NSCA’s Coaching Podcast – Special Episode – Behind the Scenes: NFL Combine Training and Performance in the Private Sector with Bryan McCall

In today's National Football League (NFL) world, teams are always on the lookout for the best talent. That is why strength and conditioning coaches are crucial in optimizing a prospect's value.  This special episode of the NSCA Coaching Podcast features NFL Combine expert, Bryan McCall, sharing details of coaching process leading up to the event. The conversation includes co-hosts Eric McMahon, the NSCA Coaching Program Manager, and Gatorade Team Sports Manager, Jon Jost. You will hear Coach McCall credit Coach Jost as an early career mentor and emphasize the importance of mentorship for all coaches. Learn how to make a successful year-round business of strength and conditioning and advance your coaching career with an entrepreneurial mindset. 
 
You can reach Coach McCall on Instagram: @justbmac_ or Twitter: @just_BryanM | Email Jon at: jonathan.jost@pepsico.com | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs   

To learn more and join the Gatorade Performance Partner Community, visit GatoradePerformancePartner.com.

"My father told me really early on, man, find something in your life that you love to do. Don't just go into a job where you just dread being there, and you don't want to do it, and you're forced to do it because you need to get a paycheck week to week. He said, find a passion." 1:55

"Physically, a lot of them are all the same. They're all really big. They're fast. They can have the same 5-10-5. The linear speed is there. But it's that "it factor", which we've kind of looked at three different areas. When we talk about mentality, what type of drive do you have? What type of attitude do you have? What's your confidence level? We feel like those three areas is sometimes what separates athletes from being just physical specimens to being, a complete sort of player." 19:52

"You've got the alphabet certification, you've got everything. But then when you're on the floor, can you do it? And so you've got to get real world, practical experience getting in front of people, coaching people. It's hard training athletes. They don't necessarily want to do squats all the time, and sprinting, and 300-yard shuttle. They need motivation. So you've got to get some practical experience and get that really quickly so you can learn if this is something you want to do or not, because it's not an easy road." 32:40

"An issue I'm seeing with the younger generation, is they just want to get to the top really quick. You've got to slow cook it a little bit. Put it in the oven on 200 and let it just bake. Slow cook your career a little bit. It's going to get there, but it takes time to build your reputation. It takes time to get results. Just be patient with it. You're not going to come out here and just start working with Combine athletes as a new graduate. You're going to have to watch for a little bit and learn. And then you'll get your chance." 33:40

[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:00:04.14] Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast, season seven, special episode.
[00:00:10.03] A lot of them are all the same. They're all really big. They're fast. They can have the same 5-10-5. The linear speed is there.
[00:00:16.44] But it's that it factor, we used to call it, which we've kind of looked at three different areas. When we talk about mentality, it's like, what type of drive do you have? What type of attitude do you have? And what's your confidence level? We feel like those three areas is sometimes what separates athletes from being just physical specimens to being a complete sort of a player.
[00:00:37.50] 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.
[00:00:48.49] This is the NSCA Coaching Podcast. And I'm Eric McMahon. Today, we have a special episode in partnership with Gatorade. Gatorade Performance Partner helps to fuel and support important conversations across the strength and conditioning profession.
[00:01:03.37] Our guest today is a strength and conditioning coach in the Dallas area, Bryan McCall, or BMac for those who know him, who's built a successful career in the private sector focusing on NFL Combine training. BMac, welcome.
[00:01:16.93] Thank you. Thanks for having me on.
[00:01:18.74] Yeah, so it's a collaboration episode today. We have Coach Jon Jost, Gatorade's Team Sport Manager, back with us on the air. Hey, Coach.
[00:01:27.58] Thanks for having me. Thanks, Eric. It's always fun. So look forward to this conversation. Bryan and I go back for a lot of years. And yeah, this will be a fun one.
[00:01:38.95] Awesome. Let's jump right in. Bryan, every year, when athletes are getting ready for the Combine, I hear your name coming up. What led you into coaching in the private sector and preparing athletes for the NFL?
[00:01:51.30] Yeah, I think it starts, honestly, with my father. My father told me really early on, he said, man, find something in your life that you love to do. Don't just go into a job where you just dread being there, and you don't want to do it, and you're forced to do it because you need to get a paycheck week to week.
[00:02:08.25] He said, find a passion. And so that was always kind of searching for that sort of aspect of my life, to make sure that whatever I did, I had a really deep, deep affection for, and a love for, and a care for. And I think that's what led me into coaching. I found out that this is just like coaching.
[00:02:24.27] And then I was able to come across Coach Jon Jost. And it takes one person to believe in you to change someone's life. And he was a guy that I felt like-- I was just trying to get an internship at SMU back in those days.
[00:02:35.55] And like a young college student, I just need to get my credits to graduate. I had no idea that meeting him and him saying yes to me as a graduate assistant, and a full-time assistant, creating a job for me at Florida State was going to impact me in that way, that I wanted to continue to prove that I deserved that opportunity.
[00:02:52.70] And so every single day that I've gone out there and coached people and done what I've done in my career, I always go back to the people that let me in the door. And I'm just very grateful for those opportunities that they gave me.
[00:03:01.85] So I think that's the history of why I do what I do for 20-plus years. It's just because I'm just inspired.
[00:03:10.88] That's great, Bryan. I really love when coaches start with a passion. I think that's something that's really common that I hear, is something lights that match for us. And it's usually a person.
[00:03:26.42] Like you said, Coach Jost has been a mentor to a lot of people. You guys worked together at SMU and Florida State. Coach, what was your perspective on that?
[00:03:40.56] First of all, just humility. And Bryan said it took somebody to say yes to him and believe in him. And I appreciate that so much.
[00:03:53.52] And the reality is, he's one of these people that is very, very easy to say yes to. And very early on, you realize, wow, this is really a man of character, a great individual.
[00:04:11.13] And super early on, he was somebody that made me better, and made us better as a staff, and developed great relationships with the student athletes, and trust and belief. And so I feel very fortunate also to have been able to work with Bryan. And we've continued to have a great deal of respect for each other, and friendship.
[00:04:44.35] And so yeah, it was really a lot of fun at SMU. And as we were talking off air, I mean, we were very passionate. And we were gung ho. But we made a lot of mistakes. And we didn't realize when we were making them at the time.
[00:05:00.61] But we had some success at SMU. And we're very fortunate to be able to move up to a bigger stage at Florida State, with Coach Bowden and some of the unbelievable men and athletes that we were able to work with at Florida State. And it was a really special time, for sure.
[00:05:25.83] Bryan, getting started in the college ranks, and then jumping over to the private sector, what were some of the big takeaways for you? A lot of coaches work at the college level in some way, at some level early in their development, whether it be an internship or a full-time position. But you've made a career out of the private sector. What did you take with you from working with college athletes?
[00:05:48.45] Yeah, with the college athlete, I wanted to take them further. I wanted to take them all the way through. And so you look at the pinnacle, the height of success is to be a professional athlete. And so I wanted to work with them, not just as an amateur. But I wanted to work with them as a professional.
[00:06:02.38] And so I decided to make that jump from the collegiate sector into the professional realm just so I could help continue those guys' career. I got three to four years with them in college. But I wanted to see, can I train them for 10 years as a professional? And so I wanted to step over and get that challenge. And I think that was the primary motivator for me, is just continue the training at the highest level and see if I can compete and help our athletes stay resilient in the highest level of sport.
[00:06:28.99] I know you looked at Coach Jost as a mentor. Who are some of the other big mentors early in your career? You mentioned you just were looking for an internship, someone to take a chance on you. That's a really key time for young coaches in the profession, that our eyes are wide open. We're trying to take in as many resources as we can. What were some of the big mentors and resources that you looked to?
[00:06:55.24] Yeah, well, Coach Jost was number one. I mean, he was the introduction. And I was a young guy at that time. And I didn't know anything.
[00:07:01.51] I just didn't know anything about training. I'd never had any experience in the collegiate athlete world. So I learned a lot about how to structure programming. I learned philosophy and principles from Coach Jost.
[00:07:13.12] I also learned how to be a professional. Back in those days, we used to wear collared T-shirts in the weight room. Remember that?
[00:07:18.40] [LAUGHTER]
[00:07:19.68] We were buttoned up, man. I think we had khaki shorts on, collared T-shirts. And we were really professional. And I've always kind of carried that mantle with me, even though we don't dress like that anymore.
[00:07:28.27] But I still have that same attitude. When you come to work, you're a professional. You're not here to be friends with the athletes. You're their mentor. They're looking up to you. And they're looking for guidance and advice.
[00:07:38.37] And so I learned all those things from him. And he's one of the most organized individuals I've ever been around. And so just learning how to structure, be organized, and be professional, I took that away from him. He was my first mentor in this space.
[00:07:50.03] I would say my second one was when I went to the private sector, was a guy by the name of Lance Walker. He was with me at Integrated Athletic Development in Carrollton, and then at Michael Johnson Performance. We were together for 10-plus years.
[00:08:02.72] I learned about how to meld all these different industries together-- so physical therapy with speed training, with performance training, with strength and conditioning. I was able to-- nutrition, regeneration. I was able to start to put all that together.
[00:08:17.54] And now, you start to look at that-- it's high performance, is what they're calling that field, is where you're putting all these different attributes together, and variables, and putting them into one, synergistically. And so I saw the way to craft that and put it together because I'd never seen it before.
[00:08:31.21] Jon and I we're talking about back in the day, it was just strength work. And you did conditioning work. And that was about it.
[00:08:37.03] We didn't do much speed. We didn't do hardly any recovery. Soft tissue work wasn't a thing. So I just saw sort of that full circle integration with everything when I got into the private sector.
[00:08:49.60] Another person was a assistant strength coach at SMU-- or Florida State, sorry, was Dave [? Poletto. ?] He taught me a lot about some of the Russian training systems, the Bulgarian training systems. It was really about explosiveness and power, and all these different unique modalities that we could use. So I took that. And I started to meld that together and made it my own.
[00:09:09.26] And I think now-- I'm still learning. I'm still being mentored. But now, it's more on the business side. So you look at a guy like a Michael Johnson, who I worked with for a decade.
[00:09:18.91] I learned how to be methodical. That's the way he was as an athlete. I mean, no stone left unturned. Everything is thought of. Everything is calculated, very strategically planned. So I learned how to change my mindset and how to be extremely focused.
[00:09:36.11] He used to always talk about in his environment of training, he wants an extremely focused training environment. And so really, every session was like that. And so I learned how to recreate that in my career.
[00:09:48.41] And now, it's Sports Academy. I'm working with some really great entrepreneurs, like a Chad Faulkner, Nate Borunda. They've taken the sports industry, and they've expanded the platform.
[00:10:00.15] And so now, I'm looking at we have the sport. We have competition. We have leagues. We have clubs. We've got our own integrated sports medicine. We've got speed coaches. We have strength coaches. We have mental conditioning coaches. We have cognition. We have digital training.
[00:10:17.33] So now, I'm seeing this model just extremely grow in all different areas at the same time. And it's like, that's what's sustainable. You can't just be a specialist in this market. You've got to have all these other elements supporting each other and feeding each other. So I'm learning on the business side now.
[00:10:35.18] As a strength coach, I went to school, I got an exercise science degree. I didn't know any of that stuff. I didn't know anything about marketing and business, and how to be an entrepreneur, and how to think strategically, and how to position yourself differently in the market. We weren't trained to do that stuff. And so now, when I'm getting around business people, and we're melding it with sport, it's still expanding me as a person.
[00:10:57.27] That's awesome. That's amazing. Before we get into the Combine training and that process, I want to go off script here just a little bit and build on some of what you just shared. And you've had other opportunities.
[00:11:15.99] I mean, you have had opportunities to go into the NFL. And obviously, whenever a big job comes up, I've heard your name mentioned multiple times. What's kept you in the private sector? And why do you like the position that you're in as opposed to maybe going to the NFL?
[00:11:40.29] Yeah, I think it's the variation in the opportunities that are presented to you on a daily basis. It's just the ability to expand, to try things out. If they don't work, you fail, you adapt, and you try something else.
[00:11:55.35] It's exploratory. You can just get your fingers involved with so many different areas. And you can expand. Our training services, so many different markets-- I mean, international markets, state markets, national markets. It's unlimited.
[00:12:11.14] I think that's where I sometimes maybe felt a little bit limited, maybe being with a team, because that's it. You're all team. And that's great. I love those things. But I just felt a little bit limited.
[00:12:22.00] For my personality and who I am, I just like to be able to get involved, and be very creative and innovative in those aspects. I think that's what it was.
[00:12:30.58] Yeah, that's great. You've definitely thrived in that environment. So you know how to soar with your strengths and what fits you best. So that's awesome.
[00:12:39.13] If we could transition a little bit to the Combine training process, and if you wouldn't mind taking us through what that looks like, how long the athletes are typically with you, and maybe what does a training day look like? And then everybody talks about training for the Combine. And you continue with them post-Combine in many cases, too. So if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about that?
[00:13:07.45] Yeah, so the process is starting now. It's almost like an annual process because you've got to get those guys exposed to your services early on, like, almost a year out. And so what we'll do is after I'd say around March, April, May, somewhere in that time, we'll start to recruit the athletes to come in and get experience with us, just so they can see our facility, see our character, our personalities, see what we have to offer in terms of services and functionality of facility. And so it starts then.
[00:13:37.87] And then we continue to stay in touch with them throughout the season-- updates, communications, checking in-- good game here, things like that. And then you have to also have great relationships with your agents. And so your agents are a really good pipeline and a feeder for these facilities to be successful.
[00:13:54.80] So you have those two markets. You've got to always get exposed to the athlete. You've got to have them because that's your ultimate client. But then you've also got to have great relationships with the agents because they can be great feeder systems for you. So that's the first part of it.
[00:14:06.83] The second part, when you talk about a kid that signs up with you, they can start as early as next month, December. So guys that are out of Bowl Games, and not going to go to the playoffs and things like that, or just opting out, they can start that process early.
[00:14:21.31] And typically, they're looking for therapy. So it's low intensity. They're trying to get their body back. They want to spend three to four weeks just getting the body reconstituted and back to health.
[00:14:33.53] The real program typically starts January 2, January 3. And it starts with a pretty extensive diagnostic process. The first thing that we want to know is, what's the status of the system?
[00:14:44.93] And so we've got to get an orthopedic evaluation. We've got to understand-- you've played three to four years of college football, high school football, maybe Pee Wee. These guys are broken. They've played 10 years of some highly competitive football.
[00:14:57.68] And so we've got to understand what's the status now. We've got to look at joint-- everything, range of motion, orthopedic screening. And so that gives an indication of, do we need to take a medical pathway with a guy? Or can they go performance?
[00:15:09.16] If it's medical, that means we might need to have therapy as your primary pathway, or even surgery. We've had some guys-- herniated disc or torn hip flexor. And it's like, you can't compete at the Combine level right now. We have to recommend that you get surgery.
[00:15:23.68] Now, that's a really tough conversation for guys to have because you're expecting to go through this eight-week process and train. But it's not in your best interest to do that. So there's two pathways.
[00:15:33.19] If they take the performance pathway, the system is designed to go eight weeks in length. We usually start January 2. Combine's usually that last week of February. So eight weeks of intensive training.
[00:15:45.32] You'll have some All-Star Games interspersed in there as well. So you've got to prepare them for the Combine drills, the medical process, the interview process. But then they've also got to be ready to go the All-Star Games.
[00:15:57.34] And we always tell these guys, too, like, your All-Star Games, that's the highest level of football you've ever played in your career because these guys are going to the NFL. This is the best of the best in college. And so during this process, these guys now have to go and play at a very high level January and February.
[00:16:13.54] The structure of the program is, we train virtually every day. So six days a week. Most of those training sessions are about an hour, hour and a half in length.
[00:16:22.12] We like to do our speed work in the morning. We give them three to four-hour break. And then we'll come back in the afternoon and get our lift or our recovery. So every day that they're in, it's usually two times a day training for those five days, two times a week.
[00:16:37.18] The next part of that is, you've got to integrate. You've got to be able to meld the strength, the speed, the skill, and the recovery. And so you have to cobble all that stuff together. And you can't leave anything out of balance.
[00:16:51.53] And so we've got to get enough speed work to where guys are confident that they are prepared for the drills. You can't go in and lift heavy weights. You've got to lift more explosively because you don't have a lot of time. And we can't do anything to slow guys down because like I said, it's a track meet. It's all about speed there, except for the 225 test, the bench press.
[00:17:09.53] And then also, you can never get away from the skill part of football. And so I think strategically, one thing we've always done in programs I've been involved with, we're always dosing in two to three times a week of their football skill work. Because at the end of the day, the Combine is just one part of it. They've still got to get ready for football.
[00:17:26.90] And I think we've also strategically gotten really good-- is maybe even adding more skill work in terms of football IQ, physical work. And so your football skill work can actually be every day, so five days a week. And what we've seen is guys that go through that process, they perform better as rookies compared to guys that get limited skills. So I think we have a pretty competitive advantage there.
[00:17:49.02] But yeah, that's the structure. It's a pretty intense time for these guys.
[00:17:53.39] Yeah, that's really intense. And I'm sure that some of them are pretty surprised at the level of intensity and the expectations. And I'm sure that if they can excel through that program, it also prepares them for being a professional athlete and the rigors of, hey, what's going to be expected whenever they get drafted.
[00:18:26.21] That's right. That's a really good point because at this point, we're not your college strength coach anymore. We're not mandating that you do anything. We're advisors. We're performance consultants at this point. You're paying us to consult you on what we think is the best strategy for you to prepare yourself for your career as a professional.
[00:18:45.50] It's really on them. And I think that's the first taste of it because in college, you've got to be there. You've got to do what you've got to do for the team. This is the ultimate free agent time period for them because they're not affiliated with a team. And so it's their first time to be an individual football player versus a football player on a team.
[00:19:02.70] I thought it was interesting you broke down-- obviously, the skill component is huge at the NFL level. The physical component, huge because we're strength and conditioning coaches. And that's what we focus on.
[00:19:13.77] But the mental component, I want to ask you about that. You mentioned the interview process. And you really are delivering comprehensive preparation for these athletes in preparation for the Combine. How do you approach that, getting prospects ready for interviewing so that they present themselves well?
[00:19:34.65] Exactly right. We've got to bring in professionals that know how to do that. So we bring in those subject matter experts, interview prep companies. And then we also have a neuropsychologist that works on their character development, coping strategies. And so we bring in high-end, PhD-level professionals to help them with the mentality part of it.
[00:19:52.56] Because physically, a lot of them are all the same. They're all really big. They're fast. They can have the same 5-10-5. The linear speed is there.
[00:20:00.30] But it's that it factor, we used to call it, which we've kind of looked at three different areas. When we talk about mentality, it's like, what type of drive do you have? What type of attitude do you have? And what's your confidence level? We feel like those three areas is sometimes what separates athletes from being just physical specimens to being, like, a complete sort of player.
[00:20:19.54] And then we also do cognition. And so I think Sports Academy has a really unique advantage in the market because we have coders and tech experts that work for our company. And so we have technology that we integrate that helps with memory, attention, processing speed, cognition. And so we're able to help that processing speed in addition to the physical elements, in addition to the mental-- psychologists and mental coaches.
[00:20:46.09] So we're putting all that together. We're like, here's a circle of a human. We're expanding the human out bigger. And so we're hitting all these different areas, where it's not just a linear approach. It's more of a sphere getting bigger like a balloon.
[00:20:57.52] So it is very intense. It's a lot of time.
[00:21:00.64] And I'm hearing that expansion really for the athlete, but really in our roles as coaches. Early on, it was really just the weight room and strength. And it expanded to strength and speed. And then it's soft tissue, and the medical aspects that you were talking about.
[00:21:19.09] But I want to ask you about your speed program. You've worked with some of the fastest athletes in Combine history. Are there specific KPIs or measurements that you've found successful related to speed? And how do you approach that as a strength and conditioning coach, being a high-level speed coach as well?
[00:21:42.18] Yeah, it took us a while to figure out the right model for it because you've got to have these athletes perform. But then you've got to keep them safe, too. So one of the things I started to scale back on was, we were always trying to go out there to break records and have them perform at the highest-- and the best they can.
[00:21:58.26] But what I've learned, just talking to NFL personnel is, there's a zone that each guy needs to run. So if you're an offensive lineman, and they project you to run a 5.2, you can't go up there and run a 5.5. if you run a 5.1, it's great. But it's OK.
[00:22:13.30] But the risk versus reward to try to get a guy to run that 5.1 versus-- they need you slotted right here in this zone. And we're going to check that box. Let's just do that because it's safer.
[00:22:23.26] The worst thing we can do is have a guy pull his hamstring trying to run a faster 40. It's not worth it. And I think as our egos and things like that, coaches, we just want to go out there and break all these records. But it's really not about that. It's making sure the guy is hitting his potential, doing what he can do, and just making sure that he's hitting what they're expecting him to hit.
[00:22:43.70] And so it took us a while. And so we've developed a model of speed where we have three linear days. On Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we do our linear stuff.
[00:22:51.25] We like to do our max velocity a little bit earlier in the week. We do our acceleration midweek. And then we do our starts on Friday.
[00:22:57.70] But each day, we're going to have an element because the start is so important. And these guys are not technically astute at it yet. So we make sure that we have an element of starting every single session that we do it. And I think that's really proven to be very successful.
[00:23:12.29] Talking about the start, we really started to look at the 0 to 5 time. If these guys can get underneath a second-- the fast guys are about 0.8-- if we can get those guys to run in those time ranges, we feel like we can set them up for the rest of the 40.
[00:23:25.79] Because your start is about 20% to 30% of your max velocity. If I can push out hard, and I can create some momentum coming out, and I can get my foot down without losing that momentum in the right spot, I'm able to generate and see some of that result, those outcomes on the back end. So we've really honed in. Let's just really be excellent on that first 0 to 5.
[00:23:44.97] And as far as KPIs, this is where I think the field has gotten a lot better, is in the kinematics of sprinting. When I started, we didn't really know. Like, lift your knees up. Spread your arms apart. Chop [? down-- ?] striders. It's what we did for speed.
[00:23:59.60] And so now, we've gotten to a point where there's degrees. Like, we know there's ranges that we have to hit. There's some of these key shapes and forms that we've got to hit.
[00:24:07.52] So we know when a guy comes out of his start position at three-point, he's got to get fully extended. We've got to come out at lower than 45 degrees. We like 35. The thigh, the femurs have to separate at least 90 to 110 degrees.
[00:24:21.82] And once you get to that, that right there, we call it a zero step. You're able to project out. You're going to be in a pretty good position to run faster.
[00:24:29.37] Some guys, what I've noticed is they make mistakes. So they'll get that. And they'll extend out. And they'll put their foot in the wrong spot at the wrong time when they hit the floor.
[00:24:38.97] And so once they're here, they're extended. They may drop straight down. Or they may go back too far. And it's not optimized.
[00:24:46.08] One of the key metrics we looked at using Dartfish was, when they get extended on that zero step, they have about 0.06 seconds to get to the floor. If it's longer than that, they're just going to hang in the air. And you've lost a little bit of momentum you've generated from that initial force. So you can't just hang.
[00:25:01.59] And you can't come down too early because your impulse is not going to be high enough. So there's an optimal range. If I can get underneath the center of mass, center of gravity, somewhere in that position in 0.06, I have the best chance to really effectively get out of the hole. So that's one of the ones that we really like to look at.
[00:25:18.57] And then look at the back end. So I think it was Ken Clark did a study and talked about max velocity being critical for the 40-yard dash. Because back in the day, it was always, well, your start, your acceleration, that's all that matters. You don't really need max velocity.
[00:25:32.28] That's absolutely not right. You've got the fastest guys, miles per hour, run the fastest times. So we've got to get the max velocity up.
[00:25:40.95] And so that back end, 20 to 40, fast guys are going to go 1.7 on the back end. Your medium-fast guys, 1.8. Your linemen are about 2.2 to 2.1. So we kind of understand where those zones need to be as far as those KPIs.
[00:25:54.33] To run really fast, you've got to have great back end speed. And to have that, you have to have experience running fast, often. Because your nervous system, when you're running that fast, everything sort of seizes up.
[00:26:04.38] If I'm not sprinting enough-- you see these guys, they don't run fluidly when they don't sprint a lot. It looks sort of fragmented. They're not smooth. Their coordination, their timing, their rhythm is off. And so once you start to practice running fast often, those back end times start to really drop because they're more relaxed at top end speed.
[00:26:24.58] Super interesting, especially the risk-reward of being able to check that box, and make sure that based on their position, the athletes in that zone, and not assuming or trying to get them to run faster because of the risk. And yeah, I mean, if they get injured leading up to the Combine or at the Combine, all that work that they've done and everything that they've prepared for this one, really, job interview that's going to make them a professional is ruined.
[00:27:05.68] So that makes a lot of sense. And that's the first time that I've ever heard that.
[00:27:09.94] Yeah, yeah, and you see guys that will have an injury during the Combine process, it stays with them all the way through their career. And it's like, it's just not worth it, man. It's not.
[00:27:19.87] Yeah. Super interesting. So changing gears a little bit, going into a different subject, I'll never forget when early in my career as a strength coach, I can remember talking to one of my neighbors and saying, oh, it's offseason. What do you do?
[00:27:40.99] [LAUGHTER]
[00:27:45.98] You're getting ready to go into your in-season. And obviously, you are extremely busy, which you've talked about an awful lot, of it really starting the first of the year through the Combine, and really through the Draft.
[00:28:02.39] Once the Draft is over, could you talk a little bit about what fills up your calendar with professional athletes and the type of athletes that you're training, really, I'll say from
[00:28:15.05] the Draft to when your cycle starts all over again in January 1?
[00:28:24.17] Yeah, the Combine, if you look at it from a business perspective, it's more of a feeder system for your NFL offseason program. And so it's in our best interest to have a good chunk of guys in our program having a great experience with us so they can continue their training for 5 to 10 years after that.
[00:28:42.80] Because you only have them for eight weeks. And that's just not enough to really sustain a business. It'd be great to have them for eight years, things like that. So we try to keep those guys into the loop as best we can.
[00:28:54.62] But then in this business, you've got to have your youth population. And so you use these professional athletes, you leverage their brand and what you've done with them to sell the next generation. And so these young football players want to be like the guys in the Combine one day. And so we leverage that a little bit at the elementary, middle school, and high school level, and even the collegiate level. So you have that pipeline there.
[00:29:17.13] And then you've got to have a multitude of different sports. We've gone as far now as we're training cheerleaders. We partner with Cheer Athletics, which is one of the biggest cheerleading organizations in the world. So now, we're doing strength and conditioning and performance for cheer athletes.
[00:29:32.90] We've gotten into the esport athletes. We've got a really cool thing going on with the Army esports, actually. They have an esports division. And so we're going to be doing combines for esports athletes.
[00:29:44.36] Who would have thought? I mean, we'll be training those guys, testing vertical jumps. I don't know if we're going to do speed. I don't know if they need that one.
[00:29:53.42] It's funny you mention that because I was just at East Tennessee State University for their sports science clinic. And they have a varsity esports team and stadium. And just blew my mind that that's going on right now. Yeah.
[00:30:11.61] Yeah, and the training aspect, and we're seeing sports medicine for it. And yeah, it's really interesting. A topic for another day, I'm sure. But it's really cool.
[00:30:23.92] Yeah, I think as a business, you're just always looking for new opportunities, new potential opportunities. And that's kind of what we talked about before, is that entrepreneurial mindset. It's like, what else can we do? Who else can we serve?
[00:30:36.12] We've had such expertise in some of these big sports. You've got your baseball players. You've got MLB. You got your NBA pre-draft program and offseason program, your traditional things. But then what else can we do to leverage our expertise in one area and transfer it over to another area? And so that's what I was talking about, that exploratory nature of this business.
[00:30:55.28] Yeah, it's incredible how it's changed and grown. Speaking of which, you've really become an amazing leader and mentor as a strength and conditioning coach. And you have a lot to share and a lot to give. And what advice would you give to a young, aspiring strength coach, somebody that is looking for that internship, and to finish their degree?
[00:31:25.00] Yeah, you'd better be persistent on that internship thing. So I think I recently joked, probably 20 times before I got a yes. I think [INAUDIBLE] up one day. He told me, he's like, man, the reason why I gave you the intern-- you wouldn't leave me alone.
[00:31:36.31] [LAUGHTER]
[00:31:37.37] I needed to graduate, man. I needed it. So you've got to be persistent. Just hard, and it's getting harder. That was in 1999. It's getting harder.
[00:31:46.24] Now, this field is very known. It's flooded. It's more competitive. So it's just getting harder. The best thing about it, though, is the field, the uniqueness is expanding, too. There's other areas to get involved with, not just the collegiate strength coach, professional or private. So there's other things there.
[00:32:02.27] But be persistent. I think you've got to find a mentor pretty quickly. I think you've got to find someone.
[00:32:08.23] I think the USOC did something. They talked about coaching development. And they said, the number one thing to develop a coach is find a mentor, someone that's done it before, that you can get some practical advice. It's OK, reading books and seeing, observing. But you need to be able to bounce Q&A off of someone who's done it before so you can learn quicker because that learning curve, it takes too long the other way.
[00:32:32.17] The downfall is, when they're coming out, they don't have practical experience. And so the resume looks good. You've got the alphabet certification, you've got everything. But then when you're on the floor, can you do it?
[00:32:43.91] And so you've got to get real world, practical experience getting in front of people, coaching people. It's hard training athletes. They don't necessarily want to do squats all the time, and sprinting, and 300-yard shuttle. They don't want to do that.
[00:32:55.94] I think it's a fallacy-- like, us, strength coaches always thought, oh, they just want to do that. And they're always going to be there. And they're going to be ready to go. It's not true.
[00:33:04.25] They need motivation. So you've got to get some practical experience and get that really quickly so you can learn if this is something you want to do or not, because it's not an easy road.
[00:33:12.71] Also, too, what I did was, I found my passion. And so I knew I wanted to help people. And so I found what I wanted to do. And you've got to find what you love.
[00:33:21.74] And a lot of times, having passion is just not enough. It's not going to be sustaining you in a career. You've got to have a skill set, too. And so you've got to keep developing your tools and your toolkits. And so you put those together, and I think you have a presence and an impact in this field.
[00:33:36.18] And this is another issue I'm seeing with the younger generation, is they just want to get to the top really quick. You've got to slow cook it a little bit. Put it in the oven on 200 and let it just bake. Like, slow cook your career a little bit. It's going to get there, but it takes time to build your reputation. It takes time to get results.
[00:33:55.70] And just be patient with it. You're not going to come out here and just start working with Combine athletes as a new graduate. You're going to have to watch for a little bit and learn. And then you'll get your chance. So that's my advice.
[00:34:08.09] Agree 100% with all of it.
[00:34:10.61] Yeah, so some great building blocks there to help coaches find their voice regardless of where they're at. And the big takeaway there is the knowledge is out there. And you've talked a lot about different things you need to master in this profession, from training youth, adults, the medical aspects, return to play, speed.
[00:34:33.32] But really, finding your voice so you can deliver an effective training program with a variety of athletes, and helping those athletes find their path. Because we're progressing as coaches. But they're progressing through their career. And they're relying on us.
[00:34:52.73] And it's inspiring to hear your journey, and how you've poured so much into athletes, and really, how it started just with that internship, going back with Coach Jost back in the day. And it's just cool to have this conversation now.
[00:35:11.06] Well, I was just going to say one thing-- I think when I did that internship, and I got in that environment, and it was so energetic, and it was so high intensity, that's when I knew. Because I was doing an internship somewhere else. And I think I might have dropped out of it. And I said, I don't want to do this anymore.
[00:35:26.55] This is what I want to do. I just got around that environment, and I was like, dude, this is me. And I've been doing it ever since.
[00:35:33.80] Yeah.
[00:35:34.34] Yeah, that's a really good point. And being able to find a mentor that you can get into that environment and really learn, hey, is this for me? Because the only way that you really know is to spend time in the grind and in that intensity. So that's a really, really good point.
[00:36:00.60] And if one environment in this field isn't the right fit for you, there's a lot of other options now. The field's come a long way. So that's inspiring as well.
[00:36:13.10] For anyone listening in, wants to reach out, connect with you, Bryan, what's the best way to do that?
[00:36:19.00] Email. So Bryan, B-R-Y-A-N @sportsacademy.us. And I think in this day and age, Instagram. Just BMac_, IG. That might be the best.
[00:36:31.87] OK, we'll list that in the show notes. And thanks for being with us. We really appreciate it. A lot of coaching insights and takeaways. That was BMac, Bryan McCall, Sports Academy, Frisco, Texas.
[00:36:47.74] We appreciate everyone listening in. And we'd also like to thank Coach Jost and Gatorade Performance Partner for joining us on this episode. Coach Jost, thanks.
[00:36:57.54] Thank you, and thank you, Bryan. I really enjoyed this. Seems like we only get to connect once or twice a year. And every time I do, I just am so grateful for the time that we had together, and that we've been able to continue our friendship through the years. So it's so good to have this connect with you. Thank you, and wish you guys both a happy Thanksgiving.
[00:37:23.37] Yes, Sir. Without you, nothing happens, man. I appreciate you for everything you've done for me personally. Thank you.
[00:37:28.95] Thank you.
[00:37:29.22] Appreciate that.
[00:37:30.25] So if you'd like to learn more and join the Gatorade Performance Partner community, visit gatoradeperformancepartner.com. And also, a thanks to Sorinex Exercise Equipment, a regular sponsor on the NSCA Coaching Podcast.
[00:37:44.82] Hey, everyone. I'm Doctor Tim Suchomel, the chair of the NSCA Sports Science and Performance Technology Special Interest Group. And you just heard an episode of the NSCA Coaching Podcast.
[00:37:54.72] This show brings about excellent discussion right to the core of the NSCA's mission to bridge the gap between scientific research and application. If you want to learn more about the many advancements in the areas relevant to today's practitioners, subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform. Also, join the discussion in the NSCA Sports Science and Performance Technology SIG on Facebook. Go to nsca.com for more information.
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