1. This interview will serve as something of an introduction to EFS readers who haven't yet come across your work. Please give us a sort of biographical description, in any way you see fit, of your background, your athletic history, and the places you've worked.
As many times I’ve been made fun of because of my past, I think it’s imperative to outline so some people can see why I am the way I am. Also, this gives me an out for having to explain to everyone that asks me why I left engineering for this. I’ll just point them to this interview now.
When I was growing up, my love was sports. I played every sport imaginable that was offered at the club level or offered at my school. Our school was small, so I was the every-sport athlete kid. I was fast and very agile in my youth.
Once I entered high school, I continued with football, basketball, track, and joined golf.
Unfortunately, I learned very quickly that my body type was not for high school football. I was a dripping wet 130-135 lbs. I relied too much on my speed, but then when I got hit, I was hurt.
Basketball was still working out, but I played for the A & B team. The A team was all the good players. The B team were the leftovers. I played on their team because they needed a point guard. I was exhausted all the time. I quit a few weeks into my sophomore year season.
Track was fine, but all we did was run our events to get better, and ended every practice with 2x400 meter sprints. I lost interest quickly.
Golf was great. I was fortunate to have had great lessons with some reputable PGA pros in my earlier years, and it showed. I routinely beat seniors at most competitions during my freshman year. I did this while using my mother’s golf clubs. Her teal colored bag and all. After my parents divorced, there were more important things than a new set of golf clubs for me, so I used my mother’s since I outgrew my set. Unfortunately, as with the rest of the sports I participated in, I quit this as well.
I quit golf and basketball primarily because I was introduced to computer/network infrastructure by the IT administrator in our school district. This caught my attention, and the opportunity to be mentored in this environment trumped my participation in sports.
My involvement at the school district grew to employee-like status, unfortunately without pay, but I was enjoying every minute of it.
Setting up 100 computer labs, pulling miles of Ethernet cord through the ceiling conduits into the labs or teachers’ offices, crimping hundreds of RJ-45 connectors, mechanically splicing fiber optic line, programming in C/C++, living in the world of Unix based operating systems, and staying at the school until 1:00 am on certain school nights fixing the network. And on the side, hacking and phreaking (phone hacking) everything imaginable. That was a big part of my life in high school.
I lifted a few times in high school. I did a lot of pull-ups and lat pulldowns. I stopped lifting after I was benching 95 lbs, and on my 3rd or 4th rep, I got stapled. No one was spotting, so I dumped the left side of the weight off, then I got thrown to the right with the barbell, falling off the bench. A bunch of senior football players laughed, so I stopped lifting altogether after that point. I graduated high school weighing 145 lbs at 5’8”.
After high school, I naturally wanted to pursue computing. Iowa State University has a reputable computer engineering program, so I attended beginning in the fall of 2000. Three years in, many programming, network security, mathematics, hardware, and physics type courses down, I decided to throw in the towel. I was tired of computing and did not want to spend my life behind a computer. I wanted to interact with people. With the route I was taking, I would be the programmer behind the scenes, never interacting with the people using the systems.
My wife at the time was in the health and human performance program getting ready to head off to physical therapy school. I jumped ships from the west side of campus to the east side.
With one of my first introductory classes, we toured facilities on and off campus that dealt with fitness and performance. On our rotation, I met up with Rohrk Cutchlow. He was the Iowa State University Head Strength and Conditioning coach for Olympic sports. I immediately asked if I could volunteer, and he told me to stop on by.
That is how it started. I was at ISU for 2 years. I worked under Rohrk Cutchlow for 1 year, and after he left for Illinois State, I worked under Andrew Moser, and also worked 1x / week in the summer with Jake Anderson at Central College in Pella, Iowa.
I grew my relationship with Rohrk, and we stayed close while he was at Illinois State and I was still at Iowa State.
During my last semester at Iowa State, we were supposed to find a place at which to intern. After looking at the many possibilities, Rohrk offered me a paid internship, then a guarantee to be his assistant strength coach right out of undergrad. This was a great opportunity coming out of undergraduate school. Generally you move right into being a graduate assistant, but I skipped that step. I simply fell into the situation at the right time. There were way more people way more qualified than I was at the time, but as we know it, it’s who you know in this industry. Luckily I knew a great man who helped me tremendously.
I was at Illinois State for 3 ½ years, finishing my masters in physiology, and enjoyed every minute of it. The only downfall was having to travel 3 hours every weekend to see my wife at Iowa City. The sacrifices were worth it.
2. Why did you leave a college coaching job to come to PTC? How are you adjusting to the move to Oregon?
I really just wanted to get away from Rohrk! Kidding aside.
I accomplished a great deal at Illinois State, and I must point out that if I didn’t have the support of my boss (Rohrk Cutchlow), and the many others that were a part of the support staff, none of my work would have been realized. After 3½ years at Illinois State, I felt I needed to experience the private sector of physical preparation. My wife and I started talking about the future a little more seriously after she finished her doctoral program in Physical Therapy at University of Iowa. We both agreed that I should look into the private sector to see if this would be something I would be happy with in case I would want to open up my own facility. That was the big reason for the move.
To be honest, I miss the college a lot. It’s hard to watch the college football games right now. But right now, everything here is going very well. Mark and I are a great team, and we have moved the company in directions faster than both of us have expected.
The rain is ok. My wife prefers this to snow, but I will always love the snow and those cold Iowa winters. The one positive about the rain is there is plenty of opportunity to splash people when you’re driving. This is about the only thing that remains with me from the Rohrk era. The man is still a bad human being. My wife has noticed a positive change since moving out to Portland. But every time I see a puddle, I immediately look to my right to see if there is someone so lucky to receive another shower. Rohrk, you’re a bad person!
The only real negative about the Portland area is the bikers. Most of them think they are too good for the sidewalks; instead they ride haphazardly in the road. I suppose if I keep rolling down my passenger side window to yell at them they will eventually learn.
3. Describe your training philosophy. I know you're big on individualization, so please give us a description of how you go about setting things up for your athletes, i.e., what sorts of things are you looking for when you first assess someone? What do those assessments lead to?
As always, this question will depend on a few things. When I was in the NCAA, my assessments were tailored to the team setting, staff involvement, time allotted, number of athletes, etc. They would evolve themselves based on the situation. At Performance Training Center, they are simply more exhaustive since a lot of my limitations before are not of concern now.
Assuming you are asking about my current situation, here is the step by step process we currently take.
- Give athlete tour. Give athlete our expectations, and let them share theirs. Answer any questions they may have.
- Email them the training history, nutritional, and medical questionnaire to fill out and return completed when they return.
- Get current height and weight
- 7-site skin fold
- Omegawave assessment (HRV, Metabolic, Omega)
- Go through a tissue/joint assessment (soon to be replaced)
- Go through dynamic warm-up
- Reassess issues that may have came up during the tissue/joint assessment that may have been resolved via the warm-up
- Omegawave assessment (Neuromuscular)
- 10yd, 20yd sprints
- Cool-down
- Review with athlete and parent (if applicable).
- Give them an exact date when to return and finalize training schedule
- Take 2-3 days to design the program for the athlete
A few months ago, we met with a local physical therapist that has a great reputation with the athletes in the area and nationally. We plan on having every athlete meet with him before they start to get a clearer picture since we are not satisfied by doing FMS type screens, Thomas tests, etc. These are ways to start, but we can do better than that.
Once they start, it’s a constant evolution toward the end product. Coach, watch, assess, record, coach, watch, assess, record, etc. By the end of the week, their workout sheet is full of pen markings. We then take the sheet either Saturday or Monday morning, and transfer all of the relevant notes to their electronic document, then toss the paper version. We are continually trying to find trends, make sense of the data, etc. There is a reason for every result. We want to find that reason. Our athletes should expect that, and nothing less. This ultimately forces us to keep digging for those solutions.
4. Your writings about your own training are very interesting. What are your own training goals right now? How would you describe your own programming?
Oh, my training is boring.
Generally, I’m always evolving my own training to test out new sequences I’ve put together, new methodics, new diets, etc. I’ve never satisfied. For a long time, I was consumed primarily with limit strength. My last meet in the 198lb class, I squatted 685, benched 462, and pulled 570. Missing 632 at my knees. I missed elite with that total. I would have obtained that with the 632 pull.
Right now, I’m currently working with Borge Fagerli with my diet, and concentrating on gaining weight to make another run at that elite total. I’m not sure if I’ll compete in the 181 or 198 lb class yet. I would have to gain a lot of weight for the 198 lb class, but I’m not against that. Being drug-free, it will take a while, but I’m patient.
5. What was your introduction to the Omegawave and the style of programming you favor? How did you become convinced of its efficacy?
I was introduced to the Omegawave in January 2005 at the Verkhoshansky/Yessis seminar in Chicago. Val Nadeskin was there giving a presentation on it. I was very interested as I always thought there should be technology out there that could give us such information. But I remained very skeptical, and still am!
Quantifying CNS fatigue? Based on what working theory or theories? Profiling metabolic indexes using Differential ECG? What REALLY are they looking?
Am I still asking these same questions today? Absolutely! I have yet to find any English document explaining omega-potential or how metabolic indexes are determined via Differential ECG. The more I investigate, the closer I believe I am with an answer, but until I find the right people, and more importantly, ask the right questions, I’ll continue hunting.
Also, what about tissue/bone adaptations? One could say the neuromuscular test would give you and indication of this, but I’m not satisfied with that. This will only lead to assumptions, and I hate assumptions. When you program, you can’t assume your compiler will fix your problems. It will yell at you and tell you what is wrong. So, I need to find ways to figure out how tissue is holding up. I don’t have Charlie Francis’ hands, but I can have them go through the warm-up, watch them, ask them specific questions, have them get on a foam roller and rate their comfort level, etc. Is it perfect? Absolutely not, and it frustrates the hell out of me. But I realized early in my career you have to accept what you know and what is given to you, and move on with common sense governing your decisions.
Fortunately, the system has forced me to look deeper into the human organism and its adaptive processes. This has been a valuable exploration as things have become less foggy. Additionally, I think my understanding of the big picture is more refined.
<quick tangent>
I think a lot of people push aside physiology too soon in their careers simply because they feel they already know enough, and focus more of their time and efforts on what drill they need to progress, what load they need to use, what tool to use now to keep the athletes interested, etc. Granted, this is important, and I have to concern myself with these details as well, but if I’m not training for appropriate energies that are required, then I’m missing the boat. Plus, the energies need to be developed in certain speeds, durations, tissues, loads, etc. I think this became clearer to me back in 2006 when I reviewed some media of Dan Pfaff my good friend Carl Valle sent me. He gave a good example of his throwers and how they received their “aerobic base”. 16-18 sets of 1-2 reps with an Olympic lift. Heart rates never dropped below 140bpm. Workout time was 50+ minutes. They did this instead of running at slow paces for miles on end. Obviously this makes sense, but for example, we still see coaches sending their baseball players on long runs to develop their aerobic systems. </tangent>
Whenever I use technology, I make sure it’s consistently providing information that makes sense and is useable. I know of a few users of the Omegawave, and they have tried to trick it on numerous occasions and they have all claimed they cannot. But like any piece of equipment, or any measure, it’s simply reflecting that precise moment in time. So we have to continue to be cautious taking the information as gospel.
Say an athlete comes in. They are well rested, feel good, well hydrated, etc. They test well. Autonomic systems are normal, resting omega-potential (CNS) is optimal, cardiac function is ready for any activity, etc. They forget they have a very demanding workout today. Now, this sets off an entire cascade of processes (good or bad) in the body and puts them in entirely different state. Perhaps now they are drowning in adrenaline because they are ultra-excited, or they are hesitant because those hurdles look really high today, or whatever the case may be.
The Omegawave is nice, but it’s definitely no coach. My responsibilities are to calm them down, to encourage them, or whatever the appropriate action may be to make sure they can tolerate/handle to workout in the manner that is prescribed.
6. Can you give an overview of how you'd set up an annual plan for a Division I college football player? I know it's position specific, so let's say we're talking about an offensive lineman.
Unfortunately, I’m not comfortable answering these types of questions. Not for the reasons of withholding information, but because that process of determining the sequencing of training is – as we know it – a complex task. What I will state is a few of the fundamental questions I must answer in order to derive an appropriate prescription.
- Functional state of the athlete
- Energy power and capacities
- Preparedness
- Age
- Gender
- Orthopedic concerns and therapy needs
- Training history
- Bioenergetics of the sporting position
- Biodynamics of the sporting position
- Facilities & Equipment
- Seasonal time within the competitive calendar
- Schedules (school, trips, etc)
- Hormonal (age related, can we acquire the relationship with female athletes to tell us when they are menstruating)
- Financial status (purchase therapy, restorative supplements, diet)
- Psychological (nutrition outlook, work ethic, disciplined?, etc)
- Etc
Obviously none of this will hold any weight with your prescription if any one of these is not carefully examined and understood.
So I apologize for not answering the question, but this would be more appropriate in a book format.
7. Any parting words? In this section, you can tell the readership anything you'd like, i.e., what they can expect from you in the future.
First off, I would like to thank EliteFTS for the opportunity. When I started out in this profession during my undergraduate days, I was digging for those solutions in the article and Q&A section. I attribute a great deal of my developmental stages to EliteFTS and all of the supporting members. I still pick-up gems from articles and the Q&A.
Oh … I don’t know what you can expect from me. With the time I spent trying to finish this interview; I don’t know how many articles or books I’ll be publishing. As you can tell, I generally ramble a lot and it takes me 5 minutes to get my point across when it should take 30 seconds. If I would do anything, I would have to hire someone that takes 7 pages and shrinks it down to 2 so I don’t bore the hell out of the audience. Plus, my writing ability is horrible! Sometimes I feel I should never have passed 6th grade writing.
I have been thinking of writing a book for powerlifters and how to implement a block model for their training. The table of contents is nearly completed, but I still don’t know if I will continue on with this. The table of contents alone has more information than some of these “$19.99 act now before it’s too late” e-books, but ultimately that will guide my writing, so that needs to get finalized first before anything happens.
I think before the book signing starts, I need to dive into the articles first. I have 7 articles already “in the process” from the last 2 years, but I doubt I’ll ever publish them. I’m never satisfied with their progress, or I feel I need to investigate further, or whatever the case may be. How I think – may it be right or wrong – I feel I have a ton to still learn and apply before I can start pumping out articles. I never got into this so I could become popular, or make a ton of coin selling e-books, but there will be a time I imagine when I’ll start looking at my savings account more seriously. But I think more importantly, I’m almost 27. I have been lifting for 9 years now, and been studying and applying this material for 6 years. I’m still a pup.
And finally, I may never be interviewed again, I may never write a article, or ever publish a book. So I want to make sure that I thank my wife Stephanie for all of the sacrifices she has made to allow me to do what I do today. She keeps me honest, never tells me what I want to hear, and most importantly, she has stood by my side for nearly 10 years now. I couldn’t ask for a better friend. Thank you.