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NSCA’s Coaching Podcast, Episode 108: Dr. Allison Randall

by Eric McMahon, MEd, CSCS, RSCC*D and Dr. Allison Randall, PhD, MS, CSCS
Coaching Podcast September 2021

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Dr. Allison Randall, Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Vanderbilt University Women’s Basketball Program, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about how her path to the 2012 London Olympic Games as an athlete led her to pursue the strength and conditioning profession. Topics include the use of appropriate cueing strategies to optimize work with young athletes, differences with team versus individual sports, and the importance of education for coaches.

Find Dr. Randall on Twitter: @AllisonVRandall or Instagram: @allisonvrandall | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs

Show Notes

“When it comes to my research in instructional design, it basically went over the teaching pedagogy or teaching practices and methods surrounding coaching. So what can I do as an instructor to facilitate the learning process for my learners or my students or my athletes in a more efficient way?” 9:00

“So for me, I felt like it was important because, not only did I want to be a better coach, but I wanted to learn how to teach better.” 9:41

“I think coaching cues are important. What you say is important, how you say it, how often you say it, what's the timing of it. Am I going to say it on every single rep or I'm going to say it every other rep or every three reps?” 14:08

“So I think in the next five, 10, we're not just looking at strength conditioning coaches. We're looking at performance coaches that have degrees, that have strength conditioning, that have nutrition, that have sports science background, that have some level of-- could be counseling or some sport, like mental counseling or performance counseling, in my opinion, because I think we're trying to make sure we stay relevant to the times. And all those things are relevant and they're going to continue to be relevant moving forward.” 26:08

Transcript

[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:00:00.78] Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast, episode 108.

[00:00:05.65] So when it comes to my research and instructional design, it basically went over the teaching pedagogies or the teaching practices and methods surrounding coaching. So what can I do as an instructor to facilitate the learning process for my learners or my students or my athletes in a more efficient way?

[00:00:27.16] This is the NSCA's Coaching Podcast, where we talk to strength and conditioning coaches about what you really need to know but probably didn't learn in school. There's strength and conditioning, and then there's everything else.

[00:00:37.99] Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast. I'm Eric McMahon. And today we're joined by Dr. Allison Randall, the strength and conditioning coach for Vanderbilt Women's Basketball program. Allison earned her PhD from Virginia Tech in Instructional Design and Technology with an emphasis on psychomotor skill instruction for athletic performance.

[00:00:57.48] As an athlete, she competed at nearly every level of track and field as a discus thrower, including representing Jamaica in the 2012 London Olympic games. Allison, welcome.

[00:01:08.64] Thank you so much for having me.

[00:01:10.81] Yeah, excited to have you on. Obviously, you've been a successful athlete. You're a strength and conditioning coach. And you have a cool role at Vanderbilt leading that program. And just want to get to know you a little better today.

[00:01:26.50] So if you would, take us through your path from athlete to strength and conditioning coach.

[00:01:32.40] Sure. I mean, I've been a lifelong athlete. I think that kind of helped to shape, first and foremost, my desire to work in the field of sports in the first place. So from about eight to 18, I played basketball, high school basketball, did AAU a little bit as I got to the 17, 18-year-old-- excuse me-- age range.

[00:01:55.02] And then that was kind of a transition to where it was, like, OK, you're going to do basketball, you're going to do track, because I started track at 18 years old, which is relatively late for most people in the sport. So at that time, I made a financial decision to go ahead and pursue my career in track and field. I was awarded the scholarship at Morgan State University, and that's where I was introduced to weight training.

[00:02:21.21] Before that, I had no idea that it was a real job, that there was someone who was actually at each college doing this thing that was preparing you for your sport. It was, like, the Y was open. And if the Y was open, you would go to the gym or a hotel weight room was there, you had a couple of dumbbells, you did what you got to do.

[00:02:40.26] But entering college, I saw the level of investment that needed to be done in weight training. From that standpoint, it was something that I was able to, more or less, buy into or something that I was able to see the ins and outs of weight training specifically for helping me in track and field.

[00:03:01.14] I was starting from zero, so a lot of things were from the bar. A lot of things with very light dumbbells, but learning technique and learning those things, with things that directly for me carried over into track and field, learning how to hold your body in positions, learning how to deliver the implement, learning how to move efficiently with things that, in order for me to be a successful discus thrower, I had to learn how to do correctly in the weight room.

[00:03:31.44] College was over, it was starting to come to an end. I knew that I wanted to pursue or continue throwing. I didn't think I maximized my athletic potential at that point. And my training partner and I, we moved to Blacksburg, Virginia to train for the London Olympics.

[00:03:46.05] At that time, I was using the facility at Virginia Tech to continue my career. I trained for the London Olympics. The year after the Olympics, I was in between a rock and a hard place, figuring out what's next. Am I going to continue to throw? If I continue to go to school? At that time, I finished my master's degree.

[00:04:05.67] And one of the things that I knew was the reason why I was able to excel and continue my career was the weight room. I didn't have a whole lot of experience. I had just picked up a discus not too long ago.

[00:04:21.17] I'm only 5' 11. So height wasn't in my advantage. But I was a [INAUDIBLE] I was an athlete. But I knew the day-to-day improvements that I made in the weight room was, like, hands down directly correlated to my success, because I was literally starting from zero.

[00:04:40.39] And then I just fell in love with the process, just the every day, OK. Every day we're going to come in as a group, we're going to work on this thing, we're going to do what we can to make our implement go further.

[00:04:50.71] I was able to train with top caliber athletes at that time. Virginia Tech was a powerhouse in the throwing events at that time. And I had some German teammates, I had some Trinidadian teammates, some Slovakian teammates. And we all knew that every day in the weight room we were going to do what we needed to do to be successful on the field. And it got really grimy and it got really aggressive in there. And it was just an environment that I really thrived off of.

[00:05:18.97] So after that season, or after that time period, I got real close with Mike Gentry, one of the pioneers in the field. He was actually still at Virginia Tech at that time. And he basically was, like, hey, what's next, what are you going to do.

[00:05:35.32] We sat down and said, I don't know, could continue to throw, could go into coaching, not really sure. And he was, like, I think you should consider it. I'm not telling you what to do, I'm not telling you to put all your eggs in one basket, but consider strength conditioning because I think you'd be great at it.

[00:05:52.93] Up until that point, I've only had two strength coaches in my life. And he just pushed me to go in that career. And I said, let me give it a shot, started my graduate assistantship after a short internship at Virginia Tech, just fell in love with the day in and day out, fell in love with training other athletes, fell in love with being able to push kids to the next level with this tool.

[00:06:17.30] And that's where it all started. And from there, I just couldn't stop. So I think basically that's the, I guess, short story of it all. I wanted to go ahead and pursue it through college athletics because that's where I was an athlete. And I just I just fell in love with it.

[00:06:42.89] That's awesome. I like that you weren't afraid to try new things. I like that it's great hearing that the weight room gave you a platform for success as an athlete. And now you get to relay that message back to athletes in your role.

[00:07:00.47] Talk about your current role at Vanderbilt. What are some of the responsibilities you have? And just how did the last year go through COVID?

[00:07:09.22] Sure, right now I am the strength conditioning coach for Women's Basketball at Vandy. And I started that position in 2019. Excuse me, so after I finished my first year as full-time at Virginia Tech, I came here and I was specifically with Women's Basketball.

[00:07:26.93] And now I am a liaison between myself and the athletic coaches, myself and nutrition, myself and academics. So I serve as the middle point person to make sure that all the things flow in a smooth fashion for each person in each department.

[00:07:47.36] Awesome. I think it's unique to see someone with your background, obviously success as an athlete, but having your master's, but also a PhD in education-related field. How does that apply to your coaching profession, your role? And how do you think higher education has benefited you as a coach?

[00:08:10.25] Sure, I know that when I began my master's journey and my PhD journey, one thing that I had to look at it was, like, how is this going to help me. How is this master's degree, when I am picking it, how is it going to help me be a better coach.

[00:08:28.47] So my master's degree was in health and performance and recreation. And that's a step up from physical education or honing in more so, like, how do you do that from a hands-on practical approach.

[00:08:40.61] When it comes to my PhD, a lot of times in research your job as a researcher is to find a gap, is to find a hole in what's there or find something that's missing or find something that you can potentially provide that isn't in research, that hasn't been done, that hasn't been seen before or explored. So when it comes to my research in instructional design, it basically went over the teaching pedagogy or teaching practices and methods surrounding coaching. So what can I do as an instructor to facilitate the learning process for my learners or my students or my athletes in a more efficient way?

[00:09:21.18] So some people might say, well, everybody coaches all the time. But there are different things cognitively that from a cognitive standpoint that coaches can do to facilitate processes in the learner so that they can retain, regurgitate, and then transfer these skills to more advanced skills later on down the road.

[00:09:41.13] So for me, I felt like it was important because, not only did I want to be a better coach, but I wanted to learn how to teach better. I've had coaches who knew the sport, knew exactly what they wanted me to do, but there was a lapse or a gap between what they were trying to tell me or what I was receiving.

[00:09:58.61] And at the end of the day, as coaches, it is our job to convey that message to them. Whatever tools we need, whatever the methods we need, whatever the job aids or technologies that we have in front of us or to use our disposal, it's our job to make sure that we utilize those things to be effective teachers.

[00:10:17.25] So when it comes to the importance, I mean, for me it's another tool in my bag. It's something else that I know that I've looked into, I've researched, I've looked through different theories and learning practices and methodologies from a learning science standpoint to say, hey, this works. But it hasn't been done in the realm of psychomotor skill learning and athletics. So that's where I took my research.

[00:10:43.16] I was able to talk to subject matter experts in not only instructional design, but in sports performance to say, hey, these are the tools, these are the steps, this is what happens in the brain, this is what happens in the body, this is where the correlation can occur. And then, hopefully, we provide a tool for coaches, for instructors, to use moving forward to facilitate learning in the best way that they can as it relates to sport.

[00:11:09.55] That's awesome. A lot of times in college sport we separate the curriculum and education side of things from the sports side. And we think of them as separate, but athletes are learners on the court and athletes are learners in the classroom. And there's a lot that can go back and forth in terms of what are the best practices in terms of teaching and learning.

[00:11:33.70] And there's a lot out there right now about external cueing and keying in on relationships with athletes for productive gains in the weight room. What are some of the methods you key in on in working with your athletes. Maybe this speaks to your coaching philosophy and just the process that you carry out on a daily basis?

[00:11:55.26] So a lot of things from my standpoint that I've been able to implement and I think are key, especially with my population right now, they would be considered, quote, unquote, "a novice learner." They'll be considered folks with a young training age. So you have to treat them in a way that you would treat a novice learner in the classroom.

[00:12:17.17] So what are the different things that I know that I need to do and say to convey certain things and certain cues to my players right now? One of the things that I lead with or start with is emphasis on external cues or external feedback, so things that are outside of their body.

[00:12:35.44] For example, if it's like a vertical jump, I might say, hey, try to get your head to the ceiling. Or, hey, pop up. Or, hey, do something to where in their head they're thinking externally what can I do to express what I'm saying, as opposed to, all right, when you squeeze your hips or squeeze your butt or triple extension and the ankle, things like that, as a novice they're not thinking about. They probably don't know how to associate the two because, at the end of the day, they're trying to get the outcome.

[00:13:09.89] So the outcome is for them to jump as high as you can. I'm going to say, all right, try to explode up. I try to use descriptive words and terms of that-- explosiveness, pop up, power through, things like that where they can associate the name with the action. Also, get your head to the ceiling, try to get as tall as you can, things like that where they can kind of put two and two together.

[00:13:31.03] And from the research, like I said, from a novice learner, internal cues are too advanced or to minuscule in terms for them to comprehend at that level. If I'm dealing with someone who's been training for 10, 20 years, I can say, all right, on the squat, you really want to think about this particular intricacy of the movement, try to think about rotating your femur externally as you're coming up.

[00:13:55.99] Now I know where my femur is. Now I know what it feels like to grip and turn the floor. Now that I know-- but for a novice, those things are just, from my perspective and from the research, it'll just go over their heads.

[00:14:08.50] So, yes, I think coaching cues are important. What you say is important, how you say it, how often you say it, what's the timing of it. Am I going to say it on every single rep or I'm going to say it every other rep or every three reps?

[00:14:20.89] How do I put it in to where the practice schedule is going to be efficient? So if we're working on our clean technique, how often am I going to jump back and remind you of what a Power Shrug is? Or how often am I going to remind you of where your bar [INAUDIBLE] goes? So am I going to drill that in? Am I going to build you up to it?

[00:14:39.94] Personally, what I've been able to do is have some form of variation in the warm-up of movement. So if I'm doing a Power Clean from the floor, all right, the Power Clean from the floor is the end result. Before we actually get to that movement, we'll have a bar warm-up or we'll go over Muscle Clean, send your elbows through, knowing what that feels like, going through a Hang Snatch-- I mean, excuse me, a Hang Clean with just the bar, knowing what that feels like to punch our hands through, getting through a Front Squat and knowing that feels like to receive the position.

[00:15:11.99] So those different steps leading up to the main movement are constantly being reminded, even if that day it's just the Full Clean. So just figuring out different ways to schedule it in, practice schedule from a block standpoint. So are we breaking it down and building it up? Or is it going to be arbitrary? You can also do that as well using external cues. Those are just the biggest takeaways that I've been using from my 18 to 21-year-old athletes.

[00:15:41.90] That's interesting. I like that there's a planning component, there's an instructional component. And as coaches, we need to plan for that instructional component that we have for our athletes that day to maximize the effectiveness of our coaching voice, of what we're communicating. Like you said, I think that's really good advice.

[00:16:02.81] At the highest level, you were an individual sport athlete. You work with a team sport now. Are there differences in how coaches should approach working with an individual sport athlete versus athletes in a team setting? Speak to that from your own experience.

[00:16:22.13] I think there's just a different drive. Another thing, too, I think with track and field it's easy to see the direct correlation. So I can absolutely throw for a week, train for a week, and see what my numbers look like, see how far my distance is.

[00:16:40.01] I can lift for a week, sprint for a week, and I can time my sprints. It's directly correlated to where I can see tangible evidence of what that looks like.

[00:16:50.41] And I think that can also stand true for swimming. It's, like, all right, this is where we are, this is my mileage, this is my length, this is how I felt at the end of it. It's a little different when it comes to that aspect of individual sport.

[00:17:05.39] When it comes to team sport, we're out here hooping. We're out here playing football. So I think, one, it's really important to understand the buy-in as to why we're doing what we're doing.

[00:17:14.82] So I have to sell it, I have to be like, hey, you want to play for a long time. You want to be in a stance. You want to make sure that you're not getting pushed off the block. You want to make sure that you're able to finish drives to the basket.

[00:17:26.72] What does that look like? You can't just show up and do that. So this is why we do this. This is how we do this. This is why this is important. So from, I think, an athlete standpoint, they need to see why we're doing what we're doing and how it's going to help them.

[00:17:40.91] Because, I mean, to be fair, up until this point they've been relatively successful as to why they've been able to come play basketball in college. And maybe they haven't had training to this caliber. So I'm like, all right, look at your high school self and now look at the level of SEC competitors that we have now, like certain women now-- not girls-- certain women now you're going to have to be able to hold your own against.

[00:18:04.82] So oftentimes, I think I prefer small group settings with my teams because I think it helps me hone them in a little bit. I think in an individual sport standpoint, I can go either way. I really can go either way. It just depends.

[00:18:21.83] What I've been able to learn is that with basketball, I think they like that individual attention. Maybe they don't necessarily see it on the floor so they can get in the weight room. That's just maybe an idea of why they might like it. But I seem to get more out of them that way, initially.

[00:18:37.79] Once I build the culture, once I can understand why we're doing what we're doing, why it's important, then I could probably put them more in a team setting so they can feed off each other. But I think it really just depends. It depends on the sport and the buy-in. So I honestly don't necessarily have a preference. Well, at the end of the day it's just to make sure that they're getting the most out of their training session and they can maximize their athletic potential.

[00:19:02.47] I think the big takeaway, I heard, was keying in on the individual motivation of the athlete. When you spoke to your athletic experience, you related that to teammates and being on a team, even though it was an individual sport. But even from a team standpoint, breaking it down into smaller groups and more manageable work sessions to be more targeted in your approach, it can go either way. So I think that's a really great outlook on that. And it's just maybe something we don't discuss or think about a lot, but something that we put in practice a good amount in this field.

[00:19:40.97] I want to ask you just about our field in general. What are some areas that you feel we do really well as a strength and conditioning field? And also, what are some areas that maybe we follow a little bit short?

[00:19:54.12] I think that our field, we have a very unique mix of art and science. We have a very unique mix of being able to be creative, but also be grounded in something that is based in numbers and percentages and loads and all those things. And it's our job to figure out the best way to convey what we need and to get the most out of our athletes, using all the information that we have.

[00:20:22.98] I love that we have the education. We have the certifications to basically key on on various sports and provide them with the training that they need. So we're not necessarily pigeonholed into being, like, hey, I'm a strength coach, but I'm only a basketball strength coach. Or, hey, I'm a football coach, but I'm only foot-- like, you can do all those things, because we, as strength coaches, are skilled to do those things.

[00:20:49.77] I love the fact that there are private sector jobs, that there are collegiate jobs, high school jobs now coming out, military training, professional. And I think there's a lot of avenues and areas in which we can express and we can perform our job. I think that's growing. And I love to see that.

[00:21:08.02] And it also bleeds over into things that I think that we need a little bit of work on. I think for the things that we do, I think as a whole, and I'm not talking about the outliers, I don't know how much we are necessarily fairly compensated for what we do all the time.

[00:21:28.79] I mean, to have a salary range from as low as they can get to as high as they can get, I think it can put a lot of people out. And when it comes to cost of living and just lifestyle and being able to support yourself and your family, I wish that there was a way for us to feel safer and feel protected and feel that, hey, at the drop of a dime I'm not just going to be out and I have to figure out what's next, whatever that looks like.

[00:22:00.98] I haven't quite figured out the science or how exactly how I want to fix that part of strength and conditioning yet. But I want to feel like I'm going into a profession that cares about me too. I want to feel like, at the end of the day, I'm not just giving hours and hours and travel and traveling, all my energy and effort. And then at the drop of a dime, boop, you're done.

[00:22:22.19] I want to feel that, whether that be support from either an organization or a university that, hey, we're going to make sure we do your due diligence before something else happens. And I could be echoed to other areas in coaching. But I think there is some, quote, unquote, "level of feeling disposable" that we have that I know I don't just feel that.

[00:22:44.46] And I know that it's something that I think would not only help people stay in and feel longer, so we don't experience max-out or experience these feelings of, like, while we are gone and they're just going to hire somebody else. We're valuable. We know what we're doing. We're actually a crucial part of every program.

[00:23:04.46] I mean, if anything, I see my players more than my actual coaches see my players. And I know that's the case at most programs. So treat us that way. Treat us like that we are that important. Show us that we matter like that, because, I mean, I believe that we do.

[00:23:19.97] We pour our heart and soul into this profession. We want to feel valued in our roles, at our institutions. There is a lot of uncertainty in our field.

[00:23:29.24] And I'll be very honest that I wouldn't have had the opportunities I had if there wasn't a little bit of luck involved. I have a have a good friend that in my time in one organization in professional baseball, he had about five or six different positions and stops and jobs and challenges along the way.

[00:23:53.96] And when people face those sort of challenges again and again, it leads to a lot of attrition in our field. And the salaries, I think, no one gets into this field for the money. It is nice to see some of those outliers when they get blasted out there in USA Today.

[00:24:13.97] But that's not the reality for most of us. And I think it's important to think about that. I think it's important to strategize how we can navigate that for ourselves, to give ourselves the best opportunities towards career advancement, but also think ahead in terms of what the field is going to look like a long ways away, but even just in the next few years.

[00:24:41.12] And that's a question I ask a lot of the guests on this podcast, a little bit of a projection. There's been so much advancement in this profession over the years. What do you see on the horizon? What do you see coming in the next five, 10 years that coaches should be aware of?

[00:25:01.33] That is a good question. And hopefully, I foresee myself being around to see it in five, 10 years, a relatively young coach. But I've started to see a lot of, I guess, merging in terms of your value. And that's another reason why I felt that it was necessary, one, for me to pursue all the levels of education that I have. Because as the field is so saturated, I needed to make sure and figure out a way to still be hireable, employable, attractive to people.

[00:25:39.71] So, yes, I have every education possible. Yes, I've competed at every level possible. And now what? So now I have to try to make sure I have all my certifications, to make sure I have something in nutrition, try to explore something in sports science, try to make sure that every area surrounding strength and conditioning, I've been able to touch, I've been able to be involved in, I've been able to contribute to in some way, shape, or form.

[00:26:08.15] So I think in the next five, 10, we're not just looking at strength conditioning coaches. We're looking at performance coaches that have degrees, that have strength conditioning, that have nutrition, that have sports science background, that have some level of-- could be counseling or some sport, like mental counseling or performance counseling, in my opinion, because I think we're trying to make sure we stay relevant to the times. And all those things are relevant and they're going to continue to be relevant moving forward.

[00:26:37.26] So I think we're going to start to be a hybrid in the best way we can. Not to take away from sports scientists specifically or nutritionists specifically, but I think that having something in each thing is going to make you valuable or keep you valuable. Because if that's the case, then they're going to have to hire a strength coach and they're going to have to hire a nutritionist and they're going to have to hire a sports science person.

[00:27:06.71] And if you're able to have all those three, and now it's like, oh, this is really attractive. We have this one person who can do all these things. I think more people are going to have to do those things to be employable.

[00:27:18.73] And it just goes through-- even the beginning of strength and conditioning, before it was a certification. And then after becoming a certification, it was a degree. And after the degree, it's like, all right, now you have to have your master's degree to be, quote, unquote, "employable." so I think as the time goes on, the requirement starts to elevate. And I think that's only going to continue, in my opinion.

[00:27:42.67] And I see that through an education lens too is we keep expanding our skill set. And that pushes us to the envelope of our scope of practice in a way. We are extremely dedicated to this profession and our athletes. And we want to make them better.

[00:28:00.60] There's an immense need to collaborate with our trainers and our dietitians and all the personnel on the performance team. But to do that effectively, we have to have knowledge in all those areas, or at least some knowledge in those areas. And that is progressing rapidly.

[00:28:18.38] I know on the sports science side, this is a conversation I have a lot lately. We're developing a new sports science certification with the NSCA. What is that going to mean for strength and conditioning coaches? And I think it really is going to, for coaches, provide another viable career opportunity beyond just pursuing that head strength coach role.

[00:28:42.50] For analytical-minded strength coaches out there that want to pursue that path, I think it's going to be a very valuable skill set to be able to do that. And that's what it's all about, just bettering yourself.

[00:28:56.18] You spoke to education, maximizing your education, certifications, all the different knowledge areas that you can work with. And I think it's a great outlook. And it speaks to the professional landscape of the field, where we're headed. I know the NSCA is working towards accreditation of the CSCS, similar to other allied health professions, like athletic training and physical therapy with accredited education programs.

[00:29:29.90] And that's going to be a change for the NSCA, for strength conditioning professionals in terms of our preparation and education. And I think it really does speak to that progression of education, of advancement. Every five, 10 years, we should be better, we should know more, we should have more areas that we're digging from. And I think that is a really positive message.

[00:29:54.98] Want to give our listeners an opportunity. If they want to reach out and connect with you, what's the best way to do that?

[00:30:03.72] Sure, let's see, the social media plugs would be the best. Let's see, I am on Instagram. That's Alison V. Randall. That's on Instagram. And I want to say that's the same on Twitter as well. I don't tweet as much as I should, I guess.

[00:30:17.79] That's another thing that I feel like, as coaches, we should probably start working on just from a holistic standpoint. But same tag on Twitter, and also my email address. You can reach out to me via email. That would be alisonrandall2@gmail.com. And just shoot me a line, shoot me anything, we can chat, we can set up a call or anything like that.

[00:30:40.98] But I mean, I'm really open to most any conversation, whether it's related to instruction, whether it's related to coaching, whether it's related to life. I mean, I'm also learning a lot. Any connections that I can make would be great.

[00:30:55.26] But I'm really just an open book. And I just appreciate, first off, you having me and just having the opportunity to just speak on a couple of things as it relates to the field. And I think it's just all great stuff, Eric. I just really appreciate you.

[00:31:10.38] Well, thank you. We're really happy to have you on. Personally, just great getting to know you, hearing your story, hearing your voice, and just what you're bringing currently in your role and just the path you took to get there.

[00:31:26.10] That's what this podcast is all about, just the stories of coaches and the paths we take to get where we're at. And we can learn from that. There's value in that. And really appreciate you spending the time with us.

[00:31:41.22] Absolutely, absolutely.

[00:31:43.56] To our listeners, thanks for tuning in today. We'd also like to thank Sorinex Exercise Equipment. We appreciate their support.

[00:31:50.05] From the NSCA, thank you for listening to the NSCA Coaching Podcast. We serve you, the coaching community. So follow, subscribe, and download for future episodes. We look forward to connecting with you again soon and hope you'll join us at an upcoming NSCA event or in one of our special interest groups. For more information, go to nsca.com.

[00:32:11.70] [MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:32:12.37] This was the NSCA's Coaching Podcast, the National Strength and Conditioning Association was founded in 1978 by strength and conditioning coaches to share information, resources, and help advance the profession. Serving coaches for over 40 years, the NSCA is the trusted source for strength and conditioning professionals.

[00:32:29.60] Be sure to join us next time.

[00:32:30.94] [MUSIC PLAYING]

Reporting Errors: To report errors in a podcast episode requiring correction or clarification, email the editor at publications@nsca.com or write to NSCA, attn: Publications Dept., 1885 Bob Johnson Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 80906. Your letter should be clearly marked as a letter of complaint. Please (a) identify in writing the precise factual errors in the published podcast episode (every false, factual assertion allegedly contained therein), (b) explain with specificity what the true facts are, and (c) include your full name and contact information.

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Eric L. McMahon, MEd, CSCS,*D, TSAC-F,*D, RSCC*E

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Eric McMahon is the Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager at the NSCA Headquarters in Colorado Springs. He joined the NSCA Staff in 2020 with ove ...

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Allison Victoria Randall, PhD, CSCS

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Dr. Allison Randall is currently serves as the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Vanderbilt Womens Basketball Program. Randall oversees the stre ...

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