Grateful for my girls, like Kahlia, who do the work!

Knowing how to handle failure, shift your mindset, and understand how to create real confidence is helping Kahlia in more than just her success on the field, but her happiness in life. Win-win!

[VIDEO TESTIMONIAL] 

I have a few openings before the end of the year in my program, The Confident Athlete! Learn more here. If you have questions, reply here! 

Paige

Watch and learn from former Ferris and Aquinas Soccer Player and now coach, Merin McDermott on finding confidence.

Here are some of the things that really stuck with me after our conversation:

How she leans on faith to be confident...

- I prayed for everything - to be the best.

What she does to feel confident in games...

- Stand like a superhero on the line before games and soak it in and it helped me feel mentally strong - it turned into a thing with my team.

How Merin bounces back from mistakes...

- Turning my thoughts to how grateful I was to be able to play this game.

Important advice for athletes from Merin...

- Get off your phone and go have fun!

- Play all the high school sports you can!

- When it comes to friends - quality over quantity

- Learn how to fuel your body in a healthy way!

I just love that we can learn from athletes like Merin who have been through it! Thanks, Merin for sharing and being transparent about your journey!! The athletes you coach are so blessed to...

Watch and learn from current Western Kentucky soccer player, Kenlee Newcom on how to create confidence.

Here are some of the things that really stuck with me after our conversation:

How she leans on faith to be confident...

- If you build your confidence on something shaky, it's going to waver. If it's in Christ or truth, then you will be confident all the time in that.

What she does to feel confident in games...

- Pre-Game Routine: Pray for Him to help me not think, let go of my thoughts. Listen to worship music.

- During Game: Thinking about how this is a game you've played for so long, just play!

How Kenlee bounces back from mistakes...

- Have a short-term memory and choose to think something different to let it go!

Important advice for athletes from Kenlee...

- Don't be afraid to do the work.

- Don't worry about what everyone else thinks. Be different.

- Be where your feet are.

- Your mental health is just as important as your physical health.

- Focus on what you can control...

Do you feel like your daughter is struggling mentally in the recruiting process? 

Comparing herself to all the other athletes? 

Putting so much pressure on herself? 

Feeling overwhelmed with all of it? 

Feels like she has to prove herself constantly? 

I feel for her. I remember clearly how stressful this process was to attain the biggest goals and dreams that I had set out for myself.

I feel for you. It’s so hard watching her struggle with something that is actually supposed to be fun and fulfilling for your daughter. 

I want to share this message I received from one of my athletes just recently…

THIS is why working on mindset is one of the most important things an athlete can do.

This athlete was able to go from a lot of overwhelm, stress, negative thinking, worrying, and comparing to shifting the way she thinks about the situation and herself.

HOW AMAZING IS THAT?! 

I can help your daughter get here too. Hit reply and let’s...

I’m going to guess that this is what it looks like for you and your family heading to the first game of the tournament Saturday morning…

You’re rushing out the door to get to the fields/courts/pool on time.
On the car ride over, you’re hoping you guys have everything you need and she’s wearing the right uniform.
Your daughter shows up just on time to throw her gear on and start warm ups with her team.

You might feel stressed from that whirlwind of a morning. It might even feel like it’s already noon, but it’s only 7am lol.

Guess what… your daughter is feeling all that stress from the crazy morning too. And going straight into her warm ups to go compete at the highest level that she possibly can.

No preparation to feel relaxed and confident going into the big tournament.

I can’t predict the future, but I can guess that this leads to a lot of games where she looks hesitant out there, afraid to make mistakes, and just downright...

Watch and learn from former Bama softball player, Ashley Prange on what it takes to trust yourself.

Here are some of the things that really stuck with me after our conversation:

"My confidence came from the conversations and communication I had with my coaches and teammates."

"My confidence was created because I was the rep Queen." — I love that Ashley shared how get reps in that was fun.

"My purpose is always bigger than myself."

"Surround yourself with people who are going to love you even if you go 0 for 4 or 4 for 4."

I love how real Ashley is. I can’t wait to watch her continue to thrive and make an impact on this game.

You can follow Ashley at…

Follow: @ashley_prange

Loved this interview? Share it with another mom or dad or athlete that would love it too!

Paige

I have mentored and coached 100s and 100s of girl athletes now and it’s safe to say almost none of them had a pre-game mindset routine. Meaning, none of them did anything to prepare for their games mentally. To create confidence before going into their games. 

There is one little thing that will help your athlete have confidence in herself.

That one little thing is watching a Confidence Reel of herself before games. AKA, a video she puts together of herself succeeding multiple times!

This is visualization in the form of video! Visualization is a powerful mental training skill because it triggers the parts of your brain that make you think you really did something that you imagined. Meaning, when you visualize yourself being successful at something, your brain believes it’s real! 

Your athlete doing this one little thing can make such a huge difference in her confidence AND it’s something simple and fun. 

Here are a few responses from girl athletes...

Has your daughter ever made a mistake or failed and all she can think about and see is the replay of that mistake or failure?

She’s been using visualization…. but, for the bad.

It’s okay, she can use visualization for the good and it’s going to help her be the most confident version of herself out there.

When athletes visualize (aka seeing themselves succeed at something), they actually stimulate the same brain regions as they do when they physically perform the same action. So, what that means is, the brain is tricking the body into thinking you physically did whatever you visualized!

When I visualize myself hitting a homerun (and let’s be honest… I haven’t done that since college – 9 years ago ), my body thinks I really did that, so it feels like I can do it. That I am capable of that right now. Today! In this moment!

Visualization can do that for your athlete too. We just need to get her to understand the importance and how to do...

Is your daughter so focused on the results (aka her statistics) that she’s not even playing well anymore? Or even worse, not having fun anymore? 

She might be playing for the wrong reasons. 

I know that I was obsessed with my batting average growing up. I remember bunting or even getting out and thinking about how it was going to lower my batting average. It would make me so upset. I think it’s safe to say, this kind of obsession over the results and stats was not helping me play freely, with confidence, and performing the way I knew how to. It was holding me back from my full potential. I was playing for the wrong reasons. 

Here’s the tricky part. How do you get your daughter to let go of the results (statistics) and play for the joy of the game? 

I’m going to walk you through how to help her see playing from a whole new perspective. 

1 Have your daughter write down her goals for playing, competing, and being an athlete

Oftentimes,...

If you guys haven’t seen, I’ve been interviewing former and current athletes and coaches on my Instagram live and it’s been amazing! One of the things I am determined to do is provide you with insight and experience from people who have been through what your daughter is going through. One of the recent guests, Head Field Hockey Coach at Liberty University, Nikki Parsley-Blocker, said, “Confidence is a choice, not a feeling.” That has really stuck with me since hearing it.

Way too often, we determine how we are going to play or perform based on if we “feel” confident or not. But, that’s all backwards because confidence is a choice. We have to choose to be confident.

So many girls that I work with struggle with negative self-talk. Things like…

“I’m not good enough.”

“I’m afraid to fail and let everyone down.”

“I don’t want to play like I did last weekend.”

“My swing...