It’s near year-end! What lessons have you learned with your female athlete this year? Are you ready to welcome what’s in store for you this upcoming year?

As we look forward to new beginnings in the new year, some things must come to an end. Our Elite Competitor Podcast will likewise come to an end in 2022. And we want to thank you for taking the time to listen to our podcast.

We launched our podcast intending to assist moms and female athletes on their athletic journeys. That is why we have chosen to pause, improve, and relaunch a brand-new podcast next year! We’ll be having new guests, new topics, and more, so make sure to check it out.

It’s been an incredible adventure creating the Elite Competitor Podcast. And we’ve always hoped that this podcast would be your go-to resource whenever you needed it. So, before the year comes to an end, we’d like to share with you today the major things we’ve learned in 2022 so far!

I’m excited to share a little behind the scenes of my high school team winning the Washington State Volleyball Championship for the 2nd year in a row, the mental training that we went to achieve that success, and a sneak peek at what we’ve got in store for 2023.

Key Lesson #1: Mental Training Is What Separates Athletes From Their Competitors

For the past ten years, I have served as a head coach. And I had already begun coaching before that. I’ve been conducting programs for the past ten years and have seen a lot of different teams and players. According to what I’ve noticed throughout the years, every athlete at every level encounters similar challenges.

They are all faced with the dilemma of how to respond to errors, failures, and losses. They are all under pressure. They are all subject to expectations. They are all dealing with negative thoughts and other things that are impeding their progress. 

All of the athletes I know go through the same trials and hardships. And it is the athletes who can traverse and deal with these difficulties who get a competitive advantage.

I want to take our state championship run as an example of what mental training can do for your female athlete.

What role did mental training play on our team? 

It is difficult to quantify, but completing mental training in their hectic schedules helped our athletes be focused during practice and show up prepared for competition.. All of our mental preparation during the season was beneficial. It has even been an indicator of our performance over the last few seasons, in my opinion.

Because of our mental training our athletes;

• React to mistakes more quickly
• Feel prepared
• Deal with the pressure that they are feeling
• Manage high-pressure situations
• Have a competitive advantage over athletes who may take longer to recover from mistakes and may not feel prepared due to a lack of routines
• Have an advantage over athletes who view pressure, tension, and worry as something to be avoided rather than welcomed

Those qualities are quite valuable. These are the characteristics that distinguish athletes, especially as the postseason progresses.

To give you an outline of what we did to establish a culture of mentally trained athletes, we began the season by defining a vision and intention for what we desired as a group and what individual athletes wanted.

We went through an exercise in which they produced their affirmations, which are not just positive platitudes that are flung around. These are statements that are profoundly tied to who they are and who they desire to become. They mean something. Specific visions for these affirmations are followed by daily practice.

Before practice, we do some intentional breathwork, reset words, and intentional visualizations before we get to practice. And this impacts how we show up at practice. 

We also learned how to respond to mistakes. They learn their snapback routine. They learned how to shift negative self-talk and how to use self-talk to their advantage. We talked about perfection, so every single week, we would also do a very dedicated mental training lesson that would take about 15 minutes. And these are also things that we teach inside the Elite Competitor Program. 

By the end of the season, my team knew how to visualize and they had breathwork techniques that they could use. They had all of these tools that built the foundation and prepared them for the big moments. 

Your daughter will face the same things that all of my athletes face and all the athletes that are in the Elite Competitor Program face, she will. But does she have the tools and the skills to navigate those things? That is the question. 

Key Lesson #2: Athletes do better when their parents do better.

When Kristina and I first started our business,we developed a mental training program just for female athletes. That’s all we had. And that’s still a big foundation for our business. 

We did that for probably about eight months before we realized that we were missing a big piece of the puzzle. 

And that big piece of the puzzle was the parents. 

The confidence of parents, particularly mothers, strongly influences and affects athletes’ confidence. This is undeniably true.

So we incorporated the mom’s side of our program, which is like our secret sauce at this point. I am not aware of any other athletic program that includes both mental training for players and mental training for mothers. Once we started incorporating this into our program, it just clicked.

This year, we have over 400 athletes and mothers participating in our program. And I can’t tell you how many messages and comments I’ve received from moms and athletes. 

This is from a mom who joined the program.

“My daughter was a little resistant at first. And so her dad and I talked about it with her on Sunday and opened up about some of the things that I was learning in the program, especially that my role as a parent is significant in helping her. Bre, I cannot even describe the changes in her demeanor for that entire day and beyond. She was so lighthearted and chatty and went to practice with a smile. It’s like she has hope again, she plays on one of the top national teams in the country for a very demanding coach. This program is kind of our last shot at success, but I have hope too from what I’ve seen so far and what I’ve learned. This is exactly what our whole family needs. So thank you.”

Moms, you too need support on this path. You do. You give possibilities for your daughter, but you also need support. And that is precisely what our program offers.

Key Lesson #3: Adversity and challenges are not optional, but suffering is. 

When you tick the box indicating you’re an athlete and that’s what you’re going to do, you’re also committing to having awful days. You’re also signing up to fail frequently, make mistakes, and even doubt yourself and your self-worth. But you also get to learn how to navigate those things so that you can feel confident in confronting any of them.

What’s more? Those skills do not vanish. And that’s why I’m so glad athletes are learning these skills at such a young age! 

As I consider our business, we’ve had a lot of hurdles this year. We’ve had the greatest level of growth in our company’s history. We have quadrupled in size. It’s been an incredible year, but it’s also brought new problems. So it just reminds me that this is such a reflection of our athletic experiences. And I’m very grateful that I have the mental skills that I teach athletes so that when I face these problems now, I too can overcome them.

Another difficulty. Another chance for me to be the entrepreneur, mentor, and coach I aspire to be. That is precisely what we teach our athletes.

In summary…

We understand the importance of mental training in the success of our female athletes. Not only in their sport, but in their entire life. So, before you close out the year and begin planning your New Year’s Resolutions, here’s a breakdown of the top three major things we learned in 2022!

#1. Mental training is what distinguishes athletes. And this state championship confirmed it for me!

#2. Athletes perform better when their parents perform well. You must invest in yourself if you want your athlete to thrive in her sport. You must also have a coach and a strategy. And it is this that will most likely lead to her success.

#3. Adversity and hardships are unavoidable. They aren’t optional for you, and they aren’t optional for your daughter. You must provide her with the necessary skills and mental abilities to overcome these obstacles.

Mental training is critical in both your and your female athlete’s journey. And if you’ve been taking this for granted in the past years, maybe it’s now time to add mental health training to your to-do list this year 2023. Let’s all welcome a brand new start!

Are you ready for 2023?

Before we get into what we have in store for you in 2023, we want to let you know that we’re redesigning our current podcast and would appreciate your thoughts.

Topics, guests, questions…

Let us know what you want to hear. We are just totally, re-imagining what our new podcast could be.

We’re also working on some other exciting projects. We will be having a special enrollment period at the end of January where we will be offering some cool bonuses that will not be available anywhere else, so make sure you check it out.

In 2023, we will also provide more opportunities for coaches. As a result, we have a coach-facilitated version of the Elite Competitive Program, which roughly ten coaches completed with their teams this autumn. So, if you’re a coach interested in implementing the Elite Competitor Program with your team, please contact us at [email protected]. 

I’ll go into more depth about that, but we’re also working on some other things that will be useful to coaches.

We’re also starting a YouTube channel! So a lot is going on in the background right now to give you more resources, give your daughter more resources, and give her coach more resources.

We’re excited about what’s in store for the new year, and we’re grateful for all of your help. We wish you a pleasant, enjoyable, and connected holiday season, and we hope to see you all in 2023.

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Helpful Links:

• Join our FREE training for Sports Moms – How To Strengthen Your Athlete Daughter’s Mental Game So She Believes In Herself As Much As You Do.

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