You likely already know that training your athlete's mental game is the missing piece. It is likely the thing that is holding her back from playing her best, and not training the mental side of the game is causing her to beat herself up over mistakes and to not enjoy the game like she used to anymore. But there is one thing hanging you up. How do you bring this up to her without making her feel like something is wrong with her? Or maybe you've tried a little bit, but you haven't gotten the response that you want. Let's talk about that today. I have some proven ways to get athletes on board with the idea of mental training because, I'll be honest, I've been doing this with my team, my high school volleyball team for over eight years. We've won four consecutive state championships, and none of those would have happened if we would not have trained the mental game. And my players will tell you that firsthand. So once athletes understand what this is and they actually start to do it and see the results, they're bought in and they're all about it. But how do we get them there? That is what we're talking about today. Now before I get into some really specific strategies that you can use with your daughter, I first wanna give a shout-out to a mom, actually a couple moms in our community. So one of them said that her daughter just joined our program, The Elite Competitor Academy. Her mom texted in and said, "Just letting you know that the kickoff call yesterday was awesome. My daughter Miley loved it and is very excited to get started." Thanks so much. So they join the program. Miley came out on a welcome call with me, and we'll talk about that a little bit later in the episode, and immediately was bought in, ready to go, fired up. Now Jessica, another mom, said something similar. She said, "My daughter enjoyed the call for athletes yesterday. She was so bought in that she downloaded the app. She enjoyed the testimonies from athletes about the program. We're so excited to dive in." Awesome. This is what we want to hear. So both of these moms had daughters who were a little bit skeptical when they first joined our program, The Elite Competitor Academy, but once they got in, once they went on a welcome call with me and with Coach Sayler, who's another athlete coach in our community, they were hooked, they were in, and now they are thriving inside our program. So how do you get your daughter to get to that? Number one, I want you to know this: Your daughter is not broken. There's nothing wrong with her. She is just untrained, the mental side of the game is something that can be trained just like any other part of her game. So I want you to fundamentally know this as her mom. These are skills that can be trained. The other thing is that there's no magic sentence that exists even after many years of doing this work with athletes and working with many parents who are, introducing this to their athletes. There's no magic thing to say. There are a variety of things and a variety of ways that we can approach this, but just know that there's not gonna be one script that I can give you that will be like, oh, that's a thing. But there's a lot of different ways that we can, actually get her there, all right? Now, the other part of this is that she doesn't actually have to be excited about this for it to work. I know that might sound odd because most athletes actually are excited when they get into it, but I want you to think of this akin to some other things that she does in her life that maybe she's not enthusiastic about at first, but you know as her parent that they're necessary. So she doesn't always love math, right? Or she doesn't always love going to school. We have her do that though, right? Because we know how important it is. As a coach, I see this all the time. My athletes don't always love the conditioning that we do. They don't always love the hard things that I put them through, but I do it because I know the outcome that I want for them, and I want them to be physically strong and mentally strong. And so we do it, and I don't just say like, "Oh, I guess we're not gonna do it today," if an athlete is like, "Ugh, I'm not really feeling it." No. As the coach, I make sure that my athletes do this, and as a parent, I make sure that my kids do things even if they're not enthusiastic about it. So I want you to know that most athletes are very excited about this work, but it's okay if she's not at first. That is not the roadblock to you not continuing. That's your permission slip from me to you that we can endure some of that. We do it all the time as parents because we know the ultimate goal for our athlete, so I want you to keep that in mind. Okay. Let's get into some specific ways that you can kinda get her bought in or open to the idea about this. And there's actually a very specific ordered way that I want you to do this, okay? Again, having worked with thousands of athletes. The first thing that helps your daughter get bought in is seeing that she is not alone. So when she starts to see that, oh, this is an experience for other athletes and this is happening to somebody else, that normalizes it. And thankfully we have a lot of examples of other athletes who are going through the same things that your daughter is going through. In fact, we have professional athletes that are talking about it, so like Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky. If you look up, like any professional in her sport that she plays, you can likely find some athlete who was talking about the mental side of the game. So another way though that we make this easy for you is that on our podcast, or our YouTube channel we have episodes that say Athlete Tip on them. And these are great because they're speaking directly to her about, you know, things that she's experiencing in her sport. Like if you get super nervous before a game, here are some things you could try. If you need to get out of your own head, here are things that you can try. So it kind of normalizes the experience and so she's like, "Oh, okay," like, "Other people are going through this." The other cool thing on our podcasts or YouTubes episodes is that we interview an athlete of the month every month. So you'll see athlete of the month or ATOM and those are great for her to listen to as well because she can literally hear from people her age. These are high school athletes, some of them are middle school but mostly high school, who are talking about their experience. And when other athletes can see, like, Oh, okay, I'm not alone. This is normal", that's where the door starts to open and she starts to get interested. Okay? So that's the first thing and we have those episodes on our podcast, on our YouTube channel, you can play in the car. You know, sometimes that's the best way to do it just kinda in the background. Okay? The other thing that athletes need to know is that this is a skill that she can develop That's a reframe. This is strengthening your mind just like you go to practice to get better at your physical skills in your sport, you go to the weight room to get bigger, faster, stronger. You go to we would call the mind gym to strengthen your mental game and when we kind of frame it like that, that the best athletes don't just train their physical game, they don't just go to the gym, they don't just go to practice, they are also putting in reps to strengthen their mental game that's when they're like, "Oh, this is actually something that can be trained." I work with athletes all the time who say things like, "Oh, I just don't feel very confident," or like, "Maybe I'm not a confident person." And they just have these beliefs in their head that they have determined themselves and when we can shift that to, no, confidence is actually a skill that you can develop just like any of your other skills then they're like, "Oh okay, this is actually something I can work on." And we have a quiz that your daughter can take, it's called What's Your Competitor Style Quiz? This is a really great way for her to see this as a skill and so she can take this quiz, it's like two minutes long from me and I will link to that in the description below and it's a good way to kinda open the door to this as well. So everyone wants to know about themselves, so she's like, you know, "what is my competitor style?" So it tells her what her strengths are as a competitor and where her gaps are and how she can train those gaps through training her mental game. So that's a really great way to introduce it as well. You can say like, "Hey, I found this quiz for athletes. You wanna take two minutes to take it? I found it interesting" Or you could even play dumb like, "I don't even really know what this is about. This girl named Coach Bre, she's won four state championships, she told me to, like, send this off to You know, you can just kind of play dumb about it all and be like, "I'm not really sure but, you know, sounds cool so maybe do it and tell me what you think." So sometimes that's a good way to approach it as well. Okay, the next piece is that seeing proof that it has worked for someone like her, okay? We have examples of this as well on our Instagram with our Athletes Of The Month. Those Athlete Of The month episodes are really great too. But the other cool thing is that when athletes join our program, the Elite Competitor Academy So this is our mental training program for girl athletes and we're actually in an enrollment special right now, that's maybe why you're listening to this is 'cause you're like, "I want to join when we have the best pricing and bonuses and things like that but I just got to figure out, like, what's the best way to bring it up?" The first thing that she does is come on a welcome call with me or with Coach Saylor, who again is the other athlete coach in our community, and by the time athletes are done with this call if they were skeptical at first they are bought in at the end. And so we intentionally make that as, like, the first thing that they do in the program so that they can see, like wow, other athletes are doing this, it works. This is actually what the best athletes do. In fact, we frame it as like you can stay average, you can be average, you can just work on your physical game but if you really want to give yourself a competitive advantage you do what the best athletes are doing. So we gave example after example of athletes who have used our program and gotten success And so know that when you jump into the program, you actually have a 14-day money back guarantee so that you can jump in risk-free. Come to a welcome call and see like, you know, can she actually get bought in by the end of that call as well? Which most athletes do. They just need to see it from somebody else, and sometimes that somebody else is me or Coach Saylor, which is great because we're the ones that are leading her through the program. That is a great option. Now, how to bring these things up. So even if you're like, "Well, you know, we're gonna join The Academy, but I need to get her to the call," that we take care of for you as well. So I have a conversation guide that I will also link below with just some examples based on your athlete's personality type. Like, if she's super competitive, you frame this as a challenge. Like, "Hey, I hear the best athletes are doing this." Like, leave it up to her. "Do you want to be a part of the best athlete community? Well, this is what they're doing." Okay? And then just other ways that you can frame it, all in that conversation guide. You could also just make it something like, "Hey, let's just check this out. I found this interesting." You know, any of the other things that I mentioned in either resources, podcasts, YouTube episodes, the quiz, either, And even just joining the program and having her come to the call knowing that you have a 14-day money back guarantee to basically test it out. Those scripts will kind of help get her there. Okay. So that is what I have for you. Do know that she doesn't have to be enthusiastic about it at first. That's fine, okay? Remember, a lot of things in life that we know are good for us we sometimes don't always want to do or aren't always enthusiastic about at first. But the good news is that most athletes once they're in, I would say all athletes once they're in and doing the work and see the results are like, "This is awesome." Okay? The other thing is that we've got resources for you. We have the Athlete Of The Month episodes. We have the Athlete Tip episodes. We have the Conversation Guide for you that I've linked below. We have the Athlete Quiz. So all those are really good ways just to get her interested. And then of course while we're in this enrollment special, join The Elite Competitor Academy. You've got a 14-day money back guarantee that you can test it out. You can come to a welcome call. We've got them multiple times a week so that I can talk directly to your daughter. You can let me handle it. All right, moms, I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions or you're like, "Ah, I just wanna work through this specific situation," comment with them below. Email us at hello@elitecompetitor.com. That's what we're here for, to help and work through your specific situation. So holler at us. But I will see you in the next episode.