The 2-Min Parent Meeting Activity That Prevents Co

Ever had parent drama or complaints about playing time? 🤦‍♀️ Here's a simple 2-minute activity to prevent those issues before they even start! Grab more coaching tools → https://coachfreetraining.com

As coaches, we know how important parent communication is—especially when it comes to setting expectations early. In this video, I’m sharing a simple, yet powerful, note card activity that helps build trust with parents and prevent playing time complaints later in the season. By creating an open line of communication, you can set the tone for a successful and drama-free season.

🎯 What you’ll learn:
✔️ How to establish trust and set expectations early with parents
✔️ A simple note card activity to ensure parents feel heard and valued
✔️ How to communicate that you're a team working together for the benefit of the athlete
✔️ Why mental toughness and player development matter just as much as physical skills
✔️ How to reinforce family values and strengthen the parent-coach partnership

🎙 I’m Coach Bre—a mental performance coach for girl athletes, Co-Founder of The Elite Competitor, and a 4-time state championship-winning coach. After 14 years of coaching, I’ve learned that building strong relationships with parents is key to a successful season and mentally tough athletes.

🕓KEY MOMENTS:
00:00 – Why So Many Coaches Struggle Early On
00:30 – The Parent Meeting Strategy That Changes Everything
00:55 – How Sharing Personal Stories Builds Parent Trust Fast
02:21 – The Simple Note Card Activity Every Coach Should Try
04:23 – Tools and Tips to Build Mentally Tough, Connected Teams

📢Coaches—what’s the best strategy you’ve used to set expectations with parents? Comment below!👇

🚀 Want more strategies to empower your athletes and improve communication with parents?
🔹 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

I have my preseason parent meeting coming up and it reminded me of an activity that I do at these meetings to help establish a better relationship with the parents of my athletes and also avoid the drama that happens in the season because I used to, when I was first coaching, kind of think. Parents should stay away. My job was to coach and their job is to support, no questions asked. And surprise, surprise, that added a lot more drama to my team and to the season. And so I've shifted my approach over the years. I've been coaching for 14 years, and now I do a couple of things differently, especially in the preseason parent meeting because that establishes the like, kind of the tone for your season. It invites parents or like gives them the. Reason to not trust you. So one thing that I do is this little note card activity. I started changing how I ran these parent meetings. I started sharing a little bit more of my story. Yeah, it's great. Like you won four state championships. You, you play volleyball in college, all of that. But like, they wanna know, how are you gonna help my daughter? Like do you care about her more than just what she can do on the volleyball court? Like they wanna connect with you as a. Person and hear a little bit of your story. That's how they establish trust with you. So I started adding in a little bit more of that. That required me to be a little bit more vulnerable about why a coach, and again, it's not just about the accolades and like all the things you've accomplished as a coach, because yeah, those are cool, but like more like what led you here? Why? You know you're gonna be spending more time with your. You know, with these parents' kids than they are during the season. So they wanna know and can they trust you. So I started sharing a little bit more of my story, why I coach, and the mission and the vision of the program early and what we value a lot of that being the mental side of the game and the emotional side of the game, and how I am passionate about, um, you know, athletes' mental health and how we actually carve time outta practice to do that on a weekly basis. If you wanna learn about that specifically, because if you're like, I'm passionate about that too, then, but how do you do it? Then go to our free training. I cover all of it@coachfreetraining.com. Really easy way to get started with how you can actually train'em at the center of the game and makes a big difference. When I share this with parents, they're like, yes, finally somebody who is going to be talking about this, so besides me, you know,'cause they're, they're there trying to help her out, like. You know, be more confident, like bounce back faster. But that car ride home is probably like making things worse for her and making things worse for you to try and like coach through that situation. So go to coach tree training.com. I'll break it all down for you. But this other activity I started doing is I give all of the parents a note card at my parent meeting and I ask them a couple of questions and I'll tell you the questions and I'll tell you like why this actually helps. So the questions I kinda rotate through are, what do you hope for your daughter this season that has nothing to do with. The stats in the playing time. Okay. So basically like, what do you hope she takes from this season? Okay, so that's one. Question two is, what do I need to know as a coach about your daughter that I might not know? All right, so this just invites parents to share, like anything going on, like is there just any, any other thing that I need to know about your, your daughter that will help me more effectively coach them? Okay. A third that I rotate through is, is there a value at home that you are trying to communicate that I can reinforce here? Again, communicating that like we care about more than just the physical game. We care about your athlete as a person, and we want to reinforce values as well that you are. That you're trying to establish at home. And so this did a lot actually, because what it is communicating with your parents is that you're in a partnership with them, that you care about their input. And of course, your parent meeting, you're gonna be talking about how your, you know, your expectations around communication and boundaries around communication. So all of that. But basically the signals to parents that like you. Care about their input. You are on a team with parents for the benefit of their athlete, and you wanna know, you wanna know what's going on so that you can most effectively coach them. And I would have parents, like, I would get so much insight from these cards, but also when parents talk to me, like after the meeting or on days later, they're like, I really appreciate you like asking those questions because you know, I, you know, I need a coach to know this about my daughter. And, you know, it just opens up more lines of communication as well in a really healthy way. So. If you can steal that, you can do this little note, note card activity with your parents at your next parent meeting. It makes a big difference. But obviously, make sure that you're also talking about things at your parent meeting, like your mission, your values, how you actually. Enforce those values. So again, for us, we talk a lot about the mental side of the game and how important it is that athletes are confident and have skills to come back from mistakes, have skills to navigate, pressure, expectations, comparison. Athletes aren't typically taught these skills and they're not born with them, and so we talk about how we do plug and play Elite mental game for teams. That's our mental training program. Again, if you wanna learn more, go to coach free training.com. I lay it all out and then do things like this to show your parents that like you're on the same team. You are together for the benefit of the athlete. All right. Hopefully this was helpful to you. Go to coach free training if you wanna learn more about mental training, and head to the next video and I'll see you there.