Raising Elite Competitors

Preparing her for tryouts is more about your calm than her skill. Learn more about how we help you help her → https://trainhergame.com/mom

***Resources & Tools***

FREE for YOU:
🎓 Strengthen Your Athlete's Mental Game - 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 & Community Shoutout
01:44 Check Your Own Nerves First
02:46 Defining Her Goals for Tryouts
05:14 Practical Prep for Tryout Day
06:53 Mental Training Tools
09:52 Handling Disappointment & Resilience
11:06 Wrap-Up & Final Encouragement

👋🏼 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.  

Tryout season brings out nerves in both of you, and most of what actually helps happens before tryout day even arrives. This episode walks through how to prepare her without adding pressure, what coaches are really watching for, and how to handle it if the outcome isn't what she hoped.  

What You'll Learn:  
✅ How to check your own tryout stress before it becomes hers - What to do in the weeks (not just the day) before tryouts 
✅ The intangibles coaches are really scoring, beyond skill (hustle, resilience, teammate energy) 
✅ Simple mental tools for the lead-up: breathwork, visualization, and the Snapback Routine 
✅ How to handle disappointment after tryouts without raising a victim mindset  

💬 Moms — comment below: What's your go-to thing to say to her in the days before tryouts?  

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:  
⚡️ Girls who quit sports are far more likely to have had parents who pressured them to play or compared them to other players (Aspen Institute / Project Play National Youth Athlete Survey, 2026)  
⚡️ Self-talk interventions produce a measurable, moderate improvement in athletic performance, especially on newly-learned skills, exactly the conditions of a tryout (Hatzigeorgiadis et al., Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2011)  
⚡️ Diaphragmatic breathing measurably lowers cortisol, the body's stress hormone, in athletes under physical stress (Martarelli et al., Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 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.  

#sportsmom #tryoutseason #mentalperformance #girlssports #sportsparenting
Join the Elite Competitor Athlete Challenge Aug 18-20th!
join.elitecompetitor.com/challenge

Your daughter's intensity might be her biggest advantage, not a problem to fix.  

***Resources & Tools***

FREE for YOU:
🎓 Strengthen Your Athlete's Mental Game - 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!

Learn more about Wendy and Fresh Start Family!
Wendy Snyder — certified positive parenting educator & family life coach, Founder of Fresh Start Family, host of The Fresh Start Family Show
Book: Fresh Start Your Family: Powerful Parenting to Restore Peace in Your Home (Wiley)
Instagram: @freshstartwendy (not @frustratewendy)
Website: https://freshstartfamilyonline.com  

***⏰ Key Timestamps***
00:00 Introduction: The Gift of Strong-Willed Kids
01:22 Meet Wendy Snyder & Fresh Start Family
02:54 Wendy's Journey Raising a Strong-Willed Daughter
03:59 From Autocratic to Firm-and-Kind Parenting
09:07 What Is a Cactus Kid?
10:57 Traits of Strong-Willed Kids & Future Leaders
16:06 Coaching Cactus Kids: Earning Respect
20:46 Compassionate Discipline vs. Punishment
22:29 Handling Intensity Without Disrespect
27:13 Teaching Peaceful Conflict Resolution & Win-Win
33:30 Team Conversations & Detachment Skills
38:23 Red Flags in Coaching & When to Step In
43:21 Closing Thoughts & Where to Find Wendy

👋🏼 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. 

🎙 Joining me this week is Wendy Snyder, certified positive parenting educator, family life coach, and founder of Fresh Start Family. Wendy raised her own strong-willed daughter into a Division I beach volleyball recruit, and now teaches thousands of families how to do the same.  

Wendy talks about raising what she calls "cactus kids," beautiful, strong-willed kids who are a lot to handle if nobody's taught you how. If your daughter comes home intense after a bad game, argues with the ref in her head for days, or gets side-eyed for having "too much" personality, this one's for you.  

What You'll Learn: 
✅ Why "strong-willed" and "intense" aren't warning signs, they're leadership traits in disguise 
✅ The real difference between an intense athlete and a disrespectful one 
✅ A simple win-win script to help your daughter work through teammate conflict without shame 
✅ What to actually say (and not say) when a coach flags her attitude 
✅ How to know when to step in with a coach, and when to let her handle it herself

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:  
⚡️ Structured sports programs that intentionally built in social-emotional goals improved athletes' emotion regulation by standardized effect sizes up to 0.72 across 7 peer-reviewed studies (Kanaros & Bourdaniotis, Futurity Education, 2025)  
⚡️ A study of 295 Swiss elite teen athletes found coach-athlete relationship quality directly predicted burnout months later (Gerber et al., Sports Psychiatry, 2024)  
⚡️ Among youth athletes who quit, "I'm not good enough" and "bad coaching" were the top two reasons cited, with former players reporting far more parental pressure than current players (Aspen Institute Project Play, 2026)  

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.  

#mentalgame #sportsmom #strongwilledchild #coachbre #raisingathletes
Join the Elite Competitor Athlete Challenge Aug 18-20th!
join.elitecompetitor.com/challenge

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
Join the Elite Competitor Athlete Challenge Aug 18-20th!
join.elitecompetitor.com/challenge

"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
Join the Elite Competitor Athlete Challenge Aug 18-20th!
join.elitecompetitor.com/challenge

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
Join the Elite Competitor Athlete Challenge Aug 18-20th!
join.elitecompetitor.com/challenge