Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 413 - Former Lakers S&C Coach Tim DiFrancesco

Episode Date: July 27, 2020

Dr. Timothy DiFrancesco is the president and founder of TD Athlete’s Edge and former strength & conditioning coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. He completed his undergrad from Endicott College, and his doctorate of physical therapy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. TD Athletes Edge is nationally renowned for its evidence-based and scientific approach to training, nutrition, and recovery for athletes and fitness enthusiasts. Tim on IG: https://www.instagram.com/tdathletesedge/ Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Support the show by visiting our sponsors! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Icon Meals: http://iconmeals.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" for 10% off ➢Sling Shot: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/ Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

Hey everybody, welcome to Mark Bell's Power Project podcast hosted by Mark Bell, co-hosted by Nseema Iyang and myself, Andrew Zaragoza. This episode was recorded on July 24th and it is with our homie, Tim DeFrancesco. Tim used to be the former strength and conditioning coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, so he did spend some time with the great Kobe Bryant, which we talked a lot about today. Anytime we get a chance to speak with somebody that used to speak with somebody, that was great. We like to, we take advantage as best we can and pick their brain a little bit about that.

It was just really cool hearing stories about Kobe and hearing stories about even Metal World Peace. We really just, we learned a lot about what life was like in the locker rooms during his time with LA. He's since moved on and he started his own company training athletes of all ages and all levels. And we asked him a bunch of questions, like even simple things like back pain issues

or how to become a strength and conditioning coach on a professional level. What can you guys do if you're striving to be that? What you can do right now and how you can get yourself there. Really just an awesome episode. It was just, again, just tons of fun being able to pick someone's brain that has been at the absolute top most elite level in their profession. So I think you guys are going to like it.

Please reach out to him if you guys dig it. All his social media links will be down in the YouTube and Facebook and podcast show notes and all the descriptions. Wherever you guys can see writing, just make sure you guys click in there and check it out. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy this episode with Tim DeFrancesco. We get to talk to former Lakers strength coach today. That's sick. Yeah. See what's up with, you know with he's a physical therapist as well.

So any weird clicks or banged up things that we got we can complain to him about it. That should be good. See if he can fix this up. Yeah. What you guys been eating lately? What you been chewing on? Lots of meat. Oh, hey now. Putting a lot of meat in your mouth.

Putting a lot of meat in my mouth. Taking it down. Ingesting it. Dig a lot of meat in my mouth. Taking it down. Ingesting it. Digesting it. Swallowing it. And taking more. Boom. Yeah, it's been, so, like, everything's packed up.

So, I can't, like, make anything too crazy. So, like, what's super simple and tastes delicious, Piedmontese Flatirons. That's my staple, like, in life. Like like if i can have that forever like i'm good gotta be careful with those man they cook fast they cook insanely fast i've screwed them up a couple times yeah it's like about four minutes or so it's like two two or three minutes on each side you're good and it's no let me say it's because of that like remember so like we've gone back and forth how like no you need to put it on the grill. Like, the air fryer is no good. Well, because I learned after, like, being forced to use it, you got to use a way lower temperature.

Like, significantly lower. What do you use? With the flat iron. Like, I just have, like, a regular, like, round traditional air fryer. But, like, I'll put it at, like, under 300 sometimes. Really? I'll cook it super slow as slow as possible and that does change a lot of the i don't think it's him has the patience for

that i think he's too hungry the growing boy over here he can't wait that long so like i think the lowest i've gone was like 280 but like i'll do i'll do around three two 320 or 340 for only like 12 minutes and it's like it's really good i'm gonna try that yeah just go undershoot you know so go go a lot uh lower temperature than you even think and then just like you know test it out like to see what you got because it comes out way different than like the instant like wham like it's cooked yeah and joe rogan there was a guy who talked about like really just taking a really long time with cooking your steaks i think he was talking about thicker steaks and stuff like that too but he just talked about how you would sear like one side you sear the other then you like let it rest then you cook it a

little longer and you let it rest you go back and forth i was like damn that's a lot of patience but it sounded amazing sounded like it'd be really it probably keeps it really tender yeah and that's why i keep telling people because like i do use the smoker all the time um like hey you you like this isn't like a put it on the grill we're gonna eat in five minutes like no that it's a process but it's so worth it on the none of my lack of patience though the other day i put the flat iron in 12 minutes i had to go like i had to leave so i put it in my hand and i was legit just eating it as i was like leaving drove i had some wipes my car so after i finished it by eating it by hand i had to wipe my hands off and then i got to my destination so that's why i'm just laughing at this whole patience thing that you guys are

talking about no no that makes sense though when it comes to food you take it serious i appreciate that for more information on piedmontese please head over to piedmontese.com that's p-i-e-d m-o-n-t-e-s-e.com at checkout enter promo code power project for 25 off your order and if your order is 99 more you get free two-day shipping highly highly recommend the flat iron steaks what's going on with uh the n NBA and stuff like that at the moment? Like, is it back or what's? So, right now they're doing scrimmages, basically. So, they're doing, like, I think 10-minute quarters.

But they're in, like, kind of like Fighter Island. They're in an NBA bubble. So, next to Disney World, I think that's where it is. They just have all the players with their coaches and that's it. No side hoes. I was going to say, have we figured out how that works out yet? Are they flying some ladies out that way or something? I don't think they can.

Women be swimming out there, I think. Putting on their little swimming caps yeah they got diving in the water they got the bubble in like a like a moat and there's just chicks swimming in the moat but yeah like one of the one of the kings players i don't even like know the roster at this point but he left to go get chicken wings and he's like well i didn't even really think about it i just went to go get dinner so he had to stay in quarantine for two weeks wow yeah they're taking this bubble seriously yeah they are okay that's right where is it's like in florida

somewhere yeah orlando florida disney world um so yeah they started the 10-minute quarter scrimmages, and then July 30th, they start the whole mini-season. So, right now, any teams that are in contention to make it to the playoffs, they get to play in this play-in season where whoever's close, you have to prove that you're going to be able to make it to the playoffs. And a bunch of the season already started, right? Correct, yeah. It had started, and then once the Rona hit, they shut it all down as they did everything. Uh-oh. Hold on. We've got a special phone call here. We've got to take this.

Uh-oh. I don't know if you'll be able to hear it. Hello there, Mr. Ed Cohn. You're on the air here. Maybe you need to take this from me and plug it in. Nice, Mr. Ed Cohn. We got you. You're on the air here. Maybe you need to take this from me and then plug it in. Nice, thanks. I was on a conference call in the process with some people opening up a processing plant for marijuana and vapes and CBD shit in Michigan.

Wow. Oh, cool. How old are you, Ed? 57. Wow. Damn. How are you feeling I feel great

you just deal with it your role and choose to be good everyday right how are things going with the Ed Cohn classic I know you set something up with that and then we had a really good showing and a lot of spectators showed up not one

misload not one problem all day long. It was really nice. Awesome. I'm here with the Natty professor in SEMA and here with Andrew. We're about ready to hit up a podcast in a few minutes here. Oh, nice. Thanks. How's training and stuff?

Are you still able to get after some heavy weights? My shoulders aren't healed yet because when I got the stem cells, they stuck it in the joint. I think they should have probably stuck it right in the little muscle tears I have. It's slowly but surely getting better. I can still

squat and do good mornings and all little stuff. I just don't go as heavy as I'd like to because of the shoulders. That's probably good too too, because, you know. Something's got to hold you back a little bit, right? Yeah, so now it's just help, pain-free, and lift a little bit of weight. All right, Ed. Well, I love you very much, and we miss you out here at

Super Training Gym, and hope you have an awesome birthday. If I was there, all right ed well i love you very much and we miss you out here at super training gym and uh hope you have an awesome birthday if i was there i would give you 57 birthday spankings all right man have a great rest of your day catch you later buddy bye yo is it just me or does do that does ed and michael her and do they have like the same accent do they sound like the same they do sound a little similar, do they have the same accent? Do they sound like the same? They do sound a little similar, huh? Are they from the same spot? No, I think Mike is from Mars.

I was going to say, he's not. Yeah, Mike is from, I think, Washington, I think. Washington? Ed is from Chicago area. Okay. There's something about the way they say, you know, I don't know. I can explain it and other stuff. I don't know.

I didn't catch that, but I'll pay attention. There's a few words in there that I'm just like, hmm. Sounds a little similar, huh? Sounds a little similar. A little similar-ish. 157. That's a goat. Meh.

Yeah. He's unbelievable. Yeah. It wasn't too long ago, probably about five or six years ago that he made like a little mini comeback and he just went into a meet and uh i don't even think he was scheduled to compete or anything like that he just they asked him to compete at one of those big events out in australia and he squatted like 705 that was six years ago yeah something like that yeah it wasn't yeah he was like oh yeah he's like

i could do something and he's like i could do something he did like i think he opened with like six something he smashed that and then he went to like i think he went to around 705 or something from what i remember i you know yeah i think it's on youtube because i i've seen it yeah wow yeah that's badass dude like who doesn't want to be that when they're in their 50s? Yeah, he just, I don't know, he just has, like, just different levels of strength than everybody else. He's on the H&L. Yeah, that's true. He really is.

How old is O'Hearn? O'Hearn is 50. He might be, like, 51. Wow, actually, yeah, I forgot about that i remember that now he's 51 sean baker's in his 50s our boy stands in his 50s damn i got superhuman all y'all are superhuman i got 15 years to get halfway there i mean that's exciting though right like these days like if you just work your ass off and treat your body right, you could still look like a fucking animal when you're 50. Yeah.

When most people think 50 is like, you know. Yeah, decrepit. Yes. And pain. I remember seeing my own dad at like 40, you know, I was like, oh, like he's not the same anymore. You know, once he turned around 40. And so hopefully my kids don't view me the same way. Like, oh, shit, dad's falling apart.

Yeah. Yo. What's up? Backtracking real quick. Since we're about to have a basketball guy on, do you guys know who Bull Bull is? Mm-hmm. Okay. He's the young guy on the Nuggets.

Mm-hmm. Y'all see how much of a kid he makes everybody look like i saw this clip on youtube yesterday bull bull was drafted like 44th right but so pissed the king's passed on him but he's like seven i don't know seven four is he really three he's super tall but he doesn't move like the other bull guy in the past like minute bull minute bull he can he can shoot this yeah minute bull was like real thin yeah yeah he bull manute bull he can he can shoot this yeah manute bull was like real thin yeah yeah he moved kind of slow he's thin too but he moves pretty quick he can shoot he can dunk he can jump but it's just like on that frame it's kind of creepy you just wonder

what it'd be like to be that tall and to like kind of almost like when you jump, shoot down at the basket kind of? Yeah. Oh, snap. Here we go. All right. I think we can hear him. Yeah, we are. Cool. What's up, guys? What's happening? Hey.

Yeah, great to have you on the show today. So you're out. No kidding. No kidding. Thanks. You're out in Massachusetts nowadays, right? Yeah, outside of Boston here. So you guys are – it's hot and humid out here.

It's not that cool, dry heat that you guys have, but that's all right. How long have you been out there for? Because, I mean, last I saw you, you were still with the Lakers, and you came out to Super Training for a little bit and you got to check out super training. How long you been out there doing your own thing now? Yeah, absolutely. So I left the Lakers three years ago and have had a chance to really kind of scratch that itch that similarly you had with super training, you know, be able to get my own space and build out my own vision. So over the last three years I've been back here.

And New England is home. That's where the roots are. How pivotal is it for, you know, NBA players and just basketball players in general to weight train? You know, because sometimes I think to weight train, you know, because sometimes I think in years past, you know, people would say like certain sports like baseball and certain sports like basketball, they'll just say like it's an athletic endeavor and it's important to be agile and so forth.

But strength is something that's usually like not in the hierarchy of needs sometimes in sports, because people just think you can kind of beat strength by just being in shape and so forth. So what have you seen and how has strength been implemented into basketball and other sports? Yeah, I think that what happened in basketball until really the MJ era, where MJ really made popular weightlifting and basketball. And before that, it was just you've got to be careful. I mean, there was always this myth of, oh, if you get too bulky, you're going to mess up the shot. And it's, you know, and I think, you know, outside of football, there's a couple other sports. But football, I think the weight room is in the culture of the sport.

And, you know, but when MJ started lifting weights and he started talking about it, you know, most people are going to just follow along and figure, well man if mj's doing it we better be doing this and and that's right around the time you started to see the in the nba you started to see teams pre-mj teams didn't have a set strength they didn't have a strength they had an athletic trainer uh taped ankles dealt with injuries did rehab stuff but it's like yeah if the guys get in the weight room if they want to cool if they don't want to cool they don't have to because like you said there's this idea that you want to stay just super lean and and just fluid and and that weight lifting would somehow make that not happen so i think my what i've found and and this is sort of you know not just my findings i think what basketball players have found and coaches of is sort of you know not just my findings i think what basketball players have found and coaches of basketball players whether strength coaches or skill coaches is

just from the durability standpoint you know the the benefits of bones tendons ligaments and and those muscles getting that that loading is it's not about how big can we get this guy to look in in basketball um it's it's more about how durable can we make this super skilled athlete to stay on the court i'm also one though that yeah if in the process you get them a little bigger that's not a bad thing because all of a sudden now basketball is one of the most contact sports with the least amount of protective equipment you're you're you're building your own protective equipment and um that could be huge on the court um and and so um i've enjoyed being a part of the last 10 years where that sort of it's going to mess up my shot myth was debunked and and guys started to really appreciate getting in the weight room

and just moving heavy shit. Who do you mainly work with nowadays? Is your facility, you work with a lot of different types of people? Yeah, and that's one of my favorite things about it is you can walk through our space at any time and see rostered level athletes you could see you know somebody who's works works in downtown Boston at a at a you know desk job crazy hours and is just trying to unwind back pain issues or you know whatever it is maybe play tennis on the side or or you know even high level triathletes so it's a pretty

uh big mix and you know that's the beauty of it i love and our team loves finding the starting point of any individual putting that together with what their goals are what their injury history is and being able to put them on a a path that is building strength the right way and and unravel or untangle old issues, but get them towards stuff that maybe they thought, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this anymore. I want to know about this because a lot of individuals that are coaches or that maybe have taken the route you have gone through school, gotten a job, et cetera, are wondering,

how the hell do I start working with professional athletes? How do I start working with players, baseball players, et cetera. So I don't know, was it a complicated thing for you to go out and get that job for the Lakers? Like, did you have to search out certain people or did they search you out with your credentials? So have it. So me having a doctor, a doctorate in physical therapy was really the passport to getting over into that universe, for sure. But I have this conversation with many, many entry-level professionals or people that have been kind of banging around the block for a while trying to figure out, like, I still really have this dream of working in the pros and the first place to start is find local youth athletes find your local youth coaches whether it's you know 12 to 15 year olds whether it's a varsity uh sport team or whether it's a local college and go say hey can i put together a program for you?

I mean, we've all been there. Everybody started from something that didn't exist, and you scratch it out of nothing if you're going to make something. And so you don't just show up to the Lakers and say, you know, hey, I'm pretty – I really love playing – I mean, training basketball players, and I know the game. You've got to start your resume and your credibility somewhere. So all of a sudden you're in your local area. I don't care if you have somebody in your local area that does play pro or not. If you start to build this reputation and not only that,

but build the experience and the time and the trenches of what it means to write something on paper that translates into performance and health for an athlete, then all of a sudden, you know, there's not a lot of people that do that really well. And so I went to local, you know, varsity basketball players and their coaches and, and players that I played with that then went to try to play semi pro and people within my network, just what I had in front of me and said, Look, I'll put a program together for you for free. My hope is that this keeps you on the court and all of a sudden people talk. And it's like, hey, what are you doing, man? You're really looking sharp out there. And well, this guy's writing this program for me. It's awesome. And I just think that kind of stuff snowballs.

And in today's world, you have such an advantage with social media too if you start posting stuff of you doing really high quality work with athletes at any level all of a sudden you're building this reputation and this credibility for yourself and you just got to go make it when you uh got to the lakers like the first you know few weeks or maybe a few months were you kind of like holy holy shit, like I'm, I'm with the Lakers. Like, did you get a little overwhelmed at times, like looking at all the championship banners and stuff like that? So the one, the one thing, um, the one time that I, I had that moment was when I, the very first time I met Kobe and I had been in,

in the building for a day before that. My first day, I didn't meet him. My second day I met him, but you know, I hadn't met a bunch of these guys, these guys that I had watched on sports center and I didn't have that moment of like, Holy shit. I did with Kobe and I saw him down the hall. I said, all right, here we go. This is going to be the intro. And I go up to him.

I'm all kind of like trying to be buttoned up about it. You know, hey, Kobe, my name's Tim. And I'm about to go into this. You know, I'm excited. I really, you know, I admire blah, blah, blah. And he slapped my hand out of the way. He said, man, I know who you are already. He goes, it's time to get to work.

Shut up. Let's get to work. And he gave me a hug. And, you know, that was him, though. He's not in it for the chit-chat. He was in it for the work. So we worked very well together because of that. And then how is the organization as a whole in terms of supporting strength conditioning and maybe even like nutrition?

Like they try to they try to get on board with you implementing certain things that they provide certain things like like how far would they go to try to, I guess, make sure that you can do the best job that you could. us make sure that you can do the best job that you could yeah i got a ton of support in in you know the sense of they gave me a lot of leeway is the way that i look at it you could also look at it as we we didn't have a set nutritionist at that time so my background i have you know certification and precision nutrition with dr john berardi and you, so I have the ability to kind of speak in that language. So we didn't have a nutritionist, they kind of let me run with it. And let me take the lead on what we need to be doing from a nutrition standpoint. We did a lot with Dr. Kate Shanahan during that time, who I just have so much respect for in the space of, you know, understanding how the body uses different fuels, fat versus, you know, sugars for fuels, and, you know understanding how the body uses different fuels fat versus you know sugars for

for fuels and and you know how to translate that into both body composition and performance that kind of thing and so um they gave me a lot of leeway with that and i i had the ability to um really work with our players at at individual levels on trying to find where they were at. We had Steve Nash. I mean, look, Nash was all in. He's like, tell me how this works. You know, I want to meet with Dr. K and you regularly. I want to do the whole nines.

You know, some guys were more just sort of like, okay, yeah, I mean, I'm going to eat my normal shit, but if you tell me kale chips are good for me, I'll throw some on the side. I mean, you know, and so it's – and I think just that piece of it was a learning experience for me. I think maybe from the outside you think, well, they're pro athletes. They must be checking all the boxes all the time. It's like any profession i mean you have some that are that are all you know have all their ducks in a row and want to you know turn over every stone and you have some people that are gonna just kind of you know mosey their way through stuff and and so um and skip some steps

and and uh and and so um i had to figure out with each guy, what is, what are the battles worth taking and what are the things that this person's that's going to be realistic for this individual player. And, you know, sometimes I learned that stuff the hard way, but we figured it out. So it was, I really, I'm such a big believer that you could sit here and do all the right training. You could do, depending on what your goals are, whether it's sport performance, whether it's body composition, you know, leaning out, you know, getting good sleep, getting some sunshine

during the day, staying hydrated. And the nutrition piece is just so, so massive. We see, you know, the interviews and the like the motivational videos of Kobe working hard. But was he ever resistant to any new training methods that you had to show him? Or like, just was there anything where he kind of looked at you with like a confused face and then maybe was a little resistant towards it so that's a great question and you know he he's a he was a guy that makes the people around him you know you've got to earn his trust and so which is i i prefer that and and so my one of the first workouts we did i, my background as a doctor of physical therapy, I want to sort of blend the stuff that is more on the rehab side or preventative side with the performance side.

And he's late in his career at this point. He's got all kinds of injuries developing and or that he was dealing with at that stage. And so, we get into the workout I have him start doing this wall slide exercise for some shoulder mobility pairing that with a heavier press exercise and he looks at me demonstrate he goes no I don't do that cut I don't do that cupcake shit give me another exercise that actually going to make me work. We'll figure out the shoulder stuff, but it's not going to be that way. And so, you know, I mean, Hey, we, we, I found some other ways over time to kind of sneak some broccoli into his

birthday cake, as I like to say it, but we, we, we, we, I had to kind of learn what he was going to be, be good with. And yeah, so he, he was he had was, he had his ways at that point, you know, rightfully so at that point in his career. Yeah. I remember he used to train with a friend of mine, Joey Carbone, and Kobe would do box squats and reverse hyperextension and bench pressing and things like that. So he was no stranger to the power movements. He was no stranger to like just getting after it with a kind of raw weight. And you see a lot of professional athletes, um, not even doing a hybrid of what you're talking about. You see a lot of

professional athletes, uh, being like being pandered to, you know, like, Hey, you know, just do these like mobility, warmup exercises. And the workout never gets really any more intense than that. It's just like 45 minutes of just that. And it's tough because the athletes are really good at what they do. They're gifted at what they do. And it's kind of hard to tell like what will really move the needle for them on the court or on the field. But for the most part, I think what will move the needle for most people the most is trying to find like where you're weak, like what's, you know, what's your main issue? Are you not explosive enough when you jump?

Are you not quick enough or fast enough? And you can help or assist a lot of these things through the weight room. Oh, and that's exactly right. And you just see these athletes doing kind of these things through the weight room oh and that's exactly right and you just see these athletes doing kind of these you know borderline gimmicky workouts of it's just bands it's just body weight it's just mobility work put that goddamn bow suit ball away exactly um and and you know it's like look all those different implements have a spot somewhere but you can't build entire training bodies of work off of that one thing and and and the only thing that is tried and true is is lifting moving heavy stuff the right way

doing it in the in in directed at that individual's areas of weakness or limitations and that's where i just go back to is i had to figure out early on i'm not here to get these guys bigger faster stronger they're already on sports center with highlights okay we've got to get them durable and we've got to get them to have their own bulletproof on there so that they can do that and go do their thing and and yeah i mean it may not be cool or sexy but you know have somebody go run sand sprints all summer long and never pick up a weight i'll take the guy that spent did some sand sprints but also spent some time in the weight room multiple times a week moving heavy stuff. I want to know, because, you know, doing jujitsu and stuff, I see a lot of athletes, especially at the higher levels, like a lot of them are torn open their knees and their shoulders, etc.

But they're still like performing at a super high level. And you don't even know that they have injuries. super high level. And you don't even know that they have injuries. Now being a strength coach and working with all those professional athletes through the years, what are some things that you've seen where you're like, I don't know how they're doing this on the court every single day, even though they have this or this, do you see that often? Or are these guys pretty much being able to take care of themselves? Or are you able to take care of them pretty well? Well, I mean, look at a guy like Julius randall who plays for the knicks now julius in his first minutes of his first nba game goes up for a layup and his tibia the primary load-bearing

bone of your lower leg shattered and um you know he's 19 he's 19 years old and so um you know i remember being in the locker room when they you you know, when that happened and just kind of just seeing it and just trying to figure out how that could be possible. But, yeah, you put a rod in that kid's leg and he's one of the most explosive guys on the court right now. And that's one thing that comes to mind. So I think there's this huge i give him so much credit i mean these guys that come over those catastrophic injuries something like that something like a a blown out knee blown out achilles um and then you know take kobe again that that was would have been it would have been a wrap for 99% of players at that point in their career

with a, with a major injury like Achilles. And, um, you know, when you have to go back out there and know that this thing is surgically repaired, rehab repaired, it's, it's, it's hopefully pretty solid, but I mean, I've already done this once and I've got to get over that mental aspect of really to me the the physiology of it oftentimes those rehabbed and surgically repaired areas if you do it all right is gonna end up stronger than it maybe even ever was but then it's the mental piece that you give these guys credit for to get over that hurdle of it.

So you go to school and you learn about like exercise science and you learn about people's bodies and how to deal with them. But you don't learn about how to deal with someone who's seven feet tall, you know, who's six foot seven, six foot eight. And then also like the amount of body weight that some of them have is so different. You got some guys that are really, really thin and you're like, okay, you're all fired up. And you're like, I'm going to have these guys squat and I'm gonna have these guys deadlift. And then you get in there and you show them like, Hey, here's like a stiff leg deadlift. And they just

can't even come close to performing it. It's nothing like you imagine. You're like, these are beautiful professional athletes. Of course, they're going to be able to move and all these cool neat dynamic ways and you find out the complete opposite so how the heck do you train these guys i mean i remember when i'd see kobe squat at gold's gym i could just you know walk right underneath the bar because the bar you know where your shoulders are right you know is higher than where my head is you know so how do you get these guys uh how do you get them to organize their bodies yeah i i mean you brought it up earlier it starts you have to do an assessment you have to see how they move you have to understand um not you know every guy is going to be a little different sometimes you do

get a seven footer you're like holy shit there's like a a five five guy and sometimes you get a uh you know a six five guy and you're like how is this guy even on the court right now and you know i find that to be the most fascinating thing the guys that their feet are all pointed together or they're pointed outward and they walk weird and you they even stand awkwardly and then they go out there and they demolish everybody. They kill everybody. Man, I'll put it this way. I mean, without putting names on people,

because some of them are still playing at an all-star level right now. But, I mean, we had a lot of number two, number three picks in my time with the Lakers. And, you know, I tested a lot of young players, 19-year-old studs on, you know, getting drafted number one, two, three, and just an absolute train wreck. Once you take their shoes off, once you start seeing them move, absolute train wreck.

I mean, what they do over time, they just play basketball, and they've developed these compensations and these, know structural changes in their body rep after rep after rep of jumper of you know dunk of whatever the the common five movements are that their position requires and they've done that for the last 17 years and that's all they've done no all of a sudden they're now at the nba so it's got to start with the assessment. You've got to figure out, you know, the other piece is, look, you may not benefit them. If you try to unravel this big compensation thing that they've developed over the years, you could actually hurt them. If you start to say, let me, let me take this apart and make it what I think is better. You just have to kind of slide it a little bit off the extreme. And that's really the key. And then the other part you brought up is the levers of these guys is just, you know, it's insane. And so the length of the levers,

you know, it's, you know, basic physics, it's going to be harder to move around your body that way. And so having to, you know, come up, it was one of the better things for me because it forced me to come up with progression series of exercises that were really extensive. You have to understand, well, what is your scale of a progression series of an exercise? I mean, if it's here, you're in trouble because you can only go in and hear and hear but if you if you've got this big extensive progression series of how do i get way down on the bottom end of that and work this person up because that that dude's seven four and they're not going to do a side plank seven feet of a side plank it's it's a joke i mean you know and so you start hurting people if you're just going to plug them into that same starting point that you would put you and me into. When a player goes down for the casual to diehard fan, the first thing that goes through their mind is like, shit, what does this mean for our record?

When is he going to come back? Who's going to be the backup? They don't think about the coaches and everybody that's responsible for keeping this guy healthy. So as a strength coach, what goes through your mind when you see somebody go down, are you able to explain what that whole thing is like? It's, uh, it's a horrible feeling. I mean, I take a lot of responsibility as a strength coach for, I already talked about it. I mean, for the durability of that individual. coach for, I already talked about it. I mean, for the durability of that individual. Now I had to get myself as a, as a professional to a point where I can't take all that load. It's not just my fault if I, you know, as a strength coach, because otherwise every injury is just all my

fault and I'm just going to be a wreck all the time. But you also don't want to say, well, that's not my, that's not my fault. I mean, you know, there's strength coaches out there. It's like, Hey, you know, not my fault. I did everything i mean you know there's strength coaches out there's like hey you know not my fault i did everything right like well you do have to debrief and you do have to go back and learn from okay what could have you done from a preparation standpoint that maybe could have gotten away from you know that intensity or that level of an injury it's a it's a terrible feeling i mean you know it's, I hate seeing that. I take a lot of ownership in, you know, my role in the process. And so, therefore, you're going to kind of have this gut-wrenching moment. And then you quickly get over that and say, okay, what are the next steps?

What are the things that could have been better in the process of this that maybe could have avoided that? Maybe there's nothing. I mean, maybe the guy went out last night until 4 a.m. on a bender and, you know, was just not, you know, had no way of understanding that he was supposed to pivot and turn and his, you know, mind and his muscles were not connected to that moment. Maybe some 7'4 guy fell into his knee, no way around it. But, you know, maybe there's a case, you know, there's cases where it's like, okay, the guy's had hamstring injuries. What are the things, the evidence and science show us that could build

better durability in the hamstrings? You know, he's doing everything else right, that kind of thing. So it's not a fun moment at all. And I think the the cop out is the coach that's like hey you know what you're doing a disservice to our our you know profession if you're not taking ownership there because it's like well then what are we doing if we can't help with that process then why are we even doing this it's not to get them bigger faster stronger they're already bigger faster um with with stronger. With the Michael Jordan documentary that came out recently,

we saw that competitive fire from MJ. And how would you compare Kobe Bryant in that sense of his competitiveness? Because he seemed like he was on fire as well. What are some of your thoughts on that? Same. I mean, i wasn't ever around mj obviously that was the deepest look you know watching that docuseries was the deepest looking to you know mj i mean we all knew kind of had a feel for that he had that but you saw

even deeper uh yeah kobe was there uh at that level i mean if not more. He was a no excuses. He used to say this all the time. I don't want to hear how rough the waters were. I want the ship and the port. No excuses. One of the classic stories I always think back to is where he we lost in memphis and um you know that was this was during we had dwight howard we had kobe uh we had nash we were supposed to be right there with everybody we were having a you know dan tony was

coaching and um we had a we just we couldn't put it all together. And so we lost in Memphis. We get on the flight right after the game. We go to Chicago. We get into Chicago 2 a.m., get the bags to all the rooms by 3, 3.30. I'm opening my hotel room door at 3.45, probably 4. And I'm throwing my bags down, basically just going to fall asleep on the bed in my clothes.

And I get a text from him, what are you doing? And, I mean, I'm thinking in my head, like, going to bed, man. And I'm like, I'm here, what's up? And he's like, I want to go lift okay so i meet i he goes meet me downstairs in the lobby i go down the elevator i come out of the elevator i hear like classical music playing on the piano and i'm like why the hell would they be hiring somebody to sit here and play this on the piano in the lobby at this time? And then I walk around the corner, it's him waiting for me to go. He's playing, waiting for me to go live.

I don't think we, either of us said a word. And there was a lot of that. Like he was, there's plenty of guys that get off of that out of that game in Memphis. Like, yeah, man, I mean, who cares? We lost to Memphis. We play again tomorrow. uh you know you know that that was just you know he he's gonna sit there and he's gonna figure out what do i gotta do to to make sure that never happens again and make sure that we're gonna get this win in chicago in a couple of hours and um you know he's not going to sleep until he figures that out.

But, yeah, I mean, just absolutely ruthless. I will say this. You put either his kids in a room with him, you get them around kids, you've got them around kids and we're talking about just youth and kind of how to inspire them. That was what you could kind of melt away some of that ruthlessness and that killer in him. You could get to that. He and my mom at one point at one of the All-Star Games

had such a great conversation. And my mom was in special education all her career. And so, you know, there was human to him. And it was really an honor to be around him to have both sides of that. I might be totally confused here, and you and Andrew might drill me for this, but I don't know if it was 2008 or 2009 when they had Paul Gasol and they won another championship. Am I wrong or am I right?

Yeah. That would have been in that wheelhouse were you coaching were you the strength coach at that point no so I so I did Pat was there still when I was there um I came in right after so they had the year before I came in they had lost to Dallas after um in in the second round i believe they had they had just won their their final of coby's and and um uh and then uh yeah i came in we were about to get cp3 like i i had taken the job the lockout ended we we were about to get c CP3 in that trade. All of a sudden, that trade gets vetoed, and the Dwight Howard Nash experiment failed, and it was a few trials and tribulations from there.

That was crazy, by the way, that trade getting vetoed. That was insane. I just wanted to say that. I look back at it, because even with that happening, we lost to OKC. The year the lockout ended, the most recent lockout, and we lost to OKC when they had Harden and they had kd and they had russ we lost to them um in that point we were playing back-to-backs in the playoffs they were just a younger team so they snuck one out on a back-to-back where i just think our older team had a hard time turning around like that but we were we we were right there in that series we lost to them and i think

game six and and really kd hit a crazy shot over metal world peace and and um uh you know we had a shot at that series and that was without cp3 to your point i just think back like man if cp kobe still had stuff in the tank at that point if cp had come in at that point man man yeah even even as a uh as a i've been a lifelong kings fan so you know the rivalry or the lack thereof now these days but when i saw that i was just like holy shit this is gonna be insane and then when they got vetoed i'm like how is that okay I don't know. I just wanted to get that off my chest. I thought it was freaking crazy. No, nobody. I meant to, I meant to really distance myself from that because that was, uh,

I'd be sitting here showing you guys my ring right now. I was also really curious, uh, just from, uh, if none of the coaches listening, right. And they haven't worked with professional athletes yet. They haven't worked with basketball players yet. I would assume that there's things that you only learn in the field when working with people. Now you, you had all the education beforehand, but when you walked in and maybe the first few years, when you started working with these guys,

what are some of the big conceptual things that you learned and took with you that you only learned from that experience? So I think with that, it's just so true. There's just only stuff, you know, that you could, you could possibly be faced with in that circumstance. So I think one of the biggest things is, if you are going to work in sport, whatever level, and it's only going to ratchet up as you go up the levels, is what are you going to do? Because Kobe wasn't the only guy that told me I'm not going to do that.

Now, he might have been the only one that I said okay and didn't say a word to him back when he said I'm not going to do that exercise because he could and he was Kobe. to him back when he said i'm not going to do that exercise because he could and he was kobe but how are you going to um how are you going to work with athletes that maybe you know look in a private setting where i have people walking in here they're paying me they're coming to me because they get the value of it they are willing to pay me for it that level if you're working with with athletes those athletes are not paying you that school or that organization is paying you to do your job those athletes are not saying like i am going to pay tim to come in and

do this for me they may have their own guys on the side of things. But the biggest thing is how do you develop the relationship with each individual and speak their language and, like I said earlier, kind of pick the battle. So there might be ten things that I'd love to do with every player, but there might be four things that i'd love to do with every player but there might be four of them that are realistic and that they're gonna sort of that's gonna resonate with them and so my job then is to figure out what are those four of the 10 that are the most important and how do i sort of have that that you know and sometimes you you have to know which guys are you gonna sort of lose your shit with and and and then which guys are you gonna well they're they would you know that person

has a little bit more of a fragile personality if you lose your shit with that person they're gonna you're gonna lose them for good um you know sometimes you lose your shit with the right guy and you've got them for life because that's how they operate um, sometimes you lose your shit with the right guy and you've got them for life because that's how they operate. Um, but sometimes you lose them, you know, for life if it, and you'll never get anything out of them. Um, I think that, you know, that was really one of the biggest things and just sort of learning that my job in that role was to get the the the most that you could out of each individual knowing that that's going to be different amounts how how was it uh that you're able to you know get everybody to get on the same page you know because these are you know multi-million dollar athletes and

they're hearing you know different training techniques being utilized by, you know, multimillion dollar athletes and they're hearing, you know, different training techniques being utilized by different, you know, different organizations. You know, maybe it's an organization that won the championship last year and so forth. And they're like, why aren't we doing this type of thing? How do you get everybody to, you know, what are some techniques that you had to utilize to get everybody to be on the same page? Yeah, I think it's don't don't bs people like if you know if if they think every other day this guy's coming in here slinging something different and it's like who what's he even talking about yesterday he said this and and i just think their bs meters are so high.

They're on high all the time because you think about their lives as pro athletes and they've got people trying to, you know, show them stuff all the time and they're just like, I know exactly how to tune it out. I've already been duped once or twice and it doesn't happen again. And so I think it's, I think that's the biggest thing. I really do like people will, will, will see through the bullshit and they will just sort of tune you out if they think you're just trying to like kind of, you know, get them into, you know,

kind of through smoke and mirrors and to do them what you want to do versus just being straight up and being consistent with what your message is. And then the other part of it is that you have enough time. And in that time, having any letters after my name or knowledge or insight or showing somebody a research paper of why we should be doing this, it doesn't matter if they don't, if you're just having, I always say to entry-level people, if you have full control over a very few small things in life, one of those things is if you are enjoyable to be around almost all the time,

you absolutely have control over that. We all have shit going on outside. We all do. And so if you could just do that if you could just make that your thing people want to be around people that are enjoyable to be around and they they trust them and they respect them they listen to them and and so i think um you know hey i haven't been i haven't been perfect at that in my life and my career, but I try to be. And when I have been more on point with that, it's easier to kind of, your life flows a little easier.

There seems to be a lot of like, yeah, just personal psychology in terms of a lot of the stuff you're talking about right now. And for you personally, I know a lot of people read books to learn about stuff like this and then apply things that they've read. It does a lot of this. I mean, obviously, a lot of it comes from experience working hands on with people. But if there is a coach that wants to kind of read about stuff like this, kind of, you know, learn about having to deal with different types of personalities, potentially, is there anything that you've read that's given you insight to do this or not really? No. Yeah. I i think i think so there's a couple of books that have you know for me been been very big and i i think the one thing is by gary keller is is really good i mean it just as an entry level you know person you want to accomplish everything you want to set the world on fire you want to do the person, you want to accomplish everything, you want to set the world on fire, you want to do the whole deal, you want to be the person that wears all the hats,

and you nobody can be I mean, you're, you really have to find at any given moment, what is that one thing that if you focus on this, it either makes everything else easier, or it takes things off your list to get you towards that thing you're trying to get to. So in every relationship, in every, you know, coaching opportunity, in every everything, if you can really apply a lot of that there, that's been huge for me. You know, and I think the other part is where I've had a better personally when I've understood myself at any given point in my life and that's evolving I mean we're always sort of becoming a different person at all different times and and we're changing and hopefully we are and um I really knowing yourself and getting a

chance to kind of you know know, know your own psychology. If you have your kind of ducks in a row in that sense, and you're honest with yourself and you're, you've done that sort of hard, those hard conversations with yourself. I, you know, that, that's where the points in my career that, that things have, have been, that have gone better in terms of how I relate to people. And, you know, the power of now by Eckhart Tolle is a really good one for that. I think to get a little bit more deep on things and, and you know, that kind of thing. Mark Manson's books are phenomenal from that front.

And just, you know, you know, the, the, the art of not giving an F in, you know, the, the, the other ones that he has. And so, so I think those are some really good ones. How has the transition been, you know, going from being a strength coach and, you know, working for other people, you know, now you work for yourself. What have been some of the challenges and what have been, what are a few of the perks of being able to work for yourself now?

Yeah, so the challenges are, I have a team of nine full-time employees. And you talked about it earlier, Mark, in terms of getting people on the same page. And that piece of it is the hardest thing and it's the most rewarding thing for me. I think a lot of people, and this is just me, I always look at it this way. I have this vision. I know what it is. I know where I want to go. I've worked that through in my head for years and years and years. Those other eight, nine people that have decided to come into this vision and move this rock up the hill haven't worked it in through their head for years and years and years. So how do I communicate that? How do I make that something that feels real for them that feels like it's worth them dedicating themselves to as well? And that's, you know, something I've had to figure out.

But when you can crack that code, it's so much like, man, it gives me goosebumps thinking about being able to accomplish those things and get that rock up the hill with, you know, eight, you know, nine people flanked on me versus, you know, me just saying like, yeah, I just, I just, you know, I just muscled it up the hill by myself cool i did it you know and and and so i think that is the most challenging yet the most beautiful part of the the different role that i have now in td athletes edge versus my my role with the lakers where i was more of a cog in the in the overall and so um uh yeah i mean i think that that piece of it and then you know being able to – in the role with the Lakers, there was – like with any larger organization, there's going to be certain levels of red tape, certain things that, well, man, I mean, you would think everything should just happen at the highest level and it would just happen like that because it's the Lakers. Look, there's egos. There's politics. There's people that think they know better than you. There's all this other stuff, just like everywhere else. And so when I can kind of sit down and say, in my role with TD Athens Edge, I've thought this through. And I think that this, this and this are the things we should be doing.

And we can make that go happen. And maybe sometimes I'm wrong, but at least we get to play that out. And, um, and so that piece has been really nice to kind of have that freedom. Has it been a little trickier trying to work with people that have like their everyday lives still, you know, on the side, whereas like the NBA player, like that's his job. So it makes sense to like, you know, work tirelessly with them on that. But if somebody else, you know, they got their eight, like, again, I don't know exactly what type of athletes that you have, even just school athletes. Right. Has that been a big challenge?

Yeah. So, I mean, we always say all humans are athletes. We, we, like I said, we have, we have youth athletes, we have athletes said we have we have um youth athletes we have athletes in college and we have you know semi-pro and pro athletes that we work with here and there but we also have the you know people that are not ever going to or maybe never did do anything on a rostered team and so what i found is there's there's um you'd be surprised in time with the Lakers how much sort of hand-holding or I got to go find this guy. I got to – why is he not in the way of the room right now? It's a scheduled spot.

You'd be surprised. There's a lot of that that goes on. So, you know, I think now the different piece of the puzzle is, yeah, you might have guys that, okay, they go from the weight room to the athletic trainer to the physical therapist to the nutritionist. And they have all this stuff right at their fingertips if they choose to use it. And the audience that I have now probably doesn't have all that at their fingertips. So it is sort of like we talk about with our members, what are you doing with the other 23 hours of your day? Because we certainly feel confident that we're putting you in a good position. But if you're also aware of you don't

have to be perfect in those 23 hours of the day that you're not with us. But I mean, meet us in the middle here. And we can we can make this a little bit more effective. And so I think when people recognize that, it makes it a little easier. But it's a different sort of set of challenges for sure. What do we do with some injury management type stuff? I got a little bit of tendonitis in my right knee. I think it's tendonitis. It's just been going on and off for a pretty long time.

I don't do anything in particular to make it any better, but I do try to, you know, take certain precautions against making it worse. What are some recommendations, you know, for just having some inflammation in the knee? Yeah, so there's sort of three ways that I look at this. Number one, what are the load, when it's a tendinopathy, what are the loading strategies that we need to incorporate here? Because most people are getting guidance with a tendinopathy. Hey, stretch it, rest it, ice it, stay away from the area. from the area. In reality, those tendons are just basically telling you like, dude, I'm not fucking strong enough to do the thing that you're asking me to do on a regular basis, whatever it is.

And so, you know, you're gonna have to build me up a little bit here. And so loading that up with the knee, there's some great, great exercises, even just something like a regular dose of 45 to 90 second wall sit, where you're down, you're loading in that patellar tendon or quad tendon, whichever area it is there. And so that typical anterior knee soreness and tendonitis type stuff. And doing that wall sit, you can load those up, put a plate over your knees if you're really feeling like it. You can load those up, put a plate over your knees if you're really feeling like it.

That is an exercise, an injury area and a tissue that you do want to work through discomfort with. So that's the piece that most people get tripped up in. They're like, hey, I'm willing to do whatever it takes. If you tell me I should go into freezing cold water every day, I'll do it. If you tell me I should go do a wall sit every other day, I'll go do it. But it does hurt when I do that wall sit. Should I stop? And then people say, like, screw it. I don't know. I don't want to hurt this further. So I'll stop. But that's a tissue where, you know, loading it and then loading it through some discomfort, you're eventually going to remodel that tissue, build its capacity, build its durability, and tip the scales back to it,

feeling comfortable with what you're doing. What about, um, I mean, I know you can't really just do like a blanket statement and say decompression of the back is good for your back if you're in pain, but like, I've been dealing with back issues. Um, come to find out my dad had back issues. My brother now has back issues. And, um, you know, we, we always talk about like, oh, maybe she had one of those inversion tables or whatever, but, uh, what, what are your thoughts on decompression for the back? Yeah. So back pain is, is such a fascinating thing. It's, it's like catching water a little bit. Um, but the beautiful part is if you understand that about it, you now have a better, uh, I think the thing that people are looking for with back pain is like what's the secret? What are the two exercises that's going to fix it?

What's the one thing, an inversion table that's going to fix it? Nothing. There's not anything that's one thing that has been shown like, oh, well, this is the thing that you do and it fixes back pain. And it's very case-by, very, you know, individualized. And so it may very well be you know, let's put it this way. There's nothing that I've seen that says, okay, that's putting you at a big disadvantage to do that. If you do it and you feel great and it's,

especially if it's lasting relief, great'm all i'm all with it with with an inversion table decompression um strategies now the thing we we do know about low back pain is you know there's there's been bodies of evidence that have shown you take a group of people you do this classic or traditional um cookie cutter um program of low back stability or core stability exercises. And that's going to be the fix for you. And so studies that have taken that had a group of people with back pain do those things religiously, compared with a group that just did a basic walking program. They were about equal in their results and their ability to kind of get past the back pain so what does that tell us it just basically tells us one thing we do know the answer is not to do

what many people do which is like all right back's gone out again i'm gonna lay down for the next three weeks i'm gonna stay off of this thing i'm not gonna go to the gym i'm not gonna move and and and i'm gonna probably feel better at that time because you just, you just lay down and, and, and, um, but then you stand back up and you try to go back to your daily activities and it's, it's right back on you again. So, um, the approach to low back pain really needs to be very comprehensive. Uh, I've had people say like, why, why are you having me do a body weight squat in my low back program?

Because you know, the going to help you build your glutes but your quads those things are attached to your pelvis and you know we're all in this together so um you know it's it's a really comprehensive approach that's that's necessary and it's always individualized i think you're in a you're a really interesting place where um it seems that you're working with a lot of i don't know if you're working a, you're in a really interesting place where, um, it seems that you're working with a lot of, I don't know if you're working with a lot of teen athletes right now too, are you? Okay.

So yeah, absolutely. So the thing I'm really curious about is there seems to be like kind of a difference in lifestyle of younger individuals now. Um, especially like, you know, looking at screens a lot, even athletes tend to be really, really sedentary. Um, in general, I don't think a lot of like young kids, even in the past, worked out in the gym much anyway, but I feel like there's a lot of different things now as far as lifestyle that may be causing unique dysfunctions in teen athletes that you didn't used to see before.

I'm just curious, are there any things that you're like, wow, this is really something that a lot of these kids need to stop doing, or this is really something that a lot of these kids need to stop doing, or this is causing a lot of dysfunction in these athletes. Is there something you noticed there? Yeah. So, I mean, first of all, I saw when I first started out of PT school, I was amazed at the number of chronic low back pain, chronic hip pain, chronic, whatever that I was getting with kids that were seven, eight, nine, 11 years old. And I'm like, these are, you shouldn't even be 40 and having these things. And so, yeah, a hundred percent it's, um, now that was a little while ago when I first got out of PT school, but you know, things have even, you know, just got worse in terms of

what is the, what is the stimulus that these kids, what is their daily routine look like versus when I started out of PT school or before that, you know, the device is here. And it just is. I mean, it's just, you know, it's not a blame game. It's just that's the number of hours that a kid has that action and, you know, that a kid has that action and and you know this kind of stuff is versus what used to be you just it wasn't the devices to be sitting there staring at and and you had to come up with other shit to do and so um you know i don't want to sound like old man on his porch over here but it's um it's it is and so i think that i really think that's you know it's not you're not you're just going to be on this endless battle i'm not saying like look

you know kids shouldn't have phones until they're 30 and get it off i mean we've got to come up with ways though where it more than ever now i mean doing heavy doing heavy rows, doing push-ups, doing stuff, doing chin-ups. I mean, the number of kids that can't do a chin-up that we work with for an entire summer before they can get it, that, you know, I remember I always dreaded the gym tests and everything because I sucked at pull-ups back in the day. But I remember why did I feel like I sucked at pull-ups? Because most of my classmates could just rep them out. I mean now I don't really see that as the case. And so I, I just think,

I think a lot of it just comes down to making sure that there, you know, there's avenues for them to do these things that, you know, I mean, gosh, there's not even gym, you know, these tests in gym don't even exist anymore gym classes are getting cut you know all this other stuff so um i think it's a i think it's a lot of that kind of stuff where um i i have this discussion with parents and and they're like man should i should my like 12 year old be going to a gym and and and and you know that kind of thing, I mean, this is sort of our this is one of our higher powered pieces of ammunition versus the new forces we're up against on the front line. You know, yeah, I agree. Twenty years ago, they didn't have to go to a gym. That would have probably been silly.

But now, I mean, it's it's such a huge advantage for them to learn how to move their body, to learn how to strengthen those positions and combat what is going to happen because they're going to leave us. And we all know what's going to happen in those other 23 hours of the day. What are some of the habits that you saw from Steve Nash and from Kobe Bryant? Like, what are some of the things where you were just like, it could be any of the players you dealt with over the years where you just kind of like kind of took a, took a step back where you're like, Whoa, okay. That, that, that makes sense on why that guy is so damn successful. What are some things that really stood out to you? Well, there's a, there's a couple of things here is the, there's not like a, there's not like an earth shattering secret or, you know,

Kobe was doing this and nobody else knew about it. Come on, tell us the secret, bro. The thing though, that was his secret. That was Nash's secret, Metta World Peace. They were the most consistent dudes on the team. So they, at that point in their careers, had identified the top, you know, what their daily routine should be. And then you knew like clockwork, you could set an alarm by what was going to happen next and next and next for

them. And then you had these young guys, these, you know, these, these 19, 20 year olds coming in and they're ordering chicken fingers and French fries right before the game. And, you know, ball boys, they break them off a 20 piece and go get me two orders and uh you know and it's like you know that kind of stuff you know those kids either learn that or they don't if that switch doesn't go off for them then they those are the players that are like oh they're a high draft pick whatever happened to so-and-so, you know? And, and, and so classic story. We had two young guys in the in one of my first years that we drafted Andrew Gowlock and Darius Morris. And so, you know,

both of them are have had a really nice career in different semi-pro leagues and some in Europe but um the so they they're like yeah i just did my pre-game warm-up and i'm just chilling in the locker room now waiting for the the you know buzzer to go off to start this game and uh metal world peace comes in to the locker room they had just hit the ball boys with a couple of 20 spots and and they're like yeah give me some of those chicken and so the ball boy comes in puts them on the table in the middle of the locker room this is like 15 minutes pre-game metal world peace comes in drenched just get off an on-court workout he's about to go play 28 34 minutes and he just did a workout that most of us would not be able to recover from in a week.

And he's like, man, where did these come from? And Darius and Andrew are sitting there in their line. They didn't want to say it, but they also didn't want to know what was about to happen. He goes, it was you two, wasn't it? He goes up, he grabs him, he throws him in the trash. He goes, man, you're going to find your way out of this league real quick. And, you know, but, you know, he knew that. He knew that because he did that stuff.

And then he had somebody to stop him in his tracks. And he knew that. And he figured that out, you know, almost the too hard way, but not quite hard enough to where he figured it out. Shoot him up. I i mean but to the question he was a guy that like we would get into a city he would have had his assistant call ahead have a concierge at the hotel go to whole foods pick up all these you know raw almonds all this other stuff he'd have a bag of whole foods sitting there waiting for him, you'd go into, you know, his hotel room,

and I'd go in there and do a stretch with him after a workout or whatever. And, you know, he'd have hot plates sit out there. He's, you know, he's got stuff all ready. He's got his oatmeal, his overnight oats going, and he's got all this other stuff. And, you know, he was a guy that you just, you know, consistency was the thing. And he figured out what worked for him. And he had a really long career.

Wow. I wouldn't, I didn't know that about him, especially with like. He's a beast, man. Yeah. He's a beast. He was the most. This is really the trick for any young entry level, uh, uh, person of anything. And whether you're a young athlete listening or you're an entry level coach, it's like,

how much like a sponge are you willing to be? Because he was like, where are the resources for me? I want to learn about it. I want to, I'm open. I'm always looking. I'm always looking. Eyes are always on. Like if you're, if you're willing to say like, I can always get better. I can always learn better. World peace was his career was basically over, but he's like, he'd sit down and be like, what, what should I be? Do you think it's a good idea? Like, tell me about this. Like, what are the things that I'm missing? You've seen me do what I do now to help me fill in the gaps. He's like a hungry, you know, what somebody who's 20 years old should be when he was damn near 40. And that's why those guys last because they never lose that sort of that drive to say, like, I just, I want to learn

as much as I can about how I could get better because, you know, they'll just turn over every stone. Thank you so much for being on our show today. Really appreciate it. Where can people find out more about your gym and where can people find out more about you? Man, it's been such a pleasure, guys. So at TD Athletes Edge on Instagram is where I'm most active and post a lot there on daily on, you know, performance strategies in the gym uh injury prevention

injury nagging injury solutions stuff like that i'm very active there you dm me there i'll get right back to you um www.teathletesedge is is where you can learn about us we've got some really exciting online um training options um from from more custom options for for people trying to work through different uh nagging injuries or uh specific performance goals all the way to live streaming um more more groups class style stuff online so would love to hear from you would love to help that's what we're in this for awesome have a great rest of your day thank you thank you guys see you Would love to hear from you. Would love to help. That's what we're in this for. Awesome. Have a great rest of your day.

Thank you. Thank you. See you. Okay. Good stuff right there. Yeah. Freaking great. Beautiful.

Well, I appreciate it, guys. Thank you. Yeah. Met a world peace being a, being an animal with, uh, always wanting to get better. Pretty sick. That's dope. Yeah, I always go back to the story I heard about Chris Weber. He would put down, I think, two 40-piece chicken nuggets.

Wow. You know, Trey's order pregame. I mean, he's like dressed. I mean, again, this is a story, so who actually, you know, it could have been all fake fake but it always stuck with me where yeah he would be in his uniform ready to go and they'd bring him all this food and that's what he would eat pre-game it's like man some people like just he just had it you know i mean he was one of the he's the best kings player of all time um just phenomenal and that's what he ate pre-game i was like shit man you ever done the 100 piece chicken nugget challenge i didn't know that was the thing but there's a 100 well

it's not like official by mcdonald's or whatever it should be it seemed it was made up i think no it was a few years ago everyone was doing like okay did you make it? I, I, and I was never able to do it. I was actually, I never attempted it, but you're supposed to buy a hundred McDonald's chicken nuggets. Wow. And see if you can eat all of them. They're so,

they're so small. So like, it appears that it wouldn't be that bad, but after you get done with maybe 40 or even get halfway through, I feel like you need a lot of sauce. Oh man, you'd be done. Yeah.

The last thing I, last thing I ate anything like that was, I think I had 35, 35 wings from, um, oh, fire wings. Nice. Yeah. And I was just, I don't know. I just was not getting full. And I looked around and I'm like, I just need to stop. Cause like it just looked gross.

You know, like my love that my pile yeah so do i oh my gosh how do we get here after talking to the sky oh no like a weber eating chicken nuggets yeah oh man we should do the nugget challenge on air i think that'd be a great live 300 though hey it's it's not carnivore it's yes but it's carnivore carnivore it's hard to uh attribute nutrition to really much of anything and that's that's one of the issues with uh like scientific research and nutrition it's it's just hard to uh say hey this is what led to this group of people living longer. Even just researching it itself is just problematic because it's hard to get people to comply exactly to, you know, just whatever the diet is that's laid out for them.

And so with these professional athletes and these really high-level people, yeah, their nutrition can make a difference. But I think if you really, you know, if you listen to a lot of the stuff that was said today, it seems to be that some of the most important things are just the things that you don't do. You know, the things you don't like, the things that you just stay away from, you know, staying away from extracurricular activities after games. And yeah, lifting would be great. It would be great if you lifted. It would be great if you did a bunch of positives for yourself. But just even think, what if you just didn't do a bunch of negative shit to yourself? You know, what if you just didn't go out and drink the night before the game? Rather than being like Kobe or Ron Artest where they trained, you know, before they did the game. So I think a lot of times one of the big secrets here is, you know, he mentioned consistency. And I think one of the secrets to being consistent is maybe you just have it on a little bit lower level of expectation on what you're doing for yourself, that it can also just be abstaining from certain things.

You know, it doesn't always have to be that you made this courageous effort to stay on this diet plan it's just that you just didn't go off the rails exactly and i think that was a really good thing to hear especially from him about some of these higher level athletes he just had a good routine going um met a world peace steve nash they just had a routine that they had a cool name met a world peace yeah what was his name before that? I forgot. Ron Artest. We just said that multiple times. Yeah. Yeah.

Why, what was the reason for him changing? I don't remember why he changed. I don't know. It was like a spiritual thing. After, like, he kind of. Is that what it was? Yeah. It was a spiritual thing that happened with him. And he was like, I got to change my name to Metta World Peace.

You can Google that. Yeah. And see if it's right. Another former king. I remember it was tough we traded pages to yakovitch for him this was after he went nuts in indiana and went into the crowd and stuff you know but i remember when he got here he was like they're like oh you know we're we were out of the playoff we kings were out of the playoffs at that time and he's like no we're going to the playoffs

and it's like oh shit like that's cool and then he started kicking ass and he started like he rallied the team and he forced us into the playoffs and he's like we're not he's like we're going for a championship and it's like i love the enthusiasm you know but it was just it was so cool i just remember having so much respect for him and then uh knowing that he was from the Queensbridge Queensbridge project, the same as Nas. So it was just really cool having that connection to that area in Sacramento. And then he, he, he did his little rap thing too, but yeah, metal world piece was freaking just great person, dude. I just, he's some of his interviews, he said some crazy shit, but dude, love that guy. Yeah.

You know, especially with talking to, to Tim, Tim, it really, and I found this to be for myself too at this point. Like when you see guys like LeBron, I feel like the gym, it's obviously, I love training just to train and get stronger too, but I really do see it as like general maintenance for everything else. Yeah. What if he just doesn't allow himself to get any weaker? He just doesn't lose any muscle mass.

It doesn't look like he's suffering from, you know, from not being explosive enough. Yeah. Yeah. What if he just decreases slower? Right. Like that's what they they talk about that being a key in a hundred meter sprint is, you know, it's who can decelerate the least. And maybe that's some of the goal with some of these high-level athletes. I mean, we've all played sports before.

And as much as you love soccer and as much as I love football, there were just people that were just really, really, really good. And it was, you know, you would just watch them and you're like, whoa. And it wasn't anything in particular that they did over you or that they did different from you. They just, they just were freaking good at the game. I knew some guys that were actually really like really slow, you know, really like just, and, and from an athletic standpoint, you know, they could, you could have them run or jump or do a bunch of things and they

really just weren't that good. But when it came time to play football, they were fucking awesome. So sometimes people are just going to have, and you probably saw the same thing in soccer. It's, it's way different just being fast versus being fast, dribbling the ball down the field. Right.

I mean, having quick feet is something that's just some people that that's funny thing. You say that because some people are just like super slow in a sprint but when they get their foot on a ball it's like their feet are just it makes no sense yeah maybe they just figured out some ways of just moving in kind of a weird tricky way and it's like how do you i don't know how you you can learn some of that there's drills you can do there's something but like your brain, and I think it's kind of interesting because I think when it comes to certain things, we're able to accept it better versus other things.

So like if we were all just to play the piano, let's just say none of us ever played it. One of us is going to be better than the other right off the bat. You know, we take an hour class and we get done with the class and we're like, yep, you can just tell, right? Or same thing with drawing or something like that. But sometimes with other things in life, we're not willing to accept that people just have a different starting point. Yeah. And then sometimes you can't even catch up with somebody's starting point because they, just for whatever reason, it makes you nuts. You're like, man, they just started off.

Yeah. You ever have one of those a-hole friends that just happen to be good at everything? Just, I mean, and Seema, you're probably that guy. So, you're probably like, no, I don't have that. No, I'm not good at everything. But I know what you're talking about. Yeah. No.

I have one of those friends. My buddy Craig was good at literally everything. Craig. Yeah. He was good at sports. Fuck Craig. He could draw. He could skate.

He could get on a bike and do all kinds of weird crazy tricks. He could kick a spinner and kickball. Dude, he could. See? I know it. I know the guy. I know this guy. I know this guy.

Yeah. Good dude, by the way. But, yeah. Craig, if you're listening, we hate you. Yeah. If you're listening, we hate you. Or like, you know, another example is like mimicking. Some people are great at mimicking other people.

Like it's, you see comedians do it sometimes, right? When they act like somebody else or impersonate somebody else. Jamie Foxx. Yeah, right? It's creepy. People, they change their whole entire demeanor. Yeah. We watched a movie last night. We watched Catch Me If You Can.

It's Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. Good one. And my son is like, how are they playing Leonardo off as being like 17? I said, well, a lot of it's in his acting, just his demeanor. You know, his questioning, his kind of bright-eyed and like asking his dad questions and just the way that and obviously like the look they do some stuff to his hair and and his clothes and stuff like that yeah um but it's just like the way he's acting he's he was acting you know and then it was interesting because as the movie progresses

there's a point where he he actually he walks into a room and uh this kid like bullied him in the hallway this kid like rammed into him in the hallway and um he gets he gets into a classroom and he kind of just notices like oh there's not a teacher here so he grabs the chalk and writes his name and And he's like, what are you guys doing? He's like, you should all be in your seats right now, and you need to open your books up. And he's like, where did we last leave off? And so I'm like, chapter seven. He's like, all right, we're going to start on chapter eight.

And then he makes the fat kid that banged into him. He made him stand up in front of the class and read or whatever. But it was just so funny how he just, boom, he just changed. In an instant, he was able to like mimic you know and that's with sports i mean how many times you've had somebody you know you're like okay we're going to practice uh right-handed layups and you're like oh cool i can dribble pretty good on this side i'm used to you know going to the hoop on that side and then you try the left it's like bonk just nails the rim every time but then you got a couple other people that are able to demonstrate it really well for some reason yeah kids are

really good at mimicking yeah they're yeah they're not shy about it sponges yeah exactly but just like he said man at the end of metal world peace like that's the thing that you got to maintain that's something that he said a lot of those guys maintained that ability to try and be a sponge that ability to just do new things because as you get older you just get very resistant to doing new things and then like what he was talking about like the uh the different uh the bad habits that you pick up and you just rep after rep after rep you know like that's that's huge and just makes me think about like i don't know like when i was a kid playing soccer like i'd be able to probably do the ladder,

you know, foot in, foot out pretty good. If I did that right now, I'd probably fall over. So it's like little things like that, like I need to, you know, get back into doing. Knee blows up. Exactly. Yeah, dude. Oh my gosh.

I'll trip on a grass pedal. I see Sully sometimes doing like drills. Yeah, he's an animal. Do you guys do that in jiu-jitsu? No. Well, he shows up late, right? Mm-hmm. He doesn't do that.

No, we don't do those drills, though. He just shows up to tap people out and leaves. We don't do those footwork drills, no. It's weird. Those things are kind of fun. Because it's a challenge. You're sure you did it in soccer, right? Mm-hmm.

Yeah, football drills and drills that you do in other sports. soccer right yeah football drills and drills that you do in other sports um yeah just i don't know just uh high knees and kicking your butt kicking your own butt and all that kind of stuff is oh we do stuff like that oh you do a lot of drills but like in the beginning like that would be like knees up right just little small drills you just do for a little bit it's it's interesting that it's not really applied much in fitness you know There are people that do it. There's some people that... But almost like, why not do it? I guess it's just not as... Maybe it's not as exciting or fun, but it is a great way to warm up and it does get you moving around a little bit. I do it here and there. I need to do it a lot

more. I should probably just do it every workout. I made the 10-minute walk a habit to do every single time before a workout so why not just you know implement even if you just i think the hard part is i think we always just think like we got to get going you know and it's like well why don't i just do you know why don't i just do two two or three minutes of it you know that would be that still would still would be more than doing nothing. Right. Yeah. You don't have to read the whole book in one sitting. Right. Take it one page, one paragraph, one sentence. But I think like, you know, especially since I, since I played soccer, since I was younger,

man, it, it's a one, when I was only focused on lifting and I wasn't able to move my body in a weird way, I got really like, ugh, like it got really just like to every movement was like, uh. You're not able to express yourself in a different way, yeah. I feel like if a lot of people just like do weird stuff, it would be really beneficial. Do some weird shit. Do some weird shit. Move your body in some weird ways.

You'll like it. By the way, hey, we got one in before Joe Rogan. We got Huberman on here. We did. joe rogan did that's pretty cool i haven't listened to him on there yet but i'm uh i'm gonna check it out i'd like to kind of hear how it's how it's different and kind of hear how he got uh interviewed on that show but that's pretty cool it's cool putting points on the scoreboard over here and he also had a breath guy on that like referenced Patrick McEwen a lot in his book. Yeah. And in that podcast.

And we already had Patrick McEwen on. Yeah. People don't understand. This is the farm team for Joe Rogan. Yeah. How many downloads did we have? That was pretty amazing. What Smoke sent over, I think he said.

Oh, yeah. As far as. For this year. For this year, we're just under four million yeah so and then last year we had what three three something yeah so half the year we've already almost i mean probably half of that's probably me downloading it from all the different computers that i have once i showed my mom how to download podcasts she just keeps doing it over and over she deletes it and just keeps going keeps hitting the button yeah she's around

i think 10K per day. So... I told Andy, I was like, damn, I really didn't think anybody was listening. Oh, no. She's like, well, I don't listen to it. I'm like, I know that. I know you don't. I didn't really know anybody was paying attention.

That's a lot of downloads. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of downloads. It's pretty cool. Thanks, guys. Yeah, it's not that bad. Most amazing thing ever, yeah yeah i've done worse things yeah yeah i'd say so all right you want to bring her on in sure absolutely where is she

oh i was like wait all right thank you, for checking out today's episode. It was freaking incredible hearing those Kobe stories. Thank you, Pete Montes, for sponsoring this episode. For more information on them, please check the YouTube and Facebook description, as well as the podcast show notes, wherever you're listening to this. Hit the old notes button thing there. Please make sure you're following the podcast at Mark Bell's Power Project on Instagram, at MB Power Project on TikTok and Twitter. My Instagram is at IamAndrewZ. And Seema, if people want to hit you up, how can they do so?

And Seema Inyang on Instagram and YouTube. And Seema Inyang on TikTok and Twitter, Mark. Congrats to our boy, Andrew, who is no longer a virgin, apparently. Yep. I didn't see that one coming. Yep. Right now. Right now. Andrew is now. Hey, now.

Andrew is popping out babies over there. Yeah, and like I told you earlier, like, nobody, like, I didn't have to pass a test. Like, there was no certification course. You can just, people can just go make people. I thought there was a board you had to get in front of to speak, but apparently you can just go do it. There's a bicep board, but there's no people board. So many just bad jokes

that I wanted to say, but I'm not, because this is a kid-friendly show. Are they racist jokes? They're not racist. It's a family-making show. It's a family-making show. Oh, hey now. But yeah, thanks, Mark. Yeah, it's exciting.

It's terrifying. I do have a daughter, but like I said, I met her when she was already four years old. So, this is my first rodeo. It's Stephanie's first rodeo having a boy. So, we're freaking beyond stoked, but it definitely has changed certain things like you know like even just driving you know i'm like hey hey hey hey like calm down you know and she's not even in the car yet but you know there's just little things like that and so it's uh yeah it's be a little careful with the weight gain jokes just be a little cautious with that oh i learned that

pretty quick yeah yeah because because they'll joke about themselves and so you think it's like fair game to like mess around a little bit but i've already learned that well i i've we've all learned that but we're not smart enough to follow the rules yeah she's like she started showing like real early so like we haven't been able to like hang out with other people like Don't tell her that she'd make a great power lifter. Don't say that. Yeah, no, that'd be bad. That'd be bad.

It'd be bad to say that her leverage isn't really good right now. Just come to the gym. Because she's gaining. She's making some gains. And her belly is showing big time. And like her belly is showing like big time. And it's like we have an app that's tracking everything. And, you know, in the app, it's like, oh, you're almost getting ready to start showing. And she's like, you know, and so it had said something like, oh, like you might gain up to like 30 pounds or something like that.

Sound effects going to get this man in trouble. No, no. Like, oh, dude, trust me, the foot is in the mouth. 30 pounds or something like that effects gonna get this man in trouble no no like oh dude trust me the foot is in the mouth and it was crazy because it was some somehow something said that like she could gain like up to 30 pounds or something like that and i was like dang well like aren't you pretty close to that or i said something really insensitive like in a very joking way because like mark said she had joked around about gaining weight already no and i'm like like not you like the baby like you get it right like the bump and i was like i just i went from like trying to explain it to on the couch to full on i am so sorry i said that

like i'm just it it came out so wrong like my bad of course you didn't gain that already and you know thankfully i doused that flame before it got out of control i can just picture him just keep he just keeps talking and she already walked away and you're still trying to like yeah fix it and make that make it better yeah it was bad but has she done a 23 and me i don't think so i just want to know if she has any congolese in her too because we can see what percentage she had at least one percent sorry stephanie we love you and congratulations yep awesome i'm at mark smelly bell strength is never weak this week this never strength catch y'all later thank you again, for checking out today's episode.

And a super duper big gigantic thank you to everybody that reached out on Instagram to congratulate me and my family on the new edition that is due out early 2021. I'm scared and excited and all of the above. But right now we wanted to give a huge shout out and thank you to everybody that's been rating and reviewing the podcast on iTunes. Specifically, oh, man, this is going to be a tough one. Abassi Itty? I'm really sorry, man. I'm terrible at reading names. But we'll say Abassi says, always a good time.

Quote, I always enjoy listening to the guys. Learn a lot. Apply a lot. They've changed my life. Sick, dude. Oh man, that's so dope. Like we love hearing that, that sort of thing. You know, like Mark said on today's podcast, sometimes it's like, is anybody listening

and, you know, come to find out you guys are, and we sincerely appreciate that. So anybody else, if you're listening to this and you want to hear your name on air, please head over to iTunes right now, drop us a rating, write in a review, and you could hear your name on air, hopefully pronounced correctly. Maybe I just got to go to reading class. I don't know. But you could hear your name on air just like our friend Abassi Itty. We'll catch you guys on the next one. Peace.