WHOOP Podcast - Breaking Down Greatness: How Bobby Stroupe Trains Patrick Mahomes for the Biggest Stage

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

What does it take to make it to the Super Bowl? This week, Will Ahmed, Founder and CEO of WHOOP, sits down with Bobby Stroupe, Founder of the Athlete Performance Enhancement Center (APEC) and trainer for three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes. Ahead of Super Bowl LIX, Will and Bobby break down Patrick’s health this season versus last (1:11), coaching Patrick through injuries (3:13), and optimizing speed for in-game performance (6:46).Bobby also shares his strategies for improving Patrick's rushing ability as a quarterback (10:20), leveraging WHOOP data for training (11:00), and preparing for the challenge of playing three games in 11 days (14:44). Will and Bobby discuss overcoming the late-season lull (20:40), harnessing Patrick’s “win-ergy,” managing playoff Strain (26:05), handling the hype of Super Bowl LIX (31:06), and the pursuit of a historic three-peat (34:08).ResourcesBobby Stroupe InstagramBobby Stroupe XTeamAPEC.comSupport the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

This game is about how can you stick to your plan and know what you know when things get crazy because they are going to get crazy. I mean, last year in the 49ers game, we looked like we were down and out. I mean, there's been a couple of years where it's like that. Stay level and know what you know. You've got your best shot. And at the end of the game, whoever makes the plays like they win, period. That's it.

All right, Bobby, welcome back to the Woof podcast. Great to be here, man. I mean, it's always a thing we're looking forward to, and we want to make it an annual thing. We just got to make it to the Super Bowl, right? I mean, it's pretty amazing if you just zoom way out, the fact that, you know, every year we're doing a podcast about going to the Super Bowl. It's pretty wild. It's got to be amazing for you just to see what you've been able to accomplish, what Patrick's been able to accomplish. He's a guy that goes to work every day.

I mean, he doesn't rest on the gifts God gave him. He just, he's always looking for ways to improve. He's always looking for ways to expand. and we're always looking for ways to prepare for the future. And this year we had some challenges. We had some challenges with the schedule. We had some health challenges. And then there's always new things.

Every season is its own story. And this one is definitely a standalone for sure. How would you compare Patrick's health this year to last year? Last year was probably the cleanest year we've ever had as far as being healthy and just optimal, you know, almost week to week. The only thing that we struggled with last year was, you know, getting over some of the trauma from the year before. You know, there's layover when it comes to nerve damage. Nerves heal about a millimeter a year. And so what can happen is you can have some phantom pain when you start to get contact again or you get these adrenaline responses and things can happen.

And so you can have some things that you feel like are more serious than when you go back to work, they respond quickly or even in the game. You know, I think the first four weeks of the season, it was frustrating. because the ankle kind of felt like it was hurt again. This is last season. But really, it wasn't. It was just the body working out that trauma and the nerves not being fully healed. I mean, the entire season he was really clean.

It was the cleanest season we've ever had as far as injury. Right now we're talking about last season. Last season. So this would have been following, actually following the Eagles Super Bowl, right? Right, right, right. And so that was a very clean season. And then going into this season, it sounds like there was a little more to work.

Yeah, this year was a challenge. I mean, we, it wasn't that there were significant things, but he had a couple things that lingered for a while. I mean, you get bumps and bruises every game, contact things. But there was, there was a couple of issues that stuck around for about 10 weeks, which is not, not common. And then we had ankle trauma. You know, almost every year you get rolled up on one side and maybe the other. It's the nature of the way he plays the position, the chief's offense, the protection schemes. You know, it's Patrick in the way. he chooses to play the game that we prepare for. But those things were, it's not like they can't be worked out, but there were probably

more overlapping challenges from an injury standpoint this year than we've had since probably the last year of the Eagles Super Bowl. Yeah. Well, it's pretty amazing just the success that you guys had this year with that in mind. What are ways that you try to coach Patrick through little bumps and bruises? Are there certain things you guys talk about? Is it almost ignore the pain? like what is the what is the strategy well he's got a high pain tolerance but i think that the thing

that we like to do is be realist about it and and say okay first it's evaluate what is this then it's we're going to train every athletic attribute that we absolutely have available that we can and we're going to train as hard as we can and then further than that what we're going to do is make sure that on friday before the game we're going to have metrics that prove what we can and can't do so he's going to know what car he's racing with it's basically like hey you may be heading into this game the suboptimal body but you need to know exactly what you're limitations are. Can you sprint full speed on a curve on a left? Okay, you can't sprint full speed on a curve to the left. Now, know this about yourself so that when you are in the game,

you use these tools effectively. Or maybe your bat rotation speed on one side is at a deficit because you have a rib injury. Okay, well, then that means that it's going to be hard for you to load when you're rolling in this direction to throw the ball to this corner of the field. So just making sure that he's armed with all the information that he needs and that he knows exactly what the weak spots are for his body going into the game week to week because what you always want for a player is like an honest approach to what weapons are they fighting with? Like what is it that they actually have this week to offer? And if you're, I think hope is a poor strategy or like making a player feel like I think it's going to be okay, I'd rather

just tell them, hey, this is going to hurt really bad. And I want you to know that if you do this in the game, for about 15 minutes, you're going to have extreme pain, but you're also going to be okay. Yeah, or just being honest with him and being like, hey, if they get their hands on you in the pocket this week, go down. Don't try to break a tackle. You will not and it's going to hurt. Just being honest week to week. That's what I feel like it's about is the more information the better. Someone is intelligent as Patrick. He can take that information and subconsciously he's going to solve problems with those limiting factors. And I mean, he's shown that his whole career. Well, I remember in the Super Bowl two years ago, right, his ankle was pretty compromised.

And, like, you could see him throughout the game being pretty careful about it. And then obviously at the end of the game, that final drive, it was like, all gloves are off. You know, it's probably that 15-minute pain threshold thing you mentioned. And he had that crazy drive where he was really fast, by the way, too, even on a compromised ankle. Well, we try to train speed residuals and high-speed movements as many ways as possible. When your ankles hurt, you can still expose the body to speed with swings or speed with pulls, but speed is speed neurologically. You won't expose the body to speeds higher than you're going to move. But in that game, what we knew is if he ran on a curve to the right, it wouldn't

hurt. And so if you go back and look at that game, there's times in the first quarter where he escaped right just to let the Eagles know, hey, I will run. But we talked about, like, if you ever run left or even an angle left, it better be to win it because it's going to hurt. And if you go back and watch, that last run that was 25 yards that kind of sealed it, it was to, it was to the left and he was like you said he was rolling those are the types of things i think behind the scenes is that like with our relationship and i whatever my job is is that these are tactical approach things that we really spend a lot of time talking about you know like hey if you get the open field with this player here's his physical attributes you can't beat him this way you can only

beat him this way or since you're hurt like this don't do this this week and and we have those conversations you know pretty much three times a week during the season year round playoffs or not Let's talk a little bit about game speed versus, you know, maybe what a traditional 40-yard dash says about someone's speed. I mean, just as a fan watching Patrick play, it feels like his game speed is really, really fast. And I don't know if that's reflected in what his 40 speed might be. How do you think about that? Well, I think a couple things. One, I think he's gotten faster since high school and college.

When he's not hurt, he's an athlete that can, you know, in the off season, I've got video of him running with receivers that are four, three guys. And through 20 yards, he's, you know, he's ahead of them for part of it. Every once in all, he can tie them. I mean, he's a, he's faster than people think. He's got great acceleration. He can run on a curve at about 103% of his straight line speed, which is, that's really abnormal. You don't have to take my word for it. You can go watch the film.

We talk about it week to week. Like, you can beat this guy on a curve, put him on a curve. can't run with you. He's aware of this attribute that he has. So when you say 103%, you're saying he's actually faster running on a curve than on a straight line? A slight curve, yeah. If I want him to hit a max miles per hour with the GPS device, if I want him to get an exposure that's 8%, 95%, I have to put him on a weave, a slight weave, or he can't get there. It's an anatomical thing. It's a physiological thing. It's the way he's made. It's his injury history. It's his physiology. It's what it's just part of what makes him really unique. Although in a way, if you think about a scrambling

quarterback, it's almost better to be faster on a curve than in a straight line, right? I would certainly agree with that. I mean, and he's built his game around his physical traits. And I think that that's what's one of the most brilliant things about him is he hasn't tried to be anyone else in playing this position. He plays it as only he can. And then my job is identify these traits and just try to nurture them the best that we can and keep those things viable regardless of his injuries. Now, you also wrote that he can run backwards at close to 90% of his max speed. That seems extremely fast.

Well, he's not a track athlete. It is fast, but it's not elite from a standpoint of the fastest people in the world, but for someone to be able to run backwards at 16 and a half, 17 miles an hour when their fastest forward is around high 20s, 21. one that's really uncommon you know and he can hit he can get he can run a back with fly 10 as fast as he could do like a three point stance you know 10 yard forward which is crazy meaning meaning he could build up for 15 to 20 yards and then I could gate him for 10 backwards and that would be the same as if I maybe put his hand in the ground and do a start 10 and that's

it's really uncommon but I think when you watch him play if you were to if you were to look and say oh why is it that he outruns people on the football field he's not that fast well, I can objectively show you why. It's because every direction you try to move as a defender, he's probably faster than you unless, I mean, truly, he's probably faster than you unless you run in the straight line. I just think that he's got this unique speed profile from a vector standpoint. Every angle that you can move at,

Patrick is faster than everyone on the field 95% of the time. And there are times that we play opponents that I know there's not a match for him on that defense. And he knows that too. And there's times where there's, there's a couple guys that can match him. And he's just got to be careful and pick his places. And I remember you saying something to the effect of like some guys you want to run at and some guys you want to run away from.

Right. The faster they are, the more you want to run right at them because once you pass them, you've got that it's over with. You never want a guy speed athlete in pursuit of you because that's the easiest way to get, to get tackled or even get hurt. It's like two trains. You just want pass. at it. If it's a strength athlete, distance yourself, they're not going to be able to get you.

If it becomes a movement problem, you're going to solve it better than they do. But if you've got a guy that can run and move and he's an athlete, it's best to go right at him. I mean, that's, we identified in this last matchup, and I thought it worked out really well. Let's talk a little bit just about the season. And I've got Patrick's whoop data here. Well, over 90% of his days show recovery in the green or the yellow. So that's pretty impressive. of just highlighting resilience throughout the season, right? I think he was only in the red less than 8% of the time, which is pretty impressive. His recovery this year, I feel like, was a lot better during the week. You know, what we saw as far as trends, I feel like a few years ago was it was horrible

starting waking up on Monday morning, and it kind of got better as the week went on. And what we've noticed is as he's gotten older and as like his life has changed and professionally, I think we've dialed some things in. He actually hits more green recovery days on those Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Thursdays, than he ever used to. In fact, we hardly ever saw it. And I think that is a really positive thing. And, you know, you and I have talked about some theories about some of these game day numbers. But what I feel like is that just like in years past, it's really, really hard for the body to not to not follow the psychology of the mind and knowing that, hey, you know, this game that we're playing in week three is not the Super Bowl.

So, you know, me knowing that, him knowing that, the recovery scores are going to reflect the hormonal responses, period. There's that flow state component. His body is going to reserve some things for moments that are, you know, life or death or make or break when it comes to legacy because it's like the old Yankees and Bulls teams that would lose or drop things or maybe it just didn't look. It's not like they weren't trying hard or working hard. It's just that their subconscious knows what matters. And that honestly doesn't matter as much. And so you get a little bit of that. And now it's fun to see that reflective in the scores right now.

Well, there's an element you mean of like, okay, hey, I know we got to win the AFC champion. championship game. And my body's going to rise to that occasion no matter what. That's right. And I think the cumulative scores of, we could go back and look at how many Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the last four years that he hit green. Well, I think all those combined this year he did them. And so I think that shows just the focus. Yeah, I think it just shows the focus and intent of his ability to get his body to recover during the week and him understanding because in the beginning of the season, we talked about this extensively. The week that the schedule came out and we said, okay, you got three games in 10 days. So we're going to

train our strength residuals and we're going to lay things out to prepare for that to be a wash. And we got to be ready for that. And the goal is to get to a point there where we can get rest. We can try to earn it. And we've got to physically prepare and train for this. And he knew that. And so what we talked about is if that's going to actually happen, you've got to live right this first part of the season, we got to get your body so recovered and ready because when you get to that point, it's not even going to be an option. We are going to be suboptimal. This is not okay. It doesn't matter. This is the situation we're in and we're going to go, we're going to take it on and we're going to beat it. I'm not, I shouldn't say he took it more seriously because he always takes things

seriously. I think he took it with a lot more intent. And I think his body caught on to what we needed to do. And I think he absolutely nailed it. Well, some of that's reflected in the data I'm looking at. So, you know, August and September, he's got longer sleep durations. He's got strong recovery scores. It looks like you all were really focused on being recovered going into the season, you know, closer to seven hours of sleep than six hours of sleep here. And then in that kind of midseason stretch, you see a little bit of recovery decline. You see slightly less sleep. Obviously, there was a couple very difficult periods just from a travel and play standpoint.

holidays and bye week again we see sleep come back up recovery metrics improving so that shows that you're using obviously the by week you're using the holidays let's talk a little bit about that three game 11 day stretch because I imagine that was pretty unusual you played three games in 11 days it looks like strain levels were super high over that period I see a drop in sleep But recovery actually stayed above average. So that's a sign that the body had some resilience. We trained for it. And that means like exposure to max strength or some type of resiliency factor with certain tissues,

doing four sets of what we normally do too. And on a Tuesday. Now the thing you have to balance is you got a game that week. So it's not like you can just bury the body and tank just because you're playing a team that you think the record's not good. It's the NFL. Like you can the chiefs don't blow anyone out. Like, you can't play bad. You can't underestimate an opponent.

You can't go into any game physically impaired. And on top of that, we already had injuries. So if you already have injuries, you certainly can't afford to gamify it in that way. So as far as preparing for this, it was, okay, let's look at the strength resiliency and strength residual actual concepts. How long can we hold max strength for certain tissues? Well, the research shows you can hold max strength for 15 to 25 days depending on your genetics and what it is. So what does that mean? Like a bilateral press, let's just say like a

trap bar deadlift. What are we working there? I'm working his ability to get extension, hit me and ankle, have that ability to stabilize his core, be able to brace for contact. So if I'm working on that and we need to get to 85 to 90 percent loads and it's got to hold for 15 days, that means two weeks before that 11 day period, I've got to try to get him to 90 percent. We've got to do a lot of volume because during that 11 day period, the chances of being able to do that with his health and with the time. It's virtually zero. Yeah. So looking at your calendar and being intentional about being like, hey, I need, I need to max this out for 20 days because I need his posture right. I need to make sure that he's got this stability in his ankle. I've got to do

this complex. And today I've got to do it so much so that it's going to hold for 15 days. And mapping this stuff out and talking to him and being like, today I need you to give me every single thing you have on this, so it holds you through December 14th or whatever, just through Christmas. I mean, that's the only way it works is if he believes in it. And then we actually have a plan. And we did. And I feel like it worked out. And what through a wrinkle in the plan was we were dealing with overlapping injuries in addition to that. So it made it more complicated. Because the body doesn't care if you have an ankle injury or hip or whatever you have. The body only cares if you get exposure to a max strength stimulus. The body only cares

is if these tissues are getting exposed to this time under tension or a testosterone or growth hormone response due to overload. You've got to find a way to do it. And so these are these daily conversations and these things that you have to do if you want to nail these basically strength residuals that are scientifically proven. I mean, you've got strength as a component. You've got anaerobic aerobic endurance as a component. You've got neurological proficiency as a component.

And you have speed residual as a component. Speed does not hold longer than three days for Patrick. It's gone. Not completely, but if you want him to run at max speed or move at max speed, he can't just go out there after doing yoga all week. I mean, he's going to look lethargic. It's not something in his genetics. So how do you do that when you have an 11-day stretch in three games?

Basically, I'd have about 11 minutes a week to get him to move as fast as possible. When I got to about 12 or 13 minutes, it's too much volume and it's over. So you just got to pick your place. but you still have to hit your marks, that's the job. And he knew it. We had a plan. That's really interesting. So you're saying essentially, look, Patrick's max speed is something that needs to be tested,

at least within that three-day window of a game, for him to feel like he's, or for his body to be able to move like that during a game. And if you've got an 11-day stretch with three games, you have to make sure that you find those slots to get him to that max speed, but you're trying to do it at what I would call maybe a love. overall volume or time of intensity, so to speak, so that there's no residual effect essentially. Yeah, I mean, in that stretch, we went into what we call playoff mode. Playoff mode means, and he knows, means one set on everything, less than three reps.

And so basically it's a sniper type mentality. Psychologically, you got to wear it until next week. I mean, you knew that. The other thing you have to consider is, look, the game is speed too. So I'd have to watch the games and look and say, I mean, I think he's moving fast enough that that can constitute our full speed movement for the next, I don't know, three days. But then if you go back and look at those games, he didn't really move much in those games. And I think that was intentional. He was in, there was some pain.

But also, I think he knew what he was up against. And so he didn't try to scramble or run unless he had to. So I didn't really get to use the game as my speed work. And in a conventional situation, when I first looked at this in the beginning of the season, I thought, well, he's a lot. at least going to get out and try to hit a max speed at least one time of game during this. So maybe I can get away with that and we can just focus on another, but I wasn't able to do that. But due to the situation, for whatever reason, the game plans and how it just played out, we had to find a way to implement it, you know, into the workouts.

What's up, folks, if you are enjoying this podcast or if you care about health, performance, fitness, you may really enjoy getting a whoop. That's right. You can check out Woop at Woop.com. It measures everything around sleep, recovery, strain, and you can now sign up for free for 30 days. So you'll literally get the high performance wearable in the mail for free. You get to try it for 30 days, see whether you want to be a member. And that is just at Woop.com. Back to the guests. Now, at the end of the season, there was a little bit of like, you know, a lull, so to speak. How did you think about using that period? Obviously, the chiefs had secured the buy and the home field advantage. That is the best situation for me that you could ever have because

from my standpoint, now I get to go look at his physical attributes and basically like a video game and be like, I want to do this, this, this and this before the playoffs. And then he knows that he doesn't have to be good on a Sunday. So if you take that, if you take that, I know that you don't have to be good on a Sunday for what, four weeks almost. So now I get to try to, not I wouldn't say develop, but nurture traits that I think are going to be important for the playoffs, which in my mind, I want him to feel like if he needed to carry the ball 20 times in the game in the playoffs, then his body is ready. I want him to feel like if he needs to be the fastest he's ever been in his life, then he has it.

I want him to feel like he can take bigger hits, that he can do more things because in the playoffs, it's a do whatever it takes mentality. And I need his body and his physicality to match that mindset. And if it does, it's going to bring his, it's going to elevate his confidence. but it's also going to elevate his hormonal responses to adrenaline and all these other things because an athlete knows what they're doing, meaning physically, they know their capabilities. Like, a guy can't lie to himself at the end of the day about his shape or his strength or his speed. Deep down, they know.

And you can see that confidence out there. So when I knew we had that four week stretch, we talked about it. All right, we're going to go get the deadlift back up to this 95%. Like, you ready? Yeah, it's built up to it. We're doing threes with, you know, 575. five pounds. We're doing, you know, he's out there sprinting and we're looking to gate it. We're looking to hit top speeds. We're looking to, can we run this curve the fastest we ever

have in the entire career? Every single thing that we want to do, we want to hit a PR for your entire life before the first playoff game. And we probably hit, I'd have to go back and look. I think six personal records for his, for his entire career before the first playoff game that he played in. So you're talking about a complete turnaround from dealing with overlapping injury, He's across that 11-day stretch to now he might possibly be physically the best he's ever been from a standpoint of body fat percentage being right where I want, weight being right where I want, his speed being where I want, his strength being where I want, stability, posture, loading patterns with his feet. You know, all the things from a technical standpoint throwing that we work with, with his throwing coach.

There's so much that you can do when you get that opportunity. I cannot over-communicate how much of a advantage that is to secure that one seat and be able to focus on the physical development for the last month. It's everything. Well, it's obviously working. I'm just really happy for you guys that you've found like this unbelievable system. Obviously there's your body being prepared and that's a huge piece of this. The Chiefs have won 17 straight games. That's one possession or less from a score standpoint, which just,

at face value is a crazy statistic. I mean, that shows like a true winner gene, if you will. You see this rarely over time where there's certain teams that it feels like winning is part of their skill set. And the Pats had it for periods. And I mean, I have to go back to like Jordan's Bulls and stuff. But there was like a switch that somehow at the end of the game, everyone could kind of feel this team's more likely to win.

I felt it again watching the Bills game. Even when it, you know, on paper it looked like a coin flip, you just kind of felt like the chiefs were going to win. And I'm curious, what do you see in Patrick that embodies that winner gene? And what do you feel like the chiefs have? Yeah, I mean, I think it's a top to bottom culture thing. Like your ethos, your culture is the culture that surrounds you and then within yourself. And I think it's just you got this situation where you got a hall of thing coach,

you've got a great GM, you've got all these people that play. roles. You even have people in this, in this organization that actually make each other better because they're just different. And they bring out the best in each other. And I just think that it's a, we are all living in a, a really, a very fortunate situation. And Patrick's the key to all of it. And the reason is because his mentality is this, he's just always got this belief and positivity, right? And you talk about this wintergy and all this, but really what it comes down to is I think Coach Reed and Patrick are similar in that you mitigate risk until it's time to take risk. And they just live this way. So at the end of games, it's like, okay, this is what we

have. Now we need to do this. And Patrick, you just see it in his face. Like, this is going to work. I want to do this now. Now's the time to do it. I didn't think I was going to have to do this. Let's do this now. And I just see it. You know, I can see it in his eyes. I can almost tell sometimes before the play, he's already decided what he wants to do. Or I think this is about to happen. and I can see it. He has this ability to inspire belief with people around him because it's real inside of him. It's contagious. I know that. And I feel like Coach Reed has the same thing about him. So it's just an awesome thing to watch. You know, I'm sitting and I'm watching him. And it doesn't ever surprise me. I really wish I could kick back in the third quarter more and relax,

but it's just not the part that I drew. That's all right. One thing that's amazing is just the overall strain of playoff games um i mean his his playoff games are at a 20.5 i was asked about just the strain score recently but for people aren't familiar 20.5 is extremely high i mean the scales out of 21 it gets increasingly hard to go up when people on whoop run marathons just as a data point like it tends to be like a 20.0 20.2 so the fact that he's putting this like equivalent of a more than a marathon on his body during a playoff game is pretty fascinating, I think. Yeah, and I think like we talked about in years past, his high stress points are typically before the play or a lot of times when he doesn't have the ball because he's trying to figure

out what problem do I have to solve, okay? Like if they get this first down, then that means I might have two minutes or if they get this, if they score this touchdown, I've got to do this. We're not going to go for Phil Gras for this. So I think the anticipation of, okay, what situation am I going to be in so I can decide how I'm going to be. I think that's the, I wouldn't say anxiety, but that's the thing he's driving a lot of that strain score is him waiting to know what he's got to deal with, him waiting to know his current problem. But I feel like when he's out there and he's made a decision

on what's going to happen or what he's going to do, he's in that flow state. And I feel like that's reflected in the data as well. It is. And his body's definitely activated during stressful moments that he's actually not on the field because I think he's, you know, calculating a lot. And there's a little bit of not being in control, which in turn, can I also contribute to stress. I remember actually when they beat the bills in a prior a FC championship game, there was this really, you know, that crazy game where it was back and forth, back and forth right at the end. We saw that his heart rate actually got lower a few times when he went back on the field versus when he was watching Josh Allen and the bills come

down. And that kind of speaks to what you're describing. Everybody knows, as elite and the respect that you have in just knowing, like, I hope I get an opportunity. I mean, that's what you're thinking in your mind. And so the anxiety that you have is, I mean, control it boils down to control, but also like Patrick is seven for seven in a fourth quarter game winning drives in the playoffs. There's never been a quarterback that's even been more than 60% in the history of the NFL in game winning fourth quarter drives in the playoffs. And he's seven for seven. And I think that speaks to to him as a. player. I think that speaks to the chief staff. But also, it just shows that he has this ability

to be his best when it's the hardest situation. And that is a hormonal response. That is a focus response. That is a physical response. It's flow state. He can get there and he can get there and stay there. And that's part of what makes him the lead. There's also probably an advantage to now, having gone, I mean, five Super Bowls in six years, his definition or his body's definition of how long the NFL season is, is really through the Super Bowl, where there's a lot of players who, you know, one year they don't make the playoffs, next year they'll lose in the first round. But that's, you know, three or four games less than he's playing. And honestly, we have to account for that. You know, I always tell my kids, I'm like, this isn't normal. Dad's not always

going to work through February. And then every year I work through February. So, and Patrick and I are going to plan it. And then if it's not, it's not. But we're always going to plan it. to peak, you know, that first or second weekend in February. And here we are again with this opportunity against a great team. And we just got to finish this thing. Do you think it's going to be a high scoring game? I mean, the Eagles have been putting up a lot of points. And I mean, the last time these two played in a Super Bowl, it was, what, 38, 35?

I do. And like, this is not a knock to either defense. Both defenses are great. Both defenses are capable of shutouts. I think when you get in a Super Bowl, though, there's been a few that have been like 10 to 3, but I think that there's just high risk plays. Because what are you waiting on? So a lot of the defenses are going to do high risk teams or high risk blitzes or high risk concepts, high risk plays. And so what happens

with high risk plays is that one team's playing a celebration song at the end of it or the other team. It's like you get more scoring because there's more risk. So I tend to believe that there's going to be more points scored, but I still think it's going to be really good defensive football. And I think that there's going to be turnovers that are extreme, probably. If we have them, I hope it's less than the other, but it's part of this game. This game, this game is about how can you stick to your plan and know what you know when things get crazy because they are going to get crazy. I mean, last year in the 49ers game, we looked like we were down and out. I mean, there's been, there's been a couple years where it's like that. Stay level

and know what you know, you've got your best shot. And at the end of the game, whoever makes the plays like they win it, period. That's it. I listen to Tom Brady talk about how the Super Bowl is kind of its own game in a sense because in a way, it's actually, it feels like two games because halftime is so long. Yes. And also there's so much anticipation for the game that you're like really amped up before the game starts.

So that in itself feels like you're putting a lot of stress on the body. I'm curious if you and Patrick have talked about that sort of feeling of how to prepare for the first half and the second half, given that it is sort of these two different games and how long halftime is. Yeah, it is definitely a strategic component to this. If you don't acknowledge it, it's likely going to be a deficit or a hole for you or missed opportunity or it can infect you. So as the years have gone on in these opportunities, we've gotten better at a systems approach to this. We've gotten better at a systems approach to the actual week. you have to do the media there. It is different. I mean, it's an entirely different season. We look at this as a different season. We won the AFC. That season's over. So how do you approach

this is you've got these two weeks, right? And then what's all the way to the game? All right, the game. The pregame is going to be different, more restricted on the field. There's going be more things going on down there. You've got, you could have any kind of restrictions. You don't even know until you get out there with the media, with the field. And yes, you're going to be able to do your things, but it is going to be different. You might have to wait in a locker room, you know, 25 minutes longer than you normally would after your normal pregame routine, which people don't talk about is the opening ceremonies are longer, a lot, a lot longer.

And then when you get out there on the field before kickoff, it's probably two times as long between the National Anthem and all these other things. And they do two more breaks. They got to interview all these people. It's insane. And then the TV timeouts, the longer. Half time is insane. So what are your strategies?

that halftime. Well, it depends on the state of his body. But typically, there's going to be some things to keep his body warm. Your neurons need to stay warm. Or you're going to have a hard time hitting top speed, you know, in the third quarter. But you also don't want to be tired. Now, from a nutrition standpoint, you've got more adrenaline, more anxiety. You know, whatever caffeine you have that day, you've got to do one and a half times amount of water to replace that from a hydration standpoint. We're in a dome. Okay. So if you're in a dome, your body starts to evaporate, you start to lose water quicker. So you dehydrate. So you dehydroids. great quicker like being in an airplane.

So these are considerations. I mean, every single thing is a mark to look at. Every single thing is an opportunity. We know that Tom Brady knew this. So yeah, there are strategies in place. It's going to depend on where he's at the state of his body and what the first

half looks like, you know, what he's going to do at halftime. Also the game plan and, you know, whatever. But definitely some strategies in place and what I call menu options of like, hey, here's one option, here's two options, here's three option.

pick one depending on this and he always makes the right decision and i'll tell him if you don't know what to do pick one and just like go all in and know it's right commit to it yeah yeah basically like i like all three the one that you feel is best at that moment and he does a great job well look man it's exciting i have to say i'm i'm pumped for you guys it's a beautiful moment in uh the history of sports to go for a three-peat in the Super Bowl. So it's just exciting. Yeah, I mean, last year we talked about how I thought that we were going to see a special performance from him and that I could see it in his body.

I could see it in the way he was, you know, carrying himself. And I think that that's what happened out there. I think that this year he's in a better place physically. I think than even last year, even though his body was clean last year, it's made this recovery this year. and where he was at in this last game and what we saw from him was, I feel like an aggressive style that's different than we've ever seen. We've seen these goal line carries this year and its physicality.

I think we got an opportunity in this game to expand on that. It isn't mean that it's going to look like that. But I feel like he's at a place where he can play this game any way he wants. I think we're going to see a special performance. And we don't control the outcome. The Eagles are good enough to beat us. the Eagles are a good enough team to win a Super Bowl. And so we want their best.

We let the chips fall where they may. And like his job is to play the best he can with what he's got and try to go win. But I just feel like we're going to see a special performance again. And in all hours point to us seeing the best Patrick Mhams that we've ever seen. Super excited. Obviously, rooting for Patrick and the Chiefs. And as always, Bobby, it's a pleasure getting to catch up with you, man. I mean, it's just, it's awesome to continue to learn about the data in some of these hormonal

responses that we talked about and we'll see how it goes we're always open to learning and that's what who's all about is we learn and we adapt right that's it well thank you for being on whoop for so long and and obviously super grateful that you and patrick use it all right wishing you the best go chiefs if you enjoyed this episode of the whoop podcast please leave a rating or review check us out on social at woup at will omit if you have a question was he answered on the podcast email us podcast at whoop dot com call us 508 4 443-49-5-2. If you think about joining Whoop, you can visit Whoop.com.

Sign up for a free 30-day trial membership. New members can use the code Will, W-I-L-L, to get a $60 credit on Whoop accessories when you enter the code at checkout. That's a wrap, folks. Thank you all for listening. We'll catch you next week on the Whoop podcast. As always, stay healthy and stay in the green.