Episode #29 - A Look Back at 2024

In this episode we reminisce on some of our favorite guests, stories, quotes, and moments from the 2024 Podcast Season. We talk about the 20 mile march, preventing regret, empathetic environments, and everything in between.

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Transcript

0:00

Hello, everyone. And welcome back to the pit to pro podcast. In today's episode, we'll be doing a 2024 recap. The three of us will discuss our favorite lessons from the year that we learned from each other and from our awesome guests. Expect to learn about the 20 mile March, Abe Avender's take on stretching, Brett Walsh's thoughts on being cut from a team, why Lucas Van Broekel won't give away any of his national team jerseys, Graham Viagras take on regret, Kevin Tilley's elite performance mindset, and much more.

Mathias 0:25

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Jesse 0:29

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Mathias 0:37

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Jesse 0:42

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Mathias 0:49

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Jesse 1:06

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1:22

But now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome all of our guests from the past. Hello and welcome to the Pit the Pro podcast. Jesse, Matthias, and Aaron Elson. This podcast is meant to guide young athletes on their journey to high performance. Join us as we share our first hand experiences in an effort to help you reach your own valuable goals.

Mathias 1:45

What's up, everyone? Welcome back to the show. Today, we're doing a 2024 recap episode.

Jesse 1:54

You're wrapped? Wrapped 2024? Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Happy New Year, everybody. We had 28 episodes, 11 guests. Mattia stopped playing and started coaching. Aaron joined a new program, and I moved to France, so a lot has happened. And we're gonna go through it all a little bit. Uh, T, do you have any New Year's resolutions before we get started?

Mathias 2:25

Um, no, I do not. I've never been a big New Year's resolution guy, because I think that, um, you can make changes at any point in the year. Maybe that's a good time to kind of re evaluate, and if you were gonna make some changes, I guess it's a good time to start, but I don't know. I always find it funny when it's like, I don't know, maybe October or something or November and people are like thinking about what their New Year's resolutions are going to be in like two or three months time. It's like, why don't you just start doing that now? So there's some things that I want to get better at definitely at the end of last year. My sleep schedule was in ruins. Um, I was working pretty hard though with school and, and coaching all that, but I think I want to prioritize that more, um, even when things get busy. And then as with, uh, most people in the world today, I, uh, spend way too much time on my phone, so I'm going to, I'm going to make some goals and some more specific. Um, kind of restrictions, guidelines. And I also, for anyone who is, um, setting up a news resolution or something, I've found that when you do it with someone else, um, even if you don't actually communicate or hold each other accountable or whatever you want to, you, um, whatever you want to say. I think just having someone else that, that you're doing this, um, making this change with, I think it, it helps to hold me on, on course.

Jesse 4:05

Is that like a PSA to anyone out there who wants to sleep better with you or?

Mathias 4:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. Maybe we should do like a, uh, pit to pro sleep challenge or something. Oh, that'd be cool.

Jesse 4:18

That'd be

Mathias 4:18

cool.

Jesse 4:19

My resolution is only, I agree. I think genius can come at any time, but my resolution happens to be a new year's resolution because. It was a gift that was given to me by you, like basically on New Year's, he just gave me a subscription to masterclass. And my goal is to do a masterclass or a course at least one a week this year, because I feel like I have gotten dumber since I stopped school. And I actually, like I started watching them and I really miss learning and like getting to know new things. So that's my goal. And I guess you can keep me accountable because we share an account.

Mathias 5:00

yeah, nice. Oog is, uh, doing something. He'll be joining us in a few minutes here. Maybe we'll ask him what his resolution is when he gets on here. Um, so basically wanted to go through all of our favorite pieces of info that we learned this year from our guests or from each other or some highlights on the pod and kind of do like a little recap of our favorite lessons from, from the year. So. I think a good place to start, Jess, would be with the 20 Mile March, because that was our first episode, our most downloaded and listened to episode as well. And I think a lot of people kind of resonated with that message. And we actually wanted to call our podcast the 20 Mile March podcast, but there was some copyright issues with doing that because it's a concept from from someone else. So do you have the story handy anywhere? Yeah, right off the top of the dome

Jesse 5:59

here. All right. You want to tell us the story exact names, but there's, there's two teams and they are traveling, I don't know where from where, but a really long ways all the way to the North pole. And one team decided to go South pole, right? One of the poles. It's way, it's way that way and they're going to the poles and it's cold and it's frigid and it's scary, it's dangerous. And one team decided to go 20 miles. Every day, it was raining. They went 20 miles. If it was super hot, they went 20 miles. If it was overcast, it went 20 miles. The other team decided if it was really nice out, they would push it. They would go 40, 60, 70 miles. And if it was storming, raining, snowing, whatever, they would hunker down, make camp and stay the night, maybe even the day. And the moral of the story is the team that went 20 miles each day, got to the North pole and back and the entire team survived. You got there first and the entire team survived and they got back. And the other team lost a lot of members, a lot of them died, and I don't even think they made it to the poll. You want to recap there? You want to, uh, summarize that in verbal terms, perhaps?

Mathias 7:13

Yeah. So this is a story that we used a lot at Trinity to kind of show the value in consistency in terms of the work that you're putting in. So we use the term. We'd ask the question, did you get your 20 miles in? And that basically meant, did I do the work? Did I do enough work today to make improvements? I don't need to do any more than that. Um, but I need to get at least to that point. So if I'm really sore and I didn't sleep well, and I've got a lot of assignments, I still need to show up to practice and lift and video and get my 20 miles in that day, do the work that's required. If I slept great and I have nothing going on that day and I'm in an awesome mood, there's no reason to stay in the gym for an extra hour and a half doing reps. So I think just the consistency over time is kind of that piece. And then also a big part of that, um, for me is separating how I feel from the work I have to do. The job is the same every day and I can't. Decide whether to do it or not to do it based on how I'm feeling. I show up, I do my job, I get my 20 miles in, and then I, uh, reset for the next day to do the same.

Jesse 8:32

Yeah, that's cool. That's cool. You talked about a choice because one of my things that I had written down that I wanted to recap from the year was actually pretty recently was our interview with you and you were talking about how regret is a choice, just like regretting something is a choice. Getting your 20 miles is also a choice. And that's the thing. If you are really sick, you're really stressed, you're really frustrated. Getting those 20 miles is still really important.

Mathias 8:56

Yeah, absolutely. And I think the 20 miles is something different every day. Um, it's not, it's not a, life is not this journey to the North pole where you actually are walking 20 miles. If you, if you have a lot of homework to do one day, getting your 20 miles in is, is doing that instead of stretching. Let's say. Even though you're, you're a volleyball player, it's more advantageous. You'd be getting your work in for that day and making yourself better by doing the homework instead of the stretching or even taking a nap. If you really want to perform at practice later, but you've had a long day, taking a nap is getting a mile in, let's say for that day.

Jesse 9:41

Yeah. That's really cool. Well, let's, you're talking about stretching right now. Let's let's recap the Abe episode.

Mathias 9:49

Oh yeah. I guess that was, I guess that was a bad example. Yeah, that was, that was a really. Um, interesting and I think maybe not controversial, but somewhat of a new concept for probably a lot of people. Um, Abe's, this is a quote from Abe, 98 percent of stiffness will not be solved by stretching. Um, I think that's from all the highest performing strength conditioning and physio people that I've ever worked with. I can see that through what they prescribe for injuries. It's never just like stretch it out, stretch it out, stretch it out. It's like. It's always, it's always a strength and mobility thing, um, finding some resilience in, in the joint. So Abe says that stiffness is like a protection mechanism for when your muscles are tired and weak. So your body senses danger when you've got weak or tired muscles, and then it stiffens up to protect the joints. Um, he talks about back spasm is like. Your muscles just tensing up because they sense that your, your spine is in danger. So it's actually a positive Mechanism and then if you just try to stretch it out, then you're not actually making any improvements. You're just Putting your spine probably in a, in a weak position. So he was saying that strength and stability in the joints and in the muscles is far more important and will lead to probably relaxation of the muscles. Um, instead of, instead of stretching,

Jesse 11:32

I wish I counted how many times he said the word move in that episode. Yeah, that's a big one. So cool. He's just like, move yourself, get off the couch, do this, go for a walk. Like motion is lotion. Like moving yourself is, is the best remedy for many, many things. The one thing that stuck out for me was the, when we were talking about anti inflammatories and Advil. And ever since that conversation, I've really noticed how abused it is in youth, recreational, even high level sports, really. Maybe not the NBA and stuff, but even pro volleyball, like it's, it's the, I don't want you to call it the magic pill, but it's really doing more damage than good.

Mathias 12:18

Well, yeah, we talked about pain a little bit in that episode. I don't remember. Um, the details exactly off the top of my head, but pain is like also a positive mechanism, just like stiffness, like your body is telling you something, so you need to learn to respond appropriately instead of just masking that. Yeah. Um, Oog, welcome. Hey,

Jesse 12:40

guys.

Mathias 12:42

Um,

Jesse 12:43

what's up, Big Yeti?

Mathias 12:45

You got any, uh, news resolutions, Oog? Oh,

Oog 12:51

honestly, no. Ah, I, I want to stop eating. Out as much so I want to cook more. I think that's my big one.

Jesse 13:02

Is that a health resolution or a financial resolution? I definitely both

Oog 13:10

I like I have I don't I have a lot of meat in the freezer that needs to get eaten and Sometimes it's just easier for me to like go to Tim Hortons before an early serving pass But I should just cook frickin eggs and whatever Eggs and mousse And moose and I, yeah, I'm going to stop buying coffee financially. So I just bought like a one pound tub of instant coffee, which I'm really excited about. Gets the job done. Yeah. Nice. Um,

Jesse 13:44

I want to hear quickly about your guys time in LA. Actually, that could take a while. We don't have a whole lot of time. I want you guys quickly to tell me what is the biggest difference right now between Canadian volleyball and American volleyball and why did the Canadian teams lose? Win zero sets in the tournament. Oh, you guys won one. Well, when we played Stanford, we won one. Okay. Why did the Canadian teams win one set in that tournament Long Beach a couple of days ago?

Oog 14:20

Well, in the tournament, we actually won zero. So yeah, that was an exhibition match. The Stanford one. So

Mathias 14:27

yeah, it's hard to know, dude, you can't pinpoint one thing. I think they were better than us at every skill. I don't know exactly where that stems from. I think it's also cyclical. Like sometimes Canadian teams are equal or better than the Americans. Maybe they have a down year. We have a down year and depends where guys are in their, in their career too. If it's fourth, fifth years, another big thing is the international rule. Um, like for example, long beach, I think they have one American on the floor. Um, because there's no restrictions on, on internationals. So that's a, we had, we had the same amount of Americans as, as they did on the floor. Um, so that's a factor. Um, but I think it should be, it should be motivating for, for Canadians that at this moment in time, the American teams are significantly better at volleyball than us.

Oog 15:36

Like we came home and had one of the best practices we've had just like focus wise. Yesterday, and I think that's just a testament to like, it's easy to know when, when you've been beat and it wasn't, yeah, they're just all phases of the game better or just higher performing at it. So

Jesse 15:57

that's cool. Well, this is a good segue into one of our other guests, Kofi, played at UCLA, but he's from Canada. do you remember from that episode?

Mathias 16:10

For me, I remember the one time where I was a little bit shocked, was when he was talking about his club years. And he was saying how, how much he sucked, basically. That he was really bad at volleyball, that his team wasn't great either. And. My question was, Oh, it must've been really difficult for you wanting to be great at volleyball, but not being very good. And his response was honestly, it was super easy. And I was like, Oh, well, cool. And then, uh, he kind of just wanted to explain how, how much of a positive impact his coach and the culture that his coach was able to create had on him and his experience and how excited he was to go to practice and to play and to learn every single day because of what his coach did for him. So I think that was really cool. Really cool for myself now being in a coaching position that I have the capability to deliver that, um, to my players, making sure that they are having the time of their lives, no matter what our performance or what our level is like. And then. Also, probably the most common theme on our podcast so far has been having fun and finding out how you have fun. And I think that's a cool example.

Jesse 17:37

Well, I, I wrote down a quote from one of our Q and a episodes that you said when you were talking about how like, There were times when you didn't think you were enough, and being you is enough. And then you said, I think it's just important to surround yourself with people who want to support you. And I thought that was like, so powerful. Because you have a choice with who you surround yourself with, and who you go to for information. I think that's exactly why Kofie loved it so much. It was so easy for him. Because everyone on that team, coach, staff, players, They all were having fun. They were all supporting each other. They were all going towards the same goal with the same mindset, having fun.

Mathias 18:20

Talking about environments here, Jess, do you want to talk about the empathetic environment? Well, that was a story with Adam, right? Yeah, I think that one hit home with a lot of people.

Jesse 18:34

Yeah, I, it meant a lot to me when I said it and I think it means even more to me now, now that I've been on many more teams. playing at a much more serious level and empathy is few and far between. And I think just really having that empathetic perspective that someone is always going through something is so vital to success. And when you know, when you feel that someone isn't empathetic, even if it's not towards me, if I can feel someone isn't being empathetic to someone else on the team or to the coach, it really irks me the wrong way. Cause it's just such a easy thing to do to take a breath and to be like, maybe there's something else going on. Like, you know, like there's so many things going on in everyone's lives. And I think even Brett talked about that. Didn't he say something about, what did he say? Yeah,

Mathias 19:49

well we were talking about, um, personal values and I think he said kindness was one of his. And he said it's always worth it for me to take the time to think about the situation before reacting.

Jesse 20:06

Yeah, and I think that is a really hard skill to master, the taking the time, but even if you have empathy after the fact, then shoot him a text. Be like, Hey, I noticed something was off. Like, Oh, Hey, like when that person said that person, when that person said that thing, like I noticed you kind of shied away, like, are you okay? Whatever. Empathy doesn't have to be right in the moment because some people don't work that way. But how many times have you like gone home from practice, had dinner, you're hanging out with your teammates and then one guy's like, Oh man, I feel bad for so and so today. Well, yeah. Okay. Then Text them. Call him. Send him a message. Like, that happens so rarely. We just have these side conversations where it's like, Oh man, did you see John today? Like, did you see Bob? Like, why was he so quiet? Why was he so angry? Go find out. Go see if he's okay. And I think that creating those empathetic environments builds trust, and I think trust is one, if not the the key. Cornerstone. I guess you can't have one cornerstone, you need four. One of the cornerstones to successful teams. I think that and fun are two of my most important values. At least.

Mathias 21:40

I love that. What episode was that in? If they want to listen to the Adam story.

Jesse 21:48

Oh, my, that was early on. That was in our seventh episode, the mental health episode.

Mathias 21:57

Uh, yeah, that's a, that's a, that's a cool one. Yeah. So if you want to go hear a really good example of, of a coach kind of exemplifying that, go listen to episode number seven. Um, Oog, did you have anything from the episodes this year that stood out to you?

Oog 22:19

I think one that I've kind of been like recurring is Eric's talk about the, the, the price tag of success, um, Especially after coming home from LA and taking whatever, three losses, five losses, however many games you played, um, it just kind of showed us that like, we aren't doing everything that we can, there's like choices that we can make that are, you know, Putting us in a place and some of us are taking the easy options. And, but we just have to remember that there is kind of a price tag to success. And like for Eric, that was like his time away from loved ones, families, birthdays, weddings, whatever. Um, but yeah, I think that's, that's something that stood out to me really a lot this year. Especially now.

Mathias 23:18

Yeah, I like that. That, that really relates to one of the things that Graham said, Graham Vigrass in his episode, was talking about essentially preventing regret, and he says, if you try your hardest at something and it doesn't work out, give me that. All the time, rather than having the idea of, I could have done a little bit more to make this team or to get five more points or whatever it may be. Um, the reward is peace of mind. Actually, um, we were just down in LA and we played in Pauly Pavilion at UCLA and there's a giant statue of John Wooden, um, outside the stadium with a plaque under it with this quote that kind of relates directly to that. Let me read it for you. Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self self satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming. So it's, it's a similar thing like success is peace of mind, and that's, that's a direct result of. Knowing that you did everything you could, um, and sometimes there was a caveat to that, we talked about that in the Graham episode. It's like, you can always do more. You can always do more. You could be, you could be thinking about volleyball 24, 7, um, 365, and maybe you become a better player, but there's always room for, for rest. And that was one of the things that Eric brought up to one of the sacrifices was. was his peace of mind. Um, so even though he was successful, it's kind of the toll on his, on his body and his mind. Um, from dedicating so much, the sport was one of the sacrifices that he made to, to get there.

Jesse 25:24

I think, I think that's why the 20 mile march is so important. Like no more, no less. Um, I wanna, do you remember when you were talking about getting out of a rut and how it was almost, you almost didn't want to because it was embarrassing because people. We're applauding you when you did good things, even though you thought they should have been normal things. Yeah. I've, so we have a lot of young guys on our team right now, and many of them are whatever, in and out of ruts, and I can see it on their faces when they miss five serves and they make one and everyone cheers the coaches, yeah, whatever. I can see it on their faces, I can see perfectly what you were talking about, how it's just so frustrating that they're applauding. And I was wondering, how does someone help you? In that situation, because I'm kind of dealing with that right now, I was like, I don't know how to help these guys, because the more I celebrate, the more they shut down.

Mathias 26:32

That's a tough question. I think it comes from, I don't know what you can do, but I think for myself, I had to mature a little bit and become a little bit more selfless. And, as you've said a bunch before, place the needs of the team above my own. I think it's kind of a selfish reaction to, to react that way when you know your teammates are trying to support you, but it hurts your ego. So you shut down more, I think it's completely natural, but I think there's, there's growth that can be had there for those athletes. And I know I need to learn that. And I think no one's immune to that, but I guess to hearing you say

Jesse 27:21

that, like that's part of the process. Like that's part of the journey is going through those ruts and learning how to get out of them.

Mathias 27:27

And I think understanding that you, there, there's always a possibility that you'll fall into another rut and Unless you're Kevin Tilly. Unless you're Kevin Tilly. Because that

Jesse 27:38

guy's invincible to anything.

Mathias 27:40

Yeah, but I can also pretty much guarantee that you'll get out. So I think kind of an acceptance of the flow of being a high performer. Sometimes you feel fantastic. You're on top of the world. You feel like you will never make another error in your life. You'll never miss another cut or anything like that ever again. And then other times I've had times where I felt like I might never make another serve in my life, you know, and that sucks, but I think zoom out. It's never as good as you think. It's never as bad as you think. And another quote, this too shall pass. People use that in the bad times, right? This too shall pass, but it's the same thing for the good times. Like enjoy it while you're there, but likely that's not going to last forever.

Jesse 28:38

Well, that's, we've talked about journaling a bunch on the podcast too. And that's exactly what I believe. Journaling and good times and bad times is equally as valuable so that when you are having those bad times, you remember, and you can see your, your writing, how the good times were and that you can do it. And you have that belief in yourself.

Oog 29:02

Absolutely. You got a quick question on that. Have you guys ever been in a rut and watched video of when you weren't in a rut to get out of a rut? Be like, Oh, I can actually do this. Or like, I remember how to pass. I think that's one of the, like, I do that all the time. It's like, I, whatever, last week I couldn't pass and I just watched video for like 15 minutes of me passing balls and I was like, Hmm, okay. Yeah. Remind yourself that

Jesse 29:30

it's possible. Yeah, I do that. I mean, definitely depends on like what kind of learner you are. If you're a visual learner, that's super helpful. If you're an auditory learner, maybe you ask a coach to like remind or give you reminders in your ear or whatever. Um, I think it definitely depends on what kind of learning you are actually talking about what kind of learning you are. That kind of relates to the, yeah. Yeah. The love languages, TIAs, I love that. Mm-hmm When you're, when you're talking about finding the love languages of your teammates.

Mathias 30:00

Yeah. That was like second episode or something, right? Maybe third, early. Yeah, that was early. Yeah. Early on. What was my point there? Finding? Oh yeah, it was, it

Jesse 30:08

was'cause it was about, uh, wow. Yeah. You go

Mathias 30:12

the teammate teammates and team dynamics or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I think, well, each person in whatever romantic con context has these love languages that. they respond to. And it's likely that whatever kind of support someone gives is the kind of support that they would want to receive as well, because we know ourselves well. And so, for example, if I'm a, if I'm a gift guy, Like I love receiving gifts, then I'll be likely to give gifts instead of taking the time to actually understand what other people want. So I think it can be the same in a team dynamic. You can be aware of how guys interact with each other. That's likely how they want to be interacted with. And, um, then you can personalize your interactions and your relationship building with people.

Jesse 31:15

I think that's really important, um, when you're having those, like, tough conversations. I remember when we had Brie on, she was talking about the importance of the tough conversations. But if there's no understanding or trust between those two people before the tough conversation happens, it's not gonna go well. It's not gonna be well received by either end, I don't think. But understanding how they perceive themselves, and how they want to be perceived, how they want to be spoken to, and how they want to be treated, can help a lot when you have to have those tough conversations. And problem solve and resolute, resolute conflicts, resolve, resolve, resolve, conflicts. Resolute. That's funny. One thing I would like to do, I would like to redo our university and recruiting episode. Now that T you're back in the university realm as an assistant coach role, I think we can do a better job of that episode. And answers some questions more in depth for our listeners.

Mathias 32:37

I think that that would be a good idea. Jess. What I've learned is how wildly different everyone's experience can be and how that in a recruiting university context, but also just a state of being context, how different people are from each other and how there's no right way of doing things. And I think that was pretty clear in the episode we just did with Jess. We learned a lot of, a lot of areas where you and I are completely different and yet we've arrived at the same conclusion or level or whatever it may be. I think that's why I love listening and learning and hearing a bunch of different people talk because then you can just steal different ideas from all these different people. Um, and maybe resonate with some parts and not others. And that's sweet because then you can just pick and choose what you want to kind of adopt into your character.

Jesse 33:47

Or your volleyball play style. You were talking about that, where you can pinpoint certain skills that you got from a certain YouTube video or from a certain coach or from a certain teammate. I thought that was cool. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess that's also important to note to our listeners is we, I don't know what we're talking about. All we know is what we know and our personal experiences. And, and maybe it'll help 1 percent of you, but we did it. We started the podcast to stay in contact, really to hang out, to have weekly conversations. That's been a highlight for me from the year is we've texted, FaceTime group called, podcasted Huns, and it makes me feel really connected. And. And close to you guys. So I'm fired up about that. That was a really highlight from a big highlight from 2024 for me.

Mathias 34:43

Yeah, me too, dude. It's been awesome

Oog 34:47

what's your guys's non volleyball highlight or non podcast highlight, just like highlight of life for the year. Oh, I got engaged. That was cool. I was going to say that if that's not your highlight.

Jesse 35:05

Yeah. Well, and I, I asked you guys to be my, my best man on the podcast that actually didn't make it into the episode, but I did ask you guys to be the best man on the podcast. That was exciting for me, even though I'm so far away, I felt very close to you guys.

Oog 35:22

No, that's freaking awesome. Um, dude, this year has been, I was looking back and this year has been probably one of the most change I've ever experienced in my life. Like just looking at all the things that I've. Like I went through my camera roll on whatever New Year's of last year to New Year's of this year, and it is just vastly different. And I think that's, that's my highlight is just like my ability to withstand change and not really be bothered that much. Like, obviously it's like not fun, but.

Jesse 36:01

Yeah, I think, I think you embrace change. Yeah. I think you embrace challenges and you embrace change. And because I think now you're at a point where you, like I said earlier in the podcast, you know, that you are enough, doesn't matter where you are, who you're with, you are enough and you will make the best of that situation. I think that's, I mean, it's cool that you, um, can recognize that and have the self awareness of that. Cause I think that's a really hard or a difficult skill that not many people have.

Oog 36:37

Yeah. No, that was, I think that was my highlight was moving schools. Yeah. Starting a new program, changing things up. Oh yeah. Farmer hook.

Mathias 36:48

I think mine is kind of similar, but also quite ambiguous. It's been a massive year of change for me. Pretty much everything that I ever worked towards or wanted was no longer. After, after about February of 2024, I stopped being able to play volleyball. And I think I've become a more confident person this year because I gained pretty much all of my confidence before this from volleyball. I loved the fact that I was great at something. Um, that I worked hard towards something, that I was recognized for being a volleyball player, that was kind of my life. And I always thought that if that was ever stripped from me, that things would be much worse, that my life would crumble or whatever. But that hasn't been the case at all. I think the thing that was like kind of a crutch for me, on like holding up my, my character and my self perception, is now gone and everything is fine. Um, so I think that, uh, that was kind of a cool, a cool realization. Like I still really, really want to play. Um, but I think the, what was left over as me after volleyball was taken away, I'm, I'm happy with, so

Oog 38:41

that's awesome. That's, that's cool. I'm happy. I'm happy that you're happy. Do you guys have any projections or like for 2025, not like resolutions, but just like there's something you really want to accomplish in 2025,

Mathias 39:01

want to try to play a full practice in 2025.

Jesse 39:07

That's awesome. I want to play a whole summer with the A team. I don't even like, I'll say this now. It'll probably feel different at the time, but I don't even really care if I play a single point. I just want to prove to myself that I can be on the A team from May 1st to October 1st.

Oog 39:29

Dang, that's sick. Oog,

Mathias 39:32

wait, before you go, can I just share a quote from Brett Walsh?

Jesse 39:38

Oh, good one.

Mathias 39:39

If you're good enough. You will be on the team. It's really as simple as that. And so get so good that they have no choice but to put you on the team. That was one of the coolest things I think that, that he said in that episode was that there's no excuse. If you're, if you're good enough, you'll be on the team. And so it's up to you to put in the work and put in the time to become so good that you cannot be ignored.

Oog 40:10

That's sweet. I have two goals for 2025. One of them, Is to get my toe fixed and actually play a set of volleyball for the Huskies. That's like, I think right now for me, it's so easy to think like, Oh, like, I don't want to come back. Like, I don't want to play volleyball anymore. Like I can just finish my degree. And but like, I want to play volleyball for the Huskies, not just practice. So I think that's, that's going to come in 2025. That's my volleyball goal. Um, my non volleyball goal is I want to, uh, go elk hunting and get an elk this year. So, whether that's bow hunting or rifle hunting, that's my goal. Love it.

Jesse 40:59

You saying moose?

Oog 41:01

No, elk.

Jesse 41:03

What's the difference?

Oog 41:05

What you're doing right now is called rage baiting. Okay, sorry.

Jesse 41:09

I was hoping you said moose. Because Moose is Lucas's nickname. I was gonna come up with a cool transition, uh, to talk about the Lucas van Brueghel episode. Um, but Tia, is there anything that sticks out of your mind from that episode?

Mathias 41:25

I thought it was really cool that Lucas sacrificed a lot to be a member of the national team. He would sacrifice big money contracts for ones where he felt he could improve. Um, he sacrificed time with his family, um, to go to the NEP to get better. Um, it, yeah, it goes back to the sacrifices, but I think it's pretty cool how he arranged his priorities in within the volleyball context to always be getting better so that he could play national team. Um, you could see his values clearly through his choices.

Jesse 42:13

I thought it was really cool how much. Pride he had for playing for our country. Uh, I love the story of, so when you're on the national team, you get three new jerseys every year. And he was on the national team for like, what, 13 years? So he had 39, right? 30 was 10 years. Okay. Whatever. 30. Get 30 national team jerseys. Probably all at the same number. They all say his last name on the back and the national team asked to have one to auction off for the program. And he didn't want to give it to them. Because he had so much pride for those jerseys, with his last name and the maple flag on it. Maple. Leaf. Flag. he had so much honor, and I thought that was really cool, and something we take for granted. All the time. And that's one thing. Oh, and he, and he, well, yeah. So the second part of that is he talked about how we have the best job in the world and doesn't understand why people complain, you know, like, and I was going to say, I think we, we don't, or we take playing for our country for granted all the time, and there's always something wrong. There's always something to complain about, but we have the best job in the world and we're doing it for our country. Like that's every kid's dream. I just, I thought that I really liked. That episode and that interview with Lucas. I thought he had a really good perspective on, on balance.

Oog 43:57

Yeah, I agree. Also, shout out to Lucas for having his own microphone. That was huge. That was huge actually. It was a great episode and it was made better by him having a microphone.

Mathias 44:11

Um, kinda wanna talk about the um, the Tillie episode. Good. just the freedom to try and to fail and to just do without expectation. And I think he's become such an amazing volleyball player because he's been able to do that for an incredibly long time. But I think we can all kind of steal a bit of that attitude. It was really from that episode. There wasn't a ton of like concrete. Steps or ideas or anything that anyone could take it was just like a really cool glimpse into the mind of one of the highest performers in the world and it was so He wasn't, like, he wasn't thinking about much. He's like, the ball comes to me and I put it perfect. That was his passing technique. It's like, okay, go on. Um,

Jesse 45:15

well, that was like, when I was planning the episode, I was writing the potential questions, and I was like, oh, we gotta ask him If he's ever had self doubt and he's going to say yes and all these kids are going to be able to relate to it. It's gonna be awesome. I had like, I think I had like six subsequent questions and he's like, nope, nope, not really. I was like, what?

Oog 45:35

Yeah, and that was one of the craziest episodes just because of the like, I don't know his answers were just so brilliantly simple. And I think that kind of the testament to volleyball is a game itself. It's like we make it really complicated, but it comes to you. You put it perfect. Like that's the

Mathias 45:56

that's the gist of it. In an ideal world, you don't think about anything, you just, you just do the skills. And it takes a lot of thinking, a lot of time to learn them, but for a guy at that level and for us who want to get to the highest level, it's, I think that's the goal is to put so much time and effort and focus into the, um, learning the skills and practicing that you get to that level where you just do it.

Jesse 46:28

That reminds me. I have another resolution slash episode highlight is when you were talking, it was a nutrition episode, I think. And you're talking about what gets measured improves. So I've started tracking, uh, my protein intake and I realized I was like way under the threshold, especially on days off, like way, way under. So I'm hoping to get better at that and then I'm hoping that it just becomes second nature and all my meals have enough protein and yada, yada, yada. But. I really appreciated what you had to say in that episode too, because I've realized and talking with, with Nick and Abe, well, all, all, I guess really, but just how important fueling your body is and your mind, if you want to perform at the highest level.

Mathias 47:20

Your body is your business. Jay Blankenau said that to me, as volleyball players. And it's true. That's what we do. We Make money with our bodies. So, invest in them.

Jesse 47:37

That's a really good point. Well, 2024 was a really good year. Also, I realize we haven't even been doing this for a year. I feel like we've been doing this forever. Yeah. We've only been doing it for like

Oog 47:47

the nine months, haven't we? Yeah. Really? I think we started in January, right?

Jesse 47:53

No, February. Okay. Yeah. So, 11 months. But, uh, we got a lot of good episodes planned for everyone in 2025. And uh, as always, ask us your questions. In the question box and link in our bio. And we'd be happy to give you our opinion, whether you agree with it or not. That's why we started this.

Mathias 48:19

Alrighty. I think that wraps up episode number 29 of the pitch pro podcast. Thanks everyone for listening and signing off.

48:31

Thanks everyone for listening to the Pit to Pro podcast. Give us a follow on Instagram and submit your questions to the link in our bio. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone you think will like it and subscribe to our show on Spotify and Apple podcasts.