All the way from the land down under, Ben Haines joins Donnie Maib to discuss Ben\u2019s career path, the shaping of his philosophy, working with high school athletes, Ben\u2019s role in utilizing sport science, an integrated approach to performance, the challenge of earning a PhD, mentoring younger coaches, and keeping an open mindset.<\/p>\n
Ben Haines has been coaching in Australia since 1999, working with a wide range of sports in the professional, private, and academic setting. In addition to becoming a Level 3 ASCA Master Coach, Ben earned his PhD examining the neuromuscular effects to maximal strength and power training. Currently, he is the head of Physical Preparation for Australia Volleyball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All the way from the land down under, Ben Haines joins Donnie Maib to discuss Ben\u2019s career path, the shaping of his philosophy, working with high school athletes, Ben\u2019s role in utilizing sport science, an integrated approach to performance, the challenge of earning a PhD, mentoring younger coaches, and keeping an open mindset. Ben Haines […]","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/the-team-behind-the-team\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2020\/03\/Team-Behind-the-Team-Ep.-5.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"72.25M","filesize_raw":"75761408","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":""},"tags":[3,18,7,6,19,4,5,11],"series":[2],"class_list":{"0":"post-14","1":"podcast","2":"type-podcast","3":"status-publish","5":"tag-athletics","6":"tag-ben","7":"tag-coaching","8":"tag-conditioning","9":"tag-haines","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-strength","12":"tag-training","13":"series-the-team-behind-the-team","14":"entry"},"acf":{"related_episodes":"","hosts":[{"ID":113,"post_author":"38","post_date":"2020-11-04 17:27:54","post_date_gmt":"2020-11-04 22:27:54","post_content":"\n
Donnie Maib is the Head Coach for Athletic Performance for Olympic Sports since 2011.\u00a0 Maib oversees all aspects of athletic performance efforts for all sports at the University of Texas with the exception of Men\u2019s\/Women\u2019s Basketball and Football. He directly works with women\u2019s volleyball and men\u2019s tennis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
From 1998-2007 Maib was an assistant coach at the University of Texas working primarily with football and various other Olympic sports \u2013 Women\u2019s Track & Field, Women\u2019s Golf, Men\u2019s Golf, Men\u2019s Tennis, Soccer, & Volleyball. In 2007 He was promoted to Associate Coach for Football. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maib is certified by the Collegiate Strength & Conditioning Coaches Association. He was honored at 8th Annual National Conference of the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association in May 2008 with the certification of Master Strength and Conditioning Coach (MSCC), the highest honor for a coach in the strength and conditioning field.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Donnie Maib","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"donnie-maib","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-11-04 17:27:55","post_modified_gmt":"2020-11-04 22:27:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/the-team-behind-the-team\/?post_type=speaker&p=113","menu_order":0,"post_type":"speaker","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"guests":[{"ID":65,"post_author":"38","post_date":"2020-07-07 17:14:59","post_date_gmt":"2020-07-07 17:14:59","post_content":"\n
Ben Haines has been coaching in Australia since 1999, working with a wide range of sports in the professional, private, and academic settings. In addition to becoming a Level 3 ASCA Master Coach, Ben earned his Ph.D. examining the neuromuscular effects of maximal strength and power training. Currently, he is the head of Physical Preparation for Australia Volleyball.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Ben Haines","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"ben-haines","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-11-04 17:56:22","post_modified_gmt":"2020-11-04 22:56:22","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/the-team-behind-the-team\/?post_type=speaker&p=65","menu_order":0,"post_type":"speaker","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"transcript":"
Welcome to the team behind the teen podcast. I’m your host, Donny, mate. This is the monthly
\n\ue5d4
\nshow focused on building conversations around the team based model approach to ethic, performance.
\nStrength, conditioning. Sports Medicine. Sport Science. Mental Health and wellness and
\nsports nutrition.
\nHello, everybody, and welcome back to the podcast. This is the team
\nbehind the team podcast. And this is Donny mayb-. I’m your host and
\nwe have got a special guest today in the studio all the way from Down Under
\nin Australia. Mr Ben Haines, I just a little brief history with
\nBen. I first met Ben, but a little over a year and a half ago when I
\nwas in Sydney, Australia, speaking and attending the HSCA conference.
\nAnd Ben and I had a nice chat there, a good little conversation. And we’ve just kind of kept in touch.
\nAnd Ben is in town with his lovely wife and he’s going gonna be speaking, presenting a
\nclinic. So excited to hear you do that in being and currently is the head of physical
\nperformance for beach volleyball in Volleyball Australia. So without further
\nado, Ben, welcome to the show. How are you doing? Tony, I’m doing great. Thank you very much for having me. It’s a pleasure
\nto be here. Well, glad you made the house the positive travel ban for you so far. Has it been all right if
\nyou adjusted pretty decent so far? Yeah. Yeah. Look, I think although it’s a long way to travel,
\nthe time difference wasn’t too bad and working in a number different sports. I’ve got
\nto practice my international travel quite a lot, so I’m actually feeling wide awake and ready to have a chat.
\nNo, it was. Yeah, that. That’s good. You look like you’re awake. So we appreciate you making time
\nout of your schedule to come all the way over to the US and invest in our staff and the coaches
\nhere in America. So thank you, Ben. We’re glad to have you. I thought we could just start the
\nshow off with, you know, being in Australia and just looking at your
\nresume a little bit. You have not only know your a p._h._d, but you’ve done
\nyou’ve been at some incredible places and got a broad range of experience working with
\nathletes. So could you just introduce yourself to everybody, maybe give us a little history of like how you got
\ninto strength, conditioning and performance and bring us up to current day, how you got to where you had the role
\nyou’re in now? I’d love to. Thanks, Tony. So, yeah, I’ve been doing
\nstrength and conditioning really since nineteen ninety nine. I grew up in a fairly
\nsmall town in north Queensland and did university there, studied a bachelor of sport
\nnext door science. And whilst I was doing my my undergrad studies I obviously was starting
\nto think about where I wanted my career to go and where my particular passion in sports science lay.
\nI did a number of different placements in different organisations and different disciplines.
\nI did a month of biomechanics at the Australians to do a sport. Oh man, that sounds thousand tents.
\nAmazing opportunity, but was enough to for me to work out that I probably want to do biomechanics for the rest
\nof my life. But then I was very lucky when I came back in my final year of university
\nto spend some hours volunteering and observing one of the
\nnational basketball teams that was based in Townsville. Their strength and conditioning coach. And for
\nme, that was really where I got bitten by the SNC bug. I did that and I knew from there that
\nthis was the direction I wanted my career to take. So after finishing my degree,
\nI guess it’s as similar in U.S., you know, you don’t just walk into a high level or even
\nnecessarily entry level SNC jobs, especially back then, there wasn’t a lot around. So I had to pick up
\nand leave towns when I moved to Sydney, a bigger market to try and get my foot in the door
\nin strength and conditioning. And that was a grind, you know, a lot of years of working
\njust in a general fitness industry whilst volunteering at a number different organisations, but was
\neventually lucky enough to get my start as a casual strengthen conditioning coach at the New South Wales Institute of Sport.
\nAnd from there, that was really, I guess, the role that kind of kickstarted my
\ncareer. Within about eight months, I’d won a full time role at the South Australian Sports Institute
\nand there I was responsible for a number of different programs. It was
\nan institute that had 16 sports that it worked with, and they range from developmental
\nto to elite sport. And being a new coach, I worked across a developmental
\nspace that programs like men’s and women’s soccer. I also worked with the basketball program
\nand towards the end of my time, I managed to snag a role with the
\nrowing program, which was actually one of our premier programs. So I was there for about a year and a half
\nand I absolutely loved it was an excellent grounding for my my S.A.C. skills.
\nBut then in a roundabout January of 2000, six,
\nI got an opportunity to move over towards the Middle East
\nand that actually took a while to come up. I didn’t end up moving there until April 2007,
\nand that was working in Qatar at a sports academy for high school aged
\nathletes called Aspire. And that was an amazing. FERENCE I saw
\nthat that’s. Yeah. You know, obviously the there was the strength and conditioning experience, but the cultural
\nexperience as well, living and working in the Middle East and living and working,
\nespecially with sports professionals from around the world. I’ve never been so
\nimmersed in a in different sports cultures in such a melting pot
\nenvironment. And, you know, we had strength, conditioning coach, sports scientists,
\nsports head coaches from all around the world. And that, for me, was an
\namazing opportunity to learn from a number of different people.
\nYou know, I think one of the things within any country is we we get really conditioned to the way we go about things.
\nSo true. Whether that be in the field of sport performance or something else. And so to
\nto really be thrust into this this melting pot of sporting
\npreparation from from all around the world was amazing. So, yeah, I was lucky enough to
\nlive and work there for around about four and a half years. And again, I worked with a couple of different sports,
\ntable tennis. Strangely enough, for me, with like with quit in Australia, it was always just
\nkind of a back backyard game that you had after a couple of beers. But, you know, I quickly learned that it’s a serious
\nsport and and how to best go about preparing athletes for that. But
\nthe second that the second half my career, which was really the last two years, I
\nwas working with their football program or soccer program, as it’s called here, and they’re crazy
\nabout soccer. So that was a really well
\nsponsored program with a lot of revenue behind it and and a fun option and got to travel to some
\namazing parts of the world for competition and and training camps and really
\nwork with what I’ve really enjoyed as an age group to
\nwork with kind of that 12 to 18 year old age group primarily
\nor solely there, really. And then towards 2010 11, kind of decide
\nit’s probably time for the family to move on. So we started looking at opportunities back in Australia
\nand I was lucky enough to actually win the head of Athon SNC position back at the
\nSouth Australian Sports Institute, where I’d had my original full time position.
\nSo I packed up the house in the Middle East to move back there. And
\nyeah, Roos really thrust into it was twelve months out from the London Olympics. The institute
\nhad lost a couple of full time staff members. And so I essentially got
\nall our kind of Olympic or Olympic hopeful athletes kind of thrust at me in that 12 month
\nlead in to London, which was a lot of work and a fair amount of pressure there to try
\nto make sure that we didn’t undo the good work that’s been done in the three years to get these athletes to
\nthe true point that they were anathema. Right. Exactly. Don’t don’t mess them up.
\nBut that was great fun again and was lucky enough to work across some
\na range of sports, a rowing sprint, kayak track, sprint cycling,
\nwhich was great fun, both Olympics and some Paralympic athletes as well. And then towards
\nonce London was done and kind of the institute was was trying to work out what they
\nwere doing going forward. As far as sport allocation based at the Sports Institute was actually also
\nthe Australian National Beach Volleyball Program. And I knew the coaches pretty well from
\nfrom having a couple of conversations. And they were in the market for an SASE coach and
\nasked me if I’d be interested in the job in which I was in the institute
\nwere happy to subcontract me out to beach volleyball. So then I was still employed by the
\nSports Institute, but kind of half of my time is contracted to beach volleyball. And so for the entire
\nRio cycle in twenty thirteen through to to Rio was working with the Australian
\nbeach volleyball program whilst heading up the South Australian Sports Institute SNC and looking
\nafter the the rowing program. And that was a very,
\nvery busy four years looking after two major programs there because of rowing program.
\nWe had a number of Olympic athletes as well. And whilst
\nours was doing that as well, I somehow found time to do a bit of consultant work to some of
\nthe professional sporting teams that were in Adelaide. So that was a bit work working with
\nthe Australian Rules football, which I know is is not very big over here in the United States.
\nSo I consulting out to them and their essence, a unit and then also more
\nrecently to the South Australian cricket team as well that plays in
\nthe National League. But yeah, I guess soft after Rio, it kind of
\nseemed like a good time for me to seek another challenge. And that’s when an option with
\nthe state program for Australian Rules Football launched
\na new position to try and help develop the athletic potential of the junior players.
\nSo essentially, they’re under 16, under 18 talented players that are trying to get drafted into the AFL.
\nSo I stepped into that that role as athlete development manager and really for me, it
\nwas an amazing opportunity. You know, it’s not often you get to walk into an organization and have a clean slate
\nposition where you can, you know, basically build and create what you you seize. Important.
\nAnd I was lucky to work with some great coaches. I had an amazing boss that gave
\nme a lot of scope to kind of craft that. And so, yeah, I’ve spent
\ntwo seasons, which is just over a year and a half working with the South Australian under 18, under
\nAnd then just recently, the last 12 months, viable, Australia actually found a way
\nto lure me back to the sport. So I’m kind of back there again working with baseball evil for the
\nlast 12 months. And our focus is on Tokyo. It’s it’s approaching rapidly and it’s
\nright around the corner and that’s where it’s at. Thanks for saying that. You know, just listen to your story.
\nI had a couple of questions. You said something about when you first were getting
\ninto the profession. It was a grind. I know in the U.S.
\nthat the job market is just, you know, looking at applications
\nare market here is very oversaturated. We have more qualified
\ncoaches and we actually have positions available. I know being in Australia, that was a common theme. I
\nheard other coaches say that it’s very hard. It’s even harder, I think, in Australia
\nto get in, to get your foot in the door, so to speak, and get a full time job. Would that be accurate? Yeah,
\ndefinitely. It’s you know, it’s a very rewarding industry
\nand it’s a great industry to work in. But with that comes a lot of people that want to work in it.
\nAnd so especially when I was starting out. But it’s it’s still quite challenging.
\nYou’ll spot on. There’s not as many roles as raw people coming out that want to work on them.
\nSo I’m curious, how did you. What was it about you being that
\nstood out that made them want to bring you on board? What do you mean looking back and what you think it was?
\nI think early on, you know, it was just that that attitude to really get out there and give everything
\na try and make myself available for as many things as possible. You know, there seems to be a bit of
\na negative connotation around volunteering your time at the moment. And I’m not saying, you know, you
\nneed to go out there and work for free, because that’s that’s not what that’s about. But the more of that.
\nWell, I was really I have to get out there and network and meet people and and show my
\npassion and my my obvious interest for the field. And I think that really that really
\nhelped me out. Now, what about also the other thing I was thinking about you were
\nwhen you were to Spier. That intrigues me. You said you learned a lot
\nthere, not only culturally, but talk a little. Just maybe just take a second. What did you what
\nare some things you kind of learned and picked up when you were respire? Definitely. You know,
\ncoming through the Australian system, as I’m sure it’d be the same here in the US, like I said, we really have
\nour way of doing things. And that can be specific to strengthen power development, that can be specific
\nto conditioning models, that can be specific to agility and footwork. And so
\nI, you know, entered a spy with my mindset of how I went about preparing athletes
\nbecause of my my education and my experience. But very quickly, I saw that that wasn’t the only way
\nof going about it. You know, working with Spanish coaches and how they approached movement and and integrating
\napply metrics for a lack of a better word into that kind of movement based training.
\nWorking with Brazilians who were really just about the flow when the feel of the game and
\nmaybe doing their strength work on the field. So I really
\nI guess, was challenged on my beliefs of of whether the way that we did it in Australia
\nwas the best way of doing it. And I think that’s a really good, rigorous system to put
\nyour beliefs through, whether you get to do it in an opportunity like that or not. Because if we
\nonly talk to people that 100 percent agree with, I think you’re not necessarily growing your
\nexpertises as much as you potentially can. So for me, I picked up a few new things
\nin there, probably more around the way I approached my my field based training rather
\nthan my my white room training per say. But it definitely also consolidated a lot
\nof my ideas. And yeah, I think the way that I’ve learned is it’s a really solid way. I like the way that we do it. And,
\nyou know, I don’t add in some mighty bits and bobs, but the the core of that kind of coaching methodology,
\nI guess I learned was was something I’m really happy with. Yeah, that’s great. No, that a
\nthat even sounds here. And how you talked about that experience seemed like it was pretty, pretty profound.
\nAnd I think that’s sometimes where as coaches, you know, we don’t always like to
\nget out of our comfort zone. Like you said, and tried new things. But I think that that’s kind
\nof where growth happens and where, like you said, maybe something you’ve seen
\nthe dumbest thousand ways. So many times you see it in a fresh light
\nthat you actually learn something new, grow and change and become a better coach. And I think that’s I
\nthink those experiences are great. I had another question
\ngoing from your story of your kind of your timeline. The 16
\nyear old, the young young athlete you were developing for
\nAustralian rugby football. That that really piqued my interest because
\nI thought. Talk about why in the collegiate system. You know, on the Olympics side,
\nwe’re getting a lot of athletes coming out of what we call like a club system in America where
\nthese athletes are they have their high school sport. But then, you know, in the off
\nseason, they’re basically training year round. What it is they’re doing the club sport and there’s no downtime.
\nSo we’re getting athletes that are very for lack of a better term. They’ve got
\na high mileage on their bodies, so to speak. They’ve been they’ve played a sport
\nat a higher level, like they’ve been a professional athlete, but they’re amateur athletes. But they haven’t been
\ntrained in the physical realm as much. Talk about maybe
\nwhat did you see working with those younger athletes as far as what were some gaps that
\nyou saw? What were some things you had to address or maybe build up in those athletes and what
\nwere some challenges? I can really resonate with what you talked
\nabout there as far as the disconnect between the athletes sporting ability and
\nthe training that is done on the field versus their their athletic development. And it’s something that we see
\nand that I saw I saw during this time as well throughout our entire sport network
\nin Australia. And it makes sense. You know, athletes should get picked for their sport
\npredominantly on their skill ability in that sport. But quite often what that means is they’ve developed those
\ntalents and life skills really, really well. But they haven’t necessarily been exposed to the athletic
\npreparation, the athletic development that we know really underpins does athletes to help with longevity
\nof career and performance. And so that was something that very, very
\nclearly was was obvious in Australian rules football in the field that I
\ndo sport that I was working with. And that time, because like a lot of sports in Australia,
\nnot particularly well resourced at the junior level. So they’ll have a sport head coach that
\ndoes the technical coaching and might even have, you know, two or three technical coaches, but very limited resources
\non the athletic preparation side of things. So even at a state level where these players were
\ncoming into work in a state program, which we didn’t we’d like to think is a fairly
\nhigh quality program. A lot of these athletes hadn’t even seen the inside of a gym before, let
\nalone, you know, been shown how to to run correctly or how to change direction and things
\nlike that. So for me, work walking into the sport, like I said, it was a clean slate and a new opportunity.
\nMy real mission in the first kind of year and a half or nearly two years was to
\ntry and make sure that I made better movies. I knew I wasn’t necessarily going to have a lot of time with the athletes
\nin the white room to try and work on on the strength or power. So I wanted to make
\nsure that these these young men had a really good opportunity of at least moving as well
\nas possible to help themselves perform better on the field and limit that risk of injury.
\nHow did you handle athletes who didn’t want to train Tuthill? That being look, you
\nknow, in that particular example of Australian Rules football, I was blessed. Everyone
\nwanted to be there. Oh, good. It was an amazing age group and a really fun time for me. And it’s
\nbecause they all knew it could lend lead to something bigger. You know, these these players,
\nthese boys had worked really hard to get into that state academy program. But it was not the end point.
\nThe end point was getting a professional career in the AFL. So the job’s only half done. And,
\nyou know, they worked really hard on me. I can hand on heart, say, however, that’s not always been my experience working
\nwith adolescent athletes. And my time in Aspire particularly was
\nwas quite a challenge, especially early on. There was a big culture gap between what I
\nwas used to in Australia. wakana. You know, you work hard and you train hard, you sport, you’re gonna get better. And
\nthat could lead to a better way of life where a lot of the athletes, they weren’t really that interested in
\nsport. You know, they kind of did it because I was at a sport academy, but it wasn’t something that
\nreally was driving them towards, you know, perhaps a better opportunity down the line.
\nLuckily, thankfully, through our time there, there was a number of boys that kind of
\ncame along, all the boys set for the start to believe in
\nthat message, I guess. And even if it didn’t necessarily mean it was going to be a better way of life for them, it was
\nFrosties all all about maximizing what you could do as a person, maximizing your potential.
\nAnd if that meant you went on to bigger and better things, fantastic. If it didn’t, at least you’d, you know, made sure you did
\nthe most with what you had. And they bought into that. And then they became our biggest culture drivers.
\nAnd that’s where we start to have some success with the junior athletes coming through. And I find it interesting that
\nsometimes when you got a lot of resources that can be taken for granted
\nand they don’t you know, kids today don’t realise, you know, how many, how many, whether it’s
\nit’s a weight room or a nutritionist, you know, especially in a college system, just how good they really have
\nit. And I think you sometimes you see with with whether
\nit’s a. An organization, they don’t have the resources. There’s a. Would you call it. There’s
\na deprivation and the motivation is a little stronger because they
\nwant it. And they don’t have as much there. And so it’s always interesting to me that sometimes you can give an athlete
\ntoo much. You know that we can see that in the US with with entitlement and no entitlements
\nbeing a hot topic here in the U.S. over the past few years with our athletes and kids and just
\njust trying to teach kids. I mean, you’ve got to you’ve got to earn everything that it’s given
\nto you. It’s not just going to be handed over. You got to work your tail off. You’ve got to sacrifice and pay the
\nprice. And so I’m sure that was a good, good, good experience currently.
\nLet’s talk a little more current now with beach volleyball. You’re
\nthe physical preparation, but you also handle sports science. So sports science
\nin here in the U.S. is definitely something that’s come on as of late.
\nAnd that’s kind of what this podcast is about, just interviewing and having conversations around
\nthe different roles that you’re seeing, the new roles popping up in performance.
\nOne of them is this sport science. A lot of universe is called applied sport science.
\nTalk a little bit about your role of the SNC coach, but you also you do some
\nsports science. You kind of do both talk about your multiple hats and kind of how do you make that work in your
\nrole? Yeah. And look, it’s a real legacy, I guess, of what we’re talking about
\nearlier of not necessarily every sport is as well resourced enough to have one person
\nto do all these separate jobs. And so within in beach volleyball,
\nif we want to do kind of any sports science work or at least integrate into our program, a lot of that
\nfalls on my shoulders. Now, with that in mind, I don’t sit here and claim to be an expert
\nacross all of the sports science disciplines because it’s it’s really wide ranging. And I’m lucky enough to
\nhave access to some some Low-Cost Sport scientists at the South Australian
\nSports Institute who I can draw upon for specific knowledge. So where I guess my role really sits
\nwith that is coordinating between the coaches and therefore the athletes
\nand the sport types, sports scientists on what kind of projects we want to run. So, for example,
\nthat might be looking at our conditioning and working out whether we need to use
\nheat, external heat as something to try and maximize
\nour adaptations during training sessions. We’re also lucky enough to have an attitude chamber
\nat SASE sorry in South Australian Sports Institute. And so sometimes
\nwe we look at using that as well, monitoring our athletes, hydration,
\nhaving our nutritionist onboard all of these different, I guess, subbranches of sport
\nscience where I’m more acting, I guess almost as as
\na head of sport science and coordinating those projects and using the specific experts
\nin their respective disciplines. That’s pretty I know
\nhere in the U.S., you know, some some of your bigger schools have more individual roles they can play. But
\nthen there’s a lot of schools out there. You’re seeing the day the SNC coach or the nutritionists or the
\nor the athletic trainer here, you guys call it a physio, but athletic trainer maybe is doing they’re wearing
\nthose same hats in fulfilling a lot of roles just because the resources,
\nthe backing is in there. And so it’s intriguing to me to hear, you know, that
\nyou’re kind of doing that kind of similar role, even though you’ve got a great team around you thinking
\nabout just hearing you talk just now. What has just from
\nyour experience so far, what has been some of the key
\nelements of what makes sure performance team work really well together? Yeah, I think
\nthe largest one for that is communication. It’s all well and good to have amazing
\nexperts in different disciplines. But if you’re sitting in your silos and never really talking,
\nthen it’s not benefiting. The one reason we all kind of exist, which is to improve performance
\nin the athlete in front of us or the team, the greater team. And so for
\nus, that’s a large driver. You know, we have what we call an athlete centered model when
\nthe athlete is who we’re trying to improve performance in. And if they play in a greater team, then that’s
\nobviously going to expand to include their role within the team. But then
\nthe coach, who is obviously the most connected to to the athletes, has that that closest
\nkind of input. And then the performance team sits around that. And that includes myself as
\nwell as strengthen Haitian coaching and the head of physical preparation. But then
\nwe also have our dietitian and our physiotherapist or athletic trainer, as you mentioned. And
\nthose those are the kind of nation vigils. And if we want to make sure that we’re
\nmaximizing the performance gains from any of those interventions, that needs to be in an integrated approach. And that’s
\nwhat I really see the opportunity for. Maybe lower budgeted schools or programs
\nwhere they don’t necessarily have all those individuals is if you’ve got one person
\nkind of delivering in a number of different areas or a variety of areas, you might lose a small
\namount in the real specific technical knowledge that goes along with the
\ntime having spent work in a specific discipline. But what you gain back from understanding
\nhow it integrates a number of different disciplines into overall performances is priceless,
\nin my opinion. Yeah, I think the best
\nthing you know, that we ran into and we see is just.
\nHow frequently I mean, what’s kind of the what works well for you, how frequently do you guys meet?
\nWhat’s forms of communication you use? You talk about the integrated approach. How does that
\nlike on a day to day, week to week, month to month? Kind of what are some give a
\nlittle bit more kind of look under the hood. What does that look like for you guys? Little bit. Yeah, sure. So I guess the
\nthe obvious starting point for that is we have our weekly performance team meeting and we meet every Wednesday
\nat lunchtime to sit down as a large group and discuss
\nany kind of relevant or pertinent question to specific athletes. And we’ll go through and discuss
\neach athlete on their on our squad, everything from current injuries to projects that we
\nmight be trying to work on, our two performance goals that we’re trying to reach some athletes.
\nThat could be a very quick conversation if things are just. Yeah, well, you know, we’re in the middle of a cycle and we’re we’re taking that
\noffer. Others if we’re we’re working on something heavier, we might spend a bit more time on. But
\nthen, you know, I’ll be talking obviously with my coaches daily. You know, I
\nsit in the same offices as my sport coaches. So we’ve got a real clear focus on on what
\nwe’re trying to work on each performance block and end each day within that block. Really,
\nI’ll meet with the physiotherapist normally a couple of times a week. And if we’ve got a specific
\nperson that might be in a real acute stage rehab. Yeah, we might talk every
\nday. Yeah, not necessarily face to face. That’s where things like email or we just
\neven used like a WhatsApp group to quickly share information.
\nHmm. Mr. No. Yeah, I think you know, just to reiterate, you’re definitely the communication
\npiece is key. And depending on the topic or the issue,
\nfrequency may increase or decrease depending on what cycle you’re in or depending on the issue at hand.
\nSo definitely, definitely something we’ve been doing that too. We’ve been having a lot of within our own
\ndifferent sports and teams having more performance team meetings, which has been very helpful. So I’m
\nglad to hear that it’s similar approach there. So the other thing I’d
\nlove to just touch on here in our conversation, so you have a p_h_d_ approach to call
\nyou Dr. Behere. The doctor is in. I can only you know this from
\ncolleagues and friends. I know that giving your piece D I’m assuming was very taxing.
\nAnd definitely and heard it almost takes the life out of your life. That’s true or not.
\nYeah, I feel lucky to be here speaking to you today after surviving a peace day, that’s for sure. We’ll call
\nit. Well, I feel honored that we have a doctor in the studio today. So talk.
\nJust give us a quick little overview of the research you did and maybe some of the highlights
\nof the findings that you got from some of your research. Sure. So I started my p._h._d.
\nTowards the end of my time at Aspire. And I guess one of the good things about Aspire was
\nour athlete numbers weren’t too high. We had a really good coach athlete ratio. So
\nyou had time to think about your craft and why you were doing what you’re doing. A part of the challenge
\nthat I see in the Australian system and I don’t know what it’s like in the US system as you get so busy
\ndelivering SNC services or whatever you want to call it. Similar to that,
\nyou don’t actually necessarily get time to sit back and think about, you know, the why you’re delivering it and
\nhow you might do it better or a different way of doing it. That’s very true. So, you
\nknow, I was really lucky to have that at aspire to have that time. And a big part for me, kind
\nof as I was going through it was looking at these training programs that I was writing for the athletes
\nand really wanting to gain a better understanding of what was happening, not at, I
\nguess, a smaller physiology level, but at that kind of level. That really interested me as
\nan S and C coach, which I called the neuromuscular performance level. So, you know, if we’re riding
\na strength training program, we know that has some IT fatigue that’s associated with it both acutely
\nand perhaps a bit longer than that. So I want to try and have a look at neuromuscular tests, common
\ntests that we’d use like a countermovement jump, a drop jump and isometric IT dipole 20 meter sprint
\nto assess what the impact of such as training session was like and then
\nto to track its recovery and to look at that at different times in the year, because, again, we know that
\nspecific training stimulus is going to affect an athlete based on what they’ve done previously.
\nSo if we’ve got an athlete walking in for the first session after they’ve had a break, they’re going to react
\nto that session a lot differently for six, eight weeks down the track when we’ve got some quality kind
\nof lifting under the belt. So that was really, I guess, the premise for
\nme. So I conducted a fairly large study in a spy looking at that, an adolescent
\nathletes, which was to the athlete group I was really interested in at the time. And that
\nspanned across kind of a 17 week period where I looked at their response to a fatiguing
\nstrength training session. My goal had been to repeat that and look
\nat what the response was to a fatiguing power type of session.
\nHowever, that was around about the time in 2011 when I decided it was time to move back home to Australia. So I had
\nto kind of tweak and massaged my p_h_d_ p_h_d_ topic a little bit
\nwith leaving those adolescent athletes and coming back to Australia and not necessarily having the same
\naccess to equipment and athletes the way that I did. So the second
\nhalf my p_h_d_, I looked at a similar thing, kind of using a smaller, more condensed
\ntesting battery and really focusing around the countermovement jump, which has become a large passion of mine, especially
\nhaving worked in in beach volleyball and just the things that we can tease out from
\nlike a body weight. Can a movement jump in a loaded countermove and jump where we take some additional external
\nload and different things that that might tell us in assessing performance, but also assessing
\nyour muscular readiness? What are some of the things from the kind of movie jump that you guys are looking at?
\nSo look, I threw the net really wide when I was investigating variables. It was a
\nwe did our testing on false plates. And I think I analysed over 35 variables
\nto have to try and tease out what was actually telling me something important to begin, what was a
\nreliable and valid measure and then what was what made sense
\nfrom an applied perspective for an S.A.C. coach to look at moving forward. And some
\nof the simplest things really were the best, you know, depending on how you cue your athlete and the instructions
\nthat you’ve given before they perform their tests. See, that’s what I thought. Cueing is just so different, right. It really can’t change
\nit. So if you know. Q an athlete to jump as high as possible versus an athlete to to jump
\nas quickly or as powerful as possible in countermovement, you can greatly skew the outcome in either
\nheight or peak power, relative peak power, depending on how you queue.
\nAnd I say that because I mean everybody cues a little differently. I think in Cannes it can have
\nan impact on the results in in today. You know, in the US, which is
\nevery other day, there’s some kind of technology coming out and that’s got these broad
\nclaims or whatnot. So that’s good to hear you say that. Did you? You’ve firmed
\nwhat I believe. So. Thank you. Cool. So not only being
\na doctor, you’re also a presenter. You you you teach courses.
\nFor the HSCA and. How did you get into that being?
\nSo once I move back from the Middle East back to Australia and started
\nwork back at the South Australian Sports Institute, I was acutely aware of the ISCI.
\nThey’d been how I’d gotten into strength and conditioning. I guess it was the national
\nbody. So I had to seek accreditation through them. But then that’s
\nwhere I did my my level one s and say my level to us and say through. And so I felt,
\nyou know, a lot of responsibility and a lot of gratitude towards the organisation for
\ngetting me so far along my journey. It was something that definitely felt like I I wanted to give back to.
\nSo coming back to South Australia, I was contacted by the ISCI who
\nsaid they’re on the lookout for some presenters to help deliver their courses in Adelaide.
\nAsked if I’d be interested and I jumped at the opportunity. I wanted to learn very quickly about myself.
\nIs the similarities in the parallels between presenting or teaching
\nat a course like that is so similar to coaching? It’s all about, you
\nknow, in taking knowledge that you have and instilling it into another person, whether that
\nbe an athlete or a developing as an S.A.T. coach and essentially helping them grow in an area
\nthat you feel you can add value in their life. So for me, it was it was almost
\na no brainer. I’d love it. You know, I’ve been doing it now since 2012, I think was my first
\ncourse. And the last year and a half,
\nI’ve actually been the state coordinator for the ISCI. So I coordinate the courses
\nand and present at some of them in Adelaide when my schedule allows me. And
\nI absolutely love it. For me, it’s all part of giving back to the organisation
\nand developing, helping to mentor those up and coming in and see coaches that are coming through,
\nhopefully trying to help them not make the same mistakes that I made along the way. Exactly. That was the key. There’s
\nplenty of ice. And yet, you know, I am really keen to keep on
\ndoing that. I love it. I get just as much out of doing that as I do coaching. I thought, no, I
\ndefinitely share your passion. As far as you know, I’ve been coaching for a while
\nnow. And I think one of the most I feel like one of the most rewarding and significant
\nthings for me as a coach now is just trying to help younger coaches grow
\nand learn. I think you nailed it on the head. Try to
\ntake the mistakes and the failures, flops, fumbles we’ve had and maybe help them navigate
\nsome of that. You know, today really. I mean, there’s so much education. Definitely an American, I’m
\nsure Australia online as well that, you know, a lot of nose coaches
\na day. They’ve got a lot of book knowledge coming up, but they don’t have always that practical experience
\nthat they need. And so I think that’s that’s a critical piece. And I’m sure sounds like your presentation.
\nYou some of that’s got to be hands on w accurate. Definitely. You know, for me
\nand it’s a message I it’s still almost in the first half now when I present a level one S.A.C.
\ncoaching course back in Australia. It’s it’s fantastic to have all the knowledge in the world. If you can’t impart
\nthat knowledge to an athlete to help them grow and get better, then it’s almost as.
\nAs the same as a book sitting on the shelf that hasn’t been picked up and read. And so
\nI really encourage challenge even might be a stronger, more appropriate word.
\nThose coaches that, you know, might not necessarily be lucky enough to be able to apply
\ntheir craft as an S.A.C. coach when they’re starting out. But to get out and coach something,
\nthere’s always, you know, an unwritten soccer team that’s looking for a for a coach or whatever your sport
\nof interest may be. And coaching skills, in my my opinion, are transferable. So if you start
\nlearning early, all the skills that that go along with coaching, all the soft skills which
\nare crucial and critical to our success as a necessary coach, then,
\nyou know, I think you can be a much stronger SASE coach down the line. Yeah, I agree. I agree.
\nLet’s talk a little bit now. A little bit of, I think, our heartbeat similar. I love
\nvolleyball. I’ll work with the volleyball team here, Texas and our head coach, Jared Elliot.
\nHe’s our head coach and we’ll train in the sand so we’ll have a sand by ball team. But you work with
\nthe volleyball team and I work with volleyball players.
\nWhat are you guys currently doing? Do do your your athletes
\nlift? Some do. I mean, what are you doing to get them ready for Tokyo?
\nWhat’s the schedule look like? A weekly schedule? What kind of current Blocher you. Maybe talk a little bit about
\nwhat do you do to develop your athletes to get them ready for the next stage? Yeah, sure. So
\nbeach volleyball in Australia has got a fairly strong history and culture
\nof physical preparation, which for me was fantastic cause I didn’t have to to walk in
\nand try and build that and they wanted to be strong. The Australian beach volleyball
\ngames specifically wanted to be a real strengthen and power game and we were gonna be stronger
\nand faster and faster than the competition until the last point. That was part of our
\nour goal. The challenge that we have in beach volleyball is that the international season is
\nso long. You know, games can international games can start in January and run all the way through
\nto November. So with with that in mind, we have to be very selective and
\nvery smart about how we go about our physical preparation, because you could almost say we’re in season for 11
\nmonths of the year. Now, with that in mind, with now our national program,
\nwe’ve got teams at a different levels. You know, we’ve got our world’s number one team who are vying for
\na medal at Olympics. We’re going there to win gold at Tokyo. That’s our mission. And we don’t shy away from
\nthat. We were lucky enough to win a bronze at the world champs last year. We’d
\nhad a world ranking at the best in 2009 of number two in the world. So
\nwe feel like it’s real. It’s a realistic goal. But then we’ve got some
\nwhat we call probably developing athletes who, you know, we’d like to qualify for Tokyo.
\nThat would be great. But we’re also then looking at them for really peaking in 2024 and
\nin Paris. So with that in mind, like the programs can look quite different
\nthis stage of the year for us. We’ve just come back after a couple of weeks off at Christmas.
\nAnd I really call this kind of my second bite at pre-season. So leading into Christmas,
\nwe had depending on the team and the athlete somewhere probably between about six to eight weeks of pre-season,
\nwhich was a really strong focus on conditioning lifting,
\non sand conditioning as well to work on our metabolic systems, but a really big
\nfocus on our strength and power because we don’t get to lift as much during the season as potential. We
\nlike we notice especially. Yeah, I think to drop off the windows shrinks.
\nYeah. And Tokyo’s coming earlier in the year than
\nwhat our spitz our normal competition calendar looks like. So we have to kind of
\nsqueeze everything in earlier in the year. So when I get back to Australia, we’ll probably finishing
\noff what I’d call the tail end of all our pre-season or our preparation period,
\nalthough already there’s been a large shift towards more time on the sand and less time in the gym.
\nAnd we’ll start probably from kind of mid late Fab. moving into our competitive
\nseason where it’s really trying to juggle the demands of preparing for competition
\nin the sport with with maximizing any gains in athletic performance that we can get. What’s a typical
\nsession in the weight room looked like for you guys? Is it how long? What kind of exercises? How
\nmany days a week? Yeah. So if we’re talking preseason, I mean, I typically have them in there about 60
\nto 75 minutes. I guess it depends. Change a little bit depending on how fast the athletes
\nmove. Some a little bit although there may be is slow.
\nYeah. We try and aim to to get them in and out within 75 minutes. Otherwise you know the
\nathlete starts switching off and we just don’t get the returns on on what we’re looking for. So we’ll start off with a
\npretty specific warmup, which is really just targeter around where I get in any of that in
\ntypical injury prevention work. I want to do to look after those hot spots for beach volleyball shoulders, lower
\nback hips, making sure that they’re getting a little bit of love and but they
\nalso getting fired up, ready for the bigger, bigger lifts that are coming. And then for me, it’s a real focus
\nand lower body strength and power. You know, we need to get a jump high. We need to be at a jump high a lot.
\nAnd we need to be at a cover. Right. Made us super fast in the sand and repeated again and again exactly
\nhow long. I mean, ours well, you know, a match typically won’t last much
\nlonger than 60 minutes if it’s a long match. But we might need to do three and a day
\na lot. Oh, yeah, three and a day. You know, eight. If we make it all the way to the gold medal match,
\nwhich we we like to do, then we might play in a tournament which is cross
\nthree to four days. But the challenge with that is, you know, we might be playing in
\nin 35 to 40 degree Celsius temps. So you know we’re talking 100 Fahrenheit. Yeah.
\nSo not only are you running for that that many they’re long for that many matches.
\nIt’s very hot. Exactly. And we want to make sure that we’re as close
\nto 100 percent on that last point to win the gold medal match as we were on the first. You don’t want
\ndrop offs. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I know. Beach volleyball. I it’s definitely it’s taken off big here in America.
\nSo it’s a sport that’s getting a lot of popularity and continues to indoor
\nas well. So you’re working with a great sport. Let’s talk a little bit
\nhere. Let’s talk a little bit about professional development.
\nSo I’m curious on this. When you have your doctorate, you’ve you
\nworked at all these great places. I mean, do you need to keep learning? I mean, what do you do
\nbeing what do you do to kind of continue to grow and develop yourself or do some things you books, you read courses.
\nIs it what are you up to with some of that? Yeah. Well, for me, you know, it’s it might
\nbe a bit of a clich\u00e9, but I figured the time I I stopped learning or wanting to learn in this profession, it’s time
\nfor me to hang up the coaching boots. Because you’re probably just about done.
\nBut I think, you know, any time I sit down and get the chance to talk shop or watch
\nanother coach, coach, there’s always something that you can learn. You know, there’s no two people in the world that go
\nabout this exactly the same way. And that’s what I love about our profession. You know, every time
\nI see even a new S.A.C. coach, you might be learning their craft.
\nI still try and take the opportunity to to watch how they’re going about it. And there might be something that I can pick up that they’re
\ndoing that could affect my coaching. Obviously, option is, you
\nknow, the longer that you’ve been working in the field in the industry, probably become less to pick
\nup new things. But like I talked about earlier in the podcast, even something that reinforces
\nthe way that you go about something is still a good learning opportunity. In my opinion, and
\nif you’re getting a lot of those and maybe, you know, one or two things that start to challenge you on why you’re
\ndoing things the way that you do. If it causes you to do nothing more than go back and review
\nyour practices and go, yeah, I think I’m still spot on. Actually, maybe I need to
\nto take a deeper look at that then that’s a growth and a learning opportunity and that can happen anyway.
\nI’m thankful and glad to hear you say that, that that’s the one thing I think about
\nthis profession that this is coming up on my 25th year is a strength coach
\nand sometimes times being I feel like I’m just getting started because it’s changing so rapidly
\nand there’s so much out there and so many great individuals that are great at what they do. Like yourself that you
\nget to meet and learn from. And I think I enjoy not just the journey,
\nbut I think the whole process of just mastery. I think that’s something that
\nI know is a passion of mine. Just continue to learn and grow and just find a new ways
\nto get better, even if it’s incremental. I think that’s that’s something that kind of like gets me excited.
\nThere’s a saying I heard years ago, but it goes like this. It’s you’re there green
\nand growing or you’re ripe and rotten. And I know it’s a little maybe cliche
\na little bit, but I think that, you know, that you want to be green, keep, grow and keep
\nfinding ways to stretch yourself and open your mind and learn new new methodologies, meet new people.
\nAnd I think that’s something that keeps the passion alive. It keeps the flame burning for me, and it sounds like it
\ndoes for you. We’re kind of getting close to the end of the show today. And it’s it’s been a great conversation
\nas we go out. What would be some advice that you would give
\nsome younger coaches out there, whether it’s overseas or here
\nin America, just getting started? What would be some what would be some key advice is they’re going to
\nget started, maybe they’re discouraged or is that is that what they thought would be or it’s harder than they thought? What
\nwould you say to him being. Look, I think that’s really apt. And my biggest piece of advice
\nfor coaches that I speak to that is struggling with that is to remember why you got
\ninto it. Remember the passion for what you feel for what you’re doing. And if that passion still there
\nand still burning, then then keep plugging away because your chance will come.
\nYou know, we talk that there’s not always a lot of opportunities out there. But for those people that
\nthat keep showing up and really keep working at it, like getting in good in life, I think those good things
\ncome to those people that work at it. So I really encourage any kind of SNC coach that’s
\nnow perhaps battling with with feeling like it’s not quite happening for them or it hasn’t happened
\nyet. To stick with it. But coupled with that, I’d say
\nis really try and attach yourself or reach out to someone that you think
\nwould be a good mentor because you need some support in doing that. You know, I can’t. It’s not always easy
\nto pick yourself up and dust yourself off and, you know, apply for that that next job that that
\nmight be out there and and have your name on it. So that’s where I think the importance of having a good mentor
\nthat can really help you work on the areas that you need to try and develop into to win those positions. And just
\njust give you that pat on the back, occasionally let you know that you’re doing a good job. So
\nthat would be one large area that I’d I’d look at. And then the second area, I’d I’d try and really challenge
\nany kind of up and coming on us and say, coach, is to not think in black
\nand white in our industry. You know, I think it’s probably one of the the larger
\nthings that’s probably had a bit of a negative effect on the SASE industry over the
\nlast 10 years is that we’ve really had this kind of influx of information and opportunity
\nthat you’ve talked about, which is an a marvelous thing. But I’ve see a lot of judgment attached to those things
\nin a black and white. It can only be right or it can only be wrong. And we know in working with the human body that
\nthat’s not always the way. There’s a large scale of gray in between. And it’s almost something I think that we need to embrace
\nas S.A.C. coaches and go, you know, this is gonna work. 90 percent of the time. And this is my philosophy
\nthat underpins how I’m gonna go about my business, but I need to better adapt and massage that to
\nthe person. The living organism in front of me to make sure that I maximize it and get the most
\nout of it. Yeah. So you made me think there was a movie. Kind of
\na big movie called Star Wars. I’m sure you’ve heard of that one. Laughs I’m a little bit of a junkie
\non Star Wars. And there’s a saying that about the Sith Lords, which are the dark
\nevil lords in the movie, like Darth Vader was a Sith. And there’s a saying
\nthat the jet I have about Sith Lords, I don’t know if you’ve heard it, but they say only Sith
\nthink in absolutes. And it kind of goes back to what you say is if you
\nonly think black or white. There’s only one way to do things, then kind of missing the mark.
\nAnd I think that’s so true today. The more I do this, the more I realize, because as a young coach,
\nI always thought there was only this is the right way to do it. But I just didn’t know. I didn’t know. I had no idea
\nthat I was off a little bit. And so I think as I get older and the more I learn,
\nthe more I realize, man, there’s so many different ways to approach this profession
\nand athletes and to be successful. So, yeah, I appreciate you sharing that with the with the younger coaches.
\nI mean, if anybody wants to connect, we chat after they hear this episode, where can they find
\nmore information and connect with you would be the best way to do that. Show her the best way to reach me
\nwould be through Twitter, which is just at Ben Underscore. Hines underscore.
\nUnfortunately, Google will probably find other ways of contacting me as well. You know,
\nthe world kind of is connected. It’s all like that. But Twitter is the best place to reach out to me. Awesome. Well,
\nBen, it’s been a pleasure. And as we go from the show, you being from down under, you’ve got to give us a little
\ngives a little sign off in Australia. I don’t know. How would you say goodbye in Australia? What would you say? Oh,
\nyou know, I’d try to say a big cheerio to all that is out there. Thanks for having me on diary.
\nWe really appreciate it. And we hope to see you down on dissent. I know. I loved it over there. It’s been an absolute
\npleasure. Just have you in the studio today on the show. So thank you for your time, expertise, knowledge
\nand most importantly, your passion for what you do. I hope that everybody can hear that through the through the mike.
\nSo it’s been a pleasure. Thank you. You’re welcome. And this is Daddy made the team behind the team
\npodcast. We’re signing off. We’ll catch on the next episode. See you then.
\nThanks so much for tuning in and listening to this episode. The Teen Behind the Teen Podcast
\nfor future episodes go to i-Tunes Spotify, Google Podcast or
\nStitcher. We definitely want to keep having great guests on the show and great content.
\nSo if you have a moment, please go to i-Tunes, leave a rating and review and let us know how we’re
\ndoing. I’m Donny, mate, and thanks so much for tuning in.<\/p>\n"},"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/the-team-behind-the-team\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2020\/03\/Team_Behind_Team_1400.jpg","download_link":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/the-team-behind-the-team\/podcast-download\/14\/e5-ben-haines-strength-conditioning.mp3","player_link":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/the-team-behind-the-team\/podcast-player\/14\/e5-ben-haines-strength-conditioning.mp3","audio_player":"