Athlete Builder

Talent gets athletes noticed. The other five blocks get them on the roster.The Athlete Builder Podcast is for the people building athletes — coaches, gym owners, and the parents raising them. Host Jim Beebe spent 13 years running a strength facility (50+ athletes on to college rosters) and wrote the blueprint on whole-athlete development: mindset, knowledge, teammates, training, nutrition, recovery.Every week, one conversation that makes you better at building them — with guests like Ohio State's strength chief, Army West Point's head S&C, Olympic team coaches, and a Blue Angels pilot.Start here: score your athlete across all six blocks with the free Athlete Builder Scorecard — athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest — 15 minutes, and you'll know exactly what to attack first.Win the Day. Stay Relentless.

Athlete Builder is a health podcast hosted by Jim Beebe, with 167 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Jim Beebe hosts Athlete Builder, a health show with 167 episodes published.

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  Episode #61

  #157 | Four Sports, Two Continents, One Drunk Driver — Gelen Robinson

  Sep 27, 202658 minS1

  Gelen Robinson was a two-time state champion wrestler, a state champion in discus, and a three-sport athlete at Purdue. He played pro football in the CFL, the AAF and the XFL. Then COVID ended football, so he picked up rugby — and found the sport he loved most. He played hooker and prop, toured Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Argentina, and won a championship in LA. He was two weeks from rugby camp and an MLR contract that would have kept him close to his daughters. On New Year's Eve, driving home from work, a drunk driver hit him behind the driver's side door. Severe concussion. No team will sign you with a concussion, his agent told him. Be realistic. He'd never told that story publicly. No retirement post — he says he couldn't bring himself to write one. What he did instead is the episode. A text from an old Purdue teammate, an introduction to a throws coach named Marley Bird, and a new career making other people's kids great. Plus the 40 percent rule, why the mind always breaks before the body, and his half-second rule for getting off the ground. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 1:28 Four sports, one Boilermaker family 5:22 The welcome-to-the-Big-Ten moment 6:41 First career sack, as a freshman, at Notre Dame 8:06 Why rugby was harder than everything else 10:04 Hooker, prop, and what a scrum actually feels like 12:14 The mind breaks before the body 13:32 The half-second rule for getting off the ground 15:12 Seven cities, six countries, five years 20:24 Big Ten venues, and the children's hospital at Iowa 23:04 The car accident he's never talked about publicly 28:43 Recognizing the low, and the text that changed it 31:57 The 40 percent rule 35:09 Coaching kids in an Amazon world 37:14 Why a scholarship is easier than parents think 45:56 Non-negotiables: no complaining, bring the juice 55:04 Socrates, true strength, and what he wants athletes to see Free Athlete Builder Scorecard — six blocks, about ten minutes, a real assessment: athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest The Two Minute Drill: athlete-builder.com/newsletter Find Gelen: @gelen_robinson · coaching at IFAST in Indianapolis and assistant throws coach at HSE Thanks to Jake and Brennan Thieneman for the introduction. Win the Day. Stay Relentless.

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  Episode #60

  #156 How to Run a Westside Program in a Barn Gym — Steven Thompson, Voodoo Power

  Sep 20, 20261h 10mS1

  Steven Thompson rides bareback broncos, ropes, and runs the electrical maintenance shop at a coal-fired power plant in Adrian, Missouri. In 2018 he started training in his own barn because he'd realized he was coming home from work, sitting on the couch, and letting life go by without him. A few kids came out to join him. He thought he had workout partners. Then one of them was standing at the rack on his phone, and Steven asked who he was talking to. Oregon State. That was the moment it stopped being a workout and became a program. This one is for coaches who actually program. Steven breaks down how he adapted Westside for high school athletes who can't squat well yet, why a 10x2 dynamic effort day is worthless for a kid who isn't moving right, what he's known for in his own town, and the training he now looks back on and shakes his head at — rolling round bales for time after a hard session, jumping on whatever would hold their weight. He also gets into the harder parts. What you do when a kid with real potential quits on himself. Whether the injury was your programming. How you keep your own ego out of a room full of teenagers. And why he's never once sat back and thought he'd made it — because he's already worried about who's coming next. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 1:24 Westerns, horses, and Lonesome Dove 3:24 What Voodoo Power looks like — and whether it still smells like horses 9:19 Now what: how the barn gym actually started 10:45 The phone call that changed everything 13:35 When a kid quits on himself 16:41 You can't want it more than they do 19:25 Adapting Westside for teenagers who can't squat yet 25:23 The pillars he's known for 29:36 Keeping ego out of the room 33:24 "If a little is good, a lot's better" — what he'd undo 40:12 Trust built in the offseason, spent at the national meet 48:50 What he steals from his own podcast guests 56:33 Modifying for the athlete in front of you 1:00:01 Faith, and why this was never a business 1:12:30 When your friend's kid walks into your barn 1:15:10 Rapid fire: Major League, The Replacements, and the Joker problem CTA BLOCK Where is your athlete actually losing ground? Free Athlete Builder Scorecard — six blocks, about ten minutes, a real assessment: athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest The Two Minute Drill: athlete-builder.com/newsletter Find Steven: @voodoo4power on Instagram. His podcast is Voodoo Power — and I'm a guest on it in the coming weeks. Be on the lookout. Mentioned: Matt Wenning · Shane Sweatt and Laura Phelps-Sweatt · Zach Even-Esh · Tom Dorrance, True Unity: Willing Communication Between Horse and Human

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  Episode #59

  #155 Playing Not to Lose — 2× Olympian Shawnee Harle on the Emotional Storm

  Sep 13, 202656 minS1

  Shawnee Harle rode the bench at the number one program in the country. Then she got cut — and the coach who cut her is the one who pushed her into coaching. Twenty years a university head coach and two Olympic Games with Canada followed. But the moment that made her a mental toughness coach was a quarterfinal in Rio, against a team they'd already beaten twice in eighteen months, where she felt her team go from playing to win to playing not to lose. Her words: that's not a strategy shift. That's fear, and you can feel it. This one gets practical fast. Her toolkit in three words — chill, change, choose. The voice of fear and how to tell it to shut up. Why we only fear the things we believe we can't handle. Good anger versus bad anger. And the two-step nobody teaches: face the fear, then ask whether you'd actually survive it. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 1:21 What riding the bench teaches you that starters never learn 3:10 You are what the scoreboard says you are 5:23 Atlanta 1996 — coaching through a bombing 8:27 Rio 2016 — higher expectations, higher agony 9:44 The moment it turned from playing to win to playing not to lose 12:59 Getting cut, and the ego that almost stopped her 16:49 You don't change behavior by addressing behavior 19:14 We only fear what we believe we can't handle 21:25 Bill Buckner and speaking it into existence 23:11 The voice of fear steals the microphone 25:45 Chill. Change. Choose. 30:14 Good anger and bad anger 35:18 The yips, the F words, and what sport teaches you to fake 43:16 The 14-year-old, the parents, and how they measure success 46:22 The limiting factor is always fear 50:27 "Shawnee taught me how to save myself" Free Athlete Builder Scorecard — about ten minutes, six blocks, a real assessment: athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest The Two Minute Drill: athlete-builder.com/newsletter Find Shawnee: @shawneeharle · shawneeharle.com Win the Day. Stay Relentless.

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  Episode #58

  #154 Building Bodies vs. Building Men — Jesse Dale Returns, IFBB Pro

  Sep 6, 202658 minS1

  Jesse Dale was on episode three of this show. This is episode 154. In between he earned his IFBB pro card — and then used it, which most people never do. Two pro shows in about sixty days. He won Masters Bodybuilding and Classic Physique 45+ in Chicago, won Classic Physique 45+ in Tampa, took second in bodybuilding, and cracked the top five in an Olympia qualifying class. He's in his late forties, stepping on stage in the upper 180s against men carrying 220 and 240. But the trophies aren't why he came back. His coaching business used to be about building better bodies. It isn't anymore. Jesse walks through what changed: releasing pride and finally hiring a coach after thirty years of doing it alone, letting go of the clients who take and never give, giving up pieces of a business he built himself, and going back to one-on-one training in a garage studio — which looks like a step backward and isn't. Plus: how he reads a gym's culture in forty-five seconds, why he thinks men have the guilt of training backwards, and what nineteen hundred and eighty-six consecutive days of public logging actually does to a coaching group. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 1:39 A hundred and fifty episodes later: what actually changed 3:59 Two pro shows in sixty days — the real numbers 8:03 Setting a standard, then raising it 11:24 Upper 180s against 240 — where the insecurity comes from 13:26 The price nobody wants to pay in the off-season 15:54 Backstage: spray tans, rice cakes, and zero dignity 18:04 From building bodies to building men 22:08 Setbacks as weight on the bar 25:07 Good, why is this good, and now what 30:34 Choosing what's next without just chasing more 32:45 What separates a real coach from a certification 33:32 Why men feel guilty training — and why they have it backwards 36:20 Reading a gym's culture in forty-five seconds 44:54 Mastering the mundane: day 1,986 of public logs 54:12 The eulogy question 59:21 Rapid fire: the Derby, Derek Lunsford, and the squat song Where is your athlete actually losing ground? Free Athlete Builder Scorecard — six blocks, six minutes: athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest The Two Minute Drill — one short read every Thursday: athlete-builder.com/newsletter Find Jesse: @jessethesharkdale on Instagram Questions for the show: info@athlete-builder.com

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  Episode #57

  #143 They Wouldn't Let Him Take Off — Cdr. Frank Weisser, Blue Angels

  Aug 30, 20261h 30mS1

  Frank Weisser went to the Naval Academy to become a Navy SEAL. He didn't get it. The Navy handed him aviation instead, and he arrived at flight school having spent four years skydiving and rock climbing while everyone around him had spent theirs flying. He was so far behind that instructors wouldn't clear him to take off — he couldn't taxi the airplane properly. Twenty-one years later: three combat deployments, two tours as a Blue Angels demonstration pilot, and a seat in the cockpit as one of the pilots who flew the canyon runs in Top Gun: Maverick. This is a strength and conditioning conversation wearing a flight suit. Frank explains why Blue Angels pilots deadlift and squat heavy, what an hour under G actually costs a body, the centrifuge session where they took the whole team to the point of blacking out on purpose, and the debrief where every pilot names every mistake they made that day out loud — including the ones nobody else saw. EP 153 — CHAPTERS (16) 0:00 Cold open 1:03 Flying the Top Gun: Maverick canyon runs 5:05 Eighteen inches apart at 400 mph 15:03 The centrifuge: taken to blackout on purpose 17:38 The shoulder that ended his football career 24:54 What to say to the kid whose injury took their identity 30:28 The emptiness nobody warned him about after retirement 34:36 "I couldn't taxi the airplane" 38:50 Preparing to the point of diminishing returns 44:01 Push it to failure to find the envelope 54:04 What actually builds trust in a leader 1:00:12 Why the Blue Angels fly without G-suits 1:03:30 The squat rack before the call home 1:09:15 The debrief: every pilot names every failure out loud 1:16:17 LIMFACs — how naval aviation finds limiting factors 1:21:39 Rapid fire: movies, lifts, and Lead Solo Where is your athlete actually losing ground? Take the free Athlete Builder Scorecard — six blocks, six minutes, one honest answer: athlete-builder.com/assessmenttest The Two Minute Drill — one short read every Thursday for coaches and parents who want athletes built right: athlete-builder.com/newsletter Guest: Cdr. Frank Weisser — frankweisser.net. His book Lead Solo: Learning Life's Vectors from an F/A-18 Blue Angels Aviator is available on Amazon and through Naval Institute Press. All proceeds go to the Wingman Foundation. Questions for the show: info@athlete-builder.com

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