Baylor Bear Insider
Whether or not operating diagnostics for Built-in DNA Applied sciences in Coralville, dispatching vans for CRST in Cedar Rapids or serving as a grad assistant power & conditioning coach at Arkansas Tech, Eric Rash was all the time coaching for one thing.
He simply did not know exactly what that “one thing” was.
“I am working the third shift, entering into at 8 p.m., getting off at 6 a.m.,” Rash stated of being a manufacturing scientist at IDT for two ½ years. “And it is humorous, a variety of that job (with IDT) was auditing tools that we used, operating diagnostics on it and taking samples . . . seeing if there is a discrepancy and if upkeep must be accomplished. Lots of Excel laptop work, to do the spreadsheets. I do a few of that now, simply extra with the human aspect than mechanical.”
The 36-year-old Rash, who initially got here to Baylor as an athletics efficiency coach for volleyball, discovered his “one thing” two years in the past when he transitioned into his function as Director of Utilized Efficiency.
“Throughout the business, Utilized Efficiency will look completely different at each establishment,” Rash stated. “What is going on on at Penn State or Pittsburgh or Texas is completely different than what is going on on at Baylor. And I believe it needs to be to a sure extent as a result of each state of affairs is completely different. . . . In our state of affairs, we now have to be strategic with the place we put our useful resource, however considered one of my targets is to have a contact level with each single sport.”
Kenny Boyd, Senior Affiliate AD for Scholar-Athlete Well being & Wellness, describes Utilized Efficiency as “the fifth bucket” in a Well being & Wellness division that features athletic medication, athletics efficiency, efficiency vitamin and psychological well being.
“Utilized Efficiency is the supportive arm for the opposite items,” Boyd stated. “For instance, there’s a variety of crossover between areas that we’re monitoring or evaluating for return to play because it pertains to athletic medication. From a efficiency standpoint, there could also be some issues that we’re attempting to seize some baseline measurements on soar testing or different efficiency metrics.
“Relating to psychological well being, there could also be some crossover with, how sure points our student-athletes are coping with impacts efficiency. Diet could contain taking a look at information seize moments for physique composition traits and efficiency affect.”
The upper-profile items in Utilized Efficiency are the Catapult GPS and Polar, player-tracking system utilized in a handful of sports activities: soccer, males’s and ladies’s basketball and soccer. They’re additionally partnering with Vald Efficiency so as to add the most recent know-how within the discipline.
“What Eric and that know-how brings is the place a coach . . . would type of really feel or guesstimate, he brings the numbers and math to it,” Baylor soccer coach Dave Aranda stated. “And I believe when the gamers see it, they’ll most likely see it loads clearer than possibly a narrative or one thing from me. I am simply complicated them.”
A multi-sport athlete at Thomas Jefferson Excessive Faculty in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Eric was a College of Iowa fan rising up.
“Iowa soccer was the factor rising up,” he stated. “They went to the Orange Bowl in ’02 and received a convention championship in ’06. There isn’t any NFL franchise, so the College of Iowa is it.”
Launched to the world of power and conditioning as a senior at Jefferson Excessive, Eric interned with Iowa’s power and conditioning program beneath then-head power coach Chris Doyle, the daddy of Baylor senior linebacker Dillon Doyle.
“I all the time knew behind my thoughts that that is what I needed to do,” stated Rash, who graduated from the College of Iowa in 2009 with a level in biology. “I did not have a transparent plan or a ton of mentors on the time to information you thru that course of. However, I might go on the web sites of all these soccer applications. . . . It is loopy, however I knew who each program’s head power coach was.”
Via a PT clinic in Cedar Rapids, Eric was the contracted power coach at Jefferson Excessive Faculty, main after-school weight-lifting classes, summer time camps and a few in-season programming.
“I used to be simply offering exercises to the coaches,” he stated. “You are not essentially operating it, however I might present up on Friday nights for soccer video games. I attempted to make a job there that wasn’t there. I believe possibly that is been my MO my complete life. You are not essentially advised what you have to do, you simply present up, and folks do not let you know to depart.”
Getting again into the power and conditioning discipline, Eric did a summer time internship in 2013 at Mississippi State beneath Matt Balis, who’s now at Notre Dame. Transferring again to Iowa, he did an eight-month internship on the College of Iowa, working particularly with observe and discipline, softball and swimming & diving on the Olympic sports activities facet.
“That fully modified my perspective on this self-discipline, this discipline as a complete,” he stated. “Whereas (earlier than) I used to be locked into this very dogmatic approach of taking a look at learn how to practice athletes, by that have, I understood that there is a lot extra at play.
“The game issues solely to a sure extent if you’re coaching the athlete. I believe it helped me acquire perspective on the completely different areas and the way the coaching can affect efficiency.”
Taking a graduate assistant place at Arkansas Tech, a Division II faculty in Russellville, Eric was a part of the the college’s first power and conditioning program and served because the interim head coach for 4 months.
“You are seeing much more of that on the D-II degree now as a result of I believe athletic departments notice how huge of a job it performs,” he stated. “The D-II athletes, you may put these guys by the meat grinder, and people children all the time come out smiling on the opposite finish.”
After ending his grasp’s in power and conditioning research at Arkansas Tech, Eric moved again dwelling to Iowa in the summertime of 2016 “with nothing lined up, which is not what you’d advise someone to do.”
Whereas additionally making use of for each power and conditioning opening he may discover, Eric labored because the night and weekend truck driver supervisor for CRST Worldwide in Cedar Rapids. Once more, all the things is coaching for one thing.
“Truckers are a unique breed, and so they’re not apologetic about it,” he stated. “However that have, diffusing conditions and attempting to inform folks dangerous information . . . you learn to talk with folks at a degree that is calming, in a approach, or as direct as attainable. Which, I believe within the setting that we’re in now, there’s a few of that, many instances.”
Returning to Iowa for the third time, Eric was working an internship on the Olympic facet when he received a name about a gap at Baylor. Andrew Althoff was in search of somebody to assist out Josh Nelson within the Utilized Efficiency space and function an athletics efficiency coach for volleyball and acrobatics & tumbling.
“I got here in on the proper time with (the volleyball) program,” he stated. “Yossi (Pressley) was a real freshman my first 12 months (2017), and Katie (Staiger Smith) – all people’s favourite – was nonetheless on the crew. We nearly made it to a Candy 16 in 2018, misplaced to a very powerful Oregon crew, after which in 2019 we’re within the Last 4. Which is loopy to look again at. Lots of work went into that crew.”
When Nelson left to take the same place at Penn State and Althoff adopted soccer coach Matt Rhule to the NFL’s Carolina Panthers after the 2019 season, Eric discovered himself in a brand new function when he returned after the COVID shutdown.
“After Coach Nelly left, we did not have a Director of Utilized Efficiency,” he stated. “Toff was assuming extra of that, not less than administratively, after which we have been going to restructure it a bit bit going into the spring semester. However, (Althoff) left, and I believe Kenny (Boyd) noticed a possibility to re-envision the division. And right here we’re at present.”
Boyd sees Utilized Efficiency as “one of many final frontiers” within the Well being & Wellness space.
“There was a variety of very well-deserved, much-needed deal with how we’re fueling our athletes, how we’re caring for their psychological well being, how we’re caring for them long-term from a medical standpoint. The place we are able to discover the 1% – we’re all the time in search of that subsequent fringe of what we’re doing – goes to come back from Utilized Efficiency.
“There’s a variety of alternative for development sooner or later. That is what actually thrilling and generally irritating, as a result of we would like it to occur at a faster tempo. However on the root of all this, I’ve challenged Eric with, ‘If we’re accumulating information, why are we accumulating it?’ There must be a goal. After which additionally, to lean into the opposite facet the place he is working to have interaction and drawback resolve for the areas which are wanted inside our different groups.”
Like Boyd, Eric sees room for development within the Utilized Efficiency space and “collaborating with a few of the different division heads on completely different initiatives.”
“I really feel like there’s alternative there, tons of alternatives,” he stated. “It is cliché, nevertheless it actually is in the future at a time. You simply need to maintain exhibiting up, as a result of there are days the place you may get actually pissed off with the dearth of progress or issues simply type of stalling However, you simply have to come back again the following day. You simply need to chip away. No matter whether or not you are in sports activities or working within the manufacturing facility or one thing else, you simply need to maintain at it.”
Eric and his spouse, Kristina, have been married for 3 years and have two kids, 15-month-old son, Ames Alan; and 3-month-old daughter, Saylor Leanne.
“Kristina has needed children endlessly,” Eric stated. “However I used to be actually not sure, simply since you hear, ‘Uh, it modifications your life,’ all of the adverse stuff. However, I used to be driving dwelling from work in the future, pulled into the storage, and I believed to myself, ‘How cool would that be if a bit child was operating as much as you as you have been coming into the home?”‘ That is the purpose the place I knew I needed children. And now, Ames is to that time the place he can try this. Not likely saying a lot but, however he makes a variety of noise and may give you his model of a hug.”
Some {couples} may say they’ve recognized one another all their lives. Properly, Eric and Kristina have . . . actually. They have been born three days aside – Eric on Sept. 28, 1986, Kristina on Oct. 1 -in St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids.
“We did not meet at the moment, however our birthdays are three days aside,” Eric stated. “They used to do delivery bulletins within the newspaper, and ours appeared on the identical day. We went to highschool collectively, center faculty, and had a kind of younger “going out” relationships. Junior 12 months, I suppose we formally began relationship. Which, we have been collectively ever since, and I do not know if I’ve ever really taken her on a date.”
