S02-E214 Being Yourself as a Coach with Zach Hicks

 

S02|E214

Being Yourself as a Coach with Zach Hicks | Samson Strength Coach Collective

 

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One thing I’m curious about is how has your experience in theater ⁓ helped you as a strength coach? Honestly, more than you would think. ⁓ So obviously I did a lot of acting, you know, kind of growing up.

and part of it is, you know, baking it till you make it. feel like I’ve usually been pretty good at that throughout my life. but you know, the big thing is just, ⁓ teaches you how to get out of your comfort zone. I don’t know if anyone listening has been able to, you know, be out on a stage or like singing and dancing in front of people, but you know, it’s, not comfortable at all. So, ⁓ yeah, being able to get put out of your comfort zone and still be able to handle that.

What’s going on Sampson strength coach collective listeners on today’s episode. This is like the first live episode I’ve ever done. We’ve actually got Zach Hicks right here to my right. Uh, just two beefy guys sitting next to each other in a hot office. are currently in the middle of the Eastern seaboard.

⁓ Heat wave. We just finished up a conditioning session in our practice gym. both sweating, but we wanted to make sure that we had a quality podcast for you listeners. So ⁓ I’m very excited. Zach Hicks is, let me introduce him, right? That’d be more appropriate. Zach Hicks is our GA, but he is really the head women’s basketball strength coach and men’s golf strength coach. Zach and I initially met what a year and a half ago at this point. Yeah. Yeah. February.

February. Yeah, yeah, so close enough year and a half, right? ⁓ He interned for me ⁓ and was working with all the teams and then you know ended up coming in. One of the things I really loved about Zach was he was willing to come in for 6 a.m. women’s golf when he wasn’t getting paid. Always is the straight conditioning tradition is to love the guys who don’t get paid and work hard. And then we were really fortunate to be able to hire Zach on ⁓ finished up his first year with women’s basketball his past year and.

And now we’re here sitting knee to knee in my office. So Zach, thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for coming on, man. Of course. Honestly, thanks for having me. Thanks for like thinking about me whenever you were figuring out guys on your podcast. It’s honestly an honor. So I’m glad to be here. And we know each other well. We’re about to know each other even better after this episode. Exactly. All right, man. Break it down for us. Give us a background of your whole history, high school sports, strength and conditioning, everything that what led you to your current position as a G.A.

Got you. Okay. So first off, yeah, my name is Zach Hicks. I’m from a small town called Yadkin County. I don’t know if any listeners are going to know what that is. Shout out Yadkinville. Shout out YC. But so I’m from there. I went to a real small high school. I like to tell people that I was, you know, kind of had a hand in a lot of little pots. You know, I feel like I’ve been able to put myself in a lot of different social situations. So I started off, you know, kind of thinking like trade school. I was doing

uh, you know, automotive stuff, welding classes, any kind of stuff like that. Uh, I played football in high school. That’s when I really started getting into lifting. Uh, that was kind of the start of it all. Um, then I really got into, uh, believe it or not, got into musical theater. Uh, so I choir musical theater. did that for a while, honestly. And, uh, there was also another sport I did in high school. It was called hunter safety. I don’t know if anyone else has heard of that, but it’s just, uh, get together, uh,

shooting archery, rifle, shotgun, learning, like gun safety, stuff like that. So that was pretty much what I was doing in high school, which is a lot of different things. ⁓ Decided to come to App State just because it was close. I knew the school well. And ⁓ the thing that got me was I started my exercise science program, kind of thinking. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do yet. ⁓ But long story short, ⁓ ended up on this internship.

⁓ Emailed a few guys. Connor was the first one to give back to me. He got back to me within like five minutes, honestly. It was crazy. It’s shocking. It’s a world record for me. I’m usually not that good. It was meant to be. Did not expect to hear back within the next two days or more. So Connor got back to me. He said, hey, come have a meeting with me. So showed up. ⁓ He brought me on as an intern. ⁓ Kind of started learning what the field was going to be like and then, you know, did well enough.

I guess, to where he offered me this GA position. And you know, the rest is history coming on my second year as a strength coach for App State Women’s Basketball. What a studly backstory. I love it. And I already know all these things, right? So it’s exciting for me and for the listeners to get exposed to what your background is. One thing I’m curious about is how has your experience in theater ⁓ helped you as a strength coach? Honestly, more than you would think. ⁓ So obviously I did a lot of acting, you know, kind of growing up.

and part of it is, you know, baking it till you make it. feel like I’ve usually been pretty good at that throughout my life. but you know, the big thing is just, ⁓ teaches you how to get out of your comfort zone. I don’t know if anyone listening has been able to, you know, be out on a stage or like singing and dancing in front of people, but you know, it’s, not comfortable at all. So, ⁓ yeah, being able to get put out of your comfort zone and still be able to handle that. ⁓ that’s one big thing that has taught me. And then the other thing is just, you know, how to talk to people.

⁓ I try to be a really personable guy with whoever I’m talking to. But yeah, I’d say those are the two main things. Just like more of the social skills, social cues that I learned through theater coming into strength conditioning. That’s huge. mean, seriously. Okay. Do you think your experience in theater helped you be less nervous on your first day running your first career?

A little bit. mean, it’s a whole different set of nerves. ⁓ I mean, probably a little bit just because it’d be like, okay, even if I don’t know 100 % what I’m doing, which I didn’t, know, I at least trust myself to not show it as much. yeah, I think so. I think it helps out a That’s great. I would claim it would help as well. Yeah. Okay. And I think it’s interesting just because it’s like, you know, people might have stipulations about strength conditioning, but really you can come from any background.

and still be a successful strength coach, still come in and do some really good work. Yeah, absolutely. So, okay, so then let’s talk about the exercise science piece of it. What drew you to exercise science? What excited you about it? Why did you choose that as your degree? So yeah, like I was saying, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. Honestly, at first, I thought I was going to get into banking. Looking back on that. Which way your mom does, right? Yeah, my mom and my sister both are into banking. And just looking back on that, it’s like, there’s no way I could be doing that right now.

I knew, looking back on high school going into college, knew, I didn’t know what I liked, but I knew what, sorry, I didn’t know what I, I knew what I liked to do. There go, there you go. And that was lift, know, I fell in love with lifting weights when I was doing high school football. So I was like, okay, I like to lift. What kind of major pertains to that? And that was exercise science, right? So, um, joined the exercise science program, honestly thinking I was going to go down the physical therapy road.

which I think a lot of people that do exercise science, they kind of lean towards that. I thought that throughout my whole undergrad pretty much. eventually one of my last summers, ⁓ I did a physical therapy internship at Hugh Chatham Hospital in Elkin, North Carolina. And so I did some physical therapy stuff there, got to look at inpatient facilities, outpatient facilities, and the home health side of stuff. ⁓ Got like over 200 hours over the summer.

Honestly, one of the biggest grinds of a summer ever had. was working 40 hours a week at the hospital, no pay, nothing like that. And then I would, I worked at Chick-fil-A actually for like five years. Crazy. ⁓ I would go from the hospital working 40 hours to Chick-fil-A where I was still working like another 30 hours. So that was a big grind of a summer, but you know, the internship was good. I really liked it. Honestly, the people were awesome. ⁓ And physical therapy is a great thing to get into. It’s really rewarding.

⁓ you know, we need that from a lot of people, but, know, I just threw the internship, found out that wasn’t for me. Right. And, know, because I liked lifting weights, strength conditioning was always one of those things that was like way in the back of my mind. So once PT, I kind of figured out, I didn’t want to do that. I’m like, okay, well, what about the strength conditioning thing? ⁓ so what ended up happening was I had a class where, one of the strength coaches at app state, he was helping out and he said, Hey, if anyone wants to get involved in this,

Let me know so I mean that’s pretty much what I did went so up to him right after the class said hey I just want to get involved with any teams that I can for strength conditioning and So he got me in touch with Connor and some other stream coaches and like I said earlier Connor was first one to get back to me So now we’re they were linked together forever. You have no choice. It’s unfortunate for you. I

So walk me through like the first two weeks, okay, starting your internship, you know, and I feel like everybody kind of has a general opinion when they first start out, like, this is what the career is going to be, you know, what were your first thoughts of strength and conditioning after your first two weeks? So first thing that got me was our first meeting, right? So I walked in and you know, it’s a little bit dark in the room like it is now. And he just he just kind of laid it out to me. You’re like, okay, this is

what this takes. Like this is what I need from you. If you can’t do this, don’t do it. And it’s like, I mean, it was a nice little introduction to just like, you got to be serious about this. And if you’re not, honestly, leave. So coming into that, you know, I started thinking, I was like, okay, man, everybody’s like, for conditioning, you to be a hard ass to do this. So that was honestly one of my main thoughts coming into it.

Also, with the first two weeks, you talked about the women’s golf lifts a little bit, but you know, those super early, super early lifts. was like, my gosh, this is so early. I wasn’t used to getting up at that time, you know. So that was one of the first thoughts. And then honestly, another one of the things that I don’t know if I’ve talked about a little bit with you, but it’s just like not knowing if I was really going to fit in with the athletes. Because again, I have been with a lot of different like social groups throughout my life, but

being in with collegiate athletes was never something people that I’ve really talked to before. So that was just another thought. was like, okay, how am gonna fit in with the athletes? Because I knew that was gonna be important. So, build relationships with everybody. yeah, those first two weeks, was just the, a lot of questions. Looking at myself, it’s like, okay, am I really gonna be built for this or not? Yeah, well, I remember, again, I mentioned it in the intro, but I remember,

I always give interns the option to come in for women’s golf or not. And I tell them it’s not mandatory. ⁓ And you now know it’s a test, just to see if people are gonna be interested or not. And it’s not everything I base it off of. But if you’re somebody who’s willing to come in early, and I mean, and the story behind this too is like, there’s no parking at AppState. And so you would either have to take the bus or figure it out. like,

I ended up picking up Zach what every day at like 530. Yeah. I was like more before that. Yeah. Five 15. I’m pretty sure sometimes we were getting in here at like five 20. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So then I must’ve been picking up five 10. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and you know, it was just one of those things where I was like, all right, this guy is serious about this. He’s interested in doing it. Um, you know, and, and that’s actually, I, you’re one of the first interns. I took a different approach to speaking, uh, with them about what the experience is like, you know, and I don’t know.

I’ve we’ve maybe talked talked about this a couple times. But like, I used to kind of like try to pull interns in and get them excited about the career. And I would find out very quickly that ⁓ they hated it, right. And it was not for them. ⁓ And I was almost in like a recruiter’s mindset. And then, you know, I think maybe I had one different conversation with another intern first, but then you were the first one who I sat down was really like, Hey, man, a lot of this sucks. You have to like, you know, you have to understand that. But then there’s also so much that’s great about

And so like the approach I take and I’ve talked about it to our listeners many times before is like, I try to convince them it’s not the job for them. And then if we tell them all the bad stuff and then, you know, they’re still interested and want to hear about the good stuff too, then I can tell it’s usually going to be a better situation. So you were one of the ones who changed my mind about that process a little bit too, is to really lay it all out and honestly be fair to the interns coming in too, because I don’t think it’s very fair to explain to them that’s like, Hey, it’s all sunshine and rainbows and you’re to get free gear and food and then it doesn’t really matter. You know, so.

I appreciate you being willing to change my mind on that. Sorry, another thing that with that question, something I didn’t mention yet. One of the big thoughts coming into my first two weeks of this internship was so the team that I was working with was used to Connor, you know, they’re used to you. Yeah. And so one of the big thoughts going through my mind coming in was like, okay, it feels like they’re being demoted to a strength coach that is like, you know, obviously just starting out, not a hundred percent sure what I’m doing yet.

So part of that was just me thinking, okay, what are these athletes going to think when they’re not getting, you know, mean, a quote, like a real strength coach in here, which, know, looking back on it, obviously, that’s not what I think anymore. But that was one of the big like doubt moments coming into this. Yeah. And I agree. That was a concern of mine too, right? I didn’t want the girls to feel some type of way, but that’s also why I picked you for the job because I knew that you could do it I knew that it would evolve over the year and it would really work out well. So.

looking at it from a year perspective now or a year and a half in, ⁓ know, what are your views on the profession now that you’ve had some time? Well, yeah, everything’s pretty much changed. So obviously, I know waking up early is not as big a deal anymore. You know, you get used to that kind of thing. ⁓ So ⁓ that’s definitely changed. ⁓ And the big thing that, you know, we’ve talked about and like, I think a lot of coaches talk about it, but the athletes, they don’t care what you know.

It’s a stereotype, stereotypical thing to say, but they don’t care what you know until they know that you care. just being able to, once I’m able to be vulnerable with the team, they’re able to be vulnerable back. And then that’s when some real traction can be made once everyone starts buying into what we’re actually doing. So just my thoughts on all that really changed. yeah, another thing is like, you don’t have to be a hard ass to do this. It’s like, that’s not usually my style. I’m a pretty happy, chill guy.

So, you don’t have to always have my voice raised at everyone. I don’t want to be yelling all the time ⁓ because that mutual respect is there. And, you know, that’s just one of the things that really changed ⁓ within my perspective of strength conditioning. That’s awesome. And that’s one of those things that I think is so huge about this profession is that you have to be yourself. ⁓ Even on the episode I had last week with Casey Allison on, right, she was talking about how she’s an introvert. And then ultimately, like she was worried that would she be able to actually do this profession because she’s not

fitting into the stereotypical mold. But ultimately, you’re going to burn out. You’re going to hate doing what you do if you keep trying to act like somebody else. So I’m glad you feel like you can be yourself. And I’ve seen you be yourself with the team. And ⁓ it’s way more fun that way, right? yeah. And I think that’s something that’s important is just ⁓ whenever you come in for your day, ⁓ even if you’ve been having a rough week or so, ⁓

coming in with the same attitude, same composure every single day, I think super important. Just so, you your athletes, they see consistency from you and, you know, control what you can control. And then if you can’t control it, it’s not your problem. ⁓ And that’s kind of the thought process I have with a lot of things. But it’s like, why get myself so out of sorts, worrying about this when I really don’t have much control over this. So that’s really helped out with any kind of, you know, stress.

navigation. it’s like the problem diagram. You know, it’s like, you know, okay, I have a problem. Can I do anything about this? Then? No, then don’t worry about it. like, can I do anything about this? Yes, then do it. Right. And so you have a lot of stuff within your control. But again, you have to let go of some of that stuff, too. And you’ve had a unique experience for a GA. I mean, you haven’t you don’t know what it’s like to be J’s. But you know, I mean, most of our listeners would agree with this, I would hope so. We’re all tell it like an idiot, right. But ultimately, a lot of times as a GA, you kind of have

cheerleading, dance, tennis, you know, one of the smaller teams. And then you basically assist with the larger teams, but you got to run women’s basketball from the start. And then what’s also unique about your experience is you get to travel, right? And then you’re there with the team, you get to go on the road and you get to experience these things. How has your experience been traveling with the team? It’s fun. I like the traveling side it a lot. That might change later. But as of right now, you know, I really like traveling.

because that’s the times with your athletes, you really get to kind of see them outside of that basketball setting. ⁓ Like you get to see like a goofy side of them when they’re, when we’re traveling, ⁓ you know, and it’s just, it’s closer, you know, when you see your team for, I mean, once season gets here, you see them, you know, all the time. So it’s just, it’s just something that brings the team closer together. And that’s one thing that I really, really enjoyed about the traveling aspect of it. Yeah. I don’t think that’ll change that much, especially knowing you like,

That was part of the deal of why we got your position created was so that I could travel with men’s basketball and you could travel with women’s basketball. And then it was only fair for each team to have somebody who could travel. But I wanted to travel because ultimately, like you said, you get to develop better relationships. You get to know these people better. Seeing people outside of basketball is way more fun than seeing them incorporated with dogs. Exactly. Yeah. Especially if people are fighting for playing time, people are concerned about that stuff.

Just seeing them removed from that situation is way better. And I think it changes your perspective on each person too. I think you get to see that that person’s a person. like you’re going through and it’s like you don’t like you’re coaching these guys, but you don’t really know them that well until you start traveling. You’re like, okay, this guy, can, I can joke about this with this guy or I can, you know, talk to whoever I need to. absolutely. All right. So you mentioned, you know, there’s a little bit of fear of, know, is this group going to think that, you know, you’ve been demoted, like you said, quote unquote, right.

which is I think a natural fear for anybody in that position. But it’s your first day, your first session, how is your experience leading somebody through the first time, a full group session? Ooh, okay. Yeah, so I mean, my first session, I talk about, I was into acting, so it’s like being able to kind of fake it a little bit, help me out. But honestly, I did just kind of feel really out of my depth. There were certain things that I just know I did.

was just off. I ⁓ over explained a lot of things. It’s just a simple movement and I’m over here trying to give a whole document on what we’re supposed to be doing. My coaching voice was one thing that we talked about a lot. So I’m making sure we have a good coaching voice. ⁓ That wasn’t there yet. So that’s something I had to work on for a little bit. And then also the timing of my lifts, ⁓ they were just kind of off. ⁓ Making sure that my athletes weren’t like

Dragging and making sure that they weren’t you know going too fast making sure we got some really good quality reps and stuff like that Which again it got better. We got a lot better over time, but those were some of the first things ⁓ That was like just kind of speed bumps with that first session that I just look once I was done I was like, my gosh, I didn’t I didn’t do this this this and so, you know looking back on it It’s all good. But you know, those are all learning moments. ⁓ Another thing was like that first conditioning session I ran because like, know the

you know, the conditioning sessions, you got to kind of come in with a different mentality than you do just a regular lift. And yeah, those are just like, again, I’m not ⁓ one to just like really get up and start yelling a lot, but you know, there’s got to be some sort of motivation, I’ll say motivation coming from me or whenever I’m leading a conditioning session. ⁓ So just learning how to like hold myself going through lifts, conditioning, stuff like that. Yeah.

Do you feel like, you’ve already said it, this might be a dumb question, maybe let me rephrase it. How do you feel like those things improved across the year for you? I mean, I just got a better feel for things. With the timing of the lifts, I’m like, okay, these guys are kind of dragging a little bit. So you go up and they say, hey, let’s pick it up, ⁓ get moving a little bit faster, stuff like that. ⁓ Coaching voice, got a lot better. Most of that’s just from.

me being more confident in what I’m actually teaching, what I’m saying, you know, I don’t stutter as much. I can say things with like a more concise words. ⁓ But yeah, pretty much it all is just more confidence as the year goes on. I agree. I saw that myself personally. I’m really proud of you and the way you’ve applied yourself. think ultimately,

It’s a really tough job and I threw you into a really, I threw you into the deep end, no floaties, one year old, right? ⁓ But you figured out how to swim very quickly and I’m very proud of you for that. I was really impressed with ⁓ your ability to also not get down on yourself ⁓ too much, right? Like I think you have the very appropriate of like, everybody’s going to be down on themselves when things don’t go. Our conditioning session, we had something at the end of the day that I didn’t really like, right? And so obviously I’m going to get down on myself a little bit and be upset about that, but.

The way you bounce back the next day and the way you’re so consistent with who you are as a person was really, really impressive to me. And I’m excited to continue to see that. You know, it’s exciting to watch people grow. It’s just what part, like pretty much the thing I love the most about this profession. So you’ve made it very fun for me, you know, on the positive note, you know, what are some successes from your first year? What are some things that you really felt went well? One of the big ones ⁓ is just we had a season. Y’all want to knock on wood.

for it. Yes, there you go. Let’s come on. It’s not on the door at the office door. But you know, we had a season where we really didn’t have any injuries, you Yeah. So I’m going to take a lot of pride in that. Honestly, we did have one girl. She went out like when we were still doing scrimmages and stuff, but it was from a previous injury that is kind of a freak accident. And she didn’t miss any meaningful playing time. So it’s like once we got to conference, she was still playing games.

contributing to the team. then, know, beyond that, we really had no issues with any kind of injury. So being able to like keep everybody on the court, you know, that’s one of the biggest things that we’re here for is just, you know, the best ability. I’m saying a lot of cliches, but the best ability is availability, you know, so being able to keep people in the court, which I know my head coach, that was one thing that she really wanted to focus on this year as well, because I know in the past that has been an issue, which is for, you know,

multiple different reasons. Like there’s a lot of things that go into it. Like obviously it’s not just me. The reason that we didn’t have any injuries, it’s not just me, but ⁓ being able to help out with that. And she was really happy with how the injury side of things went this year. So that was one big, think success. huge. It’s huge. Another thing was just, ⁓ I think I did a really good job just building relationships with the players. I’m going to be a big relationship guy. want to, you

talk to, I want my athletes to be able to talk to me about anything they need to and you know, vice versa. You know, we talked about that open line communication between coach and athlete. ⁓ So I think I did a really good job of that, you know, getting them to, I mean, like me, but you know, just kind of buy into what we’re doing. ⁓ And ⁓ other than that, I think I did a good job at just, you know, kind of something that you need to have as a strength coach is a servant’s heart. Cause you know, you’re just kind of.

stepping in, helping out wherever you can. So I think I did a good job of just making myself available to the coaches, to the teammates, anywhere I needed to step in, whether that be running the clock during practice, running to get food, something like that. I was able to do that and just try to help out as much as I could. Yeah, I really appreciate that last aspect about you too. And that would be some advice I would impart to younger strength coaches and even older ones like myself. I would consider myself

a moderately young strength coach, right? ⁓ But ultimately, like, you’re going to be asked to do things that ⁓ suck sometimes, right? know, some things that you don’t love doing, right? Or not necessarily your job. But like, the quickest way to develop buy in is by doing those things and knocking those things out. ⁓ I remember one of the first compliments I ever got ⁓ was from one of the ⁓ Texas Tech assistant coaches, and we were doing a staff retreat, everybody had to give a compliment to each other. if

It was forced, but that’s all right. mean, I’ll take it. I’ll take it right. get it right. but you know, he said like one of the main things he was just like, think Carter has a pro mindset. Like he’s willing to do anything. It helps to or anything it takes to help the team win. Right. And like my advice is, is just, and I’ve given this to you before too, like always ask yourself, like, is this going to help the team win? Right. And like, even if it is going to help 0.001%, just do it because even if it could be in the difference between winning and not winning, you know, at the end of the day, those things stack up.

Yeah, that’s something we’ve been talking about a lot just with our own team meeting. So women’s basketball just like the margin of error, you know going that extra degree because You know the difference in doing something and not doing something could be yeah Like you said could be the difference in winning in LA. Yeah, so just we’ve been trying to focus long that recently. That’s huge I love it, man. You’re stuck All right. Well, let’s talk about the challenges. What were some like unexpected challenges that you face in your first year? so one of the main things was just you know balancing my time

Honestly, because I’m a again, I’m a pretty social guy. I’ve got a lot of friends up here in Boone. And I was used to, you know, just hanging out with a lot of my friends all the time, you know. And so one of the big things coming into this position is just, OK, you’re going to not have nearly as much time to be able to hang it out with your buddies. And so that was one big thing I had to navigate. So there were times when it’s like, OK, I’m just around the team, got a little bit lonely, you know, stuff like that. I think most people go through it.

so that was a little bit of a challenge, but, ⁓ I’ll say, guess basketball wise, there was, ⁓ one of the challenges was just kind of navigating through injuries. You know, ⁓ we did have one girl that came in, you know, just off of like a big surgery. So there were some things that we weren’t able to do, ⁓ for like a long time. So just being able for me to change what I do to fit her. ⁓ that was a challenge for me, ⁓ just anytime a lift needed to be changed.

to try to make it, to keep the athlete coming back at a safe pace, but also making sure that they’re still getting a good amount of work in. So that kind of balance as well was pretty difficult. But again, that just, the more I do it, the easier it’s going to be to do it. that’s, you know, working on that. And then again, I’ll say it again, but just the…

making sure that the athletes like me, which that’s not, you know, it’s not that big of a deal, but to my brain it was. So that was a challenge to. Well, you know, and I think there’s a, there’s a level of, uh, when you’re a social person, you want people like you, right? Um, and it doesn’t have to be a love, right? They don’t have to, you know, um, I think sometimes, you know, when the strength coach is the favorite coach on staff, you know, you may not be pushing them hard enough a little bit, right? It’s gotta be a good love hate relationship, but like,

You do want them to like you, right? You want them to enjoy coming into the weight room. So I think that’s a totally understandable. Sounds a little conceited me saying, but it’s real. It’s real. No, no, no. But I, but that’s the whole point of this podcast, right? Is to talk about the things that, you know, a lot of people don’t like talking about. So I appreciate your openness on that. Um, I think what’s, what you said about the injury perspective is really interesting as well too, because one of the first things when people first start out is programming.

They get so nervous about having a high quality program and it’s just like they lose their minds over programming. They almost lose the relationship aspect of it ⁓ but it’s funny because You can care so much about programming you can learn so much about it But then all of a sudden you’ve got an athlete who can only use one leg or only do One arm whatever it may be and they still got to get in shape in time for basketball season and so everything that we learn is almost under a hundred percent perfect conditions and then you know

we’ll hear about neuromuscular crosstalk one time and then, you know, over train one leg way too much. Like those things don’t really get touched on a lot. So I appreciate you saying that because I think that’s a struggle a lot of younger strength coaches face. Yeah. But ultimately again, I think you did a really good job approaching each of the challenges. Like your experience wise, would you do it again? ⁓ absolutely. Okay, great. I mean, yeah, I mean, no regrets. Great answer. No regrets.

I don’t have to fire you. That’s great. You know, everything’s learning experience. know, look back on something. So, OK, this might not have went the way I wanted to, but what can I learn from this situation? Yeah. Just trying to be mature in that aspect. Yeah. Yeah. Would there be anything you would change if you look back at the past year? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I mean, you say no regrets, but it’s like, you know, look back and say, OK, I didn’t quite do this as well as I could. Let’s see. I’ve got some stuff written down. But.

You know, one of the things that I would definitely would have done a little bit better is just like we’ve talked about again, we’ve talked about we’ve talked about a lot of things together. We talk a lot. This is our office. He sits right back there. We talk a lot. Just knowing when to push and when to kind of let up a little bit. I think it’s easy, especially, you know, I’m pretty close to the age. I might have been younger than one of the girls on the team last year, but pretty close to some of them in age.

So it’s like, you kind of want to feel for them. You want to listen to any kind of problems that might be having, like if something sores, stuff like that. But me learning not to, you know, buy into it too much knowing, okay, no, you’re fine. We can push a little harder today. And then maybe vice versa, there’s a day I was like, okay, they’re looking pretty rough right now. Maybe it’s time to slow it down. So there are certain times when I would have changed up how I did stuff regarding that last year. ⁓

Another thing that I want to really focus on this year is the nutrition standpoint of everything. ⁓ I’ve been talking a lot to our dietician to us. My wife now. we’ve been talking a lot, but that’s something I don’t think that I focused on enough last year. So ⁓ there’s a lot of things I want to do regarding that just to improve in any way we can. then just, you know, like that educational piece, I want to do a little bit better at.

you know, teaching the girls, ⁓ why we do what we do, whether it be, ⁓ on the court, you know, in the weight room with, ⁓ athletic trainers, ⁓ any kind of nutrition, sleep, all that, just any kind of education that I can help out with just, you know, to help them build healthy habits, but also so that they can get the recovery they need and, know, just, you know, be at a hundred percent as far as long as they can throughout the season. So yeah, there’s, there’s a lot of things, you know, looking back on it, that I think I could change up. That list will never grow.

shorter, just so know. I mean, I’m going into year eight now ⁓ and my list is probably longer than that. And it’s just one of those things, if you’re a self-driven person, if you want to improve, that list is going to continue to grow. a big piece, and this is actually from the same episode last week, Casey Allison, we talked about giving yourself a little grace too, understanding that you have the room to grow and every year is not going to be perfect. There’s actually never going to be a perfect year.

Even if you win a national championship, there’s gonna be regrets on which is certain thing. And you know, my coaching staff has been really good to me. Understanding the situation that they were coming into with me being a GA my first year last year. Understanding that I was going to need time to grow and they really gave me the space, the time to, you know, learn as I went. So, you know, really happy with how that went. That’s awesome. You know, I want to go back to one thing that you mentioned too is you’re a very social guy.

You know, it’s tough to balance everything between you as a GA. You also have grad school, which sucks. I mean, I’ll never forget my last semester I handed in a project half done and I was just like, even if I get a 50, like I’ll still pass the class. I do not care. Right. Yeah. Everybody’s got that. Right. ⁓ But then also, okay. I’m now a head strength coach for one of the premier sports at the school.

⁓ And then you’ve got a long distance girlfriend, right? Long time girlfriend who you’ve been with forever. five years now, right? Shout out, Ali. ⁓ And then on top of that, you’re also, like you said, you’ve got a lot of friends, you hang out with people a lot. Talk me through finding that balance a little bit this past year. What are your thoughts on that? Is that something where you feel more comfortable with your balance now? ⁓ Yeah, I’m curious. No, I definitely feel more balanced with it.

And the main thought is just like, you know, the people that matter in your life, you know, whether or not you’re spending a ton of time with them, you know, they’re still they’re always going to be there. So it’s like we just had a bunch of friends graduate this last year. So like they’re, you know, heading out, doing their thing. And it’s like everyone’s, know, it’s kind of a sad time when people are leaving each other. And it’s just like, you know, there’s a lot of things I can worry about, but this really isn’t one of them. It’s like if I know that our relationship is going to be good enough to handle.

a little bit of distance, it’s not an issue. Everything takes work and it’s just a little something you got a little bit more work into, which if it’s worth it, then you’ll do it. Yeah, it’s all my friends who are the ones who I can not talk to for six months and then pick up and it’s the exact same as you left off, they’re all my groomsmen. Because it’s something that I don’t think people talk about it a ton.

within strength and conditioning, like in coaching in general, it’s not a friendship job, right? You know, you’ll become close with your staff, you’ll become close with the players, like you’ll see a lot of the friendship aspect there, but ultimately, like you have to move if you want to be able to be successful and continue on and go at a rapid pace. You have to be willing to put in a ton of hours. Like Tess always says there’s in-season Connor and off-season Connor, right? And it’s just part of the deal.

And ultimately people in your life have to understand that aspect too. like you said, ultimately if they’re meant to be in your life, they’re going to stick with you. I had this conversation with another one of my interns, you know, a couple of weeks ago was ultimately he was talking about long distance with his girlfriend. And I was like, look, man, like if she’s the one you’re meant to be with, then ultimately ⁓ you need to understand that your guys are going to work out and things are going to go well. Cause I remember when we first started ⁓ dating,

we were dating for like nine months and then I got the job at Texas Tech and I was like, hey, I’m taking this job. Like, I definitely want to still date you. Like, I really think you’re the woman I’m going to marry, but like, ultimately I’ve got to go take this job too. And she was like, bet. it wasn’t a problem. Like, know, long distance was difficult, but it’s just part of the deal. So I appreciate your perspective on that. The people who matter are the ones who are going to stick around. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. So now you’ve got more experience. You’ve been here for a year.

In a half, right? You’ve been head strength coach for a year at this point. what would you recommend this job to other exercise science students? Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean what other job in the world do you get to be in a weight room and you know help people get better? ⁓ Which exercise science I think is a lot about that. Just like you know whether they’re going into the medical field ⁓ or strength conditioning. I think a lot of people like get into that major want to help people.

And so yeah, strength conditioning, I think is a great way to do that. You know, I’ve always had like a little bit of a passion just to keep like with people that are younger than me being trying to be a good mentor to them, helping them to be raised up as like a good, like a fine, fine young man or young woman, know. So yeah, like if that’s what you like, obviously it’s going to be hard. Like it’s not for everybody. If you’re not willing to wake up, if you’re not willing to put in the hours that you need to, then you shouldn’t do it.

But if you are, then I would absolutely recommend it to anyone. Yeah, it’s awesome. I think it’s a great elevator pitch, right? OK, for Zach Hicks, what are your ultimate career goals? What do you want to get out of this profession? What do you want to see? I’ve got it planned out. Let’s hear the plan. Play it now. OK. So ⁓ right now, something that I’ve also struggled with a little bit is just trying to make sure that you are

doing the best where you are without trying to move on too fast. It’s like the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. It’s greener where you water it, that kind of thing. But that being said, I do want to do this for a while. I want to get good at strength conditioning. I want to build a good reputation. Obviously, it’d be awesome to work at some Power 4 schools. Power 4. Yeah. I’ll work some Power 4 schools. ⁓ Ideally, I love Wake Forest.

Just cause you know, it’s home, you know, shout out Yadkin County again, but that’s the place where I could work there and still live at home, be around family, friends. ⁓ so, but be able to build my reputation, you know, going through strength conditioning, you know, get as good at this as I can. And, ⁓ you know, later down the line, I do want to move back to the home side. You know, some people, they just like, I’m never going back there. I will end up back in Yadkin County. And, one of the big things I want to do is, ⁓ I want to work on some kind of like.

Athletic complex kind of thing, you know, I want to build one have one for myself You know, I want to be able to have a place where I can train, you know a lot of the athletes in high school ⁓ you know coming up through you at King County because In order for them to get something like that, know, they’ve got to go off to you know Winston-salem or Charlotte or just other bigger cities around and you know sports in my county is you know It’s a big deal people take it very seriously. So I’m giving

kids that otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to go out and get training, giving them a spot in Yaddon County to come to and get some really good work and improve. And then the big thing would just be making sure that they can get good scholarships, help them get out into the world and go do great things. I do wanna give back to the county. ⁓ It’s place I was raised and made me who I am. So I think it’s important to give back.

So that’s yeah, that’s a big thing that we really want to do and it’ll happen at some point I don’t know the timing of it’ll happen So yeah, I think that’s gonna be one of the most important things for me Yeah, it’s hard to get to where you want to go if you don’t know where you want to go, right? And so ultimately I love that you have a plan and it’s the ultimate give back plan I love it because you know get involved in the community, know, we’re doing just just be the presence make

Yadkin County is the better spot because it could be, you know, some places it could be really cool. It’s a small town, but it could be really cool if people would put in the time and effort. Yeah. And that’s why I love you. But you guys have a sheets though, right? We do have sheets. You do have sheets. You need to make your performance center right next to the sheets. Anabolic games. Are you going to run over here? Five burgers. You’re going bring four back to me. You’re going to have one. No, that’s awesome. And I love your plan because I think I think it just shows who you are as a person, you know.

You’re very caring, you’ve got a big heart and you really want to see everybody succeed as much as possible. So I appreciate you greatly, It’s been an awesome year and I’m excited for another year coming up. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that’s very cool. Your girls get back here in a week. Less than a week. Getting started. I mean like four days, No place I’d rather be. There you go. That’s what I try to tell them a lot. But it’s just, you know, sometimes I don’t always mean it, but it’s like, if we’re doing a set, like, there’s no place I’d rather be than right here, right now.

You do when it’s set. That’s awesome. No, seriously, get some fired up. Seriously. My famous quote my first year at Texas Tech was I didn’t drive all the way out here because I like looking at windmills. I want to win. Right. So I think yours was a little bit more positive than mine. Well, Zach did. I really appreciate you coming on the show, man. Thank you. Seriously. sitting thigh to thigh with me for just a strong amount of time. somebody if somebody wants to follow you on Instagram, what would be the best way to do? I mean, we guess we can put in the description.

It’s a ⁓ Zach dot Hicks Let’s look at underscore 56. I don’t even know Zach Yeah, underscore Hicks ZACH underscore HICKS 56. Was that your football number? That’s a power move right there, know Zach Hicks 56 and then you’ll get to see Zach’s profile picture. He’s wearing a nice Hawaiian shirt

from there. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, I appreciate you. you for having me. Of course, brother. Well, I end up strong.