Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the abca's podcast. I'm your host ryan brownlee.
This episode is sponsored by Netting Pros.
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Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or infoettingpros.com, visit them online at www.nettingpros.com or check out Netting Pros on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Make sure to let CEO Will Minor know that the ABCA sent you now onto the Podcast Something new for the ABCA Podcast this week we're handing the mic over to Tyrone Brooks for the second part of a two part mental health series.
Brooks is an instrumental part of our FRBATS Committee, the ABCA Convention and has been a guest on the podcast. Brooks is Senior Director of Workforce Development at Major League baseball. We have two special guests this week with Dr. Yarlie Nicklaus and James Jones. Dr. Nicholas is a human Performance consultant and mental health strategist empowering leaders, athletes and organizations to navigate high performance environments while prioritizing mental well being.
Jones is a former Major Leaguer now working as the Mental Performance Coordinator with the Texas Rangers.
The month of May is officially recognized as Mental Health Awareness Month in the US Reminder that we are all in this together. So if you have someone in your life that needs help, 988 is the number to call or text if you or someone else needs support. Let's welcome everyone to the podcast.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Hello everybody, I'm Tyrone Brooks. On behalf of the abca, we're glad to welcome you here today.
This is a great opportunity for us to share a webinar which is entitled Sports Stress and Performance Supporting Athletes and Coaches.
We're excited today to have this opportunity to share with you. Having a group of professionals at both the collegiate and professional levels to talk about the importance of mental health and mental health performance.
You know this is a vital area that our athletes and our coaches need to be fully aware of and allowing them to be productive each and every day in doing their jobs.
So on behalf of the leadership of Our Frank Robinson Building Access to Support Committee led by Kerrick Jackson and Bonnie Hoffman, myself, the professional Development Chair.
We're excited to have this opportunity to share with you. We're extremely helpful and thankful for the support of the ABCA led by Ryan Brownlee and the staff there to give us the opportunity to share about how we can make sure everyone is fully aware of the importance of mental health and the well being of our athletes and our coaches.
Enjoy and please have a great opportunity to share and learn. And also if you need help, please reach out. We are here to assist you. Thank you very much.
Okay, we're glad to have our guest, Dr. Yarlie Nicholas, and she is the CEO and founder of Home Field Consulting. We're glad to have you on here, Dr. Nicholas.
[00:04:05] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Can you tell our ABCA audience a little bit about your background and your area expertise within the mental health space?
[00:04:14] Speaker D: Sure. Awesome. Well, thank you again for having me. I truly, truly am honored. Again, My name is Dr. Yarlie Nicholas. My athletes affectionately call me Dr. Yarlie. So really honored to do that. My background, actually, I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist. I have over 15 to 16 years in the mental health and sports space.
So ranging from experiences working with NBA and NFL players and then also serving in the NCAA collegiate environments, serving as a mental health subcommittee for the Big 12, as well as serving as assistant AD for various institutions such as the University of Memphis and Baylor University. And so and also again, founder of Home Field Consulting, where I focus on the athlete and their family, their systems. Right. And so because our theme is the family is a first home team, I say it all the time. And so but yeah, I have a passion. In addition to working with athletes, I also do support with executives. So stress management, emotional intelligence, yada yada. So that's just a little bit about me and my passion of working with athletes.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: Yeah, it's wonderful. You know, mental performance is a growing field and throughout the sports industry you see, you know, all the increased pressures that to perform at every level, you know, whether professional college, at the youth level, you know, you can really see how this has become such an important area. Can you discuss a little about what the importance of how, what the importance of it is and then kind of what the priorities of this space as far as what you see from mental health and mental health performance side.
[00:05:55] Speaker D: Yes.
So this field is constantly growing, as you know, you and I both know. And when we talk about the reality of it's growing, here's some things that, you know, I'VE seen along the years. Right. So there's the social media pressure, right. The nil contracts. Right.
Also the recruiting experiences. Those things can also impact somebody's mental performance or will I get picked, you know, put me in coach. All these things also, you know, with this new generation, particularly in the collegiate space, it is mirroring a lot of the pro athletes back in the day. Right. So the public visibility, all these other things can add pressure. Right.
And so my exposure in the collegiate space, as well as working with currently in my private practice pro athletes, I've seen how these, these things can impact one's performance more. More specifically confidence, right there, a sense of identity.
And then also too, when it comes to pressure, there's this fear of do you like me for me or do you like me for what I can do? So there's this heavy focus on that.
And so what I believe, the importance of mental health performance or mental health departments in the collegiate space as well as the pro space and youth sports. Right. Is that it helps to aid with building self awareness. Right. When we talk about emotional intelligence and we also aids with allowing them to know who they are. And we'll talk a little bit more about that as we continue. But I just, for a nutshell, I do see it growing more so in the visibility space. But I also love the fact that you have a lot of these public figure athletes that are being vocal about the importance of talking about mental performance or mental health. And so that kind of breaks the stigma. I believe when I first started 16 years ago, there definitely was a lot of shame when it came to mental health.
And, and I'll talk a little bit more about that as we continue our conversation today. But just in a nutshell, I do see it growing.
I do. It's a very big conflicting debate sometimes, particularly for me in the mental health space where you, you want to make sure that they're getting paid, you want to make sure that they have their livelihood. But the, also the duality of are they learning life skills outside of when they leave collegiate? Are they able to deal with when the checks, nil checks stop coming in, how you going? You know, like, hello, how are you going to adjust and adapt and have transfer, transferable skills?
[00:08:25] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:26] Speaker B: You know, coaches are under more scrutiny and pressure than ever. You know, you look around our, our entire industry, even many of our ABCA members are deep in the coaching space. So. And they're dealing with this on a daily, daily basis. You know, what advice do you have for coaches that can help them facilitate you know, prioritizing their own mental health.
[00:08:51] Speaker D: Great question paraphrasing Snoop Dogg, but coaches need love too. And I'm a really big advocate on, on ensuring that coaches have a sense of awareness.
Again, I look at mental health because I'm clinically trained, systemically. I don't just look at the athlete, I look at the people that are supporting the athletes. Right. Because if you're stressed, we know this is sports is an organization, it's a system and it's relational. So if the coaches are stressed and guess what, the athletes are going to be stressed. If the administrators and leaderships, Right. I've been in those, you know, executive roles and stuff. If we're stressed, then guess what? The coach is going to be stressed. And so there's this domino effect that goes into that.
And so, you know, coaches deal with a lot. I'm sure you can talk and attest it more than I can recruiting, you know, sometimes sacrificing their own family time, their own mental health for the purpose of making sure everyone else is good. So we were talking before our call, but traveling, right. One of the things that the steward always says is what put the mask on yourself before you put it on everybody else.
My encouragement. When I was at the University of Memphis, I created a program called the Playbook Session. And so what I did was I looked at the systems. I'm very observant. So I look at the locker room dynamics where a lot of times the more senior athletes would mentor the rookies. And so I utilize that same because a lot of coaches are former athletes and a lot of times they never had the chance to even grieve the glory days. And now they're in this coaching role and there's like this sense of pressure to perform.
And so, you know, the difference between the coaches that prioritize their well being and the ones that don't, because the ones that don't oftentimes focus so much on don't make me look bad. But the ones that do oftentimes focus on the person and the player.
And so I say this. Healthy coaches create healthy environments. If you're stressed and it's going to mimic. And I could talk a lot about it from a clinical and research standpoint, but I would just say this, you know, vulnerability is not a sign of weakness if you're overwhelmed as a coach. For those of you that are listening to this call book appointment, right. Like it may not be a therapy, it might just be reaching out to an old coach or reaching out to a colleague. I Call that therapy outside of therapy. Right. Therapeutic outlets where you can have a place to take your hat off. Right. Take the whistle off and just let me just be myself for 10 minutes. Right. It could be a walk in the morning before you start your day. Those things are ways that you can strategize and implement mental wellness. Right. And you know, and so understanding that your mind is a muscle too. Co coaches, we work that the mind is a muscle as well. So again, healthy coaches create healthy environments. Right.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: Have our coaches make sure they take a good walk at their ballpark early. That part just to kind of relieve maybe a little bit of stress things.
[00:11:54] Speaker D: Exactly.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: Just to clear ahead a little bit, clear their head.
[00:11:57] Speaker D: Like if you just had a two hour meeting with your staff, go ahead. And I see it all the time. Some of my coaches will go around or they'll go for a quick jog and that is their uninterrupted time. Do not interrupt them. That's their time to get them self centered. So correct. Yes, great question.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: Can you discuss some of the misconceptions that are often correlated with mental performance? I feel like this is something that just has to be brought up as, as an area that should be some discussion and dialogue about.
[00:12:27] Speaker D: Listen, this could be another podcast episode. This is a whole different session. I love this question.
So first, I alluded to it in our last question is to me that mental performance, a lot of times when there's this myth or this myth of thinking that in order to seek help it means I'm struggling.
Or if I'm seeking mental performance coaching, it means I'm struggling. Absolutely not. It doesn't just work with those that are fumbling the ball, for lack of a better term, or not making or not catching the ball at the right hand. Mental performance helps with focusing. Right. It helps with confidence. It helps with the concept that we call clinically emotional regulation. And I want to talk about that because there was a study that was conducted in 2017 in the Journal of Sports Medicine, Science and Sports Medicine of Sports. And in the study they talked about the concept of mental toughness versus mental health. And I really love that study because it really alluded the the narrative that mental toughness, traditionally we think mental toughness is what, suck it up, buttercup. You know, don't show no weakness. You know, saying, don't let them see you cry. All these other things that we tell our athletes. But in reality is in the study it really helped clarify that mental toughness is really mental emotional regulation.
Mental toughness is really being Calm in the middle of pressure. Right. I know when someone has that is because they're able to navigate. So basically, mental toughness helps with mental health.
Mental toughness is not emotional denial. Mental toughness is the ability to be resilient. So if I were to simplify it, right. I would say this healthy mental toughness. Right. Is basically confidence. Right. And what does that do for the mental health benefit? Well, it helps you cope with stress better. Right.
If you're resilient health or mental toughness, then guess what? You're able to recover after setbacks.
This new generation of athletes that I've seen a lot is that when it comes to setbacks or when it comes to criticism or if they're getting constructive feedback, you'll see them shut down a lot. Well, if we teach mental toughness in the perspective emotional regulation and in the words, Coach K and I, when we were at University of Memphis, we talked about this a lot. Neutral thinking, balanced thinking, looking at a setback from a place of learning versus I'm a failure.
Right. And so these are the things. There's so much more. But I think that to me, to demystify that myth that mental toughness means that I cannot be emotionally vulnerable is a laugh on a pit of hell. So I just, you know, I really want to clarify that, to make sure that all our coaches understand the difference and then understanding that physical development or athletic development requires that your mind. Again, I'm going to say this again, your mind is a muscle, so. And the vulnerability is not weakness, it's strength, actually.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Oh, man, that's really good.
[00:15:36] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: Let me, let me ask you a question. You know, when you look at your experiences in the college environment or it's a unique opportunity to impact student athletes each and every day.
And can you kind of discuss how mental performance can be incorporated successfully into the culture of assisting athletes and what that process really entails?
[00:16:02] Speaker D: That's a great question. So again, with my experience in the collegiate athletic space, you can't impact the athlete until you change the narrative.
Right. You know, and I work with a lot of corporate clients, so if you want to do buy in, you got to start from the top. Right. And so once there's a sense of understanding of what this is, you know, I go back to my time at University of Memphis. I was the first to create that mental health program. In order for the athletes to have a system, I had to sit down with the admin, I had to sit down with the executives and have to make sure the policies were there. Right. From a compliance standpoint. And once there's a sense of understanding, so then we go to the next phase, which is awareness. Right. So the trainings. Right. At my time at Baylor, we used to do summer athletic training. Right. For coaches, staff. Right. Again, I talked about, alluded to that earlier playbook sessions where it was less of a formal checklist, because a lot of times what I'll see too, which is why I was very active in the Big 12 Mental Health Subcommittee. A lot of times you'll see that mental health is considered a compliance checklist. We, you know, we want to look good with the NCAA versus embedding it in the everyday life. So what I would do is I would train some coaches. And I remember one of my track coaches would do something I call the check in. And so before practice, they would sit down with the athletes and take a deep breath, do some grounding techniques, and ask each one, how are we feeling today? Right before they go in and start doing hurdles, before they go in and start doing all that other things, or my baseball players and coaches, I would have these kind of talks and kind of see where they check the thermometer. Right. Because once you're emotionally connected, then that helps with the performance as well. And guess what? Athletes, when they see that trust is crucial, when they see that, they can come to you and you're not just a shrink. So another thing I did, again, my background was in marketing before became a doctor. And I would watch to see where the athletes would congregate. They all love food. So I would sit there and go.
And I would go in, and I don't know if you see the show, Steve Harvey, remember Regina's character, the principal boss lady? So I would come in and. And you know, and I wouldn't say anything about mental health, but I would just make sure that they would build that trust. I worked in education as well, so I knew how to work the cafeteria. I knew how to get the kids in the line. So once they. Hey, doc. Hey, Dr. Y. How you doing? And they're like. And then so, like, so the new kid's like, who's that? They're like, yo, you need to go to her. Like, you stress. You go to her. And so little by little, and it doesn't matter what sport, they all had a sense of like, oh, my God, she's safe. Oh, my God, she sees with us. And I would say, how are you doing? I'll see one sit by themselves. And I would check with them, and I'm like, hey, if you ever need to talk, I'm here. I wouldn't impose it, but I would just use that as an example. So that's one. So again, from the top buy in. Second is training.
[00:18:58] Speaker C: Right.
[00:18:59] Speaker D: Understand the difference between psychological distress or like we talked about mental toughness versus mental health. And then the third level is of course the athlete. Right. And so looking at it from the way I would do the, the implementation of the mental health is through tears.
So that's my encouragement.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: Love it, Love it.
You know, throughout the most recent women's college basketball season, you know Lauren Betts of ucla, who most recently was the fourth overall pick in the WNBA draft by the Washington Mystics.
She was outspoken about her own mental health journey and some of her personal struggles. Can you talk a little bit about how sports has made it extremely important, especially within the college game, for college student athletes to really have a grasp of their own self identity and the personal courage to, you know, not be afraid to be vulnerable in, in these current times.
[00:19:54] Speaker D: Yes, I, I think when we talk about the courage. Right. Or when we talk about, you know, Lauren Betts and you know, just the culture of college sports. Right. I alluded to that when we were talking earlier about nil and public perception and this, you know, and I, I, I used to say this. I, they, the world saw super ESPN and everybody else and they mama saw the Superman, but I was able to see the Clark Kent. Right. I was able to kind of take that mask off or, or how you want to look at it, if they're Superman, their true identity and Clark can't whatever. But for the purpose illustration, I called my office, the telephone booth where you're able to take the cape off, where you're able to accept that. Right. And you know, not negating that. This is the culture that we're in, especially with social media, the digital era, where perception is a big part and especially with this generation, so not honoring that, understanding that, but also the thing I say is, and my athletes, I had a whiteboard in my offices and I would say, your job is not your identity, your job is your assignment.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:21:16] Speaker D: And a lot of times where we can bleed and lose ourself in the sport or lose our identities that when we become so immersed in it that we don't know anything else.
So as a leader in the mental health space in the sports world, I am very big on advocating and ensuring like I have some professional athletes that I work with in my private practice. And I said, what did you like to do outside of sports? I have One that plays in the league. And he said, doc, I like photography. I said, okay, let's pick that up after practice. Let's try to.
When I say that this has been transformative, I have another one who is a physician and a pro athlete at the same time. And I'm like, okay, what do we do outside of that? Well, Doc, I like to travel. Okay, so when we go books and it doesn't have to be like you have to go to Cabo, but it could be so really Exploring their identities outside of the uniform has been instrumental in ensuring that when they get on the field, right when they get on the ballpark, when they get on the meet, that they are like, okay, I got something to look forward to after this.
Because your identity, a lot of times when it's so. And it goes with my corporate clients too. When they're. I have a CFO, I have executives, I have CEOs that I work with. When their whole identity is tied to the, to the spreadsheet, it's miserable.
So I tried to make a space where, you know, they understand that mental health is not a bad thing. It's every day, according to the World Health Organization, they define mental health as the balance or the equilibrium between your bio cycle and social. Everyone has a mental health, right. If we look at the word human or humas, right? Spirit man. We're three part beings, spirit, soul and body. And so a lot of times in the sports world we focus on the physical or you know, in the faith based world and focus on the spiritual. But no one thinks about the soul, which is really your mental health.
So when you are able to cultivate that and realize this is what I do, but it's not who I am now you'll be able to, to sustain and you're able to support.
I'm going to end with this. You know, I'm an island girl. I told you that earlier. And so I think about, you know, growing up in South Florida. Whenever they would do new developments, I always love hgtv. I love watching new construction. And in South Florida we know there's palm trees, right? When you think about Miami or South, you know, Boca, whatever, there's palm trees everywhere. But as a little girl, I would ask my daddy, I said, daddy, why is that when they put the palm tree there are. They put wood to support it, as you know, they're finishing up construction. He said, it's so that, you know, the tree doesn't. And it's not just palm trees, any type of landscaping. I noticed they Just put the wood. Well, I take the mental health department as the wood, as the wood of support. Right. I take families as another branch of that wood. I take the coaches as another branch of that wood. And being able to help sustain their identity. And then after a while, the wood leaves so that they're able to endure. You know, the thing about palm trees during hurricanes, growing up whenever the winds would blow, Right. They would be able to what, be resilient and sustain the stressors of life. That's what Lauren Bates was talking about when she modeled that. That's when we talk about being okay with not being okay. Naomi Osaka, all these other athletes that we talk about, that's what they're trying to emphasize. I need you to be a wood. I need to be able to navigate, and I'm drowning right now. And no fear in that. Again, your job is not your identity. It's your assignment. And when we think about mental health and we think about sports, we have to think about all these avenues. And lastly, I want to say this to wrap up.
We are building not just competitors, but people.
Your mental health helps to strengthen the individual. And when the individual is good, the environment is good.
So that's my take on it.
Wow.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: Now you. You summed it up nicely there. And thank you for just these great words of wisdom.
I know our members are going to really enjoy hearing what you have to say here. It's something that's going to really be something that's going to hit them truly in their heart. I believe in each and every way. Just with the advice you've been able to give to our coaches who have very difficult jobs in so many different levels, whether at the collegiate level, pro youth sports, you know, so many different things that they're all dealing with. So, again, you. Thank you for really, really putting that real bow on this topic. As we move forward in this universe that we call baseball and something that we, many of us, have a deep, deep passion and love for that has allowed us to. To one, have a certain identity for ourselves in very much any way, in so many different ways. But again, you know, having that love and passion for the game and hopefully something that's going to be, in many cases, a whole lifelong experience along the way.
We all have a journey that we're all on, and it's something that it's. Hopefully we have a chance to enjoy this ride along the way and not just the stress of it all at different times, which can be obviously certain points of celebration along the way that make us want to continue to get better and grow each and every day.
But also having how do we handle failure, how do we handle adversity?
And this being, as you mentioned earlier, being resilient to understand more about themselves each and every day.
[00:27:18] Speaker D: Well, it truly was an honor. I appreciate you. Thank you so much. And for all of you so much. Just know that you know I'm here if you ever need me. But thank you. Truly is an honor to be selected for this and look forward to connecting more.
[00:27:34] Speaker B: Thank you, Dr. Nicholas, appreciate you. Thank you so much for this.
[00:27:37] Speaker D: You're welcome.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: We're here with James Jones. He's the mental performance coordinator with the Texas Rangers. James, thanks for joining us, man. We really appreciate you being a part of this. James, can you tell our ABCA audience a little about your background and you know, your area expertise as far as the mental health space?
[00:27:57] Speaker C: Got you background?
Grew up, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, was drafted in 2009 to the Seattle Mariners as an outfielder and ended my career my last year in 2023 with the Dodgers.
In between there, I got traded to Texas. But as far as like my expertise in the mental health, it all started in low way.
I read a book called Mind Gym and that's when I started to realize like the edge with players and the edge with players in general wasn't really talent once you get to the professional level is really the mental side.
Even mental performance, mental health, how you take care of yourself off the field and how it translates to on the field. But ever since then, I've always kept diving in and currently I'm holding down the mental performance coordinator position while finishing up my master's of clinical mental health counseling.
Okay.
[00:28:55] Speaker B: You know, mental performance is a growing field. You look around our sports industry right now and with there seems like with all the increased pressures perform at all levels, whether professional college in the youth sports space.
Can you discuss how the current state of sports is really seeing the real great importance of priorizing mental health and also mental health performance as part of that?
[00:29:20] Speaker C: Absolutely. I mean with everything that's been going on, the trends in sports, mental performance is big now.
I felt like it was compartmentalized where it's just like what you do on the field, but with the trends of like some of the big names out there in every sports, baseball, basketball, football, that everyone's talking about it and it's bringing a lot of awareness and that's, that's the thing that's helping a lot of people dive into it because they realize if we could take care of the mental side with these players, it's going to be a domino effect onto their performance on the field.
[00:30:02] Speaker B: You know, coaches are under more scrutiny and pressure than ever now. You know, many of our ABCA members are deep into the coaching space, you know, and this is on a daily basis with many of them. So, you know, what advice would you give to coaches as far as that can facilitate helping them to really prioritize their own mental health?
[00:30:25] Speaker C: Man, coaches are going through a lot, a lot of pressure.
They're greater too, on their performance also, just like the players.
One of the biggest things I'll give them advice for is understanding that players are looking at them, how they carry themselves, the energy they bring to the field.
But the biggest advice I would give all of them is to utilize the mental performance coaches that are there. They're not just for the players, but they're also there for you too.
And I realize a lot of the coaches, they just think it's just for the players, but once they start becoming aware of what stresses them out, they become aware of what actually fills their buckets off the field. They actually show up in a better position to listen to the players, to be present and to prepare for the game. So I'll say utilize the men of performance coaches around them, Even if it's them finding someone outside the field for them to, I would say sort of bring everything into their scope because sometimes they just separate it. Also with on the field and off the field.
[00:31:38] Speaker B: Can you discuss a little bit about some of the maybe mis or misperceptions or, you know, people often may have when it comes to, you know, mental performance?
[00:31:49] Speaker C: Absolutely.
Some of the misconceptions is when you're talking to a mental performance coach is something's wrong.
A lot of times that's not the case. And I would say it's trending in a good area where now people are using the mental performance coaches to actually prepare themselves the same way they'll use a strength coach prepare a workout for them.
You know, a lot of people don't look at someone weird if they were talking to a strength coach about their workout program and the phases and the transitions.
So now people are starting to realize, like, I don't have to wait until something's wrong to actually talk to a mental performance coach that could actually help me with my routines.
They helped me gain a better perspective on where I am and where I'm going.
So the misconception of like, something is absolutely wrong and I need some big time help with something that's Going on, that is starting to go away. And now Metal Performance is starting to step into the arena where, hey, we're here to help you even before thing, before the storm hits.
[00:32:58] Speaker B: That's. It's wonderful. You know, your background is, you know, extremely unique. You know, being that you played the game at such a high level, playing in the big leagues for, for several years with Seattle and, and also just playing 14 years in general. You know, how does this unique path really help you in, you know, assisting professional players now on a daily basis? And, you know, they're out there competing, you know, and you were in their same exact shoes. You know, how does that really help you to have such a maybe sort of advantage to connect with them?
[00:33:31] Speaker C: Yeah, connecting with the, the ballplayers. Based on my experience, my past career has helped a lot.
I felt a lot of the same things they felt from being not knowing when you're going to get drafted to finally when you step foot on the professional field for the first time and seeing how good everyone is.
I felt the same thing they felt even of living off the field and taking care of yourself, waking up on time to just to have breakfast before you even get to the fields. A lot of the little things that maybe some of the people that hasn't played experience, but being that I walked every, every part of their career all the way up to the big leagues, I'm able to, you know, minimize that, that transition of actually explaining some of the. Some of the players have a hard time explaining it and I could help express that for them.
So it definitely helps me connect.
Guys have a lot of questions, especially as you get to the high A and double A when you could smell it a little bit, you're getting close to that call.
So it's just one of those things where guys let their guard down a lot faster with me knowing that I've experienced everything they've done that they're experiencing and want to experience it in their career.
[00:34:54] Speaker B: You know, when you look across our industry as far as the resources that are being distributed and implemented to improve mental health amongst our pro players, you know, you know, what, what do you see as far as these trends, you know, what you see across the league now?
[00:35:12] Speaker C: And I say trends that I see across the league right now, you hear it all the time, what's your routine looking like?
And before, most people would start just thinking about drills on the field and what they do prior, but now you're seeing a lot of players starting to answer, like, how I start my day, whether it's Meditation, visualization, starting my intent before I get to the field, more players are starting to bring that in.
As far as like different areas.
We're starting to train the physiological side, which is like the breathing and how that actually blocks or gives you access to skills that you have on the field. So we're training these guys in a way of how to regulate their breathing so they can actually focus and stay locked into the present moment because that's when the flow state starts.
[00:36:07] Speaker B: That's great. Have you also seen just how more resources have been put in place now amongst the various clubs?
You know, looking at your own club and then you also look just across the league now. Have you seen much as far as that implementation now?
[00:36:23] Speaker C: Yeah, it's, it's definitely starting to trend now.
This is, this is our first time where we actually have metrics in the middle position performance side, which is, you know, some people like, how do you, you know, measure the mental side? But we measure the physiological side since it gives open, open door to the mental side.
As far as like across the league, everyone has the, the mental health access to psychologists that are, they're present with us visiting us at affiliates the same way I do visit visiting affiliates.
So access to actual mental health professionals is wide open.
And that's one of the biggest things that's changed compared to when I first got drafted in 2009 till this year in 2026.
[00:37:15] Speaker B: That's great.
Let me ask you just like our last question, just kind of any, any, any final thoughts that you want to share either about yourself or the work you do that you think our listeners here from the ABCA and you know, our members may have a, maybe a nugget you want to leave them with.
[00:37:36] Speaker C: I'll leave them with this. I tell my players this a lot and I even tell the staff everyone is going through the same exact thing.
I believe five things usually happens. You get triggered and then your body gives yourself a reaction and then you get a thought process. The fourth thing you actually put story meaning to that thought process. And then the fifth part is the behaviors and the mechanics.
A lot of times we try to fix, you know, our thoughts, but our body reacts way faster than our thoughts.
And the way that we are able to, to train it is I'm not going to train and change your triggers, but I can help your body response so you could keep your thoughts in line and get the perspective that actually gets you to flow state.
So one of the biggest things is we train breath every day. We use that to increase stress capacity a lot of times we go on a different angle of people try to minimize stress. I look at it way as how can I increase your stress capacity so you can handle more stress? Because if we handle more stress in a healthy way that equals more growth.
[00:38:48] Speaker A: Thanks to everyone for taking time out of their busy schedules to discuss this important topic.
Reminder to check in with those around you because you never know what someone might be going through.
Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale and Matt west in the ABCA office for all the help on the podcast. Feel free to reach out to me via email our brownleebca.org Twitter, Instagram or TikTok at coachbrca or direct message me via the MyBC app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off from the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave it better for those behind you.
That way Yep wait for another day
[00:39:37] Speaker D: and away will always return and your life was never for yearning and you know that way Wait for another day.
