NSCA’s Coaching Podcast, Season 6 Episode 3: Glenn Revell

This episode features Glenn Revell, the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Central Catholic High School in San Antonio, TX. “Coach Rev” shares insights and advice with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, from his transition to high school strength and conditioning from the college setting. This is a great episode for all coaches, teachers, and leaders to realize their value and impact within their community. Tune in to learn about important areas to develop knowledge and skills outside of the traditional strength and conditioning education. 

 
Find Glenn on Twitter: @glennrevell | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs

“When you can really dig deep and develop them as people, not just as athletes. And that's something-- every coach develops their athletes as people in some form or fashion, but I think when you're in those high school years, it's really formative and that's when you can really dig deep and hopefully impact those kids in a positive way and make lasting changes.” 5:05

“So for me, it was all about making things simple and scalable and then providing that value to the program, the school, and the profession. So that's kind of what it broke down to me. And as far as X's and O's of what I do, there's nothing extremely complicated. What I've found is that high school kids, they want to lift heavy, they want to run and jump and feel athletic, and they want to compete in whatever way possible.” 21:02

“So in and of itself, I had paid for myself by reducing the injury rate. So we got healthier kids and the school, and the school district is spending less money paying for the injuries we don't have. And when you take those things, and you put what you do into language that, essentially, business people can understand, which is going to be your administrators, anyone like that, then they start to see the value. And you're portraying everything that you bring to the program, to the institution, to the profession.” 24:44

“For me, I really try to use the technology that we have to foster that competitive atmosphere, not so the kids get caught up in like, oh, Johnny is better than me. He's always running 2/10 of a second faster than me, but that's why I keep that data on them throughout all four years of their time with me because I'm like Yeah Johnny's 2/10 of a second faster than you, but you're 4/10 of a second faster than you were three years ago.” 31:05

[00:00:04.34] Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast season 6 episode 3. When you have those kids as high schoolers, that's when you can really dig deep and develop them as people, not just as athletes. But I think when you're in those high school years, it's really formative, and that's when you can really dig deep and hopefully impact those kids in a positive way and make lasting changes.

[00:00:27.38] 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.

[00:00:38.49] Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast. I'm Eric McMahon. Today, we're joined by Glenn Revell, the head strength and conditioning coach at Central Catholic High School in San Antonio, Texas. Coach Rev, thanks for being with us.

[00:00:51.86] Oh, Eric, pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:54.06] Yeah, we've been just connecting the last few weeks, and wanted to have this opportunity to have you on the podcast, learn a little bit more about your background. I think it's really exciting, right now, meeting coaches that are working at the high school level. How did you get started in the field, and take us up to your work now in the high school setting?

[00:01:13.86] Absolutely. So like most strength coaches, started as the athlete, and the coach that had the biggest impact on me, as a person, as an athlete, was my strength coach. But I just kind of poured some extra time and effort into me and helped me develop as a player. I played Division III football at Howard Simmons University, and then played for four years in the Arena Football League after that. And I kind of jokingly say, I outworked my talent level. And a strength coach obviously has a big part in that.

[00:01:40.15] And so when I retired from playing football, that was kind of something I wanted to pay forward to other athletes that were coming up. And as coaches, having been where those athletes are going, you can really coach them in an intent-specific way that other people who haven't played sports or haven't been where they are can't.

[00:01:58.23] So from there, I went to Angelo State University. I actually started as an unpaid intern-- had a lot of experience as an athlete but not a lot of experience as a coach. So I was an unpaid intern in the strength and conditioning department, but I was a graduate assistant in our kinesiology department. So that gave me a unique view of the theory and the practice. So I got to spend time in our Human Performance Lab doing Wingate tests, VO2 max tests, DEXA scans, blood lactate testing, and then I got to, in turn, take all that data and use it with my athletes and see how to really blend those two things together.

[00:02:33.04] So I did my graduate assistantship there. From there, I went to Eastern Michigan University, when Ron McKeefery was there. That was a really great experience for me. It timed out very fortuitously. He was about to publish his book CEO Strength Coach, so we as an internship class got to kind of preread his book before he put it out. And then, obviously, he won straight coach of the year later that year.

[00:02:54.66] After my time with Ron, went to the University of South Florida. I was under Willie Taggart's staff, and got my first full time NCAA strength coach job at West Virginia State University, a small Division II HBCU institute in West Virginia. And had a good experience there-- from Texas originally, so I kind of wanted to get back to Texas, so I made the move back to Texas. I was at Southwestern University, Division III school, and then the opportunity came up to take on a high school coordinator position for an entire school district down here in San Antonio.

[00:03:29.29] So I took that in 2017. I was there for three years. I oversaw one high school and two middle schools. I had about 1,000 athletes. I had six weight rooms on three campuses and about 50 coaches that were kind of my direct reports. So that was the crash course in going from being a technician as a strength coach to a manager of people, and really understanding how to run an organization.

[00:03:53.31] And now I'm at Central Catholic High School, founded in 1852, so less than 20 years after the [INAUDIBLE], we are the oldest all-boys Catholic private school in America. So that's kind of my journey in a nutshell.

[00:04:06.69] No, that's great. What I want to ask-- you came up through the college ranks like a lot of coaches getting that early experience. Was high school something that was on your radar, that you were actively pursuing? Was that something you considered when you first set in on getting into this field, or was it really just an opportunity that led you that way?

[00:04:30.45] Yeah, it wasn't something that was on my radar initially. Obviously, being a football guy, my goal kind of fresh into the industry was to be a head Division I football stadium conditioning coach. That was kind of what I had my sights set on. And like most college coaches kind of go through, you get your first job, and if the head football coach gets fired, you get fired as well. So that's kind of what happened to me initially.

[00:04:51.85] And as I made my way back to Texas and started looking into the high school realm, a lot of the things about the high school profession just kind of matched up with me as far as work-life balance, and really, I think the biggest difference besides the caliber of athlete you work with is when you have those kids as high schoolers, that's when you can really dig deep and develop them as people, not just as athletes. And that's something-- every coach develops their athletes as people in some form or fashion, but I think when you're in those high school years, it's really formative and that's when you can really dig deep and hopefully impact those kids in a positive way and make lasting changes.

[00:05:30.03] Yeah, going back to the beginning and strength and conditioning for a lot of athletes and a lot of coaches really started at 18 years old when you went off to college, if you were lucky enough to be a college student athlete. And I can speak to personally, but I think there were a lot of missed opportunities during the high school years, you could say, that relates to physical education and just a lot of different factors within the scholastic community, high school, middle school, all the way up. And it is really great to see high school programs adopting strength and conditioning practices.

[00:06:13.09] And I want to ask you a little bit about just sort of the admin of how you see high school strength and conditioning in the state of Texas. In San Antonio, I know listeners from all over the country probably look at Texas and think, wow, they have-- high school football is such a huge deal in Texas, and they have a ton of resources that maybe other parts of the country aren't pouring into their student athletes at that level. But give us a snapshot of what strength and conditioning looks like in the state of Texas with high school athletes?

[00:06:48.46] Yeah, absolutely. I think it is-- part of what you said is true. We're very fortunate to have a lot of importance placed on athletics, not only football, but just athletics in general. And so we're lucky that the administration, in general, in Texas is seeing the value in strength and conditioning for athletes, just because it's creating a better quality of life for these kids in the long run.

[00:07:10.18] Teaching them physical skills they need to know-- because PE programs have kind of become just like a holding place for kids that don't have a place to go in their schedule. So athletics has become where we could really develop the kids that want to kind of explore the physicality of what it is to be a human. So that's a really good thing. And I think it benefits kids in the long run.

[00:07:31.13] But I think for what it kind of looks like for me taking over an entire school district, it was a lot of coaching other coaches. And so I had, like I kind of mentioned before, three campuses, six weight rooms, roughly 1,000 athletes and 50 coaches. And it was one of those things where, coming from the college setting, I was used to being in the weight room and running every session. My fingerprints were all over everything. And I had to get used to the idea of now I'm coaching coaches, so if I'm with any given team about 50% of the time in the weight room, that's a win for me.

[00:08:02.32] And what I did was I spent a lot of time over the summer-- we have summer strength and conditioning and the coaches duties are less. The coaches duties are never done, as you know. What I did is I had every single coach in our district work with me and serve as my assistants throughout the sixth week of summer strength and conditioning. So then, essentially, they became my interns or my assistants, and I could give them hands-on coaching experience with me of how I wanted things run and how I wanted the weight room to look, and that allowed me to simplify and scale my programming and what I did as a coach.

[00:08:34.46] So a kid saw the same workout sheet and the same style of workouts from the time they were a seventh grader, whether it was boy or girl, all the way through their junior or senior year. So it's a really good lesson for me to figure out how to scale and streamline what I did as a coach and cut out all the fluff and really identify the fundamental things that make kids better athletes and develop them physically [INAUDIBLE] coaches. So not only do they get to make those kids better, but they improve as a coach in general.

[00:09:04.74] One thing this connects to-- we've talked a lot about just the leadership that strength coaches provide around their community. And I know in the college setting, you can feel pretty isolated or insulated from the community around you-- the campus-- I went to a small Division III college like you where the population of the town doubled or tripled when school sessions we're in.

[00:09:33.80] Definitely.

[00:09:34.79] The campus vibe, the campus community, really creates where your feet are and where your mind is in the college setting. You have an opportunity to connect with students, connect with parents, connect with teachers, and I think one thing at the high school level is you're a little bit more embedded in the community as a whole. Speak to some of the leadership things that you've taken on in the community and how that relates to your coaching?

[00:10:05.35] Absolutely. So for me, I really try to advocate for the profession of strength and conditioning outside of strength and conditioning. There's a lot of misnomers about what a strength coach is, what we do, and what kind of individuals we are. And even some of that just comes down to educators, or even coaches in general. And so my thought was to be seen in areas where strength coaches or educators normally aren't. So that's in the nonprofit sector, the businesses.

[00:10:32.11] So there's been some opportunities I've been afforded here in San Antonio. There's a leadership program here. It's been going on for 44 years. It's called Leadership San Antonio. It's through the Chamber of Commerce, and they take 60 professionals from any walk of life, any type of business, and you go through a year-long, essentially, training program. With your cohort, you learn about any and all things regarding economic development, mobility and transportation, whatever it takes to kind of run a city or an organization.

[00:11:00.27] And what I discovered was being in that room with high performers, whether they were CEOs of Valero, USAA, Frost Bank, or nonprofits, Susan G. Komen, Big Brother Big Sister-- all of those individuals have the same character traits [INAUDIBLE] coach and the things that coaches do. And what I saw was a lot of any high-performing individual is going to act the same way and do the same things, regardless of the situation and the setting that they're in.

[00:11:30.10] And I think that was a good experience for me because I got to see the best practices or best practices regardless of where you are, and then, for me, at representing coaches and educators, they got to kind of see how strength coaches, how educators, whatever, operate in the same way that they do. The setting is just different.

[00:11:47.83] So that's been a really good experience for me as an individual, and hopefully, for anyone that interacts with me as a representative of coaches and educators to kind of let them know how capable we are. Because a lot of times, they see coaches on a Saturday, on TV. With the high school, they see you on Friday nights.

[00:12:03.60] And they don't understand what goes into everything that we do as far as-- coaches are in charge of facilities, budgeting, fundraising, interacting with almost any person on a campus, whether it be a coach that you work with, an athlete that you coach, all the way to your administrators. Interacting with all in any stakeholders in an organization is something that strength coaches do regularly, and most of them do well. And it's those things, if you're good at those, then you're going to be a successful coach and your organization is going to benefit from it.

[00:12:36.33] It really it speaks to the scalability of our skills that too often we leave in the weight room and we don't apply outside the weight room with people that, oftentimes, will say, hey, they don't understand what we do in the weight room, or they don't understand what a strength and conditioning coach. Is it is really valuable to make sure you're getting outside your four walls and having those conversations, being involved, learning from businesses and your community, financial stakeholders, and just other areas that do relate back. And it really speaks to how we educate ourselves as coaches.

[00:13:15.39] I know Brett Bartholomew speaks to this a lot-- we've had him on the podcast before-- of look to the different fields and career paths and relate those lessons back to what we do, and that makes us stronger.

[00:13:28.14] I want to ask you about your educational path in strength and conditioning. Like many, and mentioned this before, you progressed through college strength and conditioning, the typical path-- GA, intern, assistant-- and found yourself in the high school setting. Do you feel that you were well prepared to work in the environment you're in now? And what recommendations do you have for students that may want to pursue careers at high school strength and conditioning in the future and they happen to be in school now?

[00:14:00.36] Yeah, kind of like you said, I kind of took your typical exercise science route. My master's degree was a little bit varied. I got to get a master's degree in coaching psychology, so that was really impactful for me as far as-- I think, coaching is communicating, and good coaching is extemporaneous, as far as meaning you have a plan and you have what you're trying to accomplish, and you may or may not have vary from what your initial plan was. And a lot of coaching is adjusting on the run and trying to get to your destination, and how you get there may vary. And so that was a good-- the psychology was a great thing for me as far as that.

[00:14:37.14] So getting to the high school level, obviously, a master's degree level with any kind of exercise physiology is going to be good for you because the biggest thing I found is you have a wider range of individuals. Kids are 13 to 18. There's many different kinds of 13-year-olds, just like there's many different kinds of 18-year-olds, depending on what their maturity level is, when they're hitting puberty, and so you get a lot of different factors you have to be aware of as you're programming is you're taking kids through workouts, all that kind of stuff.

[00:15:04.90] I was fortunate enough that I was not in the classroom, but a lot of times, these high school positions are incorporated with some kind of classroom teaching. So I think if you're a young coach considering the high school level, you need your exercise science base, your physiology, but the easiest way for you to get in the door is going to have some kind of educational degree or educational certification so you can-- in worst case scenario, they can put you in a classroom if they need to. And that, at least, gets your foot in the door and gets you on campus.

[00:15:36.19] Yeah, it's important to consider the opportunities you'll have by bolstering your credentials of being a certified teacher in addition to being a strength and conditioning coach, whether that's a PE teacher or more of an academic area. That can go a lot of different ways.

[00:15:54.52] And we actually did a salary survey a few years back, and it was pretty evident that coaches at the high school level with teaching credentials made almost double the salary of those that didn't have it. So it really was significant the impact, and just the quality of life, and you related back to work-life balance and, obviously, I think coaches today are a little more aware that your coaching is just one part of your life, and you need to have a grasp on other areas of your life that relate back to your coaching and how balanced you are and just how meaningful your life is and it's-- and the two go hand in hand.

[00:16:45.41] And so we talk a lot about salaries in this profession just because, oftentimes, they're low, and entry level salaries are low, and we're clawing for a little bit more income at various stages or working multiple jobs, but it really is a valuable thing-- if you want to work at the high school level, consider a teaching credential and what are going to be the factors that make you marketable in a public school district. Or do you want to work in a private school setting? Or just the realm of opportunities that exist out there.

[00:17:23.69] But it is a relatively new area, and I think it's exciting to have you on the podcast and share your path into high school, which what I've learned is everybody working in this space has a little bit different path to get there, but it is common to say that a lot of coaches find themselves in high school strength and conditioning today that maybe didn't seek that out.

[00:17:46.94] And I know at the NSCA, we're working to improve the viability of that career path quite a bit. We just launched a new Guide to High School Strength and Conditioning textbook that went out, and the response has been really positive. So it brings together a lot of these career projection and developmental conversations that we're having. So really appreciate you sharing that.

[00:18:13.67] I want to get into coaching philosophy a little bit. This is something you get asked a lot, whether you're an intern, a GA, working at the college level, but now at the high school level, how do you approach training with that sometimes prepubescent athlete all the way to some athletes in high school who are a little bit more physically mature? What's your general approach there?

[00:18:38.55] Yeah, absolutely. So kind of like what we've talked about, being in that coordinator position, it really forced me to make my philosophy simple and scalable. And so for me, I have four main parts to it-- intelligent relentless pursuit, and that comes from Jeff Connors' book Strength Coach-- A Call to Serve. He had a quote in here that I really like-- "Those with great spirit can never find enough time in the day to make themselves better."

[00:19:03.68] And I think anybody that's in strength and conditioning or coaching is-- they're about that growth mindset, they're about self-betterment, and kind of giving that to the people that they work with. And you can relentlessly pursue something, and you can put a lot of effort into it, but if you're not going about it intelligently and the right way, then you're kind of just spinning your wheels.

[00:19:22.41] The second one I have is simple, but not easy. And so for me, our training breaks down to posterior chain, a high baseline of absolute and relative strength, good movement and mobility quality, taking into consideration any kind of sport, whatever we need for the specific sport-- another little thing I have in there is a little something called head coach prerogative-- and at the end of the day, it's the head coach who's on the chopping block if his or her team doesn't perform well. So if there's something a head coach wants to do, after we have a conversation about it and I kind of figure out the why, then we'll put it in there.

[00:19:59.15] And then value added-- this is something that I added to my philosophy when I got into that coordinator position. And strength coaches add a lot of value. It's just a lot of time, strength coaches struggle with illustrating how much value they add. But does your program-- do you as a coach, do you add value to the programs you work with, to the institution you work for, and to the profession of strength and conditioning?

[00:20:24.35] And last but not least, people not pawns-- and this came from an experience I had during one of my internships. We visited a school, and I was kind of talking to the interns, and they would set up the weight room. When the team would go in and train, they would stand in the hallway. When the team left, then they would go in and clean up the weight room. And so they never got to have that good kind of coaching experience.

[00:20:48.21] And that was something I never wanted anyone that I work with, anyone that works for me, or any of my athletes to have. I want them to have a good experience and understand, I'm here to make you better as a coach, a person, an athlete, or whatever it is.

[00:21:02.34] So for me, it was all about making things simple and scalable and then providing that value to the program, the school, and the profession. So that's kind of what it broke down to me. And as far as X's and O's of what I do, there's nothing extremely complicated. What I've found is that high school kids, they want to lift heavy, they want to run and jump and feel athletic, and they want to compete in whatever way possible.

[00:21:31.30] So for me, that's just like a really basic linear progression program, just a really basic plyometrics, jumping, all that kind of stuff. And then at least once a week, I try to do something where we're competing in some way, shape, or form, whether it be on the field playing tug of war, something in the weight room, or anything like that, just to give them that feel of being an athlete and feeling athletic.

[00:21:53.33] Lots of great thought went into that obviously in so many takeaways I think for everybody listening. And one thing that really stood out to me is coaches have value but often struggle to illustrate their value in their professional settings. What are some of your thoughts on how we can be better at illustrating our value in our profession, regardless of your career stage?

[00:22:18.80] Yeah, absolutely. This is something that's a big passion of mine, and I just spoke on this a couple of weeks ago. So for me, one of the positions I was in was considered a nonessential position. So yearly, I would have to go to the administration and to the school board to justify why they should keep me on and why they should pay my salary. And essentially, I had to learn how to speak the language of business or administration. And so what that looked like for me was how do I convey my athletic performance metrics or my KPIs?

[00:22:50.05] And so for any kid in my program, regardless of sport, year, classification, I track their body weight, their body fat, their vertical jump, and then their bench squat and [INAUDIBLE]. I tracked that throughout the year for as many years as they're with me. So when someone wants to say, what's my kid doing? How are we looking? How we're looking at the program? I have that data to give them. And that's kind of what I would call adding value to the program.

[00:23:16.34] Now adding value to the institution, I do an annual fiscal review. Being at a private school, obviously, a lot of our funding is driven by enrollment. And so what can I do to add to that? So for me, whatever summer strength and conditioning camp we run, I do a middle school strength and conditioning clinic so kids can kind of see here's what our facility looks like, here's what our program is. If you choose to come to school here, this is what you get involved with-- any kind of clinics, and any kind of fundraising.

[00:23:45.44] And so that way, people are seeing a fiscal and a monetary value to what I'm doing. And I put that on paper every year so they can see it. And the number one way that I've done that, [INAUDIBLE]-- and a big one for me is tracking our injury data. And it just kind of breaks down to our soft tissues, our noncontacts, any breaks, tears, and sprains. And one of the places I worked, the students could buy health insurance through the school.

[00:24:12.15] And so I kind of figured out-- I did some math, I talked to our athletic trainer, our finance office, and every time a kid tore their ACL, it was $5,000 out of the school's pocket if they're on school insurance. And so the three years I was at this institution, we ended up having a 67% reduction in ACL tears, which, fiscally, the number of ACL tears that we had equated directly to my salary, oddly enough. It was the same amount of money we saved on ACL surgeries was my salary.

[00:24:44.29] So in and of itself, I had paid for myself by reducing the injury rate. So we got healthier kids and the school, and the school district is spending less money paying for the injuries we don't have. And when you take those things, and you put what you do into language that, essentially, business people can understand, which is going to be your administrators, anyone like that, then they start to see the value. And you're portraying everything that you bring to the program, to the institution, to the profession.

[00:25:14.25] And what I discovered was when that started happening, all of that funding that I wanted, the equipment that I wanted to buy, the things that I wanted to do, all of those opportunities opened up to me because now they could see the value and knew what they were investing in.

[00:25:30.08] A lot right there-- value to your program, value to your institution, and data to support your program and, obviously, your employment in the program. And those are really great points to bring up when you're doing an annual review and trying to demonstrate it that we are essential. We are essential to our communities, to our kids, to our schools.

[00:25:57.11] I think that term, just through COVID 19, of nonessential versus essential, I think it's going to have some real damaging effects on society as a whole when we talk about mental health and wellbeing and all these things, and it does relate closely to our profession, where we have struggled with salaries and justifying our worth at our institution. So I really appreciate you sharing that.

[00:26:26.97] I want to ask you, you clearly have a strong passion for this profession, found yourself in a setting that you didn't really seek out but are thriving in. What do you love about this profession the most, and what's an area that we could be a little bit better in that will help us in the future?

[00:26:52.86] I think, for me, I love the relationships that I get to form. And I've loved that ever since I started playing sports. I've always loved sports, and then as I played them and as I went through that, I realized what I really loved about sports was the relationships I got to have with my teammates, with my coaches, with the athletic trainers.

[00:27:10.68] Those are the things, when athletes look back on their career, they're going to remember the big wins they had on the field or on the court or wherever it was and they're going to remember the hard workouts they did because shared suffering creates bonding. When everybody gets together 5 to 10 years later, those are the things that they talk about.

[00:27:29.94] And even as coaches, as strength and conditioning coaches, I'm starting to see I think a lot more unity, just from the profession in general. And all those things are coming together. I think to make-- what's going on conditioning is really special, and now I think, as strength coaches shift their mindset, obviously you have to have the exercise science background. You have to be able to get in the weight room and program effectively and make your athletes better.

[00:27:57.81] But kind of like you mentioned, as strength coaches start to realize how entrepreneurial we are and all the great characteristics we have, kind of that Brett Bartholomew, that [INAUDIBLE], that [INAUDIBLE], as we start to prove our value to athletic departments, I think within the next 5 to 10 years, it's starting to look like-- strength coaches are now in positions where they're helping to run and direct athletic departments to be really successful because strength coaches are used to working with sport coaches. They're used to managing talent. They're used to directing reports, delegating-- communicating is what we're excellent at.

[00:28:35.27] And once you take all those things, you get someone that's capable into a higher level, that's only going to benefit your organization. As they say, rising tide lifts all ships, and I think that when a strength coach is at the pinnacle of what the best they can be, then that's kind of what it looks like. And if that's not you as a strength coach, if you just love the science and you love to get the data and analyze that, then that's cool. Just be the best be the best data practitioner-based strength coach we have.

[00:29:03.39] But if you're a person that does love interacting with people and think you can make people better by interacting with them, you can't not do anything but that because that's what's going to help every single person.

[00:29:15.74] I think that really is a great segue into what we see today-- there's definitely a lot of analytical-minded strength coaches out there, and a lot of that relates to the technology that we're seeing enter weight rooms. One thing, and I think the high school student community really thrives in this, is technology and being able to filter a lot of information, just because they have to on a daily basis every time they log on to Facebook or go on to their email or their phone.

[00:29:51.17] What do you see in the weight room? And how do you use technology in the weight room maybe differently than we have in the past in this field? And what do you see as technology leading the field in the future-- just some of the direction that you might see building?

[00:30:08.70] Yeah, as far as the personal technology I use, we've got some laser timers. We've got a Just Jump mat. I do a lot of my stuff through Google Sheets because that's the easiest way for me to share it with our kids and with our coaches. And so whatever their goals are, whether it's there are certain metrics I want them to hit on a lift, those things are always available for those kids. So on their workout sheets, those goal weights, what they're aiming for in the long run, are available for them to see.

[00:30:36.91] And then as far as-- we use our Just Jump mat for some readiness factors just to see how our kids are. And I think you start to see this a lot with your laser timing systems is your fly tens, your fly fifteens, whatever they are, we're ranking-- the kids are running, we're ranking them, and we're publishing them. Maybe we're not putting them on Twitter, but there's somewhere in the fieldhouse for those kids to see, so they can-- because kids are going to compare where they are with their teammates, and that's going to encourage that competitive mindset and kind of that growth and that factor.

[00:31:05.71] So for me, I really try to use the technology that we have to foster that competitive atmosphere, not so the kids get caught up in like, oh, Johnny is better than me. He's always running 2/10 of a second faster than me, but that's why I keep that data on them throughout all four years of their time with me because I'm like Yeah Johnny's 2/10 of a second faster than you, but you're 4/10 of a second faster than you were three years ago. And that way, they always see what that improvement looks like. So that's the main way I use technology with whatever I have available to me.

[00:31:38.37] Yeah, it supports things we've been doing for many years in this profession-- as evaluation tools, goal-setting tools, and maybe the biggest one is communication tools. Technology, first and foremost, allows us to communicate more effectively with everyone around us, and that does extend into the weight room.

[00:32:01.77] I think it's really great. We've talked about a lot today from coaching pathways leading to high school strength and conditioning, a little bit on technology and business skills, and some of the resources and just steps that you experienced that guided you in this path. And I really appreciate you taking the time today.

[00:32:26.92] Oh, absolutely, my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

[00:32:29.49] Coach Rev, if anyone wants to reach out, learn a little bit more about work in high school setting, or anything you've talked about today, what's the best way to do that?

[00:32:38.48] Yeah, absolutely. Easiest way to find me is on Twitter @glennrevell G-L-E-N-N R-E-V as in Victor E-L-L. That's kind of my professional social media account. I have a podcast that I do with a cohort of mine, it's called The G Cast. It's available on iTunes or on SoundCloud for our Android users out there. So the podcast is just for coaches, teachers, and leaders to talk about anything from organizational theory to growth mindset to self-betterment practices, and just really anything we think is going to help benefit anyone in a position of leadership.

[00:33:17.10] That was Glenn Revell, head strength and conditioning coach at Central Catholic High School in San Antonio, Texas. To our listeners, thanks for tuning in. We'd also like to thank Sorinex Exercise Equipment. We appreciate their support.

[00:33:30.73] Thanks for listening to another episode of the NSCA Coaching Podcast. We value you as a listener just as we value your input as a member of the NSCA community. To take action and get involved, check out volunteer leadership opportunities under Membership at nsca.com.

[00:33:49.66] 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. Be sure to join us next time.

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