The Compound Commitment

Episode 083: Sports Illustrated Senior Sports Writer, Greg Bishop, joins me on the show to talk about success in basketball.

Greg's feature subjects have ranged from Ricky Williams to Adrian Peterson to Aaron Rodgers. He spent time as the Jets beat writer for the New York Times and the Seahawks beat writer for the Seattle Times.

I became friends with Greg while he was researching for his cover stories on Gonzaga Basketball.  I found him to be a thoughtful and kind person and we immediately hit it off.  

Since Greg has interviewed some of the top performers in the world, I wanted to pick his brain on common threads of successful athletes.  Here are some of the questions I asked:

• How do you find the story in the story?
• What's unique about Gonzaga basketball?
• What are the common threads of successful athletes?
• How can players prepare for success and fame?
• What is the most impactful story you've covered?

If you want to learn more about success in basketball, check out the article Personal Growth w/ Brett Ledbetter

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Episode 085: Today I lined out a sample day of eating for basketball players.  There's so much confusion about the best way to fuel your body on the court, and so I simplified things by sharing sample breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack options to optimize performance.

Click here to get your FREE Copy of the Basketball Nutrition Game

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Episode 081: Even if you're don't end up being a coach or going pro, you can still enjoy basketball for a lifetime.  In today's interview, Jess Walter shares how his love of hoops has helped him as a writer.

Jess Walter is the author of nine books, most recently the national bestseller The Cold Millions and #1 New York Times bestseller, Beautiful Ruins.  His book, The Zero, was a finalist for the National Book Award; and Citizen Vince, was the winner of the Edgar Award. His work has been published in 32 languages and his short fiction has appeared three times in Best American Short Stories.

And I think you’ll love this interview because Jess shares how the same principles that helped him create a successful writing career, things like preparation, routine and hard work, are the same valuable traits he still uses to this day on the basketball court.

In addition to exploring what it looks like to play basketball for a lifetime, I asked Jess these questions:

• How did playing basketball help your writing career?
• How has writing helped you on the court?
• What is your writing process like?
• Do you believe in early specialization?
• Why are you still playing hoops after all these years?
  
  

If you want to learn more ways to play basketball for a lifetime, check out my interview with John Stockton, where he shares his Sunday basketball routine.

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Episode 080: When Gonzaga Basketball senior guard, Corey Kispert, was asked about his leadership style, he replied, "I like to lead from the middle."

Bill Robinson is the president emeritus of Whitworth University and has written multiple books on leadership, including, "Leading People From The Middle."  His style of leadership brings teams and organizations together by flattening the traditional hierarchal structure.

We became friends when he was doing consulting with the Hoopfest Board and he was invaluable in helping me at my first ever stint as board chair.  It was easy to see from the first time we met that Bill practices what he preaches.

Bill was kind enough to join me today to talk about leading from the middle, on and off the court.  If you want to be more impactful as a player, coach or parent, you’ll love his message. Here are some of the questions we discussed:

• What's the definition of leadership?
• How can players lead from the middle?
• Can coaches & parents lead from the middle?
• Are kids able to become anything they want?
• Does leadership in sport transfer to leadership in career?

If you want to learn more about leadership, check out the 3 Levels of Basketball Leadership

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Episode 079: Jeremy Jones was a member of Gonzaga's 2017 Final Four team and is now a professional basketball player.  He joined me on the podcast to talk about eating clean and taking care of your body.

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Episode 078: Instead of waiting to get injured and doing rehab, use prehab to keep you healthy on the court.  Physical Therapist, Brian Cronin, joined me on the show to share the exercises that he uses with his athletes to reduce the chance of injury.

In 2004, Brian co-founded U-District Physical Therapy with myself and our third partner, Jeff Hart.  It has now grown to three locations and over 60 team members.

Brian earned his BA from the University of Washington and a Master of Science in Physical Therapy from Eastern Washington University. He specializes in orthopedic and sports rehabilitation, combining his unique sports medicine education, his sports background as a player and coach, and his passion for the game to provide cutting-edge therapy and performance training.

Brian has been an adjunct professor teaching in EWU’s Physical Therapy Department since 2007. He was elected a board member for the Private Practice SIG in 2016 and he also proudly serves on the U-District Foundation Board.

In addition to being a physical therapist, he has provided community educational talks to Washington Trust Bank, SNAP, Wa. State Dept. of Transportation, Leadership Spokane, SYSA, Washington State Employees Credit Union, NE Kiwanis, Morning Star Boys Ranch, Avista, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Lee & Hayes, Gonzaga’s Business School, EWU Exercise Science Department, and Washington Alliance for Physical Education.

Brian is Certified as an Emergency Medical Responder and in Applied Functional Science by the Gray Institute.  We sat down and discussed:

• Why Prehab is so important to athletes
• How to safely return to the court after an ankle sprain
• Exercises to reduce the chance of an ACL tear
• Can you train confidence?
• His 12-month leadership program

If you want to learn more about prehab, check out my interview with Logan Schwartz: Building Healthy Basketball Players

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Episode 077: Doing the work of personal growth off the court will lead to gains on the court. 

Performance consultant, author and speaker, Brett Ledbetter joined me on the podcast to share how his work is helping players and coaches grow as people.  He focuses on character development, priority alignment, behavior management and self-awareness.

Brett has authored four books: What Drives Winning, What’s Really Important, What Drives Winning Teams and What Drives Winning Environments.  He has also given three TEDx talks: What Drives Winning, Building Your Inner Voice and How to Stop Comparing and Start Competing.

Brett currently works with several Division 1 athletic departments––including Gonzaga, Oregon, Florida and Oklahoma State to name a few––that hire him as a thinking partner for athletic directors, coaches and athletes. He also applies his high-performance training within education, military, sport and business sectors.

Gonzaga Women's Basketball Head Coach, Lisa Fortier, also joined us to share how working with Brett has helped her create clarity in her priorities.  Gonzaga Men's Basketball Strength Coach, Travis Knight, joined us to share how Brett has helped create his weekly Personal Growth Monday meetings with the team.  

Here are some of the questions I asked Brett:

• What is intrinsic motivation and can you foster it?
• What is a coach's role in personal growth of their players?
• How can strength coaches assist the basketball staff with development?
• How do you handle players that don't buy into the process?

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Episode 076: Do you want to know learn more about NBA basketball conditioning and getting your players in optimal shape on the court? 

Conditioning is a lot more than just running until you're tired.  There's an art and science to getting players ready for a long season and keeping them in shape through playoffs.  

Willie Cruz is the Director of Performance for the Houston Rockets and joined me on the podcast to share how he gets and keeps his players in peak shape.  

Prior to joining the Rockets, Willie spent two years with the Oklahoma City Thunder as an Athletic Performance Coach and two years at Fordham University as their Director of strength and conditioning for mens basketball. He is certified as a Registered Strength and Conditioning Coach (RSCC) by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

Willie has a M.S. in Exercise Science from Edith Cowan University, M.S in Media Management from Fordham University, and completed his bachelor’s degree at Eastern Kentucky University majoring in Sports Management.

He also earned a full-ride scholarship to play Division 1 basketball at Eastern Kentucky University.  In addition to being a great basketball strength coach, he's also a baller.  

In his free time, Willie is committed to serving his community, empowering the next generation, and impacting lives through performance coaching.  We sat down and discussed NBA basketball conditioning and how to best get players in shape for a long season.  

Here are some of the questions I asked:

• Do your players get most of their conditioning through playing basketball?
• How much running do you do during season?
• Are bench players performing extra conditioning work after games?
• What do you do for mental conditioning?
• How do you handle players that aren't motivated?

If you want to learn more about basketball conditioning, listen to Episode 008: Basketball Conditioning w/ Joel Jamieson

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Episode 075: Dan Dickau joined me on the podcast to talk about coaching youth basketball.  When I speak at summer camps, I always use Dan as an example of someone who held his dreams close to his heart and put in work.

Holding your dreams tight and putting in work are two qualities I want to teach my kids.  I tell them to hold your dreams tight because there will always be people telling you that you’re not tall enough, not talented enough or not good enough.  If you’re not holding yourr dream tight, you might actually start believing them.

But dreaming isn’t enough, you also have to put in work.  And that’s what Dan did such an incredible job of.  He was always the first to the gym and the last to leave.

If you don’t know much about Dan, he was a First Team All-American at Gonzaga University and played six years in the NBA.  After he finished his playing career, the Portland Trailblazers hired him as a player development assistant.  Dan is currently an on-air broadcaster and the host of multiple basketball podcasts.

Since we’re both parents to kids who love hoops, I wanted to see how he’s handling the balance between helping his kids with sports vs. just being a fan.  In this interview I asked how his parents helped him on the court, his take on coaching youth basketball and what he’s specifically doing to help his kids become their best.

Here are some of the questions I asked Dan:

• How important is winning in youth basketball?
• Where do you find balance between being a dad and a coach to your kids?
• Do you focus on skill training or running plays in practice?
• What's realistic to expect of your kid's when it comes to practicing on their own?
• How do you handle sport-specialization in your house?

If you want to learn more about coaching youth basketball, check out Episode 007: Basketball Player, Coach, Parent w/ Matt Santangelo

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Episode 074: I'm almost back!  Thanks to everyone who called, texted, DM'd me on social media, and kept me in their prayers.  This is just a short episode to give you heart updates and let you know I've got 4 great episodes lined up at the end of the month.  

I'll see you in a couple weeks!

Mike