How I Start the Season: First Week of Practice from a 4x State Title Coach

 💥 Steal my exact first-week system that builds toughness fast—then get the free training for all the drills & scripts: https://coachfreetraining.com

I’m Coach Bre — a mental performance coach for girl athletes, Co-Founder of The Elite Competitor, and a long-time head volleyball coach + 4x state champion. In this episode, I pull back the curtain on how I start the season strong with our “Earn the Right” challenge series—designed to level up fundamentals, team play, and the mental game from Day 1. 🏆

What you’ll learn (and steal) ⤵️
✅ How to run “Earn the Right” step-by-step: from individual ball control to 6-on-6 team drills
✅ The exact mental training & preparation I give athletes before high-pressure reps (self-talk, SnapBack routine, visualization, and athlete reset cues)
✅ Why “earned, not given” builds buy-in, accountability, and culture fast
✅ How to tie challenges to gear to reinforce standards (jerseys, backpacks, warm-ups)
✅ The importance of fundamentals before systems — and the progression I use to reduce mistakes under pressure

Why this works 💡This first-week framework blends coaching tips, high-rep skill progressions, and intentional pressure so athletes practice how they’ll respond when it matters. It’s sport-agnostic: adapt the reps and standards to your team’s level and watch confidence and connection rise. 🔁

🕓 Key Moments
00:00 Introduction and Coach Bree's Background
00:52 The Concept of 'Earn the Right'
01:39 Purpose and Benefits of 'Earn the Right'
03:21 Mental Training and Preparation
06:58 Detailed Breakdown of Challenges
09:22 Small Group and Team Drills
14:28 Final Challenges and Team Play
17:14 Implementing 'Earn the Right' in Your Program

 Coaches — comment below: Which “Earn the Right” challenge would you adapt first for your sport, and what gear will athletes earn?

📌 Ready to build your team’s mental game confidently:
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🔹 Follow us on IG → @elitecompetitorcoach 
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Head to coachfreetraining.com to grab our free training for coaches to quickly level-up your team's mental game!

Transcript

1:04

I've been coaching volleyball for 14 years, won four state titles as a coach, and I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. I do the same exact thing the first week of practice every season. And no, it's not because I'm out of ideas or I'm stuck in my ways, it's because it works. And in this episode, I'm gonna be pulling back the curtain on an activity that I do that my players secretly love and hate at the same time, but really sets the tone for our season. And if I haven't met you. I'm Coach Bree. I am a mental performance coach for girl athletes. I work with teams and coaches across the country to build the mental strength of their programs, including their culture and their systems, and all the things that go into building a really strong program. And one of those things are your routines and your structures and the things that you do from season to season that kind of build the foundation of what you're doing. So something that I do within the. First week of the season, every single year is an activity called Earn the Right. Now, I can't take full credit for this because I actually got the idea from my college coach. We used to do something called Earn the Right Within Preseason. Basically, it's a series of challenges that my athletes go through in order to earn their gear, but it's very intentionally designed and we do it for a purpose. So in this episode, I'm gonna be talking about. What the purpose of earn the right is why we do it within the first week of practice. Exactly how I run it now, I do it as a volleyball coach. I'm gonna be talking about. Volleyball skills, but you can apply this to whatever sport that you coach. And then finally, how you can do this within your program, if you really wanna start your season off on a good note and set the tone for your culture from day one. So first of all, why we do earn the right, and as an overview, earn the right is a series of six challenges that I have my team go through and I'm gonna tell you about what they are. Specifically in the next part, but basically they start with individual challenges and they end with team challenges. And they're designed to kind of frustrate athletes. They're designed to put them in challenging situations that they have to mentally and physically work through individually and also as a team. And it's not to make them. You know, doubt themselves or break them down to build them back up. Like these challenges are doable. I've been doing it for 14 years and every single team, every single year has been able to get through the challenges. It's not easy, but they do get through and there's a sense of accomplishment and pride, and sometimes girls even cry like happy tears when they get through it. But the reason why we do it is, um, a, a few things. First of all, we say it's earn the right, because we include and tie in their gear with. The completion of some of these challenges. So each challenge that they complete, you know, they're, like I said, there's six of them. They earn a different part of their gear, so they earn their jerseys, their backpacks, their jackets, their warmups. So if you have something in your program. That you give to your athletes. Maybe you give them their jerseys, you give them their backpacks, any gear like that, we say everything is earned not given. And so we literally make them earn the practice shirts and the jerseys and all the things so that from day one, they learn they have to work for things. They're not just given things. They're not just given wins. They're not just given accolades or anything like that. They have. To earn it. Okay, so that's one, one way, one reason why we do it. Another reason is because it's hard and I want my athletes to be mentally tough. One of the things that we teach in our program is mental strength, mental toughness. We train the mental side of the game. So I actually give my athletes mental training tools before we go to earn the right. And so simple things like how to come back from mistakes, um, because they're gonna make a lot of mistakes and earn the right how, what to do, and how to control your, um, emotions. Regulate yourself when you're feeling frustrated with yourself or with your teammates. Okay? So simple things like that. How to talk to yourself when you feel like you can't go anymore. That's mental training. And if you wanna learn specifically about the mental training skills that I teach my team, go to my free training. It's at coach free training.com. I teach all the things that I teach to my team within this season in a very simple to use way. I also tell you about my program, plug and Play Elite Mental Game for Teams. This is the. Literal plug and play program that you can use with your, your team if you want to incorporate mental training, but you don't have a lot of time, you don't wanna become a sports psychologist, all of that, like you literally just press play and your team can also get these mental training skills. So anyways, I wanna test their mental strength. I want them to have opportunities to use those mental training skills and put them in tough situations because the game is not gonna be easy. We've won four consecutive state championships. The target on our back just gets bigger and bigger and bigger each year, and every single team is going to be giving us their best. And so I need practice to be harder than what they're going to see in a game. I need them to be under some pressure situations and I need them to practice how they're going to respond. And so I, I designed that in practice and earn the right is one of the ways. That we do that. So they get frustrated with themselves and they get the opportunity to use the mental training skills that they've learned to get over that. Okay. And get through it. The other thing is that they get frustrated with their teammates. They're, as they progress through, earn the right, they also are in some small group drills. Um, they're in drills where they're with their whole team and. It can be frustrating because part of it is if somebody makes a mistake or doesn't complete part of the drill, we go back to the beginning. It can be hard to be that person who made the mistake. It can also be hard to be the teammate that's like, oh my gosh, we were so close, and then all of a sudden this person messed up. And how do you show up as a teammate when one of your other teammates is struggling or when you're frustrated with somebody? And so I, I intentionally put them in that situation in practice through earn the right. So that it's not, they're not meeting it for the first time when they're in a pressure situation in a game. So it also allows for some team dynamics and some team bonding. Not just this like, rah rah, you know, we love each other. Team bonding. This like real life. I'm frustrated, I wanna get this over with team bonding and we've gotta work through it and work together. So that's another purpose. And then finally, um, it's skill progression. So I'll talk in a second about what the, the drills actually look like. But the skill progression, they progress from individual ball control drills to six on six team-like drills. And so we say you've got to. Crawl before you walk, walk before you run, um, run before you sprint. And we can't just go to six on six play. You have to earn the right to practice as a team. And in order to earn that right, you've got to demonstrate that you can do these individual drills and you can do these team drills where it is a lot of mechanics and fundamentals because you do not deserve to play in this bigger team setting where we're running systems and, um, you know, going fast if you can't master the basics first. So. A lot of reasons why we do it. A lot of really solid reasons and athletes buy into that, but it's also something that they're like, oh my gosh, earn the right, here we go again. Because like I said, it is challenging. So that is why. That is why we do it. But let's talk about what it actually looks like. Now, of course, I coach volleyball, so you can think about how this might translate to your sport, and I would encourage you. To think about what you want to emphasize. I just talked about, you know, three or four things that I wanna emphasize in my program. Mental toughness, teammate relationships, um, skill progression, earned not given, like those are all really important things in my program, and earn the right reflects that. So think about what that is in your program. So for us, um, the first challenge and earn the right is they have to forearm pass to themselves. For three minutes in a row. So I do this with my varsity team now, JV and C team. The other teams in my program do it as well, but they do a little modified version of it. So, um, they all have to pass to themselves four and pass for three minutes in a row. It's simple ball control. Um, you know, but it, it, it becomes a little bit challenging because all 12 have to complete that three minutes at the same time. So if anybody in that group of 12. It drops the ball. I say Stop, and we start back over. Um, timer at zero. Okay. So the challenge is completed when all 12 players at the same time can pass to themselves for three minutes in the in a row. Okay? So that is challenge number one. Challenge number two is very similar. They set to themselves so. O overhead pass to themselves for two minutes in a row without dropping the ball. And so if anyone on the team drops the ball, we go back down to zero and then we restart the clock. They all need to be able to do it at the same time. Okay? Um, and so those are the first few challenges. And typically athletes like, get through that and know the level of your, the, of your team, okay? Don't put them in a situation that's impossible, okay? So if you know it's not possible for your team to pass to themselves for three minutes in a row. Like they're just not at that skill level, then adjust it. Don't put them in a situation that is impossible, but you do wanna stretch them. Okay? Because it, when they start to redo it, you know, multiple times. And that's when it starts to get frustrating. So it typically takes, um, my varsity team on like our best years. Um, you know, they've gotten through those two things in about 30 minutes, 30 to 45 minutes, um, on not as great years. When we need a little bit more training, it takes a couple of hours and that's really frustrating. Some things that I allow, like I allow unlimited water breaks. Um, captains can always call timeout and be like, Hey, we need to stop, regroup. Like, you know, they start to bond with each other and help each other out in these situations, they start to like. Sing to themselves and talk to each other. They find like kind of the routines that they can settle into. So those are the first two challenges. The second is now we move to some small group stuff. So I call these shuttles. Um, if you're familiar with volleyball, I'm sure you've heard that term, but, um, over a net. So they're in groups of four. Uh, I wouldn't go less than four'cause it starts to get a little fatiguing. Um, and they start with two people on one side of the net, two people on the other. And they basically, they start with, um, they start with passing. So they pass over the net and then they run under the net into the back of the line. Okay. So as a group, they've gotta get 20 passes in a row, and then they switch to setting. They gotta get 20 sets in a row. Okay? And then they switch to passes themselves and. Set over the net in a row, and again, they're running to the back of the line and things like that. Um, and then they have to pass or set to themselves and down ball over the net. Okay, now this is where it gets a little tricky'cause ball control's really important in this. And I think I say I have them do like 16 of that, so four per person or something. Um, so they've gotta do that and then they progress to, I feel like I'm missing one, but. Um, you know, if I think of it, I'll let you know. Um, and then they progress to like two on two over the net play. And they have to control the ball, get a pass, a set, and a hit over. Each person needs to do that three times. Okay? And I put some stipulations on it. I say it can't be the same person hitting every time. So when they get to that, they actually stay on their sides of the net. Um, it's cooperative, but I do want them going up and taking a full swing. I don't want them just like, you know, easy down balling. I want them to actually do the right mechanics. Um, and so once they get three per person. Each person needs to swing three times, then the drill is over. Now, the caveat here is if they mess up at any time in that sequence, they go back to the first thing which is passing. So you go all the way back down to zero. And that's where it can get frustrating in this team setting is that, oh, we were so close and now we've gotta go all the way back down. Two passing. Okay. With my varsity team in 12, there's three groups of four. Not all of the shovels have to get done at the same time. They're just completing it in their little group of four. And so once that little group of four is done, then they're done, even if the other two groups are still going. Okay. Um, and then we progress to, I've switched it up from time to time. Um, we either do some free ball work, so they have to get, um, a hundred free balls perfectly passed in a row. So I'll do a butterfly drill. So if you coach volleyball, like, you know what that means? Um, but they have to pass a hundred perfect free balls. Okay? So if free ball's like just an easy ball, so translate, translate that to whatever sport you play. But it's a very fundamental thing. So we wanna pass a hundred percent of free wills that come our way. Perfectly so that we can run a really good fast offense off of that. So, um, I, I track the outcome, but I also am standing on one side of the nut and I am watching for a couple of things. Are their wrist and hands together, um, is their platform straight and simple? Are they facing the ball, angling to the target and are they calling mine? And if they don't do one of those four things, I say no and we start back over. It might sound harsh to you, but um. It's really not. That's a, that's very basic, very basic things that we need to do every single time. And honestly, as a coach, your players will rise to the standards that you set, or they will fall to the standards that you set in your expectations. So if you allow them to not call the ball, if you allow them to swing their arms all over the place or break their platform, then that's what they're gonna do. And so we, you know, we train that from the very beginning because those little habits are what's going to hurt us down the line if we don't get this right, right now. Okay. So. We do that, that this one goes pretty fast. Um, so they typically can get through that and then we move on to some serve receive. So serving and passing two most important skills in volleyball for this challenge. They had to complete 100, um, sorry. 103 passes. There's a hundred. Um, perfect. Serve, receive passes. Now, this doesn't have to be in a row or anything like that. Serve receive passing is a lot more challenging than free ball passing. But we want to pass 103 passes. That means it's like a perfect pass. We've got all three options on our offense. And how this works for us is, um, you know, everyone's rotating through th serve receive, and everyone's rotating through serving. And then we have. Um, a target. So the target is just catching the ball and then going over to serve. Um, they, if they pass a three, they obviously get a point if they pass a two, so a little bit less than a three, a non-perfect pass, but still pretty good. It's just a wash. We just keep going. And then if they pass a one, um, that's fine, but they cannot, um, they can't pass a one or a zero two times in a row. So a zero is, they get aced. A one is like not a great pass. We can't really do much. With that, you can adjust that too. It's just you can't get aced two times in a row. Um, and then you go back down to zero if that happens. Um, also on serving, if you miss two serves in a row back to back. So if one player goes miss their serve, the next player misses their serve as well. Then we go back down to zero. But they get benchmarks. So every 25 they get to lock in that 25. So that makes it a little bit better. So they're not at like 89 and then they go all the way back down zero. That would, that would take forever. So, um, this one is probably the one that takes the longest for us, but. Honestly, they get so many reps. They get, they get so many reps, um, practicing, serving and passing. And that's what we want at the beginning of season. We want them to get a lot of opportunities to get better. I also can give a ton of feedback on serve, receive during this time. So, um, it's okay that it takes a while. And then the last one is called Bucket of Balls. This is our six on six. So we've progressed now to team play. Yay. Um, how this works is they get a bucket of six balls. Okay. Um, and they have to complete, it's kind of a cooperative drill. Um, they have two minutes in each position, so it's six on six. And again, if you don't, if you don't coach volleyball, then just kind of adjust and think of how this might translate to your sport. But, um. For the first two minutes, it's only setting the outside. Okay. So it's outside versus outside. So outside on one side is gonna swing, hit the ball over. We're gonna pass, set the outside on the other side, and the, that outside is going to, um, hit over the net. And we're practicing defensive systems here, so as well as offense. But are we getting the right defensive systems, um, as we're defending an outside attack? So. They're, um, doing this for two minutes a row, cooperatively. If the ball drops or we mess up, they get another ball in, but they only get six balls. That's what the bucket of balls is. They only get six. Um, it for the whole, for the whole drill. So first two minutes is outsides, second two minutes are middles. So same thing, middle versus middle. Those next two minutes are right sides. So right side versus right side. And the last two minutes is a back row attack versus a back row attack. So we've gotta keep the ball alive or at least six balls for, um, those eight minutes. And if at any time the ball drops, I throw in a new ball. But again, they only get six. So once they've used up all their six, if they didn't get through that eight minutes, so outside, middle, right side and back row attack, then we go back down to zero. Okay? So that is earn the right. Each of those six things is tied to a gear, a piece of gear that they earn. We have practice shirts, jerseys, backpacks, jackets. Um, and then once they're done, they get to move. We get to move on to, you know, whatever else we're doing that season. But at the end of it, I've been able to first of all, give my girls a ton of reps progress through a lot of things. Put them in really challenging situations individually and as a team and really help emphasize a value that we earn everything that we get in this gym. So that's why it works. It really does work because they're, they're being put in situations that I want them to be in, especially when it comes to mental training. You know, a lot of times athletes don't actually get into that situation until they're in a game and the game is on the line and it's big pressure. And so this is one of the ways that we add pressure into practice is literally putting in them in situations. That are designed to make them be challenged and designed to make them fail a little bit. Like how are they going to respond and it's best when they have skills to use in those situations, okay? You can't just throw them into the deep end and expect them to just like sink or swim. So that's why we actually train simple mental training skills even before they start earn the right so that they have skills to fall back on. So again, if you wanna learn some of those skills, go to my free training. It's at coach free training.com and I'll lay that out all out for you. Now, how can you do this with your team? I already kind of gave you some suggestions, but what do you value? What do you value on your team skill, mental training wise, team culture, and that's how you're going to tie, tie in. Some of that, I would think of, you don't have to do six, I've evolved this over the years. You can start with just like three challenges that you want your team to do, and then think of like, okay, what is the skill level of my team? What would be challenging but also doable for them? And then come up with some challenges and how you present it is really important too. Um, the why behind it is key because they're going to get frustrated and they're gonna get like, you know, potentially mad at themselves, mad at their teammates. And so they need to understand like, why are we doing this? Okay. It's pretty easy as a, from a coach standpoint to understand why, but sometimes it. You know, team teams don't, athletes maybe won't understand it unless you really give them a reason. So think of what your values are. Come up with some simple challenges that you can do and maybe if you can, you know, tie it to earning some gear so that um, they're not just getting handouts and um, they are earning what they're getting. So hopefully this is helpful. Helpful and gives you some ideas of what you can do. Like I said, I've done the same thing for the past 14 years, um, and it's been. It's been fun. It's actually something that athletes look forward to, but also dread. They can practice for it over the summer too. Like I actually encourage them, make sure you're doing some ball controls so that are in the right coming. Um, and then when they get through it, they just feel like they've accomplished so much and it's a really great way to start the season. So, all right everybody. I'm Coach Bre, mental performance coach for girl athletes. I hope this was helpful for you as a coach. Again, check out our free training coach free training.com if you want to learn more, and I'll see you in the next episode of the Coach Her Game podcast.