E13 | Bo Sandoval: Strength & Conditioning

[0:00:01 Speaker 0] Welcome to the team behind the team podcast. I am your host, Dani May. This is the monthly show focused on building conversations around the team based model approach to ethics, performance, strength, conditioning, sports, medicine, sports, science, mental health and wellness and sports nutrition. Hello, and welcome back to the team behind the team podcast. I’m your host, Danny made. And, man, we’re glad you decided to join us again this month. We’ve got an incredible guest on the show for you today that we have not only talked about trying to get the Austin, uh, to our clinic, but we finally got him pegged down. He’s a busy guy. Covitz put ah lot of clamps on things, so he made time for us for the podcast. Everybody say hello and welcome Coach. Both Sandoval to show both Say hello to everybody, [0:00:55 Speaker 1] everybody. Dani, thanks a tongue for having me. I’m super pumped to be on love catching up with you, so let’s get after it. [0:01:01 Speaker 0] Yes, sir. Thank you, Coach. And, uh, a little bit about Bo. He’s currently is the director of strength in addition at UFC Performance Institute. And he’s doing some amazing things here. There will let him get into that to second. I know both. From his days at Michigan, when he was on staff, there were coach favor and the rest of the crew. Just incredible staff and coaches there and just unknown both since he was there and and just through the years of, you know, just met him at conferences, talk to him and just what an outstanding coach professionally, just man. It just had a tremendous amount of good results with all the different teams you work with, Coach, just looking at your resume. We’ll let you delve into that. So from here, won’t you just tell everybody listening a little bit about you? Your career, how you got started in kind of that career path that led you to where you’re at today Real quick, Coach, Go [0:01:51 Speaker 1] for, um, you know, in North America, I kind of jumped in like a lot of kids. Dio went to school, got a bachelor’s degree in in exercise science, um, got got involved early on in some internships with strength conditioning department at the University of Southern Mississippi back then, with with head coach Charlie Dudley and his crew, and they allowed me to basically intern every semester from my sophomore to my senior year, which helped with a lot of relationship building and allowed me to be able Thio Thio have the gall to ask them if I could stick around for two more years as a graduate assistant, as I did my graduate studies and exercise fizz at Southern missus. Well, um, so that that’s kind of how I got my feet wet and then from there, like everyone else, you know, stressed out about trying to find my first job and was fortunate enough to land a gig at a small Presbyterian school in Jackson, Mississippi. Belhaven College. Back then, it’s now a believe. A Division two school Belhaven University. Now, um, was a tremendous experience from me. Three years they’re cutting my teeth, working with about 14 head coaches that were all at time, way more experience than May. So good. Good spot to learn and figure out how toe run a program running department. Do it by myself. Andi also try to support all these coaches and what their endeavors were with each of their programs. Um, from there I was fortunate enough to apply for a position and I was shot in the dark. Gotta interview with the U S Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs. Azan SNC coordinator, which is basically like a utility player on the with strength department globally for them and upon the first few months of being there was pretty heavily involved with, um, well, with freestyle and Greco Roman wrestling is what was judo, and that kind of led me down a path of being specialized in Acrobat and Combat sports for the next almost three years with the with the O. T. C s. All of my time was spent with wrestling, boxing, judo, taekwondo, fencing on the acrobatics side, men’s gymnastics as well. Azaz men’s and women’s Excuse me diving, um, and so fast forward a few years later. Got a non opportunity to join Coach Mike Favor, um, out of the University of Michigan. This sort of build and expand on their Olympic sports program that they had there eso When we got there, there were, I believe, 43 of us full time coaches, um, and we essentially, in the next 80 over the next eight years grew that into an 11 person staff and added in a couple additional weight rooms, really trying to help catapult University of Michigan Athletics into the into the current status of elite athletics. They were behind a little bit. They were one of those institutions with a big pocketbook, but they were stingy with it. And so we had a loosen him up a little bit but built a fantastic program. There was a tremendous experience for me, um, to learn a lot of skills around leadership. And I got to manage some coaches while I was there. I got Thio get involved with the administration quite a bit. Um, coach favor was a big role in that and allowing me thio get my feet wet with dealing with, um, al various athletic directors from different you know, different walks of life. There on drily be a key player in some of the decision making processes around some of our facility expansion. Some of our personnel management, which set me up nicely when an opportunity came around the UFC, which they were looking for a department head, but also someone that could be fully integrated with the other performance departments on Ben. The caveat to that I was they wanted someone that had either Ah, a combative sporting background or, um, at least experience in weight classifications sports. Which is when there’s a whole. When there’s a weight cutting aspect, there’s a whole nother dynamic to preparation and dieting and things like that. So, um, my time at the OTC came in pretty useful through that process. And, uh, here we are. I’ve been here. We opened up the the Performance Institute in 2017. So it’s been a little over three full years now, and we’ve added additional institutes in Shanghai, China, with a couple more on the way. And and, yeah, we’re putting on fights almost every weekend through through this year through covert and you name it. So it’s been it’s been a good time. It’s been a good run, and, uh, I’m not done yet. [0:06:30 Speaker 0] Love it. Hey, just just listen to that. That’s incredible story. Just listen to kind of some of the things you brought up. And did you ever see yourself working in the role urine out? UFC? Was that something you plan for? Is it just kinda How did that happen, Coach, [0:06:47 Speaker 1] You know, I think when you’re young, you you have aspirations of wanting to, um, take all of your your learning. Take all of your progression of your skill sets that you’re building upon your after and eventually turn that into some sort of leadership role whether you’re directing a department or if you’re you know, at least in the upper echelon of managing it. And but you don’t know exactly, you don’t you don’t have any clarity. You don’t have the foresight yet to really understand. You know what that might look like? You have some role models you can look at, You can aspire to want to sit or stand in their shoes. But eso Yeah, I didn’t forsee any of that. Um, for me for a long time. The upper echelon was essentially, you’re either gonna be in pro sports or a, you know, a power five institution on the university setting. Um, And so as the years flew by, we started to see, and I’m sure you recognize the same thing. Um, just new opportunities popping up. You know, I was waiting colleagues that spent six years as SNC coaches at NASA, and I met other colleagues that spent, you know, previous half a decade um, with a special forces installation. And so you started to just recognize this man. There’s a lot of other employment opportunities out there for strength conditioning professionals outside of elite collegiate sports and in professional sports. And so, um, Azaz, that kind of started development, I guess the wonder starts toe kick around in your head like, Well, I wonder what opportunities may or may not pop up. Um, that’s always interesting. But when I got the email from a recruiting company around this position, there was it was a total surprise, Um, and one that you would be like really intrigued about is very interesting, but also have a lot of reservations. You know, you’re talking about the biggest fight league in the world that has never done high performance before. Never done supportive athletes services like this in house before. So a lot of reservations on you know, I don’t know how good they’re gonna be at it. I don’t know how prepared and how set up they are for us to actually be successful in what we’re doing. Eso that took a lot of research and investigation through the interviewing process and and really trying to vet and understand what their missions were, what they were putting in place to support it and what type of personnel they were bringing to the table other than guys like myself. So, um, yeah, it was It was interesting. And it’s definitely something I would say when I was coming out of graduate school or even in my first couple of professional roles, did not have the foresight to see something like this. [0:09:22 Speaker 0] No, that’s great. I think it’s interesting how, because you mentioned playing a utility role at the U. S. O. C. I think that, you know, looking back over your career now to where you’re at, you gotta have something in there that you gotta be a go getter, right? You can’t look at a job or a non opportunity is like, Oh, it’s too small. I’m not going to get nothing out of that. You gotta use those opportunities that you get those small, insignificant ones you think is not really maybe doesn’t have a lot to do with what you’re doing. But it’s actually preparing you for like you just said, When that opportunity arises, you’ll be ready when it comes. But if you shrug it off. You won’t be ready. So it’s a good point. [0:10:04 Speaker 1] Yeah, I think, um, there’s a lot to be said for, you know, a lot of times and a lot of these institutions, when you’re cutting your teeth, you’ll get yeah, you’ll get less mainstream sports, you know, things like golf or shooting or and you think to yourself like all right, I’m doing this to earn my stripes. And what I always try to have an open mind about is, um there may be a skill set that I might be able to pick up off of how this particular type of athlete trains and how they prepare there may be of benefit to my toolbox later on down the road. Um, S O you know, when it came toe, you know, a lot of people would say they had to baby sit the male cheerleaders on the on the cheerleading squad. And for me is like, that’s really just the high power gymnasts. So let me see what I can take from these guys and their coaches. What are they working on? Because they’re pretty explosive. But when you look at relative strength and power like they’re good at it. And it’s not all from just products in the weight room. Somebody has to do with their training and what they’re going through practice to practice. So my my outlook was always what can I take from it, and how might I be ableto then put that into, say, a defensive end later on or or ah, Greco Roman wrestler, You know, how do I How do I put that to use for me? So, um, I got some advice around that around just appreciating sports and appreciating the depth at which athletes go through to prepare from guys like Charlie Deadly. Um, you know, Brian Wiseman was was Ah, a classmate of mine at Southern Mississippi. Um, he’s at Old Miss now, as as an Olympic sports director there. I got a lot of that from him. I got a lot of that from Melissa Moore, who’s at L S U now another classmate of mine at Southern Miss Josh Stoner, who was at Missouri for a long time. Was was a good positive influence on me in terms of just appreciating the time that we had with different varieties of athletes and being able to put that toe work for me later on, so that was kind of my outlook on it. And that’s where some of them mawr obscure things like pistol shooting and fencing. Um, kind of help. Be prepared for things that are off the wall like MM made By all means. Is that not a conventional sport when you look at the methods that they trained by the different martial arts, that they utilize some of the spirituals backgrounds that come from those martial arts and some of the the mentality and the the mental aspect on how those athletes perceive their competition? Um, all those other little experience is definitely helped with being able to cope and also being agile and empathetic. Thio building constructive programs for these types of athletes. [0:12:36 Speaker 0] Coach, I know you have worked with track and field. If you can work with track and field, it is really not anybody you can’t with the egos and personalities and quirkiness and those coaches and athletes and the different training, thoughts and philosophies coach, you’ve done that you can coach anybody, [0:12:54 Speaker 1] I e. You know, those were definitely some of my favorites. I mean, I was able to be involved with that Michigan track and field team for almost eight years and through a couple different head coaches on the men’s and women’s side. And, um, one thing. I always motivated me. I would hear coaches and administrators and and even players and teammates all the time. Make that you’ve heard it a million times. I just can’t work with that guy. E just can’t work with that person. I just can’t work with that team. I just cannot. You know, I can’t stomach working with that group or whatever. You hear it all the time. And I just wanted to never have to say that. I wanted to never have to say like, I could not figure out how to work with that person. I couldn’t work with that guy Instead, I’ve like always. I love it when someone’s like I don’t know how he did it, but both figured out how to talk to that dude. I don’t know how he did it, but so a lot of time that I got weird, weird nicknames like the whisper. So, um, funny story, actually, um, some of our our buddies over at the NSC a there for a while when when Dr Greg Hough was was our president for a while, which, if you know that Dr Hoff he’s very well studied. Very intelligent man, big contributor to our field, Um, but sometimes the hard egg to crack and and there for a while my nickname around the NSC A was the Hoff whisper. So, um, I don’t know if it comes from my own sheer enjoyment or just the simple fact that there’s a task and we’ve got to get the task done. But I’ve always prided myself on just just wanting to be able to figure out how to communicate with someone, how to get thio to an effective point where me and someone could could effectively work with each other. There’s an athlete or team or coach or or whatever, So I love that aspect of it. I think that’s a cool, challenging piece of what [0:14:38 Speaker 0] we do. Yeah, I think that’s a great point. I mean, I think some of your probably some of your better athletes sometimes put up that big that hard kind of shield, and a lot of people can’t get through that. So it takes. It takes somebody like yourself that not only you, you’re aware of that. But you don’t let that kind of turn you away. And you, And at some point, you know, you can break them down and get to him. But you gotta be patient time. [0:15:00 Speaker 1] So I spoke to a group of students. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the There’s a group. Now, um, it’s online internship. They call it the Merge, Aware of the merge. So I got to speak to the merge. Um, just a few months ago, it was awesome. One of the one of the most fun conversations that I’ve had in a while and a student actually asked me about that. It was like, Okay, how do you is that just organic or do you have a process of how you do that? Like what? You’re speaking of breaking someone down and being able to get to the point where you could get to him. You could be influential over what they’re doing, and I kind of broke it down to him in three steps basically, and you could carve those steps up however you want it, but basically step one and it’s just validate the things that they do well. First, you know, regardless, if it’s someone you’re debating with over topic or it’s a coach or if it’s a player, validate what they do well, Step two is then identify a you know, consent on a you to come together on a on A on a problem. What’s what’s the issue we’re trying to solve together? What’s the mission that we’re going after together, and then all you have to be able to have some sort of attack or plan or method to be able to conclude the conversation with and saying, Okay, we’re gonna go. This is what we’re gonna address at this point, whether it’s 1% of the problem or you’re going after the, you know, the whole the whole taco at once. You know, we’re gonna want to tackle this thing, but you gotta have to have some. You got to conclude the conversation with some level fulfillment around. Okay, here’s how we’re gonna address this now and so obviously there’s varying degrees of all those three steps validating what they dio identifying problems and then finding a method for solution. Um, the ones that you build stronger relationships over time. Those steps we’re going to be mawr exacerbated. They’re going to get more detailed. They’re going to get down to the point. Um, in the beginning, they might be more vague. You know, the resolutions we might go after it might be tiny. They may seem minuscule to you. They almost might seem like a waste of time. But what you’re doing, when you do those little minuscule resolutions with them, is your winning them over. And so that that’s always kind of been my approach. Um, we’re dealing with those. And then the motivation behind some of it to I had a coach that I worked with for a while at Michigan women’s basketball. Her name’s Kim Barnes and Rico. Um, anyone has ever been around her. You know, she’s she’s a very hard nose coach. She’s she’s very direct, um, demands a lot of attention, demands a lot of just attention to detail when, when executing what she wants done and one of the things she always told me, she was like, Hey, I know you love working with so and so and so and so their five star athletes, they have unbelievable heart. They’ll do anything you would ask them to. Those are the easy ones. Everybody wants to work with the easy ones. What I need you to be able to do is to get through what the The other two or three that won’t listen to anything we say. I need you. I need you to convince them. I need you to get those Are the ones that you really getting paid for? Can you get them to jump on this ship and actually contribute to what we’re doing on? Guy took that to heart. I thought about that in terms of my colleagues, in terms of my family, in terms off kids that I was coaching and athletes, I was working with its like, You’re right, the easy ones. They’re great and God bless him. I’m glad I got him because they keep us saying a lot of the times. But what my real challenges how can I can convince the others the more difficult ones? Thio make some substantial changes which will not only potentially improve their game, but also maybe even their livelihood. Or maybe even, you know, the educational path They’re on the financial path they’re on. So I always took that the heart and I felt like that was something. As a coach, you should be able to do that. If you’re a coach, you should be able to influence difficult people. [0:18:47 Speaker 0] Yeah, no, I think those air the agree with your coach. I think even this pat. This year before Kobe hit, we had some, you know, some issues we were dealing with with some of some difficult athletes and what not? And I think those seasons are those times could be challenging, but those where you grow the most because you gotta figure it out and you’re uncomfortable. And so it makes you have to learn a new way of looking at a problem, but a new way of approaching like you just said. And being patient at the end of that, you’ve got to be patient and work through the process like you said. So it’s good stuff, and [0:19:20 Speaker 1] that’s for you. When you’re doing that, it’s stressful. That’s not the funnest of times until you actually get somewhere, then you’re like, Now that was that was impressive. That was amazing. But it’s it’s a stressful process. [0:19:33 Speaker 0] Coach is kind of the bridge on that question. I know you’ve got a background in Olympic weightlifting. You and your wife. It’s Amanda. Correct, Right? So the one thing. So this is just kind of a personal question to that. I’ve had for want to ask you for years, and I’m sure about would love to hear it, But, um, talk a little bit about mentality. I’ve talked to your athletes. You didn’t know this. I’ve asked senior athletes at Michigan and ask him, What’s Coach Bo like? Give me like, Oh, he’s intense and he’s awesome. I mean, they would say these things about you, but talk a little bit about you know you’ve got the X’s and O’s of being a strength coach of program design, you know, period ization, writing things out. But how do you people talk about culture? But I think a big piece People miss a lot of times. How do you instill a mentality? E feel like you’ve done such a good job just watching your program to be successful and even just speaking personally, one on one of your athletes? You’ve done a great job of doing Have you done that over the years, Coach. [0:20:34 Speaker 1] I think a key thing with that is number one. You have to understand your role with each team. There’s, like layers to it, right? You can understand your role within the team. That’s different. It depends on how that team has managed house the coaching staff work, you know, Then you gotta understand your role with each athlete. Some athletes, they’re gonna utilize you differently. And the only way that you can reflect upon that is you have to. You have to be a service driven coach. You have to understand I’m providing a service. I’m trying to provide a wow experience while at the same time getting this person to be either a better contributor to their own individual performance or a better contributor to the overall team to a team. If it’s a team sport, Um and so, um, once I can understand that what my utility, what’s my utility? How is this person plan to use me? How is this coach plan to use me? Um, then I could be purse forceful with my direction. I could be purposeful how I speak. I could be purposeful with how I communicate, how I how I prescribed, how I carry things out what the tempo is like, how relaxed it needs to be or how aggressive it needs to be. Once I understand my utility my kind of my purpose, Um, I feel like we’re we do a disservice to our profession if you think that the utility is just one fold if you think it’s just one operation and that’s how you do it and that’s it. Um, I think you really limit just how diverse, how dynamic, How versatile. In essence, ico and educated SNC coach can be, um, you essentially, you know, you’re lumping them in with just a, you know, a broad term of coach when we play. You know, we wear many different hats in that coaching role on DSO. That’s what I’ve done, you know. You you, when you ask the question, you cover several different genres of sport different age groups, different genders that that I’ve worked with over the years. Um, and all of them have a different idea in their head on how they want to utilize me. And it’s my job first and foremost to understand what that is. Um eso whether it’s a professional fighter now, they walked through the door and the 1st 30 seconds, Thio, You know, 23 minutes. I’m gonna understand what they’re trying to get out of me, whether I ask it directly, or they just start, you know, blurting it out in terms of what their ambitions are and why they’re there. It was no different when I met. You know, a five star recruit at the University of Michigan for the first time in his family? Um, yeah, sure. They wanna ask where you’re from. Where did you get your accent from And how long you been here? Basic stuff. But eventually they’re gonna ask. Well, like, tell me what you do with the team. What’s what’s your role with the team and all the time? My my number one thing is, um is thio don’t wanna take your aspirations and your ambitions, however good you wanna be. You wanna be an all American? You wanna be all conference. You just wanna make the starting lineup. Whatever. Um and I’m gonna do whatever I can to help you achieve that. As long as it’s in the same direction of the mission of our coaching staff of our athletics department within the confines of our code of conduct and our ethics the same way I would. Now in this game, this game is just a little bit more individualized. We work with all of our fighters of private contractors. So now it’s mawr. Okay, you’re seeking me for assistance? Um, how can I be of service to what their each individual companies? How can I be assistance to your company and how you’re trying to manage yourself and step yourself up the rankings? What’s your plan of action? And then I will let you know just how useful I can be on in that type of that type of environment. So I think that’s the biggest key is knowing having an understanding of what the athlete or team haven’t understand? What they intend to use you for Andi, then deciding based on your skill, set your tools, your experiences. Okay, here’s what I can bring to the table. And here’s what I’m gonna enlighten them with Andi that sets the tone for everything that kind of sets the table, um, lets us know which courses coming first. Some teams like to eat dessert first. Andi, that’s what we need to be prepared to do. So I want to get right to the steak and potatoes so that that Z that’s kind of always been my philosophy around that. And and I think they show they have always shown a great appreciation when they recognize it like, Hey, I know when I when I need to be a hammer and I know when I need to be a pillow. I think they have great appreciation for that. They can see you shift gears. You’re not just one mode, one method, you know, straight ahead and downhill every single time they see you. Andi, I think the level of comfort goes through the roof. Once they realized a year regular human being, you just happen to have a skill set that belongs in a way, a field, you know? [0:25:20 Speaker 0] Yeah. I mean that that’s key right there. What you just said, I think that’s so so important. Those different layers you just mentioned with every team and every head, coach and staff, it’s so different. You know, I always kind of kind of be equated to like you gotta find ways. How can you add value to that team into that staff so it may be different right. What may add value to one team or staff may not be the same thing that they like with another team or staff. So it’s critical [0:25:47 Speaker 1] percent 100%. It’s all contextual, you know, seeing what the context is and then and then being, you know, e think you have to be motivated and hungry to slide into whatever piece you’re fit for for that particular team or individual instead of kind of pre conceiving. Oh, here’s what I’m going to do with this team pump. Pump the brakes on that on that early decision making. Just wait, get to know the team, get to know the personnel on and then and then decide how you’re gonna approach it. [0:26:18 Speaker 0] That’s that’s a great point, Coach. That is so good for sure. Um, kind of the next question for you. This is the team behind the team. Podcast. Coach Bo, How would you describe the team performance model? How would you in your own words, obviously, Now you coming from Michigan? You kind of had some of that there. But now for sure, the UFC it looks like you guys have a pretty pretty strong team. Their performance team How would you describe that model today, Coach? [0:26:48 Speaker 1] So with our team here, I mean, it’s E. I would say the a lot of the same descriptors that a lot of good high performance teams would would use to describe their. I would say one of the unique ones here is just our level of integration. I mean, they have really thought out how to set us up to where we can essentially be in each other’s lap almost every day. If you look behind me, all these desk, these air, all the desk of my colleagues, the director of every department that we have here along with their assistance, our interns air in here. If we’re gonna be fully integrated, we need to be on top of each other all the time. And then we could be engaging in conversations we haven’t aware we have. We have over 620 athletes on our roster, um, all over the globe. So, in order to have a certain level of awareness of all these different moving parts, um, we’ve kind of got to be nosy with each other all the time. So from a design standpoint, that’s how this this whole facility and the logistics of this campus are set up for, so that that’s a very unique thing, because it’s not just the mentality of the staff. This was orchestrated by the vice presidents and the ones that put the thought into generating this department, the Performance Institute. Whereas a lot of times, um, you know, on the university level, you know, at the University of Michigan, by design, we’re very decentralized. So then you you have to put the effort and to figuring out ways to make it logistically, make sense where you can interact with your counterparts where you can be an immersive piece. Ah, part of a team which involves ah, lot of hustle. But also a lot of times it’s impossible. Um, you know, sometimes you can get it done, but depending on the parameters, it’s tough, especially when you have some collegiate coaches that will have 9 10 sometimes mawr sports than that that they’re participating with. It’s tough to be a heavily integrated peace with everyone else that’s touching that sport medical, Um, perhaps psychology, nutrition, you know all these other things, whereas here it’s it’s from the foundation of the building it’s set up to put us in that position. Eso that’s very unique and personally, I love it. It takes a lot of pressure off the individual. It allows us just like a quarterback O R ah linebacker, to rely on the rest of their offense or defense. It allows us to rely on our colleagues when it comes to problem solving when it comes Thio um, digging through diagnostic data when it comes to watching, you know, fight, film and things along those lines, we’ve got each other to sort of tackle all of our issues with. So, um, I particularly love that aspect of it. I also love the fact that some of our entry level positions some of our manager positions, get to interact with our directors, get to interact with our vice presidents. They get to interact, sometimes with even some of our senior vice presidents. I love that level of transparency, whereas a lot of times when I was an assistant shrink coach, I may never speak to a nadie or I may have never gotten toe, you know, have uh, candid conversations with the director of our medical team, you know, so that aspect I love that for some of our younger staff members are the ones that were a little bit less experienced. The fact that they get to get immersive with some very highly experienced people on a daily basis. [0:30:10 Speaker 0] Yeah, that’s good. You remind me. Uh, I had a chance to visit the New South Wales Institute of Sport a couple years ago in Australia. It was very similar to the description, even like looking at, you know, looking at everything in your office there just They want everybody in the same room so that there’s a conversation being held. Problems are being solved, whereas, you know, I can speak from experience just like you can in college. You’re very siloed because, you know, one area may be far across campus or down down ways and, ah, time you get everybody together. It za miracle just to get by on the same page to get in a room to have a conversation about several athletes so it can be challenging the book. I don’t know if you read the book The Team of Teams by Stanley McChrystal, but it’s incredible book. He talks about that coach in, Uh, just even how the buildings were laid out can create red tape, bureaucracy, politics, silos where, you know, just lowers trust levels. It’s hard toe move things really fast. Where is he? The one thing he did to this he was talking about, I think the Iraqi war he made sure he started. Get everybody in the same room so things could communicate, move faster. And there wasn’t all these kind of kind of policies and protocols you have to go through. So definitely, uh, definitely like what you’re saying there about what you guys got going on. If you have to see, that’s awesome. [0:31:32 Speaker 1] Yeah, and it’s, I mean, I don’t take claim to it. It was something brand new to me getting here. I mean, it was it was a lot of instances, a breath of fresh air in the beginning, a little bit intimidating you, you know, um, but once you you know, you get that equipped with great personnel on bossom people, it just brings us that much closer together. So it’s been have been outstanding, [0:31:55 Speaker 0] Coach. I’m dying to ask. What’s it like working with? What’s the difference? Working with fighters in college athletes? What’s what’s the difference coach. If you have to say it, [0:32:05 Speaker 1] you know there’s there’s definitely some e think its’s not that hard to point out the similarities, highly competitive. Want to get their hands on the championship have gone through a lot to get to where they’re at. You know, all those goes commonalities. Um, a couple differences one, these air professional athletes. So their you know, their prizefighters, they’re competing for a paycheck. Um, in a lot of ways, some of our Catholic college athletes are doing that in terms of, you know, um, scholarship dollars and things like that. But, um, I would say probably the biggest difference is, uh, the diversity of the motivation for competition. You would think that every fighter, they just want to get in there because they like to fight, or you know that it has something to do with the almost the violent aspect of the sport. But, man, the motive. I love asking that question when they come in, because the motivation and why they compete, it’s all over the map. Um, whether it’s they’re trying to overcome, you know, fear when it comes to one on one confrontation, and they just at some point figured out they were good at fighting. And that’s it. They keep every time they step in the cage. Just that’s their battle with that fear. Um, some of them, they hate fighting. They hate every aspect of it. They just happen to be really good at it. And they’re ultracompetitive. They just wanna win. So they know. Okay, this is the thing that I’m really good at. I wanna win, even though I don’t necessarily like it. I want to do it because I can’t go to sleep at night unless I win something. We literally have people to think that way. And then we definitely have some. They’re like, Hey, there’s to me. There’s nothing better than a good old fashioned fist fight. Um and that’s their motive. And some were abused as Children. Some come from a troubled background. And, um, you know, along the way they learn how to defend themselves. They learned a martial art or something like that. Figured out they were pretty good at it. Now here they are is a professional fire. So the the diversity of the motivation of what got him here that I love hearing that part. It’s very different, Um, and a lot of time it’s not. It’s not something that’s nurtured from like a parent trying to help a kid get into college, help a kid, get a scholarship. It’s not nurtured by that. It’s not nurtured by, you know, you know, sponsorship thing. You know, Nike is not running around recruiting kids to come, you know, to play definitely this or anything like that. Um, so that that where that motivation comes from is very different and a lot of cases. And I love hearing it because it’s it’s different all the time. There’s so many, and it is very cool. You know, we have some guys on the roster 44 45 years old. Now we have some that have over six are. I think the records over five hours of competition time inside that octagon, the longest about 25 minutes. That’s a championship fight, so it accumulates six hours of flight time in that octagon. That’s a lot of bouts that you’re taking on. And so across that time period, their motivation shifts and changes over the years that I love hearing that too, you know, I am a daddy now, and yeah, I’m you know why I step in that cage is very different than why I stepped in it when I was 21 years old. That’s pretty powerful. So I love hearing those kind of stories and where that comes from, um and, uh, I would say another. It’s not a difference, but another similarity that really excites me about the job that kind of keeps my blood pumping is, um, learning them Is people understanding, You know, what are your aspirations after fighting or outside of fighting? Currently? Or, you know, one of the things that you spend your time, what’s valuable to them? I just love here. I’m a people person by nature. I just like to meet people. I could you know, I could talk to that wall and have a good time with it if you gave me enough if you gave me enough time. But I love hearing those stories come through the door where they’re from. You know how they got to where they’re at. Uh, you know what they believe in? What? What their belief structures built on, um, what their aspirations and plans are. You know, that’s a very entertaining side of the job for me, Coach. You [0:36:04 Speaker 0] gotta background, don’t you? In some ju jitsu, don’t you? [0:36:07 Speaker 1] I did. I did, actually, Charlie Dudley got I mean, did you go to when I was a Southern? Missed, um, my last year. Undergrad. And then I also did it through my two years of graduate school on Ben. I dabbled a little bit here and there since then and then two years ago. I don’t have been pretty deep here in town with a gym that’s pretty close to our house. So now I’m pretty much a life for now. I don’t I don’t I don’t see that journey stopping [0:36:34 Speaker 0] I love. Yeah. So I got this. This is kind of fun question for you. So Mark Henry again. It’s not UFC, but he was. W W E s retired us here in Austin. He’s coming away with a lot of time and he messed running. He’s a time. He was well over £40. He grabbed me and pinned me on the ground. And I have taken some martial arts. I can’t I wouldn’t say I’m, like, great at it, but I have never felt so hopeless. I’m gonna like coach, If you ever locked up with emails guys played around with if you had to at some point, [0:37:05 Speaker 1] I’m gonna tell you a really funny story actually locked up with someone last night. Oh, I was at a night class and I’m pretty good friends with our head professor there. And I rolled with a couple of guys and another round came up and he’s like, Hey, I want you to roll with this girl. I’m like, Okay, you know, So this girl comes walking over and I looked at me like I know what you’re doing. I knew the girl. I knew who she waas This This is a couple of time youth world champion. She’s got a couple of Pan kid titles, just turned 13. She’s like 5 £735 soaking wet. So she’s she’s She’s a big kid for a 13 year old, highly skilled, very highly skilled. And when you roll in a gym, typically the rounds around five minutes. We were doing six minute rounds last night and then you change partners, you got another one. So I’ve done two previous she had done two previous, so we lock up way lock up. We get started in the first, you know, I don’t know. Half a minute at whatever wind up scrambling, getting down to the ground. Um and I love getting into her guard. And I spent I’m £190. I spent the next six minutes trying to get out of this girl’s guard and couldn’t do it. So if you if you’re from the trajectory world, you know about guard passing, it’s like you can’t be offensive until you can pass the guard. So I spent six minutes trying to pass this 13 year old girls guard, and all I kept thinking to myself was if I was another 13 year old girl and I felt this girl grab a hold of my wrist as strong as she was and she was breaking my posture down. I mean, she was if we’re in a in a point scoring system, she was just racking points up transitioning on me and keeping me in her guard. And And, uh so when you when you talk about, like, you know, Mark Henry, who was a former weightlifter, by the way as well. Powerlifter, weightlifter. But, um, that’s how I felt with this £135.13 year old girl last night. Um, and she’s phenomenal. She’s She’s got a couple of fight to win titles as well. Um, she was originally from Bulgaria. She’s been training jiu jitsu for a few years, But, I mean, I don’t know if they would have gave me 10 minutes if I have been able to pass regard. So anyway, the round ended. I still hadn’t passed regard. I couldn’t do anything. She almost sent me a couple of times. But that’s what I love about that sport is you can. It really doesn’t. It’s so it’s so unforgiving. I just imagine one day this girl’s like at a library, and some boy you know, speaks to her inappropriately or says something to her and she Oh, she tears his arm off, you know? But that’s a great story. Bow. Yeah, that was That was, you know, just last night, ironically. So, um, [0:39:56 Speaker 0] keeps you humble that [0:39:57 Speaker 1] it does. You, too will let you know right away that you’re not as tough as you think you are. [0:40:03 Speaker 0] Also, that’s good. Good story about that. That cracks me up. Uh, definitely don’t Don’t mess around those girls, man. You never know. The client ones are the are the ones that are the toughest one. So, yeah, Coach, we’re almost done with the show. I just maybe time for maybe one or two more questions. Just speak to you know, briefly. What are you guys doing? Athlete monitoring. What are some of the big things you’re doing? What’s that you find most effective and and kind of gets the best results with your your your guys and [0:40:33 Speaker 1] gals? Because we’re dealing with individuals and the level of communication has to be kind of through the roof where all we all have the autonomy Thio manage and and engage different levels of communication. Whether it’s a fighter that’s local right here in Vegas or someone in Poland, um, that we might only see in person a couple of times. Excuse me a couple of times a year. So athlete monitoring for us is another level of communication. We can We can have a device provide us with data. That’s that’s a communication in between our verbal or maybe email text message. That kind of stuff off. Um, so from the onset, um, we we used Omega Wave quite a bit. Um, we had a partnership with Omega Wave where we had them in house. We were able to do assessments first thing in the morning with fighters here, but we also had units that we shipped globally all over the place. I think at one point, we were over 350 units across the globe, where athletes were doing their own assessments first thing in the morning, and then that was coming to a central hubs. But we have an understanding of what their level of readiness was what the parasympathetic and sympathetic dominance looked like, what their H r. V scores were looking like, Um, which was very helpful. Um, it is a snapshot. You only get kind of that morning snapshot of what’s going on. And then you try to put you know, you’re looking at treatment, longitudinal trends across time and trying to paint a picture of how either the training is influencing or maybe things outside of training or negatively influencing process. Yeah, So, um, we now hear recently just partnered with ordering, um, way when we do any sort of partnership or anything like that, particularly with the detective ice. Um, you’re looking at several months of first digging through the validation of that device through previous studies. But then also several months of our own investigation where our team of sports scientists will take on the device. They’ll do certain levels of studies and trials with it prior to us saying, Okay, we’re going to invest in this product, and now we’re gonna move forward with it. Eso after months and months of digging around with or ring and trying to figure out how effective it could be for our athletes, we do have, ah, formal partnership with them. Now, Onda, we have, uh, you know, roughly six or 700 units to be able to utilize across the globe with with our various fighters that are all over the place. So I think, um, that partnerships about two weeks old now on DWI have about so quote me. If I’m our sports sciences might chime in behind me here, but I think we have around 60 of them that have been deployed so far. Um And so with that, we do get some of the similar metrics we were getting from Omega way. It’s just that we’re getting them a little bit more live, and the data has a lot less gaps because they’re wearing it all day. They’re wearing it all day long. So, um, that’s that’s gonna be a useful tool from the monitoring standpoint. We do utilize heart rate quite a bit in training and some organized styles of training. It’s very difficult thio, um, to get consistent heart rate data during things like sparring and wrestling. The monitors get ripped off or they get they get damaged or whatever, so we still try to do it. We still do it. We can gather some data off of it. It’s just a lot of times you end up being inconclusive because someone ripped it off in the middle of the second round. There’s, you know, something like that. But eso wearables air tough when you’re actually engaged in the sport. Um, but we can we can monitor again with things like ordering. We can take a look at other vitals throughout the day. During sleep, we could monitor sleep, Um, and at least started to paint a picture across longitudinal data points and understanding how they’re responding to the whole the whole inch. A lot of the, you know, like you mentioned lifestyle. Plus the training plus the whatever recovery pieces where we’re in integrating with them. Um, and sometimes even the actual bouts themselves. Um, so and it’s all contextual. You know, we have some of the data were marty, we’re monitoring. We’re flagging it because someone just undergone an a c l repair or someone just undergone, you know, orbital facial reconstruction. So we’re, you know, well, kind of a strict and flag. Some of that data is it’s coming across. We haven’t understand of understanding of how they’re handling trauma, how they’re handling the rehabilitative process on. But for the most part, at least when we first on board, um, with the device, we get some pretty solid baselines, unless again their on boarding while they’re dealing with some kind of traumatic experience, eso then at least we have solid baselines. Then once they go through an injury, or maybe they go through, um, if it’s not an injury, they just take a lot of damage. And about, you know, we can understand some of those biomarkers when when they’re a little bit mawr suppressed or show a little bit more signs of fatigue. We just have some context to put to put with the objective data. [0:45:39 Speaker 0] That’s that’s good. I mean, like you said, you’ve gotta have that plan. But then it’s gonna be the fluidity of That’s gotta be so paramount today, right? Because, like you said, everything going outside their life and then who knows how they’re responding? Thio, whether opposition or training or whatever, how they’re adapting. And so that’s pretty cool. I’ve heard of the ordering. That’s cool. You are using it. [0:45:59 Speaker 1] Yeah, it’s, um you know it’s in. We always get the questions like, Okay, let’s say you see all these red flags now what do you do with the information? It’s really a strategic conversation with with our professionals as well as with the athlete in their team on Okay, this is what the data is telling us. It’s not like do we eliminate all training? It’s like what can we flex so that we can lean on the qualities that you still have going on that are being progressive and stay away from some of those qualities that are being diminished? You’re being derailed a little bit. Um, it Zamora of that. Not just like Okay, you’re red. Take the day off. You know, don’t come back till Monday. It’s, you know, because you’re talking a highly motivated people, that they have a mission that day and I need to get this far in practice, and I need to get this technical wrestling session in. I need this. It’s very important to my training camp. It’s like, Okay, so let’s stay away. You’re nervous systems a little fried. Let’s stay away from efforts that are less than 30 seconds. Let’s doom or continuous slow paced technical drilling. We could get into conversations that way. And I always tell people if you have data and that data is driving you towards making a decision when you make that decision, you better have some sort of solution or some sort of backup plan toe occupy whatever that time is, whether it’s active recovery or it’s a diluted practice or you reducing intensity something. But don’t just simply throw at him. Hey, you’re red. Figure it out or just stop. You know it’s got it’s got to be more constructive than that, and we should be able to offer that we should be able to offer some six some solid suggestions along with all these things that were identifying. Yeah, [0:47:35 Speaker 0] that’s good. That’s good. The definitely would imagine fighters just high level elite athletes there. They want to stay engaged and a productive and not waste time. So it’s key. But Coach Bo, we are. We’re pretty much we’re gonna wrap it up. I know. We’ve got to get you to your next your next meeting. But, Coach, thanks so much. Where could everybody if if wants to connect with you? If somebody wants to reach out, connect What’s the best easiest way that somebody could do that, Coach? [0:48:03 Speaker 1] Sure. Uh uh, My instagram is bo b o dot sandoval s a n D o v a l um Easy to find me on their my twitter handle. Is oli o l y. Strength. Um, you can find me on there. Um, shoot me messages. Sometimes I’m a little slow, but I’ve got a pretty good track record at least 99% of the time. I always answer. So if there’s a disgruntled one out there that haven’t answered yet, message me again, I promise you, I’ll get back to it. Um that’s what. That’s one of my missions in life. Um, my wife also has a small private studio here in Vegas is well, where we put up a little bit of information and we do some stuff with the local community here called a B s performance. You can find that on Instagram as well, but yeah, reach out anytime. The p I is an open book, I tell people, you know, other than our co vid situation we got going on now normally are we welcome mats out all the time. So there’s no secrets here. We love to share. We love answering questions, so please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re definitely here for the straight community. Andi want to do our part in contributing back to the field. So, [0:49:13 Speaker 0] Coach, we appreciate it. I know that zone our bucket list to get out there at some point. Hopefully, it’s Coach settles down, and but we appreciate you making time for the podcast. Coach. We know you got a lot going on. We thank you so much. [0:49:25 Speaker 1] Hey, Thank you, Dani. I appreciate it. Um, I definitely I’ve said it year after year, but I definitely am, uh, waiting for that first opportunity to get over to Texas and just to visit with you guys and catch up and and to really see, I mean, you’ve been doing it a while. They’re now just see kind of what you’ve cultivated over the years and how you guys air handling a lot of our current issues and how you guys were getting. The next generation of coach is ready to go out and tackle the world of performance. So I’m excited about getting into that one day. [0:49:55 Speaker 0] Yes, sir. Open invitation. So any time. Hopefully, hopefully sooner than later, Coach. Appreciate that. Well, hey, that’s it for the team behind the team podcast. I’m Donny made your guests. Both Sandoval demand the myth. The legend we got him. If you have not had a chance to meet Bo or connect with him, do it ASAP. Uh, like I said, he’s an incredible coach, But to me, just an incredible man is beautiful family. The character, the level of excellence and integrity that he leads in life and in work is outstanding. Connect with him if you have it, and we will catch you on the next episode. We’re out of here. Thanks so much for tuning in and listening to this episode of the team behind the team podcast for future episodes. Goto, iTunes, Spotify, Google podcast or stitching. We definitely wanna keep having great guests on the show and great content. So if you have a moment, please go to iTunes, leave a rating and review and let us know how we’re doing. I’m Donny made, and thanks so much for tuning in