Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: The Podcast About Podcasts – Featuring Maris Sprint

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BONUS: The Podcast About Podcasts – Featuring Maris Sprint · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  It's bonus time. Here we go.
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  This month in February of 2025, we are doing a podcast about
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  podcast. We want to introduce you to
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  other track and field themed podcasts that are out there that
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  might be great for your listening pleasure.
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  So all month we're introducing a new podcast each and every day,
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  showing you who they are, what they are, how they are, why they
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  got started and even their favorite episodes and most
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  popular. And hopefully this adds to your
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  podcast listening library. So here we go.
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  Let's get started with today's podcast about podcast.
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  All right, let's jump right into it.
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  Why don't you start advertising? Don't advertise, but that's what
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  this whole thing is. How about introduce yourself
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  kind of a 30,000 foot level 30 second version of who you are
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  and what your relationship is to this great sport, and then give
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  us the name of the podcast that we're talking about today all.
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  Right. First off, Mike, I want to say
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  thank you so much for having me on.
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  But yeah, so my name is David Maris.
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  As you may guess, I'm not American so I live over here in
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  the States. I live in Texas but grew up in
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  the UK, moved from the UK to Dubai and then moved over to the
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  US in 2018. So I was am was a very mediocre
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  athlete. I still try and do a little bit
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  of master's track, but hugely passionate about it and did a
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  brief stint of college coaching at a small Division Three school
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  down here in Houston at University of Saint Thomas.
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  But being like an avid listener, an avid follower of of all your
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  stuff of the sport in general and sprinting is my passion.
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  So I've been really fortunate to kind of like network with some
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  elite Sprint coaches, some elite athletes and yeah, it's kind of
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  really, really involved with that.
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  So yeah, that's kind of a little bit about me and my involvement
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  in track and field I love. It and what's the name of our
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  podcast that we're talking about today?
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  So my podcast very imaginatively is called the Marist Sprint
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  Podcast. I love that.
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  Where'd that come from? Oh, OK, wait a minute.
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  We can kind of guess that one. I love that.
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  What are you on the Maris Sprint Podcast here?
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  And maybe it's all right there in the name.
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  And I do actually love that. What what are you actually
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  focusing on in the podcast? Is it training?
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  Is it interviewing? What's the style that you use as
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  far as solo podcast, etcetera? What are we going for here when
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  we listen to the Maris Sprint Podcast?
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  Yeah. So it's an interview and it's
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  typically with sprinters, you know, occasionally it's all from
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  like the speed and power domain. So I might have a long jumper in
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  there, for example. But we were chatting about their
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  essentially, I guess their part in their path into elite
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  performance. So might be how they got
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  involved in the sport and kind of how they prepare sort of from
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  a training standpoint predominantly.
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  But we touched on other lifestyle factors, you know,
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  things that they might do in terms of with their nutrition,
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  their sleep, their recovery, that kind of thing.
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  And you know how they get set up to perform at the level at which
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  they do. And what's our average length?
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  I know they can sometimes vary, you know, as far as the min and
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  the Max. But what's our average length?
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  Yeah, it does vary. I'd say probably just over an
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  hour is probably an average is probably an average episode.
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  Yeah, love that. And why did when you go back and
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  tell us when you started, but when you go back and think about
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  when you started the podcast, you had some kind of motivation
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  where it was whether to educate others, educate yourself, put
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  other people on a pedestal. What what was kind of the when
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  did you start and what was the motivation for starting the
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  podcast? Yeah, so the podcast came out,
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  it was about two years ago, I think it was just before
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  Christmas in 2022. And the 1st guest I had was
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  Ronnie Baker. So, and I think I started it
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  because I think I didn't really see anybody kind of chatting to
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  the athletes about what they did from a training, from a training
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  perspective. There was one guy actually out
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  in Germany, a guy called Benjamin Brock.
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  I apologize if I put you the pronunciation of his of his last
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  name. And he was interviewing German
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  track and field athletes, similar, similar kind of
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  content. And you know, I was interested
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  in when he was chatting to Sprint as he he'd send me the
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  transcript, I'd plug it into Google Translate and then I get
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  an English translation out of it.
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  And, and I've had a lot. I love that information.
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  And I'd always listen to like a lot of coaching coaching
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  podcasts. And I felt like a lot of them
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  often went into like the, the, the, the content was a lot about
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  kind of like the minutiae of training, like sort of real
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  specifics because it was quite a high end, sort of like coaching
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  audience and definitely quite a high end of like that, you know,
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  the guests that were being interviewed.
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  And, and I felt like I wanted something regarding training
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  that was sort of more accessible to people that, you know, you've
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  got a, you've got a 14 year old that's just watched the
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  Olympics. And then they see, they've seen
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  this person on TV and then they've seen this person
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  chatting about their training on a, on a podcast where it'll be a
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  little bit more rudimentary in terms of just, well, you know,
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  this is what I might do on a Monday, pretty simple.
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  And, and this is what I do on a Tuesday, etcetera.
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  And they go through the training week.
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  So I felt like it, it kind of offered something for the
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  curiosity of a of a young athlete that maybe didn't have a
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  huge background in, in sort of, you know, understanding like the
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  science and the methodologies behind training programs.
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  I love that as a guy who thinks the basics are more important
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  than the top 1%, I I love that focus.
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  Absolutely, 100% agree with that.
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  And I think that, you know, it's in this social media age, it's
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  quite easy to kind of get lost on that.
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  And you know, the, the, the, that, that final 1% is quite
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  sexy as what sells. But you know, the basics is
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  what's going to is probably what's going to get you there.
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  Exactly. I love that.
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  Well, you kind of started diving into this.
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  My next question is, you know, in business we have what's
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  called an ideal customer. So we have a lot of people here
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  at Gill that purchase from us. We have moms and dads that will
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  buy discuses for like Christmas and things like that.
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  We sell the contractors and architect, architect type stuff.
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  But our main focus when we're designing a product, marketing
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  and product thinking about anything about the market, we,
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  we're talking, we, we in our head, we think of high school
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  and college coaches. That's our ideal customer base
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  for podcast is something very similar.
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  There's lots of people that might listen to your podcast,
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  but you're speaking to one type of person out there who would be
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  your ideal listener profile for the podcast.
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  Yeah, that's a great question. And I think that the specific
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  nature of any listener for me is going to be, is going to be
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  their interest. They're going to be interested
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  in sprinting. They're going to be interested
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  in getting faster or developing speed and power because it
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  really kind of focuses on the the training in that regard.
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  However, I mean, the, the variety of people that might be
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  interested in sprinting or speed and power, you know, could be
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  quite general, right? You could have like, you could
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  have like a wide demographic that had that interest.
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  So I think really for me, it's kind of anybody that's
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  interested in speed, power sprinting, what these athletes
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  are doing to perform at the level at which they do.
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  And, you know, if you listen to the podcast, it's going to
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  answer some of those questions for you.
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  Yeah, I love that for you. You've been behind the scene on
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  every single episode. What's been it's it's kind of A2
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  parter. What's been the most popular
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  episode as far as the most listens?
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  And it may be a different answer here.
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  What has been your favorite episode that you've been
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  involved in? Yeah, it's a really, that's a,
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  that's a really tough, that's a really tough question to answer.
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  It's, it's tough to choose a favorite because I'm, I'm a
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  diplomatic guy. I like to sit on the fence as
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  well. But I think that, you know, I, I
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  was a team, I was a teenager in the 80s.
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  Sorry, in the 90s, not in the 80s.
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  I'm making myself too old now. But yeah, in the 90s and I think
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  kind of throughout kind of the mid 90s and the mid to late 90s,
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  that was when I really got interested in the sport and I
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  was a huge Ato Bolden fan. So having Ato Bolden on there
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  was a big deal for me. Also had Donovan Bailey from
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  that era as well as as a guest. So that's been that.
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  Those were kind of like big moments for me.
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  I've also had, you know, world and Olympic champion, so King
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  Collins was on Richard Kilty, which I think was probably that
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  that certainly the the episode that I've had like most messages
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  about the 2014 sixty meter world indoor champion, Greg
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  Rutherford. He he he that was quite a good
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  episode. Isla del Punter, the the Swiss
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  printer and as I mentioned, like Ronnie Baker gave some great
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  insights. So and and I like as well.
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  I've had sort of like some reason I've got quite a big
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  following in Australia and what that's afforded me, which has
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  been really quite cool, is that I had a couple that in fact, I
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  think they recently just got married, but 3 masters.
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  So she ran in Paris in the 100 meters in, in the Olympics just
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  gone. But she started off as a surf
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  lifesaver. So she was doing beach sprinting
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  and then her now husband. They have the, the pro circuit
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  in Australia where they have the the handicapped races.
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  So, you know, they race over, I think it's 120 meters, but
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  depending on how fast you are, you get a little bit of a head
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  start. And then it's they have a big
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  race every Easter called the school gift and had Matt Rizzo,
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  her husband. He won the school gift in 2017.
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  There's big prize money and there's lots of gambling going
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  on. It's really, it's wildly
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  different to track and field, but it's really exciting.
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  So hearing some of the stories from people that have kind of
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  come into track and field, involved in track and field, but
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  also have a background in sprinting from in a slightly
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  different scenario. That's that's something that
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  I've really enjoyed chatting about as well.
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  I love that. That's very cool.
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  You know, a lot of people are listening to your podcast and
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  they're going to learn a lot about sprinting or maybe
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  training theory and what it takes to build the base of a
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  sprinter and all the events that are applicable to that for you.
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  You've been doing this now for two years.
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  What have you learned being behind the mic?
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  So not necessarily in regards to, you know, how to coach
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  someone to be a faster sprinter or whatnot, but all the other
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  things that people don't really see behind the curtain being a
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  podcast host. So interviewing equipment,
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  software, etcetera. What's one thing that you've
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  learned in these two years? Yeah, I mean, I think marketing
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  really matters and, you know, I don't think it's something that
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  I'm that that doesn't come naturally to me.
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  I listen to a podcast because I like the information and I'll
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  typically listen to like an audio version as I'm driving in
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  my car. So but having like professional
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  looking videos and stuff like that, you know, I think that I
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  think that's sort of perhaps quite important, more important
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  than I realized it would be. And I think as well like, you
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  know, the hosting platform and figuring all that stuff out
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  again, you know, I'm not like hugely tech savvy.
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  So it sort of seems quite interesting doing like a zoom
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  recording and put it on and putting it online.
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  But, you know, there's a few more steps that you kind of need
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  to go through and, and, and the hosting platform that I
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  initially used has actually just sort of changed its structure,
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  which means I need to sort of like invest in time in learning
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  how to put the podcast out there.
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  But yeah. Yeah, some flexibility is
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  certainly needed in the podcast world.
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  All right, last two questions here.
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  Where can we find the podcast? I'm assuming, but I don't want
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  to assume that you're not exclusive.
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  So maybe you're on Apple and Spotify.
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  Are you on YouTube or kind of give us a rundown on where most
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  people find the pet the podcast? So I would say that probably
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  that that the format that I use is probably a little bit more
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  applicable to Apple or Spotify just because it's because it's
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  audio. The video edits are nothing
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  fancy, but I do stick it up on YouTube as well.
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  Perfect. Love that.
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  And last question here, David, is, you know, again, the average
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  podcast listener listens to between 7:00 and 10:00 podcasts.
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  So I'm going to assume that as a podcast host, maybe you listen
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  to podcast, What is your favorite podcast that's not
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  track related? What do you like listening to
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  out there in the podcast world? OK, so but part of the
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  inspiration for mine was by a podcast called, it's called the
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  High Performance podcast. So as in hyper HYPER
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  performance. So sort of like they combine the
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  two ways together by by some brothers in Australia called
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  Angus Bradley and Oscar Bradley. And it was sent.
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  I mean, I may be cheating a little bit because they have had
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  a couple of guests like Justin Gatlin and Aaron Brown on.
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  But essentially it's a strength and conditioning slash sort of
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  like fitness podcast where they, you know, and they get kind of
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  different people from different sort of like performance,
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  different performance domains. I suppose physical performance
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  domains. It's one that I listen to quite
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  regularly outside of more sort of like typical track and field
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  ones. Yeah, I love that.
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  All right, well, listener, as you can see, we're pretty much
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  done with this episode. So here's my challenge to you.
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  Whatever podcast app you're using right now to listen to our
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  show, more than likely you're going to find this show.
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  So hit pause, go into that search button in that same app
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  and just search the Maris Sprint podcast.
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  And here's what I'm going to suggest.
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  I always like, you know, when you dive into a new podcast,
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  certainly the latest episode is an important one to listen to,
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  right? So you know their latest up to
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  date flavor and style and format.
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  But go back, you heard some of the favorite ones that he has in
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  some of the more popular ones. Greg Rutherford, what a great
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  guy. Otto Bolden, of course, man,
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  that's an amazing one. Maybe you go back into his
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  library and check out those episodes as well.
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  And then as always, hit the subscribe button, whether you're
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  on YouTube or one of the podcast apps.
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  That way you'll know every time he drops an episode, you'll be
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  the first one to know. So go check out the Maris Sprint
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  Podcast and maybe it's a good podcast for you and your
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  repertoire of listening. Thanks for being here, guys.
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  Appreciate it. Thank you, David.