400: Paul Cater on Dynamic Coaching and the Natural Learning Process

Today's podcast features Paul Cater, a seasoned strength coach with extensive experience in both professional and private realms. Beginning his journey in collegiate football at UC Davis, Paul later ventured into international professional rugby with the London Wasps for seven years. Following his rugby career, he spent a decade innovating strength and conditioning systems in professional baseball with the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Angels. With a research focus on performance and injury reduction in Seville, Spain, Paul now optimizes training methods for the tactical community and is designing "The Lab Monterey," a premier 'smart gym' in the USA. While training is often regarded as both an art and a science, the majority of time and resources are allocated to the scientific aspects, leaving the artistic elements overlooked. The art of training extends beyond communication with athletes, delving into the intuitive process of session unfolding and the natural processes of learning, movement, and community engagement. In today's podcast, Paul explores the alignment of performance with natural learning, emphasizing challenge and mimicry over verbal statements and rote recital of patterns. He details how to create an environment that breathes life into training sessions, fostering engagement, enhanced learning, and improved results. The discussion also covers the role of science in the context of "smart gyms" and how technology can liberate coach resources for more creative investments. In a rapidly evolving world, this podcast is a landmark exploration of understanding athletes and fostering a meaningful coaching process. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. 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Main Points 2:30- How athletic dance movements fit with culture, and how it works into Paul’s training ideas 12:30- Priming the environment of the athlete for better results, with the influence of music selection 19:00- Key exercises and “attractors” to help drive flow states and learning via mimicry in training 27:00- How to manage structure and basic coaching guidelines, along with creating space for freedom of movement and exploration 37:00- The nature of how children play, and their background, and implications for training and performance 43:00- Paul’s process of teaching, and education for mentors and assistants 53:00- How upbeats, and downbeats fit with rhythmic movement flow and athleticism 1:07:00- What the ideal world is in training and coaching, in regards to the balance of technology and sports performance Paul Cater Quotes “To really understand a culture, you have to understand their dancing culture and their music integration” “I believe right now in America, we are establishing a culture that is devoid of identify and basic movement patterns” “Dancing is ingrained in battle, and in sport you are mirroring movements, mimicking movements” “I want to have young athletes be more readily available to accept challenges, versus seeing things as threats” “Music, and the opening salvo of exercises can (engage an athlete) on both levels (of challenge and innate movement patterning)” “Birds mimic the sound, and then they vary it” “Choosing a song, mimicing beats and rhythms, within a drill, with peers” “I think if we teach young athletes to memorize drills, or plays, we take away that creative inhibition” “That’s the fine line, you want to challenge (respect the session and coaches authority), but you also want to inspire freedom” “The mountain gyn is a garage, and logs and a bar; and I want it to be that way, and then I have all the tools and tech back in Monterey “Purposefully withholding directive, speech, is a huge part of teaching people, athletes… it’s like Yoda, withholding information for Luke, purposefully” “Often, I let them interpret things, and they’ll change the drill to their interpretation, and I’m OK with that as long as it’s keeping with the core of the movement” “Can kids do these two things, challenge and mimic; that’s part of where the injury prevention comes; it’s not get stronger, or concentric force, or even rates of eccentric loading; it’s how quickly can we adapt, accept, and change” “My goal is to have a smart-gym, where I can get back to coaching, and not be a weight room monitor, or just a rah-rah guy, but really to create the creative rhetoric of challenge, and bring out the mimicry process” “You have to understand where kids are culturally coming form; how much have they trained by themselves out in nature, by themselves, running up hills on their own willpower and motivation doing it… that’s going to become less and less” “You need both environments, I think you need climical, efficient training environments, but you also need places where you can mimic nature, and feel danger, and can have that challenge in other ways to, and you need both” Show Notes Katotsky Kick Athleticism in Dance Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzk5Ir37wjM Syncopation in Music (Upbeats and Downbeats) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drs_uqFG-to Paul Solo Agility Warmup Flow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzkpewfDbMY&t=194s Transcript About Paul Cater Paul’s journey in human performance began through the scope of playing collegiate football at UC Davis, yet, it was his International experience that established the foundation of sport science, culminating with a 7-year stint in professional rugby highlighted by multiple championships with London Wasps, 2005-2010. During that time Paul was able to assist in world leading human performance systems and concurrently gaining his Masters Degree Middlesex University, London. It was those relationships in within the rugby and soccer community that has innervated innovative methodology blending the best of Europe and the USA. After rugby duty ended, Paul worked as a strength and conditioning coach in professional baseball for 10 years, having helped pioneer new systems in the MLB with the Baltimore Orioles (2012-2018). He finished his professional baseball phase with the Los Angeles Angels in concert with finishing his doctoral research through University Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain on the topic of comparing traditional gravitational based inertia resistance versus rotary inertia flywheel resistance to increase performance and reduce injury rates. Drawing parallels to daily readiness over long term minor league baseball and active duty employment cycles, Paul looks to further employ his experience in optimizing methods for the tactical community. While coaching professional teams, he has concurrently developed The Alpha Project, building training centers and programs for local athletes to develop physical and leadership skillsets for the next level of competition. He has a particular passion for developing coaching talent, helping graduates out of college navigate their path into successful strength and conditioning careers. Through vast experience in professional rugby and baseball, as well as within the Special Operations community, Paul is currently designing one USA’s premier ‘smart gyms” near his hometown on the Monterey Peninsula - aptly named “The Lab Monterey” - to solution training issues for all demographics through leveraging of technology and advanced training theory. Paul and his wife Stephanie maintain Monterey, California as their home base where he was born when his parents were stationed at Fort Ord. He looks to his father’s example in prioritizing family and being a leader in the community, while passing on the love of the mountains and ocean to his two little girls. Paul’s passion for Human Performance has always been within the context creating sustainable human relationship for optimal outcomes both in competition and life. By integrating relationship and artistic expression to physiological adaptation, longer lasting performance outcome, but more importantly quality of life during and after service are achieved.