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BONUS: The Podcast About Podcasts – Featuring On Track · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  It's bonus time. Here we go.
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  This month in February of 2025, we are doing a podcast about
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  podcast. We want to introduce you to
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  other track and field themed podcasts that are out there that
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  might be great for your listening pleasure.
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  So all month we're introducing a new podcast each and every day,
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  showing you who they are, what they are, how they are, why they
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  got started and even their favorite episodes and most
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  popular. And hopefully this adds to your
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  podcast listening library. So here we go.
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  Let's get started with today's podcast about podcast.
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  All right, let's get into today's podcast to introduce you
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  to. So why don't we start with, why
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  don't you introduce yourself, kind of give a 30,000 foot level
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  of like what your relationship to our great sport is and of
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  course, give us the name of the podcast that we're talking about
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  today. Absolutely.
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  My name is JT Ayres and I'm a coach.
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  I'm a track and field fanatic. I coach track and field to the
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  high school level and the podcast that I get to host is on
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  track and field. It's pretty easy to say and
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  pretty easy to get to do. I love doing it.
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  I love my very next question for you.
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  So what is the significance of the name?
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  How do we come up with the name of the On Track and Field
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  podcast? Well, it's the company that pays
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  me to do the podcast, so it's pretty easy.
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  On track and field. Years ago, they came to me and
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  they said, hey, we want to do a podcast.
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  We're and the CEO of the company's name, C Steve
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  Ringgold, He's a coach in the Northern California area.
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  I live in Southern California and we've kind of met briefly at
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  track meets like every coach does.
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  And he asked me if I'd be interested.
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  And I told him, no, there's no way everyone gets to do a
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  podcast. I don't want to do a podcast.
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  And it was right around the time of COVID.
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  He said, well, I bought this company and I just want to make
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  the company more about not just track and field equipment.
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  I want to do education, I want to be out there.
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  I want publicity and I want people to know this is a good
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  place to do business. And I was like, oh, well, I've
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  never heard of you, I'm not a customer of you, so let's talk.
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  And we basically kind of came to the conclusion that I already do
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  this. I go and I just try to find the
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  great minds of track and field because I'm not smart enough to
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  know these things. I didn't was not an Olympian and
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  I well read, but yet the best way to be, I don't know, maybe
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  knowledgeable about the things that you don't know is you go
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  find good mentors. And I've been a direct recipient
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  of some of the great minds of track and field and they have
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  liked me enough to share some of their stuff and my athletes
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  benefit from it. So I'm going to do this anyways.
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  I might as well do it for this company, dude podcast and we're
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  all at home during COVID. So let's just do this and then
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  100 and gosh, I think we're on 40 episodes later.
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  It's been such a joy. So long winded answer to your
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  question. Yeah, I on trackandfield.com,
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  they asked me to do this, the only sponsor and I get to do it
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  with them and for them. And glad to say I'm a customer
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  through and through now. Absolutely, man, love them love
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  they're great partners of ours here at Gil Athletics.
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  So definitely love what they're doing.
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  Love what Steve Ringgold does. Talk to us about describe the
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  style. Is this a a solo podcast?
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  Are you an interview style? Talk to us about kind of the
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  style that you go for with the show.
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  Well. One of the great benefits of the
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  podcast is that Steve Ringgold is the voice of 100 or so
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  syndicate radio shows across the country.
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  That is his actual job besides owning on track and field and
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  relay, batons.com and all these other things.
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  He is a serial entrepreneur. But the thing about Steve is
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  that Steve said, hey, we did a lot of research, especially when
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  radio and except for Joe Rogan, people do not really listen all
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  the way through to a podcast. We want to make this at least,
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  you know, edible enough where people will start and finish and
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  not stop the the podcast mid through.
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  So let's make it 18 to 20 minutes.
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  That's what the research shows. I was like, OK, that seems easy
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  enough. Well, Mike, you do a podcast, it
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  is very difficult to either stop someone talking or want to be
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  done talking to these amazing, incredible people.
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  So but we do keep it around 18 to 20 minutes.
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  Sometimes if it's, especially if it's live, we'll go an hour.
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  But those are different circumstances.
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  The podcast is just me hosting it it we've had some incredible
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  athletes, coaches, biomechanist, nutritionist.
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  So anybody that allows us to listen to the sport and it make
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  us better. You could be an athlete, you
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  could be a coach, you could be a fan.
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  It's for you. So interview style, You you you
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  work on interviews for your show.
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  That's the main style. Yep, their interviews.
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  I host and I ask questions and I would say this their
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  conversations because I'm a track coach and I understand
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  it's not the LA Times or USA TODAY asking, you know,
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  question, answer, question, answer.
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  This is just me having conversations at a high, high
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  level, but also sometimes at a low level just to allow our
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  audience to gauge all of it and all of it be, I don't know,
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  valuable. Awesome.
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  You've already talked about when it started and why the
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  motivation behind it. So let's talk about, you know,
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  in business and you know, Steve Ringgold has this as well.
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  You know, we sell to a lot of different people, you know,
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  parents have bought stuff from us, construction companies,
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  things like that. But our ideal customer, like who
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  we think about when we're designing products, marketing,
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  etcetera is the high school and college track coach.
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  The same thing for the podcast, you have an ideal listener
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  profile. A lot of people might partake in
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  the show, but you are targeting you're talking to 1 certain type
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  of person out there. Who is it for the On Track and
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  Field podcast? The great question, it's for the
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  track and field community. You can be a casual fan, you
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  could be an athlete, you can be a coach, or you can be another
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  Olympian. The idea of the podcast is to
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  give you something that you're going to walk away with and it's
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  going to be valuable and meaningful right away.
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  Here's an example. Years ago, and I know every
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  track coach has done something similar to this, I walked up to
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  my hurdlers and I was like, hey, hey, who's your favorite
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  hurdler? They could not name one.
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  I was like, who has the world record?
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  They could not name them. It's like this is a problem.
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  If I'm going to coach a sport and my athletes are going to
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  fall in love with this thing, which you and I both are in love
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  with this sport, greatest sport in the world.
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  I thought maybe this podcast can be a place where people can have
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  the opportunity to gain a greater knowledge or
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  understanding about who these people are.
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  So now my athletes have an opportunity and the parents have
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  an opportunity to learn things from coaches, learn things from
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  Olympians. We've had Noah Lyles in the
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  podcast, I think five times, right, Benjamin?
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  Twice. I've had a whole group of
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  coaches that continue to come on.
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  We talked everything from nutrition and sleep to the
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  proper way to lift and apply force to the ground with your
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  foot distance running. It's one of those things where I
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  can then grab this huge list of different podcasts, interviews,
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  18 to 20 minutes at a time and just give it out to people.
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  And my athletes benefit from it. And I know that.
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  But I also know because other coaches grab me all the time and
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  say, man, you've really helped my culture.
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  You've really helped reinforce the things that I'm saying.
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  And now I get to hear, you know, Michelle Freeman, the relays
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  coach of the USA TODAY or USA Track and Field.
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  And then I can hear her say that therefore it's better for my
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  athletes. My athletes are listening to it.
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  So within the last year, we've really seen an increase in, I
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  would say, younger audience members.
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  And that's been really, really cool.
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  And that's not just my own children listening to it,
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  because I know they don't. Love it.
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  Yeah, they hear that voice enough, right?
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  Absolutely. What has been your favorite
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  episode? And more than likely these two
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  is kind of a part A Part B are not the same.
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  What has maybe been the most popular, you know, as far as
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  most listened to. So what's been your most
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  favorite episode or episodes? It's hard to have the choose one
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  of your children, right? All these 100 plus are your
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  children. What's been your favorite and
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  maybe what's been the most popular?
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  That's one of the hardest questions I think you ever could
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  ask. And because if I asked you the
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  same thing, you would say, oh, that's a tough one.
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  So here, let me answer with this.
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  Sometimes the most engaging, fun, worthwhile conversations I
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  have may not also be the most popular.
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  And sometimes the ones I thought, man, I don't think I
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  did a good job. I'm not sure my really helped my
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  guests get out what they wanted to say or was most meaningful
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  and I'm completely wrong and that they happen to have the
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  most downloads. So here's some examples.
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  If I write the word shin splint on any podcast and I've done it
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  three times with three different people, those things blow up.
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  I, it's, it's astronomical how much the shin splint is a
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  universal problem. And yet people really, really
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  want some sound advice. That also means they're sharing
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  it. So they're sharing these things.
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  The Olympians actually do not get a lot of clicks.
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  I hate to say that on air, but they just don't.
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  I do think because the coaches aren't necessarily interested in
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  in in Olympian's point of view, they are more interested in
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  someone that has maybe a PhD, you know, or someone that is has
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  a greater understanding that can help them in the immediate now
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  with their team. So my favorite one, I just was
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  in Las Vegas with a Entertainment Group and all the
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  different people that they, I would say manage, They put me in
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  a suite and I had my podcast. And Steve was right next to me
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  with the sound engineer right next to him.
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  And we were on a couch with two microphones.
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  And Rye Benjamin sat down and we've known each other
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  previously. And I just say, hey, man, let's
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  just get into it. I asked him out the four by
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  four. And for 33 minutes, he walked me
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  through every single moment of that race.
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  Dude, the guy only ran for 43.1 seconds, but yet he walked me
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  through every single moment of that.
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  I was captivated. I was just a kid in a candy
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  store just watching one of my favorite athletes talk about one
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  of the most amazing things that I saw on TV that summer while he
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  was in Paris doing the Olympics, winning a gold medal.
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  And then he walked me through the net.
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  You know, the race of the hurdle race and how he did it and how
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  he overcame things. And Mike, I cannot tell you
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  about how joyful it was. And you know what, if I didn't
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  even do a, the podcast just gave me a reason to sit in that seat.
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  I don't even care if I'm getting paid.
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  I don't care if people clicked. I was sitting there listening to
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  one of the greatest conversation stories I've ever heard in my
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  life. And I'll have that the rest of
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  my life. It was, it was amazing.
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  That's an that's an awesome experience that that really is
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  cool. I love that for you.
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  You know, we certainly have some fans of your podcast that have
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  been with you since episode 1 and have listened to 100 and
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  plus episodes. But more likely for most
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  podcasts, you know, people come in and out of our shows, right?
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  They they find a topic like shouldn't split.
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  So they're going to listen to those.
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  And maybe they don't want to listen to the Olympians or
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  whatnot. But you have been that behind
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  the mic on 100 plus of them and seen a lot of the stuff that
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  goes behind the scenes that you have to do to actually produce
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  and create a podcast. What have you learned over these
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  past several years from doing the podcast?
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  Not necessarily like a coach taught you a new relay thing,
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  but like the the whole kit and kaboodle What what made me have
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  you? Have you grown as the host?
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  My wife is one of the most amazing people in the world and
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  she'll listen to the podcast and give me feedback and I'll take
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  that feedback. I've also listened to myself on
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  the podcast and I try to do it every episode and that is one of
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  the most excruciating, hardest things you would ever do.
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  I hate hearing my weird raspy voice.
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  But yet the one thing that I've learned setting the guest up to
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  get their best out of them. And I think a good coach would
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  do that for any athlete. So I almost feel like a coach
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  during these 1820 minute podcast episodes where I'm helping the
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  guest without them knowing it, get the best out of them.
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  And that means asking a question that's engaging, it's worth
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  their while, It's something they never even maybe answered before
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  because I want the listener to have to hear something from this
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  person. And I'm trying to draw out that
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  passion and that energy and then excitement out of them.
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  So I think asking questions without explaining myself too
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  much. And I've learned that maybe
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  sometimes preparation, which I always do, doesn't really help.
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  Sometimes understanding the person and then asking questions
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  just because you in the moment, but because you know this
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  person, you've done the research necessarily not sitting down and
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  having a list of questions, which I've actually kind of got
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  away from. Yeah, I love that.
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  That's great, great growth. And it's certainly, you can hear
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  that and see that in your style through Episode 1 from 2:50 to
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  100 to 150. You definitely have grown and
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  become a really, really good interview.
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  Really, really proud of you for that.
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  All right, last two questions here.
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  Where can we find the podcast? Are you exclusive to any certain
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  podcast app? Are you on YouTube?
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  Where can we find the podcast? We're on every single podcast
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  platform, you know, and whenever I try to throw things out there,
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  it's on Spotify or Apple. Those shouldn't be the top two.
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  We are not on YouTube. One of the things that the the
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  guests have really loved is not being on camera.
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  I mean, I was Carl Lewis was in his kitchen while his wife was
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  doing dishes behind him. And I, I think I had a couple of
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  guests that were literally like no makeup, completely sweaty,
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  gross hair, disheveled, and they were like on their phones.
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  Like I'm so glad I'm not in film right now.
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  I'm like, yeah, yeah, it's okay. So we're not on YouTube.
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  I think one day that'd be nice to get on there on
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  trackandfield.com is the website where you want to go to to for
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  the actual, the actual company and you will not regret it.
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  I mean, my wife is a runner. She's not a coach, but she goes
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  there and gets all her marathon running shoes.
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  So it's for the average person, but also for everybody else,
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  especially track coaches. And they sell a lot of Gill,
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  which I have also purchased as a track coach.
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  So thank you for my pole vault landing system.
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  Thank you, brother. Thank you.
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  So with with all that said, I think you know, you can just
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  Google it. I mean it's so easy to find on
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  track and field is just the name of it and it's easy to find.
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  Yep. You know, we know that the
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  average podcast listener listens to between 7:00 and 10:00,
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  different podcast shows out there.
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  Assuming this is an assumption since you're a podcast host that
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  you maybe listen to podcast yourself, what's your favorite
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  podcast that's not track related?
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  Now you're asking about my Spotify rap.
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  Yeah, when I, when I look at my Spotify rap, the RE Watchables,
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  that's my favorite one. And then all the rest of them
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  have nothing to do with track and field.
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  They have everything to do with just being dumb funny.
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  I really like my brother. My brother and me.
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  Those three dudes are so funny. ANYWAYS, yeah, I do a lot of
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  audio books as well as podcasts, and I've gone away with music,
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  which I have. But it's funny when I have those
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  workouts now, maybe because I'm older, the workouts are now not
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  heavy metal in your face screaming music.
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  It's now more a sermon, you know, by Tim Keller, or it's an
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  audio book, or it's going to be something like a podcast that
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  has nothing to do with anything. It's just fun and it's noise in
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  the background. Yeah, I love that very much.
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  All right, listener, so here you see we're at the end of our show
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  here. So here's my challenge to you.
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  Press pause on today's podcast and go in the same app there.
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  You're what you're listening to right now and just search on
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  track and field podcast. I bet you could even search JT
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  airs and that will pop it up. But go, here's the way I kind of
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  like to explore a new podcast 1 is go to their latest show
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  that'll kind of give you what their latest flavor and style
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  and format kind of is. But then you heard some of his
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  favorites and most popular ones out there.
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  Go check out, go back to the back library and check those
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  out. And so you can see kind of the
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  highlights of what they've done here over the past several years
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  with the on track and field podcast.
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  And then hit that subscribe button because then you'll be
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  automatically notified and download when they have their
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  next episode that comes up. And it's going to be highly
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  worth it. I hope this show piques your
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  interest. I hope it explores and opens up
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  your mind with some track field stuff and it's the right thing
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  to add to your library. So JT, thank you so much for
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  being here today. And guys, thank you for being
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  here and press and play.