The importance of mental training to your female athlete's career is undeniably important, but what if they don't see its value? How can we help female athletes see the importance of mental training?

As moms, we see what's going on with our athletes. We see her out there. We know what she might need at the moment from a different perspective. But knowing doesn't mean your daughter is on the same page as you.

Here's a question we got from one of the moms in the Elite Competitor Program.

"My daughter would benefit from mental training and increasing her confidence. How do I approach her about this in a way that will help her see the value and want to do it?"

Today, we're going to shed some light on these questions and share with you some easy tips to help your daughter see the value of mental training in her sport. 

We learn as we walk through this sports journey with our female athletes. If you notice that adding in more physical activities without having the right mental skills didn't work, then maybe it's time you introduce your daughter to mental game training. 

To seamlessly introduce mental game training you can:

• Connect the mental game's relevance to her goals. 
• Show her examples of athletes who've been doing the mental work and help her feel inspired to work on her mental game too. 
• Ask her plans to improve and suggest mental training. 
• Listen to other athletes' recommendations regarding the mental game

You don't have to 100%convince your daughter to get started with mental training. Just take the steps that you can and it's more than enough to help your female athlete gain the right mental skills to build self-confidence.

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Helpful Links:

• Visit our podcast website for more on this episode
• Join our FREE training for Sports Moms - How To Strengthen Your Athlete Daughter’s Mental Game So She Believes In Herself As Much As You Do

The BEST way to help us spread the word and get this information into the hands of millions of parents, coaches, and female athletes is by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you in advance for joining us on our mission!

"Hard is good. When you're going through the hard stuff, that's when you know you are growing." 

As adults, we have all our life experiences to understand the context of this quote, but what about our young female athletes? How do we help them handle the pressure of sports?

Today, we're joined by one of our sports moms, Ashley. Ashley is a certified soccer mom with her twin daughters both playing soccer. 

Here is Ashley's sports mom's journey and her insights into teaching her female athletes how to handle pressure and be consistently confident.

How's your and your daughters' sports journey?

My twin daughters, Ava and Addison just turned 11 years old. They will be starting sixth grade, and they both play competitive soccer on the same team. My girls started soccer when they were young, and they've been consistent with this sport ever since. 

Sports became such an important part of their lives, on and off the field. I've noticed them grow into confident young ladies through sports. And they've learned how to deal with some difficult things at a very young age. 

Why did you decide to work on their mental game?

One of the main reasons why we wanted to join ECP was to give them a solid foundation and more of the tools they might need to handle pressure. I want them to have the skills in advance and the ability to deal with it, not just in sports, but also in school and their other relationships.

As a mom of female athletes, it's a helpful thing to be more proactive and to look and notice what's going on. Are they having a difficult time handling the pressure of sports?

Just like a goalkeeper, our female athletes will go through a tremendous amount of pressure as they grow older. It's going to be hard if they have never been trained in how to handle pressure if they don't have an idea what it feels like, and are clueless about what to do in those situations. 

So, provide opportunities for them to work on their mental game. It will give them the right skills to become more self-aware and acquire a process to navigate through their way of thinking. You can start young and prepare them to face difficulties before they start to inhabit limiting beliefs. Working on their mental game will help them be more confident, thoughtful, and focused on the process rather than the outcome. 

Work with your daughter through this. It will be great if you also have the right skills to be there for them and encourage them. 

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Helpful Links:

• Visit our podcast website for more on this episode
• Join our FREE training for Sports Moms - How To Strengthen Your Athlete Daughter’s Mental Game So She Believes In Herself As Much As You Do

The BEST way to help us spread the word and get this information into the hands of millions of parents, coaches, and female athletes is by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you in advance for joining us on our mission!

Have you caught yourself using repeating strategies in an attempt to encourage your female athlete to believe in herself, only to be unsuccessful?

Today, we'll discuss "doing something new."

Stop doing the same things and expecting different outcomes, especially when it comes to our daughter's self-esteem. I'm going to share a technique with you today that will help your daughter believe in herself and recover from mistakes.

Here's an in-depth look at the system I developed after years of training female athletes.

Doing Something Different

"You're enough."
"You have the abilities."
"They chose you because you belong on this team."

Those are the things we want our daughters to remember as female athletes. We want our daughters to believe in themselves. We want them to play confidently and enjoy themselves.

These are the pleasant things we usually say when things go wrong. It might sound right, but experiencing obstacles is an important part of your daughter's athletic path. She is bound to make errors. She will feel pressure to be flawless. She is concerned about what other people are thinking. She will feel inadequate, and without the necessary mental skills to deal with these issues, your daughter might be stuck.

The majority of coaches are not taught how to teach the mental aspect of the game. As a result, we cannot rely on your daughter's coach to handle this for her.

That is why I developed a method to assist athletes with the mental side of the game. I'm going to go into detail about one aspect of the process that is critical to your daughter's self-confidence - overcoming mistakes.

The Unstoppable Athlete Method

The method I'm referring to is known as the Unstoppable Athlete Method. It consists of three elements, each of which reinforces the others. As a result, when one aspect of the approach improves and expands, the others do as well.

Part #1: Overcoming Mistakes

The first part is overcoming mistakes.

It is important to understand how your athlete reacts to adversity. How does she deal with setbacks and mistakes? Does she punish herself after making a series of errors? Is she able to overcome her flaws?

Part #2: Releasing The Pressure

The second part is releasing the pressure.

Many athletes put themselves under a lot of stress. They feel the strain of their sport, as well as the expectations of their coaches, teammates, and parents. However, some athletes add additional strain to the mix.

And if they don't already know how to deal with the first layer of pressure, they're not going to be able to deal with the strain they're putting on themselves.

Part #3: Flipping The Negative Mindset

The third part of the method is flipping the negative mindset. 

Our minds have a negative bias. Focusing on the negative is an evolutionary and biological response. But if our athletes are not aware of how their brains respond to situations and can't adjust their thinking to be more productive, they will be locked in this negative mindset.
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Helpful Links:

• Visit our podcast website for more on this episode.
• Join our FREE training for Sports Moms - How To Strengthen Your Athlete Daughter’s Mental Game So She Believes In Herself As Much As You Do

The BEST way to help us spread the word and get this information into the hands of millions of parents, coaches, and female athletes is by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you in advance for joining us on our mission!

Supporting female athletes' mental health can be very challenging especially if they're in their teenage years. 

A lot of them are very good at hiding their struggles. Some have difficulty communicating their feelings with the people around them. And it's overwhelming. 

So, how can a mom support their daughter's mental health, especially in her struggles during her athletic journey?

Let's get answers and shed light on that question today with the help of our special guest, Sadie Sutton. Sadie is a 19-year-old student-athlete from the Bay Area, currently studying psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She hosts a mental health podcast called She Persisted, which she started after a year and a half of intensive treatment for severe depression and anxiety.

In our latest podcast, Sadie shares helpful insights on how parents can better support their athletes' mental health based on her personal experience as a teenager.

Here’s a sneak peek into our conversation:

What can parents be doing to help support their athlete's mental health? 

As a mom, you can support your daughter's mental health by learning the skills yourself and showing up as a good example for them. 

Observe and notice changes in their behavior and routine. And if they come to you for help, listen and validate their feelings by treating every emotional conversation seriously. To do that, you must take care of yourself.  Your daughter isn't the only one that needs to learn how to cope with these big, overwhelming experiences in life. The emotions that you feel as a result also need to be coped with and, and not dealt with, but worked through. 

Are there any common things that parents do that aren't beneficial and that we should avoid?

Don't rush into problem-solving. Aim to be your daughter's safe space first. Take it one step at a time and help them have the skills to cope by standing up as a good example and having the skills to support mental health for yourself too. 

Invest in yourself.  Your daughter picks up on what you're modeling and you have to know how to support them too.

Any form of mental discomfort or mental health problems would provoke powerful emotions in the parents. So it's advantageous if you can manage your emotions as they occur, whether they're feelings of guilt or shame, perplexity or overburden, sadness, loss, or loneliness.

You can help provide the opportunity for your female athletes to have the skills and improve their mental health on their own, but it's not just them who have to learn these skills. You need it too. 

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Helpful Links:

• Hang out with Sadie Sutton on social @shepersistedpodcast and learn more about working with her!
• Visit our podcast website for more on this episode
• Join our FREE training for Sports Moms - How To Strengthen Your Athlete Daughter’s Mental Game So She Believes In Herself As Much As You Do

The BEST way to help us spread the word and get this information into the hands of millions of parents, coaches, and female athletes is by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you in advance for joining us on our mission!

As a mom of female athletes, we always try our best to say the right things to our daughters. We've all been learning to show up and influence them in a good way, but what do we do when other people say unhelpful things to our daughters? 

Here's a question from one of our sports moms.

" I agree 100% with you when you say. And that our words become our thoughts. But how do we approach what our athlete daughters hear from close friends and neighbors?"

This isn't an unusual thing to worry about since we don't know what happens outside, or when we're not around. Today we're going to talk about the answer to this concern and what we can do about it instead. 

What We Can't Do:

We don't have control of the people around us.

So, what can we do? How do we approach the conflicting messages they hear from close friends and neighbors? Can we do something to stop them from hearing it? 

The answer is WE CAN'T.

We can't control what other people say to our daughters. We can't just pick and choose what goes inside our daughter's head.

What We Can Do:

We can only control what we say. We can only control how we can empower our daughters to receive the information that she is hearing from other people. So, we can't control what other people might say, but our daughters can be very intentional about what they choose to interpret from what they hear. 

That is what's in our control in this situation.

3 Levels To Help Her Shift Focus

You can't control what other people might say. There's nothing we can do to stop it. All we can do is control ourselves and empower our daughters with the skills that they need. We can use these three levels to help our daughters strengthen their thoughts and shift focus.

Level #1: Ensure you are focusing on the process

Level #2: Talk to your daughter after about what you heard

Level #3: Talk to the person about what the goals are & set boundaries

As a mom, you have all the power to give opportunities for your daughter to learn and be equipped mentally. It is simply because you're the biggest influence in your daughter's life.

In The Elite competitor Program, we teach moms what they can be saying and doing to ensure that their athlete daughters are developing confidence in the long-term. So make sure that you're doing that work and just be aware of what you're surrounding your daughter with. It's also really important that she has the mental skills to be able to distinguish between thoughts and words that are helpful to her and thoughts and words that are not helpful to her. 

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Helpful Links:

• Visit our podcast website for more on this episode
• Join our FREE training for Sports Moms - How To Strengthen Your Athlete Daughter’s Mental Game So She Believes In Herself As Much As You Do

The BEST way to help us spread the word and get this information into the hands of millions of parents, coaches, and female athletes is by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you in advance for joining us on our mission!

ICYMI: Awesome interview with softball mom, Angela talking about her daughter's experience inside The Elite Competitor Program!

Listen to learn..

👉 What was going on for Amy before joining ECP (think: pressure, nerves, big emotions on the softball field..)

👉 What changes Angela started to notice in Amy only weeks after joining

👉 How Angela and Amy's relationship changed while going through the program

👉 The moment that made it all worth it 💗

I also answered some common ECP questions after!

Enrollment for ECP is open now! 

www.kristinabreanne.com/ecp

Many female athletes struggle with a lack of confidence which can prevent them from being competitive and reaching their full potential.

When athletes feel confident, they’re focused on the task, feel comfortable, and commit fully to decisions – all of which can help them perform well. On the other hand, when they don’t feel confident, they often doubt themselves, feel nervous, focus on the wrong things, and make poor decisions, which can result in poorer performances.

As a mom, you can have a huge influence on your daughter’s confidence with sports. But, how do you do it?

Today, we’ll talk about how to build confidence in young female athletes with our special guest, Holli. Holli is a dedicated sports mom to Sienna, a middle school basketball player. Just like every young athlete, Sienna has had her fair share of ups and downs; she gets frustrated when she doesn’t perform well and her confidence takes a hit. But, Holli is able to help her daughter overcome these challenges, helping her achieve success in her chosen sport. 

1. Invest in your child’s mental training. Just as you invest in your child’s skills training, equipment, coaching, and other things necessary to improve their game, make sure to invest in your child’s mental training, too. 

2. Remind your child that they are not alone. Remind your child that they’re not alone; that other athletes struggle from time to time, too. 

3. Foster healthy communication. Good communication is important to building confidence. Most sports hinge on good communication. As a mom, you need to foster healthy communication between you and your child. 

4. Focus on team building. Give your child the opportunity to strengthen their relationships with their teammates off court. When players have a strong relationship off court, they are more likely to work well together on the court.

5. Teach them that mistakes happen – and that they shouldn’t dwell on them. No one’s perfect, and nothing that anyone does in life is 100% successful. Athletes are no different – even the pros make mistakes from time to time. 

6. Create a supportive environment. When female athletes are in an environment that encourages and supports them without question, they will find it much easier to be competitive and have confidence in their game.

7. Remind them to have fun. If you notice that your child is no longer having fun, or that they’re starting to crack under the pressure, it may be time to step back and reevaluate the situation. Of course, it’s important to take sports seriously. But, remind your child to have fun! When athletes are having fun, they’re more likely to let go of their self-doubt and they can fully immerse themselves in the experience.

Remember: Your child’s mental game is their biggest competitive advantage! As a mom, you play a key role in building your child’s confidence, and there are many things you can do off court to help build it.

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Helpful Links:

• Visit our podcast website for more on this episode
• Join our FREE training for Sports Moms - How To Strengthen Your Athlete Daughter’s Mental Game So She Believes In Herself As Much As You Do

The BEST way to help us spread the word and get this information into the hands of millions of parents, coaches, and female athletes is by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you in advance for joining us on our mission!

Most moms want the best for their athlete daughters. However, in the process, they can unintentionally make some mistakes that wind up hurting their daughter’s confidence in the long run.

These are all very common things that most mothers, including myself, have done. And I've seen moms do these things without realizing the long-term effects they're having on their daughter's mental health.

I want to go over these things and share them with you because almost every mother has made these mistakes. Don't be too harsh on yourself, either, because you're not alone in this. I've done these things as well, and I wanted to shed some light on them.

Why do we do it? I know we always start with the best of intentions. But what we intended to be beneficial may end up harming our daughter's mental health in the long run. So, let's start with what causes these three common errors and how we can avoid them.

Mistake #1. Thinking that your daughter will play more confidently if you just tell her to be confident or get out of her head.

This is something we're all guilty of. I'm sure you've had the experience of telling your daughter, "Just go be confident," "don't be nervous," or "relax."

Unfortunately, this will not always work. That's because telling isn't the same as teaching. You can't just advise someone to be confident and expect them to immediately look and feel confident.

Mistake #2. Not realizing how your own confidence impacts your daughters.

You may be asking what your confidence has to do with your daughter's self-esteem. The truth is, you are one of the most influential people in your daughter's confidence. And so your own confidence influences your daughter's confidence. Your own self-belief influences your daughter's self-belief. Your own mental game impacts your daughter's mental game.

Mistake #3. Expecting your daughter’s mental game will just improve with more experience or with help from the coach.

This is easy to believe because your daughter's coach is “the coach”. You might be thinking that they are in charge and that they know the quality practices, and how to prepare for competition to win.

Coaches might be in charge of their physical training but not the aspect of mental training. Most coaches are not trained in the mental side of the sport.

Athletes who focus on their mental game feel free to take risks and play their hearts out because they aren't frightened of making mistakes. They understand that mistakes are a necessary element of their development and success. This is something we teach in our elite competitor program at the University of Bath.

Confident and elite athletes are those who have followed a system and who have worked on their own beliefs about themselves and are very aware of how to shift their limiting beliefs, how to shift their thoughts, and how to turn negative thoughts into productive thoughts.

The overarching remedy to the three faults we've outlined is to take care of your mental game. You can't just tell her to be confident and hope for the best.

There's actually a process, training, and work involved for your female athlete to have a competitive advantage. So, make sure that you're very aware of how you're showing up for your daughters. You can't always depend on time, or on her coach to hone your daughter's mental game and confidence. You need to stay in your role to shape the environment for your daughter.

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Helpful Links:

• Visit our podcast website for more on this episode
• Join our FREE training for Sports Moms - How To Strengthen Your Athlete Daughter’s Mental Game Without Being Pushy Or Sayin

Mindfulness is significantly connected to performance. It is highly needed by our female athletes, any kind of athletes, and for the moms or the people who support the athlete’s journey.

“The true practice of mindfulness is being present with non-judgments”

That is one of the insights of our guest for today, Katie Cheadle. Katie has been a highly competitive softball player and a therapist with a masters degree in clinical psychology with an emphasis on mindfulness and performance. She primarily works with high performing professionals and athletes. Today, she’s going to share with us her top mindfulness tips for our daughters' better performance. Let’s dive in!

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is being present. It’s noticing what thoughts might be coming up to you right now. What emotions might you be experiencing? What physical sensations do you have at the moment? And then practicing non-judgment around it. 

Sometimes, whenever we feel and realize we’re thinking of something that feels wrong, we judge ourselves. We start to prompt ourselves that we shouldn’t think in that certain way.

But the true practice of mindfulness is being present with non-judgment. It is accepting that we feel tired, disappointed, etc., without judging or condemning ourselves. 

As parents, we can be so reactive whenever something out of the ordinary happens, or when problems arise. Mindfulness is so beautiful for parents to practice because it allows you to slow down and operate differently. And whenever something makes you remember things you struggled with in the past, mindfulness helps you to bounce back and be in the present. 

One of the best pieces of advice for sports parents is to be mindful and curious about their child’s athlete experience. Ask questions, and don't jump to conclusions. Allow your athlete to kind of understand what's going on. 

Mindfulness when it comes to parenting and supporting your athlete is the key because it allows you to respond versus react. 

Better performance is a result of being mindful. You can help shape the environment for your female athlete by being mindful of how you react, what you say, and what you show up for. Practice acknowledging what’s in the present moment without judgment first. You can also help your athlete practice mindful grind through breathing exercises.

Providing your athlete the opportunity to grow, be mindful, and take care of their mental health would help them a long way not just in their sports career, but also in life.

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Helpful Links:

• Hang out with Katie Cheadle on social @katiecheadle and learn more about working with her!
• Visit our podcast website for more on this episode
• Join our FREE training for Sports Moms - How To Strengthen Your Athlete Daughter’s Mental Game Without Being Pushy Or Saying The Wrong Thing.

The BEST way to help us spread the word and get this information into the hands of millions of parents, coaches, and female athletes is by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you in advance for joining us on our mission! 

 “How do you help your daughter when she feels she has disappointed her coach or her coach doesn't like her because they gave constructive feedback about her game?” — This is a question from a mom who is participating in our training for improving your female athlete's mental game without being pushy or saying the wrong thing.

This is a common thing that happens to female athletes. In this situation, her daughter is taking this feedback as a personal attack on herself and she's feeling like her coaches are disappointed in her and don't like her anymore. How do we help our daughters who are in this situation? 

I'm going to tell you why this happens, what your daughter needs to do when it happens, and how you can help her.

What’s Happening:

As humans, we are all wired for belonging and safety. And so no matter what environment we're in, we want to feel like we belong and that we're safe. This case also occurs in an athlete-coach relationship. Athletes want their coaches to like them at some point, and that's not wrong. 

Every time we are criticized, we all get the impression that someone does not like us. And that’s what’s happened to the female athlete. 

What She Needs to Do:

Now that we’ve explained what's happening inside your daughter’s mind. What she needs to do is realize that she has to separate what she's doing from who she is. 

What she’s doing points to her sport. 

Who she is different and separate from that sport, or from what she does. Who she is as a person won’t change no matter what her performance is. Regardless of her sport, she still has the same personality, and worth as a person. She would still be equally capable and deserving of love.

How Can You Help:

You can help by making sure that you are evaluating her as a person rather than just what she does. And you can do that by shifting the focus of your praise toward who she is as a person. Instead of praising her for winning, you can start praising her for seeing her do her best. Think about what you love about her.

Highlight her good qualities not on her achievements in sports but rather on the kind of person that she is. Is she generous? Does she love helping people? Is she the kind of person who just brings in joy and energy? 

We all want to feel that we belong. We all want to feel safe. 

Asking for the coach’s validation is also a sign that she may be discreetly seeking validation from you, her parents.

If this is the case, you can gently remind her of your love for her regardless of her performance. Remind her that there's nothing she could do that would make you more proud than you are right now of her.

Help her separate her identity and worth from what she does. Help her strengthen her mental game and give her the opportunity to be more confident about herself. In this way she’ll stop seeking validation from other people. She’ll be able to handle constructive criticism and be truly confident in who she is. 

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Helpful Links:

• Join our FREE training for Sports Moms - How To Strengthen Your Athlete Daughter’s Mental Game Without Being Pushy Or Saying The Wrong Thing.

The BEST way to help us spread the word and get this information into the hands of millions of parents, coaches, and female athletes is by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you in advance for joining us on our mission!