Krush Performance

If you were to take a guess on what the greatest ability in sport is today, what would you say?

Strength, speed, power?

Game sense? Or a skill or a specific talent.

Could it be Grit, commitment, determination or complete levels?

There is one thing that above all else – one ability or trait that might be more valued in today’s sporting landscape than anything else.

And, if you can harness this particular trait/ability, as a player it may be the most powerful thing you could ever do to really find out just how far you can go in sport.

This week on Krush Performance we talk with my good friend and former colleague, Tommy Craig, former Head Athletic Trainer for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Tommy was there as the Blue Jays built a team designed to win championships and that is exactly what they did, ’92-’93 back to back World Series Championship.

We will talk with Tommy about where sport is at, how baseball has changed, and we will discuss what we feel is the Greatest Ability an Athlete can have.

It is one of the most powerful things you can possibly do to beat out the competition and reach your true potential in sport and it is without question one of the most important aspects of development when you are Creating Coachable Players.

As always, if you have a topic you would like us to investigate get to us at KrushPerformance.com and, keep yourself on the cutting edge of human performance Subscribe to the Krush podcast and sign up for our weekly Newsletter while you are there.

Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, the iHeartRadio app, and now on Spotify! Don’t forget to rate and review the show!

Follow Jeff Krushell on Twitter and Facebook!

E-Mail Jeff with your questions and comments for the show and don’t forget to visit KrushPerformance.com for live streaming, blogs, links, and so much more.

The post Episode 25-9: The Greatest Ability in Sport Today appeared first on Radio Influence.

This week, we breakdown the incredible complexity of athlete and talent development and talent ID. We are joined by Sport Scientist, Dr. Joe Baker.

How do genetics and environment influence what we become…how good we become, and I ask the question: “Is Talent Real?”

If we can get a clear idea of what talent really is, can we get better at developing talent and identifying future potential? Collectively, we are not all that good at predicting future talent and potential.

Could it be we looking at the wrong factors? The wrong variables? Is predicting talent simply too complex and unpredictable to be predictable?

What are the limitations involved in Early Specialization into a single sport & how can you overcome and/or manage the variables involved?

We find out as we discuss all of this and more on this week’s jam-packed episode of Krush Performance

As always, if you have a topic you would like us to investigate get to us at KrushPerformance.com and, keep yourself on the cutting edge of human performance Subscribe to the Krush podcast and sign up for our weekly Newsletter while you are there.

Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, the iHeartRadio app, and now on Spotify! Don’t forget to rate and review the show!

Follow Jeff Krushell on Twitter and Facebook!

E-Mail Jeff with your questions and comments for the show and don’t forget to visit KrushPerformance.com for live streaming, blogs, links, and so much more.

The post Episode 25-8: Talent & Talent ID appeared first on Radio Influence.

The Number One Priority in Maximizing Athlete and Player Performance is Recovery.

Athlete and Player development is all about problem solving.

Maximizing performance and future development relies on recovery.

Yes, you need quality training, you need quality technical and tactical preparation you need quality competition, but all of this is only as good as an Athlete’s/Player’s state of Recovery – their state of Readiness.

A few weeks back at our MLB European Spring Tournament where we had 90 players from 14 countries, age 15-20 years, come together in Spain to showcase their talents for Major League Teams a players asked me if I use ice with my athletes back home.

My answer – No we do not.

And I went on to explain why we don’t use ice to a group of players and coaches who were surprised, uncertain and even alarmed because they have been taught all their careers that ice is part of the process.

This week on Krush Performance we problem solve Recovery, Ice and Maximizing Readiness in sport as we talk with Krush Favorite: Gary Reinl, Researcher, Investigator and Educator.

How important is recovery…..The Most Important!

“Rather than figuring out how much training you can stand,

instead, figure out how little you need.”

We don’t know how good an athlete can be and if an athlete gives it everything they have and does not quite get there because they just were not good enough, that is 100% okay, I respect that.

BUT if an athlete does NOT get there because they have been mismanaged… well that is 100% UNACCETABLE!

If you want to maximize your performance, reduce your risk of injury and raise your ceiling of performance you MUST recalibrate you’re thinking and understand that recovery is the most important variable when you are Creating Coachable Players.

Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Google Podcast, the iHeartRadio app, and now on Spotify! Don’t forget to rate and review the show!

Follow Jeff Krushell on Twitter and Facebook!

E-Mail Jeff with your questions and comments for the show and don’t forget to visit KrushPerformance.com for live streaming, blogs, links, and so much more.

The post Episode 25-7: Critical Recovery – The Anti Ice Movement appeared first on Radio Influence.

The high-performance pathway is changing right before our eyes.

Past players who had incredible careers might not even get a chance to play in todays sporting landscape.

If you are an athlete/player with goals of playing at the highest level of your sport, what does your pathway to the big leagues look like?

What should you be thinking about as you work your way through the system?

What traits are most valued by teams and organizations today?

We discuss all of this and much more with former Major League Player, Jeff Conine.

Jeff took a very interesting pathway to the big leagues and there is a lot we can learn from his experiences.

Sport is a commodities market and if you have a talent or skill, if you bring value to the table, you will have a shot at chasing down your dream.

Understanding the performance pathway and how it has changed is a very important part of the process when you are Creating Coachable Players.

Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Google Podcast, the iHeartRadio app, and now on Spotify! Don’t forget to rate and review the show!

Follow Jeff Krushell on Twitter and Facebook!

E-Mail Jeff with your questions and comments for the show and don’t forget to visit KrushPerformance.com for live streaming, blogs, links, and so much more.

The post Episode 25-6: High Performance Pathways: The Changing Landscape appeared first on Radio Influence.

The timing of this conversation could not be better and if you are involved in the game of baseball in anyway you are going totally appreciate this episode of Krush Performance.

Heck, if you are involved in any sport this is an important conversation with so many takeaways.

With the Major Legue Baseball season underway this is the perfect time to talk player development, injury prevention and organizational performance.

And this week on Krush Performance we do exactly that with Krush Favorite, Chris Woodward, 1st Base Coach for the LA Dodgers.

Woody has had an incredible journey through baseball and today he shares all of his insights, from his playing days to his first coaching job, to Managing the Texas Rangers right into his return to the Dodgers.

I have questions for Chris about player development, analytics, the use of technology and the inner workings of Major League Organizations.

What do they look for in players and how do they go about helping players get the VERY most out of themselves as players and as individuals.

I cannot think of a better way to celebrate the kick off the 2025 Major League Season as we all work to create more coachable players.

Follow Jeff Krushell on Twitter and Facebook!

E-Mail Jeff with your questions and comments for the show and don’t forget to visit KrushPerformance.com for live streaming, blogs, links, and so much more.

The post Episode 25-5: Play Ball – Player Development & Organizational Performance appeared first on Radio Influence.

Staying injury-free might be the single most important thing baseball players can do to raise their value.

Last year MLB teams paid over $1B to players who could not play.

The majority of this was paid out to pitchers who could not throw due to injury.

The injury rates are at historical highs at every level of the game and it is literally changing how teams recruit players and especially pitchers.

Today we talk pitching, pitching performance & pitcher management with one of the games leading pitching coaches, Hector Barrios.

Hector and I go WAY back but the work he is now doing and his approach to pitching has helped some of baseball’s best pitchers get better and some of the greatest young talent exceed all expectations.

No matter what level of the game you are at or what position you play:

This is a conversation every baseball player, family and team should pay attention to.

Avoiding injury and maximise performance may seem overwhelming, but you might just be surprised at how simple it can actually be if you focus on the right things.

Once thing is certain, having a plan is a critical part of Creating Coachable Players and every performance plan must start with the fundamentals of performance, in this episode we narrow this down for you and explain exactly how and why the foundation of movement might be the key to it all.

Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Google Podcast, the iHeartRadio app, and now on Spotify! Don’t forget to rate and review the show!

Follow Jeff Krushell on Twitter and Facebook!

E-Mail Jeff with your questions and comments for the show and don’t forget to visit KrushPerformance.com for live streaming, blogs, links, and so much more.

The post Episode 25-4: The Pitch – Keeping Our Pitchers Safe appeared first on Radio Influence.

What does it take to make the Big Leagues?

If it were only this simple.

There are countless variables, and the pathway may be different for each player but there are a couple of attributes that just might increase your odds of making it.

GRIT, determination, hardiness, resilience, coachability, fate and yes, some talent.

All of these play a roll in “making it” the interesting thing… you have great control over all of these.

As MLB spring training gets underway and as the snow begins to melt up north baseball players everywhere are gearing up for the season.

Today we kick off a series of shows looking into talent development, injury prevention and all out performance and we’ll use the game of baseball as our backdrop.

There is plenty to learn from the game of baseball – even if baseball is not your sport. Professional sport teams are constantly looking to other sports to learn and expand their thinking. This is why you will see executives from NHL teams visiting MLB teams or NBA teams traveling to Europe to visit the great soccer teams there is plenty to learn when you take a good look at how teams in different sports operate.

Over the next few episodes, we will be doing exactly this, looking into the game of baseball.

If baseball is your sport this will be a great place to be in order to get a better understanding of the baseball performance landscape.

If baseball is not your sport, you will gain insights, strategies and a glimpse into the issues facing this sport and how teams and organizations and players are working to thrive and push performance to new levels.

We begin our journey by looking at the Journey of making it to the Big Leagues as we talk with one of my former players, Bob File, former Major League Pitcher with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Bob was drafted by the Jays in 1998 and quickly found his way to the big leagues. We came up the ranks together – I was the Head Minor League Strength and Conditioning coach at that time and a few years later both Bob and I found our selves in the Bigs Leagues.

We talk with Bob about his journey, his approach, what he learned and now in retrospect what advice does he have for up-and-coming players with the dream of playing Major League baseball.

One thing that is perfectly clear, no one does it alone when it comes to Creating Coachable Players.

Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Google Podcast, the iHeartRadio app, and now on Spotify! Don’t forget to rate and review the show!

Follow Jeff Krushell on Twitter and Facebook!

E-Mail Jeff with your questions and comments for the show and don’t forget to visit KrushPerformance.com for live streaming, blogs, links, and so much more.

The post Episode 25-3: Making It – Pathway to the Majors appeared first on Radio Influence.

In Sport, balancing training, practice and rest and recovery has quickly become one of the most powerful tools in maximizing sport performance.

Day to day, week to week, month by month micro and macro programming has changed how we manage our athletes.

However, at the developmental and youth levels of sport the concept of “Athlete Management’ is greatly non-existent.

With Great intentions we train year-round and pack the weekly schedule with all kinds of activity – could it be holding you back or even worse setting you up for failure?

This week on Krush Performance we talk with Ed Subel, Associate Head Strength and Conditioning for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.

The NBA is on the forefront of athlete and player management and the league itself has made strategic changes to the schedule to help players avoid fatigue and ultimately injury.

We talk with Ed about his approach to working with the world’s best Basketball players, Effort is a big piece of the puzzle and we look at how we can apply this to players at every level of the game.

Focusing on effort and collaborating with your athletes in their programming is a BIG part of the process when you are Creating Coachable Players.

Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Google Podcast, the iHeartRadio app, and now on Spotify! Don’t forget to rate and review the show!

Follow Jeff Krushell on Twitter and Facebook!

E-Mail Jeff with your questions and comments for the show and don’t forget to visit KrushPerformance.com for live streaming, blogs, links, and so much more.

The post Episode 25-2: The Effort of Elite Performance – Athlete Management & the NBA appeared first on Radio Influence.

Welcome to Season 19 of Krush Performance.

This week we kick off 2025 with Krush Hall of Famer: The Zone Coach, Jim Fannin as we break down the Ultimate Mental Performance System.

This will be the 12th consecutive year that we launch the New Year talking with Jim and for good reason Jim has spent 50 years helping people accel in sport business and in life.

When we are seeking out top performance it is all about planning, executing adjusting and persevering.

And in those hard times, when things are tough or appear impossible YOU need to understand and remember:

You Are Not Lost – You Just Haven’t Found Your Way

Today we talk with Jim about the very fabric of elite mental performance as we discuss PERCEPTION, Decision Making and dealing with Adversity.

We discuss how you MUST STAMP out Worry and shift your mindset to replace Worry with Positive thinking.

And, we Teach you Jim’s science-based thought management, Jim’s transformative S.C.O.R.E. System. This system is the only proven approach to attract the mindset of the Zone.

Connecting the Mind and the Body is a critical part of athlete and player development when you are Creating Coachable Players.

Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Google Podcast, the iHeartRadio app, and now on Spotify! Don’t forget to rate and review the show!

Follow Jeff Krushell on Twitter and Facebook!

E-Mail Jeff with your questions and comments for the show and don’t forget to visit KrushPerformance.com for live streaming, blogs, links, and so much more.

The post Episode 19-1: Ultimate Mental Performance – 2025 Kush Kick Off appeared first on Radio Influence.

Success in sport starts with one thing…Planning.

Athlete Development and Player Performance is exactly like planning a trip and like any trip you need to have a well though out plan.

And, if you are going to create a World Class Plan you need to have World Class Information.

This week on Krush Performance I share some of the World Class information you MUST be thinking about when designing your plan.

Today we hear Treasured Information From Krush Hall of Fame Guests – The Best of The Best:

· Dr. Joe Baker: talking Talent ID & predicting future Performance.

· Lou Farah: Sport Researcher talking about the professional draft and how difficult it is to predict future talent.

· is Dr Kevin Micthell from Trinity College in Dublin: The Brain an incredible learning machine

· Bob Tweksbury: Performance Consultant discussing the Three areas of Performance – are you playing to your potential?

· Dr. Jaques Dallaire of Performance Prime: The HOLY GRAIL of Human Performance

· Jim Fannin The Coach of Champions: We are Products of our Environment & Braking Negative Cycles.

· Dr. Richard Harvey from San Francisco State University: Resilience & Optimism vs Hardiness & Courage

· Dr. Martin Mrazik: The Superpower of Mindfulness

Remember, being Intentional, working with Purpose, Problem Solving and Decision Making are all very Trainable Superpowers when you are Creating Coachable Players.

I’m Jeff Krushell

We’ll be back on January 8th with a Blockbuster Kick off to the New Year.

Have a great holiday season everyone– talk to you then.

Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Google Podcast, the iHeartRadio app, and now on Spotify! Don’t forget to rate and review the show!

Follow Jeff Krushell on Twitter and Facebook!

E-Mail Jeff with your questions and comments for the show and don’t forget to visit KrushPerformance.com for live streaming, blogs, links, and so much more.

The post Episode 18-12: The Holy Grail(s) of Sport Performance appeared first on Radio Influence.