Today’s episode features segments with Paul Cater, Rachel Balkovec and Rafe Kelley in part II of our mini-series on perspectives in this time of social distancing and staying-at-home on coaching, training and becoming the strongest version of ourselves.
Paul Cater is the founder of the “Alpha Project” in Salinas, California, and has over 18 years of experience as an international strength and conditioning coach. Paul has worked with the London Wasps Premier Rugby Team, the Baltimore Orioles, USA Rugby, as well as numerous high school, college and professional athletes. Paul has written a number of popular articles on Just Fly Sports on the topics of coaching, creativity and service, and makes his first appearance on the podcast.
Rachel Balkovec is a pro baseball hitting coach, working with the New York Yankees. She has made history in acquiring her role in her current position, as well as when she become a minor league strength and conditioning coordinator for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2011-15. Rachel has also worked in strength and conditioning for the Houston Astros, as well as the Dutch national baseball and softball teams as well as many other successful organizations. She recently appeared on episode 194 of this podcast talking about coaching and organizational leadership.
Rafe Kelley is the owner of Evolve, Move, Play, and was a guest on episode 174 of the podcast. Rafe’s primary specialization is parkour, and he also has experience in modern training disciplines such as sprinting, basketball, gymnastics, crossfit, FRC, modern dance and many others. Rafe’s passion to is help people build the physical practice that will help make them the strongest, most adaptable and resilient version of themselves in movement and in life.
This episode furthers our topic from last week, which is lessons learned from our “downtime” from in-person coaching, as well as how we are training and learning without our typical gym facilities. Times where things “contract” (as opposed to the typical expansion), as well as times of necessity are always powerful learning experiences, and I’ve learned something valuable from each of the 6 coaches in this short series, and I know you will as well.
Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.
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View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.Timestamps and Main Points
3:00 How spending so much time running a business had taken Paul Cater away from the core of training itself
7:45 Expanding the idea of storytelling in a training session and the importance of creativity in coaching
18:00 How sprinting should be a solid root of an athlete or even coach’s movement and training practice
25:20 How Rachel Balkovec has been adjusting her training routine since being taken from her typical gym
31:20 How Rachel maintains awareness, as well as trains, her breathing in various situations
38:50 Things Rachel is learning in general in this time period
43:20 How Rafe’s personal practice hasn’t been altered due to his “atypical” training environment
53:20 How a typical play session in nature can shake out for Rafe
58:20 Comparing the physical effects of natural parkour to other barbell practices
How introducing obstacles and challenges into running can improve engagement and variability
“It’s been a blessing to be forced to stay home” Paul Cater
“Most of the coaches I know and respect will put more of a priority on the barbell rather than the “sprint first” mentality, it’s the path of least resistance…. It’s harder to go outside and have a really in depth sprint session” Paul Cater
“Every training session really, is an experience. Within that every day is a story, an epoch, a saga of overcoming. Hill running is a metaphor… there’s something about running up a hill” Paul Cater
“There is something in animal intuition to ascend and to climb” Paul Cater
“I’m not the star of the story, I have to make the athlete the protagonist” Paul Cater
“I never pull a hamstring when I’m trying to catch a football” Paul Cater
“My goal is to have everyone leave the gym (inside or outside) with a story to tell and an own, and some sort of own discovery of creativity and that boils down the the warmup” Paul Cater
“These kids coming out of college are severely ill-equipped for teaching and engaging. It’s just a memorization game and a certification game” Paul Cater
“Holding your breath underwater while you are performing physical tasks is… really hard! You get out of the water from this training and you are exhausted, but your body doesn’t feel “it”.” Rachel Balkovec
“Holding your breath increases your CO2 tolerance” Rachel Balkovec
“When I have time to myself, I really have more of an aware relationship with my breath” Rachel Balkovec
“While I’m running, I’m trying to stay nasal breathing as long as possible” Rachel Balkovec
“I try to take note of my breath and let that be the indicator of what’s going on with me physiologically speaking” Rachel Balkovec
“Your body is so intelligent and often times will give you a signal of what is going on before you can process it… a lot of time we’re not cognitively aware, but our body is responding” Rachel Balkovec
“I don’t think you have to study coaching to be better as a coach, sometimes… being a well-rounded human gives you perspective, I want to always understand a big picture global view and be able to relate to a lot of people ” Rachel Balkovec
“That’s the level we are interested in: How do you make someone good at solving movement problems” Rafe Kelley
“We evolved to move through (information rich) environments” Rafe Kelley
“Why do you warm up? You need your body temperature to go up, you want to go through big ranges of motion, then you warm up also to get your nervous system and arousal up to an appropriate place and your emotions tuned in” Rafe Kelley
“No plan survives contact with the environment” Rafe Kelley
“Fundamentally it’s about being able to see the space, perceive it, and move through it… how do we improve the capacity of the athlete to move in their environment” Rafe Kelley
“The outdoor environment is a forgotten aspect of our culture” Rafe Kelley
“We fundamentally think that the purpose of your movement practice is the growth of you as a human being”
Show Notes
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About Paul Cater
Founder of The Alpha Project
Salinas High School, Varsity Baseball, Football 1995
UC Davis: Studied pre-law while playing UC Davis Varsity Football 2000
NSCA, Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist 2001
Poliquin Certified Level, 2
Internships include UCLA, San Jose State, San Francisco 49ers
Graduate Degree Exercise Science, Human Performance, Brunel University, London 2010
MSC Strength & Conditioning from Middlesex University, London 2011
Over 18 years of experience as an International strength and conditioning coach working with London Wasps Premier Rugby, Baltimore Orioles, USA Rugby and consulting numerous other High School, College & Professional Athletes
Late Stage Rehab Specialist
Phd Candidate focusing on Eccentric Overload through Rotary Inertial Flywheel Training, Recovery and Performance
About Rachel Balkovec
Rachel is a professional baseball hitting coach working with the New York Yankees. She was formerly a minor league strength and conditioning coordinator and coach for the St Louis Cardinals from 2011-15 (as the first female strength and conditioning coordinator in pro baseball), then switched to the Houston Astros Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator. She worked with the Dutch national baseball and softball teams in the past year while studying for her second master’s degree.
Rachel is also an international speaker, and entrepreneur. She has worked with some of the most successful organizations in sports such as EXOS, Louisiana State University, the Chicago White Sox, Arizona State University, Los Tigres Del Licey Beisbol, the St. Louis Cardinals the Houston Astros, and the New York Yankees. Rachel has two master’s degrees in human movement and performance, and is a native of Omaha, Nebraska along with being a former NCAA Division I softball catcher.
About Rafe Kelley
Rafe Kelley is the owner of Evolve, Move, Play, a business designed to use movement practice to develop more resilient and embodied humans. Raised by two yoga instructors, he was a basketball player and gymnast (and gymnastics coach) in his teens. Rafe started in the martial arts at 6 years old, studying Tang Soo Do, Aikido, Kung Fu, Kick Boxing, Brazilian Ju Jitsu and Muay Thai.
Rafe also has experience in modern training disciplines such as sprinting, gymnastics, crossfit, FRC, modern dance and many others. His primary specialization is in parkour, the practice of navigating obstacles by jumping, running, flipping or swinging over them, a skill set he primarily taught himself by watching videos and training deep in the woods.
Rafe co-founded Parkour visions at age 23, and eventually left to form Evolve, Move, Play. His students have included world-class parkour athletes and MMA fighters, as well as untrained grandmothers. His passion to is help people build the physical practice that will help make them the strongest, most adaptable and resilient version of themselves in movement and in life.
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