Episode 9: Season 7 Episode 9- Andrew Wright: "Don’t Devalue Their Past Experiences”

Emracing Failure, Positivity, and Valuing a Player's Past with Texas Tech's Andrew Wright

Jay DeMayo sits down with Texas Tech's Andrew Wright to talk about the positives of the new normal in college basketball. Andrew shares how a Discovery Channel show and a first day as an intern at North Texas set his career path. He explains why positivity is contagious in the weight room and why the right people around you make failure safe. He also talks about respecting the experience transfer athletes bring from previous strength coaches, and what he learned from a summer of slow-cooked training and a group that matched his energy.

Timestamps00:16 - Welcome and the positives of the new normal01:23 - Who is Andrew, and how did he get to Lubbock?02:35 - The American Muscle moment and researching internships04:00 - First day as an intern at North Texas05:36 - Scaffolding and why positivity is contagious08:05 - Building a love of the room with a new group09:37 - Lessons from his dad on choosing a positive outlook11:05 - A head coach who lets you fail and rebound12:20 - Jay on setting roots and being allowed to make mistakes13:45 - Learning as a faucet: keeping it at a steady flow15:39 - Learning from strength coaches in other sports, PTs, and ATs16:09 - "Don't devalue someone's prior experience"18:19 - Respecting past strength coaches with transfers22:02 - Why the new landscape has more good than bad24:33 - Did we slow cook too much? Lessons from the summer26:24 - Pushing the boundaries of trust too early27:21 - Safe progress and more wins instead of one big win27:54 - Taking a deep breath, pivoting, and attacking29:32 - A group that matched his energy31:53 - Passion you can feel, and why players know when you're not wired right32:50 - Who should come on the podcast next33:49 - Closing thoughts and goodbye

Key takeaways• Positivity is contagious. You get people smiling with positivity, not with back squats.• A TV show about Mike Barwis led Andrew to research internship pages and piece together a path into strength and conditioning.• Scaffolding, an idea from his PE degree, means a challenge should be neither too hard nor too easy.• With the right people around you, you can reach, and even overreach, and failure becomes a way to get better.• His head coach has let him fail and rebound across eight years together, from North Texas to Lubbock.• Think of learning as a faucet: keep it flowing steadily, and reset when it slows to a drip.• Talk to coaches outside your sport, and to PTs and ATs, because you never know what someone's experience can teach you.• An NBA strength coach told Andrew not to devalue someone's prior experience by forcing your own method on them.• Respecting a transfer's previous strength coach shows you believe in where they've been, and it builds trust faster.• Andrew slow-cooked the summer's main lifts, and pushing too hard too early risks the athletes' trust. He prefers more small wins over one big win.• Teams that can take a deep breath, pivot, and attack handle adversity best.• Passion is something players can feel, and they notice when it's missing.