The Team Behind the Team

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

The Team Behind the Team

training

E51 | Donnie Maib: The Secret Sauce – Moving from Ordinary to Extraordinary Leadership

The Team Behind the Team
The Team Behind the Team
E51 | Donnie Maib: The Secret Sauce – Moving from Ordinary to Extraordinary Leadership
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This month’s show features a little twist as Coach Maib and Coach Joe switch roles in the booth and we discuss a topic that is near and dear to Donnie’s heart, Leadership. Throughout the episode we’ll discuss our past leadership experiences and lessons learned from the past. We start with 14 leadership traits and discuss which two we find to be the most valuable. Throughout any coach’s career, there are those moments where we hit valley floors and moments where we sit on mountain tops. Coach Maib gives us his experiences and advice from when he was in those positions. Finally, Donnie reveals a project he’s been working on for some time and takes us through the process of completing his first book. Tune in for a sneak peek at the ingredients for the secret sauce in this month’s episode.

Donnie Maib has been the Director of Olympic Sports Athletic Performance since 2011. Coach Maib oversees all aspects of athletic performance efforts for all sports at the University of Texas with the exception of Football. Coach Maib has been with the University of Texas since 1998 working with football and various other Olympic sports – Women’s Track & Field, Women’s Golf, Men’s Golf, Men’s Tennis, Soccer, & Volleyball. He came to the University of Texas after four years at the University of Colorado at Boulder where he worked as an assistant with all varsity sports. You can reach Coach Maib on Instagram @donniemaib and Twitter @coachdonnie. Donnie’s book, The Secret Sauce of Leadership, can be found on Amazon and will release on November 6th 2023

E50 | JP Nerbun: The Culture System – Are you Transactional or Transformational?

The Team Behind the Team
The Team Behind the Team
E50 | JP Nerbun: The Culture System - Are you Transactional or Transformational?
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All the way from Dublin Ireland, JP joins coach Maib to discuss his book “The Culture System”. Right away, JP and Donnie discuss the differences between transformational and transactional leaders. Their effect on the culture of a team is crucial as JP breaks down the three most important traits in developing team culture. Building Relationships, Being the Example, and Creating Feedback Loops are critical to leading and developing culture. JP and Donnie go even further into enforcing culture in which JP shares two rules: No Blaming and No Shaming. Check out this episode to hear JP and Donnie share more valuable experiences in an excellent show on leadership in sports.

J.P. Nerbun is a bestselling author, leadership coach, and the founder of TOC Culture Consulting, a leading global sports consulting business. Nebrun’s expertise extends across various fields and has a proven track record of guiding leaders at prestigious institutions such as Stanford University, Harvard University, the University of Texas, the USGA, PwC, and Chick-fil-A. Nerbun has written two books, “Calling Up: Discovering Your Journey to Transformational Leadership” and “The Culture System”. His podcast, “Coaching Culture”, is among the top sports leadership podcasts globally. You can reach JP Nerbun on Twitter @JpNerbun and over email at jpnerbun@tocculture.com.

E49 | Sam Contorno: Making Sport Science Simple

The Team Behind the Team
The Team Behind the Team
E49 | Sam Contorno: Making Sport Science Simple
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In this week’s episode, Sam Contorno walked over to the Olympic side from football to discuss her career and thoughts on Sport Science. We discuss the Sport Science industry today and what are some of the tools that really matter. With all of the access she has to the latest testing technology, Sam also covers how she communicates an endless amount of data to coaches and athletes. Lastly, Sam discusses how lasers and a scale can probably accomplish 90% of what you need to do in Sport Science. Sometimes less is more, so we do not get consumed by our technology available to us. Sam provided us with great insight this week and a valuable episode for Sport Scientists and Strength coaches alike. 

Sam Contorno currently works at the University of Texas at Austin as the Associate Director of Applied Sports Science for Texas Football. Previously, she was the Coordinator of Sports Science at the University of Maryland. She also spent five years at Stanford Universityfrom 2017 to 2022. Sam graduated with a BS in Molecular Integrative Neuroscience and a minor in Health & Wellness Studies from Binghamton University in 2012, and a MS in Human Nutrition from University of Bridgeport in 2018. You can reach Sam Contorno on Instagram @samcontorno and Twitter @sam_contorno.

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.

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/