Today’s podcast features Jon Stea. Jon is a strength and performance coach based in Vancouver with over a decade of experience developing athletes from youth to the professional level. Jon combines coaching practices with an overarching philosophy of sport and movement concepts.
As modern society advances, youth sports and adult movement practices are becoming increasingly rigid and specialized. Many athletes struggle to progress in their sport and lose interest once their competitive careers end. Adults engage in community-based fitness but often miss the opportunity to explore their full movement potential and the deeper fulfillment it brings. Understanding why we train and how to empower athletes in their unique process is more crucial than ever.
On today’s episode, Jon speaks on building a creative, authentic coaching process that gives athletes room to fail, learn, and grow, expanding their abilities over time. He discusses the importance of connection and environment in sports training, games, and movement challenges, gets into motor learning concepts, and speaks on the overall art of coaching athletes for their long-term success. This is a conversation that our current sports, and sports performance world, demands that we have, to offer athletes room to not only be better in their sport but move and play as their authentic selves, in their chosen practice.
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Timestamps
2:00– How having a personal substantial work capacity has shaped Jon’s viewpoints on training
7:00– Capacity and aerobic elements in a total athletic performance program, as well as programs with a focus on explosiveness
10:30– Jon’s beginnings in athletic performance
15:00– The nature of coaching education and sports performance career paths in the modern and technological age
21:30– How Jon’s training process has evolved, based on athlete perception, gameplay, and the total developmental process
38:30– Insights to the creative process of game development
49:00– The use of games for more advanced athletes, to help “re-expand” movement options and facilitate a joyful training environment
55:30– How Jon’s journey shifted over time, to a more games and motor learning-based approach to training
1:00:00– How and why motor learning is at the core of athletic development in a variety of training sectors
Quotes
8:00 “When you work your superpower, it sets you up for easy wins” Jon Stea
21:10: “After a while, it’s just about the connection you make with people. Coaching or training, whether it be through sports, strength and conditioning, or working at a gym, is just a vehicle for human connection”
24:10 “You have a lot of contact time with people in a low-stakes environment (personal training, strength and conditioning), where someone is allowed to screw up, and that’s almost the point of a session, I want to see you fail, so I know where we can improve”
24:45 “We want to do a lot of things in here that you fail at, so we can do more of those things”
25:10 “You want to be your authentic self as much as possible so that athletes feel they can be that too”
30:15: “What you do doesn’t matter as much as who you are (to the athletes)”
38:45 “Go over to the wall, pick up 2 pieces of equipment, and we are going to make up a game”
39:45 “I find youth athletes, that’s something I’ve found drilled into them so much, “how do we score points, how do we win”. Rather, how do we create the most beautiful game possible?
53:20 “Most people will go into sports and then stop once they leave high school… maybe if they had more fun they would stick with it”
1:04:30 “The best coaching is not coaching at all, it’s through inception where athletes thought about it on their own”
About Jon Stea
Jon Stea is a dedicated strength and performance coach based in Vancouver with over a decade of experience working with athletes across various levels and sports. Since 2013, Jon has helped transform athletes from undersized, undrafted youth players into collegiate, professional, and national-level competitors. His summer hockey program currently supports 13+ professional players, and his proven coaching methods have guided dozens of athletes to success in collegiate and professional sports.
Education & Certifications
Master of Kinesiology (Specialization in Coaching Science) – University of British Columbia
Graduating Paper: Physical Preparation for Ice Hockey: A Review of Biomechanics, Physiology, and Epidemiology
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (NSCA)
Jon’s passion for athletic development, combined with his deep expertise, continues to shape the next generation of athletes and empower individuals to reach their full potential.
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