Latest / The Strength In Numbers Podcast / EP 20: Kyle Jacksic | Fail Fast, Connect Dots—A Strength Coach’s Story

Transcript

EP 20: Kyle Jacksic | Fail Fast, Connect Dots—A Strength Coach’s Story · The Strength In Numbers Podcast

0:00
She looked me down the face and said, you know, if this doesn't
0:03
work, then I don't know what I'm going to do.
0:05
I'm going to probably have to retire.
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And then I just looked her down the face.
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I was just like, well, we're going to work.
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We're going to work like hell to make sure that that doesn't
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happen. I want our kids to thrive within
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failure. Do I want them to fail
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constantly? No, But we can fail every single
0:20
day in here and still be really, really successful.
0:22
It's the Disney mantra. Like, make their experience so
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good, they come back with their friends.
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I mean, that's literally how we've built high school strength
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conditioning programs here. The difference between
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collecting dots and connecting dots.
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Early on, I was a dot collector. Oh, I read this book and I've
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talked to this person, but like, did it actually get me anywhere?
0:46
Welcome to the Strength in Numbers podcast.
0:49
I'm your host John Bloom and today's guest is Kyle Jackson.
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Kyle's the director of athletic performance of Charlotte
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Christian director performance at X2 Baseball and the National
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High School Strength Coach Association of North Carolina
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State director. I love this conversation.
1:02
Kyle talked about how he manages his full time high school job
1:05
along with his business and private sector role, how coaches
1:08
can best walk alongside athletes during the life altering periods
1:12
of an injury in return to play process, and how he is
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intentionally crafting his career to build the future she
1:18
and his wife want down the line. We also dive into scaling
1:21
programming for a wide range of athletes, chasing skill versus
1:24
adaptation, and how Kyle's beliefs have changed over the
1:27
years. Enjoy the episode, Kyle.
1:30
I'm really excited to have you here today.
1:32
You're doing a lot of awesome things and I was talking about
1:34
four and got a lot of things going on different roles.
1:37
Could you just give a brief glimpse and kind of who you are,
1:40
what you do? Yeah.
1:41
So my name is Kyle Jackson. I'm currently the Director of
1:44
Athletic Performance at Charlotte Christian School and
1:47
where I oversee all of the performance initiatives at AK
1:50
through 12 School here in Charlotte, NC.
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That's my full time position. I have a part time position that
1:55
I oversee all the performance initiatives of the Director
1:58
performance at X2 Baseball, which is a private baseball
2:01
training facility in Concord, NC.
2:04
And then I'm the owner operator, whatever we want to call it, of
2:07
Jack's athletic performance that I train in person clients to
2:11
remote clients to do some level of consulting, consulting with
2:15
coaches, consulting with athletes, consulting with
2:17
parents and etcetera, etcetera. So certainly keep myself busy on
2:20
a pretty regular basis. Yeah.
2:22
You know, you know, I can relate to that with like doing the high
2:25
school, doing the private sector and I know, right, there's lots
2:28
of stuff going on. We're doing different programs
2:30
for the different areas and it's a little different.
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You're you're moving around, you know, you got different types of
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clients coming in with all that stuff going on in those
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different roles. Like how are you?
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How are you handling that to make sure you're given full
2:43
intent and like full results to each area and not allowing them
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to pull from each other at all? Yeah.
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So I think it all started, like really early on where, you know,
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people always use the excuse that you can't make money in
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strength and conditioning. Like I never took that as an
2:59
excuse or I'm like, hey, there's money out there.
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I just got to go find it. I got to work for it.
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So it started with like a remote training business that allowed
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me to start accumulating like a whole lot of video explanations
3:10
and everything else. So whenever I'm talking to like
3:12
young coaches now I'm saying like start there because you'll
3:14
never know like when you might need to send a program like
3:17
literally across the world. Like I, I've had programs in
3:21
three different continents this summer, which is pretty awesome,
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But that's just like the people that I'm dealing with just
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frankly, because hey, they might work an internship at the
3:29
college, like when they're in college and then all of a sudden
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they end up in China and they're like, Hey, I need, I need a
3:34
program in order to do that's like built out.
3:36
So that like all kind of started it.
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And then I'm openly and honestly transparent when I'm meeting
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with, you know, when I'm having my kids at school, like a
3:44
Charlotte Christian. And then when I'm at X2
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baseball. And then I'm with my private
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clients, like they know they're gonna get the best version of me
3:51
on a really regular basis, but they know that there's a lot of
3:53
stuff that's going on on a very regular basis for me.
3:57
It's like, especially with the private clients, like I don't
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necessarily push it and promote it.
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I want it to be word of mouth because I want it to be kind of
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like an elite population where they're figuring out that
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they're working with me because they feel like they need to work
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with me and they get me for what they get me for.
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So I set that tone like really early on, even when I'm meeting
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with remote people, like, hey, I'm not going to babysit you.
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Like if you want to be underneath this umbrella, this
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is the tone that I need you to bring because I'm not going to
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be the one that checks in every single day.
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So All in all, it's it's a balancing act at all times.
4:31
I'm constantly kind of on the run and on the phone, but my
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goal is to limit how many red dots I have on my phone as
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possible in the hours that I'm working.
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So sometimes that for me is like waking up at 4:00 in the morning
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and immediately answering text messages that might come through
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the night before, like when I actually just packed in and go
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to sleep, hit the ground running literally like as soon as that
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first bell kind of like rings. And then it's just constantly
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like working, never laying in in emails, get stuff too far down
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in the in the inbox is really important to me.
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So I set the precedent like really early on, like, hey, if
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you need it, like I'm going to respond as fast as possible.
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But then like, especially here at Charlie Christian, it's if
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you need me, come find me. Like don't like, don't be the
5:15
one that's like calling my office phone because guess what?
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I'm not, I'm not sitting at my desk like if there's, if there's
5:20
kids in the weight room, I'm out in the weight room like you need
5:23
to come find me. And that's the same thing like
5:26
with with my guys at X2 where naturally X2 kind of acts on an
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online platform as is like there's coaches in the facility
5:35
that help us carry out or throwing in or hitting in our
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strength conditioning programs. So they're kind of already used
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to some level of that remote style.
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And it's up to me to provide a product that allows us to do
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that and do that well. But that's the tone that they're
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setting. But it's constant communication
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of, hey guys, I'm going to be in the facility Wednesday,
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Wednesday evening and Saturday morning this week.
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If you need to check in with me, check in with me.
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If not, just shoot me a text message, shoot me an e-mail and
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I'll be sure to respond like as fast as possible.
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So like I said, it's a balancing act, but I obviously wouldn't be
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here without my support system at home as well.
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I'm 29 years old, working 3 1/2 like different jobs on a really
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regular basis. And if it wasn't for my wife
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allowing me that Ave. right now when we do when we don't have
6:20
kids, then I wouldn't be successful as successful as I am
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and make the money that I do and like bring a name and like be
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able to build a career in this for hopefully what will be a
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lifelong career for me. I think naturally, like I was
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resistant to getting the strength and conditioning really
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early on just because, you know, it was, I graduated at grad
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school during COVID. Was his strength and
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conditioning even worth it? And to me, like I never, I never
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took no as an answer and was unapologetically myself over and
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over and over again. And you can, you can hate me for
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it or you can love me for it. And it seems like more and more
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people are loving me for it rather than hating me for it as
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of late. No.
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And I love that whole talk right there.
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And when you talked about with the private side, you're not
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trying to market, it's more you want it to be word of mouth, you
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want it to be a little more exclusive.
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I think that's great cuz having this, I guess the financial
7:13
security of the actual full time salary allows you to do that
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where you're not having to like chase money and chase revenue
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from the private sector just alone to make sure you're paying
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bills. But it's like you can allow that
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to organically grow in a way that you can be selective,
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right? And in the end, like that's
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going to make it even more high quality and probably even make
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you as much money down the line because of the people that are
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in there and the way you're able to run it rather than
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compromising or chasing people that maybe aren't as good a fit
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and probably not as enjoyable, maybe even for you to work for
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or work with. Yeah, so like my private stuff,
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because it's word of mouth and because it's it's literally my
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choice. Like it's under my own umbrella.
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So I'm adding hours to my day that I'm choosing to add.
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But if I'm like, hey, I want to go, I want to go home at 1:00 PM
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on Wednesdays. Like I'm going to go home at
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1:00 PM on Wednesdays in the summer because that's the
8:04
control that I have. But All in all, like it's, it's
8:07
allowing me to be in control and then it's kept the quality high
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because it's let me take on passion cases.
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So a lot of them were originally rooted in return to play where a
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lot of my passions lied and still lay.
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And then just trying to bring that performance level up
8:24
higher. And then it's been like word of
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mouth, like from there, like where I want, I wanted Division
8:29
One college athlete to come through the door because they're
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going to make me a better coach. They're going to like do things
8:34
a little bit differently and like a little bit higher of
8:36
intensity. Like I don't need, I don't need
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the 8th grade girls basketball player right now.
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Like it's just not, it's just not who I am.
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And I'm not at that point in my career anymore.
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Like no offense to 8th grade girls basketball players, but
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it's just, it's, that's not me. Like I want to provide a better,
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better product and I'm constantly being challenged in
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the program and it's made me better coaching outside of just
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my private business. Like it's impacted the way I
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look at our school programs. It's the way it impacts like our
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X2 programs and everything else. I'm so I'm really, really
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grateful because it's literally my choice.
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Like I can turn people away. I can bring people on.
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I can try to adapt. I can try to to make those
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sessions more efficient or hey, they need longer sessions.
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I'm able like literally build out the schedule the way that I
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have it. But it's like my wifes like,
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Hey, we got to go on a trip. Like we, we go on that trip
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because I'm the one in control. And that's been my goal this
9:29
whole time of building a career is like, I want to be in control
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of, of who I am as a person, who I am as a coach.
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And then that's part of being an apology myself, is that yes, I I
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may be seen as controlling, but All in all, like, that's what I
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feel like I need to do to make sure my kids are the most
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successful as possible. Yeah.
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No, no, it's powerful. And you know, you mentioned
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earlier, like with your wife, like once you'll have kids, like
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what changes once that happens, you know, you start having a
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family with all three of these things.
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Is it does the picture change of that?
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Is this like a building phase so you can create more of that
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financial flexibility and autonomy down the line when you
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do have more of a family too? Yeah, so I think it's all kind
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of happens. It's happened in layers and
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every piece falls into the next one where Charlie Christian has
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supported me by giving me a full time assistant underneath me,
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which is like really the first one, first one that we've had on
10:24
campus, which is huge for us. So it's getting her up to speed
10:29
that she can be truly not only my assistant at Charlotte
10:32
Christian, but hey, if I need help at X2 and hey, if I need
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help with my private training, like she's literally finishing
10:37
up a private training session right now for me where we have
10:40
that kind of like a Korean square.
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All right, you're going to you're going to help out with
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all these things. When I go to have kids, it's
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going to be really a push that all right, it's probably going
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to be that if I have kids, I'm, I'm going to spend time in the
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morning. I'm a morning person.
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My, my wife is not. So I will spend time with the
10:57
kids in the morning, hopefully get to a point where Charlie
11:00
Christian, my, my full time job is supporting me in a way that I
11:03
may not have to get to campus until 10 compared to sometimes
11:07
I'm on campus at 6:00 AM. And then in the summer I'm, I'm
11:10
on campus even earlier than that and to open up the weight room
11:12
for our alums and start some level of private training first
11:15
thing in the morning. But obviously like there's
11:17
communication pieces that need to happen and development of
11:20
coaches underneath me, having an internship program here on
11:23
campus that we've done a really, really good job of developing
11:26
true coaches that end up landing full time jobs at high school
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level, which is pretty rare in the Carolinas.
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Like we've literally had, I believe four or five different
11:36
interns that started a strength and conditioning program at
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their high school. So it's bringing coaches to
11:40
campus that end up developing into really responsible and
11:45
proactive coaches that aren't afraid to like push themselves
11:48
and make more money. So when I go to have kids, like
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it's going to be another balancing act, but like they're
11:54
going to have my priority. But that's even the goal of like
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even when I came on to X2 where I can do this stuff sitting from
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my computer, like I don't need to see every single little thing
12:05
because I know that might be cancelable on strength and
12:07
conditioning of today. Where I don't need to see every
12:10
single little detail that a program that a 15 year old is
12:13
going through. I think I'm skilled enough as a
12:16
programmer that it's going to help the kid develop whether
12:19
they're doing stuff insanely perfectly, like if their knees
12:22
are slightly softer than others on an RDL.
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Like I don't necessarily like necessarily really, really care
12:29
because especially the day, like the kids got to accumulate those
12:32
good quality reps moving forward.
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So like where I can start to handle more of this logistical
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side just from home. I think my end goal All in all
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is to be much more from the logistical side where I would
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love to be like an assistant AD for performance here on campus
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and then have like a head strength and conditioning coach
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underneath me. So how can I help the athletic
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trainers? How can I help our strength
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conditioning program, our athletic performance program?
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And how can I be a usual resource on campus that also
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allows me to balance my life the way that my life deserves to be
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balanced? Yeah.
13:05
And like, you know, like at the end there, you talk about
13:07
balance and right, that's more of a thing now, you know,
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especially like, you know, just like, how can I get like work
13:13
life balance or whatever. And I think, I think like, like
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you're doing where you're, I mean, you're grounded 3
13:17
different roles. I know it's like there has to, I
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think there needs to be a period where you think about like in
13:22
layers or steps of your career. And it's like in the beginning,
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it's like, I've got to go all in.
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Like there's, there's got to be probably not a lot of balance at
13:29
first to one for us to get, get the skill we need to get the
13:33
experience to get the reputation, build our, our
13:36
career and our network. So then like you're saying, you
13:38
can build to a period of balance, but I, I don't, I
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don't, I don't know if you get there if you try and start with
13:45
like that balance. Yeah, like I think you can
13:47
certainly overwork really early on.
13:50
Like I like my first high school strength conditioning job was a
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part time strength conditioning role.
13:54
Then that school elevated me to full time.
13:56
Then I went full time as a director at a new at a different
14:00
school. And then kind of like I built it
14:02
from there where I always wanted my hands in different pots.
14:05
I'm, I'm obviously unwaveringly passionate about this field.
14:09
Like if you're not passionate, you're probably not going,
14:11
you're definitely not going to be successful in it.
14:13
And two, you're probably never getting into it as a whole in
14:15
general, just to start. So for me, like it was always
14:18
like, I'm going to push, push, push, push, push and build,
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build, build, build, build as I provide value to people like,
14:25
and it's going to be up to them if they decide that I am
14:28
valuable. So like for me, like it's people
14:30
reaching out wanting private training or hey, you're at X2, I
14:33
want to come train with you. Or it's even just even building
14:36
attendance rates here at a private school in Charlotte.
14:39
Like that's all like, am I providing the value that is just
14:43
like, I think I do a good job and I'm confident in myself, but
14:47
does that convey to other people?
14:49
So it didn't, it didn't happen overnight.
14:51
Like it really, really like what there was a grind.
14:54
Like I always wanted to be a director at a private school and
14:58
it took a little bit while to get there, actually got there
15:00
earlier than I thought I was going to.
15:01
But you know, who are you when someone calls your best friend
15:06
about you? Like what?
15:07
What? What will your best friend say
15:08
about you? What would your boss say about
15:10
you? Because even my boss at my
15:11
previous job got a call. I hadn't even told him that I
15:15
applied for the position here and he went to bats for me.
15:17
Like you'd be dumb to not to not hire him.
15:20
Like what does that, what does that show of what you've done in
15:23
your career and how you've built it in order to leave a lasting
15:26
impact as a whole and then provide value to a community
15:30
that they understand that you're going to flourish into something
15:33
greater than where they are. And they should just be grateful
15:36
that you were there on their campus.
15:38
Whether it's a year or two. Like, it's funny, I was talking
15:41
to someone before where I'm just like, if I, if I make it through
15:44
the end of January here at Charlie Christian, this will be
15:46
my longest 10 year job in my career, which is crazy because
15:49
it'll be just over 2 two years. But I've also worked 3 full time
15:53
train conditioning jobs without moving my house.
15:56
Like I, I built a career exactly where I wanted to build a
15:59
career. Sure, what I like, I would love
16:01
to have traveled and like everything else, but I wasn't
16:03
the one making those decisions. I, I brought my wife to Western
16:05
New York and sunny and Warren Buffalo, NY and Rochester, NY.
16:09
I went to grad school in Buffalo.
16:10
Like we live in Rochester and after two years, she just like
16:13
war. We're never coming back here.
16:15
So she was just like, I'd be interested in living in the
16:17
Carolinas. I like I landed a position
16:19
there, which was crazy during COVID.
16:22
And then it's like, all right, well, this is where we're
16:24
staying. We got to figure out how we're
16:26
going to build it. It's like, like what I said
16:28
before, like there's money out there if you're willing to work
16:30
for it, but you got to be able to provide a valuable product on
16:33
top of that. And that's just something that I
16:35
feel like I've been able to do well.
16:36
And like, once again, being confident in myself, but then
16:39
also letting the people come to me because I provided such a
16:43
valuable product to somebody else.
16:45
It's, it's the Disney mantra, like make their experience so
16:48
good. They come back with their
16:49
friends. I mean, that's literally how
16:51
we've built high school strength conditioning programs here at
16:54
built our attendance rates. And then you know what, X2 guys
16:58
talk all the all the baseball scenes in the Charlotte, NC
17:01
talk. And then it's the same thing
17:02
with from my private business. Like, oh, you got to go talk to
17:05
this guy. And whether it's a sport coach
17:07
or somebody else's parent or, you know, a club coach or
17:10
anything else, like all of a sudden they're just getting
17:12
funneled to me because I provided value for somebody
17:15
along the chain. And that's helped me tenfold
17:17
down the road. Besides, obviously like getting
17:20
results, what are the things that create that experience that
17:24
people are like, Hey, you've got to come with me to work with
17:27
this guy and, and, and bring their friends.
17:29
Like what, what, what makes people feel like that?
17:31
And kind of because I remember, I remember I had a coach back
17:35
when I was in high school that I went to work with and like I
17:38
would leave there. I remember it was like a 40
17:41
minute drive. I'd go to him and I'd be driving
17:43
home and it was, I just felt like on top of the world, like,
17:45
and I was always going to go see me in those 47 minutes.
17:47
Like what creates that type of experience was like, I've got to
17:50
come back to him and I've got to bring people, even though, like,
17:54
there's no obligation to do that.
17:55
Yeah. So I think for me it's taking a
17:59
whole lot of details from a lot of different fields where I have
18:02
a return play passion, you know, like I've helped develop speed,
18:06
like I love speed, like I love doing speed.
18:08
I take a speed based probably focus to our strength
18:11
conditioning program and the program and which that we're
18:13
doing, which I think is a little bit different.
18:16
Speaking of Oakland, honestly, I'm probably one of the more
18:18
educated just at least by the book people.
18:20
And in Charlotte, NC, where we're super watered down through
18:24
personal trainers that haven't had the education based side.
18:27
Like sure, maybe they've done a relatively good job of
18:29
developing programs and athletes, but like do they have
18:32
like the education based side? So I try to let my, I let my
18:35
knowledge show through, always try to find the right answer,
18:38
you know, like it's, it starts in my return to play mindset of
18:42
just like, all right, is it, you know, is it body tempering
18:44
that's going to take the best of this is our PR?
18:46
Is it like now I'm going like I leave for I go to square one to
18:50
do like the level 1 certification on Thursday.
18:53
It's that constant passion. And then I'm also talking to
18:55
kids that like we have like, I'm really excited.
18:58
Like I'm going to be at Virginia Tech Thursday.
19:00
Like I'm going to learn like this stuff.
19:02
And the kids are just like, man, like this dude's still learning.
19:04
Like I, I want to just keep like latching on to him.
19:08
And part of it's just like, like I want to have a personality.
19:11
I want to be the best kid. Best part of a kids day.
19:14
Because once again, on a positively ejectic myself, where
19:18
naturally in today's age, a lot of stuff is sugar coated.
19:22
I'm not a guy that's going to sugar coat it like when it's
19:24
going to suck, like when a training session or conditioning
19:26
session is going to suck, I'm going to tell the kids that's
19:28
going to suck. But those are also the same kids
19:31
that might see me going out and running sprints on the track.
19:34
Like they know that I'm holding up my end of the bargain.
19:36
I'm so that's just drawing people like from that, being
19:39
able to glorify progress on a really regular basis.
19:41
Like, Hey, look how much you've accomplished.
19:44
And then just like they like they seek that feeling like when
19:47
they PR in, in a training session, like that's huge.
19:50
Or oh, this guy helped me fix my shoulder like that when no one
19:54
else was helping me fix my shoulder or everyone else was
19:57
giving me the runaround because I'm like really like as a goal.
20:00
Like I want to spend the least amount of time with my kids as
20:03
possible because for the most part I got thousands of other
20:06
kids that need my help too, but still taking the time.
20:10
And that there is that connection piece that I want to
20:13
know them more than just the normal.
20:15
There's the, the transactional relationship.
20:18
Like I've never seen myself as like just cutting checks and
20:22
just hopefully cashing checks from there.
20:23
Like, no, it's much, much more than that.
20:25
It's relationship building. It's it's impact.
20:28
At the end of the day, I'm a words of affirmation person.
20:30
I try to give a lot of my athletes words of affirmation
20:33
because for the most part, they aren't getting that.
20:37
You know, a lot of these kids now, like both of their parents
20:39
are working. Sometimes they're making dinner
20:41
for themselves. Like they may not be the most
20:44
popular kid in school, like they may not be accomplishing like
20:47
all of that. Like I want to make sure that
20:49
when they're doing a good job, they know that they're doing a
20:51
good job. Then when they're not doing a
20:53
good job, hopefully I build up enough relationship.
20:56
I also understand the wavelengths in which they
20:58
receive information. So what is their love language?
21:01
I is it is it a quality time person where I got to pull the
21:04
kid aside, be like, hey, man, like this, like this is what you
21:07
promised me. You ain't holding up your end of
21:09
the bargain. And then just like fighting for
21:12
that kid. Utilizing social media well is
21:14
really, really good. But for the most part, like a
21:16
lot of my private business was built through the female
21:18
athlete. There wasn't a person that was
21:20
like taking priority in the females.
21:22
And then like every place I've been like, like being in the
21:25
Carolinas, being in the Southeast, football's king.
21:28
I never want a single one of my female athletes to feel like I'm
21:31
prioritizing football over them. I love my football players.
21:34
I love working with football. Like I wouldn't have a job if it
21:36
wasn't for football, you know? But at no point do I think a kid
21:40
can ever say at my program, whether Charlotte Christian X2
21:44
or with my private business, that they don't feel like
21:46
they're getting their fair shake of the bargain.
21:48
When that's the case, unfortunately, that is the
21:50
rarity of today. Then you can actually build a
21:53
successful business, whether it's really your school
21:57
business, like your, your school program or a literal business as
22:00
a whole. And then to make a long winded
22:03
answer, I just want to show through that.
22:05
Look at the body slightly differently than the classic,
22:07
just sets and reps like you're, you're doing slightly more
22:10
complex things like we're constantly adjusting and
22:13
readjusting. That's the return of play
22:15
mindset that I kind of bring to the table where all this isn't
22:19
working today. Cool.
22:20
We're going to adapt to this and not just like square pegging
22:23
around hole constantly, you know, like adapting to the
22:26
individual to give them provide them the best product of
22:29
whatever they feel that their best product is going to be that
22:32
day. And you know, you've mentioned
22:34
the return to play and kind of your passion for that and doing
22:37
a lot of that with the private sector athletes.
22:40
I know when you were an athlete you had a pretty serious injury.
22:44
How did how did that experience for yourself?
22:46
How does that impact or influence the way you interact
22:50
and lead those athletes during their rehab processes?
22:53
Yeah, so I think I credit my ability to still do what I do
22:57
because of the shape I was in. You know, I was not a normal
23:01
like a when you break your C4C5 and C6 in your neck, like you
23:05
deserve to be paralyzed, You deserve to be impacted in some
23:09
way. I was just in really, really
23:11
good shape because luckily I was participating.
23:14
I can't say playing because you can't, you don't play wrestling,
23:17
but you know, like I was participating in a sport where
23:20
the shape I was in was really, really important from a GPP
23:23
standpoint. Like even like growing up, like
23:26
I grew up on a ranch, like we've, we heated our houses with
23:29
firewood every single winter in Northwest New Jersey.
23:31
Like I was moving stuff like I was, I was not the normal 15
23:34
year old, but if I wasn't in the shape that I was in, my story
23:38
would be a whole lot different. But I still went through those
23:41
mental struggles, especially like where I was a recruited
23:44
athlete at that point. All of a sudden everything that
23:47
I've known up until that point was taken from me.
23:49
That makes me feel lost really, really early on.
23:52
And I wish I had someone to talk to, to connect with that could
23:56
help me through that because for the most part I did it myself.
23:59
So now when I'm dealing with an injured athlete, you know, like
24:02
we level that playing field right off the bat where hey,
24:06
like, I know, I know what the voice in your head is saying.
24:09
Do I know exactly what they're saying?
24:10
No, but like they, the kids just want to be heard at the end of
24:13
the day. Like when I met with a return to
24:15
play client who, you know, she, she completed her first full
24:18
season of softball last year as a junior in college.
24:21
She graduated in three years with A39 GPA and now she's
24:24
transferring to another school to get her MBA.
24:27
And like when I first time I met with her, she's she looked me
24:30
down in the face and said, you know, if this doesn't work, then
24:34
I don't know what I'm going to do.
24:35
I'm going to probably have to retire.
24:37
And then I just, I looked her down the face.
24:38
I was just like, well, we're going to work.
24:40
We're going to work like hell to make sure that that doesn't
24:42
happen. And just having that, having
24:45
that middle ground right off the bat where they know, and I've
24:48
spoken openly about my injury with them and being the injured
24:51
athlete and seeing things differently, where, hey, we're,
24:54
we're going to, we're going to keep working until it works.
24:57
You know, like we're not just going to like let stuff fall by
24:59
the wayside. And then having a plan like with
25:01
that, just like, hey, like I've seen this kind of return to play
25:04
stuff before this. These are the checkpoints and
25:06
everything else. But guess what?
25:08
It's going to be a daily adaptation to exactly who you
25:11
are as a person. So as soon as like you have that
25:14
middle ground of you're hearing them as an individual and as an
25:18
athlete and then they're hearing your story as a coach.
25:21
Like I'm not the big tough guy all of a sudden, you know, like
25:25
kids respect vulnerability. I'm a extremely vulnerable
25:29
person. If they want to know anything
25:31
about my life, how I grew up, how I, you know, what, what did
25:34
I do in high school? Where did I go to college?
25:37
What was college like for me? Like I'm going to give them
25:40
those answers because they deserve to know because it's
25:42
going to be the same thing when I want to learn that stuff about
25:45
them. I want them to be able to
25:47
answer, but they're not going to answer if they don't feel like
25:49
they can get the same from me. So that's like the notion of how
25:52
I take or turn to play clients and that's how I take all of our
25:55
athletes where it's relationship first.
25:58
You know, the programming and the development is, is going to
26:00
take care of itself if we feel like we're doing it in the right
26:03
headspace, with the right mindset, with the right people
26:06
over and over and over again and never letting it waiver from
26:09
that. Yeah, man, you know, it's
26:11
powerful to hear you talk about especially those those
26:13
conversations of athletes because it is like like, you
26:16
know, I'm sure when you felt it as an athlete with your
26:19
injuries. And I know for me, like it's
26:20
like when you have those injuries, like it is like it's a
26:24
it's like a bomb drop on your whole world as an athlete when
26:26
that's everything you have. And I know you're like you're
26:29
just thinking about it daily and all the all the minute moments
26:32
throughout the day and, and how things are feeling and it just
26:35
consumes you. So to be able to have someone
26:38
walk with you and guide you and and share and like you're
26:42
saying, be vulnerable through that with you.
26:44
I think it's powerful because it can be be easy to become
26:47
isolated and feel like you're on your own island when you're in
26:50
those injuries, especially if you're part of a team.
26:52
Then all of a sudden you're just doing stuff by yourself and it's
26:54
like everybody's over there and I'm just, I'm just by myself
26:57
over there. So I mean, that's powerful.
26:59
What you're talking about how, how diving deep and trying to
27:02
play and working with these individual athletes.
27:04
How is that informed the way you train or program or lead just.
27:10
You're your normal high school athletes as a team if if it
27:13
hasn't in certain ways. Yeah.
27:15
So the way that I've started to like look at a lot of our
27:18
programs both from return to play and then just general
27:22
preparedness, CVP is king to me. Like being able to do stuff
27:26
well, having some level of functional movement skills and
27:29
everything else. Like that's really, really
27:30
important. That's what kids are missing as
27:33
a whole moving forward, like or or being more and more sedentary
27:38
throughout the day then or missing key motor development
27:41
pathway is that are really negatively impacting our
27:46
development as as athletes, especially like the teenage boy
27:50
population where video games have just taken over and TikTok
27:53
has taken over. Like they're not going out and
27:55
like literally like I used to jump off roofs, you know, like,
27:59
or jump on a trampoline. Like everything else, like kids
28:01
are missing that today because sometimes maybe their homework
28:04
is way too stressful or all right, like they are playing too
28:08
many video games. COVID, COVID ruins a whole lot
28:12
of well, I guess it would be like the rising seniors now
28:15
we're way behind from motor development standpoint because
28:18
of COVID, because they missed like that 7th and 8th grade
28:21
window where a whole lot of motor development skills need to
28:25
be mastered to a teenage or to a almost teenage boy.
28:29
So that certainly shakes it up. So like I take a GPP dynamic,
28:33
but the way that we break down our programs is there's there's
28:36
3C's that we look at capacity control and complexity.
28:40
So from a return to play standpoint, let's with the
28:43
return play lens on here, Is our injury or is our limitation a
28:48
capacity problem, a control problem or a complexity problem?
28:52
Capacity meaning like can we actually volumize?
28:55
Can we understand the volume of our sport, volumize our training
28:58
and everything else in order to keep ourselves healthy?
29:01
Is it a control problem? Can they land?
29:04
Can they absorb? Can they take hits?
29:06
Like every single sport, there is some level of contact,
29:09
whether it's a jump, a land, another person, everything else.
29:13
Can they actually control those forces and decelerate those
29:16
things? Do they have eccentric control
29:18
and everything else that that all impacts a lot of our
29:20
programming and then complexity. Can they actually transfer our
29:24
training to the sport? I think that's the number one
29:26
key when I'm bringing return to play athletes back, is that am I
29:31
giving them the proper programming that allows them to
29:34
be successful at their sport? It's pretty easy to get a squat,
29:37
bench and deadlift up. It's pretty easy to make it
29:40
strong. Can that transfer?
29:43
So I know like for me, like I love like stop action sport
29:46
photography because it shows like the intricate workings of
29:50
the body. Is our programming allowing our
29:54
kids like let's just look at an overhead throwing motion.
29:56
It looks terribly unnatural to a whole lot of human bodies.
30:00
Is my training actually preparing them in order to do
30:03
that? Well, so that really started in
30:05
Return to Play and then has impacted our programming outside
30:08
of that. Where all right, are they
30:11
getting capacity work? You know, are we building
30:14
capacity of the lower limb on a regular basis that they can run
30:18
and jump and lands and everything else?
30:21
Are they getting enough control work?
30:22
Are they doing ecentric and isometrics that allow us to be
30:26
position specific or sports specific that they need to be
30:29
able to decelerate and absorb and dissipate force on a regular
30:32
basis? And then is the training complex
30:35
enough from maybe it's a stimulus standpoint, You know,
30:38
are we hitting high, high levels of velocity in our training,
30:41
whether that's on the field or in the weight room?
30:44
Are we hitting what you know, like high for stimulus, slow for
30:47
stimulus, like all of the above is my training, is my
30:52
programming complex enough that exposes these kids to be
30:56
prepared for their sport better? So I'm a cancellable strength
31:00
coach at the end of the day, because I do believe that there
31:03
is some merit in sports specific training that's not attaching a
31:07
band to a person like dribbling a basketball and like having
31:10
them like run through like agility ladders and or not even
31:13
agility ladders, ladders. I, I feel offended that I said
31:16
agility ladders, but having them like run through a ladder, like
31:20
that's not sports specific training.
31:21
But guess what? Am I exposing them to the
31:23
velocity of their sport, the ranges of motion of their sport,
31:26
you know, the, the volume of their sport.
31:29
Look at volleyball for example, how many ground contacts are
31:32
they getting in in a game? Am I taking that into account in
31:35
my training? That's pretty complex or it can
31:38
be complex for a whole lot of people where we need to have
31:41
that sport specificity in order to truly develop high performing
31:45
athletes. I'm cancelable in the nature of
31:47
that. I'm not trying to make my bell
31:49
curve higher. I'm not programming for the
31:51
average individual. I want to program for the
31:54
highest level individual. And we certainly have a whole
31:56
lot of those both at Charlie Christian and edx 2 and and than
32:00
in my private training business where they're getting specific
32:03
programs, but I'm trying to move their bell curve, right.
32:06
So if performance is on that bottom access, I'm trying to
32:09
raise their levels of performance, can they actually
32:11
reach a higher level of performance and then I'm dialing
32:15
back from there. I'm not obviously trying to move
32:18
our middle school football needle way to the right, you
32:22
know, like where it does take time to develop, but by the time
32:25
that they have some level of competency within our program
32:29
now it's go and it's adapting those stimuluses on a really
32:32
consistent basis that allows us to have some level of
32:34
complexity. And then being dictated by
32:37
capacity and control otherwise has allowed us to develop
32:41
really, really robust high performing athletes have also
32:45
stayed really, really healthy over time.
32:47
We've dropped tissue rate rate injuries, you know, like we're
32:50
adapting, we're adapting programming.
32:52
Like we're utilizing technology, like everything else, like to,
32:55
to a bird's eye view our program, what's really complex.
32:57
But if you come and ask me like, why is that exercise in this
33:00
program, I can give you probably 4 answers of why it specifically
33:04
is there. It's not just for doing, you
33:06
know, reverse lunges to work on our quad, on our quad, like no,
33:11
we're doing reversal and just because it's going to work this,
33:13
this and this, you know, like where it's, we can be really,
33:16
really lost in complexity. But that's something that I feel
33:19
like we've sharpened well and then have built it into our
33:22
system well in order to develop our athletes in a complete and
33:28
robust way. That was really great info.
33:30
And and as you talk about that complexity and and programming
33:35
for the highest level of athlete and down and back like I guess
33:38
one thing I've experienced as I've started at this new high
33:41
school, it's like I'm coming in with this team.
33:44
It's like, you know, I've got some good athletes and this
33:46
whole range, then I've got some freshmen girls coming in that
33:50
have never done anything at all. So it's like logistically,
33:53
especially I know you've talked about, you've had, you know,
33:56
this will be the longest 10 years.
33:57
So you've, you've made these changes like when you're first
33:59
coming into a place, how are you thinking about that complexity
34:02
and thinking about, OK, how can I give these higher level
34:06
athletes what they need while also still establishing the
34:09
foundation of, of movement and skill for these ones that have
34:13
never really done anything And like given each group what they
34:15
need while making the logistics work?
34:18
Yeah, so I think as a whole, like I know when I came in
34:21
Charlotte Christian, the situation needed a whole lot of
34:24
fixing. So I did feel bad.
34:27
I like I was lucky, but then also unlucky to get here in the
34:30
middle of January. So I came in the middle of the
34:32
school year where at the time I had to look a lot of high level
34:36
baseball players dead in the face.
34:38
Baseball is our most successful sport here at Charlotte
34:40
Christian and I literally had to look at them and say, I assume
34:43
you know nothing, so I'm going to teach you like you know
34:46
nothing. Granted, I think three of those
34:49
ended up playing a Division One level 1.
34:51
One of them got drafted in the fifth round and he's with the
34:53
with the Baltimore oils right now.
34:55
But I looked the one who got drafted.
34:57
I didn't think, I didn't know he was going to get drafted, but
34:59
that was pretty cool for us. I looked him down in the face
35:02
when I said it too, where like you could see, I mean, he's a
35:05
kid that you can see everything, you know, on his forearm and
35:07
everything else. But I had to be like, you know
35:10
what, we're we're going to take this slow and then you're going
35:12
to earn the level of complexity. So for us, like it was luckily
35:17
we run a very cyclical in nature.
35:19
We are impacted by some level of triphasic training where at the
35:22
start of each season, every single athlete on our campus is
35:26
doing like eccentric based training where all right, we are
35:30
going back to a front squat. Just because you've earned the
35:33
ability to back squat doesn't mean that you're always going to
35:36
end up back squatting where all right now you're going to have
35:39
to learn how to control and it's going to help us re establish
35:42
ranges of motion. And like everything else, like
35:43
we're going to take stuff slow. And what's, what's the
35:46
difference between, you know, that freshman that's in the
35:49
weight room with the four-star running back.
35:52
You know, the, the £130 freshman or 200 LB four-star running back
35:56
is really just the weight on the bar and then the intent with it.
36:00
You know, like we're not utilizing BBT with our freshman
36:03
right now. It's just not like they need
36:05
more accumulation than that. They're still doing a bench
36:09
press, they're still lunging, they're still doing all these
36:11
exercises, but the intent and the impact of it looks a little
36:15
bit different because hey, Jamal can do a £400 squat like it's
36:21
nothing. I don't expect our freshman to
36:22
be able to do that. If it happens naturally, if
36:25
we're time like obviously that's a win win.
36:27
But at some point there is going to be a somewhat re leveled
36:30
playing field. Like we're going to start back
36:32
at the top of the cycle every single time.
36:34
So it's that constant teaching and reteaching the flow of our
36:38
room, like we're currently in 1400 square feet.
36:40
Sometimes we have 50 ish athletes happening like at the
36:43
same time. At some point I'm going to have
36:46
to have some level of a adaptation of exercise that's a
36:50
little bit off kilter by the equipment that I have.
36:52
Everyone's going to do it. Some of them are going to be
36:54
more successful at it. But on the back of our T-shirts
36:57
too, it says fail fast. If you're giving me full intent
37:00
with everything that you do and you fail at it, I'm totally fine
37:03
with it. Like I want our kids to thrive
37:06
within failure. Do I want them to fail
37:08
constantly? No, but we can fail every single
37:11
day in here and still be really, really successful.
37:13
So having that notion right off the bat where hey guys, this is
37:17
going to be complex. Like you're not going to do it
37:18
really, really perfectly. But then the kid tries to just
37:22
raise their level. It makes them raise their effort
37:24
a little bit more and we get get a little bit higher of a
37:27
wavelength. And then if we feel like they're
37:30
in an ocean where they're getting out what I need them to
37:33
get out of that exercise, we're just going to cut them loose.
37:35
Is it going to be perfect right off the bat?
37:37
No, but we're going to let it happen.
37:39
If we feel like they're going to hurt themselves, then we're
37:42
going to dial it back. Our complex things is happening
37:46
with, you know, Med balls and body weight.
37:49
It's not happening with 225 lbs on the bar Like we're we're not
37:53
doing, we're not doing power cleans and snatches like
37:56
everything else unless they merit that complexity.
37:59
We are doing, you know, like moving through like a back
38:02
crossover to rotational Met Ball slam or they're pogoing and
38:06
they're jumping and they're landing like all like slightly
38:08
differently if they feel like we've done enough general
38:12
athletic development. Outside of that, it doesn't seem
38:14
that all complex. It's just not the classical
38:17
squat, bench, deadlift that we always talk about.
38:19
Yeah, Yeah. Like kind of like you're talking
38:21
about, I've been thinking about like that balance of like
38:23
chasing skill versus chasing adaptation.
38:26
And like at some point, like we've got to have that great
38:29
foundation of skill, like something like you're saying,
38:30
like we've got to push towards, for some adaptation too.
38:33
And like finding in ways where like they're safe environments
38:38
to fail. I, I love that, that concept of
38:40
like telling them to fail fast, because I think with a lot of
38:43
these athletes, there is this concept of like, I've got to be
38:45
perfect. And like, if I fail, like
38:46
everything's over. And it's like, like we talked
38:48
about before, like being vulnerable and being over with
38:50
that it's like same thing here. Like, let's get it out up front
38:53
that like learning requires failure and requires not being
38:57
able to do things right. If we're always able to do
38:59
anything great, like we're probably not learning much,
39:01
we're probably not growing much. So I think that's great.
39:04
Like having that mindset and then, OK, we're going to
39:06
establish a skill, but we're still going to push for some
39:08
adaptation and then challenge you and, and push you because
39:11
you know, sometimes like you're going to, you're going to
39:13
actually be able to do more than you thought, or even I, as the
39:16
coach thought you could actually do.
39:17
And it's like, OK, we don't, we got to, we don't have to take as
39:19
many steps maybe to get to where we could have got by by seeing
39:22
if you could do it. Yeah, yeah, I loved what Anthony
39:25
said on on the podcast like a couple weeks ago of like
39:28
training at a really high intensity.
39:30
Like you expect people to be sore, you expect them to not be
39:33
able to do it well and maybe not.
39:35
But there's there's times that we're trying to create that
39:37
adaptation. Like obviously if I'm in the
39:39
middle of October and I'm chasing with our football guys
39:42
that like I get them stronger, like blah, blah, blah.
39:44
Like we already kind of like missed the point, but like
39:48
through the summer training block, like guys, it, it's going
39:51
to be really intense. Like we're, we're running Max
39:53
velocity sprints on a really regular basis.
39:55
Like we have a shred mill in the weight room.
39:56
Like that's, that can be tough. Like we're, we're going to
39:59
challenge our bodies, but we're trying to create adaptation at
40:03
the end of the day and training at a really high intensity.
40:05
It is supposed to be tough. And it doesn't have to be just
40:09
I'm working at 90% of my one Rep Max.
40:12
You know, like there's, there's different ways that we can
40:14
adapt. Like even I think a
40:16
periodization, like we think about sets, reps, intensities,
40:19
like all the time. Like, well, what about ranges of
40:22
motion? What about velocities?
40:24
What about, you know, angles that is happening, like force
40:27
vectors and like everything else, Is that impacting your
40:29
programming just as much? Because I feel like it should.
40:32
So for us, like that's where that's that's where we do stuff
40:36
I think a little bit differently is that we're trying to take
40:38
those things into account because the sport is much more
40:41
complex than we give it credit for.
40:43
Like we're just like, oh, they need general blah, blah, blah.
40:46
To me, that's not, it can get you there, but can it really
40:50
raise the level? Can it raise your ceiling
40:52
higher? Because really at the end of the
40:54
day, that's my number one goal for our kids.
40:57
Like can I take obviously if a kid comes in and he's D1, like I
41:01
mean, we have we have a couple of baseball players on campus
41:04
that the day they stepped foot on campus, the day they stepped,
41:07
but on a varsity baseball field, his freshman years, like those
41:10
kids are going to go deal. But can we take the kid who, you
41:13
know, he's coachable, He works really hard.
41:16
Is he just coachable and works really hard?
41:18
Is that all that he's going to get or can you actually develop
41:21
him into a usable athlete that division two or Division Three
41:25
school is going to give him a call because maybe that kid is
41:28
super passionate about his sport.
41:30
Maybe he doesn't have athleticism, but if you can make
41:32
him a little bit more athletic and then people see his hard
41:35
work and consistently, he's going to get that shot.
41:38
And if you're talking about selling yourself and valuing
41:40
your program, if you're able to do that on a really regular
41:43
basis, AKA literally raise your average, raise your ceiling
41:46
higher, you're probably going to win a lot more.
41:49
I'm a firm believer that strength, the conditioning coach
41:51
doesn't back wins and losses if you do it right.
41:54
I think there's more strength the conditioning coaches that
41:55
probably will lose more than they win sometimes.
41:58
But I do think that what we do should and can impact wins and
42:03
losses for all of our sports teams.
42:05
For sure, you know, obviously there's there's a million
42:08
variables as soon as we can't control, but I think sometimes
42:10
there's this narrative that that gets thrown around and strange
42:13
anywhere. It's like I've got no impact.
42:15
Like, you know, and then obviously there's things you
42:17
can't control. But like you're saying, I think
42:20
like if we don't feel we impact, like why you doing this?
42:22
Like if you don't think you can impact winning, like your team
42:25
winning at a higher level or athletes before a high level,
42:27
like like why you're doing it? Like maybe maybe you just need
42:30
to get better or view it a different way.
42:32
But you know, now this is great stuff.
42:34
What's something that you used to strongly believe that you
42:37
don't anymore? You know, it's it's been so I've
42:40
tried to be a chameleon to like every room I've ever walked
42:43
into. So it's been I always try to
42:47
bring like a non biased opinion into everything.
42:50
So that's certainly a tough question.
42:52
I think early on in my career, like I thought barbell was king.
42:55
You know, that the more that I got away from a barbell, maybe
43:00
entered a scenario that we couldn't use a barbell.
43:02
You know, like when I was at Davidson College, like we were
43:05
training with just kettle bells and bands.
43:07
That completely changed what my view of strength and
43:10
conditioning was at 24 years old.
43:12
Like it's all fine and dandy until all of a sudden you're
43:15
limited on space and equipment and time.
43:17
You know, like how does your programming really sure show
43:20
through when you're used to programming four times a week
43:23
for 45 minutes and then you got 2 * a week for 30 minutes?
43:26
Hey, like what it really matters.
43:28
So for me, like, it was life outside the barbell was
43:32
something that I learned luckily really early on because it's
43:35
it's allowed me to adapt at the high school level, I think a
43:38
little bit better. And then also allows me to, you
43:42
know, have programming that can happen remotely without a whole
43:45
lot of check insurance on a regular basis.
43:47
To like where because I think a barbell creates a whole lot of
43:50
uncontrolled variables, kind of like what you were just talking
43:53
about, which was not the context in what you were talking about
43:55
it, but you get what I'm saying where, you know, like we're
43:59
we're away from that. Yeah.
44:01
Like I thought like just getting kids strong was going to get us
44:04
there. It works up into a point, but
44:07
it's not raising the ceiling. So that's certainly like changed
44:10
for me. It was also like, I got to read
44:13
this book in that book and I gotta I gotta do this.
44:16
I gotta study for this exam. Like everything else, it didn't
44:19
make me a better coach. You know, being in a textbook
44:21
never got me more coaching reps Like I felt that really early on
44:25
during COVID. I don't know, I was sitting in
44:27
front of a computer like reading like Altus website.
44:30
I got to a point where I'm just like, does this matter?
44:33
Like if I can't go put it into practice, then what does it
44:35
matter? So now like I'm at a point where
44:38
I'm seeking, I'm seeking to be that almost people dumbest
44:42
person in the room, where who am I going to go learn from?
44:45
Like I go to these conferences and we talked about sats, reps
44:49
intensity and like I'm just like, I'm not like I don't want
44:51
to sit through that anymore, but I'm still trying to constantly
44:54
learn. But now I'm trying to like learn
44:56
to think differently. Like you come from a basketball
44:58
background for a good little while, I hated working with
45:01
basketball. So what did I have to go do?
45:04
I had to go work in basketball. You know, that's like something
45:07
that I always I always dreaded working with basketball players
45:10
until all of a sudden I put myself in that situation.
45:13
I started to see basketball differently.
45:15
Then I started talking their language a little bit more than
45:17
all of a sudden their basketball players became more successful.
45:20
You know, like there's there's that little bit over and over,
45:23
but I always felt like I needed to read every single little like
45:26
textbook. Like you got to make sure you
45:28
read strength coaches playbook. You got to make sure you read
45:31
starting Strength and Ferguschansky and like, like all
45:33
of that. It never.
45:35
I learned more from conversations like this.
45:37
I learn more from seeking people that I really want to learn more
45:40
about. You know, like I'm going to
45:41
swear one workshop Thursday, Friday this week after gene tech
45:45
next week. I start like Dan Foley's
45:47
controlling chaos, like mentorship, like I would love to
45:50
do like the Hunter Eisenhower, like 4 system.
45:53
Like those are all stuff that like interests me because it's
45:55
not, it's not the classical, it's not the classical X's and
45:58
O's anymore where I feel like so many of the textbooks that I was
46:01
reading or the books I was reading was just giving me more
46:04
information on the X's and O's without actually putting self
46:07
into practice. I want stuff that's gurgitable
46:10
into practice. So two different ways that like
46:12
I've kind of like viewed the field differently over time, but
46:15
I think has has helped me really, really grow and be a
46:18
chameleon in a whole lot of scenarios.
46:21
It's really cool. And you know, as you talk about
46:22
getting away from the barbell and like at Davidson, just
46:25
having kettle bells and bands. I remember a number of years ago
46:28
hearing Corey Schlesinger talk about like the question of like,
46:31
he's like, it'd be so great if for one year all strength
46:34
coaches, like you just had a field, no equipment and you just
46:37
had to train your team and like the changes it would make.
46:39
And I always thought about like that that would be kind of fun,
46:41
like to figure out what what what I'm going to do.
46:43
Like how's he going to be? It's like technically, I guess
46:46
we can do that, but I'm not I'm not actually going to fully do
46:48
that. But, and then, you know, I, I
46:50
was actually listening to a podcast, Modern Wisdom with
46:54
Chris Williamson and then he's, he had a guest, Adam Grant.
46:56
They're, they're, they're kind of talking about what you're
46:58
talking about right now with like consuming information
47:01
always versus output and synthesizing.
47:04
And you know, they had one point where where they talked about
47:07
where it's like in society today, it's less about being a
47:11
collector, but more about being a connector and being able to
47:14
synthesize, like create a Symphony of different
47:17
information, different ways and how we piece it together into
47:21
our context. Because there's like you're
47:23
saying, there's so much stuff, there's so many books to read
47:25
and you can go on an endless, you know, rabbit hunt of things
47:29
to read and continue to put stuff in your brain.
47:31
It's like you have to have information and knowledge, but
47:34
at some point it's like, how can I put this together and
47:38
synthesize it and start to have some output and some thoughts of
47:41
my own into my own situations too?
47:44
Yeah, yeah. Like it's, and that's even a
47:46
slide that I started to put in my presentations, like the
47:49
difference between collecting dots and connecting dots.
47:53
Early on I was a dot collector. Like where?
47:56
Oh, I read this book and I've talked to this person like
47:59
everything else, but like, did it actually get me anywhere?
48:02
Because I think that's also, that's also like what has to
48:06
drive decision making and performance.
48:09
Like, yeah, force plates and GPS and like everything is super
48:12
cool. But if it's not actually
48:14
impacting your decisions, is it worth it?
48:16
It's the same thing like where I could listen to every string,
48:19
the conditioning podcast, like under the Sun, is it going to
48:22
get me better? Is it actually going to help me
48:24
grow like as a coach and become a better individual and
48:27
everything else? So I definitely like, I think
48:29
there is a difference between the collection because I think
48:32
early on coaches just want to collect there earlier that you
48:36
try to connect things and see how that is all intricately
48:40
working and try to be that chameleon to the room that you
48:43
are in without wavering. Obviously you like who you are
48:45
as a person, but at some point you're going to have to be a
48:48
different coach because you're going to have different
48:50
equipment, different space, different time, like everything
48:52
else. Because even going back to like
48:54
my internship program, one of the projects we work on is like
48:57
a programming project like every internship does.
49:00
Far as your internship project, just giving them every single
49:03
piece of equipment as a freedom? Or are you challenging your
49:06
interns to think of like, all right, you got kettle bells and
49:09
bands, that's it. Hey, you got an open field.
49:12
That's it. What matters.
49:13
You know, that that's, that's the difference of connecting
49:16
dots because I mean, the human body is an amazing, amazing
49:19
thing. And there's so much that impacts
49:21
it. Like there's, there is so many
49:23
variables like we've already talked about.
49:24
But if we're just collecting those dots and not actually
49:28
making decisions off of it, then we're, we're going to just be
49:30
limiting the people that we work for and with.
49:34
And really at the end of the day, like I'm not in it for me.
49:37
I don't wake up at 4:00 AM every single day.
49:39
For me, I don't get home at 8:00 PM at night.
49:42
For me, I'm doing it for the other people.
49:44
I'm doing it for who, who really matters.
49:47
Like putting athletes like first.
49:48
Like for me, it's, it's God, it's my athletes.
49:51
It's it's myself. My wife's probably up there
49:54
somewhere too, but I don't I don't think she'll be listening,
49:58
at least at. This point she's cut out this
49:59
this far already. Yeah, she's like, I'm, I'm out,
50:02
I'm out. She I, I dropped her, I dropped
50:04
her early on. So she, so she backed, backed
50:06
herself out. But yeah, like it's, it's
50:08
putting out of the 1st. And that can eat you alive too.
50:11
Because it at certainly at one point it, it was eating me
50:13
alive. You know, the amount of mental
50:15
breakdowns I had like as a first time director, like I took over
50:19
for the largest high school in the state of North Carolina at
50:21
25 years old. Like all of a sudden I was
50:23
responsible for over 1000 kids on a, on a weekly basis.
50:27
And I didn't know that much like I, I, I hadn't failed up into
50:30
that point very much want you want to learn, you want to
50:34
learn, learn who you are as a person.
50:36
Like do that. And you know, I always
50:38
prioritize putting kids first and that ain't me alive.
50:41
And then I've been opening honest.
50:42
So it's like with my kids, especially here at Charlie
50:44
Christian, like they know when I'm not having to a good day
50:47
now, like when the lights come on and like the sessions like
50:49
going like that's fine. But they catch me in the office
50:52
or in the dining hall. Like it, it can sometimes be a
50:54
little bit different. But that's that transparency
50:56
piece to where you know, like I want our kids to see me fail and
51:00
I'm going to admit when it fails.
51:02
I'm going to admit when it sucks.
51:03
I'm going to admit when I don't want to be there.
51:05
Sometimes there's sometimes like kids catch me in the dining
51:07
hall. I mean lunch by myself where
51:09
there's like coach, why you eating lunch by myself?
51:11
I'm just like, man, I just need some time to myself.
51:14
Like that's totally fine. And then the kids start to
51:16
understand that that is OK. Yeah.
51:19
And I think I think it's easy as coaches to like, like you said
51:23
on your shirts, you have that fail fast.
51:24
And that's what we're preaching to athletes.
51:26
I think it's easy to preach that and then for ourselves feel like
51:29
we've still got to be perfect and we can't fail or show that
51:32
we failed. Even though for us like like
51:35
just like the athletes as this coaches like failure is critical
51:39
to our development and our learning experience.
51:41
Just like I'm sure you know, when you took over that director
51:43
position, like you had failures and and it made you learn so
51:46
many things that now when you stepped into Charlotte
51:48
Christian, you had figured out way better.
51:50
But then you still have failures, I'm sure.
51:51
And that's going to prepare you for the next year at your
51:54
position, the next position you have, whatever it is like we've
51:56
got to have those periods where we stretch beyond our abilities
51:59
also. Yeah, yeah, I think it's, it's
52:01
being that transparent piece. Like I like, I always live on
52:04
the on the notion. Like I think I had Margarini say
52:07
it the first time and like if you're not doing your people
52:10
definitely weren't doing it. I try to hide how much I don't
52:13
sleep, but the kids can tell because obviously we like, we
52:16
preach sleeps important, like everything else.
52:18
But the kids at this point, I like understand why I don't
52:20
sleep that much. But it's just like if I go to
52:23
eat cheeseburgers and hot dogs in the dining hall every single
52:26
day, but then I tell my kids about eating healthy, are they
52:30
going to listen to me? It's the look the part to be
52:32
that like took over social media over like the last couple
52:36
months. Like does a strength coach have
52:38
to look the part? Like, yeah, you got you got at
52:40
some point like walk the walk and talk the talk too, like
52:43
where our kids see me go Sprint. Like I hate conditioning.
52:47
I hate conditioning. I got to a point where I was
52:50
just like, I don't know about enough about a conditioning.
52:52
I signed up for like the seas for conditioning cohort with Tim
52:54
Kettering. And now I'm like now I'm like,
52:57
actually like enjoy conditioning.
52:59
Like the classic £250 power lifter isn't doing a whole lot
53:03
of power lifting anymore. I'm so more time conditioning.
53:05
So then when the kids are like, Hey, this is important, but
53:08
they've seen me out running on the track and doing my my
53:11
sprints and like everything else that's really good or like
53:15
that's going to be a little bit more of a shake up of my career
53:18
is like when I can't show and exercise, well, what do I do?
53:22
Like I haven't gotten to that point yet.
53:24
Like luckily I'm still relatively young and malleable.
53:27
I mean, Achilles is feeling all tight lately, but but there's
53:30
like that's like starting to be emotion that I'm starting to
53:33
like play through my head of just like, well, if I can't show
53:36
an exercise, am IA good enough coach to just speak it out of
53:40
them like that? That can be a step back.
53:42
And that's where my mind goes like moving forward is just
53:45
like, yeah, I want to do this for a long time, but can I do it
53:47
the way that I want to be able to do it for this long?
53:50
Because as soon as I can't show an exercise that like that's
53:53
going to be another another challenging piece.
53:56
But there's plenty of times, I mean, like the amount of times
53:58
I've slipped on turf, like showing like a broad jump
54:01
because I'm in like bottom level, like I'm IDs boost.
54:04
These things got no traction. If I do a broad jump on like
54:07
Dewey, North Carolina turf at 7:30 in the morning, like I'm
54:10
going to fall, we just keep it rolling.
54:12
And then the kids enjoy. The kids get a laugh at it, but
54:14
it's also showing like like I'm a real person because like I
54:17
remember Luke Day, Luke Day talking about like early on in
54:20
his coaching career, like he only ever showed the exercises
54:23
he was good at. Like I'm not good at everything.
54:26
And sometimes they hear like my shoulders pop every single time
54:29
I move because I got the worst shoulders probably in the world.
54:32
But like I'm just like, hey, guys, like this isn't perfect,
54:34
but like these are focuses. But like, this is, this is
54:37
somewhat like what I wanted to look like, yeah.
54:41
Like I want to be able to do that kind of stuff for as long
54:43
as possible. Yeah, yeah, You know, when you,
54:47
when you get to that point where maybe Canada, this quote kept
54:50
coming and this always stuck with me.
54:51
But the movie The School of Rock with Jack Black and they're
54:54
like, you know, those who can't do teach those who they can't
54:56
teach, teach PE. So that that always stuck to me.
54:59
So, you know, once that happens, we'll, we'll be all right.
55:01
We'll still be teaching PE. So.
55:03
Yeah. You know, as, as you talk about
55:06
moving from like, OK, just reading everything to try and
55:09
get better, like what, what do you think some of the the habits
55:13
or practices that coaches could do or pick up to actually really
55:18
drive their development? Like you can get like the
55:19
highest return on investment for for that time that they're
55:22
trying to develop themselves. Yeah.
55:23
So I think it's, I mean, we've already brought it up.
55:25
It is a balancing act. Get it in the wavelength that
55:28
you receive the best kind of information.
55:30
Like I'm not a great reader. I'm like a terribly slow reader.
55:33
So sure, I can go on simply faster and try to read like as
55:36
many articles as possible. That's not me.
55:39
But if I do like voice to text of those articles, like it's a
55:42
little bit more like gurgitatable.
55:44
So I'm thinking of like development, like you ready to
55:46
fail, you know, doing that on a consistent basis, doing that,
55:50
like naturally seeking that failure on a really regular
55:53
basis. Go learn from other people.
55:56
Like you can't put yourself in a box.
55:57
Like early on. I know, like I was talking about
56:00
talking with one of my buddies who's a basketball strength
56:02
coach, and he's just like, I get me stuck in basketball for like
56:05
the rest of my career. I'm just like, well, do you have
56:08
skills outside of basketball? You're just like, yeah, I'm just
56:10
like, so then don't let yourself get stuck in basketball for rest
56:13
of your career if that's not what you want to do, You know?
56:16
So like not putting yourself in a box where I'm going to be the
56:19
conjugate guy or I'm going to be the triphasic guy or I'm going
56:22
to be the powerlifting guy. Like early on, like it might be
56:26
cool, but at some point you're going to hopefully surround
56:28
yourself with people that are a lot smarter than you.
56:30
It's going to make you realize something.
56:32
I thought I was on top of the world when I passed my CSCS.
56:35
And then I walk into Division One weight room that has 10 no
56:38
units and I'm just like, well, what's velocity based training?
56:40
And then that sent me through a whole like rabbit hole.
56:43
So going and going and learning from people that are not like
56:46
you is really, really important. I think a high school level and
56:49
working with high school and middle school athletes is a
56:51
great way to like sharpen your coaching skills.
56:54
It's not it's not a death sentence to your career.
56:57
I think naturally what's happening is a lot of people
57:00
think high school strength coaches are not as successful or
57:04
not as smart and not as adaptable.
57:06
I think some of the best strength and condition coaches
57:08
I've ever been around are at the high school level.
57:11
Like seek out those opportunities.
57:13
Go learn from people that are not like you get uncomfortable.
57:16
If you don't like working with basketball, go work with
57:18
basketball. You don't like conditioning, go
57:20
do conditioning. Go learn conditioning.
57:21
Like everything else, don't just fight it because you don't
57:24
believe in it, because at some point you're going to have to
57:26
believe in every single little thing because you've got to be a
57:28
Swiss Army. You know I have to survive in
57:30
this field. This been awesome, awesome
57:32
conversation. I've really enjoyed having it.
57:34
I think people will find it really interesting if people
57:37
wanted to see more of what you're doing with your high
57:40
school, your private sector athletes or, or the the baseball
57:44
athletes, like where where can they find out more, where they
57:46
get in touch with you if they want to reach out?
57:48
Instagram and Twitter, it's still Twitter to me is at
57:52
KYLEJACKSIC. I'm pretty active on both.
57:57
I got to shift some of my twitterness to to Instagram a
58:01
little bit more. I got to, I got to work on
58:03
Instagram a little bit better. I got a whole like multitude of
58:06
of videos of athletes. I'm always willing to get on a
58:10
call. I'm trying to limit how much I
58:12
do that for free now just because of just hours and
58:15
constraints. But if there's ever like touch
58:18
points that you want to talk specifically on, like the more
58:22
prepared that you are going into something that the more
58:24
efficient and the more willing I'm going to be able to do it.
58:27
If you want to see our programming, I'm an open book
58:30
too. So reaching out to me like on
58:32
social media or Charlotte Christian page is shark Christ I
58:35
athletic performance. We try to post relatively often
58:37
on there X2 baseball, X2 under score baseball, both on
58:42
Instagram and Twitter. You'll see some of my stuff on
58:44
there. I got Jacks athletic
58:46
performance.com, JAX athletic performance.com.
58:50
You can reach out to me on that. But we are in a very nice, nice
58:54
area of Charlotte. If you ever find yourself in
58:56
North Carolina, be be feel free to swing by.
58:59
My door is always open. I think I think the
59:01
conversations that end up being like this are rewarding for both
59:05
parties. Like if you're, if you're
59:06
seeking knowledge, I want to be able to seek knowledge from you
59:09
too. I think that happens with some
59:11
level of visiting in person because I can share you all the
59:14
training programs as a whole. But if you don't see how we
59:17
actually run it, then you're you're going to be missing.
59:19
You're going to be missing probably 50% of it.
59:21
I'll give you whatever, whatever programs you want, but it if you
59:24
don't haven't seen us run it, then it's going to look, look a
59:27
little off kilter to you. So finding like the purpose with
59:30
that. So yeah, feel free to reach out
59:32
on any of those platforms. That's awesome.
59:35
And it, you know, obviously the results of what you're doing as
59:38
a strength coach are, are pretty clear and obvious that in the
59:40
different rounds through this conversation, it's been really
59:43
clear just the, the heart and the purpose behind what you're
59:46
doing and trying to impact, man. I just encourage you to keep
59:49
doing that, man. You're doing awesome things both
59:51
both as a coach and just as a person impacting and everybody.
59:53
Around no I really appreciate it I appreciate you having me on I
59:57
know you're you're kind of just getting started I backlogged
1:00:01
some episodes the best I could and like every single episode
1:00:04
has made me like actually run to a notebook for the first time in
1:00:07
a little while to like write some notes down because it's.
1:00:10
It's more than just X's and O's, like I hope that kind of
1:00:13
conveyed through and what we talked about what I can be the
1:00:16
smartest person in the world, but if I can actually get a kid
1:00:18
to do it and do it in the right mindset in the right way, then
1:00:23
you're not going to be successful because his career,
1:00:26
this field will take you to some of the highest of highs and the
1:00:29
lowest of lows. But if there are real humans
1:00:31
that do this and do this successfully and can do this for
1:00:34
a long time, no matter what, you're angry college strength
1:00:38
coach will tell you. That's awesome, man.
1:00:40
I appreciate you saying that. All right, man.
1:00:43
Have a great rest of your week. Great night.
1:00:44
Yep, you too.