Coach Cory Gilday - Tactical Coaching - Episode #209

Unlock the secrets to top-tier athletic performance with Coach Cory Gilday, the guiding force behind Triple Canopy's renowned new training program. Join us as we reveal the transformative power of self-awareness in body movement and self-care routines, shedding light on Coach G's triumph over adversity and his ascent to training legends like Shaquille O'Neal and elite military personnel. You'll walk away with a profound understanding of how foundational movements, joint health, and a sharp decrease in injury rates are reshaping the world of strength and conditioning, straight from the man broadcasting his wisdom from Baghdad.

We take an invigorating sprint through the landscape of athlete training, nutrition, and the enigmatic link to mental health. Coach G and I share personal journeys of adversity, growth, and the mental clarity that regular exercise can afford, particularly for those grappling with attention challenges. We also give you a backstage pass to the demanding world of professional sports nutrition, from NBA giants to Alpine ski racers, and how masterfully tailored regimens are the secret ingredient to unlocking full potential. Tune in for a session that celebrates the unity of body and mind in the pursuit of athletic excellence.

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Produced by Rise Virtually
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Other episodes you might enjoy:
World Strongest Man Mitchell Hooper,  Taylor Learmont (Little "T" Fitness), Bruce Boudreau (Vancouver Canucks), Rhonda Rajsich (Most Decorated US Racquetball player), Zach Bitter (Ultra Marathon Runner), Zion Clark (Netflix docuseries), Jana Webb (Founder of JOGA), Ben Johns (#1 Pickleball Player in the World)

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I really preach with my athletes about being aware of their own body and how it moves through space and taking care of themselves.

Speaker 2: 0:09

Hey, welcome back to the 209th episode of the athletes podcast featuring coach Corey Gilde, also known as coach G. He's a dynamic strength and conditioning leader, someone who I am very fortunate enough to have had a conversation with for roughly an hour. You folks get 50 minutes of this in-depth conversation with the current director of athletic performance for triple canopy, his own organization, just over a month in business. He's also coached for the highest performing athletes in the world, the US Air Force, shaquille O'Neal. This is the 209th episode of the athletes podcast and, for the men out there listening, I highly recommend you check out Caldera Lab. This is their beard product. This is also their base layer product. It's skincare. As you can tell the beard, the skin. They're looking all right to get the base layer, the beard. Any Caldera Lab products 20% off. Use the code AP20 to get your very own and let us know down below what you think of it.

Speaker 2: 1:03

If you're watching on YouTube and you follow the athlete agreement, you'll have subscribed to every episode here of the athletes podcast. Whether you're on iTunes, spotify, youtube, you're watching the athletes podcast here to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of athletes. I do have to note he, coach G, is calling in from Baghdad with limited cell reception, the corner of his bedroom so that, no, so that his whereabouts were not shared or any information was not given away. So please bear with us as the connection does get a little choppy. There's roughly a 10 minute segment where the video cuts out, but the audio is there. You folks are listening via podcast. You won't be interrupted. And if you're watching on YouTube, drop a comment below during those 10 minutes, during your favorite part, and one of you will win athletes podcast merchandise.

Speaker 2: 1:51

I sincerely appreciate you folks for tuning in, hitting that subscribe button and listening to the 209th episode of the athletes podcast featuring coach G. Here we go. You're the most decorated racquetball player in US history, world's strongest man, from childhood passion to professional athlete, eight time Ironman champion. So what was it like making your debut in the NHL? What is your biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes, from underdogs to national champions? This is the athletes podcast, where high performance individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation athlete.

Speaker 2: 2:29

Here we go Learn a bit more about Corey Gilday, the dynamic strength and conditioning leader that he is the coach 25 plus years in the fitness, health, wellness space. Corey, welcome to the athletes podcast, the 209th episode. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I'm super excited for this conversation to dive in, learn a bit more about who you are, what's made you been this incredible dynamic leader and how you've been able to train individuals like Shaquille O'Neal, for example. It's definitely been an adventure.

Speaker 1: 3:00

It definitely hasn't been an easy adventure. It hasn't been one of those things where everything has been easy and, like Rocky says, sunshine and rainbows. It's definitely there's been times when I have dug, dug in the couch cushions to look for money to pay for a gas station muffin, to pay for the, to buy breakfast. So it's been a challenge.

Speaker 2: 3:18

Well, the goal of the athletes podcast is to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of athletes. Hopefully, here we're going to highlight some of the trials and tribulations that coaches have to go through to get these athletes to the best level possible. You're currently the director of athletic performance with triple canopy, a Constellus company. I know we are recording this in your bedroom, kind of like how the athletes podcast started, maybe for different reasons, because you have to keep things on the down lowest for your location and what you're doing. But maybe give the listeners a bit of background on what you're doing currently and then we'll scale back and see where you came from at the beginning.

Speaker 1: 4:01

So this is intentional. I'm actually in Iraq right now and back at Iraq at the US Embassy, I am in charge of the high threat protective services for triple canopies. Who, the older guys you see when the US ambassador or state department personnel leave the grounds? They're the guys that go out that you see them with in body armor and weapons to go out protect the ambassador. They're also the ones in 2019 when the normal guards bailed during the attack. They're the ones who stayed and saved the embassy.

Speaker 1: 4:37

So these are the guys are former special operations, predominantly soldiers and Marines and Airmen that have served the military, some law enforcement, but mostly special operations guys that have served and now they're doing contracting protective services called movement protection. So been here about a month and it's a it's a brand new program. It never existed, it's it's it's part strengthening addition, part human performance, part wellness and service, part wellness, industrial wellness. My mission tasking is to reduce injury rates. It's a business. They pay insurances and so they're hoping these guys get hurt a little bit less, both in the gym and in the field. So that's what I'm here for.

Speaker 2: 5:34

And you were able to reduce the injury rate by 15 percent at your previous role with Texas A&M and I believe in Portland.

Speaker 1: 5:42

That's pretty consistent metric with me. Wherever I go, injury rates go down and I just focus on movement and focus on joint integrity and I sometimes people see some of my videos and think I'm going to do this cool Instagram trainer because I do do Interesting exercises, but most of my stuff is very boring Very, very meat potatoes and want to work on movement basics and getting good flexibility and good movement patterns before you anything else.

Speaker 1: 6:17

And I really preach with my athletes about being aware of their own body and how it moves through space and taking care of themselves. And so that's a big thing I'm pushing here is teaching these guys to take care of themselves. Because I was thinking about this podcast as I was in my in the chow hall lined tonight. I was like unique situation. You know, guys who work in the tactical fitness environment now work with guys that are Navy SEALs and Army Rangers that are 20 years old. I'm working with those guys that have just served 20 years of all that pounding and now they're 45, 38, 45 years old, some some 50, 55, still highly capable people, but they have a lot of mileage on them. And so how do I, how do I program and keep these guys functional in their job setting? Now, you know it's really easy for a younger coach to get a Ferrari that's brand new. I'm getting like the 61 Ferrari California. That works well, but you better take care of it. What's going to break?

Speaker 2: 7:20

And make sure you perform those oil changes right.

Speaker 1: 7:23

Exactly the oil you do, you know doing the functional movement screens, you know. And the really cool is that triple canopy spent pretty much would have been my five year budget to take same international in about 20 minutes. When I first got here, they bought the force plates, they bought force frames, they bought. They bought a cold plunge, they bought body tempering system. Anything I asked for they bought for. And they still haven't said no to me on stuff that I want.

Speaker 2: 7:50

So that's got to be a nice feeling to have as a coach.

Speaker 1: 7:57

Yeah, it's nice not having to beg, borrow and steal, for you know most collegiate you know athletes should understand your college strength coach goes through more than you'll ever realize what they're going to Like. There's times when we want new bands and balls or new racks and it's like it's a fight sometimes because there's limited resources at your university unless you're at a power five school and so they're trying to figure out what's the best bang for the buck. And you know they're putting in college coaches especially. You're putting in tremendous amounts of hours.

Speaker 1: 8:30

You know they're there at 6am, and they're usually not going home until 6 or 7 o'clock at night and they have, you know, a 12 hour day, usually at 6 days a week and or 7 days a week of doing something. So these college kids don't realize what the and then, and on top of it, a strength coach has to be on. Yeah they have to be on the whole.

Speaker 2: 8:51

On top of that, they're getting paid less than 40k a year, less than the janitors as you've put it in the podcast, right.

Speaker 1: 8:58

You're. You're back at the topic of mine. One of the reasons why I'm here is is that I Obviously make More money more money here than I did at Texas A&M. I make triple what I made over there.

Speaker 2: 9:15

So that the name triple canopy, so why?

Speaker 1: 9:19

Yes, no, but I, you know, you know I actually had a decent, a decent salary based off. The CCSA just released a salary survey about where different zones were and I'm you know my salary at Texas A&M was actually Probably mid-range. It wasn't better or worse than it was kind of like where it should have been.

Speaker 2: 9:47

Hmm.

Speaker 1: 9:48

But I think at one point I was one of the higher paid college strength coaches in conference, except for one or two people in the long-star. So I was paid appropriately. But you know, I couldn't afford to take care of my family so and I had a gym beforehand and I wanted to get back in the college coaching. My goal is to be at a power five school. This, you know, this had never even come in my radar because this never existed before. To think of doing something like this had never even come up and it was just. It was just something that was shown to me. I happen to have my job, my Credentials happen to match it in a very unique way, the way the posting was written it. You know we were joking with my friends. There was only about four or five people in the country that could have matched what they were asking for.

Speaker 2: 10:38

So but you know.

Speaker 1: 10:41

I.

Speaker 2: 10:43

Go ahead. No, I was just saying, you know.

Speaker 1: 10:45

I have always had this power five mentality. I don't want to be it. That's one of my, my bucket list. My wife knows that I want to be at a power five school, at least for a year, just one year Just all I want is one year to show that I can do it.

Speaker 2: 10:58

Yeah, just that taste of it. I feel like you're. You still have that, maybe collegiate kid wanting to be there as the athlete themselves? Right, it's probably that little taste everyone has in the back of their mind. Are you still using your core for over there, around world's greatest stretch, russian kick, lunge and reach over hurdle?

Speaker 1: 11:14

Yeah, I Always been my, my base dynamic warm-up stretch because it's for me the L was acts as an assessment. You know, speaking of assessments, you know, typically I've met a big, I haven't used them. I'm fms certified one and two but I haven't in the past done a lot in the cleatest setting. They wanted the fms here because it's something the military has used in the past and they wanted something as a corporation which was a standardized metric that had normative data behind it. So we run the fms here and I mean I know how to use it correctly. I know it's not a be all, end all of disqualification or whatnot, but I, you know, my, my, my baseline dynamic warm-up has always been those, those four movements are all yours.

Speaker 1: 12:05

I was gonna find those movements in there because If anything that everyone should be able to do those moves. I should be able. It's really easy as a as a indicator during the workout warm-up. What's something's wrong is going, is going sideways, so mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 12:22

Is that your automatic, your go-to, I mean, for you? You talk about standards and being able to assess Christie Jenkins, who I don't know you're familiar with. She's a former crossfitter, top world trampoline or she was just on the pod a couple weeks ago her she posted today standards, the single most powerful tool for raising team performance. Stronger than motivation, more powerful than goals, more useful than habits, more natural than KPIs. Standards are the one tool I've used to drive every major. I'm curious from your perspective, given how many people you're exposed to 500 plus people you're responsible for right now how do you incorporate standards?

Speaker 1: 13:00

Well, you know. So, in this environment, with the majority of. Let's say the 400 of them. Their job is to protect lives and they have to run a PRT here, which is a physical readiness test, which in my opinion is and most guys opinion is not very hard.

Speaker 2: 13:24

We do have failures at times and I am.

Speaker 1: 13:27

You know that. You know that's the minimum standard and the we set our score point at 65% median, which essentially, you know these get degrees and some people still don't pass it and They'll see me get really upset because it's super easy, in my opinion, if you're a 40 year old man and you and you do if you work out a total body workout three days a week and you run Two three days a week, minimally not like tons of mileage, but if you run, if you ran two miles after your workout, after each work, you'd feel past this test, no problem, zero problem. But you're so lazy that now you're, you're putting other people's lives at risk and or your life, because that means you're not gonna be physically fit.

Speaker 1: 14:15

You know the good chance you're not gonna be able to take with gear on run across a boulevard here A rack boulevard is very big you're gonna run with 20, you know 20 to 40 pounds of gear on your back, possibly more, more than more than multiple times under fire with your, with your epinephrine and orpinephrine dumping into your system and you think that you're, you not even have that type of fitness level. But it's okay Because you're. I mean, these guys are all making over a hundred thousand dollars a year, all of them. There's not one person here that doesn't make a hundred under hundred. Some are making 150, 170, 180, so there's century pro athletes and so the standard, it mean that's the minimum standard.

Speaker 1: 14:58

I started seeing standards of, you know, like I've been here a better month, so we're starting to say standards of like, hey, let's do dynamic warm up. Some of these guys don't even warm up before the workout. They just called start lifting. So you know, I'm starting to build my expectations of and my, my coaching is not required, which is different, which is unique, comparatively to college coaching, where you have to go to the workouts with me.

Speaker 2: 15:28

It's it's more of a I've got a great buy-in, so like I am, going around talking people spending time in the gym.

Speaker 1: 15:35

I'm because of I have my manual therapy background and my in my soft tissue stuff, I'm able to affect that conversation. Like someone has an aches and pains, I can get. I can alleviate those that pain, and then we can start talking about workouts and building that thing. So my standards I'm slowly installing it. I have a set. I know what I'm going to install. Once everyone's bought in, I know what I'm going to put in. But I have to slowly put in things. You know what the strength expectations that I have of them and I want them to give me expectations.

Speaker 2: 16:11

They have of me too, because these are, these are grown men, these are.

Speaker 1: 16:14

They're out of college, they're have combat experience, they take care of families and are doing this, but I'm here to take, make sure that they stay healthy, make sure they don't have to go home, because if they go home they don't get paid. I mean, that's the thing here. Once if someone gets hurt or fails a physical fitness test, they stop you making money. So, like if someone has a physical fitness test scheduled and they fail it and they can take it again a week, that whole week they're here, they make no money and that's anywhere from four to eight hundred dollars a day.

Speaker 1: 16:47

So I'm here and if it's doing an injury, then it's definitely on me to make sure that I can make sure this thing, or lack of fitness, I'm here, to try to make sure that they're they stay healthy. So I understand that. You know I have a response. I told them on day one my responsibilities to them and only them.

Speaker 2: 17:10

Yeah, and as it should be right, that's what you're bringing in, that's what you're making the big bucks for. Hey, I imagine fight night, april 7th 2012 that in final fitness in Vancouver you probably didn't make a hundred K on that paycheck. I may, okay?

Speaker 1: 17:26

So the story behind that is if you look at the video, you'll notice that Rick story. It well known you a C fighters. One of my walkout people, his manager, thought that I should fight so I can understand the fight game, to train him. To train him for a fight. Train him, for I train written for multiple fights that year and years down he's been. He is trained with me for Often on for almost eight years through that to the end of his career. That was just an amateur fight, so that was definitely a career.

Speaker 2: 18:06

He looks good. Second round TKO. You dominated that guy. He didn't have a hope.

Speaker 1: 18:11

Yeah, so I mean I know I can handle myself.

Speaker 2: 18:15

I can't believe you bought that up, but hey, I got to do some research when I bring people on like yourself to the show, because people only see the service level current day present and you've got 23 years of experience under your belt and you've trained people like Shaquille O'Neal, but you also started as a fitness manager at 24-hour Fitness in.

Speaker 1: 18:36

O1. So my background is I started as a trainer actually in Gold's Gym in Bend, oregon, out of the Marine Corps and then I went from there to fitness manager, 24 Fitness up to Vancouver. Washington, got picked to be a trainer for Shaq, came back to 24, worked for them. Worked for other companies. I've worked for Velocity Sports, performance, ballet, total Fitness. I've been a Portland State. I've worked for the 125th Special Tactics Squadron at US Air Force. I've consulted for the from Marsock. I have worked at a Cucordia University. I was the director of the Performance there. I owned a gym for 13 years, which I you know, and I get a lot of weird looks when people ask me like.

Speaker 1: 19:23

I hit a gym that was successful, that was making money, that I was, I was. It just was no longer fulfilling. I was done with the parents that were asking me what about this guy? You know the new hot thing, that happened to be not educated. But he looked cool because he was a good athlete, so all his drills look cool, but in reality he doesn't know how to write a program and doesn't know how to do any of these things, so that I was just frustrated with that. I was one more sense of purpose and I kind of felt like I was shackled to that business. So, you know, the business did not give me the sense of freedom that everyone says it does.

Speaker 2: 20:06

What are most people missing when it comes to health, fitness, wellness?

Speaker 1: 20:11

They overthink it. You know, I think there's plenty you know there's tons of resources online. Obviously, when I began, you know, back in the Stone Ages, there was no well, I started in 2000.

Speaker 1: 20:29

You know, I have my undergrad and my BAT Master's degree, but there was no, there was no quote, unquote, hotly, you know, hop up YouTube and look at and Google stuff. There's plenty of stuff to look at. But it's also like they overthink it and no one wants to commit to a program and just do one thing. You know, I have even owned a business. The responsible thing is that, as a performance coach, when parents say, hey, I'm driving from you know 30 miles away, when I know there's some actually good people closer, you know the business thing would say don't turn away their money. But I know that they aren't going to be consistent. So hey, go to. These people are way closer, go there.

Speaker 1: 21:18

You know, I think I'm better than they are, but I think they're going to give you, they're going to get results from them and it's going to be more consistent with them. So I kind of have to practice. You know, I got to have to, you know, follow that guideline. If I know that's what I really preach, then I have to make sure that people are doing those things too.

Speaker 2: 21:35

So I feel like that probably comes from perspective as a kid. I mean, I've heard you describe yourself as a quote unquote chubby athletic kid, oh my.

Speaker 1: 21:44

God, I mean I was. I was a, so I played my sports background as I in high school. I played baseball, football, I was a track, I was an Alpine ski racer which is the trivia question with all my athletes when they can't figure out what I did in when I was in high school. And I was actually very, very good. I was always junior Olympics all the way till I was 18. But I always had a problem with my body composition. And then I get to college and and obviously with my military training and so like that I went from the still kind of chubby kid and all of a sudden I found weight training and the military training transformed me from to this kind of chubby guy it was. You know he works, he works out, but he still has a little extra layer to now I've got abs and veins and I've got muscles and oh wow, he is.

Speaker 1: 22:33

And I tell people, fitness changed my sports trajectory. I was going to be like this and then I exploded through that I'm not a super naturally talented athlete. I call people more of a gross motor skill athlete. I'm strong and explosive and obviously so. The weight room just accentuated those issues and it's just totally changed it, and so I, you know I tell people I preach that when I talk to my athletes ago this area can change your life. I have seen kids that have in at least the love this, when I own my gym, is taking kids that didn't enjoy that. All they came to me is I just want to enjoy my soccer. I don't want to be in all state, I just want to enjoy soccer. So I take a kid who was barely playing in soccer to. Now they're starting with their team and they're actually enjoying the sport and they're going to have a positive relationship with sport and then therefore also a positive relationship with the fitness and I want to create those healthy relationships with strength and conditioning.

Speaker 1: 23:45

I know some strength coaches create some very unhealthy relationships with their weight room. They think we're just trying to create an elite. And I want to and I'm all about creating elite athletes. And you can create elite athletes and not create toxic behavior and bad and bad and bad reinforcements. You can be reinforced and you can be tough on people. You can do things like that. You can have accountability and still have positive relationships with things.

Speaker 2: 24:11

That two minute segment right there is basically encapsulating how I want people to consume the podcast, the show here, and how they can realize the benefits of health, wellness, weightlifting, going for a walk, going for a run, the benefits that come from that. I mean, I know, even doing some research from your past couple of years, you dropped a significant amount of weight just going through your own training.

Speaker 1: 24:33

Yeah, so I actually in June I mean, we haven't flow as strength coaches I was, I kind of gone. I kind of got a little heavier. I got about 245. Right now I'm sitting about 215.

Speaker 2: 24:47

15 pounds away from college weight. Right, I'm 15 pounds away from my college weight Congratulations.

Speaker 1: 24:53

And you know, and here's the, you know, people always have excuses. Well, I'm actually bone on bone on my right ankle, like I can. I wish I could screenshot it show you.

Speaker 1: 25:05

But I can still run, I can still sprint, I just. But knowing that I now have good I have, I have better ideas of how I should do my conditioning and how I should treat things and what kind of pounding I shouldn't, should not do. I mean, I can still go run a three mile first class Marine Corps run Because I, because I'll spend an hour and a half on the step mill this doesn't hurt my ankle, I can do. I'll do the interval things with, I'll do hit training with weight training to build my cardiovascular conditioning and I can still get that thing. I don't have to run anymore, I can. Sprinting doesn't hurt as much as distance running does. But you know, I know a lot of people that would just say, oh, I'm hurt so I can't work out anymore.

Speaker 2: 25:49

So Such a shame, because the mental benefits are just as powerful, if not more powerful than the physical.

Speaker 1: 25:57

Well, in some people can pick up on a piece of it, but I have really really, really really bad ADD.

Speaker 1: 26:04

Very bad and the more. And I found I discovered this in college and I kind of probably got away from it. And now I have wife and kids at home and she notices now that I've lost my weight again. She knows, especially when I do cardiovascular exercise. She knows I've always lifted weights. It hasn't been one of those things. Like you know, I I've always been one of those guys where I've always lifted weights and looked like it worked out, but I kind of had that big power lift to look for a long time. And now I and now I have more of a tactical look and I have my I actually can see abs in my stomach and I can.

Speaker 1: 26:40

I don't feel guilty taking my shirt off but the psychological, emotional aspect I am able to concentrate better. I'm able to focus better. You know I'm able to. You know I watch what I eat. I don't eat sugar. I don't eat as much sugar as I used to. I, you know, try to stay away from processed foods. I'm constantly, you know, just something to focus on, other than I don't drink. I never drink. So it's I really feel better and it helps with me. And I tell kids that I know I used to encounter kids all the time, both in my gym and in the collegiate league, I have ADD. It's like then. This needs to be your big focus for you, because this will save your life. So being fit will help you, so.

Speaker 2: 27:32

I'm so glad you're bringing this up. We're going to keep rolling. You played college baseball. You played college football. You've trained, worked with the US Air Force. You're overseas right now in Baghdad. I'm reading books like Jocko Willings Extreme Ownership. I've got David Goggins. I'm listening to his audiobooks podcasts. How hard is it truly? Like people glamorize it and think that, oh, I'm going to go overseas, serve my country and I'm going to be a Marine. How difficult is it and what kind of person does it actually take to be able to succeed and complete a six month stint over there, two year stint over there?

Speaker 1: 28:11

You know in the military when you were in my previous background, and these guys will tell you it takes all types. There's all types of people there are. There's not every one of the SEAL teams is like David Goggins or Jocko Willing.

Speaker 2: 28:28

There's a lot of them like that.

Speaker 1: 28:30

There's also a lot of them. A lot of them are very quiet and they just do their job and they go through. The biggest characteristic of successful people in the tactical environment are just one more step. I'm not going to quit. Just one more step. That's just the mindset that they have. They just keep going. One more step. So that's what's being successful is. Don't quit. You don't have to be overly athletic, because we used the joke and I've actually made this joke multiple times with different units. The military is littered with two different, two main demographics the kids that barely weren't quite good enough to play college sports and then the kids that always smelled in high school, even after a shower. Just the awkward kid. But the thing is, those awkward kids are very mentally strong and turn in and blossom into CEOs They've lost them into Navy SEAL commanders. They turn into things that you'll never imagine because their brain is what makes it. I hate to. It sounds like a, it sounds hokey and cheesy, but the brain is the biggest weapon in the military.

Speaker 2: 29:51

If you don't have this.

Speaker 1: 29:52

I don't care how all of this looks. I've seen some physically imposing people that I've been more afraid of a poodle than they are.

Speaker 2: 30:02

So it's really interesting you bring that up. Um, so my day job? I work for expert VR. We do firefighter, law enforcement training, uh, process based learning. We're working in conversation with military organizations as well, and so what we're seeing is that, exactly like you can train hard, you can be the best athlete in the world, but if you don't know how to make decisions properly in an effective amount of time, that isn't going to impact the rest of your crew negatively, doesn't matter how big your biceps or your legs are, right, right.

Speaker 1: 30:33

I mean, and the thing is, if you think about in sports, if we, if we could get kids, if we would start focusing more on the mental aspect, you've seen teams that are well coached, that have no business athletically dealing being on the field with. Certain teams compete because they're making the right decisions over and over and over again, and when the, the athletically talented team, is making mistakes, they're not. So the. I think, as a performance coach, you know the one thing I always do focus on is try to focus on mental acuity and coordination. It's it's in my programming. We work on decision making skills and and not just they're built into my agility programming, they're built. They're built into, um, warm ups, they're built into cooldowns, uh, on neural based learning things.

Speaker 1: 31:24

And anytime when, when the exercise science programs and universities. I'm at want to bring out any type of neural learning.

Speaker 2: 31:30

I'm all on the long board Because I like your neural grooving with like karate kid right Neural groove yeah.

Speaker 1: 31:37

That is a pretty. You know we neural groove with, with sprinting. You know we learned okay we're starting to do our C-Flex.

Speaker 1: 31:42

Now we're going to work on strike and back in claw through and all of a sudden not fire. You know that is that is. You know the neural grooving karate kid is a is a perfect example of that. But we can do that with so many different things and even, like, with neural decision making and making the right decision. Um, uh there. Our research came out a while ago and I'm going to claim this the Nick Winkleman did this years ago where he took a group of Australian rules football players. He had two groups. He had a group of professional major league whatever Australian rules NFL, what they they had got and then they had their semi pro league, which are good athletes, but they're just, you know they're, they're and they took two groups and they

Speaker 1: 32:29

took a set of agility drills. A constant I think it was a T drill is you sprint to the cone, turn left or right? Um, ironically, in the control group, where everyone just had known known left, left and right, the semi pro group, a lot of them were actually faster than the pros, um. But then when you took the middle cone out and made it a biological reaction to a light and making decision making on where to go right, left, the pros were so far ahead of the semi pros.

Speaker 1: 33:04

So the pros decision making is what separated them, not their as well as their as well as his so you'll see me do drills, and then all of a sudden, I'll do okay, now you're going to run to me and now we're going to go left to right or we're going to start to do the drill with left right and I'll both do visual, biological stimulus, we'll do auditory and then sometimes we'll do I'll go false narratives.

Speaker 1: 33:28

You're reacting to sound, you're reacting to my hand signals, but I'll give you a false with my voice and vice versa. So your brain has to pick up what, what stimulus am I going off of and just building, because that's important as well. How do I, how do I, how is my pro, my, my process here bringing in so that I can actually use my muscles correctly? So those are sometimes a lot of coaches do not incorporate those into that learning pattern and I think it's a mistake. So you know. So that's, and the same thing with these guys here. You know we all, as, as this program grows, I have drills where we'll build strength and conditioning into tactical movement patterns and how to make decisions and how we and how we groove certain things that help with their shooting and help with their protection, deal their drills.

Speaker 2: 34:17

So it's kind of like that basketball free throw, steady on steroids, where it's not just the visualization aspect but it's also incorporating the auditory visual, all of the above right? Uh no, it's super interesting. I'm like I the more I learn about kind of your approach to things, the more I want to dig deeper and kind of see you working in action, because I can imagine you are much more detail oriented compared to some coaches I've had the experience of working with in the past.

Speaker 1: 34:45

But it's well I and the thing is, you will notice the detail because you'll see me, just because I'm very casual on how I coach, like I'll set the whole plan up and, okay, we're going to do this and I'll do one aspect and you'll realize that we're going to own this one, or they're going to work on this aspect and I, I, I try to make, I try to casually coach it in First. I think a lot of coaches take themselves way too seriously, don't? We all struggle, it's, it's and you know, you.

Speaker 1: 35:16

You, when you say it's a, you know you have to have presence. It's. It's unique for here for the guys to call me Corey because I was coached G at my last stop. I like coach G, that's you know, and I was everyone, you know. Everyone called me coach G and I get hugs. I got, you know, when I left. I have like a stack of of cards and stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 35:37

So I know I made an impact on them and I would bring kids in and tell them they're messing up. I would never, I would never berate an athlete in public, ever. I'd bring them into my office and talk to them because it's they're done. My thing is. It's collegiate level. They're 18. They're adults. You treat them like adults. You wouldn't do that. You wouldn't do it in an office, so don't do it in a college setting. Treat them like respect, and they appreciated that.

Speaker 2: 36:07

So what, uh, what was that process? Like I got it? I got to ask 2003 Rogers and Mike Paris, o'neill's business managers. They just call you up one day. Obviously, you're regarded as one of the top trainers nationwide. You're chosen from a field of five finalists. The daily news reports on it. Like O'Neill meets with you in Vegas. Can you just walk us through what that experience was like, cause it's not often the arguably one of the best basketball players in the NBA looks to to someone Right, um, the uh, we actually met with me.

Speaker 1: 36:37

the some of the news reports were wrong. You met with me in LA and Beverly Hills. It wasn't Vegas, um, but um the it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was. You know you're talking about trials and tribulations when that happened I had, I was going through a divorce. I really didn't have you know it wasn't at a high point in my life and I just um, I remember walking in one day and to the. I was working in 24 fitness and the front desk girl goes.

Speaker 2: 37:14

Hey Corey, uh, Jim Rowley has a call online for you.

Speaker 1: 37:17

Jim Rowley at the time was the vice president of fitness, or 24 fitness, I think he's. He's currently the vice president for um. Another fit.

Speaker 1: 37:30

He's involved with crunch fitness now, Okay, Um but, he calls me up and goes, uh, he tells the whole story. Then you know we he was talking about all the the partnership agreements they had with Lance Armstrong and Andre Agassi and Magic Johnson, and and all of a sudden, so we're talking with Shaquille O'Neal and I was like could he get to the point? Dude, he goes. Well, he's looking for a trainer and you were suggested and I'm like would you be interested?

Speaker 2: 37:55

And that was like.

Speaker 1: 37:56

I couldn't get yes out of that and I was. I was trying to be like, could be cool, be cool. And so it turned into well, we're going to, we picked you as one to talk to. And so they uh ended up interviewing five people, some who weren't actually didn't even work for 24, because they had some of their own people. I actually talked to Gunnar Peterson as a well known, straight, well known trainer. He told he interviewed for it too and I think he didn't want to. He didn't want to move to Florida for the summer. That was one of the deal breakers for him. So I interviewed for it and, uh, I honestly didn't think it's like there's no way they're going to pick a 24 year, 25 year old kid who, uh, at the time I only had my bachelor's degree in my CSCS, that's, I attend my master's degree yet and I was like I didn't think I was anything particular.

Speaker 1: 38:49

And about a week and a half later, the frustrating part is, back then they don't have um the the with a lot of pro athletes and pro coaches. They have an answering service so you can't actually call them. You got to call their answering service. The answer is called their cell phone and they call you back. Okay, so it took about three years. I got a message about a week later. Hey, you need to call Mike Parris calls calls line. So I call right back and he doesn't call me back.

Speaker 1: 39:19

It's like son of a. It took about four days, three, three days to him to actually give me a call back and tell me the good news that I had gotten the job. So, for three days, and like, did I get it? Or are you telling me to pick someone else, or what's going on, or so?

Speaker 2: 39:34

but what was the deciding factor? Obviously, moving to Florida is got to be one impact. I think maybe your stature, your calm, cool, collected nature probably played a factor. You're a bigger guy too. Maybe Shaq like that, look like what? What was that differentiating factor?

Speaker 1: 39:48

Cause I know you're just big with it. I'm a bigger guy this way. I'm not a bigger guy this way. I'm five, six and a half.

Speaker 2: 39:55

Okay, okay. So, was it? Was it cause you were willing to spar with him? Is that why?

Speaker 1: 40:00

Well, so I'm the one who introduced him to Jiu Jitsu and to sparring and all those things, because of I. I looked at it from a standpoint and doesn't like to run. He needs to condition.

Speaker 1: 40:16

And he had big toe issues too right, yes, he had a really bad, bad big toe and I was like, I know he needs to be on the court, but I, I, how do I? I wanted to pull weight off of him first. That was a bigger issue to me, and so having activities that he would find fun, because there was something he never done before and he would enjoy those things, and I was coming from the aspect he just needs to move. So I've incorporated Jiu Jitsu. We hired one of Gracie's students to roll with them three times a week and I boxed with them, which was a mistake because he's like boxing an octopus. So I love that man to death. I would do anything for that guy that he is. He is. I don't think he gets the credit for the human being that he is.

Speaker 2: 41:01

So he's the man with the most infectious smile, charisma, supernatural, athletic ability, hall of Famer businessman. He's a legend. Actually, kudos to the magic, because I know they're officially retiring his number 32 into the Rafters. Second NBA player with two retired jerseys by three teams.

Speaker 1: 41:22

But the thing is he has this heart on him that he would. He he's not overly generous, but he somehow always seems to be able to swoop in and always be that guy. So he's a. He's a good guy. He's one of the good guys out there. I bet some pros that are not good. Yeah, I can confirm that as well.

Speaker 2: 41:42

After 200 plus episodes, four years of doing this, how much of that comes down to like nutrition versus working out and like expenditure calorie intake versus For him? Yeah, or in general for everyone, I guess maybe for him first and then general pop after.

Speaker 1: 42:06

Well, the I did sign NDA, so I'm gonna be careful how much I share here. But okay. I'm not. I might even sure how. I'm not sure it's so valid. But and I this is no. This is known. So he had a Live-in chef assistant that lived with him when I first got there and I gave him here's how many calories he should eat, and he really didn't eat out that much.

Speaker 2: 42:33

It wasn't a very big ballpark 5,000, 10,000, yeah, how much I want to say. I had him at 3200 calories about Whoa for a seven foot plus 300, plus pound man eh.

Speaker 1: 42:49

Yeah, but we were giving good food to him and we're giving him, you know 24 had given us. I had, you know, all the supplements. He was on every single Multi vitamin. He was on old branch in anything and everything. So the first six weeks he lost about 25 30 pounds, just like boom gone and Then, like his chef, quit and left and so I think we lost like 10 pounds after that, but still to lose about 40 pounds or the summertime was significant for him. He looked a lot better that year.

Speaker 1: 43:24

The year before they did not go the finals. And that year they went. They went to the finals. They lost to Detroit but they still went to the finals.

Speaker 1: 43:31

The so man it's it's with any athlete is nutrition. You know, I always tell these guys you can't outrun a donut, you can eat, you can eat awful and Work out like a banshee and it doesn't matter. Even these 20 year olds on my K, they, if you really want to go the next level, even if they, quote-unquote, look good. I see these athletes that like, they look like a man, but from an energy standpoint they're not there. They're, they just don't have the glycogen storage. They're not able to do what they need to do because they don't focus nutrition.

Speaker 1: 44:08

Even these NBA guys I watch the NBA guys so they may get their happy day eat breakfast in McDonald's when they the amount of calories that some of the skinny guys burn. They should be, they should be in the beach, be quadrupling their calories. They don't. Well, I'm not hungry, but they don't understand what they really are. They don't understand. You know what's going on. So Nutrition is, I think, is a very underutilized things for the machine. You see a lot of division, one programs rolling out the Sports nutrition programs, but it's definitely a challenge unless you're gonna actually make breakfast for them. Here is their breakfast. Here's your protein shake. Here's your after-workout post-workout. Here's your dinnertime stuff. And Sit down and if you have the time to write out menu diet strategies for each athlete, it's really hard.

Speaker 2: 45:00

So I Just see guys like DK madcalf out here promoting the fact that he's eating crazy amounts of candy. You've seen stories of Dwight Howard decades ago when he entered the league, crushing insane amounts of sugar, peanut butter and jelly.

Speaker 1: 45:15

And then what happened is he looked good and then he was. He was experiencing energy and strength issues and Turns out, his blood sugar was crazy, out of control and they had to take out the PB and J because they were he. There's this big trend in the NBA where they were everyone was doing PB and J's before before games and it wasn't like one or two is like you're eating three or four PB and J's and are eating, like you know, loaded with. They're not eating like the all-natural, no sugar free peanut butter with the, you know, with the Dave's killer bread.

Speaker 1: 45:48

They're eating you know they're eating wonder bread with the skippies full of sugar and full of sugar jelly.

Speaker 2: 45:54

They're, they're, they're spikling it.

Speaker 1: 45:56

They're blood sugars up really good.

Speaker 2: 45:59

So and I think it's just something that it's unfortunate because it's exacerbated when an athlete does something, says something like that, then general pops like oh, if DK Metcalf can crush a bag of Skittles, I can do that and then go work out and it's like I. Just for me it sucks because I try and relay Information and layman's terms here for the next generation to be consuming, so that they can grow up being properly Nourished and then perform the best on the field, on the ice, wherever they are right.

Speaker 1: 46:28

Right, you know and you hear about DK make a all-head bag of Skittles. But did you see?

Speaker 2: 46:32

what else?

Speaker 1: 46:32

he ate the rest of the day you know, you know he he probably had like an egg white omelet with oatmeal and stuff like that, and he probably ate those Skittles before he went to football. Football, you know, and as he gets older he's gonna realize he can't do that anymore.

Speaker 2: 46:47

So yeah, like Dwight Howard after he realized that he couldn't eat two cheeseburgers. One large fry is a strawberry, chocolate milkshake and a Large Coke before his games during his rookie year. Right, were you using lift? Were you using lift activation to a shack, like prior to games lifting?

Speaker 1: 47:07

So I didn't have a hold of control during season. All my stuff was off season. His strength coach that year was Jim Coda. I know, I know I think Jim did that, did some pre-lift stuff with them. I'm pretty sure he shacked it. Not do it, I Just, I just know you. He probably didn't do it.

Speaker 2: 47:29

So I know he was offered I'm pretty sure he didn't do it though. Is there a specific type of athlete that you love working with, or sports specific athletes that you really enjoy, right, like? I'm always curious from a coach perspective. If there's one Did two time athletes.

Speaker 1: 47:44

I really love working with our Alpine ski racers and and obviously then football players. Alpine ski racers people don't, I don't think, realize what a freak of athlete they are. You, you know, you'll get a hundred and sixty five pound Alpine ski racer that can back squat nearly five hundred pounds, that can, you know, 40 inch vertical, and then they can go on like multiple eight hundred meter runs because they can clear a lactate like no other, and so they've got this spectrum of performance in them that just is crazy. And they can angle like their body and they're very resilient. So they're fun and you know I'm gonna be the stereotypical football strength coach, football players. Football is Football is fun because the the energy you get off of football in the weight room is just. It really makes you feel good. We get away room.

Speaker 1: 48:41

Nothing sucks more as a college strength coach to come out of weight room when the team is kind of like blah, that's like, and as hard as you try, it's just blah, it sucks, so it ruins your day.

Speaker 2: 48:53

Yeah, no, I can't thank you enough for this conversation, corey. I've learned a ton over the past. So, about, and I'm sure our audience has as well, as we continue to go along here with the athletes podcast. As you know, our goals to educate, entertain, inspire. We're gonna continue diving into deeper learnings, following guys like Mike Boyle, who I know you follow religious oh.

Speaker 1: 49:13

Mike is. Mike is on my Mount Rushmore of churches.

Speaker 2: 49:18

Who else is on that?

Speaker 1: 49:20

if I had to. So Mike Boyle definitely is there. I would also go with Louis Simmons, which is ironic because they're Mike and Louis. Could be completely different. I Would also argue that Roshansky is on there, I Would say as well as Alvin meal, and, and I would and I would. I'll say a coach that currently is coaching, still I still coaches and he's probably surprised say this, but Joe Ken, who created the tier system love Joe.

Speaker 1: 49:55

Ken. So and then, yeah, so those are. So there's so many people that I would like to. Mike has really shaped his, his writing, his books, and I talked to him and when I I've taken jobs before and I talked to him on the phone and he's very accessible and he he's my idea of what a professional strength should be. He is analytical. I Used to have my full-time athlete training license and so, as he did, he's very analytical. He coming at.

Speaker 1: 50:27

He's coming at this, he. He wants to come through this and figure out what is the best way to accomplish Performance, not what's traditionally been done, but what is the best way to do it, but still staying in that science lane. So and he, and are you, he can say someone's wrong without insulting them, which I think is a skill that a lot of people need to figure out. You can not agree with someone and not have to insult them.

Speaker 2: 50:56

So Wise words. You're familiar with Brad Thorpe and ISO fit.

Speaker 1: 51:02

Yeah, I so fit, and.

Speaker 2: 51:03

I symmetric yeah you're incorporating that.

Speaker 1: 51:07

I have done isometric for a long time. Um uh I. Some of the research in my opinion is inconclusive to stuff. I've seen one of my friends, carmen Botte, does not like isometrics and she always puts she's there on the west coast of Vancouver, bc. If you ever want to talk to her about isometrics she will not hold her words.

Speaker 2: 51:31

Let's do it. That's where I am right now. I'm Vancouver. We're going to make it happen.

Speaker 1: 51:36

So she is not a super big believer in isometrics. I love isometrics for tendon health and body positioning and I'll use the prime isometric into an explosive jump, into creating valsovic pressure and all those things, so I like it for the standpoint. They're not a magic pill and they're not a cure. They definitely help with tendon health. We have achy knees and shoulders and stuff like that. Isometrics definitely help. I think a lot of Brad's research is fantastic. I also know Brad has to sell a piece of his trying to sell his equipment too, so there's definitely ways to skew information, but I think he puts a lot of good information out there.

Speaker 2: 52:18

I'm always curious because there's different modalities and obviously there's more than one way to skin a cat, and I think there's like you're doing. I can't thank you enough for sharing this information with others. No problem, you're willing to take time while you're in Baghdad to come on the show, share your knowledge, wisdom, insights. I have two questions to wrap up. The first who were your inspirations as athletes growing up? And then the second the best piece of advice that you want to leave the next generation of athletes with today? So growing up.

Speaker 1: 52:48

Kirby Puckett, baseball player, minnesota Twins. Why? Well, number one, because he played the same as I did in baseball. We were built similar. You know, the pudgy athlete that kind of could do everything Just seemed to really love the game.

Speaker 1: 53:07

You'll notice that I'm tearing up because he did die this big. You use it through inspiration. He really fired my love for baseball and sports and how to really be a team player. And then another athlete for myself would probably be a ski racer. We probably don't even know who it is, but his name is Alberto Tamba. When I was younger, he was an Alpine ski racer for Italy, and just you know again, I was an Alpine ski racer growing up and I was in Fatshame ski racing and most ski racers tend to be very flamboyant.

Speaker 1: 53:47

He really was, and so it was one of those guys. I really looked forward to being like him, because all the you know me being a little bit bigger athlete as a ski racer and I mean I was super small. That was something I kind of went towards.

Speaker 2: 54:01

So the ski racers are another breed. My buddy, bobby Ryan, has an engine like no other. As well, he's doing the Leadville Ultra. I can't keep up with him, so I know that's what you're talking about.

Speaker 1: 54:14

Nordic ski racers are sick and twisted individuals that are. They're like. They're worse than marathon runners.

Speaker 2: 54:21

I don't understand them so it's a wild world we live in and, hey, we get to witness these incredible athletes on a daily basis. And the way we get to wrap up this conversation, Corey, is we get to ask and I'll start with Coach G, because you know what Coach G's got an insane amount of wisdom. Is there anything you want to leave our audience here on the Athletes Podcast with today that you'd like to let them leave with?

Speaker 1: 54:44

I would tell them every single time you have an ability to go to practice or training or to a game, be focused and give it everything you want. I have played high school baseball, football, collegiate baseball football I did play. I played a season of Class A baseball, military, all of things. I'm 46 years old now. I still train like a maniac. I still try to set the power of dude lefty and stuff like that. I still have regrets on thinking about times when, hey, if I want to try a little bit harder that season and prep that hard, could I have done more, Could we have done that? Could we have done this. We always say regrets a bitch. It's the one thing you're never going to beat, the one thing you can do. It doesn't take any skill, it doesn't take any extra supplements, it doesn't take any more money than the other guy is to try Effort's free.

Speaker 2: 55:51

I'm ready to run through this brick wall behind me. Corey, thanks so much for your time, coach. Do you ever appreciate it? Where can people find you on social media?

Speaker 1: 55:59

I've got to remember my thing. So I'm on Instagram under double check here. What I'm doing here, what am I called? You can find me at coach underscore Corey G on Instagram and you can find me at Corey Gilday on Facebook. I do respond to my DMs too. So if you have questions, I have no problem answering questions and DMs. If someone wants to hop on a video call and talk Again, I talk to my wife and kids on Zoom. But if you have some questions, I'm more than happy to help with something.

Speaker 2: 56:41

It's sincerely appreciated, not only by myself but that next gen. I can't wait to keep in touch. We'll see you soon, coach G.

Speaker 1: 56:47

Sounds good.

Speaker 2: 56:49

Bye.