This episode takes a different approach because the message is too important for coaches and parents to hear separately. Youth travel sports have transformed into a nineteen billion dollar industry that affects how millions of young athletes develop, and the disconnect between what coaches understand and what parents believe is creating problems for the kids caught in the middle.

Whether you're a strength coach working with travel athletes or a parent investing thousands in your child's sports career, you need to understand what the research actually shows about specialization, development, injury risk, and long-term outcomes. This comprehensive episode provides both audiences with the same evidence-based framework so you can work together effectively rather than working at cross-purposes.

What Coaches Will Learn:

The landscape of youth travel sports has fundamentally changed, with single-sport specialization among youth under fourteen jumping from roughly thirty percent to over seventy percent in two decades. Understanding this shift helps you contextualize the pressures families face and the athletes you're training. You'll learn specific movement screening protocols for identifying deficiencies in sport-specialized athletes, maturation assessment approaches for programming appropriately for developmental stage, and communication frameworks for navigating difficult conversations with parents about training volume, intensity, and specialization.

The episode covers practical programming strategies for young athletes who are already overtrained from their sport, including how to periodize around inadequate recovery, when to prioritize movement quality over performance enhancement, and how to create training environments that support psychological health and intrinsic motivation when travel sports culture often does the opposite.

What Parents Will Learn:

Understanding the actual research on sport specialization, injury risk, and long-term athletic development is critical for making informed decisions about your child's athletic participation. You'll learn that early specialization increases injury risk by seventy to ninety-three percent compared to multi-sport participation, that approximately seventy percent of youth athletes quit organized sports by age thirteen primarily due to burnout and loss of enjoyment, and that less than two percent of high school athletes receive any college athletic scholarship funding.

The episode provides practical guidance on recognizing warning signs of overtraining and burnout in your child, understanding what developmentally appropriate training actually looks like at different ages, working effectively with your child's strength coach or trainer, and resisting cultural pressure to specialize early despite what research recommends. You'll also get honest information about the economics of travel sports and realistic expectations about college scholarships as return on investment.

Shared Understanding for Better Outcomes:

Both coaches and parents will understand the developmental science showing why multi-sport participation until mid-adolescence leads to better outcomes than early specialization, the psychological research documenting burnout and anxiety in youth athletes, the biomechanical reasons why repetitive single-sport training creates injury risk in developing bodies, and the economic forces driving travel sports culture even when they conflict with best developmental practices.

The episode emphasizes that coaches and parents are on the same team when it comes to young athlete well-being, provides frameworks for better communication and collaboration between these groups, and offers evidence-based alternatives to the current travel sports culture that serve young athletes more effectively.

Research Foundation:

This...

Welcome to a special year-in-review episode where I'm pulling back the curtain on everything that happened with THIRST gym in 2025. This was my biggest growth year yet—crossing 6K YouTube subscribers, getting monetized, purchasing our own gym facility, and expanding across multiple platforms. But it wasn't all wins. I'm also sharing the setbacks, the expensive mistakes, and the hard lessons that are shaping my 2026 strategy.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

1. How I grew my YouTube channel to over 6,000 subscribers and finally got monetized (plus why hiring a video editor was a game-changer)
2. The strategy behind bringing the podcast back and building steady listenership while testing new formats
3. What drove 4,000+ new Instagram followers and created some of my most viral posts ever
4. The reality of purchasing vs. renting a gym facility—the ups, downs, and financial implications (see episode 51 here)
5. How we streamlined our gym business operations even as total revenue decreased (and why that was actually the right move)
6. My biggest mistake of 2025: outsourcing online client growth strategies and why it didn't deliver (but what I still learned from the experience)
7. What's changing in 2026: more frequent shows, more guests, and the experiments I'm running

If you're a fitness professional trying to build a content platform, grow your business, or scale your gym, this episode gives you a transparent look at what actually works—and what doesn't. I'm not sugarcoating the challenges or hiding the failures. This is real-world insight from someone actively building in the trenches.

Whether you're just starting your content journey or you're already established and looking to level up, there are actionable takeaways here that can save you time, money, and frustration.

Thank you to everyone who has supported the podcast, watched the YouTube content, followed on Instagram, and engaged with this brand. Your support makes this possible, and I'm committed to delivering even more value in 2026.

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered medical, fitness, or professional advice. Always consult with qualified healthcare and fitness professionals before making changes to your training, supplementation, nutrition, or health practices. Individual results may vary. The host and producers are not responsible for any adverse effects or consequences resulting from the use of any information, suggestions, or procedures discussed in this podcast.

Subscribe & Review:

If this episode added value to your training knowledge, please subscribe and leave a 5-star review! Your feedback helps us reach more fitness enthusiasts, coaches, lifters, athletes or anyone who can benefit from quality training information.

About Brandon Smitley

Instagram: @bsmitley @team.thirst

Subscribe On YouTube!

Website:

Most fitness certifications give you ONE chapter on nutrition, then send you into the real world where clients immediately ask about keto, intermittent fasting, and whether they need to eat 6 meals a day to "boost their metabolism."

Sound familiar?

This episode bridges the gap between what your certification taught you and what you actually need to know to confidently guide clients on nutrition. We're diving deep into energy balance, macronutrient optimization, meal timing myths, evidence-based supplementation, and most importantly—how to communicate nutrition principles in a way that creates real adherence and results.

This isn't surface-level advice. This is the practical application of nutrition science that separates adequate trainers from exceptional ones.

Energy Balance Mastery

• Why energy balance is the foundation that determines all body composition changes
• The four components of Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) and why they matter
• How to create sustainable deficits without destroying your client's metabolism
• The minimum effective dose approach to fat loss

Macronutrient Strategies

• Evidence-based protein requirements: 1.6-2.2g/kg for resistance-trained clients
• How to adjust protein during fat loss phases to preserve muscle mass
• Carbohydrate needs based on training demands (not diet trends)
• Setting fat intake for optimal hormonal function and adherence

Meal Timing & Frequency Truth

• What the research actually says about eating 6 meals vs. 3 meals per day
• The real story on the "anabolic window" and post-workout nutrition
• How to optimize protein distribution for muscle protein synthesis
• Making intermittent fasting work (if clients want to use it)

Supplement Science

• The only supplements with strong research backing (spoiler: it's a short list)
• Why BCAAs and most fat burners are a waste of money
• Creatine, caffeine, and protein powder—how to use them effectively
• Understanding scope of practice with supplement recommendations

Communication & Behavior Change

• How to meet clients where they are instead of overwhelming them with information
• Teaching clients to think critically vs. just following meal plans
• Addressing adherence factors that actually matter in real life
• When to refer to a Registered Dietitian (and why it builds trust)

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered medical, fitness, or professional advice. Always consult with qualified healthcare and fitness professionals before making changes to your training, supplementation, nutrition, or health practices. Individual results may vary. The host and producers are not responsible for any adverse effects or consequences resulting from the use of any information, suggestions, or procedures discussed in this podcast.

Subscribe & Review:

If this episode added value to your training knowledge, please subscribe and leave a 5-star review! Your feedback helps us reach more fitness enthusiasts, coaches, lifters, athletes or anyone who can benefit from quality training information.

About Brandon Smitley

Instagram: @bsmitley @team.thirst

Subscribe On YouTube!

Website: