March 12, 2024 • 28 mins
Want to learn more about who Ben is and what Mental Training Plan is all about? This is a great place to start!
Join Ben Carnes on his transformative journey, ignited by a pivotal moment in high school sports in 1999. From struggling to perform under pressure to realizing the power of mental training, Ben's evolution as a coach and mentor took flight. Through coaching experiences, including a humbling defeat in the state championship in 2013, Ben honed the Prime Five method, a groundbreaking approach to mental preparedness for athletes. His dedication bore fruit with unexpected victories, including a state championship win in 2016. Ben's passion for empowering athletes extended beyond football to sports like golf, culminating in the establishment of the MTP Academy in 2024. This journey, chronicled in the Focus Cycle book, reflects Ben's unwavering commitment to helping athletes perform at their best, both on and off the field.
Ben then outlines his vision and mission for Mental Training Plan. Rooted in his experiences and successes, Ben's vision is to revolutionize the mental training landscape, making comprehensive coaching accessible to every athlete worldwide. This ambitious goal serves as the North Star guiding strategic planning and decision-making. Ben's mission is clear: to empower athletes, teams, and coaches with the skills and tools needed to thrive under pressure, overcome challenges, and excel in competition and life. Through customization and accessibility, the MTP Academy aims to provide tailored mental performance coaching that transcends sports and benefits individuals in all aspects of their lives. This mission underscores Ben's commitment to helping athletes perform at their best, regardless of the circumstances, setting a precedent for excellence both on and off the field.
Are you an ATHLETE looking to take your training to the next level? Check out our website to learn more about 1-on-1 training opportunities:
mentaltrainingplan.com/athletes
Are you a COACH looking for an affordable year-round mental performance training program? Check out the MTP Academy available through our website:
mentaltrainingplan.com/academy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ben (00:01):
Hey, welcome to the Coaching Minds podcast, the
official podcast of MentalTraining Plan.
Our mission is to empowercoaches with the tools and
insights to develop the mentalside of the game and their
athletes both on and off thefield.
We believe in deliberateplanning and execution, because
just hoping you'll be at yourbest when it matters the most is
(00:21):
not good enough.
Today we're going to be talkingabout our story, our vision and
our mission, and I know we'vekind of touched on these
throughout our time together.
So if you've listened to all113 episodes so far, I'll be
honest, today's going to be alittle bit of a review for you.
But we're really hoping becausethere's so many new coaches.
(00:42):
We've got a partnership thatwe're getting ready to announce
with a coaching association.
We've got there's going to be aclinic coming up that I'll be
speaking at.
We're going to have a booththere.
We're anticipating some prettybig onboarding steps in the next
, the upcoming weeks and months.
And when I was really hoping tosummarize, it's just kind of
(01:04):
who are we?
What do we believe For some ofthese people that are trying to
decide like do I trust this guy?
Do I like this guy?
Do I want to work with this guy.
I want to go back all the way to1999 because at that time I'm a
high school sophomore.
I'm playing football atWestfield High School, a small
suburb just on the north side ofIndian apolis, and we were 2A
(01:26):
at the time.
Indiana 1A is the smallest andthen football 6A is the biggest,
and so we were.
We were a pretty small schoolat the time and you know I was
starting on the varsity footballteam.
I thought I was pretty hotstuff.
I was confident in myself,confident in my abilities.
And then baseball season rollsaround.
(01:47):
We're opening up this brand newbaseball diamond, brand new
facility.
It's the inaugural game and ourstarting catcher slices open
his finger dunking a basketballand gym class.
And so I find out that I'mgoing to be the starter and I'm
thinking this is awesome.
You know, now they finally getto see just how good I am.
And I couldn't throw the ballback to the pitcher Like it was
(02:12):
straight out of the movie majorleague, like it was like
something came unplugged betweenmy hand and my head and I had
absolutely no idea what to doabout it.
So you know, that night I gohome, I get on my dial up
internet and I'm like whathappened?
How do I make sure this neverhappens again?
(02:32):
You know, to make a long storyshort, I end up realizing like,
oh, you can intentionally trainthe mental side of people.
And so I kind of, I kind offell in love that year with
coaching.
I had the opportunity to coachmy brother Sam's little league
baseball team and, you know, bythe by the end of the season I
(02:54):
had him convinced that he waspretty much the the greatest
pitcher in the league and hecertainly, you know he wasn't
throwing better junk thananybody, he wasn't throwing
faster than anybody, but bygolly he believed that he could
go out and do whatever needed tobe done.
You know, in 2008, let's fastforward, a decade of here.
(03:15):
So by this point, you know, I'mdone with high school, done
with college.
I come back to my alma mater, Iget hired at the middle school
and, you know, I'm teaching atWestfield.
I'm coaching at Westfield.
I end up, you know, new staffcomes in.
I end up being an offensivecoordinator.
Let's fast forward again.
And in 2013, we went back to thestate championship for the
(03:37):
first time in a couple ofdecades and just got absolutely
destroyed.
We were not ready for thatmoment we walked into that
building and our eyes got bigand you know we, for lack of a
better term, we kind of justpeed down our leg like we were
not ready.
And in that off season we kindof went back and it was like
(03:59):
what's happening?
Why is this happening?
You know what's going on, whatdo our guys need?
And at that time I was doingquarterback club, I was coaching
the quarterbacks, and so theywere all in my classroom at 6am
before school and we were goingthrough things on the mental
side of the game and our headcoach, jake Gilbert, pops in and
says hey, we get, this isawesome, we got to do this with
(04:23):
the whole team.
It's like what?
I don't know what the wholeteam needs.
Like you know, we kind of Itouched on this briefly in the
last episode, but just to youknow, dive into a little bit
more detail like there's a bigdifference between what do one
or two or three or fourquarterbacks need and what do
120 plus high schoolers need,you know, from every different
(04:47):
position group on the team.
And so you know, I was in themiddle of getting my masters at
the time and I dove in headfirstto the world of you know how do
we help athletes self assess?
What's that even look like,what's that mean?
How do you do that?
And we came up with the primefive that off season and, you
know, figuring out like if wecan help our athletes in these
(05:10):
five areas, then we're going tobe in business and we're going
to be able to take care of about90 to 95% of the issues that
came up with our guys in thestate championship last year.
And so, you know, we reallystarted, we started working on
those.
We started trying to figure outlike, okay, how do we in this
(05:31):
room of 120 plus guys like howdo we give each person what they
need?
And you know, really did,really had some, some chance to
kind of fine tune like, how arewe going to present this to an
entire team?
How are we going to make surethey're not just screwing around
?
How are we going to, you know,make this meaningful?
And got to the point where wewere feeling.
(05:54):
We were feeling pretty goodabout training the mental side
of the game In 2016,.
We played some teams that weremuch better than us just from a
bigger, faster, strongerstandpoint, from a how many of
their kids are going full rideD1 versus you know how many of
our kids, someday, maybe, willplay college football, and we
(06:17):
ended up beating some teams who,on paper, were much better than
us, because we were, as a team,able to perform at a higher
level than our competition, andwe won a state championship.
And I remember that off seasontalking with Josh Bryant, who
we've had on the podcast beforegood friend of mine, a golf
(06:39):
coach at the high school, and hehad been a former football
coach and a former teacher, andhe and I were just we're talking
at a Christmas party one year,and he was like you got to come
coach with me.
I was like Josh, you know youdon't want me to coach your
golfers, I'm terrible at golf.
And he was like no, no, no,like all this stuff you're
(06:59):
telling me you're doing with thequarterbacks, like I need you
to do that, and so, in 2018,that was my first year helping
out the Westfield High Schoolgolf team as a I'm going to put
this in air quotes golf coach,because I don't I don't really
teach a lot about the, the gameof golf.
What I do do, though, is iswhat I continued to, you know,
(07:23):
eventually turn into my careerone day is, you know, working
with athletes one on one,working with, with teams in a
group setting, and helping themfigure out how are we going to
perform at our best when itmatters the most.
In 2019, you know this.
This started to take off at.
So, at this point, like othercoaches from other sports are
(07:44):
hearing about this, we've gotsome schools from, you know,
down south of us or to the eastor to the west, that are like,
hey, what's this mental trainingguy and how do we talk to him?
Started the coaching mindspodcast that year, partnered up
with pro X.
They had, you know, intervieweda bunch of different sports
psychologists and came back tome and said, hey, we like how
(08:07):
you are.
You know this mentalperformance coaching idea.
Where we're, we're, you'remaking a plan and you're helping
people put it to work.
Like this is what we want forour athletes.
In 2021, I sort of took the, thecrux of what we were doing, the
foundation of what we weredoing with control in the mind
and body, and wrote my firstbook called Focus Cycle.
(08:30):
In 2022, I finally left theclassroom I'd been teaching and
coaching for 15 years anddecided, like, this is what I'm
passionate about, this is what Ilove, this is what I want to do
.
And then this year 2024, westarted the MTP Academy.
So you know, the the Academywas kind of our, our venture
(08:53):
into how do we scale this, howdo we expand this, because we
had done it before, where wetried to do some online learning
and the athletes that werehighly motivated, the athletes
that wanted to dive into thatonline classroom, they certainly
got a lot out of it, but I'llbe honest, like it, it wasn't
(09:14):
effective for everybody by anystretch of the imagination, and
so what we did was kind of blowup that online learning and
replace it with more of a hybridlearning model where all the
coach has to do is Play thevideo, print the worksheet, we
deliver the content and the kidsfill out their plan and then
(09:34):
the coach, who's alreadydeveloping that relationship
with the athletes, is able tocome alongside them and say, all
right, you said in thissituation, this is what you were
gonna do, but you know I sawyou do this as you were coming
off the field.
Let's, let's talk about this.
You know you can hold themaccountable, you can help with
implementation, things like that.
(09:54):
So super customizable, superaffordable.
It's just a it's.
It's basically kind of like anonline curriculum.
You know, I was a, I was ateacher for 15 years and there
were a lot of times where I feellike I was just given access To
a library of information and itwas like, alright, here's all
these lessons and all theseprograms.
(10:15):
Now you can kind of go throughit and see how it's gonna fit
for you and it was like, well,thanks, but like I could have
done this on my own with theinternet.
So what we've tried to do ismap out here's the program,
here's the basics that youshould take everybody through.
Next steps.
You know, if you need to diveinto specific topics, here's
(10:37):
some different things that youcan do based on the mental
skills assessment that yourathletes can take.
So the the MTP Academy werewe're super excited about and I
know that you know there's a.
There's probably a lot oflisteners that are that are
wondering more about that ormaybe wondering more about
Individual stuff that we do withthe athletes.
(10:58):
But but before we get into kindof the, the specifics of that,
I want to get into a little bitof vision and and a little bit
of our, our mission and purposeand what we're doing and why
we're doing it.
You know, obviously my ownstruggles are are a huge piece
of that.
As a high schooler, feelinglike I can't throw the ball Back
(11:23):
to someone that I want to throwit to was absolutely
humiliating.
That was, you know, part of thereason we started the podcast
was I was just hoping to be ableto Give athletes out there a
resource and a tool completelyfor free.
That's like, hey, if you'restruggling, here's some things
that you can do.
You know, obviously it's it'sdone pretty well.
(11:45):
It's been a lot of fun.
We're still continuing on.
You know, here we are four,four and a half years later.
But but you know, really, eveneven beyond my own struggles,
just as a as a coach, there'vejust been so many athletes that
(12:06):
have had to Overcome things onthe mental side of their game.
And it's like, you know, as Ithink back through the, the 15
years of coaching football, thenthe six years that I've been,
you know, doing this withindividuals outside of just
coaching football, like there'sall kinds of stuff that I've
(12:26):
helped people overcome and helppeople work through.
And you know, eventually, likeat some point they they start to
just repeat like there's notreally that many athletes that I
talked to, that I'm trying tofigure out like, well, how am I
gonna fix this?
Like I already know how to fixthat.
The question is, how do we getthe athlete to understand what's
(12:48):
going on, to get the athlete tobe aware?
You know, right now I like touse the example we're not paying
attention to what the bottom ofour feet feel like because our
brain doesn't think that'simportant.
And so, you know, we need toget the athlete paying attention
to the right things, beingaware of.
Oh, I'm starting to get offtrack.
Whether that's my emotions, I'mstarting to feel anxious.
(13:10):
You know.
Whether that's my body, I feeljittery, my palms are sweaty, my
heart's beating out of my chest, whether that's, you know, that
little voice in the back of mymind saying I just I don't know
if I'm good enough to do this.
Or you know, we're just focusedon the wrong stuff.
We're worried about what's momthink, what's dad think, what's
coach think.
Am I, are they gonna put me onthe bench?
(13:31):
Are we gonna lose now?
Oh no, my competition's so good.
Or, you know, I get stuck inthe past worrying about that.
The last time I played thisgolf, this hole on the golf
course.
I played terrible, you know,and now all I can think about is
that bad shot.
Or, you know, worried about thefuture.
What's this gonna do?
Recruiting wise or whatever,whatever that looks like.
(13:53):
Eventually, it just comes backto how do we overcome these
obstacles and perform at ourbest?
As we sat down and went throughtrying to clarify what are we
doing?
Why are we doing this?
The place that we started waswith our vision.
Our vision is to revolutionizethe mental training landscape,
(14:17):
making comprehensive andcustomizable mental performance
coaching accessible to everyathlete around the world,
helping them perform at theirbest when it matters the most.
This vision is our ultimategoal.
This is what we're trying toachieve.
This is what we're aspiringtowards.
(14:38):
It acts as our Jake Gilbertlast week called it a North Star
.
Our guiding strategic planning,our decision making, kind of all
goes through this.
A clear vision can provide some, maybe even a little bit of
inspiration, definitely a senseof purpose, not only to me, but
(15:02):
as the company grows and aspeople are approaching me and
say, hey, I want to be a part ofthis, whether that's as an
investor, whether that's I wantto help sell this.
I want a partner, I want tobring you into my school.
I want you to work with myathletes, whatever that looks
like.
These stakeholders need to knowhere's where we're headed,
(15:24):
here's where we're going.
I want to make sure that, as acompany, that we're not lacking
direction, because I think thatjust leads to unfocused efforts.
I remember back in the earlydays when I was just trying to
hop on the internet and findwhatever I could and find some
(15:46):
information out there and try itout and see if it works.
It wasn't necessarily the beststrategy, but it was kind of
where we were at, keeping thisvision statement in front of us.
The whole purpose is to sayhere's where we're going.
(16:08):
We say we want to revolutionizethe mental training landscape.
What's that look like?
There's all kinds of people outthere that are doing this.
We want to provide it in acompletely brand new way where
you don't have to have a mentalperformance coach on staff, but
you can still get the benefit ofhaving a mental performance
coach on staff, because we'rebasically equipping these
(16:31):
coaches to become that mentalexpert.
We're equipping these coachesto be able to say look, we're
going to go through thisworksheet, we're going to
provide you with someinformation and then I'm going
to come alongside you and we'regoing to do this together.
There's not lots of peopledoing that.
We want to revolutionize things.
We want things to change in theworld of mental performance
(16:54):
training.
The next part makingcomprehensive and customizable
mental performance coachingaccessible.
It's very different when I'm afootball coach and I've got all
120 of my guys in a classroomevery Monday and I know what my
schedule is going to look like.
I know all right.
Here's how I'm going toimplement this versus some of
(17:16):
the golf teams that we work with, where it's like the freshman
and the JV and the varsity kidsare never in the same room
together, they're never at thesame courses, they're never at
the same workouts together.
We've got to be able tocustomize this.
We've got to be able to changethis.
This has to be flexible.
We want to make sure that, aswe're providing these solutions,
(17:37):
that that's what we're doing.
The next part accessible toevery athlete around the world.
I think it goes without saying.
Like all athletes at all levelsWhether they are rich, poor,
(17:58):
old, young, talented, white,black, male, female, football
player, golfer none of thatmatters.
If you have a human brain, thenyou need to learn how to
control that mind and how tocontrol your body so you can
perform it your best.
One of the things that somebodyreally challenged me on when we
(18:20):
were talking about this visionwas like, well, you know, I was
thinking we want this to beavailable for everybody in the
country.
And it's like, well, why?
Why?
Like what you know, with AIwhere it's at, with language
models where they're at.
Like, the only thing standingbetween us delivering this here
in the US and being able todeliver this in Germany, japan
(18:40):
or wherever else is just budget,I mean, is being able to pay to
get, you know, thingstranslated into other languages.
But just, you know, want to makesure that we have a commitment
to say, look, I don't care whoyou are, you need to be able to
have some of these tools.
So, you know, I was contactedtoday by somebody who's got an
eight-year-old daughter and anine-year-old son, asking what
(19:02):
resources we had.
And you know, if I'm beinghonest, we don't have great
resources for that age group yet.
But you know, part of ourvision, like, we're headed that
way, we're working on that,we're building that, we're
developing that.
Having that worldwide piece inthere is important to me.
And then the last piece helpingthem perform at their best when
(19:23):
it matters the most, like that'salways been the goal, right,
like since I started doing this.
It was how do we help ourathletes truly perform at their
best, not like what maybe theythink they're capable of, not
what other coaches think ortheir parents, like what are
they actually capable of?
And how do we get them toperform at that level, on the
(19:45):
biggest stage, when it mattersthe most, when the lights are on
, when that gun goes off, youknow whatever that looks like
for your sport?
So then, the you know.
The next piece is our missionstatement and we're trying to
clarify, like, what do we do?
How do we do it?
Who were we trying to serve?
You know, it really outlinesour purpose and our approach to
(20:07):
achieving this vision, and ourmission is to empower athletes,
teams and coaches with theskills and tools needed to
thrive under pressure, overcomechallenges and excel in
competition and life.
And you know, we we start withempowerment there, just a core
value that really resonates withthat growth mindset that we've
(20:28):
got to have to be successful inlife.
The next part we talk about theskills and tools needed to
thrive under pressure.
I mean, it's one thing to beable to play well in the gym by
yourself.
It's one thing to be able toplay, you know, on the practice
field and execute there.
But really Athletes that areworking with us, like we're
(20:49):
trying to give them the skillsand tools that high performing
athletes have been using fordecades, that are backed by
neuropsychology, like what arethe best of the best do?
What's the military do?
We've spent a ton of moneyresearching how do we help our
men and women perform in theultimate high pressure situation
where their life is on the line.
We've learned a ton about howour body responds to stress and
(21:12):
pressure, because that's theultimate stress and pressure
when our life is on the line.
So what are?
So, what are the skills andtools that are needed to be able
to perform at our best?
And then we kind of break downlike what's that mean perform at
our best?
Like the first piece is Thriveunder pressure, not just survive
, not just perform.
(21:32):
Thrive under pressure, realizelike this is an opportunity, the
stakes are high, there'spressure that means this is
important.
How lucky am I?
And then we have overcomechallenges.
Things are going to bedifficult, you know we, we talk
about optimistic perfection allthe time where we're striving
for perfection or we're strivingfor excellence, but in just
(21:54):
about every sport out there, inevery area of performance out
there and in life, like that'snot possible, that's not gonna
happen.
So, when we come up short, arewe able to move on and continue,
to be optimistic and continue?
You know it's, it's not justlike let's sit around and sing
kumbaya and hold hands, likewe're not talking about just
accepting Mediocrity.
(22:15):
We're saying, yes, I came upshort.
That's okay, though, because Iknow that I'm going to continue
fighting and I know that I'mgonna be successful.
I just need a little bit moretime.
We want to help athletesovercome the challenges that
they face in their sport andthen the last piece, so they can
excel in Competition in life.
I mean, that's that's thebiggest thing that I probably
(22:37):
talk with parents about all thetime is like man, I gotta get
Johnny to their Susie to workwith you.
Like this is gonna help themnot just in sports but in the
rest of their life.
Like I need this in my businessyou know, I'm walking into, I'm
closing this ten million dollardeal and like my hands shaking,
holding my briefcase, like yeah, that's a high-pressure
situation and learning how yourbody responds and reacts in
(23:00):
those high pressure situations.
Like you figure that out on thebaseball diamond.
Well, now, all of a sudden,like when you're in the
boardroom, you're like, well,this is a piece of cake.
I don't have, you know, twothousand fans chanting my name.
So really, you know, throughthis mission we're just, we're
trying to communicate toathletes like, look, push the
limit.
If you're trying to excel inthese high-stakes Situations,
(23:21):
we're gonna help you out withthat.
You know, we want to let thecoaches and the teams out there
know, like, if you're lookingfor Reliable and effective and
tested and battle proven mentaltraining, you know, here you go,
we can help you out with that.
You know the, the supporters,the parents, the family members
of athletes Appreciate oh,there's a.
(23:42):
There's more to this than justsucceeding on the football field
.
Like this is gonna help out.
You know, little Billy for therest of his life, or little
Susie when she grows up andwants to accomplish XYZ, which
then like kind of leads to thelast piece.
Well, how are we going to dothis?
What's this actually look like?
You know, the first one you'vealready found.
(24:02):
The first one is the podcast.
There's a hundred and thismakes a hundred and fourteen
episodes that are all designedto help you with different
aspects of the game.
We've got the blog.
Our new intern, emily Robinson,is doing a fantastic job with
that.
She's writing new articles eachweek.
That's a resource that wehopefully will be able to
continue to push out on aregular basis so that, you know,
(24:25):
people have both a Somethingthat they can listen to and
something that they can read tohelp them out, completely for
free, with.
How can I accomplish some ofthese things?
How can I perform at my best?
Obviously, there's my bookfocus cycle.
You know, just looking at afinancial standpoint, like it's
not that expensive to get onAmazon I think it's like less
(24:47):
than 15 bucks.
You can hop on there, you cango through that.
You can come up with your ownfocus cycle.
You can figure out how am Ispecifically gonna control my
mind and body in thesehigh-pressure situations?
And then really you know what'sleft is either working with
athletes or working with teams,or helping coaches.
We do one-on-one trainings withathletes, either via zoom or in
(25:10):
person at our office inWestfield.
Like I said, we're partnered upwith Pro X do training over
there, and really there's twooptions.
We've got the MTP trainingprogram.
It's five sessions stretchedout over two or three months.
For the athletes that arelooking for something a little
bit more Serious, that aresaying, look, I'm gonna have a
mental performance coach movingforward, let's, let's start
training on a regular basis, weoffer our monthly plan to the
(25:33):
elite athlete training program.
We got four sessions a month.
It's ongoing.
Cancel whenever you want.
If you're a coach that's tryingto figure out, like, how can I
train my team, the MTP Academyis the answer.
We've made it super simple.
You print the worksheet, youplay the video, we deliver the
content.
It can be as simple as hey, youknow, we got lightning.
Practice is going to be insidetoday.
(25:56):
Cool, there's no preparation onyour part.
Print the worksheet, play thevideo, boom, you're good to go.
If you're an athletic directorand you're like hey, you know, I
want to do this for the entireschool, like what?
Like what Jake was talkingabout, where you know he was
saying we hired a strength andconditioning coordinator for the
whole school because we said wedon't want you doing bigger,
faster, stronger during the falland then a push pool workout
(26:20):
for basketball and then workingout in your cousin's garage in
the spring, like we want to saywhat's the best way to train our
athletes year round?
That's going to be your jobstrength and conditioning
coordinator, signing up theentire athletic department to go
through the MTP Academy.
Now, all of a sudden, like whenthe basketball coach is talking
(26:41):
about passion and principles,hopes and dreams, or the
football coach is talking aboutgo to statement like this isn't
brand new, it's just kind ofpart of the culture, it's just
sort of how we do things and, inmy opinion, like that's the
ultimate goal.
Like the ultimate goal that oneof the greatest compliments
that I've received was when Jaketold me that his son benefited
(27:02):
from the culture that we builtin the quarterback room and I
never really coached the kid,but because of the way that we
had built the culture in thatroom, the expectations, how we
do things, how we train the mind, you know, he said his son was
able to perform at a super highlevel down the stretch.
They were able to come back ingames.
There was never a doubt like,yes, we have what it takes and
(27:26):
yes, we're going to go win thisfootball game and that's where
we want to get to.
Like that's, that's my dream.
Is that every single highschool around the world is going
to feel like, yeah, we got this, we can do this.
We're ready to perform at ourbest.
So what are next steps looklike If you go to
mentaltrainingplancom, you caneither click on parents,
athletes or coaches up at thetop.
(27:46):
It'll get you to the resourcesthat you need.
If you go to the resources tabon the far right, you can find
the podcast, the blog.
You can sign up for a freeconsultation link to my book.
If there's something that youneed and I can help you perform
at a higher level, please don'thesitate to reach out.
If you go to the podcast pageand you want to submit a
question, maybe you think, hey,here's a good topic you could do
(28:09):
for an episode.
We always love hearing from ouraudience.
I absolutely love the peoplethat I have the opportunity to
work with on a daily basis.
If you would like for that tobe you in some capacity whether
that's you partnering up on thebusiness side of things, or
you're an athlete, or you're aparent, or you're a coach I
would love to get chance to meetyou.
(28:29):
I'd love to help you in any waythat I can.
If you've got questions, pleasedon't hesitate to reach out and
, until next time, make yourplan and put it to work.
Hey, welcome to the Coaching Minds podcast, the
official podcast of MentalTraining Plan.
Our mission is to empowercoaches with the tools and
insights to develop the mentalside of the game and their
athletes both on and off thefield.
We believe in deliberateplanning and execution, because
just hoping you'll be at yourbest when it matters the most is
(00:21):
not good enough.
Today we're going to be talkingabout our story, our vision and
our mission, and I know we'vekind of touched on these
throughout our time together.
So if you've listened to all113 episodes so far, I'll be
honest, today's going to be alittle bit of a review for you.
But we're really hoping becausethere's so many new coaches.
(00:42):
We've got a partnership thatwe're getting ready to announce
with a coaching association.
We've got there's going to be aclinic coming up that I'll be
speaking at.
We're going to have a booththere.
We're anticipating some prettybig onboarding steps in the next
, the upcoming weeks and months.
And when I was really hoping tosummarize, it's just kind of
(01:04):
who are we?
What do we believe For some ofthese people that are trying to
decide like do I trust this guy?
Do I like this guy?
Do I want to work with this guy.
I want to go back all the way to1999 because at that time I'm a
high school sophomore.
I'm playing football atWestfield High School, a small
suburb just on the north side ofIndian apolis, and we were 2A
(01:26):
at the time.
Indiana 1A is the smallest andthen football 6A is the biggest,
and so we were.
We were a pretty small schoolat the time and you know I was
starting on the varsity footballteam.
I thought I was pretty hotstuff.
I was confident in myself,confident in my abilities.
And then baseball season rollsaround.
(01:47):
We're opening up this brand newbaseball diamond, brand new
facility.
It's the inaugural game and ourstarting catcher slices open
his finger dunking a basketballand gym class.
And so I find out that I'mgoing to be the starter and I'm
thinking this is awesome.
You know, now they finally getto see just how good I am.
And I couldn't throw the ballback to the pitcher Like it was
(02:12):
straight out of the movie majorleague, like it was like
something came unplugged betweenmy hand and my head and I had
absolutely no idea what to doabout it.
So you know, that night I gohome, I get on my dial up
internet and I'm like whathappened?
How do I make sure this neverhappens again?
(02:32):
You know, to make a long storyshort, I end up realizing like,
oh, you can intentionally trainthe mental side of people.
And so I kind of, I kind offell in love that year with
coaching.
I had the opportunity to coachmy brother Sam's little league
baseball team and, you know, bythe by the end of the season I
(02:54):
had him convinced that he waspretty much the the greatest
pitcher in the league and hecertainly, you know he wasn't
throwing better junk thananybody, he wasn't throwing
faster than anybody, but bygolly he believed that he could
go out and do whatever needed tobe done.
You know, in 2008, let's fastforward, a decade of here.
(03:15):
So by this point, you know, I'mdone with high school, done
with college.
I come back to my alma mater, Iget hired at the middle school
and, you know, I'm teaching atWestfield.
I'm coaching at Westfield.
I end up, you know, new staffcomes in.
I end up being an offensivecoordinator.
Let's fast forward again.
And in 2013, we went back to thestate championship for the
(03:37):
first time in a couple ofdecades and just got absolutely
destroyed.
We were not ready for thatmoment we walked into that
building and our eyes got bigand you know we, for lack of a
better term, we kind of justpeed down our leg like we were
not ready.
And in that off season we kindof went back and it was like
(03:59):
what's happening?
Why is this happening?
You know what's going on, whatdo our guys need?
And at that time I was doingquarterback club, I was coaching
the quarterbacks, and so theywere all in my classroom at 6am
before school and we were goingthrough things on the mental
side of the game and our headcoach, jake Gilbert, pops in and
says hey, we get, this isawesome, we got to do this with
(04:23):
the whole team.
It's like what?
I don't know what the wholeteam needs.
Like you know, we kind of Itouched on this briefly in the
last episode, but just to youknow, dive into a little bit
more detail like there's a bigdifference between what do one
or two or three or fourquarterbacks need and what do
120 plus high schoolers need,you know, from every different
(04:47):
position group on the team.
And so you know, I was in themiddle of getting my masters at
the time and I dove in headfirstto the world of you know how do
we help athletes self assess?
What's that even look like,what's that mean?
How do you do that?
And we came up with the primefive that off season and, you
know, figuring out like if wecan help our athletes in these
(05:10):
five areas, then we're going tobe in business and we're going
to be able to take care of about90 to 95% of the issues that
came up with our guys in thestate championship last year.
And so, you know, we reallystarted, we started working on
those.
We started trying to figure outlike, okay, how do we in this
(05:31):
room of 120 plus guys like howdo we give each person what they
need?
And you know, really did,really had some, some chance to
kind of fine tune like, how arewe going to present this to an
entire team?
How are we going to make surethey're not just screwing around
?
How are we going to, you know,make this meaningful?
And got to the point where wewere feeling.
(05:54):
We were feeling pretty goodabout training the mental side
of the game In 2016,.
We played some teams that weremuch better than us just from a
bigger, faster, strongerstandpoint, from a how many of
their kids are going full rideD1 versus you know how many of
our kids, someday, maybe, willplay college football, and we
(06:17):
ended up beating some teams who,on paper, were much better than
us, because we were, as a team,able to perform at a higher
level than our competition, andwe won a state championship.
And I remember that off seasontalking with Josh Bryant, who
we've had on the podcast beforegood friend of mine, a golf
(06:39):
coach at the high school, and hehad been a former football
coach and a former teacher, andhe and I were just we're talking
at a Christmas party one year,and he was like you got to come
coach with me.
I was like Josh, you know youdon't want me to coach your
golfers, I'm terrible at golf.
And he was like no, no, no,like all this stuff you're
(06:59):
telling me you're doing with thequarterbacks, like I need you
to do that, and so, in 2018,that was my first year helping
out the Westfield High Schoolgolf team as a I'm going to put
this in air quotes golf coach,because I don't I don't really
teach a lot about the, the gameof golf.
What I do do, though, is iswhat I continued to, you know,
(07:23):
eventually turn into my careerone day is, you know, working
with athletes one on one,working with, with teams in a
group setting, and helping themfigure out how are we going to
perform at our best when itmatters the most.
In 2019, you know this.
This started to take off at.
So, at this point, like othercoaches from other sports are
(07:44):
hearing about this, we've gotsome schools from, you know,
down south of us or to the eastor to the west, that are like,
hey, what's this mental trainingguy and how do we talk to him?
Started the coaching mindspodcast that year, partnered up
with pro X.
They had, you know, intervieweda bunch of different sports
psychologists and came back tome and said, hey, we like how
(08:07):
you are.
You know this mentalperformance coaching idea.
Where we're, we're, you'remaking a plan and you're helping
people put it to work.
Like this is what we want forour athletes.
In 2021, I sort of took the, thecrux of what we were doing, the
foundation of what we weredoing with control in the mind
and body, and wrote my firstbook called Focus Cycle.
(08:30):
In 2022, I finally left theclassroom I'd been teaching and
coaching for 15 years anddecided, like, this is what I'm
passionate about, this is what Ilove, this is what I want to do
.
And then this year 2024, westarted the MTP Academy.
So you know, the the Academywas kind of our, our venture
(08:53):
into how do we scale this, howdo we expand this, because we
had done it before, where wetried to do some online learning
and the athletes that werehighly motivated, the athletes
that wanted to dive into thatonline classroom, they certainly
got a lot out of it, but I'llbe honest, like it, it wasn't
(09:14):
effective for everybody by anystretch of the imagination, and
so what we did was kind of blowup that online learning and
replace it with more of a hybridlearning model where all the
coach has to do is Play thevideo, print the worksheet, we
deliver the content and the kidsfill out their plan and then
(09:34):
the coach, who's alreadydeveloping that relationship
with the athletes, is able tocome alongside them and say, all
right, you said in thissituation, this is what you were
gonna do, but you know I sawyou do this as you were coming
off the field.
Let's, let's talk about this.
You know you can hold themaccountable, you can help with
implementation, things like that.
(09:54):
So super customizable, superaffordable.
It's just a it's.
It's basically kind of like anonline curriculum.
You know, I was a, I was ateacher for 15 years and there
were a lot of times where I feellike I was just given access To
a library of information and itwas like, alright, here's all
these lessons and all theseprograms.
(10:15):
Now you can kind of go throughit and see how it's gonna fit
for you and it was like, well,thanks, but like I could have
done this on my own with theinternet.
So what we've tried to do ismap out here's the program,
here's the basics that youshould take everybody through.
Next steps.
You know, if you need to diveinto specific topics, here's
(10:37):
some different things that youcan do based on the mental
skills assessment that yourathletes can take.
So the the MTP Academy werewe're super excited about and I
know that you know there's a.
There's probably a lot oflisteners that are that are
wondering more about that ormaybe wondering more about
Individual stuff that we do withthe athletes.
(10:58):
But but before we get into kindof the, the specifics of that,
I want to get into a little bitof vision and and a little bit
of our, our mission and purposeand what we're doing and why
we're doing it.
You know, obviously my ownstruggles are are a huge piece
of that.
As a high schooler, feelinglike I can't throw the ball Back
(11:23):
to someone that I want to throwit to was absolutely
humiliating.
That was, you know, part of thereason we started the podcast
was I was just hoping to be ableto Give athletes out there a
resource and a tool completelyfor free.
That's like, hey, if you'restruggling, here's some things
that you can do.
You know, obviously it's it'sdone pretty well.
(11:45):
It's been a lot of fun.
We're still continuing on.
You know, here we are four,four and a half years later.
But but you know, really, eveneven beyond my own struggles,
just as a as a coach, there'vejust been so many athletes that
(12:06):
have had to Overcome things onthe mental side of their game.
And it's like, you know, as Ithink back through the, the 15
years of coaching football, thenthe six years that I've been,
you know, doing this withindividuals outside of just
coaching football, like there'sall kinds of stuff that I've
(12:26):
helped people overcome and helppeople work through.
And you know, eventually, likeat some point they they start to
just repeat like there's notreally that many athletes that I
talked to, that I'm trying tofigure out like, well, how am I
gonna fix this?
Like I already know how to fixthat.
The question is, how do we getthe athlete to understand what's
(12:48):
going on, to get the athlete tobe aware?
You know, right now I like touse the example we're not paying
attention to what the bottom ofour feet feel like because our
brain doesn't think that'simportant.
And so, you know, we need toget the athlete paying attention
to the right things, beingaware of.
Oh, I'm starting to get offtrack.
Whether that's my emotions, I'mstarting to feel anxious.
(13:10):
You know.
Whether that's my body, I feeljittery, my palms are sweaty, my
heart's beating out of my chest, whether that's, you know, that
little voice in the back of mymind saying I just I don't know
if I'm good enough to do this.
Or you know, we're just focusedon the wrong stuff.
We're worried about what's momthink, what's dad think, what's
coach think.
Am I, are they gonna put me onthe bench?
(13:31):
Are we gonna lose now?
Oh no, my competition's so good.
Or, you know, I get stuck inthe past worrying about that.
The last time I played thisgolf, this hole on the golf
course.
I played terrible, you know,and now all I can think about is
that bad shot.
Or, you know, worried about thefuture.
What's this gonna do?
Recruiting wise or whatever,whatever that looks like.
(13:53):
Eventually, it just comes backto how do we overcome these
obstacles and perform at ourbest?
As we sat down and went throughtrying to clarify what are we
doing?
Why are we doing this?
The place that we started waswith our vision.
Our vision is to revolutionizethe mental training landscape,
(14:17):
making comprehensive andcustomizable mental performance
coaching accessible to everyathlete around the world,
helping them perform at theirbest when it matters the most.
This vision is our ultimategoal.
This is what we're trying toachieve.
This is what we're aspiringtowards.
(14:38):
It acts as our Jake Gilbertlast week called it a North Star
.
Our guiding strategic planning,our decision making, kind of all
goes through this.
A clear vision can provide some, maybe even a little bit of
inspiration, definitely a senseof purpose, not only to me, but
(15:02):
as the company grows and aspeople are approaching me and
say, hey, I want to be a part ofthis, whether that's as an
investor, whether that's I wantto help sell this.
I want a partner, I want tobring you into my school.
I want you to work with myathletes, whatever that looks
like.
These stakeholders need to knowhere's where we're headed,
(15:24):
here's where we're going.
I want to make sure that, as acompany, that we're not lacking
direction, because I think thatjust leads to unfocused efforts.
I remember back in the earlydays when I was just trying to
hop on the internet and findwhatever I could and find some
(15:46):
information out there and try itout and see if it works.
It wasn't necessarily the beststrategy, but it was kind of
where we were at, keeping thisvision statement in front of us.
The whole purpose is to sayhere's where we're going.
(16:08):
We say we want to revolutionizethe mental training landscape.
What's that look like?
There's all kinds of people outthere that are doing this.
We want to provide it in acompletely brand new way where
you don't have to have a mentalperformance coach on staff, but
you can still get the benefit ofhaving a mental performance
coach on staff, because we'rebasically equipping these
(16:31):
coaches to become that mentalexpert.
We're equipping these coachesto be able to say look, we're
going to go through thisworksheet, we're going to
provide you with someinformation and then I'm going
to come alongside you and we'regoing to do this together.
There's not lots of peopledoing that.
We want to revolutionize things.
We want things to change in theworld of mental performance
(16:54):
training.
The next part makingcomprehensive and customizable
mental performance coachingaccessible.
It's very different when I'm afootball coach and I've got all
120 of my guys in a classroomevery Monday and I know what my
schedule is going to look like.
I know all right.
Here's how I'm going toimplement this versus some of
(17:16):
the golf teams that we work with, where it's like the freshman
and the JV and the varsity kidsare never in the same room
together, they're never at thesame courses, they're never at
the same workouts together.
We've got to be able tocustomize this.
We've got to be able to changethis.
This has to be flexible.
We want to make sure that, aswe're providing these solutions,
(17:37):
that that's what we're doing.
The next part accessible toevery athlete around the world.
I think it goes without saying.
Like all athletes at all levelsWhether they are rich, poor,
(17:58):
old, young, talented, white,black, male, female, football
player, golfer none of thatmatters.
If you have a human brain, thenyou need to learn how to
control that mind and how tocontrol your body so you can
perform it your best.
One of the things that somebodyreally challenged me on when we
(18:20):
were talking about this visionwas like, well, you know, I was
thinking we want this to beavailable for everybody in the
country.
And it's like, well, why?
Why?
Like what you know, with AIwhere it's at, with language
models where they're at.
Like, the only thing standingbetween us delivering this here
in the US and being able todeliver this in Germany, japan
(18:40):
or wherever else is just budget,I mean, is being able to pay to
get, you know, thingstranslated into other languages.
But just, you know, want to makesure that we have a commitment
to say, look, I don't care whoyou are, you need to be able to
have some of these tools.
So, you know, I was contactedtoday by somebody who's got an
eight-year-old daughter and anine-year-old son, asking what
(19:02):
resources we had.
And you know, if I'm beinghonest, we don't have great
resources for that age group yet.
But you know, part of ourvision, like, we're headed that
way, we're working on that,we're building that, we're
developing that.
Having that worldwide piece inthere is important to me.
And then the last piece helpingthem perform at their best when
(19:23):
it matters the most, like that'salways been the goal, right,
like since I started doing this.
It was how do we help ourathletes truly perform at their
best, not like what maybe theythink they're capable of, not
what other coaches think ortheir parents, like what are
they actually capable of?
And how do we get them toperform at that level, on the
(19:45):
biggest stage, when it mattersthe most, when the lights are on
, when that gun goes off, youknow whatever that looks like
for your sport?
So then, the you know.
The next piece is our missionstatement and we're trying to
clarify, like, what do we do?
How do we do it?
Who were we trying to serve?
You know, it really outlinesour purpose and our approach to
(20:07):
achieving this vision, and ourmission is to empower athletes,
teams and coaches with theskills and tools needed to
thrive under pressure, overcomechallenges and excel in
competition and life.
And you know, we we start withempowerment there, just a core
value that really resonates withthat growth mindset that we've
(20:28):
got to have to be successful inlife.
The next part we talk about theskills and tools needed to
thrive under pressure.
I mean, it's one thing to beable to play well in the gym by
yourself.
It's one thing to be able toplay, you know, on the practice
field and execute there.
But really Athletes that areworking with us, like we're
(20:49):
trying to give them the skillsand tools that high performing
athletes have been using fordecades, that are backed by
neuropsychology, like what arethe best of the best do?
What's the military do?
We've spent a ton of moneyresearching how do we help our
men and women perform in theultimate high pressure situation
where their life is on the line.
We've learned a ton about howour body responds to stress and
(21:12):
pressure, because that's theultimate stress and pressure
when our life is on the line.
So what are?
So, what are the skills andtools that are needed to be able
to perform at our best?
And then we kind of break downlike what's that mean perform at
our best?
Like the first piece is Thriveunder pressure, not just survive
, not just perform.
(21:32):
Thrive under pressure, realizelike this is an opportunity, the
stakes are high, there'spressure that means this is
important.
How lucky am I?
And then we have overcomechallenges.
Things are going to bedifficult, you know we, we talk
about optimistic perfection allthe time where we're striving
for perfection or we're strivingfor excellence, but in just
(21:54):
about every sport out there, inevery area of performance out
there and in life, like that'snot possible, that's not gonna
happen.
So, when we come up short, arewe able to move on and continue,
to be optimistic and continue?
You know it's, it's not justlike let's sit around and sing
kumbaya and hold hands, likewe're not talking about just
accepting Mediocrity.
(22:15):
We're saying, yes, I came upshort.
That's okay, though, because Iknow that I'm going to continue
fighting and I know that I'mgonna be successful.
I just need a little bit moretime.
We want to help athletesovercome the challenges that
they face in their sport andthen the last piece, so they can
excel in Competition in life.
I mean, that's that's thebiggest thing that I probably
(22:37):
talk with parents about all thetime is like man, I gotta get
Johnny to their Susie to workwith you.
Like this is gonna help themnot just in sports but in the
rest of their life.
Like I need this in my businessyou know, I'm walking into, I'm
closing this ten million dollardeal and like my hands shaking,
holding my briefcase, like yeah, that's a high-pressure
situation and learning how yourbody responds and reacts in
(23:00):
those high pressure situations.
Like you figure that out on thebaseball diamond.
Well, now, all of a sudden,like when you're in the
boardroom, you're like, well,this is a piece of cake.
I don't have, you know, twothousand fans chanting my name.
So really, you know, throughthis mission we're just, we're
trying to communicate toathletes like, look, push the
limit.
If you're trying to excel inthese high-stakes Situations,
(23:21):
we're gonna help you out withthat.
You know, we want to let thecoaches and the teams out there
know, like, if you're lookingfor Reliable and effective and
tested and battle proven mentaltraining, you know, here you go,
we can help you out with that.
You know the, the supporters,the parents, the family members
of athletes Appreciate oh,there's a.
(23:42):
There's more to this than justsucceeding on the football field
.
Like this is gonna help out.
You know, little Billy for therest of his life, or little
Susie when she grows up andwants to accomplish XYZ, which
then like kind of leads to thelast piece.
Well, how are we going to dothis?
What's this actually look like?
You know, the first one you'vealready found.
(24:02):
The first one is the podcast.
There's a hundred and thismakes a hundred and fourteen
episodes that are all designedto help you with different
aspects of the game.
We've got the blog.
Our new intern, emily Robinson,is doing a fantastic job with
that.
She's writing new articles eachweek.
That's a resource that wehopefully will be able to
continue to push out on aregular basis so that, you know,
(24:25):
people have both a Somethingthat they can listen to and
something that they can read tohelp them out, completely for
free, with.
How can I accomplish some ofthese things?
How can I perform at my best?
Obviously, there's my bookfocus cycle.
You know, just looking at afinancial standpoint, like it's
not that expensive to get onAmazon I think it's like less
(24:47):
than 15 bucks.
You can hop on there, you cango through that.
You can come up with your ownfocus cycle.
You can figure out how am Ispecifically gonna control my
mind and body in thesehigh-pressure situations?
And then really you know what'sleft is either working with
athletes or working with teams,or helping coaches.
We do one-on-one trainings withathletes, either via zoom or in
(25:10):
person at our office inWestfield.
Like I said, we're partnered upwith Pro X do training over
there, and really there's twooptions.
We've got the MTP trainingprogram.
It's five sessions stretchedout over two or three months.
For the athletes that arelooking for something a little
bit more Serious, that aresaying, look, I'm gonna have a
mental performance coach movingforward, let's, let's start
training on a regular basis, weoffer our monthly plan to the
(25:33):
elite athlete training program.
We got four sessions a month.
It's ongoing.
Cancel whenever you want.
If you're a coach that's tryingto figure out, like, how can I
train my team, the MTP Academyis the answer.
We've made it super simple.
You print the worksheet, youplay the video, we deliver the
content.
It can be as simple as hey, youknow, we got lightning.
Practice is going to be insidetoday.
(25:56):
Cool, there's no preparation onyour part.
Print the worksheet, play thevideo, boom, you're good to go.
If you're an athletic directorand you're like hey, you know, I
want to do this for the entireschool, like what?
Like what Jake was talkingabout, where you know he was
saying we hired a strength andconditioning coordinator for the
whole school because we said wedon't want you doing bigger,
faster, stronger during the falland then a push pool workout
(26:20):
for basketball and then workingout in your cousin's garage in
the spring, like we want to saywhat's the best way to train our
athletes year round?
That's going to be your jobstrength and conditioning
coordinator, signing up theentire athletic department to go
through the MTP Academy.
Now, all of a sudden, like whenthe basketball coach is talking
(26:41):
about passion and principles,hopes and dreams, or the
football coach is talking aboutgo to statement like this isn't
brand new, it's just kind ofpart of the culture, it's just
sort of how we do things and, inmy opinion, like that's the
ultimate goal.
Like the ultimate goal that oneof the greatest compliments
that I've received was when Jaketold me that his son benefited
(27:02):
from the culture that we builtin the quarterback room and I
never really coached the kid,but because of the way that we
had built the culture in thatroom, the expectations, how we
do things, how we train the mind, you know, he said his son was
able to perform at a super highlevel down the stretch.
They were able to come back ingames.
There was never a doubt like,yes, we have what it takes and
(27:26):
yes, we're going to go win thisfootball game and that's where
we want to get to.
Like that's, that's my dream.
Is that every single highschool around the world is going
to feel like, yeah, we got this, we can do this.
We're ready to perform at ourbest.
So what are next steps looklike If you go to
mentaltrainingplancom, you caneither click on parents,
athletes or coaches up at thetop.
(27:46):
It'll get you to the resourcesthat you need.
If you go to the resources tabon the far right, you can find
the podcast, the blog.
You can sign up for a freeconsultation link to my book.
If there's something that youneed and I can help you perform
at a higher level, please don'thesitate to reach out.
If you go to the podcast pageand you want to submit a
question, maybe you think, hey,here's a good topic you could do
(28:09):
for an episode.
We always love hearing from ouraudience.
I absolutely love the peoplethat I have the opportunity to
work with on a daily basis.
If you would like for that tobe you in some capacity whether
that's you partnering up on thebusiness side of things, or
you're an athlete, or you're aparent, or you're a coach I
would love to get chance to meetyou.
(28:29):
I'd love to help you in any waythat I can.
If you've got questions, pleasedon't hesitate to reach out and
, until next time, make yourplan and put it to work.
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