Recursive Familiarity For A Stronger Season

“Starting over” sounds tough and inspiring, but for most athletes it quietly poisons confidence. We get honest about why that phrase can feel like your years of work got wiped to zero, especially during a career transition like a new team, new league, or new country. Then we introduce a simple mental performance framework Coach B has been building in doctoral research: recursive familiarity, the idea that your next season is not a replay but a revision.

We break down how athletic seasons move in cycles, how endings are rarely clean, and why the past still shows up through what we call memory seepage. If last season brought injury trauma, a broken routine, tension with a coach, or a story you keep telling yourself about “who you are,” that residue can leak into preseason and shape your next performances. The goal is not to delete the past or pretend it didn’t happen. The goal is to use it as material, keep what works, and rewrite what doesn’t, like an upgrade from version 1.0 to version 1.2.

To make it practical, we shrink the whole philosophy into a daily routine you can do in 30 seconds before your feet hit the floor. You’ll hear three questions that help you separate useful feedback from harsh verdicts and make one clear choice each morning: face forward. If you want better focus, stronger confidence, and a healthier athlete mindset this season, hit play, share this with a teammate, and subscribe and leave a review so more athletes can find it.

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Transcript

Coach B 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Plan B podcast. I'm Coach B, and today's episode is a little bit different. Okay, I think I said that about my last one too, but this is in preparation for next season. And what I'm going to share with you today, I believe, is really going to help your preparation mentally for what's ahead of you. It's something I've been working on in my doctoral research, a concept that I've been building for a while, and this will be a section of it. But I'm really excited about it. And it came to me in the middle of the night. You know, clearly insomnia is something that I battle with. It's called recursive familiarity. Okay. I'll say that again. That what

Why Recursive Familiarity Matters

Coach B 0:43

I've created is called recursive familiarity. Now, don't run away. Okay. I know it like some of you heard that word and were like, oh my God, this is going to be so boring. Sounds like something from a textbook. Stop. Give me 60 seconds because I promise you what I'm about to share to you today will land squarely in your locker room. So I'm going to speak in plain English. Okay. Think about your life. You don't remember being born. And when our story ends, we're not going to experience that either. You're living something that has no edges that you can actually feel. So what if life, well, we know this, isn't a straight line at all. What if it moves in cycles? Now, someone else, another famous philosopher, psychologist, blah, blah, blah, has already come up with that. But here's an important part. This is why my recursive familiarity is different, is because what if each cycle isn't a repeat? What if it's a revision? Not the same life on a loop, but a new version. Version

Life Cycles As Revisions

Coach B 1:47

one becomes version 1.2 and then 1.3 and then 1.4. And each version inherits things from the last one. And that's why some people and some places in life feel strangely familiar. Like you've known them before, deja vu. But nothing about this new next version is locked in. Okay. The material carries forward, but here's the difference. The choices that you can make are brand new. Now, whether you buy that as a philosophy of existence, that's your call. Okay. I'm sure most of us have seen, or mostly older people anyway, you guys who haven't seen it, go lock in over summer, watch Groundhog Day. Okay. It talks about the repeating of a day. But it also shows that you have the capacity to make different choices. And okay, so that's just a concept that was created for this movie. And I am going to shrink it down because whether or not life works that way, I want to tell you with certainty that your athletic career does. So let's make this really specific and something you can relate to. Let's talk about it from an athlete perspective. So I have been working with this fantastic athlete, a professional. And I'm going to keep the details vague, okay, because that's how you know this works. Now, this athlete was in the middle of a career transition, new country, new league, new teammates, new system, new everything. And the phrase that kept circling from people around him, and honestly from inside his own head, was starting over. Look, you're starting over, you're starting fresh. And I want to be really clear about this because starting over, I believe, is one of the most damaging phrases in sport. Starting

The Myth Of Starting Over

Coach B 3:35

over says everything you've built, okay, and for most elite pro athletes, you know, we started in childhood, like really early. And when you say, oh, I'm starting over, does that imply that everything is wiped back to zero, years of work deleted? Okay, because that is false. That is not what is happening. What is actually happening, if we have the right mentality, is that this season has the potential to be an upgrade. Okay, we started talking about it as version one and then version 1.2. So everything from 1.0, every rep, every setback, every film session, every hard lesson starting from this preseason, which many of you are in right now, all of that becomes raw material for 1.2. Nothing is wasted, nothing is erased, it's just all completely revised. Okay, so I'm going to put this in in language that everyone can understand. Our phone does this, right? Sometimes when we turn it off, often we'll turn it on in the morning and it's updated overnight. It doesn't throw itself in the trash and it doesn't turn into a different phone. It keeps everything that works and it rewrites what doesn't. Okay, that's called iteration. And that's what this athlete did. And that's what we're doing right now. And that's what I do for my athletes at the start of a new season. And that is what you are going to do in preparation for what you have ahead of you. And at its core, it's recursive familiarity, a term I just created, but it's applied to your athletic career. Okay, so you know, we're throwing out big words. Okay, and I don't want to lose my incredible audience. So let me shrink it all the way down to our sporting world, where we live, the season, what's about to be on you next. Okay. In less than a month, there's going to be new seasons all over the place, all over the sporting landscape. Every athletic season is one full cycle. It has a beginning you barely notice, because you know, pre-season has a way of just doing that to us. And then often it can have an ending that never feels like a clean ending. Like, particularly if you get injured, or particularly if you suddenly are on a great trajectory and then you just get wiped out by your opponent. Okay, think about the US men's soccer team. All the hate that, you know, the captain's been getting and the guys have been getting so unwarranted. They just played a better opponent, okay? But sometimes they can just boom, end your season. Does that sound familiar? Okay, so the same structure I described about life, about starting and ending with no clean edges, the same thing happens to us in sport. And here's what carries across from one season to the next and why athletes need to really try to, guys, try and focus and really try to absorb what I'm saying. Because if you don't manage your habits, your confidence, your doubt, 1.0 from last season won't turn into 1.2. You'll just be the same athlete if you don't do a revision of what happened last season. If you don't, you know, if the injury you had wasn't rehabbed properly, if you haven't invested time into the relationship with your coach that may have been fractured last season, it's going to impact this season. So the story you tell yourself as well about who you are as

Memory Seepage And Old Trauma

Coach B 7:04

an athlete, that is something that you have the capacity to change and to control. And why we often bring in last season's experiences is because that is called memory seepage. The residue of last of the last athletic cycle, okay, it leaks into the new one. And we all have that, you know, we all have a little bit of PTSD. Particularly, I know myself, if I'd had a really bad crash or stack is what we called it in Australia, if I had a huge stack in a cycling race last season, and you know, I had a huge one where I broke my elbow, my sternum, my pelvis, collarbone. It was it was epic. It was epic, actually. And what was crazy at the time is that when it happened, I jumped back on my bike. Okay, and I came into the transition area, like with all these fractures and breaks. And then my coach saw my, which was my I had a green stick fracture, which is a bone is sticking out of the elbow. And she was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're stopping. And then all of a sudden I felt the pain. So, you know, when you have something like that happen to you last season, and it's not surprising that that can actually seep the feeling, the trauma can seep into the upcoming season. Okay, it's the old version bleeding through. But that's what I want to help you with today because that is a normal feeling. And every athlete in sport, highs and lows, will bleed into the other season if you don't correctly work on your psychology, okay, as an athlete and your mentality in performance. And that is what my whole work is about when I work with athletes. But in this episode, right here, what I want you guys to absorb and to understand is that this new season is not a replay, but you're not starting fresh.

unknown 8:52

Okay.

Coach B 8:53

It's not like you're starting from zero. It's a revision. You get handed the material from last season, good, bad, and the ugly. And then you have the choice to do what you want with it. What are you going to build with it? What athlete are you going to become this season? The off-season. Okay. So the off-season, that's the reset between cycles. And most athletes waste it, to be honest, doing one of two things. Either they pretend that last season didn't happen and they just kind of total wipe it, going, okay, let's just start over. Let's just forget. Let's just, you know, let's, let's do, you know, do something different. But that doesn't work, okay, because we know of a memory seepage and because the residue gets carried over. Okay. And honestly, what happens during the off season is you marinate, okay, like we're having a Barbie, you marinate in last season, the replays, the loss, the crash for me, the benching, the injury, over and over, facing backward, okay, for the whole offseason, looking back at

Offseason Audit For Version 1.2

Coach B 9:56

what happened. That's why today is so important, why this episode is so important. And athletes, if you like it, please share it with your friends because it's a great kind of concept and philosophy that I've created that I really want my athletes to develop from and really develop. I want you to, moving into this new season, to audit the version that you just experienced and go through what you like and what you don't like, what gets rewritten, and what does 1.2 actually look like? What is the vision that you want yourself to be like this season? On the floor, on the track, in the pool, on the bike. Okay. That's not motivational talk. Okay. This is a design process that we have the opportunity to really analyze and then go, okay, I'm going to take everything and build. So you're not starting at ground zero. You know, you've you guys got years of training, competition under your belt. And what's so exciting about a new season is that you have the opportunity to continue to develop, to continue to get better if you have the right mindset.

unknown 11:11

Okay.

Coach B 11:11

So let's, I'm all about shrinking. I'm all about shrinking one chunk at a time. I I don't want to overwhelm you guys with words and you know, Coach B's is like whack a doodle who who says too much. No, garbage. Okay. Yes, some of my work might be like that, but my actual advice for you, okay, is let's shrink it. Let's look at the revisions that you want to make this season one day at a time. So here's a crazy, like cool concept. Every night you sleep, it's a mini off season. Okay. So let's we're shrinking it down to just daily. Every night you sleep is a miniature off season. Every morning is a new pass-through, an opportunity to do a revision of the work you did yesterday. Okay, so yesterday's residue, yesterday's seepage. Okay, we're not even talking last season, we're talking about yesterday, the missed throws, the coach's comment, which kind of stung, the

Daily Resets And Facing Forward

Coach B 12:13

time, you know, what you posted on your Instagram, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Okay, it's all carried over into the next day. The only thing that you own completely, the only thing, okay, athletes is super important, is the direction you face when you wake. I'm not talking about lying on your back, I'm talking about your mentality. Are you looking forward or backward? That's simple. Are you waking every day, starting a whole new cycle facing forward? So I often, when I'm working with my athletes, I do love films, I love cartoons, and it's one of the things that helped me kind of switch off. And I one of the films is my favorite, I often get my athletes to watch it, is called Inception. Okay, it's not new, it's pretty old. It stars Leo and some other big stars. I'm sure a lot of you have seen it. But there's a particular section that I love, and it's when the the character wakes up on the plane, okay, after the whole journey, it's towards the end. So hey, this is a bit of a movie spoiler if you haven't seen it. Okay. He's carried everything that has happened and he walks forward. Contrast with the image earlier in the film. Okay. Same character, but he's really, really old. He's stuck inside a dream. It's multiple levels down. And the line is something like, he's alive, but he has become an old man filled with regret. Same inheritance is available right here to you now with your athletic career. It's the opposite direction of waking, okay, is when you cannot look forward and you keep doing a reconnaissance of last season in your head. Okay. Now I know I'm making that kind of sound dramatic, but that's what a lot of athletes bring with them into the new season. And that is detrimental to performance. So we're not saying start fresh, clean slate. No, we're saying we want to utilize what happened last year, but we have to have the right mentality to approach it. So here's how we do this practically in a week. Three questions every morning, 30 seconds before your feet even hit the floor. Question one What am I carrying into today's session, today's performance, today's competition from yesterday? Just name it. Okay, just acknowledge it. Don't fight it. Two, is it material that you can utilize that can you can learn from, or is it a verdict? Very different. Have you decided because of what happened in the previous session, you've come to a conclusion about your teammates, yourself, your coach, the trajectory that you're on because of a missed shot shot,

Three Morning Questions For Athletes

Coach B 14:58

or because someone said you choked? Did you land on that verdict? Or have you been able to just look at it as material that you can work from? And three, which direction are you facing? And then physically, genuinely choose forward and say it out loud if you have to. I face forward. I'm moving forward. I'm moving forward from yesterday. That's it. Okay, that's a daily rep. You're not trying to erase the last version of yourself. You're the revision of it. You are looking at what it wants to keep, you're looking at what you want to throw out, you're looking at what you want to forget. Forget that crappy comment coach said. Okay, he could have had a crappy day. He could have had, or she could have had a fight with her husband. Who knows? And you know what you projected onto you. Don't hold on to that. Is it useful? Is it part, can it help you in this revision process of you developing as an athlete and becoming better as an athlete? Highly unlikely. Okay, it's just a bit of an ego dead. So what? Leave that. Okay. Athletes are fine. Guys, you guys are fine. Your egos are fine. And we know that. Okay, we're built a certain way. We all have the same kind of all cut from the same mold. But do not get stuck on a loop. You are not on a loop if you choose to face forward and look at yesterday or last season as an opportunity to revise your performance. You're not doomed to repeat last season. You're not going to have a crash, you're not going to get injured, you're not going to do this. You don't get to delete it either. Okay. And that's the important word. You're on an iteration. Okay. Which is where we're just fine-tuning our performance and we're making little corrections. You know, you hear the slogan people go, 10% better every day. Woo-hoo. Okay, well, this is what 10% looks like. This is actually the the brains and the science behind that little slogan, 10% better every day. Yay! Well, how do you do that? Okay, well, it's the revision process that we're talking about. Every cycle, every season, every career phase, in fact, if you want, every single morning hands you the material from the previous pass, from the previous run, from the previous swim, from the previous shot on gold, and then asks you one question. Did you like it? Did you like that version? Did you want to tweak it? Did you want to correct something? What gets built today? So that question is the plan B ethos in one sentence. Plan A was the version that already happened. Plan B isn't the backup, it's a revision. And it's always has been. So let's look at be excited about this upcoming season. It's an opportunity to revise all the work that you have done, that you've worked so hard to do to get you to this point so far. And now you have a choice to take what you want with you for the benefit of your own performance, for your teammates, and see what you can do with it, see if you can execute. I'm I to me

Plan B Means Continuous Revision

Coach B 18:10

that sounds exciting. And that's, to be honest, the mindset and the frame. I just never had a word for it before. So now I do. It's called recursive familiarity. That's what the only thing that kept me in sport was the opportunity to continually revise and improve and get better. Because at the end of the day, when you do get to the top and you've got sponsors and ads and all of this fluff, and it gets boring really quickly. And so what athletes need to stay focused on to keep yourself motivated, to keep yourself still loving sport and still hungry to win, is that you focus on the revisions for improvement because that is a challenge, you know, and the higher you get in sport, the harder it becomes to make those revisions. So I was so excited when I woke up this morning. I was like, oh man, I because it came from an athlete. And you know, I talked about this with Jasper Dale in one of the water polo uh, you know, I love those water polo guys. I were, it was one of my favorite teams, as well, you know, as the soccer and the track and and uh ice hockey and you name it, like all those sports. But when we were talking about learning from our athletes in the episode that I did with him, I really learned a lot from the athlete that day when we talked about 1.0 version was last season and how this season we're going to be 1.2. And for whatever reason, that athlete inspired me, just through what he experienced and how the changes we're making for this season moving forward to this concept that I'm sharing with you today. And if you need to listen to it a couple of times, it's okay. I I often listen to my own stuff a couple of times because sometimes I don't make sense. But this does make sense. This is exciting, guys, because you have a new season that is just around the corner. Wake up every morning facing forward. Wake up excited about the revisions you might be able to make to yourself, to your relationships, to your team, everything as an athlete. And that's what keeps us stimulated. That's what keeps us motivated. All right, guys. I hope you really liked it. Season, the next season's coming up in the fall. I just wanted to throw this in there because I do want you guys to have a great season. And I'm excited just continually to learn from you guys. Enjoy the rest of summer. I'm Coach B, and this has been the Plan B podcast.