JC LANDIVAR – CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER AT SPORTSLAB360, YOUTH SPORTS PARENT & COACH – EPISODE 893

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JC Landivar is the Chief Product Officer at SportsLab360 and a youth sports parent and coach.   In his role at SportsLab360 JC has collaborated with CEO Nick Manzoni to build partnerships with industry leaders, while also growing SportsLab360’s user base and helping to expand the sports offering portfolio from soccer to basketball.

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What We Discuss with JC Landivar

• “The game was a way for me to escape, a way for me to find safety, a way for me to find confidence, a way for me to learn about not only basketball itself, but how I could get better at other things.”
• The environment surrounding pickup basketball
• “Pickup games are your sandbox, your lab, where you can try different things out.”
• Basketball as a sanctuary
• The feeling of giving back to the game as a coach
• Building a player’s confidence
• Taking a moment to do breathing exercises before stepping on to the practice floor to ensure he is the best version of himself for his players
• “Let kids try, let them realize that if they put effort in, they can learn something, they can get better.”
• “All you can really do is try to keep that ground fertile so that if it does click for them, they can take off.”
• Creating an environment where kids aren’t afraid to make mistakes
• His involvement with Sports Tech and how he joined Nick Manzoni with SportsLab360
• Building player IQ with SportsLab360
• “I think technology is going to help open that funnel a lot more so that more kids, more people in general can participate and find a level of mastery in a given sport.”

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Your first impression is everything when applying for a new coaching job.  A professional coaching portfolio is the tool that highlights your coaching achievements and philosophies and, most of all, helps separate you and your abilities from the other applicants.

The key to landing a new coaching job is to demonstrate to the hiring committee your attention to detail, level of preparedness, and your professionalism.  Not only does a coaching portfolio allow you to exhibit these qualities, it also allows you to present your personal philosophies on coaching, leadership, and program development in an organized manner.

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THANKS, JC LANDIVAR

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TRANSCRIPT FOR JC LANDIVAR – CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER AT SPORTSLAB360, YOUTH SPORTS PARENT & COACH – EPISODE 893

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here with my co-host Jason Sunkle tonight and we are pleased to welcome JC Landivar, Chief Product Officer for Sports Lab 360 and Youth Sports Parent, Youth Sports coach. We’re going to dive into a bunch of different things with JC. Welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod

[00:00:22] JC Landivar: Mike, thanks. Jason, thanks. I’m excited to be on the podcast.

[00:00:29] Mike Klinzing: We are thrilled to have you on. Looking forward to diving into all the different things that you’ve been able to do both in your career and as a parent and coach. Let’s start by going back to when you were a kid. Tell us a little bit about some of your athletic background, how you got into sports, what your family life was like growing up as a sports kid.

[00:00:51] JC Landivar: Yeah. So can’t see on the podcast, but I’ve earned every one of my gray hairs and I live in Houston, Texas right now, but I’m actually born in San Francisco, California. Right. And people ask, Oh, what part? Well, no, San Francisco, like San Francisco. I actually went to high school in the center of the city at Sacred Heart Cathedral.

And went to school in the sun tip for anybody who knows about this. So I’m a relative unicorn in that regard, because not many of us seem to be around. And, my life really started with sports. It really opened up doors for me. So, like I said, I was born in San Francisco and we moved to Houston for a while, and then we moved back to San Francisco and that’s actually where my basketball career started.

I actually started playing football, if you believe this, before I played a basketball and when I started playing basketball in San Francisco, man, it was I mean, it was probably the medicine that I needed. It was, it’s always been that thing. Once it started, I could not get enough of it. And it was a way for me to escape, a way for me to find safety, a way for me to find confidence, a way for me to learn about not only basketball itself, but how I could get better at other things.

Because let me tell you something, when I first started, It was like I had two left feet on my hands and that’s, I mean, seriously, right. I was an awkward kid. I was a tall kid, but I was an awkward kid. And but once I started going and I started getting there, I couldn’t get enough.

And little by little, I just got better and better. And I found my rhythm and I couldn’t get enough. I mean, You’d find me practicing and playing at all hours of the night and in San Francisco I transported myself. You have a great transportation system.

So constantly going from school to playground to the basketball court, and then coming home late. Not too late, but late like already dark. Let’s not say that my parents weren’t watching me, but , like for me, right.

It was already like, I had to come back by dinnertime, but right. It was already there and playing in San Francisco gets really cold cause I’m playing outside, but I love it. It just, it was always , it was a great partner in growing up.

[00:03:18] Mike Klinzing: What’s your favorite part of pickup basketball?  Because I think it’s one of those things that, look, I’m 53 years old and it’s one of those things that I feel like, I say this all the time on the podcast, JC, that I feel like kids today, my own kids have missed out on something that I feel was like a huge part of A my development as a basketball player, but B, a huge part of my life in terms of when I look back on fond memories from my childhood, a lot of those fond memories come from me being.

At the park playing pickup basketball, me being on my driveway, playing two on two with the neighbors. And it’s just an experience that kids today, they don’t get to have that same experience. They’re usually in a gym with a parent in the stands, with a coach, with officials. And they’re not just playing pickup basketball.

So for you, when you think back to that time of just going around the city and being able to play in pickup games, what are some things that you remember just in terms of a, maybe your development as a player, but also just in terms of. What was fun about it? Like, what’d you love about that?

[00:04:25] JC Landivar: Oh man, I loved getting on the court.  So for me, like I said, I was a tall kid, so they always try to play put me at center, but I quickly got good at passing the ball. And I love making plays. I love getting my teammates involved. And don’t get me wrong. Like I’ll shoot the ball. I’m not, I mean, I’m not squeamish about that, but I loved trying things out, like fearlessly, right? Like I didn’t care. I didn’t care if I was going to mess it up or not. I would try things out and that’s what I, it was my own laboratory, right? So that’s what I loved about it. I got to try those things out. And in my organized basketball,  unfortunately my coach would tamper things down.

Right. But because you’re in a good place, but I would get a feel for it and a rhythm for it. And then this really actually takes me into like coaching now, because I see like this basketball IQ, that’s what I’m going to call it, basketball IQ, basketball rhythm. I have to tell these kids, Hey, go watch some games because they’re getting the academic version of things at practice, but you get a rhythm when you play with different people. When you’re playing pickup games you’re faced with different defenders, with different players on your team, different players on the opposing team. And so you have to figure things out as you go, right?

[00:05:53] Mike Klinzing: No, the whole time you’re talking, I’m kind of just sitting here nodding my head because I hear what you’re saying in terms of to me, I always feel like it’s the, it’s that feel for the game. It’s that basketball IQ. It’s that creativity that I loved when you said that your coach kind of tamped you down and to some degree.

Right? I mean, you play differently, everybody does, you play differently in a, in a regular game with a coach than you would in a pickup game. But I think one of the things that is maybe discounted is that I played and you played and I know Jason played a lot in games that are just their pickup games.

And so sometimes you might be the best player on that court. You can be creative. You can say, all right, I’m going to just. work on dribbling with my left hand, and I’m going to work on trying to shoot left handed layups, or this game I’m only going to throw no look passes, or this and you could do that because the stakes were much lower and you also had an opportunity to do that without looking over your shoulder.

Now, again, depending on what kind of pickup game you’re playing, there’s also pick up games where you might be the worst player on the court. And then you got to do something totally different in order to fit in and make sure that you’re helping your team win and all those things. But I just feel like when you start talking about feel for the game, it’s difficult.

To develop that sort of creative feel for the game when you’re always in an organized setting. And that’s what I hear you saying. And I think that’s so true.

[00:07:16] JC Landivar: Exactly. And it’s a balance, right? Because pickup games are your sandbox, your lab, where you can try different things out because there’s a place where those, they meet, right?

Where you’ve got the things that a coach can teach you and a system can teach you. But the rhythm, when you get to a certain level, you kind of can balance these two things together, right? So you and I are very similar in age. You’ve got me by two years, but so we were,  like right before and one was really coming in and shoot ball became really you have those and now you see that there’s benefit to it.

It’s kind of like when you watching the Brazilians play soccer, right? There’s a fun, they have rhythm to their game in soccer. And there’s a blend that happens there. For me, I always try to play up. Like, I try to play with older kids. So, most of the time, I wasn’t the best, or the fastest, or what have you.

But what I did is I could pass the ball. I could I can make them and that they love that. Right. So that’s how I found my end. Right. And then as my shot developed, then I also became a threat in that capacity. Right. Because they were still bigger than me and they were still faster than me.

So I was able to utilize that. That was through observation by playing the game and realizing what was going on around you. Right?

[00:08:50] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, it’s totally true. I mean, I think that when you start talking about having to be able to fit into a role and kind of understanding your place in a game and being able to figure that out on your own and not having an adult tell you, Hey, this is what you’re going to do.

This is your position or you’re this, or you’re only going to rebound or you’re. Only going to be the point guard, or you’re only going to do X, Y, or Z. Instead, when you go and you play in a pickup game, whether you’re playing two on two with some neighborhood kids in your driveway, or whether you’re going and you’re showing up at some college gym and you’re playing with some really, really good players.

That pecking order kind of gets established and I think that’s one of the fun things when you think about pickup basketball is you kind of go and nobody knows each other depending upon where you’re at and everybody kind of figures it out like hey this dude can play I want to be on his team and then I always I always say this JC there’s guys and I’m sure you can relate to this that you show up at a court And you play with a guy for like two minutes and you’re like, this dude dribbles between his legs 17 times and then takes a shot and never looks the past to anybody.

I never want to play with this guy again. And those guys are instantaneously, they’re instantaneously recognizable. And yet if you ask them, they’re completely self unaware that they’re like, man, look at my skills. I got all this. Anybody who knows how to play is like, I don’t want any part of this guy, because again, that comes back to basketball IQ and having a feel for what it’s like to play with four other dudes as opposed to just being, I’m an and one mix tape star and I can do all these moves against a cone.

[00:10:28] JC Landivar: Exactly. I mean, and it’s interesting you mentioned that because think about how it’s the rules are self made. I mean, it’s almost like known that nobody talks about them. Nobody says that. Right. That player you just talked about, I mean, at some point he’s going to learn because people will not pick him up.

I mean, seriously, and they’re going to be like, Oh man or they’ll start, we’ll start talking on the side, like, Hey let’s wait. Well you’re trying to, cause you play with people a certain amount of time or you see somebody new and you’re kind of sizing them up and like, I wonder if they’re any good or what, what they can do. Right. And it evolves on its own and you’ve got your own system of, of checking balances in this ecosystem. And it’s not even, like I said, it’s not verbalized. It just is what it is. And you could travel around in different places. And here’s an interesting thing.

Iit also evolved differently in different parts. Like if you went to different parts of the U S right. Because like, for instance. We used to call the game 21, you ever played 21? Yep. Yep. So we called, we called it Hunch. Okay. That’s what it was called. It was called Hunch. And then I went to Texas and it was 21.

Okay, it’s the same game, it’s just different. But you have a lot of similarities of, of Unsaid things, right? Like is it make it take it all these little rules that are already known, right? It’s the same Vocabulary. Right, right. And it’s organic.  I love that about it.

[00:12:11] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. You show up at a court this court, it’s 11 by two or this court, it’s seven. And back again, back when I was playing pickup basketball, there was no, now everybody plays threes and twos, but back when I played, it was just, everything was one. Right. I mean, there was no threes. There were no twos. Right. It was just everything was. Everything was one point. And you show up at a court and it’s kind of like, Hey, these are sort of the rules of the jungle and you got to get in there and you got to figure it out. And a lot of times you do that by standing on the sideline or talking to people, or sometimes you get yourself into a game.

And we’ve all been in pickup games where every single foul gets called and nobody kind of bats an eye. And then you can go to other courts Man, you call one foul and dudes are all over you. Like, Hey man, you can’t you can’t be calling that kind of stuff. And so you kind of, you kind of learn the laws of the courts where you’re at.

And it’s something that you got to, as you said, a lot of them are unspoken and you kind of just got to figure it out when you show up there, which is again, interesting. Something totally different that players growing up in the game today. Don’t, don’t have to do, don’t get to do, I guess is probably a better way to say it.

[00:13:16] JC Landivar: Yeah. What I also like about that scenario is that when you’re playing pickup basketball and I’m a coach. So this is for Kids are being told about their mistakes all the time. It’s cool. It’s unfortunate, but it’s like, getting something wrong is a bad thing but the thing is that in pick up basketball, you learn on your own and you’re going to make mistakes and that’s okay. You just go to the next play. You’re going to learn not to do what you did pretty quickly because you don’t want to let your team down and you also want to play well, right? And so it’s just this free environment of learning, right?

And experimenting and trying things. And for me, as I got older and as I started playing more a higher level basketball, I still used tricks to have fun, right? But I was also, I was starting to use more and more of what I was learning in my coaching and my basketball training.

I was starting to pull that out of my bag because coaches were starting to talk to me about positioning and how to use your body more efficiently, basically. Right. And so pickup games became even, it just, it kept on evolving over time. And I love that about it too, because you just kept on finding more and more from the game.

[00:14:47] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s a melding, right? It’s a melding of some of the skills that you learn on the playground and then you get into an organized situation and there’s some of those things that you can obviously put to use and be able to be a more creative player. And yet, again, do it in the confines of what a team scenario.

And so, there’s definitely, when I look at it, it’s like I always say, I love the way that I grew up in the game. I probably would have loved, if I was a kid today, I probably would have loved the opportunity to play 60 AAU games, from March to July, and all the things that kids get to do, and be in a nice gym on a nice court, as opposed to being on the cement with a chain net or a bent backboard and a rim that was four inches too low and all the different things that you kind of have to deal with the gravel on the court and everything else. When you start talking about playing outdoors, I mean, now kids, especially when you talk about high level basketball, I mean, those kids never set foot on an outdoor court.

And there’s some, there’s something to be said for that. I mean, in terms of positivity and for their body and not putting miles running up and down on the cement. But at the same time, I do feel like, I do feel like kids have missed out on I have missed out on something. And so it’s, look, it’s never going back to the way it was.

And you can. want. And I think as a coach, one of the things that you try to do is, is find the positive and try to work with it to try to make your players better within the confines of sort of that system that we have today. So tell us a little bit about your coaching background, how you got into coaching, what sort of led you down that path.

And just tell us a little bit about some of the things that you’ve done as a coach.

[00:16:31] JC Landivar: Yeah. So coaching actually started when I was really young, like when I was in high school, I started coaching. I went back to my elementary school and I started coaching the girls team and I started coaching the little kids, right.

That’s kind of where it started because for me, like basketball really did, like I moved back, right. And. It was such an abrupt thing for me that basketball really kind of saved me in so many ways, right? And it also, it had always been like that, that place, it was my sanctuary. Like, I could go out there for hours, just myself, just shoot and do something just I didn’t need even to play a game.

So it was my sanctuary. So I loved being able to give back because it’s always been part of my personality. And now back when I was younger, I didn’t think of it that way, but it was, I enjoy helping people. And I think that’s a hallmark or a common trait that you find in coaches.

They really want to give back or help people. And that’s where it is for me. I think about these kids and I don’t ever need them to remember me. I hope that maybe someday down the line that they find confidence and strength in the future in a moment that hopefully I was able to give them any kind of moment, right?

And they don’t need to even be basketball players, but what they take away from that moment where they can find the confidence, where they could find the notion that, Hey. If I work at something, if I put time in something, I can get better. And so I really loved that aspect of it.

So I started doing that when I was younger. Right. And , as I got older, I kept that up whenever I could, given time, gotten to college, I also tried to do coaching or been involved in sports in some way, shape or form and then before, by the time I became a father parent, right. I really wanted to coach.

And so fast forward. My kid got old enough and  I really wanted to not only have the opportunity to coach their teams, but coach kids in general. So that’s what I’ve been doing, right? I just kept that up coaching wherever I can and giving my time, whether it’s volunteer or what have you.

Always trying to participate in some way. And sometimes it’s even helping the coaches that are out there that are because I know what it’s like, I’ll never second guess coach and I’ll never do that. Right. That’s just not, there’s some, because I mean, unless a child is being  harmed in some way, but I’ll just try to help out whatever I can.

Like I’ll be there to grab cones to whatever, right? Grab the pennies to help them, whatever it is, right? Because it’s a hard, it’s a hard gig, right? And they’re trying to do something for these kids. And if I can help in some way I’m all for it.

[00:19:42] Mike Klinzing: All right. Let me ask you this. What, when you think about what makes a good youth coach, and I’m not necessarily just specific. Hey, it has to be basketball, but when you think about what makes a youth coach, somebody that is going to have a positive impact on kids. What are some of the characteristics you think of when you think of somebody who’s a good youth coach?

[00:20:05] JC Landivar: I think someone who understands that they have to get on these, and I’m talking about younger kids, right? Like, especially younger kids, but get on their level. And I mean, even physically, I will kneel down and to be able to look at a kid in their eyes and remember they’re little people, man.

They don’t have, what I’m saying? They’re just, and we forget as adults that unless someone has literally showed them or taught them, or they’ve observed it some way and they won’t know. So you’ve got to be, so that’s one thing, being on their level finding patience, right, with them because they’re not going to learn it, set the expectations where these are micro iterations of improvement it’s not going to happen overnight.

So you’ve to realize it’s a long game. Absolutely. And then be able to talk to them or learn how to talk to the different personalities, right? And the different needs of these kids. This is what teachers go through, right? Teachers have to learn so and so learns better this way, so and so and you have to be observant in that way and really kind of be there for them.

And I think last but not least is that remember to mark those specific moments. Don’t just say, good job, Johnny. Like, hey I really like how you worked on what we were talking about before. Give them a specific example of what they did so they can feel that genuine moment, right? Because that’s worth a lot.

Any athlete in the world can attest to the fact that confidence is such a huge part of your success. And you can do that for these kids. You can instill confidence, you can empower them.

[00:22:06] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, I love that. I love the idea of that specificity when you’re giving praise because I know we can often, look, it’s easy to stand on the sideline or during a practice and say, good job, great job, way to go.

And those are all things that. Look, there’s nothing wrong with those as things to say, but there are also things that are not actionable and that also don’t allow the kid to understand and connect something that they did well with that praise. And so I love the idea of being specific with what the kid did.

Hey, great job of shooting that layup with your left hand on the left side of the floor or great job of. Passing away from the defense in this situation. So now a kid can connect something that they did well with that praise. And again, it’s that old saying of what gets praised gets repeated. And so if you can be specific in what you say, especially again, when you start talking about with younger kids, that’s a huge piece of what.

Being successful as a coach, you’re going to be able to relay your message and get them to understand What you want them to do much better when you’re specific than when you’re just saying hey way to go or a great job And then the other thing that I like that you talked about there is when we start talking about being  Being intentional with what you do as a coach.

I think it’s very important. It’s easy I think sometimes to you kind of get in the moment And you’re doing X, Y, or Z. And sometimes, especially on the youth level where you don’t have as much time to plan and put things together. And obviously if you’re coaching at the high school level or you’re coaching at the college level, you’re spending a lot of time in preparing for your practices and your games.

And you’re pretty intentional about what you do. Whereas a lot of times you’re a youth coach, right? You’re a parent, you’re a volunteer, you’re not a full time coach. You’re grabbing a bunch of kids for an hour, once or twice. And okay, so we get all those things and then you get into practice and sometimes you forget that intentionality.

And so I think that’s an important piece of it. And then I think the last thing, the last thing that you touched on that I really liked it always is something that I think about is you mentioned how teachers have to, be able to learn their students and learn the different ways that they learn and learn how to organize them and get them in places where they can learn.

And I always think about as a teacher. So every day, right now I’m teaching elementary phys. ed, which I’ve been doing for 10 or 11 years. And before that, I taught in the classroom at the elementary level for, I don’t know, 19 years or something like that. And so I kind of take for granted my ability to sort of organize and talk to kids and, and kind of get things going.

And there’s times where I’ll be in environments where there’ll be somebody again, who’s a volunteer coach that’s putting together a practice or whatever. And they have a hard time just getting kids into two lines or just having a hard time getting them to sit down and listen and focus on what they’re talking about.

And, and again, sometimes I look at that and I’m like, how do you not know how to do that? But then I forget that I do that. I’ve been doing that for 35 years or whatever it is with kids. And so I kind of take it for granted. So I think one of the things when you start talking about youth coaches is there’s a lot of things that go beyond your ability to understand basketball.

Like we didn’t talk about, you didn’t talk about anything. specific to the sport, you’re talking about just an ability to relate to kids and put them in the best environment to be able to have success. So I think that those points that you made were really well taken. And I think when you start looking at what makes a good youth coach, those are all really great points that you made.

[00:26:02] JC Landivar: I appreciate it. And let me just say this. Thank you, Mike, for being a teacher. It’s got to be one of the hardest jobs. And I also say that because I can only imagine because of what you said is really aligned with what I was thinking because I love coaching kids, but that doesn’t mean it’s not difficult.

Like after school, when they are just like gassed, their level of focus an eight and nine year olds level of focus is just like. It’s a challenging thing. So you can only imagine what it’s like for teachers that are doing this every single day, right and just keep on going.

So thank you for that. That’s quite a calling.

[00:26:55] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. And again, it’s one of those things that I would say it gets more difficult every year it becomes more and more challenging. And yet at the same time, I always think about the fact that there are days where you come home from your job and Jason is also a teacher.

And I’m sure you can attest to the same thing where you come home and you think, man, what was I doing there all day? Because just nothing, nothing went the way that. I hoped it would. And it felt like nobody was listening and man, we didn’t get much accomplished. And then I feel that way. I feel that way. 

[00:27:28] Jason Sunkle: Coaching sometimes too. Mike, I’m going to be completely honest, right? You think like you’ve got, you feel like you’ve dotted your eyes and crossed your T’s and then you go to the next day, the game, I’m going to tell you, like tonight’s game did not go the way they anticipated my game to go tonight, because I thought the practice yesterday went really well.  And it did not go as well as I thought it would go today. So, I think you have that coaching and teaching for sure. Yeah, you do. And I think

[00:27:57] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, you do. And I think that

[00:27:58] JC Landivar: Go ahead, JC. Oh, no, no, no. You go ahead, Mike.

[00:28:03] Mike Klinzing: So, what I was going to piggyback on what Jason was saying is, there are certainly days where I come home and I feel like, man, what did I accomplish?

Why was I there? And then when you really pull back from the day to day, man, that was a tough day or man, this group wasn’t listening or man, we had a tough loss as a coach. And then you really step back and you think about, well, yeah, maybe it was a tough day and maybe 99 out of those 100 kids drove me crazy and man, they didn’t get anything out of it.

But there was probably one kid that maybe you put your arm around him and just said hey, good job, or you just asked him a question about what was going on at home or this kind of thing. And you realize that the impact that you can have both as a teacher, and I think obviously as a coach, you don’t realize the impact that you can have on a kid without even knowing it.

I say this all the time that I’m sure JC, you can recall things that an adult said to you, whether it’s a coach or a teacher. that drove you, that impacted you, that you felt. Hopefully you remember positive things, but it’s also possible that there’s some negative things that a coach or a teacher said to you that you still remember.

And I’m guessing that most of the time, the things that we remember, in that realm are things that if we went back to that coach or that teacher and said, Hey, do you remember when you said X, Y, and Z to me? That person probably doesn’t remember saying that thing, but I think the lesson in there is that as a coach or a teacher, you have to be very intentional about what you say and how you say it because everything that you’re saying is being taken in and sure there’s.

Lots of kids that don’t remember on a given day, what you say, some random thing that you said can have a huge impact on a kid, both positively or negatively. I think that’s a huge, huge part of it. So I don’t know what your experience is with that personally, both on both sides of that equation.

[00:30:05] JC Landivar: Yeah, no, like I’ll take my kids, for example as a parent, you say things all the time.

And it’s this thing where like three months later, you hear them echo it. You’re like, my God, you were listening but what you just said is exactly right. Like, as you were saying those things, I was thinking to myself, I was thinking about Bill Casey. I was thinking about Mrs. O’Reilly.

I was thinking about Vince Wong. I was thinking about,  Mr. Hogarty. These are all teachers and coaches in my life that, I mean, were there for me in some way, shape, or form. And enough moments that they made an impact that I can remember their names. And I can I mean it makes a difference. Be intentional for your kid, for these kids. They’re, I mean, they’re taking it all in and you have the ability to make a positive impact. Right. You have the ability to help them see a positive side of the world and to help them be the best version of themselves, to find that empowerment and that confidence.

So I hold that very close to what I’m coaching. Right. I will take every single time I go I’m going on coaching. Even if I’m running late, I take five minutes and I do like a breathing exercise to kind of settle myself from, I’m leaving work for a meeting because I want to be present.

I need to be present for these kids and I want to start off that way. So five minutes, that’s it. And I do a breathing exercise, I get myself centered so that I can be the best version of myself for them.

[00:31:52] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. That’s a great way. It’s kind of like that transition, right? To go from, Hey, I’m going from one stage of my day to the next stage.

And I’ve heard different people talk about that. Like even had coaches say that they use that different types of techniques like that to bridge the gap at practice. So if I’m a high school coach, my kids are coming in from my, from their day, who knows what was going on with classes, academics, boyfriends, girlfriends, whatever.

It’s just drama with friends and you walk in, you’re like, okay, you got to kind of put all those things off to the side and now it’s time to practice. So what can we do? Whether it’s some kind of breathing exercise or maybe it’s just a little team activity that you do for five minutes to kind of loosen everything up and sort of let kids transition.

I think that’s the same thing that you’re talking about. It’s really good advice. I know that I’ve heard people talk about how they do that. On their commute home from work, right? You get in the car, you drive home and you park the car in the garage and you take. 30 seconds to take a deep breath and transition from, okay, work me is I’m leaving work me in the car and now it’s time to go in and make sure that I’m ready to be there for my family.

And I think from a coaching standpoint, it makes complete sense what you’re doing there to be able to just kind of get yourself, okay, where, where do I need to be so I can be at the best for the kids that I’m about to coach.

[00:33:16] JC Landivar: Right. I couldn’t agree more.

[00:33:20] Mike Klinzing: All right. So let me ask you this. You’ve been in a lot of different situations as a parent and as a youth sports coach.

And so you’ve sat both on the bench and I’m sure in the stands many, many times. And we all hear the nightmare stories about youth sports and things that we see. So here’s the question that I want you to ask. If you could take a magic wand and you could remove one negative aspect of youth sports, what would be that one thing that if you could just take a magic wand and wave it away, what’s something that you would eliminate from youth sports if you could take away one thing?

[00:34:03] JC Landivar: Gosh my gut reaction sometimes is to say parents.

[00:34:07] Mike Klinzing: Yeah.

[00:34:10] JC Landivar: I mean, I’m a parent, but I mean, like, don’t put your expectations on your kids, man. Don’t do that. Okay. So, okay. How do I put this? I’ve played sports for a long time. So to say that I’m competitive is it’s a reality.

And so I do not like losing, right? That being said. Especially with the experience I’ve had and just the way I approach coaching, this is one little piece of their huge lives. And I had this experience recently where I was partnering with coaching, right with somebody else. And it really became something that was not very fun because we had players that were not being engaged.

We just went with like this. Very two players dribbling it and going down and it’s like, okay, this is not healthy. Right. I would, these words are hard to come up. I would rather lose the games and have them  learn and become better. Right. Then when those games and teach them something and maybe they don’t get it and maybe it takes them more than one season, but I’d rather have that happen.

Right. And so going back to your question, like I see a lot of these parents and they’ll come to me and they’ll say, well, so and so, my son or my daughter, they’re not really athletes or and I’m like, what do you, what did that mean? You can look out into this field and there’s not one professional player that’s going to be in the future, it’s astronomical.

Everybody has a body, everybody can learn. Now you’ve got different levels, fine, don’t take that away from them, right? And don’t set these expectations out there for these kids. I mean, let them try, let them realize that if they put effort in, they can learn something, they can get better.

Not than their peer, but than themselves, right? And then we’ve got these games where parents are either reliving their youth or they’re comparing their kids to other kids and they’re like, they’re fine. They’re on the right path. They’re okay. And that’s it?

[00:36:44] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, I think you’re 100 percent right. I just had a conversation with a guy last night and I went, my daughter’s in eighth grade and we went and watched the girls varsity basketball team play here in our community and I was just having a conversation with another father who his son had played with my son earlier when they were middle school and youth basketball.

And he and I were just talking and just how fast it goes. My son’s a senior and they played together when they were in third grade and we were just kind of talking about, it’s hard to believe that here we are, whatever, nine years later. And you went through all this process and his son played up through his sophomore year and then isn’t playing anymore. My son’s still playing on the team and whatever. But he and I were talking and one of the things we said that kind of goes to your point is it goes fast. And he said if we had to do it over again and go back, it’s like, because I’d probably do some things differently.

And I always say that, I told him, I said, well, I would probably do at least slightly differently is I look at sometimes I’ll go and I’ll be at a AAU tournament or a youth tournament, whatever. And I’ll see these third grade basketball players and they’re just running around and doing all kinds of crazy stuff and whatever.

And I told him, I said, I don’t know how we ever remotely took that seriously in any capacity like losing sleep over, Oh, we lost this game. And, obviously as a coach, it’s different as a parent. I don’t look at it in the same. I’m pretty good about being disengaged from the result as a parent, obviously you want your kid to do well, but I can, I can walk away from it as a coach. It’s a little bit harder to walk away from it, but I just, I just told him, I said you see all these people that are so high strung and stressed out with their kids sports. And again, don’t get me wrong, like sports is an important part of my family’s journey and we take it seriously. But at the same time, I said, if I could just use one word for people, it’s just like, relax. Because eventually the kids are going to kind of figure out who they are, what they are, who’s going to work hard and continue to do it and play and who’s not.

And again, very little of it has to do with you as a parent. So you got to just sit down and enjoy the journey. If that makes any sense.

[00:39:05] JC Landivar: It makes complete sense. And there, I mean, look they’re all this is probably going to be somewhat controversial, but there are a lot of professional scouts out there and what have you, and for all their knowledge and experience, nobody has a crystal ball.

And for all of those examples that you see of players that they practiced X many times a day when they were young that’s not the norm, like that’s not even, even, I’m talking about even for players that are professional that are great. They, I mean, yeah, when they became professional, they found it, but they may have started late when they were kids, they weren’t necessarily the one that was launching the ball,  that’s more normal, right? They found it later on, right? They quietly came up and then they found their rhythm and they found it. So you don’t know what, what’s going to really click with somebody because there’s so much about it has to do with the kid.

So all you can really do is try to keep that ground fertile so that If it does click for them, they can take off. Right. And you’ve provided a great foundation for them because you just don’t know, which is why, like, for instance, for instance, I’m coaching my daughter’s JV basketball team.

It’s a small private school, so we have nine girls and various levels of experience. And I tell them, look, I want them to try. I don’t care about whether you make the shot. I’m never going to get mad at them if they miss a shot. It’s just not, that’s not it.

I want to teach them fundamentals. I want them to try. Because that’s going to get more results than anything else if they feel like they have a place where they can, they can make mistakes and it’s okay. Right? We learn from the mistakes, right? We talk about it and we talk about what we can do differently.

But that’s the kind of foreground you want. You want them to try things. Because otherwise, for instance, when you’re teaching them some kind of skill that maybe even slightly more advanced, they’re going to be tentative and everybody knows in sports that fluidity if you’re tentative, if you’re tense, you’re not going to perform well, you’re just not.

But if you try and you feel comfortable in that space. You’re more likely to be better. I have one guy I’m going to two different personas. One is a player whose skill is let’s say an eight, but their confidence is a six. And then another one whose confidence is a nine, and their skill is a seven, whatever, what have you, right?

The kid that’s confident is going to show you more stuff because they’re just going to try. They’re just going to go for it. Right? And they’re throwing caution to the wind. And on the other one, you’re having to say, come on, you can do it.  You’re trying to get them to even try.

And they’re worried about making mistakes.

[00:42:36] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, it’s kind of the difference, old school and new school, old school and new school coaching, right? Old school coaching. Probably when you and I were growing up, there was whatever percentage you want to throw on it.

It was pretty high in terms of coaches that coached through fear and intimidation and yelling when somebody made a mistake and that was, that was common, right? I mean, that was sort of the way that it was perceived that good coaches did things. They didn’t put up with mistakes. They didn’t put up with people not doing what.

They were told by that coach to do and the relationship piece of it wasn’t nearly as important 30 years ago. And then you look at it the way that we do things today. And just exactly what you’re talking about, right? It’s, it’s about empowering kids. It’s about building their trust with you. It’s about building the relationship so that you can give them that space to be able to, to perform at their best because they’re not looking over their shoulder.

Hey, am I going to get yelled at? Am I going to get taken out of the game because of this one mistake? And I think that especially when you’re talking about youth sports, right? I mean, you get to a certain level of high school basketball or college basketball, and yeah, there are definitely things that there’s more accountability and that you can still do it with love and all those pieces of it.

But I think in youth basketball and youth sports, the idea that you’re going to coach. through fear as opposed to through love and through relationships. , hopefully that’s starting to go by the wayside. It’s not completely gone. You can go to any, you can go to any tournament in any sport and you’re still going to unfortunately see the coach yelling at the side, the sidelines.

You’re going to still see the parent doing some of the things that we wish they wouldn’t do from the stands. But I think generally speaking, we’re heading in the direction that you just described.

[00:44:26] JC Landivar: I think so. I mean, I think you’re right. We’re definitely heading towards that direction. And you’re also right.

There’s still that aspect because people are holding over what happened when we were young and the way we were taught. To me, I’ve looked back and I’ve looked at it holistically and try to take the things that I think were actually positive.

Right. Cause I saw like friends that burned out because their dads were just like on them. And it was crazy. Right. And they just like, yeah, I’m done. I don’t want to play this anymore. Like literally just, I don’t want to play a game anymore.

We think about it, it’s like part of playing sports is the fun, right? Is that aspect of it. And you’ve now taken that away from somebody. Wow. That’s just. Yeah, it’s sad. It’s sad. It really is sad.

[00:45:26] Mike Klinzing: It’s really sad. I have a story related to what you just said.

And then also just something that I think about all the time. I think one of the things that we do wrong in sports at all levels is we’re always focused as parents, I think. And then we push this onto our kids is we’re focused on what’s next. So if I’m an elementary school kid. I’m focused on what AAU team am I going to get on.

And if I’m on an AAU team, I’m focused on, am I going to be a starter on my middle school team? And if I’m in the middle school team, I’m focused on, not on my middle school season, but I’m worried about, am I going to be on the freshman team or can I make the JV or should I be a varsity player? And then when I’m a high school player, I’m worried about where I’m going to go to college and I’m not focused on what I’m doing as a high school senior.

And it’s a slippery slope. Social media has something to do with that and the comparison and all those things. And so I think that that burnout that you described with people that you grew up with that had parents that pushed them when they were young, probably more than they needed to or wanted to be pushed.

And then you get to a point where sports isn’t fun. And I actually had a conversation with somebody the other day that In our community, we have one program that is tremendously successful. And they were talking about, this person was telling me that they’re a teacher at the high school. And they said that one of the girls who plays on the girls soccer team here, which I think they were state runner up this year and they won the state title and perennially one of the five best soccer programs in the state of Ohio.

And yet at the same time, but from the time these girls are like six, they’re playing travel club. driving an hour and a half, two hours to practice when they’re eight, nine years old, and they’re practicing three or four times a week. And they’re out of town for all these tournaments. And somebody said that this teacher at the school said that one of the girls that’s on that team said to the teacher I hate soccer now.

I only play because I still have a chance maybe to get a scholarship. And that’s the only reason why I’m still playing. And this girl’s. 16 years old or 17 years old and is saying like, I hate the thing that should be. I mean, again, a high school sport should be, there shouldn’t be anything much more fun than that.

And when you don’t feel that way, it’s kind of sad.

[00:47:53] JC Landivar: Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is kind of sad. I mean, I do love when one of the things you said when you’re talking about this and we’re worried about what’s next and so forth, it’s, you’re actually robbing yourself of, of like making the most of the here and now, right?

Like being intentional, being present. That’s when you’re the best version of yourself. That’s when you can really enjoy everything to the fullest because you’re worried about the mistakes you made in previous games, you’re worried about trying to make the next team or what have you.

You’re just taking away from a limited amount of energy that every human being has. Just be here. Be here now. Right?

[00:48:40] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, it’s hard to do because there’s so much out there and there’s so many parents talking about this and that and the next thing and nobody wants to miss out and have their kid fall behind.

And so you have all this peer pressure amongst parents and then that trickles down to the kids and everybody’s talking about, again, what’s happening next. And sometimes we miss what’s right in front of us and look, we’re all guilty of that. In our own lives to some degree, right? That sometimes you do have to, just like you talked about the breathing exercise to kind of center yourself and bring yourself into, Hey, I got to be in this particular moment.

I know I’m guilty of it. I’m sure most people out there are guilty of it to some degree that. You are sometimes looking ahead or looking back or not necessarily right where you are in the moment. That’s important to do. And sometimes it’s hard to do in your day to day. You tend to forget about it. So it goes back to that word intentionality of making sure that you’re doing things consciously as opposed to unconsciously.

I think that’s, I think that’s really important. Yeah. Let’s talk a little bit about Sports Lab 360. Tell me how you got involved and what the, what that’s all about and then kind of what your role has been because when we had Nick on, obviously we talked to him about just the development stage of it and kind of how he got the idea and where it came from.

And obviously he started on the soccer side of it. So just tell us a little bit about kind of your role and how you got involved.

[00:50:05] JC Landivar: So I’m a product manager by my trade in my career, so in technology.  I’m not going to give you the whole story, but essentially I realized why do I have my love of sports and my love of technology separate?

Cause that’s what it was, I was coaching separately and I even coach adults too. Like, so it was separate and I was like, man, I had a mentor who was like why are you doing it separately? So I kind of started diving into sports tech and in that process, I found Nick and I found his story and it was so compelling and I was like, man, this is great. So I reached out to him. We started talking and I said, look, let me, let me help you out. Look, this is what I do. And I think I could offer some help. So I started collaborating. I started giving him some of the best practices that product management has to offer in terms of technology development and so forth.

And in that process, it was around that time where I think he was, he had been thinking about expanding and we talked about it and that’s kind of how the whole basketball thing came up and I was part of the conversations with that and some of the decisions and talking to some other partnerships around that.

So that’s kind of how that came along. But really, I loved what Nick was trying to do. I mean, he told you the story of how it all came about. And it really spoke to me because he’s out there to help youth athletes. This is another way for them to learn. And you guys are both teachers, so this might be relevant for you as well.

It’s like video visual is such a, a big part of youth today and it’s definitely part of how they learn. And so what Sports Lab 360 is doing is also leveraging that to help them learn. It’s for that kid who wants to get better like Nick, right? And wants to increase that sports IQ or that specific sport IQ and really understand.

And we want to foster that, right? Just like we would in the classroom. We want to foster somebody who is going to be in the spelling bee and they really would love to do that or they love reading or they’re really great at math and you want to keep on fostering that watering that plant.

You want to do the same thing if they’re interested in something. If it’s drawing, what have you, right? And so, I think this is one of the things that I love about it, right? It’s another avenue for kids to be able to find a way to better themselves because they want to. And that’s really the mantra for me because as opposed to when we grew up you had people that were designated or labeled athlete or not or what have you. And that really pruned the tree early on of who could, who’s going to play on teams or not, which I’m not a proponent of, I’m a proponent of letting kids try it out, right. And giving them the opportunity and, and helping them find some level of mastery regardless of their, if you want to call it natural ability or what have you.

So that’s where it came from. And I advise for other companies and I’m involved. I’m getting more and more involved in sports tech. It’s actually really growing here in Houston. There’s a lot of like startups in the sports tech space that are growing.

And a growing number of them are really focused on the idea of opening it up to more versus. Trying to, as opposed to trying to make the ones that are already at a higher level, more elite open the tunnel a little more so that more kids can play in any sport.

[00:54:31] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that when you start talking about the ability to expand the pool, right? And you’re not just catering to the most elite, obviously from a business standpoint, there are very few kids who. Again, now you can go to any tournament and read the number of teams that are calling themselves elite, but the reality is that when you start talking about the highest level, there just isn’t, that’s not a huge market because there just isn’t very many kids at that level.

So from a business standpoint, if you can appeal to everybody, and then I love what you said about just thinking about the inclusiveness of kids who, again, you don’t have to be a kid who is a potential NBA star, NFL star, Major League Baseball star, in order to benefit from some of these new technologies and training techniques and all the different things.

What we want to do is again, to be able to ultimately, there are very, very few people who ever earn a living from their ability to play a sport. But what we want to do is be able to utilize that sport, to be able to improve a kid’s life for the rest of their life. And in order for that to happen, kids have to be actively involved in sports for as long as we can keep them involved, not only for the life lessons, but also just for their health and their well being and their enjoyment of, again, using their body to be able to do whatever it is that they enjoy doing.

And so if technology can continue to open that door and foster that, then I think we’re headed in the right direction. When you’re thinking about SportsLab360, what’s been the most interesting part to you of working with Nick to sort of build out what SportsLab360 does on the basketball side?

[00:56:35] JC Landivar: Yeah, I mean, I think, it’s a different, so going from soccer to basketball, it’s a different thing, right?

It’s a different beast and it’s apples and oranges. So it’s been the journey of relearning how to how to create that basketball. I mean, that sports IQ with basketball, right. That’s been fun because it’s kind of like, how do we do this? How do we figure this out?

Because Soccer, he’d gotten that, he figured it out and he’d opened it up, right? And soccer is a different beast because you don’t call a timeout and adjust, it’s a different pace, right? And in basketball, you’ve got all these different components that you’re working with.

I’m not saying one’s easier or harder, it’s just different. So figuring that out has been really fun. Kind of figure out what it is that the end users really need, or really some of the pain points that they’re going through, and how we can solve those problems through SportsLab360, right? And it goes back to trying to get them, giving them another way to learn something so coaches can teach them something on the court.

And then we can reinforce it off the court and it’s really up to them because they can go on to the platform themselves, the players, and they can choose to like , I really wasn’t sure I got that pick and roll that we were talking about and let memgo to the platform and see if I can kind of figure this out and they’ll go in the end and go in there and they can keep on looking at it and it’s when you’re on the court, you’re looking at it from a first person point of view, but when you’re on the platform, you can see it from above, you can see where all the other players are.

Yeah. So again, it’s a different way of seeing it and incorporating that knowledge. Right. And so they’re learning in a different way.

[00:58:27] Mike Klinzing: One of the things that I like about it is that when you talk to players and coaches in high school and in college. And the more we’ve talked to people on the podcast, we’ve had conversations about how much time those coaches at those levels spend watching film.

And obviously they share that film with their players and some players watch more film than others, but clearly, coaching staffs at the high school and college level are sharing both team clips and then clips of their individual players, things that they’re doing, both things that they’re doing well and things that they can improve on.

And they, to a person, talk about how important that is in a player’s and a team’s ability to improve. And then when you talk about. on the youth level, right? We don’t always have the same access to film that you do at a high school level or at a college level. But I think what is interesting is that SportsLab360 provides an opportunity for kids to be able to almost learn.

Yes, they’re learning their basketball IQ, but they’re also learning how to learn, learning how to watch that film and what things they can be looking for. And when I think about my own kids experiences as, let’s say, basketball players in elementary school. It was difficult sometimes, like, again, not that we had very much film, but if somebody filmed something on their iPad or phone and you get a little clip and you could kind of show it to them.

And again, kids are watching that like, Hey, look at me make this shot. They’re not necessarily looking for some of the things that they’re getting to see with Sports Lab 360. And so I guess one of the things that I think is valuable that I’d be interested to, and I didn’t, I don’t know if I talked really with Nick much about this, but I just think that almost like that learning how to watch film and learning how to learn again, in addition to the actual content that they’re learning and the actual skill that they’re learning, the, the reads, the decisions that they’re making, they’re also Learning, Hey, what do I have to watch for that?

If I continue in the game, when I start watching film, as I get older, I think that just that experience to me would seem like it would be really beneficial.

[01:00:51] JC Landivar: I agree with you. And Mike, this is full circle, dude, because you got to think about it. We’re talking about pickup games at the beginning of the podcast, right?

Right. That’s where our lab was. We were learning. We’re doing things over and over again, and we’re in that situation, and so we’re learning. So, like, if you look at SportsLab360, what he, the way it works out is that you’re actually given situations and you’re making decisions, right?

So it’s a similar thing that we learned. When we were doing the pickup games, because we were encountering similar situations all the time, and we learned it may have been a longer process or different, and you were actively involved, but it was a very similar thing.

And so I use video all the time. I’ve been using video for a while because it helps me to communicate to kids much more rapidly. Like, look over here, right? Yeah, you had your foot here. We talked about it. And it’s an easier way to communicate with them when they’re seeing it visually, we forget how difficult it is for kids to conceptualize things, because verbally, because, I mean, we may think we’re talking in a very plain way, but we’re not for kids.  Because we’re using very plain, plain words. No. That while you’re talking halfway through, they’re still trying to process the first piece you’re trying to communicate.

And so having that video, you can just show them like right here, right here, right here. And they get it so much quicker. There’s a company here that I started, I was talking to as well B1 sports and he is using computer aided vision to like help kids be able to visualize like, oh like this is your shot, right?

For example, for basketball and you can use it to kind of like learn on your own and you can use an iPad or whatever. Anyway, so the point is that he wants kids to of all levels to use it so that they can, they can get better at their shot if they want to, right?

And they have this technology where it’s not only recording the video, but it’s using computer aided vision to kind of show them some of the differences from a correct posture or correct form, right? It’s pretty cool,  a cool tool, by the way. But yeah, I mean, and I love that because it gives us the, it gives us similar Similar learnings that we were talking about with the pickup because that’s what that’s what for me pickup basketball was.

I was constantly learning and it took me so much further in terms of my IQ and I was able to apply that to the systems that were in my formal basketball or my coach basketball. Right. And apply those things.

[01:03:53] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. It’s interesting. I think that when I hear you talking, one of the things that popped into my head, as you’re saying that, It’s not always, we think that something is easy for a kid to pick up, but we’re teaching it.

And yet it’s very, very difficult. And just as an example, like I have my kids at school as part of our phys ed class, we teach them how to hula hoop. And yet I can’t hula hoop at all. So the kids will say to me, come on, I’ll like, I’ll have kids, they can do it for a half hour and they barely are moving, like they’re barely moving their hips at all.

And then I can’t keep the thing up for two seconds. And they’re like, Mr. Klinzing, just do, just do it like this. And I’m like, yeah, I can’t really do that. Now, again, I don’t really ever take the time to practice and who knows, maybe I could learn. But the point is, is that sometimes there’s things that I look at that I’m teaching them to do.

And I’m like, how can this kid not do that? And yet here’s a skill that. I just don’t naturally have, or I’m not naturally good at. I haven’t put the time in to be able to learn it. And what seems easy to a kid who’s six is really hard to 53 year old me. And so I think it goes back to, again, you just, if you have different tools and different ways of being able to, to show a kid how to do something and to be able to, to teach it in different ways, we all learn in those, in those different aspects.

And so I think it’s, it’s just interesting to really think about. How we learn and what those processes look like and how we kind of take for granted that the things we do well, everybody should be able to do well. The things that are difficult for us, we kind of don’t always process that, Hey, maybe this is how the kid feels when I’m teaching them how to shoot a layup and they’re jumping all over the place and throwing the ball different kinds of ways and whatever.

It’s just, again, you, you. You forget that they’re kids and you forget that everybody learns differently and everybody has some things that come to them easily and other kids have things that come to a much more, in a much more difficult way. So when you provide them with these different platforms to be able to learn, ultimately that’s what we were talking about earlier, where you got to get to know your students, got to get to know your players and the more tools you can give them, the better off they’re going to be in the long run for sure.

[01:06:11] JC Landivar: I agree. I mean, exactly right. I mean, this, this goes, I mean, you guys know better than I do in teaching, right? Yeah. Absolutely. Kids are learning in different ways and there are theories about there about some kids are more tactile and there are kids that have dyslexia or some other alternative ways of looking at seeing the world full.

If that’s the case, then we should have more of these tools so they have different ways of possibly learning and grasping the concept. And by the way, this also goes back to the conversation about parents, because parents, I know that they’re trying to do the best for their kids, but when they’re talking to them, they feel like, well, I’ve told you this a thousand times.

I mean, is the kid actually trying to o dthe opposite or they’re just not getting it because they don’t understand it. I mean, as an adult you have to figure that out But if it’s the fact that they’re they just they’re not getting it and sometimes kids will say,  Not like oh, yeah, I get it and they don’t.

[01:07:17] Mike Klinzing: I’ve been there many times. I’ve been there. I’ve been there with the head nod and then I do the opposite thing and not because I’m being oppositional just because I was pretending like I got it and yeah, I didn’t really have it.

All right. I want to ask you kind of a final question to sort of summarize, I guess the big picture. So you’ve kind of talked a little bit about how you’re looking to be able to wed your love for. with your love for technology. So when you think about sort of where on a big picture, where sports and technology is headed, you can take this answer in whatever direction you want.

You can take it down to specifics. You can give a general trend, but what do you see? In the future when it comes to sports and technology, what are some things you see on the horizon that you think are going to make an impact?

[01:08:13] JC Landivar: Yeah. So I see that the technology is not only going to be used for these what we’ll call more elite or club level, let’s say players, right.

And that takes them into higher or professionals. We’re actually going to see a shift where everybody, even adults that didn’t have the opportunity to play and they always wanted to learn how to hit a baseball or kick a soccer,  what I’m saying? It’s going to open up the sports to more people, kids for sure, right?

But even adults, adults that never really had that opportunity because for whatever reason, because they were labeled as not athletic. And later on, like, I literally know three people  that I coached, three adults that I coached that are into basketball now in adulthood and they are like fully in.

Well, they’re a lot younger than me, but they’re adults still and they’re learning and they’re trying to grasp it. So technology is going to help that, right? Because it’s going to, because I mean, it’s going to open the door to allow people to learn on their own in a safe place.

So like we’re talking about that, B1 sports. One of the things that it does for you is that you don’t have to do it in front of anybody else. You can practice on your own, but you have your own, like almost like a coach there, right? That’ll help you perfect your shot or get better at your shot really, right?

And so that the technology is going to be there so you can learn on your own as if you had a coach next to you. And I think that’s where it’s going to go to in different ways. And you’ll have these a way to have feedback, right? Because And I’m like, you have kids out there that are shooting and we still have a chicken wing and we still have  chunking it up.

Right. And, that’s just a product of their objective is to get it into the hoop. Yeah, that is maybe ultimately, but if we could get them to actually learn form earlier on and somehow get them to enjoy or, or be motivated to use that form. Imagine how much better it would be when they actually start playing organized ball.

And as a coach, I don’t have to get them to unlearn the chicken wing or the chucking of the ball. Right. I don’t care about distance at an eight year old or nine year old. I don’t care. I don’t care. They make it. In fact, I would much, I would much rather them use decent form so that when they actually get the physical ability, they’re able to, I mean, they’re going to be far further ahead of any of their peers in that regard. And so I think technology is going to help that. It’s going to help open that that funnel a lot more so that more kids, more people in general can participate and find a level of mastery in a given sport.

[01:11:27] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, I mean, we’re all already carrying around a supercomputer in our pocket and you’re also looking at eventually that thing’s just going to become a super coach and it already is in a lot of cases when you start thinking about, again, the capabilities of what it can do on the positive side. We don’t want to dive into the negative side of what, what could be out there in terms of that.

But. Certainly, from a positive standpoint, there’s, there’s a ton of positives that can come of it. I think you make a great point that it almost democratizes, right, the ability to be able to learn because everybody has access to the phone and the technology. I mean, there are very few pockets of, of people, at least here.

in the United States that don’t have access to, to, to the phone and to the technology to be able to get out there and be able to see those things.

[01:12:18] JC Landivar: I’m going to give you an example that’s if you go to Europe, right? So let’s take Victor Wembanyama. They had a little clip of him the other day and he was he was juggling the basketball on his feet, right?

And then he did a rainbow and because he’s from Europe. So, he learned soccer as a little boy. Right. Right? It’s a 7’4 dude that can juggle a ball with delicacy. Alright? Why am I bringing that up? Because The U. S. still has a vast, untapped potential in soccer. Vast. And so when you talk about democratizing, right, well that’s going to be part of it, right?

When you start making it more ubiquitous where everybody can, whatever sport it is, and you can do that, you’re opening up quite a bit. Yeah, you absolutely are. I mean, We don’t start playing, and I’m using soccer as an example, we don’t start playing soccer until like I mean, it’s obviously a lot more than when you and I were kids, right?

Yep, yep. But, but it’s still not nowhere near what you see in South America or in Europe.

[01:13:39] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, it’s interesting. I mean, I certainly think that when you start talking about opportunity, right, it’s opportunity. And I think that’s, that’s where you sports technology, all those things kind of come together is.

Can we provide opportunities that ties into parenting, right? You mentioned keeping the soil fertile, and I think that’s one of the jobs of a parent is to provide your kids with opportunities because you never know where they’re going to end up. I mean, a lot of times people try to pigeonhole their kid into this sport or that sport or whatever.

And, I always have told parents, my opinion has always been that until your kid hits puberty, you really have no idea what they’re going to be. You don’t know if they’re going to be tall, short, fast, slow, quick. You have, you have no idea. And so to limit what they do athletically at age eight or nine, because they maybe show some early talent in one area versus another.

I mean, you might think, Hey, my kid’s the greatest third grade basketball player in the history of the world. And they ended up being five foot four. Well, yeah, they might still love basketball, but their prospects as a basketball player even to play at the high school level probably aren’t that good.

So maybe if you’d have kept them involved in three or four different sports, maybe they would have evolved into something that would have been a better fit for them. And so I just think, again, all the things, it’s funny because we’ve had probably JC five or six different threads that we’ve talked about throughout the conversation.

And we could easily go back and tie all those threads together with, again, the goal being trying to provide the best possible opportunity for youth sports for kids to be able to, again, utilize sports to stay healthy and learn life lessons that can impact them for the rest of their life. So all right, before we get out, I want to give you a chance to share how people can connect with you, find out more about what you’re doing, share how they can get in contact with you guys at SportsLab360.

And then after you do that, I’ll jump back in and wrap things up.

[01:15:51] JC Landivar: Okay. Yeah. I mean, I’m pretty active on LinkedIn right now, more than anything else. I’m going to try other platforms pretty soon, but that’s really where you can mainly find me. And then of course, SportsLab360 reach out anybody who’s, who’s interested in finding out a little more about SportsLab360 just reach out there.

I’ve been diving more into the sports tech ecosystem here in Houston, because it’s growing. And so that’s why the whole LinkedIn component, because it’s just most of these people are on there and really kind of diving in there. If you guys are ever in Houston, I’d love to take you around to the different startups that are happening here.

There’s this one big sports tech festival called Poc A Toc. And it’s everything sports and technology and they’re going to be here this next year and it’s pretty big. So but yeah, contact me on LinkedIn or SportsLab360.

[01:16:53] Mike Klinzing: Very cool. JC, cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule to jump on with us. Truly appreciate it. And to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.

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