David Tenney | Learn the High-Performance Playbook

Regarded as a sport science advocate in Major League Soccer (MLS), follow David Tenney’s journey from sport coach to High Performance Director at Austin Football Club (FC). Tenney and NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager Eric McMahon begin by discussing increases in MLS staff and embracing the overlap between coaching and performance science staff. Tenney reflects on how experienced coaches often evolve toward mentorship, finding balance between “leader” and “practitioner.” The pair examine the new MLS-mandated performance scientist position, which requires the Certified Performance and Sport Scientist® (CPSS®) credential. Created to standardize the role and responsibilities, MLS performance scientists leverage data from GPS and force plates into effective and ethical takeaways. As President of the emerging Professional Soccer Performance Association (PSPA), Tenney shares his goals to create a network, gain representation, and increase credibility. Tenney and McMahon also explore the robust MLS developmental pipeline, interviewing strategy, and early career advice.

Connect with David on Twitter/X: @davetenney or LinkedIn: @david-tenney | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs

For a deeper look into sport science, explore career trends and how to leverage the CPSS certification into new career opportunities. Discover your next job or internship on the NSCA Job Board.

This episode discusses David Tenney’s PhD dissertation, An Exploration of the Leadership Competencies Required for High-Performance Directors in North American Professional Sports Organizations, which includes interviews with NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS leaders.

“It's not enough just to be a really good practitioner. You have to know how to manage, lead, and collaborate with different groups and different departments and practitioners from other areas.” 8:35

“Learning to be a good mentor. I think that most people think of themselves, if you go in a room and ask most coaches, ‘Hey, do you think you're a mentor?’ Everyone would say, ‘Oh yeah, I'm a good mentor.’ But very few of us have ever been taught [those] kind of mentorship skills and what that means, and how do you mentor young practitioners. And are you connecting with them in the way they need, not just how you want to connect with them and lead them.” 27:25

“You do always want to focus on some of the hard skills of the interview process, but I think we don't in the interview process ask enough questions around is someone stress resilient, can someone be vulnerable, can someone admit they make mistakes, can someone show that they have a growth mindset. How do they handle when they don't know the answer to something?” 30:30

[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:00:02.44] Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast, Season 8, episode 11.
[00:00:07.75] Learning to be a good mentor, right? I think that most people think of themselves, if you go in a room and ask most coaches, hey, do you think you're a good mentor? Everyone would say, "oh, yeah, I'm a good mentor." But very few of us have ever been taught kind of mentorship skills and what that means, and how do you mentor young practitioners. And are you connecting with them in the way they need, not just how you want to connect with them and lead them.
[00:00:40.90] 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.
[00:00:51.49] This is the NSCA Coaching Podcast. I'm Eric McMahon, NSCA's Coaching and Sports Science Program Manager. Today we have an episode all about MLS. We're joined by David Tenney, the High Performance Director at Austin FC. Dave, welcome.
[00:01:07.85] Thank you. Thanks for having me on. It's a pleasure to be on the podcast.
[00:01:11.81] Yeah, we've been talking quite a bit, quite a bit over the last year about dedicated roles, mandated roles, and MLS around strength and conditioning, around sports science. And I want to get into some of that today because it's an exciting topic anytime there's a new league adding positions and opportunities for coaches.
[00:01:34.16] But before we do, share a little bit about your background. I know you had some stops in the NBA and now MLS. How'd you get into the strength and conditioning and high performance profession?
[00:01:47.36] Well, I always had the ambition to play at the highest level I could, soccer. Grew up playing soccer in the Washington DC area and went overseas and played some minor league soccer over there and then came back and played in some minor league pro indoor soccer leagues. And always figured I was going to be a coach.
[00:02:08.50] And as I was finishing playing in my late 20s, became a youth soccer coach, purely sport coach. And I had the opportunity, as I was going through my coach's education, to do a course in the Czech Republic. And it was a soccer coaching course, but it was highly scientific. It was, again, some of the Eastern European periodization models.
[00:02:35.17] And I was with the Sparta Prague Youth Academy there. And it just seemed to really resonate, just the science aspect of the sport and the periodization aspect of the sport. And so as I came back from there and began coaching after I lived in Prague for a couple of months, and I just started going down the avenue of the science and training side more than the sport coaching side.
[00:03:01.48] And I'd gone back to school to finish a degree in coaching science at George Mason University and was on the staff there. Enrolled in the master's program in exercise science once that was finished. And it just so happened that Greg Andrulis, an ex-MLS coach, had been let go by the Columbus Crew. He was MLS Coach of the Year in 2006. No, I'm sorry. 2004. Came to George Mason in 2005 and I coached with him in 2005 and 2006. And it was a great preparation of where MLS was at that time. And then I had an opportunity to go to Kansas City in MLS in 2007.
[00:03:45.32] So, it was just kind of a perfect storm. I mean, again, my two years at George Mason with the men. I was doing actually goalkeeper coach and fitness coach at the time for the men's team the first year, then for the men's and women's teams the second year in 2006.
[00:04:06.31] So, it was not necessarily intentional. As I started my career, it was not intentional that I was going to go down this kind of performance sport science route. But again, as I was doing my education, I think I kind of just gravitated towards what I felt resonated for me that just seemed to click. And then since then, I've just been kind of the specialist on all these staffs. And we'll get into it as I think through this podcast.
[00:04:33.10] But I think there's this-- to me, it's all about embracing the overlap between the actual coaching staff and then the performance sports science staff. There is overlap there and you have to live and embrace that overlap because obviously the goal of all parties is to have a team that arrives in game days fit and fresh and ready to perform physically, mentally, emotionally, at high levels.
[00:05:03.49] Yeah, I didn't realize you were a George Mason grad.
[00:05:07.61] Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually, I played at Virginia Tech. I played myself at Virginia Tech. And then I left early to try to go overseas and play in Germany. And then as I came back, living in the Maryland, Virginia area, it made sense to go back to school, George Mason, and create an interdisciplinary degree called coaching science there.
[00:05:28.75] Nice. Yeah, we get a few calls from graduates there breaking into the profession, and they have a strong exercise science and coaching department there. So that's really cool. You went on to get a PhD. I believe Arizona, right?
[00:05:46.22] Yeah. Yeah.
[00:05:47.14] Yeah. And I love that you made your dissertation publicly available because I was able to reference that a little bit for some projects we had at the NSCA. And one of the big topics you tackle in there is just this model of how we approach leadership within this world of high performance. And you say high performance, it's like, what is high performance? We're still defining that.
[00:06:16.68] And I like how you led into that with embracing the overlap really between disciplines. And some of these disciplines didn't even exist when we first got into the field. It was just an overlap. And now we've become so specialized, we need the leadership to put that in place. Where did the motivation for that project come from? Share a little bit about your work.
[00:06:39.81] Yeah, I think that as most coaches, as they go into their 30s and into their 40s, typically have a drive to take on more of the leadership side of their role, wherever that might be or whatever level that might be at. And, for me, it was definitely this recognition, especially as I went from the MLS into the NBA in 2017, it was pretty clear that for me that kind of the next step in my evolution as a practitioner was more, how do you lead these interdisciplinary groups to function at a high level?
[00:07:22.48] And I think that's one of the important points. And listen, I mean, for me, the PhD was a great experience. And one of the best experiences was just the interviews that I did with all these high performance leaders in NBA, NFL, Major League Baseball, MLS, and just gaining their perspective on things.
[00:07:46.91] What came clear from all of them, and it's interesting this kind of spectrum of mid-30s practitioners to practitioners in their 50s, that there is this evolution, maturity maybe, that we can't help, that we tend to become more leaders, and that might come at the cost of being a practitioner. And I think that's OK. And so I think it's this exploration of this balance of being a leader and being a practitioner and how much of one do I need to be and how much am I willing to give up on the practitioner side, because you can't do it all.
[00:08:28.36] And I think that's what we face across the board. And in most sports, staffs are getting larger, staffs are getting more integrated. And it's not enough just to be a really good practitioner. You have to know how to manage, lead, and collaborate with different groups and different departments and practitioners from other areas.
[00:08:57.97] Yeah, I mean, this is really how we got connected initially, too, talking about this evolution of positions within Major League Soccer. There was a performance specialist position that was essentially strength and conditioning, or the fitness type positions that you mentioned. But now there's a new mandated role for a performance scientist position mandated by the league, Major League Soccer.
[00:09:26.89] You've been a part of that through the sports science subcommittee of the league. And now are the president of the PSPA, which is a performance advocacy group that we like to work with from the NSCA to continue to advance efforts within the league. What was the need for this performance scientist role? I think we all know in soccer there's this international influence, even making its way into US soccer. How much of that revolves around data, sports science, and how did you use that to develop this new position?
[00:10:09.89] Yeah, I think there's a couple things. And clearly, the NSCA's certification process with the CPS came out in a very timely point in where MLS was at. If I think back even a decade ago, I wouldn't think that we'd be in a situation where for the most part, a large majority of athletes in MLS are wearing GPS devices for every game, let alone every training, but actually every match as well. And the technology that clubs are using are, again, increasing.
[00:10:53.34] And so there's just so much data being created within each MLS organization on a daily basis now. While also there's the drive for the performance coach, the strength coach to work with their athletes in the weight room and on the field. And so, to me, there was-- each organization has to have, in my opinion, just people that have certain skill sets. And so we are shifting from this, when I started the league, in 2008 when I was in Kansas City, I was the fitness and conditioning coach, I was an assistant coach, and I was the goalkeeper coach all in one in a coaching staff of three total people.
[00:11:46.35] And now fast forward and most clubs in MLS might have high performance director, they might have a head performance coach, they might have a head of sports science. And so it's really trying to standardize, I think, some of the skill sets that we think are important and should be present in each MLS organization, and that's for us having someone with the expertise in sports science, and the handling of data, and just someone that's embedded within each organization that has skills to make sure that all of the data being created is actually being utilized to make good decisions.
[00:12:25.19] Because I think if you look across the board at a lot of-- there are plenty of teams in high level college and professional sports in this country where you have someone there, you're collecting data, whether it be GPS, whether it be force plates, whether it be anything in the weight room, but is the data collected from that being leveraged to actually make good decisions? And so I think one of the reasons we wanted to have a performance scientist that holds a CPSS in every team in Major League Soccer is because we want to make sure that all the data being collected is being used in a good way.
[00:13:10.70] And then also, we do at the end, they have to all work together as practitioners, and various teams and players will naturally go from one team to the other. And, we want to continue to increase the standards together with MLS medical that players, when they're moving, that we have a really good sense of what that player has done. If they've had to rehab an injury, what that look like, and get some increasing standards in place for that.
[00:13:42.35] What's interesting there is, obviously, the technology aspect and having the skill set to deliver GPS, and all these different technologies in the weight room, but also in the MLS medical side, having someone to manage the data in a good way, but really in an ethical, responsible, legal way that doesn't put contract negotiations in jeopardy, salary negotiations. There's a lot of layers when you're dealing at the professional level that sometimes we don't think about in college athletics or with youth developmental athletes, but the minute collective bargaining and all these other processes get in there, it does get more complex.
[00:14:28.17] And so there are some layers, and certification is a part of that. So it's really great, obviously great timing with our new certification. And great for the sports science community to have this dedicated role of a performance scientist at the MLS level.
[00:14:46.99] Would you say, and these are being put in place right now, so I know it's not a perfect system, but would you say that these roles and the people in these roles, there's a big learning curve for how to fill in this role, this new role within the league? Are these established professionals that maybe have held other roles on the MLS staffs? What have you seen so far?
[00:15:12.74] Yeah, I mean, I think part of the due diligence that the league and MLS medical did on the creation of this mandated role is that really looking at which teams already had someone in place that them able to get the CPSS certification would basically upscale them in some areas around the EMR and data protection, data privacy type. But otherwise, they're functioning within their club, as they had been.
[00:15:51.77] There are some clubs in the league, a handful, that did have to hire someone new for those roles. But I think this was really about trying to standardize already what people in those roles, a little bit more of what they're doing and what their responsibilities are. And also I think, again, especially in the return to play side, that all the appropriate steps are being taken for the proper data information to get into the EMR, and again, create a really good medical structure so that athletes are being well taken care of, so.
[00:16:33.13] Yeah, let's backtrack a little bit. Major League Soccer, it is a robust developmental pipeline of young athletes all the way up to our highest level here in North America. Break down the levels and progressions that players go through in hopes of getting to the top? And also just where they might get access to different practitioners along the way?
[00:16:59.86] Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, most MLS academies, or most MLS organizations, have an academy structure that starts roughly probably around 12-years-old with their first starting youth age groups. Those go starting through the U-17 age group this year, actually starting next August, it'll be a U-18. And then each team is also mandated to have what's called MLS Next Pro, which is a professional third tier minor league team.
[00:17:41.89] And then there are homegrown rules where players can actually come in, they can come through your academy. You have the option to sign them to your first team or Next Pro at any time without having to go through a draft process. And even players can keep your homegrown rights even if they're go to college where you can still sign that player while they're in college, if you so choose.
[00:18:12.86] And then if that player does go through four years of college and does not sign a homegrown contract, then they would be eligible for the draft. So basically, at the organization level, you have this opportunity to really develop physically, technically, tactically, these athletes from 12-years-old through until they're done with college, which again, I think has a great opportunity to really have a uniform philosophy of how you'd like to train those athletes and prepare them.
[00:18:43.07] Most MLS clubs have some sort of academy performance structure, whether that's a performance director, an academy performance director with a couple of performance coaches. Clearly then, within my situation here in Austin, we have a high performance director for the Academy who has two assistants working under him. And then we have an MLS Next Pro head performance coach. And then obviously, we have our first team staff with performance and medical together is about eight staff members. So, that is our high performance kind of units for MLS Next, MLS Next Pro, and then first team.
[00:19:34.69] It's encouraging to hear that. I think a lot of our listeners who may not be familiar with MLS, even though it's been around for a few years now, there are some job opportunities. There are some different positions within that developmental pipeline. Probably surprising to a lot of people that you get access to players as young as 12, 13-years-old, and that they can develop through your system.
[00:19:58.09] A lot of times with professional sports, we're thinking that we're getting them at age 22 after a traditional four years of college. But maybe that international academy mentality and the local aspects that you mentioned that's really interesting and might inspire some coaches to look towards professional soccer as a potential career path.
[00:20:22.73] I want to pivot back to the PSPA, Professional Soccer Performance Association. This is a new group. It's information. We had our first meeting in December, and it was just really great. We were down at Inter Miami, the facility there. And yeah, close to 100 people there in the room from all different teams. We even had some representatives from the women's pro soccer league there.
[00:20:49.65] So I just thought, wow, we're doing some great things for the league right now. And we're not just talking MLS. We're branching this out to just really anyone within the network. Talk about the PSPA, your role as the president, and maybe what we can expect?
[00:21:06.25] Yeah. Yeah, and I think I give the league a lot of credit. And the league was actually very encouraging, encouraged us to form an association, similar to most of the pro leagues have an Athletic Trainers Association, as well as a Strength and Conditioning Association. MLS has PSATS, which is the athletic trainers' society for all the MLS practitioners. And they've done a great job kind of creating a community of athletic trainers.
[00:21:42.02] And so the league really encouraged us to create a similar association. And again, I think for us, we've seen various performance groups and associations in the various leagues that have been territorial. And we wanted to make sure there was really all-inclusive around performance coaches, and sports scientists, and first team, and second team members, just to start with the goal of being even more inclusive as we're going on. And just to be able to have this place where performance directors, performance coach, strength coaches, and sports scientists can all feel welcome in this community and really grow that in a league that, again, as you're saying, it's growing by leaps and bounds.
[00:22:38.09] And San Diego will come in as the 30th team in the league next year. And staffs, as I said, are increasing. And we just want to make sure that we are, again, having this network communication lines, standardized way of doing things. Just that as we can all get in a room and really connect because now the league is actually getting so big. It used to be, when I came in the league and there was, I think, 13 teams my first year, 13 or 14 teams that you knew everyone in the league, you saw them all the time, you played them multiple times per year, and you had this really close knit group of practitioners.
[00:23:22.04] And now you have coaches who bring in their staff from outside the league, and East versus West, you're not playing everyone in the other conference. That the network is so large now, it's really hard for us to really connect, and get to know each other, and see what everyone else is doing, and really also just try to help each other out as we go through, because there are so many bright people now working in MLS.
[00:23:50.38] And this association had the goal of, one, bring in this whole network of practitioners together. Two, being a officially recognized association at the league level, which might hopefully long-term gain us access to have more representation within the league in certain subcommittees that they have there. And then three, just to establish, I think, credibility for our profession as well. So I think those three things together was the goal of the association.
[00:24:29.83] And it's been super well received. And the goal is to start on the smaller side, but build the community. And as I said, so many roles are opening up, so many teams are trying new things. And that's the men's game, the women's game, collegiate, youth, the various pro leagues. Like, it's just the development that's happening has been overwhelming.
[00:25:01.28] It's interesting you talk about just the growth we've seen in MLS. 13 teams up to 30. We also have growths of staffs, and that's really a theme of what we're talking about here. And leadership at the simplest level really is as there's growth, and there's more people, and there's more stakeholders, we just need to be more organized.
[00:25:25.39] So I can say from the NSCA perspective, groups like the PSPA and other groups we work with are huge advocacy arms for the profession within a sport that promote the skill set that we believe in at the NSCA, but maybe we can't be loud enough about in every individual area that has just come into our field. We're not just the small group of college football strength and conditioning coaches anymore at the NCAA. It's expanded, like you said, leaps and bounds in so many different areas. Sports, we have special interest groups that cover some really focused sports that you may not even realize strength and conditioning coaches are working with.
[00:26:15.13] So it's really exciting just to see that growth, and even within the NSCA, as our programs evolved, it's not just about the practitioner anymore of how to get that job or those initial steps of getting certified, it really is, how do you progress through those middle career stages, that you were talking about, into more leadership or managerial type roles? What that means?
[00:26:40.59] A lot of us don't have MBAs, or business degrees, or aren't taught those skill sets to bring those leadership concepts in. So how do we go get that? Fortunately, there is a huge growth mentality within our field and we're hungry to learn and gain knowledge and skills, even outside our technical disciplines. I'll ask you, what are some of the things that you feel like coming from the performance world you've had to double down on that you would suggest other coaches maybe aspiring in your path go down that, those same footsteps?
[00:27:19.48] That's a good question. One of the things that I'll say, and I think I talk about this within the PhD, one of the things that stuck out was learning to be a good mentor. I think that most people think of themselves, if you go in a room and ask most coaches, hey, do you think you're a mentor? Everyone would say, "oh yeah, I'm a good mentor." But very few of us have ever been taught kind of mentorship skills and what that means, and how do you mentor young practitioners. And are you connecting with them in the way they need, not just how you want to connect with them and lead them.
[00:28:03.60] And probably if you are someone that's a practitioner within your 30s anyways, you are already probably in a role where you ask to be a mentor of a younger professional. And I was very taken aback. Actually, one of the surprises within my PhD is I had multiple people, multiple performance directors within different pro sports that said, I take mentorship classes. I need to learn to be a better mentor. And how impressive that was to me.
[00:28:36.32] I think staff building as well is another huge piece to what we do. And that nothing is more important than learning how to be a good interviewer. And I think that's, if you want to build a good staff, and again, most of us are not taught through our education how to be a good interviewer or how do you really determine what's a good employee and a team member and how do you actually tease that out within the interview process.
[00:29:05.95] Because in most interviews, a candidate will always tell you what they think you want to hear, not what they really think. So how in the interview process do you tease out, at the end of the day, you want to know what motivates someone to do their job on a daily basis, but you can't just ask them what motivates them because they won't truly tell you. Typically, they'll tell you what they think you want to hear. So, ultimately--
[00:29:36.61] How do you do that? What are some of the big questions you like to ask?
[00:29:41.07] I think you have to tease around and ask them very indirect questions of how they would respond in different areas. I had a GM that I worked with in the previous location, and he always liked to get into the interview process, like, or asking them, what's the hardest situation you've been in your job? Well, tell me about a time when you did something afterwards you thought, well, I got that really wrong.
[00:30:27.84] And so can you ask different questions to have someone potentially be vulnerable in the interview process. And are they willing to do that? Are they able to do that? And that gives you an insight a little bit into the person. So it's that. And again, you do always want to focus on some of the hard skills of the interview process, but I think we don't in the interview process ask enough questions around is someone stress resilient, can someone be vulnerable, can someone admit they make mistakes, can someone show that they have a growth mindset.
[00:31:13.25] How do they handle when they don't know the answer to something?
[00:31:15.78] Yeah. Yeah. Because we live in this world, I think, where you have a lot of really smart young practitioners that will walk in on day one and think that they pretty much know all the answers. And again, the mentorship side, you have to be able to tell them, convey to them, they don't have all the answers, but you also want to hire the person that can take that in, and has a growth mindset, and can be resilient when they're pushed down a little bit. And that's something that if you tease all that out in the interview process, you'll have a far better operating staff.
[00:31:47.06] Yeah. Well, and if you get to those personal levels a little bit more in the interview process for whoever does get hired, it allows you to start building that relationship there where I know from an interviewee standpoint, a lot of times those conversations stay with someone once they get into the job. Like, this is, OK, they're asking me this. This is obviously important to them. That I can relate on this level, or they want that level of honesty, or I can trust them when I don't know the answer or something's challenging. It opens up those doors.
[00:32:25.01] So it is really-- we don't talk a lot about interviewing strategy here on the podcast. I think it's something that we try to get into a little bit on the professional development side at the NSCA, and we're always trying to be creative on what types of resources we can and should put out there and are always open to suggestions from you, our listeners, anybody.
[00:32:48.25] You touched on academy opportunities, Next Pro, and obviously first team. For those listening who may want to explore a career within the MLS pipeline, how do you go about that? What time of year should you be looking for posted jobs? And yeah, what advice do you have?
[00:33:11.95] Yeah, I think the November, December time period, there's lots of hiring that goes on at the end of the MLS season. The MLS and Next Pro yearly calendar is pretty intense. I mean, at MLS, typically we are starting pre-season the second week in January. MLS Cup Final is typically the first week in December.
[00:33:40.53] So that's a pretty-- if you make it from first game to last game of the year and MLS Cup Final, then with pre-season, you have about five to six weeks off then and you're starting back up. So that's a really long calendar within that. Then that November, December, as teams get knocked out, that's when most of the hiring kind of happens and they open jobs.
[00:34:15.08] But then the MLS Academy is a little bit different because they go on more like a school type calendar year. So they will be done towards the middle of May, and then they'll take June, July, August off and start up again somewhere in the second week of August. So a little bit different there. So I would say most of the academy hirings are happening in the summer.
[00:34:39.37] Yeah, it sounds like it's really a year-round calendar. And if you're dialed into working in this, there may be some opportunities even at various points during the season or wherever it may be. And it's just something to, especially right now with more opportunities being created, hopefully this episode allows you to hear some of the skill sets and needs that are on the rise within professional soccer, but also that there are different levels of opportunity to break in, maybe if you don't have as full a soccer background.
[00:35:14.81] And what I would say too, I think this bears kind of stating that typically within your academy into your Next Pro type role, I think what's happening within our sport is that a lot of practitioners come in and they start as more generalists. So I think when I talk to mid-major colleges, or Division III pro teams, or academy setups where, hey, I want someone to come in, I want someone that's competent on the field during warm-ups, that they're competent in the weight room. they can do some GPS.
[00:35:56.54] They can provide some nutritional advice to guidance to players on the road. They're adequate in making sure guys get what they need in the road. And it's a very generalized, they're kind of a jack-of-all-trades, because they might be the only staff member to do all of those things. And they're on the road with teams, and they're doing recovery sessions. They're making sure guys are hydrated. They're doing on-field warm-ups. And then they're taking the GPS devices, and they're downloading GPS devices and creating reports after.
[00:36:29.42] And then some point, as they are doing that two, three, four, five years, well, then I think generally, these practitioners, they want to go more down, I want to be a sports scientist and focus on GPS. I want to be more in the weight room. I want to focus on the more soccer specific side and really be more on-field, or even we haven't spoken about the rehab side. I want to be a rehab specialist where I'm building soccer specific type stuff in the weight room and on the field in rehab.
[00:37:03.11] And I think the starting point for a lot of younger practitioners is you have to be that generalist and go into some of these entry-level roles. But as you go, you are almost forced to shift from a generalist to a specialist at some point to take that next step into a first team type setup.
[00:37:24.59] Yeah, I think that there's a lot of value in what you just said. And a lot of coaches out there, a lot of maybe hybrid sports science coach professionals can attest to, hey, this year I was the speed guy on my staff, and the next year I was running GPS units and doing all the technology. And we play different roles on a staff and fill gaps along the way.
[00:37:49.35] But it is healthy for us to develop a niche or something that maybe is in alignment with our passion or a real strong need for the team that just it represents our skill set. So be a generalist, but also strive to find a specialization that gives you an edge. I think that's really great advice. Appreciate that, Dave.
[00:38:13.68] But I would even say, embrace the generalist role. Like, try to learn it all. We have so many, there's a lot of practitioners that they start and they love being in the weight room, but they don't really like doing as much. And so then they might not get that first foot in the door with a Next Pro team because they might not, or vice versa, they love GPS, but they like doing the weight room.
[00:38:39.90] They don't like to go on the field and do stuff with the coaches in the field warm-ups and return to play type stuff. So embrace it all because you hopefully will reach a point where you will have to go down one of those alleyways. But if you have all those general skills in all the different areas, then you will have more opportunities.
[00:39:00.05] Yeah, I love that. Approach the field with a full tank of gas, even if you don't know where that tank is going to take you. There's a lot of ways that can go. For everyone tuning in, I know there's a lot of areas that people might have questions or want to follow up. What's the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?
[00:39:17.25] I think I'm on LinkedIn pretty active. LinkedIn and Twitter are probably the top two. And it's just that, Dave Tenney on Twitter.
[00:39:26.25] Perfect.
[00:39:27.24] My most active social media sites.
[00:39:31.86] Awesome. We'll put those in the show notes for you so everyone tuning in can reach out to Dave, ask questions. Who knows. Your next position might be within the MLS pipeline or professional soccer. Tons of new opportunities for coaches, sports science professionals within this exciting league.
[00:39:51.28] And admittedly, Dave, just getting to know you this past year and our efforts with the Professional Soccer Performance Association, I've learned a lot more about soccer and the sport. And it's been really fun to go to a few games and check things out. And I know you're in season right now, so I appreciate you taking the time with us. So thank you.
[00:40:10.86] Yeah, thank you. And I do want to say, too, I mean, we appreciate the NSCA's support in all of this. And it's been a really good partnership at this point, as we've mandated two roles that both require the NSCA certification with the CSCS and CPSS. And you guys have been great in working with us. And we hope the partnership continues.
[00:40:33.88] Yeah, let's do it. It's been really great on our side, too. So we appreciate you and in your group there. Everyone, thanks for tuning in today. We hope you had some big takeaways. And don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions.
[00:40:47.10] Also, special thanks to Sorinex Exercise Equipment. We appreciate their support.
[00:40:51.85] Hi, I'm Ian Jeffreys, the NSCA President. You've just listened to an episode of the NSCA Coaching Podcast. Hopefully it's generated some interest in strength and conditioning and the NCAA. If it has, get involved. Go on to the NCAA website, see what opportunities are available, and I hope to see you at one of our events where you can be the next leadership generation of the NCAA.
[00:41:17.65] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:41:19.99] This was 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 over 40 years, the NSCA is the trusted source for strength and conditioning professionals. Be sure to join us next time.

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