Welcome back to the Raising Elite Competitors podcast. I'm Coach Saylor, a mental performance coach inside of our community, The Elite Competitor, and we help girl athletes level up mentally in their sport. So we teach all of the necessary tools to build confidence, manage pressure so that athletes can compete freely. Today's episode is a really special one, and this is specifically for the athletes who are college-bound. So if you have dreams of playing at the collegiate level, or if you are going to be starting your recruiting process very, very soon, then I want you to tune in and listen up to this one. Get ready. We are going to be talking about why mindset is so important in the recruiting process, and how you can really take control of your mental game while you are entering the college journey. So let's get into it. I first want to start by introducing a tool that we call, the Elite Performance Formula. Okay, so the Elite Performance Formula is how we describe success and really getting to our true potential. So with the Elite Performance Formula, you can think of it as like a three-legged stool. So one of the legs on the stool, one of the components of this equation is going to be the physical training, okay? My guess is all of you are doing the physical training, right? Like, you're going to practices, you're putting in the extra reps, maybe your strength training, doing some conditioning and competing, okay? So that is the physical training component. You have that going for you already. Another one is the knowledge of the game, okay? So this is strategy, this is tactical. This is your IQ and situational awareness, watching film, all of those sorts of things, knowing the rules. So your knowledge of the game. My guess, again, you have that bucket filled. The last part of this equation is the mental game, okay? Mindset training, which most athletes are not training their mental game, right? And if we are thinking of this as a three-legged stool, if you do not have one leg to your stool, it's gonna fall over. It's going to flop. You are not actually reaching your full potential. So if you are neglecting training your mindset, then you are missing out on what success could really, truly look like in your athletic career. And I know we have lots of mathletes here listening, too. So for my mathletes, okay, if we are thinking of this as an equation and we have the physical, the knowledge, the mental. If we have physical times mental times knowledge, all right? If one of those things is zero- What happens to the entire equation? What happens to our entire multiplication problem when we throw a zero in there? It all cancels out. It is all going to be zero. And I really don't want your hard work on the physical game, in pouring into that knowledge bucket, to go to waste, which is why it is so important to really get this mental edge and separate yourself in the recruiting process, in the journey. And because the elite performance formula is working as a multiplication problem, that means when we start to pour into these different buckets of physical training, knowledge, and mental training, as they increase, your success, your potential, is also going to increase. Your performance is going to benefit from that. And I am guessing, if I were to tell you right now,"Hey, you are going to become a better athlete if you add 30 minutes extra of training a week," would you commit to doing that? My guess is yes, right? If it's going to take 30 minutes a week, that breaks down, right, about five minutes a day, and you're gonna be a better athlete, yeah, you're gonna be all about that, right? Because you are so committed to playing at the next level, okay? And that's what I'm gonna tell you today. It only takes about five minutes a day to really strengthen your mindset and pour into the mental game. All right? So, that's what I want you to be focusing on. It doesn't have to be a huge amount. You don't need to add two hours of mindset training every day. It needs to be five minutes a day, 30 minutes a week, and that's how you are going to level up. And the reason that this is so important, college coaches are actually looking out for this skill, right? So, they are noticing. If they're coming to watch you play, if they're tuning into your film, they're gonna be on the lookout for an athlete who has a great attitude, right, who's treating their team well, who is really coachable, who is bouncing back quickly from mistakes, who can handle pressure moments, who's not getting mad at the ref, who's able to move on and stay composed, right? If you were to look at a court, if a recruiter or a college coach is looking at a court and they see an athlete who Is kind of snarky towards their teammates, who has a bad attitude, who is getting really flustered when a ref makes a bad call, who gets pulled out of a game and pouts. That is not someone that they are wanting to recruit. That's not someone that they are wanting to add to their college program. And honestly, those things are mental skills, right? It is learning how to control yourself, control your reactions, control your emotions, control your thoughts. All right? So college coaches and recruiters are actually on the lookout for those types of skills. It is going to separate you from others who are in the recruiting pool. And if you followed along, in the spring, then you've probably heard of the UCLA women's basketball team. I recently watched an interview with their coach, Cori Close, and she said that their team was hitting the mind gym. That's what they called it. So they were hitting the mind gym every day. They were talking about affirmations. They were setting those intentions of how they wanted to show up, and they were building a championship mindset and championship habits along the way. So if teams like UCLA, who won a national championship on, right, the biggest stage, NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament, if they're hitting the mind gym, then that means they care about it. And you could start this process as a high schooler, right? If you're tuning in, I'm guessing you're probably a junior or maybe a senior in high school, and it's crunch time right now. You want to be able to set yourself apart, and really gaining that mental edge is going to help you. We've also seen it from a ton of high-level athletes, right? So you can think about Simone Biles. Simone Biles is one of the GOATs, olympic gold medalist in gymnastics. All around, she is a stud. But she also has had challenges, right? She had to overcome a lot of mental blocks. She worked with a sports psychologist to prepare and help her bounce back quickly and take care of herself first. So that shows that even on the biggest stages, even as you continue level up, things don't just get easier. You actually need the skills. You've also maybe heard of Katie Ledecky. Katie Ledecky is a highly decorated Olympic swimmer. She also really prioritized her mindset and trusting and loving the process along the way, really building consistency and those mastery habits. So thinking about how you're showing up every single day. You're not going to just automatically become better one day. You're not gonna just become better being on the college stage. You have to be putting in that work, and you have to lay that foundation really early. Naomi Osaka is another one of the greats so in the tennis world. She has worked super, super hard on learning how to reframe failure. Right? And understanding that a loss does not define her. It doesn't mean that she's a bad athlete in any way. And so just reframing her perspective and the approach that she has in sports so that she can play from a place of joy, and again, taking care of herself first. Megan Rapinoe, again, another one of the greats in soccer, playing for the US Women's National Team. She dealt with a lot of performance anxiety, and she's talked about it both on the field and off the field, and how necessary it was to train her mindset and really focus on having strategies to calm herself down, perform in high pressure moments, and focus on mindfulness. So everyone on the biggest stages are pouring into that mental game, and that is making them a great athlete. That is why they are some of the greatest of all times, because if we go back to that elite performance formula, definitely they have the physical skills, they have the physical training. They also have great knowledge of the game, and they have that mental edge. They have that mindset piece in there as well. So again, you are not just going to become better overnight. If you think about the college journey that's ahead of you, the pressure is going to build. You are going to continue to level up, which is super exciting. I don't want all of this to be overwhelming and daunting, but you are going to be on bigger stages, and that can feel overwhelming, and it's not just going to get easier, and you don't magically know how to handle those moments. It has to be trained. You have to lay the foundation. And again, it's something that college coaches and college programs are looking for, and it can really separate you. So you have to give yourself the mental edge. If you are looking for ways that you can give yourself this mental edge during the recruiting process and going into your college career, then you're in the right place. Our program is specifically for you. It's for high-performing, elite level athletes who have these aspirations to play at the next level. We give you all of the tools to bounce back quickly, to develop a really strong, consistent pre-performance routine so that you can play and train the same way, as how you compete so that you can stay consistent. You can bounce back after adversity, after tough losses, being able to reflect in those high pressure moments, being able to lock in and flip a switch, managing perfectionism and stress along the way. All of that we have covered in our program called the Elite Mental Game, and we would love to have you in there as well and support you as you start your college journey. So if you are interested in learning more, we're gonna put the link in our description. And send that to your parents, okay? Send that to your parents. They can check it out as well. And thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. We are really, really excited. And just being here, getting to the end, I can tell that you are prioritizing your mindset, that you want to be that well-rounded, versatile athlete who stands out, and I am so excited to see what you are able to accomplish. Thanks again for tuning in to today's episode on how to really separate yourself during the recruiting process. Trust the process, control what you can control, and continue to keep your love for your sport alive. We will see you next time on the Raising Elite Competitors podcast