Truth In The Arena

What is the difference between holding a position of power and serving as a leader? Jim Malone—owner of Baseball Strength Academy and longtime Strength and Conditioning Coach with the San Diego Padres, New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Guardians, Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals—joins the latest episode to discuss leadership lessons he’s learned from decades in the Bigs workin...

“One of the things we always talk about with coaches is that you should be willing to do the things you ask your athletes to do. So, I should also be just as willing to answer the questions that I ask my guests.” Marking the 6-month milestone for the podcast, Coach Scott Charland leads a role-reversal episode and takes the interviewer’s chair for the day, putting host Nate Huffstutter on the hot s...

Fire it up! Coach Todd Hamer re-tells a story from Barack Obama about how a spark of inspiration can be enough to change the energy in another person, which can change a room, which can change a community, which can change a city, which can change a country. In addition to over two decades of experience as a D1 strength and conditioning coach—with leadership roles at The Citadel, Marist, George Ma...

How can club and travel coaches make youth sports a fun, rewarding, and positive experience while still supporting highly competitive players through every level of their athletic journeys? Team sports are what you make them—YOU meaning coaches, players, families, communities, and organizations. While those critical of the youth sports system can point to issues with player burnout, high costs, ex...

Equality. Fairness. Respect. Coach Devan McConnell, High Performance Director for the NHL’s Utah Mammoth, joins the latest episode of the Truth In The Arena Podcast to discuss how those core tenets are essential for teamwork and developing a positive team culture. In addition to being vital in the world of sports, Coach McConnell also explains how inclusiveness and fairness are core principles he...

Overcoming adversity. Resilience. Taking a loss in stride and continuing to work towards a common goal. We understand how these qualities shape durable and successful teams, and in this episode Molly Binetti, the Director of Women’s Basketball Performance for the powerhouse University of South Carolina program, discusses how those same qualities have also been elemental in pushing forward against...

It started with a phone call—one man in a time of need. Summer, 2020. Following George Floyd’s murder and the aftermath of the global Black Lives Matter protests and ensuing backlash, Ohio High School Hall of Fame football coach Al Powell called his friend (and fellow Hall of Fame coach) Jim Place to express his despair at how the country was being torn apart. From that rare, authentic, and open c...

Having passed the 20-year mark in his coaching career, Kalamazoo Central High School track coach Tyler Germain shares his perspective on his evolution as a coach & teacher and the values and principles he seeks to instill in both his athletes and students in an ever-changing information environment. In addition to highlighting teamwork, commitment, and overcoming adversity as core values, Coac...

Serving on his city’s emergency response team. Flying to Poland and Ukraine on his own dime to prepare food and support humanitarian efforts for citizens displaced by the Russian invasion. Volunteering to provide health and fitness tools for underserved populations in his local community. Many coaches talk about servant leadership and human values; meanwhile, Coach Julio Salado demonstrates how to...

Credibility is crucial for coaches—so, how can coaches make sure they are walking it like they talk it? Longtime S&C Coach, speaker, and author Missy Mitchell-McBeth joins Episode #7 of the podcast to talk about ways to narrow down core values…and more importantly, promote values that you can model and execute. Coach Mitchell-McBeth discusses how consistency and transparency are her foundation...

Erik Becker, Head Football Coach and Sports Nutrition teacher at his alma mater, Daniel Hand High School in Madison Connecticut, joins Episode 6 to reflect on 25 years in the coaching field and how he views his “why” as a mission to develop capable, positive, healthy, and well-rounded young men. Coach Becker quotes John Dewey in believing that the role of schools are to equip and prepare students...

In team environments, we consistently teach our athletes they need to be willing to be THE ONE: whether it’s winning a 50-50 challenge, coming through with a clutch hit, or stepping up to take a charge, effective players bypass the “maybe someone else will do it” instinct. In Episode 5 of the Truth In The Arena podcast, Coach Ken Vick discusses the need for coaches to be willing to step up and be...

Coach Scott Charland, Manager of Human Performance for Parkview Sports Medicine in Fort Wayne, Indiana, joins Nate Huffstutter on the Truth in the Arena podcast to discuss leadership, activism, and being invested enough in America to stand up and criticize our country when it fails to live up to its standards and founding principles. Based on over 20 years in the trenches of collegiate strength an...

In Episode 3 of the Truth in the Arena podcast, Nate Huffstutter speaks with Coach Zach Evan-Esh, founder of the Underground Strength Gym in Manasquan, New Jersey. Coach Even-Esh draws on his deep experience coaching across a range of levels in the community, from teaching in school PE programs to training competitive high school athletes to working with the general adult population. For Even-Esh,...

In Episode 2 of the Truth In The Arena Podcast, Coach Kendall Green—Asst. S&C Coach at Alabama A&M University—speaks with host Nate Huffstutter about how his coaching principles inform his political perspective, focusing largely on the culture war battlegrounds of DEI, “Woke,” and the attempted erasure of black excellence from the historical record. Green outlines his core values of Discip...

Kicking off Episode 1 of the Truth In The Arena Podcast, longtime track coach and retired chemistry teacher Tony Holler speaks with host Nate Huffstutter about the intersection of coaching, personal values, and political beliefs. Holler’s Feed the Cats model is based on “inarguable” valuable props, such as “Make practice the best part of a kid’s day” and “kids are good at what they like and obsess...