Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Project EP. 32 - Sacramento Kings Head Strength Coach Ramsey Nijem

Episode Date: April 9, 2018

We went Live with the Sacramento Kings Head Strength Coach, Ramsey Nijen. Ramsey studied at UCSB where he earned his BA, Cal State Fullerton where he earned his MS in Kinesiology and Sports Performance and is finishing his Doctorate of Science in Human and Sports performance and Health. In short, he knows what he's talking about. Ramsey has worked for the Sacramento Kings for the passed four years and is one of the youngest Strength Coaches in the entire NBA. Re-Watch the Live Stream here: https://youtu.be/6HWJW5kofUM ➢Subscribe Rate & Review on iTunes at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-bells-power-project/id1341346059?mt=2 ➢Listen on Stitcher Here: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mark-bells-power-project?refid=stpr ➢Listen on Google Play here: https://play.google.com/music/m/Izf6a3gudzyn66kf364qx34cctq?t=Mark_Bells_Power_Project ➢Listen on SoundCloud Here: https://soundcloud.com/user-921692324 ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell

You feel super short around those dudes, huh? Around everybody in the building. Because even Paige and Vladdy in front office have played before. Yeah, Vladdy ain't short. We saw him walking around. He looked like a dinosaur cruising around there. Yeah, he's big time. He's huge.

So what do some of these players call you when you're in there working with a team? My favorite one is Zeebo. So Zeebo's like the funniest guy on the team. He's hilarious. But anytime he walks in the room, he says hi to everybody. But he has a weird nickname for everybody. So when he walks in the room, he says, Ram-Wam. What's up, Ram-Wam?

What's up? But he's like, for a guy who's known throughout the league as kind of a bruiser and a guy that's going to battle with you, he's like the sweetest guy. So it's funny. He's just always smiling like, Ramway, how you doing, Ramway? So it's pretty funny. How did some of this stuff come to be?

Because you're a young guy. How old are you? I'm 26. You're 26, but you had this job as a Sacramento Kings strength coach for at least three or four years. Yep, finishing on my fourth season now. So I got hired at 22 as the assistant.

Damn, barely old enough to have a goddamn beer and they're like just give you the keys to the palace and say hey man let's see let's see you get these guys strong yeah yeah i mean they didn't they gave me the assistant key for two years and then uh my former boss went back home to chicago bulls and uh yeah at that time i was pretty like i was excited for the, but also for a couple weeks, I was unsure if they were going to really hand me the job at 25 to be the head strength coach. But credit to my boss, Pete Youngman, our director of sports medicine, who said, yeah, man, just do your thing. That's crazy.

What did you do? You went in there one day, and you cranked up some Metallica and deadlifted 600 for like 11 reps, and then they were like, you're the guy? Yeah, essentially. I failed on a few benches and they said man he's pushing himself he'll probably push our player so the rest is history but yeah I mean just as an assistant I was in there every day and and true to like training helped because my players saw me train and they saw that okay this guy's doing it so when he tries to get us in there he's practicing what he's preaching he understands what it means to not necessarily want to do something every day, but don't

going through it. So I think that helped. A question I ask myself often is how does this help? How does this hurt? You know? So when you, when you're in there and you're training and you're training with the athletes or sometimes even just training with the other strength coaches, it's like, well, how does this hurt my position?

It can only really help it. Right. I mean, it's more, it's like, well, how does this hurt my position? It can only really help it. Right. I mean, it's more, it's more helpful than anything. People see your work ethic or, um, you're getting in there maybe an hour or two before everybody else is you're in there training and, uh, the other guys are, you know, the other guys are kind of walking in and maybe you're finishing out a set and it may not be necessarily just the weight. Right.

You know, it might not be that you're squatting 700 pounds but if they see that you're going you're getting after it and uh you're falling apart on a set of five with like 405 and a squat or something like that but you're still pushing rep three four and five then they're gonna be like oh damn and then to those guys because they're tall and lifting weights ain't their thing a lot of times they're just uh they haven't developed that kind of strength right right no absolutely that's i think big part of building relationships with our guys is they often walk in and you know they may walk in a couple hours before practice and just want a foam roll before they eat breakfast or whatever so they might pop in before and uh and yeah they'll walk in they'll see you know i'm going for a one rm uh like i did

that every day for a month when we were kind of talking before yeah yeah so like almost every day guys were like walking like damn what day is it now what day is it now so it was just cool for them to see like i'm just experimenting the same way they think you're crazy too well they think you're crazy but they i think they just appreciate like okay this guy's really doing it and he's in here every day and you know i'm not staring at the clock trying to leave the gym every day i'm in there whether i'm training or coaching or reading or so i'm always in there and so they see that and i think it just helps with buying for sure the whole staff is lifting too right you guys get after it i mean you guys come came here to super training uh we had a couple great sessions here we went over to the king's uh facility which is really cool man that's a that's a great setup you

guys got over there and uh we got after it over there. I brought a little Smokey over there and some of my guys. And we had a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So Josh is our intern this year. And then Evan's the assistant. He's been with me now for two years. Evan likes to throw it around, man. He likes to get after it.

Absolutely. Yeah, Evan loves weights for sure. The joke with some of our players is that he eats weights for breakfast. So, yeah, we get after it. And that's the other thing. We try to treat our staff as a team. So, yeah, we get after it. And that's the other thing, too. Like, we try to treat our staff as a team so our players know we're a team. And so when they walk in, they're like, man, this crew is really going to take good care of us in here.

You know, when it comes to strength and conditioning, there's a lot of kind of, like, unforeseen things. You know, I think, you know, I've done some of it, not to your level, not on the pro level, but I've been, you know, training people and working with people for a very, very long time. I've had great experiences with some professional athletes over the years. But even in working in, you know, the high school, working with a lot of high school kids and stuff like that, when I was a strength conditioning coach over at pioneer high school, there was a lot of things that I just, that I, I didn't know kind of went down as a strength coach. Cause I was all fired up and I'm like, you know,

I know all this stuff about West side. I'm like, we're gonna use bands. We're gonna use chains. We're going to do box squats. And we're going to, you know, do a and B and C. And then once you get in there, you're like, wow, man, okay. Is this takes a lot of energy even just to get these guys, uh, you know, two, three, four exercises in an hour. Uh, you have to, um, it'd be really well organized, you know, and I was just thinking, Hey, we're just going to crank up some music and we're just going to go nuts. And you can get yourself to that point. But what are some things that you didn't see that were kind of an issue,

you know, coming into it where you're like, oh, man, I didn't even know that that was a thing. Now I need to get my shit together. Yeah. I mean, the biggest adjustment for me probably coming into it was I was just under the impression that athletes would want to train. I think that's like a common perception out there is these guys are the best athletes in the world.

They've all made it pro. They're motivated etc etc and so you assume that they're just going to want to come they got this burning desire to lift weights yeah right it's typically the total because you saw kobe bryan on a freaking sprite commercial right you're thinking these guys are going to want to get after it exactly exactly you see the story you hear the stories of jordan or kobe or you see the commercials of lebron and you, oh, every NBA player wants to do that. And typically those guys are obviously paid for those things anyway. So that's typically just for the camera. So that's been like a unique challenge is I came in thinking the same things, like I'm going to write the best programs. and A, B, or A, B, C, all the way through Z of every kind of demand that the sport has given us. And we're going to attack every one of those and all my guys are going to be prepared, et cetera. And then you get there and you're like,

damn, he doesn't even want to come in today. You know, I got this crazy good program and I got to get him in here. And so that's been the unique, but also like exciting part of my job is how do I get guys to give me effort when I know they don't want to? And so, you know, what different tactics do I have to use coming into the gym every day? And sometimes it's the

same thing for every guy, or sometimes it's, you know, Hey, that worked yesterday for this guy didn't work today for this guy. So yeah, just getting these guys in the gym and trying to get them to understand why we do things. And when the NBA, what you have to do is, you know, I think before you get to the NBA or the professional level, you can kind of sell the weight room as a performance enhancing opportunity. You know, you come in here and it's going to make you better at your sport. A lot of these guys are in their mind already as good as they're going to be when it comes to getting the benefits. And they kind of have to think that way.

I mean, none of these guys are going anywhere without a chip on their shoulder, without an ego, without thinking that they're the best. I mean, you even just see the guys walking around. They walk. I mean, I know that they're freaking seven feet tall, but they walk different than everybody else, too. They have kind of a swagger about them. And rightfully so.

They're really good at what they do, and they kind of need that mindset. Otherwise, they ain't going to ever get chewed up and spit out. For sure. And that's also been something that I've come to appreciate. Sometimes you can perceive an attitude from a guy like, ah, he shouldn't be that way. But sometimes, like, no, he's stepping on the court with the best basketball players in the world.

If he doesn't have that mindset, he's going to get tore up tonight and he's going to be back on this bench. And this is their livelihood, right? If you get tore up, you know, game to game, it's going to be hard for you to stick around in this league and make money. A lot of these guys have a lot of pride, you and uh you know i know from being around some uh professional athletes you know it's it's sometimes hard to find uh you know how do i get these guys uh you know leg pressing or lunging or squatting or it's like uh there's definitely a disconnect to like the

weights right but if they got their ass handed to them the night before right maybe it's like hey man like you got embarrassed yesterday man like that dude had 22 rebounds right in your face right he dunked on you several times like this is your opportunity to try to do something about that for sure and and but that goes back to kind of their pride sometimes it's tough for those guys to address that and in a team team game, if you know, if you're if your guard ends up with 25 points or sometimes easy for you to say, well, he was coming off screens or coming or defense or when it's like, no, that was on you. And this is your opportunity to help correct that for the next time. So, yeah, you got to manage that kind of appropriately, because if you go just straight at a guy guy then obviously his ego and his pride are going to be you know take a blow and so he's probably not going to want to come in but yeah those are our opportunities to get in the film room with coach and as the coach is talking through hey this is why he had 22 rebounds and dunked on you right well if we're

in the room then it's kind of easier for the player to connect the dots like okay that's why i need to go and squat and deadlift and all of those things so it makes a little more sense for them what's your education background because i know you you kind of said you've been you know That's why I need to go and squat and deadlift and all of those things. So it makes a little more sense for them. What's your education background? Because I know you kind of said you've been training and you've been hanging around the gym. And you also had this assistant job before you got your head coaching job. But there's got to be like a history of college or something going on too, right? Yeah. Yeah.

So I grew up in the Bay Area, Antioch, just an hour from here. And then I did my undergrad at UC Santa Barbara down south. I did that in three years. So that was 2009 to 2012. Graduated 2012 from there. Went down to Cal State 410. They have a Center for Sport Performance. Is that where we went to, Andrew? Yeah, that's where we went. That's where Andy Galpin or no? Yeah. That was Andy Galpin, yeah. Yeah. So Andy Galpin and I, we've actually published a paper together that started as a class assignment with him. Dude,

that guy, he, he took a muscle biopsy of me and my bro and he found some like mutant shit from me. He was so geeked out when he seen marks. It was such a bummer. Cause like we pulled it out of, or they pulled out of Chris Bell and they're like,

okay, that, yeah, that's cool. That's cool. And then they pulled marks. I was like, Oh my God. I was like, dude, everybody get in here and then chris was like well i guess mine wasn't that special

yeah he's still sending me messages about i guess they're still like studying it and stuff and he's like this shit is you know but i guess you know uh uh they haven't really done a lot of testing on power lifters. So I'm sure whatever he's looking at is, you know, mutated from all the heavy lifting and not some weird mutant genetics I have or something like that. There might be some Superman in there.

Yeah. Hopefully, hopefully find something in there that we can sell. Right. Some sort of gene. But yeah, so start, went down there for my master's and that was 2012.

Did that in a year, 2012, 2013. And that was exciting for me. like i was able to learn and really kind of get firsthand experience in a lab and so i've always loved working out that son of a bitch is smart yeah yeah and so then there's that whole center for sport performance um has amazing it was really built by dr lee brown yeah um who's a legend in our field. And then what Dr. Lee Brown did was he brought on a bunch of young studs, right? And so Dr. Andy Galpin came in. Now he's built a lab and is establishing a name for himself and he's killing it. And then there's a couple others

down there, Dr. Jared Cobra and Dr. Scott Lynn and Guillermo Nafal. So that lab was awesome. And so for me, I played basketball growing up my whole life and then I liked training, but I never really cared for science like that. And so you get in that environment, like, wow, this is amazing. It's really cool to really see that this is an actual science and not just a bunch of people lifting weights. So you kind of went from an athlete that maybe didn't care about some of the lineage of exercise science, but then as you got into it, you're like, it really opened your eyes? Absolutely. Absolutely. And I just realized, I seen the impact that applying it can have with athletes. So when I was an undergrad at UC Santa Barbara, I was fortunate to land an internship

that turned into a job as a strength coach with the D1 programs. And then after I did my master's at Fortin, I went back to Santa Barbara to start a program at Santa Barbara City College. And so that was a really cool experience. I was 21 at the time, and a community college handed me their strength and conditioning program. We had an outdoor gym in Santa Barbara, which you can do because it rarely rains there. So we rarely got rained out. We had rogue equipment.

It kind of looked like a CrossFit. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, it was really cool. And I remember the AD called me after my interview. He's like, hey, we want to offer you the job. And I was kind of flirting with some other ideas. And I uh, I said, Hey, let me, you know, just give me the weekend. I'll call you back. And he calls me five minutes after that. It's like, no, man, we need you. This job is yours. And he was so excited. Oh, that's cool.

That I just like immediately said, okay, I'll take it. And I was like, damn, I don't know if I really should have took that, but it ended up working out. And so I was there for a year. And then, um, after that year was when Sacramento Kings called me and they needed an assistant the guy kind of like what well no I wasn't I wasn't that surprised and that's only because um the guy who hired me here um Chip Schaefer who's now the Chicago Bulls he was in the NBA for like he's been in the NBA now for 25 years or so and he took over at UC Santa Barbara for about, you know, six months when I was finishing on my undergrad. So I worked with him for six months. Um, and he kind of let me know, you know, Hey, you go get your master's and I'm gonna take care of you. And I didn't really know

what that meant, but I just trusted it. And so I went and got my master's in a year just to show him like, Hey, you said you're gonna have my back. Well, I'm gonna work my ass off to make sure that we get there. And so, you know, you fast forward a couple of years from there and he ends up calling. He's like, I need an assistant. I'm like, oh, shoot. Like, hell yeah, let's do this. And I didn't ask about pay, nothing. He could have said, I'll give you a dollar an hour.

I was going to sign up and come here and do it. It's got to make you feel good. You know, like someone, you know, they go around the room, you're at a fancy dinner or something like that, or at a party or something like that. Someone's like, hey, what do you do? And like, oh, it's all insurance. Hey, what do you do? You know, Oh, it's all insurance. Hey, what do you do? You know,

everyone kind of mumbles their job, right? I'm a trainer or whatever. Like no one wants to ever talk about it, you know? But for you, you know, working for the Kings,

that's, that's gotta be pretty cool. And people probably get, get excited, especially people in the area. For sure. Like, Oh shit,

you're with the Kings. And then I'm sure they're probably like, Hey man, you got to get them better. Yeah. Anytime you tell me a strength coach for the Kings, at first it's exciting, and then it always turns into like a discussion about the roster.

I'm just a strength coach, man. The plays and shit like that and the style of offense and why aren't they starting so-and-so. You're like, I don't really know. I'm just trying to get them to be stronger. You just always have to remain like politically correct. Like, yeah, I don't know. Just keep supporting us, you know. Yeah, sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way right absolutely

uh in working with these guys you know i i know a lot of times professional athletes can be pampered you know where they come in and uh it's like all foam rolling all single leg single arm type stuff uh you know they're not really getting after with the heavier stuff and sometimes there's there's obviously tons of reasons for those uh protocols but do you guys get after you guys do some uh one rep three rep maxes here and there you guys uh throw down here and there crank some music and get after it yeah no absolutely i mean uh and that's one of the things that i think we take pride in is that you know while, while we are NBA strength coaches, quote unquote, we're not many bands and stretching a foam roll. Yeah, you've seen a lot of that, right?

It's just like, man, do these guys ever. I remember even in, you know, talking to some UCLA football players years ago when I started working with a couple of guys, I was like, oh, man, it's gonna be so sick. It's gonna be so much fun. These guys are huge. They're going to want to, like, get after it all the time and i was like okay it was like well what do you guys bench and they're like well i don't really know yeah yeah we don't really do bench like you don't really do bench okay uh what like do you use dumbbell bench like incline bench uh they're like no man and i was like uh okay well what about like a deadlift you guys mess

with deadlifts what kind of deadlift you got they They were like, no, I don't know, man. Like, we don't really ever do any of that. And I just kept asking, you know, squats, trap bar. I'm like, is there, you know, and they just said, hey, you know, we don't really do a lot of that stuff, man. We're stretching and we're doing, I'm like, man. I'm like, you guys are already athletic. You already move really well. So that's all you're ever working on

is continue working on that path where you're ever working on is uh continue working on that path where you're not working where you're weak which is just getting stronger right right and some of it's like some of it's justifiable in the sense that in the nba you play every other day and some guys are playing 35 40 minutes every other day so the grueling you know demand on your body is there but with that said i think it's easy for uh strength coaches at the professional level to kind of be a little bit cautious because the worst thing you could do is obviously injure an athlete in the weight room. If a player gets hurt in the weight room, you probably will lose your job if it's a serious injury. And so because I think strength coaches are afraid of that aspect of it, they just caution to the other side. And I think, unfortunately, that's a disservice to your athlete because the reality is

if these guys aren't strong, they can't take on the demand of the season. You're playing 82 games. You have to be able to withstand the demand and the blunt trauma that comes with accelerating and decelerating every other night. So lifting weights is the best way to do that, and we confidently believe in that,

and that's why we put these guys through this, which is why some of these videos, someone like Frank Mason, for example, he's had a good training background. But, you know, most of these guys don't have good training background. So the first thing we get them in the weight room and talk to them about is like, look, we're going to lift weights. We're going to lift heavy and we're going to push you because your muscles need to be able to adapt to the demands of the sport. Right. You're going to have to have them overload here and there and have them challenge each other. How do we prevent some injuries? Because, I mean, that's going to have to have them overload here and there and have them challenge each other.

How do we prevent some injuries? Because, I mean, that's got to be the biggest thing. These guys are landing on each other and they're jumping so much. I'm sure a lot of ankle things, a lot of knee injuries, tons of injuries playing a sport like basketball. And then plus going a thousand miles an hour. Yeah, it's really hard to, you know, contain too many things. But how do you combat some of that? that's currently kind of what I'm studying is workload in the NBA. But I think it starts there with the simple fact that if you, regardless of how prepared an athlete is, if you ask them to do too much,

then they're just going to break down over time or acutely. Right. And that's where you might see some Achilles or some hamstrings blow. But, or longitudinally, which is like patella femoral pain where guys are just kind of, they just have nagging injuries. So if you can't,

it's like jumpers knee type deal, tendonitis. Exactly. And so no matter how prepared a guy is if you ask them to do more than they're ready for that's always going to occur so i think it starts with understanding load management and what they're going to be demanded to do in the sport and so you know something we do with the kings i'll look at game loads every night after a game we check in with you know hey how many accelerations does this guy have? How many decelerations did he have? We don't get jump counts, and that's coming probably in the next couple years

with the technology that we're getting. But I think you just start there, and you say, okay, what's this week going to look like? And then beyond that, it's just now you dive into, like, the specific risk factors of a guy. So if you have guys with hamstring issues, previous, okay, well, that's a guy we're going to focus on building hamstring capacity with because we know that's been a problem in the past so i think it starts with understanding load and then you just dive in on each individual what does he actually need to handle the demands of the sport yeah you're

thinking almost from like a weight room perspective you're kind of thinking uh all right you know i'm gonna have the guy do like glue ham races you know and he's gonna have strong hamstrings and then uh stiff leg deadlifts. And, you know, you, you end up with a wide array of, uh, of movements. Right. But, uh, really it's more like, um, uh, get your adrenaline way up, uh, rest for 30 minutes, uh, come off the bench, flex your hamstring as hard as you fucking possibly can, uh, for a few accelerations.

Cause the coach put you in because you're good at defense and you're good at rebounding. Sit back down, get cold and let your shit tighten up again and then flex your hamstrings as hard as you can again. So it gets to be really complicated. And you see a lot of hamstring pulls in sport like baseball, you know, where there's a lot of, there's just a lot of, you know, downtime. And basketball, you're not thinking there's any downtime because you're thinking, man, they're hustling up and down the court nonstop. But there's a lot of fouls. There's just a lot of stuff, a lot of standing around,

just the nature of the game when it's the end of the half, towards the end of the game, and just resting players and rotating them in and out. So it can be complicated. Is there anything you've been able to kind of teach these guys to do on the sidelines you know they're just kind of sitting in their chair you know they they try to activate anything they try to move around at all yeah some guys do a perfect example like last night we were at utah and um you know we got one of our kind of more common exercise just like a banded hip opener so we'll throw a hip circle on over their knees

oh there we go plug in the hip circle so we'll throw a hip circle on just don't you know take a seat and just do hip openers and so for example yesterday pre-game i tell buddy yo you owe me 30 i don't care how you get it you want to go three ten rounds of 10 two rounds of 15 just give me 30 reps and uh he's like oh okay okay damn i'm activated yo keep that on the bench keep that on the bench so cool that's kind of how we just try to get guys. So we have a foam roller on the bench. We have a mini band, and we have a long stretch band. And then we're just there for them, whatever they need.

But kind of like to what you were talking about before, it's just a tough environment. You're hyped up before the game. The reality is you're going to sit down. After layup lines, it's probably 30 minutes before a guy checks into a game if you're not a starter. And so if you're someone like Buddy, who's kind of our first guy off our bench, and he's expected to come in and score quick for us, it's like, man, that's a tough spot to be in, you know? And so,

you know, they got to be ready because that's what they get paid for and they're pros and it's our job to prepare them for those things. There's also a mindset to the whole thing, right? I mean, you're traveling, you're on a bus, you're on a plane, you're just kinda, you're, you're all over the place. And then, uh, you know, who knows, like maybe there's some things at home that happened. Maybe there's some, uh, um, you know, maybe the guy gets an argument with his wife. I mean, there's all these side things that you don't ever really think about. Um, you know, maybe the guy stayed up too late. There's just, there's all these things, but is there anything in particular that you try to work with the players? And I know it's got to be hard, especially being a younger guy, but once you earn the respect of these guys, you're around them a lot. Is there anything in particular you work on in a mindset to try to, again, it's got to be a weird position.

These guys are getting paid millions of dollars, they're pros, and you're like, hey, you got to be, it's a hard thing to try to get there and be preachy to them. But is there anything in particular to try to work on, try to have them have some positive self-talk to themselves? Yeah, for sure. To me, it starts with trying to stop

any of the negative psychological effects that come with the sport and the demand. So as guys walk in our weight room or just walk into the gym, we're checking in with them on the front end, like how you feeling and sometimes i don't even care about the answer we'll take a wellness score every day and so they score that uh numerically so we can track that but sometimes getting judged on everything yeah yeah we try to track a lot but but sometimes it's really i'm just looking at you and seeing how you're going to respond i may write the number

down but really i'm seeing your mood and your attitude and how you give me that number um and then from there that's when we make tweaks so it might be you know walking the way from say hey we had this planned and it might have been like a four by whatever five on the trap bar um but it might but then we might tweak that say ah he's kind of beat down i could tell by his his body language let's cut that back let's cut that volume in half um and so that alone might help as we go into the next day and the next day um but then beyond that we try to prepare these guys for kind of some the inevitable obstacles that they're going to come you know into with the season so example that comes to mind for us is this year we have 25 guys under the age of 25 holy shit or excuse me 10 guys under the age of 25 uh so we have the youngest roster in the NBA And so what that meant for us is these guys are going to run into a lot of

issues where, you know, they have stress at home, they have family problems or they have minutes. They're not seeing the minutes they want. And so because of that, what we try to prepare them for is, hey, you're going to have times in the season where things just aren't going to go your way, but you need to make a decision now on how you're going to respond to that later.

And so sometimes that helps as well, right? Like like perfect example a player last night comes to me says ah man i'm not playing anymore i look at the box score and he's playing you know 18 19 minutes i said no you're playing he's like i know but i was playing 27 i said look man we've already been through this we've already seen this this happened two months ago right you know a few weeks later you became a starter so just prepare your mind for hey these things come and go but our our uh you know our job is to just maintain our habits through those times right be there when the team needs you you know and just be ready yeah and be and um you know it's a tough thing to swallow tough pill to swallow but be better you know

like to be better than you were the day before. And hopefully you're called upon, you know, you're stealing the ball, you're nailing threes and people are like, it's almost undeniable at a certain point. You know, that's something I wanted to do with, uh, you know, my weight loss is like, you know, I wanted to lose some weight at first. I'm like, just feel better, be healthier. And then I'm like, you know what? I just want to get, I want it to be so ridiculous to where people are just like, what the fuck's going on with this? Where it's undeniable in a way like what

what like what is this motherfucker doing the point where it drives other people to try to either a figure it out b join in or c just stand back and be like i don't i don't i don't get it man i don't understand how he's doing it but you know that's that's kind of the the mindset and i think the kind of mindset that you need to have if you're going to be on that next level for sure in the nba you got some guys on the team that uh that really kind of thrive in the in those uh moments a couple guys that that uh just they're cold as ice right when we uh interviewed uh chuck liddell that's that's where he got the name the ice man was because like before a fight he was just like super chill he got some guys in a locker room that are relaxed before a big game and stuff like that yeah for sure we got a handful

of guys that are I think are relaxed now it's uh you know it's tough to say how relaxed they'd be in a big game because yeah at least this season we haven't had you know those big games right um but I think we are going to get there with this young roster but where we see it is you know just two nights ago we're playing Golden State at Oracle. But where we see it is, you know, just two nights ago, we're playing Golden State at Oracle. It's a wild arena, games tied with, you know, under a minute to go or whatever. And we have on the court five players that, you know,

all of which want to take that shot, and they're ready for that moment. And so that's a good problem to have. You look at some teams that have a franchise player or one or two all-stars, and it's easier sometimes to actually try to guard those teams because you know this dude's going to take the shot. And so we can send two or three guys at him, and he's not going to pass it. Whereas on our team, you can't really send two or three guys at anybody

because if you send two guys at Bogey, he's going to kick at the buddy. If you send two guys at Buddy, we got Willie Curlin. So every guy wants a shot, so it's kind of a good problem to have because every one of our young guys wants that, that opportunity to kind of be the hero for the game. When you're at some of these games, you got to be feeling it too, right? I mean, you know, you're at that, you know, playing the Golden State Warriors, you're playing some of these past NBA champions. That's gotta, that's gotta be a good feeling, huh? Absolutely. And we've had some fun moments in there. We've we beat them twice this year uh at oracle and i think we're the only team to do that we're

i think we're don't quote me on this but uh because we won the last game we're now two and one against them we play them one more time uh in about a week at golden one center and uh i think we're like one of only two teams in the past six years that have beaten them twice in the same season so uh yeah it's it's exciting so what me and andrew were talking about before here was you know for us this year is a big learning curve and and those are the moments we want we want to see what our young guys can do with the minute to go against the defending champions um and how we're going to handle those situations and so it's been exciting for me just on the bench just kind of watch and observe this.

And sometimes you get a guy that's getting high. Like I remember a few years ago, what was crazy is, you know, we had Klay Thompson unfortunately go off on us in the third quarter. But you just sit there as a fan of the game, and you're like, man, this is amazing. Yeah, sometimes someone just, they what? They hit the zone. For sure.

And they're just fucking going. They're unstoppable for a little bit. And the hoop just turns into, you know. The hoop. Yeah, like it turns into like. They're not going to miss. I remember that year, Clay put 37 in the third quarter. And we actually fouled him.

Like, he had like 30. And we ended up fouling him at half court. Ref blows the whistle. And he just throws it up from half court. Like, it didn't count. The play was dead. But in the middle of. Ref blows the whistle and he just throws it up from half court. Like it didn't count. The play was dead. But in the middle of him being in the zone, he just threw it up from half court and it still went in. And you're like, man, this guy's in the zone.

So and we have some guys that can get going in the zone, too. You know, we have some shooters. And so those are amazing moments to watch the world's best basketball players become the best self or their best self. And you just watch them in those moments. You're like, man, this is cool to be a part of. I'm always amazed at just what these guys can do with the ball. These fucking dribbling skills, you're just like, it can't even make any sense to me.

How the hell are they able to do some of that stuff? A huge aspect of strength and conditioning is always the conditioning side of things. For some reason, it doesn't get talked about as much. I think you think strength conditioning, you think I'm going to get the guy in there and he's going to do some lifting and obviously trying to stay healthy and stuff like that. But the conditioning side of things is something that can actually keep you healthy because if you're in shape enough, then more than likely you'll always be in a good position.

Maybe not always in a good position, but you'll be in a better position than if you were slower or than if you weren't in as good a shape. You might not be in the right spot at the right time, maybe in the wrong spot at the wrong time, and that's where you might twist your ankle or land on your shoulder funny. How do you get these guys in shape? What are some things you guys are doing?

Yeah, I mean, in the NBA, it's kind of a unique position as a strength and conditioning coach because they play so much basketball that you almost don't have to do as much conditioning uh during the offseason we we start sneaking in um conditioning and really depends on our offseason model but because we have so many young guys now we have a lot of guys in the offseason so early on in the offseason it's you know right when season ends dude don't even touch the court for a month like right get your body off the court go hike or fly a kite i don't care just stay away from the court yeah yeah uh but then after that we start adding in a little bit of aerobic work which is just low intensity stuff and then as we sneak closer to towards training camp um you know our goal is to just get them prepared for training

camp training camp could be crazy sometimes it's two practices in a day and sometimes both of those are hard. So it just goes back to kind of building the capacity for those guys. So we do start sneaking in. To me, the best work is court work. But before we get on the court, we might be on an assault bike or a climber. Sometimes I'll take them out to, like, I remember two years ago, we took them out to the river. I don't even know where it was at, but we took them out to the river just to do sandhill repeats.

So you're just preparing them for what the inevitable is, which is training camp. And then from there, usually the rotation actually takes care of the conditioning itself. So for us, I don't worry about our high minute guys. Like, you're going to stay in shape because you play every other day. It's not like the NFL where you play one day a week and then you've got six days. Yeah, there's not as much. There's still a lot of contact, but not as much, right? Exactly.

And then your guys that are on the back end of your roster that aren't getting minutes, those are the guys that we do have to worry about. So we do have a team rule. If you don't play 15 minutes a game, then you owe us 15 minutes the next day or that night of conditioning. So that's one way we get them is we just maintain their their condition and they have by um making them get on typically on the court because again if you're not getting the minutes in the game then we have to get you minutes in practice around the court after the game any of these guys train the same uh day that uh you have a game

yeah yeah a handful of guys for us for sure a lot of guys like it because it's almost like their activation right that's what like i tell my guys all the time, if I was an NBA player, I would lift the day of game. Because it just makes a little more sense. As long as we don't fatigue you in the weight room, then all you've really done is just potentiated your muscles, and now you're ready to go. Whereas if you try to lift the next day, so if you play on a Monday and you think you're going to lift on Tuesday, well, any delayed muscle soreness might come on the next day. So now you actually might be sore during the game.

It gets to be kind of tricky, yeah. So you don't really have a good recovery day. So guys do lift game days, and some guys like it as kind of a prep for them. And then depending on our schedule, so if we have like three days between a game, which is very rare, but if we have that, then we'll try to sneak our heavier lifts in between those days because we don't really want to go too heavy on a game day just because it was typical in the nba is if a guy misses a shot like i've literally had players like airball and then scream at me on the bench and

the whole bench starts cracking up because because they know like i'm a shit talker yeah as soon as someone said i'm like yo you airballed that on your damn self don't come at me like yeah that's your own problem yeah like you're getting paid a lot of money not the airball so don't come at me. Yeah. That's your own problem. Yeah. Like you're getting paid a lot of money, not the air ball. So don't come at me. So my guys know, like I'll come right back at them. So it's not a big deal, but, um, but what I don't ever want is I don't want them to feel like the weight room is, is making their performance, you know, or hindering their performance. Um, cause as soon as you lose a guy on that end, then it's going to be tough to get them back in. Yeah. There's a, you know, a lot of people kind of forget that lifting weights is supposed to make you feel better getting going to

the gym is supposed to make you feel good it's not supposed to make you i mean of course you're gonna have some muscle soreness and of course you're gonna you're gonna get after it but that's the main goal with a lot of these guys right absolutely yeah you should walk in uh typically you know these guys are fatigued anyways because they're already tired from the night before whatever or the travel like so even if it's not a game day we're probably traveling right so they're always kind of tired so they come in our job is i want you to feel better when you leave my weight room than when you walk in right and that's not always possible because there's days where it's like no we're just gonna grind through a five by five today

and it's just that's just what we're gonna do because it's gonna be the same weight and you're not gonna love it but we have to do it exactly so on those days we prepare for that and we tell them like you're not gonna feel good when you walk out of here and you might not feel good tomorrow and so that way the next day when they wake up and they're a little sore like okay he told me that was gonna happen so we try to prepare for that but yeah ultimately our goal is if you walk in you leave the gym feeling better and in a better mood. Like, I want you to be happier. I want you to feel like we took care of you and you're excited to be around us.

So, yeah, we don't want to kill these guys at all. Is the main thing communication, communicating back and forth with the athlete and seeing where they're at? Is that mainly how you're structuring a lot of these workouts? Yeah, yeah, for sure. We have kind of a plan A when they walk in the weight room uh but then based on literally based on the body language right when they walk in like you walk in and you just sit on our plow box and you just put your shoulders yeah like okay we might go to plan b now now if you walk in and you're like what up what up baby let's get it well we might stick to plan a and so we got plan a on the board or in our app that we use to

track our programs. But there's typically 10 modifications that come within that. And sometimes they're just on the fly and sometimes it's based on just convenience. But we try to stick true to plan A and then we just modify based on the athlete, what they're presenting to us. So you might not like just lift heavy just in the offseason. You could be kind of pushing it a little heavier even in season. Just kind of depends on how the guys are feeling. For sure.

It probably wouldn't make a lot of sense to go real heavy if you traveled for a month and you're coming back and everyone's just wiped the hell out, right? There's probably certain opportunities to go for it. What do you think your, your background, um, has done, you know, where has that kind of come in handy? Just having education. Cause I know that you, you've done a specific studies on like testing, like bands and chains and a single leg movements and, um, unilateral stuff. How has that kind of come into play? Yeah. I mean, many ways. Uh, the first way I think is the fact that I'm a doctoral student or doctoral candidate now. My boss wouldn't have given me the job, I don't think,

if I wasn't kind of at that stage in my academia career. So you think it's important for other people to at least pursue some of that, huh? Yeah, I mean, especially if you want to be the strength coach at the professional level, like, master's is becoming the gateway. Like, if you don't have a master's degree, it's going gonna be pretty tough to compete at this point uh there's few examples or exceptions and and once you get like that's just gonna get you in the door like once you get in the door your degree is not gonna keep your job like you have to you gotta kill it you know what i mean because my boss is getting an email every day about from someone that wants to take my job and i get emails daily from people who want to be my assistant right there's people that want these jobs so So once you're in there, you got to kill. But I think having a degree helps

just because it shows it's a quick way to show people I understand the science behind this. So that's kind of, I think on the front end, I think the other side of that is my athletes know that I know my stuff and, you know, it goes back to communication like you talked about. So the way I talk to talk about what we do to our front office is a lot different than the way I talk to our athletes. Gotcha. And so when I'm able to, you know, for example, a player's trap bar, you know, two weeks ago or so, and I just throw a band over the trap bar. He's like, oh, what's the difference between this band and the chain? And so I go into like kind of curve a linear versus a linear strength curve and talk about, well, the bands provide more elastic components versus your chains and et cetera,

et cetera. And they're like, he's like, Oh damn, like, you know your stuff. Like, yeah,

but we don't need to talk about that. Just throw the band on. Let's get after it. Um, so I think it helps with the athletes too. As long as you, the players, you're like,

just shut the hell up and do it. Right. Um, and so, and occasionally they'll come in and they'll say, Oh man, I'm, I'm hurting Ram.

I'm hurting. I said, Oh, I knew you were, but here's why. And so I'll, I might show him come in and they'll say, oh man, I'm, I'm hurting Ram. I'm hurting. I said, oh, I knew you were, but here's why. And so I might show them a graph about, you know, their weekly load and see, well, that was your toughest week in the past month. And that's why you're hurting. And they're like, damn, you track that stuff? Yeah, I track it. I do more than just play rap music and talk shit.

But it's, it's just opportunities like that, that I think help build buy-in from our players. It's, they know I'm a shit talker. They know I play the music they want. They know that I'm getting after it with them. But on the back end, they also know I'm studying them. So I think it helps with buy-in. What motivates you and keeps you excited? Because it's hard to move the needle with these guys every day.

There's some days where the sun's out and everything's perfect, and there's some other days where shit's kind of dreary. The team maybe lost two, three games in a row, and everyone's just like,'s some other days where shit's kind of dreary. The team maybe lost two, three games in a row and everyone's just like, everyone's just fucked. Everyone's just down, right? Yeah, yeah.

How do you, like what's motivating you and what's your drive or what gets you fired up to keep these guys fired up? Yeah, I mean, it comes and goes, obviously, right?

There's times where you win two or three games in a row and you're like, damn, this is awesome. And there's times where you lose by 30 two nights in a row and you're like, man, this is-. And there's times where you lose by 32 nights in a row and you're like, man. It's just quiet. It's hell in there.

It's a back-to-back and you're on the road. And what people don't see is when we land in a city, typically, so what most people don't know is after an NBA game, we fly out right away. And so some people think you might sleep over. But in the NBA, you can't do that because you probably play the next night. So we fly out right away. We get to a hotel about 2 a.m. And if you're in cold Milwaukee or Cleveland or there's I've been in a damn snowstorm in New York. Well, right when we land, we're pulling bags at 2 a.m.

Because we want the players to get up in their room and go to sleep as fast as they can. Now, most of them don't go to sleep right away like they got other things they're doing. But we want them to get up and go to the room. So we're pulling bags. And so you're there. It might be 3 a.m. and you're sitting in the snow in Milwaukee and you're like, man, I could be, I could have a nine to five and just be chilling.

Yeah. And so, but I think where we find inspiration through, you know, through the roster, but also, you know, just personally is there's just times in a game where, you know, Garrett Temple two nights ago was chasing down Quinn Cooks on a breakaway. I think he has an easy layup and Garrett Temple temple comes out of nowhere blocks it off the backboard you're like damn like but i know why he did that because he prepared for that and i was part of that preparation and so when you see those things it just kind of it keeps your fire lit and you're just excited to keep going yeah it makes it makes it all worth it right it makes all the all the

stuff you're doing worth it in the end yeah and, and it's also, what's cool about our young roster is because I'm their age, like it allows me to be. They're showing it. We're showing it now. They came out of nowhere with that. It's awesome. And that's what Garrett Temple does right there. Like he's, anytime a player thinks he has a layup, Garrett Temple's coming.

He timed that shit perfect. Yeah. But because we have a young roster, it allows me to build a rapport with these guys really easily. And so I think they just get it. They kind of just see me as a peer rather than like someone who has an authority.

Because in the NBA, you don't have authority as a coach. It's a player run bit like league. But we're all grownups. We're all grown men. So you can't talk to them crazy. I mean, you can, but you're probably gonna get fired.

And ultimately, they make the most money anyway. So the way you have to massage that relationship is just like, look, man, I'm here for you. Everything I'm doing is because I want you to be better. And as soon as they buy into that and they believe that about you, it just becomes very easy. And so that's kind of what keeps me motivated is when I get a text from a player that says, man, rookie year has been crazy, but I couldn't have had a better strength staff. You're like, damn, that's awesome. You know? So those are the things that keep me going. I see sometimes on your Instagram, uh, you'll

crank the music and I, I hear you yelling at everybody. Does that work with a lot of the guys? Cause sometimes, you know, if you're, if you're an older player, maybe, maybe the words aren't, aren't, aren't hitting you. Does that seem to work with your crew pretty well? Yeah. This year it works a little bit better because we do have such a young roster. Yeah. And I usually fill it out and see who's in the weight room and who's not. But with that said, like I'm kind of me all the time.

I'm not going to change. So if it's not working for someone, that's okay. That's why we have a strength and conditioning staff. Like you don't just have to hear my voice. There's, you know, Evan's a little bit. You might be driving somebody crazy for a little while, right? Yeah. And most of our guys, like, know who I am.

They know what they're going to get from me every day. Like, if it's a brunch for me and I walk in and say hi to everybody, like, I don't, we could have lost by 50 tonight before. I don't care. Like, I'm walking in. Good morning. Good morning. What's up, baby? How you feeling?

Because that's just who I am. And I want, and I want them to see it's not fake. So I'm going to do it every day. So, but. That seems to be the biggest thing is with motivation is if it's like forced and it's like kind of corny you're like uh so like uh i'm sure once the guys see you doing it on a weekly basis where you're yelling come on let's go or whatever motivational stuff you're you're playing or yelling or whatever after a while they're just like oh that's just him yeah that's just the way he is. For sure.

And then they appreciate it. Yep. And you learn that about your players, too. You start to appreciate even sometimes some of the things someone may do may be a little annoying. Right. Even with your staff or whoever, you start to kind of, you're like, that's just the way that guy is.

Yeah, for sure. Not a big deal. Right. Not going to get all stressed out about it. Yeah. And that's what you don't want to do is you don't want to be happy or excited like one day a week because then you're just phony and you're fake. And guys see that. So guys know what they're going to get from me.

And sometimes they may be that they're just going to walk past the weight room because they don't want to deal with an overly excited guy. And that's okay. Like I get that because the other six days a week when you do want that, you know where to go. Right. the other six days a week when you, when you do want that, you know where to go. So. Right. Um, what are some of the things, uh, that, uh, you know, outside the weight room, uh, that you may, maybe weren't expecting. I mean, you go and, uh, I'm sure you have multiple times a year, you get to sit down and kind of talk business. They, they probably review you, uh, mentioned that you're recording, you know, everything that they're doing.

Somebody's recording a lot of what you're doing and paying attention to what you're doing. How does some of that go? And what are some things that, you know, like, because you get attached to these players and they are young and I'm sure, you know, the talk that we have in here in this gym, we have some pretty crude locker room talk. You got to be a little bit careful where you're at, right? Right. Yeah, yeah, for sure. You got to be careful what you say at certain times. The great thing about kind of our space at Golden One Center is the weight room, even though it's all glass windows and doors, like you can always see into it,

it's pretty closed off. Right. Which, culturally speaking, like some people think that's not good. Like you should not have walls. And like, no, calm down. Because the weight room is like a venting place for everybody. Right, right. Literally for anyone.

The average mom that goes to the gym at 24 Hour Fitness or Crunch or whatever gym she's going to, she's having self-talk and she's venting to herself in her head all the time. So our players come in the weight room and they vent to us all the time. So it's kind of our job. What I tell our staff is it's our job to listen, but don't really comment on anything. Right. Because if a player is complaining about something that's above our pay grade, like you don't want to be caught commenting on that. So, yeah, you want to be careful with what you say and who you agree with. And usually I just kind of nod my head and just kind of tell them like, yeah, like I can't relate, but I understand, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and they're going to be frustrated. And then again, you know, kind of back to what we talked, what we were talking about earlier, the mindset of them not getting too negative, you can kind of always rein them back in and say, Hey, you know, remember what we talked about? I understand you're frustrated,

but let's just try to, when we're in the weight room, let's try to keep things as positive as we can. Right. You can always kind of get that spin on things yeah and even like through kind of the january march time of nba season like if you're not a playoff team it becomes just a grind because you're just sitting there like well we're not playing for the playoffs season's ending so because of that like you got to remind people like the big thing that i'll say um during warm-ups is I'll just start screaming we in the NBA baby we in the NBA because at the end of the day it's just like I get it you have things going on at home you're not playing as good as you thought you would you're worried about this

contract and that and but look man at the end of the day 10 years ago you were dreaming of being here so don't lose sight of that dream just because you're in the thick of it now like yeah don't forget yeah don't like we in the NBA baby this is awesome so at the end of the day like this you're still part of something that there's a million people out there that would kill to be a part of so regardless of how bad it may be perceived like you may perceive it it's not as bad as it really you really think it is you get a chance to lift with the guys yeah occasionally very rarely like i try not to because again going back to what you just said like i'm always being evaluated especially being 26 right there's a million people that are looking in our weight room like what's this kid doing especially if you have new people that come in it's like they're

kind of waiting for you to make mistakes so i try not to because i don't want to give anyone a reason to think i'm not a pro um but there's times where i think it helps a lot so like for example on an off day our staff doesn't really ever take a day off. There's always somebody from our staff in the gym. Other staffs might, but you guys choose not to. Exactly. So our sports medicine and sport performance staffs, like we're always in there 24-7, 365. If you need something, we're ready for you.

But on those days, it might be a day where I only have one or two players come in. And so if there's one or two players and I have me or my intern or Evan in, you know, I might say, yo, Josh, who's our intern or Ev, you know, you run this one. And I may just change up into some workout gear with them and I might get after it with them. And I'll usually just use their weights and I'll just kind of go through it with them. But it's just showing them like, I'm down to get, I'm getting better with you. Like, and that's my thing with them. You're not going to be the only one getting better today, baby. Come on now. Like I'm getting better too. And so they kind of appreciate that. And if there's only one or two guys in on off day,

you can do that. But if there's eight NBA guys and everybody else is working and I did that, well, now I look like I'm not a pro. So I try to manage that. But like, who's this guy working on his biceps while everyone's trying to work out? Yeah.

Like we pay you to prepare our players and you're preparing yourself. That's not good. So what about shooting hoops? Shooting hoops with these guys a little bit? Yeah, occasionally. So, yeah, we play occasionally. They must make fun of you. I mean, I know you have a background.

I know you can play. Yeah, yeah. But they still must talk trash. Yeah, I mean, they always do. But until, like, I always bet them. So that's my thing. They're always like, oh, you can't shoot. I'm like, all right, well, put something on it then.

And so they're always like, I'll put $100 on it. But, like, to me, those bets are never fair because they would make way more money right so i'm like now like my 10 push-ups to your 100 bucks and they're all right and so then i'll like make three or four and roll on them and they're like oh damn so and i like always challenge my players the one-on-one like me and buddy still have to finish our game of one-on-one so yeah at the beginning of your buddy buddy said something like he walked up to me i'll bust your ass ram i said okay what you got on it? He tried to make this crazy bet.

I'm like, no, I can't take that. I got a few players that are lined up that I'm waiting to get this summer. He's betting his Aston Martin or something. You're like, I don't have that kind of cash laying around to figure. I'll trade you my Hot Wheel for your real car. Yeah, exactly. How do you keep these guys motivated to, in a competitive but healthy way, compete against each other? Yeah.

What comes to mind is we use a few different things to track velocity, like bar velocity. And so sometimes that's our quickest way to. Yeah. I saw some of that stuff. Yeah. You're getting like almost like a score. It's almost like a video game. You're getting points.

Yep. Yeah. And so we try to breed competition through that because if we breed competition through like weight the amount of weight you're lifting well that can become like an injury issue right like yeah some guys are stronger than other guys someone might say screw it man i'm going for it and they blow out their back deadlifting exactly stupid right so instead of going that direction like we'll just turn on what we have on our racks is a system called elite form and we also have a tendo unit attached to our bar that's pretty cool on your squat racks it films you while you're lifting.

Yep. And then it tracks the bar speed on that. So what we might do is, you know, we might put just 135 or 185 pounds on the bar, which isn't that much weight, especially to the listeners of this podcast. Like that's definitely not a lot of weight, but all of our guys are seven feet tall. So they got to travel. That's more work, right? So we might just put the same weight on. It's just like who can move it faster, who could drop down and get it up quicker and now if a guy

comes in he hits like a 0.8 on this on the um on the elite form what the next guy's like man get out of here i'm on that i'm on that next let me see that and so that's just how we'll breed competition and we usually use that for our squats and our benches and then we have an isokinetic squat machine we have force plates um we have jump mats we have vertex like any way we can breed competition with an objective outcome like hey he got that what can you get guys guys usually do that i like that uh belt squat you guys have i think it's pretty cool yeah kaiser's a company right yep and even our kaisers give us um a power output number i remember earlier in the year we were doing some jump testing with uh all of young guys. But it was Vince Carter's first day in.

Vince Carter. Yeah. Shout out Vince Carter. He's a legend. He's also the nicest guy I've ever met. Vince Carter. No one will ever dunk better than that guy. I don't care what anybody says.

Yeah. So we're doing a bunch of jump testing. And I remember Fox. And Fox could jump. That kid stood athletically one of the best I've seen. But all of our guys are jumping. And Fox and everyone's kind of waiting for Fox so Fox comes in and jumps and he hits hits the uh the Vertec which just measures jump height and uh and then we have an isokinetic squat machine so that day we were doing some testing and Vince walks in he's

like what's up y'all and he kind of looks up at the Vertec he's like who did that I'm like Fox that's cute and he just like bunny hops and like just taps it with one finger. Like, oh, that's cute. And then he hops on like the, he hops on our isokinetic squat machine. And I told him who the, like what the high number was. And he was like, all right, let me warm up. And he like just proceeds to killing that. And this dude's like 40 years old and he's still killing it.

Yeah, it's insane. What, I mean, you know, for some of the listeners that are working with some athletes and stuff that are trying to get people to jump higher and stuff like that. I mean, obviously there's some genetic components to a lot of this, but have you noticed, you know, somebody just going from, I mean, it's not as simple as squatting 225 to squatting 275. Right. There's no real assurance that that's going to help uh your your jumping power and how

high you jump right what are some things that really do help yeah i mean i think that's one one piece of it's obviously strength like if you're just weak especially like jumping ultimately is just a measure of relative power like how powerful are you to your body weight um so if you're relatively weak then that's not a good thing so yeah strength is part of it um and then specific movements within that so different deadlifting variations squat variations um trap bar or hinge variations um but beyond that like jumping is also a skill so you need to jump a lot but just like any other skill you need to train your skill you need to practice your skill so jumping is a skill so because that, typically guys that can jump really high are guys that grew up playing basketball or volleyball that just jumped as a kid and they jumped all the time and

they've been jumping for 20 years. So if you're relatively strong or if you're relatively weak, then you need a strength train. If you don't jump a lot, then you should just start jumping more. And then within those two kind of ends of lifting things heavy and jumping a lot, you should probably do variations of jumping with lighter weights so then you can kind of train the strength speed continuum so that's kind of what we do with our guys so you might that can get a little dangerous

from time to time right it could happen with weights but you guys jump on foam boxes probably not the metal boxes and yep take some precautions in that. And are you also trying to make sure that your guys are, you know, jumping exponentially X amount of inches above the box? So they're not like, so it's not just a display of them pulling their feet up, right? Yeah. So our big one is basically if you can't land in the same position you left the floor in, then the box is probably too high for you. So rather than jumping, you know, you jump in almost like a quarter squat position or half squat position and you leave the ground.

If you can't land in a half squat position, you know, if you're landing with, you know, ass to the grass. Right. It's probably too high of a box for you because now all you're doing is pulling your legs up. So that's our way we kind of manage. I've been telling people stuff like that for years because it's just like, it's not detrimental to jump higher than the box. You know what I mean? It's not negative, but it is negative if you fall. For sure.

Especially if you've got some weights in your hands. What kind of weights are these guys able to hold on to? We haven't done many. We rarely do like a weighted jump with dumbbells in the hands. Weight vest maybe? But we might go weight vest or or we might go barbell. So we might just go light barbell. Sometimes it's just an unweighted barbell, and you just jump.

Now that's 45 pounds on your back. Sometimes it's a weight vest. Sometimes it's two. Sometimes it's a med ball. Like last night, we had Harry Giles, and we're doing split squat jumps with a 15-pound med ball at chin height. So we just find different ways to load that movement. And then we try to be cautious of the landing portions of those things because obviously landing with load if you're not

ready for that then that can bury you and that can't be good so do you do some stuff that's just timed like hey uh you know uh alternate legs and a split um and a split squat position back and forth for 30 seconds or stuff for speed and time type deal sprints yeah most of our time stuff comes earlier in the off season just for like energy system development work so earlier in the off season we'll do different time things and and it helps with with becoming it helps with the more efficient kind of weight room because early in the off season we may that's probably the only time in the season where we'll have 10 to 12 guys in the weight room at once because typically these guys don't all work out it's not like in college especially college basketball you all work out

together and it's like you have the whole roster in for an hour or whatever um in the nba it's a lot different we don't have like block schedules we have four or five guys in at a time so but when we do have 10 to 12 that's when we do time stuff because then we can just rotate and becomes really efficient so energy system development offseason stuff um we'll do different timing things who's the biggest mutant you've ever coached you ever worked with oh just like someone flat out can do some weird freaky stuff here it's like what the hell i mean vince carter probably tops them all uh and i'm fortunate to actually have worked with him but that's only this season uh but there's definitely been some like stud athletes that i've been able to work with ben mclemore comes to mind like he's just always a beautiful, he's a beautiful athlete.

Like, you're like, man, everything he does just looks correct. There's some people that could be, you know, like, on their knees and they can jump into, like, a squat position. But then there's some dude that can do it with, like, 225. Right. You know, or with 135 and jump up on a box. You know, you're just like, I'm not even sure how to make sense of what these guys are able to do. And most of our guys, like, most NBA players, because basketball kind of spans a spectrum of athleticism, like, most of these guys can be pretty good at a lot of things. Yeah. But in the weight room, we don't really have opportunities to really test those extremes just because the majority of your workout comes with us or the majority of your training comes during season with us.

So we can't really get too crazy. Right. But that would be fun to like, just see what you could do. Yeah. Just, yeah. See all the different crazy shit.

Has there been anybody that you got to kick out of the gym? Ooh. Uh, somebody that just like, dude, chill out. You need to rest a little bit. Uh,

well, there's definitely guys that we like discouraged for coming in. Like, so like Bogdan Bogdanovich, like every single day and you're like dude no stop like you like i chill out yeah like the hundred shots you're gonna shoot today and make like that's probably not gonna necessarily help but for him it's just a mental thing like how does it help how does it hurt it could be hurting you could be doing too much of it. Exactly. And so for certain guys, you know, you're trying to pull back on like, yo, you don't like just stay in bed and chill and relax and like go do a normal thing.

Cause that's probably good for you from a psychological perspective. But some guys just need it. You know, like that's bogey. Like I have to shoot every day. Like, okay, we'll just shoot two and then leave. Like, I don't know, you know? So yeah, there's certain guys that you definitely have to pull back on which which is a good problem to have like right if if i had to choose between that problem or like having to chase people into the gym and make them get their work in i want the

guy that i have to pull back on versus the guy that i got to chase around all day yeah you've been uh kind of advertising this sports performance symposium can you tell us what that's all about yeah so this i'm excited about this uh so that graphic there that's you guys are showing that started so basically the new year hit and i'm like man quit talking about shit and just be about it and so uh my girlfriend's a creative designer who's sitting in the room now and so i told her like mock this up and that's all i had like i had no other plans there were no plans behind this it was like a graphic and instagram right but i posted it because i know if i put it out like I would hold myself accountable to it.

So I posted it. It got some good traction. Like, oh, shit, this is cool. So from there, I just started like hitting people up. And now we have a presenter list that's like really, really top notch. What's unique about it is every speaker except one is from the Bay Area or works within the Bay Area currently. So we have Stanford, we have 49ers, San Jose Sharks, a guy from Cal, obviously us, so Sacramento Kings, UC Davis, Sacramento State, and Anaheim Ducks. What are you imagining is going to happen at this symposium? So the majority of attendees will probably be strength and conditioning coaches from within the Bay Area and beyond.

We'll probably cap it at 100 people because I want to keep it highly engaged so people will engage. But for the most part, it's going to be, you know, we'll have presentations on stage for about 30 minutes. And then after that, what I'm going to do is create table assignments so that every single person has to speak with every other individual within that day and communicate and talk. And they'll talk about something relevant to each presentation. And then we'll do a vendor show during lunch, which is going to be a good opportunity for our attendees and our vendors and sponsors to kind of engage and do some things there. And then post-conference, I'm encouraging everybody to go out and have a drink somewhere. I'm working on a location for that. But go out, have a drink, continue networking, continue learning with each other.

So my ultimate goal really was just to bring something to the Bay Area. I grew up in the Bay Area as an assistant. When I first got here as the assistant, it was something that was on my mind. But I was so focused on just trying to be a pro. So I didn't want to put any time in anything else. Right. Um, but this year I'm like, man, just, just do it. And so it's been good.

Like there's nothing currently really in the Bay area or Northern California that, that brings together sport performance professionals in our field. Yeah. So it's, I'm kind of feeling a void, I think with that. And, uh, my, my plan is just to continue growing every year and hopefully it becomes like the biggest thing in the Bay area for our industry. Cool. How can someone be a strength conditioning coach?

What are some of the first steps they should be looking into? Uh, first thing I tell people is go find somebody to like work for and work for for free. Like that's okay. Like just a high school or whatever, wherever, like if there's somebody training someone and you want to train someone, then go follow them. Like, that's how I started. There was a gym down the street from my house and, uh, I just went in and said, Hey, like you're training athletes. I want to train athletes someday. Can I shadow you?

Like, get out of here, kid. Yeah. And like, and so, uh, he was like, yeah, sure. So like I would follow him around and he was like, we'd go and like train five-year-olds. Like it didn't matter. Like I was there and I, and I just wanted to learn and bug and ask questions um so go find someone whether it's probably gonna be work for free like in our industry you just have to work for free and and you know if you feel like some type of way about that i worked for free for collectively two years so i have like four internships under my belt about six months each or whatever and uh but like it worked out you know what i mean like you just got to put the

time in uh degree wise probably you're probably to need a degree in exercise science or something. You don't necessarily have to, especially in today's age with Instagram and Twitter and all these things. You don't need a degree, but if you want to end up training professional athletes or college athletes, you'll probably need one. And then get certified. So the big one in our industry is the CSCS, which is Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA. So those are kind of the main steps there is like get certified. Yeah, you can spend a lot of time to like try to fake it, but you're better off just getting some of these certs

and just getting the job done. Otherwise, you're going to spend a lot of time just trying to reroute what you're ultimately going to have to do anyway probably. And if you're going to apply for a college or a professional job, it's usually the bare minimum. Like if you don't have that, no one's going to even look at you. Which, I'm not saying that the certification is like you need it. No, you can be great without it.

But you got to play the game sometimes. Right. Where can people find you? If you want people to find you. Instagram. I don't even know my Instagram handle. I think it's like Ramsey underscore Nigel. Before we jump off here, nutrition plays a big

part in all this. What kind of nutrition are you preaching to these guys? Is that a huge discussion or is it too hard of a thing to manage? We definitely attack it to the best of our ability. The big things we talk about is calories and protein. Those are the big ones things we talk about is calories and protein. Those are the big ones. Replenish your calories and make sure you're just getting enough protein. And then from there, there's some carb stuff that we'll try to sneak in for recovery and those types of things. But the big one with these guys, especially a young roster that needs to gain weight to continue competing in the NBA, is just eat calories.

Yeah, they need to eat. Eat protein. And sometimes they're like, oh, I shouldn't have this. I'm like, however, you got to get your calories. And so like sometimes, yeah. Yeah. So some of our guys are like eating quote unquote unhealthy foods before a game, but okay.

In the grand scheme of things, like that's a thousand calories. Right. It's definitely easier to get it through a quote unquote bad food than it is through a damn salad. So sometimes like we have to just manage that. And sometimes it's, I don't encourage my guys to eat poor but it's like oh shoot ram i shouldn't have this i'm like well it beats the alternative which was you probably weren't going to eat so yeah it's better than nothing um so yeah and then as we kind of build like my motto is early on with these guys

you just try to get them to appreciate calories and protein and then from there you build that out to like okay okay, food choices. Within the group of proteins, like what's a leaner protein source versus not lean. But first we start with the basics and then we just build out over their career. Is the front office supportive with some of that? Like are they getting some, you know, trying to get fruits and things like that for the team and meat and high quality foods? Yeah, we have two chefs full time. Oh, there you go.

That's sick. A beautiful kitchen and they do a great job. quality foods yeah we have two chefs full-time oh there you go that's sick a night a beautiful kitchen and they do a great job so like yeah i mean we're fully invested in the nutrition side of things and then that's great we just start with education we have it all there like all the best foods are there now it's just educating you on why you should be eating them and when you should be eating those types of things and for anybody that's listening uh ramsey is a great follow on instagram because like you always have like you're like whether it be a protein shake or I'll even interact with you. Like, yo, should I be eating this or that?

And you're very responsive and I really appreciate that. But you break down your macros and you make it simple on your Instagram story. And it's like you get a lot of information just following your story. So I highly recommend everybody go find this guy and follow him. Yeah. Yeah. Listen to that. And then if you can't find him, you just find us on Instagram and I'll tag him in one of our recent posts and you'll, you'll find them that way. It comes to your own nutrition. Uh, a lot of people have their own weird, uh, like mix of food that they've, you know, uh, we had someone on recently who said they eat, uh, eggs and rice like every morning.

I got my weird bone broth thing going on. Different people have different go-to's. What are some of your go-to's? Oh, man. I'm not very exciting. You're a protein bar guy or you're just like a steak guy? Yeah, definitely shakes and like straight protein. So it's every morning.

I basically skip breakfast every day. Anything fancy with the shakes or is it just mixed with water? Just water. And that's mainly because I don't like protein shakes. Right, which is crazy because I have like two, three a day. But like still, I've been drinking protein for like 10 years. And still to this day, if I like stop drinking at any point, then I can't finish it because I just have to hold my breath. Oh, you have to just hammer it. I just have to hammer it.

Yeah. And so like I'll do two or three a day and I usually skip breakfast. Like that's my big thing. A lot of times people are like, you got to eat breakfast every day every day i think that's like for most people that's probably true but ultimately what you probably need to do whether whatever your body composition goal is is you just need to control your calories and however you decide to do that right sometimes you need more calories sometimes you need less um but then once you figure out what you need you need to come up with strategies throughout your day to help achieve those goals and so for me like i know that if I eat breakfast, then it's probably gonna be harder for me

to maintain the calories I want because I'll probably overeat. So I usually skip breakfast and I'm not really that hungry. That might go with your work schedule real well. Maybe at the end of the day when it's 7 p.m., maybe you feel like having a pretty big meal. Exactly. And because you didn't eat in the morning, you can afford to have one without gaining weight or yeah, whatever the goal is. Yeah.

And that's especially for us in the NBA. I mean, you eat, you're eating at like 11, 12, like last night, right? We got, we have food on the plane. I'm eating quote unquote dinner at like 10 PM. And because of that, or I'll eat post game after home game. So because of that,

it's like my whole entire eating schedule just gets shifted. So like my lunch becomes my breakfast and then like a pregame dinner becomes lunch and then postgame becomes my dinner. So I just shift everything forward and account for that. I just have a protein shake when I wake up. There you go. That's my boy Ramsey. That's all the time we got.

Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never strength. Bye.