With our goal to reach 1 million athletes and coaches with mental training, an important step in reaching that goal is answering the rudimentary (yet VITAL) question: What is mental training? 

If you’re reading this blog you likely fit into one of these categories: 

• An athlete who is researching various ways to improve your performance and break through mental barriers.  
• A parent who is looking for ways to help your struggling athlete.
• A coach (or aspiring coach) who is new to mental training and wants to explore how it can help your team. 
• A coach who is practicing mental training and wants a resource to help you explain it to athletes, parents, coaches, and athletic departments.

Whatever your path, we’re stoked that you’re here and hope that we can help you find clarity about what mental training is and how it can make a massive impact. 

(For the sake of clarity, we’ll be speaking to coaches in this blog, but...

I'm sure we can agree that nothing is quite as impactful as a good TRUE story of a life changed for the better. Today, I want to tell you about Mark Ehlen; he's one of the coaches in the Mindset Coach Academy who will be graduating with his Mindset Coach Certification (along with his class) in just a couple weeks. 

Mark's basketball resume is impressive, he is a heavily awarded, 30-year Division I college coach with a reputation for winning (to put it lightly). Due to his noteworthy coaching career, Mark was also inducted into the Hall of Fame; an honor well-deserved. Although he hung up his head coaching whistle a few years ago when he retired, coaching was never just a career for Mark; coaching is deeply engrained in him. 

With a lifetime of knowledge about the game of basketball and a deep respect for the mental game, a traditional retirement story arc never quite suited Mark. As he puts it: "I'm...