016 - Tim Riley - Texas Longhorns Strength and Conditioning

All right guys, super excited to be here today. This is Tim Riley. It's kind of a big deal, especially in Texas. He's known as an influencer's boyfriend. Just kidding.

Anyway, Tim, welcome. Nice, thank you for having me.

If you're in Texas, you probably know Kelsey Higginson, am I right?

Yes, uh, she's bigger than Texas at this point. We can't go anywhere We were in Walmart the other day doing some last-second shopping for my daughter. One of her little friends had a birthday party. And as we're turning an aisle, someone ran into her and started crying, immediately started crying because they were so excited to see and meet her. Yeah. So I'm an unfamous person in the relationship and I'm totally fine with it. I'm just— my job is cheerleader and support. So I also trained—

Yeah, here I am. I'm practically crying because I get to be here meeting with you, right? So this is the perfect scenario right now. That's amazing. Okay, Tim, first question I have for you. You guys know, like, first let's just, let's introduce you a little bit, kind of brag about yourself, brag, brag about who you, what you do, who you train. I love it. I love my listeners to kind of know like, who am I actually listening do it right now.

Yeah, for sure. So, uh, hi everybody listening. Um, my name is Tim Riley and I'm the director of sports performance at Collective in Austin, Texas. Um, here at Collective I train high school, collegiate, and professional athletes. I specialize— if I specialize on anything, um, uh, would be NFL offseason and, um, combine and pro day prep. Um, I currently train a lot of volleyball athletes, lacrosse. So I'm the— I guess I should mention I'm the head coach, strength coach for the University of Texas men's lacrosse. I'm the strength coach for the local basketball high school, for the basketball team down the street here at Anderson High School. And then I manage the NFL offseason here at Collective. And then a bunch of athletes sprinkled in there. And people don't actually know me for this, but I started training gen pop, and I still train gen pop. I train probably 6 to 10 hours worth of gen pop people every week, uh, still. So, um, yeah, I, uh, you know, get you somebody that can do both, you know what I mean? Uh, yeah, so I, I do a little bit of everything, and I also have an online presence. I have programs that I sell online and I've been able to grow a large community there, which has been so fun. And then I'm also the host of the Coach 'Em Up Podcast. So yeah, I'm just out here doing my thing.

Heck yeah. That's sick. Next time I'm in Austin, I'm gonna have to jump into one of your gin pops.

Well, next, next time you're in Austin, you'll be hopefully coming on the Coach 'Em Up Podcast.

Yes, love that. That'd be fun. Go get— we can go do a workout and get worked by you and Zach. Heck yes. I got to get in shape for that. I'm just kidding. All right, guys, so I have a very important question to ask Tim from the get-go. Tim, who's faster, track or football?

You've been keeping up with my socials.

My debate's going to be football.

Okay, listen, I, I, I've had— so look, I, um, I'm actually biased. I love football. Football. I work with pro guys. I help them get ready for the combine, um, 40 times with all my high school athletes who are going to these camps on a regular basis. Like, speed is the priority. It's the most sought-after, um, skill. Um, and frankly, you know, particularly, you know, in football and track, but, um, in those two sports respectively, your speed is kind of the thing that differentiates you from like whether or not you get a D1 offer or not. And like whether, you know, that's what separates like elite from just like really good. Um, at least from like a physical quality standpoint. So all that to say, as much as I love football and I wish the answer was football, it's not. Track people, you know, you take someone on average, track athletes, you know, particularly 60-meter, 100-meter sprinters are going to be faster than the fastest football players. And it's, you know, it's to some people that you might hear that and say, well, no, duh. But we love football here in America and people, people don't— they see people running at the combine and they assume like there's no way that anyone can be faster than that. And track just unfortunately isn't as televised. It's not as— it's just not a priority here. Right. So people don't really have a grasp or understanding of what track speed actually looks and feels like. And to that point, I didn't either until I started working with and around track athletes. And that's when it dawned on me. I was like, oh, whoa, hold up, timeout. There is another level to speed that I didn't even know existed, which was exciting because it's like, for example, Xavier Worthy, he set the combine record, ran a 4.21. That is absurdly fast. Fast cooking. He came and trained with me 3 days after the combine. Okay, so this guy, he's still peaking. He's, he's at his, you know, he's been prepping to run as fast as possible for the past 8 to 9 weeks. He got in and I had him do a couple starts, a few resistance sprints and unresisted sprints. And the difference between like guys I've trained who can run a legit 4.3 and what he did is so black and white, astoundingly different. It is freakish to watch him move. And even that pales in comparison to what happens now. I would also say someone like Xavier Worthy, had he not picked football and had decided to go full track athlete, he's the kind of guy who has the genetic ability to be one of those elite sprinters in the 60 or 100 meter, probably 100 meter guy. He just chose football, right? And I think a lot of the fuss that I created about having that conversation on social media— it's so funny when you broach a subject or a topic like that, people have emotional reactions. And instead of looking at something logically and just saying like, the debate is about who is faster. That's it. And what's interesting is what happens is like in my comment section, it's like, well, football players have to have on 20 pounds of muscle and they have to— yes, they do. And yes, that is part of why they are not as fast, but those are excuses. The beauty of, um, finding out about whether who's fastest— and this is the beauty of track I've come to love later in life because I used to just roll my eyes at track like, whatever, they're not athletes. Wrong. Could not have been more wrong.

Dead wrong. That's— yeah, that's—

it's a crazy thing to think and say, but that's where I was, dude. I was just a football meathead, you know? Yeah. The beauty of speed is that's kind of all track is about. It's like there's a bunch of people standing around who think they're faster than one another, and then someone at some point in time, many, many years ago, said, let's I know how to settle this debate. We're going to draw a line right here. We're all going to start from behind that line, and then we're going to pick a point out here in the distance. And whoever crosses that point first, guess what? They're the fastest. Thus, the concept of a race was born. And now today, we can see from the times that track athletes put up relative to the times that football players put up, it's not even— it's— that's why I said it's not debatable. And that got a lot of people fired up. But, you know, as someone who loves football, I, I think in terms of complete athleticism, what a, you know, a professional football player brings to the table is the ultimate expression of athleticism. A lot of people would argue basketball. I say football personally.

Um, I could see that.

But, um, at the end of the day, it's like Hey, like the numbers don't lie. They're— track athletes are elite at what they do. That's why they have gold medals and silver medals and like they're the best of the best. They're the fastest. And football guys, like they're the best at football and that's okay.

Yeah. Yeah. That's— it is funny to see, to see. That's why I asked you that question, cuz I could see people getting fired up about it and I was— especially in Texas, right? Like that's—

oh God.

That's a religion there. Football's a religion.

It is.

But it's True. Like the Netflix documentary Race. I don't know if you've seen that.

It's so good.

Like that opened my, my whole mind. I love documentaries first off.

Yeah, same.

Documentaries. I'm like, in another life I would've been an Olympian. But anyway, I, the, the Netflix documentary was crazy. I mean, it, it really featured like Gabby Thomas, Noah Lyles, like all the big track names. And it's just like, you gotta have a different kind of it factor as it's just you and your speed. Like that is the sport. Like you and, and people always like talk about how, I don't know, like cocky and everything Noah Lyles is and definitely, but kind of almost gotta be that cocky to show up and like, you just gotta be kind of nasty compared to—

there's a level of, uh, delusion that is necessary to continually show up and compete at a high level like that. Like, uh, like a level of belief and self-confidence that, like, you know, and the way it presents itself in him, for me personally, kind of gives me the ick a little bit. But hey, that doesn't take away from what he's been able to do. Incredible. And you mentioned Gabby Thomas. She actually— she went to the— she went to the University of Texas. She trains here at Collective. One of the nicest people you could ever meet. Just absolutely so sweet. She's the sweetest. She's so nice, so cool, so approachable.

I didn't know she lived there in Texas still.

I don't know if she lives here full time, honestly, but she's here frequently enough that she's— there are periods of time where she's in here training and just salt of the earth. Fantastic person.

Gabby, I want you on this podcast one day, okay? Please come. If anyone knows Gabby, please tell her to me. I want to be friends with her. That's amazing. Okay. Okay, Tim. So sweet. That's awesome. I wanted— there's a lot of athletes that I work with. Obviously, you guys know that I work with a lot of high school athletes and so do you. High school and then high school athletes going into college. So once they're at college and you'd hope, I mean, if it's D3 and NAIA, like you'd hope that they have the, the coaches that they need to get them to where they need to be athletically. Yeah, the bigger the school, probably the better the coach you're going to have. That's not always the case, but in high school, a lot of times your strength and conditioning coach is like doubles as your football linebacker coach, like whatever. And it's just totally trained, right? So I see a lot of my athletes training like straight bodybuilders, like they're listening to Mike Isratel, who is awesome for bodybuilding. Yes. But like, that's not exactly how it converts into athleticism too. So Why isn't that the best approach? Please educate these kids on why you shouldn't just be throwing up as much weight as possible in the gym.

Yes. So gathering my thoughts on how to best set this down. So at a certain level, hypertrophy is necessary, is important, right? But when we're looking at the purpose of what training should look like for an athlete and why, and if you're clear around what that is and what you're trying to accomplish, you'll begin to see and understand that hypertrophy and training, lifting as heavy as you can in just the weight room, is only one piece of a puzzle to— and putting together what it takes to be the most athletic version of yourself. Okay. So most athletes, particularly high school athletes, regardless of your sport, are still at a phase of their development where they're nowhere near their ceiling in terms of what their athletic capability is some people have higher ceilings than others. But generally speaking, in high school, you haven't peaked. You haven't peaked yet. The reason being for that is odds are you haven't been exposed to a high enough level of training consistently, particularly if you're working with, you know, the history teacher/linebacker position coach/strength coach. That Kelsey was speaking about. Nothing against them, they're doing the best they can. But, um, when it comes to athletic development, whether it's volleyball, softball, football, track, basketball, there are qualities that separate good to great athletes. The things that are going to move the needle and the things that you want to prioritize— building muscle and putting on weight It is important. I would say in terms of like a tiered system: speed, plyometric training, strength training, then hypertrophy. And I'm gonna get into— I— if you don't mind, I'll get into why I think that's so.

We want to hear it all.

So off camera, Kelsey Higginson and I were talking, and the things that differentiate good athletes to great athletes, particularly field sport athletes, but even court athletes, is speed. Point blank period. You hear it all the time, speed kills. That's why it's number one on the priority list. And, and, and in my opinion, speed training— not only if you prioritize that, speed training is hard. It's hard to get faster. It's the— in fact, out of everything else jumping ability, overall strength, putting on size, getting faster consistently over any period of time is by far the most difficult thing to do. It just is. I believe it though. It is. It's hard.

I mean, it's 'cause the myth is there is like, I can't get faster. I am what I am. Right? But like, yes, you can train speed to your, like, I mean, to what you said is it's hard.

It's hard. It is very hard. And like, some people have— are genetically more predisposed to being faster than others. And you'll hear people say, um, you know, you're born with speed, right? Um, you either got it or you don't. That's only part true. You— some people are born with the ability to have elite speed, others are not. Everyone can get faster. Everyone can get faster if you prioritize it. The problem, if you're only focusing on hypertrophy training, is let's say you're really weak and you just don't have a lot of muscle. Focusing on hypertrophy training and just getting stronger can actually help you get a little faster. But once you use up to the precise extent that it's going to help you, it's no longer helpful. It's not going to help you get faster. And if speed is the thing that's going to be the, the quality that separates you from good to great, that helps you go from D3 scholarship to D1 scholarship, you feel me, then that should be the priority. You can attain hypertrophy in other ways by prioritizing other forms of training. So speed, number one. Number two, plyometrics, single leg hops, hurdle hops, extensive plyos, intensive plyos, deep tier plyos, anything where you are regularly and consistently having to control your body of mass in space. And doing so with control and explosively helps you from everything from agility, change of direction, a general sense of awareness, and then of course making you more explosive and powerful as an athlete in general. Speed training and plyometric training done well is the tide that rises all boats of athleticism. Because at the end of the day, you know, okay, it's like, uh, the things that are going to separate you at speed, but then what's the next thing?— it's twitchy. Are they explosive? Can they move well, right? Everyone knows an athlete on their team, or maybe it's even you. You're big and you're strong and you can't make plays. You're one step behind, you know? Um, and I— but the thing is, on the other end, if you're already fast and you're already explosive, it's easy to just add strength on top of that. Right? So you want to prioritize speed and quality movement before, or at least at the same time, that you're prioritizing strength and putting on muscle. And that brings me to, you know, the last two, which is like strength and then hypertrophy. So the beauty of a good strength training program— not, you know, your main movement being reps 10 to 15 reps, I'm talking like between, you know, 1 and 8, we'll just call it that for now, is that for hypertrophy, as long as you're within 3 to 4 reps of failure, you are going to get a hypertrophy stimulus. Guess who that's from? Mike Isratel. And, uh, so if you're listening to my—

sweet, by the way.

If you're listening to Mike and that's who you're, you're listening to, you can actually just take that same logic and apply it to your strength training. So if you're working within strength rep ranges for your main lifts, which you should be, and you're take— and you're trying to get stronger, you can actually get stronger and attain bigger muscles and gain weight simply by strength training with an effort level that is within 3 reps of failure. And that to me kills two birds with one stone, right? Like, you're improving a quality that's ultimately going to help you in sport as far as strength is concerned. And as a byproduct of getting stronger and more powerful, you are now also adding muscle, right? So what have we looked at? And then now hypertrophy is a byproduct of that. I have hypertrophy rep ranges and circuits in my strength training because it is important, but it's not important just for the sake of putting on size. I actually think it's more important for tissue quality, for joint health, through getting good training through full ranges of motion. So it's motion, so it almost doubles over as mobility work. And then another added benefit is that we're able to put on some muscle size if that's the priority. Oftentimes athletes— so that's my pyramid. We've got speed, right? Or let's go here. Speed is the foundation. Plyometrics and power training, med ball throws, hops, leaps, bounds, jumps, all that. Uh, even like some Olympic lift variations, loaded jumps are in there. Then strength training. Everybody knows that you're benching, your squatting, your deadlifting, primary moving, you know, push-pull hinging movements that you can prioritize and get really strong in rep ranges of really 1 to 5, but you could even say 8 for high school. And then hypertrophy is like the last piece of that pie where you can get some benefit but not everything. If you flip that thing upside down and 90% of your effort is just getting bigger muscles, The way the human body works is you're really— the whatever you prioritize is the thing you're going to adapt to. Let me say that again. Whatever you prioritize is the thing you're going to most adapt to. So you have to be honest with yourself about your athleticism, where you're at currently, and what needs to be the priority. The difficult part is that all those other things I talked about, they take time. If you're in high school and you're eating well enough, which I'm sure we're going to get into, putting on muscle is easy. It's easy. And so it's easy to do some hypertrophy training, put on 5 pounds of muscle, get some minimal performance gains, and feel really good about it. There's nothing wrong with that. But again, if the goal is to be the best athlete that you can If 90% of your training is hypertrophy training and then you're just sprinkling in these other things, you're massively limiting yourself to your— what you could actually become from an athlete. And you probably got the same amount of muscle you would have gotten had you just done it the other way. Um, and yeah, so, and then the other thing you're finding again is like, particularly with males, people just want to look jacked, man. They just want to look good, especially if they're in high school. Maybe you want a girlfriend, you know. I mean, that's why I started lifting weights. It was vanity, you know, really. I did— I wasn't doing it for sport performance in high school, it was vanity. Um, so, but yeah, you can have it all. Um, you can get faster, you can get stronger, you can build muscle, but your priorities of the way you organize your training session day to day, week to week, over the course of a year, 4 years of high school, um, it's important that you prioritize the right things. You will build muscle as a byproduct of that if you're training correctly and eating correctly.

I did not pay him to say that, guys. I say that every time to my listeners. Whenever people bring this in, I'm like, guys, I promise I did not pay him to, to write an ad for me. Okay. That is why I'm in, that's why I have a business is because that is the missing piece to most kids' puzzle. Because honestly, this last decade, I mean, maybe even the last 5 years, The athletic performance side of things has started to take a trend a whole lot more than it was even when I was in high school with like the speed work, this plyo work. Like that, that's just like for me. And I think that more gyms, especially in kind of the West here, like Utah, Idaho, they're, they're starting to open because they're seeing people in Texas and people in California like, oh, like we gotta jump on this or else we're gonna get left behind type of thing. But that is the, the hole that I'm seeing. And the reason why I have a job is all these kids are— I always say it's like training, like training and doing everything that you're saying to do without proper nutrition is like pouring water into a bucket with holes in it. It's like 100%, you're going to be— and I, I can't get this through kids' minds because training is fun, right? You get to go and throw weight around, you get a Like, train speed, like, it's fun, it's sexy, it's— you can show up and you can like feel like you are in kind of like the winter arc of the Creed air, you know what I'm saying? Like, just in that Creed moment, in the grind moment. But like, the food moment is kind of boring, and the food moment is just like another thing to look at and stuff. And so kids don't pay attention to it, but I'm like, guys, you're wasting— you are like literally pouring gains and results down the drain from not just doing these simple things. So it kind of drives me nuts sometimes, but I'm just, we're spreading it, you know? So kind of give me an insight on your athletes. Like, can you tell the ones who are properly fueling versus the ones who are just kind of tanking it?

It's not even, that's, it's the biggest limiting factor. So here's an analogy I like to use is imagine Imagine you're a farmer. Your job, the thing that puts food on your table, is to grow crops. That's it. Okay, let's use corn. Okay, you go through all the work of tilling the land, of planting the seeds, maintaining the land. You do this for a whole season, but yet you only water it every now and then. You just— you water it kind of when you feel like it or when it makes sense for your schedule. And then when it's time to see what those crops yield, and you only get about 20% of what you're expecting, would you feel kind of dumb for expecting more than 20%? Probably, because you didn't water it. You didn't actually give the crops what they need in order to reach their maximum potential. Imagine spending 12 weeks in an offseason working your ass off hitting weights, going to position coaches, sprinting, jumping, lifting— all that time and effort, and the reason you're still not the athlete you want to be is because you just didn't want to eat breakfast. That's crazy, actually, when you think about it. When you think about the time, effort, and energy— if you're someone— and I've, I've had the same conversation with most athletes, very few athletes do I get who already understand the power and potency of nutrition and have a plan in place. If you're not one of those 4 and 5 star athletes already and you want to be one, if you're not eating to maximize your potential, you're never going to be one. You're not. Because you are not actually going to adequately, adequately recover. You can have the best program on the planet, you can work with the best skill coach on the planet, you can go to the best high school in your city, and you will still never be the athlete you could be if you just prioritize eating what you eat. Here's another thing: you could be on the shittiest team with the worst position coach and a terrible training program but if you just worked hard, trained hard, and ate enough, you would still get better. So the problem is that— and it's one of those things, like, until you do it, until you eat right for 3 weeks— I'm not kidding, Kelsey, you've probably had this experience. I've had kids put on 10 pounds in 3 weeks. Yep. And change nothing else.

Nothing else. They come to me, he's eating enough.

Their parents bring them in and they know I trained Bijan Robinson, they know I've worked with Micah Parsons, they know I've trained Ja'Marr Chase. That's why they're there. They don't know a damn thing about me. I could be the worst trainer on the planet. I'm not. But they bring their kid in and they say— I asked the kid, a young man or a young lady, how many days a week are you training and lifting weights? 3 or 4 days a week. Okay. Are you practicing on top of that? Yes. Huh. Okay. And you're trying to get stronger or put on weight as the case may be? Yes. Okay. Can you tell me, take me through a day of nutrition for you? What does that look like? Well, I wake up in the morning and like sometimes I eat breakfast, but like not always. If I do, like I have like these bars that I like. And then when I get to lunch at school, I don't know, they usually have pizza or I'll get a salad or something like that. And then I go to practice and then I get home and then my mom makes me a really good dinner. I'm like, so let me get this straight. You are practicing 2 hours a day, you're strength training 3 to 4 hours a week and you're eating one real meal a day. Mm-hmm. And the parent and the kid are both like, Yeah. Now usually what's happening is the parents all along, like they're saying, you gotta eat more, you gotta eat more. But they don't actually know what that means or looks like. You know, the lowest hanging fruit that— and I'm telling you, just taking a kid who's eating one big meal a day to eating two meals a day, or even, even better, three meals a day, where you are prioritizing protein, prioritizing a ton of healthy carbs, Just those two things, just those two things alone, going from one meal a day to three, 10 pounds of muscle, 10 pounds of muscle in 3 weeks. I've had, particularly with female athletes, it can be a sensitive subject, like eating more can be a little scary. There's beauty standards and body image things that are associated with eating more. But as an athlete, I can tell you time and again, female athletes who have gone from eating like a bird to eating like an athlete, right? If y'all saw what Gabby Thomas eats in a day, telling you, to eating like an athlete— young women, I've used the InBody in the past as a means to like, you know, really hone in on like what's happening. They'll only gain a total of 1 pound but lose 6 pounds of body fat, add 7 pounds of muscle. Complete body composition shift. And ironically, athletes, particularly ones who are concerned about how it might impact their body and the way they look by eating more, perhaps negatively, they're always happier because now you're just a leaner, stronger version of yourself. Um, and, uh, so anyway, uh, another example, I had a young man, uh, linebacker. He's going from 8th grade to 9th grade. He shows up, and this is, this is the power of If you can lock in and just trust the professionals who have been there and done it. He said, "I'll do whatever it takes. Tell me what I need to do." I said, "You're going to eat 4 meals a day." At the time, he was 130 pounds. He was 5'10". Think about that. Okay? Some of you listening to this might be that kid. Okay? 5'10", 100— and he's supposed to be playing middle linebacker, by the way. Okay? Um, 5'10", 130. He's moving up to freshman. He's gonna play JV. He put on 23 pounds in 6 weeks. How? How? Because he was eating 1, maybe 2 actual meals a day. He's wildly undertrained. And I don't know if y'all know about football in Texas, but they practice 2 hours a day and they have weights in class. It's a part of their school day. It's already baked in. Like, they do it for real down here. I didn't have him do anything extra. He came and trained with me once a week. All we did was speed stuff. I, I said, Rowan, what you're gonna do is you're gonna eat 4 times a day. You're gonna get— what was it— 40 grams of protein in each meal. I want you to get 60 to 70 grams of carbs at each meal. Here are some ways you can do that. Here are some supplements that can help you hit those goals. He did it, guys. I'm not kidding— 23 pounds in 6 weeks. How do you think he did that freshman— on that freshman football team? He balled out, right? Um, so it's not a matter of like, is nutrition the differentiator or the difference maker? It's how quickly are you gonna figure it out and actually prioritize it? Because it's the difference.

It boggles my mind, and I talk about this with a lot of different people and a lot of different strength coaches, but it absolutely boggles my mind that they the kids. I love that the farming analogy like that. I'm gonna, I'm gonna steal that because that's perfect. It's like, you, you guys are— I, I can't even like emphasize enough to these kids. I'm like, you are doing all the work necessary. Like, literally, this is going to do— like, all you got to do would— yeah, is eat. Like, all you got to do is get up 10 minutes earlier and eat breakfast, or just like have something in the fridge prepped from the week. Like, grab some overnight oats and run out the door. Like, all you got to do is put in like an extra 2 to 3 minutes of prep to have an extra 80% of results, like 100%. And I hope that like kids can understand the urgency. Like we just want to grab them and shake them and be like, come on guys, like you can do this. And you can tell the athletes who get it, get it. And they're the ones who succeed because yes, like, and a lot of athletes tell themselves like, I'm just not genetically there. Like I wasn't blessed with this genetic pool of things. And true, like there's even more important. Yeah, like exactly. And I'm like, is that like Michael, Michael Jordan? I've literally had athletes say this to me. Michael Jordan didn't probably do— I didn't— I've never heard him do something like that.

And I'm like, yeah, imagine comparing yourself. You're not Michael Jordan, bro. You're not Mike, okay? You are not Mike.

You are 5'11" and—

I'm sorry, did you get a D1 offer your freshman year of high school? Because if the answer is no, you better go eat breakfast.

It's like, you have no excuse to not— and it— and then I tell kids, and it's a hard truth, but it's like people say that people like to talk about their dreams, right? Like, people like to talk about what they want. They get excited about it. They like to talk to, to people and their teammates about it. And they might be kind of like the star in their high school, but I promise you, and I'm like, guys, like, even if, if you're at a 3A, 4A high school in the middle of Idaho and you're killing it, guess what? There's a kid in Texas who's like just as good, if not better than you, and putting the nutrition in and doing the speed work and doing this, it's like, it almost—

they're training with me.

Yes. And, and my, actually my brother, he, he's serving a mission, a church mission right now, but his, his original goal was to go play. He might come home and play some JUCO. Um, but like his, he was good. Like he, and, and I don't wanna, and I'm not like putting him down at all. Like he was a good player and I think he definitely had the ability to go bigger and to get even some Division II, smaller Division I scholarships. I wish, I wish I would've shown up with what I'm doing about 5 years earlier, cuz I would've been able to help him out a whole lot more that way. But the issue was, is he was good for Idaho. He was good for 3A and, and he, he was doing the work. He, he was going to the athletic performance training centers. He was increasing his vert, increasing his speed, but he was 6'2" and 160 pounds. Dang. Yeah. And it's like naturally his metabolism's just fast, like a lot of you high school boys probably is. And he just, it just wasn't there. And then he shows up to these AAU tournaments and he sees these kids from Texas, these kids from Cali, these kids from the East Coast. And he's like, they're men. They are like, I am playing against 6'4", 220-pound men. And he's like, oh my gosh. And so I don't think kids fully realize. Like what they're up against. And it's like, if you can see the comparisons, you're gonna do every freaking thing that, like, you can do— eat the breakfast, eat the lunch, eat the second lunch— to get to where you need to be if you really want that, right?

And two things. One, I want to address the fast metabolism thing because I get that a lot. Okay, first of all, not true. Okay, uh, your metabolism isn't special. Your metabolism isn't unique. Your metabolism isn't faster or slower than someone else. That is incorrect, scientifically speaking. The odds of your metabolism being so much faster than everyone else's around you, and that's why you're skinny—

wrong.

You're not eating enough. And I'll play devil's advocate, maybe your metabolism is fast. Eat more. Like, what? Like, what? How is that your excuse? It's like, oh, I'm not I'm not the athlete. And I think that's what it is. It's easy to just say, oh, my metabolism's fast and that's why I'm not gaining weight. You're giving up. You are giving up. You're quitting. Because at the end of the day, like, it all comes back around to how important is it to you? Are you willing to make breakfast a business decision? Because Here's the thing, guys. If you're trying to get to the next level, it's all business decisions. It's not about I want or don't want to eat breakfast. That— if you're thinking about it like that, go ahead and hang it up because you ain't going to make it at D1. You're not. You're going to get there and you're not going to make it. I promise you, you have to start shifting from things. It's like, okay, if it's really important to you, you're going to start looking at breakfast as like, this is the thing I have to do to get to where I want to be. Not, it's like, oh, I didn't want to eat because I just wasn't that hungry. I'm sorry, again, if you're not these 4 and 5-star athletes that I train. I got athletes that can eat Chick-fil-A once a day and they're gonna play at Ohio State. The rest of us normal human beings, you don't have that luxury, bro.

You just do that.

You just don't. And so, like, it is what it is. You have to be honest with yourself about that. And then the next question is like, am I gonna let my feelings dictate my potential? Am I going to let the idea of being a little uncomfortable in the morning and eating more than I want to at breakfast be the reason why I didn't attain my dream. And I would also contend that if that is the reason, the thing that's holding you back playing at the next level or being the best athlete you can be isn't actually your dream. It's not that important to you, and that's okay. But don't lie to yourself, you know what I mean? You keep it real. Because if it really is, that's what— that's important to you. And the only piece that's holding you back is your air quotes fast metabolism.

Man, I've got story after— and I love that you address that because it's true. Like the fast metabolism thing is like you're not gaining enough weight because you're not eating enough because you are training your freaking butt off. Like you're training 15 hours a week. Like it is true. Like my brother, like he— sure, naturally he's just a skinny boy, but like, um, he's kind of like a skinny shredded, I guess you would say. Um, but he's training so much. He has a basketball class at school, he has basketball practice after school, he has weights in between. Like, of course you're not gonna—

like, bingo.

You guys got to realize, like, you need even that extra meal. Like, it— I mean, yes, do, do exactly what Tim said, but I mean, when you get to really wanting to put on weight, like I had this kid, he's, he's at Oregon State now playing baseball, but he was like, he's 6'2", he was about 200 at the time. And he, his, his coach is like, we need, he's catcher and he's like, we need you to be about 225 when you get to us. And he's like, uh, and he, he was at this athletic performance center like in Idaho and Darren Hanson runs it. I don't know if you're familiar with him in the, the world, but he's, he's super talented, super awesome. And I was working there with them at the time. And Martin Serrano, he's the one I'm talking about. I've told this story a little bit before, but he comes to me and he's like, I am kind of plateaued now. Like, he's like your ideal athlete that you'd ever want to work with.

Right.

He said, you say to run through a wall, he'll run through the wall. Like, he'll do anything that Darren asked him to do. And so he was just probably working out 4 or 5 times a day between speed work, like pitching or catching, hitting, like all of the different things. And I'm like, dude— and we looked, we sat down, and I'm like, you are under-eating by at least 1,000 calories a day. Yeah, at least. And, and exactly the story that you said, we got him on just this super simple plan, eating like 3 real meals a day, several snacks a day, pre-training snack, post-training snack, all of these different things. And I think it was within 8 weeks we had him 15 pounds up. Oh, we had him his speed. So he was— he went from 200 to 215. His speed increased. His—

believe it—

every PR in the lifting room increased. His like reaction time was increased. Like everything, and everything lifted. And just like you said, speed is the tide that raises all boats of athleticism. I, I, I say speed is the— or not speed— nutrition is the tide that raises all boats of performance. So the speed work you're doing, the strength training work you're doing, like The skill work, like nutrition, is the thing that comes in and just kind of sprinkles that little pixie dust everywhere and it raises and it elevates everything.

So I love— so true.

I love this conversation. Like, thank you for— thank you for saying what I'm saying to everyone every day because I'm like, you guys, like, don't leave it on the table. It just makes me so sad for these kids. I'm like, and it's true, like you said, they just don't want it enough. If you're not willing to do those small things and like, yep, dude, you are not You are not meant to make it at the next level.

Part of it too is like you get to show up to a training session, someone's there holding you accountable, telling you what to do. You show up to practice, someone's there, they're holding you accountable, they're telling you what to do. You don't have to think, you don't have to try, all you have to do is work hard. You just have to put the effort in and you get it done. The problem with nutrition is that this is what separates the proverbial men from the boys, the young ladies to the women. Right? The, the little dogs to the big dogs is what are you doing when there isn't a coach there with you, bro? You know? And that kind of starts with nutrition. And, you know, it's easy to say, right? And sleep. Big facts.

I'd throw sleep in there.

Big facts. And like, again, it comes back down to, it's like, how important is it to you? You know, would you, if, if you needed to make a grade to pass a class, but you were only willing to study during study hall. That's it. You refuse to do any additional studying at home. Only when a teacher's there, only when you're in class, right? Maybe you pass the test, maybe you don't, right? There are just certain things that are going to require you to go above and beyond in order to get to where you want to go. And nutrition is one of those things, man. And I love, Kelsey Higginson, that you mentioned nutrition being performance enhancing. There is no supplement, there is no amount of creatine, there is no amount of caffeine that is going to fuel your performance like just eating enough food. I'm serious. Like, I've seen people who are just under eating. They're just not eating enough. And you know you're not eating enough when, as an athlete, when you've been the same weight for months at a time. And you're training harder and harder every week, if you're not gaining weight, or at least you're not feeling like your performance is improving, you're not eating enough. Period. Period. And when you take someone who has been undereating, which is most high school athletes frankly, um, and give them adequate amounts of food, within days they're jumping higher, They're running faster, they're feeling better. Just physically, you can be like, damn, I feel better. It's like, yeah, you were starving. You were not eating enough. And to go back to the fast metabolism thing, your metabolism's fast because you're practicing 2 hours a day and strength training and you're a growing high school kid. Your metabolism isn't actually fast. You just got a lot going on, dog. And like, if you're gonna recover, because here's the deal, and Kelsey, you know, this, you probably talk about this all the time, you don't get better from running fast. You don't get better from lifting a heavier weight. You don't get better from running more routes. You get better from your ability to recover. From those things and therefore improve. The magic is not in the barbell being in your hand and running as fast as possible, jumping as high as you can. The magic is in what happens after, when your body takes a look at what has happened and is able to make changes so that you're able to do that again at a higher level. But that process does not happen. I repeat, will not happen unless you are fueling your body for that change in growth to occur. There is nothing you're going to watch on YouTube, there's no supplement you're going to take, there is no— no amount of magnesium, dog, is going to create that growth and change for you like just eating enough or eating appropriately will. It's just not there. Um, and, uh, the irony is like, you know, the simplest solution oftentimes is the most difficult for people.

I know, I know. It's, it's crazy. There's a couple things, there's a couple thoughts that came to mind. So I'm actually recording a personal podcast on this because I get so many questions about it. So I'm like, I just need to do a nutrition basics so that they can understand. Yes. Like, yes. Like, so you, you mentioned earlier, like, get the protein and get at least like the higher amounts of healthy carbs. Exactly. Like, that's perfect. And then like the healthy fats will kind of naturally come from what you're cooking your protein in and stuff like that. But, yeah. What's crazy, I call it my cap. I'm like, you gotta cap around, around training, like before or after, like the, the carbs and protein. And for every like 1 gram of protein you want, you have, you want about 4 grams carbs. Right? Like it's just kind of like the general guideline that I give people.

Works best for most.

Yeah, yeah. And then if you want to get like more dialed in, that's what I'm here for. But it's like the couple things that I think of is like food first, supplement second, guys. Like a lot of kids, like you said, they want that quick fix. They want that, they hear, and I do some videos. I'm like, yeah, like here's the benefits of creatine. Here's the benefits of caffeine. There is a time and place for them. But I always like preface it with, guys, if you are not training, if you are not dialed in on your nutrition, if you're not sleeping well, um, at least 8— at least 8 hours a night, keep scrolling. Like, don't even listen to this. This is your big fact. Business— like, you have no business listening to this. Because I'll get like a 15-year-old DMing me and saying like, hey coach, like, what supplements do you think I should be using? And I'm like, Dude, you, you're 5'11" and 150 pounds. Like, eat. Like, there is no supplement that's going to change it.

I'm sorry. What supplements do I need? Uh, steak and rice.

That's what you need. Yes, yes, exactly. And then we can look at it because it's like this, this, like you said, the 20%, you're leaving 80% of gains on the table, right? If you're not eating enough food. And then we get to, okay, creatine can give that like 3 to 5% increase. Caffeine can give maybe like a 2%, 1 to 2% increase. So it's like these 1 to 2% is not going to matter if you're missing that 80% of the pie there, dude. Like, so, so true. I, I love, I love what you were saying there, cuz it's another thought that came to my mind is like you were talking about like the, the routes themselves don't matter, the barbell itself doesn't matter, it's the ability to recover in between. The, the analogy I love to give for that is it's a, it's as if you've you're demoing your house or a wall or a brick wall or something and you're trying to build it bigger and stronger and back more. It's as if like during your workout, you're taking a sledgehammer to your muscles. Like it says, it's like these little bricks and you're taking a sledgehammer to it every single time because it creates those micro tears. And I think most athletes understand that, like to build muscle, you gotta break it down to build it back bigger. But it's as if you took that sledgehammer to the wall and said, sweet, I'm gonna be back tomorrow and put more holes in it. It's like, and then you're not going to build it back. Like, can you tell? Like, can you see how it's just going to get weaker and weaker and weaker? And like, all this work is actually working against you if you don't take the time to eat the protein, eat the carbs to build that wall back bigger. Like, and then it clicks with kids. It's like, oh, okay, that— yeah, okay, I can do that. Like, 20 grams of protein after I work out, you know? Like, and so it's just the simple stuff. But I, I, I'm so glad that we've touched on the— or we've hit on this today because it, it's such a, such a huge topic that not very many kids see very much.

So, mm-hmm.

Very, love it a lot. Switching gears here, Tim, I kind of wanna go back to the training side of things. Sure. If you could only prescribe 10 movements for the rest of your life to an athlete, yeah. Like you only had 10 movements in there, what would those 10 movements be? Yes. And you can categorize them into the different tiers if you want.

Like, so I'm just gonna go— I'm gonna use my fingers to count so I don't lose track. So, um, sprinting, uh, number one. Number one over anything. Um, sprinting, uh, ideally, you know, uh, if you're not running track, run track. That's honestly— there's nothing— there's not a better sprinting stimulus than racing someone and doing it in front of people, you know what I mean? Yeah. So that's why track is so, you know, like selfishly I would like to have all my kids sprint with me, but even when they come with me, you know what I make them do? Race. Race. We're racing. So, um, sprinting twice a week, you want to hit max velocity, you know, every 4 to 8 days. Ideally. So like what you can do is focus on acceleration anywhere between 0 and 30 yards earlier in the week, and then later in the week you want to focus on getting up to max velocity. I have another rant about that. Most kids are not big, strong, or fast enough to hit max velocity until 40 yards.

Hmm.

In order to train max velocity, you have to run at what? Max velocity. So, um, if you're only running 40s or only running 30s, guess what you're not training? Max velocity. So later in your week, probably 4 to 5 days after your acceleration, you want to hit max velocity. And for most of you listening, that's going to happen just between 40 and 50 yards. Okay, I'm dropping dimes right now. This is— this— hey, I'm, I hope y'all are taking notes. Okay, so 40 to 50. Okay, so that's number 1 is sprinting. Number 2, hopping.

And, and, and let me just plug in there, guys, you don't need a coach there to do that. Like if you don't have one, there is no excuse. Like go to a track and run. Like, it's not that hard.

So go to a football field, go to a track. But Tim, I don't have access to a track or a football field. Empty parking lot, street, soccer field. Like, make it happen. Like, if it's— is it— again, how important does it matter to you? Because if it don't, that's cool. But if it does, get it done. You can get it done. Figure it out. So sprinting, all forms of sprinting, number one. Number two, hopping, um, particularly single leg hopping. Um, there is nothing from a plyometric standpoint that is as potent long-term as hopping on one leg. It's not even debatable. It's the most ground reaction force. It requires you to use the gait cycle and timing. It requires you to create a lot of stiffness at the foot the moment the foot hits the ground so that you can cycle back to the next foot. All of these things help train lower body power, stiffness, explosiveness. They are also going to bolster all of the qualities you need to be reactive, change direction, and sprint and run faster in sport. Cool. Most people suck jumping on one foot. Some people are naturally one-footed jumpers. You can get a lot better at one-foot jumping just by hopping on one foot. So that's number 2. I'm going to go number 3, all other plyometrics. So skipping for height. Skipping for this. Actually, let's make number 3 skips. Skipping for height and skipping for distance. People are gonna hear this and be like, skipping, what do you mean? Skip for height, like you are skipping as high as you can. Do it, do a couple sets for 30 yards, 2 to 3 minutes rest in between. Same thing, skipping for distance, you're trying to jump as far as you can off one foot and a skip for distance. So being able to jump off of one foot and land on one foot, either as high as you can or as far as you can, are two things that are going to help you in terms of your coordination, timing, rhythm, and overall athleticism more than a lot of other— certainly more than a speed ladder. Okay, um, so, uh, top 3: sprints, single leg hopping, number 3, skips for distance, skips for height. Um, number 4, and I'll get into specific like strength movements now. Number 4, squatting. Squatting, but not just squatting, because a lot of strength coaches will tell you chest up, butt back, sit your hips back. That's a good way to move a lot of weight. It's not a good way to train a squat pattern. I'll say that again. It's a good way to move a lot of weight. It's not a good way to train a squat pattern. Squat pattern is where your, your torso is relatively vertical and your knees are going through a lot of flexion. In other words, your knees are bending a ton. Okay. So there's a version of a squat where you can sit back and it looks more like a deadlift than an actual squat. And then if you've ever seen an Olympic weightlifter squat, that's the kind of squat I'm talking about. A lot of young athletes don't have the necessary mobility to squat low with good range of motion. Um, so an easy fix for that, guys: elevate your heels. Put 5 or 10-pound plates underneath your heels, wear Olympic lifting shoes, or if you're at a facility or place that has a squat wedge that can elevate your heels, do that. But you want to squat and squat to train your quads through full range of motion. Um, number 5 is going to be, uh, Probably bench press for the upper body. Um, and, uh, again, like, make— making sure that you're feeling your chest working, moving through a full range of motion. And I could say, and basically all upper body pressing could fall into this category. I like deficit push-ups where you're able to go through full range of motion. Amazing. Um, dumbbell pressing, even machine chest press, as long as you're pressing through a full range of motion. Absolutely. Um, super useful and helpful.

How much do you guys focus on tempo with that, like the eccentric versus concentric and stuff?

God, great question. For all of these strength training movements, the most important two things you can do as an athlete— you're— is controlling the descent, but when it's time to change direction, doing so as fast as possible, as violently as possible. So that's part one. Part two finishing through the concentric, accelerating through it. So you can control the eccentric portion. You don't necessarily want to move slow, but you want to control it so that you're not just relying on your joints and tendons the whole time to move the bar. You do want your muscles involved controlling the bar on the eccentric portion of the lift, but when it's time to go, it's time to go, and you're trying to reverse the other direction. And I always tell— move the bar as fast as possible, particularly in a squat. I'll say, pretend you're jumping. I want you to literally try and jump with the bar. And even if the bar pops off you a little bit because you move it so fast, great. What's going to happen is, is that weight gets heavier. Guess what? That ain't going to happen. The goal is to try and move it fast. It doesn't even necessarily have to move fast, bro, especially if it's heavy. The goal is to try and move it fast. Um, that's how you recruit more motor units, and that's how you're able to translate more power into the bar and then ultimately into the field of play, because you adapt, right? That's right, that's right.

Big facts. I'm a good student, Tim.

You are. Um, okay, I think we're at number 7 now. Are we at number 7? Okay. Um, I actually prefer the RDL for a lower body hinge pattern more than a deadlift from the floor. And the reason why a deadlift from the floor, particularly for high school athletes, um, only trains the concentric portion of the movement, which I actually do use even in my program Cheat Code where I do concentric only trap bar deadlifts. But if we're speaking to mostly high school athletes or athletes that are like just getting into college, you probably need more time doing RDLs where there is an eccentric component because you have a lot of gains left on the table. So RDLs for the hinge movement.

And then do you like single leg or do you typically do double leg?

I love— so actually my favorite hinge variation is a landmine RDL, and I get in a kickstand position, a B-stance.

I've been doing those lately and they suck.

They're so— they suck, but they're so fire. Because you can really— and like, what'll happen is like eventually it's going to get heavy where you need like a wrist wrap or something like that. All to the good, man. I, I— that's my favorite hinge variation. It's not even close. Thank you for saying that. Yeah. Um, number 8 is gonna be Olympic lift variations, uh, particularly the hang and power clean. Um, they're— number 1, they're freaking sweet. They're just fun to do. Okay. Um, and I'm gonna put an asterisk here. I don't think it's apples to apples, but if you can't hang clean or can't power clean, you don't have the mobility, your wrist, whatever, you just don't feel comfortable doing it. We can replace that with loaded jumps. Loaded jumps. So you can hold weights and jump as high as you can. You can do that in a split stance. You can do that in a lunge position. You can do that in a regular like jump squat position. But holding weights and jumping. Fantastic. And then 9 and 10. So here's number 9: training your abs like you do any other muscle group. I love an ab wheel. I love what I call— it's a hip dip. So it's like a side plank, but you're up on a bench and you let yourself dip as low as you can, and then you drive your hips up as high as you can. Those 2 ab movements, if that's all you ever did are so fantastic because they challenge you in extreme ranges of motion and in planes and, and, uh, um, positions that you need to be strong in, in sport, that you're gonna have to resist people in. Um, and then the last one, number 10, calf raises, baby. Calf raises. And I'm gonna sprinkle isometrics in here too, and variations of that. Um, so I've got a 10A and a 10B, but So many young athletes completely neglect training the lower leg, completely neglect it. Your feet, your ankles, and your calves are interacting with the floor more than anything. You can have a really strong squat, but if you have weak lower leg or an inability to create stiffness or something to transfer that force, in other words, into the ground and then therefore back into you, you're leaving so much performance gains on the table. I have all of my high school athletes— middle school, high school, collegiate, and pro— seated calf raise at one point in the week and standing calf raise at another point in the week. Next question. Also, you know, like, um, having strong calves, having strong— because it will strengthen your feet and your calves— having strong feet and calves are essential. Any, you know, performance coach worth his salt knows that. But then the only thing that they'll do to train it is isometrics, which is great, but you want to train those tissues through full ranges of motion with heavy weights because there's a tissue quality aspect. And frankly, like, there's only— there's two ways to train your Achilles tendon, which by the way is really important in performance. You probably could assume isometrically. So insanely heavy, no movement, or heavy through full range of motion. Um, so yeah, seated calf raise, standing calf raise, and then like overcoming isometrics, and you've got your lower leg taken care of, and you're going to be able to more adequately transfer force into the ground and change direction with a stronger lower leg and foot.

That's my topic. I love it. That, that's per— I'm excited to go try some of those actually. It's funny because, um, the, uh, the single leg landmine, um, RDL, I've recently thrown those into my training like regimen. Challenging too because with balance too, it just helps with everything. So that's really fun to do. And I'm not— I mean, I like to call myself an athlete still, but I'm not training for anything. I'm just training for freaking life and to be a— right, be able to beat my 15-month-old when he's 15 years old still in the race. That's kind of the goal. I mean, maybe, 'cause I want him to be fast too. So we'll see on that one. I don't want him to be like, oh gosh, he's just so slow. Anyway. And then the core that you talked about with the hip dips on the— I've recently, recently thrown those in there. Holy crap. Like guys, get rid of sit-ups. Like sit-ups sit-ups, don't do any— like, trash compared to that. But like, what he's talking about— and, and we'll have to— maybe I'll have you— we could collab on a video or something like that. So for sure, um, uh, I would love to throw— to put something together with that. But, um, to go through those 10, like, because athletes, it's like, it doesn't have to be that hard. And you'll notice, like, it's only one upper body movement that you talked about out of the 10, um, because you have a lot of, like— and of course the upper body is important, but if you only have a limited amount of time, like, I loved that we, like, you went through the stack and you went through the foundations that we talked about, and then it's just like the sprinkles on top. So amazing, that was, that was incredible. Thank you for going, going through that because I think that's going to help a lot of kids, especially who might not have access to incredible coaches around them currently. So, um, have a couple more questions and then we'll kind of wrap this thing up, but Sure. Kind of the last question, the last question I have is you've worked with and rubbed shoulders with a lot of like freak of nature athletes, a lot of just talented athletes in general, gifted. What's the common denominator with them that you see?

So is there a common denominator? I wish that I could say there are answers that people like to hear here. Yeah. Like, oh, they're just more dedicated, or they're more focused, or it matters more to them. It's not true. The best athletes, pure athletes that I've worked with in terms of just people who are just able to move better than everyone else, the fact of the matter is, is that they are genetically absolutely— people don't know. You don't understand until you're with one of these people. Micah Parsons. I watched Micah Parsons. Ja'Marr Chase, one of the best athletes I've ever been around. I watched Micah Parsons, who doesn't train that intensely, frankly. Just, I'm not even— that's not even hate. It's just actually, if anything, that's credit to Micah. Beat Micah and beat Ja'Marr Chase in a 5-10-5 drill. Beat him. Ja'Marr Chase. Ja'Marr Chase, people don't know this, state record holder in track and the, and the, and the long jump in the state of Louisiana. Okay. The dude is a freak. Micah Parsons beat him in a 5'10". So there are certain people who are just— they have something the rest of us don't have. They— Ja'Marr Chase was just on a— had an interview the other day. He was like, I'm gonna be honest, I'm gonna eat some Popeyes. I don't really worry about my nutrition. You want to know why? Because he's not like you, bro. He's not like any of us. Bijan Robinson, Ja'Marr Chase, Micah Parsons, Ja Morant, some track athletes. I've worked with Trey Hardy, silver medalist in the decathlon. When you meet these people in person, which most people never get a chance to meet these people in person, you— when you look at them and you see, there's this thing that happens it looks like there's static electricity running through their muscles, through their skin, and you can see it. I'm not even kidding, y'all. These people are different, different. So, um, but the one thing that unites them is that they're athletically gifted, but they also had to work really hard. Like, if you look at Micah's college training videos, That strength coach had him training hard at LSU. What you think they had Ja'Marr Chase doing? He wasn't skipping workouts, bro. I promise you that. You know what I mean? So the, the common denominator that separates like the, the elite to the extra elite, like there are guys, they've just got it like that, but they also had to work to realize that full potential. And they may not have to dial in their nutrition. They might be able to go to Miami for the weekend, party, show up Monday, and still beat you in the race, but they're still showing up and doing the work. Um, so yes, frankly, uh, you know, people don't love this answer, but some people are just different and it is what it is. The rest of us have to train hard, have to show up on time, have to work hard when we get there, and we have to eat well and sleep well, you know, because unless you think you're as talented as Micah Parsons, if you're not doing those things You're not gonna make it.

And the sad thing is you still might get beat by them.

No, big facts.

Big facts. Yeah, like it, it, it's, it's, I guess it's just something you have to accept of like, I'm that for the love of the game in, in a way of like exceeding your potential, you versus you. Yes. Like, uh-huh. Which a lot of kids like look and say, well, that's not fair. I'm like, life isn't fair. I guess God just sprinkled a little bit more athletic ability in them. And it's just like, sorry, dude. You have to do these things if you want to even play in the ballpark that they're in. So, um, I love that answer. I love that you didn't— I mean, because it's true.

What everyone wants to hear, the, oh yeah, it's because they grinded and it meant more to them. And they—

no. Yeah.

Hell no. That ain't true. It means a lot. But there, there are, there are going to be some high school and college kids listening to this podcast. It means more to them than some of those guys. Swear to God, that's the facts. But until you can swallow that pill and be honest with yourself, you're not that guy, pal. You're not that guy. So you better work harder than those other guys. You have to. It's your only way, man.

Dude, this has been such a fun conversation. Thank you so much for coming on.

Um, thank you for having me.

I've kept you over the time that I said I was going to keep you. I like to keep these under 60 minutes for the, the fact of like the most of the kids like it being under 60 minutes because they—

yes, yeah.

Um, but thank you so much. So I, I wanted to just ask you one last thing. Where— if kid— I'm sure a lot of kids are hearing this. They've talked, um, you've talked about that you have an online program and stuff. Where can people find you? Where can they find your program? Just kind of let you— I'm gonna give yourself a shout out here.

So, okay, thank you. Uh, yeah, so, uh, my You can find me @timrileytraining on Instagram, and I'll tag him, guys. Um, I do have an online program called Cheat Code. This program is the same program and principles that I use with all of my high school, collegiate, and pro athletes. Um, it's really easy for me to talk about, and it was easy for me to make the program because I didn't have to make it because I already do it. So you'll see the content on my page The things that you see me doing with my athletes, my pros, my high school and collegiate athletes, they're all doing different versions or types of Cheat Code. And you can buy Cheat Code if you want to train like a pro and get results. It also will encourage you to prioritize your nutrition. And there is a big section of that program dedicated to talking about that. So, yeah, you know, maybe you can listen to Kelsey for nutrition and then come train with me. For the performance side, and you can't lose. Can't lose with that.

No, not at all. Appreciate you. I actually, I want to try out this cheat code. That sounds fun.

I would love that.

Let's do it. I want to try this thing out. Okay, guys, thank you so much, Tim. Appreciate you being on. This has been amazing. I hope that you listeners have been able to— there's been some gold dropped here. So If you don't have a page full of notes, you better rewind and relisten because you should. Okay, thanks so much, Tim.

You're welcome. Thank you.