Brick by Brick Training

We spend billions developing the physical side of youth athletes, but somewhere along the way we decided that the the mind would just figure out what it needs to do on its own.

We are talk constantly about building faster, stronger, and more skilled athletes but when does the conversation shift to building athletes who can handle what sports actually ask of them mentally?

that’s the conversation we are having here. Every damn week.

🧱❌🧱

We have built a youth sports culture that teaches kids their worth is directly tied to their performance.

Win and you matter.
Lose and you better figure out what went wrong.
Make the team and you belong.
Get cut and you failed.


And then we are shocked when kids are anxious.
When they play scared.
When they avoid risks because the emotional cost of failure is too high.
When they quit the sport they used to love because one bad season became something they attached their entire identity to.


I have trained kids who were the best on their team for years and then hit one rough stretch and completely fell apart and it had nothing to do with their ability.

It was because their confidence was built entirely on results and when the results didn’t go their way, there was nothing underneath it to support

Real confidence doesn’t come from winning and although it may seem like some kids are naturally gifted when it comes to being more confident – it all comes down to these things:

They know who knows who they are as a competitor regardless of what the scoreboard says.

and

They know they can take a hit, process it, and come back to the next play with their head up.


That kind of confidence has to be built deliberately- it doesn’t just happen with more reps or more practices or more playing time.

It’s time the conversation shifts from new gear and new club teams to more focus on properly developing you athletes that their mindset is strong enough to get them through the ups and the downs.


Follow this account if you believe sports should build your kid not break them.

Share this with a parent who is watching their athlete’s confidence shrink and doesn’t know why 🧱

I had a girl come through my program who was talented enough to be one of the best on her team. But she was so locked into how she was performing that she could not actually perform. Every mistake turned into three more. She played scared. She held back. She looked at the sideline more than she looked at the field.

So while we were working on the physical stuff we started weaving in conversations about the mental game:
What happens in your head after a mistake?
Where does your focus go?
What does that voice sound like and what do we do with it?

We didn’t stop training. We just started training the WHOLE athlete.

And because of that work she stopped freezing after mistakes and started getting back into the play faster than they had ever seen from her.

She stopped holding back and started competing the way they always knew she could because she was no longer playing not to fail.

her coaches pulled her aside after a few weeks and said something shifted in her. She looks like she actually believes in herself out there.

💡That is what happens when you treat the mental game like it is just as important as the physical one. Because it is.

❌Your kid does not need more reps to fix what is happening between their ears.

They need someone to actually talk about it with them while the work is being done.

SAVE this if you have an athlete who disappears after a mistake- the mental work is just as important as the physical.

I coach youth football and I stand on that sideline every single week and watch kids carry more pressure than they know what to do with.

You can see it. The kid who is physically ready but mentally somewhere else entirely before the game even starts. The one who makes one mistake in the first quarter and you can watch the rest of their game disappear right in front of you.

they didn’t lose their ability – they lost their head and nobody ever taught them how to get it back.

❌And the answer is never more reps. I promise you that.

You cannot train a kid out of unmanaged pressure by adding more pressure. You have to give them actual tools. So here are a few things worth teaching your athlete and practicing at home before it matters on the field:

🎯The reset breath. One slow deep inhale through the nose and a long exhale out the mouth. It sounds simple because it is. But it physically brings the nervous system down in seconds. Teach your kid to do this between plays and after mistakes.

🎯The reset word. One word they say to themselves after something goes wrong to interrupt the spiral and get back in the game. Let them pick it. Reset. Next. Go. It does not matter what it is. It matters that they have one.

🎯And this one is for you as a parent. Stop trying to talk them out of the nerves before a game. Instead just say I love watching you play. It takes the performance pressure off without dismissing what they are feeling.

The mental game is trainable. It just has to actually be taught.

SAVE this if you’re the parent of a youth athlete who you know puts way too much pressure to be perfect on themselves.

Nobody ever built mental toughness by being yelled at to toughen up.

I know because I have seen what actually works. And it looks nothing like what most youth sports programs are doing.

It looks like a kid learning that the voice in their head after a mistake is not the truth. It is just a habit. And habits can be changed.

It looks like teaching a 12 year old how to breathe on purpose between plays so their body stops running on panic and starts running on intention.


It looks like a kid who used to spiral for an entire game after one bad play learning to reset in five seconds because they have a word, a routine, and a belief system that grounds them when everything feels like it is falling apart.


These are not soft skills. They are performance skills. The same ones that separate good athletes from great ones at every level of competition. And they are completely absent from the way we develop kids right now.


I am not okay with that. And I am not staying quiet about it.


Follow this account if you want your athlete to actually be built for the long game 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼

Save this if it hit home 🧱❌❌

The car ride home after a game can either build your kid up or quietly tear them down. And most parents have no idea which one they are doing.

I get it. You watched the whole game. You saw what happened. You want to help. So you start talking and what feels like support to you lands like pressure on a kid whose nervous system is still completely fired up.

Ask yourself this:

When was the last time your kid came off the field after a tough game and you just let them breathe?

No feedback. No breakdown. No “you should have.” Just music and space and the feeling that you were proud of them regardless of what just happened out there.

💪🏼Try it this weekend. Ask them one question and actually listen. What was your favorite moment today? Then stop talking.

You will be shocked at what comes out of that conversation versus the one where you are already telling them what went wrong before they even have their seatbelt on.

The car ride home is not your coaching moment. It is your parenting moment. And those are not the same thing.

Save this if your parent who loves their kids so damn much, but can’t help yourself from giving unsolicited feedback the second they finish practice or a game.

Follow along if you are a parent trying to figure out how to actually support your kid’s confidence and not just their stats and SAVE this so you can try it out yourself on the car ride home from your kids game this weekend💪🏼