Episode 216: 216. Interview with Grace Cullen (Part One)

Grace is a Minor League Strength & Conditioning Coach with the Tampa Bay Rays, where she works to support athlete performance and development throughout the organization. Before joining the Rays, she served as an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach at Queens University, working with baseball, men’s and women’s soccer, and men’s tennis. Grace has also spent time in professional baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals as a Player Development Strength & Conditioning Coach and previously interned with the Cleveland Guardians. 

She holds a master’s degree in Applied Kinesiology and Physiology from the University of Florida, and a bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science with a minor in Sports Psychology from the University of Evansville.

Topics covered in this episode:-Her best professional baseball story-Being a younger coach in the field-Axial loading for baseball players-Learning how to coach effectively without technology-Working with unfamiliar sports and athletesQuotes:-"Their spine is so mobile and gets put in such crazy positions that I'm not really a huge fan of putting a bunch of weight on their back" (7:28)-"I just think people need to hammer the basics when they're coming up and they're interning" (10:04)-"I think whenever a coach writes a new program they probably modify it like five times" (19:39)If you would like to learn more from Grace, you can follow her on social media:Instagram:@coachgracecullen