How do you build consistency across a coaching staff while giving each coach room to be themselves?
On this episode of the Samson Strength Coach Collective, Connor sits down with Michael Silbernagel, manager of Sanford Sports Performance, to explore the everyday work of developing coaches and building culture.
Michael traces his career from a graduate assistant position at the University of North Dakota in 2003 through Colorado State and nearly 13 years at the University of Mary. He shares how family priorities, a desire for broader impact, and the realization that he had become comfortable led him to pursue a new challenge at Sanford.
Today, Silby oversees 13 strength and conditioning coaches and works alongside academy and return-to-play staff. Sanford’s approach reaches athletes through partner schools, regional performance facilities, sports academies, and remote programming. Across those environments, his goal is to create a consistent experience while encouraging coaches to bring their own personalities to their work.
That balance requires ongoing development. Silby explains how weekly check-ins and quarterly video reflections help coaches evaluate their presence, teaching, standards, and programming decisions. By reviewing their own sessions before discussing them with others, coaches can take ownership of improvements and approach feedback as an opportunity to grow.
He also introduces a simple exercise: choose three words that describe the coach you want to be, then ask others whether your actions reflect those qualities. It is a reminder that coaching identity depends on what people experience from you every day.
The conversation closes with a challenge to practice the habits you ask of athletes, revisit lessons with the benefit of experience, and seek insight from people outside your professional circle.
Key Takeaways
- Growth requires an honest look at comfort. Recognizing that you have become comfortable can help you identify when you need a new challenge.
- Consistency can coexist with individuality. Shared terminology and expectations help athletes feel confident across locations while allowing coaches to remain authentic.
- Culture requires ongoing attention. Staff needs, relationships, and environments change, so culture must be actively maintained.
- Make reflection part of coach development. Recorded sessions and structured reviews help coaches connect their intentions with what happens on the floor.
- Define your coaching identity. Choose three qualities you want to embody, then seek honest feedback about whether others see them in your behavior.
- Experience changes how you learn. Revisiting a book, course, or familiar idea can reveal lessons you were not ready to recognize earlier.
- Model the standards you teach. Examine whether your own habits align with the advice you give athletes about sleep, recovery, and personal accountability.
Quote
“Culture is dynamic, not static.”
— Michael “Silby” Silbernagel
Michael Silbernagel:
I want my coaches to be authentically themselves. Right. And and my thing I always ask is if someone defines you in three words, what would they be? And then I’ll challenge them to go grab someone who’s in the facility or at the time when I was at the university, like grab someone and say, describe Silby. And to me, as long as they say educated, passionate, and caring, or one of the variations of those three words, I’m living who I want to be every day when I’m in front of them.
Connor:
What’s going on, Samson Strength Coach, Collective Listeners? On today’s episode, we have manager of Sanford Sports Performance, Mike Silbernagel. I believe the appropriate term to call you is Silby. Is that correct?
Michael Silbernagel:
Yeah, that’s that’s what all my friends call me, right? We’re gonna go with that line.
Connor:
Okay. Well look, I’d like to be in the friend category, especially if we’re gonna get to know each other for the next hour. So I’m gonna go with Silby. Silby, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Michael Silbernagel:
I appreciate the invite. Thanks for having me.
Connor:
Of course, absolutely. And you know, we have listeners on YouTube. We have listeners or I should say watchers on YouTube. We have listeners on Spotify. We also have the ability to the to watch. so I will call anybody who is on Spotify listening right now to go to the video real quick and check out the background that you’ve got going ’cause you have an elite gym that you got right behind you. I love actually being able to see equipment in the background. That stuff always like I think it makes it very authentic. And I mean, I’ve got my wife’s diplomas in the back. So thanks for
being the one to hold it down and be responsible for this podcast.
Michael Silbernagel:
I pre you know, I do what we can, right? Like this is my
Connor:
Mm.
Michael Silbernagel:
it’s a functional garage gym. Like I actually backed my truck out to do this and I’ll and and
Connor:
there we go. Yep.
Michael Silbernagel:
that way I can train when we’re done and then I’ll pull my truck back in when it gets cold and and snowy up here in North Dakota.
Connor:
That’s perfect. I like it. No, sir. Well, I’ll tell you one thing. I and I’ve found this out very quickly is that when you have a garage gym and you have other people that live in the household, typically the garage gym doesn’t yet to be just the garage gym. It has to serve multiple functions. So I like I like the resourcefulness of it. okay, well, great. Let’s just get right into it. Can you give me a background of your career, your experiences in training conditioning, and then what’s led you to Sam first force performance?
Michael Silbernagel:
Yeah, I I think the we had kind of briefly talked before this thing started. I I didn’t realize how old I am until you start going through when you started and and what you’re doing. I started in two thousand three at the University of North Dakota as a graduate assistant, strength conditioning coach up there. I was there for a year and a half. and I started with everybody’s favorite, like Cheer and Dance was my first team I was assigned to. And then swimming and soccer and I got to assist with football and hockey and basketball. So I mean it was a really immersive
Start track and field after year and a half. I went to Colorado State.
For my first full-time role, I spent six years at Colorado State University. I was very fortunate. Probably shout out, right? Jared Nesland was the head guy at University of North Dakota that gave me my start. Greg Scanlon was at Colorado State University who hired me to come down there and started off working with track and field, golf, swim and dive, worked with water polo, volleyball for five years, head assistant for football, kind of you name it, kind of dabbled in it during that time. And then I came back to
North
Dakota, started the strength edition program at a D2 school at the University of Mary here in Bismarck. spent just shy of 13 years in that role. never thought I would leave the collegiate world and left three years ago here, a couple weeks ago, and joined my current role at Sanford Sports Performance in Bismarck.
Connor:
Well, I mean, it it’s a it’s like you said, it’s an extensive, you know, lexicon of experience, but like it just kinda flies by when you go through it, right? Like you don’t really think about, okay, I’ve been doing this for twenty plus years. It’s I’ve just, you know, hey, I’m a straining conditioning coach and this is who I am.
Michael Silbernagel:
Yeah, it’s kinda wild. My career could actually legally drink, right? Like that’s a it’s kind of a scary
Connor:
Yeah yeah.
Michael Silbernagel:
scary thing, ’cause that was our goal growing up, right? Once once we hit that age.
Connor:
Exactly. That’s a great point. I’m gonna steal that from you for sure. I’ve gotta ask, you know, I mean, you mentioned that you listened to the podcast I just recently did. my listeners are familiar that obviously I left collegiate athletics and and you mentioned it yourself. Like you never thought you’d leave collegiate athletics, you know, within the the organized format, not working with college athletes, right? But you know, working in collegiate athletics. What what inspired you to make the change to go with Sanford?
Michael Silbernagel:
You know, I think number one, it was it was an opportunity that kept me in our location in full transparency, very similar to to your story in some ways. Like I left Colorado State to move home. My mom was battling cancer. I didn’t think I’d be here very long. Mom passes away. I realize I can I can coach anywhere with a logo, right? Like it doesn’t matter what school I’m at, my coaching wasn’t gonna change and I was able to make an impact. my dad is currently battling it as well. my kids are established and
This was a way to stay within our area while also challenging my career in a different path. I think when you look at careers, you can get very much so into, okay, I’m a collegiate guy, I’m a D1 guy, I’m a D2 guy.
Well, eventually you’re just a guy, you know, or a gal, and you’ve got to find a way to like what else can I bring? And I think this allowed me to have a an impact on a broader spectrum with the bigger staff. I have coaches throughout western North Dakota in Bismarck at our facility at our local high schools, Mandan at a couple colleges, Bismarck State, Dickinson State, Dickinson High School, Watford City High School, Williston High School, to where
We’ve got a much larger footprint than I did at at the University of Mary when I was there. But then at the same time, with internships and different roles that we have, like how can I grow as a coach continually? I’ve told my athletes, as soon as you get comfortable, you probably need to leave. and I loved my time at at the college world and and specifically at the last stop.
But I thought I probably got comfortable and this was something to force me to grow and it 100% has. And it’d be interesting to go back after learning what I know now of of what kind of a evolved version of myself there would be.
Connor:
Yeah. Yeah. I yeah I mean, obviously you say a lot of stuff that I can identify with. I’m very sorry to hear about your mom and your dad, you know, but I I I I mean I could just relate to it almost immediately because obviously you know the story with my my father passing away. I think one of the big things I don’t think I even mentioned this during the podcast, but it was just like, man, I I’m I I don’t want to say I made a mistake ’cause I’m very happy about everything that I did in my career. you know, and I’m very, very fortunate to have all the experiences that I’ve I’ve had within collegiate athletics. but
I did not want to s make the same mistake twice and and not be able to be there with my mom as much as possible too. So I’m really glad that you get to be there with your with your dad as he’s going through this battle. And additionally, like like you mentioned, I don’t have kids yet. We’ve got I’ve got three dogs and we like to pretend they’re kids, but obviously it’s a very, very different scenario. So I mean, being able to set up a a family and and have kind of a a one solid location, I’ve gotta imagine that’s that’s a pretty
unique thing within the coaching world. I mean, especially within the collegiate athletics world. but you know, I’ve also have to imagine it can be a pretty enjoyable experience too. Is that correct?
Michael Silbernagel:
Yeah, and I’ve been very fortunate. I mean, as I went through there, being able to spend six years at one stop, almost 13 at another, and now I’m at three at another. I mean, that’s fortunate in and of itself, right? And I think the coolest thing is we were actually in this garage, as I told my kids, I was transitioning out of my role at the university into this one. And my oldest son at the time starts crying. And I was like, bud, what are you, you know, what are you crying for? He goes, Dad, you’re gonna miss all your friends.
And it was cool seeing that they understood how much being a collegiate coach meant to me because they were around it all the time. And I was fortunate to have them around all the time. but they even knew that it was going to be a transition because of what had been a a steady sediment in your life for 20 years. Like I know people talk all the time, like you’re more than your sport, you’re more than your career. But at the same time, to those that you interact with, you’re known as that.
Right. Like I run into someone that I coached 15 years ago. I’m coach. Right. I’m I’m not Michael. I’m not, I might be Silby because they may know me as that, but I’m I’m still coach. So when I’m like, I’m more than that. Yes, I am. But to that individual and those interactions, actually, that’s exactly who I was. So I think being able to kind of get over that initial change, I joke that it’s really weird having manager on my badge, not head coach on my badge.
When in reality there’s so many similarities between the two. I think those are the things that people don’t think about when you start looking at changing careers and changing roles, the the little nuanced things that you never thought you’d miss. Now, obviously you’ve probably experienced it. You only talk about the things you miss, you don’t talk about the things that you don’t. Right? Like you y you you get reminiscent of all the glory days, then you start thinking, you’re like, wait a minute.
Yeah, that interaction wasn’t necessarily a glory day moment, or maybe that wasn’t either. But but there definitely were a lot of positives in in all the stops I’ve been able to be at.
Connor:
Yeah, a hundred percent. I can like I said, I can very much relate to that. You know, it’s interesting. We I remember my my wife is she moved a f you know, pretty far distance away from her family for us to make this move. She’s from Chattanooga, Tennessee. We’re living in Rochester, New York now. and so she she made a really big sacrifice for me and I r greatly appreciate it. and a lot of my, you know, after I had the conversations with the coaching staff and we just talked about, okay, I’m gonna make be making this transition, you know, they were like, How did you convince Tess to do it? You know, and I was like,
Honestly, I think she convinced me a little bit more than I convinced her, you know, because she knew this is really important to me too. But like I obviously had a lot of doubts about, okay, is this really the right decision to make? Is this really what I want to do? To exactly to your point of like, these are all my friends. Like these this is something I really love doing. Like it I didn’t stick with it for this amount of time just because, hey, this is a paycheck. I did it because this is something I was really passionate about. you know, and I agree, like I was just on the phone with one of the basketball coaches from the staff I worked with, like.
15 minutes ago, you know, and and it’s tough to leave some of that stuff behind. But then like you said too, you’re always gonna remember the stuff that felt made you feel really, really good. and you’re gonna kinda push to the back some of the stuff that didn’t make you feel so good. It’s a lot easier to think about the fun times.
Michael Silbernagel:
Sure.
Connor:
Yeah. Well, can you just kind of break down for me? You mentioned with your within your model, you have a lot of coaches at different levels. You have coaches in different areas. What is the, you know, kind of I would say the business model of Sanford sports performance?
Michael Silbernagel:
Well, we are part of a Sanford healthcare system, right? So we fall underneath the Sanford Health umbrella. there’s hospitals and every type of medical aspect you can think of within Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana. I think we’ve just kind of got into outskirts of Wisconsin area there. so we get to basically be that aspect of consistency.
Right in in the area, we are a service that we provide to the schools that we partner with, first and foremost. So a school doesn’t have to worry about going out and recruiting the best individual for the spot, right? They’ve got enough things going on. We can use our expertise, we can be an outsource and a resource to them, to bring in a quality candidate to help be strength conditioning in their schools or universities, and basically create that kind of model. We also have
locations in different spots. Sioux Falls is the major hub or location. And then Fargo, Grand Forks, Rapid City just opened up in South Dakota and now Bismarck here as well, I should say, has been here for a few years. we also have offerings at our locations and each location has performance groups. Some have academy sports. We have hockey and baseball and softball.
But
if you walk into our facility, you’re gonna see eighteen squat racks, three different turf fields, synthetic ice, hockey treadmill, three lane, you know, seventy yard track, batting cages. I mean, we’re we’re pretty fortunate. And then we tie in with
Return to play and physical therapy and occupational therapy as well in our location. So it’s kind of a one-stop shop, but it also allows those schools that may not have the ability to have that kind of resource as a strength coach to utilize it. And then we have a a remote model as well to where we do some online programming for high schools that might be even smaller that.
Just, hey, we’ve got a coach, we don’t have a lot of funds. How can we deliver this product safely and efficiently to the student athletes that we work with?
Connor:
Wow, I I love hearing about the synthetic ice. I think that’s so cool because obviously I’ve coached in the South for the past ten years. I’ve lived in the South for the past ten years and you know, trying to explain people that in upstate New York, it’s like, hey, what you do in the winter is you go like I would always take girls to dates at like the ice rink. Like and we’d go skating. Like that would be like like that was like every single person can skate, every single person can play these winter sports, you know, because it’s just what you grew up doing.
And so I think if we were to tell you know some of the southern coaches that there’s a facility with synthetic ice, they their minds would be blown.
Michael Silbernagel:
Yeah, it’s pretty awesome. Like the kids can wear skates on it as well. allows them to work on their their puck handling and and shooting capabilities right there in a in a nice sixty-five and sunny temperature controlled facility, right?
Connor:
Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, okay, so I I mean I guess I’m curious about this too, right? Like I’ve just had a podcast where we talked extensively about why I made the decision and why I thought it was a good decision. You know, for you transitioning into the private sector, like how has that transition been? What are some of the benefits that you’ve seen?
Michael Silbernagel:
Yeah, the trans I I always tell this to people, right? Like transitions are transitions, right? There’s always the man, did I did I make the right move transition? Because anytime you have change, there’s pushback in human nature.
Right. So it’s not that it’s bad. It’s just right away you’re like, okay, I’ve turned on my computer. Now I’ve got a badge. And like, how do I do all these things? And finding a flow of new staff and finding a flow of yourself and going from being the person that was on the floor coaching, you know, eight plus hours a day and and and making sure everything was figured out to taking a step back, leaning on those that are around you, trying to find the the new vibe.
Overall it’s been really good. I think it’s taken me till this fall to realize that it’s okay to not be on the sidelines for a football game, and not have stress on a Saturday from from it. but at the same time, those are the things you kind of miss. I I’m very fortunate. I I get to work with our
NAHL junior hockey team in town, the Bobcat. So that allows me a little bit of a a team feel and a team vibe. but it’s also been really neat to kind of see the youth of the community come in and how we can
basically
create life habits starting the age of nine, going through high school, college, and those prepping to go beyond, has been really like a really cool transition. Had I not trained my kids in this garage, I don’t know if I would have been as comfortable doing it. cause that allowed me the ability to go, wait, I can I can do more than just the college realm and I can have different relationships. And then the other side from the private side is
We really have a lot of supportive individuals, both in the work environment itself, but also we’re trying to move the needle forward any way we can in the profession. And that is a really cool thing to to be able to do. not sure if that makes sense or not, but it’s it’s there’s more similar than
Connor:
A hundred percent.
Michael Silbernagel:
there’s more similar than there is different. But at the same time, the the I think I can say this with a
smirk on my face. Like if you show up a couple minutes late, I’m not getting mad. Right. I’m saying, hey, hop in, let’s get this warm-up going. Let’s make this happen. Where in the college world, it’s like, hey, we got to go. We got this. We got that. Like there’s maybe standards and rules for all athletes or for that specific team or or whatever else. And there was always that constant drive because you knew that unfortunately someone
Someone’s job could be affected by how a kid ended up performing. And I know that sounds very transactional, and you made the statement in your podcast, but
Now it’s very much so much more transformative in this role because you get to see the kid and it might be for eight weeks or 12 weeks or or beyond. there’s a a high school that does their their gym class with us for weights. So you get to see them guys year-round. But it’s one of those things to where you get to get back to, and in my opinion, the the love of coaching again, to where when you step on the floor, it’s all about making the person in front of you better. Right. And there’s no there’s nothing hanging over the top, type.
Yeah.
Connor:
Yeah, I I I think that’s very real. And I appreciate you saying that ’cause, you know, I I just I remember I wouldn’t even be mad at the athlete if they were late. I was just so mad at the situation because obviously I understand that stuff happens and and I think you you and I both could sit here and say when we were eighteen to twenty one, we were certainly late for things, right? Like it there was no I’ve not had this perfect record in my entire life. So
And it almost felt like the pot call in the kettle black if I put myself in their shoes there for a second. But like I just remember I was not mad at the athlete. I was just really a lot more like going down the thought process of like, okay, now I’m gonna have to tell our head coach, and then we’re gonna have to address it. There’s probably gonna be a team punishment, there’s probably gonna be XYZ, and we’re gonna have to handle this. Okay, how is that gonna affect my program? You know, is that gonna mess up practice for this next week? Like it’s just like almost this like.
catastrophic chain of events because I’ve been been around the block, I’ve seen it before, I know how it can go. And it all depends on also, you know, sometimes what are the mood that people are in, you know, like is this going to be received well or not? You know, ’cause sometimes it changes. Like I guess I’m I’m saying all this to say like it it just really consumed a lot of my thought process. and when it could have been, like you said, spent more time with the athlete of just, hey, let’s not ruin this session just ’cause you were a couple minutes late. Let’s make sure that we get the most out of it that we possibly can and get you better.
Michael Silbernagel:
Yeah, I think those are the things like the other thing I think the private sector shows you is I mentioned it earlier, like it doesn’t matter what your logo is, coaching is coaching. Right. And and and realizing that you can make a living and you can have a life while still being a really good practitioner. And hopefully I’m able to give back to those coaches around me as well. Because whether I like it or not, they’re they’re the future of this profession.
Right. Like in my mid forties, I’m probably getting close to that top of the hill in terms of do I really have twenty years left, Connor. Like I don’t you don’t want to be that person, right? But like my mom was gone at fifty nine. So if I add twenty to my age, I’m not coaching that long.
Right. So it’s it’s what can we do to prepare the next group, the next generation, so that they coach my kids, they coach my kids’ kids, et cetera, to where we can keep this thing rolling in a very positive trend forward rather than taking steps backwards.
Connor:
Yeah, and and you have a broader reach to be able to do that too, because you now have access to even more kids from a lot of different backgrounds, and to be able to coach them and and really focus on the things that are important. I mean, I’ll never forget my one of my favorite athletes I’ve ever had. His name is Bryant Green. and he was a walk on with us. Really good basketball player. He actually, you know, we had kind of like an unspoken rule that walk ons weren’t gonna play on the team, right? You were a walk on, you were there to help us with practice and
There was no like story of hey, this walk on all of a sudden’s gonna start for us and everything this year. But like he he he had a chance at actually kind of transforming that. And unfortunately he got hurt going into his last season. you know, but we spent a lot of time together and he just developed this love for fitness and lifting and and just being a positive role model for the other young men in his life because there’s a lot of younger family members or fr friends of the family that he was around and and he became this really positive role model. I think that was
the one relationship that really taught me that, hey, it doesn’t have to be you know, this athlete reaches out to me after they finish up their pro career, their overseas career, whatever it is, and and says, Thank you. It could be somebody who is just gonna go out and be in the community and helping to coach them to be, like you said, a future coach, even if it’s not in the official title, but to be a better person.
Michael Silbernagel:
Well and and I’m fortunate I’ve got a a great staff of coaches and I get to live vicariously through them. Right. So when when their team wins on a weekend, I get to smile and be happy and throw one of their t shirts on, right, and and kind of hear them talk about, hey, this is what’s going on in the weight room right now. ‘Cause we talk weekly. We we do little touch points whether they’re in house or or one of our remote coaches and
It’s
fun to see them grow and it’s fun to see the impact they’re making at their locations. And I’m just fortunate enough to be along for the ride of their successes.
Connor:
Yeah, absolutely. And that to me is always one of the very fun parts is is managing staff, right? And and watching other coaches do their thing too. Because you know, I’ve always been a very, very, very, very big believer that my way is not the only correct way to do it because I I’ve seen a lot of coaches who are a lot different than me and have had a lot of success. you know, so how big is your staff? How many people do you manage?
Michael Silbernagel:
We have thirteen strength conditioning coaches total. And then in the summer and spring and fall, winter, we have different interns that are parts that number can grow from that side. And then I oversee two baseball academy coaches, a hockey academy coach, and a return to play specialist. So we’re we’re a pretty cool environment, a great group of people, like I said.
I think to kind of piggyback off that a little bit, like I think it was Mike Boyle that said if you’re coaching the same way now that you did five or ten years ago, you know, you’re you’re doing something wrong and
I think I’d probably throw an asterisk to that. Like I don’t know if my programming’s drastically changed in a decade. I think the way I coach has drastically changed in a decade. the human body is still the human body, and energy systems haven’t evolved to to something different. But my approach with individuals, my approach and how I utilize coaching queues in those around me has probably drastically changed compared to when I was a young coach of you know, you you you emulate who you were around, right?
Away, right? So, like if you were that fireball mile or the highway coach, you probably had a coach in your past that you clicked with that you were successful with, and you morphed into that. Well, now if my coaches would come back or athletes, you know, would come back to go, man, Silby got soft. Well, no, like actually Silby matured and Silby realized there’s other ways, as you mentioned, to get the point across. But I think at the same time,
Those things probably needed to be done at that point in time of my career in order for me to get where I am now. Right. So kind of in a in a nutshell with any young coach out there, it’s okay to watch yourself evolve through your coaching career, not just in a reps and sets and periodization mode. But if you were to videotape yourself year one, then again at year five, then again at your 15, and again at your 20, you might not recognize yourself on the floor coaching because of who you’ve turned into through that process.
Connor:
Yeah, I I couldn’t agree more. I mean, I I’ve remember asking myself at one point, like, did I get soft? Like, when did this happen? You know, because all my experience coming up for the first two years was football, you know, and it was this very high energy, high intensity. One of my favorite coaches I ever worked for was Craig Fitzgerald. I interned with him at University of Tennessee. He’s one of the toughest dudes you’ll ever meet. Like he’s he’s awesome, awesome, awesome to work with.
and so I did, you know, the fit stuff and like he d like he does like, you know, body positions. Like he coaches like that, like and he really he’s like, You gotta be a man, you know. It’s like that’s how I started coaching. And then you know, it was just interesting to see like how, like you say, kind of the fireball personality then transformed into working with basketball eight years, nine years later down the road. And I’m a lot more of a sit back, observe, give key points when I need to, you know, and and insert these things at different times and then
As I continue to coach throughout the rest of my career, it’s gonna look very different in the future as well too. Like it’s definitely okay to evolve. And I really like the the asterisk you put on the Mike Boyle quote there because I too haven’t changed very much in my programming, but I certainly have changed a lot in the way that coach.
Michael Silbernagel:
That’s what makes it fun, right? Is is your
Connor:
Yeah.
Michael Silbernagel:
ability to to do those things.
My statement that I’ve I’ve kind of lived by is, you know, I want my coaches to be authentically themselves. Right. And and my thing I always ask is if someone defines you in three words, what would they be? And then I’ll challenge them to go grab someone who’s in the facility or at the time when I was at the university, like grab someone and say, describe Silby. And to me, as long as they say educated, passionate, and caring, or one of the variations of those three words, I’m living who I want to be every day when I’m in front of them.
Right. And and that doesn’t mean that other people like those three things. Right. So when you say passionate, that might say intense, or they might say, you know, aggressive, like you just mentioned. Well, that’s not for you to like or dislike. That doesn’t bother me, but I want to make sure that you know that. Right. And then the educated part comes from.
One of my first interviews, I was I was called a meathead. And I decided from that point in time I was gonna give it the definition of meathead, right? Someone who likes to lift but is unbelievably educated, right? And and can have the a good conversation, not just lift heavy stuff. Right. So from the educated piece, I want a parent or a child or whoever it was to be able to go, man, that guy knows what he’s talking about in these conversations, right? And then caring is not just the like
I like you. It’s the I care enough about you to make sure that I’m helping you set yourself up for success. I think I stole the quote from Ken Manny he had in their weight room at Michigan State at the time is I won’t accept you as who you are, but I’ll show you what you can become and help you to achieve it. Right. Like that model of caring. Like I’m going to help you not just be where you’re at, but get you where you need to go. And along that line, that there’s be times where maybe you and I disagree, or maybe there’s gonna be things that we don’t see eye to eye on, right? Along that, but
The goal is to help make you a better person. And I really try to get my staff to find out what their three things are. Because if they can do that, every day becomes easier. You’re not a true chameleon, so to speak. You can still navigate situations, but you can still be who you are, right? Like it’s not like who do I need to be as I walk in the room today? It’s how do I need to be within my personality?
today to get my point across. Right. I think sometimes we lose that as individuals. If you see me as a dad, if you see me as a husband, I’d still want those three things defining me. Right. They might just be in slightly different ways.
Connor:
Yeah, I I really I really like that. And I I think one of my favorite things you just bet said was having people describe themselves in three words, right? Like I mean, obviously that’s a that’s a pretty common question, right? Is you have to have a level of self-awareness. You have to know, okay, who do I want to be and and who am I, you know. but what I really like about that is then having to back it up immediately, right? And having somebody you know, then try to see if they can certify what they just said, right? Because that’s that’s where you need to know if you’re truly aligned with who you want to be or not.
And then that’s when you can also know, hey, do I need to make changes in the way I coach or do I really just need to kind of back up what I’m saying? because the lip service stuff is really easy. It’s really easy to go in and say, I’m a high energy coach, you know, who cares? Right. But if that’s not what everybody else describes you as, then that’s that can be a little bit concerning and they can show a little bit of a lack of self awareness. But obviously there’s room to improve within there. So I really, I really like driving that point home immediately. I I almost laugh too, because I can think sometimes too like when
I’ve had former interns in the past, they’ve connected with other interns and they’ve they’ve like given them a tip like, hey, you know, Connor will ask you this question or something like that. I’m sure, you know, it might have happened at some point where somebody was like, Hey, Silby’s gonna ask you, and then I’m gonna say these three things, and then I need you to make sure you say the same three things. I’m I’m making a situation up in my head, but I can almost see it just with sometimes how people can be. you know, you have a large staff, you have staff in a lot of different locations that work in different areas.
And I think you’ve you’ve already kind of touched to this, but I would just want to see if we can go a little bit further in it. How do you drive the staff culture? You know, especially with having a large staff that has a lot of different moving parts and people in different areas, like you meet once a week, but what are the other things that you do to make sure that the Sanford sports performance model continues to be consistent across the board?
Michael Silbernagel:
Yeah,
I think there’s a there’s a couple things with it. I I the main thing I want our staff to have is some kind of consistency in terminology, like so to be clear, because I don’t I don’t want to be cookie cutter, but I want the athletes to be successful. As we’ve both talked, we’ve moved in our professions at different locations. So whoever comes into a different location, I want the kids to be confident. Right. So by keeping the same terminology, our the the individuals that we work with every day can be confident.
It’s not this thing’s called that and that thing’s called this, but it’s the same thing and now the kids are confused. Like that’s that’s number one goal when I first got here. the other thing is is culture is dynamic, not static.
So as soon as you’re like, man, things are clicking, get ready, because it’s probably you’re you’re gonna get hit with a wave, right? And and as soon as you get hit with the wave, you gotta go, okay, well, we gotta study this thing, get it back on track and find out how to make it better. you know, what caused the wave, how do we not see the wave coming and all that fun stuff? but we do a couple of different things. Like I said, we talk weekly, we have a weekly staff meeting for those in-house, but a weekly touch point via video with my other coaches or phone call. we do quarterly video events.
To where the coaches videotape themselves. They watch it. I watch it. We got a grading rubric that we kind of go over. And we know it’s just a snapshot.
But it allows them to, like you said, are you actually what you claimed you were? Are you seeing all the things in the room? Is the technique the way you want it? Is the structure the way you want it? are your standards that you claim to be actually portraying themselves in front of you in those situations? We also do a quarterly program on eval where we just talk about their program. What are we doing? Why? Can you articulate it? Can you explain it? Because if I was a sport coach, a parent, or even the athlete, would I understand what you’re trying to accomplish? Right.
And then making sure that I have a relationship with the athletic directors of all these locations to where if something does come up, there’s no blind sided, right? Like we try to make sure that it is it’s us together, not separate, right? It’s what can we do with you, not can we, you know, take over type of a situation. And and when you’re dealing with a lot of different people and a lot of different personalities, there’s very seldom a time where there’s not some little spark with smoke somewhere.
So what I’m really trying to learn myself is how do I not get too high or get too low myself and go breathe. This one’s fine. That one’s gonna start up here in a couple of weeks. Like it’s almost a joke. Like if we have a couple days where nothing’s going on, it’s like you’re your head’s on a swivel trying to find the next next little spark that’s gonna go up. But I think with that is getting our staff continuing education.
we’ve brought in Tom Shepherd from Elite FTS this year. We brought in Boo Shexnader, former track coach from LSU this year. A couple years ago, we were fortunate enough to bring in Bill Parisi and Chad Coy. Like we’re trying to help educate our staff, right? To where they can see themselves still growing in the career through that process. We try to do whatever we can in terms of I know it sounds corny, but it’s nice to not have to buy a t-shirt every year.
Right. If you can go to work and wear a t-shirt or a pullover that you didn’t have to pay for, at least being in the college world like you and I were, like that was a big deal to go buy your own stuff. So we we try to do that, make it as much of a family while not being a family at the same time. Right. Like so our our weekly meetings aren’t just X’s and O’s. It’s very similar to this. Hey, what’s going on? How are things going at home? How’s the dog? How’s the cat? Right? Did you did you move apartments yet?
And then at the same time, not being afraid to ask the questions of what’s your next step? I know your destination might not be here. My destination wasn’t at my previous stops for the rest of my life. So how can I help set you up for what your next step is? Since I’ve been doing this long enough, I’ve got relationships with a lot of different people throughout the country. How can I help you get to where you want to go? And I think that’s been the biggest thing, or one of the big things that’s
kept lines of communication open with the staff that I’ve worked with.
Connor:
Yeah, you know, to your last point, it’s almost it’s funny to me. I’ve just seen in my experience where if you’re not afraid to have the conversation about, hey, I know this probably isn’t you’re not gonna be working for Sanford Sports Performance for the next forty years of your life, you know, what can I do to best help you grow as a coach and how can I get you further along in your career? I’ve noticed that those are the people who stay longer at a position
than the ones who you never talk with them about it, right? Because I think there’s a certain level of showing I really care about you. I care about your development. This isn’t just a I have a position that needs to be filled and you’re filling it right now and and I appreciate that. It’s much more of a a human level thing. And so I really like that you approach that conversation that way because ultimately to me that’s going to help with staff retention tremendously.
Michael Silbernagel:
Yeah, and then you gotta understand, like when you have a staff that’s large, there’s gonna be turnover. things happen in life, like in both of ours, and they need to go and live their life and their path. And the one thing I tell them, like they’ll tell me that they’re leaving, and I got this blank look on their face, and they’re like, You’re not happy. I’m like, no, because I like you. Right? Because I don’t want to lose you, but I’m happy for you about your next step. But that doesn’t mean I’m happy that I have to fill your spot.
Right. Like they’re both can still be true. I can be unbelievably proud of you, unbelievably happy for you, and still frustrated about the current situation. Right. I think where people should worry is when people are like doing fist pumps when someone hands in a letter of resignation. Right. Like that that would worry me more than the coach that’s like, man, like now what do we do? You know, the one that’s like clapping and shouting off, you know, fireworks in their office going, I was waiting for this day, I think would be a little bit more concerning.
Connor:
Yeah, a thousand percent. I was waiting for a couple of people when I was telling them I was leaving App State to have that reaction. So I’m glad I’m glad they didn’t. one of the other things you mentioned too was a a quarterly review. I really like the process of having something intentionally set aside to help make sure that you’re getting better. Right. I think it’s easy and especially like you said, with extensive experience to kind of coach the same way or just get comfortable.
As you mentioned earlier, like just say, okay, you know, this has worked. I’ve seen good results with this. I’m gonna get comfortable. and so it can be tough unless you set aside a tens intentional time to say, hey, let me review this performance. Let me make sure that I’m be being who I say I am, let me make sure that I’m continuing to get better. You know, for somebody who’s kind of on the edge, maybe about doing something like that, like having quarterly performance reviews, what has it done for the coaches you’ve worked with and what has it done for you as their manager?
Michael Silbernagel:
Well,
I think right away everyone gets uptight, right? But we looked at it as it didn’t work if I was just standing in the corner of the weight room. That’s awkward for the athletes. It’s awkward for the coach. It’s awkward for me. So this was a way of of going, hey, how do we take it to where it’s it’s very much so like almost just a conversation? What did you see? Here’s what I saw. Like the first couple of times, though, you’re like, man, I just hope we saw the same thing.
Right. Like nothing’s worse than like, I was a rock star. You’re like, no, you weren’t. Right. Or or vice versa. and I think so, as long as you’re seeing the same stuff, you can definitely grow through that. I think it’s allowed me to structure as a manager to take a breath and go, these are just steps in the process. Right. I I can’t remember who said it, but you can’t speed up experience. Right. So if someone’s in in year one of coaching or year two of coaching, you can’t expect them to be in your 25.
Right and see all those things. But at the same time, now you help, as you mentioned, you help guide them and go, Hey, maybe if you position yourself in the room here, or did you see in the video where your back was turned and the the kids were like, you know
messing around with the barbell, swinging it like it was a baseball bat. And then when you turn it around, everything was fine. Right. Like you got to position yourself and things of that nature. It allows it to be a much more fluent conversation. And then you also learn things. Like I get to watch videos and learn things that can help me become a better coach because there’s a lot of things that my staff does that are really, really good. And now it’s just how do I add that into my recipe, right? At the same time. So I get to be selfish within it. but it took it to where it’s no longer combative.
Right. Cause like if I walk in, Connor, and I’m like, hey, Connor, I saw you do this. Cause everyone goes to what you did wrong first, right? Or what you could do better at. And I think that’s part of the problem too. There’s no necessarily better or worse. It’s just kind of where we are in the spectrum of things. But allowing those conversations to be like, Yeah, this is what we’re doing. Let’s let’s get after it. Now with my coaches that have been here for a while, like it is really smooth. I don’t even go through the checklist much anymore. Now I’m just like, all right, tell me your things that you thought were
were above proficient and maybe the things that were below and you can tell me however you want to versus me just going down a checklist.
Connor:
Yeah. No, I I love that process and you know, it’s so funny because I’ve I myself as a manager and I myself in the being on the other side of just being a coach have, you know, experienced that where somebody comes in and says, Hey, I saw you do this, right? You know, and and it can be it almost immediately raises up these walls, you know, of just like, Okay, I don’t know if I’m really ready to receive this, you know, right now because now I’m nervous, like, are you just constantly looking at what I’m doing? You know, or I’ve put other people in that position where it’s like, Hey, I brought up this bad thing.
You know, or I’ve even had I had a manager in the past who was the nicest human being on the planet and always did the compliment sandwich, right? Where it was like, okay, you did X really good, Y wasn’t great, Z was really good. You know, so as soon as I heard, hey, this was really good, I my walls still went up because I was like, Okay, he’s gonna tell me I still did something bad, right? So like I think you bring up a great point there too, is that that is an intentional time to sit down together. It doesn’t, you know, it really removes a lot of the perceived confrontation of it.
And then you can just help everybody continue to improve.
Michael Silbernagel:
Yeah, I think the, you know, obviously that’s my perception, right? Like if you asked my staff, they might have a completely different response. but I think those are the things that are needed to grow. And I think back if how many things could I have avoided or maybe done for a shorter amount of time if I would have been able to get that same kind of feedback. Now we can argue technology wasn’t there, all these other things, but I I think those are the the aspects of those.
you know, maybe reflections rather than evals, they should be called, because it’s really th they’re not getting a performance review, so to speak. It’s just more of a kind of where are we at and what are we doing type situation.
Connor:
Yeah, for sure. I like that. Maybe this podcast will inspire the change to reflections. And then maybe we should have Sanford’s sports performance staff member come on and I’ll ask him about the process too. See what they say.
Michael Silbernagel:
Yeah, yeah.
D now you just saw my wall go up, right? Like all of a sudden everything got
Connor:
Yeah, exactly.
Michael Silbernagel:
uptight.
Connor:
Yeah, a hundred percent. you gave a really good piece of advice to our listeners earlier where, you know, it’s okay to watch yourself evolve and it’s okay to watch yourself grow as a coach and change who you are as a coach. Is there any other advice that you’d want to impart to our listeners, like through your extensive experience of training conditioning, anything that you would want to say just to make sure that the listeners are left with today?
Michael Silbernagel:
Yeah,
I think we we talk as coaches all the time about effort to our athletes that we work with. How much effort are you putting into the things that you need to be doing? and that can be number one, taking care of yourself, right? Like are you are you actually sleeping eight hours a day, like you’re telling your athletes to? Is your nutrition what you’re telling your athletes to? Or if, you know, I I don’t I drink coffee. That’s my you saw me drinking a cup, it’s six o’clock at night my time, right?
If we were to have an athlete come to us with that breakdown, would we be like high fiving them or would we be upset with their choices? Right. And then finally, on that note of effort, like what are you doing to stay ahead of the curve? What are you doing to maybe reread things that you read in a different lens? Like I love using the analogy of of National Treasure. I know it’s an older movie now.
But like when he’s looking at the Declaration of Independence and he’s he’s got all the different colored lenses to see the actual thing on the back. Well, sometimes rereading a book that you read 10 years ago, you reread it with a different lens and experience, and you’re gonna get more out of it. You don’t have to look for the newest thing that’s out there. Sometimes going back and redoing some of the things you’ve already invested money in or spent time doing and kind of revisiting those things can also be like aha moments. Cause sometimes maybe you got rid of something that was really, really good.
Right. Cause in an hour session, there’s only so much you can do. So maybe you cut something out years ago because you thought you had to evolve as a coach. And now you go back and you’re like, I could have used that. Right. And then allowing yourself to reach out to those around you to have better lines of communication.
I the there’s so many coaches in my opinion that stay in silos that don’t reach out to others that are living literally the same thing that they are today, or maybe lived it years ago. Right. And I I always joke that I’ve yet to see an 80-year-old that doesn’t have some knowledge to bring, even though they my grandfather, I love him. Depending on which sister you asked, he was either a second grade education or a sixth grade education. But every time you talk to him, like he had insightful information to share.
That if I would have written things down, I probably would be further ahead in many different aspects, right? Even though he was not a strength conditioning professional whatsoever.
Connor:
Yeah. I think those are two really good pieces of advice there. And and I think that goes back to what you mentioned earlier. you know, your first piece of advice about the effort levels, like, are you who you say you are? You know, are you trying to continue to push yourself and then are you who you’re portraying yourself to be to these athletes? Because a lot of the times when you work with athletes, it can be just very much about, okay, you need to do this, that, and the other better. You know, we need to continue to improve here. But
You know, I always I remember you bring up coffee. I had I had a ghost energy drink on my desk when I was telling an athlete his nutrition needed to be better. And he turned to me and he was like, Bro, I saw you grab the halftime gushers at our last game and you’re drinking an energy drink right now. And I was like, All right, fair enough. Like, but that’s that’s a real thing because we can see it as okay, they don’t necessarily perceive this, but they a hundred percent do. So I really appreciate that. And I will say, I will I will be very remiss the day that
the national treasure references don’t become very widely known. I’m gonna be I’m gonna be devastated, quite frankly. One of my favorite movies. So I greatly appreciate the reference. my final question for you. You know, so we’ve kind of talked about the benefits of, you know, change transitioning throughout your career, moving into different avenues. you know, obviously at Sanford Sports Performance, you have opportunities for coaches. you have different areas and
A different way for them to work and a different way for them to get better. If somebody was interested in in kind of Sanford Sports Performance or just learning more about it, what would be the best way to do it and maybe like a thirty second elevator pitch for those coaches who are listening?
Michael Silbernagel:
Yeah, I think the easiest way, my Instagram is at coach Sylby, S-I-L-B-Y. You can shoot me a a message there. You can email me and I can get you that information as well, Connor. But I think the we’re always gonna be hiring when have staff like this and we’re spread throughout, you know, four states. There’s gonna be positions that are out there and that are available that allow you to do the things that you love while maybe in a a much more manageable
Time frame commitment, but also financial commitment to to be where you want to be doing other things outside of just the strength-conditioning world.
Connor:
It’s fantastic. You might I mean, if I didn’t just move to Rochester, New York, you might have seen me out there in North Dakota. Yeah, you s you got me sold, so I appreciate it. Well, Silby, thank you so much for coming on. I I greatly appreciate your time. you know, this is the first national treasure reference. So I’m always gonna hold that as a treasure in my heart. I love it. but I I I certainly learned a lot during the episode too. So thank you for coming on.
Michael Silbernagel:
Awesome. Thank you for having me.
