What a crazy 5 years it's been and I'm here to share some of my biggest lightbulbs along the way. Some that seem obvious and some that slowly came to me over time, these are things I could've only learned from coaching day-in and day-out. From training to being a professional and everything in between, tune in for these real-life stories and lessons to help you become the best you can be.

0:21 Recap of 4 lessons from 4 years and 3 lessons from 2023

3:00 #1 The best KPI for progress, something I never had as a college athlete

6:51 #2 The secret sauce, what would you say in an interview?

12:21 #3 How to network like friends, with real-life examples

14:33 #4 It really is about expectations

19:01 #5 Coaches can get out of touch, and how it manifests in your coaching

21:57 Connecting the dots with more examples

23:59 5 action items for you to get better starting today

Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MmbcnhULSxc

A thank you to this show's sponsors:

FYTT | Samson Equipment | Isophit

John Grace has been in professional soccer for the last 9+ year and in the performance world even longer, seeing some crazy things like JOHN CENA. Tune in to learn more about John's takes on training high-level soccer players, how this can apply to you, and some of his coolest stories along the way.

4:13 Biggest realization of soccer-specific performance training: keep the in-season training as general as possible

18:31 Learning from the extensive (starting at age 12) pro soccer academy system, the value of some early specialization, and building relationships with the sport coach

30:32 One thing the soccer world can do better: actually addressing sprint mechanics, at least a little

37:31 Fork in the road story: stumbling into an internship with Mike Young at Athletic Lab and doing a totally *legal* internship in Vancouver with Mike

47:06 Coolest/craziest story: John Cena training at Athletic Lab and watching him crush facility records

Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/EXbgVl_ZC3c

John on Twitter: @john_r_grace

A thank you to this show's sponsors:

FYTT | 1080 Motion | Samson Equipment | Isophit

Trevor Abshire joins the pod to share the biggest stories from his strength and conditioning career and transition to sport science. What started as an internal fascination with answering his own questions turned into landing him a job in the MLB with the Cleveland Guardians. Tune in to learn about what it was like making that transition and how he made it happen.

-3:00 Fork in the road: being 30 seconds away from taking a job in the Dominican Republic and almost becoming an X-Ray tech

-10:00 Advice for those thinking about pivoting fields

-18:26 What he did to transition from S&C to sport science

-27:14 How to get into coding

-32:15 Coolest/craziest story: an athlete squatting almost 600lb and all the plates falling off the bar and what it was like walking into Spring Training for the first time

-36:49 Full circle: reflecting on his 4+ years of coaching and its impact on his current job as a sport scientist

Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qXmDon1iBGg

Trevor on LinkedIn: Trevor Abshire

A thank you to this show's sponsors:

FYTT | Samson Equipment | Isophit

Sean Swetnam, Performance Coach for UCLA Football and PhD candidate, shares his inspiring journey in the world of collegiate athletics. From overcoming personal setbacks to witnessing major shake-ups in top football programs, Sean's story is a testament to perseverance and the power of manifestation in achieving one's dreams.

2:46 Fork in the road: having a torn labrum as a pitcher, deciding to not get it operated on and what that taught him when he had to pivot from playing

14:28 Craziest story: being at a part of 2 different power 5 head football coaches leaving

20:07 Having coached at UCLA and USC, spending time with baseball and football, and the odds of staying in California

25:17 Full circle: going from being a personal trainer getting free tickets to a USC football game, watching the staff run out on the field, to recently doing that with UCLA at Hawaii and thinking "I told you"

Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yrpunSe2vQU

Sean on Instagram: @CoachSwet

A thank you to this show's sponsors:

FYTT | Isophit | Samson Equipment

By avoiding bodybuilding content, you're missing out on a crucial aspect of strength and hypertrophy development for sports performance. In this episode, I break down how learning from bodybuilding experts like Mike Israetel has made me a better coach. We'll dive into key truths, compare principles, and show how applying bodybuilding concepts can enhance your athletes' performance.

1:12 Analogy: consulting with someone else before giving advice

4:24 Truths of bodybuilding

6:16 Truths of sports performance

7:41 Truths of both

16:49 Comparing and contrasting the principles and variables of both

20:11 Real-life examples: proximity to failure/RIR/VBT, pump/metabolites, mechanical tension, "arm farm epiphany," rep ranges

35:56 Action items and value it provides

Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/SxjMoLFCqCM

A thank you to this show's sponsors: FYTT, Samson Equipment, Isophit

Adam Moreau is on a mission to protect UCL's in baseball players everywhere. Although the application is much wider than just reducing Tommy John surgeries, he and his team created a revolutionary product to do just that. The FlexPro Grip directly strengthens and trains the muscles and tendons from the fingertips through the elbow with real-time data feedback. Tune in to learn more about the journey of this mission and product turning into reality.

3:14 Background and thought process for the FlexPro Grip

9:56 Process of going from the idea to a real-life product

19:48 Most frustrating part of making a product

21:35 Fork in the road story: having a booth at the 2020 ABCA with no prototype and COVID being the saving grace

33:58 Coolest story: eating dinner with Trevor Hoffman, Moises Alou, and Ian Kinsler

41:00 How getting started with their first MLB team spurred from a coach from during his high school travel playing days 7 years prior

47:21 Full circle story: a pro organization asking to unsubscribe from the product/research updates, to coming back around and being a big contributor 2 years later

Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yThhYeeaYrc

Adam on social media: @FlexProGrip @armoreau (IG) @AdamMoreauPD (Twitter)

Link to FlexPro Grip: https://www.flexprogrip.com/

A thank you to this show's sponsors:

FYTT | Samson Equipment | Isophit

In this episode, I demystify the sprint force-velocity profile and connect it to its crucial role in speed training. I break down how to interpret the data to to directly enhance your speed training programming and performance. Drawing from real-life sprint testing with D1 college and high school football teams, as well as anecdotal evidence, I provide actionable insights you can apply tomorrow.

3:10: Understanding each metric: definitions, formulas, and how it's measured

10:40: Simplifying metrics: reducing from 10 to 5 with correlation matrices and rationale

31:53: Evaluating metrics: what’s good and bad for college vs. high school levels

33:28: Navigating data: decision-making frameworks and prioritizing issues with conditional logic

42:19: Key action items for immediate application

Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3i3Mr2o3nAg

A thank you to this show's sponsors:

FYTT

Samson Equipment

Isophit

Nieko Torres (Louisville Baseball S&C) shares his journey from turning down his first job offer after his GA to being a part of a historic NCAA baseball run at Tulane. He reflects on his evolving philosophy as a strength coach to the nuances of contributing to a program during rebuilding years.

4:51 Fork in the road: deciding to not take his first job offer out of his graduate assistantship despite it ending

13:34 Coolest story: his first year at Tulane making it to the NCAA tournament with the lowest regular season wins ever

22:05 Where does the strength coach fit into "rebuilding years"?

24:52 Full circle: being completely out on technology when he first started coaching to now being a foundational part of his program

Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/O1d3u-tb2j8

Nieko on Instagram: @neeeks21

A thank you to this show's sponsors:

FYTT

Samson Equpiment

Isophit

Corey Petersen shares his top stories from almost 10 years in strength and conditioning. Highlights include the backstory to his unique approach to injury management, insights from working with elite athletes like Christian McCaffrey, and the story of a remarkable ACL rehab getting back on the field in just 5.5 months.

3:10 Fork in the road: from his mom helping him a weight set growing up to starting college as a business major, realizing this field was for him

13:39 Craziest story: playing "trash ball" with his Women's Soccer team, destroying his ankle, and living to tell the tale through not icing his rolled ankle at all

20:20 His experience being at Stanford the year after Christian McCaffery's Heisman and his advice for working with higher profile athletes

26:51 Full circle: rehabbing the senior captain's ACL and getting her back on the field in 5.5 months, then creating a video summary reel called "The Journey"

Episode on YouTube:

Corey's Instagram: @CoreyPetersen44

A thank you to this show's sponsors:

https://fytt.io/

https://www.samsonequipment.com/

https://www.isophit.com/

Brad Thorpe, the inventor/CEO/Founder of Isophit, shares his incredible journey from facing daunting legal and medical bills to getting $100,000 from a Facebook post. Discover how he turned personal health challenges into a groundbreaking fitness innovation which even landed him a contract with the US Military.

6:31 Fork in the road: from a lawyer bill 2x the original quote to hospital bills from the NICU, getting $100k from a Facebook post

22:05 Where the Isophit idea came from: heart attacks and high blood pressure in the family, his own being 150/100 at 19 years old, to normalizing it in 2 weeks with isometrics

32:31 Craziest story: getting a contract with the US Military

40:18 Full circle story: a failed business partnership worth $3.5 million

Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FShZY-Q_3Dg

Brad on Instagram: @isophit_inventor @isophit

Link to Isophit: https://www.isophit.com/ and Linkedin

A thank you to this show's sponsors:

FYTT Online Software

Samson Equipment