NSCA’s Coaching Podcast

Dr. Josh Secomb, lecturer in exercise and sport science (strength and conditioning) at the University of Newcastle, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about being a self-aware and authentic coach. Topics under discussion include finding new areas to employ different skillsets as practitioners, the value of training progressions and understanding your athletes, and his unique opportunity to research and coach surfers. Find Dr. Secomb on Twitter: @37Seco | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“We want them to be doing it in 12, 15 years time. And still doing what they need to do, making those gains along the way. And still finding it enjoyable. Then I can't hammer them too early.” 00:05 “So because essentially in surfing, the more water you displace-- the harder you push on the bottom of the board, the more water that is displaced. The judges determine that is how much power there is behind the maneuvers.” 18:03 “We know from all of our GPS, time-motion research that pretty much no matter what type of wave it is where you are in the world, so whether it's Europe, Hawaii, Australia, pretty much 50% of the time that you're in the water surfing, it's paddling. So, again, we know from that 20 to 30 hours. So it's 10 to 15 hours a week just of paddling. Again, there's a lot of issues around-- also just wear and tear and sort of fatigue around the rotator cuff.” 22:59 “I can be too talkative. So I said, I need to be aware that particularly when giving feedback, giving cues. Because whilst I try to practice and make sure that I keep my cues as minimal as possible not to confuse them.” 42:37

Ali Kershner, Director of Creative Strategy for Art of Coaching, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about overcoming adversity on the road to win the 2021 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Women’s Basketball Championship at Stanford University. Topics under discussion include the inequalities found at the NCAA tournament, being true to yourself as a coach, and working outside of the weight room to help strengthen coach-athlete relationships. Find Ali on Instagram: @kershner.ali or Twitter: @alikershner | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“But our head coach Tara VanDerveer, she has a good saying, which I now completely buy into, which is to be at the elite level and to win a national championship, what she's now done quite a few times, so I feel like she has some ability to say this, you need to be good, you need to be healthy, and you need to be really lucky.” 5:07 “I'm definitely more of a observer, I am more of a like, let's talk to the athlete at an individual level, try to figure out what they need, where they want to go, and then try to problem solve from there.” 19:12 “It was just like, had I not given them choice, had I not empowered them on the front end to have some autonomy and have some leeway, I personally would have really had a hard time dealing with this year and all of the nuance and gray area and change that occurred.” 24:53 “…it's truly all of the periphery, it's the interpersonal, it's the communication, it's knowing how to negotiate, it's knowing how to build your resume. And all of these things we don't learn until we need them. We learn them in almost like it's not a proactive approach, it's a reactive approach.” 35:52 “Coaching is storytelling. It's relating to somebody else and putting a message in terms they'll understand.” 33:45

Drew Hammond, Army Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) Program Director at Fort Bragg, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about differences between tactical and collegiate strength and conditioning. Topics include the Army H2F Program, tactical athlete programming, and how to pursue military strength and conditioning positions. Find Drew on LinkedIn: Drew Hammond | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“But I think the most unique part about it in hindsight, and this is what I tell people getting into the field, is that I was born and raised in a non-American strength and conditioning system. So some of the decisions that I make now, some of the conversations we will probably get into here, I think are based off of not having grown up professionally in the traditional route, collegiate professional sports stateside.” 2:41 “And so the attempt of H2F is to again, replicate that model, but on a much broader scale. So instead of dealing with a group of maybe 100 athletes that at a very specialized unit, you're now dealing with hundreds, if not thousands of athletes.” 5:34 “And those are things that I think a lot of guys in this industry struggle with because we're still thinking of this problem in a traditional paradigm, where macro cycles, mesocycles, micro cycles, undulating-- all these buzzwords that we all know. But I think one thing that we haven't really thought through or been equipped to think through, is this critical thinking piece of-- if none of these things hold true that I think should fit into this model, how do I react to that? What does my training look like?” 11:14 “But what I found was that there are ways to influence the development of an athlete beyond reps and sets.” 18:20 “I mean, I was fortunate in my previous position, to have an excellent relationship with my injury prevention folks. And there were days where we would be working side by side on the floor with an athlete and you couldn't really differentiate between who is the strength coach, who is the athletic trainer. And I think that's ideal.” 22:33

Dr. Patrick Ivey, Associate Athletics Director for Student Athlete Health and Performance at the University of Louisville, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about the transition from strength coach to a director role in administration. Topics under discussion include perceptions of strength coaches, emotional intelligence, and continuing to grow where you are. Find Dr. Ivey on his website: pativey.com | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“There's almost this WWE sort of aura attached to being a strength and conditioning coach. And if you're a good strength and conditioning coach, you know how to manage that. You know how to manage those perceptions and expectations, and what's reality. And it can be really fun to be the person that is a super hero to a lot of athletes.” 9:50 “Filling that void to be able to be an advocate for our sports medicine and nutrition staff, our strength and conditioning coaches. And it's something that I'm having to learn as well. Like how do I communicate with marketing, and all of the different areas that work in the athletics department.” 12:45 “So you might have an idea of what you want to get accomplished, and you've got to work towards that, but you got to be ready to adapt and adjust every day.” 26:05 “You have to take what's right in front of you, and deal with that situation as a leader in this position. So first and foremost, we got to be a leader in this position. Someone that is willing to learn how to communicate, and improve the communication. Written, verbal, body language. You have to be willing to learn in this position.” 26:37 “Research and science should be the basis of what we're all doing in health and performance, whether it's nutrition, research and science, sports medicine, sports performance, mental health, mental performance, the medical doctors. Research and science is the foundation of everything that we're doing.” 36:09 “How is it going to become habit forming, so that when we're developing leaders, how do we become better leaders ourselves? And hold ourselves accountable to that.” 40:12

Molly Binetti, Women’s Basketball Performance Coach for the University of South Carolina, and return co-host for the 100th episode of the NSCA Coaching Podcast, Scott Caulfield, Director of Strength and Conditioning for Colorado College, talk to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about coaching philosophy. Topics under discussion include navigating strength and conditioning careers, creating value, and building a better weight room environment for athletes. Find Molly on Twitter: @CoachBinetti or Instagram: @mbinetti22 | Find Scott on Instagram: @coachcaulfield | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“And then each year my career as I progressed, I knew that I was going to take a chance, not really knowing if that was exactly the route that I wanted to take. But I knew if I didn't go after it, I wouldn't know either way.” 10:32 “Because I think one of the challenges for all of us is that we don't really learn, and we're not taught how to navigate our careers, as strength and conditioning coaches.” 11:55 “And probably the first three or four, you're so laser focused on writing the best program, making sure your athletes are as physically prepared as possible. But then you really come to the realization that that's really the 5% of what we do.” 19:28 “But we've got to do a better job of just understanding that we have a shared humanity. And we are all more alike than we are different. And we can help each other out a lot more by continuing to share our stories, and connect with each other, and help each other grow in ways that traditional resources just can't.” 42:17 “And I think the hard part is realizing that you've got to be able to adapt and shift gears. And you've got to be able to show multiple sides of your personality and know when and where to have conversations.” 47:02 “I think the approach that I've taken, and maybe it's as simple to sum up my philosophy, in general, is just human first and athlete second.” 49:33 “And the most success that you're going to have and find is when you are true to who you are, and you're not afraid to follow that, and being authentic. And that's a hard thing to do, when you're young, and you're still figuring out yourself.” 57:52

Matthew Ibrahim, Co-Owner of TD Athletes Edge, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about using setbacks as a learning opportunity. Topics under discussion include creating a holistic approach to a client’s training by collaborating with other professionals, and the importance of deceleration technique and eccentrics in his programs for skill acquisition. Find Matthew on Instagram: @matthewibrahim_ | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“But we can do a really good job at properly, physically preparing our athletes through the right demands and tasks and skill acquisition in the weight room, if we load them appropriately, to be able to withstand those rigors and demands of sport and those stressors.” 20:39 “But I do believe we cannot forget about the deceleration or forced absorption drills, which I believe go in the plyometric department, right before the actual force production.” 21:27 “I think people-- when they think plyos, Eric, they're thinking oh, wow, let me do a box jump. What about just jump and land? Like pogos. Let's do a pogo jump. But that's plyos. You have to crawl before you sprint, right? So people forget about the crawling, the walking, before we actually sprint.” 27:40 “…but eccentric is the one that I think has the most credence in terms of forcing someone to develop skill acquisition from a motor control standpoint, but also movement quality standpoint.” 34:40

Dr. Sara Erdner, author of “Dear Coach: What I Wish I Could Have Told You, Letters from Your Athletes,” talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about the coach-athlete relationship. Topics under discussion include coaching education, giving athletes a platform to be heard, and what truly builds mental toughness and resiliency. Find Dr. Erdner on Twitter: @doc_serdner | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“So really, what I was hoping with my book, Dear Coach, is to bring all this stuff that I've learned through my seven years of education and then plus some years of just doing our own research, and actually bridge that gap between what some might call the ivory towers-- us in academia-- and the people with boots on the ground.” 2:20 “And so my thing that I advocate for is, before you can even start creating your coaching philosophy, which is very values-based-- identify the values that you have-- we need to understand who we are, culturally, and how the cultural narratives surround these labels that we're made up of.” 14:07 “But if the coach them self is not emotionally healthy, then they're going to have a really hard time not only interacting with athletes' emotional health, emotional maturity, but within that relationship, helping to build it within the athlete.” 23:06 “…the four different C's that go into making a quality coach-athlete relationship-- so, closeness, the commitment of the relationship, the complementarity of the relationship, the co-orientation of it.” 37:05

NSCA Tactical Program Managers, Jason Soileau (Military) and Mandy Nice (Public Safety), talk to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about supporting those in the tactical professions over the course of their careers. Topics under discussion include the U.S. Army Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) program and developing a new tactical strength and conditioning program tool kit for public safety agencies. Find Jason and Mandy on Facebook: NSCA Tactical Strength and Conditioning SIG | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“And H2F is an acronym for Holistic Health and Fitness. So it's a five-prong approach to wellness for the Army soldier, and that includes mental, physical, spiritual, financial, and just overall health. So really, it's an admirable program. And they're really investing a lot of dollars into their personnel, not only for effectiveness currently and in the short-term, but in the long-term over the lifespan of that member, whether they leave the Army, retire, or become a lifer in the Army.” 14:58 “So as far as strength and conditioning is concerned, they plan to contract-- or the government contracting agencies will hire-- roughly 840 strength coaches over the course of four to five years, to basically lead brigades in their physical fitness training. So it's a huge undertaking. But I feel like it's an important one, because the goal is to increase readiness and resilience of the personnel, but also decrease injury likelihood and injury occurrence.” 15:43 “The Army loses a lot of money, to the tune of millions, on reconditioning and rehab of musculoskeletal injuries every year. So this is an effort to invest in the prevention of that and save money on the back end, which inherently, I think, it's going to work.” 16:15 “And I heard one individual describe it as offering autonomy in an austere environment. And I think that's a great explanation of the overall goal of the strength and conditioning professional. You're giving that personnel and the command staff the tools to be successful in terms of physical fitness, no matter where they are on the globe. And if they're still in the Army or not, wherever they go in their life span, they'll still have those foundations that you taught them to carry them through their health and wellness journey for the lifespan.” 19:11 “And public safety specifically, sometimes we see the challenge being not so much strength and conditioning itself, but more so how to implement an agency-wide program that is, again, evidence-proven and results focused and practical and user-friendly for everyone.” 25:24

Emily Zaler, Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for the National Football League (NFL) Denver Broncos, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about the benefits of being persistent and proactively seeking out opportunities in the field. Topics under discussion include working with professional athletes, facing adversity head on, and how no task is too small to show how you can add value to a program. Find Emily on Instagram: @ezaler or Twitter: @EZaler | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“I think that my experience as a college athlete has definitely helped shape me into the coach that I am today. Having two very different experiences at University of Oregon, and at University of Missouri, allowed me to see and develop what type of coach I wanted to become.” 4:57 “And I think that a lot of my skill set that came from working with general population, and came from managing training departments, and being able to work with different personalities, and build relationships, and build buy and with different types of people.” 22:45 “And so I think going with the mindset of no task is too small, whatever I can do to help and benefit our organization and benefit our athletes, I'm 100% willing to do.” 24:54 “I think the push towards technology is only going to continue to grow. And I feel like as far as the role of the coach in the future, I feel like if you're not well versed and you're not educated within that realm, that it's going to be a struggle.” 30:46

Alex Calder, Head of Sports Science for the Houston Dynamo Major League Soccer (MLS) team, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about sports science data driving better decisions on and off the field. Topics under discussion include the importance of traditional strength training for soccer players, as well as, the variety of strength and conditioning opportunities there are to gain experience from at the high school, college, private, and professional level of sports. Find Alex on Twitter: @calder_05 or Instagram: @calder_05 | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“…being good with the numbers and the sports science and the monitoring side, it does help drive better decisions in the gym and vice versa.” 7:55 “Now that we've gone through that, sort of, adverse situation in 2020, us, as a performance staff, probably have a better idea of how to utilize different recovery modalities or different protocols when it comes to some of those travel restrictions.” 16:38 “I think, at this level, you kind of rely on this a lot and you got to be humble enough to alter your program on the fly and be diligent about certain things and flexible about others.” 30:14