SPEAKER_01 0:00

Alrighty. Episode 13. Wow. Yeah. 13. We're back. Uh, we're gonna be more consistent about this, and we're in person today. We're together. We are sitting uh in the room together today. So very exciting stuff. We have a lot to talk about. Um Kevin, how's it going?

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Good. It's good to be back. Two week actually, I think it's been a month, month hiatus. Busy, busy. I've been coaching lacrosse and flag football. So the spring season gets a little busy, but it is good to be back. You how's life? What are we getting into?

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Life is life working, getting after it on with the the kids in the weight room or whoever shows up um day to day. We don't have many, but the ones that do show up have fun. And uh yeah, spring. We gotta talk about girls' flag today. So the docket is we're gonna talk about girls' flag. I have a lot of questions for Kevin today.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Sweet.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Um, and then we're just gonna talk about our training, our recent training. I'm gonna talk a little bit about some coaching points that I've had and some thoughts, and then we'll get out of here. So, Kevin, girls flag. Give me a general overview of how you guys are attacking this at Queensbury right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

All right, so Girls Flag Football, it's a pilot program. We're actually sponsored by the Giants, the New York football giants. So it was it was pretty cool to hear in the beginning. Um, but the NFL gave each team like a certain amount of money um to sponsor teams in their state. So the Giants sponsored us as one of those teams. Um, we got the grant for it. We got the the kit, the flags. It's funny, they gave us like a curriculum playbook, like how to build an offense, um, uh, jerseys, all the all the whole nine yards. We got that going. So uh that was pretty cool. That was, I think that was in the winter time we heard that that was gonna be official. They were looking for coaches. I was interested, but I didn't really know if I wanted to do it. I was gonna see if anybody else wanted to take it. I think girls' flag is something where you're like, do you want a girl to coach it? Um, so I didn't really hop on it right away. After a month went by, two months went by, I talked to our AD, and um he had said that like nobody has put in for it in district. So I'm like, I'm gonna do it. It's a short season, it's a cool sport, it's growing really fast, so I'm gonna go for it. And I got it. I'm coaching with another uh football coach, boys' football coach, and then uh one of the dads who played collegiately as a quarterback. He wanted to help out as well. So we got a three-man coaching staff, and we we got started this week. We had our tryouts on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Um, and that was we had to make cuts, which was terrible. We initially had 30 girls signed up. You had to cut? Yeah, we had to make cuts. Yeah. I know, and it was a terrible feeling, but we have to we could only keep 18. I think that was the that was the minimum or the maximum amount that was allowed for this pilot program. So we had 30 girls sign up. Um, we're allowing girls to play two sports. So if they play lacrosse or softball or track, they can come and play still. Um after the first day of tryouts, four or five of them kind of said, We're playing another sport. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do this. Sounds good. Um, and then we had a couple conflicts afterwards where here you might have to, you're I think you're another rubber. Oh um, yeah. Afterwards, we were down to 22, so we had to make four cuts, which I was like, oh, this is terrible. Either way, it was a good conversation. We talked with the girls and let them know. You know why we had we we basically made a rubric. Um uh that was based off of their passing, catching, game awareness, flag pulling, right? And then speed and agility. We took their 10 10-yard flies, we took their 30-yard flies, um, 510-5 shuttle, took that into account, um, and then basically gave them a score out of 25 points, um, which was really cool to see. Like, our we had two girls that got 23 and 23, which is really impressive. A lot of girls were in the 20s, some girls were in the 18s and the teens, and then the lowest four were really the ones that we just said, just based off the numbers, like quantitatively. Um, this is the reason why. And they understood and I let them know like we might need a cinemat cinematographer, we might need a statistician, and they seemed interested in that. But either way, we got our 18 girls, and how we're attacking it, I think I'm using two a two-step approach, and I talked about this with Crossman yesterday. The first approach is like just admiring and being impressed with the fact that these girls think it is the coolest thing ever, because it really is. Um, and these are modified girls, right? These are middle coolers? Seventh and eighth graders. Okay. Um, like they I said this to Crossman too, but even if you don't know football, even if you're not aware of it, I think everybody knows that football is played on Sunday, you see the highlights of it, you know it's on TV, there's some level of interest. I mean, it's the biggest sport in the United States. Yeah, it's ingrained in the culture, right? Viewership-wise. Yeah, and I'm not saying popularity-wise, but just based off the numbers of people who watch it, like it's enormous. Um, so I think it's really cool that the girls get to do and have this opportunity to try and learn. Yeah. And they really appreciate learning. The second part of it for me is I'm sharpening my sword because I use the exact same uh offensive scheme that I do in um regular football. Yeah. So um we're teaching the girls at a base level formations, we're teaching them the play style, the play calls, the numbers for the routes, um, and how we really go through everything. So um we have our first game on April 28th. We're 10 days away. We play Southern teams. There's no teams up here, so there's no teams locally. Um, we only will play against like a waterbelly, Schenectady, it uh Broad Alban Perth, Shaker, Troy. Broad Alban Perth has a girls' flag team. Apparently, Broad Alban Perth has a really good flag DA. Yeah, they've had this travel team for a few years now, and that they're now in on Modified. So we have a few girls that have been a part of the youth program at Queensbury that have played before.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

So I think our best matchups will be against like a Broad Alban, probably a Shaker. Shaker has a varsity team. They just have the pilot program now for Modified. So maybe we'll see some good competition against Shaker. Um, but I think those are the teams that we're looking at right now. Um, we play our first five games away, so we all we go down south for the first five, and then our last five are home.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Oh, nice. Yeah, that's actually a pretty good schedule.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

You got 10 games. 10 games, dude. Wow, that's that's really that's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Um, so I guess obviously, like schematically, what are other than other than the obvious, you know, no run game, no run blocking. Or I guess you can run the football. Dude, you no no run blocking.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

You can block too.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Oh, okay. So well, I guess talk to me about that. All right. I I want to know like schematically the difference is like what are the my question is what are the biggest differences schematically other than like the obvious? Right.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

You know, you don't have a line, right? Yeah. The only thing that you have a part of the line is your center. You have to have somebody who snaps the ball. Is that uh you can go side snap? You can side snap. What we do is we uh actually Jeff and I saw this, but it's in a sprinter stance. So you have the girls get into like your regular staggered sprinter stance with their leg with their you know, hand on the ball, leg next to the ball, and they look through and snap, and then they can take off and run around.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

The center is eligible.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Yes. Oh, that's sick. As of right now, and I think there will be tweaks to it, there are no formation rules. You can have no, you can have your center only on the line, you can have everybody on the line. You can have six girls stacked on the left, you can have six girls stacked on the right. You can go five by one, you can go, you know, there's no rules whatsoever. Wow. You can have you can have five running backs and one wide receiver, or you can put everybody on the line and play and play a run game. Like there's no form, there's nothing saying like in regular football where you have to have seven people on the line. So that is one thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Imagine that. You can literally, God, I feel like the creativity you can create with that.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm I feel like Sean McVay sometimes where I'm like thinking about how we can run rugby style trick plays and to go back and forth if we really wanted to.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Yeah, that's that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Um, so yeah, there's nothing there's nothing in words right now. I do think in the future they will fix that because yeah, we will find ways to to really cheat with that. And I say cheat with it, it's not it's not in the rule book yet.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

Um, but we're gonna find a way to do that. You can run the ball, quarterback can you can snap it to the quarterback, and she can take off and run as soon as she gets it. You can hand the ball off, you can do jet sweeps, you can do motions, you can only have one person in motion, so that stays the same at a time. Um so everything in that sense, you can still run the ball. Um and then I was trying to think of what else what else I wanted to say on that topic. Was there another part of the question? Running, blocking. That was it. Yeah, blocking blocking. So blocking, you can block. The only thing about blocking is the offensive player cannot engage with the defensive player, the defensive player cannot engage with the offensive player. Like hands-wise, hands-wise. So body is fine. So what it looks like is a moving screen in basketball.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah, or like like how kind of how they teach um like you can't blindside block in correct in 11 in regular football, right? So now they teach like hands up, just walk by, run by them.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

So a lot of the times we tell the girls to cross their arms, across their chests, they can put their hands behind their back, they can do like a uh, they can put their fists together in the front. As long as their arms are in a position to where you can see that they're not being used, yeah, you can get away with it. Um, what's really cool is we have our running back do most of the blocking. Um, you can send on defense, you can send as many people as you want on a blitz. You can send all seven people on a blitz, you can send one girl. Um, but our running back is really the one who picks the blitz up. So snap the ball. Let's say a defender comes, one person runs in at the quarterback. The running back does the same thing that a normal running back would do in football. You step up in the pocket, let the quarterback get established, and then you read the defense. And they're basically kick sliding with no hands. The defender can't push into the offensive player, the offensive player can't push into the defensive player. So, like inherently it works.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Yeah, it's it's just it's just it's literally like playing basketball.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

It's exactly it. Like you can't foul, you can't block, right? No reach-in fouls, no blocks.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Yeah, yeah, no charges. Like, yeah, no, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

So you can get a you can get a penalty for that if you engage. Like we have one girl who's very good, but somewhat aggressive playing running back, and like chest bumped into a girl who was rushing. And I had to explain to her, like, you can get in the way, but you can't engage. Like, that would probably get you a penalty.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. I, I will say, you want, I feel like you want you want a player like that. You need somebody. You want a player like that. Yeah. Um, I wonder though, you know, if if it is just like a chest bump, right? Like, is there ambiguity in what is engagement?

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Yeah, that's what I think. Like with these rule books, we looked through it the first time. There's so much gray area right now. It's so new. I feel like they don't necessarily want to put too much into it yet. I think they're gonna use the next couple seasons to find out what makes sense and what doesn't. Yeah. Um, to try to figure that out. But it is very, very cool to see and some really fun plays early on that we've we've we're just installing our offense right now.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Yeah, so well, okay, yeah. What was what was install one?

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Install one was our base, which is a two by two with a running back and a quarterback. So the center's always center is always going to be the normal person staying in the middle with the ball. We don't necessarily involve that person in the formation name. Um, and then we have a trips left and a trips right. Um, we have a call for if the running back goes on to the line, we'll call that an empty set. Um, and then we call it king and queen if they're on the right or the left side. So the running back gets we get the formation name, we'll call it gold right. That's trips right. King means the running back's gonna be on the right side. Um, and then we would get the number plays, the number call outs for the wide receivers. Hopefully getting to a point where they can have it on their wristband.

SPEAKER_03 13:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

Obviously, we can be on the field, it's modified, but I would love to get to the point where we're not huddling, right? They just kind of run the play, they get up to the line, I would yell out the formation gold, blue, gold left, gold right, blue. They get on the line, I can kind of read the defense for one second if they come out in the coverage or if they come out in man, and then I can yell four or eight, and they can look at their wristband and see what route they need to run, or if they're blocking, or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Yeah, you know what I mean? What's the uh what's the what's the bread and butter right now? What's the base play? What was the first play you installed? If you have if you've installed plays, or have you guys just been doing formations?

SPEAKER_02 14:06

We've been installing just the formations and we've been running plays off of it. The girls don't know the plays technically yet. Really, what we're looking to have them know is the formation, but the best thing that you can run is RPO. So I'll call, I'll call a gold left.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

All right, I'll continue. I'm I'm trying to I'm trying to picture like a like a modified quarterback reading a linebacker.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Oh, you're dude, they're really good at it. On the side note, and I I know that whoever's listening will probably hear you've probably heard this before, but when people say coaching boys and coaching girls, there's a huge difference. Coaching girls, they actually care to listen and understand the sport. And not to say that boys don't, but I find that when girls are having it, um maybe they're unsure of something, if they're nervous about something, if they feel like they're not gonna do well at it, yeah, they ask the necessary questions. Should I be doing this? What should I do here? What does that mean? They're really not afraid to ask the question.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Yeah, boys don't want to be bad at stuff, but exactly.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

And and when they don't, and when boys don't know what to do, they usually tend to stop paying attention, mess around, cause havoc, right? So that's a difference that I'm seeing. The girls do such a good job of asking the questions and listening. So I don't I don't think it's saying that girls are better at listening than boys. Yeah, I just think that when it comes to you know, that fear of like, oh, I'm not gonna do the right thing, I think girls do a really good job of asking questions and wanting to do the right thing, where boys kind of like fall back from it a little bit. Um, but back to RPO. We would call a gold left, so trips left, empty right, so the running back would go up onto the line on the right side. Liz RPO. So Liz means the running back's gonna come in motion. Our quarterback will to the trips, to the trip side. So Liz, they're gonna move motion to the left, right? She'll call the motion, set, go. If nobody blitzes, she's handing the ball off. Because it's that simple. There's no line. Right? So if nobody's rushing, everyone's going into coverage, you hand the ball off and run. If somebody blitzes, then you keep it. Right? So now the quarterback has an option. We're gonna look to see if the pass is there. If the pass isn't there, the quarterback runs to the weak side. If the pass is there, the quarterback swings out to the weak side and makes the throw to the flood across the field.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

From the one receiver, right? The flood is coming, the flood is coming from the right from the scenario trips.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

It's gonna come from the left side trips, flooding to the right. The one receiver on the right is usually a safety. So they'll come safety valve. So they'll run a zero, just kind of stop and look for the ball. Mirror the quarterback. The three wide receivers are gonna run a high low. Okay, I mean I'm thinking about this right now.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Motion this way, nobody blitzes. Motion to the left, nobody blitz, hand the ball off, hand it off to the trips. Yep, and um received and you have and you're like ideally, you probably have numbers over there.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

We do, and quote unquote, our receivers will go and block.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Okay, and then hand uh snap the ball, blitz coming, pull, yes, roll out to the right, flood concept coming across. Correct. Oh, that I mean that's that does that sound sick.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

It doesn't because if you have a quarterback that just understands, right? Right now we're just teaching if they blitz, keep it, if they don't blitz, hand it off.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:44

And you know the the girls understand, it's easy to see, right? If there's numbers on the left side and you're gonna hand the ball off, just look. If they start going over before the handoff, you have the option to fake the handoff and keep it yourself and go to the weak side. Yeah, so that's a really deadly play. Another one, too, is the quick pitch. So we can go blue, which is two by two formation. We'll go tight blue, we'll bring in our slot receivers, so they're almost right next to the center. Running backs on the left side will go queen. Uh we can call this quick quick pitch. The quarterback moves up to like a two-yard pistol snap, say go, and just shoves it to the receiver that's standing right next to the center. Wow. So right now, those are some great plays. The other ones, too, honestly, if you have a defense that's playing zone, you can go over the top really easily. Um, because I think that sometimes I think it's hard right now to understand what defense looks like on a modified level.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Yeah, all right, hold on. I got a P and then I want to I want to ask you about defense. Okay, so defensively. I guess like maybe from an offensive perspective, talk to me first about like Yeah, how are you attacking? Like in your mind, how are you attacking zone and or man or whatever?

SPEAKER_02 19:02

So because there's seven offensively, because there's seven people on the defense, right? There's not eleven. Um you're usually gonna have I think most people are gonna run like a 3-4 or a 4-3. So four linebackers, three over the top, or three linebackers, four over the top. If they're running zone, short concept, RPO, run, yeah, very easy to get to. All right, and then in I think if we start most, I think we start at the 20 every possession. Um then over the top is probably gonna be there. Because if they're playing like a quarters or a cover three, um, and there's not a one high safety, I don't know if they have the ability to understand to flip the hips and to go deep into their thirds.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Wait, hold on. Uh what's what are the dimensions of the field before you continue on that?

SPEAKER_02 19:51

40 yards wide, 80 yards long.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

And so they don't have 80 yards. 80 yards, yeah, and they don't mark every like they don't mark every five yards. They mark the 20, the 40, and the other 20.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

So is every 20 a first down? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

So you have four downs, you start at the 20, you've got four downs to get to the 40, and then you have four downs to get to the 20, okay, four downs to score.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

All right.

unknown 20:16

All right.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

So I think really like if it's a man coverage, we have we have enough route runners to be able to make good passes, but I think we'll try to run the ball more in the man coverage.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

Um, and I think in zone coverage, we'll try to throw the ball into those spots, the weeks, those soft spots of the coverage areas.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Dude, that is so that is actually so fascinating. It makes me want to go coach Girls Flag.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Yeah, it's awesome. It's cool too. It's and it's one of those things where you know, we had this uh this other conversation, but you know, if you could reset a team, right? Like let's say you have your football team and you could reset it. Nothing is nothing is known, right? There's nothing been installed from the modified to the JV, like that's basically what we're doing right now.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

Yeah, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 21:02

Yeah, we are from zero, there's been nothing for this beforehand, so we're kind of setting it culture-wise, but we're also setting it schematically as well.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Yeah, are these girls that have you said that there's a couple that have played in the flag league?

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Out of the 18, we have eight that played in the youth league.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 21:19

And then we have 10 that are new.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

So are they like familiar for the most part with what like they're already predisposed in a way?

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Yeah, I think they really understand the way the game is played, like game awareness. Maybe not necessarily the uh the language and uh right, right, the ver the verbiage of of the plays that we're running, but they understand like the game itself, what it's supposed to look like. And some some of them, honestly, Joe, like they are way better than I would have thought at evading flag pulling, um uh uh being able to run to the side. Like they're really, really good at making those moves, which is cool.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

Yeah, I I actually I I had a question about that here because of the So like the um they did that like flag event like with the professionals.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Right? And all those. Yep. It was like a like a NFL of Bro Am kind of like thing. Right. And like some of these like flag players, the way that they avoid it's fat, it's fascinating the way that they they contort and move their bodies. It's like they really are genuinely very obviously they're and they're you know playing a sport at a very high level, so they're athletic in general. Right. Um but like you know, they that it's it's a different sport than like some of the you know, like you put a professional football player out there, yeah. That's it, it is a different world, so to speak, in terms of like once you're in the open field, completely different, you know, like maybe you know Tom Brady's sitting there, he can pass seven on seven, that's fine. He's probably done Skelly plenty of times. But like when you're out there in the open field and you have these athletes that are like they are they look like wrestlers shooting a double leg, but they're not getting on their knee, they're knee sliding without leg they're slide canceling. It's it's it's very impressive, and they're doing it at at pretty high speeds.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

Yeah. The other one is like the hip flip. So I think one thing that you probably notice is when you watch them play, if they're running in between two defenders or one defender, they'll actually run sideways and put the ball up in the air. Yeah. Um, and and kind of move their hips so that the flags are hard to grab.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

Um, that's another thing. I think like NFL players, if you take a football player and put them in um flag, you're gonna find that they have like deficiencies because the game is not the same at all. Yeah. Like a fumble, like let's say Okay, yeah, fumbles. Let's say we complete a five-yard pass and a girl is running downfield and the ball falls out or gets batted out of her hand. The play is dead wherever the ball hits. So there is no fumble. Oh, okay. Right? So in an NFL player's mind or a football player's mind, you're getting on the ball. Right. But also, if you're running with it, right? You're holding. You hold it, you grip it tight in your arm, right? And you kind of barrel through so that nobody can get to the ball. Yeah. Flag players security doesn't matter. They hold the ball, like, you know, you you've seen wide receivers who catch the ball and they hold it out in the air, or you're like, oh, they're gonna fumble that. Like they do that because they know if the ball gets popped out, it's a dead ball.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

So even if so, like let's say it gets popped out and it's in the air, and I'm on defense and I catch it from the pop-out.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

That's a good question.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

I would have to is like is the I that I wonder if the ball is down where the defender catches it or if it is a turnover.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

It might be a turnover, but I think it's if you fumble and it hits the ground, wherever it hits, ball's dead. Ball's dead, it's and possession remains.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

So you're gonna see a lot of differences between football players and flag football players in the sense of carrying the ball, running downfield, foot movements, right? We're none of the girls are trying to run anybody over. It's in a it's a game of evasion.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

Yeah. Um, you kind of answered a couple of these questions here already. I guess like uh because it is kind of you guys starting over or starting from ground zero with it, um, I guess like these questions uh like how do you explain the schemes to them? Like, is it any different than like someone, you know, maybe a boy first learning how to play football? You know, like you've experienced modified kids already, yeah um from the the boy perspective. So like, you know, is it really any different than like having to explain to a seven year uh seventh grade boy, you know, that hasn't played football before? And like it it kind of sounds like that it's almost easier to explain it to the girls.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

I think it is easier. I think from a when you're teaching football, right, there's a lot of rules. You gotta have seven people on the line, you have to have this, you have to have that, right? And especially in modified, there's a lot of different you can't have trips, you can't have uh motion to a trip side, you know what I mean? Like so, in this sense, I think it's the exact same, but it is a little bit easier because we're just showing them, hey, we're gonna have an even field, we're going to have an advantage field, or we're gonna have an advantage field. You're gonna have even sides 2v2, we're gonna have an advantage left, we're gonna have an advantage right. Yeah, doesn't even matter. Like, I don't have to explain to them, hey, you need to be lined up directly with the center because you don't, or you know, the outside guy has to be off the line so that you're not covering, you know, your inside guys making them ineligible. You know, that's not a thing. They could all be off the line, or they could all be on the line, so it doesn't really matter. Um, as far as teaching it, I think it's the exact same, right? Yeah, I'll explain to the girls the same way I explained to the guys playing football, like we we want to try to find the areas where the defense isn't. Like, that's it. Yeah, we're just simple, right? We're literally just trying to expose the defense. If they're playing at coverage, we're to try to hit the soft spots. If they're playing man, we're gonna try to beat them man on man. Like, that's just the way it goes.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Yeah, I like that. Yep. Um so I guess, all right. Before I get into the kind of the other stuff of give me your like, give me give me your maybe your biggest challenge and then the most rewarding thing so far.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Biggest challenge was worrying about making cuts. Like Monday when tryout started, that was all like obviously I'm thinking about what are we gonna do these days? We have the plan set, we're gonna make this happen. But really, I was like, the one thing I'm dreading about this is having to tell girls who are excited and care about trying something new, like taking a leap of faith and saying, like, I've never heard of this before, but I'm gonna give it a shot, having to tell them, No, I'm sorry, you can't join us this year. Like that is one thing that I think was the biggest struggle so far. Um getting past that though, I think we'll be okay. And I think as the years continue to go, there's gonna be more opportunities for people to play. Um, we're gonna try to do some um like some intramural stuff at the end of the year for people to play flag as a middle school. So yeah, I would say that was the biggest struggle so far. Uh the biggest success, I mean, dude, it just has to be the fact that the girls are so bought in. Like, yeah, they really do think it is the coolest thing ever. And it is. I say that to them. I'm like, it is so cool to watch you guys play. I'm impressed every day you guys come out here. You work super hard, they're completely bought in, they care, they want to know more about it, they want to be successful, they want to win. Um, you know, like with the first two days of tryouts, they didn't have to have a mouth guard because we weren't doing any, we weren't playing against anybody, everything was on air. The third day, I was like, you gotta have mouth guards, gotta have your cleats, and the girls show up with like the like the binky mouth guards and like the blinged out ones. That is awesome, and uh we're dripped out. I literally was like, you guys look so cool. And they were like, You think someone like, yeah, you look sweet. Like, this is awesome. Um, you know, so like that I think is the biggest biggest success. Being able to see people who care about something and and want to be successful, and like actually putting forth the effort for it.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

So yeah, it's nice, hell yeah. Um all right, a couple of uh I don't know which one I want to ask first. Alright. So I kind of heard you guys, I heard um you and Fran and John talking about it while we were at Fitzgerald's last weekend. Um the impact on the other sports. Yes. What do you think? Uh I guess I don't really know. Like, what do you think is the impact? How much do you think it's gonna impact the other sports kind of moving forward? Um, have you noticed a big impact uh on the other sports just at the modified level so far?

SPEAKER_02 30:24

Yeah. Um I think in the future, and this is why it's a pilot. It's new, it's a test year to see how it goes. I think in the future, years and years down the road, five years down the road, I think there will be an impact on, let's say, a softball or a lacrosse. Only due to the fact that we do not have the same numbers that some of the schools we're playing against do. Like obviously, Broughton Perth is a smaller school. Um, obviously Waterley is not a huge school, but schools like Shaker, Troy, Albany, Schenectady, these are big, big, big schools. Saratoga, right? They have that dispensable income of people to feel the team. Yeah. Right. Your athletes that are really good at those other sports may not have the interest because there's people who can fill the spots. For us, I think our best athletes that we have on the modified right now, we're we're going or we're playing a sport last year and are not playing it this year. So we have a few girls that play softball that are not playing softball this year. We have a few people that are playing lacrosse and playing flag football. You know what I mean? Yeah. Next year, you know, it's not a double sport. So you you can't play two sports next year. You have to make a decision. Yeah. So I think because our numbers are not as high as the other schools around us and the schools that we're playing, we are gonna see an impact. Now, is it gonna be good or is it gonna be bad? I don't know. It's hard to say, right? But yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

It could be, you know, it could be both. It's gonna be, you know, if it if it's good for you guys, it's probably bad for the others.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

Right. And I exactly, right? Like there's always there's a high and there's always a low after the high, not wherever that is. But um if it works out in a perfect world, the team that gets fielded would be composed of people that don't play other sports, yeah. But it's not a perfect world, and I think I think you have to allow people to make a choice, right? You can't say, hey, you played softball last year, you have to play softball next year. Like, if they want to come try Alpha Flag, like they have to be able to do it. Yeah. Um, so what is the impact gonna look like? Next year, I don't know if you're gonna see a huge impact. I don't know if you're gonna see it the year after, but I think maybe in five years you might see a decline in one sport. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

So I guess that that kind of leads me into my final question of like, what do you think the future is? Like, are you guys gonna like pilot program like what happens when these eighth graders are going to high school next year? Are you guys gonna try and expand a little bit more, maybe get a freshman or a JV team going?

SPEAKER_02 33:09

Yeah, um, yeah, next year will be mod nine. So it'll be nine, eight, and seven next year. Yeah. And then the year after it'll be JV and varsity.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

And then are you thinking, and maybe this is a question that you don't have an answer for, but like uh what do you assume or think that the timetable is on the Glens Falls, Hudson Falls, South Glens Falls?

SPEAKER_02 33:34

Good question. I think if we do if we have enough of an impact. Getting these teams together. If we have enough of an impact where people see us and maybe think, wow, we should do the same thing, I think you see it sooner than later. It's one of the fastest growing sports behind girls' wrestling right now. Um, yeah. So I think that you will see in the next few years, like those local teams start to field them. But again, there's local schools that have an issue fielding softball teams. Yeah. There's local schools that have an issue fielding lacrosse teams. Like that might hurt them more than they think. Now, that's not to say each school is different, right? Like, let's say a Hudson Falls, if they have trouble fielding a softball team, right? Maybe Flag is good for them because it gives them an opportunity to have something. Yeah. Yeah. Something new. Where in our sense, like our softball team is good, but if we take good people away from the softball team, right, now now we're we're lowering the ships. Everybody's kind of falling down a little bit, you know? Yeah. So I think time will tell, but I do think in the future we're gonna find a lot more teams in the area having flag football.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Cool. Very cool. All of it is cool. Yeah, I love it. Alright, yeah, flag, dude. Honestly, it sounds so sick. Um, I'm excited to see where it goes. I I love it. I think it's exciting. I hope we do it in Sacklin's Falls soon. Um, I would love to coach that. It does sound cool. Um I've just got a couple things that I wanted to talk about with uh some recent things in the weight room, and I wanted to hear your thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Um I'll start with this one. The other day we played a game uh before uh the before there was a track meet on Wednesday. And before the track meet, there's one kid that I have that's a football player, and he comes to every lift before he goes to throw. Um, but the other day he came and we just played a game. We just played like handball.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

I have this specific game where I take foam rollers and put them under the basket, and you have to and we play handball on the gym floor, and you you can't um defend or shoot from inside the three-point line.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Okay. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

Super fun game. Kids love it. We did uh it was a 3v3 because we had we had six guys the other day, so that was cool. Um but this one kid he he came, he played the game, he didn't lift. But then he PR'd at he PR'd on discus at the track meet. Wow. And I was like, and he's been, and we I mean we sprint every day, so he's been sprinting as well. Right. And I'm like, I literally, I I don't want to sound like uh I don't want to sound like LeBron with the the 81 point thing, like, oh, I feel like Kobe's gonna score 82. You know what I mean? I literally was thinking to myself, I was like, honestly, I really hope Cooper PRs today at his meet after playing that game, because I will feel some sort of validation that what he's doing with me is working in some way, like sprinting daily or sprinting three times a week in some capacity. And you know, he went and played a game and maybe had some fun before he went and did this meet, and then he said he PR'd on discus when I saw him the next day, and I was like, oh, maybe there is like some like I did feel a little validated, I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

Um and I think that that's fair to say because like obviously it's good, like if you're proficient in a movement, like obviously sprinting and and lifting and and having fun is going to probably elevate that in in some way.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

Absolutely. So I I would agree. I think, well, one, super sick that he PR'd.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Two, very sick that um he did it after, you know, obviously receiving some stimulus that probably put him over the top for that day.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

Right. And that's what I was thinking. I was like, you know. I just I I was just like, I I I feel like everybody should do that. I was like, go and have fun before you go play. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 38:15

I think too, like, this guy, I think this goes back to a point that John made when we talked to him last. Um, you know, like every high school athlete, because they are, you know, boys especially, right? They are they have full testosterone, they're they're they're growing, their hormones are raging. Like, if you do anything with them, yeah, they're gonna find a way to improve. But if you do the right things with them, then you're going to see the results.

SPEAKER_03 38:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:42

So I think what you're seeing by doing that, right? Sprinting three times a week, he's lifting, right?

SPEAKER_03 38:47

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:48

And he's doing track practice. Like, it sounds like he has the puzzle pieces from all different places falling in line. Um, and maybe the work that you guys put in the the weeks beforehand, right, led to that moment where, hey, we're not gonna lift today, but we are gonna play this game. His body's primed, yeah, right. He he gets that solid warm-up, his heart rate's elevated, brain's elevated, he's good to go. And then within the hour or two, goes out and freaking rips uh rips his discus, right?

SPEAKER_03 39:19

Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:20

I think that's a perfect example of you are doing the right thing. So I think validation is is definitely well worth it there.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

Okay, and then in the other on the other side of it, where I can I can maybe take a look at it in a different way. Okay, another kid that shows up for basketball with me, um went and had a tennis match that day.

SPEAKER_03 39:43

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

Came in the next day and said, I asked him how it went, and he said he got pooped on.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

Okay. They played Greensbury.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

This was when they played Glen's Falls. Oh, they played Glenn's. They played Glenn's Falls that day. All right. And um now then, like, so that's the other hand.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

So you felt less you felt no validated.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

I don't know if I felt less validated. I think in a way, like I actually have here in my notes, like he did he lifted that day. I don't think that that has anything to do with it, actually. Yeah, I don't think lifting before competition. He we also don't do anything crazy in the weight room that would warrant like major fatigue going into a tennis match.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

So that was the day of his match he lifted? Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 40:23

Um, but he just did he just did incline press on the Smith machine. Okay. Reset the four.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

Alright, so nothing crazy.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

No. And some bet over barbell rose.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

Is he also sprinting with you guys? Is he also doing that that he played the game? But like in weeks leading up, he's been doing all the same things. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

And then like to a certain extent, I'm wondering, you know, obviously they're there, we're talking about two completely different things. I was just gonna say, I think you have to play against someone else, but you're there's a completely different factor there.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

You have a way different uh right, your dependent variable now has changed completely, right? Like the variables that a discus thrower is gonna have is the weather, yeah, the the wind, um, how nice it is outside, right? And then I think a tennis player is gonna have, you know, if you put a high school tennis player up against Roger Federer, Raphael and the Dall, yeah, right? Yeah like I I don't care how it doesn't matter how many times you sprinted or if you lift it beforehand, like you're gonna get here again. Yeah, it's just the way it goes. Yeah. Um, so I think, yeah, I can see why you'd be like, what do I need to change, or maybe I didn't do the right thing for him. You know, tennis is a completely different sport.

SPEAKER_01 41:35

Yeah, no, I I don't think I don't think I'm gonna change anything. I think I just wanted to bring up the idea that like um I think I just wanted to to check it in a way. You know what I mean? Like I don't want it to just be like, oh, I did this for Cooper, but like it didn't happen for Damon.

SPEAKER_02 41:53

Right. Um and I would even explain that to them. I would even say to them, like, if if Damon had the questions of like, well, how come I'm not seeing the results? You know, you I would explain to them the same thing. Like, you are seeing them, but remember the the way that you play your sport is completely different than somebody else. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

And I don't think that he, I don't think that they have any um, I don't even think that they're thinking about that, honestly. I think that they're just um I think that you know, especially for the tennis players, I think they're just going out there and having fun playing tennis, yeah, like for the most part.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Right.

SPEAKER_01 42:26

Um so super cool though. Uh literally, I I love the idea that all these kids are playing a spring sport. Um, I've talked about this before. I wish I played a spring sport, even if it was tennis or discus or something. Um love that they're they're out there and doing it. And and you know, some of them they they show up and they lift before they go to practice, and their coaches, you know, they don't say anything or they don't they don't have any quarrels with it, so that that's always nice. Um yeah, and then the other day we uh I I think the dude the next thing is like actually I am I am kind of changing my complete approach with the way I'm thinking about it with these with these guys. Like I kind of was going in there the past few weeks when I first started getting back into it after basketball with like um you know, kind of throwing up like five by five, six by fives, a bunch of stuff, you know, like alright, we're gonna hit a main lift and then we're gonna do, you know, on this day we're gonna squat and we might, you know, do a unilateral squat, and then we'll do some accessories and we're gonna sprint and jump and do all these things on one day, and it's like these kids don't want to do that, man. No, they don't I mean like when we the other day we and I'm I'm just thinking to myself, like, all right, we're just gonna like play a game to warm up. Yep, we're gonna have fun, we're gonna go in, we're gonna do a I think I did a I had them do a three by three on squat.

SPEAKER_00 44:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:04

I also think so. This is another thing that I've been thinking about too. It it's so much easier for them to conceptualize a smaller amount of sets than a larger amount of sets.

unknown 44:18

Right.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 44:21

It's hard for them to think about and think like, oh, well, this is, I'm going to start at this weight and this is how I'm going to finish with this weight. Right. Where, like, if you give them a three by three, they can think to themselves, oh, I worked up to this weight and this was a really hard set of three, and then they only have to do that three more times.

SPEAKER_02 44:39

Right. Small, medium, large.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

They don't have the experience or the training age to be able to go in and kind of like think about a six by four and how it should be executed.

SPEAKER_02 44:48

Yeah, I would agree.

SPEAKER_01 44:49

And I think that that is some. I'm happy I just real I'm happy I realized that relatively early.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:55

Um, obviously it's been a couple of years now doing this where I've been giving them six by fives and five by fives or whatever it is. And now I'm starting to realize that like that is just not the way to go, right? Like I can make them do low reps, but the sets also need to be low because they just want to go in there and and max out. Yeah, yeah, and to a certain extent, like giving them a three by three is is easier for them, I think, in so many ways.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

So do you think any what do you think the difference between having them do a six by five compared to a three by three would be overall? Like if strength, power, um like what do you think is gonna change? You know, if you start incorporating more of the the gamified approach where they're doing movement and they're getting stronger.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

I think that I think that they're just going to um I think they're gonna enjoy it more because it's simpler. I I think the idea is that like you know, I'm constantly harping like, oh, it's a six by five, so like, you know, you want to be, you know, if you come in and you do a six by five, like that was your first set of five, now you have to kind of feel this way for the next few sets of five, where like I think it it's just for them it's gonna be way more fun coming in and like I'm just gonna bang out some triples right today.

SPEAKER_02 46:24

And um right, but in the sense of like strength, do you think things change? Do you have a longer?

SPEAKER_01 46:30

I I mean I think that it it's gonna be better for them. I think they're gonna get stronger by doing by doing less. I think that's another thing that I'm like thinking about more and more is like is really, you know, is a six by five really the most optimal thing? Like I like doing that because it's fun yeah for me and it challenges me, and I like, you know, that's how I train.

SPEAKER_00 46:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 46:57

But for them, like you really don't need that to get stronger, you know what I mean? Yeah, so I think and and to a you know, because they they do always want to kind of go hard, giving them less will beat them up less, but they will also be putting the weight up and getting stronger, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 47:19

I get what you're saying. Um they want to be able to go hard on their sixth set of five, yeah, but they're dead, right? They're dead tired because they just grinded through it, or they want to go hard on their third set of three, they still have the nick some energy, some some power to be able to. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I get that.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

And I've been kind of getting into uh you know what Tony Holler is?

SPEAKER_02 47:40

Yes, Feed the Cats, dude.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

I have been getting into I've been listening to a lot of Tony Holler podcast episodes, just like trying to hear what he has to say and learn from him. I was kind of apprehensive at first.

SPEAKER_02 47:51

Um give me your chat GBT summary of what you think about Tony Holler and Feed the Cats.

SPEAKER_01 47:59

Uh dude, less is more. Yeah. I think like if if I could summarize it, that would be it. Like less is more. Lazy in a good way.

SPEAKER_00 48:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 48:13

Um and and that that that exact thing, dude, like we are going to get the most out of the least.

SPEAKER_03 48:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:26

So and and I love that. Like that idea is like the idea and and it's completely based around allowing kids to enjoy what they're doing. Yes. Um, so I think that's great, dude. Like the other day we and and that kind of that that has changed everything that I'm thinking about. Where if we have three days a week, we're gonna go in on Monday, they're gonna do some acceleration work, and they're gonna squat heavy, and they're probably gonna hinge heavy, and then they're gonna go home. Because I really only have an hour with them, and that will take an hour.

SPEAKER_00 49:02

Yeah, easily.

SPEAKER_01 49:03

And if they want to stay for some other stuff, then they can do some back extensions or some lunges.

SPEAKER_00 49:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 49:08

Um, and then Wednesday they're gonna come in and we're just gonna do upper body, but it's gonna be like a short upper body, like they're gonna bench in some way or press in some way. Uh, I've been really high on incline benching right now. Um, they're gonna incline press, barbell row, and do arms. Okay. And both of those days they're probably gonna play games before we do that.

SPEAKER_02 49:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:34

And then Thursday, we're gonna play a game and then we're gonna sprint.

SPEAKER_02 49:37

We're gonna sprint.

SPEAKER_01 49:37

We just we and and that's really it. We're gonna sprint and jump, and then they're gonna go home.

SPEAKER_02 49:41

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 49:42

And I think that that's been huge.

SPEAKER_02 49:44

No, I think that's great. I think it's a great approach, and it keeps the kids entertained, keeps them enjoying it, right? Yeah. Um there's nothing monotonous about it, right? Like it's always changing. But when when you hear feed the cats, what does that mean? Feeding the cat. Okay, so this is what's your take on it?

SPEAKER_01 50:04

My so, and this is uh, I'll I'll kind of just go into what he has said um about it. He was on uh I was listening to an old episode of this was the first, and this was the first one I listened to that kind of got me into it, and uh, and I'll dive into it a little bit more with the with my current training. Um he said that where it kind of first started for him, where he he he maybe wasn't saying it, but it kind of like planted the seed was so he was talking to someone and the person said, Oh well the the track bus is different, you know, it's weird. It's got um your your your big Kofi throwers. Yeah you know, you got your your distance your distance guys, your your you know the uh and then you got your cats.

SPEAKER_00 51:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 51:07

And the cats are the cats sleep 20 hours a day, yeah. But they're always ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 51:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 51:15

They they run hot, you know, they're always ready to perform when they have to. And it doesn't take a lot to to feed them. So right, that small dose of we're gonna sprint, and when you get slower, we're gonna be done.

SPEAKER_00 51:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:38

And um, you know, all winter too, it's been like, ow, we're gonna, we're gonna sprint hard, and like even if we're we're going slow that day. Like well, I think to a certain extent, you know, building a foundation there was fine, but like now, at least for me personally too, and with the kids, like we're just gonna we're we're gonna get you faster, and you know, once you're going slow, then we're gonna stop.

SPEAKER_02 51:59

Yeah, I think that's a great approach. I mean, we we did it the other, well, I can't remember how long ago, I think it was our first time out. And I do it with my kids, I do the exact same thing when they test, you know, it's like my rule of thumb is that they're gonna do their reps. Let's say it's a 40 yard. I did the 40 yard sprints with my eighth graders a month or two ago. You know, you're gonna run your you're gonna run your warm-up, you're gonna run your fast set, and then from there, whatever your fast set is, if you come in a quarter of a second, you know, third or a third of a second slower than your last rep, you're done.

SPEAKER_03 52:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:35

You you've reached your stimulus, you're fatigued, we're good. Right? And I think we did that too. We ran our 40s and then we tested it. I was like, okay, I was slower on that one by like a tenth of a second. I'm probably fatigued, but let's see if it's true. And then I came in like five tenths of a second slower than my fast rep. And I was like, okay, point proven. We took our four minutes of rest, we did it again. I'm fatigued, I'm not getting any faster right now.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

Yeah, and I think I think it is good though, like you have to take that. I mean, you can cut it off when you know you've gotten fast, but you have to, and I think I think that I'll learn eventually like when I can cut it off, and like maybe I won't take that slow rep.

SPEAKER_00 53:19

Right.

SPEAKER_01 53:20

Um but I think you know, to a certain extent, you gotta take that slow rep to know you've gotten slower. Uh but yeah, dude, it's been great. Like the other day, we I had four kids, right? And I was gonna uh just go out onto the turf before Girls Lacks got out there. Yeah, this is actually this is actually so great. I this this entire thing made me so happy. Um just selfishly and um for the kids. I was like, this is great. But we I brought them outside, I went into my car, and you've seen the back of my car. I've got all of my yeah, I've got all my gear back there, everything is back there, ready to go. And uh, you know, I was gonna go grab spike ball, and I was like, Do you guys want to play spike ball? And one of, or I I was gonna go grab spike ball, and then one of them grabbed the soccer ball. And I was like, Do you guys want to play spike ball or do you want to play 2v2 soccer with me as the goalie on the lacrosse net?

SPEAKER_02 54:24

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 54:24

And they were like, You're gonna be the goalie? I was like, Yeah, they were like, we want to play soccer. I was like, okay, let's go play soccer then. And then um, so I had them running around the field, and then you know, I love throwing in caveats during the games. Like, I was like, all right, well, now I get to run to the other end and try and score.

SPEAKER_00 54:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 54:42

So I ran to the other end with the ball, and they had to play defense on me, and then I was like, alright, we're gonna go 4v1, but you have to stay outside of the crease, and you can't grab the ball with your hands, but I can get inside the crease and play goalie when you guys are on offense.

SPEAKER_00 54:57

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 55:00

Ended up winning 1-0. I was I was stoked about that, so selfishly, I was happy. And then after that, we ran 40s. And then this is I didn't, and this again, I didn't realize this was the case until I was listening to um Joel Smith talk about uh kind of trying to maximize how you know you can get out the most out of your your your athletes. And one thing he mentioned was um boys practicing in the same room as girls. Okay, their intent will probably be higher in some ways.

SPEAKER_00 55:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:49

We ran a couple 40s.

SPEAKER_02 55:51

Oh, I know where this is going.

SPEAKER_01 55:53

The Girls Lacks team came out there. Yeah, everybody improved by a tenth of a second. It was, and I was sitting there, I was like, I was listening to this podcast, and I was like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 56:05

I just did this.

SPEAKER_01 56:06

We literally just did this.

SPEAKER_02 56:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:09

And it was fantastic. I was thinking to myself, like, I had a kid, I had a freshman hit a 4-7-7.

SPEAKER_00 56:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 56:15

On a 40 with sneakers on on the turf.

SPEAKER_00 56:17

On the turf.

SPEAKER_01 56:19

I was like, wow, that's pretty sick.

SPEAKER_00 56:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:22

Um, Damon, the kid who played tennis, he went for he's a pretty big dude. I mean, he went 5'3 on it um after hitting 5'4, 5'4, 5'4.

SPEAKER_02 56:32

Is that D?

SPEAKER_01 56:33

Yeah. Nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:34

So he basketball player?

SPEAKER_01 56:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 56:37

Yep. Yeah, dude, that's great. I think that's hilarious too. I mean, it's the same, it doesn't necessarily have to be girls and boys. I think it's just that man in the arena kind of feeling like, oh, people are observing me now, right? I think we see the same thing at a on the atomic level, right? Like the split, the double slit experiment.

SPEAKER_03 56:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:57

Right? Like if you're watching the if you're watching them, they they act differently. Like, I think it's the same thing. Like, you are not somebody who's different to them. They know that you have expectations, right? Yeah. But if the arena is there and people are observing, it's like, oh, I'm I'm ready to perform.

SPEAKER_01 57:12

Yeah. Okay, so that that's actually something that another thing that that when I was listening to this episode, lot lots to unpack from Kevin. If you don't if have you listened to any of uh Joel Smith?

SPEAKER_02 57:24

Uh do they have one together?

SPEAKER_01 57:27

Tony Holler and Joel Smith? They have two. They have like two or three.

SPEAKER_02 57:30

I feel like I've listened to one with them together.

SPEAKER_01 57:33

So Joel, I think, is is a genius. In general, he has very good points about a lot of things. And like one thing that he was talking about the other day with uh Austin Yochum. I was listening to this episode. This is an older episode, but they were talking about um assigning characters, and he was talking about how he wasn't a very good basketball player in high school, but he like one day his coach was like, Joel, you're gonna be the best. Like, we're playing the best player in the state, like you're gonna be the best guy, and every time you get the ball, you're gonna shoot it. And he was like, he was like, I was able to step out of myself and put myself into this character, yeah. And he was like, I had one of the best practices ever.

SPEAKER_02 58:15

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 58:16

And then they also talked about assigning superpowers to kids in games, all right, yeah, and like um it would be like if we were playing a game, you know, like let's say we're playing basketball on Fridays, and like your superpower would be like double jump, yeah, yeah, like you can you can travel or something like that. Um I think that's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 58:40

I think that's such a good idea. It is super cool. I'm gonna go on a limb here and just talk about like the TV show I'm watching in with Invincible, right? Yeah, but it's animated superhero, not my type of TV show, but I like it right now. And dude, there's characters that just have super strength fighting style, is unmatched, right? Nobody can touch them. Um you can pretend, like literally, you can just imagine that you are that person when you go and perform. Yeah, like I'm gonna be omnian for today, like when I go and perform. Um, and so I was at my sister's house last night for my my nephew's birthday, and he's a dude, he's a rough and tumble kid. He will fight, he he loves to fight, doesn't get hurt, you know, no, no crying in his vocabulary whatsoever. And uh we were he wanted to fight me. He like came over, he's like, I want to fight you so bad, and I was like, Let's go. And I told him, I'm like, I'm gonna be omni man. And I literally was like, fight, I I've never really fought, you know, organized wise, but just from watching the show, and in my brain, I was like doing the moves like that he would do in the TV show, and I was like, I kind of was fighting, like you were omni man, bro. But I was like, in that moment, that's that that's powerful, right? Like, yeah, if you believe it, you you are that person. So I think if you put it into perspective too, like for a sport athlete, right? Like, you know, if you're a wide receiver in football, you're a discussor, like you're gout gout today if you're sprinting. Like gout gout just ran a nine, you know, 1976 on a 200, which is insane, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:14

Like, yeah, yeah, you're gout gout today. I'm gonna I'm gonna gout today. Yeah, no, 100%. Like, I I think every and I've been doing this a lot lately. Of uh I haven't been doing people, but like before my sprints, like I'll just whisper to myself, like, I'm a cheetah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:28

I'll just be like, I'm a cheetah today. Yeah, or like before I go for a heavy lift, I'm like strong like bull. Like, I'm I'm gonna lift this today. Just trying to put myself into that position of like I am a cheetah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:42

Yeah, it's that visualization, that positive self-talk. Yeah, it goes so far, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:47

So super powerful stuff there, I think. Yeah, um, and then just something else with the uh with the Tony Holler thing. So in that episode, that first episode that I listened to, they were kind of talking about, and I posted about this on Instagram too, kind of a rant about this of the surrendering to the mission, yeah, and not um kind of being so caught up with the results.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:12

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:14

And and I did that yesterday. Like, I mean, you've seen me before, you know, if something is going wrong in a workout, you know, like the gates don't work, yeah. Or, you know, maybe like so like I get I can get frustrated too. I I I get frustrated. I'm not very stoic when it comes to that. I will I will wear my emotions out there. But like yesterday, so yesterday we we are measuring out 40. We're measuring out 40 yards for our yeah our to get ready and get out there. And the steel tape gets stuck. I don't even know how it got stuck, but it wasn't going. Like we could only get it out to like 105, I think.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:00

And we're yanking on this thing, like trying to get it to get it to work. And I was like, Alright, well, let's just I'll mark 100 and then we'll measure 20 from there. Yeah, and we won't, we just won't reel it up. Like, so we had the tape was all over the place. But I didn't get frustrated with it. You know, we just measured where we were measuring and and we did that. And I was just so relaxed, I was like, I'm not gonna let anything like I've been looking forward to this all day. I'm not gonna let anything ruin this moment. It's a beautiful day, you know. There was a baseball game going on, the vibes were the vibes were high. Jake and I, you know, we were having fun, we were we were laughing, we were throwing the football, we you know, doing all these things, and and I was like, I'm just not gonna let anything ruin this. You know, I'm just gonna surrender to the tape and we're gonna mark 100 and then we're gonna measure 20 from 100.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:48

Yeah, yay, 20.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:50

You know, and and that's what we did. And it was great. We ended up having a wonderful day and PRing, and I was like, well, this is kind of what it is. Like, I didn't you if you this is exactly what it is. Like, you don't expect anything out of it. You know, you don't you shouldn't expect the tape to always work. And if you have to pivot, then you pivot.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:11

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:11

So I just want to talk uh real quick and then we can I I don't I don't have to say much about it. I really just wanted to say um program is over. I wait, did we start? Did you start back up? I just I haven't stopped. Oh it's been recording the whole time. I'm definitely gonna I'm gonna cut it out. I don't wanna I don't wanna ruin Cork's political position. Yeah. Um yeah, so I guess getting back to it program-wise, um I really just wanted to touch on this so I don't have to make a formal Instagram video about it because I don't really want to. It's just easier to talk about it here.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:54

Um I'm really happy with how it turned out. I think that it was my first time in a very long time putting together a 12-week program. It was my first time ever actually putting together a 12-week program for myself and running it. Um, I have written so many things down and tried to execute them, and they were all terrible. Okay. You know, percentage-wise, effort-wise, whatever it was. Like I didn't know what I was doing. Um, the VBT made it so much easier to regulate myself. Uh I got stronger. We got faster. I think everybody got faster. Um, sprinting. Me, you, and Jake.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:42

Um even though Chase is not ideal conditions, we were able to still do it. Um I'm just happy. I'm happy with how it turned out, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:53

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:54

I think you owe yourself uh, I think you have done this, but I think you owe yourself a little bit of time to say, like, wow, I did just did a really good thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:02

Um one, the body pump is great. Yeah. You look solid.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:06

Yeah, I worked hard for that, I think.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:07

But then I also think, too, just like everything that you've been tracking, you've been putting it out there for people to see. Maybe people are watching it, maybe people aren't. But either way, if you've been watching it, you've seen the progression over time of like, okay, he's figured it out. Okay, he's got it. Now it now he's perfecting this one thing. Um, and I think along the way, you've done a really good job of perfecting a lot of those things.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:29

Yeah, yeah, I appreciate it. I mean, I I think, yeah, if you go back and look from a year ago, the training is a little all over the place. There's no consistency, you know, it's a lot of just like I'm gonna go in and rip weight just to rip weight. Um and that, you know, that resulted in a lot of pain, yeah. Um, injury, inconsistency. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:53

Your regulation has has gone up a ton. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:55

The regulation was the I think that was the biggest piece, and then the consistency. Nice. Just being able to. Do it for 12 weeks, and um I'm very, very happy I decided to not do a second max out week for the exact reason that I was talking about surrendering. Um wasn't expecting anything out of it the first week, and I got everything out of it. Yeah, and then I was in the D load week, I did a squat workout, and my legs were so sore for like three days, and then I was thinking to myself, like, I don't want to do this again. I just want to start sprinting and just get faster. So I'm honestly I'm very happy with how it turned out. Um, I don't really have much to say about it, actually, as much as I probably could say, I want to write about it, actually. Um kind of journal it for myself. Uh I think I think one of the biggest things that I can say is that if you are anyone that is interested in progressing weights in any way and like you want to take it very seriously, I think sparing the I think sparing the$250 on the velocity device will be worth it.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:23

I think that's the only thing that like, and if if if you're someone that that you just you know you want to go lift and and just to lift, um like I think you with your goals, I don't think it would help you.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:35

You know, um, you've completely different goals in that regard than than I do, but I think if someone has the the goals um that I'm looking for, I think that if you go and invest in the velocity device, it will and learn how to use it and learn go through the reps and learn for yourself what your what your numbers are and how you can use it to improve. Um the benefits are limitless. Right. I think.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:07

Um Yeah, I would agree. So I would agree.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:09

I think that that is like my biggest thing uh about what we did or what I did all winter.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:18

Yeah, it's been a great winter. Um great, great transition into some warmer months, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:22

Yeah, 100%. You have anything that you want to talk about with your your training going on?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:27

Yeah, yeah, I think um again, I think winter was fantastic for me. Um did a little bit of mix. I really did everything. I did the sprinting, I mean, I did I did short work, I did strength work, I did long work. Um you did a lot. You were you're like hybrid maniac almost in a way. Yeah, I and I really enjoy it. I like putting it into those three categories of like over the winter, right? I'm like, I have so long until the race, right? It's really that's been my end goal is like the race that I'm gonna be doing. So I really just tried to put it into categories like this week I'm gonna focus on my long game. This week I'm gonna focus on the short game. This week I'm gonna focus on my strength, right? And I really built a solid base of everything um over the wintertime. And then it was a few weeks ago, probably I would I want to say it's over a month now, where I said, like, I'm gonna have to reel back on the sprinting because I'm going more into the long game. Um, and now I'm more into a long slash strength game. Yeah. And um, dude, it's been solid. I've actually been programming my runs and my bikes and my swims. Um, I've been really getting really looking into like my my threshold and my heart rate levels um for my training. My heart rate is insane. Um, but you're resting right now, do you know? My resting when I wake up in the morning, like overnight, the average is like 46, 47. That's good, which is really good. Um, during the day, it's usually in the 50s, which is fine. But in the sense of like my zones when I'm working out, right? Like the other day I did the four miles at the 8:30 pace, right? I was when I looked at the stats after I was 99% in zone two. So, you know, yeah, that's good. That's exactly right. Like I'm doing a long run at a slower pace, you know, I want to be in that, I want to be in that endurance zone. Yeah. And I'm there for you know, at 100 and you know, my heart rate's maxing out at 157. Like, you know, a year ago, two years ago, if I ran a mile, I'm at 190. Yeah, you know, so I've done a really good job of this winter getting myself ready for that. Um, and then I think overall, health-wise, yeah, I'm at a peak right now where my body feels great, my ankle doesn't hurt, my heart feels amazing, um, my lung capacity is great, uh, the brain is in a good spot, the body's in a good spot. You know, so I'm trying not to dive too deep into, you know, I need to run this day, I need to bike this day, I need to swim this day, have to lift here. I think I do a really good job of making sure I hit all my bases without stressing too much about it. Yeah, I think that's huge.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:10

I think that's a huge portion of it is uh doing the things when you feel it's right to do the things. Um I think you do I think you do a really good job with it, you know. Uh you're you're very locked in on it, you have a a a goal that you're looking towards, and it's working. Yeah, it's gonna be fun. It's it's cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:38

I love it. It's gonna be fun. Um and I like that too. I think if that you know, if that's my yearly training plan, then I get the six months after the race to do whatever the hell I want. Yeah. Then I get the three months after that six to build a base, and then I get three months to train for the race. Yeah, you know, so I think that's a wonderful, a wonderful outline for a year to say six months of do whatever the hell, side mission, mini goal. You know, I next year it could be I want to be in a bench competition, or next year I want to be in this who knows? Yeah, and I would do that for six months, and then three months, all right. Now I gotta build the base for the race, and then now I gotta trade for the race. So yeah, I probably will keep that going. I think my end goal, and I know that eventually I'll get there, is I want to be able to do an Iron Man. Yeah, I think it would be fucking sweet. It would be fucking sweet. You know, when you get when you when you first start, like when I first started training for the sprint last year, I'm like, there's no shot I would ever be able to do that. No, this year I'm like, oh, I'm already ahead of the game. It's not that I couldn't do that, right? I'm already ahead of the game. Like, I think I'm ready to try for a half Iron Man this year, yeah. You know, so I think it's that thing where it's like if you just keep doing it, you will get there.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:52

Yeah. No, I think it's sick. I love it. Um, I think that we're both in really good spots, honestly, training-wise. Uh, and I think it's really cool. Super, super cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:04

Agreed. You're gonna go back to the Y or are you outdoors for the rest of the year?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:07

I think, dude, well, they're dude, they're closing up on the 27th. I know. So I think that we're gonna, you know, we're anticipating that once April is over, you know, May flowers are gonna start to bloom and we're gonna be good to pretty much be outside all summer.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:22

Anyone from the YMCA, if you're listening to this, you're on my shit list. Close it up for a month.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:29

It's it's gonna be, I I mean, it the when it c when they come back and it's gonna be nice. Um but yeah, I think I think we're gonna pause it and be done. Nice. I think I think we're outside. So nice. No, dude, I'm I'm I'm I love being outside. I love it, love the garage. Um so that's it. I think that's it.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:52

Love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:52

Let's go fucking golf, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:53

Let's do it, man. Peace, everybody.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:56

Peace.