Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Evan Strader. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Evan, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
My Father. He’s a blue-collar worker and has been working his ass off for far too long. From the time his feet hit the ground at 5am he’s working harder than the rest of us.
He is my greatest role model. I take so much pride in that quality that he made sure that my brother and I knew. He would always tell me that someone could be smarter, stronger, more likable, whatever it may be, but to make sure that no matter what they could not out work me. To this day, I work as hard as I can, and sometimes to my detriment, to make sure that I am able to have half of the work ethic that he does.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
First off, it’s an absolute honor that you all chose me to interview. I want to say thank you for the opportunity to tell my story and hopefully be a light to someone who might be experiencing similar things.
My name is Evan Strader, I am a sports performance coach in the Metro Atlanta area. I grew up in Cobb County, graduated from North Cobb High School, and attended Valdosta State University.
I met my wife in high school at the church I grew up in. We both attended Valdosta State University, and both of us are in similar career fields.
It’s crazy to think about how I got to where I am today. It seems very chaotic, but also very controlled. Coming out of high school the field of athletic training was where my heart was bent on being. I loved the idea of being able to work closely with athletes, behind the scenes, in a capacity that meant something. Working with kids who had gotten injured and being able to take them from post-op or on acute injury and get them back to game ready was a dream.
Sadly, I missed getting into the program by a miniscule margin. At the time, this felt like the end of the world to me. How in the world was I going to get into working in sports and helping athletes become the best athlete they could be if I wasn’t an athletic trainer. I went through a very rough sophomore year, I was depressed and had zero desire to go to class if I couldn’t do what I believed I was passionate about,
This got my head spinning as I was trying to figure what to do. I enjoyed training so much. being in a weight room brought me joy, no matter if I was in the athletic training program or not, I was extremely passionate about learning the ins and outs of what the human body was capable of. I have never been the biggest person physically, hell, I came out of high school a whopping 135 pounds. But I was certain that if I couldn’t be the biggest in the weight room, I would be the smartest.
That brought me to strength and conditioning. I interned with a company locally based out of Canton, GA, PLAE. This was my first taste of strength and conditioning. I had the pleasure of learning under some of the best that I know. Marisa Davis, Cassie Bronkall, Ron McKeefery, and many more. They helped to carve the path for me on what my understanding was of strength and conditioning. They taught me so many things that have stuck with me to this day about what it means to be a coach.
That was the summer of 2018. Going into the fall I was able to secure an internship that would run me until I graduated from college. I by the grace of God, managed to intern with Coach Doscher at Valdosta State. The staff that I was able to learn from there was second to none. Coach Doscher, Sarah Barnett, Ryan Nguyen, Dan Hergert, Jon Suh, Cameron Freeman all some of the most influential people in my coaching career. From 5am until 8pm most days of the week they worked around the clock making sure that weight room ran so smoothly. There are not enough thanks in the world that i can give them for dealing with me but, the sure poured so much time and effort into shaping me into the coach I am today.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Failure, Attitude, Resilience.
For some it can be shocking to hear failure, but everything that we are told about it is true. Failure is by far the greatest teacher. Do not be afraid to mess up. Learn that there are things in life that we can dwell on for a moment when it comes to failure, but most of the time we have to take it on the chin and move on. What was the lesson that needed to be learned from that failure or experience and how can we move forward.
Attitude shapes your reality. If you approach something with a negative attitude that is going to be what is projected on to those around you and it will shape how to perceive whatever experience you are going through.
Resilience is something that takes a lot of time to build, but we are going to be knocked down by the world more than once. How quickly can you recover?
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
You’re only as strong as your weakest areas.
Coach Willis, one of my mentors, would always tell me to “get comfortable, being uncomfortable. It’s the place where we find the most growth in ourselves.” It’s the truest statement I’ve ever heard.
Our strengths are always going to be our strengths, however; working on concepts that we might not be as strong in is only going to make those areas that we are strong in more pronounced.
For example, sales sucks, I dislike sales so much, but looking at it through the lens of “I’m not a sleezy salesman just trying to make a sale.” I’m actually just having a conversation with someone where I am trying to solve a problem and my skills in training just happen to be the tools that can help to mitigate the problem.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.zinglerstrength.com
- Instagram: evan_strader_; zingler_fitness
Image Credits
Andrea-Marie Photography
