Sports science gives coaches access to more information than ever before, but collecting data is only valuable when it leads to better decisions.
In this episode of the Samson Strength Coach Collective, Blake Wright shares his path through strength and conditioning, his decision to pursue a PhD, and his work as a sports science consultant at VALD. He explains what effective sports science looks like in a practical performance environment and why coaches need to start with the right questions before turning to the data.
Blake also discusses tools such as timing gates and force plates, balancing research with real-world coaching constraints, and creatively using technology for both testing and training. Throughout the conversation, he emphasizes that data alone cannot drive a successful sports science program. Coaches must be able to communicate their findings, understand the environment they work in, and build relationships with the people responsible for putting those insights into action.
Key Takeaways
- Ask the right questions before collecting or analyzing data to avoid paralysis by analysis.
- A sports scientist’s value comes from turning data into actionable decisions.
- Relationships with strength coaches, sport coaches, and staff are essential for implementing sports science effectively.
- Tools like timing gates can be used creatively beyond traditional testing.
- Research should inform practice, but findings must be considered within the realities of the coaching environment.
- Social media can be a valuable resource for learning, but information should be analyzed critically.
- Curiosity and lifelong learning are essential in a young and rapidly evolving field.
Quote
“A sports scientist can take data and turn it into decisions.” — Blake Wright
Blake Wright:
for sports performance, I think something that it either gets put right where it needs to be or gets very undervalued is sprinting. you know, it’s the fastest thing our body can do. So, you know, you could sprint and not really ever Olympic lift, you know. I I really believe that sprinting in different, you know, modalities of sprinting, whether it’s deceleration, change of direction, top end speed, whatever that may be.
That is imperative to sports performance of just about any sport.
Connor:
What’s going on, Samson Strength Coach, Collective Listeners. On today’s episode, we have a sports science consultant with Vault, Blake Wright. Blake, thank you so much for coming on.
Blake Wright:
Appreciate you having me, Connor.
Connor:
Well, I’m stoked about it. Seriously, because this has been a common theme of the podcast we have coming up. is that I have met a lot of great people at CSCCA. Obviously got a chance to meet you. and it was very cool to meet you because I was like, We got to get you the podcast. And you were like, Hell yeah, let’s do it. Right. You know, you ca you wanted to come on immediately. So I’m stoked that we can make this work. I’m glad that we can get you on the podcast and I certainly appreciate your time.
Blake Wright:
No, yeah, I appreciate you having me. The CSCCA conference has is been one of those ones where obviously it’s gained a lot more traction over the years just with vendors, coaches you’re brick getting brought in and it it’s a really good one. So as soon as you said podcast, I was like, Well, I’m always listening to some podcast, whether
Connor:
Yeah.
Blake Wright:
it’s informational or just something to listen to. So I was w love to hop on one when I get the chance.
Connor:
Yeah, absolutely, man. And and you’re correct, right? It’s like part of it’s giving back. You listen to enough podcasts at some point you gotta be able to p put something out that other people can hear. And I’m sure we’re gonna learn something today. I always learn something on every
Blake Wright:
Mm-hmm.
Connor:
single one of these podcasts I do. So I’m excited for it. Can you just give me a breakdown of your career, history through strength and conditioning and what you’re currently up to?
Blake Wright:
Yeah, no, for sure. So I’m initially from Ohio. been fortunate to travel a pretty frequent amount. So I went to Youngstown State University. for people who might not be familiar with the school, it’s in the Horizon League. It’s a smaller division one. Jim Trussell, who coached at Ohio State at one point, you know, went to Youngstown, football coach, president of the university. So I went there, studied exercise science. I thought I wanted to go to PT school. That was like
full engulfed into that, ended up working at a clinic, drill physical therapy that is a pretty nation national clinic and worked there as a technician for about two years. In that two years pretty quickly realized that yeah, this this profession, you know, just it it wasn’t it wasn’t for me. and through my program, we had to do an internship and that was geared toward either working in cardiac rehab as an ex physiologist or as a strength coach.
So I ended up, you know, applying to all these strength coach opportunities as an intern, knowing that’s kind of the route I wanted to take at this point with some of my coursework and mentors I had at the time. you know, as all strength coaches, I’m sure, are familiar with the Strength Coach Job Network, found an internship or so on there, interviewed with a couple and ended up going to Yale for my internship. My thought process behind that was well, if anyone sees Yale on my
Resume, even if I was a janitor, someone’s probably gonna blink twice
at
Connor:
Yeah.
Blake Wright:
it and be like, well, they they were there. so I went to Yale, did an internship, and that was honestly one of the best decisions I could have made. I’ve talked to a lot of my friends and colleagues who have done internships at, you know, some Power Four schools, some private sectors, and I don’t think anyone has said that they’ve had the same quality of internship that I did. Yale has a full
Google curriculum, they get you set up with you know, a OG coach they call it. and I still have connections there to this day. people that have helped me, you know, land positions or connect with other people. So that was a really good opportunity. Had the chance to work with a lot of different tech from, you know, force plates to, you know, ten eighty sprints and and a handful of other things. So that was a really good opportunity.
From there, you know, I finished my master or my undergraduate degree in exercise science and knowing that I wanted to go into that field, experience and your network is a real big driver. So all the coaches there, you know, me at the time, I’m twenty-two, twenty-three years old. They’re like, you’re gonna have to get experience more than likely, maybe try and get a GA position, go do another internship, kind of pick your poison from that end.
So I was kinda late on applying for GA positions at this time because I did the bulk of this internship over the summer. So I started looking for a different GA positions, didn’t really have didn’t really have a problem going anywhere across the country. Now I’m in, you know, Connecticut from Ohio. So ended up having a couple of good opportunities. but the best one I actually landed with was Texas Southern. So
Texas Southern is a HBCU, same division as Jackson State, where Deion Sanders coached. most of that came down to knowing that if I ever wanted to continue my education, that I was going to be getting a degree in a relevant field to exercise science, not, you know, some business. and that’s kind of what steered me away from some of the other places, not anything from the coaching standpoint, but I knew if I ever wanted to, you know, level up my education, I did it there. So I went to Texas Southern.
was a graduate strength coach there and that was, you know, great for me because at a small school like that, you know, the resources are already pretty small. So I had the chance to lead multiple teams of my own, including softball, volleyball, soccer. And then during my first year I assisted with football and then that kind of started to wean out a little bit into my second year because they brought in their own GA just for football. So had a really good two years there.
And then after that, I was, you know, looking for a job. I have this GA experience, I have work experience as an intern, have a little bit of experience, PT rehabilitation settings. So I’m trying to find a job. I had a mentor at the time at TSU who asked if I was ever interested in getting my PhD. if someone would have asked me that in undergrad, I would have looked at them real sideways like they were insane. but at the time in my master’s, you know, I was doing some
research
my own thesis work and that sort of thing and it it sparked interest. So I started to kind of vet the process because, you know, getting a PhD isn’t something that, you know, you ever want to do lightheartedly. So started to vet that process, connected with a handful of different places, knowing that if that were to be something that I wanted to pursue, that it had to be in the realm of athletics. I had to have my foot in that door because I knew that’s where any of the research I wanted to do was going to be at.
So I connected with my previous mentor at Baylor. and he had had previous students who were intertwined in athletics as athletic trainers before. So generally when you get your PhD, you will maybe teach an exercise phys class or anatomy class, depending on, you know, what your studies are. and he had someone who worked as an athletic trainer and they were interested in moving this into the strength and conditioning, you know, sports science esque realm, if that’s something that, you know, that
worked out from the candidate perspective and also within athletics. So, you know, come down the road, that’s kind of how I ended up at Baylor. It was a connection I had from someone at Texas Southern that worked at Baylor. And then all these connections moved forward as far as, you know, interviewing and those sort of things. So I ended up at Baylor as a
Applied Performance PhD fellow. So I was integrated within the sports science and strength and conditioning department as my graduate assistantship in a p at the PhD level, working with the Spirit and Traditions or CHIR program as far as the S and C goes, and then doing some of the sports science work across the spectrum of the other Olympic sports and some into football as well. That’s kind of the background and then Vauld, where I’m at now.
You know, long story short, when I first got to Baylor, my mentor was like, Look, what do you want to do with this degree? I want to be able to help you achieve that goal and make that path. So is that working as a director of sports science at a university at a professional level? Is that being a tenure level professor doing research? Is that going into industry? First thing I told him, I was like, Look, end goal, like I want to work in
industry in a place like GSSI, so Gatorade Sports Science Institute or Vauld. Like I remember saying those words to him and it just so happened that my timeline got sped up real quick before ever finishing the PhD. And you know, I’ve been blessed enough to again speed up that timeline and start with Vauld before that.
Connor:
That’s I mean, it’s so cool to me just to hear about one, your experience of getting a PhD, but then two having a director who will actually help you right throughout that process. Cause I remember my my sister has her PhD. and she’s the smart one in the family, out of our group. And it’s in writing. And I remember it took her I think it was six years total to get her PhD. And she said, you know, a lot of it was just because there wasn’t a ton of direction you know, from what she would really like to do with it. and so it kind of led down
Down different paths and then she discovered, hey, that’s maybe not the direction I want to go with this. And so kind of pivoting and changing things around. so shout out to your director to be able to really help guide you from the first day about, okay, how do we get this process started? How do we make sure that we get to what your end goal is? And look where you ended up. Now you’re per you’re working exactly what your main goal was.
Blake Wright:
Yeah, no. And it was one of those things where my mentor, my I guess advisor in the athletic department, the head of applied performance, we would have weekly meetings, whether it was about research, what was going on in the interconnecting ends, or what that would look like. And it was one of those things where he always wanted to make sure that goal sped up. And I was in the PhD program for about a year, you know, to the date of when I stopped.
And again, the PhD is one of those things where generally it, you know, it does take four to six, maybe seven or so years, depending, you know, on the individual, the circumstance where they’re at, is it an R one, two, or three? And I again, I just got I got really blessed with connecting with some of the people at Vauld and those connections through some of the research questions I had and was working on into meeting some people at conferences and to just the long process into what it took and you know, starting at Vauld at the end of July to now, you know, still
pretty fresh, but I c I can say that it it was definitely the the right move.
Connor:
And so y you said something that I think is a hundred percent true earlier, which is you don’t just go get your PhD, right? It’s something you have to research, it’s something you have to be a hundred percent committed to because it’s a pretty arduous process. You know, what ultimately was your decision? Okay, I want to get my PhD? was it just kind of understanding your long term goal of working in a sports science specific realm? was it something to just help kind of, you know, further along your career, or was it just something you were interested in? I because
I hear a lot of other times where I’ll speak with coaches where kind of like they almost say it a little flippantly, you know, like, these are my friends, so I have no problem like kind of messing with them. They’re like, Yeah, one day I’m gonna get my doctorate. And like, Okay, what are you gonna get your doctorate for? Like, why? And they’re just like, Well, I just wanna have my PhD. And I’m like, Well, that’s not a very good reason, right? Like obviously there has to be a reasoning behind it. Like you said, it’s not something you just go into. you know, what was what were the main reasonings that you decided to get your PhD?
Blake Wright:
Yeah, no, super valid question. So one of the first things my mentor ever told me when I was in the whole interview process was if you’re just getting a PhD to have those letters in front of your name, don’t don’t do it. They ha have a reason
Connor:
Yeah.
Blake Wright:
behind it. And for me it was the field of let’s just use exercise science as a very wide umbrella if you zoom into strength and gishing and then you know, pivot into sports science.
It’s
so young. I mean, strength conditioning’s been around for a little bit, but I even think of the NSCA ha now has the CPSS. That’s been around for four or five years now. That’s a real fresh certification. The field generally, and even again, if you zoom in, is so niche. And some people, if you ask ten different people what sports science is, you might get ten different answers. Me, I’m a believer that a sports scientist is going to be able to take data.
Turn it into decisions, but also be really proficient in a lot of different areas from biomechanics, understanding training, understanding stats, and all these other things. And from a long-winded question, I wanted to get my PhD because I wanted to make a difference in the field and be able to zoom in and say, okay, this is what this field is. Here’s the directive of it. Because you could ask a strength coach and them tell you what strength and conditioning is. And they you might ask again, 10 different people, and they might give you a pretty similar answer, but
I’m not so confident if you ask ten different unquote sports scientists what sports science is.
Connor:
Yeah, yeah, I agree a hundred percent because it is it’s almost this mystical section of strength and conditioning, right? Where you like you said, you ask ten people a question and they might give you all ten different answers. and due to the nature of the field being so young, it’s interesting to see all the different routes it can go with. So I guess this would be a good time to go into kind of my next question with this is you know, you’re a sports science consultant. What exactly does that entail for you working with Vault?
Blake Wright:
No, for sure. So Vauld prides themselves and I think it’s a really cool thing in having boots on the ground in different locations. So, you know, I myself am I s oversee the Alabama, Mississippi, and I kind of drip into the panhandle area of Florida. And with that, I you know, Vaud has clients and works with a lot of people from performance at the highest of levels, like Alabama and
Ole Miss and so on, and then all the way down to, you know, PT clinics, local performance facilities, and even maybe some, you know, gym facilities and anything that could kind of be in there. So my role is to, you know, be consultive with them. Is our equipment, if they’re not a client, is it a good fit for them? If so, great. If not, you know, no harm, no foul. Can I
be a consultant and you know, direct you to what would be the best decision for you. And if ultimately what we have to offer is good for you, hey, let let’s make it happen. Let’s integrate that. Like this upcoming week, I’m actually going to be heading out to Mississippi, run a combine a plethora of testing with some ECNL, ECNRL, I’m sorry, boys’ soccer team of like 130 kids. And we’re gonna run a plethora of tests. Last week it was the
Connor:
Yeah.
Blake Wright:
same thing with a girls team. If
So
we try and work with our clients if we have them. If you know, if University of Auburn or whoever, you know, give me a call, hey, we need help with this. All right, cool. So I think the really unique and cool thing about the position is you’re able to still have your foot in the space of performance, but also health. So I get to be involved with all these different spaces from high level performance to orthopedic and PT practices.
And I get to still have really high level conversations with some really intelligent individuals. And that helps me not only grow as a clinician myself, but also be able to help and support those who might not have that option.
Connor:
Yeah, I I think what you said from a boots on the ground standpoint is what I’ve always really appreciated about Vault, because like for someone such as myself, right, I I’m not very well versed in sports science. you know, I I need help with those things, right? And so what I’ve had and previous experiences is I’ll I’ll purchase for our department a, you know, sports science technology, we’ll get the manual and then okay, I said, well, great, like
I have this data now. I know how to collect the data. What do I actually do with this? How can I actually implement this? Right. and it’s str it’s hard sometimes to find companies that you can work with who will really walk you through that process and really help you understand it at a high level. so you know, when we do anything with our force plates and I have a question about, okay, like great, we’ve we’re now looking at RSI versus just looking at jump height, right? Okay, what can I actually do with RSI? And then from a
a long term standpoint, how can I help this guide our program? Like you’ve mentioned previously, how can we answer questions? and then how can we make our program better? And that’s what I really appreciate about Vault is because I’ve always been able to speak with somebody who is way smarter than me and can help me make those decisions. It makes a huge difference.
Blake Wright:
Yeah, no. And speaking for myself, I mean, I think it is a great privilege to be the dumbest one in the room, so to speak, because,
Connor:
Yeah.
Blake Wright:
you know, in any field, I think I like to live by the motto of forever a student, you know, whether you’re formally getting educated or doing your own research or learning from someone else or whatever else it is, I think that becomes a privilege because to be really good at your craft, no matter the field, you always have to be willing to learn and
being able to get out of maybe ways that you’re set in and being able to expand. Now I think everyone, you know, we’re gonna take, I’m gonna take things from Yale, from Texas Southern, from Youngstown, from Baylor, from Vault, from anywhere that I go, anywhere that have been, I’m gonna take things I like and kind of make them my own. But still that comes from the learning process and being, you know, forever a student, I think that just adds value to not only myself, but to those that are in front of me and around me as well.
Connor:
A thousand percent, you know, and I think that’s just the best mentality to have. And especially from a standpoint of a field like you mentioned, that’s pretty young. Like in the grand scheme of things, this is a very young field, especially within the sports science kind of subsection. so having that ability to continuously learn and just understand what is kind of the cutting edge methods or what are some new things that I can help implement. And then being in a position such as yourself, which is
you actually have the ability to implement those things by speaking with many clients on a regular basis. I think it’s really, really cool and and admirable. So I could say personally I appreciate what you do very much so, because I would be kind of lost a little bit. And I guess that kind of leads to my next question as well too, which is, you know, we have a lot of GAs who come through our program pretty consistently. you know, we typically have about four GAs and the main thing they always want to talk about is either programming or sports science.
Like those are the things that they immediately want to address. and unfortunately for them, I I’m a lot better at the soft skills side of coaching where I can tell them, hey, how do you communicate with your teams, coaches, build relationships, different things like that? you know, so it’s taken a lot of self-discovery on my end to kind of look through the sports side side of things. but one of the main pieces of advice I give to them is don’t get lost in the weeds with the data because you’re gonna see so many numbers, you’re gonna see so many different things.
and it’s becomes really easy to focus in on some data that may not in the big picture really help out, or there’s so much that it’s almost like paralysis by analysis where you kind of don’t even know where to begin. What would your advice be if somebody might be in that situation where it’s a lot of data, they don’t necessarily know what they need to specifically focus on, and they don’t really know what the next steps are.
Blake Wright:
For sure. I think the first question you would want to ask yourself is what are you trying to figure out? You know, what’s your question? So generally the best questions have the best answers or the best results. If I tell someone, hey, we can, you know, look at these four stacks and do a counter movement jump, and there’s 200 plus metrics you can choose to look at, I you if someone told me that off rip and I didn’t know, my eyes would
you know, explode, I’d be like, that’s a ton. How d where do I even start? So I think asking the question of what do we want to find first and then pivoting into the next part of that. How do we get there? Okay, what’s it gonna take to get there? And how do we analyze and look at this question? Because at the end of the day, again, like you said, getting lost in the weeds or the sauce or however you want to, you know, talk about it, that it’s super easy to do.
I I’ve been guilty of it my myself just when, you know, doing research at Baylor, whether it was within the PhD program or within the SNC department, that, you know, find your why essentially, ask the questions that’s are how am I gonna get there and how am I gonna implement it? I think that would probably be the number one thing I would suggest to anyone. The better questions you have will give you a better direction to follow.
Connor:
Yeah, that makes complete sense. and it’s it’s literally just the scientific method, right? Which is first
Blake Wright:
Yeah.
Connor:
developing a question and then testing your question after that. So I I it’s that’s obviously a method that’s been around for or quite quite a while now. and so it’s very beneficial to have those questions initially, like you said, and then be able to hone in on what you want to see after that. Let’s say you know, if someone were to come to you and they were struggling to form those questions, what is kind of the best place to start?
with those questions. I know it’s kind of a very broad subject or question that I’m asking you, but what are some of the best questions to initially ask?
Blake Wright:
Yeah. again, yeah. It’s when I was actually I was in a very similar circumstance when I was trying to figure out what I want to do research, my mentor, you know, asked me that question. You know, I said sports performance. And he like almost laughed at me. And sitting
Connor:
Yeah.
Blake Wright:
there then I was like, What do why why is this guy laughing at me? And he goes on to be like, Well, how specific do you want to get with that? And he starts, you know, zooming in on this rabbit hole of
How specific can you get? Okay, do I want to look at strength, power, speed? Do I want to look at recovery? And then what are the derivatives of that? Deceleration, acceleration, VBT, what whatever it is. So that’s very, you know, a hundred thousand foot view. So I think the first question to ask is if someone’s struggling with those questions, is find out what they’re interested in and try and zoom in on it. So for me, when I said sports performance, I wasn’t really super
interested in the rehabilitation part or rehab part of it, but I was really interested in the readiness and neuromuscular readiness side of it. So it became more targeted questions and conversations between me, my mentor, and the head of applied performance to figure out that that was actually it and it wasn’t just sports performance, because again, that’s very a hundred thousand foot in the air. So I think having a better internal discovery and asking
more questions will lead you to the answer of getting more specific within the things that you’re wanting to achieve.
Connor:
Yeah, absolutely. I th I think that’s great advice. I’m I’m curious too, if somebody were to start kind of building out their sports technology or their sports science department within the strength and conditioning department, what were what would be the main things that you would recommend that they would get? I mean, obviously I think a lot of people know that force plates can be a really beneficial tool, but there’s a lot of different things that people can use from a sports science standpoint as well, too. Going beyond just the initial force plates, what are some of the technologies that you prioritize and think can really help?
drive the goals of the department.
Blake Wright:
Perf you know, for sports performance, I think something that it either gets put right where it needs to be or gets very undervalued is sprinting. you know, it’s the fastest thing our body can do. So, you know, you could sprint and not really ever Olympic lift, you know. I I really believe that sprinting in different, you know, modalities of sprinting, whether it’s deceleration, change of direction, top end speed, whatever that may be.
That is imperative to sports performance of just about any sport. So if you want to quantify and measure those from either a testing perspective or a training perspective, I think timing gates are a super valuable tool just because one, you can see where your athletes are, where they’re going, but you can also you can drum up some competition between the guys or girls. Like, you know, tell them what their times are.
create
a competition out of it. So I think obviously there’s a ton of different timing gates, ton of different brands. They all have, you know, their positives, they all have their negatives. But finding the one that’s best for you and your facility, I think timing gates are, you know, obviously very common, but I think they’re very important because I believe that speed training in a nutshell is extremely valuable. And
sometimes loses its place when it should probably be implemented year round in some way, shape, or form, whether that’s directly in training, in games, in practice, again, monitor your volume, how are you quantifying it? But that is probably one piece that I would say is very
It’s hard to say if it’s undervalued, you know. I but I I think that’s a com a very common one, of course, but also a very valued.
Connor:
Yeah, you know, what’s interesting with me with timing gates is I remember we had them with football when I was working at Tennessee. And so, you know, we we honestly never really used them. We still kinda did a hand stop watch for like the forties. You know, that was like pretty much the full extent. And then I got exposed to timing gates a little bit more going to the Olympic side, and then I met some really smart people over at Texas Tech and they were like, Hey, this isn’t just to like measure, you know, 20 yard half court, three quarter court dash or anything like that. Like you can do a lot of different things with it.
including like measuring acceleration, your flies, deceleration, whatever it may be. And that really kind of like I so when you say you don’t know if it’s overvalued or undervalued, you know, to me I think it’s a little bit undervalued because of how versatile of a tool they can really be, especially when you have multiple sets of gates. And then like you said too, with the competition aspect, like what w where it saved my ass a couple of times is we’ll do a, you know, a full-blown competition about sprint to half court based off like you finished an agility exercise and then sprint, finish through half court, and like
having to watch every single time and seeing people who look like they’re in a dead tie and then okay, let’s just pull the timing gates out and then we can actually
Blake Wright:
Yeah, huh.
Connor:
use these to you know so that way there’s no debate, you know, is is really useful. So in my opinion, I would consider them underrated just because of how many different uses that they truly could have.
Blake Wright:
You know, I think you’re a hundred percent right. And you know, we were probably talking about this, me and you know, some of the my other colleagues evolved. We were pr chatting about this, you know, a couple of weeks ago now. And, you know, again, there’s plenty of timing gates out there, but depending on what the ones you have, you you know, you can create games out of them too. Like you’re saying, they’re they’re underutilized. If you want to have a reaction-based game, drum up some competition, whatever it is, you can shout something as the coach. You you can there’s a lot of variety in how you choose to set them up, operate them.
and measure the things that you want to measure, whether it’s included in training, whether it’s testing metric or whatever it is. And to your point, I I do think we can get more creative with them as, you know, a whole profession.
Connor:
Yeah, that’s one of the cool pieces, right, of having a young field is that there’s obviously methods that have been around for a while. there’s obviously different things that are research based, you know, or or tried and true, if you want to call them that. but because it’s so young, there’s a lot of different ways to get creative as well, too. you know,
Blake Wright:
For sure.
Connor:
and so that’s where that’s where it can become really fun. My next question for you i is really based around you you obviously do a lot of research in a PhD program. you know, there’s obviously a lot of
understanding of possibly those tried and true methods that we just mentioned or you know research based information. and then you obviously have a lot of data or experiences as a coach that could be possibly contradictory or could be something that, you know, is okay, let’s say from a research standpoint, it’s really effective, but is it practical? How do you kind of blend those two if you understand what I’m trying to get at?
Blake Wright:
No, I I I I do. And this is a question that got brought up during my time in the PhD program a lot is if I want to let’s just say implement a study with football team or whoever, like the end goal of it is yes, to get results that are mutually beneficial on both sides, you know, from the football team’s perspective and from the research perspective. But how can I perform this research and be as minimally
invasive on the day-to-day operations for what they do as possible. Because if I tell them, hey, I need to drag off 10 of your guys for an hour every day, or whatever the case may be, they’re gonna be like, they’re gonna look at me crazy. No, we gotta do what we’re gonna do. We’re in the middle of camp or whatever it is. So being as minimally invasive for one thing, but also it you can’t really challenge someone’s beliefs. So I won’t get into the weeds on this, but
There’s a lot of research out there that says, you know, ice packs are kind of muck for
Connor:
Yeah.
Blake Wright:
you know, rehab. But if I go and challenge, you know, some AT at a university and tell them that, they’re gonna be like, Well, why are you challenging my beliefs and what we’ve done for all this time? So I can’t go and do that because
When you challenge someone’s beliefs, you’re kind of challenging what they’ve done that is tried and true for a long time. So I think you have to be willing to wear both hats and internally always question things. Getting a PhD, you’re always questioning things. Does this work? Is this validated? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna go have a conversation with the head strength coach and be like, Why are you why are you doing this? Well, that that’s not gonna be good for me, good for them or good for anyone around. But mentally being able to
shift, wear different hats, ask those questions internally and come up with the right questions that you can bring to someone in that position and then talk about them. Something my mentor and I would chat about all the time was that, you know, that very thing. What is tried and true, proven within research, and what is, you know, from doing it time and time again in a weight room, on a field, whatever it is, there’s a lot of, you know,
performance
strength and conditioning books out there that are based off of a ton and a ton of, you know, repetition throughout what coaches have done over time. But that doesn’t technically make them scientifically validated. But that also doesn’t make
Connor:
Mm-hmm.
Blake Wright:
them wrong just because they haven’t been, you know, tested.
Connor:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, you bring up such an interesting point from the perspective of a sports scientist, right? Because I remember working with Dr. Harry a lot at Texas Tech and then a couple of studies over here at App State. And he is to me, he’s a really, really good practitioner from that standpoint because I, you know, like I said, my specialty is within building relationships, developing culture, doing these things, right? And so I leaned pretty heavily on him for different understandings of different sports science methods, technologies, whatever it may be.
And I remember he one day when we were doing a research study, he came up to me and he just said, Hey, like, I I’m not I’m not trying to be, you know, a crystal ball sear or oracle, whatever it may be. He said, But one of your best players on the team has shown some pretty consistent, you know, asymmetries, and they’re getting worse on one of her jumps. And I’m pretty concerned about it. and so I brought that information to our head coach, right? And and she basically was like, Well, I don’t really care.
And so I went back to him and I told him and he was like, you know, look, like I understand it, I get it. I have concerns about it. But at the same time, like if we try to force this, then it could be something that could not be mutually beneficial for both of us, right? And then, you know, of course he was he did have a crystal ball because she had a stress reaction in one of her feet that we found like an you know, a week later. and so obviously that’s not gonna be the case every single time we see asymmetries or anything like that. But his way of communicating it to me.
was really beneficial. And then his understanding afterwards about okay, well, sometimes like we see these things that could be red flags and we can communicate them as much as we want, but the head coach or just kind of the practicality of the situation is not going to fit with it. So there’s no reason to you know, kind of go full overtaking, whatever it may be. unfortunately, I kinda wish we did in that situation because it would have helped us a little bit earlier on. But it’s a very interesting balance that I see for sports scientists where, like you said, they
They have the understanding of this research. They know what things may technically look like or appropriately should look like. and then you have to go challenge methodologies and it just is not gonna be successful for either party if you try to directly attack or directly counter point whatever that person may be doing or what their true beliefs might be in.
Blake Wright:
For sure. And I think a lot of that comes down to, you know, your relationships, right? So we would have weekly, you know, teams meetings with, you know, the different staff. And that came down to, you know, strength coach, sports scientists, if there was one working with the team, athletic trainers, at least a coach on the, you know, sports staff, coming down to building those relationships. So then you can in turn go and have those conversations and not be super worried. Again, we are support staff to
the sport coach, their job is to win games in whatever sport they’re in, but can we help make better informed decisions and build those relationships with them? So if we have something like that, maybe they can have the trust to at least hear us out and whether that goes toward the decision or not. Someone to me, when I was kind of first getting into this, told me, well, if if we’re in the middle of a football game, we need it’s a one score game. We’re on the one yard line and
our GPS says, well, our number one our star running back has reached his, you know, total yardage for the game, but we’re fourth and goal. We’re not gonna pull him out of the game just because
Connor:
Yeah.
Blake Wright:
the person running the GPS told him so. Like, no, we’re he’s gonna run that thing in for a touchdown.
Connor:
Abs no, absolutely. yeah, okay, so I have another question based off of what you just said. You you mentioned the having a PhD, you always question things. you know, and there’s kinda constant understanding of, you know, okay, is this valid? Is this researched? Is this you know, belief held up held up to the scientific method? In social media these days, there’s a lot of different people posting. and it’s a
large growing presence. It’s gonna continue to grow in our field, in my opinion, about how many people post on social media, where they get their information from. W what are your thoughts on kind of the increasing presence of social media within our field?
Blake Wright:
Yeah, I I think social media can be a gift and a curse, right? I think there is a lot of opportunity to learn things. There’s a lot of opportunity to grow, whether it’s personally, professionally. And when it comes to, you know, the fitness industry as a whole, you know, you see influencers, you see a lot of strength coach posting things and everywhere in between. I think the first thing we have to do is, you ask more questions and not always believe what we see on first rip just because
you know, Joe Schmoe across the street is accredited because they work at X doesn’t mean what they’re posting is inherently correct or bad. I think there’s a in the field, there is a ton of ways to do things the right way. But, you know, definitely there’s ways to do it the wrong way. And that usually just turns into, okay, is what I’m doing safe for the athletes or people I’m working with?
So definitely a way to do things wrong, but there’s so many ways to do things right. So I think we need to ask more questions and analyze in that space. Like I said, when I was doing the PhD, had to question everything. So I think off rip, you know, if we’re I’m looking at this post on my phone, I could be like, okay, does that make sense? Okay. And internally think what what is going on here? Ask more questions to do those things. I think we can do ourselves a disservice to.
judge someone off bat because of what they’re posting because it’s not something we would do or something we’ve seen before. So I think we have to analyze it first because there’s a lot of good things that get posted out there, but there’s also a lot of junk that gets posted out.
Connor:
Yeah. Yeah. You know what’s it’s funny because I actually went through this process yesterday morning. I was watching a reel on it was a a history reel. It was about something completely separate from strength and conditioning, right? but just my experience with strength conditioning or sports science straight social media, I’ve kind of been used to, like you said, asking a lot of different questions and not accepting something immediately at face value before you can kind of work your way through the problem.
and it was a really high quality presentation. It looked good. They had animations and everything like that. and then I was like, you know what? Like let me look this up and like let me just read about it because I’m interested in it. And then I find out that like probably half of the information in the reel was not really correct. It was a little bit muddled or a little bit different. and then it made me immediately think back to what we were just talking about, which is with the social media aspect of things, right? Like some things can look really good on face value. some people are really good at posting things and and making it
pop or making it seem very attractive. But at the end of the day, is it truly high quality information? Is it something that’s valid or is it something that kind of just looks good and will really get you a lot of views?
Blake Wright:
Sure. I I mean again, I think that’s a a a great point. Like it it goes anywhere, whether it’s you know, performance, fitness, history, anything out there. It’s like can we disseminate what is good and what is bad information?
Connor:
Yeah. Okay. So I I I think I’ve noticed a trend. and you know, it may just be my own experience, but I’ve seen a lot more people get into the field now who are younger and are interested in being a sports scientist, kind of like off rip. You know, I’ve s I’ve noticed when I was younger, a lot of my friends who are are now sports scientists, they really kind of start off in strength and conditioning and then find out that they really like the sports science aspect of it and they may not like the
strength and conditioning, travel with the team kind of aspect, different areas that you might see. and so I I think it’s great to have that interest initially in the position. What would your advice be to a young strength coach who wanted to have a position such as yours or really wanted to kind of dive into the sports science realm of strength and conditioning?
Blake Wright:
That
is a I love that question. So
Connor:
Yeah.
Blake Wright:
you see a lot of people now who just kind of want to go into sports science off rip or want to just go into strength and conditioning or get that interest into sports science from strength conditioning, kind of like you said. I think the biggest thing any young coach can do, and I d I’m young. I’m I’m not I’m not very old at all. I think the biggest thing you can do is expose yourself to as many different teams.
is possible. Learn about what you like. I don’t think as a profession it’s too good to pigeonhole yourself to become the soccer guy, the football guy, the basketball guy, to try and almost become a jack of all trades, master of none. So if your phone call if you get a phone call, hey, I need you to do X. Yeah, I’ve done that before. It it doesn’t mean I’m an expert in it, or I’ve done it for a crazy amount of time. But getting a very wide
Tree of experience, I think, is going to go a long way because if I work with, let’s say, soccer and I work with basketball, the sports science on those two teams or sports are going to have some layover, but they’re not going to have the exact same amount. Like, you know, you might have some more similarities between volleyball and basketball compared to, you know, the soccer side, whether it’s, you know, utilization of
GPS or whatever, you know, sports science equipment, or even if you don’t have any sports science equipment, you don’t have to have equipment to be a quote unquote sports scientist. Just are you data driven? What are you trying to get out of the people you’re working with? So a very long-winded question and or long-winded answer, I’m sorry, is I think expose yourself to a lot of different things and find out where your interest truly lies. I think at the end of the day, building relationships with other people.
Whether they know your name, know your face, likeness, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. So, you know, shake your name, shake, shake your hand, tell them your name, and try and make a good impression. Build your network and get exposed to a lot of different things. Because the more you’re exposed to, the better clinician, coach, practitioner, sports scientist, whatever it is, that you’re gonna be in the long run. And again, that kind of goes back to that forever a student thing. So be a sponge.
Connor:
Yeah. Yeah, I I I couldn’t agree more, honestly. I mean, I I know in the in a realm where they’re and strength and conditioning is now just trying to become so specialized. you know, there’s I I mean, self admittedly I’d be I consider myself a basketball strength coach, right? but I do also train women’s golf and volleyball. and these are teams that I, you know, initially didn’t have and then just through necessity through the school end up training them and obviously I want to do the best job I possibly can. Well
Luckily, I worked with I assisted with volleyball at Tennessee and assisted with golf at Tennessee as well. And so just being able to have that experience made me immediately more comfortable, but it’s also made my you know position really enjoyable. And then you can also be a more versatile tool. You know, you could say I have this experience in these different areas, and you never ever know what positions might come up next. I mean, I remember getting a call, one of my friends wanted to refer me for a WWE job, right? Like you never know like what’s gonna come along. So
the more experience you have initially. and just the same with sports science, you never know what teams you may be working with, or you never know what your role might completely entail, is the more experience you have, then the better it’s gonna be for you in the long run.
Blake Wright:
Sure. I I think again, being a sponge, being able to take criticism and you know, looking back on all right, what am I good at? What am I bad at? What do I need to work on? And kind of moving forward before after that, like having self reflection very often, I think is gonna become increasingly more important as this field, as we continue to grow as not only people, but in the profession to become more proficient.
better clinicians and all and all these other things. So being able to self-reflect, absorb as much information as possible, but also ask the important and hard questions.
Connor:
Yeah, yeah. And and I do appreciate you say being able to take criticism too. Something I’m not very good at, but you know, it’s it’s I remember I actually submitted a a program to one of my friends and he came back with very valid points on the programming and he like, Hey, here’s some ways I think you can get better and I texted him and I like, Hey man, you were just supposed to tell me it was great, no notes. You know, like just joking around, but also
Blake Wright:
Yeah.
Connor:
like my ego was hurt a little bit, but I sent it to him specifically because I knew I’d get quality feedback and that’s all your internship and
PhD or whatever your experiences are to continue to learn. And like you said, if you’re a forever learner, there’s always opportunities to learn. that’s what the criticisms are about. It’s not something to take away from you. It’s hopefully to add something to you in the long run.
Blake Wright:
For sure. And again, that goes to like everyone has, you know, their own type of feedback they like to get. And I think that goes back to building that relationship piece because I’m the type of person who, if you need to tell me to pull my head out of my rear end, then like I’m gonna take that feedback because I like, you know, very
Connor:
Yeah, please do.
Blake Wright:
blunt, honest feedback. But again, someone else might not like that. So I think that goes back to you know building those relationship pieces because, like we’ve talked about, you don’t know when you’re gonna get a phone call or a knock on the door. And if you can have good strong relationships,
relationships or even just make a good first impression. You never know what’s gonna happen. You never know where you’re gonna land in this field because one day there might be great job security, the one day there the next day there might not be. So I think having
Connor:
Yeah.
Blake Wright:
that network, building relationships and just being a good person and a hard and a hard freaking worker is gonna, you know, take people a really long way.
Connor:
Yeah, I think that’s fantastic advice. And like you said, you know, you have job security until you don’t have it. And then and then
Blake Wright:
Hundred percent.
Connor:
what can you fall back on? So I think that’s huge. Well, Blake, thank you so much. Seriously. I really appreciate you coming on the show. And and like I said at the beginning, I was hoping to learn something and I absolutely did. I learned a couple of different things. So I really appreciate your time. if somebody wanted to network with you or connect with you, what would be the best way to do that?
Blake Wright:
I would say my Instagram or LinkedIn would probably be the best way to get a hold of me. I’m I try and stay pretty active on those two platforms.
Connor:
Awesome. No, I greatly appreciate it. well again I just I can’t thank you enough for your time and and w w actually you know what? Let me do that. What is your Instagram tag before I end this?
Blake Wright:
So my i yeah,
for sure. My Instagram tag is coach dot b right.
Connor:
Okay. Perfect. Coach.be right. Well, Blake, thank
Blake Wright:
You got it.
Connor:
you. I I truly appreciate your time.
Blake Wright:
Appreciate you having me on the show, man.
Connor:
Absolutely.
