> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://adamringler.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # #006 Henry Barrera - URL: https://adamringler.com/podcast/006/ - Published: 2017-03-27T19:33:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-20T06:57:17.000Z - Author: Adam Ringler - Tags: Decoding Excellence, #podcast, Strength Training In this episode of the Decoding Excellence show, I am speaking with **Henry Barrera**. Henry comes to Liberty from the state of Oregon, where he was a Performance Training Specialist at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton. While at Nike he was instrumental in designing training content for multiple projects including Jordan Brand's Terminal 23 in New York and The Hangar in Los Angeles. He continues to consultant with many training companies including Nike Basketball, the Jordan Brand, Nike N7, Shoot 360 and multiple others. **Henry and I discuss:** - Liberty Men's Basketball Training - Henry's Performance Model - Strategies to Influence Performance - Various Performance Technologies - Culture Building & LTAD Approaches You can find Henry on Twitter at [@HoopDiaries](https://www.twitter.com/HoopDiaries?ref=adamringler.com) or at his website [HoopDiaries.com](http://www.hoopdiaries.com/?ref=adamringler.com). Barrera has owned and operated Hoop Diaries, a basketball and performance training company for the last seven years, training athletes world-wide with the mission of learning, sharing and growing. This episode of the Decoding Excellence show is brought to you by Vald Performance, the makers of the NordBord. They can be found at [ValdPerformance.com](http://www.valdperformance.com/?ref=adamringler.com) Stay updated with the podcast by following me on Twitter via @AdamRingler or visiting [AdamRingler.com](https://adamringler.com/) or [DecodingExcellence.com](http://decodingexellence.com/?ref=adamringler.com) In addition to those social mediums, you can head over to [AdamRingler.com/Newsletter](http://www.adamringler.com/newsletter?ref=adamringler.com) and sign-up for my weekly newsletter. This is a newsletter for the curious. It's chalked full of interesting articles I've read through the week, things I'm exploring and finding fascinating through my week, and a collections of thought experiences and resources I've cultivated. *It's essentially a Birchbox newsletter for performance-related articles, research, and daily musings.* Thanks again for listening to the Decoding Excellence Show! I appreciate all the support growing this Sport Science, Strength & Conditioning, and High-Performance Coaching resource. If you have taken anything away from the show, please login to iTunes and navigate to the [Decoding Excellence](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/decoding-excellence/id1205636566?mt=2&ref=adamringler.com) page and leave us a review. --- --- ## Key Takeaways - Barrera breaks down the performance model he uses with Liberty men's basketball, including the training strategies behind it. - The conversation covers how to influence performance beyond the weight room, from technology selection to culture building. - Barrera discusses long-term athletic development approaches and how they connect to building a program's culture. ## About the Guest Henry Barrera is a performance training specialist who worked at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, where he designed training content for projects including Jordan Brand's Terminal 23 and The Hangar. He owns and operates Hoop Diaries, a basketball and performance training company. He and Adam discuss Liberty men's basketball training, his performance model, performance technologies, and culture building. ## Listen and Subscribe Find this episode of the Decoding Excellence Show on [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decoding-excellence/id1205636566?ref=adamringler.com) and [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/093GVrPwd9l832q3EWhVKc?ref=adamringler.com), or use the player above. --- ## Go Further in This Episode Enjoyed this conversation? Here is how to get more from it: - **Read the transcript below** to revisit key ideas at your own pace. - **Share this episode** with a coach or colleague who would benefit. - **Subscribe to the Decoding Excellence Show** on [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decoding-excellence/id1205636566?ref=adamringler.com), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/093GVrPwd9l832q3EWhVKc?ref=adamringler.com), or your favorite app. - **Join the newsletter** at [adamringler.com/newsletter](https://adamringler.com/newsletter/) for weekly insights on human performance. --- ## Episode Transcript *This transcript was automatically generated. While we strive for accuracy, some words or phrases may be misheard.* \[00:00:00\] I'm going to technology junky man, I love it, I think it's great, but I also believe that it's a blessing in the curse. I think we're inundated and overwhelmed with tech and data and all this stuff. For me, the bottom line, it's a great tool, it's feedback, but it will never take the place of human contact and human interaction and kind of the intuitive feel that a coach develops over time. \[00:00:24\] Support science, strength and conditioning, high performance coaching. Welcome to the Dakotin Excellence Show. Today's episode is brought to you by VOD Performance, the makers of the Nordboard. If you haven't checked out their website yet, I highly suggest you head over there, whether it's return to play, injury prevention, or just plain performance testing. VOD Performance has the tools that you need. \[00:00:53\] Check them out at VODPerformance.com. Today on the show, I'm joined with Director of Performance for Liberty Minnes Basketball, Henry Barrera. Prior to Henry's time at Liberty Minnes Basketball, he was a performance training specialist at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton. Wow, at Nike, he was instrumental in designing training content for multiple projects, including \[00:01:15\] The Jordan Brands Terminal 23 in New York and the Hanger in Los Angeles. This is a wide-ranging conversation that discusses performance model and systems and strategies he implements at Liberty to help his student-athletes achieve a greater level of training success. We discuss performance technologies, including HRV and first B. We discuss elements of his performance model as it ranges from the physiological work that he does with his student-athletes to the psychological approaches and frameworks that he utilizes to bring out the best of applied \[00:01:51\] Sports psychology modalities. He shares his own personal journey within coaching and how he developed the culture and how he takes a long-term athletic development model to his student-athletes. This is a tremendous conversation and I appreciate Henry's time. So without further ado, here is my conversation with coach Henry Berrera. Coach, how's it going? \[00:02:21\] Good morning. What's up, Adam? How you doing? Hey, I'm doing really well, man. It's for us. It's first round NCAA basketball, so it is getting kind of crazy for us, but I'm excited \[00:02:35\] For today. So the excitement here is pretty darn high. How are things in your neck of the woods, man? Things are great, man. I wish we were in the NCAA tournament as well, but we felt a little show we're planning to see IT, so any postseason play is fun, so I'm excited for this time of year. \[00:02:54\] Yeah, it's hard not to get excited for this part. It's the magic of postseason play, and that's why everybody spends so much time there as they do during training and the summer and throughout the fall to make it anywhere in postseason. So the fact that anyone is still playing in March is a testament to its own self, man. So hey, I wanted to bring yarn because I think there's a couple things that really resonate \[00:03:20\] When I was going through and obviously on social media, and I think that you're doing some tremendous work at Liberty, and I want to discuss some of that today, as far as some of the performance models and some of the systems that you have set up and what you're doing with the men's basketball team, and kind of having a show that's a little bit in sort of the March Madness spirit, a little bit of basketball centric. So even though there was a little bit of a bio, I'd love to kind of have you fill in \[00:03:51\] The audience about what you're currently up to, what your current role is, and maybe a little bit of the history of what got you there and your own sort of individual coaching journey, if you will. Yeah, that's awesome. And I love, well, first, thanks for having me. I love what you're doing. \[00:04:09\] I think it's pushing just a profession and challenging people to be better. So props to you. I appreciate the work you're doing there. Yeah, so quick, just a 30 second kind of in a nutshell, I've been at Liberty for about two years. Initially came in just to work with men's basketball and things have kind of evolved. \[00:04:28\] So now, technically, I'm the co-director of sports and performance with Shelton Stevens who I think is just legit. I think he's really good. And so I'll kind of move into a role of sports performance, human performance over the next year, really laying this foundation of a performance model. And that's, again, I mean, I see that all the time that coaches kind of come in. \[00:04:51\] They start immediately working with one sport, and then other coaches within the organization start to recognize some of the great things you're doing with one sport and want to apply some of the same models to their own respective sports. And with that, I'd love for us to maybe explore that performance model that you have set up or you've continued to evolve at Liberty and maybe the genesis of that through your various other stops at other organizations, universities, and et cetera. \[00:05:23\] Can you describe a little bit of detail of some of the things that you're doing from that performance model, what you're doing at Liberty? Yeah, for sure. I think, you know, I think I'm just going to kind of take it back a little bit, give you a little history of where I've been and what I've done. So I played college basketball, and I was always looking for a way to get better, a way \[00:05:44\] To compete. You know, I'm 5'7 on a good day, so I had to find a way to bridge the gap. And you know, my parents were people who, whatever you wanted to do, they were going to put you in a position where you could, you could do that. So I played four years of college ball, ended up playing one year over season Sweden. And you know, for me, the curiosity of what can I do with my body? \[00:06:09\] And how can I bridge this gap really set the tone for what I do, who I am, how I live my life? So it's just kind of the evolution of something that's really personal to me. I'm really passionate about it. So that's the basis for the performance model. So and again, based on your sort of professional experience and your time in Sweden, I mean, \[00:06:32\] What if you were to juxtapose maybe your own personal training at that time in our own sort of personal pursuit, whether it's athletics or coaching? What were some of the differences that you saw in the way that you conducted or was coached by other people, versus maybe some of the systems that you're trying to establish at your university? Yeah, that's great. \[00:06:55\] So I think the biggest thing is back then, so I'm going to be 40 here in a minute March. So back then, I think it was just as hard as you can every single day, that's the only way you're going to get better. So there's no rest days. There's no off days. You're just doing what you do and beating yourself as much as possible. \[00:07:16\] And so I think the biggest change in shift has been this idea of holistic training and coming at training from multiple vantage points, if you will. So yeah, I think that's the biggest thing. I think probably the genesis of this performance model happened back then. It was the need for us, for me, to get better. And I think this, when you're at a mid major, or you're somewhat of a quote unquote underdog, \[00:07:42\] You're looking for every little advantage, you want to look for any way to put student athletes in a position where they can have success, what they can really push. So I think that's really the story of our lives, man. You're trying to get better, just through this podcast, I'm trying to get better. We're all trying to find ways to serve and push our athletes. Yeah, yeah, I completely relate to it. \[00:08:05\] I think on one level, that the athletes that we continue to bring in are exceptional young men and women, and that's a testament to the character and the people and the coaching staff going out through talent identification and recruiting. When they're involved in our program, then we absolutely have to develop the athletes. I mean, we won't have very many, if ever, in the history of which I'll state one and done. \[00:08:34\] So, I would completely agree with what you said. I mean, I think the days of training as hard as you can, for as long as you can, without any sort of understanding of this sort of training stress balance and recovery balance, hopefully are starting to fall by the wayside. With that, what are some of the things that you've recognized? I mean, as you've gone through this evolution between not only training hard, but the need \[00:09:06\] And the importance of recovery, what are some of the examples or the ways that you guys are balancing the practice demands, the training demands with the recovery and rejuvenation that you guys need? Yeah, that's, man, this is going to get deep today, man, I can feel it already. So, I think just really living life, man, if I look at the last 20 years of my life, I've really been around, you know, 15 to 25-year-old athletes in some capacity. \[00:09:36\] So, it's seeing how we all live life and to me, the question is, what's possible if everything comes together for you? So, if you start to put these things together, which will probably get into the mindset of the sleep, the nutrition, the training, the readiness, and how do you balance and manage those things? I think that's going to be, that's where the money's at, that's where you're going to make \[00:09:55\] The biggest improvements, you're going to accelerate the improvement. So, you know, I think there's three stables in my life. I ask questions, I pursue answers, and I try to connect the dots, and those are the things that, you know, within this, it helps us balance the training, it helps us ask questions, you know, if you have a training session and, you know, three kids come in and say, hey, my back hurts, or, you know, I have a weird pain in my shoulder, then it's time to step \[00:10:23\] Back and kind of analyze what we're doing, you know, is it working? Is it not working? How can we get better? Does that kind of answer your question a little bit, or we can keep going on that? Yeah, no, I mean, we'll go down this rabbit hole as we see fit, but I love the response. I love the response. \[00:10:42\] I mean, I think so many of us sometimes go through a training, sort of coaching session and aren't constantly evaluating the program, the system, the efficiencies, or inefficiencies of it. So, I love the fact that you have this beginner's mindset of always asking questions, always listening to what the responses are and connecting those dots. How, in the evolution of your coaching journey from a young coach, you talked about turning \[00:11:11\] 40 here soon, how has your ability to listen change, which I think is a very undervalued skill and an underdeveloped skill in the interns and young coaches I bring into our program? How is that maturation and that sort of journey into asking better questions and being able to listen? How has that evolved over your years? Yeah, that's so big out of my mind. \[00:11:37\] I think as a young coach, you want so bad to be good and to make an impact that you kind of rush. So, I think the evolution, it's like a fine wine, it just gets better and better. You learn how to take the good with the bad and really, it's self-examination. You're going to be humble that time at times. So, it's learning from every experience, every education piece, every little engagement \[00:12:06\] With student athletes, it's just being observant. So for me, the biggest evolution has been to step back and really look at things more holistically and how one thing affects other and how there's an integrated system to what we're doing. What I love that you said, which I think, again, I'm just going to clarify it because I think it's so powerful is that I think it takes humility, it takes being humble. \[00:12:34\] And I see this. I think this is sort of a critical flaw of our industry and I know we're in it, so I feel like we have at least the vantage point to be critical of our industry. But there's a lot of artificial egoism and machoism of this. And I think, you know, like a book like Ryan Holliday's, ego is the enemy. It takes a humble coach to recognize that, you know, not everything is perfect. \[00:13:05\] You're going to continue to evolve, continue to ask better questions, continue to listen to the feedback that's not being soft, that's not being fragile or not setting your athletes up for success. It's being flexible in this day of age, of training athletes and being, you know, ability to bend and move and flexible to what the needs and the demands are. I think that's, I just wanted to highlight that because I do think that's a very important \[00:13:37\] Quality and something that I certainly respect in you. You spoke about a holistic approach to training. In your own words, I mean, what does that mean for you? And how has that evolved, I guess, over the last couple of years of your last, let's say, five to 10 years of coaching? Yeah, I think that's kind of the foundation of a performance model, right? \[00:14:04\] So for me, there's kind of three tiers to it. One is a foundation, it's to cultivate culture daily and kind of, I'm a really visual guy at them. So you're going to crack up. I'm sitting in the library, you know, I got a, I'm in a room with all whiteboard walls all around. \[00:14:22\] So I wrote a couple of thoughts down. I'll send you a picture. You're going to probably laugh, but that's okay. Oh, I love it. So anyway, I have this vision in my head of culture being like the fascia within our body, right? \[00:14:32\] It holds everything together. It's the integrated piece that brings everything together. So that being said, I don't want to get too far off track, but a foundation cultivating the culture. And the big picture, you know, this long-term athletic development, you hit on it with the players that we get at, at Wichita State or Liberty are going to be around for four \[00:14:50\] Years. So it's that big picture. And then probably the third piece of that is really helping them and ourselves really push boundaries, explore the limits of, you know, our capabilities, our abilities. So that's kind of a three, if I had to put it into, you know, three points, that would be it. \[00:15:08\] I love the fact that, you know, and I see it that organizations will rush out to adopt and to acquire a particular technology because that's cutting edge or that's invogue or whatever, without sort of the prerequisite of developing the cultural aspects of what it means to take care of their business, the standards, the operations, the fascia of the organization or the culture and just chase technology. So I love the fact that when you share that, that that's the foundation, that's the bottom \[00:15:44\] Of the pyramid, and then the need to develop otherwise the student athletes that are within it and build upon that culture is that LTAD approach of slow cooking athletes through four years to help optimize various inefficiencies or performance limiting factors of their athletic performance and then to push boundaries. I love that because so much of this field, I think, is an drastic need of evolution and looking outside and borrowing from the fringes of other sort of industries and organizations \[00:16:19\] And borrowing strategies, whether it's leadership or innovation or technology or system management approaches. So to kind of bring this all back in, I mean, you talked a little bit about some of the nuts and bolts of this performance model. You already spoke about optimizing sleep and talking about the importance of recovery. I'm sure nutrition and the physical attributes and and at WSU. \[00:16:50\] We also have a high performance model that kind of goes through some of these things. So if you would and you feel comfortable sharing a little bit, I mean, I would love to kind of know what the big pictures are, your big rocks, as far as some of the things that you discussed with your student athletes or your coaching staff or administration, when you went about the evolution of creating and putting it in place or integrating this performance model at Liberty. \[00:17:19\] Yeah, that was well said and that was really, really good, man. I'm here taking notes. I got my journal out, you know, so I'm writing thoughts down. So a couple of things, man, I look at what we do. I have, like I said, I have four kids, so I'm always trying to give them nuggets, you know, and I take one of the things that resonates at our household is learning how to earn. \[00:17:41\] You know, what does it mean to be elite and how do you get there? So it's really this idea of earning that piece, earning what you get. So I'm going to give you just a quick overview. So mindset, that to us is the psychological framework that makes up who you are, how you see the world, but really more importantly is how you operate within that context. And that's, you know, pretty much stolen from Michael Durvey and finding mastery during \[00:18:06\] My time at Nike. I was exposed to a lot of high level people and he was one of those guys. So he has been great, you know, in communication and, you know, his, his podcast is a good one for, for, you know, anybody to listen to this as well. Sleep. Sleep is really the foundation of recovery, you know, for the, for the body, mind and \[00:18:25\] Soul, you know, and at a place like Liberty, I think the spiritual aspect plays such a big role in what we do on a day-to-day basis. And that's, you know, a whole, whole another arrival. We can go down to, if you want to know a little bit more about that, nutrition, that's just fueling performance. You know, we have a sports nutrition expert here on campus who we refer to, you know, \[00:18:49\] Our student athletes and try to get them on, on the same page. Being is where, you know, you and I kind of get excited about this, how we're, how we're building training, integrating the sports performance really into building our athletes. And then the readiness piece is, it's just a proactive approach to stress, you know, to stress management and lifestyle management. So I hope that kind of gives you the kind of the, the big picture and we can share those \[00:19:14\] Important, love to hear your thoughts because I know that you've done a lot in this area and that's why I was so excited to talk to you to that. Yeah, no. Look, I am always, again, likewise with you, I mean, obviously I have my notebook out and I'm taking notes because I just, I think, you know, leaders or learners and the more that you can read and take notes and listen and follow what is otherwise the advice other \[00:19:40\] People are giving, the better you'll become as a practitioner. And you touched upon it. I love the fact that you have this applied sport psychology or psychological approach, call it whatever you will, mindset that borrowing from Michael Jervé, who I think is just an exceptional human being, a tremendous communicator. Again, I, I, I will champion the same thoughts that you shared. \[00:20:11\] I mean, finding mastery is a, a podcast that I listened to repetitively just because of the consistency in his interview style, which I think we can all become better, uh, interviewers and thus the reason sort of of this decoding, uh, excellence show is to learn how to ask better questions for me. But I love, I mean, and again, I think you being around sort of the Oregon area and your time, uh, at Nike, I mean, absolutely, you were exposed to some tremendous mentors \[00:20:43\] And people and high level thinkers, uh, on the West Coast. And, uh, I, uh, I, I completely agree. I mean, I, I, our same model, you know, touches upon the physical attributes of training and that's sort of our day job, right? The X's and O's of being a strengthening professional and performance coach and borrowing the mindset from the psychological approach is important. \[00:21:09\] Um, I, in my time, I mean, a person I tremendously look up to is, uh, Dr. Andy Walsh from, from back, back in the days of, uh, the United States ski and snowboard, but now certainly at Red Bull High Performance in their model. I mean, they had, uh, uh, two factors of which I've just struggled to implement at, uh, at this university, which is sort of that spirituality portion and then sort of what they call their X factor or that innovation factor. \[00:21:41\] I'd, I'd actually love to kind of go down that route and go down the road because I think it's intriguing to me and hopefully to the listening audience what you guys are doing in that spirituality because that's just not, um, an attribute that I've really explored much. So I'd love for you to expand a little bit on that too. Yeah, for sure. Um, so I, I think, uh, I think first one of the things that's been really, really beneficial for me is, uh, we, we've kind of partnered with our psychology department. \[00:22:11\] Um, I've been meeting two or three times a week with Dr. Ben Wood, who's a professor at Liberty. Um, and he's, he's in a route to the, you know, to another master's degree in sports psychology. So really, we sit in my office and we talk two to three times a week, maybe, you know, 10 to 30 minutes, whatever, you know, whatever the day brings. Uh, so he's, we've just kind of hit it off, but yeah, going down the, the spirituality piece, I think, uh, you know, Liberty is a Christian university. Uh, you know, I'm a believer in God. Uh, and so I think, \[00:22:43\] I think we have pillars within our basketball program. Uh, you know, so everybody's got pillars, play hard, play smart, play together, play with purpose. So to play hard for us means compete, give your very best to play smart means and accountability with this one. Together means wheel over me. And then purpose is kind of what we're talking about. That's the audience of one. So, um, I think it's, we have a little more freedom at Liberty if you're a person of faith to share that and to live that. I think there's a flip side of that where we're in a place where you, \[00:23:14\] You're, you're fed so much of that that it can become overwhelming at times. You know, so there's a fine line of, of, uh, making that come to life and making it real and authentic and genuine in your own life. Um, so I hope that answers a little bit, but keep asking questions, man, I, I love this. I love the love the dialogue. I love the questions you're asking. Yeah, I think, uh, I think that's interesting in the aspects, you know, whether you're a person of faith or whether your beliefs might differ from the teammate to the next, next to the left of you or to the right of \[00:23:47\] You. I think what's important that is a sense of purpose of potentially playing, uh, for something that's greater than you and that could be your own spirit or beliefs or that could be the sense of playing for your teammates or playing for the organization or the, the name on the front of your jersey versus the back of your jersey and just getting the idea of being a little bit less selfish and moving the, the purpose of why you play to a selfless, uh, endeavor, I think is a, is a powerful approach to it. I'd love to kind of turn this around a little bit. I know we're, \[00:24:23\] Again, maybe it's, uh, it'll be confusing for the listening audience to kind of jump forward and jump back, but exploring your coaching journey. I mean, were there people that in your life, I mean, significant mentors, people that, that pushed you to think the way that you do and people that you, you owe, you know, whether a data gratitude for, for setting you up for the success that you've had. Definitely. And I don't think any of us get anywhere without the people in our lives. That's, that's so big time. Uh, so yeah, uh, you know, I attribute a lot of, of what I do and who I \[00:25:00\] Am to my time at Nike. You know, I was there for about seven or eight years. Uh, so I got to spend time around guys like Patrick Ward and Keith Emilio. Uh, and I was just fortunate to pick their brains and see how they operated. You know, I didn't get a ton of time around, but when I did, I took advantage of it. And probably the guys that are my sounding boards right now are guys like Bobby Stru from APEC in Texas, Alex Moldin. He's one of my best friends. You know, he played in the NFL for nine or 10 years. And, you know, we talk as often as possible about training about life, \[00:25:32\] About anything and everything. And then Josh Carothers is another guy that I think is doing a really, really good work. Um, as well, he's all guys that, you know, that we live life, um, at Nike together. So it, you know, you just learn from watching and asking questions and observing. So yeah. You know, what, what I found fascinating and certainly in my own sort of evolution, you know, Keith, uh, at Nike and sort of the being sort of instrumental in the approach with Nike Spark and the creation of sort of an index of sort of key performance metrics and a wide \[00:26:10\] Variety of different sort of physiological field tests. Uh, Patrick Ward obviously speaks for himself and sort of the reputation that he has. And just as far as a creative mind and thinker and, uh, brilliant sport, uh, scientist. So you were certainly around, uh, a lot of influential people, people that are still in the game. So, um, you know, I absolutely have to imagine that, that helped shape your path and sort of, uh, molded maybe your ability to, uh, to think the way that you do. I, and I know this is an impossible question to answer, but I'm just kind of curious. \[00:26:49\] I mean, is it, do you find yourself thinking that, you know, the chicken versus egg, the nature, versus the nurture? I mean, did these guys help shape the way you think or do you think that you may be resonated and gravitated to this environment, this sort of innovation of, uh, the Nike organization because that's the way you already thought and these people really resonated and, uh, found a common place. Yeah, no doubt, man. These guys for sure are challenging me to think outside the box, uh, you know, if you've ever spent any time around a Patrick Ward, that dude is one \[00:27:24\] Of the smartest people I've ever met in my life. Like he, he's brilliant, you know, and, uh, so just, just being around people like that, you know, it, it's very, very humbling, but it's also challenging, you know, so we all have our, our different path and we all run our own race, you know, and I think a lot of times there's so much information out, you know, and, and we can get caught up in this trap of comparing ourselves to other people when in reality, like our job is to do our job, you know, and that's it. So we can learn and we can be shaped and all that, uh, and I'm very, \[00:27:56\] Very appreciative, you know, for any time and any, you know, anything that I learned from, from anybody really, but I think, uh, we just have to continue to get better at what we do, you know, we have to take from all resources, uh, you know, so I'm, I'm, I can't wait to listen to this and, and think about things that, uh, maybe I wasn't thinking before. So yeah, uh, you know, just, that, that's good stuff. You know, to, uh, certainly in the beginning of the show, we, we discuss, sort of the wide-ranging topics of using this performance model and the evolution of your own, \[00:28:29\] Sort of, background and, and pathway into coaching through your various stops and now at, at Liberty, I would love to kind of bring this full circle and start talking a little bit about the basketball aspects of it. So when you have a, a college freshman arrive, whether it's, you know, a six-foot four, six-five post or, you know, a six-one, five-eleven guard or whatever it might be, what are the some, what are some of the, the commonalities that you see now that I'm sure we both can relate to, that a, uh, a 19 year old college freshman rolling in, uh, what are they missing in \[00:29:09\] That holistic model, that piece? And where do you start, sort of, that square one to help build the lifestyle and all the integrative approaches of developing a robust, full-round, holistic basketball athlete in this sort of 21st century? Great question. Uh, I think first, I'm always, uh, a little taken aback by how little they know about training, given the age that we live in, and the, you know, thousands upon thousands of so-called experts. Uh, so yeah, I'm a little bit taken aback by, by, you know, freshman coming in for the most part. Uh, I think, you know, I'm \[00:29:49\] Going to give you, uh, I'm a big acronym. I'm a guy in a big like three A's to three D's, whatever. So awareness is number one. I'm going to give you three A's here. Awareness, like, do you know what is expected? That's, that's awareness to me. Uh, and then accountability is, is the objective feedback? Like, is there a way that you're keeping yourself accountable or that you, we're as a staff keeping you accountable? And then action is that you, you can't get around doing the work. You know, so I think as freshmen come in, it's just kind of a giving them this big picture, \[00:30:18\] And not overwhelming them, but, but giving them a picture of like, this is, this is kind of what's expected. These are all the pieces. We're going to help you. We're in support you in bringing these pieces together. You know, so I don't even think the training is actually the most important part. It's teaching young athletes how to live life and how to manage their energy and their time. I think the awareness piece certainly is something that, wow, a lot of college freshmen or, or whomever, you know, whether it's a junior college transfer or whatever, they come into the program \[00:30:51\] With very wide eyes, you know, wanting to be a starter, wanting to be an impact player, but doesn't also understand that to be a significant, to play a significant contribution to the team, it is a 24 hour job. You might not be training for 24 hours, but the way that you have to manage your affairs or social life, your academic life, your recovery, the training room, the rehab you need to do, the training, the putting shots up to be successful at this highly competitive level. It's 24 hours. There's no, there is literally no days off and no time off. \[00:31:32\] So, I'm just, I'm likewise with you. I'm blown away that there is that sort of lack of awareness despite literally going anywhere, whether it's online or elsewhere and finding access to good or bad information as well. So, when you have that, I love the 3A's, the awareness, the accountability of the action. How do you go from taking, you know, a college freshman, likewise in this continuation of this model, and you start to apply the training, you start to discuss maybe the psychological approach is the mindset, if you will. What are some of the steps, whether it's, you know, \[00:32:16\] From a psychological approach, whether it's a nutritional approach, whether it's the lifestyle what it takes to be successful. What are some of the nuggets that you might share? If this was a 10 minute, 5 minute conversation with a college freshman that has no clue about the various aspects of an integrated performance model. Yeah, I love that. I think the way that I do life, the way that I live life is in community and, you know, man, I just, I love, I love the guys I'm working with, both from a staff perspective and our players. And so, I think it's doing life \[00:32:52\] With them. It's, it's saying, it's built on this mentorship, you know, idea or concept where you're taking a guy under, under your wing and saying, hey, this is how you do it. You know, you watch me, you know, you watch the guys that have been around, you watch, you know, how they prepare. You know, so I do everything from, you know, I make little audio clips, I send them to my guys, just reminders, man, I think life is so layered, you know, so you have to, every day you're adding another layer of, you know, what you're about, you know, and that could be good or bad. But, \[00:33:24\] But it's, it's just a constant, man, constant accountability, asking people, I think we've, we've kind of got away from, from getting in each other's lives. And that can be uncomfortable at times, you know, to have someone in your life. And I know for me, when people are constantly asking me, what's going on here and how you doing here, you know, that can be uncomfortable at times, but, but that's necessary. You know, if we're going to grow, we got to be pushed. And I think a lot of that is the social aspect of it. I was having a conversation with Coach Greg \[00:33:53\] Adamson at University of Tennessee. And one of the things that really resonated from this talk was he shared that, you know, in his sort of pursuits, social media, that before he sends anything out, social media, tweet, whatever, he wants to make five touch points with a student athlete. So it's like a five to one ratio. And what I love about that is that sort of, it's a system, right? Which will start talking about maybe the system-based approach and some of the strategies. But it's his own personal system of continuing to stay in communication with the student athletes. \[00:34:28\] And I love the fact that you share clips that you stay involved in their lives, that you reach out to people and you continue to have a dialogue and a communication with your athletes. Because as we sort of certainly within the time of this airing, I mean, you know, conscious coaching and Brett Bartholomew's books coming out as far as building buy-in. Well, there's no better way of building buy-in than continuing to have a relationship with a student athlete. So I love that, that sort of approach to it. To kind of circle back around, you talk about maybe \[00:35:04\] A system-based approach, at least in our pre-show notes. I'd love to kind of talk about maybe some of the systems that you guys employ. And it could be, you know, technical, tactical, exes and oes of strength and conditioning. It could be systems that help athletes improve sleep or recovery or regeneration, nutritional systems, anything. I mean, kind of given you the Florida to share some of the wisdom and experiences of what you do at Liberty. Yeah, I think the first thing that comes in mind is building that stuff into your training \[00:35:38\] Or everyday life. So for example, we have convocation three times a week that our student athletes are required to be at, kind of like it or not. So that's a good thing in a bad thing. They do a great job bringing in speakers and keeping it engaging. But, you know, so those three days a week, we do a quick recovery test. We use first-speed. So at about 10, 15, all my guys congregate in the locker room. We turn the lights out and we five minutes just laying down and we're just gathering that information and seeing how guys are recovering day-to-day. So we get at least \[00:36:10\] Three days a week that, you know, I've kind of experimented with surveys and questionnaires based on, you know, the five pillars for us. Minds at how you doing today, how you feeling, scale of one to five, scale of one to 10\. And we've tweaked it and there's some, you know, there's some models that are out that you can look at. But, so yeah, we just, with sleep, we, I experimented so much at them. We used HRV for training for a little while where guys would input their sleep. It's not the most accurate way, but again, it raises awareness, you know. We've \[00:36:40\] Really started to do these little mini workshops within our community at Liberty World. We'll go over to the track facility or to where track meets and we'll do a session on sports bike or we'll do a session on nutrition. So we're trying to build this stuff in. The other thing that I've kind of been doing and experimenting with is I'll build my testing into our weekly training. So every week on Monday, you might, you might, you know, do a vertical jump test just so I can see kind of the, the correlations and the trends that are happening, you know, week to week, a month to \[00:37:15\] Month. No, I think a couple of things really resonate from what you shared is the, the fact of obviously monitoring and measuring, right? If you're trying to get any sort of result, I think the easiest way. I mean, Peter Drucker said it from business management standpoint that we manage what we measure. So to actually measure, you know, whether it's HRV or the heart rate responses or the readiness of your student athletes is a critical factor of understanding and managing their ability to balance this training recovery stress management. And then having some experience \[00:37:58\] With using first B and HRV in our own training, I love the fact that the workshops or whether, I mean, we could go down some wellness questionnaires, standpoints, but I think the workshops are a tremendous way of advocating and educating for a variety of different modalities of, of, you know, sport performance, whether it is, you know, a workshop centric around sleep or nutrition or, you know, visualization or self-talk, it can be a very cost effective way that doesn't, that isn't technologically dependent to implement and change athletes' behaviors when you have \[00:38:39\] That buy-in and you provide that educational approach. It certainly takes time, it certainly takes labor, but if you're a university that might be like, maybe like yours, I don't know, like, certainly with ours, that has to sort of balance the fiscal sort of constraints of things, then you find yourself trying to find cost effective ways of delivering the same information without necessarily acquiring pricey technologies. So, and then lastly, you certainly talked about the wellness questionnaires and that's something that I rely pretty heavily on here at which \[00:39:21\] I'll stay, just because it is, again, it's free. You don't need, you know, while there are some consumer markets with Coach Me Plus and Smart Abase and some other really good athlete management. Systems to implement some of these things. Google Docsheet or a Qualtrics survey is free and for most people can acquire those through their university from a research standpoint. So, I'd love to talk, I mean, you touched upon sort of sport performance technologies which I think is sort of in style right now for a lot of people trying to objectively measure their impact as \[00:40:05\] A coach. Are there any other technologies you guys are looking to use? Are using, experimenting with? You talked about kind of experimenting a lot, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on sort of where we're at as an industry in this sort of technological bubble that we might be living in. Yeah, that's great. So, first off, I think I'm a technology junkie, man. I love it. I think it's great, but I also believe that it's a blessing and a curse. You know, I think we're inundated and overwhelmed with tech and data and all this stuff. For me, the bottom line is it's a great tool. \[00:40:42\] It's feedback, but it will never take the place of human contact and human interaction and kind of the intuitive feel that a coach develops over time. So, I think it has its place, but I don't think it's going to, you know, it just has to be used in a smart way. So, yeah, I think for us, when I came in, I thought heart rate, live heart rate tracking was important. So, I purchased on my own, like 15 units of a polar indoor team app, just so we could kind of get the ball rolling and, you know, so we just tracked live heart rates. We projected them onto a screen in the gym and \[00:41:26\] Showed coach what we could do with that. And then from there, we kind of took the next step and we did elite HRV, which we'd have guys, you know, do a HRV test, quick recovery kind of test. We tracked that over time. So, we just really just gathering information, data, and seeing how we could use it. And then we kind of evolved from there. So, we've been kind of just slowly evolving in our technology. And now we use first beat, like I said. And I think it's really valuable. I just think it's valuable for guys to see how they're responding and adapting to stress and life, \[00:42:02\] You know, that be physical or psychological. You know what's really powerful about measuring it, right? You have the practitioner side, like you and I, that uses that information in a way to particularly intervene with the training approach that we might take with the student athlete, but maybe not necessarily recognized by a lot of people, but the other end of the scope, which is the student athlete and that learned behavior of recognizing how much their sleep impacts are HRV score or how much their anxiety or their social or academic stressors \[00:42:40\] Impacts their HRV. And I think that is maybe justifies the cost as well. So that when you are as a coach, they're saying, Hey, we need to get the importance of seven, you know, eight, nine hours of sleep a night. We need to be trying to eat three square meals and snacking throughout the day. And it should have protein and fat carbohydrates. And we go on and on and on from our pedestal talking about some of the approaches that it takes to be successful at a high level. They get to see it. They get to actually see the number as it, you know, moves up or moves down based on a \[00:43:13\] Variety of different factors. I think that's a powerful visualization for what the student athlete needs this day, right? They need to see it, not just believe whatever a coach is saying. I 100% agree. And I think you're right on there. I think out, you know, this generation and really, I mean, we're such multi-faceted learners. You know, what you see, what you hear, what you feel. This integrated approach to how we take in and consume information is important. You know, like you're going to have learners that are that are more visual. You're going to have learners that \[00:43:45\] Are more kinesthetic, audible, whatever whatever the case may be. And I think for sure in this generation, one of my biggest aha moments is going into the locker room and having, you know, 12 of our 15 guys on a on a device, you know, whether that's Instagram, Snapchat, whatever. And I love that stuff. You know, I just think the way that we deliver information has to has to be engaging and it has to be in a way that they can consume it. Oh, man, you spoke and it sounded like Gary Vaynerchuk from Vaynerchuk Media. And the reason I say that is because so much of his \[00:44:21\] Sort of advertising sort of way philosophy is to meet the consumer where they're at, right? And I think so much in education where we're resistant of that, that the way that I learned when I was growing up in the 80s or the 70s or whatever generation you were alone to learn grew up, that that's the way I'm going to teach. And I think now we have to recognize that the athletes and the students and the the pupils, if you will, are there in a different society? There's different ways of reaching them. And that might be Snapchat. That might be Instagram. That might be \[00:44:58\] Facebook. And it's not what we want as a coach, perhaps, or as an educator, but we have to recognize the hard truths that these are where the athletes are at. And our education and the way that we reach them might be a different approach than what it was 5, 10, 15 years ago. Adam, you're dropping bombs, brother. That was good. That was really good. You said it. And I think you're absolutely right on the money. When you talk about technology being both a blessing and a curse because I think it's very easy to get into a trap of saying, hey, we don't have, we don't have velocity-based training \[00:45:39\] Here. We can't acquire, you know, the latest workload monitoring technologies and accelerometries and GPS technologies. And I think, wow, that can be, you know, that's sort of self-fulfilling, right? To go down that pathway and to blame, complain and defend. But what's the smarter approach is understanding that there are different ways that you can monitor these things through cost effective ways, like session RPE, through wellness questionnaires, through constant communication with your student athletes to get both an internal and external measures of the workloads that \[00:46:17\] They do. And I love the fact, and I think this is a critical point that you shared of building your testing modalities into your training environment. So you're not wasting a training session, but you're constantly keeping your thumb on the pulse to their physiological readiness and changes. And I think that's brilliant and something that, as I've listened and shared with other people that a lot of expert coaches are continuing to make the training, the test and the test, the training. And I love to hear that because it sort of validates and at least makes me feel like what we're \[00:46:54\] Doing is working as well. I'd like to maybe turn the last little portion of this thing around and center it a little bit on you because we've discussed technology. We've touched upon sort of reaching the athletes where they're at and the various sort of performance models. But as we kind of come towards the end of this, when you talk and when you think of, if this was word association, and this is obviously the decoding excellence show, but with excellence, whether it's a coach or an athlete, a husband, a father, I mean, what does a word like excellence \[00:47:36\] Means to you? Man, that's a good question. That's a deep question. So to me, excellence is bringing your very best, man. I talked about everybody running their own race earlier. And I think, you know, we can get caught up in this track as preparing. Like, I have to be the best that I can be. And so I think every day it's waking up trying to be the best version of yourself. And that could probably be probably be a little cliche right now, you know, with all the all the quotes dropping everywhere and all this stuff. But really, man, it's just a it's pursuing \[00:48:07\] Your very best, you know, it's, you know, competing on a daily basis to be the best that you can be. And so that's my off the cuff definition of excellence. I loved your response because so much of my coaching philosophy, very sort of West Coast guy and influenced by Pete Carroll is that relentless pursuit for a competitive edge. And then obviously with Patrick and some of the smart guys working in Seahawks, Michael Jervet and sort of that Nike sort of pathway that seemed to resonate out there in the Oregon area and the West Coast, you know, with Pete's sort of philosophy of that relentless \[00:48:47\] Pursuit wherever you're at, whether you're at a, you know, a high school coach, whether you're coaching in summer camp or you're, you know, junior college division two division three division one mid major power five is making the very best of what you can wear wear your at with the resources you have and continuing in a pursuit for excellence. Is that I mean, that's that's right on the money, man. I love that. Good man. That's really good. If you were to, if you were to reach back, okay, and you know, you're coming up on this 40th birthday, if you were to reach back and time travel and \[00:49:26\] Find your sort of 30 year old cell for 25 year old self, what would you tell yourself? What would be that piece of advice that might set you up for greater success? Not necessarily regrets, but what would you do to give you a little help during those during that age? You know, I would have asked way more questions, you know, just question everything and know, know the what and the why both. And I think, you know, in what we do, it can be such an easy-driven profession, man, like look at me, look what I can do. And I think, you know, just the ability to learn, to share, \[00:50:08\] To grow, to live life together. It would be to be more, more pursuant, man. And I feel like already I ask a lot of questions, man. But I think it would just be to expose myself to as many different methodologies, philosophies, whatever you want to call it that I find. You know, I just think that it's so important to see how other people are doing it. Doesn't mean you have to do it that way, but it's important for us to just see what else is out there. Yeah, I think, you know, the idea of just trying to get exposed to different sort of modalities and philosophies, even if you \[00:50:45\] Don't agree with them, I think, you know, I try to, as someone told me, the advice of read a paper or something that you're interested in, and then try to read a counterpoint to that said paper. And just to get different perspectives on, on differences of that continuum is an important trait and adopt what you want and discard what you don't. And you'll eventually make your own system into what works with you individually and logistically, administratively with the organization and the place that you're in. What, if a young coach or any coach, right, if someone \[00:51:20\] Was traveling through maybe the organ area or the Portland area, or their geographically bound, right, their overseas or something, what's the best way that the audience could reach you or get in contact with you? Oh, man, for sure. I'm a big Twitter guy. And probably people think I'm on there 24-7, but really, I'm really meticulous about how I organize my day. So I wake up, you know, between five and six and I'll program a couple of tweets in, you know, based off what I'm reading and researching and, you know, listening to whatever. So it's all theme based. So one day you might \[00:51:57\] Find all all stuff on psychology the next day. You might find stuff on training or questionnaires or whatever. But yeah, Twitter, Twitter, I don't really mess with Facebook. My Twitter is connected, but it's at hoop diaries. Yeah, it's just kind of my journey, my life. Yeah, excellent. I'll make sure to include your social media Twitter handle in the show notes as well. But coach, I can't thank you enough for coming on the Decoding Excellence Show and sharing your journey, your wisdom, and just your thoughts on this performance model and how you built it, how it's \[00:52:34\] Evolved and to talk a little bit about asking better questions and learning how to earn and building culture and this long-term athletic development approach to training athletes and using technology to position your athletes in a better system and a better place. Can't thank you enough for what you've shared and really hope that we can continue this dialogue and this conversation in the future and well past just an hour long show here. Adam, it's been a blast, man. Every time I get an opportunity to do stuff like this, I want to leave something for the host. \[00:53:11\] So this is, I thought of you when I read this and so I'm just going to read it to you. It's a quote by James Misner and passed on to me by one of my mentors, Kevin Carroll, who they call the cattle list. So it says the master and the art of living makes a little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he's always doing both \[00:53:49\] And that my friend is you. Oh man, I got a smile from ear to ear hearing that. So there's no better way of ending the ending the show than that. Sir, I am humbled. I am privileged to get to spend some time with you and thanks so much for coming on the show, man. I hope you take care and good luck in the future and good luck in the next couple games here. You got it, Adam. Let's do it again, man. Appreciate \[00:54:19\] I want to thank performance director of Liberty Men's Basketball Coach Henry Burrera for coming on the decoding excellence show. I personally took a lot away from this show when coach talked about the the need for developing a strong culture as it precedes technology and some of the performance systems and strategies in this performance model really resonated with me. When he discusses some of his mentors and his own coaching pathway and journey into performance training from Concordia to Nike to his now current position at Liberty, there's just a lot of information that is both on \[00:55:00\] The surface and much deeper in this conversation. So I wanted to thank coach for coming on. And like always, this show is centered around having a conversation, a dialogue between two coaches to discuss the intangibles, the characteristics, the behaviors, the tools, the tactics, the techniques that goes into ultimately high performance training and what it means to become excellent at your craft to truly seek out mastery and to embrace the journey and like always, if you enjoyed this show, please share it on your favorite social media of choice and please go into iTunes, leave us a \[00:55:43\] Review. This helps us not only create better exposure for the show, but ultimately so that a young coach can browse iTunes and find the Decoding Excellence Show and find some of the wisdom and find the great coaches that come onto this show. I would really appreciate your support. Like always until next time. Thank you.