The Team Behind the Team

Host Donnie Maib discusses coaching technique and theory with fellow coaches around the country.

The Team Behind the Team

strength

E48 | Eric McMahon: An Advocate for the Industry

The Team Behind the Team
The Team Behind the Team
E48 | Eric McMahon: An Advocate for the Industry
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This week Eric McMahon hopped on Zoom with us to discuss his career and what the future holds for Strength and Conditioning. Moving forward, Coach McMahon presented a great question, are we sport coaches who also do strength and conditioning, or are we strength coaches who lean more towards a medical model? Possibly the most important topic we discussed is advocacy in sport. Coach McMahon states that you can’t just be a member of the industry, you have to be an advocate. Communication and maintaining a level head in an alpha community are some of Eric McMahon’s greatest strengths, and he covers those in depth in this month’s episode.

E47 | Brittany Ducroz: Negotiating Your Worth

The Team Behind the Team
The Team Behind the Team
E47 | Brittany Ducroz: Negotiating Your Worth
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Brittany Ducroz joined Coach Maib in the booth for an awesome conversation about understanding our self-worth in the strength coaching profession. The important questions that they present is: How much are you worth? What is your value? Brittany stresses being true to yourself and making the difficult decision to walk away from an opportunity that will not pay you what you’re worth. She also emphasizes getting different viewpoints from other professions to help relate with Directors when negotiating your worth. This is a popular topic in strength and conditioning that both Brittany and Donnie hammer extremely valuable points in the show.

Brittany Ducroz currently works as the Director at St. Edwards University here in Austin, TX as well as British Diving in London, UK.  Before working for St. Edwards, she worked for the University of Houston in 2013. From 2012 to 2013, Brittany worked for Purdue University with Volleyball, Basketball, Swimming, Cross Country and Cheerleading. Brittany also worked at the University of Texas from 2011 to 2012 with Volleyball and Golf.

You can reach Brittany over email: info@mtgatx.com

E46 | Samantha Partida: Fueling to Win

The Team Behind the Team
The Team Behind the Team
E46 | Samantha Partida: Fueling to Win
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Sam Partida joins us in the booth to talk about some of the most critical topics within sports nutrition and athletic performance. Sam shares some of her strategies in myth busting diet fads and understanding where and why athletes found them. One of the most critical challenges today is eating disorders. How to identify which athletes are going through it and communicating with the athlete about their eating disorder are two examples of what Sam work through and discusses with us. Lastly, Sam shares some of her tactics in prescribing meals for different athletes in different situations.

Samantha Partida joined the Texas Performance Nutrition staff in 2020. Prior to her time at Texas, she worked as a sports dietitian at North Carolina State University. Sam earned a Bachelor of Science in nutrition in 2013 at the University of Texas and worked as a clinical dietitian for people with disabilities after college before realizing her passion for sports nutrition. Sam is a registered and licensed dietitian in Texas and is a certified specialist in sports dietetics. You can reach Sam Partida on Twitter and Instagram @sampartidard.

E45 | Molly McCage: Find Your Voice

The Team Behind the Team
The Team Behind the Team
E45 | Molly McCage: Find Your Voice
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Former Texas Volleyball star Molly McCage and Donnie hit the booth to discuss a variety of topics, but none more important than the impact of sports on her life. Molly and Donnie touch on how sports can help athletes find themselves as individuals and even find their voice as leaders. Additionally, the ongoing concern of mental health in sports continues to be at the forefront of concerns in athletic performance. Molly and Donnie discuss how a communal approach through former athletes, current teammates or professionals are some of the best people to lean on to support mental health. Tune in this month to listen to one of the all-time Longhorn greats.

Molly McCage currently plays for Athletes Unlimited and is the manager of Player Care and Coordination. From 2021-2022, Molly was the Director of Volleyball Operations at Pepperdine University. Molly played for the Allianz MTV Stuttgart Pro Team in Germany as well as being a member of the USA National Team from 2017-2019. You can reach Molly on Instagram or Twitter: @mollymccage. “

E44 | Christie Aschwanden: Debunking Recovery Trends

The Team Behind the Team
The Team Behind the Team
E44 | Christie Aschwanden: Debunking Recovery Trends
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From Ice Baths to Gatorade, this week’s guest Christie Aschwanden joins us from her home in Colorado to discuss her book, GOOD TO GO. Christie covers multiple modalities we use today for recovery, but also debunks some of these methods as well. Is beer hindering or helping your recovery? Is Gatorade the best product for performance hydration? Are ice baths and cryotherapy really beneficial to recovery? In today’s world of fitness, we follow lot of misleading protocols for recovery and things we think will enhance our athletic performance. Tune in and listen to Christie break down these methods and whether or not they are really helping you.

Christie Aschwanden is the author of Good To Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery and co-host of Emerging Form, a podcast about the creative process. She’s the former lead science writer at FiveThirtyEight and was previously a health columnist for The Washington Post. Christie was a National Magazine Award finalist in 2011. Other honors she’s received include a Best Article Award (2005) and Outstanding Essay Award (2007) from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. A frequent speaker at writer’s workshops and journalism conferences, Christie is the founder of the Creative Convergence freelance writing workshops. You can reach Christie Aschwanden at her website: christieaschwanden.com, on Instagram @cragcrest, and her podcast Emerging Form.

E43 | Martin Rooney: Into the Roar

The Team Behind the Team
The Team Behind the Team
E43 | Martin Rooney: Into the Roar
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Whenever there’s a group of people, there’s a culture” -Martin Rooney. This month we were lucky to catch Coach Martin Rooney while he was in town for a presentation. Coach Rooney discussed how we as leaders can inspire our athletes, but need to inspire ourselves as well. He and Donnie explored going “into the roar” and how the analogy applies to training not only his Mixed Martial Artists, but athletes and business professionals alike. Lastly, he covers not only pursuing and accomplishing your dreams, but addressing what we should do once that dream has been accomplished. If you ever run into coach Rooney, maybe you’ll be lucky enough to watch him tear a deck of cards with his bare hands, but for now, tune in to some of the most inspiring career advice we’ve had on the show.

A former US bobsledder and two-time Guinness World Record holder, Coach Rooney is the creator of the Training for Warriors system and former COO of the Parisi Speed School national franchise. Martin has presented to Fortune 500 companies, Military Organizations, and consulted numerous professional NFL teams. Martin has trained athletes from the NFL, MLB, UFC, NBA, WNBA and multiple top Division I collegiate programs. Martin has written five best-selling books for Harper Collins and Wiley publishers which have sold over a combined 200,000 copies. You can reach Coach Rooney on Instagram @themartinrooney and on Facebook @Martin Rooney.

E42 | Arianna Luther: Building Trust

The Team Behind the Team
The Team Behind the Team
E42 | Arianna Luther: Building Trust
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Arianna Luther left the warm Miami beach to join us in the chilly Austin weather for a great show just before Christmas break. In this episode we discuss the important task of building trust with your athletes and sport coaches. We discuss what it takes to earn buy-in from the teams you work with. Additionally, in a post COVID era, we examine Mental Health and how it’s affected our athletes. Lastly, Arianna dives into her work on social media and some material her and her colleagues are releasing. Grab a notepad and enjoy!

Arianna Luther came to the University of Miami as an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach in October of 2020. She serves as the strength and conditioning coach for the women’s soccer, swimming and diving, and rowing programs. Luther joined the Hurricanes after one year at the University of Nevada, where she worked with track and field and men’s tennis.

 You can reach Arianna Luther on Twitter @Arianna_Luther and on Instagram @ariannaluther.

E41 | Dr. Jan Todd: A Giant Amongst Men

The Team Behind the Team
The Team Behind the Team
E41 | Dr. Jan Todd: A Giant Amongst Men
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This week’s special guest is local to Austin, Texas and is a legend in the field of strength training. Dr. Jan Todd, the Director of the Stark Center at The University of Texas and former powerlifter shares her story as a pioneer for women in the sport. Throughout the podcast, she dives into her extraordinary journey and experiences with some of the strongest humans the planet has ever seen. We also touch on her life in academia and the critical role she has played in breaking barriers and stigmas for women and weightlifting.

Dr. Jan Todd is a Roy McLean Centennial Fellow in Sports History, and the Interim Chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Todd is also the executive editor of Iron Game History: The Journal of Physical Culture, that she and her husband Terry Todd founded in 1990. During her career, Sports Illustrated often described her as the “strongest woman in the world”. As a powerlifter, she set more than 60 national and world records (in five weight classes) and was included in the Guinness Book of Records for over a decade. Jan Todd was the first woman inducted into the International Powerlifting Hall of Fame and was in the first class of the USA-PL Women’s Powerlifting Hall of Fame. You can reach Jan Todd at her email: j.todd@austin.utexas.edu  Additionally, you can get ticket information for the Arnold Strongman Classic at: https://www.arnoldsports.com/sports-and-events/strongman/arnold-strongman-classic/

E40 | Bonus Episode: Through the Looking Glass

The Team Behind the Team
The Team Behind the Team
E40 | Bonus Episode: Through the Looking Glass
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David Joyce is back for a bonus episode! This episode is a speaking engagement he did while here in Austin. Coach Joyce speaks about how WHAT we are doing in the future will not change, but HOW we do it will change. In what way do we bring the future forward? Additionally, he addresses 8 complex issues that should be considered moving forward in our careers. One example is the economy, and understanding the stability and allocation of funds from your respective athletic departments. This is an amazing episode and will force you to consider issues you wouldn’t normally associate with athletic performance. Enjoy!

David Joyce is the Founder of Synapsing, a global strategy and decision-making consultancy linking the boardroom to the front line in complex environments. He has extensive experience leading elite sports around the world, stretching from Premier League and European Football, to the Olympics, from international Rugby o the NFL. You can reach Coach Joyce on Twitter: @DavidGJoyce, Email: David.joyce@synapsing.com and Linkedin: David Joyce.

E38 | Dr Jacked and Mr Caulfield

The Team Behind the Team
The Team Behind the Team
E38 | Dr Jacked and Mr Caulfield
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Coach Scott Caulfield joined us over Zoom from The Green Mountain State to discuss his great career. Coach Caulfield has done it all from his service in the United States Navy to being the head coach at the NSCA headquarters. We talk about his unorthodox coaching philosophy and some of the research he conducted at the University of Denver on The Social Construction of Strength and Conditioning. (Also see the Dr. Gearity interview, Episode 34) Coach Caulfield also catches us up on the life of a strength coach in division 3 collegiate athletics. Lastly, we cover his time in the military and how that helped shape his career.