Episode 044: Travis Knight is a master at creating learning environments in the weight room.  He’s got a unique perspective on basketball strength & conditioning, combining complex systems and motor learning theory with vision and mindset training.

Travis and I were classmates at Gonzaga back in the 90’s and have worked together professionally since 2006.  He’s currently the strength & conditioning coach for the GU Men’s Basketball team and has done an incredible job working side by side with Mark Few to build strong, intrinsically motivated players.

Travis’ training methods are outside the box but are rooted in the best of science.  Instead of focusing on sets and reps, he pours his energy into creating learning environments in the weight room.  He sat down to explain why:

• Mental toughness is misunderstood
• Play is so important
• You can’t train strength without coordination
• Variability is a core principle in program design
• He trains personal growth every Monday

To learn more about Travis, check him out on social media: @ZagGreatness


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Episode 043: Is there a place for servant leadership in basketball? I actually think it might be the most important part of playing the game.

Today's interview is with one of the nation's leading experts in servant leadership.  Shann Ferch is an author, clinical psychologist and professor in Gonzaga’s doctoral program in leadership studies, serving as a visiting scholar in Asia, South America, Africa and Europe. 

By reading his resume you’d never know that he was a former D1 and professional basketball player with a 40 plus inch vertical.  Even at age 40, he could do a 360 dunk.  

Today he discusses servant leadership in basketball, sharing his thoughts on the best leaders in the NBA and his take the Michael Jordan’s leadership style in the documentary, the Last Dance.

You can learn more about Shann Ferch at ShannRay.com

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Episode 042: Not all professional basketball players have a professional mindset.  People with a basketball mindset take care of their body, consistently train their mind, prioritize their workouts and treat people with respect.

Jake Wiley's mindset helped him make the jump from playing college basketball at a NAIA school, to being Player of The Year at a Division 1 school, to earning a spot on the Brooklyn Nets.

Today, Jake shares how he turned a life of mischief into a life of working hard and helping other people.

Listen to this week's podcast and learn:

• The power of the subconscious mind
• What it takes to go from NAIA to the NBA
• 3 books that everyone should read
• Why you need to be committed to the "right" things
• A day in the life of a pro basketball player

You can learn more about Jake Wiley on Instagram @wiley_coyote0

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Episode 041: The Black Lives Matter Movement needs all of us to contribute our unique talents and leadership so that we can heal our world.  While I don’t have the answer of how to do this, I do have a leadership framework that might be useful in helping take action.

I’ve taken the 3 Levels Of Leadership and highlighted three actions that we can take to become a better leader in the Black Lives Matter Movement.  By practicing the leadership traits of Listen, Learn and Teach, you can become your best and help others do the same.

Here are some highlights of Leadership For The Black Lives Matter Movement:

• Learn how to improve your listening through S.L.A.N.T.
• Find out my favorite Martin Luther King, Jr. speech
• Discover your level of leadership
• Hear my thoughts on the questions, “How can I help?”

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Episode 040: Knowing how to teach gratitude might be more important than knowing how to teach a jump shot.  Without gratitude, your players won't appreciate the journey.

And like shooting, gratitude is a skill that needs to be taught and practice.  While some players might come into your program with high levels of gratitude, most will have to be coached on the importance of saying, "thank you."

In today's podcast, I share the system I use for teaching players what to think, say and do to be grateful.  We set aside time every day for two weeks to teach gratitude. 
 
Lessons include videos, talks, group activities and homework.  At the end of the two weeks, every player should know exactly what grateful players think, say and do.

Here are some highlights:

• Your level of gratitude dictates your level of happiness
• Grateful people smile and say, "thank you"
• Your circumstances don't dictate the quality of your life
• Kobe Bryant doesn't believe in failure or happy endings

And to all of you who are committed... Earn Your X

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Episode 039: With all the emerging sports performance technology, player monitoring for basketball can be expensive and overwhelming.  I've asked my friend Bryce Daub to help us sift through the data and find the best bang for our buck. 

Bryce Daub is entering his fifth season as the men’s basketball director of strength and performance. In his role, Daub oversees program design and implementation for all aspects of performance enhancement.

Before joining the Sooners, Daub spent the previous four seasons as the strength and conditioning coach for the University of Oregon men’s basketball program. Oregon had participated in the NCAA Tournament each of the last three seasons in Daub’s tenure and won at least one postseason game each of those years. The Ducks advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2013.

No stranger to central Oklahoma, Daub spent the 2010-11 season as an athletic performance coach with the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball franchise. The Thunder went 55-27, won the Northwest Division and advanced to the Western Conference Finals. Prior to his time in OKC, he served as a strength and conditioning intern with the Seattle Supersonics.

Daub played college basketball at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Wash., where he earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in exercise science in 2008 and 2010, respectively. Following his playing career, he served as a graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach working specifically with men’s and women’s basketball, women’s soccer and track and field.

A Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) from the National Strength and Conditioning Association, Daub is also certified as a performance enhancement specialist (PES) and corrective exercise specialist (CES) through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

Check out this week's interview and learn:

• How to monitor players without a budget
• What technologies high level basketball programs use on a weekly basis
• The one piece of equipment high school players should purchase
• When you should do velocity training with athletes
• The downfalls to technology

If you want to connect with Bryce, go to the University of Oklahoma's Men's Basketball Page

And to all of you who are committed... Earn Your X

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Episode 038: Garrett Medenwald, Director Men's Basketball Sports Performance at the University of Tennessee, shares his principles of basketball performance in today's podcast interview.  

In 2017-18, Tennessee navigated a 35-game campaign without any serious injuries, won 26 games (fourth-most in program history), captured the 2018 SEC Championship and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

During 2018-19, the Big Orange spent a month ranked No. 1 in the country en route to a school-record-tying 31 wins and a berth in the Sweet Sixteen.

His basketball-specific training methods and emphasis on injury prevention helped Grant Williams, Admiral Schofield and Jordan Bone get their names called in the 2019 NBA Draft.  

“Garrett’s methods and approach to elite performance training are on another level,” UT head coach Rick Barnes said. “He’s a star in his profession, and our students enjoy not just how he trains them, but also the personal relationship he develops with each of them.”

The Green Bay, Wisconsin, native arrived in Knoxville with three years of experience working alongside Barnes, as Medenwald served the Texas basketball program as both a graduate manager and a graduate strength and conditioning intern from 2012-15.

During his tenure with the Longhorns, Medenwald honed his philosophy as an elite performance coach while working closely with nationally known industry innovator Todd Wright—assistant coach/head of strength and conditioning with the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers—and learning the philosophies of Shaun McPherson.

Garrett simultaneously spent two years as the Director of Athletic 3D Performance Training Systems at the “Train 4 the Game” facility in Austin, Texas, where he programmed for numerous NFL and NBA athletes.

He graduated from Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2013, earning a bachelor’s degree in Health, Human Performance and Recreation while minoring in Athletic Coaching Education. He then received his master’s degree in Kinesiology from Texas in 2016.

Garrett and I connected today to talk about the underlying principles that drive his basketball performance philosophy.  Listen to this episode and learn:

• Your feet contain over 1/4 of all the bones in your body
• Why we need to train in the frontal and transverse plane
• How to apply the principle of subconscious reaction
• Garrett's framework for assessing athletes

If you want to connect with Garrett, check him out on Instagram @the_prodig_movement

And to all of you who are committed... Earn Your X

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Episode 037: If you want to change your life, change your belief system. Today's interview is with Fred Crowell, founder of NBC Camp and author of Words Of Hope.

At the age of twenty-three, Crowell became one of the youngest Division 1 coaches in America. Under his coaching, University of Alaska Fairbanks had its first winning season in the college history.

He left Alaska and joined Campus Crusade for Christ as the first coach for Athletes in Action, a program facing top 20 NCAA teams night after night, sharing a message of community and wholeness, and developing into an exhibition team with one of the most wins in history.

Crowell dreamed of a basketball camp that would train athletes to win both on and off the court. He wanted a program that would provide the best basketball training, create an atmosphere of encouragement, hard work, respect and compassion, and teach athletes to compete not only physically but with their hearts and minds.

Coach Crowell combined his background of Division 1 coaching with his psychology background as a former family counselor. He wanted to give athletes an edge to physically, mentally and spiritually achieve the disciplined life of excellence. Many told Crowell his idea of combining athletics, faith and values were unrealistic.

Now, over 50 years later, Crowell’s dream has become reality as his vision has expanded to include multiple sports with over 10,000 athletes competing in NBC Camps programs around the world.

NBC Camps has grown to become one of the largest overnight basketball programs in the world. Over the last 50 years, they have trained 300,000 athletes. Located in the U.S., Austria, Canada, UK, Thailand, Japan, Nicaragua, and Italy, NBC Camps is dedicated to elevating personal excellence on and off the court. Their goal is to teach athletes how to compete with confidence, high skill level and intensity.

I've had the privilege of knowing Fred most of my life and learning from his fine example.  In this interview, Fred shares:

• Why you shouldn't have too many rules as a coach
• How his team guarded Pistol Pete Maravich
• Why you need to focus on belief and not behavior
• What he's doing to beat cancer
• The difference between war and basketball

And to all of you who are committed... Earn Your X

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Episode 036: More than just a motivational speaker, Greg Bell is a Portland, Oregon based thought leader, business consultant, and leadership coach. His popular books, What’s Going Well? and Water The Bamboo: Unleashing The Potential Of Teams And Individuals, have inspired an array of organizations, from Fortune 500 companies like Nike, Disney and Comcast, to the Portland Trail Blazers and Division I NCAA athletic teams like Oregon Ducks Football and Gonzaga Bulldogs Basketball.  

As an innovator and keen observer of highly successful leaders and teams, Greg has learned that the key to success is having the courage to use the skills you already have to achieve a result greater than you previously imagined.

Inspiring and energizing audiences with his engaging storytelling, Greg shares his knowledge with excitement and passion. His ability to masterfully blend insight and encouragement with just the right dose of reality makes him the consistently top-rated keynote speaker at major conferences. A Certified Speaking Professional (the highest earned designation from the National Speakers Association), Greg influences thousands of individuals and entrepreneurs each year with his innate ability to connect personally with audience members.

Whether you’re rolling out a new culture initiative, developing your leaders, or seeking a keynote that will be remembered long after your event, Greg will deliver a tailored session that will encourage and inspire each attendee to become stronger, more empowered and more productive than ever before.

On this week’s episode, Greg shares:

• Why you need to define your values before you set goals
• That having too many goals is the same as having no goals
• How to override negative thoughts
• Why commitment is the key to success
• Not to give up before your bamboo sprouts

And to all of you who are committed... Earn Your X

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Episode 035: Time is the great equalizer. We all have the same 24 hours a day to be our best.  Today I share how to optimize two things that we all do every day: sleeping & showering. 

And to all of you who are committed... Earn Your X

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