Latest / The Strength In Numbers Podcast / EP 48: Luke Lancaster | Rediscovering Purpose in Coaching Through Adversity and Humility

Transcript

EP 48: Luke Lancaster | Rediscovering Purpose in Coaching Through Adversity and Humility · The Strength In Numbers Podcast

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I want to coach because I have this desire to bring out the
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best in people as opposed to accepting the worst, right?
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So being able to step back, watch another person do what I
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was doing, while also still maintaining that passion and be
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able to instill that into students was a really, really
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cool experience. I got the opportunity to go back
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and actually work for the same guy that let me go.
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Kind of a wild ride. Not many people get fired and
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hired by the same guy at the same place.
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Yeah, I will say that's probably one more impactful moments in my
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life, a little bit of adversity that I had to kind of come
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through in my career. You're going to go through that,
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but you need to go through that, too.
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That's how you grow. And so I think I learned a lot
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about myself and kind of figured out who I wanted to be as a
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coach. At the end of the day, they want
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to be coached, right? That's the reason they're one of
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the best. They want to know what value can
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you bring to them in their game. Our job for, in my opinion, is
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I'm just trying to get them another contract.
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I'm trying to keep them in this. They called the Not for long
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league, right, for a reason. We're trying to help them extend
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their career as much as possible.
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And just like anything like whether it's, you know, if
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you're a middle school, high school, college, you have to
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build trust. And again, that takes time, but
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that's going to be the number one thing that I think every
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coach is going to fall back on is how are you building trust?
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How are you building those relationships with those players
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and what value are you bringing to them?
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You're going to fail at this and that's OK.
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But now you see why and it's only going to make you better.
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But I think it in the early stages of my career as a leader,
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that was hard for me to do because I wanted to control it
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all. It was my program.
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I've got to do it. So I think that was hard for me
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to let go. But it also made us better.
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Welcome to the Strength in Numbers podcast.
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I'm your host, Jon Bloom, and today's guest is Luke Lancaster,
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an assistant strength and Christian coach for the New
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Orleans Saints. Luke just finished his first
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year in New Orleans after spending more than seven years
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at Abilene Christian, most recently as the Associate AED of
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athletic performance while leading the football program.
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This conversation has some great tactical takeaways, including
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the differences between working in NFL versus collegiate setting
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and how they implement speed into deceleration training in
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New Orleans. With the most powerful takeaways
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for me came from Luke's openness and talking about his own
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growth, his own failures, and the lessons he took from his
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career transitions and being away from full time strength and
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conditioning. If you're getting value from
2:23
these conversations, give the show a follow and leave a
2:25
review. It helps us continue to reach
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and impact more coaches. Let's get into today's episode.
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Look, it is great to get a talk with you today, man.
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You know, it's been, it's been a while since we worked together,
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you know, be in the same gym every day, But it's so cool to
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see what you're doing now for the people that don't know who
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you are, like, like who are you and, and what's your story to
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get in there? Yeah, man, first and foremost,
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thank you for having me on, man. This is really, really cool.
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Proud of the work that you've done, man, and really, really
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excited to talk to you and get this thing rolling.
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Yeah, As for me, small town blue collar kid from a little town in
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Missouri called Maryville. It's just an like an hour north
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of Kansas City, very northwest corner.
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Grew up there playing sports in the typical things.
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I had a very fortunate opportunity to play some
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Division 2 football for just a little bit.
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You know, didn't really know what strength and conditioning
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was at the time, but it was kind of fortunate to get my
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introduction there. Did the whole internship thing
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after I graduated from Northwest, kind of Fast forward,
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was in the middle of an internship at the University of
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Missouri. Got a full time job at Harvard
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University as an assistant. Left that full time job to do an
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internship in the NFL. And then from there, that's
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where I went to Evelyn Christian.
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Got a chance to work with you and some multiple great people.
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Was that Evelyn Christian for what, 7 years and multiple
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different roles? I'll just say that I'm sure
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we'll get into that a little bit later.
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But then from there it was March of 2025 that I got here to New
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Orleans. So it's been a good journey for
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that. So what what year is this 13 or
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14 for me being a full time fan coach?
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Yeah, no, that's awesome. Yeah, I'm in real quick.
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Like, man, what was it like at Harvard having 4242 sports that
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y'all are responsible for? I know that's got to be crazy.
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Baptism by fireman right? Like so.
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I mean I literally graduated in May of 13 and then I'm starting
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my first full time job in June of 13.
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Never written a program before, barely knew anything.
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Luckily I had a really good support cast there not only when
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I was there but prior to me being there.
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The connection I had, I did an internship there before I
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graduated from Northwest in my undergrad.
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That connection was actually Aga at Northwest Missouri when I was
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a player slash intern there. So that was kind of my in there
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and he really was very beneficial for me.
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Like he left me all of his stuff.
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He was the one that really kind of helped gear me within like
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the programming setting. But then the assistants there,
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you know, Tim Mullen, James Frazier were phenomenal and just
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more of my development as a coach, how to be on the floor,
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how to, you know, implement speed conditioning, that type of
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stuff too. So that was a very unique
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perspective. Let alone coming from Maryville,
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MO, town of 10,000 people going to Boston, MA, working at the
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most prestigious university on the planet with kids from all
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over the world. So a baptism by fire, not only
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from a strength and conditioning professional standpoint, but
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also a personal standpoint to man.
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Like I learned so much there, like who I am as a person, but
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also who I wanted to be as a strength coach.
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So overwhelming. But it was also probably the
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best growing experience I've had.
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That's awesome. I'll look kind of the transition
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now from OK in the college seen especially AC for over 7 years
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now going back to the NFL after a little bit there in Miami, but
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now full time there at New Orleans with the Saints.
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Like what is that that transition been?
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Is, is that also kind of a baptism by fire or now that you
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have had a lot of experience, you know, in college, is it been
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not as huge of a, a, you know, growing pains and transition
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there and a little smoother, obviously a different setting,
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but what what's that been like for you?
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Yeah, You know, it's actually interesting.
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You know, it's been cool for me. It's been a baptism by fire in a
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different way for me, you know, coming from a place where ACU,
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where resources are limited, to put it mildly, right?
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To come into a place like New Orleans where we have all the
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resources that you need. So for me personally, that was
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where I really want to jump into is a lot of the sports science
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stuff, you know, being able to utilize force decks.
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How do we want to utilize Force X?
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What metrics are we looking at? You know, GPS, we use an RFID
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system as opposed to GPS. Being able to use that, you
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know, all the technology that we can utilize here that, you know,
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I haven't had the experience to do that.
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So for me personally, yeah, I would say from that suspect it's
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been a baptism by fire. But you'll you'd be surprised at
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the similarities, right? Like at the end of the day,
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they're athletes, they want to be coached, they want to be
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coached hard. So the similarities, yes.
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And I think that's just more my maturity probably coming out
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being, you know, in my mid 30s as opposed to being 23 years
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old. Was it a baptism by fire?
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Yes, in a little bit. But I think that was a little
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bit of self warranted just because I wanted to dive into
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that stuff and learn as much as I could, not only to benefit the
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athletes, but benefit the staff and myself.
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Yeah. So with your role, do y'all have
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more specialized roles, like, OK, you know, like one person or
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I don't know, if you have a sports science department that's
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like, OK, they're over, you know, the force played dad and
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all that stuff, and y'all are also kind of assisting with
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that. Or are y'all all kind of still
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coaching and under their director?
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Or how does that work for y'all? Yeah.
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So it's, that's the cool part about it is we all kind of split
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everything up a little bit evenly, right.
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So, you know, there's only four of us total, but we all have a
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little bit of experience and we all work with, you know, the
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force blades, a little bit of GPS.
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We have a coach on set that handles more of it than I would
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say. Then maybe some of the other
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ones. But then also our head guys
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obviously got a lot of experience.
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Ted Rath, he's had experience doing this stuff for a really,
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really long time. So he's been a great resource
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for me to lean on him, take his brain, how he thinks, how he
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looks at things, how does he utilize the data?
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But we all kind of have our handprint on it and it's great
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and we get full autonomy to kind of go with it however we want
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to. So that's been the really,
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really great part for me. Again, from a growing standpoint
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is the autonomy. I, you know, I can, you know,
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utilize it however I want to. But as far as like specific
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areas, we don't really have that.
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We just kind of all split things evenly, which I prefer.
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Yeah, as you've been diving into all that new, you know, sports
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science and force plates, I'm, I'm excited.
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I'm getting some Hawkins plates coming in soon.
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I got to work with Hawkins a bit when I was at Oral Roberts, but
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it's been a little bit kind of trying to get back into that
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mode of, you know, what metrics to look at all that stuff.
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So for you, as you've been this past year, really dive into
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that. Like what?
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What have you found has been really important for you looking
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at with force play data? Yeah.
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I think mostly it's just really like the trends over time,
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right, like and not trying to get pinpointed on maybe just one
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particular set of data. Whatever we get right, it's
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going to be different based on so many.
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It's all multifactorial too, as you probably are aware, like
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positional needs versus time of year, you know, practice squad
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players versus, you know, your full time starters versus your
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rotational guys. You know, there's some
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positional asymmetries that might be somewhat necessary,
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right? Understanding that too where
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that's like those are things that you know, three years ago I
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never would have thought about, right.
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So I think just understanding the context in which I am
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utilizing the data has been the biggest growing thing for me,
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right? And it's not just OK, well, this
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guy had a 25% asymmetry this week.
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Do I need to be alarmed? No, not necessarily like just
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look at all of the data. So making sure the decisions
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that, you know, not me personally making, but we make
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as a staffer, you know, thought about and understanding the
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context in which those things are going on for, Yeah.
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Yeah. You know, as you talked about
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some of the different, you know, top context is OK, this
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position, maybe it's different trends you're seeing from
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different positions and stuff from kind of some of those
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trends you've maybe seen over this past year.
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Is there anything, OK, you go, you're back at ACU, maybe you
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don't have force plates, but now you've seen these trends, you've
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seen kind of some of these things.
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And it's like, OK, that's going to influence me to maybe do
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something differently of how I train the team, how I train this
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position versus that position, maybe somebody with an injury,
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Like is there anything like that that Would you you kind of learn
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from that? Yeah, I think just leading to
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the conversations not only with the specific athlete themselves,
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but also help in the educator position coaches too, like.
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And I think that's something that, you know, if I could go
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back in time to ACU, maybe have a better understanding of, you
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know, maybe some of the drills that the coaches are running or
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how we can help not necessarily dictate what they're doing
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because again, they're the football coach, we're just the
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strength coach. But under making like letting
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them understand, like, hey, this guy struggles with this or he
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was struggling today with this. So, so maybe adjust the drill
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here and just having those conversations again.
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I think when I was at ACUI, think again, I go back to this
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is my fault, but I think there was some immaturity where I
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didn't understand how to have those conversations.
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Watching the professionals do that and how they do such a
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great job just being on the same page.
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I think that's where I could take leaps and bounds.
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If I were to go back, you know, rewind the clock 5-6 years ago
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and do quote, UN quote, do something a little bit
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different. I think that's what it'd be.
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Just being able to to understand the context of why those things
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are happening or what's going on and to be leading to have better
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conversations with, you know, coaches, athletes, you know, a
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top down approach. Yeah.
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What what looks different in how you approach those
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conversations? Like you're saying, OK, you're
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getting to see from these pros that handle it so well, like
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versus maybe how you were five or six years ago.
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Yeah, well, it's different there that you've seen and taken.
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Again, I go back to my immaturity where it's like,
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don't try to tell the coach what to do, help them improve the
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drill that they're already doing, right?
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Like how can we make what they're doing better?
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Because again, you want to make sure the coaches understand it's
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still their idea, it's still their drill.
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Like, but like, how can we manipulate it just a little bit
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to what, what kind of fact? Like what kind of, I don't want
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to say constraint, but for lack of a better term, constraints
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can we put on this drill to maybe make it a little bit less
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demanding central nervous system wise, right?
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You know, like we want to to keep things a little bit lighter
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today. So what constraints can we put
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on them? Like those are just things like
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the deeper context and understanding.
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Again, resources are a big deal too, but I just understand the
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context of where the athlete is, what the coaches are trying to
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accomplish. How can we marry those to make
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sure that they're ultimately getting what they want and the
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athletes going to benefit the most from?
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It no, that's great. When it comes to more just your
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role and your day-to-day and even like the yearly rhythms of
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the schedule. What are the biggest differences
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between college and now in the NFL for you?
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Yeah, man, I think you said it. I mean, I think the schedule is
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obviously the the biggest one for me.
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You know, I mean, our season is basically twice as long as what
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it was at a place like Abilene Christian, right?
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Like, I mean, we're playing a minimum of 20 football games,
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right, with the three preseason and then the 17 regular season
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games, 18 total weeks. So I mean, you're talking about
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a lot more football. So that length of time, the
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competitive season is a lot longer.
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So I mean, obviously that's the biggest difference I think just
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right away way. And then obviously like
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resources, right. We talked about that a little
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bit. At least from my standpoint,
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I've never worked at, you know, a powerful institution or
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anything like that. So that's been the biggest
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difference for me. Athletes are a little bit
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different too. Obviously with a professional
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offensive lineman versus a, you know, FCS level offensive
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lineman. Those are always going to be
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some big differences. Yeah, I I think the biggest one
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for me is just the time commitment.
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And it's not necessarily more or less, it's just different,
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right, Where the competitive season is so much longer and
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then the obviously the offseason structure is a little bit
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different. We don't get, you know, all the
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time in the world with them. And some guys are doing their
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own thing, which is great. So just understanding that and
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trying to grind through that season, man, it can be a long
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one, but it's it's worth it every time.
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And you know, you you mentioned like, OK, the athletes are a
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little different, right? And, and you know, in an NFL,
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they're also some of those guys are making a whole lot of money.
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Obviously now in college, some kids are like making a lot of
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money too. But NFL is going to be a little
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bit more across the board. Does that impact like your
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mindset sometimes? Like, you know, maybe, you know,
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like you said, I'm working with the FCSL lineman.
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Obviously they're a high level player in their own right, but
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versus working with an all pro player making 20 million a year.
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And does that change like your mind's a little bit of like, OK,
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I've got a really, really beyond my game right here every day as
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I'm working with this person and like, you know, I'm, I'm, I've
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got a lot of responsibility in my hands right now.
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That's a great question. Yeah.
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I mean, I think that thought process would be going through
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anybody's head. I think it obviously does.
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Is there more, you know, maybe there's a little bit more strain
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or pressure with, you know, working with with these level of
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athletes? Yeah.
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But also at the end of the day, they want to be coached, right?
14:37
That's, you know, that's the reason they're one of the best,
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right? They want to know, you know,
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what value can you bring to them in their game?
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You know, again, like our job, you know, for in my opinion is
14:48
I'm just trying to get them another contract.
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I'm trying to keep them in this. They called the not for long
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league, right, for a reason. We're trying to help them extend
14:54
their career as much as possible.
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And just like anything like whether it's, you know, if
14:59
you're a middle school, high school, college, you have to
15:02
build trust. And again, that takes time.
15:05
But that's going to be the number one thing that I think
15:07
every coach is going to fall back on is how are you building
15:09
trust? How are you building those
15:11
relationships with those players?
15:12
And, you know, what value are you bringing to them?
15:16
And again, at the end of the day, I think that has to come
15:18
first. We'll let all the, you know,
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outside noise take care of itself.
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But you know, like when they're in there, there's another
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athlete trying to get better, you know, and that, and that's
15:26
the cool part. And we have great dudes like
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they, they work their tails off. They have really bought into
15:32
some of the things that we've been doing.
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They've bought into the entire system.
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So that's been really, really fun to experience.
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I just their level of commitment has been outstanding.
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Sure, those things always cross your mind, right?
15:43
You're always a little bit more nervous.
15:45
But it's also great because these guys want to be pushed,
15:48
they want to be coached, they want to be coached where they
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are. Yeah.
15:51
And like, like, like you're saying like that.
15:52
And like you said before where they're like they're trying to
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learn from you. Like, what can I be better?
15:56
Do you see that mindset across the board more?
15:59
And obviously these people, you know, that are the less than 1%
16:03
that have made it to the most elite level where, you know,
16:05
sometimes in college you'll have those kids that they're always
16:07
like, hey, coach, like what can I do for this?
16:09
Like, how can I do this? And always trying to learn more,
16:12
more consistent quality that you see from these guys that have
16:15
made it to the very highest level.
16:17
I would say so, yeah. Like to me, I've always said
16:19
consistency is the number one indicator of success, right?
16:22
And that's one thing that I've noticed about our these guys is
16:25
they're consistent, right? They come to the they come to
16:27
work every time, at the same time, every day.
16:30
They are striving to get better at something every single day.
16:34
And it's our job to help them facilitate that.
16:36
And whatever that is, right? It might be that they do need an
16:39
adjustment in the lift that day and that's OK.
16:41
But understanding like they have this mentality that hey, they're
16:44
starting to extend their career. They're trying to go get the
16:46
next paycheck, right? They want to be at the top of
16:49
the league. They all want to be, you know, a
16:50
pro bowler, all pro. How are we helping them do that?
16:54
And again, if you built that trust, if you built that really
16:57
good connection with them, they understand that you have their
16:59
best interests at heart. They're going to give you
17:01
everything that they've got. And that's the coolest part
17:04
about it is just the level of consistency and the passion that
17:08
these guys bring every day has been really, really cool to
17:10
watch. Yeah, no, that's awesome.
17:12
And you know, as you talk about really partnering with each
17:15
athlete and going out by and finding what works for each
17:18
person to help that person gets a next thing.
17:20
How does that, how does that look for you between like, OK,
17:22
you've got a rookie, you've got a 10 plus year vet.
17:25
Like obviously finding what's best for each one of those
17:27
persons probably going to be a little bit different.
17:29
How, how does that look within a room where there's people with
17:31
different, you know, totally different age ranges,
17:33
experiences, training ages, all different things.
17:35
Yeah. And again, like I, I mean, I
17:37
keep saying the same thing, but it keep, it really does keep
17:39
going back to building relationships and understand
17:41
that trust. We have like a built in
17:43
modification system for guys like an understanding, you know,
17:45
previous injury history. And again, the collaboration we
17:49
have with our athletic training staff, sports medicine staff is
17:52
the best I've ever been around. They are the best in the league,
17:58
you know, in my opinion, obviously, but they they help us
18:01
out so much. We communicate with them a lot
18:03
and they really do help us out with, you know, guys that might
18:06
need modifications. They're in, they're helping us,
18:08
you know, like do some of the testing even, which is great.
18:10
So that's probably the biggest, you know, like change.
18:13
And again, with the modifications, like maybe a
18:15
guy's not like we just have squat on the sheet that day.
18:18
Maybe that guy's not going to back squat.
18:19
He might just do a pitch shark or something like that.
18:21
Or maybe maybe it's a rear foot elevator, right.
18:23
So from that content like, and most of our guys, like I said,
18:26
are all bought into what we're doing.
18:28
They're ready to rock'n'roll. So it might just be a few minor
18:30
tweaks. If a guy does get injured in a
18:32
game, what modifications do we need to make based on the group
18:35
that we're watching, right, We'll split the room up big mid
18:38
skills like all right, if I've got a big that day, hey, this
18:41
old lineman rolled his ankle in the game, what modification do I
18:43
need to make? So again, seems very, very
18:45
simple, but the communication, the collaboration we have with
18:48
athletic training and then amongst our staff is elite.
18:52
And I think that's in my opinion, that's one thing that I
18:56
think separates us from a organization.
18:59
And what's going to help lead to more victories, hopefully later
19:02
down the road is just our collaboration with between our
19:05
staff. Yeah, that's really cool.
19:06
And you know, one thing I was like when it comes to speed
19:09
training, like when we're at ACU, right, You know, Reed
19:12
played a big part in the speed train.
19:13
OK, we're going to offseason. We're going to, you know, we're
19:15
going to Sprint, you know, two to three times a week, whatever
19:18
it is, you know, and then go lift after in in your setting
19:22
where you might not have a lot of the players there for an
19:25
offseason, they might, you know, go somewhere else on their own.
19:28
And then, you know, you've got all these different demands.
19:31
And how does that look when it comes to Sprint training?
19:33
Are you doing Sprint training? Is that being built in when
19:36
they're getting back and still integrated within the season?
19:39
Like how does that look? Like to all yeah, you know,
19:42
like, yeah, so obviously we're getting ready to start some
19:45
offseason things here in a little bit over a month, but we
19:48
will build in some speed stuff. A lot of we'll start, you know,
19:50
with some isometric like wall drill type of stuff like that.
19:53
And then, you know, we'll build it in to that as we go.
19:56
But it's you know, it's year round for us to you know, we'll
19:59
utilize some different types of training, resistance prints,
20:02
printing stuff. We're fortunate enough to have
20:04
some 1080s that, you know, we can utilize to even we have some
20:07
pregame routines that will utilize those ten 80s as well.
20:10
So yeah, it's. The all season long thing and
20:12
know the biggest thing for us is we'll usually start from just a
20:15
an isometric standpoint just with them, you know, or like,
20:18
you know, proper running mechanics.
20:19
That's the biggest thing that we really try to harp on.
20:22
And really, I mean, you know, that's like the biggest thing
20:24
for us is making sure that it just doesn't look right.
20:26
You know, for us, that's the biggest thing is like making
20:29
sure these guys are staying orthopedically sound, they're
20:31
staying safe. Again, to your point, making
20:33
sure that, you know, these $20 million athletes don't get her
20:35
in the weight room, right? That's never good for any coach
20:38
no matter the level, but also definitely here.
20:40
So yeah, it's it's a year round thing.
20:43
We built in a lot of the mechanical stuff and guys are
20:46
really, really bought into that stuff.
20:47
Some guys might want something more specific, some more
20:49
acceleration work. So, you know, we can
20:51
individually take those guys or those groups of players, you
20:55
know, whether it's pre practice or post practice, if they do say
20:58
here, we can add some stuff into the things that we have set plan
21:01
form. So it's a big point of emphasis
21:02
for us and trying to make sure that we maintain that tissue
21:05
quality. I think that's the biggest thing
21:07
that we're really trying to do is make sure that tissue quality
21:09
is up at all time. And then with that, like we're
21:12
trying to make sure you guys are still hitting their speeds or in
21:14
practices too throughout the year, right?
21:15
Like that, that's a major thing for us.
21:17
And it's cool because again, like you have the ultimate
21:22
people in the world and they get very, very competitive.
21:26
And that's probably why they are where they are.
21:27
So all you got to do is say, hey, man, he's fashion you
21:30
today. And he's like, Oh yeah, bet,
21:32
watch this and then help go and take off and hit a new PR, you
21:35
know, week 17 of the season, which is really, really cool.
21:38
That tells me that we're, you know, still doing things right.
21:40
The tissues are still being able to tolerate those heavy load.
21:44
So that's been really cool. Yeah.
21:45
What does, what does it look like in terms of the the
21:48
conversations and communication like right now where before you
21:51
maybe against it, like I know some some people might be there
21:54
training right now, but some people might be gone.
21:56
What does that communication look like?
21:58
Are are you kind of partnering with whoever they're working
22:00
with to say, hey, you know, we want to see these things or
22:03
maybe just we want to see these outcomes for them to be ready to
22:05
do XY and Z or be prepared for XY and Z?
22:08
Sure. Yeah.
22:09
So I mean, before the guys left after the season ended, we kind
22:12
of got in touch with them and kind of asked them what their
22:14
offseason plans were and try to get some contact information as
22:19
much as they were willing to share.
22:20
And then I think it's just we split the guys up in the group.
22:24
So like for me, for example, I have all the bigs, so our
22:26
offense and defensive lineman. So like, I'll, you know, I'll
22:29
shoot them a text. Hey, how are things going, man?
22:31
Is training going good? Yep, doing great.
22:32
I plan on being back this certain date or whatever.
22:34
Like as far as like we give them something to take with them.
22:38
You know, we utilize the communication service that we
22:40
can just spit stuff out. So our offseason stuff like if
22:43
they want to utilize that, they can.
22:44
But like you said, some guys have their own guy, but for the
22:46
most part, you know, our leadership knows a lot of the
22:49
guys that they're working with and have great relationships
22:52
with them. So they they kind of know what
22:53
they're doing. So that's been really, really
22:56
cool too, as far as like giving a saying that they need to be
22:58
doing this or whatever. Now we do let them know like
23:02
what the, you know, conditioning stuff is going to be, you know,
23:04
when they need to be ready for camp, what the camp schedule is
23:07
going to look like. So the players are fully aware,
23:09
aware of what, you know, what to expect when they do come back,
23:13
whatever time that is. But as far as, you know, like
23:16
getting in touch with their trainers and making them do
23:18
certain things, we don't, we don't do that.
23:20
We just try to make sure that, you know, the guys are doing
23:22
good again, try to build trust, try to build relationship, you
23:25
know, see how life's going. That's usually how the
23:27
conversation steers, you know, like how you doing, man, how's
23:30
life? And then it's good.
23:31
And then they'll just start rambling on because that's one
23:34
thing you guys like to talk about is their family and
23:36
themselves as opposed to, you know, who they are as a football
23:38
player because that's what everybody wants to know how they
23:41
are as a football player. They answer those questions all
23:43
the time. So getting to know them on a
23:45
deeper level and that's huge. Yeah.
23:47
No, that's a great point. You know, I want to shift gears
23:49
a little bit and right, you mentioned like during those
23:53
seven plus years at AC, you had a lot of different roles.
23:55
One role, one thing you got to do that probably not a lot of
23:58
NFL strengthers have done is you got you spend a little time
24:01
teaching, right. And in college, you know what,
24:04
what was that experience like for you where you know, you,
24:07
you've been full time in the way you spend a lot of time
24:09
teaching, You're back in the way you're like what, what that
24:12
looked from a life standpoint, from even just a learning
24:16
standpoint for you of, of spending that time teaching
24:19
other people. And then how that built, you're
24:21
learning and education even too, I'm sure.
24:23
Percent yeah, that's a that's a great question.
24:25
You know, I that was a wild while kind of experiencing time,
24:30
right. So, you know, got there with the
24:32
previous step I had played for the previous head coach,
24:35
unfortunately didn't go the way that we wanted to go and changes
24:38
were made and I didn't really know what, you know, that meant
24:41
for me. I mean, I was really brought in
24:42
by that coach, but I kind of worked with other sports too,
24:45
like I was in charge of football, but I wasn't just a
24:47
football person. And so when they hired the new
24:49
head coach, who's Keith Patterson still there to this
24:51
day, you know, I was one of his first conversations that he had
24:55
what he wanted to have. And, you know, when I got there,
24:57
I kind of knew how this, you know, it was going to go.
24:59
I'd already kind of seen a posting for a position online is
25:03
like, OK, I know where this is going.
25:04
But basically told me, you know, you know, he's got to go with
25:07
his own guy. University was moving in the
25:09
direction of adding another strength coach.
25:11
And so I didn't really know what that meant for me.
25:12
Luckily, like I said, I was working with baseball at the
25:15
same time. And again, Rick McCarty was
25:17
phenomenal leader. He went to bat for me with that
25:19
administration to keep me around.
25:21
So he kept me around for that semester, had a couple of job
25:24
opportunities and job interviews that, you know, just didn't
25:26
really fit right, probably because my wife and I were
25:29
expecting our first child like right around that time too.
25:32
So you talk about a tough conversation with your wife, and
25:35
that's why she is the best in the world is, hey, honey, I know
25:38
I just kind of got let go from my job.
25:40
And now I'm kind of in a career transition and a turning point.
25:44
And we're also expecting our first child.
25:45
So what do we do? At that time, the director of
25:48
the kinesiology department at the university wanted to start a
25:50
masters of strength and conditioning.
25:52
And she had approached me because I've done some, you
25:54
know, adjunct teaching on the side for her during her athletic
25:57
training master's program. And she asked if I wanted to be
26:00
the program director. And, you know, like I said, some
26:02
of those jobs didn't work out. So I said, sure, why not?
26:04
So after that, that spring semester had ended, I went ahead
26:08
and took the liberty to kind of step away from training
26:11
condition and going to teaching, Started my doctorate degree that
26:14
summer as well and really kind of doe full in full time into
26:19
that. Meanwhile in the fall, felt a
26:21
good relationship with the head coach, with the strength coach
26:23
and was just helping out in the weight room just a little bit
26:25
too. So for me, like that transition,
26:28
I think was almost a really good refresher and a great way to
26:32
step back. I'll be the first one to admit
26:34
when I became the director head strength coach for football,
26:36
whatever, I think I was in over my head.
26:38
You know, I think whenever you do step into the head strength
26:40
coach role, you think you have all the answers.
26:42
You figure out very quickly that you do not have all the answers.
26:46
So I think that was a great opportunity for me to step back,
26:49
watch someone else do it in the in the exact same position that
26:52
I was in and really learn a lot of how to not only run, you
26:56
know, a football program, but an entire program in a different
26:59
way. So like to me, like that was
27:01
probably the most beneficial thing that I saw when it came to
27:04
the teaching aspect. Again, kind of baptism by fire,
27:07
right? Like I'm developing an entire
27:09
curriculum for an entire master's program, which I've
27:11
never done before. But again, luckily, you know, I
27:15
had great people around me once again to help steer me in the
27:17
right direction and how to do that.
27:19
And it ended up being try the best thing for me, right?
27:22
I think I learned a lot about not only who I am as a coach,
27:25
but who I am as a person. And really, why do I want to
27:28
coach? Like I want to coach because I
27:30
have this desire to bring out the best in people as opposed to
27:33
accepting the worst, right? And that's why I want to coach.
27:35
And I think that's why any coach wants to coach.
27:37
So being able to step back, watch another person do what I
27:42
was doing, while also still maintaining that passion and
27:45
being able to instill that into students was a really, really
27:49
cool experience. However, luckily it didn't last
27:51
too long. I got the opportunity to go back
27:54
and actually work for the same guy that let me go and become
27:56
the headshank coach at ACU again.
27:58
So kind of a wild ride. Not many people get fired and
28:01
hired by the same guy at the same place very often, I don't
28:03
think. But again, I, I will say that's
28:06
probably one more impactful moments of my life, a little bit
28:08
of adversity that I had to kind of come through in my career.
28:11
And I think everybody's going to, you're going to go through
28:13
that, but you need to go through that because that's how you
28:15
grow. And so I think I learned a lot
28:17
about myself and kind of really fixed, not fixed, but kind of
28:20
figured out who I wanted to be as a coach.
28:22
Yeah, no, it's like I I know for me too.
28:25
And, and maybe maybe for you to sometimes like, you know, we're
28:28
coaching and, you know, the days can be long, it can be
28:31
repetitive over and over. And it's like there, there's a
28:34
level of monotony that comes with coaching sometimes of and
28:37
and obviously, like we all know, like it's, it's such a
28:39
purposeful career of, of getting impact lives, but there can
28:43
become a monotony of it too. At least for me, I felt that.
28:47
And it sounds like that that adversity was a kind of a
28:50
ability to restart and refresh and and reaffirm like, OK, like
28:54
This is why I'm doing it. And this is like why I love and
28:56
want to get back to it. Yeah, it.
28:58
Reignited the passion 100%. It reignited my passion and it
29:03
made me realize those are the things I can do.
29:05
Like I can do that I can be that, that coach and I like
29:09
that's why I got into it. It made me go back to my
29:12
internship at Harvard when I realize I'm on the floor, I'm
29:15
coaching 120 football players at one time.
29:17
It is absolutely chaotic. And I and I remember verbally
29:21
saying to myself as an intern, this is 100% what I need to be
29:24
doing. So it kind of, it reignited that
29:26
passion, like you said. And so that was kind of really
29:29
fun. So it's almost a, you know, a
29:30
second career in the same career and it's been really refreshing.
29:34
And one, you know, one really good point I think you made too,
29:37
is where, you know, you stepped into that director role, but
29:40
then getting to step back and see somebody else do it.
29:44
Like, I know for me when I, you know, ACU started, you know,
29:47
running all the, you know, different, you know, women's
29:49
basketball, volleyball, those sports, and then went to Weber
29:51
State men's women's basketball, running that.
29:54
And then I got to go back to Texas Tech and work for Darby
29:57
and kind of step back into that assistant role and see, OK, you
30:01
know, this person that's at the very top of what they're doing.
30:03
This is how they do these things.
30:05
But now I had like the frame of reference for what questions I
30:09
felt I really need to figure out, like what areas I I saw in
30:11
myself, OK, I need to get better at this and now come into that,
30:15
you know, mentor, like mentee role of and seek those
30:19
questions. And now then step back into the
30:22
full time role and feel like that much more confident.
30:25
I'm sure that, you know, probably like you 2 OK, you got
30:26
to see this from a different, you know, lens after after doing
30:31
it and then getting to see Corey Smith and then going back.
30:34
And I'm sure you had a much more, you know, much more
30:38
assurance or confidence like how you wanted to do it.
30:41
A. 100% I mean, you hit the nail on the head, right?
30:43
Like being able to watch a high level coach like a Corey man.
30:48
And you know, he's in the NFL now too.
30:49
And that there's a reason that he is because he is such a high
30:52
level coach and he's so meticulous and he's he does a
30:54
really, really good job again, of building those relationships
30:57
with the kids. And so there was a little bit of
30:59
pressure. But you know, again, Keith
31:01
Patterson, the head coach gave me confidence right away.
31:03
You know, when I had that conversation to come back, he
31:06
gave me confidence. He's like, look, I don't need
31:08
you to be Corey Smith. I need you to be Luke Lancaster,
31:10
be the best Luke Lancaster. And he gave me full confidence
31:14
in full autonomy of the weight room.
31:15
And that's something that I've been craving.
31:17
And to get that opportunity again was fantastic.
31:21
And so. Yeah.
31:22
It was a tough, you know, year and a half, 18 months or so.
31:25
But it was also I needed that. I think, you know, deep down, I
31:29
think that was, you know, the biggest benefit for me, just to
31:32
grow. Yeah.
31:33
Yeah, that's very cool. Now being able to work under two
31:36
different football Staffs at the same school, how does the, the
31:41
philosophies of those head coaches of those programs, the
31:44
assistant coaches, how does that influence the way you operate
31:48
with it? We even though it's the same,
31:49
same weight room, same, you know, football program, but
31:52
obviously different staff run things very differently.
31:54
And, you know, obviously you have your principles and how you
31:57
run things, but it's, it's definitely going to be, you
31:59
know, impacted by who you're working for.
32:01
Yeah. No, that's a great question.
32:03
And it was very similar in a lot of ways, but it's also very
32:06
different in a lot of ways. And I think the biggest
32:09
difference was really the first time, the first go around, I had
32:13
a really good relationship with that head coach.
32:15
Like I said, I had played for him at Northwest Missouri.
32:17
And so I think what he was genuinely trying to do is really
32:20
try to help guide me into how to be a leader and how to approach
32:24
that that role because it was the first opportunity that I
32:27
had. So I think it at the time, This
32:29
is why I said I was probably too young for it.
32:32
I don't even know if I had my own philosophies.
32:34
I mean, I had my philosophies within training, but you know,
32:36
how to be a head guy. I remember having the
32:39
conversation with Decker, like we don't even have like an
32:41
incident report form, like we don't even have like, you know,
32:44
any of that stuff. So it, it was just, you know,
32:48
drinking from a fire hose for a while.
32:50
And so I think when I reflect on it, I had, you know, as
32:54
everybody does, you have your frustrations because you're not
32:56
getting the results that you want to get.
32:58
But I think it's because I just was not ready to be in that
33:01
situation. I think he was really trying to
33:03
help guide me Fast forward where I've done it for a few years, I
33:06
come into a new situation with a new head coach.
33:09
It's full autonomy. I have totally really trust you.
33:11
Do what you need to do whatever you feel is best.
33:13
I just want XYZ. And that was easy for me to
33:17
comprehend, easy for me to understand and make that
33:19
adjustment to move forward. You know, when I was younger, I
33:24
think I just tried to not, I try to be too fancy because I
33:28
thought that's what the coaches wanted to see where it's like,
33:31
no, they just want to see you, be you and be genuine and be
33:34
really good at that. And so I think that's what
33:37
really helped me. And again, I got to re establish
33:39
who I was as the coach and really figure out who I was.
33:41
Yeah, no. And that makes me think too.
33:43
I know like sometimes for me, especially when I first started,
33:45
like in my head, it's like I'm part half thinking like what
33:49
does this head coach want to see?
33:51
And like how do I please them versus just fully focusing on
33:55
how do I best help the athletes? And like if you're if you're
33:58
focused on splitting those things, like you're never going
34:00
to be able to be your best, right.
34:01
So I think that's a great point of saying like, you know, when
34:03
you have those partnerships with, with the staff where it's
34:05
like we wholly trust you and, and have confidence what you're
34:09
doing and like you're not having to worry about pleasing them,
34:12
helping the athletes and it's all just help the athletes like
34:14
you're going to get the best results there.
34:16
Absolutely. Again, it should always be the
34:17
athletes first, right? Like as long as you keep their
34:20
best interests at heart and you have clear, open communication.
34:24
That's probably one thing that I learned too, is I just got to be
34:26
able to express the things that I want to do better again,
34:30
because I had I kind of developed a firm philosophy like
34:33
this is what I want to do. This is what I believe in.
34:35
But again, it all revolved around keeping athletes first.
34:38
And when I think any coach, I think ultimately that's what
34:41
they want to hear. So and that's what they want,
34:44
like they're trying to help the athlete.
34:45
And that's I was very, very lucky to work for two head
34:49
coaches that always had the, you know, the athletes interest at
34:52
heart. So right, you, you, you know,
34:54
you've worked away in your career now from being the head
34:57
position in college, now working in the NFL.
35:00
What's do you have a, a long term vision?
35:02
Like is it OK, I want to be a head NFL training coach.
35:05
Is that what you're working towards?
35:06
Or is this, you know, I'm, I'm just trying to be the best I can
35:09
in my current position and see where that goes.
35:11
Do you have a long term vision of of what you want to be in
35:14
your career? You know, yeah, man, that's,
35:16
that's a great question. I'll be honest.
35:19
And this is 100% true. Like, I absolutely love it here.
35:22
You know, I hope I'm here for a very long time.
35:24
This is a great organization with great people.
35:27
And I think anymore that's more of what I want.
35:30
I just want to be around really, really good people who again,
35:33
want the best for the team, for the athletes.
35:36
And as long as I'm doing that, I think I'll be very happy.
35:38
You know, I think eventually I would like another chance of
35:41
that head guy roll with God willing.
35:43
But I'm also very, very happy where I'm at.
35:46
I want to be the best here. I've got a lot of room to grow.
35:48
There's one thing I've learned about being working with the
35:51
best right there. There's a reason that they're
35:53
the best. And I work, you know, alongside
35:55
some great coaches and strength to position to and athletic
35:59
training to, you know, our nutritionists are elite in every
36:02
area. So I want to make sure that I'm
36:05
living up to that standard as well.
36:06
So again, I'm just trying to be better every single day.
36:09
That's what I've always tried to, you know, focus on as a, you
36:12
know, as a coach, how can I be better every single day?
36:14
And so as long as I'm doing that, I'm sure God will have a
36:17
plan for me and I'll just follow that plan.
36:19
No, I love it. Yeah.
36:21
As you've been in a new setting the past year, done a ton of
36:23
learning, is there something that you've really changed your
36:27
mind on in the last year, that one thing you can think of?
36:30
Man, that's a great question. That's a regular.
36:33
I think, you know, I think we spend a lot of time and
36:36
rightfully so, just some of the research being about some
36:39
deceleration training. I know that's probably not like
36:41
brand new stuff, but I don't think I put a big enough
36:44
emphasis on that when I was in charge of leading a program
36:48
myself. But the importance of that is
36:50
definitely something just from a training standpoint probably
36:53
changed my mind on and need to be, you know, how to do more of
36:57
that. And again, having the technology
36:59
does help that, you know, being able to look at how an athlete
37:01
decelerates is really, really interesting to me.
37:03
And I think there's some big time benefits of doing that type
37:06
of style training. And I don't know if I've changed
37:09
my mind on it, but maybe it's giving me a little bit more, you
37:12
know, assurance that it was right.
37:14
It's it's all about people, right?
37:16
Like, again, it probably hasn't changed my mind.
37:18
It just gave me more assurance here.
37:19
It's like when you have the right people in the building and
37:22
you work with really, really good people, really, really good
37:25
things are going to happen, right?
37:26
So I think that's probably the two bit, like from a training
37:30
standpoint, but also from a professional personal
37:32
standpoint, like just get with the right people and good things
37:34
are going to happen. For sure.
37:36
With that deceleration work, you talk about that like you know,
37:40
we talked about Sprint stuff earlier.
37:41
How do those two pieces fit together?
37:43
Is it within same session? Is it different days?
37:47
And, and also like sometimes I think about us, like how do we,
37:50
how do we fit kind of these multiple aspects in without
37:54
chasing too many rabbits and like not actually pushing and
37:56
moving the needle far enough in one of them?
37:58
But you know you know what I mean.
38:00
Yeah, sure. Absolutely.
38:01
And again, it's not you don't want to try to over complicate
38:04
things especially again, I've been in trouble because I used
38:06
to do that. I used to overcomplicate things
38:08
a lot. But like anytime like we're
38:10
telling our guys like we, we teach them like what the
38:13
deceleration position that we want them to be in is.
38:16
And so like, it could be as simple as we're just running a
38:18
warm up decelerate, right? And we just yell out the queue
38:22
for them and they, and they know exactly what that position is
38:24
supposed to look like. Or it could be part of, you
38:28
know, like I said, it could be in the warm up, it could be
38:29
during conditioning. Any chance that we can get to
38:32
get them in that good? You know, base, we call it the
38:34
base position to make sure that they're in a really good
38:36
deceleration standpoint that's going to think be really
38:39
beneficial for them. So we utilize it in our training
38:41
and our warm ups and some of our activation, we just repeat the
38:44
same thing over and over again. And so there's some other like,
38:48
you know, ACL mitigation stuff that we've started to add in a
38:51
little bit, some some things that we've been trying to
38:53
research again, some we have some guys on our staff that are
38:56
part of a board for the NFL to really try to mitigate some more
38:59
of those injuries. And again, it just keeps going
39:00
back to more deceleration, more that you can expose them to that
39:04
and teach them proper positioning, what that's
39:05
supposed to look like, the more benefit you're going to get from
39:08
it. So yeah, I think we try to
39:10
expose it to them out probably on a daily basis.
39:12
And it might just be something as simple as in the warm up,
39:15
right? And so anywhere that we can kind
39:18
of sneak that in is going to be beneficial for them.
39:21
Yeah. No, no, it's really cool, right?
39:23
You're, you're working at the highest level.
39:26
You've got, you know, for yourself.
39:27
You've got some, some young, young, young kids.
39:30
I want to, I want to take if if you had a little older than than
39:33
your kids, but you know, say you know, like a 7-8 year olds, you
39:37
know, still a young kid and you had full autonomy, full control
39:41
over all aspects of their development from when they're
39:44
that young all the way until they make it to actually be
39:47
coached by you in the NFL, right.
39:49
What does that progression look like from a young kid to an
39:53
elite athlete and, and how those kind of phases change with their
39:57
their training and their long term athletic development for
40:00
you? I'm glad you asked that question
40:02
that that's such a cool question because I think right now that's
40:05
kind of like a there's almost like a point of contention there
40:07
with some people because I think the over specialization thing
40:10
is, is very unfortunate in my opinion right now.
40:14
So like for me, like, and again, this is just me thinking about
40:17
being a dad almost right now. And my son, again, he's only
40:19
three, so he's not quite to that age, but I think, you know,
40:22
hopefully next summer we'll get him into some soccer or
40:25
something. But I think first and foremost,
40:27
like when they're that age, like let them play, like let them
40:29
figure out what they like and let them play everything.
40:32
I think self exploration, but also like the ability to, you
40:35
know, play multiple different sports and learn just how to
40:38
compete is so important right now.
40:41
When they're that age, you know, you're talking about, you know,
40:43
8910, you're elementary to middle school type level of
40:46
kids, Just let them go out and remember that, you know, it's
40:49
still a game and they can go out and have fun and compete and
40:52
learn how to, you know, for lack of a better term, learn how to
40:55
lose, right? I think it's important aspect of
40:57
life for me. And this is just my opinion.
40:59
I don't ever want to push training on my on my kids, but
41:04
in a way, I purposely let them know that dad does like the
41:07
training. So we have, you know, some
41:09
weights in our garage. I always invited my son to come
41:11
out like if I remember working on the garage to come out and
41:13
just watch me. And I again, that's one thing
41:15
I'm starting to learn because he's three years old.
41:17
He's starting to like watch dad and do everything that dad does,
41:20
which is a scary enough thing in itself.
41:23
So I just letting him watch me and just help educate in the
41:26
best I can and let him come to me.
41:28
I think on that, that's going to be the coolest thing is, you
41:31
know, hey dad, I want to get better at this.
41:33
How can you help me? It's like, OK, here we go and
41:35
just kind of let him do that. So I think, you know, maybe
41:37
hopefully when he's in that middle school to going into high
41:39
school range, maybe we can start working on some of the lifting
41:42
techniques of, you know, whether it's the Olympics or not, or
41:46
just how to properly squat. You know, can they do a body
41:48
weight push up now? Can they lunge?
41:50
Can they hinge, you know, doing those types of things and just
41:53
get them really, really good at the basics.
41:55
And then hopefully once they get to college and they start to,
41:57
you know, master those basics even more, hopefully they get
42:00
really strong on one leg. Hopefully where they're going,
42:03
they do high quality Sprint training, deceleration training,
42:06
you know, that type of stuff. But again, like working with
42:09
college athletes, have a little opportunity to work with some
42:11
high school athletes now working with NFL athletes, The basic
42:14
stuff is going to work, right? And if you keep hammering the
42:17
basic stuff, you can be really, really good at that.
42:20
I think you're going to get the most benefit.
42:22
You're going to stay healthy. You're going to be safe.
42:25
And hopefully you can train for your whole life.
42:27
So hopefully, you know, that's the path that my son, you know,
42:31
goes down. He did a squat the other day and
42:33
it's, you know, it's ass to grass and his torso straight up
42:36
and down. I'm just like, man, I wish I
42:37
could do that, but Dad cannot. Knees, knees and ankles don't
42:40
bend anymore, man, you know how that is.
42:42
Or you see me try to walk around.
42:44
He'll be your new demo guy for you for squatting. 101 hundred I
42:48
don't have you or, you know, read around to help demo that
42:50
stuff for me anymore yeah, I mean, hopefully it's just you
42:53
know, it's just the basic stuff right like, you know, I like if
42:57
he does want to train with me, like how can we just work on but
43:01
do a 1 by 20 and make it all like body weight stuff, right
43:04
like let's just keep it very, very basic proper movement
43:07
patterns, orthopedically sound and like that's all I care about
43:10
and hopefully he enjoys it Like again, I always want to be
43:12
enjoyable no matter what level. I don't care for the NFL or if
43:15
it's, you know, an 8 year old. It should be fun right like
43:18
these guys get to play the best sport in the world and they get
43:21
paid to do it. This better be fun.
43:23
So again, they're not there to lift weights.
43:25
They're there to be better at football, the way to do help
43:28
them with that and helping them understand that, but it also
43:30
needs to be a great experience. Yeah.
43:32
And like as you talk about that with especially if we're talking
43:34
about keeping someone in in, in in the the room lifting from,
43:41
you know, being young and in training all the way then like
43:43
they're not going to they're not going to do that for that period
43:45
of time. And like you talked about the
43:47
number of things, consistency with those, even those top
43:49
athletes, like if they don't enjoy it as a kid, they're not
43:52
going to want to do it or stay in it long enough to to to be be
43:56
there. So it's like, like, you know, I
43:57
love what you're saying of like, let's have him watch me.
43:59
Let's, you know, you know, make him come to me and then wouldn't
44:02
want to do it, you know. Yeah, I want him to enjoy
44:05
training. I'm not saying he's going to
44:06
enjoy training just because I enjoy training, but if he does
44:10
great, that's awesome. But if he does want to train, I
44:12
want him to make sure that he's doing it safely and effectively.
44:15
So that's, you know, that's all I care about.
44:16
Yeah, Yeah. You know, we've, you talked a
44:20
bit especially in kind of those transitions from director to to
44:23
faculty and teaching back to director about different, you
44:27
know, leadership abilities and how you've grown.
44:30
What have what have been some of the the most difficult decisions
44:34
or situations from a leadership standpoint and maybe maybe one
44:39
from a coach to team or athlete standpoint and then one from
44:43
like a director to staff slash admin standpoint, you know,
44:48
difficult situations or decisions you've had to make.
44:51
That's a really good question. You know, I think from a, from a
44:54
coach to a player standpoint, I think originally like having
44:57
those hard conversations with kids was always a, a tough part
45:01
for me. You know, not necessarily
45:02
disciplining a kid, but making him understand like why he's,
45:06
you know, maybe having to do this extra work or whatever
45:10
after the lift. I think those were always hard
45:12
conversations for me to have, but also understanding.
45:16
But again, it's because I was so young at originally, but now
45:18
that again, I got older, I got that second opportunity trying
45:21
to make them see the big picture and what we're trying to do as
45:24
an organization. I think that was always a hard
45:26
thing for me. I think from a, you know, leader
45:29
to a staff member, I think one of the harder things was letting
45:35
them fail and not trying to overstep and let them be them.
45:39
I think when you're in that leadership position, like I
45:42
would say you don't want 100 of you, but you can't.
45:45
But in certain times you can't help but say, Oh no, this is how
45:47
you need to do it, right? That's why I like, especially as
45:50
I got older, I try to give away stuff like to read.
45:54
I want you to handle the speed stuff.
45:55
Hey, Coach Stone, I want you to handle the speed stuff.
45:58
Hey, Reese, I want you to handle the warm up aspect of things or
46:02
hey, Bloom, I want you to take the freshman in the
46:04
developmental group and on and I try to step away.
46:06
Like maybe that's a personal thing.
46:08
Maybe I'm, you know, too controlling, But I also think
46:11
that's important from a leadership perspective to let
46:13
them figure that out, because that was one thing I didn't
46:15
really have coming up is, you know, I didn't have someone, you
46:19
know, over my shoulder, like telling me how to do things is
46:22
like, hey, this is how you got to do it.
46:23
That's how you're going to grow. So that's what I wanted to give
46:25
to, you know, my staff members was, hey, man, like you're going
46:28
to fail at this and that's OK, But now you see why and it's
46:32
only going to make you better. But I think it in the early
46:35
stages of my career as a leader, that was hard for me to do
46:38
because I wanted to control it all.
46:40
It was my program. I've got to do it.
46:42
So I think that was hard for me to let go.
46:45
But it also made us better, right?
46:46
Letting you take the developmental football group was
46:48
huge. Like I learned so much.
46:50
You can learn something from everybody.
46:51
So like not only am I letting them grow, but I might be
46:55
learning something from them. Like I learned more from you
46:57
then you probably learned from me at the time of ACU and I
46:59
learned something, Decker. So like it was, it was very
47:02
beneficial not only for hopefully you guys are, you
47:06
know, the staff memories that I was leading, but also you know,
47:09
myself as a leader too. Yeah, no, that's really, really
47:12
good. Luke, what's dominating your
47:13
thoughts right now or as of late?
47:16
Oh, what do? You keep thinking about that's a
47:18
great, great question, personally or a professionally?
47:21
Any way you want to take it? Yeah, I think the first thing
47:24
that popped my mind is like, man, how do I be a better dad?
47:26
Like, how do I balance this? And there is no balance, right?
47:29
It's integration, right? Work life integration again.
47:32
Thankfully, I work for a great organization that, you know, is
47:35
very family friendly and they do a good job of helping take care
47:37
of our family. You know, the other thing I
47:39
think that really, you know, popped my brain is been really
47:43
trying to lean into more of this return to play stuff.
47:45
I think there's that area has always been really interesting
47:48
to me. And now that we have, I have
47:51
access to tools to utilize that. I think that's somewhere I want
47:54
to kind of continue to grow. Again, very early stages of
47:57
that, but I think that can be very beneficial for me and
47:59
something I'm pretty interested in.
48:00
But yeah, I think the first thing I talked about with my
48:03
kids, like that's the first thing that's always on my mind,
48:05
right or wrong. But I just like, you know, how
48:09
am I providing the best life for them?
48:10
And how am I, you know, making sure I'm building them up?
48:13
Yeah, I love it. You know, we kind of talked
48:15
about your purpose a little bit as you got that, you know that
48:19
reaffirming and kind of that that break between those and
48:23
then reaffirmed your values and purpose a little bit.
48:25
But even within that, like when in coaching, when do you feel
48:29
closest to your purpose? Man, that's a great question.
48:33
I want to say whenever you do need to have those, you know,
48:36
more intimate conversations with the athletes right there,
48:39
there's a lot of opportunity to have some more, I would say
48:41
probably more opportunity at this level to have someone on
48:43
one time with athletes and really build great
48:45
relationships. And again, going back to ACU and
48:48
growing as a coach now, being able to be more apt at having
48:52
those conversations and hopefully not necessarily
48:55
guiding them, but you know, being a better listening board
48:58
for them. Again, that's why we coach,
48:59
right? Like again, I'll go back and
49:01
I'll say it again, like bringing out the best in people as
49:03
opposed to accepting their worst.
49:04
That's what I want to be as a coach.
49:06
So if I can help them, bring out their the best in them, whether
49:09
it's personally or professionally, that's when I
49:12
know I'm doing my job and when I'm being the best coach
49:14
possible. So and that's what I want to be.
49:17
I want for our players, but also for my kids and, you know, my
49:19
family. Look, this, this has been a
49:21
really awesome conversation, you know, awesome, you know,
49:24
practical and, and tactical information for, for coaches,
49:27
but also really cool, just and grateful for the vulnerability.
49:31
As you know, you've talked about some of the stuff in your career
49:34
and just getting to learn from how you've grown and your
49:36
leadership and your coach and your career and then and just,
49:39
you know, really, really cool and really powerful.
49:41
I think takeaways from that aspect even beyond just the, the
49:44
more tactical X's and O's of, of being a coach.
49:46
So man, thank you for for sharing all that.
49:49
Yeah, man, no, this has been really, really fun.
49:51
I really appreciate you. It's really cool to see you
49:53
doing this, man. It's, I've listened to it a
49:54
couple times. I've learned from it.
49:56
It's it's a great podcast. And thank you.
49:58
Keep doing this thing man, because it's really, really cool
50:00
and beneficial. I appreciate that.
50:02
Now if if anybody wanted to, you know, learn more kind of what
50:05
you're doing or try and connect you to, is there any other place
50:07
they could go? Yeah, I mean, I've got the most
50:10
boring Instagram on the planet. You know, I don't post too much.
50:12
It's usually just post to my family or my kids.
50:14
So, but you know, feel free to reach out to, you can reach out
50:18
to me on Instagram. That's really where I probably
50:20
spend too much of my time, to be honest with you.
50:22
I need to get that fixed. But that's where like from a
50:24
social media standpoint, that's where you can find me is on
50:27
Instagram. I'm on, I'm on LinkedIn,
50:30
Facebook, don't really look at too much anymore.
50:32
So I would say yeah, the social, the Instagram, social media is
50:34
probably the best place to kind of find me.
50:36
Perfect, well, awesome movie and this this been awesome, man.
50:39
It was it was great to connect with you.
50:41
I'm grateful for, you know, what you've done in my life, how
50:44
you've impacted me from when we were back there in Abilene and
50:47
just, you know, the way you poured into all of us and man it
50:50
and you know, it's awesome just to see the the way you're
50:52
continuing to grow and just impact you have on so many
50:54
people. Yeah.
50:55
Thank you, man. That means a lot.
50:56
And again, I really, really appreciate you having me on this
50:59
thing. That's really cool.
51:00
Appreciate it. If you enjoyed this conversation
51:04
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51:06
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51:10
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51:13
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