Latest / The Platform: a Michigan High School Powerlifting Association Podcast / Dalton Neitzel, Northwood University | The Platform Episode 7
Transcript
- Chris Whittaker: Welcome to the platform where the stories weigh a ton. This is where some of the MHS PLA's best tell real stories about what it takes to build themselves and their teams under the bar. I'm your co-host Chris Whitaker. We're glad to have you here. Hey, if you're enjoying this show, please make sure you subscribe, follow, and leave a review on all major podcast hosts, including Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Amazon Music, and many more. That support helps us continue to grow and bring the conversations that you want to hear. Right here to the platform. If you'd like to give us feedback or suggest a guest or topic for the show, please email in info at mhspla.com and we'll get back to you. Today's episode, episode number seven, with the head powerlifting coach at Northwood University, Coach Dalton Knightzel. Dalton shares with us all about his program that they're building at Northwood. And here we are back with another episode of the platform where the stories weigh a ton. I'm your cohost as always, Chris Whitaker Dexter high school iron dread strength and conditioning iron dread powerlifting, Michigan high school powerlifting association board member and my cohost, a man celebrating his birthday this week. Our director of the Michigan high school powerlifting association, Mr. Chris Gilm coach. Good to see you again. Step up. Lock in. The bars loaded for episode seven with Coach Dalton Neitzel. Hit that intro music. Chris Gilliam: Hello. Thanks. Appreciate it. Chris Whittaker: Happy birthday. And we have our guest today. He is the head powerlifting coach at Northwood University. His name, Mr. Dalton Netzel. Did I say that correctly, Dalton? Dalton Neitzel: Nitesl, Nitesl, close enough. It's always the EIs that get everybody, but Coach Nitesl. Chris Whittaker: Night's all. Chris Gilliam: Thanks. Chris Whittaker: that I struggle with the English language. ⁓ And they tried to teach me Spanish going up through high school and college. But I said, wait, I haven't mastered this one yet. But coach is here. We're going to talk to him a little bit about his program. you know, correct me if I'm wrong. I should have looked this up, coach. You've already done a season or you're coming into your inaugural season. Dalton Neitzel: I'm Chris Gilliam: No, no, no, no. Dalton Neitzel: Right, Right, right, for sure. Coming into the first season this fall. Yep. So we're starting just the recruiting process for the spring, kind of seeing like what talent's out there, kind of like what Michigan High School has to bring and then starting our season out next fall. Chris Whittaker: And for folks like, I go, I'm from New York. Yes, I've lived in Michigan for nine years, but I'm from New York. ⁓ Northwood University is located where on our hand map. Dalton Neitzel: The hand map, it works great. Everyone makes fun of us for it, but it works great. So if you're looking at close to the Bayside here, this would be about Bay City. Northward is going to be about 30 minutes to the west there. So right across from Saginaw, right across from Bay City there. Chris Whittaker: Saginaw Bay City in that area. All right, cool. I know where that is Bay City John Glenn. I know the the strength coach another strength coach there He's a good dude So I'll kick it to coach Gillum for our first question for you Dalton Dalton Neitzel: Yup. Yep, you know it. For sure. Chris Gilliam: Excellent. Dalton, what drew you to the sport of powerlifting? How did your interest start? Dalton Neitzel: ⁓ man, I love this question. Love this question. ⁓ Back in college actually, so I never power lifted in high school, which is insane to think about. ⁓ But now we're power lifted in high school. ⁓ My sport was football. I was dedicated to football and ended up taking that to the next level for college. And I want to say about sophomore to junior year, ⁓ me and Arumin at the time we played football together, really good friend of mine. He's still involved within the sport, Austin Wilson. He's great guy and We were rooming together and we had this powerlifting club at the time which powerlifting wasn't really a thing I mean Davenport kind of just started their program, but ⁓ Other than that, we didn't really see it in college at all. I mean Davenport was a huge shock to us ⁓ but we decided to kind of take over the club from a five-man team and We built it up ⁓ from the ground up essentially with funding and trying to get some meat scheduled and stuff like that and I just loved it man. It was and incredible to just be in an atmosphere of people that are all willing to push each other and not just the success for themselves, but for the team involvement as well. And that's what kind of drew me into coaching. ⁓ Kind of just wanted to be in that atmosphere again with a great group of people. Chris Whittaker: Awesome. So with that, right, you said you got involved in college. So about how far out here are you from college? When did you graduate? Dalton Neitzel: And then May of 2024. So just shy of two years at this point, which is so crazy to think about that we're now onto coaching our own program and doing it at a collegiate levels and send me. So it's awesome. Chris Whittaker: And you went to Northwood, Northwood alumni. Awesome. Awesome. Coaches got the next one. Dalton Neitzel: Yep, Northport University, yes sir. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. ⁓ so what type of meets did you guys, ⁓ do, did you, did you guys left us APL or was it us PA? What association did you guys left in when you were completely. Us PA. Okay. So with, Dalton Neitzel: It was USPA. Yep. So we did USPA. It was, yeah, it was the easiest for us in that aspect of things. Just seeing like who wanted to compete. It was very individualized on you. Maybe we had like five to seven people compete by the time that me and him left. So just being able to kind of like find out a day that worked best for us as far as training programs, making sure, you know, whoever wanted to compete was ready and then go out there and perform. And that's, yeah, USPA made it super easy in that regard. Chris Gilliam: Okay. So that leads me to kind of what I was wanting to know. Like what type of experience are the lifters in your program? Can they expect like, you know, basically there's your chance to like, you know, talk to the kids out there that might be listening to this. What type of experience are you going to provide? Like how many, how many meets are you guys going to do? Are you competing USA PL? Dalton Neitzel: Absolutely. Yeah, so we are competing in USAPO. ⁓ We plan on doing three to four, depending on elite level competition and what meets we can get into later within the season. Kind of see what works best for us is being able to go up and hit a peak with an athlete, be able to safely bring them back down into a D load and kind of see when the next competition lines for us within that. ⁓ As far as expertise on that side, strength and conditioning is what I went into school for. It's something that I absolutely... Chris Gilliam: If you get a chance. Dalton Neitzel: ⁓ hold close to my heart. love the aspect of being able to break down movement patterns, ⁓ and see like what the biological demands are and be able to do it as efficient as possible. And I think power lifting with it being a sport, you know, focusing on three different lifts to be as optimal as you can mechanically within those lifts. That's where you can really see growth is kind of nitpicking those weaknesses and kind of really seeing the true potential of what athlete like has to hold. Chris Gilliam: Awesome. Chris Whittaker: ⁓ and that's what good training does, right? In any aspect, good training attacks your weak points and helps to strengthen the whole chain, not just doing what you're good at. For your kids that are involved in your program, ⁓ what costs are covered for them? ⁓ Meet registration, memberships, travel, ⁓ what can they expect to have to be financially responsible for themselves versus what does the university cover? Dalton Neitzel: Exactly. Yep. Absolutely. For us as of right now with the budget that we have, ⁓ we're looking at getting uniforms. We're looking at getting belts. We have a contract with Nike as well. So we're looking to get shoes, ⁓ verbally, you know, with a good base, hopefully some medicons there. ⁓ transportation meet registration is also covered within that. ⁓ as far as cost for extra stuff, I would probably say like, if you're looking at knee sleeves, you know, making sure they're within regulation, obviously. making sure they're probably fit with the team uniform. We don't want like, let's say, you know, purple or red, for example, right? When we're ⁓ blue and white. So something that kind of follows within that structure. for the most part, as far as gear, registration, transportation, as far as right now, we have that all covered. We have the budget to do so. Chris Gilliam: ⁓ So are you guys going to have you guys just going to be training with the pounds? Are you guys going to be using kilogram weights? What type of training are you providing? Dalton Neitzel: That's a good question. Yeah. So I actually had a kid come to us recently ⁓ from Troy, Athens, and he came on a visit and he asked the same question. ⁓ I love this kid. He is awesome. He was kind of picking my brain to see, you know, what we have resource to and the type of place, the type of bars. And it was really cool to kind of see a kid in high school that's interested in those things, the little aspects of like what power lifting has to bring. And As of right now, we share the weight room with most of the other athletic teams as well. So kind of looking at what the spectrum of, okay, if we were to bring in kilogram plates, what would that look like budget wise? What would that look like, you know, to the strength and conditioning coach? Would that be something we could do? Preferably, I would love that. Obviously with this being a new program, seeing where our budget's at, seeing what correlates with the rest of the athletic team and what makes sense, right? But that is something that in the further years that it... I think it's detrimental to the competition. That's what you're going to be using in competition. Those are the types of jumps that you're going to be able to take, right? So something that recreates that as real as possible with training makes a huge difference. So that's really something I'm going to be pushing for. Right now we're working with pounds, right? And just kind of like what the athletic facility has to provide. Kind of see what happens in the next couple of years. Chris Gilliam: That sounds good. mean, ⁓ that's my daughter left at USA PL. We only had pounds. We just bought a bunch of little chips that we could add to stuff so we could get to like the kilogram type weights, you know, Dalton Neitzel: Right. Okay, yeah. Right, exactly. I think that's a really good idea, especially for me being a new coach. I'll take all the knowledge I can get and that's perfect. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, cause you can buy a little chips for pretty reasonable amount of money and then you can turn it into a 137 and a quarter if you need to. So they're used to either. Yeah, no problem. Dalton Neitzel: Right, absolutely. I appreciate that, Chris. Chris Whittaker: So for your athletes, ⁓ does the university provide any sort of financial assistance with tuition, room and board, or any of those sort of things? you give them a scholarship? Chris Gilliam: Yeah, go ahead coach. Dalton Neitzel: Yeah, we can. ⁓ We actually had a pretty good prize pool that we were able to pull from this year, which is awesome to say the least when you're taking a chance on a program, right, with a growing sport, there's always some cost consideration that goes into it. There's always someone pulling the lever behind the scenes to make it happen. And for us to be able to have a prize pool, first year we haven't even started yet, and to have money set aside for the athletes ⁓ to show like, how much we appreciate them to be able to come into this university and to play for us, right? I think it's incredible just to be able to help them out ⁓ with university costs. So this year we were able to get scholarship funding for about, I wanna say 12 athletes, which is really awesome for first year. And we only look to build upon that in the next couple of years. Chris Whittaker: Awesome. Because now Northwood is a Division II football school. Dalton Neitzel: Yes, sir. Yep. Chris Whittaker: That's it. That's I thought I was going to say, how does that work with D three? But I'm like, no, that's not a D three school. It's a D two school. Yeah, I'm from New York. I'm learning where everything is and what everybody does. You guys play in the same league as Saginaw Valley state and GBSU and all that, right? There's a, there's a kid there and I think he's still there. He played football for us. Um, his name is Devin Emmerich, a big super heavyweight. No, if you're, if you're running, if you run across them, if you run across, Dalton Neitzel: Right. ⁓ yeah, yes sir. Okay, I I've heard that name before. I've heard that name before. Chris Whittaker: He big cat. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know if he's he had some growing up to do go in there. I'll just say that. So I don't know. I don't know if he's grown or if he's still kind of. But I heard last I heard he wasn't playing football anymore, so that might be somebody already on your campus. Dalton Neitzel: Might have to snag them up, yeah, for sure. Chris Whittaker: At least at least talk with him, especially if you need a super heavy, because I'm sure he's ⁓ still over three bills. Dalton Neitzel: Yeah. Yeah, we could use it, for sure. Chris Whittaker: We had him, we had him and another kid, Cory Baker, who was about the same size as our interior defensive tackles on the 2023 class. So it was hard to run the ball up the middle, middle on us when those two guys were in there. Dalton Neitzel: Oh, 100%. Yeah, not a doubt. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, they're a big son here. Chris Whittaker: Yeah, I'm pretty sure we played against Coach Gillum with those guys that we didn't. Yeah, yeah, we did. Those big cats. right, coach. Coach has the has the next question for you. Dalton Neitzel: Here, members of the hall. Chris Gilliam: Okay, so Northwood University, what types of ⁓ degrees can people get from Northwood University for those that might be thinking about, you know, this is a potential school to attend, especially if you're recruiting them to power lift. Dalton Neitzel: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, Northwood is a big niche for a business school. you're looking at, ⁓ if you're looking at our like top majors, right, we're probably top 10 within the top three of our majors, right, in the country. And you're looking at marketing, you're looking at finance, you're looking at automotive, automotive aftermarket. ⁓ Kind of like the big entrepreneurial idea is that with our curriculum, No matter what you pick, you could go into medical management. You could go into like finance or marketing. It's all based around an entrepreneurial mindset as well. That's taught within the curriculum. So you're getting the bits and pieces and the more broad entrepreneur spectrum in any degree that you choose with that. And that is really our biggest selling point is that we cannot get enough athletes in that have the mindset. that they want to grow, that they want to excel, that they want to be the best that they can be. And we cannot get enough athletes in, which is why we started this program at Northwood for powerlifting, is getting those kids in that have that mindset and are willing to grow not only with on the platform, but later in life, getting a degree that is they're gonna be very successful at, right? So that's the whole gist of why this powerlifting program is even a thing here, is just to get more athletes in that have that mindset. Chris Gilliam: That's good. Chris Whittaker: Absolutely. ⁓ Can any kinesiology? Dalton Neitzel: No kinesiology as far as an undergrad. There is something similar to kinesiology in some sort of management format for a master's degree. That is like brand new. I can't say I know much information on that. Again, that's in our graduate program, ⁓ but maybe something to look into. ⁓ We also offer like a three-in-one program to be able to get your master's program as well, to be able to take the three years for an undergrad and take that extra year to do your graduate, depending on the track. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Dalton Neitzel: ⁓ Which could be an interest to some people that are looking to kind of fast-track and kind of have it all on one bill So something I'm definitely looking, you know get into with that Chris Gilliam: for sure. Chris Whittaker: Awesome. So the next thing we got for you, we're talking about programming. ⁓ How does programming work within your program for your lifters, right? You can break it up by season, summer, fall, winter, spring, just kind of general program, how you do it. Dalton Neitzel: Absolutely. Yeah. So with me having a strength and conditioning background, I'd love to be able to kind of take it from like an annual plan spectrum and kind of be able to break it apart depending on the phase of training. And ⁓ for me right now, looking to get my athletes within the summer programs, get them all on the right track. I think that's the awesome, cool thing about ⁓ us not being NCAA sanctioned is once we kind of get kids along. we can kind of get them on a plan and get them on track, which is really, really cool. I never thought that would be a thing that you could do in college. So getting kids programs right now and to be able to kind of just build them up, going into the summer training, time under tension, to be able to get them into the season. I feel like they're going to be at a really good point, you know, to start pushing power and those types of things. Programming for me really, I'm just taking it in the sense of building them up the best that we can. Coming off of April, coming off their seat. giving a couple weeks to recover and just build them up, get mass, get time under tension. And then we start moving into power, moving things fast with that growth that we've had in the summer and then be able to go into the competition phase, kind of knock down the volume a little bit. ⁓ And then we start focusing on the numbers that matter. Start taking singles for a ride, start getting ready for competition, be able to build them up to that peak phase, bring them down for a week and kind of see where our next competition lies. So that's a little bit of what's going on inside of my head right now. ⁓ Kind of getting that all wrapped up and making sure my kids are all on the same kind of line now that we're all got our athletes in now. Chris Gilliam: All right. That's good stuff. Chris Whittaker: the Western linear, Western linear periodization. Dalton Neitzel: Yes sir, you know it. Chris Whittaker: ⁓ And two, especially if you have some that aren't playing spring sports that are trying to come in, well, now they can start running your programming now. ⁓ We wind up doing that with a lot of kids within our program. Dalton Neitzel: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. We've had a kid. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. There's some kids that we took that were strictly power lifters, um, you know, a year ago and then went to community college, heard about our program. And I think I started a kid out in like February to where I had, I'm like, man, we have like almost an entire year, um, before you're even, you know, on our campus, like we have so much work that we can do at this point in time. So. Um, and he's been, you know, one of my greatest kids as far as dedication, um, you know, sending me videos of every single lift that he's been doing. So we can kind of talk about the breakdown of everything. And so he can get the feel of like being under the bar again, you know, since it was, and that's the, some of the, some of the thing too, is like some of these kids that we've taken on, um, they haven't power lifted in a year or, you know, they went to a community college, you know, wanted to do business, but didn't find anything that really stuck. And now they have Northwood as an opportunity. and they're coming over here and it's like, okay, let's get back in the mode, y'all. Let's get back into the feel of it. Let's get some weight back on, you know, underneath us and let's go. Like let's rock and roll because we have all this time. So why waste it now? Chris Whittaker: Time to build it up. Chris Gilliam: That's great. That's great. So how many, how many lifters are technically in your program right now? How many new kids are going to be joining you in the fall? Give us an idea of where you're at with your numbers. Dalton Neitzel: Exactly. Yep. Okay. Yeah, so we have walk-ons. We have people that we have underneath scholarship at this point. And we have kids that were already within Northwood that we kind of, you know, they've power, had power lifting experience, they've had success in high school and they might've taken a year off and we kind of picked them up. ⁓ If we're looking at the people that we've had on campus, I believe we have around eight or nine walk-ons. We have about three, so that brings us to 12. And then I think we're signing five or six. So in total, that's about 16, 17 there, if my math is right, which is a really good start. I mean, with the right group of people, the right foundation, to have 17 kids off the bat that all are under the same bowl, have the fire in their eyes that they wanna lift, and they wanna do this as a collegiate sport, I think that's an incredible start. Couldn't ask for anything better. Chris Gilliam: Okay. So what's your split gender wise? Like are you looking to have equal boys and girls down the road? Where's your split at with the genders right now? Dalton Neitzel: Yeah, definitely down the road. ⁓ One of our goals this year was to have more of split program ⁓ with Northwood being a niche. It's one of those things that we figured out this year just through recruiting that our recruiting efforts towards the female population. There's girls that want to lift as far as lifting for powerlifting in college on the business side of things. ⁓ It's not as big of a pool, right? So kind of taking our recruiting efforts and see what we need to do next year. to fill that gap and girls that want to, ⁓ anything in business, finance, entrepreneurial, that sort of thing. As far as our split, I believe we'll be six girls as of this weekend ⁓ and then about 11 guys with that. So ⁓ kind of more split, farther apart than what we want, but in further years kind of seeing like what recruiting strategies would work to kind of get the people that we need, the girls that we need and. kind of go from there. All learning experiences first year. So I'm really happy with what we did. Chris Gilliam: And I'm assuming everything you guys will do will be raw. You're not doing equipped, correct? Dalton Neitzel: Yep, yep, all my athletes, they've all lifted raw. If it's people that have been out of the sport for a little bit, or it's people just coming out of high school, yeah, our whole team will be in the raw division. Chris Whittaker: So powerlifting is a sport that many experience failures. It could be an attempt for a PR or a record and that failure could be the difference between winning and losing as an individual or within the team. What is your favorite failure or a setback that set you up later for success? It doesn't have to be powerlifting related. It could be from something else or just in life. What's your favorite failure that you then took to success? Dalton Neitzel: Yep. Yeah, I heard this question on the last episode and I was definitely excited and excited to answer on it. So my greatest failure actually comes from the academic side. So for me, high school, ⁓ all I cared about was sports, right? And your parents will always say that I'll always take you, you know, so far. You got to have a backup plan. You have to have something that you're excited about to learn and to learn more of. And for me, in college, I went for engineering my first year. Chris Gilliam: Thank Dalton Neitzel: Obviously we are far from that at this point, but I learned the hard way that for me with engineering, I wanted to do it for the money. I knew people would be very successful. For me, I came from a small farm family in Auburn, Michigan, which is in between Midland and Bay City. It's all farm fields as far as you can see. So for me, I was the third one in my family to go to college and to finish a degree. And for me, that meant a lot, but... for engineering, wasn't for me. And it took me a while to understand that it isn't just for the money. You have to love what you do. You have to love the people that are around because then you will want to learn. You'll want to grow. ⁓ And my first semester, I didn't do so hot. I will say I was not interested in the slightest bit. Obviously, it was something that did not make me excited to go to class too every single morning. ⁓ But for me, I always thought that Man, like my family might look at me as a failure at this point. I'm not doing something that might not make a lot of money. Strength and conditioning at the time, super unknown. Like there's a couple college programs with even Ohio and Michigan that offered it, but it's something that I was like, man, this stuff is super interesting. How cool is it? Like the physics of the human body, you know, we can figure out how to train and how we can load and how we can become stronger, how we can, you know, prevent injuries within sports. That's super fascinating, it's super cool. So I took it from the spectrum of my greatest failure was definitely, you know, taking it from a super low standpoint of, it's not all about money. It's something that you want to be happy to do. And, you know, coming to see my kids on campus, you know, at Northwood, you know, going to the weight room, I cannot wait for the day that we can let loose in there. But for me, it's truly, you know, doing something that you love because you're only going to learn and grow from there. Chris Whittaker: Yeah, sometimes it takes that it takes going on walking down that path to find out that that's not the path you want to keep walking down. So now we've got to either backpedal and find another one or branch off of the one you're on to get to where you want to be so. Dalton Neitzel: Yep. Yup. Exactly right. Chris Gilliam: for sure. What's the hardest thing to coach or teach in the sport of powerlifting in your opinion? Dalton Neitzel: my opinion, I would definitely say the deadlift. I'm sure that you guys have seen in your years some pretty funky deadlifts that work, ⁓ but kind of scare you a little bit if it doesn't, right? ⁓ And the aspect of just mechanically making sure that everything's in line in the sense of a good brace, hip tension, and making sure that our spine is loaded properly. In high school, I know it can be Chris Gilliam: you Dalton Neitzel: awkward to kind of figure out how your body moves in those ways when you first start getting into weightlifting. And I think deadlift is definitely one of those tedious ones that it takes reps and reps and kind of going over some of maybe the same things with kids and kind of figuring out, you know, how they move and getting them to understand like to get in the right body position can be a struggle sometimes, but sometimes it's often the most rewarding because when they finally get it. They're like, ⁓ my gosh, we've been working on this for months. I cannot believe I didn't feel it in my back. And you're like, isn't that amazing? We talked about these things for months and it finally clicked. Now we don't have back pain. That's so nuts. So I'd definitely say the Deadlift. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Awesome. Chris Whittaker: Well, for sure with the deadlift, I think, and I forget who said it. Maybe it was Dave Tate. forget. Even though it's called the deadlift, the deadlift doesn't have the fear of death like the other two lifts. Dalton Neitzel: Yes, yes, that's really good, yeah. Chris Whittaker: where the bar could fall on you. loading, you know, they tend to want to load that bar a little bit more because it doesn't come with that fear of death. Dalton Neitzel: Exactly right. Exactly right. Yup. They get a little bit more courage from it, that's for sure. Chris Gilliam: Hehehehe. Chris Whittaker: Yeah, yeah. You know the the back rounding and a lot of that stuff so. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Ha ha ha. Dalton Neitzel: It scares me, man. It scares me. Chris Gilliam: ⁓ yeah. Well, I think a lot of, ⁓ lifters, especially if they're newer to the sport, they don't understand the concept of how you use a belt and brace yourself properly. I mean, they, tend to over tighten their belts and cut off their circulation. They can't even like brace their abdominal muscles into the belt enough to create. Chris Whittaker: Let's, yeah. Dalton Neitzel: It's a fashion accessory, right? It's what's supposed to be. Yep. Chris Gilliam: the tension that they need in order to perform at their best. So, I mean, there's a lot of little things. There's so many little technicalities on what appears to be the easiest lift to do. Dalton Neitzel: Exactly right. I completely agree with that. Chris Whittaker: We could break down the deadlift for the next hour here. But the next phase of the show Dalton is our speed set questions. These are kind of like rapid fire real quick. And coach and I alternate back and forth asking you these and just real quick answers on them. Which you prefer your favorite lift squat bench press or deadlift? Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Dalton Neitzel: Dead look, for sure. Chris Gilliam: Do you prefer low bar or high bar squats? Dalton Neitzel: Hi, Burr Squad. Chris Whittaker: Sumo or conventional deadlift. Dalton Neitzel: Ooh, I love a good conventional, I will say. Chris Gilliam: Do you prefer a one rep max or a rep PR? Dalton Neitzel: ⁓ Rep PR, just the risk reward of it. Still get the same numbers, risk reward, especially these young kids. ⁓ Definitely a rep PR. Chris Whittaker: Your best accessory exercise for the squat. Dalton Neitzel: Ooh, squat. Split squats. Barbell split squats. Chris Gilliam: All right, best accessory exercise for bunch press. Dalton Neitzel: Skullcrushers. Chris Whittaker: growing the triceps and the best accessory movement that you have in your toolbox for the deadlift. Dalton Neitzel: You know it. Ooh. Could go RDLs or I could go Gorilla Rose. I love Barbell Gorilla Rose. I think those are awesome. Chris Gilliam: describe a barbell gorilla roll for those that don't know it. Dalton Neitzel: For sure. Yeah. So it's very similar ⁓ to a barbell row in general, instead of kind of starting from an upright row where if you're right above the knees or right below the knees, you start from the ground. So you have the leverage of getting that head tension in that body angle. Like a deadlift, you might be a little bit more horizontal with your chest to the ground, but the same tension applies of getting the slack out of the bar, a really strong pull that's horizontal. And I think it translates great into getting power off the floor for deadlifts. Chris Gilliam: Okay, great. Chris Whittaker: Kind of like a dead stop on the floor row. Dalton Neitzel: Exactly. Yep. Love it. Chris Whittaker: And there's a part of me that wants to program those because every time we program a traditional barbell row, our kids like to just start Dalton Neitzel: Yep, coming up. Exactly. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: Keep your back flat, keep your belly braced, touch the floor. Dalton Neitzel: Yep, don't move it. You don't need to move your back or any of your body position. Just here, here. That's all it needs to work. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: I like that one. I like that one. All right, Dalton. So we're getting close on time here. ⁓ coach first, do you have any additional questions you'd like to ask? Chris Gilliam: Yeah, that's good. ⁓ I just want, mean, you know, I'm, I'm from Flint myself and I taught 20 plus years in Bertrand. So I'm familiar. had a lot of my former ⁓ football players went to Northwood university. So I'm familiar. Coach Whitaker, you've never been there, right? All right. So just so people out there that haven't been there. One Midland's a great town. It's one of the healthiest towns in the America. Dalton Neitzel: Okay, yeah. Chris Whittaker: Nope. Chris Gilliam: All right. They have so many outdoor activities that they do in parks and stuff. I've seen it ranked in some magazines. One of the best, healthiest cities in America is what it was. but Northwood university campus is a gorgeous campus. It's in the woods and it's just beautiful. And they got great facilities there. I'm sure they've updated some other buildings, but I used to go to a basketball camp there every summer when I was in high school. Dalton Neitzel: Okay, yeah, for sure. Chris Gilliam: So I have a lot of with Northwood University and it's changed since I was in school, obviously. They got a great indoor facility, nice weight room I've seen. ⁓ So it's a great campus. I think if you definitely are thinking about business, is definitely one of the best schools you can go to and the ⁓ connections that are there that I'm pretty sure there's some really good business people with backgrounds and ties to Northwood University. I think I've heard like the Illich family and Monahan family and stuff like that. So yeah, there's, some big names involved in there. So they're definitely a great place to go. If you're interested in that and to now offer powerlifting, I think that's pretty exciting. That's great opportunity. I'm, excited for you and I hope everything goes well and just remember you're a young guy. Dalton Neitzel: Yes, sir. Yep. Yes, sir. Chris Gilliam: It's okay to make mistakes. ⁓ the Michigan High School Powerlifting Association is a resource for you to use as well. Even though you never competed in it, now you're gonna be recruiting the kids that we're helping develop. ⁓ So whether they're in our programs or attending our meets. So always reach out if you need something, we're here to help in any way we can. So thank you guys, appreciate it. Dalton Neitzel: Yeah, I appreciate that coach. Thank you so much. Chris Whittaker: All right, Dalton. So the last thing here, we give you the floor. If there's anything that we haven't talked about yet that you'd like to share with our audience, the time is yours. Dalton Neitzel: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Kind of like going off of Coach's point ⁓ with Midland and Northwood University, number one safest campus in the country, which is huge. ⁓ Like you said, kind of its own little neck of the woods. ⁓ A lot of the reason people go to Northwood is the aspect of the connections. Kind of like you said, like with the Illidge family, ⁓ things like that. There's a lot of opportunity for scholarship money through private donors and making amazing connections that could find you an incredible career ⁓ just out of college. And I know for myself, ⁓ being young, just coming out of college, I know how hard it is ⁓ for kids finding a job and finding something that not only a job, but a job that they're passionate in and want to make a career. If you're interested in business, by all means, like scheduling a visit. Finding out more about the university, going to events, just seeing like what's out there and not only Northwood but just in general, just to see like what you're interested in. I know it can make a huge difference to find your passion and try to be the best that you can be about it. I think it's so important, especially this day and age. You have to be all in if you want to find a job that you're going to like, right? So I think that's all I would have to say in that regard, but. ⁓ Definitely keep grinding if you're struggling through school, because I know it can be hard and like there's nothing on the other side of it. But once you get through, you find a job that you really like, you're going to realize it's all worth it. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, whenever you guys post stuff for Northwood University, make sure you tag the MHSPLA's socials as well so that we can get that information and we'll share with as many people as we can and all of our followers can follow along with you. Because we wish you nothing but great success. ⁓ So thank you once again for being with us. Dalton Neitzel: Absolutely. Thank you guys so much for the opportunity. Chris Whittaker: Dalton, if people want to follow you, follow your program, get in touch with you, how can they do that? Dalton Neitzel: Absolutely. So, um, my DMS are always open. Um, all my social media is going to be Dalton underscore night. So just like how my name is on the screen. Um, as far as our powerlifting account, it's going to be Northwood PWR LFT as far as our powerlifting page, that's going to be coming shortly. We're going to have some content kind of dropping, um, with some of our commits, um, some of our signees kind of a meet the team and we'll have more information on. Meats coming up and all that good stuff. So looking forward to that. Chris Whittaker: I happen to give Dalton a follow and the Northwood powerlifting program follow with that and keep up with them. Again, echoing what coach said, we wish you nothing but the best. Anything we can do to help support you and what you're doing. You know, the message is the same from us to all the universities that want to host a team. We want to help be the gateway that brings them to you guys or to the USAPL or USPA, whatever it is that keeps kids ⁓ loving this sport and doing it. So thank you for your time. Dalton Neitzel: Absolutely. Yeah, really applaud what you guys are doing with the series. This is awesome, Chris Gilliam: Thank you. Chris Whittaker: Until next time, this has been the platform where the stories weigh a ton.