Speaker 0:00

If you have ever watched your daughter freeze up on the field, or the court, or the pool, and you've thought, I'm not really sure what to say to help her," you're gonna love this episode. Today, I'm bringing a piece of an interview I did with two real moms inside our program, The Elite Competitor Academy, and also their daughters. We have Michelle, Danielle, their daughters Elyse and Ella. And I wanted to share the exact moment they decided to try mental training with their athletes. Because both of them will tell you that their daughters were a little bit skeptical at first. One felt maybe a little awkward, and the other felt confused, like, "What exactly is this?" And let's be honest, most athletes are a little skeptical walking in, but here's what I've seen over and over. Once they're in and they are working on their mental game, they are hooked. So if you're sitting here wondering whether this is going to work for your athlete, maybe you're considering our program, or you wanna bring it up to her, then stick around because Michelle is going to share exactly how she got Elyse on board, the thing that kinda cracked open the door. Plus, you're going to hear that once athletes get in and start doing this work, it becomes easy for them. They see that this is their competitive advantage. They're excited about it. They see the results in their sports. So I just wanted you to hear it directly from these moms and athletes on how they went about it, and I hope this gives you a little bit of optimism and hope that, you know what? This actually is something that could work for your daughter especially if you're seeing her on the court, on the field, performing, but maybe holding herself back or getting in her head, and you know that the difference isn't physical. It's a mental game skill that she just hasn't developed yet. So enjoy this episode. I loved talking with these moms and daughters. Let's get into it.

Speaker 2 1:39

I'm really excited about today, because I have a couple of moms and athletes who

Speaker 1:46

are inside The Elite Competitor Academy, and they're here to share their experience with you, because sometimes it's just helpful to see and hear from people who have been in your spot. michelle and Elyse, I'm going to have you introduce yourselves first. Elyse, I'll have you start.

Speaker 3 2:02

Um, hi, I'm Elyse. I'm 11 years old. I love to play competitive soccer

Speaker 2 2:08

And I'm Michelle. I'm her mom, and, um, we joined the program and I can't wait to share all the wonderful things it's did for not only Elise but also for us as parents to help support.

Speaker 2:20

And Elise is on the younger end of athletes in our program. So it'll be good to hear from that perspective as well and how the program actually works for a variety of ages. Okay. Ella, why don't you take it from here?

Speaker 4 2:34

Uh, my name is Ella. I swim, and I am 16. And Danielle.

Speaker 5 2:39

Yes, and I am her mom, and same, really have appreciated the program and having the parent piece of it.

Speaker 2:46

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 2:46

And having a child that was coming into a competitive year-round sport, and this was a f- a first for us just a couple years ago. This has been great.

Speaker 2:55

Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Let's dive into some specifics. Elise, I'll start with you. What made you join the academy?

Speaker 3 3:02

Before I joined, I was, like, all up in my head, and I was just overthinking, and I had so much, like, frustration and nerves, and it just kept building up after each mistake. I could just train and train my physical game, but I didn't know how to improve on my mental game.

Speaker 3:17

Yeah. Okay. Michelle, from a mom perspective, what were you noticing?

Speaker 2 3:21

So when Elise would go down on the field, like, she trains six days a week, you guys. Yeah. And she puts the work in. And her coach and trainers always said, like, "Elise is fantastic. Her skills are great. She is a top player." But when she goes on that field, she's... Y- you know, her coach said, "I could just see her overthinking." And he would say all the time, "Elise, just trust your skills. Stop overthinking." And if she made a mistake, you could see her just kinda drop her head. And that's normal. Like, that's what happens sometimes as athletes. And then she'd look over at the parents in the sidelines, and she'd look at her coach. And it was really hard to watch as a parent

Speaker 3:58

and that's very common. And girls, we talked on the kickoff call on the, on day one, this is all normal. Like, you wanna do well in your sport, you're training, you're putting in so much time on the physical side. So to not see it sometimes translate over to games, or you're holding yourself back, it's frustrating. And it's a very normal thing that happens to all athletes that are wanting to improve and get better. All right, Ella, how about you? What was going on? What made you wanna join?

Speaker 4 4:22

Well, joining such a competitive sport, it's kinda hard to not get in your head with a lot of things. Mm-hmm. Especially 'cause it's a lot of one V one and team V team.

Speaker 4:31

Yes.

Speaker 4 4:32

So it was a lot of trying to get past the fact that other than it being a team event, it was also an individual sport. So yeah, just like trying to work on giving as much as I can into my team without over-pushing it.

Speaker 4:45

Yeah. Yeah, swimming's very unique in that way. And we have other athletes that are, like tennis players, dancers, gymnasts, who are like, it's, you know, it's team, but it's so much individual and competition within your team. Okay, Danielle, what were you, what were you noticing?

Speaker 5 5:00

Well, we were coming into a six-day a week, two days of, you know, two practices a day. Mm-hmm. We knew it was gonna be a lot of a physical piece. And having l- I was looking for pieces that could give her some of the mental pieces to give her a really good foundation. So we gave her a, a foundation before the issues came up, because this was so new to her. 'Cause a lot of people have been doing this since they were four, five, six years old. Yeah. She had swam, but didn't come into competitive until she was 13, 14. So there were some of those pieces that were just brand new to us and to her, so having something that gave us the mental component of it was just really something that was exciting to know existed.

Speaker 5:43

Yeah. I'm glad you said that. There've been a lot of moms and dads who are like, I actually didn't know that there was training in this side of the game," right? And like, you see it. As parents, you're like, "This is the missing piece. Like, it's clearly not physical because she's already doing so much. And so this is the link that needs to pull it all together so yeah, you recognized it. And then sometimes it's like, "Wait. Oh, there's actual, like training for this," just like there would be a- any physical skill. Yeah. Okay, girls. I want you to be honest with me, with everybody that's listening. Like, when you first heard about this, how, like how did your parent introduce it to you? Were you, "I'm into this right away," or were you a little bit skeptical? Elise, I'll start with you.

Speaker 3 6:27

Okay, so when my mom first told me, I was like, What?" This, like, I felt, like, awkward doing it, and it felt, like, a little, like, silly. Like- Mm-hmm like, why do I do this? Like, how is this gonna help? But then when it, like, actually started to show progress, I was like, oh, wow, wait, this actually helps. And it, like- Mm-hmm it wasn't, like, just telling me to, like, just be confident, and it wasn't like, just stay strong, just trust your skills. It gave me tools to use.

Speaker 6:53

yeah. Okay, that's great. Michelle, how, how did you go about it? How did you introduce it to Elise?

Speaker 2 6:59

So when I saw you online, uh, at the time, it just resonated, right? Everything you were saying was like, "This is my kid." You know, I wanted to scream from the grandstands, "Yes."

Speaker 7:08

Yeah.

Speaker 2 7:09

Um, so when it came about, uh, we talked about it, me and my husband, and I brought it to Elise, and I said, "Hey, you know how we train physically for everything, right?" And she's like, "Yeah." I said, "How do you feel when you get out on the field, you know?" And I just asked her, and I asked her to open up. And she said, Well, I get really nervous, and I'm really excited, and I get butterflies and, but then I get out there and sometimes I freeze, and you know, I, I start doubting myself." She's like, "And I know that I shouldn't, Mom." She's like, "But And I know that I have the skills, but, and you guys keep saying that, but- Yeah I just can't get over it, Mom. I, like, I say I'm gonna do it, and, like, when we do the huddle and we say, 'Okay, one, two, three, go,' she goes, "And then I freeze." Mm-hmm. And I said, "Well, would you be interested in just sitting in and just hearing a little bit more about this?

Speaker 7:51

Yeah. Okay, that's great. Ella, how about you? What was your experience kind of hearing about it?

Speaker 4 7:56

I was just a bit confused about it when I kind of first heard about it, 'cause I didn't know- Mm-hmm there would be, like, actual training for this kind of stuff. I thought it was just something that you kind of taught yourself- Mm-hmm as you went on. So it was definitely a little weird to start it off, and I didn't know how much it would help at first. Yeah. But I feel like it's been helping.

Speaker 8:15

Yeah. Okay, that's, that's great. Confused, a little skeptical, a little, like, what? Somebody on the call yesterday was like, "How many athletes have you had in the program?" And I, like, literally looked it up on the phone, and I was like, oh, my gosh, there's 10,000. 10,000 athletes have done our, our program. You're not alone. And it's also your competitive advantage. Like, the best athletes are doing this. So okay, Danielle, how did you bring it up to Ella?

Speaker 5 8:38

I w- I was a little worried about bringing it up to her 'cause I'm like, oh my gosh, it's one more thing. You know, our kids are doing classes, they're doing all these trainings- Mm-hmm and it's like this one more thing. And I brought it up from the, watched the video and I'm like, oh my gosh, this would be such a good foundation for her. I have a background in psychology, so I know- Oh, okay these pieces work. Yeah. I know these visualizations and things work. For her to hear it from somebody that's not me is gonna be so much better- Mm-hmm because I'm in the mom zone. So having an opportunity for someone to work with her on these foundations, and they're things that I already believe in, and she doesn't have to hear it from me, is perfect.

Speaker 9:14

If what you just heard sounds like your daughter, this is exactly what the Elite Competitor Academy was built for. It's a self-paced mental training program for girl athletes. Inside, she gets real skills for bouncing back from mistakes, handling nerves before a game, and quieting the voice that tells her she's not good enough. You get scripts for what to say after a rough game and a way to support her without adding more pressure. It used to be called the Elite Mental Game. Same program, new name, and it's still the one over 10,000 families have used. If you wanna see what's inside, head to academy.elitecompetitor.com/join-eca.