Latest / The Strength In Numbers Podcast / EP 29: Angelo Gingerelli | Building College-Ready Athletes and Sustainable Coaching Careers

Transcript

EP 29: Angelo Gingerelli | Building College-Ready Athletes and Sustainable Coaching Careers · The Strength In Numbers Podcast

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I was meeting with hundreds of recruits a year that just didn't
0:03
even know what to ask, didn't know where to begin the process
0:06
of of what schools to visit, how to pick a major, but what the
0:09
weight room is going to be like. And then when they got there,
0:12
they were just very underprepared.
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Did you stay in college so much longer?
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The incidentally rules that have changed.
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So if you're going to contribute as a freshman or even get get
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invited to play at a big school, you have to really take your
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body seriously and take your development seriously and
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realize you were really good playing against other 1718 year
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olds and now you're going to compete against legit 232425
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year old in some cases. Let's do personal development,
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right? Like let's get better.
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Like you said, even if you write a book that doesn't sell a ton
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of copies, you do a podcast, you get a ton of downloads.
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You got better doing that thing, right?
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And sometimes the picture is bigger than just the paycheck on
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Friday. The picture is, but if the
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paycheck on Friday isn't great, but it goes up every Friday or
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the end of it, you open a door for yourself that you never
0:58
opened before. That was a good process.
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I looked at it as if I don't pursue this opportunity and take
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advantage of it next year or the year after, that opportunity is
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going to the person that's doing the things I'm doing now.
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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 Angelo
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Gingarelli. After 20 years as a strength and
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conditioning coach at Seton Hall University, this past summer,
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Angelo accepted a teaching position at Keene University.
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Now he is also the New Jersey State Director of the of the
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NSCA. Along with the recent release in
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his second book, the next four years, Compete When and Thrive
1:35
in College sports, we dive into a lot of topics related to his
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book, like why athletes often come to college and prepared,
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what habits and action steps they should take to get
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themselves ready, and how high school coaches can best prepare
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their athletes for college, both as people and athletes.
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Angela also explains why he left Seton Hall and collegiate
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strength and conditioning, how coaches should think about
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making career decisions and why and how to find other streams of
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income besides just your full time job.
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Enjoy the episode, Angela. I'm really excited to get a talk
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to you today, both to get a talk about aspects of your or your
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latest book that we'll dive into and and topics in there that I
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think are really important that aren't always talked about
2:16
enough. But also to talk about your
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career and some really cool things you've done, but also the
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foundations and decision making of of why you've done those
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things, how you've done those things.
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So thank you for being here today.
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Yeah, man, super excited. You got a great podcast.
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The book sounds awesome. I haven't got to read it yet,
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Full disclosure, but I've been thinking about it for a while.
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But yeah, man, it's really cool. Thanks for having me on today.
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Well, it's just for people that don't know you tell a little bit
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about kind of who you are and what you do.
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Yeah, again, my name's Angelo Gingarelli.
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For 20 years, from summer of 2005 to summer of 2025,
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Australian edition. Coach at Seton Hall University
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up in New Jersey, right outside of New York City.
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I'm, as your listeners know, 20 years in a regular job is a good
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run. 20 years in a college strength job is a Unicorn.
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Like, literally nobody does that.
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I got super lucky, you know, right place, right timing.
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I really liked it for a long time.
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And then all this past summer, I got offered a job in academia at
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a place called Kane University to try to help, help kind of
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grow their exercise science department.
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And it was just, it was the right thing at the right time.
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Again, you know, remember, have a daughter that's 10 on being
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her life a little more than being a cost strength coach
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would allow me to be. And then you want to be home
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more. And I think that if we're gonna
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be good at our job, guys like me and you and some of your past
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guests that are writing books trying to teach the next
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generation. Well, I think moving into full
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time teaching is a good transition, right?
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You get to help the next generational strength coaches,
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physical therapists, A's, 80s, whatever might be.
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I mean, hopefully leave the profession better than you found
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it. And I found the, I think a
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really good outlet to do that with this new position.
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I'm just starting right now in Fall 2025.
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Yeah, that's awesome. Awesome.
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What what's been the biggest adjustment for you from you've
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had you've, you know, kind of pretty consistent routine for 20
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years at CN Hall and now making this new step.
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What What's been the biggest change now?
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Quiet office. I've, I've written a couple
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books, I've done a couple cooling in our profession.
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I've done it all in a weight room office that was the size of
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a closet with music blaring right outside the door, right.
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I would do all like my office stuff like like really early in
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the morning, like, you know, 5-6 AM before the student athletes
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showed up. And now I have like an office in
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an academic building and it's quiet.
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And as it's it's a weird because you use as strength coach used
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to just just the steady stream of people coming going.
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I'm by to tell you what's going on.
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And that's just not the case. Look at a quieter world and I
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think I think it's a bad thing, but it's definitely a different
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transition, right And that and the other thing that that if
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anybody you're listening is having students that are really
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into their major and know what they want to do raises your game
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as a teacher or professor, because now you got to be ready
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for the questions from students that are planning on doing this
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out in the field, right. So a lot of us are strength
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coaches, athletic coaches, we might adjourn teaching elective,
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right We might do do some kind of, you know, nutrition Q&A
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stuff. But when you're standing in
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front of 2530 on the grads that all want to be physical
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therapist and you're explaining the Krebs cycle, you got to know
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the Krebs cycle, right? Which is a little bit different
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than than the environment I was in before.
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So again, I saw you on Lowry should iron sharpens iron and
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that that doing a live performance a couple times a
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week in front of an audience that knows what they're talking
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about will sharpen your iron real quick.
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For sure, yeah, I see it more and more every day in my life.
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But the best way, the best way to learn is to teach.
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And especially like you're saying, when when people really
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know they're talking about you, you definitely got to really
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learn that stuff to teach it. Well, I think something,
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something to resonate with both of us and probably a lot of your
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listeners. I, I've been saying for the last
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couple years, if you want to learn something about a topic,
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read a book about it. If you want to learn everything
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about a topic, write a book about it, right, because it's
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that process. It's about a year, you know,
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probably about a year long. And the between the editing, the
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writing, the drafting, the, in your case, interviewing people,
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the amount you can learn compiling that information is
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really unparalleled. I've never and I've written two
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books. I've never read any.
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I don't think I know anything as well as I know those two top.
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And I started the process. I feel like knowing a decent
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amount about both things, but at the end you just know it's so
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much better. Yeah, yeah.
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And and it's not even, it's not even just the information you're
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putting into that book, but everything you're going through
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and the decision making of what's important.
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Like what? How does it all fit together?
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And having to actually take the time to piece everything
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together actually helps you think about it.
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And in reverse is just reading like in in a line that kind of
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go in and out. You're actually having a process
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that's just such a high level. I'm going to make a case IA lot
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of strength coaches want to write books and they tell me
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that all the time. And my my argument is just do
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it. Do the first one.
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It's a project. It's not your life worth.
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Get that out of the way and next one will be better.
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But I think we have guys like us men and women like us have a
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unique skill set. And now when it comes to the
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editing and the synthesizing information, because we do that
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in the weight room every day, right.
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You know, if you're a coach of the baseball team in a lift and
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it's 40 guys staring at, you know, music player and you can't
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go into a very long winded explanation of why we're doing
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contrast sets and what the percentage are, It's got to be.
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These are the three most important things.
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Let's go. Here's a couple of coaching cues
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we're going to key in on today. And I know you're all your
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central nervous system aroused barely.
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If I start talking into the the granular levels of the
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technique, you're going to tune me out, right?
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But if I pick out the most important things you need to
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know to get through this workout, then we can recap and
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talk about a little bit later on.
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But I think we have a good skill set of knowing #1 how to maybe
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in front of groups of people, right, and #2 how to pick out a
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couple important points that we need those people to understand,
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implement, do #1 be safe, and #2 get something out of that
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training session. For sure, for sure.
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Yeah, I think that, yeah. I've never thought about like
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that, but I think that's a great point.
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I know like when I started coaching a bunch in my
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undergrad, but working at the college then I had, I think I
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had like a speech class I was like, and I was like, wow, this
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is like this like what I do every day now.
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Like this is really easy compared to my high school
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speech class where you maybe get like nervous going up there.
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Now it feels feels easy because basically you're giving speeches
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every day. Yeah, You know, and we're going
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to be honest, a rough environment, right?
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Like it might be loud. It's people that don't maybe
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love to train, right? They're thinking about 10 other
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things. And then you got to give a
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speech and immediately, you know, ask them to do something
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immediately, which most speeches don't involve.
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So I think we have a unique skill set that we probably don't
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give ourselves credit for nearly enough.
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For sure. Yeah, no, that's a cool point.
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So let's let's talk about your your newest book a little bit,
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right. It's called the next four years
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compete when and thrive in college sports and and really
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right for the the high school athlete coming into college
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sports and I've heard you say a couple times, but they are
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usually unprepared for that transition.
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And right. And this is a basically a a a
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guide to help them come in prepared and in what they should
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do what they should know. Why, why write this book?
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Like is there is there an athlete you remember that just
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really struggle that sticks out to you that that OK motivates
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you to do this? Or is it just from seeing over
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and over and over kind of the same pitfalls, the same airs and
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coming in? There's a couple kids I could
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probably think of, right? Yeah.
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That that came in really under prepared and then did did well
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over time. But it was a long process,
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right? But really the the inspiration
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for the book was right around here, you know, 16 or 17 at
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Seton Hall. I realized I was meeting with
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hundreds of recruits a year that just didn't even know what to
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ask, didn't know where to begin the process of of what schools
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to visit, how to pick a major, but what the weight room is
9:47
going to be like. And then when they got there,
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they were just very underprepared, right?
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Is that in some cases? So school and all we want to
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have football, we don't have wrestling.
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So if the exception of our baseball player is about 9 out
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of 10 hour student athletes, you're coming to the weight
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room. I've never been in a weight room
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before, right? You're teaching really square 1
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stuff. And that that that's fine.
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But if they've never done any kind of training, everything is
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a new stimulus. Everything is hard.
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Everything makes them sore for days afterwards, right?
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So the idea behind the book was about half the book is just the
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the world of college athletics, what you're getting into, right?
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What you're signing up for, what your days are going to be like.
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I mean, I kind of got lucky to that, right?
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I was in the writing process. College athletics changed
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drastically in the last couple years.
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Everybody knows, right? So we went from one model for
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about 70 years to now we're in the NIL transfer portal over a
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year. All these things changed, grad
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years, all these things changed right away and all the book got
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it probably a little more popular and would have because
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people are just more confused than ever, right?
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That's about half the book. The only half the book is a
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training program. That's about 100 days of
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training from when you sign your at your national letter of
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intent or contract in the Springer junior to when you show
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up on campus, right. And it's kind of the it's a very
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basic program that you get you ready to perform in most college
11:00
weight rooms. And again, the information just
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just not out there. So want to be I I feel like the
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strength coaches sometimes are really good at complaining about
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things, but not great about trying to be the solution.
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So I looked at it as now you know, if you have this book and
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you show up, you know, more prepared than you would have.
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That's a wing for everybody, the student athlete, their family
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and the program they go to. So why not give me information
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they need to succeed and you know, let them take it and run
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with it hopefully. No, that's awesome.
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What what habits do you see that if if these athletes did have
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coming in, would just like like change the world so much for
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them that so many of them don't come in with?
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The biggest thing I think you can do the day after you put
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your video up and where you're going to school, put the hat on,
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be a local celebrity for a couple days.
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It's a great experience. You live it up while that
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happens, right? Pretty soon after that, I would
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call the strength conditioning coach because for most college
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sports, that's the first man or woman you're enough contact with
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on campus, right? And ask them what's going to be
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expected when you get there, right?
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Is there a conditioning test? Do we workout early in the
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morning? Do we squat, bench, clean?
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Do we do Olympic lifts? Where we doing plot?
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What's the workout like, right? And then start getting ready for
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that as soon as possible. Now, I think you should have a
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great summer, great senior, all that.
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But give yourself a couple hours day to prepare and you'll hit
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the ground running when you get there, right?
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See, I think that that's number one is contact.
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The strength goes, know what's being expected #2 address your
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work capacity. So we deal with kids from some
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of the best high school programs in the country, right?
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Great AAU programs. High schools are great winning
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traditions, even for those men and women.
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The jump to college is a jump, right?
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There's a big difference between the best high school kids and
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even a mid level college. So I think I start getting ready
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to do, you know, multiple workouts a day, buddy hall late
12:43
at night, up early in the morning, maybe in the weight
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room early. Then he got a team practice,
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then he got skill work after that, something like that.
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So get ready for that level of work capacity.
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And then #2 it's a cliche, but it's true.
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But start thinking about things like time management, how you're
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going to look at your, your schoolwork, when if you're going
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to do internships, how it's going to work, prepare for that
13:01
early. And then the last one is just
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recovering nutrition, hydration, right?
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Look at, you know, these are young men and women, They bounce
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back from things quickly. Then theoretically the
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physiological prime of their life.
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But then we're still going to do more work than we ever had
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before. So does that mean you have to
13:15
get used to getting a cold tub after practice?
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Is it the, is it the hot tub? Is it some other modality?
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Is it, when's the dining hall open after you train?
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Can you go and get a good breakfast after your lift?
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Or you rushing A-Team practice and you're better off having a
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protein bar or a shake or something like that and then go
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and get a good lunch. We're just kind of figuring out
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that that that that kind of process, how it's going to
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really work. And then again, it's a cliche,
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but the more you prepare, the better off you're going to be.
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Because keep in mind that college can be a great time in
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your life. I think it is for, you know, the
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overall majority of people. But it's a change.
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And if you're not ready for that change, it's going to come at
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your heart and fast and you're going to really struggle at
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freshman year. You know, something now is I've
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moved from college to working with a lot of high school
13:55
athletes now I think about like, what did I think about?
13:58
What did I see in some of my college college athletes that
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it's like, I don't want these kids to have these habits or
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behave like this or maybe, you know, have these problems and
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how I can impact this at an earlier stage.
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Now as you think about that, like for the high school
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coaches, how can we best be preparing or impacting our
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athletes both as as people and how they operate, but then also
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just their training and physical development or or sport
14:27
development, freshman through senior year of high school.
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So that rather than just trying to rush it as they're about to
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leave and get prepared, but throughout that whole time
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they're having a level of development to be best prepared
14:39
for college. OK.
14:40
That's a great question. I would say a couple things.
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One, and this is a a bigger problem in the media we're going
14:46
to solve on this podcast, but if you could get the year round
14:50
culture or you play basketball 12 once a year, you play
14:52
baseball 12 once a year and take a a season or two off to train
14:57
and develop your body, that would be awesome.
14:59
And I realize that's not super realistic, but in an ideal
15:02
world, that's what I'll do. The other thing I would say is
15:04
if you're a high school athlete, let's see, play football in the
15:07
spring, in the fall, winter and and spring season.
15:10
If you're not doing anything, I would do track.
15:11
I would get as good at running mechanics as you possibly can
15:14
because that's going to be a part of your college experience
15:16
no matter what, right? So I would say take some time
15:19
here to train, get really good at running and then at the high
15:22
school strength coaches do a really good job, but just
15:24
getting great at the basics, right?
15:26
Get graded at squats and the variations, get great at RTLS
15:30
and hinging and those variations and just move as good as you
15:33
possibly can. Because I've been in an
15:35
environment for the last 20 years where I would do a little
15:37
baseball pitchers that could throw 90 plus miles an hour and
15:40
couldn't do a lunch, couldn't even think about doing a pull
15:42
up. And that that's real man.
15:43
And swimmers that could swim 10,000 yards like it was easy
15:47
and not do a push up, right. So if we can get really good at
15:50
those common motor patterns and I would say the high school
15:53
level, keep it as easy and not easy, but as basic and simple as
15:57
possible. And I always thought that, but
15:59
in transfer portal error even more because on the college
16:02
level with the way men and women are coming and going every year,
16:05
long term athletic development and and coaching really hard
16:08
things. I say your Olympic lifts, you're
16:10
really complicated plyometric stuff.
16:12
It's almost over because we're not dealing with kids for three,
16:15
4-5 years anymore. We're doing kids for sometimes
16:17
nine months. So I would say just get really
16:19
good at the basics. And then then at once that that
16:21
foundation is set, start increasing work capacity.
16:24
Put some weight on the bar and learn how to push in the weight
16:27
room. Because a lot of these young men
16:28
and women are great at pushing themselves on the field, on the
16:31
court, in a pool, on the cross country course, but don't
16:35
understand that resistance training effort that's necessary
16:38
to be just coach. There's a couple things up.
16:40
I need to give your student athletes a great running start
16:43
when they get to college. Yeah, that's great.
16:45
Do you agree with the statement that it has never been more
16:48
critical to come into college with the level of physical
16:52
development than ever before? 100% And I think it's a weird if
16:56
we would be having this conversation, say 2018, right?
16:59
The conversation we have seven years ago is college freshmen
17:03
are boys and girls 17189 maybe 19 years old, right?
17:07
And they're going to be asked to play with men and women that are
17:09
21 or 22, right? In the era we live in now of the
17:13
transfer portal, the grad year, all the changes, right?
17:17
You're a 17 or 18 year old boy or girl playing with maybe a
17:20
2425 year old man or woman, right?
17:24
And the idea of you being physically ready to compete with
17:26
someone who's literally eight years older than you, unless
17:30
you're just a genetic freak that is way outpacing all your peers.
17:34
It's really asking a lot. Not saying it can't be done, but
17:37
it's really, it's a different ball game, right?
17:38
Because kids are staying in college so much longer.
17:40
The incidentally rules that have changed.
17:42
So if you're going to contribute as a freshman or even get get
17:44
invited to play at a big school, you have to really take your
17:48
body seriously and take your development seriously and
17:51
realize you were really good playing against other 1718 year
17:55
olds and now you're going to compete against legit 23 2425
17:59
year old in some cases. Yeah, and that that's what I
18:01
tell a lot of like the high schools, I'm like, you know, the
18:05
the most the schools now they're they're looking for that
18:08
transfer to come in that's already 23 that's been in the
18:10
waiting room for four or five years.
18:12
It's like it like you, like you're saying even regard it
18:15
separate from the discussion of if you're already going to a
18:17
school. But, but if you want to have a
18:19
chance of being recruited from a school you really want to go to,
18:22
like they can't wait two years for you to get to a a spot you
18:26
need to be to play like they need.
18:28
You want to see that you can come in and be ready and more
18:31
fizzy about to actually compete right away.
18:32
Because they don't have the like you saying before with the long
18:35
term development, like they don't have that chance to
18:37
develop you anymore. Like they're on a shorter
18:40
timeline. You're on a shorter timeline.
18:42
Everybody's on a shorter timeline now.
18:44
Yeah. And then the other thing this
18:46
this error right now is going to be hit with kicking in in 2026
18:49
is roster limits, right? So where there used to be, you
18:52
know, 20 kids on a cross country team, now he's going to be 13.
18:55
Used to be 40 baseball players, now there's 30 to whatever the
18:58
numbers are going to be. You have to be that much better
19:01
to make a roster, right? So I think if, if I was 12/13
19:05
right now and thinking college might be in my future, in my
19:07
child's future, I would be in the weight room and the track
19:11
and just physical development non-stop.
19:13
And because I think you just, you're going to have to do that
19:15
to play at that level, right? And the other thing I think that
19:18
parents can do a little bit better is really being smart
19:21
with what camps and showcases they send their kids to, right?
19:26
You know, sorry, you're in Texas, correct.
19:28
OK, so if I'm a decent football player in Texas, but I'm not
19:32
great, going to University of Texas is football camp is
19:35
probably a waste of time, right? I'm not I'm not going to Texas.
19:38
That's a wasted weekend and wasted money.
19:41
And I could have been doing something else.
19:42
But maybe if I could look at, you know, I Sam Houston State,
19:45
something like that, maybe I can go there and have a great
19:47
career, you know what I mean? So I think you want to look be
19:50
pretty realistic about your chances and be smart about you.
19:53
And you have to play your sport year round now, but can you go
19:55
where the you might really have a chance to make an impact and
19:58
these coaches might be interested as opposed to just
20:00
paying several $100, getting AT shirt and never hearing from my
20:02
coaching staff again. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
20:04
And I remember back when when I was coming out of that, that was
20:08
something like, you know, I go to some of the big camps, but
20:09
it's like for most people, that's just donating money to
20:13
the athletic program for them, you know, they can be a cool
20:17
experience. You know, maybe you just stay
20:18
like the big college and compete and stuff.
20:20
But if you're really thinking about wanting to get recruited,
20:23
it's probably going to, you're probably going to need to have
20:26
some form of actual invite or communication with the coaches
20:29
versus just go in and be a donation there.
20:31
Yeah, that that and again, that's part of the reason why
20:33
we're the books so many parents just don't know that and the
20:36
information is not out there. And I think it's a weird thing
20:39
because there's more podcasts now, more YouTube channels, more
20:41
interesting. They kind of explain this stuff
20:43
to some extent in my book, does a really job it too.
20:45
But people for this, some people just don't want to listen.
20:47
So hopefully we get better. At that now, like you mentioned
20:51
in the book, the importance of the early impression you make
20:56
when you're when you're coming in as an athlete.
20:58
What have you seen and then how early perceptions of how a
21:03
coaching staff perceives an athlete in their careers?
21:06
They come in, can stick with that athlete for unfairly or
21:10
fairly even longer than maybe after they change, after they
21:14
make a change, but just those perceptions kind of stick with
21:16
an athlete from how they came in in that first period.
21:20
Yeah, the the one thing I talk about in the book a decent
21:22
amount is the idea that if you got to come in, you know, strong
21:26
or in great shape, I would pick great shape, right?
21:29
Because you come in the weight room and don't know how to do
21:31
some of the lifts or some of the movements and need a spotter.
21:33
That's why the strength staff is.
21:34
Yeah, it's right, guys. I mean, you have a job, right?
21:36
But if you show up to the first day conditioner, the first day
21:38
of team practice and you're always the last person to finish
21:41
every drill, you're throwing up in a garbage can after the first
21:44
set of springs. Then you're in the training room
21:46
with a hamstring pull on the first.
21:47
You got a bull's eye on your back immediately.
21:49
So when you can't help the program now you can bounce back
21:51
from that. I think if you have a rough say,
21:52
for example, you play a spring sport, you have a rough fall
21:55
because you came in out of shape, your own brothers, and
21:57
then you have a great spring on the field, on the games that
22:00
matter, you can definitely bounce back from it, right.
22:03
But why would you put yourself in a hole like that if you don't
22:05
have to, right? Yeah.
22:07
And I know the once the 1:00 there's a lot of shortcomings in
22:09
college athletics, obviously, but one of them is strength
22:12
coaches and sport coaches that I take pride in running a kid off
22:15
a team or getting somebody under the transfer portal.
22:17
And I always say our job is to make these people stronger and
22:20
better and help them develop, right?
22:22
So I think if as a strength coach, as an athletic coach,
22:24
whatever it might be, if you got a Mandarin that's struggling and
22:27
they and they want to work, it's got to be two ways, right?
22:30
They got to be committed to getting better and and making a
22:32
team and being a contributor. But our job is to to help them,
22:35
right? And I think it's got, and I
22:37
think one thing we need to do a little bit better to try to
22:39
communicate a little more of, you know, like if you just did
22:42
nothing over the summer, it's not my job to stay after work
22:45
and do sprints with you because you decide not do anything for
22:47
three months, right? But if you're coming back from
22:49
an injury, if there's some extending circumstances, if
22:52
you're a walk on that's struggling to get better and I
22:55
got some extra time, yeah, let's do some extra work, right?
22:58
I'll say it as a strength coach, some of the best relationships
23:01
I've had at Seton Hall and other places I've been have been with
23:04
the walk ONS that want to do extra stuff, right?
23:06
Because you, it might be one-on-one, one on two or three
23:09
small group training. It's just kids that want to be
23:11
there and they're working hard. And it's, it's been a lot of
23:13
fun. And a lot of the student actors
23:15
I've stayed in touch with way after they left have been that
23:18
demographic because they want it so bad.
23:21
They love working with us. And it's kind of a fun
23:22
environment where sometimes they're, you know, maybe the
23:25
better players. It's not the kind of
23:27
relationship you have in some cases.
23:29
Yeah, no, I've, I've definitely experienced that too.
23:31
Or yeah, I mean, you know, the walk ONS especially like in
23:34
basketball and be on the road like they're lifting everyday at
23:36
the hotels where they train like six days a week.
23:39
You're in a season. It's like you're you're with
23:40
them so much, especially those ones that just want to work all
23:42
the time. Just maybe not quite as
23:44
talented. But you know, I think you bring
23:46
an interesting point as you talk about, OK, if they come in weak,
23:50
honestly as a strength coach that I usually expected that for
23:52
most of the freshmen coming in. So it's like, OK, we're going to
23:54
get you better there. I think from a skilled
23:57
perspective, if they have some weaknesses, like, OK, we're
23:59
going to get you better there. But if you come in out of shape
24:02
or like you're saying you're getting hurt or all these things
24:05
at the beginning, I feel like sometimes coaches can take that
24:08
and relate that to the character of that person.
24:11
Like, OK, they came in completely out of shape.
24:13
Now I'm making a judgement on kind of how they behave, how
24:17
they act in a different way than the strength aspect or the skill
24:20
aspect. Yeah, I agree.
24:22
I don't know which. I think sometimes it's fair,
24:25
right? Sometimes it's unfair to a
24:28
student athlete, but I think the show and this is 1 argument that
24:31
I'm never going to win who I think we won.
24:33
One of the things I really didn't like about college
24:36
athletics and don't miss it all is coaches bring these kids to
24:39
campus, right? They used to give them a
24:41
scholarship. Now they give them a check,
24:42
right and they are completely this confused as to why the kid
24:47
is the same thing in college. They've been their entire life,
24:50
right? If you back the bank truck up to
24:52
someone who's at 2 ACL tears before they were 19 and they get
24:55
a 3rd ACL tear, is that the fault of the strength staff, the
24:59
athletic training room, the physical therapy department?
25:02
Or is it statistically that young man or woman is going
25:05
through tearing another ACL and you decided to pay them for the
25:08
year they did it right? And I think, I think one thing
25:12
they kind of higher up you go in college athletics, the top
25:15
programs don't have to roll the dice on kids, right?
25:17
They're just getting the best kids.
25:19
They used to just the name of the school and the degree would
25:21
get down the column. Now they have enough money to
25:23
pay the best kids. But when you get into your mid
25:25
major level and the best kids are all all going up to the the
25:29
top schools now you got to throw your dice on a kid that maybe
25:31
had a great junior year and then they got hurt their senior year,
25:34
right? Or they're basically a good
25:36
player, but they're 30 lbs overweight.
25:38
And now it now you decided to bring the campus as a head sport
25:41
coach, but now you're screaming at the strength coach that the
25:43
kid didn't drop 25 lbs the first month they were at college.
25:46
Well, why would they do that? Did this person's genetics,
25:49
eating habits, daily habits, everything they've done in their
25:51
life made them 25 lbs overweight for a course of 20 years?
25:55
Are we really going to to change that in one semester now?
25:57
We got to make it. We have to do our part.
25:59
We got to give them the tools to succeed.
26:00
We got to be with them. We got to make it as much as we
26:02
can. But if you I can make you on the
26:04
treadmill as much as I want. If the minute you get off the
26:07
treadmill, you go to McDonald's drive through, that's out of my
26:10
hands. Yeah.
26:11
No, no, definitely. I think there's there's a lot of
26:15
things in recruiting, especially now when you take in the
26:18
transfer portal where there's such rushed and and condensed
26:22
timelines now to make decisions. I think there's so many things
26:25
that aren't considered that should be considered and you
26:28
know, they, I think some coaches and Staffs, probably the ones
26:32
that you see find the hidden gems or the people that develop
26:35
on a high level and all that and then they win with maybe less
26:38
highly recruited people. There's a reason because they're
26:40
looking at those different things and seeing how people fit
26:42
and seeing the other things they're going to impact their
26:44
development versus just maybe the the blanket, you know, stars
26:49
that they have by their name. Yeah, agreed, man.
26:52
The other thing I think we were seeing in college athletics now,
26:54
and I know nobody wants to hear this because we're in the the
26:56
NIL error, but what's the kid running the culture, right?
27:00
What's the culture of the team and the culture of the team on
27:02
that campus, right? So I was wanting to be in a
27:04
pretty and we played in a big conference, but we're a small
27:06
school, right? And you would see see some
27:08
student athletes, particular men's basketball program was at
27:11
the flagship of the department. Some guys would come in and they
27:14
would lean into a man. They would be at the baseball
27:16
games, the softball games, you'd see at the being a class with
27:19
the regular kid. It was really great, right?
27:21
They develop a fan base. They get more social media
27:23
followers that allows them to do some things with NIL that if you
27:26
don't, you don't do. And then you see guys come in
27:28
and you're just locked away from everybody else, right?
27:31
They go to the gym, they go to their dorm, which is separate
27:33
than the regular students and they don't interact at all.
27:36
And I just, I don't understand that at all, man.
27:38
I think we're trying to be a part of the educational
27:40
experience and and bring a good thing to the campus.
27:42
You should be interacting with the regular students.
27:45
And the other thing I used to joke around with our guys all
27:47
the time, you may never be a celebrity at this level again.
27:51
You might never sign another autograph, right?
27:54
You don't stay famous forever after college.
27:56
So why would you not be out among the people that are
27:59
watching you play and coming again, Somebody's wearing your
28:02
jersey asking for autographs. I'm like, I like being focused,
28:05
right? And that's a thing.
28:06
But to some extent, you got to got to lead into it and have fun
28:09
a little bit too. And I just think you should
28:10
probably, you know, explore that a little bit as well.
28:12
Yeah, no, I I definitely seen some of those things too.
28:16
And the, the players that really become like those beloved
28:21
players within a program are the ones that are doing that right.
28:25
It's especially now when people are changing all the time, like
28:28
it's got to be more than that. Especially now if you're, if
28:30
you're transferring and coming to school school, you've got to
28:32
be able to ingrain yourself in that as fast as possible if you
28:36
really want to be, you know, a name or or or a fan loved player
28:41
within that program. And I think too, we're, we're
28:44
doing some of these these men, men and women, but we'll talk
28:47
about men's basketball. And then they were speaking the
28:49
same language here. But you are doing the the
28:52
student athlete A disservice and that statistically they are not
28:55
going to the NBA. There's not enough jobs in the
28:57
NBA for every college player to go, which is not going to
28:59
happen, right? And then overseas is a good
29:01
option. It's not for everybody, right?
29:03
Some guys will get into coaching, but there's less
29:05
coaching jobs than player jobs statistically, right?
29:08
So think about going out into the workforce and an entire
29:12
college fan base knows who you are, knows you're a good guy,
29:15
like your personality wants to give you your first entry level
29:18
job, right? Versus you were not that you
29:21
were not well light. You didn't engage with the fan
29:24
base. You didn't go interact with the
29:26
regular students. You're playing a different game
29:28
when you're trying to break and at some point you're breaking
29:31
into the workforce, right? The guys that play basketball
29:33
till they retire and have to work again.
29:35
That's a very small sliver of that population, right?
29:38
You might be LeBron, Kevin Durant, that level, but
29:42
realistically at 30, it's going to be over and you got to go
29:45
find a way to make a living. And in the era we live in now,
29:47
why you wouldn't cultivate your social media following and
29:51
cultivate the fan base and have people that want to help you
29:53
break in when you're done playing to whatever profession
29:56
you want to do? I'll never understand that.
29:58
That that's a really great point.
29:59
As you think about the athletes you've had that are really
30:03
prepared when they come, they come in and and you think about
30:07
maybe their backgrounds or, or the way that you've had
30:10
conversations about the way maybe their parents raised them.
30:13
Are there any commonalities you've kind of seen throughout
30:16
the years of maybe the background of why these players
30:20
did come and prepared compared to the other freshmen coming in?
30:23
OK, I think it's it's a couple things, right?
30:26
I think having a good level of maturity and understanding that
30:29
as much as you love your sport, this has to be handled like a
30:32
job. You got to go to work every day,
30:34
whatever it is. Your head coaches, you're like
30:36
the CEO of the company. The support staff is like, maybe
30:39
you're direct managers, direct, direct supervisors and you got
30:42
to clock in and, and commit to what they're asking to do,
30:46
right? And I think the other thing I'd
30:47
say is going to sound a little paradoxical, but I'll explain
30:50
it. I think you have to have a if to
30:52
know yourself and know what you need to do to prepare, right?
30:54
So I mean recovery, hydration, sleep, you have to know that and
30:59
commit to it. And at the same time be open to
31:01
some new ideas, right? So, for example, if you, if you
31:04
got a had a high school strength coach that did a great job, like
31:06
I'm sure you do down in Texas, and then you come to see me in
31:09
college, we probably have some different ideas on training,
31:12
right? And I don't think our
31:13
profession, there's a lot of right and wrong.
31:15
There's just different ways to attack this, right?
31:18
And I think I'll be open to all right.
31:20
Well, my high school, I always, I always squat heavy every
31:22
Monday. OK, Well, now we're in college
31:24
and we're playing midweek games on Wednesday.
31:26
So maybe we had to move that heavy squat day later on down
31:29
the week, whatever it might be, right?
31:31
But I think I'd be open to listening to the people that are
31:33
doing it and living in our professionals while you know
31:36
yourself well enough to recover, bounce back and attack
31:41
everything as hard as you can, right?
31:42
So, and those are two things. And the other thing, I think
31:44
they just want to be really good at the time management.
31:47
I think a lot of student athletes that come in and either
31:50
#1 didn't do anything besides your sport, didn't care about
31:53
school, didn't have any other extracurricular activities or
31:56
their mom and dad or AAU coaches.
31:58
How you guys hold their hand through everything.
32:00
They really struggle, right? Because now all of a sudden they
32:03
have professors that just give them a syllabus and tell them be
32:06
ready for the test in six weeks and maybe not don't check in.
32:09
Now that that's as an adult, that seems reasonable to me.
32:11
But if you had high school teachers and you went to like an
32:13
Academy where every day your teacher was on your back about
32:17
do this assignment, submit this thing online, whatever it is.
32:20
And now you're in a class, you're going to go to big state
32:21
school. You might be in a lecturer with
32:23
500 other students and the teacher doesn't even know even
32:26
think about knowing your name. You got, you have to tack that a
32:29
little bit differently. Then you went to a class with 20
32:31
kids in a private high school, right?
32:32
So I think you got to be ready for the next thing and be smart
32:35
about time management and be self motivated to get through
32:39
something. And the last thing I'll say is
32:41
lean on the people around you, the support staff around you.
32:44
A lot of times the weight room seems like a pain in the neck.
32:47
You think the guys the strength goes out to get you.
32:49
You have a fight with the academic person.
32:51
You know he or she's trying to help you pass your classes.
32:53
You don't want to go to the training room because the the
32:55
modalities are doing hurts that day.
32:57
But long term it gets better. Just commit to the process and
33:00
trust the people around you. Right now they're saying blindly
33:03
do everything you're told, you know, vet the people, see if you
33:06
think they're whether the modalities work kind of thing,
33:09
but commit to it and realize that that staff of people is
33:12
going to help you succeed as much as the program and win and
33:15
and lean into that and then do what you're asked and you know,
33:18
be smart about it. You talked a little bit before
33:20
about your decision to leave Seton Hall and step now into
33:24
teaching full time. How have you thought about maybe
33:28
periodizing your career decisions both within a year but
33:31
then also long term in your career of how you're thinking
33:34
about kind of that long term decision making for your career?
33:37
Oh, I'll be honest, man, I I grew up in a neat situation,
33:40
right? I grew up in New Jersey.
33:41
I seen all Slaughter Jacket as a kid and I was a lifetime scene
33:45
all fan. It was my dream job all through
33:47
high school in college and I got to do that, which is really
33:50
awesome, right? A great experience that as a
33:52
strength coach you couldn't ask for anything else.
33:55
But it's a grind, it's hard, it's super early mornings, it's
33:59
late nights, it's weekends, and there were some great things
34:02
about it. So right about fire on the 10
34:04
year mark, I started adjunct teaching some classes, rights,
34:06
got on the side and really liked it.
34:08
I really liked it. And then I got a situation where
34:11
the last couple years, like the changes we talked about before,
34:13
I'll be totally honest, your listener, the way the NCAA in
34:16
college athletes is going, I don't know where the middle
34:19
sized school like seating all fits in, right?
34:22
The, the power 4 is going to, if you could sell 100,000 football
34:26
tickets 5 * a year, you're going to exist.
34:28
That's going to work for your school, right?
34:30
Right. And then the division two,
34:31
Division Three schools were it up where anyway all the students
34:34
pay tuition. There's the travelers within the
34:36
state. It's a reasonable no.
34:38
There's no planes or hotels involved.
34:40
You take buses to games. I think that exists forever,
34:42
right? That middle ground all, you
34:45
know, we're a small private school trying to play in a
34:48
really big conference and write NIL checks the same way as these
34:52
giant universities are. How long does that last?
34:55
Right? So I kind of looked at it as I
34:57
had a chance. And the other thing that I
34:59
thought you were listening about in a second was I hit, not hit
35:01
the lottery, but it was the time to go.
35:03
And what I mean by that is I had just put out my second book.
35:07
This is my 50th podcast. So my goal was 50 podcasts for
35:10
the book. So super.
35:10
Thank you for doing that all. I've been the NSCA state
35:13
director for New Jersey for the last four years.
35:15
I just got re elected. I just won agile professor of
35:18
the year the previous year at Seton Hall and only I'm not
35:21
bragging, but I'm saying if there was ever a time to go when
35:24
I was hot where if you googled my name, it was clear I was
35:28
doing things in the field, it was right now, right?
35:31
And I looked at it as if I don't pursue this opportunity and take
35:34
advantage of it next year or the year after that opportunity is
35:37
going to the person that's doing the things I'm doing now in 27
35:42
say, right? So I think the some extent our
35:44
profession, you got a number one, if things are not going
35:47
well, know when to leave. That's important, right?
35:49
But when things are going well and I, I got lucky that a lot of
35:52
things broke for me in the same year.
35:54
And you you develop a little name for yourself and you get an
35:57
opportunity because of that name.
35:59
It's probably the time to go. Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's
36:01
really cool kind of hearing that, that decision making
36:04
process if if I'm a young coach right now, let's say I'm a young
36:08
coach starting, you know, maybe Aga intern or just starting in,
36:12
in college athletics With what you're talking about the
36:15
changing landscape of of college athletics.
36:17
I mean just in general as you start younger, get older, like
36:20
how how do you think they should be thinking about the long term
36:23
outlook of their careers? OK, I think it it it it's a
36:27
weird. It's a an odd answer, but number
36:30
one, you got to be totally committed to your grad assistant
36:33
job, to your first assistant job.
36:35
Because if you're not, someone will come and take it from me.
36:37
Or we don't have a job where you can just punch a clock and, you
36:41
know, not work 9:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday and not
36:44
legitimately get fired over it, right?
36:45
That we're just not doing our profession.
36:47
You got to be committed to what you're doing and serve your
36:49
coaching and your athletes the best you possibly can.
36:51
But while you're doing that, I think you got to look to that
36:54
next step, right? Is my next thing.
36:56
Do I want to write books? Do I want to have a big social
36:59
media following? Do I want to be a professor,
37:01
whatever it is and think about the next thing?
37:03
Because like I said, I I was in my mid 40s when I left after 20
37:08
years and I'm unheard of. Like most people by early 30s
37:11
are thinking about wrapping them up because of all the things we
37:13
talked about earlier. So I think there's AI think the
37:16
one thing that's cool about strengthening conditioning is
37:18
when you take the next step career wise, you can always be a
37:22
personal trainer on the side. You can always work with a high
37:25
school soccer team. You always do is got, you know,
37:27
do camps in your town, stuff like that, which is really
37:29
great. And one thing being, you know,
37:32
being a fan of the show, one thing I said that I really
37:35
listening when I listen to Mike Nielsen from Gonzaga, right,
37:38
It's we have a weird parallel Kirk, because you've been at the
37:40
same place for the same 20 years and left the same summer.
37:43
And I think if you haven't listened to your episode with
37:45
him, your listeners definitely should because he made a
37:47
transition that I hadn't heard before, going from a weight room
37:51
strength coach to an NIL financial advisor, which I think
37:55
is really the awesome move to make right now.
37:57
But he said something in the interview that it just, I can't
38:00
stop thinking about it. Even after 20 years as a
38:03
strength coach at a big time college basketball program, he
38:06
had to do real estate on the side to be able to keep a job as
38:10
a strength coach. That's the level we're getting
38:12
paid at, right? That the the OG's the guys are
38:15
doing it for two decades need side hustles and so do I that's
38:18
why I do the books and the speak engagement always adjunct talk
38:21
classes. So me and him had the same
38:22
approach just, you know, different side hustles.
38:25
But there's not many professions in America where you need a
38:27
master's degree, if not higher to breaking all these
38:30
internships all this time on the clock and you're 20, you still
38:34
need to have another job, right. So I think you're that that's
38:38
just realistic. Got a couple guys in our job
38:40
will rise to the top and make 800, nine, $100 million, right?
38:44
And a football program, basketball, but they're not
38:46
doing it forever. It's a two or three-year
38:48
commitment usually and then they're unemployed after.
38:50
So I would say it's working on the Olympic sports side of
38:52
things. I, I never made a lot of money
38:54
in one year, Full disclosure, but it also never unemployed.
38:57
So I think you got to this as a tortoise versus the hare, right?
39:00
I think if you're, if you're with a football program, you get
39:02
a chance to make 500 grand in a year.
39:04
You definitely got to take it, but then be saving money and
39:07
send some things for when that team loses six games and you're
39:10
out. What's your next move?
39:11
Right? So I think, you know, growing on
39:13
social media following is big, putting information out is big.
39:16
And then I think doing what you're doing right now where you
39:19
start thinking about how do I train people start without a
39:22
facility, super low overhead, get my client base off, get my
39:25
following up and then when the time is right, moving to a
39:28
facility that I where I own the I mean, I'm paying renting a
39:31
building, but I own the SWAT racks.
39:33
I want the kettle bells, whatever it is.
39:34
Think about that, because the unfortunate reality of what we
39:37
do is for 90% of us, there's not a ton of money in it, right?
39:41
And there's almost no job security and with a burnout rate
39:44
is incredibly high. So if you're, you know, you're
39:47
lucky enough to be 25 in a big school, loving every minute of
39:50
it, do it. Ride the wave.
39:51
But start to think about what the next step means for you at
39:54
some point. Yeah, no, that, that's really
39:55
great. And I've heard, I heard you
39:58
mentioned before the one hour really have where it's like one
40:01
hour of your day is going to be dedicated towards making money
40:04
separate from your paycheck. As you talk about that you talk
40:07
about. Like with Mike with the separate
40:09
income streams, like he's a real estate stuff.
40:12
If I'm a strength coach, I'm like like I get that, but like I
40:15
don't I don't know what that Ave. is or like that other thing
40:18
I could do. How should people trying to
40:21
discover that that extra thing that maybe they have some
40:23
passion about, they can make some money with that kind of
40:26
fits with their full time job? Yeah, that's a that's a tough
40:29
question, man. Much easier said than done,
40:31
right? I do think I I think guys like
40:34
me, me and my I never met Mike. I keep referring to him like
40:36
we're friends. I don't listen to your interview
40:38
with him, but I think one thing that that most jobs are lied to
40:41
your side host wise. You got to be there for a while
40:43
and learn the landscape and you get to go to schedule and then
40:47
like, for example, my books. I know for example, I can't work
40:50
on books and when I had to call job up until this past year in
40:54
September, October and November, I am swamped with being the seat
40:57
and all strength coach. I can't do anything else right.
41:00
We get to December and everybody goes home except basketball.
41:03
Now I can work on a book, work on a public speaking engagement,
41:06
start doing podcasts again, right mid January until about
41:10
April I got to lock in again. I got 250 student athletes.
41:13
I can't get out of the weight room, but we get to like say May
41:16
1st to mid August when the fall sports come back.
41:19
Then I could pursue the other things, right?
41:21
And now my new role is as a professor.
41:24
I'm learning the the waves, right?
41:26
I'm learning like like December. Now I got finals.
41:28
Now I'm grading projects. Now I'm wrapping up a semester
41:31
and doing final grading. So I'm anticipating December and
41:34
not being a good time for the side stuff because my new job
41:37
demands me be locked in at the end of the semester the way
41:39
athletics didn't right. But I think I stayed a job a
41:42
couple years and realize what how it goes, right?
41:46
The other thing I think I do is kind of lean into where you have
41:48
connection. So for example, you know, if
41:50
you're back in your if you're lucky enough to have a strength
41:52
conditioning job near your hometown and you know, all the
41:55
high school coaches, all the high school AED's will break
41:58
into training some of those kids, right break into that that
42:01
world. Maybe he was volunteering at 1st
42:03
and doing some camps with the town wreck in the summer, stuff
42:06
like that. And that can lead into some
42:08
income opportunities later on, right.
42:10
And then the other thing I think they just use the Internet as
42:13
best as you possibly can. You know, there's good and bad
42:15
to the Internet, like every other tool we, you've ever
42:17
developed as, as humanity. But if you can, you know, get
42:20
some information out there and sell some books or ebooks or
42:23
courses or whatever it might be, try to grow that as much you can
42:26
because that, that is #1 it's, it's not geography specific.
42:30
You can have customers everywhere, right?
42:32
And need to create your content late at night, early in the
42:35
morning, because you're going to be busy as a strength coach from
42:37
probably 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM most of the days.
42:40
Yeah. And I think, you know, like we
42:41
talked about way back in the beginning, but in terms of how
42:45
teaching or writing a book, like you said, makes you learn that
42:48
stuff like nothing else. I encourage a lot of coaches,
42:50
even if like the goal is maybe not to, you know, sell thousands
42:54
of copies or get hundreds of thousands of followers or or
42:57
whatever it is you're creating. But I think when you start to
43:00
shift and producing output, whether it's on social media,
43:04
whether it's an ebook, whether it's a book or whatever, a
43:06
podcast, whatever it is, it makes you refine your thinking
43:09
and your decision making and your, your principles and learn
43:13
how to again, communicate that. And, and narrow that down to
43:17
just like you're talking about with being able to speak in
43:19
front of those teams, right? To speak to whatever audience
43:22
that is and whatever platform that is.
43:24
And even if nobody buys whatever you're selling or whatever it is
43:27
like, it is going to develop you to a much higher level and it's
43:31
probably going to lead to some different connections or
43:33
opportunities, communities like like you've talked about.
43:35
Yeah, and I, I think one thing, I think the Australian edition
43:38
community is pretty good at this.
43:39
I think other people maybe don't see it the way we do.
43:42
But let's do personal development, right?
43:45
Like let's get better. Like you said, even if you write
43:47
a book that doesn't sell a ton of copies, you can do a podcast
43:49
as you get a ton of downloads. You got better doing that thing,
43:53
right? And sometimes the picture is
43:55
bigger than just the paycheck on Friday.
43:57
The picture is, but if the paycheck on Friday isn't great,
44:00
but it goes off every Friday or the end of it, you open open a
44:04
door for yourself that you never opened before.
44:06
That was a good process, right? So I think it's, you know,
44:08
sometimes it's like, it's like training, right?
44:10
Not every day you go in the gym as a PR, but you know, it's the
44:14
the days that maybe aren't so good or the days you're doing
44:16
auxiliary work or the days you're doing recovery work.
44:19
All that stuff hopefully adds up to a bigger picture, right?
44:22
So I think when I look at our careers, our personal
44:24
development, the way we do our physical development, and I'll,
44:26
like you said earlier, just kind of kind of periodize our our
44:28
life the way we do our training on real quick on your book, I
44:31
realized something. I think it's kind of
44:33
interesting. We can't came out right about
44:34
the same time and they're literally polar opposite books
44:37
right, because yours you have a ton of input from other people,
44:40
a ton of great interviews. You went super broad, bigger
44:43
than just strength conditioning coaching, right?
44:45
I went just my opinion. It's just my my research and
44:49
it's super specifics. We weren't totally opposite from
44:51
each other, which I think it's kind of weird the way the
44:53
universe works. We ended up with a book coming
44:55
out within a couple weeks of each other.
44:57
I would just both valuable resources, but just completely
45:01
different ways to approach that. But I think that should tell
45:03
tell strength coaches there's a lot of ways to do this right.
45:06
It doesn't. There's a lot of ways to produce
45:08
content. Me and you are we're cool with
45:10
each other having a great time today, but we produce literally
45:12
polar opposite content that is both really good right.
45:16
So I think that's something to be to be proud of and kind of
45:19
the where profound broad our profession could be other than
45:22
just strictly coaching up a kid in a squat rack right or kitchen
45:25
run mechanics out of the track kind of thing.
45:27
The other thing I want, I thought you real quickly, I
45:29
really liked your episode where you you went through the process
45:32
of how you wrote the book super valuable.
45:34
I haven't done it before. When you talk about getting that
45:36
first physical hard copy and how that felt right.
45:39
They're really resonating me because I was lucky enough to
45:41
have that happen twice as I've done two books.
45:43
But I'm going to give you, give everybody a tip when you get the
45:46
first copyright where you have a wife, kids, roommates, however
45:50
your living situation is, go somewhere by yourself.
45:53
Open it by yourself and let that feeling sink in for a few
45:56
minutes. And then go show it to mom, dad,
46:00
wife, Osman, whatever it is. Because I think two things.
46:02
Number one, that's such a big accomplishment.
46:05
You got to just kind of soak that in for a couple minutes and
46:07
then #2 I find that people that don't know what the book is
46:11
supposed to look like get it and hit you with complaints
46:14
immediately, right? And like, I'm just trying to
46:16
have AI know that's not the right color green on the the
46:20
font, but I need a minute to let this soak in.
46:24
And I think sometimes you guys just take that minute and then
46:27
then bring it out. Sure, get it, get opinions.
46:29
Then once that that initial feelings over, get some feedback
46:31
and see people think about it. Because like I always say, we
46:33
have a weird profession where there's things we think are so
46:36
second nature that everybody knows that regular people just
46:40
don't know, right? So I think I put some, we put a
46:43
workout together on Excel. That makes perfect sense to you.
46:46
And then you give it to somebody else and they what the hell does
46:48
any of this mean? Well, that might mean it's time
46:50
to go back and then edit that that chart and make some, some
46:53
changes to the graphic or whatever.
46:55
But yeah, I think that that initially soak it in yourself
46:58
and then get some feedback from outside and and if it's good
47:01
feedback, take it in and make the next copy better.
47:03
Yeah, I love that because that's that is definitely a special
47:06
moment like I talked about, you talked about.
47:08
But yeah, because you've put hours and days and days into
47:12
thinking about all those details and all those little things and
47:15
it's like it's just a part of your life and you finally get
47:18
it. But you're just saying like
47:19
people that haven't haven't had any part of it and they'll put
47:23
all these things like, and you've had a million thoughts of
47:25
why you did that thing and they have no understanding of that.
47:29
And it's just like, yeah, just just be just sit with that for
47:31
for a second for yourself because you, you know what
47:34
you're looking for and what you're trying to get.
47:36
But again, that that that is a special moment when in this
47:39
concept of creating something, of pouring into something, just
47:42
putting so many hours into that, I think that process is where so
47:47
much purpose comes from. Yeah, I think to these one note,
47:51
one of the cool things, it's one of the few things in in the
47:53
digital world we live in. When you create something
47:56
physical, it's different, right? It's different than Instagram
47:59
video. It's different than than a
48:00
YouTube short. It's something you physically
48:02
hold in your hand. It's not on your phone or the
48:04
laptop, which I think is really interesting.
48:06
And the one piece of advice are giving, we're thinking about
48:08
doing this, realize the first copy is probably not going to be
48:11
great, right? That it might be great, but it's
48:14
going to need some changes, right?
48:15
So I say if you're thinking about dropping a book, I'm like,
48:17
let's say December 1st, maybe try to have the first proof in
48:20
your hands by the middle of October.
48:22
So you go back and forth and make some changes and get it
48:25
right by your release date, right?
48:27
It might be minor, but the things just always take a little
48:29
longer than you think. Just realize that first one,
48:32
once that initial kind of rush of emotions leaves, then it's
48:35
time to do some editing and make some changes and realize that it
48:37
might be version two or three. That's the one that actually
48:40
goes out for sale. I think it's pretty rare.
48:42
The first one is perfect for it for anybody.
48:45
Yeah. Yeah, and I know, like I think I
48:47
heard on your second book you did all the internal formatting
48:50
yourself, right. And in case you know that.
48:52
So I, I did that too. And I was, I was so worried when
48:55
I got that first copy that it was gonna just look completely
48:58
different than what I wanted and just could be messed up.
49:00
But most of it was was right. But again, like you're saying,
49:03
there's gonna be so many small little things you find that you
49:05
need to kind of tweak or, or correct to definitely give
49:08
yourself a little bit time before actually publishing.
49:10
Yeah. The last question I was is as we
49:13
talked about a lot of different things in your career and now
49:17
making this change, when, when do you feel closest to your
49:21
purpose in coaching or teaching or just any aspects of your
49:24
career? They're appreciated.
49:26
I think I feel the closest when I see people I've either coach,
49:30
mentored, taught in the classroom, do the thing they
49:33
want to do, right? So I think in the short term, if
49:36
there's a baseball player that you work with a lot and he hits
49:38
a home run and he crosses home plate, he's looking for you in
49:42
the dugout. That's really awesome, right?
49:44
And that's great. Being a part of championship
49:46
team in any capacity is really great.
49:48
But then the things that I've hit me as I've gotten older is
49:51
the longer term success, right? Like you were an impact on
49:55
someone's college athletic experience when they were 22 and
49:58
now you see him at a basketball game and alumni event and you're
50:00
35 and they have a wife and kids and they're doing great in the
50:05
finance world or whatever might be and you're you're remedy some
50:08
old times and tell you when the impact you had on them.
50:12
I think that's really one of the things that you got to stay in
50:14
coaching for a while for that to happen.
50:15
I mean, I've been lucky where a lot of our alumni stay in New
50:19
Jersey. So I might be out with my my
50:21
wife and daughter pretty recently read outlet mall at the
50:24
Lakey outlet and one of the ex soccer players that hadn't seen
50:27
by 10 years came over with his yet his son in the stroller and
50:30
we're talking and I was telling my wife and my daughter like
50:33
when the impact I had, and it was just like a really cool
50:36
thing that you can't in his cliche, but you can't buy that
50:39
experience, right. There's no there's no Big East
50:41
champs you ring that's as good as as that experience, right.
50:44
So I think that that's kind of thing seeing people succeed and
50:47
and and them telling you you were some part in their success.
50:51
I think it's really the, the coolest thing we could we could
50:53
ever do, probably better than than wins and losses and or you
50:56
know, bonus checks or anything like that.
50:58
That's special, Angela. This has been, I think so much
51:02
valuable information both for coaches, for athletes and their
51:06
and their parents, whoever is listening.
51:07
I think there's a lot of different things so many
51:09
different people can take from what you've shared today.
51:11
If people wanted to find your book, where should they go?
51:15
And then also they wanted to just check out more of what
51:17
you're doing with social media or, or anything else there,
51:20
where, where can they go to find that information?
51:22
Get to that in one second. I got to bring this on because
51:24
I've been looking at it all podcast.
51:26
Is that a Damian Lillard jersey behind you?
51:28
It is. What's your connection to him?
51:31
Or do you, did you worry him at some point, you know?
51:32
Well, so when I was at Weber State where he went, so I was
51:36
shanked upstairs so he would he would actually come back.
51:39
You know, as he talked about athletes that really ingrained
51:43
themselves into community. He obviously people see in the
51:48
NBA his level of loyalty, like was it the Blazers?
51:51
But he has that same thing as Weber State where like, it was
51:54
like it was still the head coach I worked with.
51:57
He actually retired after I, I left there.
51:59
But he had been the head coach for 16 years.
52:01
So he was their coach. The associate head coach
52:03
actually took over as the coach now.
52:05
So it was the same Staffs. And he would always, he would
52:08
come back and every other year he'd put on an alumni game and
52:11
he would play in the alumni game there and bring back all the
52:13
alumni. And there'd be, you know, I have
52:15
7000 fans come watch it out and have a big event during the
52:18
summer. But he would come and work out
52:20
there too and just train with this trainer for a whole week
52:23
and then, you know, help bring him in the weight room and all
52:26
that stuff. I was able to get that when I
52:28
was there. All right, that's really cool,
52:30
man. Have you ever had any of his
52:31
music over the years? Yeah, we used to play as I
52:33
remember in our some of our pregame music, we used to play
52:35
some of it there, Weber. Great man, I love it.
52:39
So recently I I became a fan of I like I always liked this game.
52:43
I like I liked his mixtapes back in the day.
52:45
And then like he's like he says such a big community guy, I
52:48
guess important. Well, there's a female rapper
52:50
Portland named Wing and he's on her new mixtape and I think
52:53
that's it's kind of like a cool look that he was.
52:55
He's like such a port of the Portland community.
52:56
He's helping up and coming rappers up there how to get to
53:00
the next level, which every time I've ever heard him rap, I've
53:03
been incredibly impressed. So I think a lot of it does seem
53:05
like a cash grab for him. He's doing it, man.
53:07
I think it's it's great. I've been offended by the last
53:09
10 years. But to bring it back back to
53:12
what we're talking about today on LinkedIn on Facebook, it's
53:15
Angelo Gingarelli. You can find out on on Amazon to
53:18
both books are on Amazon.com where my real name Angelo
53:21
Gingarelli, my Instagram is Mr. fifth round Mr. the number #5TH
53:26
RUND. And then if you want to e-mail,
53:28
it's angelo.gingerellie@gmail.com.
53:31
But if you're in the mix to play college athletics and you're
53:34
being recruited, I would say get the book and then feel free to
53:37
reach out with questions after you read it because like you
53:40
said, college elite is such a broad thing.
53:43
I think it's good for the majority of athletes.
53:45
But if you're, you know, maybe you're going in January instead
53:47
of September, Maybe you're, you play a very specific sport that
53:50
might be a little bit different training wise, maybe doing an
53:53
injury already. Those are all jobs we could talk
53:55
about that aren't necessarily addressing the book because
53:57
they're very specific. But yeah, man, the next four
53:59
years are available now. Please reach out.
54:01
I love the thought to your listeners.
54:03
And John, it's been an absolute pleasure.
54:04
Yeah, perfect, man. Thank you again for being being
54:06
on here. This was great.
54:08
And I just hope you continue to find a great situation to get
54:11
settled into this new job. It sounds like you're doing an
54:14
awesome job though of of impacting people throughout all
54:17
your years at Seton Hall. But I know you're going to
54:19
impact those students that I really wanted to be great what
54:21
they do. So so keep keep doing it.
54:23
Sounds great. Thank you so much.