The Show Up Fitness Podcast

Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball strength coach - DOMINATE THE OPPORTUNITY

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 2 • Episode 90

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Step into the world of elite sports performance with Coach Ram, the lauded strength coach of the Kansas Jayhawks, as he unfolds the map to athletic excellence on the Show Up Fitness Podcast. Thriving at the intersection of data and determination, Coach Ram shares his story, progressing from a personal trainer to an influential figure in collegiate sports, without skipping a beat in his academic endeavors. Immerse yourself in a tale of grit and academia, where earning a doctorate and coaching future NBA stars go hand-in-hand. Peek behind the curtain of sports glory as we discuss the art of building programs that sculpt champions and the unexpected paths to redemption following the upheaval of a global pandemic.

Unlock the secrets of commanding respect and fostering unshakeable bonds in a field where skepticism is as common as basketballs on hardwood. Coach Ram's philosophy on earning player buy-in is a masterclass in consistency and personal connection, revealing the nuanced art of engaging with athletes on a deeper level. His guidance is a treasure trove for young coaches navigating the maze of trust-building with seasoned players, proving that authenticity and dedication outshine mere strategies. The conversation extends beyond the court, offering a lifeline to anyone struggling to gain traction in their professional relationships.

Venture with us as we dissect the rigorous world of strength and conditioning internships, where the growth mindset reigns supreme. Coach Ram lays out the blueprint for those hungry to excel in this competitive space, emphasizing the value of experiences that may seem elusive but are pivotal for career advancement. Additionally, we confront the stark realities and dreams of young athletes with NBA aspirations, exploring the duality of determination and the humbling journey toward reaching their zenith, whether it leads to dazzling lights of the NBA or the untapped potential of international courts. Join us for an episode that's more than just a playbook – it's a guide to navigating the highs and lows of a life dedicated to sports.

Want to ask us a question? Email email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show!

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast. The great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry. One qualified trainer in time with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showupfitnesscom. Also, make sure to check out my book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. Howdy everybody, and welcome back to the Show Up Fitness Podcast.

Speaker 1:

Today we have special guest coach, coach Ram. He is the strength coach for the Kansas J-Hawks, has a couple rings under his belt and one of the things we do part of our level three at Show Up Fitness, which is helping coaches pass their CSCS. Even if you don't have your college degree, you can still go through our level three because we're gonna teach you everything about programming. You'll choose an athlete, work through the needs analysis so you can build out at least six weeks of programming, so then you can implement that with your athletes that you'd be helping as a strength coach. Now, coach Ram is a phenomenal individual. Make sure to check him out on Instagram. He's doing some great things. If you're looking for some mentorship, he has some amazing stuff.

Speaker 1:

I do have to apologize a little bit about my audio. It's a little echoey and it's not the best for this episode. We're still working on cleaning it up. Coach Ram has great audio. Mine's just a little funky. This is a live class for our CSCS, of which we can get anyone to pass it within 60 days, but, more importantly, we have special guests. Help you get your resume together so you can get hired an intern wherever you want to, and then you will leave with at least a six week program that you can begin implementing with athletes and start selling some stuff online. Enjoy this podcast. Give it a five star radio. Remember keep showing up. That's the most important part there showing up right.

Speaker 2:

Just walking the door from our first practice. So it works out all right. First off, thank you for having me everybody and thanks for dedicating some of your time to show up to this and shout out to Chris Chris, already mentioned, but originally from California, northern California Bay Area, did my undergrad in Southern California, well undergrad and master. So undergrad at UC Santa Barbara and master at Cal State, fullerton, and then a doctor at Rocky Mountain University, which is in Provo, utah. That was a hybrid program so I was able to coach while earning that and dissertation specifically was on workload and injury prediction in the NBA. So kind of a passion for understanding why people get hurt and can we use data to try to prevent or reduce the risk of those things. So that's kind of the academic background. The coaching background is. Had many stops along the way Was a personal trainer at one point at Crunch Fitness to pay for my master's and then went obviously full go into sport performance. So worked at UC Santa Barbara as a performance coach, worked at Santa Barbara City College as a performance coach, was fortunate to work in the NBA for five years with the Sacramento Kings and then three years ago the University of Kansas called and ended up coming here and a lot of people asked why? Why would you leave the NBA to go to college? We could certainly dive into those things, but I won't spend too much time on it now, just in case it's not of interest.

Speaker 2:

Been here three years, my first year was incredible. We were the number one team. We finished with 17. We lost three games that year, but we finished with 17 wins in a row. And then COVID happened, fully convinced we would have won that year. If you look behind me, there's two wine bottles. One of them says number one team and that was from 2020, covid year, when there was no NCAA tournament. The second bottle is from winning the national championship, which we just did this past April. I told myself at the end of 2020, when I got that wine bottle and I don't even like wine, but I told myself that the day that we win a national championship I'll drink that whole bottle of wine. I have not done that. It is sitting right there, but it is nice to put those two next to each other, because the majority of our team that won it this year, in 2022, was on that 2020 team. So it felt like redemption a little bit and coincidentally which is actually crazy in 2020, the University of Kansas men's basketball was the number one team. University of South Carolina women's basketball was the number one team. Covid happened there was no tournament and in 2022, both of our teams ended up winning the entire thing and then we had an awards ceremony in New York and that was really cool to share that moment with them. Just, I don't know if there's karma or what in the world, but somehow we managed to do that together.

Speaker 2:

So that's kind of the backstory the academic background, the coaching background, and then, in addition to that, I always like to tell people I have an entrepreneurship spirit, so I do have a coaching course now. That has actually just been really incredible and become a real passion project of mine. The applied performance coaches is the course, is the company name, and fortunately, I have hundreds of coaches, performance coaches, athletic trainers and physical therapists that take the course and now, really excitingly, able to put a lot of people into really exciting opportunities. So we have over 15 coaches in the NBA now and coaches all over the world and coaches from the five major sports markets which is just crazy to me NBA, nfl, mlb, nhl and MLS and coaches and practitioners from those five leagues have all taken the course with incredible feedback and, to be honest, I made the course over COVID. I spent six months on a whiteboard creative course. I live in Lawrence Kansas alone and I'm able to connect with coaches around the world and do things like this, so it's really an honor and a privilege to do that.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. I appreciate you to give that summary. It's such a cool journey that you've done and I know that a lot of people are wondering. They reach out to me, at least when they get into the CSDS class that we teach and they're wondering how do you get to the NBA? So that's like a big ass mountain and so love to hear about how you're able to get there, whether it's internships, if it was the right people that you know, how did you get to start working with the Kings?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, good question. I mean, like most things you know in this world, you know your net worth is your network, as they say, and having connections undoubtedly helps. And so I was fortunate that when I worked at UC Santa Barbara as a performance coach, the one of the gentlemen that had left that university was my boss at the time and supervisor at the time. He went to the Brooklyn Nets.

Speaker 2:

The guy who replaced him is a guy named Chip Schaefer, who was Phil Jackson's right hand guy. He's a Southern California guy as well and he spent, you know, 30 years in the NBA at this point, but he was Phil Jackson's guy, so he was an athletic trainer for the Bulls the 90s. He obviously got six rings with MJ will fill one to the Lakers he was there as well got five more with Kobe and Shaq. And just so happened that his son went to UC Santa Barbara and when Phil Jackson retired and UC Santa Barbara needed a director and the performance chip ended up taking on that job, and that's where I met him. I worked with him for six months and he tried to convince me to stay and not go and do a brick and mortar masters, do an online master, just so I can work with him.

Speaker 2:

I told him you know, chip, I really appreciate it, but I really want to get into a lab and get that experience, and so we just stayed in touch. He was from Orange County and I was at Cal State Fortin, so anytime he would come home, we've grabbed some lunch and build that relationship, and then you fast forward. You know, two years later he's back in the NBA. He needs an assistant and he calls me and says, hey, would you be interested? And of course it was my dream job, and so I said, chip, I definitely be interested. The only thing that I asked is I started a doctorate. At the time. I said it's almost like a finished school. I don't even care what the salary is, but if you just let me finish school, I'm fully in, and obviously he let me do that. So that was kind of the start of what has turned into a pretty exciting career. I was 23 at the time. I was 2014 and 2016. Imagine this I'm 25 years old and shit believes. Back to home to Chicago Bulls and they can. They can post that job, me. Have anybody in the world apply right. Hundreds of applicants, high quality people, people that are older than me, with more experience to me and more qualified to me.

Speaker 2:

But over my two year period as an assistant I was able to, I think, just prove that that I would be the guy you know that could take on that role and take the lead in that. And that came from various, I think, reasons. One was the relationships I was able to build. One was obviously an academic background and excitement and passion for the science of what we do. And then I think the last but not least part is you know, I would say you got to be able to wear a lot of different hats when you work in high performance sport.

Speaker 2:

One moment I'm talking with the athlete and I'm playing rap music and I'm talking shit and I'm getting them to buy. In the next moment a coach walks in and I got to put a more professional hat on right and be able to communicate that. The next moment a player's wife might come in and say, hey, man, I'm trying to lose five pounds, how do? And so now I got to put more of kind of a personal trainer hat on right and explain kind of that weight loss communication and then I might be up in a team with a front office member and so I think, being able to do that over those two years just showed the organization that I could handle that role and so was able to land that at 25 and then at 28, kansas called and been here three years I mentioned some 31 now but you know, spent the majority of my 20s just really having some incredible opportunities, and they all have come from somebody giving me a hand, did you?

Speaker 1:

learn under Dr Yalton.

Speaker 2:

I did. Yeah, actually, we actually published a paper together. So we have a paper out there called the bilateral force deficit, and that was me and Gavin published that. So, yeah, he was at four to one. I was there, along with, you know, other incredible professors and researchers. Dr Galvin is really big, obviously, on social media and so a lot of people know his name and he and rightfully so he does an incredible job and there's some really incredible people that are there as well that don't have any social following, but there was a few few people in there and then got named. Dr Lee Brown was the president of the NSCA for some time. He was at and then he was in. Dr Brad Albar, who was currently the president of the NSCA, is actually my dissertation chair, so he's another kind of academic advisor that I have.

Speaker 1:

So, but, yes, the answer, the question that Dr Galvin was there when I was there for some- reason I was asking because I interviewed him about that two months ago and one of the things that I love that he said is that for new strength coaches, the answer is always yes and I just thought that's really, really powerful because today, especially with the only title, whatever it's entitled, men, if it's a lack of work ethic, whatever people think that I got my CSCS, I'm a strength coach. Okay, I'm going to have all these job opportunities lined up. So you could give some of your own advice on what would those pointers be to get to where you're at, whether it's the networking to buy in and just overall, just being successful.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I think, if you're, you know, trying to, I think, just make a path in high performance, for when I say high performance, for it's typically you want to work in, you know, high level division one or professional sports settings, and I think, if that's the goal, then I think the advice that I would give is you know the same things that you do in any career right, show up early, stay late. You know treat people the right way. And I think, most importantly, you just have to appreciate what I tell my coaches in my course every day is an interview and so, no matter where you're at you're training youth athletes, dominate that opportunity. Right. If you're training community college athletes, dominate that opportunity. If you're training division one athletes, dominate that. And wherever you end up at, wherever your current kind of opportunity is, you need to dominate that opportunity because your future opportunity is going to come from your current opportunity, typically right.

Speaker 2:

And so you know, for me, if I wasn't showing up early, staying late, studying and showing chip that I was, you know, really passionate about this and excited about this, then he would have given me an opportunity when he got to the NBA, right, and there's so many examples of that right same thing when I get to the NBA.

Speaker 2:

If I get complacent and content and just happy to be there and I get lazy because I'm getting on, charter planes are staying at the Ritz Carlton's championship leaves, they don't give me that opportunity as the head guy. And if I'm the head guy and I said, well, you know, I bought my first house and I'm, you know, getting content, I'm happy I made it. Well, the reason I got to Kansas was because we had scouts that had been watching me work at the Sacramento Kings and they knew coach self right, and so you know. And and if I get here and it's the same thing if I get lazy and content, maybe I'm not able to contribute and win a national championship because you know the guys that we play, we were able to put on those kids and that certainly played a role in winning a title. So I think it's just always appreciate, no matter where you're at, don't ever feel like you're bigger than your current opportunity, because your future opportunities going to come from your current opportunity.

Speaker 1:

I love that. Dominate the opportunity. That's, that's great. That's an awesome quote. Right there, I could see that, big letters right behind you, and so how would you get some of that buy in from your athletes? I think that was one of the main questions people were asking. How would you answer that one?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean buying. I think you know I tell people I don't have a lot of superpowers, but one of them is probably buying from, from athletes, especially basketball athletes, because we're tasked with Asking them to do things they typically don't want to do. Right, if you look at a football training culture, there's a direct correlation and direct transfer and and what I would call surface level transfer. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that if I'm bigger, faster, stronger than you and we both play football there's a chance I'm gonna hit you harder or run faster than you were, ultimately be better than you, and then when you get into you know more skill based sports. You know, in basketball it's all on a continuum, but Basketball isn't as direct. There's certainly still some direct transfer, right, if you jump higher and all those things, but I say that to say that most basketball players don't necessarily like the weight room. They just understand that they need to do it, and so the ways that I create buying, you know, things that come to mind, top of mind will be the first and foremost is I'm me all the time and guys know that and there's a consistency that they get with me, that they expect from me and so, whether or not they like me, like, if you don't like me, you're probably never gonna like me, because I'm gonna show up who I am every single day. I'm not gonna pretend to be somebody else. The second one is that I try to become and try to be very relatable with our athletes in. The good thing about Kansas now is, you know, I'm 31, as I mentioned, most of my players are around 21, so I have this 10-year age gap where I'm close enough in age to be relatable. Right, I'm hip to the social media that they use. You know, I'm hip to the music they listen to. Some of the shows Maybe we're watching on Netflix or whatever those things are the pop culture things that come to mind I can communicate at or communicate to. But I'm also old enough to talk to them about buying a home or when I make a comment about life, they could kind of sit there and listen. So I think there's some of that.

Speaker 2:

And the last but not least, I just my guys know that I really want them to win and it's selfish. I tell them that. I tell them I really want you guys to go to the NBA, because if you go to the NBA. I look better.

Speaker 2:

So there's a selfish component to me wanting you to win, and I find that communicating into that, communicating that to them, really gets them to understand and believe in it. Because it's very much true if all of you go to the NBA, I'm gonna get paid more, I'm gonna look way better, so why would I not want you to go to the NBA? And so, with that in mind, you should buy into the fact that anything I ask you to do is ultimately to help you get to the NBA, because it's selfish. I want to look better and that approach, as I think, really resonated with them, because there's never a doubt, like all, ram doesn't want me to get better. No, ram does want you to get better, because I want to win more championships, I want to get more wine bottles than else me. I want to be here for a long time, and so that's how winning achieves those things. So those are things that come to mind with buying, but I could obviously give specific examples if that, if that's of interest or a question.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that you could answer this one way better than I can, because I had a kid who's going through the program. He's working as a strength coach in Turkey and he's 22, 23 and one of the older guys on the team like in his early 30s Time to really hard time connect with the guys, kind of dick and so he's asking like you know, what can I do to get that buy in from some of these older players, because they look at me and they see the young buck or whatever Maybe. So love to see how you'd handle that situation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean again, I think it's showing up, yeah, and being you every day. I think that oftentimes you get these questions, and I get them too, and you never want to compromise who you are for buying. And the reason I bring that up is if you have a team of 20 people and there's one or two guys that aren't buying in, if you compromise who you are to get those two to buy and you may lose the other 18. And so I Never compromise kind of my approach, because I know that the majority of our athletes are buying and it's resonating with them. Now Somebody's being a dick. I think it's ultimately your relationship. This isn't where it needs to be, and so you need to just take a step back and say why don't we have a relationship that we need To obviously create the buy now it could be.

Speaker 2:

Maybe you're you're too much of a strength coach, right? All you ever talk to them about is training, conditioning, so maybe you need to get to know them. Ask about their family, ask about their class, how school going or make mental notes or a big thing I do is. I carry a clipboard with me all the time whenever I'm on the work. I've got a clipboard. I got the program and I got a pen on me and so I'll make little notes.

Speaker 2:

If someone says, hey, ram, I you know my left knee is kind of bugging me or bothering me, I'm gonna write that down. And then the next day I'm gonna ask them How's your left knee doing? Okay, let's try this today, how's your left knee doing? And even if it doesn't work, what they see is that I actually care deeply about them. It's not just about showing up on time those things matter but I care about you deeply. So for guys that are, you know, being assholes or dicks, are not buying in, I think almost coming real soft on them right, and say, hey man, you can be an asshole, but I'm gonna care about you deeply today.

Speaker 2:

So how's your need doing? How's your hey man? You mentioned this last week. Hey man, I heard. Hey, I just had this example. We had a player that he's got some stuff going on and I heard in the coaches locker room they were talking about it. I said, oh, what happened? They explained to me. Now, it wasn't a conversation for me, so I didn't go up to the athlete and try to give him advice or anything. I went up to him after practice, said you know, hey so, and so I heard what's going on.

Speaker 2:

man, keep your head up and you got to, you know, and just let him know that I heard about it and I'm here for you, and that's all you have to do sometimes. So I think that if you got someone that's not buying in, come and soft on them and when the kill them with kindness, and eventually they'll come around, as long as you're consistent with who you are. It's hard to buy into someone if they're not consistent, right? The worst type of athletes are the ones that are awesome on one day and then they're rude the next day, and some days they're happy and they say good morning. Other days they don't talk to you. We don't like that as human. Just it's human nature. We don't like inconsistency. So for you as a coach, you need to be consistent. So my guys know every day I would be the same person I love that.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. So what would you say would be the biggest differences between that pro level to collegiate level? I mean, you're talking about the cream of the crop and basketball, and then you're in the NBA. So what would you say those big differences would be?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I think in college you're just more of an authority position, right. So like there's an expectation for me to tell them what to do here, for me to hold them accountable when they're late, for me to challenge them as men and to develop that side of things and ultimately for me to jump their ass when I need to jump their ass. There's an expectation because I'm a coach and you're a player and there is a hierarchy of kind of power. Right In the NBA it's not the case. It's peer to peer at best, but really it's a player driven league. And so even though you're the strength coach, even if you're the head strength coach, it's not the same authority type position, right, it's more of a peer to peer relationship you have to build. And so now I try I build a peer to peer relationship here as well. But there's just an expectation at the college level that I'm going to tell you what to do. I'm going to jump your ass, I'm going to hold you accountable.

Speaker 2:

There's more of a culture component to these things. First of the college or the NBA, it's more of a coddled relationship, right, it's more of a peer to peer. There's a lot more flexibility here. When the team trains. You have to train. In the NBA you don't really train as a team. It's flexible. So I think that those are the biggest differences, just kind of the power struggle that is built into the hierarchies at the NBA or professional level versus here. And most of that comes from the money side. Right, like those players are getting paid $100 plus million a year to play basketball. You're not getting that, and so there's an obvious hierarchy there that the player is going to probably be more important than the individual staff member.

Speaker 1:

That's great. Someone over here in the chat box are asking about some advice for going through a strength and conditioning internship or program and what would be some things that you would look for or drive you to want to go there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I think if you're and maybe there's a lot to unpack there, I think but ultimately if you don't have experience and you're looking to get experience, then you need to take any experience that can come about. So it's hard to be picky when you don't have options. So now, if you have three different internship opportunities on the table and you have to pick one, then now we have some options, we can look at some different things. And so from there, all things being equal, if you have three opportunities or two opportunities, I would look at the track record of that internship program. Who are they placed and where have they gone into? If you want to go to the NBA, for example, when no one's ever been to the NBA through that program, that's probably that may not be the program for you, right, and that's probably not a great example because not many people have been to the NBA.

Speaker 2:

But same thing, if you're an intern and you're working with a football team and you got an internship opportunity at a D1 program, well, you say well, where have former interns gone on to? Are they head football strength coaches at Division II or mid-major Division I or high-level Division I programs? Is there a track record here and usually it just comes down to the head supervisor, the head strength coach. What's their coaching tree? And then beyond that, you can always look and typically you can find online who what are the former interns that have gone through this? Can I contact them? Can I ask them about their experience and kind of learn what to expect?

Speaker 2:

But I always say if you do want to get in the field, there's kind of the same you kind of got to eat crap for a little bit. It's not gonna be. You're not walking into six figures paying jobs. You're gonna have to show up early, you're gonna have to stay late, you're gonna have to set up weight rooms, you're gonna have to clean weight rooms, you're gonna have to do all the things that you don't want to do. But it's the same for almost any industry. Like, every industry has some dues that you have to pay, and strength and conditioning is no different. And so you hear a lot of criticisms out there. I think I just tweeted a few days ago.

Speaker 2:

You hear a lot of the criticism about the salaries that are in the S&C field or the things you have to do, or the hours, et cetera, and it's like, yeah, all that is true, but then you have the examples on the other end as well. I mean, I think the guy I was staying getting a million dollars a year to be the head football strength coach and so, and there's multiple people getting paid over six figures. I mean there's hundreds of people getting paid over six figures and there's at least 10 plus getting over 500,000 in division one football. And so I never look at salaries as like let me get an internship and then go get a good salary. I look at it as where do I want to be in 10 years?

Speaker 2:

And if you want to be in coaching, then start at the bottom and you'll work your way up and as long as you're a good person, you dominate your opportunities, you do all the things we're talking about today. You'll end up in a position that is pretty good. So, yeah, I think that's kind of what comes to mind is just, if you don't have options, go get experience and stop being picky, and then, if you do have options, do your homework on those options to pick the best one for you.

Speaker 1:

And it's so true with just that mindset where, if you come in with that fixed mindset, you're a victim. No matter what you do, you're going to always find the negative versus that growth mindset and it's like all right. Well, here's my experience at Career Capital that I've developed. You know, let's create a stream of revenue, like you have with your program, and you're still doing what you love, but you're looking at other opportunities, whether it's virtually or so forth, and those opportunities will present themselves if you're always taking that positive growth mindset. So that's a good piece of advice right there.

Speaker 1:

Now, when you get into more of the everyday, some people are asking questions about actually like strength and conditioning. So could you kind of walk us through what a day would look like today with the notion that next week there is going to be some gains coming in? You have some practices and so I know it's a lot. I don't know for a fact, but it's a lot more structured, I would say, with, like you know, going to bed and then like waking up and team eating, and I was at UConn, I saw a lot of that with the players, but let's see what they're doing at Kansas.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah for sure. I mean today. You know today's probably a typical day because there's two practices, but you know something like today we practice seven to about nine and then we'll lift as a team at 145 and then we'll practice again at 245 and then hopefully they'll get out of there no later than five and they'll be able to get some dinner and then hopefully shut it down from there. On a more typical day like tomorrow, we'll have one practice at 245. We'll lift up two groups and got eight athletes in each group. We got an ATM group eight athletes in that. We got a 145pm group eight, eight athletes in that and then we'll practice as a team at 245. And that's more of a typical day.

Speaker 2:

I usually got two groups and and we train about half the team in each, and then, as we kind of gear up for our first kind of games, really next week, you know, hopefully we get two wins under our belt and our big kind of game that's coming up is Duke on the 15th, and so for that game we'll need to peak. So I'll back off of them, I'll cut training volume. So they feel explosive, they feel ready to go. If you're confident, I'm periodized through the nonconference schedule around like five games, basically five games that I know we're going to be really hard. They're going to determine some of our ranking and seating for later in March. But all the other games, you know we got an exhibition on Thursday I don't even care about, I don't care if they play sore. So that's kind of what a day would look like from a grouping perspective and practice times and then, you know, that's a little bit of insight into how I periodize their program.

Speaker 1:

So for those groups today, is it based off conditioning and the based off of, you know, squad one, squad two. How do you break those up?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, right now is just based off a class schedule and then, once we get a rotation set then it will become based off of kind of squad one squad to. We have a we would call a scout team so they practice. They get on the practice floor about 45 minutes before the regular team. They all trained 45 minutes before. So we'll kind of have groupings based off of basically playing time or playing potential. You know, your walk on and your red shirts and all those guys will end up in an earlier group and then your rotational guys that are ultimately going to be on that floor will be in that second group.

Speaker 1:

Could you take us through what that workout would look like today or, sorry, tomorrow? He says more typical, where you said you got eight guys and you got about 45 minutes from that workout.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for sure. I mean, all my programs are essentially the template is the same, and so you're going to come in, we're going to do some things that gets you kind of loose and mobile, right. So we're going to. Some of that is specific to your needs, right? If you're a guy likes hip internal rotation, you might get a hip, a shin box switch type exercise. We're working on internal, external rotation of the of the hip there. So all this just specific to your needs.

Speaker 2:

The basketball players we might do some stuff for, like your lower limb complex, your calf complex, and then some of them might also become specific for the lift that day. So when we're doing our single leg lower body work tomorrow, then we might do some single leg, knee, dominant, pogo work to start to wake those legs up or those limbs up individually, and then we'll go into our lift and you know essentially will come down to is it a bilateral or unilateral focus, is it a power strength focus, and then we'll build out around that and then we usually end that. That becomes like your block a and block be your primary lifts, your primary movements, and then off of that at the end of the lift it basically becomes some individual stuff. So, like I got a kid who has a chance to go the NBA but his upper body is very small. He's got a lot of lower body, so he'll do some more upper body volume. We got another kid who is actually, you know, body composition wise. He's pretty good. He's got some tendon pain. He'll do some stuff for his knees, try to get that tendon going. So some of that at the end that accessory work just becomes individual, specific stuff, based on who you are and what you need.

Speaker 2:

And we train three to four times a week. We have three traditional lifting days and then we have a recovery mobility type day and I in the days aren't set because the practice schedule isn't set. So, based on the practice schedule, each week I move the days around to correspond our off days and on days and stuff like that. And now that games are coming, then you know our recovery days will get placed right after our games. We only play twice a week, so that's a little bit more manageable where, as in the NBA, you lift three and a half times a week. I mean, excuse me, you play three and a half times a week. So that's obviously a harder kind of program to manage when you're playing every other day. In the end and Kyle would you only play twice a week, so it's a little bit easier to manage.

Speaker 1:

Speaking on kind of like that dude who's trying to put on some size. Someone asked earlier about you know what exactly the jet kind of some very big question. But you know what were some of the things that you did to help that guy put on 20 pounds earlier, without compromising the power agility.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, man, two big things that come to mind as far as gaining muscle and size out, compromising explosive ability, whether that's vertical, lateral or speed and horizontal is the first one is do it slowly. So we put on 20 pounds over essentially like 30 months or so, almost three years, and so do it slow. And the second one is make sure that you're still playing basketball. You're still doing explosive things, for the most part putting on sizes, not what takes your athletic ability way. Typically we, when we think of you know putting on weight and we don't want to become slower, it's because we're comparing to power lifters and bodybuilders who a aren't doing explosive things, are not playing sport and they typically put on way much faster.

Speaker 2:

The average gym goer, if you tell someone, always put on 20 pounds in three years. Like that's not that impressive, but for a basketball player that's plenty, because it means that when he came in as a freshman he weighed 198. We got him to 218 to start his junior season. He lost about five and he played around 212 to 13. And he ends up going the first round in the NBA draft. And when he got here and he weighed under 200 pounds, there weren't many people that thought he could become an NBA player.

Speaker 2:

You fast forward to just a few nights ago. I mean, this is a kid who plays with Denver Nuggets. He hits three, threes, he ends up locking up Jordan pool. You know, he's got some big highlights and people are saying he could become the steal of the draft and it's like three years ago he didn't even think he would be an NBA player and so, but we did it slow, right, we weren't. There's no point to race. You know, when you're training high level athletes, I was telling my guys what are you racing towards it? You hope to play this game until you're 40. So why are we going to put on 20 pounds tomorrow? Can you do? It sure, but is it going to make you better basketball? Probably not. So the two biggest things do it slowly and then make sure you're still doing the sport and power and explosive type movements.

Speaker 1:

Great advice, great advice. Question here on can you touch briefly on what you were mentioning earlier about backing off on that volume and changing the program leading up to that peak week, like, for example, when you got Duke coming up?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's really easy. All I do is cut working sets. So we got four working sets, we'll do two. So usually I just cut my working sets in half. Most the rest of the program stays the same. Our warmups are going to stay the same. Our warmup sets will stay the same because most of that isn't enough to create any soreness or muscle damage. The working sets is obviously the moneymaker and if we have four working sets we're going to cut it to two. If we had three we might only do two or might do a harder warmup set with one true working set, but it mostly comes down to basically cutting working set volume in half.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, maybe just do a couple more questions again. Super appreciative of your time. I'm more curious on the mindset stuff. So when you're talking about some of your mentors and you're working for the Kings and how they're helping you, have you noticed much of a mindset shift from maybe those older generations to some of the kids today, like this kid coming in maybe not having the expectations as going to the league, where maybe we see back in the day, the mindset was a little different. What are your thoughts around that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I think not so much. Maybe like the league, or going to the league versus not going to the league. I think for the most part, everybody thinks they're an NBA player. This kid had an incredible amount of like humility that you typically don't see. I mean, it's more common that I see players who you know aren't very good that think they're going to go to the NBA. Right, everyone thinks they're going to the NBA and it's so hard to get there. It's even harder to stay there, and that's what I tell my guys like your first goal is to get there.

Speaker 2:

The actual goal is to stay there, because your first contract in the NBA isn't even isn't enough to do what I think most people think about when they think I want to go to the NBA. They think they're going to buy multiple houses, multiple cars, have nice things, go on nice vacations, have lots of money, blah, blah, blah. And me, being 31 now realizing like even a million dollars. You know, if someone was to hand you a million dollars, you really can't go retire. By the time you take out taxes, pay an agent and buy a home, you don't have much left over. How are you going to buy your parents a car or a house and those things. So this is what I explained to our guys. I'm like, look, even if you go in the lottery, you can get two million a year Congratulations. You can get three million a year Congratulations. That's awesome. What's better is staying in the league of signing 80, 90, 100 million. I have a player who signed a hundred and seventy million dollar contract guarantee and he, faced on me a few days later, speaks like that's real money, obviously. And so you know, when I think about kind of some of our guys and their expectations in the mind, said I want them all to think that they're best players in the world.

Speaker 2:

What I tell our guys when you step in between those lines, you should think you're the baddest man on the planet and when you step outside of those lines, you should have the humility to know that you're actually not the baddest man on the planet. And I think it's that mindset shift that you have to have. You have to off the court. You need to know every day I need to get better. I need to get in that way room. I need to get in that film room. I need to work on recovery. I need to get in that you know that kitchen or get some food, and then when you get in between the lines you have to say I know I got to get better, but I'm better than everybody out here.

Speaker 2:

Even if it's not true, you have to have delusional confidence, because that's what pushes a player to reach their potential. So when I think of mindset, I think, you know, I want every player to think they can go to the NBA because I want them to try to achieve that. And I tell my guys all the time the worst thing that you can do in life is to know that you didn't tap out your potential. Right, you want to know that whatever I can do, I've reached my potential. Maybe that's not the NBA. Maybe for you that's playing overseas. Well, you can make money overseas and you can make a lot of money. So, yeah, that's kind of what comes to mind when I think of some of that mindset.

Speaker 2:

Stuff is, you know, almost all my kids think that they're ready to go to the NBA. So the ones that have this humility to know that they need to get better every day, those are the ones that have a chance. And yeah, if anyone, you know obviously I know there's a mixed crowd here, but if there's sport performance and applied sport performance is of interest, feel free to DM me. My Instagram is just at doctorramseynijum and Chris, you can share that if you haven't already. And yeah, reach out, I'm available. You know, that's what I always tell people. I'm here to help and I'm excited to do it. So, whether that's the in-person or whether it's just through Instagram or something, feel free to connect.

Speaker 1:

I really just appreciate your time today, Doc, and congratulations on the last year and another great year for you guys. So thank you very much for your time.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much, chris. I appreciate everybody for showing up, yeah.