NSCA’s Coaching Podcast

Hear from Bri Kanz, Assistant Athletic Director of Sports Performance for Santa Clara University. Kanz connects with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, on key stops along her professional path, including her most recent position at Stanford University. Learn how injury inspired Kanz to pursue strength and conditioning, about her move to the West Coast, and her enthusiasm for Olympic sport strength and conditioning. Kanz shares her insight on what it takes to be an effective strength and conditioning coach and where she sees the field going in the future.   Connect with Bri on Instagram: @brikanz| Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“And that's kind of where I started my coaching career at. And just from there, I just fell in love with it. I love the transformation process. I loved watching athletes grow. I loved being able to have an impact on the next generation. And that's kind of where I started my journey.” 3:20 “The biggest challenges that I faced, honestly, was knowing when to end the chapter and start a new one. I think saying goodbye to the athletes and the relationships that you've built along the way is always a challenge. And it's always hard to make that decision.” 8:40 “First and foremost, you have to be able to work well with others. If you're not able to work well with others and create your own team, then you're not going to be successful period.” 13:14 “If you don't have a reason why you want to be in this field, then you're not going to get very far. So just always knowing your why. And whenever you're having a hard day, just coming back to it and knowing that it's for a bigger purpose other than yourself.” 27:21

Hear from 2022 NSCA Professional Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year, Dan Dalrymple. Dalrymple shares insight, advice, and comparisons on working with players at the college and professional levels. He also mentions his special career connection with 2022 NSCA College Strength and Conditioning Coach, Liane Blyn. Tune in as Dalrymple talks to NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about professional development for coaches, and how the NSCA played a valuable role throughout his career development.  Connect with Dan on Instagram: @dan_dalrymple | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“I always liken it to like NASCAR where the assistant coaches, and strength conditioning coaches, and everyone else is kind of the pit crew. And we're keeping the product on the road. And so that's a different mentality of realizing that it's not all about you as a coach. And it's all about the athlete.” 13:05 “The beauty of being a strength coach is a lot of times the player will come down and come in and sit in my office and vent. Right? And you want them to have that ability. But you also don't want to be a sounding board for them to just complain about their coach, or complain about their contract, or complain about all these different things.” 24:40 “I also think it's important for young coaches, and I try to express this to my staff and to anyone I talk to, understand the history of your profession, and become an expert in that. And see who the giants are that we're all standing on their shoulders.” 28:38 “The best thing for me for football was starting to work with ice hockey because I never played competitive ice hockey. I had to learn the sport, and learn how to evaluate it, and learn what they're doing. And then I took that coach's eye and approached it with football, and it made my programming for football a lot better. So those kind of opportunities are just so valuable.” 32:23

In this episode, we hear from 40-year veteran strength and conditioning coach, Rock Gullickson. Rock shares his path from collegiate strength and conditioning to the National Football League (NFL), including how weight room conversations have changed over the years as well as his thoughts on growth in the field today. Listen in to hear Rock connect with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, on lessons and insights for an impactful coaching career. Connect with Rock via email at Rock-Ter79@hotmail.com| Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“I always liked the idea that you tell the guys, hey, we're going to help you get stronger. We are going to take you to levels that you haven't been before. We are going to push you. We are going to ask you to do things with a lot of energy and you need to bring that each day. And that you also have to have a willingness to work with us on your technique. And we'll film you. We'll watch you. We'll be right beside you. We'll motivate you. We'll encourage you.” 22:37 “More than ever, it's developing a relationship and an understanding and a trust that I'm taking it down this path. Because I want you to be bigger, faster, and stronger. I want you to be more healthy on the football field. I want you to be more explosive. I want you to run better.” 26:49 “For the young aspiring strength coach, I tell them that there's three things that go into your success. And number one is that you work hard at what you're doing and that people recognize that in you.” 38:24 “It's the it's the life lessons that you teach these young people. Because there's things that you have seen and done that, you should share it with these young people so that you teach them about life. And you teach them about their responsibilities and help them with their goals. But that's where the happiness comes.” 43:00

Take a deep dive into force plate research and trends with “Force Plate Coach”,  Dr. John McMahon from the University of Salford in England. In this episode, John discusses his path from Royal Marine Commando into strength and conditioning and biomechanics teaching and research. Listen in as John connects with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, on the past, present, and future of force plates in sport and the ways we can improve our testing and evaluation of athletes.   This episode mentions the following paper from NSCA’s Strength and Conditioning Journal:  McMahon, JJ, Suchomel, TJ; Lake, JP, and Comfort, P. Understanding the Key Phases of the Countermovement Jump Force-Time Curve, Strength and Conditioning Journal 40(4):  96-106, 2018     Find John on Instagram: @forceplatecoach, on Twitter: @ForcePlateCoach, and on YouTube: @ForcePlateCoach| Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“Some more of your fast stretch shortening cycle tests, like the drop jump and the multi-rebound jumps, as well as the countermovement jump test, just to try and map the way in which practitioners would like to use their force plates with their athletes to get more of a holistic overview of what their neuromuscular status is at any given time.” 13:55 “So those two mechanisms were raised as red flag flags and in the effect sizes they were considered moderate to large changes in countermovement depth and body weight that we saw immediately post-match. Now, if we didn't have a force plate, we wouldn't know that those changes had occurred, or we would say is that the jump height was the same post-match.” 22:21 “And because we tend to use jump height as the key outcome variable that was displayed on the screen in the scoreboards. Those athletes will see that there's no improvement to their previous period. But if they're 5 kilos heavier that means that they've applied a greater impulse in total to their body center of mass.” 24:50 “I assessed the PhD student earlier this year that's effectively been involved in the British Army, saw a different regimen that they now use the isometric mid-thigh pull to inform the job roles that they can apply for when they commence their training, believe it or not. So they've got certain key performance indicators like, in terms of peak force relative to body mass, that people must be able to pull, or push I should say.” 49:41

This episode recaps one of the sessions from the 2022 NSCA Coaches Conference in San Antonio, TX. Head Coach and Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Performance at the University of Texas, Donnie Maib, discusses “the Golden Connection” as it relates to working with rotational athletes. Tune in as Coach Maib shares stories with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, on lessons learned from a 27-year collegiate strength and conditioning career, including paths for aspiring coaching, being a good father and husband, and areas of the field he sees on the near horizon.     Find Donnie on Instagram: @donniemaib and on Twitter: @coachdonnie | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“For the Coaches Conference, the title of my talk is The Golden Connection, and over the years of just working with overhead athletes there. I have just found there's this connection between the shoulder and the hip.” 8:12 “I think that takes a lot of listening, really listening. Then being able to ask the right questions with that coach. Then if you are put on the spot, how do you how do you respond in a way that's not knee jerk or defensive? Where you can actually walk out of that room and actually have won their trust over versus erode that trust.” 14:59 “You need to find somebody who's got the core value that values you have, because if you're a better dad or better mom, you're a better coach. You are more compassionate. You are more understanding. You are more patient. If you can lead home really well, you can lead at work really well.” 19:24 “We need more strength coaches in administrative leadership roles in big organizations.” 27:35 “It's been more evolutionary, not revolutionary. So small changes over time, educating, being patient, understanding, giving a little bit more at the first, and then just being patient with the process, the frustration of that. So it does pay off. It does make a difference. And you're just, ultimately, you just want that 1% advantage over your competition. So that's what you've got to do to get there, but that's how it's changed us big time, just quantifying practice loads. It's been huge.” 31:44

David Joyce, a performance director and co-editor of High-Performance Training for Sports, teams up with Daniel Lewindon, head of performance science for British tennis, to discuss their groundbreaking book. They explore the need for collaboration among sports professionals to enhance training environments. Joyce and Lewindon introduce the concept of 'Zombie Killers' as a playful yet practical approach to coaching. The duo emphasizes the importance of integrating technical skills with soft skills to truly impact athletes, reshaping modern coaching practices in the process.

Learn about pursuing strength and conditioning roles from father and son, Joe Kenn and Peter Kenn. Joe “Big House” Kenn brings perspectives on program leadership from over 35 years in the strength and conditioning profession. Joe’s son Peter, a recent graduate in the field and Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at United States Military Academy West Point, shares his story of learning the profession from a young age with his dad coaching in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and National Football League (NFL). Tune in to hear dinner table conversation, as Joe and Peter connect with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, in an episode that bridges coaching generations.   Find Joe on Instagram: @bighousepower or Twitter: @bighousepower | Find Peter on Instagram: @peterkenn1 or Twitter: @peterkenn1 | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“If you don't start that process until you've already graduated from undergrad, well, yeah, you're probably going to be working for free until you're 24, 25, 26. If this is what you want to do, you have to get in early. And you have to get in often.” 16:50 “But I always said, want to do it your way? Go run your own program. You think you got what it takes? Go get a job. Run your own program. And then you can dictate the demands of what you think are right and wrong.” 33:08 “If we're going to run internship programs as coaches, well, if we have a job open up, we better at least be considering one of the guys that was just in our program. Because, if you're not considering one of your own interns, you probably don't have a very good program.” 36:55 “I think the communication style that you choose as a strength coach is probably going to be a culmination of all the different coaches you've heard speak. And you've pick and chose which dynamic is the best and which best matches your personality and what you're comfortable with moving forward.” 53:56 “But I would urge any new coach coming up to be around as many different coaches as you can possibly be, both in their office time and coaching time, to understand how they deal with certain situations and figure out where their voice needs to be. And if you don't have a voice, I'm not saying you can't be in this profession. But you better find one quick. Because it's going to be tough.” 55:13 “Go to practice. Meet the athlete where they're at. A lot of times, they're, oh, you just worry about us doing weights. You don't come-- the showing up at practice will do more for your weight program than how good a coach you are and how well you write a program.” 56:33

Mike Snowden, University of Alabama Men’s Basketball Strength Coach, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about having a genuine relationship with head sport coaches. Topics under discussion include building players into the program, creating buy-in, and embracing new and unique career opportunities. Find Mike on Instagram: @mike__snowden or Twitter: @Mike__Snowden | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“I think a lot of single leg work is huge for those guys. And we spend a lot of time-- iso holds, different split squat variations. I think they look better, perform a little bit better, doing those, and gain a little more confidence doing those.” 14:45 “One of those things that I constantly harp on young coaches is be yourself. Don't feel like you need to be your favorite strength coach on Twitter, or Instagram. You know saying be yourself, coach within that, and do what's best for the student athletes that you get to work with.” 21:02 “Don't say no to an opportunity. Because you never know what that may turn into down the road, or how you meet somebody there that may help you out down the road or whatever.” 23:01 “I think the sports science route is also going to open a lot of opportunities, both in college and in the private setting, as far as having kind of like you look at it now, where you have those AT's with CSCS as almost like dual purpose roles.” 26:43

Matt Frakes, Director of Sports Nutrition at Notre Dame Athletics, and Bryan Doo, former Head Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Boston Celtics National Basketball Association (NBA) team and owner of Optimal Fitness, join as guests with the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon. Also returning is guest co-host Jon Jost, a 27-year veteran college strength and conditioning coach and the Team Sports Manager for Gatorade. This Gatorade Performance Partner Special Episode highlights the value of being an inclusive leader; the current level of support for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the performance community; and how to foster inclusivity within your programs. Find Matt on Twitter: @SuperiorFrakes or Instagram: @superiorfrakes | Find Bryan on Twitter: @bdoo22 or Instagram: @bdoostrength | Find Jon via email: jonathan.jost@pepsico.com | Find Jon on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook: | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes  “People say you have to meet them where they are but then bring them to where you want to go. As a leader, I think my vision is what needs to be seen, the responsibility of making the decisions and so forth. But also making sure that I see where they're coming from to help them, guide them, and see if they actually can get to that vision.” 2:53 “I have to get buy-in from the players. I have to get their trust. If they don't trust me, if they don't do it, we can't get anything done.” 11:19 “You've got to throw in sometimes in respect to their culture and their background those type of foods.” 19:50 “Life is really about relationships, and it doesn't matter what background someone else has. You can learn an awful lot from them. And they can enrich your life, and you can enrich their life.” 33:05 “Because it can't be seen as the elephant in the room. It has to be something that has to be seen as a standard that we address, and that we ensure that we are fitting. And it's just a normal thing that we are looking towards as far as that we have a part because we have a diverse team. So we need to have a diverse unit and diverse staff as well.” 1:06:02

Stephanie Mock, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Performance at the University of Pittsburgh, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about growing a comprehensive sports performance program. Topics under discussion include tips for interviews, graduate assistantships, staff development, and the ongoing collaboration with academics to advance sport science initiatives at University of Pittsburgh. Find Stephanie on Instagram: @_mockstephanie_ or @pitt_sportsperformance | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscsShow Notes“I always try to tell the interns now, when you interview for a position, you never know who knows who. You may not be the right fit for that role in particular, but Susie Q could know Joe over here that needs this role, and you're the right fit for that. So never, ever go through an interview and end on bad terms.” 8:58 “I told my staff, one of our goals is, whatever sports or teams that you have, making it to one practice a week to showcase in their space and that you respect what they do.” 19:48 “And my job is to look at myself in the mirror as a head person and be like, "What are my strengths and weaknesses and how can I make my staff well-rounded based off of what I bring to the table?"” 39:12