Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #10: Gill1918 presents Rob Assise "Education, Gratitude, & Unification"

Transcript

#10: Gill1918 presents Rob Assise "Education, Gratitude, & Unification" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  coaches, for coaches powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. We'll bring in the once a year
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  track clinic straight to your ears daily.
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  Interested in creating your own episode?
• 0:19
  Everyone's welcome to participate.
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  Check out the show notes below For more information.
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  Now let's get into today's topic.
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  Hello, this is Rob Assisi and today we are going to talk about
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  education, gratitude and unification.
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  I've been fortunate in working with some incredible people
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  during my teaching and coaching career.
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  Their impact on me has been immeasurable.
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  That being said, my focus for this is going to be those people
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  who I have not interacted with on a face to face basis.
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  One unique aspect about my journey is that I have not had a
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  formal mentor. Those who I've coached with and
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  those who have provided various resources in which I have
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  learned from have resulted in substantial influence in the way
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  I conduct business. Like any curious coach who has
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  been in the game for over 20 years, I have collected
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  principles and concepts from a wide variety of resources.
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  When I look back on my journey, I certainly fell into the
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  Dunning Kruger trap of having an inflated sense of confidence in
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  what I knew. Fortunately, I was able to come
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  out of that through being curious and motivated to solve
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  the problems in front of me. However, having that time period
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  where I did not apply myself fully from an education
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  standpoint has made me feel like I am always playing catch up.
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  Maybe someday I will close that gap on the homestretch, although
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  it will just be to an audience of one.
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  The first resources that allowed me to see the light were
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  provided by Latif Thomas in Complete Track and Field.
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  While Latif is no longer with us, his influence is still
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  prominent in track and field around the world with the
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  service he offered. In addition to the resources
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  that Latif did himself, I was also introduced to coaches like
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  Mark Bangiacati, Tony Beanie and probably the coach who has had
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  the most influence on me, Boo Scheck Snyder.
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  I spent over 100 hours at coaching clinics learning from
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  Boo. Those have only been eclipsed by
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  the amount of time I have spent watching his digital resources
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  in reading his writing. He has to be one of the most
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  gracious, impatient people in the business as I have asked him
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  more than my share of stupid questions, but he always
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  responds politely and in true Boo fashion, concisely.
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  It is something that I am trying to pay forward to those who ask
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  me questions. Who was the creator of one of
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  the more recent digital resources I have learned from
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  his coaching? The horizontal jumps through
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  Altis clarified many concepts and the added bonus was numerous
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  videos with analysis from Dampath.
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  Our coaching staff at Homewood Flossmoor High School has taken
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  part in many of the courses Altus offers and we have found
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  extreme value in each of them. I would also strongly encourage
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  anyone to be part of Altis Connect.
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  The access to the amount of eclectic digital content is
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  absolutely staggering. As an introvert, there are times
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  when digital content is right up my alley, but I also know the
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  value of getting out and talking to other people involved with
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  the sport that I love. While I've been to numerous
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  coaching clinics and programs that have allowed me to grow,
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  the one with the most impact has been the Track Football
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  Consortium ran by Tony Holler and Chris Corpus.
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  TFC has allowed me to learn from a wide variety of individuals
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  and in doing so has also assisted me in creating a
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  network of individuals who always who are always there to
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  help problem solve and challenge me to grow.
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  Tony Holler has caused thousands of athletes across the world to
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  have a better experience in athletics.
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  His principles for Feed the Cats are something I go back to
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  regularly. While the main message is often
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  viewed as the importance of sprinting and training, it goes
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  so much deeper than that. It is about creating an
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  environment for people to thrive.
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  We are all in depth for his passion for spreading this
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  message. I first saw Chris Corpus speak
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  over 15 years ago. I've also spent the past five
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  years on the same track staff as him.
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  While many see Chris as an elite Sprint spring coach, which he
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  is, he's also simply one of the most generous people I know.
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  At a state meet a few years back, an athlete of ours asked
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  Chris why he was helping an athlete from another team.
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  His response? There's nothing greater than
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  helping a stranger. If you follow me on social
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  media, you may know that I haven't exactly been a fan of
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  the platform. The main issue for me is the
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  information I am fed and the toxic nature of debate.
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  I found it exhausting. But like everything, there is
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  more to the story. Social media has been another
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  venue, Ave. in which my network has grown.
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  While there are many who fit the bill, I'm going to highlight
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  three. Tim Kettenring is a coach who
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  isn't afraid to speak his mind. Before I even corresponded with
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  him, his content allowed me to clear up a misconception I had
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  about aerobic training. In my programming designed for
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  high school jumpers, we'd often do circuits which consist of
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  some intense activity followed by rest.
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  Over the course of the workout, the average heart rate of the
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  athletes was around 120 beats per minute.
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  In my mind, this served as aerobic training.
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  However, Kim's content caused me to look further into this.
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  I realized that the range of heart rates that they were going
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  through wasn't leading to the adaptation.
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  I thought it was occurring. To this day, steady state
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  aerobic activity is something I have utilized with myself and
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  the athletes I have coach, and my left ventricle is extremely
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  thankful. Carl Valley was the first person
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  I interacted with when I began rewriting writing for Simply
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  Faster. Since then, he has continued to
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  challenge me and I'm sure many others to investigate things in
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  greater detail, all with the hope of progressing the field
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  forward. The crazy thing about the two
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  coaches mentioned above is that I have never met either face to
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  face, yet I feel that once I do, it will seem like I have been
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  working alongside them for years.
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  That's the power of social media and as much as it may cause me
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  frustration, I also have to be aware of the good it can bring.
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  For instance, social media was a driver in me developing a
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  relationship with Dave. Karen played a prominent role in
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  the development of my recent Digital High Jump course.
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  This takes me to the awkward self promotion part of this
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  talk. I have a variety of resources
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  for free and for sale. The free items can be found via
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  the YouTube channel for my LLC Re Evolution Athletics.
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  It would be at RE Dash Evolution Athletics.
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  This includes over six hours of free content and how I coached
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  the high, long, and triple jump at the high school level.
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  I also have many articles posted on Simply Faster and Just Fly
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  Sports and have items for sale and for free on Coach Tube.
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  The most recent being the aforementioned Reaching New
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  Heights, The Art and Science of Coaching the High Jump.
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  Finally, I recently ran a webinar titled Managing Large
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  Groups, Recapturing Your Time. Some of the content covered was
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  using Google Sheets to create useful data, display the
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  implementation of a program we use called XE Stats, providing
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  athletes feedback with Dartfish, and the tie ring system we use
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  for our large track and field program at Homewood Flossmoor.
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  In dealing with over 150 athletes, I feel like the best
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  gift I can give anyone is time. So if you have interest in this,
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  which comes with a ton of additional freebies, please
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  e-mail me at reevolutionathletics1@gmail.com.
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  In closing, I'm going to pose a reminder of why we do what we
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  do. I've talked about various
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  resources and people in which I have learned from, and one
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  commonality that they all have is they want what is best for
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  the athletes they serve. Coaching is a service industry
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  and the interactions that we have with our fellow coaches can
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  lead to our ability to serve the athletes we have the privilege
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  to coach at a higher level. While we may, we may not always
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  see eye to eye with one another. We lose the ability to help each
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  other when debates turn toxic. I'm saying this as a reminder to
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  myself more than anyone. Our fellow coaches are one of
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  our best assets. Let's do our best to treat each
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  other like gold. Thank you.
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  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
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  episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
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  It's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
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  amounts of value and I hope this one hit the mark.
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  The Gilt 1918 Project is really dependent on you if for you to
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  build your own episode, to hear your voice, to have your voice
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  heard you have something to say and teach other coaches out
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  there. So please get a hold of me,
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  e-mail, text message, Twitter, smoke signals, get a hold of me
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  and let's help create your episode of the Guild 1918
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  Project. Hope you enjoy today and we'll
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  see you tomorrow.