142 | Josh Beaumont Talks Navigating Career Transitions From Pro Sports to Sports Science

About the Guest

Dr. Josh Beaumont is a seasoned athletic trainer and sports scientist with a vast experience in professional sports, particularly in soccer. Over his career, Josh has transitioned from being a competitive soccer player and athletic trainer in Major League Soccer (MLS) to working as a sports scientist specializing in performance analytics. Dr. Beaumont holds a Ph.D. in a related field and has a strong interest in recovery science and data-driven performance enhancement, working at Proactive Sports Performance.

Episode Summary

In this episode of Becoming UnDone, host Toby Brooks engages in an enlightening conversation with Dr. Josh Beaumont, a professional who has successfully pivoted from athletic training in Major League Soccer to a fulfilling career in sports science. Josh shares candid insights into his personal and professional journey, highlighting the challenges of identity loss after leaving his dream job in pro sports and how he found a new path in data-driven athletic performance.

Beaumont delves into the intrinsic connection between athletic training and sports science, emphasizing the critical importance of recovery and recognizing actionable patterns rather than relying solely on data. The discussion touches on Josh's ability to adapt amidst transitions, the invaluable role of gut instinct alongside scientific metrics, and the evolving landscape of both athletic training and sports science, particularly with the integration of AI and advanced performance analytics. His journey offers a compelling narrative for those at the crossroads of their careers, illustrating the power of resilience and reinvention.

Key Takeaways

• Transitioning out of professional sports allowed Josh to realign his identity and rediscover his passion through sports science.
• Recovery is paramount in achieving peak athletic performance, and data should be used to guide, not decide, actions.
• The dynamics of athletic training have evolved, with current trends emphasizing the integration of digital analytics tools and performance science.
• Staying strategic and prepared when contemplating a career move can help minimize the risks associated with leaving a dream job.
• Understanding and adapting to the intersection of AI within sports science represents the next frontier in the industry.

Notable Quotes

1. "Whatever is good for health is good for performance." – Dr. Josh Beaumont
2. "Recovery has always been massive. Sometimes the most powerful performance metric isn't in your spreadsheets; it's in your gut." – Dr. Josh Beaumont
3. "It's easy to sit and complain, but you have to look within yourself and ask if you're doing what you need to do." – Dr. Josh Beaumont
4. "Data should guide, not decide." – Dr. Josh Beaumont
5. "Being strategic in purpose means not moving before we develop a plan and then not quitting until we execute on the plan." – Toby Brooks

Resources

• Josh Beaumont on LinkedIn: Josh Beaumont
• Proactive Sports Performance: Proactive Sports Performance
• Contact Josh via Email:

Transcript

0:00:03 - (Josh Beaumont): This is Becoming Undone. I think for me, it was when I left professional sports. I knew the writing was on the wall just based on, you know, a gut feeling. And when I got into mls, it really was on the ground floor, right? There was 12 teams and the league was growing. And I was like, oh, my God, I'm on. You know, I'm going to be here for the next 30 years of my life. I love soccer. I was a college soccer player in addition to lacrosse. And as I look back on it, you hit a key word that. The identity. And I felt like my identity was my professional job.

0:00:42 - (Josh Beaumont): So here all of a sudden I am. I'm. I'm out of work, but all of a sudden, my identity has completely changed because I was unable to separate the two. I was fortunate. I wasn't out long, but it was still this. This massive pit of it and a lot of bitterness. My name is Josh Beaumont, and I am undone.

0:01:07 - (Toby Brooks): Hey, friend. I'm glad you're here. Welcome to another episode of Becoming Undone, the podcast for those who dare bravely risk mightily and grow relentlessly. I'm your host, Toby Brooks. I'm a speaker, author, professor, and performance scientist who spent the better part of the last two decades working across professional, collegiate, and high school sports as an athletic trainer and a strength coach.

0:01:28 - (Toby Brooks): Over time, I've become deeply curious about what makes high achievers tick, especially how moments of failure, even the gut punch kind, can become the exact spark we need to move forward. This show is where I explore that journey. Every week, I sit down with a new guest to unpack how the most powerful breakthroughs often come after things fall apart. And just a quick note, while I proudly serve at Baylor University, this podcast is completely separate from that work. It's a personal project where I take what I've lived, what I've studied, and what I'm still learning and offer it up to anyone hungry to grow.

0:01:58 - (Toby Brooks): Let's get into it. This week, I'm doing my best to just stay the course. Sixteen week semesters are always a grind, but both for professors and for students. And considering I'm both at the moment, I am ready for fall 2025 to be in the rear view. I'm doing my best to finish strong at the front of the classroom in my organ admin class as it wraps up, and I'm trying to finish some projects and some finals in the two classes that I'm taking.

0:02:31 - (Toby Brooks): It is a grind, but I'm convinced that it's worth it. Originally moving into the classroom as a teacher was a hard move for me. It took me more than once to leave full time clinical practice as an athletic trainer. And there's something about just being a part of a team. A real live uniforms and road trips, team practices, team banquets, time in the locker room, in the training room. A team that's just impossible to replace.

0:02:57 - (Toby Brooks): Through teaching, I get to experience that indirectly. But even today, there are moments when I just miss that connection. If I'm honest, it was in those moments of ambition and aspiration turned into guilt and shame where this work was born. I just couldn't understand how I would ever be able to replace the joy that I got from helping my athletes be their best. But at the same time, I also couldn't see a future with the brutal hours, the low respect and the barely livable pay.

0:03:23 - (Toby Brooks): It was a dark and lonely season. And I'd venture a guess that today's guest went through much the same. And like me, he's come through on the other side. Better for the struggle so what happens when your dream job turns into a walking nightmare? When the title, the paycheck and the prestige still leave you empty? In this week's episode of Becoming Undone, I sit down with Dr. Josh Beaumont, a former competitive soccer player and former pro soccer athletic trainer turned sports scientist, to unpack what it really means to walk away from the thing you thought you always wanted.

0:03:54 - (Toby Brooks): Josh shares his raw journey through identity loss, the high stakes world of pro sports, and how the quiet courage to pivot opened up a whole new lane. We talk burnout, recovery, data overload, and why sometimes the most powerful performance metric isn't in your spreadsheets, it's in your gut. This one's for anyone standing at the crossroads wondering if the next step is forward or out. Spoiler alert. Sometimes it's both.

0:04:20 - (Toby Brooks): Let's check out episode 142 with sports scientist and athletic trainer Dr. Josh Beaumont.

0:04:26 - (Josh Beaumont): Foreign.

0:04:32 - (Toby Brooks): Welcome back to another episode of Becoming Undone, the podcast for those who dare bravely risk mightily and grow relentlessly. Join me, your host, Toby Brooks, each week as I invite a new guest so that we can examine how high achievers can transform from falling apart to falling into place. Joining me this week is a guest that reached out on LinkedIn. I love this. Like I've been posting a lot of kind of salty stuff on there about at and about how there's this mass exodus going on and Dr. Josh Beaumont's joining us. Josh, thanks so much for joining me tonight.

0:05:01 - (Josh Beaumont): It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me on.

0:05:04 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, I Think your story will resonate with a lot of my former students who are in that space in college athletics. And it, you know, it's like your dreams come true and you start to realize that maybe you need different dreams. Can be a lonely space to navigate. Figuring out like I finally got where I thought I wanted to be. And whether it's money or hours or whatever, it's not. And I love that you kind of pivoted into sports science, which is an emerging area. We'll talk about that.

0:05:31 - (Toby Brooks): I always like to start at the beginning. If someone only knew the polished, outward facing version of your journey, what's maybe one messy or misunderstood hard earned part of your story that they'd be surprised to learn?

0:05:45 - (Josh Beaumont): Oh, that's a, that's a great question. Messy or hard earned? I, I, I, I would say the reality check that pro sports gives you, you know, people that have spent time in there, it's, it's always what have you done for me lately? And, and certainly felt that during my time in pro soccer, geez, I had four head coaches, three general managers, three presidents within a five and a half year window. And even though the team had success, it was all, all, all four of the playoff teams in that team's history were what, during my tenure, it was still, every off season, nerve wracking. And what have you done for me lately? And certainly politics and life play into that.

0:06:31 - (Toby Brooks): Sure. Yeah. And I think that can certainly weigh on, especially a young professional that's not only trying to navigate the politics of it, but also figuring out who you are as a professional. The title of this show is Becoming Undone and we spend a lot of time kind of talking about how things oftentimes need to fall apart before they can fall into place. Tell me about a time when everything you thought you knew, whether it's about work or your identity or your direction, you mentioned before that you're a former athlete. Tell me about a time when that fell apart, when it came undone. And how did you rebuild?

0:07:06 - (Josh Beaumont): I think for me it was when I left professional sports, it was kind of, I knew the writing was on the wall just based on, you know, a gut feeling. And when I got into mls, it really was on the ground floor.

0:07:19 - (Toby Brooks): Right.

0:07:20 - (Josh Beaumont): There was 12 teams and the league was growing and I was like, oh my God, I'm on, you know, I'm going to be here for the next 30 years of my life. I love soccer. I was a college soccer player in addition to lacrosse. And as I look back on it, you hit a key word that the identity. And I felt like my identity was my professional job. So here, all of a sudden, I am. I'm. I'm. I'm out of work very briefly.

0:07:45 - (Josh Beaumont): I can talk about that in a second. But all of a sudden, my identity is completely changed because I was unable to. To separate the two. Now I was fortunate. Like, literally the next day, U.S. soccer called me up and said, hey, you're available. We got. We got stuff for you. We, you know, you know, our teams, you know, a lot of our staff, let's. Let's bring you in and put you to work. So I was fortunate. I wasn't out long, but it was still this.

0:08:07 - (Josh Beaumont): This massive pit of it and a lot of bitterness and the way it went down, the timing, there was. There was some certainly undercuttings and untruths that happen at that level, and it was a. It was definitely a bit of a learning experience that way.

0:08:21 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, I think that's certainly true for a lot of the students that I've counseled or who have reached out to me, who navigate that transition. Even from setting to setting, even from job to job within setting. There's just a lot of. It seems like there's guilt and shame kind of baked right in for us for some reason, in. We're used to working behind the scenes, and if you put yourself first, then somehow that feels toxic or counter to who we've cultivated ourselves to be. Talk to me a little bit about that and about kind of the psychological process of making that jump.

0:09:00 - (Josh Beaumont): I think when I was younger, it was a little easier to again because my identity was. Was tied in. I mean, I got married on an off day. I had my. My firstborn. And then, God, what. I was literally at the game the next night. So 24 hours later, I'm at a game, working while my wife is in the hospital. And, I mean, of course I went back afterwards, but, you know, it is very, very difficult to dissociate and put others first and, you know, even, you know, time off. I mean, I. I don't.

0:09:32 - (Josh Beaumont): I mean, I remember getting grief for being sick one day. Yeah, I'm like, dude, like, I know there's no other assistant, but, I mean, do you want me to spread the germs everywhere? Like, there's. There's not much I can do. I mean, I'm in bed and not. Not feeling so well. So, you know, I think some of that's changed a little bit culturally across, you know, sports and school. And, you know, I think we're probably both old Enough where you probably got a gold store if you made 100 attendance in elementary school. And, you know, I think those days are. Are long gone.

0:10:04 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah. Today you're immersed in performance science, which, you know, I've. I've said this to my students before. If that would have existed when I first majored in athletic training, I never would have majored in athletic training. The. The sports scientist in me would have been so enamored with that. And that's. That's not the dunk on at. It's just. It aligns with me. How do you personally navigate the tension between peak performance in your athlete and rest and recovery and burnout? I mean, it's kind of related to what we're talking about for yourself, but in your athletes, how do you do that?

0:10:36 - (Josh Beaumont): That's a. That's another great question. You know, for me, I've always been in the high performance, probably perhaps because I was an ex athlete. You know, I had a. A colleague who was a head at a major Division 1 school, and he's always said, you know, the performance is really where the money's gonna be and the pay is gonna be. And I, I think you've kind of seen that evolution. Every so often you see, you know, how much, you know, performance coaches at the college level versus the head ats are making at various institutions. And certainly performance drives that. But for me, I've always felt like they go hand in hand.

0:11:08 - (Josh Beaumont): You know, whatever is good for the health is. Is good for performance. And that's how I approached a lot of what I did. I loved when my team's conditioned. I was in the year, like sometimes of our strength, coaches say, do more, please do more. Because I knew at the back end that it would help them long term. It's kind of that acute versus chronic. Right. A little more acute risk at a little less chronic risk.

0:11:33 - (Toby Brooks): I love this sentiment here, especially on the heels of what Josh talked about in his own life. You heard him say it. His world was completely unbalanced. Got married on an off day, back to work the next back to work the day after his oldest was born. I completely relate. I got married on a Saturday afternoon and was at work first thing Monday morning. I too, worked the day after our oldest was born.

0:11:57 - (Toby Brooks): Somewhere along the way, that competitor's mindset of if a little is good, a lot is better starts to creep in to your mentality too. Back then, in an incredibly competitive job market where routinely hundreds would apply for a Single Pro or D1 job, you had to show that you were Willing not just to do the job better, but but longer and more reliably than the other person. But what I didn't realize then and what I don't think Josh realized was that growth requires resistance, but it also requires recovery.

0:12:27 - (Toby Brooks): Sports scientists now refer to this as the fitness fatigue model. Within it, it's the idea that athletic performance is the result not just of working hard. It's the result of two simultaneous and opposing training responses. A positive adaptation that builds fitness and a negative response that triggers fatigue that undermines it. In the gym, this means that your plan for no days off and to grind might actually be blunting your growth on the job. It can mean that you're unknowingly grinding yourself to a pulp toward burnout.

0:12:59 - (Toby Brooks): Josh points out that even when working as an at, he gravitated toward the performance side of things. And indirectly he recognized that whatever is good for health is good for performance. I've heard it said that the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. Preparation isn't just helpful, it's essential. But part of preparation is recovery. It's a fact Josh could recognize in his athletes, but he was slower to see it in himself.

0:13:29 - (Josh Beaumont): Sorry, I'm going to go off a little tangent. Something that a lot of young athletic trainers and strength coaches struggle with and, and that's where you get the silos. You know, they're so afraid or they have to train athlete injured in the weight room. But yeah, occasionally someone may get hurt there. But if you have a good performance staff, a good strength and conditioning staff, they're going to save you four or five injuries on the back end. So you can't focus on that micro. You have to look at the macro.

0:13:55 - (Josh Beaumont): But I was a guy, even when they were running conditioning, I didn't stand by the finish line. I stood little bit of ways away. So I didn't get the come to the athletic trainer to opt out of my fitness sprints.

0:14:07 - (Toby Brooks): Right? Yeah, for sure. One thing I've definitely noticed maybe in the past two or three years is how there's been a, I won't say a pivot away from it. It's a pivot toward recovery agents. So creatine has long been used as a muscle building agent, but if you really think about it, it's there to facilitate recovery. Today I see peptides, you know, BPC157, collagen, some of the commercially available supplements like frog fuel, those kinds of things are more popular, I think, than they've ever been.

0:14:40 - (Toby Brooks): And with that, even athletes using Their Apple watch to log their sleep. And how much deep sleep did I get? Talk to me a little bit about how recovery is more, perhaps more important. I don't want to lead the witness here, so to speak, but how does recovery factor into the work you do as a sports scientist versus how you viewed it as an athletic trainer?

0:15:02 - (Josh Beaumont): For me, it's always been, been massive. You know, certainly soccer is unique in the, in the length of the season and that was always the issue. You know, college is a sprint professionals was long term, but always the recovery was, was massive. And I remember transitioning. So I went college, pro, national team to college and you know, recovery at the national team level was already there. You know, we had athletes that been in Europe, we had athletes from all over.

0:15:30 - (Josh Beaumont): There was always a travel component, bringing them in the camp and how do you get them. Training is high with recovery as much as possible. But when you really see the first evolution of recovery, it was this proverbial training loads and they haven't figured it out. You've almost over adjusted. We've gone, hey, we gotta watch training loads and then we don't get enough stimulus. And I think my first foray is at, at the pro level when guys would get pro days, we had an older midfielder who was 34 years old, 300 games, he needs more recovery than in young kids and so he would get a pro day. And then when I made that college transition and we started getting some of the heart rate monitors as you mentioned, now it's all over the place with Apple watches, our rings, all kinds of devices, you could see how much workload they had and said, hey, you know, maybe for this individual we have to scale it that so you, you've seen this really nice evolution and now it really is a focus and it's looking at nutrition, it's looking at the modalities, the proverbial biohacking, like every little bit that you can do. And, and my personal opinion is it's all great, but you still have to listen to the athlete.

0:16:40 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah.

0:16:41 - (Josh Beaumont): And I've always found that to be the best indicator. It's just getting to know as an athletic trainer, even as a sports scientist here in my current role, like getting to know the athletes and they will tell you when they're, they're, they're out of sorts, if you will.

0:16:55 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, yeah. I think there's kind of a metacognition here for, for some of us where we can see over training and even overreaching in our athletes, even in our staff, but we're oblivious to it in ourselves. And I think perhaps your pivot was partially in response to the, this isn't what I thought it would be in terms of my schedule, in terms of my salary, those kinds of things. When did you first realize that title wasn't enough? When, when you had kind of ascended the ranks and, and you kind of got where you thought you were going and you didn't feel that satisfaction. Whether it was an athlete, scholar, professional.

0:17:33 - (Josh Beaumont): Yeah.

0:17:33 - (Toby Brooks): Did you know that you'd need something deeper in order to keep going?

0:17:37 - (Josh Beaumont): Yeah, I, I, I think for me it, it was after about, you know, I'd started the PhD program and that was kind of the Nexus. But I, and I don't say this in a way to sound arrogant, but I, I was almost, I had so much experience in soccer that I felt like I could do the job blindfolded. Like, hey, okay, you got an ankle. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Hey, you got a nape. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Hey, you're not feeling well.

0:18:01 - (Josh Beaumont): All right, you're going to see, doc, you're going to do this, you're going to do this, you're going to do this. Like, and it was almost, it was almost too easy. And so for me, that was kind of the first Nexus. And then just again, I had always had my fingers in a little bit of everything. So going back to school kind of gave me that opportunity to have that stimulus again and not just again sleepwalk through my days.

0:18:27 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, that's definitely. It can be an eye opening experience to, to realize that you're not being challenged anymore, you're not growing anymore. And, and sometimes that's a startling thing for other people, it feels like failure. So what was a moment that you failed? Maybe spectacularly, maybe subtly. And how did that failure set the stage for something even better?

0:18:51 - (Josh Beaumont): Ooh, that is, I mean, I've already, you know, kind of talked about that transition from, from mls, I think. I don't know if there was big failures, but just, you know, going through the PhD program and learning that, you know, sometimes failure is part of research and having to overcome the obstacles of, you know, a failed hypothesis, if you will. And, you know, how do you pivot? How do you deal with the challenges within that? Like when you don't meet, you know, your subject guidelines or, you know, you can't get down to the lab. Like, that was one of my biggest issues at ASU was the X Phys lab was downtown and I worked on main campus.

0:19:33 - (Josh Beaumont): Well, it was about a 30 minute train ride back and forth and if you're trying to, you know, get in the lab just for some of those moments, like it was for me, I guess that that was probably a little bit of the failure is like, how do I problem solve this and overcome it and still get the necessary components of my PhD program without essentially having to quit my job to get down there?

0:19:56 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah. Yeah. I think it's valuable to look back and kind of deconstruct how maybe things could have gone differently. Let's think back to a younger you, and you can specify when and where, but think back to a younger version of yourself. Worst day. Knowing what you know now with the experiences, with the life that you've had, who would you go back to? Younger you, and what would you tell them?

0:20:22 - (Josh Beaumont): Probably play a little more nice in the sandbox. I think that was. That was hard for me. I'm an east coast kid. I grew up outside Philadelphia. And, you know, we have a certain reputation, and we are the city of brotherly love, but we have very sharp tongues. We like to give a hard time. I. I used to tell my athletes, it's. I still even tell my son's team that I coach. I said, if I'm not giving you a hard time, then you got to worry.

0:20:50 - (Josh Beaumont): I'm not talking to you. So I think just probably not being so brash and toning it down a little bit, because I think a lot of people took that as cockiness. And I'm actually not that cocky. I'm at times very insecure about my knowledge and especially with the career path that I've taken where it's been a little bit of everything. I'm not, you know, an expert in, you know, O2 kinematics or a certain type of exercise testing. I have a little bit of everything. So, you know, letting that insecurity show through and recognize that, hey, you know, I'm a jack of all trades in some ways, but not, you know, a specific expert. Expert in one.

0:21:34 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, I think that's well said. I talk with my students a lot about how much the profession of athletic training and to a certain extent, sports science has changed over the span of my career. And I know early on there was just a horrible lack of data. You know, you're making decisions on your gut. Like, does this guy, is he performing better? Like, I've got a stopwatch, maybe I've got a vertical leap, and that's kind of it. And maybe a tape measure to measure, you know, single leg hops and things like that.

0:22:04 - (Toby Brooks): Today, it's almost the opposite. We've got so much data, we've got so many tools. And you're working at the intersection there between science and human potential. You know, whether it's catapult data or VBT stuff, you know, bar speed, that kind of thing. What role would you say your beliefs and your purpose play in peak performance versus kind of the data, the science, the quantitative side of it.

0:22:32 - (Josh Beaumont): I think it's the classic art versus science aspect of it. Right. Like for us here when we do like athlete testing, like we'll get elite athletes, we'll get NBA guys that are going to end up in the hall of fame or playing all star games, we get kids that are getting ready for draft combine and we'll put them through all these tests. It's very robust. Like I'll have my section, strength coaches will have theirs. We have an embedded physical therapy department. Right.

0:22:58 - (Josh Beaumont): And if someone maybe doesn't understand the bio dex the first time, they could have a bad set. And if you are so rigid in your thought process, you'd be like, oh, he needs to do X, Y and Z on his quad because his right quad is 15% on his left. Well, it could be a little bit of a takeoff leg. You could have an injury. You can't just be so myopic. And then for us, what we've really found really I think distinguishes us and leverages, you know, the, the proactive sports performance overall method is we're looking for actionable patterns and that's where the science is. So I'll see something.

0:23:33 - (Josh Beaumont): I'll talk to our strength coaches, I'll talk to our physical therapist and say, hey, this is what I saw in the lab. And did you see this on your testing? Yeah. You know what? He H shift, he shifts to the right on his double leg squats and the single leg squats, he drops in the balance position.

0:23:51 - (Toby Brooks): That is worth repeating. We're not just chasing outliers or cherry picking success stories. We're looking for actionable patterns, reliable trends, a consistent stream of data pointing to a deeper truth. This is true in high performance sport, but it's also true in life. Thanks to tools like functional mri, we can now observe in real time how different types of motivation, encouragement feedback light up specific areas of the brain.

0:24:20 - (Toby Brooks): It shows us exactly where neural activity tied to engagement or performance is occurring. These regions of the brain don't lie. When we do it right, they activate. When we do it wrong, they stay quiet. Back in the day, we used to guess it was rooted in our best informed judgment, but it was still Just a guess. Today we can know emerging research in neuroscience and data science both are making it clearer than ever.

0:24:47 - (Toby Brooks): If you want to grow, to perform, to show up as your best, you need more than just hustle. You need strategy, insight and self awareness rooted in evidence. One of my favorite sayings is that if it matters, we should measure it. What Josh is pointing out here is supported by that science. And it's a science true for hall of fame bound athletes, as it is for us. If we're looking to make lasting changes, we identify those actionable patterns first, then it's just a matter of relentless execution.

0:25:21 - (Josh Beaumont): We tend to find patterns. And I've always liked to say the word data guiding, not data deciding. Yeah, I like that and I think that's important to kind of bridge onto that. And I was talking to a, a soccer player a couple weeks ago and their team is so set on substitution patterns based on numbers. And the coach, I'm like, well what about the tactical component of the game? You know, if you're going to stop it at, you know, make a sub, I may subm this person with the 65th minute. But what if it's a slow game? What if it's a fast game?

0:25:54 - (Josh Beaumont): What if you know your team is playing great, you're down a goal and it's not the right time to sub. So you know, you know, you've kind of seen this to your point, this evolution where we are so fixated on data that we, we can't make decisions that are right in front of us.

0:26:10 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, yeah. And I think for a young professional that can be a really daunting space to be. And it kind of reminds me of when you're working on a PhD and if you don't narrow that research question adequately, then you're just drowning in data that doesn't help you make an informed decision. And I think for a lot of our young professionals, maybe they weren't even involved in the decision making process. Like we're going to use Catapult because XYZ University in our conference uses it and we're going to, you know, there's kind of an arms race going on where you have to have this and you might not even know what to do with it. If you have the best of the best system.

0:26:47 - (Josh Beaumont): No, a hundred percent. You see so many different metrics that are pulled out and you have to, you know, I think you're, you know that, that prova. What is your why? You know, what is your question that's so important? But I think you've also seen. I'm gonna kind of tail back to something you said a little bit that I think is important. And it may not relate to athletic trainings, but I've talked to, you know, those in the sports science professor world, and they're saying, you know, we get kids that can build us these great databases, and they can sit there and say, well, you know, he's down 20% on his jumps over the last four days, and that's outside this standard deviation. And if you look at this graph, it's, it's bright red.

0:27:23 - (Josh Beaumont): Okay, how do we fix that? But he's bright red. You know, how do we fix it? Right. And so, you know, you're seeing some of this evolution of sports science where you have data science, sports science, the clinical application of it, and it's, it's just churning under the singular name. And I think that's why, depending on where that person's background, you know, do they have a strength and conditioning background? Do they have an athletic training background? Do they have a computer science background?

0:27:49 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah.

0:27:49 - (Josh Beaumont): And it's, it's really hard when you look at some of these jobs that are out there and you're like, oh my God, like you're really pulling from three specialties into one and, and hoping it sticks and almost setting people up to, to fail in some ways.

0:28:02 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah.

0:28:03 - (Josh Beaumont): And I mean, I even knew my position was a little bit like that, you know, when I got here and talked to him. I was just fortunate to have kind of, like I said earlier, that athletic training and sports science background that most don't have, because, you know, I gotta deal with the physical therapist, I gotta deal with the strength coaches. But we also do metabolic testing and biomechanical testings. And if you look, usually those are two different programs within either a master's or a Ph.D. or an undergrad program. So, you know, I think you're seeing some of this convolution that's really, in some ways, sending people out to fail.

0:28:34 - (Josh Beaumont): Yeah, it's unfortunate.

0:28:36 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, I think you're right. Again, talking with Dr. Josh Beaumont. He's an exercise physiologist and sports scientist, has a history in professional and collegiate sport. And I think probably what connected us was you saw some posts where I was kind of lamenting on behalf of my students who, you know, they can't post those things because they're still in those jobs and they would die if their AD saw them being honest.

0:29:01 - (Toby Brooks): Talk to me a little bit about what advice you would give for that young professional who's Maybe in that job and struggling with whether or not they should stick it out, whether or not that's what's for them. I mean, you, you navigated that and, and came out on the other side of it. What advice would you give to a young professional who's maybe in that space themselves?

0:29:23 - (Josh Beaumont): I, I think there's student bones. I think there's a, a true period of self reflection, right? It's easy to sit and complain, but you have to look and say in, within yourself, am I doing what I need to do? Am I taking care of myself? You know, am I even going to have that opportunity to do that? And that may answer the question for yourself, but also, you got to have a plan to exit, you know, and I, I think if you're going to make that pivot, you really have to sit down and say, okay, this is my plan.

0:29:51 - (Josh Beaumont): This is how I'm going to execute it. This is the timeframe, and then go for it.

0:29:56 - (Toby Brooks): This idea is specific to athletic training and pro sports, but it's also generalizable to so many other areas. Sometimes the emotion and the overwhelm of the moment can convince us that our best next move is bold, definitive action. You may be tempted to walk out the door on an especially hard day and never return. You may be tempted to tell that boss how you really feel, but trust me on this one. Wait.

0:30:23 - (Toby Brooks): Being strategic in purpose means not moving before we develop a plan and then not quitting until we execute on the plan. For Josh, that meant going back to school and pivoting to an adjacent career path. For me, it meant a move to a new university in a dramatically different role. And it's meant more than one additional degree for you. It may mean subtle changes or massive action, but the common thread is that when you're facing down your own purpose storm, you owe it to yourself and those you love to be purposeful rather than emotional and to focus more on the execution that lay ahead rather than the exit that lay behind.

0:31:00 - (Toby Brooks): If you can set that fear aside and plot your course with a rational objective, you can minimize the unnecessary risk.

0:31:08 - (Josh Beaumont): Because at the end of the day, you know, there used to be a time where, you know, if you were out of athletic training, it was always harder to go back to the level, right? Like, if you, if you. I feel bad saying this because some it, it values high school athletic trainers less, and I, I certainly don't want to do that, but it's a lot easier to go from pros to college, college to high school, then the other way around.

0:31:30 - (Josh Beaumont): Make the jump from high school to. And college to pros, having been on some of the hiring committees for those. Those roles. And so I think a lot of people are afraid, but athletic training's changed enough. There's enough jobs right now. There's better pay in some ways that I think you can take a risk. Whereas, you know, if I'd walked away from athletic training 15 years ago, it would have been really hard to get back in other than a clinic job or, you know, happening to know someone who was a past friend, a past colleague or whatnot.

0:32:05 - (Josh Beaumont): Right.

0:32:06 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, there's definitely a stigma that hopefully has gone away, and maybe it's just a reflection of the market economy and the fact that places are finding much more difficulty in filling roles, and so they maybe can't be as choosy. All right, we're going to wrap this one up fairly close to the end here. I want to ask of all my guests, I love music and the emotions that it can frequently represent.

0:32:30 - (Toby Brooks): What song would you pick to play in the background if we were to watch a montage of your life and why?

0:32:36 - (Josh Beaumont): Oh, montage. Well, my favorite song is Kit Cudi, Pursuit of Happiness. Steve Aoki remix Crush a bit.

0:32:52 - (Toby Brooks): Little bit.

0:32:53 - (Josh Beaumont): Roll it up, take a hit Filling it. Feeling like 2:00am Summer night.

0:32:58 - (Toby Brooks): Okay.

0:32:59 - (Josh Beaumont): And just, I, I guess that probably fits with the podcast, but it's also one that just, it's uplifting. It just, it just motivates the beat, especially the remix. Just, it's about getting after it or. I don't know, sometimes I feel like dancing with Myself by Billy Id.

0:33:36 - (Toby Brooks): Like it.

0:33:36 - (Josh Beaumont): Because you find yourself just in those moments, you know, especially as an athletic trainer, you know, sometimes you have assistance and things like that, but you find yourself just in the middle of that training room and like, yeah, all right, here I am. Here we are just going.

0:33:49 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah, Especially this time of year. I don't know about you, but I definitely have some, some PTSD from fall camp experiences back in day. All right, well, last one. Promise. What for?

0:34:02 - (Josh Beaumont): It's all good.

0:34:03 - (Toby Brooks): Yeah. What for? Dr. Josh Beaumont remains undone.

0:34:06 - (Josh Beaumont): I, I think for me, I can't answer that because I'm really waiting to see how AI plays out over the next five, 10 years. It's going to be. It's. That's the undone component of, is that next level of, Of AI and how it affects our data analysis and, you know, does it enhance what we do? Does it limit what we do? Does it. How much does it change, you know, to the point if AI spitting out formulas and Tanya, a kid shouldn't practice or a kid's ready to train and you don't think he is. You know, are you still gonna listen to the AI or you're gonna. You go with your gut. So I think for me, the Undone is really this continued evolution of sports science and how, how AI is gonna intersect.

0:34:48 - (Toby Brooks): I love it. I think that's definitely the bleeding edge. And, you know, here I am with a podcast and 10 years ago I didn't know what one was. So I love the continuous growth and looking for ways to incorporate the latest technology. All right, well, if listeners want to connect with you, give me some links. I can throw in the descriptions there. Where, where can people find you?

0:35:13 - (Josh Beaumont): I am a little bit older, so the social media is not super big. I am on LinkedIn. The website for our facility is proactive sp.com so there's some blurbs on there about the staff and the lab and, and what we do here. Email is joshuab herbalife.com so they can reach out via email as well.

0:35:34 - (Toby Brooks): Cool.

0:35:34 - (Josh Beaumont): My name is Josh Beaumont and I am Undone.

0:35:37 - (Toby Brooks): Awesome. If you're out there listening and feel like the path you're on no longer fits who you are, let this episode be your sign. It's okay to change direction. Reinvention is not just retreat, it's strategy. You're not weak for walking away, but you can be brave for choosing what's next. I'm thankful to Josh for dropping in and hope you enjoyed our conversation. For more info on today's episode, be sure to check it out on the web.

0:36:10 - (Toby Brooks): Simply go to undonepodcast.com ep142 to see the notes, links and images related to today's guest, Dr. Josh Bom. I know there are great stories out there to be told, and I'm always on the lookout. So if you or someone you know has a story we could all be inspired by, tell me about it again. Go to undonepodcast.com Click that contact tab in the top menu and drop me a note. Coming up on the show, I've got another former pro soccer athletic trainer, Morgan Dietary drops in. She bravely shares her powerful story of recovery and redemption and her fight with alcohol addiction.

0:36:56 - (Toby Brooks): Then I've got former University of Illinois women's gymnastics head coach Natalie Walsh, who shares how her transition out of Division 1 sports has allowed her to walk more fully in her calling as a consultant and a professional coach. Then I'm also stoked to share my conversation with the incomparable Marissa Nelson, whose story began in rural North Dakota and how she transitioned from a teen mom and a single wide to now owner and CEO of multiple multimillion dollar businesses.

0:37:21 - (Toby Brooks): There's some more coming up on Becoming Undone. And hey, if you're looking to go deeper, check out my brand new website. Thrilled about this. It's finally up. Toby Brooks, PhD.com It's your hub for resources, speaking info, one on one coaching opportunities. I would love for you to check it out. Love for you to sign up for my newsletter and connect. And speaking of coaching, I'm also stoked to announce the launch of my all new, all personalized, all for you coaching app@scienceofthecumback.com

0:37:48 - (Toby Brooks): it will launch next week and I'll have a special introductory price just for you, my faithful listener. I built it from the ground up specifically for those ready to turn their pain into purpose and take real steps toward a comeback. I can't wait to share more. Becoming Undone is a Nitrohype creative production written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. Tell a friend about the show. Follow along on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn at becoming undone podcast and follow me on my new socials handle Obi Brooks, Ph.D.

0:38:28 - (Toby Brooks): on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and TikTok. Check out my link tree at link tr EE backslash. Toby Brooks, Ph.D. listen, subscribe and leave me a review at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Till next time. Keep getting better.

0:38:49 - (Josh Beaumont): Sam.