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When you’ve played one sport your whole life, and you retire, what happens? As athletes grow up and start to burn out or retire after having focused solely on that sport for years, if not decades even, they are bound to struggle with their identity.

When you’re known as the “GOAT” or even when your whole world revolves around practice, games, coaches, friends from your team – who are you outside of that? We’ve seen countless stories over the last few years of athletes struggling to come to terms with that question as they enter into retirement. They’ve spent their lives living this extremely structured lifestyle that has focused so intensely on their singular sport, that they didn’t have a lot of time for other interests or activities.

With kids especially, as we discussed in our earlier blog (link here), they are specializing at such a young age and training year round in that sport, that they become so wrapped up in who...

Pulling all nighters for school work because they’re at practice all day, or stressing out over a big game coming up. Kids today are under more pressure than ever before, and it’s impacting their health and wellbeing in more ways than one. 

In today’s post-covid world, mental health issues are impacting a huge number of athletes and kids, this is especially true when it comes to student-athletes. Anxiety and depression numbers are skyrocketing. Among professional athletes, data shows that up to 35% of elite athletes suffer from a mental health crisis (athletesforhope.org). And even before the pandemic began, a Georgetown study showed a combined 13% of kids were diagnosed with anxiety or depression by 2020. 

The statistics show that both athletes and kids are suffering from mental health issues, and this particularly hits hard for student-athletes. Luckily, we are seeing a larger number of professional athletes begin to speak up about their...

It’s the last week of 2021! Having a process to reflect on the year as a whole will not only help you to close the chapter, but also help to prepare you for the new year to come. So let me start with a question: 

What is your end of year routine?

A) I’ve got this, already started! 

B) I do a little reflecting in my head but not much. 

C) I do nothing. Tell me what to do!

D) I’m a combo of all of the above and open to suggestions/refreshers!

If you chose ‘A,’ amazing! You’re ahead of the game. If you are like the majority of us, you probably fall somewhere between B, C, and D. And that’s totally fine. In this article, I am going to give you my top suggestions for how to maximize the most out of your end-of-year routine so that you can close 2021 with grace, gratitude, confidence, and excitement.

I have broken my end-of-year routine down into 4 parts. I would suggest you take a day to do each so that...

Burn out.

THE topic of a lot of my 1:1 sessions the past few weeks. 

Athletes who are heading towards burnout typically display:

• Constant fatigue
• Grades drop
• Performance is subpar
• Body starts to break down (injuries present or they simply get sick repeatedly)
• Motivation dips (it becomes a struggle to get them to practice)
• They become irritable/cranky, less talkative, constantly zoning out… 

Over the past decade we have shifted into this culture of the “never ending season.” No longer do we allow for down time to rest, recover, recuperate. Seasons end and kids are thrown onto spring/summer teams, endless camps/private lessons, summer recruiting tournaments, and intense training regimens. Always being pushed and pressured to do more, more, more.

STOP. 

It’s called the OFF season for a reason. Read articles on any professional athlete. They took time off when they were supposed to. They played other...

Summer is officially here. Looking back on this past season, what are some things you wished you’d done differently? What are some things you hope to do better next season? Be more confident when you have possession? Take more risks? Be more consistent? Improve your focus? Make quicker decisions? Move past mistakes quicker?

The SUMMER is a great time to practice self-reflection and self-awareness. Ideally, (and what I teach in my program), athletes have reflected after each game and tournament as the season went on, so they’re able to look back over their notes and summarize not only the areas they’d like to improve upon but also the areas they have grown and been successful the year before - an important skill for not only sport but life in general.

Once they have reflected on the season's performance, they can create a list of short term goals to work towards for the upcoming season, with their long term goals in mind. They can also look at where...

Happy New Year! 

Let’s talk New Year's GOALS. 

There’s a lot of pressure on 2021. High expectations to be better than 2020 was.

The thing is, the second the clock turned 12:00am, there was no magical shift… Things aren’t going to miraculously just BE better. You still have to put in the work. You are responsible for making things happen. For maintaining a positive outlook. For creating goals and actively working towards achieving them.

And as you do, things will come up. Roadblocks will appear. You will have to pivot. It is important to remember that you can only control how you prepare and how you choose to react in any given situation.

Managing your expectations is a huge part of this. Especially after the year we all had. In fact, I vote we get rid of expectations all together and focus on being in the moment and setting process goals - things that are within our control. We cannot just expect things to get better, for things to change, and so...

Since the majority of you (us), have started back up with the season and tournament play, I thought it would be beneficial to post some tips for parents on how to assist their athletes with their post-game evaluations. 

First off, every athlete should be performing a post-game routine. I don’t mean stretching and chocolate milk - although that is important too - I mean from a performance review standpoint. This is beyond important for their overall growth, development, and confidence both in and out of sport. One of THE foundations of mental toughness is being able to properly self-reflect. This is a skill that the athlete needs to learn. It’s not innate. And it’s definitely not easy. If your athlete isn’t currently doing this, and you would like some information on it, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

From a parental assistance standpoint, the best thing you can do for your child after their game is listen, ask questions, and listen.

If...

Mental preparation and training accounts for 90% of athletic success in competition – a practice that is highly overlooked by athletes and coaches alike. Sport psychology is a specialization focused on helping athletes and teams maximize their performances through the development of effective mental skills. By learning and implementing these mental skills, athletes’ will not only be able to elevate their game to the next level, but they will also be able to remain at that level on a more consistent basis.

Most of us have experienced this common scenario: an athlete who performs exceptionally in the practices leading up to a major competition, only to blow it when it really counts. This is often referred to as “choking” and it has coaches, parents, spectators, and athletes in constant wonder. To date, the predisposed “remedy” to this undesired situation is harder and longer physical practices, often leaving the athlete exhausted,...

The short answer? Everyone! But let's break it down a little..

Athletes: The obvious answer - as was discussed last month, there is a LOT that goes into being an athlete… and 80-90% of that is mental. They’re balancing a lot and that pressure adds up - school, training, practicing, competing, dealing with parents, coaches, teammates, scouts, success, failure, their own inner dialogue, recovering from injury, etc, etc.. 10 extra reps aren’t going to assist with this pressure. This is all mental. And that’s a totally different type of training.

Teams: A team is a group of individuals each with their own unique set of skills that come together to achieve a common goal. Building team cohesion is an important component in determining that teams’ ultimate success or failure. Being able to properly communicate, leave differences at the door, and bring those individual skill sets together to be able to work as a single unit is instrumental to...

With everything that is going on in the world right now, things are, well… a little challenging. I know that there is most likely a lot of stress and anxiety swirling around about not being able to get on the ice, field, court, etc. Anxiety for the athletes for sure, but also for parents (and even us coaches!). I thought I would make this months' newsletter about how to deal with this unexpected new world we are temporarily living in.

First off, acknowledge that this new situation is less than ideal (read: sucky - and yes, that’s a technical term). Because it is and it’s ok to be upset. After you’ve acknowledged the crappy part of this situation you have two choices: you can continue to sit in that negative emotion and let it control you, or you can alter your mindset and your attitude, refocus, and move forward. The key here is it IS a choice. Here are some tools that will help you move forward and power through this lockdown like a champ:

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