In episode 35 of Coaching the Athletic Mind, host Megan Weaver interviews longtime coach and sports parent Mike Dickerson about the mental game and how youth sports have changed. Dickerson shares how baseball became his safe space growing up in a broken home, helping him redefine himself and learn life lessons through adversity. He describes a pivotal coaching moment that shifted his pitching mindset from trying to strike everyone out to trusting the seven teammates behind him, emphasizing encouragement after mistakes and the importance of positive self-talk and confidence, citing examples like Aaron Donald and Deion Sanders. He notes modern athletes have more training tools and access to film, but social media increases pressure because mistakes follow kids beyond the field; despite changes, college evaluators still seek good teammates who handle failure well. Weaver previews a three-part series covering coaching male vs. female athletes and building youth mental skills.

In episode 34 of the Coaching the Athletic Mind podcast, host Megan Weaver interviews her dad about his 20-year coaching background and compares coaching youth softball in the 1990s/2000s with today's players Megan now coaches. They discuss his laid-back, encouraging coaching style; strong feeder programs and facilities in Madison; the intensity shift from JV to varsity; Megan’s junior-year bench experience, late-night batting cage work, and creating a VHS highlight reel that helped her get recruited to play at Le Moyne. They explore mindset topics like shaking off mistakes, players spiraling after errors, negativity bias, and the need to practice celebrating “wins,” including examples Megan forgot but her dad remembered, plus her over-the-fence home run. They also cover parent reactions to playing time, team roles, and how sports built family memories.

Megan Weaver opens episode 33 of Coaching the Athletic Mind by focusing on the mental challenge of sitting the bench, noting many athletes now tie not playing to decreased self-worth. Drawing from her experience making varsity but sitting much of junior year, she explains how staying engaged, practicing, and supporting the team helped her continue to later college and international play. Weaver outlines common bench thoughts (“coach doesn’t like me,” “I’m not good enough,” “I should quit”) and urges coaches to check in on non-starters and communicate players’ value and roles. She reframed benching as sometimes a numbers game, encourages neutral, fact-based thinking, keeping team energy up, being happy for teammates, and advocating by asking coaches for specific skills to improve.