The Mental Edge Blog

High school hockey coaches spend countless hours thinking about performance.

We build practice plans. We teach systems. We work on special teams, conditioning, puck management, compete level, and exe...

In youth sports, we talk constantly about confidence.

We want athletes to believe in themselves. Trust their training. Step onto the field expecting success. Play without fear.

Confidence matters.

The Parent Work Series

I want to say something at the beginning of this series that may make some parents uncomfortable.

That's intentional.

Not because parents need more criticism. Most parents I ...

We ask a lot of our young athletes.

We ask them to be coachable. To control their emotions. To handle adversity. To take responsibility. To keep growing.

Those are good things to ask. But here's the...

In a Team Sport, Individualism Isn't Always an Advantage

There's a fear underneath a lot of sports parenting that we don't talk about enough.

The fear that our kid is going to get left behind.

Some...

If We Want Our Kids to Grow, We Have to Be Willing to Grow Too

By Shaun Goodsell

I've heard some version of this from sports parents for nearly three decades.

"I know I shouldn't say anything after...

There was a moment I’ll never forget.

I was leading a group of teenagers, and week after week we had been talking about something that mattered far more than behavior or performance. We were learning...

I’ll never forget the weekend Steve showed up.

We were taking a group of middle school and high school students away for a winter retreat. Everyone had been preparing for weeks—packing bags, makin...

The Simplicity We’ve Forgotten
 

Youth sports is changing.

Every year we hear new language about mental performance, emotional intelligence, resilience, psychological safety, and athlete development....

I believe we have misdiagnosed one of the greatest challenges facing our generation.

We talk about a mental health crisis. An anxiety epidemic. A loneliness epidemic. A crisis of identity. A crisis o...

As athletes, we're taught to be independent. Push harder. Figure it out. Don't complain. Stay mentally tough. Handle your business.

For years, we wear those lessons like a badge of honor. We convince...

For years, we've been taught that if you want to improve mentally, you hire a coach. One athlete. One coach. One conversation.

I believe in one-on-one coaching. It creates space for personalized feed...