Welcome back to the raising unstoppable girl athletes podcast. I'm coach Bree, a mental performance coach for a girl athletes. And I am so happy that you're here. Whether you are a sports mom that is just getting started on this whole sports journey, maybe your daughter's younger, or you have an athlete with a lot of experience and you have a lot of seasons under your belt. This podcast is for you to help you know, how to raise a strong, confident athlete, and also so that you can enjoy the sports journey too. Now, before we get into our episode today, we are talking about mental blocks. What works, what doesn't work when helping your athlete overcome them. Before we just dive into that whole topic. I do. You want to give a shout out to a mom? And our community. So Katie is going through the elite competitor program with her daughter and that she had this to say the other day, she said, it's going really well for my daughter. And I, I personally am learning so much. And my daughter just had the tournament of her career. They took second place out of 97 teams. She said that she can see. ECP is working for her. So I am so proud of you both, not only that you are applying these skills, but it's paying off and that you're both invested in this process because if you haven't already maybe picked up on by listening to some podcasts or. Seeing our Instagram, or maybe you're even in the program, we do things a little different. We know that when athletes feel supported and they have parents who know what to say, know what to do to support them, they actually perform better in their sports. So that's why we bring the parent on board with this whole process. So nice job, Katie. And also to your daughter for, trusting the process in this, it's definitely paying off for you. All right. Let's get into today's episode. We're talking about mental blocks. What are mental blocks? How can we help our athletes through them if they are experiencing them and also what not to do, because there's a whole conversation about that, where we can accidentally make mental blocks worse for our athletes by doing a few things. So let's get into it. First of all, what are mental blocks? It's kind of a. Umbrella term to describe this psychological obstacle that prevents athletes from performing at their peak level. And more specifically, a mental block occurs when an athlete can not physically perform a movement or a motion that they've demonstrated talent or ability for in the past. So to commonly put this. We see athletes often in sports where there is a lot of. Pressure, which could be really any sport, but also a lot of sports where there's a degree of physical challenge. So like cheerleading, gymnastics. Divers skaters where they like can't go backwards anymore, or they can't perform some sort of skill where they're in the air or doing something with some sort of danger, I would say, associated with it. that might be present more than in a sport like basketball or soccer or volleyball. Now, mental blocks also occur in sports like basketball, soccer, volleyball, all of these. I mean, really it can occur in any sport and in any athlete. And sometimes they seem like they come out of nowhere. All of a sudden an athlete is afraid to do something or they appear to be afraid to do something or they just physically can't do it. And they had been doing it before. Okay. So let's talk about why they happen often. This is associated with fear with pressure. Sometimes athletes. Sustain an injury or they had an accident and now they are fearing reinjury or having another accident. So their brain. Is really keeping them safe by not allowing them to engage in the activity that caused the injury in the first place. And we teach in our programs and we also teach on our free webinars that the brain's number one job is to keep us safe. Now that means physically safe, psychologically safe. And so your brain and your athlete's brain at the subconscious level really is doing its job to just keep your athletes safe. So when an athlete is experiencing a mental block, their brain is picking up on danger in their environment in some way. Now, logically like our conscious brain. Is saying, Hey, you were able to do this before. Why can't you do it now? And it makes sense. Right? Like, of course I was able to do it before. I should be able to do it now that all is logic and I'm, that is happening in an athlete's conscious brain. But her subconscious brain is where this fear, failure, this danger is living. And that is what is causing the mental block as well. Now on that fear of failure, fear of making mistakes, fear of looking dumb, embarrassing themselves, that can also play into a mental block. Mental box often also come up in stress or pressure filled situations. So pressure to perform, get the skill, get to the next level. Or maybe it's like a big competition. If you remember from. The Olympics, not too long ago, Simone Biles experiencing the twisties. That's another form of a mental block. Baseball players, softball players sometimes call these the yips. And so they're also known for some of those terms, but the overarching broad. Classification would be a mental block. And like I said, the brain is picking up on some sort of threat, some sort of danger that is causing the body then to respond by not engaging in that activity. So that is kind of how they happen. Again. Sometimes they come out of nowhere, it seems like, but really They don't often just come out of the blue, although it looks that way likely there are some underlying. Fears, pressure, stress, that typically is going on under the surface. And then all of a sudden, Mental block happens and it looks like it came out of nowhere, but it's likely connected to some sort of pressure, some sort of fear, failure, some sort of stress or an injury that potentially could have happened. Okay, so let's move on to. You know what not to do. If your athlete is experiencing a mental block, maybe she's not performing a skill that she used to. She's just not engaging in. One part of her game or her competition, like she used to. Let's talk with a first about what not to do. Okay. First let's not pressure her or bribe her to get the skill or do the thing that she can't do anymore. For this momentary point, I will pause and say, because she's not doing it right now does not mean that she won't ever be able to do it again. This is a very normal part of an athlete's experience. Mental blocks are very, very common. And so, don't be afraid and don't think that, oh, she's never gonna be able to do this again. She will, but we can make it harder for her by bribing her and pressuring her to get the skill. So nothing like I'll pay you a certain amount of money if you get the skill or. I'll buy you this. If you get the skill, I just add more pressure to an already pressure filled situation. You're athlete wants to get the skill. She wants to overcome her mental block. She wants to do whatever movement she was doing before she wants to. It's not for lack of trying or a lack of wanting to do it. And so just adding on these layers of bribery and more pressure from you, it's just going to make it worse for her. what not to do, making her feel bad for having the block. So if you say things like you've done this before, why can't you do it now? Or just stop overthinking, like all of those things kind of make her feel like something is wrong with her. That it's her fault. Why. There's a mental blog. All of that. It's just going to add again, more stress, more pressure. Which is going to make this process of coming back from a mental block even longer. On that, putting a timeline on when she needs to get through it. So I've heard. You know, as I'm working with athletes who have mental blocks, they'll have coaches who say things like you need to get this skill by this date, or you're not going to move up with the team. Not while that might be absolutely true. Like sometimes that's just the reality of the situation. You know, for safety, you need to have the skill in order to move forward with us as a group. Your athlete knows that and she's aware of it. And so don't put a timeline on it and don't say like, you need to, get this by this date because again, more pressure, more stress, really when it comes to mental blocks. She does need to. Go with the flow and, it's actually a fallacy to think that if I work harder at this, it will come faster. When in reality, we just trust that this will come back and I'll give you some strategies that can really help in that area. The last thing is just, like I said, realizing that more work actually doesn't mean that she's going to get through it. So I'm making her grinded out. I'm putting more and more hours into the gym, working on the exact same thing over and over and over again. And just toughing through it actually will make this process longer. Okay. So those are some things that we want to avoid. If your athlete is going through a mental block, don't pressure her or bribe her to get the skill, don't make her feel bad for, going through this again. I mean, you can even site Simone Biles. Bios. I mean, there's countless of athletes. If you just do a quick Google search on, you know, handling mental blocks, Simone Biles, did this have the biggest stage ever. And so allowing your athletes to realize like, Hey, this is actually a normal part of being an athlete that I can get through that there's nothing wrong with me. Like big half leads, professional Olympic level athletes. Have mental blocks to, okay. Don't put a timeline on when she used to get through it and then realize that it's not necessarily going to be more work that will help her overcome her mental block. Okay, let's move to how you actually can help. So what can be useful in this situation? The first one is one that I just hit on. So that is normalized. That mental blocks are a part of being an athlete. They at some point so longer, your athlete competes, the more likely that she is going to, at some point in her career, handle a mental block, she will get, go through something and it could be something small, like it's, I don't want to take a shot in this pressure situation or in this certain. Certain situation that I get in, that's a form of a mental block. So just know that this is normal. And so saying things like, you know, I know this feels hard right now, but this won't last forever. Or, you know, even the best athletes have mental blocks. I know you're going to get through this and your body will know when it's ready and just kind of having this like lower pressure approach to it and just normalizing it, like, okay. today's practice your body. Wasn't ready for it. That's all right. We're just, we're going to keep going. You'll know when you're ready. And just to allow your athlete to go through it without you adding more pressure. Now provide opportunities to help her. So we handle a lot of the underlying foundational work that helps athletes overcome these mental blocks. And so you can actually help her build the foundation. By going back and getting her comfortable with the skills that she can do. So that's kind of like step one with a mental block. I mean, seven one would actually be awareness and knowledge that it's happening instead of like, pretending like it's not or avoiding it or not talking about it. Just acknowledging like, Hey, you're going through a mental block right now. Hey, that's normal. Most athletes do. The second thing would be let's go back to what skills she does feel comfortable doing. And so that could mean scaling back a little bit. And so that she feels confident and can, nails skills and, nail kind of like the progression that leads to the bigger skill. If she is, you know, handling that. So an example would be, maybe we're going back to the mat. Instead of the beam or maybe we're taking shots in. Lower pressure situations rather than these higher pressure. Shots in these ones, situations where I'm one-on-one versus, something else. So pulling back a little bit and getting her comfortable with the skills that she can do that lead to that bigger skill. Okay. So that can lead to confidence. Then she can slowly kind of work forward, visualization. So visualization is a super powerful skill for all athletes, but especially athletes who are going through mental blocks. So. Seeing what she wants to have happen, seeing herself perform the skill and we teach athletes. How to visualize in our programs. And, the key here is that she is seeing herself perform the skill with all five senses on board. She is doing the thing that she wants to do, because right now the picture that she has in her head is of her being scared to do it or not do it. And that is a very powerful image that is guiding what's happening out there in reality. So she needs to, in a sense, reprogram her subconscious, get a new image in there, rewire that circuitry so that she has something that she can. Really lean into when she gets out there. And so see her, you know, we, we teach athletes to visualize with all five senses as if it's happening right now and really create that, vivid imagery of her performing this go, how she wants to perform it. Also skills in mindfulness awareness and presence. Those are all very useful and research-based to be proven to help with mental blocks. So when I say mindfulness awareness presence, That is strategies to get athletes to the present moment. So we teach this in our program as well. Different breathing techniques. We use the hot cocoa breath, like the nice deep inhale through your nose, and then breathing out through your mouth. Like you're blowing on a cup of hot cocoa box breathing. tuning into the census. We have athletes focus on objects for three to five seconds. Up close and then further away. Also having that tactile cues that they use visa, snapback routine. Where she's combining a breath in a reset word, and then, uh, a tactile cue that she does, either rubbing two fingers together or, or hands together, all of those things help bring the athlete back to her body and back to the present moment. Which helps her be able to perform skills and, without getting pulled into what could happen or caught up in what did happen before. And so they're very tangible skills. Like I said, we teach these in our program, but we also teach some of them on our free training for sports moms. So check that out@trainhergame.com. You can get a sense of some of these skills, what they are, how they're helpful, how you can use them. To help your athletes strengthen her overall mental game, which will help her through these walks. So that's how I train her game.com. The other thing that you can do is celebrate the small wins and the successes of what she can do. So rather than focusing on what she can't do in this moment, focusing on what she can, and she's talking about practice, or she's talking about training. You know, celebrate, like, all right, ,you were able to, you know, perform that forward skill, right. That's go where you're going forward. Or you were able to, take that shot. You were able to. Surf, from that distance, you know, whatever that is that she was able to do, even if it's not totally connected to a larger skill that she can't do right now. You know, celebrating that because that again will lead to confidence and help her realize that even if there's just one part of her game that she's, experiencing a block around, she still has a lot. That she is still able to do. The other thing that we can't get enough of is encouraging the self compassion and kindness. How your athlete is talking to herself during this time is super, super important. Which is why we talk specifically with athletes in our program. What we also talk about on our free training for sports moms, around how we can shift this. Self-talk how we can shift from. Being super negative, being really hard on herself too. Approaching this with self compassion and kindness. Realizing that, if your daughter had a teammate or a friend who was experiencing a mental block, how would she talk to that person? Likely something like, Hey, you're going to get this, this is normal, everyone experiences. This keep working, all of these really, positive things. But typically when she's talking to herself, it's like, why don't I have this. I'm going to fall behind like all of these really negative things. So we encourage athletes to talk to themselves. Like they would talk to one of their friends or one of their teammates who was going through this as well. Okay. The last thing is, making sure that you're addressing these underlying causes of mental blocks, like you said, it seems like mental blocks come out of nowhere, but they actually don't. They're very tied to perfectionism, fear of failure, letting other people down. All of these things that athletes struggle with. And again, very normal athletes of all levels, ages skills. Now they face these things, however, not all athletes know how to navigate them and without skills to navigate them, they then manifest themselves into. Mental blocks or, you know, they're freezing up and they're performing under their potential. And so we really want athletes to have these skills. And this foundation of skills so that they don't lead to bigger things like mental blocks that kind of hang them up for longer than they want to be hung up. So in order to do that, that's where we have that free training for you. So that free training for sports moms@trainhergame.com. We'll get you started on how you can teach your athlete. These skills. to. Allow her to have these foundational work so that she can navigate being an athlete with confidence. So that's at train her game.com. Okay. That wraps up kind of our discussion on mental blocks, what they are, how they happen, what not to do, what you can do, and I'll leave you with this mental blocks. Are frustrating, you know, for athletes that can be frustrating for parents too, to watch because it's like, why can't you do that? I just saw you doing it last week, right? And it can be very scary for athletes to kind of navigating this unknown. So make sure that she has the skills to be confident as she works through them. Instead of being in the space of, I don't know how long this is going to last, I'm not sure if I'm ever going to be able to get through this. We don't want athletes feeling like that. So make sure that she has those skills and a good place to start is that, that free training for sports bombs@trainhergame.com. Alright, moms. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I will see you in the next episode of raising unstoppable girl athletes.