S02|E222 Coaching Evolved with Dave Nedbalek
On this edition of the Samson Strength Coach Collective, we speak with Dave Nedbalek, Head Boys Basketball Coach at Grace Community School. Dave discusses how coaching changes across levels, the importance of sport participation for youth athletes, and the balance between creativity and structure in practice. He also shares strategies for motivating athletes who may not aspire to play professionally but still need to be fully committed to their teams. This conversation highlights the importance of resilience, avoiding early specialization, and finding a deeper purpose in coaching.
Key Takeaways
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Transitioning from college to high school coaching brings unique challenges and opportunities.
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Today’s youth athletes need motivation beyond professional aspirations.
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Sport participation develops resilience, grit, and life lessons.
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Creativity and controlled chaos in practice prepare athletes for real competition.
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Avoiding early specialization supports long-term development.
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Strong partnerships between sport coaches and strength coaches enhance athlete success.
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Family and community support are vital for sustained coaching impact.
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Effective communication helps build stronger teams and cultures.
Quote
“You may not care about being a professional or even a collegiate basketball player, but how do you care about not letting those dudes down on your right and your left and forging teams and building in some of that stuff?” — Dave Nedbalek
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Connor Agnew:
What’s going on Samson Strength Coach Collective listeners on today’s episode. We have a friend of mine with a great title here. Okay. I think he may be the first sport coach I’ve officially ⁓ interviewed on the podcast, but head boys basketball coach at Grace Community School ⁓ in Tyler, Texas. This is Dave Ned Balak. Thank you so much for coming on,
Dave Nedbalek:
the last name too.
Connor Agnew:
I tried my best every once in a while I stumbled over those things. So I really like to ask beforehand to make sure I get it least somewhat correct. So, ⁓ but to give us, to give background, ⁓ to you and how we met, ⁓ it was actually through John Bloom’s, coaching course, who I brought up John Bloom a million times. So many times the listeners may have PTSD just from hearing that name. ⁓ but, it was very cool to be able to meet you and then understand from a coaching side perspective.
Dave Nedbalek:
I’m glad to be here.
Connor Agnew:
⁓ what relationships between training conditioning coaches and sport coaches look like. So I was excited to have you on and I’m excited to kind of dive deep into that ⁓ subsection of coaching.
Dave Nedbalek:
Well, we’ll see what value there is to be had, I’m excited to talk with you and kind of unpack some things.
Connor Agnew:
Absolutely. Well, let’s get rolling. Can you just give us your background, not in strength and conditioning. That’s usually like my official title is background in strength and conditioning. Can you give me your background in coaching and then what’s led you to your current position?
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah, background in coaching, kind of the speed dating version. I played a little bit in college, ⁓ got hurt, kind of came home, regrouped and got a taste of coaching, went to kind of volunteer at a practice and realized, hey, like I kind of enjoy this. within the span of about three months, I went from a watching practice, volunteer assistant, full-time assistant.
head coach, athletic director at the small Christian school here in my hometown, just kind of dove into it, fell in love with it. So I coached at King’s Academy for six years there, five years, made the jump to University of Texas at Tyler, which was division three at the time, made the transition with them to division two ⁓ as an assistant coach, stayed on as the interim head coach during the spring of their search, left there, had a cup of coffee and panola.
at Panola Junior College with my good friend Aaron Smith, helped him out, came back to the UT Tyler women’s team that year and kind of helped them for a little bit of player development type deal. So in transition at this point, kind of looking for what’s next as I’m leaving UT Tyler, got a GA job at Oral Roberts and was fortunate to have some ridiculously talented players on that roster.
which led us to a sweet 16 run. ⁓ One shot away from beating Eric Musselman and the Hogs. I’m still a little, still a little bitter. ⁓ Then from there graduated, went to Louisiana Tech for a year, went back to ORU for two years. And then now here I am, head boys basketball coach at Grace Community in my hometown. ⁓ Loving life, very different rhythm. ⁓ But in
I’ve been very stretched this spring in a new role doing some fifth grade PE as well. So really, really growing as a teacher and an instructor. And it’s been a pretty sweet season for my family.
Connor Agnew:
No, that’s awesome. And I can only imagine that ⁓ there’s some more time at home with your family with this job transition.
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah, I remember sitting down with the guy I’m taking over for and I was like, hey, so what do the summers look like? And he just kind of looked at me. I was like, no, like what’s the rhythm? know, what are we, what are the hours? What do you guys do? And he’s like, we’re like, we’re off. I’m like, when you say off, like, is this like an off day in college? You know, where I’m like, I’m doing 12 hours of film. And he’s like, no, like we’re just, we’re off. And so yeah, it’s.
To be honest, it’s been much needed. I don’t think you realize how much you’ve just been hammering away until you stop. And I don’t rest well. And so I kind of, you can kind of hear my voice right now. I’m going through it a little bit. Like I just, tend to go, go, go, go, go until my body’s like, all right, either you stop or I’m going to stop you. And so having rhythm, I mean, our first night back, our friends invited us to go to the brewery and listen to some music. And I’m like sitting there with my wife and my 17 month old and I’m like,
haven’t had the margin to do stuff like this in a long time. And I’m really grateful for it. I think there’s differences obviously in college to high school, but have been a dad and you know, having prayed for this for a long time. I’m enjoying getting to have dinner with my family and and be more of a support to my wife at home. I think that was the biggest kicker for me being on the road recruiting, traveling and watching my wife struggle without that support system around her.
⁓ Man, it did a number on my heart just because I wanted to be able to serve her and get her closer to family so she has some help too. So we’re loving it.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, it’s so awesome. you know, the exciting piece is like, just, my wife knows that anytime there’s something during the week that we get invited to, or for the six months that we’re a hundred percent in season, it’s an automatic no, you know? So it’s either she goes by herself or we just ended up not going all together. So it’s gotta be really cool to have that experience where you can just say yes and enjoy being out with your family.
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah, and I mean, like when I think back to UT Teller, I started as a volunteer. so like my wife, she’s a nurse. I’m sure my in-laws when we started dating were like, yeah, who is this deadbeat dude working for $1,200 a year treating it like it’s Duke? And my wife graduates nursing school and she held it down for so long for us. And I’m grateful because I wouldn’t have been able to chase the journey that I did without her, but…
now getting to on the back end, make some decisions that serve her and can kind of fill her cup a little more, It’s nothing, nothing makes my heart happier. I always tell people like, you can treat me like dirt, but if you love my wife and serve my family and my son, man, I’ll give you keys to the house. Like, so just being able to be around people that are, that are loving my wife well and helping her in the school community. I mean, this is a great example. We pull up, we leave Tulsa.
pull up to the curb and it’s Easter weekend, Easter Saturday night. And my move just kept getting pushed back and I’m calling my, my AD like, okay, we’re, getting on the road later. We’re getting on the road later. I pull up to my curb and I have 30 kids from grace community and what took me nine and a half hours on my own. Those kids had our, our moving truck done in 15, 20 minutes. I couldn’t even direct fast enough. And so it’s like being in that and being a part of that community. It was such a good reminder to me of like,
Okay, it’s scary to step away from what you know, but here’s the kind of community that’s welcoming you in. I think that just speaks to how special the place Grace is. So we’re excited to be a part of this community for sure.
Connor Agnew:
And it’s in your hometown, you said, ⁓
Dave Nedbalek:
Come on, hometown. Ironically,
my boss was my coach at a rival private school and now he’s moved over here. So when we were in school, we didn’t do the ⁓ grace swap, but ⁓ I always, they were always fierce competitors. We were a part of this church that’s associated with our school before we left. And so ⁓ it’s just an unbelievable place that loves Jesus and wants to be excellent at everything.
I couldn’t summarize how I want to raise our son and my family to be any better.
Connor Agnew:
Well, that’s a pretty fantastic start to a new job. I always love to hear that, especially, like you said, you’ve been busy, but to know you enjoy it and it’s the place you want to be, that makes a big difference.
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah, it’s it’s had to I’ve had to become a better teacher. And I think that’s what I’m most excited about is like really exploring what does it look like to be a master teacher? Not necessarily classroom, but just how do I instruct and my buddy Tyler Costin always says like if you can’t teach it to a fifth grader, you don’t know it. And so I will learn quickly. My my P class will be my guinea pigs. But
Just being able to simplify things and still get messaging through, I’m excited. It’s going to be a big chapter of growth for me. ⁓ Probably put some more gray hairs in here, but we’re good.
Connor Agnew:
Well, now you
quite literally have to teach it to a fifth grader. You’ve got no choice.
Dave Nedbalek:
Come on, I’ll teach them advanced pick and roll coverages in my PE class, test out for practice.
Connor Agnew:
Well, it’s such an interesting insight that you bring to it, right? Because it’s similar with collegiate training conditioning. By the time somebody gets to our level, they’ve at least had a bar on their back once or twice. And then we can work with them from there. If they’re a division one athlete, they’ve got some base athleticism so we can really figure some things out quite quickly. Or versus on the court with our guys, there’s…
The basics don’t have to be discussed necessarily. It’s more about reinforcing our habits or what are the things that we look for? What are our pillars for the team versus at a high school or middle school level? It’s all completely brand new and you’ve got people who don’t even want to become professional basketball players so they don’t have that base level of motivation. I’m sure it’s quite the difference.
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah, I transparently have had to really shift up a lot of my, you know, metaphorical carrot dangling because at ORU our phrasing always was like we want guys that want to be pros. And I mean, when you, when you have a desire or a vision to be a professional athlete, it guides, know, Jane, I’m a big fan of seven habits of highly successful people, but the first habit is begin with the end in mind. So it’s like, if I know I want to get my name called to play in that three letter league,
⁓ my path, I can reverse engineer it. So from graduation to freshmen start, what do I need to do to be an NBA player? ⁓ I, I kind of was dangling those carrots and my kids are looking at me like, Hey man, I gotta go to drum line after this. Like I don’t, but like I might watch the NBA, you know, but so trying to figure out it’s been fun to explore like, okay, what does the intrinsic side of this look like? And how do you get kids motivated and how do get them more motivated to like,
Okay. You may not care about being a professional or even a collegiate basketball player, but like, how do you care about not freaking letting those dudes down on your right and your left and forging teams and building in some of that stuff. So again, it’s been really good. One of the quotes that stuck with me the most that over the past few years was right at COVID. I was sitting in a Starbucks drive-through line, listening to John Maxwell teach on his leadership podcast. And was right at the start of COVID. And we’re all thinking, ⁓ cool. Like we’re to get a long weekend at home.
⁓ months of shutdown, but he said the businesses that succeed will be the ones that get pushed from their comfort zone to their creative zones and do it well. And so I feel that right now, like I’m getting out of my comfort zone. can’t just dangle like, Sid, you said you want to be a pro. You want to buy your mom a house. You want to retire your parents. Like these kids, that’s not their motivation and it’s nothing wrong with it. But if I can’t
get creative and find a way to tap into what really gets their heart pumping. They’re gonna be looking at me like I got five years, all year, so it’s been good, it’s been good.
Connor Agnew:
Well, what
are the things that you found have worked best so far?
Dave Nedbalek:
⁓ well, currently, you know, they say like trial and error. think I’m mastering the error side of that. So like, can give you a laundry list of things. I’m like, that, that didn’t work. That didn’t work. That didn’t work. ⁓ the, the, I’ll tell you, I haven’t had a ton of victory in this yet. I, I technically started this job in July. ⁓ so it’s still relatively new, but what I can tell you that I’ve seen, I’ve seen areas of growth in is when I’ve been willing to just say like,
Hey, like I’m missing the mark here. You know, I’m putting these standards and these expectations on them that aren’t necessarily connected to a deep rooted why for them. And one of my biggest learns was I came right into this program and when I knew I was, you know, I kind of started this conversation around January of maybe we make this move and make this change. And so your wheels get going. You’re like, all right, like what are my core values? What are the things I want to be about? And you start casting all this vision in your mind.
And then you show up in a room and you just barf a bunch of stuff at people that don’t know you. they’re like, I mean, yeah, cool. Like your graphics are sweet, like nice PowerPoint, but like it doesn’t sink in. And so I’ve, I’ve noticed that I need to slow down and I need to connect these things to a deep rooted why that like moves them. And so for us, you know, being here at a Christian school, that’s very in
ingrained in everything we do. Like one of the very first pillars that we had to attach ourselves to is like at the end of the day, I woke up today, God put breath in my lungs and he gave me a body that can move. And so what I do with that, that is my gift back to him. That’s my offering. And I can spit in the Lord’s face by being a slob and laying on the couch and binge Netflix all day. No shade. mean, there’s times for, for unplugging and recovery, but if consistently I’m, I’m
you know, stewarding poorly my health, my time, my opportunities. Like, I think, I think that’s kind of against how God’s wired us to be. And so I’m trying to instill that in our guys. Like, look, your body moves the way it moves and God didn’t make a mistake with how he designed you. like, let’s honor him with how we give back. so long-winded, but I have failed a lot in the things I’ve tried to dangle, like all these extrinsic things, success and playing time and opportunity and
you know, banners and this and that. they’re like, I mean, that doesn’t necessarily drive this group. So still on the hunt. Please everyone DM me your ideas and lessons learned. But I have learned to just go slow and sit down and sometimes just shut my mouth, ask them questions and let me hear from them versus the yell and tell approach. Like, what do you guys want to be about at the end of this season? What do you want to be defined by when you look back like?
Maybe they don’t care about a banner. Maybe they care about having 15 brothers that they know push comes to shove. Those dudes will freaking lock arm and get into a rock fight to go to battle for their boys. Now, I believe that process will probably drive you to some success. But the success, the destination is not the goal. And so I’ve had to do a better job of replacing the destination and falling in love with this idea of the process, not to be cliche there.
Connor Agnew:
No, but I love that approach so much. And the reason why is because I remember I started playing football because everybody else was playing football, right? And then my dad basically said, you have to do three sports. Like you’re going to do something year round. So I played football, then I did wrestling, then I did track and field. It was kind of the three sports that I ended up picking. And then I remember one day it was super cold. It’s like 10th grade. I’m up top at the throwing circle, which is all the way separated like by this massive hill from the rest of the track and field.
It was just me because I was training during cross country season. ⁓ then so literally no other throwers were there. And it’s like October freezing and I’m throwing, I’m like, why am I doing this? Like seriously, like what is like, I like it and I’m good at it, but why do I actually do this? And so having to ask myself that question, I felt a lot more motivated after I kind of figured it out. And obviously it wasn’t just in that one session, but eventually I just found out that it was, I enjoyed doing this because.
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah.
Connor Agnew:
I like the process of getting better and I like a sport that is a direct input to a direct output. The time I spent on my technique and the time I spent getting stronger, I get to see immediate results with just by how far the shot putter discus is going. And I really liked that process. And I knew I wasn’t going to be an Olympian. I wasn’t going to be Ryan Krauser level, whatever it is, but finding out that why made a huge difference for me. So I think that process is pinnacle for your kids because they’ll be able to enjoy the sport a lot more.
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah. And I think a common theme for us is like, I can do hard things. And I shared about this on my Facebook the other day. ⁓ we have a, a, I’m going to butcher this term, but he competes in the, I think it’s the Paralympics. ⁓ and he, remember my first day at grace, I look over in the weight room and there’s a guy who has, you know, his arms are kind of deformed. They’re cut off mid forearm. He’s got a couple of his fingers and it’s both hands and he’s got the, you know, the prosthetic blade.
runners and Because you’re smiling away I mean they’re lifting and he’s over there on an assault bike like modifying it and Just getting after it and I look over at one point they do ⁓ Jersey pull-ups for I guess grip strength and things like that and here’s a guy quite literally who doesn’t have arms and legs and like has hooked his elbows into this Jersey and it’s like just fighting like hell to do this chin up and I’m like
I’m literally just sitting him watching him across the room like that is unbelievable. The amount of resolve and grit and just gut freaking like and I went up to him after I said, tell me your story like and I just met my players. But I say all that to say man. It’s like we can do stuff that is a lot harder than we think we’re capable of and so like. What a what a benefit if these kids never play college basketball like.
But like they’re gonna they’re gonna go be husbands and fathers are gonna go be something workers doing something and like the ability to hit a wall or an apparent wall and like I’m not sure if I can and to know like before I freaking taken this hammer and put it through that brick wall and moved it back because I needed it to go like just the successful reps of knowing I’ve run into things that made me feel like I couldn’t and I know I can if I’m persistent enough
that’s an area where I’ve kind of identified like, like if we, if we don’t serve our guys in any other area, let’s serve them in this because if they’re resilient enough to just be stubborn and not give up, it is amazing what you can get done. So I always, I’m going to share his story as often as I can, because I’m like, that dude is a freaking warrior. Just competed in the Paralympics. I don’t know where they were, but he’s running against grown men as a high school sophomore. I mean, he’s unbelievable and didn’t quite make.
⁓ the Olympic top 40 to compete at the next round. But I’m like that dude’s gonna be back just cuz he’s again, he’s stubborn enough. He’s not giving up.
Connor Agnew:
Well, I think it just brings a bit like your initial pillar essentially brings back the importance of why kids should be involved in sport and why sports matter for younger generations. And I feel like we lose that a little bit with the AAU. We lose it with all these focusing, all this focusing on collegiate scholarships, becoming a pro, moving to the next level, doing all these things to get here instead of, like you say, being process oriented and being excited about getting better.
Again, was not going to be an NFL player. I certainly was not going to be an Olympian level wrestler. And I definitely wasn’t going to be an Olympian level track and field thrower, but all those things made me a lot better of a human being. And again, it taught me, like you said, hard work. taught me to not give up. And it taught me really important lessons that now I can translate to the athletes I work with, which is really fun. And I’m glad that we’re not getting away from those things because ultimately that’s why involvement in sport is so important.
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah, and I think they’re just getting bombarded with these messaging. I literally just had fifth grade meet the teacher and some I’m meeting kids who are rising fifth graders and one of the kids is a basketball player and was made a comment of like, we have to play other sports like we have to play volleyball. And I’m like, yeah, like we’re gonna play every all these sports we’re gonna work on.
hand-eye coordination and hand-foot coordinate, like just all these dip, we’re gonna expose you to the world of athletics. he’s like, he’s like, I’m just trying to hoop, you know, I want to go D1. Oregon State saw me at a PE game and offered me a Scully. And I’m like, this is a rising fifth grader. And like, don’t get me wrong, I may have been that same kid when I was his age. The first one he said Scully, I almost wanted to dump him. but I’m like,
These kids aren’t even allowed to just quote unquote be kids at that age, like fall in love with sport, learn the benefits. And I was talking about playing a game we call race car. And I’m like, yeah, if you score your team stays on. If you get scored on your team goes off and he’s like, well, I’m my whole team’s going to be off. I’m going to be the only one left. And I’m like, these are the exact opposite of the principles. We’re talking to team sport, like, but they’re just inundated so early with just nonsensical messaging and they’re not allowed.
to just learn to love playing sports for the sake of the love of the game. All of us started at some point in our driveway hitting buzzer beaters over MJ. And if I missed it, mysteriously there was a clock error and they got to rewind the clock three more seconds. Like I didn’t fall in love with it because I wanted to beat some team across the city or go be a D1 guy. like it was me in a basketball in my driveway until I couldn’t see and the lights weren’t on. I just…
And it’s like, how do we protect that but also really still stay on a path towards excellence? Like, that’s hard, it’s delicate. But I agree with you, man. think AAU culture, not to be the basher, but when not done well, I think it can be more detrimental, unfortunately.
Connor Agnew:
Well, it’s just so interesting too, because from a philosophy standpoint, I align with you 100%. But then when you look at it from a strength and conditioning standpoint, it’s actually one of the best things possible to not specialize in the sport early on. And I mean, quite frankly, you look at who you consider to be the best athletes of all times. Those are the ones who continue to play sports at different levels. think like Jim Brown is the first one that comes to mind between football, lacrosse.
And wrestling, I mean, he was elite at every single one. And then by the time he hit the NFL, that’s when he finally specialized, right? Like it’s just so interesting to me that philosophically, we can say that it’s really good not to specialize early, but then from a strength conditioning standpoint, it’s even better to not specialize early because you can prevent injuries. You can continue to work on the tactical side of your game. All of these things ultimately matter and make you a better basketball player and hopefully get the scholarly from Oregon State.
Dave Nedbalek:
So, can say that it’s really good not so specialized early, but then from a practicing standpoint, just even better not specialized early because you can see the actual software.
Well, unlike our hometown where we live is where Patrick Mahomes went to high school and I I competed against him as a coach or sorry coached against him when he was in high school and I mean he was a kid that would throw Sure, I would all this is gonna this is gonna age us but like I would get the paper and flip to the sports section and like ⁓ Pat through for 567 yards and eight touchdowns and crazy numbers, but he’d also got in the baseball field and
you know, win district championships and strike people out. And then he also don’t sleep on him as a basketball player. Pat, if you watch this, I still remember at our Christmas tournament, I was coaching a little private school pack, come down the lane on a fast break. Euro steps to a dunk like all around athlete would run track in the spring. And like, you can see a guy that, you know, his mind is creative. Maybe he’s not the most physically gifted athlete in the NFL, but his mind,
and his ability to do all of the different things. And you can see it. You can see the basketball, the shovel passes. I mean, the dude throws behind the backs. You can see the baseball influence, like his creativity. And he did not specialize and he did many things. his trainer, those guys at APEC are unbelievable. Bobby does a really good job, but like they were really diligent about that early of not just making him a one trick pony. And it’s kind of crazy that he’s, you know, the best player on the planet.
and we grew up 10 minutes just watching him play high school football. It’s kind of nuts.
Connor Agnew:
Well, it goes back to exactly what you said earlier about
stepping out of your comfort zone and going into your creativity zone. Because by challenging yourself more and more and going into the unknown, you have to be more creative and you have to come up with better solutions. And it’s ultimately going to help out whatever it is you’re trying to specialize in.
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah. And I imagine that there’s clips somewhere of him trying these behind the backs and shovel passes where ⁓ it doesn’t go well. And I guarantee you on Sundays on the flat screen is not the first time he’s doing those things. And I think I heard someone say the other day, like, if you’re not willing to look dumb, then you’re probably not going to be improving very much or something along those lines. Obviously we can take away, you know, you can, you can draw the truth out of that. Like there’s an element of when you’re in the trial phase,
Connor Agnew:
yeah.
Dave Nedbalek:
the lab versus the stage where you’re going to try some things and crack some eggs and it’s like, that did not go well. But it’s just, it’s that research, it’s the logging hours, the experimental trials and things.
Connor Agnew:
Are you nervous about that at all working with high school athletes of trying to get them out of like the cool zone, right? And into the creativity zone, because I feel like I remember being a really nervous when I was a younger high school male about looking dumb, about doing the wrong thing because I wanted to be kind of the cool guy. Like, are you nervous about that with your athletes at all?
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah, like I’ve run into it a little bit and I haven’t found the right lever to really manipulate yet. ⁓ Again, in the art of full transparency, I’m actually kind of ashamed about this response, but I have a kid that is very talented. He sees the game. I can tell he’s processing thing. He can do things from a lot of different positions. ⁓ But I told him one day, said, I’m done. I’m done.
coaching you until you just play hard. Like, it does me no good to teach this footwork or to work on this move or this thing because at the end of the day, you’re just you’re just tiptoeing around and I went up to him later and said, you know, I don’t want you to think that I mean that phrase. I’m done coaching you but what I’m really trying to communicate in that moment of like it doesn’t do me much good to be hammered away on technique when I don’t feel like your level of try has has reached that place and so
I haven’t found great motivators for those areas yet. ⁓ You know, we’re very, it’s kind of the sexy term in basketball. We’re very positionless. Like my, my developmental ⁓ kind of slogan for us is every player, every skill. And so my five men can rip down a rebound and lead the break. My five men can shoot threes. My point guards can post. You know, we don’t have these arbitrary like positions. And so there’s a lot of guys that are in really uncomfortable situations. And so.
We’re trying to play super fast and super positionless. And so they’re naturally in a lot of situations where they’re like, this is weird to be here. ⁓ but I’m, I think by, I don’t know if it’s by osmosis, but just like hours time under, you know, that, that element, I’m trying to get them to where they’re comfortable with the uncomfortability of it because the converse is true. The other team is going to be playing equally out of position. And if we’ve logged.
20,000 hours as a team and they’ve not, hopefully we’ll be at an advantage. So I mean, again, a little bit of an indirect answer, but I tell them all the time, you don’t have a choice here. Like you’re gonna do it. You’re gonna be uncomfortable. You’re gonna have to play out of position. ⁓ And so like, let’s embrace the mistakes of it. Like just let it rip. And I remember, know, according to the kids, this is called a crash out.
But my first my first crash out we do this drill. It’s it’s incredibly chaotic It’s designed to mimic the chaos of a game and I said look We’re gonna butcher this it’s gonna get messed up. We’re gonna miss shots. We’re gonna whatever Somebody’s gonna get confused or rotations gonna get messed up. Here’s the only rule I have for you. Don’t freaking stop Just go go like your hair’s on fire and probably the fourth one in a row just kind of stopped and had that like
indecision and I just I you know my crash out now you know for for context just in case people that work with me are watching this a little bit of yelling hand clapping you know just raise I kind of threw a log on the fire put some gas in there and but I just that was my challenge of like hey I want you your guys are gonna make mistakes I’m gonna put you in situations where you’re not designed to be successful right now but let’s just let it rip
Cut the brake lines, like let’s get after it. And so I’m trying to find those levers to kind of push. Sometimes the volume works. ⁓ But what I really, my biggest challenge right now is like, how do I get them to own this? And I’ve really started hammering on, I call them my senior citizens. I’ve got seven seniors. ⁓ I’ve just tried to hammer on them a little bit this summer of like, I need you guys to have this.
this vision of our team. And like, when you look around and guys are just kind of piddling around, I shouldn’t be the first one to get to them in a perfect world. I’m the last one. And so trying to get them to take some shared ownership and like, the, the environment of the room has got to elevate. And that’s been a big learning curve in college. Obviously, you know, nowadays those guys are all making money to be there. ⁓ they’re all division one athletes. Even the walk-ons are probably serviceable at other schools like
This is a different environment and it’s not blood in the water dudes that are just wired to get after it every second of every day. And so trying to find those, those things that can kind of incentivize again, back to the intrinsic motivation, like how do I get guys where it’s like, you feel safe to make mistakes. And that’s a hard adjustment for me is I hear so many coaches rip guys from, for making a mistake or missing a shot or
They’re trying something new and it’s like, well, we can’t really ask them to experiment and then expect the result to look like the finished product. It’s not how it works. And I think I’ve had to really put a muzzle on myself of like, let him cook. What is it? Like let him cook a little bit. Let him cook. Let him work at it. it’s.
Connor Agnew:
Let him cook, yeah.
Well,
I just, again, I love the principles that you’re focusing on because those do translate to the collegiate level a lot if they go to progress on to that level, right? But at the same time, they make a difference in the entire world and basically your general careers afterwards, no matter what it is. Like you say, it doesn’t matter if you’re not going to try to go to collegiate basketball or try to be a professional basketball player. All that matters is at some point you’re going to lead a family and you’re going to have to understand that there’s going be an obstacle and you have to get through it and take the hammer to the wall.
are saying here is ⁓ we have, you it’s always, it’s okay to make mistakes. It’s never okay to not play so hard that you’re covering up those mistakes. These mistakes do happen. I mean, and I’ve made many mistakes in my career, endless ones, honestly, way more than I wish I would have, right? But I do feel like by giving my all in other areas, you can cover up those mistakes and people know that there’s a reputation about you, right? About what you do or what you provide. And it’s like,
Okay, I know that Dave is a really hard worker. I know he puts all his time in to get better. He made this one mistake in this area, but took accountability for it immediately and we immediately moved on. Right. And I know that he’s going to continue to produce good work. Those things are lessons that matter for just general life, no matter what your job is going to be.
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah, I remember my first boss, used to say, playing hard covers a multitude of sins. like, it’s amazing how many times the guy who just plays the hardest ends up in the right situation to make things right. And a lot of our system is very decision-based. It’s, you know, again, conceptual. And so I’m like, look, you just have to make decisions. don’t care what the decision is, but you have to make a decision boldly. And I think, you know, progressions,
we can help those guys. Like you got to try to train their eyes of where they need to be. And like, okay, isolate the decisions. Like, okay, well maybe let’s work on this finish for a couple of times and okay, now let’s work on that finish. And now let’s add a body of what’s he doing and where do you see training the reaction? You kind of encode them success and an area where I struggled early on was I would make the drill or the activity too challenging to where they never had the taste of success.
And then they’re just discouraged. so finding that, you know, 60, 70 % challenge rate where they can have a little bit of an advantage using the small sided games and situations like that. Like I think you have to let them taste success just a little bit. Cause that’s, I love that moment as a player development guy. I love the moment that I’ve been hammering away in a gym with a guy for months. And then all of a sudden in practice, he busts out something that we’ve been working on and our eyes lock.
And I’m like polar bear yell like, that’s good. It’s losing my mind because it’s like that’s four months worth of work for one second. And that little connection can just skyrocket those guys to like now they’re hungry to go freaking hunt and keep it going because they realize the work is paying off. It’s like you talked about with the shop, but basketball is not always that way where it’s like technique and strength. see immediate results. You know, I heard someone say one time like you work on a skill and I think it’s like
three months before they feel comfortable using it, or sorry, three days before they feel comfortable using it in a practice, three weeks before they’ll use it, or maybe in a practice, and then three months before a game, or something like that. I obviously butchered that quote. But it speaks to the amount of time that it takes guys to feel comfortable trying something they’ve done one on O or one on one in the gym, and then applying it to a live pressurized situation like.
Those wins can be few and far between, but I think stair stepping them with how we do development is a big piece of.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, but then directly by what you’re saying, allowing them to make mistakes is going to cut that timeline down drastically.
Dave Nedbalek:
100%, 100%. Like I think so much of coaching has become where we want pretty and clean drills and we don’t want the chaos. And so I’m like going through our drill library and I’m like, I don’t know if that drill has enough chaos for me now. Like I want there to be five guys dribbling full speed and driving at the rim trying to shoot a layup at the same time with, you know, all the, all the trainers and strength guys are probably like ankles, ankles. And I’m like screaming.
Connor Agnew:
Love.
Dave Nedbalek:
Playoff too, but you got people that just cut you off. Okay, what do you do? How do you orient your body? How do you adjust what should have been a normal layup? And now it’s okay, there’s a dude that’s trying to, he’s got his head down and our seven footers dribbling like that and trying to de-bow me. Like, I just think there’s chaotic elements of it that we want to encode. And the more that we encode chaos, like the more mistakes are going to happen, but we’re just gradually pushing the needle forward.
And it’s almost like compound interest. Like you start to see those gains become bigger and bigger the longer you’re willing to stay with it. So I’ve enjoyed it. It’s a big adjustment.
Connor Agnew:
as the strength guy can attest that you are correct. The more chaos typically makes it a lot more nerve wracking for us strength coaches, but we understand how it rolls. Cause I’ll tell you, my least favorite is four on four half court. I know we’ve got to play half court and I know we’ve got to do these things and so it matters, but like just from every, every single time a guy goes down, it makes me cringe.
Dave Nedbalek:
eight bodies in that amount of space. It’s yeah, something else.
Connor Agnew:
But we get better. That’s exactly how you get better. Like you
said, there’s more chaos. That’s how you get better. So, well, I appreciate you bringing the strength and conditioning aspect into it. And, you know, I’m curious to see your thoughts because we did this course where it was half ⁓ strength coaches and half sport coaches with John Bloom. ⁓ And I thought it was really interesting because it gave me lot of perspective. I kind of saw you as the mediator for a lot. I saw you as the one most willing to kind of hear out the strength coaches and
Kind of willing to translate that stuff for sport coaches a little bit more during those calls too. So I appreciated your presence there. You know, what are the things that if you were a sport coach and you said, really love the relationship I have with my strength coach, what are the things that would qualify that love of the relationship?
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah, I just feel like the fluidity, like the flow of communication was so great. And I do, obviously, I have to shout out John, because prior to him, I wasn’t aware of this. In my mind as a player development guy, I’m thinking, OK, I have Connor. I need him to get better at ABC, D &E. I have our first game is this day. I’ve got to work on this and this. And so in my mind, I’m not even considering
the rest component. not considering what they did in the weight room. I’m not considering what kind of things that they’re going through in the weight room, where there struggles. he has issues in this area. Like I never even considered it before. I might just saw my craft. And when I, when Bloom first met me, you know, he would ask these, these hard questions. And I’m like, look, I, like, I kind of had a, I kind of had the arrogant approach of like,
Look, man, I don’t know what to tell you, but that dude has got to get better at finishing and you got him in the morning, they’ve got him for practice and my job is to make sure that he’s better. So like, I just got to do it. And it was such an eye opener to me. And I will shout out one of our assistants, coach Lewitt, he had a great line. He used to always say better rested than ready. Because I think at times we feel like we have to do more and more and more.
And transparently our last couple of years, we really struggled. And so you’re losing games and you’re thinking, just one more film session or one more workout, or he’s got to do this, or we got to go longer. We got to add this drill. And I just, think that’s the trap that we got in. But I’m so grateful that John opened my eyes to it because now I can see, and I have a great relationship. We have a full-time strength coach here, which is unbelievable for a school of our size.
And coach Plintel, the first thing I did was I went right to him. said, Hey, talk to me about our guys. Talk to me about what your vision is. And he literally said, I was just coming to find you to ask you, how do you guys play? What do you need them to get better at? And it’s like that right there. That’s the example. It’s not territorial, territorial, like a dog peeing in his yard where it’s like, like you stay in the weight room. I stay on the court, but like, don’t we’re not crossing over into each other’s turf. I just.
The collaboration piece, the lack of ego, at the end of the day, I don’t care who gets it right, I just wanna get it right. But I want those guys to know right off the bat that they have the freedom to look at me in my eyes and say like, you’re doing too much. We’re going too hard, we’re going too long. You can play hard, but we can’t play that long if we’re gonna play that hard. I think those things I really value and a lot of that does come down to humility and Bloom is the epitome of that.
not just humility, but meekness, is like that ridiculous amount of strength, but it’s clothed in humility. Like I think Bloom and you as well, Connor, y’all embody that to where there’s such a great collaboration with y’all because I don’t have to have my antennas up and I’m not worried about the strength coach just like pre-working me out before I, you know, try to have the conversation with them. Sorry, that’s probably a stereotype towards strength coaches. That’s on me. No pre-workout, y’all.
Connor Agnew:
No, no, no, no worries.
Well, I mean, another thing I’ll point out about Bloom too is he’s got physical meekness because I never knew how jacked he was. He was always wearing ⁓ baggy shirts all the time. And then one day he was working out, wore a tight shirt. I was like, bro, you’re not only this great strength coach, you’re also insanely jacked. So what are we talking about here?
Dave Nedbalek:
He
and I both wear bulky clothes, for different reasons.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, exactly. I’m closer to your side. I can probably see on that. ⁓ No, but I think you bring up the best point, which is it doesn’t matter, you know, who’s right in this scenario as long as we’re right and doing right by the players. It’s what I love about working for this staff here. I think this what works so well is I remember my first couple months here. It’s exactly the conversation I had with our head coach. He took me out for coffee and like randomly one day was like, Hey, I just want you to know, like you can always tell me if we’re doing too much or if you feel like we need to slow down on
things like you’re the expert in this area. And what’s funny is the coaches who I’ve had those open conversations with are always the ones who don’t typically struggle with those things. And it’s the ones who don’t really want to be as open are the ones who struggle with playing too much or going through too much practice volume or adding in too much stuff where we hit three and a half hours of preseason practice. And then we’ve got to get ready to go for scrimmage the next day and all this stuff adds up when it comes in later. I think the humility is kind of the key piece. And I really appreciate you touching on that.
No, no, no, this part was happening in high school, so I understand it.
Dave Nedbalek:
That’s funny.
Connor Agnew:
I’m sure that’s been a little bit of an adjustment for you as well too, having to go operate off the bill.
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah, you know, it’s nice. So I actually work there separate buildings for my for my younger so I Worked down in that building a lot so I can I just have my schedule in my phone, but anyway
Connor Agnew:
Yeah. Okay.
Well, so here’s an interesting question for you. What has, you know, while you’re preparing for P E and, I know you’ve only taught a couple of classes here so far, but from the fifth grade level, what has that taught you about your coaching?
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah, I think, ⁓ I can’t remember who I heard this, heard explain this, but they were talking about running form, which, know, obviously a portion of our, of our class in the PE is, or in the fifth grade PE is the kind of the foundational movement principles. And so they were talking about sprinting form and they’re like, you know, heel strike and there’s all these, these terms. And I’m like, yeah, I don’t, I understand in theory what you’re talking about.
but he was like, I could say these words that are triggered or I could say, pretend like there’s a rattlesnake behind your foot and you’re trying to get your foot off of the ground to get away from the snake. And so it’s talking about foot speed. And so I’m like, that’s a really good point or kind of redirect for me is like, how do I develop these? In my practice plans, I call them pops or points of precision. And generally each drill will have three of them.
But so how do I develop this really sticky language that if I tell a fifth grader, like, hey, when you’re sprinting, know, you’re really, your foot speed is really important and you want, they’re looking at me like, like foot speed, what am I wiggling my toes as fast as I can? Or if I tell them like, I want you to run like a rattlesnake is trying to bite your heel. They get, they understand how they get to get their feet off the ground or just the floor is lava is one that a lot of PE teachers use. ⁓
But all that to say, like, it’s had to make me a better and more concise and clear communicator. Like, at the end of the day, one, not everything matters. And if you do think everything matters, then nothing probably matters in your coaching anyway, because they’re not remembering all this. But how do I? Coaching sound bites with really sticky language that immediately triggers their brain to think, I need to get my foot off the ground as fast as I can. I need to get my fingers to the sky, or whatever it is. Like, just.
pumping their arms like a piston. It’s made me have to simplify, which is really good because at the end of the day, I should probably be doing the same things with my varsity basketball players that I am with my fifth grade because at the end of the day, there’s not that much complexity to it. And the best coaches in the world, you can hear them and you’re not confused by what they’re saying. I may not understand the lift, but I would go in the weight room with John and those guys and he’d be like, today we’re gonna work on eccentric.
da da da da da da da. And I’m like, writing down the nine words I didn’t know. And then as soon as he starts teaching, it’s like, you know, I want the bar to hit my chest and soon as I do like, boom, I want to explode and he’s teaching it. And I’m immediately like, I could do that. And if I had to teach it to our team, if Bloom had to step out, I could now because those things that he just taught in terms of those points of precision were really clear. And so trying to coach in soundbots and get things out quickly with really sticky language has been.
big adjustment. Although my first class is technically Wednesday so this is all in theory so let’s do a podcast on Thursday and I’ll tell you how it’s going.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, we’re to have you back as an immediate repeat guest and just do a 40 minute breakdown of how the first class went. But those things apply to the collegiate level too. Because I think back to what was first taught to me and the main principles that matter the most. ⁓ And ultimately, it’s the things that were the easiest to remember or the things that really stuck out in my mind that translate with me as I keep going on throughout my career. think about when we were, it’s almost the exact same thing like you’re talking about with bench press. ⁓
Dave Nedbalek:
world.
Connor Agnew:
I think the first time I saw somebody talk about exploding off from your chest, it’s like, imagine a cabinet just fell on your chest and you’ve got to throw the thing off of you, right? Like those cues and those things remind me it, and it’s much easier versus talking about the concentric speed needs to be above this specific velocity. Like nobody cares, you know, they care about real life examples. So those things matter.
Dave Nedbalek:
Yeah, that sounds exactly right.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah. Well, Dave, thank you so much for coming on, man. I really appreciate it. I’ve had a fantastic time with you and I really appreciate your perspective. I’m glad we didn’t even really talk about strength and conditioning that much because there was a lot of stuff I was curious about at the high school level. So I appreciate you greatly for coming up.
Dave Nedbalek:
I hope there’s a value add. I’m sure all the actual strength and conditioning guys as they got to my one word I knew which was eccentric, ⁓ they’re probably like, I’m glad we didn’t talk strength and conditioning either, brother.
Connor Agnew:
You are way above most of the sport coaches, I can promise you on that one. Sorry, if anybody wants to follow you on Instagram or any other social media, what would be the best way to do that?
Dave Nedbalek:
I you man.
Yeah, it’s Coach Ned Balik, N-E-D-B-A-L-E-K. So I’m on Twitter. I still haven’t transitioned to calling it X. Instagram. We’re just, love to connect. And at the end of the day, I mean, I’m a student trying to learn and all of this is, I’ve been blessed to have some really great people in my life that have poured into me and shared with me and taught with me, otherwise I’d be wandering around somewhere.
Connor Agnew:
Nobody has. Yeah.
Dave Nedbalek:
a lost idiot with no friends. I’m grateful to smart guys ⁓ that have poured in and so excited ⁓ to connect with you guys. Hopefully we can get some DM suggestions on things.
Connor Agnew:
Exactly, we can help out with more rattlesnake cues, potentially.
Dave Nedbalek:
⁓
Well, the cabinet one was good.
Connor Agnew:
All right. Well, there you go. We’ve already helped. There you go. Well, I appreciate you, Dave. Thank you.
Dave Nedbalek:
Appreciate you brother.
