You’ve worked at multiple levels of professional basketball—from the G League to the NBA and now a championship organization. Looking back, what is one thing you had to unlearn or change about yourself as you progressed in your career, and how did that change ultimately make you a better athletic trainer and leader?

I agree! Recovery is definitely a “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” situation. Hydration, nutrition, rest, and movement all work together. I’d also add sleep, mobility, and listening to your body sometimes the best recovery tool is knowing when to chill instead of trying to do the most. Recovery isn’t about doing more; it’s about doing the right things at the right time.

You can educate athletes by explaining that recovery is just as important as the work they put in during practice. I would emphasize that proper rest and sleep allow the body to repair muscle, restore energy, and prepare for the next training session. Sleep has a direct relationship with athletic performance because quality sleep can support reaction time, focus, decision-making, recovery, and overall performance. As athletic trainers, we can encourage athletes to prioritize a consistent sleep schedule, especially during demanding training periods, and help them understand that recovery is part of their performance not time away from it.

Hi @jpedulla Thanks for sharing your speed bucketing and profiling system! I’m curious how you’ve implemented this model in a team setting. Understanding that time can sometimes be challenging and manpower may not always be available in the collegiate setting, I’d love to hear how you’ve been able to implement this practically with a team. I have used GPS tracking to help guide in-season training decisions, particularly when determining if adjustments needed to be made in the weight room based on sport-specific loads. I’d be interested to hear how you’ve used this profiling system to help guide training decisions throughout the season. Thanks!

On 9/8/2026 at 2:42 PM, achristy said: I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on what you do when someone continues to make the same mistake. I absolutely believe mistakes are part of the process of learning and growing, but at what point does repeated failure become something that needs to be addressed differently? Thanks for the follow-up! I think having candid conversations around what is happening is my approach. If I repeatedly see someone making the same mistake, I usually just ask, "I've noticed this has happened a couple times, why do you think this is happening?" I try to let them feel out why they are having the problem in the first place. That usually draws out more open conversation around what is going on for them. Sometimes it is a lack of self-awareness. They don't even notice that it's happening. Then you can bring it to their attention and they will be able to recognize the pattern the next time it comes around. If they have the awareness and continue to make the same mistake, then my approach would be to set an expectation with a clear objective. Giving a hard line for them to not cross lets them know that it is an important piece of the puzzle. Best example would be a repeat soft tissue injury. You could say something like, "Our goal as a performance team is to not have re-injury after clearance for return-to-play. Let's do a case review and get everyone together to find out what we can do better as a group so this doesn't happen again in the future." Create the team support environment, and push people to help each other! We all have cross-disciplinary skills and can see from different views. I think that's a very undervalued insight.

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This is something I see all the time in the collegiate setting. Creatine is probably one of the supplements my athletes ask me about the most, and honestly, it is one of the easier conversations to have because the evidence behind creatine monohydrate is so strong. With our basketball players, we tend to frame it around the demands of the sport. They are repeatedly sprinting, jumping, changing direction, and producing high levels of force throughout practices and games. Creatine isn't going to magically make someone a better basketball player, but it can help support the physiological demands that come with those activities and the strength and power adaptations we're trying to develop. What I also find interesting is the conversation around creatine and cognitive function. Collegiate athletes aren't just dealing with the physical demands of their sport. They're balancing practices, games, travel, classes, study hall, early mornings, late nights, and an incredibly long competitive schedule. For basketball in particular, the combination of travel and limited sleep can be significant. That's actually become one of the more effective ways I've found to talk about creatine adherence. Instead of simply telling an athlete, "Take this because it will help you get stronger," we can have a bigger conversation about supporting performance and recovery across the entire demands of being a college athlete. I also think it's important that we don't oversell the cognitive research. The performance benefits of creatine are well established; the brain and sleep-deprivation research is still developing. But I think it's an exciting area, especially when we're looking at the collegiate athlete as a whole person and not simply as an athlete in the weight room. From the athletic training side, I like that creatine is a relatively straightforward conversation: educate the athlete, make sure they're using a quality product, coordinate with sports nutrition and strength & conditioning, and make sure supplementation is part of a much bigger approach to nutrition, hydration, sleep, and recovery. Sometimes the biggest challenge isn't getting athletes to take something. It's getting them to understand why consistency matters.

On 9/4/2026 at 6:34 PM, C2kvam said: Did all the things even contacted Gatorade. Still have no option to claim anything. ???? @C2kvam Just sent you a message!

Whatever the season brings, help your athletes stay fueled and ready to perform with these science-backed resources from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute. Foods and Fluids for Indoor Volleyball.pdf Foods and Fluids for American Football.pdf Foods and Fluids for Fast-Pitch Softball.pdf GSSI Marathon Preparation Toolkit.pdf GSSI Marathon Race Day Toolkit.pdf Sports Recovery Toolkit.pdf

Hi @KeeganRoss Strategies or Systems in Place I think another way to get everyone on the same page is to establish a set meeting cadence for all disciplines involved. This helps get everyone out of their silos and creates a common time to discuss anything that needs to be addressed. Especially in-season, when schedules can get chaotic, having something pre-scheduled allows everyone to be proactive and stay on the same page. On a day-to-day basis, communication may have to happen through technology, whether that is email, phone calls, or another communication platform. I can understand how this can be particularly challenging in the private sector. In my experience, the athlete was seeing me for performance while seeing outside providers for PT/ATC services. As an S&C coach involved in the return-to-play process, we need to understand what is going on medically so we can appropriately program around it. I think sharing the program with the other professionals involved and discussing the return-to-play plan, whether through email or phone calls, is extremely important. At the same time, not everyone is going to have the same philosophy. For example, you may have a medical professional who says an athlete is completely out for lower-body training, but there may still be opportunities to train the upper body or work around the injury. They may not know what is appropriate from a performance standpoint without having a conversation with the S&C coach. Having that open line of communication allows everyone to understand what each discipline is trying to accomplish while keeping the athlete moving forward. Transition from Rehab to High-Level Performance I think this is nuanced, and there are a lot of variables involved in the decision-making process. However, I do think having established standards and metrics that the athlete needs to achieve before returning to sport is important. Those standards should be determined and agreed upon by the disciplines involved and communicated to the athlete and coaching staff. Of course, return to play is not linear, and there will be highs and lows throughout the process. But having established criteria helps provide everyone with a common roadmap. For example, if an athlete is returning to sport following an ACL injury, the medical and performance sides should have a shared understanding of the metrics needed to progress. That could include strength levels back within an appropriate range of pre-injury levels, acceptable right-to-left asymmetries, movement quality, sport-specific demands, and ultimately the athlete's ability to tolerate increasing training loads. Communicating and Coordinating Multiple Professionals In my experience, I have found this to be extremely beneficial but also challenging at times. It is always great to get high-level professionals in a room together. Everyone can learn from each other and challenge each other's philosophies. At the same time, people come from different backgrounds and may have learned different approaches. This is where sharing your expertise, understanding the role of each discipline, and establishing a shared common goal becomes important. From an S&C perspective, if I notice positive or negative trends in any of the metrics I am tracking, I relay that information to the performance team and work with the group to determine if something else may be contributing to the change. Nine times out of ten, a negative trend in one area can lead to questions about what may be happening in another area. What Has Worked Well @KatieRdATC hit the nail on the head — there must be trust with the people you work with, and sometimes that takes time. Being open to different philosophies, building relationships, communicating consistently, and showing your results and the rationale behind your plan can all help when balancing different philosophies and overlapping responsibilities. Ultimately, I think everyone needs to understand that we are working toward the same goal: getting the athlete healthy, performing at a high level, and ultimately giving them the best opportunity to return to their sport or duty safely and confidently.