Hi John! Thanks for your vulnerability and realistic approach to handling difficult situations. You asked the question, “…how do you foster an environment where your team feels safe to fail, learn, and improve?” I think as a leader, being vulnerable and having the ability to own up to your mistakes helps foster that environment. I have been on both sides of this—seeing a leader take accountability for their actions and having to take accountability for my own mistakes. When leaders are willing to own their mistakes, it creates more of an environment where mistakes become opportunities to learn, grow, and improve. I have also experienced the opposite, where a leader points fingers and doesn’t take accountability. That can create an environment where you feel like you can’t make a mistake at all. When I have made mistakes, I am open to feedback, take notes, and then demonstrate through my actions that I have learned and grown from the experience. I also really liked your point that education and certifications can get you in the door, but your work ethic and experience are what help keep you there. As I progress throughout my career, I’ve found that certifications become less important than the experience I’ve gained and the relationships I’ve built along the way. 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?

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!

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Hi Keegan! 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.

These are both fantastic answers and I really appreciate you guys sharing your thoughts and experiences about leadership. @rcampbellat Awesome point about "leading by example". Recently I have been giving this a ton of thought as it is a pretty common answer amongst professionals when talking about their leadership style. Couldn't agree more with your points. Leading by example is the baseline. There is so much more to it than that passive action. Your points outline that extremely well. Leading by example is safe. Only leading by example, in my opinion, can limit the culture of your organization. Push past that safety! @achristy I love the point about leading from the middle. There is a great book called "Leading Without Authority" by Keith Ferrazzi that outlines this theory well. Leadership is contagious and I think when you bring a positive attitude and effort in each day it permeates through your organization. This is a great conversation and happy you guys jumped in. I think a good question to always ask yourself is "how are my actions influencing the culture of the organization?" It's easy to fall into selfish thoughts, especially during the dog days or when you are going through a hard time in the year / season. When you can expand your thoughts and actions to THE TEAM, it makes it easier to be selfless in your decision making which can help in your overall leadership within the organization no matter what your title is.

To claim your Newly Certified Kit: Open the email you received and click “Claim Your Newly Certified Kit” You’ll be directed to the Gatorade Fieldhouse page to request your kit. Enter your information and click Submit to complete your request. If you run into any issues, feel free to send me a direct message!

To claim your Newly Certified Kit: Open the email you received and click “Claim Your Newly Certified Kit” You’ll be directed to the Gatorade Fieldhouse page to request your kit. Enter your information and click Submit to complete your request. If you run into any issues, feel free to send me a direct message!

Hi Richard! There is a lot of crossover between the collegiate and tactical settings in terms of working with interdisciplinary teams. Like the college setting, when managing readiness, return-to-play, and long-term performance, in the tactical setting we work together as team to provide the tactical member with proper return to their duty operations. Communicating with athletic training, nutrition, and physical therapist helps collectively work together to get the tactical member back to their operational duty. The difference between an athlete and the tactical athlete is that the tactical athlete is always ‘in-season’ and must be ready whenever duty is called upon. Getting them ready diligently and meticulously is important to prepare them for duty so we do work hand in hand to make sure the duty members are prepared and ready to go. There is a lot of crossover between the collegiate and tactical settings when it comes to working with interdisciplinary teams. Like the college setting, when managing readiness, return-to-play, and long-term performance, the tactical setting requires us to work together as a team to properly return the tactical member to full operational duty. Communication between athletic training, nutrition, physical therapy, strength and conditioning, and the individual’s leadership allows us to collectively develop a plan to get that tactical member back to their operational duties. One of the biggest differences between a traditional athlete and a tactical athlete is that the tactical athlete is essentially always “in-season.” They must be prepared to perform whenever they are called upon, which makes managing readiness and recovery especially important. We must be diligent and meticulous in how we prepare them for their occupational demands, while also making sure we are not creating unnecessary fatigue that could negatively impact their ability to perform. Because of that, we work hand in hand across disciplines to make sure our service members are healthy, prepared, and ready to perform when duty calls.

I cannot speak much about the professional setting, but in the collegiate setting, the sports I have worked with typically concluded their seasons at the start of an extended break from both academic and sport-related activities. Given that mandatory time off, this allowed for a natural restoration period for the athlete before getting into the true off-season phase. Each athlete is different, and if an athlete needed time off mentally and physically, then that is what they needed. If an athlete wanted to train, I typically kept the training very simple, low intensity, and non-sport specific. Typically, how I have balanced programming from general to sport-specific training is that the athlete is going to get their sport-specific skill training and conditioning from playing the sport. In my opinion, you cannot fully replicate the demands of a sport outside of practicing and playing it. From a general preparation standpoint, this is where we can supplement the athlete’s performance on the court and improve their overall athletic capabilities through strength, speed, power, mobility, and general conditioning. I do include more sport-specific conditioning leading into preseason to prepare athletes for the practice demands they will encounter, as well as plyometric training that is more demanding of the sport. Basketball is not my main background, but what I have noticed in other plyometric-heavy sports, such as volleyball, is a tendency to implement a high volume of plyometric work early in the off-season. I do believe we need to build a plyometric base to prepare athletes for the demands of practice and competition, but I also think the time off after a long, demanding season needs to be considered before immediately increasing plyometric volume. Gradually rebuilding that capacity seems to be a better approach than trying to make up for lost time early in the off-season. I also think another mistake that may be common in basketball is placing too much emphasis on conditioning too early in the off-season. I think developing a general aerobic base is important, but considering the demands of a long basketball season, I would place more emphasis early on rebuilding size, strength, and general physical qualities. As the athlete gets closer to preseason, I would then begin shifting the emphasis toward more sport-specific conditioning and preparing them for the demands they will encounter in practice and competition.