Growing Athletes Podcast

WATCH Episode 18: Momentum- Why It Swings and How Great Teams Create It

In this episode of the Growing Athletes Podcast, Amy Suiter breaks down one of the most misunderstood parts of sport: momentum.

After working with a basketball team that repeatedly built early leads only to give up massive runs, Amy explores why momentum isn’t about luck, talent, or emotion alone. Instead, momentum is created by focus, attention, and how teams respond after both good and bad moments.

This episode helps athletes, coaches, and parents understand why momentum swings happen so quickly, how focus fuels those swings, and what great teams do differently to stay present and locked in when emotions run high.

This conversation isn’t about hype or motivation.
It’s about awareness, emotional regulation, and learning how to reset so the next play gets your best energy.

Opening
Amy shares a real-time story from working with a basketball team that repeatedly lost momentum after getting ahead. She introduces the idea that momentum isn’t magic or chance, it’s created by where attention goes next.

Why Momentum Swings
A look at how both missed shots and made shots can pull teams out of focus. Amy explains how comfort, frustration, and emotional reactions quietly shift momentum when urgency and presence fade.

What “Locked In” Really Means
Amy breaks down focus and attention in today’s game and introduces how the brain’s filtering system (RAS) influences what players notice, react to, and give energy to during competition.

Emotion vs. Reaction
Why emotions aren’t the enemy in sport, but reacting without resetting is. Amy explains why feeling emotion matters and how ignoring or suppressing it actually makes momentum swings worse.

The Momentum Reset
Practical strategies for athletes and teams to feel emotion quickly and refocus on the next play. Why resets are needed after both mistakes and success.

The Present Moment Advantage
Amy reinforces the idea that the team who stays present the longest controls momentum. Focus on the next play, not the last one, is what separates great teams.

Closing
A reminder that momentum is always being created. The question isn’t if it’s happening, but what your focus is creating next.

Website: www.amysuiter.com
Instagram: @asuiter25
Facebook: Amy Suiter
YouTube: @amysuitercoaching

If this episode gave you language for something you’ve felt in games, practices, or on the sidelines, please share it with a coach, athlete, or parent who needs it. Momentum changes when awareness does.

In this episode of the Growing Athletes Podcast, Amy Suiter tackles one of the most common and painful dynamics in youth sports, schools, and friendships: mean girl behavior, comparison, and insecurity.

Instead of labeling or shaming, Amy offers a powerful reframe that helps athletes, parents, and coaches understand what’s really happening beneath the surface.

What if “mean girls” aren’t mean at all, but hurt girls responding to insecurity in different ways?

Some act out.
Some pull away.
Both are searching for safety, belonging, and confidence.

This episode blends real-life stories, mindset coaching, and practical guidance to help listeners build true self-confidence, improve team chemistry, and create healthier relationships, on and off the field.

Opening: Mean Girls and Hurt Girls
Amy reframes the “mean girl” label and invites listeners to see insecurity with compassion, understanding, and honesty. This opening sets the tone for growth without judgment.

Why Insecurity Shows Up in Teams and Friendships
A relatable exploration of how insecurity fuels comparison, gossip, exclusion, anxiety, and disconnection—especially in sports and school environments.

Two Common Responses to Insecurity

How to Build Real Confidence and Security
Practical mindset coaching for:

Creating Healthy Team Culture
How adults can model confidence, accountability, and belonging without labels, favoritism, or fear-based leadership.

Closing: Remembering Who You Already Are
Amy closes with a reminder that true confidence isn’t earned through popularity or performance…it’s remembered. A call to live and lead from identity, values, and inner security.

Website: www.amysuiter.com
Instagram: @asuiter25
Facebook: Amy Suiter
YouTube: @amysuitercoaching

If this episode helped you better understand mean girl behavior, comparison, insecurity, or confidence in athletes, please share it with a parent, coach, or athlete who needs it.

These conversations change cultures.

In this episode, Amy Suiter dives into a real-life parenting moment that turned into one of the most important lessons sports can teach, the value of effort and hard work.

Through an honest story from a Sunday morning game, Amy unpacks why effort matters more than scores or stats, how today’s youth sports culture has unintentionally diluted urgency, and why resistance often shows up right before real growth happens.

This episode is for athletes, parents, and coaches who want sports to be more than just games, who want them to be a training ground for life.

Sports are a privilege and one of the best places to learn effort, discipline, and work ethic.

Effort is always a choice, even when confidence, motivation, or emotions are low.

Today’s culture of endless games can unintentionally teach kids to go through the motions instead of fully engaging.

Resistance, anger, and defensiveness are often signs that a lesson is landing, not that it failed.

Holding a standard for effort isn’t harsh, it’s loving and prepares kids for real life.

Opening
Amy shares a personal story from a Sunday morning game that sparked a hard but meaningful conversation about effort, responsibility, and what sports are truly meant to teach.

Sports Are a Privilege
A reminder many kids don’t love hearing, sports are not a given. They are one of the most meaningful places to learn hard work, and life will teach this lesson one way or another.

The Culture of Endless Games
Amy explores how today’s packed schedules and constant competition have changed how games feel, and how effort quietly fades when moments stop feeling urgent or earned.

When Resistance Shows Up
Why anger and defensiveness are natural nervous system responses to hard truth, and why growth often happens in the quiet, uncomfortable space after the conversation.

When the Lesson Lands
The moment everything shifted, not because of fear or punishment, but because of reflection, choice, and ownership. Effort returned, and with it, pride and growth.

The Bigger Lesson
Why effort matters more than wins, stats, or scholarships, and how sports teach life skills like emotional regulation, responding to feedback, and showing up when it’s hard.

Closing
Amy reflects on why the uncomfortable moments matter most and invites listeners to share this episode with someone who needs the reminder that effort always matters.

Website: www.amysuiter.com 
Instagram: @asuiter25
Facebook: Amy Suiter
YouTube: @amysuitercoaching

If this episode felt familiar or hit close to home, please share it with a parent, coach, or athlete who could use this reminder. These conversations are how growth spreads.

In this episode, Amy Suiter breaks down gratitude in a way most people have never heard before. Not as a holiday moment or a “say three things you’re thankful for” activity… but as a biological tool with the power to calm pressure, quiet fear, and bring your thinking brain back online.

Amy uses real-life examples from Thanksgiving week, relatable stories we all experience in family gatherings, and simple brain science to explain why gratitude works, why we forget to use it in tough moments, and how athletes, parents, and coaches can turn it into a mental reset, on the field and at home.

This episode isn’t about pretending everything is fine. It’s about learning how to flip your brain out of stress and into clarity, confidence, and calm.

Amy shares a relatable Thanksgiving story, the shift from connection and joy to stress, comparison, and irritation and explains why our brains often hijack us in moments meant for gratitude. She reframes gratitude as a privilege and a powerful performance tool available every single day.

A practical, human look at why gratitude is often the last thing we think about when we need it most. Amy explains why the brain defaults to protection mode, and how consciously choosing gratitude slows your breath, quiets your nervous system, and restores confidence and calm.

Amy breaks down the two major players in the brain:

She explains why both can’t run the show at the same time… and how gratitude flips the seesaw back toward calm, focus, and clarity.

Using an analogy of a room and a light switch, Amy explains the three emotional states:

Listeners learn what state they’re in and how to move between them.

Amy teaches a simple, doable 3-step system to use gratitude in real time, especially during pressure, conflict, mistakes, or emotional intensity.

This is the moment the “light switch” flips. With practice, this reset becomes faster and more natural.

Amy challenges listeners to use gratitude as a daily mental reset this coming week, not just during Thanksgiving, but in the moments of pressure, misunderstanding, stress, or irritation. Gratitude becomes a powerful tool for performance, relationships, mental health, and emotional resilience.

She ends with a reminder that gratitude isn’t just holiday tradition, it’s a privilege we carry with us every moment of our lives.

Website: www.amysuiter.com 

Instagram: @asuiter25
Facebook: Amy Suiter

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a coach, athlete, or parent who wants to grow from the inside out.

In this episode, Amy Suiter challenges one of the most common mindset trends we see today, the overuse of “boundaries” in everyday relationships. Not the necessary kind that keep us safe. But the kind we throw up anytime someone annoys us, misunderstands us, or triggers something in us.

Amy explores why this “boundary culture” might actually be keeping athletes, parents, and teams stuck, and how the people who frustrate us the most may be the exact ones who help us grow. This episode isn’t about removing boundaries. It’s about replacing walls with self-awareness and learning to see people as mirrors that reveal who we’re becoming.

Opening

Amy sets the stage for a raw and honest conversation about boundaries, discomfort, and why simply “cutting people out” may be keeping us stuck. A clear disclaimer differentiates this from situations of abuse or danger, today’s episode is about everyday human interactions.

The Boundary Culture

How society has turned boundaries into walls, walls into echo chambers, and echo chambers into emotional stagnation. Amy explores how this shows up in teams, families, schools, communities, and why avoiding discomfort limits growth.

The Trigger Mirror

A powerful reframe: what if the people who frustrate us the most are actually our greatest teachers? Amy unpacks how triggers expose unhealed beliefs, old stories, or insecurities and how holding up a mirror instead of putting up a wall can transform our growth.

Staying Open Without Losing Yourself

Amy explains the difference between openness and losing yourself in someone else's emotions. She teaches how to stay solid in who you are while still being curious about someone else's experience, a skill that deepens emotional intelligence, team chemistry, and leadership.

Growth Challenge for the Week

A practical set of questions and reflections to help listeners turn real-life moments of tension into personal breakthroughs.

Closing

Amy wraps with a reminder: boundaries aren’t bad, yet boundaries without self-awareness become walls. True growth comes from learning to stay grounded even when others don’t understand or agree.

Website: www.amysuiter.com
Instagram: @asuiter25
Facebook: Amy Suiter

If this episode encouraged you, challenged you, or opened up a new perspective, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a coach, athlete, or parent who’s ready to grow from the inside out.

In this special Veterans Day episode, Amy Suiter shares the story of her father, an Army Ranger during the Vietnam War, whose values of loyalty, integrity, courage, and quiet strength shaped not only his family but every life he touched.

This episode is more than a tribute. It’s a reflection on how the lessons passed down from those who serve become the foundation for how we live, coach, parent, and lead.

Through her father’s example, Amy reminds us that the most powerful leadership doesn’t always shout. Sometimes it’s the steady, consistent kind that makes others feel safe, inspired, and seen.

True strength isn’t loud. It’s steady, humble, and rooted in integrity.

Legacy isn’t about recognition; it’s about living your values so fully that others feel them.

The values our veterans live by: loyalty, courage, selflessness, and discipline are the same values that build great athletes, great teams, and great families.

We honor those we love by carrying forward the best parts of who they were.

Opening
Amy introduces her father, an Army Ranger and servant-hearted leader whose quiet presence and unwavering integrity shaped her family’s foundation.

The Man Behind the Uniform
Stories of love, loyalty, and humility, lessons learned not through speeches, but through steady example.

The Values He Carried Home
From courage under fire to doing what’s right when no one’s watching, Amy reflects on how military values shaped her father’s life and the people he led.

Strength Without Noise
Why true leadership isn’t about titles or volume. It’s about consistency, character, and showing up for your people.

Passing the Torch
How her dad’s legacy continues through the lives he touched, and how those same values can guide today’s athletes, coaches, and parents.

Closing
A heartfelt thank-you to all who have served, and an invitation to carry forward the light, loyalty, and love that define a life of honor.

Website: www.amysuiter.com
Instagram: @asuiter25
Facebook: Amy Suiter

If this episode spoke to you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a reminder of what real leadership and courage look like.

In this episode, Amy explores one of the most overlooked powers in sports and life… imagination. It’s the invisible force that shapes your confidence, your fears, and your results, whether you realize it or not.

Amy breaks down how imagination can either hold you back or move you forward, depending on who’s giving it orders, your unconscious mind (which keeps you safe and the same) or your conscious mind (which leads you toward growth and goals).

If you’ve ever caught yourself replaying mistakes, imagining failure before it happens, or feeling stuck in “what-ifs,” this episode will help you flip the script and start using your imagination as a tool for performance and confidence, not self-sabotage.

Whether you’re an athlete stepping into a big moment, a coach guiding a team through pressure, or a parent trying to help your athlete believe again, you’ll walk away with a new understanding of how to train your imagination to work for you instead of against you.

Opening
Amy introduces the “superhero” of this episode, imagination and how it can either limit or launch your performance depending on who’s in charge.

When Imagination Works for the Unconscious
How your brain’s survival system recruits imagination to keep you the same, and why resistance, doubt, and “you’re tired” thoughts are signs that your mind is just trying to protect you from change.

The Science Behind It
Amy explains why the brain reacts the same way to imagined experiences as it does to real ones and how elite athletes use visualization to make success feel familiar before it ever happens.

When Imagination Works for the Conscious Mind
What happens when you intentionally direct your imagination toward what you want instead of what you fear. Amy shares how visualization becomes a mental rehearsal that fires the same neural pathways as physical practice.

Real-Life Example
A powerful story of a volleyball athlete who learned to flip her imagination from fear to focus  and how that simple shift changed her game and her confidence.

The Challenge
Amy leaves listeners with a challenge: notice when imagination is working for the wrong boss, then take it back. You get to decide what story your mind is rehearsing, one of fear or one of faith, one of survival and one of success.

Website: www.amysuiter.com
Instagram: @asuiter25
Facebook: Amy Suiter

If this episode inspired you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a coach, athlete, or parent who’s ready to grow their mindset and use imagination as a tool for success.

Episode Summary:
In this episode, Amy dives deep into one of the most powerful truths in sports and life: you can’t outperform what you don’t believe.

If you’ve ever known you have the talent, and when it matters most, something shifts, this one’s for you.
Amy breaks down why effort alone isn’t enough, how the brain clings to familiar patterns even when they don’t serve us, and how to start rewiring belief so your results finally align with your potential.

Whether you’re an athlete who’s tired of feeling stuck, a coach trying to rebuild team confidence, or a parent watching your athlete wrestle with self-doubt, this episode will help you understand the battle beneath the scoreboard and give you the tools to change it.

Belief drives behavior... your brain’s job is not to make you happy; it’s to make you right.

When belief wavers, the instinct is to “do more,” but more effort on top of old beliefs only reinforces the same results.

Confidence grows when your thoughts, emotions, and actions align with what you want to believe, not what you fear is true.

The 5-Step Belief Rewire process helps athletes and coaches shift from trying harder to believing smarter.

Real transformation doesn’t come from becoming someone new... it comes from remembering who you already are.

(0:00–1:30) — Opening
Amy introduces the episode with a powerful reminder that belief is the foundation of performance. Hard work and talent mean nothing if your mind doesn’t believe the story you’re trying to live out.

(1:30–4:30) — The Battle Beneath the Scoreboard
Why good teams with talent and drive still fall short — and how the brain’s self-fulfilling prophecies quietly shape outcomes. Amy explores how belief systems form, how they spread through teams, and why inconsistency erodes confidence faster than failure.

(4:30–6:30) — Why “More” Doesn’t Fix It
When things go wrong, we default to “We just need more — more effort, more focus, more energy.” Amy explains why more isn’t the solution and how alignment, not addition, is what truly rewires belief.

(6:30–11:00) — How to Rewire Belief: The 5-Step Empowered Belief Process
Amy walks through her step-by-step system for creating and aligning belief with results.
1️⃣ Define the Target
2️⃣ Create Empowered Beliefs
3️⃣ Create Action Steps for Each Belief
4️⃣ Schedule Your Action Steps
5️⃣ Measure and Adjust

Download the free Empowered Belief Builder Worksheet to put these steps into action. It’s simple, printable, and perfect for athletes, parents, and coaches to use with your teams. amysuiter.com/beliefbuilder 

(11:00–13:00) — Renewing the Mind — Living From Belief
Amy ties in Romans 12:2, showing how transformation begins with renewing the mind. When thoughts, actions, and emotions align, athletes stop trying to prove who they are and start performing from who they already are.

(13:00–14:00) — Closing
Amy closes with a powerful reminder that your results will always rise or fall to the level of your belief and invites listeners to start training their belief system as intentionally as they train their bodies.

The Empowered Belief Builder Worksheet
Take the five steps from this episode and put them into action.
Map out your target, write your empowered beliefs, plan your action steps, and track your progress week by week.
👉 Download it free at amysuiter.com/beliefbuilder 

Website: www.amysuiter.com 

Instagram: @asuiter25 

Facebook: Amy Suiter 

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a coach, athlete, or parent who’s ready to grow their belief and their game.

In this episode Amy unpacks one of the biggest confidence myths in sports, the idea that confidence can just disappear.

You know those moments when an athlete looks unstoppable one day and completely disconnected the next? Amy explains what’s really happening inside the mind when confidence “vanishes,” why it’s not gone at all, and how to find it again.

Through one of her favorite analogies… The Pantry in Your Mind, Amy shows athletes, parents, and coaches how the brain stores every experience, good and bad, like jars on a shelf. The secret is learning which side you’re reaching for when the pressure is on.

This episode will help you (and your athlete) understand where confidence goes, how to access it on purpose, and what to do when self-doubt tries to take over.

Key Takeaways:

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Amy:

Don’t Forget:
If this episode helped you see confidence in a new way, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another athlete, parent, or coach who could use this reminder:

Confidence isn’t gone… it’s just waiting on the right side of your pantry.

Amy unpacks one of the hardest but most important parts of raising and coaching athletes: guiding them through failure without layering on shame. Too often, adults jump in with “shake it off” or “don’t act like that,” trying to protect confidence or team energy. But as Amy explains, those quick fixes don’t build resilience, they teach athletes to doubt or hide their emotions.

Instead, Amy shows how frustration, anger, and even sadness are not problems to erase, but signals to understand. She introduces the Animal Matrix framework for understanding how different athletes process frustration, why shame quietly sabotages confidence and leadership, and how parents and coaches can use responsibility, not shame, to help athletes reset and grow.

This episode will give you both the mindset shift and practical tools to help your athlete turn 

Key Takeaways:

Resources Mentioned:

What’s Next:
Amy will continue sharing mindset frameworks that change the way athletes, parents, and coaches approach sports, helping you see emotions not as weaknesses, but as signals for growth, connection, and resilience.

Connect with Amy:

Don’t Forget:
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another athlete, parent, or coach who wants to raise confident, resilient, and joyful young people.