How I Built a Mental Game System That Won 4 State Championships

This is Part 2 of my story. After becoming a Mental Performance Coach, I had to actually apply what I learned with my own team → https://coachfreetraining.com

In Part 1, I shared how I quit volleyball due to performance anxiety and eventually became a coach who kept losing in the big moments. After those back-to-back devastating losses, I got certified as a Mental Performance Coach.

But here's the thing. Learning the science was the easy part. Figuring out how to actually teach it to high school athletes without becoming a full-time sports psychologist? That took some trial and error.

I'm breaking down the exact system I built: the Snapback Routine, Mindset Mondays, plug-and-play mental training that fits into 5-20 minutes per week. This is what helped us win four consecutive state championships, including a comeback from championship point against a team that hadn't won in 36 years.

🧐 What You'll Learn:
🔹 3-step Snapback Routine (breath, reset word, reset signal) that my athletes used under pressure
🔹 How I structured mental training into our season without losing practice time
🔹 Why this system makes coaching easier, not harder
🔹 The real story behind our fourth state championship comeback
🔹 How to build a common mental skills language with your team
🔹 Why "shake it off" doesn't work and what does

👋🏼 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-time state champion.

🕓 Key Moments:
00:00 Introduction: The Power of Mental Training
00:34 Building The Elite Competitor
01:40 Four Consecutive State Championships
03:38 Championship Point: Mental Game in Action
05:30 Creating The Elite Competitor Program
08:36 Serving Coaches and Athletes Nationwide
10:07 Making Mental Training Practical for Coaches
13:46 Resources and How to Get Started

💬 Coaches - comment below: What's the biggest mental challenge your team faces in high-pressure games?

📌 Free Tools & Next Steps
🔹 Grab our in-depth FREE training → https://coachfreetraining.com
🔹 Follow us on IG → @elitecompetitorcoach
🔹 Follow us on TikTok→ @coachhergame 

🔔 Subscribe for More → Never miss an episode of Coach Her Game!

P.S. A few stats worth knowing:
1) 70% of youth athletes quit sports by age 13, with performance anxiety cited as a leading factor (National Alliance for Youth Sports, 2019)
2) Athletes who use pre-performance routines show 23% improvement in consistency under pressure compared to those who don't (Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 2018)
3) 85% of coaches report lack of time as the #1 barrier to implementing mental training, yet teams that dedicate just 10-15 minutes weekly see measurable performance improvements (Sport Psychology Research Institute, 2021)

The Coach Her Game YouTube channel is hosted by The Elite Competitor and is dedicated to helping coaches of girl athletes strengthen their mental game and team culture in order to develop a competitive edge.#mentaltraining 

#coachingstory #mentalperformance #highschoolcoaching #athleteconfidence

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

Transcript

1:04

In those big moments, you always, you fall back on your training. The big lights reveal kind of the work that is done in the dark. It's not like, oh, we're just gonna rise up to this moment. It's like, we have to train for these moments. This made coaching easier for me. It made coaching more efficient for me. It made practices more focused. When we spend three minutes before practice doing this like silly little visualization to focus them, and now I'm not spending 20 minutes trying to get them to focus in practice. It has saved me time. It's made coaching easier. I teamed up with. My, my sister-in-law who also has a background in athletics, we founded our company, the Elite Competitor. Um, but we can go into kind of what that looks like now as well. But that's really where the gaps were and what I started to see, like, these girls need more than just physical skills. Uh, again, I, I love hearing the, the stories of how genesis stories of how things develop. It sounds very organic and talking as a coach, you've had some pretty good, uh, success at the state level too. You want to, uh, brag a little bit on that. Yeah. Gosh. Well, yeah, we've won, um, four back to back to back to back, uh, state championships. So yeah, we're on a little bit of, a little bit of a run here, so that's been really exciting. And obviously I've got. Talented kids that come, come into our program. But also I've had talent, you know, I would say to the coaches listening, so do you, you have talent in your program? It's not a matter of that. It's a matter of can that talent perform when the pressure's on? And I've had talent and we've had great teams. Like I said, that have penciled into like we're, you know, we're seated, we're projected to, to go really far into the postseason and then we can't get past the, like, get to state game because we fall apart mentally. Yeah. There's some great stories, especially this past state championship and it, they haven't been easy, so I hope you're not big. You know, sometimes you, you get to this point where it's like, okay, we won our first state championship and it was like, unbelievable. And people were just like the so, so ecstatic, incredible, you know, just. Cheering us on the whole way. Then we went our second and people were like, oh, that's so cool. Won our third. And they're like, okay, we're tired hearing about Columbia River. Um, like, can it be somebody else? And um, oh, she's just has talented girls. We won our fourth this past fall and it was totally unexpected too. It was a complete, like, wiped out our senior class, you know, we're like, Hey, we're just happy to be here. And some of the, like, the way in which we won. This past season I like it is just highlights the mental game. We were down championship point to a team that hadn't won state in 36 years. They were physically better than us on paper. Like you look at their front row, 6 1, 6 2, 6 3. She's going to Gonzaga, she's going to Oregon. She, you know, they're senior stacked. We have one returning senior. Um, you know, I've got sophomores out there. We're just just doing the best we can. And I was like, you know, this is just cool that we're here. But, you know, there's there fans are on their feet. They're like, we're gonna, we serve this point in, we get this point. We are banners going up, you know, 36 years. And I remember calling back to back timeouts because they kind of had, they had matchpoint for two. Two, two points. And I just tell'em like, Hey, we're gonna go back to our snapback routine, which we had trained the whole season, which is a breath, it's a reset word. It's kind of a way for athletes to stay grounded in the present moment when the moment is big. Um, and they, the thing is they didn't just learn this in the state championship game. We literally have been practicing this every single day for 12 weeks. And so. You know, we're like, that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna receive this ball, we're gonna set her outside, we're gonna side out right here. We'll take care of it From there, we did just that, um, in that timeout. And so now we have two points. We got two points to stay alive'cause you gotta win by two. And my sophomore goes back to serve and I'm like, I love this for us. She's never been on varsity, never played in the state tournament, you know, we'll see what happens. She looks pretty confident. She goes out, she serves. The other team, they set their best hitter, which I would too. She goes up, we're like, okay, here we go, we're done. She hits the ball out of bounds. I'm like, oh, okay. That hasn't happened very much this game, but you know, the pressure's getting to her a little bit. So my sophomore's back to serve. Now we have set point. She serves the ball, serves tough there, setter, kind of botches the play on the other side, which I also was like, what is happening? And then their best player, free balls, the ball into the net, like an unforced air. That's very uncommon at this level, especially in a state championship match. So we win that set to go like we thought we had just one state and people were so excited. And then we get into the fifth set and the other team, they were just crumbling mentally. You could see the difference, you know? It was like just, and at that point, like we had already, we had already taken it. Momentum had shifted, we stayed calm in that moment, we were able to win. Won four state championships. Again, we weren't, we were the underdogs. We were not seated the whole year. No one ever put us on the map to be number one. Um, and so it just kind of highlighted like what in those big moments, you always, you fall back on your training, the big lights reveal kind of the work that is done in the dark. It's not like, oh, we're just gonna rise up to this moment. It's like, we have to train for these moments. So anyways, kind of a tangent, but No, no. At all. The way that it, and I, and I love how you, you kind of led with. You know, this was something that we'd been working on the entire season. It wasn't just a, a magic trick you pulled outta your coach's toolbox, uh, and you, you reemphasize that with you fall back on your training. Great. Foundational information for coaches and adsd. Um, you mentioned that you started the elite competitor with your sister-in-law. You know, she has her own, you know, athletic, uh, you know, resume. Um, how did it, um, how did it take shape? How did it get going? How did the elite competitor, um, what's its origin story? And then mm-hmm. Uh, I want you to share some of the resources that our listeners can reach out to you and, and add to their toolbox. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and I wanna be clear, like mental training is not a replacement for physical training. Sometimes it's like, oh yeah, we just like, no, we, we gotta have hand in hand. But what was funny about that, um, game. I'll get it to kinda how, how Lee Competitor started was my sophomore was interviewed afterwards and, um, the interviewer asked her, uh, they, they were like, so what were you thinking? Like you're serving for game Point, coming back to state. And she goes, honestly, I was just doing my breath and I was doing my reset word. I was doing my breath and my reset word. And I'm like that. There it is. Snapback routine right there. So she was listening. Um, but yeah, the elite competitor, I kind of already talked about how I started implementing some of these things and was seeing some results. I've always been a little, even, you know, even though I'm a, I'm a teacher, I, or I was a teacher, I've always been entrepreneurial. I kind of like, I love big new ideas, creating new things. And so I was like, I think we can bring this to more athletes. So we created an online program, um, called The Elite Mental Game. That's what we're most known for. And this was, um, back in 2019. And so we were like, let's serve more athletes with this. So we did, we put it online. We created this program that athletes could go through. We started serving their parents. We really are, you know, our message is for parents and how parents can support the mental game of their athletes. So the program that we have is for athletes, but there's a parent component on how. What they can do and say to not screw up their kid's sports journey and you know, and instill confident. So that continued to grow. We've had to date over 7,000 families come through that program. And all the while, you know, we've attracted coaches in our audience because I'm a coach and coaches are interested. They're like, how do I get this for my team? And so we were like, you know, we always, we have a version of our program for coaches, but just this year actually, we. Decided to make a full split and, um, created another arm to our company that directly serves coaches. So now we have, um, a side of our company that is fully for how coaches can implement mental training in with their teams. Um, the program for that is called Plug and Play Elite Mental Game for Teams. So I just take. Everything that I do with my team in a plug and play format, really best suited for high school coaches who like me, I'm in the middle of my season right now, so get their teams together for about 20 minutes a week or less. They play a short video for their team. They have a little discussion question that's very simple. Their team connects, answers the question, and then they have a skill to go out into practice. So they learn the snapback routine, they learn a daily mindset routine. They learn visualization, breath work, all the things. And it's a, a way that coaches don't have to become a sports psychologist. Like I went the hard way. Like I went back, I became a mental performance coach. I tested all of this. Um, you know, I learned the backend of like, okay. And my, my background in education also, you know, positions me to be able to, you know, create this curriculum so that it leads to results. Um, and so I did all that work. Four coaches, so all they have to do is show up in press play because, you know, we have got a lot, a lot going on. So, um, I actually left teaching in 2021 to run our company full time. So that's what, that's what we've been doing. Just grow, you know, continuing to grow, continuing to, um, impact thousands and thousands of athletes and programs. Um, so yeah, that's what, that's kind of where we started and where we are now in a short version. Um, we've had a number of, uh, mental performance, uh, professionals on the podcast, uh, in the last five years. And, um, I always say that a similar line that I don't think there's a coach in America in any sport that is going to say that mental performance training isn't valuable. Uh, it, they, they understand it's valuable. The, the trick is to convince them to give up. That 20 minutes, 30 minutes of practice time. Yeah. To focus on it. And, and there's so many still that don't do it. So now you're speaking directly to those coaches. Maybe it's a cranky old retired ad in Florida. Mm-hmm. You know, uh, how, how do you convince them to, Hey, this is gonna help your kids, it's gonna help your team. It's gonna help you as a coach. I mean, I would say to that we don't, okay. A couple of things. First of all, I am a coach and Right. A lot of times, um, you know, when I would go to like teacher conferences, coaches conference, and we would have a, you know, an expert come in and talk and I'm like, when was the last time you were in the classroom? When was the last time you were actually in front of 48 girls in your gym and having to manage time and manage rosters in all of this? And they're like, oh yeah, it's been a while. You know, or, or never. And so I will first say to that coach, I am in, in coaching with you, literally right alongside you. The other thing is sometimes we don't take action unless there is some pain. And that was, for me as a coach, it was painful to watch my team crumble in these situations. And it takes a lot of humility to look at what. What's the reason for that? Because a lot of coaches will blame their players. And they'll just say they couldn't, they didn't, they couldn't do it. They, you know, or this person, you know, messed up or this and that. And that's what I did the first year. I was like, yeah, it was, you know, it was kind of player. So I did everything I could, and when it happened again, I was like, I have to look at myself as a coach. This is too painful to be that close and not be able to finish because of mental errors. And so. If there's a coach in that boat that's like, yeah, we keep losing because of mental errors, or, you know, I, I, I feel like I'm doing everything that I can. Well, you know, what, what part of the game are you not teaching? Where's where, where is the gap? The other part of it is that you already are spending the time. You are already spending the time probably trying to convince your athletes that they are good enough. You're spending time on the sideline trying to get their heads back in the game. You gotta pull your best player out and like, try and work on the emotional side while you're putting your, your sophomore in, who you're like, I'm not that deep. You know, I do not want her in right now. I need you in, I need you to be mentally ready, and you're just like trying to pull out all the tricks. So this made coaching easier for me. It made coaching more efficient for me. It made practices more focused. When we spend three minutes before practice doing this like silly little visualization to focus them, and now I'm not spending 20 minutes trying to get them to focus in practice. I'm getting practice signed back now when I'm on the sideline and I can call a timeout and I say, okay, we're all gonna do our snap back routine right now, and they know what I'm talking about. I don't have to figure out like, you know, different things for every person or be like, why is this person crying right now? You know, it's like we have a common language and so. It has saved me time. It's made coaching easier. So that is what I would say. And yeah, you do have to, but like as a high school coach, um. And that's why I say like a lot of this is best suited for high school coaches. You know, we have, here's kind of how I, just on a very practical level, um, in the startup of our season, I build in more like we practice on a Saturday. We practice two Saturdays within the first two weeks. We practice six days a week. So I build in time on a Saturday to kind of front load some of this stuff. So as my season is starting, you know, I will take 20 minutes when we do. You know, we just add in a little bit more time. Um, my team has two hour early releases on Mondays. Okay. And not every, not every school has that, but they're, I would say, I mean, I've been in education for 15 years and every school that I've taught at or coached at, we have some sort of one hour early release, two hour early release, and my girls are going off to Dutch Brothers to get coffee, and I'm like, no, let's spend 20 minutes of that two hours. Meet with your teachers, get everything under control, but we're gonna spend 20 minutes of that two hours and we're gonna train the mental game. They look forward to it. We call it Mindset Mondays. They like the breakup in the routine. So I think also a lot of times as coaches, it's us that gets in the way. We are like, I don't really know how to do it, and so I don't wanna look dumb. I don't know what I'm supposed to teach. I've never done this before. A visualization, how am I supposed to do that? You know? And so that's why we have plug and play. That's why we have resources where you literally don't have to do anything except for press play. And then you lead a little discussion which doubles as some team bonding for your team. Because we know when they know each other, they trust each other, like, and it transfers to the court. So those are the angles that I, that I work when it comes to that, because, you know, I've. I've been in it and I still am. I wanna go back to something that you shared earlier, that mental performance training is not a substitute for the physical training that occurs Absolutely. In practice, but it can be, as you just articulated, find out more, take advantage of all the resources that you have at the Elite competitor. How do they do that? Yeah, the best place to go is to just check out our free training for coaches. That's where we break down, like really simple skills that you can teach your athletes and also you'll learn about plug and play, um, and get a little pricing discount as well if you wanna incorporate that into your team. Or if you're an AD and you wanna do it department wide, we sell it as seats in your program. Um, so that's at, uh, coach free training.com. So that's a really easy way that'll also get you on our email list and just get you in the loop with everything that we're doing. So coach free training. I'm also on Instagram, I'm on TikTok, um, at Coach Bree. So I'm all, I'm all over there. If you're a parent listening, I know we do have some parents, um, are. Um, our Instagram, uh, elite competitor coach is kind of where we have grown our, our biggest platform. So if you are a parent that you're like, yeah, we, I want this for my daughter, then you can find that over there. Okay. Again, and we'll put all that information in the show notes for the podcast. Mm-hmm. Bri, thanks, uh, again for taking time outta your busy schedule to share with our listeners. All the best, even though you're at Columbia River High School as a, as a battleground graduate. That was our big rival back in the day. Oh, what? They probably don't even play each other anymore. No. That battleground's foray and Yeah. We're not even in the same classification anymore. Right. But anyway. No, just great story. Love hearing your story, uh, as an athlete. As a coach and now, you know, giving back as you continue to coach at a high level, I'm gonna say it again, four consecutive state championships. Pretty good resume. Um, thanks again for coming on. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.