CVASPS The Podcast

I’m elated to introduce Brittney Bearden to The CVASPS family in this week’s episode of The Podcast. Britt has done some fantastic work with our guys over the past three years helping them to transform their nutrition routines. In the 33-minute discussion Brittney and I get into: 1) What drove her to go into sports nutrition and how the education steps to get licensed impacted how she practices today. 2) What is truly involved in how we select food, and how important it is to individualize nutrition programs based on the specific athlete. 3) The value in understanding where the athlete is in their nutrition voyage, and working with them to build from there. 4) Where the “line” is for where strength coaches may step out of their scope of practice, and what issues could arise if we over step our boundaries. A huge thank you to Brittney Bearden for joining us today. She has been a huge addition to our group and has done great work helping our guys better understand how they fuel themselves, and also puts out awesome stuff so make sure you give her a follow @sportrdbritt on Instagram. I’m sure you’ll find a have a ton of value in the content she’s putting out. I can’t thank you enough for listening to The Podcast, and I hope you enjoyed the show. If so and could help us out by sharing the show with a colleague that would be greatly appreciated, and please don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player, and please leave us a review while you’re there.

This week’s episode of The Podcast is a season review and audit with Andrea Comini. Dre and I have known each other for almost 10 years, and we had the opportunity to sponsor his visa to bring him back to The States to work with us in The Q this year and he was a huge addition. Dre’s a great coach who brought a unique view point to our daily routine, our programming, and our standard. In the 30-minute discussion Dre and I get into: 1) Where his love of basketball and coaching stems from. 2) How bringing in a new set of eyes helped point out some areas I became a bit comfortable 3) The value of having a standard in our vocation and how it can be helpful teaching leadership and accountability within a team 4) Being who you are at all times, how each individual has to be true to themselves, and how we can learn from each other’s true self 5) The training plan and facility they’re building in Italy, and what is the driving factor behind building the program. Massive thank you to Andrea Comini for joining us today. This was a unique show for me, taking a step back and reviewing where we had to make some improvements, the results of them, and sharing with you. I can’t thank Dre enough for his help this year, both with the team and with driving me to be a better coach. Make sure you check out what they’re doing at the Pro Camp, they’re doing an awesome job sharing what doing down at the lake. Give them a follow at: @procamp__ on Instagram. I’m sure you’ll find a what they’re putting out to have a ton of value. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed the show. If so and could help us out by sharing the show with a colleague that would be greatly appreciated, and please don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player, and please leave us a review while you’re there.

This week I had the pleasure of getting to catch up with Dominick Walker on this week’s episode of The Podcast. Dom is doing some awesome work down at Mississippi State preparing his Men’s Basketball team, and also providing a ton of great content on the work they’re doing and the results he’s seeing. In the 35-minute chat Dom and I get into: 1) Some adjustments that we see that are needed in this new era of the portal and NIL 2) Picking what battle to fight knowing that you’re not going to win them all 3) What the role of having standards are in developing relationships with the athlete 4) The role of the strength and conditioning coach in the world of sport Huge thanks to Dominick Walker for joining us today. This show, like many this season, has been a long time coming. He’s doing an awesome job sharing the work he’s doing down at MSU so make sure you give him a follow at: @raikage.com on twitter and Instagram. I’m sure you’ll find a what he’s putting out to have a ton of value. If you enjoyed the show and could help us out by sharing the show with a colleague that would be greatly appreciated, and please don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player, and please leave us a review while you’re there.

I am so excited to welcome Dr. Kessa Kuyper to The Podcast. “K” was a great addition to our staff for the 2021/22 season, helping one of the oldest teams ever in college basketball “survive” the season with her unique perspective on training after going through PT School. In the 30-minute conversation we discuss: 1) Why going to PT school may be a good decision for young coaches coming out of college 2) How having a role within the high-performance team is important, not just to the staff but the athlete even more. 3) The value in the athlete’s input to programming K is doing awesome work out in Memphis. Make sure you give her a follow @kessakuyper and follow the staff at Memphis @mephisathleticperformance You’ll find a ton of awesome content on both pages. Also, if you find value in the shows please feel free to send it to a colleague that would enjoy it and don’t forget to subscribe and give us a 5-star review! I truly do appreciate it.

In this week’s episode of The Podcast Will Ratelle and I discuss the vernacular of strength and conditioning, and why terms matter. Throughout the 35-minute chat Will and I get into: 1) How all too often we come up with terms that may or may not have an actual definition, and why this is really slowing down our progress as a vocation. 2) His view on the term rotational power, and why there may be some misconceptions around that term 3) The impact of range of motion on power athletes 4) What factors are important to Will in the training process, and how it drives his programming. 5) How can we communicate to coaches that they may not understand what they don’t understand 6) How the most important thing may be how your relationships with your coworkers are. Will is doing great work, not just with his student athlete’s but with his two “Hoss” projects. Make sure you check them out here: and give him a follow on Instagram @will.ratelle. He puts out a ton of awesome content. If you enjoyed the show please subscribe on your favorite podcast player, and if you could leave us a 5 star review I’d greatly appreciate it!

In this week’s episode I’m so happy to welcome Josh Storms to The Podcast. Throughout the 30-minute conversation Josh and I get into: 1) The pros of longevity in one place. 2) The transition period between head coaches, what he observed with the players, and how being the “go between” with the new staff and the players helped with the transition. 3) What his evaluation process during Spring Ball consists of, and the impact of “the portal” 4) The importance of evolving your programming, and its effect both physically and mentally on the athlete 5) Leadership, why athletes have a hard time with it, and how we can encourage athletes to develop that skill. Coach Storms is doing awesome work down at FSU, and is such a generous wealth of knowledge. Make sure to give Josh a follow @coachstorms on both Instagram and Twitter to check out the work he’s doing and the awesome training music that’s got going on in their sessions. I hope you enjoyed the discussion, and if you did please feel free share it with a colleague. Also, if you find value in the shows please don’t forget to subscribe and give us a 5-star review! I truly do appreciate it.

This week’s podcast guest is another coach whose name has been dropped on many “My Thoughts Monday’s. I’m so fired up to get to chop it up with my good friend and former co-worker Mike Thomson this week. In the 30-minute chat Mike and I get into: 1) Evaluating players (in this case pitchers), and how looking at their mechanics can improve specificity and drive better training prescription. 2) How they establish variables to look at and use to help drive, not just their training model, but prescription of training means to impact the sporting exercise. 3) The impact of understanding the language used in the sport, and the what the actual 4) Keeping training to help make those who are exceptional at certain things even more exceptional at those things based on evaluations 5) Working through the “continual in season” that we are now seeing in many sports 6) Where looking at the individual vs regressing to a mean can help identify not just what is working for each specific athlete but also what is NOT working. 7) Thought processes that drive his continuous growth and has helped him build this model Mike has had a huge impact the development of our staff and programming for our athlete’. Make sure you give him a follow-on Twitter @Thomson19Mike and Instagram @mikethomson19 to see what he’s building in the training of all the teams he gets to work with. If you enjoyed the talk please feel free share it with a colleague and don’t forget to subscribe and give us a 5-star review! It’s greatly appreciated.

This episode has been a long time coming. I’ve mentioned him quite often in the old “My Thoughts Monday” shows as being a vital part of our “Q Team”, and it’s about time I brought him onto the show. Throughout the X minute discussion Beacher and I get into: 1) What is the first “marker” that we look at when we start to develop out programs, and, even though we find success in similar programs, there is a huge need for there to be some major differences 2) Ways that he evaluates the team that have impacted how programming is progressed and helped display what their level of “preparedness” is. 3) Where he feels the largest challenge in “practical periodization”, including what has helped him drive those decisions. 4) If there is confusion on the thoughts of periodization and training progressions where it could have stemmed from. 5) How the subjective and objective progression of programming is a give and take process that has allowed better individualization to training and greater buy in by the athletes towards their development. 6) Using the warm up as your evaluation, injury reduction work, and preparation for the exercises that they’re going to perform. Beacher has been vital to our development as a staff and his input into the programming of our athlete’s has been a huge help in how we have progressed. Make sure you give him a follow-on Instagram @alphacoach1 to see what he’s building in the training of all the teams he gets to work with. If you enjoyed the talk please feel free to subscribe and give us a 5-star review! It’s greatly appreciated.

I’m so happy to welcome Steve Georgio to The Podcast this week. Steve has been doing awesome work up at Fordham going through a very unique and trying three years, surviving three different head coaching changes in that time period, leading up to a fantastic season this year. Throughout the 30 plus minute discussion Steve and I talk about 1) The importance of loyalty in a world and vocation that really lacks it at times 2) In a time where specializing in one sport is the norm, how working with multiple sports has helped him be ready for a vast array of situations, changes, curve balls 3) Key thoughts and themes of the conversations that he has had to better understand the direction a team is going to go with new coaches during times of transition 4) Understanding our role within the team, and how that changes, not just throughout the year, but season to season as teams change 5) How expanding your coaching skill set, through many different forms of education, is great, but doing so directed by the needs of the athletes and coaches is even better 6) Providing ever green content and “meeting the athletes where they’re at” through different mediums to help provide more education for the athletes Make sure to give Steve a follow-on IG and twitter @georg1o and follow his performance team @rams_strength, they’re doing great stuff and putting out great content. If you enjoyed the talk please feel free to subscribe and give us a 5-star review! It’s greatly appreciated

Today I am elated to welcome Eric Guthrie to The Podcast. Many of our listeners who have attended The Seminar have had the pleasure of meeting “Big E” at one of the events and know he’s one of the best people in our vocation. In the 35-minute discussion Eric and I get into: 1) What “improving the department” actually means to each of us, and how following/working under great directors allows you to keep the ball rolling. 2) The importance of a common vision and how communicating that throughout the department is vital to improving our position and their opinion of what we do. 3) Ways that we can impact things outside the weight room, including how sometimes less is more when building out these plans. 4) The idea of preparing the athlete’s better to prepare better for the game, how to build that out and monitor progress. Make sure to give Eric a follow-on IG and twitter @Ericguthrie07 and follow his performance team @GWSportsperformance, they’re doing great stuff and putting out great content. If you enjoyed the talk please feel free to subscribe and give us a 5-star review! It’s greatly appreciated.

This week’s episode of The Podcast is some Thoughts from Old Graybeard where I reflect on this time of the year. All too often coaches suffer from extreme FOMO, and this time of year is one of the greatest culprits for experiencing it. For those whose seasons have come to an end we are, at times, in a rush to get back to training and really crank it up, but that isn’t always what’s best. What may be best for all of us is to do one simple thing that really isn’t that easy to do, and that is, slow down.

In this week’s episode of The Podcast I have the pleasure of sitting down and chopping it up with Andrew Stuart. In the 30-minute talk Andrew and I get into: 1) How taking the thought process back to a 5th grade science experiment could save practitioners a lot of headaches. 2) Where he sees an issue with being data driven, and how changing the thought process to data informed could help us be even better for the coaches and athletes we get to work with. 3) What the “applied” in applied sport science needs to mean, and why just doing testing to do testing leads us to road blocks in the process. 4) How the art of coaching and the basic pillars of what we do need to continue to be the back bone of our programming and the tech needs to support it. Andrew is doing some awesome work at Nebraska, make sure to keep up with everything they’re doing by following him on Instagram at: @ coachastuart

I’m elated to welcome Ben Kenyon to The Podcast and introduce him as one of our presenters for The 2023 Seminar. I have had the fortune to know BK and call him a collogue for the past 18 years so this conversation has been a long time coming. Throughout the 45-minute discussion we get into: 1) How career burn out impacted to him professionally, and how it led to a personal pivot that has allowed him to impact people all over the world. 2) The importance of having your set of core values to drive your vision and career progression. 3) Finding the value in pausing and pacing yourself in your personal life and professionally. 4) Understanding that maximizing now and being patient and building the best of your situation is what opens doors later 5) What it truly means to be a master of your craft and why that is vital for our continued growth as a vocation Make sure you check out Great Day Squad (https://www.greatdaysquad.com) and per order Climb (https://www.greatdaytoclimb.com) today! I’m so excited to have BK on the docket and hope you are as well. I hope you and your staff are able to join us The Seminar, July 21 and 22 at PLAE HQ for this summer’s edition of The Seminar! For more info and to book your seats use the link here: https://cvasps.com/2023-seminar/

This week we welcome Dr. Craig Turner to The Podcast. Throughout this fantastic 42-minute discussion Dr. Turner goes into: 1) The tactical similarities across team sports and how those similarities have helped both of us progress our careers from soccer to basketball, and create a better understanding of the games. 2) The role of technology in coaching and how important having actionable data and actually acting on it is. 3) Understanding what you are trying to measure when selecting what technology to add 4) Touch points and communication points are both vital to keep track of and to a minimum so that you actually collect and communicate the most essential information. 5) Lessons learned from his time in the NBA, and how those lessons have impacted how he collects and communicates data today 6) What meeting where them where they’re at not only is in reference to the players but also is in relation to the communication methods utilized to get the info to the coaches that they need.

This week we are joined by 2023 Seminar presenter, Kansas University’s Director of Sports Performance for football, Matt Gildersleeve. Our last discussion with Sleeve was OTR #79, and we catch up right where we left off. Sleeve dives into: We hope you’re as excited as we are to welcome Coach Sleeve to The Seminar, July 21 and 22 at PLAE HQ! For more info and to book your seats use the link here: https://cvasps.com/2023-seminar/

It’s always great to catch up with Dr. Bryan Mann, and this week’s episode of The Podcast is no different. In the 36-minute discussion Doc and I go into: 1) His new position and role at “The U” 2) Force Velocity Profiling, some of the issues and FAQ’s with it, and practical ways to implement it (oh and this is what his presentation is on at The 2023 Seminar) 3) How looking at averages at times is appropriate, but can also hinder development 4) How important math and physics are to what we do 5) The importance of asking why, along with how important who answers the question impacts our view of the answer. 6) How our biases impact our perspective, and how that can impact our continued development as coaches 7) The importance of “letting it go”, and how that had a huge impact on him both at work and home. Can’t wait to have Dr. Mann back on the docket at The Seminar and hope you can join us at PLAE HQ this July 21st and 22nd! For more info and to book your seats use the link here: https://cvasps.com/2023-seminar/

I couldn’t be more excited to have had the opportunity to sit down and catch up with 2023 presenter Coach Boo Schexnayder on this week’s episode of The Podcast. After a quick catch-up with Coach Boo we get into: 1) The role of science and practical common sense thinking in coaching, and how what is “scientific” vs common sense has come full circle. 2) What the role of research is in his coaching, and how he sees some limitations to research 3) Why he’s very reserved when it comes to the flavor of the week fads and leans towards time tested methods and means 4) The role of coming up as a coach before the “technology movement” has helped him have a better understanding of what is and isn’t useful in sports tech. 5) Trusting your instincts when it comes to making decisions on programming and during training session. 6) How important mistakes are in a coach’s development ONLY if they are able to be critical of themselves. 7) The importance of having outside interests from coaching to help us stay grounded and avoid burnout. I hope you’re as excited as I are to bring to Coach Boo back to The Seminar and can join us at PLAE HQ this July 21st and 22nd! For more info and to book your seats use the link here: https://cvasps.com/2023-seminar/

I am so fired up to welcome Molly Binetti back to The Podcast and introduce her as our 2nd presenter at The 2023 edition of The Seminar. In the 35-minute discussion we talk about: 1) The challenges of the season after winning a championship and how that’s impacted our approaches to not just training, but how we handle our athletes 2) The importance of making sure you’re progressing the younger players on a successful team and not letting them be comfortable riding the coat tails of those who built the success in front of them. 3) The challenges to finding out what truly maters when it comes to impacting wins and losses 4) What matters when it comes to “doing your job well”? 5) How taking care of #1 made her better in every aspect of coaching and life. I hope you’re as excited as I are to bring to Molly back to The Seminar and can join us at PLAE HQ this July 21st and 22nd! For more info and to book your seats use the link here: https://cvasps.com/2023-seminar/

The Podcast returns with a sensational conversation with PLAE’s Chase Campbell. Chase and I discuss: 1) The decision to move The Seminar to PLAE HQ 2) What Greybeard’s presentation will be on at CVASPS and different lenses to look at reverse engineering through 3) The role of simplicity in programming and how our view on it has changed as we have gotten older 4) The most valuable aspects of CVASPS to both of us 5) What is one thing outside of work could help all coaches be better at what they do that, for the most part, we are all horrible with. 6) How teaching and buy in go hand in hand when it comes to training 7) Using different one-off opportunities to allow more autonomy and see how much the athletes have learned from you about training We hope you’re as excited as we are to bring to The Seminar to PLAE HQ this July 21st and 22nd! For more info and to book your seats use the link here: https://cvasps.com/2023-seminar/

“We all live in the same physical world and environment, it’s just the demands of your sport may have some degrees of variant within that.” One of the things I try to do is bring the people doing the research to The Seminar, and after writing the book on biomechanics of basketball, Dr. Petway is the go to in that discipline. During the 42-minute talk we cover: 1) His voyage into sports performance, and what drove him towards researching biomechanics 2) How being asked the right questions by his mentor changed his whole perspective on training progressions 3) A few books that were game changing to him both educationally and in his coaching 4) The big limitation to using “clock sports” as our guide in training. 5) What are the two “big rocks” when it comes to performance outcomes 6) The importance and value of working with high school athlete’s 7) The role of systems and how they need to constantly evolve I’m elated to have Dr. Petway at The Seminar and elated to welcome him to the CVASPS family and have him as part of The Pittsburgh Seminar! I hope you’re able to join us July 15 and 16 at The Marriott Short Pump! Tap the link to book your seat today! https://cvasps.com/the-2022-richmond-seminar/