Henry Barrera, Strength and Conditioning Coach for Men's Basketball at the University of Alabama, joins the show for a conversation on learning, communication, failure, and purpose. Henry has been part of multiple SEC championships, an Elite Eight run, and the program's first-ever trip to the Final Four, and before Alabama he spent seven years at Liberty winning three conference championships and the school's first NCAA Tournament victory.

But this conversation is less about training and more about how Henry thinks. He may be the most curious coach in the profession, and he takes the best notes and journals in the country.

We dive deep into his system for actionable learning, how he uses filters and frameworks to cut through information overload, his process for "journal diving" and returning to what he wrote, the power of sticky language, and how coaches develop the ability to command a room.

We also get into why creating opportunities for failure matters and how he builds that into the weight room, his vision for a Director of Learning and Development role on a staff, and the "Soul of Performance" idea he's writing about right now: why gifted athletes make it or don't, and what the rest of us can learn from them.

🔗Check out more from Henry👇

Instagram: @HoopDiaries

This podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.

Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.

👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].

Chapters

00:00 Intro

03:51 Born Curious: What Drives His Learning

05:08 Serving Athletes as the Engine for Curiosity

07:06 Filters, Frameworks, and Information Overload

08:27 Journal Diving and the Analog-Digital System

12:48 Learning to Love Reading

16:17 The Director of Learning and Development Role

19:17 Communication as the Biggest Limiter

20:25 What Teaching Taught Him About Coaching

22:35 Sticky Language and the Deaf Man and the Blind Man

24:21 Building the Ability to Command a Room

28:48 Bandwidth, Drip Feed, and When to Use Your Voice

29:43 Creating Opportunities for Failure

37:11 Data, Feedback, and Pushing Into AI

40:29 Perspective Through Loss

42:55 Lessons From Fatherhood

47:58 What His Own Playing Career Taught Him

49:52 The Soul of Performance

Sean Hayes, Director of Athletic Performance for Volleyball, Men’s Tennis, and Men’s Swimming at the University of Georgia, joins the show in his 17th season with the Bulldogs. Coach Hayes spent more than a decade with Men’s Basketball at Georgia, and his path also includes stops with the Buffalo Bills, Clemson, Harvard, and Tulsa.

We dive into what he learned running 41 teams by himself as the first Director at Harvard, the wake-up call Mike Boyle delivered to him as an intern, how he kickstarts his own self-discipline after 30 years in the field, and why he set a goal to back squat 315 before his daughter graduated.

Coach Hayes also breaks down how he has stayed at Georgia for seventeen years and why he has chosen to stay, what he learned adapting to a coaching change, the importance of letting career progression happen organically, and why you should work to make yourself irreplaceable wherever you are.

We also get into laser focused prioritization, why he leans on his staff instead of trying to have all the answers, the changes he has made to his volleyball team's training this season with post-practice lifting, and the honest reflection on what he sacrificed with his oldest daughter along the way.

🔗Check out more from Coach Hayes👇

Instagram: @coachshayes

This podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.

Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.

👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].

Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:57 Seventeen Years at Georgia and the Path There

04:20 Running 41 Sports Solo at Harvard

09:38 Building a Program From Scratch

12:32 What Hard Early Years Teach You

13:53 The Mike Boyle Wake-Up Call

16:54 Kickstarting Your Own Self-Discipline

18:45 Setting a Back Squat Goal at 52

20:41 Finding a Second Mountain

23:59 Why He Has Stayed at Georgia

25:34 Not Tying Your Identity to the Sport You Work With

26:50 Ingraining Yourself in the Department

28:52 Keeping Ego Out of Career Decisions

31:23 Adapting to a Coaching Change

36:24 Turning Defensiveness Into Growth

39:18 Career Advice for Young Coaches in Today's Landscape

44:42 Make Yourself Irreplaceable

46:09 Goal Setting and Laser Focused Prioritization

49:18 Changing Volleyball Training to Post-Practice Lifting

52:02 Reflection, Vulnerability, and Leaning on Staff

54:41 Isometrics, Plyos, and Getting Uncomfortable

59:59 What Helped His Career but Cost Him at Home

01:03:52 When He Is Closest to His Purpose

Tony Rossi, Assistant AD of Health, Wellness, and Performance at Oral Roberts University, joins the show to break down his move into an admin role after serving as the Director of Sports Medicine.

We dive into how he elevated into the admin role, the biggest adjustments and new skills he's had to learn, and how he manages and leads a staff in a setting that carries a high turnover rate at the low major level. Tony also explains how he approached the initial conversations with the sports performance staff and why one of his goals is to detach performance coaches from their sport coaches when it comes to job security.

We also get into Tony's own training, including how he started competing in marathons and triathlons, the mental performance benefits that come from truly committing to training for something rather than just training to train, and why every coach needs a second mountain to climb beyond their career.

🔗Check out more from Tony👇

Instagram: @tonyjrossi 

This podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.

Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.

👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].

Chapters

05:47 Elevating Into the Assistant AD Role

07:55 The Athletics Healthcare Administrator Role

10:46 Leading a Staff With High Turnover

13:01 Detaching Strength Coaches From Sport Coaches

15:22 When a New Head Coach Wants Their Own Guy

19:04 Earning Buy-In From the Sports Performance Staff

24:25 Biggest Adjustments and Skills to Build

26:23 SOPs, Roles, and Needs Assessments

29:43 Hiring and Evaluating the Right Fit

34:16 A Game Plan for Getting Into Administration

37:28 From Two-Mile Runs to Triathlons

41:52 Why You Need a Second Mountain

45:12 Treating Your Own Body Like an Experiment

49:24 Not Every Ache Is a Red Flag

In this episode, I run a thought experiment: “If you knew what you know now back when you were an athlete, what would you do differently? And does that inform your decision making for your athletes now in any way?”

I dive into the 8 things I’d change when thinking about this question.

This podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.

Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.

👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].

Doug Crandall, VP and Head of Teaching at the Referent Group, joins the show to break down the ideas behind his newest book, Building or Diminishing. Doug previously taught leadership at West Point, where he won the Excellence in Teaching Award, and has co-authored four books before this one.

We dive into the core premise of the book, that with every action we're either building or diminishing the people around us, and unpack Doug's four leadership archetypes: builder, driver, cheerleader, and belittler. We explore what separates a driver or cheerleader from a true builder, and why holding a high standard and pouring into your people aren't opposing forces, they're both required.

We also talk about the authenticity and vulnerability it takes to lead this way, and why this conversation is one that can genuinely shift how you show up in your day-to-day interactions with the people you lead.

You can grab a copy of Doug’s new book right here: https://a.co/d/05tz2oRR

🔗Check out more from Doug 👇 Building or Diminishing | Doug Crandall 

This podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.

Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.

👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].

Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:26 Doug's Path from West Point to the Referent Group

05:36 Breaking Down the Four Leadership Archetypes

09:00 Holding a High Standard While Building People Up

14:39 What Pulls Builders Back Toward Driver or Cheerleader

21:02 Concrete Steps for Moving from Driver to Builder

25:54 Keeping Athletes in the Moment vs. Pulling Them Forward

28:52 Leaders Cast a Larger Shadow Than They Realize

35:22 Leadership as an Accumulation of Small Moments

41:09 The "Never Met a Bad Cadet" Story

45:03 The Pygmalion Effect and the Danger of Judging Intent

49:51 Building a Builder Culture Across a Team or Program

52:08 Balancing Vulnerability as a Leader

58:10 The One Lesson Doug Hopes His Kids Take From the Book

01:01:35 When Doug Feels Closest to His Purpose 

Erika Lambert, Head Women's Basketball Coach at the University of North Florida entering her fourth season, joins the show to reflect on what she's learned making the jump from a 15-year assistant career into leading her own program.

We dive into why she builds in non-negotiable time to think and plan each week, how she's learned to delegate recruiting and other responsibilities she used to own herself, and why "the people are the job" has become her filter for a to-do list that never actually ends.

Coach Lambert also breaks down how she built a weekly hour into her limited practice-time budget to make her program's five core values a living part of the culture rather than words on a wall, and walks through why her hardest leadership decisions have come through roster management.

We also get into the balancing act of coaching and parenting and trying to find how much to push your kids in their sports. 

🔗Check out more from Coach Lambert 👇

Instagram:

@OspreysWBB

@Coach_lambert

@Momsincoaching

This podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.

Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.

👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].

Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:02 Assistant to Head Coach: What Actually Changes

05:35 Building In Time to Think Amid the Chaos

08:52 "The People Are The Job"

12:54 Learning to Delegate as a Head Coach

16:04 Showing Your Staff What You Want, Not Just Telling Them

18:42 Recruiting for Character and Fit

20:57 Turning Core Values Into a Living Culture

30:44 The Hardest Decision: Rebuilding the Roster the Right Way

38:51 Coaching, Parenting, and Knowing How Hard to Push

51:14 The Sleeping Bags at the Track

53:16 Closest to Purpose: Coaching as Ministry 

Leddy French, Director of Athletic Development at Elite Performance in Frisco, Texas, joins the show to break down how he builds athletes at every level. After starting his career at APEC and launching his own training company, Leddy reunited with Mason Hays (EP 54) to help build Elite Performance's large-scale operation inside The Star.

We dive into his variability model for training and how he balances high-output work with variable stimuli to build physical outputs and the ability to express them. Leddy also breaks down how to actually overload change of direction drills and create a real training adaptation. 

Leddy gets into why the warm-up is so important for him, how he defines “sensory motor capacity” as a trainable skill, and his approach to youth training.

We also talk about how to drive people to want to train with you in the private sector, the lessons he took from Bobby Stroupe at APEC, and how to balance giving clients what they want with what they need.

🔗Check out more from Leddy 👇

Instagram: @lf2performance 

This podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.

Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.

👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].

Chapters

01:21 Influence of APEC and early experiences in performance training

07:18 Adapting training when starting own facility

09:45 Creative resourcefulness with minimal equipment

11:25 Balancing perception and training effectiveness

16:27 Stable vs. variable training stimuli

18:14 Expression of physical capacities through dynamic tasks

20:46 Using variability to enhance change of direction

23:38 Training youth athletes and building sensory motor capacity

25:40 Warm-up strategies and engagement

33:46 Change of direction drills as expression of ability

37:43 Adding external load and velocity to training

42:51 Ensuring training stimulates true adaptation

52:32 The importance of training perception and challenge

01:00:03 Balancing training complexity and athlete engagement

01:07:35 Optimizing short-term athlete development

01:15:40 Commanding attention from the start

Chico Morales, VP of Operations and Director of Performance at Built 4 It, joins the show to share how he rose from PT tech to running two multidisciplinary facilities in the DFW area. Built 4 It brings performance training and medical services under one roof, and Chico has been there since he was the company's first employee in 2020.

We dive into how Built 4 It's medical and performance sides work together so athletes never have to leave the building for treatment, how Chico structures training across youth, high school, adult, and pro populations, and the deceleration and single-leg work he prioritizes to fill the gaps within the private sector. 

We also talk about how Chico quickly rose from assistant trainer to Director of Performance and VP of Operations, how he approaches staff development, and how Built 4 It has intentionally grown their culture and community across two facilities. 

🔗Check out more from Chico 👇

Instagram: @chico_performance12 @built4it_official 

This podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.

Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.

👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].

Chapters

03:02 Building Built For It: Growth and facilities

04:22 Holistic model: Medical and performance integration

05:50 Transition from PT to coaching

09:47 Rapid growth and leadership at Built For It

12:26 Staff development and intern training

14:47 Self-development and industry evolution

17:58 Youth training programs and age brackets

20:25 Filling gaps in high school athlete development

23:02 Technical vs. drill-based training

24:46 8-week training programs and measurable results

25:33 Group programming and scheduling

27:24 Roles beyond coaching: Operations and management

30:19 Managing multiple facilities and travel

32:12 In-house medical and performance collaboration

34:00 Building long-term athlete relationships

36:28 Community and culture at Built For It

39:20 Expanding to new markets and international opportunities

50:29 Influences from athletic coaching and leadership

54:01 Common mistakes in athlete development

57:26 Advice for young trainers and industry newcomers

01:00:41 Balancing faith, family, and career

In this episode, I pull back the curtain on my own programming and why I’ve completely overhauled my system twice in the last four months. I break down what I started with, what I changed it to, and then how I changed it again four weeks ago.

This podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.

Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.

👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].

Chase Sanders, owner of Chasing Strength and the strength coach for football and baseball at Damien High School, joins the show to share lessons from coaching across the high school, collegiate, and private sector settings. After spending six years as Director of Strength and Conditioning at Cal Poly Pomona and learning under an elite staff at Utah State, Chase brings a unique perspective on athlete development and coaching.

We dive into his approach to training youth athletes, why he believes coaches should chase adaptation rather than novelty, and the experiences that shaped his coaching philosophy. Chase also shares how he built Chasing Strength from his garage and the deeper purpose that continues to drive and inspire him.

🔗Check out more from Chase 👇

Instagram: @chasing_strength7

This podcast evolved from my book, Strength In Numbers — the ultimate mentorship guide for coaches.

Featuring insights from 100+ ELITE coaches across every level and sport, it’s an encyclopedia of coaching wisdom built to help you grow your career, navigate failure, and find long-term coaching success.

👉 Grab your copy of Strength In Numbers [by clicking here].

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:00 Chase's Path to Sports Performance Coaching

07:00 Building a Sports Performance Program from Scratch

10:02 Establishing a Training Culture and Coaching Development

17:56 Lessons from Elite Coaches and the Importance of Standards

19:54 Comparing College, Private Sector, and High School Coaching

25:23 Transitioning to Private Coaching

30:26 Building Relationships in Coaching

35:34 Navigating Business Logistics

42:44 Vision for the Future

48:18 Balancing Business and Coaching

51:21 The Importance of Consistency in Training

54:55 Educating Parents and Athletes

01:00:41 Inspiration and Personal Growth

01:06:47 Work-Life Balance and Prioritizing Family