E33 | Breaking the Status Quo

E33 | Breaking the Status Quo
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[00:00:00] Donnie: Welcome to the team behind the team podcast. I am your host Donnie Maib. This is the monthly show focused on building conversations around the team-based model approach to ethic, performance, strength, and conditioning, sports medicine, sports science, mental health, and wellness and sports nutrition.

[00:00:23] Hello, and welcome back to the team behind the team podcast. I’m your host, Donnie Maib and our co-hosts fateful cohost. Joe Krawczyk is in the house. Joe, what is going on this month?

[00:00:37] Joseph Krawczyk: Oh, not much coach. We got an awesome guest. Start off with summer of just a lot of, a lot of great guests, a lot of serious guests.

[00:00:43] And I’m excited to talk to Molly here and get to know her a little bit more.

[00:00:47] Donnie: Uh, we, uh, you know, we had to come in hot for June and July, you know, Austin gets hot, so we had to go get coach Molly Binetti from South Carolina that bring us in hot, hot coat. How you doing today? What’s

[00:00:58] Molly Binetti: going on. Hey, man. I appreciate you guys.

[00:01:01] Uh, you know, speaking of hot, it is hot in South Carolina as well. Right now, I just got back from the west coast and it was a serious, um, shift or shock to my system. I feel you guys on that, but I’m really excited to be on here with you guys.

[00:01:18] Donnie: Yeah. Thank you for making time coats real quick. Uh, I’m a big traveler.

[00:01:22] Like you look like you got a good trip over there. Where were you at again? You were we in Oregon?

[00:01:26] Molly Binetti: Yeah, I was, uh, started off the trip in Seattle. So I spent the first three and a half, four days out in Seattle and took the train down to Portland and spent about four days there as well. So I had never been out there, uh, that way.

[00:01:41] And it was awesome. I loved it.

[00:01:44] Donnie: Yeah. A lot better climate, a weather-wise in a MIS back where we’re at. So the

[00:01:49] Molly Binetti: humidity, it’s no joke here and out. There is, I mean, mid sixties, which was a little bit cooler than I like it, but the no humidity was, was key.

[00:02:03] I, uh, did not work. I was really busy week. It was for fun though. I did a lot of fun stuff and got to explore, do some stuff outdoors. Uh, did a lot of the touristy stuff, ate a lot of really good food, but I did get a chance to chill out a little bit. It’s been a hectic couple of.

[00:02:22] Donnie: Oh, good. I’m sure you deserve it.

[00:02:23] Well, I must do a brief introduction of coach Molly, and then Joel will kick the show off from there. He’s got some questions. We’ll kick it off just real quick. Uh, you know, coach Molly. I think I met Molly. We met the first time in may of 2017. Is that correct? I

[00:02:41] Molly Binetti: think it was 2019. Yeah, it was the, my first spring after, I guess my first season in South Carolina feels like I’ve known you longer, but

[00:02:56] Donnie: no, you’re correct.

[00:02:57] Yeah, Tim, Polo’s a high-performance symposium. We met there. I had known coach Somali a little bit just through being a strength coach and kind of keeping an eye on just some rock stars in my opinion. And so it got the strength coach, you know, you get to see about people or you hear about them and then you get to meet them in person and talk to Molly definitely was above and beyond.

[00:03:19] Once I got to meet her in person, just obviously a great coach. Phenomenal person, character and just genuine and authentic. Humble. I feel like very confident, which I love. Like that’s a tough blend to find today in our profession, but she’s currently at the university of South Carolina Gamecocks just coming off a national championship.

[00:03:38] Women’s basketball. Congrats. Hopefully you’re still kinda on the cloud. Nine a little bit there filling

[00:03:45] Molly Binetti: it very, very much so. Yeah. I’m afraid for the come down eventually, but I’m not there.

[00:03:52] Donnie: Hey, live it out. Cause live your best life. But, uh, she’s been there. That’s your third season there? Right? Third or fourth

[00:03:58] Molly Binetti: season.

[00:03:58] Right

[00:04:02] Donnie: before that she was at the university of Louisville and there she worked with volleyball, softball, and women’s tennis. And then prior to Louisville, she spent a year Purdue in 13 and 14, worked on the women’s tennis men’s and women’s diving and cheerleading. So kudos to you, coach. You started from the bottom now you’re here, but welcome to the show and, uh, Joe, I’ll let you take it from there.

[00:04:25] Joseph Krawczyk: So Molly, I’ve got to ask you really quick. You mentioned your Seattle trip when you’re in downtown. I lived there for three years. Um, my final three years in the Marines, did you go to ?

[00:04:35] Molly Binetti: Yes. In Portland. Well, I get, no, I got my, we went to it, but it was like. Not the real version because it was at the Sounders game.

[00:04:46] So it was like not the real thing, but I did end up going to an actual restaurant in Portland, like my last day, I think it was. And so I got to school experience and it was incredible.

[00:04:57] Joseph Krawczyk: Yeah. So Donny went up there with, did you go through a tennis coach? Yeah. And he failed his mission. He did not go to Mel, Melissa Schmitz.

[00:05:09] On the other hand, she went and coach, they tried to go twice. The place is unreal. They try

[00:05:15] Donnie: to, they try to put pounds on me, man. I’d get a little older. I got to stay slim.

[00:05:19] Molly Binetti: Listen though. But like sometimes you just have to, that’s how I, I’ve never eaten so much good food in a week as I did when I was out there.

[00:05:27] I’ll tell you that, but I don’t know what was better though. I think like I had to do the what’s it called? The bow. The dumplings that with a soup, the soup dumplings. And then, um, we did, I mean, we did all kinds of stuff. And then I think the best part though, was the chocolate, uh, bonds or whatever they had for dessert.

[00:05:49] Oh my gosh.

[00:05:51] Joseph Krawczyk: Incredible serious business coach. You gotta, you gotta get back up there and do it

[00:05:55] Donnie: and do time and do

[00:05:57] Joseph Krawczyk: well. Well, anyways, uh, Molly, once again, welcome to the show. Uh, congratulations on the national championship. And I just want to start out, you know, tell us a little bit about yourself, you know, where it all began and, and, you know, right up to, uh, your most recent success, uh, with women’s basketball.

[00:06:15] Molly Binetti: Yeah. Um, there’s a lot packed in there, but I’ll try to, I’ll try to give you the important stuff, but no, I really had no. You know, as a, I grew up as an athlete by grew up playing sports. I actually had a lot of knee injuries throughout, uh, just youth and middle school, high school. So I was pretty familiar with physical therapy.

[00:06:37] You know, I, I lifted a little bit, I enjoyed it, but I really, I never thought anything of it. I had no real idea what I wanted to do heading into, uh, college. That’s always on cue. She’ll start working as soon as I started talking. Um, no, but, um, actually went into college thinking I wanted to be a businessman.

[00:06:56] Uh, accounting specifically, it was something I was good at. I knew I could do a good job. I know I can make some money doing it, but before I even started, I realized that, um, it’s really not something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. So I actually switched to health sciences. Um, again, maybe thinking physical therapy wanted to try out athletic training.

[00:07:16] Um, didn’t really know, but luckily I had a class my freshman year and every week we had somebody different come in and speak to us from a different line of work. And one week Todd Smith, the head strength coach at Marquette, uh, who who’s still there, came in and gave a presentation to our class. And I was blown away by it and just really intrigued.

[00:07:35] And I ended up interviewing him for a class or for, for that class in a project. And I met him in the weight room and just loved talking to him. And he basically just extended an offer to anytime I wanted to come in and check things out or observe, volunteer, whatever the door’s open. And so I think it was the next day I showed up and.

[00:07:54] I had no clue what I was doing and just kept showing up whenever I didn’t have class or I wasn’t at work anytime I had, that was free. I was in there and just helping out where I could, whether it’s just changing weights. Um, I didn’t talk a lot. I was, I had no clue what, what I was doing, but, um, I just kept showing up and he kept giving me opportunities and it really evolved into an internship, a paid internship on, and from there, I kind of made up my mind that, you know, at that moment I wanted to be a division one strength, conditioning coach, and I sort of rode that wave into an internship.

[00:08:29] I guess it was athlete’s performance at the time, my last semester of college out in Phoenix and got to get exposed to, you know, youth athletes, Olympians, MLB, uh, NFL, you know, I got to see all the combine training and I was just kind of blown away by this world of performance. And I loved it. It, it satisfied my love of sport.

[00:08:51] Um, I’ve had to learn how to love training and I’d have to learn all about training. It was never something that was just really natural for me. And then from there I went, I came back, I did my masters degree at Minnesota and spent a year as an intern, um, in grad school. And, you know, again, my goal at that time was I wanted to be a division one strength coach.

[00:09:11] And luckily I had met some people along the way that helped get my foot in the door, uh, for the interview process for a position at Purdue. And I think I remember, um, I didn’t know anybody, but I drove like seven or eight hours down to Kansas where hoody was having her class. And, uh, I was going to meet Dwayne Carlisle, who was the director at the time.

[00:09:31] That was part of the reason why I was going. And I remember meeting him in person for the first time. Uh, we had a little bit of an interview process and he offered me the job the first night that I was there. And that same night, I found myself at a house, um, with some of the legends in our field that was at whose house and in the same room I was with, you know, Scott Coalfield that was with, um, you know, Jerry Martin.

[00:09:57] I was with Megan Young and all of these people that heard about and kind of learn from, and I found myself as a 22, 23 year old in this room of, of people. And I was like, wow, this is, this is really cool. So anyways, I got my first job there after a year I wanted to do. Uh, kind of explore some options a little bit.

[00:10:16] I was really craving some mentorship and find myself, um, in the interview process for a job at Louisville, and to go work for Tina Marie, who, you know, as a woman in our profession helped kind of blaze that trail. And, uh, I decided to take the leap and go work for her for four years at Louisville. And it was a really unique situation.

[00:10:36] I’d actually had my first exposure to a female strength coach in college at Marquette Todd’s wife is also a string coach. And so I got to see really early on in my career that this is actually a viable career option for women. Uh, so to have that exposure early on and then to go work for Tina and I was on a staff of seven full-time coaches, and we had four women on our staff, which is really unheard of anywhere you go.

[00:11:00] And so, um, that was really empowering for me. I got to learn from one of the best, um, I got to be surrounded by other women. Um, And really worked in an environment that was trying to raise the standards of how we do things in our field. So, um, from a there’s, there’s a lot of things that led up to me getting to South Carolina, but, you know, after my fourth year there, I knew at some point in my career, I wanted to explore basketball.

[00:11:29] Um, that’s always a sport that I’ve played that I’ve loved that I’ve worked with, uh, throughout my various stops. And I was really fortunate, um, to have an opportunity to get interview and go through that process here. And, um, you know, the rest, the rest is history and entering about to enter your five, which is, which is really wild.

[00:11:48] But, um, here we are.

[00:11:52] Joseph Krawczyk: Yeah, that’s awesome. And, you know, looking over your bio and maybe some of the, uh, past podcasts you’ve done, uh, I’ve kind of gathered you have like this real athlete centric, coaching philosophy, um, and even on one of your podcasts that, that chalkboard right behind you had written be present.

[00:12:07] So I was wondering if you could kind of speak more to that and your, your coaching philosophy.

[00:12:11] Molly Binetti: Yeah. Um, and that’s really something that’s evolved over time. And I think it, you know, throughout my career, I’ve struggled a lot with really finding my voice as a coach and really figuring out what I believe in and what my values and attitudes are, you know, surrounding our field.

[00:12:30] And I think, you know, as you guys know, and as you enter, enter this profession, we all learn from people that came before us. And as we’re a young coach, we sort of adopt, um, doing things the way that they did them or coaching the way that they coached. And it isn’t until we’ve had enough experience, every.

[00:12:49] Everything that we’ve learned from our mentors and people around us, you know, things that we like and don’t like, and really kind of form our own way of doing things. And I think there’s a lot of pressure in our field too. And, you know, some boxes that were put in about how we’re supposed to do our job and what it’s supposed to look like.

[00:13:08] And as a women, a woman in this field, especially I think, you know, there’s a certain persona that’s almost expected. And I always really struggled, um, as a young coach of just feeling like that’s not how, you know, we’re kind of taught this like controlling command style of coaching, you know, we’re taught to have this like larger than life, um, persona about us kind of this bravado and, you know, uh, we’re loud, we’re energy people.

[00:13:39] We’re all of these things. And obviously a lot of that started because our professional originated, at least in the states, you know, football was the main thing. And so. Um, I just really struggled with that style and it just never felt authentic to me. And I, you know, it took a lot of messing up. It took a lot of me trying to emulate other people and just never being able to do a well, because it wasn’t true to myself too.

[00:14:02] And really hitting this, um, tipping point or turning point in my career. It was my first year of South Carolina where I kind of came in guns, blazing thinking I had to be an act a certain way, and it really just backfired. And it led to a lot of strange relationships. You know, I wasn’t making the impact that I wanted to, my athletes were getting better physically, like, you know, the training is really the easy part, but I knew that it just wasn’t, um, it led to a lot of personal stress.

[00:14:29] It led to, um, you know, I was 28 when I took this job. And at that point experienced burnout more than twice. Um, and just really questioning, I was like, this is this what I really want to do if this is how. I’m expected to be. And so it’s just like, there are just a lot of introspection along the way of really who am I as a person?

[00:14:51] What do I believe in, how do I believe that this environment should be and how should I create it? And what’s really important to me. And it took, you know, kind of hitting that point of like, something’s got to change or I’ve got to figure else, figure something else out. And so that really led me to kind of explore this path of, you know, athlete partnership in terms of, you know, creating a partnership with them in their, in their development and really inviting them to be a part of the process.

[00:15:22] And I think, um, especially in, in the college room too, it’s, um, you know, the, the training is really the easy part, but we kind of reduce ourselves too to just that, and we’re the ones in control and we’re the ones that are experts, which we are. But I think sometimes we get into that habit of, we’re just telling these athletes.

[00:15:42] What to do day in and day out. And I looked at my situation, these basketball players, I don’t know if you guys have worked with basketball at all, but like inherently, they do not like the weight room. It’s not something that they would really choose to, uh, participate in if, uh, you know, again, given the choice, um, the structure of their day is, you know, they’re told where to be when to be there, what to dress like, um, every day from every minute, from the time they wake up, they’ve got breakfast at a certain time.

[00:16:12] They’ve got weights at a certain time that they got to go to class. And after class they’ve got study hall or they’ve got practice, and then they’ve got to go to study hall. And so every hour of their day is really accounted for, until you get to about 10:00 PM. And then they want to actually hang out with their friends and then go to sleep and then they do it all over again.

[00:16:29] So I was just experiencing this, this kind of cognitive dissonance of, you know, I really want them to enjoy the experience. I want them to. Have ownership over their development. You know, I’m lucky to be in a position where a lot of our players want to go on and have professional careers. But even beyond that, you know, if we really say that we want the things that we do and you want to talk to a lot of coaches and we all say that, you know, we want to teach them life skills and we want to prepare them for life after college and all these different ways, but we don’t always allow them the opportunity to really learn and grow and do so in a way that is self-driven as opposed to just getting athletes, to be compliant with what we’re asking them to do.

[00:17:12] And so, um, you know, my philosophy has really evolved into one where, you know, it’s a journey between, you know, myself and that athlete and. Um, making an environment that is really rich and learning because they’re the ones that are kind of exploring things for themselves. And I’m there as more of a guide as opposed to somebody that is dictating everything that they do.

[00:17:33] And so it’s very heavy on the education. It’s very heavy on autonomy, um, exploration, um, variability. I think it’s much more a hands-off approach on, on my end, obviously that there’s a spectrum here of athlete and every athlete is a little bit different, but I think in general, my approach is to help them actually learn, make decisions for themselves.

[00:17:57] Equip them with skills and not in just a physical sense too. You know, I think we do a really good job physically developing athletes. And, you know, when they come in and we first meet them or they first start with us, we assess them where they’re at. We want to meet them where they’re at. Well, you know, when I think of that holistic development, it’s not just physical, but it’s mental, emotional.

[00:18:17] Um, it’s all of that. And so how are we actually assessing those things on intake and then helping develop them in those areas along the way, too. And so we’ll actually have those conversations, you know, we’ll use different tools to help them discover parts of themselves. You know, I’ll use things like the Enneagram for an example.

[00:18:36] And so my goal is to really figure out where they are mentally and emotionally as well too, and meet them there and help them navigate life through that lens as well, too. Um, and I think you guys know, you know, now more than ever, I think that’s even more important because you’re seeing. The, the stresses and the anxieties and, you know, not to obviously be dark, but like the reality is we’ve had what three or four student athletes in the past four months, five months, you know, that we’ve lost by suicide.

[00:19:06] So I’m thinking like these things are really important. And so I’m always thinking about the experience that I’m creating for my athletes. Um, it’s much more of a, um, I think organic kinship based person, first human first approach to it and letting the results take care of themselves. Um, you know, there’s a lot of different tangents I could go on there and we can dive into dive into more, but it’s really, um, it’s evolved over the years, but we found a, a system.

[00:19:37] That really is individual to each person, but as a whole really has driven development through the roof in those areas the past few years.

[00:19:47] Donnie: Yeah, no, I was going to add, I think that’s so refreshing and spot on a lot of the, you look at a lot of generational kind of issues with kids today. I mean, I think, you know, the one thing when the mind listened to you as like most kids today are very like prescriptive how they’re led by authority figures, right?

[00:20:08] It’s like, like you said, they just it’s even their parents, they just create a checklist. They tell them where to be. They tell them how to study, they sign up and there’s really no descriptive. So you got prescriptive and descriptive and like these, it was like, I’m going to come up with what we need to do, but you need to come up with a plan.

[00:20:25] Let me let’s work together on the plan of how are we going to execute this and that way now I do. They do, they have ownership in it because they tend to be a little bit more engaged if they’re helping with it, versus just always being told. And so getting that buy-in and get them to, to your point to help them.

[00:20:40] Here’s the problem today, kids are taking a lot longer to mature and grow up. And what’s what I found out that slacking, they’re just not having those experiences where they can fail and make mistakes and kind of try some things on their own. And so they’re just being to your point, dictated what to do.

[00:21:01] So they just emotionally, they’re not growing up and they’re just delayed. So I love that, uh, that you’ve kind of evolved into that kind of style. And, but yet it’s crystal clear today where some issues and, and I really believe that the way you’re approaching is really a very, uh, Effective way to make them beats on those challenges.

[00:21:21] So good

[00:21:21] Molly Binetti: stuff. Yeah. And I guess to elaborate a little bit further, you know, part of my thought process behind that too, and just, you know, for me like the aspects that I’ve really enjoyed or the human behavior side of things, um, and you know, I think we’ve put ourselves through this so much of, you know, we’ll bang and again, our athletes to do what we want them to do or what we know they need to do to help their success.

[00:21:47] You know, their habits are, you know, we preach a lot about accountability and discipline and all these things, but the reality of it is, is that these are still teenagers and like they’re parts of their, part of their brain, our prefrontal cortex, that’s responsible for logical and rational behavior isn’t fully developed yet.

[00:22:07] So we get mad that our athletes aren’t behaving in the way that we want them to. Um, in reality, they don’t care about the same things that we care about. And when we preach about those, the discipline and all these things, it doesn’t register with them because it’s gotta be everything that we do has gotta be connected in a way that is in tune with what they actually care about.

[00:22:29] So I think we talked to our athletes, like we would talk to ourselves or talk to other coaches that are like-minded and we just don’t understand why they’re not going to sleep and sleeping eight hours, or they’re not waking up and eating breakfast or whatever it might be. And so I, you know, and I hear a lot of coaches complain about Alaska fleets aren’t motivated, or they just don’t care.

[00:22:50] They’re lazy, all this stuff. And I don’t know about you. I’ve never in my definitely. I mean, I don’t even know that I could name one in my entire career that I can say is an unmotivated athlete or that they’re lazy. Now. They might be lazy in some aspects of their lives, but especially in my role here, like I’ve never worked with a basketball athlete that has.

[00:23:12] Not motivated. You just got to figure out what they care about, and you got to figure out a way to speak to them in that language. And again, when you, like you said, when you engage them and involve them in the process, they’re going to act in, and they’re going to give you more effort and more strain. And because it’s work that they actually care about.

[00:23:34] So when you can find ways to, um, involve them and get their feedback and get their input, and then you actually listen to them and you know, are in tune with what they’re telling you. Then again, it creates that trust. And when you continue to create stress day in and day out, you know, you’re able to go deeper with that athlete.

[00:23:52] And when you can go deeper and they actually listen and trust you, that’s when you can actually change somebody’s behavior, but it’s not through sheer force or it’s not through, you know, fake energy. It’s not through our speeches about, you know, the process and being disciplined at all. It actually requires a lot of work to build those relationships on their level.

[00:24:16] Yeah.

[00:24:17] Joseph Krawczyk: Yeah. It’s, it’s so interesting that we talked about us. I just had a conversation with, um, one of our pro sprinters and he was telling me, you know, you know, you, you want to go to a school to be a pro, a pro sprinter or a ProTrack athlete, but are you willing to have the independence to, uh, You know, to, to be on time for a race, you know, if you don’t check in you don’t race, uh, he says a pro, if you miss your flight, you don’t race.

[00:24:44] Well, if you don’t race, how you supposed to get paid, you know? And, and so what are we doing to instill that leadership and that independence in the athletes? And, you know, we, we, we kinda almost do everything for them. Like how many, how many athletes are on the warmups for their teams. And so it’s something that, I mean, I get it, there’s a specific warmup, you know, situation dictates, but it’s like, okay, we’re going to have the captains lead their lines in a warm-up.

[00:25:09] Well, I could do that. You know, I could stand in front of the line and skip and jog and stuff like that. But I mean, are they leading the warmup? Right? You say, okay, here’s the warmup. Go ahead. You know, are they asking questions? Are you setting them up for the success in that situation? I think that’s.

[00:25:25] That’s something overall that’s kind of lacking. Like we lead them through warmups. Then we tell them to do this, this, this, this it’s all in an iPad somewhere, you know? And, um, like you were saying, it’s all just prescripted and it’s so hard to become non robotic in that, in that environment. And, um, and yeah, I mean, that’s something we’ve, we’ve done in the Marines.

[00:25:46] It’s, it’s hard to do because you want to tell them exactly what to do. And especially with Marines, like being an officer they’d follow any order, they’ll do exactly what you tell them to do, but you have to, you kind of have to have that almost courage to be like, all right, go off and do it. And I’m going to sit back and hopefully we’ll be on, screw it up too bad, you know, but you, you have to do it.

[00:26:04] You have to be able to debrief and, and let them grow as leaders. So, um, such a huge point.

[00:26:11] Molly Binetti: Yeah. I think, you know, we crave control, you know, coaches have a hard time with that and you gotta be okay with it being messy. Um, and maybe sacrificing what’s happening in the short term, knowing that long-term. You know, this is for the best.

[00:26:26] And so I think, you know, it’s like, like you said, it’s like taking the training wheels off your bike for the first time you’re going to fall a few times and it’s, it’s going to be messy and that has never, um, I think you realize too, that it’s okay. And like, there’ll be okay and, you know, one exercise or one thing it’s not gonna make or break this app or this program or whatever it is.

[00:26:46] And so I think when we can just relinquish that control, allow that learning process to happen. Um, some really good things happen. You’ll be surprised.

[00:26:54] Donnie: Yeah. Good stuff. Well, Hey, I’m gonna shift gears on our questions here a little bit. Um, so Molly, you kind of touched on this earlier and would love to hear your thoughts on you be at you’re a female in a male dominated profession, predominantly it’s mostly guys kind of a couple a two-part questionnaire.

[00:27:15] Like what are some challenges you’ve faced in your career? Uh, being a female and then what advice. Would you give to young female listeners out there that are either in the professional or, you know, trying to get in, what would you say to those two? What’s some challenges and then some advice.

[00:27:35] Molly Binetti: Yeah. You know, I’ve always almost struggled with this question a little bit, because I think I’ve been fortunate early on in my career.

[00:27:44] Like I said, I’ve been exposed to women in our field, which was huge because that actually gave me again, like, if you can see it, you can be right. So I, I saw that these women were in these positions that I someday strive should be in. And that was huge just in terms of confidence. But I think for me too, just my personality, I’ve never really viewed myself as, you know, being limited by my gender and that never really.

[00:28:10] Factored into me trying to pursue, I was always trying to pursue the highest level internships opportunities for myself because I knew I was capable of it. Um, and I didn’t shy away from anything that even maybe opportunities that I wasn’t fully qualified for, I was going to go ahead and apply, apply for them anyways and try.

[00:28:29] Um, and I know that’s not the case for a lot of women who, you know, we sometimes hold ourselves back of not thinking that we’re not having the confidence or not thinking that we’re qualified for something or, you know, volunteering to speak because we’re, you know, we just don’t feel like we have, um, or deserve some of those opportunities.

[00:28:48] And so for me, it was always like, um, I’m going to pursue these things and I don’t really care that I’m a female. I don’t know really what that means in this profession at the time, you know, I knew it was pretty male dominated, but then I saw that to see Maggie. And then I worked for a staff of four women on staff has seven.

[00:29:06] And so those, you know, I think the, the mentorship from Tina and just being in that type of environment just gave me a lot of confidence in empowered me to never set the bar too low for myself. And, you know, I think I’ve really embraced being a woman in this field. You know, we do have a lot of opportunities.

[00:29:25] Unfortunately, our profession really hasn’t been in a place where it’s sustainable and not even just for women, for men too, but especially for women when it comes to those of us that do want to have families. Um, there’s not always that environment that is conducive to that. Um, the pay isn’t always conducive the time, uh, dedication and commitment, the expectations.

[00:29:49] So you got a lot of women that have been getting out of the field and a lot more recently, which is really sad to see. And so, um, but that, and that being said, I think there still aren’t enough women in positions of. Power that are help able to help kind of drive that number up and I’m finding it harder and harder to, um, I think there’s more women in our field than there have ever been before, but I, I still find that it’s, it’s not nearly enough and they’re not always visible.

[00:30:24] And, um, and I don’t know what the solution is. I don’t, I, you know, it’s, there’s a lot of like women’s specific things and resources and all that out there, which is great. Like, but at the end of the day, because it is a male dominated field, we need male advocacy as well, too. And I think, um, a lot of women in our field that are in the spotlight and have a lot of opportunities and there’s a lot that are kind of in the shadows waiting for opportunities.

[00:30:53] And I think there’s a lot of really, really talented women out there that deserve, you know, a seat at the table and deserve, you know, opportunities to have a spotlight on them, whether it’s on podcasts or presenting or whatever it might be. And I think. Um, partly responsible for the people who have those platforms to really seek out candidates like that.

[00:31:11] But also it’s, it’s on us to, to really put ourselves out there and get ourselves uncomfortable and really seek out these opportunities. So I guess my advice to any female that’s looking to get into this field is find a mentor and to learn from and do everything that you can to seek them out and seek their mentorship.

[00:31:35] I think there’s a lot of us that are really willing. Um, but we don’t always know that that you’re out there. And two, I would, I would always just say too, there’s there’s really no limitation other than the one that you place on yourself now. Yes. It’s not always equitable, equitable. And, um, unfortunately there’s still situations where, um, You know, women aren’t granted the opportunities that, that they deserve.

[00:32:01] But I think if you look at it as a limitation, then it can only set you back. So, um, there’s a lot of, again, that’s a rabbit hole. I could go down for a long time, but I’ve been, I’ve been really fortunate in my career to have a lot of really bad-ass women, um, in my corner, partly because, uh, I sought them out though.

[00:32:22] That’s a big reason for it. And if I hadn’t done that, I don’t, I don’t know that I would have the same experience. Uh,

[00:32:28] Donnie: just, uh, I, so I love that answer, I think, cause I know Tina Marie, not super well, but enough and she is just absolutely shattered. The glass ceiling, I feel like for, for women in our field.

[00:32:42] Um, because I always always believe that if you’ve never been somewhere, you can’t take, take other people there. So she’s been there. I think you’re spot on. You’ve got to have mentors that can teach you how to think, carry yourself and kind of push you out of your comfort zone and to have that self-belief and confidence that you are capable and you deserve a shot just like anybody else and not just pass the mic or like, oh, I’m just going to hide in the corner.

[00:33:11] But I also believe too, I agree. I think we’ve got to have more males that are advocates for females in this profession. And because at the end of the day, you know, I’ve, I’ve had, I’ve been doing this long enough, Molly, that the key is you got to have people at the seat at the table, those decision-makers, and we just don’t have a lot there, unfortunately, this profession, and a lot of to your point earlier, like football.

[00:33:34] Gets all the influence and the revenue, just because of the nature of that sport. But anyway, just with the weather, it’s the hours, the, the lack of, you know, pay or whatever, there’s just kind of, something’s going to have to change for, for us to, we need more strong, confident bad-ass females that know what they’re doing is profession, uh, more than anything.

[00:33:58] Cause it’s just, it’s a great job. But to your point, it’s just not there yet. So yeah, I think a lot of things will need to change. Yeah.

[00:34:06] Molly Binetti: It’s oftentimes a lack of support, you know, ever a lack of feeling of support from the top down. And you know, at the end of the day, women think we. In some situations do a really good job of championing each other and lifting each other up.

[00:34:22] But I don’t think well enough. Um, and I’m guilty of that as well. And I think, like you said, going back to, we need men that are champing when women as well. Um, because without that elevation, we’re going to continue to see the same thing where we’re not having women and you’re not having women move into these higher level roles.

[00:34:45] So we’re just recycling people at lower levels, you know, assistant string coaches, people that are just getting into this field, but you’re not seeing any movement at the top. And so you get people that are getting out of this field because let’s face it unless you’re. And most situations I’m, this is generally speaking, unless you’re a director or you’re working football, or you’re working basketball, you’re not making enough money or working in an environment that’s supporting you enough to really want to be in this field.

[00:35:12] Long-term and that’s just the way it is. And I know very few, I think there’s a few places where, you know, across the board Olympic sports are paid well, they’re paid fairly, they’re supported. Well, they’ve got the resources button. I’m going to go out there and say 95% of situations. That’s not the case.

[00:35:31] Donnie: Yeah, no, it’s good. It’s burnout for sure.

[00:35:34] Molly Binetti: Yeah. A lot of lack of being like, at some point, like you’re tired of not being supported or appreciated or, you know, rewarded in a way that you deserve to be.

[00:35:46] Joseph Krawczyk: Yeah, it just seems like such a vicious cycle too. So like, you know, I’ll go off and assume that a lot of our stronger female leaders in the field who want to start families and are probably getting out of the field because they want to have a family or they want to do these other things with their life.

[00:36:01] Like those there, that was the next tier of leadership right there to be advocates. And, uh, and now they’re kind of gone. So, you know, you, you, you gotta hope that the next round a generation can, can step up, but they, they probably run in the same situation. And it just almost seems like sometimes it feels a little out of date.

[00:36:19] You know, my, my wife is in the tech world and we just had a little kiddo. And, um, fortunately for her, she got pretty good maternity leave, but I mean, it’s, it’s even other tech businesses and companies and stuff like that. It’s it wasn’t the same. Like a lot of her friends are having kids coming up and kind of hearing what their situations I’m like, man, it just seems like some people now you’re just inserting the conditioning when other other, you know, Businesses and fields are just behind the times a little bit, you know, and, uh, we, we talk about things like mental health and health and health this out that, and then we, we, we talk, talk, talk, and don’t do anything about it.

[00:36:56] So it’d be nice to get some more advocates for it, but, um,

[00:37:01] Molly Binetti: but congrats, first of all, I’m oh, thanks.

[00:37:05] Joseph Krawczyk: Yeah. I thought I’d throw him in there a little bit,

[00:37:11] Molly Binetti: but you know, to your point, just to, I guess, elaborate on that for a second. Like there’s not a ton of resources for advocacy advocacy to, you know, I think it’s so dependent on your institution and who you have kind of in your corner fighting for these things.

[00:37:24] Um, but there’s not a lot of support and there’s not a lot of people out there or resources out there to help navigate your career in this profession. And you know, when it comes down to it with women too, like at the end of the day, Women strength coaches make significantly less money than males for the same positions, you know, and I think this is really, really evident, especially in basketball.

[00:37:45] I mean, you’re looking at discrepancies of a hundred thousand dollars for the same position, uh, and that’s for, you know, for what reason, you know, for what reason, other than, I can’t really think of any other than one’s a female, one’s a male. Like what? So same amount of athletes, same resources. Um, And it’s, you know, that’s one example, but it exists everywhere and that’s a problem.

[00:38:14] And I don’t know how you fix that, but it’s a problem.

[00:38:19] Joseph Krawczyk: Yeah, for sure. Well, speaking of resources and to kind of shift gears here, we’re going to take a little hard turn, but amongst all the great things you’ve done, you, you have a couple of research articles out there that I found. Um, one in particular, your, uh, mechanical determinants of faster change of direction and agility performance in female basketball athletes.

[00:38:39] Um, great, great article. I read it, loved it. Uh, and really, I don’t want to get too deep into the research, but based on the research you did, you know, what strategies have you taken from that to improve your athletes? Multiple directional changes in your program. And I also have a couple other ones, but we’ll, we’ll start there.

[00:38:57] Molly Binetti: Yeah. Really fortunate early on in my career to have opportunities to work with some pretty incredible researchers in this area. Um, Dr. Nymphos being one, uh, Tonya as well, you know, obviously really bright Australians that I got to work with, um, when I was at Purdue, but like also two awesome women, um, in our field.

[00:39:21] But yeah, I would say the biggest outcomes from that, you know, I really just highlighted the importance of ecentric in isometric strength, uh, for basketball athletes, you know, we found that those two qualities in particular were really significant in someone’s ability to change direction, which is like something that we all, I think now to an extent.

[00:39:41] Right. But, um, I think just having that, that evidence, you know, just right in front of us, very clear. And so that I think has really shaped how I train our athletes. And I would say we’re in a little. Maybe not unique to all, but you know, we’re at the point now where our athletes are playing basketball year round, you know, even when we’re in the summer, we’re doing full team practices.

[00:40:06] You know, we don’t really, we don’t do individuals. We don’t just do like, you know, individual skill work and things like that. Like we do a ton of integrated play all year long. And so I actually, um, you know, maybe different than some basketball strength coaches, I really don’t do any significant change of direction or agility training with our players.

[00:40:26] But what I do is when they come in, we do a pretty thorough, um, jump profiling. Uh, and we’ll go through and look at a lot of different qualities. Um, and from that I can get really good information between that and then watching them play, obviously I’m at every practice, I see everything I’m watching them move all the time between that and watching them play and talking with our sport coaches, it becomes really evident, um, what qualities they need and how well they actually move out on the court.

[00:40:57] And so I found for us, it’s really just a matter of identifying what qualities, um, and how they jump in. Uh, it’s a huge correlation. You know, what you see doing various types of jumps off two legs off one leg, their ability to land all of that, um, and their ability to change direction and move well on the court.

[00:41:18] So I take a little bit different approach in that. Um, but we spend majority, you know, from a strength standpoint, majority of our time throughout the year is spent in, um, east centric and isometric work like our entire off season. There’s a very small percentage of our time that we really work on pure concentrate strength.

[00:41:38] Um, and I think that’s, you know, heavily kind of dictated, you know, some of those results have really heavily dictated how we train in that regard. Um, a huge emphasis on that. And because we do so much on the court throughout the entire year, it allows me to kind of change my focus, um, on, you know, the qualities that are really going to help them be robust and withstand the amount of times they have to change direction and are, you know, doing that on the.

[00:42:05] Joseph Krawczyk: Yeah. And I feel like with basketball, I mean, it’s so much of a, like a higher strain, you know, performing open skills all the time, you know, with, with the constant battles going and how much time, you know, what other strategies do you have to consider 10 in strength and things like that, especially working with the female athletes.

[00:42:21] Molly Binetti: Yeah. It’s huge. And I’m unfortunate. I have an awesome athletic trainer and, you know, he, we, we think really, you know, we’re on the same wavelength when it comes to what we do. And so we do a really integrated approach, especially in season of what we’re doing to take care of, you know, any tendon issues that we might have, but, you know, we’ve been lucky, obviously.

[00:42:43] I don’t know that there’s any true avoidance of those things, but we’ve been really lucky that. Uh, we, we don’t have anything. That’s really been, been a huge issue for us. And I think it goes back to how would you train in the off season and the importance of, you know, understanding how to train tendons and really overloading things.

[00:43:01] Essentially, we do a ton of isometric work at, especially at different times of the year where like in pre-season, where we’re really ramping up time on the court to kind of shift gears in the weight room a little bit from a strength standpoint and do a ton of isometric work, um, want to mitigate soreness, but also to, from that tendon standpoint, um, and we, you know, based on the athlete and kind of what we know they need, there’ll be aspects of that involved in their program every single day.

[00:43:28] Um, so yeah, we there’s, you know, a multitude of, of exercises and things that we do, but a huge emphasis on that in the off season has really helped us, I think, remain pretty durable and not have any major, major flare ups or issues throughout the year. Oh,

[00:43:44] Donnie: Joe, uh, Joe, let me ask. So what do you do for, I know you run into this sometimes like any kind of knee tendonitis, any tendonitis in some of the connective tissues, whether it’s ankle, knee, hip flexor, or something like that, specifically knee, I guess, would be more common.

[00:44:00] What’s some of your strategies and approaches to work around some of that coach.

[00:44:06] Molly Binetti: Yeah. Um, so we could get pretty specific with that, but I think knowing obviously knowing the history of each athlete, um, and then also too, you know, Craig and I will do a lot of collaboration on, we try to keep everything in the weight room, you know, we try and keep them out of the training room as much as possible.

[00:44:26] Um, You know, I really have loved, we do primarily all single leg work as well, too. Um, that’s been, I think, a huge strategy for us. Uh, we do a lot of isometric and like band, almost like a Spanish split squat. We’ll do a lot of Spanish squat variations. We’ll do a lot of, um, tempo work. We’ll do you know, we got, try to get creative with the way that we’re loading the knee and taking and everything, to be honest is kind of based on the athlete and what they respond best to, you know, some strategies that we think kind of work globally.

[00:44:59] Um, I found really just don’t work for some of our athletes. And so it was really true. Like it’s constantly trying to solve this puzzle of, you know, how can we continue to look. They’re lower half. Um, you know, whether it is, you know, most of the time it is going to be a neat, um, and then find ways. And again, it usually comes back to, um, making sure their movement quality is really good, making sure that we’re putting them in positions where they can release some of that tension and that tendon.

[00:45:27] Um, and we’ll use things like bands and such to manipulate that. Um, and we’ll do a lot of heavy loading, um, heavy loading, heavy isometrics, um, heavy, heavy centrics. And we found that that has really helped.

[00:45:42] Donnie: I got one more question, Joe. Sorry. She’s got me thinking now take a coach for me. So talked about me thinking about basketball.

[00:45:51] Cause I, I work with volleyball. We kind of, it’s not the same sport, but you’re on that hard surface. Um, a lot of times I’ve noticed like you can get some bad stuff going on in the ankle to go up into the chain. So anything you do ankle going up into the knee or even here. Coming down the chain, like any thoughts, clear strategies, speak to

[00:46:11] Molly Binetti: that for, um, you know, this is almost purely anecdotal a little bit, but we do what we’ve kind of gravitated towards is we do pretty much everything, unless it’s something that’s can be dangerous, like shoes off, you know, from, from day one.

[00:46:27] And, um, that’s something that our athletes have grown to love. And I found to be really helpful in strengthening the foot, strengthening the ankle. And we do every day, something to work on our ankle and our foot, and we do a barefoot or with socks on, um, putting them in all sorts of positions, loaded positions.

[00:46:47] Um, we do, we, you know, I would say the foot is such a key contribute. We’ve got, I mean, just jacked up feet. And part of it is, like you said, they’re, they’re in these shoes that are a god-awful they’re taped up or they’re braced up. 99% of the time. And so my goal is always get them out of their shoes, get them out of their tape, no ankle braces, none of that.

[00:47:10] And just train naturally like that. And for that, it’s really cleared up a lot of things for us. Um, you know, there’s going to be some specific, we do a lot of like isometric, uh, stuff for the calf and the Achilles complex. Um, we, we actually have kind of a unique, um, pro nation, uh, super nation in version of the version, like a loaded machine that we use that has actually really been beneficial for us and helping with ankle range of motion and really strengthening, uh, just the lower limb musculature around.

[00:47:45] And I think just a combination of kind of that consistency and working on, uh, you know, a lot of extensive. Um, piles pocos and things like that as part of our daily routine has really helped a lot with foot care ankles and kind of that entire complex.

[00:48:02] Joseph Krawczyk: Yeah. So, so interesting. You mentioned barefoot, um, working with cheer, all the landings they do throughout the year.

[00:48:08] And they walk around and like these generic Nike shoes that are super cushiony and everything. And then a lot of them complain was like some foot pain stuff, like late in the fall. And what I tell them is like, Hey, why don’t you, when you get home tonight in your apartment, just take your shoes off and walk around barefoot.

[00:48:23] Because a lot of them don’t, they keep their shoes on all night and I’m like, yeah, just walk around barefoot all evening. And then two days later they’re like, oh yeah, my foot feels so much better. It’s like, well, yeah, get out of that shoe and strengthen your foot a little bit.

[00:48:36] Molly Binetti: So, yeah. And it wasn’t, didn’t even start as something like, oh, we’re going to go barefoot because you know, I really believe in, we should train barefoot.

[00:48:44] It was like, no, it’s got them out of their shoes. As part of prep work and we have, we have a big turf space, which is awesome too, to get them off a little bit different surface and can do a lot on there. And then it just turned into them. I think it was even probably some of them asking, like, can I keep my shoes off or like, do I need my shoes?

[00:49:01] And I was like, no, you know, obviously if we’re doing something that could be dangerous with a weight or whatever it might be, no, but for, I would say 95% of what we do, their shoes are off because they prefer it now. And, you know, consequently, like it’s also helped in a lot of other areas.

[00:49:19] Joseph Krawczyk: Well, one last thing, um, different positions of basketballs, obviously your centers, much different role on the court.

[00:49:26] Then, then you’re a guard. You know, how much do you individualize your training based on position?

[00:49:33] Molly Binetti: Um, I individualized our, our training based on just individual, but definitely I will, there will be some different changes throughout the year, um, between guards and posts, you know, I’m definitely much more concerned about.

[00:49:48] You know, or post play overhead a lot more. So we do a lot more vertical, uh, emphasis on pushing and pulling and things like that. I have to say our guards don’t do that, but, um, guards are typically, you know, we train all planes in all directions, but typically a little bit more horizontal focus there, um, from an upper body standpoint, um, I’ve the limb length is a huge consideration.

[00:50:12] We’ve got some really, really long players. I’ve got a six, seven girl I’ve got, you know, ones that are 6, 3, 6, 4, but like have no torso. And their legs are like as tall as I am. So definitely considerations for, um, kind of just body type and. What positions are you able to get in, you know, bilateral versus unilateral with kind of, you know, in general train a lot more unilaterally, but I found, especially for our long leg players too, they really do well with unilateral variations.

[00:50:45] Um, and just understanding, you know, I don’t, I guess I don’t really treat them differently, um, in terms of what I need from them, strength wise, but also understanding that our posts are gonna withstand a lot more contact. They’re going to get beat up every single possession. So for them like fitness level, their ability to have the stamina to withstand contact.

[00:51:05] So yeah, there’s, it’s, it’s really an individual approach, but definitely in general, um, just. How our athlete, how our post players move on the court verse, how regards move on the court as well, as you know, I’m definitely concerned about what our post players, overhead strength and stability is like, because they are playing up above are not all above some, actually above the rim, but, uh, playing a little bit higher game up there.

[00:51:30] So those are a couple of them.

[00:51:33] Donnie: It’s interesting. You, you, especially in your sport, Molly, and somewhat similar to mine with volleyball, they play so much of the game year round. You’ve almost got to look at like, what do they need to be available on the court versus like trying to individualize like something for their position.

[00:51:53] So you almost got to think through that lens first. Uh, I mean, like you said, you were talking about your post players, just get beat up. So you got to have them physically like robust in they’re ready to take all those shots and be in there and get physical game after game practice after practice.

[00:52:10] Molly Binetti: Yeah.

[00:52:10] I mean, Aliyah, Boston’s got three, four people guarding her every single possession and she’s got people hanging off of your arms and, you know, it’s, it’s something you got to think about, like what are they actually going through every single day? Uh, every single game. So definitely makes you kind of re reconsider and, uh, allows you to have to really adjust, you know, what you’re doing to prepare them.

[00:52:35] But then also as you get into the course of a season and understand what they’re going through, um, on, uh, you know, metabolic and physical level,

[00:52:44] Donnie: Good stuff. We’ll we’ll shift. Uh, we’re kind of getting near the end here, but I’ve got a couple questions in general. We’ll wrap this up, but, um, so just again, I think watching you the past couple years, um, coach Dawn Staley, just what an inspiration.

[00:53:01] I don’t know her at all, but just watching just, um, she, I feel like she just uses her platform, her position, obviously she’s a great coach, but just to influence and be a voice for females, uh, in the profession. Um, I think first thing is like, how’s your relationship with coach? And then, you know, how have you managed that, um, that relationship with her being a strength coach and in a.

[00:53:30] To keep them happy and not compromise, you know, to do your job kind of stay in your ground. I think sometimes we can kind of get walked over, but just kind of talk about that. How’s your relationship? How has it evolved and then how do you, how does that work now?

[00:53:44] Molly Binetti: Yeah, I can’t say enough good things about her as a, as a person.

[00:53:50] And I can’t think of a better boss to be honest. And that’s not me just blowing her up, but it’s really been, I’ve been so grateful the past four years too. And a big part of why I wanted this job in the first place was to learn under her, uh, because of the presence that she has because of how she does things.

[00:54:09] And so it’s been really cool to see our relationship relationship evolve over the past four years. You know, I came in as a 28 year old. I was starstruck. Being around her my first year, like I was, she made me nervous. Like she, you know, I had such high expectations for myself. I really did not want to mess up.

[00:54:29] I didn’t want to disappoint her. I wanted to prove that I was worthy of this job. Um, and I’m really lucky because, you know, one thing I’ve learned like Dawn, she has her inner circle, the people that are in her corner that she’s known forever. And, you know, outside of that, you know, there’s layers too. And I kind of went in understanding, like I’m not going to be, I’m not going to be in the inner circle and that’s okay.

[00:54:55] And I’m not going to try to pry my way in there either. And I was really fortunate that she had no reason to really trust me right off the bat, not having a prior relationship with me, but from day one, um, she gave me just free reign to do my job the way that I saw fit. And I know that can’t be said for a lot of people in my position.

[00:55:17] This profession in general, you have a lot of coaches. I want to dictate what we do and have a say and have really strong beliefs. You know, I think you know, of the fitness industry AB the only two professions where like everybody has an opinion and everybody thinks they know something about something.

[00:55:35] Right. And so I’m fortunate. I walked into a situation where I got to just do my thing. And as long as that, they were prepared and ready to go, and that’s all she really cared about. Um, but you know, first year I’d say our relationship was just pretty transactional. I really just try to stay in my lane.

[00:55:52] You know, I also understood I was coming into a situation where they were a year removed from a national championship. I was going to work for a hall of fame player and head coach. Like, I’m gonna just see what is what’s normal here. Like, how does she run practice? How do, how do we do things? I’m just going to stay in my lane and I’m going to do my job.

[00:56:13] And I was. You know, a little nervous. I was trying to figure out life, I think your first job, or first year on a job anywhere it’s, it’s a, it’s a mess everything’s new. And then to kind of watch our relationship grow year by year, where it really was that trust was built over our athletes being prepared.

[00:56:34] You know, I think when you, when you see physical results and you see those types of outcomes, that automatically generates a little bit of buy-in and a little bit of trust, both from coaches and from players. But I think the key is seeing those results in the way that for the results for what they want.

[00:56:52] You know, I think we often come in and we try to push our agenda on to the coaches and what we think as opposed to, you know, how do we figure out how our agenda matches with their agenda and what they want. So I think when you start seeing results for what they want, that trust automatically builds. And so.

[00:57:12] No, I’ve always just approached it as just trying to be myself. I’m trying to prepare our athletes, um, the best way possible. I’m going to let her do her thing because she knows what she’s doing in a Fort. And fortunately for us, she really does know what she’s doing, where it doesn’t require a lot of intervention.

[00:57:29] Doesn’t require a lot of conversations about like, Hey coach, you know, I think we need to do X, Y or Z. It’s no, like she, she does her thing. And then I do my thing in conjunction with what they need to be able to do on the court. And so we found this really, um, you know, kind of synchronous approach to how we do things, kind of this harmonious approach of like, it really blends well together.

[00:57:54] She coaches very similarly or maybe I adopted it from her. I don’t even know, but she really meets them where they’re at and really coaches them in a way that is individual while still having really high expectations. And I think we do that as well in the weight room and. That approach has really allowed our players to grow, um, in, in pretty drastic ways.

[00:58:17] And so I think we’ve just kind of found this, um, you know, I’ve seen, it takes a village. We found this really cool kind of combination of people. You know, our relationship has grown year by year to a point where now, you know, our relationship is strong. I remember when she first hired me, she said, let’s win a national championship together.

[00:58:37] And here we are four years later and, you know, trying to win another one next year, but it’s just been, uh, uh, I can’t even put into words what the experience has been like to learn from her, um, and to have her in my corner. Um, and to know that I have her support, um, and ultimately it’s just come down to, you know, you’ve got to it’s her program, it’s, it’s her team.

[00:59:02] And I’ve had to figure out how I fit into that equation while still, um, being true to who I am doing things the way that. I know they should be done. And we found a way to really kind of blend those things together and make something pretty special.

[00:59:18] Donnie: Oh, I love that answer. I think to your point, I mean, to go into a place and just be super, uh, with a coach, that’s that successful, but be super like humble.

[00:59:30] And I think self-awareness, I think is what I keep hearing you say, you’re aware of kind of how you you are and how you’re coming off and just trying to adapt and play the role that she’s hired you to play. And if you just start there, I think don’t do too much, right. Earn their trust, build a rapport, have the experiences, um, get to know each other.

[00:59:52] And then it’s like slowly, this, this, this really close relationship kinda kind of comes about. So I think that’s great advice to all coaches listening to this. So kudos to you. Um, I do have one fun question before we get to Joe. So thank you for sharing about, about coach daily, social media, real quick, coach.

[01:00:16] What do you, you know, w if anybody gets on Twitter and strength and conditioning, like, it seems to be a lot of just I’m to read here a little bit. It seems like we just like in Brett Bartholomew, who we both are good friends with now, just, we seem to just cannibalize each other. I think social media is very powerful and that you can get a lot of messages out there that people need to hear.

[01:00:43] But like, I think there’s, there’s a, there’s a lot of social media. I feel like there’s so negative. I mean, what, what do you, what, what’s some, what would be some solutions that our coach, what do you think any thoughts on that?

[01:00:55] Molly Binetti: Well, I don’t know if I have any solutions, but I will share a few of a few of my thoughts.

[01:01:03] Yeah. I have, I struggle. I go back and forth between thinking Twitter and social media is just a cesspool and thinking that it’s a really great learning tool, a great educational resource, because, and I think both are true, to be honest, I think they are both true, but I don’t know another profession that gets on Twitter and argues about how to do our jobs more than strength, coach Twitter.

[01:01:31] Like I don’t see. Lawyers or, um, I don’t know, accountants on their bickering back and forth about what, I don’t even know how to speak in those, those terms, but like what method is best for a CA I don’t, um, you know, I’m going to butcher that, but like, I just don’t see any, any other professions doing that and maybe, maybe I’m wrong, but I think we poorly represent ourselves in a lot of ways.

[01:02:01] Um, I think it can be a great resource for those that are learning about our profession, but I, I still have a hard time understanding why we still tweet about the things that we do as a profession. And then we get into arguments about, we know everybody’s got their opinion. Everybody thinks that they’re right.

[01:02:22] And then everybody wants to like one up the other person. And I think at least. From an awareness standpoint, a looking at a profession being in it, but also looking at it, I think from a broader sense, I think we struggle a lot with, um, ego and insecurity, um, mimicry comparison, you know, I think we fall victim to a lot of those things, whether we are aware of it or not.

[01:02:50] I think a lot of those things stem from some of those areas. Um, and it can, yeah, it’s I just have a hard time. I’ve I’ve found myself having to on or mute more people than not recently just in our, in our profession, um, is just gets old. I get, I get tired of reading the same tweets about, oh, you need to sleep eight hours.

[01:03:16] You need to hydrate and you got to, or just debating training methods. I’m like, I feel like as a profession, this is, I’m going to go on a rant here. As a profession, we get so mad that people don’t value them. We should, and we get mad that people label us as the, you know, the weight room guy or the weight room girl or whatever it is.

[01:03:37] But then we get on platforms like that. And all we talk about are, is lifting sets and reps, exercise, all of it. We’re not really helping ourselves when we can let go of those things. Or we want to sit there and argue with other people in our profession over those things, like we’re reducing ourselves. So I just think it’s overplayed there’s I don’t have the time for it or the energy nor do I want, nor do I care enough to get into some of that.

[01:04:06] But you know, for some people, it’s what they find

[01:04:10] Donnie: real quick. I’m going to finish this rant, Joe. Now I’ll let you kind of land the plane, but I just to your point, I think you’re spot on, like this profession should be more about lifting each other up, finding common way. That we can complete each other, not just compete against each other.

[01:04:29] Right. And not be so negative. I’m not saying we can’t be critical, but I, my question is always like, if you really want to say that to somebody, can you just pick up the phone and call them or go see them in person, say it to their face and not just posted on there so you can get so many like pushback anyway, I just think there’s and again, to your point, I think some of it is so unprofessional, Molly, some of the comments, and until we get to the level of professionalism and excellence and where we all are pulling for each other, we’re gonna, we’re, we’re pretty against each other a lot.

[01:05:01] Not, not everybody. I’m not speaking for everybody, but it’s definitely a problem. So anyway, had to get the little rant out there.

[01:05:08] Molly Binetti: Sorry. Yeah, yeah. It’s yeah, that’s a, it’s an interesting topic. Um, it’s

[01:05:16] Donnie: a powerful tool. It’s definitely,

[01:05:19] Molly Binetti: it’s, it’s, it’s powerful for better, for worse. Um, You know, and I think, you know, if we’ve learned anything or, you know, social media is going to garner more attention, you know?

[01:05:31] Donnie: Yeah. I heard a comment by Cal Newport in the book, digital minimalism, if you’ve never listened to that, it’s pretty interesting. But he talks about like with social media, like what are the things in social media that so think about your life as like a business, right. And what social media actually compounds your time in a.

[01:05:54] Brings a value to you, whether it’s monetary or like to your point, like educate you or helps you become a better coach or person, you know, and it really just limiting really kind of block is shutting out the noise and limiting to what those things are on. Whether it’s social media of when you get on there, it’s got a purpose versus just wasting time or just bringing people down.

[01:06:19] He kind of talks about that in the book. It’s pretty interesting, but kind of changed my view on like how I should view it versus like this open-ended cesspool of stuff, like kind of narrow down what really brings impact and influence in a good way in your life as a professional, as a person. So anyway, just a thought.

[01:06:35] Molly Binetti: Yeah. Thanks sometimes you, right. You got to kind of cleanse your timeline, figure out what’s worth your time and energy. And whether we realize it or not even just scrolling mindlessly is an energy drain. So it’s what is actually adding value and what’s not, and, um, it can be so. Addictive as well. And so we find herself just in that space of mindless scrolling, it can be,

[01:07:04] Joseph Krawczyk: you both have completely reaffirmed why I deleted my Twitter and Facebook about a year and a half, two years ago.

[01:07:11] So thank you for that. Um, yeah, you never, you never see anyone reposts, uh, you always see someone repost. Someone’s like, you know, lift or work out that they have criticisms of. You never see someone repost. Anyone says, Hey, look what Molly’s doing with her, with her girls over at South Carolina, like how awesome is she?

[01:07:29] So that’s my little 2 cents, right. There would be nice if we had more of that. Um, so Molly real quick, like what, what resources would you recommend to our listeners? Like any books, podcasts, anything you’re excited about recently?

[01:07:43] Molly Binetti: Yeah, I’ve got a couple, I think I’ve kind of shied away from. Really diving into a lot on the strength conditioning front of things for a while now.

[01:07:56] Um, and I’ve kind of explored some different areas. I think from like, I guess I’m more, more science standpoint, a podcast I’ve really been enjoying lately is, um, the Hebrew men lab podcast. Um, I mean, I think Andrew Huberman is, uh, you know, as brilliant. And so I really enjoy reading and learning about different aspects of performance, um, through him and through that podcast, that’s been one, um, Appreciate the armchair expert index Shepherd’s podcast.

[01:08:27] Uh, I love him. I think he’s one of the best podcast facilitators out there. I just think he’s, he’s so good. And his guests are so wide ranging that it’s, it’s always entertaining. Um, those are kind of the two, two podcasts. Obviously I’m always a fan of Bernie brown and her podcast in any book that she puts out.

[01:08:48] That’s, uh, always a given, um, a book that I’ve really enjoyed lately is it’s called alchemy, uh, by Rory Sutherland. And it’s really, um, kind of about the, the magic behind, you know, creating a brand, um, business, just life in general and really talking more about the things that really can be explained in a logical or rational way.

[01:09:13] And I think it relates a lot to what we do because we love to. We always kind of rely on that objective and logical information when it comes to decision-making, but really like when it comes to behavior and why people consume the products that they do or behave the way that they do. There’s so many aspects that don’t really make sense, um, upon first, first glance.

[01:09:35] And, um, it can’t always be explained it in a rational way. So it was just really, he provided he’s an incredible writer, but provides so many examples of how this exists and, um, throughout our lives and different products and things like that. And it was really fascinating. Um, and I got to think Brett for recommending that one to me, it was awesome.

[01:09:56] Um, and I’ve recommended that one probably more than anything as of late. Uh, I think that’s all I got right now.

[01:10:05] Joseph Krawczyk: Do you plan on being a part of any more, uh, research in the future?

[01:10:10] Molly Binetti: Probably not. I really, I, it was cool to be a part of I’ve like in, throughout my entire, like, since college, I’ve always toyed around with the idea of like, I wanted to get my PhD.

[01:10:20] Um, and then recently I’ve been tasked up and having to write this chapter for a book and reminded me how much I actually don’t want to get my PhD or have her dissertation or any of that. It’s really I’ve, uh, that’s re yeah, it’s validated. It’s validated that for me. So like, when it comes to research, I would gladly partake as long as I don’t have to write anything or, uh, Yeah.

[01:10:50] So whatever that means, like I’m all for the practical aspect of, of research, but I will not be getting my PhD. I do not want to write scientifically I do not want to do any, any of that. So,

[01:11:04] Joseph Krawczyk: um, awesome. And then, you know, since we talked about our love for social media so much, uh, where can we find you on social media, not to bash you, but to uplift you?

[01:11:17] Molly Binetti: Uh, I’ll probably come right back and I was just, that’s just me, but, um, yeah, I’m on Instagram. I’m also on Twitter. Um, I mean, if you search my name on either, you’ll find me, it’s no secret. I think I’m at Molly Binetti on Twitter and, and the Netty 22 on Instagram. So pretty active on both of those.

[01:11:41] Joseph Krawczyk: Awesome coach.

[01:11:42] I think we’re almost out of time.

[01:11:44] Donnie: Hey, that’s great, Molly. Thank you so much for, I know you, uh, you’re probably getting close to ramping back up there in, uh, in South Carolina with the team. And I know you’re on a little break, so we really appreciate you carving out some time to have a conversation and more than anything, just to see you.

[01:12:01] I know we’re not in person, but I’ll take it at this point. So

[01:12:05] Molly Binetti: no, no, I appreciate you guys. Obviously, Donnie is always a pleasure. Joe’s awesome to meet you and really thankful for your time and, uh, always happy to, to chat.

[01:12:17] Donnie: Well, good stuff. Well, Hey to all our listers, uh, Molly Binetti if you’ve never listened to her or followed her, be sure you just check her out.

[01:12:25] Uh, if, if you get the privilege at some point a creep owner and find her at a company. The Gulf and bugger. So she’s an awesome person. I couldn’t, I can’t say enough about her. Uh, just, I feel like she just she’s in the profession for the right reasons, cares about people, but she’s a giver, not a taker.

[01:12:44] She’s been a blessing to me, obviously to the university of South Carolina and, uh, anybody, just a great person to learn from. And. And coach, we wish you continued success until we come to the sec,

[01:13:00] we need to get ready. I know you guys will be ready for us, so, but, uh, Hey, good luck to you guys this year. And hopefully again, we’ll see you soon, but, uh, that’s it from the team behind the team podcasts, I’m coach Donnie Maib, Molly B in the house and Joe, that’s all we got. So y’all have a great summer. Let’s keep it coming in.

[01:13:18] Hot.

[01:13:22] Thanks so much for tuning in and listening to this episode of the team behind the team podcast for future episodes, go to iTunes, Spotify, Google podcast, or Stitcher. We definitely want to 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.

[01:13:44] I’m Donnie Maib and thanks so much for tuning in.