Welcome to The Mental Arena, a newsletter where I share mental performance tools and pressure-tested insights to help you build confidence, strengthen your focus, and develop the mindset to win—in sport and life. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. How to Stop Sinking and Start Competing read time 3 minutes He could play. He couldn’t get out of his own way. Missed shots turned into monologues. Tough practices turned into targets. Every bad call had a villain. Teammates. Coaches....
25 days ago • 4 min read
Welcome to The Mental Arena, a newsletter where I share mental performance tools and pressure-tested insights to help you build confidence, strengthen your focus, and develop the mindset to win—in sport and life. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. The Kind of Coach Athletes Actually Want read time 6 minutes My jersey drapes my upper body like a poncho. My spandex shorts are more sag than snug on my flamingo legs. Long and lanky, I see a scarecrow when I look in the mirror. A complete...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Welcome to The Mental Arena, a newsletter where I share mental performance tools and pressure-tested insights to help you build confidence, strengthen your focus, and develop the mindset to win—in sport and life. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. How to Get Out of Your Own Head read time 3 minutes I can spot what an athlete needs to hear in seconds.But when I’m in my own head? Suddenly, things feel messy. Maybe you’ve felt it too. A teammate or colleague asks for advice, and the wisdom...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Welcome to The Mental Arena, a newsletter where I share mental performance tools and pressure-tested insights to help you build confidence, strengthen your focus, and develop the mindset to win—in sport and life. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. The Gift Inside the Grind read time 5 minutes We live in a world obsessed with outcomes. The medal. The promotion. The championship. But when I read Olympic gold medalist Thomas Ceccon’s words after the World Swimming Championships, I was reminded...
2 months ago • 5 min read
Welcome to The Mental Arena, a newsletter where I share mental performance tools and pressure-tested insights to help you build confidence, strengthen your focus, and develop the mindset to win—in sport and life. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. The Curiosity Advantage read time 5 minutes I am a child, tiptoeing to the edge of the pool, convinced a shark lurks in the deep end.I am a young woman, standing on the edge of the Pacific, staring into waters bluer than anything I’ve ever...
3 months ago • 5 min read
Welcome to The Mental Arena, a newsletter where I share mental performance tools and pressure-tested insights to help you build confidence, strengthen your focus, and develop the mindset to win—in sport and life. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. Conscious Competence read time 7 minutes Spotlights slice through the darkness, intersecting walls, investigating the ceiling, inspecting the floor of the ballroom that has a beginning but no ending. I scan through the curtain and begin counting...
3 months ago • 7 min read
Welcome to The Mental Arena, a newsletter where I share mental performance tools and pressure-tested insights to help you build confidence, strengthen your focus, and develop the mindset to win—in sport and life. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. The Courage to Lose Loudly read time 6 minutes Everyone wants to win quietly. But sometimes the bravest thing you can do…is lose loudly. I never want this newsletter to be just me, me, me. My vision is for The Mental Arena to be about us. And some...
4 months ago • 6 min read
Welcome to The Mental Arena, a newsletter where I share mental performance tools and pressure-tested insights to help you build confidence, strengthen your focus, and develop the mindset to win—in sport and life. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. How to Measure Growth read time 4 minutes The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence. And yet, I spent the first two days of July 2025 living the past—my past. It wasn’t my choice, and I didn’t make the best of the situation. Not...
4 months ago • 4 min read
Welcome to The Mental Arena, a newsletter where I share mental performance tools and pressure-tested insights to help you build confidence, strengthen your focus, and develop the mindset to win—in sport and life. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. Focus on What You Can Do read time 4 minutes Coach Kelly Kruger walks toward me. When he’s within “assist” distance, he bounce-passes two basketballs. “VJ, are your arms broken? Are your hands broken? Are your eyes blurry?” “No, Coach.” “Then you...
5 months ago • 4 min read