Today, we are tackling one of the most important topics facing people today and one that is tremendously prevalent in the athlete community. Mental health issues are something that are becoming more and more prevalent in today’s sports world among athletes of all ages. While we are certainly not experts on the topic, we do have experience dealing with some of these issues from a personal level as well as from a coaching and parent perspective.

Athletes are definitely very susceptible to anxiety and depression because of the amount of pressure athletics can bring. However, so many coaches and parents don’t talk with their athletes about how to handle it. Throughout this conversation, we talk about what we believe are some of the pillars of positive mental health as well as some practical ways to fight against those demons that so many people face. 

We really enjoyed this conversation and hope you do as well. Here is episode 12 of Unlocking Athletes

Welcome back to “Unlocking Athletes” I am really excited to release this episode that we have titled “Coach’s Roundtable” Today, we’ve got Russ Dixon joining the podcast. Russ coaches our kids class here at Evolution Athletics as well as adult fitness classes. He’s been working with the kids program for about 6 months now and has grown it from 1 or 2 kids to over 20 and does a great job of giving them some basic fundamentals of fitness as well as providing a fun atmosphere to help create a positive relationship with the gym and exercise

Throughout the episode, we talk through some of the similarities and differences in coaching kids vs HS athletes vs Adults. What the goals should be for each level as well as some of the issues we see as coaches working with different groups. I hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed recording it

Sit back and enjoy episode 11 of “Unlocking Athletes”

What’s up everybody, we hope you enjoyed Episode 9 last week as we talked about goal setting and how to set SMART goals. Part of our SMART acronym was “Authentic” and making sure that your goals align with who you are and what you value. 

That sparked an interesting conversation and we wanted to dive into it a little deeper. In this episode we talk about the importance of values using the framework of a great book by Greg Everett called Becoming Tough. We live in a very instant gratification, self serving, and weakening society in a lot of ways. As coaches we preach toughness to our athletes constantly, but rarely do we define it and talk about practical ways to improve it. Coach Everett does a great job of giving us a context to discuss toughness and how we can apply the principles to our jobs as leaders and coaches.

We hope you enjoy episode 10 of “Unlocking Athletes”

We’re Back! It’s been a few months since we put out a podcast, but I am happy to say we are back to it in 2024 with a new excitement and a new format. My best Friend and I will be co-hosting this show moving forward. If you don’t know Tyler Crump, make sure you go back and listen to Episode 8 so you can get the background. We will still have different guests as often as we can, but we are excited to be hosting this show together!

In this episode we dive into a very common conversation at the beginning of each new year. Google says that 34% of Americans made resolutions or goals going into 2024. We decided we wanted to take this podcast and talk about a very common practice when setting goals and that is the acronym SMART.

We will talk through some of our goals, and what it means to set quality goals for yourself and as coaches, how we can help our athletes set and achieve their goals this year. I hope you enjoy episode 9 of "Unlocking Athletes."

Today I am really excited to have my best friend in the world with me on the podcast. Tyler Crump has been in the fitness industry coaching since 2010 working in multiple gyms in North Carolina as well as Ohio. He is currently the Head Coach at College Hill Crossfit in Greensboro, NC.

I’ve known Crump since 2005 when we were recruited and played college football together. After living on my couch for most of our Sophomore year, we became best friends and have been ever since. We were best men in eachother’s weddings and have shared a lot of similar life experiences along the way. One of those experiences that we share is a passion for coaching people - which is what we’re gonna talk about today. 

We dive into some of the issues surrounding the fitness industry from both of our perspectives. His being more of the competitive fitness athletes and mine more on the Sports Performance side of things - as well as some common ground with coaching the general population of gym-goers.

I’m extremely proud to call this guy my best friend and very lucky to have him in my life - I hope you enjoy episode 8 of "Unlocking Athletes"

I’ve been working with and coaching HS athletes now for almost 14 years. During that time, Almost every young athlete says they want to be D1. My response has always been....are you sure? Most kids like the idea of playing D1 without ever understanding what it actually takes.

Today, we are talking with one of my best friends in the world - Coach Greg Harbaugh. Greg is the Co-Offensive Coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of Minnesota. He has worked his butt off through the ranks of D3 all the way up to where he is now making 7-8 coaching stops along the way.

Throughout the conversation, we go through what college coaches are looking for in players and what separates good, great and elite level players. We also go into what it takes to play in college at each level and what it truly looks like to be a college athlete.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did - buckle up for episode 7 of Unlocking Athletes.

All athletes have a secret superpower at their disposal… Ask Elite athletes in any sport and you’ll hear about this same power. What’s ironic is it’s probably the most under-utilized tool that athletes use. We’re talking about recovery. 

Today on the podcast, I am privileged to have Jen Palin. Jen is a Massage Therapist living in Richmond Hill, GA. She is the owner and operator of Headstrong Massage - a company which she started and built from the ground up to help athletes in all walks of life get the most out of their bodies by increasing their ability to recover and get back to 100%.

On top of being an entrepreneur, Jen is also a former Division 1 athlete, mom, coach and still athlete herself. Throughout this discussion, in addition to the importance of recovery we talk about the challenge of teaching female athletes about the importance of strength training both physically and mentally. Finally, we get into the balance of parenting and coaching and how to get the most out of younger athletes

I hope you enjoy episode 6 of “Unlocking Athletes”

It’s hard to scroll through instagram, walk through a bookstore or go through youtube without hearing about the subject of leadership. From Jocko to David Goggins to Tony Robbins to Jordan Peterson - Leadership is definitely a buzz word right now. What does it mean? How do we get better at it?

 Today we have my friend and Pastor, Keith Waller. Keith is currently the pastor of New Life Church in Apex, NC. Prior to that, he spent over 10 years as a Green Beret in the US Army and finished his career as a Special Operations instructor at Ft. Bragg

Recently, he wrote a book called “Shut up and Lead” outlining some principles of leadership and some practical applications for athletes, parents, coaches and just the general population of people. As a Military operator, husband, father and Pastor, Keith has a wide array of experience of leadership styles and personalities to pull from. It was very interesting being able to hear how he used all those experiences to mold him into the leader he is today and how we can apply those principles to our everyday lives.

I hope you enjoy episode 5 of “Unlocking Athletes”

Today we are privileged to hear from a friend of mine Greg Titiriga. Greg is currently a recruiting specialist with Next College Student Athlete and has helped thousands of athletes find the right fit for them to continue their sport at the college level. 

Greg has been through the recruiting process as a player where he ended up at Fresno State University and as a HS and College Coach before joining NCSA in 2017.

Throughout this conversation we are going to talk about some basics of recruiting. We go through some of the mistakes and assumptions that a lot of athletes and families make when talking about recruiting. More importantly we are going to talk about What to do, when to do it and how to do it to give your athlete their best chance not just to play some place in college, but help them find the RIGHT place

Sit back, take notes and I hope you enjoy episode 4 of Unlocking Athletes

Today, I am very excited to have Carlos Collazo on the podcast. I have known Carlos since 2010 - when he was a sophomore in HS playing baseball. Over the years we have become good friends and it has been awesome to see him grow into success doing something he loves to do. 

Carlos is now the lead writer for Baseball America focusing most of his attention on the Major League Baseball Draft. He watches thousands of HS and College players each year, talks to scouts, coaches and team management about the potential of HS and College baseball players to play at the professional level. You’ll also see him on MLB network and ESPN during draft coverage.

In this episode, we dive into the idea of early sport specialization. Then into some of the things that he sees that separates good players and great players. Lastly, we talk about some of the benefits and pitfalls of the club and travel baseball circuits and what to look out for as a player or parent. 

Today, I’m excited to have one of my athletes, John Luke Taylor, on the Podcast. I’ve had the pleasure to work with John Luke for almost 2 years now and am extremely proud to be a part of his journey. When he first walked in having just finished his Junior football season, he was discouraged with a lack of playing time. As a defensive lineman, he was undersized and not nearly strong enough to compete for a starting spot. 

We talked about what the journey would look like - from training, to sleep, to hydration and nutrition. He said, “I’ll do whatever you tell me to do” - we got to work that day….by the time fall camp started, he had gained nearly 30lbs of muscle and dropped his body fat significantly. He not only became a day 1 starter, but was a leader on the defensive side anchoring the nose guard position. 

We continued to work throughout the season, through an injury which you’ll hear about, and into a Conference Championship for the first time in school history. Not only did he have a successful season, but because of the work that he put and his performance on the field, he was now fielding college offers from several different schools at all different levels. Eventually, he was offered a preferred walk-on spot at Div. 1 Wofford college, which he accepted.

Throughout this podcast, you’ll get to hear about his journey and what it took to get him to where he is now, how he fought through injury and some advice for younger athletes who want to play in college. 

John Luke is an awesome picture of what hard work and being coachable can do for you. He’s become a really good athlete, but more importantly, he’s a great person and someone that all of our younger athletes should look up to as the example of what our Athlete Academy is all about.

Welcome to the “Unlocking Athletes” podcast - My name is Nate Woodruff. I’ll be hosting this podcast and interviewing athletes, coaches, parents and friends about different aspects of what it means to be an athlete in today’s world. 

This podcast is designed to help athletes, parents and coaches navigate this crazy sports climate we are in. Regardless of what sport you are involved in, there is a mountain of information out there - some of it good, but a lot of it is bad and even debilitating for families who simply want what’s best for their athletes. We’ll dive into subjects like

• How do I get my kid seen by coaches?

• Should he play on a travel team?

• Does it matter what club team she’s on?

• When and how should we start lifting weights?

• How do I get recruited?

• What should I eat?

• What are college coaches looking for?

• Should I change schools if the sports program is bad?

• Should we focus on 1 sport or play multiple?

I want to give you an opportunity to hear from nutritionists, college coaches, HS coaches, HS/College players, parents, scouts, former players, sleep coaches and performance coaches who have lived it or are living it now to help give you quality information that can help you, your athlete or your team achieve their potential.

A little background on me - I was a multi-sport athlete growing up in the Atlanta area and ended up playing Division 3 Football from 2005-2008. In 2009, I graduated and began coaching football, girls basketball and baseball at the HS level. I did that from 2009-2017 becoming a Private School Athletic Director for those last 2 ½ years. During my time as a coach, I began doing performance training with all of my teams. 

In 2017, I took a job as a Recruiting Specialist with the largest Athletic Recruiting Company in the world. I was also training athletes on the side until 2020 when I had built up enough clients to make performance training my full time job. I am now the Manager of a large performance gym near Pinehurst, NC and have the opportunity to coach athletes of all ages and skill levels. From 4th graders just learning how to move to high level HS athletes looking to play in college, to adult athletes training for specific tactical or sport events - I feel truly blessed to be where I am and am excited about the future

I hope this is a resource for you going forward - If you like it, please share it with other people. If you don’t like it - be a good human and keep it to yourself.

Let’s get into episode 1 of  “Unlocking Athletes”

Today, I am really excited to talk to my friend, Dr. Aston Dommel. Aston is a Dietician for the United States military as well as a competitive crossfit athlete. Recently, Aston competed at the East Regionals for a fitness competition called Battle Bunker where he took home the title and qualified for the Hybricon Games in October.

In this episode, we dive into what nutrition should look like for our MS/HS/College athletes out there trying to improve their performance on the field or court. What to eat, how much, when to eat and really just give you some simple strategies as an athlete, parent or coach that can have a huge impact on your ability to perform at your best when it matters. 

𝕀𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦’𝕧𝕖 𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕕 𝕤𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕠𝕦𝕤𝕝𝕪 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕤𝕠𝕞𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘, 𝕪𝕠𝕦’𝕧𝕖 𝕖𝕩𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕕 𝕡𝕒𝕚𝕟. 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕢𝕦𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕚𝕤, 𝕨𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕕𝕠 𝕨𝕖 𝕕𝕠 𝕒𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕚𝕥?

In this episode of the EAX Performance Podcast, Jeremy Kane and Chris McNamara will discuss pain and how it relates to the way that we program for our athletes to train around pain.

Key talking points in this episode were:

Define pain in athlete terms.

Pain is the #1 limiter of performance

Discuss the subtle differences on how pain is NOT Discomfort & NOT “the burn.”

Pain does not guarantee progress.

Local / regional / global pain presentation patterns.

Structure vs tissue pain. When

Neural & hormonal responses to pain.

Pain is a signal for Change.

• Change your movement
• Change the load/intensity
• Change the tempo
• Change the environment
• Change the sequence
• Change the mindset

Nutritional support for acute / chronic pain.

Training strategies for someone with acute pain.

Training strategies for someone with chronic pain.

The gift of injury. How to use pain to teach you to move better.

In this episode, Jeremy and I  switch things up some and have a friendly debate on Group vs Individual coaching and programming..

Some of the things we discussed are:

•Power of Each.

•Pitfalls of Each

•Pros & Cons for health & longevity

•Pros & Cons of performance / competing

•Pros & Cons for group coaching

•Pros & Cons for Indy coaching

•Programming considerations for both

•Which we are doing now.

•And more!

Don’t get us wrong. Like we state in the beginning of this episode, we believe there is a time and a place for both.  Everything has a time and place. The key is knowing WHEN, WHY, and WHICH athlete to use these tools with.

In this episode, Jeremey and I switch things up some and have a friendly debate on pacing.

Some of the things we discussed are:

•Power of pacing.

•Pitfalls of pacing

•Pros & Cons of Pacing in training.

•Pros & Cons of Pacing in competition.

•Pros & Cons of coach prescribed pacing.

•Pros & Cons of athlete regulated pacing.

•Positive Adaptations from Pacing

•Negative Adaptations from Pacing

•Pacing considerations for each type of athlete. (Sport / Tactical / Fitness)

•And more!

Don’t get us wrong. Like we state in the beginning of this episode, we BOTH believe in & use pacing (in some variation) with every single one of our athletes.

Just like we’ve discussed with things like linear periodization, percentage-based training, or even non-traditional methods, everything has a time and place.

The key is knowing WHEN, WHY, and WHICH athletes to use these tools with.

We even did a rapid-fire at the end with these questions:

-What do you like to hear from your athletes each day?

-What athlete is easier to build from a tension limited or delivery limited athlete?

-Moxy / Humon monitors - how do they work and do we have them at EAX?

-Is there a fighting weight preference for tactical athletes?

A beginner athlete is like a baby snake, they're more dangerous because they don't know to control anything.  They also don't know any better and assume they have it all figured out! 

This whole episode is dedicated to the concept of training age.

Chronological age is simply how long you've been alive.  

Biological age is a measure of how the biological aging process has impacted your body. It can be defined in terms of what researchers call frailty indices – in what areas does your body work less well today than it did last year, or a decade ago?

Training age is the cumulative amount of time you've spent training for a particular sport. It refers to a cumulative workload (and skill level) built over the years and years of consistent training.

Dive in and take a listen!

In Episode 12 we go over the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PERFORMANCE ENHANCING TOOL at your disposal - SLEEP!

We cover the following questions:

How important is sleep for adequate recovery?

What do you recommend, device wise, for tracking sleep?

How many hours are recommended per night?

If the athlete didn’t get adequate sleep, should they train?

Any supplements that are evidenced-based to promote sleep?

Best sleeping conditions?

What considerations should be made for traveling?

We share the athletes we personally use as well as the tools we use with our athletes.

Regardless of your diet, your training style, or your other recovery methods, all of us need sleep!

Check out this episode and let us know what you think!