Olympic Strength & Conditioning coaches interviewed Episode 28: Dan Baker 'Hard work works.'

Dan Baker, 3+ decades in strength & conditioning (S & C), 20+ years’ experience in professional sports, founder and president of the Australian Strength & Conditioning Association (ASCA), Dan has contributed to the profession of strength & conditioning like very few others.

In this interview he shares insights, he hasn’t shared before, amongst those, on how he got into strength & conditioning, the lessons he learned over 3+ decades in strength & conditioning, his ambition to establish strength & conditioning as a recognized profession.

Furthermore we discuss 

·       How he got into strength and conditioning

·       His darkest moment

·       His best moment 

·       What advice would he give a younger Dan Baker

·       His advice for you and aspiring strength & conditioning coaches 

·       Why Dan never took on a position as a performance manager

·       His coaching philosophy

·       His core values

·      His motivation to raise the standard of strength & conditioning

·       Which person has impacted him most as a coach and why 

·       How to manage expectations

·       How to deal with decisions that you don’t agree with

·       How does a typical training day in the life of Dan Baker looks like 

·       How he designs a training program  

·       Is strength & conditioning an art or a science

·       Who he nominates to be interviewed  

·       Where can you find more about Dan Baker

Intro: Today it’s my honor to be joined by somebody who doesn't need an introduction if you are Working in the world of strength and conditioning, Dan Baker.

In short, 20 plus years of experience in professional rugby, president of the ASCA (Australian Strength and Conditioning Association, a PhD in Sports Science. Dan has worked with the Brisbane Broncos for 19 years, worked across different Olympic Sports and is now educating strength & conditioning coaches worldwide. 

Personally, I’ve seen Dan, the first time at the UKSCA conference in 2010, and I really enjoyed it. What I've always liked about Dan is, that he is a practitioner. So without further ado, welcome Dan.

Dan: Thank you, man. Thanks, Christian.

How Dan Baker got into strength & conditioning

Christian: Dan, how did you get into strength and conditioning?

Dan: That's what I wanted to do. I come from a fairly sporty family, not a very high level. My father played a bunch of sport along with my three brothers and three sisters. We all did sports, but just recreationally. My oldest brother, he was a good semi-professional footballer and decent level boxer.

That's what I wanted to do.

So we are all very sporty, but I was a little bit fat when I was a child. So when I got to about 14 or 15 years, I started training really hard to lose weight. I'd go with my brother to the boxing gym. When it wasn't football season, I just started doing lots of running and lifting weights. 

His darkest moment

Christian: In your life as an S&C coach what was your darkest moment?

Dan: Ah, that's really easy. One of the former rugby players from our team, not the Brisbane Broncos, another team I worked with, claimed he hurt his back squatting. He tried to sue me for one and a half million dollars. The case didn't go to court, but I had liability insurance with a company which the Australian Government Sport's Commission told us to all take out.

One of the former rugby players from our team tried to sue me for one and a half million dollars.

This company went bankrupt, and all of a sudden, I had no insurance cover for a lawyer to help me fight this case. I was in the wilderness and I couldn’t afford a lawyer to help me. Anyway, the Australian Government bought out all the people, because they told the people to take out this insurance and the company went broke.

So we ended up getting a lawyer from the Government Rescue Fund, and it was proven to be false a true story. Some athletes can't get a contract and they went looking for the other payday. I don't know if it's happened here in Europe, but if you think about the mid-1990s, lot of people in Australia were following the American example of "let's sue and get some easy money."  

His best moment

Christian: What was your best moment? 

Dan: When I was at the Brisbane Broncos, we won four premierships. That was pretty good, that's the best moments. The last one was pretty sweet, in 2006. That was the fourth because we won in '97, '98, 2000, and we thought that the golden era would never end and you'd be winning finals every year or two.

We won in '97, '98, 2000, and we thought that the golden era would never end and you'd be winning finals every year or two. Then we didn't win for 5 or 6 years and we won again in 2006.

Then we didn't win for five or six years and we won again in 2006. We didn't win again by the time I left in 2013. They still haven't won. So I suppose 2006 was the sweetest one, in a way.  

His advice to a younger Dan Baker

Christian: If you could travel back in time, 10, 15 or maybe 20 years, what advice would you give your younger self, a younger Dan Baker? 

Dan: Don't do circuits. When I was younger, there was no internet or any books on how to train. I started training at the boxing gym and all they did was circuits. I thought that's how you lifted weights, so I did circuit every day for four years, with no progress. The same circuit every day, no progressive overload, from about age 14 to about 17 years.

When I was younger, there was no internet or any books on how to train. I started training at the boxing gym and all they did was circuits, so I did circuit every day for four years, with no progress.

So going back to your question, I would just take my young body and just do proper training and I know what to do, that would be fantastic. Having wasted three or four years doing high rep circuit training.  

His advice to young aspiring S & C coaches

Christian: With all the knowledge you have now, what advice would you give young aspiring S&C coaches?

Dan: Get practical experience. Go with a mentor and get practical experience. I will give you an example. I draw on my University powerlifting club because there was a couple of guys who had really ranked high in the world, as number two and number three or number two and four, something like that.

 Go with a mentor and get practical experience.

They start telling you stuff or you watch their stuff, stuff that's not in books. If it's some champion athletes or champion coaches in your area, make use of that resource. That was really helpful for me to do that. It wasn't just one guy, two or three and I'd just suck up their information. I'd be doing my own lifting and then they'd help you. So you are getting coached by guys, number two and number three in the world. So thank you, that didn't cost me any money.

Why Dan never took on a position as a performance manager

Christian: There is a question, I have out of personal interest, if you look at the life cycle of an S&C coach or career paths, very often it's S & C coach, then you become a head of S&C and you either go into lecturing or performance manager. 

Dan: Exactly.

Christian: You have never taken on the role as a performance manager. Were there no opportunities or was it something that didn't want to do?

Dan: I don't want to do that. The management stuff I do is with the ASCA is enough, I don't want to do more management. I like coaching, so right now I am not coaching athletes. I am coaching coaches, but I am still coaching. Too much management stuff bores the s… out of me. I want to be a coach. I didn't go to university to be a manager, I want to be a Strength Conditioning Coach.

I like coaching, I didn't go to university to be a manager, I want to be a Strength Conditioning Coach.

But, you are right. It seems to be about a 15 years cycle after being a fulltime Strength Conditioning Coach, that you get to a point, where maybe your late 30s or early 40s, somewhere around there, you have to go do one or the other. I knew that was happening.

That is one of the reasons I did my PhD, because I knew I didn't really want to do management. I thought I got to be a Lecturer, sometime in the future. So you got to have your backup plan ready, so in case you say, "Hmm, I can't coach now or I don't feel like coaching anymore" In my case, I always feel like coaching, but it's a pretty hard lifestyle in the high-performance world, with all the travel and long days. 

Check out the full interview