My Top 5 Resources for Culture, Leadership, & Mental Game (encore)

These five resources replaced thousands of random Google searches. Grab more coaching tools here → https://coachfreetraining.com

In this episode, I'm sharing the top five resources I've used across 14 years of coaching and four state championships. No fluff, no theory. Just the systems that have actually worked.

Here's what I break down:
* Bruce Brown's leadership pamphlets for captain development
* Abby Wambach's Wolf Pack for female athlete leadership
* JP Nerbun’s Culture System for building intentional team culture
* Gold Medal Squared for creating common language across your program
* Plug and Play Elite Mental Game for systematic mental training

👋🏼 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.

If you've been cobbling together random resources from the internet and social platforms, this episode will save you hours of mental energy. I'm giving you the exact tools I use so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. 

🧐What You'll Learn:
* Why haphazard research drains your time and energy as a coach
* The leadership development system I use with my captains
* How to build intentional culture with Player Impact Plans
* Why common language matters across your entire program
* How to implement mental training in 5 minutes a day without extra prep

🕓 Key Moments: 
00:00 Introduction: The Coach's Responsibility
01:19 The Importance of Structured Mental Training
02:16 Resource #1: Bruce Brown's Leadership Materials
03:31 Resource #2: Wolf Pack by Abby Wambach
04:33 Resource #3: The Culture System by JP Nerbun
05:50 Resource #4: Gold Medal Squared
07:48 Resource #5: Plug and Play Elite Mental Game
09:16 Conclusion and Call to Action

💬 Coaches - comment below: What's one resource that's been a game changer for you when it comes to culture, leadership, or the mental game?

📌 Free Tools & Next Steps
🔹 Grab our in-depth FREE training → https://coachfreetraining.com
🔹 Follow us on IG → @elitecompetitorcoach
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P.S. A few stats worth knowing:
* 85% of high school athletes report experiencing performance anxiety during competition (Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 2022)
* Teams that implement structured mental skills training show 23% improvement in performance consistency under pressure (Sport Psychology Research Institute, 2021)
* Coaches who use systematic culture-building frameworks report 40% reduction in team drama and conflict (Positive Coaching Alliance, 2023)

The Coach Her Game 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.

#coachinggirls #mentalperformance #teamculture #leadershipdevelopment #youthathletics

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

Transcript

1:04

I do not want it to be my fault that my athlete is not prepared physically or mentally for what they're about to face. Like as a coach, it's our responsibility to give our kids this all of the tools that they need to be successful. Here's the truth. If your culture is not right, your players will not stick around. It doesn't matter how great your drills or your systems are, they will be out if they are not connected. Or feeling like they belong in your culture. But as a coach, it's hard to know what do we do to develop this culture and this leadership where it matters? As a head coach myself, for the past 14 years, I've won four state titles as a coach, and I have tested hundreds, maybe even thousands of resources when it comes to the books and the strategies and the drills and all of the things that you can use as a coach. And I've distilled it down to my top five resources that I would recommend to. All coaches, they have withstood the test of time and I'm gonna be breaking them down and how they help with culture, leadership, and the mental game. Now, before I get into what these resources are, I do wanna give a shout out to a coach in our community. His name is John. He's actually a college volleyball coach who is using our program Plug and Play Elite Mental Game for Teams. This is literally our. Plug and play system for coaches who want to incorporate mental training and they don't have a lot of time. And he said, we've done a fair amount of this type of thing in the past, but it was a bit haphazard. So having a plan to work through is awesome. What I love about this and what John said is that, yeah, as coaches, we probably have actually done a lot of chat, GP Ting and Googling and Instagram and TikTok research to try and piece some things together for our teams. And I know I used to do that a lot and which is kind of what, where I stumbled across some of these resources, but honestly it's not, it's not great to do it in that way because one, it spends a lot of your mental energy trying to piece it together. And two, it's. Not really tested. You don't really know if what you're gonna do is working. So I love that John brought that up because our plug and play system is literally just a system that you follow and you don't have to think about it. It's already proven. You press play for your team, you lead a short discussion afterwards, and there it is. So if you wanna learn more. About plug and play, EMG. Head to our free training@coachfreetraining.com. I laid out some really easy mental training things that you can be doing in your practices, but also tell you all about plug and play EMG, and you get a discount at that training. All right, let's get into it. The five resources that I recommend. Number one, Bruce Brown's little pamphlet booklets. I have all of them. I believe, I believe I have all of them. Okay. The one that I recommend, it's called, um, captain's, seven Ways to Lead Your Team. So I actually been using Bruce Brown's resources. Um, he is a former football coach. He's actually from the area where I live, which makes it really cool. But he's, you know, nationally known as a coach who is really great when it comes to leadership, culture, kind of all of those things. But I use him primarily for leadership development. I have used all of his resources. Um, they're simple, they're little pamphlets. Like I said, the. Captain, seven Ways to Lead Your Team, takes your Athletes through like seven different ways to be a leader and what it means to be a captain. So I actually give, um, all of my members of my leadership core a book, uh, the, the Seven Ways to Lead Your Team, and it's kind of the training material that we use as they go through the season. That is, um, number one, Bruce Brown can look him up. Um, I've used him as well as like a guest speaker. He's came, come in now that is. Uh, I don't know if he does that anymore. Um, just because he stopped, he kinda slowed down a little bit doing some of that and he doesn't, I don't know if he travels as much anymore, but, um, definitely his resources online. Like this are very helpful. Okay, number two, this book, Wolf Pack by Abby Wambach, um, is a really short, punchy read for athletes, kinda what it means to be a female leader as well. Like when we are walking this line of like, be bold and confident, but don't be too loud, don't be bossy. Like kind of those dichotomies that a lot of girl athletes. Deal with this is a great resource because Abby dives into all of that. It's a lot. Also does a good job of what it means to be like an inclusive leader. What it means also to be a leader who like, um, leans into her own personality. And so what it means to not just be a leader but have a strong culture that's inclusive and. Um, you know, just really strong is, is the good resource for that. Okay. So those are two that I would put into like kind of the leadership bucket, Bruce Brown's resources and Abby Wambach book, Wolf Pack. These are good ones, um, to start with. Okay, we're gonna move on to the culture bucket and I mean, there's a lot of things that influence culture. Um, if we're not intentional with culture, then it, it just becomes what it is and we kind of leave it up to chance and you have to design your culture the way that you want it. Uh, in order to make it strong. And one of the resources that I have used a lot is the Culture System by JP Bin. So JP Bin, along with Betsy Buttery, actually, she's a communication specialist by the way. Um, they both have little bonus trainings inside our program. Plug and play Elite Mental Game for Teams, which I'll talk about in a second. But JP Bin is, he is great when it comes to how to kind of lay out tangibly. What it means to have a strong culture and what systems are in place. But if you're looking like, what, what does it actually look like to implement, like systems to support a culture that I want? This is a really, really good, um, starting place. So he also has a book that came out recently around like how to deal with, um, team parents. I think I have it up on my bookshelf here somewhere. Um, but, or not just teen parents, but how to deal with parents and how to have like. Healthy relationships with your players' parents? One of the main things, as much as like that those, the decision from those players was like, there's a lot that went into it with parents and, and all of that. Um, that wasn't good. Um, I also had to take a look at my own, my own culture and, you know, what, what systems I had in place to support these athletes and where my blind spots were. And one of the resources that I leaned on was. The culture system and the player impact plan that came out of that. And I started implementing Player Impact plans in 2023, and they've just made a huge difference when it comes to clarity. So just a note on that. Okay. The other, in the, in the culture bucket, this is kind of, this is volleyball specific gold medal squared, and I am not affiliated with Goldman. Gold Medal Square. The reason why I like GMS Gold medal squared, and I've been doing it, um, since, gosh, it's been over 10 years, um, is because it gives my program a common language. And so that can apply to, all right, all, all programs, all all sports. So what. Happens. Um, if you don't have something like this, you don't have like ways that you teach certain skills or um, ways that you structure practice, then it becomes everyone is just doing a different thing. And I see this a lot in clubs, um, as well, but also happens in high school programs where it's like the C team coach is doing a random thing and a JV coach is doing a random thing. And then when I get to varsity, it's like. Totally different than what they experienced on JVNC. And I wanted to have a seamless approach to my program because I wanted players to like develop up into our city and not be like, oh, well on C team, we learned this way to do it, and now I'm doing it this way. Um, and it's completely different. So this gives us like a, a common terminology throughout our whole program. It also gives a really great way to structure practices so that we're not. Wasting any time in Transitionings. And there's just great resources in here to, uh, you know, just help, um, really make this not just streamlined, but it's all, it's all rooted in stats and rooted in research and, you know, why do we pass like this? And it kind of explains all of that behind it. And there's just so much less. Wasted time. Um, you know, there's purpose behind things, so I highly recommend, um, gold medal scored for volleyball coaches, but for coaches who are not volleyball, um, just a way that you have a common language and common common systems throughout your entire club or your entire program is kind of the takeaway there. Okay. The last bucket that I wanna talk about is the mental game. Obviously, I'm passionate about the mental game. I am a mental performance coach. It really is. What is. Changed my coaching. It is my secret sauce. Um, it is what has allowed my teams to perform at a very high level. The last resource that I would recommend, I mean, I, I do it with my team. I've been doing this for about six years, but it is plug and play Elite mental game for teams. So, um, I have a coach facilitation guide here, but basically plug and play Elite mental game for teams is the simplest way to make sure that you are checking that box and giving your. Athletes, the skills that they need to perform. I would say that like as a coach, it's our responsibility to give our kids this, all of the tools that they need to be successful. I do not want it to be my fault that my athlete is not prepared physically or mentally for what they're about to face. Um, five minutes a day of little. Uh, daily mindset routine. We call ours the three, two, and brave. Um, incorporating a snapback routine. That's like a failure recovery system. So skills when it comes to knowing, like how to respond to pressure, how to respond to setbacks, how to prepare mentally for a game. And the best teams and the best athletes do not just train the physical part of the game. And I know you know this as a coach, so plug and play EMG is like the simplest way to do it. I give you, i, I package it up. It's exactly what I do so that you can just press play, lead a little short discussion, which also aids in like some team bonding and some com comradery. Um, and so if you wanna learn more about how to implement, plug and play with your team, go to that free training. It's at coach free training.com. That'll lay it all out for you, plus you get a little discount for, um, being at the training. Okay, so those are the five resources that I've really stood the test of time and I've tried a lot of different things. I'm curious, comment below, like what resources are, do you stand by? Um, what are the ones that you're like, yep, this is a go-to for me, either when it comes to culture or leadership or mental game. Let me know in the comments because I'm also open to learning more and implementing more into my toolbox. But these are the five that I highly recommend when it comes to leadership, culture, and the mental game. All right, coaches, I'm Coach Bree. I am the host of the Coach Game podcast, and I'll see you in the next episode.