How to Coach the Mental Game During the Postseason (3 Keys for High School Coaches)

You know how the postseason feels different...brighter lights, bigger crowds, higher stakes? Learn how to coach the mental game when it matters most → https://coachfreetraining.com

The postseason doesn’t build character, it exposes it. The lights are brighter, the stakes are higher, and the pressure is real. So how do you help your team perform under pressure without overcomplicating things? In this video, I share the 3 keys high school coaches need to build mental toughness and confidence during the postseason, drawn straight from my own experience leading my teams to four consecutive state championships. 🏆

I’m Coach Bre, a mental performance coach for girl athletes, Co-Founder of The Elite Competitor, and a long-time head volleyball coach and 4× state champion. Over the years, I’ve learned that postseason success comes down to preparation, consistency, and mindset...not magic.

🎯 In this episode, you’ll learn:
✅ How to tighten up what got you here
✅ Why your athletes need familiarity when pressure rises
✅ How to anchor into pregame and mental routines like 3-2-1 BRAVE
✅ How naming emotions and reframing nerves fuel performance
✅ How to help athletes normalize pressure and use it to elevate their play
✅ Why creating a postseason mantra can center your team’s mindset

This is your postseason playbook for the mental side of the game. Practical, actionable strategies to help your team stay calm, confident, and connected when everything’s on the line. 💪

🕓 Key Moments
00:00 Introduction: Mental Toughness in Postseason
01:11 Tighten Up What Got You Here
02:43 Anchor Into Routines Over Results
04:12 Normalize Nerves and Reframe Pressure
05:51 Name Your Emotions and Use Your Tools
07:19 Create a Postseason Mantra

Coaches → What’s your team’s postseason mantra this year? Comment below 👇

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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

If your team doesn't just get magically, mentally tougher once the postseason rolls around, in fact, it'll just reveal the habits that they've been building or not up until that point. Because in the postseason, the pressure is greater, the crowds are bigger, the lights are brighter, and everything just feels more important. So how do we prepare our players as they head into post-season without overcomplicating things or just. Throwing something brand new at them. Well, if I haven't met you, I'm Coach Bree. I am a 14 year head volleyball coach. I'm also a mental performance coach for girl athletes. And thankfully, luckily I've been in a lot of these situations. We've won state for the past four seasons, so I definitely know how it feels to be heading into a postseason. That feels like a lot this season, especially, we have the target on our back. People don't wanna see us win anymore, so everyone more than ever wants to take us down. So we we're feeling the pressure, my team's feeling the pressure of these consecutive state championships as well. So I'm gonna go into. How I'm preparing my team for the postseason and things that you can just draw from to help prepare your team for some of this postseason excitement and also pressure that comes with it. So first thing that we do is we tighten things up. We don't add a bunch of new things. All right. Your athletes right now actually don't need new, they need familiar. And when the brain senses that pressure, they actually crave, it actually craves predictability in those moments. So instead of just brand new drill ideas or like all these things, let's tighten up what got us here. And what that looks like in our gym is that we're still scoring. Everything. So I have a video all about how we structure practice and we score things to make it really competitive. So you can head there after this if you wanna check that out. But, um, we add in just a little bit more of game-like situations. So end of game we'll replicate the score. I coach volleyball, so, um, we'll put the score at 23 all and we've gotta finish. And so things like that that are. Putting them in situations that they're probably going to be in, in the postseason, we also can replicate as much as possible some of the environment that we're going to be in. So at State for us, our serving area gets shorter, so we actually replicate that. We actually put a piece of tape down, um, where the service, the new service area would be. So it's shortened, um, by a couple of feet. So we just help our players kinda get familiar with that. Um, sometimes I've done it where I've like. Over the loudspeaker, piped in some noise. Uh, just so that they practice having to communicate in a louder environment. Um, so anything that you can do to help replicate kind of what they're going to be experiencing so that they can train that pressure before they get into it. Okay? The other thing we do is we anchor into routines instead of focusing on results. So a lot of times when we get to the postseason, especially for us, it's like, oh, we've gotta win that fifth State title. We've gotta do this, we've gotta do that. And it can just get really easy to focus on the outcomes. And so we get back to what are our routines that help us, and so the routines that we have in our program, especially when it comes to the mental game. We do our 3, 2, 1 brave every day before practice. So that is our daily mindset routine. I actually break this down in my free training for coaches. So if you go to coach free training.com, you can see everything that I include in this. But it's a very simple five to seven minute activity that athletes do. They bring their binders to the board at the end of pre-practice. The start, like right before we break off into, um, into our team practice. And they write down, there are three affirmations. They're two minutes of journaling. So I rotate the prompts. Through to kind of help them, um, focus on what I want them to focus on that day. Uh, one thing they're grateful for. One piece of evidence that one of their affirmations is coming true. And then I do a really short visualization with them where they visualize their affirmations. And this is all found based on a workshop at the beginning of the season, so that they're very familiar with what, what this routine is. But again, it's kinda getting back to that like consistency and making sure that we're, um, focusing their mental game on what we want them to focus on. Because if we don't, they're gonna get carried away with what they're nervous about, what they're worried about, the fear, all of that. So. We keep those routines in place, we remind them of their tools, like their snapback routine that they have in those moments where they're feeling overwhelmed or they make a mistake, um, we remind them of their pre-competition routine. So every athlete has their own pre-game routine. Three things that they do, and it doesn't have to be like super intense, but, um, three things that they do to get themselves mentally ready. And so everything that we can do to get them back to like, here are your tools. Here's what routines you have. So not when they're. Brain inevitably goes to the like, what if, and you know, the worry and the fear and all of that, that they have things that they can anchor back to. Okay. The next one is normalize nerves and reframe pressure. We did this in practice yesterday because we have our first game in districts on Thursday. So, um, every athlete feels nerves in the postseason and that's normal. Okay. We don't actually don't wanna like eliminate them, we want to use them. So we tell our athletes that. Um, how you interpret nerves and excitement. Actually, it, it's interesting because they feel the same way in our bodies, right? Our, our body has a psychological or physiological response to the nervousness, right? The increased heart rate, um, you know, the sweaty palms, the dry mouth, like all of that is. Nervousness, but when you're really excited about something that also feels the same way. It's all with how we need, uh, how we label it. And so I connect the dots for them that your body's actually preparing you to do something that you care about. So it's okay sometimes if it gets too much though, right? That's when it can impact how you play. And so we give them tools like box breathing, um, they're pregame routines, visualizations, like, things like that that can help'em bring'em back. To like the level that is appropriate for using those nerves for what they're intended for. Okay. I had them do a little exercise yesterday where I had them write out like, what are you nervous for in the postseason? What are you excited about? And sometimes athletes think, or we think like if we name some of these things and bring'em out into the open, like, Hey, I'm nervous about. Not getting to state. I'm nervous about, you know, crumbling under, under the pressure. I'm nervous about letting people down. We think like if we say that it'll happen, it's not necessarily true. Okay. Name it to Tam is something that Brene Brown says all the time. And so just naming your emotion, um, and how you're feeling actually helps you process it a little bit. And that's true for athletes too. So we actually went in a circle named all these things, and then I picked up on some clues as a coach that like, okay, a lot of people are worried about. Not playing to their potential. A lot of people worried about crumbling under pressure. And so I put up on the board like our tools for handling pressure, and I had, um, the athletes throughout practice, right on the board, what do, what do we already have in our toolkit for when the pressure gets a lot and we're feeling it, like, what can we come back to? And so at the end of practice, we um, looked at it and they had. Said like our snap pack routine, um, you know, touching in the middle of the circle. So in volleyball we come together between each point. So making eye contact with people, uh, cracking a joke. Going back to your affirmations, they had all these things to remind themselves of like, Hey. Like we, we have tools to handle this, and pressure is a privilege. You know, you've heard that. I, I know that that's a saying that, you know, we hear a lot as coaches, and maybe your athletes do too, but it is true. Half the teams in our league are not in the position that we are right now, heading into the postseason. Meaning you've earned the right to feel this way. And so even though it might feel uncomfortable, that's okay. Uncomfortable doesn't mean bad. Uncomfortable means new. Okay? And so, and this is new for a lot of. A lot of athletes. So that's really helpful to kind of normalize the fear, but also, and the nerves, but also give them and remind them of the tools that they have to be able to navigate that. And the last thing I'll give you just kind of little bonus things is what we're doing tomorrow at practice is create a postseason mantra. So throughout the season they've had their affirmations that have guided them, they have their visualizations, they, they have really intentional ways that they're like focusing their mindset, but in the postseason almost feels like a brand new season. And so I like to have them. Anchor to a mantra just for the postseason, and I want it to be short sticky. It becomes an anchor. So things like be gritty, you know, hold the line, whatever that means for, for them. Um, play, present, uh, you know, built for this, I've got this, you know, just something that they can, like, repeat in their head. And again, this could be their reset word. Um, so their reset word is found through their snapback routine. So they've been using their reset word all summer or. All summer, all season. Um, but I sort of like having little twists for the postseason when it gets a little bit. You know, just the stakes are higher and, um, they can feel a little different. And so they're going back to something that's really empowering. Um, I just love be gritty, you know, it's just like whatever's happening, like be gritty, embrace the suck. You know, it's just whatever is gonna be empowering for them and they can kind of put that in places where they can see it on their journals or on their lock screen, on their phone or, or things like that. So that is really helpful. Um, you know, just a couple of tools ahead in the post-season. Now, if you're. If you feel like your athletes are really feeling the pressure, maybe this is like a first time that they're experiencing it. For us, it's like trying to defend four state titles. Um, you know, it can feel like a lot. So if you're, if your athletes are really feeling the pressure, I have a video all about how to help athletes rise to the pressure through mental training. In this next slide, so head there. Next. I have really like three quick things that I do in practice to help replicate some of that pressure in practice and tools that your athletes can use, um, to manage some of that feeling of the pressure. So I will see you over in that video.