S02|E210 Adaptability Builds Better Coaches with Nick DaCosta | Samson Strength Coach Collective

S02|E215

Adaptability Builds Better Coaches with Nick DaCosta | Samson Strength Coach Collective

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That was the biggest thing for me is just building the trust with them. I’m fully trusting, making sure that I’m doing this for a reason. Not just like, I’m not making you wake up early in the morning to go and lift for an hour and then go out to practice later on. Once that was instilled in their minds and they were like, wow, this is actually awesome for us. And they needed this, that’s where you build that.

What’s going on Samson Strength Coach collective listeners. We have another live episode today. It went so well with Zach Hicks last week. We figured why not do another live one and we are here in Boone, North Carolina with Nick Dacosta, Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Appalachian State University. Nick, thanks for coming on, bro. Absolutely, brother. Man, we’re stoked to have you, dude. Seriously. First of all, you got to show the listeners your sleeve you’re working on here. So we’re working up. We’re going to try to do a Japanese style dragon.

all the to the top. strength coach vibes. Yeah, we’re almost done with it. I got the second skin on it right now and it’ll have been 14 hours deep with the sessions and just dropping underneath the needle. So hopefully I can get it done in one more session, but it’s coming along well. Did you get the tattoos because you’re a strength coach or did you become a strength coach because you’re a tattoo guy? Honestly, I was kind of a tattoo guy before, but now I just think it’s like, especially with some of my teams, I want to just look like tougher. I want to be like, I want to have…

I’m like, already got the position. I’m like, we’re good now. Anything that’s like one of the professions, I think that you can kind of roll with a little bit of tattoos. So I was like, oh, I’m just going to go crazy. I’m want to do my back. I’m going to do the rest of this arm. I’m do one of my legs. So it’s just going to be… Knuckles? Knuckles maybe. Maybe I’ll do something just so I really can just be like a committer and an athlete walks in and they’re like, yeah, maybe not mess with this guy. But then I’m like a teddy bear. that’s what makes it the best part. It’s like, you know, I’m going to look tough as all can be. And then I’m going to be like, oh, there’s this guy.

tell. I think it works with me though. I like it. I like it. It’s good situation. All right. We’ll break everything down for us. Okay. So what got you into strength and conditioning, start of your career. ⁓ And then obviously you’ve moved up a lot throughout the state. So we’ll talk about it as well too. And then what you’re currently doing now. Yeah. Cool. originally I just wanted to actually do PT and I want to do PT school. I wanted to work more with like an older population, but then ⁓

I played baseball myself and I got more of an athlete atmosphere. I went to a couple of private facilities where I got some strength addition early on in my career and when I was in high school and stuff. And I was just like, I think this would be like really cool. And maybe I need to switch over and like, yeah, the PT side’s great for us. Like we want to work with our PTs and everything, but I just don’t think I was going to get like the intensity side of it. I wasn’t going to get like the, just the, the grit kind of side of it. And it’s kind of be more monotonous with the PT. Like I’m going see the same people probably every day. be like a same population kind of thing where I just want to see like different age groups. want to see like.

We get our 18 year olds coming back from high school going to a freshman year. And then I want to see how I developed them throughout my four years, bringing them up to their senior year. So then I was just kind of like, all right, well, maybe I can get into strength conditioning. And then I also thought about AT. So I kind of went like all the routes and I was just looking at it. I did a big internship in my high school with actually the AT worked all the sports teams and stuff. And I was like, all right, this cool. But I was also like, I don’t know, this is like a hundred percent for me and just being like on Beckoning call and kind of thing. And just like, I don’t know, this wasn’t my atmosphere. So then I got into strength conditioning.

So I did my undergrad here and then I did my master’s as well. And then I got my internship my last spring that I was here in my senior year. And I got into it. Obviously, you know how interns go, you kind of just like the bottom of the barrel, you kind of doing everything for them. You’re like, all right, maybe I don’t want to do this either because I’m doing the pickup duty and picking up all the weights. It was really good though, because like that’s where I was going to kind of go with it with. We’ve had two directors through here now and just like making sure with how I’ve like built my philosophy on.

thing too. It’s just like he the first guy we had here was just really like military kind of style. had a shirt tucked in, no yawning, no gum. It was cold enough. It was actually in here, like in the combo weight room. It had to be a certain temperature for you to have to be able to actually wear a jacket. And I was just like, wow, this is like, this is it. How do you gauge the temperature? I don’t know. That’s what I’m saying. We’re all just like, I’m like almost seeing my breath coming, especially in the wintertime. I’m like, dude, it’s cold. It’s really cold outside. Like maybe I want to warm up for the first 10, 15 minutes I’m here.

So he was super, super on top of it, very high standard. It was like the weights and everything, make sure that all the weights were turned up and all that kind of stuff. But once I got into it, I got a really good relationship with him. he like, other interns didn’t get to do as much. And then he kind of took me out as like underneath his wing, kind of let me do, I worked every single team here too. So I got to go and get every aspect of what strength conditioning was, see how the different athletes did their different training programs, training philosophies.

how they just improved their performance overall. And I was just like, cool, this is awesome. Like I really liked this guy. He joked with me, I got past that barrier where was kind of like the awkward beginning and just like how he was just like looked at me as like a subject more than like an actual part of the team kind of thing. So once he got that and I got that level of respect from him, I think he was really like, okay, I like, I especially was like, I really want to dive into this. And then I got, ⁓ once I got done with my undergrad, I got into my masters and that’s when I had another director and he fully installed everything that in terms of my training philosophy.

And just how I’ve really just built myself as a person too. Like I started with some of the smaller teams worked my way up, got with the more, the bigger teams. And then now from here on out, it just, it just felt like it’s an awesome experience. And I can’t, can’t go back on it. I’m just like, I just, I see myself doing this for the rest of my life. And it’s changed me as a person. I, I before was kind of like, I’m goofy, you know, goofy guy. like I came in goofy, came in like, all right, I don’t really know what I’m

do with myself and like how I just want to see this progress over the years but now it’s just really still like characterizing and like into me and just made me an overall better person and now I just think it’s like schedule, regimen, making sure that you’re staying on top of everything, building good relationships within your staff and just how that’s just like progressed me as a person as well. So going on top of that and then now I’m here with what I’m doing now so yeah it’s awesome. Well okay so

Now correct me if I’m wrong, but your only experience with official internships has been at App State. And so then you went from being an intern to a GA to a full-time strength coach, which is a pretty rare experience. you know, I mean, when I think of, I would say what, maybe one out of every five or one out of every 10 people I talked to have an experience like that. You know, and I consider that to be pretty rare. Like what do you consider like your qualities or traits if there’s a younger strength coach out here listening and hoping to go along the same path?

Yeah. How do you feel like you were able to do that going from intern to the NGA to full-time strength coach? Kind of along with this whole experience I explained, it’s just adaptation. Like I think biggest thing you can do as a young person is just being willing to adapt to things. When I came up, I thought I had my own training philosophy. I was in the CrossFit, I was in the military style training, but then I switched over and I went more into strength training and then I got actually into Olympic weight lifting. So I’ve totally changed all of my philosophies around of how I want to program, how I want things, but…

especially with the first ready, was like his way or the highway. So like, you just got to understand where you’re going with the program. And that’s the type of program and that the whole kind of philosophy within the strength conditioning staff department works. Build your philosophy, be open to things. This is the biggest thing is like always make sure you’re being open. Like don’t just like completely cut off and be like, this is the way I like to do it. And that means that doesn’t work well sometimes with like coaches and stuff. So like, you just want to make sure that you’re willing to, the biggest thing is to is like working with your head coaches in a close relationship and collaborating with them as well. like if they,

have input on how this has worked at this school. It’s cool, that’s great. We’re at state though, that’s the biggest thing. You do have to your boundaries and have to set your guidelines as well. So making sure that, once again, you’re in charge of everything, you’re in charge of the program, but it’s willing to be open towards things and just making sure that the programming gets put together as smoothly as possible and making sure that you’re keeping your athletes healthy, making sure they’re improving their performance, making sure you’re doing everything on top of that to work with your ATs, with your PTs, with your head coaches, to make sure that everything is working as one.

Because if you start getting little leak holes in here and there, then that’s where you can kind of lose your sight for what you want to your overall goals. Yeah. And then the athletes are the ones who see the negative effects of that. Yeah. And that’s exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And so what was the first ever team that you officially had? Like that was your team? First ever team was cheerleading. Cheerleading. So then like walk me through your thought process. Like, okay, first ever time having a team, you have cheerleading. And then now, right, you just started working with wrestling here too, just filling in for them and then hopefully progressing along with them. Right.

Like how was your first ever session with cheerleading, your thoughts going into it versus now a couple more years of experience working with wrestling for the first time? You know, what was the difference between those two? And completely honestly, it was a shit show. Like I’m going to be completely honest. I’m just how it was. It was a huge team. Yeah. I was working underneath other GAs during the time when I was in my internship. And even when I was a GA, I was still working along with other ones for the bigger teams. And with cheerleading, you get like 50 or 60 sometimes.

Breaking those either into two different lift groups or just breaking them into how you want it to look throughout the program and based off of their position and stuff like that too. for flyers, bases and stuff like that, just distinguishing individuals, individualization of the program. was just a lot like coming into something like, all right, you guys were kind of like, it’s like the second guy and you would be like, yes, I’m coaching. Yes, I’m doing part of the programming and stuff like that. But now having a full head of 50 people that are all ranges of training, like experience too, like some of them, some of the guys.

Great, some the girls also fantastic, but some of them have never touched a weight in their entire life and you’re like, all right, how do I adapt to this? How do I get them to really like this program? Also the biggest thing for them is just like, they think it’s just skill. Like all they think is just like, hey, I’m only gonna work on my skill. That’s the only thing I need. I don’t really need to train outside of that. But then once you get them really trusting you and really getting like bought into your own program and how it’s gonna improve their performance out there and make them stronger and make them better, keep them healthy.

That was the biggest thing for me is just building the trust with them. I’m fully trusting, making sure that I’m doing this for a reason. Not just like, I’m not making you wake up early in the morning to go and lift for an hour and then go out to practice later on. Once that was instilled in their minds and they were like, wow, this is actually awesome for us. And they needed this, that’s where you build that. And then after that, that’s where, honestly, think that for especially interns and GAs is one of the best teams you can give to them. Just because it teaches them how to deal with such a big population. Because once they get down to teams like my field hockey team is only 20.

Like once I got like 20 and below, I’m like, oh, this is cheese. Like, this is so easy. Like I can do this. I can individualize. I’m one-on-one coaching lot better. Like the biggest thing is just like bouncing around, making sure everything’s done correctly, making sure that all your aspects of your program getting done the way that you want it to get done and make sure they’re doing correctly is like, it’s hard. And that’s where you might have other people you might want to bring interns on or GA’s with yourself just so you have more eyes on the floor. But just handling that, it was just by myself. So just handling that by myself and breaking them up and making sure they were getting everything they needed was, it was a big challenge.

Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly on the cheerleading piece. like I think back to my first ever sport was football, right? So we’re working with 50 guys in the room at a time. And then sometimes it’s 120 if everybody’s coming in. ⁓ And I specifically remember like one of my first ever mentors screaming at me because I wasn’t able to look at three racks at the same time. Right. Like, and he was like, you have to be able to do this. Like, this is a skill you have to acquire. And then obviously first ever full time team I have was cheerleading as well too, which I highly recommend.

For any GA starting out because again, it’s a group like you said that you have to develop buy-in You have to make sure they know there’s an importance behind what they’re doing and it’s still a large group We have to figure out a lot of stuff quickly Yeah, and then now finally down to basketball like, you know, we have everybody in it’s 15 This is awesome. I mean like some basketball guys will train like, you know one or two guys at a time Like I can’t do that. Yeah, know, like I need to have a couple things But it helps you develop this really wide skill set you’re able to see a lot of different perspectives of it, too. Absolutely

And then that’s where you met your fiance. did. I did get my fiance. Yep. So we’re getting married next April. Congratulations. I appreciate it. This guy’s a stud. I am. I try my best. She’s gonna be a lawyer though. So she’ll be making more than me. She’ll be the breadwinner. That’s exactly how it should be. Exactly. That’s how I told her I’ll everything clean up and all and everything made. Have dinner cooked for all of us. That’s gonna awesome. I’m gonna love it. You and the dogs. You and the dogs. All of us just chilling at home waiting for mom.

That’s awesome, dude. Okay. So you spoke of like two main mentors since you’ve been here Okay, so between coach glass and Robbie like war give me two lessons that you learned from each of them the top two lessons you learned so I think coach glass especially was more of just the regimen side of things like I can’t be showing up late you can’t be Dragging yourself into the weight room like they’re gonna look at you and that’s the respect level that they want from you So they want to make sure that you’re instilling like if I’m coming here

half awake, then I’m not going to be able to instill to them that like, okay, we want you fully ready to go. want you ready to take on the workout. We want you to be ⁓ getting food after getting food before stuff like that. So I think just building character within it with him was his as well. And then also with him was just giving me the lesson I learned was making sure that I kept my knowledge up really just because I was so fresh to this. So like making sure that I study different teams studied how their sports works.

I studied how their body patterns and everything were. So then when I went into programming, made it lot easier for me because he did a lot of it in the beginning where he was just like, here’s the program, study it, learn it, do it. Basically you didn’t really have to say anything, but then that’s where I’ll lead into Robbie. When I got to Robbie, he kind of just pushed me like into the water. He he really does. you learn. So like that was the biggest thing that I learned from Rob is just like, he just.

let you go at it. And then if he’s ever like, Hey, if you have a problem with the program, if you have anything that’s, you’re having problems with the coaches or anything like that, just come to me. And then he would help you give more guidance on top of that. But I couldn’t thank him enough before where I felt like I was just like learning under everyone that I had my own, like finally I had my own thing to do. Um, and then the last thing is just, I think with Robbie was just my overall training philosophy on how we get athletes stronger, how we actually improve their performance and how they just take care of themselves and make sure that they’re always staying healthy. There’s a

different style of programming with starting strength that just really hit to me. And I just think with how you look at it and how basically strength training is about horse production, like there’s just a lot around it. Yes, I do believe there’s important accessories. do injury prevention exercises, stuff with plyos, and then type of sprinting programs and endurance programs that go along with it. But I just think now my philosophy has changed a lot from that and just how starting strengths people, are, because I know we’ll talk about it but just how they overall just look at training as a whole. I think that’s.

That’s the biggest thing I’ve learned from him. Yeah. Yeah. And I’m glad you bring up starting strength because, know, I’m a big believer in their process. And like you said, there’s certainly a blend of what you need to do, but it’s a really good system, especially for novices who are first starting out. It’s pretty simple just to say, let’s just get stronger every session that we have. You know, but one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the podcast too, was to talk about kind of a staff outings, right? Or, you know, continue education groups as, you know, going along with your staff members. And so

the preface and I think the listeners remember this, like my first year hosting the podcast, I went down with Robbie to the starting strength seminar. And I think it was a very similar process when we went down this past year with you and James, ⁓ where, know, initially, like we’re always friends, always cordial, you know, especially me and Robbie to go down that first year. And then we spent three days together going through an airport, you know, you find out stuff about each other, right? Like, like, ⁓ you know, Robbie’s terrified of like being late for flights. And so

Like the funny story with that one is we’re going down, we go down and leading out of Boone where we live, it’s like three roads and two of them only go to the airport. And then one of them was completely shut down. And so we had to turn around and, know, it’s just funny to see somebody outside of the context of strain and conditioning all the time. And then you spend all this time together. And then like, it was the most I ever laughed up until you and James and I went this past year. And so like, I wanted to bring you on because I just think it’s an important lesson for the listeners of like.

Yes, there’s stuff you can do outside of the weight room and at your home location, but like being forced to travel with somebody for three days, like I think you can really bring out more sides of friendship and more sides of camaraderie than you could really think. Cause the same process with you, me and James, when we went down, like I always liked you guys, you we always got along and everything, but then we spent three days together and we, there’s a lot stronger bond there after that too. you know, how was your experience going down to the starting strength seminar? I personally thought it was awesome. Like except for the scare that we had. So.

We’ll tell the listeners about this too. All right. There’s actually a lot of funny stories. This is going be funny stories about the story. Yeah, this is going go on for a while. So I thought, so when Robbie, he ended up having a shoulder surgery. So he had to switch out with James and that’s when we let James come with us. And so he had to do a whole different boarding pads, whole different seating and all that kind of stuff. So I thought he was the only one having to do that. And Connor sent me his…

my ticket that I was supposed to register, do everything myself. But I thought Connor already did that for both of us because we already were part of a package. So was like, oh, it’s a package deal. It’s already got it handled. Everything’s good. So we get there super early, like you said, and I’m sure that from the last year, you were like, all right, let’s get there early. get everything situated. So we did. And we’ve been sitting there for like 30 minutes, 30, 40 minutes. And it’s only like 20 minutes till we’re getting on to the actual plane. And I go to look at the ticket thing. said, I don’t see my ticket, Connor. And he’s like,

Did you not download it and like do it yourself and register everything? I was like, oh shoot, no, I didn’t know I was supposed to do that. So then I go up to the front desk and I was like, hey, my bad. thought one of my other buddies did it for me as well. And she’s like, yeah, we can’t let you on this plane. And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, we can’t, we spent a lot of money on this. We can’t do this. So then I grabbed Connor, comes up with me and I’m like freaking out. Like I’m freaking out. We’re playing like good cop, bad cop, but like I was just freaking out.

We’ve tried like multiple times ladies like no no we can’t we can’t let you on you should have done it was like 30 minutes before you’re supposed to get like an hour before you check in when I check in so then I’m like oh my god I can’t believe everyone’s gonna leave I’m gonna tell Robbie like I didn’t make it because I was a dumbass and So then one other person came up she’s I got you don’t worry about it. We got it. It was so cool I was like how did we go from like absolutely not like there’s no way someone took my spot this early in

It was like weird we left like what six four years something yeah, yeah, I was like there’s no way someone took my spot and she’s like no no like I was like, alright cool. Thank God we get on We get there and the whole experience is leading up to it was great and then going through the actual Seminar with them like we talked about was just awesome We we I I didn’t know what to expect like you guys gave me so much from it last year and told me like they’re just they’re basically hard on you the whole time they’re like

They’ll joke here and there and they’ll kind of make fun of you. They’re just like, really, really tough. And so we get there and it’s just like the most laid back seminar I’ve ever probably been to. But I probably have learned out of all the seminars I’ve ever gone to, I’ve learned so much. And that’s the biggest thing. They do have so much information that they instill in you and you get to do it practically as well. Like I think that was the biggest part of it. Like you can go, and I’m not like, everyone has a USAW. Like I think I have my USAW and I think it’s a great certification, especially if you’re wanting to be a coach in the weightlifting world because that’s what I did.

a couple of my throwers, it was funny, Nate, ⁓ he also had his coaching certification and I had mine. So when we’d go compete, I would be his coach and then when I would compete, he’d be my coach. We’d go back and forth. if instances like that, I think it’s great. But it was probably the easiest thing I’ve ever done, probably one of the most expensive certifications. And I was like, I can’t believe some of the people in that class. was like, I don’t know how they’re getting certified to do this. Because it’s a lot of crossfitters, that’s the thing. They just want to get a certification underneath their belt. So if they want to do their own private coaching and stuff like that, that’s fine.

But ⁓ I just think there should be a higher standard and the standard for this certification is super high. So I respect that. I really am like, okay, now I get it what you guys are talking about. They’re like, if they step in one time, you’re gonna fail that lift. And if they’re helping you coach, you’re gonna fail that lift. So I know it’s honestly just continuous too. You don’t really have a time to breathe, other than when you go back and forth between the presentations and then going to actually do the lifts.

I was just like, wow. And like, I didn’t go into it. Like you, did the certification and I didn’t this year, but I’m going to go do it with you next year. But, um, I think the level of difference between me and you was very high. Like I was like coming back. I was like, dude, that was awesome. That was sick. I’m having a blast. And Connor’s just like, dude, I don’t know. don’t know. is miserable. Miserable. Miserable. Eating your blizzard. We’re at dairy.

I don’t know what the heck just happened. Well, so for context for the listeners too, Nick is a big guy and he’s specific. You gained what? 40 pounds? 50. 50. Nick’s gained 50 pounds, With full, full fledged on the starting strike system. I’ve never seen somebody do it this hard. Right? And you know, for a non-athlete, like a big piece of it is gaining as much weight as possible so that you can lift as much weight as possible. Yeah. I mean, moves mass.

So you go in, you’re up 50 pounds, right? And you’re lifting like crazy numbers and everything. yeah. And I’m just as low T as it gets, right? So like, I’m in there nervous about taking the test and everything and they love Nick. Like it was, I could only imagine, I don’t have a brother, but I could only imagine it would be like if you’re the younger brother and the older brother is like in the national otter society and like also.

captain of the football team and everything. And then you’re just like a guy who just exists on the side. Cause like they’d be like, Hey, I got Nick you’re with is really strong. I’m like, I know he’s really cool. Right. Like how about me? Yeah. But, to your point too, like it’s such a good certification and the way I’ve explained to people not within strength and conditioning, but I think it’s important to kind of, ⁓ admit this as well. The strength and conditioning coaches is like, it’s really, really hard. Yeah. ⁓ and, the people.

I think about my parents I’ve told about this or tests like my wife, like when we talk about these things are always like that seems unnecessarily hard. it’s just like, ultimately, like why would you not seek out those experiences? Like why would you not look to do something that makes you one nervous because it’s probably worthwhile, but then two, like it’s really difficult to actually pass. Like I failed my first time for the practical exam, go down, do the practical exam again. And it was still really difficult. I thought I didn’t pass again, pass the practical.

and then go to take the oral exam like what, four weeks later, six weeks later, everything it was. And like, I definitely failed that immediately as well too. But like, it’s, it’s, remember like Tess was like, how could you fail? You know, like, I know you studied so hard for this and everything. And it’s just like, I liked that. Like I didn’t like having something that’s extremely difficult to pass because it means that I’m doing something that’s worthwhile. And it’s not just a superficial knowledge of like.

Okay, well, you know, the low bar back squat is better for your knees in this specific scenario because of X, Y, and Z in this anatomy. It’s like, no, no, how would you explain that? It’s like a five year old. Yeah. You know, and then then you have to actually know these things to be able to break it down. So I really liked that experience. I think it’s really good. So it didn’t necessarily have to be the starting strength ⁓ certification itself, but I do think that strength coaches should seek out things that are really difficult to do, especially later on in your career. Cause like you talked about when you first started out as an intern, it’s like,

very easy, right? It’s like, or it’s very difficult, you know, when you first start out, like, you know, there’s a lot of stuff that makes you question if you want to be a coach or not, or if you have the knowledge base to be a strength coach or not. And then how many times does strength coaches really expose themselves to something like that past the first one, two, three years, right? And so going into my seventh or eighth year, I don’t even know at this point, like going through that process again, like I loved it because I felt like an intern again. I felt like I knew nothing. And then we had to go through the whole process again too.

Um, and you’re going to go down and you’re going to try to certify this upcoming spring. That’s awesome. We’re to get it. Yeah. Um, and I’ve got to explain this story as well too. So James Marshack was a former guest on the show actually about a year and a half ago, I think at this point. And so James is like, he’s a skinnier guy, right? But he put on what? 20 pounds. Yeah. Yeah. James gained some weight. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And he definitely got a lot stronger and everything, but he’s a goofy. You want to talk about goofy dudes like he’s a goofy dude. And so like,

you this process is very difficult, right? And like part of what makes it fun is like, they rip you apart if you ask questions, like they just totally destroy you. And so then at the end you have to ask a question. like you can’t, they literally go like one by one. They’re like, Nick, James, Robbie, yeah, two hours straight. And so some people ask you terrible questions. Like, bro, please don’t ever ask me again. And so then they get to me, I don’t even remember. I think I asked like,

you know, cause they’re not big proponents of technology and everything. And I was like, would you ever want to do research with it to prove that your system will be better than other systems that you’ve seen? And they’re basically said, no. then they get to James and James goes to ask his question. I like was told James, was like, dude, keep it low key. Like just get out of here. Right. Cause it’s the last thing that we do. And so then James goes to ask this question. He’s like, so I tore my tricep.

I heard about bench press. He was like, he’s like, my bench press delays and everything. And I really struggled to push through that. You know, like what’s some advice that you have and coach that certified them for bench press was like, cause your technique sucks. And then I was like, all right, dude, just wrap it up there. Like it’s over. worry about it. And of course he doesn’t leave it. And he’s like, well, I tore my tricep a couple, you know, years ago.

And like, think that’s part of the problem and everything. So then they make, they go, well, first of all, they go, who, who told you to tour your triceps? after we got like through it. We talked about how like the exercise science. Yes. so he goes, who, uh, who told you that you tore your triceps? He’s like, you know, a couple of my buddies and I’m just like, no, it’s not like literally you can’t grab the shovel out of this guy’s hands. And so then he goes, well, I’ll call my buddies like,

who your buddies, know, like, well, like exercise science students and everything. They go, my God. All right, well, stand up and flex for us. And I forgot which one he tore at this point, which arm it was right arm and left arm. And so he goes stands up and he shows off his right arm, you know, and then like really proud. He stands up. And if you’re watching on YouTube, you can see like he stands up. He’s like, ⁓ right. And they’re like,

Okay, looks looks pretty good, you know, and they go he goes to his left one. He goes to flex again. He kind of, flexes it like it’s like, huh, right? So you can see his torn. Yeah, yeah, that one looks pretty good. Yeah. Also normal. guess like they both look exactly alike. Exactly like they’re like, so I don’t think you your triceps. And I think your technique sucks on bench press. It was the most weird. It’s like, yeah, I look at it. I’m like, dude, stop, please.

And so it was just a silent ride home up until he tried to say that he was six feet tall. Oh yeah. And I was like, bro, no shot. We literally stopped in the side of the road and probably wasn’t six feet tall. But again, like to me, like the there’s two lessons learned with the starting strike stuff, which is one is ultimately you should do things that are really difficult and challenge you to be a better coach and not just in your internship experience. You should continue to do these things. And it makes me think back to one of the mentors I had who was he was a professor I had, but he was a straight CSCS, AT

PT and was getting his CMPC for sports psych as well too. Like he was just like a forever learner and always wanted to do these things. Yeah. And I think it’s cool because it just exposes you to all these different areas, but all those things are really difficult to get. And so ultimately like you should continue to do difficult things. But then too, like I felt it was just a really good experience to bond with the rest of the staff and just, you know, be able to get to know each other better as well. Yeah. A hundred percent. I agree with that. Like you said, like when we came back, I was like, Oh dude.

What are you doing? Like, what are you doing this weekend? You know, we’re like, yeah, we want to go train together again. Like it just felt like we were different and it was awesome. So yeah, definitely builds a relationship. It’s all works. I’m excited to go back again. Hopefully we can get James. There’s a dude who fell asleep like four times during the day. We’re like, oh gosh. And like between the lit, we were power cleaning. Yeah, we were power cleaning. sat down.

Neck Or he’s like this he’s doing this yeah, look like me an AP chemistry I remember when they came back and there was like yeah But yeah, it’s also experience I couldn’t recommend enough and for the listeners I couldn’t recommend

enough finding something that’s going to continue to challenge you and force you to be better. So, okay, so now we’re going into your second year full-time strength and conditioning. And obviously working with a little bit of different teams as well too, like going into your second year, what are the things that you’re looking to improve? What are your goals for the second year? Yeah. So just building the new relationships, I think with the coaches, the ATs, the PT’s, making sure that I have that now building that new trust with them. Because once I worked with my old teams, like field hockey, we live and die by it.

They think I’m the best that’s been for past four five years with them. So they always thank me and stuff like that. we have such a good bond and me and their AT, their previous AT as well also had a fantastic relationship. I just think collaboration and building a new relationship, especially with the new teams. And then also just understanding the sports like fully. Like I want to go to the practices. I want to go to their matches. I want to go do things with them, specifically get on the field and do their practices with them just to see how their bodies move, how the sport moves. So whenever it will reflect my programming on them as well, making sure that they’re.

improving their performance, but staying healthy too. There’s certain things I probably can’t do with one team that I can’t do with the other, just making sure that I’m just building my ideology between both of them and just knowing the types of specifics that I need for each of sports. Yeah. And you’ve had a lot of success with field hockey. Yeah. So two regular season championship rings. Yeah. So hopefully we’ll go back for a third this year. That’s awesome. Yeah. We’ve been doing really good with the recruiting. So I’m excited for the new people that are coming in for us as well.

And so what do you attribute that success to when you look at the field hockey team, you look at the program, what do you think allows them to be successful? So I had no clue about how field hockey even works. Like when I first got there and I went to it, and it was one of the funny things I’ll go on that, is I thought the ball itself was like a harder, like a little bit harder than a lacrosse ball. So I thought it still was like a little rubbery. They smacked one to the sideline where I was standing with the AT and I played baseball, so I just go to like and field it.

I feel this thing and I thought it shattered my And then I like just nonchalantly just go, and I turn around like, that hurt so bad. So then I was like, all right, so this is totally different than I thought. once I go into it, just basically what I like to do, especially for like an endurance sport, I sat there actually with a time watch and I sat there with a clipboard and I was like, all right, so how long does it take for them to get to this point of the field? And I just, the biggest thing that I was concerned when I first got with them was just building my conditioning programs because I’d never done.

Cheer, really didn’t have to do anything with that. like with Coach Glass, really worked with, I actually did field hockey early on with him, but he did all of it. So I just based off all the agility plans that he did. We did 300s and stuff, so it wasn’t like super long endurance training, but they didn’t really like, they liked it, but they wanted more. ⁓ And then I worked with volleyball and then I worked with ⁓ wrestling and actually the baseball team with the GAs and stuff, but they did all the programming. I kind of just got it here and there and stuff like that. So I just wanted to build my own type.

And that’s where I just dove in and actually went to the Duke Performance Clinic this past year. And I think it was in January. And they had a lot of stuff because I had to work with Kinect on front of my technologies that I use. And it’s a GPS system, people don’t know, it’s a GPS system that tracks like basically the total load of their distance, their top speeds, change of direction. And then I’m trying to think of all the stuff I specifically look at, but just making sure that I’m like managing their overall training load.

in practice and in game. I’m trying to build right now an athlete management system for them. I’ll be on a Google sheets or an Excel basically that tracks all the players to see how much they’re doing during the week and then how much they’re going to do on the weekend. And this past year I was able to run it for the full year. So I got to see what the end season looked like. And I got to see what the off season looked like in terms of practice and the coaches love it because if we do like say for the, ⁓ the players that are doing more subbing and not getting in as much, ⁓ just making sure we’re doing top off running at the end of practice. So stuff like that, that I’m just not.

destroying them at the end of practice because they practice for two, two and a half hours as well. So I don’t want to be like, all right, you’re already getting, let’s say three, four miles within practice. Like how much do I actually need to do for the top off running? That’s just going to simulate what you would have done in the game. So I just think building those systems. And I think just how I’ve worked with them, especially to just like fully like breaking down the program to them. think they respect that the best we do weekly meetings. I think the biggest thing you can do with your coaches have weekly meetings with them. Always keep them in the loop and never try to do anything underneath their nose that they don’t know about.

So just making sure everything’s out in front keeping it fully transparent with them And if you don’t agree with them just tell them why you don’t agree like that’s the thing like you don’t have to just forgot it Be like, okay. Okay. Okay. I’m taking it off I think it is very important for strength I just put the foot down sometimes because we go to school for this we get certifications for this We know we’re talking about and we’re specialists with them So like if I can tell them and convince them and be like, hey, this is why I think this seems to be in the program This is why I think it’s gonna better your athletes. They’re gonna be on boards that now they have a slightly different philosophy towards it Yeah, we can work around that like I can

And I can make sure that it does what I want it does what you want and now we get both the best of both worlds and now they’re gonna be better once they get back on the field and then I also we have a 30 15 run test and I think this is where I pride myself on yeah for the past Two years. Yeah, two and a half ish when I worked with a little bit with the GA They’ve completely passed there. It’s coming from summer. hadn’t seen them in months And then we do one in the summer that will decide if they play they can do it again after if they fail but we had to do it like

that one time was GAing with them. think some people had to run it like three or four times just to be able to play. That’s the thing. You don’t pass it, you can’t play. So that’s like an immediate thing that like coaches on like, hey, they have to pass their 30-15. And she was like headstrong on it. I was like, all right, well, there’s one focus that I need to be in my first priority on this team is to make sure that they’re fully conditioned, they’re ready to go on, they’re ready to tackle their sport. Because that’s the thing. I don’t want to just become a thing where we have to just focus on this test just for you to go play. Like you need to play it too. Like you need to do your skills. You need to do your practice. Like this shouldn’t be just on top of that another stressor.

for those athletes to worry about. So I went deep, deep, deep into research. I went on a bunch of articles. I went over a lot of the stuff where I learned at that Duke Performance Clinic, especially this past year, just to tweak a couple things that I was, they said I was doing really well with the management system and everything that was already tracking within it for the GPSs, but just making sure that I provided them a great summer packet program and making sure that they stayed conditioned. Because when we get back, there’s only like two, three weeks before we’re like right into season.

and we’re going and going. That’s where she’s like, if we gotta run it three or four times with someone, they might be running it middle of their season. We can’t be doing that. We need subs. That’s the thing about that I didn’t realize with field hockey. Ice hockey, yeah, they sub and stuff, but you can stay on, typically they’ll stay on a little bit longer. ⁓ Same with soccer, soccer doesn’t sub as much. We sub frequently. The thing is, could be when you’re subbing too, is you’re like freaking 50 yards to run over to a next person. You gotta account just for that.

So just to get out and then rest for only whatever, two minutes before you go back in, you’re on a dead sprint just to get out for a sub. So that’s where I was just trying to make sure I’m tracking total distance is I’m like, if these two are bouncing off each other, subbing back and forth, I’m watching their game and I’m like, okay, they ran a little bit in the game, but then like no one thinks about how much they were actually running back and forth between themselves in terms of their total load on their body when they were doing that, just to sub out so they could play with each other. So I think that was a big, big contributors making sure this past two years, everyone’s passed the 30 15.

that have been with them every single year. So making sure that they are getting what they need in their program. And that’s the thing too, we have a lot of internationals and that’s what I’m always scared about. If you ever work with internationals, you have to stay on top of them. If you do not stay on top of them, they will never listen to you. They will not care. They will just basically show up because when they’re like, at least from what I’ve heard from the ones that I’ve worked with is that they basically go home and they do it. They don’t do a lot of strength training. and we have a lot of Netherlands, Germany. We had some Belgians.

And then we had a couple of them from Spain and like what they’ll do, they might do some small stuff and it’s more body weight focus, more circuit focus, more band focus, stuff like that. But that’s why they come here. And then the biggest thing also that you have to think about with your international athletes is that the food’s a lot different here. And what I struggle with with them were like what I’ve had to had multiple meetings with the AT or their head coaches and stuff, just making sure they’re staying fully nourished and in America at least, because when they come here.

They’re not used to our food at all and they don’t really like our food and it’s hard to replicate what they have back there since there’s no preservatives. It’s normally a lot more fresh and stuff and their recipes are not usually made by them. They’re usually like a big family thing. They’re normally it’s like they come home, they have like 10 people ready to eat and they’re a blast together and have great food and stuff like that from their mom, dad, siblings, parents, whoever’s making the dinner and stuff. So they don’t have that here and they’re usually freshmen. So then they’re like in the dorms by themselves. They’re like, I have no clue what to do. I can’t cook for myself. I can’t go out and get something that I like.

So they’ll usually lose a lot of weight in the beginning. Yeah, vitamin deficiencies and everything. Yeah, lot of nutritional deficiencies. So just making sure you stay on top of them with that. That’s where I was talking about with the base of the biome and the trust. Like if I can buy their trust and get them really into it and like, okay, maybe I’m not going to have them do a low bar back squat for them. But if they can train in efficient way, that’s going to keep them healthy over this time that they’re here with me. That’s like my overall goal. Making sure they’re staying healthy and improving their performance and making sure that they’re

able to still do what they would do at home because they usually go home, play club, do all that kind of stuff and they’ll come back. So usually they’ll stay good for the conditioning aspect. Then I’m not usually worried about that over the summer, but then they usually just drop lifting and then they come back and what will happen, especially for the new ones, stress fractures, the stress reaction, stuff like that happens so frequently with internationals because they’re not giving their body enough nutrition. So they’re lacking in that. And then they’ve never done any type of strength training.

They’re just basically falling apart. ⁓ just making sure I stay on top of that. And I think that’s what I did with the past two years with the internationals. I got them all to buy in. They’ve been fantastic in the training programs. They’ve really bought into my conditioning, bought into my strength training stuff. So I think that the coach recognized that and it was just like, this is awesome. Like I’ve never seen, they come in, they come in in the mornings, they usually rotate. So there’s three coaches on the team. They’ll each, like one coach will come Monday and Wednesday and another coach will come Tuesday and Thursday or like whatever our schedule is for that day. And they’ll rotate through the head coach and the assistant coaches coming through.

And they’re always like, wow, look at her. She’s like doing so well. And I’m just so happy to hear that because at first it’s like, sometimes they’re just like, and I don’t want to say like in the past, what I saw as an intern, sometimes coaches just are like, I don’t want to deal with that. They just kind of leave them like in their own little corner. They did. They don’t care as much as they would for the ones that are obviously starting and stuff like that. And they’re like, okay, I don’t have a language barrier with them or something like that as well.

and they just kind of lose their level of care with me. I’m like, these are like my number one. I’m having all in one area and I’m watching that area for like the least like 60 or 70 % of the time. Cause I know my other ones that are obviously upperclassmen stuff like that. They know the program. That’s the biggest thing I instill with that within the athletes as well is like, Hey, keep an eye on them. Like make sure they’re doing their work. Make sure they’re, you’re holding them accountable to, because if they want to be in the position that you are by the time they get to your position as a junior and senior, then they got to do the same thing you did as well.

So if they are just gonna do their own thing, do kind of slack off and all like that, you’ve seen it, I’ve seen it. It’s just like, they’re not gonna get to that level. And they’re not gonna have the respect from the other players. I think that’s the biggest thing too. If you wanna get to the captain spot, like you can’t just like nonchalantly work your way there. You can be the best player on the team. I don’t give a damn. You be the best player on the team, but if you don’t care and you don’t show the level of care that the rest of them are doing and they got themselves by there by working hard, then that’s instance is never gonna happen. That is a lot more. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

It’s interesting because we almost see when you work with female athletes in the internationals, I see that a lot. Now, when we work with male athletes in the international, you almost see the exact opposite. Yeah, right. I never worked with them. Yeah, because like we get guys come in sometimes like we had an athlete come in from Switzerland and I was like, Okay, what’s your favorite food to eat from Switzerland? Right. And he’s like, I can’t remember the name of it. But he was like, basically, it’s just

meat and you melt a bunch of cheese over it. I like, sounds awesome. Sounds awesome. That’s a problem. That’s your favorite food. We got a lot of that over here. they get to these dining halls and it’s like, so you mean I can get a full pizza for free. This is not a problem. So it’s almost funny because it’s almost the opposite side of things where you get too into the kind of fast food culture that we have over here. So it’s very different.

But I love the points that you bring up with field hockey. There’s a lot of things that go into the success and obviously the coaching is a huge piece of it. And then to have you as a training coach are so invested, it makes a big difference and it makes it way more fun. It actually does. When you can buy into this stuff and we can be with the team for multiple years in a row, it’s really, really fun. Yeah, they suited me up.

I out there just like, Oh, take it. I was like, all right, guys, if you had any problem with me this year, go ahead and take it out. Take it out right now. is the only time I’m letting you. Dude, those field hockey balls are good. I’ll you, dude, even with the gear on, they’ll hit you. Yeah. Cause I saw somebody get smoked in the face one time and that was not okay. Like I was like, you need medical attention. Oh yeah, it’s scary. Yeah, it’s definitely. And it’s like the swinging and everything too. Like when they get close, especially within the 25 and they get in that inner circle. Yeah.

Oh my gosh, like you’ll just see some people like because they can do like some backhand shots and stuff like that. Yeah. And they’re not even looking sometimes they’re just ready to because the biggest thing with that is just getting as close to the goal as you can because you want to kind of ricochet it kind of like how hockey is and everything. But when they do that, I’m like, I’m like waiting. like for people, I’m like telling people to get out, like don’t get hit in the face by a stick. Like it’s crazy. Or bro, like a penalty shot. Oh yeah. Like when they all line up behind the goal, they all have to gear up. It’s insane. dude. They got hand gear on, face gear, everything.

It’s an intense sport. love it though. And like you said, you guys have seen a ton of success being regular season champions back to back is huge. And it’s very cool. And that’s one of the things I like about App State too is we’ve got some unique sports that we’re really good at. yeah, for sure. Like wrestling is what been SoCal champions with like every single year for the past 8,000 years, you know, at this point. And then cross country, winning the Sunbelt too, like the Olympic sports here are really cool. And I think they’re really fun to work with. I agree with that. I don’t think I would ever really want to.

No, Football, it takes a very specific type of person. Yeah, it’s a different breed. Like I said, like to, obviously I want to have the respect for my athletes. I’ll yell on them, yell and stuff like that. But I just don’t think you can have that different kind of bond with them as well. I think football is like you get in there and you scream at them. When you get after them and stuff like that, no respect, you know, I’ll have fun with them sometimes. I just think with this and like you said, working with so many different teams, you get to just build different relations.

Yeah, for sure. You get to see the different type of people they are as well. Like that’s why I like the internationals. Like I hear things, I learn things from them and I’m like, oh, that’s cool. Like I didn’t know you guys did that. Like most of my internationals, I mean, obviously they don’t have cars here and stuff like that. You got to live a certain amount of years, but they just walk and bike everywhere. And like I’ll see them like just biking or walking around here I’m like, do you ever want to get like invest in a car or something? And like, no, like this is what it is like to back at home. And I’m like, no wonder they’re so good. No wonder I don’t worry about their condition. It’s because they’re literally probably walking five, 10 miles just to get home. And I’m like, this is…

But I think you bring up a good point about football. It works the most for former football players. Cause it’s of the culture too. Like I remember for recruiting visit, like the same mentor I mentioned who was talking to me about coaching three reacts at the same time. He told me when I first started off, like, you know, I only hire former football players and he was a hundred percent correct. Cause the job came open. thought I was going to get it. Nope. I played high school football, but he collegiate. And so we did a recruiting visit one time and, he was like going through, he was like, this is Byron Jericho.

former ⁓ Chargers player, right? And then AJ artist and then I go through all these guys and he goes and we’ve got Connor fullback at Colgate University. And then it was like, right, man. He’s like, only hire football players. Yeah. And then literally after that recruiting visit, somebody came up to me and was like, dude, Colgate. remember, I remember it Colgate. Like, you know, do know my brother? And I was like, dude, he’s the man. yeah. Okay. So my final question.

Yeah. Is what are you sitting at right now? Body weight? 245. Are you getting to 250? Yeah. If I can, if I can get the 260, want to so bad. But my fiance is like, I think she hasn’t, I mean, she loves it. She loves like, I’m more like a teddy bear now. She’s like, you’re not like, I mean, I’m not gonna lie. When I did the crossfit and stuff, I was shredded. Like I had this washboard and all that kind of stuff. And I was just like, I was like this hard, like my body was just so hard. And now I’m just like a teddy bear. I’m all fluffed up.

So she really likes it. And I just think on the, what I need to get into more, just like doing it in a healthier way. Like I obviously gained 15 pounds in three months, not a very healthy way of doing it, but I did it and I’m strong. I’m healthy. Like now, like overall in the weight training side of things, but that’s where I like recently, just the past three weeks, I do two stadiums every single day. And then that’s what I’m going to do right after this. And then I’ll do like tempos on the field and I do sprint work too. did a men’s softball league this past summer too. So it’s like, I am trying to get my little bit of cardio aspect. She’s like, as long as you stay.

making sure your heart and everything is good. It was actually, we went back for Father’s Day and there’s a local ice cream shop that’s downtown. I’m in Birkenstock shorts and t-shirt and we’re walking downtown. It’s like not even half a mile yet and I’m fighting for my life. I’m like pouring sweat. I’m like breathing hard. like, I can’t believe I’m this bad. Like this is horrible. And it was just so funny because I went so far on inspection before when I was doing CrossFit. I was running five miles, five days a week. I was doing ⁓

rucksacks. I was doing rucks on the weekend. was doing anywhere between five and 12 miles on the weekend, finding places up here in Boone, going on really hard. the knob, I did a knob like 10, 10 times before that. And then we did like Murph, my buddy, buddy is he’s actually in the nursing core now in the army. But we did the Murph every two weeks though, an entire summer. So it’s like going from that spectrum. And I think she saw that early on obviously. And she’s just like, you were just like so fit. like you, cause that’s her type of training. She likes to run and she likes to do circuit stuff. She likes to do like kettlebell.

all that kind of thing, more cross-fit-ish. And once I got into this, she’s just like, all right, well, you can do that. You can gain the weight. And also I think for her is just like, with a purpose. Like if I signed up for a powerlifting right now, she’d be like, this is totally okay. Like it’s fine. Like you need to be heavier so that you can lift more weight when you go to the powerlifting. And I’m like, that it? I’m like, dude, I just need to go sign up for like one meet every like four months or something. I’ll be fine. Yeah. And then we’re locked in. So, ⁓ no, I just think of it as, and the people that are trying to gain weight, yes, you can do it for so long.

I mean, it’s just for longevity of it. I just noticed things that just wasn’t as good as myself. I just want to make sure that I’m obviously I don’t want to croak over a seven years old. You know what I’m saying? It’s like I want to be longevity, like especially when we started to look to have kids and stuff like that settle down and everything. I just want to make sure that I’m not just going to be some like Debbie by the time I’m 50 and I’m just overweight. And stuff hurts a lot. I was about to say walking upstairs and everything. I started the stadiums. was like, oh my God. My heaviest at 285.

I would stand up and I wasn’t strong. I would just stand up my knees just from not moving for 30 minutes. I’m like, bro, I got to oil these puppies up. And that’s where another thing for all listeners is that when you’re a coach, you’re on your feet probably at least seven hours, six, seven hours a day. So when you get about 20 to 30,000 steps a day as well. like you don’t, don’t want to be carrying around 260 pounds unfit and just being like, this sucks. Like, this is like my.

My sciatic’s starting to light up, my back’s lightening up, my knees hurt, my ankles, my feet hurt, developed plantar backchieitis. And I’m 24. I’m 25 years old, bro. Like, what the heck? I’m fighting for my life. So I think, yeah, just doing it in a good regimen. I mean, you got a dirty bulging sometimes. I got to my goal. went to that meet and like I said, we went to the seminar and they were like, these guys are These guys are beasts. And I was like, this is all I wanted because they tell you there, if you’re less than 200 pounds, you’re less of a man. Yeah, exactly.

I was like, you know, I’m going to take it to the extreme and actually get 40 pounds. So you did it and it worked. Yeah. Lifts is great. So, all right. So we’re to have you back on the podcast. You’ll be 300. Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. going keep pushing the limit until I can’t. It’s a minor heart attack. Yeah. might just be like, right, keep working. ticking. Well, thank you so much for coming on the Yeah. I appreciate you. Seriously. For your Instagram.

What would be a good way for listeners to follow you? It’s Endacosta02, I believe. I think so. Let’s pull it up. It’s the beauty of doing a live episode. We can pull it up right now. Let me just look at that. I don’t ever actually look at my own chain. Yeah, Endacosta02. Endacosta02. D-A-C-O-S-T-A-2. M-S-C-S-C-S-U-S-A-W. Evil 1, baby. Well, I appreciate you, man. Thank you so much. great to see you guys. Yeah.