Sports Mastery

Jackie Slomin is the epitome of the wrestler's guide to success. She's an expert in helping the wrestler cut weight safely and effectively.

Jackie is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist on a mission to make sure people feel confident and happy about their food and bodies by providing a science-driven approach to nutrition coaching that will allow people to meet their goals while still enjoying their favorite foods and not feeling overly restricted..

He approach to nutrition coaching is different from traditional counseling as she helps to solve people's problems and bring them closer to their nutrition related goals by spending time learning about each individual and what their specific needs are.  She doesn't believe in any one specific diet or plan being best, but instead looks at the individual person, their lifestyle and medical history to determine what the best and most successful plan of action will be to help people reach their goals and maintain their results long-term.

In this conversation, Jackie shares her thoughts on:

1. How and why you began working with wrestlers 2. Explain how confidence can rise from proper nutrition 3. Explain cutting weight 4. What are the common fears for making weight 5. How can a wrestler make weight without cutting strength 6. Discuss your weight calculator for wrestlers

Jackie graduated Magna Cum Laude from LIU Post with a BS in nutrition and is working on a master's degree concentrating on sports nutrition and exercise science. She completed a 1200 hour training program before getting her credentials as an RD, and was able to act as LIU Post's campus nutritionist where she provided counseling for students, staff members, and numerous division II athletes including the women's basketball team, women's lacrosse, and women's volleyball, and men's wrestling teams. In addition, she created numerous movements on campus promoting body confidence, positivity, and how to make healthy food choices in any environment. Jackie also completed rotations at Good Samaritan Hospital, Fresenius Medical Care Dialysis Center, Brookhaven Memorial Hospital, and South Oaks Broadlawn Manor. After graduation she served as Chief Dietitian for two years at Bellhaven Center for Rehabilitation providing medical nutrition therapy and counseling to clients and families. She has also received a certification of completion of training from WellCoaches, the world's leading health coaching organization.

https://www.jackieslomin.com/

This episode was inspired by the Netflix football documentary LAST CHANCE U. It features several collegiate athletes that have been removed from Division I rosters due to academic or disciplinary issues. Our conversation is focused on all aspects of personal development, leadership, academic struggles, and overcoming setbacks. We begin this conversation discussing season 3; which explores Independence Community College in Independence, Kansas. The first two seasons were filmed at East Mississippi Community College.

Despite being invited back to EMCC for a third season, producers decided to move the show to Independence Community College of Kansas. The new location is different in that ICC has historically had much lower expectations than EMCC; in 2016, it ended the season 5–4, its first winning season in ten years. The ICC Pirates had a very successful recruiting campaign for the 2017 season, landing many acclaimed players who began at NCAA Division I schools.

The is a great listen to understand why certain athletes have success and why others fail who are equally talented. It also enlightens the listener with strategies to overcome set-backs.

James was born with a congenital disability called femoral dysplasia and a floating hip of the left leg as well as scoliosis of the spine. James' grew up on a NATO base in Belgium but now reside back in Prestatyn, North Wales. He is an online training and nutrition coach by trade but he was an elite Paralympic athlete for just over a decade. He has been lucky enough over those years to have represented Great Britain at countless World Championships and 2 Paralympics Games (Beijing 2008 and London 2012) to just name a few.

He started out his sporting career in swimming and was part of British Swimming's Potential Squad from 2003-05. During that time, I held the SB8 200m breaststroke and 50m breaststroke national records.

After being dropped from the GB swimming programme, he moved on to rowing in 2006. The transition happened fairly quickly as James' made his first senior international competition that summer at the 2006 World Championships in Dorney Lake, Great Britain and made the final finishing 6th. 2007 World Championships Semi-Finalist, 2008 Paralympic Finalist (5th) and 2009 World Championships Finalist (5th).

He made another transition of sport, this time to sitting volleyball (aka now Para Volley). From 2010 until 2012, he amassed 56 caps for Great Britain. His first international was a surprise selection to compete at the 2010 World Championships in Edmund, Oklahoma, the USA. He was lucky enough during his time with the squad, to have competed for Great Britain at his only European Championships in his repertoire as well as a Continental and Intercontinental Cups. James' career calumniated at the London 2012 Paralympics where the GB sitting volleyball squad lost in the quarter-final to eventual silver medallist Iran.

In this episode, James discusses: 

• Overcoming adversity
• Seeing himself as more than an amputee
• Seeing himself as more than an athlete

 For more information visit: fitamputee.co.uk

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDdcgbvE5f3W07br0EEQ9bg

Follow James on Instagram: https;//www.instagram.com/fitamputee

 https://www.facebook.com/jamesrobertsfitness

 https://twitter.com/jamesoroberts11

Michele Badie is a former Director of Career Services in higher education. Her work in that role lead her to becoming a Career Confidence Coach and the Published Author of Confidently You: 21-Day Action Plan to Your Professional Best. Through her career confidence coaching and book, she has helped professionals face fears, break through mental blocks, and realize the possibilities that exist in their careers. She enjoys seeing people succeed and has coached professionals at different stages of their career, in national and international markets, on how to accomplish their career goals and land their desired professional role. She has also executed training and development programs.

Michele is also the Creator and Host of the podcast, Career Tipper. The podcast features weekly interviews on Spotify, iTunes, and Stitcher Radio with professionals in different industries sharing their expertise and professional development resources.

In this conversation, Michele shares her thoughts on:

1. How to master/manage your time 2. Keeping "Grit" along the journey 3. Entrepreneurship for student-athletes 4. Three keys to stay motivated

Instagram: @careertipper

Facebook: facebook.com/careertipper

Twitter: @careertipper1

The #1 lie you've been told...

Lifting weights will make women bulky. One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding females and strength training involves the notion that lifting weights will make them appear bulky.

Unless females take anabolic steroids or double their clean food intake, that simply won’t happen. Hormones factor heavily in determining an individual’s size. According to Medline Plus, women naturally produce about only 5-7% as much testosterone as men. That means men produce 14 to 20 times as much testosterone as women, so women won’t increase muscle mass at nearly the same rate unless they supplement with steroids or other performance enhancing drugs.

They can work at the same intensities as men and build lean, slender physiques like fitness models instead of massive bodybuilders. This is absolutely possible, but the bulk thing? Not so much.

According to a 2004 study by Dr. Andrew Fry, “In general, females do not exhibit as great an absolute hypertrophic response when compared with males, although relative gains may be similar” (Fry, 2004).

Ladies aren’t going to throw on big slabs of muscle even if they exert the same level of effort as men. Whether this is good or bad is for you to decide, but being informed of facts, not opinions or anecdotal case studies of one, is necessary. If women want to build muscle while losing weight, they should focus on maintaining a negative energy balance and burning off more calories than they consume. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. And guess what? That same tip can be used for men! 

To take it to the next level, females should work on reducing stress and getting a requisite amount of sleep per night. Again, this is not rocket science, but it has been shown that getting decreased number of hours of sleep reduces anabolic hormone levels and increases catabolic hormone concentrations (Cook, Kilduff and Jones; 2004). While the very word “anabolic” may scare some women, it’s actually an important hormone for building lean muscle and burning fat. You’re either building muscle or losing muscle, and you definitely don’t want to decrease muscle mass because muscle burns more calories than fat.

So if females want to remain lean, they had better prioritize staying in an anabolic state.

That means ladies should aim for at least seven hours of sleep per night and consume plenty of high quality, unprocessed foods like lean meats, vegetables, fruits and nuts. And yes, it can be that simple.

Master the basics to move your goals forward. 

In this episode, we discuss:

Strength Training for the Female Athlete

1. Why is there such a stigma when it comes to strength training with female athletes? First, we must to look at the historical aspects. Past mindset and views

2. What are the strength training guidelines when it comes to training female athletes.

3. Is the female strength training program different from that of males? Yes and No

4. What are some specifics to consider when training the female athlete? Posterior chain work. Q angle

5. What can be done to make strength training more acceptable with female athletes? Education of athlete, parent and YES, some coaches. 

Nutrition is an important aspect of training. It’s the fuel we need to optimally perform. What needs to be considered when addressing this topic with the female athlete? Be mindful about what you say that could lead to eating disorders

Are there psychological aspects to consider when training female athletes?

Hello my name is Kathy Pickel. I’m a Certified Clinical and Medical Hypnotherapist from the ACHT, (Atlanta Center for Hypnosis Training), I'm certified as a Consulting Hypnotist with the NGH, (National Guild of Hypnotists), I am certified as a Clinical Hypnotherapist with the ACHE () and I have a Bachelors Degree in Science from Georgia State University in Psychology. I'm also a certified NLP,  (Neuro Linguistics Programming) Practitioner, and, generally, a student of life, an autodidact. I love all things having to do with creativity and especially creativity over the long haul. In school I studied psychology and anthropology, and still love learning. I especially love learning about human potential and flow state. 

In this episode, Kathy discusses:

• Limiting Beliefs
• The Subconscious Mind
• Relaxation/Direct Suggestion
• Overcoming Failure
• Getting into Flow State/The Zone

Kathy also wants you to consider:

Do you know what a fighter's mind is?

It doesn't matter what your sport is. 

Once we figure out why you're standing on the edge of the mat, once we figure out why you're competing, you'll fight every moment and not give up until you win. It will become impossible for you to fail because you'll never quit. Your thoughts, your words, your actions will all become congruent. You'll have the heart of a champion and the mind of a fighter, you'll be on the offensive.  "Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles."  Alex Karras  

Increase Your Focus

You know what it means, you understand the words, but do you know how to increase your focus?  I'll put your hand on the knob, so you can crank it up.  The light in a laser beam is not more than the light in a standard bulb, it's just focused. That's what you're going to need to know how to do to reach your peak performance, intently focus.

Don't forget it's play, that's how you perform at your best.

Serious competition is still play. You're serious when you train, but when you compete, you're playing. Don't forget that. Watch Michael Jordan laughing on the court. His focus is intent, but he's playing his sport.  You work when you train, you play when you compete. When you compete you get to see what you've learned, you get to see how far you can push it, how far you can take it, you get to see how far you've come. You're intent, you're focused, you're playing. 

Riley Tincher is an All-American pitcher turned author. He’s also a mental conditioning coach with a master’s degree in psychology from Baylor University. He’s the owner of Coachability - a mentorship program that serves athletes, at every level (youth, high school, college, professional, and Olympic), all throughout the country. Coachability was created to provide athletes a safe haven they can go to, to talk to someone who has been through what they are going through. It was also created to teach athletes the principles to succeed in sports, and more importantly, in life after sports. It is the mentorship program Riley wished existed when he was younger.

In this episode, Riley Tincher shares his personal story and life lessons. He also explores his personal battles with:

• Identity crisis
• Depression
• Suicide

Riley discusses  the meaning behind the message, "your are more than an athlete".

One of the most powerful testimonies was given by former NFL athlete Jonathan Martin who described the role of emotional debilitation in his decision to retire from professional football:

"Your job leads you to (try to) kill yourself on multiple occasions. You either sleep 12, 14, 16 hours a day when you can, or not at all. You drink too much, smoke weed constantly, have trouble focusing on your job... But one day you realize how absurd your current mindset is, that this shit doesn’t matter... nothing matters besides your family, a few close friends, and your own personal happiness."

My conversation with Riley Tincher stresses the need to talk about depression and suicide among athletes.

In a study of depression among current and former collegiate athletes, 17% endorsed symptoms consistent with depression. In discussing depression among professional athletes author Alfie Potts Harmer reported that athletes have among the highest rates of mental illness with as many as 25% experiencing depression.

It remains clear that the mental health needs of this population are inadequately addressed.

Seeking Help

Despite exposure to stressors known to increase susceptibility to mental health issues, the help-seeking behaviors of these individuals remains alarmingly low. One study revealed that members of this group are less likely to report mental health problems and “less likely to report having received psychological or mental health services from a variety of providers including counselors and psychiatrist.” This study suggest that coaches, trainers and those authority figures associated with the lives of athletes become vigilant in promoting that athletes in need seek mental health services.

Hypermasculinity often prevalent in sports culture seems to negatively impact help-seeking. A primary idea perpetuated by this hypermasculinity is the idea that ‘real men’ do not need help and acknowledging vulnerable emotions such as sadness, grief or fear indicate weakness. ‘Real men’ buck up, get up and move on with things. Each of these notions provide cognitive barriers to reaching out for assistance. Individuals who internalize these ideas have a higher propensity to struggle reaching out for help, and all too often those around them are unaware of the suffering being endured. It proves that traditional masculinity is the enemy of mental health.

Some individuals choose to cope with their emotional pain through externalizing behavior such as acting out. This can make recognizing depression challenging for family, friends, loved ones, coaches and trainers. Dr. Michele Leno revealed that high-risk behavior such as using drugs or engaging in violence can mask psychological dysfunction. Her study also revealed that family and social support are among the best protective factors to emotional debilitation for athletes. As Dr. Leno reported “athletes may be perceived as successful, wealthy, superman. However, career pressures, and struggles may be camouflaged”.

Unique Stressors

My conversation with Riley Tincher illustrates that professional and collegiate athletes experience clinical depression for reasons consistent with the general population. This includes lack of social support, feelings of hopelessness, grief, sadness, isolation, psycho social adjustment challenges, chemical imbalance, drug related issues, and overwhelming anxiety among other symptoms. I believe, the intense pressure athletes face to ‘win’ can add significant psychological stress.

Why is Sports Nutrition so important?

At the most basic level, nutrition is important for athletes because it provides a source of energy required to perform the activity. The food we eat impacts on our strength, training, performance and recovery.  Not only is the type of food important for sports nutrition but the times we eat throughout the day also has an impact on our performance levels and our bodies ability to recover after exercising. 

Sleep deprivation can contribute to poor performance through reduced motivation and efficiency of cognitive processes, increasing perceived effort, and limiting physiological recovery responses. Monitoring the quality and quantity of sleep can aid in detecting poor sleep patterns and behavior. The use of diaries outlining hours of sleep and routines is encouraged. Recommendations for sleep patterns should be specific to each individual; however, at least 9-10 hours of sleep is a general recommendation, implemented within a routine of consistent sleeping and waking time. Knowledge surrounding sleep and its importance with regard to recovery, monitoring, and assessment is becoming consistently more predominant within the elite performance setting.

Recovery is becoming increasingly important to the high-performing athlete in a bid to reduce fatigue and enhance performance. Some of the more common recovery techniques utilized by athletes include hydrotherapy, active recovery, stretching, compression garments and massage. There has been a significant increase in research examining both the effects of recovery on performance and potential mechanisms. Recent research suggests that hydrotherapy, compression and massage can enhance acute performance when utilized appropriately. Athletes are encouraged to experiment with various recovery techniques to identify useful individualized recovery strategies.

Including:

• The Successful Habits Formula
• The B-Alert System
• Four Key Areas of Athletic Excellence
• The Strangest Secret to Winning
• Discover the Secret Foundation to Maximize your Full Athletic Potential

WHY DO I NEED A MENTOR?

Sometimes people use the words “mentoring” and “coaching” interchangeably, but they do not describe the same type of working relationship. Both share basic organizational and team goals including  learning and development that leads to peak performance, and the realization of full potential. However, the definition, focus, role, approach, and tools of each are different. In this conversation, you can expect us to discuss:

Definition and Focus

• Mentoring: A more informal association focused on building a two-way, mutually beneficial relationship for long-term personal development.
• Coaching: A more formal structured association focused on improvements in behavior and performance to resolve present team issues or handle specific aspects of performance.

Role

• Mentoring: Talking with an athlete who has identified his needs prior to entering into a mentoring relationship. The emphasis is on active listening, providing information, making suggestions, and establishing connections.
• Coaching: Talking to an athlete, identifying what she needs, and developing an action plan. The emphasis is on instruction, assessing, and monitoring.

Approach

• Mentoring: This is a self-directed method whereby participants have choices. This approach can begin with a self-matching and individualistic process and continue throughout the relationship using a committed timeline to determine how often and where individuals will meet, identify goals, and so forth.
• Coaching: A structured method that is more frequently used whereby athletes are working within a narrower perspective; their agenda is more specific, shorter in duration, and oriented the season and certain results. Usually a coach is assigned to an entire team.

Tools

• Mentoring: The most important tool is the Mentoring Agreement—developed, completed, and signed by both participants. This document formalizes commitment to the mentoring relationship. Items include individual goals, learning content, a meeting schedule, and communication methods.
• Coaching: Depending on the situation, various assessments  can be used such as skills training activities, practices, and teaching evaluations. A contract can be issued regarding certain problems that need to be resolved or skills to be learned.

Although differences exist between mentoring and coaching, they do share some comparable characteristics as well:

• Defined roles allow individuals to envision the achievement of desired goals.
• Working relationships require trust, respect, open communication, and flexibility.
• Training, education, and orientation are necessary.
• Success is best achieved when leaders understand the return on investment, and expectations regarding engagement, performance, and retention are being achieved.
• The mission is to meet both individual and team goals.

A good combination of Coaching and Mentoring will increase an athletes' chances of success. Each one enhances an individual’s ability to contribute to the team's goals. Consider how these two activities can fulfill the expectations of coaches, student-athletes, and sports parents, while simultaneously accomplishing the team's goals. 

For booking contact: [email protected]

THE PATH TO PURPOSE

Shannon M. Carlisle is the creator and host of The Path to Purpose, a podcast for current and former athletes. She's an alum of THE Howard University. After her career in athletics, Shannon became an educator in the public school system and later received her Masters in Educational Technology. She also created a self discovery journal for high school athletes. Her goal is to empower them with the tools needed to succeed in college and well after their playing career is over. Shannon's varied experience allows her to understand the unique challenges faced by athletes, especially during a transitional period. Athletes that understand their value as a person and the mindset required to follow through on personal and professional goals have a greater chance at fulfilling lives later on. Listen in as Shannon discusses:

• Reconnecting with the person behind the jersey
• Developing goals that match your bigger vision
• The importance of communicating clearly
• Taking your influence to the next level

For more information contact: [email protected]