The TeamBuildr Podcast

In this episode of the TeamBuildr podcast, Grace Stiles sits down with Hunter Lakey the Assistant Baseball Strength & Conditioning Coach at Mississippi State University. They discuss Hunter's journey in the strength and conditioning industry and how his internship experiences paved the way for where he is today.

In this TeamBuildr podcast, Grace Stiles sits down with Brian Szutkowski and Jeff Davidson to discuss their strength and conditioning internship experiences.

In this episode of the TeamBuildr podcast, Grace Stiles and Mary Kate Feit discuss the best ways to create a positive learning environment for interns. MK provides examples of how Springfield College works to remove distractions and give interns the opportunity to develop the practical skills they need to be successful within the industry.

In this episode of the TeamBuildr podcast, Grace Stiles and Stuart Roche chat about the current state of internships within the strength & conditioning industry and where things are headed. Stu shares tips and activities that have helped grow Marquette University's internship program.

In this episode of the TeamBuildr podcast, Grace Stiles and Daniel Howells sit down and talk about transitioning from working with one sport to another. He shares experiences and advice he has gathered from his 20 years in the industry and how he approaches energy system development.

Hewitt Tomlin, Raph Freeman, and Lachlan Rowston sit down and talk about the growth of Lockeroom over the past year. They discuss how one specific tool has helped them create a positive member experience for the high-end members that they serve.

Chase Campbell sits down with Hewitt Tomlin to discuss coaching in various settings including college, high school, professional, and the private sector. Chase highlights how coaches impacted his life as a young athlete, and the importance being a positive influence as a coach.

Jason Clark and Nate Palin join Hewitt Tomlin and Teofe Ziemnicki to discuss the quickly changing landscape of the tactical sector. The four note that in order to move the needle you need to show that you care and buy into your athletes. They also talk about the biggest differences between college and tactical that surprise coaches transitioning into tactical. Jason and Nate round out the discussion by looking at the similarities between H2F and CrossFit and how H2F can learn to make themselves an experience. 

Our very own Head of Sports Science, Teofe Ziemnicki, takes some time to chat with Hewitt on this episode of the TeamBuildr Podcast. With Teofe's years of experience as a collegiate strength coach, he details the challenges of presenting sport science data to a sport coach. He notes that you must understand what the sports coach cares about first and foremost. Once you present the information that a sport coach perceives the most value in you can further build that relationship and share more knowledge and data. Without that understanding coaches won't care about data.

In this episode of the teambuildr podcast, we are catching up with Christian Hartford--current athletic performance coach for USA men's and women's beach volleyball teams. Christian joins us fresh after the Olympics to fill us in on his experience and success in Tokyo--especially after the thrill of watching one of his own teams bring home the gold.

Good friend Amanda Berg joins us on this edition of the TeamBuildr Podcast. Amanda has been a High School teacher, Physical Education Department Head and strength coach in Minnesota for over 15 years. She served overseas in Iraq with the Army National Guard, and is a huge fan of the NHSSCA. Don't let her mild-mannered Mid-Western demeanor fool you, Amanda Berg means business!

We brought Erica Suter back onto The TeamBuildr Podcast to talk to us about how she uses TeamBuildr and the Online Payments Portal to leverage her business.

Tom Newman joins us on this episode of the TeamBuildr Podcast. Tom is the Chief Innovation Officer at weight room hardware & data company Hawkin Dynamics, and former Director of Performance at Yale University.

Our good friend Gary Schofield joins the podcast to talk about all things High School strength. Gary is a highly regarded speaker in the S&C industry, and was one of the founding fathers of the National High School Strength Coaches Association (NHSSCA).

Joel is widely considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on strength and conditioning for combat sports and is the new-age godfather in energy system training. In addition to influencing and improving coaches in a multitude of sports around the world, Joel has personally trained over a dozen world champion athletes as well as consulting and working with many elite organizations ranging from the Navy SEALS to professional sports teams. He is the best-selling author of Ultimate MMA Conditioning and creator of the BioForce HRV system.

On this week’s TeamBuildr Podcast, we are proud to be joined by Shelton Stevens. Shelton is entering his third year as a Human Performance Specialist at US Special Operations Command, where he is a strength coach for elite tactical soldiers in the military. Before making the jump to tactical, he coached at college strength programs for over 10 years, most recently as Director of S&C at Liberty University. Shelton is also a business owner, and runs an online tactical training business.

Joining us on The TeamBuildr Podcast this week is Liane Blyn. Liane is currently the Director of Sports Performance & Olympic Sports at Arizona State University but she is the game for about 20 years now as a strength coach, athletic trainer, business owner and international competitor. In this episode, we touch on the salary gap between assistant coaches and strength coaches, how she feels about being recognized as being a 'woman in the field', and her emphasis on the value of building relationships with all of her athletes.

Matt Bruce is an Olympic Weightlifting National Champion, Co-Founder of the online training program powerhouse Brute Strength, and a High School strength and conditioning coach. In this episode Matt tells us his journey of becoming a coach after retiring as an athlete at the age of 28 and how he saw an opportunity in CrossFit to share his weightlifting expertise through online programming.  

This week we welcome the strongest strength coach in the industry, J.L. Holdsworth who is a champion powerlifter, an international speaker, and the founder/head coach at his training facility in Ohio, The Spot Athletics. With a hulk-like frame and many success, he can be intimidating but once you start talking to him you witness his vulnerable side about the mistakes he’s made along the way but also his passion to serve his coaches and his clients.

Alyssa is the owner of Rocket Community Fitness in Seattle, a social justice-oriented fitness community that prides itself on its inclusivity. As a supporter of both the CrossFit methodology and the communities it cultivates, found herself at the forefront of CrossFit’s leadership upheaval this summer when an email exchange between her and former CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman garnered media attention.

Hewitt Tomlin and James Peters, the co-founders of TeamBuildr get on the mic for the final episode of the 2020 and reflect back on the year like what it was like to transition a team of employees to working from home indefinitely and hiring new employees during the pandemic. Hewitt and James don't take themselves too seriously, they thrive in an informal setting, and they're not afraid to get candid about the beginning struggles of TeamBuildr.

Episode 13 of The TeamBuildr Podcast welcomes Craig Hoffman, a Sports Media veteran of nearly a decade. His unique combination of experiences as a sports beat reporter, radio host, on-air personality, and strength coach side hustler make for an incredible guest.

This week we are joined by Vanessa Severiano, a fitness and wellness veteran who boasts nearly 20 years of experience creating, developing and managing mega brands and startups in the space. In this episode we speak to her about how the desire to work for fun brands pulled her away from being an attorney, how being a great salesperson is rooted in being a great communicator, and how her definition of success has changed over the years. 

Sean Pastuch, the owner and founder of ActiveLife joins us this week on The TeamBuildr Podcast. In this episode we talk to Sean about how he became so confident, overcoming failures and setbacks in building a business and his purpose in starting ActiveLife.

Welcome back to another episode of The TeamBuildr Podcast. We've made it to episode #10 and we're proud to welcome Ron McKeefery on with us. Ron is currently the Assistant Athletic Director of Sports Performance with football at Fresno State University but his resume also includes being the author of two best selling books and working multiple professional teams. Coach McKeefery has an entrepreneur mindset when it comes to S&C and it has led him to where he is today, so he must be doing something right!

We're excited to welcome Rachel Balkovec, the first woman hitting coach in the MLB to The TeamBuildr Podcast this week. In this episode we talk to Rachel about how she got interested in wanting to work in baseball, why she changed her name on her resume when applying for jobs, and what she means when she says "I'm Not Done Yet."

Welcome back to another week! Today we have Ryan Gallop here, Director of Performance at NAKOA Performance and Physical Therapy. In this episode, you'll get to hear how Ryan got into training action sport athletes, his experience with extremely cold ice baths to help with stress management, and how he is still able to keep up with young guys on his rugby team.

We welcome Erica Suter, a private youth athlete performance coach, to episode 7! In this episode we talk to Erica about early specialization, getting youth athletes to be thinking about more not less, and how as a coach you need to spend time taking inventory on your own life.

Deerick Smith is the Director of Strength and Conditioning and Assistant Football Coach at Southside Charter High School in Arkansas. He is a football coach turned strength coach who now has a passion for coaching all sports, learning new speed training techniques, and implementing technology in the weight room.

Jerred Moon is the founder and CEO of End of Three Fitness and Garage Gym Athlete which are both 100% online programs of educating coaches and training athletes, so he's basically ahead of the curve here. In this episode we chat about he prices his online programs, his solid morning routine, and the basics of a building a garage gym.

We're back with another episode and this week we had John Beerbower on the mic. John is currently at McHenry West High School in Illinois where he serves as the Assistant Divisional Chair for PE, Health, and Drivers Ed as well as serving as the Director of Strength and Conditioning for the district. He has been awarded the Illinois Coach of the Year from the National High School Strength Coaches Association (NHSSCA) and he takes great pride in the implementation of a unified physical education program at his school.

Michael Rankin, the Director of Strength of Conditioning at Drexel University sat down with us for episode three as we talked about the future of college athletes amid the Covid pandemic, how he expects his athletes to return to training, his brutal birthday challenges, and his alumni program called Athletes For Life. 

Tex McQuilkin, Director of Training and Education at Power Athlete HQ tells us how he developed his training philosophy, got started working at Power Athlete HQ, where he sees the future of recruiting, training, and coaching as well his love of lacrosse. Episode 2 if full of insight from someone who has coached at the DI, DIII, and high school setting and has taught seminars all over the world.

Cory Walts, Director of Strength and Conditioning and The University of Pennsylvania also know as Penn sat down with us to talk about the importance of being a 'professional' in the world of strength and conditioning.