Most elitefts readers are familiar with Mark Watts — he was elitefts Director of Education for several years and hosted the elitefts Sports Performance Podcast. He has written dozens of articles and even more training logs based on his knowledge of the strength and conditioning industry, gained through his many years working with institutions such as Denison University, The United States Military Academy at West Point, Allegheny College, and Clarion University.
Today, Watts appears on Jim Kielbaso's podcast. Known as "The Impact Show", Kielbaso describes his podcast as "the podcast for strength and conditioning coaches, sport coaches, personal trainers, and sports fitness entrepreneurs who want to increase the impact they have on the people around them." In this episode, Watts and Kielbaso discuss Watts' career in strength and conditioning, the challenges of ego and authenticity, being realistic in designing the programming of athletes rather than idealistic, and his experience with elitefts.
They begin by discussing Watts' unique career path, which took him from being a member of the United States Marine Corp, to an undergraduate student and football player at Clarion University, to a graduate student, to a strength and defensive line coach at Allegheny College, to a coach at The United States Military Academy at West Point, to a coach at Denison University, to Director of Education at elitefts, and now to a fifth grade school teacher in Columbus, Ohio. Watts details each of these experiences and what he learned along the way.
Transitioning to the topic of impacting others, Kielbaso asks Watts about the point in time that he recognized he had an influence on others. In response, Watts discusses the difference between being a transformational coach and being a transactional coach. In particular, he talks about the paradox of working to help athletes improve and working to promote yourself. Two ways he expresses this issue is by saying you should never steal the spotlight from the people you're trying to spotlight (the athletes), and that the conversations you have with someone publicly on Twitter should be the same as the type of conversation you'd have with them if you went out to dinner.
Furthermore, with the struggles young strength and conditioning coaches face, Watts highlights how helpful it can be for them to see examples of ways to make a program work or to develop a process that benefits athletes in a constrained system. Sometimes the ideas and perspectives he shares are the exact opposite of what coaches may want to adopt — but Watts says that's totally fine, because it helped them just as much by knowing what they don't want to do. As a method of thinking for young strength coaches, Watts says to avoid falling into the trap of always looking for the next, bigger job. He uses the phrase "make it big time where you're at" to emphasis that your focus should always be on doing the best job you can on the athletes you have, on that day, in that session. Your locus of impact is the athletes you're around right now, and the question should always be how you can help make them better. How are you improving the lives of those you interact with daily?
Watts then discusses his experience moving from educational institutions as a strength and conditioning coach to working for a business with elitefts. In particular, he shares how the core values of elitefts made it an easy transition, because the company was still had a foundation and a purpose that aligned with what he wanted: to help educate others and enable them to improve themselves. For the remainder of the podcast, Watts and Kielbaso touch on a variety of topics, including opinions versus empathy in communication, Watts' online presence, and mentoring others to be better than you are.
LISTEN
By the minute:
- (0:38) Introduction of Mark Watts
- (3:01) Watts' unique career path
- (10:50) How the elitefts relationship started and how it changed Watts' perspective
- (14:03) Recognizing you have an impact on others
- (20:06) "Make it big time where you're at"
- (26:50) Moving from college education to business
- (33:00) Opinions versus empathy in communication
- (37:04) Watts' online presence
- (46:20) Closing thoughts and how to reach Watts
