216: Paul Cater on Flow, Rhythm and Awareness: Exploring the Training Session as a Mirror to Sport and Beyond | Sponsored by SimpliFaster

Today’s episode features coach Paul Cater, speaking on his holistic approach to athlete training sessions. Paul has pioneered a way of training that makes the session a heightened experience on multiple levels, versus a scripted “to-do” list. Paul is the owner of the Alpha Project, a gym in Salinas, California. He has worked with a wide variety of athletes, from those at the highest professional level in pro Rugby (London Wasps) and pro Baseball (Baltimore Orioles), to local youth sport athletes, as well as those in the general population in a wide variety of age ranges. Paul has lived and trained athletes internationally and has a wide swath of cultural experience. He has been a “partial episode” guest of the podcast on episode #197, where he discussed the art of story-telling in the training session, as well as a return to the importance of sprinting as a cornerstone movement in his years of coaching. Paul has also written a number of impactful articles on Just Fly Sports over the years on the level of taking the “robotic” elements out of sport preparation and bringing in a holistic, thoughtful, aware, and “human” form of coaching. Of all the individuals who have had an impact on my coaching and training, I don’t think I can say anyone has had more of an impact on how I run my training sessions than Paul Cater. Paul has taught me the art of bringing life and energy into a training session, and as well as using a combination of training methods and environment to be completely in the moment of the training itself. Through my own observation of, and training with Paul, I have gained insight that can make a training session really come to life in the same manner that sport, or a powerful life experience, does. On the show today, Paul will talk about his philosophy on the flow of a training session, and how his unique model presents athletes the opportunity to grow on multiple levels (awareness, vulnerability, rhythm, variable work modes, etc.). He’ll get into the “nuts and bolts” of awareness practices, music selection, rhythmic development, and much more. This is a unique and essential episode, and one that has the potential to really transform one’s coaching practice in a positive way. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:35 How life-threatening situations can create unique mind-body physical stimuli 11:05 Looking at the rhythm and flow of a training session, and how all pieces must work together to create a more optimal session 24:20 How Paul invokes awareness with his athletes at the beginning of a session, and how he helps them turn on a switch to enter the training state 32:05 Vulnerability in a training session and how it contributes to the total development of an athlete 38:40 Rhythm development, and the creative usage of music and dance elements in a training session 58:55 Other key elements Paul works to incorporate in his training session 1:02:05 How the workout changes and filters into the primary strength training element of the training day “These kids, it’s like they are adrenaline junkies, they have to have this massive hype, or musical element (to train)… creating an experience of a deep introspective state, all the way to the collective experience of competition, there is a whole spectrum there” “You have to create a natural awareness of rhythm, and melody, tuning, so to speak, at the beginning of a session” “Are the kids going through quiet time, before the hype time. It’s hard to sell rest time” “That’s what’s going to limit injuries going forward is knowing athletes beyond a data point or a typical analytic. It’s a courageous path, I think, to really have a comprehensive program at any level” “I try to impart on everyone who walks through the door that they are not just a number, I want to give them identity” “If I could give objective feedback to individual awareness, I’d do it” “I’m adamant that the music selection has to be on point from the start of the session. There has to be a safe feel, I don’t think there should be fight or flight when you walk in the building. These kids are already on high alert” “That’s the beauty, teaching athletes to react, and to be calm and collected before and after that” “The greatest expression of breathing, and elasticity in the hip and torso and shoulder is just sprinting, for a sustained period of time” “Teaching the athletes to match and mirror and work within rhythm, and dance, is maybe the training outcome in general, and then we just put increasing stress around those rhythms of that day, in the weight training” “I really think a coach needs to meditate and link in to the point of the whole session” “(Regarding music in training) I really try to eliminate words in the first 15 minutes… I find melody that works on a 4 count that people can match and mirror in an easy way so they can link into a simple dance step” “Any barrier that you have to get up and over (is good for working rhythmically and with music), a mini-tramp, a line on the floor, are all great tools” “Grip strength is a massive hole in a lot of these kid’s development” “To put it simply, there is 5 minutes in every session with the strength adaptation you are looking for. Everything from the grip, to the hamstring to the postural alignment, to the rhythmic alignments, the tempo and tuning, leads into that 5 minutes” “The one time athletes can be mostly in total control of their bodies, because you don’t have a coach whose gonna bench you, or you have a pitch that you swing and miss at, there is so much failure in sport. If we can have the training environment be a highly empowering redemptive experience, athletes are going to be happier and healthier and move rhythmically better, and in harmony elastically” “I think there is a hell of a lot of anxiety coming into the weight room” “That’s my mission statement, to teach young people to be advocates for themselves” Example of Paul’s rhythm-based warmup for athletes. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Paul Cater (@coach_cater) on Jun 26, 2020 at 5:30pm PDT About Paul Cater Founder of The Alpha Project Salinas High School, Varsity Baseball, Football 1995 UC Davis: Studied pre-law while playing UC Davis Varsity Football 2000 NSCA, Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist 2001 Poliquin Certified Level, 2 Internships include UCLA, San Jose State, San Francisco 49ers Graduate Degree Exercise Science, Human Performance, Brunel University, London 2010 MSC Strength & Conditioning from Middlesex University, London 2011 Over 18 years of experience as an International strength and conditioning coach working with London Wasps Premier Rugby, Baltimore Orioles, USA Rugby and consulting numerous other High School, College & Professional Athletes Late Stage Rehab Specialist Phd Candidate focusing on Eccentric Overload through Rotary Inertial Flywheel Training, Recovery and Performance Transcripts Joel Smith: Welcome to another episode of the podcast. It's awesome to have you guys here, and I know I'm excited for every show, but this show is definitely a special one. This is the first full-length episode that I've done with my friend Paul Cater. Paul was actually on a small round table segment for episode 197, where we talked for about 25 minutes. And ever since then, I've just been thinking about that show… that full-length show we'll do when he comes back on. And so the time was finally right. Paul and I were able to sit down and just have a really great conversation on the fine details of his total training session. Last show, we talked for 25 minutes just about creating a story around training and as well as his return to sprinting as, as a prime or pinnacle portion of his coaching process. Joel Smith: But this one, we get into some other elements. And so just to give a quick background, those of you who are not familiar with Paul. Paul is the owner of The Alpha Project in Salinas, California, which is Monterey Bay area. For those of you who may not be familiar with that locale, Paul has spent time training athletes on just about every level from the pro ranks the London Wasps in rugby, Baltimore Orioles to training athletes of all ages and abilities. From local youth to collegiate athletes, to Olympians, to even grandmothers and grandfathers at his gym. And so a man of diverse experience cultural experience, Paul is a guy who he'll be in the gym training and then painting a painting in between sets. He's an outside the box thinker, and we can all learn so much from him. I absolutely have. Paul has changed my just vision as a coach to what I believe a good training session is. Joel Smith: And it's like, if you could see every year of my coaching process as a full-time strength coach, you could see Paul's impact on that every year. The more I learned from him and my athletes I've certainly was able to serve them better for that. So we're going to get into it today. The nuts and bolts to Paul's system. Then he's going to talk about rhythm and flow in a training session. He's going to talk about awareness, vulnerability, and all these elements that he's trying to cultivate and create an environment around that really lead up to that, that crescendo, that, that weightlifting experience. And I don't want to, I don't want to spoil the story at all. I don't want to try to steal any thunder. So we're just going to get right into that. This was an awesome show with my friend, Paul, and I know you guys are really gonna enjoy this one, so let's get onto the show. All right.