February 15, 2025 • 34 mins
At just 24, Jackson Lantz carries the coaching wisdom of someone twice his age. A former multi-sport athlete at Hamilton Southeastern High School and a Division I football player at Ball State, Jackson quickly transitioned from athlete to coach—spending valuable time as a strength coach at Indiana University and also working with other elite programs like the University of Utah and the New York Giants.
In this episode of Coaching Minds, Jackson shares the habits and principles that set great coaches apart. His ability to communicate effectively, stay meticulously organized, and prepare relentlessly made him a standout among coaching staffs. He dives into the importance of having your own work done, walking into meetings with solutions instead of problems, and setting a high standard for both yourself and those around you.
Jackson’s insights go beyond the weight room—this is a masterclass in how young coaches can earn respect, make an impact, and position themselves for success at the highest levels. If you want to be an elite coach, this episode is packed with actionable advice you can start using today.
Are you an ATHLETE looking to take your training to the next level? Check out our website to learn more about 1-on-1 training opportunities:
mentaltrainingplan.com/athletes
Are you a COACH looking for an affordable year-round mental performance training program? Check out the MTP Academy available through our website:
mentaltrainingplan.com/academy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, welcome to the Coaching Minds podcast, the
official podcast of MentalTraining Plan.
We help individuals perform attheir best when it matters the
most Today.
Very special guest JacksonLance, thank you so much for
joining us today.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Of course, Ben.
It's great to be here and thankyou for having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So tell us a little bit about just kind of where
you've been, maybe some of thebackstory you know as an athlete
, and then kind of getting intothe professional world, and
we'll sort of really want tojust dive into your story today
before we get to where you're atnow.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
So start off as an athlete asmost kids do.
Grew up here in Indianapolis,indiana.
Went to Hamilton SoutheasternHigh School.
That school district was a bigfootball and track guy.
Growing up Dabbled in a littlebaseball but that was just too
slow of a game for me.
So track and football were mymain thing, more of a track
athlete, and so did all theround circuit in the local
(00:57):
Indiana area, ran for theFisher's Fire, which was a great
time and a great experience.
Also played football, startedoff in flag back all the way in
the first grade, flag in thesecond grade.
Then when the pads came out inthird grade, that's when things
really started to get fun.
So third, fourth, fifth, sixthgrade played football, ran track
and had a great time doing it.
(01:17):
Track started tapering off thecloser I got to high school,
because that's when I reallystarted taking football pretty
serious.
I saw all the collegiateathletes.
I saw them playing football inthe pads and the gear and I know
that's something I aspired andit wasn't something I wanted to
do.
And so once I kind of got thatgoal in mind to play division
one collegiate football, I kindof stopped running track, which
(01:37):
now, looking back on.
It maybe wasn't the bestdecision in terms of speed
development, but at the time Ireally just wanted to focus all
my energy on becoming the bestfootball player that I could.
Um, so when I got to juniorhigh, ran track a little bit,
but then, right when I got tothat eighth grade year, I'm like
you know, pops and my mom, I'mlike I'm gonna stop running
track and just focus on football, focus on training and going to
camps during the summer andreally focus on honing my craft.
(02:00):
And so freshman year, highschool, hampton, sastern, just
really focused on football, andit was.
I had a great time.
Um, some right at all the campcircuits went college to college
, camp to camp, coach to coach,not only to get better but to
show my skills, you know, at theuniversity and colleges.
And that was joyous.
And of course, that came withhis own stressors, obviously.
You know, being the kid that Iwas, I always wanted to perform
(02:22):
at the best of my abilities atall times.
Now I came to the conclusionthat wasn't possible, but I
still held myself to a prettyhigh standard.
And so once I got to my senioryear at Hamilton, southeastern,
and was able to you know, lookat the colleges that had offered
me scholarships as well as lookat my PWO or my preferred walk
on offers.
Ultimately, I decided to walkon at Ball State University as a
(02:43):
wide receiver, had a couple ofdivisional offers,
scholarship-wise for them to payfor my schooling.
But the MAC was calling my name, and so was Ball State, and I
wanted to stay in state, closeto family, and luckily I had
parents who were willing tosupport me and they knew that,
with me going to the school,playing football, then also
looking to get an education Iwas going to take both just as
serious as the other, and Iwasn't going to prioritize my
(03:04):
athletics over my academics, andso they really pushed me to go
there as well, as they werefeeding into what I wanted.
So I got it done, went to BallState, graduated from HSC 2019,
played football at Ball StateUniversity for about a year.
Then COVID hit that March ofwhat was it?
2021, I believe.
So we all got quarantined andsent home, which was quite the
(03:27):
experience, I think, for theentire country, Kind of a shock
that all of our wars got turnedupside down like that.
And so at Ball State, I was acommunications major, so I had
to take all that school home andI also played football.
And so coming home while alsobeing a student athlete, I mean
came with its chore of justresponsibilities that you had to
handle, um, and that's not onlybetween meetings held on zoom,
(03:48):
but then also workouts that werebeing sent to you.
In terms of everything was athome modified.
You know I'm out heredeadlifting couches, um, pushing
cars in the streets, um.
I also went and got my ownweight equipment because I still
want to fall behind.
You know, being a walk-on, Iwanted to make sure that I was
upholding the standard of BallState athletics and then, as
(04:08):
well as developing my body to apoint where they're going to
find a way to put me on thefield.
So I came home during that timeand came a month in, two months,
in I kind of was sitting aroundand looked at my pops and I was
a communications major andreally just chose that major
because it was the easiest one Ithink they offered.
I walked in.
I said I play ball, I reallydon't do school.
So I said give me the easiestmajor you got, and
(04:30):
communications, was it?
No hate to any communicationsmajor?
That's just what they said atBall State.
And so I went to my pops andsaid, hey, I really don't know
what I want to do.
I mean, I'm communications, I'mplaying ball, I'm home.
During COVID, there's talks forour season getting canceled.
He's like you know, jack, let'sjust wait till everything gets
back subtle, to normal.
Obviously, right now things arein flux and you kind of are in
this weird spot.
(04:50):
So, after talking with myparents that's kind of the
conclusion we went to and then Igot back to school and we were
about ready to get fired up andI called my dad again and my mom
and I said, hey, pops and mom,this is something I think I want
to do.
I think I want to stop playingball.
I think I want to focus on myfuture, focus on my education
and really find out what I wantto do in life.
I really didn't think I wasgoing to be an NFL guy, and
(05:11):
that's not me not havingconfidence in my abilities, but
that's just me understanding thegame itself and seeing the
players around me and seeing myskillset and seeing how that
best would translate.
And so, after I kind of madethat conclusion, sat down with
my coaches Coach Bailey, coachNew was very thankful for the
opportunity, but they wereunderstanding a path that I
wanted to go.
(05:31):
So that December, in 2020, Imade the decision to change my
major to exercise science.
Then what also came with thatdecision was finding a different
school that was going toprovide me the best education
for that major, and that wasIndiana University, bloomington.
So January 2021, I transferreddown to Indiana University
Bloomington and that's kind ofwhat got me kickstarted on now
my professional career, which isa personal trainer.
(05:53):
I initially started as astrength and conditioning coach,
got down there December 2021,sorry, january 2021.
And I got met with a personnamed Lainey Depp.
She was actually one of myteachers with my only in-person
class during the COVID, andduring this class we had a
Friday free day.
I brought in a written workoutthat was something similar to
(06:14):
what we've done at Ball State,but then something similar to
what I also do on my own time.
She looked at it.
She goes wow, this is a greatworkout.
She goes are you interested instrength conditioning?
I'm like you.
You know I just switched toexercise science.
I'm really just dabbling in thefield.
And she goes would you like tobe an intern for indian
university olympic sports?
And I'm like you know why not?
Why not see what it's about?
And so that summer, um, I gotintegrated into indian
(06:36):
university athletics as anintern for their olympic sports
athletes and for all who don'tknow, the olympic sport athletes
were all the athletes that werenot men's football and men's
basketball, so that's that'sanything from rowing to women's
basketball that I worked withthat summer, and it was
phenomenal experience.
I'm really focused on workingwith teams like men's baseball,
track and field, and then reallyhoned in on men's soccer, which
(06:59):
was, honestly, at the time, oneof Indiana's best teams
umigning national champions,always ranked top five and so
that was a team that I wasextremely blessed to work with,
because the athletes are prettyincredible.
From then on, I continued myeducation and in the following
summer in 2022, I actuallyintegrated with the Indiana
University football team.
Now, looking back on it, Ialways said I was never going to
(07:19):
be a football strength coach.
I ran at 4 am, 3.
350 am.
I looked over.
I said, yeah, that's not for me.
I'm gonna go with Olympicsports.
You know, showing up at 7 amand calling it a done deal, but
something was calling me towardsthat, and I think it was not
only my passion for football butmy willingness and wanting to
get better in the profession andI feel like that was just an
area of growth for me and sinceit was something I was shying
(07:42):
away from, like, you know, let'sjust flip the script and go
attack and see how it goes.
So that summer got integratedwith them.
You know, head strength coachthere was Aaron Wellman, who's
now a player development coachwith the New York Giants.
He integrated me and he kind ofsat me down and went over what
it meant to be a strength coachat the football level.
You know, coaching Olympicathletes is one thing, but
(08:07):
coaching division one power fivefootball players is a
completely other thing, you know, and I'm close to their age,
and so it came with a differenttype of responsibility and
mindset.
So these, these athletesunderstood kind of what I had
going on and kind of what I knewabout the profession itself, so
got integrated with them in2022 and actually stayed with
the football team the entiretyof the remainder of my college
academic career.
So that was an entire year andalmost eight months I was with
(08:28):
the team.
December 2023 was my last monthwith them and it was an amazing
experience.
Loved IU, loved the school,loved the kids, loved the
coaching staff, and working forsomeone as renowned as renowned
as coach Wellman I mean, thethings this man was able to
teach me at the facility interms of strength conditioning,
in terms of life, is somethingthat I'll never get back.
And then, from my graduation in2023 December at IU, hopped in
(08:52):
the car and actually drove outto Salt Lake City, utah, and
that's where I became a paidintern for the University of
Utah football team and was withthem for three months, all the
way up until March.
I also dabbled with their men'stennis team as well and served
as an assistant strength coachwith them, which was an awesome
experience.
But in March, I actually got acall from my old coach, aaron
Wellman, who is now head ofplayer development with the New
(09:15):
York Giants, and he said hey,jack, I know you're out there
with Utah.
We're not trying to steal youaway from them, but we're trying
to get somebody an intern paidhere, that's integrated, that
knows the way I go about mybusiness, and someone where you
don't have to catch up to speedand he goes.
I know your name was at the topof my list and so I just want
to give you a call and if you'reinterested in, let's take some
(09:36):
next steps.
And so I was like coach, thisis just a phenomenal opportunity
and it's definitely something Iwant to do.
So after we got the ballrolling on that and I was able
to sit down with my Utah coachesabout this opportunity, end of
March around my birthday,actually March 27th this was
when I hopped in the car, cameback to Indiana, repacked some
things up, got re-situated andthe week later I was off to East
(09:56):
Rutherford, new Jersey, where Imoved into a studio apartment
there and just got after it withthe New York Giants.
Luckily, their facility is inNew Jersey and not in the city,
so I didn't have to worry aboutdealing with Manhattan and all
that stuff.
So it was an easy commute towork only about nine to 10
minutes.
But work with the Giants isagain another experience that
I'm extremely thankful for.
Unfortunately, my time with theGiants is again another
(10:17):
experience that I'm extremelythankful for.
Unfortunately, my time with theGiants got cut short three
months into.
It had a slight back injury.
That kind of set me back alittle bit, and the way I go
about this profession and doingmy job, I always want to do it
at the highest capacity.
So I got this back injury and Inoticed myself slowing down.
I noticed myself not able togive my all to these players.
I knew it was time to reallythink about getting back into
(10:37):
recovery mode and getting mymindset back so I can hop back
into coaching at the highestlevel.
I sat down with coach andbeginning of summer around May
time is when I came back toIndiana.
Luckily my parents were veryaccepting of that and they knew
I like to take care of my bodyand they know the type of level
I want to coach at and so afterI was done with the Giants, came
back in the summer, healed up,and that's when I got integrated
(10:57):
into personal training andthat's kind of what I do now.
So started off over at CrunchFitness, which was a phenomenal
time.
Had up to 15 clients there andthey were all phenomenal.
Different goals, different ageranges.
I've been working with the 1%athletic type for a couple of
years now, and so being able towork with somebody as young as
25, but then as old as 57 was anawesome experience and just
(11:18):
seeing how it was different fromtraining NFL guys to these
people, but then how much morefulfilling.
It was to kind of be, you know,boots on the ground here and to
really help these people reachtheir goals.
You know, getting athletes toreach their goals is something
that I will always cherish andwill love, but taking somebody
who never thought physicallythey could take themselves
somewhere and bring them to thatpoint, that's just an
otherworldly experience for me.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Now I love that man.
We had talked about a littlebit how the mental side of
things and the physical side ofthings are so intertwined
together.
Were there any times that youcan identify that you went
through your own struggles onthe mental side from an athletic
standpoint or even in into yourprofessional career?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean I think I can point outmany moments and back in my own
time as an athlete as well as mycareer, but I'll say stuff from
both.
As an athlete, I would say thehardest times for me mentally
were game days and it almostfelt like it was just a buildup
effect.
You know the game days were onFriday in high school.
It was just a buildup effect.
You know the game days were onFriday in high school.
(12:20):
And so you build Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, even that
previous weekend, sunday,saturday, after the previous
Friday game, I was stillbuilding and so I was just big
on focusing on game day.
But it actually took over thedays leading up to it and so
that was my biggest struggle wasfinding the ability to detach
myself from game day and just bein the moment, be at practice
(12:41):
number one on Monday, practicenumber two on Tuesday, three on
Wednesday and so forth, so thatwhen it came game day, it wasn't
that I was thinking about gameday for five days straight.
It was that Friday hit, thatmorning hit, I snapped into it
and I kind of got into it.
But that was my biggest thingis I was really big on this
leading up until game day theprior days is having my mind
focused on that 7.00 PM starttime instead of focusing on that
(13:03):
day and when I kind of the taskI had to get done.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Sure, and then the you know, as you kind of, as you
kind of shifted gears into theprofessional world.
I mean, here you are, you knowyou're.
How old were you when youstarted working with IU football
players?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
So at that time I was 22, 22 years old.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
So I mean, you got, you got some probably some 22
year olds in that room with you.
What was that like Kind of thatexperience of you know you're?
You're trying to portrayyourself as this professional
that's there to help them.
It's there to guide them.
Is there to you know kind of beto help them.
It's there to guide them.
Is there to you know, kind ofbe instructing them, telling
them what to do, leading them.
And it's there's also some ofthe maybe intimidation factor of
(13:47):
do I have what it takes?
Am I experienced enough?
How'd you, how'd you overcomethat?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, um, that's a great.
It's a great point Cause that'ssomething I really felt strongly
Guys being my age, gainingrespect for them, and the way
that I fought through it was twokey things.
When I first had gotten there,aaron Willman said in order for
these guys to respect you, nomatter the age, you need to
capture their mind, you need tocapture their heart.
(14:13):
If you can do those two things,these men will respect you at
any age.
And what that means is capturingtheir heart is knowing that you
got their back and you're therefor them at every stage.
A lot of coaches are bigyelling, big pointing, big, do
this, do that, but these playersdon't understand if you're
actually there for them.
So capturing their heart inthat way is one way to go about
it, and the other way wascapturing their mind, and that
was just knowing what you'retalking about, stud, studying
(14:34):
the lift, studying the movementsthat we got going on that day,
studying the reps, the sets, theweights, even studying the guys
, knowing their names, knowingtheir stories, knowing where
they're from, where they comefrom, and it just brings those
two things together.
So, at the end of the day, allthe that worry and that stress
that I had leading into it wasslowly brought down by me really
getting attached to theirhearts and coming across as a
guy who was knowledgeable in thefield and knew what he had
(14:55):
going on, and coming across as aguy who was knowledgeable in
the field and knew what he hadgoing on.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I love that line.
You've got to capture theirhearts.
Tell me, tell me a little bitmore, you know, cause I've got
I've got coaches that arelistening to this that maybe
here's something like that andit's like, well, okay, well,
that that sounds good.
How do we do that?
If I'm a, if I'm a high schoolcoach, how do I capture the
heart of one of my high schoolathletes?
(15:18):
How do I let them know I've gotyour back?
How do I let them know, Like,what are some maybe tangible
action steps, either that youtook, or that you saw Aaron
taking, or you know things thatyou experienced?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
First thing off the list is being extremely upfront
and detailed.
Individual Kids, especially theyounger they get, I feel like
they really reflect who they'reworking with.
And so if you yourself are noton top of your programming, if
you yourself are on top of yourcoaching, your cues and bringing
to the table your best effort,I think these kids kind of feed
(15:53):
off of that, and they still doat the college level.
And so in order to capturetheir hearts, first off they
have to know that you're fullyin it as well, meaning your
heart's fully in it.
And so if you take care of thisstrike program and you take
care of these kids as if they'reone of your own and not just
think of them as an afterthought, that's where you really start
to capture the heart and that'sin the detail.
Another way that we really wentabout capturing the heart is let
(16:16):
these kids understand whythey're doing something.
You know, a big thing withinhouseholds and a parent and
children is kids don't want todo something.
They don't understand whythey're doing it.
So that's where you get thatpushback, that's where we get
that head buddy.
But if you can break it down,the logically form on why we're
doing a movement, why it'simportant to lift, why it's
important to train in the weightroom and get your body big,
(16:38):
strong, powerful and fast.
They're just going to dive moreinto that because they
understand.
Okay, this is how it's going totranslate.
So let me not put up myblockers in terms of
apprehension of actually gettingin the weight room, but let me
be open to it and it's attack ithead on and see where it brings
me.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, so you know here here you are now working
with these athletes what weresome of the different problems
or issues or, you know,obstacles, that in this physical
realm, in this you know, yourtraining is bigger, faster,
stronger, but there's still some, I'm sure some times, where you
(17:15):
saw mental obstacles getting inthe way.
What were some of those andhow'd you guys overcome them?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, um, the biggest mental obstacle within the
weight room for a lot of theseathletes was overcoming that rep
they didn't want to do.
Uh, when it comes to putting onmuscle, you need to reach a
certain stimulus, um, andthere's a certain threshold
point where the next repsfalling at this point are going
to actually lead to musclegrowth, and those are the
(17:42):
hardest reps of the set, and sothat's the biggest thing.
When you're dealing with the 1%,like at Indiana, like with the
Giants, we need those reps, andso being able to push an athlete
through, that was the biggestthing, and that just all comes
from you being a coach and beingpresent in the moment.
Kids who don't have a presentcoach, who are there to help
(18:02):
them push through I feel likethat's where they're going to
stop.
So, being in the moment andbeing with your two feet on the
ground in front of said athleteas they're pushing themselves
towards this rep, and you as acoach need to have in your mind
too okay, this is going to be agrowth set right here, and this
could be across the board.
This is not only in the weightroom, but this is on the field
(18:22):
as well, with repetitions interms of play on the field.
So once you know that that repthat sets coming up really start
prepping their mind to be ableto overcome it.
And so when you get to thatpoint as a coach where you can,
okay, I'm feeling this coming up.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
I've prepped them.
Now, let's know, at Westfield,before Jake Gilbert got there,
there were, there were a lot ofassistant coaches who were just
never in the weight room.
You know, obviously, at thehigh school level, you know some
schools not all, but someschools have a strength
conditioning coach.
Very few schools have an entirestrength and conditioning staff
(18:55):
, so a lot of thatresponsibility falls on.
Well, the coaches need to beinvolved in that, and so I know,
when Jake showed up, there wasa big push from him that we're
not in there to talk, we're notin there to hang out with each
other, we're not even in therenecessarily to be getting a
workout in ourselves.
We're in there to coach ourathletes and to be paying
(19:20):
attention and to, as you said,be present.
What were some of the ways thatmaybe Aaron pushed you guys, or
some of the expectations or thestandard that he held you guys
to of hey, this is how, ascoaches in the weight room,
we're going to be acting,talking, all of that.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, I mean coach Rome was a hardcore guy.
I truly don't think I wouldhave been the coach or the
trainer that I am now withoutworking underneath a guy like
that, especially at a young age.
If I would have found him laterin life, it may have not had
the same effect, but youngcollege me, this was the
greatest thing that could haveever happened.
One thing he told us off ripwas we're going to be the best
(20:00):
coaching group in the facilityand that's across the board
Olympic sports head coaches,whatever it might be.
He wants us to have a sort ofpresence to us.
We're in early, we're out late,we know our stuff top to bottom
, no matter what it is, and sostarting things off like that
just the standard off for it itbuilds the foundation of what
we're kind of about as coaches.
(20:21):
So if we come in with themindset, hey, we're going to be
the best staff today, then we'realready starting off up top.
A second thing that I wasextremely appreciative that we
did is we were big on meetings.
We met pre-lift, post-lift, twohours before the lift, you name
it If there was a question thatcame up or meaning about it,
and so that's just makes it sothat there's no discrepancies
between coaches.
(20:42):
I love when there's a group ofcoaches in a in a room, but if
everybody's coaching differentlythen it adds.
It adds to the dysfunction.
So his big thing was let's sitdown.
Let's.
All you know, we had five maincoaches, two, maybe two, three
interns at a time.
So at one point we we had fivemain coaches, two, maybe two,
three interns at a time.
So at one point we got eightbodies in the room.
And if there's eight bodies inthe room, all eight of us are
differently coaching the sameworkout.
(21:03):
That's just going to lead todisaster.
So having almost a one braintype of mindset really led to us
being extremely successful inthe weight room.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
I love that.
We've found that so oftenworking with teams on the mental
side of the game, right.
Like you know, we've found thatso often working with teams on
the mental side of the game,right.
You have this quarterback coachwho read this book, and you
have the head coach that hasmaybe been to some training and
heard some speakers talk, andthen you bring in an expert to
talk to the team, and then theDB's coach is talking about what
(21:32):
he used to do when he was inhigh school, and it's almost
like just a random buffet of allthese ideas instead of hey,
here's the program and here'sthe verbiage, cause I mean, even
you know something as simple asa past concept where you're
running a hitch in a corner.
(21:52):
If you've got somebody callingthat a smash concept and
somebody calling that you know acity or a state or whatever
they used to call it.
Like it's just, it takes awayfrom the effectiveness of what
you're trying to do in there,along with, along with speaking
the same language.
We always, we always thought itwas important Like we need to
(22:14):
have the same verbiage and thesame cues so that I can just I
can say a word, or I can even,you know, in the course of a
game, just look out at myquarterback and tap my helmet
and remind him oh yeah, thatmeans I need to pay attention to
this and do this and executethat.
What were, what were some ofthe maybe weight room specific
(22:35):
cues that you guys used as astaff?
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
And I think there was so many different cues for
obviously many differentmovements and the cues are
really going to be personal toeach staff and so each staff
understanding kind of the waytheir head coach or head
strength coach wants to go aboutit.
But things for presses andpulls, as well as any lower body
movements.
(22:59):
Cues for us was bracing,engaging the abdominal muscles,
obviously to get everythingintact, everything secure and
everything tight, because themoment you lose that, especially
when we're lifting the weightsthat we are, things can get a
little scary in terms of bodilyinjuries.
But obviously staying tight andbracing.
But another cue that we used alot within the weight room was
(23:21):
knee over toe and that'ssomething we utilize for a lot
of our sprinting, high-speedsprinting.
So for a lot of our bendingmovements or movements where
we're down in a stance where wewant to have a positive shin
angle, forcing that knee overthe toe is going to help us
generate the most forceproduction off the ground and so
simple cues like that.
But it's really going to comedown to coaches understanding
(23:42):
the point of cues and the mainpoint of cues is not only to
keep things the same across theboard, but it's also used to
speed up the process in theweight room.
You know we don't have unlimitedtime when we're with our guys
and so if all the coaches have acue, that's going to instantly
lock somebody back into amovement and get them moving in
a way that you want.
That's what we really want.
You know, cues are great forhaving things universally known
(24:05):
across a staff, but when I cangive you a cue from across the
room hey, do this, and all of asudden that kid's going to lock
in for you in that second, thenthat just adds more time into my
bank that I can give to the kidI'm currently working with or
go do something else.
But if I have to take the timeto then go over to that kid
explain what I'm trying to getacross, because I've used one
cue, the coach over there usedanother cue, then this coach
(24:26):
used another cue that's justtaking away time for me as a
coach that I could be spendingwith somebody else that could
really need it in that moment.
That's where I really see thebenefit of cues and things like
that.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Love that I know beforehand.
Efficiency was a big thing thatyou and I were talking about,
because I know when we'retraining the mental side of the
game, there's literally someteams where you got 10 or 15
minutes every Monday to dowhatever you need to do when it
comes to that week's mentalperformance training.
I know that you guys feel thatpressure.
(24:56):
Also, urban Meyer talked a lotabout making sure that you
install things the right way,making sure that you tell guys
things, you show guys things,you walk through things at the
beginning.
Then you do it in a small groupsetting or a one-on-one or
seven-on-seven, and then youmove into a team where you're
getting live reps.
(25:17):
What's that look like for youguys as far as an organizational
piece and efficiency piece andjust making sure everybody's on
the same page?
Yeah for sure, um, and anefficiency piece and just making
sure everybody's on the samepage.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah, for sure.
Of course I talked about todaythe meetings if you are as a
staff are on the same page.
The workouts.
It's not going to be a wash,but it's going to be pretty
hectic, um, but another thinggoing into it is find moments
within the workout that you cansee could be problematic, and
what I mean by that is afteryou've scripted it, after you've
(25:48):
sat down with your coaches.
You all talk about, okay, ifwe're there making the
transition from this movement tothat movement, what could be
the issues there?
Could it be they don'tunderstand the movement
correctly?
Could it be that there could besome crowding issues between
the weight room?
This group of guys move intothis space.
This group of guys move intothis space.
All of a sudden they're goingto collide heads.
They're going to have to siftthrough that.
(26:11):
That's also wasting time, andso the ways to go about that is
really coming into the lift,knowing the possible issues and
then having plans for saidissues.
And so one of the things to goabout is, if you think a
movement's going to be difficultto perform for said athletes or
it's going to be difficult toexplain, have somebody ready to
demonstrate, have a coach that'syour prime demonstrator Usually
that was me or your youngestguy, someone who's semi-athletic
you can say hey guys, let'sbring it up here real quick.
(26:32):
Eyes on coach So-and-so.
He's going to show us throughmovements that we have today.
So when you get to said station, we don't have to waste 15
minutes explaining it.
We can just do it now.
And if you have any questions,let's go over them right now.
So when we get there, we'reready to go.
Yeah, I love that, and so thisis where you can go.
This is that time that's usedwhen you're going over the
entire lift.
Prior to the lift hey guys,these are these three movements.
(26:54):
They're going to be difficult,they're going to be different.
Let's go over them reallyquickly with the demonstrations
that when we get there, there'sno confusion, type of thing.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
How do you, how do you, or or maybe how did you see
, you know, coach Wellman,during those, during those
meetings, make sure thateveryone is dialed in and
everyone's ready to go.
I've, I've just I've been apart of you know, there's some
times where coach, the headcoach or the strength coach is
(27:22):
going to say, hey, we're doingthis, make sure you're checking
for this coach, or the strengthcoach is going to say, hey,
we're doing this, make sureyou're checking for this.
Guys are kind of engaged, guysare short of paying attention.
Some guys maybe get on theircell phone.
If I'm a high school footballcoach, how do I get, how do I
stress the importance of thosemeetings, those pre the pre-lift
demonstrations, just makingsure that that we are all on the
(27:45):
same page.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
One I would promote theenvironment you want it to be.
So phones are an issue of,electronics are an issue.
They just stay out of there.
You know, obviously we had alot of these meetings when we
weren't even allowed to havephones out for a lot of these
players.
And so, starting off there bytelling them hey, this is what
it's going to be.
We need people's eyes becausethis is a visual thing.
You can't understand a movementif you're not looking at it,
(28:07):
and so if their eyes are goingto be down, their eyes are going
to be wandering.
They're definitely not going toget the most out of it.
Two, what I would do is I wouldyou don't have to script like
right out exactly what you wantto talk about, but really be
dialed in on three main thingsthat you want to bring up in
this pre-meeting.
Okay, this is the movementnumber one that I wanted to talk
about.
This is technique number one ortwo I wanted to talk about.
(28:30):
And number three, this is thereps and sets for said movement
that I wanted to talk about.
So you as a staff, havingscripted a little bit not fully
written, but just in your mindwhere you want to go with this
meeting and not just kind ofhave a random oh we're showing
up.
All right, guys, this is a lift.
Let's have a good lift today.
Let's make sure we're locked in.
No, guys, this is a lift.
This is why we're doing saidlift today.
This is why we're doing saidmovement, giving them a why is
(28:50):
also going to give them bestcoaching staff here.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
It sounds like you know that wasn't just some cute
(29:13):
thing you put on a poster andhang up in an office.
It sounds like that was theplan and he was going to do that
.
Execute that, whether it's,whether it's a meeting, whether
it's a workout, whether itdoesn't matter what it is.
Are you preparing at an elitelevel?
Are you more organized thaneveryone else?
Do you have everything ready togo Is a theme that I hear you
kind of bringing back up.
How has that now carried overfor you, as you've kind of begun
(29:38):
your own journey now and you'vestarted your own company and
doing your own personal training?
How have you carried over someof these lessons that you've
learned?
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Yeah, the biggest lesson is the attention to
detail, and I know I keepbringing that up, but if you can
be attentive to that, that'sgoing to check so many boxes.
And so, when it comes to myprogramming, my nutrition
programming, when it comes to mycontact with my clients, when
it comes to client acquisition,how I go about talking to
(30:08):
potential clients, all that isextremely detailed.
I want to go about it in thisway and I try to do it this way
every single time, and by havingin your mind the way you want
to go about your business andbeing able to replicate that
consistently, that's going toproduce the best results, in my
opinion.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, love that.
So here you are.
Now you're.
You're not working withdivision one athletes anymore, I
mean you're.
You're.
You're working with people thatare busy, people that have.
You know they're, they've gottheir own, they've got other
things going on in their life.
How do you help them?
How do you help them take themfrom where they're at?
(30:45):
How do you help them?
How do you help them take themfrom where they're at, figure
out where they're trying to getto and then come up with a plan
to get them?
Speaker 2 (30:52):
there First and foremost.
First and foremost, find outwhat they want.
You know, I think personaltrainers and coaches go wrong
when they're not understandingthe person they're training.
And so let's talk about theirgoals.
Let's talk if losing a lot ofbody fat is their goal.
Let's talk about if adding alot of muscle is their goal.
Let's talk about if they'vegotten some blood work back that
they want to switch up, youknow.
And so, understanding theirtarget and understanding their
(31:15):
why and why they actually wantto get in the personal training,
that's step one.
And so, after you do that,that's when things really open
up to the possibilities of whatwe can do with said person.
If that's a three-day weekprogram, is that a two-day week
program?
It's all just about finding outthe why and then formulating a
plan around that why so we canachieve it as fast as possible.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Love that.
What do you do?
If they haven't figured outthat, why yet?
Speaker 2 (31:40):
That's a great question.
I would say that's.
I don't like to put whys ontopeople.
I think, especially in today'sday and age, that's a big thing.
If someone wants something towork with them or they want to
bring them on board, I'll giveyou a why.
Oh, this is why you should doit.
This is why you should do it.
But if they're sitting downwith me in almost a first
consult type of setting, there'sa why in there somehow.
(32:01):
I rarely talk to people aboutpersonal training.
Who's actually wanted to takesome of my time and sit down and
discuss that?
There wasn't a why in theresomehow.
And with a lot of questionsthat I go about asking in these
sessions, the why usually comesout, whether it's something
subtle, something subtle.
They say that I'm like oh what,let's talk about that a little
more type of thing.
So usually there's always a why, but at the end of the day,
(32:25):
there's really not a why.
My biggest thing is health iswealth.
Health is wealth, and you onlyget one body.
You get a limited shirts, shoes, socks you name it cars, but in
terms of body, you only get oneof them.
You won't get a second one, andso if you really aren't working
to take care of it in themoment.
Farther down the line, youcould be in a spot where you
don't like it.
So that's what I always say isyou only get one of these?
(32:46):
So starting early and doingyour best to take care of it, I
think it's the best bet.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I love that.
So knowing you know, as, as wekind of wrap up here, one of the
things I always like to askguests is knowing what you know.
Now, if you could go back andtell a younger version of
yourself just one thing, whatwould that?
What?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
would that piece of advice be that you would tell a
younger Jackson Follow your line.
And what I mean by that is, mymotto in 2025 is to follow my
line, and what my line is iswhere my heart's pointing me to,
and all the steps that areinvolved within my line are
things that I want to keep doing, and so that's what I tell
myself is don't sway from thepath that you're on, even if
(33:30):
there's some outside influences.
Obviously, everyone'scontrolled by their environment.
Environmental things can swaypeople, but stay on your line,
stay your path and understandthat just because you feel that
someone's trying to get you offthat or open up a new pathway to
you doesn't mean you have tofollow it.
So that's what I'd probablytell my younger self is to stick
with it and follow your lineand see where it takes you.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
I love that man.
Well, thank you so much forcoming in and joining us today
and sharing just a little bitabout your experience and your
story.
Really appreciate it If folkswant to get in touch with you,
want to get ahold of you what'sthe best way to do that?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Mostly through my email, and so what that's going
to be is Jackson, which isJ-A-C-K-S-O-N at
Jelitefitnesscom.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
The letter.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
J the letter J.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
All right, well, thank you so much for your time.
It's been really great chattingwith you.
I've enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Awesome.
Thank you very much for havingme on.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
If you have questions , would like to follow up.
Head over tomentaltrainingplancom.
Use the contact us button downat the bottom as always.
If you've got questions aboutthe MTP Academy or you want to
look at how can my team get moreintentional about the
programming side of mentalperformance training, please
don't hesitate to reach out anduntil next time, make your plan
(34:41):
and put it to work.
Hey, welcome to the Coaching Minds podcast, the
official podcast of MentalTraining Plan.
We help individuals perform attheir best when it matters the
most Today.
Very special guest JacksonLance, thank you so much for
joining us today.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Of course, Ben.
It's great to be here and thankyou for having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So tell us a little bit about just kind of where
you've been, maybe some of thebackstory you know as an athlete
, and then kind of getting intothe professional world, and
we'll sort of really want tojust dive into your story today
before we get to where you're atnow.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
So start off as an athlete asmost kids do.
Grew up here in Indianapolis,indiana.
Went to Hamilton SoutheasternHigh School.
That school district was a bigfootball and track guy.
Growing up Dabbled in a littlebaseball but that was just too
slow of a game for me.
So track and football were mymain thing, more of a track
athlete, and so did all theround circuit in the local
(00:57):
Indiana area, ran for theFisher's Fire, which was a great
time and a great experience.
Also played football, startedoff in flag back all the way in
the first grade, flag in thesecond grade.
Then when the pads came out inthird grade, that's when things
really started to get fun.
So third, fourth, fifth, sixthgrade played football, ran track
and had a great time doing it.
(01:17):
Track started tapering off thecloser I got to high school,
because that's when I reallystarted taking football pretty
serious.
I saw all the collegiateathletes.
I saw them playing football inthe pads and the gear and I know
that's something I aspired andit wasn't something I wanted to
do.
And so once I kind of got thatgoal in mind to play division
one collegiate football, I kindof stopped running track, which
(01:37):
now, looking back on.
It maybe wasn't the bestdecision in terms of speed
development, but at the time Ireally just wanted to focus all
my energy on becoming the bestfootball player that I could.
Um, so when I got to juniorhigh, ran track a little bit,
but then, right when I got tothat eighth grade year, I'm like
you know, pops and my mom, I'mlike I'm gonna stop running
track and just focus on football, focus on training and going to
camps during the summer andreally focus on honing my craft.
(02:00):
And so freshman year, highschool, hampton, sastern, just
really focused on football, andit was.
I had a great time.
Um, some right at all the campcircuits went college to college
, camp to camp, coach to coach,not only to get better but to
show my skills, you know, at theuniversity and colleges.
And that was joyous.
And of course, that came withhis own stressors, obviously.
You know, being the kid that Iwas, I always wanted to perform
(02:22):
at the best of my abilities atall times.
Now I came to the conclusionthat wasn't possible, but I
still held myself to a prettyhigh standard.
And so once I got to my senioryear at Hamilton, southeastern,
and was able to you know, lookat the colleges that had offered
me scholarships as well as lookat my PWO or my preferred walk
on offers.
Ultimately, I decided to walkon at Ball State University as a
(02:43):
wide receiver, had a couple ofdivisional offers,
scholarship-wise for them to payfor my schooling.
But the MAC was calling my name, and so was Ball State, and I
wanted to stay in state, closeto family, and luckily I had
parents who were willing tosupport me and they knew that,
with me going to the school,playing football, then also
looking to get an education Iwas going to take both just as
serious as the other, and Iwasn't going to prioritize my
(03:04):
athletics over my academics, andso they really pushed me to go
there as well, as they werefeeding into what I wanted.
So I got it done, went to BallState, graduated from HSC 2019,
played football at Ball StateUniversity for about a year.
Then COVID hit that March ofwhat was it?
2021, I believe.
So we all got quarantined andsent home, which was quite the
(03:27):
experience, I think, for theentire country, Kind of a shock
that all of our wars got turnedupside down like that.
And so at Ball State, I was acommunications major, so I had
to take all that school home andI also played football.
And so coming home while alsobeing a student athlete, I mean
came with its chore of justresponsibilities that you had to
handle, um, and that's not onlybetween meetings held on zoom,
(03:48):
but then also workouts that werebeing sent to you.
In terms of everything was athome modified.
You know I'm out heredeadlifting couches, um, pushing
cars in the streets, um.
I also went and got my ownweight equipment because I still
want to fall behind.
You know, being a walk-on, Iwanted to make sure that I was
upholding the standard of BallState athletics and then, as
(04:08):
well as developing my body to apoint where they're going to
find a way to put me on thefield.
So I came home during that timeand came a month in, two months,
in I kind of was sitting aroundand looked at my pops and I was
a communications major andreally just chose that major
because it was the easiest one Ithink they offered.
I walked in.
I said I play ball, I reallydon't do school.
So I said give me the easiestmajor you got, and
(04:30):
communications, was it?
No hate to any communicationsmajor?
That's just what they said atBall State.
And so I went to my pops andsaid, hey, I really don't know
what I want to do.
I mean, I'm communications, I'mplaying ball, I'm home.
During COVID, there's talks forour season getting canceled.
He's like you know, jack, let'sjust wait till everything gets
back subtle, to normal.
Obviously, right now things arein flux and you kind of are in
this weird spot.
(04:50):
So, after talking with myparents that's kind of the
conclusion we went to and then Igot back to school and we were
about ready to get fired up andI called my dad again and my mom
and I said, hey, pops and mom,this is something I think I want
to do.
I think I want to stop playingball.
I think I want to focus on myfuture, focus on my education
and really find out what I wantto do in life.
I really didn't think I wasgoing to be an NFL guy, and
(05:11):
that's not me not havingconfidence in my abilities, but
that's just me understanding thegame itself and seeing the
players around me and seeing myskillset and seeing how that
best would translate.
And so, after I kind of madethat conclusion, sat down with
my coaches Coach Bailey, coachNew was very thankful for the
opportunity, but they wereunderstanding a path that I
wanted to go.
(05:31):
So that December, in 2020, Imade the decision to change my
major to exercise science.
Then what also came with thatdecision was finding a different
school that was going toprovide me the best education
for that major, and that wasIndiana University, bloomington.
So January 2021, I transferreddown to Indiana University
Bloomington and that's kind ofwhat got me kickstarted on now
my professional career, which isa personal trainer.
(05:53):
I initially started as astrength and conditioning coach,
got down there December 2021,sorry, january 2021.
And I got met with a personnamed Lainey Depp.
She was actually one of myteachers with my only in-person
class during the COVID, andduring this class we had a
Friday free day.
I brought in a written workoutthat was something similar to
(06:14):
what we've done at Ball State,but then something similar to
what I also do on my own time.
She looked at it.
She goes wow, this is a greatworkout.
She goes are you interested instrength conditioning?
I'm like you.
You know I just switched toexercise science.
I'm really just dabbling in thefield.
And she goes would you like tobe an intern for indian
university olympic sports?
And I'm like you know why not?
Why not see what it's about?
And so that summer, um, I gotintegrated into indian
(06:36):
university athletics as anintern for their olympic sports
athletes and for all who don'tknow, the olympic sport athletes
were all the athletes that werenot men's football and men's
basketball, so that's that'sanything from rowing to women's
basketball that I worked withthat summer, and it was
phenomenal experience.
I'm really focused on workingwith teams like men's baseball,
track and field, and then reallyhoned in on men's soccer, which
(06:59):
was, honestly, at the time, oneof Indiana's best teams
umigning national champions,always ranked top five and so
that was a team that I wasextremely blessed to work with,
because the athletes are prettyincredible.
From then on, I continued myeducation and in the following
summer in 2022, I actuallyintegrated with the Indiana
University football team.
Now, looking back on it, Ialways said I was never going to
(07:19):
be a football strength coach.
I ran at 4 am, 3.
350 am.
I looked over.
I said, yeah, that's not for me.
I'm gonna go with Olympicsports.
You know, showing up at 7 amand calling it a done deal, but
something was calling me towardsthat, and I think it was not
only my passion for football butmy willingness and wanting to
get better in the profession andI feel like that was just an
area of growth for me and sinceit was something I was shying
(07:42):
away from, like, you know, let'sjust flip the script and go
attack and see how it goes.
So that summer got integratedwith them.
You know, head strength coachthere was Aaron Wellman, who's
now a player development coachwith the New York Giants.
He integrated me and he kind ofsat me down and went over what
it meant to be a strength coachat the football level.
You know, coaching Olympicathletes is one thing, but
(08:07):
coaching division one power fivefootball players is a
completely other thing, you know, and I'm close to their age,
and so it came with a differenttype of responsibility and
mindset.
So these, these athletesunderstood kind of what I had
going on and kind of what I knewabout the profession itself, so
got integrated with them in2022 and actually stayed with
the football team the entiretyof the remainder of my college
academic career.
So that was an entire year andalmost eight months I was with
(08:28):
the team.
December 2023 was my last monthwith them and it was an amazing
experience.
Loved IU, loved the school,loved the kids, loved the
coaching staff, and working forsomeone as renowned as renowned
as coach Wellman I mean, thethings this man was able to
teach me at the facility interms of strength conditioning,
in terms of life, is somethingthat I'll never get back.
And then, from my graduation in2023 December at IU, hopped in
(08:52):
the car and actually drove outto Salt Lake City, utah, and
that's where I became a paidintern for the University of
Utah football team and was withthem for three months, all the
way up until March.
I also dabbled with their men'stennis team as well and served
as an assistant strength coachwith them, which was an awesome
experience.
But in March, I actually got acall from my old coach, aaron
Wellman, who is now head ofplayer development with the New
(09:15):
York Giants, and he said hey,jack, I know you're out there
with Utah.
We're not trying to steal youaway from them, but we're trying
to get somebody an intern paidhere, that's integrated, that
knows the way I go about mybusiness, and someone where you
don't have to catch up to speedand he goes.
I know your name was at the topof my list and so I just want
to give you a call and if you'reinterested in, let's take some
(09:36):
next steps.
And so I was like coach, thisis just a phenomenal opportunity
and it's definitely something Iwant to do.
So after we got the ballrolling on that and I was able
to sit down with my Utah coachesabout this opportunity, end of
March around my birthday,actually March 27th this was
when I hopped in the car, cameback to Indiana, repacked some
things up, got re-situated andthe week later I was off to East
(09:56):
Rutherford, new Jersey, where Imoved into a studio apartment
there and just got after it withthe New York Giants.
Luckily, their facility is inNew Jersey and not in the city,
so I didn't have to worry aboutdealing with Manhattan and all
that stuff.
So it was an easy commute towork only about nine to 10
minutes.
But work with the Giants isagain another experience that
I'm extremely thankful for.
Unfortunately, my time with theGiants is again another
(10:17):
experience that I'm extremelythankful for.
Unfortunately, my time with theGiants got cut short three
months into.
It had a slight back injury.
That kind of set me back alittle bit, and the way I go
about this profession and doingmy job, I always want to do it
at the highest capacity.
So I got this back injury and Inoticed myself slowing down.
I noticed myself not able togive my all to these players.
I knew it was time to reallythink about getting back into
(10:37):
recovery mode and getting mymindset back so I can hop back
into coaching at the highestlevel.
I sat down with coach andbeginning of summer around May
time is when I came back toIndiana.
Luckily my parents were veryaccepting of that and they knew
I like to take care of my bodyand they know the type of level
I want to coach at and so afterI was done with the Giants, came
back in the summer, healed up,and that's when I got integrated
(10:57):
into personal training andthat's kind of what I do now.
So started off over at CrunchFitness, which was a phenomenal
time.
Had up to 15 clients there andthey were all phenomenal.
Different goals, different ageranges.
I've been working with the 1%athletic type for a couple of
years now, and so being able towork with somebody as young as
25, but then as old as 57 was anawesome experience and just
(11:18):
seeing how it was different fromtraining NFL guys to these
people, but then how much morefulfilling.
It was to kind of be, you know,boots on the ground here and to
really help these people reachtheir goals.
You know, getting athletes toreach their goals is something
that I will always cherish andwill love, but taking somebody
who never thought physicallythey could take themselves
somewhere and bring them to thatpoint, that's just an
otherworldly experience for me.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Now I love that man.
We had talked about a littlebit how the mental side of
things and the physical side ofthings are so intertwined
together.
Were there any times that youcan identify that you went
through your own struggles onthe mental side from an athletic
standpoint or even in into yourprofessional career?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean I think I can point outmany moments and back in my own
time as an athlete as well as mycareer, but I'll say stuff from
both.
As an athlete, I would say thehardest times for me mentally
were game days and it almostfelt like it was just a buildup
effect.
You know the game days were onFriday in high school.
It was just a buildup effect.
You know the game days were onFriday in high school.
(12:20):
And so you build Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, even that
previous weekend, sunday,saturday, after the previous
Friday game, I was stillbuilding and so I was just big
on focusing on game day.
But it actually took over thedays leading up to it and so
that was my biggest struggle wasfinding the ability to detach
myself from game day and just bein the moment, be at practice
(12:41):
number one on Monday, practicenumber two on Tuesday, three on
Wednesday and so forth, so thatwhen it came game day, it wasn't
that I was thinking about gameday for five days straight.
It was that Friday hit, thatmorning hit, I snapped into it
and I kind of got into it.
But that was my biggest thingis I was really big on this
leading up until game day theprior days is having my mind
focused on that 7.00 PM starttime instead of focusing on that
(13:03):
day and when I kind of the taskI had to get done.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Sure, and then the you know, as you kind of, as you
kind of shifted gears into theprofessional world.
I mean, here you are, you knowyou're.
How old were you when youstarted working with IU football
players?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
So at that time I was 22, 22 years old.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
So I mean, you got, you got some probably some 22
year olds in that room with you.
What was that like Kind of thatexperience of you know you're?
You're trying to portrayyourself as this professional
that's there to help them.
It's there to guide them.
Is there to you know kind of beto help them.
It's there to guide them.
Is there to you know, kind ofbe instructing them, telling
them what to do, leading them.
And it's there's also some ofthe maybe intimidation factor of
(13:47):
do I have what it takes?
Am I experienced enough?
How'd you, how'd you overcomethat?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, um, that's a great.
It's a great point Cause that'ssomething I really felt strongly
Guys being my age, gainingrespect for them, and the way
that I fought through it was twokey things.
When I first had gotten there,aaron Willman said in order for
these guys to respect you, nomatter the age, you need to
capture their mind, you need tocapture their heart.
(14:13):
If you can do those two things,these men will respect you at
any age.
And what that means is capturingtheir heart is knowing that you
got their back and you're therefor them at every stage.
A lot of coaches are bigyelling, big pointing, big, do
this, do that, but these playersdon't understand if you're
actually there for them.
So capturing their heart inthat way is one way to go about
it, and the other way wascapturing their mind, and that
was just knowing what you'retalking about, stud, studying
(14:34):
the lift, studying the movementsthat we got going on that day,
studying the reps, the sets, theweights, even studying the guys
, knowing their names, knowingtheir stories, knowing where
they're from, where they comefrom, and it just brings those
two things together.
So, at the end of the day, allthe that worry and that stress
that I had leading into it wasslowly brought down by me really
getting attached to theirhearts and coming across as a
guy who was knowledgeable in thefield and knew what he had
(14:55):
going on, and coming across as aguy who was knowledgeable in
the field and knew what he hadgoing on.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I love that line.
You've got to capture theirhearts.
Tell me, tell me a little bitmore, you know, cause I've got
I've got coaches that arelistening to this that maybe
here's something like that andit's like, well, okay, well,
that that sounds good.
How do we do that?
If I'm a, if I'm a high schoolcoach, how do I capture the
heart of one of my high schoolathletes?
(15:18):
How do I let them know I've gotyour back?
How do I let them know, Like,what are some maybe tangible
action steps, either that youtook, or that you saw Aaron
taking, or you know things thatyou experienced?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
First thing off the list is being extremely upfront
and detailed.
Individual Kids, especially theyounger they get, I feel like
they really reflect who they'reworking with.
And so if you yourself are noton top of your programming, if
you yourself are on top of yourcoaching, your cues and bringing
to the table your best effort,I think these kids kind of feed
(15:53):
off of that, and they still doat the college level.
And so in order to capturetheir hearts, first off they
have to know that you're fullyin it as well, meaning your
heart's fully in it.
And so if you take care of thisstrike program and you take
care of these kids as if they'reone of your own and not just
think of them as an afterthought, that's where you really start
to capture the heart and that'sin the detail.
Another way that we really wentabout capturing the heart is let
(16:16):
these kids understand whythey're doing something.
You know, a big thing withinhouseholds and a parent and
children is kids don't want todo something.
They don't understand whythey're doing it.
So that's where you get thatpushback, that's where we get
that head buddy.
But if you can break it down,the logically form on why we're
doing a movement, why it'simportant to lift, why it's
important to train in the weightroom and get your body big,
(16:38):
strong, powerful and fast.
They're just going to dive moreinto that because they
understand.
Okay, this is how it's going totranslate.
So let me not put up myblockers in terms of
apprehension of actually gettingin the weight room, but let me
be open to it and it's attack ithead on and see where it brings
me.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, so you know here here you are now working
with these athletes what weresome of the different problems
or issues or, you know,obstacles, that in this physical
realm, in this you know, yourtraining is bigger, faster,
stronger, but there's still some, I'm sure some times, where you
(17:15):
saw mental obstacles getting inthe way.
What were some of those andhow'd you guys overcome them?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, um, the biggest mental obstacle within the
weight room for a lot of theseathletes was overcoming that rep
they didn't want to do.
Uh, when it comes to putting onmuscle, you need to reach a
certain stimulus, um, andthere's a certain threshold
point where the next repsfalling at this point are going
to actually lead to musclegrowth, and those are the
(17:42):
hardest reps of the set, and sothat's the biggest thing.
When you're dealing with the 1%,like at Indiana, like with the
Giants, we need those reps, andso being able to push an athlete
through, that was the biggestthing, and that just all comes
from you being a coach and beingpresent in the moment.
Kids who don't have a presentcoach, who are there to help
(18:02):
them push through I feel likethat's where they're going to
stop.
So, being in the moment andbeing with your two feet on the
ground in front of said athleteas they're pushing themselves
towards this rep, and you as acoach need to have in your mind
too okay, this is going to be agrowth set right here, and this
could be across the board.
This is not only in the weightroom, but this is on the field
(18:22):
as well, with repetitions interms of play on the field.
So once you know that that repthat sets coming up really start
prepping their mind to be ableto overcome it.
And so when you get to thatpoint as a coach where you can,
okay, I'm feeling this coming up.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
I've prepped them.
Now, let's know, at Westfield,before Jake Gilbert got there,
there were, there were a lot ofassistant coaches who were just
never in the weight room.
You know, obviously, at thehigh school level, you know some
schools not all, but someschools have a strength
conditioning coach.
Very few schools have an entirestrength and conditioning staff
(18:55):
, so a lot of thatresponsibility falls on.
Well, the coaches need to beinvolved in that, and so I know,
when Jake showed up, there wasa big push from him that we're
not in there to talk, we're notin there to hang out with each
other, we're not even in therenecessarily to be getting a
workout in ourselves.
We're in there to coach ourathletes and to be paying
(19:20):
attention and to, as you said,be present.
What were some of the ways thatmaybe Aaron pushed you guys, or
some of the expectations or thestandard that he held you guys
to of hey, this is how, ascoaches in the weight room,
we're going to be acting,talking, all of that.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, I mean coach Rome was a hardcore guy.
I truly don't think I wouldhave been the coach or the
trainer that I am now withoutworking underneath a guy like
that, especially at a young age.
If I would have found him laterin life, it may have not had
the same effect, but youngcollege me, this was the
greatest thing that could haveever happened.
One thing he told us off ripwas we're going to be the best
(20:00):
coaching group in the facilityand that's across the board
Olympic sports head coaches,whatever it might be.
He wants us to have a sort ofpresence to us.
We're in early, we're out late,we know our stuff top to bottom
, no matter what it is, and sostarting things off like that
just the standard off for it itbuilds the foundation of what
we're kind of about as coaches.
(20:21):
So if we come in with themindset, hey, we're going to be
the best staff today, then we'realready starting off up top.
A second thing that I wasextremely appreciative that we
did is we were big on meetings.
We met pre-lift, post-lift, twohours before the lift, you name
it If there was a question thatcame up or meaning about it,
and so that's just makes it sothat there's no discrepancies
between coaches.
(20:42):
I love when there's a group ofcoaches in a in a room, but if
everybody's coaching differentlythen it adds.
It adds to the dysfunction.
So his big thing was let's sitdown.
Let's.
All you know, we had five maincoaches, two, maybe two, three
interns at a time.
So at one point we we had fivemain coaches, two, maybe two,
three interns at a time.
So at one point we got eightbodies in the room.
And if there's eight bodies inthe room, all eight of us are
differently coaching the sameworkout.
(21:03):
That's just going to lead todisaster.
So having almost a one braintype of mindset really led to us
being extremely successful inthe weight room.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
I love that.
We've found that so oftenworking with teams on the mental
side of the game, right.
Like you know, we've found thatso often working with teams on
the mental side of the game,right.
You have this quarterback coachwho read this book, and you
have the head coach that hasmaybe been to some training and
heard some speakers talk, andthen you bring in an expert to
talk to the team, and then theDB's coach is talking about what
(21:32):
he used to do when he was inhigh school, and it's almost
like just a random buffet of allthese ideas instead of hey,
here's the program and here'sthe verbiage, cause I mean, even
you know something as simple asa past concept where you're
running a hitch in a corner.
(21:52):
If you've got somebody callingthat a smash concept and
somebody calling that you know acity or a state or whatever
they used to call it.
Like it's just, it takes awayfrom the effectiveness of what
you're trying to do in there,along with, along with speaking
the same language.
We always, we always thought itwas important Like we need to
(22:14):
have the same verbiage and thesame cues so that I can just I
can say a word, or I can even,you know, in the course of a
game, just look out at myquarterback and tap my helmet
and remind him oh yeah, thatmeans I need to pay attention to
this and do this and executethat.
What were, what were some ofthe maybe weight room specific
(22:35):
cues that you guys used as astaff?
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
And I think there was so many different cues for
obviously many differentmovements and the cues are
really going to be personal toeach staff and so each staff
understanding kind of the waytheir head coach or head
strength coach wants to go aboutit.
But things for presses andpulls, as well as any lower body
movements.
(22:59):
Cues for us was bracing,engaging the abdominal muscles,
obviously to get everythingintact, everything secure and
everything tight, because themoment you lose that, especially
when we're lifting the weightsthat we are, things can get a
little scary in terms of bodilyinjuries.
But obviously staying tight andbracing.
But another cue that we used alot within the weight room was
(23:21):
knee over toe and that'ssomething we utilize for a lot
of our sprinting, high-speedsprinting.
So for a lot of our bendingmovements or movements where
we're down in a stance where wewant to have a positive shin
angle, forcing that knee overthe toe is going to help us
generate the most forceproduction off the ground and so
simple cues like that.
But it's really going to comedown to coaches understanding
(23:42):
the point of cues and the mainpoint of cues is not only to
keep things the same across theboard, but it's also used to
speed up the process in theweight room.
You know we don't have unlimitedtime when we're with our guys
and so if all the coaches have acue, that's going to instantly
lock somebody back into amovement and get them moving in
a way that you want.
That's what we really want.
You know, cues are great forhaving things universally known
(24:05):
across a staff, but when I cangive you a cue from across the
room hey, do this, and all of asudden that kid's going to lock
in for you in that second, thenthat just adds more time into my
bank that I can give to the kidI'm currently working with or
go do something else.
But if I have to take the timeto then go over to that kid
explain what I'm trying to getacross, because I've used one
cue, the coach over there usedanother cue, then this coach
(24:26):
used another cue that's justtaking away time for me as a
coach that I could be spendingwith somebody else that could
really need it in that moment.
That's where I really see thebenefit of cues and things like
that.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Love that I know beforehand.
Efficiency was a big thing thatyou and I were talking about,
because I know when we'retraining the mental side of the
game, there's literally someteams where you got 10 or 15
minutes every Monday to dowhatever you need to do when it
comes to that week's mentalperformance training.
I know that you guys feel thatpressure.
(24:56):
Also, urban Meyer talked a lotabout making sure that you
install things the right way,making sure that you tell guys
things, you show guys things,you walk through things at the
beginning.
Then you do it in a small groupsetting or a one-on-one or
seven-on-seven, and then youmove into a team where you're
getting live reps.
(25:17):
What's that look like for youguys as far as an organizational
piece and efficiency piece andjust making sure everybody's on
the same page?
Yeah for sure, um, and anefficiency piece and just making
sure everybody's on the samepage.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah, for sure.
Of course I talked about todaythe meetings if you are as a
staff are on the same page.
The workouts.
It's not going to be a wash,but it's going to be pretty
hectic, um, but another thinggoing into it is find moments
within the workout that you cansee could be problematic, and
what I mean by that is afteryou've scripted it, after you've
(25:48):
sat down with your coaches.
You all talk about, okay, ifwe're there making the
transition from this movement tothat movement, what could be
the issues there?
Could it be they don'tunderstand the movement
correctly?
Could it be that there could besome crowding issues between
the weight room?
This group of guys move intothis space.
This group of guys move intothis space.
All of a sudden they're goingto collide heads.
They're going to have to siftthrough that.
(26:11):
That's also wasting time, andso the ways to go about that is
really coming into the lift,knowing the possible issues and
then having plans for saidissues.
And so one of the things to goabout is, if you think a
movement's going to be difficultto perform for said athletes or
it's going to be difficult toexplain, have somebody ready to
demonstrate, have a coach that'syour prime demonstrator Usually
that was me or your youngestguy, someone who's semi-athletic
you can say hey guys, let'sbring it up here real quick.
(26:32):
Eyes on coach So-and-so.
He's going to show us throughmovements that we have today.
So when you get to said station, we don't have to waste 15
minutes explaining it.
We can just do it now.
And if you have any questions,let's go over them right now.
So when we get there, we'reready to go.
Yeah, I love that, and so thisis where you can go.
This is that time that's usedwhen you're going over the
entire lift.
Prior to the lift hey guys,these are these three movements.
(26:54):
They're going to be difficult,they're going to be different.
Let's go over them reallyquickly with the demonstrations
that when we get there, there'sno confusion, type of thing.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
How do you, how do you, or or maybe how did you see
, you know, coach Wellman,during those, during those
meetings, make sure thateveryone is dialed in and
everyone's ready to go.
I've, I've just I've been apart of you know, there's some
times where coach, the headcoach or the strength coach is
(27:22):
going to say, hey, we're doingthis, make sure you're checking
for this coach, or the strengthcoach is going to say, hey,
we're doing this, make sureyou're checking for this.
Guys are kind of engaged, guysare short of paying attention.
Some guys maybe get on theircell phone.
If I'm a high school footballcoach, how do I get, how do I
stress the importance of thosemeetings, those pre the pre-lift
demonstrations, just makingsure that that we are all on the
(27:45):
same page.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
One I would promote theenvironment you want it to be.
So phones are an issue of,electronics are an issue.
They just stay out of there.
You know, obviously we had alot of these meetings when we
weren't even allowed to havephones out for a lot of these
players.
And so, starting off there bytelling them hey, this is what
it's going to be.
We need people's eyes becausethis is a visual thing.
You can't understand a movementif you're not looking at it,
(28:07):
and so if their eyes are goingto be down, their eyes are going
to be wandering.
They're definitely not going toget the most out of it.
Two, what I would do is I wouldyou don't have to script like
right out exactly what you wantto talk about, but really be
dialed in on three main thingsthat you want to bring up in
this pre-meeting.
Okay, this is the movementnumber one that I wanted to talk
about.
This is technique number one ortwo I wanted to talk about.
(28:30):
And number three, this is thereps and sets for said movement
that I wanted to talk about.
So you as a staff, havingscripted a little bit not fully
written, but just in your mindwhere you want to go with this
meeting and not just kind ofhave a random oh we're showing
up.
All right, guys, this is a lift.
Let's have a good lift today.
Let's make sure we're locked in.
No, guys, this is a lift.
This is why we're doing saidlift today.
This is why we're doing saidmovement, giving them a why is
(28:50):
also going to give them bestcoaching staff here.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
It sounds like you know that wasn't just some cute
(29:13):
thing you put on a poster andhang up in an office.
It sounds like that was theplan and he was going to do that
.
Execute that, whether it's,whether it's a meeting, whether
it's a workout, whether itdoesn't matter what it is.
Are you preparing at an elitelevel?
Are you more organized thaneveryone else?
Do you have everything ready togo Is a theme that I hear you
kind of bringing back up.
How has that now carried overfor you, as you've kind of begun
(29:38):
your own journey now and you'vestarted your own company and
doing your own personal training?
How have you carried over someof these lessons that you've
learned?
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Yeah, the biggest lesson is the attention to
detail, and I know I keepbringing that up, but if you can
be attentive to that, that'sgoing to check so many boxes.
And so, when it comes to myprogramming, my nutrition
programming, when it comes to mycontact with my clients, when
it comes to client acquisition,how I go about talking to
(30:08):
potential clients, all that isextremely detailed.
I want to go about it in thisway and I try to do it this way
every single time, and by havingin your mind the way you want
to go about your business andbeing able to replicate that
consistently, that's going toproduce the best results, in my
opinion.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, love that.
So here you are.
Now you're.
You're not working withdivision one athletes anymore, I
mean you're.
You're.
You're working with people thatare busy, people that have.
You know they're, they've gottheir own, they've got other
things going on in their life.
How do you help them?
How do you help them take themfrom where they're at?
(30:45):
How do you help them?
How do you help them take themfrom where they're at, figure
out where they're trying to getto and then come up with a plan
to get them?
Speaker 2 (30:52):
there First and foremost.
First and foremost, find outwhat they want.
You know, I think personaltrainers and coaches go wrong
when they're not understandingthe person they're training.
And so let's talk about theirgoals.
Let's talk if losing a lot ofbody fat is their goal.
Let's talk about if adding alot of muscle is their goal.
Let's talk about if they'vegotten some blood work back that
they want to switch up, youknow.
And so, understanding theirtarget and understanding their
(31:15):
why and why they actually wantto get in the personal training,
that's step one.
And so, after you do that,that's when things really open
up to the possibilities of whatwe can do with said person.
If that's a three-day weekprogram, is that a two-day week
program?
It's all just about finding outthe why and then formulating a
plan around that why so we canachieve it as fast as possible.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Love that.
What do you do?
If they haven't figured outthat, why yet?
Speaker 2 (31:40):
That's a great question.
I would say that's.
I don't like to put whys ontopeople.
I think, especially in today'sday and age, that's a big thing.
If someone wants something towork with them or they want to
bring them on board, I'll giveyou a why.
Oh, this is why you should doit.
This is why you should do it.
But if they're sitting downwith me in almost a first
consult type of setting, there'sa why in there somehow.
(32:01):
I rarely talk to people aboutpersonal training.
Who's actually wanted to takesome of my time and sit down and
discuss that?
There wasn't a why in theresomehow.
And with a lot of questionsthat I go about asking in these
sessions, the why usually comesout, whether it's something
subtle, something subtle.
They say that I'm like oh what,let's talk about that a little
more type of thing.
So usually there's always a why, but at the end of the day,
(32:25):
there's really not a why.
My biggest thing is health iswealth.
Health is wealth, and you onlyget one body.
You get a limited shirts, shoes, socks you name it cars, but in
terms of body, you only get oneof them.
You won't get a second one, andso if you really aren't working
to take care of it in themoment.
Farther down the line, youcould be in a spot where you
don't like it.
So that's what I always say isyou only get one of these?
(32:46):
So starting early and doingyour best to take care of it, I
think it's the best bet.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I love that.
So knowing you know, as, as wekind of wrap up here, one of the
things I always like to askguests is knowing what you know.
Now, if you could go back andtell a younger version of
yourself just one thing, whatwould that?
What?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
would that piece of advice be that you would tell a
younger Jackson Follow your line.
And what I mean by that is, mymotto in 2025 is to follow my
line, and what my line is iswhere my heart's pointing me to,
and all the steps that areinvolved within my line are
things that I want to keep doing, and so that's what I tell
myself is don't sway from thepath that you're on, even if
(33:30):
there's some outside influences.
Obviously, everyone'scontrolled by their environment.
Environmental things can swaypeople, but stay on your line,
stay your path and understandthat just because you feel that
someone's trying to get you offthat or open up a new pathway to
you doesn't mean you have tofollow it.
So that's what I'd probablytell my younger self is to stick
with it and follow your lineand see where it takes you.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
I love that man.
Well, thank you so much forcoming in and joining us today
and sharing just a little bitabout your experience and your
story.
Really appreciate it If folkswant to get in touch with you,
want to get ahold of you what'sthe best way to do that?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Mostly through my email, and so what that's going
to be is Jackson, which isJ-A-C-K-S-O-N at
Jelitefitnesscom.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
The letter.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
J the letter J.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
All right, well, thank you so much for your time.
It's been really great chattingwith you.
I've enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Awesome.
Thank you very much for havingme on.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
If you have questions , would like to follow up.
Head over tomentaltrainingplancom.
Use the contact us button downat the bottom as always.
If you've got questions aboutthe MTP Academy or you want to
look at how can my team get moreintentional about the
programming side of mentalperformance training, please
don't hesitate to reach out anduntil next time, make your plan
(34:41):
and put it to work.
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