CVASPS The Podcast

Today we have an awesome discussion on building a performance program and department with Carl “Shep” Sheppard. Shep has been given the unique challenge of building the new preparation program for Space Force, which is (obviously) an extremely unique branch of the military.  Throughout the 37-minute discussion Shep and I dive into:

1)    The role a soldier and an educator has driven his professional development

2)    How the “average make up” of the operators he works with makes developing a preparation program a unique challenge

3)    What aspects of human physiology they’re evaluating and how they’re looking to develop those qualities.

4)    How using the health of the operators is the most value and first level of their preparedness

5)    The battle between forward thinking and the way it’s always been.

6)    Where wearables do and do not fit in the development of these operators

Such an interesting assignment, and an awesome discussion with Shep Sheppard diving into how they’re building the preparation program for these operators. I can’t thank him enough for being so open to sharing the directions of this process with us today. I hope that you’ve found value in the discussion, and if so please feel free to share it with a colleague and please subscribe and leave us a 5-star review on your favorite podcast platform.

In this week’s episode of The Podcast I got to sit down and building out a unique staff structure and the development of a yearlong training program with Kennesaw State’s Emmet Van Der Snick. Throughout the 30 plus minute discussion Emmet and I get into:

1)    The role of PT school in his development, and how it continues to impact him professionally

2)    How having different directors within a department is helping their department progress

3)    Where his philosophy of training formulated, and how it has grown through his different stops.

4)    Specific progressions that he utilizes and has success with.

5)    The impact of today’s culture in sports and the transfer portal on his training prescriptions.

Emmet shared with us some great insight into the formation of their multiple director structure at KSU and why this could be a more viable option for departments going forward.  I also can’t thank him enough for being so open to share so in-depth to what his programming is with his student athletes, that’s a great look inside not just what he’s programming but the thoughts behind it. I’m excited that I got to speak with him and for his future as a practitioner. Make sure you give him a follow @coach_van_der_snick on Instagram. If you enjoyed the discussion and found value in the show feel free to share this episode with a collogue that you feel would enjoy it, and please don’t forget to subscribe and give us a 5-star review on your favorite podcast player. I truly do appreciate it.

Who is Emmett Van Der Snick?

Emmett Van Der Snick currently serves as the Director of Sports Performance at Kennesaw State University where he works with Lacrosse, Softball, Tennis, Women’s Golf, and Women’s Soccer. Prior to this role he served as the Assistant Director of Sports Performance. Before KSU he spent time coaching at BYU, LSU, and JMU working with a variety of teams including Football, Women’s Lacrosse, and Swim and Dive.

In this week’s episode I get to have a really awesome conversation about finding secondary ways to make money as a coach with Rodrigo Alvira Isla. If you’ve ever had the “privilege” of getting stuck with me during one of my rants about this topic you already know how passionate I am about this topic and how important I think this is, not just for coaches, but for everyone in today’s financial climate. Throughout the nearly 40-minute discussion Rodrigo and I get into:

1)     Being an international, the visa process, and some of the challenges of coming to work in The States

2)     Some of the differences in basketball preparation between Spain and the US.

3)     What were the driving factors behind Spaniardperformance and how it has helped him become a better coach.

4)     Why many of the fears people have behind why they don’t post content, or build an online product may be self-imposed.

5)     Working with athletes on an online training program, steps you can make to make it scalable, and what is a reasonable time commitment to each athlete in his mind. 

I cannot thank Rodrigo enough for being so open to sharing, not just his voyage, but also some ways that coaches can use platforms we all have to find a second source of income. He’s putting out awesome content with his business on Instagram, so make sure you give him a follow at @spaniardperformance. Even if you don’t speak Spanish, he’s providing a great template (how he’s doing things) as to how you can build, and scale, an online business as a coach. 

If you found value in the show it would be a huge help to us if you could do me three favors: first, as with all all our content, please feel share this with a colleague you think could find value in the show. Second, if you haven’t please subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player, and lastly if you could leave us a 5 star review on that players I would greatly appreciate it. 

Who is Rodrigo Alvira Isla?

Rodrigo was born and raised in Zaragoza, Spain. He came to America to play college basketball, playing division 2 basketball a lung injury during his Junior year. He graduated with bachelor in Exercise Science in 2018, worked in Dubai, Lincoln University, Exceed SPF, and Grand Canyon University, with different sports, including Basketball, Football, Volleyball and Golf. He created Spaniard Performance in 2018 to help the Spanish speaking world to learn the side for Sports Performance in the US.

This week I’m so excited to welcome Amit Vohra to The Podcast. Similar to the past few guests we have had on the show I’ve been fortunate to watch Amit’s professional growth from a distance after getting his feet wet in the vocation under my former director Chris Stewart. During the 30+ minute discussion Amit and I get into:

1)    How he has formulated his thought process around programming. 

2)    The role and power of belief in training, programming, coaching, and life.

3)    What the goal of the program is, and where evaluations impact the directions they take to reach those goals.

4)    Examples of how they utilize data to help structure and progress/regress drills in practice

5)    Metrics that they look at, why they look at them, and how they impact decisions. Not just in practice but in training as well.

Amit is doing some great work up at Towson, it’s really been awesome watching him grow from intern here back in the day to where he is now. Super excited for the future he has as a practitioner. Make sure you give him a follow @vohra91 on Instagram. And please, if you find value in the show feel free to share this episode with a collogue that you feel would enjoy it, and please don’t forget to subscribe and give us a 5-star review on your favorite podcast player. I truly do appreciate it.

Who is Amit Vohra?

Vohra has been a strength and conditioning coach at Towson since August 2018.  He currently serves as the director of basketball performance, primarily working with the men's basketball team.

Among his duties include leading the strength room’s internship program plus utilizing the catapult athlete monitoring system to help optimize training loads.

Vohra was the strength coach for the 2018-19 CAA Champion Towson women’s basketball team and the 2020 ECAC Champion Towson women’s indoor track team.

He came to Towson after a year at the University of Connecticut as a sports performance assistant, working primarily with men’s and women’s cross country/track & field and diving.  His 2017 UConn women’s cross-country team won its first-ever conference championship in program history.

Previous to UConn, Vohra served as a graduate assistant for Springfield College for the 2016-17 season, working with men’s/women’s basketball, men’s soccer, men’s lacrosse and baseball.  He has also worked as an intern for Wake Forest University, the College of the Holy Cross, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and the University of Richmond.

I am elated to get to sit down and discuss the role and impact of data in the return to play process with The Las Vegas Golden Knights Director of Sport Science and Reconditioning, Dr. Aaron Heishman. Throughout the 35-minute discussion Heish and I get into: 

1)    The impact of starting with the right mentor, and how his has left a mark on him professionally and continues to drive him forward.

2)    Where he sees the role of “sport science” in their organization

3)    The balance between skill and power, and the ways they evaluate where they fit on the continuum of how they move

4)    The role of data in the RTP process, including what they utilized as preinjury baseline data.

5)    How the process of evaluating and interrupting data is what makes it actionable, which is where the value truly is

6)    What drives the conversation’s when an athlete is progressing through the RTP process, and how the objective and subjective work hand in hand to drive decisions.  

Truly grateful for Dr. Heishman taking the time to be on the show and being so open to sharing. He’s doing some fantastic work in Vegas and is an absolute wealth of knowledge that’s absolutely driving our entire vocation forward by pushing the envelope in the performance monitoring world. Make sure to give him a follow @aheish11_ on Instagram. Feel free to share this episode with a collogue that you feel would enjoy it, and please don’t forget to subscribe and give us a 5-star review on your favorite podcast player. I truly do appreciate it.

Who is Aaron Heishman?

Aaron is the Head of Sport Science and Reconditioning for the Vegas Golden Knights. He is primarily responsible for directing the sport science initiatives of the organization, as well as leading the implementation of return to play programming for athletes undergoing long-term rehabilitation. Prior to his time with the Golden Knights, he worked as the Assistant Director of Basketball Performance and Sport Scientist at University of Oklahoma. While at OU, Aaron earned his PhD in Exercise Physiology with research focused on athlete monitoring strategies used to evaluate neuromuscular performance and fatigue in basketball players. Before Oklahoma, Aaron worked as the Graduate Assistant for Basketball Performance at the University of Virginia, where he found a passion for trying to bridge the gap between applied performance practices and research in effort to maximize athlete health and performance. 

In this week we welcome LSU’s Scott Kuehn to The Podcast. I’ve been very fortunate to know Scott for what is going on 10 years, and it’s been fantastic to watch him grow professional and into his role with LSU football. Within the 42-minute discussion Scott and I get into:

1)    How attending The Seminar impacted his growth and professional trajectory

2)    What “the high-performance model” means to him?

3)    Where do practitioners need to start when it comes to building their version of this model?

4)    Where understanding the role of internal/external monitoring and subjective/objective lenses, and how they can each combine to provide unique data to help us do better for our athletes

5)    The role of technology, and how adding too much to fast can lead to issues.

I can’t thank Scott enough for spending the time with us and being so candid with his thoughts on building a high-performance model. It’s been really awesome watching his career trajectory from a far, but I feel it’s safe to say that we can see why he’s climbed the ladder as quickly as he has. He’s doing fantastic work down in Baton Rouge. Make sure you give him a follow on the socials @scottkuehn88, and tap in to his Linktree to check out the great products that he has available here: https://linktr.ee/scottkuehn88 If you find value in the show please feel free to share this episode with a collogue that you feel would enjoy it, and please don’t forget to subscribe and give us a 5-star review on your favorite podcast player. I truly do appreciate it.

Who is Scott Kuehn?

Scott Kuehn is currently the Manager of Applied Sport Science for LSU Football. He has previously had stops at the University of Arizona, the College of William & Mary, the University of Tulsa, and the University of Kentucky in varying capacities as both a performance coach and sport scientist. Originally from the Chicago suburbs, he attended Illinois State University for his undergrad in exercise science, while going from walk-on to scholarship football player during his time there, then completed a Master's degree while at Tulsa.

The Podcast is BACK! In episode 1 of season 4 I had the fortune of being able to sit down and chop it up with North Broward Prep’s Director of Athletic Development and Head Track and Field Coach, John Garrish. Throughout the 45-minute discussion, John and I get into:

1)    Even though his path has changed through his career, how his love in training has still been a driving force behind his decisions.

2)    How the idea of “Shiny Object Syndrome” impact coaches

3)    The role of identifying value in toys, tools, or tech, and where the research can impact progress either way.

4)    Wickets, their value, where they can be helpful, and what you could do if you don’t have access to them, or a group too large to implement them.

5)    Building progressions while keeping what’s “best available for the group” in mind

6)    Utilizing constraints to correct technical issues in sprinting, and what he’s looking at to identify what need to be improved.

7)    Where the weight room connects with speed training, including where its priority sits throughout the year and how that changes.

8)    His entire weekly plan in “the perfect world”

I’m truly grateful for John being so open to sharing all of this with us today. Understanding how some of the best practitioners provide feedback and put athlete’s in situations to improve technique is so valuable, so I can’t thank him enough for sharing so many aspects of, not just his progressions, but what he’s identifying and correcting. His Instagram full of awesome content, including great “stories” giving great examples of his athletes in action, so give him a follow at: @coach_garrish. Lastly, if you find value in the show please feel free to share this episode with a collogue that you feel would enjoy it, and please don’t forget to subscribe and give us a 5-star review on your favorite podcast player. I truly do appreciate it.

Who is John Garrish?

Coach John Garrish has served the North Broward Prep community for nine years as the school's Strength & Conditioning Coordinator, five as its Head Track and Field Coach and three as a Middle School Faculty member.  A native of South Florida, John attended Wagner College (B.S., Psychology '12) and the University of North Texas (M.S., Kinesiology '14) before serving as a Strength and Conditioning Coach at Rutgers University and finally joining the North Broward Prep family in 2014.   Most recently, John served temporarily on the FAU Football Strength Staff during the summer of 2020.  John is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and has served on the Board of Directors for the National High School Strength Coaches' Association as the Southeast Regional Director (2016-2020) and the National Strength and Conditioning Association's High School Special Interest Group Executive Council (2015-2016).

I’m elated to introduce Brittney Bearden to The CVASPS family in this week’s episode of The Podcast. Britt has done some fantastic work with our guys over the past three years helping them to transform their nutrition routines. In the 33-minute discussion Brittney and I get into:

1)     What drove her to go into sports nutrition and how the education steps to get licensed impacted how she practices today. 

2)     What is truly involved in how we select food, and how important it is to individualize nutrition programs based on the specific athlete. 

3)     The value in understanding where the athlete is in their nutrition voyage, and working with them to build from there. 

4)     Where the “line” is for where strength coaches may step out of their scope of practice, and what issues could arise if we over step our boundaries.

A huge thank you to Brittney Bearden for joining us today. She has been a huge addition to our group and has done great work helping our guys better understand how they fuel themselves, and also puts out awesome stuff so make sure you give her a follow @sportrdbritt on Instagram. I’m sure you’ll find a have a ton of value in the content she’s putting out. I can’t thank you enough for listening to The Podcast, and I hope you enjoyed the show. If so and could help us out by sharing the show with a colleague that would be greatly appreciated, and please don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player, and please leave us a review while you’re there.

This week’s episode of The Podcast is a season review and audit with Andrea Comini. Dre and I have known each other for almost 10 years, and we had the opportunity to sponsor his visa to bring him back to The States to work with us in The Q this year and he was a huge addition. Dre’s a great coach who brought a unique view point to our daily routine, our programming, and our standard. In the 30-minute discussion Dre and I get into:

1)     Where his love of basketball and coaching stems from.

2)     How bringing in a new set of eyes helped point out some areas I became a bit comfortable

3)     The value of having a standard in our vocation and how it can be helpful teaching leadership and accountability within a team

4)     Being who you are at all times, how each individual has to be true to themselves, and how we can learn from each other’s true self

5)     The training plan and facility they’re building in Italy, and what is the driving factor behind building the program. 

Massive thank you to Andrea Comini for joining us today. This was a unique show for me, taking a step back and reviewing where we had to make some improvements, the results of them, and sharing with you. I can’t thank Dre enough for his help this year, both with the team and with driving me to be a better coach. Make sure you check out what they’re doing at the Pro Camp, they’re doing an awesome job sharing what doing down at the lake. Give them a follow at: @procamp__ on Instagram. I’m sure you’ll find a what they’re putting out to have a ton of value. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed the show. If so and could help us out by sharing the show with a colleague that would be greatly appreciated, and please don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player, and please leave us a review while you’re there.

This week I had the pleasure of getting to catch up with Dominick Walker on this week’s episode of The Podcast. Dom is doing some awesome work down at Mississippi State preparing his Men’s Basketball team, and also providing a ton of great content on the work they’re doing and the results he’s seeing. In the 35-minute chat Dom and I get into:

1)     Some adjustments that we see that are needed in this new era of the portal and NIL

2)     Picking what battle to fight knowing that you’re not going to win them all

3)     What the role of having standards are in developing relationships with the athlete

4)     The role of the strength and conditioning coach in the world of sport

Huge thanks to Dominick Walker for joining us today. This show, like many this season, has been a long time coming. He’s doing an awesome job sharing the work he’s doing down at MSU so make sure you give him a follow at: @raikage.com on twitter and Instagram. I’m sure you’ll find a what he’s putting out to have a ton of value. If you enjoyed the show and could help us out by sharing the show with a colleague that would be greatly appreciated, and please don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player, and please leave us a review while you’re there. 

I am so excited to welcome Dr. Kessa Kuyper to The Podcast. “K” was a great addition to our staff for the 2021/22 season, helping one of the oldest teams ever in college basketball “survive” the season with her unique perspective on training after going through PT School. In the 30-minute conversation we discuss:

1)     Why going to PT school may be a good decision for young coaches coming out of college

2)     How having a role within the high-performance team is important, not just to the staff but the athlete even more.

3)     The value in the athlete’s input to programming

K is doing awesome work out in Memphis. Make sure you give her a follow @kessakuyper and follow the staff at Memphis @mephisathleticperformance You’ll find a ton of awesome content on both pages. Also, if you find value in the shows please feel free to send it to a colleague that would enjoy it and don’t forget to subscribe and give us a 5-star review! I truly do appreciate it.

In this week’s episode of The Podcast Will Ratelle and I discuss the vernacular of strength and conditioning, and why terms matter. Throughout the 35-minute chat Will and I get into:

1)     How all too often we come up with terms that may or may not have an actual definition, and why this is really slowing down our progress as a vocation. 

2)     His view on the term rotational power, and why there may be some misconceptions around that term

3)     The impact of range of motion on power athletes

4)     What factors are important to Will in the training process, and how it drives his programming.

5)     How can we communicate to coaches that they may not understand what they don’t understand

6)     How the most important thing may be how your relationships with your coworkers are.

Will is doing great work, not just with his student athlete’s but with his two “Hoss” projects. Make sure you check them out here: and give him a follow on Instagram @will.ratelle. He puts out a ton of awesome content. If you enjoyed the show please subscribe on your favorite podcast player, and if you could leave us a 5 star review I’d greatly appreciate it!

In this week’s episode I’m so happy to welcome Josh Storms to The Podcast. Throughout the 30-minute conversation Josh and I get into:

1)     The pros of longevity in one place.

2)     The transition period between head coaches, what he observed with the players, and how being the “go between” with the new staff and the players helped with the transition. 

3)     What his evaluation process during Spring Ball consists of, and the impact of “the portal”

4)     The importance of evolving your programming, and its effect both physically and mentally on the athlete

5)     Leadership, why athletes have a hard time with it, and how we can encourage athletes to develop that skill.

Coach Storms is doing awesome work down at FSU, and is such a generous wealth of knowledge. 

Make sure to give Josh a follow @coachstorms on both Instagram and Twitter to check out the work he’s doing and the awesome training music that’s got going on in their sessions. I hope you enjoyed the discussion, and if you did please feel free share it with a colleague. Also, if you find value in the shows please don’t forget to subscribe and give us a 5-star review! I truly do appreciate it. 

This week’s podcast guest is another coach whose name has been dropped on many “My Thoughts Monday’s. I’m so fired up to get to chop it up with my good friend and former co-worker Mike Thomson this week. In the 30-minute chat Mike and I get into:

1)     Evaluating players (in this case pitchers), and how looking at their mechanics can improve specificity and drive better training prescription.

2)     How they establish variables to look at and use to help drive, not just their training model, but prescription of training means to impact the sporting exercise.

3)     The impact of understanding the language used in the sport, and the what the actual

4)     Keeping training to help make those who are exceptional at certain things even more exceptional at those things based on evaluations

5)     Working through the “continual in season” that we are now seeing in many sports

6)     Where looking at the individual vs regressing to a mean can help identify not just what is working for each specific athlete but also what is NOT working.

7)     Thought processes that drive his continuous growth and has helped him build this model

Mike has had a huge impact the development of our staff and programming for our athlete’.  Make sure you give him a follow-on Twitter @Thomson19Mike and Instagram @mikethomson19 to see what he’s building in the training of all the teams he gets to work with. If you enjoyed the talk please feel free share it with a colleague and don’t forget to subscribe and give us a 5-star review! It’s greatly appreciated. 

I’m so happy to welcome Steve Georgio to The Podcast this week. Steve has been doing awesome work up at Fordham going through a very unique and trying three years, surviving three different head coaching changes in that time period, leading up to a fantastic season this year. Throughout the 30 plus minute discussion Steve and I talk about

1)     The importance of loyalty in a world and vocation that really lacks it at times

2)     In a time where specializing in one sport is the norm, how working with multiple sports has helped him be ready for a vast array of situations, changes, curve balls

3)     Key thoughts and themes of the conversations that he has had to better understand the direction a team is going to go with new coaches during times of transition

4)     Understanding our role within the team, and how that changes, not just throughout the year, but season to season as teams change

5)     How expanding your coaching skill set, through many different forms of education, is great, but doing so directed by the needs of the athletes and coaches is even better

6)     Providing ever green content and “meeting the athletes where they’re at” through different mediums to help provide more education for the athletes 

Make sure to give Steve a follow-on IG and twitter @georg1o and follow his performance team @rams_strength, they’re doing great stuff and putting out great content. If you enjoyed the talk please feel free to subscribe and give us a 5-star review! It’s greatly appreciated

Today I am elated to welcome Eric Guthrie to The Podcast. Many of our listeners who have attended The Seminar have had the pleasure of meeting “Big E” at one of the events and know he’s one of the best people in our vocation. In the 35-minute discussion Eric and I get into:

1)     What “improving the department” actually means to each of us, and how following/working under great directors allows you to keep the ball rolling.

2)     The importance of a common vision and how communicating that throughout the department is vital to improving our position and their opinion of what we do.

3)     Ways that we can impact things outside the weight room, including how sometimes less is more when building out these plans.

4)     The idea of preparing the athlete’s better to prepare better for the game, how to build that out and monitor progress.

Make sure to give Eric a follow-on IG and twitter @Ericguthrie07 and follow his performance team @GWSportsperformance, they’re doing great stuff and putting out great content. If you enjoyed the talk please feel free to subscribe and give us a 5-star review! It’s greatly appreciated. 

This week’s episode of The Podcast is some Thoughts from Old Graybeard where I reflect on this time of the year. All too often coaches suffer from extreme FOMO, and this time of year is one of the greatest culprits for experiencing it. For those whose seasons have come to an end we are, at times, in a rush to get back to training and really crank it up, but that isn’t always what’s best. What may be best for all of us is to do one simple thing that really isn’t that easy to do, and that is, slow down.  

In this week’s episode of The Podcast I have the pleasure of sitting down and chopping it up with Andrew Stuart. In the 30-minute talk Andrew and I get into:

1)     How taking the thought process back to a 5th grade science experiment could save practitioners a lot of headaches.

2)     Where he sees an issue with being data driven, and how changing the thought process to data informed could help us be even better for the coaches and athletes we get to work with.

3)     What the “applied” in applied sport science needs to mean, and why just doing testing to do testing leads us to road blocks in the process.

4)     How the art of coaching and the basic pillars of what we do need to continue to be the back bone of our programming and the tech needs to support it. 

Andrew is doing some awesome work at Nebraska, make sure to keep up with everything they’re doing by following him on Instagram at: @ coachastuart

I’m elated to welcome Ben Kenyon to The Podcast and introduce him as one of our presenters for The 2023 Seminar. I have had the fortune to know BK and call him a collogue for the past 18 years so this conversation has been a long time coming. Throughout the 45-minute discussion we get into:
 
1)     How career burn out impacted to him professionally, and how it led to a personal pivot that has allowed him to impact people all over the world. 
2)     The importance of having your set of core values to drive your vision and career progression.
3)     Finding the value in pausing and pacing yourself in your personal life and professionally.
4)     Understanding that maximizing now and being patient and building the best of your situation is what opens doors later
5)     What it truly means to be a master of your craft and why that is vital for our continued growth as a vocation
 
Make sure you check out Great Day Squad (https://www.greatdaysquad.com) and per order Climb (https://www.greatdaytoclimb.com) today!
 
I’m so excited to have BK on the docket and hope you are as well. I hope you and your staff are able to join us The Seminar, July 21 and 22 at PLAE HQ for this summer’s edition of The Seminar! For more info and to book your seats use the link here: 

https://cvasps.com/2023-seminar/

This week we welcome Dr. Craig Turner to The Podcast. Throughout this fantastic 42-minute discussion Dr. Turner goes into:

1)    The tactical similarities across team sports and how those similarities have helped both of us progress our careers from soccer to basketball, and create a better understanding of the games. 

2)    The role of technology in coaching and how important having actionable data and actually acting on it is. 

3)    Understanding what you are trying to measure when selecting what technology to add 

4)    Touch points and communication points are both vital to keep track of and to a minimum so that you actually collect and communicate the most essential information.

5)    Lessons learned from his time in the NBA, and how those lessons have impacted how he collects and communicates data today

6)    What meeting where them where they’re at not only is in reference to the players but also is in relation to the communication methods utilized to get the info to the coaches that they need.