00:01.52
mvhuber
Hey Angelo, how's it going?
00:03.60
Angelo Gingerelli
Pretty good, man. How are you today?
00:04.88
mvhuber
I'm doing great today. Thanks for joining me on the podcast. um Angelo, for those who are listening, why don't you give a little bit of background about yourself and what you're doing.
00:14.17
Angelo Gingerelli
good man I'm the strength condition coach at Seton Hall University up in South Orange, New Jersey. I've been in this business since 2005. So this is my 20th school year in the same place, which is it's really unheard of in strength and conditioning or college sports in general. But I found I'm a New Jersey guy. I like it here. I grew up a Seton Hall fan. My family's here. I'm raising my family here now. ah It's been been a really good fit and I like where I am and I like what I'm doing. And then the the the next thing I have coming out in my 20th year at Seton Hall,
00:43.06
Angelo Gingerelli
publishing a book the next four years making that transition from high school sports to college sports. From the physical side, I came across your podcast in the summer.
00:49.21
mvhuber
Mm hmm.
00:52.44
Angelo Gingerelli
You have one of our swimmers, Natalie Himes, and a great job for our program.
00:54.23
mvhuber
Yep.
00:55.52
Angelo Gingerelli
These are 50-year-olds. She's killing it. And I listened to that interview, and then I went back and retroactively listened to most of your other episodes. And I think we were two guys kind of speaking the same language, that there's so much information
01:05.18
mvhuber
Mm-hmm Yeah
01:07.28
Angelo Gingerelli
about how to get to college, how to get that scholarship offer. There's really comparatively little information on what to do once you get there, right? So I say to the book, it sounds a little cliche, but it's true. A lot of kids, a lot of families look at signing that national order of attendance, the finish line. In reality, that's the story line, right? um And i've I've always said as a strength and addition coach, I want to be part of making this experience the best four years of somebody's life and not see kids transfer and and not like to sport and quit or only do it for the scholarship and I think you know what I'm doing on the physical side you're doing on the mental side super valuable to a to big part of our population so I'm super happy to have this conversation today.
01:47.27
mvhuber
Yeah, and you you know you're you're living it. You've been on the inside at a university for almost 20 years, so you have a lot more knowledge on that subject from, you know, being in it, you know, I'm, I'm taking it from the outside, never having worked in a university, ah although I've spent some time in the setting. So like in that 20 years, like, what would you say are like the biggest changes that you've seen in student athletes coming in to the program there at Seton Hall?
02:15.13
Angelo Gingerelli
Okay. Well, the one thing that hasn't changed is the one thing that is has kind of. made me want to write this book and and speak on this topic is, anywhere I've been, every college I've been at, everybody I've talked to, kids are coming in unprepared for the level of work being done in college.
02:30.78
Angelo Gingerelli
And we'll talk about why it is a little bit later, but just the level of just lack, and I don't think it's kids aren't trying early because they're being lazy.
02:32.76
mvhuber
Okay.
02:37.86
mvhuber
Yeah.
02:38.57
Angelo Gingerelli
I think it's just the information of how to prepare and the jump you take from high school to college, even at a great high school, that information isn't really out there. We're not telling kids and families how to prepare for that. mentally or physically. And that's why what we're doing is super valuable, right? um The biggest thing that's changed in the last couple of years, they say COVID is the transfer portal and NLI deals, right? Where that you know back before 2019, almost nobody transferred, at least out of school, like C&R, we graduated most of our freshmen, right? So the the typical newcomer was 17 to 18 years old, fresh out of high school, not injured, not post-operative surgery,
03:16.13
Angelo Gingerelli
They never overuse injuries yet. It was like buying a new car to a large extent to use an analogy, right? Now our typical newcomer might be 21 or 22, second or third college, maybe already got injured, maybe already deal with overuse injuries, already has whatever mental baggage comes from playing for two or three more programs.
03:34.20
mvhuber
Yeah.
03:34.43
Angelo Gingerelli
So now it's that we went from buying new cars to buying used cars, and I'm not i'm not saying that's a bad thing, but we're dealing with a different population, right? And I think you're seeing that really across the board. I think the transfer portal is a good thing for student athletes and their families, but it does change what we're doing in our role a little bit because we're dealing with a different population.
03:52.31
mvhuber
Well, I actually, I mean, trans reporter comes up all the time, but I think it's interesting when you were were you were speaking, like I thought about the difference between somebody like you who was a strength and conditioning coach and then say a head coach on a team staff, right? As a head coach, you might love it because you're getting somebody who's been kind of tested and proven over a few years. You're kind of getting a known entity coming in from another school. For you, you might have to undo some of the habits that these athletes have learned in other strength and conditioning programs if it doesn't align with your philosophy or the way you do things. So like, do you find yourself having to sort of reteach or have these transfer students come in and sort of relearn things?
04:35.15
Angelo Gingerelli
but Yes, right. But one thing I think is there's a kind of the most common misnomer about college training and visiting coaches are, people think we're doing this super high level, super fine-tuned specific training and a baseball shortstop is training different than the third baseman is training different than ah than the first baseman, right?
04:54.61
Angelo Gingerelli
And there's there's a place for that. I really think there is. But really at the college level, we're dealing with such novices in the weight room. About 75-80% of what we're doing is the same across the board for most of our athletes, right?
05:01.63
mvhuber
Mm hmm.
05:06.59
Angelo Gingerelli
And part of that is they're just coming to us and not knowing just basic movement patterns. they Kids that can't squat, can't lunge, can't push or pull with their upper body. So I think most people are shocked at how baseline and foundational at least freshman year college weightlifting really is right now then if things go well kids pick up on things kids go home and train in the summer on their own and come back better we can move ahead and do some some better things right but i think there's so much there's such a lack of quality training at kind of all levels that you know when you get a a freshman group in in any sport in the college setting you're really starting at square one no matter what and then you hope to progress to square you know four or five by the time they graduate
05:46.28
mvhuber
Yeah. So ah I wanted to, I was thinking, you know, while you were while you were sharing that, you know, one of the things that I was telling you before we started recording, I have two children and they go to high school here in New Jersey and, you know, we we kind of live close together. And my daughter just started lifting um as a freshman. So she was just introduced to it this summer. And I had a recent exchange with her and she said,
06:09.73
mvhuber
Um, dad, she's like, I, I, I dead lifted, uh, with the trap or one 70. And she's like, Oh, my friend's doing more. I only did one 70. I said, that's great, honey. You just started doing this. You're going to be doing 300 in no time. And so, but for her, like she had this sort of like.
06:29.48
mvhuber
Like, the way she looks at it is like, I'm not good enough. And she's comparing herself to other people. Is that a dynamic you see with kids who are new to lifting, where they look around the room and go, oh, I'm not as strong as so and so?
06:36.63
Angelo Gingerelli
yeah
06:40.18
mvhuber
Like, do they lose their confidence when they see other people not doing what you know they can do?
06:44.81
Angelo Gingerelli
wait
06:46.07
mvhuber
Go ahead.
06:46.45
Angelo Gingerelli
Yes, I do see it. And I think it's it's such a tough age group right for two reasons. Number one, high school and college kids are kind of figuring out who they are, where they fit in the world. It might be their first time kind of branching out, doing things away from their parents or their close relatives, brothers, sisters, stuff like that.
07:03.01
Angelo Gingerelli
and their natural, their natural interest is to compare themselves to each other, right? You put on top of that, athletes in an age group are naturally competitive. That's why they're playing sports against other kids, right? And I think that could be good, but it gets dangerous when someone that can comfortably deadlift 170 puts 225 on the bar and gets hurt, right?
07:20.12
mvhuber
Yeah. Right.
07:21.99
Angelo Gingerelli
So what I always tell people is, and if you can convince your kids to believe this, you're a better parent-teacher coach than me, because it's a real hard conversation to have, it's not about you and a person in the next squat rack.
07:32.89
Angelo Gingerelli
It's about you today versus you a year ago or a month ago or a week ago. and it's really about the one to My favorite thing about the weight room is that everybody can be successful because it's about personal improvement. right If i'm on ah you know me and 10 guys walk in a gym, I might never be the strongest of the 10, but I might be the strongest version of me and stronger than I was a year ago. And I would want if I could do that, right? But I think it it's just a tough age and and naturally competitive people gravitate towards sports. It's really hard. all ah can Can we say where your kids go to high school? Can we shout that out or not?
08:08.52
mvhuber
Yeah, sure, mate, mate, mate.
08:09.25
Angelo Gingerelli
He even runs this area, and I'm from Monmouth County as well.
08:11.32
mvhuber
Yep.
08:12.33
Angelo Gingerelli
And they work with a great chance. He goes there, Rob O'Rock. I've been in his weight room before. He's been in several MSA events that I've hosted. We got to become friends over the year. And he's running a college program, right? But I think he does a great job at making things age and a little bit specific, where an incoming freshman soccer player like your daughter is able to train and get better.
08:26.08
mvhuber
Mm-hmm.
08:32.07
Angelo Gingerelli
And those same way, a junior, rising senior, high school football player is able to get better, right?
08:35.82
mvhuber
Yes.
08:36.48
Angelo Gingerelli
And I think he's really doing a great job with that.
08:38.29
mvhuber
Yeah.
08:38.91
Angelo Gingerelli
And the part of the reason for the book is that there's not that many guys like him out there, right? There really isn't.
08:44.02
mvhuber
Nope.
08:44.53
Angelo Gingerelli
Most of the kids, if you were in a public high school, that's not a thing. You guys are super fortunate to have that.
08:49.07
mvhuber
yeah
08:49.36
Angelo Gingerelli
hey Honestly, so was I. I didn't grow up in Long County. I grew up in Ocean County. I know you're already sitting there thinking you're better than me because of that, right? boy
08:58.39
mvhuber
No.
08:59.13
Angelo Gingerelli
But I went to Tom's and reached and we had a weight room and a strength coach. And that exposure to that at a very young age kind of shaped the rest of my life, right? As far as just, you know, I started lifting weights and you'd go to sports, fell in love with it. And that, you know, that created the outline for the rest of my life. So I think that the high school experience is super valuable. I mean, if you have, if you have access to that at your school, definitely take advantage of it. What I tell parents all the time is this, if I deal at Seton Hall or Division I school, we're in the Big East, we're not in the Power Five, but we get some really good athletes here, right?
09:32.62
Angelo Gingerelli
All of our baseball, softball, soccer players, swimmers, they were the best athlete in their high school, maybe the count, right?
09:40.10
mvhuber
Yeah.
09:41.10
Angelo Gingerelli
And we have the majority of our kids come in freshman year and cannot squat, lunge, do a pull-up, do a push-up. And these are the best kids in the high school school center, right?
09:50.21
mvhuber
Yeah.
09:51.60
Angelo Gingerelli
Think about what the rest of the high school kids are like when they're graduating.
09:54.53
mvhuber
Yeah.
09:54.63
Angelo Gingerelli
So I always say, if you're if you're a parent, you're a high school phys-ed teacher or coach, if you can teach your kids just the basic movement patterns, and efficient movement patterns, good running technique, good landing mechanics when they're doing plyos.
10:07.08
Angelo Gingerelli
You can be way ahead of the pack just by teaching and doing the the basics well. um And then if you can then you can add sports skill on top of it. I think what we see in my profession, a little more than probably other ones is, everybody knows the foundation of strength training, right?
10:21.41
mvhuber
Mm hmm.
10:21.70
Angelo Gingerelli
It's progressive overload, it's rest and recovery, and get good at the basics. The problem is in the multi-billion dollar fitness industry, you can't really sell the basics, because everybody knows the basics, right? So every Instagram account, every YouTube, every personal trainer, is how to do the super high-end stuff that in most cases, kids aren't ready for. And the joke I always make is, we got 13-year-olds doing single-armed dumbbell presses on a physio ball that can't do a push-up. Now, here's what.
10:50.14
Angelo Gingerelli
There's a place for that single arm dumbbell press. There is, but not for the kid that can't throw a pushup.
10:52.97
mvhuber
Right a shot
10:55.46
Angelo Gingerelli
So let's get good at the old school stuff and then progress as soon as possible. We got people selling the second, third floor of the house and not worried about the foundation. And that's a recipe for disaster. And if you look at the injury rates of college athletes, it is a disaster.
11:08.31
Angelo Gingerelli
There's no way to argue that.
11:09.59
mvhuber
Yeah. So so i want to I want to touch on a couple of things that you talked about. One is to go back you know about comparisons to others and to yourself, right? That's something that i'm ah i I talk a lot about. I teach to my clients. I'm a big believer in is having a growth mindset, right? And when you're coming in to compete at a place like Seton Hall, just as an example, Division I level, right?
11:32.62
mvhuber
You've probably been the best athlete in your school, in your area for a long time. right Everybody's probably praised you for a very long time about how great you are and how wonderful you are.
11:45.22
mvhuber
Now you get to a place like Seton Hall right or any Division I school and you're just like everybody else.
11:49.01
Angelo Gingerelli
Yeah.
11:51.65
mvhuber
right You're not the big fish in a small pond anymore, right which is kind of what you're describing and they don't have, athletes don't necessarily have that growth mindset of, hey, I just want to come in on day one and get better so that by the time I leave here in four or five years, I'm getting the most out of my experience, going to be the best I can be versus, hey, I've got to be better than so and so. And listen, there is an element of natural competitiveness, right? People want to play, but at the same time, it's like, well, if you're always comparing yourself to somebody else,
12:20.40
mvhuber
The ultimate, like the the worst case scenario is you burn out and you quit, which is not uncommon, right? Like a lot of college athletes drop out because it's just too much.
12:29.81
Angelo Gingerelli
Yeah, I think one thing, and I'm gonna explain this, I want to be very careful with my words here. I think one thing in the college recruiting process that is overlooked is coaches will often start recruiting a a young man or young woman and tell them everything they want to hear to get them to sign without a line, right?
12:44.59
mvhuber
Sure.
12:46.45
Angelo Gingerelli
And a lot of times what young people don't want to hear is athletically right now, you're a six. We think you can mature into an eight or nine, and play here your junior year and really contribute to the program.
12:57.56
Angelo Gingerelli
But right now you need a year in the weight room when you're learning the playbook, a year of changing your body composition, and we think you're going to be a player for us in the future.
13:04.17
mvhuber
Mm hmm.
13:05.00
Angelo Gingerelli
Because if you come clean and tell your kid that, they're going to go to the school and tell them they're going to play immediately, right?
13:07.51
mvhuber
Yeah. Right.
13:09.84
Angelo Gingerelli
And then they get on campus and let's keep it real. college freshmen are boys and girls college seniors are men and women it's a different blogging right and even if you were the the most preternaturally gifted whatever sport player you're freshman year in high school senior in high school when you get the freshman year in college it's a different game right so i think yeah we should be a little more honest with kids and be like look we're going to recruit you based on your potential we think you're going to be a really good player soon but you got to really commit to taking care of your body maybe getting bigger if that's the case maybe dropping some body fat if that's the case maybe getting more mobile whatever it is but take the first year or two
13:48.32
Angelo Gingerelli
and really build that foundation. So when the the starting point guard that's a senior in your freshman graduates, you're ready to step in and play right away. And I think that's that's one thing in four years and now and then maybe five years with the grad year stuff going on. It seems like a long time, right? And it is, it's it's a quarter of your life if you're 20 years old, but in about a quarter of life.
14:09.61
Angelo Gingerelli
But also it it goes by quick. And I think a lot of times you got to kind of have a mindset somewhere between the two, right?
14:15.95
mvhuber
Yeah.
14:16.11
Angelo Gingerelli
The mindset's got to be, I'm not here forever, but I do have time to develop and hold my craft and get my body better every year on here and take advantage of that as well.
14:17.57
mvhuber
Right.
14:21.51
mvhuber
Mm hmm.
14:26.71
Angelo Gingerelli
and think the one that I think competition can be a good thing as long as you're in the weight room, if it's done safely, and with proper progressive overload, proper rest of recovery. Like if I'm a senior and I'm looking at the juniors, and if I'm a freshman and I'm learning juniors, eventually I want to be putting plates on the bar and all the other stuff, but it can't be today.
14:42.46
mvhuber
Right.
14:45.01
Angelo Gingerelli
I got to work my way up there and and do the freshman stuff until I get to be a sophomore, get to be a junior. And then a cliche, you got to trust the process, right? If you committed to play at a program that's been successful and has put a lot of kids in professional sports and has done well in the conference they're in,
15:00.14
Angelo Gingerelli
You got to just kind of like go a little bit and trust the program in some cases and and progress the way you're supposed to progress Yeah, I work with all of the all the sports vibe I've been through these the size of the the team how many guys we have I work with baseball a lot and
15:06.01
mvhuber
Yeah, so one more question on that before we get to talking a little bit more about the book that you've written and and what that's all about. But I am curious, like ah I think when we talked previously, you said you work with the baseball team there?
15:26.09
mvhuber
Yeah. Yeah. So baseball is an example, right? Like I'm and probably most feel but familiar with baseball and the baseball landscape out there and how players are kind of exposed in high school to travel baseball and training and some of the things they're able to do. Some of these kids, I'm sure over 20 years, the velocities that you see kids come in and be able to throw today are different than, you know, in the early 2000s, just because of the nature of the training. Like how much of like,
15:54.47
mvhuber
that impacts what you do, meaning like in a sport like baseball where kids are maybe more advanced and they are lifting heavier and they are throwing harder and they they're getting all this information, whether it's from a private trainer or the internet or wherever, like how much of that affects what you do?
16:09.45
Angelo Gingerelli
Yeah.
16:11.95
mvhuber
Does it make it easier? Does it make it harder? Does it make it both?
16:15.61
Angelo Gingerelli
I'm not sure. The amount of information out there is a blessing and a curse, right? Like so many things.
16:20.76
mvhuber
Yeah.
16:21.77
Angelo Gingerelli
The idea that I could go on Instagram right now and find literally 500 accounts dedicated to how to train baseball guys in the weight room.
16:26.49
mvhuber
Right.
16:28.79
Angelo Gingerelli
And I can pick and choose what I like from each one.
16:28.89
mvhuber
Yep.
16:31.13
Angelo Gingerelli
If you would have told me that was a possibility in 2005, say, I bet that's insanity. I would have to read 500 books and call people, ask questions. Now that's all right. It's easier. The information is out there.
16:42.41
Angelo Gingerelli
What I think the hardest part is, is finding everything out there and finding what works for your population and your facility, right? Because there's things like I can watch what the Yankees do pregame, but if we don't have access to any of that and I don't have five assistants, that's not going to work at Seton Hall, right?
16:57.70
mvhuber
right
16:58.35
Angelo Gingerelli
Or that the joke I always make is if people find out what I do, they want to talk about their kids training. Like, well, I heard Aaron judge those X. So my eight year old is also going to do X. Ain't gonna work for too long right Aaron judge a 28 or so year old Specimen, maybe the best player we've ever seen your seventh grader might be really good But if you train him like a 22 28 year old freak of nature He's not gonna play for very long, right?
17:15.87
mvhuber
Right. Right.
17:20.97
Angelo Gingerelli
So I think they gotta be smart enough to sift through the information out there and apply it to your population And one thing I think that's kind of kind of good in my case being somewhere so long which is an anomaly college sports program I know our population really well, right?
17:31.15
mvhuber
Yeah.
17:33.18
Angelo Gingerelli
I know our facility at the back of my hand. I know our coaching staffs really well, and I have a pretty good idea of what we can implement and what we can't.
17:35.06
mvhuber
Yeah.
17:39.65
Angelo Gingerelli
Now that being, you got to be open. You got to try new things. however If you're going to ask your players that growth mindset, you got to have one as a coach. I really believe that.
17:45.32
mvhuber
A hundred percent.
17:46.55
Angelo Gingerelli
But from some extent, you got to be a little smarter when you implement and maybe do some incremental changes instead of just sweeping changes every year.
17:46.65
mvhuber
Yes.
17:53.43
mvhuber
yeah Yeah, so so let's let's talk about the book. the The book's called The Next Four Years. So like what inspired you to write, there it is. What inspired you to write the book?
18:03.36
Angelo Gingerelli
It was just being and at the college level for probably about 15 years, about 2018. I started doing a presentation at conferences. about preparing for college sports. Because if most high school strength coaches, most high school sport coaches, and then the entire AAU basketball world world, travel baseball world, all the personal training facilities out there, their their goal and their selling point is kind of will help your kid play at the quotequote next level, right?
18:28.42
mvhuber
Mhmm.
18:28.95
Angelo Gingerelli
The problem is most of the people selling that they've never played at the next level or been around the next level. And what you really taste of competing next level isn't really out there, right? The best players are being recruited by coaches.
18:41.53
Angelo Gingerelli
that are selling them the best part of the dream, which might be all true, but it's also another side of that coin, right? Like, we're going to show you a great weight room. We're not going to tell you you're going to be here at six o'clock every morning against your will, right? We're going to show you, oh, you get to travel to Chicago, but you take a bus and you get back on the bus trip at seven, 15 in the morning after a red-eye flight and you go to class at 8 a.m. the next day. So I think there's some ways that I start telling people the truth, and the example I give all the time is that if you look at how uninformed most college consumers are, I look at it like this.
19:09.60
Angelo Gingerelli
First time you buy a car when you're 17, 18 years old, you don't know the automotive industry. Buying a car is a complete shot in the dark. Second time you buy a car, little better experience. You know what gas mileage is. You know what brake pads look like, right? By the time you buy your fifth car, you know what you want. You know what dealership to go to. You know what a payment plan should be. You buy a better car your fifth time, right?
19:29.86
Angelo Gingerelli
Well, nobody goes to college five times, right? It's an experience you make once, maybe twice in your life.
19:35.74
mvhuber
Yeah, uh-huh
19:36.44
Angelo Gingerelli
And if you make a bad decision, you affect the fight financial future of your entire life um moving forward. And then if you have a student athlete that's going to play in positive scholarship, that's an even smaller percentage of people that get to go down that road, right?
19:48.13
mvhuber
Yeah.
19:48.65
Angelo Gingerelli
And it's mostly, you know, a lot of families just are first first generation dealing with college.
19:52.28
mvhuber
Yes.
19:53.28
Angelo Gingerelli
And how do you make those decisions? And i might my my goal for every student athlete I deal with when I meet them their freshman year is then to have a great four-year experience at Seton Hall, graduate, write me a card that said they had a ball, helped them out, and they're going to have great lives if you're playing sports or not, right?
20:09.19
Angelo Gingerelli
Now, I'm going to be honest with you, in a transfer portal era, that number is going progressively down. if Kids that come in freshman year and graduate with us.
20:13.86
mvhuber
Yeah.
20:15.95
Angelo Gingerelli
But that being said, I think as ah if you're a strength coach, you're an athletic trainer, you're an academic person, My goal is to help the transition be as smooth as possible. And I just want to write, I wanted to write the book to help people outside of South Orleans, New Jersey, because I don't think that information is really out there.
20:27.42
mvhuber
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. and And that was one of the things that I started to get really curious about when I worked in high schools. you know When I was working in a high school, it was like, well, I've got these kids that I'm working with. And I look at them in that environment and go, these kids are really good. They're really good at their sport. And they're committed to go play college at you know college sport, mostly baseball players. right They're ready to go to the next level. What's it going to be like for them, right? And they don't really know, right? You think you know, but you don't know until you get there. And so for for me, it's about having transferable skills, right? To walk in and be able to say, okay, like I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but if something like this happens, here are the things that I could do to make it a better situation for myself, right? And so for you, you, I mean, as somebody who works in that environment, right? You don't necessarily have that
21:23.71
mvhuber
you know, luxury in your job, meaning you you get what you get, right? Whoever comes in, you got to deal with. But the book is, hey, this is what I've seen. And retrospectively, I can look back and say, hey, based on what I've learned over 20 years, here's what you need to think about.
21:37.15
mvhuber
So what are like some of the key takeaways in the book? I'm sure there are plenty, right? But like, if there were two or three things you could sort of highlight that you think are really important, I'd love to hear about it.
21:41.65
Angelo Gingerelli
Yeah.
21:47.37
Angelo Gingerelli
Great, the the three I would say off top. Number one, when you commit to go to a school, contact at the bare minimum, the strength and conditioning coach, maybe the athletic trainer, and find out and you'll be in contact with the head coach already.
22:00.38
Angelo Gingerelli
But get as much information about the program as you can before you get there, right?
22:04.21
mvhuber
Yeah.
22:04.73
Angelo Gingerelli
what do Do we train early in the morning? Do we train at night? Do we run sprints? Do we run distance? Do we have a conditioning test?
22:11.33
mvhuber
Yeah.
22:11.63
Angelo Gingerelli
um Because being physically prepared for what you're getting into is the one that the and the kind of what you deal with on your show, there's a mental and emotional transition to being away from home, and being in college.
22:21.63
mvhuber
Yeah.
22:21.70
Angelo Gingerelli
But I feel like if you go out of your way, take care of the physical side of it, that's one less thing you have to worry about when you get there, right? When I tell parents all the time, and I really believe this, if you commit to go to a school and you call or email the strength coach, and he or she doesn't get back to you, you picked the wrong school.
22:38.09
Angelo Gingerelli
I look at it like these student athletes are going to give me four years of their life. I got to give them a phone call at the very least. Right. Um, and then also understand what shouldn't be expected of you. And then realistically assess where you are now and start getting ready for that.
22:51.59
Angelo Gingerelli
Right. Um, like if you know, for example, your team, say a soccer team, you got to run a six minute mile the first day of practice.
22:57.16
mvhuber
Yeah.
22:58.23
Angelo Gingerelli
and you're running nine minute miles figure out a way to get better at that that's you know that's a deficiency that's fine but don't make that it make that don't make put a bullseye on your back by being the kid that's labeled out of shape not ready for camp not ready for practice you can take a lot of stress off your plate by doing that and the one thing I really liked on your show you talked maybe earlier this summer following a couple episodes about enjoying your summer right I believe you should enjoy your summer and that summer after your senior year is special It's prom, it's graduation, it might be a trip with your friends, it might be your last family vacation before you move out of it.
23:32.61
Angelo Gingerelli
It's a special time. If you live at the Jersey Shore, it's even more special, right?
23:34.94
mvhuber
Yeah.
23:36.33
Angelo Gingerelli
Because you got, you got Fillmore, you got Asbury, you got Long Branch, it's a special place to live. You can go have a great summer and train an hour or two hours a day, maybe first thing in the morning, and then go and have a blast the rest of the day, right?
23:49.80
Angelo Gingerelli
um i dont I think people sometimes think like, oh, I'm training now or I'm not training now.
23:53.47
mvhuber
Right.
23:53.58
Angelo Gingerelli
But in reality, training should be a part of your life all the time. And then you can go have a summer job. You can go on vacation this week, whatever it is, all but kind of just just you know to have a great summer and train around it.
24:04.66
mvhuber
So, okay.
24:04.78
Angelo Gingerelli
I think those are the two two biggest things.
24:06.97
mvhuber
So, so I'm glad you brought that up, right? Cause I've actually dealt with specifically with a college athlete who's still in college who actually has had a lot of anxiety about testing, right?
24:20.21
mvhuber
And, and, you know, I think to your point, and she's much further along in her career. She's a senior now. But I think I can only envision the idea that when she and she's playing a power for conference soccer level. Right. I think what you described there is probably what she didn't do, which was like understanding the requirements like going into it. I just want to play here. You're going to offer me a scholarship. I'm going to come. And then from day one, fitness was an issue. Right. for For her, because she wasn't prepared. And then it just spiraled into something much, much bigger. And I had to sort of help her through the process of
24:56.74
mvhuber
developing a bit of a growth growth mindset and saying, hey, like you're you're not passing this beep test. You're this far away. What do we do every single day to keep moving in that direction to not only improve, but build confidence that I can handle this? Do you see that with kids who come into maybe sports, especially where endurance is ah is an issue and not are not only not physically prepared, but the mental side of it sort of drags them down?
25:22.00
Angelo Gingerelli
Yes, and I see I see a thing in some of our athletes which is yeah I don't know these are weird because I've got that kind of nucleus here we have a weird thing of like kids that are physically prepared and Real past the conditioning test having anxiety going into a test. They know they're prepared for Um, I go to one of our, one of our programs runs a test every year that it's pretty easy.
25:38.27
mvhuber
Yeah.
25:42.61
Angelo Gingerelli
Like if you do any conditioning over the summer, you'll pass it. Right. And the coach just wants it as a little bit of a check to make sure they did something over the summer. And then we start practice. And the week, like the last week of summer, the kids will start going back to campus and it'll be in my office kind of like, like really upset about it.
25:58.36
Angelo Gingerelli
Like, well, you've passed the test the previous three years. Last year, everyone, a team passed the test. It's a fair test. It's not that hard. That is a hundred percent pass rate. What are you so nervous about?
26:09.75
Angelo Gingerelli
Which is probably not the the best way to approach that. And then you have a hard time articulating it because these tests that like you said, the beef test in soccer, maybe 300 yards shuttles in certain court sports, whatever it is, have become so much bigger in their mind than they actually are, right?
26:18.73
mvhuber
Mm hmm. Yes.
26:22.59
Angelo Gingerelli
And I think one way to look at it now, if you have a head coach or a strength coach that is unreasonable and putting ridiculous numbers off that nobody can do and you're just posting them to to be mad at people and start the season where they're playing, that you got to take those outliers out of this conversation, right?
26:39.57
Angelo Gingerelli
But if it's a fair test that an average 18 to 22 year old person in this sport can pass, why can't you? We brought you here because we thought you'd be a part of this the program and pass it as part of the program.
26:51.11
mvhuber
who Yeah.
26:51.33
Angelo Gingerelli
And I think you kind of insinuate, and tell them that if you can't do it in June, here's some steps to take to get to pass it in in August, right? It's a pretty decent part of the book about that too, about you know the the common test of ones that are out there, whether it's 300 yard shuttles, the mile, whatever it might be, um how to build that conditioning around the summer to be able to do it. Because you might, if you can't do it now, it doesn't mean you're never going to be able to do it, right? every but if We're using Dorrance as an an example. Every single person that runs a marathon at some point in their life couldn't run a marathon, right? And they figured out how to make that happen.
27:25.85
Angelo Gingerelli
So there's no reason you can't figure out a way to make a beep test happen or whatever in my opinion.
27:30.17
mvhuber
Yeah, no, absolutely. and And I think, you know, one of the things, you know, I think about there is, especially with endurance sports or a sport like soccer or anything that requires like long-term and, you know, ah fitness and endurance is, you know, if the coach values that right at a high level, like if fitness is really, really important to a soccer coach or whoever, right?
27:53.29
mvhuber
Like having, asking those questions upfront to your point earlier is really important because then I know coming into the equation, hey, this is what's important to the coach. This might dictate playing time more than anything. So where do I put my focus? Right. I talk to kids about this all the time. It's like, well, if, if I know the answer to the test question,
28:13.05
mvhuber
or I understand what this coach wants from me, I may not like it. I may not agree with it, but at least I know and then I could go try to figure out a solution to that. Like you said, like do some sort of incremental training to at least try to build up to that, right? Knowing that this is the priority.
28:28.33
mvhuber
And I think a lot of kids, I think it's so overwhelmed by this stuff. Like they just get so spread thin or they just ignore, you know, the things that make them uncomfortable that they walk into the situation thinking it's going to be different and that it's not. And then they just get overwhelmed and then they show up the day before the test and go, I don't know if I'm going to pass, you know, like, well, you know, you probably should have prepared for it. And if you did, what are you worried about? Right. But like, it's a really daunting thing.
28:54.42
Angelo Gingerelli
Yeah, I think there's there's two good lessons. The first one is, to so we don't use this work because you don't go through an athlete's employees, right? But to some extent, your coach is your boss.
29:01.03
mvhuber
Mhm.
29:02.63
Angelo Gingerelli
I think there's a good lesson when you grow up and have, if you have a job and don't work for yourself, you're gonna have a boss and you're gonna do things their way, right? And if their way is, everybody on my team runs a six minute mile and you think that's silly, you still gotta run a six minute mile or you're gonna go find another boss.
29:15.83
mvhuber
Right.
29:17.48
Angelo Gingerelli
That's just kind of the way the real world works. I think that's ah a good example of college athletes being an educational experience, right?
29:20.05
mvhuber
Mhm.
29:22.80
Angelo Gingerelli
prepare them for quote unquote, real world. The other thing I say to people, and and I talk about it a lot in the book, we have a thing, I call it strength versus conditioning. Now to be good at it, as I've said, you got to do both, right?
29:33.20
Angelo Gingerelli
But you only got so many hours a day, so much energy, so long your body's going to hold out. At some point you got to decide, I'm going to focus on one or the other, at least a little bit, right?
29:40.70
mvhuber
Yeah.
29:42.22
Angelo Gingerelli
And I tell an incoming freshmen all the time, if you got to pick one or the other, pick conditioning and here's why. If you walk in the Seton Hall Board weight room where there's a baseball on example, and where there's 20 position guys at a time, there's EDM technical music blaring, because they're all like me, just Jersey Shore Guido meatheads, and that's what we're doing and listening to, right? 158 beats per minute or nothing. And you're not that strong, or you need a spot, or you can't put as many play times as the guy next to you. You get lost in that sauce a little bit, right? You can hide a little bit in the weight room till you get up to speed, and not if the coach is staring at you and picking you out all the time, right?
30:17.99
mvhuber
Mm hmm.
30:18.86
Angelo Gingerelli
go to a running session, go to a conditioning drill, and the worst person on the field is obvious to even a bystander barely paying attention, right? And if you're constantly the last person to finish every drill, need more recovery time, throwing up in between reps in a garbage can, you automatically put a bull's eye on your back moving forward in that program, right?
30:37.96
mvhuber
e
30:38.32
Angelo Gingerelli
So I tell kids all the time, if you you don't have to be, you don't know everything in the weight room, you don't have to be great at Olympic lifts, get reasonably strong, and then crush the conditioning so that you're at least, they have nothing else in the pack, if not ahead of the pack, on those conditioned drills that everybody's out there watching, right? because Just the optics of being the last person in a sprint test is really bad. The optics of maybe needing some extra help in the weight room, a little bit better, especially for new kids.
31:05.15
mvhuber
thats so That's a really interesting perspective. And I like that example because it is a good example of, hey, you've got to focus your attention on one thing, right? You can't focus your attention on everything because then nothing gets done, right? You have to, especially, you know, you talk about this a little bit in the in the intro to your book or the beginning of the book, which I had a chance to look at before we started recording, you know, the idea that, you know,
31:27.85
mvhuber
There's only so many hours in the day, right? You're structured from the date, the time you wake up to the end of the day, there's always something to do, right? There's not a lot of free time. So if you need to get better at one thing, you kind of got to narrow it down because you can't do everything because it's already, your time's already spoken for. So like pick that one thing that's sort of the lowest hanging fruit and go after it because otherwise you're going to be spreading yourself too thin.
31:50.98
Angelo Gingerelli
And I have to tell you real quick, one thing, the way I look at this as a college strength coach and most of our head coaches agree with us when we have these conversations. If you tell me when you report to campus, you couldn't get in a weight room this summer.
32:01.70
Angelo Gingerelli
You had a job, there's no gym close to your house. There's whatever at you couldn't get in the weight room. My first answer is going to be that if they tell me they can't afford it, I made the joke. Did you buy one new pair of sneakers this summer? Yeah. Then you could afford a three month gym membership.
32:13.46
Angelo Gingerelli
that every Every gym in America makes deals in the summer for college kids.
32:13.58
mvhuber
Mm hmm.
32:17.50
Angelo Gingerelli
if You came back with one pair of cool sneakers.
32:17.67
mvhuber
Yeah.
32:19.74
Angelo Gingerelli
You could have bought a gym membership, but I'm not going to count your money. That's up to you, right? Give me the reason you didn't run this summer. Why would you need nothing to do it? You can live on a street, run up and down the street, go to a park.
32:30.46
mvhuber
Yeah.
32:31.33
Angelo Gingerelli
It costs nothing. You know, the parks don't close down. Your backyard doesn't close down. So to me, if it was a borderline kid I'm dealing with, they tell me they couldn't lift in the summer. I don't like it, but I understand how that might be a reality for their life, right?
32:44.29
Angelo Gingerelli
But if you come back out of shape, tell me why you're doing it. When I run three, four days a week, it costs me nothing. Figure it out.
32:51.18
mvhuber
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and and I think, you know, I guess that that raises a question because one of the things that I'm... um I think is really important is being able to as a student athlete coming in, um being able to find the help that you need and ask for the help that you need, right? Like knowing that there are plenty of resources if you choose to find them and then tap into them, right? So like what's your experience with student athletes like coming to you and asking for help versus you kind of seeking them out or like giving them the feedback without them sort of
33:26.83
mvhuber
You know asking you for anything like what's that dynamic like for you as a strength and conditioning coach
33:31.36
Angelo Gingerelli
it's it I'd say it's it's it's more on the side of them coming to me. It might be but the kind of personality that I have, the the amount of time I've been here, a pretty trusted face on campus for most people, and I have a kind of personality that people like to talk to me about. stuff I think it's super valuable and tangible for a strength and conditioning coach to have, or really any support to that person, obviously on the mental side of things as well, right?
33:53.07
Angelo Gingerelli
um But if people come to me and tell me they're struggling if fit at anything, if it's something I can help you with, like I can't pass the conditioning test, all right, we'll come in the weight room, we're going to run on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, that's a fairly easy one, right?
34:04.39
Angelo Gingerelli
Some of the issues you get greeted with are are much bigger than that, right? It might be disorder eating, it might be problems with a significant other, it might you know not be able to pass classes.
34:11.80
mvhuber
Yeah.
34:14.04
Angelo Gingerelli
And in that case, you got to know what you don't know at some point, right?
34:17.36
mvhuber
Yeah.
34:17.75
Angelo Gingerelli
um You can call me off and talk to me all day, but at the end of the day, if you're referred to a specialist, I'm going to put you in contact with that person as best I can. Because I think you have to know where your expertise is, right?
34:27.50
mvhuber
Sure.
34:28.27
Angelo Gingerelli
If you want to know how to play in the Big East and be physically prepared for it, I'm pretty good at that, right?
34:32.51
mvhuber
Yeah.
34:33.15
Angelo Gingerelli
If you're gonna tell me you're having a problem with your boyfriend threatening violence against you every morning, that's gotta to go somewhere other than me.
34:36.87
mvhuber
Yes.
34:39.54
Angelo Gingerelli
That's not my, I don't know how to handle that at all, right?
34:40.51
mvhuber
yeah
34:42.03
Angelo Gingerelli
um But you do deal with that, so we gotta be smarter. Now, one thing we're lucky about on this campus is we have a lot of resources, right? We're very lucky with that. I'm about to roll the decks and date myself, but I have yeah have a contact list of people we could call and get involved and hopefully help people out.
34:55.97
mvhuber
Yeah.
34:58.06
Angelo Gingerelli
But I think one thing with college athletes, I think if we could, you know, enforce this on them a little bit, not enforce them, encourage them a little bit to seek to help that's there, right?
35:07.91
mvhuber
Yeah, exactly.
35:08.37
Angelo Gingerelli
It's probably not another time in your life where this many specialists are at your disposal for basically no cost.
35:12.32
mvhuber
Mm hmm.
35:14.67
Angelo Gingerelli
If you're struggling, make the call, figure out, you know, talk to somebody many as an expert and do it because the the downside of that is you don't address a small problem. It becomes a big problem.
35:25.22
Angelo Gingerelli
And now, now the conversation isn't how do I get better at X is how do I get in the chancellor portal? How do I go home? How do I not do this and try again extra at another college?
35:33.79
mvhuber
Yes.
35:35.38
Angelo Gingerelli
So I think you gotta just nip it in the bud as best you can get and get and deal with a small problem before it's a big problem.
35:37.33
mvhuber
Yeah.
35:40.79
Angelo Gingerelli
That's why I think a service like yours is so valuable that you're teaching at the high school kids and they're seeking help early and hopefully going to have that process their whole life.
35:42.56
mvhuber
Yeah.
35:49.49
mvhuber
Yeah, so so and that's and that that that is basically my interest in in asking that question. And it's interesting because I think you can, ah somebody like me or you, we we we're we're speaking from two sides of the same coin in the sense that like I have to know the limits of my competence as well, right? Like what I'm capable of, right? If somebody tells me they're going through the same thing that you just described, they're having an issue where they may be in danger. Like that's also not up to me, right? I have to be able to send them to the right resource so they can get the help that they need. But it's not always that dire. And I think you can tell kids, hey, you need to look for the help. Here's what the help is. This is about getting better. And still, there's sort of this reluctance to ask for the help. And i I've talked about this on a couple of podcasts of like, hey, even though I know I need help, I don't want to ask because I don't want to seem weak.
36:40.86
mvhuber
I don't want people to think that I have a problem. like I don't want my coach to use it against me, whatever. Find all the excuses and reasons that you want. right But at the end of the day, if your goal is to become the best athlete you can be, you can't do it on your own. right And I think that's, for me, that's the most important thing. And when you're in high school, and I think, again, like you referenced this a little bit and in in the parts of the book that I read, which is like in high school,
37:04.31
mvhuber
like It's just not as you you have it under control because you are good and you have relationships and you know your coach for a long time and it's just not as intense. And then you get to a new place and you have to build a new relationship with the coach and figure out campus and make new friends and figure out how to deal with academics. Now it's like this overwhelming like avalanche coming down on your head.
37:25.41
mvhuber
If you don't look for that help to chip away at some of these things you don't know how to do, it's just going to become overwhelming. And the next thing you're going to do is get me out of here, right? Whether it's a transfer portal or I'm dropping out, I'm going to, I'm going to community college because I can't handle this, whatever it is, right? Like, you know, being able to be proactive in that approach, looking for help is, is it makes sense logically, but it's hard for kids to do.
37:48.72
Angelo Gingerelli
It is. And one thing I think would help a lot of freshmen out just across the board is finding your crew as soon as possible. I want to get a couple of good friends that you can talk to and be open with.
37:59.50
Angelo Gingerelli
Because think about it, if you grew up in the same town from kindergarten to high school, you might have friends for 12, 13 years already by the time you were freshman in college.
38:05.92
mvhuber
Yeah Different life
38:07.44
Angelo Gingerelli
Now none of them are around. Now we live in a good era. You could text, you could call, you could DM your friends from back home. But the issue with that is it's hard to get advice from somebody who's living a completely different life than you, right?
38:19.56
Angelo Gingerelli
So I think try to get some student athletes that are your tight friends right away. then i think And then try to find some adults on campus that you can trust and talk to about things, right?
38:27.72
mvhuber
Yes.
38:28.42
Angelo Gingerelli
Might be the strength coach, might be athletic trainer, might be the academic person. It might be an assistant coach, but a head coach is hard. That relates to not always going to be there just based on the business of college athletics, but try to find some people around campus that you can run things by.
38:35.96
mvhuber
Yeah. Yes.
38:43.55
Angelo Gingerelli
As I was saying, in no sense or fashion am I qualified to give a student athlete a voice they call their father, right? But I do know this their day-to-day life and the people they're dealing with and the circumstances probably better than their actual parents do because I'm in the same building with them every day.
39:00.46
mvhuber
yeah
39:01.58
Angelo Gingerelli
So I think find a couple of adults you can trust and bounce things off of and and and hopefully get some. And meet then then go to the proper channels after that.
39:10.00
mvhuber
Yeah.
39:10.40
Angelo Gingerelli
and But being able to have the conversation with people that are in the same struggle as you is super valuable. I think the biggest thing I see with freshmen is they went through the whatever struggle they had with the same people for like 15 years by the time you get to college, kindergarten and senior in high school.
39:26.34
Angelo Gingerelli
And then they go to college and that entire support system is removed. So they try to find a support system as soon as possible. The joke I make when I present all this is. When you're a senior in high school, you live in a house with your family.
39:38.45
Angelo Gingerelli
When you're a freshman in college, you live in a dorm with some kid you just met. And that's the beginning of the changes, right?
39:44.67
mvhuber
Mm-hmm Yeah
39:45.65
Angelo Gingerelli
So you gotta be smart about that and find some people that can help you out and and utilize the service and involve your family and ask for outside advice and help when you need it. um But just kind of get a little tribe or a crew around you on campus as soon as possible.
39:57.71
mvhuber
Yeah, I'm glad you said that. I think that's really, really important. It's actually something that I, um something I have in in in my freshman foundation course, which is thinking about building a support network before you get there, right?
40:10.34
Angelo Gingerelli
Yeah.
40:10.33
mvhuber
Like what kind of people do you want around you? It doesn't have to be athletes necessarily, right? It could be someone in the class. It can be an adult. But like, who are the kind of people you want to be around so you know what to look for when you get there?
40:21.60
Angelo Gingerelli
but it ye
40:21.69
mvhuber
And I think sometimes we and I had this experience at college myself, you kind of go there and you just stumble into people and you just grab on to people who are there because you don't have anybody else. But they may not be the kind of people you want to rely on or you you would normally be friends with.
40:35.98
mvhuber
And now that actually can create more stress and and more anxiety because this is not what I'm used to. And now I'm trying to navigate all this other stuff that makes being an athlete even harder.
40:46.60
Angelo Gingerelli
And the one thing I would say about that that group you're going to have around you, right? Keep an eye on the future as well, not just when you're a senior on the team, but what do you want to do after.
40:54.42
mvhuber
Yeah, I like that.
40:56.25
Angelo Gingerelli
So for example, if you're a college basketball player and you want to go to law school, Chances are statistically most of your teammates will not go to law school just the the way that goes, right?
41:05.01
mvhuber
All right.
41:06.01
Angelo Gingerelli
But can you meet some people in the poli side department in the pre-law department? Can you make some connections with professors so that when you want to make that transition and take the LSAT and go to go to law school You know people in that world, right?
41:19.53
Angelo Gingerelli
Like the LSAT exam is hard enough Think about taking that and nobody in your life ever took that exam or applied to law school before So if you kind of know what you want to do, it can make some connections long-term, that's only going to help your poster post sports career even better. like one One of our but biggest advantages at SHU is we're seven miles from Manhattan, right? to or so The kids that are smart, that major in business, all interned in the city, two or three summers and have multiple job offers.
41:44.99
Angelo Gingerelli
when they graduate from our business school right that's that's the way to do this in my opinion one of the best ways to go through seeing all but if you're not looking outside of the very small fishbowl of your teaming athletic department you're not meeting the people that set you up with the internship that set you up with your first job offer that puts you on the corporate ladder to a good hopefully financial successful life right so I think also you know be a part of your team be cool with your teammates have great friends great classmates you with your strength coach and athletic trainer but the other people on campus will really probably be more valuable to your career because very few of us make a career in athletics.
41:49.54
mvhuber
Yeah.
42:15.13
mvhuber
That's interesting.
42:20.17
Angelo Gingerelli
So try to think of and and think outside that that very limited fishbowl of the athletic department.
42:24.50
mvhuber
I think that's a great piece of advice because I think that there's so much tunnel vision about the next four or five years and you're not thinking about, okay, like, okay, what am I going to do when this is over? That's another conversation entirely we won't get into, but like, you know, four or five years, like you said, it's a long time, but it's not that long. And then all of a sudden you're out of it and it's like, well, what do I do next? You have to start planning that next step before you get to that next step. Otherwise you're going to be sort of looking out, you know, you're going to be searching around for answers when you, when you graduate.
42:54.46
Angelo Gingerelli
The joke and the joke I always make to our, are particularly our basketball and baseball players all think you're going to play professionally, right?
43:00.49
mvhuber
Yep.
43:00.92
Angelo Gingerelli
Well, I always thought that you get the guys, what's your major? What do you want to do? And then I want to play baseball or basketball. I'm like, all right, if that goes perfect, you're going to retire in your mid thirties.
43:10.81
mvhuber
Right.
43:11.24
Angelo Gingerelli
Hopefully you're going to live to a hundred. What are you going to do for the next 65 years? You're alive when that's over.
43:15.36
mvhuber
Right.
43:16.86
Angelo Gingerelli
And realistically, it's going to end way before that. if We're looking at the statistics or professional sports, right?
43:21.49
mvhuber
Right.
43:21.98
Angelo Gingerelli
So we got to get after it. We got to train. We got to get, you know, at maximum on your athletic potential. But if we're not talking about the future a little bit, we're doing these kids at this service. So I try to be ah as as good an influence on that as I possibly can.
43:33.61
mvhuber
So you might not be able to answer this question in any sort of sort of um consistent way, but when you ask a question like that, how do they react?
43:42.97
Angelo Gingerelli
it it It ranges from, I'll be honest with you, man, it ranges from kids that have a very clear reality of what's going to happen when they graduate college.
43:49.08
mvhuber
plan
43:52.13
Angelo Gingerelli
And their their answer might be this, I'm going to play Pro Bowl for as long as I can. And then I'm going to try to be a high school teacher and coach, whatever it might be. Right. um Or right. To complete disillusioned, no idea, no idea how hard it is to play professionally.
44:07.01
Angelo Gingerelli
No idea that the numbers of anyone making a living at that are astronomically low. And, you know, they're picking a major based around the class that fit around the practice schedule. And then they graduate and don't know what to do afterwards.
44:16.46
mvhuber
Yeah.
44:16.54
Angelo Gingerelli
And I think we have some, some good things in place here to to avoid that. Um, and, but I think if somebody's got to guide them a little bit to, ideally it's their parents, but if that's not always the case, you know, some adults got it.
44:24.48
mvhuber
Yes.
44:27.97
mvhuber
Yeah.
44:29.04
Angelo Gingerelli
Like we got to think about what's after this because the best case scenario where is over in your mid thirties. That's the best guys, you know, what can you had to figure out a way to do something after that.
44:35.68
mvhuber
yeah
44:38.13
Angelo Gingerelli
but it's a really wide range of answer. One thing I will say, the majority of our baseball guys are kids from New Jersey, right? Two parent homes, did the whole travel ball thing, the same things, the for a lot of them from Monmouth County, honestly.
44:50.52
mvhuber
Yeah.
44:50.82
Angelo Gingerelli
they They understand the world in a way that a kid that's grown from a different socioeconomic background, maybe not two parents, maybe not a great husband, went to several high schools by the time we meet them, maybe had several AAU coaches be mentors in their life.
45:03.97
mvhuber
Yeah.
45:04.17
Angelo Gingerelli
They made different, view of the world than that baseball kid from Red Bank has, right?
45:06.17
mvhuber
Yeah.
45:09.59
Angelo Gingerelli
um And i you know, my job is so easy with those kids about seeing the world and a little bit harder with those kids from different backgrounds.
45:10.08
mvhuber
Yeah.
45:17.05
mvhuber
yeah
45:17.29
Angelo Gingerelli
But one thing I will say, probably the coolest thing about college athletics is i deal in my office at any given time, there's a baseball player from Red Bank Catholic hanging out with a basketball player from Europe and we're having having a conversation.
45:34.77
mvhuber
Yeah.
45:34.84
Angelo Gingerelli
And I, you know, if when you're in college, really try to lean into that and be around, meet different people throughout athletics and see the world through a different light.
45:39.05
mvhuber
That's awesome.
45:41.12
Angelo Gingerelli
And that's opened my eyes to so many things. And I like to think I've opened other people's eyes to to a lot of things as well.
45:45.16
mvhuber
Sure. I love that. I love that. A couple more questions about the book before I let you go.
45:50.16
Angelo Gingerelli
Yeah, man.
45:50.37
mvhuber
So maybe this is an obvious question, but like, who is the book geared towards? Who who do you want to read the book?
45:57.36
Angelo Gingerelli
Okay. I think, well, first of all, I want as many people as humanly possible to read the book. So my daughter could have a great Christmas and go to a good college.
46:05.07
mvhuber
There you go.
46:05.44
Angelo Gingerelli
boy but yeah I got my knees down with a lot of miles. I need to do it. But so, but realistically, what, uh, I think there's two main audiences.
46:11.23
mvhuber
ah
46:16.79
Angelo Gingerelli
One is high school sports coaches, AAU, pop water sports coaches, and personal trainers. that have kids they're working with that they want to help get to the college level, right?
46:28.90
Angelo Gingerelli
And this book is kind of, I think a lot of these coaches are doing great things. I wouldn't at all step on anybody's toes, but this is what's going to be expected at the next level here.
46:36.70
mvhuber
e Yes.
46:36.91
Angelo Gingerelli
So you can start helping your athletes a little bit better, clients a little bit better to prepare for the next level, right? And for them, it's kind of like a guidebook to kind of mix in what they're already doing and help their clients get better.
46:47.32
Angelo Gingerelli
And then I think the next more of these student athletes that are thinking about playing in college and their parents, And for them, it's ah it's a recipe. It's a cookbook. Follow these steps. It's a 12-week program that starts you know May of your senior year and takes you right through July to be ready for the August 1st report date.
47:03.36
Angelo Gingerelli
And then for them, you can just follow it the way it is. There's weekly training programs. There's a guide to prepare for common conditioning tests.
47:08.51
mvhuber
Great.
47:09.85
Angelo Gingerelli
um So I think it kind of works for both audiences. As we said before, this information is not really out there, and we'll be the first person to really get it out.
47:15.72
mvhuber
Love it. I love it. That's great. um So where do you find it? Where can where can people find the book?
47:22.50
Angelo Gingerelli
where you find everything else in the world on amazon dot.com yeah man so i did i did my previous book finished strong over just training for endurance athletes with a publisher called bloomsbury uh they're a european publisher they didn't really see the vision for this because in in europe college sports are not what they are in america's i i respect your opinion on that and i went in and this one by myself on amazon i want to see how that goes um so amazon dot.com and just look for angelo ginger ale the next four years
47:39.18
mvhuber
Right.
47:49.41
mvhuber
Awesome. That's great. ah One last question, I'll let you go. so and I usually ask this question um of all my guests, although it sometimes it it takes a little different form depending on where you're coming from. But like if there's just one thing, right one piece of advice that you would give a rising you know first year student athlete coming into college, like what's that one thing you would say like above all else that they should pay attention to?
48:14.67
Angelo Gingerelli
The phrase is do your research, figure out what you signed up for, contact the people that are already doing it and get ready to do that when you get there. Because chances are it's going to be a very similar experience, right? So it is right to help you all the time. When you sign your NLI, put it on YouTube, make an Instagram real. If you're of age, pop a bottle of champagne, probably not for a four high school athlete.
48:39.68
Angelo Gingerelli
And have a ball, be a local celebrity for a couple of days and lean into that and relish every minute of it.
48:42.36
mvhuber
yeah
48:45.39
Angelo Gingerelli
When that's over, contact the strength coach, contact the sport coaches, figure out what you got yourself into and start today to get ready for it. Because that that's, we said before, that's somewhere after your senior is a special time, but it goes by fast.
48:59.79
Angelo Gingerelli
So get, you know, start immediately, start getting ready and then be physically ready when you get on campus because you're going to have a lot of other stressors in your life. Don't make physical unpreparedness one of them.
49:10.50
mvhuber
Yeah, that's great. Perfect. Angelo, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. I appreciate you sharing all your wisdom and it's been great getting to know you and hopefully we can do this again sometime.
49:21.00
Angelo Gingerelli
This is great, man. Thank you so much. Keep doing the stuff you're doing with high school athletes. I think it's great. And I wish you and your company's podcast nothing but success moving forward.
49:29.44
mvhuber
Same to you. I appreciate it, Angelo. Take care.