The Fearless Warrior Podcast

115: The Mindset Behind Winning a National Championship with Carsyn Gordon

• Amanda Schaefer

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In this episode, we are diving into the archives with a 2023 Mentorship Call with Carsyn Gordon, a former Florida State softball player. She shares with Coach Kara and our Warriors her journey to becoming a national champion with Florida State University and a member of the Puerto Rican national team. 

Episode Highlights:

  • Transition from college softball to coaching and career
  • Leadership experiences
  • Mental game and stress management
  • Balancing academics and athletics
  • Experience of playing for Puerto Rico

Connect with Carsyn:

IG: @carsynmariee

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsyn-gordon-mba-7b3359158/


Check out some of her highlights  👇

Walk off homerun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PA_2ErbHCc

ESPN Top 10 play: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1576283099076055


YOU are invited to join us for our ✨ VIRTUAL MENTAL SKILLS CAMP ✨ 

As a thank you for being a Podcast listener, we EXTENDED our Black Friday offer! Grab 50% HERE: https://www.fearlesswarriorprogram.com/offers/zM9QZLBR?coupon_code=DECEMBER50

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Fearless Warrior Podcast, a place for athletes, coaches, and parents who know the value of a strong mindset. I'm your host, Coach AB, a mental performance coach on a mission, former softball coach, wife, and mom of three. Each episode, we will dive deep into all things mental performance, mindset tools, and how to rewire the brain for success. So if your goal is to gain the mental edge and learn the secrets of mental performance, you're in the right place. Let's tune in to today's episode.

SPEAKER_01:

Thumbs up, thumbs down, can you hear me? Perfect. Good. Okay. Um so just to get started, I'll do a quick little intro. Um, my name is Carson Gordon. Um, I uh born and raised, I'll go from the very beginning. Um I was born and raised in Miami, Florida. Um, I have two brothers. I have an older brother who is two years older than me. I have a younger brother who is 10 years younger than me. Um, so my older brother had a lot of influence on me growing up. You know, I always wanted to see what the boys were doing, um, just because he was my brother. So when he started playing baseball, I got into softball, um, just naturally like that. So I probably started, you know, picking up a bat and ball when I was about four years old, but probably starting rec ball around six, travel ball around eight to ten. Um, and then, you know, from travel ball, you get recruited through there. So um my recruiting process, it came down to Florida State and University of Florida. Two great schools ended up going with Florida State. Um, and I could not have said I had a better experience anywhere else. Um, I had a great four years there. We were national champions in 2018. Also played on the Puerto Rican national team, um, played with them after my freshman summer. So from 2016 to now, um, we have two gold medals, one bronze medal, um, and we just qualified for the world championships in Italy for summer of um 2024. Um I graduated in 2019. I went on to coach and get my master's at a small D2 down in Florida um called Palm Beach Atlantic in West Palm Beach. Um, like I said, I got my master's and I coached there as well. I did that for about two years. And then once I graduated in um 2021 with my master's in business administration, I went on to work for Maruchi Sports. Um, I started there in January of 2022. And just recently, I started a new job recently, as in this week. So for three days, I started a new job. Um, but that is my short little background, short little intro. Um got connected with Kara and just really loved what she was doing. Um, so want to hop on a call and talk to you guys and answer any questions that you guys might have about the mental game, um, anything. Um okay, best, I'll answer your question, then I'll get to um Kara's questions. Um, but what was it like playing college softball? Um, you know, a lot of people make it a lot bigger than what it is. Yeah, it's you, you know, you're playing on the biggest stage. Um, only a small percentage go on to play either pro or um international, like I had the opportunity to. Um, but at the end of the day, yes, you're playing for something bigger because you're playing for university, or for me, I was playing for a whole seminal tribe of people. Uh uh, you're playing for just many other things. Um, but at the end of the day, it's the same game. It's the same game that you guys are playing. You know, so it was great. It was awesome. I loved every aspect of it. Um, I got my greatest friends from college. Um, I still talk to them today. I still talk to my coach today. Um, but at the end of the day, it's still the same game. You know, the pitcher saw us to pitch the ball, we still gotta hit the ball, we still gotta score more to win, you know. So um it was so much fun, and I miss it every single day. Um, but in a nutshell, it was great, it was awesome. And um, yeah. So, Kara, talk about your leadership experience. Yeah, so my last two years at Florida State, I was co-captain. Um, and I had a great mentor my freshman and sophomore year. Her name was Ellie Cooper. She's actually on staff at Florida State now. Um, she's really big into the mental game as well. Um, but so I had a great mentor my freshman and sophomore year. And to be a great leader, you have to have great followers, right? So um I think that was a big thing that helped me learn, you know, as a as a freshman and sophomore. Yes, you can 100% be a leader. Um, but more times than not, we're not playing our freshman year, you know, we're not a leader our freshman year. And I'm not saying that's impossible because it is definitely possible. Um, but more times than not, um, you you're not, right? So um, and then coming, going into college, you know, you are the best on your travel ball team, you're the best on your high school team. So you kind of take a step back when you go into college, if that makes sense. Um, so you learn a lot, your freshman and sophomore year, and then moving into junior and senior year, like I said, I was co-captain. Um, and you know, like I said before, it's to be a good leader, you have good followers. And to be a good leader, you have to understand that not everybody is going to react to something the same way as another person, right? So Tara might respond to something different than Lauren, then Vess. So it's just getting the best way to lead is to get to know your people on a personal basis, right? To get to know why they are the way they are, to know that I can maybe scream at Kara and know that she can do XYZ, or to know that maybe Lauren needs, you know, a hand on her back of, hey, this is what we're doing, like to get her going. Um, so I think that was the biggest thing for me was just understanding that not everybody is like me, not everybody was like my co-captain, right? It was understanding where people came from, are they the people they are today, and what works best for them that works best for the team, right? Because ultimately being a leader, the big picture is for the team, right? As long as we can get on the field and all work towards that same goal, that's all I need to do, right? So the leader was it was great, it was awesome, but I think the biggest thing was, you know, that that learning aspect of it off the field, right? So how can I get Tara to be the best she can be on the field, connect with her off the field, you know? Um, favorite warm-up, favorite warm-up would have to be, you know, maybe after the actual warmups, maybe to keep your heart rate going, uh, would be hacky sack before the games. Just having a little competitive, not really because we were really bad, but some banter there going back and forth for sure, just staying loose before the games and you know, keeping your mind off of it. So I played, funny enough, I played third base and shortstop growing up. Um and then when I got to Florida State, I never touched third or short, I never touched the left side of the field. Um, my freshman year, I played uh right field, freshman and sophomore year. I played right field, and then junior and senior play senior year, I played first base. Okay, Lauren, great question. How do you calm down when you get stressed? You know, I think there's many ways, and I think the biggest thing for me was my breathing. Um, I think it's gonna be different for each and every individual, but for me, it was my breathing. Even before games, um, before at bat, uh when we were lining up and doing the national anthem, I would have to take a deep breath. Even talking about it right now, it's making me want to take a deep breath because the national anthem was like my trigger of now it's your time to take a deep breath, get that heart rate down, get your breathing down, get ready for the game. And then, so that would, I would have taken a breath there before the national anthem. And then before I would go on deck, I would take a breath in the hole. I would do something called a six to eight breathing or a four by four by four breathing. Six to eight is you inhale for six, hold for two, exhale for eight, and then the four by four by four by four, kind of the same aspect of inhale for four, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four. And all that really does is we're not holding our breath to see how long we can hold our breath. It's if we hold our or if we control our breath, our heart rate's gonna go down. That's just the name of the game, right? So if my heart rate is all the way up, beating 160 beats per minute, I'm gonna be up to bat like this, right? But if I take my breath before in the national anthem in the whole when I'm on deck, I'm gonna be in a lot more calmer state of mind when I get into the box. I'll have a clearer state of mind um getting into that box. Um talk about juggling school and softball. Yeah. So um obviously we're student athlete, right? So student comes first before athlete. And you know, I kind of did it in two ways. I did it as, you know, a student athlete and then a student coach as well, you know. So being a student athlete, juggling it, I would say the first your first freshman year, freshman fall is hard just because you are in a new place, you're away from your parents, you're trying to make new friends, you're trying to do well in the softball field, you're trying to do well in school, you're just juggling a lot. Um, so like I said, the hardest time would be that freshman fall, and that is a time to figure it out, you know. So you're a student athlete, you have to do school and you get to do softball. I can let me take that back. You get to do school and you get to do softball at the same time, right? And not many people get to do that. Um, so freshman fall, like I said, I've been keeping saying it, that's your time to really figure it out of what works best for your schedule. And I know you guys probably heard it a lot, but time management, time management, time management, and prioritizing needs, right? Prioritizing softball, prioritizing school. For me, I would be in the cages till 12, 1 a.m. knowing I had a paper, right? And I'm like, that's not smart. So prioritize and okay, I have this paper, let me get this done and turn it in. And once I turn it in and I'm done with this paper, then I can go do softball, right? I can do well in school and I can do well in softball. But if I'm paying more attention to one thing, I can't do well in the other, if that makes sense, right? So you have to prioritize, you know, I have my paper's due tonight. I can't be in the cages till 12 a.m. hitting, right? So it's just prioritizing where your time needs to go to get the things done, to be successful in all realms of it. Softball, um, life outside of softball and school, and school as well. And then I'll talk about I like I said, I did it as a um coach as well. Um, and I will say that, you know, I think I learned a lot my freshman fall and even being in college for four years. Um, just the time management and what I need personally of like how I can juggle both the softball side of it and the school side of it. When I coached, I would go to practice, I'd coach, and I'd go straight to class from there. I'd have three hour classes right after practice. Um, but I just figure in that mindset of all right, practice here, be where my feet are. I know I have practice for two, two and a half hours, and I know I have class for three hours, and we're just gonna do it minute by minute, however it takes to get there. Um, so it's just figuring out what works best for you and knowing what you need um personally to be successful. Um, I think the biggest thing is, you know, comparison, comparison to your teammates or to other people from different schools. Different schools could have different curriculums, different backgrounds, different majors, whatever it may be, right? So I'm Carson Gordon at Florida State. What do I need? Right. So it's not what my teammate needs, it's not what my friend needs, is what I need to be successful, not only in school, but in softball and in life as well. What is your failure? So a question from Bess: What is your failure recovery in your pregnant routine? Um, so my failure recovery, um, that's a good question. Um you know, we we all signed up for a game that is a game of failure, right? And we have to be okay with that failure. Um I think my failure recovery, I don't know if it's a a specific thing that would be like, all right, let me throw some dirt or do something. Um, I definitely had those things up to bat and of like routine things like that. But failure recovery, I think it's more of a mindset to know that I'm not just a softball player, I'm a person as well. And to know that what I do on the field isn't really gonna dictate me in life. Um and just really understanding and believing those things, it helped me with that failure side of it, you know, because when I used to fail when I was younger, um it was like the end of the world, you know, it's like, oh, I struck out, my next at bat would be terrible and the field would be terrible. You know, it's just taking it one pitch at a time, separating your offense from your defense, right? So, like I said, I don't think there's a specific recovery routine for the failure. It's just separating offense and defense and getting it the next at bat or getting it the next pitch, whatever it may be. Um pre-game routine. I was super superstitious. Still am today. So if I had a good game on Friday, I don't have to eat the same thing. I have to put the socks on the same way, left foot always, left batting glove always. Um, so just silly things like that, really, of my superstitions. I didn't really have, we had like our batting practice or our warmups um that were prescribed, you know, by the coaches of what we had to do. Um, and then I have to take the same amount of swings on the T with the same coach, with the other coach, and then back to the other coach, and I'd be done there. So I only get three front toss, but then the same amount on the T. Um, so just superstitions, really. Did you play any other sports before college? Um, if so, how do you prioritize between your other sports and softball? How would you suggest you're juggling softball and other sports that aren't as important to you? Um, so I did not play any other sports. I did when I was younger, but then when I got into softball and started getting more serious about it, I just was strictly softball. But I will say I think it's a good thing that to have athletes playing more than just one sport and to suggest juggling softball and other sports. Same thing as, you know, the failure recovery is to be where your feet are. You know, if you're gonna have to make a decision at one time whether what route you want to go, if you're really good at two or really good at just softball, you're just doing this one for fun. You kind of have to decide of okay, it's just gonna be softball from here on out. Um, but it be where your feet are. You know, you you're playing those other sports because they're fun and you're making new friends and XYZ, right? So you you wouldn't just be doing it just to be doing it, right? Um, so it's it's a time to take away from softball, take a break from softball. Um, not many people can do one thing 24-7, 365 and still love it, you know, especially nowadays. Um, so to juggle softball in other sports that you're playing, I would just say be where your feet are and enjoy the moment. And then that's gonna make getting to that softball season that much sweeter.

SPEAKER_02:

I love that. I love the idea of being where your feet are. I think that's really your good advice of of making sure that you're enjoying what you're doing now and and not always like waiting for the next thing. For sure. Uh looks like Lauren got one more question and then we'll kind of get this wrap done.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, what is your free meal? Like your favorite pregame meal. Favorite pregame meal. I would say we a lot of times we do Sleuthie King, and it was just like because you would have to. So let's say our game time was three o'clock, three p.m. Um, a lot of the times if we were on the road, we had to show up maybe at 12:30 or 1. Um, so we would eat, you know, breakfast before, but we're in that weird time when that smoothie was that, you know, that nice refreshing thing that would get you over, but would hold you over to the end of the game. Um, and then we would have snacks in the dugout as well. My favorite snacks in the dugout were the little Welch's um fruit snacks.

SPEAKER_02:

We're really, really grateful for you to come and talk with these girls. Um, and like I told you, all the girls that are gonna see this on the replay. I I I want to kind of close. Um you kind of mentioned you played for the Puerto Rican national team that you played with them since 2016. Um kind of talk about what that's been like, that opportunity to to represent Puerto Rico and and that experience, how that's been different from college or the same of college and what that's been like. For sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's been an awesome experience. You know, um, I say it all the time. I don't have one near me for crazy reasons. I feel like I always have a softball near me. Um, but I always say this this little yellow ball, right? This little yellow ball that we throw around with this, the opportunities it's given me has been, you know, I mean, I I can't even put it into words, to be honest with you. Um it's giving me, it's giving me the opportunity to talk to you guys today, giving me the opportunity to travel the world. I've been to, you know, Japan, Colombia, Peru, Canada. Um, and and the list goes on. The opportunities that it's given me has been insane. Um, so I just like giving back to the game in any which way that I can, whether it's this, whether it's practice, whether it's lessons, whatever it may be, in any way to grow the game, because I know what it can give to you, right? So um kind of going back to your question about the Puerto Rican team, um, it was kind of cool because I obviously played at Florida State, where we not only played for the university and our families back at home and the coaches, X, Y, Z, but we played for a tribe of people, right? So we ran represented something way bigger than ourselves, way bigger than a university, right? And then playing with Puerto Rico, we didn't just represent ourselves, our family. We represented a whole country of people, a whole country of people that get together by sports, that bond together by sports, that, you know, we get pictures when we're playing or videos when we're playing of we have people 50 people in a backyard watching us on the big screen. You know, that's how they get together. So it's it's a really humbling experience to play for a whole country and wearing those colors, wearing that, that, that name across your chest. You know, a lot of people say it's not about the name on the back of your jersey, it's a name on your front. Um, and I think that helps too. You know, we talked about the failure recovery a little bit earlier, and it's like, you know, we're playing a game of softball, a game that we love, a game that we're with our best friends, right? And then you think about it, it's like we get pissed off after a strikeout, but we have kids with cancer in the hospital dying, or we have our military troops overseas away from their families, away from their kids, you know. So um it it's kind of you kind of take your step back, you know. It's like, all right, you know, I'm representing this country and and people are watching me. I get I have this amazing opportunity to play for them. Um, so it's a lot bigger than the game, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, totally. That's that's really neat. The idea that they will represent the whole country and like sharing for you. And you said what's uh your next tournament that you get to play with them that maybe they can follow you?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so the next tournament is um the Pan American Games. That is um gonna be the end of October, beginning of November. That's gonna be in Chile, um, Santiago. And so basically what the Pan American Games are is um the Olympics, but for the North Americas. Um, so we have two gold medals in the Central American Games, and that's the same kind of concept. The Olympics for the Central Americas, Pan Americans is for the North Americas, where we have a um bronze medal um there, um, looking to medal again this year.

SPEAKER_02:

Awesome. Well, I mean super cool. Watch out for that. I would also highly recommend if you want to googling, check out her uh in the park walk-off grant or home run a few years ago that you had a Florida State, and then uh another I saw you're on Sports Center top 10 for uh Ivy catch at first base where you dove. I actually remember watching that game. I remember you I remember that. It was a great pickup down the first baseline, and then you dove the first base to beat the runner to get to out. So those are a couple really cool highlights you can look uh if you want to check out some of the stuff that that Carson wanted to do on the topic. Well, thank you so much, Carson. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and your experiences. Um, we really appreciate it. Um and yeah, we'll go ahead and sign off. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. This was great.

Contributor

Amanda Schaefer

Host