Ahh, summer! It’s so close we can feel it. 

Long, hot days. Warm summer nights. No school. Vacations. 

Summer is a time to recharge, reconnect, and enjoy the things that a school schedule doesn’t allow. 

However, if you’re an athlete, especially an athlete that wants to level-up and make their next season the best one yet, summer is a critical time in your development. 

While these next few months provide athletes with more time to enjoy family, vacations, and maybe a part-time job…it can NOT be seen as a time to take the foot off the gas pedal and coast in their physical and mental training. 

In my years as a head coach and mindset coach, I’ve seen too many athletes approach summer with the wrong mindset and have it come back to hurt them once their season rolls around. 

So if you have goals to level-up and enter your next season stronger than ever, here’s what you need to be doing to prep this summer. 

#1: Know Your Goals

Summer is a sacred time that many athletes either get passed up or get better. But it’s not enough to just want to “be better” once your season starts. 

The best athletes know exactly what they are working towards and break them down into specific weekly goals. 

Get clear on this first! Spend some time journaling, thinking, and exploring the athlete that you want to be when you enter your next season. 

Once you have that down, ask yourself: what does an athlete like that need to do in order to achieve that goal?

Answering that question will lead you to your summer action plan. 

Maybe it’s lifting three times a week, working on ball control for 20 minutes a day, and attending camps. 

Whatever it is, write it down and get clear on what small actions you need to be doing DAILY to achieve your longer term goals.

#2: Understand the Temptations + Plan for them

No schedule, vacations, and the fun things that come along with summer are great. 

However, they can quickly lead to habits that will sabotage your best efforts. 

Constantly staying up too late and sleeping in. Poor food choices. Partying. Procrastinating or skipping workouts. 

These temptations will pull at you if you don’t have a plan. 

Yes, summer (and life!) is meant to be enjoyed. I’m not saying you can’t ever sleep in or eat anything “unhealthy.” However, if you have a plan, you are less likely to turn these things into habits that will set you back. 

So, know what it is for you. Write down potential roadblocks that will get in your way and come up with a specific action plan that you will use to avoid them. 

For example, if you know that you are tempted to sleep in until 12pm every day, recruit a friend or teammate to hold you accountable and do your 9am workout together! 

#3: Prioritize Your Mental Game 

The best athletes don’t use summer as an excuse to put their game on the back burner – both physically and mentally. 

Summer is the perfect time to lay the essential foundations of confidence and elite performance so that they are prepared with strategies when their season starts. 

Average athletes will spend their whole summer physically training off and on (when they feel like it). 

Elite athletes that desire to level up and enter their season stronger and more confident will spend their summer training their body AND their minds. 

Learning how to come back from mistakes, perform under pressure, visualize, breathe, goal-set, and practice effective self-talk are skills that are best developed when athletes have the time and space to practice them. 

As in NOW, during the summer so that they are prepared with these skills when the season starts (and we have a simple way for you to get started below!) 

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There you have it. If you have goals to make your next season the best one yet, don’t take summer for granted! Get your goals clear, minimize temptations, and prioritize your mental game. 

Want a simple way to start? Join us for a Peak Performance clinic next week where we will dive into, “What Confident Athletes Do Differently…3 Key Strategies to Start Now.”

In this clinic for athletes and parents, we’ll be uncovering three important strategies that athletes can start implementing this summer in order to prioritize their mental game and level-up on the court/field! 

Register to choose your date and time and join us! >>www.kristinabreanne.com/register<<