Speaker 18 1:21

As you see, as a parent, what's going on in your daughter's sport when she can practice really well and then the game feels different. When she gets in her own head out there after a mistake. That's not a physical training problem. That is a mental skill that she just hasn't developed yet. I'm talking with athletes who are inside our program, The Elite Competitor Academy. These athletes are training their mental game, and I brought them and their moms in for an interview Ella swims, Elise plays soccer, and they know how important

Speaker 19 1:49

the mental game is. These families lay out how it works with their schedule and the changes that they have seen.

Speaker 18 1:55

I wanna get into the logistics. There's a lot going on. You're potentially playing lots of different sports. There's not a whole lot of time. So like, how does this actually look to do in your week, in your month? So Elise, how'd you actually do the program?

Speaker 20 2:10

I just started doing it, like on, in the car, on car rides, before games- Mm-hmm or after games if I felt a little down on myself. Or just any time that I felt like I needed like a little like boost of confidence or like- Mm-hmm if I was like getting like excited, butterflies, I would visualize and it would just be like, it would be, get me so excited and I'd be like, "All right. Let's go. We're gonna do this."

Speaker 21 2:33

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 20 2:33

And then it also doesn't feel like another huge commitment in my week, like trainings and physical, they all take like an hour and they all- Mm just like it adds up and it's like, okay, I've gotta, I gotta go to school for like seven hours a day. I've gotta do my homework. That takes another hour, and it just keeps stacking and it's like where does this fit in? But these don't, like the actual videos and where you're learning about all these skills and all the ways to change your mindset, they only take around like most like, at the most they take 15 minutes. But-

Speaker 18 3:05

Mm-hmm

Speaker 20 3:05

most of them, they're not even super long, and they're very helpful too.

Speaker 18 3:09

Yeah. That's a, that's a great answer because I know that that's in the back of some people's mind, like, "Is this gonna feel like more school? Is this gonna be like..." Yeah, but I love that you said you could even do it in the car. And so we have an app. We have, you can do it on the web browser. All the visualizations are great if you're like, um, you know, I don't have a whole lot of time, like just pop in a visualization, you know? You got that. So, so three, two, one, brave. Um, did you, did you implement that from phase two?

Speaker 20 3:32

Yes. I just do that before games in the car too. I take a deep breath and I visualize, and I'll play that video and I'll just go through it, and I'll just do all those steps, and it will just like calm my nerves if I'm like feeling any like bad nervousness. And if I feel some good nervousness, it will help build those up.

Speaker 19 3:52

And I like that she can go back to 'em, Bre. Mm-hmm. So when she is feeling that way to what she's saying, she goes back to that module, and she'll maybe watch it again. It's huge.

Speaker 18 4:00

that's why we have lifetime access, too. It's like we don't, we know that, especially 'cause you're on the younger end, Elise, like you're gonna be able to use this for several years, and you benefit from all the refreshes that we do, all the glow-ups that we do to the program. Michelle, how was it for you? Did you feel like you had to be like, "Elise, come on, log in. Do your stuff"? Like, how did it work in your family?

Speaker 19 4:19

So Elise is the type of kid that just does her homework, and I don't have to tell her to do her homework. Okay,

Speaker 18 4:24

yeah.

Speaker 19 4:24

So for me, it was kinda easy. Um, she built it into her own routine, and, um, pretty soon I was like, "What module are you on?" And she's like, "Oh, I'm already on, part four." I'm like, "Oh, okay." once she did the first couple, she really was like, "Okay, this is helping me." Mm-hmm. And then she was like, "I'm in. I wanna continue to do this." So I didn't have to push her.

Speaker 18 4:44

Okay. And then how about from a parent side? Like, how did you, engage with the program as a parent?

Speaker 19 4:49

I liked the modules. And I tried to stay along with her. Oh, okay. So when she was going through them, so that's why I said, "Oh, you're on part four?" So it made me go, "I gotta get on part four," you know? Yeah. Um, a- and stay up. So they kind of align with each other, which I also like that they ki- they linked together, um, so that we could support them and the questions that would come at that same time.

Speaker 18 5:09

okay. Um, Ella, how did this look like in your life? I mean, the swim schedule is nuts, so how did you do this?

Speaker 21 5:16

Um, as I did start it in the middle of my swim season, it was, at first it was really hard, 'cause some days I'll have 12 hour, like I'll be at school for 12 hours and then two hours of homework. It's like, it's really hard sometimes to fit that in. I just felt like I just started doing it whenever I kind of found like 15 to 30 minutes to myself.

Speaker 18 5:33

Yeah.

Speaker 21 5:34

Or like a study hall or while I'm waiting for swim to start or maybe in the car ride home. Like, those are just kind of times where I would do it.

Speaker 18 5:41

Yeah. You find it, like the pockets, the pockets of life that you're like, "Okay. All right, here we go. Instead of scrolling, I can do..." Yeah. Um, yeah, Danielle, how did it, how did it look in your family?

Speaker 22 5:50

Yeah, so no, I did similar where I would check in with where she was in the program, and if I was like, you know, ahead of her, then I might go back and relook at which section she was on so I had a better idea. Or, a couple times when she was ahead of me, then I was like, "Oh, I gotta get going on this," to... So I did something similar, because they do parallel each other.

Speaker 18 6:07

Yeah.

Speaker 22 6:08

Um, so that worked out really well. I, we listened to them in the car a lot. Mm-hmm. You know, so we would listen to her modules in the car, um, like a podcast. Mm-hmm. And then when I was in the car, uh, my husband and I were in the car, then we would listen to the, the parent one. So it w- you know, that was so helpful to have that audio. And I did do, use the workbook. The workbook was helpful. Mm-hmm. Um, so then I could go back and do the workbook when we weren't in the car. Um, so I appreciated having that, having that tangible piece too, not just what we heard

Speaker 18 6:37

Elle, as a swimmer, can you speak to any shifts in how you apply the program as an individual athlete versus team athlete?

Speaker 21 6:43

As an individual athlete, like, it becomes more about focusing on yourself really, and being able to see, "Well, I'm having this issue. Is there a way I can resolve this with myself?" Which is really similar to the team aspect of it when you're saying, "They're having this issue. How can I help them?" It's more of, "I'm having this issue. How can I help myself or have others help me?" Yeah. Especially, like, friends, like, outside personas, like, other people who you know could be of support.

Speaker 18 7:06

Yeah. And, I mean, you hit on it saying, like, uh, you really do focus on yourself. The thing about individual sports, and it's interesting, if I were to poll, like, everybody and say, like, "What's harder? An individual sport or a team sport?" It would be 50/50. But there are times, it ju- it just, it depends on your personality, but in an individual sport, like, you are the only one. The pressure is on. Elise, you have a whole field of teammates that you can, rely on, and if you're having a tough time, you're like, "Hey, I got my teammates. My teammates got my back." there's, there's that support. With an individual sport, it's you. And you don't have a coach out there with you. Same with swimming, same with tennis athletes. you are literally your own coach. And I will say with team sport athletes, you are as well, because you're out there on the field and, your parent can't be in your head. Your coach isn't in your, hopefully your coach isn't in your head in a bad way. But, you're on your own. And so that's why it's so important that you have these skills, because you don't have a coach telling you anything. You don't have a teammate helping you out. you gotta have these skills. You either have them or you don't. So I would say an individual sport like this is really important for you. And then the other camp would be, well, team sports are more pressure because I'm letting a whole team down if I mess up. If I mess up by myself, I'm just letting myself down. And so it just kinda depends on your personality. But that's why the skills apply to both team and individual sports. And we have, performance arts in the, in, the academy as well. We have athletes who are in theater, you know, because it's all about your performance and your thoughts. Yeah.

Speaker 22 8:30

I've watched Elle use the breathing exercises and do a lot of those pieces. especially when she does her longer races, she'll talk about, she'll have a song going in her head or- Mm-hmm some of these different pieces that- You know, I, I, I don't know when that came in, but I know those were things that were talked about in various parts of the programs, having playlists and having these things going on.

Speaker 18 8:50

Yeah.

Speaker 22 8:50

So I think there's some of those pieces for the individual to really, get you, get yourself in a, a great place for keeping yourself in a great place. I know that she does various things for that.

Speaker 18 9:00

Yeah. Yeah, we do talk about that, and it's huge. your brain is so powerful that it'll be like, "Nah, okay, that's good enough." It just, everything feels harder. And so having that good, self-talk and having those skills, I mean, that's key.

Speaker 19 9:12

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

Speaker 18 9:19

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.