When I first started as a strength coach, I felt that I always had to create my own athletic performance program independently, instead of reaching out to other strength coaches and learning from them. I made many mistakes when I first started running my own program, and many of those errors could be attributed to trying to do everything myself, instead of contacting great coaches and learning from them.
When I began reaching out and collaborating with other coaches, I became a 100% better coach. Bill Foran, Gary Schofield, Tobias Jacobi, Jeremy Boone, Jeremy Holsopple, Jesse Wright and Tim DiFrancesco are leaders in the athletic performance world and I have found that they, along with many other great coaches, are willing to share what they know.
Over the past few years, I have reached out to legendary coaches who I did not know personally and said, “I’m in town, I’d love to come meet you and learn what you do.” More often than not, they have been willing to meet and share their wealth of experience with me.
An example of this is when I met legendary Miami Heat Strength Coach Bill Foran. Three years ago, I contacted Coach Foran before visiting my family in South Florida. I did not have a connection with Coach Foran and I did not expect to hear back from him, but he replied to my message and said, “Yes, come this day and time, park in the player’s lot and tell the security guard you’re here to see me.” When the day of the meeting came, I parked my beat up Chevy Impala next to all these Ferraris and Bugattis and told the security guard I was there to see Coach Foran. The security guard showed me to the weight room and said go right in. When I entered the weight room, there was LeBron James, five feet away from me. Coach Foran led me to his office, sat down with me, and talked about everything he had done with his athletes for the past 25 years; including what has worked and what has not.
I wish I had started reaching out to great coaches and learning from them earlier in my career. Learning from highly successful coaches and finding a way to implement their knowledge into my programs has taken my program and my athletes’ performance to the next level. I believe part of my success as a strength coach and a portion of the success of my athletes has come from my willingness and desire to reach out to other coaches. When I started networking and learning from the experience of other coaches and stopped trying to do everything on my own, I greatly improved as a coach.
No matter what point of your life you are in, never under estimate the importance of networking and reaching out to people you can learn from. More often than not, they are willing to share their knowledge with you.
Bryan Meagher is currently the Associate Head Coach of the 2016 Dick’s High School National Basketball Championship team Oak Hill Academy. During his coaching career he has coached numerous NBA players that have included Kevin Durant, Rajon Rondo, Brandon Jennings, Josh Smith and Ben McLemore. In Coach Meagher’s tenure, he has been a part of five high school basketball National Championships. You can follow him on Instagram for workout tips @Bmeagher22.
Micah Kurtz, MS, CSCS, RSCC*D, USAW, FMS, NASE, is in his eighth year as Director of Strength and Conditioning at AC Flora High School., which has won 14 state championships in the past five years, including the 2016 boys’ basketball state championship. He also serves as Strength and Conditioning Consultant Coach to nine-time high school basketball national champion Oak Hill Academy, which won the Dick’s High School National Basketball Tournament in 2016. Kurtz was named the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Strength Coach of the Year in 2016. He was also named the South Carolina High School Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year in both 2013 and 2014 and is part of the NSCA’s Subject Matter Expert Committee. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @KurtzM3.