Blog Posts - CHALLENGER STRENGTH

Muscles & Management Podcast

Muscles and Management takes an in depth look at all things training and business.

Gerry DeFilippo is a gym owner from northern New Jersey with a business degree in management from Rutgers University. He started his gym/sports performance business during his last semester of business school and almost three years later he runs the day-to-day business aspects of Challenger Strength as well as heading the strength training.

This podcast will take on any and all topics in both strength training, personal fitness and business and welcome the perspective of some of the best coaches and business minds in the industry. Whether you are an aspiring gym owner, athlete or coach you will enjoy all aspects of this podcast as we dive into the "ins and outs," of the sports performance industry as well as what it takes to excel in business.

Episode #39 Evaluating Prospects and Growing Baseball Through Social Media with Emily Waldon of The Athletic and Baseball America

9/25/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1761661-episode-39-evaluating-prospects-and-growing-baseball-through-social-media-with-emily-waldon-of-the-athletic-and-baseball-america

In this episode Gerry has the chance to talk to Emily Waldon, prospect writer for The Athletic and Baseball America.

Emily and Gerry briefly discuss Emily's journey into the industry and how she had an unconventional start circumventing college. From entering a male dominated industry and being able to get her foot in the door without conventional means, Emily shares her experience and how you need to persevere to pursue your passion.

From there, Emily talks about what she looks for when evaluating prospects at the minor league level and what she looks for to determine who is the real deal and has a shot at making it to the Major League Level. She even tells some fun stories about her time seeing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. make his way through the minor leagues.

To finish up, Emily and Gerry talk about the impact technology has had on scouting, prospects, prospect development and the explosion of social media and the impact that has had. All this and more on this episode!

Episode #38 Building Training Programs and Athletes Through a Principles Based Approach with Daniel Flahie and Cody Hughes

9/18/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1726891-episode-38-building-training-programs-and-athletes-through-a-principles-based-approach-with-daniel-flahie-and-cody-hughes

In this episode Gerry welcomes on two great young strength coaches in Daniel Flahie and Cody Hughes. Daniel and Cody have experience working with more advanced and novice athletes alike, as well as some general population clients that gives them a refreshing and unbiased approach to all areas of programming and training.

The episode starts as the three discuss the importance of looking beyond barbell numbers when it comes to helping an athlete achieve their goals in their respective sport. As coaches who place a great deal of importance on being strong and getting athletes stronger, Gerry guides Daniel and Cody through the things they look for in terms of the transfer of strength training to sport to ensure athletes aren't simply padding one rep max numbers. Is a metric or tested number yielding important results?

From there, the conversation shifts to principle and philosophy based programming and the importance of not grounding your programming in an approach that is married to particular exercises or modalities. There is a time and a place for different types of programming, exercises and strategies and if we understand the main principles guiding programming we can have a better grasp on why they are being used.

To finish, the three talk about sports specific programming and how sport is only activity actually done in games, practice or the field of play. They discuss the methods they use to bridge training transferability to sport and why that is a better approach to training athletes versus trying to bring sports themselves into strength training.

All that and more on this Episode of Muscles and Management!

Episode #37 Q&A: "Balance," Training, In-Season Programming & Life After College Sports (ft. Brandon Deger)

9/11/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1689289-episode-37-q-a-balance-training-in-season-programming-life-after-college-sports-ft-brandon-deger

In this episode Gerry begins by opening the floor to questions in a Q&A style format, taking on various questions from listeners and coaches in topics like balance/stability training and sport transfer, approaching in-season training when making programming decisions, getting your foot in the door in the business side of the training industry and how to best train large teams.

The Q&A addresses what makes a professional athlete have such great stability and control (and how you can too) as well as how to not allow the grind of the in-season dictate training goals for an athlete. Additionally, Gerry discusses some strategies that have helped him develop his business and get a solid foundations to allow for growth, as well as some strategies he uses to deal with the optimal way to train individual athletes who are in a large team setting.

Lastly, Gerry welcomes on his long time friend, former high school baseball teammate and investment banker Brandon Deger on the final portion of the show to talk about how Brandon entered his current career field following a successful baseball and academic career at Washington University in St. Louis. Brandon discusses the importance of networking during and after your playing days to help in your job search and gives advice to younger athletes when it comes to picking the right school to continue sports and education.

All that and more on this episode!

Episode #36 Keys to Developing Strong & Powerful Athletes with DJ Edwards and Bill Miller

9/4/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1647169-episode-36-keys-to-developing-strong-powerful-athletes-with-dj-edwards-and-bill-miller

In this episode Gerry talks to Bill Miller and DJ Edwards, two strength coaches who are at the top of the field in building stronger and more explosive athletes!

To start the conversation, Gerry brings DJ and Bill through their respective backgrounds in the field: education, athletic careers and how they both had completely different starts to get into the industry. Both of which give the listener a good idea of how coaches can get involved and started in the strength and conditioning field.
From there, the three discuss velocity-based training and how it involves far more than moving light loads fast, in addition to talking about different ways you can utilize velocity based training that goes beyond barbell lifting. Lastly, they discuss the importance of measuring loads!

To finish things up, DJ, Bill and Gerry discuss how they use sleds for pressing power and how they apply VBT to these methods, misconceptions regarding arm care and baseball players and the importance of strength to building speed and how you can improve acceleration ability. They also talk the 60-yard dash and why it is a pretty useless and ineffective test for baseball players.

All that and more on this episode!

Episode #35 Applying Principles of Sport Science to Strength and Speed Training with Max Schmarzo (Strong by Science)

8/28/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1612918-episode-35-applying-principles-of-sport-science-to-strength-and-speed-training-with-max-schmarzo-strong-by-science

In this episode Gerry has the pleasure of talking to sport scientist and coach Max Schmarzo. In addition to being a former athletic trainer and strength coach, Max is the Director of Sport Science at Resilience Code and Chief Science Officer of Exsurgo. He also is the man behind "Strong By Science," which is one of the most followed and sought after sources for training information on Instagram with over 100,000 followers around the world. Max is a tremendous resource for sport science and training and helps provide valuable content to athletes and coaches everywhere.

After a brief rundown of Max's background, basketball career, early influences on his strength training philosophies and and journey in starting Strong by Science, Max and Gerry discuss some basic principles of strength training and how we can understand the force velocity curve and assessing athletes and programming to reach maximal effectiveness and validate training methods. The two tackle the "strong enough," debate in terms of training and how strength in the barbell and strength/force in the context of the small windows of sport can differ.

Finally, Max and Gerry talk everything related to building your vertical jump, Max's own vertical program and how to assess what you may need in your training (force vs. speed work). Lastly, Max describes his journey and undertaking with Exsurgo, a company geared towards making cost effective and quality equipment to help measure metrics in training (vertical jump, sprint etc.).

All this and more on this episode of Muscles and Management!

Episode #34 Building Rotational Power & Velocity For Pitchers and Throwers (Rob Hill & Steffan Jones)

8/21/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1580713-episode-34-building-rotational-power-velocity-for-pitchers-and-throwers-rob-hill-steffan-jones

In this episode Gerry talks to two coaches who are experts in the field of building pitchers (Driveline Baseball Manager of Technical Development Rob Hill) and Cricket fast bowlers (Steffan Jones, Global Fast Bowling Expert) and how they use similar philosophies to develop insane rotational power, velocity and overall explosiveness in throwing athletes.

To start, Rob and Steffan share their backgrounds on how they met and how both have found principles of the opposing sport to aid their athletes. They discuss the main similarities between pitching and fast bowling and the ways in which you can develop maximal velocity.

From there, Gerry discusses some strength training principles and how they mesh with the throwing specific work, and Steffan and Rob also divulge how they have utilized strength training to build better throwers.

All that and more on this episode!

Episode #33 Foundations of Blazing Speed with Joseph Potts (Top Speed LLC.)

8/14/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1547758-episode-33-foundations-of-blazing-speed-with-joseph-potts-top-speed-llc

In this episode Gerry welcomes Joseph Potts of Top Speed LLC. to talk all things speed, agility and building blazing fast athletes.

Right off the bat the discussion talks about speed ladders and Joseph and Gerry discuss the many misconceptions some have in terms of how useful speed ladders are. From ground impulse and force displacement, rehearsing patterns and cuing short and choppy strides, the ladder does not provide much when it comes to linear speed AND agility.

From there, the two discuss EVERYTHING related to speed, starting with force development and strength training all the way to rate of force development, velocity based training, elasticity and reactivity and how it all plays in to build speed. Joseph gives his take on his favorite ways to utilize all of those modalities to make his athletes faster and Gerry gives some tips to how you can utilize sleds in your strength and speed training.

To finish up, the conversation discusses the finer points of acceleration and top speed mechanics of the sprint, giving the listener a comprehensive view of what goes into building and maintaining speed as an athlete and coach.

Episode #32 Strength, Speed, Movement and Finding Quality Professionals for Athletes with Stephen Osterer, Terry Phillips and Kyle Rogers

8/7/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1514410-episode-32-strength-speed-movement-and-finding-quality-professionals-for-athletes-with-stephen-osterer-terry-phillips-and-kyle-rogers

In this episode Gerry sits down with the three men behind Baseball Health Professionals, a new venture aimed at connected athletes, parents and coaches with quality professionals in the realms of healthcare, strength training, physical therapy and more!

Dr. Stephen Osterer, Dr. Terry Phillips and Kyle Rogers are three of the best minds in the fields of baseball and sports performance training from multiple vantage points such as chiropractic care, physical therapy and strength and speed training. They give their takes on assessing athletes, how often athletes should be playing their particular sport versus training and tying all these aspects together to build stronger, better moving athletes and baseball players.

Then, the trio discusses Baseball Health Professionals and the inspiration behind their successful attempt at linking quality professionals with those in need of care. From the minds of three very accomplished professionals in the industry, hear all about how they go about working with their clients and athletes and how their insight can help you as well. All this and more on this episode!

Episode #31 Building a Business and Coaching in the Private Sector with Michael Richards

7/31/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1484284-episode-31-building-a-business-and-coaching-in-the-private-sector-with-michael-richards

In this episode, Gerry has a chance to talk to Michael Richards, a strength/baseball coach and entrepreneur who has worked in the private sector for almost twenty years and now owns and operates a booming facility and business in Arkansas.

From the jump the two talk about the business side of things and what it takes to get a business off the ground in the world of strength and conditioning and sports performance. Michael explains how he got his foot in the door as a young strength coach in the late 1990's and goes on to give a breakdown of the changing culture of marketing and how coaches and trainers had to market their businesses/programs before the days of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

From there, the conversation turns to the keys to running the operations of a facility and some learning lessons Michael has experienced while trying to blend the life of a strength coach and business man.

The strength training and sports performance portion of the conversation discusses the importance of strength training for all athletes and the idea that things do not change much from sport to sport in strength training. Above all else athletes should get strong and fast and then finish off their work with whatever specifics their sport demands of them.

From business, owning a private facility or training athletes and what it takes to get strong this episode has it all for coaches, aspiring business owners and athletes alike!

Episode #30 Q&A: When to Use VBT, Thoughts on CrossFit, and Sprinting Quick Fixes

7/23/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1450378-episode-30-q-a-when-to-use-vbt-thoughts-on-crossfit-and-sprinting-quick-fixes

In this episode Gerry opens the floor for full question and answer interactions with some questions posed to him from his followers (various coaches and athletes amongst others).

The conversation moves right into some important questions covering topics such as quick fixes for improving your sprint time, using CrossFit for young athletes, advice on "making it," as a young strength coach/entrepreneur, velocity based training (when to use it and how to do so without expensive technology), the importance of certifications for a coach and where to find great resources for strength and baseball training.

Gerry gives practical and useful information on the aforementioned topics that any listener can use to become a better coach or athlete and improve their business, training or sports career!