Let's Play! The Mindset Coach for Athletes Podcast

Getting cleared isn’t the finish line. You can be medically fine and still hesitate on the exact thing that hurt you. Your body heals way before your head does, and nobody prepares you for that part. This episode is what I wish someone had told me — why being behind isn’t information about who you are, why protecting it is normal, what to actually compare yourself to, and why the real milestone co...

A goal tells you where you’re going. A target tells you if you’re getting there. This episode is how I’d set up a season now. Make the goal as big as you want — I get into the 10X Rule and why setting a huge expectation works even when you fall short of it. Then build targets inside it, because that’s the part you can actually move toward week to week. Your big goal is allowed to be something you...

Lifting is supposed to make you better at your sport. For a lot of athletes it's doing the opposite — they're maxing out every session and then dragging through practice the next day. Three mistakes I made the whole time I played: going heavy on everything, never actually adding weight, and skipping the exercises I wasn't good at. You don't need a better program. You need to fi...

I lost the love for my sport. I dreaded going to practice, I didn't want to be there, and for a while I was going to walk away from it completely. What turned it around was something my parents said: do it for you. Push yourself for you. Because I'd gotten to where it didn't feel like mine anymore — and of course I didn't want to do it. This episode is what helped. How to tell...

Sitting sucks. You warm up, you're ready, and then you just watch — and you're supposed to be a good teammate about it. I sat a lot. And what it did to me was worse than the not playing: I stopped going hard in practice because it felt pointless. Which was the exact wrong move, because practice was where they were actually watching. Four things that help. How to find out the real reason...

You decided last night. Then your alarm goes off and suddenly it's a whole conversation again. This one's about what that back-and-forth is actually doing to you. Why we do it, why comfort wins so often, and what changes when you decide once and stop reopening it. It's not about being harder on yourself. It's about not having the argument in the first place. Let's play dec...

Everything feels hard, you're getting worse instead of better, and you've decided the problem is that you're not tough enough. Usually it's the opposite. Three signs you're doing too much, how to tell the difference between overtraining and under-recovering, and why not wanting to go to practice is information — not a personal failing. Let's play without overtraining!...

My entire first year at my D2 school, I would sit down with my coach for a normal one-on-one — nothing bad, just a conversation — and I would start crying. Out of fear. Every time. Over nothing. I wasn't always like that. In high school I could talk to anybody. But I went through an environment in college that was really unhealthy for me, and by the end of it I was scared of my coaches. The c...

Everybody has bad games. Nobody talks about the four hours after one. In this episode I go through what actually helps after you play badly — why you shouldn't try to fix anything at 11pm, how to separate "I played bad" from "I am bad," the rule I use for watching film so it doesn't wreck me, and how to walk into the next practice when you're sure everyone's...

Recruiting is a sales pitch. I didn't know that at 17. In this one I go through the honest pros and cons of playing Division I — the stuff that made me better, and the stuff I genuinely wasn't prepared for. Hosting recruits on your only free weekend. Getting smoked in conditioning when you were the best player on your high school team. Coming back from a road trip at 1am with class in th...

Eleven college basketball players slept two extra hours a night for six weeks and got measurably faster and more accurate. Nothing else changed. Coach Jojo breaks down what the research actually says about athletes and sleep — how many hours you need, why athletes who sleep under eight hours get hurt almost twice as often, and why your schedule makes it nearly impossible to hit that number. She pl...

Coach Jojo has spent a stupid amount of money on recovery — compression boots, a massage gun, cold plunges, all of it. And the thing that helped her the most was completely free. In this episode she ranks every recovery tool from what she'd tell you not to buy, to the one that matters more than all of them combined. She covers why cryotherapy is a cold bath you paid for, why $20 compression s...

Training hard isn’t enough if your body doesn’t have the fuel it needs to perform and recover. In this episode, Coach Jojo breaks down five common mistakes athletes make before and after practice, including training without eating, choosing the wrong foods too close to practice, focusing only on protein, waiting too long to refuel, and assuming one small snack completes the recovery process. Athle...

What is the point of being an athlete beyond winning games, getting better, and performing at a high level?  In this episode, Coach Jojo takes a bigger-picture look at what being an athlete is really doing for you—not only in your sport, but in the person you're becoming. The hard practices, failures, pressure, discipline, setbacks, and experiences you go through as an athlete are teaching yo...

Discipline isn’t about feeling motivated every day or following your routine perfectly. It’s about learning how to keep going when motivation disappears—and how to return when you fall off. In this episode, Coach Jojo breaks down four practical ways athletes can build real discipline:  1. Stop waiting to feel motivated 2. Create a minimum standard 3. Prepare before discipline is needed 4. Recover...

There’s a difference between wanting to succeed and actually believing that you will. In this episode, Coach Jojo talks about what it means to have true self-belief as an athlete—believing in where you’re going even when your current reality isn’t giving you proof that you’ll get there. Whether you’re sitting on the bench, struggling with your performance, waiting for an opportunity, or simply fee...

Have you ever felt like you completely lost your confidence in your sport? Well, you're not alone. In this episode, Coach Jojo opens up about going from a confident basketball player to losing all belief in herself during her Division I career. She talks about how one chapter of her journey completely changed the way she viewed herself as an athlete, why she made the difficult decision to tra...

What if the reason you're losing confidence has nothing to do with your performance? In this episode, Coach Jojo dives into how the need for validation quietly takes control of so many athletes' confidence. Whether you're looking at your coach after every mistake, worrying about what the crowd is thinking, or hoping your parents approve of how you played, relying on other people&apo...

What if confidence isn't what you've been chasing all along? In this episode, Coach Jojo explains why confidence isn't something you wait for—it's something you build. Athletes often believe they need to feel confident before they take action, but the truth is that confidence comes after they're willing to be brave. Coach Jojo breaks down the powerful cycle of Fear → Brave...

What if mistakes aren't as scary as you're making them? In this episode, Coach Jojo talks about why so many athletes fear mistakes and how that fear often has a bigger impact on performance than the mistake itself. Instead of trying to eliminate mistakes, athletes will learn why mistakes are an inevitable part of sports—and why learning to respond to them is what separates confident athl...

What if overthinking isn't actually the problem? In this episode, Coach Jojo dives into what overthinking really is and why so many athletes feel trapped inside their own minds during competition. Instead of simply telling athletes to "stop thinking," she explains why our minds naturally crave control, certainty, and predictability—and why that works against us in sports. This episo...

Have you ever walked away from a game and thought, "I just don't feel like myself anymore"? Maybe you're still working hard. Maybe you're still showing up every day. But something feels off. You're overthinking, hesitating, second-guessing yourself, and playing in a way that doesn't feel natural. In this episode, Coach Jojo shares a personal story about losing co...

Do film sessions make you anxious? Do you find yourself dreading them after a game because you're worried a mistake you made is going to show up on the screen for everyone to see? In this episode, Coach Jojo talks about why so many athletes struggle with film sessions and how something that is supposed to help us grow has become a source of anxiety, fear, and frustration for many athletes. It...

Do you ever feel bored in your sport? Not because you don’t love it anymore, but because the season feels so far away, practice starts feeling repetitive, and every day begins to feel the exact same? In this episode, Coach Jojo talks about the kind of boredom athletes experience during the offseason, preseason, or long stretches away from competition—and why that boredom can kill motivation, effor...

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 press...