Quick-hitters: Strength coach Matt Balis on Notre Dame winter workouts, his approach

Matt Balis offered confirmation, not specifics.

Notre Dame’s director of football performance confirmed there are winter workout standouts that have him excited. Returning players and newcomers are among them. He left the rest to the imagination.

“I never like to name names,” Balis said. “Every guy is working hard and putting in the time. But certainty, there are guys who you’re really excited for who have made great physical changes, mental changes, maturity, development.”

That excitement has made the last two months of workouts feel like a blur. The team reported to Balis Jan. 10. Just like that, he has to relinquish them for spring practice in two weeks.

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“It has gone fast,” Balis said. “It’s flown by. Usually when that happens, it’s because you’re having a lot of fun. As a strength staff and a team, we’ve had a lot of fun.”

Balis met with reporters Thursday for the first time in more than two years. Here are some topics he addressed.

On making workouts engaging

“Once you walk through the doors in the weight room, the Gug or the IAC, it’s a flick the switch mentality. With our strength staff, the expectation is we’re going to make the workouts exciting, energetic, intense, and we’re going to compete in everything we do.

“That’s one of Coach [Marcus] Freeman’s main things, having a competitive spirit. We want to make sure that happens daily in all the workouts we do. When you’re competing and working hard at the same time, that makes it go not only better and faster, but more exciting.”

On what fuels his energy

“It’s the ability to know you get a chance to help young people achieve their goals, and deeper than that, their dreams. Training and strength and conditioning, it’s one of the truest forms of coaching there is because you’re coaching things they might not love all the time. Any student-athlete, they love their sport, but they realize the importance of the training that goes into it. That’s incredible to be part of.”

On training players mentally and physically

“I think it’s half and half — 50 percent physical, 50 percent mental. It’s the ability to put together workouts day after day after day not just to check the box, but actually attack those workouts. We say you’re never staying the same, you’re either getting better or getting worse. That’s a mindset as much as it is a physical ability to produce the results you’re looking for.”

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On the team’s emphasis since the Fiesta Bowl

“There’s always conversation in terms of the vision of he wants to see. That starts with The Golden Standard, challenging everything, unit strength and competitive spirit. We’re going to do everything in that manner. He has challenged me to do that and trusted me to do that.”

On what he likes about this year’s team

“Every year, it’s a new team. That’s what makes it exciting. You get to start over each year and develop a new team, new leaders. New guys step up, guys continue to develop from years past. That excites me in and of itself.”

On Notre Dame’s culture

“Notre Dame attracts leaders and attracts the best of the best. When you talk about the culture of Notre Dame, it’s there. What we do with the competition, the leadership, creating teams where they compete and lead, it just kind of fits together really well.

“From the time I started from here until now, that has always been the case where they love to compete, they love to be challenged, they love to get a chance to lead and develop in the offseason. So much of what we do is January to August, when you’re not playing any games. That part has been fun and neat to see.”