Behind The Scenes of The Elite Mental Game & How It's Changing The Game for Athletes (and Parents!)

Welcome back to the racing. Elite competitors podcast. I'm coach brief I mental performance coach for girl athletes. And I am so thrilled that you are here, whether you are. Just getting going on your whole sports journey with your athlete daughter, or maybe you have a lot of seasons under your belt. This podcast is for you. It is your go-to source to help you know, how to raise a confident, mentally strong athlete. Now, today I am taking you behind the scenes of our signature mental training program called the elite mental game. Now EMG as. What we call it for short is always open for enrollment. But if you're listening to this at the time of recording, so anywhere like late January we are running a winter enrollment special on the programs when you joined before February 2nd. You get a lot of fun things included in your enrollment package. So I've been getting a lot of questions about the program, and honestly, I just want him to take you behind the scenes of. Why we created it in the first place, just kind of some insight to their, what makes it so different? Than anything else that you will see. And then I just want to break things down for you. Like on the athlete side of the program, kind of the behind the scenes of what you'll find there. On the parent's side of the program, because there are two parts to the elite mental game. So let's get into this now, before we do, I do want to give you a little insight to something that one of our moms in our community said recently, that I thought was pretty awesome. Now, this is a mom who is going through the elite mental game with her daughter. Her name is Shelley, and she posted this inside our private group that we have for the moms of athletes. Going through the program. She said that I was so proud of my daughter last week. There's a girl on her team who wasn't allowing her to switch in for drills. My daughter, please go Lee and defense, but often gets pigeonholed. Into the Galway position. We talked about what she can control. She stood up for herself when the teammate tried to tell her she should be in the drill and not my daughter, my daughter didn't back down, stayed in and told the girl to wait her turn. I know this was very hard for her and I can completely relate, but hopefully she'll gain this skill at 12, instead of in her forties, like me. So pat, this is what we talk about when we consider the long-term impacts of athletes using their voice being confident in their capabilities of standing up for themselves of actually stepping out of their comfort zone to do this at this young age. And it's pretty cool to watch this play out. And I can only imagine as a mom watching my own daughter do this, it was something that I personally have struggled with too. In the past of standing up for myself, using my voice. Saying what needs to be said to watch your daughter do this and watch this play out. I mean, I can just imagine. How proud you are Shelly. So I'm super proud of you for, giving her the opportunity to develop this skill and also for your daughter for actually implementing so great. Keep going. All right. Let's talk about the elite mental games, speaking of which, and we're going to take you behind the curtain a little bit of why do athletes and moms get the results that they do inside our program? So when we say the results, you heard it from this mom who just dropped a little comment inside our group, but we hear every day of athletes reporting back to us that they're feeling more confident. They're the happiest that they've been in a long time. Their coaches are noticing that they're more confident, more happy. They're having routines to come back from mistakes. They're not getting stuck in like negative thought patterns. And then we also hear from the moms. So we hear things like they're enjoying the sports journey more. It's not as stressful. They're relieved knowing they know exactly what to say and do to support their daughters, especially in tough moments or after, you know, a loss or a bad game. And here is the crux of why the elite mental game works. E M G is the only girl athlete mental coaching program that works with both the athlete and their mom or parent. To increase game day and everyday confidence and peak performance. So the reason why EMG works is that not only do we have science backed, proven mental training skills for your daughter to develop her part of the game. We also give you research-based strategies for you, her mom, or her parent, to know how to support your athlete. There's two parts to this equation. And one of the reasons why EMG works so well is because it is both for you and for your daughter. And it's not just, here's the trading for your daughter. And we're just going to do a few you know, support groups for you and get you inside the community and just have you guys to talk amongst yourselves. No, we have. A step-by-step proven process for you to go through. And this really makes all the difference in the results that your athlete gets. And number one, the number one reason why is that our kids are heavily influenced by their environment. When we say their environment, we mean what you're creating for their environment. The words you say they're extremely impactful. We just got off of. A four day challenge with moms talking all about what to say. To their daughters and how, what they say influences the environment that their daughter shows up in every single day. So it's really essential that, you know what you're saying, you know why you're saying it, you know, when you're saying it in order to develop confidence in your athlete before, during and after she plays. Number two, there is a lot of power. And your daughter seeing you do the work. It's no longer just her responsibility to work on our mental game. Right? You are in the trenches. With her, you are doing your work. And that's one way that moms actually introduced the programs to their daughters is that they talk about how this is a program for them too, that they're working on being the best mom for them, that they're working on how to best support them before, during and after games and that they have their own work to do. And when daughters see that they see their moms engaging, they see their moms actually changing the way. That they are talking to them post game, you know, they're not like berating them with questions anymore. They're asking. Really curious questions that are actually helping their athlete instead of just kind of jumping in and pointing out what they did wrong. Just as an example. Their daughters are a lot more receptive to their moms and daughters are also getting better results in the program themselves. So I'm going to give you a look into what we teach inside the program so that you get an idea of strategies that we teach in EMG. Again, these are all rooted in sports psychology and brain research, and then paired with my background as an educator. To deliver it in a format, but it's engaging and simple for athletes to access. So very simple, very easy to get quick wins. Everything is very easily consumable. Like I said, I was a teacher for 10 years. I'm a mental performance coach now, but all of those teaching strategies that I use. For so many years I bring into this program. So. Here we go. We're going to talk about what we do in the program. So first off. When you enroll inside the elite mental game, you also enroll your athlete. Now, if your athlete has her own email, great, we set her up with her own login and so that she can access the program on her own. Now if you have multiple athletes, good news, the license is good for your entire household. You actually will come to an enrollment page at the after checkout. And you just enroll all of the athletes that you have in your household, as well as your partner. Now, although we say that this is a mom daughter mental training program. These skills are applicable to all athletes. So if you have male athletes in your household, sign them up, get them enrolled. Into the program, we actually do have boy athletes coming through. We use female athlete imagery throughout the program, but the pronouns that we use are gender neutral for the most part. And we also highly, highly, highly suggest that your spouse or your partner is going through the program as well. So, although we say, you know, the mom's side of the program, we actually went to you're in a program it's called the parents ag. And it's really important that you are on the same page with your partner, although you might not be like totally seeing eye to eye, but it's not all your responsibility mom. Right? You also have a partner in this sometimes. And if that partner is saying something totally different than what you're saying, and you know, just, you. We too are not on the same page, then it makes it a little bit difficult and spends their circumstances out of your control. That result in your partner saying different things than you. And we do the best we can, but if you have the opportunity to have your partner also go through the same training that you are, that is actually gonna help your athlete a lot. So everyone gets a login. You all enroll all your kids, you, your partner. If you have one, you're all set up. Okay. And then you immediately get access to the online content to start right away. So you log into your personalized portal. When you get in as the parent, you actually get your parents' side of the program and then you see the athlete side as well. So you can poke around in there and see what your athlete is learning. But you get your side, you also get a playbook so that you know exactly how to navigate the program. You get a guide to help know what your daughter is learning without having to like hover over her, or like ask her every day. What are you learning in EMG? We give you prompts so that every. Single training that your athlete goes through. You can check in with her based on the prompts that you have, and she also has some prompts to check in with you. So it's a really cool way to actually open up Facilitates conversation between the two of you. Okay. So I'm going to take you training by training inside both the athlete and the mom's side. So on the athlete side of the program, they log in and they just get going right away. These trainings are five to 10 minutes. Sometimes even less. Some of them are like 60 seconds. We know athletes attention span is very fast. And so we keep that in mind. When we were designing this program, we also have this program a hundred percent gamified. What that means is that every single training that your athlete completes, earns them a point. We all know how good it feels to win and to earn points. And that's why the elite mental game is literally a game for your athlete to play. As she goes through, she's earning as many points as she can. And then when she earns a certain amount of points, she actually unlocks praises. So within the first week that she enters into the program, she goes through phase one, which is called our bounce back in a snap challenge. And this challenge she can go through and as little as a couple of hours, if she wants to get through it and actually use this. The skills and strategies. Her practice or her game that night, or she can spread it out over a week. The trainings are very short, but this is where she learns her snapback routine. This is actually. One of the most beneficial skills that athletes learn in the program. According to them. You know, we know it's also super important to you. That's why you put it at the front of the program. But one of the things, one of the big takeaways that we hear over and over from athletes when they ask what they like most about EMG, is that they say. The snapback routine. I use my sound back routine every single day. And this is your athletes way to get over mistakes fast to bounce back quickly. Anytime she makes a mistake, she gets kind of thrown out of the zone. Anytime she's in a funk, she uses her snapback routine. So this is where she learns how to develop that. And this is actually a personalized routine that your athlete comes up with. In order to help her bounce back quickly from mistakes in seconds. And that is a guarantee that we have. We guarantee that within seven days your athlete will have a snapback routine. That she can use. And if she doesn't. You get your money back. And so we can guarantee your athlete will be able to come back from mistakes in seconds. Within that first seven days. Now, once she gets through those for seven days, that's phase, phase one, she goes into phase two. Now she goes faster than seven days to get through phase one. Great. She gets to go to phase two and phase two is all about her elite mental game foundations. This is where we really build the foundation of her mental game. So we talk about goal setting in a really different way than you might imagine. Right. We create a vision of the athlete she wants to become. We talk all about visualization and teach her how to visualize this is an essential skill that most athletes don't know how to do. She also creates her daily mindset routine called R three. T one brave. So this is something that will be an anchor for her throughout her whole playing career. And then we talk about the keys to competence, a lot of athletes, although they wouldn't admit it. Sometimes. They often say, you know, athlete after athlete, these intake forms that we get from athletes as they come to the program. And then the athletes that I work with over and over, they say, I lack confidence in myself. I don't believe in myself all the time. And so we talk specifically about keys to confidence. We talk about limiting beliefs. They go through training on self-talk. We do a really fun vision board. Workshop as well inside that phase two. So when she gets through phase two, she moves on to phase three and that is her high-performance game plan. So this is where she learns how to create a pre-performance game plan so that she can come in clutch. And she has something that is a routine for her too. Just really anchor to before games. She also learns how to perform under pressure during a competition. And then she learns a process to improve post games. So she's not beating herself up and spiraling after mistakes and being super negative. This is where she will also learn breathwork technique techniques. And then this is also a really cool phase because. She learns what. Well more than learn. She, she gets to tell you what she needs in terms of support before and after her game. So this is a really cool lesson. Opportunity for her to reach out to you. And we set it up in a way where, like we tell athletes, Hey, this is where you're going to reach out to your mom or dad, and you're going to tell them. And then you also are alerted on your side of the program. Hey, your daughter might be reaching out to you. And this is where she can tell you, Hey mom, you know, before a game. I would really like this or after a game, I just need five minutes of space where after a game, I just, you know, we can talk about anything, but this, and this is a really cool, impactful part of the program that alum, a lot of moms and athletes say they really love because it has opened up conversations that they have never had before. Okay. As soon as she goes through phase three, she goes on a phase four. This is her mental edge toolkit. This is where she learns things like letting go of perfectionism, getting out of this comparison trap of who she's comparing yourself to, how she manages stress and response to setbacks and injury. How to be a leader that her team looks to. These are all these like little, not little, but you know, honestly big things that can just cause issues for athletes. If they're comparing themselves as they're, if they're focused on being perfect. And in this phase, This is where they learn tools, how to navigate that, manage that, get through it. And phase five, she learns exactly how to make all of these skills stick. So the program really is four key phases. And then this fifth phase is how she makes sure she keeps these skills top of mind. And what we recommend for athletes is, you know, carve out one day a week, where you are working on your mental game and you don't need to spend longer than about 30 minutes. 30 minutes would be like, that'd be a lot of time to dedicate. And if you just spend 30 minutes getting, as far as you can through the program, you would get through those four phases. And about two months and athletes. Athletes can go faster than that. If they want, if they want to really bust it out or they want to do two 30 minute sessions a week. Or we know how busy seasons can get. And so athletes can also, you know, go through this at a slower pace. If they're doing 10 minutes a week and it'll take them a little bit longer, but they're still going to. You know, really be able to improve their mental game. And so we tell athletes a little bit is better than nothing. And you know, we say, what you get out is what you put in, but actually that's not true. We actually say to athletes like, you're going to get out more than you put it. And that's how mental training works. You put in 10 minutes and it's going to impact your play. When you're at that two hour practice, you actually don't need to put in two hours of mental training to get a two hour good practice out on the other end. You put in 10 minutes, you can get two hours of great practice. And so even just a little bit as she goes through, Also included in the program. We have all guided visualizations that she can access those on the go. Breathwork techniques, especially if she's feeling nervous for a game. And then we have bonuses. So right now inside the elite mental game, we have the bonuses how to thrive under challenging coaches and how to rise above teammate drama, which is just a really common thing that all athletes face, but don't know how to navigate. In that thrive hundred challenging coaches, we have a framework on how to talk to your coach. So a lot of athletes are like, I do want to talk to my coach, but I have no idea how so we give them a five-step framework in there. And then we also have really some really cool bonuses for athletes. One from our sports nurse neuroscientists. Her name is Julia heir. She did a workshop for us all around. Pre-performance routines for anxious and self-critical athletes. So I know athletes that really struggle with those like pregame nerves to the point where it kind of developed taste them. Julia talks about really great routines for those type of. Athletes. We also have a bonus workshop in there from Kim hill. She is a two time. Olympic medalist volleyball player. And she talks all about authenticity in sport and how to connect with why you play your sport. This is a great one for athletes who are feeling a little burned out. Who are just kind of getting distracted, not really having a lot of motivation. This is a great one to kind of get back to like why they play their sport. So we've got some really great bonuses inside the program as well, that just kind of enhance the athlete experience and hit on all of those major things. Athletes deal with the pressure, the nerves, the comparison, the loaded motivation or burnout, like we just hit all of them. So the athletes are really supported and that is the content of what athletes experience, but it's not all that they get in their experience in cyber elite, mental game. We also have bonus 12 weeks of live supports that athletes get to participate in our live support package for their first 12 weeks inside the program. So they get coached on call texting with me and with our other coaches. So they have a phone. We check in with them weekly to see how things are going and they can text back with any questions they have. We'd love to hear their wins, any big games that are coming up, anything like that. And athletes love this because they can just shoot us a quick text and ask for like, Hey, I'm feeling. Feeling like I'm doubting myself a little bit about this game, any tips, you know, and we're right on the other side of that. Athlete's all to also get to join our two times a month level up calls. So they join other athletes who are going through the program, and those are split by age so they can ask their questions. They get a little also like, you know, mental training tip from me or one of our other coaches. And they also have a training portal that they are constantly commenting in and then we're commenting back with them as well. So they get a lot of hands on support as they are going through, especially those first 12 weeks of the program. But athletes have lifetime access to all of this content. They can continue to go through and that you know, this is really growing with them. So that is the behind the scenes of what the athlete experience looks like. The parent side of the program is very similar. So you get your own login. You go through your own training, you earn points, you unlock prizes as well. So we don't leave you out of this whole game situation. But obviously your content is a little bit different. It is not necessarily developing your mental care, but it's how to support your athlete through the common things that she's going to be experiencing. So your phase one is while your athletes learning her snapback routine, you are learning how to support your athlete through mistakes. So you learn what words to say. You learn how to make sure you're responding in a really positive way. Productive way I should say. To your athlete's mistakes and you also will, you know, work with your athlete a little bit, depending on the age of your athlete. On what her snapback routine should be. Your phase two is the Olympic elite mental game foundations. So we, this is where we really talk about our philosophy. When it comes to sports parenting, we talk about best practices. We lean on a lot of the work from Dr. Becky Kennedy and Dr. Bernay brown inside this section of the program to really bring you best practices. For not just parenting, but you know, as it applies to the athletic context, And what this means. So basically knowing what your role is, how to develop confidence in your athlete being really intentional with your praise strategy, to handle the emotions of athletics making sure that you are being and showing up as the sports parent that you want to be because. You know, you don't have a lot of years as a sports parent. And most of us have our kids in sports because we want them to learn life lessons. We want them to develop into really good humans. And so this training and this part of the training. We'll help you enter that. You're doing that. We also have a whole section on here on how to build a model, your own confidence. And this is because we truly believe that you investing in your personal growth and development impacts your daughter. And so there's a whole section in here all about, you know, what mom is confident athletes do differently and how to ensure that you are talking to yourself and talking out loud about yourself in a way that is actually supporting your athlete, because that impacts how she shows. So that's a really powerful section of the training. Now in phase three. So that's phase two. Phase three goes through your powerful pep talks game plan. So this is where you learn how to develop your pre and post competition routine with your athlete. This is also great because if you're like me, you get just as nervous as your athlete when she goes out there and play. So we learn strategies on how to manage that and how to really be the best support during these really fragile times for your athlete. Specifically before competition during competition. And then in that car ride home post-competition this is where we also have scripts that you can rely on. So that you're nearly never left. Wondering, like, what do I say to my athlete? Phase four is your elite sports parent toolkit. So just like your athlete, these are just. Situations that you're going to come across as a parent. And sometimes it's like, what do we do here? Okay. And so things like when your athlete's hard on herself, Strategies to support your athlete. Who's a perfectionist navigating comparison and jealousy with your athlete. Increasing motivation, preventing burnout, giving feedback or not. How to be an effective coach and parents who, if you are also the coach of your daughter's team you know, how do you play both roles? How do you navigate playing time issues, disappointments injury, how to help your athlete, crush, tryouts. These are all just really great. Trainings on how to navigate those, you know, very common situations as sports mom. So that is an overview. One thing I forgot to mention. So you also, as a mom have live support for the first 12 weeks of the program. So you get coach on call texting from me and our parent coaches. You get to be in a community with the other sports moms who just get it, who are super awesome. You get to hop on live calls with me every single month, you get live trainings two times a month inside our community. So you are well supported as you are going through the program. And of course, just like your athlete, you have lifetime access to the content. And that live support package is there for you for the first 12 weeks. And we have options for athletes and moms to extend life support. If they would like. Okay. So before I wrap this up, I do want to first address some common questions. So a question I get a lot is what's the best age to do this? Like, this sounds great. I want my daughter to do this. I want, I want to do this, but I want to make sure she's like engaged and it makes sense for her. So we find 11 to 13 is the sweet spot for starting this type of work and athletes all the way through college. Our inside the elite mental game. So a little bit younger on like the, you know, nine, 10, if your athlete is competing at a high level and you see that she's experiencing some of these, like. Things around pressure comparison. You know, some athletes that are competing at a high level at a younger I might need this a little bit sooner, but typically we find 11 to 13 is the sweet spot for starting. And then obviously if she's in upper high school, And it has goals to play in college. Definitely should be providing your athlete with support on the mental side of her game. I also get asked, you know, in season, out of season. You know, what's the best, honestly, you cannot go wrong with when you introduced mentor training to your athlete. So in season is great because she can apply these skills right away. Right. She gets to, she learns a skill. She's got practice that evening. Boom it's right there. Out of season is great because she has a little bit more time and maybe she's implementing implementing skills in lower stakes environments. And then she can kind of build that foundation. And then when her season starts. She can go back through like phase, phase two. Which is like kind of creating her vision, her goals for that season. So either way really is great. You can not go wrong. Some parents also like to jump into the program just to have the content for themselves. Like they want to know how to best support their athlete, knowing that you have lifetime access to the program. So, and so does your daughter, so she can actually, you can just add her end whenever she's ready. We also have options to delay live support. So if you're like, I want to jump in now because I've got a, you know, it's a really good deal right now to jump in. You can also just shoot our team an email and say, Hey. I would like to delete my life, my 12 weeks of live support to X date. And we can totally set that up for you. So just some things to consider no wrong time in season or out of season 11 to 13 is kind of that best age to get going. If you're looking for ways to help your daughter buy into this or introduce it to her in a way that will help her see the benefit we have some. Some resources for you. We have a conversation guide where you have some tips on how to start that conversation. We have some podcasts episodes specifically created for her to listen to. So it's not you saying it it's me saying it. We have a webpage just for your daughter as well, so that she can look at it. One tip on this though. Do not go to your athlete and say, Hey, you need to work on your confidence. I have a program that you're going to take. That will turn her off immediately. And while you don't need her a hundred percent buy in to start this program, because you have your side as well approaching it from this standpoint of. I know you have goals that you want to achieve, and I want to support you in getting there and working on the mental side of the game is one of those keys to doing it right? Showing her examples of other athletes who are competing at a high level, who are working on their mental game. Like. A quick YouTube search of her favorite athlete. We'll probably pull up something where that athlete is talking about doing pressure nerves. Like it's super, super common and the best athletes have some sort of sports psychologist, some sort of mental trainer who they're working with. And so definitely approach it from this. Like, Hey, I want you to be the best I want not, maybe I don't want you to be the best, but I know you want to be the best you can be, and this is a resource to help you get there. So we have all those ideas inside that conversation guide so that you can you know, presented to her in a way that's actually gonna make her want to do it. Yeah. So I hope that this was helpful to give you a behind the scenes we have had. Over 3000 families inside the elite mental game to date. And so we are so thankful for the families that are in our community. And if you are on the fence or looking for. You know, a way to strengthen your athlete R's mental game while also learning how to support her. I can't think of a better program than this. If you do have questions for me or for our team, just shoot us an email@helloatelitecompetitor.com. And as I said, right now, if you're listening at the time of recording the elite mental game is always open, but we are running a winter enrollment special until February 2nd. So let's check that out. Go to. Elite competitor.com four slash E M G. And you can check out all the details of that enrollment special. All right, moms. I am coach Bree, a mental performance coach for girl athletes. And I will see you in the next episode of the raising elite competitors podcast.