The THIRST For More Podcast is designed to help provide insight and knowledge for the strength and conditioning, sports performance, personal training, online training, gym ownership, and health and fitness professionals. Host, Brandon Smitley, reaches out to various professionals in the industry and sits down with them to chat about becoming a better coach, how to improve athletic performance, improving communication, ideas for marketing and brand recognition, and general information on just…
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Episode Summary "Mental toughness" gets treated like a trait you are born with. It is not - it is a set of trainable attention skills, and a lot of what coaches do to toughen athletes up is exactly what makes them choke. This episode breaks down the psychology of peak performance for coaches: why an external focus of attention beats an internal one on skills your athletes already own, the two…
Episode Summary The bendiest person in your gym is not automatically the most resilient or the most athletic. That should tell you something. In this episode we separate two words the fitness industry treats as the same: mobility and flexibility. Flexibility is passive range - the ability of tissue to lengthen. Mobility is usable range - what you can actively control under load and speed. One is…
Episode Summary You are not lazy and you are not weak. You might be burned out - and in the fitness industry, burnout is far more predictable than anyone admits. In this episode of THIRST For More, we break down what burnout actually is (beyond just feeling tired), how to recognize it in yourself and in your athletes, how it differs from overtraining, and what the research really says about…
Episode Summary Certifications: Which Ones Actually Matter? There are dozens of certifications you can buy in this industry, and almost nobody explains which ones actually matter. In this episode we cut through the alphabet soup of personal training and strength and conditioning credentials and give you a framework for deciding where to spend your money and your time. We cover the one filter that…
Episode Summary We were sold a story about youth sports: focus early, grind one sport year-round, and your kid gets ahead. The research says the opposite. Early specialization is linked to more overuse injuries and burnout -- and it does not reliably produce better athletes. In this solo episode, Brandon breaks down what the science actually says about youth athlete development vs. early…
Episode Summary We measure bar velocity to two decimal places. Most of us have no idea whether an athlete finished practice down one pound or five. This episode is not a reminder to drink water. It is a breakdown of what the peer reviewed research actually shows about hydration and performance, including the places where the research openly contradicts itself, followed by a system you can run on…
Episode Summary Your online clients are not quitting because of the screen. They are quitting because somewhere in the move to virtual, you stopped coaching them and started sending them files. In this episode of THIRST For More, we take apart the most comfortable excuse in the fitness industry: "online coaching just is not the same." A 2025 randomized controlled trial in the Journal of Strength…
Episode Summary Everybody owns a speed and agility ladder. Almost nobody asks whether it works. In this episode we put the most popular tool in youth and team sports under an evidence-based lens, and make the case that the way it is usually used may be leaving your athletes slower than their own potential. This is not ladder-bashing. It is a reframe: keep the tool, but stop calling it speed…
Episode Summary Most coaches use pogo hops as warm-up filler - and that is exactly why their athletes stay slow. In this complete guide, we break down the one little drill that builds reactive strength: the foundational, fast stretch-shortening-cycle quality that your big strength work will not give you on its own. You will learn the real science, the mistakes almost everyone makes, a full 5-stage…
Episode Summary You cannot debunk a client out of a fad diet. And every time you try, you lose. In this solo episode, we get into the conversation every coach handles badly: what to do when a client shows up excited about the latest fad diet. The instinct is to correct them. That instinct is what costs you the client. We cover why fad diets win (it is not about the food), what the research…
Episode Summary Every coach has that client. The one who argues with every program, ghosts every third session, or texts you at midnight expecting an answer by breakfast. Your certification taught you anatomy and programming. It never taught you the hardest skill in this industry: people. In this solo episode, we retire the phrase "difficult client" for good. You'll learn why that label is quietly…
