Posts by stevemagness

What’s it take to become a great coach? In this episode, we breakdown three essential skills for great coaching:1. Thinking and Observing 2. Problem Solving 3. Collaboration If you haven’t yet, check out Steve’s new book: Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and The Surprising Science of Real Toughness. Steve & Jon Visit…

In this episode, we reflect on what we’ve learned over nearly two decades of coaching. What did we think was important but quickly realized wasn’t? What actually matters in preparing athletes to perform? We cover all of this and more in today’s episode. Topics covered include: Building Buy-In Stabilizing Lifestyles Getting Comfortable with asymmetrical progress…

What’s new in training? Not much! But, alternations, flux training, lactate dynamics, natural fartleks…or whatever you call it is underutilized in modern training. In this episode, we break down the physiology, psychology, and history of emphasizing and manipulating the recovery portion of the workout to great effect. If you haven’t yet, check out Steve’s new…

Training is about balancing opposing demands: speed and endurance. What happens when you mess up the balance? It’s often a disaster. In this episode, Jon and Steve go through how to find the balance point, and what to do to correct it. If you haven’t yet, check out Steve’s new book: Do Hard Things: Why…

Every sport has the items that many of us seem to believe, that are ingrained in the history of the sport, that have no foundation or backing. In this episode, we explore those half-truths. We’re aided by a pamphlet written fifty years ago, with insight that we’ve forgotten. If you haven’t yet, check out Steve’s…

Athletes stress out…a lot! And once you are in stressed mode, it’s hard to get out of it. You can’t sleep hours after competing because your mind is still racing and your body is still buzzing. You can’t let go of the tough loss. It lingers. In this episode, we talk about how to move…

Welcome to this special bonus issue. Steve does his best revisionist history impression, telling you the story of Paul Bear Bryant’s famous Junction Boys football camp, while discussing the origins of ‘old school toughness.’ This is adapted from his new book Do Hard Things, which you can check out wherever books are sold. It’s currently…

Individualizing training is easy at the professional level. You’ve got a handful of athletes, all very good, and can adjust as needed. In larger settings, it’s much more difficult. The athlete’s abilities are spread out, there’s only one of you, and practice can be more akin to herding cats. In this episode, we explore how…