Mental Training Lab

For today’s show I want to take a trip way upstream and look at a couple of high level, universal states of being. Each of us is either in a state of doing or a state of being, all day, every day. In this episode, I explain what each state looks like, the implications of getting stuck in a state of doing, and of course, I’ll close with some recommendations for how we can navigate these states to improve both well-being AND performance!

As always, I'm looking to offer value and quality with these solocasts. If there's a topic or skill you want to see covered, head over to @alldaydr.k on Instagram and let me know!

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

Today’s episode with Dr. Raymond Prior (@bts_mindset on Twitter) was so packed that I needed to split it into multiple episodes. Here goes round 1! Raymond has a PhD in Sport and Exercise Psychology and as a performance consultant has worked with a wild range of performers, including pro, college, and olympic athletes, pop stars, actors, and high performers in the financial space. 

In this first edition, Raymond illuminates why thinking our way out of unpleasant experiences works against our biology and evolution. We also take a look at why getting your psychology in order, investing in mental training, is your highest point of leverage as a performer. What’s going to become really clear as you listen is Raymond’s commitment to being up to date and deeply knowledgeable about the research and is passionate about helping clients get beneath the surface instead of stuck with traditional pop-psych techniques. 

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

Today's episode is another solocast - although a little shorter than previous editions. I wanted to explore what happens when an athlete falls under the spell of doing too much. First we’ll look at some examples of when athletes get hijacked by the urge, then we’ll spend some time looking at why it happens. And of course, we’ll wrap up with a few skills you can be working on to help you fight the urge and Do Less.

For more mental training goodness, find me on IG @alldaydr.k or at mtl.academy! 

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

Today’s episode is with Kirsten Cooper! Who is Kirsten? Well, she’s a badass, and let me tell you why. She’s dedicated a large part of her career to supporting athletes as they transition out of sport. Kirsten was a professional alpine ski racer, competing for the United States Ski Team, and won a national championship with the University of Colorado. As you’ll hear, her experience leaving the sport of skiing really informs the work she’s doing now with athletes. 

Kirsten is a clinical and performance psychologist, earning her MA in Sport and Performance Psychology and her doctorate in Clinical psychology, both from the University of Denver. She is currently working as a performance psychology Fellow with  Howard Head Sports Medicine in Vail, CO. 

In this episode Kirsten and I spend a lot of time unpacking the challenges and opportunities of retiring from athletics, she shares her own story of transitioning out of elite sport, and she lays out three keys to making a successful move into post-athletic life. Enjoy!

For show notes, transcripts, and to sign up for the MTL newsletter, visit mtl.academy.

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

For today’s episode I got to sit down with Dr. Nicole Gabana (@DrNicoleGabana ). Nicole is a licensed psychologist and certified mental performance consultant who specializes in helping athletes and individuals maximize their mental game in performance and life.  

She currently works in private practice, specializing in a holistic approach to performance, with an emphasis on seeing athletes as whole people. Prior to that, Nicole was the Director of Sport Psychology for UMass Athletics and she’s also served as an assistant professor at Florida State. While there, she dug deep, researching the impact of gratitude on athlete well-being and performance.  

As you’ll hear from today’s show, she has a passion for knocking down the barriers between the athlete and human being, and shared a ton of actionable tools with me - specifically focusing on how to build a consistent habit of gratitude in your life. This was a ton of fun to record! I hope you enjoy...

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

Today’s deep dive is going to be aimed at unpacking a phenomenon I call ‘holding your best performance hostage’. The idea was touched on briefly in my interview with Dr. Ashwin Patel, and is worth exploring with a bit more time and space. 

We’ll start with what I mean by ‘holding your best performance hostage’, then we’ll talk about why it is our brains and our minds go to this place and build these unproductive habits, and then we’ll close with what to do when noticing that this is happening in real time AND what you can be doing instead. How to unwind these habits and give yourself the opportunity to be your best when it matters most. 

I want to hear from y'all. If you have questions about this episode, or have thoughts on which skills or concepts you want to deep dive on next, head over to @alldaydr.k and drop a comment in the post for this week's episode.

For other episodes of the pod and more mental training goodies, head over to mtl.academy!

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

Today’s episode is with Kirsten Cooper (@westriveunited). Who is Kirsten? Well, she’s a badass, and let me tell you why. She’s the co-founder of Strive United (www.westriveunited.com) , a company dedicated to supporting athletes as they transition out of sport. Kirsten was a professional alpine ski racer, competing for the United States Ski Team, and won a national championship with the University of Colorado. As you’ll hear, her experience leaving the sport of skiing really informs the work she’s doing now with athletes. 

Kirsten is currently a doctoral student in clinical psychology. She’s also earned her MA in Sport and Performance Psychology from the University of Denver, and she earned a BA and MA in integrative Physiology. 

In this episode Kirsten and I spend a lot of time unpacking the challenges and opportunities of retiring from athletics, she shares her own story of transitioning out of elite sport, and she lays out three keys to making a successful move into post-athletic life. Enjoy!

For show notes, transcripts, and to sign up for the weekly MTL newsletter, visit mtl.academy

This episode is part 2 of a reverse interview with episode 10's Jean Laurenz (@jeanlaurenz on IG).

We close out the conversation by unpacking the value of redefining success in terms that you can control, we deep dive into the power of breathing as it relates to practice and performance, and we close with a few miscellaneous questions, including how booze helps and hurts performance!

For more flavor, including show notes and other mental training goodies, stop by mtl.academy, and visit my IG page @alldaydr.k

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

Today, episode 10's Jean Laurenz (@jeanlaurenz on IG) interviews ME, on a wide array of topics. After having her on the show, we realized there was still a ton of ground to cover, particularly as mental training relates to musicianship. Jean takes the reins and fires away on questions regarding:
- What Triggers Flow
- The Why and How of Balancing Challenge and Skill
- Practical Embodiment

For more flavor from this episode, including show notes, drop by mtl.academy, and drop by my IG account @alldaydr.k

Note: This episode was so robust, we had to break it into two parts. Part Deux on it's way...

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.  

Today’s guest is Ashwin Patel. Ashwin is a Professor and Program Coordinator for the Sport Management and Recreation and Leisure Services programs at Humber College. He is also the co-founder of Sport and Wellness Consulting with Dr. Noah Gentner. Ashwin received his Ph.D. in Sport and Exercise Psychology from the University of Tennessee and upon graduating, Ashwin spent seven and a half years as an Associate Professor at Western Colorado University.

Since 2003, Ashwin has provided Mental Performance Consulting - both in corporate and sport settings. His primary passion is working with hockey players. In this capacity, he’s worked with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League, the student-athletes at Victus Academy – a private hockey school in Kitchener. And with the Vancouver Canucks – focusing on the AHL team in Utica, NY. In 2020 he was a mental performance consultant with Hockey Canada's U17 team and in April 2021 worked as the mental performance consultant for Hockey Canada’s Gold Medal winning U18 team at the IIHF World Championships.

We cover so much ground in this episode that I needed to split it into two parts! In this second part, Ashwin and I look at why athletes want to have better "crappy days" and how to think about fit between mental performance consultants and the organizations they work for.

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Learn more about The Mental Training Lab
Connect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | Website
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify

This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.