CAT LUTZ – IMG ACADEMY HEAD OF MENTAL PERFORMANCE – EPISODE 1080

Website – https://plus.imgacademy.com/developmental-coaching/mental-performance

Email – cat.lutz@imgacademy.com

Twitter/X – @610_performance

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Cat Lutz is the Head of Mental Performance at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida where she is responsible for overseeing the psychological and cognitive training of athletes to enhance their mental resilience, focus, and overall performance.

On this episode Mike & Cat explore the critical role mental performance plays in athletic success. Lutz emphasizes that mental skills are not solely applicable to sports; rather, they significantly enhance both athletic and personal life. Throughout the discourse, Mike & Cat delve into the intrinsic challenges athletes face, particularly during transitions, and the importance of fostering resilience and confidence among young athletes. Lutz shares her extensive background in psychology and sports, illustrating how her experiences have shaped her approach to mental performance training. The episode culminates in her insights on how to cultivate a supportive environment that encourages athletes to thrive both on and off the court.

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Take down some notes as you listen to this episode with Cat Lutz, Head of Mental Performance at IMG Academy.

What We Discuss with Cat Lutz

• Why the integration of mental performance skills in sports is crucial for overall athlete development
• Building confidence and resilience in athletes transcends beyond the court and into their daily lives
• Establishing rapport with athletes is essential for fostering trust and improving mental performance
• Coaches play a vital role in identifying athletes’ mental health needs, promoting a collaborative approach
• Mental performance assessment provides valuable insights into athletes’ areas for growth and development
• Continuous engagement and innovative approaches are necessary to maintain effectiveness in mental performance coaching
• The significance of mental performance in athletics is often undervalued, yet it profoundly impacts players’ overall performance
• Individualized approaches to mental performance are necessary as athletes have diverse needs and experiences
• Helping athletes develop resilience, enabling them to recover from setbacks and maintain confidence
• Youth athletes often struggle with self-worth tied to performance
• Identifying negative self-talk is vital for improvement
• Finding joy in athletes’ breakthroughs is a rewarding aspect of coaching

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High school and middle school basketball program directors, listen closely. Coaches are expected to do far more than just coach. You know this. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing the coaching yourself, or you have a full staff of coaches with you. You know very well that coaches handle scheduling, academic issues, parent communication, leadership development, and even mental health concerns for athletes. A lot to deal with, and they haven’t even gone home yet to balance those responsibilities.

No matter the passion for the game, and burning desire to help athletes develop, this level of responsibility can lead to burnout, inefficiency, and less time spent on actual coaching. You know it’s true.

When coaches are stretched too thin, it impacts the development of athletes, team morale, and the overall success of the program. Now here comes the outsiders throwing their two cents in about what’s happening. Then come the parents complaining about how you’re running things, as if they know what they’re talking about. When’s the last time you went to their place of work chiming in from outside their window?

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THANKS, CAT LUTZ

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TRANSCRIPT FOR CAT LUTZ – IMG ACADEMY HEAD OF MENTAL PERFORMANCE – EPISODE 1080

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: Hello, and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here without my co-host Jason Sunkle this morning. But I am pleased to be joined by Cat Lutz, the Head of Mental Performance at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Cat, welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.

[00:00:17] Cat Lutz: Thanks, Mike. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:18] Mike Klinzing: Thrilled to have you on.  Always find the conversations around mental performance to be very interesting. I think it’s an area that we don’t always put enough emphasis on, but I think, obviously, as you well know, it has such a big impact on the way that players perform and then consequently the way teams perform and coaches perform.

So we’re going to dive into what you do day to day, but let’s start by just going through. A little bit about your background and how you got to the position that you’re in. Just sort of walk me through your professional life and, and how you’ve, how you’ve eventually ended up at IMG.

[00:00:54] Cat Lutz: Yeah, of course. So I’ve been really fortunate throughout my, my life really to be intertwined in, in sport and especially in basketball.

 I, I played it growing up. My dad was a basketball coach, still is a basketball coach. And I played and was really fortunate enough. To start my playing career at Iona College, and I did four years there and I got another year of eligibility and went to LIU post and then continued and played professionally overseas for a bit.

And those years are really the years when I started to get into sports psychology in the mental side of the game. As you, as you can imagine, as I’m sure  the d. Obstacles and adversity that you face at those levels really puts you in a position to go, okay, well, my body’s ready, but is my mind actually ready to perform?

So I got really interested in that. And, and as you kind of heard that progression, I, I was again, really fortunate to be a student athlete for a very long time. Did my undergraduate degree in psychology. Then went and did my MAs, my first master’s degree in clinical men’s health counseling. And then when I was overseas, kind of part of my package that I, that I had with the professional teams was I wanted to continue my education and I got another master’s degree in applied sport and exercise psychology.

And then was fortunate to do my PhD as well over there.

[00:02:15] Mike Klinzing: All right. Let me ask you one question about you as a player. Okay. So clearly anybody who’s played basketball at the levels that you’ve played at understands that having your body ready to go and doing the physical training. Obviously it’s a necessity, but from the mental side of it, when you think back to your time as a player before you went through all the educational processes that you went through to become an expert in this area, what were some of the challenges that you, yourself remember facing while you were a player that you’re like, boy, if I would’ve known a little bit more about this back when I was playing, I could have maybe really made.

Some strides in that particular area. Is there one or two things that stand out from a mental standpoint that you remember as a player that really challenged you or maybe were something, some things that you struggled with?

[00:03:11] Cat Lutz: Yeah, a hundred percent. So I, I think a lot of athletes face this when they make that jump from high school to college they’re, they’re quite big fish and then they become a small fish.

That just the confidence aspect, I think, really believing in myself throughout that kind of journey into college. Would’ve been beneficial for me. And I think, and I think I did have confidence in certain areas of my game. But I think there was probably a barrier there in terms of me fully believing in, in what I could contribute to the team.

And that might’ve limited me a, a little bit. And then unfortunately I had to deal with quite a few. Injuries throughout my career, and I’m not sure if I handled the mental side of, of coming back from those injuries as well as I could have. I, I probably took the stance of I just gotta get back on the court and even if something’s still hurting, like it doesn’t matter.

I just, I they’re going to forget about me, get back out there. And I think I, I, if I could have taken that a little bit. In, in better stride or understood that I needed to be mentally prepared to come back from those injuries, I, I think I would’ve been in a better position to, to perform at my peak a little bit more and a little bit more often.

[00:04:20] Mike Klinzing: If you could go back now and talk to yourself from that confidence piece

[00:04:26] Cat Lutz: mm-hmm.

[00:04:27] Mike Klinzing: What would that conversation look like if you were talking to yourself back during your college or professional playing days?

[00:04:33] Cat Lutz: Yeah, I, I would, I would definitely. Trust. It’s very cliche, right, but trust the process. Trust the work that you are.

A high level performance when you’re practicing. And if you really just trust in that and believe in that and understand that it might not always 100% translate into that competitive game atmosphere like you want, that’s okay. It’s, it’s something that is going to have highs and lows. But if you stay in that trust and you just keep going, everything is going to work out.

I think if I, if I had that said to me back, back when I started my first college days, I think I would’ve been in a much better mindset.

[00:05:14] Mike Klinzing: Did you have anybody? Talking to you at all about the mental side of the game, whether it was somebody on your coaching staff, somebody that was associated maybe with one of the professional organizations, because now as  the mental performance side, although it’s still is probably undervalued and not always resourced the way that it should, it’s certainly more common and more prevalent.

It was 10 years ago, and certainly it’s way more prevalent than the long time ago when an ancient guy like me was playing college basketball. Where that mental side of the game, I don’t think really, nobody was really concerned with my mental state in any way, shape, or form while I was playing. And so it’s just such a different world.

I’m just curious. It was if there was anybody that you thought could serve as a resource in that area while you were playing.

[00:06:05] Cat Lutz: Yeah.  it’s not to, not to age myself but I was still very much in that, that generation where it felt a little bit taboo to express that maybe you need a little bit of help on your mental game.

And I think that’s probably what sparked that interest for me. It’s never that I felt I had a problem or felt like I had anything that necessarily needed to be fixed. But I think that just being able to have that resource available would’ve been a really, really beneficial thing to have in my game.

So I was still on that cusp of like, ah, well there’s really no one on staff. No one’s really talking about the mental performance or mental wellbeing of the athletes. But I think what I was, I was very lucky in that I, I had some really great teammates along the way and we kind of shared in the situations that we were experiencing and I, and I was really lucky to just have that a, a very good support system there within my team and then also within my family.

And, and again, like I, I was taking those psychology courses and, and as I was learning more and more about it, I.

And yeah, just over time just then seeing that it was becoming more and more prevalent in terms of athletes. Either expressing their need for it or actually kind of that collegiate stage, understanding that there’s a lot of pressure that these athletes are going under. We gotta make sure that the support systems are in place for them.

That was great to see. ’cause it there’s one side of you that’s like, man, I wish that was around when I was there, but, right. There’s also that side of, of that’s awesome. I’m a part of this growing field and we’re going to make some, some big positive impact on these athletes. And that’s that. To this day.

And that’s what makes me so excited about this field and, and helping those athletes of at all stages, right? I’m not even just talking elite athletes achieve their peak performance. I’m talking every athlete that’s going through something small, something big, or just looking for that competitive edge, like that’s su such an exciting part of the game to be in right now.

[00:08:11] Mike Klinzing: I am guessing that when you talk with athletes, you probably still find athletes who are in that old school camp that maybe are a little bit hesitant to talk about the mental side of it and still feel like maybe that’s showing weakness and that I’m sure you have other players that are. All about it.

Right. And are super receptive right off the bat. So I’m curious, just when you have somebody who is maybe a little bit more hesitant to jump into talking about this area, what are those conversations like initially to get the player to open up about what’s actually going on?

[00:08:49] Cat Lutz: Yeah.  so, so I find there’s two different avenues really.

Right. The one is just saying we don’t need to have a, a problem to, to fix it. If you’re for instance, if you’re a good shooter, right? You’re still getting shots up. You’re not, you, you aren’t getting to a point where go, I’ll never have to practice my three point shot again. Right? Right.

You’re still getting shots up and the same thing goes for your mental game. You might feel really confident. That’s not to say that we can’t still use different mental skills to maintain that confidence or boost that confidence. And another one that I think athletes really resonate with is. We talk about what are you doing in the gym?

What are you’re, you’re physically, you’re making your body stronger, you’re getting faster, you’re getting quicker. Why not use that mental muscle and get that stronger and get that up to a level that is going to match that physical peak that you’re, that you’re aiming for. So usually those kind of conversations do open the door a little bit more, and, and, and I think as long as it’s never being framed as, hey.

You’ve got an issue here that we need, right. We need to address. They usually don’t have their guard up too much. But I’ve used kind of those two inroads with athletes before who are maybe a little bit hesitant to, to get into the mental performance side of things.

[00:10:01] Mike Klinzing: Tell me exactly how the opportunity at IMG comes to you.

I have a little bit of insight after having talked to your husband Tom, on the podcast. Anybody who wants to go back and listen to that can certainly do that. But just give me the rundown of how the opportunity at IMG comes to you, and then we’ll get into the what you do, how you do it, and, and how you’re helping the athletes there.

[00:10:25] Cat Lutz: Yeah. Do  what, you just talk about fate and. Timing working out. I was coming to the conclusion of my PhD overseas and, and I had just submitted it and, and I saw the, the role as one of the assistant heads of our mental performance here at IMG Academy pop up. And I, I, I had spoken to, to Tom a little bit about it and, and knew I wanted to obviously pursue that, that career and, and kind of just went for it and.

The, the timing all worked out and I defended my PhD at the end of July and literally the next day I was on a flight, ’cause I had been offered the, the job here at IMG and, and came and started, started my career here. So the PhD really rolled straight into, I. My time here at the academy and, and I’m just so, so thankful that it all worked out because I am just enjoying my time here.

So, so much.

[00:11:19] Mike Klinzing: How is the division of responsibilities, because I know you have a big department of people mm-hmm. That work in this space. So how do you guys divide up who works with who and what teams and what sports? And just walk me through that.

[00:11:33] Cat Lutz: Yeah, of course. So again, this is one of the. Really unique things about IMG Academy and, and what’s so special about this place is that our mental performance team, which is situated in our a athletic and personal development department is a team of 1213, if you include me.

And we have nine, nine different sports. And really what we do is we. We try to match our coaches as well as we can. A lot of our coaches are former athletes at, at various levels who have experience in the sports that they’re working in. I’m really fortunate enough that it worked out on, with our, our girls basketball program at the moment which is pretty fitting.

But  what’s, what’s great though is that. The team that we have right now is just so dedicated to helping athletes, and that is the foundation needed at and at that, at any of those sports. So even if they don’t necessarily have the perfect background of okay, maybe they didn’t play soccer, they didn’t play baseball.

We still are matching coaches with these sports and these athletes who just genuinely want to make a positive impact in their, their lives. And the athletes are receptive to it. It’s so, it’s so built into the culture here and, and green that it very much is a part of the day-to-day for everyone involved.

[00:12:55] Mike Klinzing: How do you. Relationships with the athletes, where you get to the point just from positionally, there’s.

A kid being kid there at IMG Academy. But as you start to work with teams and start to work with players, how do you build the relationship where you can get them to truly open up and share the things that they need to share so that you can help them in the best way possible? So I guess the bottom line for the question is how do you build relationships in your role?

[00:13:28] Cat Lutz: Hundred percent. Rapport building is so big in our field. Again, because y while you’re a part of their team, right, you’re not exactly their, their sport coach, and you’re maybe not seeing them as often as their strength and conditioning coaches, just to say, as an example. And so being able to establish first and foremost that you’re there for them is such a big thing in that, in that rapport.

 I, I also think there’s a. A presence element.  that I’m not just someone who comes in and. They see me once a week for 30 minutes, and then that’s the end of it. I really try to make an effort and all of our coaches really make an effort at being at practices, checking in when there’s water breaks, or  they’re warming up, Hey, how are you doing?

How are things going? A lot of questions being nothing related to sport. As we get to know them over time and checking in with them and, Hey, how’s this? Going, or, oh, we know they like gaming, or like, what game are you playing right now? Anything that we can do to just make that connection with them and show them that we are there to help them in in any way possible.

I think is a really important first step. And then when they’re in our sessions that it, it is very much like relating to them, right? They want to know that they’re not alone in some of the things that they might be experiencing, and they want to kind of have that acknowledged or have their feelings, their emotions, their their situations acknowledged as something that is a part of the game and it’s, it’s normal and, and that maybe you yourself have gone through that. And I think when you can balance that with, obviously it’s not, it’s not about me, it’s not about the coaches, but when you can let them know that you are, you’re in it with them and you’ve been through it, and you’re just there to help.

Help them build up these mental skills to get through it on, on their own as well. I think that really does build up that rapport and you kind of just go from there and then you’re on the bench at games and it’s just, you become a part of their lives. And, and sometimes that really clicks with some athletes and if, if we hold our hands up, sometimes it, it doesn’t, but we do the best that we can.

And, and for the, for the most part, I would say those relationships become quite strong as the season goes on

[00:15:40] Mike Klinzing: when you’re working with. A particular team, what do the contact points look like? So is it a weekly team session and then you may have individual sessions scheduled as needed? I know you said you.

Popping into practice. You’re on the bench for the games, but just what is the, what are the touch points? Yeah. With the team, how often are you getting a chance to interact with them and what do those interactions look like?

[00:16:08] Cat Lutz: Yeah, for sure. So we, we have a really nice cadence of delivery right now where weekly they get their team or group sessions that’s really aimed at building out their education around some of the, the mental skills that we’re learning.

We do it in a, in a really fun kind of way that’s engaging and gets them talking and, and  like when you’re in those group and team settings, there’s always that underlying like kind of team building aspect as well that you want to contribute to and make sure you’re fostering in a positive way so they get mental performance in a, in a more formal setting.

I’ll say weekly. And, and then, like I said, the other, the other touch points throughout the week are. They see me at practices. I try to make as many games as I can. And then the individual side of it is, is really something that we try to make sure they know. The door is always open to. And then it’s kind of a little bit on them as well to meet us halfway.

So at the start of the year, I really try and check in individually with, with every athlete that I work with, even if it’s just five to 10 minutes. Right? I just want to let ’em know that I’m here if they need it, if anything comes up. And then usually from those conversations, the the athletes who identify.

Areas of their mental game that they want to work more on, they’ll kind of request those individuals and then we set those up.  those could be anywhere from weekly to biweekly to to monthly, and just checking in and making sure everything, everything’s going well for them.

[00:17:36] Mike Klinzing: What does the curriculum planning look like for you as a department when you start putting together?

Okay, we’re going to have these once a week. Formal mental performance meetings. What does it look like in terms of your group sitting down and talking about, these are the issues that we want to address? How do you come up with those concepts? And then how do you design the activity? Just sort of talk about sort of the scaffolding behind putting this all together.

[00:18:08] Cat Lutz: So, so I would say it’s, it’s again, kind of twofold in that every student athlete that comes to IMG on their, their arrival day, they take what’s called a mental performance assessment. It’s kind of built into their check-in, check-in surveys if, if you will. And what that really does is assess. Five main areas of mental performance, the resilience the ability to handle pressure, commitment, confidence, and focus.

And what that does is it gives us a really nice little insight into where that athlete is. And then we have a whole data and analytic analytics team that. Also allows us then to see, okay, as teams are formed in these different sports, what are some maybe like trends going on, right? Do we have a team that’s really high in resilience, but really low in confidence?

Do we have. Do we have a super committed team that lacks some focus, and that helps just give us a little bit of a foundation regarding where we might go. But the awesome part then is that because we have our coaches out at different sports and then within those sports with different teams, as they get to know their athletes, as they get to know the needs of the team, as, as they get to know the needs of the sport program, they really have an autonomy to create the the curriculum.

Kind of based under those five main tenants or umbrellas. And that’s, that’s the awesome part to see then, right? That’s where we get creative in how we’re delivering the material, where we can find different ways to connect with athletes in different sports because we know one size doesn’t fit all and there’s going to be different cultures.

Girls basketball is going to look very different from our boys lacrosse. And, and that’s okay. So we don’t we don’t dictate to our coaches, hey. This is what you are coaching and teaching, and this is how you’re going to do it. But we do have that foundation based on data collection, and then we actually collect data at the midway point at the end of the year as well.

So we’re constantly checking in with that and seeing if we’re moving the needle in any of those, those areas, or if I’m being honest sometimes when you have that midway point, especially if it lines up with certain seasons, like  we talk about, basketball in particular is, is the example I can go to at the start of the season.

Confidence is high, right? You’re coming out of your, your postseason or your off season. You’re feeling good. And then you get to like mid-January and it’s like, all right, hang on. My my body’s hurting. My mind’s hurting. It’s a bit of a slog, like, what’s, what’s going to happen here? And all of a sudden you see, all right, hang on.

Maybe that confidence is dipping or maybe that resilience is dipping, and we kind of have to acknowledge those. Those key points as well. So we, we are based on that foundation of data, but then we really do use our observation and our relationship with the athletes and our coaches and the programs to build out that curriculum.

[00:21:03] Mike Klinzing: Makes sense right to you go from a knowledge base and then you take that knowledge base and you apply it to the situations that you’re seeing in your experience To this point mm-hmm. With, let’s just focus on the girls’ basketball side of it. What are some major. Issues or some challenges or just some things that you frequently see that you’ve tried to help players and teams to be able to overcome?

Just for someone who might be listening, who maybe has a team that is going through some of the same things that you’re about to share, what are some solutions to some potential issues that could arise on a basketball team?

[00:21:49] Cat Lutz: Age range we’re working with, right? In youth athletes, we are going, we’re working with teenage girls or I’m working with teenage girls. And regardless of I don’t ever want it to just be sport-based mental skills, right? We work on these mental skills so that they have crossover in both. Yes, on the court.

I can apply these in a game situation, but also just in life. I mean, they’re going through so much that I don’t feel like I’m so far removed from them, but they’re going through so many things that I had no idea of and didn’t go through myself. We really have to acknowledge them first and foremost as as a human being.

And what really emerges for that group is confidence and resilience. So the, the, the two main things over the past few months that we have been focusing on is can we build that confidence to a point where. We are not relying on others to build up our self-belief like we can internally give ourselves the, the mental skills to be confident in our ability and then also start to build out our resilience that we understand and our aware that not everything is going to be perfect.

I’m not going to go out and make 10 for 10 every single game. And that’s, that’s okay. But I need to be able to bounce back if I’m if I’ve if I’ve taken a few shots and it’s not going my way in a game. We’re okay. We keep going. We’re resilient. If I’ve had a few rough games or a few rough practices, whatever it may be, if I’ve had a tough week just in my social life, how do we become resilient to, alright, when we’re stepping on the court, this is my kind of safe space.

This is the, this is the place where I get to really be, be myself, and have some fun. So I would say those are the two areas that have kind of emerged the most for, for my groups and that we’ve been focusing on especially this past year.

[00:23:43] Mike Klinzing: I’m going to ask you a question from my own personal life at the moment, right?

So I have a daughter who’s a freshman in high school, and she’s a hard worker, puts in time shooting the ball, puts in time, working to try to get better. But she definitely is a player who when we’re in a workout and she’s shooting, if things don’t go perfectly and she’ll miss. Or three in a row. Yeah. And then I’ll be standing around either rebounding for, or just making sure that the

she’ll turn to and be like. I can’t shoot and I’m like, can you just look up at the board that shows you’ve made like 20,000 shots in the last year. You can still shoot, but she’ll very, very easily lose. I don’t even know if it’s necessarily confidence, but there’s just a lot of negative. Yeah. Self-talk.

Yeah. Which I’m sure is something that you’ve come across before. So what advice would you have for me? What are some things that I could say to her or things that we could talk about to maybe help her to work through that particular issue? To be able to, I’m always, my thing is always it’s one shot at a time.

Each shot is unrelated to the last. You just gotta look at the next shot as a separate entity. You made the last one. You gotta look at it as a, as a separate entity. And then going back to just look at all the work you’ve put in and all the time. So I, if I’m on the right track in terms of what I’m saying, standpoint, what should I be saying to her?

[00:25:19] Cat Lutz: No, you’re, you are definitely on the right track there. And, and as you were setting up that, that experience, it was definitely giving me flashbacks to my time in the gym with my dad rebounding and yeah. We could, we could be getting our 300 shot up and I, and I’m shooting 80% and I’m like, why am I not shooting 90?

Like, right. There’s a lot of those thoughts that go through your head, especially as a shooter and you’re, you’re absolutely right. Like there, there’s an element of that self-talk there where. We tend to focus on the negative, right? We’re not thinking about, oh man, I just made 75% of of my shots there.

We’re thinking about the 25% that that we missed. And a lot of that is being able to catch when you’re actually saying those things. Identify what it is you are saying, how you’re saying it to yourself. And then starting to challenge it, right? Like one of the big things I say to my, to, to my players that when we go through the kind of our self-talk curriculum is all you’ve identified that when you miss a shot, you’re like, oh man, I, I, I’m a terrible shooter.

I should, I shouldn’t shoot the next time I’m open. And the questions I really want to ask them then to challenge that thought is, well, is that actually accurate? Like, did you magically become a terrible shooter after one miss? No, that’s not an accurate statement. And then the second part is going well. Is that helpful?

Is it helpful to you in a game or in practice for you to say, oh, I’ve just missed, I’m a terrible shooter. I don’t want to shoot again. No, it’s not helpful. So when we get to that stage where we’ve identified what we’re saying, we’re challenging it, and we’re realizing that it’s not accurate and it’s not helpful, then we start to change what we’re saying and, and you kind of had some of those like buzzwords that we use anyway, right?

It’s the next shot, it’s the next play, it’s bouncing back. It’s, it’s just being able to. Change what we’re saying to ourselves in those moments, to, to reaffirm the realistic thing about sport and about basketball and about shooting, that you’re not going to make every shot. And that’s okay. And a lot of times too, I tie it in with real life examples.

 the, the best shooters in the world, in, in competitive situations are. Shooting What? Just under 50%. That’s half the time. Half the time they’re missing their shots. And that’s the best in the world who are putting up thousands of shots a day. Right. Like it’s, it’s being able to have them understand that there’s, there’s it, it’s not realistic to think you’re going to make every shot all the time.

And when we start to allow ourselves to understand that, it becomes a little bit easier to identify, all right? What I’m saying to myself is not helpful, it’s not accurate, but I know that I can keep shooting and I know that I’m a good shooter and we draw on past performance, right? And so that it’s not an unrealistic statement.

I’m not saying that a kid who’s never hit a shot in his life should be saying like, oh yeah, I’m going to, I’m going to rattle off the next 10 here. Right? But we are trying to base it in positive past performances. Those past practices where they were, they’ve had good good performance in, in any of the skills, not even just shooting.

Right. And then taking it forward and, and sometimes there’s an additional step and we think, alright, well you might. Catch what you’re saying to yourself. It’s not helpful, it’s not accurate. You’re trying to replace it with something that gets you back on track, whether it’s a neutral statement or a positive statement, or whatever works for you and it’s maybe still not settling you down.

And that’s then where we start to explore like, Hey, like go, take, go take a walk, go, go. Hit the opposite baseline, take a few deep breaths and come back and let’s just reset ourselves here. Just, just to kind of control some of those emotions and so that we’re not spiraling out of control. And I mean, that stems even from something that my, my dad used to say to me, right?

We would be getting shots up, and there was always that grace period. All right, I’ve missed a few. I’m, I’m starting to get frustrated, but I’m still locked in. All right. If I missed a few more, all of a sudden, then I’m dropping my arm early or I’m just, I’m just kind of thrown at the rim. And he would stop me right then and there and he would go, Hey, you’re doing more damage.

Then you’re doing good right now. And having that was very helpful in the moment. I, like, I can only assume how bad my shot would’ve looked if he allowed me to continue. But I think having that, obviously from someone else and seeing that is helpful in those moments. But when, but man, when we can allow our athletes to gain that kind of superpower, to identify it themselves, man, they’re, they’re rocking and rolling in a good direction.

[00:29:55] Mike Klinzing: To go along with that, and this is something that I guess I used to think about. I didn’t think about it necessarily when I was playing, but I certainly thought about it after my playing career. And I think about it now in my various roles, coaching teams, and then also coaching my own kids. Have you come across and have you talked with players about the idea that.

Their identity is tied up in their performance as an athlete, and sometimes we allow a performance that’s maybe not at the level that we want it to, to impact us in our normal lives off the floor. In other words, we’re so caught up in I’m a basketball player and if I don’t play well as a basketball player, I can’t.

Leave that at the gym and have a enjoyable night or an enjoyable two days until the next game, because everything that I am and do is about being tied up as a basketball player. So I’m just curious, A, if you’ve run across that and then B, what, what’s, what are some ways that somebody could talk to an athlete who’s going through that particular situation?

[00:31:02] Cat Lutz: No, a hundred percent. We, we see that at all different levels that  young athletes. Can really, really tie themselves and their self-worth to the sport. And if a performance doesn’t go the way that they expect that it should or want it to go, yeah, they, they feel down about it. They, they go and they might seclude themselves from friends and, and all those things.

And obviously we want to prevent that. That’s not, that’s not a healthy response to performance. So we definitely do have instances where. Athlete’s ident identity is so tied up with the sport that it can be harmful so to say. And for them it’s, it’s really about building up their self-awareness that they are more than just a basketball player or they’re more than just a soccer player.

They are a human being. And we explore with  the athletes that I’ve had that maybe struggle in that area. We explore what their other interests are. What do you have fun doing outside of, of sport? Is it reading? Is it, is it is it going off and, and we’re by the beach, right? So is it going off to the beach and, and, and getting in the water or just relaxing or, or what is, what is that fun look like for you?

And we really then encourage them to engage in that reflection. Peace and then also set goals in those other areas of their lives. I’ve, we, we’ve got a really strong academic focus here as well, and you can imagine, right, if, if an athlete has that kind of self, self-worth tied to sport and a game goes wrong, they can’t afford then to miss.

Three days of, of school looking in their room, right. So we can help them reflect and reframe the situation and then start to look at other areas of their lives that they, they find fun and fulfilling and, and enjoy. Just to make sure that they aren’t kind of digging that hole deeper and deeper as they, as they go along with that.

That’s, that’s, that’s much more on a, at an individual level, I would say, than a team level. But it is something to always keep an eye out for. I think that’s one of the things that we do understand can happen and, and kind of the red flags start to get raised when we, when we see some key things happening, like I said, like that seclusion or maybe just a, a lack of enjoyment when they show up to practice or games.

[00:33:27] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and that’s something that goes back to what we talked about earlier, right? Of building the relationship and getting to know the players, both you on the mental performance side, but also their sport coach. As you get to know the athlete and you’re having conversations with them all the time, you can kind of sense.

Maybe that something like that is, is coming and you can maybe intercept it before it becomes a real issue. To kind of go along with that idea of you on the mental performance side and the, and the sporting, the sport coach how much collaboration or what does the collaboration look like between you and the coach of.

The team team in terms of maybe just frame it from preseason. How much are you talking to them in season? How much are you talking to them? And then what do those conversations look like? How often do they take place so that you’re on the same page that the coach might say, Hey, we need this, or this is what I’m noticing, and then you can step in and provide some of that support that the team and the athletes need.

[00:34:24] Cat Lutz: Yeah, and, and, and I will say that that differs per, per coach. What’s great. And, and what we’re very fortunate enough to have here are we, the, again, I, I said it a little bit earlier, but the mentor performance is so ingrained into the culture here that you very rarely come across major barriers with coaches not wanting to share or not wanting to ask your opinion, or not wanting to include you in some way.

So. The, the communication part. I, I guess like it’s a little bit different, right? If it’s a coach I’ve worked with in previous years that preseason, you’re, you’re off to a very strong star, right? You’re, you’re talking about what you’re seeing on court as they, as they pick teams. If it’s a new coach, it’s just, it’s exactly the same as you would with your athletes.

It’s, it’s establishing that rapport, that relationship, letting ’em know. What you can offer in terms of support for their athletes, what you can offer in terms of support for them.  I, I, we talk a lot about our work athletes. We, we also have to acknowledge the mental toll that coaches go through as well.

And we never want ’em to feel like they’re off on an island on their own, having to make these decisions or having to catch those red flags by themselves. We are, we are a team and we’re there to help in, in any way that we can. And then throughout the season there’s a lot of. Times when I might be at practice and I’m keeping my eye out on the athletes that a coach just pulls me to, to the side and goes, Hey, I, I don’t know if you realize this happened in school, or, I don’t know if you realize this happened on the last wait trip or whatever it may be, but.

So and so said this or responded this way in the game, they, they could just use a little bit extra time with you. And that’s so important because we, we can’t see everything. We, we are not going to pick up everything that happens. And when you start to have that collaboration and that holistic approach with the sport coaches where they feel confident and comfortable to.

Signposts their athletes to you and, and be open and honest with what’s going on. Like, man, do those athletes just have an amazing opportunity to have support in place?

[00:36:29] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. Final two part question, Kat. Part one, when you look ahead over the next year or two, what do you see as being your biggest challenge?

And the second part of the question, when you think about what you get to do every day, what brings you the most joy? So your biggest challenge and.

[00:36:45] Cat Lutz: Oh man, those are tough ones. I think the, the biggest challenge, but how I want to kind of reframe that is an exciting challenge is just continuing to find ways to.

Impact the athletes in a really positive and effective way. I think just as you would in, in the sport coach side of things, we also, we can’t get stale, right? I can’t deliver the, the same thing over and over again because I have athletes who are going to be here for a couple of years. So the, the fun challenge is, all right, without reinventing the wheel here, how do I.

Engage them in this mental skill. How do I educate them in a new way? How do I make them excited to see the benefits of using that mental skill and ingraining it into their day to day, and then really seeing it be applied on court?  in a, in a, in a season, that’s always the challenge, right? You give them the tools, you give them the education, Hey, this is why it, it could help and this is how it impacts your performance.

And then you are basically fighting that uphill battle of, okay, we gotta ingrain this daily. And, okay, you were in a situation on court where. Maybe you used it, that’s great, and maybe you didn’t. So that’s the fun challenge of, of this, of this job, I think is just finding ways to connect to those athletes in new ways over the, over the year and over time.

And then. Biggest joy?

[00:38:16] Mike Klinzing: Biggest, biggest joy.

[00:38:18] Cat Lutz: Oh man. So I, like, I, my husband responded to this about seeing my son in the morning, didn’t he?

[00:38:24] Mike Klinzing: You better say that same thing. I know.

[00:38:25] Cat Lutz: And to say anything less though, just make me seem ridiculous, right? No. Obviously getting to see my, my son grow and just learn, like he’s in, he’s, he’s two years old now, and the the new things he picks up.

Are just amazing. It’s just so rapid right now. Obviously that brings me so much joy. But then to kind of open it up outside of the family life and going back to that challenge part, man, when you see an athlete have that aha moment of, oh wow, when I do this and I do it. Repetitively and I utilize this skill, I perform better.

Like that is the ultimate joy that you can get from this. And, and sometimes you don’t see that for a very, very long time. So so when, when it does happen you, you definitely have to enjoy it. Awesome.

[00:39:18] Mike Klinzing: Before we get out, I want to give you a chance to share how can people reach out to you, connect with you, whether you want to share email, social media, media, whatever you feel comfortable with.

And then after you do that, I’ll jump back in and wrap things up.

[00:39:28] Cat Lutz: Yeah, I mean probably my two biggest things are email. You can always contact me at katlutz@imgacademy.com or I am on LinkedIn and active there just under Cat Lutz. And I’m always happy to answer questions or help out in any way I can.  So I appreciate you giving me that opportunity here today.

[00:39:49] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. Cat, cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule this morning to jump on. Really appreciate it and to everyone out there, thanks for listening, and we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.