Ted Rath | Winning the Little Details in the NFL

Football is evolving fast, and the coaches who keep pace are the ones who control what they can and win the little details. Ted Rath, Director of Sports Performance for the New Orleans Saints, reflects on over 15 years in the National Football League (NFL). He explains how training times, availability, and sheer athleticism have shifted with the game's expansion. Rath makes the case for gaining a well-rounded experience by coaching different sports, seeking knowledge, and being patient on your path. He also shares his linear progression approach to sport science that keeps new tools actionable and avoids technology overload. With players now arriving more educated and invested in their data, creating understanding and buy-in remains essential. Rath reveals that his coaching philosophy and culture starts with “leading yourself,” emphasizing ownership and helping others. Apply his perspective to protect availability, dial in the little details, and integrate sport science with purpose.

Reach out to Ted on Instagram: @tedrathstrengthcoach | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs

Catch Ted’s session, “The Future of Training in Professional Football,” at the 2026 NSCA National Conference in New Orleans, July 8–11. Sign up early and save at NSCA.com/NSCACon.

“We work together. That's the greatest thing about team sports. We're in this together and we're competing for the same things and we're trying to help each other get better. But that also goes down to families. We work incredibly long hours, as you know, it's stressful. There are times where it's hard. It's extremely hard. You're going to face adversity. You're going to have ups, you're going to have downs, you're going to have great years. You're going to have very trying years. But all that also reflects upon your family and the people that you choose to surround yourself with.” 5:00

“I always tell the younger coaches that I'm talking to or asking me similar questions. Gain a well-rounded experience and what does that mean? Go see coaches with different philosophical approaches. Go see different sports like we talked about earlier. Go learn wherever you can go. Work with golf athletes and rotational athletes. Go. Just go seek knowledge wherever you can and try to make that as well-rounded as possible. And then don't rush it.” 9:20

“The only wrong step is not taking a step. So, I try to operate with a level of urgency. If you take the wrong step, that's okay. Just learn from it. Don't make that same mistake again.” 11:20

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This is the NSCA Podcast. I'm your host, Eric McMahon, NSCA’s Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager. For today's episode, we're exploring life in the NFL with a guest who's coached in the league for over 15 years. Ted Rath is the Director of Sports Performance for the New Orleans Saints, right down the road from where we will be for the 2026 NSCA National Conference.

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Let's get to know him. Ted. Welcome,

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Eric. Thanks. Really honored to be here. Humbled that you had me on. I'm really excited. Let's catch up.

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Yeah. You've been on my radar for a while. Obviously, we get to connect at all the league meetings. Just cutting it up about life in the NFL. And that's what we want to do today.

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So to get us started, could you just tell us a little bit about your journey into coaching? What led you to pursue a career in the NFL? Absolutely. Like a lot of people, I think you develop that love at an early age through sports. And I was no different. You know, I grew up in a very small town in the state of Michigan, in the country, very rural, and just fell in love with the simple things football, baseball, basketball is what you played.

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Whatever the season was, you played that sport and all the way through high school. When I started to see a little bit of a transformation, was when I was in high school, I started lifting. Personally, I started training obviously myself, doing all the wrong things, reading, muscle and fitness, Eric and all this stuff. That's looking back now, not the most well-educated things that I could have been doing, but just trying to work hard and then starting to see some gains, starting to see, hey muscle, wow, I'm gaining some muscle.

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I'm getting stronger. I can bench more than that guy, my one friend. I can squat more now, all those things. And then I started to see the impact that it could have on sports. So for me it kind of started there and then it transitioned. I got very fortunate. I was very blessed to play college football at the University of Toledo, but fell in love with my strength and conditioning coach and realized what the career path could become.

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So it became this really cool thing that just continued to grow. And I think sometimes I call it congruency. When your passion meets a skill level, usually when you're passionate about something, you're more invested in it. You're going to research it. So I just found myself odds and in hours I'd be in the library at school, or I'd be at home and I'm just looking up information.

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Hey, sliding filament theory. Let's learn about this in my course. My core subjects were obviously in line with that, but I found every waking moment I was doing something just to try to educate myself. So it's just continue to grow. And hopefully I never stopped doing that. Eric, just like all of us, we're all lifelong learners, so I still have that passion.

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But it started at a very young age. I just got very fortunate to get exposed to it.

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Do you feel like that multi-sport background played into your passion and love that you found for strength and conditioning?

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I do, and I would say it's in two ways, right? It's twofold. As an athlete myself, playing multiple sports, knowing that it takes very different energy systems, it takes different movement patterns.

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It takes a lot to transition from one sport to the next. We all know when you're in high school, you go from football to basketball season. That first basketball practice, you're sucking wind. You're like, what's going on? I thought I was in shape different energy system, different mechanical observations, different things that your body's required to go through. And then as a coach, what I love my time.

00:03:04:12 - 00:03:27:01

When I was coaching in college, I was fortunate. I was the director over 15 Olympic sports. I still got to help and assist with football. But if you want to learn anatomical sites, you want to learn about lower limbs, basketball, volleyball, you want to learn about shoulder swimming. You want to learn about overhead throwers, baseball. You look at some of the things that different sports, and then you need the unique perspectives that you actually get from that.

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I felt like I learned more just by being able to deal with them. And then on the other side, you're dealing with leadership lessons from 15 different head coaches, 15 different staffs, different, different types of personalities who play each sport. I feel like that and just learning about people. It was so beneficial. But the anatomical stuff is real.

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When you start working with different sports. Eric, you just like, you know, you see very, very different things and those lenses start to grow and you can start to adapt around each of those sports.

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Yeah, I think the multisport backgrounds really interesting because we get to pull things from different areas. And one thing I remember I was a football, hockey, baseball guy.

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By the time I got to baseball season, body really wasn't as fresh as maybe it was going into football season. So being from the northeast, I wasn't the best baseball player. But you get through it and it's one of those where you

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you still pursue your passion. I ended up having most of my career in professional baseball, and it's just funny how things work out, but I took a lot through that journey.

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Just like you're saying, I think it's really cool and your role is really cool with the Saints. Director of Sports Performance. Tell us about that. What does that entail?

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A lot to sum it up, and I think anyone who sat in the seat would know that. And you definitely know it Eric. You've seen it at a lot of different levels in a lot of different sports.

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First and foremost, you're a leader because you know, you hire your fire, unfortunately, but you're building a staff and you're building a staff full people. I've had staffs follow me coast to coast, and with that number one, I take a big, big part of that responsibility is because I owe that to the people who decide to work with you, and it's not a boss to employee type of situation.

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We work together. That's the greatest thing about team sports. We're in this together and we're competing for the same things and we're trying to help each other get better. But that also goes down to families. We work incredibly long hours as you know, it's stressful. There's times where it's hard. It's extremely hard. You're going to face adversity. You're going to have ups, you're going to have downs, you're gonna have great years.

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You're going to have very trying years. But all that also reflects upon your family and the people that you choose to surround yourself with. So number one, as a leader, doing the right things and trying to make sure that you're in it for the right reasons. But number two, then it starts the foundation is how are we training and preparing these football players, in my case, or these athletes to compete at the highest levels?

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And also that transitions down. I want these guys to have as long of a career as possible. I want them to make as much money as humanly possible so they can literally change generations from a wealth perspective. And then I want to compete for championships. So it starts with are we teaching fundamentals, sound concepts? Are we making sure that we're not putting any joints, anything at a bad situation?

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We need to take care of our athletes and maintain health and availability first, first and foremost. And then it transitions down to a lot of different things. I think the psychology aspect to this, Eric, and I know you and I have talked offline about this. It's real. I joke, and I don't want to insult anyone in the field, but I feel like I'm a psychologist half day.

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So and that's coaches that staff members, that's front office. That's the communication level that you have to operate at. You have to be an elite level communicator if you want to be really good at this job. So you're communicating up, down, cross. You're communicating to players, coaches, everyone in between. Because from nutrition to sport science to everything that goes into sports performance, travel operations.

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We're flying to Paris next week to go through logistics because we're playing the first NFL game in Paris. That planning starts now. We're not playing until October. We're recording is March. So you look at the timeline and everything, you excuse me, the details matter, Eric. So to me, the details are in those finite little things where you can do if we can travel a little bit better, if we can adjust our circadian rhythms a little bit better.

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All that gets lumped into sports performance, including the psychological aspects and the mental strengthening aspects that are coming in. And I think becoming more prevalent today in the sport,

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psych, planning, sleep, all these different areas, and we don't always get a ton of training on that in pure strength and conditioning. Do you feel like coaches coming into the league are well prepared to take on these challenges, or is that something they have to learn step by step along the way?

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I certainly think there's a component. They're better educated now and it's not a jealousy thing. I'm glad they are. But back then, going back to my original point, I found myself researching if you want to learn about, you know, adjusting circadian rhythms, you better dive into research and you better start to look at our coast to coast, west to east, east to west.

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What are the differences? What are the nuances? All of those things. But now the world is is open, right? We can find knowledge. We can find things that can help us educate ourselves anywhere. Doesn't mean that some isn't bad. And there's incorrect information out there. Of course, like we all know. But for me, I do feel like they're a little bit more well prepared.

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With that being said, doesn't mean you can stop learning. You better be. I'm always curious what's next? So I know what I know now. I wish I knew more and I want to know more, and I'm going to find a way to seek out that knowledge through talking to other people, through other resources, through things like the NSCA.

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You're going to find ways to educate yourself and find that knowledge. But I do think the knowledge is increasing, really just the base education of coming in and hopefully entering the workforce in the strength conditioning field. I feel like people are more more well prepared at this stage.

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Tons of students, tons of young coaches listening to this podcast

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and probably want to break into a professional league like the NFL one day.

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What's the typical path from maybe an intern or an entry level coach to move up through the ranks to a full time role? Great question. First, college experience to me, I think is a really good thing. It's a good step stone. I know a lot of great coaches who never played the sport of football or if they're in the NBA basketball, whatever it is, I don't think you necessarily have to have experience.

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I do think it helps in some aspects. You know, I feel like my body playing Division one football, I can somewhat, you know, understand what training camp feels like. And I can go through these things from the knowledge base and understanding physiology, but also playing at a higher level. I do feel like that helps, but within that you go in through the experience level and you gain exactly that experience.

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You know, if you can get a graduate assistant job, great. If you can get that role, awesome. Seek it out. If you need to intern at several different spaces. I always tell the younger coaches that I'm that I'm talking to or asking me similar questions. Gain a well-rounded experience and what does that mean? Go see coaches with different philosophical approaches.

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Go see different sports like we talked about earlier. Go learn wherever you can go. Work with golf athletes, rotational athletes. Go. Just go seek knowledge wherever you can and try to make that as well-rounded as possible. And then don't rush it. Don't rush it. The the biggest thing that I can tell you, and I'm still not good at this patience.

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But patience does pay off. And it doesn't mean that you are just standing still during those those patient periods. You're working your butt off. Eric. My first year in the NFL, I basically maxed out all my hours. I worked for free for half the year. I didn't get a paycheck. I showed up like I was making $1 million every single day.

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It didn't mean that I was stagnant. It didn't mean that I was good. I was trying to seek knowledge. I was trying to get better each and every day and do whatever I could to help the team, to help the people I worked with, and to make sure that I was taking pressure off of them and doing whatever I could to help.

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And that never stops. But you have to gain experience, so don't fast forward and think, I'm ready for this job. I'm still not ready. I need to get better today. I need to be a better version of myself today than I was yesterday and tomorrow. So on, so forth. So for me, it's making sure you're patient, but you're doing what you can't control, which can be where your feet are and try to get better each and every day.

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So on what you're saying, getting that experience, one of the questions and one of the fears I hear from this generation of students undergrad graduate students, is

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they're afraid to take that first step because they fear, feel like it might be the wrong one, or it might get them. If I don't pursue football, I'll never be on a football staff, or I'll never be able to get to the NFL.

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Do you feel like our field is more open minded today to that diverse realm of experience? You mentioned golf, some other areas. What's your thoughts on that? I do think they're more open to different options. I do feel like there's certain times where people expect to accelerate more, because there are more roles, and there's more jobs and there's more availability, which is a good thing.

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But for me, once again, going back to the the only wrong step is not taking a step. So I try to operate with a level of urgency. If you take the wrong step, that's okay. Just learn from it. Don't make that same mistake again. So if you said, I thought I would love basketball and you're in a basketball situation, make the best of it.

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Do your best job that you possibly can. Try to get better each and every day. And then when it's time to move on, maybe to a different opportunity, don't make that same mistake. Take a positive step somewhere. But I do think the many roles that are available Eric their jobs. I mean, you look at NASCAR, you look at so many different jobs that didn't exist 20, 30 years ago.

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There's opportunities out there all over the place, and that's a great thing for our profession. So don't be shy about gaining experience. Go dive in. Go learn what you can because I guarantee this you can learn from each and every one of those opportunities.

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Excellent. And if you're in an area without maybe the opportunity you want to have one day, get the experience you can get right in your backyard.

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You don't have to go take a student loan or or put yourself in financial hardship to find an opportunity. I think that's something that I'm always trying to tell students is maximize the experience where you're at, and then you can move on when it's the right time. And I'm glad I'm hearing that from someone in the NFL, because

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there's that mindset that, hey, if I don't get in early or if I don't get on a staff, then I'm going to miss my window or I'm going to if I step away and do something different, I can never go back.

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And I think those are just maybe that was the way it was. I don't feel like that's the way our field is now, and I'm encouraged by that.

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All right. Did I want to have some fun? Man, you're the most famous get back coach I know. And, I think it speaks to the fact that you're just actively involved in every aspect of your team in the game.

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And I want to ask you, you know, what's the commitment like to be a successful member of the coaching staff in the NFL? You you pour into it at every level. And I yeah, I just wanted to ask you that question. No, I appreciate that question there. Again, I'll go back to something I said earlier. Details matter and the Get Back video that ended up going viral a few years ago was hilarious because I love it, I embrace it.

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It's so funny. It's been I had somebody send it to me recently. Somebody played it in a megachurch and they were talking about getting your life back on track and just the expansive reach. I meet people from literally other continents that are like, hey, you're that guy. So it's hilarious because once again, that's a job. It's not a glamorous job.

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But you know what, Eric? If someone asked me to sweep the floors, I'm gonna sweep the floors as well as I possibly can. I don't care what the job is, what the role is. None of us are above anything. So maintaining and keeping that humble attitude and just saying, I'm going to go to work and provide for the team, whatever I can, part of that was Sean.

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Sean came to me and said, hey, I need help staying back when we have to call offensive plays. Gotcha. I'm going to put my hands on. Are you good with that? Whatever you need to do, just make sure we don't get a penalty and we don't get anybody hurt. Gotcha, coach. So for me, I was locked into that.

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I was exhausted after games because I walked into that and took that role very serious, Eric, because my goal was never to get a penalty, never to have somebody run into somebody on the sideline making sure I could do what I can control those controllables. And once again, it doesn't matter what the role is, it doesn't matter if it's glamorous, it doesn't matter if it's on TV or not.

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I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure that I'm doing everything possible to gain those little details for our teams, for our players, for our coaches, and just make sure I'm doing what I can to help our team.

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I think it's fun. It's positive attention it brings. It makes you a part of the team. It gives you a role.

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And at different times in your career, that's what we're looking for. We're looking for opportunities to grow and expand our role. It may not be that glamorous thing that you're thinking about at the time, but at the same time you probably had some fun with it and helped you build a good relationship with Sean. And I think that's really cool.

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Ted, keeping players healthy is key. What are the biggest challenges you see that are impacting the ability to stay on the field?

00:15:04:12 - 00:15:13:15

Another great question. The expansion of the game and then the enhancement of athletic abilities. So you look at my first year was in 2009

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or in 2026 now. So coming up on two decades, you look at it, the players are bigger, they're faster, they're stronger.

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We play more games now. We play 17 regular season games. Our offseason has shifted multiple times through the collective bargaining agreement. So the training times, the availability, all those things in conjunction with the players just being extra athletic. Eric, you look at the guys that are rushers now, you look at our edge guys. We have Chase young. You look at a guy that's 275, 280 pounds, can run a 4 or 5 K.

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These are the guys that used to be 210, 215 pounds. Our safeties, they used to run that fast. So you look at what's happened just to the athlete, which is great because it's obviously an enhancement based on our training and some of the practices that we can put into play. And there are so many great practitioners out there and everyone doing a great job, it just increases the chances of of injury.

00:16:03:22 - 00:16:24:09

Right. And our biggest thing is availability. So making sure that we're limiting the unnecessary opportunities to get hurt. So number one in the weight room in training during practice things like that. There are certain things that are part of the game day experience. You can't control. You can't control, you know high level contacts. You can't control. If a guy's planted gets hit, there's a contact injury to his ACL.

00:16:24:09 - 00:16:45:09

There's certain things that you really can't control, but control what you can. Once again, dissecting it down to those details of how can I prepare this player if they are in that position, can they get their foot out a little bit faster? LOL right, let's teach them how to get the more appropriate shin angle in this position. So those little things, just finding the details, but the heart, there's multiple things that make that very difficult.

00:16:45:09 - 00:16:50:01

Eric. Which is fun. No, because I think that's part of the challenge. And to me, challenges are nothing but opportunities.

00:16:50:01 - 00:16:56:02

Do you feel like technology? Obviously it's a bigger part than it was years ago. What does that look like in your day to day

00:16:56:02 - 00:17:07:11

light years, light years different. So for me, the force plate, the 1080, the the 3D motion capture that we can do, whether it's DARI, Qualisys, whatever system you're using, there are so many different things.

00:17:07:11 - 00:17:25:18

Velocity based training, there's a thousand different things. At the end of every year, I was tell people, every athlete that I have and we have 90 throughout the offseason into training camp, I have well over a million rows of data on each and every single one of those players. So you can imagine how much that we collect, but it's a great opportunity to grow and learn.

00:17:25:18 - 00:17:42:19

You want to look at unilateral differences. You want to look at loading, braking, deceleration mechanics. Put an athlete on a force plate. You want to look at certain things. Force velocity profiling. Put an athlete on a 1080. There is critical information that we can utilize to make our training programs better. So we're going to leverage all that technology now with that.

00:17:42:23 - 00:17:58:10

That being said, I don't want to overload myself. Number one, our staff and our players make sure you're using it. I and I'm I'm talking to myself more than anyone because when all this stuff first started coming out, what do you try to do? You try to do it all. So starting with the steps, right? We have to crawl before we walk.

00:17:58:10 - 00:18:12:01

We have to walk before we run. It's just like a linear mechanical progression, right? You're not going to start with a guy at top end speed. You're going to work in through the progression. You're going to work in through absolutely everything that you need to do to cross off before. So try not to get too big too fast.

00:18:12:01 - 00:18:24:18

But that's really easy to say. It's hard to do within sport science today, but that's one thing that I've seen help people, that's helped myself. I've had to learn the hard way a couple times, but when you go through that, there's a lot of really high quality information that can help us.

00:18:24:18 - 00:18:29:18

You mentioned technology overload, and I'm really glad you brought that up because we do try to do it all.

00:18:29:22 - 00:18:33:21

You know, we're we're ramping up this podcast. We're on a video right now and we're,

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trying to make it better every single day.

00:18:35:15 - 00:18:42:03

What's your process? Adopting a new piece of technology, knowing that you already have all these other things in play?

00:18:42:03 - 00:18:45:19

Step one is how big of a pain is this can be for my players.

00:18:45:22 - 00:19:08:24

So and I don't know if everyone looks at it that way. I've always told the players, if there is something that we're asking you to do that is such a stress component that it's literally causing you physical and mental stress, tell me, I'll throw it away. We won't do it. It's not worth it. It's not worth sacrificing trust in a relationship between our staff, the players, because that's ultimately one of the most important things that we can build, because we all have to trust each other, especially in team sports.

00:19:09:01 - 00:19:29:14

And then number two is what's the benefit? So what's the usability? For me, if we're collecting things, I can collect a lot of cool information. There's cool technology I wish I could use right now, Eric, but it's not usable in our environment right now. So for me, it's what's the bang for the buck? Are we actually going to be able to apply this if you're not making direct, actionable decisions based off of that technology?

00:19:29:16 - 00:19:45:17

I would question whether it's worth actually collecting it. Now there's some exposure to if the athlete doesn't have to worry about it, it's not a tested. They don't feel it and it's not causing that stress component. All right. Maybe there's some value in collecting this data and building up your database over time so that we can analyze it better.

00:19:45:22 - 00:20:05:04

There's that. But every piece has a unique aspect to how much how involved it is with the athletes involved. It is with the staff what time components there's going to be in time constraints. All those things play into it, but it's got to be usable and it cannot deter from what we're ultimately trying to do. Create high levels of stress and create a positive training environment for our players.

00:20:05:04 - 00:20:11:05

Do you feel like players crave the technology more, or maybe get motivated by it, or is it a mix

00:20:11:05 - 00:20:26:22

much more, much more? In general? There's still some players that are okay. Just tell me what you need. Got it. There's a lot of players that are invested now and I think this is this is a positive contribution because of the great job they're doing in college, a lot of great college coaches, a lot of great private training facilities.

00:20:26:22 - 00:20:43:06

You look at our guys when they come in through the combine training process, they're getting better educated and a lot of these things. And the first thing I always tell our guys, our players, this is your information, I want you to ask questions, but hopefully I'm answering the questions before you have to ask them. But then if you want to take a deep dive, come on in.

00:20:43:06 - 00:20:59:07

Let's sit down. I'll pull up everything. Let's actually go through this. We're still in the process. I just finished my first year. We've built a lot into our athlete management system, and a lot of that is detailed towards the athletes so that we can show them, so we can create the KPI and create the understanding and educate them on the process of.

00:20:59:11 - 00:21:17:14

Here's why we might ask you to do a little bit different speed next time we're on our velocity based training block with our back squad progression. Here's why your speed is different from this athlete. Here are the intricacies. Here's the differences that education component. And I think if you really want to understand something better, you got to be able to educate others on that topic on that subject.

00:21:17:19 - 00:21:40:17

So once again, I find that is one of the fun parts. But I definitely think the players now, the athletes now incoming, they're better educated. Eric I think they ask great questions. I do think the majority of them are seeking some of that information. Yeah, it's interesting as this information, it used to be kind of a novelty, like, oh, it's nice we have that or I really don't like it now it's almost more of an expectation that, oh, that

00:21:40:17 - 00:21:47:06

I'm coming into this program, I expect it I mean, it's a recruiting tool at the college level, maybe even at the NFL level in some ways.

00:21:47:06 - 00:21:55:08

So I think it's, it's encouraging for our field. But we got to step up. We got to step up and be able to deliver it in a meaningful, authentic way,

00:21:55:08 - 00:22:05:06

but also in a way, like you said, that doesn't chip away at the trust we build with our staff, with our athletes in pouring into that culture. I want to ask you about culture.

00:22:05:06 - 00:22:13:00

I know you're really active on social media. A lot of motivational content, encouragement. I love following it.

00:22:13:00 - 00:22:18:05

How does that play into your coaching philosophy and the culture you're trying to create in the weight room?

00:22:18:05 - 00:22:26:16

I appreciate those kind words, Eric. It means everything. Because what I've realized over time, I was never active until probably the last year or two on social media.

00:22:26:16 - 00:22:44:09

And then I realized, where am I? Getting information is through direct connections, but it's also through following certain people and good quality information. So for me, it starts with leading yourself. And I've learned this through many, many great coaches. I've been spoiled. Jim Schwartz, Jim Caldwell, some of the head coaches Sean McVay, Nick Sirianni, Doug Peterson I can name Kellen.

00:22:44:09 - 00:23:04:17

Now, the amount of people that I've learned from, including owners, general managers. I feel so spoiled, so blessed, Eric, because I've just learned so much that has helped me in my own personal life. Be a better father, be a better husband, be a better coach, be a better everything because I've asked those questions and sought that knowledge. So I believe firmly we all have to lead ourself.

00:23:04:17 - 00:23:05:18

That's where it starts.

00:23:05:18 - 00:23:23:10

you're fortunate to be in a leadership position with other people and with staff members and things like that, you have to start with leading yourself, but then you have to spend time. You have to get reps. How can you become a better leader? Well, you have to work, you have to study. You have to gain knowledge from good leaders and you have to seek that knowledge.

00:23:23:16 - 00:23:38:12

So for me, the big the big thing that draws it out is I'm trying to help somebody. And those are the best compliments I can get. When somebody comes up and says, thanks for posting. That really helped me through a tough time or through a good time. It really helped me when I took this new leadership role. That's really how it starts.

00:23:38:12 - 00:23:56:03

but when I started Eric, when I went to LA and took really my first director job, I was leaving Miami. I was with the Dolphins and a fire chief from Miami Dade County, which is a very active fire unit. He came up to me and he recommended a book. It was Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink, and it's still one of my favorite books.

00:23:56:05 - 00:24:13:21

And Sean McVay was randomly reading it at the same time. We built a lot of our culture based off of some of those values and some of those core beliefs, and just having that, if he wouldn't have recommended that, that would have set me back. Instead, it set me forward and it helped me and it allowed me to gain knowledge that's helped me in my personal development, but it's also helped me lead others

00:24:13:21 - 00:24:14:16

love it.

00:24:14:18 - 00:24:24:07

On the topic of sharing and gaining knowledge, you'll be presenting at the 2026 NSCA National Conference in New Orleans, right down the road

00:24:24:07 - 00:24:29:24

on the future of training and professional football. Can you give us a quick preview of what to look forward to there?

00:24:29:24 - 00:24:33:18

Yeah, to go forward, you have to at least look back. What can we learn?

00:24:33:18 - 00:24:49:24

What can we learn from the past? So Eric, as I started thinking about this and when we were talking about this, I got really excited because where the NFL is come and where really sports in general, sport science, sports performance has come in the last 15, 20 years. It's amazing when you look back and look at where we are right now.

00:24:49:24 - 00:25:09:07

Number one, look at it and say, wow, it is amazing what we've accomplished already. Now look forward. What can we accomplish right now in the immediate future, next year or the first year, the next five years? The next ten years? We're moving at such a rapid speed. A lot of it is what we talked about before. Make sure you don't allow that overload to come in and really short circuit yourself.

00:25:09:09 - 00:25:32:00

But also what are the opportunities here? There are thousands of opportunities, whether it's technology based, whether it's culture building. All those things are going to come into play in the next 10, 15 Super Bowl champions are going to be the teams that adopt those little, those finite details that allow you to get one step ahead. So for me, this is one of the most exciting topics because there are endless possibilities.

00:25:32:00 - 00:25:45:05

I love that progressive overload. That's a term that comes to mind. It's one we know well in the strength and conditioning field. And, just love that it keeps coming up throughout this episode. And I think it's really important. And I'm really looking forward to your talk.

00:25:45:05 - 00:25:50:18

Everyone's going to want to reach out, connect following this episode. What's the best way for them to do that?

00:25:50:18 - 00:26:04:22

Yeah, a couple different socials. Like you mentioned, I'm active, so whether it's Instagram or whatever, direct message me, feel free. I try to I have I'll be honest, I have thousands of messages in my LinkedIn inbox. That's probably not the best way. There's I don't know how I can get through. I need to hire an intern just to go through that.

00:26:05:07 - 00:26:17:23

But yeah, if you direct message me, I'll do my best to get back. I always try to, because people along the way have always tried to get back to me. And then reach out, you know, reach out. Never be shy if you ever see me. If I'm speaking at the national event in New Orleans. Come on up.

00:26:17:23 - 00:26:38:21

Say hi. I'd love to meet you. You know, we're part of this business. I think one of the best parts of this. Eric, I hope I'm assuming you would agree. The people, the people that get to come into this profession and have an impact on your life. Some of my best friends that are close friends with our family are either coworkers, former athletes, players, just people that I've met through this profession.

00:26:38:21 - 00:26:51:22

And I think that's the coolest thing, right? We can all help each other. There's an abundance mindset that goes behind this. There's a lot of jobs out there. I know there's a competitive element to it, but let's all help each other. Let's continue to take positive steps forward, and let's try to be the best that we can be.

00:26:51:22 - 00:27:13:19

Perfect. Thanks, Ted. We look forward to seeing you in July. I will include your contact info, your your Instagram so people can DM you in the show notes. Also, for attendees at the national conference, we have an app so you can easily connect with presenters, other attendees. So that's another great way to connect with Ted at the event, encourage you to be there.

00:27:13:19 - 00:27:25:08

It's going to be a great event this year for all the NSCA audiences, from coaches to personal trainers to researchers. It's it's really going to be a special event. And Ted, we're really excited to have you there.

00:27:25:08 - 00:27:26:00

Thanks, Eric.

00:27:26:00 - 00:27:33:24

Football is a huge part of strength and conditioning. Hopefully you took something positive from today's episode. Thanks for tuning in and to Sorinex

00:27:33:24 - 00:27:36:21

Exercise Equipment, we appreciate their support.

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