To Be The Penguin, Or To Not Be The Penguin?

"It's not always easy to follow the subtle, energetic information the universe broadcasts, especially when your friends, family, and coworkers, or those with a business interest in your creativity are offering seemingly rational advice that challenges your intuitive knowing. To the best of my ability, I've followed my intuition to

Confidence: The Goal of the Mental Game

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who feels afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” – Nelson Mandela If you're an athlete and you're reading this, we’re going to perform a little exercise here. I want you to

Thursday Three

I hope you're having a great week, and if you live here in Edmonton, you're staying warm! Here are three quotes that have particularly resonated with me lately. "Lots of people want to be the noun without doing the verb. They want the job title without the work. Let go

Tie A Knot At the End of Your Rope

I got asked the other day, "how did you keep going?". I wasn't really sure how to answer. I won't pretend to have an answer. I will, however, share something that works for me. There have been plenty of times when I've felt like Sisyphus. Why am I doing this?

8 Reflections After 8 Years of Gym Ownership

Yesterday, it hit me that it was eight years ago that I opened AHP. I'm a very reflective person by nature, so it was strange that it snuck up on me. In the beginning, AHP was simply a 500 square foot weight room inside of a batting cage facility. I

The Vision Answers Why

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” – Friedrich Nietzsche Arnold Schwarzenegger had a dream; then a goal; and finally - a fully believed in vision of himself standing on the stage one day, winning Mr. Olympia – a title given to the world’s greatest professional

Guest Blog Post From Connor Burns: Advice to My 18 Year Old Self

Happy Long Weekend! Today, I have a guest blog post for you - from my younger brother, Connor. He pens a letter to his eighteen year old self, right before he was about to start his college baseball career. Enjoy! This month marks 10 years since my first year of

Advice For Young Coaches

1. Be where your feet are. Overdeliver for your current athletes. Most coaches want to work with pro athletes. However, why would they want to work with you? You have to put in the time, develop the expertise, and earn that right. It starts with treating all your clients as

The Burns Perspective Podcast #4: College Recruiting Process 101 For Canadian Baseball Players

Happy Friday! I'm excited to release the latest episode of my podcast. Although it's specifically geared towards baseball players, I think the principles I discuss hold true to all other sports and high school athletes looking to move on to the next level.

How Can The Struggling High School Pitcher Improve? (Part 1)

1. It's You Versus You. It's On You. Stop making excuses. If it was easy everyone would do it. It's not the umpire's fault, not your coach or catcher's pitch selection, not the mound, and not your defense. It's simply you versus you out there. Win the battle within. 2.

The Most Important Rule of Success

"If you want to be successful, you must obey one rule - never lie to yourself." - Paulo Coelho For me, success in any endeavour is paradoxical. First, you must have intense, enduring faith in your own ability to achieve your goals. On the other hand though, you need to

Hockey Strength & Conditioning: Early Off-Season Priorities

We will have dozens of high school, junior, and collegiate hockey players scheduled to train at AHP over the spring and summer, so for the next month or so I will be spending a ton of time writing individualized strength and conditioning programs based on their assessment results. View this

Long-Term Athletic Development: Walk Before You Run

"Don't try to be original. Be simple. Be good technically, and if there's something in you, it will come out." - Henri Matisse The best athletes in any sport have perfected the fundamentals - they've mastered the mundane. This bedrock of exceptional technical and athletic proficiency is what allows them

Thoughts on Scaling Your Business & Handling Growth

This blog post comes with a pretty large caveat: I don't consider myself even close to an authority on this topic. Most of the time I feel very lost when it comes to managing my team, ensuring we continue to grow and improve, and hold the standard that allowed the

Way Of The Peaceful Warrior

I have always loved creating lists, making plans, and setting goals. As a young kid I was always pretending to be the manager of the Yankees or other baseball teams writing out their pitching rotation and lineups. As a teenager and in college I set out to go as far

Embody Only What You Teach; Teach Only What You Embody

Every time I read Dan Millman's novel "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior" it impacts me in a profound way. I read it this past weekend, and wanted to share a particular excerpt and lesson from the book that all coaches and leaders should heed. "A father brought her young

Burns Perspective Podcast With Erik Sabrowski

It was a blast to sit down last week with Cleveland Guardians pitcher Erik Sabrowski. Check it out below. Merry Christmas everyone!

Thoughts on Grief Three Years Later

Warning: this blog post is not about training. It's quite personal and vulnerable. Do not feel obligated to read on. On August 10th, 2021, my mother passed away after a long (seven year) battle with cancer. It seems surreal still that she isn't here - it seems impossible that three

The Power of Positive Reinforcement

There's an old Japanese proverb that states, "The teacher opens the door. You must enter by yourself." As coaches, how can we get our athletes through the door? I want to get them through two doors: First, developing the habits and processes necessary for them to develop themselves as best

Thursday Three

Happy Thursday!! Here are three quotes that have been rattling around in my brain a lot lately. "Accept your mediocrity. No one's really that great. You know who ends up being great? The people that just put tremendous amounts of hours into it. It's a game of tonnage." - Jerry

N=1 The Case for Individualization

Writing highly specific, detailed programs takes a lot of effort and time, but the athletes that I work with deserve nothing less. A "cookie cutter" or "one-size fits all" approach is flat out a disservice to the athlete. Now, in certain settings where the coach to athlete ratio is extremely

Erik Sabrowski Makes MLB Debut!

An athlete I've had the privilege of coaching and training for the past twelve years made his boyhood dream a reality last week.  He pitched 1.1 scoreless innings with 2 strikeouts for the Cleveland Guardians last Wednesday against the Kansas City Royals. Erik Sabrowski's first MLB strikeout!#ForTheLand pic.

Random Thoughts on Planning & Program Design

Today's post is going to be a brain dump of sorts on some of my thoughts regarding program design. The inspiration of this post came from this excerpt from Tim Caron's textbook Strength Deficit. "There's an anti-periodization group out there. No doubt it's increasingly difficult to plan and prepare with

Coaching Strategies: Why You Should Prioritize a Broad Skillset

Today I want to outline four major reasons it's important for a coach (whether it's on the skill side or fitness side) to diversify their skillset in order to succeed in their career. 1) In order to be a great specialist, you need to be a great generalist first. I

Sit Down With Reece Hemmerling

Reece had an outstanding two year career with junior college powerhouse Barton CC, in Kansas, and will now be heading to NCAA Division 1 USC Upstate University. After a strong freshman season where he posted a 6-2 record and had 54 strikeouts in 55 innings he took a another step