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115 - Speed is Simple. People are Complex.
84 Plays2 days ago
Matt Erdman spent 14 years in law enforcement before stumbling into a coaching opportunity he wasn't ready for. He'll be the first to tell you he didn't know a thing. So he learned.
Now he runs Veritas Athletic Performance in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska — a speed and performance facility built on one word: truth. Truth in faith. Truth in law enforcement. Truth in training. The stopwatch doesn't lie, and neither does he.
In this episode, Matt and Tex break down the real work of speed development — why athletes get slower before they get faster, how to sell that to a kid who just wants a PR, and the shift every performance coach eventually has to make from obsessing over the program to obsessing over the person.
Speed is a skill. Connection is the foundation. This one covers both.
Education - Captains & Coaches course, "Why They're Not Listening - Coaching Today's Athlete": http://listen.captainsandcoaches.com
Training - Old Bull Program - 7 Day Free Trial - https://bit.ly/old-bull-train
C&C Merch - shop.captainsandcoaches.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Speed and Coaching Philosophy
00:00:00
Speaker
Speed is simple. You either move faster or you don't. The stopwatch doesn't care about your feelings, your excuses, or how hard you think you work. But getting an athlete to actually commit to getting faster, to trust the process, to get slower before you get faster, to stick around long enough for the ceiling to rise, that part's not simple at all.
Matt Erdman's Career Transition and Veritas Athletic Performance
00:00:24
Speaker
That part is coaching. Today's guest has spent 14 years in law enforcement before pivoting into the weight room and the track. He built his coaching business in Colorado, packed up his family, and planted roots in western Nebraska to build something special in a community that needed it and a place that fits who he is.
00:00:45
Speaker
Coach Matt Erdman runs Veritas Athletic Performance in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska. Veritas is Latin for truth and that word, truth, runs through everything he does. Faith, law enforcement, and now training.
00:01:00
Speaker
In today's conversation, Matt and I get into the phases of acceleration. How to sell a slower time to an athlete who just changed their mechanics and the moment every speed coach has to figure it out.
00:01:13
Speaker
When do you stop obsessing over the program and start obsessing over the person? Spoiler, it took Matt four years. And he'll tell you he should have figured it out sooner.
00:01:24
Speaker
This one's about speed, but it's really about trust. Excited to
Approach to Speed Training and Athlete Development
00:01:30
Speaker
have Matt on. He's been a friend for about nine years and I've seen him through that journey from law enforcement to school, coaching, and now running a business. Excited for this one. This episode is brought to you by my course, Why They're Not Listening.
00:01:45
Speaker
coaching the modern athlete. To learn more about that, head to listen.captainsandcoaches.com. Matt took the course. He's got some insight and things that he picked up from it that we get into in this episode. So let me hand it off to Matt who helps us raise the game. Ready, ready, and break.
00:02:03
Speaker
No, man, I thank you much for having me on here. It's a crazy full circle moment to be here chatting with you. I know. Nine years. We met in 2017.
00:02:14
Speaker
so I was thinking about that too. it was like, that was nine years ago. Felt like a totally different lifetime ago. ah You're not wrong. Different, different seasons of life. And i if I recall correctly, at that time, you were law enforcement and getting back into coaching based off of an awesome athletic career that, that, I mean, crafted some character within who you believe and feel you are and wanted to give back to, to your community.
00:02:42
Speaker
Yeah, it was it was wild. I was still doing police work, got a different assignment and was able to have a little bit more flexible schedule and stumbled into a program and a coach that gave me a chance to come hang out. And then I realized I didn't know a dang thing about coaching.
00:02:59
Speaker
So I had to learn really quick. Yeah. And then now now here we are. You've had a facility, but now you've moved your family and started to hold brand new facility.
00:03:12
Speaker
So what sparked that move? Was this a return to home? I mean, not a lot of people go back to Nebraska or moved to Nebraska without a reason.
Community and Family Values in Coaching
00:03:21
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean, you're you're absolutely correct.
00:03:24
Speaker
Yeah, so we were in we were in Colorado for 18 years. Police worked for 14 and then started our coaching business for athletes on the back end of that for about three years.
00:03:37
Speaker
And we got four kids. This year we're going to be 15, 13, 11, 9 through the end of this. And we just kind of were looking at, you know, raising them and and seeing what that looked like for them as they're going through their their growth and learning about who we want them to be as they get to be adults.
00:03:57
Speaker
I grew up in small farm town, Nebraska. My wife grew up in even smaller farm town, Minnesota. And we we, I think we had enough of of being in the city.
00:04:09
Speaker
And we ended up stumbling into a place where we could move our coaching business, find a home, and then looking at the schools and different things like for family, it just fit really, really well for us to make the move to Western Nebraska. and So I've been here.
00:04:23
Speaker
Now for about eight months, I don't think I could have asked for a better transition, especially for our kids of of school teams, getting them connected. And then business wise, man, it's been refreshing kind of getting into a community of of connection with, I mean, shoot, pretty much anybody and everybody that that's willing. So It's been a wild, wild year for sure. Crazy thinking about how long ago it was when we started this whole world and where we ended up, but we're sitting pretty at the moment.
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah. And one of the anchors of your coaching and focuses is speed. So I want to spend a lot of time with that. Speed is very measurable.
00:05:07
Speaker
It takes so much investment for an athlete to one, understand, two, commit, and then three, see the result. And the result, unlike a barbell, it's not like a 200 pound jump where we're pound in our chest and feeling good.
00:05:22
Speaker
We're talking about split seconds of improvement, where you value it.
Teaching Mechanics and Athlete Feedback
00:05:28
Speaker
So I'm curious, how do you start to see and show, not just tell them that they're getting faster, but help show them that they're getting faster, and then really build that buy in with your community?
00:05:40
Speaker
No, I mean, that's a really good point because it's it's one of those things where everyone should just be like, oh, kids know how to run. They do it all the time in their sports. yeah we could We can argue that. they They run where they know how to do it as a totally different different animal.
00:05:55
Speaker
And the more I've done this, when I first started doing it, I knew I had to have something to hold me accountable, but also to show that we're actually making progress. So I ended up getting the timing system, right? I had to make sure that I was getting objection, like results that I couldn't argue with.
00:06:15
Speaker
Because you can make someone look better running, but they may not actually be faster, right? They may look prettier, they may look smoother, but if we're still forgetting about this whole force concept ah of being able to drive and make ourselves move, we're still missing a big piece of the equation as to what it looks like to be faster.
00:06:35
Speaker
And so that's a huge part of it from the get go was like, Hey, here's our times. And in the beginning I was like, man, we're just trying to get faster. I didn't know what our anchors were, um, how much we needed to improve. I just knew more was better.
00:06:48
Speaker
And the longer that I've done this, now we have spots where I know where kids are coming in, whether it's a sport or how old they are, what, you know, a boy or girl, we can look and say, Hey, our goal is to be in this range.
00:07:02
Speaker
This is going to be a spot where I know that you're going to be able to compete fairly well for what it is that you want to accomplish. And right we can look at this from excuse me from size, from from gender, from sport, position, a lot of different places.
00:07:18
Speaker
We're still getting them faster. We want them to be faster. But we also know that it's that it's not reasonable for 230-pound tight end to run the same as a sprinter and maybe a wide receiver.
00:07:33
Speaker
we still want progress, we still want improvements, we can give them benchmarks for what it is that they're trying to accomplish and what they're ultimately trying to get to. and a lot of times it's a conversation with them because everyone wants to set records and they think like, oh if I come run for three weeks, like I should get faster every day. Like, if that's the case, you're going to be running in the LA Olympics here in 28 and you'll run like a seven second hundred.
00:08:01
Speaker
and you'll be the most famous human on the face of the earth. It's like, it's not feasible. And so it takes a lot of you know communication, education on my part to the kids, to the families of what we're trying to do and how we're trying to accomplish this. If we reach certain numbers, we're good even without setting a record all the time.
00:08:19
Speaker
And it's a it's it's not a chore, but it's definitely intentional to make sure that they know what they're trying to accomplish and to still be I don't know if happy is the right word, but still at least be accepting of like, okay, this was still a good day even without right setting a record or hitting a PR. why that day where they don't feel like it's a win, there's still wins within there.
00:08:46
Speaker
And not every day at the plate or on the football field is going to be perfect. We won't always progress. So this, even though it's not a barbell, right? The the barbell never lies. 225 is always 225. Now we get the opportunity to teach them as well.
00:09:02
Speaker
The stopwatch doesn't lie. what can we learn from this? And sometimes it's effort. Sometimes it's du just natural coordination and progression. So help share some of the conversations, insights that you have with those guys to show that, Hey, even though we didn't get faster per se, we're still getting better.
00:09:25
Speaker
Yeah. And there's several ways we look at this and i like your, your baseball analogy at the plate. Cause I use it a fair amount. Um, Because a lot of times when kids and athletes come in, they run how they their body has organized it for whatever reason. A lot of times some sport shapes how they run.
00:09:42
Speaker
And so we have the luxury of stripping all that away and we can just focus on how they actually move. And so they'll come in and they'll run and it's like, oh, that was really fast. And we time them like, ah it was decent. it was like okay now we need to make right we're going through our drills we're making our adjustments and they go through and they run a slower time they're like wait a second why did i get slower i said well have you ever had right when we go to the baseball analogy when it tell me a time that your coach adjusted your swing or your throw or any mechanical piece and they're like okay fair enough i think about that we have that
00:10:17
Speaker
If you're at the plate and you're taking BP and your swing gets adjusted, how many pitches do you hit out of the next 10? They're like, yeah not many. I said, okay, why?
00:10:28
Speaker
Well, I just changed something and I had to adjust and I got to figure out my new pattern. I said, thank you. So what we're doing is we're giving you new patterns to learn so that way you can do better because right now you're at your ceiling. You're running as hard as possible. We're just, oh this is as much as we can get.
00:10:43
Speaker
And now that we've made the adjustments, we're going to let it like we're going to drop a little bit because it's thoughtful. It's different. We're in focusing on that. And now here, but we're raising your ceiling and eventually we're goingnna keep pushing that and letting you keep building.
00:11:00
Speaker
And once you kind of put it into their framework, whatever their sport is, and like everyone gets coaching and correcting, whether it's baseball, softball, volleyball, hitting a ball, tennis, like you can figure it out.
00:11:13
Speaker
And then once you get them to realize that this isn't much different than their sport as far as skill acquisition, they look at it a little different because a lot of times kids come and it's like, well, I can just sprint fast. I'm a fast person.
00:11:26
Speaker
and you can look at them and say well you are fast but you're not efficient and we can film you and show you like this is not how it's supposed to look like you're fast but you can be even faster or you're fast but how often do you pull your hip flexor your groin or your hamstring they're like oh quite a bit i was like okay let's film you this is why And it's it's connecting with them to educate like educate them on on a level that they care about. like Not most kids going to care about all the fancy words and what the muscles are called. It's like we're we're keeping it as basic and general as possible.
00:12:00
Speaker
But then once they realize that, they're just oh. And it's crazy how fast they learn as they're moving. And they'll start to come back and tell you in a run what they didn't like.
00:12:14
Speaker
And now they're starting to essentially feel it and connect the dots and coach themselves. And now there's like, okay, I felt it, but now how do I fix it?
Athlete Self-assessment and Development
00:12:22
Speaker
Perfect. We're learning right before you had no idea what was going on.
00:12:25
Speaker
Now you realize it, but we don't quite know how to fix it. And now we're going to give you the opportunity to fix it. And now we are well on our way to learning. Mm-hmm. Yeah, i just did that um focus on competency level.
00:12:41
Speaker
And then a lot of the questions that I ask athletes to gauge where they are in this path of competency and awareness. And then the beautiful thing is every time they learn a new skill, they reenter that competency model.
00:12:55
Speaker
So I can't assume if they're good at baseball, that they're going to be good in their fast, that they're going to be good at sprinting. they're good at running fast, focusing on where their ball's going off the field.
00:13:08
Speaker
But now we got to take them all the way back to this very conscious, focused level where they're listening to coaching. And then just as you said, now my questions start to change based off of what their experience is.
00:13:23
Speaker
So I love the question of how that feel. Yeah. Now it's very broad. But now they they tell me where their feedback loop is. If they give me a, I don't know. Okay, well, we're in the beginning of this competency model. This is unconscious incompetence. You don't know what you're doing.
00:13:41
Speaker
how that How did that feel? ah that Did that feel fast? Yeah. No. So now we're we're general. I can take a step back until, what'd you feel out of the blocks?
00:13:52
Speaker
Now I'm very specific. I have to have them think back to a phase of our sprint. And that's that's where we can really start to dive into this. So I'd love for you to introduce the the different phases of acceleration that that you've picked up over the years that have...
00:14:12
Speaker
and how you communicate that to a teenager. Because we can get super nitty-gritty here, you know, our our Derek Hansen or Darren Hansen, always mix those guys up, and kids aren't going to relate to that stuff. So how do you, understanding the different phases of acceleration, communicate that to a teenager?
00:14:34
Speaker
Yeah, and it's... it is and I do my best to keep it as straightforward as possible because like I said, I enjoy it. I enjoy talking about it. Kids could care less. They just want to get better.
00:14:46
Speaker
And so we kind of keep it to as as simple as possible. So we keep our our acceleration And we don't try to break it up and do like all of these different phases because then they just confuse the goodness out of all of it.
00:15:01
Speaker
So realistically, like we just keep it acceleration is what you're going to keep doing until you get to your top speed. And so we just kind of focus on the fact of we we get our two point start, but a lot of it is like, okay, how well can we get our first three steps?
00:15:18
Speaker
And our first three steps should feel really similar. We should feel like um realistically an airplane taking off down a runway. because And that's going to be our acceleration to our flight and our top speed.
00:15:34
Speaker
And so because you can think like that's an analogy that probably everybody has seen and we can relate to. And like, okay, if you've been on a plane, right, essentially they pop the clutch and you you take off pretty quick and you keep going faster and faster and faster. And eventually we take off.
00:15:49
Speaker
Right? Planes, unless they're the super fancy military ones, planes don't go here. And if they do, they probably come back down like this. So, and that's kind of the analogy. Like if we come out and we turn into a rocket,
00:16:03
Speaker
then we're just probably going to crash and not going to go very fast. So going let ourselves stay in this drive of this airplane down the runway as long as we can comfortably manage this to make sure that we are driving as much as we can for the direction that we want to go. And we'll use resisted runs, whether it's bands, whether it's sleds or anything that's going to give them a little bit to force them into that position of how long can I drive or how well can I hold this position for 10, 12, 15, 20 yards, depending upon who we are and what we need to accomplish.
00:16:38
Speaker
And ah ah what I found myself telling kids more is acceleration is incredibly intentional for our first three to five steps. We need to be really at least Gosh, three steps, if we can get 50% of our max speed, like we're going to be good. We keep growing, like we got to keep getting faster.
00:16:57
Speaker
But if we're running 20 yards, we should still be speeding up every step of the way. So even though our acceleration may be dying off and we're starting to get a little bit more into our takeoff mode, we still have to have the intent of, we are still attacking, even though it's not the exact same position, we still have to gain speed because if my airplane leaves the ground and I stop increasing my speed, once again, we're gonna end up falling back down to the earth.
Connecting Beyond Programming
00:17:25
Speaker
So it's it's this gradual, right pop the clutch let ourselves explode out of this in our first three to five steps and continue to think we're going to keep attacking and pushing and driving and accelerating realistically until we can't accelerate any further and for a lot of kids right we're probably around 30 yards we get to top speed if we got some track only kids we're trying to push that out a little bit further down you know 40 50 meters for it but that's kind of the simplistic way of teaching them and like just getting them to wrap their heads around it.
00:17:59
Speaker
um And there's a lot of times I'll be honest, I'll get kids that run and I will stare at them for like 10 seconds trying to figure out how I want to phrase it. That's not confusing or complicated or like big words. And they'll come back.
00:18:14
Speaker
And they're like, hey, how was that run? I'm like, just just give me a little bit. like I liked it. It was good. i said, there's something that we need to adjust. I just need to figure out how to phrase it to make it click better.
00:18:28
Speaker
And there's a handful, like when new kids come in, they just kind of look at you like you're a weirdo. Like, what do you mean? You're not going to talk to me? I'm like, no, literally like go, go get back in line, hang tight. Give me like 30, 40 seconds and then I'll come back.
00:18:40
Speaker
And like, that's something that's been taking me a little bit to get used to of of phrasing my words really well in the first place, as opposed to thinking out loud just with the group.
00:18:53
Speaker
And there are certain times like certain kids coach them for a while or have that connection, like we can kind of think out loud and bounce back and forth because they're getting a little bit more intentional with it.
00:19:04
Speaker
But for the generalities of it, I need to make sure that my communication goes really well because the longer I talk to them, the less they're going to pay attention. So if I take 20 to 30 seconds of silence for me to let my wheels turn to figure out how to say it really well in one sentence, that's a huge win for them and their ability to grasp it.
00:19:25
Speaker
hmm. Yeah, I like that. and
00:19:30
Speaker
I really like that. So two notes on that. ah the The thinking aloud, like oftentimes, I think back to early in my career, like that's that's that's almost selfish coaching where I'm trying to flex everything I see versus a rule of one.
00:19:48
Speaker
Coach Nick Winkleman, amazing book, Language of Coaching. He just focuses on what's one thing that I can have them think about for their next rep. where okay it's going to take you a second to to process calculate and then assign what's the potential one thing that is going to correct a lot of what we saw wrong especially in speed if we have proper setup it's going to fix a lot of the downhill negative effects
00:20:19
Speaker
So now I understand that process where where I would encourage you to try is have that have them think about or feel or ask themselves a question so their brain is occupied.
00:20:33
Speaker
It doesn't feel like there's this space and distance. um So what what would be your fast thinking of, hey, what can I give this guy? Or maybe it's, hey, watch this next rep.
00:20:47
Speaker
I want you to watch how Jimmy jimmy takes off here. So now I just distracted him. and gives me time to process, but I may miss Jimmy's rep. So there may be a fault there, but yeah, just throwing that out there. What are, what are some fast thinking tools that you can apply so they don't feel like there's this massive gap in space to um that they may not get like some kids that are new to your gym. They may get turned off by that. Oh, coach is not very active. He's not paying attention.
00:21:19
Speaker
What's your fast thinking say there? Yeah, no, I mean, it's a good point. And it's um in those instances, there is this like essential to come back and always follow up with it to to give them those little feedback cues to make sure that they're getting there.
00:21:35
Speaker
But that is a super good point. Like there are times it's, you know, you have someone in who's like, man, this kid's dialed in. They're good. They can almost just run this session with the way that they operate and right. Use them as either, either demos or just straight like, Hey Johnny, come here. Like,
00:21:52
Speaker
Do you want to run like this kid? Like he's super fast, like doing all the stuff in the world. Come here for second. Let's watch a rep. Let's see what it looks like. Tell me like, what does, I want you to coach. Tell me what it is that you see, what you like, how it operates with what you're seeing.
00:22:08
Speaker
And right pair that with what it is that how you feel when you run. And let's see if we can now right attack all the senses of the motor learning, like we're we're doing it, we're seeing it, right and then we're thinking about it.
00:22:21
Speaker
So now we can close that loop of literally trying to touch every aspect of it. And it very well could be write that piece that really connects the dots for them to be able to do all parts of it.
00:22:34
Speaker
But yeah, i mean, if there's a kid who's like, no, like coach, what is it that I need to fix? You know, there's, there's usually some pretty simplistic things that we can, we can tell them that a lot of kids, right, right, wrong or different as, as coaches, a lot of times the phrase of like, get your knees up, right? Bigger, bigger knees in front.
00:22:54
Speaker
And like, well, is that what I need to do? i'm like, yes, however, is like you have equal and opposite things working, right? For every action, there should be an equal and opposite reaction.
00:23:05
Speaker
So that leg's only going to get there if your leg in the ground finishes pushing. And a lot of times they look at you and they're like, what do you mean? Okay, well, if I stand here and lift my leg, you can do that all day long. You don't go anywhere.
00:23:18
Speaker
And you see the wheels turn like, okay. But if that leg in the ground pushes you, Now you're getting someplace, but the more it pushes, the better opportunity you have for your front side leg to get to the position that you want.
00:23:32
Speaker
So it's not just about what is the front do. It'd be like asking a baseball player to be like, what is your left arm do when the bat swings versus your right? Right. We need that one to do more. Okay.
00:23:43
Speaker
That doesn't make sense. They both work in conjunction. And so those pieces and then that usually gets them to think and you'll see them over in the corner like pushing like oh right now the light bulb's starting to go off and they're they're starting to see the the push and the drive and and connecting right those things and it's it is there's times i i do my best to be like oh i've i've been told to do this and like yes however let's let's look at it this way
00:24:15
Speaker
okay because there's always context for why they're being told something and I can't just tell them out and like, nope, that's dumb, don't do that ever again. Because then once again, you could be telling them that what their favorite coach in the world just told them was dumb,
00:24:30
Speaker
And I have no reason to voice that other than I just don't like what they said. Well, guess what? I don't know the context. i don't know any of it. So we're just going to take that and say, cool. I like the way that that sounds. Let's phrase this just a little differently. Let's think slightly differently within that same context to keep with what you know and just add a little bit more to it instead of trying to re reframe your whole thought process.
00:24:53
Speaker
Yeah, i I like that. So I'm curious in your coaching career, when did conversations start to have more value? When did you transition your thinking from programming to people?
00:25:10
Speaker
Oh man. Um, if I were smart enough and paid attention, it would have happened within my first year. Cause I had some really, like, is I had some really crazy interactions with kids and just learning about like their life and their families and the struggles that they went through and the connection that they had.
00:25:29
Speaker
Um, but for me, I was still like, Oh, that's great. But I got to really focus on how well my program is. And like all of these pieces, And the more I look at it, and I'd probably say within the last four years, it's been a lot more intentional on the connection piece is equally as important as the programming piece.
00:25:53
Speaker
Because especially now, I mean, with this technology that you can get in a number of of really good coaches out there and stuff that you can get um online and from just remote training, kids can get coaching at their fingertips in about 12 seconds.
00:26:08
Speaker
which is good. But what they're missing is the connection, not just the coaching and the feedback and like of the human interaction, but it's knowing about the kid. It's knowing about what sport they're playing. It's knowing, you know, that they had siblings or that they struggle with this injury or shoot, they just had a test and they did terrible, right?
00:26:31
Speaker
It's having the ability to learn more about them than just their speed. and their number and knowing personality types. right Great example, had a kiddo in middle schooler, kids faster than snot.
00:26:47
Speaker
um He ended up getting 20 miles per hour in his fly last night. He's quiet and he's probably been coming for man three months, right once or twice a week for about three months, consistent, been growing, added about two miles an hour to his time, like all sorts of cool stuff.
00:27:03
Speaker
Good kid. He is quiet as all get out. says maybe six words in a session. Doesn't matter if there's 10 kids, doesn't matter if there's three, that's just who he is.
00:27:14
Speaker
And so I know that. And so, right. For me personally, like i my goal is to make him smile three times in a session. He doesn't know that that's just my, my own personal goal, because at least if I get him to smile, right, I'm getting some type of feedback in there.
00:27:32
Speaker
And, so for for those types of things of that kind of connection with with your athletes is knowing you know who it is that you can be goofy with who it is that you need to be able to try to pull out a little bit more um and just having the connection from that point because yeah when he hit 20 last night like i was jumping around like getting excited he literally smiled that's it all he did was smile and and was like everyone's like dude get more excited in my head i'm like he is excited like that's his excitement we're fine
00:28:06
Speaker
And he went home and he told his parents and his mom sent me message like, hey, so super excited. And like, those are the pieces that sometimes we miss as a coach. Like I would, in my first probably four or five years, I get really caught up and in trying to make the environment, and you know, loud and excited and chaotic. And there's a time and place in that. And there's a place where you need some chaos and and some unknowns.
00:28:29
Speaker
But for a lot of time, it's just giving these kids a place where they can come in and just be who they are. And in a group of you know eight to 10 kids, you're going to get the quiet ones, you're going to get the loud ones, and you're going to ones in between. And if all of them can come in the same place,
00:28:43
Speaker
to feel confident enough to come in, to fail at something, to compete, right that's the connection that really helps grow their progress. And not just in right sprinting or strength or anything, they're they're figuring out how to use their skillset In an environment which then they can take and put into school or an internship or or their future life, because let's be honest, and not all of them are going to be playing this sport for probably more than four or five years.
Teaching Life Skills Through Coaching
00:29:14
Speaker
And that's where right a lot of the conversations and connections have gone to talk to them about things outside of sports and training, because we're going train. Let's talk about other stuff.
00:29:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, man. And you're helping them see that they they have more value than speed. They have more value than their sport.
00:29:36
Speaker
And that that's the important thing. And I've said this for a long time that the parents are the first line of defense. But the coaches are the last line of defense before these kids enter into the real world. Professors don't care.
00:29:48
Speaker
Bosses certainly don't care. So now we can teach them how to find value in their attitude, their effort, their consistency showing up two days a week and you start to get the to the results.
00:30:06
Speaker
and also you as a mentor you're teaching them not only about themselves but also helping them develop a skill of how to have a connection how to lead others the questions that you're asking they're gonna recall that hopefully when they're in a leadership or management role of being like okay well how to coach urban start to connect with me so now they're they're walking away with many leadership tools that yes they signed up to learn speed technique and get faster but we're giving them so much more out there so that's that's awesome dude i i thought of a kid on my team when you said that and i'm like man that's a good goal for me uh to to try to to break through and as a quiet kid myself
00:30:57
Speaker
I get it. So now my aim is to to to find them and help give them confidence and power and belief in themselves. So that that smile trick is is something I'm going to steal from you. um So, yeah, dude, any any other feedback stories on connection that maybe that coach six years ago, Coach Erdman six years ago,
00:31:24
Speaker
needed to learn that you are now living, breathing and aim to to hand off to your, your athletes every single day?
00:31:35
Speaker
I, I think it's looking at it and realizing that anytime a kid tells you a story, there's a reason that they're telling you the story. Hmm.
00:31:46
Speaker
And it could be nothing more than like, they just want to tell you something cool. Or it could be the fact that you might be the person that they just feel comfortable enough telling you something because they're upset. And it could just mean they need to get it off their chest.
00:31:59
Speaker
But one minute really sticks out there as a kiddo and man, this is probably year two of when I was coaching. And we're just talking about, you know, what kind of drives us? What's our purpose? Why are we in here doing this? Because Lifting weights is is good. Playing football is fun. But guess what?
00:32:18
Speaker
Running gassers in the summer, pretty miserable. Lifting when you have no AC in the summertime, pretty miserable. like If it was fun, we probably would have quit a long time ago. And just had a conversation with a few of them. And then after a session, a kid came up and he was like, hey.
00:32:34
Speaker
He's like, I just want let you know like the reason that I do this. And and he tells me like this really personal life story, family stuff. And at the moment I'm like, wow, why are you telling me this? This is really personal. And right, we kept in touch. We stayed there coaching for three years and we had the connection.
00:32:53
Speaker
But I look back at this now and I'm thinking, how many more kids did I miss that came up and were going to tell me something that may not have been that big? Right. And that obvious where it's just like slap you in the face, like, hey, pay attention that I totally missed because I was too focused on what the program looked like or how perfect all this stuff was within that. And yes, we've got to make sure that we know what we're doing. The program has to make sense. Kids got to be safe.
00:33:18
Speaker
But in those conversations, I think. There was definitely some spots that I missed to be able to listen more or be able to speak like a little bit more as a mentor into those lives.
00:33:29
Speaker
And so now when when someone wants to talk, and there's very rarely a time where I'm just like, nope, I don't have time or like, hey, let's do it afterwards. I'm like, okay, what's like, what do you got? let's Let's tell me to at least give them that opportunity and then we can get the front of it.
00:33:44
Speaker
And if it's like, okay, this is going to longer conversation. Okay, guess what? Let's pause this for a second. Stick around afterwards. Let's make sure we we address this and we get you what you need. As opposed to just like, hey, hang tight.
00:33:57
Speaker
Because if I tell them hang tight in the front, there's like, oh, fair enough. Somebody else that doesn't want to listen. Somebody else who, right, kind of, and if that's the spot that they're in, there's like, no, I'm done. good. i don't need to talk anymore.
00:34:11
Speaker
So that's going to be my biggest thing of of takeaways is being available to listen and just being observant in what they're doing and what they're, you know, sometimes crying out for just some attention to be able to give them or at least point them in the direction of where they should go for whatever it is that they could need.
00:34:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. i like that. And I mean, I see that from the the sport coach side of things. When kids ask, ask for playing time as an example to where it's like, you know, the rules, you don't ask for playing time or do this kid mustard up the the courage to now confront and have a crucial, difficult conversation with coach about they're working hard.
00:35:00
Speaker
Are they being seen? So now listening to that, do we reward with playing time or do we reinforce the behaviors they're putting in and then highlight this the small wins outside of this because I want their value to be more than playing time.
00:35:19
Speaker
So similar to where you're expanding their value outside of speed, the value that they're getting by playing and contributing to a team is much more than how many seconds tick off the clock when they're on the field.
00:35:32
Speaker
That's that's what I aim to. So when they do ask, acknowledge that they came up and then give them more, reinforce the behaviors there'by they're doing to buy into the team, but then give them more work to that that they need before they can actually step on the field. um Yeah.
00:35:52
Speaker
Because the last thing you want is them to make the mistake. Their head goes down. Whole team's momentum goes down. And now we just reinforced maybe a ah negative story that they're telling themselves.
00:36:05
Speaker
um Certainly. so yeah, that EQ is... that that eq is is big and i mean i've seen this flow of coaching professionals they're great textbook smart testing wise and then the moment you put them in a opportunity to lead outside a piece of paper they crumble or get mad at the kid because they didn't do the the perfect program.
00:36:34
Speaker
Um, so then you went, yeah, you went through the course, why they're not listening. And that's, that's my mindset and flow of, of how to develop EQ, but it all starts with relate.
00:36:47
Speaker
If I, as a person can't relate to another person, then I can't teach them anything. They're not gonna listen to me. Yeah. yeah they're not going to care how awesome you are or who you coached or any of that kind of stuff if you're if you treat them poorly or if they have no connection.
00:37:05
Speaker
And it's, it is, and it's, you know, all from conversations, right, of just being able to be open enough to do stuff. And I've told coaches, shoot, when I was doing police work, we did all of our our academy stuff and and even coaching now, like, if you,
00:37:23
Speaker
coach something or you show and you want them to do it and there's like i would say 20 of them don't do it right that's a coach problem that's not an athlete problem right if it's one all right fair enough let's pull johnny aside johnny were you paying attention uh right the same question are we doing squats or bench how many reps john goodness sake son we've talked about this 400 times but if i go out and i'm doing something i and i explain it and do all this and i then run the drill and i'm like oh goodness sakes what happened right that's me as a coach and i have to take the responsibility of that to then go back and be like okay well hold tight that's on me way too many of you weren't getting this we weren't getting quite what i thought out of this come back let's reload let me hit this one more time make sure that we understand what we're doing and then we'll let you go
00:38:18
Speaker
in, right? so So a lot of things happen there. One, it shows them that I'm not going to get mad because they make a mistake, right? That's helpful, right? Two, it shows them that I made the mistake. I'm going to own it in front of them and not just own it. We're going to fix it, right? As we connect this and and make sure we do what we're supposed to.
00:38:38
Speaker
And then we're going to give them an additional time to do it correctly. So we kind of have this whole full circle for for me to just to be honest about like, nope, that was a horrible job that I did, obviously, because y'all ain't doing what we need to. That's not you. That's me. Come back. Let's reload.
00:38:57
Speaker
Let's try this again. And right. So now they just have a great example of, OK, I made a mistake. I'm going own the mistake. How do I fix the mistake? And then let's go back and do it right and finish on a good rep.
00:39:12
Speaker
Yeah, man, I love that. And I've had this conversation multiple times where younger coaches, they they get mad at kids for messing up that drill.
00:39:24
Speaker
And I have to literally call a timeout before they go and punish these kids. And it's like, well, because the the coach assumes that they don't care. And are do they not care or are they confused?
00:39:39
Speaker
Because if they're confused, they're going to go slower. And based off past experiences, they don't want to get yelled at. So they want to avoid a mistake. They're going slow.
00:39:49
Speaker
They're not 100% clear of the expectations of execution. So now it appears to coach that they don't care. They're actually confused and do not want to make a mistake because there's this or else hanging above their head.
00:40:05
Speaker
Yeah. So now it's i'm I'm similar to you. Take that responsibility and OK, literally take a time out and ask them, is is everyone clear on this? Is anyone confused on this?
00:40:19
Speaker
Speak now or forever. Hold your peace. and then reteach it, even ah change the words that I'm using to talk through it and then, OK, set them free.
00:40:33
Speaker
And it's always very encouraging. The first guy in line is a 100% clear. And then the feedback is, if you don't know what you're doing, get at the end and watch three reps before it's your turn.
00:40:46
Speaker
If we're still confused after two explanations, three turns, okay, I can pull that kid aside and then show him a good drill. and then give him the opportunity to go make mistakes then.
00:41:00
Speaker
But I can't be mad at them making mistakes because guess what happens come during drills? Guess what happens come game time? Miller, Well, we're fight flight and then the big F freeze you can't freeze on the field, otherwise we're it's going to be a long season
Veritas Athletic Performance: Name and Values
00:41:17
Speaker
for everybody. David Miller, And that's not fast that's I mean that's poor decision now you're making no decision i don't know what's worse right now poor decision or no decision at all yeah but.
00:41:32
Speaker
Yeah, it all, and i mean, it all starts with practice and training and then creating an environment where, you know, I hate the term safe environment, but creating an environment where they can fail going 100 miles an hour yeah and trust a feedback loop to put them in a better position to to succeed.
00:41:53
Speaker
Yeah, I like it. i like I just I use the word like comfortable, right? I just want to be comfortable to be able to come out and and give their best and whatever that looks like. We're going to make it make it work. And it's interesting when you do that and then you talk to the kids and like, oh, yeah, if we like we get told before we go play, if we do this, we got to run more the next day. I'm like.
00:42:14
Speaker
We're literally like. making you afraid to go play because you you don't want have to go run poles or run gassers or whatever it is the next day. as i in And so you ask him, like, well, how'd you play? Like, I i played slow, I played tight, and I was afraid. Huh, shocking.
00:42:31
Speaker
Never would guessed that if you go out and play and you think, if I make this mistake, I got to run two miles the next day in pads. Like, that sounds horrible. So my default's probably going to be, I'm not going to do anything because want to make a mistake, which then still doesn't help anybody.
00:42:46
Speaker
And then you start this spiral of, why the heck are we not very good? Well, let's dig a little bit. it's not going to take long. No. Yeah.
00:42:57
Speaker
And I do a weekly meeting with my team captains and just, just in line with the framework of why they're not listening. Right. We have self-awareness, social awareness, then we have self-management, responsible decision-making.
00:43:14
Speaker
And lastly, the, the root or risk relationship building, then responsible decision making, all leading to situational awareness. And self-awareness for teens is incredibly difficult.
00:43:29
Speaker
And one exercise that I did, I bought them all pocket mirrors. So, you know, like beautification, whatever you call it, dude, you got wife and daughters, you get it.
00:43:41
Speaker
So bottom all pocket mirrors, put a little decal sticker on there so it looks more masculine. And yeah, when they, as leaders, jump on a kid for making a mistake,
00:43:54
Speaker
I need them to hold the mirror up because nine times out of 10, when they're barking at a younger athlete, they're doing the exact same thing, but it's just so over their head, unaware, you know, blaming, complaining, getting defensive is three big examples.
00:44:12
Speaker
So now if a freshman talks back to them, may may or may not have modeled that behavior against an authority figure previously in front of that freshman yeah that now that freshman thinks it's okay or they're trying to show off for big brother kind of thing so Yeah, just holding that mirror up on a lot of their behaviors, which then will help hopefully make them more aware and coachable and have more ah grace and empathy towards the younger guys.
00:44:48
Speaker
But if their model, their coach is always jumping and yelling and screaming for them and making mistakes, guess what their default leadership style is? Yeah, same piece.
00:45:01
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, that's um I like that we you talk about in the course about how, right, sports don't teach you anything. It's the coaches that actually teach it because the sport's the sport, right? You have rules, you have you have expectations that you have to play with them.
00:45:18
Speaker
It doesn't teach you how to be a better person, how to work hard, all that stuff. That's your coach. And same thing, if your coach is someone who makes excuses and doesn't take responsibility and flies off the handle, well, guess what? You're going to learn the exact same thing.
00:45:33
Speaker
playing the exact same sport as somebody else with a coach who has poise and is a good communicator and can coach really well and get the best out of kids with connection.
00:45:45
Speaker
It's the same sport. Why did one actually get a totally different experience? It's because the sports and sport, the coach is what makes the learning and the experience take place.
00:45:56
Speaker
Boom. Cool, man. I appreciate your time. I know you're a busy man. Four kids and baseball season coming up. So is let us let us know where people can follow along if they want to check out Veritas, where you're located and where can they continue to grow with you?
00:46:16
Speaker
Good. Yes, we're located, man. We're in western Nebraska, the town of Scotts Bluff. That's where we are hanging out and putting our roots for Well, at least until our kids get out school, I tell you that movement's miserable. We're not doing that again.
00:46:29
Speaker
um Social World, Coach Erdman on Instagram, Twitter. Oh, it's not Twitter anymore, on X. and The easiest places to be able to find it. Veritas Athletic Performance is a website that'll get you anywhere that you need to.
00:46:46
Speaker
There you go. that's That's my happy little places. Yeah, what's what's the the roots of Veritas? So it's Latin for truth. Yeah, so it's Latin for truth. It comes from about three places. First is faith. John 14, 6, where Jesus says, I'm the way, of the truth and the life.
00:47:04
Speaker
No one comes to the Father except through me. So that was a big piece about where we put our faith. um part is law enforcement right truth was the piece that you always look for it didn't matter what you thought or what you felt you just had to find the truth and that was a part that took a little while to wrap my head around as a young kid and then doing it for long enough was one of those of like you take your emotions out of it truth is truth i don't care if you agree with it these are the facts And then the last piece is training, right? Training is truth.
00:47:35
Speaker
Can you do it? Can you not? Right? Like you said, the bar weighs this much. there Here's 10 yards. How fast can you get there? If you think that you can do it really fast, let's find the truth.
00:47:46
Speaker
And if you like it, great. Can we get better? If you don't like it, great. We should probably get it so that way either we quit running our mouth or we get ourselves up to the point where we keep talking.
00:47:57
Speaker
I love it. Yeah. And I in the sky doesn't lie. There's also truth in the the film in the realm of sports, too. Yeah, you can't get away from that now.
00:48:08
Speaker
No, but how you treat kids in the film room. We can lead at that example as well. Well, Matt, dude, thank you for your time. Appreciate you as a man, as ah a leader and a father and just seeing your growth and journey from law enforcement to now just setting up roots and, I mean, anchoring in in speed and performance, but most importantly, your community. I love it.
00:48:35
Speaker
So thank you for taking the time to join me today. I appreciate it. Thanks for letting me come man. It's always good to chat with you. Sweet. All right. Well, thank you, everyone, tuning in to the Captain McClure Podcast.
00:48:48
Speaker
And see right.