Today’s show features a roundtable discussion featuring Jeremy Frisch, Austin Jochum and Jake Tuura. Jeremy is the owner of Achieve Performance Training, Austin runs Jochum Strength, and Jake is the owner of “Jacked Athlete”. All three of these individuals were previously strength coaches of NCAA DI institutions before getting into the private sector of training.
Recently Jake hosted Austin on his podcast, having a conversation about quitting their jobs as NCAA strength coaches to venture into the private sector. I found that talk very interesting, as I’ve recently been in the same situation, and I think a lot about the way that modern sport and university “systems” are put together. Often times, we are victims of either in-effective, or over-structuring in organizations, in a way that can leave us disconnected and/or overly-compartmentalized. In a variety of “private sector jobs”, people tend to wear more hats. In sports performance, this could be: strength coach, skill coach, fitness coach, and physical educator to name a few.
Today’s show isn’t so much about quitting a scholastic strength coaching job, but more-so on the experience of now-private sector coaches who wear those multiple-hats. It’s on how that helps us view the predicament of modern sports in a new way, along with engineering solutions. Despite our coaching setting, we all should aspire to be problem solvers.
On today’s episode, our panel speaks on paths away from the college training sector, and how getting into the private sector has allowed them to really focus on the pressing needs in modern sports, such as the “lost” art of physical education, play and then a greater understanding on building robustness and keeping athletes healthy. Whether you are a scholastic or private coach, this is a great show to step back and take a more zoomed-out perspective on effectively training athletes for long-term success.
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Timestamps and Main Points:
3:22 – Jeremy, Austin and Jake’s story of transitioning into the private sector of performance
12:30 – How the extra work a college strength coach puts in can fall to the wayside when a sport coach doesn’t listen or runs a poorly designed practice plan
22:12 – What are some of the big elements of change that have come with moving from the college gig to the private sector
36:10 – “Weaponizing” what you are passionate about in training and performance
38:12 – What Jeremy Frisch has seen from 12 years of being in the private sector, how much he feels kids can get back if they miss critical movement skills early on
42:44 – Where Austin and Jake see their process moving in the next 10 years as coaches, now that they have more freedom to explore things they want
51:35 – Jeremy’s take on the importance of physical education for strength and sport coaches
58:34 – Questioning old narratives of warmups and training in sports performance
1:03:46 – Closing thoughts on the integration of sport and strength and conditioning
“Why is everything so isolated in sports, why do we have so many people who specialize in one thing”
“My first month (as a DI strength coach) I realized that a lot of athletes had limitations that I wasn’t going to fix, and over time that sort of got to me, and I realized I could really make a difference if I went back and worked with younger athletes”
“When I was at Holy Cross I had 15 teams throughout the year”
“We have to earn our jobs with new tools, with new shiny toys we present to the sport coach”
“I never feel like I am dying in a game when I am going out to catch a pass, I’m pretty recovered, we don’t have to run to death…. Now I don’t have to worry so much about what the head coach or anyone above you (is thinking) being in my own facility you can make those decisions you need to make and not worry about who is looking over your shoulder”
“I started realizing, if I would have just had this kid a few years earlier, it would have made a huge difference”
“Being a dad of 4, I’m so much more patient than I used to be”
“I do less strength and conditioning now, and more sport skills training now”
“(When being a private sector coach) Winning is not your customer anymore, now that athlete is your customer… you actively get rewarded for getting better”
“(In the private sector) There is nothing to complain about, if I’m in the private sector, it’s all on me”
“If you can teach kids these movement skills before they hit puberty, you are really going to help them out a lot… when their body they are really going to hold onto those things”
“Kids that have done gymnastics or just any movement based background, they pick up new skills faster… how can you get people better at picking up new skills? I think that’s where the sports performance model can go to”
“If you specialize early, the chance of patella-femoral pain is twice as much as it was before”
“Humans, dogs and horses get tendonopathy, and they are the only animals getting it”
“Have a different passion, have a different hobby, be interested in something that’s outside of the weightroom”
“Many coaches would be better off getting a minor in phys-ed along with the strength and conditioning training”
“If all you know is how to lift weights, and you want to make money off of kids, you are going to train them like little adults… and the kids are bored as hell”
“If you want me to look like a good strength coach, then get a good recruiting coordinator”
“The best athletes are the best and we still don’t know why they are that way, but it’s probably not because of the model we have as a strength coach”
About Jeremy Frisch
Jeremy Frisch is the owner and director of Achieve Performance Training in Clinton, Mass. He is the former assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Holy Cross athletic department. While there, he worked directly with the Crusader men’s basketball team, in addition to serving as the strength coach for Holy Cross’ men’s soccer, men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball, softball, field hockey, tennis and women’s track & field squads.
Prior to joining Holy Cross, Frisch served as the sports performance director at Teamworks Sports Center in Acton, Mass., where he was responsible for the design and implementation of all strength and conditioning programs. He also served as a speed and strength coach for Athletes Edge Sports Training, and did a strength and conditioning internship at Stanford University. Frisch is a 2007 graduate of Worcester State College with a bachelor’s degree in health science and physical education. He was a member of the football and track teams during his days at Worcester State and Assumption College.
About Austin Jochum
Austin Jochum is the owner of Jochum Strength where he works with athletes and washed up movers to become the best versions of themselves. He also operates The Jochum Strength insider which is an online training platform for people trying to feel, look, and move better. Austin was a former D3 All-American football player and a hammer thrower (MIAC weight throw champion) at the University of St.Thomas,
About Jake Tuura
Jake Tuura, MS, CSCS currently works at Velocity Training Center as a strength and conditioning coach. Prior to Velocity, Jake was a collegiate S&C coach for 7 years.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Superior (2014) and his Masters from The College of St. Scholastica (2015).
His website: jackedathlete.com helps athletes gain copious amounts of muscle, jump higher, and rehab from jumper’s knee.
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