Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 303. Pressure Makes Diamonds: UConn Women's Basketball Director of Sports Performance Andrea Hudy Talks A Winner's Mindset & Navigating Intense Moments

Transcript

303. Pressure Makes Diamonds: UConn Women's Basketball Director of Sports Performance Andrea Hudy Talks A Winner's Mindset & Navigating Intense Moments · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Our standards are pretty much still the same in terms of,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: you know, be a good teammate, work hard, accept feedback,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and honesties are most efficient policy.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: What's going on everyone, Emily Abadi?
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Here?
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: You are listening to episode three hundred and three of Hurdle,
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: a wellness focused podcast where I talk to inspirational people
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: about everything from their highest ties and toughest moments to
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: essential tips on how to live a healthier, happier, more
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: motivated life. We all go through our fair share of hurdles.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: My goal through these discussions is to empower you to
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: better navigate yours and move with intention so that you
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: get stride towards your own big potential and of course,
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: have some fun a lot the way, and honestly, fun
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: is exactly what I had with today's guest. Her name
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: is Andrea Hoodie. She is the director of Sports Performance
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: for women's basketball at the one, the only University of Connecticut. Now,
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: whether or not you are a fan of women's college basketball,
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: you certainly know about Yukon. I have a personal bias
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: as I am a Yukon grad. But I was so
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: so amped when my dear friend and coach, Rebecca Stow
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: connected me with whody to have today's conversation, and if
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: we talk about so many things, a resounding theme of pressure.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: There's a lot going on with what she does and
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: the ins and outs of working with such an excellent team,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: how she manages that pressure, and how she advises her
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: athletes to do the same. We talk a lot about
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: the fact that these girls are under such intense circumstances
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: and the fact that they are also only between the
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: ages of roughly eighteen and twenty two, right, so so
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: much responsibility on their shoulders.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: At such a young age.
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  Speaker 3: We also chat about what it's like for her to
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: be a role model to these women, what it looks
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: like for her to take care of herself these days
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: and implement boundaries. She opens up about how the pressure
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: once got to her and what it looks like for
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: her to then implement certain routines and practices into her
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: life to be a better person, a better coach, and
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: also prioritize herself. That was really a strong, strong takeaway
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: for me. Again, as a Yukon grad, I was so
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: excited to be able to have this conversation, this sit down.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: It's been a really special time, not only for women
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: in sports, but to be a woman's sports fan, and.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Hoodi is one of the best of the best in
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: the game.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Make sure you're not yet subscribed to the weekly Hurdle newsletter.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: You are doing so.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: The link to do that is in the show notes
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: is absolutely free.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: In there you get a lot of the same.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Motivation, inspiration stuff that you love from the show directly
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: in your inbox. Also fall along with Hurdle on social
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: It's over at Hurdle podcast. I am over at Emily
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: a body and with that, let's get to it.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Let's get to a hurdling.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: Today I have the honor of sitting down with Andrea Hoodie.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: She's the director of sports performance for women's basketball at
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: the one, the only, the University of Connecticut.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: This pumping happened behind the scenes.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Scared.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: How you doing today?
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: We're great here? Yeah, how are you?
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: I'm good? So great here.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: It means great in stores, this is a beautiful sunny
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: day in stores like it is.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it might be it's probably hotter in the city,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: but it is beautiful. I just got back from my walk,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: so life is good.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Life is good.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: I will say that a lot has changed about the
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: University of Connecticut since I graduated from there in twenty ten.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Primarily the fact that.
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  Speaker 3: Y'all have a little bit more going on around campus now,
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: there's more to do.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: It's more of a city than it used to be.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you just said, y'all, I'm.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: From Connecticut, so I don't really know where that teams from.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Moody. Yeah, campus is beautiful. They've really done a lot
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: of work. It's unbelievable in terms of the buildings and
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: the landscapes. So yeah, it's great.
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  Speaker 2: It's great.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I was so excited when we were connected by
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: a dear friend of mine. Shout out to Rebecca Stow,
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: not only because I am a Yukon alum, but also
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: because there is so much I want to know about
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: the thought process, about the you know, the team development,
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: the interpersonal development that goes into creating such.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: A kick ass team.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Excuse me for lack of a better So, my first
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: and foremost, let's talk a little bit about you. Let's
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: talk a little bit about how you ended up in
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: this position, because I know you have certainly made your
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: way from one place to the next every Now, yeah,
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: talk to me a little bit about that.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Wow, my relationship with coach orim and staff started nineteen
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: eighty seven when they recruited me as an athlete, I
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: became aware of who they were and what they were about.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I obviously and unfortunately didn't get to play for them
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: because I was an injured athlete. And yeah, I think
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: the injury that I had and sustained when I was
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: fifteen years old has really driven me to try to
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: continue my work and try to keep people from getting
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: injured or injured more than what they have been. So
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: here I am studying my PhD. At you kind of back,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: you know, after twenty years.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: Back after twenty years, talk to me a little bit
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  Speaker 3: about that injury.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: What were you dealing with?
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I it was a multi sport athlete in
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: high school. I I think we'll probably get to this story.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: But I was a pretty big competitor when I was
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: little because I was the youngest of five in a
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  Speaker 1: family that was super competitive who then had competitive friends,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: and everything was a competition. But I think my mom
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: realized there was a problem with me being competitive when
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I was like five or six or seven, when my brother,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: you know, he beat me in a bike race around
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the house and locked the door. So I was so
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: upset that I lost that I put my hand through
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: the window and you know, have a scar in my
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: hand because because he beat me. So I think she
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: was like, hey, I have a problem here, right. That's
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: where it all started.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: And so that competitive nature from an early age then
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: really encouraged you to become more involved with sport as
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: you got older. Talk to me about your entry into
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: sport beyond racing around the house.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Actually it was pe football with my brother. I
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: was full back, he was the quarterback. And then my
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: brothers were wrestlers also, but back then they didn't have
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: sports for young females. So I was like, hey, I'm
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: going to do it, and my mom encouraged me to
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: compete and win against them, so that has stuck through
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: my career. So I played football and wrestled with my
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: brothers and their friends. And then the first sport that
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: was available to me at the time was girls junior
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: high basketball, and I took those behaviors and onto the court,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: which wasn't good because then people would yell at me,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: it's not football, you know. So then just picked up volleyball.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: But I was a better basketball player than anything. I
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: think those other sports kind of translated to body positioning
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: and you know, advancing the ball. And then I got hurt.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: I was fifteen. I was pretty good, pretty athletic, but
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: then you know that never came back and I hit
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: my athletic peak hit fourteen or fifteen years old. Yeah,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and then I played volleyball in college at the University
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: of Maryland. We won an ACC championship. And after I
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: was in school, I did an internship in corporate fitness
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: and I thought that's what I wanted to do because
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: I thought I could make more money in corporate fitness.
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  Speaker 1: But I hated it because not everybody likes to exercise
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  Speaker 1: like I do. And I came to grad school at Yukon.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: We got a master's in sport Biomechanics. And then just
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: being around the culture that they had here for women's basketball,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I thought was pretty special. And it just was that, like,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: you know, my soul was satisfied being here with just
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: the competitive nature and the ultimate goal of winning. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And it's so interesting to hear about how from such
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: a young age you were so competitive and now to
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: be at this powerhouse school for women's basketball kind of
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: leading that charge there. When you think about what you're
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: doing now. Could you even have imagined this as a
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: younger you.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know what I imagined. I knew I wanted
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: to be an athlete. I knew that, but then that
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  Speaker 1: was taken away from me, you know, with injury at
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: the level that I wanted to be at, you know. So,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: but then I would have those competitions with the athletes daily,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: and I think that's what helped me coach men and
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: be successful in the men's side of things too. So, Yeah,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: it was just a phenomenal experience that I embraced and
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: just was living and breathing it.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, when you were going through your injury, talk to
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: us a little bit about specifically what that was and
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: what that did for you mentally.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't think I realized how traumatic the injury was.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: But the problem with it was, and this is why
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: I'm studying what I am now, was everybody told me
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: I was okay, I could go back and play, you know.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: So it was an ACL tear or I first hyper
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: extended my knee transitioning from volleyball in high school to basketball.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: I was running down the court and I remember hyper
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: extending my knee and I was like, man, that hurt. Well,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: two weeks later, I tear my ACL and I'm piecing
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: all these pieces together, and then the docs. You know,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: I didn't grow up in a very populated area. You know,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: it was pretty rural, so you know, they tape you
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: back up and put you back in, and then you know,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: the traumatic incidents would happen against It was like these
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: trauma on top of the trauma on top of the
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: physical trauma. And then it gets to a point where
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: I was strong enough to I think, have your system
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: protect itself from a bad ligament. But eventually that ligament,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: you know, is compromised or compromised more so. I've had
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: traumatic acls, I've had non traumatic ACL eights surgeries. Later
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: on my eighth one, I had my knee replaced at
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: forty seven.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: So wow, wow, Okay, well we'll get to the new
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: or of lace and go.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: I do want to go back and double a click
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: on what you were saying about kind of the vigor
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: that was instilled in you to be able to show
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: up and coach the men's teams. So before you were
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: doing what you are doing now you've had a lengthy
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: opportunity to kind of make some pivots within the coaching world.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: Talk to me about your first coaching job and how
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: it felt from the get go.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Well, I would say my first coaching job was as
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: a graduate assistant here at Yukon and it was I
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: think there were probably twenty seven sports, and it was
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: back in the day when you were in the weight
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: room and you were trying to help people get stronger.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: And it's advanced from that, right, so thirty years later,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: it's very different than where I started. But it was
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: like an athlete factory. I mean we worked from six
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: to six and it was like you had a group
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: on the hour, every hour, and it was every team.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: It eventually got to I was in charge of men's
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: and women's basketball here where I have five national championships
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: from ninety five to four and women and then in
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: ninety nine and four we won with the men and
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: then I have a soccer national championship under my belt too.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: So I've been fortunate to be a part of it.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Been fortunate to be a part of it.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: So for you, as someone who has been in this
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: coaching position for some time now, what does it mean
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: for you to be a coach.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: What do you think are.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: Necessary either characteristics or ways that you need to approach
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: certain things to be the best coach that you can be.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: I always say that you need to be able to
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: teach and motivate. So that's where I think education is priceless.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: But that's all built on the relationships that you develop
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: with people. Because again people have probably heard me say this,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: but there's there's a golden rule, which is treat people
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: how you want to be treated. But then there's the
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: platinum role, which is treat others how they how they
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: want to be treated. So you actually need to get
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: to know somebody and understand what they like to learn
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: or how they like to learn, how they want to communicate.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, you got to get to know people
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: if you want to be successful. I think in any
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: kind of teaching or coaching environment.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: I would assume there's a lot of barriers there, or hurdles,
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: if you will, because you are dealing with so many
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: different athletes at once. So it's really important to pay
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: attention to who it is you're working with and what
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: makes them.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Tech Yeah, for sure. Again, and every sport culture is different,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: so then you have the people in the sport culture
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: that play different positions, who learn different and then you
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: got the sport culture, and then you get the culture
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the athletic department. You have all these cultures, and I
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: asked somebody what culture meant one time, and it was
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: just what we do here and how we operate here.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: So each one of those units has their own kind
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: of culture. So I feel like I'm pretty good at adaptability.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: But also, you know, there are standards, and there are
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: standards that you're like, you need to hit here or
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: else You're we're not going to be successful. So I
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: think if you know those standards, at least we can
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: hit the bottom part of hey, we're ready to compete.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: I would assume that those standards also kind of ebb
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: and flow or shift over time, depending on not only
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: what's happening in your locker room, on your course, but
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: also what's happening with the climate of the game. You know,
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: we've seen such an outstanding rise of talent, specifically within
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: women's sports, over the last few years, and so the
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: standards that we may have had back in twenty twenty
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: are certainly different than they are in twenty twenty four.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good point. I haven't thought about that. Again.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: I worked with Sue Bird and Diana Torazzi, so they
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: graduate or Sue I think graduated in two thousand and
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: two and Diana was two thousand and four. Our standards
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: are pretty much still the same in terms of, you know,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: be a good teammate, work hard, accept feedback and honesties
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: are most efficient policy and our goal and our standard
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: is to win, and it's whatever it takes to win.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: And it's hard. It's a process for sure, because you've
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: got to commit to so many other things. You've got
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: to put the team before yourself every time.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: How has that been for you as you have tried
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: to maintain some semblance of your own personal life outside
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: of the court.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Outside of the locker room, Like, oh, that's a funny question.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: I'm suposed to have my own personal life.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: What's the guy's name on ted Lasso? He's the football
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: is life. Athletics and health and wellness are life for me.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that's why again I'm working on my fourth
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: degree in a PhD and exercise science, and it's life
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: for me for sure. I do have a step daughter
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: and a spouse and my brothers and sisters, but yeah,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: it's always family first.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and for you, what I'm hearing you say, though,
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: is that it's bigger than your you know, God given family,
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: your blood family. It's your family has become within the
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: workplace for you. It's a sure community for you to
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: have these very dynamic and unique relationships that you have
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to build and foster over the course of
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: not just the four years that these athletes are within
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: the Yukon atmosphere for lack of a better term, but
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: also beyond that.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been called mom before, I've been called sister,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: I've been caught and yeah, it's kind of cool when
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: that happens, for sure.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: So, although the standards have not changed, as you say,
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: I'm sure there are things that are different now versus
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: two thousand and four. And before we're talking bird, we're
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: talking to reci What has changed for you in this role.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Well, I think the athlete and society has changed, for sure.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: There's things that we need to consider now that we
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: haven't considered in the past, whether that's early specialization, social media,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: how kids learn and how they communicate that's very different.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: I just did a presentation with my interns at a
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: national conference on how gen X can communicate with gen
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Z and sometimes it takes other people to help figure
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: out how to communicate what needs to be communicated. Have
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: you read the Coddling of America's youth? Have you seen that?
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: I have not.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: It's fascinating because it argues that people are less emotionally mature,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: but they still have to come to college when they're eighteen,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: you know, and then physically they're so early specialized that
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: physically I feel like they're older, but emotionally they might
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: be younger. So it's a little different for sure.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would have been super interested to be in
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: that room as you gave that presentation.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it was good.
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: I think it was good, but that kind of actually
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: that concept I think it was good is going to
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: actually bring us back to where I want to go.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Because as you're preparing year in and year out with
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: the women's basketball team, you're doing the best you can
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: with what you have, right, and it's not until sometimes
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: you show up to these games, you show up to
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: this competition, that you realize that you might need to
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: change the definition of what good is.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Talk to me a little bit about.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: How you have been working as these athletes and as
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: the teams evolve over time.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's still some standards in terms of
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: physical capacities that you need. You're still playing basketball, right
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: and there's still impact load, So are you strong enough
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: to handle the load when you jump? Stop? Can you
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: handle the load on one leg? And those are very
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: much They have strength standards and tissue density standards that
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: we have to build to get to. Now. You look
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: at the fitness world now and everybody's doing their own
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: version of whatever, but I still feel like there are
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: standards in terms of what we have to do to
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: provide that base strength that we can even compete and
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: survive in the sport.
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: You're actually shedding some light on what I wanted to
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: ask about the perhaps specifics within your role. So someone
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: hears that you're the director of sports performance for the
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: women's basketball team, what does that involve for you, whether
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: it be on a day today or just generally.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the one thing that we have to
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: do these days is create a holistic environment where you
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: know you have to include nutrition. We were sleep tracking
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: looking at how sleep affected counter movement, jump and force production.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: So it's like, not only is there just this performance
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: side of it and doing what you have to do
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: in the weight room. But there's a health side of
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: it too. People I always say that health is very
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: different than performance, and people argue with me with that,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: which is fine, But I would tell you that my
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: health nutrition program is very different than a performance nutrition program.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: So those are two different things, and I think performance
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: is just it's another level for sure.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you can be a healthy person without
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: being able to perform at what a peak might be.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: Is that where you're coming from.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And again you're playing against some of the
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: athletes in the world, and you know that can weigh
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: up to you know, however much, or be as light
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: as whatever, But can you move your body and be
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: able to handle the forces that externally that are.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: There Beyond that, I think what's super interesting is coming
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: back to earth and remembering that the young women you
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: are working with are just indeed that they are young women.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: And so suddenly, as you know, coverage of women's sport
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: is increasing, we are seeing more and more of them
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: on bigger stages, which is outstanding, But a lot of
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: people are forgetting that we're dealing with women between ages
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: basically eighteen and twenty two.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Yes's it's a great point. Yeah, they're not professionals, but
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: I would tell you they're thrown into a professional environment
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: in college because that's changed too with NIL because now
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: these athletes are getting paid and they're professionals. They're making
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: more than I am. It's hard because you know, the
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: NCAA or the conference hasn't changed, but how the athletes
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: are treated has changed. So we got some work to do.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: How does that impact you these changes?
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just still concerned about their health and performance,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: so you know, I'm trying to study more. I want
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: them to have a long professional career where not that
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: they I want them to have a long, healthy professional
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: career after but those opportunities maybe weren't as available as
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: they are now.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: So earlier we were talking about how you got your
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: start within coaching, not only at Yukon, but then also
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: had the opportunity to work with some different men's teams.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: Chat with me about the difference between working with conventionally
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: male athletes versus female athletes.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: The biggest difference is this physical stuff because guys have
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: you know, more tissue density, hormonal recovery. But I think mentally, emotionally,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: there's no difference. There's you know, you're working with a
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: person it's coach an athlete. It's like, what do I
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: have to do? I have to learn or get to
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: know the athlete because it's like, what's what motivates them?
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: What do they need to work on to stay healthy?
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: How can we get them stronger? And how can we
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: get them to perform at their best? So I like mentally, emotionally,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: I think that men and women are the same physically,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Guys have some advantages for sure, HM.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: And so for you as a coach, with the dynamics
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: of working with different teams, do you have a personal
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: preference at all.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Just anybody who wants to show up and get better
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: and learn about being healthier and performing better.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that. I absolutely love that.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: So now let's pivot a little bit and talk about
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: the pressure. I mean we just mentioned and how things
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: are changing within that sphere, the pressure to be, you know,
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: professional athlete at such a young age.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of pressure in summary.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: So what I want to know is not only how
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: do you handle it, but maybe in your capacity as
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: a coach, how you've had to have conversations about helping
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: the girls handle it.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: I always tell them, you know, I'll do anything for them.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: They know I'm here for them, And it just depends
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: on if you have a relationship with somebody that they're
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: willing to take a deeper dive with you or not.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: It just it depends on what their support system is,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: you know, if they need support, I'm always here. Pressure
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: for me is yeah, just wanting to win and be
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: the best person, best coach I could be. And that's
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: again why I went back to school.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: What do you do for yourself to be the best
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: coach that you can be?
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: You know, COVID kind of. I wasn't affected by COVID
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: as much as some of other people were affected, so
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: it actually gave me some downtime, which was nice. But
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: I also I got off of my schedule. I was
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: used to being on a schedule, you know, and then
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: I just learned about myself that I lost that schedule
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: and I haven't gotten back to it. But I'm getting
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: back to that schedule, so journaling, meditating, taking care of myself.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: So I wake up earlier now where I have three
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: to four hours by myself doing what I need to do,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: and then come to work.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, there's some trend going on that I
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: was just privy to which is something called the five
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: to nine before the nine to five.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: I'm not hip enough.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: I haven't seen the videos on this trend, but someone
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: said it and I was like, that's actually very much
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: how I execute. It's like, what am I doing between
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: more so like five forty five and nine am? Then
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: I can better execute between the nine and the five
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: forty five ps.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: So what's that call?
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: I think it's just a lar just talk about the concept,
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: the overarching concept of the five to nine before the
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: nine to five.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: So what is it that.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: You're doing in that time period? If you want to
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: be a five am person between five am and nine am,
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: that's building you. That's putting down the foundation as if
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: you were to then build on top of that to
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: be the best version of yourself, whether that is then
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: within business, within your relationships, or you know, whatever is
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: a priority for you.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So I've been doing that, Like I wake up.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: My dog wakes me up at four thirty, and then
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: I've been getting up with him and then just started
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: my day for me because everybody in the house is
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: the dog goes back to bed and everybody in the
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: house is quiet. So I turned my sona on I journal,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: try to meditate, I stretch to my little workout and yeah,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: I get I set my intentions for the day and
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: actually it's been working. I just need to stick with it.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: And in your definition of working, I'd actually love to know, like,
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: what is a determining factor of success for you?
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: I think the relationships and the effect that I can
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: have on others and others have on me. Yeah. I
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: think relationships and how you can lead and follow with
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: others in your team. I do have a list of
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: the culture. You know, are we elevating the culture that
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: we're in because you have you know, sometimes have people
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: that bring the culture down. I want to make sure
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: you elevate the culture and get better. We have to
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: make the culture better. Are we creating a competitive environment
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: in everything that we do? And is competition important because
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: that's a hard switch to turn on and off if
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: you don't know how or dimmer right, But everything we
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: do we try to make it competitive. Are we creating results?
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Can we document those results and follow that with the data?
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: But I think the foundation of it all is the
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: relationships and connections you make.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: Do you find that there can be a pot positive
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: correlation between fun and competitiveness or do you think that
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: at times as things get more competitive, it's hard to
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: find the fun.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Well, I think it's hard to conceptualize competitiveness within amongst
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: the team. You know, so you're competing gainst your teammates
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: in practice, but then you're supposed to foster the relationship.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: But it's easier to compete against people you don't know,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, because you know you don't know them.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: So I think that's a pretty cool dynamic that we're
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: being competitive. Are we having fun? Are we getting better?
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: I think getting better is fun in any help.
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that getting better and being able to
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: see that in some sort of an exemplary way, whether
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: that is with games one or if we're talking about
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: you know, skill set development and we're talking about building
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: strength and we're talking about different numbers in the gym.
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: It's always encouraging when you get to see that the
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: work you're putting in is doing something for you, that
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: you're getting something with that time invested.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Well, fun is seeing somebody do something they never thought
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: they could.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: It's celebrating that, yeah, for sure.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: So fair to say that you've been having a lot
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: of fun the last few years.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Uh, the last few years have been tough because again,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: these athletes are early specialized. And what I've been getting
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: into with our data is the injury behind the injury.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: You know, the story of the kinetic chain of linking injuries,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: old injuries and asymmetries and gate changes and compensations to
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: what leads to a traumatic injury or one that would
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: have somebody be out for a long time. That has
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: not been fun. It's been super challenging.
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: So yeah, well, let's for someone that might not have
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: a lot of understanding on what you're alluding to the
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: injury before the injury, how there are going to be
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: issues with the kinetic chain that then maybe disrupt proper
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: muscle function or perhaps proper movement patterns. For someone that
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: may not understand, why don't we give them like a
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: light briefer on how small things can turn into big things.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: For sure, an ankle sprang, you know that you want
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: to push through, and you're pushing through it for two weeks,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: and then you just pick up bad habits and then
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: you're overcompensating on the other leg, and then they exposes
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: the other leg to more forces. We measure asymmetries in
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: the weight room, and then we have a new technology
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: that we have IMU sensors, so accelerometers and the soles
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: of their shoes, and those asymmetries are very different than
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: what we find in the weight room, and then they
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: change throughout the game based on fatigue or intensity. So
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: it's like I'm chasing a moving target. But I think hopefully,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: you know, we don't know what to do with the
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: data right now, but hopefully we're going to find some
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: answers in the future. The more data we collect, maybe
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: the more trends we see.
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it goes without saying Becker's out from
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: August twenty twenty two onward with that torn acl and
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: injuries like that aren't necessarily like that. There can be
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: a fluke injury, right, it can be something happens sporadically
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: during a pickup game. But then there's the other stuff
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: that you're talking about that may be a little bit
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: more preventative in the long haul if you're paying close
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: attention to what's going on with the body.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Well, again, and there's so many factors, right, it's so
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: multi factorial that you're chasing a lot of things and
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know. You know, I can speculate on the
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: data that I have on certain things, but it is
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: a dynamic, multi factoral environment for sure. So it's like
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: sleep and nutrition or foundational pillars of health and performance,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: and you know, we can't keep track of what they
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: do twenty four hours a day.
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, you mentioned that you're tracking the team's
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: sleep or you privy to say what you're tracking it with.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Last year we used or rings and it has time
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: series data that we matched up with the time series
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: data from the force plates. So we were looking at
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: how much antier poster movement in a vertical jump compared
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: to good quality sleep and we found that, again, it
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: was in a four. So we had the whole team
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: set up, but not everybody took it seriously, which is
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: fine because again we're in college and they're their own people.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: But the people who did embrace it, we actually saw
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: some pretty cool things with those four people. So we're
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: not going to publish anything, but we just saw that
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: there was more movement the less you slept.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and that doesn't surprise me, right.
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: We see more and more studies, news media coverage about
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: how literally everything you do every single day hinges on
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: the prioritization of sleep over time. I was listening to
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: Gabby Thomas, who's a track athlete, talk the other day
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: at this summit put on by Strava in Los Angeles,
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: and she was saying that not only is the eight
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: to ten hours of sleep that she gets every single night,
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: making her one of the most decorated track and Field
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: Olympians of her time right now, critical, but beyond that,
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: what's important is the timing of when she gets to bed,
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: and those things, the eight to ten and the timing
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: are non negotiable, right These are things that she literally
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: plans her entire schedule around, and that's what you do
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: when you want to be the best of the best. Again,
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: going back to the fact that you had an end
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: of four that we're talking about young women in college
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: things are going to be a little bit different. But
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: do you ever struggle with wanting someone or wanting something
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: for someone who may not want it themselves.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think, yeah, well they say they want something,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: but then they you know, they don't want to do
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: the behaviors do that. I think we eventually get there,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: But yeah, even from my personal experience, there's things that
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: I said that I wanted, but was I willing to
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: do the work for them? But everything that I've ever done,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: I feel like substantially that, I feel like, yeah, I
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: wanted that. So yeah, I think that's where goal setting
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: is really important and really being honest with yourself.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's two things to double click on here.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: The first is, I think a lot of people listening
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: to this right now can really relate to this conversation
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: of wanting something for somebody else and feeling as though
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: that they can see what's best for that person, but
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: that person just doesn't see in the same lane. How
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: do you advise or maybe recommend or facilitate that conversation
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: in letting go, in letting someone define and specify what
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: it is that it's important to them because they are
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: themselves the individual.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't want it more than somebody else. But
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: we have a special group of women here. They're very
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: determined to be the best that they can be. So
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: if somebody's determined to do that, you tend to be
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: a little bit more coachable. Like even when I get
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: stuck and I get a coach or whatever for somebody
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: for help, it's like you got to listen to it right,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: it's not that hard. It's not hard, but it's hard
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: to hear.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: Maybe taking a break from today's episode to give some
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  Speaker 2: Let's get back to it.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: In the execution of working with these people that are
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: very determined, you said that goal setting can be very critical.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: Talk to me a little bit about how.
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: You would recommend goal setting to one of your athletes
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: and are you thinking short term?
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Are you thinking long term? Where are we at with that?
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I think we have to think long term because
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: you know, if for whatever reason, let's say, if you're
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: not where you want to be, Okay, how long have
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: you gotten to the place where you don't want to be?
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: You know it's usually around twenty years old or whatever.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Twenty years? Well, what do we have to do to
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: change the behavior to get to where you want to
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: be in two years? So it's I mean, there are
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: short term goal changes that you can make, but it
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: needs to be consistent and chronic in behavior for sure,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: and sometimes that's hard. I mean, it's hard for me
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: as a fifty one year old to do to make changes.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: So here we're asking eighteen to twenty two year olds
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: to make those changes and have faith in that. Yeah,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: it depends on the communication and the relationship if you have.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: Of course.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: And so for someone who's listening to this right now
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: that may think like, okay, like I have a destination goal.
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: Maybe their destination goal is I want to run a
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: five k in under twenty two minutes in on October second.
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: These are very random and arbitrary numbers for that person.
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: If someone comes to you with a goal like that,
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: where would you begin with them?
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: I would ask them have they ever run a five
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: k before? And if you have, what was your time? Okay,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: what were you doing in the training plan before? How
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: are your nutrition habits? How are you sleep? How important
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: is it to you? You know, based on the timeframe
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: that we have and we'll get there. It just might
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: not be in your time frame if that's what you
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: really want, but you really got to want it, like
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: some again, some people say they want something but they
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: don't really want it.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: And I think that comes to like that intrinsic motivation.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: I always say to myself, like where there's a strong why,
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: there is a way, so in our ticketulating that why,
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: that's your opportunity to really write down why this thing
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: is important to you, because there are going to be moments,
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: especially with the craziness that is social media, where something
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: comes into your mind and you have this thought like, oh,
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: I want to go after this thing, or oh this
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: looks really cool. But realistically, if you can't really articulate
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: why it is that that thing is really cool aside
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: from the aesthetics, then probably that thing actually isn't for you.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: It's not going to serve you in the long haul.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: So knowing what it is that.
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: Excites you and why it excites you is going to
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: be the thing that keeps you showing up to train
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: for that October second, five KU twenty one minutes.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I have friends' daughters right now and sons and
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: they're struggling right And they're struggling. They have depression, they
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: have anxiety, And I was like, you know, you go
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: on social media and you get this influx of all
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: these activities. Some of them are sad, some of them
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: are happy, some are so accelerating. Some of the book
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: and it's like, well, you're watching other people do this
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: stuff and you're sitting there watching it and you're getting
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: all these emotions and it's overwhelming, one hundred percent overwhelming
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: with people who don't know what they want. So then
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: it's like all this stuff comes flushing in, there's no
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: filter to it, and they don't know really who they
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: are yet, and it's just a lot.
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: You're bringing up a really important point about mental health
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: as someone who works with young women in a climate
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: today where we are more vocal about how we're feeling,
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: hopefully maybe talking a little bit about things that otherwise
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: we would have dismissed before.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: What do the conversations look like on your end?
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: Are you seeing that these young women are being a
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: little bit more upfront about how things like the pressure
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: makes them feel.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: Now? I feel like here, they kind of sign up
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: for it, you know, there's pressure, want it, they love it,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: they thrive on it basketball wise, right, Yeah, But then
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: you have social media and that's just another pressure. So
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: you're dealing with professional athletes that may not have the
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: resources and the support of a marketing company or you know,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: they're doing it all themselves, which I couldn't imagine doing that.
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: No, I could not imagine doing it either. Earlier in
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: our conversation, you talked about some of these young women
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: referring to you as mom, sister, aunt, or aunts depending
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: on where you come from. Clearly you are a role
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: model to so many of these individuals.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: How does that make you feel?
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't know the extent of which I think
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: education is important and being an educator is important because
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: you never know how far your reach goes, Like is
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: my reach going to be in their lives fifty years
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: from now? Is my reach going to be in their
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: lives five minutes from now? So you don't No, I
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: don't think you have those conversations with people. You just
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: you know, they grow and you try to let them
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: sprout and then maybe they'll come back and talk to
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: you about it. But sometimes that doesn't always happen.
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: In the moment you're fleeting the question, which is, how
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: does it make you feel.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Embarrassed? Yeah, I don't know. I'd like, I don't know
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: if I've ever asked anybody if I was their role
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: model or you know, again, there are people that like you,
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: there are people that don't like you. I just got
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: to be me and know that I'm trying to help educate.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it is a special opportunity.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: Whether we're talking about a team with the Dynamics and
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: that clout like Yukon, or we're talking about any other
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: opportunity where you get to be someone that somebody else
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: looks up to. There is a certain amount of introg pressure,
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: I think in that where you want to put your
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: best self forward at the end of the day. Your
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: point about simply doing the best you can with what
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: you have and being authentically yourself really is all that
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: you can do in those situations. Not to be so
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: hard on yourself.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: Right, That's what anybody wants. Ask Rebecca Stoll, ask her
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: if i'm.
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: Her role moll, Oh wow, I'm sure she'll text me
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: to let me know as soon as she listened to
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: this episode. I'm sure we haven't talked a lot about
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: you outside of your morning routine, the five to nine,
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: before the nine to five. What else does taking care
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: of yourself look like these days outside of those early
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: morning hours.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: Well, I alloted those times because I feel like I
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: have been putting a lot of other people first in
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: my life, which that's not a good thing all the time.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: So I needed time for me and I Actually it
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: was so overwhelming with the pressure this year and things
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: like I did pass out at one point and I've
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: never done that, but I had the school pressure, you know,
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: pressure for winning, pressure that these athletes stay healthy, you know,
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: And it was like I was running around like a
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: chicken with my head cut off, and it's like, okay,
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: really do you have that big of an impact in
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: everybody's life. So I was like, hey, I gotta focus
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: on me for a little bit. And I have taken
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: time after the season, which has been great. The dissertation
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: is a little bit overwhelming. So that's where I started
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: this routine because I'm like, I just need to bang
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: out a half hour an hour a day with it
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: and just make sure I'm taking one step at a
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: time because I am looking at the top of the
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: dverst and I'm standing at the bottom. So yeah, it's
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: just I if I can focus on me, I know
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: I can focus on others better.
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: I love that you mentioned a handful of things in
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: this morning routine that we're referencing here, and I think
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: for some that in itself can be a.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: Little bit of the problem.
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: Right It's I think I should do something for myself,
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: so if I'm going to do this one thing for myself,
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: then I should also do these four other things for myself.
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: It's the journaling, it's the sonne, it's the meditation, it's
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: the breath work, it's the setting and the intentions for
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: the day. For you, did you jump in headfirst into
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: all of that or was there some sort of an
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: onboarding process to get to integrating all of this into
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: that morning routine.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's I've been thinking about it since September,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: and I hired my own coach to help me just
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: because I felt like I was going in so many
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: different directions. So yeah, I invested in myself and it's
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: been going on since September and there's been journaling and
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: life coaching and integration. So it just didn't happen overnight,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: by any needs.
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: And I think that's important for people to hear, right,
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: because you feel as though or it's understandable that individuals
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: might feel as though they're supposed to all have it
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: figured out when you know that you do have a
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: strong why with regard to having some sort of a routine,
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: whether it's in the morning or it's not. But it
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: feels a little defeating that there are so many options
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: that you don't even know where to begin. So to
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: hear that you spoke about and then in turn hired
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: your own life coach. I think it's an important thing
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: to reiterate here that even coaches need coaches, right. I'm
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: a certified land coach. I'm a certified professional coach. But
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: after this recording, you know what I'm doing at two thirty,
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: I'm getting on a call with my life coach because
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: this is how we show up then in turn to
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: do the things that we have excitement around that we
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: want to show up and put our best selves forward.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, again, I think you know, the best thing
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: you can do is invest in yourself.
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: One hundred percent. So for you passing out, where were you?
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: What happened? I need the info.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I was at home. I was on the front
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: on the phone with a buddy of mine and just
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: there was a lot of pressure again with everything in
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: my life, school, work, personal. But I passed out and
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: scared my partner and it was a wake up call
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: for me because all I remember is waking up and
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: I was like, what happened? And that I feel like
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: scaring somebody else like that. I think really put things
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: into perspective that I needed help.
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting, right, because if that was to happen
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: and nobody was around and you were okay after it,
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: Like we asked ourselves, like what I have made any
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: of the changes that I know that I need to make.
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: But if you don't prioritize yourself, and that's really what's
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: becoming an emerging theme in our conversation, then you can't
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: show up to meet the moment as you'd want, right.
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: We want to do things to the best of our ability,
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: or at least give all it is that you have
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: in that moment, with the understanding that some days that's
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: going to look different, and that's okay.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, best thing I did was hire a coach.
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah I love that. Sure, I love that.
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: So now in this position again, you've had this opportunity
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: to mentor and coach so many different athletes.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: When you reflect on perhaps the best piece.
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: Of advice that you've been offered in order to execute
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: on the day to day, what comes to mind.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: My mom comes to mind. Yeah, I my mom passed
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: away in two thousand and eight, but she sticks with
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: me every day, every minute of my life. And because
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: she did, she she she was so competitive and she
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: just she was. She built that in me, but she
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: had she coached also, And my sister sent me a
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: letter that she found. It was from one of her
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: high school athletes, and she gave them a quote from
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt, and it's far better is it to dare
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even checkered by failure
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: much nor suffer much because they live in the gray
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. Like the fact
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: that my mom wrote that to somebody, was that I
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: got that yesterday, was like, holy cow, that's who she was. Yeah,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: put it out there, you know, take risks, be edgy,
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: put it out there, and be yourself.
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: Something that really stuck with me recently that I'll share
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: with you is this sentiment that if you have to
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: tell them to carry the bricks, then they're not the
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: people you want to build with. And I've been revisiting
• 49:42
  Speaker 3: that myself a lot.
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: Sometimes.
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: You know, these these phrases, these quotes, this small moment
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: comes into your life at just the right time where
• 49:52
  Speaker 3: you realize how fortunate you are. To find and garner
• 49:56
  Speaker 3: that inspiration then in there. So it sounds as though
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: this special sentiment from your mom really stuck with you.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's another one. I have it over here. It's
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: called time, the only solution to get better and the
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: biggest obstacle to overcome.
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: Time. So special.
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: I'm so happy that we were able to find the time,
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: speaking of to do this.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: Before I let you go, a couple final questions here.
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: First and foremost, someone walks by your office door and
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: they see your name on the door, Director of Sports
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: Performance for women's basketball. But when you look in the mirror,
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: what is it that you see looking back at you?
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: Andrea, Probably somebody that just fights. You know that every
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: day's a fight, every day's a battle. We have our
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: own battles, you have other people's battles, but that you know.
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: I have a picture too at home, and it's the
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Little Engine that Could. I remember that story. My neighbor
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: used to read it to me all the time, and
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: it stuck with me. And it's just I think, I can,
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: I think I can. You just put one foot in
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: front of the other and you just keep going. And
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, there is time to look back and reflect.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: But you can't dwell on those things in the past
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: that were failures or whatever.
• 51:12
  Speaker 3: Right, you can only use that experience to then inform
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: as you move forward.
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, I have another quote here that you're full
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: of them. I never lose. I either win or learn.
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: I either win or learn. Another good one, another good one.
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: Okay, So when you look in the mirror, you're seeing
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: someone who's got grit, Oh, I think, yeah, yeah, well,
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: station on that.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean grit, perseverance, resilience, robustness, all those things. Yeah,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: I would love to identify with.
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: I love that. What else is exciting you right now? Andrea?
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: I have all this data. I've collected three years of data,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: two solid years of data with our athletes, and there's
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: a lot of things that we've collected and it's hard
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: to just read numbers, right. So I took a Tableau class.
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: Are you familiar with Tableau and speed of visualization software?
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: So I'm trying to take a deeper dive into that
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: and try to overlay some of the data to see
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: if I can find any insight. Because it's like there's
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: so much and there's so much going on, and everybody
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: reacts to stress differently, whether it's emotional stress, physical stress,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: Like we're not robots, and just to try to get
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: to know the people better in terms of how they
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: respond to stress and when that stress is happening. So
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: just to overlay that data and visualize it a little
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: bit differently than what I have been because it's been
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: in a linear way. Well, can we just throw a
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: wrench in it and look at it differently?
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: A little differently? A favorite Yukon dairy Bar ice cream
• 52:49
  Speaker 3: flavor Husky tracks ah a signature. I'm a banana chocolate
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: chip girly through and through.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: I might have to go get some time.
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: A little jealous that you have that opportunity right now,
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: let me tell you the one thing that New York
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: City cannot offer me is Yukon darry Bar ice cream.
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: Final question for you today, Andrea, Right now, you have
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: an opportunity to give yourself a piece of advice. Let's
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: go back to that injury moment, which really you said
• 53:16
  Speaker 3: defined a lot of the way that you kind of
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: moved and shook as you went forward.
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: Knowing what you know, now, what would you tell your
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: teenage self.
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: Take time to heal? But I didn't know any better,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: So lighten up and take time to heal, take time,
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: slow down if you have the time, right you don't
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: know how much time you have, so just slow down
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: and be present, you know, stop all the craziness in
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: my brain and just take one thing at a time
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: and be where my feet are.
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: I love that be where my feet are, Andrew Hoodie,
• 53:52
  Speaker 3: I'm so excited and happy that we were able to
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: make this happen today.
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: For those that might.
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: Want to keep up with you a little bit, keep
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: up with what you're doing. Is there any good way
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: for them to follow along with you.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: I've been not doing as much on social media for
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: my mental health, so my Instagram is a underscore h
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: u d y, but my email is Andrea dot Hoodie
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: at Yukon dot edu.
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: We love it, And of course, if you want to
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: follow along with Yukon's women's basketball, you can go over
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: to at Yukon WBB Go Huskies. I'm over at Emily
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: a Body and at Hurdle Podcast Another Hurdle Conquered.
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: Catch you guys next time.