Lessons I’ve Learned From My Female Teammates and Coach
Although we’ve never met (in real life), Wyatt and I have a lot in common. We are both coaches kids, born Cyclones, and multi-event athletes. Wyatt reached out to me on Twitter after seeing a local news story of the She Plays mission for more female role models...
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Tips to Get Out of a Slump and Start Winning Again
I suck. I quit. I just can’t do this anymore. Yep, those are all things you say to yourself when you are in a slump. When your performance is below your normal standard. Because it is easy to grow frustrated after all the effort, time and commitment you put into...
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Want to be great? Practice these 10 things
Practice. We are talking about practice! When you think of practice, you’re probably thinking about the workout. How hard will it be? How long? How tough will Coach be? Etc. Practice, in our minds is basically a synonym for physical activity, for sweat, for an...
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How Can She Play if She’s Scared for Her Life?
I tell girls to be confident. To just believe they can do it. Today, belief seems shallow. I train girls to work. To push their minds and bodies to the limits. Today, work sounds wasteful. I teach girls to choose. To choose the words they let have value on their...
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I Quit Trying To Be Perfect
I am a quitter, and I’m better for it. We are told if you quit you are weak. Giving up is a sign of losing. I disagree! I quit trying to be perfect. Sitting outside a baseball clubhouse, I often see the agony of defeat. These reactions even happen on days when the...
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I Fired My Training Partner
Words can be brutal. Especially the ones that fall into the category of “You’re not good enough”. “You screwed that up”. When other people say brutal things that disappoint me and question my abilities most of the time I can use it as fuel to feed my drive to succeed....
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How to WIN when the target is on your back
My senior year of high school, things shifted for me in my sport of track and field. I was no longer the girl chasing others. I was the girl with the target on my back. I’ll never forget one meet walking up to the starting line and two other girls, two of my...
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When there is a mean girl on your team
Raise your hand if you have a story about mean girls. Sigh. I can raise both of my hands. Extra high. When I taught fourth grade, I was troubled by how soon this mean girl thing starts. I would conference with some of these girls and be like, “Why are you so mean?...
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How to Win Back Your Confidence
She was stressed. Shoulders tense, brows furrowed. The smile and ever-present ease she brought to practice was missing. Every repetition, every drill was forced, scrutinized, never good enough. She was sobbing. Eyes scanning, hyper-aware of all around her. The control...
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Is Your Hard Work Deceiving You?
You’ve seen the saying on the back of T-shirts at sporting events. It’s probably on a poster in your locker room. Heck, you may have even retweeted a fancy graphic of the quote: “Hard work will beat talent, if talent doesn’t work hard.” You wear it, you display it,...
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