Welcome back to the raising unstoppable girl athletes podcast. I'm coach Bree and elite competitor coach for female athletes. And I am so happy you're here. Whether you are just starting out on this whole journey of sports with your daughter, or maybe you have a lot of seasons under your belt, or you're somewhere in between. This podcast is for you to help her know how to compete with confidence level up and enjoy her sport. And also so that you can enjoy this whole sports journey too. We're going to get into today's episode, which I am really excited about. We are talking about the lead competitor program. This is our signature mental training program for female athletes and their mom. We're going to talk about why this program works and gets results. And also our magic that we're doing in the program that no one else is doing in this space. We're going to. Give you a behind the scenes, look out what this is all about, why it gets results and why we're doing things so differently than other people in this space. Now, before we get into it, I'm going to give a shout out to a mom in our community. She sent us an email the other day, and actually it goes really well with what we're talking about today in this episode. So I'm gonna read it to you. She said, hello. I have been researching mental skills training for my two competitive dumbness daughters, age 10 and 13 levels, four and nine for a couple of years now. And I actually just happened upon your program. I have seen and paid for a couple of different online programs and or counseling. So have some experience. And I now wish I would have saved our money for this. I very much appreciate the holistic whole family approach. Your program takes. I very much appreciate using the whole family to train mental skills. Now she goes on to talk about the importance of same age and peer connections that we offer in the program. But what she says about holistic and whole family approach is actually something that really sets us apart in this whole space of mental training for athletes. And I'm going to get into why in a second, but before we really dive into things, It would really help us. If you did us a favor. If you rate review and share this podcast with friends, it helps us out and it also helps you out. So if you could take a moment just to send this link to one of your sports mom, friends, Give us a rating review. If you haven't already, it really helps. Broaden our reach so that we can bring on more guests and help serve you in greater ways. Okay, let's talk about it. Why don't you lead competitor program works and we're also going to reveal the magic that no one else is doing. It kind of keyed you into that a little bit. We're going to take you behind the scenes of why we get the results that we do. And when I say results, what am I talking about? Let's go into the athletes first. So athletes, as they enter into the program within the first few weeks are reporting to us and reporting to their parents, that they are feeling more confident. Feeling the happiest they event in a long time, we just had one of our swimmers in the program, texts me and say, my coach actually noticed that I am looking more confident and he commented that. I am the happiest that I've been in a while and I agree with him. So that was really cool to see athletes also have routines to come back from mistakes and. Navigate just the normal parts of being an athlete. So when athletes join a sport and you know, this monastery they're bound to encounter very normal parts of their sports. Setbacks mistakes, failures, coaches. They don't jive with teammates that are hard to play with. Injuries, like all of these things are non-negotiable when it comes to your daughter's athletics. However, not all athletes know how to handle those names because they're not taught typically yet we expect athletes to know what to do in the face of challenges. We expect them to know how to think positively and to shift their, self-talk. We expect them to bounce back from mistakes quickly and be mentally tough, but they don't know how to do these things. And so when athletes come into the program, they learn these very tangible skills and they report to us that they are feeling more confident. They're coming back from mistakes, where. They would normally fall apart. All of these really amazing things. And now also moms and parents in the program. Are also experiencing really core results. So parents are reporting to us that they're enjoying the sports you're anymore. It's stressful. Okay. I get it. Like you are probably going in a million different directions. Your athlete is experiencing all sorts of things in her sport. You're wondering how to help her. With this certain situation, she's disappointed. She's not happy with herself. She's critical and you want to help. And it's stressful to try and figure out how to do that. Let alone, get her to practice on time and figure out what team she's playing for. Okay. There's a lot to it. And so moms are reporting that they're enjoying the sports journey more because they're relieved knowing they know how to help. They are allowing this to be their daughter's journey and they're taking. You know that pressure off of themselves and in many ways. And so moms are also reporting really amazing things happening to them in the program when they are equipped with skills to be able to support their athlete daughters. So how is this happening? Why does. The leak definitive program work well. In short. The elite competitor program is the only girl athlete mental coaching program that works with both the athlete and their parent to increase game day and everyday confidence and peak performance. And so that is when it comes about when we boil it all the way down, we are the only girl athlete coaching program that works with athletes and their parents. We bring the whole family on board because we know how important it is. And here's the other thing. We have science backed, proven mental training skills for your daughter. And we have research-based strategies for you to know how to parent and support an athlete. Which is a very unique journey. And those of you that are former athletes know this, and you likely up until this point have not had a coach or I have not had much guidance in this whole journey yet. Your daughter has had plenty of coaches right in her sports career. And that's what we provide. We provide that coaching in this space so that you don't have to worry about where do I say, when do I say it? Is this going to cause her to lose her confidence? How do we deal with this situation? And so that is when we really nail it down, we are the only girl athlete coaching program that works with both moms and athletes. We have research-based strategies proven to support your athlete, daughter's mental game, and also strategies for you. And. Let's dive into this mom athlete, you know, parent athlete. Relationship and why it's so important. And it really does make all of the difference when it comes to this program. And here's why. Our children are heavily influenced by their environment. We know this. You know this to be true. And the words that you say are extremely impactful. The words you say out loud, become your daughter's inner voice. And what you say to her, especially in critical moments before she competes, as she's competing, after she competes. They really can make or break her experience. So it's really important that you are intentional with the words that you're saying, and you know, the right words to say, if you're out there winging it. And you're just saying things like, just be confident, focus on the positives, just relax. You are not actually optimizing your role as one of the greatest influences of her confidence in her life. At this point in her life. And so, you know, I've been to this point, we probably have been winging it a lot. Probably I've been saying those things and that's fine. However we know that there is a more strategic and intentional way to help your daughter build her confidence. And that's why we make sure that we include that in our program. The other thing is that there is so much power in your daughter seeing you do the work to. It's no longer now just her responsibility to work on her mental game. You are in the trenches with her. Because when you present the lead competitor program to your daughter and you say something like, Hey, this will really help you with your mental game. Now it's kind of like it's, it's all on her, whether or not she does it or not, but when you say, Hey, this will really help you with your mental game. It'll help you get to the goals that you say you want for yourself. And also this is going to help me be the best sports parent for you. I am going to be working on things. And now it's not just your daughter, who's doing the work. She is seeing that you are in it with her, and that you are doing your own work on yourself. You are being very intentional. You're asking for feedback from her, which is very vulnerable in some ways. And moms are reporting that when their daughters see this and they see like, Hey, this is actually something that I'm engaging with just as much as she is. And she's seeing that, you know what, there's nothing wrong with her. And I have a lot of room for improvement. Daughters are responding to the work a lot better too. And there's this beauty in this relationship that you have with your daughter when you're talking about these things, and you're not just trying to guess what she wants. And she's asking you, you know, to show up in this way, and then you honor that request and you you help support her in that way. It is a beautiful thing that happens. And that's where you both can enjoy this sports journey. In fact, Jessica, a mom of an athlete. So the other day I opened up to my daughter about what I was learning in the program, especially that my role was the parent. Bri. 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. So I don't want you to underestimate the power that your influence has on your daughter in this. Whole journey, how you show up and your confidence and the work you're doing on yourself matters what you say to her, especially in those critical moments matters. And that is why we have made this program. Not just something that for your athlete, this is just as much for you as it is for her. Okay, I'm going to take you now behind the scenes of the elite competitor program. We're going to take a look at what we teach inside the program. So you can get an idea of these strategies that your athlete's going to learn and strategies that you learned. And these are all rooted in sports psychology and brain research. That paired with my background in education, was a teacher for 10 years to deliver it in a format that is really engaging and also very simple for athletes to access. We have an app with the program so that they can access it via the app, making the visualizations really simple for them just to pop AirPods in and listen. And so we make it very accessible for you and for your daughter. So let's go behind the scenes. First of all, for the athlete. She logs in via the app or desktop phone, wherever she wants to access the program week one. And this is a 10 week program that she goes through and you go through as well. So one training a week. Each one takes between 30 to 40 minutes. It's not very long. It's broken up with prompts and activities and visualization. So it's not just her sitting and listening for that whole time. So week one is all about what we call releasing your inner elite competitor. And this is where we have athletes dig into themselves a little bit into be introspective and decide, you know, what type of athlete do you want to be? We wholeheartedly believe that. Athletes have it within and they have everything they need within them. They just need the tools to unlock that. And so in week one, we give them a glimpse into this athlete that they can become. And they really are intentional with building what this athlete looks like, how she acts, how she talks, how she treats other people. And they do a specific visualization where they can bring this athlete to life. We can, number two is called activate your goals. And this is where athletes get more specific on what they want in their sports journey. So they have now kind of a vision of the athlete they want to be now, what do they want to achieve? And then what do they want to accomplish? This goes. Well beyond goal-setting this isn't just like, I want to, you know, have this certain stat or, you know, accomplish a certain thing. We have them dig deep and we ask them this prompt. If you had a magic wand and you could do anything in your sport, what would it be? We do a really powerful visualization in this in this week too, called the backpack visualization. The athletes absolutely love where they get to visualize those things that are holding them back from what they want. And they actually visualize themselves. Letting go of those things. It's very powerful. And that week we also create a vision board with athletes. They do this really fun activity where they create this board of all of the things that they have identified that they want in their sport. Week three is creating your daily mindset routine. So this is kind of the bread and butter of what we teach in the program. And week three, they create a daily mindset routine that anchors and grounds them for the rest of their program and the rest of their sports journey. So this is where they learn how to visualize very vividly. They have a routine called the 3, 2, 1 brave that they do every day. It takes five minutes or less, very simple. And they learn to activate the part of their brain that is creating a vivid visualization for them. So every single day they are. In the mind gym, that's kind of what we call that. Giving themselves mental training reps through this daily mindset routine. So we talk about how, just like you go to the gym to, you know, train your muscles, just like you go to the. To the court or the field or the pool to practice reps. This is your rep for your brain. Hey, five minutes of those reps actually goes along ways. Week four, we go into crushing limiting beliefs. So your athlete, I'm sure you know, this, I. I mean, this exists in us to have limiting beliefs about themselves that are running the show subconsciously. So things like I'm too short, I'll never be that good coach. Doesn't like me, all of these things that are going on in their head that you're probably like stop thinking that that's not hopeful. But that doesn't really work to get her to stop thinking it. So we teach her a very specific routine, not a routine, but a method called the work by Byron Katie. If you're familiar with her, work on how to identify what these limiting beliefs are, that are holding them back and a specific. way to shift those limiting beliefs. Week five is all about self-talk. So what you say matters, we say 50,000 things to ourselves a day. So we teach athletes that if you want to be the best athlete, the best person you can be. You have to be very aware of what you are saying to yourself, because there is a part of you that will want to say the most nasty things, rude themes. You know, in just sabotage you really. And so being aware of what that voice is saying when they get loud, how to attain that voice, and also how to shift to more productive self-talk is very important. Week five or sorry, weeks. Fix it's where they learn their snapback routine. So this is where they learn a very tangible routine to come back from mistakes or setbacks, things that happened in their sport, where they get dysregulated. And, you know, typically they start to spiral. They learn what we call snapback routine, which is a combination of a breath, their reset word, and a gesture to bring them back to the present moment. Athletes love the snapback routine use actually gives them something specific to do in competition when they feel like they're spiraling. And that is also based in brain. Brain research, where they are activating a part of their brain that they can that's more. You know, in alignment with who they want to be and how they want to show up, rather than that part of their brain, that is dysregulated and kind of going in that spiral week seven is called coming clutch. This is where they learn their pre-performance routines and post-competition routines so that they can show up and play how they want to play no matter who they're playing week eight, it's called let go of perfectionism. So we go into perfectionism. What perfectionism is, how it actually hurts athletes in the long run, even though they think it helps them. And how to shift to what we call healthy striving instead of perfectionist and well, we don't call it that. Bernay brown calls it that. So we use. Aberdeen Browns at work and our, in our training specifically in week eight, to help them shift towards healthy striving. Week nine is called, get out of the comparison trap. So if your athlete is comparing herself to other people constantly. This training will be very beneficial for her in week nine. So we can even talk about how comparison is actually something that's rooted in our biology, but it's. You know, it's, it's typically not used for good, but it could be. And so we teach athletes how to identify when they're comparing and how to turn that into something that actually could be productive for them. We tend it's called manage stress and become resilient. So we tend is where we, I mean, throughout the whole program, we talk about mental health. This whole program is supporting athletes, mental health, but we specifically go into. Mental health and we tend and talk about how to manage stress appropriately. How stress can be good for us. How to become resilient, how to make sure that they are incorporating things into their days and weeks where they're supporting their mental health. We also have bonuses in the program. When athletes and parents joined, depending on when you join You also get a training called how to thrive under challenging coaches and another one called how to rise above teammate drama. So these are two bonus trainings that athletes love because. Who hasn't encountered a coach that is challenging in some way and who hasn't. Encountered some team drama. These are very common things that happen in athletes, careers. So the drivers are challenging. Coaches helps athletes just with the perspective of how they can navigate challenging coaches. And it also has a five step process in there on how to talk to your coach. So. You know, if you've ever been like, oh, you, cause you talked to your coach and your athletes. Like I would rather not. This actually gives them a very specific process to kind of take the guesswork out of how to make that happen, but also help them be a little more at ease to know what to say in those meetings, right? It's about teammate drama. Same thing just helps them kind of with here are your paths that you could take when you have some teammate drama. And it really empowers athletes to realize that they actually don't need to engage in some of this drama. It gives them permission to kind of rise above it. Now that kind of encompasses kind of what the athlete side looks like. We also have visualizations within each training. The visualizations are also pulled out. So athletes can access those easily before their competitions. They have text access to me throughout the program. We do live calls as well as they come on live calls two times a month. To get their questions answered. So there's a ton of support in the program as well, which is another reason why athletes get results. They are doing the program on their own time. We tell them to carve aside 30 to 40 minutes, they do it. And athletes have reported that, you know, They just have to put that into their schedule, that just like anything else, they have time to do it. They just have to calendar it and make it happen. And once at least get into it, parents are saying, and athletes say themselves, like there's, I'm starting to see wins. This is starting to work. And so I want to keep doing it. And so once athletes get going, they typically want to continue going now a little bit on the mom and the parent's side of the program. So we say mom, because we really do lean into the mom daughter relationship a little bit. There's a unique relationship there where you are influencing your daughter's confidence in a very specific way, because she is looking to you, whether you realize it or not, whether she realizes it or not. As one of the most influential people and models of confidence in her life. So we talk about that in the program. However, a lot of the strategies that we teach on the mom's side of the program are applicable to all parents and caregivers. In fact, we recommend that moms and their partners do the program together. So they're on the same page. When they're talking about how to support their athlete daughter. All right. And so we go through on the mom's side. Training called the powerful pep talks and this teaches moms and parents what to say and the four phases of their daughter's games. So we have ongoing training phase pre-competition during competition and post-competition we teach the love framework. So L O V E. And that framework stands for let her lead open the space, validate emotions and encourage inward. And we teach how to use that framework before she competes. And after she competes so that you feel empowered to not have to dread those car rides. You know, when she's spiraling, you're disappointed. You know what to say? You know how to support her. Your anxiety and stress, isn't projecting onto her before a game, you have a very specific routine. And so we go all into that in the mom's side, so that parents are also equipped on how to help. So that is a sneak peek. I mean, we do a lot of other fun things in the program. A lot of other kind of pop-up things, bonus surprises. We do guest speakers for for parents as well. They parents also get support in our private Facebook community. Where we do live trainings in there. Monthly zoom calls, a lot of, a lot of fun things to make sure that parents are fully supported in the program as well. But that is kind of a behind the scenes look of what this program looks like, why it gets results. And really this does hinge on the fact that you are doing the work as well as your daughter. So I hope that's helpful. Just a couple of common questions that I get asked that I want to address before we, before we go on with our days. Two of the most common questions. What is the best age for starting this type of work? And I'll answer that really fast. So 11 to 13 is kind of like the sweet spot for starting and all the way up through college. We have athletes that are competing in college, who are in the program. And you know, we do have athletes that are younger than that, but typically those athletes are in a very competitive environment. And they're doing the program very closely with their moms and their parents. So it's kind of like they sit down together and do the program. Whereas the older athletes are typically kind of doing their part on their own, and then moms are doing their part on their own. And you know, cause there. On that there are different ways to go through the program. The younger athletes are typically like doing it with their parents, older athletes. Are not, but 11 to 13 is kind of that sweet spot to get started with this type of work. It's also when they're starting to get more competitive. Their bodies are starting to change the kind of like, Ooh, what's happening here. If your athlete is older than that, I would say right now, like we, we got to get her into some sort of mental training. Hey, because it is not a matter of. If it's a matter of when she's going to hit up against challenges that are related to comparison pressure, expectations, nerves. And if she doesn't know how to handle these things, we can't just hope. And wish that she does or that somebody just like teaches her it. Right. You have to be very intentional with this. The other question I get asked is what season of her sport is best to start meaning like, is it better to do this in the, in season or. Off season. And I know that this is kind of a, I mean, not, not very specific answer, but any season is great because if she is in, in season, she's implementing those skills right away. She's learning them and she's practicing them real time. If she's at a season, that's great. She potentially has a little more time. She can get a good foundation going. And then when she's in season, she can review some of that material, especially trainings one, two, and three. We tell athletes that you should be doing trainings one, two, and three, every sports season, and w she has lifetime access and you have lifetime access to the program. And that's very intentional because we want athletes to revisit this. Just like they do any other skill. They need to continue building and practicing these skills. So really any season. Is good for her to engage in this work, knowing also that you both have lifetime access to it. All right, moms. I hope that was helpful to give you a behind the scenes look and so that you can get an idea of what this whole Najim is that we are doing that no one else is doing because ECP is the only girl athlete, mental coaching program that works. With both the athlete and their parent to increase game day and everyday confidence and peak performance. All right. I'm coach Bree, and I will see you in the next episode of the raising unstoppable girl athletes podcast.