EP2: Lee Taft

Coach Kassem Hanson is the creator of N1 Education and N1 Training, which helps to educate coaches in individualized Biomechanics, Program Design and Nutrition. He brings an incredible and unprecedented depth of knowledge to lifting weights.  Kassem is focused on bringing integrity, and real science to the fitness education scene. A lifetime student of biochemistry, physiology, nutrition, and biomechanics, and being blessed with a unique ability to process information, Kassem is reinventing our understanding of training and nutrition from the fundamentals to the most complex sciences. Follow him at @coach_kassem Follow @n1.education Follow @n1.training

Angus is a strength coach and podcast host from Sydney, Australia.  He coaches out of Sydney CBD, and co-hosts the Hyperformance podcast with his brother, Oscar. After focusing primarily on weightlifting for the first half of his career Angus finds himself spending as much time “outside of his lane” as possible trying to identify the principles that transcend all human movement. Like many guests on this show, Angus has been well-educated in the compression/expansion training ideals proliferated by Bill Hartman that are pushing our industry forward. Angus is frequently sharing next level knowledge from his social media platform and podcast, and he works with a diverse crowd from strongman to surfing and everything in between.   In this episode, we discuss movement, training, and the weird world of social media. 

Derek is an International Sport Performance Consultant that has been working with athletes all ages and abilities in speed, strength and power sports since 1988. His coaching career started in Track and Field, providing instruction to sprinters of all ages eventually working with collegiate sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers. His career evolved rapidly working closely with some of the top performers in the world as a coach and a consultant – including Olympic medalists, world record holders, Canadian National team athletes, and professional athletes from numerous sports. He worked as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Simon Fraser University for 14 years, the first non-US member of the NCAA. He also serves as a performance consultant to numerous professional teams in the NFL, NBA, MLS and NHL, as well as major NCAA Division 1 programs throughout North America, specializing in speed development, strategic performance planning, return-to-competition protocols and neuromuscular electrical stimulation programming. Derek is asked to speak on speed development and high performance training on a regular basis for major events around the world and has also authored a number of books, chapters and journal articles on these subjects.

Joel Smith is an athletics coach residing in the Cincinnati area. He specialize in general physical preparation, movement education (and re-education), human biomechanics, psycho-social aspects of coaching and personal development.   Niche skills include technical development of track and field athletes, aquatic strength development, and tennis physical preparation. Other interests include holistic corrective functioning of the body, psychology, writing, leadership, and youth athletic development in light of modern culture.   Specialties: Strength Training, Teaching, Writing, Creativity, Logic, Public Speaking, Leadership, Small Business, Entrepreneurship, Podcasting, Olympic Weightlifting, Biomechanics, Plyometrics, Speed Development, Athletic Performance, Nutrition, Mentoring  

Kyle Dobbs is the Founder and Owner of Compound Performance.  Formally a National Director of Services and Education, Training Director, District Manager, Facility Manager, and Coach based out of NYC. I've worked with clients in all training environments, from general population to high level athletes at the professional level.  From a leadership perspective, I've overseen teams and departments ranging from ten to fifteen hundred, while also being a national education and hiring director.  More importantly, I’m a husband and Father.  I’ve been married to my best friend Sarah and we have two boys, Greyson and Hollis, and 12 puppy named Bowser.

I developed my love for athletics at four years old playing baseball. I played baseball for fourteen years, and it was my dream to play major league baseball. Along the way, our coaches made it clear that strength and conditioning would be integral to taking our performance to the next level. When I reached high school, I fell in love with the training and offseason aspect of my sport, and sought to learn as much as I could about strength training. Our team’s strength coach was my first mentor, and he quickly realized how much I gravitated toward strength training. He quickly pointed me in the direction of a world of information that would change my life forever. Fast forward to senior year of high school, during which I competed in my first powerlifting meet. I was hooked. My freshman year I began coaching powerlifters at MIT for free to practically apply the fundamentals I had learned over the years. I mentored under phenomenal coaches and amassed a sizable team during undergraduate. I quickly realized that I was really good at what I did, and my critical thinking skills developed during my academic career would lend themselves to my coaching success. I quickly began to dedicate an equal amount of time to developing as a coach as I did as a student. What started as a team of friends, grew into a team of lifters I would coach at Raw Nationals, the Arnold and even IPF Worlds. I have made it a goal to become a fully comprehensive coach, immersing myself in both the educational world and practical world. I have learned from some of the best coaches in powerlifting, movement science and pain management, as well as immersing myself in as much in-person coaching and meet day handling environments as I can. To date, I have coached over a hundred lifters, and have a team of incredible lifters that features national champions, world champions and medalists, and record holders. I have recently had the privilege of being able to hire incredible coaches, and put them through a rigorous mentorship program, to ensure they learn as much as they can, and are challenged to think critically. I truly believe we are capable of guiding lifters of all abilities, background, and personalities toward their goals. In this podcast, Sean and I discuss the historical events that led up to modern power lifting preparation. Special consideration was placed on discussing programming for the sport.   Founder of Nori Powerlifting #2 Ranked USAPL Men’s Raw Open 83kg USAPL and IPF Powerlifting Coach since 2015 B.S. Mechanical Engineering, MIT 2018 @hamstringpapi | contact: [email protected]

Bill is known as a problem solver. From his small, private practice, IFAST Physical Therapy in Indianapolis, Indiana, Bill provides relief to patients in pain from all over the United States (and other countries!) who could not be helped elsewhere. His detective skills for locating the source of patients’ true problems are often compared to his favorite nocturnal comic book hero although he wears no cape or cowl (but does often wear a bat on his chest under his work clothes… you never know when a hero will be needed). Bill is an in-demand speaker and consultant across the country and half way around the world to share his approach in regard to restoring a pain-free lifestyle to other health and fitness professionals. He regularly mentors physical therapy students and interns many of whom have gone on to land positions in professional sport or become successful business owners themselves.  Bill is also the co-owner of Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training with Mike Robertson where he works with clients ranging from very young athletes to professionals. At the age of 50, he took his own advice and transformed himself from a painful and soft 200+ pounder to a lean and much less painful 170-pounds resulting in him being featured in Men’s Health Magazine where he is also a member of the advisory board. Bill lives outside of Indianapolis with his wife, The Gorgeous One, along with his dog Paxton, and occasionally his adopted son Zac Cupples. To find out more about Bill and how he can help you, go to www.billhartman.net. In this podcast, Bill and I discuss the importance of creating a working model to guide you as a professional. Beyond that Bill just drops absolutely incredibly brilliant thoughts on a variety of topics. 

Cofounder of Renaissance Periodization, Dr. Mike Israetel​ holds a PhD in Sport Physiology from East Tennessee State University. Mike was formerly a professor of Exercise and Sport Science in the School of Public Health at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he taught several courses, including Nutrition for Public Health, Advanced Sports Nutrition and Exercise, and Nutrition and Behavior. He has worked as a consultant on sports nutrition to the U.S. Olympic Training Site in Johnson City, TN, and has been an invited speaker at numerous scientific and performance/health conferences, including nutritional seminars at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, NY. A co-founder of Renaissance Periodization, Mike has coached numerous athletes and busy professionals in both diet and weight training. Originally from Moscow, Russia, Mike is himself a competitive bodybuilder and professional Brazilian Jiu Jitsu grappler. In this episode, Mike and I discuss some of his early life experiences that set the stage for him pursuing academics to a high degree. We also discuss concepts related to complete system development for training models.    Visit RP STRENGTH Follow Dr. Mike on Instagram HERE Follow RP Strength on Instagram HERE Work with Dr. Mike HERE

Lee Taft, known to most simply as “The Speed Guy”, is highly respected as one of the top athletic movement specialists in the world. In the last 30 years he has devoted the majority of his time training multi-directional speed to all ages and abilities. He has spent much of this time teaching his multi-directional speed methods to top performance coaches and fitness professionals all over the world. Lee has also dedicated countless hours mentoring up and coming sports performance trainers, many who have gone into the profession and made a big impact themselves. Since 1989, Lee has taught foundation movement to beginning youngsters and helped young amateur athletes to professional athletes become quicker, faster, and stronger. Lee’s entire philosophy is based on one of his most notable quotes, “Learning athletic movement correctly from the start is the foundation for athletic success.” With the release of Ground Breaking Athletic Movement in 2003, Lee revolutionized the fitness industry with his movement techniques for multi-directional speed. His innovative approach to training has impacted how athletic movement speed is taught. Lee brought to light the importance and fine points of the “Plyo Step”, “Hip Turn”, “Directional Crossover Step” and athletic stance. According to Lee, “Speed and agility done right is about making sure we marry the natural movements athletes have with effective and efficient body control to maximize speed and quickness”. Lee has been asked to speak at numerous strength and conditioning and sports performance events across the world and has produced numerous instructional videos and courses in the area of multi-directional speed and movement training. In addition, Lee has written several eBooks specifically on movement techniques and speed development. In this podcast, we talk about where Lee originated his ideas on developing speed and change of direction capabilities. We talk about his early career experiences. In addition to this, we discuss elements related to youth athletic development. Finally, we talk about his upcoming seminar in NYC for July 2022.

Christian Thibaudeau is a Canadian Olympian and strength training coach from Montreal, Canada. He gained fame in the late 1990’s as a contributor to the online bodybuilding magazine, Iron Mag. Christian has long been one of the most respected coaches and online writers in the business. He’s trained athletes in 26 sports, written hundreds of articles and has competed at the Olympic games. After a serious injury which ended his competitive lifting career, Christian began to move into personal training and online fitness writing. He also began to train for purely aesthetic reasons for the first time. Trading the Olympic platform for the competitive bodybuilding stage, Christian has become a well-respected personal trainer who’s advised a number of athlete’s on their progression.  In this podcast, we discuss Christian's background and early start in the industry. We also get very in depth with program design related science.