NSCA’s Coaching Podcast, Episode 54: Patrick McHenry

Patrick McHenry, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Castle View High School in Castle Rock, CO, and member of the NSCA Board of Directors, talks to the NSCA Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Scott Caulfield, about high school strength and conditioning and his growth in the NSCA from a volunteer to an NSCA Board Member.

Connect with Patrick on Twitter: @strengthcentral and Instagram: @ptmchenry | Find Scott on Instagram: @coachcaulfield and Twitter: @scottcaulfield

“What is the need for strength in your sport?” 7:22

“I’m a part of everybody’s team.” 10:43

“Read everything. It doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree. You read it, understand it, and build from there.” 19:03

“In every other country, the most important coach is with the youngest athlete.” 21:22

“I’m the foundation. I’m the base of the house. If I build that base correctly, they can put anything they want on that base, but that’s a solid structure they’re working with.” 22:52

“NSCA long-term athletic development page on Facebook.” 38:30

“We don’t develop tactics. We don’t develop strategies. We don’t develop skills. We are the strength and conditioning. We are the movement specialists. We are developing the speed, the agility, the technique.” 40:30

“As a strength coach, I need to know how the body moves, and then how do I develop all of that. The sport coach is going to teach them how to use it.” 41:42

Reporting Errors: To report errors in a podcast episode requiring correction or clarification, email the editor at publications@nsca.com or write to NSCA, attn: Publications Dept., 1885 Bob Johnson Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 80906. Your letter should be clearly marked as a letter of complaint. Please (a) identify in writing the precise factual errors in the published podcast episode (every false, factual assertion allegedly contained therein), (b) explain with specificity what the true facts are, and (c) include your full name and contact information.

[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:00:01.47] Welcome to NSCA's Coaching Podcast, episode 54.

[00:00:06.42] It's interesting you said that. Because in every other country in the world, the most important coach is with the youngest athlete because they need the most help.

[00:00:13.80] Welcome to the NSCA's Coaching Podcast. I am Scott Caulfield. Here today with me, Patrick McHenry, head strength and conditioning coach at Castle View High School in Castle Rock, Colorado, also member of the NSCA Board of Directors. Patrick, thanks for being on the show.

[00:00:29.25] Scott, thank you very much for being here today.

[00:00:31.68] And we are in Indianapolis, cold and snowy. It was actually colder and snowier than Colorado that we left. But we're here for the 2019 Coach's Conference, pretty excited. You guys had a day of board director meetings already, right?

[00:00:46.59] Yep. 7 o'clock, 7:30 we started. And we got done about 4:30.

[00:00:51.32] Nice. Anything new and exciting that you can share with us from that meeting?

[00:00:57.10] The accreditation process is really starting to come together, which will help coaches because it'll be more like the athletic trainers when you're accredited-- just gives a little bit more validity to the CSCS.

[00:01:09.21] That's exciting. Exciting times are coming. And that process, again, is going to take a little while. But to do it right, you got to take the time.

[00:01:18.03] It's a several year process.

[00:01:19.68] Yeah. No. That's exciting to see that kind of continued legitimacy of the profession. And you, I've seen a lot. You know, you're coming up on 20 years in the high school setting, way more than that coaching in general. You've had so many experiences.

[00:01:37.13] But maybe tell us about how you first got involved. Because you have been a high school strength and conditioning coach your whole career. And I think for some people, they're just realizing that's a career. You've been doing this your whole time.

[00:01:52.65] It was really exciting because the high school that I applied at, you had to be a certified teacher in Colorado. And you had to have your CSCS. There were a lot of college coaches that applied. They had their CSCS. There were a lot of high school PE teachers that applied. They were certified PE teachers. The position they wanted to develop was a strength coach where you had to have both a licensed teacher and your CSCS. And that's what allowed me to get my very first job.

[00:02:18.85] That's awesome. That's awesome. Did your curriculum in college kind of prepare you in strength and conditioning? Or were you--

[00:02:26.49] Actually, I started out as a teacher. I was going to become a principal. And after my first year of teaching I realized that that was not for me. So went back, started studying for the CSCS, got my CSCS. And then, went back and got my master's degree in Kinesiology, certified USA weightlifting.

[00:02:44.70] That's what kind of brought it together, was my first conference in Denver in 1989. I got to go to NSCA. And I started looking around and realized that, you know what? I want to do this. I don't want to become a principal. This is what I want to do.

[00:03:02.02] And, yeah. Was that a national conference in 1989? What was the NSCA like back in those days?

[00:03:10.71] Back in 1989, it was kind of funny. National headquarters was down in Colorado Springs-- or, excuse me-- they were still in Lincoln, I think. And then they moved to Colorado Springs. Mostly males-- there was maybe five females that attended the conference.

[00:03:29.24] The science wasn't there. The equipment wasn't there. But it was coaches who were-- you're not the football coach. You're not the baseball coach. You're working with, how do you develop athletes? And that's where I actually got to meet Mel Siff for the very first time.

[00:03:42.38] Yeah. And that's pretty cool. So Mel was speaking at these clinics, going to these. And he also ran seminars at his house, right?

[00:03:50.21] Yes, he did. He did. It was called Supertraining Clinics. And if you go down in his basement, he had eight futons, and they were curtained off. And as a Supertraining member or a person that you were going attend that clinic, you stayed there for the weekend.

[00:04:06.05] So you got in on a Friday, and just set your stuff down there. He had a weight room out back. So if you looked at his garage, it looked like a normal garage. But then the whole back half of it he built out. So he had a weight room. He had platforms. He had a rack. He had his force plates in there. He had everything.

[00:04:23.15] And in the front of it, his wife, Lisa, was an Olympic level skater who was in an accident. And so she had her wheelchair aerobics classes that she did in just the very first part of it. The rest of it was all just lifting.

[00:04:37.04] Wow. That's incredible.

[00:04:38.85] His library was second to none. It was amazing, the size of the library and the books that he had from all over the world.

[00:04:46.94] Wow. That's super cool to hear. And for those of you listening in who don't know who Mel Siff and Supertraining is, you should. And hopefully, you will have heard of it. Or if you're not, you're going to go look it up and try and find out.

[00:05:01.16] I believe Supertraining's in its sixth edition. The original one he wrote, he and Verkhoshansky. And then after Mel passed away, Verkhoshansky did one more edition before he passed away. So the first edition and the sixth edition-- the sixth edition has an extended plyometrics in it.

[00:05:20.82] OK. Interesting. And being in high school, I guess Colorado is a little ahead of the game, that we've had high school strength and conditioning around that long. But what's some of the changes you've seen in that setting over the years?

[00:05:37.00] Coaches are starting to realize the importance of a strength coach, that the basketball coach doesn't have to be in the weight room. The basketball coach can go do other things. He knows that the kids are going to be taken care of.

[00:05:49.51] In the high school setting, we have a lot of coaches that are not in the building. But they know that the program is getting done. So, as an example, our lacrosse coach is a businessman outside. Kids know that they're going to come in. They're going to sign in. We do our workout. There's days he shows up. But, for the most part, he doesn't have to worry about it. He knows that everything's getting taken care of.

[00:06:08.20] I like to consider myself a member of everybody's staff. So the cross-country team, they'll go out, they'll run. As soon as they're done running, they'll come in afterwards and coaches can leave. I take them through the workout-- tennis, soccer, whoever. I'm part of everybody's team. So I'm the coach that gets to work with all the teams, not just one team. And the other coaches know that they have an assistant that's in the room, and the job's getting done.

[00:06:30.99] Yeah. That's huge. And then, looking at it as being a support staff personnel, I mean, obviously, you've probably worked with coaches that maybe aren't as open. Or you have to kind of talk them into strength and conditioning. What are some of your secrets to success for those type of situations?

[00:06:55.48] The biggest one we talk about is, where do they want their athletes to be? That a lot of times-- and some of the coaches, soccer as an example-- I don't want these big bulky kids. That's not your sport. That's not what we're doing.

[00:07:10.43] What we want to do is they have to have the upper body strength, that when they're in fighting for the ball, they don't get pushed off the ball because their upper body is so weak, their core is so weak that they're going to get pushed away.

[00:07:20.62] So we talk about, what is your sport? What is the need for strength in your sport? In our cross country kids, they have to be able to run 3.2 miles. What are they going to do at the very end? You know what? Everybody starts out great. In the middle, you start to lose some people. At the end, they have to have the strength, both upper body and lower body, to finish the race.

[00:07:39.46] And so for me, it's more of being able to explain what your sport is, what the strength component of your sport is. I don't know the tactics of a race. I don't know the ins and outs of the soccer field. But I do know that if you're fighting for that ball, you have to have the strength to be able to handle yourself and not get pushed away.

[00:07:56.66] Yeah. And hopefully, more and more coaches would realize that it's only going to help them to work with you. And that they don't need to know everything. And I think for me, the best sport coaches I've worked with understood that we were an expert in our domain. And that was one last thing they had to worry about.

[00:08:17.05] That's a big one is, why are you worried about that conditioning program? Why are you worried about sets and reps when you should be focusing in on game strategy and game film? And as soon as I tell them that I'm going to free them up, and that they can go sit in the office and go with the X's and O's, they can go over strategy, they're happy as can be. Because they know that a quality program is being implemented. And they have more free time to do their job.

[00:08:39.55] Yeah. That's huge. That's so great. You've been involved with NSCA for as long, too, as your career has spanned. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what it's like being involved from the beginning, wherever you first started, state director volunteer? And then to what it's like being on the board of directors, which is the biggest role that you can have in this organization.

[00:09:03.13] It's funny you said that. Because I can remember talking to Harvey Newton. He was executive director at the time. And I volunteered. I said, I'd like to attend a Coach's College. That's they were called back then. And I just want to attend. How can I help out?

[00:09:17.89] Next day I get a phone call. And he says, OK, you have a two-hour presentation on Thursday on plyometrics. And then you have a three-hour presentation on Friday hands-on-- kind of freaked out a little bit. That was my very first presentation. So I went through and I did all those presentations, and I loved it.

[00:09:34.03] So then he started talking. I'm, OK, what's next? He said, now you need to start looking at the state level. So I worked with our state director, eventually becoming the state director. Back then they didn't have the regional directors.

[00:09:44.80] After the state director, I worked on the education committee, started to learn more about what are some these different committees? What's your role? How do you get involved in those kind of things? Because I was on the education committee, that allowed me to be on the conference committee.

[00:09:57.22] Conference committee-- I started being able to present more. And then, finally, just started moving my way up. And got to travel to China with you. That was very exciting.

[00:10:05.00] 2012-- China trip.

[00:10:08.17] My very first time was with Mike Dozier from Valdosta State. To be able to go to another country and stand in front of 400 coaches and do a presentation was-- it was awe. And it was speechless, to be able to stand there and work at that high of a level, knowing that it was the NSCA that allowed me to be there.

[00:10:30.49] Yeah. Super cool.

[00:10:32.05] I've got to go to Japan, Taiwan. We were in Seoul, Korea, Dr. Brian Gearity and I, last month-- or two months ago, I guess it was. I've traveled the world as a high school coach. And I've got to see Olympic Training Centers around the world, because of starting out volunteering, and then working my way up.

[00:10:54.56] That's super cool. I think that's one of the things that I always tell people that sets the NSCA apart from other organizations, is that we have that grassroots level of involvement. And I came from being the Vermont state director before I worked at headquarters.

[00:11:11.11] And it was people that I met-- Mike Barnes, who was the education director at the time, and Doug Lentz at a symposium, Kevin Cleary at New York City. It was a two-day-- I think we called it the Essentials of Strength Training symposium. It was basically a two-day kind of lecture, hands-on format like the Coaches College-- very similar.

[00:11:34.18] And those guys just were so welcoming and answering the dumbest questions that I probably had at the time, and not making me feel like an idiot. And remembering me the next time they saw me at a clinic. That just made me want to be more involved.

[00:11:53.68] It's the members, like you said. My first national conference was with Dr. Avery Faigenbaum. He was the moderator, Pat Mediate, Mike, Nick, and myself. And we were doing a high school roundtable in Orlando/

[00:12:08.41] Meeting people-- the next year I met Verstegen in Orlando. Next year, I see him again in Spokane. Hey. How you doing? How's it going? Jimmy Radcliffe-- the names that were basically the people that started this, that really built strength and conditioning. And these are the guys you run into in the exhibit hall or in the reception or walking around, stop and talk to you.

[00:12:33.68] Yeah. That was it, too. Getting invited out to hang out at the receptions or whatever, being along for the ride. And then realizing-- and now I think, like you said, we have regional directors now on their state advisory boards.

[00:12:49.42] I think the opportunities to be involved, the level of ERP schools and their involvement with the organization, it's just such a-- there's more opportunity to be involved at so many different levels now.

[00:13:03.53] And doing-- I may not look like it, but I like to write. And I've had an opportunity where I got to write for the journals, started publishing some books. In fact, there's a new high school manual that's going to be coming out in about a year and a half.

[00:13:17.02] Sat down with the representative from Human Kinetics. The books, the materials, the opportunities-- there's so many different things that you can do as a strength coach that it's kind of funny how it evolved over the years.

[00:13:29.01] Yeah. Talk a little bit about that writing process. You like to write. But why is that also important for us as coaches to-- I mean, not just helps kind of spread the word and get your name out, but what other reasons is it good for?

[00:13:45.43] When I first started, there wasn't a lot of material out there. In fact, for my CSCS, I received 75 journal articles that were photocopied and they were put in a binder, a videotape, and eight cassette tapes. And the cassette tapes were just lectures that at the national conference that they had done. That was my study material. And I still have it.

[00:14:07.96] Then I got to hang out with Dr. Mel Siff in Denver, and then San Diego, and a couple other conferences-- Dr. Michael Yessis. You had information from all over the world, and they were translating it. And they were trying to show you, look, look at what the best people in the world are doing. And then how do you apply it for your level?

[00:14:26.86] Because at that time, I wasn't working with elite level athletes. They really talked about you need to find what is your niche, and then what's the information at your niche that's going to help you? And how are you going to be better?

[00:14:38.98] Mel was one of those that-- read everything. It doesn't matter whether you agree or disagree, you read it. You understand it. And then build from there. OK, you've built your program. How are you going to share it with somebody else?

[00:14:51.43] Mike Berger, met him at a conference. And he kind of looked at me, he goes, I'm getting old. You young guys, you need to step it up. You need to start taking over. And I'll never forget that one.

[00:15:00.52] That's great. That was-- Lee Brown told myself and a couple of state directors, too, that were on a strategic planning committee exact same thing. He was like, you know, some of these old guys start bickering. He's like, don't listen to us. Because we're not going to be around to help this organization down the road. You guys are going to be the ones doing it.

[00:15:20.63] And that's what I would say, too. A lot of the listeners on this podcast are up and coming professionals, younger people. And they're going to be the ones leading the organization down the road, not us, right?

[00:15:32.95] Yeah. Well, and you've got to work with pro baseball. You've got to work pro hockey and pro basketball and pro football. The number of job opp-- yes, it would be fun to see that. But, as an example, last night we were eating dinner. And Ohio State and Stanford were on TV wrestling. The 125-pounder was my athlete. He came from my school last year.

[00:15:55.44] I remember this kid when he was a young man in seventh and eighth grade. He would come in the summertime, work out. And then as a freshman, sophomore, junior, he was the three-time state champion. But last night I'm watching TV, and that's my athlete. I knew this young man before he became famous and all that. And he's on TV wrestling.

[00:16:13.10] Yeah. That's incredible. And I think arguably, too, we were just talking about this on the last podcast, that at the high school level, you have the opportunity to really make and see the development of these kids. And especially, if you're getting them involved as a lot of high schools are now.

[00:16:32.01] Maybe you're able to influence the junior high level, so that before you see them as a freshman, they're even a little bit-- they've been training a little and have some fundamentals ahead of the game.

[00:16:43.29] That's why we have our summer program, that in seventh grade, you can come and start learning lifting. In eighth grade you can build on that. By the time you're a freshman, you understand the basics.

[00:16:52.11] OK, now we can really start working on some of the lifts. We've gotten your bodyweight exercise out of the way. We've taught you how to move a little bit.

[00:17:00.03] It's interesting you said that. Because in every other country in the world, the most important coach is with the youngest athlete because they need the most help. And in America, sadly, it's mom and dad who volunteer. They're the ones that are teaching the skills. They're the ones-- and don't get me wrong. It's very important. But other countries realize if you're trying to-- if you want this best athletes, then you need to start them off on the right foot. And that's why the best coaches are with them.

[00:17:26.25] Here, a lot of times I've had, oh, you're a high school coach. Yes. You're right, I am. But you know what? That quarterback out there was one of my athletes, that lineman, my wrestler, we started-- we taught those kids how to move. We developed them, so you can teach them the skill and let them, allow them, to go on to become great athletes in college.

[00:17:45.45] Yeah. And again, college, too, is another one where, depending on what level you are, you probably have a good ability to see some change in athletes if you have them for four years.

[00:17:55.35] Maybe higher levels, you're getting better athletes. You might not see them the whole time, depending on how good they are, if they're going pro or not. But the high school and collegiate have such an opportunity to make a huge, huge impact.

[00:18:09.45] And it's great to get the college strength coaches to come in, or college coaches to come in and watch our athletes. And the biggest thing, I don't care how much they're lifting, how good is their technique, because they have good quality technique. Once they get into college, I can put the weight on them. I can put the size on them. But I need to have the base.

[00:18:29.16] So I always kind of like to think of myself as I'm the foundation. I'm the base of the house. If I build that base correctly, they can put anything they want on that base. But that's a solid structure that they're working on.

[00:18:41.55] Yeah, and you know from talking to college coaches as well, that they get kids in that have been coming from a program like yours or mine, and they love that. They have someone that they can already work with, where they're not starting at the day block 0, or pre-block 0, where they're just like, oh my gosh. This kid can't even walk and chew gum, compared to having a training age, actually.

[00:19:11.28] Well, and the other one that I'm starting to find-- I had a young man go up to Wyoming. And the coach told me that he doesn't want to him to do cleans. He wants him to do pulls.

[00:19:20.13] OK. That's interesting. Then we started talking more. He's afraid that a lot of these kids are learning incorrect technique. And then, it takes him too long--

[00:19:27.51] To change. Yeah.

[00:19:28.21] --to correct their technique. Or they're coming in with predisposed injuries because they didn't learn their technique correctly. So for him it was more important, does he have the basics? Can he go through the motion that he needs? Then he can build from that.

[00:19:41.86] That makes sense. OK. You've touched on it a little bit. But tell us a little bit about the differences. Because I know that high schools have a lot of different ways that positions can be structured or set up. So give us an overview for people listening in that might be more interested in high school strength and conditioning and how that, the different nuances within there are set up.

[00:20:03.46] Technically, I'm hired as a physical education teacher. So I am a licensed teacher. And that's what my contract says. But because I'm in the weight room, then I have the weight room before school and after school. So I get paid as a coach. So I have winter, spring, and fall stipend, coaching stipend, as well as my teaching.

[00:20:22.15] My teaching is only in the weight room. We're on the block system. So I teach three weightlifting classes a day. And there's only four classes. Other teachers are hired as PE teachers. And they may teach one or two strength classes. Then they may teach a team sport or a individual class.

[00:20:37.01] Other ways a strength coach can get in, there are some of them that are hired just to come in after school. So that's all they do. It's a contract position. School ends at about 2:30, 3 o'clock. They come in. They run the weight program. Sometimes it's by the school. Sometimes it's by the team.

[00:20:52.84] Summertime-- we'll have some people that they'll just get contracted to a school. And so, they'll run the summertime program. But they have no teaching experience or teaching license with them. So it's really-- there's lots of different options.

[00:21:06.71] The thing that's the best option in my opinion is, because I'm a licensed teacher, then I have the benefits. I'm coming up on 30 years of teaching. I can retire in a couple years with my full teaching benefits, everything that was set up because I am a teacher.

[00:21:23.51] Yes, all I do is the weight room all day long. And so, technically, I'm a strength coach. I do the exact same thing as all the rest of the high school or the college and pro coaches. I just work with athletes. But I'm hired as a teacher.

[00:21:37.63] Yeah. And that was in our recent salary survey, which the results of that just was published. It's on the website. But the big difference in high school strength and conditioning salary was the people who are the dual role of a teacher, as well as the strength and conditioning coach. So their role might be strength and conditioning coach, but they also are a teacher. Those salaries were significantly higher than any of the other salaries in there.

[00:22:06.70] And it's funny, I had a pro coach talk to me one time, and just met the gentleman. And he was like, well, have you ever thought about being a college or pro strength coach? And I smiled at him. I said, well, I'm not trying to be offensive. But I make more than D2 coaches do. And I have a good teaching salary. I have good benefits.

[00:22:25.87] I go, the other one is job security. You know what? Yes. It would be fun to go to the Super Bowl. It would be great to go to the playoffs and have a national championship ring and all those things. But I have great job security.

[00:22:38.08] Ironically, two years later, that gentleman was fired from his pro job as a coach. And he was going back down to another level. Yes. It would be fun to stand on the sidelines on Sunday. But, then again, I get to watch my kids that someday they will be on-- they'll be playing on the field. Job security, pay, things like that, benefits-- as you start getting older, it makes a little bit more difference.

[00:23:05.19] Yeah. Absolutely. Benefits and the retirement of a teaching career are pretty huge when you think about it. And you don't think about it when you're 22. But if you can, it's something worth thinking about.

[00:23:22.19] You also do a-- I know, because we've done it together, is help with the Colorado Avalanche NHL team, with their testing every year. Talk a little bit about how you do that, and what you do with those guys.

[00:23:35.00] I got to meet Paul Goldberg several years ago, and Casey Bond who was his assistant. And now Casey Bond's the head strength coach. And it's a blast.

[00:23:44.28] I go in in July. And we go through, and we take the rookies in rookie camp, and I do all their performance testing. So I do the long jump, the vertical jump. And then they've started expanding it to include a couple lifts. They do pull-ups.

[00:23:59.70] But I get to work with all these young rookies. And then in September when the veterans come in, same thing. We'll do one day of rookies, and then one day of veterans. So all the performance testing that I do with my athletes is the same performance testing I'm doing with the Avalanche.

[00:24:13.88] And it's funny. Because we're taking them through, we're doing all this performance testing and kind of beating them up a little bit. And yet, every one of those hockey players comes up and shakes your hand and thanks you when you're done. So yeah, it's a lot of fun working with those guys. And yet, turning around and doing my job as well.

[00:24:32.03] Right. And it's just something that you do. You do it for the fun of it. You do it for the polo shirt that Casey gives you every year.

[00:24:39.57] Actually, it's for the tickets.

[00:24:41.10] Yeah. Yeah. You get the hookup from them.

[00:24:44.00] But just-- yeah. That's nothing that you're expecting anything out of. You're doing it to keep helping your own professional development as well.

[00:24:53.93] Oh, yeah. And when you get to talk to them-- what are some of the latest things? And then he'll talk about, not just with hockey, but other coaches that he meets. And this is what they're doing. How does that affect you?

[00:25:06.47] There's a monitoring device that I had on one of my athletes. And we were talking about it. And then, he started asking me different questions, if I'm using it other ways. So now, I'm expanding how I monitor my athletes because of things that I've talked with him on how he does it.

[00:25:22.93] Yeah. No. That's huge. And you've been involved with this LTAD stuff, too, for a while. Maybe talk about some of the kind of long-term athlete development initiatives and different things we've got in the hopper that you can talk about. It's certainly not new, right? I mean, it shouldn't be. This stuff has been around for as long as we've been alive. But it's somehow new again.

[00:25:48.71] It's funny that you said-- I'm laughing because back when Verkhoshansky was alive, I actually had emailed him and asked him, what's the difference between PASM, the process of attaining sports mastery, and long-term athletic development? And it was a one word-- nothing.

[00:26:07.31] It's the same thing. It's been around forever. How do you take an athlete, they talk about it, from playground to podium? How do you develop an athlete? How do you build an athlete? You have to look at, what's their foundation? And then, there's very specific points.

[00:26:21.86] Like, for me. One of my biggest problems that I have to deal with is as the kids go through puberty, how they grow. I've had some athletes that were great squatters. They knew how to squat. All of a sudden, they grow 2, 3, 4 inches. And guess what? They can barely even move, forget squat.

[00:26:37.82] And so I, as a coach, have to talk to them. You know what? You are a great squatter. And yes, you used to squat this much weight. But because you hit a growth spurt, we have to back it off now.

[00:26:46.91] And the biggest thing about long-term athletic development is, what are the kids getting for the basics? How can I build them? And then, what am I sending them off to college with?

[00:26:57.26] It's interesting. Because if you look at a spiraling curriculum, so those people that are teachers. You know, you start out with single-digit addition, and then single-digit subtraction, two-digit addition, three-digit, and so forth. That's all long-term athletic development is. You start out with the single-digit basic movements. Then you go into a little bit higher level and keep moving through it.

[00:27:18.92] A spiraling curriculum-- you're always coming back, reinforcing the basics, adding onto it. As a strength coach, I'm always-- basic movement patterns, jump roping. We jump rope all the time. Then we start making it a little bit more complex. Come back, start working with it.

[00:27:34.00] One of the exciting things that the NSCA's doing is they're working with other groups. And they're starting to put together what they call playgrounds. So it's coaches that can sit down and talk together. December 11th, 12th, and 13th, the Olympic Training Center had what they called the ADM symposium, American Developmental Model.

[00:27:53.47] They brought in NGBs from all over the United States. I was sitting next to a gentleman that was with sailing NGB. And then another gentleman that was rowing. They brought in some experts from other countries.

[00:28:07.18] And everybody sat down and talked about, first of all, instead of, oh, this kid's a great 12-year-old. What about instead of talent identification, sport identification? You know what? A little bit shorter-- look at their limb length. They may be good at wrestling, weightlifting, some of these type of sports. A little bit taller, longer limb length-- have you thought about, not just basketball. What about team sports?

[00:28:30.28] What about-- and in looking at the athletes, my favorite is still you get that one young man that comes into high school. And he's already got a full beard, taller than everybody else. But guess what? His freshman year and his senior year, he's the exact same height. He's already reached his maturity level.

[00:28:47.29] Get that young man or that young lady that comes in, and they're short and kind of gangly. And then all of a sudden, they're leaving and they're 5, 6 inches taller. And they're developed into an athlete. Long-term athletic development, you're looking at, how do you work with that person all the way through those very specific stages that you're going to go through?

[00:29:04.08] Yeah. That's exciting. Exciting to see some more of the resources coming out. And there's some online support material, too, that we're working on that will be coming into fruition eventually?

[00:29:16.99] Right now the NSCA is really working with some of the playgrounds that Joe and Tony and Rick have put together in different parts of the country, working on those playgrounds. And when they call it a playground, it's just coaches coming together-- first of all, what is long-term athletic development? Now, what's your level?

[00:29:34.57] First one I attended I sat with a gentleman that was a middle school teacher. So we talked about, OK, at the middle school, this is what you do. At the high school, this is what I do.

[00:29:42.51] Then we started talking. With the next level, what do you do? What do the colleges want? How do we send them off to college so that they're prepared? So they're working with those three, and really working on those playgrounds. There's more material coming out.

[00:29:54.64] Dr. Avery Faigenbaum, Dr. Rhodri Lloyd are coming out with more and more articles and giving more information. So people-- it's not just a couple letters. It's not, oh, that's what they did in that other country. It's this is what the plan is. Or this is how you could implement it. These are some things you need to look for. This is how you can work with your athletes.

[00:30:13.38] Cool. And those will be in-person events throughout 2019 and beyond. So people can be on the lookout on the NSCA website or following you guys on social, to kind of keep an eye on those. Again, anything we do bigger picture-wise will be put out through the NSCA website as well.

[00:30:31.84] If they get on the NSCA Long-Term Athletic Development Facebook page, that's one of the fastest growing pages out of any of them. And not only does it give, you know, what's some of the different local clinics that you can attend. But what's some of the information? What's some of the good books that you can read out there? What are some of the resources?

[00:30:48.49] USA hockey was one of the very first to develop what they call ADM, American Developmental Model. And it's the exact same thing as long-term athletic development. Now USA lacrosse has started taking that. And that was a project that I believe it was you and Carwyn worked on with the NSCA to help develop all those things.

[00:31:06.73] Yeah. No. And they-- yeah. The ADM movement is definitely trickling down. Hockey has been-- USA hockey has been at the forefront. But now it's kind of getting in everybody's wheelhouse.

[00:31:19.45] And when you talk about how it's getting into everybody's wheelhouse, all the different governing bodies that I talk to, they are basing or building it off of what hockey did. Well, hockey and NSCA are literally right next door. They share the same parking lot. So it's stuff that the NSCA has worked on in the past to help with the future.

[00:31:41.32] Yeah. No. That's huge. And we're looking forward to even developing more and more of those relationships as we go.

[00:31:49.06] And when you talked about building those relationships, that was one of the biggest focus or main purpose point of that conference. How could all these different NGBs work together? And with the NSCA right next door or, just down the street, I guess I should say, how do you work together?

[00:32:10.50] I think Michael Massik says it the best. We don't develop tactics. We don't develop strategies. We don't develop skills. We are the strength and conditioning. We are the movement specialists. We are developing the speed, the agility, the technique.

[00:32:24.21] So that way, when those kids get onto the field, onto the court, onto the mat, wherever they're at, they have the skills that they-- or they have the ability. You can teach them the skill. You can teach them how to use that jump correctly for their sport. You can teach them the tactics so that makes them a better whatever athlete you're working with.

[00:32:44.14] Yeah. And I love-- I'm going to steal from our good friend Loren Landow who says, when you talk about fundamentals and teaching athletes basics, and I know that he stole it from one of his mentors, but I'm going to give him credit because I hear him say it. To be a better specialist, you need to be a better generalist.

[00:33:03.12] Yes. Yep.

[00:33:04.08] And I think that's from our training athletes perspective to ourselves, such a great, such a simple concept. And so perfect for this world.

[00:33:16.38] Well, when we talk about, how do you move? You can move forward and backward. You can move diagonal. And you can move lateral. OK? And you may have some rotation. That's it.

[00:33:25.11] Now, in different sports it's going to be applied differently. But there's only certain ways your body can move. So as a strength coach, I need to know how the body moves, and then how do I develop all that. Sport coach-- they're going to teach them how to use it.

[00:33:38.17] Yeah. No. That's outstanding. Cool. Well, I really appreciate you being on the show. Looking forward to the next 2 days, 2 and 1/2 days, really. We are kicking things off early here-- 2 and 1/2 days at the 2019 Coaches Conference.

[00:33:51.93] If people want to reach out to you now that they've heard this, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

[00:33:57.75] Through the NSCA, email, and before you start laughing, but it's P as in Patrick, T as in Timothy, M-A-C-H. So ptmach@aol.com. And I know that you're laughing at me right now. But when we were in China, I could-- AOL isn't blocked. So it doesn't matter what country I go to, I can still use my email address.

[00:34:22.23] At school, sometimes that stuff, they block it-- firewalls, those kind of things. Or through the NSCA, I'm on their board of directors page. And you can find my name there.

[00:34:31.17] Perfect. There's still a few of you AOL guys out there for you younger coaches listening in. You're going to have to ask your parents what AOL was. But, anyway--

[00:34:40.08] You travel out of country, and then you'll appreciate it.

[00:34:43.62] Well, thanks again, Patrick. This has been great. Appreciate you being on the show.

[00:34:47.14] Thank you very much for allowing me to be here.

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[00:35:19.32] This is the NSCA's Coaching Podcast. The National Strength and Conditioning Association was founded in 1978 by strength and conditioning coaches to share information, resources, and help advance the profession. Serving coaches for 40 years, the NSCA is the trusted source for strength and conditioning professionals. Be sure to join us next time.