NSCA’s Coaching Podcast

Dr. Tim Suchomel, Assistant Professor at Carroll University and Wisconsin State Director for the NSCA, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about the emerging role of sport science in strength and conditioning. Topics under discussion include Suchomel’s growing involvement with the NSCA, as well as weightlifting derivatives and their benefits for more individualized performance adaptations. Find Dr. Suchomel on Twitter: @DrTSuchomel or Instagram: @drtsuchomel  or NSCA Sport Science and Performance Technology Special Interest Group | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“I think everyone's starting to realize how important it is to be well read within the literature, to be able to implement the strategies that you're researching at the same time.” 8:55 “That's fine, but the fact of the matter is that we need to realize that strength and conditioning as a whole is grey. There's not one way to do things, and there's a time and a place, essentially, for everything.” 19:47 “The hex bar jump squat's a great exercise, but I remember, it was at NSCA clinic. Someone asked me, have you compared that with jump shrug? We have now.” 40:06 “…if you're really interested in someone's work, buy them a coffee. They'll sit down and talk to you for 20, 30 minutes. But it's making those connections, and then expanding on those connections.” 51:27 “…you're going to learn a lot just having conversations with these individuals who are doing the research, who are coaching these athletes and have good ideas. Just don't turn down those opportunities.” 55:04

Sam Melendrez, full-time strength and conditioning coach for Discovery Canyon Campus High School, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about the value of strength and conditioning coaches at the high school level. Topics include advice for those who are interested in strength training youth and high school athletes, programming fundamentals, and the value of applying classroom management skills in the weight room. Find Sam on Twitter: @sammelendrez2 | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“…we're dealing with kiddos who I think, are dealing with some of the ramifications of lack of regular PE, lack of outside play, specializing in a sport too early.” 14:33 “Keep your system simple and then also remember that in this role, or I try to always remind myself to stay grounded in the fact that I'm not really trying to develop necessarily the best program with my kids, I'm trying to develop the best kids with my program.” 16:42 “That may never happen and we may never run into the situation where I'm dealing with high level athletes or even winning state titles, the national titles, but we are developing again, better kids, healthier kids, more robust against illness and disease.” 29:14 “…to be honest with you, one of my most proud things, one of the things I'm most inspired about doing this job is we'll watching kids go study exercise science and specifically pursue careers in health and athletic performance.” 33:18

Josiah Igono, Director of Peak Performance for the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball (MLB) team, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about what defines performance. Topics under discussion include the importance of coaching mental skills, diversifying your skillsets as a coach, and leaving a legacy. Find Dr. Igono on Instagram: @josiahigono or Twitter: @JosiahIgono | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“And it's a very beautiful thing to see what an athlete is going to do at that turning point. Are they going to rise, or are they going to fall? Are they going to press forward, or are they going to fold up?” 6:41 “You have to have something that no one else quite has. You have to have an insight that no one else quite has. And whatever that is for you, you have to figure that out to diversify.” 7:22 “I don't believe in giving people fish dinners if you catch my drift. I want to teach you how to fish.” 9:40 “If you can't reach an athlete's heart, you're not going to be able to read their mind. And if you can't read your mind, you're not going to be able to reach their body.” 24:15 “But those who are afraid of failing, they will not move forward, and they will not do great things. You cannot do great things without facing failure because failure is coming for you, and it's going to be a part of your story. It's going to be a part of your legacy.” 39:45

Ryan Metzger, Senior Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for Clemson University, talks to the NSCA Coaching Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about their internship program going virtual amidst the pandemic to provide young strength coaches the education they need to grow despite the lack of in-person training. Topics of discussion also include early sport specialization and burnout, as well as being a role model for female athletes. Find Ryan on Instagram: @clemsonolystrength or @coach_metz | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“An intern at Clemson, our program is going to be very demanding. We expect a lot out of our interns, not only time commitment on the floor, working with athletes, but what we're asking them to do outside of the weight room and outside of time with us.” 19:02 “So as a strength coach, you're not just someone barking at somebody or counting reps or whatever it is. It goes beyond that. You're often a teacher and a leader to your athletes…” 28:05 “Athletes are people, and they have real challenges, concerns, problems, good days, bad days. So are the coaches. So there's always that overlap. There's always that conversation, and you know, it's sort of that triage.” 35:20 “There's so many times that your conversations with your athletes are going to go beyond “All right, you've got another set coming up”. So like you said, just thinking holistically of the person first before the athlete.” 36:10

Kelly Dormandy, Assistant Athletics Director for Sports Performance at Loyola Marymount University and Head Strength Coach for the Los Angeles Sparks Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team, talks to the NSCA Coaching Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about championship culture. Topics under discussion include constantly seeking new challenges, training WNBA athletes, and being proactive about networking in the field. Find Kelly on Instagram: @kdormandy | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“And you have to be somebody that wants to bring the best out in other people. And I think that's when you truly realize how gratifying this field is.” 6:49 “And at the end of the day, you've got to have an unwavering determination and drive and resiliency to make it in this field.” 19:03 “I believe it's my responsibility to put them in a position to believe in themselves and believe that they're fully capable of accomplishing whatever it is that they want in life, whether it's winning national championships, conference championships as a collegiate athlete.” 20:19 “I think the biggest key is being a lifelong learner in this field, being hungry and being willing to learn from people that are in places that you haven't been, but that you aspire to be in.” 33:06

Brice Long, Director of Human Performance Experience at O2X, talks to the NSCA Coaching Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about O2X’s holistic approach for fire, police, military, and federal agencies. Topics under discussion include the value of training as a firefighter, physical tests and assessments in the National Guard, and being diverse in your skill sets as a coach. Find Brice on Instagram: @o2xhumanperformance or Twitter: @o2xhp | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“Athletes, even athletes that have long careers don't even come close to the continued operational demands of someone in the public safety profession. Most fire departments, 25, 30 years before someone retires, so that's a lot of abuse, and a lot of changes happen to the human body through that time, and there's a lot of time to make mistakes.” 4:46 “You've got to pick up a 210-pound firefighter that's covered in soaking wet gear up to your chest to get him or her out of a window. That's a big lift that needs to happen really fast.” 8:28 “If you're going to be working with firefighters, you need to take the time to understand what the mechanics are for throwing a 24-foot extension ladder, for stretching an inch and 3/4 hose line from a fire engine, forcing a door. You need to know the lingo. You need to know how much bunker gear weighs. You need to understand the nuance of breathing with a respirator on, SCBA, which is a whole different ball game for a lot of these folks and really dive into the background of the area in which you want to focus.” 26:59 “I think you can learn a ton of the fundamentals working in a sports-specific weight room, and a lot of the concepts that make you successful there will translate to the tactical space, but the communication is going to be very different.” 29:48 “…learn your audience, be an effective communicator and an expert in the field where you're working, and two is diversify your resume and have some experience and education and at least, at a minimum, interest in being more than a coach because the tactical space requires it.” 33:06

Richard Howell, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Indianapolis Colts National Football League (NFL) team, talks to the NSCA Coaching Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about his impressive 21 years with the organization. Topics under discussion include going from pre-medical to strength coach, building relationships with athletes and staff members, and how technology provides hard numbers for sport coaches to understand stress management. Connect with Richard through email: Richard.howell@colts.nfl.net | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“…that's the biggest thing in our business. You got to have a relationship with the players. And you may know everything in the world. But if the players don't believe you, if they don't trust you, you know, it's not going to do any good.” 8:33 “I think what's also important as far as getting to the NFL or a job in general, what I've always told from older coaches, whether they were football coaches, strength coaches, whatever may be, was always be the best at the job you have right now.” 21:22 “That's probably the most important relationship with players where they can see the trainers and the strength coaches on the same page. Then you got total buy-in from a player for a system-- not rooms but for a system.” 29:18 “And each year, you're fighting to see that happen again and again to try to do that kind of camaraderie, you know, that team aspect, to see guys laying it on the line for the guy beside him, to see that, and to hopefully, eventually, get that ring, you know, when it's all said and done.” 35:50

Chris Morris, Director or Performance Science at the University of Kentucky, talks to the NSCA Coaching Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about the importance of capturing athlete readiness through data and technology. Topics under discussion include Dr. Morris’s time as a University of Kentucky football player turned PhD student, how sports science is critical to understanding athlete’s capacities on a much deeper view, and developing interpersonal relationships with athletes to create trust and buy-in. Find Dr. Morris on Twitter: @CMorrisPhD | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“It's a very nice pretty picture of we have a stimulus, we have fatigue, we have compensation, and then supercomp, and it all occurs within 72 hours. It's a beautiful concept. But in reality, very far from it.” 6:22 “We profile the game through our GPS technology to really understand what the demands of the game are, which aligns with NSCA's profile your sport or needs analysis of sport.” 12:14 “To be a good sport scientist, you have to understand both sides of the equation. You have to understand how your inputs and strength and conditioning are going to affect your outputs, so you can have an idea of what we're really measuring.” 16:07 “So I feel like a lot of people are going to be most valuable when they are good strength coach, and also have the ability to be a good sport scientist.” 17:07 “…if I can lower the stress outside of the training facility, identify areas in the athlete's life where we can reduce stress, then I can have a higher adaptive response in the weight room.” 25:41

Dr. Trent Lawton, Senior Strength and Conditioning Specialist with High Performance Sport New Zealand, talks to the NSCA Coaching Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about coaching the athletes of the New Zealand National Rowing Team. Topics under discussion include the balance of coaching the individual versus the team, constantly chasing knowledge in the field, and efforts to push forward through the COVID-19 pandemic. Find Trent on Twitter: @Chad_Bling | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“It's not important to have the ability to run 9.7 for 100, but to actually do that 28 times in some sports.” 7:33 “My job is to create competitive training environments where the people want to excel. So they want to compete off each other. And they need to have the desire to win.” 10:52 “And one trick I tried is, rather than me say "go deeper," they get the force or they get the distance deeper. So we change it to the length or the dip. And I say to them, make that the biggest number you can. And that's the sport of rowing. Row long. So squat deep.” 12:38 “So it's about creating learning to empower that athlete to adapt their training to the situation which they find themselves in. And my role is to help them think about that.” 22:00 “…sometimes the things that we do have to be so simple and obvious that the person connects to it, that the overload is progressed in such a predictable way that it seems too basic. So we need to go the opposite way of making the problem complex, making it so understandable that people can take action.” 32:52

Brett Bartholomew, keynote speaker, performance coach and consultant, best-selling author, and Founder of Art of Coaching™, talks to the NSCA Coaching Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about the importance of communication as a foundation of coaching, understanding the messy realities of leadership, and how reflection can help the profession grow. Find Brett on Instagram: @coach_brettb or Twitter: @Coach_BrettB | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“So that's what we focus on-- the messy realities of coaching, leadership, and the fact that it's much deeper than we've been led to believe.” 3:36 “A coach that says they can't apply communication strategies with large groups is somebody that shouldn't be a coach, because communications are the foundation of coaching.” 10:56 “Why would you periodize your athletes programs, but not periodize your career and not periodize your learning?” 21:39 “But I hope in the next five, if not less, we really embrace more on the communication science and human dynamics and sociology of coaching.” 46:35 “…the art of coaching is the science of connecting, and we very much have a lot of literature on how we build relational dynamics and influence and persuade people.” 47:12