Episode #29: "I Want Great Problem Solvers" w/ Tommy Flanagan & Jamie Smith

Tommy Flanagan, the founder of Strength2Strength started the company in January of 2016 in Golden, Colorado. A former collegiate football players, Tommy realized that he played his whole career without ever tapping into his true potential on the field because he did not understand the importance of athletic performance and had never had a mentor to guide him through the training process.Because of this, Tommy became bound and determined to ensure that he could help as many athletes as possible avoid the same mistakes that he had made.
Now, Tommy is dedicated to providing athletes with the athletic coaching and mentoring that he never had so that they can show up to the game and to life in a completely new way.

Jamie Smith is the founder and head physical preparation coach of The U of Strength.  As a former athlete at Merrimack College, he graduated with a degree in Sports Medicine and a concentration in Exercise Physiology. As a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, he has had the opportunity to coach under some of the most knowledgeable and experienced coaches in the industry. Jamie has coached a variety of athletes from the novice to the advanced levels of preparedness, some of which include current NHL, NBA, and MLS players and the 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champion UConn Huskies. Through scientific based program design and dietary support, Jamie assists his athletes in reaching their goals on and off the ice, court, and field.

​Favorite Quotes:

• "Everything is a skill"
• "We gotta let our athletes take ownership. I used to be the coach that was in control on everything, and I now realize how much I suffocated my athletes"
• "As a coach, we need to be facilitators"
• "We video everything"
• "Letting athletes freely explore not only initiates their creative process and autonomy, but also allows me to see what they really want to revert when out of movement ideas"
• "We don't call it warm-up, we call it pre-training"
• "I love seeing athletes when they are fatigued - they can't hide compensations when fatigued and I can see what they'll revert to when fatigued"
• "We we're training agility, we encourage our athletes to explore, be creative, and experiment with new things. So when we get in the weight room afterwards, we encourage the same thing - trying new squat stances, hangout in positions and shifting around"

Books

• Principles - Ray Dalio
• Tri-Phasisc- Cal Dietz
• Supertraining - Yuri Verkhoshasky
• Ecological Psychology
• Dexterity and it's Development - Bernstein
• GameSpeed - Ian Jeffreys

Podcasts

• CVASPS
• Just Fly Performance Podcast
• All Things Strength and Wellness

Social Meida

• Tommy Flanagan
  • Instagram - Strength2Strength_tf
• Jamie Smith
  • Instagram - TheUofStrength
  • Twitter - TheUofStrength