There is no substitute for experience, but the best coaches know how to combine experience with education, adaptability, and a willingness to keep learning.
In this episode of the Samson Strength Coach Collective, Jacob Banegas shares the path that took him from a multi-sport athlete to coaching and eventually building Built Sports Performance. Along the way, Jacob faced transfers, the disruption of COVID-19, career uncertainty, and the challenges that come with starting a sports performance business.
Jacob discusses how those experiences shaped his approach to coaching and leadership. He also breaks down the importance of continuing education, simplifying sports science for athletes and parents, developing trust with clients, and knowing when to step back and recalibrate when things don’t go according to plan.
Key Takeaways
- Persistence and adaptability are critical when navigating setbacks in coaching and business.
- Education provides coaches with a foundation, but experience teaches lessons that cannot be replicated in a classroom.
- Coaches need to simplify complex training concepts to build trust with athletes, parents, and clients.
- Long-term athletic development should take priority over chasing short-term results.
- Networking and mentorship can create opportunities throughout a coaching career.
- Building a sports performance business requires resilience, communication, and a willingness to continually adapt.
Quote
“You can’t cheat experience, experience is education.” — Jacob Banegas
@mrbuiltdifferent_
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Jacob Banegas :
the advice I would give is like you can’t cheat experience. And ultimately, the way I had to reframe my perspective is like life is about educating. Right? I’ve had a c I had a conversation with a gentleman one day and they’re like, man, I hate learning. And for me, I had a I I wanted to help him through that process because I was like, Man, life is about learning. So if you hate learning, you hate growing.
Connor :
What’s going on? Samson Strength Coach Collective Listeners. On today’s episode, we have Jacob Benegas, the founder and director of sports performance at Built Sports Academy. Jacob, thank you for coming on.
Jacob Banegas :
Connor, what’s going on my man? Glad to be here, man. I appreciate that.
Connor :
Dude, I’m stoked
about it. this is for our podcast listeners, this is a you know, a story of perseverance. we’ve been, you know, our schedules have not you know, lined up necessarily to get this done. Finally we’re here, had some Wi-Fi troubles and then we figured it out immediately. So like I’m pumped about getting this episode done, man, because I’ve been wanting
Jacob Banegas :
Same.
Connor :
to get you on for a while. So I’m glad we can actually do it.
Jacob Banegas :
Yeah, appreciate it. Same here, man. I know for a while I was like, Man, we lost touch. I need to reach out to Connor and
Connor :
Yeah.
Jacob Banegas :
try to figure this all out. So
Connor :
Well, look at this. Look what look where we are now, right? We’re getting it done, so I’m happy about it. I know Andy’s stoked about getting you on the podcast too. I gotta ask before we get started, is that a sea bum I see over there? Is that the root beer sea bum? Bro, I’m too nice. I I really am. I you know
Jacob Banegas :
That is the root beer bum, man. The root beer bum. Leg legendary, bro. Legendary.
Connor :
my my wife makes fun of me because I can like identify any energy drink, any flavor all the time, you know, and I’m trying to get better about it.
I’ve got the I actually really am. That’s a genuine thing. I’ve got the ghost but only the hundred milligram. So I’m trying to be better. but I can always I always know. I always know what what people are sipping on.
Jacob Banegas :
Yep. That’s why I got
the bums, man, because like I was a ghost head for the longest time, right? And and you know, I just in I found my way into listening a lot to like Greg Lovecchi and Dom’s story, right? and then I just the the bums are just enough to to give you that little edge, you know, the little hundred milligrams. The flavors are phenomenal. So shout out to the Raw team
Connor :
They’re good.
Jacob Banegas :
for that. The flavors are phenomenal. So
Connor :
Y you know what too? I actually like the nootropics a lot. I wasn’t like a big nootropics guy. You know, I always kinda thought like, Hey, maybe a little bit bonk, you know, or whatever, like but then I actually tried out. I like a lot. I’ve had like the gorilla mine before and those the nootropics I feel like actually make a difference for me.
Jacob Banegas :
Yeah, absolutely. I agree.
Connor :
Yeah.
awesome. Well, this is not the Energy Drink podcast. And so I apologize for starting it off that way. And I’m trying to give free game to C Bum, which he definitely doesn’t need. He’s doing just fine. but this is the Jacob Benegas podcast. So could you just give us a breakdown of your career, your background, and then what’s led you to your role right now as the director of sports performance?
Jacob Banegas :
Yeah man. so a little bit about my career and my background. So I’m born and raised Las Cruces, New Mexico native. I played multi sports growing up in in high school. It was distinctively just football. I kinda knew from an early age, to be honest, my around my junior year that I wanted to be involved in the strength and conditioning side of things. I think it was where I’m from,
So sports science is fairly new, like in just in the industry in general, right? strength and conditioning was a very old school traditional meathead style approach, like let’s get bigger, faster, stronger, right? But the BFS in theory with the pure pure pyramid style training and techniques, that was a lot of just like hypertrophy and strength, right? Just getting getting huge and jacked. so early on I found myself down a rabbit hole.
on YouTube trying to teach myself how to how to become a better athlete, you know, and around here there’s there’s really no resources from a professional standpoint to help athletes get better, right? It’s whatever whatever you know, whatever your friends or your coach knows, whatever they did 30 years ago, whatever they can find. and so I knew that when you stumble upon the YouTube’s of of training from Nebraska football and all these other football programs, like
I wanna do that. I wanna be that guy in the weight room, getting guys jacked, getting after, right? And so I kind of knew I wanted to be a strength and conditioning coach as I was pursuing my football journey. just like I’m sure a lot of pretty good football athletes, they have the idea like I wanna go to the league, right? And so I set that that scene in my head too. And going into my senior year, I my very first game, I was actually going in with a offer from San Diego State.
I hurt my knee, I tore my lateral and medial meniscus, thank the Lord it wasn’t no ligament tear. but that still put me out six weeks of my senior season, right? That’s half the season. lost that scholarship, ended up getting scoped, coming back. long story short, got an opportunity to go to Pima Junior College and I went to Pima Junior College. So that was my my very first experience in a collegiate setting.
We have Coach Jim Monaco, he was a le a phenomenal coach. you that was the first time I was introduced to German volume training, right? And so if you know what German volume training is, yeah, it’s it’s gnarly, man. And that’s what we did. my career at Pima. from Pima, I then ended up at New Mexico State, where I was playing vol here with the Aggies, and I was under Akeem Robinson and
Coach Don Decker. So shout out to them. They’re they’re amazing strength coaches. Coach Akeem finished up at Auburn before he went private. And Coach Don Decker, I believe, is the head of the one of the directors of the NSCA. I could be so wrong in that, so we’ll just click that. Yeah. Yeah. So
Connor :
I think it sounds correct. It sounds correct to me, so I I say we roll with it
Jacob Banegas :
yeah, so you know, so yeah, that was like
That was my taste, right? So you get you get introduced and I was just one of those guys, man, who I didn’t have all the talent in the world, in the sense of I was just genetically gifted and faster and stronger and so I knew the one variable that I could control that would make me better in the athlete or on the field as an athlete, excuse me, was the weight room, right? And so that’s how I kind of got addicted to the weight room, so to speak, around great coaches, people who just wanna see you get better.
My experience with strength coaches is like those guys are there to just their number one goal is to see you get better. And so that was my career. unfortunately had some issues from a a a scholarship standpoint. It was kind of a carrot, like one of those chasing a carrot type of thing, like, hey, yeah, let’s let’s I messed up. I forgot I was a student athlete at Pima and I was an athlete student. So that’s how
I had the opportunity to either walk on. I either had a redshirt at Pima, red shirt at NMSU, or red shirt at Hawaii. all the other schools were kind of not wanting to recruit me just because I was academically ineligible. The two recruiting coordinators from those two schools still wanted me to come on. Hey, we’ll get your grade right, we’ll help you out. You’ll red shirt here, right? So I had to take that that walk on opportunity if I wanted to go D1. In my mind, it was you have to be
You can’t redshirt out of junior college, it’ll that’s gonna burn your career, right? And so that was my mindset at the time. Totally wrong, but ended up coming to NMSU, didn’t have Hawaiian money to walk on, how I was raised, and came here, took eighteen credits, s fall, spring, twelve in the summer, became eligible, got a starting job, bro. So yeah, it was
Connor :
That’s awesome.
Jacob Banegas :
yeah, it was wild and
Started the whole year, my very first division one game I opened up at the swamp, out in Florida and had some great playing time there. Couple solos, couple assisted, fumble recovery, you know, things like that, and and got to play against great teams. Anyways, held a starting job throughout that first year, going into the next year. I still wasn’t seeing a scholarship and I just didn’t have the money to keep paying for school. So it was
it it came to the third fourth meetup with the head coach at the time, Coach Martin, and it was like, Hey coach, I need help getting on a scholarship. I’ve contributed enough how I was told I need to, and I need help paying for school or I’m gonna have to find a way to to get pi school paid for. Right. And so they they didn’t have the the the money at the time, sorry, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do and we walked away from the table and I was transferring. So
That was the end of that conversation. my defensive line coach, Kerry Laughlin, he had 13 plus years experience in the NFL as a player and a coach. had a great career coaching at Fresno State. He was my D-line coach at the time at NMSU. coach Locke is like family to me. I love him to death. He’s an amazing human being. And he said, you can’t just you can’t just not play. back in my day, I’m not as spoiled as all these other.
Teenage kids with transferring whatever they want off the the whiff of a filling, right? And so in order for me to keep my junior year, I had to transfer down a division. So then I went to Western Colorado, which is a Division II out in Gunnison, Colorado, in the Armac. that was now th that was my first time at the Division II level.
kinda got smacked in my mouth. I thought I was gonna be this D one transfer and just above all the rest. And guys at D two wanna play, man. They’re just as hungry if not hungrier, right? And I w I I was introduced to Coach Brandon Stevens. So all these coaches I’m introducing are strength and conditioning coaches, right? They had I loved all our other coaches, Coach Locke especially, but all my strength conditioning coaches had some of the most impactful memories and experiences developing me as a man. Like I left home at 17 years old and
through all the transfers and everything else, right? So like having impactful, strong men around you helps build character, right? And so Coach Stevens, Coach Brendan Stevens was up at Western Colorado at the time. He was my strength and conditioning coach. And he’s kind of the one who opened the the door to sports science side of things, right? Cause traditionally it’s your one rep max is bench, squat, power cleans,
deadlifts, right? And he’s the one who opened the door to the sports science at Western Colorado. I think I I may be mistaken, it may be the only college or one of the only colleges with a hap lab, a high altitude performance lab. because the altitude is a little above or if not below 7,000 7,000 feet, right? So Gunnison we’re in the middle of the Rocky Mountains and so having your high altitude
classes and your your biomechanics classes and your kinesiology classes. It wasn’t kinesiology kinesiology in the sense of a lot of these division ones you take a kinesiology major it’s a big old lecture style hall and that’s kind of how you get your degree right so western Colorado opened the door to me that was one of the best things that could have happened for my career because it was a small class setting it’s a smaller school right and all of our coaches
in the lab, all the coaches in the strength conditioning center, they were teachers as well. So they were directly one-to-one educating and applying, which was amazing to see, right? A lot of times you don’t see that with professors. or the ones who are on the field clinically aren’t the ones teaching all the time. And now with social media that’s kind of changed a little bit. People are starting to to record and and share and things like that, right? But so
That’s kind of what opened the door to me for sports science. And so my major was exercise sports science, right? I graduated, I stuck around Coach Stevens as I was pursuing some professional level looks. I had the opportunity, so I got a All American D tackle bid while I was over there my senior year. I had the opportunity to hop in with Coach Stevens as strength conditioning intern.
One thing led to another, I stuck around and just learned as much as I could from him. while pursuing that pr professional career, I had an opportunity to go to a couple of CFL camps and combines. I went to NFL Regional out in Atlanta and then I went to the Don Yee Combine. So Don Yee was Tom Brady’s agent at the time. He was trying to do his own little combine and a small selective group of the agents he knew to bring a handful of
players so I was able to work out around NFL organizations, right? NFL NFL Scouts. And from there I had an opportunity to go into the CFL. Right. And so as I’m still managing my coaching career, I then start interning and learning under Manu coach Manu Pne. And he was he ended up going private at the time. He was on the BYU staff and he’s the one who kind of finished
helping me up in the back half of my career right before leaving to Canada. A couple weeks out leaving to Canada. Agent thinks it’s a good idea because this is a whole year cycle, right? Like trying to figure it all out and continue to push. So whole years going by into that next CFL year. Agent thinks it’s a great idea to get some reps, just get back on the field, get back onto some one-on-ones because it’s been a while before this CFL rookie invite, minicamp invite. And so I end up
going into arena because he knew a couple guys out in the arena league out in Iowa. Hey, you’re gonna be there for a month. Let’s get you some reps under your belt, like get moving again, and then straight shot a couple hours up north. and then COVID hits, right? Two weeks in, COVID hits, and so we all know what happened in COVID, man. And long story short, COVID ended those plans, right? Obviously, it shut down the CFL.
that season that I was gonna have my shot, shut that down, came back home, said, okay, now what? Well, I’ve been around the the collegiate side of coaching. I’ve learned from some of the best coaches. well I don’t know what I want to do. I wanna be a strength conditioning coach, but I want I don’t know what I want to do right now. I don’t know where to go. Am I still gonna play football and pursue that passion? Or do I just get right into coaching? two weeks became two months, became almost two years, right, on the lockdown.
And so throughout that time I said, I’m just gonna start coaching athletes. And that’s what I did. Simultaneously, around that 20 year that 2020 year, I was introduced to Les Spellman, and Les Spellman was training, I was working through his programs and his training programs for me to develop speed, because that was really the time that Les kind of blew up what speed training is, right?
And so I was working through through him and his programs and simultaneously coaching athletes around where I’m from. And one thing led to another, you get a handful of athletes, right? And then I I was still in contact with my agent, and he’s like, Hey, look, if you want to keep doing this thing, we can try, but you’re gonna have to start in the arena league first. And I think I was just frustrated that I didn’t get to hang up through all the adversities I faced, my injury, my my
JUCO failure with academics, my transfer. I wanted to be the one to hang up my own cleats, right? And so I was like, you know what? For the sake of how cool Arena looks, I’m gonna go play. And so I played with Northern Arizona. all my my clients down here, my athletes here were super happy about it, so they weren’t frustrated. I kind of put my coaching on pause. and I was the the strongest and and especially the fastest I ever was because of Spelman and and all his training.
And I I went into the arena league, had a blast, man. but ultimately it came down to hey, I wanted to figure out how to coach this thing, right? I’m not gonna make millions of dollars. The NFL’s already kind of behind me. I’m two and a half years out. Realistically, that’s not happening. let me get involved in coaching, right? And so after that arena season, I come back and it is
August. So you have CFLs in the spring-ish time, right? Arena leagues like overlaps into the summer, and then your NFLs in the fall. And so I come back from the arena league and I say, this is what I’m gonna do, man. And I’m gonna start coaching. So I’m gonna go all in. I’m gonna hang up cleats on my own time. I had a blast playing arena, but I I scratched my itch. I’m good. I want to help other athletes get there because I had an amazing journey. because the journey is what teaches you everything, right? I’m sure you can agree that where you’re at now.
We’ve always had this outcome-based mentality to say, hey, once I get here, I’m gonna be happier. This is my goal, right? And then you kind of look back and one, you realize your plan never goes as planned, right? And then two, you realize that your journey itself is what where all the value is, right? And so I end up I end up saying, okay, I’m gonna hang up my cleats, I come back, and myself, Andy, and Chris Corper.
We kind of got together. I was running next level performance, which was my my training brand. for that two years when I was on and off, came back home, right? Chris Corpor was running Corpor Strength, which was his thing, and he was another good strength coach. and and Andy kind of connected us and always Andy’s always been a great friend of mine. he was already plugged in with Samson, right, as you know, and
Me and Chris, we all just started training together. next thing you know, that was the inception of what built was. we said, how can we help athletes, just like I kind of said in the past, right? Like, how can we help athletes become better, have a bridge, real professional resources and real professional development from coaches who care, right? no, no shade to to anyone who does it. If the shoe fits, I’m sorry, but the we’re around here, we’re kind of tired of like.
The dads who played high school, who have their son coming up in little leagues. I know how to coach and get them stronger and get them better, right? Like you know how to work out at a gym. I I I wouldn’t say you know sports performance or how to actually athletic development, right? Long-term, long-term athletic development. and so that was the inception of Bill. So we started working with a couple teams around here, football programs. next thing you know, we opened up
the academy, the in-person academy, a year in, we got shut down. And from from the because we were working at a resid at a residential barn, we got shut down from the city because I guess we got a little too big. We were helping too many ki youth kids, I guess, minding our own business. and so from there, just personal life decisions happened where
I this was like I kind of said earlier, right? Like this was something I knew I wanted to do. I was gonna find out through my journey, through my story. I just I’ve always been someone who’s like you if you’re willing to stand there and say I’m gonna fight for as long as I need to and keep just throwing punches and keep figuring it out, you will overcome adversity, right? and th th through different life where everyone was in their life was just different. And
We made the decision when we split up when when Built got shut down. Chris no longer wanted to be a part of it. He said, Hey, I’m just in a different place right now, right? And he’s doing his thing with Samson. so I I took f full ownership of Built and I said, I’m gonna figure this out, I’m gonna find a way. Right. And so I ended up finding a spot. It was a gym in Las Cruces, and I’ll all I said was, Hey.
We’re down to three kids. I got three kids. I just need a spot to train. I’m not trying to be a personal trainer. I only train athletes. I have all this tech, Hawkins force plates and output strap and da-da-da-da-da, right? I’m just trying to help athletes. And so I locked in locked in a little deal with them and three athletes just through tenac straight tenacity, straight belief, a belief in my mission and my values and what I brought to the table every single day.
I went from three athletes to six athletes to twelve athletes to twenty athletes to right. And then I ended up think thank the Lord af almost a year goes by and I’m like, okay, I need to get out of this gym. Things were kind of going shaky. This is technically, if you want to call it year two of Bill, right? We were in a barn for the first year, I’m in a gym for for the second year, but concepts, values,
Programming, like methodologies, principles, we’re all me, right? So like it was built at the time, and I’m like, I need to I need to find a place. If I want to be taken seriously, I need to find a place. So I end up finding a commercial location, and I’m like, how the heck am I gonna it it? It was gonna work. I sold myself, they bought bought into me, and I’m over here thinking I’m training 15 kids. How am I gonna afford 55,000?
thousand dollar lease and how am I even gonna find equipment? I don’t even have money for any of that. I know my family and friends don’t have money I can borrow, right? I don’t have money I can borrow. and so for me it was like, you know what? I’m gonna find a way. Like I just gotta find a way. I’m gonna just keep going. I’m gonna keep stepping down this this path and eventually it’ll play out, right? And so
I eventually just kind of kept scraping along, kept scraping along, and and figured out like, hey, I got the lease locked in. Andy, I need some equipment. and so I I I wasn’t able to get a sponsorship thing, obviously, but Brian and and Scott were like, you know what? We’re gonna take a chance on this kid. we don’t even know if he can afford it. And at the time I could not afford it, but I said I absolutely could.
Right. So if Brian and Scott hear this, I I now they can laugh about it ’cause it’s all good now. But so they ended up letting me get on a a payment plan. They give me some get me on some equipment, take out a loan for everything else as much as I could personally, right? I d I didn’t have a a big credit history. I was a football kit guy taking cash payment, so you know, whatever I could, got whatever equipment I could. I ended up in
December of twenty twenty two.
23, 24, 25. Yeah, December of 22, the gym owner said, you know what, Jacob, you have too many kids. We don’t have the space for you. So the end of this year, you gotta be out of here. Mind you, this was all God’s timing with my beliefs because he didn’t even know I had a commercial lease that I signed that I’m waiting on flooring from and things like that, you know? And so I’m just like, man, like I’m not supposed to get in there until.
February first. So I call up the landlord. I say, Hey, this is what’s going on. He said, I can get you the key, but I’m not gonna be out until late December. And so I’m I go to my family’s and I’m like, look, this is what’s going on. We’re gonna have a two-week break, and then we’re gonna get into the facility, and at least I’m gonna have flooring, like we’re gonna figure something out. And everyone was on board, right? So my buddy Max, he was actually a coach with me before he left into the Navy. but we said, you know what?
This is gonna be the start of something special. 2023, January 1st, man. While everyone’s out partying at on New Year’s Eve, I’m up at midnight kind of conceptualizing the plan of how things are looking and continuing the to build out the product and build out the whole system, right? As you can see, like I’m a hundred million dollar playbook, I’m a big hormosey fan. so I was like figuring all that out and just at the best, just grinding away. I took the same concept that I had in football.
To life as I can control my control bowls and I’m gonna try my best to not let anybody else work harder than me. And at the end of the day, I’m gonna just work harder than myself day to day. My best competition is myself, right? And so that very next morning at 7 a.m. on the new year, we woke up, flooring came in, we s we cleaned up all the floors, we laid out all of the gym mats, the the roll mats, right? We sized and cut everything and
That was that was the start of it, man. And we ended up getting kids in there with nothing but just the gym flooring for a couple weeks. And then equipment started rolling in. One thing led to another. And and now we’re here, man, serving over 70, 80 plus athletes. we work with teams and do team consulting. and we’re performance development, so it’s been awesome, man. We work with Pima Junior College going on our fourth year.
we we we give the applied sports science side, so we’re very heavy on the tech. got got my ten eighty sprint, you know, so we’re we’re big on that stuff. But I hope I didn’t ramble too much. I hope that kind of clears the clears the story
Connor :
No, no. Dude.
Jacob Banegas :
of my career and how I got involved and, you know, things like that.
Connor :
That’s exactly what we want to see, man. Seriously, because we we love hearing about coaches’ journeys. We love hearing about adversities they face. Like it’s such an awesome story, too. You know, I guess my main question for you is like, you obviously face a lot of adversity. you know, that the losing your offer, your senior year of high school, and then like you said, with your eligibility piece, going to Western Colorado. it’s just, you know, I can’t even name everything because it was so much stuff that popped up. You know, when this stuff happens, when you face adversity,
what are the main steps that you take? You know, you mentioned a little bit about basically working hard, being ready and willing to fight for what you need, but how do you actually action that? What are the steps that you take to make sure that you can continue to grow and continue on this journey?
Jacob Banegas :
You know, man, for me, sometimes it it I think we make I like to think as human beings, we like to make things bigger deals than what they really are. Right? So like when something happens to you that’s not what you wanted to happen, I think it’s in a sense like at least for me, you have to be able to step back and kind of recalibrate and just be like, Okay, cool. So now what? Just figure out the new path.
Right? Doesn’t mean the path has to end. and when you’re able to recalibrate and say, okay, this is our objective, depend we have to be we have to be what how am I trying to say this? We don’t we don’t want to be flexible in our outcome, but we have to be adaptable on our path. Right? And so like kind of being able to say like, hey, this is this is how we’re gonna go.
and figure this out and and go from there. So I think like when when people face adversity too many times, one, we make it a big deal, like let’s let’s recalibrate, let’s get our nervous system back into a parasympathetic state, let’s not freak out as much. as long as our family’s safe, we’re safe, our lives aren’t threatening, it’ll be okay. We’ll figure it out eventually, right? and then just saying, Now what? Like how do I move forward and let me take those day by day, day by day step steps to lay each brick so I can get the brick wall, you know?
Connor :
So for you it’s really about perspective. It’s about kind of remembering that there’s other stuff going on. It’s not, you know, just this one specific instance, all of a sudden the world’s ended. It’s, you know, we can continue on this journey. We can find a way.
Jacob Banegas :
Absolutely. It’s all about perspective, man. All about
Connor :
That’s
awesome. Well, I love to hear it and it and it makes sense how you’re able to handle all that adversity that came and and I’m very happy to hear about your business’s success, you know. and I can I can imagine myself in some of those situations and it’s tough, it’s tough, especially as someone who knows how it is in the coaching world. Like it can be brutal to deal with some of those things. So I commend you on that. You know,
Jacob Banegas :
Thank you.
Connor :
one thing that I’m always curious about is and this is kind of from a personal level, I was always I would call myself a tough student.
Right. Like I I liked learning, but you know, just I I really didn’t have the habits or I g I would say probably the motivation or the desire to be a straight A student or anything like that. So I really struggled my first couple of years in school. And so just hearing about your story about being academically, you know, ineligible, having a red shirt and then taking all these credits for a year straight and then going to western Colorado where you have really good experience. Like, how did you learn about the importance of education?
And what advice would you give to you know, younger strength coaches who may be struggling in the classroom a little bit right now or may not see necessarily the importance of the education side of coaching?
Jacob Banegas :
You know, man, you can’t ch the the thing I would say, the advice I would give is like you can’t cheat experience. And ultimately, the way I had to reframe my perspective is like life is about educating. Right? Like if if you’re I’ve had a c I had a conversation with a gentleman one day and they’re like, man, I hate learning. And for me, I had a I I wanted to help him through that process because I was like, Man, life is about learning. So if you hate learning, you hate growing.
Right. And so I was someone who was against the weight of not not against academics, but I I didn’t put academics first, right? And I guess for me I didn’t want to take that cognitive load of of learning and just being honest, right? I wasn’t ever a student, a studious student by all means. but as I matured and grew, I kinda got into reading and personal development and learning is fun, like being a nerd is fun, you know, and so
I think it was a cool opportunity that like I learned a lot about a field I loved and that kind of helped me grow as a human, like just learning in general. and I wanna get better. So like why not add more knowledge to my tool belt, right? And then I can be more of an intellectual human being because now I can apply the new knowledge. So ignorance is bliss and then once you do learn, my dad once told me like ignorance is bliss and once you do know better.
You either do better or if you don’t, you’re either dumb or lazy. You know? And so yeah, and so for me it was like wanting to wanting to learn. Like the advice I give new coaches, like you can’t cheat experience. And experience is education. Like you have to learn from those, right? So we see high school coaches that are doing the same thing that they did 30, 40 years ago. That’s not learning.
You’re just repeating the same things from 30 years ago, right? Get yourself in rooms that make you feel uncomfortable. Get yourself around people who have more knowledge than you and be okay with not knowing as much as them. open yourself up to conversations. You have to be vulnerable when you learn, just like when you’re meeting new people, right? You have to be raw and authentic in yourself. and just die, you have to dive into it. Like there’s you can’t cheat time.
But either way, time’s gonna pass. So like you have to learn about these things, you have to dive into it. now more than ever, there is a frenzy of knowledgeable strength coaches that just have huge followings, right? And age has nothing to do with it. I know there was a battle I saw on social media about like if you’re under the age of 25 and strength coach and whatever, it age has nothing to do with it. It’s the time that you’ve put to learn these skills and the education and the experiences.
Right. But you have to put yourself in those positions to get the experience, to fail through through or learn through failure. Right. And so I think like that’s one of the biggest things, man.
Connor :
Yeah, I I really appreciate your perspective on that. You know, and I think one of the things that can almost crack me up a little bit is like a lot of the strength coaches have said for so long, you know, essentially we’ve got to learn more from practical experience. I think practical experience is really, really important, right? but then I now hear young strength coaches kinda go, Well, you know, this isn’t gonna help me like this from a classroom perspective. I need to just be out there coaching on the floor and everything.
And you know, I I almost crack up because I’m like, I felt the same way. And then I had to take anatomy again at 29 because I’m like people are talking about
Jacob Banegas :
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Connor :
specific muscles and everything, and I can’t remember this or I can’t remember this process and everything. And you know, you can learn a ton through experience, and that’s definitely how you hone your coaching skills. but at the same time, like the educational base of the foundation is what allows you to get better and what allows you to learn as a coach.
and especially like you say, getting around other people, like if you don’t have the base knowledge, you can’t even have the conversation with them, you know. And so if you want to get in rooms that are, you know, uncomfortable, which you should be doing, you have to at least, you know, show up and have a base level knowledge so you can build on it. So I agree with you. I I’m big on the the base knowledge, you know, experience, or sorry, base knowledge of education and understanding it and then using it and then having the time to actually get better as a coach. I think it makes the biggest difference in the
Obviously,
I know it sounds, you know, like a no brainer to say that, but I think it’s always important to have this conversation. Yeah.
Jacob Banegas :
You would think. Absolutely,
right? Like I I don’t want to keep hammering it, but yeah, Connor, you’re right. Like there’s two there’s there’s both are both can be true, right? Like a lot of times everyone just wants to hop on the field, I’m a coach and this is how I’m gonna learn. And just like you said, I recently finished up my masters in applied sports science and biomechanics, right? I’ve took in mentorship with a Spellman and all his hit programs and and learning and YouTube and everyone loves short firm. They watch a
30-second video, and they’re like, I know this now, right? And it’s like, it’s about depth, not width here. So, like, you have to learn, like, you can teach yourself too on YouTube. There’s hours and hours and hours of coaches that help out with information and research study. one of my biggest things is like, I don’t think people know how to read research correctly. Like, there’s different levels and different types of research, right? What that is important. education and experience are also like are very important.
I finished up my master’s in applied sports science and biomechanics and being able to take those mentorships with Les Bellman and and Ramsey Najim, and and just continuing to stay around great coaches, there’s there’s you gotta do both. And so to that flip side, right, there’s a lot of coaches that I disagree with when they say, well, you’re like you don’t need a degree or you don’t need whatever education and I
th I think that’s further from the truth. I think that like yes, there’s a lot of coaches that can be educated, but they don’t continue to pursue new education, right? And so they’re limited and stunted. But I don’t think it’s fair to say, you don’t need like you can do this just right out of high school and just get on Instagram and start recording and hands on experience, right? Like there’s a reason why there’s there’s practical and clinical and education, everything on top of that. So
I think it’s a whole pie and it’s sliced up and it’s not one half or the other, you know.
Connor :
No, for sure. and I I really agree with you what you say about the research aspect too, because one of the best classes I ever took was it was like a re it was statistics and research principles, you know. So like they looked at okay, how do you actually examine studies? How do you actually look at these things? and I remember at the time I was kind of like, damn, why is this a required course? Like this is gonna be a pain in the ass. Like, excuse my language, but like it’s just the truth. Like, and then, you know, we sat down and then we looked at things actually like, okay, well, what was the actual number of participants in the study?
Like if it’s five, you know, is that actually valid research or is it just something that needs to be researched further? you know, what were the outcomes? Are they repeatable? What were the study conditions? You know, like if we have this new training method, but then we take novices through it, does that really matter? Because they’re gonna see the novice gains anyway. And so it really opened my eyes on how to read research. And then it really helped me. I th I think where people get messed up with research too, is they can almost
change their coaching philosophies off of one study. They see one thing and they’re like, my gosh, I gotta change every single thing up. And it’s just like, bro, relax, take a deep breath. Like actually look at, you know, how impactful this is. Now, if it’s a multidisciplinary study or if it’s you know, something that’s been repeated over time and time and time again, like, you know, understand that that might be something to help you change your philosophy. But you know, if it’s one study on five people and they were novice lifters, like relax, take a deep breath. You don’t have to change everything overnight.
Jacob Banegas :
Absolutely.
Absolutely, man. Absolutely.
Connor :
Yeah. Okay.
And so who were your main client population with built sports?
Jacob Banegas :
our main client population are in a general sense teams, like programs and teams, and then your high school athletes. So we we do youth groups, all of our college kids come back during the holidays in the summers, right? But the the two main clients that we work with, we do some adult stuff. but our main clients are our programs of teams and high school athletes.
Connor :
That’s awesome. I I’m curious about this because obviously all all my experience, say for eight weeks, is in the collegiate sector. You know, and parents will have some input, but like it’s very rare, right? Like I I’ll probably meet a dad on a recruiting visit who will say his son needs to be trained this way, and then I’ll probably never talk to him again, you know, realistically. but with high school athletes, it’s obviously a different scenario. You kind of alluded to it in the past where there’s
you know, it can be a lot of dads who know how to work out or have experience training and then really have no clue what it’s about when it comes down to it. Or like we talked about, like the education piece, which is so important. How do you handle those situations? How do you kind of, you know, stay level headed or how do you let’s say if it was a client of yours in a hypothetical situation where the dad really had his hand and
or the mom, you know, let’s not be let’s be all inclusive here, right?
Jacob Banegas :
Right.
Connor :
Really has their their hand in and what they think the training should look like for their kid. How do you handle those situations?
Jacob Banegas :
You know, it’s it’s kind of different per situation. I think like in in the general sense, you almost it depends how blocked off they are from that, right? Like I always kind of in a simplistic term, like there is a difference and and you understand this, there’s a difference between working out and training. Right? Like we can all just go get busy, we can all
Hop into high high the come I don’t want the high rocks coming in to come after me, but we can all go hop into high rocks and and compete for the most average athlete. no, but but in reality, right, like there it’s there’s busy work and there’s smart structured work, right? And so a lot of times dependent on the parent and how open they are about understanding, like, yeah, there’s different ways, or they’re like, well, no, da-da-da-da. I’m like, this is how it needs to be. And I talk a lot about
Measuring, not guessing, long-term athletic development, right? Lately, macrocycles and mesocycles have been getting a lot of hate for I don’t know what reason. I think it’s because a lot of coaches, right? Like a lot of coaches don’t think necessarily in principles and systems. They just think think in like programs and specifics, right? And so, like from a macro cycle standpoint, in my belief is like the coaches who are hating against that have the perspective that
A macro cycle is supposed to be the whole year with all your mesos, all your micros, your day to days, all the specific exercises built out for a whole year and I’m done and I don’t have to change anything, right? when in a sense it needs to be a skeleton and the skeleton is flexible. So it is your principles and your systems, right? And then obviously tech can help adjust your mesos and your day to days. And so I talk a little bit in the it’s cool because like
Myself and you, Connor, being being strength coaches, like we can talk about the terminology and all the sports science and things like that, right? And you start to realize like when you’re ta dealing with the general population and parents and even like teams and and coaches around teams that aren’t obviously we don’t do colleges, right? So like at that level, it’s okay to show your knowledge and and talk a little bit on the terminology, but you also can’t sound like alphabet soup is coming out of your mouth and you’re just going way over their head.
Right. But at the same time, you gotta walk them through the path, you gotta help them understand that you may have more experience and knowledge in this field, and then say, hey, I agree or disagree, but this is gonna this is the way it is. And then you show a little bit about the depth and the details and the complexities, but you wanna make the complexities sound simple, right? Just like as you do with the college athletes, then that creates the buy-in. So it’s almost not even a conversation of like, hey.
I know more than you or you you’re coming to us for this or whatever the case may be, but you get that buy in and then that that builds trust and then it kind of goes down the road. So
Connor :
Yeah, and if you can’t explain it in simple terms, then you d really don’t understand it. Right. So, and say it’s
Jacob Banegas :
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Connor :
almost a good practice or a good exercise for you to be able to explain that if a parent’s
upset about something, right?
Jacob Banegas :
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Connor :
you know, I guess my my last question for you, I’m curious about this too. Like I always, you know, am interested in w w where coaches spend their time or how they kind of pick their career path. Why private training for you?
Jacob Banegas :
You want me to give you the honest version or the the fluff version? Of
Connor :
I I we like the honest versions here.
Jacob Banegas :
course, man. So I’ve always looked up to obviously, just like anybody else in any field, you always look up to some of the grades, right? And my area and the path that I went down, Lauren Lando was a very big mentor to Coach Stevens, who was my mentor, right? He has he had Lando performance.
I’ve you’ve always hear of the exos and the IMGs. Manu Pine, who was the BYU coach, was private when he was helping me. So a lot of my mentorship, I was always talking about my dream to open up a facility and help our athletes around here. But I also wanted to be a college coach and a pro strength coach, right? And for them, for for my mentorship, it was kind of like, Hey, a lot of times it is
pride and ego thing in the college sector. You have to be a yes man a lot of the times, right? Depending on your situation, it’s all different. But from the feedback I got was there’s a lot of hurdles, a lot of cle clearances and no, you gotta know somebody’s type of deal, right? And I was kind of just burnt out from that in the on the football side. Like you gotta be, you know, you just you gotta know somebody. You gotta know this coach. The coach gotta know this agent or this coach gotta be
You you gotta be tight in cahoots with this coach to get your playing time. And I was just kind of burnt out from the politics of that, to be honest. And so when I heard about the politics in collegiate strength and conditioning, I didn’t think I wanted to try to go through that whole cycle again. I the coaches that I knew and and my mentors mentors or my mentors were already like, Hey, we’re thinking about going private, this would be a good situation.
little more time flexibility, right? Like strength and conditioning is does not get what they’re deserved across all levels of sports, right? You have college athletes getting million dollar deals, but the guys that are keeping them healthy and and running like a dealing with the race cars in the engine, in the in the garage, aren’t getting paid what they’re worth, you know? and I think that’s a shame. I think that’s gonna hurt the hurt the the sports more than help it. And we see a lot of injuries happening nowadays.
But yeah, so for me, I think it was a a mix of not wanting to deal with the politics, the influences that I had from the coaches that I was around, and me already wanting to say, Man, I was a Las Cruces kid who had no help. I felt like my back was against the wall. The only person in the corner rooting for me was like my dad, but he he didn’t know stuff. He’s like, go work out. So like I’m in the weight room just lifting more weight. So I I my bench was 495.
my squat was high sixes, like I was strong as an ox, man, but I wasn’t fast until I started working with with Spellman’s programs. You know, I was still like a five average five flat guy before before actually doing speed work, things like that. And so that’s when like I wanted to say, you know what? I’m just gonna take the chance. Like why not? Right? Instead of waiting ten years and w and and then making the decision, no one around here
is qualified enough to help athletes the way I think they’re deserved. And so let me become that guy to get the the qualifications, get the education, get the experiences, and then help the next generation. So
Connor :
No, I love it, man. I appreciate the honest answer ’cause like if you ask any coach, I think a lot of them can identify with that. You know, I I mean, on my own side, like especially within basketball, you know, basketball strength coaches know like if your mentor isn’t one or two of these specific coaches, it’s damn near impossible to get a job. Like I I mean the especially being at App State for, you know, four years, like
There were other jobs that popped up that were the logical next step, you know, whether it’s just like a big east job or American job, anything like that. And like these jobs were filled before I even knew that they were open. And I like to consider myself a pretty tapped in guy, right? Like I ho I host
Jacob Banegas :
Absolutely.
Connor :
the podcast, I’ve met a million different coaches, like I try to network very well. And so just and then you see, okay, this is where they come from, this is who they
Interned underneath, and then you kind of start to connect the dots, it can be very frustrating. So I appreciate the honest answer on that because I think a lot of coaches can identify with it for sure.
Jacob Banegas :
Absolutely, man, right? And so to each his own is like, you don’t you don’t get enough credit. You y you get the short end of the stick and it’s like, well, I’m probably the most experienced or qualified guy, but because I didn’t have the no, like I didn’t know this other person, you know, it’s it’s tough. So I I do commend you for that, man, because like you and and other collegiate coaches are there because of your passion and your love for it, right? But the the politics is is a frustrating thing at times, you know.
Connor :
A hundred percent. Yeah. That’s why every college strength coach secretly dreams about private. I swear. Everybody’s
Jacob Banegas :
Right.
Connor :
always just like one I’m gonna open up my own foot space and I we had an episode a couple of weeks ago where I like, Hey, it’s not that easy, by the way. You can’t just walk away and just open a gym and everything’s fine.
Jacob Banegas :
Absolutely.
Absolutely. Well man if built getting a head head strength and conditioning coach, come on down, bro.
Connor :
Yeah, for
sure. I appreciate you, dude. Seriously. And thank you for coming on, man. I appreciate your time. We’ve been trying to get this done for a while, so I’m very glad we we were able to. It was a great episode. If somebody wants to follow Bill, wants to reach out to you or kind of just keep up with you, what would be the best way to do that?
Jacob Banegas :
You know, you can find us on Instagram at built sports performance. Jacob at built sports performance dot com via email. and yeah, I I love having communication with with anybody. I’m open to having conversations. I love sitting here and just talking shop. So maybe this this is good enough. You can say, maybe we can have a round two next time, you know. but I’m super open to talking shop. I love talking with coaches, with athletes.
where wherever the case may be, so they can find me via email or Instagram. So
Connor :
For sure. Well, I appreciate you greatly, man. thank you for taking the time.
Jacob Banegas :
Of course, Connor, appreciate you, man. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
