This week:

🏆 Two Quotes to Inspire

❓️ Are We Doing Too Much for our Athletes and Kids?

🎙️ Courage leads to Confidence - help them JUST DO IT!

🥑 Getting Confidence from Nutrition - Why Pregame Nutrition Matters

📖 A Must-Read for Athletes & Parents - How to build self-confidence in athletes.

🎙️ Podcast 2 Drop - Athlete Development with Dr. Craig Harrison.

⚡ The Game Changer – Exciting Updates

📢 We Need Your Help! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

🏆Confidence: The Key to Success in Sports & Beyond!

Confidence…who doesn’t want a bit more…in certain areas of life anyway (like singing for me!)

We’ve all seen those players that seem to have unbounding confidence in the sporting arena, while noticing those others around us who seem to struggle with it. And then there are the athletes whose confidence seems fleeting or inconsistent, coming and going seemingly without an explanation.

Yet whether it’s taking a crucial shot, making a big play, or bouncing back from a mistake, self-confidence is a foundational part of peak performance.

This week, we’re diving into where confidence comes from and we will specifically look at what confidence is and how our athletes can build self-confidence to handle any and all of the pressures coming their way.

Let’s get ready to fuel confidence and take their game from this:

To this:

To this:

🏆️ Two Quotes to Inspire

This week we wanted to share two quotes with you. The first comes from Jack Nicklaus, the golfing superstar who consistently showed strong self-confidence throughout his life.

He highlights one of the places that confidence comes from - preparation and the evidence brought about by hard work. It isn’t natural; it is built. Which is fantastic, because, while it may not be easy, it does mean that anyone can achieve it.

Novak Djokovic’s quote is really interesting also and shows how champions frame things in their mind. Rather than fearing a challenge, they see opportunity in everything. The other side of this is that they have built up the practice of taking on challenges throughout their life, and giving themselves evidence that they CAN overcome challenges so that they DO see them as opportunities.

How does this happen?

We all need support sometimes, but have you ever saved your kids when it may have better to let them stand on their own two feet? I most certainly have, and it did not help my kids, nor athletes one iota.

Learning to stand on your own two feet and overcome challenges on your own gives you the confidence to take on any challenge. And that confidence is pretty important, right?

But how do we do this?

If you listened to this guy, you would probably just go out and borrow his shirt.

But I get a funny feeling there might be more to it. 😉 

Let’s dive in:

🎙️ Courage leads to Confidence - help them JUST DO IT!

🦁The Power of Courage: And why its a Key to Confidence🦁 

There is so much more to building confidence than just telling someone to go out and be confident.

Or. Is. There?

While there are numerous things that go into building confidence, one important factor is having the courage to just act like a confident athlete or person would.

Maybe Nike said it perfectly when their tagline was JUST DO IT!

Another who said it perfectly was Zane Winslade, elite mental performance coach, on our podcast. Listen to him talk about how he builds confidence in athletes by clicking on the pic below.

❓️ Are We Doing Too Much For Our Athletes?

If we need our athletes to be courageous in order to build self-confidence then we can’t save them when things go awry.

Like I mentioned earlier, I have definitely fallen into this trap with both my children and my athletes. I can vividly recall my son forgetting a water bottle with electrolytes in it for his game. And I was grumpy 🤦. I had reminded him to fill the bottle. I had reminded to pack it. And instead of letting him learn the lesson of,

1. Organising his gear,

2. Checking his gear,

3. Remembering his gear,

4. Being thirsty,

I stopped off and bought him a new drink. In the moment the game felt important. In the moment I didn’t want him to be thirsty. But in saving him I wasn’t building long-term independence, and I was robbing him of vitally important lessons that he needed to learn. And then I got angry! At something that is supposed to be fun!

Sometimes it is us as parents and coaches who need the courage to step back, look at the values and habits and skills we want to instil in our children and athletes, and make the decision to let them own it and learn the lesson, rather than saving them and building helplessness instead.

This article from Asia Mape says it all really. To read the full article click on the calm waters below that replace anger when you take this path!

This weeks must-read is from Wayne Goldsmith on the practical ways to build self-confidence. 

Wayne is both a great coach and a fantastic coach educator from Australia whose passion is performance, potential and parents. He has worked with a host of the worlds best coaches, athletes, teams and sporting organisations in the world, and holds an absolute wealth of tried and tested knowledge. In this article he takes you through what self-confidence is, and how you can help build it in your athletes and children.

It is 100% worth the couple of minutes it takes to read. Click the pic below to get there.

🥝 Katie Schofield’s Pregame Nutrition Advice

🏎️ Fueling Up for Confidence: Why Pre-Game Nutrition Matters

Think of your body like a race car—you need the right fuel to perform your best! Eating the right foods before a game helps you stay energized, focused, and strong, lasting until the chequered flag. 🏁 It is also another confidence boosting box that you can tick when you know you have the energy to go full tilt for a full session, match or race.

This is perhaps best highlighted by the story of Jake.

Jake is an athlete I worked with. He had always been a solid athlete—quick on his feet, strong in the game—but for a while something hadn’t been clicking for him. By the second half of most of his games his energy crashed, his legs felt heavy, and frustration set in. Jake was pitting at half-time with an empty tank and coming out in neutral while others burned past him!

He was lucky that he had a coach who knew him and his game well enough to pull him aside and have a chat about was going on. Once the discussion turned to what Jake was eating it was pretty obvious what the issue might be. In fact Jakes words were something like, “I just grab whatever’s easy.” And it showed. Some days it was nothing, other days just a handful of chips or an energy drink.

His coach pointed him in my direction and I worked with Jake to make a plan to fuel his performance and lower fatigue. What we did:

🔹 2 hours before: Jake had toast with peanut butter, plus a smoothie.
🔹 30 minutes before: He topped up with a banana and some water.

Game time arrived, and Jake felt different. His legs had power. His mind was sharp. When the final whistle blew, he was still pushing hard while others faded.

It wasn’t rocket science but it was super effective: Pre-game nutrition wasn’t extra—it was essential. Taking out the rubbish, or replacing nothing, with actual fuel.

Jake makes a point of fueling properly part of his routine now. Not because he had to—but because it made him better. 🚀

What to Eat & When

⏳ 2 Hours Before the Game (Small Meal)

This is your last chance for a solid energy boost! Go for easy-to-digest carbs with some protein:

• ✅ Toast with peanut butter & banana

• ✅ Muesli bar + yogurt

• ✅ Smoothie with fruit & milk (dairy-free products work too!)

• ✅ Crackers with cheese

⏳ 60 Minutes Before the Game (Quick Energy)

Fast-digesting carbs to top up your fuel stores:

• ✅ Banana 🍌

• ✅ Handful of dried fruit

• ✅ A few jelly lollies

• ✅ Small sports drink 

💡 Don’t Forget Fluids! Hydration is Key!

Start sipping water 2 hours before and continue up until you play. 

🔥 Game Day Pro Tip!

Stick to what you know! Game day isn’t the time to experiment with new foods—save that for training.

⚡ Keep it simple: Have at least three go-to snacks in your rotation. That way, if your favorite (like bananas 🍌) is out of stock, you’ve got a backup!

✅ Tried & tested = top performance, true confidence! 🚀

🎙️ Podcast 2

Athlete Development with Dr. Craig Harrison

You can now WATCH or LISTEN to our latest interview with Dr. Craig Harrison – an expert in youth athlete development, founder of the Athlete Development Project, and host of The Athlete Development Show! Craig is phenomenal at what he does and we have no doubt there are some wonderful takeaways for you from this chat.

In this episode, we dive into:

✅ The biggest misconceptions in youth sports
✅ The key to long-term success for young athletes
✅ How parents can best support their child’s sports journey
✅ Why environment plays a crucial role in development
✅ Goal-setting & motivation strategies that actually work

🎧️ LISTEN on Spotify:
https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/the-game-changer9/episodes/Developing-Athletes-with-Dr--Craig-Harrison-e2vnl7c

🎥 WATCH on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/F6tQumS2z_w?si=3ILp1MMNVEfqpS8g
Whether you're a parent, coach, or young athlete, this is a must-watch/listen packed with valuable insights to help navigate the youth sports journey.

🗺️ The Game Changer Journey

Woah, what a busy week in The Game Changer World! 🌍️ 

This week flew by after numerous meetings as we worked on lining up some special names to talk to on the podcast. As soon as we have them booked we will let you know who they are and be asking for questions.

💡 We met with our nutritionist to ideate our concepts to Fuel Youth Athletes with clean, nutritious, non toxic and effective food solutions. Next steps are building out ingredient lists before taking the concepts to food scientists and manufacturers. It’s exciting and daunting at the same time!

The branding is nearly complete. Here’s a sneak peak:

📢 We Need Your Help! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Your feedback means the world to us! If you’ve enjoyed any episode of The Game Changer podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review.

💬 Why does this matter? Your reviews help us grow and attract even more incredible guests to share their insights with you. The more ratings and reviews we receive, the easier it is to bring top athletes, coaches, and experts onto the show!

👉 Leave a review or send us an email and help us make an even bigger impact! Thank you for being part of The Game Changer community! 🎙️💙

Maybe you just need a shirt like this…

🚀 Join the Game Changer Community!

We’re building something special – a supportive space for parents and youth athletes to connect, ask questions, and learn from one another. 🌍💬

Here, you’ll find expert insights, practical tips, and tailored solutions to help your athlete reach their full potential. Whether it’s nutrition, training, the mental game, or tackling everyday challenges, this is your go-to hub for guidance and growth.

Let’s fuel dreams, build champions, and navigate the youth sports journey together! 🏆🔥

👉 Join us on Facebook – The Game Changer Community

Have a great week and good luck raising CONFIDENT game changers! 🚀