Three tenths off the 200m race isn't chased in May — it's built in January, in a thousand invisible reps. In Episode 9 of Build Champion Athletes, Jim Beebe hands over the operating system of the whole series: Win the Day. The cascade from quarter goal to one daily habit, streak over mood, the identity shift ("I don't miss"), killing the two lies, the weekly stick, and the boring wins that separate good from great from elite. Goals are just targets. The system that gets you there — that's for winners.

▶️ Free assessment (finds the inch your habit should attack): https://athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest 📬 Newsletter: https://athlete-builder.com/newsletter ·

📘 Book: https://athlete-builder.com/booka

Win the day. Stay relentless.

Conor Hughes runs the weight room at West Point — ten years at Army, a 635-pound school-record squat, and five former assistants who've become FBS head strength coaches. Every time he loses one, his program gets better. A self-described D3 lineman who wasn't a great athlete, Conor fell in love with coaching on day one and built one of college football's most respected development programs. In this conversation, he and Jim dig into his ten daily non-negotiables, the "hive brain" of a team, radical ownership, telling the truth, and building a culture strong enough to survive losing your best people.

🎧 Full episode everywhere you listen 📊 Free Athlete Builder Scorecard: athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest 🌐 athlete-builder.com | ✉️ [email protected]

Win the Day. Stay Relentless.

A wrestler drills harder than anyone in the room and keeps losing off the same tie-up. He doesn't need more effort — he needs a diagnosis. In Episode 8 of Build Champion Athletes, Jim Beebe delivers the system that ties all six inches together: the SWOT, translated for athletes. Strength becomes your competitive advantage, weakness your limiting factor, opportunity your target, threat the enemy. Run it on all six blocks, find the real weak link (it's almost never where you think), and turn the diagnosis into one daily habit.

▶️ The free assessment runs this exact system on your whole team in ~10 minutes: https://athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest 📬 Newsletter: https://athlete-builder.com/newsletter · 📘 Book: https://athlete-builder.com/booka

Win the day. Stay relentless.

Matt King walked into Maine as a four-sport kid and left an All-American linebacker. Then he chased the NFL through three leagues — arena, the CFL, and pro camps with the Jets and Steelers — before spending 14 years building college weight rooms at UConn, Michigan State, and Texas. Today he coaches in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals. In this conversation, Matt and Jim talk about process over outcome, developing people in the weight room, and what it takes to chase a dream across three leagues and never give up on it.

🎧 Full episode everywhere you listen 📊 Free Athlete Builder Scorecard: athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest 🌐 athlete-builder.com | ✉️ [email protected]

Win the Day. Stay Relentless.

Five matches, one Saturday. Match one she's flying; match four she's a step slow. Same skill — the difference is who recovered. In Episode 7 of Build Champion Athletes, Jim Beebe covers the most neglected inch: Recovery. Sleep as the #1 steroid, recovering on purpose between games, recovery as a system, the 50% rule for wrecked days, the Gift of Injury, and the downshift that prevents burnout. The best ability is availability.

Lingering or sharp pain goes to a medical professional — rehab is run by pros.

▶️ Free assessment (10 min): https://athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest 📬 Newsletter: https://athlete-builder.com/newsletter · 📘 Book: https://athlete-builder.com/booka

Keep stacking wins. Win the day. Stay relentless.

Pedro Arruza was born in Spain, lost his father at seven, and arrived in Miami barely speaking English. He became an English teacher with a master's degree — and then built one of the best sustained runs in Division III football: 22 years as head coach at Randolph-Macon, the longest-tenured coach in Virginia, with a 2025 ODAC title to add to the collection. In this conversation, Pedro and Jim talk about the coaches who shaped his life and faith, the seed one man planted that changed everything, why he's never chased the D1 job, and what it really takes to live your standards out every day instead of just talking about them.

📊 Take the free Athlete Builder Scorecard: athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest

In this episode: — The unlikeliest origin story you'll hear: Spain, Mexico, Miami, and an English degree — The words a seventh-grade coach said that changed the trajectory of his life — Why he's stayed at Randolph-Macon for 22 years when he could have left for D1 — Living your values vs. printing them on a t-shirt — What he learned from Nick Saban about never stopping the climb — Why he still power cleans once a week

Connect with Pedro Arruza 🏈 Randolph-Macon Football — rmcathletics.com

🎧 Full episode everywhere you listen 📊 Free Athlete Builder Scorecard: athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest 🌐 athlete-builder.com | ✉️ [email protected]

Win the Day. Stay Relentless.

A kid flies around the field for twenty minutes and walks by the sixtieth. That's not always conditioning — it's an empty tank. In Episode 6 of Build Champion Athletes, Jim Beebe breaks down Nutrition, the second body block: why it's two-thirds of the result, the four fuels, the Survive-Thrive-Win climb, the bomb shake for hard-gainers, and the Jack story that proves you can't beat the math — and that without a stick, there's no change. Plus the Nutrition Top 10 you can start Monday.

Fuel, don't restrict — for weight or body-composition goals, especially with a young athlete, work with a registered dietitian.

▶️ Free assessment (10 min): https://athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest 📬 Newsletter: https://athlete-builder.com/newsletter · 📘 Book: https://athlete-builder.com/booka

Keep stacking wins. Win the day. Stay relentless.

Taggart Brown traded dirt bikes for a headset — and never lost the mentality that got him down the track. The offensive coordinator and QB coach at Bethel College joins Jim to talk about coaching without hesitation, the Event + Response = Outcome formula he teaches his quarterbacks, the grind of college coaching with a newborn at home, and why he believes most young athletes aren't physically strong enough for what the game asks of them. A walk-on turned conference player of the year turned play-caller, Taggart's story is about competing with no fear of failure — on the bike, on the field, and in life.

In this episode: — How a motocross racer's "no fear of failure" mindset transfers to calling plays — Event + Response = Outcome: the one thing you can always control — The walk-on tryout that produced his best man — The real cost of the coaching grind on family — Why he thinks most young athletes aren't strong enough — and how to fix it — The four most powerful words you can tell a young man: "I believe in you"

Connect with Taggart Brown 𝕏 Twitter: @taggart_brown 📸 Instagram: @taggart.brown

🎧 Full episode everywhere you listen 📊 How good is your athlete? Take the free Athlete Builder Scorecard: athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest 📰 Two Minute Drill newsletter: athlete-builder.com/newsletter 🌐 athlete-builder.com | ✉️ [email protected]

Win the Day. Stay Relentless.

Same team, same skills, same trainers — so why does one kid win the 50/50 ball and the other doesn't? It's not skill. It's the body.

In Episode 5 of Build Champion Athletes, Jim Beebe crosses from the head to the body with Training — the inch that lets an athlete apply everything else. He breaks down the training pyramid (mindset → nutrition → conditioning → movement → strength → speed & power → sport), why "a pyramid is only as big as its base," and how travel sports flipped it upside down and drove repetitive-use injuries through the roof. Plus the Survive → Thrive → Win climb, the plan to build the machine, and why consistency beats intensity every time.

Strength cures sins. Speed and power win.

Note: This episode covers physical training. Get medically cleared and work with a qualified coach before starting any program.

▶️ Score your team with the free assessment (about 10 minutes): https://athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest 📬 Newsletter: https://athlete-builder.com/newsletter 📘 The book: https://athlete-builder.com/booka

Keep stacking wins. Win the day. Stay relentless.

Athlete Builder Podcast · Kristin Wodrich · Women's Basketball · Leadership · Youth Sports · Faith · Coaching

EPISODE SUMMARY "I had a baby December 11th. I was back on the bench January 3rd. I would never suggest that to anybody — but that's coaching."

Kristin Wodrich spent 18 years on the sideline of women's college basketball. She started as a GA at Texas Tech — sleeping on couches, walking dogs for extra money, and losing a kid at camp her first summer. She went on to become a head coach, an assistant AD, and one of the more honest voices on what it actually takes to build leaders, not just players.

In this episode, Jim and Kristin cover peer-to-peer accountability, the leadership courage most coaches don't talk about, what's actually broken in youth sports, why specialization is destroying young athletes, when to start lifting, what happens when your sport becomes your identity, and the one line that stopped Jim mid-sentence: "I love you right where you're at — but I love you too much to keep you there."

She also talks about practicing hard conversations before you have them, why the transfer portal is the enemy of culture, why women coaching women matters, and what Romans 15:13 has to do with how she coached every team she ever had.

LESSONS

1. "I love you right where you're at — but I love you too much to keep you there."

2. The best leaders aren't always liked — but they're always respected

3. Peer-to-peer accountability is the hardest leadership skill — and it has to be practiced

4. Your #1 asset is culture — and the portal is destroying it

5. Youth sports expectations are the problem — not the kids

6. Specialization is behind the injury epidemic — and lifting is the fix

7. Your sport will fail you — don't make it your identity

TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro — Kristin Wodrich, 18 years in women's college basketball 1:10 Welcome to D1 — 45-minute defensive workout she almost couldn't walk after 2:00 GA life at Texas Tech — lost a kid at camp, walking dogs, sleeping on couches What GAs think they're signing up for vs. what it actually is 3:50 The support team — why athletes who take care of GAs and interns always get it back 6:55 What separates leaders from equally talented players They say the right thing when it's hard — and don't care about the response 8:15 Peer-to-peer courage — Ryan Day's 5 C's and why captains have it harder than coaches 9:00 "I love you right where you're at — but I love you too much to keep you there." The line that stopped Jim mid-sentence 10:15 Snapchat friends vs. real relationships — surface-level culture and why it kills teams 11:00 Trust building in the portal era — why your non-negotiables cannot waver 13:20 Leadership lesson she wishes she'd learned year one Hard doesn't mean bad — it means necessary 14:00 Practicing hard conversations — writing them out, rehearsing, praying over them 15:20 Confidence only comes from reps — Jim's take on preparation 17:25 Two coaches married — what dinner actually looks like And why parents should think the way her husband did 20:33 Youth sports — what's broken "Play hard" should never be a skill set 22:15 The math on who actually plays college sports 23:10 Burnout, injury rates & early specialization — is single-sport the problem? 24:30 Multi-sport development, neuropathways & the Da Vinci analogy Why swimmers are bad at change-of-direction sports 26:05 Repetitive use injuries and strength training as the competitive advantage nobody uses 29:30 When to start lifting — push heavy things, carry heavy things Farm boy strength is real and any kid can build it 31:50 Women in coaching — why the numbers are declining Had a baby Dec 11th. Back on the bench Jan 3rd. 33:50 Seasons of life — priorities change and that's okay 35:00 Faith — "When Jesus is my identity, things line up" Your sport will fail you. Don't build your identity on it. 37:45 How to find one limiting factor in a new athlete — Jim's SWOT approach 40:00 The full INCHES breakdown — head, body, six habits, one priority 41:25 Training for a half marathon — "I'm a runner again" 43:00 Bucket list — The Masters Less than 5% of a round of golf is actually swinging the club 44:00 Rapid fire — Rudy, basketball, Jackie Stiles, Atomic Habits, Wonder Woman 45:10 Power cleans, Romans 15:13 & where to find Kristin