Narrator: 0:10

Welcome to the Athletes in Motion podcast from Race to Recovery. With your hosts, Tom Regal, and Kenny Bailey.

Tom Regal: 0:28

Hey Kenny, how are you doing today?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:30

I'm doing fantastic, Tom, How are you?

Tom Regal: 0:31

I'm fantastic as well. I'd like to welcome Stacey Daniels to the show today. Thank you for coming on, Stacey super excited. owner and founder of SD performance. We're going to talk about coaching. But coaching youth athletes. Yeah. And this is going to be interesting, because it's a topic we really haven't covered much. And we want to dive into that a bit. Because we think there's a lot to this, especially this time of year, as we get into summer. This is right towards this week, coming up in a couple of weeks. But this is all good. So, Stacy, tell us about yourself. How'd you get into coaching? What's your background? Give us give us a little background? Yeah,

Stacey Daniels: 1:06

perfect. Well, thank you guys, for having me. I appreciate it just as a great opportunity to kind of be open and talk and hang out for a little bit. But uh, my background is very lengthy. First of all, I grew up playing sports, love playing sports. As a kid that was kind of my thing. My family really revolved around sports. So if you can picture any any summer picnic, any hanging out was all the things and I would say it was a little too competitive. In a lot of instances, just a little bit. Yeah, I do. I'm the middle. So I have two brothers. I have one older one younger. I'm the middle child, we are two years apart. Okay. So a lot of things went on.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:45

So you get your butt kicked, and you kick butt on the same

Stacey Daniels: 1:49

call competitive baiting in our household, and a lot of instruction, with some louder voices by our moms and dads, so put us in place and keep us in place, which was nice. But anything from ping pong, we grew up on to soccer basketball in the backyard. We lived in the cul de sac. So I think it made it a little more competitive with all neighbors and hanging out and just doing things. We were just that active family that was was always on the go. And it's very different in today's culture where I think kids aren't as active. They're doing different things to noodle. He's stuck behind like a phone or an iPod or something. But we were always out on the streets kind of hanging out just playing something, you know, there's a hole outside and play, get outside and play. Yeah, which is great.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:31

So you didn't schedule playdates with your friends. You just sort of went and hung out with your friends.

Stacey Daniels: 2:35

It was one of those back in the day where you go and knock on their door and say, Hey, you want to come out and hang out? Like yeah, they're like, yeah, come on, let's go.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:42

Yeah, our playdates were like basically who whoever's mom bought groceries that day. So we hung out all the goods. And when we got to redoes Yeah.

Tom Regal: 2:51

Stacy here can you play?

Stacey Daniels: 2:53

Yeah, it was it was never byo s it was never bring your own snacks, go to their house and just eat their snacks. You say thank you leave and then maybe come back the next day if they have you back. So it's kind of one of those. But yeah, I loved love sports growing up. My big sport. I ended up playing soccer in college. I had to give up some other sports or basketball was my second favorite love basketball. But to that degree, I had to make sure that I was focusing on one and I was training well and being ready and at my optimum at my best. So I did soccer in college. I was in Springfield College and Massachusetts, grew up north in the cold weather. So it was like Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, got done with collegiate soccer. And within that was my major. So I majored in applied exercise science. So if you take all the sports, you break down those sports and then you look at the origins of the backbones of it, like your anatomy, your physiology, your biomechanics, that is applied exercise science to a key, that's how do you look at sports? And how do you break that down? How is it applied to the human body? And how can you increase performance in that set? So got domestically to soccer had my major and I was like, man, what do I do? What do I do now? You know, and I was really blessed with the opportunity of training under Mike Boyle. I did an internship with him so he is a He's like one of the Guru's of functional functional movement, functional movement functional trading. So his book Yes, exactly. Yeah, it's it's probably a little bit of old school book right like he's still very relevant in today's time. But back then he was like the thing that thing and he worked with the Boston Bruins at that point in time. So I did an internship with him and really just got into it and just got my feet my feet wet, like my whole body just soaked with what is the idea of performance? What does that look like? How should ask athletes to be training? But more importantly, does age matter in athletes? So I got done with him did a quick internship and I was out and I was like, Alright, here we go. You know what's, what's the next step again, and I ended up going down to Florida today Academy called IMG Academy. Oh yeah, Florida. Absolutely. I spent a small stint down there for 11 years which was absolutely incredible. That was like that was everything that was me just going full on in eyes and ears to every single sport that was happening down there. So I was able to really get my, my perspective, really fine tuned about what, what and how do athletes train? But more importantly, is there a difference between how athletes train and then how professional athletes train, which there's a there's a big kind of breaking that point on that campus. There was professional athletes, so I worked with NFL athletes, NBA Draft prep, Major League, soccer athletes, professional golf athletes. We were having a quick conversation before about pickleball and we started talking about tennis, and you mentioned Yvonne Lendl. So I grew up watching Eamon Lindell and Boris Becker and Pete Sampras and inner Kournikova and the Williams sisters all that well, even lentils daughter was down there. So I was like, alright, well, let me let me go watch her play tennis. So I looked around the courts and tried to find her and could not find her. She did not play tennis. She played golf. So I was like, Oh, that's a little switch. So I'm thinking now in my brain, Yvonne Lendl is a very serious dude. Like, yeah, very disciplined, very dedicated. Yeah. And I was like, Man, how did he not convince his daughter? To do tennis? Yeah, sometimes you just have to let their kids go their own direction, not forced them? Because that just that might be their thing? Yeah. So yes, you end up playing golf, she was a great golfer in that aspect. And just spending time with multiple athletes down there, I started to understand that professional athletes had this huge desire and dedication to their craft. And they're a very small percentage, like 2.5% of millions of athletes down there that get into that field, and their dedication to their craft was so big, it made them what they are. So now these, these younger athletes are in the same exact space. And I was like, Well, what are some of the commonalities between a professional and a younger athlete and it's, they have to develop early, and they have to develop well, and they have to develop consistently. So for me, when I grew up, I did something I think that was outside the gate of sports is I really didn't early specialize in sports. So when you early, specialized in sports, you really focus on one sport. If you can focus on one sport, today, that means that you may have a chance to be the best athletes. However, that's not really what research shows, research shows that when you early specialize, you almost burn out a little bit, you get too invested in that sport, you really don't have any clinical cross training. Your body isn't aware of other sport personalities, it doesn't understand if I'm a soccer player, I don't really understand how to rotate my upper body, how to integrate my spine, what happens in how I'm stabilizing my scapula, all these different things. So I played every single sport. So now I'm able to play a whole different sport, I went from basketball to soccer, and now I'm able to play pickleball because at a young age, I really understood everything that my body was capable of doing. Nowadays, with kids, they're just focusing on one sport, and they're going super heavy. And then there's that decision they have to make when it comes to high school after playing 10 to 12 years of sport, do they want to move forward? Because they're talented enough, or they have the motivation? And that's a hard choice. Yeah, right. For me, it was I'm moving forward because I'm ready. And I love it. And I enjoy it. But kids because they played it for so many years, they have to decide, do they want to move forward with because they're burnt out, or they want to take a chance and really see what happens in that respect. So I got through img and I was like, Alright, here's my next step again, you know, after 11 years, and just spending time with some really incredible athletes. My sport was soccer. So down there, my highlight was working with the under 70 national team. So those are called the best athletes, best soccer athletes in the world at their age, but they start super young. So again, looking at development, they started at the age of 14, there was one that started at the age of 12. So if you think about it, if the best soccer players in the nation are coming together to train in a two year program, and they're 1415 years old, but now there's a kid that comes in that's 12 years old, and he's ready enough to be able to train with these kids. So his name was ready to do I know if you guys are aware, yeah, small, small, little lefty very quick, very fast out of Philadelphia, and he stayed there for two years. And then after two years, he went pro 14 which is like unheard of. Yeah. And he made a lot of money, millions and millions of dollars. So this 14 year old making all this money, and just being exposed again to that concept of what what does it take to be a younger athlete and move into the professional world. It takes a lot. It takes a lot and it takes a big support group or support group behind you And the right people in the right spaces of how do I perform well, what does that include? Well includes recovery. It includes nutrition, it includes mental specialists to really just break down situations and, and help you be able to problem solve in those areas. So I started to understand that it was more than development, but it was like a team of things around you, right? So it's like a tree. But there's all these fruit on the tree and its branches. And these branches are gonna support the roots of that person in between. So I've got them with IMG and then decide to come down here to Tennessee. And when I came down here, it was very different. It wasn't a place that I necessarily want it to be. But it was, it was an opportunity that God kind of opened up those doors for me and I was like, Alright, let me try Tennessee and came down here. Absolutely loved it. And that's when I was able to start my brain st performance while and be in a really cool space of now. Bring that mentality of professional athletes bringing the mentality of a developing young athlete, and how do those two come together? And yes, I've had the opportunity to be able to train more pros while I was down here. For the first two years of soccer with USL I was a sports performance coach for Nashville, SC now they're in the MLS, they do some really cool things, which is great. So again, I was able to apply my knowledge in that space. But really, my my heart was after kids and young athletes, and my brain is really developing around preteens. So what type of training does it take for a preteen? How is that different than a middle school athlete than a high school athlete than a collegiate athlete? And now I have all my systems together and how I can train those athletes really, really well, at a high level as if they were pros, but do it developmentally Correct?

Tom Regal: 11:38

Yeah. Wow. Okay, so I told you why. I'm soaking in all the information.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:44

I've got like 50 questions already kind of popping out. Right. So I think to start out with so because you've had that exposure between pro players, collegiate players, and just and just like you said, you grew up in a cul de sac, you guys were doing everything. I mean, Patrick mahomes is rob a great example. Right? He's playing baseball, he's making a ton of money doing football, incredibly talented. But you know, he's sidearm in the football like baseball, right? Because he learned how to do that. As kids because of the pressure that what you just said, you know, you see a 14 year old making money. And there's pressure to you know, that, Adam, you know, my son was doing baseball, nice. He was getting pretty good at it. And then all of a sudden, it's winter league. And all of a sudden it's you know, pitching coaches and batting coaches and all that with the pressure to be that good that fast, right? Because you your competition is a 14 year old, it used to be a 17 year old now there are 14 that are coming in, how do you balance? Or how do you try to get those kids to try to do multiple sports, when it appears as if you've don't, if you don't start focusing on one you may get left behind? Or is that a misnomer that you're gonna get left behind?

Stacey Daniels: 12:51

Yeah, it's definitely a misnomer, you're gonna get left behind. There's so much research out there. So we have to be able to bring athletes into a space of proper education. I think that's our biggest point, when we're in this performance field. And this industry, the biggest thing that I think there's left out is what is the significance of the performance field. So really, if you look at any athlete, if any athlete in this age wants to survive, they have to do something outside of their sport, from a performance standpoint, working out understanding their body flexibility, mobility, speed, strength, agility, how to recover, how to eat, like, all those things are going to come together, because the athlete nowadays is moving way too fast. They're doing all these particulars. So I guess the misnomer is if you don't do anything performance nowadays, then you get left behind. Yeah, but it's not that you've grown up to be a younger athlete. Now you've excelled, but now you're at 17. You're not necessarily gonna get left behind because those components are off. But it's the education piece, which is huge. For any young athlete, I would love to start an athlete at the age of eight or nine, I think that's a sweet spot. And that's where we fall behind I think United States is that our American culture is so based on GO GO GO GO GO competitive, competitive, let me put my athlete in a microwave, and they should be pro at 10 years old. Yeah, that is not true at all. But it's kind of start them to eight or nine, because there's these windows of opportunity for every single athlete of multiple age groups, that if we don't touch on those characteristics, and this is like Canadian research, so it's called long term athletic development, or L TED is that every single age based on the the centimeters that they're growing, or the weight that they're growing, or the limb length that's being sent out for them, you have to focus on particular components. So for a young individual, that's eight or nine, you want to start to focus on coordination and balance. When they get through. They're eight or nine or 10. And they're ready now you start to focus on speed. Got it when they get to 1011 and 12. Now you start to focus on a little bit of integrative strength. Can you strengthen muscles can you put them to good postures Could you put them in good forms, when they get a little bit older than this? Now you pull them into the whole paradigm they have all their bases down. Now let's include Do some strength, let's do power development, let's do endurance, let's do fitness. So all those pockets have to fit in. But if we're missing those pockets, because they're focusing on their sport, and they're not getting it, and now you see in about four to five years, so they're eight, they get to 12 or 13. Now they go through these huge growth spurts, their body can withstand the impact. So now you're seeing these injuries chronic over time, that are going to be hamstring strains, ankles, knees, low backs, spinal injuries, all these things that I think for us as, as young athletes, we never had no, right. So why is it now that these young athletes that are 1011 12 and 13, experiencing these big injuries, because the idea is competition, competition drives volume, competition drives intensity? Yep, competition also drives emotional drain. And so when emotional drain happens, stress happens. Yeah, right. So again, when we come back to recovery, our ability to recover is going to decrease stress, it's going to manipulate different hormonal sets. And it's going to put us in the best position to perform well at a higher level. So there's so many different components in it. But as long as you start athlete younger nowadays, and put them in the performance industry, I've seen a ton of success with my athletes in that period of time. So

Tom Regal: 16:15

let me just gonna say, because it's almost like you're, you're over developing one part and not the whole thing. So if you build a foundation, and you're slightly off, you're an inch off on one side, the other as soon as you start building up, all of a sudden, it's cricket, it's off. And if it's cricket, it's off, and it's not going to work. And the other thing, just lost my thought it was so many things going on at once is, is probably you're developing a more rounded athlete mentally and we're we're it's almost like we're thinking more short term, I want my my child to to have success quickly as a 10 or 11 or 12 year old, not thinking about how they're going to perform when they're 20. Right, not thinking about that they're thinking that success early equates success later, when actually it doesn't, it actually could be very detrimental. Yeah, to that type of saying, well,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 17:05

the classic to me, always the biggest question because I know it when my kids were, like, cross country, there was my oldest one was really getting good at Cross Country. Same thing he was doing track in the you know, in the spring cross country in the fall, it was constantly running one thing about running you run year round, right? He got to his senior year. And he's like, Look, I can't do this anymore. I just I need a break. Right? I don't I don't. Every Saturday at six o'clock, I'm you know, I'm at a meet or I'm doing, you know, I want to be able to have a Saturday where I don't have to do anything. And so I guess you mentioned there's like sort of that point to 5% that has that drive? How much does How is a parent like how do i should i At that moment say hey, you need to push through and I know you're feeling tired now. To me, there's a How much is it? The parent pushing that person to make sure they get that drive versus the child intrinsically wanting to do that. And when you see that parent doing and that child is getting burned out? What's that red flag look like? I mean, how do you how do you address that?

Stacey Daniels: 18:09

I guess? Yeah. So that that's that's one that I see a ton when it comes to parents, I wouldn't. Yeah.

Tom Regal: 18:15

And you got to educate the parents more than you have to educate your

Kenny Bailey<br>: 18:18

Do you want scholarships on the line? Right? Yeah,

Stacey Daniels: 18:20

well, and they're forcing that because they want them to be obviously the best individual athlete that they can be. However, they need another set of eyes. I think we're the other set of eyes to be able to evaluate assessor a kid. A lot of times their parents gave me this full story. him an athlete has done this, this and this and this. They've competed in these areas, they found a lot of success. However, they're not meeting the standards of the team, and they're not getting enough playing time, you know, what does that look like? So I have to go back and address and try to understand really the parent first and I have to understand what was their sport history? What did they do? What did they enjoy? Because if their sport didn't match up to their child sport, and the expectations are way different, yeah, if their child is doing baseball, or soccer, but the parent has played football, those traditional values are going to bang heads, because it's no longer about, hey, I need to drive drive, drive, push through, push through, it's I have to reset, take a step back, assess the situation, make sure that maybe the athlete isn't doing a couple different things. Is the athlete being challenged too much? Or is the skill level not there? Or is the competition too high at their level? Yeah, those three have to kind of ping off of each other. If the competition's too high, and they're not that skill level frustration sets in. So maybe now their kid isn't pushing the way they need to. Because they're just not at that level. But the parent is like, Hey, I've been there. I pushed through it. I'm in football. I'm in basketball, like this is what I did as a young as a young kid. Culture is very different now. Okay, right. We understand that athletes move and sway in different directions. So I always go back to the parent. I had that conversation with the parent. Hey, listen, let's let's take some time. Let's step back. We're gonna have to be really patient with this athlete with the athletes 10, 11 or 12, I have to give them a longer perspective view of, hey, we still have five or six years left, this is where we're gonna get them at their peak, we're gonna get them at their peak in two to three years, I promise you if we follow these steps, so it's gonna take a trusting of the process is gonna take a trusting of the communication and relationship that we have. And if any of those points kind of break up in between, then that's where the athlete dwindles, if the athlete stays in line and understands the mapping that they can do really well, yeah, they see a very, very bright future.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 20:35

Yeah. And I think, to your point, that tension happens when to even, you know, five years ago, it used to be pushed through six, seven days a week, right, you know, no pain, no gain, kind of, now, we're trying to figure out that that's just not the case. Right. And even in the same sport, right, it used to be, you know, just concussion protocol alive, right? So the dad may have gone to football and it just had a you know, I had a stinger. And that's all it was. Yeah, the kids 1314 years old gets gets his bell rung. You know, that's, that's long term effect. So that becomes interesting. When you're talking, it reminds me I think I saw it, I think it's Norway. And don't correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they were trying to figure out why they're producing more Olympic skiers. And what they do is there's no competition until they're 13 or 14 years old. At all, they just go ski, they go have fun, because they said at 12 years old, the they may not be a slalom or a downhill skier, that, that they'll develop what they're going to develop when they're when they're older. So they don't even do competition. They're not allowed to what their

Tom Regal: 21:40

what their what they enjoy, and what they physically are capable of kind of kind of just blossoms and then they go Oh, wow, you'd be a perfect mogul skier. Yeah, or, you know, you'd be perfect for this.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:50

Yeah. I mean, have you had to have those tough love conversations with some of these guys? And what's that, like, I mean, with, with the child or with, I always, maybe I'm having a bad day. I know, I'm probably applying a bad assumption to this. And I apologize, but I feel like sometimes just because of the pressure of and especially, like SEC is, you know, get your kid into college. And, you know, make sure they get that scholarship and all that. And the parents want to be proud of them. And you know, this is what I did when I was you know, I played Yeah, and the kids may simply not like it to your point, like, Hey, I, my dad's a one of the world's greatest tennis players, I don't like tennis, but it's like, oh, how do you break that to him? Or do you have to break that to him when you do? Is it? It's, anyway? That's

Stacey Daniels: 22:30

Yes, I do. And I've had a lot of those conversations. And the exact phrase that you said is tough love. Love is something that we really don't truly understand. But we have to be able to apply in situations and decoding that comes back to communication. So there's been a lot of points where so I'm really good with with seeing by language of athletes, because I've seen it at so many different levels of seeing with a young athlete that comes in that wants it from a middle school developmental athlete that is just really hungry. To a pro athlete that doesn't want it. You know, yeah, it exists everywhere, right? And it's, it's what box, you tried to fit yourself in a u square, in a circle, triangle in a in a square, like, what do you look like? So I really try to understand by language and the first initial visits, I tried to be open to how the athletes kind of moving in that space. I think we always have a cut and direct plan and a template, any coach of what you want to do, but that needs to be moldable. Because an athlete might not strive in places where you think and maybe you're pushing them too hard at a pace, maybe you have to slow them down and take a step back. So understanding that by language, and then as soon as I see it, something's off. I'm having a conversation to try to figure out what the athlete what's going on? Yeah. Do Do they have a bad day of school, right? Because that may affect everything that comes in the door, they might not be able to, to filter stress, surely really well. And that might just be the component. After many times in sessions, and depending how the season is going, they may lose their competitive edge. Yeah, right. And that's where the conversation now shifts from the athlete to the parent. And it's, Hey, this is what I'm seeing. This is my assessment. I want to hear your perspective on what you see in your athlete. Because if that perspective is the same, then hey, we're there. If not, and they're saying oh, they're fine, they're good. Let's push through it. That's when that tough love and honest conversation comes in. And I think that relationship with the parent is even more important than the athlete because if they're young athlete, everything that parent does at home is going to dictate how that athlete is going to perform in the future, all the way from conversations that they're going to have in the car before they even go to conversation after to, hey, what why don't you play well enough, you know, or that conversation needs to be, Hey, I saw there were some things you didn't do well out there, right? It's just the lines of communication. You have to be open between the parent and the athlete. And if that drive isn't there, then they have to be open to their kid moving into a different space. Yeah. But I've also seen that tough love happen. The athlete doesn't want to play that sport, but Then it's it's not necessarily their drive is off, it's, they're going through maturity, development maturation, hormones are different. They're trying to fit into different friends, circles, schools change, like all these different factors come into play. But as a coach, if I don't identify those things, I can create a solution to them. So it's really identifying the big problem, what is that problem and then rewriting the conversation from the kid directly to the parent and then bringing them back together and almost having like a sit down, yeah, like this, and what's going on, this is how you create a solution, and kind of let them talk through it, and then just manage the solution from there. And like I said, I've seen kids not want to play a sport, one year ago, through a change of school, change, friend groups, come back, and then bless them in their sport, they just needed a period of time to just heal a little bit, relax, recover, and then get back to what they love doing.

Tom Regal: 25:50

They don't know how to process that stress. And we constantly talk about the body doesn't know the difference between physical stress and mental stress, right, it's just stress that's thrown on the body. So what you, these kids don't know how to process the amount of information and garbage that's been thrown at them on a regular basis. So it's important for the parents and the coaches to guide them through how they process that and being able to I think that's amazing that you can read the athlete enough to know that we can steer in certain ways and just gentle this way, or just decide and allow them to kind of process it through in a in a situation that won't burn them out or mess them up. Yeah. That's amazing. I think that's a special talent.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 26:31

teachers and coaches and trainers, anybody that's dealing with middle school kids, bless you, yeah, I don't know how, you know, I know I was a jerk in middle school, but I just said just because you're going through hormonal changes your your,

Tom Regal: 26:42

There's so much going on, and you have no idea what it is as, as the kid you don't know what you're going through, you know, so to have the team around you that can actually kind of identify it, or at least see it when it's off to kind of help guide you to to process that, as

Kenny Bailey<br>: 27:01

you mentioned, you'd like to see these guys a little bit earlier, right? If you do get somebody that is like 1415 years old, and they're sort of the muscle memory is already there on maybe a form or a habit that they probably shouldn't have. I'm assuming that's a little bit more difficult to break that down and kind of restructure that. Would that be a fair?

Stacey Daniels: 27:17

Yes. Yeah, most definitely. At that point, they're at a little biomechanical advantage. Yeah. Meaning, I always explain it to them from a smartphone standpoint, that we have a battery on our smartphone, when we recover. When we charge that battery, it comes up to 100% every single time, as I see them, and they're moving, and their body is doing different things. I'm able to give them like a percentage of an idea. Hey, listen, you're moving well, you're really competitive in your sport, you're successful. But listen, how much better can you be if we can fix these certain by biomechanical deficiencies? Your body is at 70%? Yeah, you have a 30% window to be better. What does that look like? Yeah, so for them, it's a biomechanical assessment. I'm breaking down what's going on, hey, listen, that your knees are moving this way your toes are moving this way. From that point, I sit them down really quickly, this is the problem that we can fix, I need you to trigger point release this muscle, I need you to stretch this muscle, I need you to strengthen this muscle. But here's how we fix it. It's going to be on you, you got to be accountable. I'm giving you the mapping, I'm giving you the recipe. Now you have to make sure that you do these things at home on your own. And that is the pro mentality and the pro concept. The best pros I know that have been successful over the years, they have a routine. And they do this routine every single day, not before a game, but they do it before every single training and practice. Every single fundamentals it is a daily, it's a wake up, walk in and do it, they have a band, they do this stretch, they do this exercise. And they're doing that on an everyday basis to be able to keep their bike together and keep it solidified. So for that athlete, now it's the take away from him really fast, I'm really strong, I need better symmetry. And as soon as we can fix that symmetry, everything heightens really quickly. Is there.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 28:58

So 10 years ago, you were doing this, versus today saying you know, we were talking about how like, you know CTE and and other injuries are coming up. Is there something that you had to sort of re educate yourself on over the last 10 years about just how the approach to kids and students? Are there is a is there a movement that that like, Hey, before we used to do this, and now we don't do that? Is there something that you had to sort of learn and understand?

Stacey Daniels: 29:24

Yeah, I would say the the patient's piece, most definitely. Okay, we talked about being competitive and moving forward. Based on the environment that was in it was at that time, the American that the United States was was kind of behind on sports a little bit to a degree, we weren't as polished we weren't as knowledgeable as we needed to. So it was more about GO GO GO GO GO being a brute force, brute brute force. Now let's come back to more more science and more technology, more research, and we have so many things available to us. So I think it's more of not just focusing on one area but really hitting all the areas and In that holistic approach of Listen, nutrition is really that important. Yeah, like and you have to start it as at a young athlete, recovery, an idea of what you're doing on a daily basis and understanding how much energy you have is so important. Water is so important, touching on these little exercises, as I'm seeing these athletes progress out and get into their early 10s and elevens. It's, it's really interesting to see how much they do, how many sports they do, the stress they take as a young kid at school, but how how their body is breaking down? Yeah, and if it's one thing that I've learned the most is, the young athletes still have to be able to focus on the little things, they still have to have like a routine. Yeah. And any parent back in the day would be like, Oh, it's alright, my athlete doesn't need that, you know, we're just gonna do this, this and this. But nowadays, it's, well, I've seen a trend in young athletes becoming injured and breaking down in certain places. So we need to make sure that we're literally happening on a on a foam roll for five minutes, you know, in the morning, hitting these particular areas, just make sure the bike is functioning correctly. Because sure, I think the tie in is with young athletes, because they have so many different variables in their life they have at home, they have school, they have sports, they have friend group, they have competition, they still need to be their best in all those senses of the word, but one that kind of sticks out for me, I think a lot of people neglect is school. So if their bike is not performing well on the field, they're probably not performing as well in school as well. So even just to get up in the morning and open up your body become awake and have your body start to communicate and be in tune. Those habits that have been created on creating better body symmetry is going to flow into their school, which means now better habits of hydration will flow into school and eating patterns. And now all these things start to come together to create a more holistic athlete. So the puzzle is being put together at a younger age. Whereas before it was about, hey, let's work hard in the one area of performance, which is physical performance, let's not really truly highlight all the other points, let's like lightly mention them, and how you can take it on your own. I'm really seeing the trend of if you want to be a great athlete, you have to focus on the whole approach.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 32:16

And I think the mental thing, what's what we see here is what we see, like, you know, volleyball players going through three, four weeks in a row of tournament weekend's right, they're just hitting it, hitting it hitting it. And I think with with what happens at the Olympics, and what's happening in tennis, you know, when you're seeing these, these, these young women, you know, Simone having to just say, Oh, look, I need a mental break. It seems like that we're just now hitting on the mental aspect of it more seriously, because it seems like at least what I see is, those breaks are occurring because of injury, because a physical injury is oh, well, you know, you know, Susie's got, you know, her ankles hurting. So she has to borrow the tournament, we really don't want to do that. I never at any point, have I heard a parent or a child yet say, You know what, I'm just burned down. I don't want to go. Because I just feel like there's just a lot of pressure. Like you said, I got exams coming up, I've got it or friend group pressure or you know, broke up with a boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever, right? It's just, you know, life is too stressful right now, right? Is that something that you see as a riser? How are you handling that sort of aspect? Is that something that you have to incorporate more? So on the mental aspect, I'm assuming you're also you're not just a coach or a therapist, you play a lot of therapists?

Stacey Daniels: 33:32

Yeah, most definitely. Mental health has been a topic that is really surfaced to a high degree. And like you said, our idea of being successful back in the day was really competing at a high level, but kind of pushing through it, if I want to be able to be the best, I need to be able to break through that brick wall. That was because I think there was less of a of a skill set. Nowadays, it's more of a skill set. But the idea of how much they need to do is still there. So it's like, it's that idea of you. You're working at a big corporation and you're working from nine to five, you have all these hours, what do you actually need to get accomplished in nine to five, you'll get a good amount accomplished. But there's these breaks that are in between. Now you go into a private sector, let's say you own your own business, and you're on your own. Now you have a shortened day, you have three hours, how much are you going to get done in those three hours. If you're someone that's fully capable and very clever and brilliant in your craft, you can get almost more done in those three hours than someone who is sitting at a corporate job from a long standing period of time because of those breaks. The the quality of your work in a shorter period of time is better. I think that's where we are now in this culture with sport, not that I'm dedicating less time to my craft, but it spread out in a way where I'm hitting two hours here. I'm doing a really good job. But it's it's thought out. It's not ramming through a wall but let me focus on one day let me focus on the periodization of a technical quality, limited focus on these components. Let me find two Hear on another day, let me focus on another technical quality. I think before we were always hitting everything every single day. Now it's let me find tonight understand their skill set, I've done a good job of assessing who they are as an athlete. Now let's make them better. Because the thing that sports performance coaches don't do well or coaches don't identify is, if an athlete is really good. They're always focused on what are they not doing really well, what do they need improvement in? I think we miss what do they do really well? How can we add to that? How can we fine tune that quality? So from a mental health standpoint, I think that it's it's surfaced so big because you have these super talented athletes that are being pushed at this high level, and they're saying, we don't really need to be pushed at that level, we're still doing a really good job. And so from a coach's standpoint, it's almost like, if you have an individual for a certain amount of time, you want to squeeze the most out of them. Yeah, I think we're squeezing in the wrong places. As we squeeze in the wrong places, we're squeezing and we're pushing, and we're putting pressure on them. When we put pressure on them, they don't perform well. And when they don't perform well, then that means that their body is breaking down, when they body breaks down, then that makes them more susceptible to injury when they're susceptible to injury. And they're still asked to push through confidence drops, and when confidence drops performances over. Yeah. So again, it's really not about the the injury of the athlete, it's about the lack of confidence that have has been inserted in their body. And nowadays, you look at any high professional sport, it's all about moments. If you cannot step into that moment, then that means that you've not succeeded that moment. If you don't succeed in that moment, then you're not seen as being successful. And so

Kenny Bailey<br>: 36:37

that's interesting. Yeah. And I think what Simone did, and she broke this, I mean, to me the most fascinating thing, it's like, you know, she's on a balance beam, right? And she's like, I lost confidence that I can hit that. And it's like, and folks are like, Oh, she just needs to push through. She could literally, like break her neck. If she if she she doesn't nail it. And if she doesn't have the confidence, it was all about confidence, right? It's like, I just I'm too burned out. I lost that I lost that confidence to be able to hit that. Yeah. And it's like, give her a break. It's like, how many medals do you need to win? Is it 15? Before you get a break? Yeah. And it's like, is it 20? I mean, at what point? And I think it's kind of interesting. And I'm glad to see that you guys are looking at some of that mental aspect. And you're and you're kind of looking at how do we get more efficient in a short amount of time? So it's not just volume. So bodybuilders are right, by the way, sorry. Yeah. Yeah, they're just focused on leg day, on arm day. So yeah, so the bodybuilders?

Tom Regal: 37:30

Does, maybe we could do this at 78. And we've known this Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 37:33

forever, exactly. Like bodybuilders,

Stacey Daniels: 37:36

whatnot. One small concept that I think has has arisen a ton, especially within my brand is, yes, you want to be able to be productive and push. But if you're, if you're not up to it, and you can perform that day, I think it's still important for you to be able to show up, but the coach needs to be aware of that and include active recovery. So active recovery is still your ability to be able to keep a consistent pattern, I'm still showing up on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, yep. But if your body is broken down, and and you're not your best, you're still going to come in, you're going to train Monday and Friday. But let's break it up in between on Wednesday, and let's do an active recovery day. That's where we're focusing more on the mobility, the stretching, we're changing mentality, we're having fun, you know, we're laughing, we're trying to change their idea of what they think working out is, but we're still attending to all their needs at the same point. So parents love their kids to go, go, go, go go. But then when when I kind of educate them on active recovery, it's, it's a split, it's a some parents can be like, Yeah, that sounds great. Let me kid come in. And let me make sure that take care of his mobility needs. And all the other parents are like, I don't really need to work on you know, mobility planning,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 38:42

I'm paying you to put her on a foam roller, she can do that at home. Exactly, not the point that she needs to show because that that's consistent, right?

Stacey Daniels: 38:49

Most athletes, it's funny. And it's also a mapping for me to show the athlete and the parents what they should be going through on their own. Yeah. So that over a week, over a month, they're still they're still creating improvement on their own, which is great.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 39:01

So let's talk a little bit about sort of, as a parent, when you're, you think you want to make that step, right. You're like, Hey, I think I want to hire a performance coach, I think I want to I think, you know, I think Becky's at a point where she needs a little bit of help. What? You're clearly at the top of your game, what What should parents look for? What should parents other good things? What are the red flags that parents should be looking out for when they start when they start to look at a coach?

Stacey Daniels: 39:30

Yeah. So I think I think a great analogy is if if you just had a couple kids or you have a couple of kids in your family, and you're someone that is at work all day long, what would you do to make sure that your kids were taking care of you would get a nanny, you'd get someone that would come in and take care of your kids and that's a pretty big process. That's someone coming into your house, looking after your kids spending time in your personal space, and making sure that things were well put together and that They were someone who was a mentor that's disciplining him in the right way. Within that whole entire process, I think that getting involved with a sports performance coach is that same exact interview type process? Yeah, you have to, I think it's on the super important because you're really putting someone in this person's life, that's going to be a mentor to them, that's going to teach them about life, that's going to improve them as an athlete and an individual. And I think all those are super, super important. So when I would say, the biggest one is, I think word of mouth is really heavy. I think that you need to consult with the people that are closest to you, the athletes you've been training with the teammates you've been training with, and try to understand, hey, what what are you guys doing Is there anyone you're spending time with, and that's one, two, back in the day used to be, hey, I'm just gonna find any sports performance coach that's closest to me in a local area with them, because it's convenient, it's convenient, I don't think it's about being convenient anymore. Kids will drive 90 minutes to two hours to go to a sports skill practice, they should also be able to do that from a sports performance practice. So all that's super important. Third, I would say something that's kind of blossomed over the last five years is social media. And if if you're someone that's rising in your field, you more than likely have a social media platform. If you have a social media platform, and you're in a rising space, you're more than likely putting a ton of details into that. So for me, for example, within my social media space, I have everything I'm doing on a daily basis, I'm posting stories as to what are athletes actually going through. And then I have smaller tabs that break down developmental groups, I have a tab that says, here's what it looks like, if you're training as a middle school athlete, here's what you're trading as a high school athlete. So I think that gives a really great into a interview process that they're seeing it visually, parents have to see it, if you're not going to see it on social media, find out where that person is working, go introduce yourself to that person sit back and watch a session that they're doing with their kids. I think that'll give you a great idea. On the other side, and when you're looking at red flags, you have to understand what is the objective or intent or the speciality of that individual, what is their trading history, what sports they grew up playing? What athlete is their target audience that they work with. So if someone is working with adults, and they're local, and they're close to you, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are training in a well, and enlightening space for sports performance athletes, I think that's a totally different time. So if your individual even more so as a middle school athlete, and this individual was training collegiate athletes, it you're getting warmer. You're you're not a little bit developmental, sir. Yeah, developmental gap is still huge college athletes doing way different things than any middle school high school athlete. Yeah. If you're collegiate, and you're a high school athlete, I think you're getting warmer, warmer and warmer. But I think it's finding those really tight windows of what is that individual training? Have they had experience in there? And then obviously, trying to see online on a website anywhere, like what is your resume? Again, if you're in a, in a business, in the field of this and sports, I think you have to give parents as much information as possible for them to visually see what you do. Your website needs to be very bright, it needs to have lots of information, lots of details, pictures, videos, all the above your social media platform needs to look really, really well. And then if they can go out and see a session, have a conversation with that person, I think you can tell really quickly, when what type of relationship do they have with the athletes? To where are they breaking down their groups? What's that look like? And then three gives you an idea, hey, does this apply to my athlete? And is this something I can see them doing in the future? Give it a try, hop in there and then be able to understand now my athlete has worked with this person one time? What is the developmental plan for this? That's kind of number four, right? So parents will see understand CSS and be like, Alright, cool. Here we go. They'll go through one session be like, Alright, great. Let's go. Yeah, well, you have to understand the next steps. Anyone can train anyone one time, but it's what does your training look like, for a season because when you branch into an athlete and training an athlete, you have to understand their age, their gender, and you have to understand what sport they play, you have to understand what developmental window they were in. And then what competitive level are they currently playing at that time. So there's these variables that fit into a bowl, I have to put all those variables in a bowl and then create a plan. If I miss out on some big variables, there's some things and I'm compromising. And I'm putting the athlete not in the best position to be successful. So I have to make sure that I'm putting everything in that bowl assessing it correctly, and then giving the parents a plan. Parents love a plan. They love to be able to see results in a short amount of time. So if I'm going to work for an athlete within two weeks, they're gonna see a ton of improvement in two weeks and that's off of neuromuscular change. They're seeing different patterns changing different posture, mobility, changing footwork, awarenesses change, if they're older athlete, they're seeing a little bit of a strength increase little more pop in their step, little more power development. So parents really need to be able to make sure that the red flags are very minimal. And

Kenny Bailey<br>: 45:14

is it stuff like, you know, if I, you know, I'm gonna guarantee your kid's gonna get better performance. I mean, that seems to be a red flag, or if they're showing off, like, if they want a name drop, you know? Yeah, you know, are there are, you know what I mean, here, so I've trained, here's the six people, you know, I can make your kid look like that. I'm assuming those are some of the red flags. If they're, if they're touting their brand more than they're touting the performance side, you know, everyday, you know, athlete to your point. Yeah. The process they're trying to tell me I'm assuming that would be a red flag. Yeah, yeah, don't get those most definitely

Stacey Daniels: 45:43

in the process is the initial like, you want to be able to give a developmental plan. Really all the name dropping your anything should maybe happen like five months, where you've got a good relationship with the with the parents and the kids, and you're in more conversations. And now they're asking more questions. And you're saying, well, in this instance, I did this with this person. But now, this is how I'm filtering this information and bringing it back. To your athlete Yeah. To develop them. Because in my mind, the pro mindset for them is is way better. Yeah.

Tom Regal: 46:16

So tell us what you got going on. So what's what's we're spring going into summer or summer? What's what's going on with you this? Yeah,

Stacey Daniels: 46:23

so transition sport. This is probably the most busy time for performance right now. Just because all the kids are out of school. And they're competing. If they're in like club ball, they're competing at higher levels, so they're going from like states to regionals to Nationals. But overall, any athlete that is out of school when summertime happens, like they all gravitate towards me it's

Tom Regal: 46:44

I was gonna say you busier now through the summer, or you're busier in the wintertime, probably

Stacey Daniels: 46:49

four times busier now in the summer time during school. So my my business really runs in tune with school semesters. So I try to adapt my training to kids are in school as soon as they get out of school, they're training with me from three to eight o'clock, helping them in season in their sport, or throughout season their sport again, one more time with me. Now that it's summer, all summer programs open up. So SDP when it's gonna be thrown all summer programs for a preteen athletes, for middle school athletes for high school athletes. And then I split it and I do a girl's High School in a co Ed High School. Just because right now for girls soccer and any high school sport, they're jumping into that and they're getting ready for tryouts. So I try to bring that on their own by themselves make a real specific, girls soccer is huge. In this area. There's many schools that are competing together in this area from a public sector to a private sector. So

Kenny Bailey<br>: 47:41

so the sports just want to make sure we're kind of basic on this. So the types of athletes that you see you don't you're indifferent on if they're track athlete, soccer athlete, who do you see the most? Or who do you generally goes to which sports or if there's a parent listening, and they're like, right, kid plays, you know, pickleball? Should they come to you? Yeah,

Stacey Daniels: 48:01

right. Yep. So over my 18 years of sports performance training, I've really trained every single athlete in every single sport of every single age. So yeah, yes, yes, is the answer. Yes, I've trained athletes that are five years old, four years old, and literally taught them how to be able to like skip, and jog and running cut. That's funny and understand coordination, body awareness. So those are kind of the windows of opportunities talked about before. I've trained preteen athletes, middle school, at this high school athletes, and then branched into all those professional sports, so football, baseball, soccer, tennis, all those particulars. So I've been really fortunate and blessed to understand pretty much everything. But every single sport has been really reps in my career.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 48:48

So if you have a shot putter that's trying to figure out how to do performance, you would start working with a shot putter, most

Tom Regal: 48:52

because it comes back to functional movements, it comes back to the body mechanics. Um, so as as I've gotten into this over the years, I'm so fascinated with by body mechanics and mechanics, I always loved mechanical things to begin with. But then the tie those two together when I tie somebody onto a bike, not literally but when I when when we incorporate the body mechanics to the mechanical part of the bike, that's when the magic happens, right? That's when the body function, everything all of a sudden becomes more efficient and just flows through. So I'm fascinated with that type of stuff. So I'm sure we'll have you on again. In the future. We could just talk for two days about body mechanics and functional functional fitness.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 49:33

I just want to know Okay, so can you coach me i So so in Rocky for when Yvonne Drago was doing that kind of workout versus the old school log and, you know, doing pull ups and in the tundra, which one was better? Yeah. Which is very performed big

Stacey Daniels: 49:51

debate. Really huge debate. Drago had an unfair advantage, because we saw something that was in The needle that was dripping Yeah, back then all that stuff was kind of questionable. But I think now that performance enhancement and all those things come in kind of come into play. I think we knew what that was all right, it was an IV drip. And while it was that it was more

Tom Regal: 50:15

and learning about the history of the three on one off, kind of build performance that we do in triathlon a lot, right? And a lot of sports do that it's three on three weeks on one week off, we build up, we recovered, rebuild up, recover all the history of that all coming from the Eastern Bloc countries that needed because they were doping was to come down a week, right. So three, up one down, three went down. And we saw we saw the Eastern

Kenny Bailey<br>: 50:42

the, I just don't know if I was supposed to, it's better for me to pull a bag of rocks over? Well, yeah, bits of wood, or

Tom Regal: 50:49

when we find some of them are hilarious. When you start learning the history of it. It still works for us body wise, we still tend to do. But we're breaking that mold of that old school structure of what it was because we saw it work. Well, it worked because they had the IV drip in the back. That's the reason.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 51:03

Okay, so back to your business. But are you taking rocky one? Side to me? That's right. Yeah. Are you taking on clients? Now? If you are, how do they get ahold of

Stacey Daniels: 51:15

you? Yeah, definitely take them on clients. So if you have any athlete of any age of any sport, send them over. The the easiest way to be able to reach out to me and contact me is via website, get if you go on SD performance one.com There'll be a little contact button in the top right hand corner, click on that same your info, I'll reach out to you. The second way is if you go on any social media platform, if you go on Instagram, under SD performance one, there'll be a link in there for all the summer programs. If you go on Twitter, SD performance underscore one, same exact thing. There'll be links to kind of connect you into the right place. But I'll have couple different camps. One will run all through June for four weeks. So every developmental category from preteen and middle school to high school, that will be a four week set. And then in July, again will be another four weeks set through there for someone who's lately looking to get into an understand what performance is I also have speed camps. So okay, cool. Once bootcamp will happen will be a two hour block that will happen in June, middle of June, I'll have another one in July as well. Those are really cool. Because as a set into this bootcamp, and they start to understand different systematic ways of training and developmental training. That's when they start to piece themselves into group trading, Team trading, and all the above. Cool,

Tom Regal: 52:31

great. We'll have all those links in the show notes for YouTube and everything. We'll have all of that stuff in there. So perfect. I appreciate, dude, we're so happy to have you on Stacy's fantastic, or is this great conversation we can go on for days. Yeah, there's so much to unravel and to peel back on this. So really appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Thanks, everybody, for for watching and listening. If you check our YouTube channel, give us our you know, give us some feedback. We'd love feedback. That's how we're improving. Thumbs up five stars, whatever, whatever it takes that helps get our algorithms helps pump us up and gets us out to more more and more people. So share this with friends and let everybody else so thank you again, Kenny. It's been great, Stacey, and we'll catch you on the next one.

Stacey Daniels: 53:14

All right.