NSCA’s Coaching Podcast, Episode 46: Bobby Smith

Bobby Smith, owner and Director of Sports Performance at Reach Your Potential Training, talks to the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Scott Caulfield, about the transition to owning his own facility and his impact on youth athletes. Topics under discussion include Smith’s education and previous athletic experience that led him to sports performance, being the owner of a sports performance facility, and his impact on youth athletes.

Find Scott on Twitter: @scottcaulfield

Instagram:igotrypt

Instagram: coachbobbysmith

Email:bobby@igotrypt.com

“You can get into their [high school athletes’] minds and not only change their movement patterns, but the way they think.” 7:08

“I’ve got to know the why’s behind what I do.” 10:48       

“Organization is key to success.” 12:10

“My leadership style was always ‘watch what I do and do what I do,’ and realizing that’s not how it works. You’ve got to communicate, you’ve got to lead, you’ve got to develop, you’ve got to help out and see them in action.” 18:40

“Drop the ego and let’s see how we can help each other.” 23:38

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This is the NSCA's Coaching Podcast, episode 46. So it's like I knew I could do that at that high school level, that they can just be so moldable that you can get in their minds and not only change their movement patterns but change the way they think.

This is the NSCA's Coaching Podcast, where we talk to strength and conditioning coaches about what you really need to know but probably didn't learn in school. There's strength and conditioning, and then there's everything else.

Welcome to the NSCA's Coaching Podcast. I'm Scott Caulfield-- with me today, Coach Bobby Smith from Reach Your Potential Training in Tinton Falls, New Jersey. Coach, welcome to the show.

Oh, thanks for having me, Scott. And thanks for having me here, as well, too. This is an amazing organization. I'm glad to help out and be part of it, whatever I can do.

Yeah, super pumped. We are here at the 41st Annual National Conference. It's been a great show.

You already did one presentation this morning. You're doing another one this afternoon. How's it been for you so far?

It's been amazing. And then the lineup that you guys have on today is great. And not only do I love presenting and being on the same stage as these other coaches. But learning from them and hearing them and seeing them in action is definitely what it's about.

And also, connecting with other coaches that come here-- I think that's the missing key that these people are not coming to these conferences. You get the video, but it's also the interactions, going to dinner, all those other things with the conference that you can't put a price tag on.

Yeah. That's a huge piece of it. And you've been at state-level clinics and big ones, too. That's the part of the NSCA that I always tell people, too. We're the only organization really that has that grassroots level, where you can do the same kind of thing on a smaller level in your own state and region. So it's such a huge opportunity to get out and meet people and learn from other people.

And you've been doing this for a while now. You've spoken at a bunch of events. And how'd you get involved in speaking?

I think it all started off with our first product that Adam Feit and I put out was that "Coaching Guide to Jump Training." And it was about year three, Scott, that we finally looked at our system and how we were running things. And we're like, man, this is efficient. It's an athletic factory.

And we're like, we've got something. And after that, we're like, what do we have to do? And Adam's like, I presented at the NSCA about the jumps that we do. And I think it went really well-- got a great review. I think we should do that.

And I was like, let's go. Let's roll with it, and let's do it. And we put it on our own dime. And you don't realize how much work goes into that until you actually shoot something and the editing and breaking it down and the time that we put in that and the money we put into it.

And then we're like, all right. Well, what are we going to do now? It's all done. Then we start getting it to other people out there.

And then Pat Beith from Athletes Acceleration, we sent it to him. And he's like, this is gold. Let's go with it.

And ever since then, we've been doing the Speed and Power Summits. We've been speaking at the NSCA. And I feel like that was like our first foot in the door was putting that product out there.

But also, too, a lot of young coaches come to me and are like, man, you put that product. I'm like, it took us three years. And it was multiple years that we were in the field before we felt confident that we can put something out there. So like I always say just with the athletes, don't rush the process. You don't want to put your foot out there and next thing you know, it's not the ideal product.

Totally. Yeah, definitely. So let's backtrack a little because that's a cool story that I want to get to. But you started your own business.

Yeah.

Did you see something that was missing in your area of New Jersey, and that's why you decided to do this? Or what made you think about that?

Yes, definitely. I was fortunate to train at the Olympic Training Center, Scott, under Dan Path. And that was when I first learned how to start to run properly, getting my hips up, starting to cycle. And I was always a football player that threw the javelin.

And then I became a track and field athlete. And everywhere else in the world, they call it "athletics" because track and field is the foundation of all athletic movement-- jumping, throwing. And that's when I was like, man, I want to go back to New Jersey. And I want to teach kids how to run and move properly.

And also, too, what I wanted to do was give them the college system in the private sector. So I wanted them to have a step ahead. So as soon as you went to college, you knew the expectations. You knew the standards. You knew the movements, and you knew how to do them efficiently.

And I put an ad out at the NSCA, and I got over 150 people applying with me the first week. And I was like, man, some people didn't even read it because they didn't know exactly what I wanted. But there were 20 people that did. And then you narrow it down.

And then Adam Feit's resume stood out by far. He was a Division III All-American football player. So he had that big-time experience being an athlete-- coached under Joe Kenn in-house. So he had that college system. And it was great to bring him aboard.

And what I felt like I was needing was the education. I got my degree in special education, so I was a teacher first and foremost. And that gives me unique background, too, because that's where my degree was. So I learned right away that I need to not only educate, but I need to entertain these kids. So if I'm not keeping them entertained, they're not lasting and they're not getting better.

So once Adam came aboard-- not only him but his wife, too, Mary Kate, as well-- we developed this system from Mike Boyle's background, the pre-seas, the velocities, the college. And we felt like that's where by year three we had it. We felt like we really had something special and put it out there.

And next thing you know, all right. Let's shoot the next one. All right. We've got the third one.

And what were you looking for when you-- you ended up with Adam Feit, who I know very well. And you guys have become great friends from being his boss, basically. But what were you looking for when you first kind of set out for that?

To be honest with you, you never know what you're looking for until you find it. And I was looking probably at the beginning a young fresh off GAA, someone that's right out of grad school that had that big-time experience. And then when I started getting those people and talking to them, I realized I needed more.

I needed someone that had a little bit more experience, a little bit more knowledge, and I needed some mentorship. And that's definitely what I found from Adam. He developed and helped me become the man and coach I am today. So I can't thank him enough for that.

That's awesome. That's awesome. And so I think a lot of people that might have been in your position-- you're an athlete and then want to get into coaching-- would have thought, oh, I should get into college or professional sports. So how did you decide that private sector was the way you wanted to go?

Yeah. I did an internship for the Giants under Jerry Palmieri, and that was a great experience, as well, too. But I just felt like it was get me ready for Sunday and not developing. And I knew with high school kids that I had those coaches when I was in high school that I still talk to and look up to to this day that really mentored and made me the man I am.

So it's like I knew I could do that at that high school level, that they can just be so moldable, that you can get in their minds and not only change their movement patterns but change the way they think. And there's no better age, I feel, than that high school level.

Yeah. That's cool, man. And you're definitely making an impact.

What are some of the challenges of being in that private sector? You have to be a business owner. You have to be a coach. Maybe talk about what you're seeing as those kind of things.

I think the one thing that you never think about is about running the facility. And you have a facility of 16,000 square feet and keeping it clean and cleanly and maintaining the equipment. What we sell is our education, our experience, and our environment. And we want to make sure that it's up to par as soon as we walked in day one. And that's a lot more work than you really think.

And then also, too, educating the parents and realizing that we have a very industrial area-- so there are a lot of more "sports performance facilities"-- I say that in quotations-- around us that think they do what we do. But obviously, they don't. But the parents don't know better. They just know, well, that guy's $10 a session. You're $25. Well, why?

Well, I just got my master's. I've been at that big level. We're educated. We have the science behind what we do.

And also, we have the physical therapy in-house. So we have that hand in hand. We can communicate with one another, and it's a great setting.

Yeah. You mentioned getting your master's. So you own your own business. You run your business. You've been coaching.

At this point, why do that? Why make more work for yourself?

Yeah. It definitely, once again, was a lot more work than you think. When Adam and Mary Kate decided to partner and get their PhDs, I felt like I didn't want the education back behind-- I wanted that behind RYPT. And since my degree was in special education, I knew there was lacking on my part.

And as a man, you look yourself in the mirror and realize, what are my weaknesses, what are my strengths, and what can I do to get better at those? And I felt like education was holding me back. And I know where I want to go and where I want to be on the platform. And I know that you need that this day and age.

And I definitely learned a lot from it. And I know there are a lot more people out there that are listening that are saying that you can't do it. You can. And my one employee, Pat Livesey, got it before me. And I was like, man, if he can do it, he can help me through it.

And he definitely helped me and coached me through it and was like, man, what do we have this week? All right-- helped keep me on task. And my wife definitely helped out a lot, too. So it takes a village. It definitely does.

Yeah. Congratulations again on that because I know you just finished yours. And I just finished mine not too long ago. But yeah, definitely.

And I've heard, too, and I found it to be true, like you just said, that it was very interesting, too. And it's helped me know already to have that. So I think the master's degree definitely--

It makes you look at things differently, I feel like. Then you understand

The content was way more helpful than the undergrad stuff, which is the basic stuff you need to know. But it kind of takes it to the next level, literally. So how many employees do you guys have now? You have employees. You have interns.

Right. So we have two other full-time coaches with myself. And then we have three other part-time, and now we're at six interns this summer right now.

Awesome.

And then my wife's business has four physical therapists. And then she has four strength coaches, as well, too. And the beauty of it, some of my strength coaches go to her. Some come to me. We help each other out.

And I really love having the interns in. And it's a great environment, and it makes me better getting them better. It makes me stay on my toes and makes me realize that I have to know the whys behind I do what I do. I know them, but I've got to be able to answer them right on the spot.

And that's great having them in there. And we're learning from them. Each year-- this is the seventh summer that we've gone through our internship process-- it gets better and better and better each year because of them.

What kind of things are you looking for in interns?

I think, just like everyone, you we're looking for a person. We want them to be reliable, trustworthy, and genuine. And it's personality. That's what we're looking for in the private sector.

Are my athletes at the end of an internship going to come up to me and say, you need to hire this guy? You need to hire this girl. And I tell them, you know the system now. I can see it.

Now you have to start developing relationships. You have to make the impact with them because they need to be coming back. If they're not coming back, we don't have a job. And if you want to work here one day, you have to make the impact on them to keep coming back to us.

Yeah, that's huge.

So yeah, you want that personality. And you want a good person.

Yeah, definitely. About being in the private sector, some probably unique challenges-- is there anything that you would kind of think maybe to give somebody some insight into it if they think they want to start their own business and just jump right into it? Or do you know things you wish you knew back when you were starting out that you know now?

I think organization is key to success. And what I tell-- we still have some college coaches come in and observe us. And the system really hasn't changed much, but the organization and the timing has gotten so much better.

And it's little things like we put these green dots out-- green dots, red dots, yellow dots. And it's like, all right. We're doing our hip hinges over here on the red dots. We're doing our overhead press over here on the green dots. And we're doing our core anti-extension over here on the yellow dots.

And it just keeps it in a flowing system. And that's where I was explaining this to another business owner. It's like you go to a New Jersey Mike's. You come in.

All right, what bread? What meat? What cheese? What lettuce? Do you want it Mike's way?

And it's just you have to make it where you give your coaches options. But also, you have to make sure that it is a system.

Right, the system-- and it's repeatable. And it's--

Sustainable--

Organized.

No doubt. And I feel like that's where you don't think about-- we're writing this detailed, amazing program. But you're not thinking about the flow of your system and the flow of your facility and realizing, well, I have to do TRX hamstring curls over here. But now I'm using dumbbells over in this corner for the overhead press.

Well, can we do something about that? Can we do something so we can put ourselves in position to watch eight athletes do our knee flexion hip lifts over here and then do our overhead presses over here?

Yeah. And you mentioned being in an 16,000-square-foot facility. Obviously, you didn't start in a 16,000-square-foot facility.

But actually, we did.

You did? OK. Oh, that's super, super cool.

Well, my wife was in practice for eight years before we opened up RYPT, and she was booming. She was another sports performance businesses that closed because of poor management, not because the market wasn't there. And after the second time, I was at that tail end of my career throwing a javelin. And I was like, let's go. Let's do it.

And obviously, we weren't looking for that size. But it hit us, and I saw the potential. And what I was looking for ideally was the 40 yards, and then we got 60. And then I wanted a wall to throw med balls.

And we have that from wall to wall, 60 yards turf and then med balls. And it's all American Red Cross's storage. So we can be as loud and obnoxious as we want.

That's awesome. I've got to come see this place. I've got to visit the spot.

And you mentioned the DVDs you guys did. You've got a couple of those. You also are kind of onto a new business, where you hopefully help other coaches improve their business, right?

No doubt.

Talk about how that's coming out and what that looks like.

After the third DVD, I reached out to Pat Beith. And I said, I feel like we're ready now. I'm almost done with my master's. I'm ready, so let's do this.

And he mentioned something about me before about licensing or franchising RYPT. And it wasn't really what I wanted. But what we really want to do is help other strength coaches out there in teaching our system but also, with Pat, teaching them how to market, teaching them the Facebook side with Pat Rigsby, and teaching them the business side of how to run and operate a business that's successful, obtainable, and making sure that you're making money.

The end goal is not only impacting their life but making a living off of it and living the lifestyle that you want to live. So that should be up and running shortly. It's going to be Athletes Acceleration and Sports Performance.

And I'm really excited about that one, as well, because what we realized is that we can only impact the athletes that are in our facility. But if I can impact other coaches or other gym owners out there, how many athletes can I impact? And that's the ultimate goal.

Right. For sure. You probably know Martin Rooney, who I've had on the show. And he's a good friend of mine, too. And that was kind of the light bulb I think that he talked about going off, too, for him with Training for Warriors is he is able to train all these coaches, which then has allowed him to impact more total people across the globe now for him because that guy's all over the place.

And I was fortunate enough to actually train with him after my first year graduating from Monmouth. And I was in an Olympic development program. And Tom Pukstys was like, hey, if you're going to stay in New Jersey, you've got to train with Martin Rooney.

And I went up there twice a week in Fair Lawn. And Martin had a huge influence on what I still do today and the energy that he brings. And it's phenomenal that he definitely is a mentor to me.

That's super cool. Yeah. I did a mentorship with him at Parisi. I think honestly, I only might have done one. But I saw it advertised.

It was in 2010. It was with Martin and Bill at the Fair Lawn facility. And I was like, I have to do this. And people say this, but it literally changed my life.

That was December, I think, November, December 2010. I took my job at the NSCA in January 2011. Things happened that I never would have expected to happen. Even at the mentorship, we'd train every day.

We got into a lift-off with Rich Sadiv. I pulled a 611 deadlift, the best deadlift I ever pulled in my life. Things happened in that thing that were unbelievable from a personal side, a professional side.

But it was the other things, like we talk about, that weren't necessarily sets and reps. It was learning about all these other things and, for lack of a better term, philosophy and the things that drive you and made you think about really what you wanted to do with your career.

How do you keep up now? Master's degree-- you do all this stuff. How are you keeping up to date and keeping your skills up when you have to be coaching all the time, running a business, and all that stuff?

I mentioned before, Scott, it takes a village. And my coaches definitely help me. And I'm like, you're here to make me look good. And when I look good, you're going to look good. And we definitely help each other, and we're a team.

And part of my master's program was learning leadership. And you don't really realize how important it is. And it was definitely unique, where I learned a lot not only from the science behind training but the leadership style, as well, too, and realizing that I was having flaws in my leadership and getting that better and instilling that in my athletes still to this day, too.

I love at the end of the sessions coming together and talking to them and giving them a little tidbit right before the warm-up and then see how it unfolds throughout the training session. And at the end of the session, this is what we want to do. And these are the leadership styles that you need to employ.

And my leadership style was always watch what I do, and do what I do and realizing that's not how it works. You've got to communicate. You've got to lead. You've got to develop. You've got to help out.

You've got to see them in action and be like, this is what I would have done here. Oh, why did you do that? What was your thought process behind that? And that's definitely helped me out a lot.

But my guys are great. Pat and Jake and my assistant coaches, as well, we definitely help each other. So it's not a one-man show, by far.

Is there anything you can think of, any book or quick-tip resource right off the bat that comes to mind when you're talking about leadership?

What I always go to is my man Jon Gordon. And I love reading Jon Gordon's books, not only because they're amazing but the message that he has behind them. He was a former lacrosse player at the college level, so he writes like an athlete.

So it's short. It's simple. It's to the point. And part of the internship process before you even start is reading The Carpenter.

And he talks about the three greatest strategies of all are love, serve, and care. And love what you do. And when you love what you do, you make a difference. But people see the difference and caring for your athletes and caring about the quality of work that you do.

And lastly, service-- providing a service and giving yourself up for service and realizing it can't be about you. We've got to turn this "me" into "we." And as soon as I started to do that, I started to see RYPT grow.

Yeah. Nice. And talk about that. You have all these high school kids at all different schools, all different sports. How are you building those relationships with them and really getting them to know that you care about them?

Yeah. And what we always say is we're building up their confidence, their self-esteem, and their mental strength but believing in themselves. So that's the biggest goal. Yes, we're going to get you stronger, get you faster, get you decelerating correctly.

But building your self-esteem-- and I had an athlete that has just been killing it for this summer session so far. And I just reached out to her on social media. I said, hey, Ashley. You've been doing a great job. The girls are looking up to you. Keep it going.

And her mom sent me a message two days later that was saying, the confidence that I see in my daughter since starting RYPT is phenomenal. And it's amazing to see. And I get goosebumps right now just talking about that. That's what we want to do.

It's a byproduct of getting them stronger and faster. It's believing in themselves that when adversity strikes, are you going to step up to the plate? Or are you going to fold? And we want to instill that in everything that we do here.

Yeah. You guys train a lot of athletes, but do you have a lot more female athletes--

We do--

Than maybe other places--

We do have a lot--

Because it seemed like from seeing your social media and hearing you talk about a lot of these kids.

Well, I feel like a couple of reasons. One, it started, and I had seven stud female athletes. Two go to Duke, two North Carolina, VCU, Syracuse, Villanova, and that was my first original seven, we always say. And the pictures are still up on the office.

And also, too, my wife's business specializes in ACLs. That's her money. So I talk to the girls. We give them a free assessment. And it's like, walk past there. I'm sure you know someone from some team that's in there.

And it's like, think about how many kids are on your team or your club team that have torn their ACL. Would you want to take a proactive or reactive approach because you're either going to be doing it in here. Or eventually, you're going to be doing it in there. And it's give them the old scare them straight.

Yeah. Totally cool. No, that's great.

So I feel like that. And when we first started off, it's just like anyone. You start reaching out to athletic directors, the football coaches. We played college football, Adam and I. We can definitely help out. Then, oh, man, I can do it myself.

And it's like, all right. Let's reach out to the soccer coach-- got right back to us. Field hockey coach got right back to us. Come in for lunch. This is what we do.

Next thing you know, we've had the same girls soccer team for seven summers. And they've won three state titles.

Wow. Nice. Yeah, it's huge.

It definitely starts it. It definitely does.

That's cool. How beneficial is it for you having a physical therapist in the house to talk to and bounce ideas off every day?

Oh, it's amazing. It really is. And they hired a nice young grad, as well, too, Wes. And he's amazing. He has an EXOS background and coming in with that physical therapy background, as well, too.

And they have a great internship program, as well, too. And when I was talking to my wife, I'm like, let me get your interns in with my interns. And let's start teaching these fundamental movement patterns.

And I was teaching them these movement patterns. They're like, we never learned this. And I was like, what you mean you never learned this? They're like, we don't learn about hip hinging, squatting, vertical push, horizontal pulls-- we don't work core anti-extension into our rotation. I was like, we can help each other.

And it's realizing that drop the ego. See how we can help each other. And no, they come up to me and ask me a question. I'm like, that's a Sharon question. I'm sorry.

I know my limitations. I can get you bigger, stronger, faster. Something's starting to hurt, let's go into see that physical therapist. And that's where it's great having them in staff, where it's like, hey, can you get a quick assessment in there? Let's see what's wrong.

All right. OK. Nothing we can do here-- this is what we've got to do. Here's our plan B.

Nice. That's super cool. Do you guys ever have interns that come in and get to check out some of the physical therapy and maybe switch gears and think, hey, maybe that's more interesting-- or the physical therapy kids, if they go vice versa?

Yeah. We had an intern probably two years ago who came in and was like, man, I love this. But I really want to go physical therapy route. And we're like, all right. Here-- recommended some schools, my wife did.

And it's great that we have that hand-in-hand. But what my wife always says is this is unique. You're not going to be working with athletes primarily. This is what we do here. And a lot of people, they'd get turned away from that because it's mainly geriatric.

Sure. Yeah. So what's the rest of your year looking like? You have more speaking gigs lined up?

A couple more-- yeah. I was limiting them because I was getting my master's and realizing that was a part-time job by itself, too. But finally finishing that, I'm definitely going to put my name out there and start getting out there.

But I'm really excited for this Athletes Acceleration and Sports Performance and helping other gym owners out there because there's definitely a need. And definitely, we can bring something to the table that's a little bit different that can help them out. So I feel like that's where my energy is going to go towards, not only to RYPT but also getting more towards that, as well, too.

Yeah. Do you have any advice for people that might want to get more involved in the NSCA, kind of follow a path like you have done?

I feel like the biggest thing is get with your state director. Get with the state first, and start off local before you want to go national or international. And that's where we started off.

Hey, can we come in? And we'll do something for free. Can we come in? Can I do a hands-on? Give me a 20-minute warm-up.

And then they're seeing, oh, whoa. That was actually pretty good. It had some energy in it. All right. Can we do something now?

And it's just get your name out there, know where the state director is, come visit him, and then it's develop those relationships. So it's starting at state first and then start getting national. And then looking to help out-- you guys always need help.

Always. Yeah.

Yeah. So how can we help out?

I'm very partial as a former state director to that system. And like I said, I truly believe that's what sets the NSCA apart. I don't see any other organizations with a grassroots system like that. And yeah, I never turned down anybody who wanted to help me out as a state director, and I'm from one of the smallest states in the United States. So that was awesome.

If people listening in want to follow up with you after they hear this, they heard something that caught their ear, how can they best reach you, follow you, all of the above?

Yeah. Social media-- obviously, on Instagram, "igotrypt" for the business side and then Coach Bobby Smith for my personal. And then my email's bobby@igotrypt.com.

And shoot me an email. We could set something up. I'm doing a lot of consultations with coaches, too, some Skype interviews and helping out. And we just want to make this field better and stronger and everyone sharing. And as long as you're not the gym right down the road, I'll give you everything I've got.

Yeah, definitely. Cool. Well, we'll put all that in the show notes, as well. And people can know now to keep their eyes posted for potential job and internship openings with you, as well.

Yeah, that'd be great.

Yeah. thanks for your time, man. I'm really looking forward to your presentation this afternoon, too.

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