Ep. 92 - Faith, Coaching, and Injury Prevention - with Former NFL Player Sandor “Sean” Manuel
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Sandor, “Sean” Manuel is a retired NFL player, who has been in ministry, coached NCAA football, and is now coaching in a private gym called “The Institute of Human Performance” in Nevada. I’m not sure if I’ve ever felt so personally blessed from an interview as I did after talking to Sean. He is a coach, yes, but he is a pastor in many ways! He cares about his athletes both in a performance aspect, but also in health and longevity, and their spiritual life. We dive STRAIGHT into his story, his coaching philosophy, and we talk about injury prevention, injury resistance training, and how when we specialize in a sport early we can be more vulnerable to specific injuries. I feel honored to be sharing this episode with you all! - Host Natalie Lawrence
Sean’s Story
Sean Manuel was born and raised in a bi-ethnic home. He grew up playing sports and received a scholarship to play football at a junior college before he transferred to New Mexico State. From New Mexico state, he was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers and then played with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Sandor stopped playing professionally in 2001 and began doing ministry work for a few years until he began coaching. Today he is working as an executive leader of performance at the Institute of Human Performance (IHP).
Sandor has learned from his vast experiences that coaching and ministry go hand-in-hand. When you coach someone, you coach every part of them, the entire person. What controls that person is about how they think, how they feel, how they live their life, and the principles that they build on. Coaching is about engaging the heart and the mind.
What is your foundation? Because you only maximize your ability as well as or as much as you are able to understand your gifts and your identity. There is a difference between maximizing and being successful. People can be incredibly successful and never maximize.
A large part of Sandor’s journey was in the NFL, a friend sat him down and spoke truth into his life through the Bible. He told him he was broken in his view. Ephesians 4:18, says, “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God due to the hardening of their heart. Having lost all sensitivity they have given themselves over to sensuality with a lust for more”. This is life when you are ignorant of the principles of God.
He started this journey of seeing all of the ways that he had short cut himself and not been understanding as a player. God’s plan is meant for us to have freedom, not hinder us.
Another part of his journey was being plagued with injuries. He had 6 surgeries and didn't understand what was causing it. He had physical and spiritual ailments that were not being addressed. The more he looked at his life, he notices that these two are coinciding together. The biggest thing you can have is your character interwoven in Godly principles, but you can always train yourself physically because the two are interwoven together. They run in parallel.
“If I have dysfunction in my body, I am going to get hurt. If I have dysfunction spiritually, I am going to cause myself harm too.”
Coaching
As a coach, he works to create a better you spiritually and physically. An aim that is optimal to creating a better life, not just in the moment. You need to maximize what you have been given because that is what you have been called spiritually. Luke 12:48 says, “Where much is given, much is expected”. When the Lord gives you something, you need to maximize it, not just for your own benefit, but for the benefit of those around you. It's the law of maximization. It's not what you are given, it's what you do with what you are given.
“Jesus when feeding the 5,000 says, tell me what we do have, not what we don’t”.
We need to eliminate things that hinder and entangle and those things start with the battle in your mind. We have to learn how to throw off the things of this world and not let them dictate who we are as people. Part of that process allows you to maximize the gifts that God has given you.
The element that has to be there to maximize, is discipline. The Lord says love and discipline go hand in hand. If i love you, then I am going to discipline you - that doesn't mean being putative. It is holding you accountable and protecting you.
With coaching and with spiritual disciplines, you are teaching people the same thing - delayed gratification. You need to learn to schedule things in your life in a way that maximizes your growth. It’s not going to be pleasant on the front end but what it produces will be.
“Coaching is really about taking universal principles and laws of effectiveness (that have been pulled out of the Bible) and applying it to what they are doing physically. Helping them understand that this physical training is of some value but Godliness and these principles have the utmost value.”
Sandor is a highly competitive person. To be competitive is a social comparison. You want to know you are better than other people. When you are always looking around at the things around you, it makes you aware of the things you are not or what you need to have. That kind of mindset after a while bitters you. It does not maximize you, it might drive you and motivate you but it is debilitating. Remind yourself what you do have. Ask yourself, “what have I been given? How can I grow what I do have?”
Through all the trials, injuries, being cut, I thought if I kept persevering, I was going to get the outcome I wanted. Looking back, I did get what I wanted, I wanted an unshakeable character. It was my weakness of character that caused me to fail before. This was the most important thing I needed. I wont always get what I want, but I will always have the opportunity to become who I was meant to be.
Romans 5:3 says, “We all should rejoice in our suffering because suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope”. An unshakeable character is what produces hope. Because you realize that no matter what happens to you in life, it won't dictate who you become.
Holistic Sport Health
Today, Sandor is the executive director of performance at The Institute of Human Performance (IHP). They focus on a holistic approach to training. IHP looks at the whole person and how they use each part of their body in their sport. Start by laying the foundation of making sure biomechanics are working well in the body before you move on to performance. IHP focuses on identifying areas athletes might be susceptible to injury and then injury prevention.
When you see athletes develop specific movements and habits with their body, particularly when they specialize in one sport early, they become vulnerable to certain injuries. Because of the repetitive nature, your body creates compensations to work around these habits which can lead to injury or a higher rate of injury.
Athletes get caught in an endless cycle of injury because the biggest cause of injury is a preexisting injury. That breaks you down mentally. Then they think they need to push harder, but the more you put your body through, the more susceptible you are to injury.
“It's time to become more self aware of what is happening with your body”.
Encouragement to Injured Athletes
Embrace the process. There are always things to learn through injury. Ti also gives you a reset and helps you understand your priority. It helps you understand where you're at. You can be discouraged and frustrated but you have to get reset on your ultimate goal of maximizing. You are still obligated to maximize and this is still an opportunity to do that.
Make sure you properly restore proper movement. And understand the vulnerability that it might happen again. Proper rehab and return to play protocol.
Scripture Memorization
First, I have been reading the Bible for the last 26 years.
Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” The heart is constantly sick and must be treated. Any disease that cant be sick must be constantly treated. And a heart condition in humans has to be constantly treated with the word of God. For me, I came to an understanding that I could be a monster or I could take my medication on a daily basis. I want this to become the way I think.
I created a journal of what I call ‘bread crumbs’ and it's a trail of scripture. I am always pulling from it and rereading it and saying it outloud. So now I can readily say the scriptures. This is my why, this is my anchor point.
The frequency in which you visit and apply. The biggest part is the application.
James 1:22, “Don't merely listen to the word and deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
John 8:31-32, “Then you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Reach Out to Sean:
seanmanuel@theinstitutehp.com
Or go to the page on Facebook: “The Institute of Human Performance Facility”
Rapid Fire Questions:
What are you loving right now?
I am loving the time I am able to spend with my kids and family with my new job situation.
What are you listening to?
I read more now than ever. And I read a number of different books and literature that cover multiple aspects of life. Best books I have read, Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck and Victory Over the Darkness by Neil T Anderson.
What motivates you?
I am motivated by a number of things: God’s Love, Grace and Mercy motivate me, my family motivates me and in my flesh a sense of inferiority motivates me, as well as a desire for esteem. I am in a state of constant reconciliation with what I allow to be my primary source of my motivation. And I am in a constant state of change and evolution based on what is revealed in my life that reveals my aim.
What is the best advice you have been given?
My life has been filled with so much good advice and so much unbelievable mentorship that I don’t really recall the “best advice” I have been given.
