Comparison at tryouts is costing her more than she realizes. What's Your Competitor Style Quiz → https://athlete.fyi/yt-quiz

📌 Resources & Tools:
🎓 Strengthen Your Athlete's Mental Game - Free Training for Parents → https://trainhergame.com/mom
📬 Join our weekly TIPS newsletter → https://sportsmom.fyi/yt-tips
💬 Use this Conversation Guide w/ Scripts to talk to your athlete about mental training → https://sportsmom.fyi/convo-guide
🎙 Listen to the Podcast: Raising Elite Competitors
FREE for Athletes:🔹 Share with your athlete: What's Your Competitor Style Quiz → https://athlete.fyi/yt-quiz
🎥 YouTube Playlist for Athletes → https://www.youtube.com/@AthleteMentalEdge

OUR SIGNATURE PROGRAMS:
👉 Join The Elite Mental Game for girl athletes → https://trainhergame.com/yt-emg

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

⏰ Key Timestamps:
00:00 Intro: My Best & Worst Tryouts
00:49 Why Tryouts Are a Mental Game
02:00 How Nerves Derail Your Performance
03:24 Tip #1: Reframe What Tryouts Are
05:49 Tip #2: Use Visualization
08:44 Tip #3: Focus On Your Strengths
11:11 Recap of the Three Tips
11:53 Closing & Call to Action

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

This episode features Coach Saylor, one of our mental performance coaches inside The Elite Mental Game, teaching athletes three mental training tips for tryouts.

In this video, Coach Saylor breaks down why comparison is one of the biggest confidence killers at tryouts, and gives your athlete three specific mental training tips to walk in ready instead. This one's built to be shared directly with her. If tryouts are coming up for your daughter, this gives her something real to lean on beyond just physical prep.

What You'll Learn:
✅ Why tryouts should be reframed as a showcase, not a test
✅ A visualization technique that uses a real past best moment, not an imagined perfect one
✅ How to name three personal strengths as anchors against the comparison spiral
✅ Why comparison rarely works in her favor, and what to focus on instead
✅ Where to find her free Competitor Style Quiz for a mental edge going into tryouts

💬 What's one strength you bring to your sport that you might not give yourself credit for?

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:
⚡️Reframing pre-performance anxiety as excitement improves confidence and performance (Brooks, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2014)
⚡️A 2025 study of 500 athletes found imagery ability is directly linked to athletic achievement level (Malinauskas et al., Frontiers in Psychology, 2025)
⚡️A meta-analysis of 32 studies found self-talk interventions produce a real, measurable improvement in sport performance (Hatzigeorgiadis et al., Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2011)

The Raising Elite Competitors podcast and YouTube channel is hosted by The Elite Competitor and is dedicated to helping sports moms strengthen their daughter's mental game and confidence in order to help her perform her best when it matters most.

#tryoutprep #sportsmom #mentalperformance #girlssports #elitementalgame

Register for the Summer Strong Mental Game Bootcamp! We kick-off June 24th (registration closes June 19th). The earlier you register, the better price you get! https://elitecompetitor.com/summer-strong-bootcamp/

"We're strong, and we're only delicate if you tell us that we're delicate." 🎯 → https://trainhergame.com/mom

***Resources***
🙌 What's Your Competitor Style Quiz (to send your athlete!): https://www.videoask.com/fnbmhduxy
💜 Conversation Guide w/ Scripts to Bring Up Mental Training: https://s3.amazonaws.com/kajabi-storefronts-production/file-uploads/sites/144031/downloads/66e16c-6886-4a62-b8db-c43a1ae18fbd_The_Elite_Mental_Game_Conversation_Starter.pdf%20
📺 YouTube Playlist for Athletes: https://www.youtube.com/@AthleteMentalEdge
🎓 The Elite Mental Game (our self-paced mental training program): https://elitecompetitor.com/emg
🔥 Grab our in-depth free training → https://trainhergame.com/mom

***Connect with Me***
📩 Want to connect? Email us at hello@elitecompetitor.com
🔹 Follow us on TikTok→ @raisingelitecompetitors
📲 Instagram: @elitecompetitorcoach

🔔 Subscribe for weekly mental training strategies built specifically for parents of girl athletes.

In this episode, I sat down with Sumer Dandan, a competitive cheer gym owner and child development professional with almost 30 years of experience.

She said something that's stuck with me since we recorded this. Girls in sports get treated like they're fragile, when the truth is the opposite. They're strong. They're determined. And most of them have never been given the tools to prove it to themselves.

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

What You'll Learn:
✅ Why the "delicate girl" narrative is holding athletes back
✅ The real difference between a fixed and growth mindset
✅ What actually helps her handle pressure instead of freezing under it
✅ Why some kids stay in sport for decades and become leaders, and others quit young

🎙️ My guest, Sumer, owns a nationally recognized all-star cheerleading gym, Intensity Athletics. She's watched what happens when talented athletes get stuck, and what actually helps them move forward.

🕓 Key Moments
00:00 Meet Sumer
00:51 Sumer's World Today
01:37 Shifting Coaching Culture
04:05 Sumer's Athletic Journey
05:25 What Is All-Star Cheerleading?
06:51 Growing Up Without Guidance
08:24 The Mental Game and the Parent's Role
13:35 Sumer's Own Mental Block Journey
16:12 From Athlete to Entrepreneur
21:51 Advice for Parents and Closing Thoughts

💬 Moms — comment below: What's one thing you say after a tough practice that you secretly wonder if it's helping or hurting?

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:
⚡️ 45% of teenage girls drop out of sports over body confidence concerns, twice the rate of boys the same age (Nike/Dove research via Well+Good, 2023)
⚡️ Girls have 1.3 million fewer opportunities to play high school sports than boys (Women's Sports Foundation)
⚡️ Students with a growth mindset from the lowest income bracket performed academically as well as fixed mindset students from the 80th income percentile (Dweck research via TrainingPeaks, 2024)

The Raising Elite Competitors YouTube channel is hosted by The Elite Competitor and is dedicated to helping sports moms strengthen their daughter's mental game and confidence in order to help her perform her best when it matters most.

#mentalperformance #girlathlete #sportsparenting #growthmindset #cheerparent

Register for the Summer Strong Mental Game Bootcamp! We kick-off June 24th (registration closes June 19th). The earlier you register, the better price you get! https://elitecompetitor.com/summer-strong-bootcamp/

Your daughter doesn't need more pep talks. She needs 60 seconds and a closed door. Here's what actually works. Grab more tools here → https://trainhergame.com/mom

If you're a coach, head to https://coachfreetraining.com to learn more about Plug & Play Elite Mental Game for teams! Also checkout out the Coach Her Game Channel for more tips.

There's a simple mental skill that takes less than a minute and actually changes how your daughter performs under pressure. It's backed by real science, not just good intentions.

What You'll Learn:
✅ Why mental rehearsal works (and the brain science behind it)
✅ Three specific moments to use this tool with your daughter
✅ A simple way to help her release pre-game anxiety

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

🕓 Key Moments:
00:00 Introduction
00:59 Why Visualization Works (The Science)
01:56 Way #1: Visualization Before Practice
02:20 The 3-2-1 Brave Mindset Routine
04:45 Way #2: Visualization Before Games
05:42 Way #3: Situational Visualization
07:37 Wrap-Up & Resources

⬇️ New here? Start with the free training for sports moms: https://trainhergame.com/mom

💛 Already inside The Elite Mental Game? Head to members.elitecompetitor.com for your next steps.

📩 Want to connect? Email us at hello@elitecompetitor.com

📌 Resources & Tools
🙌 What's Your Competitor Style Quiz (to send your athlete!): https://www.videoask.com/fnbmhduxy
💜 Conversation Guide w/ Scripts to Bring Up Mental Training: https://s3.amazonaws.com/kajabi-storefronts-production/file-uploads/sites/144031/downloads/66e16c-6886-4a62-b8db-c43a1ae18fbd_The_Elite_Mental_Game_Conversation_Starter.pdf%20
📺 YouTube Playlist for Athletes: https://www.youtube.com/@AthleteMentalEdge
🎓 The Elite Mental Game (our self-paced mental training program): https://elitecompetitor.com/emg

🔔Subscribe for more mental training tips for girl athletes ⬇️ Raising Elite Competitors YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RaisingEliteCompetitors

P.S. A few things worth knowing:
⚡️Mental rehearsal alone can increase muscle strength by up to 35% (Cleveland Clinic)
⚡️ Motor imagery activates overlapping brain regions with actual physical movement (Neuropsychologia)
⚡️Athletes who regularly use visualization report higher self-confidence and lower competition anxiety (Journal of Applied Sport Psychology)

The Raising Elite Competitors channel is hosted by The Elite Competitor and is dedicated to helping sports moms strengthen their daughter's mental game and confidence in order to help her perform her best when it matters most.

#mentalperformance #girlathlete #sportsparenting #visualization #athleteconfidence

Register for the Summer Strong Mental Game Bootcamp! We kick-off June 24th (registration closes June 19th). The earlier you register, the better price you get! https://elitecompetitor.com/summer-strong-bootcamp/