Jared Siegmund | Training Paralympic Athletes

As a Strength and Conditioning Coach with the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), Jared Siegmund prepares athletes for the apex of achievement and perseverance. Siegmund shares that, contrary to public belief, the Olympic competition cycle is not every four years — Team USA athletes face fierce competition in World Series events along the way to qualify. He also speaks to the creativity required to coach Paralympic athletes, where missing limbs create unique biomechanics and hearing or visual impairments impact cueing. Siegmund touches on his principles-based programming architecture, sample adaptations, and USOPC’s interdisciplinary support team. Additionally, Siegmund and McMahon discuss the new generation of modern athletes who are more in tune with data and can control their preparation experience. The discussion concludes with the importance of a growth mindset and getting out of your comfort zone, as well as opportunities to enter elite sport.

Connect with Jared on Instagram at: @jaredsiegmund_ or LinkedIn: @jared-siegmund | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs

“We have a traditional model that we see in our mind as the perfect technique – a baseball batter swings like this, a swimmer swims like this — but when you're missing a limb, it's going to be altered. The form, the biomechanics is going to be altered, and that goes into their overuse injury stuff, how they're producing force. If we can think of outside-of-the-box creativity, and curiosity, and how we innovate, that's going to drive our ideas, our programming. And it's also going to not pin us to our bias. When we do that, we're going to be more successful to give them what they need.” 9:40

“They're all humans. I think once we start to see that and we start to rip off the sense of kind of scared to do anything with them, or train them, or push them hard, […] just treat them like equals, man. It's like, training's training at the end of the day.” 13:25

“When you have a visually impaired athlete, you had to rely on a completely different skill set of coaching and cueing.” 14:22

“When we get down to crunch time this last six months before, three months before, right into the games. Like, we've done this before. We've challenged you strategically in different groups. We've challenged the coaches in certain ways. So we're all confident, so when this happens, we've already practiced it. And maybe even just having a talk about it kind of gives that anxiety or pressure, and it kind of melts away. You know, we've done it, I'm cool, I got it. I'm going to go win, or at least I'm going to give it my best that day.” 21:20

[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:00:02.62] Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast, season eight, episode five.
[00:00:07.78] We have a traditional model that we see in our mind as the perfect technique, right? A baseball batter swings like this. A swimmer swims like this. But when you're missing a limb, it's going to be altered. The form, the biomechanics is going to be altered. And that goes into their overuse injury stuff, how they're producing force. So if we can think of outside-of-the-box creativity, and curiosity, and how we innovate, that's going to drive our ideas, our programming. And it's also going to not pin us to our bias. And when we do that, we're going to be more successful with giving what they need.
[00:00:44.35] 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.
[00:00:54.94] This is the NSCA Coaching Podcast. I'm Eric McMahon, NCSA's Coaching and Sports Science Program Manager. Today, we're going to talk about Paralympic sport strength and conditioning. We have Jared Siegmund from the USOPC with us. Jared, welcome.
[00:01:09.77] Thanks for having me. Appreciate it, Eric.
[00:01:11.81] Yeah, we got to connect. I saw you in action, man. I came over to the USOPC weight room facility. And some of the parasport athletes were really doing some impressive things in there. Opened my eyes quite a bit about just the work that you're doing. And great to have you on. Want to get into your path. How'd you get into Paralympic sport? What was your lead into strength and conditioning?
[00:01:39.68] Yeah, it was kind of a path of not predictability, not something I thought I'd get into. I think there's not many opportunities to get into Paralympic sport probably out there, [INAUDIBLE] not much knowledge of Paralympic sport in general. But it all started back when I was just out of grad school from the University of Minnesota. Finished my extra science degree, kinesiology-based.
[00:02:01.92] And then I started working with track and field, archery, BMX athletes. And then there were sprinkled in Paralympic athletes from athletics track and field based out in Chula Vista at their training center. And that was right before London Games. So I got kind of a little taste of it. A couple athletes going down to practice, watch and seeing what was going on.
[00:02:24.14] But also, I was around numerous other good coaches that these Paralympic athletes were training right alongside the able-bodied side, the Olympic side. So their programming was just adjusted based on their abilities off of that. So there was not a lot of change. Everybody was kind of seen as an equal. And that's what really I think was admirable about the program out there.
[00:02:47.03] Wow. So you had experience with USA rugby, USA archery, some BMX freestyle, track and field. Just going through your bio.
[00:02:58.85] Yeah.
[00:03:00.44] What's the pathway to get into Olympic sport or working at the Olympic Training Center?
[00:03:07.32] Well, I think just being qualified. Make sure you go to grad school, and make sure you get all the prerequisites under your belt. And then apply for the internships. See if you can get in. See if you know somebody who can speak to it, give you some guidance, mentorship so then you're actually ready for that process. You know what the actual philosophy is. If you can get out and get a visit, see the facilities and see what's going on, you'll get a greater appreciation for what happens.
[00:03:35.40] And you start to understand that competition is every day within practice, within the series that they compete in. And then the Olympics and Paralympics, every four years. Hopefully it's every four years.
[00:03:47.16] Yeah.
[00:03:47.37] Tokyo got pushed back a year. But, yeah. So getting that appreciation for it. If you can learn and reach out to people, I think that's the best way. That's how I got into strength conditioning. I think I didn't realize you could even be a strength coach until my last year of undergraduate. I was talking to my football coach, who was writing our [? S&C, ?] was at a D3 in Platteville. And then he's like, yeah, you can do this for a profession, you realize that, right? I'm like, no way.
[00:04:15.80] So I started calling S&T coaches in the Big 10. I realized Cal Dietz was a pretty good one over at Minnesota. And I decided to do an internship there. Hung out with him and the staff there, [? Sarah ?] [? Wiley. ?] And then I decided to go to grad school straight away. Got into grad school, and then that kind of just accelerated my path right into the internship. And then that internship turned into a full-time position with USA rugby. Was their full-time strength coach. And that was the inception of Rugby sevens into the Olympic games.
[00:04:48.13] So it was a really new program. They wanted to hire a S&T coach who didn't have experience in rugby, which was-- who could bring new ideas, fresh ideas. And the coach had a philosophy that we wanted to play an American style of rugby, not like the Kiwis, not like the English. We wanted to run-and-gun, use our conditioning, our speed, our athleticism. Our skill set was up-and-coming at the time. It was something that we had to develop.
[00:05:15.49] And even the tools that we had available. We had just bought a [? polar ?] [? 2 ?] system. Then, we got into some GPS units so we could track better. [INAUDIBLE] field of play, see if athletes were overrunning a little bit as they go on to pitch. And that just led back into the Olympic side. Got into Olympic side again; BMX, track and field, archery, all different types of athletes, personality-wise and abilities. And learned a lot about the shoulder, and that helped when I got into the Paralympic side for a lot of the wheelchair athletes and some of the shoulder injuries they get. So it kind of all just seamlessly went together in my path and my career, which is nice. And I know a lot of people aren't that fortunate, so I feel very blessed for that. Yeah.
[00:06:01.96] Yeah. No, I appreciate you sharing that experience.
[00:06:05.80] Yeah.
[00:06:06.94] One thing that is a misconception that around the Olympics is the Olympic cycle that-- this is an Olympic year and everybody's going to flip on the TV and watch the Olympics. And they think, OK, well, this is all these athletes have been training for and now they get to compete. But they've actually been competing all along to qualify and be ready for the games. Can you share what the Olympic cycle timeline is like, or pipeline for athletes getting into or hoping to qualify for the Olympics?
[00:06:41.98] Yeah, I think the world series that they all compete in, they all have different World Series events that they compete in based on their time of year. So if they're triathletes, it's usually during the summer. If it's swimming, it's through the winter. And they travel all around the world. They're going to-- I have my swim athletes that are going to go off to Italy at the end of the month. I'm going to be in Brazil next week for track cycling for world championships. So it's all high-level competition all the time.
[00:07:09.17] And even as you go through that selection process, there's always pressure to be a part of the team and stay in the movement because there's new up-and-coming athletes that want to take your place throughout this process. So you have-- you only have that Olympics or Paralympics every four years. But through that process, you're trying to hang on and be the best, not only within the world but within your own country, because people are coming up so fast.
[00:07:31.49] And those selection processes are the most stressful part of the game's process or this whole thing. If you can actually get your name and go to the games, like, that's a huge accomplishment I think that we kind of maybe undervalue. Not just winning a medal, but be getting to go. Because it's such a competitive country we have. Other countries, they might send like a couple, a few. In a sport, we send whole teams and 600 athletes. We are, China is, a couple other countries that are really dominant in these competitive environments. Being the best in the US is something to be proud of, I think.
[00:08:10.71] Yeah.
[00:08:10.92] It kind of gets undernoted sometimes. Yeah.
[00:08:13.56] I love that, man.
[00:08:14.47] Yeah.
[00:08:15.66] It's impressive when you start to maybe follow some of the Olympic athletes on social media and just to see what their-- see what their calendar year looks like, maybe year one right after the games.
[00:08:30.06] Yeah.
[00:08:30.53] And they might get a little downtime, but they're really right back into it if they plan to compete or try to get into the next games. The Olympics are exciting. It's a fun time for the US, for the world, for everybody to come together around sport. And I think one of the cool things is it's not just the football, hockey, baseball that we typically deal with here in the US.
[00:09:00.28] I mean, you're talking about BMX, and archery, and rugby, all these different, more international sports, or some just really untraditional sports. I thought rock climbing was really cool at the last one. There's just some really cool things that we get to see in the Olympics. On the Paris side, what are some of the unique elements or skills as a strength and conditioning coach that you need to be effective with your athletes?
[00:09:27.07] I think it really challenges your ability to coach from the motor learning aspect side of it. The more that we can add that into our warm, or cool downs, or lifting sessions, that's where we can really take advantage. Because they're not-- even the coaches themselves, we have a traditional model that we see in our mind as the perfect technique. A baseball batter swings like this. A swimmer swims like this.
[00:09:54.07] But when you're missing a limb, it's going to be altered. The form, the biomechanics is going to be altered, and that goes into their overuse injury stuff, how they're producing force. So if we can think of outside-of-the-box creativity, and curiosity, and how we innovate, that's going to drive our ideas, our programming. And it's also going to not pin us to our bias. And when we do that, we're going to be more successful to give them what they need.
[00:10:20.26] Because we think we need to have this gold standard of weight that we need to hit. Maybe I've worked with the Olympic side. We need to hit this on the bench pull at this velocity for a swimmer, or they're not going to be successful. And if they don't even have an arm on that side, OK, how do I adapt that? Or what do I do for the exercise? Or how does that change?
[00:10:40.24] And do I kind of-- I think that's the most overwhelming thing when I have other coaches come into this environment and ask me questions. We have other NGBs that usually come in, like curling, rowing. And you try to mentor or educate them as quick as possible to get them up to speed so they can write programs for the athletes in those national governing bodies efficiently and effectively.
[00:11:03.98] And the biggest thing I see it as, have principles that you really want to hit, architectural structure that makes sense for you, for your programming, time of year competition. OK have this long. This is an end date. How do I want to break that down as far as the energy system development? Do I do more conditioning-based stuff because I think they're overused, so they need to build conditioning for it? Do they just need strength power for their sport? How do each of those ratios go into it?
[00:11:32.26] As you get into it more and more, you start to find like a funnel or a filter that just gives you everything you need as far as the exercise selection. And then your set rep scheme off of that, your volumes and intensities go off the competition. So it doesn't have to be an overwhelming feeling. It can actually be pretty simple once you start to break everything down in that manner. Because I think otherwise, it's like, where do I start? I have too many ideas, too much. I need some constraints to break things down.
[00:12:00.76] Yeah, that's usually the best way.
[00:12:02.68] Yeah.
[00:12:03.67] Principles, consider milestones, and then that leads to specific training goals and really getting more into the weeds of how we're actually going to train on a day-to-day. And that process really isn't that much different than what we do with any athlete. Just to debunk some of maybe the mystery around Paralympic sport, what are some of the biggest misconceptions that you see when you're working with Paralympic athletes?
[00:12:36.97] I think the biggest thing is that these athletes probably don't want to be pushed hard or they don't want to be seen as equals. If you come into the weight room, you see they are totally capable of doing that. And they take it as an offensive if you don't push them hard. [LAUGHS] They'll say, why aren't you pushing me hard? Like, sometimes, I'll have like an intern or somebody who go up there and they say, like, you'd better be coaching me hard, as hard as I can go because I have to be as best as I can be to compete internationally and within my own country. So I think pushing the athletes-- there's athletes who can do pull ups with 90 kilos attached to weigh almost 120 pounds. Like, it's insane some of the-- and the powerlifters who are some of the strongest lifters pound-for-pound in the world.
[00:13:25.14] So I think it's-- they're all humans. I think once we start to see that and we start to rip off maybe like the sense of kind of scared to do anything with them, or train them, or push them hard, I think we have to be smart about it, too, and intelligent, know our boundaries. Like, I can't overload their shoulders if they're a wheelchair athlete. And they need that to get around, but I can definitely work on the ratios of push-to-pull and understand that they're pushing [INAUDIBLE] in their chair, I need to do more posterior chain stuff for their shoulder. So I think it's just treat them like equals, man. It's like, training's training at the end of the day. Yeah.
[00:14:05.58] One thing I think about-- and I saw you-- I saw you doing this when I visited the Olympic Training Center. And it was really impressive. You were teaching running mechanics to a blind runner.
[00:14:21.82] Yeah.
[00:14:22.23] And what really opened my eyes a lot was, wow, as strength and conditioning coaches, we rely a lot on our ability to demonstrate and exercise in front of an athlete and show them the proper technique. But when you have a visually-impaired athlete, you had to rely on a completely different skill set of coaching and cueing. Is that something you have to work on a lot? Maybe some different coaching techniques to connect with your athletes?
[00:14:56.33] 100%. I think when you first get that challenge, you probably feel like, where do I start? Like, the programming side of it. It's like, yeah, run. [LAUGHS] You're like, just go. Do it like this. You're like I, I can't use visual at all, so then it becomes auditorial. You start to use other senses to take over in the coaching. You use things that they're doing already in practice, other cues when you go to practice. You listen to what the coach is saying, and then you start to use those for them to mirror or have a picture in their mind of what that's like.
[00:15:31.59] But it's back to-- you can use constraints, physical constraints. You can use your hands and put them in position. At this velocity and intensity, I want you to snap it back as hard as you can into the ground. Like, it's going to be the same as when you're in the water and you're pulling through on your stroke. Or when you're getting off the blocks, it's going to feel just like that. You're going to push through and it's going to push back against it as hard as you can. Thinking external cueing is huge. All those kind of things start to go into play.
[00:16:04.39] And if you can use-- I think the-- the biggest and best one is like the external constraints. Like, if it's putting an object in their way, or that they have to go over, under, around, if you can do that, it's more of a principle or something that words don't get in the way of. Words are just things that we see in our mind that have perceptions and things attached to it, while it might be different for that person who never saw the world at all. You know what I mean?
[00:16:31.69] Yeah.
[00:16:31.93] Like, we have a picture of the world. They don't have that if they-- some of the eye or visually-impaired athletes have seen before and understand the world and what things look like and stuff, but some have never had that vision before in their life. So the fact that if we can just put objects and then describe it through intensities or velocities, stuff like that, that's usually the best part of it.
[00:16:58.63] But also, giving them the freedom to make mistakes in the confidence behind it to go 100%. If we're, like, over-coaching, talking too much, then it gets in the way too. So it all goes back to how you coach. And the most effective coaches are probably going to be good at doing that effectively really fast. Because they understand when I'm over-coaching or saying too much. I need to-- they need to learn, understand.
[00:17:23.26] They might need a little more time to process. And then the questions you ask back and forth after the rep or the set are pretty huge. Then, you might have to regress, progress, and not have an ego or-- [LAUGHS] like, oh, we need to get to this. Yeah, like, by the end of practice. Like, you can't get frustrated with that kind of stuff. You got to just take it for what it is. Yeah.
[00:17:45.16] We won't dive too deep into the Paralympic categories because I think it is really complex of all the different types of events and categories of athletes within Paralympic sport. But what you're speaking to-- and we're really mentioning a blind athlete, but there's also going to be the opposite end of the spectrum. You might have a deaf athlete that you really need to rely on your ability to demonstrate. And that really challenges us as coaches to say, OK, what have I need to teach them? And then really come up with a unique strategy for how I can effectively do that given the constraints that I have.
[00:18:28.95] Yeah
[00:18:29.96] But some of these athletes, I mean, it's really impressive. It's really impressive to see the Paralympic movement and the growth and just the abilities that these athletes have. And I think it's really exciting as our profession grows to be able to expand into Paralympic sport.
[00:18:47.43] Yeah.
[00:18:50.22] So one thing you have at the Olympic Training Center is a ton of different resources, not just strength and conditioning. Sports medicine, nutrition, mental, cognitive, behavioral skills. How does it all come together to benefit the athlete? How important is that on the Paralympic side, or in the Olympic movement in general?
[00:19:16.95] Yeah. Ideally, everything talks to itself, or talks to each other, and we're an interdisciplinary team. It's something that I'm really trying to actually work on as we finish up these games here. If there's stuff that we discuss in practice, whether it's data off of the [INAUDIBLE] monitor stuff, and targets. So each athlete has a specific physical goal that we're trying to hit. If it's, I want you to hit this load by the end of the week because your conditioning needs to be here, here, here, here, or if it's a flexibility mobility goal, or if it's a conditioning, strength-based goal where it's anaerobic endurance, everybody should have a target.
[00:19:56.44] And then we have a way to measure that outcome that's fixed, whether it's on a forced x jump, or it's, how many reps can you get in 30 seconds on the bench pole with the [? gym ?] [? wear ?] if you drop below a 0.8 velocity? Whatever it is. And maybe it's a technical and tactical skill. Your conditioning's great. Your strength's great. We just need you to get this technique down. Can I put sports-specific exercises into training that's at a slow movement with the fixed constraints so you can view yourself? It's your time to learn that skill. You're not floating in the pool. It's an easy-- and we've taken some things away, so it's a little easier to learn.
[00:20:35.12] Everybody has that within the physical side of it. And then we do that same thing into the nutrition side of it. This is your calorie content; macros. Make sure you're eating breakfast, your supplements that you're taking. And then within that, that kind of feeds into this, to this. And then, we communicate. We go to practice, talk to the coach, make sure we're checking in, we're using the same language. And once we know that, then it's pretty easy for the athlete to have clear, concise goals.
[00:21:00.89] And ideally, if we go-- when we go through these cycles, we might be a little more ambitious or curiosity, innovative on those first couple of years of the cycle and explain that to the athlete, too. But when we get down to crunch time this last six months before, three months before, right into the games. Like, we've done this before. We've challenged you strategically in different groups. We've challenged the coaches in certain ways. So we're all confident so when this happens, we've already practiced it. And maybe even just having a talk about it kind of gives that anxiety or pressure and it kind of melts away. You know, we've done it, I'm cool, I got it. I'm going to go win, or at least I'm going to give it my best that day.
[00:21:39.49] Yeah.
[00:21:40.00] So, yeah.
[00:21:41.28] Yeah, one thing I've noticed when I've had the opportunity to connect with national, international competitors, or Olympic sport competitors is that they really get to quarterback their own athlete experience. They know how to lean on a strength coach, or the sports medicine staff, or sports nutrition, or what they need in that moment of time. And it speaks to the generation today of athletes, across the board. It speaks to the high-performance model, which is expanding, really, across all of North American sport. And you could say it existed internationally, but we'll leave that for another day. I think it's something that-- high performance model is growing and expanding, and we're trying to come to terms with that.
[00:22:34.98] But I like the thought process of that athlete really gets the opportunity to lead that experience and engage in different levels of different areas of the high performance model, and we see that. We see that with athletes more in tune with data and information today. We see that with athletes asking questions about, hey, how can-- I love the weight room, but how can I improve my nutrition? Or, how can I improve my sports psychology, those types of skills? And so I love-- when I do get the opportunity to come over and see you at USOPC, I love just seeing how interconnected everything is there. And, yeah, it's really cool what you do, man. And I appreciate it.
[00:23:25.13] Yeah. And it speaks to that generation of athlete or person that we've kind of come into [INAUDIBLE] [? obviously ?] wants to feel empowered. They want to have the answers, and they want to have them now, which is good. I think it challenges us as practitioners to be better. And we see it in the results of the athletes. They keep getting better, faster, and stronger, because they keep pushing the boundaries too as well. So I don't see it as a bad thing, but it is-- it can be a challenge sometimes. You might not know the answer and you might have to go search for it. But just being open to that type of athlete, I think it makes you a better coach.
[00:24:00.20] We touched on this earlier in the episode, but I want to reiterate something you said for maybe aspiring strength and conditioning coaches who are looking for where opportunities are or looking to find their place in the field. You mentioned the USOPC has an internship pathway that a lot of the coaches that are there now have gone through to get where you're at. How can they find that information to maybe apply for an internship at the USOPC? Where are some of the Olympic sites? Break that down for us?
[00:24:35.19] Yeah, well, we have three Olympic sites. We have Lake Placid. We have Colorado Springs. And we have Chula Vista, which used to be part of the USOC but now it's become a training site. But you can reach out to myself. And I can point you in the right directions with contacts, with [? S&C, ?] PTs, nutritionists, stuff like that.
[00:24:56.43] But it's hard to get started into it. I think sometimes, you might not know the resource. But just asking the questions. If you hit somebody up on LinkedIn, Instagram, stuff like that. Come educated and come ready to actually be ready for that internship, too. Don't just kind of, ah, I want to do it, I'll do an interview, but I don't know what I'm getting into.
[00:25:17.93] A lot of this stuff will be probably you have to support yourself. You might have to get a part-time job if you're younger. The expectations is-- a lot of this is not paid. You volunteer, you work hard, and then you get the opportunity. And when you have the opportunity, you got to be ready and step on it and take it full throttle with your hair on fire.
[00:25:39.02] Let's see if we can light some people's hair on fire with this episode.
[00:25:42.20] Yeah. [LAUGHS]
[00:25:43.25] I appreciate you sharing that. It's funny, I've heard a lot getting thrown into the fire as an analogy for getting into this profession. And it's something that-- what I hear there is finding an experience that challenges you, takes you a little beyond your comfort zone-- that might be away from home for the first time, that might be with someone you really respect, like a high-level coach in the field and you want to earn their respect and gain them as a mentor. There's a lot of ways to push yourself outside your comfort zone.
[00:26:30.95] But that's something that when I do these episodes on the podcast and I hear coaches share their experiences-- even you. You got connected with Cal Dietz, high-level coach in the field. And, in a way, that puts you on a path to continue to grow in this profession. So that's something I encourage and I think your experience speaks to is, get out of your comfort zone. What you think you might want to do when you're 19, 20, 21, 22 may not be what you end up doing, or may not be what you're best at a few years later. And so getting out of your comfort zone, finding some new experiences and opportunities.
[00:27:13.05] To the topic we're speaking on today, Paralympic sports, there was a time not too long ago when no strength and conditioning coaches were working with Paralympic athletes. And just think of the amount of opportunity for those athletes and for the coaches for our profession as a result of someone just getting into that environment and really just trying to make the most of their experience. And it takes everyone forward. So it really is admirable what-- the work you're doing and the USOPC. I really enjoy talking about it.
[00:27:49.06] Yeah, a couple of points there, like the growth mindset. Like, you really have to be willing to grow and go anywhere. But that's I think like a philosophy for life, like, things that you believe. Like, I'm going to put myself in challenging-- I might have a fear or something to do this, I might not be good at it, but at least I'm going to learn. And when I learn, then I'll get better at it. I'll fail, I'll learn again, and I'll try. It's not being afraid of failure over and over, I think.
[00:28:14.62] And then like to your point about the USOPC, we only had Paralympic strength coaches since-- 2017 was the first time we've actually expanded over there. It used to be the USOC. Changed their name to the USOPC, "Paralympic" for the P. So there's a big push to innovate, have equality, inclusion, accessibility. And then off of that, can we be adaptable with the athletes and do the best for them, for our country and try to win some medals? Yeah.
[00:28:48.07] Yeah. No, I love it, man. Appreciate you sharing that. What's the best way for our listeners to reach out and connect with you if they're interested in learning about your background or more about the USOPC?
[00:29:00.61] Yeah, they can email me, reach out to my Instagram. Email is jared.siegmund@usopc.org. And then Instagram is Jared Siegmund with an underscore. And then Twitter, I think it's just my email, Siegmund-- S-I-E-G-- 010@gmail.com. That's like the best way. I'm on all three.
[00:29:24.35] So, happy to help out, reach out any way I can, educate or have a conversation with people, especially in the Paralympic movement. There's just not a lot of people that have focus on it or have experience in it. And you might have an athlete that comes into your club, or your high school, or stuff like that, and you're a coach. And you're like, what do I do? I feel overwhelmed. How can I just kind of funnel things down and create a system around it or gain confidence besides just talking to them so it can be another resource myself?
[00:29:55.13] Yeah. Well, if you want to-- if you want to connect with Jared after the episode and continue the conversation, we will add those-- your information to the show notes. And appreciate everyone tuning in today. It's an important topic, Paralympic sport. It's a great opportunity to break into an area of the field that maybe you hadn't considered.
[00:30:21.05] But there's a significant amount of opportunity just looking at the growth of Paralympic sport within the Olympic movement. And I hope that this episode showed you that the impact you can have by working in that space. So thanks for tuning in. And also, a special thanks to Sorinex Exercise Equipment. We appreciate their support.
[00:30:45.30] Thanks for listening to another episode of the NSCA Coaching Podcast. We value you as a listener, just as we value your input as a member of the NSCA community. To take action and get involved, check out Volunteer Leadership Opportunities under Membership at nsca.com.
[00:31:01.54] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:31:04.43] 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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