Latest / The Strength In Numbers Podcast / EP 37: Colton Rosseau | Impact-Driven Coaching Beyond Sets and Reps

Transcript

EP 37: Colton Rosseau | Impact-Driven Coaching Beyond Sets and Reps · The Strength In Numbers Podcast

0:00
What I want more than anything is to help these young athletes
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not to idolize their sport, to enjoy their sport, embrace the
0:08
good parts of it, but to understand that it is not the
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ultimate prize in life to be an athlete.
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And in spite of what we see on TV and what is glorified in our
0:17
culture, there is so much more to life than athletics or
0:21
anything that we would do in the weight room.
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I find myself asking the question a lot of what can we do
0:26
well? And what that means is when I'm
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making a decision about programming or when I'm making a
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decision about how I want things to operate, it's in the real
0:36
world with 72 high school boys, what can we do and what can be
0:44
done efficiently and effectively?
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And that usually answers my question because usually it the,
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the internal debate is do I push for this more complex thing or
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do I keep it a little bit more basic?
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And my answer 95% of the time has been let's, let's keep this
1:03
thing basic. Let's do it well, let's do it
1:05
consistently. I think when you're respectful
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of people's time, even the athletes that you work with,
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they will give you more in the time that you have them trying
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to chase perfection in that actually holds you back rather
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than just accepting whatever imperfections there may be or
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whatever changes you might have to make and saying let's be
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excellent within this context of what we have available to us.
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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 Colton Rasu.
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Colton is in his first year as the Director of Strength and
1:40
Conditioning at Cistercian Preparatory School in Irving, TX
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after recently being the Assistant Director of Sports
1:47
Performance at Oral Roberts University.
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And we explore what the the biggest changes have been for
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him moving from the collegiate sector to high school coaching.
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But really this conversation goes far beyond X's and O's of
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strength initiating our coach and Colton is an incredible
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servant leader, an incredible impactor, and someone who really
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lives his life in a value driven way that I respect more than
2:08
anything. And we dive deep into what pulls
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Colton's to want to make an impact.
2:12
Chasing excellence over pursue a perfection, how to build skills
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and how to structure long term athletic development.
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This was an awesome episode with a lot of wisdom shade from
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Colton here. Enjoy the episode Colton.
2:24
It's awesome to have you here. You know, we've, I've had the
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pleasure of getting to work with you and we were both at Oral
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Roberts and I just got to see day in and day out how you know
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how good a coach you are, but also just how intentional you
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are as a person and as a coach in terms of impacting and, and
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just serving the the people around you.
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So man, I'm really excited to get to talk with you today.
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And thank you for having me on. I appreciate your time and
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you've done a great job with this podcast.
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So I don't know what I'm on here for, but I'm thankful for the
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opportunity. Yeah.
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Now, of course, for people that don't know you just, you know,
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give a little back and kind of who you are, what you're doing
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here now at Cistercian and kind of your story of getting there,
3:04
Yeah. Absolutely.
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So this is my 10th year of strength and conditioning
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coaching. I started really early on the
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summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college.
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And so I was working in a private sector and AD one
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facility and which later turned into another company.
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But I did that for three years, my sophomore, junior and senior
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year of undergraduate. And then immediately after that
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I got my teaching certificate and I went and taught and
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coached at my my local school district, Abilene Wiley for
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three years. I taught history, coached
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football, basketball, track, strength and conditioning.
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And I just stayed busy year round doing all sorts of that
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and loved it. But I knew what I was really
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most passionate about, the strength and conditioning.
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So during that time that I was teaching, coaching, I got my
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master's degree and after my third year I left and went and
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worked at Hardin Simmons University in Abilene.
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I was there for about a year and a half before I got the
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opportunity to go to Oral Roberts in Tulsa.
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Was there for a couple years and then this is year #10 back in
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the high school world as a full time strength and conditioning
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coach at Cistercian Preparatory School.
4:13
Yeah, that's awesome. As you think about going from,
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you know, being in college for a bit and being at ORU most
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recently and now coming to Cistercian and then really like
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you're, you know, you've been in high school kind of teaching
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coach, but now it's like your first real years of full time,
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like strange editioning in high school.
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What's been like some of the biggest changes in that
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transition from a coaching standpoint, a schedule
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standpoint, even just a life standpoint for you?
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Yeah, coaching wise, there's a lot of similarities and there's
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a lot of differences. You know, you're still coaching
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the same patterns in the weight room.
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There's a lot of freshmen that come in, even in the Division
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One university setting that really don't have a lot of
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weight room experience and so teaching the basics is still
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teaching the basics. I think the difference is with
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with really high level athletes, they pick things up really
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quickly and I think everyone just assumes that you're good at
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what you do and you know what you're doing and you've got
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their best interest in mind. And it just takes a little bit
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longer to teach some of those things in the high school.
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It takes maybe a little bit longer to build trust with, with
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younger athletes that don't necessarily understand your
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background or, or any of that stuff.
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So teaching the foundational things is still the same, but it
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is different in terms of just what to expect time wise of how
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much time things take. Now schedule wise, it's simple.
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My schedule is pretty much 8:00 to 5:00 most days.
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And so that's nice. It's consistent.
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I don't have a ton of variability like in the
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university setting where you might have a day that's eight to
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three and you might have a day that is 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM.
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You know, you just, you never, you never know what a day might
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bring in that world. So having that consistency has
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been nice. That's a a welcome change for
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me. Yeah.
6:02
Just life. It's a little bit of a of a
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lower stress, slower pace of life, which for me in this
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season was was really good for me.
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It's what I've needed. Yeah, yeah.
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What's what's been the biggest challenge for you in that
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transition and maybe what's been like the the greatest joy that
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the greatest benefit of the the transition this year?
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Yeah, I think one of the challenges for me has just been
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you kind of have to go back to being a salesman of why it's
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important for kids to be in the weight room.
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And, you know, not just not just with the student athletes, but
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with coaches and with administrators of selling your
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program and the benefits of it and why it's good for not just
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athletic, but for students and for just the well-being of these
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young people. Whereas in the in the college
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setting, you don't really have to convince any Division One
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athlete that it's important that they train.
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They know that there may be one or two here and there that
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you've got to, that you've got to kick in the butt a little bit
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to get them going. But for the most part, everybody
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understands that's part of the process.
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So being a salesman, kind of stating your value to those
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around you and, and the value of the program, that's been a big
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difference. But one of the things that is a
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lot of fun is the progress that you see so quickly with these,
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with younger athletes, they just, when you're taking them
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from step one to Step 2, that's a lot different than taking
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somebody from step 9 to step 10. And it just, it goes so much
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quicker and they make progress so quickly and they get excited
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about it. I joke sometimes with my coaches
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on staff like, if nothing else, I can get a group of middle
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school or high school boys fired up to lift in about 10 seconds.
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Like they get excited about stuff really quick.
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And so that's that's fine. There's good energy in the room.
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Yeah. So, you know, as you talk about,
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you know, having to step into that salesman rule, how, how are
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you selling your program? How are you selling the weight
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room as a place, place they want to come to?
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Because you know, I've experienced it too, like in, you
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know, in college, it's like everything's going to be
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mandatory, like where they got to be basically throughout their
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days. A lot of times there's going to
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be parts of the year, especially with different teams, where like
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the weight room in high school is a maybe an more of an
8:10
optional or voluntary thing that they have to choose to come to.
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So how are you? You create a place that they
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want to be in, selling that as that place to be on campus?
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Yeah, I compare it all the time to investing.
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It would be much less painful if every month I just kept my
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entire paycheck and spent it all on the things that I wanted to
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spend it on. But then I would get to the
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point where I'd like to retire and I would have no money to
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retire or emergency would come up and I wouldn't have money to
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deal with that. So it's got to be that
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consistent month over month investing of your finances to
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put yourself in position to be where you want to be later on in
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life. And I think the weight room is
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the same exact way. If you want results and you want
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progress in your athletic development, it's got to be
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consistent. It's got to happen over time.
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You don't have to lift for three hours a day, but if you lift for
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25 minutes, three days a week or 45 weeks out of the year for six
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years, you're going to see a big return on that investment.
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You're going to see body change, your abilities change, you're
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going to see yourself grow. So that's that's one of the
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things that I sell. And then the other thing is I
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just try to build positive impact for relationships with my
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athletes so that they know whether they are starting
9:25
quarterback on the football team or somebody that's not even
9:28
involved in athletics, but it's just in there just to see
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themselves make progress. And because they like the weight
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room, I want to treat them the same.
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I want to coach them the same and and still care about them in
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a way that they feel welcome and appreciate it.
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Yeah, No, no, I love that for for yourself, whether it's in
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college, whether, you know, now in high school, the coaching can
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sometimes become a non, especially when it's the long
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early mornings to to late evenings and, you know, you got
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lots of groups and you're just doing over and over and over.
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You know, maybe you're, you know, coaching the same lift
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multiple times a day. Sometimes it can just, you can
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become monotonous. Like how do you not let that
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monotony of coaching take away from the reality of the impact
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you get to create each day and and not kind of blind you or
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blunt you to the impact and and the position that you get to be
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in each day? Yeah, and to be totally honest,
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that happens to me sometimes. You know, there are times where
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I think, I think every coach you go into a day and you're kind of
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on autopilot and you just, you've got your script or you've
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got your plan of what needs to be done and you just do it and
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you let days get away from you. And so on my bad days, that's
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what happens. That's who I am.
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But I think what's important for me especially is to remember why
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I got into coaching in the 1st place, which is to try to make
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an impact on young athletes, try to help them in life, try to
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help them build discipline, help them in their walk with the
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Lord. And that leads you to more of
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relational coaching where you're asking questions about a kids
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day, you're asking about their goals.
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And so, yeah, I might be teaching a front squat to 120
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athletes in a given day, but why that athlete is front squatting
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in their mind might be different.
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There's one kid that's trying to gain weight to play football.
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There's one kid that's trying to jump higher.
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There's one kid that's trying to he's trying to make the varsity
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baseball team for the first time, whatever it is.
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And so their motivation and their why they're in their
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training, it allows you to go up and have those conversations
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between sets, those conversations before and after
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the lift that make it not monotonous, you know, because
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every kid is different. Every person is in there for a
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different reason. Yeah.
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No, no, I think that's a great point.
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And as you talk about your why you got into it, like what
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drives your desire and intention to serve and impact these
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athletes, like what, what's what's or you know, the origin
11:54
of that and, and driving that from the beginning for you.
11:57
Yeah. So for me, there's, there's a
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couple of big ones, but I would say 1 for me is I recognize I've
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lived such a comfortable life. I mean, at any given time, I can
12:12
go turn on the faucet of any sink in my home and clean fresh
12:17
water is going to come out. I turn the lights on and we've
12:19
got electricity. We've got climate controlled
12:22
environments that we're in all the time.
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Got a family that loves me, a wife that loves me like I've
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I've got things pretty good. And so most of the struggle that
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I encounter or that at least I encountered growing up was
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through sports and was through me voluntarily subjecting myself
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to be in high pressure situations or being adverse
12:43
situations. And so I think that is so
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important for our culture today that is so comfortable and we
12:49
have so much ease in our lives to go and seek out difficulty
12:54
and seek out struggle and seek out discipline where you feel
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that struggle within your own body and you have to overcome
13:00
that. So I think that is really
13:03
important and I want to be a part of helping young athletes
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navigate through pressure and difficulty and all of those
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things that come with competitive athletics and
13:13
training. But then the other thing that I
13:15
recognized is when I was growing up, I played football in high
13:18
school. I wasn't an All Star.
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I wasn't the greatest in the world, did not go play college
13:22
football or anything like that. But I loved it.
13:25
And I can look back and I can say there was times that I loved
13:27
it too much and it was an idol in my life.
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And you know, I was raised by Christian parents and very firm
13:34
believer in my faith, but that was not my top priority when I
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was in high school. My top priority was get
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recruited to play college football, do everything that I
13:43
could and training to make myself the best athlete
13:46
possible. And it wasn't until I let that
13:49
go that I really had peace on the football field and I really
13:53
could just enjoy the game again. And So what I want more than
13:56
anything is to help these young athletes not to idolize their
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sport, to enjoy their sport, to embrace the good parts of it,
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but to understand that it is not the ultimate prize in life to be
14:09
an athlete. And in spite of what we see on
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TV and what is glorified in our culture, there is so much more
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to life than athletics or anything that we would do in the
14:18
weight room. So, so how when you have
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athletes in in there, how do you simultaneously make it a space
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where like you're pushing them to be their best, right?
14:29
And you're pushing them places they haven't been and trying to
14:33
get them somewhere in the future.
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While also, you know, simultaneously providing that
14:42
message of like, even though we're trying to like become our
14:44
best and, and get as much as we can, that's not everything.
14:47
How? How are you balancing those two
14:49
things at the same time? Yeah, There's a scripture that I
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share with my athletes, usually on the first day that I started
14:55
working with them. I shared this with the athletes
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at Cistercian the first day that I started with them this summer,
15:00
and I come back to it a lot. It's First Timothy 48 and it
15:04
says while bodily training is of some value, godliness is a value
15:08
in every way as it holds promise for the present life and the
15:11
life that is to come. So just remembering like we want
15:14
to work with the talents that God has given us.
15:16
We want to work to his glory and we want to put our best effort
15:20
forward for our teammates, for our school, for ourselves, all
15:23
of that. But understand it's not eternal
15:25
and what we do on a football field or what we do on a
15:28
basketball court that win loss record is not is not a term.
15:32
It's not. Yeah, No, I love it.
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No, that's powerful. I am.
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I'm going to I'm going to read you a quote in a second from
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from a guy named Ed Mylar. I was listening to the podcast
15:42
and man, this one hit me. And it was powerful.
15:45
And he's talking and he said, you know, he imagines this
15:48
picture where he gets to heaven and he's meeting God and, and
15:52
God says, like, Hey, let me introduce you to the man you
15:55
were born to be. This is the maxed out version of
15:57
you. These are the experiences, the
15:59
love, the memories, the moments, the contributions, the people,
16:02
all the things you could have done.
16:04
This is what you were capable of.
16:06
And he said to me, even as I meet him and we're identical
16:08
twins and how as I meet him and we're complete, total strangers.
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Where? Where does that take your mind?
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That's a great picture. I love that picture a lot.
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You know, I, I think for me it just, it makes you think about
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who did God make me to be? Who is that maxed out version of
16:25
myself? And being a strength coach and
16:27
process oriented and a planner makes you think, OK, what what
16:32
steps do I need to be taking on a day-to-day basis or a weekly
16:35
basis to actually live into my potential, live into what I was
16:38
created to be? Yeah, where are you closest to
16:41
your purpose? I think, I think oftentimes it's
16:44
coaching. I think oftentimes it's
16:46
coaching, but it's not necessarily during a lift, it's
16:49
after or before when I allow myself to be interruptible and
16:53
I'm just having conversations with athletes that I'm coaching
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and we're just talking about life and whether whether they're
16:59
asking me for advice or whether we're just having a
17:01
conversation. I think that is that's when I'm
17:04
closest to my purpose, particularly when I when I do
17:07
get to share scripture or talk about things that are true and
17:11
eternal and not just surface level.
17:13
It's funny and you you've talked about it with with the monotony
17:16
part in this, but like it's, I feel like a lot of times our
17:19
greatest impact in coaching as well.
17:22
We're not actually coaching. It's like the coaching job like
17:26
provides the other opportunities, especially if
17:29
you're around athletes or team and you know, travel team and
17:31
just all the the time spent, you know, around the coaching, you
17:35
know, the actual lifts or the actual practices is where you
17:39
know so much more of that relationship, so much more that
17:41
impact actually comes. You know, obviously there,
17:43
there's impact within those sessions, but I, I remember,
17:46
especially now starting my favorite part often was like
17:49
those conversations before, you know, the conversations when you
17:52
know, the athletes that really, you know, like to be there is
17:55
just sticking around, just hanging out, just laying around
17:58
in the weight room and just talking and getting had those
18:00
conversations. A lot of times is, you know, I
18:03
think one of the one of the best parts, one of the impactful
18:06
parts a lot of times. Yeah, no doubt.
18:08
I think if it was just about sets and reps and velocities and
18:12
XS and OS I I think I would have probably gone into a different
18:16
profession by now. Yeah, you know, as as we're
18:20
reflecting here and talking about kind of perverse stuff
18:23
like how for you as a coach, like how is your darkest moment
18:27
as a coach connected to who you are as a coach today?
18:31
So when? I think back to my darkest
18:33
moment as a coach. It was a time of just burnout
18:36
where I was young in my career and I loved what I did until it
18:41
was all that I did it. It was, you know, how coaching
18:45
in the collegiate world can be. There's there's highs and lows,
18:47
but I just remember it was during the fall 1 semester and
18:50
we were seven days a week. And as I'm sure all the
18:53
listeners that are still still hanging around have picked up by
18:57
now, my face important to me. And so if I was not able to go
19:00
to church on Sunday or I had to rush out early or whatever the
19:03
case was to get to work, that was kind of a a straw that was
19:07
beginning to break the camel's back for me where I was like,
19:10
man, like we've got game days throughout the week and game day
19:14
on Saturday with football, and then I've got to turn around
19:17
Sunday and get back up here. And none of the players wanted
19:19
to be there on Sunday. It was just a lot.
19:22
When it was seven days a week for however many weeks in a row,
19:25
it became a lot. And I don't know how many hours
19:28
per week I was working at that time, but it was a lot.
19:30
And so that really kind of got me on the track of how can I be
19:35
as efficient as possible with other coaches time with my
19:39
athletes time and with my own. Obviously not at the expense of
19:43
the quality of training or the quality of service that you're
19:46
providing. But efficiency just became a big
19:49
priority for me of why would we come in Sunday if we can get
19:54
some of that work done on Saturday and some of that work
19:55
done on Monday and let everybody get away, let everybody take a
19:58
break, or for my own training sessions, does this really need?
20:02
To take an hour and 20 minutes, can I get it done in an hour?
20:05
Can I get it done in 45 minutes? Can I get something done in 30
20:08
minutes? You know, I'm just really trying
20:10
to be respectful of people's time because college athletes,
20:14
high school athletes, even, they're busy and I've got a lot
20:17
on their plate. And I think when you're
20:19
respectful of people's time, even the athletes that you work
20:22
with, they will give you more in the time that you have them and
20:25
they'll appreciate you for that because they are juggling a lot
20:29
at once. Yeah.
20:30
And you know, I'm sure that's really helped as you've stepped
20:33
into this high school rule because, you know, I think we've
20:35
talked before, but like, and I think we talked before where
20:38
we're, you know, Richard Burnett was talking about it on his
20:41
episode here, where like high school, like college or, you
20:44
know, pro can be about like optimizing in high schools, like
20:47
optimizing logistics to make like things actually work
20:50
logistically where, you know, with the college team, you know,
20:55
a lot of times you can have that time if you need it, Like you
20:58
can have, you know, the longer hour hour plus lift, the, you
21:03
know, lift every single day in high school.
21:05
A lot of times it's like you get, you know, a lot of teams
21:08
like one to two times for, you know, this short amount of time
21:11
and both from they've got to get to practice and get home to do
21:14
homework, but also like you've got to get multiple teams into
21:17
the weight room. So I'm sure that that's helped
21:19
prepare you to be able to OK, like what are the things I
21:21
actually need to get done to actually make them better?
21:24
That's going to fit logistically into the flow of it and also
21:27
like when they need to get out of everything.
21:29
Absolutely, absolutely. And my, my head football coach
21:33
at Cistercian, he is an outstanding coach, phenomenal
21:36
man, Andre Bruce. And he shared a quote that I'll
21:40
probably remember for the rest of my coaching career this
21:43
summer. He was just, he was telling our
21:45
players not to chase perfection, but to chase excellence instead.
21:49
And man, that resonated with me because there were so many times
21:53
transitioning from university setting to a high school setting
21:57
where I was pulling my hair out because I was just like, we
22:00
didn't what you mean we only have 5 minutes for a warm up.
22:02
You know, I didn't get my extensive file work in or I
22:05
didn't get my, you know, T spine mobility in or whatever it is
22:09
like we didn't check this box that needs to be checked.
22:11
And just taking a deep breath and stepping back and saying,
22:14
OK, the more I chase perfection in this, in this setting where
22:19
you just you don't have the time that you need and you don't have
22:22
everything, that it's not a perfect world.
22:24
Trying to chase perfection in that actually holds you back
22:27
rather than just accepting whatever imperfections there may
22:30
be or whatever changes you might have to make and saying, let's
22:34
be excellent within this context of what we have available to us
22:38
and come back and do the same thing again the next day.
22:41
So that's been powerful to me is excellence over perfection.
22:44
Yeah, no, that's great. And you know, I'm sure like like
22:47
as you talk about that where, you know, you're trying to get
22:50
every little thing right. And like I did a tune program,
22:53
it's like, you know, I'm trying to, you know, get the 1%.
22:56
You're trying to make everything flow perfectly and and make sure
22:59
we're not missing out on anything that we might possibly
23:02
need. And there's all.
23:03
And, you know, it's like, do I do, you know, do I pick this
23:06
exercise or that exercise like, you know, three sets or 4, you
23:08
know, all those different things like what are the internal
23:11
battles or the internal debates that you have most often with
23:15
yourself? And it could be about
23:16
programming or you know, any direction really you want to
23:19
take that. I find myself asking the
23:21
question a lot of what can we do well?
23:26
And what that means is when I'm making the decision about
23:29
programming or when I'm making a decision about how I want things
23:32
to operate, it's in the real world with 72 high school boys,
23:39
what can we do and what can be done efficiently and
23:43
effectively? And that usually answers my
23:46
question because usually it the, the internal debate is do I push
23:53
for this more complex thing or do I keep it a little bit more
23:56
basic? And my answer 95% of the time
24:00
has been let's let's keep this thing basic, let's do it well,
24:03
let's do it consistently. And that's been really helpful
24:06
for me during this transition is just to be consistent and simple
24:11
and do things. Well, yeah, yeah, the the poll
24:16
or the like the poll to want to do more.
24:19
You know, the picture like we were doing all these things
24:22
often does not match the reality when you try and maybe reach a
24:26
little too far and, you know, go a little too fast.
24:28
Yeah, I know. I think that's, that's a great
24:31
framework for just deciding of what to really do.
24:34
You know, when you think about like where you want to be in the
24:37
future, like your long term goals, whatever that may look
24:40
like, what are what are some of the skills that you feel
24:43
currently separate you from from being there?
24:47
You know, for me long term, but really just it's not necessarily
24:50
about landing a certain job or being in a certain place, but
24:54
kind of making the big time where you're at.
24:56
And I would like to see the athletic program where I am just
25:02
operate really efficiently, operate at a high level,
25:04
athletes understand the expectations and execute those
25:08
expectations without a whole lot of instruction.
25:11
So I think for me that's that's a gap I need to work on of
25:15
athletes clearly understanding the why behind the what.
25:20
Because so often I am trying to be efficient and I am trying to
25:22
get groups in and out and I am trying to just have everything
25:25
operate smoothly. That I will sometimes fail to
25:28
explain. Here's why, why we're doing what
25:31
we're doing because that is powerful, especially with high
25:34
school athletes, like a lot of them want to know why.
25:37
And maybe that's just the school where I am.
25:39
I've got a bunch of very bright inquisitive kids.
25:42
And so I think they, if they understand the why behind the
25:46
what, then they can be more just focused and sharp on executing
25:50
that on a consistent basis versus me just saying, hey,
25:53
here's what we're doing, let's get in here and do it.
25:55
Yeah, no, that's great. As you know, as you think about
25:59
you kind of your goals there, Cistercian, if if you go back
26:02
right, you're you're one, you're 1 semester and now to the job.
26:05
If you go back to this summer when you were starting summer
26:10
program for the first time, it was athletes like, are there
26:12
things you would change about on either the way you're running
26:16
your program and setting the foundation there?
26:19
And then two, just the way you were, you know, communicating
26:23
with athletes, communicating with admin and coaches and just,
26:26
you know, building the foundations for your program,
26:29
They're like, like what? What are the changes you would
26:31
make if you could go back a semester ago?
26:33
I would have done things simpler.
26:35
I would I would have progressed much slower.
26:37
I would have, I would have stayed much more vanilla in my
26:40
programming. I was, I was still in that
26:43
collegiate mindset of we're going to we're going to have
26:46
this little two week block and then we're going to move on to a
26:48
three-week block. And then whatever the case may
26:50
be going forward and younger athletes just need longer
26:53
training blocks. They just, they need, need to do
26:55
the same things for a long time. And so I would have, I would
27:00
have had less variation in my program, less, less things
27:04
overall. I would have definitely
27:06
eliminated some things and eliminated some, some change and
27:09
some variability communication wise that I do feel like went
27:13
very smoothly. And that probably covered some
27:16
of my poor programming early on was my ability to communicate
27:21
with the athletes and and their ability to communicate with me
27:23
and receive coaching. Yeah.
27:25
Yeah, as as I asked the the previous question about, you
27:29
know, the skills that separated you from from where you wanted
27:33
to be. When we think about building
27:34
skills, you think about building skills and you're like, OK, you
27:37
recognize that I need to build a skill.
27:40
I want to kind of dive into like how you'd attack that and and as
27:43
kind of a thought experiment with that.
27:45
I want to think like, if you had to learn a skill and you only
27:48
had three days to learn that, and then you're getting tested
27:50
on it in some way, how would you approach those three days?
27:54
Great question. Lots of practice, you know,
27:57
skill development requires repetition, requires some
28:00
planning. And so for me, I was talking
28:02
about my need to communicate the why with my athletes behind
28:05
different exercises or different things that we do.
28:08
So if I was really going to hammer down on that skill, I
28:12
would probably write down what I was going to say to my athletes
28:16
pre lift, time that out because it does have to be efficient.
28:19
I don't have 10 minutes to go into everything with them.
28:22
I might have 90 seconds. So I need to write down what I
28:25
was going to say, time that make sure it was going to fit within
28:28
that 92nd window and then apply it and apply it consistently.
28:32
And you've given me a good idea that I can instantly take to
28:35
improve my coaching. So thank you for that, John.
28:40
As you're talking, as you're saying that kind of brought to
28:43
my head, like sometimes there's things like that, like, you
28:46
know, you might have that idea. It's like, oh, these are good
28:48
ideas that would really help the value of what I'm doing or help
28:51
me improve my skill, but then we don't actually do those things.
28:57
Like what do you think gets in the way?
28:58
Or maybe for yourself? Like sometimes, you know, maybe
29:01
it's like a system you need to build or, you know, there's
29:03
different tasks you need to do and you just they keep getting
29:06
put off for you that they're they're not prioritized.
29:09
Like what gets in the way for you of doing the things that you
29:13
know you probably should do that will help you, but you still
29:15
don't do them? I think we just really, we
29:17
underestimate, and I think you've shared this with me
29:19
before, we just really underestimate what we can
29:22
accomplish in one day. Or even your example from a
29:24
minute ago of if you were working on a skill for three
29:27
days, could we see measurable improvement in that skill?
29:30
And I think we would all agree that you can.
29:32
But then when it does come time to put it into practice, we tend
29:36
to think that that's too daunting or that's too much of A
29:38
change or no. This is going to take weeks or
29:40
months or whatever it may be when you can make a simple
29:43
change today that would get you closer to where you want to be
29:47
tomorrow. Yeah, Yeah, as you as you're
29:50
talking about that was popping in my head is like, I feel like
29:54
it's the procrastination and the avoidance of like the starting.
29:59
I feel like the starting is the hard.
30:01
Is this lately you're saying like, you know, if we really
30:04
even just in one day, like tried, you know, we'd put in
30:07
four hours to some new skill or on the, you know, we take three
30:11
days or a week and we put in a couple hours each day.
30:14
Like if it's a new skill, like you can become serviceable and a
30:17
skill at a pretty short amount of time.
30:19
But I think there's a lot of skills.
30:20
It's like maybe we don't know where to start or how to start,
30:24
and we keep avoiding that starting because we're not sure
30:27
about it. When really, if we, you know,
30:29
dove in and, you know, in a day, I'm going to, you know, take
30:32
this Saturday and put in like 6 hours into the skill, like, you
30:35
know, become kind of serviceable in a pretty short amount of
30:37
time. Yeah.
30:38
And that's why a lot of times the certifications and the
30:41
workshops and those sorts of things, the conferences are
30:43
valuable because it just forces you to go and do what you've
30:47
been putting off. Yeah, yeah.
30:49
For sure. What things outside of coaching
30:52
have helped you develop the most as a coach?
30:55
I tell people a lot that it was one of my first jobs.
30:59
I was when I was waiting tables at the Abilene Country Club and
31:05
I was kind of a shy kid growing up through high school.
31:08
Like not, I didn't have crippling shyness or
31:13
introversion or whatever, but I definitely was more to myself
31:16
and I was kind of awkward. Like it was hard for me to start
31:19
conversations with people and to maintain those conversations.
31:22
And so waiting tables, if you are a young coach and you're
31:25
struggling to connect with people, go wait some tables on
31:28
the weekends and be forced to talk to all kinds of different
31:33
people. Make them feel welcome, make
31:34
things right when they feel that something has has not gone right
31:38
in their experience. So that's that was really
31:41
important for me just getting out of my shell, just starting
31:43
off that summer. And I just felt that translate
31:47
into me being more relatable as a coach, me being a little bit
31:50
easier to talk to, being a little bit better listener.
31:54
So that was that was one thing for sure.
31:57
In a strange way, I think being married has done something
31:59
similar where you feel a little bit more empathetic and just a
32:03
little bit more caring to the people that you're working with
32:06
because you understand patience at home and you understand the
32:10
showing grace at home and that you need that same patience and
32:13
grace. And so, yeah, there's, I think
32:16
the more interactions that you have with people outside of
32:19
coaching, it just makes you more well-rounded and more able to
32:22
talk with people because at the end of the day, that's that's
32:26
the foundation of what we're trying to do is help people.
32:28
Yeah, yeah. And you know, as we've talked
32:30
about building skills and you know, be intentional with that
32:33
and like you're saying, basically you with that, you
32:35
know, working at the Country Club, you are basically
32:38
practicing that communication skill each day.
32:40
Are there any other ways, like you're intentionally developing
32:45
your ability to communicate your, you know, I think as
32:48
coaches, as people, our ability to tell to storytell is a really
32:52
important skill. It's like, are there ways
32:54
outside of just coaching every day where you're doing it that
32:58
you're intentionally enhancing that skill for yourself?
33:01
I, I think the other one's reading, you know, because
33:05
coaching, like you said, it is storytelling and you're trying
33:07
to paint a picture for somebody of either their goals or whether
33:11
it's queuing or whatever it might be.
33:13
And if you are well read or you listen to podcasts or you are,
33:18
you are taking in some stories and you're taking in other
33:22
people's work, that's going to flow out from you a little bit
33:25
more. So rather than just mindlessly
33:28
being on your phone or watching TV or whatever it may be, I'm a
33:33
big advocate. I'm not as not always as
33:35
disciplined here as I should be, but for just reading and
33:39
spending time reading books and sharpening your own mind.
33:42
How do you, and we've talked about this some before, but
33:45
like, how are you making sure that what you know, what you're
33:47
reading, what you're listening to like is helping you?
33:51
And like there's this balance of the input that you're bringing
33:55
in to actually making a valuable output for yourself, whether
33:59
it's your skill or what you're producing or, you know, whatever
34:02
it is versus just, I'm reading a bunch, I'm listening to much and
34:06
it's kind of just overloading my, my brand.
34:09
I'm, I'm, I'm doing the things to become a better coach, but is
34:12
it really helping me become a better coach?
34:14
That's a that's a great question.
34:17
I feel like that was me two or three years ago where I, I loved
34:24
my job and my work. And so I was reading everything
34:26
I get my hands on and a lot of it was great.
34:29
A lot of it was helpful, but there's some contradicting
34:32
information out there and there's there's things that you
34:37
can't add every single thing because it's not efficient.
34:40
It's not practical to your program.
34:42
So I don't know what to say to that other than it just takes
34:45
some time to be rooted in the thing in your principles that
34:49
you know are important for your current situation and that you
34:52
no matter most for the athletes that you're coaching so that
34:56
you're not just blown by the wind.
34:58
You can't make wholesale changes to your program every time you
35:00
read a book or listen to a podcast.
35:03
Like that's where I think it's important to be patient and to
35:05
slow down and not be too quick to act in in those situations
35:10
because you can lose touch with what's practical and what's best
35:13
for your situation and your athletes if you try to apply
35:17
every single thing that you read.
35:19
But if you can take a little bit and a little piece here and
35:22
there to stay sharp with what you do or even just reading just
35:26
some stories that have nothing to do with coaching or nothing
35:29
to do with your development, that I think that's valuable for
35:32
a communication benefit. And I think it's valuable just
35:36
to help yourself be a more well-rounded, more personable
35:40
coach. So it doesn't always have to be.
35:42
I'm going to read this book and this is going to fix my program.
35:44
Yeah. And you know, as a, as, as we
35:46
talked about it and I think about it, I feel like if you're
35:49
going to lean towards that overload of information stage,
35:54
probably want to do it when you're pretty early on as a
35:57
coach and maybe don't have as much direct responsibility
36:01
leading or like writing programs or stuff.
36:03
And maybe you're an assistant or intern or whatever it is.
36:06
It's like expose yourself to as much information out there to
36:10
one, just become more familiar with different ideologies or,
36:13
you know, techniques, but you're you're not necessarily maybe
36:18
implementing it to people and you're learning someone else's
36:21
system or foundation at the same time.
36:24
But then, you know, play around with as much of it as you want
36:27
on yourself, right? And experiment.
36:29
And, and, you know, I think just like just like, you know, young
36:33
athletes or, you know, young kids, like, OK, you know, don't
36:36
specialize, like play as much different types of sports and
36:40
activities and stuff as possible.
36:41
Like expose yourself to as much as possible.
36:44
And then we can start to kind of refine that.
36:46
And like you've talked about, become more efficient with that
36:49
as as you get older and as you become, you know, as you get
36:52
more responsible in your coaching, like you've learned
36:55
other people, you built your filter a little bit more.
36:57
But now you have this at least foundation of exposure to kind
37:00
of a bigger amount of information versus just maybe
37:04
like only doing or only seeing what your first mentor did.
37:10
Yeah, absolutely. And if I could comment on on
37:13
that, it's also important to remember there's so much for
37:16
sale out there and there's so many people selling their
37:20
program or selling their book or selling their whatever.
37:24
Doesn't mean you shouldn't look at it, doesn't mean you
37:26
shouldn't buy. But people are trying to set
37:28
themselves apart and people are trying to stand out from the
37:31
crowd and have this marketable brand that makes them unique and
37:35
makes them somebody that doesn't just get lost in the sea of
37:40
everybody else. And so I think there's a lot of
37:44
truth and just being balanced and incorporating a lot of
37:49
different aspects of strength and conditioning or coaching.
37:53
And people tend to present themselves as more extreme one
37:57
way or another online because that's what gets clicks and
38:00
that's what gets sales. Yeah.
38:02
And you know, you know, some of the people that I've really
38:05
started to admire the most as I, as I look, look to people, it's
38:10
like the people that like, aren't looking to other people
38:14
for information, like people that have become really good
38:16
what they do. And like they, they, they're
38:19
literally learning through observing the environment around
38:24
them, through writing and reflecting on what's happening
38:28
with their athletes or what's what's going on in their
38:30
environment. And like they're actually
38:32
creating their own thought processes or own systems
38:36
uniquely to them through their own reflections versus just, you
38:40
know, trying to draw from everybody, everybody.
38:43
And like, like, I have that poem.
38:45
So like, it's like, OK, I need like it, It's this balance
38:47
because it's like, OK, you know, stuff on social media or
38:50
podcasts, never. Like there's great information
38:51
that's helped me so much. There's also somebody like, I
38:54
want to just like block it all off.
38:55
And literally I'm not, I'm not able to have any type of
38:58
resource, any type of course or book or podcast.
39:02
And I literally just have to, you know, write every day and
39:05
reflect every day and, you know, develop my own skills and
39:09
thought processes from what I'm seeing because I just see those
39:12
people and, and, and I feel like there's a, there's more of an
39:16
assurance and, and what they're doing because of the thought
39:19
that's gone behind it. And because of the blocking of
39:22
all that noise that is out there that can lead to the debates,
39:27
the internal debates that we've talked about on this
39:30
conversation that make you go back and forth.
39:34
Because if there's a, if there's a million potential solutions to
39:38
your problem, like you're going to debate, but there's no
39:40
question that you're going to go back and forth on things.
39:43
Yeah, it's a great point, I think.
39:45
I think context matters so much. I, I can't do the exact same
39:50
things that you're doing because you and I are in a little bit of
39:54
a different content that now there's probably going to be 90%
39:58
of the things that we do that look exactly the same.
40:00
But there's some decisions that you would make within your
40:03
program that fit because of the people and because of the
40:07
situation and the environment that you're in.
40:09
Whereas even if the only difference is the facility that
40:12
that influences a lot of decisions that you have to make.
40:15
So. I think that to your point,
40:18
you've got to really be familiar with your own situation and your
40:22
own population so that you can make the best decisions for the
40:26
context you're in. No, I think you're you're spot
40:29
on there. What have you changed your mind
40:31
on in the last year that you felt has really made a big
40:34
difference for you? I think for me, I have kind of
40:38
shifted. I'll talk about strength and
40:40
conditioning a little bit. I've I've changed my mind on the
40:46
intensity is everything idea. So I used to really believe that
40:54
if if we're not hitting close to maximal efforts consistently,
40:59
whether that's in the weight room or sprinting or whatever it
41:03
is, that we're really not serving our population.
41:09
And what I see is there's just so much on these athletes and
41:16
they sit in a desk all day and then they come and train in the
41:20
afternoon and then they've got to go to practice or whatever.
41:22
It may be that there's times that we've gone 3 or 4 weeks
41:26
without really approaching anything above 75% in the weight
41:32
room. And we haven't done any Max
41:33
velocity sprinting for a little bit or whatever it may be.
41:37
But just being consistent and steady has proven to be really
41:46
effective for my population and I don't necessarily have to push
41:53
that needle all the way to the extreme ends consistently to see
41:57
growth in them. Now, does that mean that high
41:59
intensity training is a bad thing?
42:01
No, of course it's not. But I've, I've really shifted
42:04
more towards kind of a, a low to moderate intensity and keep a
42:07
little bit of volume throughout the year just because that's
42:10
what my population has needed and what they've done really
42:13
well with. So that's been a shift in my
42:16
coaching and at least for the high school where I am, I've
42:20
seen, I've seen a lot of positives come from that.
42:23
Yeah. And you know, I think that
42:24
really helps with also the skill acquisition piece and you know,
42:28
being able to do things with a little more volume.
42:30
And just, you know what, we're not maybe maxing out the
42:33
intensity and maybe, you know, breaking some of our techniques
42:38
or our foundations to hit that intensity.
42:40
But it's like, OK, we can really just, you know, mass district
42:44
assistance, you have volume there and continue to progress.
42:47
It can lead to a lot of a lot of really good things there for
42:50
sure. You know, as you worked with
42:52
college, as you worked with high school and middle school
42:54
athletes, if I gave you a elementary school athlete and
43:01
you had total control over their athletic development, their
43:05
sport develop, sport skill development from elementary
43:09
school all the way through college, what would those
43:13
different phases of kind of like how you'd approach that from a,
43:17
you know, higher view look like? Man, my wife and I have been
43:21
having this conversation as we've just considered the
43:24
possibility of having kids in the future if that's the Lord's
43:27
will for us. And so we've we've got a plan
43:31
because my wife's got the jeans and I have a small amount of
43:36
knowledge. So we're planning on making a
43:38
super athlete. We'll see how that goes.
43:40
But obviously the foundation is sport specific skill.
43:43
I think if you've got an elementary school kid, they need
43:46
to start off by swinging a baseball bat, hitting a ball on
43:51
the tee, shooting a basketball, shooting a soccer goal.
43:54
They need to catch a football that they need to do sport
43:57
skills. And that could just be in the
43:59
backyard with mom and dad or brother and sister.
44:01
And then alongside that, they need to be a part of a team.
44:04
And so I think youth sports is so important and being involved
44:07
with multiple sports parents, I think you just obviously I'm not
44:10
a parent, so I don't know. I won't speak to black and white
44:13
here because there's a lot of people more knowledgeable than I
44:15
am. But I think you just got to put
44:17
your kid in a couple of things and see if they like it.
44:19
Try to keep them in involved in as many things as long as you
44:22
can. I think sometimes parents try to
44:25
let their, their kids steer that ship a little bit too much of
44:28
like they'll tell me when they're ready to go play
44:31
baseball or they'll tell me me when they're ready to go play
44:33
soccer. And I think until you just
44:35
expose them to that and put them in that they, they don't know.
44:38
So put them in a lot of stuff and have them be a part of a
44:41
team, have them learn what it is to compete and develop those
44:44
sports specific skills along the way.
44:46
That's the foundation. And then as soon as they're
44:49
mature enough to pay attention with things that are a little
44:53
bit less exciting, could be in the context of your sport
44:56
practice. I think a little bit of GPP
44:58
work, 8 years old, nine years old is a good place to start.
45:02
Where they are starting to do some planks, they're starting to
45:05
do some crawl variations, They're maybe pushing a light
45:08
sled or they're doing some carries of sandbags or whatever.
45:11
It may be some calisthenics. I think having them start to
45:15
understand that it's not all, not all fun and games, a lot of
45:19
fun and games, but there is value in the training mentally
45:23
for them. And I think there's also value
45:25
physically and developing that kind of general physical
45:29
prepared, just that base of preparedness for them.
45:32
And then I think what's also important is making sure that
45:35
you don't neglect that that window where they can really
45:37
build a lot of speed. So a kid from six years old to 8
45:40
years old is going to get a lot faster than the kid from 18 to
45:45
20. So as they're growing and as
45:47
they're developing, I think you've really got to make sure
45:50
that you integrate some games where they have to Sprint and
45:52
they have to really open it up. You're not going to see a lot of
45:55
muscular gains in those young kids, but you can see a lot of
45:58
neurological improvements and skill improvements.
46:01
So I'd have been playing sports, starting some GPP work, and then
46:05
we'd be doing some introductory speed training that looks a lot
46:09
more like TAG and a lot less like day marches and a skips.
46:13
And then a little bit later on, that's probably about 12 or 13
46:17
years old, that's where I would introduce the power lifts and
46:21
the the variations of those power lifts.
46:23
So the squat, the hinge, the press, the pool somewhere around
46:27
that middle school age. And that doesn't mean put a bar
46:30
on their back right away, but it could be a goblet squat, you
46:32
know, it could be a dumbbell bench press.
46:35
Just teaching them some of those foundational power lift type
46:39
patterns so that as they get older, they know those and they
46:42
can load those heavier. Once they get up to about 4:15,
46:46
that's when I start getting into more barbell work, more true
46:49
strength training work, bring in more auxiliary movements,
46:53
because at that age they can, they can begin putting on a
46:55
little bit of muscle mass. And then, you know, that's,
46:58
that's probably about the age that we'd start doing some sort
47:02
of Olympic weightlifting or some Ballistics as well, integrating
47:05
that power training and with their strength training.
47:08
And then you just keep that you keep it simple until they're
47:11
1819, understanding that the foundation is always going to be
47:14
their sport specific skill. And then going from there.
47:17
And I think from that point, you've got to pretty solid base
47:21
for your athletes to have a chance.
47:23
Yeah. No, that's, that's a really
47:25
awesome breakdown as we finish up here, Colton, what's, what's
47:29
something that we haven't talked about that that's important that
47:33
we do talk about here today? I think it's important.
47:36
We kind of touched on it, but just the idea of taking care of
47:39
yourself as a coach, and I talked about it's important for
47:43
us not to as athletes, not to idolize the sport, not to
47:47
idolize a game. But as coaches, we're guilty of
47:49
it too. And it's so easy to want to win
47:54
your state championship or win your district or receive
47:59
recognition for your accomplishments because we do
48:02
put a lot of time and effort into what we do.
48:04
And so it's normal. We're competitive people.
48:06
It's normal to want to win and it's good to want to win.
48:10
However, I think it's so much more important that in the midst
48:14
of that pursuit that you are taking a step back once in a
48:17
while. Zoom out, look at the big
48:19
picture and understand the impact that you can have
48:22
regardless of win, loss record, regardless of the amount of
48:27
trophies in your case. What we do is for the people and
48:30
what we do is for these these young men and women that we
48:33
coach and not for our own recognition. 100% and you know
48:39
Colin, this this has been awesome man.
48:41
You know, I asked a lot of not easy questions, some hard
48:44
questions here and I think, you know, I appreciate just how open
48:47
you are, how real you are and just the the wisdom that you
48:51
brought to this conversation, I think is really, really cool.
48:55
And you know, a conversation that can, you know, really be
48:58
impactful and hopefully, you know, get people that are
49:00
listening to also reflect on some of these things.
49:03
So so thank you. Thank you for talking this
49:05
morning. Thank you John for having me on.
49:06
I appreciate it. If you're not, you're not out
49:08
there on social media at all. But if people were looking to,
49:11
you know, learn more from you or just connect from you, like
49:14
where? Where where can people go or get
49:17
in contact with you They're. Going to have to send me an
49:19
e-mail because I am, I'm pretty off the grid for the most part,
49:24
but I do have a LinkedIn and my name is just, it's just my name,
49:29
but I don't post a whole lot on LinkedIn.
49:31
But you just got to e-mail me. It's just Colton COLTO
49:34
n.rossurosseau@gmail.com that's it's old school.
49:40
It's simple, but if you want to have a conversation, I'm happy
49:43
to just send me an. E-mail.
49:44
I still have the internal debates of deleting all my
49:47
social medias every days. All right, Colton, this is great
49:50
man. I appreciate you.
49:51
Thanks, John.