I’ve spent years traveling around the country to different seminars, conferences and gyms to learn from the best coaches in the world. When my work week was done, I started my weekend either in my car or on a plane going to an event to get better.
People told me I was wasting my time. I did it with the intention of one day working with those who were truly dedicated to be their best.
Training is not my only source of income. I don’t rely on it to put food on my table or pay my bills. This means I don’t just take on clients for the sake of filling up my schedule.
I’m not a salesman. When you come to me inquiring about training, I’m interviewing you as much as you are interviewing me. I put a lot into this. I only want to work with people that want to get better and will do what it takes.
When athletes come to me saying they want to be trained, I tell them that there are three non-negotiables that they need to agree to before we start. They have to be coachable, willing to bring the intensity and be consistent.
1. COACHABILITY
This is where it all starts.
You have to be willing to be coached. It does not matter how good you are at your sport, if you have no formal training experience your training age is zero. This means you have to be willing to start with the beginning progressions and be ready to hear that you are not doing something correctly.
One-on-one and even two-on-one training is a lot different than large group training. The focus is solely on you. You have to be able to accept and apply constructive criticism. Anyone that has worked with me will tell you that I’m not a rah-rah yeller or a dictator. But, if you’re going to work with me, I want things done the right way because I have your best interests in mind. My business is only successful if you are successful.
You also have to remember that you hired me for coaching, I didn’t hire you. I am open to suggestions and listen to my clients when they tell me something hurts or doesn’t feel right. But, I am not doing a workout that you found on TikTok or doing an exercise you saw a pro athlete do online when you can’t do the basics right yet.
Working with Gabe Pimenta back in 2019 on his sprinting. He’s now playing high school football in South Carolina.
The best athletes I’ve had get it. They all came in right away and were coachable. Coincidentally, they also came from teams where they had coaches who were hard on them and said I was much easier in comparison. The best want to be told what they are doing wrong and how to fix it. They know the end goal is to get better and put their egos to the side.
Also, most of my experience the past 11 years comes from working with youth athletes. When a parent tells me their kid is interested in training, the first question I ask is: are they mature enough for it? Maturity is the differentiator with youth athletes and will determine whether the program will be successful or not. I’ve worked with 7 year old’s that did great because they came ready to listen and I’ve had other kids that didn’t take it seriously and turned it into a glorified baby sitting service.
I don’t care how good you are at your sport. I care that you come in wanting to get better and then it is my job to help get you there.
2. INTENT
People will knock some of the big guys in the gym saying that they don’t know what they are doing. I’ve talked to a few and there’s some that really don’t know much besides what body part they are doing. But, they’re huge so they must be doing something right. You hear them grunting and slamming weights because they attack every set with intensity.
You can have the perfect program, but if you are not locked in during each rep and each set then you are not going to see the results. This matters no matter what your goal is — gaining muscle, losing weight, getting faster, more powerful, etc. Like Coach Kav says, “Intent Matters”.
Alex Diaz attacked every rep in the gym and ran every sprint hard, leading to him taking 4.5 seconds off of his 60-yard dash time.
Speed and power exercises are built on intent. The exercises themselves don’t have any special powers, it’s all about how you execute them. These are sprints, jumps, throws and quick movements that rely on you executing them with speed and force in order for them to be successful.
It’s not just about how hard you go, it’s also about how focused you are. This goes for kids learning the most basic bodyweight movements. For kids, training must be treated like a skill in the beginning because you are programming your body to move the right way. Don’t just go through the motions. When you’re doing your technique work make sure you are locked in and following the proper tempos. and make sure you’re doing everything right so you can reap the benefits and move through the progressions quicker.
You have to take every exercise seriously, from the warm-up all the way through the main movements. This will ensure you are getting everything out of the program that is specifically built for you.
3. CONSISTENCY
Training is not like other services. You can’t come in one session and have all of your problems solved. Training takes time to see all of the benefits.
Juliana Carrara never missed a session. She came to train even when she had multiple practices in one day.
In order to see those benefits, you have to consistently come to work every week. Listen, I understand that life gets in the way and people need to take a day off here or there. I get that.
I’m talking about the people that are constantly missing sessions or missing full weeks. If that’s you, then training isn’t for you. You’re just wasting both of our time.
Success in training and reaching your goals comes from constantly showing up and getting after it. We are trying to build off what you did in the last session and that can only happen if you have great attendance.
Here’s another thing — not every session is going to be a record breaker. There’s going to be days where you are tired or a bit run down. That’s OK, we will adjust and plan accordingly.
I know you’re not always going to be 100% ready to work. There’s going to be days where you had a lot going on. Just give me what you got that day and I’ll help fill in the rest. Training progress isn’t a straight line upward. There are peaks and valleys. But, if you are always showing up, the line will go up and the dips will be small. If you are inconsistent, we will get stuck and not able to push the wheel forward.
I can’t be your main source of motivation. When parents say they need me to get their kids motivated, then it’s not going to work out. The drive has to come from you. I will always give that push on those last couple of hard reps or help you through on those days when you’re sluggish. But, I can’t be the one that wants you goals more than you do. I can’t be the one to get you off the couch. You have to be the one that wants it and are the one who is motivated to crush their goals.
Me with CJ Appenzeller, Justin Kavanaugh and gary Mahabir during a Mastermind in 2021 at ATS gym in New Jersey.
I just got back from Justin Kavanaugh’s Mastermind on Sunday night and there’s something he said at the beginning of the event that stuck with me.
“Environment always wins.”
This quote stuck with me and I thought about it during the four-hour ride back home. It’s a simple quote, but it’s powerful and there’s so much truth behind it.
I could write another post on all the things I’ve learned, but, instead, I wanted to take that simple quote and show how it applies to the athletes I work with.
You see, every time I leave one of these events, it’s like I leave a different person than the one I came in as. I always leave more motivated, ready to better myself as a coach and work even harder.
The things I’ve learned certainly help, but it’s the people and conversations I’m surrounded by. I’m surrounded by successful coaches and practitioners and just being in the same room as them makes me a better coach. On top of that, they are also great people.
A lesson I learned early on in life is that not everybody wants you to win. You see it all the time, you lay out your goals to someone who isn’t a part of your world or isn’t really motivated by much, and they are ready to shut you down and tell you why it’s not possible. It’s almost like they get satisfaction telling you that you can’t do it.
Finally got the chance to meet coach Ben and Brooklyn from Australia at this August’s Mastermind.
What you have to understand is, when I’m in these rooms, I’m surrounded by people that are far more successful and well-known than I am. I’m surrounded by practitioners that know way more than I do and professional bodybuilders and powerlifters that are great coaches and are way more jacked and strong than I am. If anybody could swat my goals down like a fly, it’s them.
But, they don’t. Successful and driven people don’t do that. I tell them my goals and aspirations and they listen. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t just tell me dream it and it will come true. But, they give me action steps on what I need to do if I truly want to get to where I say I want to. And then they hold me accountable. When you’re around quality people that are great at what they do, it’s a combination that can’t be beat.
Now, for where this comes into play for my athletes. If you compete that means you have goals. You might have goals that seem out of the ordinary. It might be to make a certain team, reach certain accolades or metrics or play at the college level and beyond. Not only do you need to work hard every day, but you need to put yourself in the right environment that’s going to help facilitate that growth.
Being in the right environment reminds me of a conversation I had with Josh Diaz while we were training at Owl Hollow Park. I was telling him a story about a game I saw and he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He’s played with high-level ball players for so long that he doesn’t even understand that there’s a world where not every pitcher throws in the mid 80s and that not every hitter can rip a ball 300-plus feet in the opposite-field gap. I joked that he’s been playing high-level baseball for so long that he doesn’t even know what average looks like.
But that’s why he’s one of the best players in the state for his age group and works like an animal every session. He’s constantly in an environment where he’s coached hard and surrounded by the best ball players in the country.
You’re going to hear that your goal is unrealistic and not achievable. If you let that get into your head and not work hard, then it will become true. Put yourself in environments where you’re around players that are disciplined, on the same track and even around those that are better than you. It will push you to become the best version of yourself.
Average is the enemy of great. Put in the work and surround yourself with people that want to do the same and you’ll get to where you want to be.
Ben Mayfield-Smith speaking at the Super Coach Summit in Virginia in 2024.
I’ve been working with Ben Mayfield-Smith since the end of February on optimizing my nutrition and lifestyle so I can be in the best shape of my life by the end of the summer.
Ben is a competitive bodybuilder and the founder of Matter Athletica. Ben’s service is all-inclusive and covers training, nutrition and lifestyle coaching, among other things. He works with people in all walks of life, including competitive bodybuilders. Coaching people to perform on stage requires incredible precision and Ben is someone who is able to combine book smarts with actual “in the trenches” experience.
In addition to being a sender of great memes, he’s been a valuable asset to me. In a few months I will get into all of the things I’ve learned from Ben, but first I have to address a question I’ve been asked a few times:
“Why did you hire a coach?”
It usually comes with the follow-up question of “Aren’t you a coach?” It’s a fair question to be asked from somebody outside of the field, so I figured I would take the time to give a thoughtful answer.
To become a complete coach, there’s all of these buckets you need to fill. There’s a lot of them, but, for the sake of simplicity, let’s narrow it down to three: training, nutrition, rehab. In the past 11 years, I’ve been fortunate enough to travel all over and get the opportunity to meet and listen to the best coaches and practitioners in the world speak.
When you hear the best people speak on their respective area, you realize each bucket is deep and it only gets deeper the further you go down the rabbit hole. I’ve love to be a master of all, but it’s just not possible at the moment with two jobs. Because of my clientele being mostly youth and high school athletes, I’ve spent most of my continuing education on the training end of things.
Nutrition has always intrigued me. It started in 2015 when I met “The Guru” Tom Bilella and worked with him the next year where he took my bloodwork and taught me about food sensitivities. It continued with Justin Kavanaugh working on my own training program and giving me the 11-day diet plan that helped me shed and keep off 13 pounds. I learned the importance of proper supplementation from Jason Dhir of Ultra Human and Scott Mendelson of Infinity Fitness. Then, along the way, I watched Dr. Ken Kinakin show how food sensitivities altered muscle testing, Justin Harris break down carb-cycling and been blown away by all of Dr. Eric Serrano’s talks. They showed me how being truly powerful your nutrition and diet could be.
I was very fortunate to connect with Ben last year and have that lead to him coaching me this year. Let me break down why I wanted to be coached through my own transformation.
I went from 205.4 pounds on February 24th to 195.4 pounds on May 22nd working with Ben.
1-I ONLY WANT TO WORK WITH THE BEST
Most people will tell you that I am very cheap. I rarely buy myself new clothes or sneakers and keep my spending to the necessities and bills. The one area where I pull no punches is when it comes to my body or training. When it comes to my gym, I want the best equipment. For food and supplements, I’m always spending top dollar on what is the best on the market. For rehab and massage therapy, I only go to one guy who I know will have me fixed as quickly as possible. When you’ve been around the best, you’ll settle for nothing less. I’m a snob when it comes to that stuff.
Ben coaches everybody, but I highlight the fact that he works with competitive bodybuilders because that’s an art that requires everything to be precise. Every decision he makes needs to be perfect to make sure his clients show up on stage in the best condition possible. He’s also in the game himself so he utilizes everything that he preaches. He has a high standard for what he expects out of his clients because he also holds himself to the same standard.
Not only is he a great coach and competitor, he’s also a continuing student. He’s always taking some course or looking for ways to continue to get better. All of the smart practitioners I’ve been around and know are always looking to learn more and never settle. You hear it in the weekly recaps that he sends me where they are never the same and he’s always dropping some new nuggets of information.
Plus, I connected with him through The Coaches Room Mastermind. You can’t last in there as a charlatan. The BS detectors are on high alert there and you’ll be called out immediately. You also have to be a high-character person for Kav to let you in and Ben certainly checks off that box.
2-LEARN BY DOING
I’ve always heard that if you are new and want to learn how to train, ask the biggest guy in the gym. I don’t completely agree with that. I tweaked it a little bit. A saying that I believe in is if you want to learn about diet and nutrition, ask a bodybuilder. It’s worth double if you can find someone as smart as Ben. Bodybuilders know all of the diet hacks. They know what you need to do to put on size and they know what’s necessary to get super lean.
I’ve always wanted to learn more about nutrition and Ben is giving me the best of both worlds: I get to learn while getting into the best shape of my life. Every week Ben checks in with me and gives me my weekly podcast where he breaks down my week and what my next steps are. Every week he drops a new nugget of information that I didn’t know and answers every single question that I ask in detail.
I’m going to get into more detail on all of the things I’ve learned from this experience down the road. But, just to give you an idea, he gave me a whole stack of vitamins to take to help me with my seasonal allergies. Allergies crush me in the spring and I feel like a zombie. I’m constantly tired and my whole body is tight, no matter how much stretching or rolling I do. It’s enough to keep me out of the gym on certain days. His stack kept me moving.
All of this is making me a better coach. Nutrition wise, I knew what worked for me and was solid with the basics. I could give some guidance to my clients because they’re mostly kids and teenagers where just teaching them the basics works wonders for them. What’s helped with Ben is he’s given me the why behind a lot of what he does with me and it’s already helped me with consulting with my high school and college clients.
3-ACCOUNTABILITY
When I say accountability, it’s not that I need someone watching over my every move to make sure I’m doing the right thing. Anybody that knows me knows that I go hard whenever I’m trying to reach a goal, especially over the summer when I have a little more free time.
Without Ben, I know I could get into solid shape by the end of the summer. Most people don’t workout so when the average person sees me they’ll be pretty impressed. With that in mind, though, I could always slack off that tiny bit and have that extra cheat meal because I know, at the end of the day, nobody would be able to tell. I could even turn it into a cheat weekend. Even if I told them, they’d still say that it’s OK and it won’t make a difference. The average person will just see the before and after picture and be impressed.
With Ben, the goal has been raised higher. The goal isn’t just to be in good shape at the end. The goal is to be in the best shape I’ve ever been in. In order to do that, I have to be on-point with everything and keep my slip-ups to a minimum. Ben is an easy-going guy and he lets you know in a very nice way that you need to stay consistent. He knows how to make grilled chicken taste enjoyable for months, so he won’t except you saying that you need to go off the plan for a few days. He says it nicely, but you can read between the lines that you are expected to stick with the plan.
Also, this isn’t just about getting into great shape for me. I’ve told people that I’m working with Ben and it’s been posted and shared online that he’s working with me. I now represent what he does as a coach. I know that feeling as a coach where your athletes are a billboard for your standards. I want to make sure my results display all the work he’s put into me.
My 10-Year Training Anniversary was officially on February 7, 2024. I’m posting this as I’m about to complete my 11th year coaching. It’s not because I miscounted the years.
My original plan was to come out with a post where I was going to write about my 10 years in training on February 7. The problem is that as I was starting to write it, all these different ideas and memories kept popping into my mind. I didn’t want to gloss over anything, so I decided to space it out and make multiple posts. Multiple posts turned into four, then seven before finally giving you the eight posts below. I wanted to take my time with this, hence the late arrival.
For those who don’t know me that well, this will give you a pretty good idea of what I’ve done training wise the past 10 years. This takes you from when I first made the decision to decide to get into coaching all the way up to where I am now.
The idea was to give you my story, but I also wanted to make sure to shoutout all of the coaches that helped me and all of my clients who got me to this point. I had a lot of doubt early on about how long I’d be able to do this, but the coaches and clients I met along the way kept me in the game and got me to the point I’m at now.
I don’t advertise and there’s no contracts when you sign up with me. It’s pay as you go. If you don’t enjoy the service, you’re not contractually obligated to come again. It’s a referral-based business. I prefer it that way because it means the people are only coming back because they want to and I can vet the new prospects a lot better to make sure I’m getting solid people. It leads to no bad days.
As you saw in the last post, it wasn’t littered with hundreds of athletes that signed up to train. It’s just not possible for me to train that many people, even though every online coach claims they’ve trained thousands of pro athletes. I look for solid people and families that would be a good fit. It’s the quality over quantity saying. I’ve been blessed with that and wanted these posts to show my appreciation for it.
Me with Tyler Goldstein and Jason Gallo in August of 2024.
The Morton’s came through with another great family that’s been so supportive of me when they introduced me to the Gallo’s. Ali and John are always traveling to all these baseball tournaments and are always mentioning my name when someone shows interest in training. John is into training and fitness and it’s always fun talking shop with him after sessions. Ali is one of my biggest cheerleaders and she’s always on the same page as me since she works at a school, too. It’s like she knows what days are going to work for me and won’t work before I even message her. I first met the Gallo’s in the fall of 2022 when I started training Jordyn, but put them in this section since their youngest son, Jason, started training with me in 2024. Jordyn came to me with no athletic background, which actually was good because it gave me a clean slate to work with. Without any bad habits ingrained, she picked up on my cues quickly and became a really smooth runner. We’re aiming for her to run spring track at Tottenville High School.
I always joke that if we combined Jordyn’s form with the intensity of Jason, we’d have a high-level runner. What I love about Jason is he talks about baseball the way Mike Deats talks about hockey. Though undersized, Jason has made so much progress because of the work he puts into each exercise and all of the “extra credit” he does at home with his dad. He’s the youngest kid I’ve ever had perform multiple chin-ups. He’s got that love for baseball and is willing to put in the work to become a better player.
Me with Fatima after her track meet at St. Joseph by the Sea in 2024.
Another awesome brother-sister pair that I got to work with is Ali and Fatima. Their father, also Ali, worked out at Intoxx Fitness and asked John Errichello about training and he referred them to me. Both were very disciplined kids who succeed in the classroom and work hard in their extracurricular activities. They don’t take anything for granted. Ali is an outstanding soccer player and Fatima is a soccer and track athlete. Two of the easiest kids I’ve ever worked with and the hour flew by with them. They gave every repetition their best effort and listened intently to every word that came out of my mouth, so I had to make sure I was on my game. These kids are a coach’s dream.
Me with Josh Diaz after a tournament during Memorial Day Weekend in 2024.
Back when I started training Alex Diaz, him and his dad, Carlos, would tell me all about this younger cousin they had who they said was going to be a stud. I forgot about it when Alex’s uncle, John, texted me asking about getting training for his son, who was a pitcher and infielder. I was pretty booked, so I wasn’t looking to take on anyone else, but then I said in my head “how can you pass up a Diaz?” Thank God I didn’t. Josh Diaz is everything Alex and Carlos told me, and then some. When Josh and John come over for training, I get flashbacks to when Alex and Carlos were here. Josh is all business working out and John is filling me in on the travel circuit and the MLB. John and Carlos are people that you could talk baseball with for hours. What I try to explain to people when they come to me about training and what their goals are is that there’s levels to this. Josh flies all over the country and is nationally ranked, yet he never comes in and fools around or thinks he’s too good to do anything. I can tell you a lot of things about Josh, but, to put it simply: he’s what a high performer looks and acts like. Follow his demeanor if you want to make it to that next level.
When Jason Gallo started working with me in 2024, he didn’t come alone. He brought along Tyler Goldstein. Tyler and Jason were a solid youth group and made some good progress relatively quickly. Tyler bought into the monotony of training and focusing on perfecting each step before moving up. Tyler has the patience for it which has paid off for him this past year as he continues to grow. He also takes what he’s learned in the session and is working on it at home with dad, Eric. I only said that he used to train with Jason because now he has a new session partner, his dad. Training Eric and Tyler is one of the smoothest sessions of the week. We catch up briefly in the beginning and then they just get to work. It’s always great starting the week off with them. They’re the most easygoing people you’ll ever meet.
ANOTHER GROUP TRAINING OPPORTUNITY
With the Red Storm 14U squad after they played a triple-header in a South Jersey tournament in 2024.
I enjoy one-on-one and small-group training and do believe it is what I’m best at. But, after making a bunch of trips down to Virginia to see Justin Kavanaugh and what they were doing at SSI, I was interested in large-group training. It can be hectic, but it’s also a thrill because you have to make sure you organize everything and you’re always doing something. You have to keep your eyes on so many athletes that’s there’s never a minute where you can take your foot off the gas. I always left those large-group sessions wide awake because you’re always on the go.
With the Red Storm 12U team after our last team workout at Intoxx Fitness in March of 2024.
I didn’t know if I’d ever get another large group opportunity after working with Anthony Hillery at Petrides in 2021, but something finally came up in January of 2024. John Errichello gave me the chance to work with the 12U and 14U Red Storm softball teams at Intoxx Fitness. This would be the first time I ever got to train a whole team and I wanted this to go as well as it could. We met once per week for sessions at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. and it couldn’t have been a more fun experience. I got the chance to watch both of these teams play throughout the year and saw the 12’s play with the Great Kills squad in the all-star tournament. It really gave me a chance to get to know all the girls and see what great people they were and how committed they are. I’ve watched them practice and got to know the coaches throughout the year and it’s just such a well-run organization. Brielle Kerscher, Alyson Chiaramonte, and Christina D’Arpa are just great softball people that understand the game and have been so supportive of me. There’s just so much that goes into running these programs that I didn’t know about until meeting them. Sometimes I forget what teams Brielle and Alyson coach because I see them helping with all of the different teams. Christina was in a knee brace and I’d still see her hopping around and demoing drills to make sure they’re done right. They always made me feel welcome whenever I went to a game. Watching these girls play throughout the year and seeing the success they had was just as fun as the training. I’m thrilled that the training will continue in 2025 with the 10U, 12U, 14U and 16U squads.
BEYOND THE 10-YEAR MARK
The 10-year mark was officially on February 7, 2024. But, I realized I couldn’t fit everything I wanted to into a single post, so I needed the year to really think things through so I didn’t leave anything out. Of course, as that happened I picked up some more great people along the way.
Me with Jenna after her game in December of 2024.
I didn’t meet her until April of 2024, but I couldn’t write a series of posts talking about my athletes without mentioning Jenna Vollor. Jenna is a senior basketball player who will be continuing her career in college at Bryn Mawr in Philadelphia. I met Jenna through my old principal at P.S. 44, Joseph Miller. Mr. Miller was always great to me during my time at P.S. 44 and always told me he’d have sent his kids to train with me if it wasn’t for distance. He did the next best thing by sending me Jenna. Jenna is always striving to do her best in the classroom and is a student of the game. She understands the value of training and is willing to put in the work to do whatever it takes to get better, whether it’s with school or basketball. I love when athletes follow the pro game and Jenna’s knowledge of WNBA and NBA is unmatched. She’s got her traveling partner in her mom, Vanda, who will be with her at all her games, as well as traveling the east coast to watch all the top college teams play. I knew about baseball parents, hockey parents and soccer parents. Vanda taught me about what goes into the life of the basketball parent.
Two late additions to the training roster were Dennis and K.J. I used to work with Dennis’ mom, Melissa, at P.S. 44 and I remember helping her move a couch years ago and first meeting Dennis. He was almost bigger than me then. I’ve followed his exploits on the baseball field and basketball court throughout the years and look forward to turning him into the ball player he wants to be. In-between all of the conversations where he has to bring me up to date on everything, of course. K.J. plays baseball with Jason Gallo and told me in August of 2024 that it was my job to “turn this into something” as he pointed to his body. If he can help me get a sports collectible collection halfway as impressive as his dad, Keith’s, I’ll do whatever I can to help him reach his goal.
Working my first large group speed session at Petrides in 2021.
As I told you in my second post, I never liked selling. I was terrible at it and I didn’t like the idea of having to convince people to sign up for training for me. I want to train people that want to be there and want my services. If I have to plead for your business, it’s not going to work out for either of us.
When you’re training people who are a pain in the ass and aren’t invested, it sucks. It turns a passion into a job. Running my business on my own allowed me the chance to make it what I wanted it to be. I have the luxury of having a full-time teaching job, which means I’m not dependent upon coaching to pay my bills. I don’t have to sell people on my training and I don’t try to either. You either want to be here or don’t. I’ll get into it more in a later post, but I just want to train a group of athletes at all levels who want to get better and will bring it every session. I don’t want to be overwhelmed with clients because I don’t have enough time and I want to be able to really get to know the ones I train.
To keep this business going, I had to expand my reach. Fortunately, Gabe Pimenta, who I’ve said has always been in my corner, put me in touch with Marc Goldberg. Marc, who I can’t remember everything he does, so I’ll just say he’s very involved in the sports scene on Staten Island, let me train his daughter, Annalise. Annalise is a stand-out flag football player and just one of those kids who gets it. She was in fourth grade at the time, but had the maturity of a high-school kid. I really had to be on my game training her because she listened intently to everything I said and made training observations that kids her age don’t make. Three years later, Marc sent me he son Brylan to train, too.
Marc was another guy that was always looking out for me and supported what I did. He made training his kids easy because he was always accommodating. He also sent so many kids my way when parents reached out to him about speed and agility training. The biggest reason I’ve been able to expand my reach has been because of Marc. Any coach will tell you working with quality parents is just as important as the kids and that’s a trend you’re going to see throughout this post.
Me with Taylor after a soccer game at Owl Hollow Park in 2023.
Marc always sent me good people and the first good one came in August of 2021 with Taylor Morton. Taylor was a soccer player and reminded me of Juliana Carrara. Those girls soccer players are just built different and can make a case for being the toughest athletes. I still remember our first session and it was hot at the Bloomingdale Park turf and Taylor was running through every drill without taking a break. It got to the point where I had to force her to take a break. I also remember she didn’t really talk much for the first six months. I’d have to get all my information from her parents, Jimmy and Theresa. Jimmy, who was a wide receiver at St. John’s, was always somebody good to talk to when I was having a bad day because he’s on the same page with me when it comes to the Giants and Yankees. Theresa, from her many soccer travels, helped fill me in on what off-sides meant and we would count down the days to summer as fellow teachers. They told me Taylor’s silence wasn’t the case at home and now I get everything from her when she comes for her lifts. I get good lifts and all the gossip. Watching her grow up and make it into her dream school, St. Joseph by the Sea, has been so much fun to see.
The summer of 2021 also gave me my first opportunity to run a large group session on my own thanks to Anthony Hillery. Anthony was the varsity baseball coach at Petrides and ran a sports camp over the summer at the high school. He posted online that he was looking for recommendations from friends on coaches who would volunteer to help for a day. Steve Hemmes and Patrick Murphy both knew Anthony and were both nice enough to throw my name into the hat. Anthony gave me the opportunity to take a large group of high school athletes through a morning speed and agility session. I’ll never forget that day. Anthony is a great person who was just so good to me that day and made sure everything ran smoothly for me. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a morning person. I went into that day pretty tired, but left ready to conquer the day because it was exhilarating being the head person in charge of a group session that large. I did get flashbacks to my first speed session at SSI in 2016, but this one ran smoothly thanks to things Kav taught me since then.
Me with John after his last session in June of 2022.
Right before 2021 ended, I picked up an old friend from Intoxx Fitness in John Schulman. When I trained John at the gym, he was playing flag football and his dad, Bryan, was telling me how he was going to get him into tackle. When John came back to me a few years later, I was worried my gym wasn’t big enough because the young flag football quarterback turned into a 6-foot-4 monster offensive lineman. I only had him for a few months because he was moving to South Carolina, but he went hard outdoors on the turf and in the gym to get himself ready for playing football down south. He was the first lineman I ever trained so he would take me through all the things he wanted to improve on when we were outside and he gave me a crash course in how to be a lineman.
John Carlson, with his sons Jack and Justin after winning a flag football championship in 2023.
My first big addition of 2022 came when Morton’s delivered the Carlson’s. The Carlson’s are your prototypical sports family, in addition to just being all-around great people. The father, John, is a football-guy through-and-through and somebody that would do whatever it took to help his sons succeed. Jeanine is a sports mom who not only racks up the miles driving to her kids sports games, but goes across the country taking her kids to see all the pro stadiums. The training started with Justin in 2022 and a couple of years later Jack joined in. Justin is a football player entering his junior year at Manalapan High School, but we still got plenty of baseball talk mixed in there as he would tell me about all of the baseball stadiums he visited. Unfortunately, he’s known as the “baseball fraud” because he would bring both teams hats to a game to try and get balls during batting practice. Jack, if you couldn’t tell from the face in the picture, is a linebacker who doesn’t shy away from contact. He’ll also crack you up with one of his one-liners when you least expect it. The fact that this family travels from New Jersey to come train with me makes me grateful for every session we have together.
Me with A.J. after our last session in July of 2023.
The Goldberg tree of referrals continued into the summer of 2022 when he sent over the prodigy, A.J. Galli. My favorite A.J. story happened during our second session together. For our first session, his dad, Steve, who was another parent that just treated me fantastic, gave me five kids to run a group session the first time I met him. A.J. was one of the five and this was the first time he’d ever been with me. The next time we met for a one-on-one session, he remembered every exercise all the way from the first warm-up and the order they were run in. He actually told me when we ran one exercise out of order. He was 7 at the time. A.J. was a star in the classroom, on the baseball field, when he played flag football and, especially when he played golf, where he traveled all over for tournaments. He was so mature about training at 7 years old that you couldn’t talk to him like a regular kid. His demeanor and processing made it where I treated him like he was in high school. Iy took me a while to adjust. He honestly did not mind training in any condition and we did. His last session with me was in July of 2023 because he moved to Florida and you can see it started raining when we took our picture. I actually had to tell him the session was over because he was ready to go for another half-hour. A.J. and Steve were just so great to work with and I miss them everyday.
What you notice throughout the writing of all my athletes is how great they are to work with and the great families they come from. When you’re working with kids, the families are just as important as the athletes you’re training and these people, along with the ones I’ll talk about in my final post are all tremendous people. The hardest part when writing all these is figuring out different adjectives to use instead of great and awesome.
2020 was a year we would all like to forget. There was a period of a few months where I had to figure out where the money was going to come from. My teaching position got cut and it didn’t look like I would be training anyone in the near future, or ever again. It was just so sudden to think that after all these years of training and traveling that it was all just going to end.
Right before the pandemic, I ordered an elitefts power rack so I could do the big three lifts (squat, bench press and deadlift) at home. (Have to give a shoutout to Matt Goodwin for all the help setting up my gym. He told me back in 2017 that he would guide me on equipment whenever I was ready and he certainly came through.) The powerlifting craze was underway and every kid with their gummy bears and candy needed the rack or platform for more than hour. Then, when the pandemic started, we didn’t know when gyms would open up, so me and my brother, James, started designing a full gym where we could lift together with all of the necessary equipment. It kept us sane during that unusual year. Here’s what I wrote about the gym back in 2020.
Olivia Palumbo deadlifting 240 pounds for 5 reps before starting her junior season at Hunter College.
The gym was designed for me and my brother, there was never any intention of training anyone else down there. For us, it gave us a chance to lift to together while watching sports. We would never miss another game because we were at the gym. But, around February of 2020, Mr. Palumbo kept putting the idea of training his daughter, Olivia, in my basement. She had a couple of paid sessions left over from the gym, so, after a couple of months, she started coming over that summer. She would train in my basement for the entirety of her college career and a lot of core gym memories happened during that time. She’s the second longest tenured athlete I’ve trained and the first athlete to train with me from middle school throughout college. I always believed in developing a system of taking athletes from the youth level and building them up gradually to prepare them for high school and college and she gave me the opportunity to see it through. The training was fun because it was really the first time we had access to everything without having to worry about other people using the equipment we needed. She worked so hard and always brought a positive attitude to every session. It was great watching her develop into a multiple time all-conference selection and a member of the 100-hit club. I didn’t realize it at the time, but she got the ball rolling on this next chapter of my training career.
I didn’t think in 2020 that I would be training Juliana and watching her play four years later.
Shortly after, Juliana Carrara reached out and she’s the one that gave me the idea to do speed and agility work at nearby Owl Hollow Park. Just like with Olivia, she had a few paid sessions left over from the gym, so I wanted to give her the opportunity to use them. At that time, I figured we would just do a few sessions and then she would be back at college. I didn’t realize she would come back during breaks and the summer and would become the first college athlete I’d train until they graduated. She brought that same never give up attitude that she showed in the gym and also I got to see the pointing when we trained outside. Then you had our indoor sessions, which were actually a break for her since she got to work out in the air conditioning and were sandwiched between individual work in the morning and evening team practices. Getting the chance to train Juliana again also meant I’d still get my occasional texts from Mare Bear.
It meant a lot that both girls reached out to train with me again. I’ve always wanted to show my athletes that I do truly care about them and the advice and support extends outside of the sessions. I was a little taken aback when I found out someone tried to take them from me, even after it was established that they were both working with me, but I appreciated that they told me right away who it was and never gave the offer a thought.
Positive momentum was building and it continued over the summer when parents of kids I trained started reaching out and asking if I was going to do any training. James Johnson’s mom, Melanie, was the first parent of my youth group to reach out. Olivia was the only one I was training indoors at the time and I wasn’t too sure about having kids train in the basement because the equipment wasn’t all there. The stuff I had could really only be used with my older athletes. Based on the idea that came from Juliana, I offered up outdoor training and she said that was no problem. My solo sessions with James turned into group sessions because she was helping spread the word and would bring James’ friends from hockey to join. One of his friends Jordan, would join James when we eventually moved indoors and would do solo sessions, as well.
It was the first time I was getting cash for sessions and it really opened my eyes. I was just taking things day-by-day during this time because I didn’t know when it was going to end. But, ideas started floating in my head and this made the idea of training on my own more real because I saw that I could run the business the way I wanted to. Since I was getting 100% of the profits from my sessions, I could keep it where I trained a small group of athletes over the course of a week and give them the full attention needed to truly learn them and help them develop.
Me with Gabe on his last session with me in 2022.
While I was training James, Gabe Pimenta reached out and I started working with his son, Gabe, again, as well as his younger daughter, Juliette. This was around the time little Gabe was becoming big Gabe, but, unfortunately, they moved two years later. Like I said in the last post, Gabe was just an awesome person to have in my corner because he always supported what I did. Right before he left, he played a role in helping my client base extend outside of people I trained at the gym. I’ll always be thankful for him.
The training would extend over the Outerbridge and into New Jersey with Derek and Ava. Again, this whole training business was done on the fly and I didn’t have anything to offer them on Staten Island because I wasn’t working with kids indoors yet and I wasn’t going to back them drive down here to use the park. The Fernandez family couldn’t have been more accommodating. The reached out right before the school year was starting and they had the perfect backyard to train in and actually had more equipment than I had. Both kids were making progress and I can’t say enough about how good that family was to me. They made the trip to New Jersey well worth it.
With Mike Deats after Farrell won the city championship in the winter of 2024.
Now, I tried to do this post in the order that everyone returned. So, the only reason it took this long to get to Mike Deats is because he came back right around the winter time. I can’t tell the story of my training career without mentioning the Deats family. In addition to being the longest tenured athlete I’ve trained, his family with Samantha and Alex have been ultra supportive of me and his dad, Dennis, helped me build my gym out. These are people that have truly been with me since the start. I’m forever grateful for that and it’s always a pleasure seeing the whole family at the Pavilion for Mike’s Farrell games. During my time at Intoxx Fitness, Dennis always told me that if I ventured out on my own he would help me build anything I needed. I wound up reaching out during the spring of 2020, not realizing the gym he was helping me build would be the new home of Guthrie Training.
I hadn’t seen Mike for a few months after Dennis helped me out and when I finally did, I thought he had an older brother that he never told me about. One thing Mike did during 2020 was grow. Mike transformed from a kid I trained to a man I had to get ready for high school. He had that focus and buy-in that you see from the best and he was, and still is, determined to be the best hockey player he can be. Watching him grow from a youth player at the youngest level into a city champion and two-time varsity starter at Monsignor Farrell High School has been a pleasure. I’ve had those moments watching him play where I say to myself in my head, “this is why you got into training.” If I ever say anything that sounds smart in regards to hockey, it’s because Mike taught me about it during a session. He loves learning about the history of hockey and he’s known to drop these hockey gems of information about teams, players and equipment from almost 50 years ago in-between sets of pull-ups and deadlifts.
It was great having all of my athletes from my time at Intoxx Fitness reach out to me to continue their training with me. I try my best to give everybody my all and show them that I care about their successes inside and outside the weight room and for them to think of me when it came to their training, meant a hell of a lot. Intoxx wasn’t done giving me clients because Mike Giliotti, once again, came through and delivered me a stud in Alex Diaz. Mike does not play around when it comes to training, so for him to reach out and give me a potential client that inquired with him because he thought I was the best choice for them is something I still think about to this day.
Me with Alex Diaz after he had a summer league game in July of 2021.
All I knew was Alex was a baseball player interested in training. I had no idea I was getting a family that lived and breathed baseball and a kid that was willing to do whatever it took to get better. Out of everyone I trained, Alex made the quickest transformation I’ve ever seen. His dad, Carlos, in addition to being a great person was a former body builder, but there’s something in that Diaz blood that makes them different. I just remember Alex laying on the floor after the first workout, joking that the session was tough. I was shocked because I never plan to make any session grueling, especially the first one. What took place over the next five months was something I couldn’t even predict. I will preface this by saying Alex came to me three times per week because he was home since his school was still doing remote learning. After that first session, he absolutely took off by bringing this intense focus that very few have and making great strength and speed gains along the way. He never missed a session.
Our sessions were long and he would still ask if there was more when we were done. My favorite story we got hit with a big snow storm my block was a private neighborhood so we were really snowed in. I had to cancel training because I had to help my neighbors shovel and I thought it was a pretty easy choice to make. I had to spend an hour through text convincing Alex not to come. He told he would walk through the snow to make it, but I really couldn’t do the session because I had shovel out a bunch of my neighbors. I knew he was determined, but that conversation is one I’ll never forget. Right there I was getting a lesson about what separates the great from the average.
So much happened from March to December and I appreciate everyone that came back to me from the gym for what they did for me. They turned a hectic year where we saw things we never saw before, into a turning point in my life. I went from thinking training was done to we’ll see how long this can last to I think we got a business here. The next post, which will be the final one, will show how the reach of my training expanded to outside of the circle people I knew from Intoxx.
One thing I always believe to this day is that if you are involved in something, no matter how small that role is, you have a chance to do what you want to do. To win the game, you need to be in the game. With training, even when things weren’t looking great for me, I felt that I always had a chance to do what I wanted to do if I could put myself in the right situations.
I didn’t know what was going to happen when I made my first trip to Virginia. But, by making the trip, I met some great people and it opened me up to a whole world that I didn’t even know existed. Plus, when you’re around positive people who are good at what they do, you leave with a completely different mindset and it has a compounding effect.
Two months after that trip, I went from having no clients that were athletes to getting my first group of youth athletes. This group led to three kids sticking with me and, along the way, I’d pick up momentum and get clients during this four-year stretch that stuck with me for the next six-to-eight years.
Christian Smith during one of our one-on-one sessions working on his jumps.
John Errichello offered me the opportunity to train a youth hockey team called the Bayonne Rangers that were coached by Mike Smith. It was a group of seven and eight year olds that included Mike Deats, James Johnson and Smith’s son, Christian. It started off as a group of about six-to-seven kids per week, but, with any group of young kids trying a training program, the numbers dwindled down after a couple of months. It was definitely a learning experience training a group of kids that young, but it led to me keeping Mike, James and Christian as long-term clients. Throughout my 10 years, Mike Deats is actually the client that’s been with me the longest. I’ll have more on him in the next post.
James Johnson trained with me for four years and helped my business by bringing plenty of friends.
Mike Smith was helpful as I was getting started because he was a parent that saw the importance of strength training and would spread the word that parents should send their kids to me, which was huge. James’ parents, Melanie and James, were also very helpful and would send me some of James’ friends to come and tag along. All of a sudden, every time you saw me in the gym, I was with a group of kids and was getting known as someone who offers youth training.
Me with Olivia after she was a part of a city championship her sophomore year in 2019.
As I was working with them, I started my work with the Palumbo family. Robert Palumbo, who was my assistant principal, sent his son Christian, a hockey and baseball player at St. Joseph by the Sea, to me. Christian worked hard and could make the lighter sessions look intense because of how much he sweat. He was great because he was always the first session I’d have right after school. I’m already tired from school and session will dictate the rest of my day and he made the time fly by. He wouldn’t be the only family member I trained as his younger sister, Olivia, signed up a year later. She’s been with me for seven years, which makes her the second longest tenured athlete I’ve trained. Olivia and Christian were just two athletes that were all go for the entire session. I had to force them to take breaks. She was another determined athlete who would come to sessions in full uniform right after games to get her work in. The only thing that I’ve seen stop her in seven years was a polish sandwich. I’ll have more on her in my next post because she was one of the main reasons behind the training at the home gym getting started.
Me with Juliana after a high school playoff win that sent her team to the championship in 2018.
Another valuable member of the team who would join Olivia for some of my best group sessions and soon became the first college athlete I trained was Juliana Carrara. Three things I always think about with her are her finger pointing, dry sense of humor and mental toughness. The story I still think about to this day is the one I posted on Instagram a little more than a month ago. She had a two-hour plus drive back and forth to set up for college, but was feeling very sick. She self-diagnosed herself with the “plague” and texted me at 3 p.m. that she would be unable to make the session. She never cancels, so it was never a problem, but then, about 90 minutes later, I got a text that she would be there for the session. When you’re dealing with kids like that the training part is easy.
Mike Stumpf graduated from the US Naval Academy in 2021.
The high school training would continue to pick up with the additions of Ethan Bloom and Mike Stumpf. The one of the highest compliments I could give anyone I trained is they made the job fun and that was the case with Ethan, the baby goat. He was a lacrosse player at Tottenville and kept me up to date on all the lingo the kids were using. Training wise, I’m most proud of how he took things to the next level in college. He set a goal for himself and just got after it hard on his own and you can’t teach that. He came back for some training over the summer when he was in college, but the job was easy because he was doing so much on his own. Mike was another one who just brought the intensity every session. He was getting ready to go to Navy and already had a long day because he went to school at Xavier in the city and was on the swim team. We had to train later at night and you would never know how long his day was because of the way he attacked every session. Mike was a guy that made the most of every minute of every session. We had a goal to reach and a short amount of time to do it and we got it done because of the intensity and consistency he brought.
There’s not many photos of me coaching, but Little Gabe was a part of one of the few I had.
Towards the end of this stretch, the youth training picked up a nice boost from some good people at the gym. Gabe Pimenta sent over his son “Little Gabe”, who’s definitely not little anymore. It took a while to get Little Gabe to talk to me, but he came to work, just like his dad did every day in the gym. Big Gabe was always an advocate for my training and it really meant a lot to me when he trusted me to train his son.
I got another confidence boost when the owner of Intoxx Fitness, Mike Giliotti, referred his niece and nephew, Ava and Derek Fernandez, to me. I hadn’t mentioned it yet, but Mike, like John, is someone I’ve known at the gym since I started training there in high school in 2002. It was always good talking to Mike about the new gym equipment he was getting and talking about the seminars I went to. He always made me feel valuable. If you’ve ever seen him, you’d know he’s someone who takes training seriously, so it was an honor that he sent family to me. Ava and Derek came from New Jersey to train with me and you couldn’t ask for two better kids to work with. There was none of that brother-sister bickering and they were nothing but respectful and hard working.
Looking back at the end of 2019, it was unbelievable how far things had come for me in the youth/high school training department. It went from a pipe dream to it becoming something I was starting to get known for.
ADULT TRAINING WAS STILL GOING
Even though youth and high school training was my focus, I did enjoy training adults. Working in schools, I’m around kids all day, so it is nice to talk to people my age every once in a while.
Joe Ursini flipping the tire at 9:30 at night after a long day of working and commuting.
I wasn’t a big fan of training people late at night, but one guy who made it worthwhile over the summer was Joe Ursini. I was working at a camp during the day and was usually pretty tired by night time, but Joe made it worth it. Joe was a pretty laid back dude, but he didn’t mess around during his sessions. I only had him for the summer and some time over the winter, but he made every session count. He worked in the city during the day and couldn’t get to the gym until late at night, so you’d think the sessions would be pretty easy going and not trying to do too much. The effort he put in and the progress he made left me with another problem, it was hard falling asleep at night because I would be amped up at 10 p.m. He was the first person I got to bench press 225 pounds, which if you knew what I was benching during that time, you’d know it was a big deal to me. He’d come in to the session saying we should take it easy, then the weights would start flying.
Just as I was finishing with Joe, Brian MacIver, a friend of John, came along. Brian, who had a nickname we aren’t allowed to say here, was the first person to give me cash for sessions. That right there put him at the top of the list. But, in addition to being a good person, he was willing to do whatever I had planned. He would deadlift, push the sled, use the ropes or whatever other thing I had in mind. If I learned something new and needed someone to try it out, he would do it for me. Whenever I went to a seminar, he would joke and ask me when we were going to be doing that.
Stephanie deadlifted 135 pounds for 8 reps and loved every minute of it.
Then, a friend from school, Stephanie Tritto, now Micciulla, signed up for training to get ready for her wedding with the great Andrew. Stephanie helped get me through graduate school, so it was only right that I do something in return. Stephanie would jokingly break my chops, but she was another one who would do whatever I asked. She would push the prowler in all directions, trap bar deadlift and any other exercise that works, but you wouldn’t associate with leaning down for a wedding. She was always accommodating and would come right after school or later at night, if it worked better for me. I could do longer sessions with her because Andrew loved working out and the longer I was with her, the more work he could get done. The last adult client I’d have during my time was Cheryl Lafer, who signed up because of the recommendation from Camille Faccio. Like Camille, she made great progress, losing 40 pounds in six months.
PERSONAL GROWTH
During this time, I accomplished some big personal goals of mine. I’ve written about them on here previously, so I’ll just add the links so I don’t have to rehash it again. I know coaches have their thoughts on certifications, but one certification I always wanted to have was the Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) from the NSCA. This was one that I saw that a lot of the coaches I followed had and one necessary if you ever wanted to work with pro or collegiate teams. I couldn’t take it when I started training because you were required to have a degree in an exercise related field. When I saw that they switched the requirement to just needing a bachelor’s degree, I jumped on the opportunity and passed the test in 2017.
For a couple of years, Justin Kavanaugh offered to write a training program for me to follow. He always told me he would, but I felt bad asking him to do it. Finally, in 2017, I reached the point where I needed something new and wanted to see what his programming would do for me. It was a game-changer. It got me into the best shape I’ve ever been in, taught me a lot about programming and made me the strongest I’d ever been. The trend of me taking my training up a notch started because of this program. Here’s Part 1 and Part 2 of my time on his program.
I didn’t realize it at the end of 2019, but Ava and Derek were going to be a part of a core group of youth, high school and even collegiate athletes that took my training to the next level. They joined Mike Deats, James Johnson, Olivia, Juliana and Gabe in taking a career that I thought was finished to the next level.
Justin Kavanaugh training former Navy QB Keenan Reynolds. Reynolds finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy race in 2015.
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.
Justin Kavanaugh training former Navy QB Keenan Reynolds. Reynolds finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy race in 2015.
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 grow exponentially and 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.
Spotting Trey Edmunds, who went on to play for the New Orleans Saints and Pittsburgh Steelers, during the 225 Bench Press Test.
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 (now he’s Dr. Dylan) worked with these guys for hours and saw real high-level coaching that you hear about, but never see. People that know Dylan now know that he’s one of the best. But I got to see him before he even graduated and he was already speaking and coaching at a level that few are able to. I also saw how sessions should be run from the youth through collegiate level from watching Allan Africa, ConnerCrowell, Jon Lamb, Lars Stevenson (now he’s Dr. Lars), Thomas Mayhugh, Harrison Leep, Amy Driessen and Gabi Morrison coach. I was getting the chance to watch coaches who had experience playing their sport at the collegiate level or got to work in a collegiate setting coach athletes.
I got to watch Jason Rogers train for the Tokyo Olympics in 2019.
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 NickMayhugh for the Olympics. I mean where else are you going to get these type of opportunities as someone who works at a commercial gym?
Me with Adam Feit after the 2017 Speed and Power Summit
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.
I met former NY Rangers S&C coach Reg Grant at the Pro Coaches Clinic.
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.
Me with Dave Tate after the elitefts Sports Performance Summit in 2017.
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 Summit and Business seminars.
During my trips to Ohio, I got to meet Ben Hollander. We talked online because we both went through the DeFranco SB911 challenge. He would have won his year, but he started off in too good of shape and they had to make another category for him. As a fellow Las Vegas aficionado, it was great finally meeting him in person and he would show me where the best spots to eat in the area were. He’s one of those guys I’ve been able to follow throughout the years and it’s been awesome seeing him move up the ranks to becoming a strength coach at Arizona University.
Me with Matt Nichol at SWIS 2024 in Toronto.
As I started to get to know more of the speakers at SWIS, one presentation that was always must-see for me was Matt Nichol’s. Matt’s presentation in 2015 was actually the first one I ever attended. I still go back to it because in-between the Simpson’s references and funny stories about his trip to Westside, Matt talks about seeing the forest through the trees. It was a part of his presentation I’d refer back to frequently because it gives you some guidance when you feel like you’re drowning in new information to the point where you’ll never catch up. At the last SWIS in 2024, he joked with me that this was where we would have our annual meeting.
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.
Me and Gary Mahabir with Ian King after he presented in Virginia in 2018.
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.
Me with Dr. Ken Kinakin after he presented in Virginia in 2019.
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. Through Kav’s in-house seminars and the times at SWIS, it was always great getting to see Ken. Even when he’s got thousands of things going on and he’s running around everywhere, he always takes the time to welcome you. 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.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in life as I’ve gotten older is that not everybody wants you to win. It’s a harsh reality, but one you need to learn. The secret is to find those few people who truly want you to succeed and do whatever you can not to lose them. That’s what impressed me about Kav’s Coaches Room Mastermind where I’ve been able to connect with great coaches from all across the country. I picture a few of them reading this and laughing, but I do leave every event with a better mindset.
Me with CJ, Kav and Gary after a Mastermind event at CJs gym in 2021.
One of the guys I reconnected with in the group is the Beard Boss CJ Appenzeller. CJ is just an awesome dude who will take you in and help you out however he can. 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. He’s been so helpful to me. Two areas where I know he’ll give me the best of the best are when I have a baseball training question or when I need an impression of a coach. He’s impressions are top notch. 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. There’s a lot of things you can say about Gary, but, to put it simply, it’s great having somebody like him in your corner.
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.
Kav took the mastermind group to the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas in 2018.
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, there’s not a chance of that happening. I wouldn’t have that confidence without the experiences and people I’ve met over this time.
When I was starting out in 2014, I couldn’t ever imagine having these experiences. I figured that I would start going to conferences, but I couldn’t picture it happening anywhere close to this level. 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.
Luke deadlifting 345 pounds on his final session with me.
Now that I had a couple of clients on my roster, the next step was to figure out how to break into the athletic training space. I was drawn to training youth and high school athletes because of my background, but I had no leads in sight. Plus, it didn’t help that I was being told that it wouldn’t be sustainable or even possible for me. It hurt to hear that, but it didn’t really deter me because I wanted to be around sports.
I know I work with mostly youth athletes now, but the idea of youth training didn’t cross my mind at the time. I was working in a gym where the youngest people there were in high school. Instagram and social media wasn’t what it is now, so I didn’t really know of anybody that was doing youth training.
I finally got my break in 2015, but it came with a caveat. I hated selling, but you better believe I put on my best salesman work when Joe Desilvio and Luke Santore came in. I sold to them like my life depended on it and I was able to land them both. Unfortunately, they told me ahead of time they wanted to do one contract’s worth of training. Joe had baseball coming up and his summer was swamped and Luke just wanted to get started so then he could go off and train on his own. They were upfront about it and they gave me a chance, all I could ask for.
Not what I wanted to hear, but beggars can’t be choosers and I was determined to give them the best experience they could get. Joe was a baseball player at Monsignor Farrell High School, where I played growing up, so he was everything I was looking for. I was excited landing him as a client because I always wanted to work with high school baseball players and I got the opportunity to break out some of the baseball and athletic training exercises and drills I’ve been reading about. I didn’t have him for long, but the good news was he wound up making the varsity team and then, two years later, continued playing baseball at John Jay College.
Luke deadlifting 345 pounds on his final session with me.
Joe I had a couple of months, but the 15-year-old Luke and his dad gave me a year. Luke wasn’t on any teams, but definitely could have been a football player if he chose that route. I thought we were going to have to take things slow, but he was a gym rat by day one. Over time, I gave him stuff to do on his own and I’d see him every week getting after it. The year was awesome and his lifts went through the roof. On his last session, he deadlifted 345 pounds and was close to bench pressing 225 pounds. I knew he would be good on his own, but man it was hard letting him go knowing what could have been if I had another year. I still see him at the gym and he’s a monster.
So far, things were looking pretty good. But, the trajectory shifted and it had me questioning myself. Luke and Joe were awesome, but they were soon gone. Camille was doing amazing work, but she was moving. Jess was flipping tires, box squatting and pushing sleds, but she moved, too. I was losing people. And, while it was for circumstances out of my control, it hurt. These were people that helped me grow up in this business and losing them never crossed my mind (except for the boys, I knew I only had them for one contract). I’d pick up people here and there, but they’d either do the three-session trial or sign up for a month and then be gone.
The doubts start creeping in again. How am I going to sell myself to more people? I thought I was starting to get passed that. Then, I’m looking at myself in the mirror and wondering if I’d ever actually get myself in any real shape. How could I be a trainer if I can’t even get myself in better shape? The doubts were coming out of the woodworks.
For the past couple of years, I’d been following Joe DeFranco and running his training programs for myself. He came out with a podcast in 2014 and made an announcement in March that he was coming out with a new program. His “Westside for Skinny Bastards” program was his main online program that he was known for and he was coming out with the upgraded version called SB911. If you were a part of his Insider group, which I was, you’d get to test out the program and be a part of a transformation contest.
I’ve never really made a transformation in my own training before, but was willing to go out given the stakes. I didn’t care about winning, I just cared about placing in the top 3 because that would give you a one-hour consultation with Joe D. and Jim “Smitty” Smith. I felt like it was perfect timing because I needed a kick in my training and would be going to Las Vegas for the first time over the summer, where I’d have to take my shirt off to go into the pools.
I figured it was put up or shut up time. If I’m really as upset as I claim to be and want to do all these things as a coach, well here’s my chance to take a stand. I’ve written and talked about it so much, so I’ll just save you some time and tell you I won. I talked about winning the contest on my site here.
Making that much progress, getting compliments from people and finding out I won gave me a huge boost in confidence. I thought maybe I actually can do something now that I’ve shown that I could actually get myself in shape. This contest opened up the door to me traveling to seminars.
Me with Joe DeFranco after his presentation at SWIS 2015.
I’ve heard so many coaches that I followed online talk about what they’ve learned from going to seminars across the country and interacting with different coaches. For the longest time, I had no idea where to even look for these events. I developed a small online friendship with Joe D. through the contest, so I finally got the courage in late August during one of his Q & A’s to ask him if he would be presenting anywhere.
That’s when he brought up the SWIS Symposium. He said it was up in Toronto in November and it was one of the best seminars that was out there. If you were going to go to any seminars, this would be the one to go to. He said the things you’ll learn there will blow you away. After going to SWIS every year since, I can tell you it’s the best run seminar there is. I’ve never flown anywhere solo before. It was costly and I wasn’t making much money, so I did have a conversation with my mom about whether or not it was worth it. I was leaning towards doing it and she pushed me towards booking it. She became a fan of Joe which helped.
Me with Dr. Tom after his presentation at SWIS 2015.
At the time, I had no idea that I was going to be making a trip that would change the entire course of my training career. And I wouldn’t have any idea of that for a few months after the fact. The trip to Toronto started off with a bang because I met up with Dr.Tom Bilella, who most know as Dr. Tom. Dr. Tom came up to me when we landed because he saw I was wearing a DeFranco hoodie and introduced himself and offered to pay for a cab to the hotel. Dr. Tom was speaking at SWIS and worked closely with Joe D. for a lot of years. Here I was, a nobody in a sea of some of the best coaches in the world, and Dr. Tom made sure I was comfortable. He was an awesome man and actually worked with my mom, my aunt and me on nutrition and taught us a whole lot.
SWIS was part inspirational and part disheartening. Seeing all of these high-end presentations opened my eyes to what is truly out there in the training world. I saw there are so many things out there that the average person couldn’t comprehend. It made me want to get to that level. While that was good, it was also quite humbling. It showed me how little I know. I didn’t really know where to go for certain time slots, I was mostly there for Joe D’s presentation, and wound up sitting in presentations where I had no clue what was being said. The stuff was going right over my head and it had me wondering if I’d ever be able to learn and apply even a fraction of the things being discussed. This was a conference was so high level that you could be in a presentation where the attendees are more distinguished than some of the presenters.
I’m just sitting there listening to stories about these guys training and treating all sorts of pro athletes, Olympians and teams and their state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. These guys have all these stories and I’m making $10-to-$15 an hour training out of a commercial gym. I was the small fish in a very large pond. I did take some pictures and talk to some people, but the imposter syndrome was kicking in. I did not feel like I belonged.
On the last day, I ran into Justin Kavanaugh and Dylan Seeley. Both of them could see that I was the odd man out, but came up and talked to me. Justin bet Dylan that I wouldn’t email him and connect with him. I’m a terrible salesperson and not good at being social in crowds where I don’t know anybody, but I am good at getting back to people after connecting. That was one thing I learned from working in sports media.
The first thing I did when I got home was send Justin an email. I didn’t know much about him and I didn’t know if he would ever get back to me. He never responded to my email, which anyone who knows Justin will laugh about, but he did friend me on Facebook in December.
I had no idea if anything would come of that email. I just went about my days wondering where I would go as a coach. I would find out the implications of that email the next year.
