In this episode, James Blasco sits down with Marabeth Hardwick of D1 Training for a powerful conversation about what it truly takes to develop athletes — not just physically, but mentally. Together, they explore the role of mental toughness in sports and life, why commitment matters more than talent, and how young athletes can build the habits that lead to long-term success.

Marabeth shares insights from her work inside D1, breaking down the connection between preparation and performance, the mindset required to reach your goals, and the often-overlooked role parents play in shaping their child’s athletic journey. From youth development to elite level expectations, this episode delivers practical wisdom for athletes, parents, and anyone striving to grow stronger from the inside out.

Key Topics:

Mental toughness and the 4 C's (Control, Commitment, Challenge, Confidence)

Customized training programs for all ages from 7 to 70

The importance of mental and physical preparation in sports

Building confidence through consistent effort and mindset

The role of parents and coaches in athlete development

Sound Bites:

"Learn from failure, don't fear it."

"Confidence comes from doing the work."

"Control what you let into your mind."

About the Guest:

Marabeth Hardwick is one of the owners of D1 Training Port Orange and D1 Training DeLand here in Volusia County. Marabeth is originally from East Tennessee and moved to Florida in 2018. She grew up in athletics and fell in love with track and field. She had the opportunity to compete at the Division 1 level for East Tennessee State University. After moving to Florida and starting her career in health care administration, she decided to return to the athletics industry with D1 Training. She became a D1 franchisee with her father-in-law, Gordon, and now owns 7 territories together. They love the D1 mission and are excited to expand in the coming years, creating lasting impact in families and communities.

About the Host:

James Blasco is a CTA Certified Coach, and a Certified Functional Mental Toughness and Resilience coach, and a Certified Neuroscience Coach based in Ormond Beach, Florida, with a rich background in sales, media, and entrepreneurship. Throughout his career, James has excelled in sales and sales coaching for some of the largest media companies, owned three successful businesses, and worked in media relations in the NFL. His diverse experiences have equipped him with a deep understanding of leadership, communication, and the drive needed to achieve success. James is also trained specifically to coach to all aspects of mental toughness and resilience. Having received coaching and mentoring throughout his personal and professional life, James recognizes the profound impact of genuine, constructive, and meaningful guidance. He understands the passion required to pursue a goal, as well as the challenges of doubt, fear, and the need for perseverance. James’s coaching philosophy is rooted in compassion and results, focusing on helping clients uncover their goals, develop actionable plans, and persist through obstacles.

Resources:

Website: www.chargeforwardcoaching.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chargeforwardcoaching/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChargeForwardCoaching/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chargeforwardcoaching

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChargeForwardCoaching

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/ChargeForwardCoaching

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ChargeForwardCoaching

D1 Training Port Orange - https://www.d1training.com/facility/port-orange

D1 Training Deland - https://www.d1training.com/facility/deland

Marabeth Hardwick Email: marabeth.hardwick@d1training.com

Guest Social Links:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/d1portorange

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/d1portorange

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/d1deland

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/d1deland

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Charge Forward Coaching Podcast. I'm your host, James Blasco Thanks for tuning in. Well, today we're going to talk about mental toughness, of course, but we're also going to talk about the flip side of preparing mentally for the sport you love or the competition you're about to go into. We're going to talk about the physical side as well, how you prepare, how you train, how you get mind and body ready at the same time. And to help us do that,

We have Marabeth Hardwick, who is the owner of D1 Training down here in Florida, and also a Division I NCAA athlete, so she knows what she's talking about. So I'd to welcome Maribeth to the program.

Thank you, James. Thank you so much for having me. And thanks for saying that I'm still a D1 athlete. I'm definitely a pre-entest athlete, but you know, ⁓ it's just, time flies, right? So like when you were saying that, I was like, wow, I did used to be pretty fast a long, long time ago, but thanks so much for having me.

Yeah,

absolutely. And we'll touch on your career here in a little bit. And I'm far removed from a D1 athlete at this point. So no worries there.

So yeah, why don't you give us a little bit of your background and how you fell in love with athletics.

Yeah, so my background in athletics was with track and field. I mean, I grew up playing a few different sports like basketball and stuff like that. But when I was 14, I really fell in love with track. So ever since then, that's been my main focus. And I competed at a pretty high level in high school. I made it to the state meet three out of my four years in high school. And then I got recruited to go to East Tennessee State University, which is where I continued my track career.

and I ran all four years there at the Division I level, which is a really, really cool experience. And so that's kind of my background with athletics. So track and field, ⁓ mainly a focus in sprints and hurdles, and then I did a little bit of the multi-athlete stuff too.

Yeah, that's so impressive. And so you moved on from college athletics and you decided to start your career. I know you started in healthcare, but then you got involved with D1 training. Tell us what that's about in terms of how you got involved with D1 and what D1 is.

Yeah, you know, so after college, like you said, I started my career at a big healthcare organization down here, Advent Health. And to be honest, I kind of needed a break from athletics. I just, you know, I'd been doing it for so long. And my father-in-law approached me one day and was like, hey, did you know that D1 training is franchising now? And I had no idea. It's something that he had been wanting to get involved with. And, ⁓ you know, it had been probably about

five or six years after I'd graduated. And I was really kind of missing being around athletics and just being around, you know, that the atmosphere and just, ⁓ I don't know, all sports in general, right? And so when he approached me about it, I was like, you know, that's interesting because so D1 training started around like 20-ish years ago and it started in East Tennessee, which is where I grew up. So I'm very familiar with D1. You know, I had friends that trained there.

Growing up so wasn't a new concept to us by any means but the fact that they were franchising was really cool Which means that other people you know can now be a part of that business and impact athletes and so When he approached me and said hey, do you want to do this together? I was like, I don't know like I'm really happy where I'm at, know I had a really good like corporate job really really great team and stuff But I still feel like something was missing and I truly believe that it was athletics and athlete development and stuff like that and so

you know, long story short, decided to jump on on board with D1 about three, three, almost probably almost four years ago now. And so we decided to bring it to Volusia County, which a lot of people in Florida, again, it's recently a franchise. So a lot of people down in Florida don't even know what D1 is. And so that was really cool to be able to bring it here, which is now our community. Cause like I said, I, I was originally from East Tennessee and he had

for sure and I wish D1 was around when I was in high school and preparing for my athletic career in football because I could have used it. Back then you really didn't work out that much really and have a routine. It was something you had to figure out on your own. So to that point for people who aren't familiar with D1 and what you offer, why you go through the entire scope of what you offer and who you offer it to.

you

Yeah.

Thank

Yeah, I I love that you said that because there's so many people, I don't know, anywhere from late 20s to 60s, 70s, say I wish I had that when I was a youth athlete because to your point, strength and conditioning or overall athleticism has not really ever been a focus. And so that was, think, one of the main drivers for my father-in-law too, was like, you know, he grew up in Delannes, so he was like, man, if I had this at Delannes High when I was playing football, I really wish I had this growing up.

Yeah, I mean, so we live in a world right now, right? Where it's a lot of competition. It's we want to play as many games as we can. We want, know, a you teams are there playing these kids every single weekend. And it's like, when are we having time to practice or actually develop our bodies to get to the next level? So that's where D1 comes in. So we are an athletic training facility where we really focus on strength, conditioning, speed, development, mobility, balance, all that good stuff. And so

I mean, our overall mission is that we are the place for the athlete. And so for an athlete, an athlete to us is anyone with a goal that just wants to improve. So ⁓ I know a lot of times it's like, you know, your business might not be for everyone, but ours kind of is a little bit, you know, we train seven year olds that start, they've never even done a, they've never ran before. You know what I mean? Like we, the range goes from seven to we have some

some members, some adult members that are in their seventies, right? So really to us, it's anyone that has a goal and they want to move their body in an athletic way. That's what we do and that's who we serve. we do have some, you know, some areas where we can get specific with sports training on the one-on-one side. So if an athlete comes to us, a youth athlete comes to us and they want to get better at ⁓ their specific.

their specific position, then of course we can work some of that into their training, but the bulk of what we do is strength conditioning and overall athleticism.

Yeah, that's fantastic. And I think you said something that really sticks out to me. You're working with a really broad range demographically of athletes from seven years old to 70 years old. And I'm sure there's a lot involved with that. How do you approach the different athletes in terms of I know you have certain structure and routine to what you do, but how do you approach each athlete separately and customize a program for them?

Yeah, so that's a great question. So we have different age groups. So we have our rookies and those are our ages are seven to 11. That age group, we really work on the just the foundation for all athleticism where we focus on a lot of ⁓ running and just making sure they're doing movements correctly. And then our developmental age group, that would be like our middle school age group. So we're looking at the 12 to 14 age range. That's where we really start to introduce a little bit more speed and power as well as get them into the weight room where they're

learning age appropriate weightlifting. We're not just gonna throw a bunch of weight on the bar and tell them to do it incorrectly. Everything has to start in a safe environment, and so that's with that age group. And then we level up to our prep, which is our high school age group. It's our 15 to 18 range, so we're really emphasizing speed, power, and really high athletic movements here to really get them for the next level, because a lot of them...

You know, they have big goals. They want to go to college or they want to go into the army. They want to go to ROTC, whatever that may be. And then lastly, we have our adult group, which is, you know, anyone over 18. Like I mentioned, we have, you know, athletes that are in their sixties or seventies. And I think a lot of times when I explain this, people just assume like you have a six year old working out with a 70 year old, but that's not true. You know, we have different classes for those age groups to where they all work, ⁓ you know, separately within their perspective age group.

And then of course we have our one-on-one training and then our small group training and our team training.

Yeah, it sounds like you all bases covered, which clearly you need to with that, you know, wide of a spectrum of individuals you work with. So I love to talk about the mental side of sports and outside of sports. I think it goes hand in hand. Your mind and your body are together all the time. So you have to have both prepared. So let's dive in a little bit to mental toughness. Now I focus on the four C's of mental toughness, control, commitment.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

challenge and confidence. They each play a major role in mindset, especially a champion mindset. So let's start with talking about young athletes in particular and helping them understand how to stay emotionally balanced because they're going to be challenged, whether it's through fatigue or stress or whatever it might be. But they have to have a mindset that they understand their limits and they understand when they fail, they can

you

learn from that, like how do you coach them through that?

Yeah, I think it's a, it's a perfect balance of ⁓ encouragement and accountability. ⁓ So throughout every workout, it's, you know, it's really, this is a relationship business. You know, our coaches know a lot about our athletes. I could walk up to any of our coaches and say, Hey, tell me about ⁓ so and so, right. And they could tell me probably one actually I'd say probably they definitely could tell me their, their sport, their parents name, their past injuries, their, what they're good at, what they need work on.

And so it's building that relationship and knowing the athlete, you know that's not all athletes can be coached the same. But a lot of times in our group efforts, the standard's the standard and the workout is the workout. But there are some times where you might have to work with that individual athlete to have them improvise, if they're not able to do something correctly yet. Like, hey, Johnny, want you, instead of this, I want you to do this, because we're still working on these movements here. You know what I mean? So it's really just...

Getting to know the athlete and to know how to coach them. But I think overall it's just that fine line of that balance of pushing them and holding them accountable to the goal that either they or their parent have set together. Because when they're that young, a lot of times they might be in there just because their parent wants them to learn teamwork or mental toughness or whatever that may be. so whatever that goal is, we've made an agreement, the athlete and the coach, that we're going to help you get there, whatever.

goal is we're going to help you get there. It's not necessarily going to be easy. So I think it's making sure we're holding them accountable to that goal, but also encouraging them and giving them grace and lifting them up when they need it. And, know, I think with us creating the atmosphere, one of the coolest things I've seen is that it's not just coming from our coaches, it comes from their fellow athletes. So they know what it looks like to be an encouragement, like an encouraging atmosphere. you know, if the kids specifically, we're talking about kids right now, but

If they're doing like a sled push or they're doing something really hard, you know, I could walk in and I hear them cheering for their team or that other athlete. So when you hear a seven year old call out another kid's name and say, come on, you got it. Like that's what we're here to do. So it's encouragement and accountability for me.

Yeah, that's fantastic. And I know with younger athletes, but also for adult athletes, we focus on, you know, preparing physically and preparing mentally. And I remind them that part of the preparing mentally is making sure that you have what's called life control. And that is things in your life are balanced, that you're working out, you're, you're doing that, but you're also, you have recovery, you're eating well, you're hanging out with your family and friends. How do you coach some of that?

with these folks or do you leave it to them to learn that?

No, absolutely. We definitely encourage that because ⁓ we have a very transparent, guess, ⁓ blunt way of communicating things because at that, know, once you decide to join our team or our family, you know, we're going to again hold you accountable to whatever goal you said. So like if you were to come in and you were to say, I want to get here in the next 90 days and you told me you were going to come work out on Monday and you didn't show up, the coach is probably going to call you and say, Hey,

Like you said, you were going to be here. Like what's going on, you know? And sometimes that's uncomfortable, but when it comes to our adults, everybody needs an accountability buddy. Like it just helps. And so that that's kind of where our coaches feel that void. And again, once they have gotten, you know, comfortable in that atmosphere, then they build an accountability buddy with maybe the person next to them at the weight rack that now they're texting and they're saying, Hey, are you coming tomorrow? Right. And it builds that accountability. But, ⁓

To answer your question, I think what's important is we have character words on our walls. And I want to spend time on this here in a minute, but it's kind of the foundation of kind of who we are. And so at the end of every workout, kids, adults, youth team, whatever, we have an athlete that really shine during that workout. They pick a word on the wall, we break it down to that word. Several of our coaches will take a moment and kind of tap into that word and what that means. So let's say the word's discipline.

Right? And our coach might say discipline, like that's when you, you know, you leave the gym, great, you did good, but what are you going to do outside of the gym to get you to that goal? Are you going to eat correctly? Are you going to get enough sleep? Because to your point, as an adult, there's so many different things that go into you actually reaching your goal. It's managing stress. It's all these things, right? And it's just having the mental toughness to get through every single day and to win each day.

Yeah, that's a great segue because I wanted to talk about commitment and that involves setting your goals but then finding a way to stick to them. I think that's the hardest part when people don't achieve things they want to achieve. It's usually because they stop at some point when it gets difficult. So number one, how do you help individuals set goals or at least find out what ⁓ they want as goals? And then how do you help them continue on the path when things get difficult?

Ahem.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so every time that we have someone new coming to the gym or they're interested in being a part of it and somehow everyone starts the same way. We do what we call an assessment. So we sit there with them for 30 plus minutes and we really dive into like, why are you here? You know, what interested you about us and what's your goal and how can we help you? And so we get really up close and personal during those conversations with both adults and youth and you know,

⁓ Sometimes there's tears in those conversations. mean, it's, I'm going through a divorce and I can't handle the stress or I've been a mom, a single mom with three kids and I haven't kept my weight off in forever, whatever that may be. And so it gets very personal. And I mean, it's not just like, I'm gonna lose weight, right? We don't take that answer. We're like, but why? Like, how are you feeling? And so.

We get all the details that we need and we kind of lay out a plan. We sit next to that person and we show them what it's going to take to get there and how long, you know, like, yeah, you might make some progress in the next few weeks, but we're in this for the long game. We're looking to change your lifestyle. We're looking for you to be healthier, happier. And so we really just show them what that timeline and what that picture would be and explain to them, you know, what type of value they're going to get while they're training a D1. And, and then, you know, out of that,

Out of that conversation, our management team shares that with the coaches so the coaches understand, OK, this is what the athlete's goal is. So once they're handed off to the coach, it's kind of like a transfer of trust. OK, you know, it's they're all yours now, right? So the coach will then be the one that again, if they miss a workout, they need to call him and then he said, hey, what's going on? Are you OK? Or I haven't seen you in a week or so. Is everything OK? Turns out.

maybe they had something come up health-wise or maybe if it's an adult, maybe they have an elderly parent they're having to take care of, whatever that is, I think it's just, it's communication. It's really showing that you care and that you see that, ⁓ you know, they haven't been there in a minute and kind of bringing them back to their goal. Hey, I know it's hard, but this is like the days that it's hard are the ones you have to do it the most, right? Like it's, that's what commitment is through and through.

and one of the things that goes along with what you just said is when we give the assessment, it's called the MTQ plus assessment on mental toughness. And you're not just mentally tougher, mentally sensitive. There's many different factors and variables in place. But when it comes to challenge and challenging situations, oftentimes we'll see folks that have higher what we call risk orientation. So they're willing to take

some chances and do some things, but maybe their learning orientation when they fail from those experiences isn't as strong. So when you see that, when you see that somebody is willing to take chances, but then they don't handle the failure as well, how do you coach them?

Mm.

I'm glad, okay,

I'm glad you brought that up. this is a good, so our workouts can be tough, right? And I mean, if you've not worked out in a few years and you step out there and you really push yourself for about an hour,

You might want to throw up. It might really push you to your limits. So depending on that person, it's our coach's job to understand how long it's been since we've done a really hard workout and say, hey, I want you to push yourself today, but I want you to also take it at your own pace. Don't look at the person next to you. They've been coming here for years, right? But just take it at your own pace.

because sometimes you have someone that comes in, they're determined to your point, take a risk and try really hard. But they might be laying on the ground after, because it's been so hard. the key is for them to not leave and never come back again. Because what that does is it completely depletes your confidence. You get discouraged and you're like, wait, I can't do this. And so it's our coach's job to go up to that person after they saw them struggling and say, hey,

You really push yourself today. You're going to be sore. You're going to not want to come back. I need you to go home and drink some water and I need you to get some good sleep and I need to see you back here tomorrow and just keep showing up. You know, I usually tell people, hey, give it two weeks. Your body's going to be, you know, going through it. Your mind's going to tell you this isn't for me, but give it at least two weeks to just get in a good routine and you're going to be okay. But again, if we're not there to say that to somebody and all you have to do is your

battling yourself and your mind, that's a scary place because to your point, even though they took the leap of faith to get there, what if it was so hard that they decided, no, I can't do this? So that's where we come in and we really try to keep people from giving up on themselves again.

Yeah, that's fantastic because it's such an important part of mental toughness is to understand that you can grow from all those experiences and throwing up. Yes, I've been there and I know we talked about Tim Grover and some other trainers on a phone call and I remember him telling a story about he would always make Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant throw up. They were always throwing up after some of their workouts. So totally understand. He's very tough, very tough. ⁓ So all of this

He's tough, man.

preparing for a sport or competition or just wanting to improve yourself is going to ultimately, hopefully, increase your confidence both on and off the field and off the court. But to become confident, especially in your abilities, you have to prepare, you have to have routines, you have to have that commitment and so forth. How do you talk to athletes about their confidence, about how to

get it, how to maintain it, and how to use it in a constructive way.

Yeah, so I think with confidence, think of just ⁓ having the courage to just show up like that one time, right? Just show up, you know, with your shoulders held back and your head held high, but really it's showing up ⁓ when it's hard, but confidence is knowing that you've done the work to get there. If you have like a...

If you have a big talk or a presentation coming up, right? Like how scared would you be to get up on the stage and you didn't prepare for it at all? You know, like that's not confidence. You're going to be scared. You're going to have anxiety. You're going to be, but you know, when it's time, especially for these youth athletes or even some of our adult athletes, they do like trail runs or, or competitions, whatever that is. It's like, Hey, ⁓ have you done the work to get here? And they're like,

Yeah, okay, well you're ready. like tell your, you you have to, that positive self-talk is really important just to remind yourself, no, I have done the work. I am prepared and I do deserve to be here in this moment and to really just excel at it. Now on the flip side, if you've skipped out on some workouts or you're not getting some sleep, you're not eating, eating, you know, the correct foods, like probably not gonna feel that confidence. But to me, confidence is those little daily deposits of just,

preparing yourself, you know, I think we've all been there in positions where we felt both and it feels a lot better to feel confident and to feel ready knowing that you've done the work. So I think it just comes from showing up every single day. Like the more you show up, the more confident you're going to feel. so confidence is one of our character words that's on our wall. And so ⁓ we do speak a lot of that into all of our athletes, but especially our kids, you know, cause even if they might not show it in that.

⁓ The initial assessment we talked about earlier, the parent might pull us aside and say, they're really lacking confidence. Like when I see them on the field, I can tell they're scared. So we know in the back of our mind when we coach them, we've got to really ⁓ validate them and really coach them up and make them feel ready.

Yeah, and with the Olympics going on, Winter Olympics going on right now, when I'm watching the events and I see the folks that end up being, you know, gold or silver or bronze, I think about, they probably felt so prepared going into that. They've been working on this for years, the day in, the day out, the grind, the failures and learning and all the stuff that comes with it. That's how they earned the medals. It wasn't just in that moment. It was everything that led up to it to build the confidence to accomplish that.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I'm glad you brought the Olympics up. I've been watching, love, I'm sure you do too, especially from doing what you do, just to watch their, their emotions on the camera before or after, just to see all of that finally bubble and then whether they, know, unfortunately, sometimes we can also work hard and we don't get gold, right? So it's like to see both interviews afterwards. It's just, it's crazy to see the level of ⁓ what it took.

get there you know so I'm glad you brought that up I've been really really into the Olympics this week it's been good to watch

It's one of the

things in sports I admire the most are Olympic athletes. It's just an amazing journey for them and it's an honor to watch them. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, and the pressure.

I mean, yeah, especially these single sports. like with track and field with my background, I I think we talked about this on our call, you know, in all sports you feel pressure, but at the same time, it's like, if you have an individual event, you have one shot. And if you, can either blow it or you can, you know, win. So it's like, it's crazy amount of pressure that these athletes deal with.

Yeah, the other night we were watching my wife and I were talking exactly about that. We were like, wow, they, they work so long and they get to this one moment to achieve or not achieve, you know, they're probably their biggest goal and it happens or doesn't. And I think for some of them, it doesn't happen. Obviously they're disappointed, but for those who have prepared physically and mentally, ⁓ they understand Dan Jensen, you know, stands out to me years ago, the

speed skater and he was supposed to win everything and after two or three Olympics he didn't win anything and it was his very last race in a thousand meters. The race he didn't even like to race. He goes and breaks the world record and wins the gold. So those stories are fascinating to me and I think mindset is a huge part of that.

Oh it is, absolutely. So like what this stuff that you do with mental toughness and just working with athletes in their mindset, like you don't get to that level without having training in that. And you know, not everybody has access to someone like you or maybe a coach. Maybe they don't know that they need it until all of sudden they're like, whoa, like this doesn't feel good and I need help here. so, to me it's more than half of the battle, right? You've seen it.

you know, multiple times where you can see someone with all the talent and all the work and then they get to that one moment and they don't know how to conquer their own mind and their own thoughts. They don't know how to use it to their advantage and it's sad to watch but on the flip side, it's cool to see people conquer and push through it.

Absolutely. If they can overcome that experience or that time that, you know, they just kind of struggled and blew it, then they oftentimes come back as big winners, not just in their sport, but in life. You brought up parents ⁓ earlier. How do you work with parents in terms of helping their athletes stay on track physically, but also mentally?

Yeah.

Thank

Yeah, so I want to be careful here because I'm not a parent yet. I want in no means am I ever giving parenting advice because I'm just there's a reason ⁓ why I haven't become one yet. So ⁓ but what I can do is I can relate to my experience with how my parents were with me and also to how I felt as a student athlete and ⁓

Yeah, totally understand, totally understand.

Again, I know we keep going back to this is that communication and that accountability with the, know, sometimes it might be uncomfortable, right? If you're a parent and you're sitting there at the viewing bar and you're watching your kids struggle or maybe not do something as good. But you got to trust us or maybe even their coaches to get them to that point. As long as we're all communicating, we're all on the same page of what's needed. You know, it might be uncomfortable to see them push through that, but just kind of waiting and

being patient and watch the athlete kind of like, you know, let's just sit back and see how they handle this pressure and then let's assess it with them and then see, you know, what we can improve on. So with D1, we're not, they obviously aren't competing unless we're doing like a testing week or just like a fun competition. We don't, we'll go watch them at their games and stuff, but we don't actually train them at their competitions, right? Like for us, it's all of that development piece. So that's where we really work on.

the little areas of those little deposits that create that confidence. So it's, you know, when you hear a kid say, I can't do it or I can't do, or you can tell they have more in the tank and they're not doing it. That's our job to really just keep pushing them. But I think the balance between us and the parent is just transparency and communication and saying, hey, we think that they can do more or

we think there may be a little overworked, right? That can be an uncomfortable conversation for us sometimes, but if we're talking about an overall long-term goal and getting the athlete there, whatever's best for the athlete is our priority. And sometimes that could mean having an uncomfortable conversation with a parent. And you know, sometimes that could be with behavior, you know? Like what if there's a kid in the class that's maybe they're doing really good, but they're telling the kid next to them, like, oh, you're...

You can't do that. You know, we're going to address that after the class and we're going to say, hey, we can't talk to our teammates that way. You know, we're here to be encouraging. So again, I think it's just communication with the parent and we're just here to make athletes better. one area that I think of too is recruitment.

So like I know one of your first areas is control. So when we talk about an older athlete, like a prep athlete between the ages of 15 and 18, let's say they're trying to get recruited and they're really focusing on skill and talent. But you know, a lot of these really good coaches are these really good programs that are trying to build culture and they're trying to build winning teams. They're gonna stay after your competition. They're gonna watch the way that

these athletes talk to their parent. They're gonna watch the way that they interact with their coach and their athletes. And so we preach a lot of that too. A D1 is it's not all about that skill. So to maintain your composure and to control your emotions throughout your entire ⁓ competition is really important from a recruitment standpoint.

that's an outstanding point, especially in this day and age when getting recruited could mean a lot of money potentially for these young athletes. Whether you think that's good or bad, that's reality. it's a huge deal. So just a couple more questions before we wrap up. This is always like the toughest question. I'll put you on the spot here. So if you're talking to an athlete, you can only tell them one or two things before they dive into.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

⁓

trying to build themselves up physically, mentally to achieve whatever goals it is they want to achieve. What is the one or two things you would say you have to do these two things?

Number one is to just do hard stuff. Do the hard things. Learn to love it. It's not going anywhere. ⁓ Whether that's in practice or competition or as an adult in your job or your marriage or your relationship with your family, whatever that is, learn to lean into hard stuff. When we shy away from it, that's when we lose that confidence and that's when we ⁓

That's when we really just like don't show up for ourselves. So I think that's the biggest thing is just do hard things, lean into them as hard as you can. ⁓ Cause I've, that's a big one for me. ⁓ I think the second one is to take accountability for the good things and the bad things. That would be my other one is, Hey, you know, you can't blame

people for your wins or your losses, right? So like if I'm doing really good, I can't be like, man, I owe all this to this person. Well, no, you don't. You did the work and you're the one who decided to show up. Or on the flip side, if you don't reach your goal, you have some internal, you have, you gotta look at yourself in the mirror, you know? And the sooner you do that and you look, you know, at yourself versus trying to find someone to blame, the easier it is to move forward and to really just finally, you know.

finally achieve your goal. So I would say do hard things and learn how to keep yourself accountable.

Okay, well you get an A++ because I would agree those two things are easily in adopt two or three things you should be doing. If you can only tell them a couple things.

Hahaha

You know what?

I do have one more. I'm sorry. I just thought about this. Pay attention to what you're allowing in your head. You know, are what you're around and I wish that I had learned this a little bit younger and it's just what podcast are you listening to? What are you looking at on your phone? What are you reading? Who are you around? Because that makes a very, very big difference.

You know, like you you've heard the phrase of like, you're the average of the five people you're around. Like it's very true. So, ⁓ if you're wanting to be a winner, you can't hang out with losers. I'm sorry. Like you can be friends with losers, but you can't learn, you know. So those would be my top three things is, ⁓ again, to recap. So do hard things, hold yourself accountable, and then ⁓ pay attention to what you're letting in your.

in your world, your mind, in your system.

Yeah, that's one of the things I love to talk about is the self-talk, the inner dialogue, the programming or reprogramming, because we all have some beliefs in our head that really we didn't put there. right. Came from other sources, but it's there. And it makes us do things that maybe we don't want to do. And you could get that information from all kinds of places. So you have to be very careful. And then when it is in your head, you have to know how to change it.

limiting.

It's, it's, whatever is in there, you have to figure out what to do with it. Are you going to let it dictate, you know, your, actions or not?

Yeah, we'll have another discussion, because I'll definitely have you back on the podcast, because there's so many more things I wanna dive into with you, and I think you're the perfect person to do that. In the meantime, how can people get in touch with you, D1 training, what's the easiest way to do that?

Awesome.

Yeah, so we own D1 Port Orange. So we're located on the corner of Nova and Dunlion next to Peach Valley Cafe. You can find us on social media, Instagram, Facebook at D1 Port Orange. And then we also own D1 Trading Deland. So that is on Woodland next to the Nissan dealership and also can find us on social media at D1 Deland, ⁓ Instagram and Facebook. For me personally, you could reach me at my email. It's Maribeth.

marabeth.hardwick, H-A-R-D-W-I-C-K, at D1 Training, whether it's a parent or anyone that wants to partner or whatever.

Yeah, I would say if you're looking for a community and you're looking for somewhere to just get better and to be loved on every day and to be pushed more importantly every day, come check us out. We have a lot of fun. We work hard, but again, we love to have a good time at both facilities. So I would love to welcome anybody that wants to come check us out. But I really appreciate you having me on today, James.

Yeah, no, thank you for carving out the time and sharing your expertise and experiences. And for the rest of you out there, don't forget to like and share and subscribe and all that good stuff. You can always go to chargeforwardcoaching.com, learn a little bit more about mental toughness, about me. You could call me or email me. We could do a free discovery call. I can learn more about your goals, what you're trying to achieve, and if mental toughness coaching could help you do that. But in the meantime, just keep charging forward.

course.