Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Raising Elite Competitors podcast. We have a very special guest on today's episode. Samantha is here with us. Samantha is our January athlete of the month, and we want to celebrate her and highlight all of the wins because she's been, we are working super hard on her. Mental game over the past few months inside of our signature mental training program for girl athletes called the Elite Mental Game. So parents, if you are tuning in, bring your athlete along, have them listen to this, athletes. If you are tuning in, you can send this to your own teammates and spread the love. So let's get into it. First of all, Samantha, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. I so excited you're here. You're welcome. Um, so I'm gonna introduce you really quick so everyone knows who you are. Samantha is a golf athlete inside the elite mental game. Um, you're in middle school, I believe, right? Samantha? Yeah. Okay, awesome. So middle school golf athlete. I'm guessing you've probably been golfing for a while. How long have you been golfing for? I've been going for four years. Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's definitely a long time. Um, and I'm sure things are starting to get more competitive for you right now too. The level starting to rise. Yeah. Especially as you're approaching, um, entering your high school season too. Mm-hmm. Yeah, totally. Um, so I wanna share with everyone what Samantha has told us. She was part of our, um, champions board submission, and she was chosen as our January athlete of the month. So Samantha said, I'm a champion because I work hard and have fun. Work on things that I need to improve on. Um, and you've shared a few stories about some, some moments that you've been able to bounce back in tournaments, so I wanna dive into those more. Um, as well as just trying out new, new routines that have really helped you with your mental game. Um, so I would love to hear from you, I know we did a little bit of an introduction, but fill in any gaps. How else would you introduce yourself to everybody? Um, like you said, I am in middle school. I. I've been golfing for four years. Golf is like who I am. It's what I do like every time, every week I play competitively in tournaments. And before like starting EMGI have always struggled with mental game.'cause golf is not only like physical where you have to practice all the time, but it's. Just bouncing back from the bad. From the bad shots. Yeah. And I was always not the most confident person. Mm-hmm. And I was always so worried about what other players thought about me and my swing. And I knew I could never play the best to my potential. And at the end of every game I knew that too. So I beat myself all the time about that. But the tools that you have provided me really helped, and my game has really improved. I'm so happy to hear that. Um, and thanks for sharing that. Yeah. I think what you just shared of the struggles that you have gone through in golf, like almost every athlete has gone through this, right? Like the spiral on the car ride home when you're just remembering all of the bad shots that you had at the tournament. When you're, um, out there in a tournament and you know, you make a mistake having to bounce back quickly or if you don't, that's gonna affect your next shot. Right. Having the negative thoughts starting to come in, um, the opinions of other people. Right. Although that's something we can't control, which I'm sure, sure. You've heard in EMG, you can't control that. Um, it's something that we think about all the time, right? Of like, oh, what is that girl thinking about me? And it can hold our performance back in a lot of ways. Um, what would you say, was there like a breaking moment or like a tipping point where you were like, okay, I need to fix this. How did you find out about EMG and get started? So, I. So my mom actually found this for me on Instagram where, and she was like, this will be such a fun program to, for me to do because you can like text the coaches if you're having like a hard time on the course. Mm-hmm. I have texted you guys a couple times actually, and when I was in the middle of a tournament and it really helped me bounce back too, which, and I remember. I think it was a couple months ago, I was in a tournament and I was not doing well. My mental game was really, really bad and I was doubting everything that I was doing. But when you guys gave me the hopeful tips and all, I bounced right back and I hit really good shots and finished really good in the tournament. Yeah. That's awesome to hear. I know that that was one of your, like big wins, being able to bounce back and I think you said you shot a 76 in that tournament, if I'm remembering correctly, which is amazing, right? Like kudos to you for being able to bounce back. Um, but yeah, I, I love that you've been leaning into just ev all the trainings and. Asking for help. Asking for help can be a tough thing to do, but being able to lean on others for support is really important. Um, and you've seen that that's paid off in on the course as well? Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Um, okay, so you're in EMG now. What would you say is one of the, your favorite or like go-to tools that you use from the elite mental game? Definitely the reset routine. Yeah. That really, really helps me when I hit like a bad shot or something like that, I do the reset routine, take those deep breaths, have my word, and it really just helps me. Yeah. Awesome. Um, and for those of you who may not know inside of EMG, we teach the snapback routine. That's one of the first things that athletes learn and a snapback routine is taking a deep breath. All athletes have their own individual word and then doing a signal. So a quick physical cue. Um, Samantha, would you be willing to share what your word and signal are if you, if you're willing to? Mine is really embarrassing, but it's 67. Um,'cause there's, um. The motion too. Yeah. It's like a funny way, but it really helps me. There you go. I mean, that's so popular right now, right? Mm-hmm. Um, of doing that, and I'm sure that makes you giggle a little bit. Like it's probably funny and sometimes when you make a mistake, you just have to take your mind off of it and remember, all right, it's just a sport. I'm out here to, to have fun. Um, on the course. Okay, thanks for sharing that. Um, okay. Snapback routine. I feel like most athletes say that that is their favorite tool to use. Um, and then I'd love for us to go back to that tournament you shared with us, um, a tournament that you had and it was a two day tournament where the first day you struggled a little bit, um, didn't shoot how you wanted to, were probably below your goals, and then you were able to reflect and bounce back so. Tell me a little bit more about what happened that tournament and how you were able to bounce back. Okay, so the first day did not go as I planned it. Um, my, I was not hitting most of my shots where I wanted to, and I think by the fifth hole, because there was such a long wait to get to the tee box, I also. I was thinking so much about my previous mistakes and I was really letting that get to me. So for the next, um, holes, I just, that kind of stuck with me and I wasn't like bouncing back. So after that game, um, I had an hour car ride back and I was just going over and self analyzing my mistakes that I was doing and. The second day,'cause I was not near like the first place, like top 10. And I was like, I'm just gonna do this for fun and the results will come with that. And with no pressure and all, I'm just gonna just go out there and try my best and I. Didn't get mad at myself that day. The reset routine also helped me if I hit a bad shot and I ended up with a 76 and I was really happy with that. Yeah. Amazing. Oh my gosh. So that first day, like definitely struggling with mental game and physical game of like you weren't, you weren't shooting how you wanted to and so then you got in your head kind of went down that spiral, right? And it was tough to get out of it. And then you reflected, sounds like that next day your mindset was like. I'm just gonna do my best focus on yeah, my effort, right? What I can control, what I can do out on the course, and having fun. I think so often in sports, I'm sure for you, when you first started, the number one rule was probably to have fun, right? Yeah. I, I, I always hear that in sports, right? So somewhere along the way we lose sight of that number one rule, but as soon as we can get back to it and have that love of the game. Our, our performance gets better from that too, which is crazy, right? How can we perform well and be enjoying it? But when we are having fun, when we are loving the game, that is when we're like in the zone focused and everything is working out for us. Yeah, you can, you can't control your last shot, but you can always move forward and. Um, do better in the next one. Yeah, a hundred percent. That's, I, I mean, amazingly said, right? I'm huge on controlling what you can control and letting go of what you can control. The past is in the past, right? We gotta be able to move on from that and knowing that, okay, I've trained so hard for this and I can bounce back. I have the physical and mental schools skills to be able to bounce back from, from a bad shot. Awesome. Um, okay. What would you say is the biggest difference from before you started EMG to right now? Okay. Definitely confidence level and just not caring, and I'm the only one who can make an opinion on my swing and. Now along with my confidence rising, I feel like my game has also become so much stronger. I play to the best of my potential and. It's just been much better. Yeah. I love that. I love that so much. And your confidence comes from you, it sounds like you're realizing of, okay, my performance doesn't have to dictate my confidence. It doesn't come from what other people tell me. It comes from me. And how you are showing up right now. Um, that's amazing. Okay. Samantha, what are you working towards right now as a golf athlete? What are some of your goals? Um, I mean either with your mental game or in, in your sport. So as high school's next year for me. So I definitely wanna make, I'm gonna try and make varsity as a freshman. That's my number one goal right now. I always wanna keep improving and practicing a mental game and physical game because it'll always help. And winter, right now it's really cold, so the best I can do right now is um, just keep practicing indoors and mental game and just keep. Going on these Zoom calls, learning new tools I can use. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Um, I think that's an amazing goal to have of like, yeah, I wanna be a freshman varsity athlete, uh, on the golf team. Um, and I'm excited to continue to supporting you towards that goal. Um, some coaching advice for you. I would adjust some of your 3, 2, 1 brave affirmations. For you to say like, I'm a varsity level athlete. If you can show up as that right now, I think that is even going to help your confidence skyrocket and you're gonna start becoming that version of you who you wanna be next year. You're gonna become her right now. Um, yeah, so that's some coaching advice I would give you there. I remember on Sunday we talked about changing like those, um, to the what if things. Yes. That also I'm definitely going to be using. Yeah. Oh, I love the what if spiral. Um, yeah. On our level up call, we talked about flipping the what if spiral, right? So again, athletes very commonly go down the what if spiral. What if I mess up? What if um, this person judges me? What if I don't qualify for the tournament? And think about all of the worst case scenarios and instead thinking of. All of the best case scenarios, thinking of what could go right. So, well, what if I train really hard? What if I have great scores? What if I do make varsity right? Um, and just being able to flip that mindset. I'm glad that you're using them. Okay. And then last question that I have for you, any, is there any advice that you would give to someone who is maybe struggling with their mental game right now? Okay. I would definitely tell them different tools that they can use and. Golf. There's different like things you can worry about, but if it's like physical stuff and technical things, I would just say swing freely and not, don't think too much about technics and all that and mechanical stuff because. It'll just get you to again, like the what if stuff. Mm-hmm. And it's not good at all. So just hit the ball and it'll go where it goes. Yeah. I love that. Um, so trusting, trusting your skills, trusting your training, trusting the process, focusing on what you can control, um, and then remembering to have fun along the way. Yes. Yeah. That's great advice. Okay, well, is there anything else that you wanna share with everybody, Samantha? Um, I also have something called the ten second Rule that I use. I created this myself where I, I, this goes for any sport. If you have like time. To like, think over your previous mistake, but I give myself 10 seconds to self-analyze that previous shot or like mistake that I made. And, um, I usually do this when walking to the next shot because I have like that long period of time. But after those, like ten second, um, those 10 seconds are up, I can't think about it. Um, no anymore. And I just move on to the shot. I love that. Thanks for sharing that with us. Um, I haven't heard that yet, so that's great because I think. You can learn from mistakes, right? Like mistakes are a huge learning opportunity. And as long as you're not beating yourself up and going down that spiral, we can use those to our advantage of, okay, what can I fix from this? How can I, you know, get better for that very next shot that I'm gonna go take at this next hole? Um, and then giving it that 10 seconds, the ten second rule, and then moving on. Flush it, move on, do your snapback routine and get ready for that next, that next whole, yeah. That's great. Thank you for sharing that. Um, okay, well thank you again, Samantha, for being on today, and congrats on Thank you for having me. Yeah, of course. And congrats on being our January athlete of the month. We we're super excited to feature you and celebrate you and, um, keep on crushing it on, on the course, um, as well as outside of your sport too in, in the classroom and everything else that you do as a student athlete. Thank you. You're welcome.