Periods & Performance – 3 Things Every Coach Should Know

🎯 Menstrual cycles aren’t just biology—they’re performance factors! Learn 3 essential strategies every coach needs for female athletes. Don't miss more coaching tips → https://coachfreetraining.com
 
Coaches, if you’ve ever felt unsure about how to approach menstruation and its impact on performance, this episode is for you! We’re diving into how understanding the menstrual cycle can actually help your athletes perform better, stay mentally tough, and recover faster. Get the knowledge you need to better support your female athletes in all phases of their cycle—so they can take control of their performance and thrive!
 
🎯 You'll learn:
 ✔️ Why periods aren’t a hindrance—they’re a tool! 
 ✔️ How to track and support athletes during all four phases 
 ✔️ Simple strategies for empowering athletes with knowledge for peak performance 
 
🎙 I’m Coach Bre – a mental performance coach for girl athletes, Co-Founder of The Elite Competitor, and a 4-time state champion head volleyball coach. I’m here to help you build stronger, more confident, and mentally resilient athletes.
 
🕓 Key Moments
 00:00 – Introduction to Periods and Performance
 02:10 – Understanding the Menstrual Cycle: What Every Coach Needs to Know
 04:20 – The Four Phases of the Menstrual Cycle and Performance Impact
 07:40 – Tools to Empower Your Athletes
 10:30 – Final Tips for Supporting Female Athletes During Their Cycle
 12:00 – Conclusion
 
📢 COACHES: Periods impact performance, confidence, and recovery! How do you currently support your athletes through their cycles? 
 
📌 Want to know how to support your athletes during their periods? 
🔹 Grab our FREE training for coaches → https://coachfreetraining.com
🔹 Learn more about Plug & Play Elite Mental Game → https://elitecompetitor.com/plugplayemg
🔹 Follow us on IG → @elitecompetitorcoach

Head to coachfreetraining.com to grab our free training for coaches to quickly level-up your team's mental game!

Transcript

1:04

If you coach girls, it's time to stop treating periods like an off topic limits. Now, you don't have to be an expert, but you do need to understand some basics of what's going on that impacts her performance and ignoring it is not going to help anyone. So here are three things that every coach needs to be aware of when it comes to periods and performance so that you can empower your athletes to know what's going on with their bodies. And the first thing before I even get into the tips is how you think about this and how you talk about it. Really matters because a lot of times athletes are fed kind of this belief that periods are something that is a hindrance to performance and their menstrual cycle is a pain and it's something that all girls have to deal with. And it's so annoying when in reality there are a lot of amazing hormonal shifts that are happening throughout her 28 to 35 day cycle. And we don't even realize sometimes that athletes need to have this education so that they can use it to their advantage. So I was a health teacher for a long time, like 10 years or something, and I always taught. The basics of cycle education to everybody in my classes. And then as a coach myself, I've been coaching for the past 14 years. Um, I make sure that my athletes are educated on what's going on in their cycles. I have my athletes actually, I encourage them to track their cycles, um, with an app. So that they know what phase they're in and they can just have awareness so that they can adjust accordingly. So let's get into it. First of all, as a coach, you've gotta know what's going on. You are not allowed to, as a male coach, say like, that's not my deal. It's not my thing. I'm not gonna get into it. Because whether you realize it or not, this is a reality for every single one of your female athletes, and it is impacting their performance, their mood, their emotions, their like their physical body. Everything. And so you just ignoring it and acting like you have no part in it is, is really shortsighted. So again, you don't have to be an expert, you're not a doctor. They're not coming to you for advice, but you do have to know what's going on. So, um, as a quick overview, we give you like a, a really, a really fast. Um, overview of, of what's going on during the cycle. So the cycle is between 28 and 35 days long. The first four to five days are the menstrual phase. If you think about it, like seasons, the menstrual phase is like winter. She's kind of introverted. She's actually shedding her uterine lining. This is when she bleeds. And so during this phase, she's a little bit more. Introverted closed off. It's when her hormones are the lowest, and actually her strength gains can be the highest during this phase, but high intensity and a lot of energy output is not really what we typically prioritize during this phase. But you know what? She plays sports and you're not gonna adjust your training around her cycle. But what you can do is empower her to make sure that she's prioritizing extra sleep, extra recovery during this phase. Now, athletes should be eating nutrient dense foods and eating often in order to optimize their performance. But especially during the menstrual phase, we wanna. Prioritize foods that are rich in iron, like lean meats, leafy greens, all of those things. And so you can actually empower her with that information. I just give a little handout to my athletes on like, here's the different phases and here are different foods that you can be prioritizing. Obviously choosing Nutrium. Dense foods during, during, like all phases of your cycle is going to benefit you and, and really set you up for success. But I give little tips for like each phase and during menstrual cycle. It's like iron rich foods because she is bleeding. Making sure that she's prioritizing protein, especially during that phase is really important. And then giving herself a little bit more grace, knowing that energy might not be her highest. At her highest during this phase, she might be a little more critical of herself. All of that. I can tell when my athletes are in their menstrual phase, because they're a little bit more introvert, especially like the extroverted ones might be a little bit more, and I adjust my coaching just a little bit. I don't like go easier on them or anything like that, but I do know like, Hey, this might land differently knowing that she might be in that phase. I'm not suggesting that you know every single one of your athletes like where they're at in their phase. That's, that's overstepping. You are there just to know kind of what's working on in the background and also give them the resources so that they can empower themselves with what they need to do during different phases. So that's a menstrual phase. During the follicular phase, which is next, after her bleeding ends, it's kind of like spring, she's coming back alive. Her estrogen is rising, things are feeling pretty good. She's coming outta Rochelle. She can, you know, perform. I wouldn't say perform it. She can perform her best during all phases of her cycle, but she maybe has more energy during this phase. Fueling is good, like just to make sure that she's prioritizing nutrient dense foods, but she can also tolerate more carbs during this phase. It's really good, like she's gonna be feeling pretty good during her ovulation phase. So this is after, um, her follicular phase. What happens is, um, ovulation is when the egg is coming. Out of the ovaries and down into the uterus. And this is when she's feeling really good. Like we've got, you know, strength gains, power gains, like a lot that is happening right here. Her estrogen is at its peak, things are, things are really graced during ovulation. That happens around day 14 of her cycle, but it's the shortest part of the phase. It only lasts like two to three days when she's ovulating. But during this phase it's like summer. So prioritizing like berries, fresh fruits, like things like that are really good. But obviously like overall, like you don't actually, athletes. Don't need to like change how they're eating, as long as they're eating nutrient dense foods like throughout their whole cycle. But if you wanna give them a little bit of more education around this, that's things that I would provide like in that little one pager. And then finally, the last phase over cycle is the luteal phase. This is after ovulation until her next cycle starts. During the end of the luteal phase is when she might be experiencing some PMS symptoms. She might be experiencing some cramping, floating irritability, all of that. The more that she prioritizes good quality sleep throughout her cycle and nutrient dense foods, the less. Symptoms, most of the time happens. Now, there's all these outliers of other things that can be going on that impact athletes' cycles, but typically if they are prioritizing really good food and sleep and recovery, their pmms symptoms are lower. But she does get a little more critical during this phase of herself. A little bit more emotional during her LAL phase, but. Just, that's just for your knowledge of what's going on, but also for hers, when athletes track their cycle, they know like, Hey, I'm in my LAL phase, so I'm expecting that my self-talk might be a little bit rough. And so knowing that and shifting to other self-talk strategies that they have to make sure that her confidence stays high is really important. And we give athletes really simple tools around self-talk, around other mental strategies like visualization, snapback, routine, like all those things are really helpful so that when she's in that phase where she is more introverted or more critical of herself, she has tools that she can. Lean on now. If you wanna learn about some of those tools that I give athletes, um, head to our free training for coaches. It's at coach free training.com. I break down all of the skills that I teach inside my program when, and we have been doing mental training in our program for about six years. It's really helped our program achieve the success that it did in addition to very talented athletes. But when athletes are competing at the very best, they do need that edge. They need to be able, like the pressure is higher, they need to be able to deal with a lot more and giving them those. Tools is really what makes the difference. So coach free training.com is where you can check that out, but during your luteal phase, you'll find that she is a little bit harder on herself and things are a little bit tougher mentally. And so having those skills that she can lean back on is really, really important. Okay, so those are just some tips that you can be making sure that you know as a coach. So number one, know what's going on with her cycle. Like not with your individual athletes, but just have a a, a. Basic high school health level knowledge of what a menstrual cycle is and the four phases, and I didn't learn that until I was in my like thirties, but it really changed the game for me because I was an athlete that, you know, struggled with missing periods or all this. And if you do catch wind that one of your athletes is missing her period, you definitely need to alert her parents of that because that is a huge red flag. It happens a lot in girl athletes. So if that's happening, if you hear of that, make sure that their parents know so that they can troubleshoot that. But anyways, like making sure that, you know, kind of a foundational knowledge of what's going on. That's not overstepping, that's like just knowing what's going on with the female athlete body and not ignoring some of the things in the hormonal shifts that do occur. Number two, give her and empower her with the knowledge so that she can take control of her nutrition, her recovery, so that she knows hormonally and emotionally what's going on during the different phases and just. I like I just printed out, you can find something online probably of just like printing out a little one pager of like, what's going on and here's how you can fuel. Here's where you need to prioritize the more rest and recovery. Um, number three, I think I didn't say yet, but make sure you do the basics of making sure your med kit is stocked with female hygiene supplies. No athlete, no girl athlete should be scrambling before a game because their period came unexpectedly and they don't have supplies. Take that, take that stress out and make sure that your med kit is stocked with that. And the last little, little tidbit I give is if you're like, I get the importance of this, but I still feel really comfortable about this. Then partner with a female, um, coach, or um, an expert who can just. Give a little, a little knowledge, like take 15 minutes of practice where she can talk about it and give a little handout so that your athletes are empowered and you're gonna find that they perform better when they know more about what's going on with their body. Okay, hopefully this was helpful. If you want more tools for, um, how to train the mental side of the game through all phases of her cycle, head to coach free training.com and I'll see you in the next episode.