Let's Play Without Mental Blockage

Have you ever felt so much pressure in your sport that it felt like you forgot how to play?

Like you’re making mistakes you’ve never made before, overthinking everything, and suddenly not playing like yourself anymore? Almost like you’re trapped in a different body while doing the thing you used to love?

In this episode, Coach Jojo talks about what mental blockage actually feels like and how pressure can completely affect the way athletes think, react, and perform. From losing trust in yourself to spiraling after mistakes, this episode breaks down why athletes can suddenly feel disconnected from their game and confidence.

Coach Jojo also shares a personal story about going from playing with confidence, to completely losing it during periods of mental blockage, and eventually building that confidence back again.

Most importantly, this episode gives athletes three practical tools they can use to start breaking out of mental blockage, stop spiraling in their own heads, and reconnect with the player they know they are.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, frustrated, disconnected, or mentally exhausted in your sport, this episode is for you.

Let's play without mental blockage!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What is what's mental blockage? Like, what do I mean when I'm saying don't play with mental blockage? Let's play without mental blockage. Mental blockage are things that happens when you are playing in such fear, when you are hesitating to make a move in a game or make a decision in a game. When you're overthinking so much, it's making you spiral. It's making you feel things like for me. I had sensations of like when I had mental blockage, I felt so tight and I had so much anxiety and I had I felt claustrophobic. You're just out there not playing like yourself, and you have imposture syndrome because it just feels like your mind can't work the way that you want it to work. But that doesn't make any sense. You've been training for years, you've been doing this sport for years, you know how to play this sport, but why aren't you playing the way that you usually play? And why aren't you why aren't things happening and living up to your expectations? It's because you have developed a mindset where you are not yourself at all, and that is what mental blockage is. It is creating this layer and little person in your brain that you need to kick out immediately, that you need to dissolve immediately. So in this episode, I talk about the reasons of why you have mental blockage, but I also give you guys three tools of how to solve that. And it's gonna take a little bit of effort, but it is worth a little bit of effort to get rid of this. And I even talk about my own story and how I have had mental blockages multiple times in my life, and I had come up on top, I gained all of my confidence back. So let's get right into it. You know, when you think of a word and you start saying it over and over and over again, it becomes super weird. Or even if you think about a concept for too long, it starts to become just it doesn't feel like reality. Sometimes when I walk without music and I'm just walking to clear my head, my mind starts to think about the way that I'm walking. And sometimes not even the way that I'm walking, but the fact that like my legs are moving subconsciously. Like I'm not telling them to move, they're just moving. I mean, there's something obviously in my mind that's telling them to walk, but it's not like I'm really controlling them. It's walking has become so easy that I am just doing it without any effort. And it's the same thing with breathing. We're not thinking about our breath all the time because it's a subconscious thing. We've trained our minds to know how to breathe, to know how to walk, to know how to blink. But a lot of times we don't even realize we're in control of that and we're not in control of it. It's just happening. I played soccer for about I played it up until sixth grade, and then in sixth grade, my parents were like, okay, we really like we see you have an ability to make it to college. Do you want to pick basketball or soccer? And I without doubt chose basketball. And you know, I'm in sixth grade. There's not like there's that much thought behind, okay, what sport am I gonna pick for setting up my career? Like, I'm in sixth grade, so I didn't really think that far. All I thought about is which one was more fun. Soccer was so fun for me for so long, but it got to the point where I started to have these really bad breathing issues. I would freak out, and this never happened in basketball. This never happened in basketball. So we thought that this was like an allergy thing, right? Because obviously you play soccer outdoors. So we thought that I was just having like asthma or my allergies were kicking in. And me and my parents still remember this to this day. Like, I still have just a memory, so many memories of me freaking out that I couldn't breathe. And why that was so consuming for me. Well, one, I'm a kid, okay? Why am I having breathing issues or any physical issue at that point? But two, breathing is literally what we need ever nearly every two seconds. Like, we need to breathe, obviously, as humans. I mean I'm saying something pretty obvious. Like, obviously, we need to breathe, stay alive. That was something that happened every single second or every other second of my day of my life. What I'm trying to say is that it's not something like that happens once a week, or maybe like, oh, my knees were hurting at one point this one day. Like, no, like breathing is a constant thing. Then when I actually got to my first school in college, I started to have panic attacks. And literally my parents were like, oh my god, when you played soccer when you were younger, it wasn't asthma because you know the doctors would not see that I had asthma and it wasn't my allergies because we would take allergy pills. I was getting panic attacks. And I say this story because it was something that was happening in one environment and wasn't happening in another environment. It was happening during soccer, but didn't happen during basketball. And I think that that difference is so eye-opening to me. And to say that to you guys, because in basketball, I'm still physically running, like I'm still exercising, I'm still exerting my energy. Like I am still doing a very hard sport, and soccer is also very hard. So why am I also running? And I get their different endurances, but I'm a kid. I could run off of anything. Like I should be able, I've been doing soccer for years. I have I think I was on like three soccer teams at that point and like three basketball teams. But what I figured out is that I had gotten anxiety from playing soccer because of you know, whatever the circumstances were, maybe the people there, maybe the way that it was hot outside, because I hate the heat to this day. I hate the heat. Maybe, yeah, maybe I felt claustrophobic. Maybe I just felt like I couldn't breathe and I couldn't be in my own body. I felt like I had imposture syndrome. But as for basketball, I probably had better people surrounding me. It was an indoor sport, which I liked a lot better, um, which is weird because I didn't feel as claustrophobic and it was just a better environment. I was better at basketball. Everything was just rainbows and unicorns and daisies for me in basketball. Because my mind was just hated soccer, hated the environment, hated everything about it, it was making me have these mental blocks of what I usually know how to do. I know how to freaking breathe. Like I know how to breathe. I know how to pace myself. I knew all of those things, like I knew how to do regular activities, but because I had so much anxiety and so much overthinking and so much fear, it created this mental block of me freaking out of not knowing how to breathe. But in basketball, I had no anxiety. I had no mental blocks, I had no fear. I was able to go to basketball, breathe easily, run easily, do everything that a human should be naturally being able to do. I was able to do all that because my mind was free. In high school, I absolutely love basketball. It was my escape from high school. I was pretty depressed in high school, and I just always look forward to going to basketball practice. I wanted to be there for longer. I love going to my club practices, I love seeing my teammates. Like it was just a second home for me. Without a doubt, I was probably the just the most excited person at my school to go play in college. Of course, I get to college and it is so humbling, just the most humbling experience. The physical aspects that go into a college sport are uncomparable to anything else humans could really do. Like, truly, it is one of the, if not the most accomplishing thing that you'll do in your life. So it's definitely so rewarding. I am so thankful for it. And that's the reason why I'm here today. This is the reason why I'm happy. This is the reason why I'm gonna have a career, and it's the reason why I am the person I am today, and I feel so confident in everything that I do. But those first two years of college hit me like not even a semi-truck, guys, like hit me like a whole nother planet, like came on like an asteroid came down and just hit me so hard that I was like, yeah, I'm just gonna lay here and freaking quit. And I was in that mindset because I had loved basketball. I had done everything physically. I had worked my ass off to get to college, and I'm here, and now I am suffering consequences. Like, not even consequences, they felt like consequences, but I was there playing the worst, being the weakest, being the, you know, last to pick on drills that we do. Those things, those humbling things where you bring all of these athletes together and you're like, wait, I'm not the best anymore. Or like sometimes that's that's mostly the case. Maybe you are somebody that gets on team and you're just the best on the team. That's awesome. But also you're still gonna have competition. No matter even if you are the best on the team, there are people very close to you. It college is just such a beautiful thing because it really does bring these people together with such amazing mindsets and just such gritty mindsets. And so it's challenging and it's hard and it's pushing your limit limits and it's breaking you down just to build you right back up in a different way, in a more strong way. The thing is, is that I never didn't get built back up. And I'm kind of hesitating when I'm saying that because I did build myself back up. I have a very unique story, I think, but there was a point in time where I got broken down so hard in college that I it took me a while to get back up. When I went from loving my sport, not even loving my sport, like needing my sport in order to be happy, and then coming to a college where everybody felt the same exact way and it was their escape and it was their thing that they loved, and they were very good at what they did, and I was very good at what I did. But for some reason, when I was knocked down, I couldn't get back up like I've been saying. And that's when all of a sudden it was like all of the work that I've done for so long just went out the window. I had started to play in fear. I started to doubt myself like no other time. I've never doubted myself in basketball. I always knew, I always had confidence. I was always, I always knew I was the best on the team. I always knew that I wanted to play in the games. I was never nervous to play in a game. I literally never got nervous in high school and I came here and I'm getting so nervous just to go to practice. I'm literally having panic attacks so bad before practice because I don't think I could compete. I don't I hate what I'm doing. I'm not, and it wasn't, it wasn't even like I wasn't competing to the level that everybody else was competing at, but I also was just so fearful and performing well, and I wanted to perform so well, I didn't want to make any mistakes. I wanted to compete at the level everybody was competing at that I wasn't playing like myself at all. I had put so much pressure on myself, and I put that pressure on myself. There was a lot of pressure there, but I let that get to me. And so I started to make so many mistakes in practice. I started to be weak. I started, you know, to get in this mindset where I was like, I can't do this. I literally, I was a shooter, such a good shooter in high school. And I remember my college career, I did not really shoot that well. Um, even healing at my last school, um, you know, because I transferred school. I went to one school for two years, and then I transferred and went to another school for two years. My second school, I even didn't shoot the way that I wanted to because I just had mental blockage. And I just remember going to my first school and shooting like shit. Like it was so bad. I've never shot that bad in my life. I didn't even know where this was coming from. And yeah, the three-point line was back a little bit. Like, what? Is it a foot? I don't even know. I don't know these like certain things, but I think it was a foot more than the high school line. But I let that get in my head, but it shouldn't matter. It doesn't change your form in any way. It's the same thing with any other sport where you extend the field or you extend the gym, like the, you know, the dimensions of everything. Like things are changing in that way, but it shouldn't mess up your form and it shouldn't mess up your mindset. But here's my point to what I'm trying to say about telling you guys all of this and me just like slowly deteriorating at my first school. I had the ability. I literally there is in my brain, in my second nature, I subconsciously, I have the ability to be a very good basketball player. I knew how to shoot the ball. I knew because that's what I did in high school. That's what I've been doing my whole entire life, all up until that point. I knew how to make free throws. I knew how to, you know, just all of these little things I knew how to do. I knew how to be a really good ball player. But because I let all of this fear creep in and I let all of the overthinking thoughts start to make my mind spiral and start me, like I literally would have panic attacks for no reason. It was me getting up and all up in my head, and it created mental blockage. I literally it what's that one term that um I don't know if like it's it's specific to just gymnastics because Simone Biles said this one time, but that she got the yips. And if you guys aren't familiar with that term, it's basically your mind has so much mental blockage and so much overwhelming thoughts that your mind literally forgets how to do movements. And honestly, for non-athletes, you would be like, What the fuck? Like, what are you talking about? Your mind, after many, many years doesn't know what it's doing, like you've practiced this so many times, and then you're just telling me that all of a sudden you don't know how to do it? Yes, like yes, that's what happens, and isn't that crazy that that's a concept? It has happened to Simone Biles and that she's a professional, she's one of the best athletes in the world. Have you guys ever had dreams where you're playing your sport but you feel like you can't, like for me for basketball, I couldn't dribble a basketball. I still will have these dreams. Like, I still will get scared that I don't know how to dribble a basketball when that's something that I should know to do. That is like breathing. Like, you should know how to, whatever it is, dribble a soccer ball. And I know I keep only saying soccer and basketball on this, sorry. But that sometimes is what is literally happening in reality, and it feels like a nightmare. And it feels like it's just when you're not in control of your body and your mind, it is one of the scare, it is one of the scariest things. That literally would happen to me in practices. I would airball, like it was so funny. Me and my friend, we always used to say we get actually me and multiple teammates would say we get one airball a practice. That had never happened to me in high school. I mean, obviously I freaking airballed in high school, but like I didn't, it was rare for me to airball. And then we get to college and all of us are playing in fear. All of us are playing at a different level. And of course, you know, there's other circumstances that went into that team. But like the fact that we were like, oh, there's our one airball for practice, like that's because we're playing with this mental blockage, and all of a sudden we don't know how to shoot. All of a sudden we're like dribbling off of our leg. There was just so much pressure. I re I the pressure I felt in my mind was like literally, it was almost like I felt so much pressure. I would feel dizzy, but I of course wasn't dizzy, but it's it's sensations like that. I would get so much anxiety, my chest would be so tight. I remember saying this in the last podcast. I would, oh my gosh, there was a bug that just flew in my face. Sorry. But there was other times I would have my vision be spotty and I would have my peripherals be blackened. Like it was, it just felt like those soccer days of like, I can't do this, I can't be here. I am playing in anxiety, I'm playing with panic attacks. It was claustrophobic. But okay, so all of that's going through my head, right? I literally have yips there. Like, I mean, it happened very frequently and it sucked. It was just not enjoyable at all. Okay, so fast forward, I get to my second school and I have to heal. My first year, I'm healing, you know, and other things like knowing how to talk to a coach, doing everything for the first time, and knowing, you know, maybe a first film session. I'm not getting yelled at anymore. And it's it's very healthy and everything. It took a lot to get used to. And obviously, that's what happens through a healing process. So I was still at this point where I was just building confidence, but I never felt confident that whole year. I never felt like it was a second nature to me to dribble a basketball, to shoot a basketball. I mean, I still didn't shoot that well that year. And then my senior year, my last year, I finally was like, I'm fucking healed. I did this shit. Like, I deserve to be here. I deserve to finally feel confident. And it was just, it was a sense of me being like, yeah, I deserve this. And that's a whole nother conversation, right? I have other podcasts talking about how to gain confidence in other ways, other than just mental blockage. But um, specifically for this episode, I had gotten to the point where there was no fear, there was no hesitation, there was no overthinking, there was no more panic attacks, there was no more spiraling. And that got rid of all my yips. It got rid of all of the mental blockage that I had. So I really want to break this down for you guys. In high school, very good player, was loved it, loved my sport, loved every single thing about it. Got to my first school and lost all of my confidence. I did not play like myself. I would air ball, I wouldn't dribble off my leg. I would just make the craziest mistakes that I would never ever do as a player. I've never, it's it was new to me. I was like, oh, okay, I guess this is the player that I am now. Get to my second school, and yeah, I was healing the first year. Still had a good year, though, that year. But then my last year, obviously my best year, played like my high school self, but obviously I had grown in so many ways. So times 100, and I was just having so much fun and playing in so much confidence. Do you guys see what just happened? I am the same player. I was lit, I'm in the same body with the same mind, with the same knowledge, with all of the subconscious actions, like my second nature actions, like running and you know, breathing easily and dribbling a basketball and doing all the things that are supposed to come natural to us because we've learned it over years, came back to me, and I've had it the entire time. That is what I'm trying to tell you guys. Whenever you are struggling right now and you are not playing consistently, and you're not playing like yourself, and you're so frustrated, and you're like, oh my god, I lost all of my ability. That is not true. Your ability, the knowledge that you have of the player that you are will always be within you. You have never lost that. The only thing that has happened is that you've added and you've created a new mind to your mind. You've put on a barrier where you in this barrier is like the devil, right? Because I find whatever my mind went through my first at my first college was evil. I had created fear, I had created doubt. I had created overthinking and anxiety, all of the bad things, right? That was like layered over my brain. If my brain was like this strong built of metal, right? That that that was like, let's say that's my high school self and that's my second school self. When I got to my first school, I put like a layer of jelly over that metal, a cushion. I don't know why I had to say jelly. I it's just the the squishiest, softest thing that came to my mind. But that jelly has is now controlling your mind. It is your mind. And so what we need to do is get that metal brain back and to get rid of all of the softness and all of the jelly that's on top of it. I guess this is the metaphor I'm going for right now. I don't really like maybe switch it to styrofoam. I don't really know. Except I hate the sound of styrofoam, so maybe not. But what I'm trying to say, obviously, obviously, get rid of that layer. And I can't, obviously, I'm not trying to say to you guys, get rid of that layer because it's so easy, but I'm trying to let you guys know that layer that you put over your brain is mental blockage. You have not lost anything within you. You have not become a new player. You you become, sorry, you become a new player in the sense where you've added things, but you can get rid of those things and become the player that you used to be. It is going backwards, but it's also all there. You're not starting. From square one. So that's what I'm trying to say. I don't want us to think that when we're trying to build our confidence up again, that we're like, okay, well, I have to start from square one. I have to like, I don't know anything anymore, and everything's different now. No, no, no. We're not starting from square one. We're just trying to get you back to the player that you used to be, and we want to grow from that player. We're not trying to restart and skip all of the years that you've been in training for. The devil, I don't want to say the devil actually, because that's very dramatic, but there's a little, little goblin that's come into your head and set up camp, and I need to smoke that goblin out. So how do we do that? There are so many different avenues that people go through of why they have lost their confidence. And there's subjects like maybe you're somebody going through a time with a really hard coach. Maybe you're somebody that is on a new team and you want to prove yourself. So you're trying to be perfect and you're trying to be this person that is unachievable to be. Maybe, yes, you there's just some sort of pressure that's been put on you, and now you're making mistakes. And because you're making the mistakes, you're starting to play in fear and everything's changing and you're freaking out. I have so many podcast episodes being so specific to each one of those topics. So you could definitely listen to those. I offer one-on-one coaching, I offer team coaching for the coaches listening to this. I don't know who specifically listens to this, but I want you, if you are an athlete right now, I want you to really know that I do offer one-on-one coaching. And I will tell you that the success rate that I have within two calls are so high. I think we when we have mental blockage, it is so hard for us to believe in ourselves. It is so hard for us to think that we're ever going to leave this place or get the goblin out of there and to get rid of that layer that we've been building over time. And I get that. I was there. I didn't think I was gonna quit basketball because I was like, I can't do this. I don't see there ever being a bright side for me. I don't ever see me getting to the player that I used to be like and enjoying my sport again. But let me tell you from experience that you are so wrong if you think that. Not only that, you don't realize that you do coaching calls. You are somebody that is giving effort to your mind every single day. I guarantee that you're gonna see results faster than you ever could have imagined. I say a lot too that it took me a long time to heal. It took me a whole year to heal and get my confidence back. But I would say it would take it, it took, I mean, it did. It took me a good three quarters of my season in order for me to feel confident again. But I wasn't doing coaching. I wasn't, you know, hiring a mindset coach. I wasn't doing a lot of mental stuff. And if I had just done that earlier and now knowing that, now knowing as a mindset coach, if I could go back in time and just free my mind up within, you know, a month or two or a few weeks, like seriously, it really works for some people to get on a call and we do two weeks with each other, and you're already feeling way better, and maybe it's gonna take a little longer, but you guys have to understand, especially being an athlete, you guys know how much work shit takes. You know you have to be patient with things. But that being said, you're going to see results within the first week of you guys changing your mindset in some sort of way. I love the quote Nothing changes if nothing changes. If you are even making one single change mindset-wise in your life, you are going to see a result so quickly. Okay, honestly, I really didn't mean it, it's kind of sounded like me reflecting back on what I just said that it sounded like I was ending the podcast with just telling you guys to sign up for one-on-one coaching and listen to my other podcasts. No, I have some tools for you. I'm just saying that every circumstance is going to be different. So even if I give you guys these tools, I want you to know that if you want it to be tailored to your exact needs, that's what I'm here for. That's what I offer with you guys. And especially if you're able to do something that's so specific to your exact situation, and I help you with your exact situation, that's how you're gonna see the quickest results. Okay, so for tool number one, I want you guys, the biggest thing with mental blockage is that we're putting a lot of pressure on ourselves. I don't care the circumstance, I don't care whatever your main issue is. I know for a fact that in some way you are putting pressure on yourself. So for tool one, it has to be you really making an effort to not put pressure on yourself, which is so ironic because we don't want to be overthinking about putting less pressure on ourselves. We just want it to come naturally, and that's the hardest thing. That's the reason why you have mental blockage right now, is because you don't know how to not overthink. I want you to go to practice and make this practice, right? Don't make this a game because I think that we need to practice this before you know we actually implement it into performance because we don't wanna we don't want to do something in practice where we've never tried it before and then it have these high expectations and then it not go the way that we wanted it to, because that's gonna really discourage us from you know things helping us in the future and being motivated to do things like this, like tools like this, and use tools like this. So, next practice, when you make a mistake, I want you to not care. And of course, you guys are like, Co shojo. I try that method, I try to not care, and all I do is think about the mistake. Okay, but let me let me put it in this perspective for you guys. I want you to make the mistake, and I want you to not second guess. I literally don't want you to think about it at all because later we're gonna think about it. And this is actually a method that is kind of backwards from what I usually coach, but I actually this is something that I want you guys to try instead because I want to see if this works. I usually say you need to accept your emotions in the moment and you need to embrace your emotions and you have to accept that what just happened, but we don't have those skills right now. So that's the reason why I'm telling you you're gonna make mistakes in practice, and then you're going to reevaluate after practice why you made those mistakes. And a lot of times, if I were to ask you that question, why did you make that mistake? you're gonna be like, Because I just fucking made a mistake. Like, what do you mean? You're probably like, well, I didn't want to make it, but I did. But my question to you, why did you make that mistake? So I want you after practice to sit down with yourself. Guys, it will take literally five minutes. And it would help if you get a journal out and you could just, you know, think this in your head or whatever. But I want you to ask, why did I make that mistake? And let's say, for example, that I went to practice, I made a mistake, like I passed the ball out of bounds. Like it was a bad pass, it went out of bounds. In that moment, I'm letting it go. I'm not caring. I'm just like, okay, moving on. You know what? That's not me because our mistakes are not who we are. It's gonna be hard to let it go. It is an ego thing, and it will be hard, but you're just doing it for one practice, guys. You're just sacrificing for one practice. But then, okay, so I'm using this example still. So then I'm going to after practice, and it would be great if you're just right after practice, you're taking your shoes off and you just get on your phone and your notes app, or you're just sitting there thinking and you're like, okay, let's go over my mistakes. Let's say that I do go over this mistake and I'm like, okay, I passed that ball out of bounds. Why did I pass that ball out of bounds? Huh, okay. I didn't want to. That's not the question. The question is, why did I throw it out of bounds? Well, I don't know. I don't know. No. Why did I throw that ball out of bounds? I'm trying to tell you guys the thought process that you're probably gonna have and it's probably gonna be rejecting, and it's probably gonna wanna be defending, and it's probably gonna wanna be, well, I don't want to feel this, I don't want to feel this right now, and I don't want to ask myself this question. I don't want to get into the mindset. Sit there, ask yourself this question and deal with your emotions. So now let's say I've calmed down. All right, why did I throw that ball out of bounds? I felt pressured. I felt like I had to make a play that was good, and I overdid it because I was kind of fearful of making a mistake. And when I play in fear, that means that I'm hesitating. And if I'm hesitating, I'm not playing like myself, and that's why the ball went out of bounds. Of course, I'm a professional at this now, so I know how to answer that, but that's what your answer should get to. Because then you get all these emotions out where you're like, that's it, that's why. And you're understanding your mind, and you're like, oh my God, that's exactly why I made a mistake. And then you sit there and you're like, okay, how did that feel? How did the emotions of me being scared and pressured in that moment, how did that feel? Obviously shitty. It did not feel good for me to be in that space and feel claustrophobic and have anxiety. But then, you know, for me right now, just I'm trying to actually experience this as if this had happened. And it has happened. Like I've I've done this mistake before, and so now I'm really trying to get into the mindset right now. I feel a sense of calmness because it was one mistake. And I, in the moment, usually, what I usually do is blow it out of proportion, but then I sit here and I'm like, yeah, okay, that was really dramatic of me. That's what I would say to myself. I'd be like, oh my God, why am I playing in so much fear? Why am I taking it out of proportion? It was just a pass. Like, I should have just calmed down and just known that it wasn't such a big deal. I really do genuinely think that you guys will get to that point where you're like, if you go through every mistake and you realize the emotion that you felt in that moment and you're you're out of, you're out of practice now, right? You're out of the context of it all. And you just are able to separate your adrenaline in the moment and now your calmness after practice, over time, you are going to put this in your subconscious mind where out of practice, you have practiced, well, you know, mindfulness practiced the feeling of being calm. And you're gonna have to give this. I I think that even if you aren't somebody that's gonna surrender every practice and just be like, okay, I'm not gonna care this practice if I make mistakes, that's hard to do. I get that. But if you are able to maybe do this evaluation after every practice, it's going to sink in your subconscious mind that it's not so scary. Okay, tool number two is having an accountability partner. The coolest thing about being on a team is that you guys are all there to accomplish the same goal. It is not annoying at all to go up to a teammate and tell them that you're struggling. If they find it annoying, then they could get the fuck off that team. I mean, obviously they're not gonna get kicked off if you go up and they're annoyed by you, whatever, but who cares? Like, literally, I don't care if I'm gonna go up to somebody and tell them that I'm struggling. First off, if they care that I'm saying that I'm struggling and they're like, oh my God, she's so annoying. I'm gonna be like, one, do you have a fucking heart? Two, we gotta separate, you know, being a person and being a sports player, being an athlete. You, I think that will help you also to go up to somebody and be like, hey, I'm coming up to you struggling as an athlete. This doesn't have to do with anything of my personal feelings because I know that at least for me, it's hard to be vulnerable. But if I was to say, if I were to be vulnerable as an athlete, that helps me a lot. And this, I'm just like trying to, you know, clear the path for people who do have a hard time opening up to teammates because it's a thing. It is, it's scary sometimes to let your teammates know that you're struggling because you just want to be the biggest badass on that team. But I will say being vulnerable in any sense, if you're playing a sport, if you're just doing life, if you're just going to a friend, is not a weak thing to do. And it's actually a super strong thing to do because people see you and see a different side to you where they could empathize with you and where they could connect with you on a deeper level. So that's just my little tidbit and support of trying to get you guys to open up to a teammate. But tool number two is going up to a teammate and being like, Hey, I'm really struggling today. I really need you to encourage me all practice. And you could even be like, Hey, I'll I'll get you tomorrow. You know, like I could I could help you tomorrow. Maybe you'll even help them in that practice. You'd be like, let's both encourage each other right now, like for as much as we can. I want you to say this specific word to me. And maybe that word is like, let's go or come on or whatever word you want it to be. And that I guarantee to, if somebody came up to me and said that, I would make it my number one priority. I wouldn't even care. I think that if you went up to a teammate and said that, they would be so fired up. They would be like, I love that you're committing this much to the team, that you want to help us out so much that you're coming saying that you're struggling and that you're trying to get better for the team and for yourself. Obviously, you're doing this for yourself, but you're doing it also for the team and you want to contribute to the team. You want to be a winning team. I think the camaraderie would be just so much better if you were to go to a teammate. You could go to multiple teammates. I think that that would work too. Maybe they're also having a bad day. You go up to a teammate, they're having a bad day, and they're like, oh shoot, like me too. And then you both go up to somebody else and be like, hey, when I make a mistake, can you tell me it doesn't matter? Can you just tell me, hey, I don't care that you messed up? Because I think that's another thing is that we have mental blockage because we play in a lot of fear, and the fear comes from judgment of others. And if you just have security and knowing, hey, my teammate's gonna have my back today, it's gonna ease up a lot of that pressure. Now, for the third and final tool that I'm gonna tell you guys today in today's podcast is giving you access to my free meditation audio, which is in my description. This audio, because well, what I wanted tool three to be is to do breathing exercises before going into practice or going it just easing your mind of practice games, whatever, matches, whatever. But then I was like, wait, I already made a pre-meditation audio that you could play before a game or before a practice, and I might as well give you guys that because it not only I think uh something that we have to know as athletes is that we don't always have to be fired up to go do something. I think that also puts a lot of pressure on us. I think that if we see other people, you know, like playing loud music before practice or a game or a match, or they're like they're needing to clap a lot and you're just sitting there in anxiety and you're trying to get pumped up with them, but then it's just making you freak out more. That's what this meditation audio does for you guys, and it's completely free. And I guide you 10 through 10 minutes of meditation, just throw your headphones on, play it before practice or game, and it's going to calm your mind in the sense where it's not gonna like put you to sleep, not at all. It's going what we want to accomplish is calm doesn't mean tired. I hope that we understand that it's going to calm your mind so that you could play in the way that you want to play. We want to play with a calm and steady mind out there. And you know, I even think too, I was I was a type of player that needed to talk to people that needed to get out of my head. So I had to go be goofy with somebody for a second, or I had to clap really loud. I was that type of player that needed to do that. I know that a lot of you like to be focused, like to be calm like that. But I also think that even when you're hyped up and you're somebody like me where you need to go talk to other people and stuff, that's still you you could still possess calmness. It made me calm to be that way. And I just really want to emphasize that for this meditation audio. I know it has the word meditation in it, and people are like, oh, that's so that's like gonna put me to sleep and it's tiring, whatever. No, no, no. You're just resetting your mind, and I say that in the audio. And so I really hope that you guys use that as a tool, and it's so easy to do, it's already made for you guys. But the link is in my description, and you just sign up your email and it will be sent to you. And don't forget to check your spam folders. But, anyways, that is all that I have for you guys today. Thank you so much for being here. Thank yourself for being here, and really, really thank yourself if you're signing up for that meditation audio. Because I mean, even though it's very easy to do, even the slightest of efforts, humans try to avoid. So I hope that you guys are thanking yourselves for everything that you're trying. Even coming and listening on this podcast is so freaking good for your mind. And if you keep doing this every single day, then you are going to see results so so much faster than you ever could have expected. Like I said earlier, you guys are seriously doing it amazing. Let's get rid of that layer of jelly off of our minds. And I could obviously help you guys with that. Please sign up for one on one coaching if you do want help with that layer, shedding off, getting that goblin out of there. But until then, I love you guys and see you in the next podcast. Bye.