On a frigid Friday night in January of 2016 I was driving to New Jersey to get some gas when a strange phone number popped up. Those that know me know I’ve gotten plenty of strange calls in my life, but this one had a Miami area code. Unlike those other calls, this was actually a good one.
It was Justin Kavanaugh reaching out after I emailed him back after SWIS. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think he was ever going to reach out to me. He asked me if I wanted to come down during my February break to his facility in Virginia, the Sport and Speed Institute (SSI), to watch him train his guys for their NFL Pro Days and discuss some things to write about. When I left newspapers in 2013, I didn’t ever think writing would come into play again. Turns out, writing was instrumental in getting my foot in the door in both teaching and coaching.
I was down to check out this stranger’s gym, even though I had no idea what to expect. Little did I know, this trip would change the entire course of my coaching career. I was about to walk into a world that I only knew of from my time at SWIS. Without this phone call, I’m most likely not in the training business anymore. I would have eventually flamed out.
2016-to-2019 was a game-changing four-year span for me. My knowledge and network would go exponentially and, with it, my business would slowly go in the direction I wanted it to. Because so much happened, I broke it down into two posts. The next post will get into the business side because that doesn’t grow without all of the experiences that took place outside of Staten Island.
That trip to Virginia during President’s Day Weekend, turned into another trip over the summer where I was humbled, to say the least, running my first speed session with 10 minutes notice, to experiences that would change my life. This is where I learned what true training is and learned about the things you can’t just find online. I went into that trip not knowing what I was getting into to leaving feeling that I was truly on the right track for the first time. There were glimpses here and there before, but this trip gave me hope because I believed I had someone in my corner that would show me the right way to do things. Right after that first trip, I used my winnings from the SB911 contest to attend the CPPS certification weekend.
Every year I went down I was exposed to NFL and Olympic training. I watched how Kav and Dylan Seeley worked with these guys for hours and saw real high-level coaching that you hear about, but never see. I also saw how sessions should be run from the youth through collegiate level from watching Allan Africa, Conner Crowell, Jon Lamb, Lars Stevenson, Thomas Mayhugh, Harrison Leep and Amy Driessen coach. Like the Saban Coaching Tree, they’re all off doing bigger things now.
Every year I would be down at SSI during President’s Day break to watch him train his guys for their Pro Days. You have to be more than a spectator when you’re with Kav, so he gave me the opportunity to speak to his guys about dealing with the media and I’d even get the chance to run a little “arm farm” session at the end of certain days. Some of those guys are still in the NFL and I’d like to think it was because of the one “fill the sleeves” session they ran with me. Over the summer, I got the chance to watch him prep Jason Rogers and Nick Mayhugh for the Olympics. I mean where else are you going to get these type of opportunities as someone who works at a commercial gym?
Over the years, Kav showed me the seminars to attend that led to me meeting Adam Feit, Bobby Smith and Alison Culley through the Speed and Power Summits run by Athlete’s Acceleration. These events were held at Reach Your Potential Training in New Jersey and Adam and Bobby ran a phenomenal facility. Alison has also come through in the clutch numerous times in helping me get me CEUs. After hearing so much about them, I got to finally attend the CVASP seminars in Richmond, Virginia run by Jay DeMayo.
Going to all these events gave me a better idea of what to look for in a seminar and where to find some to go on my own. I started listening to more podcasts and that’s what led me to the PLAE Seminar that was held at the Under Armour facility in Baltimore and the Pro Coaches Clinic, which actually took place in New York City. That seminar always stands out to me because it was a short trip to the city in the middle of a school week. I’d also make the trip to a baseball-centric conference in Boston when I attended the Elite Pitching Performance Seminar.
During this stretch, I was also attending SWIS each year and my confidence to go up to the speakers grew as I got more comfortable. One of the big conversations I had was with Dave Tate, the owner of elitefts. He gives everybody his full attention and had a long conversation with me that eventually went into writing. Funny how it keeps coming back to writing. He offered me the chance to write for his website, which gave me the opportunity to write about my time at SWIS and, also, the trips I’d make to Ohio for the elitefts Sports Performance and Business seminars.
In addition to all the traveling, Kav held a lot of in-house seminars at SSI where he brought in the best the industry has to offer. Kav took away all of the guess work in trying to figure out who to listen to and just brought the best to his house. These events were all inclusive, too. Not only did I get to listen to these people present, but the intimate environment made it where I got to know them on a personal level and had the opportunity to have dinner with all of them. On the training side, they all gave me something that I still use or remember to this day.
These events gave me the opportunity to truly meet the main sources of information. Ian King and Henk Kraaijenhof are two coaches who get referenced often in the presentations of others. King, who I’m going to go into more detail in another post, really woke me up with his in-house presentation and changed my view of training. You won’t see many with his approach to training and it led me to taking his Level 0, 1 and 2 KSI courses. Going from one legend to another, I got to see the renowned sprint coach Kraaijenhof show the technology he uses to test hamstring strength on Nick Mayhugh.
Another coach who’s work led to me taking their online courses is Mai-Lin Dovan. I got to see her present and worked with athletes with Lea Thibault. There’s a lot to go through with her courses so I’m still in progress towards finishing them. She was just a great person to talk to and she changed my view on what is considered lean.
Dr. Ken Kinakin, the creator of SWIS, gave a great demonstration on muscle testing, but his best work is what he did to fix my shoulder. I was dealing with anterior shoulder pain for months and he needed approximately five minutes to fix it. Once again, I saw firsthand how the best in the business find solutions fast. Jason Dhir is one of the nicest people you will meet and also one of the most knowledgeable when it comes to supplements. His Amino Code by Ultra Human supplement has been one of my go-to’s for years and one of the first things I recommend to people.
I’ve gotten to watch Julia Ladewski and Mark Rogers, two experienced coaches and power lifters, give a hands-on demonstration of the big three lifts and their checkpoints are what I use to this day, especially with the bench press and deadlift. Jeff Moyer, who is one of the best when it comes to vision training, gave me tips for improving batter’s eye that I’ve used on myself and others. Nicole Rodriguez went into the systems she used at EXOS and gave me a way to progress and regress plyometric exercises that became pivotal when I started building my youth client base.
Now, on the advice side, that’s where I turn to the presentations given by Joel Proskewitz and Heather Pearson. Joel, one of the leading spinal experts, talked about how the things he was teaching aren’t meant to be used right away and that it takes time to learn them. It was a tiny part of his day-long presentation, but it stood out because most people talk about takeaways you could implement right away. He really went in-depth and, I’ll be honest, a good portion of it was over my head. That line always stuck with me. Another one came from Heather. Heather is known as a “magician” in the rehab world, but she talked about visualization at the end of her presentation. She said when athletes are visualizing success, they need to do it from their own eyes and a first-person perspective, not from the outside. That struck me because so many times when I would visualize myself succeeding, it would be like I was watching myself from the outside. I still use her technique to this day. Kav also brought in Brett Bartholomew right as his Conscious Coaching book was taking off. I learned that movies aren’t the only things made with alternate endings.
Then, Kav got me involved with his Coaches Room Mastermind where I’ve been able to connect with great coaches from all across the country. I reconnected with the Beard Boss CJ Appenzeller, who in addition to being a great friend has been a valuable resource. I first saw CJ present at the CPPS in 2016 and met up with him at the elitefts seminars and Pro Coaches Clinic in 2018 before the mastermind. Then there’s, Gary Mahabir, a fellow NY native, who is not only one of the nicest people you’ll meet, but has a physique that people half his age would kill for. Driving back from one of the masterminds with him was one of the quickest four-hour drives I’ve ever had.
I’ve got a lot of fond memories of the coaches I’ve met from the mastermind. It features people from all over, but New York is well-represented with Nick Tintle and Eric Chessen. Nick was in California when I met him and is now running a lacrosse business in Texas, but he was a standout lacrosse player in Long Island and he gave me the chance to break out my limited tri-state lacrosse knowledge from when I was in newspapers. Eric, also no longer a New Yorker, runs Autism Fitness and his dry sense of humor is top notch. He’ll make a joke out of nowhere and at the most random times that will crack me up. Then there’s Dave Brix, who puts David Goggins to shame. This guy truly lives what he says. The capper for me when I was coming back from a night out in Vegas and he was just getting done with his workout. On the west coast there was Javier Miller-Estrada and Jason Maher. Javy is another solid person and it’s been great seeing what he and Rob Gambardella have done out in Arizona with Ignite Performance. Jason is an awesome guy to talk sports with, even though he’s a Boston Red Sox fan. I’m sure I’m missing people because the mastermind has grown, but Kav filled it with quality people and it let me know I was in the right room and on the right path.
These masterminds covered everything and Kav would bring in people from all walks of life to help your business. Two of my favorites to learn from came on his social media/video creation side with Ryan Magin and Chris Perrilli. I also learned Ryan is a great guy to have with you when one of the events is held in Las Vegas. On that trip, we got to check out the UFC Performance Institute and then Ryan took over for the nighttime festivities.
So much went on during this four-year stretch. Writing about it was hard because I’m trying to pack in so much information and do it as concisely as possible. Any of the events or people I mentioned I could write a whole post about. I put off writing about it for a while because I just didn’t know how to go about it. I just decided to write down the key events on a piece of paper and go off about them.
This post also gave me a chance to look back on some fond memories. Going through the 10 years reminded me of where I started and then this post reminded me of how much opportunity and growth took place. This stretch made me who I am today. In my first two years, I’d have people coming up to me trying to tell me what I was doing was wrong and I’d actually give them the time of day. Now, that doesn’t happen and I won’t allow it to happen. I’ve got the knowledge and confidence in what I do where I could explain every single thing I do.
If I was to get questioned rudely again at the gym, I’d explain everything to a point that would most likely be beyond their understanding and then never think about the moment again. I walk confidently as a coach because very few in my position and have seen, listened or experienced the things I did during these four years. Nobody in my position was traveling the country on their off time to learn and fitting it in while working two jobs and attending graduate school.
I don’t say these things arrogantly and thinking that I don’t have to learn anything else. No. I still go to conferences to this day and am always either reading or taking a course online. I say these things because you have to see the transformation that took place from the end of 2015 to the end of 2019. It’s like two completely different people.
And none of this would have been possible without Kav reaching out to me with that phone call on January 2016. He told me never to write a post about what he did, but I can’t tell my story without mentioning it.