Tag: #EverLoyalbe #Kinesiology #kinesrocks Louisiana Tech

Dylan Snowden, B.S. Kinesiology and Health Sciences
Louisiana Tech University Class of 2020

“Start With Why”, by Simon Sinek, is a book that I read my junior year at Louisiana Tech, and it changed the trajectory of my life. In this book, Sinek dives deep into asking the question, “What’s your why?” At the time of reading this, I was your classic college student trying to figure out what in the world I was going to do with my life. Asking questions like, “Do I really want to go to physical therapy school?” or “Am I only pursuing this degree and path in life because it’s what I’ve always known?” Questions like this is what kept me up at night because I knew at some point I “had to have it all figured out.” I knew that I wanted to be in the medical field but didn’t know exactly what I should do. This question, “What’s your why?”, Simon Sinek poses to his readers is something I really put a lot of thought into. What is it that drives me, and what do I find the most satisfaction in doing? After some time of self-evaluation, it was very clear that I needed to pursue a career field in which I could: serve the people around me (whether that be patients or colleagues), provide for my future family one day, and make a positive difference in patient lives.

When I finally set the foundation and answered Sinek’s question for myself, I began to explore every avenue in the medical field. Following many conversations with physicians, occupational and physical therapists, nurses, athletic trainers, etc., my dad, who is a CRNA in West Monroe, Louisiana, mentioned medical device sales. That wasn’t the first time that heard that term. In fact, I knew a few people in the industry, but didn’t know exactly what their job entailed. My father put me in touch with a few people in the industry, and they shed some light on exactly what their job was. Now, at first, I thought these individuals just went the doctors offices, took the staffs out to nice dinners, and then they get paid because the doctors started to use their product. But what I came to find out, is that is just a glimpse of the job truly is.

Before we get into the actual role of some one in medical device representative, we need to understand what a “medical device” is. A class III medical device is defined as “a product used to support or sustain human life.” All over the world there are thousands of different companies that sell medical devices. Those companies then hire representatives to go into surgery and be an asset to the physician using their product. Representatives can be a HUGE help to physicians and provide valuable knowledge about their specific product. With technology always advancing in this industry, this means instruments, surgical techniques, and overall procedures are changing. This is where medical device representatives really come into play. For instance, if an Orthopedic Surgeon finished his fellowship 30 years ago, do you think he/she initially learned how to a robotic total knee replacement? The answer is no. Robotic technology is new, therefore the physician must be educated on how to use the technology.

Now let’s talk about my path into medical device sales and how I got where I am today. Upon graduating from Louisiana Tech in 2020, I attended a program called “Medical Sales College” in Phoenix, AZ. It was a 3-month program where I learned the “ins and outs” of the industry. This program was geared all towards Orthopedics and Orthobiologics.

Once finishing the program, I landed a job as a Sales Representative at Arthrex in Little Rock, AR. In my role at Arthrex, I supported Orthopedic surgeons in the operating room in all different types of surgeries: ankle fractures, rotator cuff repairs, wrist fractures, ACL reconstruction, and many more. In this role, I truly fell in love with the medical device industry, and the value a medical device rep can bring to the operating room.

After some time spent at Arthrex, I was offered a job by the company I work for now, PROCEPT BioRobotics. PROCEPT is the fastest growing robotic surgery company in history, which specializes in treating Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia(BPH) in men. Now, you might be reading this thinking, okay, that’s a tad weird… why would someone want to work in the men’s urology space??? Well, the answer is simple, and it all goes back to my “why.” BPH is the #1 reason men visit the urologist. In fact, 1 in 2 men ages 51-60 have BPH and their prevalence increases over time. At its core, BPH is a disease that truly effects men’s quality of life. PROCEPT had a study come out which went “head-to-head” against the Gold Standard TURP (Transurethral Resection of the Prostate) and had superior results. The superior outcome is what drew me in. It aligned directly with my why of making a positive impact on patients’ lives.

I joined the company as a clinical representative. In this role, my job was to educate surgeons on how to operate the robot in the OR, teach them how to read ultrasound, and instill confidence in them through supporting them in cases. Because I joined the company very early in its growth, as soon as I got trained up, I was put in a position where I had to train our new clinical reps. In this season, I found a huge passion for training. There’s just something about taking something super complex, like robotic surgery, and breaking it down so simple for others to understand and learn.

After about a year and a half with PROCEPT as a clinical rep, I had the opportunity to join the Global Learning and Development team as a Global Trainer. The Global Learning and Development team is responsible for the training of all new sales reps, continuing education of field support, building education content with cross functional counterparts, development of surgeon training curriculums, etc. As a Global Trainer, my role is heavily focused on ensuring our new clinical and sales reps get brought up to speed and become clinically sound. Once a quarter, I fly out to Santa Clara, California for our new hire training. During these two weeks, half of our time is spent in a “lecture” type setting where myself and the other trainers will teach the procedure technique. The other half of the time is spent in the lab where we are instructing “hands on lab sessions” with the robots. When our reps leave this training, the goal is for them to become independent and support physicians in surgery on their own.

Within the medical device industry, there are so many different avenues you can take. Whether it’s sales, clinical, marketing, or education like myself, there could be a future career path for you. My advice is that before you chose your field of work, medical device or not, ensure that you understand your own personal “why,” and ask yourself can I fulfill it in this field. For me, I was seeking after a role I could serve the people around me, provide for my future family, and make a difference in patient’s lives. Thankfully, I can truly say that have found a career that fulfills my why.

Jesse Wendt
Louisiana Tech University- B.S. Kinesiology and Health Sciences – Class of 2021

Education and Background

While I was at Louisiana Tech, I attended a seminar presented by the UT Health EP Heart program in Houston, TX. I remember leaving this seminar thinking how cool the presentation was and the potential of working with medical devices. Shortly after this seminar I found out that my dad was going to be needing a pacemaker which prompted me to do even more research into what pacemakers are and how they work. At the time I was very nervous at the thought of my dad needing a pacemaker but now that I work in the industry, I know that pacemakers are very common. In fact, they are great devices that help to improve a patient’s quality of life.

In my last quarter at Tech, I did my internship at Northern Louisiana Medical Center in the cardiac rehab department. While I was there, I expressed my interest in this program in Houston and the idea of working with medical devices. As luck would have it the head of the cardiac rehab center was also an x-ray tech that worked in the cath lab at the hospital. He allowed me to come and see procedures every so often which gave me my first exposure to a cath lab and how it worked. I mostly saw left and right heart caths but I was able to see the beginning of a pacemaker generator change. By the end of my internship, I was hooked. I knew this is the career I wanted to pursue and after graduating I applied for the EP Heart program.

EP Heart Cardiovascular Electrophysiology Program

The UT Health EP Heart program is located in Houston, TX just minutes away from the Med Center in downtown Houston. It is a 6 month program that covers the Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) industry, Electrophysiology (EP), and structural heart industry. The program is offered twice a year, staring in January and July. The staff includes: John Boettcher, a former Medtronic sales rep with years of experience and CRM instructor. Dr. Anne H. Dougherty, a practicing physician (who if you’re lucky you will get to see do cases during your time at clinicals) and EP instructor. Courtney McAlister, RN, BSN the structural heart instructor. Wendy Boettcher, RN, BSN, the clinical instructor who has years of experience working with medical devices and Mary Jones the program manager. Though this is just a brief overview of their background, the entire staff is amazing and has become a great professional resource that extends beyond just the completion of the program. The program is split into three distinct curriculums; CRM, EP and structural heart. However, between CRM and EP there is a professional week where you will get to practice and hone your interview skills, resume building and other skills to help you succeed in a professional environment. This also includes numerous presentations and interviews with some of the top medical device companies in the world. The staff has done an amazing job building this program and continuing to attract top companies to come and interview its students. Some of the companies include; Biotronik, Abbott, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Biosense Webster, and many more. A large part of that success comes from the education and hands on experience that you receive at the program.

The program focuses on three industries; CRM, EP and structural heart. The Cardiac Rhythm management (CRM) curriculum involves implantable medical devices like pacemakers, defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization (CRT) devices. You will learn about how pacemakers work, the indications for implanting them, the specific algorithms and technology that different companies have and much more. As you are learning about them you will also get the opportunity to use four different companies’ programmers to practice testing and programming demo devices. You will also get to use an advanced sim lab that allows you to see a simulated implant to help you get familiar with how implants flow and what supplies or issues you may need to be prepared for.

The Electrophysiology (EP) curriculum focuses on identifying arrythmias and learning how to map these arrythmias during an ablation. This portion is taught by a practicing physician, Dr. Dougherty, which is an experience that is unique to this program. Her knowledge and first-hand experience, possibly even from cases she did that week, sets your education apart from others. You will get to see the different kinds of technology each companies use and practice mapping on computer simulators. Using the sim lab you will get to see great examples of mapping and how different catheters work. You even get to try your hand at trying to place and manipulate a catheter while its in the “body”.

The Structural Heart curriculum covers some more complex procedures like a TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement), mitral valve repair, left atrial appendage closure devices and some of the new devices that are coming to market soon. You also get to learn about echocardiogram imaging and how to identify different structures and locations within the heart. Once into this part of the class you will get the chance to go with Courtney to the Med center and watch some structural cases. This could be a TAVR procedure, a mitral clip placement or both.

Throughout the program you will complete roughly 200 hours of clinical observation. This could be spending a day in a clinic watching the reps from several companies interrogate, test and reprogram devices. Once you get some experience under your belt some will even let you do the testing and programming while they watch. Clinicals also include time at four different Memorial Hermann hospitals throughout Houston where you will get to watch anything from a pacemaker implant to an AFib ablation. You will get to stand inside the procedure room and watch the reps as they map a complex flutter ablation or you can watch as they test the leads that were just placed in the patient’s heart. During this time, you can network with local reps that could even land you an interview and possible job with their company. Upon completion of the program, you will have gained valuable experience and knowledge in many different aspects of medical devices and therapies available. You will also have a strong skill set that will help you progress through your career and professional life.

What I do Now  
  
I currently live in Lafayette, LA working for Biotronik as a field clinical specialist (FCS). Biotronik is a medical device company that specializes in a number of different areas ranging from pacemakers and defibrillators to coronary stents and spinal cord stimulators. My job as an FCS in the CRM division revolves around pacemakers, defibrillators and heart failure devices. I provide technical and clinical support for Biotronik within an assigned territory and professionally represent Biotronik and provide education, follow-up services, implant services, in service training, and other related services as necessary to sales force, physicians and other cardiac pacing-related professionals. I am present when the device is implanted to test and ensure the leads are in the best place possible to maximize the efficiency and battery life of the device. I routinely test and check the devices in office follow ups to ensure the device is working as it should. We are constantly involved in patient care from programming changes to maximize battery life to programming the device so the patient can safely get an MRI or undergo surgery. This is not a 9-5 job; implants can be early in the morning or late at night. You can have small clinics or huge clinics with 20+ patients. Plus a big part of this job is being on call, that could mean a 2 AM visit to the ER or a Saturday morning check. But this career is so rewarding, I get to see the benefits of these devices first hand. Whether that be a patient that has regained their energy and is able to walk and do the things they want too again. Or, during the ER checks when you see the patient’s defibrillator has delivered a lifesaving shock to get them out of a lethal arrhythmia. I’m still very early in my career but getting to work with such amazing and beneficial technology is a truly unique and special experience. I can’t wait to keep advancing and learning more and more every day.

I want to give a special thank you to John and Wendy Boettcher and the rest of the staff at the EP Heart program. Thank you for all the advice both during and after the program as well as teaching us and giving us such a special and unique education. Also, thank you to Dana, Judy, Katherine and Bill at Waco Cardiology for hiring me out of school and helping to teach me to care for patients the best I can. And a special thank you to Biotronik and Ramon Carrasquillo and Ryan Quinlan for giving me the opportunity to be a part of something special. And lastly thank you to Ms. Boyd and the Kinesiology department for an amazing college experience and education. As well as giving me the chance to talk a little about the unique and wonderful career that is Cardiac Rhythm Management.

Presentation by Dr. Doughtery

Clinical experience during a procedure

In the sim lab

Presentation by Baylis Medical

Simulated implant

Daniel Johnson

Who am I?

I am Daniel Johnson, a second-year graduate student in the Sports and Exercise Psychology master’s concentration. I am from El Dorado, Arkansas and came to Louisiana Tech in 2018 where I started my bachelor’s degree in psychology. I completed my undergraduate degree in Spring 2022, where I immediately started my master’s degree in Sports and Exercise Psychology. I plan to graduate this winter quarter, then pursue a career in cognitive training in a military setting.

CRAFT (Comprehensive Readiness for Aircrew Flying Training)

My internship at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, LA is under a program called CRAFT, a human performance initiative that is put in place by Air Force Global Strike Command that emphasizes an investment in the Air Force’s most important asset – the airmen. CRAFT is a holistic human performance curriculum designed to target physical and mental training objectives to improve student learning, performance, problem solving, and stress management. CRAFT is a nationwide program at an undergraduate level, where the students spend a couple of days a month doing a variety of introductory training that the air force hopes the students find valuable enough to implement into their career with minimal instruction. At Barksdale CRAFT; however, the students aren’t in undergraduate training, they are in the Initial Qualification Training (IQT) stage of their careers, where they already know what airplane they will spend their careers on.

Barksdale Air Force Base is the only base in the nation that is doing this training at a graduate-level, and for this reason it is considered a pilot program. The program luckily has a real-world control group, meaning that they had an IQT class come through that was trained the “old way”, but was still assessed to quantify their improvement within the former parameters of training. A big part of what they are currently doing at CRAFT Barksdale is attempting to prove that there is a statistically significant difference between relative improvement in the experimental groups as opposed to the control group that was surveyed. If the program is determined to be significantly more effective than what was previously in place, then CRAFT will expand to operational squadrons, different aircraft, and far down the line, commercial pilot training. In short, I have been afforded the opportunity to be on the ground floor of what I think is going to have massive ramifications for a population I never intended to work with.

CRAFT performs extensive pre, midline, and post assessments to not only help track the improvement of the students on different skills, but also to have a profile on the students clear enough to see where the relative deficiencies are. I have now helped with 4 different groups of assessments, where I help administer everything from iPad attention span assessments, to simple eye exams. The results of these assessments are electronically cataloged and immediately analyzed by CRAFT Barksdale’s lead scientist, Dr. Johannes Rabbe. He performs an assortment of statistical tests to determine how much a student is improving between assessments. This is very valuable, especially during midline assessment, because we can determine which approach during the first half of IQT was effective or not for that particular student.

CRAFT is divided into two sections: the academic phase and the flightline phase. During the academic phase, Dr. Tucker Readdy, a cognitive performance specialist within CRAFT, teaches classes once a week on a variety of skills and ideas ranging from a class on personality types, to a class labeled “the psychology of killing”. This is far from the only class that the IQT students participate in, as they are required to learn not only the ins and outs of their own jet, but also the why’s and how’s associated with protocol on the jet and what makes it fly. During this time, the students don’t have any individual cognitive performance trainings, but do participate in blended physical and cognitive trainings (coined STRIKER trainings) twice a week, where they expend a lot of energy doing some sort of physical activity, and then are instructed on some sort of cognitive training while under “stress conditions”.

During the Flightline Phase, the students spend a lot of time with the CRAFT team. At this stage’s, all students have passed their academics and are now getting hands-on experience with the jet. Whereas before, we saw the students twice a week, the students now participate in 2 individual CPS trainings in addition to the 2 striker trainings they were already performing in the academic phase. While I assist in the striker training, they aren’t catered to the individual. They are all about overarching skills that CRAFT attempts to improve and every student does the same amount of training for each skill, provided they do not miss some for unforeseen circumstances. The CPS sessions; however, are catered to what the individual may or may not need depending on what his or her assessment scores show.

What Do I Do For CRAFT?

I have a lot of traditional “intern” tasks, such as manually inputting data, cleaning equipment, and setting up the training space for a variety of trainings. However, that is far from all that I do. I work closely with Ms. Bailey Thompson, a cognitive performance specialist, administering the cognitive components of the striker training. We administer different exercises emphasizing the 4 main focuses of CRAFT training: eye/hand coordination, logical reasoning/decision making, working memory, and perception training. Sometimes, that training looks very simple, like throwing different colored bean bags at a student where each color bag has a different mandated response (red=catch with right hand, blue=catch with left hand). Other times, the students are hooked up to low grade EEGs on their head and are told to try and keep their brain waves at a “relaxed” level all while doing a target acquisition task.

In the CPS sessions, my involvement varies. Occasionally, I am asked to help perform a training session that may need more than one set of hands to administer properly, or if Dr. Readdy thinks that a student values 1-on-1 instruction within their learning environment. Depending on the task, it may be much more conducive for the students to only hear from one instructor, and in that case, I still get beneficial experience by discussing the hows and whys of a specific training with Dr. Readdy before and after the session, learning what training correlates with what skill deficit. Regardless of the way the training is administered, I get valuable experience in terms of watching the theories discussed in my classes at Louisiana Tech applied in the field. I get to talk about the theory that a training is based on before we administer it, and I am always allowed to give feedback and be as involved as I feel comfortable in regards to providing feedback and making suggestions on improvement.

My Professional Interests

Originally, when joining the Sports and Exercise Psychology master’s program, I only wanted a career exclusively in professional or collegiate sports. Part of that is because I am passionate about sport, but also because I was ignorant of how broad sports and exercise psychology reached in terms of career paths. When attempting to find an internship, I did not get far into my search when the opportunity arose for a Louisiana Tech graduate student to go to Barksdale Air Force Base for an internship with their cognitive performance staff. While I had no prior interest in a military population, I was approached by Dr. Parks, Dr. Blazo, and Dr. Reichter to carry out the internship because I was one the only graduate student in the master’s program looking for an internship at the time. I am a person that holds Christian beliefs and I think there were too many signs pointing toward this internship to ignore. For one thing, I had a hard time finding any worthwhile internships within sport, and there were no opportunities that would allow me to commute, therefore, I would have to move to a different state for a quarter to complete an internship. Even more of a cool coincidence is that the CRAFT program was centered around student airmen training to operate the B52 bomber, and while that is not only the oldest plane still used by the military, but also the same one my grandfather helped operate while serving in the Vietnam War. I never had plans to serve in the military, but this internship allowed me to get valuable experience while helping train the next generation of airmen on a plane with a storied history. Throughout my internship, I discovered a new passion for training a population with way more importance than I ever thought my career could carry, and I am only an intern! I cannot wait to pursue an influential career in military training.

Thaddeus J Light, Ph.D., CSCS, USAW-2

Education:

• West Virginia University – B.A., History (2010)
• Louisiana Tech University – M.S., Kinesiology, Sports Performance (2015)
• East Tennessee State University – Ph.D., Sport Physiology & Performance (2019)

Relevant Experience:

• Research Scientist – Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (2019-2021)
• Athletic Performance Assistant/Head G League Strength & Conditioning Coach – San Antonio Spurs/Austin Spurs (2021-2022)
• Head of Strength & Conditioning and Sport Science – Indiana Fever (2022)
• Head of Weightlifting and Strength & Conditioning – LiftLab Co. (2022-2023)
• Senior Consultant – Teamworks (2023-Present)

The path that I’ve traveled, both in my education as well as my professional life, has been atypical. I’m currently working as a Senior Consultant with Teamworks, where I assist tactical (military, police, fire) groups with their handling of complex performance datasets. I could not have foreseen myself in this role – I hardly even knew this kind of position existed – but it’s an excellent fit for my skills and experience, and has been great for myself and my family. 

The Journey (so far):

I came to Tech for my Masters in Kinesiology – Sport Performance in 2013. My goal was to become a professional-level Strength and Conditioning Coach, and the first step in the plan that I had formulated was to attend graduate school. My undergraduate education was in History, and I was heading toward law school when I realized that I needed to make a change. I needed to get back into sport. I began coaching High School sports, then earned my Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and started training athletes on a very small scale. I needed to deepen my knowledge base, get as much experience as possible, and meet as many high-level coaches as I could. Tech fit the bill. Dr. David Szymanski agreed to take a chance on me, allowing me to work with him coaching the baseball team, assisting with research, and serving as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Dept. of Kinesiology. 

In addition to helping Doc and performing my departmental duties, I did things that would come to greatly influence my education and career path. I interned at National Strength & Conditioning Association headquarters as a coach in their performance center, kick starting my relationship with the NSCA. I also began traveling over to LSU Shreveport to train for weightlifting with Dr. Kyle Pierce, recent inductee to the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame. These steps put me in contact with excellent coaches and gave me irreplaceable experience. 

Some pictures – the lab before it was the lab featuring me squatting for research, and a crew of us KINES grad students lining up for graduation.

After graduating from Tech, I decided to pursue a Ph.D. at East Tennessee State University. My research experience at Tech and my desire to better understand the underlying physiology involved in training made the decision easy for me. A Ph.D. isn’t necessarily a requirement for coaching at the professional level, but it provides options, which is what I wanted. While there, I coached weightlifting at the Olympic Training Site and was head Sport Scientist for the weightlifting team. Being in the program at ETSU allowed me to gain immense amounts of practical experience in both coaching and sport science data collection. It was during this time that I interned for the Indiana Pacers, which would later influence my career.

After I completed my Ph.D., I moved to Florida to work as a Research Scientist with the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. I had never envisioned myself working specifically in research, but it was a great opportunity and I knew I would be working with brilliant people. There I helped to design and implement research protocols focused on human performance in extreme environments (microgravity, hypoxic conditions, cold water exposure, etc.), mainly in military populations. I was privileged to work there for 2.5 years. 

Another opportunity came, and I left my position as Research Scientist to go work with the San Antonio Spurs. I worked in the Spurs organization as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for their G League team, the Austin Spurs, as well as an assistant for the San Antonio Spurs. This experience was a huge leap for me. I learned so much – not only about coaching and sport science, but about how quality organizations are run. I also learned about life in the NBA G League. If you love basketball, you will love the G League. Please support the G League, the athletes deserve it.

After a single season with the Spurs, I was given the opportunity to become the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Indiana Fever in the WNBA. A major factor in my recruitment for the position was the relationships I made during my time as an intern with the Pacers. I took the opportunity and ran with it. Working in the WNBA with the Fever was a joy for me and my family. Professionally, had an excellent year as a Performance and Medical Department, seeing a 70% reduction in the numbers of games missed due to injury. However, the organization was in the midst of a rebuild and my contract was not renewed or extended. That’s the business of sport, and it was an outcome we always knew was possible.

To any Tech students are reading this who want to work in high-level collegiate or professional sport: you need to know the hard truths about that path and what happens when you actually achieve that goal. You will have to move wherever the job is, and then you will have to eventually move again. You likely will get paid much less than you deserve for the time you put in. Your actual job performance may have nothing to do with your ability to stay employed in your position. Your performance may even be judged by people with no training knowledge and no concept of what you actually do on a day-to-day basis. You must commit to the job 7 days a week, nearly 365 days a year, and if it’s in-season you may be living your life an hour at a time, unable to plan anything outside your required duties to the athletes you serve. If you have a family, you will need to be okay with sometimes being away for extended periods if the job demands it. You have to get comfortable with the idea that you’ll be in a job until you get fired (or not renewed) and then have to find something somewhere else or make it work in whatever location you’re in.

Not all of those things listened above may be true at once, but it’s highly likely that a few will be. This is the reality of being a strength coach at the highest level, and one that you will come to know as you speak to coaches in that world or you live in it yourself. You have to navigate the chaos of it, and deeply love the process of the sport that you’re working in. Even with all of that, I can’t imagine a job that’s more fun on a daily basis.

If you want to work at the top of any profession, you need to be honest with yourself about the steps it will take to get you there.  At the very least, that will often mean that you have to move, in addition to the huge amounts of time and effort that will go into meeting that goal in other ways. My wife and I met when we were grad students together at Tech, and I’ve been dragging her (and now our kids) across the country ever since. This is the real story, the one that gets no awards or recognition – intense discussions, hardships both expected and unforeseen, and disappointments that can destabilize your family. And you go through it all anyway, keeping faith that it will eventually work out, because it has to work out.

After my time with the Fever, I was able to get a job in a private training facility coaching weightlifting as well as individualized strength coaching and personal training (athletes vs. general population). This was my first time working in “the fitness industry” and I really enjoyed helping the folks I worked with to meet their goals. Though I still prefer the atmosphere of working within a sports organization, there’s a big difference between training someone who is paying to be there as opposed to someone who is being paid to be there. It’s much easier to get compliance in a private facility.

I failed this 50kg chin-up attempt, but 45 kg was good. The Tech pinny helped.

However, the experience of working in a private training facility, or maybe just this specific facility, wasn’t right for me. I was working long hours with relatively little pay and those hours were not conducive to me having quality time for myself and my family. I worked there for almost a year, and during that time I pursued other employment options. I had numerous interviews with NBA and WNBA organizations but no luck on securing a job. I cast a larger net and began applying for jobs in research and at colleges and private high schools as well. I had many more interviews but no luck there either. At one point I was told I didn’t have enough high school coaching experience and that it would be too much of a learning curve for me.

Still, I kept on trying to find a steady position. Eventually, as luck would have it, a friend of mine reached out asking if I would be interested in a position that he knew would be coming available. Again, to Tech students reading this (if you’re out there): you must network effectively and maintain those connections – they will be essential to your professional success. The open position that was brought to my attention is the one that I now hold. Of course, I still had to earn that position on the merits of my education, experience, and fit within the organization, but it helped to have a friend let me know the opportunity was there.

As I stated at the beginning, I now work as a Senior Consultant with Teamworks, dealing in sports technology and data management. It’s a great fit for me; I understand the physiology and testing methods for the data I’m working with, I have the research background that allows me to arrange the data in the most efficient ways, and I can speak the same language as the coaches and departments that I help. I mainly work with tactical groups – military, government agencies, police, and fire departments. It feels good to know that I’m giving back to those groups in a way that is direct and helpful. I work remotely now, so it also feels good that I’m able to be present in the day-to-day lives of my wife and children and know that I’m putting us in a more stable position from which we can build our future. I’m excited to see where the journey takes us next. 

Post Script:

When I made the decision to go to Tech, I knew that it was going to alter the course of my life, but never could I have imagined the magnitude of that decision’s impact. I met my wife and some of my closest friends in Memorial Gym, and was given the chance to develop my skills as a coach, teacher, and researcher. Last but not least, I very much want to use this opportunity to thank the Szymanski family for their help at Tech and beyond. They’ve been a great resource for me, personally and professionally, for years.

Jordan Blazo, Ph.D. Assistant Professor

The Minds in Motion Lab (MiML) is a dynamic research hub dedicated to understanding how sport and physical activity can enhance experiences through innovative research, high-quality teaching, and engaging community outreach. Founded in 2020, the MiML has rapidly become a beacon of sport and exercise psychology in the region. With a team of diverse experts spanning cognitive kinesiology, youth sport and exercise psychology, and community focused health and wellness coaching, the lab thrives in collaboration and interdisciplinary pursuits. Under the direction of Drs. Jordan Blazo, Drew Parks, and Alison Reichter, students are given opportunities to engage in a wide range of research projects, professional development, and community outreach.

One arm of the research efforts in the MiML has looked to better understand the current landscape of youth sport in North America. Partnering with The Aspen Institute and Utah State University, this work has been used as a launchpad to guide policymakers’ and community organizations’ efforts to best inform positive youth development through sport. Additionally, work completed by students in the MiML has recently cataloged the overarching body of sport and exercise psychology research literature. This expansive work required the hard work of numerous students to complete and has provided significant insight to the scope of work in the field. 

Delving into the mind-body connection, recently graduate students have completed impactful thesis projects, further preparing them for advanced degrees. One thesis project partnered with Rock Steady Boxing to better understand the physical activity, quality of life, and cognition in adults with Parkinson’s Disease. Another project has explored the influence of guided meditation on attentional components of college students. These projects provided students with in-depth mentoring experiences to hone their research skills. 

Lastly, the MiML is preparing exciting new research programming centered on student-led interventions dealing with health-coaching programming. Instrumental to this work has been crafting programmatic opportunities in the Department of Kinesiology that will enable students to pursue Health Coaching Certification. This certification not only provides students with an advantageous credential but also an opportunity it lead impactful research programs with our university students and community members.

These projects are just a small snapshot of the work the MiML has been engaged in, with each project relying on innovative techniques, immersive student experiences, and community engagement. With new endeavors on the horizon and students developing their own projects, the MiML has become a thriving collaborative space to best understand how movement and the mind blend together.