CVASPS The Podcast

I am really excited to discuss building a program the new world of college athletics with Asa Britt. The evolution to the “new normal” of college sports has led to so many of us needing to evolve how we, not only program, but go throughout our day to day schedule with the athletes. Inside this packed 35-minute discussion Asa and I dive into: 1)    The importance and power of routine in an athlete’s life2)    How the landscape of college athletics with the portal has impacted how we need to teach routines and behaviors with these athletes.3)    Ways the athlete’s coming in from other schools may need help adjusting to the new team, but also how you can learn from them improve different aspects of your program.4)    What the importance of understanding how the player felt about their past program and their training, and what their past strength coach as to say about the player and how they trained.5)    Strategies used to build different routines and help the players understand different behaviors so that they can make better decisions to reach their goals. I’m so appreciative of Asa for spending the time today and sharing so many of his experiences and growth through his coaching evolution. I know that this past off season I’ve had more “growing” experiences and has pushed me in many unique ways, and through this conversation and other, I’m certain I’m not alone with that.  Make sure you give him a follow him IG @abritt_19! This chat is full of great info and I really hope you enjoyed as much as I did. If so please feel free to share the episode with a collogue, and if you haven’t subscribed and left a review for the show on your favorite podcast platform I’d greatly appreciate it. Who is Asa Britt? Asa Britt was name Assistant Director of Sports Performance at Fairfield University in 2022. He develops and oversees strength and conditioning programs for Men's Basketball, Softball, and Golf.Britt came to Fairfield from Sacred Heart University, where he was elevated from the position of Graduate Assistant to Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach in 2021. He worked directly with men’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, and softball. He was also in charge of developing the internship program, connecting with Sacred Heart’s exercise science program. As a Graduate Assistant, he was in charge of men’s and women’s soccer, tennis, dance, and assisted with football.Prior to his stint at Sacred Heart University, he had internships at the University of Kentucky, Manhattan College, and the University of Iowa. Britt also served as a Volunteer Assistant for the women’s tennis team at Rutgers University as well as being a Sport Performance Coach at AP2T.Britt received a B.S. in Exercise Science from Manhattan College. He is a member of the NSCA and holds a CSCS certification from the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Britt also hold certifications from USAW and RPR.

This week I have the pleasure of sitting down and discussing the management of coaches and administration with the performance director of first special forces command, Ryan Carroll. Throughout the 30-minute discussion Ryan and I get into: 1)    The unique challenge of his position and how some challenges cross into both tactical and collegiate strength and conditioning.2)    How implementing things at scale creates great challenges and increases the need for collaboration between coaches3)    Ways that he and his staff communicate information to the higher ups to show that there is a return on the investment being made.4)    Conversations that the information they collect lead to, both to those above him and the service members that help with buy in at all levels.5)    Changing your thought process from being a dictator to coworkers with those you’re coaching, and how it can impact your trajectory as a coach. I’m really grateful for Ryan spending the time today to discuss some of the systems and processes that they’re putting together to help build out an all-encompassing performance and wellness program for a variety of different service members. Although at a different level, many of these issues are similar to those that arise at the collegiate level as well, like scaling, individualization between units/team, donated equipment we are expected to utilize and so on. This chat is full of great info that I hope you enjoyed as much as I did. If so please feel free to share the episode with a collogue, and if you haven’t subscribed and left a review for the show on your favorite podcast platform I’d greatly appreciate it. Who is Ryan Carroll? Ryan Carroll, MS, CSCS*D is the Human Performance and Wellness Director at 1st Special Forces Command at Fort Liberty, NC.  He has been a strength and conditioning coach for over 20 years and in the tactical space for 8. He has worked with the Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox, Loyola University Chicago, BridgeAthletic, and an Air Force Special Operations Unit in North Carolina. Ryan has spoken at several NSCA Tactical Conferences on training female soldiers, as well as the design and implementation of a comprehensive operator "Reset Week".   He can be reached at rcarroll2214@yahoo.com or on instagram at @rcsc14

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 development2)    How the “average make up” of the operators he works with makes developing a preparation program a unique challenge3)    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 preparedness5)    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 professionally2)    How having different directors within a department is helping their department progress3)    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 States2)     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 practice5)    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 organization3)    The balance between skill and power, and the ways they evaluate where they fit on the continuum of how they move4)    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 is6)    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 trajectory2)    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 athletes5)    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 coaches3)    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 mind6)    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.