Unstoppable Athlete - Mental Resilience for Teen Athletes
Sep 12, 2026 · 33 min · 10 segments
What if making more mistakes is actually the fastest way to become a better athlete? Fresh off a week of volleyball camp, Sarah and Michelle reflect on what they saw in the gym—from young athletes…
Mm-hmm
And just to see how much they love it.
And volleyball's a hard game.
It is a lot of foundational skills, and they all want to play games, and then they all stand around, and it's like we really have to bring them back and, "Okay, we're gonna develop some basics.
We're gonna try to make it fun." I think using our older athletes really helps because they love them.
Mm-hmm.
But that idea that you can just go step on a court and play volleyball gets shattered so quickly when it's, yeah, you can't get that first ball over the net.
Well, and even when we play versions of games and they're terrible, they still love it, which I always find that weird.
But I do love that Volleyball Canada has start- come out with smash ball and just modified rules and things, so that...
I think that really helps.
Because I, I think about it differently from how I would have when I was coaching grade seven girls, you know, 20 years ago.
And then even how much I've c- how far I've come since I started coaching our girls when they were in grade seven.
So I think I'm just looking at the game differently and allowing them to grow their skills that will lead to them being good volleyball players even though they aren't yet.
But some of it's just simply body awareness.
Yes.
Yeah.
And I think a lot of it, too, that the game is chaos.
I think of how I was coached and the structure and these foundational skills, but they were all taught in isolation.
And now the mindset is way more about just throwing them into as many situations of chaos and seeing what they can figure out, right? And so instead of trying to control everything, it's like, how do you respond to chaos? Which, long term, I mean, really our most adaptable players respond to chaos the best.
Can you hit a ball that's not set perfectly? What are you going to do about it? And so when they start young playing and it's like they become more adaptable and, and they're not waiting for the perfect ball to make something happen.
They're just like, "Well, do something with this."
Totally.
And that, I'm having a total flashback to my high school days, and I'm remembering when we would play 3v3 or play, play Queens Court, and the three of us would dominate.
Like, we would dominate in that chaos game.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm
And just to see how much they love it.
And volleyball's a hard game.
It is a lot of foundational skills, and they all want to play games, and then they all stand around, and it's like we really have to bring them back and, "Okay, we're gonna develop some basics.
We're gonna try to make it fun." I think using our older athletes really helps because they love them.
Mm-hmm.
But that idea that you can just go step on a court and play volleyball gets shattered so quickly when it's, yeah, you can't get that first ball over the net.
Well, and even when we play versions of games and they're terrible, they still love it, which I always find that weird.
But I do love that Volleyball Canada has start- come out with smash ball and just modified rules and things, so that...
I think that really helps.
Because I, I think about it differently from how I would have when I was coaching grade seven girls, you know, 20 years ago.
And then even how much I've c- how far I've come since I started coaching our girls when they were in grade seven.
So I think I'm just looking at the game differently and allowing them to grow their skills that will lead to them being good volleyball players even though they aren't yet.
But some of it's just simply body awareness.
Yes.
Yeah.
And I think a lot of it, too, that the game is chaos.
I think of how I was coached and the structure and these foundational skills, but they were all taught in isolation.
And now the mindset is way more about just throwing them into as many situations of chaos and seeing what they can figure out, right? And so instead of trying to control everything, it's like, how do you respond to chaos? Which, long term, I mean, really our most adaptable players respond to chaos the best.
Can you hit a ball that's not set perfectly? What are you going to do about it? And so when they start young playing and it's like they become more adaptable and, and they're not waiting for the perfect ball to make something happen.
They're just like, "Well, do something with this."
Totally.
And that, I'm having a total flashback to my high school days, and I'm remembering when we would play 3v3 or play, play Queens Court, and the three of us would dominate.
Like, we would dominate in that chaos game.
Yeah.
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