HansenAthletics Radio
HansenAthletics Radio is a top-rated podcast hosted by Darren Hansen that comprehensively covers athlete development and performance concepts. The podcast is structured to teach training enthusiasts of all skill levels how to be better athletes, coaches, and students. Delivered in an informative and engaging manner, you can expect to receive unparalleled insights into athlete development, business development, and marketing.
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HansenAthletics Radio
Mastering Peak Performance: A Dive into Athlete Development WNBA Coach Chrissy Stragisher
Join the voyage with Chrissy, a dynamo of the sports training world, whose transformative experiences range from WNBA intern to a guru for Olympians and WNBA All-Stars. As she unpacks the quintessential elements crucial to athlete development—strength, nutrition, mindset, and more—listeners will be captivated by the intersection of physical prowess and mental acuity. Her tale isn't just about athletic supremacy; it's a narrative that champions holistic well-being and shatters the glass ceiling with every leap and sprint.
This episode is a goldmine for those eager to discover the small details of top-tier performance. We traverse the nutritional landscape, following in the footsteps of giants like Ohio State University, to unearth the dietary secrets that fuel the best in the game. Sleep, the unsung hero of recovery, also steals the limelight as we uncover how the right rest can make or break an athlete's career. And for all the discerning parents tuning in, we're shedding light on why your teenage athlete's Z's are non-negotiable for their growth and safety.
But it's not all about the body; the mind commands equal billing in this symphony of success. We explore the sanctuary of mindfulness, revealing how athletes can arm themselves against the sirens of negativity and build an invincible fortress of self-belief. Chrissy's stories of athletes who scale the heights of confidence without teetering into arrogance will inspire and encourage. As we close, remember this: the essence of our discussion isn't just relevant for athletes—it's a playbook for anyone aiming to lift their game in life's grand arena.
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Well, welcome, chrissy. Had a great time getting to know you. Chrissy is a guest that I found on social media initially and love the content she's putting out. It was much in line with what we do and believe at Hanson Athletics and I thought it'd be great to have her come on and speak about it, particularly with her background. It particularly with her background, chrissy. So go ahead and just jump in and kind of explain to our audience here your background, what you've done for work and what you continue to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Well. First I want to say, darren, thanks so much for having me on. It's a pleasure to have the opportunity to share my wisdom and share my knowledge. So I started off at a young age playing basketball. I really loved playing basketball and weightlifting in conjunction, but I always thought that I would be a high school basketball coach in it, because I loved it and I was able to get an internship with the WNBA right out of college. So that was a turning point in what I thought I was going to do versus what ended up happening.
Speaker 2:So I came down to San Antonio and I spent a year as an intern, really on like the coaching staff side of things. So I was in the coaches meetings, you know, watching them figure out plays, watching them figure out defensive schemes and doing that trajectory because I still wanted to be a college coach. So I spent two years with the Stars initially, and then I moved to Brooklyn Heights, new York. I got a job coaching as a D1 basketball assistant, spent two seasons there and then got asked to come back to San Antonio, this time to do the strength and conditioning for the team. So I was the sole strength and conditioning coach for the San Antonio Stars from 2011 up to 2017, when they sold the team to Las Vegas.
Speaker 2:So I trained numerous WNBA All-Stars. I trained Olympians there's probably I don't know maybe five to seven different athletes that represented different countries playing in the Olympics. That I got adult population as well runners, physical therapists and now I also travel the world and speak, because I think that a lot of athletes don't know what it takes to go to that next level and I don't think that they're being given that education. It's my goal to help bridge the gap between what you're currently doing and what you need to do so that you can take your performance to the top.
Speaker 1:Awesome, I love that. Obviously a very extensive background. One question that popped in my mind as you spoke about that was as you're doing the internship, as you're helping out in the coach's room, were you doing stuff on the side or getting certifications on the strength and conditioning side just because you loved it and then that opportunity came up, or how did that transition happen?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I was always interested in the strength and conditioning and I try to hang around the weight room as much as I could, but, like I said, I was more focused on the basketball track at that point. Once I became a college coach, I realized very quickly that it wasn't for me. So I started doing some things on the side to get my strength and conditioning certification and then even one of the two seasons that I was at St Francis in Brooklyn Heights, new York, I did the full strength and conditioning for our team. So when Coach Hughes called and said hey, I hear that you've been doing the strength and conditioning, I want you to come back.
Speaker 1:It was an easy transition because I had already kind of geared my life to go in that path. Awesome, that's sweet. I was just curious how that development happened and that speaks a ton to probably your work ethic and willing to be around it so people could pick up on that. And then getting that opportunity as a coach to kind of dive into that, that's awesome. So I wanted to talk through the first video I saw of yours and shared. You kind of talked about your five core principles for athletes. I know you speak about it a lot so I was hoping that you'd be able to share that with my audience here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. I think that a lot of athletes understand that they need to do skill work in order to get better, and a lot of parents and coaches get this, too, like if you're a basketball player, you need to get shots up, you need to work on your defense, you need to go to practice, you need to play on all these teams. The other side that people sometimes forget is those core five that I refer to, and these are things that you do off the court to help you really maximize your preparation. So when I think about the core five that athletes do in order to separate themselves, I'm talking about strength and conditioning, nutrition, hydration, sleep and mindfulness, because I think that, as an athlete, if you take care of your physical and mental health, so many other things fall into place, but a lot of times people don't prioritize those things. In fact, a lot of times people leave them off the table altogether, and it's a shame, because you're really not reaching your full potential unless you dive into all five of those things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love all of those. You know, the big ones we talk about with our athletes being in the strength and conditioning side is, once we have them in here. Uh, you know we talk about nutrition. We talk about, uh, hydration and sleep, um, but you know, I'm excited to hear a little bit. I want to hear your opinions on on nutrition when you're, when you've been working with female athletes and what you typically find, even at that higher level. And then I want to dive into mindfulness, because that's that's one that you know I didn't really you know you need, but, um, I think we could definitely learn a little bit from hearing a little bit more about how athletes can utilize that and what can come from it. So we can, we can start it off with nutrition and then go to there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think when you're talking about nutrition with with anybody've got to be careful about the way that you do it. We're not trying to position foods as good or bad or we're not trying to put anybody on a track of disordered eating, but I also think that there's a reality to the facts, and the facts are that some foods will fuel you towards performance and other foods don't as much. And so I think when you're looking at nutrition, you've got to look at it on a spectrum of like what foods can I eat and what can I put in my body that's going to help fuel my performance? I actually heard it the other day in terms of valuable like. Oh, if I'm going to go for a run, I need a food that's more valuable than an apple. Like it gives me more, it's worth more. And so I think when I talk about athletes, it's helping them understand that like just because you can eat foods that won't necessarily fuel your performance. If you did, what would the other side end up being Right Like, and I think it's hard for athletes, because if you're an adult and you eat a lot of foods that quote unquote don't feel your performance, you will probably end up seeing weight gain of some sort. Right, when you're an athlete and you're doing all this activity, if you're eating a bunch of sugar or you're eating a bunch of foods that don't fuel towards performance, it doesn't really show up in your body composition in a lot of ways. And so how do we help athletes make that correlation between, hey, if I eat foods that fuel my performance, I might be better in the fourth quarter, or I might have more energy throughout the entire game. Or if I'm playing AAU and I got three games, if I start the day off eating S patch, kids like I might not have the same level of energy to push through at the at the end.
Speaker 2:You know, I I tell a story during my uh, my, my speech. I'll share it with your, your listeners. Um, but I remember one year we were going to madison square garden to play and I got some rookies that get on the bus or shoot around the day of the game with bowls of Froot Loops and Darren. I almost lost my mind. I was like Froot Loops for breakfast on game day, like just I'm in a panic as a strength coach, right. This is awful, you know, because I knew that that wasn't valuable enough for what they were going to be asked to do.
Speaker 2:Later on, I knew that wasn't a food that was going to fuel them towards performance. They looked at me. The one was like right, coach. The other one was much cockier. She was like coach, it's not going to make a big deal. What do you want? I'm still going to have 10 points and five assists. What do you want from?
Speaker 2:And I looked at her and I said yeah, you probably will. I said but what if you were the type of athlete that could have 20 points and 10 assists? Well, we'll never know, because you won't put yourself in the best possible position to be successful, and that's what coaches and parents have to get across to athletes. You're not setting yourself up for ultimate success. You don't fuel your body in a way that allows you to have peak performance. And again, you can eat whatever you want, but, like if you're trying to be a peak performer, if you're trying to show up in the WNBA, if you're trying to go play D1, like, those people that are there have changed their nutrition habits to help support that amount of effort and that amount of intensity. And so I think that when you're looking at performance and nutrition, you've got to correlate to these athletes that they're leaving something out and they're really missing something in terms of just how good they could be if they fueled themselves better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. And one thing that's interesting is I see even another side of the coin and I wonder if you do as well where most of the information I feel like nutrition information that my kids are getting on social media, the bulk of it seems to be more of like a bodybuilding type of emphasis or like weight loss, and so they just assume that that means that means healthy and then aka performance. But a lot of the times when my athletes are trying to do that like they have good intentions but we tend to find that they're under fueled and unable to perform, you know, at high level, with high intensities and when it matters most. Do you see that with the influences that are, you know, shared with athletes all over, just based on social media?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And I think, Darren, they're just looking at the wrong people to be the expert and I get it. There's a lot of influencers and a lot of people out there that are saying, do this and do that, and it's probably like an hour and 45 minutes on the Stairmaster and broccoli and chicken, but that person is a bodybuilder that's three weeks out from competition. That's totally different than an athlete in the rigors of a season that lasts five, six, seven months. I'll tell you what the number one thing that I would tell athletes that are looking for nutrition advice find reputable like division one schools, probably like top 25 programs, and follow the athletic department's nutrition program. Like I grew up in Ohio, the big Ohio state band, I follow the OSU nutrition page and so they're showing me what they're feeding the athletes. They're showing me what supplements they're feeding the athletes. They're like giving me all of that information.
Speaker 2:So I don't think that social media is bad. I just think that you've got to follow the right people and get your nutrition advice from the right places. And if you look at their weekly meal plans, which I do, like what are we serving in the cafeteria for those Ohio State athletes? You'll see they got chocolate chip pancakes, they got fruit, they got things that an athlete would eat. So it's not all about just eating clean, but it's about like a bodybuilder would. But it's about where are you getting your calories from and how are you fueling yourself on a regular basis. You don't have to be perfect, like you don't never have to have a sweet again, but you've also got to think about doing it the majority of the time, and that's what I like to talk about. You got to do things the majority of the time. That's enough to to get to where you want to go yeah, I love that that's.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's like an obvious, like that answer, particularly like following, like there's great information out there. It's just like where to sort it through and just going and finding, you know, universities that are doing a good can make because they're really doing all the work to make sure that their athletes are eating well when they're in their facilities and the food is fend for themselves.
Speaker 2:Like what are they eating? So it's like they're doing all the work for you. I look at it like this Like if I'm a basketball player, I want to follow an archery coach for a weightlifting program. I would follow a basketball coach and that's. But the problem is these kids are looking at these bodybuilders or these influencers for nutrition advice when they're athletes, and it's like no, you're not trying to be an influencer or a bodybuilder, you're going to be an athlete. Therefore, you need to follow someone who's giving you solid athlete nutrition and you can find it out there. I mean, I'm telling you all those pages are going to have good information. Just pick one and then run with it.
Speaker 1:Love it when it comes to sleep. Let's bounce over to sleep. Obviously, we talk with our athletes just generally about eight to 10 hours of sleep, based on where they're at in their development and whatnot. Is there anything from your experience that you could add valuable to that, if they're listening to this, or parents are listening to this, on the importance of sleep and recovery?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think sleep is probably the number one recovery tool. It's also, coincidentally, the most underrated recovery tool, sleep. And then I'd also put in that same category Darren, rest back and typically take a nap. So if you take a nap on game day, that's awesome. But if you can't fall asleep, just laying in a dark room and just resting without being on your phone, without playing a video game, without your brain being stimulated in some way, that rest is. How do I say that? Rest is to some degree a percentage of what your actual sleep would be. So it does have an effect to just lay in a dark room and quiet your mind. So I think that adding in naps would be number one and then number two if you can't nap, just get yourself to a dark room, close the blinds, get a little eye mask and just zone out for a little while.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think it's important that you know, with these youth athletes, you know being intentional with this and having a plan and not just, you know, kind of getting sleep when you can or you know whatnot, because these kids are just so loaded up Like a professional athlete, has their one sport and the things they got to do for it each day.
Speaker 1:I mean I train kids that are playing two to three sports at a time, so sometimes they'll, you know, come in and they'll train twice a week, three times a week, but they there's days they have two sport practices, like back to back playing different sports, and they might actually be getting as many hours of of activity or more than an actual professional athlete.
Speaker 1:Right, the intensities are probably lower. But you know, if you're not, if you don't have a plan, or the parents you know if your parents listening, like sitting down with your kid and trying to develop a plan that you guys can both buy into and support each other on getting that sleep, because I mean the statistics I've looked at on, uh, injury, like injury chances or odds based on sleep, it's pretty crazy, like I can't remember the specific thing, but it was. If you're under eight hours it was like a 41, 42% higher chance of injury for a youth athlete. So it's a huge deal. Yeah, you know, when I have kids, thankfully, I'm kind of tuned into that, so we'll have a schedule for that. But it can be hard to balance all the different sports in school and still getting to sleep on time, getting your homework done and all of that topic, like to the parents first of all, like let your kids sleep, like don't force them to get up, especially on the weekends.
Speaker 2:Let them sleep, let them relax, let them recover. I think it's a, it's a huge thing If you look at some of the data. When you're an infant, you need like a ridiculous amount of sleep. Like the second or third most period in your life when you need close to that amount of sleep is when you're a teenager, and that's a lot of times where these kids are getting five hours, six hours. So I really think that, one, you got to let kids sleep and two, if you're parents, you got to be the bad guy with the coaches sometimes and you've got to set boundaries with your kids and with the coaches to say no, my kid needs to sleep eight hours tonight, more than they need to come to this practice.
Speaker 2:But I think sometimes parents get scared that there'll be retaliation because the coach wants every kid to be at practice or the coach is so adamant that the kid needs to be at practice. But sometimes your best defense or your best setting of a boundary is saying no. And if you're not protecting your kid, then who is? Because coaches although we love them. We all sometimes serve our own interests and so the coach selfishly wants the kid there. You selfishly need to protect your kid and make sure that they get enough sleep. You know you get the right coach. They'll understand that. And I'm not saying make a huge habit of it. But I think there's got to be a balance of saying no as opposed to just giving into whatever the sports coaches want or even the strength and conditioning coaches, for that matter.
Speaker 2:I've had parents call me and say, hey, my kid's got a test. Are they got finals this week? It's like, okay, fine, see you next time, because I can't not practice what I preach and if I'm saying that that's important, then I've got to live it out when I'm actually dealing with athletes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, and they just battle either late practices or anything. There's even soccer practices here in town that are from 8 to 10 pm, and I think it goes even broader than that, with the parents having a hard time setting boundaries, even with their kids on. You know, maybe it's not the time to play three sports. Maybe this year we need to pick one or two and then pick a couple tournaments to go to that we think are going to be the best move for you as an athlete, versus like feeling like you have to sign up for everything for your kid to have a chance. Yeah, my experience working with these kids and a lot of kids going off to colleges is like if you're, if you're, good enough, they'll. There's a way that they can find you and they will find you. Yeah, um, not necessarily showing up to every tournament when you're 13 year old 13 years old for soccer is going to get you a college scholarship. Right, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And you're right in that we live in such a different society now than we did, you know, even when you and I were kids With social media.
Speaker 2:Now coaches can see you or scouting services can find you, you can get the accolades and the recognition without physically having to travel, and people are able to see you in person. And if you look at some of the stories of athletes like the Currys didn't play AAU, at least not until they were older. So it's like if you look at some of those athletes who are already at the top level of where you want your kids to be, if they bucked the trends and they did things a little bit differently, then maybe that's something that you as a parent should consider too. I think you got to pick and choose. I don't think that you can do everything. I think you're going to have a really stressed out and unhappy kid. I think you as a parent are going to be stressed out and unhappy and the coaches are going to be upset because they're only getting like 20% of your kid because they're so overloaded.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. So let's jump over to mindfulness. What are some of the things you speak about or work with on the athletes in that?
Speaker 2:in that regard, I love talking about mindfulness because it really ties into what we were just saying. Kids are so stimulated these days, I mean athletes are stimulated, you know again, stimulated these days, I mean athletes are stimulated, you know. Again, it's different than when we were younger. I was telling you on the call that I get a lot of coaches these days that want to talk about kids being soft and saying that they're not tough and you can't coach them the same way that you used to, and I disagree with that 100%. I think this generation of kids is so tough Again. When we were young you had to travel to another city to see good kids in that area. Now I can sit in my living room and I can see all of the top that they face on a regular basis. So I think that mindfulness is such a huge component because I think that you've got to have a safe space as an athlete and as a person, quite frankly, where you shut down for a little while and you don't expose yourself to any of that comparison, you don't give yourself any of that negative thought pattern. You just have a space where your mind is clear and your mind is free.
Speaker 2:So when I think about mindfulness, I think about one like quieting the mind. Then two, I think about filling the mind up with good things, like affirmations or meditations that are guided. I kind of walk me through a mind body scan and then after that. The third one that a lot of people don't talk about is I think sometimes you got to rewrite your negative, limiting beliefs, ideas like I can't do this, and changing it to I can't do this yet, or like everyone else is better than me, like everyone else is better than me because I just started playing and I will eventually get to their, their skill level.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of times athletes develop negative beliefs because of expectations or things that other people said to them and then they just let them stay. So I need that third part because even if, if I just quiet the mind and then I just look in the mirror and I'm like I'm strong, I'm powerful, like all those things are great, but that negative stuff on a loop can really really tear you down as an athlete. So I think you've got to find a way to challenge that, to interrupt some of that negative loop thinking, so that you don't really get off track.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that and I mean I see that every day on the floor, especially when kids first start with us is, you know you can just what they say, right, the way they frame a failure. Or you know you propose a new challenge to them, whether that's adding weight, whether that's you know, breaking a sprint, pr or whatnot. And uh, at first I'll always have a lot of kids It'll be like, well, I can't do that, or I don't know today, or I hope you know. And then it's it's just kind of having those conversations of like, well, let's take, let's like first off, let's not hope. Let's like, let's visualize it, let's see it and, um, let's give our best effort towards it. Whether you fail or succeed, you know, to be able to learn from that, you need to give it your all and go for it, and then you'll just see over time.
Speaker 1:you know you don't hear those comments anymore Like I can't or I can't do this. They almost get a smile on their face when they're like all right, let's go for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's cool for me. So that's cool for me.
Speaker 2:That's the beauty of strength and conditioning is because I think that it gives you such a space to challenge those things. There's not as much pressure as there is in the skill practice but it's just a really neat way to take them from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. And that mindset book by I think it's Carol Dweck, is such a great look at how we think. And I think a lot of times kids come in with that fixed mindset of I can't, this is the way it is, I'm never going to, you know x, y, z. So to move them to that growth mindset of like hey, I'm learning and I'm growing every day, like I'm trying my best, this might work out for me, you know, like to move from that like negativity to that, that hopefulness is, I think one of the best skills that we can give young athletes, because it's not just about sports. That carries over into the rest of your life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And I like to think, like most of the time with athletes, I see like a fixed mindset almost being a fear, like a fear based mindset, yeah, like if you were to be able to see the video going on inside their head of, like you know, either the sport they're playing or what they're doing in the weight room, like it's probably they're replaying in their head like a failure or like a fear of you know what could go the worst, what could be the worst. Fear of you know what could go the worst, what could be the worst. And I think flipping that into you know, seeing yourself complete visual like in your head, visualizing successful reps or successful moments in sport you know whether you've experienced them or not up to that point can be really powerful. And I know, for me as an athlete, when I played I mean those were my best games is when I'd already seen myself kind of doing the things that happened on the field.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you bring up a great point.
Speaker 2:Visualization is another great tool with mindfulness and talking about seeing the good reps, and I also read something not too long ago that Michael Phelps used visualization a lot and he used to visualize something going wrong.
Speaker 2:So if it did, then he would know how to handle it. And I don't necessarily I don't know that I would personally do that, but you also can't argue with the results that that Michael helps. You know he told the story in conjunction with that, as he would visualize in his visualization practice different things going wrong. And so he said at one huge race his goggles filled up with water, but instead of panicking he had already visualized that happening and so he knew I just count the strokes and I don't know he probably he probably went on to win. So I think using visualization can be such a powerful tool for for athletes and the brain really can't distinguish the difference between an actual rep and a visualized rep. So if you as an athlete are taking some time to sit down, meditate, visualize, that's all part of that mindfulness. That's really helping to quiet your mind and rewrite some of those negative beliefs.
Speaker 1:Like we said, yeah, perfect, that's exactly what I wanted to touch on too, for a lot of the kids and parents listening. Um, so let's transition into we have a lot of female athletes. Let's say we have a handful more than we do male athletes, and from your you know expertise in working with female athletes, are there specific things, things you see potentially different or just more highlighted when working with them from an athlete perspective and also from a coach perspective?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. So I think that when you're dealing with female athletes, you got a different human than a young male. I think when you look at young girls, a lot of them, one, started playing sport later on in life. Two, they don't have as much individual practice time as boys do. And three, they don't have nearly as many hours of competition. Right, if you think about a young boy, he's probably playing on the playground at recess with his friends or he's meeting up with his friends and they're playing basketball in the driveway or he's dribbling in the basement. And I think for some of those reasons you look at middle school boys versus middle school girls there's such a difference in their skill sets and a lot of times it's because the boys have so many more hours of playing and practicing than what the girls do. You get a lot of girls that try out for middle school sports who have never played that sport before. So I think it's when you're a coach, it's recognizing that you're dealing with much more of a young, new, fresh athlete than one that's already kind of well-versed in their bodies, and so I think you've got to take extra time to help girls understand the proper movement patterns and help them understand how their body works and give them opportunities to experiment with it. I think that, again, you know, boys have a lot of practice in that and girls don't. So giving them the opportunity to kind of feel out their body and making it a safe space for them to make mistakes is also something that's crucial.
Speaker 2:There's some research out there that boys initially start playing sports for the competition of it and for the dominance of it. There's also some research out there that say that some girls start playing sports because of the connection and the community and the friendships. For that reason, girls very much so, do not want to let people down. Right, if I'm showing up because I want to make friends or I'm showing up because I want to be part of a team, it's going to be very hard for me if I let people down.
Speaker 2:So as coaches we've got to make it safe for girls to try and not get it. To try and fail to try and just see what happens. A lot of girls just flat out don't want to try because they're so afraid of disappointing other people it's not really even themselves they don't want to disappoint the people around them and so because of that, you see, girls tend to quit sports at a much higher rate than boys do. In fact, there's a stat girls from ages 8 to 14 tend to drop out of sports at a rate two to three times that boys do. So that means that for all the boys that keeps playing sports, all of those girls stop. It's because sports aren't really a safe place. So how do coaches make sports a safe place for girls?
Speaker 1:And I think that's a question that we're still trying to answer yeah, I think I think part of that answer is and you know, I learned a lot through like the last 13 years of coaching um, being able to show up in different ways for different athletes.
Speaker 1:So just, you know whether and some people are born innately good at that and some people, as a coach, it takes time to develop.
Speaker 1:But making sure you're being mindful in your coaching and just gauging interactions with athletes and what type of interaction has successful results with athletes I've noticed it's with boys and girls, but particularly with girls too, too.
Speaker 1:Like you know, if you can't figure out what way to show up for them, even if it works for two out of the three girls, there might be a girl in that group that needs just a little bit way, a different way of delivering feedback and, uh, connecting with them. And some athletes you might, you know, be very verbal with and and talk with a lot and have a different, a lot of different cues and information for and some just some, don't, you know respond to that well, and they just need to know that you love them and that you know you give them little bits of pieces here and then they kind of like to figure it out on their own. They don't want to be the spotlight or have everybody else you know looking at them, because coach is diving into them so much. So that's something that I realized and I'm sure that you've seen as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think it's so much a gender thing as it is just an individual human thing, like how does this athlete need to be coached, because you can ride some girls and they're fine.
Speaker 2:You can yell at some boys and they get upset and they withdraw.
Speaker 2:So it's one really making sure that you can care about the kid and make them feel seen, heard and acknowledged in some sort of way and understand that that's going to be unique to different boys as it is unique to different girls.
Speaker 2:But I think to not understand some of the reasons why girls show up to begin with is kind of leaving some gaps open as a coach. So I think it's not you know and make no mistake, I don't want a position at all that we need to be soft or we need to treat girls with, like kids gloves, like I think you can treat a lot of girls the same way that you can treat a lot of boys, but you can't treat absolutely everybody the same. So I think, kind of doing your due diligence as a coach to understand, like, what are some of the differences between boys and girls, make space for that, but then from there, like treat everybody as the unique individual as they are, because some girls that I have will talk the whole entire session, some girls it took a little while to open up. Some girls still never talk, you know. So everybody's, everybody's different, everybody's different yeah, 100.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I'm excited for this part. We'll jump into some questions that some of the athletes that we have at our facility, some of the female basketball players, wanted to ask you specifically.
Speaker 2:Awesome.
Speaker 1:One of them we've kind of hit on. But for a more specific answer, what would you recommend or what would help an athlete make it to that WNBA level?
Speaker 2:I'm going to go back to my core five in conjunction with this second part. I think that the full answer is a lot of it is going to have to do with your preparation, and I think of preparation in two ways. I think about it one as your skill work and making sure that you're understanding how to play your game, how to do all the technical things of your sport. But then I think the other way that you prepare well is by doing those five things off the court. You've got to do your lifting, you've got to do your nutrition, your hydration, your sleep and your mindfulness. All of those things, plus your skill work, I think, really give you the best opportunity to be successful.
Speaker 2:And not everybody figures it out at the same time. There are a lot of stories of athletes who were doing great things in college and who got to the WNBA and then decided, hey, like it's time to level up a notch and then really honed into strength and conditioning or nutrition, sleep, what you know, got specialized coaches for that. But I think, as an athlete, the sooner that you can do that the better, because, again, I just think, if you're constantly putting yourself in the best possible position to be successful, good stuff is just going to happen for you. I really believe that.
Speaker 1:I really believe that, yeah, and I think the nugget right there too is most of these of these athletes understand like, okay, I need to be good at basketball, like I need to have the skill work I need to be prepared. Not a lot of athletes, um, you know, think about what am I doing off the court and in their defense. That's very hard to do in high school to have that big picture of, like, you know, these things that need to happen. A very adult like things that you know will make a difference and it's just stuff to do.
Speaker 1:But the athletes we have that I know are dialed in on that and listen to that stuff. Uh, they, I can. The progress they make is insane and the opportunities they get are amazing as well. And it's just you want, it's just like when are you going to figure out it's worth taking that next step? And for some, like you said, it's earlier and some of them it's later and they just had, you know, that talent and the specific sport skill to be able to make it to where they did before they made that decision. But I would guarantee you, no matter what level, that is wmba even. It then helps them step up against the competition at that level as well.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And look, I'll tell you this too, because I talk about this during my speeches. I'll go through the whole thing. Here's the five things, here's all these tangible stuff that you can do. And then I'm like look, I know that sounds super overwhelming. How am I going to do all of this in conjunction with everything else?
Speaker 2:And I got a simple two-step framework that I say. So I say number one when you're an athlete, you got to pick the better of the two choices that are presented to you the majority of the time. Pick the better of the two choices that you have. Right, because, like, after practice, we'll just break down real quick. After practice. I have a choice I can stay in lift or I can go home. Better choices stay in lift. At night. I got a choice I can stay up and scroll on tiktoks or I can go to bed. What's a better choice? Go to bed.
Speaker 2:When I go, even to get fast food, I can either get the uh chicken salad or I can get the the burger with barbecue sauce and a large fry and a milkshake. Like, what's the better choice? This one, right, like, just pick. Like don't get overwhelmed with it, but like, in each moment, if you just make the decision that's going to propel you forward, the one that's going to fuel you towards success, you're going to be in a pretty good spot, right? So that's the first part. The second part is this do the best that you can with what you got, right.
Speaker 2:Going back to that nutrition example, I might have to stop at the fast food place after the game, right, like I just might not have any other option, but I still have a choice. Like I don't have to just derail everything just because circumstances aren't ideal, because the reality is things aren't going to be perfect. You're a high school athlete or a college athlete. It's not always going to be ideal. But if I just make the best choice that I can and then think about it, if I repetitively do the best that I can with what I've got and I repetitively try to make the best choice out of what's presented to me, I'm probably going to be in a pretty good spot, and that's what I want athletes to understand.
Speaker 2:Like you don't have to do this every single decision, but if you want to be great, like if you want to go to the next level, then you got to do it the majority of the time, and I think that that tends to help athletes because it's like, oh okay, if I just start doing some of these things and then I start getting in a habit of it, I won't even have to think like, do I stay and lift or go home after practice? I just lift, because that's now become part of who I am. But that choosing well at the beginning is how you start to create a habit. When you choose it over and over again, you create a habit and then, once you get some habits, you can just stick them and then that's how you become really great and really efficient with your off the court stuff, without really even realizing it, quite frankly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's super digestible and I can attest to like as you make the better of the two choices each time and get in the habit, then all of a sudden you see yourself tend to find yourself in better overarching situations as well. As you're making the better choice, better choice, better choice. So 100. I love that, okay. So next question was number one non-physical skill or attribute that is looked for, or like what you have found with the athletes at that level confidence confidence confidence bordering on cockiness, and I get some pushbacks.
Speaker 2:Sometimes people don't like the word cocky. I think that it's got some negative connotations to it, but I like it because I think it makes you. It makes you feel something and if you're an athlete and and your competitor, I think sometimes you hear the word cocky and it's like a step up from confidence, right Like you can be, confident.
Speaker 2:But if you're cocky now, you've got an even more unbreakable spirit, you've got even more of a belief in yourself. And so I think about those athletes at the top level. One, they don't like to lose, so then two, they don't behave in a way that would lend towards losing and they just really believe in themselves. And I think a lot of kids these days tend to find more reasons why they can't then find reasons why they can and why they should and why it's totally possible for them. So I would absolutely say confidence bordering on cockiness, while still being a really good teammate.
Speaker 1:Not at all.
Speaker 2:But when I say confidence and cockiness, what I'm talking about is the belief in yourself. I'm not talking about how you behave. I'm talking about you feeling like, hey, if we're down two and there's 10 seconds left, I want them to run the play for me because I want the ball in my hands. I'm taking the shot to win the game. Like there's a certain level of confidence and cockiness that you've got to have to be that type of player and that's what everybody that's in the WNBA, quite frankly, is like that, because that's the best of the best. Everybody wants that and that's what it takes to get to the next level.
Speaker 1:I like that. I mean in my life I've been called cocky before and kind of my my response to it or like what I tell my athletes to you know, because I've had this conversation before is you know it's got to start somewhere. So I think it's better. I'm like, would you rather be cocky and really believe in yourself, or would you rather, you know, be the opposite of that and not believe in yourself? And I think you know, if you start believing in yourself first and maybe maybe it resembles cockiness, you know, all of a sudden you have another person that you train with. It's like, wow, they're pretty good. And then you got another person that train with, that's pretty good. And all of a sudden you have a group of people around you that also believe in you, and then that kind kind of that elevates your ability to believe in that, even yourself. So you kind of have to start that movement somewhere. And I always tell the athletes, like that movement starts with you.
Speaker 1:Like you have to like no one's going to believe in you really until you believe in yourself you know, I'm saying like you'll have a coach that believes in you or whatever, but it's like you know, if you want your teammates to buy into you and trust you as being one of the better players on the team and letting you be in those situations to be successful, like you've got to already, you know, believe that and have visualized that and like, are set on that for yourself tangent a little bit here, dara, but hang on, I'll bring it back.
Speaker 2:Sometimes when I use the word cocky, especially to describe or to, when I say it to young girls, I get parents who buck up against that, because society likes girls to fit in a box, to be polite, to be respectful, to be humble, be polite, to be respectful, to be humble. And so the word cocky to them doesn't necessarily mean like a belief in yourself. It means like behavior towards other people, like we don't like cocky people, we don't want you to be a cocky girl. And it's like like I, I get it and I'm not trying to teach anybody to be disrespectful but also like the best athletes, believe in themselves, to like the nth degree.
Speaker 2:And when we think about so many times like girls I shouldn't say girls, women not applying for jobs unless they feel overqualified, right when a man will apply, being like 50% qualified.
Speaker 2:Or we think about women not getting the same amount of money as men, like, at some point you got to teach girls how to believe in themselves and believe that they are worth something and believe that they are worthy.
Speaker 2:And so if we're constantly just pushing this narrative of like girls should be polite and girls should be humble and girls shouldn't take what's theirs Like. We're not necessarily setting girls up to be successful women in society, and that's where I don't know that we have to rewrite the definition of cockiness, but I do think that we've got to challenge some of those beliefs on what it means to actually believe in yourself and then what that does for you later on in life. So I think that you know your belief, your belief in yourself, like you said, has to start somewhere, and someone said to me a while ago like it's much easier to take cocky and bring it down to confident than it is to take totally unassuming, like no belief in yourself, and bring you like all the way up to cocky. I'd rather have to like help somebody come down and be a little bit less cocky and try to take somebody with no confidence and get them to believe in themselves, cause that's really hard. The only place that the belief in yourself can come is from you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that and I think that also. You know it's easy for outsiders to, even if it's just confidence in yourself and you are that great teammate and you are that person like you're. You're probably gonna get called cocky by people that wish that they, you know, had reached that level yet. Or, um, just see you from the outside. So I wouldn't be afraid, as an athlete to you know, of hearing that word cocky. Just be, just make sure you're being, you know, a good teammate and you know your belief in yourself is also to uplift those around you and be the best, the best person around them you can be.
Speaker 2:So well and everyone in. Maryland right now. Caitlin Clark. I think Caitlin. Clark is cocky I'd say it's her face she's cocky, but I also think he's incredibly humble and respectful and just a great, a great human being. So if Kaitlyn Clark can be cocky, then why can't your daughter be cocky?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and she's changing. She's really changing, and some other athletes, but they're changing the WNBA or future WNBA as a whole. I think this tournament right now going on is one of the most viewed tournaments ever for female sports. So that's just awesome, you know, and amazing, and I love that Last one, which we again swing back to something we've talked, probably talked about before, but what is the hardest thing for athletes at that level, or that they struggle with so common things, you see, at that level.
Speaker 2:All right or without. They struggle with so common things, you see, at that level. All right. So I'm going to tell you this little nugget first. So when I first started in the WNBA, I would see this pattern happen year after year. And it was this you'd have a rookie come in. She'd make the team her first year. So let me backpedal a second. So you're playing like winter season college basketball. Then you come and you make the WNBA. You play summer, then you go overseas typically, because that's where the money is in women's basketball you play overseas and then you'd get cut right before the start of your second WNBA season. And the first time I saw it I was like huh, that's kind of weird. And then it happened again and again and again and again I was like huh.
Speaker 2:What is going on here, and what it really boils down to, darren, is that they stopped doing all of those things that got them there. They stopped doing so much off the court preparation. They stopped, maybe, doing so much skill work. It's almost this idea that, like they thought they had made it, they thought that they were good, like oh, I'm a pro, I did it, but everything that was a building block to get them there. They stopped doing. And when they stopped doing that, you come on this downward slope, this downward trajectory, when you're playing D1, they are telling you Every minute of your day is scripted. Here's what time study tables are, here's when you live, here's all the food.
Speaker 2:Then you come to the WNBA. I mean I'll just be honest, like we're paying you, like I'm going to tell you to do something, but if you don't do it, like I'm not holding your hand the same way that someone is in the college level, so you start to probably slack off a little bit during WNBA season, because we will get rid of you, we will replace you, you will get cut if you don't do what you're supposed to do. You're a pro, this is your job. We're not holding your hand. So your habits maybe started to slip a little bit during WNBA season. When you go overseas now, you're away from friends and family. You really probably started to get away from that. Then you come back to training camp and you're up against somebody who has just done everything that they had been doing in college.
Speaker 2:Right, so they're in really great shape, they're really well fed from a nutrition standpoint, they're ready to go, and you're like kind of slow, kind of sluggish, you're not like you're just not ready. And coaches will look at players and be like I'm going to take the unproven one over the one that I already gave a spot and then rewarded me by showing up a second year not in peak physical condition or not ready to go. So I think you really got to understand that as an athlete, it's a never ending cycle of taking care of yourself and refining your game. I mean, you look at LeBron James and the longevity of his career. You know whether you like him or hate him, but there's something to be admired about the amount of miles on his body, but he has taken care of himself at such a high level for so many years.
Speaker 2:Like you, you get it, but for every you know, for LeBron James, there's probably 100, 200, 300 other guys that I mean I don't want to say had the same potential but had the opportunity to at least take care of their body in that manner and and didn't. So what are you doing to take care of yourself? What are you doing for your physical yourself? What are you doing for your physical health? What are you doing for your mental health to help you stay at the top level? Because it's one thing to just get there, it's another thing to stay there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with that 100%. I even see that on a micro scale. You know, with successful high school athletes like training really hard, getting a season, having some success and then kind of backing off on everything that made them successful, yeah, and then they got it. Then they come back in three or four months later and you're like, well, you know, we got quite a bit. You're about 60 percent of what you were. So now, now we gotta we gotta build that back up like and so yeah, and I think that's a huge life lesson to be learned and you know, ideally you learn it before it becomes you getting cut out of the wmbBA.
Speaker 1:But you know, in jobs and life and parenting and relationships, it's like you can't get to something, get to a certain level that you want to get to, and then drop everything that got you there and expect to continue to reap the rewards. Right, so I love it. So, man, we're already this has been flying by we're already at 50 minutes. Let's do uh, just a minute If you have anything you want to share or any recommendations you have for uh, parents or athletes listening, and then we'll close it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just I think that you can do all of those five things that we talked about. You can do all of the skill work. So basically, you can do all the preparation that you want, but if you don't believe in yourself, then it's not going to mean a whole lot. I really think that the confidence is the key and I think that the more as an athlete, you focus on building your confidence Now it's it's kind of circular, because your confidence comes from your preparation. Right, like I'm confident because I know that I put in the work, I know that I'm prepared, I know that I'm ready to go. But if you don't, if you haven't done the preparation and you haven't done the work, then you can't really be truly confident. And if you're not confident, then it's not going to mean that much because you got to be confident in your ability to perform when you get out on the court. So I talk about confidence in a key to confidence framework and I think about the K is keep going, and I think that this is helpful for a lot of athletes. So I'm going to share it quickly. When I think about keep going, I think about this idea that, like, the only way that you truly lose is if you quit. Like things aren't always going to happen on your timeline, sometimes it's not your time, like sometimes you need to sit a year, sometimes you need to take a little bit longer, but like you got to keep going in order to truly have success.
Speaker 2:The second one, the E, stands for eyes up, and I think when you're a young kid and you're learning how to play basketball, they always tell you you can't look down when you dribble. You got to keep your eyes up so that you can see everything. And I think a lot of times athletes just look down at what's right in front of them. They don't see the big picture. Like they get so hung up on oh, this one. You coach this one season and it's like yo, that's such a microcosm of your entire athletic career. Like let's just get through it or let's just quit, but like it's not that big of a deal. So it's like how do you reframe some of those negatives into positives? And I think you do that by picking your eyes up and seeing things from a broader lens.
Speaker 2:And then the last one, y stands for you matter. I think so many kids these days get pigeonholed into something because somebody else said. So Like, oh, you're going to be a defensive player, okay, well, you might not be the greatest shooter right now, but like, if you want to be a really great offensive player, work on it, right, right. Like you don't have to be defined by someone else's opinion of you, so you can't let that stop you. And then, in conjunction with that, like you matter to me also means that you are more than just an athlete. You're more than just your sport. You'll be more than your sport when you stop playing it. So finding ways to like have self-worth outside of your sport I think is is also super important. So then, if you have a bad game, like the whole world doesn't have to crumble because you're still a good daughter, a good friend, a good teammate. You know X, x, y, z. Like your value can't be so intrinsically tied to your performance. So keep going eyes up and you have. That's the key to confidence.
Speaker 1:That was fire.
Speaker 1:That was probably one of the best, the best conclusions we've had yet um thanks I just can't yeah, I just can't emphasize enough for athletes listening like how thankful we are that christy will hop on and share this with us. And you know, take notes on it and make, make your board of the five cores and, you know, start to make that progress and, you know, build that confidence. Confidence through action and through continuing to keep your eyes up and moving forward. And there's so much potential for everyone listening to this, whether it's collegiate sports or not. All these things can carry over into your life and help you down the road and something that will, you know, progress you as a parent, as a worker, as a business owner and whatnot. So I appreciate your time, chrissy.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. Darren is a blast.
Speaker 1:Yep.
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