If you want it more than your athletes do, start with these 3 tips to address low effort. Find my templates here, coach → https://champions.elitecompetitor.com

📌 Resources & Tools:

FREE:
🎓 Mental Game Training for Coaches: https://coachfreetraining.com
📬 Join our weekly Varsity Squad newsletter: https://coachhergame.com/yt-varsity-squad
🔹 Player Impact Plan Template: https://coachhergame.com/impact
🎙 Podcast: Coach Her Game Podcast

OUR SIGNATURE PROGRAMS:
👉 Grab the Plug & Play Elite Mental Game for Teams → https://elitecompetitor.com/plugplayemg
🔹 Championship Program Mentorship: https://champions.elitecompetitor.com

Connect with us!
IG: ➡︎ https://www.instagram.com/coachhergame
Tik Tok: ➡︎ https://www.tiktok.com/@coachhergame
YouTube: ➡︎ SUBSCRIBE 🙌🏼 and hang out in our community here with us!

⏰ Key Timestamps:
00:00 Wanting It More Than Your Athletes
00:43 The Mental Game: Fear & Identity
02:05 Strategy 1: Crystal Clear Standards
03:31 Strategy 2: Player Impact Plans
04:32 Strategy 3: Failure Recovery System
05:41 Closing Thoughts

👋🏼 I'm Coach Bre, a mental performance coach for girl athletes, Co-Founder of The Elite Competitor, and a long-time head volleyball coach and 4-time state champion.

If you've ever walked off the court feeling like you wanted the win more than anyone on your team, I've been there too. What 14 years of coaching taught me is that what looks like giving up is usually fear underneath.

In this video I walk through the three things that changed this in my program: clear standards built with my Leadership Core, a Player Impact Plan for every athlete, and a failure recovery system called the Snapback Routine. None of it takes extra hours, just a little structure at the start of the season.

What You'll Learn:
✅ Why low effort is often an athlete's fear of caring too much
✅ How tying identity to outcomes turns one loss into "I'm not good enough" ✅ How to define what effort looks like in practice and in games with your Leadership Core
✅ How a Player Impact Plan gives every athlete a meaningful role and clear expectations
✅ The two-second Snapback Routine athletes use when momentum swings

💬 Coaches, comment below: What does low effort look like on your team right now, and when does it show up most?

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:
👉In a study of 258 athletes ages 15 to 19, fear of shame and embarrassment was linked to higher stress and a lower sense of accomplishment (Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 2017)
👉Among 221 athletes, fear of failure predicted holding back effort and burnout (Frontiers in Psychology, 2024)
👉A survey of 2,867 players and coaches found that stronger athlete leaders were linked to higher team confidence (The Sport Psychologist, 2014)

The Coach Her Game YouTube channel is hosted by The Elite Competitor and is dedicated to helping coaches of girl athletes strengthen their mental game and team culture in order to develop a competitive edge.

#mentalperformance #coachinggirls #volleyballcoach #mentaltraining #youthathletics #basketball #tennis #golf #softball #swimming #soccer

Head to coachfreetraining.com to grab our free training for coaches to quickly level-up your team's mental game!

Your athletes need a skill for the scary moments, and you can teach it in minutes. Learn more here, coach → https://coachfreetraining.com

📌 Resources & Tools:
FREE:🎓 Mental Game Training for Coaches: https://coachfreetraining.com
📬 Join our weekly Varsity Squad newsletter: https://coachhergame.com/yt-varsity-squad
🔹 Player Impact Plan Template: https://coachhergame.com/impact
🎙 Podcast: Coach Her Game Podcast

OUR SIGNATURE PROGRAMS:
👉 Grab the Plug & Play Elite Mental Game for Teams → https://elitecompetitor.com/plugplayemg
🔹 Championship Program Mentorship: https://champions.elitecompetitor.com

Connect with us!
IG: ➡︎ https://www.instagram.com/coachhergame
Tik Tok: ➡︎ https://www.tiktok.com/@coachhergame
YouTube: ➡︎ SUBSCRIBE 🙌🏼 and hang out in our community here with us!

⏰ Key Timestamps:
00:00 The Problem: When Athletes Spiral
01:09 Why It Happens: The Brain's Safety Response
02:26 The Traffic Light: Green, Yellow, Red
03:32 Why Telling Isn't Teaching
04:02 The Snapback Routine
05:38 Going Deeper: Resources for Coaches

👋🏼 I'm Coach Bre, a mental performance coach for girl athletes, Co-Founder of The Elite Competitor, and a long-time head volleyball coach and 4-time state champion.

When the momentum shifts, your athletes start hesitating and playing not to lose, and yelling "next play" from the sideline doesn't pull them out of it. Telling isn't teaching.

In this episode I break down why talented athletes freeze when the score gets tight, plus the 2-second routine I've taught my team for years to get them back to playing their game.

What You'll Learn:
✅ Why your athletes look like different players in games than they do in practice
✅ The traffic light model that helps athletes notice when they're starting to spiral
✅ Why "shake it off" doesn't land, and what to teach instead
✅ The Snapback Routine: breath, reset word, reset signal, in about 2 seconds
✅ How to set it up in 5 minutes of practice and use it in a timeout

💬 Coaches, comment below: What's the phrase you catch yourself yelling from the sideline when your team starts spiraling?

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:
👉A meta-analysis covering 15 sports and about 800 athletes found pre-performance routines improved performance, including under pressure, regardless of age, gender, or skill level (Rupprecht, Tran & Gröpel, International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2021)
👉By age 14, girls drop out of sports at twice the rate of boys (Women's Sports Foundation)
👉Girls' confidence drops 30% between ages 8 and 14 (Kay & Shipman, The Confidence Code for Girls, 2018)

The Coach Her Game YouTube channel is hosted by The Elite Competitor and is dedicated to helping coaches of girl athletes strengthen their mental game and team culture in order to develop a competitive edge.

#mentalperformance #coachinggirls #volleyballcoach #mentaltraining #youthathletics #basketball #tennis #golf #softball #swimming #soccer

Head to coachfreetraining.com to grab our free training for coaches to quickly level-up your team's mental game!

Five minutes of mental training before practice gets your team focused and ready to work. Learn more here, coach → https://coachfreetraining.com

📌 Resources & Tools:

FREE:
🎓 Mental Game Training for Coaches: https://coachfreetraining.com
📬 Join our weekly Varsity Squad newsletter: https://coachhergame.com/yt-varsity-squad
🔹 Player Impact Plan Template: https://coachhergame.com/impact
🎙 Podcast: Coach Her Game Podcast

OUR SIGNATURE PROGRAMS:
👉 Grab the Plug & Play Elite Mental Game for Teams → https://elitecompetitor.com/plugplayemg
🔹 Championship Program Mentorship: https://champions.elitecompetitor.com

Connect with us!
IG: ➡︎ https://www.instagram.com/coachhergame
Tik Tok: ➡︎ https://www.tiktok.com/@coachhergame
YouTube: ➡︎ SUBSCRIBE 🙌🏼 and hang out in our community here with us!

⏰ Key Timestamps:
00:00 Why Your First 5 Minutes Matter
00:34 Pre-Practice: Get Them Moving
01:36 The Accountability Check-In
02:09 Connecting With Your Athletes
02:38 The 3-2-1 Brave Routine
03:42 Journaling & Gratitude
04:53 The Brave Visualization
05:58 Wrap-Up & Resources

👋🏼 I'm Coach Bre, a mental performance coach for girl athletes, Co-Founder of The Elite Competitor, and a long-time head volleyball coach and 4-time state champion.

Most coaches lose the first chunk of practice to hallway drama, side conversations, and athletes who are physically in the gym but mentally somewhere else. In this episode, I walk you through exactly how I start practice with a program of 36 to 48 athletes so nobody stands around waiting.

You'll see the whiteboard check-in I use every day and the five-minute 321 BRAVE routine pulled straight from our Plug & Play Elite Mental Game for Teams curriculum. It saves me about 20 minutes of practice time, and it works for any sport, indoor or outdoor.

What You'll Learn:
✅ How to get athletes moving the second they walk in, with pre-assigned gear setup so one person isn't stuck with it all season
✅ The three-question whiteboard check-in (sleep, water, focus) that builds accountability and gives you a quick touchpoint with every athlete
✅ Each piece of 321 BRAVE: three affirmations, two minutes of journaling, one gratitude, one piece of evidence, and a guided visualization
✅ Why hunting for evidence builds confidence when the brain is wired to notice the negative
✅ How to run the same routine with a clipboard if you coach an outdoor sport

💬 Coaches, comment below: What do your athletes do in the first five minutes after they walk into practice?

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:
👉Pre-performance routines improved performance across 15 sports and 800 athletes, regardless of age, gender, or skill level (Rupprecht, Tran & Gröpel, International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2021)
👉About 10 minutes of visualization, three times a week, over roughly 100 days produced the strongest performance gains across 86 studies (Behavioral Sciences, 2025)
👉Middle and high school athletes who averaged under 8 hours of sleep a night were 1.7 times more likely to be injured (Milewski et al., Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics, 2014)

The Coach Her Game YouTube channel is hosted by The Elite Competitor and is dedicated to helping coaches of girl athletes strengthen their mental game and team culture in order to develop a competitive edge.

#coachinggirls #mentalperformance #mentaltraining #volleyballcoach #practiceplan #soccer #basketball #tennis #golf #swimming #gymnastics #softball

Head to coachfreetraining.com to grab our free training for coaches to quickly level-up your team's mental game!

Yelling gets attention. It doesn't build the kind of mental toughness that shows up when it matters. Learn more here, coach → https://coachfreetraining.com

📌 Resources & Tools:

FREE:🎓 Mental Game Training for Coaches: https://coachfreetraining.com
📬 Join our weekly Varsity Squad newsletter: https://coachhergame.com/yt-varsity-squad
🔹 Player Impact Plan Template: https://coachhergame.com/impact
🎙 Podcast: Coach Her Game Podcast

OUR SIGNATURE PROGRAMS:

👉 Grab the Plug & Play Elite Mental Game for Teams → https://elitecompetitor.com/plugplayemg
🔹 Championship Program Mentorship: https://champions.elitecompetitor.com

Connect with us!
IG: ➡︎ https://www.instagram.com/coachhergame
Tik Tok: ➡︎ https://www.tiktok.com/@coachhergame
YouTube: ➡︎ SUBSCRIBE 🙌🏼 and hang out in our community here with us!

⏰ Key Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:11 Shifting the Coaching Culture
02:54 Cheerleading vs. All-Star Cheerleading
03:50 The Mental Side of the Game
06:19 Overcoming Mental Blocks
08:42 Lessons Beyond the Sport
10:28 Girls in Sports & Closing

👋🏼 I'm Coach Bre, a mental performance coach for girl athletes, Co-Founder of The Elite Competitor, and a long-time head volleyball coach and 4-time state champion.

🎤 Joining me this week is Sumer Dandan, owner of a competitive all-star cheerleading gym and a child development professional with nearly 30 years of experience working with young athletes. She's stepping back into high school coaching this season, and intentionally building a different culture than the one she grew up in.

Sumer is used to coaching in a world where yelling and sarcasm are the default communication style. This episode is about what she's replacing that with, and why it's building tougher athletes, not softer ones. You'll hear the exact shift she's making in her own gym this season, plus a simple breathing tool you can hand your team today.

What You'll Learn:
✅ Why yelling doesn't build the kind of toughness that holds up under pressure
✅ The parent-encouragement phrases that can add pressure instead of relieving it
✅ A simple breathing tool you can teach your team in one practice
✅ Why "she's just delicate" is the wrong story to tell girl athletes

💬 Coaches, comment below: What's one thing you used to yell that you've since replaced with something calmer?

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:
👉29% of former youth athletes say "I'm not good enough" was a top reason they quit, and 23% of current players name bad coaching as their top complaint (The Aspen Institute / Project Play, 2026)
👉In a controlled study of 32 athletes, adding box breathing to a pre-performance routine significantly reduced competitive anxiety (Melzar, Allegheny College, 2025)
👉An 8-week imagery-based mental skills program improved young athletes' trait confidence and lowered their stress response before competition (Lee, Ryu & Kim, Frontiers in Psychology, 2023)

The Coach Her Game YouTube channel is hosted by The Elite Competitor and is dedicated to helping coaches of girl athletes strengthen their mental game and team culture in order to develop a competitive edge.

#mentalperformance #coachinggirls #teamculture #cheercoach #mentalgame

Head to coachfreetraining.com to grab our free training for coaches to quickly level-up your team's mental game!

This is the exact notebook system I use to build mental toughness all season. Learn more here, coach → https://coachfreetraining.com

📌 Resources & Tools:

FREE:🎓 Mental Game Training for Coaches: https://coachfreetraining.com
📬 Join our weekly Varsity Squad newsletter: https://coachhergame.com/yt-varsity-squad
🔹 Player Impact Plan Template: https://coachhergame.com/impact
🎙 Podcast: Coach Her Game Podcast

OUR SIGNATURE PROGRAMS:
👉 Grab the Plug & Play Elite Mental Game for Teams → https://elitecompetitor.com/plugplayemg
🔹 Championship Program Mentorship: https://champions.elitecompetitor.com

Connect with us!
IG: ➡︎ https://www.instagram.com/coachhergame
Tik Tok: ➡︎ https://www.tiktok.com/@coachhergame
YouTube: ➡︎ SUBSCRIBE 🙌🏼 and hang out in our community here with us!

⏰ Key Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:45 Vision Board & Front Cover
01:38 Notebook Organization
01:52 Sport IQ & Match Prep
03:06 The Mental Game: 3-2-1 BRAVE
05:04 The BRAVE Visualization Method

👋🏼 I'm Coach Bre, a mental performance coach for girl athletes, Co-Founder of The Elite Competitor, and a long-time head volleyball coach and 4-time state champion.

For the past six years, I've used player notebooks with my team to build focus, consistency, and ownership over the season. This episode walks through every section, including the daily mental game routine that lives inside it.

You'll see exactly how the notebook is organized, from the season calendar and playbook notes to the pre-game prep and post-game reflection pages. Most importantly, you'll see the 3-2-1 BRAVE routine my players run through before every practice.

What You'll Learn:
✅ How to structure a player notebook coaches and athletes actually use all season
✅ The exact 3-2-1 BRAVE routine my team runs through before every practice
✅ How the season-opening vision board workshop ties into daily mental training
✅ A simple way to build ownership and consistency without adding extra practice time
✅ How to use written affirmations and visualization to shift a negative mindset

💬 Coaches — comment below: which part of the 3-2-1 BRAVE routine would help your team most right now, the affirmations, the journaling, or the visualization?

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:
👉A 2025 study of 512 athletes found a 4-week mental skills program built on goal-setting, visualization, mindfulness, and team reflection produced large gains in self-confidence and large drops in competitive anxiety. (Alecu & Onea, Frontiers in Psychology, 2025)
👉A meta-analysis of visualization research found a medium, statistically significant positive effect on athletic performance. (Simonsmeier et al., International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2020)
👉A gratitude study with 51 NCAA Division I athletes found meaningful increases in well-being and sport satisfaction, and decreases in burnout, four weeks after a single gratitude workshop. (Steinfeldt et al., Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 2019)

The Coach Her Game YouTube channel is hosted by The Elite Competitor and is dedicated to helping coaches of girl athletes strengthen their mental game and team culture in order to develop a competitive edge.

#mentalperformance #coachinggirls #youthathletics #teamculture #highschoolcoaching #sportsvisualization #athletejournaling #mentaltoughness

Head to coachfreetraining.com to grab our free training for coaches to quickly level-up your team's mental game!

Nerves were never the problem. Not having a plan for them is. Learn more here, coach → https://coachfreetraining.com

📌 Resources & Tools:

FREE:
🎓 Mental Game Training for Coaches: https://coachfreetraining.com
📬 Join our weekly Varsity Squad newsletter: https://coachhergame.com/yt-varsity-squad
🔹 Player Impact Plan Template: https://coachhergame.com/impact
🎙 Podcast: Coach Her Game Podcast

OUR SIGNATURE PROGRAMS:
👉 Grab the Plug & Play Elite Mental Game for Teams → https://elitecompetitor.com/plugplayemg
🔹 Championship Program Mentorship: https://champions.elitecompetitor.com

Connect with us!
IG: ➡︎ https://www.instagram.com/coachhergame
Tik Tok: ➡︎ https://www.tiktok.com/@coachhergame
YouTube: ➡︎ SUBSCRIBE 🙌🏼 and hang out in our community here with us!

⏰ Key Timestamps:
00:00 Intro: Handling Pre-Game Nerves
00:50 Tip 1: The Critic in the Stands
01:58 Tip 2: Find Your Hype Number
02:47 Pregame Visualization Routines
04:31 Tip 3: The Highlight Reel
05:28 More Free Coaching Resources
06:02 Reframing Nerves as Excitement

👋🏼 I'm Coach Bre, a mental performance coach for girl athletes, Co-Founder of The Elite Competitor, and a long-time head volleyball coach and 4-time state champion.

You already know when a mistake wrecks the rest of the game for one of your athletes. This episode breaks down three tools I use with my own team to help players manage nerves before they turn into mistakes. None of them require extra practice time or a psychology degree, just a few minutes before warmups.

What You'll Learn:
✅ How to help your athletes name and distance the negative "critic" voice that shows up before big moments-
✅ A simple 1-10 scale to help each player identify whether she needs to calm down or get hyped up before competing
✅ Specific ways to help athletes reach their ideal pre-game state, from breathing to visualization to warmup intensity
✅ A pre-game exercise that stops the spiral of catastrophic thinking before it starts
✅ Why turning nerves into excitement works better than trying to make them disappear

💬 Coaches — comment below: What do you say to a player who's spiraling with nerves right before a big moment?

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:
👉Self-talk interventions produce a moderate, statistically significant improvement in sport task performance (Hatzigeorgiadis et al., Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2011)
👉High-level athletes' pre-competition anxiety scores dropped significantly after a short attentional-training intervention (Zhao et al., Frontiers in Psychology, 2025)
👉A 10-session psychological skills and mindfulness intervention produced medium-to-large improvements in athletes' mental toughness and competitive anxiety (Vella-Fondacaro & Romano-Smith, Sports, 2023)

The Coach Her Game YouTube channel is hosted by The Elite Competitor and is dedicated to helping coaches of girl athletes strengthen their mental game and team culture in order to develop a competitive edge.

#mentalperformance #coachinggirls #youthathletics #pregameprep

Head to coachfreetraining.com to grab our free training for coaches to quickly level-up your team's mental game!

Visualization only sticks if it fits in practice, not adds to it. Want the exact visualization scripts I use with my team? All 15 are inside Plug & Play. The free training walks you through it → https://coachfreetraining.com

📌 Resources & Tools:

FREE:🎓 Mental Game Training for Coaches: https://coachfreetraining.com
|📬 Join our weekly Varsity Squad newsletter: https://coachhergame.com/yt-varsity-squad
🔹 Player Impact Plan Template: https://coachhergame.com/impact
🎙 Podcast: Coach Her Game Podcast

OUR SIGNATURE PROGRAMS:
👉 Grab the Plug & Play Elite Mental Game for Teams → https://elitecompetitor.com/plugplayemg
🔹 Championship Program Mentorship: https://champions.elitecompetitor.com

Connect with us!
IG: ➡︎ https://www.instagram.com/coachhergame
Tik Tok: ➡︎ https://www.tiktok.com/@coachhergame
YouTube: ➡︎ SUBSCRIBE 🙌🏼 and hang out in our community here with us!

👋🏼 I'm Coach Bre, a mental performance coach for girl athletes, Co-Founder of The Elite Competitor, and a long-time head volleyball coach and 4-time state champion.

In this episode, I break down the exact way I introduce visualization to my team without the awkward energy that killed it the first time I tried it. I share what I call it, how long we spend on it, and why the science behind it makes it worth the two minutes.

This isn't guided meditation or a big production. It's a small habit that gives your team free reps without adding a single thing to your practice plan.

What You'll Learn:
✅ Why calling it "mental reps" instead of meditation gets buy-in fast
✅ A simple way to start visualization in one to two minutes before practice
✅ How your energy as a coach determines whether your team takes it seriously
✅ Where to find 15 ready-made visualization scripts and audio for your team
✅ Why the science behind visualization means it works like free reps, minus the wear and tear

💬 Coaches — comment below: What's one mental training tool you've been nervous to try with your team?

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:
⚡️Imagery training produces a medium-sized performance boost across motor and mental outcomes in athletes (Simonsmeier et al., International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2020)
⚡️A 2025 meta-analysis of 3,593 athletes found roughly 10 minutes, 3 times a week, over 100 days produced the strongest results, proof that consistency beats duration (Behavioral Sciences, 2025)
⚡️Coaches who get trained on a new program themselves see adoption rates nearly double those who don't (Barden et al., International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021)

The Coach Her Game YouTube channel is hosted by The Elite Competitor and is dedicated to helping coaches of girl athletes strengthen their mental game and team culture in order to develop a competitive edge.

#mentalperformance #coachinggirls #youthathletics #volleyballcoach #sports visualization #visualization for athletes #mental reps #mental training for athletes #mental toughness coaching

Head to coachfreetraining.com to grab our free training for coaches to quickly level-up your team's mental game!

Three drills that build mental toughness, and the skills that make them stick. Learn more here, coach → https://coachfreetraining.com

📌 Resources & Tools:

FREE:
🎓 Mental Game Training for Coaches: https://coachfreetraining.com
📬 Join our weekly Varsity Squad newsletter: https://coachhergame.com/yt-varsity-squad
🔹 Player Impact Plan Template: https://coachhergame.com/impact
🎙 Podcast: Coach Her Game Podcast

OUR SIGNATURE PROGRAMS:
👉 Grab the Plug & Play Elite Mental Game for Teams → https://elitecompetitor.com/plugplayemg
🔹 Championship Program Mentorship: https://champions.elitecompetitor.com

Connect with us!
IG: ➡︎ https://www.instagram.com/coachhergame
Tik Tok: ➡︎ https://www.tiktok.com/@coachhergame
YouTube: ➡︎ SUBSCRIBE 🙌🏼 and hang out in our community here with us!

⏰ Key Timestamps:
00:00 Intro: The Rollercoaster of Team Mindset
01:25 Pressure Point Drills
02:59 Training Self-Talk: Three, Two, One Brave
03:35 Championship Story: The Reset Word
04:35 Chaos Drill and Breathing
06:44 Wash Drill: Stacking Pressure
07:20 The Snap Back Routine
08:49 Closing Thoughts and Free Training

👋🏼 I'm Coach Bre, a mental performance coach for girl athletes, Co-Founder of The Elite Competitor, and a long-time head volleyball coach and 4-time state champion.

Every coach is diligent about the physical game. Fewer have an actual plan for the mental one, and that gap is what decides tight matches.

What You'll Learn:
✅ How to run a Pressure Point drill that forces your team to finish tight games
✅ How a Chaos drill builds composure when the game stops going the way it's supposed to
✅ How the Wash drill stacks pressure by requiring two wins in a row for one big point
✅ Why none of these drills work without pairing them to a trained mental skill
✅ The real story behind a state championship comeback that came down to one breath and a reset word

💬 Coaches — comment below: what's the toughest pressure moment your team has faced this season?

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:
👉A meta-analysis of 14 studies found pressure training (practicing under simulated pressure) produced a medium-sized improvement in performance under pressure (Low et al., Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 2021)
👉Junior athletes who completed self-talk training showed reduced competitive anxiety and higher self-confidence compared to a control group (Walter, Nikoleizig, & Alfermann, Sports, 2019)
👉Varsity athletes trained in diaphragmatic breathing showed lower heart rate and higher heart rate variability under a stress task (Hunt, Rushton, Shenberger, & Murayama, Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 2018)

The Coach Her Game YouTube channel is hosted by The Elite Competitor and is dedicated to helping coaches of girl athletes strengthen their mental game and team culture in order to develop a competitive edge.

#mentalperformance #coachinggirls #volleyballcoach #youthathletics #mentaltraining

Head to coachfreetraining.com to grab our free training for coaches to quickly level-up your team's mental game!