Episode 08: Michael Zwiefel on Creating Adaptability & Ownership During the Warmup
Welcome to the Athlete Blueprint Podcast!
In today’s episode, had the pleasure of speaking w/ Michael Zwiefel! (@bbaperformance)
Michael is the owner and head of sports performance at Building Better Athletes in Dubuque Iowa.
In addition to that, Michael is also on the team at Emergence, some of whom, you’ve heard on this podcast before in Tyler Yearby and Rich White, back in episode 1.
As a coach, Michael has coached athletes all the way, from the youth levels all the way to the NFL level.
As an athlete, Michael was the all time leader in NCAA receptions w/ 463 and was the recipient of the Gagliardi award, which is essentially the D3 heisman.
In this episode we touch on:
The importance of setting up youth athletes for success later in life
Setting up an engaging environment for our athletes
How Michael’s warmups have evolved over the years
How you can create “aliveness” in the warmup
Michael’s growth as a coach and transition to more of an ecological approach
Why change of direction drills may not lead to improvements in agility
Some practical applications to improving your warmup
And of course much much more…
One thing I really respect about Michael is his passion and creativity, which is evident by this episode and through his social media, which of course I’ll link to in the show notes. He does a great job of showing practical activities, that coaches can implement to follow more of an ecological approach.
As mentioned early, Michael and the team at Emergence have a new mini course called “reconceptualizing the warmup” and that’s available if you’d like to learn more about these concepts. I’ll put that in the show notes as well. I have personally taken the course and it’s fantastic
And lastly I do want mention that in this episode, there is bit of background noise which I wasn’t able to edit out. It isn't too bad, but I figured I'd mention it
Thanks for listening guys, this has been one of my favorite interview so far!...I hope you enjoy the show!
Here's Michael's Info:
As always, if you have any questions or ideas for future episodes, feel free to contact me: