 Hey everybody, it's Eric Johnson from Airtate Throwers Nation and in this video, what we're going to talk about is Love the Grind. What is Love the Grind? It's our new podcast and we're really, really fortunate to kick off our first podcast with 2019 world champion Joe Kovacs and his amazing coach wife, Ashley Kovacs. So in this short segment, about 10 minute clip, we go through some different things, a little bit about Ashley's background. We go through some coaching questions, kind of mindset, the qualification process and what was leading up into how the preparation, kind of some of the behind the scenes stuff that many of you probably find very interesting. If you listen carefully, Ashley has some really great coaching nuggets as they talk about how they prep for the world championships and kind of how they planned to execute the competition and it didn't go quite as planned but clearly it worked out well. So check out this video and enjoy Love the Grind. I'll tell you, when you ask me to just brought up the qualifier for me, I'll be brutally honest, I hate the qualifying round more than anything. I probably did something that was crazy, especially if people who know me and know me about warming up and how many warm-ups I've taken. I was like, wow, man, that's gonna be normal with me. I'm not even worried at all. And I actually only took one pull and they cut us off in a three. It was a little unfair to one group, got more than the other. Thanks so much for you guys doing this. Again, we're getting our podcast going, kind of an extension of what we do with our program and we're just trying to get a little bit more into the mindset of what it takes for athletes to kind of obviously get to your level as a very unique mindset. And as we did some research, it seems like you guys are definitely a very good match, you know, learning a little bit more about both your personalities. Joe, you and I actually have a few things in common. One, we work with our wives. My wife's my partner actually in my business and our business. We both obviously worked with Art Venegas. My wife actually helped with some of the research and she was like, I can't believe you're not best friends with this guy. And obviously you guys are, have to be like the biggest power-throwing couple. I mean, there's like John Smith and Connie and there was like Ramona Pagel and Kent Pagel and there's been some husband wives, but I don't, nobody's ever won a world championship together. So I will start out with Ashley and I will try to make this cohesive as possible. So now you've been the coach, I believe for two US national teams now, NACAC and this year you were the throws coach for the worlds or you were helping with preparation. So yeah, I was throws coach for the world team for the men. 2018, I did NACAC in 2017. I did junior Pan Ams for the women and then I did NACAC senior women and then I did the world championships for the men. Okay, so this has been basically four world teams at this point. So three, so Pan Am juniors women, NACAC senior women, world men. Looking at that, obviously you've had a very impressive career as a coach and so you've had to go through the list, like I said, what we'll do is kind of dive into some of the information and more questions but you've won all kinds of honors. Like you were Great Lakes region coach, that was the second time you've won that, right? Sade was the female athlete of the year for the Big 10. Obviously she had just this huge indoor with the weight. You were crushing it. You've coached multiple 20 meter guys. Obviously as a coach having a ton of success, you yourself obviously were a very accomplished thrower. So now if I had this right, you threw 50 feet in high school, right? With the shot. 10 and a half, yeah. As a glider. Yeah, yeah. Once it's two in the disc. Right, so you're kind of like a legend in Ohio. So returning to the state and coaching at Ohio State, is there any other place you're gonna rather wanna coach? Yeah, I mean, probably not. I mean, it's kind of like the Mecca for Ohio for sure to end up at Ohio State and an Ohio kid. No, that's awesome. So you were an 11 time all SEC honors athlete. You competed in two Olympic trials, 2008, 2012. Let's see, you were the what the NCAA runner up in the 2010 indoor in the shot, correct? You competed in a few meets post-collegially then after the trials in 2012 and 13. And you were fourth at the US indoors in the women's shot, obviously. And then you went to North Canton, right? That was at Hoover High School. Three time state champion. So you were pretty good thrower. I guess I was good at that time. The other interesting thing though about, and I don't know if you wanna mention this from being from North Canton, I went to Judd Logan's high school. Oh, okay. So yeah, so that's kind of like unique. Like I went to prom with Judd's son. So I was like, I always tell everybody, I knew Judd Logan before I knew what the hammer was. That's pretty funny. Yeah, and then the other thing, so my first master's was in human development leadership, but I just finished my second one at Ohio State and sports coaching. So that might be kind of notable just because I did, I'd say I definitely learned some things in that one that have been helpful. Okay, yeah, that was gonna be, that's one of my questions later on. How's your- Yeah, that's all I'm gonna note. So I was just- He's got the format, stick to it, right? Okay, so any rate introducing Joe, obviously Joe, again, the list of accomplishments are pretty incredible. Two time world champion, Olympic silver medalist. Also, so technically a three time world medalist, two time world champion, two time US champion. So needless to say I could go on about how many pro meets you've gone to and all the US teams you've made and all that kind of stuff. But what I figured we do is dive into some questions and get to that. So not too slight, you know, it seems like you've done a thing or two as a shop putter. And so we will kind of go from there. Let's see, Doha, I figured that's the, we'll get the monkey off her back and we'll talk about obviously that performance. I think there's some very unique things in terms of as a coach, how you would feel about that. And then obviously as the athlete. And so then there's this added element that not only is this the athlete you're coaching, this is your husband. And so there has to be some extra, like I would imagine some extra anxiety or maybe not. Obviously you hit the auto qualifier in the qualifying round, right? And it was just pretty much you were, I think you did it on the first throw, right? Yeah, so if you, I haven't been getting into detail on that too. So I went through a lot of changes. I think when I came out here, I'll tell you to recap Doha. You kind of have to recap the whole process of getting there. I was named the coach in November around this time last year for the Doha team. I was super excited for her, but at the same time, as you know, USA's isn't easy and I had to punch that ticket. So we weren't really able to kind of celebrate that fully until I got that done in Des Moines. So it was definitely exciting just to be there in Doha with her, knowing that she was going to be there. By the time we got to Doha, just to sum it up, like we kind of hit the ground running. She had to be there early because she was the team coach. So I got there at the same time she did. We strung together some of the best training I think I've ever done in my life. Not really crazy distance, though they were pretty good, but it was more like the mindset kind of reading my body. I'll tell you when you just brought up the qualifier for me, I'll be brutally honest. I hate the qualifying round more than anything. So once we got through that, it was a definitely breath of fresh air. We'll go into details about it. Like I probably did something that was crazy, especially people who know me and know me about warming up and how many warmups I've taken. Everybody talks to me about how many warmups I took in Rio and they think it was crazy outside the stadium. I didn't take any throws outside the stadium before qualifying, which was, yeah, it's a little bit of a risk and gamble, but you know, the 2090 is the automatic qualifier. I like to think I can pretty much do that within three throws. This was the first time that the A and the B group weren't going at the same time. Normally it's two rings at once and they let them go because there's a long throw going on, they went A and then B. So I actually heard that the A group got five throws in the ring for warmups. So I was like, well, man, that's like a normal me. I'm not even worried at all. So by the time I got out there, I did two stand throws, kind of just to start warming up, assuming I'm going to have three fulls. And I actually only took one full and they cut us off three. So I mean, to be honest, I was a little ticked off because it was a little unfair that one group got more than the other. But I mean, you kind of just have to roll with it at this point, but I know she's sitting in the stands. And you know, ultimately it was something I wanted to do, but it was her decision. And I would not have agreed to do it unless we did it. We jointly made that decision. But yeah, that's a little bit of a gamble to go into that qualifying round without seeing and having the confidence to see where the ball is going. After I took the first throw, I saw it just squeak past that line. And once I saw it 92, I mean, I didn't care how far it was. You know, when you did that big cue, it was the biggest relief. So was there any added stress, the fact that you did take the one warmup throw and then now you're like, well, wait a minute, I don't get a couple more. And so did it add a little bit? Yeah, like unnecessarily, just because you're planning on it. I mean, I'm at the point now I think I roll with things pretty well. If you get shut down, we can deal with it. I would be extra mad if that was the final and it was under different circumstances. But yeah, I mean, I asked the official, I was like, hey, the other group got five and they're like, oh, we're running late on time. We're gonna cut you down. For me, I just kind of rolled with it at that point because you have to at these meets. Like the most important thing is to not have a routine. But as long as you can kind of check your checklist off and you feel confident, kind of feel good to go. So I don't know if it was more pressure, but I know actually in the stands that might've made her been a little bit more on edge just because of the plan we had. You know, most guys coming in there were warmed up outside the stadium and coming in the call room, you obviously have to wait a while, but there was maybe a little bit more advantage because they kind of came into that scenario a little bit different than I did. But ultimately, I think it was definitely worth it. And who were the main throwers in your qualifying group? I forgot at the time I looked, but. Sure, Krauser was in mind. I'll tell you, Bob from Luxembourg, who didn't make it was in mind because I remember seeing him throw outside the sector a few times. The other pull, Heretic was in mind. And those were kind of two casualties not having those two 22-meter guys make it. But luckily, it's probably good I don't remember because I took one throw and got out. It's bad if you remember who's there because that means you're sticking around watching the other two throws. Yeah, exactly. And so for you, Ashley, was there any like, okay, wait, did you go into that too as the coach thinking, oh, we'll go through? I always know as the right as the coach. It's always got to be like, oh yeah, everything's fine, even though you might be dying inside. You can't tell your athlete, holy shit, like I'm stressed. It's like, yeah, yeah, it's no big deal. So did you have any of that too? Like were you worried at all since he only got the one full throw in qualifying? Yeah, I didn't like it. I knew that they were cutting it close on time. And I knew too that it was gonna be dependent upon like how quickly the guys walked like through the tunnel to get to the stadium. I just knew there were gonna be a lot of variables because they had that hard start time. And so I was getting a little bit worried because the way that the guys came out all at once, it was just kind of like a lot of chaos and they didn't get into the ring right away. And then that made me feel like, okay, they're not gonna have as much time as I thought that they were. So like I timed the warm-ups for like every throwing event just to be sure. I had said to him, I think that you're gonna get around five throws. And that was kind of like what everybody thought. So the fact that they only got three, I was definitely stressing out about that a little bit. His first full throw was pretty good, but I just, I know that in the past he's really judged himself for the day based off how his warm-ups were. So I was a little bit apprehensive about that, but luckily Joe came through in veteran fashion and saved us on that one because I would have been feeling it for sure. I should know too, like we were practicing, you know, you are guaranteed two throws of the major championship. So we were practicing and had the mindset we're gonna get two throws. It was only after her watching everybody because she was a team coach, everybody get multiple throws that we're like, well, you know, we can keep on. Okay. To be honest, Tom Walsh opening up a 75 feet. I wasn't shocked by that because, you know, when that happened, I was ready for that.