SPEAKER_01 0:00

On this episode, youth sports are, in my opinion, one of the best ways to prepare you for life. They teach you how to work on a team and accept individual responsibility, how to win while staying humble and respectful, and to lose with grace, learn and continue to move forward. While we all know the physical benefits and demands of sport, what was often missing when I was in youth sports is the mental side of the game, mental performance and mental support. My guest today provides a program and an app for youth athletes, coaches, and parents to communicate and connect on mental performance. Julie Koriath is the founder and CEO of NUISport. With more than 20 years of experience in counseling, coaching, education, and entrepreneurship, she has spent her career helping people build confidence, resilience, and emotional well-being. After seeing firsthand the growing pressures facing student athletes and the lack of accessible mental performance support, Julie founded New Esport to bring practical, scalable mental performance tools to athletes, coaches, and schools. With more than 20 years of experience in counseling, coaching, education, and entrepreneurship, and as a former board member of the STEMS Foundation, she has built trusted relationships across education, mental health, health care, and youth sports. Today, she leads New Esports Vision, Strategic Partnerships, Fundraising and Growth. I'm Jake Panasevich, and this is the Yoga with Jake podcast. No worries. I'm glad you got we were able to jump on. Well, Julie, I'm so thrilled to have you join me today. Uh I appreciate you taking the time to chat with me.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Yeah, happy to. Thank you for having me on.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Yeah, it's my pleasure. I've I've got the toughest question. You're how do you pronounce your last name? Coriath?

SPEAKER_02 2:18

It's Coriath, yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Coriath? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

Great job. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

I've been practicing.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

I've had it pronounced all ways.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Okay. Well, we got it. I um I'm really thrilled to talk to you. I I'm curious if you could just tell me a bit about yourself and and your work, what you're up to.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

Yeah, well, um, you know, I've I've been interested in mental health as far back as I can remember before I knew there was such a word, or you know, like I don't think in mental health was ever talked about growing up. And um I decided to get my master's and and uh my master's in counseling because it was something that was near and dear to my heart because of personal things I had gone through um kind of in high school and then going off to college. And um, and then as I decided to move forward in the field, I really, you know, it took me a minute to understand if I wanted to actually get my LPC or take a different route. And I had a young son at home and he was one at the time, and it was really hard for me to separate my uh my practicum when I was um working with people and the stories that I was hearing for me to separate that. And there was not a lot of talk about self-care back then. And I know that the field has changed in that, um, but it wasn't back then, and I and I didn't know how to separate it when it separated it when I came home. And so I decided to take a life coaching approach, you know, obviously finish out my master's program, but um I liked the idea of being a bit more proactive and decisions and kind of working with people, coming up with tools and resources that really help them move forward a bit. Um, that said, I I still uh you know, I'm not seeing a therapist right now, but I have and I do believe in there's different types of therapy in this world that that can serve everyone. It can be equine therapy, it can be a life coach, it can be a trauma specialist. There's so many different types of ways that you can get help nowadays to support your mental health. And so I'm so grateful for them all. Um, but yeah, I took more, I took a life coaching approach. And then when I have a son and a daughter, when my son started club sports, uh, he's 16. So this was about when he was 10. He just was like, I want to start on this club team. Uh, all my friends are doing it. And I thought, well, great, let's this is fun. This is gonna be a fun ride. And um, well, we learned we learned a lot. And um at that time, I really started to pay attention to these basketball tournaments and noticed that at a young age, um, these young boys and girls, at the time I was watching um my son's sports because my daughter was younger than him and she wasn't in sports yet. But yes, uh, and I realized that, you know, their body position, like their shoulders were down. They looked, they already looked like they were under so much stress that they weren't enjoying the game. And I was really concerned. And so I started to do research, talk to athletes, talk to coaches, and uh that's what led me on this path to working with athletes, coach. Really, it's it's a community, building a community for athletes, coaches, and parents to support the mental performance side for our athletes, but uh honestly for all of us, you know, it started off specifically for athletes and it's really grown. And the app is meant to, the new esport app is meant to complement that. So the coaches can have a communication loop with their athletes and they can um they can check in with their athletes and and there's a way for them to do that. So yeah, that's that's how I got here.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Interesting. Yeah, I um you know I I remember as a kid there was never talk of mental health or mental performance. What is the difference between mental health or yeah, mental health versus mental performance? And is there a difference or where do they overlap or interweave?

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Yeah, you know, well, from my perspective, and I think a lot of people have various opinions on this, um, you know, our mental health is similar to our physical health. And and we work out, you know, to maintain and um we lift weights and we do different things, and and people choose yoga strength training. There's all different ways to support your physical health. And sometimes our body can be in crisis, sometimes we break something, maybe we have a certain disease, and so then we have to go to a specialist in order to support our physical health. And I view our mental health as something very similar. Sometimes, you know, uh working on a preventative measure, which I feel mental performance works into that, right? Is how do we maybe prevent that crisis mode? Just like when you do strength training and that, you're working towards preventative breaks and things like that. It's not going to completely avoid, you can't always avoid them. It means it will happen. Um, and that can be the same thing with your mental health. There's sometimes where a situation may happen in your life and you're a bit more under crisis and you need to, you know, um get certain types of help. And then there's ways that you can really put habits into place in order to just to be proactive and to really support your mental health.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Okay, yeah. And so you've developed this company, newy sport, and what is that all about? What is newy N U I? What does that mean? And and what what is this all about?

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Well, um, it's a Hawaiian word, and I will say Hawaii has always held a special place in my heart. My dog's name is Kana, and um I got to spend some time there um a long time ago. And so I was honestly, I was reading a news article and I saw the word newy and it just struck out me. And I looked it up, and it's a Hawaiian word that means big and bold. And when I started to really think about this company, I mean, I immediately chose that name because it just made sense that we learn to be more on the offense around our mental health, that we learn to be big, that we learn to take bold measures, that we learn to build community around it instead of kind of being on the defense. And so I I chose Nui to say, hey, let's be bold, let's take bold steps and um have bold conversations around our mental wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

I um so is it an application and it sounds like it's a community, or how um how does it work? What how how does one access it?

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Yeah, great question. So right now we're working with uh teams.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

No, that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Okay, I clicked off, but it kept going. There we go.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

Okay, no, that's okay. Uh yes, it great question. In the beginning, it was really about the application. I wanted everything to be built into the app, and it was going to be a monthly subscription for athletes. But, you know, as you start, you know, work well, as you start working towards things, they start to evolve and they start to change. And and at through this growth process, I realized that yes, the app is so important, and that is a part of new esport, but also a part of what we do is we bring in the right resources into. So, right now, for example, we're working with Austin High. It's a school right here in Austin, Texas. It's a high school, and we have put together a program for their coaches. So we'll go in and speak to their coaches over the course of the year five times, and we'll bring in the top experts. We have um Brendan Hansen, he was a um six-time gold medalist, three-time Olympian. We have people like Dr. Hillary Kaufman, she um is on our team, she's a sports psychologist, and so we bring in the right resources to have a conversation, to complement the athletic director's, you know, um, alignment with the coaches and what they want to see, and to really create a curriculum that revolves around the school's needs because every school is going to look different. Um, every athletic director and what they see for their coaches is going to be different. So we're working with that, and then we work with in the athletes as well. So we just were working with the basketball team, created a huddle. Um, and that's what I like to call them with these huddles, you know, nice where where we come in. And yes, the app is a part of that. So athletes, what they do is they log on to the app and they check in. It's very simple. It's just like an emoji scale. And then they pick on the scale, it looks like a rainbow, um, and you can absolutely download it and see it. And then they pick certain prompts of like what that emoji means to them. And then they can write one to however many sentences they want and they check in. That takes less than 20 seconds. And the reason check-in is important is because a lot of times, you know, when we were growing up, I don't know if this um was important to you, but you had you kind of have self-reflected in some way. Like schools kind of made you journal, or you journaled, or there's just a way. Um, and you know, kids, like everyone's kind of gotten away from that. And there's so much, there's so much res research around how journaling is important. And but you know, we have to meet these kids and these young adults where they're at. And their generation looks much differently than than the way I was raised. And so how do we how do we meet them? How do we see them? And that's what we're trying to do is to say, hey, it's important to check in, but let's do it in a way that we know you like things to be super fast and you know it's on your phone, and this is the way you can do that. And once they check in, then the coaches automatically see where their team is at. So if you know 85% of the team checked in, they see that. If they're, you know, everybody's at an average of 4.5, then that's what they get. And then we're working towards building in the right resources for the coaches to be able to use in that moment. So then they can go into a practice knowing, like, hey, team morale is low. What do I need to do? You know, and here's some resources. Because, you know, right now this is this is new. It's new for coaches. Coaches are understanding that athletes are, you know, not necessarily living by that model of just like do what I say and and go out there and uh, you know, go out uh go out on the field and just do exactly what I say. They they ask questions now, you know, it's just very it's much different. And and so we want to be able to equip the coaches on how to work with their teams.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Yeah, it's it's interesting, right? Because um, like you said, I think like the old school outdated coach in my mind is um probably saying, you know, I don't care how they feel, they're gonna do the work. You're gonna do, we're gonna push them. Or um my opinion now, and having talked to folks who are invested like you are in actual performance and not just doing what I the coach wants to do and running them to the ground or working them extremely hard or like being hard on them, depending on the kid, how to approach them. Um, how has it been received with coaches? Are they some receptive, some somewhat, some not at all? Is it been yeah, because I mean, I'm thinking, you know, gosh, especially like my college coaches, it'd been no discussion whatsoever about what's going on outside uh the wrestling room, or how's your energy, or this happened in your life? You seem like you're really struggling, like you could tell. Um, it seems so obvious to me as a kid, even, but I don't think like the coaches really gave a shit, to be frank. But maybe that's shifting, I hope. But it sounds like you've gotten a good reception. Is it just where you're at? You know, I think Austin, I think there's a lot of very forward-thinking, progressive folks. But how has how has it been so far and how has it been received?

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Yeah, so I've I've really been working towards this for about four years now. And in the beginning, anytime I spoke with a coach, I will say they were starting to understand that there's a need, um, and that they wanted to help the athletes in some way. And so, you know, that was really our models how can we support your athletes? But it's it's shifted and it has shifted in the matter of, I feel like, the last six months. Coaches are like, okay, yes. Not only are they kind of talking about it, you know, that's what I think, that's what I saw four years ago. Like, oh, they want to talk about it, and yeah, they saw a need, but nothing was really, I think I don't think they felt like something needed to be done immediately, you know. And so that's changed. Uh now it is, yes, something needs to be done. What can we do? And and that's I'm I'm just I've just seen a completely different conversation around it over the past year to six months.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Now, is it a conversation that was sparked based on their performance? Like, hey, you want to win? Like, duh mental, they gotta focus on their mental performance, you know, to perform physically. You know, like you said, this gap that maybe we used to have is no longer uh, at least in our opinions, that they're one and the same. And are is is there any emphasis? I know with working with men in yoga, it's like point A to point B, you're out of back pain, you're you know, able to get on the floor and play with your kids, or there's real tangible goals that they set out for, where like the vehicle that gets them there might be uh uh working on yourself emotionally and physically together. Do you sell it to them? Not sell it, but kind of hey, here's the results. Like these kids just obviously they score more baskets when they feel heard or they feel mentally uh healthy. Is there anything in is there any conversation around um kind of blending the two or seeing the performance gains there?

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Great question. Is it is challenging right now to see exactly what they're gonna get out of it. And uh with the uh and that's something we're working towards by doing some case studies and things like that. But it doesn't seem to be something that the coaches are worried about. They're they're starting to see how do I support these athletes mentally because you know there have been quite a few death by suicides. Um they're starting to see that mental health matters, that a lot of them are stressed. They they have more pressure on them than we could ever imagine. It's year-round sports, it's year-round training their body, it's school, it's trying to have a social life on social media, it's trying to keep up with everybody. You can't go out on the weekends because you're an AAU and you see all your friends hanging out and you don't ever get to hang out with them. You know, um, it is there's injuries. Injuries are starting at a much much younger than they were whenever, you know, I was growing up and the people I I knew. And and the so the pressure I think everyone is starting to see is a bit much, but no one really knows what to do because I don't know if there's really I don't know if we can go back. I don't know if we can go back. I I think that people are starting to adopt to this model of you have to play a year-round sport starting at a young age. I that was not our intentions, like as parents, we just thought this was gonna be fun for our son. But it it started to change. And it's and and in the matter of that many years, it is it's changed rapidly every single year. It's like it gets more intense. And so that's what I think the coaches are seeing and trying to understand, and even parents what do we do with this? And a lot of the coaches that I talk to are more like they're detached from a score or if they're scoring more, yeah. That that will be great and will be, you know, they'll they'll definitely want to see a time when we can get to that point. But right now, I think everyone is just kind of in a a state of what do we do? And this is a way of like you said, it's it's building in habits every day at a young age, so then we can support, you know. I'm hoping that these tools support them and throughout life. The pro at the pro level, they are spending millions of dollars on sports psychologists, millions of dollars. And then now you have at a collegiate level, they're starting to bring in sports psychologists. And we're doing nothing at a high school level to support our youth.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Yeah, it's and that's that's the gap that you're trying to fill and you are filling. I um yeah, I think some of the darkest moments as an athlete were more so in high school. For me, I um are you noticing trends in what these kids are up against? Is it primarily the things you've laid out um already here, like just the strong focus to perform all year round and the managing social media? And is it primarily those sort of um challenges or or what are you noticing?

SPEAKER_02 22:25

Yeah, yeah, I mean, you're right. I mean, middle school and high school alone, right? That's a challenging time in anyone's life, just is. And you know, their brains are developing, there's hormones, there's so much going on. You're trying to fit in. Um, and then you have friends that are like not let, you know, that there's just so much pressure. And so it's already middle school and high school, like it's hard. And and so yeah, we I I'm what I'm seeing is that the there's not just an opportunity to be a kid anymore. If you want to play at a high school level, more than likely for most schools, you probably have needed to be playing at a club level if you're gonna make the team. If you want to play in college, I mean that's there's so many more kids working towards playing at a collegiate level than there used to be. And and so and then there's just there's pressure on parents, excuse me, there's pressure on parents, and that trickles down. There's pressure on coaches, they don't want to get fired. There's pressure on parents. Okay, I'm trying to, you know, help help my kids fulfill their dreams. It costs more than ever. It's so it's more time consuming. So parents are feeling it, coaches are feeling it, and then who who does that feed into? It feeds into our kids. And it's no, and I'm not saying this is like I'm guilty of it. You know, I it's not saying anyone's at fault. I think it's just saying that no one was prepared. No one was prepared for what was going to start happening in use force. And I think now we're all trying to say, okay, wait, we see that things have gotten a little bit out of sorts, and how do we how do we support them in a way that you know is more of um certainly it is more supporting them their them mentally.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

Yeah, and it's so true. I I know so many folks it started to become this way even when I was in school, um, where there's such a focus in on club sport, offseason work, and exposure to better competition. And now um there was an article this this past, it wasn't super recent, but this past year in The Athletic that there's a real diminishment decline in um school-focused, community-based sports, like just sports that focus it on what when I was in school was the whole goal is to win a state championship for the school. Now it's uh really shifted to uh access to travel teams and access then to college recruits, supposedly. And um yeah, it just seems like a very convoluted pay-to-play type of system. I'm assuming there's some trickle-down effect from college NIL where they're gonna have to put some guardrails on it, as it looks like eventually here, but there are gonna be basically professional athletes at a college level. Um pros and cons to it, I guess, but uh it just seems as if, yeah, more than ever, it's pay-to-play, it's a business, uh, there's a ton more pressure at a younger age. I I've heard many folks say um in their sport that you we see these coaches stringing along, not mediocre level players who they know will pay a price to be on the team to get access to these college recruits, but they're kind of sold this opportunity that if you want to play division one or even in college at all, you better pay up. And so it just seems like a business. It seems a little slimy.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Yeah, I mean, it's it's definitely a business. Yeah. Yeah. And like I said, I don't think there's any going back. And so how do we help them and meet everyone where they are in order in order to help them have, you know, I think it's hard for anyone to really have balance right now. The world just everyone is so busy. But in order to, like, if you think of a pie chart, right? Um, to make sure that their pie, their pie chart as young athletes is not 80% sport. You know, how do we help them break that down where they're feeling like they're able to enjoy life too? Where they're able to work on studies whether they want to or not, they have to. I don't know if anyone's like, I love studying at homework, you know, and I've got kids that are, so I don't want to disregard that. But um, I mean, that's another thing that we ran into as a family was trying to fit in homework as a sophomore junior. Um, my son's gonna be a junior, but it it's a lot. There's and there's so much more, and then they have to start preparing for ACTs and then submissions into college. And so, you know, how do we make sure that that is a little more balanced and that they don't feel like their full identity is wrapped up in their sport? And and that's hard to do when they start playing at such a young age. You know, if they're if they're playing year-round at eight years old, it's gonna be really hard for them not to identify with that one sport.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Yeah, yeah, and they're identify their self-worth, link that to their performance. And um you brought up some that you offer some habits that folks that kids could start to take on um and better their mental performance and mental health uh through new. I was curious what that looks like and uh what sort of tools or habits that you offer them.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

Yeah. Well, we just did an update of the app, and it's interesting because I really simplified. Um I had before I had stories from different athletes and coaches, and we'll still we'll start adding those back on there. And then we had a list of routines, and then I mean it was it was a lot. There's check-ins, there was, you know, journal, and and I started to realize that athletes were more of like, okay, what do I do? And and I said I simplified. I was like, let's start with this check-in and let's build from there. And in some ways, that was a hard decision to make because you feel like you're taking a step back or two. But sometimes you have to do that, right? Uh, even if you think of a quarterback, right? Like they have to slow down sometimes to make the right decision on the field. And that's what I started to understand that we need to do was have this a space where athletes can check in, coaches can see. Then next step is we're going to re-engage the routines, the habits. And so that will look like meditation, you know, encouraging self-talk, breathing exercises. Um, it could even be making sure you get enough water every day. I mean, in Texas, these kids that play outside sports in a hundred-degree well, if they're not hydrated, you know, sleep. So it's it's not meant that they need to pick all of these habits and start incorporating all of them right away. It's meant to say, let's start with one. And and then for your your coach, they can pick one thing that they want the team to work on. And and to really start taking this as a, you know, you don't try to, you know, boil the ocean. You don't, you know, you don't try and tackle everything at once. So we're just like saying, let's let's skip to one, like one rock right now. Let's just start one and then let's get that right, and then let's build on that. And and say that's that's what I've that's what I've done. But those were those are what the habits and those routines will look like here in the next couple of months.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

That's great. I um I often feel as though the adults in the room need the some support or need to be educated and how to support. And um I feel like I can see how coaches, when you bring up things like, you know, eat well before the night before, just eat health, if start to work on eating healthier, healthier or sleep better. I can see coaches like saying that in the past a little bit, um, before like games or matches, but like having something tangible to look at and check off sounds incredible. Um and but is there any resources for um like the uh besides the coaches, like anything that like a parent could also interact with? Or are they could they just be in there kind of monitoring the kids or do the kids just kind of like to be independent from yeah?

SPEAKER_02 32:09

I don't, you know, I uh when the coaches check in, when they see the kids check in and see the emoji emoji scale, the coaches see a numerical scale. They can't see their prompts or their journals. That is private. And so what what we will add on for parents um here, I'd say probably in six months, is a separate space for parents, and that'll be resources in their community to find either work with the sports psychologist, mental performance expert, like we'll start building those resources for them to tap into. And then one of the things we do for parents is we host these events, and that's actually for parents, coaches, and athletes. And so we bring on these incredible um these panelists. Uh, they can be Olympians, college coaches, pro players, sport psychologists, and it really has been so helpful. We've done one and we're about to do two more for parents to get an insight, for everyone to get an insight where everyone is, for coaches to understand parents, for parents to understand coaches, for athletes to understand. And so we are working towards building out stuff for parents. Right now, it's just in Austin. Um, that doesn't mean we can't travel or whatever, but yeah, we it's do it's doing it right here. So then when we start to really break out, then we'll have everything. Um, we'll have the right resources for parents as well.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

Excellent. Do you often find that it's the parents that are the challenge in all of this uh this equation?

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Because it's uh really no par parents. I mean, a lot of parents are like, what do we do? I I I most of the parents anyway that I speak to, their intention was not to set out. It's kind of like me. That's why I started all this. It was not to set out for our kids to be in year-round sports to pay, you know, to to get them. It all seems like it just is like before you're you know it, you're in this, you know, this spin. It's like you're on this hamster wheel, and then you're like, wait, what are we doing? And you're not you're not expecting it. And so there might be parents with their families where their goal is, yes, we're gonna, you're gonna play at a college level and the kids want to, and this is what we're gonna do to get there.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Um this is great to hear that parents are on board with mental performance and mental health because I would think based on some of my experiences as a coach, kids are great. Kids are responsive often, and then it's the parents are in the picture, and it's like they uh seem to have a totally different idea of what's going on sometimes. But it sounds like parents have been receptive to this, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

Yeah, the parents, you know, it might be that the parents that I'm interacting with and the coaches that I'm interacting with are really the ones that are trying to seek help. And, you know, I can't speak for all parents. Um and I know that there's definit definitely different parenting styles out there. So, you know, you you have everything across the board. So I'm sure there's parents um that may not be their number one number one priority, and it might be a priority for the wrong reasons. They might say, Well, I want to make sure they're on top of their middle game so they perform better. And um, but that's not that's not why we're doing this. So yeah, yeah. And same for coaches, you know, you're gonna have all different styles and different types of of coaches. And so um, I do feel fortunate though that I'm connected with people who are wanting to see what we can do.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

Wonderful. Um, if a child is in uh dire need of like help, um is there avenues on the app to point them to a professional? Like if it's more of a mental health crisis.

SPEAKER_02 36:34

Well, we're not we're our app is only meant to be for mental performance. Um, we will have resources if a player is scoring in low that we suggest that, hey, there's a 988 number. 988 is hands down. If anyone's in crisis, that's um that's a place where people can go. Uh, if it's more of like people are noticing difference, parents are noticing a difference, or coaches and a player and noticing more sadness or less desire to go and do things, you know, um that's something that we're gonna work towards is having those resources on the app for parents, like I mentioned earlier. But but yeah, right right now our our goal is to build up their mental performance.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

Okay. And if someone's listening and they want to implement this in their school or on their team, how uh how would they go about finding you? Or do you work outside of Austin?

SPEAKER_02 37:36

Oh yeah, I I have. I've uh I've worked in uh yeah, New Jersey and and a few other states. So they can email me anytime. It's Julie at get neui. Um actually, I'm sorry, let me it's it let me do it. It's Julie at newsport. Uh we are about to um do a whole makeover on our website to match the new the app and the updates we've made. So you can go on our website, um, but I would suggest giving it a couple of weeks uh and then we'll have other uh resources. But right now, email me. Um I'm always available and always wanting to connect.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Wonderful. It and if folks do want to support in other ways, like do you is this pretty much only you? Or you know, it sounds like you have a lot of people on board who are contributing to the app itself. But if somebody does want to maybe run an idea about by you or try to help in any way they could by contributing to the app or anything, would they again reach out to you or are you looking for uh posts to contribute?

SPEAKER_02 38:51

Oh, absolutely. Um, you know, right now we have parent ambassadors and athlete ambassadors. We are um working towards making updates to the app every week. Um we also uh you know raising money. Um there's just there's a lot of things, uh, a lot of different areas. So I'm yeah, I'm the number one, like I'm the person that you reach out to right now. Um, but we do have different people on our team like Brendan Hansen. He's um he's coming in and and working with us. And so uh yeah, and and if they are looking for someone like Brendan or or sports psychologists that's on our team, like I mentioned earlier, then I'll I'll connect them, no problem.

SPEAKER_01 39:39

Excellent. Well, I it's really cool this this idea. I wish, you know, I wish I had this when I was uh an athlete. Um it's incredible. I bet, I bet. And it's so sweet to hear and heartening to hear that people are are uh receiving it so well and and wanting to uh help the welfare of the the young athletes. And um yeah, is there anything else that you want to put out there? Or you know I just yeah, if if a parent feels like lost in this, what could be a very challenging uh struggle to do the right thing for your kid in this world of sport? And also, you know, that relationship between parent and child could be strained, I feel, because of this. You know, where should they start? And um, and yeah, if there's anything, anything else you want to point people towards or anything else you want to say?

SPEAKER_02 40:40

Um Yeah. Um, yeah, once again, I'm I'm really connected uh with Swartz psychologists and mental performance experts. And if we if they're not in Texas, the people I'm connected with, I know people outside of the state of Texas. Um, they have always, if I've ever asked them, hey, are you do you know anyone in this state or do you have license in this state? They they always know. So I I can always be a resource. Um, you know, there's Swartz, um, I think sportspsychology.com. Um, there are a lot of companies and nonprofits working towards supporting our youth sports and parents. So I'd also look in your city or your state to see. Um, you know, we have so much at our fingertips right now that we can resort, research. And so, yeah, I just always recommend, you know, I I love that I'm just a small piece of this puzzle. There are a lot of people out there trying to do really good work in this space. Um, and so I'm I'm actually always happy to connect to those other resources too. It doesn't need to just be noise sport. Um, we're all working towards making sure that our kids are um, you know, safe and seen and heard. And and then also, like you said, being able to find ways to support ourselves as parents and coaches feel supported. It's a you know, it's it it's it's it's a unit. It's you know, it's it's one. And um we got to all support each other.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

Yeah, I feel like it's more complicated now with money involved, and um, it's only gonna get more complicated social media and um I think maybe having a third thing for parent, the parent, athlete, coach, but also one thing to look at that says, hey, it's not just me, the parent or coach, suggesting this. Let's see what the app says. I mean, sometimes it's nice having like a third party to weigh in, um, like a mental health professional, to be like, hey, here's what's going on in our relationship, but what do you what say you?

SPEAKER_02 42:57

You know, 100%. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. It always helps, you know, even in our own house, like I work on this every day. My kids have, you know, know this about me. They've seen me work as a life coach, they see me create this business. I talk to them about mindset all the time, probably too much. You know, and everyone's asked me, oh, are they using this? Are they doing this every day? But you have to have a healthy, you know, I have to take a step back and also let them be kids and and fumble. So, yes, they use the tools, yes, they know about it, but I'm also not, you know, making sure that I get them outside resources, you know, as well. And because there's a difference between a parent child relationship and and to be able to surround our kids with mentors and other people that really care about them that can offer them, you know, advice when they're not gonna listen to you because they're not.

SPEAKER_00 43:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

They will some they will sometimes, and I will say there are times my kids definitely listen to me, and I feel grateful for that. And there are times like any other parent, I get kind of the like oh, you know, the and that's and that's a part of it. And and I love that I'm surrounded by people who love my kids or resources that I have. I can say, hey, we're in a moment right now. Can one of my kids come see you? It might need to be one or two times, or it might need to be, you know, a few months. You just you don't know. And so I really think just so you know, just we need to bring in community more so than ever right now.

SPEAKER_01 44:40

Yeah, it makes me want to go back to try and coach more. I uh I know if you see many men involved. I always hear folks say, you should go teach or you should go coach. You a lot are a lot of guys on on board. Is there a lot of male um coaches in on your radar? I hope.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Oh, yeah. The very first person that ever approached me about this was a male coach at a collegiate level four years ago. Um I mean, uh I had a conversation with the football coach that they're implementing this in their program, and he's also the athletic director. And you know, he's in his he's in his 50s. And sometimes you think it might be hard to get a buy-in from kind of that old school way of thinking. But like I said, I think people are becoming concerned enough where they realize something needs to be done.

SPEAKER_01 45:31

Yeah, that's it's wonderful to hear that um you're making such a huge impact. Uh, you were were you an athlete too growing up?

SPEAKER_02 45:39

You know, I was it's interesting. I'm like almost 5'10. I love gymnastics. I mean, I gymnastics from the moment I was like three years old. That's all I wanted to do. And then I got too tall tall to be a gymnast. So then I did tumbling. And then um, and then they had like this first competitive cheer. I mean, this was like so long ago. This is like 1993, and our um where I grew up, and so I did some competitive cheer and then swam. But yeah, I was really, I was not um and you know, dancers and even um these high school bands, you know, I really want to say this is more for competitors because I think sometimes we think of athletes as somebody like with a ball or a certain, you know, something other than maybe people who cheer or dance or unbanned. And it's it's not these people, everyone of a competitor mindset, they work hard diligently every single day to to be really um, you know, uh at the top of their craft and what they're doing. And so, so yeah, like going back to was I an athlete, yes, it just was never considered especially back then. I don't think it would be considered an athlete. But now I look back at that and I'm like, yes, it was.

SPEAKER_01 47:01

For sure. Yeah. Yeah. The uh wrestling team and uh gymnasts like were always like close for some reason in college. I think we both felt like we were the uh athletes that were kind of pushed aside but worked their tails off so much.

SPEAKER_02 47:16

But yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 47:20

Yeah, so this is so sweet. I I didn't know that something like this existed, and so it's very cool to bring this forward for folks and and to um get that out there. Um wonderful work you're doing. I'm so happy that uh we made this happen. Sorry for the technical difficulties there.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

All good, all good.

SPEAKER_01 47:42

We're good. But um, but yeah, thank you so much, Julie. Do you have anything else you want to say before I let you go?

SPEAKER_02 47:48

No, that's it. Thank you so much for having me on.

SPEAKER_01 47:51

It's my pleasure. All right, take care.

SPEAKER_02 47:54

Okay, all right, YouTube. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

Thanks for tuning in. If you found my conversation with Julie to be informative, if it got you thinking and inspired, please share the podcast with the friend, like and subscribe. You can find me on all social media platforms, especially Instagram at Yoga with Jake, and at my website, yoga withjake.com. Until next time, take care of that.