and coaches varsity softball at our very own high school so corey how are you doing today and i'm glad you are you are doing fantastic so i wanted to start off with asking you about the gym so why exactly did you set your sights upon any time i just got involved with my family my dad's been running gyms for over thirty years and he started with a place called family fitness centers out in los angeles california and he has been doing it since i grew up so i just kind of got through school and i they had an opening there and they wanted me to help them so i helped them and then i fell in love with doing it so i've been there ever since spent almost five years so any time i've feel like i like i know that it's a chain like gym so how did you get yourself involved in that so it's actually a franchise but it is it is nationwide and actually worldwide but they are individually owned and operated so every anytime fitness someone would go to someone different is going to be owning them so my dad when he was looking to open his own facility he decided to go with anytime fitness because it allows you to have some more personalization to the gym he could pick the type of equipment he wanted to put in he could pick his layouts other gyms that are franchise like that are much more strict where you have to just kind of follow this cookie cutter template and he didn't want to do that he knew what kind of equipment he wanted to put in and what lasted well over time and so since it was his own facility he wanted to have more of a say in any type of this was a really good one for them so then how does owning a gym and being a sole proprietor of a gym differentiate from being in the gym by itself well i just like owning it with anytime i'm sorry say that he informed me so what's the difference between being a full proprietor of a gym owning it for yourself and running it by yourself as opposed to being with personally it's hard to want to commit to someone that you don't necessarily have any background on them and someone who's new to the area opening a gym just not known like a franchise there's not as much debility in  that we knew that going with a franchise people would know the name and then they'd feel more comfortable being able to sign up and commit to something put building on file that sort of thing so that's why he went with with the franchise you also get the perks of having like discounts with equipment through being part of the franchise so any time corporate has to you through you know those different discounts as well as like the security system and all that kind of stuff on the can already have it ready for you so that's important dad's family was originally from the area so they were all living in this lake cranberry area at the time and my brother and sister wanted to go to penn state so it kind of made sense to come back to pittsburgh from pol really he knew that peter's township had a good four district he wanted to have his kids go here so my brother and sister went there to peter's and he looked around the area and he found miller cation near the chinese bowl and he thought it was a really good location so he just kind of put some different avenues with his family because they actually owns the big lawn out simple grief for his family it was part of that so he went with them and they asked if i wanted to help them out for the summer until they could figure out what they what exactly did you do you were i played softball i played softball season i was five and i was a pitcher and i was recruited to play for the university of pittsburgh when i was in high school so i came out from colorado to play for  so when you were at pitt what exactly did you study that helped you move it into your fitness career so i'm not a very good example of what you study translates into your careers i was actually studying to go on to a veterinarian school so my master's in public health but the specialization in veterinary public health i wanted to be a veterinarian that's what i was going to school for another degree and yeah you know and so when i got done with school before i applied to veterinary school that's when i took my summer off and decided to just help my parents that summer and then i ended up liking what i was doing so much and i didn't have to there's also  you with i i had a scholarship for undergrad so i wasn't in debt for school and i would've been going in debt for veterinary school so i had to make a decision i was now working adult and making money and stopping all of that to go in a bunch of debt to go to more schooling was part of my decision so so so yeah i mean when you or i know you're supposed to go to school get an education and follow up with that i'm not a good example of that neither is my dad though he was an engineer by training and he runs gyms transcend into your now well the degree you were kind of does because it was a great degree in public health so the specialization was veterinary which meant that i took half my courses in the vet school at ohio state university and the other half were in the public health school of the state so in public health side they do talk about things like fitness and injuries and illnesses and you know different types of things that i can relate in to working in the gym but i would say more like my background with fitness and a meeting in the athletic department at pittsburgh and the training i had to go through with their purse like personal trainers or training department i'm is probably more what helped me in that regard  but you know i think anytime you we fall in and you get an education in something i think it helps you with just managing i mean when i have two emails and and the process of filling in all that kind of stuff having an educated background is always extremely helpful that leave me in my next question where did you see yourself being the manager and how do you see yourself doing that how does that affect you how do you manage it how do you play that role it's really kind of an overseeing of everything i mean sometimes the gym seems like it's just a gym there's not much to do but i mean there's there's buying new equipment there's a quick maintenance which you have to do when things break for us to do it the billing company and feeding information and there's my training staff i have to employ a staff of people i have to keep track of them as customer service which i think is probably the biggest part of doing it is dealing with all the different members  and then my parents they they do the ownership part but i've been able to go over many of their roles because i'm there all the time so there's that helps too when it's a family business to be able to all work together and be able to help each other out for the different differ from them since i'm pretty sure do you have like a personal training i don't train anybody i have a training staff so i you know we look trainers that have certain backgrounds certification education personalities because the trainers personality is huge with whether or not they're going to get along with members so i we interview and we play them and we help set them up with their schedule so i help schedule things for them but i don't go out on the floor and actually train the members because that's not my background much my training staff i just do the computer work again billing and scheduling for all that kind of stuff do you have a leg in the promoting of the business do you how do you promote like advertising year yeah i pretty much do that mostly myself it's usually nowadays it's through facebook advertising that's where most instagram and you know there's maybe like e mail blasts and stuff like that but it's pretty much the whole way that advertising has been going over the recent years with at least within the gym industry but i see on the personal facebook page i mean it's ads all the time so i think a lot of it is going in that direction to so i'm wondering about your experience with the high school so what exactly do you do with peter centric right now i am one of the assistant coaches for the softball team but i am specifically the pitching coach because that's my again that's my background that's what i did so i specifically work with the pitchers a little bit with the catchers but not more not only instructing the pitching you're a pitching coach here at the high school how does your schedule work when it comes to owning that you're managing the gym and being a pitching coach for the softball team i really go to practice once only on on for now right now they're on fridays because that's when we're able to schedule it and i just have the pitchers on there for two hours and a pitcher is ready to be through with me one on one and then on once we get more into the season there's often time saturday practices which i can usually go to as well but it is difficult because of my schedule because i am at the gym pretty early most days of the week so usually i just have a couple  with them when you're working with the gym why why did you choose to do that if you know if you knew that it was going to be a lot because i missed softball i dedicated my entire life to it starting when i was five and it's a passion of mine i enjoy teaching i mean i had a pitching coach when i was growing up and she taught me how to do everything and so i like giving back and being able to teach the other not only do i do that here but i do it privately at seaside sports academy as well so it's just nice to i have certainly worked so long for and so hard for and be able to then pass on what i've learned to other people so and it kind privately though when i was in grad school and then when i got here and then last year was my first year with peter's pitching school ok well thank you so much but we're going to cut to a break really quickly and we'll come back so so we have come back and i'm ready to ask you a few more questions about your experience with softball actually because i want to know why you chose seaside as can you give me a little bit of background seaside seaside sports  baseball and softball lessons so hitting fielding pitching on a little bit of everything they do team rent told of for like team practice and they have an indoor field in there and so yeah i started working with him when i moved back here because i saw that they didn't have wow so whenever you feel that you've been doing these pitching things how long have you been doing pitching coaching with it if it's all lessons i've been doing since grad school which was in two thousand and eleven and i did i worked for two years at a place out in columbus when i was out there at ohio state and then i moved back here and i continued with seaside ok so whenever you're at sea side how do you how do you construct your programs i have each girl in there for about an hour i do it once a week so some people come every week some people come every couple of weeks but we focus on basic mechanics and then we depending on their age level and certain girls are learning pitches so i'm teaching certain pitches to some students some students are just doing fastballs or just fast walls and changeups and that's it and they focus a lot on mental game as well hitting spots location knowing when to throw certain pitches certain batters that kind of stuff pitching as well so then with this experience how has shaped you as a leader i mean i've always considered myself to be kind of more of a silent leader i was team captain two years i was at the university of pittsburgh and i'm more like a lead by example type person i'm not your loud outgoing yelling crazy player i was more quiet but i i work really hard and i'm very focused when i'm especially when i'm focusing on pitching because that was my thing so i just i tried to just always do my best and lead by example and i think that's what i try and do my lessons as i'm not allowed crazy yelling coach or anything either like that  i'm just to the point we work on certain things i like to have fun but i am serious about it and i try to really help them learn that it is just a game at the end of the day so you are doing it have fun but there are certain things that really help you move forward and the mental game is really important and i think a lot of people underestimate that sometimes it's not just about your skill you can be decently skilled but have a good mental game and you can do really well in games so i try to bring that when i'm teaching as well which i think know i i want to have fun when i'm out there when i'm playing or when i'm coaching but you have to be paying attention to what it is that you're doing and really thinking especially with pitching you have to think about the batters that are in there you have to think about your situations you have to think about the umpire what put what balls and strikes he's giving you there's a lot to it so i really i really want everyone be super focused on what they're what they're looking at and and really trying to figure out what what pitches would be best how to read the batter and make good decisions and then lead your team because if you start having a mental breakdown on the mound because things aren't going well they're hitting you or whatever your team sees that and then your team doesn't have confidence in you and when your team doesn't have confidence  their pitcher it's not a good situation so i always tell them even if you're struggling and you know you're struggling like you need to take a deep breath and tell your team east you've got it we're good we're fine because then when they do hit the ball or what not your team has confidence me they're going to make those plays for you they're going to get you out of innings and you guys work well together but on teams when a pitcher starts falling apart the whole team starts to fall apart so you can see it so that focus has to be there not just within yourself but also to help your team continue to do really well and then when you do throw one right down the middle and they launch it out the outfield they'll make that diving play or what it whatever they need to help you because they have that confidence in you so that's kind of what i kind of mean by that so then whenever you are training and whenever you are working one on one and especially when you're you work with before varsity team what is your training style like how do you implement what you want to get done other than being a fine leader i know that's what you talked about but i mean honestly i just kind of tell them what we're doing and why i really try to explain why i'm doing something i think sometimes i don't know i've experienced it i've had coaches that kind of tell you this is what we're doing go do but they don't explain why and it was really important for me to understand when i was an ass when i was playing you know what why i was doing certain things and what it meant and how it was going to help me and the reasoning behind it so i i really try  and do that with everybody so that it makes sense as to why i'm asking them to do something i like people to ask me questions and not to do it because i said so and i don't like that i like people to actually you know learn from it and try in because i think if you understand it and the reason behind it then it makes it easier to implement it i think if you're doing it just because i don't think you learned well from that at all and you know i didn't so i try to do that with everybody  whatever you are teaching and i guess not teaching but coaching then how do you have any sort of experiences with injuries and anything of the like luckily with pitching i mean for the most part unless you have some sort of a form issue that needs to be corrected there aren't really many injuries there might be some shoulder problems or some back problems but generally nothing nothing too big i think like my brother he was in baseball and i know it's a little bit different and i have friends that are in softball and when ever they like you to soon there's a flying ball you're going to get hit like well i don't know i so i mean it have been definitely i've been hit plenty of times but it generally speaking really serious injuries in softball are rare and usually it's some sort of a bad situation that happened that is very uncommon flying bowl is a painful one but you know it's not like football where you're getting tackled right there's rarely very you know like big i mean you might have a collision with like sliding into home plate or something like that but varsity team is is a team sport my one on one lessons are very individual so pitching is an individual part of a team sport but when i'm when i'm with the team was coaching here you know i'm working with a couple  different people i'm working with you know we talk with the fielders in the hitters and batters every everybody catchers when i'm when i'm at seaside it's just usually me and the pitcher and generally it's just their dad who's catching sometimes they bring  catcher but it's just them one on one focusing just on their pitching so then even like throughout their season when they committed tell me how things go they won't tell me how their team did but i don't really not to sound mean but i don't specifically care about how their team did i care about how they did individually because that's what we're working on i don't know anyone on their team leaders i care my pitchers do well but i care for the team does well as i know the whole team we all work because i'm helping with everyone so it's kind of different i get that team aspect that competition versus the one on one is slowly just you know the two of us working on mechanics pitch location things like that you could you could pitch and lose a game but the pitcher might have pitched really well and that to me that's a great win but i'm peter side of my pitcher pitches really well but we lose i'm glad my pitcher did well but there's a team aspect that i care about so it's kind of different in that regard ok so whatever it is when you're with the varsity team how do you implement a this camaraderie ship how do you implement like this leader to subject but not totally subject leader to follower in a very kind of you know i mean between me and the athlete yeah that's what i'm trying to get honestly i just there there's a fine line between being a friend and being a coach but i feel like when you try and actually get to know your players and find out a little bit about them their background if they have siblings what they're studying in school you know any other sports they play i feel you have a better relationship with them and if you're very respectful to your players then your players are generally very respectful to you so i think you know everyone here they're all young adults i know when i was in high school i wanted to be treated like a young adult not like a kid it was important and so i try and do the same thing with all my athletes  you know if at the end of the day they don't want to practice they don't want to work hard that's on them so i put a lot of responsibility back with my my athletes and i think that helps us get along really well oh ok so then when  to athlete or went to one of your trainees is lacking in not doing the work then how do you how do you manage that then they're not going to get the same playing time as other other people on the team i mean that's how it was for me when i when i grew up if you didn't want to work hard and you didn't want to take it seriously then you kind of you kind of get a little bit ignored by the coach and i think if you're going by the coach it's never a good sign because then they don't care and if they're not going to work hard and not take it seriously then i'm not going to put the same effort into that that athlete as i would other athletes so and generally i don't have that problem especially here the girls here have been great they work really hard they all do so i don't i don't see that happening but i was in my private lessons i've had i've had girls who aren't working hard and sometimes i tell their parents you know they're not going to work hard i'm not going to keep that's so because it goes back mean for coming in and telling us all about your experiences athens as an athletic coach ben thank you all for watching and so please tune in next time for another episode of