For the inaugural episode of the Team Behind The Team, we sit down with renowned coach and author, Cal Dietz. Cal sheds light on what he\u2019s been working on, the shift in his competiveness, and a variety of training topics. He discusses the importance of fluid periodization, his views on core bracing, squat depth, and unilateral training, what makes interns successful, communication and culture within a team, and much more!<\/p>\n
Cal Dietz serves as the Associate Director of Athletic Performance at the University of Minnesota, where he has coached many championship teams over the last twenty years. He is the author of Triphasic Training, co-founder of the Reflexive Performance Reset system, and continues to travel the country speaking on sport performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the inaugural episode of the Team Behind The Team, we sit down with renowned coach and author, Cal Dietz. Cal sheds light on what he\u2019s been working on, the shift in his competiveness, and a variety of training topics. He discusses the importance of fluid periodization, his views on core bracing, squat depth, and […]","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.-1-2.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"86.36M","filesize_raw":"90557787","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":""},"tags":[3,7,6,4,5],"series":[2],"class_list":{"0":"post-6","1":"podcast","2":"type-podcast","3":"status-publish","5":"tag-athletics","6":"tag-coaching","7":"tag-conditioning","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-strength","10":"series-the-team-behind-the-team","11":"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":77,"post_author":"38","post_date":"2020-07-07 17:24:45","post_date_gmt":"2020-07-07 17:24:45","post_content":"\n
Cal Dietz serves as the Associate Director of Athletic Performance at the University of Minnesota, where he has coached many championship teams over the last twenty years. He is the author of Triphasic Training<\/em>, co-founder of the Reflexive Performance Reset system, and continues to travel the country speaking on sport performance.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Cal Dietz","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"cal-dietz","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-11-04 17:41:44","post_modified_gmt":"2020-11-04 22:41:44","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/the-team-behind-the-team\/?post_type=speaker&p=77","menu_order":0,"post_type":"speaker","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"transcript":" Welcome to the Teen Behind the Teen podcast. I’m your host, Donny May. This is the monthly
\nshow focused on building conversations around the teen based model approach to ethnic performance
\nstrength, conditioning, sports medicine, sports science, mental health and wellness and
\nsports nutrition. As championships are won, records are broken and physical
\nlimits are pushed. Coaches and athletes alike are searching for an edge. Oftentimes,
\nthe margin between winning and losing is a 1 percent difference in today’s high performing
\nsports culture. You will find a team behind the team that not only supported but sustained
\nan individual’s team’s success. The best athletic performance teams today
\ndon’t necessarily compete against each other. They complete each other. They have really good synergy.
\nThe goal for the podcast will be to provide relevant content and real conversations for the
\nvarious types of practitioners and professionals working with athletes today. It is our
\naim to help educate, equip and empower you to win not only on the field, but also
\nwithin your own performance team. When the team behind the team wins, everyone wins.
\nHello, everybody, and welcome back to the team behind the team podcast. I’m
\nyour host, Donny mayb-, and we are so excited about our next guest
\nthat we’re having in the studio. Coach Cal Dietz is here in the studio.
\nWe also have with us Coach Mike Hansen, who’s going to be my co-host today as we get into
\nthe conversation. Carl fallowed everybody today. Hey there, coach. How you doing? Good
\nto be here with you guys. Thanks for having me. It’s really awesome to be down here in Longhorn Country.
\nGood to have you here. Coach, I’m sure it’s a little warmer than it is in Minnesota. It was 20
\nbelow with the wind chill this morning. Really? Yeah, it was tough, right? Five
\ndegrees, about five degrees below. Okay. Good to have you. Maybe a little warm weather for
\nfor for a few days helping. Hopefully enjoy that. I will. And coach Mike Hansen, the co-host today.
\nMike, welcome to the show. Yes, sir. Happy to be here. I appreciate you making time. Before
\nwe get Hindery thing, a little bit about the podcast for. For all the new listeners
\nthat coming on board, this is really a podcast that’s directed
\ntowards the five buckets or streams of the performance
\nteam that surrounds athletes today. Everything’s been moving towards this kind of team based performance model.
\nAnd so we’re talking about strength, conditioning, sports, nutrition, athletic training,
\nmental health, and then applied sports science, which is fairly new here in the U.S. So
\nthat’s subjective. How do those groups work together, communicate the systems,
\nhow they make the athlete better, take better care of them, provide better services, and ultimately just
\nraise a performance and win more championships? So it’s all about the team behind the team. That’s objective. So
\nwith that, Coach Hansen wants you introduced. I know he doesn’t really need the introduction. I think so many people don’t
\ngive a little bit about our guest today and we’ll get it going from there. Yeah. The man who probably
\ndoesn’t need an introduction, but for those of those lists knows he listeners who are unfamiliar with Cal.
\nHe’s the associate director of performance at Minnesota, coaching primarily with men and women’s hockey.
\nHe’s the newly head strength and conditioning coach with USA Women’s Hockey Insulations coach. Thanks.
\nAnd he’s also the author of Chart Basic Training amongst many other manuals.
\nSo we extend a big welcome to Cal. Cal, can you kick us off by introducing yourself to our
\nlisteners, possibly speaking about how you got to where you are today,
\nas well as some of the other ventures that you’ve taken on? Yeah, you know, I I guess
\npeople ask me, you know, how I got in the field, really. It was, I think through just
\nhard work. And coaches knew I was interested in training because when coach made it here and I
\nstarted in, the profession was young. Right. And I was a G-A
\nwhen I started. But it was a coach that had recruited me. And he said,
\nhey, coach Minnesota called me. This guy was in another school and said, hey, I know a guy is really interested
\nin spring training at the end of his college career. So I went on to Minnesota, interviewed. I didn’t really know a whole lot.
\nLet’s be honest, I trained, but that was it. And then through hard work,
\nI did the G-A, I think. And then I did the G-A left for a year
\nand then came back. And honestly, there was a number of people interviewing for the job. And there had been G-8’s
\nbefore. But one of the coaches told me, you know what, during your G-A, you were there. And it was it
\nwas a hard situation. Right. I mean, I went to class every night from 6:30 to 9,
\nwas up at 5:00 in the morning or 4:30 grind. And, you know, every day. And this is only time I
\ncould take classes, basically. So you were the only one that didn’t complain? I think
\nthat maybe that’s where they hired me 20 years ago when I went back for the interview, asking for more.
\nAll right. The only one who didn’t complain about the situation, the money the whole day, I just was I got
\nnothing we could do about it. So let’s just keep rolling, right. So I learned to, you know, eat those
\nthose sandwiches the day the taste great, you know, crap sandwiches. All right. And
\nit’s really, you know, some taste worse than others. But even my job, you know, every job has that, whether
\nyou love your job or not. There’s always those things you don’t want to do. Right. So the meal replacement shakes for what I went
\nway right. When I was G-A. Yeah, it was. They had I think it assessed
\ncall that people drink at the time that was only ready to mate. And I think
\nthey probably I don’t have much money to eat. So I think I left I walked in my G-A
\nout of my playing days at like 3:10 and I ended up at 240 because it’s so bad. Well, I just
\ndidn’t have that much. You know, I lost weight. And I could remember a few days most of time
\nwhen I was worrying. Football is just one meal a day that I had and I tried to get some more, but then I lived.
\nAnd then how about those? There were some bars. It was the power bars. I mean, there’s so much about those things and they’re terrible.
\nWell, there’s so much better now. Right. I think I’ll do it right. The first ones that were
\nhard and chewy like. Right. Oh, how coach got rocks and gravel. Yeah. Well back in the. And I had to.
\nThey were effective. But going in there hurt your jaw. Then really go.
\nI mean I needed some five or something. Right. It was it was a tough deal that. But anyway,
\nso. And I love the profession. And I always had a quest
\nto get better. I think even just about a month and a half ago, I had a day where I read something.
\nWe don’t have much going on. It was a game day, but I got in at 6:30. I read something
\nand I started down a rabbit hole. And I realized by 5:30 that night,
\nfour had warned the team I had need anything because I went down a rabbit hole for about 10 hours.
\nAnd you forgot the day. I don’t even know if I went to the restroom. Mm hmm. And that that’s those are the days
\nthat keep me. That’s what I love about this profession. And the beauty of it is it’s not something that’s
\njust one isolated group like these silos. You talk of coach
\nnutrition plays a role in everything. Nobody really knows the parts of tri aphasic.
\nI mean, you centric face. I think people can figure it out. But what nutrition do you need to recover from the
\nyouth centric phase to try to feel different? Right. Well, yeah, you need some very specific stuff like bone broth and
\nin the collagen, you know, all that stuff is it’s the ideal time to take all that to rebuild. Yeah. All right.
\nSo those are the type of things and I think we’re lucky because it is a multi-disciplined field.
\nRight. So you take all those things that are variables in this and I’m sure the
\nresearch doubles every year. Now, the amount of information you could read your price are reading now.
\nNever Ketchell. So you’re going. Yeah. That’s that’s the fun part
\nto me is that never ending quest? And what keeps me up is is
\nreally at night you’re going, Hey, Imai, given these athletes
\neverything I can, I mean I give them everything knowledge I can. But is it really enough?
\nThere’s nothing I can do because I only know what I know. Right. So my limiter here is I know what I know, but
\nthat’s scary that I’m going to miss something. Right. And hopefully I just
\ntry to keep winning. Right. That’s why I’m in here, too. You know what? What year are you in right now? Coach of
\ncoaching. Yes. Who? I think I’m in probably twenty three. Yeah.
\nYou’re twenty three. Twenty four. Yeah. What’s behind it. It goes by fast. Wow.
\nWell especially the grind that we’re in, you know, twelve, thirteen, 14, 16 hour days
\nand then we’re like, oh you know because I’ve worked factory jobs that
\nI’ve worked eight hours when I was in college, it seemed way longer than 16 hour day coaching, you know. Yeah.
\nYeah. Well said. Right. So I’m going, wow, that was fun. That was a good
\nday. And if you win. You know, I had a fortunate two to
\nmeet with some pretty league coaches and one team ask me, why do you get in the game? And I’m like, well, I’m going to walk
\ninto arena and look over to other team and say, there’s no way you can beat us today. That’s a good
\nfeeling. Right. That’s a good number. Yeah. Confidence, right. Just say,
\nhey, we’ve done everything we can. You just can’t beat us. Do you still feel as competitive
\ntoday as you did when you entered the field? I think I’m more wiser.
\nI. Yeah, I mean, there’s no doubt because, you know, I think it just maybe looks differently. Yeah. I take the losses
\na little harder. And I think I’ve got to be aware that I don’t take the wins. I don’t I don’t enjoy
\nit as much as I used to. You know, I mean. Yeah, I know you hate to lose more than you love to win. That’s the
\nadage. Right. And I think, you know, you win a national title when I was young. How about this?
\nI think I skipped six White House trips with my teams.
\nRight. I had six opportunities, I’ve won 11 national titles, it’s interesting, Minnesota and skipped
\nsix trips because I had other teams train. I’m like, I’m not going to miss Sedately or the White House. Yeah,
\nI’m going what I did. And I haven’t been I’ve never
\nbeen there. So the next one, I win. I need to go if it’s an option. Right. Because
\nyou’re young in your career. You want, man. Oh, I got more necessary. I mean, I just figured
\nout someday. But those are things. Yeah. You let go when you’re young. No, it’s definitely. I agree with
\nyou. You got as I’ve gotten older, too. Definitely. You’ve got to be careful. The winning
\ncan be, especially if you’re part of it. You’re part of an elite program like yourself and you’ve
\ngot your teams away a lot. It can become you could take it for granted, you know. And
\nI think to just. And I’m sure you can speak to this, too, Kyle. But the pressure, I feel
\nlike on coaches has increased somewhat just because of budget and finances.
\nAnd I don’t know that they’re giving people the same amount of time to turn a program around
\nthat they did maybe ten, fifteen years ago, you know. So no. And there’s all there is. I
\nfeel there’s more pressure because with social media, there’s more notoriety about the program versus one outlet.
\nAnd maybe that paper really likes the coach. So give him more time frame. Right. But now
\nsocial media and the people that can just make comments and all that. It’s a tough deal, right? And it makes
\ncoaching. So pressure, it’s more pressured. Right. Because you’re
\ngoing man with that. There’s that short timeframe. And then do do do we change our philosophies?
\nAnd I mean, Coach, I think you’ve got into this business to help people because you felt you could make an impact.
\nRight. And we do. I mean, it’s well known that coaches may make more of an impact in a young kid’s
\nlife than then maybe some of the educators not thinking thing way from then. Or maybe they’re
\ntheir religious leaders right in. Or if these kids and how many kids,
\nyou know, that didn’t have a great home, that you made an impact on their lives. Right. And for
\nme, that that that make an impact on young athletes, life has been big because
\nI guess when I was young, I didn’t appreciate it as much or didn’t understand the impact I was making. But.
\nBut now, Coach, you see, a kid I walked into a hockey arena, is one of my track athletes.
\nHe’s on the hockey board. He’s a big time business man in his community. When I saw him and
\nhe told me what he was doing and how this kid was making an impact. It’s all his kids play hockey.
\nHe also ran track some. They were old enough now, but he’s on the hockey board is the president association, which is
\nbig in Minnesota because these are big organizations. Right? It’s crazy. And he’s a business owner
\nand he and he has a coming employs like 15 people. You’re going. I was like,
\nI must say that, you know, inside I’m smiling. You like it’s kind of like, oh,
\nit’s a good cry, Joy inside. I’m not going to cry. Right. But you’re going inside me. I’m going, man.
\nThe impact that we make. And I don’t know if that takes time to make impact,
\nright? I don’t know. With the pressure of coaching nowadays, the little time
\npeople have to turn programs around. If if us
\nas coaches are being like feel like we can make that bunch of an impact because
\nthere’s so much pressure to win. That’s the hard part. You lost. Great loss.
\nAnd we don’t mean to. But it’s a it’s you wake up in the morning, you better hit the ground running
\nwith the pressure coaching. Right. Very true. Yeah, that’s the hard part.
\nAnd I don’t I hope that the kids never get lost in that. I hope that I don’t.
\nBut I’ve been in a field 20 years plus. I feel that I have some level of respect.
\nThere’s things that I that young coaches do that I don’t have to do. You know, I mean, I don’t have to sell myself anymore, really.
\nI just don’t get the notoriety and credibility. Right. Yeah. And that that’s to me, I’m not a very good
\nsalesman because I never have been. But, you know, when I was young, I did. But now, you know, you write
\nbook and people think you’re you’re OK and whatever. You just let it ride.
\nI’m always just trying to get better. There’s things that I don’t have to pay attention to. You know, I mean, speaking
\nof books, what coach? What have you been working on lately? Peaky Emmanuel,
\nGPP. Matthew, what have you been up to, coach? Give us a little insight. Most of my manuals are really
\nlike just lately, the stuff I’m doing right now. And then try Faizi too.
\nIt’s been an ongoing process. But, you know, I get asked a lot and you’re ultimately going
\nup this last stuff. I came up with in regards to paralyzation and really it’s
\nkind of a rate limiter concept where you run a 20 hour dash and it take a 10 hour that
\nand it can identify your weakest link. And I had to confirm that was an optimal method
\nto train in this last summer. We did. And I think I’ve
\nheld off tri aphasic, too, because of that, because I know that this system
\nis the ultimate way to train when I say that, at least what I know now because.
\nWhen I put the whole system together, it told me that the typical paralyzation models that
\nstrength conditioning is followed for the last 50 60 years is only optimal
\nfor 20 percent of the athletes that have been trained in them for elite athletes.
\nI think it’s pretty typical for a high school kid, but even your second third year
\ntraining in high school, you have a sound program. That same paralyzation model’s
\nnot optimal in. What this does is it is a way for coaches to to optimize
\nwhat that kid needs for the next two to three weeks. Yeah. Essentially it highlights how fluid periodization
\nreally is. Right? Right. And it’s not just how you can start here. You’re going to progress to this
\nand then you’re gonna end with this. Right? Right. And let’s say the typical patronization model that even mine
\na kid would wait to week 8 or 9 to work the low lows. You
\nknow, low load in the weight room, high speed stuff. We always did speed work, but I’m talking true speed in the weight
\nroom. Well, what if he needed speed week 1? Right
\nnow, I have kids that walk in the weight room and get speed week 1 because that’s the stats, the weakest link.
\nAnd then they progressed faster. So they’re able to push their limits even greater. And that’s that’s what’s going to
\ngo and try fazing, too, right? Is that optimal? Yeah. Do you see that pride
\nmore with. I would say like an example of like a football player is really strong. Right. Coming out of college
\nfor the combine and they go they train more speed at the Commonwealth and they’re running quicker.
\nWell, it’s because they had a foundation, too, but they just trained them optimally. Right. Well,
\nthat’s what he needed. Right. But but is that gonna make him a better player? Yeah. Does he block better now?
\nNo, probably not. Yeah. Why not? Yeah. And then the other thing is the fact that
\nwere the one thing that we can’t account for that guy is that he’s got experience. Right. So you like I see the all
\ntime where we’re athletes have left me went somewhere else. We came back in, they tested, had one kid
\nthat had left, came back. He moved back to Canada, came back. I think I’m faster. Well, he was 15
\npounds lighter, but three tenths slower in his 20 hour dash time electronic
\nthan he was with me. He thought he was better, but he’s just gotten better. Hockey over the years,
\neven my pros would actually get slower over time. A 35 year old pro, he’s slower
\nthan he was when he came out of college with me. But he knows the game better. Right. And that’s the way it’s more efficient.
\nKnows the game in hockey is so dynamic where, you know, you eat if you know
\nwhere that guy’s gonna be. You can make the players come down and the ability to understanding what’s about to happen.
\nRight. You know, coach, even playing the line, a hand position, foot position. As time goes
\non, you learn those things. And that’s the part, you know. It’s not always physical, but you better
\nbe somewhat physical and be competent with your skillset. Or you just can’t. You’re just too slow to play. But
\nyou know, this whole thing and this thing about the speed stuff, when they go to combine, they get faster. But but
\nthen what happens a lot is when you only train speed. This is why training is a process where
\nguys will do is they’re training their tendons to become more stiff, but they’re not training
\ntheir muscles. And what are they do at the combine? Pull hamstrings all the time.
\nAll the time. Why? Because they haven’t trained that muscle.
\nThey’ve made their hamstrings, too. I’ve seen so many guys pull up
\nduring the combine stuff and they just they’re not ready, you know. Been training for 10, 12 weeks.
\nI know. I love it of all speed. Yeah. Which trains attendants in the light weight.
\nThis is why training is a process. Because you have to train the muscle. Then
\nthe tendon, in my opinion. So they just needed probably two to three weeks of training the muscle in there somewhere.
\nOn the flip, define power lifters, maybe running to more tendon issues.
\nYes. Because they build the muscle. Right. Yeah, though. Well, what happens
\nis the Turtur pack, because they’ve worked their muscles so much and they haven’t trained that tendon. Right. So
\nthey tend to tear that pecc muscle versus the tendon. So like some of the trainers
\nplayers will will strain a muscle. OK. Because they’re tended to stiff now.
\nBut when they tear that pack. I’m sorry. But it’s that tendon. That’s right. Right. Right. Yeah. So the muscle superstrong
\nand the tendon breaks. You’re exactly right. I misspoke in the beginning, but. Yeah. So
\nyou see the divot. That’s why this is a process again. You go strength, then speed.
\nAnd it kind of works itself out. Yeah. So just to just to come back
\non that. So you talked to us earlier today. We were lucky enough to have you down to
\nspeak to our staff. But you now use essentially a zero to a 20 meter
\nparameter to test an athlete to see what is there. Five dash like ten yard dash like 20
\nmeter. And from there you can dictate, hey, this person is lacking in speed or this person is lacking
\nin power. Strength rubber may be correct and it’s at performance made simple Web
\nsite and it’s free. You can just get your timing gate setup. You put a five yard dash in there, you put it ten, you put
\na 20 and you can just do the 10, 20 if you want. But it just
\nso so I’ll talk people through it. If you’re quick at your 10 yard, but slower to second half, it’s gonna tell you
\nwith your body weight, it’s going to tell you probably need power. Training in there is can tell
\nyou you need speed. And then if you put the five yard dash in five yard
\ndash correlates with starting strength and that correlates with your isometric.
\nSo then yeah I’m telling you I got a way that if they run this and they don’t need isometric striked,
\nI won’t have them do the full tri aphasic which I only have them do the eccentric face because
\nthen they don’t need the isometric face. And there are times to correct me if I’m wrong. I don’t
\nspeak for you that you won’t even lift above 80 percent for the concentric face
\nbecause you’re essentially doing that almost year round. Is that yeah. Yeah. Well and but if I get a power
\nreading. So usually once somebody does four weeks of let’s say you centric isometric, you know,
\nthere’s a strong enough. I need to switch to power then and I’m wasting my time
\nif I spend another two weeks above 80, between 80 and 90 percent load. Right.
\nAnd people got to realize that we adapt so fast. And ultimately I realized
\nif I kept them above 80 percent too long, my my world class sprinters
\nwould get slower because you’re teaching the nervous system to strain and not be reactive.
\nI mean, and that’s during the track season when they’re actually still pretty reactive.
\nYeah, I’m saying because they they practice it, that’s definitely like you said, getting outside
\nthe traditional methods and models of periodization getting away from that. Yeah.
\nAnd you know. But here’s the thing. You can’t get away from it, but you got to
\ngive four to six weeks. So so like my professional hockey players, they’ll train above
\nin tri fazing for how many years? I got some. They’ve been in there 12 years now. So
\nwe’ll do and some of them on the testing didn’t need any central strength. So now
\nand then the thought was, well, they’re getting older. I don’t want to eccentric because eccentrics, the most stressful part.
\nSo when you lower the weight down with these center training, it causes a huge immune system response because
\nit tears the tissue apart and the body comes in and rebuilds it with their tissues. Been tear tore
\napart a lot over the years and it’s pretty strong. They will have a soft tissue injury. So it’s like,
\nwell, I don’t need to do eccentrics, I’ll just do the ISO’s because it gets some strong and that’s what we need. And then work get.
\nYeah, yeah. On that note, I’ve heard people
\nor at least one of your videos, I think it was released a little over a year ago now, but you released the video
\nwhere you talked about bracing your core and got a lot of feedback,
\nsome of that positive. Certainly there were people who had their arms in the air. But can
\nyou dove into what you talked about in that video about bracing your core vs. squeezing
\nyour glutes or using your hips? Yeah, I’ll let you take it away. The whole thing is, is that, you
\nknow, 20 years ago, these books came out about Brace in the Core, which the research showed. Yeah, it was important to break
\nyour core when you had back dysfunction. But we’re talking about a healthy person squeezing their ass
\nor their abs when they do something. And how I tested it. Actually, it started with
\nMel Siff, the author Super Training, right. I was on his super training groups and he didn’t he wasn’t
\nbuying it and it didn’t make sense to me. So I was just playing with it. I’d have a pitcher pitch a baseball with a cord
\nbrace. They threw a lot slower. I mean, we’re talking seven to 10 miles an hour and then somebody would run a 40
\nand they would like it’s almost impossible. Think about the abrasive core. I’m going. They’re running slower. So
\nwhy are we doing it in the gym? Was my question. And then over time, you know, you
\ncan check on forced plates. Just haven’t bracer corn stand there with close their eyes and check their sway.
\nWe get way worse. So, Mike, this is a bad feedback. There’s something not right here.
\nAnd then what happened when the medical I think people done
\nretrospectively looked at the increase in sports hernias. When people started brace, the core
\nsports hernias went through the roof and all that tissue gets really tight. And then somebody goes to run and
\nthey’re pulling that tissue apart. It’s late and. Yeah, yeah. Because but it’s shortened all the time because a
\nbreece in the core and it’s just really it’s not how the body’s supposed to function because in my
\nopinion the core sits on the hips. So then if the hips are working correctly, the coral brace exactly how
\nmuch it’s supposed to. And when you run you people are saying, okay, I got
\nto protect the back. Well, if everything’s functioning right, the back will protect itself.
\nI believe you cause more dysfunction by bracing the core than you actually create.
\nRight. Stability, your health. You’re getting that tissue bound up in front. You’re probably gonna run some
\nback issues if that relax. Tissue’s now strained or
\ntense. There’s yeah, there’s no question. Kind of talked to us today as a staff
\nabout the glutes being kind of the main driver. Right. Could you kind of talk a little bit about that
\nagain? So if you’re not braced in the core, you talked about firing in the glutes. Yeah. So if you if your glutes
\nare working. So whether I go to push Michael right now, I have to fire
\nmy glutes to stabilize myself. So I go to grab him and pull him. I have to fire my glutes. So whether you do have
\nflexion or extension, if you you have to find the center of your your body, which is really in the hips,
\nstabilize them so then you can move whatever you need to do. And
\nthe big thing for the glutes is that coach, I checked it on
\nbench press. I’m lying on my back and I squeeze my glutes and a bench and the bar moves faster
\nthan if I squeeze my abs. I checked it on a hundred athletes and everyone was faster. So I’m not
\nlike a statistician, but but a hundred percent seems to be pretty good, right? Yeah.
\nThat world they play every eight floors. So my point is then I checked
\nit on every exercise I could do and people just seemed to move the weight. Move, move more weight, move lighter
\nweight faster because we tend to move things. And it just seemed
\nto be the right way to move. And it felt more natural. Right. So you’re sitting here, you’re going, how is
\nit possible that people got it? Like, did. Did they really check
\nany of this? All I did is test things that happen. And it was it wasn’t adding
\nup. And I test a lot of things I’ve always tested to make sure people get better.
\nAnd you’re going it just didn’t add up. That’s it, that was my heart. Hard part for me, right?
\nYeah. So our profession, it seems like we’re always trying to find the next
\nthing, right. Or attaching ourselves to to the newest technology or the latest system, whatever
\nit may be. But what are some things that are maybe
\nswept over or under utilized, whether it’s it’s training philosophy’s, whether it’s
\nit’s building, buying, whether it’s anything like that. Do you see anything in our field that kind of gets missed
\nwhen everyone’s trying to reach for these newer and better things? Yeah, I mean,
\nagain, I just go back to analyzing it. What can you analyze it with? Is it testable?
\nI like heart rate variability for a lot of things. You know, when immune when I say this as a biofeedback tool.
\nSo if you think a supplement works and it makes your heart rate and you take it
\nand 40 minutes later, your heart rate variability has gotten a lot worse. Probably wasn’t a good supplement. Your
\nbody doesn’t like it. So these feedback tools, I think are ways
\nand and I’ve had I’ve had certain supplements, let’s say like a ribosome
\nand athletes have taken it. And I saw no response with the forever, but others took it. And there was
\na really good response. So they needed it. The other one didn’t. It’s not like everything’s
\njust if you don’t have anything but a stopwatch to test stuff, you use a stopwatch.
\nRight. You know, we talked about that with Dan factor. with auto regulation. Yeah. And how
\nhe might have been Debe Hammer, who’ve had for many years ago is didn’t have all the newest technologies. All we had
\nwas a stopwatch and he could figure out auto regulation. Right. So, yeah, I mean,
\nauto. You know. I mean, she’s at my first exposure was my track coach
\nand Phil Undine. And we had a couple a pretty elite 400 meter runners. And I was watching practice
\nand he’s doing Flying Twenties and he ran through and you’re going well. Tough times were
\nunbelievable. And I’m like, well, how are you going to do? He’s like, till he slow down. Right.
\nYeah, that was it. That’s awesome. That’s all that’s all regulation. I mean,
\ntrack coach, he’s been doing it for a long time. Right. Feel like he needs to stop and he’ll use a stopwatch.
\nRight. So did. Who invented it? I don’t know. I think I think it came from. So you need
\nto be honest with you. But. You know, they just used whatever. But you’re on.
\nYeah. It’s nothing special. But I think the Germans probably did a lot better job of. Because
\nof the engineering thinking mindset that they have. You know, I mean, they’re really good at that.
\nI’m going to stick with our field and coming discussions or debates.
\nBut we had a post that was maybe a few months ago. It was just a post about
\nsquat depth. Right. Throughout this time, I like this time and again, it got a lot of feedback.
\nSome people applaud other people, you know, threw up different fingers. And so
\nI just want to know your take on squat depth again, whether it be a split squad or a back squad or
\nwhatever it may be and its impact on performance. Well,
\nthe problem is, is that, OK, first of all, make the statement. I’ve never seen a typical powerlifting squad.
\nI’ve never seen one athlete in that position in a field. OK. Yeah. Through. I’ve been through. Right.
\nI’ve been waiting for 20 years. Never seen it. So then when you look at the way I squad is,
\nI call a sports squad where I basically squat my hips, go straight down on my my. If you actually
\nlook, then my shins would be parallel to my torso.
\nAnd that’s Carmelo Bosco’s research that he activated the glutes with
\nthat type of angles. So your shins and your torso arts, if you drew a line
\non the photograph there at the same at the Y. But then you don’t
\nnecessarily you can’t squat that deep because of that position.
\nRight. Right. But you’re. You can get actually below 90 degrees
\nat your knee, at your knee, right. So but people want to say, oh, you got to get
\nparalell. Well, but the problem is, again, if if you squat like that, that’s not
\nthe way the body’s functioning. I’ve had it make my sprinters slower.
\nRight. Because you’re in that position, you got to strain coming out of it. It’s not the way
\nanyone moves. So I’m saying you can’t squat like that because people have. And look, if
\nI’m if I’m saying something different, it’s only because I think I’m doing something that’s more
\noptimal. Cause squatting can kick can get people faster. Yes. Right. I’m not.
\nI’m just saying the most specific thing is to squat with that sports back squat. Right. Position
\nwith your shins and your torso parallel. And I didn’t make that up like Carmilla Bosko found. And he was a true
\nscientist. He he used really emojis. I have them have my
\nweight room. I have the shorts. Now I have really GSO shorts. Yeah.
\nYeah. I can see all this. Right. So you’re going at it and I’m going
\nI’m not going to do things that are sports that aren’t sports specific. Because those are exactly what
\nI need to get. That’s exactly what I need to do to make my athletes better and to give some better results.
\nRight. So I know there’s these purists out there and like Olympic weightlifting and everything.
\nRight. And they try to drive these trends because they want their stuff to be the most
\noptimal. But it’s not like I tell people, look, when
\npeople come back and I test them, if they do a program like that, there’s
\nno way because people look, well, what do you test them? I’m tests and vertical drop. Well, my squat looks more like a vertical
\njump than a deep, super deep back squat where you’re
\ndriving your hips back. Right. You’re going deep and you’re coming out slow. And then you’re you know
\nwhere mine. I dropped my hip straight down. My knees go in front of my toes. But
\nthat’s actually how your foot in Chin’s function in sports. Yeah. You talked about that
\na couple of years ago. And I remember as you were talking at my A.M. podcast or YouTube, I remember as you
\nwere talking I YouTubed or a Google imaged hotlink hockey player,
\nprofessional hockey player. And the first image was a player essentially skating
\nwith his knee past the top of his boot, at least six inches or so. Right. All right. And if
\nyou don’t have a strong foot to support that arch when that knee goes forward, it’s Kukla. It’s gonna the arch. You’re going
\nto collapse. And then the come back and he can’t skate his high. Right. So so the
\nwhole thing here is that they keep that foot function and they squat. They push that knee in
\nfront of their toe. And people who. What about knee pain? I’m like there’s more force on the knee when you get into that deep
\nsquat than by what I call a sports back squat where you drop in your hips.
\nI wouldn’t say straight down, but just a little bit, Bakrie, because of the angles of. Right. And if your thigh bones
\nlonger than it’s a dry, just naturally have the femur is going to sit down. You put your torso and your shins at the same
\nangle and you squat down and you go a little bit below where they play that because I’ve
\nnever seen again. And even the wide stance, I know there’s people that would argue
\nthe wide stance. Right. They go, OK, well, yeah, but they’ve got a bunch of pros in these position
\nwhere they head y stance and they say, oh, see these guys function y since. Yeah. But look, they
\ntake a step after they’re in a wide stance. They got pictures but they step to
\nget a good position right. Then Sprint. They never come out of that wide stance
\nlike they shoot. Right. So let’s that he needs to push that straight
\ndown to the ankle and really then the ankle helps dictate
\nwhich way you can go. Right. Right. Because that’s. But your hips and knees drive down
\nto the foot. Yeah. I think it comes back to, like you’re saying, what’s going to make him better?
\nYou know, as far as I know, I work with a lot of taller athletes and the
\ntraditional squat. I mean, tesman is. Yeah, it’s gonna be bad. So you’ve got to you’ve got to
\nthink differently when you when you start looking at different ways to squat and patterns or whatnot, that’s gonna
\nhelp them improve performance. So coach and you can’t shove
\nthat scrum round peg into that square hole. Right. You’re just going and
\nit’s. Is it. Where am I going to get the most benefit out of this for this athlete to prevent
\ninjury and then performance in a deep squat on a girl that 6 foot 3 is
\na long thighbone is crazy, in my opinion. Absolutely crazy. You can watch
\nit, you know. You know, when when let’s say she’s going to you know, and I tell people I get girls
\nthat may not back squat 200 pounds because we don’t work on it, but they’ll do a single leg
\nsafety bar squat at 350. Well, the pure
\nsuperlow blackspots, a great life. Yeah. But I can get a greater hormonal response. I can get greater strength adaptations.
\nMy girls have a huge bone density. The high, some are high. I see them. That’s
\nway more effective in ZYGAR return than having a high number on a back.
\nThat’s why. Yeah, and you can still hit those angles. You still haven’t hit shingles yet.
\nYeah. And those you know, those angles. That’s more specific than
\nthe back squat. Double leg. I never win. Do you ever see him in that position?
\nI just don’t. Right. And you know, coaches who come to my gym. I’ve liley how to walk
\nin. They want to see watching the workout. Our knees in front of our toes. We squat with
\nour heels on floating heel with a single leg. Squat. Why? I realized
\nthat that’s how humans run. So I started doing all my hip extension
\nstuff minus the back squat. I mean, I don’t look back on my toes because it’s too hard. Bilateral. But
\nall single leg work was done on the balls. Your feet with just the heel right off the ground. Right. And
\nit strengthens your foot, which is important. And I tell people that you guys heard me say this. You go. And the
\nonly animal in the world I used to think that ran on their toes was an elephant or their heels was
\nan elephant. But then an elephant person told me that the fat pad is actually hitting the ground. Elephants
\ndo run on their toes. Also, it’s pretty cool. Where are you? Where are you running? You an elephant expert
\nat a clinic, right? Yeah. Well, what it was, was,
\nyou know, you post something and you see it on. Someone’s gonna say something. Somebody will e-mail me and I’ll call
\nhim. What? Yeah. It’s just the fact that I’m all right. How do you know? I’m at
\na zoo and somebody said me. You said a lot of people call in career and write email. How
\nis funding? Right. It’s the same thing with Bryce in the Corps and the you know, I got some hate mail from a physio
\nout of Italy and he’s like, I’ve been doing this 30 years and you’re wrong. I’m like, have you tested
\nit? And he’s like, no, I don’t need to. And I’m like, just tested for me. Yeah.
\nAnd then two weeks went by and I emailed him to say, did you test it? I still haven’t heard back
\nagain, you know. But anyway, it’s. Yeah. So you come into my gym
\ninto a 8, I started jumping. So when we land, I don’t try to tell my athletes, never
\nlet their heels hit the ground. And if they do, it’s fine. Right. But you’re going. I’m on my toes.
\nThe whole time you were jumping straight up and down and I’m going and people go. That’s not
\nthe way that some organizations tell me to to do my job. So I’m like, I know,
\nbut you watched the ramp you to a rebound in the NBA. Bring up a YouTube of of anybody
\ncatching. No one’s jumping the way some people coach it in these organizations. And I’m
\nseen as bad. It’s good for learning to, but I’m talking about sports specific stuff.
\nSo, yeah, people come in my weight room, they go high, they jump at the knees in front, they’re on their toes. I’m like, yeah. But that’s how they run.
\nLike, that’s just that’s just it. That’s a great Segway into another debate
\nthat our field gets into because you brought up your safety bar, split squats and that’s
\nyou know, it’s unilateral training better. It’s bilateral training better. I’ve seen it on my Twitter, Instagram.
\nAnd so I think they both have their merits depending on your circumstances. But what
\nare your thoughts on how unilateral training and bilateral training affect performance in
\nthe nervous system? Well, the bilateral I’ve begin to realize
\nthat Sir Dan Fichtner brought to my attention that it’s not a great feedback
\nloop for the brain. We develop through crawling and moving and cross crawl patterns.
\nRight. So you I Liley have checked every position that I train.
\nAnd by having a split stance, OK, doing something with a split stance.
\nI got a great feedback. I want to say that put him on the balance plate. And I don’t
\ndo a lot of this balance testing. A friend of mine, the coach of Europe does it. He’ll do the exercise boom. He has blindfolds
\non so their eyes don’t come. Yes. The balance odio puts mine and the balance is 30
\npercent worse with the bilateral movement than a unilateral movement in the exercise. So
\nthe big thing is, is just we’re training with the body, likes the feedback loop is
\nis more beneficial. It’s not a negative. I should say and I like
\nthe safety bar squat because then I can load a bunch of weight onto that person and get because
\nI let her have yeilds. Right. That’s why we that’s why we train heavy because we can get
\ntestosterone in hormone releases in all these releases. And I talked about
\nmarathon runner trains a lot, but they don’t look like your shot putters or your linemen now because they don’t
\nget the hormonal response, the testosterone, you know. So then we’re sitting here, we’re going
\nwe want to load people to get bone density adaptation, tissue adaptations, tendon adaptations,
\nand then once we load them. Then you focus
\nmore on sport specific stuff so you can do both even and try phasing. I talked about yeah, I did back
\nsquat eccentrically, but once I got out of the tri aphasic, I went to sports back squat
\nwhere it was more specific to the movements they were doing in the basketball arena,
\nin the hockey arena. The whole thing. Right. And if you have a
\nspecific tissue, you may want to train. A bilateral movement,
\nI think is completely fine, but to be the most specific. You better get to the unilateral
\nright. And I don’t do the rear foot elevated with the heavy loads. I think the rear foot elevated is fine.
\nI just won’t do the heavy, heavy load because actually I found that as I take the pill. Yeah. Rotates
\nof health. So it was literally the first day I did the super maximal loading was a Monday. Then Tuesday the chiros
\ncame in and say, hey, everybody’s off. I’m like, well, we’d better figure this one out, right?
\nThere was no pain yet, but every hip was off. So then I just put
\nthe foot on the ground. And they were better. So that’s
\nthat’s one of those learning experience. Now you have every played around with the single leg, the roof elevated.
\nDefinitely. We’ll put some talking inside you. Plus, if you’re bound up a little bit in the front. Yeah, you got to be careful.
\nYou utilize that exercise kind of how far out their foot is and how far out you’re you’re
\npushing that pelvis. Yeah. And under heavy load is when I found my jaw. The barbell on the back.
\nYeah. Or the safety bar split squat was 120 percent 120% with the front. Yeah. I think it was 50
\nloads and that that becomes an issue for sure. Yeah. But it’s
\nso. I honestly the unilateral.
\nIt’s just better feedback and I’m seeing because. Because the problem is, is that backs what compensation
\npattern in my opinion. You see things that transpire over time, long term, that
\nthat’s not always healthy for the individual, whether it’s bigger community bilat. Yeah. Again,
\nthe bilateral. Right. So I just seem to get in. Look, people think,
\nyou know, these these big time athletes, they got to be perfect and they’re not. This is really the
\nbest compensator sometimes. Right. And they can hide and disguise things and
\nthey function at a high level, even though that there’s there’s something not wrong. I tell people, look, this person doesn’t have the right
\ngroup better, but he just ran an elite world class time and that’s fine. But he does.
\nSomething’s gonna break eventually. Coach, what about Thomma unilateral use? You made me think
\nlower body. You were talking Laub a lot about upper body. Yeah. I mean, I you
\nknow, on the bench press isn’t a great feedback, but what better movement do you have than
\nto learn to load our body? So then, you know, by getting up and marching or,
\nyou know, just just doing the other stuff. Unilateral, you get a good feedback, right? So again, it’s
\nabout adaptation for me and it’s the hormonal response and how to how do I get big triceps?
\nPostscript bench is the best way I think a two three board close-cropped bench. But you gotta go heavy, you know, and I mean and there’s
\njust no other way getting big, strong triceps, especially if you’re shot. Put her. You need to make somebody strong.
\nWell, even if you’re a basketball player, I remember one year the coaches went a big bench press and I posted
\nthis on my YouTube is where we’d bench on Monday. And then we do a close group on Tuesday, close-cropped board
\nfor the basketball guys. And I think Steve Felty out out of
\nMiami. Right. When he did that, he saw like 40 to 60 pound increase
\nand he did. Then on two on Thursday, a bench again closing up on front again. And he just saw
\nthese guys weak links were really their triceps. So. All right. So he just benched four days
\na week. First one was bench, second one was close grip. Repeat that Thursday and Friday.
\nAnd he saw a huge adaptation just by splitting those up. I mean, so you still have to load no
\nmatter what, right. It’s just it’s just hard. I hear your load. I got a little
\nsidequest moan. Curiosity, BFI training. Yeah.
\nThe occlusion training. What are your thoughts? Have you experimented with some of that?
\nWhat have you seen with some? I know I’ve toyed around with it a little bit and
\nI do like it. Look, these arms I use be far
\ntoday. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, people ask you what do you train? They coach my arm day, right?
\nThat’s all that matters. No, I have it set. I have it set with my son.
\nI’ll use it in different ways. I obviously I’ll do it with curls, of course, is really nice.
\nNice. It’s the most important. Yeah, right. Give it give you using for like oxygen deprivation in your GPP.
\nYeah we do. One of the things I’ll do is Viktor Salani of the Russian
\nthat some of his stuff. But he did, he talked about the hyper the slow
\nrepeated effort where. So I’ll use it with my son, I’ll put the cuffs on him. He
\ngets on the stepper and I hook bands to the ground and he’ll do like on level 4
\nand he’ll step 2 at a time. And he’s doing a huge step with them on his leg, with him on his legs
\nand bands on his body. Yeah. Hook pulling down to the ground and he’ll do that first
\nset at 10. So 10 minutes, said Coach Lang chalghoumi, the DFI on that.
\nThat will burn you. Then you go. I’ve seen you go three to five minutes. There’s
\na visual that just sounds intense. And you go nice and slow. But it
\nis legit because you’re recruiting those fast twitch fibers in. I don’t know
\nhow much of a difference it made to my son, but we do it still all the time. He’s pretty fast right now, but
\nhis mom was Olympic gold medalist. Right. And he’s he’s you know, he’s
\nreally fast. And you’re going. People ask me what I do. I’m like, well, it’s really hard. But, yeah, I’d like
\nto tell you everything that I’ve done with him. But it’s fun, you know, even just playing the football
\nwhen we were young, I throw a football. And when I threw it, he’d run a pattern and I’d throw
\nit too far. So everyone’s super hard. And he’d come back and he got the football and he’d yell at me and tell me how
\nbad of a quarterback I was. And we’d play left handed catch for like two minutes until you recovered. And then we
\ndo we do like six to eight of those. And then we could go do whatever we want. But I did high quality work
\neven when he was six, eight, 10 years old. We did just high quality work. That’s the key. You
\ncan’t you can’t get fast if you’re not running fast. Right. We know this. And that’s what we did. We just
\nhad fun, you know, and he I took a lot of heat from being a bad quarterback, but I threw that ball too
\nfar. So he had to really run fast. And, you know, pay dividends later, let he gets his car.
\nYou get a scholarship, maybe. Otherwise, quarterback, not the bad quarter. Yeah. Yeah. And
\nthen. Yeah, we had a lot of fun with that. I know you made me. Think when you talk about the high loads that we
\nrecalled an athlete we had. She couldn’t train Mike, going back to
\nwhat you’re saying about the squad death. She couldn’t train in those low ranges. And so but load
\nwas something that definitely helped keep her. You know, we couldn’t go as low with like a trap our
\ndad left or someone that but she got was able to get stronger and CAPTA kept her healthier. And
\nit puts a mass on. So it’s you’re exactly right. It’s got so much application. I mean, anytime.
\nI mean, you get people saying, no, everyone needs to be parallel. I mean, when you speak in absolutes,
\nyou put everyone in the same silo. I think it’s just intuition that we know that humans are too
\ncomplex to just, you know, file everyone in the same file. Yeah. So it’s kind of just
\nit’s just. It’s an ego thing. And I’m not trying to,
\nyou know. Here’s the thing to watch. You hear now is you hear these these coaches like a powerlifting coach
\nor some coach. I had got I got athletes, a squat, a thousand pounds. And I’m like, you got you got
\nor I got like temple, my gym squat a hundred. I’m like, yeah, look at them walk. They’re terrible.
\nI got a whole team of women that can’t squat 200 pounds that’ll smoke them in a 20 yard dash.
\nPhysically beat them at 20 yard dash. Women that run two point eight. You know, you
\nmean 20 hour dashes. And I know if you squat eight, nine hundred pounds can barely walk.
\nYou’re not running two point eight twenty yard dash. And then my men, they’re way faster.
\nRight. And they’re just athletes compared to what you are. What made you an eight nine hundred
\npound squire is exactly what I don’t want. Coach, I got a true story I got to share with
\nyou. I love animals rights told us. But so I was when I was playing at Georgia, the play D line is, you
\nknow, I was kind of. Your time. I just kept chasing the number or squat and [INAUDIBLE]
\nit was at the teller’s back in the 90s is definitely strong back in that era.
\nAnd we had this little my richer software so was really I was junior, I was 20
\nyears old. We had this little homemade little wooden with a pad on it, little
\npet sled. We had a punch pre practice. And it
\nwas just one of them. And we get the line, we’d punch it. I would come out. I was benching 500
\nat the time and I’d punch this thing. I couldn’t get it up. There was a guy from
\nKansas. Name was Mike Steele. Did not Binse very much. He
\ncould smack this thing around and coach would go off on me. I’m like, how are you this strong?
\nAnd you can’t this does not make. And it just did. Now, so far, I don’t have an answer.
\nAnd so that that summer out, I started training differently.
\nThat’s why I met Doc Reese and start doing more speed. Straight training. Yes. My actual squat
\nand bench numbers dropped significantly. And when I got back, it’s probably
\ntwo, three months later from training that I could hit that pad. It was no problem. I could smack it right
\nsmack, right? Yeah, I could get it. Basically had to get it in there fast and I could get it was no problem. My
\ncoach at the time, but that’s when my eyes were open like I was actually d training my body
\nbecause I’m chasing numbers or whatever. Right. You get really good at applying force over that long
\nperiod of time. But when it came down to do what your sport actually requires. That’s where I think
\nI’m a big Star Wars fan. I know if you guys watch Star Wars or you ever watch it. Yeah. So one of my favorite quotes
\nis that only Siff think in absolutes, you know, and I think that.
\nI mean, I know it’s a movie quote, but I think that’s got a lot of application like what you’re saying now, that there’s
\njust you can’t look through one lands and have what this is the only way, you know, that you called the purest
\nway we can do it here. It’s this little ego. Everyone wants to be the guy.
\nRight. And I just want my athletes to win. You know, it’s
\nthat ego can kill a lot of things and can can close your views to the
\nrest of the world. Because everybody like you can learn from anybody,
\neven even Olympic lifts. I don’t do Olympic lifts. Don’t believe I can get better results with other stuff, but
\nI would. I drove to Iowa to listen to the father of Chinese weightlifting, and I got one thing on
\nhim where he saw the world. He went to the Russians, he went to the Bulgarians. The Russians did multiple
\nlists. Bulgarians basically did five. And he’s like.
\nAnd he uses example he had a world champion hurt the wrists and broke,
\nI think broke it had to recover. Only did a bunch of assisted lifts. Until
\nsix weeks out, when he was four weeks out, cleared to do the lift, the full lifts came
\nin and set a new world record. And then they knew that
\ndoing assistance, they helped with the weak links.
\nRight. Yeah. So then to me I was like, OK, this is why I need to have variety of lifts.
\nIn my program on different days, because, one, you train the tissues differently.
\nOK. From doing a bench, people say all works a pack, but dumbbell bench does, too. Yes, but
\nthey both train. Different like ceilings
\nor different parts of that tissue differently. So that’s why to me, I need you need to do the assistant lifts
\nfor sure. And I just wasn’t going to bank on one lift covering everything. And there’s limitations to Olympic
\nlists. And I love watching on my love. You know, I love people. I love to watch people do it. It’s awesome.
\nYeah. I mean, big in some athletes get good return on it. And there’s some off saying just it is the worst
\nthing you could do with them. I tell I tell people this coach, I’d won world class or he
\nsaid, well, I you. He didn’t get to 200 kilos or 440 clean,
\nbut he was. He was like over 400. And then I had another guy that cleaned for 40. And
\nI think he walked into an 320. So he went from like 320 clean to for
\nfour and a half, five feet. I had nothing to do with it. Right. It
\nhad nothing to do with it. Yeah. And you’re thinking for is a lot. Wants a full
\nclean. And he pulled it dropped underneath it caught. It is a huge clean Ryan college
\nathlete for a college athlete. That’s that’s not your business. Right. And I’ve
\nhad like three of those over the years. Only one was a really good shot putter.
\nYou know, I mean, it’s crazy. They had no correlation with with performance. Well, I
\nthink I think in a field where it’s literally titled strength and conditioning, we can get lost in
\nin the performance realm of, you know, we get we get caught up in the strength numbers, right? Yeah,
\nthe number goes up. Our performance must go up. And we talked on the field, you know, a few hours ago.
\nIt’s like, why are we doing certain things? Are we evaluating it? Are we deciding did this work? Did it not
\nwork? And, you know, in the past, maybe sometimes you’re back squad goes up. But
\nas we are now hearing, like your performance doesn’t always correlate with that, does it? You know, and
\nso you have to find ways which colleges what kind of what makes you unique? Of evaluating what works and what
\ndoesn’t, you know, is helping my performance or is it hurting you? Question Coach, I know is
\nyour podcast, but like. Yeah, when I was young, I tested more. But now
\nif I see a new exercise and not the one I brought, I made up. But if I see one, I know
\nit’s going to work. I don’t even have to test stuff anymore because I’ve got enough experience in my field. You know, I mean,
\ndo you feel that now that you see something? Yeah, I think you know, I think kind
\nof what you’re saying as you get older and you get more experience, the kind of coaches I that
\nyou evaluate different, you know, of what you what you know, what they really need. Maybe
\nin RAM, maybe that exercise, you see something like that was something you need to add. It’s gonna make a big difference.
\nYou don’t need to necessarily test for something, you know. So, yeah, and that’s the fun part because I
\nkeep learning and looking for new things. Right. People ask me how I make how I make some of this
\nstuff up and some of the crazy stuff that I come up with. I think that it works and I usually test and
\nfind out. But I ask questions of of everything that I do. I look at it.
\nSo I start asking questions which create problems that I didn’t know I had.
\nIf you ask enough questions, you’ll find problems that I didn’t know I had. And then all I do is try to
\nfix them and make solutions for, you know. And I think what you just said to you’ve got to you’ve got
\nto have like you’ve got to have enough humility to be open minded and be curious
\nif you want to be innovative. You know, and you’ve got to have that curious mind. I think, you know, always trying
\nto find a better way to improve it, make it better, you know, 100 percent. And
\nthat’s the thing, is if you’re willing to accept. That everything, you
\nknow might be wrong. Which is really hard if you can
\nif you’ve done it a certain way. Yeah, for quite a while. Right. And I.
\nIt was years ago I began to realize like, yeah, probably wrong and
\neverything I’ve done at one time or another. Maybe it’s not wrong. It’s just not optimal. And I’m trying
\nto do optimal things all the time. So if you can be humble enough
\nto accept that and then as a coach. Keep looking.
\nCause me if I stop looking, then I’ve let my athletes down. Right. I’ve
\nlet my athletes down. I mean. Yeah. And we still live in a day and age where a lot of the myths
\nof what we do still exist. For instance, you know, with working with females,
\nyou work with female athletes, but lifting weights is gonna make them too big and bulky where they can’t
\nperform. Right. And I’m like, we’re still in that. We’re still having that topical
\ndebate of, you know, lifting weights is gonna make them where they can’t they can’t move and perform.
\nI know. I mean, it’s and it’s amazing what weights do for women and their confidence.
\nIt’s like the other day, my keep pressing this where the other day, you know, I’m talking about I had five
\nof my female women’s ice hockey players walk in the weight room. I think
\nthey’re I mean, the heaviest one was about one eighty two. But she’s she’s
\nabout seventeen on the DEXA, which is amazing. Yeah. And then
\nthe lightest one was probably 150 and there were five of them that were probably from 5
\nit, it was the gym. And when all five men walked in, you’re like, oh, there’s something golf down here.
\nGive me love. And I the a few fuel will be on the Olympic team. But just the attitudes in the way that
\nyou see him walking down the street and the people turn their heads. I mean, in this I mean, so when they got snow. So
\nit’s not their beauty. It’s their sheer presence. Yeah. And I mean, I mean, software was some females.
\nI mean, they just loved to train their heads. And they are such they’re just a joy
\nto work with, you know? And you’re going, man, this person, it doesn’t matter what they do,
\nthey’re gonna be successful. Whether they’re if they’re a mom, they’re gonna be great. They’re gonna be a great parent.
\nThey’re gonna be a great whatever was just right. It’s awesome. And I really enjoy training the women.
\nYou going that into that weight room and Mary Yuichi and these women come in
\nagain how they carry themselves and they’re ready to work. And so they go up to a safety bar for plays
\neach side. And you’re like, there’s no way, you know, no way in hell they’re going to move it. Finished,
\nmove it. Right. And they’re doing four sets. Klosters just knocking it out. Just don’t on twenty five
\nactual program, you know, that starts at the head coaches time. It’s kudos to them. Yeah. What
\nare some things that you’ve done to build some Byner or add to buying in your team?
\nMost of it was done years ago. Yeah. I mean honestly now it’s a kid gets on this
\nstrength coach in Minnesota, he’s on his recruiting visit. I meet him in thirty six thousand followers. He must be good.
\nLike what? Oh yeah. But you know, and I
\ndon’t know, I probably honestly, I probably still fail. Probably don’t explain things
\nenough. I find that even though if I explain it, not everybody gets it.
\nAnd it’s good that I do buy in. I mean, I
\nhave a lot of championships, so this is what we do. I actually found with like, let’s say, for example,
\nmy GPP face like. It’s about building a base foundation for
\nfitness, but it also can burn fat if you do it optimally. And you fasted
\nduring that workout. Right. It’s only time of year. I want you to fasting during your base building.
\nWhy? Because it activates fat burning enzyme. That’s all the girls needed to hear. And they were all.
\nAll right, fine. Where were you at? I mean, people walk in their mouths, taped shut
\nto teach nasal breathing and, you know, and work on utilizing CO2. Right.
\nYou’re going. You’re going. Holy buckets. They’re all in. But I give them all this stuff and
\nthey’re just kind of listen, OK. Coach, you know, I said in this enzyme here that activates burns
\nfat, like, let’s just start just work. All right. You know, it’s crazy, right? What is it?
\nI don’t know. There’s there’s always these triggers. Yeah. Right. Let’s hear them. That made me think of a story
\nwhen I was interning with Karl. I don’t know if you still do this. Mean this may come
\nthis may be along the lines of building leadership. But so Cal has his weight room right underneath
\nthe arena stairs at the hockey arena there. And so they’ll go up there, do their warm up around the arena.
\nAnd during their off-season GPP phase, he’ll have them run stairs depending on what they’re doing,
\nmay dictate what they’re doing on the stairs. But when they finish that, they’re usually pretty gassed.
\nBut what Cal does is while they’re going through running these stairs, he tells us interns and years
\nlike I want you go down in the weight room. Now I want you to flip everything upside down, throw things
\naround, whatever. And so, you know, you kind of double check like like, what do you mean? He’s like,
\nno, I bench benches. Just so we go down in the weight room. We throw pile
\nboxes around, we put kettle bells and the other side, the weight room. He has two rooms down there. At least he used to
\nyou put certain equipment, different rooms, come back upstairs and he has the team gathered and he says
\nessentially, you know, A and B, you guys can talk. No one else is allowed to say a word.
\nSo you have two minutes to set up your Arabic conditioning circuit that these kids know. But at this point,
\nI says you don’t do it. In two minutes, we’re gonna run more stairs and we’re to start over. And so you see these guys
\npaying attention and maybe one person or two people are talking, trying to dictate traffic. And
\nit was just a crazy story. And seeing to see them go down there and everyone is silent for doing
\nwhatever they can to set up a surrogate, you know, getting physical balls put back into place, etc.
\nYeah. And some of the mistakes were made like the kids it could talk, would start
\ndoing stuff. And then people were screwing stuff up. But nobody can tell him that they’re going to vote because
\nthe guy so that guy had to remove himself from actually doing a majority of work when he should
\nbe observing and telling people, hey, those go over here. You know, you mean so problems
\nand under pressure. And the hard part is if let’s say you don’t have a coach, that
\nthat is not going to follow up. So let’s say that some of the disconnects and teams and so people understand
\nI’ve coached over 200 seasons as a coach and I’ve seen some World-Class coaches
\nadminister things and I seen coaches that didn’t have a chance to recruit great players. But what happened
\nwas they’ve developed some World-Class athletes. Right. But you’re going I can do
\nall this stuff in the offseason, but if it’s not kept up or let’s say my leadership
\nstuff or my things for this was. Is this part. And then it’s completely
\ndifferent when the coaches get them. It really doesn’t matter. It’s not you know, you’re not going to because
\nthe culture will be different. Not that there’s as bad. It’s just I mimic
\nwhat the head coach is doing, you know, set the tone they do. And you know, in
\nin my that that was a great that’s a great tool. But I was hoping to teach that team,
\ntoo, to communicate under pressure. And then when they failed and they didn’t get it, we brought him. Where do you
\nfeel? And I remember I had one team start and they they set that circuit up with three minutes,
\nby doing that, they went they got it down with like a minute fifty five. That’s how much they improved
\nfrom day one. And I mean I made some things harder. They were still able to communicate.
\nYou know, and you hope that under pressure and fatigued and fatigued.
\nRight. That I have. I have a buddy. And
\nobviously some very some various groups, but I’ve met a lot of special operations. I have wrote a tactical manual
\nfor special operations and I’ve been exposed to those guys. And some of it’s like,
\nwhy do others get through and other and some don’t. And the guy was like, well,
\nI would make a decision after decision in this in these situations. That was right. And then I
\ncould recall the situation. What happened? A decision to go, why did you do
\nthis? And boom, he could recall it. And under stress, you
\ncan see where people start to lose that Decision-Making skill or the processing in
\nthe right way. You know, that’s that’s the real hard part of it.
\nSo I’m curious to you not that we would ever have any demanding
\nin heart coaches to work with, but if there were some out there.
\nCoach, how have you. You know, you’ve definitely been a part of some championship teams.
\nThose coaches usually are very demanding and they have high level expectations.
\nWhat? I mean, what have you done over the years that kind of help build those relationships for your coach and kind of manage
\nup, so to speak? Yeah. In the beginning I was pretty good
\ncoach, even though I was young that the field was so young they were just happy to have a strain. Coaches seemed like.
\nAnd then I had some success. A lot of success early in my career. And then new
\ncoaches would come in. And that’s when I had to learn to like communicating and.
\nI would you know, what I found is for coaches wanting to do something that’s
\nthey wouldn’t always communicate with me what their goal was. So I tried to find that in a coach, wanted to really
\njust build a base, but he wanted to kill him and it wasn’t really good training. And I’m like, okay. So he’s just trying to build a base
\nagain. And then I’m like, okay. And then because I heard he did this for like ten, twelve weeks of the semester and I’m going
\nhome. I mean, this is terrible. Right. And then I go and there and I’m like, I
\nassume then there’s gonna be a point where we switch over to do high quality training to get them faster
\nand do things like to make them better. And he’s like, oh, yeah, yeah, we’ll do that. He’s like, how about
\nthree to four weeks? I’m like, yeah, I usually find I don’t get much effect after programs like this after three. And
\nhe’s like, really? I’m like, yeah, they just didn’t keep improving. He’s like, well then three weeks is what we’ll do.
\nSo I backed him down from like twelve to three. Of putting
\nthrough a high pace, high volume. You know what I mean? And I’m like, OK.
\nSomething I don’t want to crush their egos. But it was one of those deals where I’m like, OK. You’re doing it for this.
\nI understand. And then at some point you’re going to switch over. Right.
\nAnd you always leaving that out. Like, yeah, we’re gonna switch over. You and I mean
\nand again, though, with testing, like I had a thrower’s coach, it was really
\ndifficult when he came in and we had all these numbers and I had all my maxs.
\nAnd I mean, we’re doing Klosters and we’re getting strong. I mean, I had multiple kids benched for 40.
\nRight. Let’s move away. Yeah. Yeah. And you’re OK. And then they do these high volume
\nprogram. And the kids Max and we max out six weeks later, eight. And he’s done
\nthe three ninety. And I’m going.
\nIt’s your program. And then the kids had an uproar. And he’s just like he let it go,
\nbut it’s just difficult. Right. You got to fight those battles. Oh, you got me. Sometimes
\nyou gotta get through it, right. You have to get through it. You have to. If they’re the coach, I mean, we’re behind that.
\nWe’re the team behind the team, as you say, coach. And sometimes you’ve got to eat those crap sandwiches.
\nYeah, right. That’s what I realize. Hopefully there’s a olive on it. Every one.
\nYeah. Right. It’s not a double layer of.
\nYeah, those are tough conversations. Have certainly when you have coaches who who may have a high ego
\nor B type A personality. All right. You owe it to the kids kind of like you said, like you have to have those
\ntough times. Well I found if I never backed him into a corner and I gave him an out.
\nOf a way. Hey, this is how we’re going to eventually change it and where we’re going to get to, then
\nwe are like, OK. Yeah, well, OK. We’ll deal with it for three weeks. So the rest
\nof the 30 weeks of training, we can get something done. Now that you’ve got to learn that.
\nI think it was years ago. You’ve always got give even your athletes. Give people
\nan out. Yeah. Q You back them into a corner, is it so it’s not gonna go well? No, no,
\nno. I know, right. Even yeah. E is that out.
\nIs is a safety net. It doesn’t it doesn’t affect their ego when they they’ve got nowhere
\nto go than their ego is gonna be crushed. You know and then you relationship could be almost irreparable.
\nYes. Because you were the head coach. I know. And on the flip side of that is if
\nyou have the head coaching, who’s doing one thing, you may not agree with it, but you’re unwilling to change. Like
\nlike Cal just said, where the team behind the team. Right. That could be your ego. Right. And
\nthen how about this, though? If he wants something done and you don’t want to change,
\nlet’s find a way to meet in the middle. Middle, you may come up with a new method that you really like.
\nGod forbid we compromise. Right. And then I’ll be honest with you. I think I should do the 10
\nand it tells me about 15 different qualities. That test was the
\nthat test was developed by me. But you knew where it started. A coach pushing me to the limit
\nto find a test that could tell him a bunch of information.
\nAnd it was uncomfortable in that media. I don’t know if it can be done. And I went to the drawing board
\nand I started building it, build that and keep going where you run it, a 20 yard
\ndash. Then there’s a change of direction and you run another 20 and there’s no change direction.
\nAnd then you’re on another 80 yards or an ice rink. You skate around and
\nthere’s 10 timing gates laid out in this whole thing. Ken, tell me if you need eccentric strength, if you
\nhave a left leg. Change of direction, right leg change. The whole deal. And I created and actually
\ngot some military people implementing it right now just to
\nget a bunch of numbers on it, because you’re going if that coach said we got to find a test
\nand he was hounding me. He’s like, if you’re good, you’ll find a flaw. I was like, oh,
\nI’ll put the pressure. Right. And necessities like the mother of invention,
\nisn’t it? You know. Yeah, you’re gonna to have to find a new way. It’s like you said, forcing the organism
\nto adapt. Yeah. And then it’s okay that a coach is pushing you
\nor you’re gone. Some of my best workouts were just made. I just feedback
\nfrom the kids. Are they optimal? No. But you know what?
\nThey like them. We’re doing periodically. You made me think I need to read
\na little bit more. But even that they say that that’s how Steve Jobs was, that he was
\nbig on pushing. Like we’re gonna find a way now. He was
\nI think he was definitely an overlord of a of a manager or supervisor. People don’t
\nknow if that’s true or not. I never met him or worked with him. God rest his soul. But
\nyeah. But just like you said, the necessity, like, let’s find a way
\nto to not take no for an answer. But there’s gotta be a way of to figure this thing out.
\nSo yeah. That that that’s the. Definitely. Yeah. Cause you have thing with Apple I mean.
\nI mean, think about how when you start talking about innovation, how Apple’s changed
\nso many people’s lives. You start talking about training or athletes, that’s the only way we’re gonna improve
\ntheir their performance is having that same kind of mindset. Yeah.
\nYou know what? One one example I can give Mike. You know, the single EDT. What do I call that?
\nDo you know what method? Tell me what you mean. The single. So where you do a 70, 60 percent bench.
\nOh yeah. Or you do. Yeah. Which one. Rep and one. Yeah. So. So I had a
\nthought coach that he wanted to do based building like GPP methods. And I.
\nMy favorite one’s a circuit but he didn’t want his thrower’s doing a circuit. But he still wanted to
\ndo a base. So what I did was like all right. We just gotta get the heart rate to 140 to 160.
\nBut with the thrower, he didn’t wanna do the circuit, which is, you know, 70 stations and probably four
\nor five hundred reps are probably actually six. Seven hundred. And he goes, OK,
\nso find a way. Well, then I looked at Charles Staley’s EDT method where you do five,
\nsix reps and then you go right to the next exercise. You go back and forth. Well, I said, well, what if we did
\nthis with singles with our throwers? So, coach, we just took 60 percent of squat,
\nThey do squat for single. They come right back to bench. We did that for 10 minutes. Heart rate spiked. That’s 150.
\nAnd they were doing singles for 10 minutes. So they also get in shape. And they got strong. I’ve seen some of that done
\nbefore. It’s pretty impressive. Yeah. And I know a lot of NFL teams will have their linemen do that
\nfor a base building. I should say a lot. But like I know, four coaches
\nare implemented. Right. And you’re going it’s a way to get it. And then
\nthen you pick you give like three, four minutes rest. They just did 10 minutes at a hundred fifty beats per minute.
\nI think in three minutes rest. And you do four more of those paired exercises, singles and maybe if it’s lap
\npulled down, maybe you do a double. But the point was that like a lot pulled out with an RTL,
\nyou know, I mean, any do like a shoulder press or whatever you want to do. But you do for 40 minutes of 10,
\nsay of 40 minutes total of that doing singles or doubles
\nand that can get him in shape and build a huge base form. And then when they’re still strong, when they come other base building
\nand then it gets stronger because they got a good base. And that was a
\nmethod I used to put together. And I really came from Charles Staley’s EDT
\nmethods. Right. But yeah, I just modified it and it was a necessity that I had
\nto have it to help this Kochi. No one is big guys doing circuits even though they’re good for him.
\nYeah. That is a that’s a lot mean. Plus, I would think
\nwith a circuit like you said, you do it six, seven or reps, you’re not getting that with with EDT, right?
\nNo, no, you’re not. So it’s definitely nice. It’s more it’s safe. Safer.
\nYeah. And pride isn’t. Beat them up. Now let you get those athletes like you saying who who like
\nto move heavy loads. It’s like a compromise. Like we says as she get to work your robot base,
\nbut you’re still moving some a little bit of weight versus doing bodyweight exercises for whatever
\nit may be. But yeah, it’s it was a again.
\nI didn’t want to do it. It was uncomfortable. But but I came up with a pretty good thing then.
\nYou heard him say it and you’re gonna have this. You know, I ran across people that don’t seem to
\nCrayola. But they have this attitude. Oh, well, you can’t do that. You know, I mean. Are you gonna
\ndo that? I’m like, we’ve got to find a way. It’s like when I had
\none assistant, when I said, hey, we’re gonna switch everything from reps to train for time.
\nHe’s saying that’s not possible. What do you mean? Is that possibly how we’re going to do it?
\nCame back after the first workout. I was like, oh, yeah, this is OK. You know, I mean, I’m like, all right,
\nhere we go. Well, I think that’s probably a platform that has helped your success. Is
\nthat willingness to try different things, right. I mean, it’s like you said earlier about, you know, willing to
\naccept that you could have been doing things wrong or or suboptimally this whole time, because
\nyou’re constantly it feels like getting your hands in different things, reaching out to different resources.
\nBut that’s what trite, basic I feel like it’s been built on us finding these different methods that elicit
\nthis adaptation that would go well in a GPP block or a power block or whatever it may be. Right.
\nYou can never stop looking. I’m not going to. I won’t. There’s no way until
\nI’m done. I’ll know when that’ll be all right. I mean,
\nI’ve been learning from one of the most beneficial coaches I’ve ever coach who says he’s a high school
\ncoach. But Chris Corvus out of Chicago, a key, I call him and I was talking to him and
\nand he says, is this Cal Dietz? And I was like, yeah, that’s it’s called the like the tri-faith, a Carlito’s, I guess,
\nphysicality. So you read it. That’s great. So can we do your stuff? He’s like I got I got six kids that
\nactually jumped thirty six inch verticals in high school because we’re doing the tri phase. You can some other things. I’m like,
\nOK, I’m like, I’m on edge. But that results a semi a video, you know, and you never
\nknow what vertical jumps. I didn’t know Chris at the time and I’m semi
\nvideo. And he sent me a video of a kid jumping like thirty seven inches with his hands on the hips
\nwall. And I was like, you got six of those? He’s like, yeah, we got 30 over 30. I’m
\nlike, all right. Next Saturday, I’m a drive to Chicago and meet you and see what you’re doing.
\nHe had all this ankle and foot stuff in our speed manual, like the spring ankle.
\nI’m like, yeah, this is for real. You show up and there’s this guy. He says he’s a high school coach and there’s this
\nChicago bear running down the driveway and Olympic sprint medalists running down the driveway. Land like, OK,
\nwhatever you want to call yourself that you can be ice. Go, go, go, go. Yeah. All right.
\nSo, Coach, I know you’re a little unfamiliar with Chris Corpus, but he’ll often post videos
\nagain in his driveway. So there’s just down it’s called a sack. And there’ll be an Olympic sprinter just sprinting
\nwith a sled down the street, down the street, down a street in Chicago. Oh, yeah, yeah,
\nyeah. But I think Bo Jackson’s house is right beside you, right across the street. But yeah, it’s it’s
\npretty. Yeah. He’s all set up in his basement to like a little weight room. I’ve got to meet Chris at some point
\nbecause I keep. Yeah. Guys let’s have him in for next year. Clinic. Have to get it. Yeah. We’ll get him. He’s awesome.
\nYeah. You love him. Look forward to it. Yeah. Chris is a great friend of mine. Obviously one of the owners
\nof our PR. And he is. He’s one of those guys that just keeps testing how he
\ntests. He’s got timing gates. They keep running faster. So we’re in a day. You know,
\nhe comes back, too. He just keeps investigating. And, you know, if you if you are truly evaluating what
\nyou’re doing, if it’s if it’s effective or not, if it’s optimal or not. You have to keep investigating and
\nkeep finding out if. Yeah, exactly. But I had a couple out of question for you.
\nLook different. Changing gears here. Internship. Mm hmm.
\nYou obviously, you just feel like just from the years I’ve known you and coach coach
\nMike Hansen here, he interned under you there. Minnesota, you have a very,
\nvery sought after and good internship program.
\nWhat do you look for? KHOW, if you’re looking for an intern. And they may not
\nwork directly with you, but they’re still going to come intern with you. Right. And being run under your system and your tutelage.
\nWhat do you look for in interns today? Somebody that’s really with
\nan open mind. Right. That’s willing to understand that. Again, maybe everything that you’ve learned might
\nnot be right in your your college degree or less than optimal, but you needed to
\nlearn. I find and we don’t nail it every time because sometimes
\nwe need like four or five and we know there’s two good ones in it. And hopefully
\nthe two good ones can create the culture amongst the interns, you know, because
\nwe’ve had groups of interns that go bad with their culture and they just got attitudes and you go on well.
\nAnd even though there were good coaches you like. I see a lot now that
\nI find it hard to be a good intern. I think adaptability.
\nI think a lot of kids lack some awareness of just being
\nOK. What do I got to do to make a good impression? You know, I mean, I think they’ve
\nhad a lot of things done for them in their lifetime. A lot of these kids,
\nthese age this age group and I mean, I’m like,
\nwow, they just don’t see some of the little things. And I’m not even talking about coaching. I’m just talking about
\nhow the perception of themselves. Is with me.
\nYou know, and I don’t need to be called sir coach, and I tell em to call me cow.
\nBut some of the little things that you’re going, hey, you know, the way you think is not necessarily
\nin regards to, hey, I’m going to. Yeah, I got to leave early today. OK. OK. That’s fine.
\nBut you’re going. It’s really nice up. That’s not a reason to leave early
\nbecause it’s nice out. Right. You know what I’m saying? I think
\nthe more real life experiences kids can have. I’ll be honest,
\nif you like farm kids, they seem to do a really good job or something. They grew up in that setting
\nbecause they have to. I mean, I have farm kid. He’ll be he’ll be looking for stuff to
\ndo. He’s had his internship. You know, we’ve got that with military intern. The same thing.
\nSame. They’re just looking for things that they can do to help. Yes. I
\ndon’t know if society is creating a tribe mentality anymore, coach.
\nYeah. And. I love being part of a tribe, right,
\nespecially with my office guys, the guys I have that I got three people right now that are four of us.
\nFive of us total that are two interns, three interns that have been there while and they got other jobs.
\nSo they intern with us just to stay there. But they make enough money. And you’re going, man. We got a group of five
\nthat are tribe. And like, we laugh, we joke. We have a good time. Right. And
\nI dont know if it seems like some these interns come in, they don’t have a purpose.
\nThe purposes I’m here to serve these athletes and you’re here to serve them with me. And I
\ndon’t think they think that serving an athlete is something of value or serving the
\nprogram. I mean, and it’s hard because you see him on Instagram and and
\nactually that’s funny because all they’ll shoot my my assistant will show me a poster of a kid
\non Instagram. It’s our intern. I’m going. That’s not him. Right, just because of the perception
\nand persona he’s posting on social media. And I know him for 15 or 10 hours
\na day. You’re going. That’s not who that kid. Two different two different people.
\nThere’s not much reality there. It seems like on the social media, that perception that
\nthey give out. And that’s that’s a big disconnect, I think. Yeah. That social media
\ncan be positive. It can be powerful, but it can be very can be very
\nlimiting as far as you know, if you’re not. Because I think, you know, you
\nmentioned the awareness. And I would. I mean, I definitely would agree. I think that
\nand, you know, I’ve read enough business stuff with the emotional intelligence. Yes. Of not
\nbeing no one how they’re coming after people. So they’re not aware of how they’re being
\nperceived. And so they don’t know how to adjust, how they’re
\ninteracting with you or with an athlete or how to even, you know, raise the bar
\non how they’re doing their job. And so if you’re not aware
\nof how you’re coming up, then it’s hard to take feedback. One. One hundred percent.
\nBecause you don’t see it. You don’t know, you don’t know, right? Yeah, that’s the hard part. If you don’t know, you don’t know, you’re
\nat the lowest level of understanding. What are the four levels of what is given to the. You don’t know. You don’t
\nknow. And then the next level is, you know, that you don’t know. Okay. And then there’s
\na level of of education. Right. And then there’s mastery or something like that. Yeah.
\nLowest level as though the day. Sure. Right. You just don’t know. You don’t know.
\nAnd you’re like, oh, okay. But that adaptability. It just seems like, you know, I
\ntook a group of them up to my honey cabin and we got a tractor really stuck and they were standing. There
\nwas no way any of them were gonna be able to. So, I mean, hooked up the change on my truck.
\nI got my truck set up. I said, all right, you’ve got to get in here when I say go. And I got in there. I got in the tractor. I had a
\nbackhoe and a front. And I actually had to to scoop and move the whole thing at the same time. And
\nI had to coach them. And I was like, how do you know I’ll do all this stuff? I’m like, I don’t always you just
\ngotta get in there and do it, people. Sometimes you have to try learn. Right. Yeah. I learned through trial
\nand error. I know. And then we had a flat tire on one of the s._u._v.s. I was like, yeah,
\nyou take that off. I didn’t needed to take it off to fix it. Let me see if I can take that off.
\nIt was an hour and 20 minutes on something would. It took me to love it. I know
\nit would be. We need to incorporate that into the internship program. Here is what we do. Week one
\nthat’s curriculum. We’re going to change a tire. That going back to something you say with interns
\nabout not understanding that they’re there to serve the athletes or a team. Right. Right.
\nThat’s a problem we’ve even seen. Whether it’s interns, you end up coming on to help us or even we’ve
\ngot an applicants where they’ve reached out and literally presented. What can
\nyou what do you guys offer for me? What can you do for me? And it’s like instantly,
\nyou know, they’re missing the boat. It’s like that. That’s not what this is about. What we can do for you shopping
\nexperience. It’s it’s not just the the the intern.
\nThey’re starting with the internship. It’s the whole profession is about serving people.
\nAnd you walk into an internship and you want to know what we can do for you. You stepped
\noff in the wrong. Like, right. You’re in the wrong field. Yeah. Because if this is about you
\ngoing bad nearly six, 50 years, I’m not going to be great for you, coach. Like how important
\nyou in your world, your big deal. But but honestly, you’re
\nnot as important as your athletes. You’re not as important as your head coaches or your assistant coaches. You’re not as important as
\nyour children. You’re not as important as your wife. Coach, there’s a whole list of people in my life
\nlike I’m a hundred, in my opinion, on my list. Like you’re low. We’re low. The seriously and weak. But
\nyou know what? I saw a picture of it was like what was a leader or
\nthere was a leader versus the somebody that like considering
\nanother term. It was like somebody that was in charge and it was a picture and it was a person like
\nin the sled standing there. But the leader was a true person at the front
\npulling the most doing. I mean. And yeah, somebody may be the boss, but
\nthe leader was the guy pulling the sled. The boss’s in the sled. But in my life, like
\nyou sitting here going, oh, I mean, 90 percent of my day, I’m I’m served and you’re helping others.
\nMike Favorite taught us a good lesson. I was interning at Michigan. He’s the director at Universal Michigan.
\nBut he told us the story about how he had the perfect candidate to come in to be an associate director
\nand essentially aced every portion of his interview, can find a flaw in him. But as he sit in his office
\nready to essentially offer him a job, the guy’s literally looking out in the parking lot saying, so which parking
\nspot would you would mind being, you know, thinking it was a joke? You’re kind of laughing it off, but finding
\nout the guy was serious. He’s like, what? Which one’s my spot? And he’s like, I don’t want I think this isn’t about
\nyou. Like, it’s not about what’s what can be offered to you. This is about what what can
\nyou offer the University of Michigan. And so he said he end up not hiring the guy in Puerto Rico. And
\nthat story stuck that like, you know, no matter what you think that you can
\nbring to the table, you can’t forget that we’re here to serve athletes or serve a team that’s bigger than us,
\nnot a coach. One time years ago tell me that when he’s looking at athletes, when he would recruit
\nthe one kind of. Kind of measuring stick. You would have throughout
\nthe process was if you meet an athlete that. They are more concerned
\nabout what the university can give them versus what they can give back to the university.
\nThat was a that was something you want to look at really close a flag that they’re going to come. There’s going to be
\nabout them. They’re not going to try to give back and be grateful and try to to to make their team
\nbetter. They’re going to say, what can I give and take away a walk away from here? So the question then is.
\nAs a coach, if you’re going to take that kid, you better have a culture that’s so strong
\nthat changes his attitude the day he walks around it. Yeah. Seriously?
\nBecause I’ve seen cultures take selfish kids
\nand change their lives. And I’ve seen cultures and, you know, I’ve had
\ncoaches and they’re like, hey, what do you think of our culture this year? And I looked at him. I said, what was
\nit? I mean, what culture did you instill, coach? And he looked at me and like,
\nwell, if you didn’t instill a culture, we had a 20 year old culture of men
\nthat were selfish. So if you don’t and still won, you won. No,
\nthe one that naturally pops up and that’s what we had. And we had Luden losing season. And it wasn’t a bad
\nculture. It’s just a 20 year old selfish culture and
\ncultures like I had a genius coach tell me something like cover monoxide.
\nRight. We can’t see it. Can’t smell it. They’ll kill you. Yeah.
\nThat was you, coach. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like cult culture is like oxygen right there. Rain when it’s present. No.
\nAnd it’s healthy. Nobody notices. But when it’s toxic, everybody. Everybody
\nnotices. And you can wake up dead. Yeah. You know, that will kill you. So it’s
\nin that, you know. So I see that you win with people.
\nBut what drives that people and to me, that tribe. I mean, every championship team
\nthat I worked with, I’ve won I’ve won 36 Big Ten titles, but I’ve coached 200
\nseasons, maybe 190 at Minnesota. Now you’re on. So I was a loser. How many
\ntimes? A lot. You know. But I was fortunate to win like 36. OK.
\nAnd you’re going. But every team had a mentality about them.
\nYou know, I mean, I look back and one of the most unbelievable seasons I ever experienced
\nwas in women’s ice hockey. We had an undefeated season, which is really never happened in the modern age.
\nAnd I’ve never been so nervous for games at the end of season just because
\nto say that I was part of something that was perfect like that, especially in hockey. Right. There was a time
\nwhere I think we were down by two goals in St. Cloud and
\nwe came out with three minutes left, put two in to tie it up and set
\nthe attitude on the bench. Was it? Oh, no, no, no. We’re going to win it the next minute
\nmentality. And this was like towards in the season. And they went out and they put one in in regulation to win
\nin regulation. That was the mentality. They were never waiver because they were
\na tribe. They were group. And they knew that they were all business.
\nYeah. Already. Coach, we will have to kind of wrap it up here
\nand that sound good. Callard has been absolutely
\njust phenomenal having you in back in Austin to how have you on the podcast and
\ndistributes to have a conversation. Any any concluding thoughts, Mike, for Carl? No. We just appreciate
\nyou coming down here talking shop. You’re welcome. Anytime. Anytime you want to reach
\nout. You are more than welcome. So. Well, I appreciate you guys having me. And I know it’s
\nit’s awesome to be here and share ideas and hear from other coaches and just setting
\nhere, knowing that type of coaches like you are in this profession. And it’s
\nit’s kind of refreshing, you know, because there’s not always people are in it for themselves,
\nwhat you mean. And to know that and we know this, that we’re here to serve. We’re
\nhere to serve these athletes. And hopefully I’m making the right decisions for them. And that’s why I keep working.
\nIt’s just to make those decisions. But yeah. I’m just fortunate that I can be a coach.
\nThanks, coach. If somebody wants to follow you. I mean, I think most people know how to get your butt working.
\nWhat’s the most convenient and easiest way to connect with you? Yeah, I have a Web site
\nlike X.O. Athlete Excel like extra-large athlete dot com. I’ve tried
\naphasic training, dot com. I’m on Instagram and yeah, I have a lot of
\ne-mails. But you know, if you profile my e-mail, if you’re in the free world, that seems that some
\ndays it seems like everybody is able to find it. So Cal Dietz at G-mail is one way to get a hold
\nof me. So anyway, and I have various Facebook coaching groups so that
\nI’m involved with. So, yeah. Anyway, you know, I’m sure you do a quick Google search if
\nyou pop up pretty quick. So, again, Coach Cal Dietz, thank you for all you’re doing
\nfor our profession and making us all better coaches and professionals. You’ve been
\na huge blessing, I know, to our staff and to me. So thank you, coach. And I know Coach Hanssens
\ncame out of your coaching tree and he’s been he’s been just a great coach in addition to our
\nteam here. So thank you, coach. Well, I’m sure he’ll be better. Me and I appreciate the kind words.
\nMy eyes are rolling. All right. Well, thank you, guys. It’s awesome.
\nThanks for the kind words and I appreciate it. What do you say, Minnesota? Go, go, go,
\ngolfers. And me and Mike from Austin, Texas. This has been the team behind the team
\nparkas with Coach Cal Dietz. The man, the myth, the legend. We love you, coach. We appreciate you keep make an
\nimpact and hook them horns. Thanks so
\nmuch for tuning in and listening to this episode. The team behind the team podcast
\nfor future episodes go to i-Tunes Spotify, Google Podcast or
\nStitcher. We definitely want to keep having great guest 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 Don Hemade 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\/6\/e1-cal-dietz-strength-conditioning.mp3","player_link":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/the-team-behind-the-team\/podcast-player\/6\/e1-cal-dietz-strength-conditioning.mp3","audio_player":"