Sean Brosnan: How Dreaming Big And Going All-In Made The Greatest High School Athletic Team Ever

I’m so excited to welcome Sean Brosnan to the B.rad podcast!

Sean is the author of Beyond Fast: How a Renegade Coach and His Unlikely High School Team Revolutionized Distance Running, written with Chris Lear and Andrew Grefe. And yes, it’s a book about running—about high school workouts, races, and championships—but it’s also so much more than that.

In this episode, you’ll hear Sean break down how he coached some of the fastest high school distance runners in America, including strategies for teaching athletes to embrace the challenge of intense training, embrace discomfort, and push past perceived limits. He shares the thought process behind skipping traditional state meets to chase world-class opportunities, why mindset and belief can transform performance, and how he cultivates those breakthrough moments that turn talented athletes into record-breakers.

We also dive into the realities of post-collegiate professional running: the struggles of sponsorship, building a pro training group, and creating a sustainable system that lets elite athletes thrive without being weighed down by financial stress. Along the way, Sean reveals his personal coaching philosophy, the influence of legendary mentors, and why connecting with athletes on a human level is often the difference between good and extraordinary performance.

Whether you’re a runner, coach, or simply interested in peak performance and shattering self-limiting beliefs, this conversation is packed with insights, stories, and strategies that will inspire you to think bigger and train smarter.

Sean Brosnan is the author of Beyond Fast: How a Renegade Coach and His Unlikely High School Team Revolutionized Distance Running, written with Chris Lear and Andrew Grefe. A two-time national high school coach of the year, he turned Newbury Park High School into a national powerhouse with multiple state and national championships. A native of Long Island, he began coaching as a volunteer at Queens University of Charlotte and now lives in Big Bear, California, where he coaches a professional running team. Follow him on Instagram @RealSeanBrosnan.

TIMESTAMPS:

Sean says it’s essential to stop placing limitations on ourselves. [03:05]

What happened when Newbury Park headed out to Alabama for the national championship? [07:20]

Newbury had multiple national championships, both boys and girls and JV. [11:46]

On a team, you can be competitive, but you can also be happy for the others’ successes. [17:48]

Starting as a new coach in 2016, Sean brought the team to winning the State meet and on to Nationals in two years time. [22:41]

A month training camp seemed to be what really worked. [24:03]

How do you get better without running harder and breaking down, like the programs that grind these kids out? [26:33]

There was a huge shift in the training schedule during COVID times. [33:18]

There were people who criticized the program at Newbury Park. [34:59]

There are many different ways to get to the final result that you want. [40:07]

Why aren’t there more programs like Sean’s at Newbury Park? [44:51]

Focus on the personal development of the athlete. [55:55]

Everyone can do better. [59:07]

What happens when Sean moves on to his next coaching position? [01:06:09]

Nico Young ‘s progression has been sensational. [01:15:43]

Sean can be contacted @realseanbrosnan on social media. [01:18:56]

LINKS:

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TRANSCRIPT:

Brad (00:00:00):
Welcome to the B.rad podcast – where we explore ways to pursue peak performance with passion throughout life. I’m Brad Kearns, NY Times bestselling author, world #1 ranked masters age 60-plus high jumper, and former #3 world-ranked professional triathlete. You’ll learn how to stay fit, strong and powerful as you age; transform your diet to lose body fat and increase energy; sort through hype and misinformation to make simple, sustainable lifestyle changes; and broaden your perspective beyond a fit body to experience healthy relationships, nonstop personal growth, and ultimately a happy, healthy, long life. Let’s explore beyond shortcuts, hacks, and crushing competition to laugh, have fun, appreciate the journey, and not take ourselves too seriously. It’s time to B.rad!

Sean (00:00:51):
We are absolutely capable of a lot more than we think. It doesn’t mean everyone could be Olympians, doesn’t mean everyone could be national champions, but I think everyone could be a little bit better. This camp that I go to every year in upstate New York and I always speak out, work out, have a great time. One of the coaches there once told me, he goes, you think everybody can be good, Sean? I go, you know what? I think everyone could be.

Brad (00:01:09):
I’m so excited to welcome Sean Brosnan to the B.rad podcast. He is the author of a book called Beyond Fast, How a Renegade Coach and His Unlikely High School team Revolutionized Distance Running, written with Chris Lear, Andrew Grefe. And yes, it’s a book about running and high school running and you get the blow by blow of the workouts and the races and the championships, but it’s so much more, it was so far beyond my expectation. Of course, I’m looking forward to reading it as a running geek, as Sean called us at the start of the show. But it is for everyone interested in peak performance of any kind and shattering self-limiting beliefs and dreaming and committing and being disciplined. So you’re really, really gonna love this conversation with a really special guy who’s one of the top distance running coaches in America, the world.

Brad (00:02:10):
He’s now moving on to the professional ranks and you’ll hear about that, uh, toward the end of the show. So let me introduce him with this quick intro and then you’re gonna get hit with a real peak performer with some really amazing and thought provoking insights. Sean Brosnan is a two time national high school coach of the year who built the Newbury Park High School distance squads into an award-winning national powerhouse. In addition to his national titles, he led him to a bunch of state titles. He comes from New York and he broke into coaching with a variety of different positions. We didn’t cover this enough in the show, but he had this vagabond, apparently decade of his life where he was chasing his own running goals. He almost broke four minutes in the mile, but he learned and absorbed from some of the great coaches in American history and took in all this information, molded it, shaped it into his own unique approach.

Brad (00:03:05):
And he showed up at this random high school in Newbury Park, California right near where I grew up in Los Angeles. And boy did he work some magic and achieve things that have never before been even approached. It is for sure the greatest high school athletic team of all time in any sport. The team that he built with Newbury Park High School. In Beyond Fast, he shares the inside story of a group that hadn’t even qualified for, uh, local championships and how he took them to the national title. He also didn’t have many coaching credentials, but what he did have was an unshakable belief in the power of commitment. Within a few years, the belief materialized into something few could have predicted. With these national titles with a voice, both humble and electrifying Brosnan charts the team’s journey from underdogs to champions and brings readers into the inner workings of high stakes competition, the personal sacrifices of young athletes and the emotional toll of greatness in this inspiring chronicle Beyond Fast is a must read.

Brad (00:04:13):
And this interview is definitely a must watch, must listen. I know you’re gonna enjoy it even if you’re not a running geek. Here’s a beautiful quote that I got from the book, and I think it’s gonna set the tone for this great conversation that we have. So Sean says it’s essential to stop placing limitations on ourselves. I believe we need to break free from the boundaries we or others set for us and strive to accomplish things that we once deemed impossible. Here we go with Sean Brosnan, author of Beyond Fast.

Brad (00:04:48):
Sean Brosnan, the author of Beyond Fast. I’m so excited to join you and get into this incredible, amazing story that you chronicled in your new book Beyond Fast. So thanks a lot for taking the time.

Sean (00:05:03):
Yeah, thanks for having me. I’m excited to to talk about it.

Brad (00:05:07):
So you’re an old time runner, a coach, and then all of a sudden you decide to write a book and that’s an entirely different experience, I suppose. So how is the book launch going and all the things that have been happening since this thing dropped?

Sean (00:05:21):
You know, it, it’s going well. It’s funny ’cause after I left Newbury Park, I was at UCLA real quick for about a year, and I thought about writing a book then, and then when I left UCLA it was like, okay, this is my time. This is when I have to do it. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do this again. And I just teamed up with some really good people, um, you know, Chris and Andrew, Andrew Greif, and Chris Lear, of course, who wrote Running With The Buffaloes. And, you know, I’m excited to get it out there. And um, as we talked even a little bit before we went on air, I just, uh, I didn’t wanna make this book like a running book for runners only. I I, I, I understand there’s a lot of running in it and training and I think the running like nerd or geek will get that out of it. But I wanted it to make this, um, just more than a running book. And that’s, that’s what I’ve always envisioned and I hopefully I did that. So

Brad (00:06:10):
Yeah, did a fantastic job, I have to say. And I can qualify as the running geek, especially ’cause uh, as a high school runner, very close to Newbury Park, as a matter of fact, at TAFT High in Woodland Hills, you know, we were so excited, me and my old teammates 40 years later, like sending text messages in in into 2019 going, did you see what these guys at Newbury Park are doing? That’s amazing. You know? So the book was definitely going in deep with, uh, the chronicling of the development of the program there. But you wove in all these really beautiful insights. So even if listeners, viewers are not, not even runners, just the idea of believing in a mission and believing in, in, in yourself as an individual for any form of peak performance, it was really stunning because I’m still trying to figure out, I finished the book, we, we talk about it incessantly with my old running buddies, but we’re still trying to figure out how the heck you pulled this magical magic trick off of going to some random high school, really didn’t have much tradition, although in 1982 when I was racing Newbury Park, Denise Ball, I think was number two in the nation in the 3,200.

Brad (00:07:18):
Yeah. I don’t know if you even heard of her. Yep,

Sean (00:07:19):
I do. I do. Yeah. She she

Brad (00:07:20):
Was very good. She was throwing down. Yeah, yeah. Uh, but really, uh, you, you showed up at this place and turned it into the greatest high school athletic team of all time in any sport. I think that’s difficult to dispute. Maybe the guys at Dana Lasal, the football powerhouse, could, you know, try to match up to the, the, the skinny 127 pound Newbury Park runners and say, no, we were a better program than Newbury Park. But it was really a generational accomplishment there at the school. And I think I should start off the show sort of with a bang and have us jump right into it was the 2021 Running Lane National High School Cross Country Championships in Alabama. So this is a gathering of the best teams and the best individual runners from all over the place. Yeah. And we had this standing high school cross country record time from Dathan Riten who went on to be Olympic marathon runner and was one of the most prominent coaches in the world now. Had a great, great showing with this athletes at World Championships. Yeah. So Ritz Heim’s holding onto this record for two decades, and I’d love for you to take us through what happened at that meet when Newbury Park headed out to Alabama to culminate their season. Yeah,

Sean (00:08:41):
I mean, that was, that was probably our biggest, I I’d say most famous year of what we did as a team. Um, not just even individuals. In 2019, we won the national championship with Nico Young, who’s one of the best runners in the world now. Um, you know, when he won the individual national championship, we won the team championship, and then we kind of went into COVID, which was crazy. And it just threw everything for Loop. But we managed, or I was able to manage, um, we, we were still able to run, we were able to use that as a positive, not a negative, and, and train. And, and I think, almost for the better because we focused on training, not racing and a lot of things that I believe in as a coach. But 2021, you know, it was one of those things.

Sean (00:09:20):
It was like we were so happy to be running again. We were so happy to like show what we can do. And I just, it’s just the way I, I’ve always been in like the, my influence coaches and people that I’ve been around, it’s like, you know, my college coach, Damien Martin from Adam State was to me one of the best motivating coaches out there. He still coaches now. He has like some probably the most NCA titles, even though it’s division two, he still does an amazing job. And I always wanted to be that light, like as a coach and like have that motivation power. And we went in at 21, like, let’s not break records. Let’s destroy ’em. Like let’s rewrite the record books. Let’s do like, you know, we were talking about going 1, 2, 3, 4 at the national championship, and everyone’s like, they just thought I was crazy.

Sean (00:10:05):
I mean, we ended up going 1, 2, 3, 6, and I had three guys on the same team break, Han’s National Cross Country record. And he’s been amazing, by the way, every time I used to see him, you know, I still see him now, but like when I was at Newbury, he would always be super complimentary and like, just an awesome person and like, just all about like, yeah, break my record. Not like, you know, some people get weird about that stuff, but he’s always been amazing. I think that’s why he’s probably one of the best coaches out there. And, um, yeah, we just, we went into this thing and it was like, we, I don’t know. It, it’s just, I mean, if you read the book, I talk about a lot, like a lot of it’s mindset, a lot of my influential coaches that I’ve learned from, you know, it’s like I always say the human body’s capable of more than, I mean, I’ve got this from a famous runner, Ryan Hall said this once.

Sean (00:10:52):
So it’s like the human body’s capable of so much more than you think. And like, it doesn’t mean we have to like grind and kill these high school kids. That’s not what it’s about. But it’s about like progressing properly, belief, building this culture that’s just unbelievable and you don’t falter. And like, that’s what we did. And we went into 21 and I think before we had the record, the national high school average record was 15 flat for a 5K. And we brought, we brought it down to 14:14 average. And I don’t think, I think there’s only been a few schools ever to go under 15 to this day, but we just destroyed it. And it, yeah, that was our season and I, I was, it was an amazing time. And it was led by Colin Solomon, who’s one of the best NCA runners at NAU right now as a senior. And, um, you know, he, he led that team to what I think was probably one of the greatest high school performances ever in, in high school sports. So

Brad (00:11:46):
Yeah, for the lay person listening, what we’re talking about is kids from the same high school beating the greatest runners of all time from across the country for two decades. And that was, uh, mind blowing. And you mentioned a few of your stars who are excelling on the world stage NCAA stage, but I think overlooked a little bit was a plug for the competency of the entire team and how many of these kids were running at what’s really an elite level. Maybe you could tell me that anecdote that I, I, I laughed out loud reading the book when, uh, the kid went into the JV race, was it a Woodbridge invitation or something? And, and destroyed everybody by a couple minutes. And for those, uh, unfamiliar with like high school running, you have varsity who are the best guys from every school, and then you have jv, which are the kids that aren’t fast enough to make the top seven at their school. And there’s sometimes accusations when you see a kid running really fast at JV that, oh, that school put him in there so he could win even though he’s really fast and should be racing in the varsity. But you had such depth on your varsity team 14, 14 average for example, that, uh, the, um, what do you, what do you do with the kid who’s not in the top seven? You throw ’em in the JV.

Sean (00:13:04):
Yeah, it was actually difficult because, you know, we had kids running, you know, close to breaking 15 minutes, which is, you know, high school, pretty high national level that were running JV. I had kids that were running under four 20 in the mile that weren’t close to making our top seven. And even on the girls side, I didn’t coach the girls the first couple years at Newbury. Then we had a coach leave and I took over the girls program. We ended up being state champs there too. You know, we were rank top 10 in the country and so forth. Broke some na well, actually broke a national record in a relay and just had some really good times. But like, I got accused once at a local meet of doing exactly what you say, putting a girl in the JV race that didn’t belong there.

Sean (00:13:44):
And it went all the way to my principal. I’m like, she’s my eighth runner. Like, she didn’t qualify. I don’t know what, what do you want me to do? And like that they, they threw it out right away. But like, they literally tried to say that. I was like, you know, sandbagging some, I was like, no, that’s where she, unfortunately, she didn’t make our varsity team. And it was the same with the guys was worse. But, you know, I, it it, it’s one of those things where I thought that was gonna come back to haunt us where you have a certain kid who’s just like, it’s destroying ’em. Not to make varsity, but like we had really good culture where these kids were like proud to be ninth on the team. And I was surprised, like they did their job. I mean, we had some guys that just, they never complained.

Sean (00:14:27):
They showed up. They worked just as hard as Lex, Leo, Collin, Aaron, my top guys at the time in 21, Nico, Jace, those are all Mike, my top top guys I’ve run with. And they never complained and they never put a varsity uniform on. And like that says something, you know, and I think that says a lot. And like I, to me it’s like when that was happening, I was like, man, this is, things are, this is right. Like we have the right leadership, we have the right culture. And like that’s I think why we succeeded. And there was no animosity towards any of it that I ever saw. And maybe there was on the inside a little bit, but like, it just, it was really cool to see like a kid who’s your 10th man, like proud to run from Newbury Park regardless, you know, and that that was something special. So

Brad (00:15:12):
Yeah, it’s, it’s healthy competitiveness. And I think the kids who are attracted to endurance running in high school are special breed anyway. Usually they have like the highest GPAs and they’re very focused and driven and kind and respectful and humble. Generally speaking, we, we’ve had a few cocky, cocky athletes come through, come through the mix who are also entertaining. But obviously the person at the top of the program is, uh, you know, fostering this camaraderie and this respectful culture. But at the same time, like I, I watched the videos from the Running Lane National Championships, and Colin and Leo and Lex weren’t holding hands. They were sprinting to the finish and of, of one second apart. So these guys are, you know, the, the top runners in the nation, it’s not, uh, patty cake and cotton candy at the finish. They’re, they’re trying to win instead of get second, even even the twins. Uh, and that, and that’s pretty awesome too because you know that, um, that can get outta hand at times when you have, uh, egos and teammates clashing, especially when you guys have that rockstar status where you had to get like security around the tent at the cross country meet hilarious stuff. I wish I’d seen that in person, but I was reading about it all the way along going, wow, look at this.

Sean (00:16:25):
Yeah, I mean, it’s funny because Colin won the national championship in 2021, was Gatorade Athlete of the Year. He actually’s the only runner track and field across country to ever get national player of the year out of all sports. Like he won the big award and, and he won cross country because like of what he did. And the funny thing is that cross country season, he wasn’t undefeated like Nico was. He actually lost one race and he was fourth, but it was to his three teammates, <laugh> to his brother and Lex and Leo. And like I remember that race and I talk about it in the book, it was like, how do you talk him off a cliff because here’s this guy that’s supposed to be the best in the country. And he is like, I just got fourth place. Like this is crazy to his own teammates, you know?

Sean (00:17:08):
And it’s so, it, you know, we always joked and said, all right, with 800 to go, it’s, it’s every man for himself. Like, you go for it, you know? ’cause you could only give him so much advice. And at Running Lane, I think we had about 600 meters to go. I forget exactly where it was. And I just was like, you guys gotta let it go. And like, I mean, ’cause we still had some guys on us and I knew what they were capable of and they just took off and they dropped everyone. Aaron paid the price ’cause he led most of the race and I think that’s why he was sixth and not hopeful. You know, I was, I was hoping he could have got fourth. But yeah, I think they, they did a really good job of, you know, you know, I always say this take, take my guys out of it.

Sean (00:17:48):
It’s like, if you’re not the person, like even at, at any athlete, I get we’re competitive and I, and I sometimes I like that cockiness in athletes and like the confidence, maybe not cockiness, but the confidence. And like you, you have to be, you have to be happy for your a your teammates, your peers. Because if you’re the person that like, you know, regrets that other person for doing better than you, I, I don’t think ultimately you’re gonna do well. I I really don’t. It’s okay to be happy for someone and wanna still beat them and like, I think they did a good job at that and I think that’s why, another reason why we are able to succeed.

Brad (00:18:20):
Yeah, that’s really important because we see so many examples, especially with the, you know, the massive explosion in popularity in modern sports and the digital age. We see a lot of examples of what I would consider to be, you know, misplaced competitive intensity where it’s, you know, the fans are obsessed with, uh, the team winning or even in the individual sports. And then, you know, it’s, it’s a tragedy when you fall short and, and the athlete, you know, falls apart. And it, it’s kind of like there’s a lot of ridiculous energy in there that is really not what makes a true champion. And even at I think your high school level, you condition these kids to be healthy competitors rather than, you know, get too stuck on themselves and, you know, pretty humbling for the Gatorade national athlete of the year to get forth in some race. But it’s all healthy if, if you make it so, rather than, you know, having, having get off track, which is so easy to happen when uh, what what the bigger the stakes get really.

Sean (00:19:27):
Yeah. I mean everyone always says, and I know it’s cliche, it’s like, you know, you, you learn who you are as an athlete or like, it, it’s what you do in the bad times, not the good times. And, and it’s true, you know, it is and it’s as crazy as that sounds. It’s like you gotta kind of step back. It’s like, I always tell my guys, listen, go cool down, like whatever it is, the two mile cool down, be mad, get pissed off, but when you come back, let’s figure it out. And like, that’s what I always would say. It’s like, ’cause otherwise like what are you doing? You’re just putting all this negative energy into you, you’ll never figure it out. And like, I dunno, again, we had a good, we did a really good job with that and I think people were excited to be part of our program because they saw the excitement, they saw when we showed up to races.

Sean (00:20:06):
People were like trying to take pictures or, you know, uh, all this different stuff that was happening lining up at our tent. And I think it just created a cool atmosphere and we definitely leaned into it and said, okay, let’s, let’s make this even like more fun than it could be. And like parents would like take it back. They were like, oh my gosh, like this is insane when we go to races. And you know, I talk about it in the book too, when we went to a race in New York, it’s like, it got so crazy. They put us in like a back room. Like we couldn’t even hang out in the stands at the armory in, you know, the indoor national championships. And it, I mean, it’s happened to a lot of like even modern athletes that are on top in high school now. It’s just the way things are I guess today. But, um, but yeah, it was, it was fun and I think they did a really good job.

Brad (00:20:45):
Yeah, I mean, some of it’s funny ’cause like I said, I competed in the eighties when, uh, the distance runners were entirely overlooked and it was all about the football team on campus. And I can’t even imagine like going on a website and seeing my name as the 17th ranked Southern California thing, you know, with, with my own following and my own account. Uh, so it, it seems like it’s a lot for the kids to handle and maybe some of that stuff is a little overblown. Like when I show up at a, at a high school track to do a workout today and you see like the five foot by seven foot banners of the kids lining the, the thing. But it’s also kind of cool to celebrate how hard the athletes are working. And I thought like all the notoriety you guys got was fantastic for the sport of endurance running and, and the school of little Newbury Park High school and especially, um, you know, how you were breaking through these barriers and uh, you know, showing what was, what was possible when, when you, you get this all in commitment and dedication.

Brad (00:21:49):
So I guess I’m gonna transition to asking you about that. ’cause that seemed like, you know, one of the magic pieces of the formula, there was a passage in the book where, hey, every summer the team goes up to the mountains for a week, which is super common. I used to go to Mammoth a lot in the summer and you’d see 35 different high school teams there with their vans getting out and doing a workout and having so much fun. And then like in the book you’re writing about, yeah, that was great, going up to Big Bear for the week and then you realize, no, we need to go for an entire month. And then you had to go pitch that to the parents and, and sell hard using your sales skills from that brief career in sales. So, uh, let me talk as I’m, as I’m summing up this huge, this tee up for you, how, uh, how that went to kind of create that all in full buy-in mentality for the kids, the kids’ families, and then of course for yourself too.

Sean (00:22:41):
Yeah. You know, I wanted to always do things differently. I guess not, not for the support of doing differently, but like, hey, how can we get better? We had won the state meet in 2018, and we were sixth at the national championship our first time qualifying for the national championship. And everyone thought that was good. And, you know, it was, it was, it was a solid performance.

Brad (00:23:02):
Yeah. You started in, what? You started in 2016?

Sean (00:23:05):
Yeah, 2016. Yeah.

Brad (00:23:06):
You walked in. Yeah. Um, I know you had a five foot, 195 pound freshman who, was was pretty good. It went on to, we saw him just in the Olympics and the World Championships last week. Nico Young. But you went from that to state champions in, in, in two seasons, Right?

Sean (00:23:23):
So I, well, I mean, I think so 16, 17, 18, it was the third season we won. And I, I talk about that too. I always said, we’re gonna win a title in four years. We won one in three. So in my head I’m going, okay, how do we win a national championship? But a they’re high school kids, so let’s not destroy these kids. I’m not a program and I, and I’m not gonna name ones, but I know that do it. They run eight miles in the morning, eight in the afternoon, and it’s just, they just grind these kids and it’s all about mileage and like, I just didn’t wanna do that. To me, it’s all about progression. I do a lot of different type of stuff for my training. So I said, what do I do? So I said, you know, you do get a benefit from going to altitude, but going for a month can create this team unity.

Sean (00:24:03):
So I was like, how do I sell this to these parents? And I, that’s, that was what the goal was. It was February, I think of 2019. So we had just won the state title a few months before that. We hadn’t even started track yet, outdoor track. And we were doing some indoor training. I have, we have a club we’ve run under ’cause we have no indoor season in California. I said, let’s go for a month. And I, and I proposed it and most of them said no. And you know, the, i, the joke in the book was, I had one parent say, oh, you could have my son for the whole summer <laugh>, you know, it was like, but it broke the ice. And they, they were all laughing and then they was just like, I don’t know. And then I said, listen, we’re gonna have a spare room in the house.

Sean (00:24:42):
All parents are welcome at any time. I’m gonna make this cheap for you. I mean, it ended up costing me and my wife and we had to raise money and do some different things, but it was like, I knew what we were doing. And I was like, if I can just convince them and not have this huge price tag. ’cause again, the rumor is, oh, they’re from Newbury Park. Everyone has all this money they can pay for. No, we had kids that couldn’t pay. I had parents that paid for other kids. We’d raised money. We were able to do it and do it fairly cheap. So I did have the month camp for the boys. We got 12 to go. And ironically we won the national championship the next year. Now is it because of the month camp? No, but it’s a piece of the puzzle and it, it created a lot of unity with our team and it created a mindset that that’s what I wanted.

Sean (00:25:26):
That was the point of that. And I was like, let’s do, like, why not think outside the box again? That’s always, I’m always trying to think of how we can do things differently, better, um, you know, smoother or how you can do it in order to be better. And my, my pitch to them was, listen, how do we get better without running harder? This is something that I promise is gonna be better for the team. And I think everyone loved it. We had parents renting houses coming up, taking their vacation, helping out. It just became this really cool thing. And then it was a tradition the whole time I was at Newbury Park. And then we even had the girls come a year later where we had a mom stay with the girls. I stayed with the boys and we did girls and guys houses for a month.

Sean (00:26:06):
And it was like, who, when you’re 15, 16, 17 years old and you’re spending a month with your best friends in the mountains. I mean, it doesn’t get any better than that, you know? So it was pretty fun. But we did, we trained pretty, pretty good up there. And, and the physiological benefit does help a little bit. It’s not, it’s not the break, you know, that it’s not the hump that put us, you know, over like to winning the national championship. But it, it was a, it was a piece of the puzzle I I, I thought was pretty unique. So, so

Brad (00:26:33):
How, how do you get better without running harder and breaking down, like the programs that, that grind these kids out and

Sean (00:26:39):
It’s, it’s doing all the little things, you know? Number one, if you go to altitude for a month, you know, all the research and studies show from all the best people I’ve ever talked to in the world is like, you get that physiological benefit when you’re close to 7,000 to 7,500 feet. So to me, like a Boulder Colorado didn’t make sense. Like, you can’t go to 5,000 feet. We wanted to go to 7,000. The lake is 6,900 feet at Big Bear, so it’s pretty much 7,000. And we run and we, our houses are above seven, so it’s like, let’s go for a month. We’ll, yes, this is the red blood cells and you know, different things you’re gonna get from that and the benefit quickly. But, um, that the team unity, that’s one thing. But it’s doing all these other things. Like all of our supplemental training, we started implementing in our program, our hip strengthening, glute strengthening ankle mobility.

Sean (00:27:28):
Um, we were a complete program. You know, we had doubles three days a week for our top guys and girls. Not everyone ran, but most of it was like a three mile shakeout run. We would do a supplemental training at 5:30, 6 o’clock in the morning and then we would go to school and then we’d have another practice in the afternoon, only three days a week. You know, we didn’t do it every day, but I just think when we started doing these injury prevention things, we ran on soft surfaces. We, we didn’t even run from school. I mean, I basically banned running from school because there was a concrete jungle. So we would, we had volunteer parents and kids that were able to drive to locations with our teams and we would run nothing but soft surfaces. I mean, a just a lot of the little things and the way my training is and, you know, talk about the physiology side of it, in my eyes it’s like, it’s all progression.

Sean (00:28:14):
I I think a lot of these coaches, you know, they just do base mileage. And I’ve said this before in other interviews I’ve done, like, I’ve heard coaches say, oh, if a kid runs 800 miles over the summer or a thousand miles, that’s all I need to do. It’s just about putting in the miles over the summer. I, I completely disagree. I think it’s, you know, touching all systems. You know, we do actual speed developmental stuff year round. We do anaerobic stuff almost year round, but it’s all progressive. What we’re doing in July is nothing like we’re doing in, in November. And it’s a progressive, it takes your body 12 weeks for adaptation to adapt to training. So if you start doing it in November or or September or it’s too late, like, so all these little things, I treated ’em like pros, but didn’t train ’em like pros. And I think it opened their eyes to running in a lot of ways. I think we just, we got a lot of belief and I, I think physiologically we just got really fit and just did things right. And in my eyes, and that’s, that’s kind of what put us over the edge.

Brad (00:29:12):
Well that’s a really important breakthrough that you’re tapping into here because we’ve had this flawed and dated traditions in endurance training that have been dragging on for 60 years now. And even today, they’re still around. And I probably, you’d be more expert to comment on this than me, but like, you know, the college system where they take these high school talented athletes and they get in there and they increase their mileage. ’cause that’s what you’re supposed to do when you go to college and they get injured and spit out the back, which was my experience at UC Santa Barbara. I was a pretty good high school runner. Yeah. Just under the Sean Brosnan cutoff with my, with my 4: 19. But I went up there and was sick and injured five seasons in a row because I couldn’t handle it. The progression was, uh, completely, uh, ill-informed and, you know, not, not applied properly to the individual. So that’s one credit that you deserve. There is like, you, you took these kids from whatever level of motivation, talent, you know, baseline standing when they show up in ninth grade and figured out how to get the, how to get the best out of ’em without those common setbacks that happen, especially in the endurance sports of trying really hard and, and getting cooked and not showing your talent.

Sean (00:30:30):
Yeah, I mean it’s like, I don’t know. There, there’s so many, there’s so many different things you can do and obviously train different ways, but it’s, it, I just, I you, you see it all the time. You know, it’s like the one thing I will say is my athletes that went to like NAU, Northern Arizona University, I feel like, oh, we succeeded so good. They did so well because the program’s real similar to me. It’s like the perfect progression I felt like from Newbury Park, what we did with our top elite high school kids or even like, you know, our top 10 kids, if they went there, I feel like the progression was perfect. Now I’ve had athletes go to other programs and I think it’s like they’re drop now. They’re dropping back because they’re just not using the tools that I feel like we gave them in order to keep progressing and so forth.

Sean (00:31:11):
And that’s fine. I mean, you know, you pick schools for different reasons. It’s not always athletics and you have to look at it like, you know, even holistically like, okay, if I wasn’t running, would I be happy here? Is this what I want to do for my job, my career, whatever it is. But yeah, I just, I don’t know. I mean, I think it’s like everyone always assumed we ran 90 mile weeks. I mean, they still say it. I still see people who say that.

New Speaker (00:31:32):
Yeah, my top guys by their senior year were running in the sixties. They, they were, I mean, that’s a decent amount of mileage. But you know, again, we progressed to that and not everyone did. Colin Solomon wasn’t a super high mileage guy. I mean, he, he wasn’t really over 60 that often in, in high school, you know, and he’s the national record holder for the 5K in cross country.

Sean (00:31:51):
You know, he went 3 56 in the mile in high school. And it’s like, he just, again, there was other stuff that we did. We always took one day a week off. We ne I mean, towards their senior year, maybe they did a shakeout like on a Sunday when we, you can’t have practice, they might run 15, 20 minutes. Like, that’s it. But like we, we didn’t run seven days a week. And I even know, like even at NAU, they don’t even always run seven days a week. You need those programs. Like one of the pros that I’m coaching right now, he’s a really good miler, like, you know, high, super elite and like I give him plan days off. Like, it, it’s still part of the program where like, but he’s coming from a different college program that I would probably coach. Like I think his coach is an amazing coach, but like now it’s like he’s getting used to doing this speed year round and, and, and he loves it.

Sean (00:32:37):
I’m hoping it’s gonna work, you know, know. ’cause I’m, I’m coaching him, you know, in, into this next year and hopefully beyond. But like, I, I don’t know. I just think there’s so many things you can do as a coach, but like, you know, I just, I just looked at things individually too. Not, all my athletes have the same training and a lot of coaches disagree with that and the team unity. I would change things all the time and be like, okay, you’re doing this, you’re doing this. I just, I tried to get their attributes and make the best out of it. It drove me crazy. It took a lot of time out of, you know, my, me personally. But I just felt like if I’m gonna do this high school thing, like when I’m, I’m gonna be, I wanna, I want to dominate. Like, and, and that’s just the, the mindset I had and it worked out <laugh> I guess you could say.

Brad (00:33:18):
Yeah. I mean you, you, you deserve so much credit there. And that’s what I think is missing in the coaching ranks is the coach is willing to go to that next level like you did with your kids there. I remember that anecdote from the COVID times when you couldn’t gather as a team. And so what, did you have three different meetings during the day going from, what were the times of the workouts? Yeah,

Sean (00:33:45):
Because we, we

Brad (00:33:45):
Could only groups

Sean (00:33:46):
Was 10 kids at a time. And my wife was an assistant coach, so we would, we didn’t have a big team, so we lucked out. So I’d have like 6:00 AM practice then I had two 30 practice and then I had like a 5:00 PM practice and it was like, I would go from, ’cause I could go, but the kids couldn’t mix. So it was like, it got hectic. It just got so hectic. But like, and then I wasn’t sleeping and then like, I was waking up ’cause I was teaching online ’cause I was a full-time teacher at Newbury Park at this point. And like, I just, I’d wake up in the middle of the night. I mean, one of the stories in the book was like, I wanted to find better spots to run where people weren’t harassing us. Even though we were following all the rules, people would still get mad.

Sean (00:34:23):
’cause we were with a group of 10 kids, so I was like looking for trails with a flashlight, I’m not kidding. In Newbury Park, Westlake, all that area. And I found this one 800-meter trail that was about a mile in of like in Thousand Oaks. I’m like, this is perfect. And like nobody was even in. And it was just like, that’s like, I just, I probably stressed myself out so much, but like, you know, and then we put on races in Arizona, people gave me heat on that. I was like, listen, we’re not breaking any rules. It’s through a club. But it, it, it was hard. But, you know, 2021 was like, ha, look, it all paid off, you know, <laugh>. So it was pretty cool.

Brad (00:34:59):
Yeah, it was kind of funny to learn about all the criticism that you faced, I guess from, you know, excelling beyond people’s expectations or comfort level. And I wonder what your insights are about that. Is it sort of like the crabs in the bucket where, um, the, the other coaches and the general running community wants to figure out ways to pick holes in what you’re doing? Even gossiping about, oh, they must be running so many miles or <laugh>, weren’t there some people whispering about doping on high school kids, otherwise they couldn’t go that fast and, and all the other nonsense? Um, my favorite one being that, uh, there was someone hiding in the bushes trying to photograph you to show that you were breaking the rules to get Newbury Park in trouble. Like, and did you recognize the person?

Sean (00:35:45):
I mean, I had that a bunch of times as

Brad (00:35:47):
A coach or something

Sean (00:35:48):
Of times. I had a picture, we had a picture to my school with, uh, me and my wife saying that I was working out with one of my athletes. I’m like, my wife is 35, like, she’s not a high school. I was like, that’s a compliment for her. She was a compliment. Yeah, she, it looks really young. She looked young in the picture. And I was like, okay, that’s pretty funny. But there was a, um, there’s a guy who, I consider a friend of mine, John Caprioti, he’s like a, who’s one of the head guys at Nike for years that I’ve got to know, you know, as Newbury Park progressed. And, you know, his son was a high school runner and you know, we just connected a lot. I still, you know, talk to him today at, at some extent he said to me once, he goes, listen Sean, when I took this job at Nike, you know, ’cause he basically ran, you know, Nike running North America, I think all over the world.

Sean (00:36:34):
He’s like the critics like Phil Knight told me, you you, the criticism will be unreal. It’s just gonna be unreal and like that it it, I was like, oh, you’re exactly right. Because it’s like, you know, another coaching friend of mine in New York once told me, he runs this running camp in New York that I go to every year. He said to me, he goes, Sean, you’re go once my team was six to nationals. He told me, he goes, you’re gonna find out who your, your coaching friends are now. Now you’re gonna find out because all of a sudden it’s like, oh, he does this, he does that. And it’s like, what happened you and my friend last year when we went no good. And now you, it’s like, you know, and I find that the coaches that are very successful, um, you know, you know, regardless if they do it the way I would do at training, like Doug Souls who was at you know, in Temecula at um, uh, great Oak and then he’s now in in, um, you know, Utah winning titles.

Sean (00:37:27):
He, we always had a mutual respect. And I consider him a friend even till today because he knows the criticism. I know the criticism ’cause he would win nationals and get the same thing. And there’s other coaches that get the same that I know. It’s like you always found that the successful coaches, it’s like the ones that are really successful are usually your friends. It’s like the ones that are like not quite at that level, they’re mad or I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s just, you know, there’s a famous line from Shoe Dog, the running book. I’m gonna mess it up a little, but like, you know, the bigger you su the bigger, bigger your success is, the bigger your target is. And that’s, that’s the way I looked at it. And you, you have to blow that stuff off. It’s just, it is what it is. And I don’t know, it’s a compliment sometimes. It’s like, whatever. Like keep saying it. It’s like the only reason why you’re saying it is because we’re winning. Like, I don’t know what else to say. So,

Brad (00:38:15):
So yeah, I mean, it seems like there’s, uh, a lot of ego in the coaching ranks. ’cause it’s a really tough job. It’s not extremely lucrative. And then by definition you’re living through the results of others. And so if you are having a tendency to be attached to results and have the ego into the game, then you become like a monster because it’s not just you, the egotistical athlete, it’s a coach living through the athletes, grinding ’em too hard. Like in your example, and I see that in the, in the coaching model a lot where the coach is so driven to win the conference title that they kind of disregard the best interest of the athletes and there goes another stress fracture and it’s kinda like, wow, what just happened here? You know.

Sean (00:38:57):
I mean my, a athlete and, and I always, I was always proud of my athletes, like injury wise, we weren’t an a, we weren’t a program that had a lot of injuries. I mean, you’re gonna get them. I understand that. And like you’re also going through growing pains with, with um, you know, underdeveloped kids. And that’s what, like, it’s not like that at the pro level at all. Even the college level when I was coaching in the NCA, it’s like, it’s so different. And which I like, you know, I love the pro level, I love the elite, the serious, but not, not that I didn’t like my time in high school at all. It was amazing. But it’s a different, you know, so you have to be careful these things. And I always thought we did a really good job of managing that because none of my top guys and girls were really injured at, at any capacity.

Sean (00:39:35):
I mean, we had little things here and there, but it was like we always took care of it. And like, I feel like we aired on the side of caution. But you know, we worked hard and we worked hard and we were supposed to, and we, it was a consistent work all year. And I think that that’s the main difference, you know, and you’re always gonna get people that, that criticize. I don’t, I guess no matter what industry you work in, if it’s business, if it’s you’re a volleyball coach or you’re, I don’t know, trading stocks, you’re gonna get somebody that’s doing something that is apparently wrong. But it, you know, that’s, that’s just kind of how it is. I think. So,

Brad (00:40:07):
I think it was really important when you talked about the progression and it seems like a breakthrough in training philosophy, like I mentioned a little bit, uh, where you, where you mentioned like doing, uh, important aspects of training all year long, but in a manner of progression. So you’re still running fast when traditionally, for many, many years and decades we’ve been taught that you take these chunks of the season and you run a whole bunch of miles, like you mentioned the coach, all you need to do is put in your 800 miles in the summer and then everything will be magical in the season. Right? And it seems like now possibly this is, uh, one of the attributes of the performances improving at the, at the world level is that people are training smarter than they did decades ago. I remember reading Steve Magnus Science of running where he was talking in a similar topic about how, um, the traditional periodization model of strict base period and then strictly into, you know, the high intensity, uh, is kind of getting washed away.

Brad (00:41:10):
And even to the extent that, like, as I was reading it, I was getting more confused, Sean, and thinking like, well, then what do we do? ’cause Magnus was saying like, even during a single run, you can do some tempo and you can do some fast strides, and then you can go really slow. And it’s like, I always tried to learn like, how am I gonna train perfectly? I’m gonna go really slow for three months and build my base and then, then I’m gonna throw in these specific things. But it really makes a lot of sense that you need to hone that physiology without these long breaks where you don’t run a step fast because you’re building a base. That’s a good way to probably get injured and burnt out when it is time to start going fast, even if you do run 800 miles during the summer,

Sean (00:41:52):
Right. No, I mean, it, it it’s exactly true. So you take a typical, uh, outdoor track season and let’s say you run the 800 in the mile, the 1600 in high school, um, it’s like all of a sudden you’re going from, you know, this base spirit or, or just getting used to getting running faster again a little bit. And then march all of a sudden it’s March. And then you, you, you’re doing really fast stuff on the track. Like it’s just your risk of injury to me goes up and it’s like, now you, your body never adapted to that training. One of the greatest coaches of all time told me once, he goes, Sean, if you wanna break four minutes in a mile at like a high school kid, he needs to be running 28 second two hundreds all the time, all year, not literally two hundreds.

Sean (00:42:32):
But you need to be doing that pace because what are you gonna do? When are you gonna start it? It’s like, I always, as a coach and, and in life, I always say it like, I’m always looking like, I always feel like I, I don’t like, we’re in a, not in a rush, I guess I could look wrong, but it’s like, you know, we don’t have time. Like let’s, let’s start now. And like, again, when I say progression, it’s like if we’re doing thousand repeats, like a VO two style workout for a high school kid, we started in, in July, right? Let’s say six or seven of ’em with three minutes rest, a real typical high school cross country workout on grass. We would start that like for Nico Young, I think he started it like in, like his pace was like 2:56 in July, but then he was running 2 46 in in November.

Sean (00:43:20):
That’s a big difference. Like 10 seconds per interval. It’s like, it was all progression. But like if we would’ve started those, like if we didn’t do anything over the summer, we would’ve been behind. And like, you know, people were always surprised, like, what we would be doing mile repeats in the summer. I’m like, yes, but they’re not the same as they’re gonna be in November. And it’s like, you know, we’re also running cross country now. You get out of high school, it’s a whole different world. Like you have a miler who doesn’t run cross country and they’re strictly 1500, 800 runner. Like, it’s a different progression to when you might might do an indoor, mostly outdoor, your professional season goes to September, you’re running all summer long. So it’s a different progression. But, um, anyway, yeah, I mean I think the example with, with Steve Magnus is exactly right.

Sean (00:44:03):
I think there are so many more creative ways of doing things and you know, again, there’s different ways, uh, to get to the final result. I’m not gonna coach like all, not all, you know, there’s three people that win Olympic medals. They’re not, they all don’t coach the same way, but every athlete’s different, you know, and, and every athlete’s gonna respond a little different. And like, sometimes just because an athlete doesn’t respond doesn’t mean you can’t do that. Like you have to get used to that. But it’s like there’s certain things in high school running that I believe are staples you have to do in order to improve. And I, and I say that all the time, and that’s the kind of how I went into Newbury Park. It was like I came in with a professional coaching attitude, like in my head anyway, and like just dumbed it down for high school, but like made sure we did things correctly and in my head and, and I think it worked.

Brad (00:44:51):
So Sean, are people listening because I’m wondering why there aren’t more Newbury Park type fantastic teams with dudes running in the fourteens as opposed to what we still see is a lot of mediocrity. You’re the one that really pumped that, that theme up really well. And maybe you could talk about how your 4:20 had a life of its own and you had to trademark it. Uh, but I I, I knew what you were saying right from the beginning, uh, for those of you unfamiliar, he, he said, f4:20 for a high school miler just really isn’t that fast. And then people took that and ran with it for years because, uh, generally speaking, that’s a pretty highly accomplished runner who trains hard and is dedicated to the sport and all that. But I still don’t see this massive evolution in performance or even in coaching strategy.

Sean (00:45:45):
I think, you know, I think, well I actually think since Newbury Park it’s gotten, I, I mean there’s a lot of variables. The the new shoes are insane. Um, the super spike the road shoe, it, it’s absolutely insane, great for recovery, but it is making people faster. My athletes had it towards the end. Um, Nico never had the super shoe in high school. It wasn’t out yet. Like, you know, people running will know what I mean when I’m saying that, but I think I was, I’m seeing a lot of individual like results that are crazy. I haven’t seen the teams yet that are just dominant like that. And I think it’s, you know, listen, I, I think I know some personally really good high school coaches that are like amazing that I think could do this. It’s like, but a lot of it’s the same thing.

Sean (00:46:25):
It’s like, I, I don’t have the time that you had. It’s like, well, I didn’t have the time either. I just made it like when I was sleeping three, four hours trying to do everything. ’cause it’s like I told the kids, and I say this in my book, i’s like, no, I, and I believed it and I, I, you know, you could say it’s not true. ’cause I don’t know what these other coaches do, but I, I told my athletes, I said, no coach is gonna work as hard as I work for you guys. So you have that confidence. And I promise you, if you do everything I say, then it’s my fault, not your fault. And like that. And that’s what I, that’s the way I always looked at it. If something went wrong, it’s like, okay, what did I do? You know, I do find it funny though when a lot of the criticism is like, oh, it’s the athletes that are running fast, not the coach.

Sean (00:47:04):
Which it is a hundred percent true, but when things go wrong, it’s always the coach’s fault. Like, it’s like, okay, what, pick the results here. You know, because people like to criticize me and they’re like, oh, you take all the credit. I was like, I don’t, I don’t know. What do you mean to take the credit? Like, I’m proud of my kids. Like that that ran fast. And like, yes, this was a team effort. Like, yes, they ran it. Of course they did. You know, I, I got criticized when we won the national championship in 2019 by a certain group of coaches for going up on the, on the stage and getting the trophy with them, which by the way was Nan telling me, Sean, go up on the stage with your athletes. I’m like, okay. So there were, one of the coaches didn’t come on the stage outta the three teams that they got the awards.

Sean (00:47:48):
One of them, I did. And so did another team that was out there. And it was like the, I, I, I was like, that’s what you’re criticizing me for. Like, come on, like let’s, like, I was proud to share it with them and like, I think they were proud to share it with me. And I think that’s how it is. It’s a team effort, because I’m gonna take fault in the athletes running poorly because if they’re doing what I’m saying and they’re not running well, you could be a bad coach and be like, oh, mentally they’re not into it. We’ll figure it out. It’s your job to figure it out with them, because that’s my commitment to them and that’s how I am. And anyway, I think there’s been a big progression over the last few years, like individually, you see some really fast times and I think kids are exposed to more training online.

Sean (00:48:29):
There’s a lot of private coaches and unfortunately I’m not, like, I’m not opposed to private coaches because like I think sometimes they, you know, you get a high school coach that just is a teacher at a school and they just coach the program and I, and that, and it, it’s, it’s hard when you just, and that that’s the school you just slated to go to and you just don’t have a great environment to run fast. So kids are choosing private coaches and there’s so many elite opportunities for high school kids now. They can travel across the country if you can get the means to do that. And some of ’em get NIL deals where they now can get flown across the country from these sponsors and it’s all legal now and they’re going to great races to have better opportunity. You know, one thing in Newbury Park, we didn’t race a lot.

Sean (00:49:12):
These in, like I’ve, I’ve noticed last year, uh, certain kids just racing every other weekend, like grinding, like sub four this, I’m like, this is insane. Like, Colin broke four minutes indoors. That was his indoor race, you know? And then outdoors, we prepared to run like really fast at Arcadia, which is a big high school meet for the 3,200. And then he, then we ran a mile at Prefontane and like he ran 3 56. I just felt like you can progress and develop more in training than sometimes racing. I think sometimes these high school coaches just rely on racing for training and we never did that. So.

Brad (00:49:50):
Oh, sure. I mean, it’s ridiculous to go and, and travel around and have all the other, uh, stressors of being a high school student and, and studying. And, um, I, I remember my friend’s daughter who had a great high school career, but in the middle of the cross country season, uh, the team decided to fly out to across the country, to New York City to run in a meet there and then fly back and resume their training right where they picked up and then back to the invitational meets with it. It was like, like, like it was nothing. And it’s like if you’re gonna have a high school kid fly across the country, run their hearts out and fly back, that’s a complete disruption and interruption of the progression that you talk about. And I think athletes make this mistake at all levels, even elites when they’re, you know, trying to squeeze in too much due to whatever economic incentives and things that take their eye off the big prize at the end.

Sean (00:50:44):
Yeah, I mean that, yeah, no, you, you one, 100% right. I agree. It’s like, you know, we would get offers all the time that go to races, we’ll fly you out. We would turn ’em down. But I just think that like, you know, you, you just, you have to pick your battles wisely, and figure that out. And, and if you could perform when you pick those battles wisely, you could perform on those days. Obviously it’s a great thing during cross country with my top guys and girls, we wouldn’t race for four to five weeks and that’s like unheard of in high school. Like, coaches were like, how do you get your kids to do that? I was like, what do you mean we just do it? It’s like they know it’s good for them. Like we wouldn’t run the county championship ’cause it didn’t count as a qualified or anything. So I would run my JV kids and give them an opportunity to run the varsity race. And some coaches got mad at me for that, but I’m like, I have JV kids that run full 18 in the mile. I want them to run a varsity race. So it was like our way of giving back too. So they didn’t, they didn’t see that. But not racing for five weeks, midseason across country seemed crazy to some people, but I think it proved to be a good, a good recipe for my guys. So

Brad (00:51:48):
Did they win the county championships?

Sean (00:51:50):
I don’t know if they, I don’t think they won. They were like top two or three. I’m not sure if we won f Yeah, but like people would go, would gun for that. And I was like, I don’t understand. We have league championships like a week later. I was like, what? You have to run in California, then we have CIF prelims, CIF finals, then the state meet, then the national meet. I have to run my kids in that. So I was like, I can’t, I can’t race. And then, you know, some coaches would just be like, well, it’s tradition. I’m like, I get it, I get it. So, and we just never did it. So

Brad (00:52:18):
<laugh> yeah, I mean the traditions are important and you know, being a California high school athlete, the state meet and you buy the program and you can see the past champions and there’s so many Olympic gold medalists that have showed up at the state, meet Marion Jones, Allison Felix, all the great distance runners, Ryan Hall. And then when I learned that the, the Young brothers were gonna, were gonna skip the state meet when they were seniors and running these other races, I was kind of disappointed. I was like, man, I wanna see those guys up on the board with all the best guys. But what you just mentioned is like, if an athlete wants to go compete in the state meet and follow the traditions of the a hundred year old competition, they have to go to league prelims, league finals, qualifying for the section, another qualifying.

Brad (00:53:01):
And so it’s basically like this giant commitment. And you know, my, my disappointment was, was recalibrated when I saw the, what was the 5,000 record at UCLA was at Lex or Leo running like 13:35 or something. Yeah. So Lex run runs, runs 1335 in, in the 5K to break the all time national record. And it’s like, oh, that’s why you didn’t run the state meet. You had much bigger fish to fry and, and a coach who saw that vision because I think 99% of California state high school track and field coaches would want to see their kid go win the state meet. But it’s like he would’ve won by a straightaway and then could’ve kept going for another mile at the same pace that he just won the state meet. So it’s like, what’s the point?

Sean (00:53:48):
Right? I mean, that’s the thing. It’s like, it’s a double ended sword. People are like, Hey, you could win the state meet with just distance kids in track. I go, but now I’m tripling every one of those kids. So they’re running three races like five weeks in a row. For what? Like, like what, what are we doing? And like, again, to me it’s like, I always found it funny how everyone was like, you’re so about winning. But I wasn’t about winning ’cause we didn’t, we could have won the state meet in track and we didn’t do it. And, but like we chose Colin to go run a like basically an experience of a lifetime. The Prefontaine, he was in the, like the bowerman mile, which is extremely, I mean he got into it ’cause he was a high school kid and he was running so fast and trying to break the high school national record, which still stands with Alan Webb, but like he, he got in that race.

Sean (00:54:33):
Like he’ll never get that, that chance to do that ever again. And like Lex and Leo actually never ran. A lot of it was ’cause of COVID. They canceled the California state meet two years ’cause of COVID. But they had a like a southern section championship. And the commissioner at the time of CIF got really mad at me and called me and was like, what do you think you’re better than all? I was like, you know what? You guys canceled this thing on us two years in a row. We’re not gonna run a regional. We’re gonna go to Tennessee and run this elite race and we’re gonna have fun. And like he just, he, it was ended up being fine and we went back and forth in some emails and it was, it was, it was actually good. But like he was annoyed because I was, he thought I was like too good.

Sean (00:55:12):
And not that I thought they were too good. It was like I just wanted other opportunities for them. And that’s, that’s, you know, it, it all worked out. Like you said, Lex broke the National 5K record calling her in 3:56, 1 of the all time fastest miles and like an, an opportunity of a lifetime. And like, that’s the only reason we did that. And then one time, Lex and Leo actually had like a family vacation that was planned for months and months and months to like Sweden. And it actually, that was why they couldn’t do it. We would’ve gone that year, but I said, you know what, let’s run these other elite races. Who cares if people criticize it? And then Lex ran like 4 0 1 in the mile and he, it was fine. Like they, they, they ended up, you know, we didn’t have to go win a state title to prove it to anybody that we were better. So that’s how I looked at it.

Brad (00:55:55):
Yeah, you’re you’re, you’re calling to a higher purpose, which was the personal development of the athlete, right? And their long term, uh, you know, prospects in the sport, especially when you’re talking about elite athletes and, um, a lot of coaches can’t answer to that. They’ve, they’ve ruined magnificent talents by, by, by grinding ’em out too hard at a young age. Right. I want to challenge you a little on, uh, this wonderful talk about, you know, not placing limitations, believing in yourself, believing, being able to do something great. I can reflect back to being that young runner who was so dedicated and, you know, my heart and soul was into this sport. My training partners, we were all just all in. We loved it. We, we talked about running and practiced and trained as hard as we could. Of course we didn’t have that care for progression, so we would find ourselves sick and injured a lot.

Brad (00:56:46):
But there’s also a point where the gun goes off and you’re out there running over the, the, the hills and the, the challenges of the cross country course when you’re at your, you’re at your limit, right? And I, I don’t see how much mindset can overcome whatever your physiological competency is at a certain point. And so you had this, you know, beautiful camaraderie. You were there to support the guys. I still wanna put in some missing pieces to how you can get so many kids to run so fast. You trained them well, you made ’em believe themselves. But, I don’t know if I’m asking the question correctly, but, you know, I thought I was a pretty dedicated and competitive guy and I made it only so far because my arm started burning on the last lap. So the answer is no. I couldn’t have broken 4: 20 in that race no matter how much I believe that it wasn’t that fast or whatever, you know what I’m saying? Like right.

Brad (00:57:53):
What’s, what, what’s that magic element that comes in where you can stop placing limitations on yourself, like you say on the back cover of the book, but then actually see this amazing breakthrough in, in physical performance on the stopwatch in a sport that’s so difficult? I mean, if you were a tennis coach or a golf coach, I’d say, Hey, Sean, tell us how you help calm the athlete’s mind so they can sink more putts. And I’ve been listening carefully because there is so much noise and so much technique involved, but this is like pure suffering and Right. The the stopwatch doesn’t lie.

Sean (00:58:27):
Well, I mean, you’re exactly right too. So, so a few things that I’ve always like how I am, well first of all, I think that you find these moments in training. There’s moments, and this is number one, I think there’s moments in training where it gets, it’s like you train as a runner to, to basically run with pain. And, and how do you do that right now there’s a science behind it and you could talk about lactic acid and acidity and all this stuff. I mean, a line I always use is you gotta teach your body to run with acidity. Like, you just have to do that, right? So the thing is, I feel like it is a learned, it’s a learned skill, but it’s like, you know, you find these moments in training where like you see it in an athlete.

Sean (00:59:07):
And that’s why I do, I, I like to develop in training, not racing where you do something that you did not think you can do in training. And, and it’s almost like a race, right? That brings a moment out in a kid, in an athlete, an adult, and anyone, even a college athlete where it’s like, man, I can start doing this ’cause I had that happen to me. And I know that feeling of like all of a sudden I’m more confident. And it’s like, obviously that’s number one. But like I realize not everyone’s gonna be an all American, not everyone’s gonna be a state champion. Not everyone is capable of breaking 4 10, 4 20, 4 30, whatever, you know, five minutes for girls maybe in the mile. And I know there’s physical capabilities, but I still, I’m rooted with the belief that like we set these limitations. That comment that I said when I was doing an interview once I was like, 4;20 is not fast for high school miles’s just not fast.

Sean (00:59:56):
That’s exactly how I said it. What I meant was like, you know, I have had coaches ridicule me, they’d send me dms and they’re like, how dare you, I have kids that could never do that. Like, who do you think you are? I said, listen, do you think it’s fast? So like, yes. I said, well then that’s, that’s it. Stop thinking it’s fast because why did all these athletes break four minutes in the mile this same year that Roger Bannister did in 1954? There’s a reason they did it. And like you people, the ones who criticize me for this are the ones that won’t open their mind because we are absolutely capable of a lot more than we think. It doesn’t mean everyone could be Olympians, doesn’t mean everyone could be national champions, but I think everyone could be a little bit better. You know, this camp that I go to every year in upstate New York and I always speak out, work out, have a great time.

Sean (01:00:41):
Uh, one of the coaches there once told me, he goes, you think everybody can be good, Sean? I go, you know what? I think everyone could be better. And I think you could always improve. And like, you gotta find your Olympic moment. And I think that’s what we do. We find our Olympic moment, like maybe in, in, in high school it’s a kid running 15:50, maybe it’s a kid running a boy running a 16:30, a girl breaking 19. And that moment is like Colin breaking four minutes. It’s still the same. So to me, as a coach, I find those moments for those athletes and we do, we celebrate ’em. And even as pros, I don’t mean like we have to be like rah! Like cheering, playing music high five. I’m not a very like, run up and hug you type coach. It’s like, listen, you find those moments and like you could see it in a kid’s eyes.

Sean (01:01:26):
Like when you pull a kid aside and go, do you know what you just did right now? Like, like that was amazing. That was, and it’s like they light up and it’s like, it’s a different kid after that one conversation. And I learned that from watching pros, from watching the best college coaches, the best pro coaches work with professionals and even get in their head. And I feel like that’s, that’s maybe part of it. Or you could say the secret or it’s just, it’s just creating that atmosphere all the time that it’s like, it’s, it’s a positive reinforcement of like your training. Even when things are bad, it’s like, listen, you’re supposed to feel like crap. This is September. We’re not supposed to feel good. Like I rather you, and then when you fail in a workout, it’s like, that’s good you, ’cause now you’re not gonna fail the next three times we do this.

Sean (01:02:13):
It’s like, I don’t know. That’s just the way I am as a coach. And I feel like we just had those moments, we found those moments in training and it’s connecting with the athlete. You know, my famous line all the time, and again I get ridiculed for it, I say there’s two comedians in a room. They tell the same joke. One of them is funny and the other one’s not. Why? It’s the delivery, it’s the connection with the audience, with the people it’s the way you say it. You could tell a kid great job, but looking in their eyes and having that connection is different. And I don’t care what level you’re at, it is different because you know, when you have that connection and you talk, like even one of the athletes I’m working with now, I have such a good connection with him. Uh, and it’s like he, I can tell this is gonna be a good relationship coaching and as, and he’s a professional and it’s like, that’s important and I feel like that’s, that’s gonna break you to that next level.

Sean (01:03:03):
And I think that’s what we did. And I think I, I did that and like even when I’d watched my wife coach, some of the athletes sometimes, and it’s not a knock to my wife ’cause she’s amazing. She’s a two-time NCA champion when she was in college. An amazing runner herself. But like, I’d be like, oh don’t, you’re missing the you you’re missing the opportunity to go give them something. Go, go talk. And I’d be like, I’d be like, Tanya, go talk to them now. No, no, no. And like, I just feel like those cues I’ve always been good at and it’s like, I I just, that’s what we did. If that makes any sense. I know I kind of rambled on, but that’s where I think the big difference is in, in making a team great. I really do.

Brad (01:03:39):
Oh no, it’s huge. And we’re talking about high school kids here where it’s incredibly huge. Just even the idea of you stepping up to the front of the meeting room with the parents and showing the level of belief and commitment that you had. If I ever had that type of intervention in, in, in my career as an athlete, I would, I would, I would’ve responded to it tremendously. ’cause it’s just very, very rare. So, you know, you set the tone from day one and it, it’s a beautiful, beautiful story. But yeah, it makes a lot of sense. ’cause um, I think it probably would apply even at the, the highest level of elite performance. I mean, those people struggle from self-doubt too. And they need people in their corner to give ’em that perspective. It’s okay to get beaten. It’s okay calling Solomon Gatorade athlete of the year to get fourth place on your own team sometimes. Yeah. Fantastic. You gotta you gotta keep setting that perspective, especially with really driven competitive athletes who by definition are gonna have their ego involved in the, in the mix because they’re committed so much to it.

Sean (01:04:41):
It, well, it’s funny, it’s like I, I read a lot about manifesting and all this stuff. It’s always been something I’ve been very interested in and like, you know, I I just think how people’s mind and belief can change, like, outcomes in life or just thinking positive. And it’s like, you know, even an athlete when they, when they joke about being like, oh my God, I’ll never do that. Don’t joke about that because that’s that now you just, that that seed is planted. Like, and I’m dead serious about it. Like, I talk to my athletes about that. It’s like, you, you, you’re joking and I know it’s funny and it’s like, but once you do that now it’s like, to me it’s like saying the word hope. I hope I do this well. You’re not gonna do it if you hope you do it.

Sean (01:05:22):
I’m not saying you have to be like cocky and be like, I’m gonna break the world record. No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying, but like, that’s not a word of belief. You got to, you gotta really start believing. It’s like why not die trying? Like, I always, my biggest thing is I always say, why not? Why not? Why not think more? Why not think higher? What, like what, what’s the harm in that? Like, and that’s how I start. I feel like especially at that high school level, it’s like, let’s really get this going guys. And like, I, I like that part of coaching. I think it’s important. I, like I told you earlier, I had one of the most inspirational coaches of all time, Damien Martin at Adam State, one of the most successful coaches, even though it’s division two, he’s amazing. We used to sit there before a hard workout and he, I’d be like, man, I’ll run through a brick wall for this guy. And like, that’s, that’s what I wanna do and that’s what I want to create. You know, if you can,

Brad (01:06:09):
Well you did it wonderfully and I think you’re gonna, uh, have great success with your, uh, next venture. So maybe you can tell us, I know you can’t tell us everything ’cause you’re about to put together a program, but what does a coach like you do when you’ve moved on from the high school experience and the ridiculous NCAA experience, which we can hear about in some of your other interviews, but it’s like, um, nah, we, we don’t wanna mess around with all those, all all the, all that silliness now it feels like you have some open road to, to coach some elite performers.

Sean (01:06:44):
Yeah, you know, it’s, it’s always been the goal of mine and I’ve come from my feel like the post-collegiate coaching type background, even before Newbury Park being around that, that’s always what I wanted to do. And I always felt like it was gonna be my, my best attribute as a coach. After, you know, I left Newbury Park, went to UCLA for, for a real quick time. When I left there wrote the book, like I said earlier, and it’s like, well, where are my avenues? What can I do now? I had some opportunities to coach athletes individually, pros, I just didn’t know if I wanted to go that route. So I really took my time. What is happening now? So basically is in January the goal, well, everything is getting set up. I’ll have, um, a pro group and it’ll consist of men and women, you know, distances of, you know, all difference from anything from the 800 to 10 k, pretty much like most pro groups out there that, you know, and we will have a company sponsor.

Sean (01:07:37):
And we’re getting all that, you know, wrapped up right now and all those details. Hopefully you’ll be out by December. And I’m, like I said, I’m coaching a few athletes, I’ve said this before, that the plan is to, you know, pull them over into this, this pro group and yeah, that’s, that’s what we’re gonna be doing. And the goal is, you know, 2028, the LA Olympics and then 2032, the Olympics are gonna be in Australia. And that’s, that’s gonna be the goal. And you know, we’ll have a few internationals like maybe some Europeans on the team with Americans. So that to me, in my head, we’ll make a really good training partner because if you have a guy who’s from Ireland or UK training with the US guy, now you’re not all competing for the same Olympic spot because there’s only three spots for, you know, the 1500, 810 K, 5K steeplechase, whatever your distance event is in the us It’s like, I want to try to work it out that I have that balance of like two 15 guys that are training online squad, but one’s from, you know, you know, over the, across the, the pond and the other one is in the US and you’re able to, uh, train together without having that, you know, fight for the same US team.

Sean (01:08:43):
And, um, yeah, we’ll, we’ll see how it goes, but I’m excited to get that started and yeah, hopefully sooner than later, we’ll we’ll make that announcement. I don’t think it’s gonna be anything like super formal, but once things get wrapped up contractually, we’ll, uh, we’ll be able, I’ll be able to, to announce more on that. So,

Brad (01:09:01):
And you’re gonna be based in either your b.

New Speaker (01:09:04):
Big Bear Lake where you used to take the, the kids or Flagstaff?

Sean (01:09:07):
Yeah, we’re still deciding. Big Bear Lake or Flagstaff has come up, so, um, you know, we’re trying to make that decision, you know, as in the next like few weeks, I guess the next month. Um, I’m currently in Big Bear Lake right now and uh, you know, I love it up here. It’s just, this is where I live full time now and it’s, it’s, it’s worked great, but, um, just trying to do what I think is best for the athletes where most would, you know, uh, run their best and obviously where the sponsors want us to because sometimes there’s more exposure to other places and so forth. So

Brad (01:09:38):
Yeah, maybe you could detail a little bit more. I mean, we we’re watching these great USA and the other countries show up at the world championships and compete, but in general life, like, it, it’s kind of strange really. ’cause you think like, you know, there’s so much writing on our Olympic success and the broadcast is counting the medals, but then when the, when the TV’s and the meet’s over, uh, these athletes are kind of in this sort of free for all experience where you hope to get a sponsor and then hope that that sponsor has like a organized club or team based somewhere. And I was interviewing Shelby Holihan earlier this year, uh, visiting her up in Flagstaff, and she was saying after coming back from her suspension, like, yeah, I’m hoping to figure out a good group or place to go, because right now I’m training by myself all the time.

Brad (01:10:24):
And like here’s, you know, our best long distance runner who’s just cast out and forced to fend for herself unless she can find some, you know, sort of a random privately funded, privately organized experience. I wonder how you feel about the American system at this point. Now, obviously you’re buying into it, you’re gonna put, pull that sponsor in and create the dream of your own. But you know, they have these Olympic training centers where, you know, there’s a few hept athletes down at Chula Vista that can use the facilities, but it seems like it’s way kind of underfunded and underemphasized about how to support our broad prospects, uh, across track and field and distance running.

Sean (01:11:10):
No, you’re right. It, it’s extremely difficult from even a coaching standpoint to an athlete standpoint of how you, how do you navigate in that pro career, right? If you’re an athlete graduating college, a top NCA guy or a girl, you know, and you’re trying to figure out where, where do I go? Like what do I do? And like the thing is there, there’s, what I’m trying to do is have a sponsored group with a shoe company and like that’s where I, I I think, I think there’s an iden The reason why I like it, I think there’s an identity to that group. I think it becomes this like yeah, it just, it creates an image that, that I want to help create with a certain company. And I think it could be really good and positive, but you’re right. Like, you know, where you, like, if you have a certain shoe sponsor, there are some groups that are independent, but here’s a difficult part of that.

Sean (01:11:56):
So you’re an independent, you have an athlete that runs for Adidas, one that runs for Nike, one that runs for Hoka, and like, okay, so there’s three different athletes there, right? And they all want to train in the same group. So how do I coach them? That’s what I ran into two years ago. I was talking to athletes and it’s like, well, they have this really small stipend that they can pay their coach. Like sometimes it’s five to $10,000. I’m like, okay, so if I have eight athletes, I’m making like $50,000. It’s not like I’m getting any insurance or any, I’m just, and then if they lose their contract, I lose my money. It, it’s just hard to do. So it’s a very difficult thing. And, and to run professionally sometimes we lose good athletes who never keep going, you know, because there’s, there’s top athletes right now that, you know, they graduate and they make $30, $40,000. Like, it’s hard to survive on that money, you know? So

Brad (01:12:49):
Jaco Patterson, man, he was working at the, he was working at the warehouse, UPS shipping boxes, the number one 400 meter runner in the world.

Sean (01:12:57):
A terrible story. And he made it right. He made it because he, he wouldn’t, he didn’t give up. But there’s some people, they just, they can’t, or they, or ones that didn’t go to school in a full ride. They have student loans, they have stuff they have to pay. And it’s unfortunate. And it’s like they have a little bit of debt and it’s like, I can’t make, it’s like, you know, the group that I’m trying to, you know, what we’re getting formed, I have a baseline number that we have to pay the athletes because I just think they have to survive. Like, it’s not even like they’re gonna be like, you know, rolling in the dough and making tons of money and buying these huge houses, but they don’t have to worry from that amount. And that’s the goal. I just want that commitment.

Sean (01:13:37):
And I, and I think we’re in that direction that even, but I, but the, but then the, it comes to now I can’t take a developmental athlete because there’s athletes that are, because they have to be a certain level to get that amount of money. And I just can’t take now. So now we just raised the bar of like, okay, now, you know, and then the company’s like, well, we want this type of athlete. I’m like, we’re gonna have to pay ’em. Now you’re talking about six figures, that’s great, but you’re gonna have to start paying this guy hundreds of like, I wanna coach that guy too, or that woman. But like, so it’s very difficult. It’s very difficult. And like someone like Shelby, like, I don’t know her particular situation and even coaching situation at all, but like I’ve, you know, I know she’s in Flagstaff, kind of, I know her sister coaches at a university in Phoenix, so she might be down there sometimes and I could be mistaken. That’s just the hunch I get. So I think there’s, okay, so maybe there’s some support that way. ’cause I, I know her sister Shayla and like, so that maybe that’s working for them and that’s amazing. But yeah, you’re right. Like she’s a great example. Um, it’s like, what do you do? You know? Unfortunately she does, I don’t know if she has a shoe deal. I don’t think she does. So without that, she’s working for it without, what was that

Brad (01:14:41):
You, shoe executives watching? She just got forced in the world championships and I know still

Sean (01:14:46):
Looking for, she won medal indoors too. She got an indoor medal door,

Brad (01:14:49):
Got silver. Yeah. Amazing. Sean. I think it’s the greatest comeback of all time in endurance running track and field because no athlete has sat out for four years and come back and medaled at the world stage. I mean, uh, uh, Donovan was injured for three years, pretty much, but I think it was pretty historic that she kept training and kept pushing by herself during that suspension. You can’t even train with, uh, uh, other people. And, um, yeah, great credit to her that she’s back on the world stage.

Sean (01:15:19):
No, I know. I still looking for a few deals. It’s like, it’s crazy like this. Watching everything with her. No, you’re right. I mean, but like, so hopefully something works out for her for sure. ’cause like she, she’s definitely earned it, you know? I mean, you know, she’s beating everybody, you know, she almost got a medal. It was really, I was there, I was in Tokyo. Yeah. And like, oh really?

Brad (01:15:37):
Oh,

Sean (01:15:37):
I was actually in Tokyo last week and it was like in insane. Did you same

Brad (01:15:40):
Honors that, uh, you coach that were in the world or,

Sean (01:15:43):
Um, no, no, no. My, not my athlete. And no, not this year. He will, he’ll he didn’t go to the worlds this year, but, um, this year. But watch out. I, uh, I went there just for, with the shoe company I’m dealing with and meetings and different things and, and, um, just to, to go to the world championships too, you know, I wanted to see and, and I got to spend time with Nico and his family, in between his races and stuff. And that was pretty cool to see. So, I mean, I’m a huge fan,

Brad (01:16:07):
Fan. I gotta, um, I gotta ask you because Nico’s progression has been sensational. Yeah. Um, you know, 21 years old, he got ninth in the Olympic final. And I was just so happy and amazed to see this guy that I first heard about when he, when he ran that 8:40 at Arcadia outta nowhere, and just an amazing progression. And then you see him in the world where he got, uh, was it fifth or sixth?

Sean (01:16:31):
Fifth and sixth, he ran the 10 K. The 5K

Brad (01:16:34):
He got fifth and sixth. And he was, he was clearly disappointed. Like, wait a second, dude, you’re coming up the ladder. Like, like no athlete. But I think he’s bought into the, the Sean Brosnan programming starting in freshman year. Like he wants more. And it’s, oh yeah, it’s really amazing to see. What do you think about that?

Sean (01:16:51):
I mean, I, no, I I think he could have meddled, but like the thing is you can do everything right and the five and 10 K and other events too, but in the five and 10 K you can do everything, right? But sometimes in those races it’s positioning and getting yourself and he’ll agree, I’m sure. And Mike Smith, who who’s coaching him, will agree to, and it’s, I’m not knocking it at all. Like he did everything he could or he thought he could in that race. But it’s like I, in my head, okay, here’s the coach in me. I don’t even, I don’t coach Nico Young anymore, but I, I wrote down every last 400 split for the top five guys. And like, and, and without doing the points, it was like Hawker went 52, everyone else ran 54, except the guy who was fifth in the 5K final ran 55, he died.

Sean (01:17:35):
So it’s like, in my head I go, okay, how do you figure out how to run 53 for that last lap? That’s where the medal is. And, and Nico was only 0.6 out in the 10 K and maybe not even a half a second in the 5K, if I’m not mistaken. That’s what it comes down to. It’s positioning, it’s getting yourself not wasting energy, not making funny moves. So like that’s how I am as a coach. And that’s think I’m assuming a lot of other coaches too at the, at the elite level. But yeah, you’re right. He’s progressed so much. He broke the American record for the 5K outdoors. He won the 10 K in the US championships. He’s gonna be, I think he is the future of American distance running for the next eight years. Um, I got in trouble probably for saying this, but like, I, I did an interview and I was like, oh, rant Fisher will never beat Nico Young again.

Sean (01:18:17):
And so far I’m right <laugh>. So, um, but like, and it’s not a knock to grant because he’s a phenomenal athlete. America’s, you know, he won two bronze medals last year. He has a great situation and he obviously can, but I’m always gonna side with Nico even when I’m not coaching him, because I just am, you know, I’ll probably have a guy running against Nico in the next year or two. So, um, that will be a little strange. But, uh, that’s okay. Um, I, I’ll still be a Nico fan. You could, you could have good competitive energy. Um, that’s a hundred percent. ’cause I just, you know, I’m, I close with Nico still and his family, and I think they’re great people and it’s, yeah, it’s been awesome watching him. And, and it’s, it’s pretty cool for sure.

Brad (01:18:56):
Yeah. You did something special there, man. I’m so glad you wrote a book about it too, because Ra I, I encourage everyone watching, listening grab this book, whether you’re a runner, an athlete of any kind, or just interested in magic tricks and peak performance like we’ve never seen at the high school athletic level. So Sean, tell us how we can keep connected with you, especially when we, uh, find out about this team. Then we can, we, we’ll follow you all the way to the championship events and the peak performers and of course how to get the book and all that. Yeah,

Sean (01:19:28):
I mean, well the book you can get anywhere where books are sold pretty much, um, online everywhere. So, um, it’s in, you know, Barnes and Nobles stores, Amazon, anywhere where you can get ’em, they have them. So that’s good. It, and the one thing I will have to say about this book is it’s like, you know, a mix of almost like a memoir of like how I started and why I started coaching to like the little in, in and outs and the inside and even some insights from my athletes of how we became the team we, we became. And I just, you know, there’s a traditional way up the coaching path I didn’t take that I went pretty untraditional of where I felt like I learned was best for me. And I think that’s another thing too. I want people to read this book that maybe don’t run also, and it like, hopefully it inspires them to like, you know, get to the next level in whatever they do.

Sean (01:20:14):
’cause that’s what I always say. It’s like when I watch movies and I get inspired by a basketball movie to be a better running coach, that movie did its job. And that’s what I’m hoping this book can do. And, you know, give it a read and you know, let me know if you like it. You could find me, you know, I’m always online. Uh, um, Instagram is the best. I think it’s a real Sean Brosnan, that’s my handle. And yeah, I’m just, that’s where most of my announcements will be. And, um, I’m excited ’cause we’re getting into October and in a couple days here, a few days. As soon as we get into that, maybe about a month after that, hopefully we get things rolling and people will know what I’m doing a hundred percent and who I’m partnering with and it’ll be exciting news. So I’m excited for that.

Brad (01:20:56):
Oh, good luck. Okay. Probably by the time this is released, we’ll, we’ll know all about that. And I should give a, a little plug for that amazing sort of vagabond background that you had chasing your own running dreams and also learning from the best coaches and your important insight that like you, uh, filled up your cup from so many different resources and process, so much different information to make everything in your own coaching style and compare contrast to a lot of people who have their one favorite mentor or their at one college campus for their whole career. And it was an important point that, uh, really impressed upon me is like, we need to go out there and seek information and think critically and challenge people, which your personality has been characterized that way. Like, why are we doing it this way? Why is everyone running so slowly in high school?

Brad (01:21:48):
Well, let’s talk to Sean about that. Yeah. So that was really cool. And that’ll be a nice little teaser to definitely get the book to learn about that, uh, that first stage of your life before you showed up on campus with all these big dreams and ideas shaped by the great coach you mentioned at Adam State and spending time with other elite coaches and boy a a lot of life experience there. Also a cool vote for, you know, you young listeners who think that you need to follow this linear path, even if you’re studying to be an engineer, whatever you’re doing, Hey man, go look around and see what opportunities are abound. And it might not be what you dreamed about from day one, I guess.

Sean (01:22:26):
Yeah, I mean, I always, it is funny ’cause like when I, when I was in this weird journey of mine and like I I the vagabond lifestyle, I, I literally would like just drive to another state, spend time with different people and you know, it, it’s, it’s not for everyone and it, it, but it was right for me. And that’s where I think it is. It’s like I always knew where I wanted to go with it, and I always knew my vision. And it’s like when you know something, you just get that gut. It’s feeling you like, okay, this, this is what I’m supposed to do. And it is. And people can say, Hey, that’s crazy. You were all over the place. That’s no good either. It’s like, well, I mean, it worked for me. And that’s where I think, um, everyone has a different path and it’s, you gotta take that, you gotta figure out what, what your, your path is and there’s no mistakes because you’re gonna, you’re gonna do things in, like, I’ve been definitely, I moved to places I go, why in the world did I come here? <laugh>,

Sean (01:23:13):
This is not a place for me. And, I didn’t last too long and then I left. And you know, you move on and you, you figure out life and that’s what it’s about. Um, I’m a big believer in life’s not about money, it’s about experiences. Um, no matter what you do in life. And that’s, that’s what I love. Like, you know, even, you know, being able to go to Tokyo last week, it’s like, that was a great experience in my life that like, I just, it’s, it’s worth so much more than money or like, you know, material things and that, that’s, that’s how I am so

Brad (01:23:40):
Fantastic. What a, what a pleasure to connect Sean Brosnan, the author of Beyond Fast. Go get the book people. Thank you for listening, watching. That’s a wrap.

Sean (01:23:51):
Awesome.

Brad (01:23:53):
Thank you so much for listening to the B.rad Podcast. We appreciate all feedback and suggestions. Email, podcast@bradventures.com and visit brad kearns.com to download five free eBooks and learn some great long cuts to a longer life. How to optimize testosterone naturally, become a dark chocolate connoisseur and transition to a barefoot and minimalist shoe lifestyle.

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