Aug 11, 2026 · 55 min · 12 segments
Coach Training Chats- Applying the big picture to training camps! with Cam and Jesse In this episode, Cam and Jesse dig into the philosophy behind long-term athletic development — how they balance…
Cameron LamontGuest
Jesse VondracekHost
Um, I try and see it in-- So when I'm looking at an athlete, especially some of the younger athletes or the athletes who are quite new and need to develop, um, a lot of it is about where they are now, where they're gonna be tomorrow, where they're gonna be next week, where they're gonna be in, uh, two months, three months, three years.
So we're trying to build a program where we're trying to enhance the things that we need to, and then make sure we're not creating problems for ourselves later.
And this is one of our biggest issues when athletes go away to a camp, especially if we're not h- writing the program or someone else has written it, is that some of those steps are ignored or, if we give the information, it's really ignored, or that they're not kind of following through on the, the spirit of the, of the plan, because everything builds on the next, and that, that's really important.
So when we're talking about, you know, getting athletes ready for big races, athletes want to be at their very best tomorrow.
You know, if they're not racing at their absolute prime, then they're upset, and things are bad, and everything's wrong, and when in fact we can't do that.
It takes time to develop, time to set, uh, movement patterns and everything in place, and to, to, to develop them through, and that is a real time factor.
It doesn't happen overnight, and we have to have a plan, we have to have an idea, we have to understand what needs to be set in place so that these developments can happen.
And I think, you know, you're using the word young athletes or, like, new to the sport, and I think we can almost lump those together, right? And say, like-
if you're, if you're kind of, like, if your training age is low, and that can be your actual age or, you know, you're 40 getting into the sport for the first time, so your training age is the same-
... as that 12-year-old that's getting in the sport because, you know, you haven't developed those movement patterns, and so you're in that same-
... position as far as, like, needing to establish, you know, we can call it establishing that quote, unquote, "base," or establishing, like, that, that good range of motion, that-
... strength through your range of mobility and all those things that you need to have in order to train hard, like building up that chassis-
Um, it- I can't, I shouldn't even say just young athletes or new athletes because, you know, I've had athletes come to me as a coach who are really experienced, they're really good, and we're still able to set plans in place to get to imp- uh, to improve.
So labeling a group of athletes, I think, is, is not what we should be doing and not the constructive way.
I think everybody can learn and get better and develop, but we need a long-term plan, and that long-term plan may be in the coach's head.
It may be, you know, that pathway we, we wanna, we wanna go on, um, and what we're trying to achieve, and that's really important is it's there's a plan, there's a idea of, okay, this is where we are now, and this is where we need to move forward to.
Um, I try and see it in-- So when I'm looking at an athlete, especially some of the younger athletes or the athletes who are quite new and need to develop, um, a lot of it is about where they are now, where they're gonna be tomorrow, where they're gonna be next week, where they're gonna be in, uh, two months, three months, three years.
So we're trying to build a program where we're trying to enhance the things that we need to, and then make sure we're not creating problems for ourselves later.
And this is one of our biggest issues when athletes go away to a camp, especially if we're not h- writing the program or someone else has written it, is that some of those steps are ignored or, if we give the information, it's really ignored, or that they're not kind of following through on the, the spirit of the, of the plan, because everything builds on the next, and that, that's really important.
So when we're talking about, you know, getting athletes ready for big races, athletes want to be at their very best tomorrow.
You know, if they're not racing at their absolute prime, then they're upset, and things are bad, and everything's wrong, and when in fact we can't do that.
It takes time to develop, time to set, uh, movement patterns and everything in place, and to, to, to develop them through, and that is a real time factor.
It doesn't happen overnight, and we have to have a plan, we have to have an idea, we have to understand what needs to be set in place so that these developments can happen.
And I think, you know, you're using the word young athletes or, like, new to the sport, and I think we can almost lump those together, right? And say, like-
if you're, if you're kind of, like, if your training age is low, and that can be your actual age or, you know, you're 40 getting into the sport for the first time, so your training age is the same-
... as that 12-year-old that's getting in the sport because, you know, you haven't developed those movement patterns, and so you're in that same-
... position as far as, like, needing to establish, you know, we can call it establishing that quote, unquote, "base," or establishing, like, that, that good range of motion, that-
... strength through your range of mobility and all those things that you need to have in order to train hard, like building up that chassis-
Um, it- I can't, I shouldn't even say just young athletes or new athletes because, you know, I've had athletes come to me as a coach who are really experienced, they're really good, and we're still able to set plans in place to get to imp- uh, to improve.
So labeling a group of athletes, I think, is, is not what we should be doing and not the constructive way.
I think everybody can learn and get better and develop, but we need a long-term plan, and that long-term plan may be in the coach's head.
It may be, you know, that pathway we, we wanna, we wanna go on, um, and what we're trying to achieve, and that's really important is it's there's a plan, there's a idea of, okay, this is where we are now, and this is where we need to move forward to.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
