How to Compete Well

Starting in 2026 - short episodes! Starting now, Lisa changed the format to 10-15 min shows so it's easier for listeners to get helpful information, easy conversations and support.

Lisa integrates wonder, humor and joy, because it's important to have fun. But for driven competitors, it's often deep and hard and full of emotions. So to prepare athletes for the training and challenges competing well, starts with yourself. 

Lisa talks about the narrow goal of focusing on outer success vs the groundwork for high achievement, which is the inner process: being a kind person, feeling good inside, self-compassion and much more. She reads a short excerpt from the great book, "Sacred Hoops" by Phil Jackson. She discusses the crazy competitive story and film, "Marty Supreme," and Lisa takes you through a 1-minute exercise to do with your kids. 

ONLINE CLINIC - CALM UNDER PRESSURE 

Strategies, disussion & exercises to help kids compete well under pressure. 

Jan 19, 2026 - REGISTER - send a payment $29 with a note: your name & email - and Lisa will send the zoom link. Send send payment via PayPal to paypal.me/mitzelcoach - thanks! 

Enjoy! And thanks for listening! 

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This is your journey to guide yourself toward transformation and to promote mental health for every child ~ I’m Sending you good vibes, deep breaths, and peace.

Transcript

Conditioned to Win 2026 

JAN 17, 2026 - HOW TO COMPETE WELL

📍  3, 2, 1….. (breath) Are you ready? Well, here we go.  

 I'm Lisa Mitzel and this is Conditioned to Win.  

Welcome to the show. I am Lisa Mitchell. I'm your host, and I'm so happy you're here. It's 2026 and I decided I wanna change the format of the show instead of the longer shows. I'm doing short format episodes that are 10 to 15 minutes or less, and that makes it easier for me to connect with you and support you and your busy lives, and I believe it'll be more impactful through the show.

I, I wanna break down the walls. It's my intention to, of course, enjoy sharing my thoughts and my beliefs. You know some of the wisdom I've learned, but I also will share my own mistakes and what feels vulnerable, and perhaps we can just be real with each other about youth sports and how to help kids reach their goals for you, the listener.

I advocate for children's voices, their health and wellbeing, more education and moving. The sports culture forward today, the show is about how to help kids compete well, and that relates to letting go of tension and attachment to winning. And that's not easy. I know. And it is connecting to the self in a deeper way.

So how do we do that? 

I learned from my parents that competing is so much more than the physical act and , getting the best score. It's really learning to be your highest self as a human being.

And for some people that also may have a spiritual component to it. In my coaching, I integrate humor and joy of course, because you have to have fun.

But for driven competitors, it's often deep and hard and full of emotions. So to prepare athletes for the training and challenges competing well, starts with yourself with. Feeling good, feeling like you're a good person and you're kind. You practice self-compassion when things are hard and self-love, and you really truly care for yourself.

It's learning to be in tune with your thoughts and your body and managing your body's energy and emotions and. We don't usually teach that in sports, so let's talk about it. , It's nurturing relationships, the people that mean the most to you. And daily, and I really mean this daily, saying thank you and closing your eyes and putting your hands over your heart and saying Thank you for all that I have.

Because when you feel like you have all that you need, then you compete from a place of abundance instead of lacking. But I know in sports I know it, it's easy to get sucked into just being single-minded and focusing on success and what your child is achieving.

And I really understand that because we all get nervous for our child. We want them to have a good experience. We want them to feel confident and build their self-esteem. So it is easy to get caught up in such a narrow focus sometimes.

My belief is that sport is not a way to measure a person. Sport is a channel in which to become the person you want to be in the world. How you want to participate in your community and your friends and support and celebrate each other.

 Now, during the holidays, I recently watched the movie Marty Supreme.

I wonder if you've seen it and what you think, but it is a gritty, fast-paced film and a master analysis of high achieving of a high achieving athlete. And the movie has many messages, many layers, but in regards to competition. Marty Supreme follows a driven, obsessive competitor chasing greatness, , only to reveal that there's a deeper truth and achievement without connection is hollow.

The film reminds us that who we become and how we treat people matters more than winning. It's a powerful film. I was literally on the edge of my seat. Uh, there is profanity and violence and nudity, so it's not for kids. But what is apparent is that Marty is chasing this image of himself being a world champion.

And yet at the end there's a twist. And his life of self-importance is really nothing. Because relationship and love matter more. So I want to segue into what we can glean from shifting our focus  from that. , Narrow view and drive for success and let's shift into helping kids to become who they're meant to become.

. So I'm going to share an excerpt from a great book that I love, sacred Hoops by Phil Jackson.

And if you don't know Phil Jackson, he is the winningest coach in the history of the NBA with 11 NBA National Championships, and he's an incredible author. But I chose this book because this week I'm speaking to college students in a class at St. Mary's College here in California. And the class is a cross between sport and spirituality, and this book is actually one of their textbooks.

The part I'm going to read is short and it's about when he was an athlete, Phil Jackson, and he had challenges and an injury, and then he learned how to use the power of his mind.

“First I heard a pop. Then I felt searing pain in my shoulder, and I knew I was in trouble. Is this it? I said to myself as I walked off the mound clutching my arm. Is this the last game I'll ever pitch? I still harbored fantasies of becoming a MA Major league pitcher. Now, I had torn my shoulder and the future looked bleak.

My brother Joe was getting a PhD in psychology at the University of Texas, and he suggested self-hypnosis to get my rhythm back once the injury had healed. I was wary of giving up control of my mind, even if it was just for an experiment, but my brother. He found a way to break down my resistance.

Eventually, my shoulder improved, and the night before my return game, I agreed to let Joe show me some autosuggestion techniques, which in my case involved repeating phrases such as I will be relaxed, or I won't throw too hard to reprogram my subconscious. The next day I pitched one of my best games ever.

Normally I try to overpower hitters with my heater, but the more determined I was to blow the ball by a batter, the more reckless I would become. Giving up almost as many walks as strikeouts. This time, however, I didn't try to force anything. I focused on the act of throwing the ball and letting the motion flow naturally.

Not only did the nagging pain in my shoulder miraculously disappear, but I also experienced something new for me near perfect control. This was my introduction to the hidden power of the mind and what I could accomplish if I could turn down the chattering in my head and simply trust my body's innate wisdom.”

So that is the excerpt in. Yeah, training the subconscious mind and letting the body's innate wisdom flow, , that is something that we can teach kids and that is what I do. I'm a mental training and mental fitness coach, and I. Uh, one of my athletes, , that I've been working with for a number of months, a little 9-year-old level six gymnast in the fall, she was struggling with doing a back handspring on beam, doing a round off back hand, back tuck on floor.

And more recently struggling with a backhand spring back tuck dismount off of beam. And so we've been working a lot, , over the last few months. And even just a couple weeks ago, she was feeling a lot of stress and not knowing if she would go for the backhand, back tuck, dismount off beam. And with all the mental skills that I learned when I was 15 years old, and I've worked with a couple sports psychologists in my life, they, they changed my life.

They literally taught me how to quiet my mind, how to breathe and relax and visualize, and how to talk to myself, and literally how to predict my , success by trusting my body. so this little 9-year-old girl. She was struggling on and off through the fall, and especially recently and after we worked together.

She competed in her first meet and won. She, she won first place all around. She had over a 38 and uh, just performed beautifully. And to me, this is just evidence again, that when we have more autonomy with children and we teach them how to talk to themselves and how they can develop their own mind, , then they feel more in control.

And, uh, it's just beautiful. So today I wanted to do an exercise with you to do with your children, whether you are a parent or a coach or, or support of an athlete. And it's very, very simple. This will only take maybe a minute at the most. But  when you work with your children on a regular basis and you participate with them and you create a lovely connection with them, a calm, beautiful, caring connection, that is when they will have a strong reference point of feeling calm and safe.

And that is part of the groundwork for building their confidence. So. I have my singing bowl. You can buy these. a small one, is around $35 on Amazon. , And uh, that's the sound it makes. I'm going to ring it for you and we're gonna all inhale and exhale and repeat three lines.

📍 Ready? Set. Here we go.

Inhale.

And exhale and repeat after me. I slow down. I'm in control. I am safe, and we'll do it two more times. Inhale

and exhale and repeat after me. I slow down. I'm in control. I am safe,

inhale

and blow out and repeat after me. I slow down. I am in control. I am safe. And that's it. And if you do that at least three times a week with your child and maybe you sit next to each other or you lie down, , on the floor, , with pillows or get comfy on the couch, and you put one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly, and you take those deep breaths together.

You can play soft music like meditation, music, or calming music. and that kind of sets the tone and gives a very nice energy to the practice. But even if you start with that one little exercise and you do it regularly, now you creating.  📍 The landscape for the subconscious mind to feel calm and safe and in control, and that absolutely translates to competition.

That absolutely does.

Jan. 19 -Calm Under Pressure zoom clinic 

 Now if you'd like more competition strategies for your athlete to compete Well, on Monday, January 19th, I'm teaching live on Zoom at 4:00 PM Pacific time. It's called Calm Under Pressure, and we'll talk perspective dynamics, situations, and. Do exercises. So see the info in the link in the show notes to register, or check out my Instagram, my bio and follow me.

My handle is Lisa.MentalPerformance, and there's a link and a pinned post and all the info over there,

Parents and coaches, this is for you, and anybody guiding and developing children. This is a gift to be a role model for young athletes. I offer you the idea of smiling more. And being patient and curious with your kids, accept and embrace the challenges. Anything is possible.

Anything is possible. Bye.

 I'll be thinking of you.