A Club Volleyball Coach Tried Our Mental Training Program. Here's His Honest Take.

Mental training for your team doesn't require a sports psychology degree. Get the free training here → coachfreetraining.com

In this episode, I'm sitting down with Tyson Roffey, a club volleyball coach from Ottawa who runs mental performance training with his 15U girls team. He's not a therapist. He's not a mental performance specialist. He works in hospital IT. And he made it work. We break down exactly how he and two co-coaches implemented the Plug and Play Elite Mental Game program, what flopped at first, and the adjustments that changed everything.

Here's what we cover:
👉 Why one-time mental performance seminars don't create lasting change
👉 How to introduce mental training to athletes AND parents
👉 The hybrid delivery model that finally got buy-in from everyone
👉 What happened the first time a player used her Snapback Routine in a live game
👉 The 7-minute 3-2-1 Brave routine that gives you 20 minutes back in practice

If you've ever thought "I know my team needs the mental game, I just don't know how to teach it" - this episode is for you. 

👋🏼 I'm Coach Bre, a 4-time state champion volleyball coach and Certified Mental Performance Coach. I've spent 14+ years coaching girl athletes and built The Elite Competitor to give coaches proven, plug-and-play mental training systems that actually work. 

🕓 Key Moments:
00:00 Introduction: The Mental Game Problem
02:19 Meet Tyson Roffey
08:40 Why Tyson Sought Mental Training
11:57 Initial Hesitations: Time, Confidence & Buy-In
17:24 How Tyson Rolled Out the Program
18:29 Adapting the Approach: The Hybrid Model
21:28 Results: What Coaches Started Noticing
26:14 The 3-2-1 Brave Routine in Practice
30:26 Impact on Coaching & Parent Engagement
34:05 Advice for Coaches on the Fence

💬 Comment below: What's the #1 thing holding you back from doing mental training with your team? ⬇️

📩 Work with Coach Bre: coachfreetraining.com

📌 Free Tools & Next Steps
🎓 Free Mental Training Resource for Coaches: coachfreetraining.com
📲 Instagram: @coachhergame
🎙 Podcast: Coach Her Game Podcast
🔹 Follow us on TikTok→ @coachhergame
🔹 Championship Program Membership: champions.elitecompetitor.com
🔹 Player Impact Plan: https://elitecompetitor.kit.com/6639eaaf9f

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

P.S. Here's what the research shows:
⚡️ Athletes who use consistent pre-performance routines show significantly reduced anxiety and improved focus in high-stakes competition settings. (Cotterill, S.T. - Sport & Exercise Psychology Review, 2010)
⚡️ Mental imagery combined with physical practice improves athletic performance by up to 23% compared to physical practice alone. (Driskell, Copper & Moran - Journal of Applied Psychology, 1994)
⚡️Approximately 85% of youth athletes who quit sports cite feeling inadequate under pressure as a primary reason - not lack of skill. (Aspen Institute - State of Play Report, 2022)

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

Transcript

1:04

Coach, you already know the difference between average teams and great teams is usually not talent or skill. It's between the ears. It's the mental game. They say that sports are 90% mental, 10% physical, but what are we doing to actually train that 90%? And if you're like, yes, I know I need my players to stop overthinking or stop crumbling when the pressure is on, or maybe they look good in practice, but then I'm not sure what team is gonna show up in a game, but what do I do about it? Because. There's not a lot of time, I'm not a sports psychologist and I don't know how they're gonna respond if I start just bringing random, like mental training stuff to them. Like are they gonna look at me like I have five heads? So if that's you, this episode is for you. I got to sit down with Tyson. He is a club volleyball coach and he started implementing mental training with his team in a very simple way, using our program, our mental training curriculum called Plug and Play Elite Mental Game four Teams, which means that he did not have to go. Become a sports psychologist. He did not have to take hours outta practice to try and figure this out. He didn't even have to use much of his own time to try and determine how he was going to teach this to 15-year-old girls. We took care of all of that for him. But if you're like, that sounds cool, but how this will lay it all out for you. You get to hear about how Tyson rolled this out with his club volleyball team. What the parents thought of it, what the players thought of it, what other coaches in the club thought of it, and more importantly, the results that he started seeing with his athletes when they started actually using the tools that they learned inside our mental training program. So this is gonna be a good one for you to kind of see behind the curtains of what it actually looks like to implement a mental training program in your team. So if you're a high school coach, this is great. I actually use plug and play with my high school team. If you're a club coach, Tyson will tell you how they did it. And if you wanna learn more in the description below, there is a link to a free training where I lay out exactly how plug and play. Elite Message Game for Teams works. I will also leave the link to plug and play a direct link there with a$300 discount on the program if you are looking to incorporate this with your team. So I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed sitting down with Tyson. Enjoy. All right, Tyson, welcome to the Coacher Game podcast. Thank you. All right. I am so excited to dive in deeper with you. We were just chatting for quite a bit offline and I was like, I wish I was recording. Um, some of this. So you're gonna have to repeat a little bit, but, um, Tyson was one of our plug and play Elite mental game for coaches coach, um, that implemented our mental training program within his team. And I am just gonna ask you all the questions, but first, can you please introduce yourself, what role you hold, uh, what sport you coach, what the ages are like, just kind of give us some context here. Yeah, sure. Thanks. And, and so thrilled to be here. And again, thank you for what you do to the, for the coaching community, for the athletes, for the families. Uh, I, I love the connection that you make that beyond just the athletes. One. Just thank you for everything you do, um, for me. Um, so my name's Tyson Raffi. I'm a father of four kids, three daughters and a son. Uh, all now between the ages of 19 and 25, all who did high end, uh, sports. Um, so the oldest and youngest were, uh, high-end, uh, world competing cheerleaders. Um, my son, uh, did hockey and football. Uh, my third daughter did. Uh, lot of soccer, football, tackle football, volleyball, all that kind of stuff. And, uh, myself, uh, and, uh, I grew up playing, uh, volleyball. Uh, played at, uh, local community college and then in the university, um, did my, coached my first volleyball team back in 90 19, 96, 97. Uh, then did family, uh, and then, uh, five years ago, started coaching again. Uh, volleyball. Did 10 years of hockey in between that. Uh, I'm a certified development coach in the Canadian system. Uh, I'm an advanced trained coach and I'm starting on my performance coaching, uh, certificate, so I can pretty much coach any age anywhere within, within Canada. Um, and what else? Right now I coach a 15 u, um, girls team, um, within a club called Maverick's Volleyball. Uh, a well established, well-known club, 40 years in the making. Um, it feels like we're just doing our, you know, reinventing ourselves all the time. But, uh, 40 years later, you know, I think we're, we're getting pretty good at it. Uh, there's about 1200 kids in this club and our nation's capital of Ottawa. Uh, and we draw from about, you know, an hour, an hour, 15 minutes away from kind of the hubs. So. That's, uh, that's me. I also do a little bit of coaching with the University of Carleton Women's Club. Um, so I, I see it both at the very young age and, uh, young women as well. So there's me in a nutshell. Yeah. Wow. You're definitely one of those people that has forgotten more coaching in volleyball than I have in my, in my experience right now. So I can learn a lot from you. We could even take this podcast a totally different direction. Yeah. But it, I mean, that's really impressive. Um, and a testament to the fact that as coaches, we should al we should continue to be learning and growing and implementing new things and trying new things. Um. So you're, you're living proof of that too. Yeah. So let's talk about plug and play. Okay. Yes. So plug and play, uh, is for those that are listening and don't know, and this is our mental training curriculum for coaches essentially allows coaches to be able to. Do mental training, teach mental training to their teams without needing like a sports psychology degree or like going back or doing it the hard way, like I did, um, you know, to be a certified mens performance coach. So it gives them a simple way to transmit skills to their team by getting their team together, playing short videos from me. And then they have essentially like a lesson plan to, um, guide their team through learning these skills. Um, so that's it at a very high level, but can you talk us through like your first initial. I guess not decision, but when you, when you became interested in this type of training for your team, for the club, like can you just bring me back there and what was going on? What conversations were you having? Yeah, uh, thanks. And um, yeah, it's always been part of coaching, right? And I think it's been the part that people understand the least. But you know, you never hear a championship team when they're interviewed. It's like, oh my God, I had the best like split step ever. Right? It's, it's, it's all about the, the love and, and the connections they have between the players that make champions. And so trying to dissect that, um, you know, lots of reading, uh, Angela Duckworth and grits and, um, JB Durbin on culture Systems and, and just through trying to figure it out. Found my way to your program. Um, and I'm an it geek. That's what I do for a living. I, I, I, I work in hospital technology. And I was like, I'm not a teacher, I'm not a mental performance coach. I was, I was lucky that I worked in a children's hospital and I could talk to these people, but I could never translate it or ize it to, to, to a team. So when I came across your program, I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. So like, probably did, like many coaches listened to a hundred, a hundred of your podcasts. Yeah. Did all the free stuff. Mm-hmm. Like. Oh, I, I, I just need more. I need more. I need more. And, uh, so this year, myself and two other coaches that coach at the 15 U level, were kind all in violent agreement on Yeah. Like, you know, we're all, we have different professional lives. We don't just coach for a living. Mm-hmm. And it's like, if this is as plug and play as it is, and all three of us have a little bit of an IT background. Your words really connected with us as, as it geeks. Um, and so when we started talking, it was like, this is exactly what we need. This is, you know, bite-size, consumable, age appropriate, all these kinds of things. So we're like, okay, we're all in. Let's, let's, let's give it a try. Yeah. Okay. That's great because that's, I think a lot of places where coaches start as well. They're like, okay, well I need something. And I actually, I'm gonna take it a step further. What were you. What were you seeing in your, in your club, in your teams, or not seeing, I guess, that you were hoping to solve from when you first came across it? Yeah. It wa it was, it was trying to stitch it together, right? Mm-hmm. Well, you know, Mo, most of the coaches have a playing background. Yeah. So the technical aspect of passing a ball or setting or attacking, whatever it might be, we all understood relatively well. It was finding how do you build the chemistry? How do you build the connections? How do you, you know, how do you teach a snapback routine? I, I, I didn't even know what those words were before, before this, but I, but I knew that in myself as a past athlete, um, when something went wrong, I knew I had to fix it, and I, I knew what I did. Mm-hmm. But it, I could never find the words or the ways to articulate it, to teach it. And, and I think. When we got into to working with your program, it, it was all those kind of light bulb moments. I was like, oh, okay. Like, I, I get it, right? Mm-hmm. Um, so yeah, so it, it was, it was the, the innate knowing that these things are needed. Mm-hmm. But the lack of, you know, just pure knowledge and background and, you know, academic teaching of, okay, now how do I put it together? So, mm-hmm. We had hired. Um, you know, mental performance coaches to come in and do a seminar or do three of them and, but, you know, then they would leave and then we did the, you know, more bonding that's gonna work. Right. It's like, yeah, it was fun, but it didn't make, you know, performance change on the, on the court. Mm-hmm. Um, and then I think those were the things that were missing. We were, everyone was trying something. It was all different. It wasn't well coordinated. The no common language that would translate from one year over the next. Um, and so this seemed to answer that. Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up.'cause that's typically what coaches try is they will bring in like guest speakers and not that that's, I've used guest speakers in my program too, and it's kind of fun for little motivation and I will tell you like. On the business side of it, going in and doing a workshop for clubs or teams is probably the easiest way to make money. Yeah. But I'm like, but I don't love doing it because like, just of what you, you said like, it doesn't really last. So it's not like, you know, they're gonna have this, I, I like know when I leave. I'm like, this is, if there's no way to actually like bake it into their system, then it's probably not gonna be something that sticks with them. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and we'll give it if it's supplemental mm-hmm. If it's supplemental to something that's ongoing, then cool. Right. It's, it's, it's a little boost of energy, but yeah. On its own, um, it just doesn't sustain. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, we'll talk about,'cause coaches are probably like, well, what's the difference? What do we do here? So, okay. So you're like, all right, we're all in. It was like you and three or two other coaches that were like, we're gonna try this with our teams. Um, what concerns or like, hesitations did you have initially? Because I'm sure, I mean, I've heard some from other coaches from you, it was around time, but for, for you, what was it? Yeah. And for me, and, and for, for both Ben and, and Dennis, it was, yeah, one, do we have the time? Do, do we have the confidence and skill and knowledge to actually deliver this with, with a level of conviction that's gonna make it stick? Mm-hmm. Right. So, so those you, I mean, the insecurities that we work to, to drive our, our athletes with confidence, we, we were suffering from some of those. Ourselves. And then, yeah, time time's always a thing, right? Um, within our club at the highest level, you get three practices a week, two strength and conditioning sessions a week. And, and that's what's, that's what the program consists of. Right. So now it was like, oh, okay, now where do I add this? Are the parents gonna accept it? Right? Well, they pay for it. Right. All these other things. Um, and then when we brought it to the families, they were all like, they were all instantly in as well. Yeah. Um, so it's like they recognize, especially at this age 14, you, uh, girls playing in that 15 new, uh, bracket. You know, they, they know that, that they need something more. They're the, you know, I mean the, the, the COVID generation, right? Mm-hmm. They're, they're, they've just lived, um, their formative years differently than you and I have. Um, yeah. So, so the families were there, but our concerns were, uh, yeah, the obvious, you know, time, uh, a little bit of courage to be honest. Yeah. Uh, and, and confidence. Can, can we do this? But, uh, I'd say the end result. Right. Like, it's just so well laid out that it's like, okay, like I'm just following a playbook. Like I would, you know, run a tandem on a free ball, right? Mm-hmm. It's just like, okay, this happens and I do this, then this happens, and I, you know what I mean? Uh, so, so as we got into it, the, the confidence from the coaching side grew, grew quickly, I'd say as, as we get into the conversation, our delivery methods were different. And yielded slightly different results. So we can talk more about that as well. Yeah, I wanna hear about that for sure. Um, but I'm glad you brought up all those, those are like the top three things that I hear from all coaches. Yeah. That you nailed them. Um, yeah. I'm glad you brought up the thing about confidence too, because I, I mean, that was me as well when I first did this. But it came from, I was in a place of pain, if you will. Like I had, you know, coached these really talented teams like two years in a row. I'm sure you by Westing Dollar, our podcasts heard this. You know, where we lose in this like lose winner winner in a state, lose your out reverse sweep. Dramatic. Like we fell apart, you know? Right. I'm like, okay, we've gotta do something about this mental game problem. Yeah. Um, and so I was like, motivated by that, but you always kind of wonder like, what are, what are they gonna think? And some coaches will let that stop them from actually providing the tools that they need for their team. But others, it's like they're just gonna follow your lead. So if you get up there and you're like, this is what we're doing, this is what the best athletes do, and we have, you know, in the program, we introduce it in that way too. You could be average, that's fine. You know, that whole, or you could do this little extra thing that will make you better and make our team better and, and all of this. So we typically frame it as like your competitive advantage. And most athletes are like, oh yeah, I want that. Yeah. Um, and you know, most families too, like I hear that a lot from coaches that are like, well, I don't know if my parents are gonna be like down for this. I'm like, as a parent, I, I would never say no to something that would help my daughter's. And my son's mental health, like giving them tools that they can use, you know, in their game and in life. So we do provide some resources though in the program, like a, you know, an email that you can send out that explains it. So, yeah. I'm glad you brought that up though. Well, but that parent connections an important one right? In, in the club setting different than high school. Right. Their members, they're the, they're paying. Yep. Right. Um, so this is always out of pocket expense. Mm-hmm. Um, and yeah, they're, they're making an investment in, in their child. Um mm-hmm. But it's, it's funny, like parent, like, like athlete, some bought into it fully. And use the parent section. And you know, we unfortunately have to travel to all our tournaments, so we get three, four hours in the car. So you could see the, the families that show up and arrive having listened to the podcast, done the videos, done the homework, right. Versus those are like, oh, well it's just another thing. If my kid does it, they do it. Yeah. Um, so, so you know, that investment in, how do I. Um, you know, invest in my, in my child or in, in, in Mavericks we're, we're really working on the tagline of building better humans through sport. Hmm. Yeah. So how do, how do we make that investment in, in, in everyone within our community? Yeah. And that's good because a lot of clubs will have a tagline like that, but it's just a tagline. So this is like the tangible way that you fulfill that promise to your families. So you got it. Yeah. Yeah. Um, okay, so you're in, you're like, okay, we, we can do this. I'm gonna put aside my, like, whatever, ego and confidence. Yeah. Um, so how did you act, like how did this, how did this look for your teams? Like, can you talk us through how you introduced it and then the structure of like how this looked for you all? Yeah. So all three coaches did it slightly differently. Mm-hmm. Um. The way I did it is, uh, our, um, Sunday practices, just having to be at a high school and I could book a classroom. Nice. So I took a very classroom mm-hmm. Classic, uh, process. And so we would have our two hour practice, then we'd spend an hour in classroom, we'd watch a video, we would do the exercises, um, and then we'd talk about it and, and, and we'd, we'd be done. Um. Dennis did it more, uh, within, within practices, um, and Ben kind of let let them on their own right. Um, so, so three very different by about month, so our season starts in October. Right. By about the end of November, beginning of December, we were all talking about it and we all had some consistent feedback, uh, on both positive and negative sides and, and some adjustments that we've, we've each since made. Um, and so I'd say the, the number one feedback on the, I'll say less positive side mm-hmm. Was the sense of homework. Mm. Right. Mm-hmm. Um, so we, that's probably in how we delivered it. Um, but a lot of feedback from parents and kids were like, it when they play volleyball to get away from school and do all this stuff. Yeah. And now you're assigning homework. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. And it's like, oh, they, I mean, it's like, oh, I don't wanna do it'cause it feels like homework. Right. Um, so we all, we all made modifications to, to our approach and we all kind came up with a slight hybrid model of, you know, here's, here's something that we're gonna talk about. Over the next, you know, cycle. Right? Could be two weeks a month. Mm-hmm. Whatever's happening in our season. And then we'd link it to a series of videos and say, here's content, right. That you could go learn about and, and use and absorb. Right. But in our practices, we're gonna add, do a snapback routine. What's your 3, 2, 1, brave? What's right? All these different pieces. Right. What's your. You know, we're going into a tournament in two weeks. So what's your pre tournament routine? Right? Yeah. What's your serving routine like? All and break these things down. Mm-hmm. Um, so we all ended up in some version of a hybrid, which, which seems they've seemed to embraced, uh, even more, um, yeah. Where they feel it's like, okay, so I'm in control. I do it when I feel like it. Uh, and, and all of us have kind of found a way to.'cause we travel so much, you know, use that three hour car ride mm-hmm. To have the conversation. And we found that, engage the parents even more.'cause now the kids are like, oh, I mean we should be doing this'cause instead of just listening to music. So, um, so a little bit of a journey for all of us. But you know what's amazing is when, um, you're in the middle of the game, kid shanks a ball. And you actually see them do their snapback routine, right? And you can't help but as a coach, like you break up a, you know, big smile on your face, and then you look across and you see the parents smiling, and now you're both giggling, right? And then the kid sees you and they're laughing, like, and you just have these moments when, when you see it, you know, translate into practice, uh, which is, which is just amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Well, that leads well into what I wanna ask next around, around, um, yeah, what did you start to notice? So you're starting to do this, and I will say that, um, for the high school coaches that are listening who implement it more how I do it, which it is like a one day a week kind of classroom situation. And then we do three, two un brave, that looks a little different than maybe a club setting. Um,'cause your kiddos had individual access to the program too. Yes. So they, they were a little bit of a high. So if you're a club coach listening, um, yeah. There, there can be more of a flex approach to this. Um, but yeah. What did you, what did you start to notice in your athletes? Well, I, for, I mean, there, there're clearly two a, a divide, right? Mm-hmm. Those that are like, I'm, this is an investment. I'm working it. I wanna get better. I wanna be the best right? In the club system. Like I have a homogeneous age group, right? So only 14. You kids, you know, kids 14 years of age, that will be 15 in the next, um, uh, in the, in the next year. Versus a high school team where you could have, you know, a mix of, you know, two junior ages or two senior ages or a varsity up and down, right? Yeah. So the, the leadership. Um, and the acknowledgement of of doing it comes from truly a peer group. Mm-hmm. Um, so in those peer groups, you would, you'd start to see natural leaders and they're like, Ooh, I, I could use this as an advantage. And they're totally buying in. Right. You see them like, I have my team do 3, 2, 1, brave before every practice. Mm-hmm. So they have, they design a focus for that practice. Um. And so you'll see them notebooks out working it, asking questions, right? So you really start to see that engagement being driven. Through the tools. Mm-hmm. And then to me, the, the, the, the most brilliant of, you know, the icing on the cake is the snapback routine, which, yeah. Uh, as you know, invol, you know, volleyball's a game of mistakes. Mm-hmm. Um, and it doesn't matter who you are, the best player, the worst player, the setter, the passer, the middle blocker, you're all gonna make a mistake at some point. Um, and your ability to still come together as a team is, is what makes the difference. So. You know, seeing the snapback routine in action, um, in the moments where it mattered versus, oh yeah, I'm just doing it at a water break.'cause my coach told me I had to. Right. To me, that was like, that's the, okay, this is, um, you know, we, we've got one last module as we go into our provincial championship and national championships over the months of April and May. Um, but it's like. You know, all in, okay, we're doing this again next year. Like those, those decisions are already made. Yeah. Oh, that's so great to hear. Um, and I should have asked this, uh, before, but how did your girls respond to it, like. How, what, what did they think when, when they started doing it, besides maybe if you, they were like, oh, this is homework. But once they started kind of getting, yeah, so I mean, it's, it, trying to put them in a classroom setting a bunch of kind of twitchy, 15 year olds, um, wasn't the, the, the most simple. Mm-hmm. But. Once, once they understood the purpose and, and what I did to anchor it was I also invite invited the parents. Right. Because they have so much influence. Yeah. So when we did those classes, we did them parents and athletes, um, and we'd open the conversation just for the athletes and then open it to the parents as well. Oh, interesting. To, to, to, to comment. So for me that, that helped anchor it. Um, and made sure that, you know, we didn't kind of go too far out of the lines. Mm-hmm. You know, as a first time doing it needed to ensure that the parents were comfortable with, you know, some of these conversations aren't, you know, when milk and cookies, right. It's mm-hmm. It's like we're, we're getting into sharing some fears, sharing some insecurities. Right. Sharing how do you want feedback? Mm-hmm. One athlete to, to another, you know, that. We were lucky. It generally went well. Yeah. As, as people found trust with each other. Mm-hmm. But these things could go off the rails, so, um, but yeah, as the, the more they did it, the more comfortable they, it, it, it became mm-hmm. The less awkward I, as a teacher got, which is an important part of it. Mm-hmm. Um, but the more comfortable, and again, it's, it's those quick little results, which you mean. I understand why the starting point is snapback. Mm-hmm. Because it's, it's simple and you can, you can get a result and, and it hooks them. It anchors them on, okay, I wanna know what to do next. Um, yeah. So those would be the observations and, and, and how, how we delivered, um, through the program, through my, my, my, my method. Yeah, that's great. That's so awesome that you involved the parents. And not everyone has to do that. If you're a coach listening, you're like, oh my gosh, how gonna get the parents in there? But like, you all are clearly invested. Like you aren't, you're just, you're not just saying you're like walking the walk. So that's great. Um, I wanna hear a little bit more, you said, you mentioned you did three, two, and brave, um, before practices. Can you talk about that process and how you saw that impacting the team? Yeah. Again, it's, it comes down to purpose, right? Mm-hmm. So many, like all these girls, uh, our practice was usually between, uh, 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM in the evening. Mm-hmm. Right? So many of these kids would, um, go to school from eight to four, eight to five, right? Get home or get in the car and then make their way to practice, and that was it. Right? So they had little downtime in between all this kind of stuff. So we use 3, 2, 1. Brave as just that moment, you know, everyone arrived 15 minutes before practice. Mm-hmm. You know, change your shoes. Um, the, the backpack, um, visualization mm-hmm. Is one that I, I, I've used even before I've heard your version of it. Oh, cool. Um, and I'm a, I'm a kn and tidy person. Mm-hmm. Um, so, you know, and if you walk into my gym, you'll see all my kids' backpacks. All lined up in a single file with their water bottles beside and everyone knows where everything is. Um, so it, it just fed into the kind of that as well. Now let's take a moment, you know, connect as players, connect with our goals for the practice and be more intentional, uh, on going into what we're we're about to do for the next two hours. So that was kind of a slight modification on, on 3, 2, 1. Brave. But using the general structure of it to give them a, a moment to breathe and transition from. Okay. School rush. I just ate dinner in the car. Uh mm-hmm. Right? Yes. You know, mom's bringing my, my, my brother or sister to their practice and dropping me off in the parking lot and right here I go, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And that's what I used it for too with my kiddos, because same, you know, they're, they're coming from their classes, from the hallway, from the drama in the hallway, from, you know, all, all that. And sometimes it takes a while to get them to like focus and practice. So I find that doing through to and brave, which, um. If you do it traditionally in the program, it's um, you write down the three affirmations, two minutes, two minutes of journaling, one piece of gratitude, one piece of evidence that one of your affirmations is coming true. So training, rewiring their brain to always be looking for evidence that they're improving, that they're getting better because. Our brain will go negative and it'll pull out all that evidence of why they're not good enough. So you gotta train through the opposite. And then Brave is a visualization, so the whole thing takes like seven minutes, but I find that that seven minutes that I invest in allowing them to do that gives me like 20 minutes back of practice so that I'm not like trying to get them to focus. So yeah, I, I, for my kids travel, uh, drive more than an hour Oh wow. To get to our gym. And I mean, 90% of the time I see them arriving. And mom and dad are waking them up'cause they fell asleep in the car. Right. Okay. Right. So again, it's, it's, as you said, it's that reset. It's that, that moment, that opportunity for them to, to get ready. Um, and yeah, the, the training to think of all the good things, right? What mm-hmm. What, what am I noticing about my game? Am I passing better? Am I attacking better? Right. Am I, you know, finding the system better? Um, yeah, it's, so the, the. They're naturally wired to go, I'm not good enough, or This one's better, or, I'm terrible. Right? All these words, um, yeah. I wish I had a magic wand to zap them out of their heads. I know, I know. But at least they get to learn a little bit about like, okay, those thoughts, we call them automatic negative thoughts. Ants, like you can't really do anything about the first thought that comes in, but it's a skill to recognize that you can choose the second thought. So yes. Yeah, that's, that's good that they're actually recognizing, you know, that we we're hopefully getting them down that path. Yep. Um, okay. I just have a couple more questions left for you. Sure. So, um, how did this impact you just as a coach? You've mentioned a couple of things, but you know, anything about your role as a coach and maybe giving you different language or ways to connect? Talk about that. Yeah. Um, h hockey culture in Canada, as you can imagine, is a little bit crazy. Yeah. Uh, and, uh, as a coach, you're taught, um, like, just don't talk to parents, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. They focus on the athlete, ignore everything else, right? And, and, and stay there. Uh, volleyball as a community, the game is, is a little bit different. Um, and as a parent myself of, you know, four high performance kids, I was like. I mean, you might have my kid for six or eight hours, but I have them for hundreds. Right, right. And if we're not on the same page, then whatever you're teaching, you know, I'm gonna destroy as a, as a parent. Right. If, if we're, if we're not doing the same thing. So I mean, using the program and the parent module side of it to make that connection, inviting them into our mental performance training. Right. Really made a stronger connection with the parents, which I think is paying off. As you know, as always, there's a little bit of team drama and mm-hmm. This one's not, this one's not happy. I had a weird configuration of 13 athletes this year'cause um, there was just, I, I mean, there's a couple great kids. I, I wanted to build more setters for future years and so I did a, a few things differently that, um, I knew were gonna be hard. But using this program, engaging with parents, and just changing the way I engage the broader community versus just the athlete. You know, I, I think this program allowed me, I'll say the freedom to do that. Mm-hmm. Um, and it wasn't, didn't feel forced, didn't feel like I had to reinvent something. It was, oh, okay, so there's a parent module, so let's, let's engage them and let's open the door for more conversations versus. Uh, I, I love one of, I, I think it's a recent podcast or video on, you know, I don't do open office anymore. Yeah. Um, so I threw that out, right? Mm-hmm. And it's like, this is when you can get ahold of me, and I know if you're a little hot about something, you're gonna send me an email anyways, so, you know, this the old 24 hour rule and, and that kind of stuff. I've kind of, you know, listen, listen to you and taken some of the advice and, and leverage the program to go. Let, let's just deal with things and the more we can deal with them proactively, the better the end result is. Anyway. Um, yeah. So, yeah, I don't, I don't know if that totally answers your question, but trying to connect a few dots. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it does definitely give a little, yeah, like you said, freedom as a coach and confidence, and, I mean, I don't think you mentioned, you mentioned it before, but for me it was like a common language too. Yeah. So we're all like, we're all doing the same. Training. So now we have the same language around it and, and you know, at like in a club, at a 15 new cohort level mm-hmm. You know, the parents from the A team talk to the B team, talk to the C team. Yeah. Right. And because we're all doing the same program, the same language, our timing was generally the same. Right. Whenever there's, you know, weird things that would happen, someone went on a winning streak or someone went on a losing streak. Right? Mm-hmm. You could, you could ground all that back together. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Okay. Well the last question I have, unless there's anything that we haven't covered that you think is useful, I guess this could be a catchall for that. Like anything that I mentioned or that I haven't mentioned that you think would be useful for other coaches. To hear, and if they're on the fence about this, what you might tell them. Well, if, if they're on the fence, it's easy, get off. We don't like fence sitters. Um, you would never accept that from your, from an athlete who, who is, you know, when you're trying to encourage to try something new. Um, so, you know, you know, as they say, eat your own dog food. Like, get off the fence, go do it. Um, you know, I'm an it geek, uh, in, in my day job. I figured this out. Uh, it wasn't, it wasn't that hard. And it's just a little bit of courage. The same amount of courage you ask your athletes to show every day. So, um, so yeah, get, get off the fence and get on with it. That, that, that, that's an easy one. Mm-hmm. And, and again, I'd say. Um, more than anything, it's the conversations, right? Don't be afraid to have those conversations and, um, seek the feedback on what's the best way for the athletes, the families, the, the members, the group to consume them, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, we, I went in with a, like a very. You know, preconceived notion, okay, you know, it's, it's gonna be every Sunday at two o'clock, right? Yeah. And, and it was like, oh, that, that didn't work and didn't give me the, the, the, the best results until I went back and asked for feedback and it was like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Here's the adjustments. Like, oh, we, we can, we can easily make those adjustments. Right? That's, that's the resiliency part of building a mental performance and, and, mm-hmm. Performance coaching. Um, so, you know, don't be afraid of those things. The, just the opposite. Go embrace them fully and, um, you know, it, it will work itself out. I think the basic tools that you learn within the program, um, are gonna drive a different performance. Again, for those athletes that see it as a competitive advantage. Some, it takes a little bit more convincing. But usually a couple leaders on the pack, uh, and somebody sees them do a snapback routine or they're really into their 3, 2, 1 brave doing that transition from school day to practice time. Um, and, and it's like, oh. Okay. Like, I, I wanna do that too. Right? Yeah. So, uh, so yeah, off the fence, get to it. I mean, there, there's, there's, there's no, certainly from my standpoint and the other coaches that have done it in our club, certainly no regrets. Um, even some of us are starting to revisit our, our season goes from October to May. Mm-hmm. So that's a, a long time. Long time. Yeah. And, and, and revisiting some, some. Uh, some of the, the, the content just to make sure it sticks as we go into our provincial and national championships in April and May. So yeah, that's a great time for, for a refresher. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you Tyson, for sharing so generously. I know that this has been really helpful. For me, but also for the coaches that are listening. So, thank you so much. Thank you. And yeah, and I really appreciate you doing this. Not, I mean, yes, it's a business and all these things, but, uh, it, it was needed. It, it filled the gap, uh, as certainly for us and, and. Um, we're, we're, we're really glad to have it. And the goal is now how do we expand it? Right. We've, we've been working with 15 new girls, but uh, it applies to all age groups, all age, uh, boys and girls equally. So, um, we'll, we'll see what comes next. Okay. Oh, well thank you. Thank you for saying that, and coaches that are listening. Um, I'll put in the description all the, everything you need to check out, um, plug and play and the resources that Tyson and, um, his club used. So thank you again, Tyson. You're very welcome. Thank you.