Latest / The Strength In Numbers Podcast / EP 13: Josh Bray | Programming for the Individual in Large Group Settings

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EP 13: Josh Bray | Programming for the Individual in Large Group Settings · The Strength In Numbers Podcast

0:00
There's muscular, there's hybrid, and there's elastic
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athletes. So right away, like we can
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associate the type of person they are anthropometrically and
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their outputs with how they treat the gym.
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Now, not only can we make program decisions based on the
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type of body that they have their their point in maturity,
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chronological or biological age, but we can also start making
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decisions based on how they even perceive the gym and themselves
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in the gym. Let's get them into a
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competitive environment and see how competing and being good
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against their peers gets them engaged and everything as OK,
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now, now I'm here. All right, this was fun.
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I'm I'm having a good time. Yeah, sure.
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I guess I'll hop on the squad racks.
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If you want it. You're not going to concern
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yourself with what it takes. You're just going to do it.
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And ultimately as a as a strength coach, that's that's on
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us. That's our onus to to create an
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environment to drive engagement and educate in a way that gets
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kids to commit to the process all the way through.
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Welcome to the Strength in Numbers podcast.
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I'm your host John Bloom and today's guest is Josh Brake.
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Josh is the head strength coach at Bishop's College School and
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Universal Academy in Canada while also doing private
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training and consulting. We talk a lot about how he
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buckets his athletes into 3 archetypes and programs based on
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both their physiological and psychological makeups.
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Josh also dives into how to actually execute this in a large
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group setting effectively. We also discuss when and why he
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uses games in training, the importance of athlete education,
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long term athlete development and much more.
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Enjoy the episode, Josh, man, I'm, I'm really excited to have
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you here. Really grateful to get to have
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this conversation with you. Could you start out like, like,
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who are you? What are you doing?
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I know we just, you know, you're doing a lot of things.
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So just dig into that a little bit.
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Yeah, absolutely. So currently Sports performance
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director at a new Academy here in in the region called
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Universal Academy Sherbrooke head strength and conditioning
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coach at Bishop's College School.
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It's a, an international boarding school.
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Been there for the better part of 10 years as a sports coach.
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Go on at about 8 years now SNC in some capacity or another.
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And then here in the summertime, like a lot of US strength
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coaches just reaching out, branching out in the area,
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working with a couple hockey academies and spent a couple
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years at the local university working with the men's rugby
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team, kind of where I got a, a good bit of my start in the
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field, if you will, working with some older, more mature
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athletes. I spent some the time there as a
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sport coach and as SNC coach and then, yeah, that's kind of where
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I'm at right now, running the business at the best of my
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abilities and that's all I got on my plate, right?
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Now that's awesome. No, that, that's good.
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I didn't even know about kind of you having your background and
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being a sport coach too. But I think, you know, I'm sure
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that that just helps you so much and what you're trying to do
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both with communication, but also just like how you're
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getting those different pieces to collaborate together as you
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run the strength side of other stuff too.
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Absolutely, Absolutely. Started at a like a relatively
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young age and we'll get into this, but the uniqueness of, of
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growing up at this boarding school, working at it, going to
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school and all that. And then jumping right into the
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coaching a rugby coach right out of high school, working with
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some of my peers and then just spending the last 10 years
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working with all these young athletes.
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It's just been like it's been a big eye opener and probably my
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my number one thing that kind of help us move with everything I
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do. Yeah, no, that's awesome.
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Now before we kind of dive into different topics as, as you come
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into this recording right now, what what's been dominating your
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thoughts like right now in the day-to-day of this week or even
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just today? Well, we're wrapping up our, our
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season and you know, I was just telling the boys they were just
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running a grueling session out on the field and, and working
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with these young guys that are exposed to like this glamour and
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everyday on their social media, they, they, they expect certain
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things, right. So just teaching and thinking
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about the the grit involved at a young age of like what it means
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to train properly and like how fortunate they are to have
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somebody. And yeah, it's me.
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And it could sound pretentious, but to have somebody and coaches
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in general that are able to have their back, guide them, show
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them the right ways, teach them these different elements,
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connect the dots. You know, I said the boys, I
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said, look, no one else is doing this sort of stuff, you know, in
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this area at least. And, and just be thankful for
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what you have and that to try and navigate this crazy world
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that we have on social media in particular, just be like
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fortunate to be in this situation, you know, So I guess
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in a nutshell, like just the young mind, where it goes, how
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we navigate the young mind, you know, and then just finding
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grace and, and thanks and all the things that we do.
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That's awesome. That's, I mean, that's great
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both for athletes to be thinking of, but also us to be thinking
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in our different situations too as coaches.
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The first thing I really want to dig into with you, I know you've
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put out some stuff about how you bucket different athletes play
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archetypes within a large group setting.
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Could you kind of just talk about that, Like what's what's
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your process for that? Like how are you breaking down
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into athletes in different groups?
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And then how is that actually like play out within a group
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setting? Yeah.
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Absolutely. You know, if you want a more
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graduated view on all of this, I I really suggest people go and
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watch like I have a couple videos on these things breaking
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down everything like how you conduct the process of
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identifying the buckets, right and what kind of athletes fall
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into that. But you know, guys like Joe
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Padula, Tanner Kerr, Hunter Eisenhower, like, you know, if
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people want to get some good knowledge, I've learned a lot
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from them directly or indirectly.
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And it's just kind of, it's evolved over time.
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I'd say the thought process behind it that was kind of
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conceived at an earlier time. Like I've found as I've kind of
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done this self audit, I've been applying all these kinds of
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methods over time that are, you know, now finding some
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popularity, you know, but in reality, they've always kind of
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been inherently part of my programming and stuff like that.
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Realizing pretty early on as a coach that there's different
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attention to details, there's different wants and needs from
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different athletes. You know, you have some athletes
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that want to come into the gym and you want to train others.
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They don't. Some are coming that middle
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ground. So when all is archetyping or
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bucketing or force system or I think even Tim Karen's strength
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deficit has elements of this, right?
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Like it's this idea of allocating resources, times in
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our capacities to athletes in there, kind of like specific
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ranges. And it was always kind of
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inherently there because I started to attach this
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psychological component to it more so than the physical one.
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Yeah, there's anthropometrics come into play.
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There's, you know, force blade outputs this, that and the
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other. Well, working with my young
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demographic, I started to realize that that's
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psychological components, different elements of want and
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desire, emotions attached to the training itself, the motivations
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behind training. You know, as a young strength
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coach, we kind of live and die by, like, our success in the
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gym. Like, did they get stronger?
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Did they get more powerful? Great.
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You know, And I was like, good, All my guys are like, getting
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stronger and faster. Was it correlating to the ice in
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this circumstance? Yeah, to a degree.
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But they were getting good at the gym, Right.
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And that's ideally, like, it's not ideal.
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Like, we don't want them to become good at the gym.
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We're not there to get good at the gym.
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We're there to be good in our sports.
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So then I started to realize like, OK, our high skilled guys
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are coming into the gym and they're hiding or they don't
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want to do this or we're doing this again.
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And then so I instead of kind of smashing my head against the
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wall and being like guys like I, like, I know I'm right in the
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sense of saying like you need to get stronger.
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Because typically we'd see our high skill guys, they're little
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string beans. They come in, they're just crazy
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fast, crazy pop and they're scoring all the points, but they
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they're allergic to weights. So you're like, OK, like if
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you're going to progress, you start throwing.
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Like if you want to go to the next level, you want to go to
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the NHL, you got to be physically resilient.
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It's not a it's not a mystery. That's just the case, but for a
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long time it's like, all right, boys, we got to be strong, we
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got to get strong. We're doing heavy legs on
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Monday, heavy upper body Tuesday, metabolic conditioning
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and we're doing it all again starting Friday, right?
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And then it goes back to that getting good at the gym, great
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check box, but we're not getting the guys that I'm not going to
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say matter, but those those high minute, high success players to
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progress in the gym and become physically resilient.
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So kind of check myself ego wise and then realize, OK, there's a
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psychological component here. Before I was kind of just
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throwing everyone in a bucket. We're doing this program boom,
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boom, boom. It's going to benefit everyone
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because they're all teenagers, right?
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They're going to react to the stimulus plastic.
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So everyone's kind of in the same bucket, but as you know, my
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thought process kind of evolved on this, learnt from different
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people and started to see this kind of evolve.
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I said, oh, it's like there's a lot here to uncover.
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And the reality is, is adding that psychological component
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associating, you know, the muscular, like just for people
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listening, like the way I approach it, there's muscular,
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there's hybrid and there's elastic athletes.
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So muscular, strong, heavy, wide ISA, like big thick guys.
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They come in, our gals will come in, they'll usually like the
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gym. So right away, like we can
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associate the type of person they are at the Prometric and
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their outputs with how they treat the gym.
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Now, can't blanket that across for everybody, but typically
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what you see is, you know, your big strong guy comes in, he
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likes the gym because it works for them.
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Hybrids, they sit in the middle, it's Gray zone, you know, we'll
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talk about that, but they go either way.
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And then your elastic string beans, these like poppy,
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powerful, tall, wanky kids for the most part, like I said,
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they're allergic. So bring this all back around,
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realizing now that when we can allocate people's desires and
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motivation towards the gym into these buckets as well and we
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start matching up, It's just kind of been an eye opener and
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it's been able to drive decision making, find creative ways to
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drive engagement and get these. Typically, I'll just say the
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allergic to athletes to the gym to be in the gym and find some
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sort of place in the gym and enjoy it.
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So now not only can we make program decisions based on the
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type of body that they have their their point in maturity,
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chronological or biological age, but we can also start making
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decisions based on how they even perceive the gym and themselves
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in the gym. Yeah.
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And you know, I'm gonna guess you get better results doing
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that. And I guess my question be, do
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you think like better results would come from that because of,
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because we're giving them things they maybe maybe are more
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inclined to enjoy that they're going to put a higher level of
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intent into what they're doing and then get better results?
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Or do you think there's also even an aspect of like, you
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know, as you talk about like those, you know, elastic string
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being type guys, Like maybe like there's, there's some type of
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thing where they have a natural inclination away from the things
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that aren't as good for them, where like maybe like the, the
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grinding strength isn't what they need.
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So then they have like a natural inclination towards that.
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Do you think there's a mix of that?
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Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's a lot of
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underlying components here, but I, I, I primarily like to attach
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this, this, I don't know, consideration of psychology to
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it because intent is everything. We don't have to discuss that.
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We know that if we can get people in and working hard.
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And it kind of ties back to the statement of like, they're young
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athletes, they're they're teenagers.
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Like the reality is pretty much everything is going to work for
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them, but you're also dealing with a teenager who doesn't want
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it. They only want to do what they
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want to do. They want to do what's cool and
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they want to do what other people are doing so we can find
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ways to drive engagement and get intent way up.
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And maybe that's catering to what they're good at and hiding
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the things they're not typically good at.
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And it's those conversations, right?
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Like, I'll pull someone aside. It's like, hey man, I, I realize
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you don't like squatting deep. I understand that.
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But here's why we should squat deep, right?
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Here's the benefits if we do that.
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Now, granted, let's look at the program, look at the six out of
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your 10 exercises today are things you're good at.
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Can you just give me those 4, you know, and you know, find a
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common ground and, and the reality is over time, we kind of
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compound those strengths and weaknesses.
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We get a better, better athlete out of it overall.
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Yeah. Now I want to come back to some
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of the the bucketing and and group setting stuff.
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But as you talk about that, when we think about like someone's
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strengths and weaknesses, do you how do you lean towards in terms
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of like, OK, if like leaning into somebody's strengths and
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we're going to continue to push what they're good at?
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Like maybe there's someone with a really long limb.
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So we're going to, you know, they're better at, you know,
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hinging and pulling. We're going to just lean into
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that versus trying to get them to squat well or taking the
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other approach of like, you know, shoring up somebody's
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weaknesses and attacking those weaknesses and trying to raise
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that and decrease the gap between those strength and
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weaknesses. Kind of what do you think works?
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Or is it different based off age and training age?
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Yeah, I mean, the way I look at it right now is I kind of give
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you up and allocate like I wouldn't say a strict
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percentage, but more of a emphasis during different parts
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of the year, you know, in season.
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And I got to remind everybody like it we're working with high
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school athletes. So you have someone in September
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and you have someone completely different in December and
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someone completely different in in June and it's the same
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person. You know, they're growing,
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they're they're maturing. They have different external
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influences than most people. They don't know what the heck's
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going on, but they think they do.
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So there's all these influences and factors you have to take
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into consideration. But in general, during the
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season and in the case of the athletes I'm working with, they
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come in in September and they're pretty much all the way until
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June, at least with me, and they play from September to March.
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So this is a high, high stress environment.
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They play up to 70 games. They're traveling all the time.
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So in season, is it the time for me to be overloading them with
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things are not particularly good at this novelty that they're
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going to have to add an extra physical stress onto?
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No, you know, so I try to layer it in and micro dose it so that
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we're still touching on those qualities that they're not
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particularly good at, but that we can, you know, incrementally
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get better. And it's going to bring up their
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floor as we kind of increase their ceiling with their
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strength. So the long in season, but
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that's how I kind of approach that.
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And then the offseason, it's like, let's go.
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They're usually all pissed and vinegar and they're ready to get
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better at what they're we got. So we kind of flipped the script
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a bit and start overloading them a bit with their their
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weaknesses. And by them, they usually find a
14:09
bit of confidence and they understand the value of the gym.
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So they take to it pretty well anyways.
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But yeah. Yeah, no, that's great.
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You know, going back to as you talk about bucketing into those
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three types, what does it look like to actually execute that,
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right? Because sometimes, like,
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sometimes I know for me like it's like I've got these great
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ideas of all this more more complex stuff I want to do and
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it looks awesome on paper. And then like actually trying to
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implement it's like that was a great idea but didn't work as
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well. So like, how do you make it
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where it actually is getting your results and not just a
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great idea on paper? A lot of failure, you know, in
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trial and error, trial and error.
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I mean, we have, we have to be conscious of what we're working
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with, who we're working with and how much time we have.
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I think that's pretty, pretty basic, you know, from a
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programming standpoint. Those are my principles.
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So I have the benefit, you know, I've been working in this space
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for 7-8 years now. I have a good lay of the land.
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So now I can apply what I know to who I, I'm working with, have
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a great idea how they're going to respond.
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I know in general, if I'm getting a group of 30 kids, you
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know, roughly those groups are going to be like 10-9 to 10
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people per group. So it's pretty even numbers.
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And then I can allocate resources based on that.
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So to answer your question, I mean, it's going to come down to
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what you're working with, right? But what I found pretty, pretty,
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pretty helpful in my process is just throwing up on on what my
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resources are and how that's going to flow.
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A lot of trial and error. Yeah, I can't, can't give you
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much more than that. But what I have discovered in
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general is like in regards to the bucketing, we go back to
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that, that element of intent and engagement.
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And you want to create an environment in the space that
15:45
you have that flows well. You know, these high school
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athletes, they can't they can't go a second without being
15:50
stimulated. So if you start throwing
15:52
wrenches in there and kids are piling up and waiting for
15:56
dumbbells and racks or this, that and the other, you lose
15:58
interest. They're on their phones or
16:00
they're chit chatting or they're in the hallway throwing water
16:03
bottles, models at each other, you know, so you have to set
16:06
things up in a way that's going to flow well and you got the
16:08
same type of athletes working together.
16:10
So they're driving that tent and competition and then just
16:13
finding that balance over time. Yeah.
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And so I'm, you know, kind of along with the business again,
16:19
I'm I'm going to be taking over now at a as a strength coach at
16:23
a local high school also. And so right completely new
16:28
athletes to me, right. I haven't been at setting if, if
16:30
you're in my shoes going into that, where you know, you
16:33
haven't been in an environment, you haven't made the athletes
16:36
like how how are you trying to still reach the different
16:39
individuals and give each individual what they need when
16:42
you're new to that environment, if that makes sense.
16:44
Yeah, from like a like a player standpoint.
16:47
Yeah. Like are are you, are you coming
16:49
in trying to buck it like are you like you know, how, how do
16:52
you reach the novices versus people at a little higher level?
16:56
Like, are you trying to still bucket that or you trying to
16:58
just establish your foundations? And then once that gets
17:01
established, then you can start to, you know, narrow the focus
17:04
for each person a little bit more once you're established, a
17:06
little bit more. Yeah, absolutely.
17:08
I think I think you got that right on the head right there.
17:10
Just setting a foundation, setting a culture like it's
17:13
tough. Like if you're coming in the
17:14
first couple months, you're new. I think the easiest way to get
17:18
buy in from your athletes is if you're educating both your
17:21
athletes and the coaches and people that are influenced,
17:23
influencing them. So I'm not going to touch the
17:26
bucketing thing until we get a couple months into it.
17:29
I'm, I'm spending that time, I mean, I'm learning, I'm watching
17:32
them. How do they interact with each
17:33
other, the environment, How are they?
17:35
After a couple months of these hard sessions, we'll throw our
17:39
famous thing at the school and some mental toughness
17:41
Wednesdays. That's just a great like ribbon.
17:43
You know, you come in, cut that cord and you're like, all right,
17:46
boys, let's go. Like let's see what you're made
17:48
out of. And now I can just accrue a lot
17:51
of data like this, mental data to see like, OK, these guys are
17:54
going to act like this. These gals are going to act like
17:56
this is how they respond. Then you give them a bit of time
18:00
and then you see, OK, now we're going to implement this and we
18:02
go through an educational piece, right, laying the framework of
18:06
like, what is S&C? How does it apply to you?
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And then where you might find yourself on this continuum and
18:13
just start making it part of our dialogue, make it part of just
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what we do in that place if possible.
18:19
You know, if people aren't bored.
18:20
And then so when it comes time to handing out those first
18:23
programs, when you're into the in season or or whatever and
18:26
these kids are getting a paper, they're like, well, I'm in Group
18:29
A or I'm in a force deficient group or you're in.
18:32
It's like, what's going on? Like why am I force deficient?
18:35
And it's like, because we've laid that framework of education
18:38
and like I say, if you can get the coaches on board, or any
18:42
staff for that matter, it becomes synonymous.
18:44
It makes it a lot easier. Yeah, for sure.
18:47
Do you, as you talk about that education piece, do you find the
18:50
athletes want to learn and want to be educated or do you feel
18:55
like there's some that are just kind of, you know, in one ear
18:58
out the other? Is it kind of a mix for you?
18:59
What do you what do you see? I think now with it, with it
19:02
being pretty established, you have a lot of senior athletes
19:04
that are like they push it and they keep guys accountable right
19:07
from the beginning. And I know as coaches we kind of
19:10
get hung up on. Like, I can think about it right
19:12
in my mind right now, the the first presentation of the year,
19:14
like I had all eyes on me, but there was that one person who
19:17
wasn't paying attention and could care less, you know, and
19:20
it just grinds your gears, right?
19:22
But anyways, they always come around, but I never find it too
19:26
difficult. But I've learned to be able to
19:28
talk to them in a, in a specific way that's not boring.
19:30
Like we could get up there and start talking about all the XS
19:33
and OS and this, that and the other and what interests us,
19:35
right. But if you can lay it in, in, in
19:38
a format that's like easily digestible regular routine,
19:42
right? And, and it kind of gives them a
19:44
picture of, OK, like that's what we're going to do in a couple
19:47
months. Like I'm here, I'm going to be
19:48
here potentially or giving some good examples.
19:51
Then you have guys in the room that have been there for a
19:53
couple years that are like, yeah, no, that this is, this is
19:55
right. It helps a lot for sure.
19:57
Yeah. You also mentioned data.
20:00
And within these different groups, or especially if you're
20:03
in a large team setting like I guess what's your process for
20:06
collecting data and then actually using that data to
20:10
drive decision making? Yeah, I'm like, I kind of keep,
20:13
I try to keep it as truncated as possible, keep it consistent.
20:16
And so when they come in, we'll do a whole gamut of testing.
20:19
We'll do our whole functional movement screening and just kind
20:22
of getting a good idea of how the athletes look and move and
20:24
feel. And we'll go through some
20:26
capacity testing, but kind of narrowed it down right now to
20:30
counter movement jump, squat jump.
20:31
So we're just getting some form of like eccentric utilization
20:34
ratio, just the difference between elastic and muscular
20:37
driven. See, see those differences to
20:39
see, you know, that's our first step towards bucketing and we're
20:42
getting a nice isometric mid thigh pull.
20:44
See our force producing capacities and then we run
20:48
routine 10m flies and for a while we're doing broad jump.
20:52
That's a good one to keep them engaged.
20:54
They like it doesn't have the biggest correlation, but that's
20:57
another one. We like to do it.
20:58
And the other thing is the nature of these athletes is they
21:01
are here as and don't shoot me for this, but elite use
21:05
preparatory hockey program. So a lot of them do go on to
21:08
like D1 and they all pretty much get play.
21:10
So we kind of try to expose them to the things that they'll get
21:13
tested to later on. Yeah.
21:15
But in general, yeah, squad jump, outer movement jump,
21:18
Isomethi pole and 10m fly on a regular basis.
21:22
We're just tracking that over the course of the year, yeah.
21:26
Is that are those times, is it just more so those like specific
21:30
testing periods throughout or you're also integrating testing
21:33
kind of throughout the process of training?
21:35
Yeah, absolutely. Like other than the ISO mid
21:37
thigh and any like combine related movements or we're doing
21:41
the jumps and the sprints every week.
21:43
It's it's the one time, well, the one time one of the the most
21:46
engaging times of the week. I mean, it gives me invaluable
21:49
data on the sense of we can track and see how they're
21:52
responding to stimulus. And especially when we get new
21:54
kids in that aren't used to the daily training environment.
21:57
It's like, OK, like, how are you dealing with all the stress
22:00
physically? And then we can kind of
22:01
correlate that with their, their mental, mental reports, any, any
22:06
conversations we have. And then the sprint's like, man,
22:10
that's the best you get kids flying through gates.
22:13
You know, it might be 0.01 faster than the other guy and he
22:17
just rips a new PR and it's just, it's a great time, but it
22:20
just provides us a lot of insight into, yeah, every aspect
22:24
of them as an athlete. Yeah.
22:25
And you know, as as you, you talk about the engagement, we
22:29
talked about the importance of intent early on.
22:31
How do you, how do you look at like when, when and why to use
22:38
games or competitions within the training process?
22:41
And kind of the the balance between I guess maybe a little
22:44
more structured versus like, you know, finding times to let them
22:49
RIP and and then let them be athletes and then bring that
22:51
into the environment of training.
22:53
Yeah. I mean, I, I find this has been
22:55
a bit of a trend like in the in recent times getting back to
22:59
that element of playing and we're kind of realizing as an
23:01
industry that we're lacking those capacities.
23:04
We've gotten very sagittal, very linear.
23:06
And we just want to, you know, train heavy and train hard,
23:09
which is fine. But if we're not putting them
23:12
into these environments that involves problem solving, you
23:16
know, we're not really getting a true transference of capacities.
23:20
And like I said as an earlier coach, I was getting really good
23:23
at getting my guys really good at the gym.
23:26
But if we're not able to kinda connect those links and get them
23:29
to transfer those skills, then it's and, and just the level of
23:33
buy in you get from it. It's probably the biggest thing.
23:36
I'm using it as a as a tool of engagement, using it as an
23:39
opportunity to get those going back to those athletes that that
23:42
don't typically gravitate towards the gym to buy in right
23:45
from the beginning, right. If it's fun, if it's something
23:47
that they're good at, it's those high skill players that you
23:50
know, are afraid of the gym, but they're really good athletes.
23:53
So why do I need to be in the gym if I'm a really good
23:55
athlete? Well, let's get them into a
23:57
competitive environment and see how competing and being good
24:00
against their peers gets them engaged.
24:02
And everything is like, OK, now, now I'm here.
24:04
All right, this was fun. I'm.
24:05
I'm having a good time. Yeah, sure.
24:07
I guess I'll hop on the squad rack.
24:09
So, you know, for me, I love, love using it as an ice breaker
24:13
for every session. You know, it might not be long.
24:16
I typically like to coordinate them with the sessions theme,
24:20
but not always, you know, if we're in the gym and when we are
24:22
lifting weights and you know, balancing a cone on your head
24:25
with a ball isn't really going to have a high degree of of
24:28
carryover. But in general, you know,
24:31
something that's going to get them moving actively mobile,
24:34
mobilized. And most importantly for these
24:36
guys is smiling, you know, and then you know, otherwise on an
24:41
SAQ day, that's a big proponent of ours right now, depending on
24:46
the year, obviously Canada get lots of snow.
24:49
We have a lot of winter time and we don't have a lot of access to
24:52
the gym with other teams, et cetera, et cetera.
24:54
We're mostly in the weight room. So we gotta get some more close
24:57
quarter and maybe human force based off human movement stuff.
25:00
But then once we get outside, like right now, it's a big one.
25:02
We're chasing frisbees, we're chasing each other, we're trying
25:05
to get away, we're trying to have as much physical freedom as
25:08
possible and like to really express those physical qualities
25:11
we've developed over the course of the last 6-8 months.
25:14
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, you're saying
25:16
like, you know, obviously like matching it up with kind of the
25:19
goal of whatever this session is like can be great.
25:22
But also even like you're saying the one with like the cone or
25:24
bounce in the head, like maybe that's, that's not carrying over
25:27
in some physical adaptation away.
25:29
But the carryover might be that it then brings their their mind
25:34
fully present to that moment. So then when they go into that
25:37
other thing, they do it way better, which is where they
25:39
carryover is actually going from.
25:42
Absolutely. And you're just, the idea is
25:44
checking as many boxes as we can, you know, in the in the
25:47
most engaging way possible. And, you know, if it's bear
25:51
crawling with a ball on your back and then you get up and the
25:54
next thing you know, you're sweating and you're ready to go.
25:55
We've warmed up, we've mobilized.
25:57
And it's not perfect, but the whole goal here is to get as
26:00
many people engaged and excited to train as possible.
26:04
Yeah. Yeah.
26:05
And I was looking at like, like, first thing we got, like we got
26:07
to make like training or like make the weight room or whatever
26:10
it is, like a place they want to be.
26:12
I mean, if it can become a place they want to be, then one,
26:15
they're going to be consistent, come in there, their work's
26:17
going to be consistent, their habits are more consistent, and
26:20
that's where they like the results are going to come from.
26:21
Absolutely. All the soft skills and the
26:24
small details, right? And they all translate.
26:27
And it's, I wouldn't say it's unfortunate.
26:29
It's just a common occurrence that every year, you know, and
26:31
you get a bunch of these kids that don't want to be there and
26:35
then a year or two passes and then they give you the call and
26:38
they're like, you know what, I wish I'd been a little bit more
26:40
involved or we don't get what we had there or it was good what,
26:43
you know, So it gets to them eventually, but sometimes it
26:46
takes a bit of time. Yeah, I feel like it's always
26:48
like the kids that graduate, then once they graduate, they
26:51
just want to start coming in every day.
26:53
And it's like when you're actually playing sports, you
26:55
didn't even come in here and now you're done and you're here all
26:58
the time. But seems I was like that's
27:00
always how it go. Oh yeah.
27:01
Oh yeah. You know one thing I read on
27:04
your website site, it says athletes who strive for
27:06
excellence often inspire those around them, raising the
27:09
standard for teammates, competitors in the sport as a
27:12
whole. How do you try and foster that
27:13
in your athletes? That's a good question.
27:16
I mean there's a couple different vessels here.
27:20
I think that education point component comes into to view in
27:25
this part of the length. It's just important to educate
27:28
and and provide them a basis of understanding of why we do
27:32
things and where it'll lead if we if we consistently apply the
27:38
fundamentals and our views on training.
27:41
The other one is we have specific rules in our programs.
27:45
Their basic rules, be a kind person, show up on time, don't
27:48
wear a hat backwards, things like that.
27:50
These are these very basic rules that just from the get go, when
27:54
you come in, it might sound silly not wearing your hat
27:56
backwards, but if we can follow that simple rule, it trickles
27:59
down into everything we do. We have clean stalls where
28:02
everything's put away. We show up on time for intentful
28:06
with the time we spend in the gym.
28:08
And then we just kind of foster environment from there through
28:11
our details into one that has variable levels of ease.
28:15
So, you know, we start strict, we lay down the foundation, we
28:18
have these awesome detailed rules, the kids are engaged,
28:22
they understand what the standards are, where the floor
28:24
is, where the ceiling is, where the walls are.
28:26
OK. And then it's like now as the
28:28
educator and the coach, we can provide them a bit of freedom.
28:30
So now it's up to me to be able to set the vibe.
28:33
Right. All right, guys, we're going to
28:35
have now we're integrating the games, we're throwing a bit of
28:37
shade, we're having a bit of fun.
28:38
We got the tunes going, stuff like that.
28:41
And over time, you've kind of built this this culture on on
28:45
sharp details, but then also know how to ease back and have a
28:48
good at a time. And I think at the end of the
28:50
day, when you're dealing with these young athletes, this
28:52
particular demographic that is stressed from every angle and
28:56
don't even know who they are, when you can create, you know,
28:59
common bonds and connections with them and create this
29:02
environment that's, you know, Immaculate for it really, really
29:06
drives them to be good athletes, good people.
29:08
And yeah. Yeah, that's great.
29:13
What events or situations or results make you reconsider
29:17
programming decisions that you've made?
29:19
I mean, I'm pretty diligent and tracking how how our successes
29:23
go from an individual and a team standpoint.
29:25
So sometimes, sometimes we get outputs that I'm not a big fan
29:29
of and I felt we could have done a bit better AT.
29:31
And maybe that drives a bit of consideration as to I'm going to
29:34
change some things. But in general, it's more about
29:37
how how my players are perceiving things or how they're
29:40
engaging with the sessions themselves.
29:43
Whereby if you know, they're coming in and I see some of the
29:46
guys that are, you know, they're the ones that clock in early,
29:49
they're ready to go, they stay the latest, they put all their
29:51
weights. Wait, those guys like if I see
29:53
them kind of like, I don't really want to do this on top of
29:56
the other folks that are already not totally thrilled about it,
30:00
then I know it's probably a time that we're going to switch
30:02
things up, right? But there's also other moments
30:05
like these mental toughness Wednesdays.
30:06
That doesn't matter what you think.
30:08
We're going to do it, right? We're going to do something
30:10
difficult as a team and we're going to work through it.
30:12
We're not doing it all the time. So that's just something that
30:15
we're teaching them. Life lesson.
30:16
Things are hard. You don't always get to choose
30:18
what you want to do. We're going to do it anyways.
30:20
But in the grand scheme of things, yeah, I'm just checking
30:23
the players mental state and their mental low.
30:25
Like are they burning out? Are they not enjoying this?
30:28
Are they, you know, deliberately going to the bathroom in the
30:31
middle of the session? And then I'm probably like, OK,
30:33
I can, I can draw some conclusions here and I'm going
30:36
to switch that up. We can crack this egg a couple
30:38
different ways. Yeah, I think, I think that's a
30:40
great perspective. You know, you mentioned those
30:42
mental it's Wednesdays a couple times and and I feel like right
30:46
now or the last couple years, like there's been like the shift
30:49
of like mental toughness is like bad or it's like not a real
30:52
thing. And it's like, Oh, the holy feed
30:54
the cats is all about performance driven and like not
30:56
really having fatigue and all that.
30:58
Like I guess where where do you fall on that of like, because,
31:02
because I feel like it had and kind of comes back to the very
31:06
first thing you said the beginning is called.
31:07
But you know, there is kind of been a shift where it's like
31:09
away from just grinding and and kind of that grueling work.
31:14
But like where does that play a role within development and
31:18
athletics or or what what do those mental times when days
31:22
look look like to y'all and and how you're trying to develop
31:25
that? Where do I stand on it?
31:27
I mean, I'm a firm believer it's not my everything, right?
31:30
I, I try to not be biased. Like I, I love the idea.
31:33
Like I run marathons now. I was in the CrossFit.
31:36
Like, I like this idea of just like pushing through crap, you
31:40
know? And I, I love that, but I try
31:41
not to apply that to everyone because there's a more efficient
31:44
way to go about it. However, the life lessons and
31:47
the just general lessons as an athlete that we do get from it
31:50
is immensely important. And it's become extremely
31:53
popular. So when we're talking about
31:55
those details and we're talking about creating that culture that
31:57
is part of our culture. Now we know that when Wednesday
32:00
comes around, especially preseason and and postseason,
32:04
well, you know, they always ask me how you feeling today, Josh,
32:07
like, did you have a good day? You know, but they know that
32:10
we're switching off. They're like, no one else is
32:12
doing this. We're going to put our heads
32:13
down, we're going to suffer and and we're going to do it
32:16
together. So I think it's immensely,
32:18
immensely important. I won't let off on that.
32:21
I I know that and I might catch some Flack for this, but we have
32:24
a lot of soft athletes out there.
32:25
They're coming from a lot of soft backgrounds.
32:27
They're being told that they're, they're perfect, that you know,
32:30
that they don't have to do this, that they can do whatever they
32:33
want. There's other ways of making it,
32:35
not making it hard on yourself, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda,
32:37
yadda. All these voices in their, in
32:39
their ears. But I'll always steadfast and
32:42
tell them like, look, you're not getting it tough elsewhere,
32:44
You're going to get it tough from me.
32:45
And we've truly made that an essential, essential part of our
32:50
program. Yeah, and I was I was like I was
32:54
doing a a podcast with Keith Spencer and he's he runs a
32:58
basketball school of own business.
33:00
But like we're talking about how like like for him, for me, like
33:04
yes, we're selling strangest, you know, we're selling, you
33:06
know, a better jump shot or better whatever.
33:08
But really what we're selling when it comes out to it is
33:11
confidence, right? Like athletes, they're, they're
33:14
buying to get confidence. And, and I think like, yes, we
33:20
want to develop like high level performers athletically, But I
33:23
think there is a, a confidence that comes from looking back and
33:27
knowing like, as I have hard things ahead that we're going to
33:31
go through, whether it's a game, whatever.
33:32
It's like being able to look back at the conference that,
33:34
hey, like I've done hard things or as a team we've done hard
33:36
things together and that gives a level of confidence or a mindset
33:40
change to be able to do those things in the future.
33:43
Yeah, absolutely. And we see it on a on a long
33:45
term scale maybe. You know, I I have one athlete
33:48
had dreams of going college as a goalie.
33:50
Now he's in the US Air Force, you know, and he says constantly
33:54
like, you know, thanks for the mental toughness Wednesdays,
33:57
because this stuff is would have been a lot harder otherwise,
33:59
right? And just the reality of of going
34:03
through hard things. Since we spend all this time in
34:05
the gym, we work on refine our steel development on and off the
34:09
quarter of the ice or the field. But what's that matter if we get
34:13
into the to the stress of the game and we're not able to
34:15
operate right? So, you know, sometimes I tell
34:18
the guys, let's just shut our brains off and let's just enjoy
34:21
the suck because the reality is when it does get tough, you know
34:25
it won't be this tough will be able to operate and that's just
34:29
the ultimate goal. No, no, really good.
34:31
So I'm gonna give you situation. So if you could take, if you had
34:34
an 8 year old athlete kid and up until let's just say they become
34:39
an adult professional athlete, you've got total control over
34:42
the environment of their physical development, their
34:45
skill development, everything. Like how would you craft that
34:49
throughout the different phases of their life and development as
34:52
they're going from a young kid all the way to an adult?
34:55
Yeah. And that would be quite a
34:57
fortunate position to be put in. I mean, from a young child
35:02
standpoint, like getting those kids in gymnastics, anything
35:06
that's going to kind of generate this kinesthetic awareness and
35:09
have a strong understanding of how their body operates and how
35:12
they can get used to falling and tumbling.
35:15
Maybe they're into parkour or whatever.
35:17
Just some sort of body awareness based sport.
35:20
I think that's just going to set the foundation for all their
35:22
long term success from a mental standpoint and a physical
35:26
standpoint, like just being able to have complete control of your
35:29
body is which is I think that's where you see the commonality
35:32
amongst a lot of the elite players.
35:34
If they just fluid in their movements, they're able to relax
35:37
and stressful situations and just be able to operate in
35:40
space, right? So like we're talking
35:42
gymnastics, we're talking, you know, parkour, I don't know,
35:45
just tumbling, going to the playground.
35:48
If I had the influence and it was my kid, I'm bringing them to
35:50
the playground, hop on there, the slide, tumble, fall, learn
35:53
what it's like to be the human right.
35:55
And then progressing through that, you know, when we
35:58
probably, I would say that's anywhere from like, you know, 6
36:01
to about 14 years old, a lot of exposure to different sports,
36:05
you know, things that involve implements like a stick or just
36:09
using your feet and soccer, playing a team sport, individual
36:11
sport, just building this a problem solving capacity from
36:15
different avenues, right, Adding tools to our tool belt.
36:18
And then, you know, as they get into their second year, third
36:21
year high school, I think it's a great time to start introducing.
36:24
They're already going to be influenced by all these people
36:26
online like you got to be doing this, that and the other, even
36:29
though there's some 30, five year old juiced up dude, but
36:32
they're going to be they're going to be seeing it a lot.
36:34
It's time to start educating them, moving through the
36:36
fundamentals, starting to slowly progress the basics of S&C.
36:40
You know, maybe maybe at that age, I'm not even going to
36:44
mention the word specialization, but they do start to funnel
36:46
towards, you know, I do like soccer, I do like hockey.
36:49
I'm going to start doing that more.
36:51
And obviously I'd have, I'd love to have the influence of saying,
36:54
all right, like we're going to commit to your hockey season and
36:58
let's go with a simple league 3040 games.
37:01
But on the backside and the front side of that, we're going
37:03
to play different sports. All right, we're going to play
37:05
soccer and then we're going to play flag football or Frisbee in
37:09
the offseason. So we're kind of getting these
37:11
different stimuli and and then operating on different surfaces
37:15
and just becoming a better overall athlete.
37:17
And in conjunction with that, you know, slowly progressing
37:20
1415 all the way through 18 into high school, start really
37:25
progressing their SNC and kind of educating and showing them
37:28
that, OK, there's direct applicability between the gym
37:31
and the field based sessions in your sport.
37:34
And then, you know, nowadays between 16 and 18, if you're
37:37
really pursuing higher performance or higher level of
37:40
sporting, that's kind of when you know, if you're going,
37:43
they're not, not always, but for a good portion of them,
37:46
especially looking at universities and stuff like
37:48
that. So that's a time that we're
37:50
going to start maybe associating the gym with the direct sporting
37:54
demands and capacity needed and those associated with the level
37:57
we're trying to get to. And then it's kind of an easy
37:59
flow through there, Always continuing to expose to some
38:03
other variable, some other form of, of sport or, or movement
38:08
patterns, like some form of, of human force, but really kind of
38:12
narrowing down on those sport capacities during the season.
38:15
And then as we transition into pro, you know, really sticking
38:18
to the staples and trying to squeeze every, every little
38:21
percentage out. Now it's tough.
38:24
Like you said, if I have full influence, I think still even at
38:27
the pro level like we're getting into, I would get in there and
38:33
still influence them to do other things, you know, try new things
38:38
and then just refine all those, those sharp edges.
38:42
No, no, that was great. That was really good.
38:44
You know, since the very first interaction we had kind of
38:48
messaging, like I could tell like you're someone that's super
38:51
driven to learn and find better ways.
38:54
And you know, through this conversation, even just hearing
38:56
like the way you're thinking and reflecting on things like what
38:59
what drives your curiosity and what drives you to share your
39:05
ideas and share what you're learning through social media
39:08
or, you know, different platforms.
39:09
Yeah, probably, probably insecurity.
39:12
And, you know, I think it's something we all, we all
39:15
struggle with on a on a regular basis.
39:18
You start off as a young coach and you're like, like, I know
39:22
everything, you know, And then you start trying a bunch of
39:26
stuff and then like, you know, you get comments back like I
39:29
didn't like this bubble. And you're like, OK, maybe I do
39:31
have to change things up. And I think it was the last
39:33
couple years that I realized I was like, OK, like, I actually
39:38
don't know everything, you know? And then you start seeing these
39:41
posts and seeing other coaches just sharing what they're doing.
39:45
I'm like, I, I really don't even understand that.
39:47
So, you know, if I don't have the capacity to answer the
39:50
question or know how that works, then, you know, I need to learn
39:54
that. And I think it goes with what we
39:56
ask of our athletes as well. Like we're asking them to
40:00
improve qualities of all sorts on and off the field.
40:03
We're asking them to play different sports.
40:04
We're asking to do. Things all the all the time so
40:07
that they can get better at their sport.
40:09
Well, our currency as coaches is is our capacity to provide
40:14
answers, solve problems and then just to be able to pivot in our
40:17
programming. So that's what drives me now to
40:20
learn is like I want to be able to solve every problem for my my
40:24
athletes so on if they come up to me and they're like, hey, I
40:26
saw this coach doing this like, why aren't we doing that?
40:29
Well, I'll tell you why we're not doing that and we're doing
40:31
this because blah, blah, blah. And we're able to do that via
40:34
this, that and the other that you consider this, you know, I
40:36
want to be able to have all the answers because that's our
40:39
currency, right? Like our capacity to, to problem
40:42
solve for our athletes. And yeah, I, and I think a third
40:46
layer to that is there's an awful lot of BS out there and
40:51
it's, it's annoying. And I think it's, I think it's
40:55
my duty as as a strength coach specifically for younger
40:59
athletes, high school athletes, to be putting out information
41:03
that I believe that they should be consuming.
41:05
And now, granted, for them, I'm just Josh, right?
41:08
So they see it and they're like, you're trying to be famous on
41:10
Instagram, right? But if I can touch a few minds
41:14
and get them to realize, okay, there is some correlation
41:17
between what he's saying and these people, and I should be
41:21
approaching training like that, I see why that's silly now or
41:25
why that's not good for me or yadda, yadda, yadda, right?
41:28
So I truly believe it's my duty to educate and provide
41:32
information to the younger demographic.
41:34
And also we have a platform that's free and it allows us to
41:38
provide information for everybody and anybody.
41:42
And if there's things that people find interest that mine,
41:45
maybe it's just some basic programming or it's a season
41:48
plan or my simple viewpoints on bucketing, like if people find
41:51
that of interest, it's up to me to be able to provide Why, Why
41:54
are we gatekeeping, right? There's this huge gatekeeping
41:57
culture in, in our particular career that it's like if we tell
42:01
them our secrets, they're going to take it and do it with their
42:04
athletes. It's like we're not even working
42:06
with the same people. So I think it's it's up to all
42:09
of us to share, to help progress our industry and to simply
42:13
provide adequate and accurate information to those that are
42:17
consuming it. You know, like, like, like you
42:19
like I'm, I'm always trying to solve more problems and figure
42:22
out more ideas and dive into different topics.
42:25
And sometimes I find myself having too many different inputs
42:30
where it's, you know, crowding my mind more just like, you
42:33
know, going too many different directions.
42:35
And sometimes like I'm having so many inputs that I'm not having
42:39
output within where my feet actually are, are like looking
42:43
at what's actually going on in my sessions or team or whatever
42:47
and just solving that based off what I'm observing, but always
42:51
trying to find an answer somewhere else.
42:52
How do you kind of balance that? Yeah, I like that because like
42:56
this is a big thing that crossed my mind the other day.
42:58
Like so just a timeline wise, like I'd say maybe a year ago I
43:02
kind of woke up and I realized like, I don't know anything.
43:04
I just like, I'm going to treat myself like I don't know
43:07
anything and I'm going to learn and I'm going to reach out, you
43:09
know, I'm going to talk to all these people and I'm going to
43:11
try and gather information. I'd fill those holes and then
43:13
gone through this similar process as you're just Speaking
43:16
of. Then you get to a point like you
43:17
have so much input that you're like, OK, I got to do this, I
43:20
got to do this, I got to do this.
43:21
And it's like, OK, next thing you know, like, and I'm, I'm bad
43:24
for this as well. Like next thing you know, I've
43:26
bought weight releases and I'm doing all these heavy functional
43:29
isometrics with 14 years. I'm like, OK, all right, relax.
43:31
Like we don't need to be doing this.
43:34
And it all comes back down to like the fundamentals ring
43:38
through all the way through all the time, you know, doesn't
43:41
matter your bodybuilder, you're doing powerlifting or you're an
43:45
athlete, you're going to squat, you're going to do some sort of
43:47
press, pull, hinge, etcetera, etcetera, right?
43:50
So it's like, all right, let's, let's relax.
43:52
There are many ways to crack an ink, but like, let's not get too
43:55
fired up and carried away with the way we're doing things,
43:58
especially when you're working with a young demographic.
44:01
Let's just make sure that they're getting exposed to the
44:03
right things. They're doing it in a
44:05
progressive manner, safe manner. And you know, we're checking all
44:09
the right boxes because at the end of the day, if I put 5X or
44:12
sizes on a on a napkin and that's what gets a guy to get
44:16
stronger, faster and more resilient on the ice, then I've
44:18
done my job. It doesn't have to be more
44:20
complicated than that. However, I think an important
44:23
thing to, to realize here is that we do have the capacity as
44:27
strength and conditioning coaches to expose our athletes
44:31
to complexity in the gym and, and different components of
44:34
training so that they are at least prepared for it in the
44:38
future. Find a lot of times like, Oh,
44:41
you can't do that. The kids, you know, 12 years old
44:44
or he's 16 years old and it's like, well, yes, understood.
44:47
But we, he has a capacitor. They have the capacity that I'm
44:51
aware of. It's an uncontrolled and safe
44:53
environment. And now we're exposing him to
44:55
some form of like physical education piece where now if
44:58
they go to another coach or they go to another team or they, they
45:02
get recruited and they go to a a college and then all of a sudden
45:05
day one, they're doing some sort of weight release or bench
45:09
cluster and they're like, what the heck is this?
45:11
Well, now we've given them the opportunity and the the
45:14
educational piece learnt and theoretical applied our
45:18
theoretical in the gym, right? Yeah, yeah.
45:21
And just just bring it back around like inputs.
45:24
If the inputs are crazy for us, imagine what it is for our
45:27
athletes, right. So we have to be aware of that.
45:30
And I think it's, it's OK if we're over saturated with inputs
45:33
because then we're then we at least have that the capacity to
45:36
discern what it is we're giving our athletes to.
45:39
Yeah. That's great.
45:41
Yeah, that'd be, that'd be quite the day one weight release was
45:43
on day one with an athlete who Yeah, if, if you could, if you
45:48
could add one ability to your skill set as a coach that you
45:52
don't currently have, what, what would you add?
45:55
It's, I don't know, it's well, it's going to come off like, oh,
45:58
I don't know why I'm good at everything.
46:00
There's a, there's a lot obviously.
46:02
I think my, my ability to actually like verbally iterate
46:04
what I'm trying to say at times in context like this.
46:08
I think this isn't like an influential opportunity for a
46:11
lot of young athletes who might be listening my own athletes and
46:14
to be able to educate in a thorough manner I think is
46:17
really, really important and something I'm aiming to refine.
46:20
And I think that comes through that continued approach to to
46:24
learning and, and sometimes I think it's easy to get carried
46:27
away with listening too much to their emotions or too much to
46:31
how they're reacting to things. And then in turn you're, you're
46:34
changing things too often. I wouldn't say I I do that too
46:37
often, but you know, sometimes I can get a little carried away.
46:39
I'm like, I'm too worried about how they feel about things.
46:41
And it kind of goes back to that mental toughness Wednesday and
46:43
it's like I'm going to be a hard ass on Wednesday, but then
46:45
Thursday or Friday they're telling me that they they don't
46:48
like doing this. So I'm like, OK, I'll change
46:50
that. It's like we got to be steadfast
46:52
in what we do and back ourselves with confidence.
46:54
So I think whether it's year 8 or it's year 80, I think always
46:59
going to battle with a a form of lack of confidence.
47:01
But I think at the same time, that's a strength in itself too.
47:04
Right. Yeah, No, for sure.
47:05
I think that's really, really good.
47:07
What? What are you?
47:08
What are you working towards in your career?
47:10
Being on this podcast done. I'm good.
47:13
Yeah, I made it. I made it.
47:15
No. Well, yes and no.
47:17
But you know, this is something I toil with on a regular basis.
47:20
This year in particular. I don't know if it was just the
47:23
group or the cohort of kids that I had that found particular
47:27
interest in what I do. Maybe it's the social media or
47:29
whatnot, but had a number of kids say like, Hey, if if an NHL
47:33
team or MLB team ever reached out to you, like, would you take
47:37
it? You know, often times my, my
47:39
response to that was actually been no.
47:42
Because, you know, I've been being able to consume all of
47:45
this content, different podcasts and hearing from a lot of the,
47:48
the top names and realizing like the lack of freedom and balance
47:52
in that sector is kind of lead me to believe that this is the,
47:55
the, the setting and that I like to work in.
47:58
I strive to, to have a diverse CV of experience.
48:02
At least it would be nice to operate in different
48:05
environments to see how different coaches work.
48:08
I just love to be around the industry and different lights
48:11
and lenses to be able to get a good idea of how things are
48:14
done. I don't really like leaving a
48:16
stone unturned. So I mean, ultimately to be able
48:18
to learn from as many people as possible is truly a big goal of
48:22
mine. But from a day today, you know,
48:24
season to season, team to team, I just want the the athletes I
48:28
work with to have enjoyed themselves.
48:30
And, and this is all going to be cliche, but I want them to enjoy
48:33
themselves. I want them to have been
48:35
educated and realize what generally sound strength and
48:38
conditioning is like and that they find the love for physical
48:42
preparation in one capacity or another.
48:44
I think ultimately that is my goal.
48:46
Now that's awesome. And you know, I know, I know,
48:49
you know, when I start now, like sometimes people ask like, hey,
48:51
like, like what's, what's your like 5 year goal?
48:54
Like where do you want to be? And like, for me, especially
48:56
when I was in college is like, I never, it was never like the
48:59
goal of like I want to be at a power 5 or whatever, some
49:02
arbitrary thing over or achievement level.
49:05
It's like, I want to like live by principles of what the job
49:08
looks like, what the life looks like, how like I'm operating.
49:11
And if that's at this thing, so be it.
49:14
Or this level, so be it. If it is a power 5, so be it.
49:16
But it's like, like operate in, in the type of way, the type of
49:21
lifestyle and situation you want to and and in the way you want
49:25
to. So much more important than
49:26
like, I'm going to make it to XY or Z or whatever. 100 percent,
49:30
110%. I mean, we go through evolutions
49:33
in life as all people do, but I think our particular industry,
49:37
like there's so much movement that occurs, right?
49:41
Like, you hear it all the time, like having a lifespan in the
49:44
collegiate sector of like three to five years is pretty darn
49:47
good, right? But you start to see that
49:49
longevity happen in different areas, the private sector and
49:51
having being able to have influence and have that balance
49:56
and through that evolution, having a wife, then kids, you
50:00
know, wanting to build a sustainable lifestyle.
50:02
All these things have factors, right?
50:04
When we're young, we just want to go after it and chase the
50:07
world. And, and like you, you see
50:09
certain people like, wow, like they're so and so's SNC coach
50:13
like that's where I want to be. And then you start peeling back
50:16
the layers and you hear that the experience isn't quite what it's
50:18
meant made out to be. And you realize, like having
50:23
flexibility and having the ability to make your own
50:27
decisions and, and have the influence on what's happening in
50:31
your working space and not kind of being told what to do is kind
50:34
of like the ultimate goal, right?
50:36
It's not to be a director of something or rather, but to be
50:40
able to walk in and be like, hey, you know what, I got to go
50:42
to a dentist appointment. They're like, it's all good.
50:44
You know, we'll cover it. Or like, you know, hey, this is
50:47
what my viewpoint on what we're doing here for this season.
50:51
And they're like, OK, I'd like to hear more about that.
50:53
Like this cooperative environment and community, like
50:57
that's, that's the ultimate goal, right?
50:59
Yeah, I mean, like you're saying like the the daily life and the
51:04
daily environment is so much more impactful than like the the
51:09
moments that get put on social media or like, you know, the if
51:12
you're playing at a big arena or whatever it is, like all that
51:15
stuff is so fleeting and like can be really cool.
51:18
But it it, it's, it's so, so it goes by so quick and then the
51:22
rest of it, it's the day-to-day. And it's like, what is the
51:25
day-to-day look like at those different spots?
51:27
And it's not determined by those small, small moments.
51:31
No, not at all. Well, I haven't lifted, but you
51:33
know, I think another thing is, is influence too.
51:39
You know, I have these kids ask these questions and it's
51:42
flattering. It's nice.
51:43
It's a great question, you know, but they also attach that level
51:47
of of of job, career path and everything with your ability to
51:51
actually be the coach, right? Like your value is attached to
51:54
the level at which you coach at. So it's an interesting dynamic.
51:58
You're going to be working in a high school.
52:00
I work in a high school. What a massive amount of
52:02
influence we have on young demographics that are going to
52:05
go on that should and need to be educated and prepared for
52:09
another more competitive level. Yet our value at times gets
52:13
diminished down to what your high school coach, right, Which
52:16
is which is an interesting inverse if you ask me.
52:19
Yeah, Yeah. No, that that that's great.
52:22
You mentioned yourself running marathons and and train like
52:25
that. How does your own personal
52:28
training, your own personal nutrition, lifestyle habits, all
52:31
that, how does that impact your coaching?
52:32
Well, it makes it tiring at times, that's for sure.
52:35
But no, I think it has a huge influence not in, in programming
52:40
per SE. I, I have to say I'm going to
52:42
try to keep that all separate and not be influenced by my own
52:45
training methodologies. It sneaks in there once in a
52:48
while, of course, because we do what we're comfortable with.
52:50
But as we learn and expand our, our knowledge, I think we
52:53
understand what's what's truly best for, for our athletes.
52:56
But it does give me at least skin in the game to say that,
53:01
you know, when it is hard, you got to keep going.
53:03
This is what I'm doing. So if I'm asking that of myself,
53:06
you know, I can get that same expectation out of my players.
53:09
You know, I don't ever expect my players to go run a marathon,
53:13
But it's like I don't want to hit hear you ditch and complain
53:16
when I just ran a 18 kilometers in the morning, didn't eat
53:20
breakfast and came straight here to help you.
53:21
You know what I mean? So it's like, if I'm going to
53:24
have skin in the game, I want you to at least give me some
53:26
effort. So I think it helps in that
53:28
sense. I think it's I would I'd say
53:30
it's a mandatory element as a coach.
53:33
I think we should all have the capacity to move to to not at a
53:37
high capacity necessarily, but if you could be in shape, we
53:41
should understand the body, how our body feels and operates
53:44
should know how our workouts feel.
53:46
That's for sure. Can't be dope pulling out stuff
53:48
and then realizing, oh crap, it's like it's frying people.
53:52
No wonder they don't want to do it, right?
53:53
So that's where the second element of having skin in the
53:57
game is. And you know, it comes and boils
53:58
right down to new demonstrate exercises.
54:01
Can you correct? Like if your form is crap, like
54:05
good luck teaching a 14 year old, right?
54:07
So I think it's that huge influence in that regard and
54:10
it's something that I personally need and strive to continue
54:13
being good at and it goes hand in hand with my with my career
54:17
and my decisions. The last three questions I'd
54:19
like to ask you to guess. The first one is if if you
54:23
realize that you need to improve a a personal skill set, how do
54:27
you how do you start to close that gap?
54:29
Like, like from a coaching standpoint, yeah.
54:32
Or just any? I mean, it could be anything,
54:34
could be anything, however you want to take it.
54:36
Well, for the I've always been a preparer.
54:38
Like I have to be like terribly prepared for everything like
54:42
otherwise I get all anxious. So I like, I like to research,
54:45
like to consume as much knowledge as like possibly can.
54:48
And for the longest time, I mean, that was just Google, like
54:50
going back to where this all started, it's like
54:52
bodybuilding.com, right? So just consume, consume,
54:55
consume. But now it's kind of evolved
54:58
into people who knows more than me, who has the answers, who can
55:01
I talk to? And those give me opportunities,
55:03
obviously, to connect and, and learn, but ultimately just
55:06
expands my horizons by talking to people that actually know
55:09
what they're talking about. So for me, good example here,
55:15
you know, if if we're looking at the bucketing or just how to
55:17
operate a larger scale environment or or directing a
55:21
performance program. Reaching out to Tanner Care was
55:24
invaluable to me, like being able to talk and have
55:27
justification in some areas, but also have some insider knowledge
55:32
and understanding of what to do and how to operate based on
55:36
commonalities in our programs. That's a huge, huge, huge help.
55:39
Mentors all the way. You mentioned mentors right
55:42
there. This podcast is a continuation
55:44
of the book we write, Strength in Numbers and the theme of
55:47
mentorship, coaches helping coaches.
55:49
Could you dive into maybe some of the some of the coaches or
55:52
situations in your career that have been really impactful to
55:55
your coaching journey? Yeah, and this is actually kind
55:58
of kind of a 180 pivot because, you know, I speak and I preach,
56:02
you know, and get to talk to mentors, but that's truthfully
56:05
something that's only been available to me or, or part of
56:09
my pursuit in the last year or so.
56:12
And in a particular unique situation where there's I didn't
56:17
have any mentors and I didn't have people around me, I was I
56:20
was very lucky to be given the reins right from the get go.
56:23
And I so it was a lot of baptism by fire.
56:26
It was a lot of learning on the go and learning from my mistake
56:29
and being introspective and, and realize all the things that I'm
56:34
doing. But yeah, like it, it's been
56:37
tough. I didn't really have anyone to
56:38
guide me. However, you know, as of late,
56:43
you know, looking up to people. Well, I mean, I'm, I'm a
56:46
purchaser of the book and a big believer.
56:48
Fantastic investment. Use it.
56:49
It's my on my, my bedside table. I flip through pages all the
56:53
time and I get a lot of value out of it.
56:55
That's a good plug there. But no, it's, it's truthfully,
56:59
truthfully been a very good resource.
57:01
Guys like Tanner Care, you know, just watching and consuming
57:04
content to people that I believe in.
57:06
I, I believe put out good content and provide value.
57:10
Yeah. I think a lot of people, you
57:11
know, in Canada in particular, we don't have a lot of
57:13
internship opportunities. So it's hard to find those on
57:18
ground boots on the ground opportunities.
57:20
So we got to be a little bit creative and you just got to be
57:22
conscious of your mistakes and trying to learn from them, you
57:25
know? But that's no, that's great.
57:27
What have I not asked you about today?
57:29
That's really important that we talk about.
57:31
What's up? Sorry.
57:32
So what, what have I not asked you about today that's important
57:35
that we do talk about that we haven't talked about?
57:37
Oh, there's a lot of stuff, you know, thinking about young
57:40
athletes, teaching patients and understanding of, of the process
57:44
and not getting too excited. You know, you always get a lot
57:47
of athletes that you don't want to jump ship or, or move to
57:49
different programs or, you know, want greener pastures.
57:52
But doesn't matter how many times they, they change
57:55
pastures, the same old grass, right?
57:57
So just, I think it's important a message to all the young
58:00
athletes out there that you know, it's not easy.
58:03
If you want it, you're not going to concern yourself with what it
58:06
takes. You're just going to do it.
58:07
And ultimately as a, as a strength coach, that's, that's
58:10
on us. That's our onus to to create an
58:12
environment to drive engagement and educate in a way that gets
58:16
kids to commit to the process all the way through.
58:18
Yeah, Josh, man, Josh, this, this been awesome.
58:20
I appreciate being on here if if people did want to reach out to
58:23
you or they wanted to, you know, you know, see the content you're
58:26
putting now, where can they find more from you?
58:29
Yeah, so I guess the easiest things just Instagram under
58:32
score, ETX training or I guess you type in Josh Bray and
58:36
that'll pop up. Yeah, pretty active on socials
58:39
and I like to pump out a lot of free content.
58:42
And yeah, it's all there for you.
58:43
Awesome. Well I know I you know the stuff
58:45
you put out as I always look at it and it always makes me think
58:49
and gets me thinking about different ideas.
58:50
So I appreciate you doing that and definitely recommend people
58:53
checking it out. But again, man, this really
58:55
good. I appreciate being on here.
58:57
Well, thank you for your time. It's a great honor and would
59:00
love to do it again sometime. Alright man, have a great night.
59:03
How are you as well?