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

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BONUS: The Podcast About Podcasts – Featuring Low Stick · 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 hop into today's bonus episode talking
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  about podcast from around the country.
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  Gentlemen, why don't we start, introduce yourself, maybe kind
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  of a 32nd, 30,000 foot level, who you are and what you bring
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  to this sport here, and then tell us the name of your
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  podcast. I'm Jason Ratz.
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  I'm from Illinois. Here.
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  I'm like 15 miles away from you, Mike.
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  I coach at a small school, St. Joe Ogden, not a Catholic
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  school. Been coaching for 20 years now.
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  Got into this with the intent to just help people out the way I
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  was helping myself. Yeah, my name is Eric Dettman.
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  I live out in Portland, OR, but I actually grew up in Illinois,
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  went to York High School and I now coach at Lincoln High School
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  in Portland, OR. So I've been doing that for 12
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  years and just really love being around the kids.
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  And my biggest thing when I get asked like, why do you coach is
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  is just around, you know, watching that light bulb, light
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  bulb go off and and seeing kids, you know, identify as runners
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  who maybe once didn't. And that's really exciting.
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  That's awesome. So you're you're a York Duke,
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  Are you the long Green Line? I was in the long green line.
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  I love that. That's awesome.
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  That's awesome. Well, Jim, but tell us the name
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  of your podcast and then give us the style.
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  Is it you 2? Normally I'd call it like a solo
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  podcast, but is it YouTube? Do you have guest?
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  Tell us a little bit about that. So we are called the Low Stick
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  Podcast. It's just the two of us.
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  So during COVID we got to know each other pretty well and we
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  talked about some of the podcasts and the things were
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  that were out there. We have a short 30 minute
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  podcast. We try to keep it right about 30
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  minutes so that teachers or whoever that are also coaching
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  could sit and listen to it on their prep.
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  Sometimes you have a longer podcast and it takes a couple
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  different chunks to sit and listen to them.
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  So we try to condense it down into 30 minutes and we talked
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  about a variety of different topics.
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  People reach out to us. We try to address those topics
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  the best we can. Whatever ideas I've got are Eric
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  Scott. We try to jump on them right
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  away. Yeah, we're found on Spotify and
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  and YouTube primarily. I love that you because you
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  know, one of my questions is the average length and I love how
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  your intentionality on that average length of, you know,
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  prep periods and you know, maybe a car ride home or something
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  that I love that intentionality. What's the significance of the
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  name the low stick podcast? I thought you were going to be
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  This would be like my high jump PR, but it has to be more than
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  that. So low stick and cross country
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  is somebody that's up towards the front and when back in the
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  day scoring, you used to get a popsicle stick when you cross
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  the line and would have the number one when you were first
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  place. So low stick refers to having
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  low stick during cross country or I guess in in track if you
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  were finishing in a distance race across the line.
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  Yeah, ironically, the first time Jason brought it up to me, I was
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  like, oh, I think that sounds good, but I didn't understand
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  it. But I didn't have the heart to
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  tell him that because I was like, I feel like I should
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  understand this. I initially thought it was like
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  a baton, like under four by one exchange rather than coming over
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  the top. And I'm like, I don't
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  understand. Then I thought about it a little
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  further. I'm like, oh, now I understand.
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  So yes, that's where the Low Stick podcast.
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  And that which I think is. Perfect for distance coaches.
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  Love it. Now I understand why I didn't
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  get it either because when I finished cross country they had
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  to tape four of those popsicle sticks together to write my
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  number. So I was the the high stick, if
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  you will. So talk to us.
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  You know, you've been doing this for a while now.
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  Have you kept your original idea, original form of the
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  podcast? Is it kind of elevated that way
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  or have you had any kind of drastic changes?
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  Yeah, it's pretty similar from from the get go.
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  We always so we communicate ahead of time of what we think
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  are some interesting topics. We've been really fortunate that
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  we've had people who have reached out via text, e-mail,
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  whatever to give us some topics or some things that they'd be
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  interested in talking about. We always decide who's going to
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  take the lead. So sometimes it's Jason,
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  sometimes it's myself. But what I think I really enjoy
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  about our kind of our flow is there is no flow.
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  Like there's not a set set of questions that we've got.
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  We're just bouncing ideas off of each other, talking about what
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  how we feel about this or that. And sometimes we agree.
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  I would say sometimes you don't. Right. 50% of the time we're
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  probably disagreeing on things, but that's awesome.
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  Rather than just two people. Yeah.
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  That's great, Jason. Yeah.
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  You're so smart, Jason. Yeah, that's really wonderful,
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  Jason. Giving different perspectives in
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  different perspectives too. Like Jason's at a a small school
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  in and, you know, southern Illinois and not that I'm a big
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  school, but fourteen, well, central whatever.
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  Yeah, I know. Or a big school like me, biggish
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  with 1500 kids, you know, So it's offering those
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  perspectives, but we really try to stick to the same script
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  every time, which is that 30 minutes and and really playing
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  off each other. You, you kind of alluded to
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  this, but you know, in, in business like for us here, Gil,
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  a lot of different people will buy products from us.
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  We'll have moms and dads, obviously we have coaches,
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  athletic directors, contractors, but our ideal customer like who
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  we target on new product ideas, marketing, etcetera, are high
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  school and college track coaches.
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  For you guys, who is your ideal listener profile?
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  So many, many people might listen.
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  Athletes, parents, coaches. Sounds like you.
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  You have a pretty distinct person in mind that you're
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  speaking to. Yeah, often times we try to talk
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  to coaches that are looking for new ideas or maybe new into it.
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  But we've also reached out as far as we put a parent episode
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  together. So something that a coach could
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  share with a parent maybe maybe like that second parent idea
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  where sometimes a kid won't listen to one parent but will
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  listen to the other one. We kind of threw that out there
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  because maybe coaches and we got some feedback, maybe coaches
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  will send it to their parents because they're going to hear
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  the same thing from us that they're going to hear from those
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  coaches and it's kind of a way to reinforce what they're doing.
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  So primarily we we try to stick to coaches and I can't even say
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  new coaches, the coaches that listen, We have some very great
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  coaches almost humbled to hear that.
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  Some of them reach out and listen every time, but we try to
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  just draw on new information that we find and try to kind of
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  update how we screw things up and get things right along the
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  way as well. What has been, and maybe each of
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  you can take this one as well, what's been your favorite
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  episode for whatever reason? And then kind of piggyback in
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  that, what has maybe been the most popular episode as far as
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  maybe the most listens or watches that you've had?
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  Yeah, I'll let Jason answer the most popular just because he
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  kind of looks at the numbers more than I do.
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  I think we have found a trend that our our training when we go
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  into specifics and training has historically been our most
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  popular episodes or most listened to whether it's talking
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  about threshold or speed or things like that.
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  We did one, I don't think it was last month, I think it was two
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  months ago, just called it's hard.
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  And we talked about it being hard from a coach's perspective,
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  a parent's perspective and an athlete's perspective.
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  And I think a lot of times, you know, social media, often times
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  you just see the good, you see the perfect person in a bikini.
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  You see, you know, this magical vacation in Italy, You see the,
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  the, the perfect life with 17 friends around you all
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  collectively having a beer. But you don't often see the
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  hardship and you don't hear about the hardship.
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  And we really wanted to focus on that and talk about like, this
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  is this sport is hard, right? I talk to my kids about this all
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  the time. We're going to ask so much of
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  you. We're going to start training in
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  June with the hope that we can win a trophy of the state meet
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  with the hope that we can qualify for NXN.
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  But there's no guarantee that's going to happen.
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  And we're going to ask you to do it anyways.
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  And that's really tough for a 1415 sixteen 17 year old kid to
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  dive into the deep end like that and and to put themselves out in
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  in that way. And and we talked about that and
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  I think that was a really for me, a really awesome podcast
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  because it is it is really hard. All facets.
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  Athlete, parent, coach, true. Yeah, I agree.
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  Some of our training episodes are the most popular and they're
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  kind of fun to jump in and listen to each other's ideas.
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  Eric is self-proclaimed, not great at training models, but
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  like he's really good at thinking outside the box on how
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  to get done, what needs to get done.
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  And so I, I'm like the scientists of the group, I can
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  tell you, you know how many, how many millimoles and all that
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  stuff. But like we blend together so
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  well when we talk about those things.
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  So I enjoy, I kind of enjoy talking about the training just
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  because I think from an outsider's perspective, when
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  they listen to it, they can see both sides of the a coach and
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  not just this is just a scientist and this is the
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  creative person. And we do a really good job
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  working together. And ironically, a lot of our
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  training models look the same, even though he's not good at it.
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  So that means I must not be very good at it.
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  I don't know. But but those are those are fun
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  episodes to talk about as well. Now, we certainly might have
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  some super fans that have watched from episode 1 all the
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  way through today, but the majority of our people either
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  came in in the middle or they come in intermittently.
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  You know, they see a title, they like the next one, they don't.
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  So they do that. But you guys have been through
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  it all. You've been through every one of
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  them. What have you learned hosting
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  your own podcast on this on the subject matters?
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  I think one of the things I've learned is when I'm listening to
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  other podcasts or I'm listening to go to clinics and listen to
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  people speak, like something will pop into my head that I
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  want to talk to Eric about. And what we originally when we
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  did this is like, hey, we're going to have this conversation.
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  We bounced these ideas off each other anyway.
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  Let's not just let's just sit down and do it in front of a
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  podcast. And so I think one of the fun
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  things about this has been I'll listen to something and we'll
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  talk about it on the next episode.
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  Like it's helping me think through the things that I listen
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  to and and get another perspective on maybe the things
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  I've heard. So it's been a lot of fun
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  because the conversations we're having are literally
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  conversations we started the first couple episodes, we
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  outlined things and honestly, the flow was not as good as when
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  we just went back and forth. And so we'll talk what it's
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  roughly going to be about, but then we really just have that
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  conversation on whatever the topic happens to be and it's
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  gone really well. A lot of people like our banter.
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  Yeah, I think, you know, a really helpful thing for me or
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  something that I've noticed has changed over over the time that,
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  you know, from when we first started was in order to really
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  get kids to understand and buy into what they're doing, they
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  have to understand the what's the why's the house when we
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  talked about it. And and this podcast has been
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  really helpful for me to try to formulate thoughts in my head
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  that I don't, I have all these people who don't know me.
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  They don't know that my lingo. They don't know the, you know,
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  the way I talk. They don't know the way I
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  interact. So I have to be able to
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  articulate what I'm thinking to these people.
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  And if I can do that with a group that doesn't know anything
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  about me and they can walk away and be like, Oh yeah, you know,
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  they do threshold for this reason or they do threshold at
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  this point of the season for that reason.
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  I feel confident my kids are going to get it too.
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  And that's been really helpful for me.
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  Yeah, I second that. I've become a better
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  communicator with my team because of this.
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  I love that. That's a that's a really cool
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  bonus because you didn't set out to learn that you didn't think
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  that would necessarily come through.
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  So I really like that. All right, final two questions
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  here. You kind of already given us the
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  answer, but let's make sure we hear it again.
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  Where can we find the podcast? Spotify and YouTube are the two
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  most common places you can find us.
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  You say most common, but are you on the other?
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  Are you on Apple and and some of the others or kind of exclusive
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  to Spotify and YouTube? Yeah, exclusive to those two.
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  Yeah, at. This point, Yep, perfect.
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  OK, great. And you know, again, you know,
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  I'm a big fan of podcasts and obviously creating them and
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  listening to them. So I'd like to always expand our
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  podcast horizon. What is each of you?
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  What is your favorite podcast to listen to that is not track
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  related? Oh, geez.
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  Honestly, I don't have a lot of extra time to listen to a bunch
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  of others. I listen to bores.
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  I listen to the Jess Athletics podcast when it comes out.
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  You know, those are really the the two.
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  I sit in the driver's Ed car and I'm afraid if I listen to a
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  podcast, I'll zone out and not pay attention to what the kids
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  doing. So I don't have a ton of extra
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  time to listen to podcast. Mike, I've listened to so many
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  of yours and learned so much with college coaches.
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  I mean, your enthusiasm with them.
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  I mean, I know this sounds really corny, but it's
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  absolutely true. I mean, that's the one I listen
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  to because I'm a big fan of learning.
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  I mean, that's why we're doing what we're doing.
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  Yep. Absolutely.
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  I'm going to help myself right now.
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  I love true crime. Yeah.
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  So, so like serial killers, like conspiracy theories, like some
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  of those I think are really fascinating.
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  Some of them are wild. So I listen, I'm like, why are
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  you listening to this era? But I like, I love true crime
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  documentary. So there's a handful of true
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  crime podcast that I that I listen to.
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  Love it. That's what we're there.
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  That's what we're doing this for.
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  It is to get the get off the track.
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  Some of us are too busy to even, you know, listen to podcasts at
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  all, just want to create them. Others are listening to Serial,
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  which is an extremely, extremely popular podcast.
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  I love that. That's great.
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  All right, so if you're listening, I've got a challenge
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  for you. So if you're listening to this
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  podcast right now on the Spotify app, hit pause because we're
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  pretty much done and go search low stick podcast.
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  You'll find it there and go find either look for look, maybe a
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  good way to start, a good place to start is that it's hard.
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  That sounds like a really cool episode.
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  Maybe go start with that one or maybe go back to the original,
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  but go check it out and then, you know, hit that subscribe
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  button. And then if you're more on the
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  video side, you can go to YouTube and just search low
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  stick podcast. You'll find them there.
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  And again, you know, maybe that the the it's hard 1 is a good
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  one to to start with and and check come out there and again,
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  hit that subscribe button so you'll know all the future
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  episodes. So go do that right now and join
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  us tomorrow. We'll probably do this all over
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  again because this is what we do.
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  I listen and create podcast, so we'll keep going.
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  Thanks guys. Appreciate you.
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  Thank you.