Movement Mastery: Lee Taft's Coaching Strategies for Speed, Agility, and Fundamental Skills

In this episode of the Coach U Podcast, movement specialist Lee Taft shares valuable insights on the connection between fundamental movements, speed development, and athletic performance. Taft's expertise extends beyond traditional speed coaching, as he emphasizes the crucial role of fundamental movement patterns in building a strong base for athletes. 

Let's explore the key takeaways from the episode and how they can benefit coaches and athletes in their training approach.

Embracing Mistakes and Learning:

Taft stresses the importance of allowing athletes to learn from their mistakes, acknowledging that learning often starts with failure. He emphasizes that it's okay for athletes not to be perfect from the beginning and encourages a growth mindset that values trial and error as a part of the learning process.

Progressive Skill Development:

The discussion highlights the value of starting athletes at a manageable pace and gradually increasing the difficulty of skills. By providing detailed feedback and allowing self-reflection, coaches can help athletes better understand skill execution, promoting steady skill development and motor control.

Coaching Flexibility and Problem-Solving:

Taft emphasizes the need for coaches to adapt and encourage athletes to think critically and problem-solve independently. This approach aligns with the evolving nature of coaching and supports comprehensive skill development.

Sprinting Techniques and Training:

Taft provides insights into sprinting mechanics, emphasizing the importance of maintaining specific angles and coordination between arm and leg movements for better efficiency and power output. He also discusses the use of training tools such as wickets to improve running mechanics and prevent overstriding.

Mastering Fundamental Movements:

Taft stresses the importance of mastering fundamental movement patterns before moving on to advanced skills. This emphasis on foundational movements prepares athletes for specific movements in their sports and contributes to injury prevention and long-term athletic development.

Coaches and athletes can apply these principles to create a learning environment that values mistakes, prioritizes gradual skill development, and emphasizes the mastery of fundamental movement patterns. By integrating these concepts into their training, coaches and athletes can establish a strong foundation for athletic success and continuous improvement.

Lee Taft Website 
Coach U Podcast YouTube

Transcript

Coach U: 0:00

Hey everybody. This is the coach you podcast, and I'm your host coach. You, this podcast is about being curious, learning from others and using what we've learned to evolve every single day. Hey, what's up, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning into the coaching podcast. This episode of Lee Taft is awesome. He's been a coach that has been nothing but welcoming and helpful to me since I became a coach back in 2017, I had my first conference I visited my first conference and leave was there. And ever since day one, he's been nothing but open, willing to help answer any questions. And this episode is much more than just him being the speed guy, which initially that's how I met him as. But he's so much more than just the speed guy. He's a movement specialist. He understands athletes and how they move. Even more so than just that, how they think, how they operate and how different situations call for different types of coaching. So it's a great episode to listen to if you're a coach or an athlete, because you do want to understand how it is to think with athletes as an athlete, as a coach, how can you communicate better? How can you make a better relationship and inevitably help your athlete become a better athlete and as an athlete, become a better athlete with your coach. So I hope you enjoy this episode with Lee Taft. Hey, what's up, everybody? Welcome to the Coach U podcast. I'm your host, Coach U. Today we're being joined by Lee Taft. Hey, what's up, Lee? How you

Lee Taft: 1:27

doing, man? I'm good. So great to see you. It's been a while and I've always been a big fan of yours and excited to spend some

Coach U: 1:35

time with you. Yeah, I've learned so much from you. Uh, you are, you know, there's the speed guy. We know this. Uh, I've heard you called the godfather of speed before as well. So, you know, we know that you love speed. We're going to talk speed for sure. But I have a lot of other questions about coaching and it's not just, you know, one dimension, right? So I really want to pick your brain on a few different topics that have been, you know, I've over my coaching years I've picked up and you know, I'm like, I really want to ask him about these certain things. So we're going to get into it before we start. I want you to, you know, give the, give everyone a little idea of what you're doing. Uh, you know, kind of how you transition through the COVID period and what you're doing now.

Lee Taft: 2:10

Yeah, definitely. So, you know, to kind of start in the beginning, you know, I started out as a teacher, I was a phys ed teacher. I grew up in a family of teachers. And so that was kind of like, I'm excited. You're going to talk about kind of the coaching teaching aspect because Really, that's when it all starts. It doesn't matter what we know if we can't relay it to our, you know, our people in a, in a concise manner. So, spent a lot of time there. I, early on, transitioned into strength and conditioning. And, uh, over the years, I've owned some facilities and I went back into teaching and coaching again. And then now, a lot of my time is spent, uh, consulting and, you know, obviously creating some coaching courses. But I also, John, I got back into coaching last year, so, um, yep, and we, we used to live, I'm from New York, we're there, went to Indiana for about 15 years, right during the pandemic, we moved, the beginning, we moved down to Florida, and, uh, we were going to move anyway, but it just kind of seemed like the right time to do it, because, We just couldn't travel. You know, we couldn't, I couldn't do any, you know, in place seminars. So we kind of jumped in our cars and drove down and found a place. And, uh, we've been here for a little over three years now. And, um, and then last year I got asked to be a head basketball coach again. And that's like, that's like asking a little kid if you want another piece.

Coach U: 3:37

That's awesome. Did you find the joy back in it

Lee Taft: 3:39

again? Oh man. You know, I did so much because Number one, I missed it. And it's, you know, you just give me a ball in a gym and a football field or whatever, it doesn't matter. I just love, yeah, I love being around the kids, love, you know, being around the parents and supporting, you know, a program and I just, because I was away from it for, you know, a couple of years and, uh, you know, a few years from a, from a now head coach, but I had coached some different levels in that time. But coming back and being the head coach of the entire program, which that's what I like. Because now I can, I can mold the little kids all the way up to the, to the top. What it did is the time off gave me perspective, you know, like as, as much as I can be demanding at times, I also had a greater perspective of, you know, especially during the pandemic, like, you know, this isn't. This isn't the end all be all, you know, it's just sports still. And we got to keep, and I've always been pretty good with that, but I think I even understand that more now and, and really try to give something the kids can be proud of, and these are things that I was, you know, I'm older now. And you kind of look at it as almost like a parent sometimes for these kids, you know, so it's

Coach U: 4:51

been great. That's awesome. Yeah, it's, it's interesting like getting, cause when you say you got back into coaching, it's like, you've been coaching, but this is a different kind of coaching. Can you, can you describe the difference between the two different styles of coaching that you're, you're talking about here?

Lee Taft: 5:05

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So when you're a strength and conditioning coach or a performance coach or, uh, you know, a speed coach, whatever it is, when you work in that area, there is a little bit of film, right? You can break down the technique of someone, you can do that. But when you get into the sports of coaching soccer, volleyball, tennis, you know, whatever, in my case, basketball right now, there's a lot of prep work. There's a lot of, um, uh, work where you have to look at all your athletes that are going to be competing on the court for you, and you got to figure out how to get them to play the best way they can together, like you might be my best shooter, but you shoot best coming off a screen. I got to figure that out. I can't just say, all right, well, we're going to do this and we're going to pass the ball to John in the corner. He's going to shoot it. That might not be your shot. You might like coming off a, a get action or whatever. And you, that's just how you shoot off with them. So that to me is the fun part, you know, because I made all the mistakes. I thought, Oh, this kid's a pretty good athlete. He could play. No, they didn't, they didn't fit well in that system. So we have to make sure we do that. And that to me is the difference between. You know, like when a kid goes into a weight room, the weights aren't moving, you know, they're not, they're not setting up a defense against sure they're not, they're not, you don't have to chase them around, you know, so you can pretty much go in there and you can get your stuff done and work at it as where you got to plan for the other team that's trying to attack you just as much as you're trying to attack down and that's, that's a different mindset.

Coach U: 6:36

No, that's cool. And, uh, that's for, for reference, the, the corner shot actually was my shot. It was like the only shot there in free throws. That was great. Everything else. much. Um, that's awesome. I, uh, it's, it's cool to hear the difference because I, you know, playing, playing so many different sports and then being able to try to relate what we do as a performance speed coach, strength coach, whatever we are. And then actually being like. There's skills coaches in these departments, too, in every single sport, too. So it's, it's, you can break it down even further. But then to be the coach who has to kind of tie it all in together, it's, they're all different aspects, uh, all coaching. So it's really cool to hear the differences, uh, of what you're seeing, you know, in, in your, um, your experiences and like how you see the actual coaching. Uh, because it is an art, you know, it's such an art to, uh. To be able to dial that in, um, I have, I have this thing we'll, we'll kind of, we'll go to this. I told, I wrote it in the notes, but it's called an impact deck. So here, there's just some fun little things in here. Uh, it's just some wisdom, you know, not even about sports, so there's an action card, there is a reflection card, and then there is an affirmation card, I believe, yes, so the affirmations, um, and so what I'm going to do is I'm just going to shuffle them up here, it's a reflection. Here we go. So, ooh, this is a good one. Uh, what's getting in the way of you being exactly who you want to be?

Lee Taft: 7:53

Uh, my hair being this short. I'm trying to...

Coach U: 8:00

The movies were trying to get you for the modeling

Lee Taft: 8:03

modeling life. I keep trying to get in there and be a stand in for one of them. Your head's getting in the way. No, so. Man, that's a great one. I love this. This is really good. So, you know, I would say as flexible as I am as a of a, as a coach mm-hmm. I sometimes is not, I am not as flexible as I need to be as a, uh, as a human being that's trying to grow. And I try and I work at it. And the reason is, is, um, Sometimes I get stuck in my way when I have good success doing what I'm doing. And I know I have to keep going because I preach this all the time. I preach to like, you know, like if you're a, you know, your own worst patient, right? I know, I know what I need to be doing, but sometimes John, I don't. Always, um, allow myself to be vulnerable and to grow and to learn from, you know, maybe watching and, and, uh, you know, attending an event that, that I really need to do. I'm kind of like, hi, you know, I'm good. We're, we're doing really well. I don't think I'm going to go to that, you know, whatever. And I think that's one thing that, you know, kind of, I got to put that in better perspective because I'm really big on growth and I do a lot of stuff, but sometimes. I'll get stuck in my ways a little bit and that's an area that I need to get better at.

Coach U: 9:29

I love it. I love the honesty. I love the ability to look at that because that's how you grow. Right? That's how you're able to, uh, as my shirt says here, evolve, right? That's, that's, I'm all about that. It's just about the life lessons. And, um, what would you think? So, like, you know, you've been in the coaching field for what? How many years now? So 35 years, that's three decades of experience and growth, um, you know, so I like hearing the evolution of coaching. I like hearing, uh, how you've grown and, you know, just even talking about that right now, hearing you say, you know, Hey, I still get in my own way sometimes. And like, I think it's interesting because as a younger coach and even like 10 years ago, and I met you in 2017. I've had so much growth in just those six years mentally, physically, and it's, it's, I just love hearing the experience of others. So what would you, what would you say, you know, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, have been big, maybe moments in your life or just throughout your coaching career. How have you, uh, evolved? From day one until now,

Lee Taft: 10:25

yeah, this is a, this is such a powerful question because we could go on for a free podcast, you know, this one because it's so it's that important, really. So, the 1 thing that I think all of us go through as young people is so young professionals are just young people in general is we want to be heard. We wanna be recognized and notice we want what we say do, um, what we teach, to be respected and um, you know, to be honored to a degree. In some ways we go about that by talking a lot and maybe over coaching or over teaching, because that's what we know. We were taught, you know, I was a physical education teacher, so I was taught how to teach. Plus I grew up around a father who did it for 44 years. My two brothers were teachers and coaches for 35 years, and my sisters were teachers. So that's all I heard. So I was like, oh, I can't wait to teach. I can't wait. So I go in and I'm just yap, yap, yap, yap, yap the whole time. And so over the years, I realized, gosh, I actually get better results when I shut up. And I just, I give them a direction. I do what I like to call guided discovery. And I allow my athletes to kind of experience things themselves. And I, and I think so from, from the, from the 80s till now, that's been the biggest growth. As I think I'm really, really good now at understanding when I need to roll my sleeves up and start chirping a lot. Versus just kind of saying, you're okay. Try it again. You're going in the right direction. I'll tell you if you get off the tracks, go. And then the kids kind of start to realize, and here's the other part to that story, it's you and I, it's our story, like we feel like we're talking too much, but it's It's the athletes end of the story where they become reliant on us talking too much so they don't problem solve. When you stop talking, they're like, okay, he's not going to tell me what to do, so I need to figure this thing out. And I'm like, yes, that's what I want. I am not going to tell you what to do because you're heading in the right direction. I don't want rote memory. I want your nervous system to create a pathway of learning. And so now I've learned to back off and kind of let that go. And that's really been a big part of my teaching now. And, you know, from, from feedback to anything I give it's. It's well, what do you think? You know, you just did it. What do you think? And let's solve it together. Yeah.

Coach U: 13:02

Yeah, no, that's it's it's funny because I leads right into the next thing that I had in terms of like my topics. I was like, you know, I, I feel like we're expected as coaches, like you said, to, you know, give that feedback on almost every move. And especially if you're looking at specific skills, you know, if it is speed or if it is a specific weightlifting exercise, we're, we're, you know, We're taught as coaches to, to correct and to assess and to give feedback, but it's not always great. And I, I did notice, like I've actually experienced what you just talked about firsthand, where, you know, the more cues I give, it could be confusing because there's too many things to think about. And then the more I've backed off, the more I've seen them try things. And also I think too, and I want to hear your opinion on this, but. Let them mess up and let them have bad reps. We don't want them hurting themselves, but they're going to be bad reps. Just like on the field, they're going to be bad reps, just like in life, there's going to be bad reps. And so I think it's a bigger correlation there. What do you

Lee Taft: 13:59

think? Yeah. Oh, that's, that's so, so important because It is absolutely, um, insane for us to think that doing a bad rep, a less than proficient rep, or whatever we want to say, is to be expected because that's not how the nervous system works. That's not how the brain, uh, evolves. As your shirt says, we, we try something. The brain hasn't created a pathway for that yet. So how can we be so. stubborn to think that they should have did it right on the first time. It's one thing if we're going to talk about effort and attitude, right? We can get, we can have a great effort right off and a great attitude right off. That's different. But if we're talking about the skill, we have to be, uh, smart enough to understand learning starts with failure. Because the failing process is what actually ignites the brain, the chemistry and the electricity to start forming pathways. And so if we're going to be so naive to say, you know, you got to get this right, you've tried it five times and it's pull holding. Yeah, you might try that for five years and not get it down, right? I think when we start to understand that, um, you know, the feedback we give. Or the queuing we give has to come in progressions and steps. So when I'm working with you shooting in the corner, your jump shot and you keep missing it to the left, right? And you're a young kid, you're a sixth grader and you're off the cues that I'm going to give you now won't be the same ones when you're a freshman in college, shooting that same shot. Sure. It can't be, it's I've got, it might have to, I might have to touch on it. But I have to evolve because your understanding is greater and your execution of the skill is greater. There just might be some mental things that are off and I could give you a, one of the cues I give my basketball players all the time is stop shooting the ball 50 miles an hour, shoot it at 35. All of a sudden, what happens is their arc goes up, the ball slows down, their rotation improves, and they don't bang it. You know, like it's not, bam, this hard shot. And that cue works for the kid who understands that cue. For the younger kid, it's a different cue because they don't get that yet.

Coach U: 16:31

Right. So two things came up for me. I do want to ask about queuing and how you get feedback, but hold on to that one. Cause I actually want to ask you about something else that came up first, which, which is what you said, you know, don't shoot it a certain mile per hour. Let's shoot a little bit softer. I tell people, find your 100 and work between 70, 80 in terms of it and be really, really good at that at a slower level and then start to amp it up. Cause I always, I always bring this one up and it's Tiger Woods father. Who said I want you to swing as hard as you possibly can every swing as long as you're in control and it's the same concept I feel like the, um, you know, to grasp things like you have to learn how to do it. I can tell you all day what to do, but if you're not grasping it., with motor control and you're not grasping it with your body and like understanding how it feels. So what do you think about starting athletes at a lesser level, you know, and saying, I want you to start this at a slower pace and then start to amp it up.

Lee Taft: 17:25

I think you got to meet them where they're at and you got to do that. It's very skill dependent. So let's say we're working on a forehand in tennis. If you swing too slow. You sometimes actually change the, you change the result of what you're trying to do in the game of tennis today. It's very topspin dominant. Okay. We want to come over the top. This, this, this goes back to, you know, what Tiger Woods dad said is hitting it. We'll fix. We'll fix stuff later. But let's make sure that we train that nervous system to have some energy. And so when I work with tennis, if I've worked with tennis players and the ground stroke is like, okay, let's learn how to swing first. Once you know how to swing, I want you to generate speed and take the fuzz off the ball. And so they get when I say that that means I want to brush through the ball or up the ball and I want you to do that at a massive speed because that creates the spin. It drops it down to the court and what they start to realize. Oh, that actually makes the court bigger versus hitting it really soft and flat, which the ball can easily sail out. So it's it's taking that skill. Meeting the kids where they're at, and then being able to give them the cue that helps them. So, that's why when I use the cue on shooting, if I say 50 miles an hour, kid can say, okay, yeah, 50, I know what that is. But then when I say 35, they're like, oh yeah, that's a lot slower. So that immediately, that cue helps them. If I were to say to them, hey, shoot the ball slower, I don't know that they get it completely though, like, okay, but like, what, what do you mean slower? So when I tell them that, they get it. They understand. Yes, the ball should travel like a dart at the rim. It should get there, but at 35 miles an hour, that means it's going to be more arc softer. The ball can actually see the whole of the rim versus kind of peeking over the edge. We never want that. We want it to come down. So the cueing and the words that you use connect the meaning of what we're asking them. Versus a cue, just giving them something additional to work on what they don't really connect it to how it's going to improve what they're doing. And that's what we have to do.

Coach U: 19:51

Right, right if, if they're just, like you said, if they're just not having a good time with a drill, how do you progress, regress, how do you communicate with them? Because it could be a really frustrating thing, too, for an athlete. Yeah,

Lee Taft: 20:02

this is probably going back to your question a few minutes ago about how I've grown over the years. I went from very direct feedback to now most of my feedback is summary feedback. So, what I'll do is an athlete will perform a skill Or, or a repetition and I'll say, so what'd you think, you know, based on what, you know, we want you to do. What did you think of that rep? And they're like, well, I felt like I just, you know, I was off to the right or I didn't jump high enough or my foot plant was off and I'll say, you know, I think the same thing. And so what we did is we got a yes, yes. You gave me what you thought. I looked at it and said, yep, I saw that. We want yes, yes. If you said to me something, and it was not very good, you agreed it wasn't very good, and I agree to it, that's a no, no. I want those two. I want a yes, yes, or a no, no, because that means you and I are on the same page. If I get a yes from you and a no from me, that's, I don't want that. Because now I know you're not thinking the same, or vice versa. If I think, oh man, that was a great rep, and you said, ah, I didn't like that, well, what that's telling me, and what I gotta get across to you is, you know what, you actually did it right, but because it's so new to your brain, it felt awful. So, I said, trust me, you did it right, and it's gonna feel bad for maybe the next 10 to 20 reps, but then all of a sudden, it'll feel not as bad. And then, by next week, it's gonna feel like, oh, okay, this is pretty good, and then in, you know, a couple months, you're gonna be like, ah. How did I ever do it the other way, you know, that's so it's that kind of yin yang type thing you got to have with your athletes, let them, and here's the other important part john and I think a lot of coaches don't do this very well, is if, if you don't allow. Your athletes to learn how to explain what it felt like. I don't know that they're learning well enough. So if they just say, Oh, I don't know. You know, cause that's what they'll do. Hey, how did you, how did you feel? And you go, I don't know. I need you to know. So here's what I want you to do this time. I want you to feel like, did you feel like you popped off the ground? Or did you feel heavy getting off the ground? And now I'm giving them a language, right? Exactly. Now I've given you two choices. I didn't give you this, this, uh, discovering, try to, how to come up with a, uh, you know, an evaluation on your own. I said, just tell me, was it, was it slow or was it fast? Was it, you know, popped off the ground or felt heavy off the ground? Now you can, and that teaches them. I have to be aware of how I feel when I'm performing reps and then they can start helping themselves.

Coach U: 22:56

I love that. It can be tough to understand what we're seeing so much and what your brain has processed over the years and how much you've learned. Yep. You have to simplify it, uh, to an extent that, you know, to help them understand and build their language. And I think that's something, um, I've definitely learned, uh, you know, even just being able to relay it. Cause once you get that down, I think it does become way easier. And I've seen that happen where it becomes easier to have the conversations. And I like to collaborate with them too and like allow them to see some video feedback. Allow them to see how they're moving. And see, are you seeing some of the same stuff that I am? Cause it also can connect them too. Um, how do you, how often do you, are you using video with your, with your guys and girls?

Lee Taft: 23:34

A lot. A lot. I'm a big, I always have my phone and my iPad, depending on where I'm at, phone's easier sometimes to keep in my pocket. But if I can, like here in my little garage, I have apps when they come in, I get my iPad and I show them and then I'll sit down. If the parents are here, I'll show them. I said, this is what you need to be looking for when they're training at home with you. And so we'll just take them through it. And sometimes I'll just say, here it is. What do you see based on what I told you we're looking for? And then they can say, Oh gosh, I didn't realize my knees. You know, do this or do that, you know, so you kind of give them that feedback. And here's the other part. I want your listeners to kind of realize this is so important to understand from the day we're, we're able to move at all. Okay. As a baby to, to, we can get up and we can reach and we can roll a little bit and then start to crawl and then crawl, stand and then stand to move. But anytime we're trying to maybe accomplish something, okay, moving our bodies. We don't, as adults, have no say in that. Like, we don't tell these little toddlers how to waddle over and go get that ball over there. So that goes to show you how powerful our circuitry is and how it allows us to develop. Now, all of a sudden, the kid hits, you know, 6, 7, 8 years old, and we think we have to involve ourselves completely to make these kids... Learn, but that's not what the brain really likes. What we have to do is figure out, okay, can this child, meaning a 10 year old, right? They're still children. Can this child throw the ball correctly on their own by watching their peers or watching their older friends and eventually establish a pretty good throwing action or a serving action or a kicking action? Can they do it on their own? The answer is yes, they can. If they want to become advanced or elite, they're going to need some input to fine tune things. And if we see them throwing and learning how to throw incorrectly, where it might cause harm, that's when we interject. But most of the time they're going to figure it out just by modeling someone else, especially higher level talent. We think I got a class today. We think they have to be right today or perfect today, right? No, it might be next month at this time. That's what they're gonna get. So are we patient enough? And smart enough as coaches to say, hey, we're going to get a win today, but the win might be your feet were positioned correctly today. And then next Monday, now your feet were really good and you connected your lower and upper body. And that's what we tell the kids. We don't tell them, hey, you have to hit a perfect home run today. We just want you to hold the bat and have your feet right and rotate your hips the right way. And then each day we progress the win. And then that's how we learn

Coach U: 26:34

I do think to patients that you said the key word. There's patients because we're definitely in a very Impatient society now, but I mean that's that's just the world we live in So kids are seeing things now and they're wanting to try stuff and they want to advance quickly we, we always, when I was a kid playing little league and basketball, I played all, I played five sports. It was always fundamentals, learn the fundamentals, learn the fundamentals. For you, what, what are your absolute fundamentals that you want your athletes to hammer down?

Lee Taft: 27:02

Yeah, this, this hits home with me hard because I'm watching our sport of basketball, especially because I made it, but I've seen it with every sport across the board. They, they are getting these young kids to do higher level skills, for example, in math books, your readers will make, or your listeners will understand this. We're getting kids learning a Eurostep before they can do a clean right and left hand layup. So their, their, their motor program is built where they're doing this Eurostep when that's not the skill they need to learn right now. They need to be able to. Fundamentally, go through a one foot takeoff, a two foot stride stop, or whatever it is we want to do, and then be able to work up from there. A Eurostep is a great move. It's an important move. But that's not a basic fundamental initially. We have to be able to do other things first. So, something like that. Now, let's take our world of athleticism. I spend a lot of time on the fundamental of seven patterns. Seven patterns I want, and then the other... abilities or skills or change of direction, which evolved deceleration, reacceleration. We add those to these seven patterns, and now we got an athlete that can do pretty much any movement. And then when they go to their sport, now they can make that movement specific to the sport. So, for example, my seven patterns, the two linear acceleration and sprinting. The two lateral shuffle and lateral run, the two retreating or back pedal and hip turn, and the one, uh, the seventh one is the vertical jump, just jump. Now, all of those have so many variations. Just take jumping, gosh, you got jumping and hopping and leaping and, you know, twisting. You got all these things. But if my kids can do those really well, now I can start coupling skills. I could do a shuffle to a lateral run. To a stop in a 180. Which I do in basketball all the time. That's denial defense to somebody going back door on me. I go from this shuffle to a lateral run. Cause I need more speed. All of a sudden they beat me. Now I get a one 80 and go chase them. Right? So we get kids to be able to do the fundamentals really well. And what that does, and this is what a lot of young coaches now, John, that are coming into our field don't understand is they, they think by giving the kids the higher level, more advanced skills early, they're going to have more bandwidth, but it actually shortens their bandwidth. If we give them really good fundamentals. Now they can do as much as they want because they're building the new skills off the fundamental. That's the framework. Drives me nuts to see, um, doing these super high advanced skills, but they don't know how to properly like locomote, you know, forwards and backwards. So yeah, so I'm big. I mean, we could go into any area you want. And I'm always going to say, if I had the fundamentals now, I've bought myself so much more real estate to grow it. And that's so important.

Coach U: 30:07

I love all of that. Um, it's, it is great. Cause being in the coaching world too, I've just seen so many coaches. I'm not saying they're skipping steps. It's just more like they want to push a little bit too much into that realm of things where it's like, have we even gotten down our basic movement patterns? Can you even balance on one leg? Like, you know, and, and, and then what do you think is going to happen at high speed? You know,

Lee Taft: 30:30

so the parents are like, Hey, they got tryouts in two weeks. Come on. So what do we do to keep them paying for service? A lot of times we'll be like, okay, you know, we'll start doing that when we know gut well, it's not the right thing to do, but you're also trying to feed your family sometimes. And so I, I completely get it with, so it's almost like we have to trick these athletes sometimes into the, because you can, you can, you can put lipstick on it, right? You can make it look fancy and it's still fundamentals. That's the art of coaching that we've learned. Yeah. Yeah,

Coach U: 31:04

it's like it's, I think it is one thing where it's like we need that there are so many things in the training world that are tedious and I don't like doing. I'm sure you don't like doing either. It's just part of training and our bodies don't always want to do what we're being asked to do, but being able to manipulate, you know, with, with the best intentions of getting them to do what they need to do in order because we know the backside, we know the other side of it. If you don't do that. So that's right. I like that. Um, I, I had, I wrote this one out and it's so true. I have a love hate thing with programming because it can, it can be very fun. It can be very fun, but it could be stressful, but it could be exciting. But when you learn so many things and so you want to implement stuff and you want to try stuff and it's like, what's when, when's the right time to do it? You know, when's the right time to get away from the fundamentals for a second? Or how can we add on to the fundamentals? Um, but that So that could be the fun part. The stressful part is, I think, redirecting. You know, when you, when you write out a plan or a program, and I don't think I've ever written out a program that has ever gone exactly how I've written it out. So, so, uh, what, what, uh, what goes into your programming and how do you deal with things on the fly?

Lee Taft: 32:11

Yeah, yeah, that, I'm telling you, when I was, when I was young, this, this question killed me because... That's so true. It's like, uh, it's like being back in school and doing homework so I coach a basketball team, and that's at least four months of the season, and then we got some preseason, and then offseason, it'll do some stuff, and I push the kids to do other sports, that's part of my plan, but, but anyway, so what I try to do is, I'll say, okay, I got, let me give an example, I got a kid who joins with me, and they want to train for a couple months, two months, And I'll always ask the kid in the past, what's your goal? What do you want to do? And then I'll look at the kid and I'll say, okay, that's possible or not possible within the two months. And then I back up from there. I'll say, okay, at the end of this, I want to see if we can run a 20 yard, you know, faster, obviously, uh, I want the starting speed to be better. I want the acceleration to be better and I want the mechanics to be more efficient. So that we're just an efficient move. So now all of a sudden I can kind of periodize a program to start building it. I know, okay, I need strength and why would I need strength? Well, because they have to start. They got to start from a standstill. Well, you need some strength and power to do it. So I'm going to periodize some strength in there. I need to make sure they have good mechanical ability. So how can I improve mechanics? Well, there's a lot of ways I can do that. Video analysis, uh, banded assist, uh, banded runs, where they get to spend more time under tension, which slows down the action, but it increases the power output, and I can actually work on their mechanics there. Works really well. And, and then there's going to be some other things, like I have to get the plyometrics in there, because the plyometrics are going to increase the elasticity. So now my program has these really big, broad buckets. And then I can just pull from those and write my program. Alright, we're going to warm up, we're going to go through this, but I'm going to make sure I hit those key things to make sure in two months we have a better product than we started with. And that's kind of what my program looks like right now. And I have all the stuff and the sets and reps. I put that stuff down. But what I do more than anything now is I evolve from exercise to exercise. throughout the workout. So let's say we're going to do, um, a, I'm going to work on five yard accelerations from a crouch start because I'm trying to get them to be able to push themselves with a little bit more power through space. Okay. So I started working on that and I noticed they're struggling. With, um, balance and they're struggling with being able to express some distance on their stride. So what I do is I'll go add a band. I'll put a lighter band around them and make them push. And what it does is it lets their their peak power be reached. Every step. Mm. But when they're running with just body weight, each step, they accelerate faster and they can't get their leg through fast enough to get separation. But when I have a band around them, or if they ran up a a hill, they get to push hard enough, multiple rests. So that is on the fly. I'm like, this just isn't working. Let me try this. And I do that with almost every exercise I do and every workout, you know, it's constantly the evolution of that particular drill and how can I make it better so that we get the results we want.

Coach U: 35:45

After hearing that answer, I'm going to clear, I'm just going to clearly say that I feel so much better about my coaching. So much better. It's true because like, you know, it's hard, right? There's this protocol to follow There's these principles to follow and obviously principles are gonna drive everything But you have to be creative with what you're doing, you know in not every athletes the same Maybe that band doesn't necessarily work for one athlete So maybe I go to the front side and have them push against me that way like, you know What what can we do as coaches to help them? Help that particular athlete in front of us to the best of their capabilities, right? And so you have to be creative

Lee Taft: 36:20

so you do and you know what? Here's another thing that's interrupted But I think this is a point and like so let's say you and I are coaching basketball And I'm playing your team, and your team consistently beats us backdoor, consistently. Well, I'm a fool if I don't adjust on the fly, right? I gotta do something. I gotta change my defense. I gotta back my kids up a little bit so they're not, you know, they don't get beat on the backdoor so easy. I gotta put more pressure on the ball. So sport coaching needs to be studied more by teachers up in classrooms. And teachers of strength and conditioning because we easily see in sport where if something's not going right, we change like that, like we don't force it. If something's not working, we immediately change it. We'll go to a different offense or a different set play or a different flow or whatever, a different out of bounds play, right? But in our field, sometimes we're like, now it's kind of a gun, now I'm going to make this thing work. And that's not the answer. The answer is, can you be fluid and still accomplish the result you want? So that's why I love studying sports, because we have to adjust, otherwise the opponent gets the upper hand. And if that's what makes this, you know, you beat me, I beat you. We, that's it. We got to do the same thing in training.

Coach U: 37:42

I like that. I like that a lot. That's, that's a, that's a good point. And it's not often thought about. I don't think in the coaching world, cause it, you know, it's, it's very rigid sometimes. And, um, that's it. Ridge

Lee Taft: 37:52

is a good word. Sometimes we're too structured when learning isn't structured. Learning is a process of tripping and falling and getting back up and keep doing that until eventually you don't fall as much. You know, that's really what it is.

Coach U: 38:05

All right. We're going to talk speed. We, we have to, I can't bring you on and not talk speed and movement. So let's do this, can you break down, uh, backside mechanics versus frontside mechanics and give me some of your favorite drills that you love adding in, um, that obviously you can spruce up if you want to, you know, put your own touch on them, but what do you like to use, uh, to help with that frontside mechanic improvement? Yeah, yeah,

Lee Taft: 38:25

certainly. This is great. So in sprinting. One of the evils that we don't want is this long backside command, uh, commitment to the stride. We don't want to get, we don't want to hang out there. Obviously we know we have to go there, but it, but it should be a result of momentum, not exertion. So I shouldn't be purposely extending my hip back and pushing my foot way behind me. When I'm sprinting, it should be the result of striking the ground hard as my leg comes through me moving over the earth and my leg ends up behind me because that's, that's physics. Right now, all of a sudden I've got to get that leg in front of me. So what we see with backside runners is we end up getting the knee over flexes too long on the backside in the bottom of the feet. So let's say the cleats. Well, the spikes or the tread ends up facing the sky for too long and ends up, you know, so my foot goes way back and then my shoelaces are facing the ground and it puts up all of a sudden, I've kind of lost some hamstring control. I've lost the gastroc helping to contract the knee to bring it forward. That's really important. So now that's the backside when I get stuck there, then what happens? I'm trying to bring that forward, but because it got stuck behind my front leg is already struck the ground. And I got this big gap between the two legs, the two thigh bones. And because the other one's back, that front leg comes through, the back leg eventually comes forward, but because it hung out on the backside so long, and my front leg is already at mid stance, I never get to the real good front side mechanics. I end up stepping down sooner, and we call that forward rotation. You start rolling forward because my pelvis, everything tips forward because I was hanging it out on the backside. If you and I are racing and you just keep edging ahead of me little by little and I can feel it and I start getting tight and I start trying to push harder as I start to push harder. I end up hanging out on the backside. What I should be doing. Staying as relaxed as I can and lifting my knees quicker and striking fast, pop, pop, pop, pop, get them up. And now I become more frontside mechanic, uh, mechanic based. And I'm using the elasticity better versus sitting on the ground longer trying to push. That's what I need to do during the acceleration. That was a long time ago. I have to get out of that one. So, so that's the backside. Okay. So we got this leg that hung out. Now we're going to say, all right, let's change that. Let's let's, I don't want my athletes to do that. How can I do that in max velocity sprinting? Well, I could say it till I'm blue in the face, or I could give them exercises that start to Uh, bring that response to life. One of the ways I like to do it is we'll, we'll run over cones or, or little hurdles, we call them wicket runs. And what, what that does is that intuitively tells the athlete, I better not trip over this cone. Come, so I'm going to lift my leg really fast. And if we, if we, um. Uh, uh, position the cones at the right distance and it takes a little bit of work, but once you get them there, the athletes just start to get to the front side so fast because, and I only use, you know, like six inch cones because I don't want them running like they're running through deep water. I don't want to overemphasize, right? And that all of a sudden. Cues them externally, right? Or internally, I should say, but the external driver is the cone and now they immediately get the front and they don't they don't hang out on the backside. Now, the other way I could do it, John, is I could say, Hey, guys, we're going to do a skips. We're going to do high knees at a fast tempo, or we're going to do, uh, a skips or something like that. And that starts to bring them to the front side, but I still have to teach them to do it at full speed. That's where the wickets come in. The wickets start that. So yeah, that gets them there. So those are a couple of ways that we can really work on that to get in it. I have watched my own kids, my own daughters and sons improve drastically, but hundreds of athletes over the years of being a track coach. football and basketball. My basketball team goes through my sprint program. They've gotten so much better at it because we do it over and over and

Coach U: 42:54

over. Over and over and over. I love hearing that too, because it is, you have to drill it. It's a motor control thing. I don't even think because speed. Okay. So, and that was one of my questions is. What is speed? What actually makes speed? Because it's not just strength. It's not just power. It's not just the ability to, you know, have core control. It's a mixture of stuff. So, what are, you know, what are the biggest things that go into building, uh, somebody for more speed?

Lee Taft: 43:18

Yeah. So, all the things you mentioned. One of them, one of them is establishing really good coordination of the nervous system, which, you know, a little bit sciencey here, but kind of like, you know, contraction modes of being able to contract and relax really quick, which is coordination, inter and intramuscular coordination. So, and that's why you said. We got to swing the golf club at a high rate of speed because we're trying to tell the nervous system. This is ultimately where I want to be. I'll fix the rest after that. Well, speed is like that. If you train speed sub maximal, you're going to get good at running sub maximal. And then when you try to go full speed or you need to, you're just not going to have the coordination and the nervous system is wired to shut you down when it feels unsafe. So the more I get to those maximal speeds, the more the body says, Okay, I can do that now. I'm getting better. I can coordinate and shut things off and turn them on. And I could use the elastic energy better. I can Use your Achilles tendon better and you know all these functions that have to occur and then if you give me some strength Okay, now I'm just working with a bigger engine, you know, yeah, but it's the coordination that really has to be developed That's the divider. Oh Even when I've had little kids that aren't real fast But we did things fast all the time they all they get faster because their nervous system thirsty for it. They want it.

Coach U: 44:50

Yeah, yeah No, that's uh, let's say you see a kid over striding, but they're going super fast All right. So is this and then obviously this is where the wickets can come in and play But you know over striding is essentially what we talked about earlier with backside mechanics versus that front side, right? So the, you know, having a drill like the wickets, being able to get them to do that over and over again, building it at a fast pace, I see that. So, when you set up your wickets actually, uh, when it's a little play, you have to play with the distance and stuff, what are you looking for when you do set that

Lee Taft: 45:17

up? Yep, for distance you mean? Yeah. Yeah, so if I'm working with young kids, it's about four feet to four feet. And then middle school, good athlete, you know, age, about five feet. Four and a half to five feet, and then, and then we go to the older kids anywhere five and a half to six feet, and then I adjust accordingly, and the, the, here's the mistake a lot of coaches make when they put them out is. Let's say you're going to go six feet. Well, they'll start the first ones at six feet, all the way to the last ones at six feet, which is fine if you give them a build up. Right. You got to give them at least 15 meters, 20 meters, because they have to be at the speed that they can handle those. Some of them will start at like two feet in front of it as they go. Right, yeah, you can't do that. Well, the first two look like a triple jump. You know, they're trying to get over it. They don't have any momentum yet. So you got to make sure you build it up. Now, if you're going to start them close, have your first ones be three feet, and then three and a half, and then four, four and a half, five, and then eventually they'll get out to that length. But you can't start them at the distance you want, unless you give them a big build up, and they got to get a high speed. So, so that's how I do it, and I'm honest about this. I, so I helped coach track this year, because they started a club. Next year will be an actual sanctioned program, but the first year you have a club. And so they wanted me to help. So I helped and I did all the sprinters and jumpers and everybody. And we did wickets a lot. And every single day, every time I did them, it was constantly adjusting. This one has to go like another six inch and this one moving. So you just got to be willing to adjust to it. And that's just part of the deal. If you're going to use them, because if you use them and the kids aren't fast enough, you're just feeding over striding, you're feeding them, having too much of a cast. of the lower leg and then they land on their heel and then they roll and then they're stuck on the back side again. So I just, so you got, I'd rather it be too short than too long because at least if it's short, they go pop, pop, pop, pop, pop real quick and that's, that's better than the over stride.

Coach U: 47:28

When you're talking about, um, speed in general, and we're talking about acceleration, then top end speed, what are the things you're looking for on the acceleration? You know, why is the acceleration so important for kids to work on or just even athletes in general?

Lee Taft: 47:41

Yeah. Yeah. So we, we want to make sure the kids have a separation of limbs. So first, because in most sports, the first step is critical, but that gets me to a 50, 50 ball, at least gives me leverage. So if I have separation of limbs, meaning, My arms get away from each other, my legs get away from each other, that is helping me change inertia. It's helping me go from a standstill to moving, and in order to do that, I have to put more force into the ground longer. And if I don't separate my limbs long enough, I end up picking them off the ground and moving them forward before I finish my push. It'd be like doing a vertical jump, but don't ever straighten your knees out or your hips, you know, you gotta stay bent. You gotta finish it. So we need to make sure we see that. The other, a couple of cues that I give them to help them understand angle of running is I always tell them, uh, win the race with your shoulders. Or, you know, chase your shoulder. It says a QIU. Chase your shoulder, then they understand. Okay, my shoulders have to be in front. The other one is, I always tell them, have your pinky about shoulder blade height on the first and second arm action. So they separate my front hand, that thumb comes up around my collarbone to my jaw, somewhere there pretty tight. But I want that pinky at least at shoulder blade height, if not higher. Now I know I'm encouraging separation, and if my arms separate, my legs will separate. Um, and then they start moving, and then I tell them, I want your first steps to be pretty low to the ground, and then we start driving a little higher, because I think it's like, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's something like, Every step. It's about six degrees, seven degrees. We come up. Then all of a sudden, I want them to go from this kind of this push mode to punch mode. Because push just sounds longer. Acceleration sounds longer. As we're sprinting. You know, now we get into this, you know, step, step, step, step. And so we start talking about that and then we, you know, we break down the mechanics and the arm action and all that stuff to which we thought when we were little kids. So, yeah, and kind of keeping it, uh, keeping it just don't let it cross the midline. If it does, it can't do it very much. It's gotta be a little bit, but it does have to go towards the midline if we wanna load the system correctly.

Coach U: 50:03

Are you good with me pulling up my screen and putting up uh, me sprinting on here? Got it. Cool. so let's let's just go i'm going to start this here so you can see Let and let me know if you mean to pause it rewind it But you know you're watching what are you watching for here and i'll bring it back to this spot. Let's say right

Lee Taft: 50:20

Okay, so I can kind of see the other hand so I saw the elbow come up, which is good So we're starting to get separation right and I want to see that I want to see a little bit longer back Uh, back arm action because it had, that's your right arm because I wanted to match the length of the left leg or as close as possible. I see. Yeah, because joint segments, oppositional joint segments, right arm, left leg, two different joints, but they're coordinating together. So the force output, those two are working together. Now. On the other side, if you notice, you're at 90 degrees on your left elbow right now, and you're about 90 degrees in your left leg, your knee, okay? I would want you to be a little bit more collapsed. Um, the left elbow. So you're a little bit tighter. So that arm is almost that thumbs coming in closer to your collarbone. And the reason why is now you can throw that thing down and back to bring the left leg through on the next step. So right now you Yep. So your shin there. That's pretty good. Now right there. If we look at where your left shin is, a little bit vertical, too vertical, okay? A little bit, maybe your body's a little bit upright, and that's why, okay? Uh, in that position, which is not uncommon at all. We're not elite sprinters, so, so right there,

Coach U: 51:51

what we I was hoping I was, Lee. I was hoping so badly I was.

Lee Taft: 51:56

What we want to see is a scissors action of that left quadricep, And the right quadriceps starting to come towards each other sooner, because as you go ahead and creep it, creep it forward a little bit, right there. Okay. So now as you're coming forward, keep going until you hit ground, like right there. Okay. So now you're touching ground. So you're getting better. And you're, you're actually getting the front side pretty quick there. We want to see that right knee pretty close to the same or in front. Um, the other knee because what that does is that accentuates the power output and the coordination. It doesn't keep you on the backside. You're actually pretty good on this right here. And then, um, so go ahead. Yep. So this right arm, excuse me, the left arm right there, just if it collapses just a little more, I wouldn't be.

Coach U: 52:52

When you say collapse, you're talking about that hand getting a little tighter in, yeah? So a little less of a 90 degree, more of a, we're trying to get almost, not necessarily zero, but let's say like 10 15 degrees with the arm.

Lee Taft: 53:03

Yeah, and here's why. And this is if we're being, so like, let's say you were, let's say you were a... Volleyball player. I don't care if your arm is there or back, but if we're going to, if you and I want to talk shot about acceleration, then we can get into the weeds a little bit here. And that's the fun part. But, you know, I want listeners to understand. Don't go nuts if your 10 year old doesn't have perfect, you know, Usain Bolt arm action. We're not worried about that. But here's why, though. This is the fun part. The angle that you have right now, which is just about 90, a little, maybe about 87 degrees in that range right there. Well, because that arm is going to have a certain speed to come out of that, your right leg has to match it. That's coordination. So your right knee won't bend as much if your arm doesn't bend as much. Okay. And so if you want to collapse the knee joint a little more, Then we need to make sure that we help, help that with the elbow because they work together. See how they're both open?

Coach U: 54:11

Yeah, I'm going to rewind that so you can kind of, yeah, but what do you see in here when you say open, what

Lee Taft: 54:16

do you see? So your left arm is open. Your right leg is open. Now your left arm is kind of open and then the right. So that what I mean by open is they're not, the joint isn't collapsing. They're staying open. Which sometimes makes the foot a little bit vertical, but you actually do like your shadow. Deceives us a little bit because it looks like you're closer to the ground and you're not sure you actually do a good job of punching down and back as you go

Coach U: 54:44

and can you talk about that punching? Because that's something I often talk about with my kids, you know, and the athletes I work with is get that punch down and back because a lot of people win that over stride. It's almost like they're trying to get ahead so fast, right? And I think that's kind of what you're talking about. If you watch that left knee and it's a little vertical that shin, right? That's what you're talking about is where we kind of lose that ability to punch down and back right when we're in that acceleration phase.

Lee Taft: 55:06

Exactly, exactly. And so being able to drive down and back on your first two to three steps especially is how we buy the later race. Or the later acceleration for a 50, 50 ball or whatever. If I were to over stride in these first couple of steps and be flat footed or on my heel, in some cases, I've lost all the leverage of being faster later on. Right. And that, so it's, it's important that we drive down and back and we do that by staying closer to the ground early on and having quick, quick arm actions on the front side. Getting to this side and then being able to throw the hand down. So if you watch your left hand here, when you go through this action, what we can see here with the right. Your right is going to open up look at your elbow almost as straight. You can't see it on that side It's it's going to be virtually straight right there right there It's trying to match your right knee joint

Coach U: 56:11

and that angle that the body's in right exactly I think that's something that has really stuck out to me too is just the to keep the body straight and in line, but it's a smooth violence. Like you have to be smooth. You have to be violent. What's really

Lee Taft: 56:27

good that you do is you intuitively dorsiflex because of the effort you're putting in. So look at your back foot come off the ground, that left foot comes off, yep, so right there you push and then watch it, watch it reflexively dorsiflex right there and then it comes right into it. Now you're dorsiflexing as you pull, which helps you collapse. You're in the figure four position. Collapse, and now look at your setup to be a spring. When you strike

Coach U: 56:57

right there, right? And that's something we talk about a lot too, is the heel strike. You know, do you hit, you know, you're not supposed to heel strike. You are supposed to heel strike. You hit the, what are we talking about here? What, what, what it, so can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah.

Lee Taft: 57:08

So hitting the heel isn't wrong if the heel doesn't hit first. So if I come down, so if I were to see your left leg come forward again, so go ahead and go forward and I'll tell you when to stop it. Let it go until it's just about casting. Okay, right there. You can see right there. You're going to land on the outer upper third of your foot. Okay, that that's supination. We want that because then it's going to roll into pronation, but watch your heel So you can see even though we're not Right up. We can tell your heel probably tapped the ground. You can see that it struck because you were in such good position leading up to the ground strike, like you're in a good position, you're on that outside, now it strikes, and when you get the pronation, once you strike the ground, having the heel touch actually acts as a little bit of a spring, and we're not talking about putting a ton of weight on it, it just helps the whole kinetic chain, because the talus, everything goes from external to internal rotation. moves the tibia. It moves up the chain. If you were only on the ball of your foot all the time, I would suspect you'd probably have some kind of tendonitis or plantar fasciitis. For sure. Yeah, right now you're using some really good massaging through that whole joint system. But look at your right leg, that right there, that's good position. Now you're going to pull over that foot. And then you'll come down into that position right there. Yeah, so it really really And now because you're putting your brakes on you go to your heel first, which is actually really important As you start slowing down you should be on the heel.

Coach U: 58:50

I love that No, thank you for doing that That's that's just fun to see and like I think it gives a visualization to people too because i'm gonna put this up on youtube So people can watch and go like oh, that's what we're talking about when we're talking about front side back side

Lee Taft: 59:00

Great questions. Really good flow. It was really good. And having that video analysis, I think it's just a lot of fun. You know, it's just, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It really

Coach U: 59:10

is. I love bringing people together to learn and talk shop and just to, you know, communicate.

Lee Taft: 59:17

So that's the evolution, right? That's the evolution of the coach. You go from being taught. To teaching students and athletes to eventually want to help teach coaches and share what you learn. That's the evolution.

Coach U: 59:29

Oh, I'm on the right path and I like that. Yeah. Like that. Uh, Lee, thank, uh, real quick. I just want to make sure that you, I have your links. I'll put the links in. The, uh, the show notes and everything, but I wanted you just to give a second. Hey, where can people reach out to you? Where can people find out about what you're offering?

Lee Taft: 59:45

I appreciate that. Well, if they go to at leetaft. com, they pretty much find me on social media. I'm pretty active on there. I I'm really big on engagement and trying to change our youth development. And so they can find me there. If they go to leetaft. com, that's kind of the mothership of all our. you know, courses and stuff. And then if they're a basketball person, we have a pretty neat course we did, um, at basketball speed specialist. com. And that's a lot about what we talked about and a lot about language and teaching and how to do it. So it's, yeah, it's pretty fun. So, but thank you.

Coach U: 1:00:19

Absolutely. Absolutely. Uh, Lee, thank you so much for joining today. I'm going to make sure you get this out this episode out, People are going to be learning. I'm going to have them with their pens. They're going to be writing these things down and hopefully they'll be reaching out to you and learn more from you as well.

Lee Taft: 1:00:31

Awesome. Thanks so much, John. You do a great job.

Coach U: 1:00:33

Thanks Lee. Appreciate it.