The ROAR Podcast: Ben Jaeger

# ROAR Podcast: Ben Jaeger
**Guest:** Ben Jaeger
**Date:** 2025-12-17
**YouTube URL:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKKjY2xf3z4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKKjY2xf3z4)
**Source:** YouTube auto-generated captions (no speaker diarization)

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(0:06) Ben, thanks so much for taking the time to join us today. >> I appreciate you having me on today, Bryce. >> It's such a cool conversation because, you know, we have a lot of folks on the podcast from a sports business perspective that have a background in business or backgrounds in player personnel. And it's really cool to bring these things together with what you do today. So, you know, there's a lot that I want to get to from your path and where you've been, but can you give the listeners a bit of a view into what it is that you do today? >> Yeah. So, uh I'm in a sports performance position here, uh currently in the director role of Olympic sports. So, uh that includes a lot of different things.

(0:42) It's going to be overseeing all the Olympic sports that we have. So, think of everything outside of an athletic department other than football. Um it's also management of all full-time staff or any u interns that we have. It is a lot of communication lines, sport coaches, um a lot of support staffs that are part of what we call a high performance team. That being athletic training, our dietitians, sports science, sport psychology, um then also facility oversightes. So, we actually obviously have our spaces that our student athletes work uh train in and a lot of uh things go behind the scenes on making sure that that's still the best product possible for the student athletes to be able to utilize. Um all on top of trying to make sure that we're honing our environment, making sure that it's facilitating progress and growth and uh [clears throat] making sure that we're individually getting ourselves better professionally as well.

(1:36) It's one of those really interesting things because us as lay fans, we see the end performance from student athletes across sports, but we often don't see all that goes into it, the behind the scenes of the work that's put into it to get to where those student athletes are. So, it's really cool to see the people that really bring that to life. You know, you mentioned you returned to Northwestern as the director of Olympic sports performance. What brought you back to Evston and what's exciting about this role the second time around? Yeah, my my background was pretty heavy in coaching. It's really all I've known post college. So, um you my significant other was able to obtain a um a very great opportunity for her in New York City with the WNBA team there uh directing their performance department.

(2:21) But um that's what really took me away from this position in the first place. Otherwise, you know, I had no interest in leaving in the first time. Um, I was able to work with a technology company that did revolve around performance rehab, uh, some general fitness areas, Oxfitit and which was a great experience. Um, I did have an itch to kind of come back to coaching and and just kind of thinking long term about, you know, when it's just rooted in you a little bit. It's it's what kind of fires you up. It's what you feel like you're utilizing your skill sets for. Um, and really we have a lot of the same people around here and really NU is a special place in athletics with some of the people that we have around and really specifically a lot of our sport coaches, our student athletes are great and then um my supervisor here, Adam Herman, him and I have uh been together four different times. So, uh, he's responsible for a lot of my development, a lot of professional growth and personal growth that I've had. So, you know, when we were able to get a conversation about coming back and you know, I had the blessing of my significant other. So, uh, we came on back. So, off we go.

(3:31) >> The blessing is always a good thing for sure. [laughter] You talked about that path and all the different places. You know, you you were at Texas A&M, Boise State, Southern Illinois, or Roberts, Oregon State. It's it's a true tour of of high performance environments and different types of environments. you know, when you look back on that, what were the pivotal moments that shaped your identity from a coaching perspective? >> I think each of those spots had it was just at a different stage in in my career and career development. So, Oregon State was really getting my feet wet and just understanding what this was all about uh through the internship. Um, it's really where you learn how to, you know, uh, cut your chops a little bit on actually learning how to coach. How do you even see things? Have you developed an eye for what correct and incorrect is just in regard to human movement? Um, going into Oral Roberts, uh, that was my my first position that I actually had with Adam and, uh, we had a great staff with Brad Runan as well, who's uh, the director over at Missouri. Um, so we had a a really good staff in there where I got to learn a ton from those guys. But that was my first opportunity to program. So do a lot of the different X's and O's, but then also implement for a team on your own. So, you learn a lot along the way of mistakes that you make there because I mean I think really simplistically early on in your career and I'm just going to speak through my lens and then seeing other coaches as well. You you kind of stick to what you learn the first time and I think in your head you believe that to be correct.

(5:04) Well, when you move away from that environment, context changes. you try to implement that that on your own the first time which you don't really understand it at that depth as the person who did create it for the first time. So you learn a lot there's a lot of failure along the way there. So you know you have that step um I was able to go to Southern Illinois uh Carbonale after that under Cle Mloud I had connected with Cleat the first time as a mentor over at Oregon State. Um that was another elevation of just taking on you know more teams individually. Um again another trial by error error um failure along the way that's where you learn you get a lot of feedback. Um, at the conclusion of that time, I was I was able to join Adam when Adam was able to to land a new position at Boise State. Um and again we were able to take some of those same learning principles just apply it at a higher level of athletics uh to where um you know challenges were a little bit different and was able to really hone in there and take a lot of feedback again a lot of failures a lot of different uh sports that I was exposed to and [clears throat] um not that you necessarily specialize in a certain area but when the Texas A&M opportunity um arose I had quite a bit of background with a few of the sports that they were looking to to be able to fill there. So, uh, Tana Burge gave me a a fantastic opportunity there and um had a excellent experience at&m working with extremely high level Hall of Fame sport coaches that I learned a a ton through and uh very high level athletes where now you're not necessarily competing for just conference championships, you're compete for national championships. Um, so that was a again a very different experience and again you learned through a lot of failure as well. um you know things get a little bit more elevated on the expectation and demand because the demand is excellent, the demand is winning. Um so you have to be able to navigate that style of pressure day in and day out as well as you know that style of pressure from the student athlete. Um when I was able to get another opportunity with Adam at Northwestern, it was again just another jump up in responsibility. Um, and you know, Northwestern presented a lot of good challenges for me as well. Um, elite hall of fame head coaches once again here. Um, the student athlete is a little bit different. Very cerebral, very intelligent. Um, it's not a different style of coaching necessarily, but you had you have better be able to articulate very clearly and concisely why are we doing what we're doing and why are we doing it the way we're doing it and why are you asking us to do it this certain way. So, a lot of previous things have been able to prepare me to do that uh at a successful level. And so along all those stops, I think the the common theme between them all is learning through failure. Uh learning what uh wasn't good, but then also your ability to take feedback.

(8:10) You I I don't I don't believe you can get better without taking feedback from somebody who does know what success looks like. I think you do have to understand what does success look like? What does it take to get there? because if you've never had it, I don't believe that just comes to you and you just necessarily figure that out. So, I think the ability to take that uh take criticism um regardless of what it is, I think even if some of it's unreasonable, there's always a little merit to anything that you get and being able to make adjustments and continue to get yourself better. And I think that that's what's allowed me to go up the ladder in kind of the order that I did.

(8:48) It's such a good lesson, but I think that today in all facets of life, we don't do that enough. And what I mean by that is, you know, you mentioned learning through failure. I've learned so much more through failure than I ever have winning. And you think about all the failures much more because you can build from them. But I don't think we take coaching as as well as we used to overall across life. And I think that it was one of the things that my old man told me when we were kids. It's like the best thing that you can be is coachable because there are people that know more than you. But you got to take the pieces from those and continue to be coachable, continue to learn from those things. You know, you mentioned the time that you had at Northwestern and from that first stent to Northwestern to now. How has Northwestern, the athletic department, the the coaching there evolved? And you mentioned a little bit too, but how have you evolved inside of that?

(9:39) Yeah, I I think coming back into the department, I mean, there's a lot of similarities to it, but honestly, I just think the expectations even higher. Um, our our teams have gotten better, our our department's gotten better, the athletes have gotten better. Um, there's higher stakes, a lot of financial pieces that are behind this all. And so, you step back into again a a very highpaced, demanding environment. Um, you know, our head coaches continually do better and better things with the program, which again just drives the expectation up higher, which requires more of us uh to create a to create a higher impact. Uh, not only through our lens of just sports performance, but where can we add value holistically around the entire program.

(10:23) Um, how have I evolved? I think stepping on a different side of the spectrum to where um working with a lot of variety of people in my my previous um previous employment to where you're not just coaching uh athletes anymore, you're coaching adults. Uh a lot of my job was taking uh performance technology and being able to decipher about 500 capabilities into a very easy tolearn process. that maybe one day you're educating a physical therapist, maybe one day it's a a sport coach or a performance coach, the next day it may be uh somebody who's trying to potentially invest in the company. And so it gave you a very robust different amount of experiences along with the different people that you work with as well. Uh we had a lot of people that were spend their whole lives um you know doing things from a a business and financial standpoint that um I would generally never have the opportunity to be around. So you get a very different education on business um a very um different lens to kind of go through.

(11:29) But you know I will say a lot of the skills that are developed through coaching are all applicable into into that realm as well. I I feel like there's so much carryover into what um a coach will do on a day-to-day basis that really bleeds into a lot of other facets of other other professions. >> Yeah. Yeah, and I think that's something that is really valuable for the listeners. You know, many of the listeners are in the sports space, whether that's sports business or directly in sports and sports performance. And you're right, they are transferable skills. And I think that it's important these days to be able to have those soft skills because of how evolving things are from not only at the college level, but the professional level and so on. You know, you talk about sports performance and the sports performance that you work with every day. From a philosophy perspective, how would you describe that? How would you describe your overarching philosophy of sports performance and what are some of the things that you really try to instill from, you know, as a coach and as a leader?

(12:25) >> Yeah, [clears throat] I think a lot of granular pieces to that. I think the longer coaches do this and I'm I'm sure um you know, thoughts change at different parts of your career, but philosophically, training wise, we're going to do whatever gets us better. And I know that that sounds very bland and it is, but you know there's all different methodologies of training and and periodization and programming and I do have influences um from a number of them that I still incorporate dayto-day. But I think the longer you're in it, the more you see things work and some things not work.

(13:07) Um, most of the time this stuff works for a majority of the group, but you have to be able to pivot off for for some other areas that things aren't working. And so I think creating a robust amount of pieces to the puzzle that you can implement is kind of the important thing. And really across all trading uh schemes and and different philosophy pieces, I think the the nuance is the implementation and execution of it. If attention to details and execution are top-notch, I think you could take a pretty mediocre program with the level of athlete that we work with. Again, I think training ages are generally not that old. It's people are pretty fresh into uh strength and power development uh when they arrive here at college. And that's not for everybody, but for for most uh to where adaptations are are pretty linear for the most part. Um but again, I think the nuances in the implementation and the details. So roundabout way my thought is we will always start with a structure of some basic things and again that's different things of you know weightlifting background there's there's some different powerlifting style methodologies there's some different triphasic methodologies but really it's just little bits and pieces it's not all one thing um from a coaching philosophy standpoint and uh you know to me it's just effort-based and by effort you We're going to be focused in on what our task is at hand. Attention to detail to means a non-negotiable. Um we are going to know what we are supposed to be doing, how we are supposed to be doing it and what that's supposed to look like. Now that's my job to educate, teach and coach and hold accountable that to the athlete when that process is going. Uh you know there is a lot of upkeeping that attention to detail. So I mean that right there is is going to be the big one. Um, I think the other thing too is to be coachable. I mean, we talked about taking feedback right there. Um, my job is to make a create a better mental, emotional, and physical version of the athlete. And that at times will take pressing and proddding. Um, at sometimes it's going to take a lot of enthusiasm.

(15:19) It's going to take a lot of positive reinforcement, but it's also going to take correction and critical feedback. Um, so your ability to absorb that, um, not be able to, uh, take that as a personal hit. And I'm very I am very intentional with the way I correct things. Uh to where what you hear is going to be only being able to take a certain number of ways. Um I think you do hone that feedback uh the better and better you get. But um you know it is an open communication line. I I I welcome ask. If you're not sure why I'm asking you to do something, you don't understand it. Ask me. I will give it to you in a different way. Yeah, we'll explain it in a different um in a different pattern or just with different nomenclature.

(16:01) >> Do student athletes do that today? I mean, do they give when you give them the ability to to say, "Hey, I don't understand. Do they?" Because here's why I asked that. I think that, you know, I'm 44 years old today, you know, and I think that back when I was an athlete, it was much more the the dictating down version of coaching regardless of whatever it was, right? there wasn't the freedom and be able to to push back. Do you has that evolved? Has that changed? Do student athletes really go back and forth with you in that? >> Yeah. I I I think [sighs and clears throat] the precursor to that too is that there's a level of trust and respect gained uh between coach and athlete to where they feel comfortable. Uh they feel the floor's open. I can say that stuff on day one, but I may hear crickets for two weeks, four weeks, six weeks. Um, I think when the level of trust and respect starts to formulate, people begin to become more open. I also think when people start to see results and start to get better, they get more curious. Now, could I be doing this a little bit better? Um, is there anything else I could be doing?

(17:04) Um, I I think, and I'm I don't want to go up on too far away from the topic here. I think when starting, let's say I'm in front of a group day one, I don't I don't know where the the focus got shifted and kind of the development of coaching and and this was again just ways I was mentored and kind of learned through and I understood on the back end why this uh becomes more successful. But I think as we see it a lot with mentoring uh younger staff or people kind of coming up into the profession, everything's kind of built on relationships and I'm going to go and kind of develop this relationship with the student athlete and that's kind of the sole focus. Um I view that a little bit different to where to me that's an outcome. That's not the focus on the initial part. And so, not that it's a dictatorship and it's coming down to it, but we're going to lay out my expectations for the student athlete coming out, attention, detail, um, our ability to be coachable, and, you know, we're going to operate within a system of structure, and that's my expectation. Um, what an student athlete can expect from me is I'm going to push you. I'm going to hold you accountable to those things, but I have your best interest in mind for development and we are going to keep you safe throughout all of this. Um, so to me it starts with laying the groundwork, laying the foundation of expectation and then holding them accountable and doing that day after day after day after day. I think as time passes, that's where trust and respect gets laid down. like, yeah, he really does have the best interest in mind here, or he he did what he said he was going to do when we did this. And so, I think from there, relationships develop because trust has been established. I think when trust has been established, now you take the next step and like, okay, now we're quote unquote bought in, buying doesn't happen without trust and respect. Um, and I feel like the relationship piece comes after the fact.

(19:10) Um, some of the best relationships I still have with student athletes who are even graduated or doing things at the professional ranks are um athletes that we we had a lot of there was a lot of conflict um and again conflict being um we had to be held accountable on certain things and um you know it was very very tough time for everybody involved. It's it's not always fun holding people accountable, but it is necessary if you expect a very high operating uh environment day after day after day to where you expect outcomes to be certain things. But those are some of the athletes that still constantly just ask for advice now. You know, a few of them are in their mid to late 20s and just always texting about professional advice for their jobs, for interviews, for uh sporting context for those who are still competing. But I think there needs to be sometimes there's a little bit of trauma in it um to where trust and respect is there's depth to it. It's not me asking you where you're from or what's your favorite food or um you what's your major like that that's it's those are the very superficial questions and I think when you want to take the next step um from a coaching standpoint you want to get the next thing to where you have a group of 20 out on the floor with you and they're ready to run through a brick wall for you. I I think that the relationships come after the fact that uh you know there's a process of trust and respect earned. So, I think a lot of that from a philosophical piece with coaching, I think that that's where it starts is the standard, the expectation of what this is what I expect this to be and honestly this is what I expect the outcome to be. Now, along the way, we're going to do different things that show you your progress. Um, I we'll we'll visually show you whether that be through anything that we're tracking through any of our our lifting or whether that be any sort of testing or assessments, we'll we'll show you your progress. And I think once people understand they're getting better in the environment now we can really take the next step and and honestly allows me to push a little bit harder when maybe the detail is not on effort anymore. Maybe it's just a pure execution of a certain uh movement pattern or the intent of a certain movement pattern. Um so again I long story in a big circle there. that's that that's what I do believe in uh to create the best outcome for us and and again our our objective at the end of the day is to create a very robust higher level product for our sport coaches to to be able to form into their sports skill.

(21:41) >> Well, it's interesting because you work with a lot of people who perform on such a high level and I'm sure that for a lot of student athletes, you know, they get a lot of not a lot of push back sometimes, right? because in a high school setting they are exemplary, right? They're up a cut above people and they don't get a lot of push back. I think you probably get a lot of respect because you get the you are giving that push back, you are building into them and trying to get the best out of them. And I think that while the beginning of it may be a little different than they're used to, that as you you mentioned it come around like, oh, this person really does have my best interest and they're pulling the best out of me because of that. You know, you've worked across every sport.

(22:23) imaginable from being from an Olympic sports perspective, but swimming, swimming and tennis and golf and soccer, football, gymnastics, dive, swimming and diving. How do you balance the individualized training component of it with that unified system you talked about? You know, you really talked about the structure that you try to set up in the philosophy, but I'm certain there's individualized training and individualized work with these these athletes. How do you balance the two? Um, as concise as I can be on it, each sport will just have different demands.

(22:53) Whether that be from a, you know, energy system development standpoint, uh, movement competency, whether they have, you know, acceleration, deceleration, change of direction, whether they, um, you know, have different um, you know, triplaner movement demands, threedimensional movement patterns, uh, swimming a little bit different. Uh, things are pretty sagittal. they're straight ahead and they're never really going side to side. Um, I think within all that, you take the demands of what that sport needs and what they need to be prepared for and you program accordingly. And that's where I think from sport to sport things do get a little bit different. Um, I think as foundationally they're all pretty similar. Um, most athletes in most sports need a general overall level of fitness and conditioning. Uh, some a little bit more than others, but they generally need it. Most athletes need elements of rate of force development.

(23:47) They have to produce force fast in some facet. Most sports all have common injury areas that need to be uh prepared to handle the repetition of their sport. So yes, they're all very different, but I think when you see there's so many commonalities, programming does get relatively similar, and I'll say maybe 7030, 8020, um to where the nuances are in the smaller percentage of where you're adjusting those things. Um I I think the longer and longer you do it, the more sports you're around, you start to see there's a lot of similarities between them. Now the nuances can come into the way I explain something. The way I justify why we did this certain movement. I could justify jumping or sprinting very different for soccer versus swimming versus volleyball versus basketball versus tennis. The way I would explain that uh with a sport coach or with a student athlete may be very different. But I think you can really take the next level when everything that's programmed out for us can be articulated to a sport coach, to a student athlete on this is where this matters in your sport during this movement or during this common injury area or this overuse area. This is where this gets important. Um, I could take a squat and I could explain to you on 15 different sports where a squat may be uh relevant and important. And so I think the bottom line of all that is uh my my background growing up was I played a lot of baseball, you played football, basketball, but I the older I got through it went more to just baseball specific. And um I knew nothing about gymnastics. Uh I knew nothing about swimming. I know very little about tennis. Um you have to spend time learning that sport. And in order to do that, you go to practice, you talk with coaches, you listen. And a lot of listening, a lot of observation, but then you ask questions.

(25:48) And so along with all of that, the underlying theme of that is you have to be curious. You have to learn, be a student of the sport. Um, I'd never be able to tell you, I think it I would have never thought at any point in my life I know as much about swimming right now as what I do. uh or tennis or even gymnastics, getting to spend time around the resix at Boise State, like it's a whole education in a textbook and you learn it every single day just by having face to face contact. Um so I I think when you understand, you learn, you take a lot of time to be a student of that sport, you start to figure out from a performance end where where can I really impact progress here? where can I impact uh a reduction in our injury report and severity of injury and your programming goes from there. And again, I I think when you really break it down, the the similarities are more common than the differences.

(26:42) >> It's interesting you talk about the coaches, you know, we think about the performance component of obviously the athletes. How much time do you spend with the coaches of the individual sports and working with them to whether it's to reinstill the things that you're working in order to build on those things? >> As much time as you can. And I think you got to go out of your way to to facilitate that. Uh sport coach is not always going to come to you and strike up a conversation. And generally if they do sometimes it's not always a good thing. Um, so I think you really do have to extend yourself and not only be available but but seek opportunities to communicate whether that's through a text message, a phone call, face to face. Um, I think frequency of touch points is the important part just consistency. Um, you know, I think um re rewind there, Bryce, what was you were asking kind of the frequency of it. What was the other back half of the um sport coach question? Well, and I think that that do you work with those obviously working with the athletes and building in them from an individual perspective and instilling those things in them, but do you have to do kind of the same thing with the coaches? And what I mean by that is do they work to build those things in and build on what you're training and what you're teaching the student athletes? or is it something that is they're much more X's and O's and building in the the the strategy the philosophy there or is it something that it's a kind of a collective thing that you continue to work together with those four coaches on?

(28:09) >> Yeah, that's that's a great question. Um I'll kind of maybe tear this conversation a little bit. So, at the end of the day, we work essentially for the head coach. Like at the end of the day, it's it's not our program or quote unquote my program, my athletes. They're not our athletes. They're the head coach's athletes. They're the one ultimately responsible. And each sport is going to have uh you know, their own culture. And that really just comes down from the top and the head coach. And that always does need to be supported and echoed by, you know, what we have.

(28:47) So at the end of the day, I think we do need to always have that vision of what that sport coach does want to facilitate and instill. When there's a great relationship, trust and respect has been established. I feel like it's more of a we work with the head coach. Now, >> I always look at this to I'm responsible, we are responsible as a staff for when athletes are in our environment, we are responsible for what that training environment looks like. And really our our great head coaches all have super high expectations, super high standards. So guess what? That fits in really well with how we operate in here to where that's the same message that student athletes getting. Um so I I think it's it's a little bit more simplistic than complicated with being able to echo and and be able to um follow along with the head coach's vision and what their what their environment's like. I think on a on a very impactful scale, the next step of impact that we can create through sports performance coaches are things that happen outside of our weight room. How does scheduling take play? Okay, here's when practice is. When do we feel like the most optimal time to be training is? Is it before practice, after practice, separate from practice, different days of the week? um different practice demands on different days. Where's the most optimal time if our goal in here is strength development or power velocity expression or conditioning or sprinting?

(30:20) Where where does this all fit in on a really high level? That's a conversation we have with the head [clears throat] coach and and really I think um very blessed here and been blessed at other spots as well to where that's a real conversation. Okay. if and I think it's because this is valued. Sports performance is a valued area from our head coaches to where [clears throat] th this has a lot of priority at at many times of the year. And so it's figuring out where do things properly eb and flow from both a adaptation standpoint, a recovery standpoint. And so we were able to, you know, pan out schedules to where where do things best eb and flow to where we can have an excellent practice, create our um objectives for our sports skills and accomplish those, but then also have a really high level training session to where on either side of the spectrum, you're not just absolutely crushed and fatigued. Or maybe that's limitations in some of our career hours, which is our our compliance rules that we follow with how many um countable hours we can have with a student athlete. Maybe that's if I don't have any opportunities to do sprinting during our inseason phase, but we still want to dose some of that. Maybe the coach gives me 20 to 25 minutes pre-practice, and I build that in as part of a warm-up. So now I've got my sprint dosage in as part of practice. They're already warm, they're fired up, they can go practice without fatigue, but I also got my sprint work in that I really wanted to have programmed in. Um, so I think big picture-wise when that's able to take place through the entire year offseason, in season, preseason, postseason, um, in conjunction again with a lot of our other high performance team members, I think that that's really next level stuff to where, um, if we get asked a question or we're able to bring thoughts to the table of how do we optimize this loop here, I think that that's next level stuff. And um we do that here and we're very fortunate to have it. And again, I think it's because our head coaches value our area to where our thoughts and opinions are valued and you do get asked and you are expected to have something to bring to the table. So again, that's something we work on as a staff is making sure that we're thinking outside of these walls of just the weight room as well or outside the walls of our turf that we can create impact in a various amount of ways that are not just within our sessions that we have.

(32:48) It's so cool to have these conversations because you think about it from a performance perspective and I have such a narrow view right of you are helping them from a physical perspective become and there's so much more to it and I think it's so interesting how much more there really is to it not only from that component but the mental part but then also just from a university perspective how tied into the overall success this becomes. you know, sports performance really does play a huge role in that competitive success. And then that ties directly to things like revenue and recruiting and facilities and the brand strength. Is that something you think about or how do you think about the business impact of the work that you do with the student athletes and the sport coaches?

(33:29) >> Yeah, I think two words um from our end uh impact winning. Um, I think our job is to to create an impact on wins. And I think in the landscape that we're in right now, um, if you're not winning, the financial piece does get very difficult. Uh, it's always difficult, but um, winning can create more financial opportunities than not winning. And um for everybody involved, whether that be coaches, staff members, recruiting, uh the amount of money coming in, the amount of money that people are willing to donate, uh how many people you're are able to voluntarily come up in the stands. I think holistically about it, it's it's just a hard financial pitch if you're not having success. And so [clears throat] from our end, [snorts] you know, I think our impact where all the way up the chain can be impacted financially is we create again a better product as an athlete mentally, emotionally, and physically. We create a more robust athlete that's able to play and is not on an injury report, who does have to miss competitions. Um, for us, that's given a better product for our coaches to coach at an extremely high level in their respective sports. that G will give us more opportunities to get more wins and again I think holistically uh that's where we can impact the you know the bottom line of dollars and um you know the less on the injury report less surgical procedures less time spent rehabbing that's all a bottom line finance too about the amount of money that's put in through rehabilitative processes and and different medical procedures and um so that's where I think our our value can spread out to a financial piece too to where saving cost but then potent potentially also producing a little bit more on the front end in the in the win loss column.

(35:12) >> Well, I think too it also can help from a recruiting perspective. You look and see these philosophy that you put in, it can really translate to winning because it can help bring in student athletes that want to be a part of that culture and that tradition and those things because of what you've instilled in that. I mean, I think college athletics is changing so rapidly and you and I were talking about this before we started recording. you know, NIL transfer portal, the the shifting moving in dynamics of those things. How have those shifts really changed the demands or have they on, you know, your department, the sports performance in general?

(35:47) >> Yeah, I think probably our sport coaches see the majority of that. Um obviously we you know we are always voluntarily part of the recruiting process too to where anything that we can do during a during a visit an athlete may have and just creating clarity of you know how we approach uh the physical development realm uh to where that that may be a positive for a perspective student athlete visiting here. Uh but I think our sport coaches generally see that a little bit more than we do. Um we generally are on the back end of you know who's who's come in here. Um, you know, we generally sometimes do have a a number of different rosters in year-to-year. Um, I also do think at a institution like Northwestern, we probably, and this is subjective here, um, we probably do not have the amount of turnover that some other universities have >> because [clears throat] of the academic rigor. Um, we really do have student athletes who want to graduate with a Northwestern University degree uh to where things may be bigger than sport after graduation and maybe not everybody's looking to be professional.

(36:50) They want to have an extremely good job uh with their degree that they obtained and and so I think >> our turnover might be a little bit more reduced than that. But um again, I think holistically as a as a recruiting product, um I I truly do think the athletes who do really want to excel both in sport and academically do thrive on high standards expectations. And again, with our sport coaches, with us, it's it's that's the environment. And if that excites you, if you want to step in and work hard and do that and you're willing to take feedback and be coached and push along there along with all the resources that you're going to have uh to support you, um it's a really good spot to be. And again, I think uh bottom line, I think that's it's it's a never- ending thing. And I don't envy our sport coaches whatsoever to have to navigate all these different financial pieces in the recruiting process. I mean it's extremely extremely hard but uh we do try to support and facilitate whatever value we can create there to to help them um again just keep refunding more talent here because at the end of the day that that does matter a lot is the amount of talent that you have coming in and we don't have talent coming in it makes things extremely hard uh to still impact the success.

(38:07) >> Yeah, it is a lot on student athletes. There's so much more to consider these days, even from when when I was a young person. And you're right, at Northwestern, it is a unique environment. You know, teaching at Northwestern, I've we're really fortunate to be able to to work with the athletic department, have a lot of student athletes in our courses, and sometimes they turn out to be the best students in the courses because of the discipline and the rigor and the time management that they have. And so it's a really cool thing to be able to see that built in to those student athletes because it does translate really well to a working environment in that sense. You know, there's >> Go ahead.

(38:43) >> Our our end product looks really good when you have really good athletes, >> you know, like it's >> uh we could run the same program with two very different styles of and execute it the same way. But, um, I'll I'll put my bet on if I had to. The the group that has more raw talent, more ability in the sport is is going to prevail, um, you know, the the the vast majority of the time over the group that's not. >> Absolutely. And I mean, there's so many directions that I could go. There's, so many things that are so interesting about what you do and the work that you do with them, but we'll get you out of here on some rapid fire quick kind of fun questions to end this with. And, you know, you look at this. What's your favorite sport to train?

(39:25) like the one you're picking picking your favorite kid. >> This Yeah, it's gonna sound it sound too bland, but um they all have different challenges and excitements and really I you know I I I should be and and my expectation of myself is that it doesn't really matter who we're training, what team we're training, they're going to get the full attention and best product that I can give. Um, so again, I know poor answer right there, but um, working with a lot of different sports, I think you enjoy, you start to appreciate the nuances of every sport. Um, so it's like, what's your favorite sport to watch? Honestly, all of them. All the ones that, especially if I get to work with them, I I enjoy it because it's a it's a different vested level of interest that I have in that sport because of the people that you get to work with that are affiliated with it.

(40:09) >> Totally. What sport's most misunderstood from a a training and performance perspective? >> Oh, goodness. So, probably where have I made the most mistakes and failures in uh uh gymnastics is really interesting. >> Um yeah, I I had a a fantastic relationship with that coaching staff and it's just fascinating on like what would develop other sports versus what that sport has. They're not always the same. And really when you break down the demands of their movements, it's actually almost the opposite of like when they do this certain movement on floor and they do a backhand spring, it's like none of it's really triple extension. It's all driven through the hip and it's going backwards. So it's not really jump patterns. It's actually completely backwards. Um, and so I think some of those things are, it took me a long time to really understand what I could do to impact a better gymnast, uh, at least in the college realm, and create a healthier one. A lot of them coming into college already have a significant injury history just given the way that that sport, uh, goes through developmental phases very early on in their age. They get a ton of reps coming in. So, um, a lot of it is just trying to keep people healthy because their skill is generally pretty darn good. I think a lot of the development is, um, not as much as maybe some other sports do, but, um, you know, they have their versions of in gym strengthening and conditioning that they've done, um, through a lot of their adolescence and childhood, uh, to where they're already pretty robust from a strength and power output standpoint. Their whole their whole sport is power. So, they express it all the time. And so just kind of wrapping your brain around like, okay, maybe I shouldn't take this approach from an actual programming standpoint because it probably has zero to little to zero impact.

(41:59) >> What's a training myth that you wish would disappear forever? >> A training myth? >> Yeah. Something that people think about training themselves or, you know, athlete and sports performance that you wish that was gone, erased. [laughter] term lactic acid. >> It's not it's not acid. And just understanding it's not always a bad thing. It's an energy substrate that's created when there's a absence of oxygen. So, um I just always think it's funny. Ah, I'm so sore from my from from all the lactic acid I built up yesterday. It's like, no, you're you're sore for a slew of other reasons and and some tissue damage, not uh >> not uh the lactate that was circulating through you to to to allow you to keep going uh harder for a little bit further. So, um again, I won't go too far down a rabbit hole on that one, but that that one can go in there.

(42:52) >> That's really interesting because that's one I've I've certainly heard for sure. So, uh if you weren't working in sport performance, what would you be doing? >> Um I don't know. I got a lot of unique interests, but um I'm not sure. I I haven't I haven't got to dip outside too far professionally away from sports. Uh so it's I don't know. One one day, one day I'll hopefully be able to answer and figure out that question. But usually things are still rooted around sports right now. >> That's a good thing because you get to focus on it. You don't have to dip outside of it too much. I think a good way to end this >> from our listeners perspective, my perspective too, is you, you've talked about this a little bit, but what's one piece of advice you give every athlete regardless of the sport they play, regardless of the level of competition that they're at?

(43:44) >> And just let your effort be non-negotiable. And, you know, to me, your effort's going to be your attention to detail. Um, it's your ability to work within a team, work with others. It's going to be your ability to be opportunistic uh with things that come up come through. And I mean the other part too with just how how many demands and emotions are involved in day-to-day and especially at a school like this where academic rigor is extremely real and it's very very hard and the sports are very very demanding. Um you know you shouldn't judge yourself or or take it personal on having a bad day. I mean, it's, you know, we, you figure out how to get your work done, do it at a high level, and move on. Um, and I think again, a lot of that at the at the bottom of it is is just the the amount of effort you're willing to put in. Um, your ability to take some feedback and just know you have a lot of resources around you. And, you know, to me, that's uh it sounds simple, but it's, you know, a lot of people have a lot of different things going on, and you have to always give respect to that. Um, meet people where they're at. And um again, I think we have a a very [clears throat] very good student athlete base who does able to handle a lot of those mental and emotional challenges um and be able to still perform on the physical end. But um you all all of them are kind of different, but I think a lot of the lessons and habits that they they develop through being a student athlete are why they're successful employees when they leave. Um it's why also, you know, coaching skill sets are very transferable into other professions.

(45:13) It's it's a kind of a a very robust profile of different skills you get. Again, teamwork, attention to detail, being able to get things done, the the ability to thrive under pressure, under timelines, get things done quickly. Um your ability to be resilient with a lot of different mental, emotional, and physical challenges. And that's why student athletes make really good employees. And uh you know at the end of the day I think when younger uh adults can grasp that, understand that, digest that um it's like it's going to be okay. You'll be all right. You got we got a lot of privilege uh things worth of gratitude that we're doing here. And so it's at the end of the day um during a bad day, it's a it's an easy message to give.

(46:01) >> It's really good advice. Not only from an athlete perspective, but for all from life in general. I think it's you had a really a lot of really good advice throughout and I appreciate the time today. It's such a cool thing to be able to see what goes into what you do and what goes into building those athletes, not only as athletes but as whole people. So, we can't thank you enough for the time today, Ben, and we appreciate all of it. >> I really appreciate the opportunity, Bryce. That was that was fun to be able to chat and and go through some outstanding questions.

(46:26) >> Thank you so much.