Here’s exactly what I did with 15 minutes a week to teach sport psych skills to a D1 football program

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It’s hard to know where to begin if you want to implement mental skills training - whether you’re a coach, practitioner, executive, or athlete. There’s a host of skills to choose from and good work depends on the preferences of the coach.

It had been over 9 months since I’d be actively working on mental skills in a team setting. But this September, I got the opportunity to consult with a Division I, Power 4 football program.

The objective was simple: to get 109 players exposed to the mental game and how it could help them practice and perform better.

Here’s a look at the programming I did and the rationale behind it.

Program Structure

I was brought into consult about 3 weeks into the season - a less-than-ideal time to begin teaching these skills. I also had some planned travel that took me out of the rhythm for another week. This funky start meant that I didn’t get to do the training quite how I would like.

I believe in periodizing mental training just like physical training. The goal should be to develop the skills in the off-season and to use in-season training to maintain the skills or address specific challenges. In this case, I had to combine tackling the weekly challenges of a season with the education that would normally come with spring football.

Each week, I had an education session (15 minutes maximum) and a visualization I led. I modeled my sessions after the messaging from the coaches, though I would put my own spin on it to introduce the skills in a way that I felt would resonate.

With this context, we can turn to the program itself.

Week 1: Intro + Dealing with Mistakes

My objective with the first session was to establish my credibility and to introduce a release-reset-refocus routine, a core skill, and a theme from coaches that week.

When I teach this routine, I focus on:

• Release as a physical action players do to let go of the mistake consciously

• Reset as a centering breath to self-regulate and slow down

• Refocus as a focal cue (with “what’s important now” or WIN as the guide) to redirect attention.

I then anchor the players on 3 key phases associated with the routine:

1. Accept the mistake that has happened.

2. Return to the present, where performance happens.

3. Direct your attention to what you can control to instill confidence again.

This served as the baseline skill for the year. If I were starting with time before the season, I likely would’ve started with nervous system regulation, then moved to attention, and then to cognitive strategies like this.

But, to get buy-in from the coaching staff and to teach something tactical quickly, I chose this as my starting point.

Week 2: Stress-is-enhancing Mindset

This has become a staple in my mindset training over the past couple of years, and for good reason. At the end of the presentation, one of the athletes told me, in front of the head coach, that, “This was the best thing I’ve ever heard about stress. That was super helpful.”

That’s the kind of endorsement that builds your credibility with coaches and adds to your social capital for the inevitable future screw-ups or things that fall flat.

If you’re a premium subscriber, you’ll get a copy of this deck separately to use in your own practice or training.

In this session, I introduced the 3 stress mindsets and the 4 framings that make stress helpful. As a call to action, I ask them to practice the most helpful stress with better cognitive reframing and self-talk.

This skill builds on what we did in the first session. If they find themselves off course, the release/reset/refocus allows them to get back on track and use stress more adaptively.

Week 3: Self-Talk + Breathing

This team has a ritual they do to begin their training that involves centering breaths. I thought it would be good to teach the players how to do diaphragmatic breathing to make the centering breaths more effective.

I chose a 5-5 pattern as it’s easy to learn and repeat.

In this week, I also talked about self-talk, and showed this video:

[Insert Self-Talk Video]

My main talking points were:

• We think A LOT of thoughts each day.

• If we can direct them more consciously how we want to, it can make a big difference.

• They don’t all need to be positive. We should try to make most of them helpful, though.

• Notice the content in the self-talk: it’s affirming, confidence boosting, clear, concise… and no bullsh*t.

• Self-talk like this takes practice.

Then I closed by asking the players to pick a phrase they could repeat to themselves during practice to practice better self-talk.

Week 4: Values

As soon as I saw an opening to introduce this concept, I took it.

I would’ve preferred to begin the year here, but thematically values didn’t fit with the coach’s messaging until now. 

In this presentation, I used my go-to intervention for values with athletes.

I asked them to imagine ESPN showing up at the end of the year to do a 30-for-30 on the team. In this documentary, the team will be featured alongside each of the athletes individually.

Then they answer questions like:

• How would you like to be remembered?

• What word or words would describe you at your best this year?

• What would you have stood for?

We build an imagery around the value words and identify 1-2 steps they can take individually to live into their values this week.

End session.

Week 5: Imagery

Though we’d done imagery several times before this presentation, I chose to guide the entire staff (coaches included) through an imagery exercise this week.

My goal was to introduce an image of the strongest, best version of themselves and to get them to experience that.

Whenever possible I try to leverage experiential exercises in groups. The collective experiencing of an activity like this can be powerful, and it allows the performer to feel the benefits directly. It gives a tangible benefit and direct experience they can draw on in the future.

These kinds of activities go a long way toward building buy-in when done well. If people can get a taste of the power of mental training, it stops being so mysterious. It ignites a curiosity about what else is possible with consistent mindset work.

My recommendation would be to develop 1-2 scripts you can come back to time and again, so that you feel confident deliver a positive experience. Use them liberally.

Week 6: Confidence

After a win, the team is feeling good. They established their dominance early and played their game. This was something we could build on and repeat.

I have a handful of interventions I choose from when I’m building confidence.

In this case, I focused on deconstructing the recent success and identifying other past wins.

We started with identifying what they did that allowed them to dominate the last game. I’m listening for feedback on preparation, mindset, game plan, or any other controllable that they name as important.

Once we have that, we can plan for how we do the same thing this week. Different opponents, but the process can stay relatively stable.

To close this session out, I ask the players to complete a confidence resume.

They walk out with a clear plan to win again and a history of wins that they can build on.

Week 7: Legacy

In my last week with the team, I have the opportunity to try and pass on some perspective.

For some players, the post-season would be their last football game ever.

For others, it would be the last game with their teammates. Some of them have been together since high school.

In moments like this, it’s easy to let emotions get the best of us, to miss the opportunity to soak it up, or to lose sight of the goal amidst the pageantry of a bowl game.

Since I won’t get another true presentation with them before the game, I decided to tackle this to put a bow on the season.

I asked the players to talk about how they want to remember this year, how they want to remember playing for each other, and to commit to a single action they’d take to ensure those dreams become reality.

Then, we talk about how to channel the emotions they’re likely to feel on game day. We revisit the self-talk skills they developed earlier and how they can use them to redirect their energy. We talk about the power of playing for each other and staying connected through the inevitable ups and downs of the game. We talk about walking off the field proud of how they closed this part of the season.

Personal Reflections on the Program

I’ll begin this section by sharing that the team was happy with the work and renewed me for the following year. What I share below is my own take on what worked well and what could be improved.

Successes

It was a double-edged sword, but from a coach’s buy-in perspective, tailoring my work to the messaging of the team each week was a success.

The style of teaching - a combination of stories, videos, and experiential exercises - also worked well. I’ve been experimenting with a new method for educating on concepts that follows this pattern (h/t to Olly Richards):

• Directly state the point.

• Tell a story.

• Use a metaphor.

• Summarize

In my case, the story was usually about a pro athlete and the metaphor was the experiential exercise. I did this all in under 10 minutes each week so I had time for questions.

My other personal success was getting more comfortable in a role as a consultant. This was one of the first opportunities I’ve had to be an “outsider”, and it’s very different from how I work when I’m with a team full-time. I gained a great deal of confidence by building good relationships, demonstrating value, and being renewed.

Improvements

In hindsight, I underestimated how disorderly it would feel to adjust my programming each week to fit the messaging of the team.

While it helped get buy-in, it made it pretty difficult to teach the skills in a way that would make sense and follow a meaningful progression. Ultimately, my hunch is this hurt the quality of skill development (even though the coaches were happy). Going in to next year with a full season, this will be a change I make - while I will still map the mental skills to the message, I’ll also have an order I try to follow to make it flow.

I also found that the slightly longer sessions resonated more, likely because I felt less rushed to unpack a concept quickly.

This was corrective

Like most other sport psych practitioners, I’ve had the experience of having to prove my value and earn time.

It was nice to not have to do that this time.

We do our best work when we feel welcomed, valued, and well-integrated. I hope other practitioners get to have experiences like this too.

When you’re ready, there are a couple of ways I can help you:

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