Pulling From Experiences: A Strength Coach’s Journey with Bryson Breeding
On this episode of the Samson Strength Coach Collective, we sit down with Bryson Breeding, Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for football at Florida Atlantic University. Bryson shares his coaching journey from high school to the collegiate level, pulling from his diverse experiences to shape a unique approach to athlete development, movement quality, and team culture.
Through years of coaching across different levels and sports, Bryson emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships with athletes, the role of faith and family in career decisions, and how music and energy can shape the training environment. He also dives into Olympic lifts, coaching philosophies, and the non-testing approach to training that has driven success at FAU.
Key Topics Covered:
• The role of movement quality in improving athlete performance
• Building strong relationships to maximize coaching impact
• How faith and family support influence career decisions
• Using music and energy to create a productive weight room environment
• The non-testing approach and its benefits for athlete development
• Why coaching is more than just training—it’s about connecting on a deeper level
Quote from Bryson Breeding:
“I can only coach you as hard as our relationship is deep. If you and I aren’t tight, and I just come in screaming about your squat depth, it’s going in one ear and out the other. But when we connect beyond athletics, performance in the weight room goes through the roof.”
Join us for this insightful conversation as Bryson shares the lessons he has learned throughout his career, offering valuable insights for strength coaches at all levels.
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Connor Agnew :
All right. What’s going on Samson strength coach, collective listeners on today’s episode. have assistant training conditioning coach for Florida Atlantic university football and my friend Bryson breeding. Thank you so much for coming on.
Bryson Breeding :
Aw man, thanks for having me. It’s great to be here.
Connor Agnew :
Absolutely do. Well, I’m really excited to dive into everything with you. mean, obviously for background for our listeners, we met, well, it’s got to be four or five years ago at this point. mean, yeah, over at Texas Tech, the, the legend of Bryson was around Scott Ramsey, former guest was on and he, always told me about this big dude who was super strong. And then I finally got to meet you one day and I found out that that was the case. So, and then now to see you at FAU was really exciting.
Bryson Breeding :
Yeah, probably closer to five years ago. Yeah, most of them.
Bryson Breeding :
Yeah, man. So kind of the start, the full background of my career following my freshman year of college. I wanted to get into coaching. I didn’t really know what that looked like. I didn’t know strength and conditioning would really even like a route or a job people had. So I hit up my old high school football coach and just asked if he knew any coaches in the area, any high school coaches that might want to help with their summer workouts. And so he got me the
Connor Agnew :
Can you just give us a background of your career and then what’s brought you to FAU?
Bryson Breeding :
Number of a guy and said like hey reach out to this guy. He may be able to help you out So called him talked to him on the phone And I’ll tell I’ll come set up cones fill up water coolers Just whatever you need someone to do I just want to be around and so he let me come over and my first day showing up there show up early about you know 530 for the 6 a.m. Staff meeting I walk in and you know meet the coach for the first time and
He says something that kind of catches me off guard and he’s like, yeah, man, just stand by me and then just kind of do your thing with slow hand sign. And I’m like, do my thing. Like, okay. You know, I haven’t really coached before. I don’t really have a thing. And as the morning progresses, I’m picking up cues and I realized he thinks I’m the, deaf interpreter for the deaf kid on the team. And so, and so when I tell him like, coach, I don’t know sign language. He’s like, then what are you doing here? Like, why are you here? If you don’t know sign language.
and all my managers, there’s been a massive misunderstanding, explained my situation. He’s like, oh yeah, you’re that guy. Okay, cool, yeah, no, you’re good. Just help out where you can. I’m like, okay, cool, thank goodness. I end up, work with that staff for the whole summer. He ends up kind of letting me take over all the rising freshmen, former junior high students, and I get to work with them. So I put them through the lifts and kind of first time teaching somebody how to lift that had zero background. I take them through the field workouts, through the runs and the abs and just kind of.
keep them busy, keep working on them. so went through that summer towards the end of that summer, you know, he came up and he’s like, Hey, so like, what do you want to do? Or you want to do more like, being a strength and conditioning coach, like a football coach. And I was like, I didn’t know there was a difference. And he’s like, yeah, like you can be a coach that mainly just works like in the weight room and like, you know, conditioning and like this summer would be like your main thing. And I’m like, that’s awesome. How do I get into it? And he’s like, well, two of the guys on the team, their dad is the director of strength and conditioning and tech.
It’s all just give them a call for you. So he hit up, you know, coach Tory over at Texas Tech and, and I went in for an interview and ended up getting hired on as an intern there at Tech. And I did that through the rest of my undergrad working with the Olympic staff. You know, worked really tightly with like women’s basketball for a stint. I worked with track and field a whole lot, baseball, softball, the tennis, golf, you name it. Just kind of whoever was in the weight room. I was just trying to be on the floor, helping them, coaching them up, doing the whole thing. And then.
Bryson Breeding :
After I graduated during COVID, I graduated, enrolled in grad school and I was getting ready to start that semester when that old high school coach called me up. I completely out of the blue, hadn’t spoke to him in probably two or three years. And he’s like, hey, I’m hiring a strength coach. You want to come work with me? And I was like, absolutely. So I hurried up, took my CSCS within like a two weeks notice and passed it by, you know, the hair on my chin and
Got that done, got hired with him and started working there in Lubbock at Lubbock Coronado as the strength and conditioning coach. And he had a really cool setup with the way he did his strength coaches because all I did was strength and conditioning. I didn’t even have to step foot in the classroom. I didn’t have any teaching responsibilities, no direct sport responsibility beyond traveling with football and helping out with some game day operations. But each period of the day had a different sport assigned to it. So I would have like
like freshmen boys football first period and then, second period I might have JV soccer, third period wrestling, fourth period varsity football, so on and so forth down the list. And so that was, that was a cool experience for me because I got to just spend all day coaching. didn’t have other strength coaches around to kind of, you know, bounce ideas off of or like lean on if I couldn’t get this one kid to squat right. I’m like, Hey, can you work with it? It was just, it was just me rocking in there. Um, and support coaches were around and they would try and help out, but they just didn’t have.
the knowledge of some strength and conditioning things like a strength coach would. And so I was there for like two months and then he gets hired at a school up in Dallas, just North Dallas at Anna High School as a athletic director and head football coach. And so he said, hey, we’re moving up to Dallas. You want to come with? And I’m like, yeah, let’s do it. So, you know, once again, on pretty quick notice, me and the wife back at the house, moved to North Dallas and
I get to take over the strength and conditioning at Anna High School and they had they didn’t have a strength coach before me because you know, it’s growing more but like a high school only like a high school strength coach only role isn’t as popular as I think it should be. So I got to be in that role, basically lay down the foundation of strength and conditioning for all the athletics there worked with all the sports. I coach from about 6am to 6pm, you know, every single day and it was it was a lot and it was awesome. I got to
Bryson Breeding :
grow a ton as a coach in that role. And I kind of got to figure out, you know, what systems I thought worked really well, what systems I, you know, am I going to do this again? but yeah, it was, was a great growing opportunity and great learning opportunity for me. And I spent about just under three years there. And, you know, my wife came into me one day and she’s like, Hey, I feel like we need to, we need to go back to Lubbock. She’s like, want to go back to Lubbock. I want to be closer to my friends and family. And I feel like we’ve just kind of.
ran our course here. So was like, okay, if that’s what you’re feeling, I support you on that. And I was kind of in the same boat. I kind of wanted to get back into the collegiate side of strength and conditioning. And so I hit up, you know, Scott and Tori and some of those guys at Tech. And I was like, man, y’all got anything for me? Is there any way I can come back any jobs open? And they’re like, man, the best I can offer you is a graduate assistant. If you want to come back and enroll in grad school, you can come back and be on staff, but you’ll be a GA. And that’s what GA pay.
part time and yeah, I tech we saw the I had to cover my own grad school, but they paid me as a GA. So that’s kind of how that whole thing worked. And so I went back to tech. When I got back to tech, the track strength and conditioning coach had just left. And so Tori put me in charge of track and field. And so I’m on the Olympic side. I’m head track and field strength coach and going to class as a 26 year old at grad school. And that was a, you know, a little bit of a sobering reality to sit in class and
get to relearn research methods and biomechanics and other stuff like that with a bunch of 21 year olds. But it was, it was cool, man. There was actually some things that in those classes, I got out of it. And being able to take over track and field was a really cool step for my career. You know, it’s been a really successful program at Texas Tech. The West Kittley has done an unbelievable job with these guys and his staff there. And so they’re very, you know, precise with how they want their strain and conditioning.
So I met with him probably every day for a month, right? Every day of July, go in his office and we talk and then I go talk to the throws coach, go talk to the sprints coach and the jumps coach and the pole vault and just everyone. And I was just making sure I had all my ducks in a row and everything covered and met with them and talked to them. And we got the, got the season rolling. And, I was really fortunate that my first season there, our first indoor season, our men’s team won both the big 12 championship and the national championship. And so it was.
Bryson Breeding :
It was unbelievable to see us kind of go out and have that success. the guys really, mean, the guys and girls both, but the guys especially really bought into what we were doing in the weight room. They got after it and they attacked the lifts and they kind of understood the why behind what we were doing, which makes my job super easy when athletes kind of understand the reasoning behind stuff. And that was really cool. We had a decent outdoor, not as good as we would have hoped. But go through that. And then as I’m
Connor Agnew :
What?
Bryson Breeding :
in that position with Dragonfield and still in grad school, the football weight room at Tech was getting redone. And so they’re coming over to the Olympic weight room during their bull prep. So as they’re coming in, they’re working out and I’m kind of like, man, that’d be, that looks cool. Like I’d love to get my hands on and kind of get working with some of the football guys and see what’s going on with that staff and learn from a new strength staff. So I went to Coach Lance Barlow, who’s the director of football there at Tech. And I was like, Hey man,
If you ever need someone to set out cones or clean up bars or just kind of do whatever, I’d love to be your guy. You know, I just I’d love to just have a foot in the door, even if it’s just minimal duties or whatever. And so he’s like, yeah, man, we’ll kind of talk about as a staff and get back to you. And I was really fortunate that they ended up bringing me and then another guy, Nick, so over to start helping with football. And that would have been last January. So right over a year ago, got in there and kind of started working with.
the football and conduct in conjunction with working with track and that kind of worked its way into a full time position. So I was able to pull out of grad school and I saw I finished my grad degree, but you know, working football in morning and track in the afternoon. My plate was pretty full and it was really cool. I got to work with football. I worked primarily with the big group there and I was in charge of the incoming freshmen. Me and Nick were in charge of the incoming freshmen in the summer and try and get them up to stuff to get
working with the rest of the group. And I was fortunate enough to get to travel with the team as well. So it was my first time going on the road as a strength and conditioning coach. So got to kind of see what that all was like. And man, it was really, really, really awesome. It was a great year for me, a great learning experience for me and get the balance football with track. Learned a lot about time management and kind of how to use my time wisely because that was a, between all the athletes I’ve heard about just shy of.
250 athletes that I would work with on a day-to-day basis between the hundred track and 120 or so football. It was busy, but went through the season and then coach Zach Kittley. So my track head coach’s son, he got the job here at Florida Atlantic. He hired B Lee, Brandon Lee to be our head strength coach and Brandon called me and we had worked really closely with the pigs and we found out that we worked pretty well together.
Bryson Breeding :
And so he called me to see if I wanted to come be his assistant. And that is how I ended up in the Boca Raton. And so here we are and we’re getting after it right now. We’re on our last week of winter training, which is crazy to even say, know, week seven right now, we’ll have a challenge week next week and then we’re on spring break. But it’s been a crazy ride. You know, just been kind of holding on for my life and going day by day right now. But, you know, that’s kind of the full, you know, thousand foot view of how I went from.
working as an intern at a high school to get to be an assistant coach here in Boca.
Bryson Breeding :
No, never did learn sign language.
Connor Agnew :
That’s awesome, dude. I love that story. Now, did you learn sign language eventually or not? No. That cracks me up. Oh my goodness. Well, I mean, seriously, there’s a ton in there that I think is so interesting, but one of the ones that I’m curious the most about is you and your wife kind of come to a decision this time to go back to Lubbock. And then you find out that really the only opportunity for you is going to be a GA. And like you said, you’re 26 going back to grad school.
and kind of taking a role that’s completely separate from something like North Dallas football, as we all know is a big, big deal. So, you know, what was that moment like when you found out that that was kind of giving me your opportunity and then, you know, what led into your decision making and actually going back to Lubbock and making sure that you just understood the long-term gratification aspect.
Bryson Breeding :
Yeah, so I think initially, mean, initially it was kind of hard for me to wrap my head around, kind of stepping out because I mean, essentially I was the director of strength and conditioning at the high school. You know, I’m the head guy, you know, I’m doing all the stuff. It’s my program in place and I’m doing exactly how I want to do it to step into a graduate assistant role where it’s entirely a support staff within a support staff. And I’m, you know, helping out, but it’s not my show. I’m not running it. It was a big kind of
I don’t want to say hit to my ego, but I think as bad as it sounds, I think it was a little bit of a hit to my ego where I had to kind of humble myself to kind of step into a lower role. But, you know, my wife came to me with such conviction that day and she spoke just so clear to a point that looking back on it now is undoubtedly just God pulling me in a different direction. And, you know, like my faith is very big for me. And so I see it as clear as day now, but it wasn’t very clear a couple of years ago.
Connor Agnew :
for sure.
Bryson Breeding :
that that’s where this whole thing was going. But that’s just the relationship that me and my wife have. You know, she supported me through this whole journey of being a strength coach. And as your wife can probably attest to, being a coach’s wife is, you know, oftentimes more difficult to be in a coach. And she’s unbelievable in that aspect. And so she came to me saying something along the lines of like, hey, this is what we need to do. I just I can’t fully understand or explain why, but we got to go.
like she supported me enough times that I just felt like this was my turn in my time to support her in that same way. And, the more we talked about it and the more I kind of just sat with it, I came to the conclusion that this may be a step back, by like a title standard, but I think it was going to set me up for more growth later in my career.
And the thing that I came to was I didn’t want to be a 40, 45 year old high school straight coach. I didn’t want to have the same job for 20 years. And that is in no way a knock to anybody that’s working high school straight conditioning. It is a grind. It is super tough and is not for the faint of heart at all. And so I have nothing but respect for people that work high school strength and conditioning. It just wasn’t where I wanted to keep pushing my career. And I had a
I had spent time there, I had kind of done it, I had turned an athletics program around, had been part in turning an athletics program around, I can’t take full credit for that. But I just wanted something different. And going to Tech and taking that graduate assistant role set me up in a position to where I could have something different and kind of move my career in a path I wanted to go to, if that makes sense.
Connor Agnew :
No, 100%. I just, I really appreciate you being honest about the coach’s wives aspect too. Cause I mean, it’s just, it’s brutal sometimes and you don’t really realize, I think especially, you know, I mean, man, we’re in February right now, like right, we’re hitting the end of season in season, but like it’s tough because I was just talking to our GA about this yesterday. It’s like, all right, well we hit the end of in season then for strength coaches, that’s our end season now is as soon as we’re in the off season, if that makes sense. Like that’s the time where we’re going.
As hard as we can. Yeah, we have Saturday and Sunday off now, but it’s not nearly the same because then all of a recruits start popping up and then you’re working on the weekends again. Like I think it’s really easy to justify it on a month to month basis. Like, well, it’ll get easier next month or everything. It’s just continuously difficult for significant others of coaches. And then just to respect her opinion like that, I think is really huge. I think that speaks a lot to your relationship. But I think also, like you said, your faith and understanding exactly what it means.
to be called to something and understand that it may lead to something greater, which it certainly did for you in the end.
Bryson Breeding :
Oh, 100 % man. Yeah, absolutely. It’s a it’s kind of funny because I’ve caught myself in that loop several times where I’m expecting that, okay, if I just get through this month, if I just get through winter training, if I just get through spring ball, if I just get through indoor season, like whatever it is, then I can breathe. And it’s never been the case. And I don’t know why I keep thinking that way. Because it’s always you know, there’s always something new coming up and there’s always work to be done. And I mean, it’s just that’s the kind of
I hate to say grind of a strength coach, I guess it is a little bit of a grind of a strength coach because as soon as one season ends, you’re right to the next season and you have responsibilities essentially year round, you know, so it’s kind of a constant go for the strength coach.
Connor Agnew :
Yeah, and I think the easier it is for you to recognize that the easier it is for you to manage it too. Because if you can understand exactly how busy you’re going to be year round, right? Like I said, like we’re going to hit spring and I’m like, man, it’s going to be a lot easier. You know, we’ll have half the guys because half our guys are graduating. Well, all of a in basketball, the transfer portal is going to be the biggest thing now year in and year out. So that’s probably going be another stressful two months, you know, and then we’ll get May and then it’s just going to be really after that.
full growth, 100 % again. So I think just understanding and managing that is a really big piece to it too. You know, you’ve had such a varied experience in almost each level and each sport as well too. So we’re talking director at high school, working with the national championship caliber track and field program, which is continuously successful year in and year out. And then working full time as an assistant training conditioning coach with football. Can you give me like one thing that you’ve learned from each of those subsections?
Bryson Breeding :
Okay, yeah. So from high school, movement quality matters. That’s probably my first one, you know, and that’s such a low hanging fruit for athletes have found that if you improve their movement quality, you know, whether that’s under a bar or body weight or really whatever, you just improve their ability to move, it’s going to enhance their performance, you know, because really, you look at the strength and conditioning what we do, we’re really just trying to
Essentially like give them the tools to go do their thing. I’m not trying to make a basketball player better playing basketball Even though that kind of seems like backwards I’m just trying to make a basketball player a little bit bigger a little bit faster a little more explosive and just give him the raw materials to go do his thing and I really think that like Movement quality is a really big one for that So the high school level that was probably the first thing I learned is like hey if I can get these dudes just squatting back
I can just get these dudes doing full range of motion chin-ups. If I can get them doing perfect push-ups, they’re gonna get better. And when you really like standardize your range of motions like that, what I found happen is I actually get a ton of like hypertrophic benefits from that too. Especially at that age of like 16 to 18, man, you get dudes just squatting below parallel, squatting deep, you’re pumping a little more volume at them, because they’re not strong enough to get beat up by it. Man, they grow like a freaking weed.
And it’s cool to see because then they’re going through adolescence, they’re going through puberty and now you’re adding some barbell training to them and they just start swelling up. And then they get the confidence from being in the weight room and they’re seeing the progress and then they buy into it. And then it’s just like a really cool thing that all comes about. But I really think all that stems from movement quality and just doing the lifts in a correct way and through the biggest range of motion you can safely move through. so high school, that was my big thing.
keeping that and that still applies to all levels in my opinion. But the big thing I got from track and field is just building relationships with athletes. High school, I felt like it was a little bit easier because you come in, you’re a strength coach, you’re the only teacher that’s wearing sweats and has a beard and tattoo showing, you’re different. Especially the young men of high school, they get real intrigued by that and they thought it was a cool thing and they’re on.
Bryson Breeding :
TikTok watching people lift weights and so they were all about it. Track and field man. There’s a big chunk of guys that come in for track and field that the first thing they tell me is coach. I’m not really a weights person. I don’t really like weights and then immediately they’re trying to get out of it. They’re trying to hey, I’m going to coast in here and I’m going to take it easy just so you know, we’re on the same page and I’m like, no, you’re not going to do that, you know, but when athletes start to figure out that I mean like you
care about him and you like you I’m mad. I love this hurdler. I love this jumper. I love this throw whatever it is man. But like hey, I I’m going to pour into you and I’m to build a relationship with you whether you are all about it or not, then they’re going to come along and they’re going to buy into what you’re doing. And so the biggest thing I got from I feel like track and field was just building that relationship aspect with the athletes and really knowing them as a person and not as an athlete.
and investing in them as a person beyond athlete. And I think when you really get to the core of who the person is, then they’re a lot more susceptible to take your coaching. And one of the things I always tell our younger coaches and our interns is that like coaching like should be a, like an expression of love, but then I can only coach you as hard as our relationship is deep. And so like, if you and I aren’t tight like that, and I just come in screaming about your squad death,
It’s going to go over your head. It’s going to go or in one ear out the other. It’s just not going to click. But once we really kind of started hammering down on connecting with the athletes on the track and field team, I saw our weight room performance go through the roof. And a side note, a little secondary thing I got from track and field is the music choice matters. And not like you would think it was. It doesn’t all have to be young boy. OK, there’s a study well back.
where they looked at beats per minute and how it affects people’s mood. And they found that songs that are an average above 100 beats per minute tend to give people a better euphoric feeling, make them feel happier. And so I believe Nick Saban used to do this at practice where he would play Bruno Mars, would play Michael Jackson, stuff like that. Don’t quote me on that, because I’m not 100 % sure, but that’s what I heard a while back. So if our sprinters came in on a Tuesday or Tuesdays were tough, this year they had a workout where they ran.
Bryson Breeding :
2200s at practice and then they become lift after and if you know anything about track athletes convincing them to do a Complex of a hand clean front squat to a split jerk after they ran 2200s is not the easiest task for a strength coach But it would be funny because I’ll be talking to our GA’s and our interns. I’m like, watch this We’re gonna put this music on and they’re gonna get after it and you start playing up some Bruno Mars you start playing up some
some other songs that are upbeat and feeling good, and it’s like that pop music, man, they would be dancing around the weight room and all of a sudden they’re good, they’re in a good mood, they’re in good head space, lips going good. And so that was another cool thing to see that as a strength coach, you can use music as a tool to set the tone for the day. And it doesn’t always have to be know, cheesy and Metallica, you can throw in some different stuff that the group likes and gets good vibe into a little bit and get them feeling good.
That was cool. As far as football, main thing I feel like I learned from working, I guess originally with Texas Tech football’s program is progressions and variations of different Olympic lifts. so Texas Tech, we were a big Olympic lift based strength and conditioning program. And so we did a ton of work with our cleans, snatches, jerks, behind the neck jerks, stuff like that. And I’d always been like, we do hand cleans.
seldom use the snatch. I didn’t understand it very well. I wasn’t great at it. So I didn’t really coach it because I feel like as a coach, I’m not super proficient in a movement. I’m not going to have my athletes do it because like, am I to teach you how to do this when I haven’t even taught myself how to do it? And snatch is one of those things I just never really figured out. It was always hard for me. But I was fortunate enough to get to work with the staff that really hammered down on their Olympic lifts. And so
getting in and picking the brain of those guys and seeing how they programmed and how they would rotate different clean variations, different snatch variations, how they would pair them up with, you know, the time of the year, the time of the training and different stuff like that. I learned a ton just about basic Olympic lift progressions and kind of how to go about implementing those in your program. And once I kind of started figuring out that’s what they were doing, man, I think all I did for most of the year was just Olympic lifting and
Bryson Breeding :
I got to where I felt really good under a bar and getting really good at my snatch and getting really good at my clean and hit some PRs on those and got pretty good at my split jerks and stuff like that. And so that helped me as a coach to really understand and own those movements and then get to take that into my athletes. And after several months of working with football, when we got rolling with our track off season again, we implemented snatch and that was a huge.
Game-changer for us getting that like a little bit of a faster Olympic lift a little more velocity to it Man, they ate it up They did really really well with it and then with the summer our throwers getting so behind the neck, you know push press push jerk split jerk stuff like that they ate it up they did great with it and and so definitely that that base and understanding and kind of deeper knowledge of Olympic lifting that I got from Texas Tech that was that’s probably my biggest takeaway from working with football there
Connor Agnew :
Well, I think those are all great takeaways. And I think that, mean, they all build into each other as well too, right? You talk about focusing on movement qualities with the high school students and then actually looking at not only, what was the BPM again? I got to write that down. On over a hundred BPM. Okay.
Bryson Breeding :
I think it was a hundred, anything over a hundred. And Spotify, I mean, I’ve got some playlists on Spotify where you just like search like hundred BPM playlists and they got a whole bunch of songs on there. But I think the higher the beats per minute, the better. It gets them in a good mood, gets them feeling good.
Connor Agnew :
Yeah, All right. I’ll make sure to write that down.
I’ve tried to play my EDM for them before, but they lost their mind. So I’ll pick Bruno Mars. think that might work a lot better. yeah, Michael Jackson will work for us. That’s a common one in the weight room. But then movement quality and then looking at the actual relationship development aspect and then actual full technique of Olympic lifts. I think those things all go hand in hand to each other. And what I love that you did was took what you were doing on the football side.
Bryson Breeding :
You gotta find a common ground in there. You know, you gotta find something.
Connor Agnew :
really hammering down on it and then being able to apply it to track and field as well too. think that’s huge and that’s kind of the whole process of being a strength coach. And that stuff just feels good. Like when you get better at something and then you’re able to apply it immediately, I think it just feels great, right? Yeah.
Bryson Breeding (27:12.6)
yeah, it’s like a badge of honor, you know, like you get it and your guys get it and you’re like, heck yeah, man. Like look at us, look at us.
Connor Agnew :
Yeah, I’ll never forget. was like, I think we were reading an article about constant tension squats one day, the difference in hypertrophy versus when you actually fully lock it out. And then the next day we were squatting in the weight room at Tennessee and one of the football players just like was not fully locking it out. And I was like, Hey man, so what you’re doing is actually constant tension squats. And I walked out of there. Like I was like,
Bryson Breeding :
Yeah.
Connor Agnew :
the next Eric Cressy, the biggest genius of all time, right? And then all of sudden I realized I had no clue what I was talking about still, but it makes you feel good. I just really love the lessons learned from each and how you can apply it to each. And so then now, I want to obviously turn my attention to FAU going in, especially with Coach Lee and understanding that you guys are setting a brand new tone within the weight room. How is the first block of winter training gone for you all?
Bryson Breeding :
Man, winter has been unbelievable here. It has been as good and probably better than we could have hoped for, in all honesty. We came in and our big goal, and we kind of kept saying it and kind of talking amongst us as a staff is that we are 80 % building a culture, 20 % building an athlete right now. And so we wanted to come in and we wanted to just lay the foundation and just set a standard of just
Connor Agnew :
What’s the lesson you’ve learned in this winter block training meant for you too?
Bryson Breeding :
hard ass work man like from from the get-go when we were talking about this thing our whole idea was like let’s take this thing back to like 1995 let’s go old school and let’s get after it and let’s just train these dudes out of their mind let’s work them hard let’s do let’s lift heavy with great form and let’s do just the bare bones basic stuff and so we is kind of kind of contrary to what a lot of people are doing right now but like we haven’t tested a
thing man we haven’t tested a force plate we haven’t tested a you know flying 10 we haven’t done any sort of like testing work in this winter and all we’ve done with the guys is like hey I want you to come in here’s a lift for the day we are gonna train as hard as we can as a staff we are gonna be as juiced up with as much energy as we can possibly be and we just want you to buy into it I just want you to commit to what you’re doing give every set the most attention you can give give every rep the most attention you can give
and just try and maximize and squeeze everything out of every day. And the way we set it up, we’re lifting the Monday, Wednesday, Friday. We do team runs on Tuesday, Thursday, and then we have a little condition that we do after the lift on Friday. man, it’s gone really, really well. And the dudes have really bought into it. One of the things that we pretty sure our guys is the power of touch. And so every day after the lift, we’re like, hey man, get a break, two DAP-UPS, and then make sure the guys that go around DAP-UP and…
Me and Coach Lee were talking about it. And I feel like I give out probably 200 hugs a day. know, every time I see a guy, he just comes up, tap, give you a hug. And it’s just constant. Guys are tapping each other up. Guys are talking. Guys are interacting with each other. And it really feels like this is a team that’s been around and been together for years and years and years. And as you know, with the transfer portal, that’s just not the case. You know, there’s some old faces. There’s some new faces. There’s some, you know, it’s a whole, a whole new team every single year. Yeah. But these guys have
meshed extremely well. They have worked extremely hard. Progress we’ve made in the weight room has been unbelievable. I mean, we hit 90 % singles on bench yesterday, and we had 44 guys touch over 315 across our 102 guys in the in the three groups. And so like, you seeing that and seeing the progress and they’re seeing their weights go up and they’re feeling stronger, they’re, you know, feeling more explosive, all that good stuff. And it’s just been, it’s been really cool to see them buy into and just
Bryson Breeding :
embrace what we’re preaching and really take it and make it their own and and just buy into it I guess for lack of better words and so I guess the biggest you know learning thing that I’ve got from being at FAU this year is just yeah I guess like kind of establishing a culture and like how do you come in and like you create your own culture as a strength coach you know and so I think
the way Coach Lee has done it and the way like we as a strength staff has tried to come in and just like set our culture is not, is being so like hair on fire in your face, just obsessed with what we’re preaching that the guys have no excuse but to adapt to it. You know, and I think there’s a lesson in there as being a strength coach that you can’t come in like lukewarm. You know, I can’t come into the weight room, we’re just kind of like.
All right, guys, you know, here we go. We’re going to we’re going to bench today. You know, we’re going to hear front squats. And I’m just kind of like going through it. Like if I want to do is to, you know, bring energy and get after and be here on fire, guys like I have to be the most hair on fire. I got to be the fire breather. I got to be 100 percent involved and enthralled in what we’re doing in the weight room and bring the most energy to that. These guys are like, well, I guess this is just how this is going to go. This guy’s going to come in here. He’s going to be.
screaming and jumping around and he’s gonna be sweating more than the athletes and those running up and down the walkway going to each rack coaching every rep he’s just like dude doesn’t stop there’s no there’s no you know like chill factor on this guy he’s just 100 100 at the time and so like as a staff that’s what we’ve tried to do is we’ve tried to just come in with crazy energy and building connections and to the point that these guys really have no option but to buy into what we’re doing
And so that’s kind how I feel like we’ve gone about setting our culture these first seven, eight weeks or so.
Connor Agnew :
Yeah, I love it. And you know, it’s funny, you’re bringing up stuff that I’ve even just was talking about my with my GA this morning, right? I saw a video of Zach Evanash posted. It was like, I think it was a guy lifted in timberlands, tall white socks and jean shorts, you know, and I was like, man, why don’t people train like this anymore? Like, you know, it’s just awesome, because like, that’s what I don’t know, to me, that’s what I got into it for. Like, those are the videos that I watched. That was the stuff that, you know, I ended up doing. Like, I remember like training as a young kid, like having no clue what I was doing, but just knowing I was getting tired and like,
to me it was just fun, know, and it was something where I knew I was getting better. And there was no testing. There was no, okay, now my vertical jump has increased by 1.3 centimeters within the past two weeks, you know. And that may be why I’m partial to kind of the not testing aspect, right? And why you may be as well too, but like just the embracing training and embracing the aspect of getting better is just so exciting to me. Now I’m curious like with Coach Kittley, right? Or with the coaching staffs as well too, how have you guys kind of pitched the
the non-testing aspect because with a lot of strength coaches that I speak with, it seems like the sport coaches are very concerned about numbers. How was it sold to the sport coaches?
Bryson Breeding :
Man, so Coach Kittley has been unbelievable. Like really been a strength coaches dream to work with because he has given us essentially full rein, you know, and he’s very similar to his dad and working with his dad. He was like, you know, I want our guys to clean heavy. I wanted the squat heavy and I want our bigs to have a big bitch like that. That’s what I need to see in the weight room. And I was like, easy. Got you. And so he kind of came in with the same approach.
to where he was like, man, like, I just want these dudes to get bigger. I want them to get stronger. You know, I want them to get faster. I want them to be in really good shape. And, and so kind of what we honed in on is like, we got to get them really strong and we got to get them really good shape. And, and we’re going to hammer the speed when we get to hammer the speed. But if you know anything about coach Kaley, his offense is super high tempo, super fast pace, and he loves to push, push, push, push, push. And so we were like, man, if these dudes aren’t in great shape.
first day of spring ball coach, get these in a walk in the weight room and we’re going to hear it and it’s going to be going to be an issue. And so those are the two things that we really honed in on. But as far as like the sport coaches, they come in and they ask, hey, how’s so-and-so doing? How’s this guy looking? How’s he moving? How’s this that the other? But no one has come in and saying like, well, hey, what’s their miles per hour? No one has worried about what’s their what’s their vertical jump today or what’s their whatever. they’re just they come in and they watch the lift and they see the dudes working.
And when the guys are working like our guys are working, I don’t know if there’s a need to test necessarily have all that data to go back to the coaches. I’m like, want to see how the dudes are doing? Come watch five minutes of the lift. Come watch our warmup. Just come watch our warmup and tell me your dudes aren’t working their freaking butts off in the weight room. we’ve been fortunate that the guys are doing it, man. They’re working extremely hard and they’re just grinding every single day to try and be just a little bit better.
and just trying to improve wherever they can. And the guys are taking ownership of their own off season. We got dudes that are freaking strong, got a clean 390 that’s on the team, just absolute tank. But his hips are real tight. He has a real hard time squatting to death. So all off season, what he’s done is he’s come in every day and he’s worked extra PNF hip mobility work with us. He’s done some FRC hip stuff with us. And then we’ve…
Bryson Breeding :
Got him on some slant boards, put him as a lifters from time to time. And he’s squatting, know, great squats where his hamstrings touching his calf now. And he’s, he’s taken that as his PR every week. Like every week, his squat looks better and he gets lower to him. You might as well put another 45 on the bar. And, and so it’s just been cool to see that. And we’re able to go back to the coaches and explain that to them and walk that through. And they’re, they’re all about it. And I think these guys are just, Hey, as long as our guys are working hard and they’re getting better shape and they’re getting stronger.
We’re good, them the raw materials in the weight room and we’ll take it from there and we’ll develop the skill and we’ll develop the playbook and all the other stuff that they need to go play football.
Connor Agnew :
Yeah, I think one of the key aspects of that too is like, does the player actually feel like they’re getting better? Like, obviously that sounds so basic to say that, but at the same time, like I’ve seen progress on tests before and I can see players be like, okay, cool, I hit a PR on this, but I don’t really feel like it translates to what I’m actually trying to do within the field or the court, right? And so if you can get that feedback from guys who would just feel better, right? So it’s like somebody’s hip mobility feels better. So now he’s able to squat better and he feels better as he goes.
Throughout a sport like I think those things are truly crucial and I think that gets lost a little bit within the testing weeds as well, too So I love that approach. I think it’s just it’s just fun. It’s just training It’s just making it exactly what to me winter training should be which is just getting better Just coming in every day getting better working your ass off, know getting a protein shake and leave it like those I mean, I’m sure you can relate to it and like in high school those are the best times by far that I ever had and I mean it was just
Bryson Breeding :
Haha
Connor Agnew :
It’s what made me love it. It’s what made me want to become a strength coach. So you’re rejuvenating me. Thank you. I’m hitting, I’m end of season right now. I’m low T and you gave me exactly what I needed. So I appreciate you greatly. yeah.
Bryson Breeding :
That’s what I do, man. 100%. In the kind of build on that, you’re talking about how do have a guy feel better? I think that’s another thing as a strength coach that we do. One of the things I’m huge on is I’ll celebrate the smallest successes like it’s an all-time PR. A guy will do a lift or something, he’ll do a clean, and he may not even realize that it looks better. And it may look like 2 % better.
But I’m going to go and I’m going to jump on his shoulders and I’m going to slap him around and give him a, you know, Hey man, that was unbelievable. Like you crushed that. That’s it right there. I do that every time you’re freaking killing it. You’re doing amazing, like great job. And you just coach them and you just, just flood them with positivity when they do something right, man. Then they’re like, yeah, yeah, I did do that. Right. I did, you know, and I think that’s another way that we’re like getting these guys better is we’re just telling them like, Hey man, you’re getting better.
Like you’re getting better every single day. I appreciate what you’re doing. You’re coming in, you’re doing extra and you’re getting better because of it. And I think when guys hear that, they believe it, you know? And I think that’s something as a strength coach that we can do is we can just keep like hyping up and praising our guys for what they’re doing. And they’re gonna, they’re gonna buy into that. They’re gonna take that and they’re gonna in return feel better. And maybe it’s a placebo. I don’t know, but I think placebos can be pretty dang effective sometimes too. And so kind of on the theme of getting your guys to feel better, man, like.
Tell them how good they’re doing. Tell them how great they are. Tell them how awesome they are, what kind of athletes they are, how they’re going to go be in the league one day. Just keep loving on and pouring into these guys. what I found is really good things come out of that.
Connor Agnew :
That’s awesome. I love it, dude. Now, well, let me ask you this, because I’m curious. The hair on fire aspect is, I mean, to me, it’s the most fun way to coach, right? It’s the way that you kind of, it gives you energy in itself too. But then you hit that 6 p.m., 7 p.m., whatever it may be, and you’re drained from the day. What are you doing to take care of yourself? How are you maintaining your own energy levels so that you can bring it each day?
Bryson Breeding :
man, I can’t complain. My schedule is awesome right now. So because of the weather down in South Florida, we’re pretty much a morning based program. And so, you know, our lift times, we hit a seven, nine, 11. So we hit our three lifts. We’re done by 1230. We have some people coming in extra, but most days I’m able to walk out of here about like three or four. You know, we’ll do some stuff in the weight room. We’ll do some stuff in the office, you know, whatever things come up. There’s always something to do.
Connor Agnew :
Well there you go, that helps.
Bryson Breeding :
But really it’s like, not, I’m not spending, I’ll get here usually about five and I’m usually gone by about three. And so for those hours, the strength coach like that’s pretty doable. You know, it’s pretty, it’s pretty solid. And same when we get to season, you know, we’ll practice in the morning. Cause if we wait to go practice at four o’clock, you know, for all I know tsunami might hit and be inside and we don’t have an indoor. And so like we got to be outside. And so we do a lot of our stuff in the morning and that, that makes it a lot easier because I can go and I can be home with my wife in the evening time.
And you know, we go eat dinner together and talk about our days or whatever we need to do. then, you know, crawl in bed at 8 45 and crash out, do it again. But as far as like the I’ve been there, you know, I’ve been the hey, we’re lifting first lift is at six a.m. The day ends at seven p.m., eight p.m., whatever. Like I’ve had those days. I’ve experienced that. And I think it’s just one of those things that it’s like when it’s go time, it’s go time. And when you got to go, you got to go. And then
As soon as you get done, you know, throwing a podcast or throwing something chill on the drive home, you know, probably turn off the heavy metal, turn off the Gojira on the ride home and just like relax, you know, and then you get home and that’s where my wife has been so influential for me. I just get to go home and talk to her and just kind of completely just kind of decompress, let the day out, you know, sleep’s a big one. Try and get as much sleep as you can in this profession.
Because if you’re staying up to 2 a.m., they try and go coach a 6 a.m. group, that’s tough on you, man. And then you’re not giving it all to your guys because you’re only coming in at 70%. That’s super difficult to do. But right now, man, it’s easy to bring the juice every day. The guys deserve it. It’s fun to do it. They’re giving me the energy back. And it’s just a no-brainer. You just walk in and that’s the standard in place right now.
Connor Agnew :
That’s awesome man. It’s almost as if strike coaches don’t have to guard their desks all day and be here for no reason. They have the energy to come back the next day.
Bryson Breeding :
Exactly, man. You know, I mean, no one’s going to take it. It’s going to be there tomorrow. no one’s going to take it.
Connor Agnew :
I’m gonna steal that. I like it. I will take that. But no, dude, it’s just, I don’t know. It’s very exciting for me to speak with you and having known you for a little bit now, like to see how much you’re enjoying FAU and how great it’s going. That’s just awesome for me to hear. And again, I appreciate the re-energizing. Like I said, I’ve been low T the past couple of days. We took a loss on Saturday. need to bump the T up. So right after this, I’ll turn on the 100 BPMs and hit my lift and it’ll be an exciting time.
Bryson Breeding :
Go man. Yep. Crank up the Bruno Mars. We’ll get you right.
Connor Agnew :
There we go. Well, if somebody wants to follow you, if they want to catch up with you on social media, what would be the best way to do that?
Bryson Breeding :
Probably most active on Instagram at Bryson B-R-Y-S-O-N underscore breeding B-R-E-E-D-I-N-G. I have a Twitter. I don’t post a whole lot on it. And I think that’s at Bryson Breeds 52.
Bryson Breeding :
Appreciate it,
Connor Agnew :
Awesome. Well, I appreciate you, man. Thank you so much for coming on. I’ll be keeping up with y’all this year. First year, I’ll be keeping up with FAU football, so I’m excited. Here we go. Appreciate you.
Bryson Breeding :
There we go, man, got another fan. Love it. Love it. All right, brother, you take it easy.
