(But High School and College Coaches Always Notice Them) By Coach Dave There’s something I see every year in youth sports and it’s something I also hear about directly from high school and college coaches across the country. Some athletes are loud with their effort.Some are emotional.Some need constant reminders, motivation, or correction. And then there are the athletes who quietly show up every day, do their job, and compete the right way. Ironically, those athletes often get less attention early on. Not because they aren’t good, but because they’re reliable. When an athlete brings consistent effort, a steady attitude, and handles adversity without drama, coaches don’t worry about them. They don’t have to manage them. They don’t have to guess who is going to show up. And that’s exactly what coaches value most. What Coaches Actually Look For Through my conversations with coaches at every level, one message comes up over and over: “We want athletes we can trust.” College coaches aren’t just recruiting talent.They’re recruiting predictability. They ask questions like: - Will this athlete show up the same way every day? - How do they respond when they’re not playing well? - How do they handle coaching? - Do they stay composed when things don’t go their way? Talent gets you noticed.Consistency gets you playing time and recruited. The Difference Between Inconsistent and Game-Ready Athletes Most young athletes aren’t inconsistent because they don’t care.They’re inconsistent because they haven’t trained the mental side of their game yet. One day they’re locked in.The next day they’re frustrated. One game they respond well to mistakes.The next game they spiral. Coaches see this immediately. A game-ready athlete isn’t perfect.They’re dependable. - Their effort doesn’t swing with emotion - Their body language doesn’t collapse - Their response to adversity is steady That’s not personality. That’s mental performance training. Why “Boring” Is Actually a Compliment in Recruiting

By Coach Dave As a parent, you’ve probably heard your child say something like: - “I don’t know why I get so nervous.” - “I mess things up when it matters.” - “Other kids don’t struggle like I do.” And quietly, many young athletes start to believe something is wrong with them. This is one of the biggest misunderstandings in youth sports today. Mental performance challenges are not a flaw.They are not a weakness.And they do not mean your child is broken. In fact, they mean your child is human. Why Young Athletes Think Something Is Wrong Most young athletes are taught how to train their bodies: - Strength - Speed - Skill - Conditioning But very few are taught how to train their mind. So when emotions show up—nerves, frustration, fear, self-doubt—athletes assume they’re doing something wrong. They believe confidence should just appear. That toughness means never feeling stress. That elite athletes don’t struggle mentally. None of that is true. The problem isn’t that your athlete feels pressure.The problem is that no one has taught them what to do with it. Why Elite Athletes Train Their Mind Mental performance training exists because pressure never goes away—it increases. That’s why professional athletes and teams openly invest in mental performance coaches: - NBA teams employ full-time mental performance staff - NFL quarterbacks work with sports psychologists on focus and emotional control - Olympic athletes train visualization, breathwork, and mental routines as seriously as physical ones - MLB hitters work on failure management because they fail more than they succeed Elite athletes don’t train mentally because they’re weak. They train mentally because the margins are thin. At the highest level, everyone is skilled.The difference is who stays composed, confident, and present when things get hard. Mental Toughness Is Not What Most People Think Many parents grew up believing mental toughness meant: - “Push through it” - “Don’t think about it” - “Just be confident” - “Shake it off”

The winter off-season is where college roster spots are earned ❄️⚽️, but only if you are training correctly. Too many players spend these months on machines designed for aesthetics rather than athletic performance. It can be enticing to chase those abs or bigger quads, but I would argue that doesn't get you where you want to go 🤔. To prepare for the spring, prioritize strength training that offers a high return on investment for the pitch 📈: • 🔄 Swap the Leg Extension for Squats and Deadlifts to build power that translates directly to the game. • 🔄 Swap the Leg Press for Bulgarian Split Squats to produce force one leg at a time, mimicking the demands of running, shooting, and cutting. HUGE MASTER TIP • Decide on your reps guided by your weak leg. If your left isn't as strong, start the sets with that leg. If you can do 8 with the left and 12 with the right, don't force the left into 12. Instead, bring the right to 8 until they are balanced and equal. Remember, your goal is to be an explosive athlete on the field, not just the strongest person in the gym. Train for the game, not the mirror 🏆🪞. Best of luck, and let me know your thoughts! 👋

Coach Dave Most young athletes plan their future based on how they feel right now. They look at: - Their current confidence - Their current skill level - Their current role on the team - Their current struggles And then they ask, “What’s realistic for me this season?” That question feels responsible.But it’s also the reason many athletes never break through. Because elite athletes don’t plan forward from who they are today.They plan backward from who they want to become. A High School Example I See All the Time I once worked with a high school basketball player who desperately wanted to become a varsity starter by his junior year. But every plan he made sounded like this:“I’m not strong enough yet.”“I’m not confident enough yet.”“I’m probably not there yet.” So, his goals stayed small. His effort stayed safe. Then we flipped the conversation. Instead of asking, “What can I realistically do right now?”We asked, “What does a varsity starter look like?” - How do they move? - How do they communicate? - How do they handle mistakes? - How do they prepare when no one is watching? Once we defined that version of him, the plan changed completely. Every workout had purpose.Every practice had intention.Every choice either moved him closer to that version, or away from it. That’s when growth accelerated. Why Planning from the Present Holds Athletes Back When athletes plan only from where they are: - Today’s stress limits tomorrow’s goals - Current confidence defines future belief - Short-term discomfort feels like a stop sign It’s like a sprinter only training at the speed they can run today, instead of the speed they need to win. They’ll improve a little…But they’ll never separate. Parents, this is important too. When we constantly ask kids to “be realistic,” we often mean “don’t stretch too far.”But growth requires stretch. How Elite Athletes Think Differently Elite performers start with the end in mind. Think about a championship-level athlete. They don’t say:“What can I achieve based on how tired I feel today?”

A Coach Dave Story for Athletes and Parents At the beginning of this year, one of the athletes I work with was on the verge of a breakthrough. Their training numbers were skyrocketing. Conditioning was sharp. Confidence was high. Every session felt like another step closer to the kind of season athletes dream about. You could feel momentum building, like everything was finally clicking into place. And then, in one moment, everything shifted. During a routine workout, they felt a strange little “off” sensation in their ankle. Not a sharp pain. Not something that screams stop now. Just a whisper, the kind athletes usually brush off because they’re so used to pushing through discomfort. That tiny whisper turned out to be a stress fracture… a serious one. Within hours, this athlete went from preparing for their best season yet to sitting in a doctor’s office hearing words no athlete wants to hear: “You’re in a cast. No weight bearing. No running. Six weeks minimum.” The physical injury was real, but the mental impact was something far deeper. The Mental Battle Most Athletes Don’t See Coming When an athlete gets sidelined, it’s not just the body that takes the hit.It’s the identity.The routine.The sense of progress.The feeling of belonging. For this athlete, every emotion hit hard and fast: - Frustration - Sadness - Jealousy watching teammates train - Fear of falling behind - Worry about losing everything they had built And parents, you see it too.You see the shift in their mood, their motivation, their confidence. Injuries can rattle even the strongest kids. One of the hardest moments for this athlete was scrolling through teammates’ workouts… seeing the runs, drills, practices they wanted to be part of. They were happy for their friends, but they were hurting on the inside. And that’s normal.Every athlete goes through a version of this when the sport is suddenly taken away. But injuries also reveal something important: When the routine cracks, you see what your foundation is really made of.