Raising Elite Competitors

70% of girls quit sports by age 13. This is the story of one who didn't and why it matters. Grab our free training for sports parents 👉 https://trainhergame.com/mom

Coach Saylor is our head athlete coach inside The Elite Mental Game. She played volleyball and track and field at the collegiate level. She's coached thousands of girl athletes.

She's also someone who cried after games in middle school, faked her confidence for years, burned out during COVID, and quietly fought depression while being everyone else's rock on the team.

In this episode, I sit down with Coach Saylor to hear the full story - the one behind the coach your daughter might already know and trust.💛 

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

Here's what you'll hear in this episode:
✅ Why the most reliable, levelheaded player on the team was falling apart inside
✅ What burnout actually looks and feels like from the inside (not the coaching manual version)
✅ The moment a coach said "How could you be struggling?" - and what that cost
✅ The two words Saylor's dad said before every game that changed how she played
✅ What she wishes someone had said to her when she was losing her love for the sport
✅ What she'd say directly to the mom whose daughter is burning out right now

This one is for the athletes who look fine but aren't. And for the moms watching from the bleachers, wondering what's really going on inside their daughter's head.

⏱️ Key Moments
00:01 Introducing Coach Saylor
01:49 Saylor's Athletic Background
02:35 Pressure, Perfectionism & Faking Confidence
04:52 Burnout in College
08:22 Getting Help & Being Heard
10:58 Why Saylor Became a Mental Performance Coach
15:10 Choosing to Stay & Lessons from Sport
19:42 What Athletes Are Carrying
22:24 Advice for Athletes & Sports Moms

Drop a comment below with the moment from this conversation that hit closest to home for you 👇

📩 Want to connect? Email us at [email protected]

📌 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
🎯 FREE Training for Sports Moms: https://trainhergame.com/mom
📺 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 ⬇️

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:  
⚡️ Nearly 35% of elite youth athletes experience burnout symptoms - with overtraining and no recovery time as the primary drivers (Goodger et al., Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology)  
⚡️ Girls drop out of sports at 6x the rate of boys by age 14, with lack of confidence and emotional burnout cited as leading causes (Women's Sports Foundation)
⚡️ When girls over-identify with sport as their primary identity, they are significantly more likely to experience depression and anxiety when performance dips (Brewer et al., 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.    

#girlssports #mentalperformance #sportsparenting #girlathlete #youthsports

We're coming to Cleveland! 🎟️ Tickets are under $100 for a parent-athlete pair. Grab yours at uscoaches.org - spots are almost gone.

Coach Bre sits down with Mary Herrick, a 40+ year tennis teaching professional and member of the RSPA (Racquet Sports Professionals Association), to talk about an upcoming live in-person event in Cleveland, Ohio on May 9th: From Pressure to Power.

🎤 Event Panelists Include:
Katie Marquardt - Two-time Winter Olympian, World Champion, US Speed Skating Hall of Fame 
Cassie Sant - Division I basketball, played pro in Italy and Australia, Cleveland Cavaliers 
Breanne McLaughlin - Two-time Olympian, 3,809 career saves, first woman to coach men's D1 hockey 
Dobie Moser (Moderator) - Notre Dame "Play Like a Champion" co-director, US Olympic Committee

This event is built for girl athletes AND their parents. The morning is a hands-on workshop covering mental skills for managing pressure, mistake recovery, and the post-game car ride conversation that most families are getting wrong. The afternoon features a powerhouse panel of women who played at the highest levels and have real stories to share about navigating pressure, doubt, and what it actually takes to stay in the game.

✅ Why the car ride home matters more than most parents realize
✅ What girl athletes need mentally that their coaches aren't teaching
✅ How Coach Bre quit volleyball at 18 despite college offers - and what she learned
✅ What a 40-year tennis coach has observed about kids who make it vs. kids who don't
✅ Why this event goes beyond sports
 
🕓 Key Moments:
00:00 Workshop Promo
01:54 Meet Coach Mary Herrick
03:50 Why Kids Quit Sports
06:57 Coach Bre's Story: Quitting Under Pressure
08:56 The Event Vision
10:08 The Car Ride Home
11:53 Handling Pressure & Competition
13:07 Mental Skills & The Event Day
15:19 The Panelists
19:37 The Impact & Call to Action
 
🎟️ Tickets are under $100 for a parent-athlete pair. Grab yours at uscoaches.org - spots are almost gone.
 
📌 Resources & Tools
🎯 FREE Training for Sports Moms: https://trainhergame.com/mom
🙌 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.: Girls who participate in sports are 7% more likely to graduate college and show higher civic engagement rates (Women's Sports Foundation, Her Life Depends On It III, 2016)
 
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.      
 
#girlssports #mentalperformance #sportsparenting #girlathlete #youthsports

💛 She looks up at you more than you think. And what she sees is shaping her confidence → https://trainhergame.com/mom

Colleen was the mom on the sidelines with her hands in the air, head down, eyes rolling every time things went wrong for her daughter Lily on the court. 

She had no idea Lily was looking up at her over 100 times every single tournament weekend. And every one of those reactions was adding pressure to an athlete who was already drowning in it.

Lily was losing her love for volleyball. She dreaded practice. And nothing Colleen said at home was helping.

So Colleen made a decision to change what she was bringing to those sidelines. She learned when to speak and when to stay quiet. She asked Lily what she actually needed instead of assuming. And she started showing up differently.

Two weeks later, Lily was smiling at practice again. Her husband noticed without being told. And by the end of the season, Lily's coaches voted her team captain.

This is their story.

What You'll Learn:
✅ How your sideline reactions are affecting your daughter's performance without you realizing it
✅ Why you might be saying the right things at the wrong times
✅ The one question that completely changed how Lily communicates with her mom
✅ What it looks like when a struggling athlete starts to find herself again

🙋‍♀️ Hi, I'm Coach Bre, a certified Mental Performance Coach and former collegiate athlete with 14 years of coaching experience, including 4 state championships. I'm also the co-founder of The Elite Competitor and host of the Raising Elite Competitors podcast, where I help sports moms strengthen their daughter's mental game so they can perform their best when it matters most. 

🎙️ Colleen is a sports mom from Georgia whose daughter Lily, 14, plays club and high school volleyball. She joined a live panel during The What To Say Challenge just weeks after joining The Elite Mental Game - and her honesty will stop you in your tracks.

🕓 Key Moments:
00:00 Lily's Story: Introduction
02:01 Meet Colleen and Lily
02:50 A Season Full of Obstacles
04:56 Three Setters and a First-Time Coach
06:29 Exhausting Every Option
09:27 Getting Lily Bought Into the Program
12:00 Two Weeks In: Smiling at Practice Again
16:44 The Sideline Wake-Up Call
24:22 Lily Advocates for Herself and Earns Team Captain
31:18 Key Takeaways for Sports Parents

💬 Moms - comment below: How many times do you think your daughter looks at you during a game or practice? Drop your guess below.

📌 Resources & Tools
🎯 FREE Training for Sports Moms: https://trainhergame.com/mom
🙌 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 

P.S.: Athletes report watching their parents an average of once per minute during competition - and a parent's nonverbal reactions directly affect their stress levels and performance. (Journal of Applied Sport Psychology)

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.      

#girlssports #mentalperformance #sportsparenting #girlathlete #youthsports

Athletes: Your brain finds evidence for whatever you tell it. Take the quiz to find your competitor style, then watch your personalized playlist → https://www.videoask.com/fnbmhduxy

The words you say to yourself during practice aren't just thoughts. They're instructions your brain follows - and "this is too hard" is sending your brain straight to the exit.

👋🏼 I'm Coach Bre, a Certified Mental Performance Coach and former 4x state championship volleyball coach with 14 years of experience. I help girl athletes ages 11-18 build unshakeable confidence and develop the mental skills that create a competitive advantage. At The Elite Competitor, we believe your mental game is what separates good athletes from great ones.

In this episode, I'm breaking down:
✅ Why "this is too hard" quietly tanks your performance
✅ The science behind why your brain builds a case against you
✅ The 3-word swap that keeps your brain working FOR you
✅ How athlete Laura used mental tools to win a championship

This is the mental rep most athletes skip. The ones who don't? They're the ones who get better faster.

🕓 Key Moments:
00:00 Intro & Community Shoutout 
01:02 The Problem: "This Is Too Hard" 
01:36 Coach Brie's Story 
02:30 The Science: Reticular Activating System 
04:12 The Swap: "I'm Figuring It Out" 
05:45 Your Challenge & Call to Action

💬 Athletes - comment below: try this at your next practice then let me know how it goes 👇

💡 MENTAL TRAINING RESOURCES FOR ATHLETES:
🔗 Free Training: trainhergame.com
🔗 The Elite Mental Game Program: elitecompetitor.com/emg
🔗 Instagram: @raising.elite.competitors
🔗 FREE Training for Sports Moms: https://trainhergame.com/mom
📺 YouTube Playlist for Athletes: https://www.youtube.com/@AthleteMentalEdge
🙌 What's Your Competitor Style Quiz (for athletes!): https://www.videoask.com/fnbmhduxy
📩 Questions? Email us: [email protected]

🔔 Subscribe for more mental training tips for girl athletes.

P.S. If you're curious about the science behind this - here's what the research shows:
⚡️ Athletes who use positive self-talk improve performance by up to 23% compared to athletes using negative self-talk (Hatzigeorgiadis et al., Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2011)
⚡️ Athletes with a growth mindset are 34% more likely to persist through challenging tasks than those with a fixed mindset (Dweck, Stanford University)
⚡️ 80-85% of elite athletes use intentional self-talk as a performance strategy - yet most young athletes are never taught how (Association for Applied Sport Psychology)

The Raising Elite Competitors channel is hosted by The Elite Competitor and is dedicated to helping girl athletes and their sports moms strengthen the mental game so she can perform her best when it matters most.

#girlathlete #athletemindset #mentaltraining

Six brain facts unpacked. Learn how to help her use her brain to her advantage. Free training for sports moms 👉 https://trainhergame.com/mom 

When she freezes, spirals after one mistake, or mentally checks out under pressure, most people call it a confidence problem. It's not. It's six specific, documented brain functions that nobody ever taught her how to work with.

🙋‍♀️ Hi, I'm Coach Bre, a certified Mental Performance Coach and former collegiate athlete with 14 years of coaching experience, including 4 state championships. I'm also the co-founder of The Elite Competitor and host of the Raising Elite Competitors podcast, where I help sports moms strengthen their daughter's mental game so they can perform their best when it matters most. 

In this episode, I'm breaking down the real neuroscience behind what's happening in her mind during competition and exactly what you can say and do to help.
Including:
✅ Why visualization before competition is actual training time
✅ The one-word swap that Harvard research says improves performance
✅ How her mistake response in practice is wiring her response in games
✅ Why she replays the one bad play and ignores five great ones
✅ The daily habit that rewires her brain to scan for progress

You are not helpless watching her struggle. You have more influence over her mental game than most parents realize - and this video shows you exactly how to use it.

💬 Key Moments:
00:00 Introduction
01:13 Brain Fact #1: Visualization
02:42 Brain Fact #2: Anxiety vs. Excitement
04:24 Brain Fact #3: Your Brain Believes What You Repeat
05:53 Brain Fact #4: Practice Wires Your Response
07:53 Brain Fact #5: Negativity Bias
09:45 Brain Fact #6: The Brain Is Trainable
11:24 Recap & Next Steps

💬 Moms - comment below: which of these 6 brain facts surprised you most? 

📌 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
🎯 FREE Training for Sports Moms: https://trainhergame.com/mom
📺 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 

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:  
⚡️ Athletes who told themselves "I'm excited" instead of "I'm nervous" performed measurably better under pressure - not calmer, actually better. (Harvard Business School, Alison Wood Brooks)
⚡️ Mental rehearsal activates the same neural pathways as physical practice. Two minutes of visualization before competition is not downtime. It's training. (Cleveland Clinic)
⚡️ 70% of youth athletes quit organized sports by age 13, with pressure and lack of enjoyment cited as top reasons. The mental game is not optional. (Aspen Institute Project Play, 2019)

The Raising Elite Competitors 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.    

#girlssports #mentalperformance #sportsparenting #girlathlete #youthsports