CVASPS The Podcast

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 ther...

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...

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...

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...

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 y...

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...

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...

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 all...

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...

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: What the first off season was like, and how it set up their program moving forward. The impact of the COVID summer and in what ways that continues to impact his...

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 averag...

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...

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...

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 a...

“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 per...

“There are some general principles about how we train and how we could train based on humans first based on how we respond to training.”   This episode of The Podcast is a super discussion with Jonas Dodoo. During the 41-minute talk we cover:   1)     Principles and systems, the power behind them and why their vital for coaches 2)     Different ways that the general impacts the specific in trainin...

“Being able to have something that you stand for, and being able to consistently deliver that message in a way that’s authentic and gets to the core root of the issue and to your audience, that IS coaching.”   Always awesome to catch up with Ali Kershner, and this week’s episode of The Podcast is no different! Throughout the 40-minute chat we talk about:   1)     Ali’s new role and what inspired h...

“It’s much more challenging to find solutions to problems then it is to complain.”   Always great to catch up with Coach Brijesh Patel, and this episode of The Podcast is no different. Throughout the 35-minute chat we talk about:   1)     How a deep dive into fascia has had a massive impact on his programming 2)     Eldoa, what it is and why it’s important 3)     How isokinetic training can improv...

“You do what they can do, build in what they can do, circumvent the weaknesses and try to get them to that.”   “There’s nothing really new, science has helped us understand the effects of things better, great coaches have made us understand it from their experiences. We’ve all learned from our fairs, unfortunately I’ve made the same mistakes a couple times, which makes me upset.”   “The great ones...

“I tell young coaches and young trainers all the time, just because you have the title of strength coach at this school or the title of trainer at this school that really doesn’t mean anything, it means absolutely nothing other than the paycheck.”    “Ultimately, if the kids come to you and the athletes come to you and you help them and you come up with answers for them they’re going to keep comin...

“If you have the outputs you can have compensations and breakdowns in your technique. If you don’t have the output and you don’t have the ability to be a freak athlete then you better move really, really well and create impulse at the right time.”    In this week’s episode of The Podcast I got to catch up with Zach Dechant. Throughout the 35-minute chat we talk about:   1)     Zach’s new role at T...

“What am I going to do for this kid? Because he doesn’t even know what makes him good. Genuinely, we can say we do, we have no idea what makes these people good.”    In today’s episode of The Podcast I sit down and chat with Freak Strength’s Mike Guadango. During the 32-minute chat we talk about:   1)     The crazy world of being a “sport specialist” and the ebbs and flows of it that he’s lived th...

“You always figure things out when it’s too late. This is the problem of human nature. You figure out you’re on the wrong track when your athletes are not performing well, but that mistake has been made three months before when you didn’t see it, when you though “hey this is going great, I’m such a good coach.” Then they fail miserably, and then that mistake has been made before so always try to p...

“As cool as our job is and as much as we all love training, and making them better and watching them do their thing.  At the end of it, what are we actually leaving them with and what are we helping them do?” We are joined this week by South Carolina Women’s Basketball Sport Performance Coach and my Free-VASPS co-host, Molly Benetti for this episode of The Podcast. Throughout the 40-minute discuss...

“None of this strength and conditioning shit matters if we can’t get our athletes to understand what we’re asking them to do, or if they don’t understand how it applies. If they don’t get it, it doesn’t matter.”   Welcome back to The Podcast. If I was going to bring this thing back it had to be Jeff Moyer batting leadoff. In this 40-minute talk, Jeff and I talk about:   1)     The new and unique r...