NSCA’s Coaching Podcast

Connor Agnew, Director of Basketball Performance at Appalachian State University, and Scott Caulfield, Director of Strength and Conditioning at Norwich University, joins the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon on this Gatorade Performance Partner Special Episode, highlighting “The Importance of Mentorship and Mental Health” in strength and conditioning. The discussion emphasizes the need for coaches to cope with adversity and rely on trusted mentors along their professional journey. Connect with Connor on Instagram: @strengthcoachconnor or Twitter: @CoachConnorSC | Connect with Scott on Instagram: @coachcaulfield or Twitter: @scottcaulfield |  Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs | To learn more and join the Gatorade Performance Partner Community, visit GatoradePerformancePartner.com. Find additional NSCA resources in the areas of mentorship and mental health, you can stream the NSCA Coaching Podcast and select conference sessions on NSCA.tv.Show Notes“And I think the people that really helped me out the most were the coaches who show me that we're supposed to be having fun as well when this is happening. It's not everyday process where you're supposed to grind and everything's supposed to be uncomfortable. You can have fun. It's a very fun profession overall.” 13:15 “And I think the biggest thing is that athletes understand when you're being genuine and when you're not being genuine. So I think don't be influenced by what you see everybody else posting.” 22:35 “It might just be reaching out to someone that you look up to and you're trying to ask them some questions and just interview them. And maybe, who knows, those conversations can sometimes lead to mentorship. And I think that's the thing I would tell younger people too, is don't be afraid to reach out to people, especially in today's day and age of social media where it really is a good opportunity to reach out.” 27:50 “Mentorship, it's truly a calling of strength and conditioning coaches to connect with your athletes deeper than just reps and sets.” 35:53 “We see them probably more than the head coach will see them, and that's a really big piece. And so we have to make sure that when we're discussing with them any life lessons or coaching them on a daily basis that we're bringing positivity and, really, a growth mindset for them as well, too. And I think sometimes, too, recruiting visits get me a little excited because you get to meet their parents, and you get to meet their family and understand that it's not all just about athletics. It's about people growing overall throughout their own lives and understanding that these parents are trusting us to take care of their kids as much as possible and help them out as much as possible, too.” 44:40

Hear from a more than 30-year strength and conditioning coaching veteran in the sport of rugby, Ashley Jones. He talks to NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about his progression in the field, beginning in 1988 to his current roles as part of the NSCA Rugby Special Interest Group, Awards and Honors Committee, and Certification Committee. Jones provides insight on the important roles of NSCA Committees in supporting the integrity of the coaching profession. Learn more about the expanded roles of strength and conditioning coaches in non-mainstream sports, like Rugby in North America, while also helping to support skill and game development. This episode also includes great lessons on program planning within the team setting and how to emphasize the “human element” in coaching. You can contact Ashley by email at ashley@ashleyjonesstrengthcoach.com| Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs  Show Notes"If you're not a member, join. Because it's not just about paying your dues and saying you're a member. Really, it's about the extra access you get to the education materials. When it comes to what qualifies and what doesn't, it goes back to high standards." 20:00 "One thing that will be addressed through the accreditation process is the addition of field work and just reading through the requirements that have been developed and academic programs are currently being vetted for this. It's not just, you do an internship with one program and graduate and you're done. You actually need to have separate experiences, fieldwork experiences, in distinctly different environments." 25:58 "But a new team, you have to sit down with the head coach first and foremost and say, what are you going to emphasize with the playing group that we have? What sort of game do you want to play? Do you want to play a more physical game? Do you want to play a more widespread, a more running game, which obviously will impact on how the strength existing program develops." 42:10 "I'll probably answer that with two, in that first and foremost is, don't take yourself too seriously. But take what you do very seriously." 45:01 "I think that's where I would sort of advise more and more the younger S&C coaches to look at the human elements. And even now that we're pushing more towards a metric driven life as far as strength and conditioning with sports science and all those elements, which is fantastic, don't get me wrong. But it's still making that connection to the human being who happens to be the player on your team, to develop them to be the best they can be on and off the park each and every week." 48:04

Learn about the new NSCA Strongman Special Interest Group (SIG) from strength and conditioning coach, Heidi Campo. Campo talks with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about her path in strength and conditioning that ran from bodybuilding and powerlifting to becoming a strongman competitor. Campo discusses her experiences spending the winter in Iceland at the “Nest of Giants” with four-time World’s Strongest Man, Magnus Ver Magnusson, and how camaraderie in the sport ignited an even stronger passion for her work as a coach. This episode also discusses how strongman is not just for elite competitors, and how training concepts and methods from the sport can be integrated across all levels of athleticism, multiple sports, and for clients of any age.    You can reach out to Heidi on Instagram: @muscleyogi or by email at heidi@coachbta.com| Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs   Join the NSCA Strongman Special Interest Group to continue the conversation and learn more.Show Notes“It didn't matter if I was training for the Arnold, or if I was brand new. I was just the same as them. And that's something that really ignited my passion for it, was just the absolute level of camaraderie that I found in the sport.” 7:15 “Strongman is the ultimate functional training. It's going to improve longevity for life. Moving, loading, carrying. We move sideways, front and back. We move things. We're moving forward with heavy things on our back, carrying heavy things. Farmers carries at our side. It's incredibly dynamic.” 18:24 “When they feel that level of accomplishment of something so primal as just picking up a boulder, it does things for their confidence that is I don't have the words for it. It's amazing what it can do for them.” 21:20

Hear from Lacey Jahn, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the United States Marine Corps East School of Infantry. Jahn shares her unusual path into strength and conditioning with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, including stops in curriculum development and working as a lifeguard. Learn more about tactical strength and conditioning jobs, athletic qualities as they relate tactical performance in the military, and the how to approach attending strength and conditioning education events as a young coach. You can reach out to Lacey on Instagram: @laceylyrla | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“However, I've learned that programs also need to account for change. They need to account for stressful life events, poor sleep, fatigue. I have to educate the athlete beyond the program.” 14:01 “We can say broadly that they're going to have to have a base level of aerobic capacity. They're going to have to be able to carry heavy loads for long distances and they're going to have to be able to perform after they get to whatever the destination is. They're going to have to have a base level of strength and they're going need to be able to withstand the impact with load, so landing with a pack on, stepping in a hole with load on your back, things like that, being able to react in situations that are pretty unpredictable.” 16:11 “The old and faithful Super Training by Verkhoshansky and Periodization by Tudor Bompa, they will always have a special place on my bookshelf. A lot of my Xs and Os comes from peer-reviewed literature with the NSCA. I think I use podcasts to get some insight from other coaches' perspective on how they are influencing their athletes or how they're employing the soft skills with their groups.” 19:36

Learn about the emerging field of biomechanics in professional baseball from Georgia Giblin, the Director of Performance Science for the Detroit Tigers Major League Baseball (MLB) team. Giblin shares her professional journey with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, from working with Olympic athletes in Australia to educating coaches on emerging technology tools within MLB. This episode features discussion on the recent growth of athletic performance departments, the current state of sport science in the United States, and the helpful role of strength and conditioning coaches in supporting sport science initiatives. Connect with Georgia on Twitter: @GeorgiaGiblin| Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“That, for me, was probably the most influential kind of part in my career really being embedded within biomechanics and sport science within the Australian Institute of Sport.” 2:15 “Some of them might have background in statistics. Some of them might have a strength training background that have now come into coaching. And I think that's really great for the game that we have this diversity of coaches and people within the game with different backgrounds.” 27:46 “But my take on it would be as a young practitioner coming into the field or if you're starting an internship with the team or something, take the temperature of the room first. So sit back, listen, learn, be open minded, and just absorb it all in before you start to try and make any moves.” 29:50

Learn about middle school and high school strength and conditioning from 2022 NSCA Coaches Conference presenter Elton Crochran. Coach “Croc” shares his story about transitioning from collegiate strength and conditioning to his work as the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator at Randolph Field School District in San Antonio, TX. Crochran is currently the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Veterans Memorial High School. He talks about his hands-on coaching session from Coaches Conference, as well as developmental milestones across key stages of long-term athlete development.  Find “Coach Croc” on Instagram: @ecrock2 or Twitter: @TheCrocShow| Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“There has to be a certain element of education, as well as a certain level of just having fun.  Because at the end of the day, you want to help develop those middle school athletes to develop a love for the game, but more importantly, develop a love for the process.” 12:20 “Not everybody's going to play in college, not everybody's going to play professionally. But strength and conditioning from a health standpoint, there's so much value to it and you're instilling that not just at the high school level but at the middle school level.” 20:32 “When you add a tennis ball to a drill, just the kids get mind blown and they're like oh my gosh, this drill just got harder just by holding on to this tennis ball. So now, I learn a lot of these things from PE just working on hand eye coordination and things like that. So now I'm integrating things that we do in PE, crossed over to strength and conditioning, and now we're combining the two.” 30:30 “I think one of the biggest growth is I always tell people as a strength coach, you should carry yourself as an exercise scientist, because there is a science to what we do.” 34:18

Explore the applied sport science research process in college baseball, and how academic research can be optimized to benefit player programming. This episode features Dr. David Szymanski, the Director of Baseball Performance at Louisiana Tech University, and co-editor of the recently published book NSCA’s Strength Training for Baseball. Hear about Szymanski’s career path, from college baseball player to coach and sport scientist. This episode covers a wide range of relevant topics, including exercise selection, performance technology, student pathways, and the emergence of performance director roles across Major League Baseball (MLB).  Find David on Instagram: @drdavidszymanski or at his program website: LA Tech Sport Science| Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“And then I always tell them, know who your athletes are. What are your facilities? Where are your equipment? How much time do you have? Are you in the offseason, preseason, in-season? What are your injuries? What are your sport coaches may influence what you do or ask you to do some things? And then you have to put it all together and make it work.” 17:20 “There has been research that's demonstrated with force plates that the triple extension really is most powerful from the second pull. So you don't have to pull from the floor if you want to really accentuate power production.” 21:33 “Learn from those who have good experiences or evidence-based information, because, to me, that's what we really need to know. Because, inevitably, you're going to be asked by somebody-- a medical doctor, athletic trainer, the players, their parents, the coaches-- why are you doing what you do? And I think you always need to have an answer that is going to be objective and evidence-based.” 33:34

Connect with a young researcher and coach on exploring strength and power topics within elite sport, including a deep dive into velocity-based training. This episode features Dr. Jonathon Weakley, of Australian Catholic University and Leeds Beckett University, discussing his path from growing up in New Zealand, working and studying in the United Kingdom, and performing coaching-centric research with athletes in Australia. Listen in as “Jono” connects with Eric McMahon, the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, on uses of weight room technology, providing appropriate coaching feedback to support athletic performance, and the global strength and conditioning and sport science landscape.     This episode mentions the following research papers from NSCA journals:    Weakley, J, Mann, B, Banyard, H, McLaren, S, Scott, T, and Garcia-Ramos, A. Velocity-Based Training: From Theory to Application, Strength and Conditioning Journal (43)4: 31-49, 2021  Weakley, J, Wilson, K, Till, K, Banyard, H, Dyson, J, Phibbs, P, Read, D, and Jones, B. Show Me, Tell Me, Encourage Me: The Effect of Different Forms of Feedback on Resistance Training Performance, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 34(11), 3157-3163, 2020  Find Jon on Twitter: @JonathonWeakle1 | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“So the thing is you've got to make sure that they have this appeal to coaches. Because they've only got two to three minutes to look at a paper. They're not going to read an entire methodology section or results or discussion. So how can we make sure our results jump off the page, key points given to them in two to three sentences? And then that's how we make our real impact.” 7:03 “And I thought to myself, this doesn't make sense, because we're totally neglecting that athletes change over time and that fatigue profiles change over time. And I was even just seeing it in my athletes day-to-day. We might have six athletes and they all do six reps, but they'd have very, very different fatigue responses.” 10:08 “And that's when I started going, hey, we've got different athletes. They all require different types of feedback. But understanding your athletes and understanding how they respond to feedback, you can have monster adaptations and training improvements. It's just phenomenal.” 17:41 “I genuinely care about helping individuals, because our area is based on human interactions. It's not just barbell velocities and power outputs.” 36:38 “We need to make sure our coaches are not only great practitioners, but they have a solid understanding of sports science.” 37:42

Learn from a coach who took his career from working with Winter Olympic and professional sport athletes to success in the private sector. In this episode, Bret Kelly of Exos and formerly United States Ski and Snowboard, shares about his journey and the need for coaches to remain versatile in growing their professional skills in the field. Tune in as Kelly connects with Eric McMahon, the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, on seeking out opportunities to work in niche Olympic sports, the growing uses of performance technology, and the value of building a strong support staff.  Find Bret on Instagram: @bk_strengthcoach and on Twitter: @bret_kelly_ | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“Offer your services. You're not going to get paid right away. I think that's something that people need to understand. And I looked at it as just more schooling really, because I learned a lot more in my internships probably than I did during my master's program because it was so hands-on. And I'm not paying that tuition.” 10:08 “You know different ways of training. You know different cultures I guess. Like, the ski culture is very different from the football culture. So as a coach, you don't necessarily know who you're going to be working with. So being that chameleon, being able to bounce back and forth and work with different groups I think is definitely beneficial.” 14:52 “It comes back to building those relationships. If you are building those relationships and they trust you, then they're going to come in and work with you as well just like your athletes would. So it's weird at first, but I think once you kind of wrap your head around it, it's very beneficial.” 20:39 “I would say one of my biggest things I got from working with the ski team was to really dive in deep with their exercise physiologist there.” 26:01

This episode features Glenn Revell, the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Central Catholic High School in San Antonio, TX. “Coach Rev” shares insights and advice with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, from his transition to high school strength and conditioning from the college setting. This is a great episode for all coaches, teachers, and leaders to realize their value and impact within their community. Tune in to learn about important areas to develop knowledge and skills outside of the traditional strength and conditioning education.    Find Glenn on Twitter: @glennrevell | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“When you can really dig deep and develop them as people, not just as athletes. And that's something-- every coach develops their athletes as people in some form or fashion, but I think when you're in those high school years, it's really formative and that's when you can really dig deep and hopefully impact those kids in a positive way and make lasting changes.” 5:05 “So for me, it was all about making things simple and scalable and then providing that value to the program, the school, and the profession. So that's kind of what it broke down to me. And as far as X's and O's of what I do, there's nothing extremely complicated. What I've found is that high school kids, they want to lift heavy, they want to run and jump and feel athletic, and they want to compete in whatever way possible.” 21:02 “So in and of itself, I had paid for myself by reducing the injury rate. So we got healthier kids and the school, and the school district is spending less money paying for the injuries we don't have. And when you take those things, and you put what you do into language that, essentially, business people can understand, which is going to be your administrators, anyone like that, then they start to see the value. And you're portraying everything that you bring to the program, to the institution, to the profession.” 24:44 “For me, I really try to use the technology that we have to foster that competitive atmosphere, not so the kids get caught up in like, oh, Johnny is better than me. He's always running 2/10 of a second faster than me, but that's why I keep that data on them throughout all four years of their time with me because I'm like Yeah Johnny's 2/10 of a second faster than you, but you're 4/10 of a second faster than you were three years ago.” 31:05