Unstoppable Athlete - Mental Resilience for Teen Athletes
Sep 22, 2026 · 21 min · 9 segments
What should you say on the ride home after your athlete barely played, made a mistake, or had a disappointing game? Maybe nothing. In this episode, Sara and Michelle talk about the complicated role…
But the ride home is the same.
I was watching a video and it was a mom of high level athletes and the daughter was like, hey mom, what would you recommend to somebody on the ride home? Your daughter's just had a bad game.
What should you say? And the mom is like, nothing.
You say nothing, like literally nothing.
You go home, ask them what they want for dinner.
The next day, if they seem like they want to talk about it, sure but you say nothing let them lead that conversation if they want to have it and they might just not want to have it with you right that might be a conversation i need to have with my coach not with my mom
yeah and i'd say if anything start from a place of inquiry
you know how are you feeling about it don't
go to technical pieces or flashing red lights your opinion parents your opinion doesn't matter and even me as a coach who feels got some background here my opinion does not matter because if I come in with the things that I'm observing even and it's contrary to what the coach is saying now we've just put our kid in a pickle right because they're going to be playing we're there supporting but are we supporting or are we evaluating and judging
And
the kid doesn't know what to do.
Do I please my parent or do I please my coach? Or do I maybe just forget all of them and have fun?
Yeah, exactly.
I do a better job of this when my daughter's playing basketball than I do with volleyball, for sure.
After a basketball game, I can easily just sit in the car and talk about whatever.
But yeah, it's not so good at it with when it comes to volleyball.
Yeah.
Well, yes.
And that is hard.
We've often commented that parents making comments to kids when you know the parent doesn't know the game.
I'm like, okay, stop.
You don't know volleyball at all.
But I know in hockey, I've sat around parents... who have played the game a little bit.
And it's always interesting to me.
I find that the parents who played at the highest level say the least.
But the ride home is the same.
I was watching a video and it was a mom of high level athletes and the daughter was like, hey mom, what would you recommend to somebody on the ride home? Your daughter's just had a bad game.
What should you say? And the mom is like, nothing.
You say nothing, like literally nothing.
You go home, ask them what they want for dinner.
The next day, if they seem like they want to talk about it, sure but you say nothing let them lead that conversation if they want to have it and they might just not want to have it with you right that might be a conversation i need to have with my coach not with my mom
yeah and i'd say if anything start from a place of inquiry
you know how are you feeling about it don't
go to technical pieces or flashing red lights your opinion parents your opinion doesn't matter and even me as a coach who feels got some background here my opinion does not matter because if I come in with the things that I'm observing even and it's contrary to what the coach is saying now we've just put our kid in a pickle right because they're going to be playing we're there supporting but are we supporting or are we evaluating and judging
And
the kid doesn't know what to do.
Do I please my parent or do I please my coach? Or do I maybe just forget all of them and have fun?
Yeah, exactly.
I do a better job of this when my daughter's playing basketball than I do with volleyball, for sure.
After a basketball game, I can easily just sit in the car and talk about whatever.
But yeah, it's not so good at it with when it comes to volleyball.
Yeah.
Well, yes.
And that is hard.
We've often commented that parents making comments to kids when you know the parent doesn't know the game.
I'm like, okay, stop.
You don't know volleyball at all.
But I know in hockey, I've sat around parents... who have played the game a little bit.
And it's always interesting to me.
I find that the parents who played at the highest level say the least.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
