they need to be everything but that. So for me, it's understanding that here's a model of training that I've built for you. Now go play, go take the intuitive components and go play.
00:37:33
Speaker
Don't don't get in the way. Yeah. um I want to transition into to leadership and behaviors. Behaviors is ah ah a word we've dropped a little bit. So expectation is everyone's a leader, I imagine, in Notre Dame. So how do you help fulfill that prophecy where all of our behaviors eventually lead to the awesome outcome on Saturdays?
00:37:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's understanding that everybody on our roster matters. Everybody, everybody on our roster, everybody in our verticals, everybody who's helping the program win matters. And so that's champion from our head coach. And I run with that in our room as well. um you know i always tell them is you know every year is unique right you're turning over leadership most likely and um so every year is unique and this year was unique as well and you know i think leadership finds itself um i think forced leadership is something that happens at times and you know ah guys will ask me my opinion on leadership a lot hey coach i want to i want to be a better leader this year what do you suggest and i said well
00:38:40
Speaker
So, you know, be you, be you. I said, but the hardest thing about leadership is being consistent in leadership. I said, a lot of people say they want to lead because they want the I said, but you need to be the same person every day.
00:38:54
Speaker
You need to uphold all the things that you're telling these guys to uphold to. You need to be the, you've got to be the picture of it. And I said, that's why people can't do leadership is because they cannot maintain consistent enough, long enough to earn the leadership. So I tell them first and foremost, like if you don't have good habits around the building, if you don't have good habits in the weight room, if you don't have good practice habits, like leadership is going be really challenging for you. You might be well liked, but you're not going to have the leadership mentality. And so I tell them that that's the challenging thing. And then once they are appointed leadership, I always tell them, here's one of the hardest things about leadership is repeating yourself the same thing, repeating and saying the same things every day.
00:39:35
Speaker
and not getting sick of your own voice, not getting frustrated in the process, understanding that everything that you're trying to cultivate in a locker room is going to take time. And so I have them understand that leadership, you have to be consistent in your message, even when you don't think it's being a heard. You've got to stay consistent because they're waiting for you to stop.
00:39:54
Speaker
And if you stop, who's going to pick up? And so, you know, to me, I really i create the metaphor of everybody rowing in the boat together. Mike – Everybody's gotta to be like i've always said during tough times you have three individuals that show up in the rowboat in the middle of a storm. Mike Wilberg – you you have the teammate who's going to row hard he's going put his orange to the water and he's going to. Wilberg – he's going to pull with all his might and he's going to stay on cadence with everybody else and then you have the guy who's going to row really, really hard, but he's just going to row in a little bit different direction.
00:40:26
Speaker
And then you have the guy who's gonna put the oar in the water and he's just gonna give it a little bit. I said, those are the three people that show up when times get tough. I said, I need to make sure that I have a locker room, that I have a leadership of everybody rowing in the same direction on the same canes with the same effort all the way through. And so to me, it's it's something that they have to see. They have to watch my staff. They have to watch our coaching staff. They have to watch everybody operate around the building to understand that like, we're all in this together and we're all going at the same direction.
00:40:55
Speaker
it's that's That's a great metaphor and and visual for them. And how would you suggest that they start or how do you lead them to then lead and have conflict? I view conflict as a great thing.
00:41:09
Speaker
How do you have them step up and and not be afraid to call somebody out for maybe missing a rep or resting resting on their knees or whatever the the the standard is within the weight room that somebody just...
00:41:22
Speaker
add it They were fatigued. They forgot for a second and acted away from what standard is for the team. Yeah, we have a standard that's set and we have a lot of like internal like trigger words that we'll use and say, I won't share them, but like we have words that are specific to our program that are going to tell guys to focus and to, you know, hey, check where your breathing posture is and check your mindset and check your eyes. You know, we we have those things. um But I think the biggest thing is that the culture that we provide, you know, we have a standards board, right? When when people come into the weight room in the summer program or even all the way through the spring, like you're hear the below line above the line.
00:41:59
Speaker
And it might be your position groups below the line. Hey, coach, why are we below the gra line? Oh, somebody came into the weight room with a chain on. Somebody had earrings in. Somebody didn't have the right shirt on. And so we set that early and often and we stay consistent with it. So that's one way. But I think the other thing is communicating to our leaders that like, look, leadership is uncomfortable at times and it needs to be.
00:42:22
Speaker
um You know, if you're getting into leadership to be liked, like you picked the wrong thing. If you want to be liked, to open up an ice cream store. Right. You know, but if you want to be a leader, like understand there's moments where it's going to be challenging and you're going to have to, you know, you're going to have to call people out and that's OK.
00:42:38
Speaker
um I've always said in my entire career, like if not, if not now, then when? Like, when are you going to take the opportunity to have your voice heard? Like, what are you waiting for? um How bad are you going to wait for things to get before you actually expose your leadership voice? And so for me, like leadership needs to be often and it needs to be early.
00:43:00
Speaker
Man, that yeah, that's that's powerful stuff. If not now, then then when? And that that encourages them, like, stop talking about it. Like, take action. yeah If you see it, say something. You just took the words out of my mouth. That's what i always say. If it doesn't look right to you, say something. If it doesn't align with our values, say something.
00:43:20
Speaker
Yeah. Exactly right. charlie Charlie Francis quote, if it don't look right, don't fly right. Yeah, exactly right. And and leadership and and team going in the right direction. um If it's okay to explore, I'm curious how Notre Dame football goes about choosing their their team captains each year.
00:43:38
Speaker
You know, our peers did it. you know they're They're voted on by their peers, and they did a great job here. you know The six captains that were picked were the right choices. we have ah We have a mature group of athletes here that made the right picks.
00:43:51
Speaker
maintaining connections to leadership and just knowing the very small percentage of athletes that do turn pro, what are some of the mindsets and approach where you're helping connect life after football to now this current opportunity they have as a team with their brothers, with the coaches and mentors they have in place?
00:44:14
Speaker
That's a, that's a, it's a unique perspective because, you know, at Notre Dame, like, you you know Whether you play a professional sport or not you're going to have a lot of opportunities coming out of here. one thing i always tell them and i i told them this week um i said look i said your x factor here at notre dame is like your education and your education and academic requirements here are not an obstacle it's your x factor i said the mental capacity and physical capacity that our players have is what separates us and so i think once you kind of paint that picture for them they understand like
00:44:50
Speaker
we are doing something different here than a lot of places that play high level football, like the academics are such a high standard. um So I think because of that, they hear it often, they see plenty of um you know former alumni here who have gone on to do incredible things in the business world and who have done incredible things you know outside of football. So I think we do a really good job of showing them what is possible, even if you can't make it to the NFL, what's possible with a Notre Dame degree. And I think that just helps you drive the direction. you know, all these players will say like, man, I'm walking out of here with my masters from Notre Dame. Like, you know, it's, it's, it gives me chills just to to say it because these kids, they have so much pride, but really what it's going to allow them to do moving forward.
00:45:37
Speaker
And ah I imagine former players are coming back and then reinforcing all these lessons. Do you get guys coming back, whether it's pros to to train with you or, or guys just try to relive the glory days on game day? You know, we get a lot of our, you know, we'll have a lot of our players that will stay here and get ready for their pro day.
00:45:56
Speaker
um But then we have a lot of guys that will come in at different times of the spring to train and just get back to South Bend from their NFL teams. But then we have a lot of alumni from, you know, teams back in the eighties who will come back eighties and earlier that will come back for, you know, the, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of game week. And they'll show themselves around the facilities. And you know I'm always quick to point out to our guys who that was. you know I think it was one of our workouts last summer, ah Rocket Ishmael was watching us train.
00:46:27
Speaker
And you know I told our players afterwards, I go, you guys know who that was? like That's pretty cool that you know somebody who's so legendary here at Notre Dame was watching you guys in a summer workout. So it's it's all around you, and there's so much you know just pride in the history here that the players see it often of everybody who's coming back.
00:46:48
Speaker
And stepping back to your pre-Notre Dame coaching career, did you ever run into, whether it was at the Broncos or or through your facility, a Notre Dame guy and just noticed something special about him?
00:47:02
Speaker
Yeah, I always knew the Notre Dame guys were special. you know I had Theo Riddick, I had Grant Irons, I had different players over the years and they were always just a little bit different how they processed and their work habits and everything like that. So I've always known that there was something special about the Notre Dame guys, but to be here,
00:47:20
Speaker
And, you know, when I first got the job, everybody told me, they said, just wait till you're around these kids and you see these kids. And it was about a month in. I'm like, this place is different. Like they are wired so different and in such a good way. And it's just it's it's a wholesome feel as a coach to be a part of it.
00:47:38
Speaker
And so now with Transfer Portal open, guys come from different college football experiences and then they now step into Notre Dame. what What's that learning process like? Is there a higher learning curve? Do you as a strength coach now step in and set expectations?
00:47:56
Speaker
Yeah, the the guys we bring in, you know, you know they they They understand when they're coming to Notre Dame, like there's a lot with it. um we We bring them in and we put them with the freshmen that come in in the in January. So you know there's no, I wouldn't say special privileges. like We're going to teach them the same way that we teach our freshmen. And so we bring them in and we teach them the Notre Dame way, to your point. And it's probably within the first couple months where they realize this place is different.
00:48:23
Speaker
um I think they realize it early on, but just you know after you spend a little bit more time here, you just... You know, you're you're you're you just can't help but like feel that there's a different feeling around here. Yeah.
00:48:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Even just walking around, I felt felt very special. um All right. So I do want to get to. Well, here's the last last question before we get to the lacrosse stuff. The the golden standard.
00:48:48
Speaker
So you mentioned standard earlier. is Is there a set definition for the golden standard? And and and this is something Fred mentioned. Yeah, so the golden standard is Coach Freeman.
00:48:59
Speaker
You know, he talks about his three pillars. First one's challenge everything. And what he means by that is find a better way. You know, don't fall into that pattern of what worked last year or we did this because we've always done this. And Coach Freeman wants us to challenge everything. And that's coach to coach, coach to athlete, athlete to coach. Like he wants to make sure that we challenge everything.
00:49:18
Speaker
Number two is unit strength. And unit strength is you choose to love. You know, Love is unconditional and you choose to love and you love your your teammate you love your unit you love your side of the ball and you love your team. And those are the big things he he champions and within that like you know, you trust is earned at the same time like love is unconditional but trust is earned.
00:49:42
Speaker
And then lastly is competitive spirit. Find, find a way, find a way to win. Um, making sure that we reach our full potential is something that we always talk about, but it's find a way to win, um, and competing in everything that we do. So those three pillars are really what hold together the golden standard.
00:50:01
Speaker
I love it. I'm getting goosebumps. That's, I mean, that's motivating in life too. Yeah. Um, Sweet. I, uh, I'm glad they're going to hold on to those lessons for whatever's next. Um, winding down, I'd want to highlight cause this is, this is something I experienced every single day in Texas is football players that are playing lacrosse and it, it is not common and y'all are a really, I mean, just setting the stage for more people to play dual sports at the next level and focus on so particular skills is so important for each of these guys. And then now you're in the background preparing these guys for football and have a good relationship with the the strength coach on the lacrosse side of things. So what is your approach knowing that they're going to compete
00:50:52
Speaker
essentially year round at the highest level. Yeah. So I think like, you know, we, we look at some of our athletes who, who played on the national championship team of lacrosse that then played in the national championship of the, for football, you know, that athlete, he played 11 years of competitive sport almost between, you know, preparing in camp to going all the way into the finals. So you have to have incredible communication from the head coaches. The head coaches need to be aligned to both sports. And then our director of sports science, John Waggle, and then myself and the head the head strength conditioning coach for lacrosse, plus the athletic trainers at Service Boat Sports need to all be aligned and communicating first and foremost. um you know We had a player who was coming in to us over the summer
00:51:45
Speaker
who had just finished his lacrosse season and and you know I told this player hey you're not going to do anything that's high work related with us I'll get you in the weight room but you're not going to do a ton of running with us for the first three weeks.
00:51:58
Speaker
You know they they get so much volume in lacrosse and so I want to make sure like let's use whatever windows I have to develop in the weight room to do that. When you're competing 11 months a year you lose opportunities to develop. And that was my biggest concern is where can I find these opportunities to give this person a little bit more exposure into the weight room? So we have a couple of players that that that hybrid back and forth between lacrosse and football. And it really comes down to good communication and understanding of what you support each sport is going to detract from the other sport and what you have to build in additive. um you know One thing when my lacrosse player my football players come back from lacrosse, I usually have to add a little bit weight back to their frame. um The unique thing is I don't have to add any running. What I might have to add is high speed running.
00:52:44
Speaker
um They get so much work capacity. But one thing we find when we compare the the GPS metrics is they do a lot more high speed efforts in football. So, and again, that comes down to what position you play. Both happen to be wide receivers. So, you know, high speed sprinting is one thing that we we look at that we need to make sure they're getting enough of with us. So it's looking at the different gaps between both sports and and what qualities are being supported by one and and the other, and then watch which ones aren't, and then where do I need to step in and fill that gap.
00:53:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And i I, I, love to communicate the importance of how each sport helps the other. So sometimes I got to work against football politics just within my particular school. And I communicate where football, at least at the high school level, they're, they're caught coached to go through. And now in lacrosse, we're, we're,
00:53:41
Speaker
aiming to evade and create space here. So it's making them these better skill and agility football players because the other players are expecting to go through. And then we just get a little sidestep and look great. So it's I'm aiming to help educate on the importance of how both sports can marry However, if we're going to play lacrosse aiming to go through, it's going to be a physical time. I'm going to enjoy it. But at the same time, we're not going to be accomplishing what we need to. So it's it's fun to to find the connections and then me having to communicate this, like where this is good, where we need to change certain things, and where it can help you on the opposite field, whether that may be. I i joke...
00:54:24
Speaker
often I speak football. It's okay. So yeah yeah, no, I think that's a good point though, too. And talk about the ability to evade. I mean, making somebody more agile and, you know, as we talked about more efficient is only going to help them play, um, play the other sport as well, even if it is to go through.
00:54:43
Speaker
Cool. Well, man, uh, I, I appreciate the time I value, ah not only what I've picked up here, but also just what you're giving back to the guys and then giving back to the strength community as a whole. I've i've seen you present multiple times at and NSCA events or at that that play um conference way back when. So you're still one of the most efficient, to use that word again, educators out there in efficiency in moving through space. So appreciate all you've contributed to my professional coaching career and those other coaches out there.
00:55:18
Speaker
I appreciate Tex, and appreciate the work that you're doing on your platform and just getting to spend a little bit of time with you last weekend. I really appreciate it. keep up all the great work, my man. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Captains and Coaches podcast. If you like what you heard here today, be sure to like, subscribe, wait, and review the show. If you want weekly coaching guidance delivered straight to you, sign up for our newsletter at newsletter.captainsandcoaches.com. And lastly, if you're looking to raise your game as a coach and improve your ability to connect, communicate, and cue, then check out my new course, Why They're Not Listening.
00:55:55
Speaker
find that and the first lesson free at the listen.captainsandcoaches.com. Thank you all again for tuning in. See you next time.