Available 3/6
In this episode of the Samson Strength Coach Collective, Leo Totten shares insights from a 50-year career in strength and conditioning. From his early influences in Olympic weightlifting to leading successful teams and mentoring generations of coaches, Leo reflects on how the profession has evolved and what remains timeless.
Leo discusses the importance of cultivating a growth mindset, striving for elite standards, and continuously learning throughout your career. He emphasizes the value of relationships in coaching, the necessity of work-life balance, and the discipline required to lead athletes and programs effectively. This conversation offers practical wisdom for coaches at every stage who want to build sustainable success while maintaining perspective and purpose.
Key Takeaways
- The foundation of great coaching begins with a commitment to continuous learning.
- A growth mindset is essential for long-term success in strength and conditioning.
- Building successful programs requires leadership, standards, and community.
- Relationships with athletes and family must be intentionally prioritized.
- Elite performance demands tenacity—but also knowing when to let go.
Quote
“Strive for the elite mindset.” — Leo Totten
Leo Totten:
Worry about the stuff that does matter and the little things will take care of themselves. And, ⁓ and I know that’s almost, that almost sounds cliche, but, but it is really true. If you’re worried about all the little stuff all the time, you’re not going to have any, any energy left for the big stuff. And the big stuff is really what matters.
Samson:
What’s going on Sampson Strength Coach Collective listeners? On today’s episode, we have a guest highly recommended from one of Sampson’s employees, Dexter, who’s a fantastic man to work with. And he got on the phone with me and immediately told me after he met Leo that we needed to get Leo on the podcast as soon as possible. So here we are. Our guest today is Leo Totten, who has over 50 years of experience within strength and conditioning and is owner of Totten Training Systems. Leo, thank you so much for coming on.
Leo Totten:
Thank you for having me. really appreciate it. And thank Dexter for putting in the good word for me.
Samson:
Absolutely. know, Dexter’s recommendations don’t come lightly. So if he says you’re a good guy, we got to get you on the show immediately.
Leo Totten:
I really appreciate that.
Samson:
Well, can you just start off and give us a background of your illustrious career and just fill us in on what you’re currently doing as well.
Leo Totten:
Well, I thought it was kind of interesting to use the word legacy, ⁓ in some of the podcasts that you’re doing here lately. And, ⁓ I would like to think that my 50 years has been a bit of a legacy for me. ⁓ I don’t know how great a legacy, but it is my legacy. ⁓ but yeah, ⁓ I just appreciate all the things that I’ve gone through, ⁓ growing up and, getting involved in, ⁓
teaching physical education, coaching a lot of different sports and ⁓ getting involved in the strength and conditioning world based off of the weightlifting that I had done as a competitor and then later as a coach. So the time has really gone fast. It’s really amazing. It’s just hard to believe 50 years. And before I go any further, just because it’s been 50 years doesn’t mean I’m old. It means I started when I was three. Okay. So I’m not as old as you think I am. ⁓
Samson:
Absolutely.
Leo Totten:
Yeah, but it was interesting listening to Dana Leduc’s talk the other day ⁓ on your podcast. ⁓ You know, he and I really have a lot more in common than I realized. Some of the people he had trained with, some of the people he had coached. ⁓ the fact that he’s a big proponent of Olympic lifting, obviously that’s my thing. ⁓ So I appreciate coaches that are ⁓ of the same ilk or same mindset that we are.
But anyway, my whole career really started, I mean, if you want to go way back, I got my first set of weights when I was 12 years old. Okay. ⁓ I was just a skinny little guy. ⁓ and I was very athletic and I enjoyed sport. I was just little. I mean, in eighth grade, I weighed 83 pounds. mean, I was, I was like the joke. I was so weak. I couldn’t pee a hole in the snow. Okay. At least I got a smile out of you there. Sometimes that’s like an old dad joke, I guess.
Samson:
I thought it was great. I appreciated it.
Leo Totten:
But anyway, so I was very fortunate that I got my first set of weights. It was a 100 pound set from York Barbell. I live a little less than an hour away from York and that turned out to be quite prophetic and I didn’t realize it at the time, but I got that first set of weights there at the building. Well, they also had a lot of the top weight lifters at the time. Now this is in the mid 60s, okay.
top lifters, ⁓ in the world or in the country would come there and train because York at the time was the Mecca of weightlifting, so to speak. So here I am, this little 12 year old twerp that’s sitting there watching these guys train. I’m going, this is pretty impressive. These guys are not only muscular, but they’re fast and powerful and just really, really strong. And I said, man, I’d like to be like that. So I started following them and I started following strength and health magazine.
⁓ And what I found was that I was basically teaching myself, which actually turned out to be a really, ⁓ really important part of my coaching later on. The fact that I’d gone through all the trial and error stuff and the, you know, the making the mistakes and then taking time to correct those. ⁓ I think eventually made me in the long run, a better coach, just because it made me analyze and think all these things that, you know, as a 14 year old, you wouldn’t be expecting me to be reading the
Russian technique ⁓ manuals on training. ⁓ But yeah, it was a really good start for me. And I was in a lot of different sports. I played soccer, I played football, I wrestled was a big deal for me. In high school, I did a bunch of those things. But all along the time I was doing that, I was the only one who was really training with weights at the same time. I was again, following Strength and Health magazine, I’m teaching myself how to snatch and clean and jerk. And
I mean, we can go back and, you know, hit some pretty interesting stories about my beginnings lifting in a dirt floor garage. And every time the weights hit the ground, it got deeper and deeper. So I learned really quickly about deficit pulls and deficit lifting. ⁓ When I was inside, had reconverted this. ⁓ It was actually a clothes closet and it was like four by six, six feet wide. The bar I had was just an exercise bar. Again, remember this is way back there and didn’t have an Olympic bar.
And it was six feet wide while the bar was five feet. So if you can imagine trying to teach myself to snatch and clean and jerk with six inches on each side, I learned technique really quick. Otherwise I would have busted some walls there. Plus it was only four feet front to back. Well, anyway, that kind of leads to, you know, helping me in my sports, as I went along. So in the long run from the strength and conditioning world, it was really going to pay off. Cause at the time I didn’t know, I, you know, I knew it was making me
stronger and faster and a better my fact that I was a better lifter made me a better wrestler and the other sports I was in. But I didn’t really consider teaching and coaching strength and conditioning. But I was fortunate that I knew, I don’t know why, but I knew from like seventh grade that I wanted to coach, teach and coach. And so I took all the extra classes I could in high school, the biology classes, the anatomy classes, all these things to prepare me for undergrad.
So my degree from Westchester University, actually was Westchester State College at the time, and health and physical education. So again, my education background really helped my coaching down the line, because I always talk about good coaching, you have to be a good teacher. So the fact that I had these education courses really helped me in a lot of ways. So then ⁓ when I got through college,
I started coaching a lot of other sports because, you know, in a teaching position, ⁓ you, expect you to coach other sports. again, that really paid off in my strength and conditioning world, because by coaching wrestling and gymnastics and tennis and track and field, ⁓ swimming, diving, learning how to do all those things and how to teach that in the long run, I understood when I worked with sport coaches,
applying the strength and conditioning principles that I knew that I understood what they were doing on the field or on the court. And because of that, I think that, you know, it just kind of made a really good transition into the strength and conditioning world. But my biggest thing at the time was my training for weightlifting. And ⁓ I, again, mostly coaching myself and got to a pretty decent level nationally and did a couple of international things.
Uh, my best snatch was 150 kilos, uh, and best clean and jerk was 195 kilos. And at the time that was the 90 kilo class. So you can see how I really evolved not only in my weightlifting, but also through the body weight classes. My very first meet in 10th grade, I was in the 60 kilo class, 132 pounds. I kind of grew from there, obviously. Uh, so as the years went by, the weight classes kept getting higher and higher. Cause I started, I just got bigger and bigger.
And not that I was huge or anything, but interestingly, I didn’t think I was big compared to the other people in my weight class. I thought, my God, look at those guys. They have big traps. have big legs. I’m competing against these guys. And then I looked at myself one time in a lineup at the beginning of like an introduction of a weight class. And I’m looking at myself and I go, shoot. I’m just as big as those guys are. But yeah. So my lifting career, ⁓
I retired basically after the Olympic trials in 1984. And because I had been doing all these other coaching of these other sports, and plus I coached myself in weightlifting, the evolving into the weightlifting coach and strength and conditioning coach was just a natural thing. So right after the Olympic trials in 84, when I retired, which by the way, I was 32 at the time and I was actually doing my best lifting.
But one of the things we’ll probably talk about here in a little bit, the balance between family and work and your passion of weightlifting, there had to be a balance there. so I was married, had two little children. And so I said, okay, I can spend time on coaching without the day in and day out, five, six days a week, two and three lifting sessions a day.
you know, Thanksgiving morning and I got to get a workout. I got to do that before I go to the family stuff. So I wasn’t, I didn’t want to keep doing that. So the coaching career just, just kind of fell into place. All the education stuff I had and all the coaching. So, ⁓ I just remember Harvey Newton was the president of USA. Actually it was the U S weightlifting federation at the time. It wasn’t USA weightlifting. And, ⁓ he asked me, said,
Would you mind, we were talking about having a week long weightlifting camp at York College and use the York gym, which I was very familiar with, as the training area. Would you mind taking over the reins of that camp and just kind of, I took that and just took the ball and just kept running with it, right? So that was very successful and that kind of.
lead off into more of my weightlifting coaching career. Interestingly, that camp turned out to be a really successful venture. And I would do that for 32 consecutive years, putting that together at different places, not necessarily just York. We did it at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. We did it at a couple other locations. Heck, we did it at my high school for a couple of years. Ended up doing it at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, which was ideal. I mean, that was the best.
Did that for like 32 years and I still do camps now that, uh, but we kind of lowered the days instead of a full week. Now it’s like a three day thing. But anyway, um, that was a big start of it and started accumulating weightlifters that were coming to me saying, Hey, you know this and you know that, would you mind helping coach? Cause right now there’s, there’s a ton of weightlifting coaches out there, but back then, you know, it was really, first of all, the sport of weightlifting, had like 3000 registered lifters.
Well, now we have 43,000. Okay. I mean, it’s, it’s really gotten big, but back then there weren’t that many gyms that weren’t there wasn’t that many, ⁓ good facilities, the equipment. my God. I, I tease the lifters now. It’s like, man, you guys got it made. You’re complaining about, my God, the, the air conditioning isn’t where it needs to be. Stop. mean, come on, toughen up a little bit, you know what I mean? And then I explained some of the conditions that I lifted in and a lot of other people, well, it wasn’t just me.
And the bars I lifted on and, you know, even at Westchester, I was trying to train by myself. There was like a old converted, ⁓ they had some old equipment in there. They had like a universal machine. anyway, I got them to throw some plywood down to make a little platform. So I had a chance to live. So I’m stuck in this little corner. wasn’t the big athletic facilities that you see now, all that stuff that Samson does. my God. It’s, it’s just awesome. You know,
So anybody who complains about not having good facilities now, I don’t want to hear it compared to what we went through back then. so it just kind of evolved from that. one of the things that really helped was that I would do a lot of coaching. I started my own team in 1992, East Coast Gold is the name of our team. And we’ve been very fortunate where we’ve won, I think it’s 21 national team men and women titles.
Weightlifting obviously was ⁓ a big deal there. And what happened, ⁓ kind of what I was talking about where people were kind of out there on their own, they would come to me and say, hey, look, I’m out in Boadunk, middle of Pennsylvania. I don’t have a coach. ⁓ Would you mind just help me out a little bit? So I found that there was a lot of lifters out there like that that didn’t have any team affiliation or they didn’t have any coach.
It just kind of started with two or three lifters and one of them qualified for nationals. He couldn’t afford to go. I couldn’t afford to send him. I couldn’t afford to go because I was just out of college and didn’t have a whole lot of money. so I said, well, I’ll tell you what, let’s start a team, see if we can get some sponsorships, get a 501 C3 so we’ll be able to get some donations. And that’s how East Coast Gold started. And it just kind of went from there.
And then in, and it got bigger and bigger. mean, we have over 300 members now and we have satellite centers all over the East coast. So, and each of those satellite centers, have facilities and coaches and we’re all under the same philosophy of, you know, how you treat people, how you coach your, your strategy of how you deal with not only training and programming, but also in competitions. So it’s just kind of evolved and it’s, it’s been going strong since 1992.
Well, in 2006 is when I retired from ⁓ teaching because, well, I guess I should mention that a little bit. ⁓ I had 32 years of teaching and physical education and coaching a lot of sports, like I said, ⁓ and tremendous weightlifting program we ended up developing, which is kind of interesting talking about equipment. When I first got to the high school ⁓ that I was coaching at and teaching at, had
virtually nothing as far as facilities. We had two universals, one bench, this is no lie, one bench and just a couple of metal plates. That’s all they had. And I’m thinking, okay, this is going to be interesting, but we got to get something going here. So first thing I did was I got rid of one of the universals. It’s like, let’s bring some bars and plates in here. Well, by the time I left, 26 years later, I was at the same school.
We had 16 platforms. had bumper plates on every platform. had racks on every platform. I wish I would have known Samson at the time. Well, of course, back then, don’t even know. I’m not sure when they started. No way. They’ve been 50 years, correct? Yeah. Okay. So they were around, but yeah. Okay. So, but anyway, that, that whole weight room developed, uh, had lifting weightlifting classes we had developed that had never been.
Samson:
50 years, yep.
So 1976.
Leo Totten:
part of their phys ed program before. I had lifting in the morning, I had lifting after school, we had a summer lifting program. The teams actually started coming in and following along. That’s where I really started picking up on the strength and conditioning for other sports rather than just the sport of weightlifting. And ⁓ had a lot of success. So when I left, was kind of disappointed to leave that setup. But in 2006, I had an offer to be president of Works on Barbells.
And that was turned out to be a huge thing for me because not only was it a learning experience because I wasn’t a business guy. OK, you know, I am president of a company and I’m not a business guy. I’m a teacher and a coach. Right. So I learned a lot about business. I learned about negotiations and, you know, invoices and all this stuff. I never had to do it. So I learned a lot. And one of the biggest influences.
And I got, got to put props. I know Samson doesn’t, for the purposes of these podcasts, aren’t really promoting Samson. get that. I got to save this though. Okay. Because they don’t realize Scott and Brian, they’re the two, especially Scott, you know, we hung out a lot, which by the way, I appreciate the young Scott hanging out with the old fart here. Well, I told, I’ve told him that several times, you know, we’d go out to dinner, get a few drinks, you know, here and there. And, you know, he put up with the old guy. So I appreciate that. But.
The connection I had with Samson through Works on Barbells, through that company, I wouldn’t have made nearly the connections ⁓ if it wouldn’t have been for Scott and Brian helping me meet people and introduced me to the strength and conditioning world, especially in the high school and collegiate setting. And I wouldn’t have been nearly as successful in what I do today if not for those guys. And so I just, I had to throw that in there.
I know again, that’s not the purpose of these podcasts, but if without those guys, I wouldn’t be nearly successful. Plus I didn’t have a lot of money. just, you know, just starting the business, I didn’t have a whole lot of, much of a budget to work from. I don’t know how many times dinner they’d pick up the tab and I feel like a freeloader and every once in a while I’d buy a round of drinks at the bar and that’s about it.
couldn’t afford anything else. So those guys in a lot of different ways, they were huge, huge helps to me. And I just, I just want to make sure everybody knows that. Not to mention awesome equipment. I mean, come on, you can’t, can’t beat that. So, ⁓ but then in 2012, ⁓ I was finding WorksOn was, a good company to work with. But what I found was that as president, I just felt like I know, I, and again, I learned a lot, but one of the things that
kind of bothered me was that I’m getting phone calls, spending 20 minutes on the phone, talking to somebody saying, well, you know, the collar you sent me, it’s not quite spinning the weights. And here I’m rolling my eyes and trying to be polite and trying not to, but I just, I just felt like I, my expertise was, was coaching, right. And, and promoting the sport of weightlifting and promoting weightlifting for strength and strength and conditioning world. in 2012,
That’s when I left Works On and started my own business. ⁓ And basically just created my own courses. And one of the reasons for that is because a lot of times ⁓ I found that with USA Weightlifting courses, which I teach a lot, okay, and I think they’re really good. Heck, back in the late eighties, I actually helped develop the education program for USA, US Weightlifting Federation at the time. And so I’ve actually helped put this together. It was funny because I was on a podcast ⁓ about a few days ago.
And a guy was asking me about that. And I said, he said, when did you, when did you take your USAW level one? And then I explained to him, said, well, I didn’t really take it, but I kind of helped develop it back in the day. So, ⁓ so I create help created. ⁓ so I didn’t really have to take it. ⁓ but what I found was that there’s this directed more toward becoming a weightlifting coach. So it’s really good. You know, I like that, but what I found was it didn’t really.
apply to using the weightlifting skills that we have, weightlifters, they’re the most powerful athletes in the world, as a strength coach of other sports, why wouldn’t you train similar to them? So that was, I said, okay, I’m going to create my courses more for strength coaches, rather than just weightlifting coaches, but using the Olympic lift movements as the basis of what the courses are all about. that in itself, that’s when I
We’d go to the, these conferences. had my own booth there. And again, most of the time right beside Samson so that, you know, we could buddy up and because we did a lot of stuff together. Again, he introduced me to a lot of people and that sort of thing. ⁓ So ⁓ from 2012 on, I’ve had my own business and all the works on stuff that I did helped me from a business aspect that I wouldn’t have had before. All the connections I’ve made through works on at these conferences.
through Samson, through other companies. I know a lot of people now and those connections have really helped me as a ⁓ businessman, if you want to call me that. ⁓ And it’s been building, just kind of building on top of each other, so to speak. So that’s kind of it in a nutshell. And ⁓ it’s kind of a long-winded nutshell, I guess. Yeah.
Samson:
No, no, no, no, that’s fantastic. And seriously, I love
to hear your story. You know, one common theme I’m noticing amongst this is that you’re somebody who takes advantages of the opportunities that are given to them, right? And I can tell you’re a humble guy. So I do want you to, you know, ⁓ put your bragging shoes on just slightly. Like I think back to you saying, you know, you got your, knew you were an undersized athlete and then you got your first hundred pound weight set and you took that to the max, right? And became a competitive weightlifter and a successful one to starting the 501.
511C3, maybe I got that wrong. Okay, there we go. ⁓ For your weightlifting teams and then understanding the skills developed with Works On, going into your own business. For those who are listening, how have you been able to see the potential with the opportunities you’ve overtaken and how did you maximize those opportunities?
Leo Totten:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. There you go.
Well, I didn’t really see them as a growth type thing, but they ended up being like that. So I think that’s really one of the things that as I’ve gotten older, ⁓ first of all, a lot of gratitude for any opportunity that comes up. I think that’s an important thing for everybody to do is be grateful for what you have. know, people complain about, well, I don’t have this, I don’t have that. How about if you’re just grateful for what you do have? So when an opportunity presents itself,
I just think if you don’t take advantage of that and delve into that and get as much out of it as you can, you’re not really being fair to the opportunity or to yourself. So, I’ve been pretty fortunate where I went as a 10th grader in my first weightlifting meet, who would have ever thought that I’d ended up lifting at the national level, coaching at the national and international level, and who’d have thunk it, so to speak.
So, you know, just as each opportunity comes up, if you just look at, I just found out that if you look at things with a growth mindset, you know, and always trying to learn, well, heck, I, you know, I study top coaches to this day, not only in weightlifting, but also basketball coaches, football coaches. Vince Lombardi was one of my first coaches that I really delved into. To this day, I’m still a Packers fan. I don’t know if you noticed I’m
drinking some water out of my packers cup here. ⁓ Because when I was younger, when I was like 12, 13 years old, and I started following the Packers, because I just remember Jim Taylor was their fullback. And I was just so impressed as a young impressionable kid to see this pile driving fullback. And you know, had these big thighs, big strong thighs, and he just wanted to punish people. And it’s like, Yeah, I like that. You know, man, I got to find out what he does.
come to find out he went to LSU where they had, they were one of the earliest strength and conditioning programs really using weightlifting as part of their program. Not necessarily snatch and clean and jerk, but just lifting. I didn’t know any better at the time. I saw the York barbell guys lifting and I saw what he was doing. said, man, I, know, so he was one of my first mentors and he didn’t even realize it. To this day, ⁓
That’s why I like the Packers. And then I started following Vince Lombardi as a coach. And one of the things I found by studying other coaches, ⁓ Shishovsky in basketball, John Wooden in basketball, you know, just really good coaches that if you take bits and pieces from them, I’m not a Lombardi. Okay. I’m more like a Shishovsky. Although I’ve heard he’s got a pretty, he had a pretty foul mouth. I don’t know if you’ve heard that or not, but I, okay. Okay.
Samson:
I can vouch for that, that’s true, that’s really true.
Leo Totten:
But the teaching part of it, the leadership part of it, those things that you learn bits and pieces from each one and just take what you can from each one. Heck, this shows you how much a geek I am is that I still subscribe to Success Magazine. Who else does that? Because it talks about business leaders and people in the financial world. And again, finance is not my thing at all. But just to…
pick their brains about what motivates them, what are some of the things they do to make their world successful, and what can I do to take some of those things. So I think that’s one of the big things by taking these opportunities. If you have a growth mindset and you understand that, hey, if you’re staying the same, you’re actually getting worse. And that’s always been my attitude. Hey, I just want to do one step better, one thing better, just a little bit at a time. I know they always talk about one.
1 % every day or something like that. And 1 % every day, once you reach a certain level, 1 % is a lot. But, you know, I just think that I think that’s pretty important. And still to this day, you know, I’m still reading in my nightstand. Not only do I have novels that I’m reading, but I’m also reading
theory and methodology of training by Tudor Bampa and these scientific things, manuals, and just always trying to learn. I think anybody listening to this podcast, think if you’re younger lifters that you say you have a fairly young clientele that listen to these, just keep learning. And if you think you know it all, ⁓ you really don’t. I mean, you’re clueless because the more you learn, unfortunately, the more you know, the more you don’t know.
Okay? Because you realize that. But again, if you’re open-minded and say, I don’t know everything, and if you come across somebody who thinks they know everything, stay far away because they have no clue. But just keep on learning. I think that’s really been the important part of what I do.
Samson:
So for you, the growth mindset isn’t just within strength and conditioning realm. It’s branching out into other areas where you can see commonalities of success.
Leo Totten:
Absolutely. Yeah. And just because it’s a different sport or different business, ⁓ there’s still attributes that you can use. mean, you know, how you save your time, how you manipulate your time, timeframes, how you deal with people. I think that’s one of the most important things because ⁓ I know a lot of ⁓ people who have their certifications in strength and conditioning. Just because you have your certification doesn’t necessarily mean
you can coach and because I don’t care how much you know, if you can’t get your points across and have a relationship with your athletes and have them buy in, if you can’t get the point across, you’re not going to be a very good coach or teacher. Okay. And you can’t jam it down their throats and everybody’s a little bit different how they react to different coaching cues and things like that. So, you know, to me, the more you know about some of the non, I guess,
Textual stuff. I mean, it’s it’s easy to know all the information all the X’s and O’s all the sets and reps and you know that it’s easy to know all that stuff I mean you just study that and but can you really deal with people? so to me the relationship thing is really really important and ⁓ I Think that’s one of the things that people don’t understand about Vince Lombardi back in the day He came across as a really strict disciplinarian and just a real hard hard-nosed guy and he was
But if you read anything deeper about, he was a very religious guy. would, you know, go to mass every day. He treated his guys, ⁓ you know, back in the day when blacks weren’t allowed to be in the same hotel, know, again, back in the early sixties, he insisted, he said, look, if our team can’t stay together, black and white, we’re not, we’re not going to stay at this hotel. So he would go someplace else. So he had, he had a lot of attributes that people didn’t realize.
that he was really there for his athletes. And I learned a lot from that. And, you know, I think the bottom line for me is I’m always going to do what I consider to be the best for the athlete. OK, not for me, not for my ego, but what’s best for the athlete. If I’m doing what’s best for the athlete and it may not always work out right. But as long as that was my goal, that was my intention. I can look myself in the mirror every day and feel OK.
Samson:
Yeah, well I’ve usually found that keeping that mindset is what leads to success. Yeah.
Leo Totten:
Yeah. And,
and I always like to use the term the elite mindset. Don’t be satisfied with mediocre. Okay. And, ⁓ I always use the term. said there’s a good, better and best. So whenever I’m working with an athlete, I want to give them the best, whether it’s programming or our relationship, ⁓ or how they work together with the team. I want, I want to do what’s best for the athlete. Like for instance, I’ll have guys on guys or girls on my weightlifting team.
And they’ll say, you know, ⁓ I think I want to go with this coach instead of you. I think I want to go with this team instead of you. And I said, Hey, I’m fine with that. If you think that’s what’s going to be best for you, I’m with you a hundred percent. The only thing I re request request is that even though you’re with another team, we’re still friends. That’s all I ask. And, you know, the interesting part is that on many occasions that has happened and six months later, they’re back with me, you know, because.
A lot of times the grass isn’t always greener, but you got to find out what works best for you. Because I had a girl just not too long ago, she switched to another team. She just felt like, you know, she wanted to change and see how it is. And I said, that’s fine. I said, you know, the door’s always open, just so we’re friends. She was with them for like two months. She said, you know, they didn’t make nearly the accommodations for me that you did. know, they said, this is the way it is. And they had…
They weren’t going to make any changes because she had a bad back or a knee or whatever. And I said, okay, come on back. again, if you do, think if you do what’s best for the athlete, it’s worked for me anyway, I think you can’t go wrong. And I think you get the respect of other coaches that way too.
Samson:
Absolutely, I would agree with that 100%. You mentioned a little bit earlier about the work-life balance, and I feel like it’s tied into this question I have for you. So ⁓ please feel free to go multiple ways with this. But what is some advice that you would have for our coaches who are listening? You obviously have a lot of experience in the field. You’ve experienced a lot of different things. What are the main things that you would like to impart to the coaches who are currently listening?
Leo Totten:
Okay, well there’s really a lot of things, but you mentioned about that work-life balance. ⁓ I think it’s really important to, you still gotta live life, all right? Now, if you’re an athlete and you’re an Olympic-level athlete and you’re going for the gold, okay? I understand the focus and the time commitment because I get that, okay? But even at that level, I think it’s important to…
have a life because it’s really easy to get, ⁓ you know, burned out and just put too much pressure on yourself and anxiety. There’s a lot of things that can go with that. So if you have a life balance, do you notice that if you’ve been following the Olympics, how many kids are there with their parents who are competing? And I think they seem to be the ones who, even if they don’t quite get the medal they wanted or quite the success, they seem happier.
Okay. And life’s too short to be miserable, you know? So, and training at that level, it’s a grind. Okay. And that’s part of the thing that, you you always talk about is that in order to reach a certain level, you have to just accept that that’s what it’s going to be. That’s going to be a certain amount of grind to it. And you have to embrace the suck, somebody told me one time, because it does kind of suck at times. All right. So if you have that balance,
then I think that makes things a lot better. And that’s one of the things I was a little bit concerned about when I was ⁓ first starting a family, when I was lifting. And again, I did retire after the kids were like a year or two old. I wanted to make sure that I spent as much important time with them when they were that age as possible. And as they got a little bit older, I was doing more traveling with weightlifting meets and
and coaching courses and things like that. And I was always a little bit concerned. like, am I doing too much? Am I ⁓ not paying enough attention? Am I not keeping that balance the way I think it should be? Well, as it turned out, it was really kind of cool that ⁓ both of my daughters ended up teaching physical education and coaching. So a little bit of, know, chip off the old block there, which is really cool. They were both really into athletics.
The younger daughter was volleyball, basketball, and track. The older daughter was volleyball, but also a level 10 gymnast. And one of the cool things is that they put together a little 45th anniversary surprise for us, which by the way, March will be 51 years for us. So it’s been a pretty long relationship, which is another thing about the balance. So you know, if the marriage has lasted that long, you got to have a really understanding spouse, which I do.
Samson:
That’s awesome.
Leo Totten:
They don’t call my wife St. Patty for nothing. But it was cool that both of the daughters got up and spoke at this 45th anniversary thing. And they both talked about how my wife and I both were there. We were there for everything they did. We didn’t miss any of that stuff. know, whether it was a sporting event or a play or whatever, we were there. Well, heck, even her daughter, when she went to Eastern Michigan University for gymnastics.
We went five times a year for her whole career, five times a year for her home matches and a couple of the away matches as well. We just didn’t want to miss it. So I think that was important for us for that balance. it ⁓ just made life a lot easier and not easier. I’m sorry. It actually made it harder, but it was worth the effort. And to see them turn out so well, it’s like, okay, maybe my balance was okay.
And that, was a pretty major concern. ⁓ so yeah, that life balance, I think is really important, but it, and it is hard to do because you’re jug juggling things all the time. You know, you, you got all too many plates going ⁓ up in the air at the same time, but, it’s worth it. And, ⁓ I think this way, I think if you develop some really good compartmentalization skills. Okay. And that, I think that’s one of the things I kind of pride myself in where I’ve kind of taught myself is like,
no matter what I’m involved in, I’m in it 100%. Okay. If I’m lifting, I’m in it 100%. If I’m coaching, 100%. If I’m relaxing at the beach, I’m relaxing at 100%. Okay. So, you know, I think being able to compartmentalize, I think that’s pretty important. And one of my challenges for me though, was that I tend to look ahead.
You know, okay, it’s like I’m always planning and go, what am I going to do here? What am I going to do there? I have to kind of force myself to live in the moment. And sometimes I tend to forget things that happened two weeks ago because I’m moving on. So the, of the things I’ve been trying to do a lot more is take some time to reflect and look back on what, has occurred and what, you know, not only I think that’ll help you in your moving ahead as well, but just to.
have some gratitude for what has happened and what you’ve been able to do and trying to live more in the moment. People ask me, do you remember last year’s nationals and we were in Pittsburgh? I’m like, yeah, I guess that’s where we were. ⁓ I know some people, they say, well, do you remember 10 years ago when we were at the Holiday Inn Hotel and we were on the second floor? like, I don’t remember where I was yesterday and you remember these things from 10 years ago. ⁓
But yeah, it’s just one of those things where I’ve had to teach myself to compartmentalize and go from there and try to be in the moment the best we can and still look ahead and still plan, but kind of balance that out a little bit as well.
Samson:
Well, I’m really, it makes me feel really good to hear a success story about that, right? Somebody who’s been in coaching for a long time and ⁓ has, you know, a positive experience. And like you said, the balance worked out well, because I feel like a lot of times when I speak with coaches who have been coaching for extended periods of time, ⁓ you know, they’ll bring up a lot of the challenges and it wasn’t as successful for them. And so I’m glad to hear that because it’s something that’s exciting and
I think it’s the optimistic view of how sports can really work because at the end of the day, know, to me, sports are this amazing thing and athletics and strength and conditioning and all of these different branches of it are so amazing and they’re so positive because they can teach you a lot of life lessons. They can bring together people who have never met each other, never spoken to each other before. And obviously they can reach out to your kids and influence their lives in a positive way as well, too. So to me, it’s this extremely positive thing. But if you don’t have the skills to
be able to compartmentalize like you’re saying or handle that balance, it can be a real struggle for some people and it can really hurt their family. So I’m glad to hear the positive side of
Leo Totten:
Well, and you mentioned the word struggle. It can be a struggle. And this is where I think it’s really important to have some tenacity and some just never give up sort of attitude. It’s like, hey, we’re going to make this work. And I think one of the reasons why my wife and I get along so well is that, you know, we determined a long time ago to not worry about the little stuff that really didn’t matter. You know, a lot of people, get so hung up and they just hold grudges and
You know, just the dumbest little things. And I think one of the reasons we get along so well, we talk about this all the time, is that, you know, if something’s really important to her, I’m like, okay, let’s do it. Or if it’s really important to me, she’s, that’s fine, let’s do it. And we very seldom have any, well, we don’t argue at all. It’s kind of like, okay, we might be a little concerned about something and then we just kind of look at each other and laugh and go, let’s worry about stuff that really matters, you know? And I think…
That could be a good lesson, I think, for a lot, especially the younger coaches. Don’t worry about stuff that really doesn’t matter. Okay. Worry about the stuff that does matter and the little things will take care of themselves. And, ⁓ and I know that’s almost, that almost sounds cliche, but, but it is really true. If you’re worried about all the little stuff all the time, you’re not going to have any, any energy left for the big stuff. And the big stuff is really what matters.
Samson:
Yeah, I’ve I’ve mean, I’ve certainly noticed it even in the beginning of my career, you know, ⁓ it’s been certainly a skill, I think back to my first year ⁓ within strength and conditioning as a full time with the basketball team traveling and doing everything. I remember I would take the losses really hard and I’d bring that home. ⁓ And you know, my wife is she works in athletics. It’s funny, but she you know, she loves basketball because I work with basketball. But you know, she is just the ultimate people person. She’s somebody who loves life, right. And so ⁓
you know, she doesn’t get caught up in the moods of winning or losing and everything. And, ⁓ you know, so I think back to my first year, I really struggled with that. then ⁓ over the years, we’ve been together for seven years now. And now we took a hard loss last night and, you know, I just said, hey, give me 15 minutes and I’ll be home. And we didn’t even talk about it. You know, so it’s been something that’s been really positive for us. And I can tell, ultimately affects how our relationship is viewed because I don’t sweat the small stuff anymore, because at the end of the day, nobody got hurt.
Nobody was mortally injured, nothing happened that ⁓ really derails a lot of different things. It was a loss, it’s a bump in the road, and it’s a learning opportunity. So I appreciate that advice as well.
Leo Totten:
Well, and that’s part of the culture that you’ve developed with that team based on your personal experience and your personal set of values, so to speak. And to me, you know, if you don’t coach and teach with your own, you know, strong set of values, you’re probably not going to have a whole lot of success. So the fact that you’ve, you know, you’ve had that attitude and it, I’m sure that you’ve developing that culture among your team. That’s huge. mean, I’ve been involved with a good many different teams and
That culture is a big part of what you’re trying to create and it’s got to be a positive, know, it just creates a much more productive situation.
Samson:
Absolutely, and I certainly try to teach the culture. think if I was 18, I’d struggle to hear that message a little bit like our guys do. But hopefully by chipping away at the stone, we can get it to break one day.
Leo Totten:
Well, and they don’t realize it now, but they’ll they’ll look back and, you know, 20 years from now and say, ⁓ man, do you remember he said that? Do you remember what we did? And you have a lot more influence than you think. But one of the things I did want to bring up here though, is that sometimes you have to let things go. Somebody asked me on the podcast I’d had a few days ago, you know, one of the challenges I had and ⁓ what, you know, what advice they would give.
And I said, one of the challenges I have is that sometimes as a coach, like say as a weightlifting coach, okay, I’m working with an individual. I see a ton of potential. said, man, this kid really has it. I let them know, say, look, you know, this is what we need to do. And I can see this potential in you and that sort of thing. And they hear you, but they don’t feel the same thing or they don’t have the same want to that you do. Okay.
If you want it more than they want it, it’s, it’s going to be a tough road to hoe. Okay. So sometimes. And this is tough on your ego. Sometimes you just have to let it go. You know, you know what I mean? It’s like, okay, I’m giving you this advice. This is what I see as a professional. after my experience, I see this is what you need. We need to do this or do that. And they don’t quite buy into it or they don’t give it the effort that they should.
You keep trying and you’re you try different ways of approaching things But eventually if they’re just not doing it or not following along You got to be willing to let go that is so hard. If nothing else, it’s hard on your ego. It’s like wait a minute I thought I knew what I was doing and this guy’s not following what is wrong with me Okay, and it’s not you’re doing everything you can under your in your power to make that athlete succeed But if you want it more than they want it
It’s going to be tough. So I have a guy, I’ll give you an example that I worked with him for two years. And the guy was really, really smart guy. He knew everything. But he didn’t have any experience, but he was trying to learn as he went. And I would offer a piece of advice and I’d say, well, you’re doing this. And he goes, no, I think it’s more like that. OK. Or I’d send him a program and basically I break it down and it
because it was an online thing, a remote thing. And so I had this four week missile cycle that I sent him based on where he was and what he needed. And after the first week, it’s like, you hate, he’d get to me he says, I don’t think this is working. After a week, said, I think I need this. I think it, I said, stick, you know, you gotta stick to it here a little bit. You know, I gotta be patient.
Give it cycle. We’ll make changes as we go. That’s why I only send four weeks at a time. And, ⁓ well, I don’t think I need that. So after a while, I just kind of said, okay, you’re going to do your own program for, I’ll keep an eye on things, but you’re going to do your own programming. ⁓ let’s see how it goes. And same thing with when we do get together. I, I’m not going to be as critical because if I would say, well, you’re doing this now, I was doing this.
I know what I see, okay? I’ve done this a little bit, right? And he said, no, it’s not that, it’s this. So eventually I’ll over-coach, not over-coach, but I’ll coach correctly to the others. And for him, I’ll just throw in a comment here and there. And you hate to do that because you want to always do what’s best for the athlete. You want them to succeed, but they have to they have to at least meet you halfway. Okay? And heck, I’ll go more than halfway and I’m all right with that.
But when it’s a 90-10 thing, 50-50 is gonna be a lot better.
Samson:
Yeah, you know, that’s one of the few things I’ve…
actually liked about the transfer portal. I’m not a big fan of it otherwise, but and there’s some there was an athlete I can think of specifically that, you know, I worked with extensively. ⁓ It was a weight gain process. It was like, like, and that’s kind of my specialty, right? You know, I can help guys gain weight, and I can help them put on good weight. And, ⁓ you know, he really struggled with it. And, you know, I just kind of kept coming back. And I was like, No, this is what I’m good at. We can do this, you know, like you said, it was an ego factor. I was like, there’s no way if
Leo Totten:
Mm hmm. Yeah.
Samson:
anybody’s gonna be the one to figure it out, I’m the coach to figure it out. And then that athlete transferred and then I met up with their strength coach and I was like, hey, how is it working with this athlete? He was great to work with, because otherwise he was a fantastic guy. And that coach was like, he’s awesome. You just cannot get him to gain weight. And I was like, yeah, I’ve been there. But it was good for me to hear that. It was a lesson that I definitely had to learn, which was just that sometimes it’s just not gonna work out the way you want it to. And ultimately, like you said, you need to refocus your energy on the other athletes.
Leo Totten:
Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Well, and that’s one of the problems I have is that I want to give everybody as fair a chance as possible. But you got to look at it like if you’re giving somebody extra attention, then you’re taking it away from somebody else. So I think that balance with your team, I think is something important. I had a girl on my weightlifting team that was… ⁓ She had some psychological issues, okay, but I was going to work with her. I can do this. I had a lot of confidence.
It was out of my realm. I just couldn’t do it. So I worked with her a little bit longer than I guess I should have because I had one of my athletes that was a really, really smart kid and really, know, really sincere. He said, coach, I think what you’re doing with her is admirable. And, you know, I appreciate what you’re doing, he said, but you realize you’re taking away from some of these other lifters that really need some of your attention too. And I’m like,
Okay. So that’s when I ended up kind of backing away from that athlete so I could balance the focus out a little bit. Notice we keep using the word balance. And I think that is important. do. So it’s lessons learned. that’s why I’m still learning lessons now. I know I’ve mentioned this several times here in this podcast already. It’s like, you got to be a lifelong learner. can’t just be satisfied with where you are.
Samson:
Yeah, well that’s a you mentioned that you learned later in your career and I think that’s testament to your relationships too to be able to speak with somebody and have an athlete feel candid enough to say, we’re taking away from some of the other athletes. That’s awesome.
Leo Totten:
Yeah. Yeah.
I appreciate it. I really appreciated that. And I think some, some coaches, if they don’t have that same approach with their athletes, that ⁓ the athletes might be intimidated about coming to you or embarrassed or whatever. And I think that’s, you know, that was a pretty important thing when he was able to come up and do that. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
Samson:
Absolutely, that’s huge. Well,
I have one final question for you, Leo. As a fellow reader myself, what is your favorite novel that you’ve read recently?
Leo Totten:
⁓ gosh, I have. ⁓ just basically jump around between James Patterson and ⁓ see who else there’s another guy. I’ve read something like 20 of his books and I always forget his ⁓ his name. ⁓ But, you know, just the the normal ones like that, you know, like the murder mysteries and just kind of takes my mind away from the, you know, the.
the more technical stuff that I’m reading all the time, just giving it a little break from that. you know, just lighthearted stuff like that. Nothing, nothing major.
Samson:
Some would say that adds balance. Well, actually, I’ve tried my best, I promise you. You know, that’s the funny part about being the podcast host is that a lot of people think that I’m just waiting to ask my next question. And really the full skill is just being able to listen. So I’m glad that you can affirm that for me. Thank you. Well, Leo, if somebody was interested in learning more about
Leo Totten:
⁓ yeah, kinda. Exactly. Exactly. You’ve been listening. You’ve been listening as we’ve been talking. I can tell. There you go.
Yeah, doing a good job, no doubt.
Samson:
⁓ your training systems and learning a little bit more about your company or wanting to reach out, what would be the best way to do that?
Leo Totten:
I think probably the best way is just to check out my website, tautentraining.com. There’s a lot of different things that we have going on anywhere. Think from, do personal training, mostly a lot of remote. So I have some openings for that, by the way. ⁓ We have a mentorship program that ⁓ probably going to start up in August now, because we’re going to do one in February and we decided to move it back a little bit. ⁓
We have a, just consulting for different gyms and that sort of thing. Of course, my ⁓ certifications that I do, I do USA weightlifting certs, as well as my own, I call them my Totten Olympic lift certs at level one and level two. So they’re available. I’m in the process of doing the level one online now. So that’s something that I’m hoping within the next month will happen.
⁓ so, you know, we have a lot of different things going on, so just check out the website and, ⁓ I’m on Facebook and I’m on Instagram and those things, which by the way, it’s interesting because again, I’m not a social media guy, but I have, a couple, a couple of girls that, that, that’s her thing. So I work with them and they, I give them the material and then they, they make sure it gets posted on a pretty regular basis. So follow along on Facebook and Instagram. Every Tuesday I have my.
Tuesday Tottenisms and Thursday I have my throwback Thursdays because a lot of people were interested in some of the historical stuff that’s happened back in the 70s, 80s and 90s that a lot of people haven’t even been born yet. So they like listening about that sort of thing. So, you know, we try to make it as well-rounded as possible and, you know, we try to be open and I have my personal information available, my, you know,
Text email my emails leo at tottentraining.com. ⁓ I don’t mind anytime. It’s funny because I tell people, said, look, anytime you have any questions that I can help with, I don’t have all the answers. Okay. I don’t know everything, but if there’s something I don’t know or somebody I don’t know, chances are there’s someone that I know can help them. You know what I mean? Because, ⁓ the networking part I think is really huge in the whole, and no matter what field you’re in and
You know, I know a lot of people now and a lot of us because of the connections I’ve had with with Scott and Brian. So if I can help in any way, please don’t hesitate. It drives me crazy when somebody says, well, I hate to bother you, but I’m like, wait a stop right there. You’re not bothering me. I’m telling you, people have been really good to me growing up and, you know, through my educational process and my work.
process and my strength and conditioning. I’ve had a lot of really good people helping me along the way. The least I can do is help other people if I can. And if I can’t help them, I probably know somebody who can. So, you know, I more than willing, said, I, you know, text, email, whatever.
Samson:
That’s fantastic and I appreciate the offer and I know our listeners certainly appreciate it too. Is that Instagram? Is that Totten Training as well?
Leo Totten:
⁓ it’s it’s just Totten at Totten training for Facebook and Instagram. And, ⁓ you know, we’re, we’re there.
Samson:
Excellent.
Well, Leo, thank you so much. It was a fantastic episode. I greatly appreciate your time.
Leo Totten:
Great. Well, thank you for having me. You you guys are doing a lot of really good stuff and to be asked to be part of this whole legacy thing, I’m like, I’m just honored to be a part of that. Absolutely. So I do appreciate it.
Samson:
Well, right after this, I’m
gonna reach out to Dexter and tell it was a great recommendation.
Leo Totten:
Good, yeah,
tell Dexter I said thank you and he and I just have to go back out to Hawaii again sometime, I guess. Just might have to. Well, Scott normally comes out ⁓ and or Brian, but they had other things going on. So Dexter was able to make the trip and I think he enjoyed it. I think he had a good time. Yeah, yeah. How do you not, right? Yeah.
Samson:
⁓ what a shame. What a shame.
yeah, trust me, he enjoyed it. He told me he had a great time. Yeah, exactly.
Well, thank you, Leo. I appreciate it.
Leo Totten:
Okay, thank you.
