Hi all, Corey Rodrigo here — Athletic Trainer/Physical Therapist and Performance Analyst for the Carolina Panthers, now in my 5th season. I know many of us have spent their whole career in sports, while some of us have spent time in other fields. For myself, I spent a few years working in a concussion research lab, and then also earning an MBA and engaging with a diverse cohort from many different industries. While my role in the lab helped me bring research and best clinical care to the sidelines, I found my MBA to contribute in different ways. The business world is highly process oriented, and I found that strategies to create efficient processes in finance, supply chain, or consulting, helped me to refine my clinical process and also make me more efficient in the many non-clinical tasks we're asked to do everyday. I'm curious who else has experience in other industries and how that experience has shaped the way you practice and serve your athletes?

Question 1: How do you and your fellow colleagues help recover athletes that are coming off from multiple straight away games? Especially yourself as a coach, how do you recover from long multiple road games? Question 2: What advice would you give for someone like myself who studied Strength and Conditioning and Rehab and Massage, and did a internship in college in the UK and already graduated in 2023 and who’s currently doing a personal training course to become a personal trainer, but want to become a strength and conditioning specialist in the NBA (specifically the Dallas Mavericks)? Do you think this is a good starting point in the early stages of my career and what advice would you give me in my next step on becoming a Strength and Conditioning Coach in the NBA? Question 3: What lessons/advices that you’ve learnt in your career that you wish you knew when starting out and that you know now and can share to an upcoming and future strength and conditioning coach? Thank you for your time and congrats on winning the championship!

As fall sports begin and teams get into the thick of their in-season schedules—travel, competition, practices, etc.—it can be easy for strength and conditioning to fall by the wayside or for sessions to be canceled completely. While there are legitimate reasons to cancel or modify a session, such as late travel, overall fatigue, or a change in the competition schedule, strength and conditioning should still remain a consistent part of an athlete’s routine. I have seen both sides of the spectrum: teams that hardly train during the season and teams that consistently prioritize their training. In my experience, the best teams are the ones that maintain consistency with their training throughout the season. When I have worked with teams where canceling sessions start to become the norm, some strategies I have used to create buy-in include: Show the performance trends. Are we trending positively or negatively? This can be any type of performance metric you use. I have used force plate trends with both individuals and teams to show their performance and demonstrate how we are trending throughout the season. When athletes can see that their training is producing results, it can help reinforce the value of staying consistent. Look at injury trends. Are we seeing an increase or decrease in injuries? While there are obviously many factors that contribute to injuries, looking at injury trends can provide another piece of information when discussing the value of maintaining consistent training throughout the season. Maintain consistency. I think keeping an athlete’s schedule consistent during the season is critical, both physically and mentally. Of course, this can vary from sport to sport, but for simplicity’s sake, if a team lifts every Monday and Wednesday and those sessions suddenly get canceled, this can disrupt the rhythm and mindset of the athletes. Consistency helps make training part of the normal routine rather than something that can easily be pushed aside. It is ok to give autonomy. I like to provide athletes, especially high-playing-time athletes, with some autonomy during the season. This helps build trust and allows us to better account for the demands they are experiencing from practices and competitions. Autonomy does not necessarily mean changing the entire training session; it can be as simple as adjusting volume, exercise selection, or accessories based on how the athlete is feeling and what they have experienced that week. Communicating this approach with coaches also demonstrates that you understand the demands of the in-season schedule and are willing to adjust training accordingly rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach. Maintain intensity while managing volume. The goal during the season is not to accumulate a large amount of training volume. I like to keep sessions efficient and effective while incorporating additional mobility when appropriate. Every sport is different, but I have typically found that 1–3 lifting sessions per week can work well depending on the competition schedule and athlete demands. I also try to remain relatively consistent with movement choices. Athletes are more likely to experience soreness when we introduce excessive volume or too much exercise variation. Keeping movements relatively consistent and managing volume can help athletes maintain strength and continue training without unnecessarily contributing to fatigue. Ultimately, I think in-season buy-in comes from showing athletes and coaches that strength and conditioning is there to support performance—not compete with it. When athletes understand that we are adjusting training based on their demands while still maintaining consistency, it becomes easier to get everyone invested in the process. I would love to hear from the community about this topic: What strategies have you used to create in-season buy-in for training? Especially when times get tough or a team is on a losing streak, what have you done to keep training high quality and maintain consistency?

When recovery time is limited, my top three priorities would be hydration, nutrition, and sleep. Hydration is something I’ve seen emphasized heavily during my time with the Cincinnati Bengals. It starts before practice or competition and continues throughout the day, rather than waiting until an athlete feels thirsty. Nutrition then helps replace the energy and nutrients used during competition and provides the building blocks needed for recovery. Finally, sleep gives the body and brain the opportunity to recover and prepare for the next performance. What I find interesting is that research doesn't necessarily support one “magic” recovery strategy. A 2022 systematic review of recovery methods in professional football examined 39 studies and found that the effectiveness of different recovery strategies varies depending on the outcome being measured. That makes the athletic trainer's role especially important: when time is limited, how do we determine which recovery strategies will provide the most benefit for that individual athlete? Question for the group: When you have a short recovery window between competitions, how do you individualize your priorities for hydration, nutrition, sleep, and other recovery strategies? Querido, S. M., Radaelli, R., Brito, J., Vaz, J. R., & Freitas, S. R. (2022). “Analysis of Recovery Methods’ Efficacy Applied up to 72 Hours Postmatch in Professional Football: A Systematic Review With Graded Recommendations.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35961644/

I work with amateur and professional golfers and have completed numerous "sweat tests" in different environmental conditions in order to estimate losses and then develop individual hydration strategies. Have you experience, or recommendations to measure sodium losses? For example the Gatorade Sweat Patch (I have never used it). How accurate is it? Or should we use it as a decent guide? Thanks!

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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