NSCA’s Coaching Podcast, Episode 4: Lance Walker

Lance Walker, Global Director of Performance at Michael Johnson Performance (MJP), talks to the NSCA Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Scott Caulfield, about being unselfish in your work, developing your people skills in order to be a better coach, and mapping out your professional path.

Lance Walker, PT, CSCS, is the Global Director of Performance at MJP in McKinney, TX. He directs global operations for the company in the United States, China, and England, and is also responsible for ensuring product development and implementation for MJP licensed facilities. Walker served three seasons as Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach with the Dallas Cowboys National Football League (NFL) team. He has an extensive background in strength and conditioning and sports medicine at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels. Prior to joining the Dallas Cowboys, Walker held performance trainer positions at the University of Oklahoma, where he worked directly with athletes across many sports.

Show Notes

“It's selfishness, I think, that limits us. And also maybe ego.” 2:15

“Make sure you dedicate a piece of your development the rest of your life to your emotional intelligence - your people skills, your ability to be empathetic, your ability to seek first to understand.” 13:00

"Know humans. Know about human interaction. Know about how to respond to people and how they respond to you." 13:30

“So many folks lack a system of arranging information ... I wish I could go back and set up that arrangement system first.” 14:03

“It’s starting to be multi-disciplinary where everybody is coming together, getting on the same page. The youth stuff is exciting, the physio space, they're starting to see the CSCS as a real differentiator for them in their practices, and still being able to pull the applied people into those rooms.” 18:05

“The people part of this business is so important, that’s why that becomes a thing of networks. It’s because they know that the people part of this business, if you don't have that right, none of the other stuff is going to matter.” 20:59

“I set up a yearly sort of professional development program to get to what I want to be someday and those stepwise things, that strategic plan we talked about ... you have to do that. You have to have a strategic plan: objectives, strategies, KPIs, tactics to use, metrics of monitoring all along the way to get there, or you're just hoping.” 22:55

“It was honesty from colleagues ... but it had to me be me pulling them aside and saying, ‘Look, will you be brutally honest with me and tell me what I'm missing. Where are my blind spots?’ ... The epiphany moment was to ask the question.” 25:44

“I’m on a path. I have a good idea where I want that path to go, but knowing exactly where that path is ... I don’t know.” 32:42