Hey everyone, Greg Olson here.

You're about to listen to episode 4 of this special season of You Think with Doctor Michael Gervais.

Doctor Gervais is one of the world's leading experts in performance psychology, working with elite athletes, coaches and high performers to unlock their potential and thrive under pressure.

If you're just listening, you're missing half the experience.

Head over to the You Think YouTube channel right now for daily must see content that is made specifically for parents, coaches, and athletes.

Now sit back and enjoy the episode.

Every great performance begins with one thing, practice.

But getting practice right takes more than just repetition.

It's about purpose, preparation, and progress.

In this episode, we dive deep into the art of coaching and how to make each practice count on the path to becoming a great athlete.

We'll explore innovative techniques to keep athletes engaged, balancing skill and development with gameplay, and the importance of creating an environment where players feel both challenged and supported.

It's not just about running through the motions, it's about building skills, confidence, and a love for the game.

Whether you're a seasoned coach or just starting out, this episode is your playbook for success.

Together, we'll unlock the secrets to making practice not just a routine, but the foundation of every athlete's journey to greatness.

Because when we get practice right, we set the stage for extraordinary results both on and off the field.

What we know about sport and anything in life, it takes a long time to get good at it and there needs to be some sort of spark, some sort of love, some sort of idea of a compelling future to do the required work.

And you've got a great insight.

How often do you have to ask your kids if they played their video games?

That's my line.

I know I never have to remind you to play Xbox.

Because they love it.

There's a spark.

There, I said.

You walk past the batting cage to go play Fortnite.

Don't tell me how important is it again, like my kids work hard.

They do.

I'm just.

But every once in a while I'm.

I'm sure I did too.

You just want it's easy to do what's easy.

100% So what we need is is to figure out the spark that we're trying to to nurture and flame as opposed to, you know this top down.

I'm sorry you're staying in this thing because you've got a future, because I.

Don't want to do.

That either and they say I hate.

This and the question always is like, what is the right level for my kid?

You know, we were talking about our own experiences earlier and it's like you want your kid to be on the best team possible, but then there also becomes, OK, is there a, is it developmentally appropriate where they're getting the play time?

And then the second factor is typically the better teams have what they have better coaches and the lower teams where you're playing more don't have, maybe you get lucky and they have a great coach.

I'm just saying generally speaking, the better coaches coach the better teams and then it kind of filters its way down.

So like a lot of the times when we're we're going through it, it's like, do you want your kid to be on a team where maybe they're game time reps are not at the highest level because the other girls, the other girls, boys, whatever, are just better than them and they're not there yet.

But man, they're getting great work during practice and all week they are getting great work.

They're developing and come weekend games, tournaments, they're coming off the bench.

They have their role.

They might not have the ball in their hand, they might not be the shortstop, whatever it is.

But man, Monday through Friday, there's growth.

I love that.

I I at some point they do need to get on the field to understand that it's a balance tension.

That type of, you know, it is a balance.

And let's remember, most kids are not going to go on and play pro sports.

Most kids are not going to go on and play in college.

Most kids are using their high school age or younger experience to learn about who they are, to learn about taking risks, to learn about what it means to be let down, what it means to be a great teammate and A and a terrible teammate.

Like there's so many life lessons.

And let's remember for the parent, my son is 16, He's a sophomore in high school.

I've got two years left with him.

I got this year as a sophomore and two years left.

So after that, it kind of starts to fade away.

Go to college, you know, if that's in his plans.

And it's a very precious time.

So it's consistency over time rather than jamming stuff in only through one way where they feel small but you feel big.

If you want to help them feel big and you you maintain your bigness as well.

Yeah, we went through it with my daughter.

She she's gotten into basketball in the last year or so.

And you know, she wants to play on the best team, but she wasn't ready.

Like she just, she was, her skills and experience were just not ready relative to the other girls in her age.

And we are very clear with her.

We got to practice more.

You got to keep the ball in your hand more and you got to develop and she wanted to just keep playing.

She wanted to keep playing and now she's going to be on a team where there's a lot of really good girls and where is she on the hierarchy?

I don't know.

I have nothing to do with the team.

I don't help.

I don't I the practices I go to, the games I go to, I am pure dad.

I'm not even helping a little bit.

I have nothing to do with it, which is probably good thing.

And but my point is I don't know what the games are going to look like in the beginning.

Hopefully she grows and develops a role and we'll let all that short out.

But but man, the coach during the week does such a good job in practice with its skill development.

But also she's very tough on them.

She holds them accountable.

She doesn't take any baby stuff.

Like she really coaches these girls hard and like what I like.

She's a young, a young female coach.

She does a great job.

So I say, you know what, if this weekend she only gets a quarter, half in each game and the brat, I'm OK with that.

Yeah, and.

Because Monday through Friday, she's going to get so much growth in development that at this young age.

There's a balance.

There's she can't not play at all.

That's not good for her either.

That's right.

But man, I'll take good coaching and good weekly development over.

Just roll the ball out.

Yeah, you're going to play every minute, but no one's getting any better.

I have no patience for that.

This episode of You Think is brought to you by Players Health, a company that believes youth athletes deserve the safest and the most accessible environments possible to play the sports they love.

To break this down, I spoke with Tyree Burks, Players Health's founder and CEO to hear the mission and principles of Players Health first hand.

We have a really special guest, the founder of Players Health, Terry Burks.

Terry, thanks for joining us here on you think.

I'd love to just hear a little bit about your background, a little bit about starting and founding of Players Health and really just why you saw a hole in the youth sports kind of world that you thought needed to be filled and and it is being filled by your work with your team at Players Health.

Where I grew up, the environment that I grew up in played a huge part of me creating players.

So I grew up in the South Side of Chicago.

Sports truly saved my life.

And when I say that like I had an opportunity to choose two paths, either it was the streets of sports.

And fortunately enough, I chose sports.

I was invited to come out to a youth football practice.

I showed up early and I stayed late and it kept me out of the streets.

And so there's been two things that I've been obsessed with, you know, the past, call it 15 years of my, call it professional career as I've been, I've been focused on safety and I've been focused on sports.

Like I've just been obsessed with those things.

I know what it feels like to grow up in an environment with safety as a luxury.

And sports was a safe place for me through that experience.

I had all these injuries growing up.

I had, I got 3 bulging disc in my neck.

I end up tearing my hamstrings, broken fingers, ligaments, you know, just playing sports and, and playing football.

We didn't have athletic trainers growing up with the school I went to.

And then until I went to the college level, I really didn't understand childish season protocols around how these things were managed.

And so when I look back over my career, I end up playing in the Canadian Football League for a couple years and I decided to hang it up.

I started to reflect on my career and go, hey, how these injuries would have been made.

There's a lot better when I was younger, like who knows what would have happened, but maybe I would have played a lot longer.

And so I started to look at the impact that I wanted to make in, in my life and, and, and also in the world.

And sports was such a huge, played a huge role in my life.

So I wanted to give back to it and players, something was, was my way of going about doing that.

And so our mission, they've been the same mission since day one, which is how do we create the safest environment for an athlete to play the sport that they love.

I think this is something that the world needs for our youth.

And so we've been focused on leaning into creating those safe spaces.

Here at you think we want to bring value to you, the parents, coaches, the athletes listening in, everything that we do.

Check out Players Health today and let them know Youth Inc sent you.

Now back to the episode.

Joining us on our latest episode of You Think is none other than the quarterback Whisperer, Adam Dado.

Adam is a coach at three DQB where he specializes in elite quarterback training for top tier athletes.

With a deep understanding of mechanics, mental performance and leadership, Adam has helped shape the careers of some of the NF LS best quarterbacks.

We dive into the right balance between skill development and gameplay, how to create an environment where athletes feel both challenged and supported, and the importance of building not just skills, but also confidence and a true love for the game.

Adam shares why practice is more than just repetition.

It's about purpose, progress, and making every Rep count.

Let's get into it.

Tom Howe shared with me about Tom Brady, and I wonder if you'll back it up where you saw it yourself, He said.

Tom Brady would throw a handful of balls and then lean over to maybe it was you, but definitely TomTom House and say what do you think?

And he purposely would throw a duck something that was just substandard and and the I just just substandard.

A little test.

Did you see the bad ball?

Now he wasn't throwing an awful ball, just barely detectable.

And he was, he was trying to suss out, according to Tom House, trying to suss out.

Are you going to coach me?

Are you really paying attention?

Do you know the difference between good and great?

And so did you have that experience with Tom Brady?

And if you did or did not, that type of intensity is what separates people clearly.

And so I'd love to hear your take.

That definitely is the nature in which he works.

And I take go back to a story, there was a timing issue.

He was going a little bit slower than he knew he was supposed to be going faster, but he went a little bit slower because we're thinking and rhythm and timing and everything like that.

And yes, part of the nature in which I coach now was built on the fact that in that moment, you better be paying attention to every Rep.

There's no and, and since then it's been pride our whole organization on we're a feedback business.

These kids, these guys, every Rep matters.

We're not, you know, and Tom used to say, pick the rule like odd numbers, watch 3 throws and give a teaching point, watch five.

That way.

It's not one one you, you develop a trend and you teach off of that.

But I remember the first day we worked or I got exposed to Brady wanted to speed up his foot strike and he was just a titch slow.

The next day he showed up and we were doing some pre work and it looked faster and and I was like, hey, that you know, that looks good.

And he goes, yeah, I know that looks good.

And I was like, well, I mean, you know, we're not out on the field yet.

I hope this continues because you're right on cue with everything.

And he was like, Adam, there's a reason I'm the best in the world.

And I was like, OK, OK, but you know what?

He earned the right to say that it didn't come from like a, a, a cocky or anything like that.

It was like, no, he can't because he went that he went home that night and he's like, I was in front of a mirror for about 90 minutes working on foot strike and working on all the movements that we had worked on the day before.

And I was.

Like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

That's a huge take away.

We've been talking about this, Greg, the difference between individual work.

So you just, so we were talking about like team practices for the team, like your, your coaches want to see a rhythm.

You need to know how to work with your teammates and you're getting some skill development in context of the team.

And then individual practice is for you.

And you just took it a step further.

You said right, there's individual practice when the coaches are there and then there's a lone practice.

Yeah, the deep training, what you do when nobody's looking, the difference between the day and the next day, I mean, amazing what he can do.

And that's like just his mindset and what his commitment to his craft is.

But I agree.

I mean, Tom and I have talked about the the power of deep training and how important it is, the stuff that you're going to do on your own outside of the structure of a team where you can focus on, you know, in terms of neuroplasticity and just sticking, you know, muscle memory and the things that you're going to, you're really trying to work on.

The bulk of that is going to be done on your own.

And we always tell our athletes like, especially like the kids, it's like, hey, we get to see you once a week on Saturdays.

If that's the only time you're working on this, I promise you, you will not get better, not in the time frame you want.

And everybody wants to, you know, see results now, see results now.

It's well then the deep training is going to be what's most powerful, what you take from today, being able to use it throughout the week at your practices, even if it's 5 or 10 minutes.

And we always see, you know, hear the stories when guys will bring their teammates, the wide receivers of the lineman, whatever, to practice.

But it's always the guys just say, yeah, he's doing that goofy stuff off to off to the side on his own.

And we make fun of him for doing the warm up that, you know, where you're doing the, you know, everything like that.

But it lets me know that they are thinking and doing the little things on their own that are going to make a difference for him.

It's not just on Saturdays or Sundays when we see them for for their training session, which I think in the long in the long run, absolutely.

I mean, you're building your 10,000 hours.

It can't just be done in a training session.

Our baseball warm up.

Our kids are walking like this, forward and backwards.

We're holding the ball in their hand.

People look at us like we're nuts, but knock on wood, our kids don't have shoulder problems.

Hold on, he he makes them walk in perfect unison as well.

So this is.

This is a little more casual, but they got to make sure they're all those.

We got a lot of these.

We get a lot of this when they get tired.

We get a lot of that.

We're not doing that.

But but I want you to stay there for a minute.

But instead of, yes, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, I mean, these are these are some of the greatest players of all time.

There's a reason they are what they are.

How do you take everything you just said about what you've learned from Tom and Drew and at the highest level, bring us to that Saturday, Sunday youth workout, right?

You're seeing a handful of middle school high school kids coming to work with you guys.

I'm sure there's an element where you are trying to teach them similar traits and lessons and whatnot that you would work with the more advanced high level guys.

But then I'm also, there's probably a developmentally appropriate manner in which to do it on a lot of different factors.

So give us some instant like what do those weekend youth training sessions look like and how do they compare similar or different to what you would do with the high level guys?

You talk to Tom and learn about windows of trainability and where we're working on their neurological system or we're working on their muscular system.

But in terms of the buy in, because it it, it's no different.

You know, I think about The Saturdays, especially, we got a new kid and you know, we'll, I

usually have 5:00 to 6:00 coaches out there, very small group training to make sure that the kids are getting the feedback that they need.

If we don't like long lines, because I don't think people will get better if they're sitting in a line of five or six quarterbacks.

So we keep everything pretty intimate, but there's no difference in terms of when you're asking for buy in from a kid, they want to know why.

And we pride ourselves on having the why's behind it.

And that's one thing that, you know, I think is a staple.

Like if you can't explain it, I don't blame the kid for not having complete buy in.

You need to be able to explain the why's.

And we do that every Saturday.

We're going to do this because this and somebody say we talk about, well, hey, we just had Matthew Stafford this morning in this.

Why do we got to explain why?

It's like it doesn't matter 'cause he doesn't know nor does he really care that any of those guys were.

To know how you're gonna help me.

Exactly.

And I appreciate that.

Like, yes, it's cool that those guys were here this morning, but or, or yesterday or the day before, but it, it doesn't matter.

It's still, I, I think it's healthy for the kids to, to question why.

It shows to me that they're that they're taking ownership of their craft, that they're being intentional about their work.

And if they believe in it, if they believe in the reason why, there's a far better chance they're going to do it at a high level or they're at least going to attempt to do it at a high level.

So those Saturdays are built on in the beginning, you know, we have a process of warm up to throw, obviously not throw in to warm up.

We're going to work on our movement patterns, meaning movement unrelated to any result.

There's no ball involved.

We're just working on their body.

Much like, you know, you wouldn't put a, a weight lifter under a weight that he can't handle.

You have to condition his body to be able to do that.

Similarly, we're working on movement patterns for these guys so they can feel what their body's doing.

And for youth kids, that's important, especially as they start putting on muscle because then their body changes.

So giving them the time to and the reps to feel their body in space, do what we're asking them to do and really, you know, manipulate them to make sure they feel what they're doing so that when they take the field, there's a familiar feeling to draw from.

Give them that successful feeling of like, OK, I know what that feels like.

I can sensationalize that.

I can close my eyes, I can feel what I'm doing.

And then when I go out to the the playing field, these feelings start to become more familiar.

And we tell them, hey, you may only feel it 20% of the time today.

And the other 80% are going to feel, you know, crappy and your results aren't going to be good, but 20% is a win.

And tomorrow might be 25% and 30%.

And we're going to build it.

It's a process.

It doesn't happen overnight.

And that's why we stress like, hey, being here one day a week is not going to be enough.

It's something that you got to do on your own.

The thing that sticks out to me the most that I love is when you put a kid at a team practice, it's so hard to hold them accountable to doing the little things with.

Take quarterback, for example, because all that kid is thinking, I don't care if it's Matthew Stafford or if it's a 7th grade boy, The only thing they're thinking at that practice is my entire team's watching me.

This needs to be a great throw, a great ball.

However, I get it there.

However, I get it there.

This ball's got to come out of my hand, tight, accurate, on time.

None of these kids are looking at my feet.

None of these kids are worrying about my front side.

None of these kids are worried about my shoulder.

It is so outcome oriented and I get it.

I get it.

You, you don't wanna throw a bad ball in front of your friends.

You don't wanna miss a layup.

Like it's just get the outcome I want in my team setting.

I'm biased about football obviously, but I think the best thing about football, especially at a young age, between what you guys are doing and just the setup of the game, it is the only youth sport going on today that you practice more than you play.

Baseball you're.

Practicing once, maybe twice a week.

You're playing seven games a weekend.

Base basketball, same thing.

Volleyball, you'll go to these tournaments and you'll play 100 games in the weekend.

There's 1000 teams.

You did one or two practices during the week.

Football is the only sport where you really can show the kids the value that we are going to practice more than we play.

This is not just a quick little check the box and just go play a million games this weekend.

And I think having the time to go out there and slow things down and learn the mechanics and learn.

You can spend 10 minutes worrying about, hey, do you like your top finger on the second lace?

Do you feel more comfortable because your hands are a little smaller, maybe moving them down to the middle?

Your hands have gotten bigger.

Maybe we need to.

You're not doing that at a team practice.

I'm the head coach.

I, I can't spend 10 minutes with my quarterbacks asking them how they feel about where the ball we got to go get the ball, take the snap, here's the play and throw it or I'll put somebody else in like I don't have time.

I think more parents need to seek this out.

I think more in all sports, I think we can apply this conversation across the board.

Everything.

There's not enough time on learning the mechanics and the fundamentals and the skills involved with these sports because every coach is up against winning and every coach is up against the timetable of saying, listen, I don't have all day.

I got to get a team ready to go out and play a tournament this weekend.

People need to seek this out.

I wish it would come through their team coach.

You might get it every once in awhile if you're lucky, but there are alternative opportunities outside if you have access to it and you can do it.

And if you can, it is so valuable.

For high school, I'll use volleyball.

In this case, it's only four hours a week of practice.

We're not talking about a ton of practice here in football.

What?

What is high school football practice?

Let's see a normal high school football practice.

They play on a Friday night.

Monday looks some sort of like a introductory walkthrough in a weight room session for maybe 2 1/2 hours.

Wednesday called another 2 1/2.

Five, seven.

Yeah, you're talking between Monday to Thursday, four days.

You're talking probably 10 hours.

10 hours, so that would be hard to find an extra one or two hours on individual work.

But if your kids.

Probably an offseason thing would be my game.

Mostly offseason.

The vast majority of kids going to work with individual coaches, especially in this sense, is an offseason.

There you go.

OK.

Is that fair?

Yes, absolutely.

In volleyball, you can afford to do.

You can afford to do it in.

Season with baseball, right you can go take a hit you can go do it you can go do a hit a session on your own because your baseball practice after school is going to be you can do a 45 minute infield, you're going to do an hour at BP and you're going to hit the showers and go home.

There's just not that much to do.

And now more from my conversation with the team at Players Health, what would you say has been probably the most impactful policy that you guys have consulted on?

You've been part of the conversation implementing and and kind of outline like was it the concussion stuff?

Is there something else like where is there one conversation and big movement that that you guys have been a part of that you feel like has made a significant impact on the youth sports?

Landscape I have to hyper focus specifically around our abuse prevention policies and the reason why I why I gravitate to that and and not that concussions are not a big deal because they are but an an incident specifically around emotional physical sexual abuse within a youth athlete will change their life forever.

And so I always like to say that a player's help.

Our focus is to make sure that the transaction between an athlete and their sports organization.

We want it to be positive.

We want them to be depositing good things into kids and not taking things away from them.

And so when we look at abuse prevention policies, we recognize that this is a life on the line.

And so when when we look at how we prepare and credential coaches, we need to make sure that these adults are actually, you know been credentialed before they come in contact with an athlete.

And what are the signs should we be looking for around bad behavior around communication?

What are the things should we should we be making sure that we understand and then do we have a reporting mechanism in place so that we the athlete has a voice their parents all of the folks around that are our eyes and ears.

Do they have now have a mechanism to communicate that this is happening and then do we have preventative measures or or temporary measures are being put in place to stop the bleeding If we do find a behavioral issue with the coach or staff member, have we removed?

Them.

Do we have an investigative process in place?

Like all that policy changes everything and and it limits the likelihood that something that will change a life forever from happening.

We only want sports to be positive, but we recognize that there are experiences that kids are having that that are negatively impacting their lives forever.

So I'd say that that's the definitely the number one policy.

Health, of course, is a big focus, but I think on the safety piece, it can't get bigger than that.

It's a shame.

How much is going on in the world of youth sports?

But people like yourself that are passionate and, and companies like, like players health that are very passionate about improving the experience for all people, adults but mostly children in youth sports.

I, my hats off to you, man.

What what you guys are building the services and the and the policies you guys are implementing and creating are changing the landscape of youth sports for thousands of kids all across the country.

And you guys should be applauded for it.

So I appreciate you joining us here on on you think.

I appreciate you sharing your vision, your journey and look forward to continuing to work with you guys going forward.

Absolutely.

Appreciate you, Greg.

Talk to you soon here at You Think.

We want to bring value to you, the parents, coaches, the athletes listening in, everything that we do.

Check out Players Health today and let them know.

Youth Inc sent you.

Now back to the episode.

So let's talk about feedback because you highlighted the importance of feedback in in practice, whether it's team and or individual practices, the feedback loop is really the currency and it was a great insight.

Every 3rd or 5th ball then interrupt like what's happening with some feedback.

Can you open that up a little bit more about what are some of the core principles you're working from or some some stories to highlight, like what good looks like or what terrible looks like on feedback?

Probably give more feedback than most, but I, I do think it's valuable.

I think that's why they're there.

You know, and I think a lot of what we're in the beginning, it's finding that mental approach, you know what, how we're going to go about our day and structuring our day.

And then most of the feedback after that is going to be more physical.

But are you asking?

Questions or or or are you saying like better posture, like or reach?

Are you giving them instruction or are you asking them what happened, what you see, what you feel, what you learn?

Great question and it's all.

The above, honestly, certain athletes, I think it's getting a feel for how they're going to learn and sometimes taking them in the direction you want to go.

You got to ask those questions and teach through them.

But to answer your question, are we giving actual?

Absolutely.

Your timing foot strikes, faster posture, your head moved your front side was soft premature rotation hold the front shoulder yes, everything we're looking at every mechanical detail.

Some guys can handle more some guys it's more general themed.

How'd that feel Did you feel your lower half?

Did you did you feel what your what your arm did there?

Did it feel easy?

Were you in control?

And then I get answers and then I can kind of all right, now let's try this.

So who holds?

The answers the coach or the athlete?

That's a loaded question.

I want the.

Athlete eventually to have the answers.

So if they've spent enough time and I keep asking the right questions, I think eventually they're going to have the answers.

In the beginning, I think it's my job to explain the general theme we're looking for.

Call it again.

I refer back to a golf swing kinematic sequencing.

These things have to happen in this time frame.

And it it should feel like this, as long as they're informed on what I'm going for, right?

And then the teaching points that go along with it, eventually they should have their own answers.

And I remember, you know, I'll use Jalen Hurts as a example.

We spent some time together.

He didn't say, you guys send me something about trust and building with an athlete.

And you know this as an athlete, like they don't trust easily.

And I don't blame them.

You know, sometimes they don't say anything for a week or two, especially Jalen.

And you?

Don't know.

You don't know what he's thinking.

I don't know if, but whatever.

It's my job to coach him.

And then, you know, he would just kind of shake his head.

And then eventually we got to the point, said, all right, I need to hear you less because I'm hearing everything you're saying.

I need to start being able to apply it be like, OK, it's really cool.

You know, so he'd.

Have a Rep and he's like, just I want to hear I want to hear you less today.

And Andrew would say that sometimes like give me a give me a point every five throws or something.

And then but the rest of it, let's just hold it to the end, especially with I'm with my guys, I'm working on something specific, something that you.

Guys can maybe help me unlock is that we know from a performance standpoint, from a psychological perspective, is that we want the athlete to focus their attention externally and for the most part narrowly.

So if you think about there's four ways you can place your attention, two of them are internal and two of them are external.

When your attention is external broad, it's like as a quarterback, you're picking up the big thing, like what's the whole field unfolding?

And then you go to route one and you you want them to narrow down to like the chin strap or the numbers or whatever, as narrow as they can get.

You have to go internal, though.

You have to think that's part of the internal attention.

You have to kind of feel your body.

That's internal as well.

And then quickly you want to get it out.

OK, so or external attention.

How do you, when you this is this is, I'm confused by this.

When you ask a question like, did you feel your front foot?

Did you feel your rotation of your hips?

You're asking them to go internal, and then you want them to think about flipping their hips at a certain point in the sequence while they're doing it so they can get better.

But if they're not looking externally at the target and they're focusing internally on their hips, their mind is not in the right place.

So I'm confused how coaches are able to do help the athletes get today external narrow focus and at the same time focus on hip rotation.

I guess again I'm.

Not a quarterback expert, I think just to answer your quarterback and you can give a little bit more of a quarterback perspective.

I I think to me, the the heavy coach directives is very age.

There's an age element to that, right?

There's an experience component.

The the less experienced you are in the skill that I'm trying to teach you in the more you're gonna depend on me for external feedback pointers.

Fix your front foot pick up, you know, control your front side.

You're dropping your OK?

Yeah.

I think the.

Hope in these drill sessions, I'll be curious what your take is, but my guess is in those individual drill moments in at a team practice, that's what individual periods all about.

It's it's focusing on your craft to do your position, whether it's footwork in the run game or how to work under center drops, gun drops, play action, wide receivers catching the ball.

But whatever the skill set is, that's your time to just go internal.

You're not relying on anybody else.

You are developing muscle memory.

You are laying down layers and layers in your neurological system of patterns, right?

And you're just laying that down reps after reps after reps.

The hope is when it's time that your focus has to be external on the quarterback.

Now, you are not gonna in a game, sit there and say, OK, front side, keep it stiff, keep your shoulder slightly open, step just to the left of your target.

Make sure I'm delivering the ball.

That needs to be now in those individual sessions with Adam.

You can afford to go internal there and really hyper focus on controlling that because the idea is the more you do it right, your body doesn't know how to do it wrong.

And when it's time to just let it loose, that muscle memory and stuff will go from just time and time and 10.

So the training is internal, the execution in a competitive moment, you have to be an externally focused and any of your inner workings need to just come out naturally.

Yeah, that's the bridge.

That Adam, for you to sequence here or to address is that when you're like we've talked about this Greg a bunch, the way you practice is the way you play.

And if you're doing the individual work, practicing focusing on the internal, you'll likely play focusing on the internal, which is a disaster.

We all agree with that for the most part.

I mean, sometimes you can get away with things.

So how do you how do you help them?

I'm thinking there's like every fifth ball.

Maybe it's like how you doing and then you're helping them get externally focused at the same time or on a different queuing.

But take it take us home.

Well, everything you said is.

Right.

And, and similar to, you know, once you paint the picture of what you're looking for, and then we were to take them out to the field and they, you're struggling with it, It's, it's OK, you're not, you're not there yet.

I'm not expecting you to be there 20%.

Just you feeling a little bit better is all we're looking for today.

But as time goes on and you've put together, that's why those patterning periods are so important.

That's where we're literally building your body, throat.

Unrelated.

To a ball or anything, we're just manipulating your body, giving you the flexibility and the mobility to do it.

And you know, as coach, we need to see what that looks like is there is no ball yet.

We're just getting the body prepared to do it so that when we get on the field and we've built enough reps doing it that it starts to trickle over.

It starts to trickle into those workouts.

And when we're asking the question, did you feel this?

It's I want you to go back to the patterning period.

Remember what that felt like with that, You know, because I'm telling you that looked right.

Are you feeling that now in the space of throwing or, you know, in performance?

But when they're in a game, no, we're not thinking about any of this stuff.

Now when a guy leaves after an offseason and he's been with us, OK, you've spent a lot of time with me.

What?

Two or three things can I do that fixes me if I'm ever having a problem or I'm, you know, what's most likely to be the thing I need to do better.

And that goes back to Brady.

He had had the three notes on his, you know, his wrist wristband, his three mechanical notes in training camp.

Go fast front shoulder, firm front side.

So it was just what was most particular to him to make sure like as a reminder if he had a ball that was a little, but like, that's it.

Keep it as simple as possible.

But it's not nothing.

It's just enough like a good reminder.

Oh yeah, just go faster.

Sometimes going faster is all I need to do If you were to write.

Those 3 on an athlete, would they be technical skills 'cause that's what he just wrote that you just described Technical skills for the most part.

Or would you write cut it loose, trust your stuff more, more psychological stuff?

Where would you or like pick my spots, which is that narrow external focus?

What would you write?

I think?

Again, it's specific to the athlete themselves.

It's like if I've spent six months with them and I think about what were the most important three things that we talked about, it could very easily be the mental side.

It could very easily be a trigger word that has nothing to do with mechanics.

And it's just that trigger word that literally triggers a mechanical adjustment.

You know, it like stay aggressive, right?

Or, you know, if if a guy's going slow, like, you know, you know, play free.

I was talking to a quarterback who's getting ready to play a big game tomorrow and he's, you know, just like I, I just got to cut it loose.

Like that's I, I got, I got to cut it loose.

And I said I love it.

I love it.

Go out there and cut it loose.

What a great conversation.

What an ending.

Yeah.

What?

A great leave.

It right there, Adam.

Thank you so much man.

That was for sure.

That was.

Awesome.

That was awesome.

Thank you.

Thanks for listening.

Let's recap some of the key points from our discussion.

Today we discussed the right balance between skill development and gameplay, how to create an environment where athletes feel both challenged and supported, and the importance of building not just skills, but also confidence and a true love for the game.

Adam shared why practice is more than just repetition, it's about purpose, progress, and making every Rep count.

Until next time, thanks for joining us here on Youth Inc.