Welcome to the Dream Team: RYTE SPORT Custom Sublimated Swimwear & Squadlocker Team Store Solution   It’s not just high-quality custom swimwear anymore… SquadLocker and RYTE SPORT have partnered to offer a complete aquatics team gear solution. What’s the Splash? Custom Swimwear Designer: Create your team’s RYTE SPORT swimwear in SquadStudio powered by SquadLocker. Choose your style, pattern, and colors, then upload your logo - no art skills are required. Real live experts are available on chat in the design tool to help you complete your design and get a quote. Streamlined Swimsuit Ordering Process: Whether you design your swimsuit in SquadStudio or work with a SquadLocker expert, you will get the design and quote faster than ever before. You can order in bulk or put it in your free online store for athletes to shop. In the online store, each team members selects their size and checks themselves out. Swimsuits are shipped directly to their home so you have no payments to manage and nothing to hand out.  “SquadLocker was created to save time for coaches and organizers like you, so you can help kids reach their full potential,” said Gary Goldberg, SquadLocker Founder and President. All SquadLocker products are made to order and shipped directly to home so athletes, parents, and fans can shop with no order minimums. Gear for All: In addition to your custom swimsuit and accessories, dive into SquadLocker’s 16,000+ products for team gear and spirit wear. Add hoodies, water bottles, joggers, and more to your free online team store. Each item will look professional and meet-ready with your team logo. Choose from 70+ top brands like Nike®, Adidas®, Under Armour®, and more. Plus get creative with item decoration and free artwork support. The SquadLocker art team can help you customize artwork with new logos and apparel designs. Multiple logos are a great way to showcase team sponsors. A Better Team Store: Every team, club, and organization can have a free online team store. Stock it with the perfect gear and items to show off team spirit. SquadLocker keeps your store optimized with the latest apparel, gear, and swag, while automatically replacing discontinued items.  For schools or organizations with multiple teams, upgrade to a free organization page. This convenient shopping hub allows for a single shopping cart experience across stores and easy navigation.   Fundraising: Stores set up through SquadLocker can raise funds immediately. Add your desired percentage to items in your store and earn with each purchase. 100% of fundraising is paid out in cash and SquadLocker will even cover the credit card processing fees.   Other easy-to-use tools with SquadLocker:  Managing orders, payments, storing boxes, and handing out items is hassle-free with SquadLocker tools.  When your team roster is confirmed, use the built-in roster tool to simplify swimsuit orders. Upload your roster list, turn on automatic notifications to alert the team when to order, and monitor from your dashboard.  If the cost of a swimsuit is part of your registration fees, save a step by using the SquadLocker voucher solution. Organizations purchase vouchers, which athletes redeem in the store. Automated emails alert them to order, and they select their size and order online.  Team Building and Brand Recognition Wearing matching, custom-designed gear helps build a strong sense of team unity and camaraderie. When athletes wear their customized swimwear, they feel a sense of belonging and pride in their team. This psychological boost can translate to improved morale, better teamwork, and a stronger overall team dynamic, both in and out of the pool. For clubs and schools, branding is an important aspect of creating a lasting impression. Custom gear and spirit wear allow teams to showcase their brand with style and professionalism. Whether at local meets, regional competitions, or national championships, your team will be easily recognizable, helping to build a strong reputation and presence in the aquatic sports community.

In preparation for a season or a tournament, it’s important to set goals that provide a target toward which you can direct all of your effort and attention. Once you have clearly defined goals that are specific, measurable, adjustable/attainable, realistic, and time-bound, you should organize them into a structure. The goal setting structure allows you to break down your longer-term goals that have a greater outcome associated with them into shorter-term objectives. It helps you move from where you are to where you want to be. Your objectives help you take action by highlighting the first steps to take through your actions daily. Here are some examples from a coaches perspective: Ultimate goal: To win the championship at the end of the season Outcome goals: Finish the season with an undefeated record Earn the MVP of the season as voted on by the league coaches Have the fastest team in the league by mid-season Performance Improvement goals: Increase the amount of high percentage shots taken from last season (40%) this season to 60% in regular offensive situations Increase the average speed on the team by 2 seconds by the middle of the season; Improve the moral and confidence of the team pre-season by helping them create team mission statements, values, and goals Process & Objective goals:  In pre-season, schedule 15 minute one on ones with each athlete to help them develop their own understanding of their role, pre-game energy levels, and goal plans Every practice for the first five minutes, explain the practice plan in detail to the athletes and check for understanding of the purpose behind the drills 4 practices throughout the season, lead the team in a sprint test and track time improvement for each individual as well as for the team average On game days, lead the team through a pre-game routine that includes a mental, physical, technical, & tactical warm-up component specific to each athlete’s unique needs and the scouting report of the opponent During games, practice diaphragmatic concentration breathing to control my stress and give myself the best chance to operate with clarity of mind As you may be able to tell from this example, the process and objective goals are much more actionable and able to control. It would be important to remind the team of the outcome and ultimate goals at times during the season but focus on the process goals daily. In games, the process goals need to be organized into a game plan. Sticking to the game plan is the same as sticking to the process. If you execute the process and stick with it through the “messy” mistakes, challenge, and adversity then you will achieve the larger results that you ultimately want. The goal setting structure and process to creating it can be painful as you get started. However, you learn to respect the process as you move through it and  constantly adjust details as you learn more. As you see small successful results, you start to believe in the process. It’s important to understand that these steps are all a part of the journey toward success. Author: Brian Alexander | Date Published: 3/15/2020 Brian Alexander, MA, CMPC is a mental coach and co-founder of WellU Mental Training. He works with the USA Men’s Water Polo team and in private practice with athletes, coaches, and teams at the youth, high school, collegiate, professional, and Olympic levels in sport. Please visit www.welluapp.com to download the WellU app and start your mental training program.  If you would like to train your resilience, you can follow training programs by downloading the WellU Mental Training App on apple and google play devices. WellU provides engaging mental training opportunities to help athletes develop peak performance. Visit www.wellumentaltraining.com to download the app!

 We all share a common thread as human beings. We are purpose-driven. At first, we were driven to attain what Maslow deemed some of the basic tenets of life; including food, shelter, and reproduction, love and belonging, esteem, and finally self-actualization. All of these needs are extremely important. Sport and a desire to maximize athletic performance and the pursuit of excellence in competition are most aligned with Maslow’s final attribute, self-actualization. The motivation to achieve this level of excellence can be fueled through the following: Vision, Goals, Feedback/Support.  Click here to continue reading the full article, and learn about some practical ways you can begin to drive motivation in yourself and your team.   If you would like to train your resilience, you can follow training programs by downloading the WellU Mental Training App on apple and google play devices. WellU provides engaging mental training opportunities to help athletes develop peak performance. Visit www.wellumentaltraining.com to download the app!

First and foremost, it is important to understand the subtle differences between the concepts of attention, concentration and focus. There are many broad varying definitions out there. What’s important is how you use the concepts to help improve your performance. I will give a brief overview of these concepts. Concentration is your ability to perform with a clear and present focus. Focus can be defined as the central aspect of one’s attention. Lastly, attention is your observation and awareness of your surroundings. Within each of the above-mentioned terms, there is variability to how much or how well we can perform each of these aspects. Focus can be broken down into internal or external, and broad or narrow. For example, if you arrive at a game and your thoughts are preoccupied with the weather, the fans, or the noise of the stadium, we can say that you have an external center of focus. If your focus is occupied by thoughts of whether you will be late, how you will perform, or any other internal controls, then we can say you have an internal state of focus. We can go a bit deeper to say that we can and should adjust our level of focus to also include narrow and broad focus. Narrow (internal and external) Focus:  A narrow center of internal focus might be an athlete’s ability to mentally rehearse or prepare a positive dialogue to help them with their confidence or belief. This is both internal (inside themselves) and narrow (specifically focusing on a key aspect of their mental game). Conversely, a narrow external center of focus would be an athlete's ability to focus on a specific skill set crucial for their performance. For example, a tennis player’s narrow external focus might be focusing on the toss of the tennis ball for their serve. This is a small specific (narrow) skill that is focused externally. Broad (internal and external) Focus: A broad center of focus takes more information into focus and looks at it from a more global perspective. A broad external level of focus is very important to a quarterback who must scan the opposing team’s defense to find open spots, or find patterns where the defense might be exposed. This is a broad external focus. The QB might immediately move to a narrow external focus once an open receiver is found. This concept shows us the importance of shifting between varying levels of focus. Let’s stick with the football analogy in describing a broad internal center of focus. A quarterback on the sidelines may read into the energy and vibe that his teammates may be feeling, and then begin to think what to say to inspire his teammates if there is a sense they are down. The quarterback has now taken a broad internal (analyzing) perspective. Lastly to tie this all together, the quarterback may ask himself specifically, “what do I need to do to give my team the best chance to win right now.” (internal narrow focus). So you can see how athletes must move between varying levels of focus through an entire performance, and how each level of focus is important to one's success. This also illustrates how important focus is in its totality, and how the key for most successful athletes is their ability to automatically shift between the varying levels of that instantly. One's ability to shift between various levels of focus can often be the sign of a great competitor. Attention is an important factor in understanding what you need to train and work on to increase your performance. Attention allows us to observe all of our surroundings internally and externally. When we are paying attention we are consciously observing our environment, our mindset, and our body. Attention is awareness and when we pay close attention, we can better understand what type of focus we need. We may recognize that we have a lack of focus in general or that our focus is negative and not self-serving, or that we are too internal or too external or too narrow or too broad.   Focus applied: Set and train your focus Each environment you walk into, start your task with an evaluation of your level of Focus. Am I too internal or external, too narrow, too broad? What is my Focus for this particular event, practice, game, or task. What type of level of focus is most important at this moment?----Commit to this. Make a routine. Create a routine and make this consistent pre-game, post-game, practice, and so on. Routine sets the tone for your focus to take place. Make it automatic. If you are starting practice and are trying to figure out your routine, then your focus is elsewhere and you are not present on the higher level of focus that you will need. Routine is a primer for your focus. Train your focus: Sit on a chair in a room and pick a small spot in the room. Take 2 minutes to truly observe the spot or item you picked. Train your visual focus to go narrow on the very small details. Then, pull back, go broad, and take in everything in the room including the object. Practice going in and out 5 times within two minutes and observe your experience. Take 5 minutes to do a body scan while breathing. Spend 2 minutes scanning your body for how it feels starting from your ankles, up to your head, and then back down. Then go internal into your mind, and observe your thoughts and emotions for two minutes. Take an inventory of your experience. This exercise over time can help to build your attention and focus by using attention to make insights by your observations and focus, by learning to shift your focus to what is needed based upon your attention (observations). If you would like to train your resilience, you can follow training programs by downloading the WellU Mental Training App on apple and google play devices. WellU provides engaging mental training opportunities to help athletes develop peak performance. Visit www.wellumentaltraining.com to download the app! Author: Ami Strutin-Belinoff | Date Published: 1/15/2020 Ami Strutin-Belinoff, M.A., LMFT and CMPC, is a certified mental performance consultant. His private practice is based in San Diego, CA and he works remotely with athletes at all levels and in all sports. Visit Ami to learn more.  

It’s the holiday season and whether you travel or stay at home a lot can be happening in your life. Stress comes and goes as we manage tasks in time with problem solving and breathing. Communicating your needs while making sure to take ownership over the things you can control helps you cope with stressors as they arise. Finding balance or levels of cognitive and physical homeostasis free you up to help others near and dear to you. As you learn to be the master of your own domain, things are easier than they might seem they should be.   At times, you may lose control momentarily and your tone of voice plus body language can communicate it. It’s a moment of failure that you must learn from and ask for forgiveness about from those who have been impacted. Stress and emotion take over and you operate out of survival instincts. You can’t get those moments back so you need to reset your attention to what’s important now based on your core principles of your best self. Goals and standards help mobilize effort in the direction you would like to move. The quality of your motivation fed by understanding you have a choice in how you would like to connect and influence others determines the intensity of your effort.   Everyone is seeking self-actualization in a society and culture where we have the freedom of choice. For this, remind yourself to express gratitude and compassion for those without such freedoms. Yet, you must also acknowledge the competitive nature that freedom to pursue dreams and life-long aspirations brings between like-minded people. This is the essence of a opportunistic society and reflected in the autocratic world of athletics as well.   The grand existential philosophy on life centers on two givens for which you can not exactly determine: you are born and you will die. Everything in between those points on your timeline is up for grabs. However, there are a given set of circumstances upon birth for which you must choose to accept or work toward change. Is luck a factor? Perhaps it is however, we may never know until the pursuit toward being the change in the world you would like to see for a reason above and beyond yourself is started.   This brings us back to now. You are here; right where your feet are. Be present with your mind, body, and soul. Everything you are and have worked to become is directed toward expanding the space between stimulus and response. Continue to check-in on your goal progress but then quickly return to now. We find that is the best way to appreciate what you have, where you have come from, and honor those who have come before you. Acceptance and a state of presence brings calm and clarity of mind. Author: Brian Alexander | Date Published: 12/17/2019 Brian Alexander, MA, CMPC is a mental coach and co-founder of WellU Mental Training. He works with the USA Men’s Water Polo team and in private practice with athletes, coaches, and teams at the youth, high school, collegiate, professional, and Olympic levels in sport. Please visit www.welluapp.com to download the WellU app and start your mental training program.

 As an athlete, your awareness is your catalyst to increase your performance. It also acts as your neutral ground or foundation from which you can grow. Awareness comes in many forms, but at the core, there is self-awareness, awareness of our environment and finally and most importantly is our awareness of ourselves as we interact within our environment.  Mindfulness is a concept that is well talked about and introduced, but often misunderstood or not fully applied. It is an important concept and very relevant to our discussion of awareness. There is a lot to discuss, so being mindful of time, I will be short. Being present, in the here and now is one of the cornerstones of mindfulness. A second component is the ability to see things for what they are without holding them in judgment towards yourself or others. This concept can be applied to both negative and positive outcomes, but is often found to be most common when addressing outcomes that one may not necessarily desire. Lastly, the concept of mindfulness is showing understanding, compassion, and acceptance to oneself and others.   Let’s say that you fail to reach your goals for yourself or miss the final shot to tie or win the game. One way to react to this might be to devalue yourself, judge yourself negatively, or declare yourself less than or not enough. Conversely, acting mindful would look at this situation as a mere moment, not the end-all of who you are. You or your teammates would show compassion, support, and encouragement. Acting mindful acknowledges the result, but does not attach this result to define you. Good or bad. For example, if your team won the championship and you made the final shot to win the game, you would mindfully acknowledge your teammates, coaches and so on. To claim the win as your own would not be in line with mindfulness.  When we can be fully present and aware, a greater sense of awareness is possible. As an athlete, your greater sense of awareness can help you become more efficient in your gains by avoiding unconscious escape routes that derail your path to your goals. An escape route is often an unconscious habit or behavior that gives you short term relief. These escape routes are often triggered by fear and anxiety as one competes and if you keep following them they can lead to burnout and derail you from your goals.  It is extremely difficult to know where you are going and how you are going to get there without knowing where you are right now. This is awareness and acceptance.. Know where and who you are. To be able to avoid mental traps, escape routes, and other barriers you really need to start diving in to get to know yourself. After winning Gold in the 2014 ASICS World Series Beach Volleyball Tour, Kerry Walsh Jennings (beach volleyball icon) talked about her partnership with April Ross and expressed, “We’ve been really honest with this partnership and our play, and we look at ourselves and evaluate ourselves,” she went on to say, “To be great, you have to look at the dark side, you have to be willing to be uncomfortable and we’re more than willing.” This is a great example of a champion who has done a great deal of introspection and who has stepped into her fears and took the risk to be great by being ready to be uncomfortable. There are many ways to increase your level of awareness. In competition, you are forced into many situations that test your mental, emotional and athletic abilities. There are ways to train your awareness off the field of play so you are better able to adjust, react, and implement changes in the heat of competition that best serve you and your teammates, which allows for a significant competitive edge.    Ways to Kickstart Your Awareness Make a list of your known mental strengths and weaknesses. Assess your game. Where do things usually fall apart? What’s going on when you feel stagnant, and wonder “where did my mojo go and why?” What is happening when you’re winning and having positive outcomes? Understand your intensity level. What drives you to compete and dominate at a high level? What type of feeling states do you need to win? What states do you thrive on and at what times of the game? Some athletes need to calm down, play relaxed, let go. Some need to yell, scream, and aggressively propel themselves. Often athletes fluctuate between the two.  Video yourself. Look at body posture and see how it affects your game: head up or head down, negative look or positive look? Pre-game and Post game mental assessment.  Understand your fears. Come to an understanding and get clear with your fears. Be ready to face them and move towards them, not away from them. Fear often brings about Fight or Flight. Gravitating to either of these extremes often results in faulty patterns. This is useful to do with someone Take time to write down some core values that you have for yourself. Creating a circle chart is helpful by putting your most precious values at the center of your circle. Then start to match up your values with your sports environment and see where you can make adjustments or changes to try to match your values up so they are more inline.   Elicit feedback from your support network (coaches, teammates, family).   THREE MINDFULNESS EXERCISES:  Engage Awareness  Try walking at a pace half or a quarter of the speed you normally walk. Notice all the things around you that you normally would not notice. Do this exercise with your head up without looking at your phone. Remember walk slow. Feel the ground and try to access all five of your senses as you walk. Do this for 2 minutes.  Eat Half as slow as you normally eat and implement the same qualities as listed above in walking.  Show unsolicited appreciation and gratitude once in your day to someone that helped you at any point in your life. This could even mean a cashier in the checkout-line, the team equipment manager, your coach, or a loved ones.   Ami Strutin-Belinoff, M.A., LMFT and CMPC, is a certified mental performance consultant. His private practice is based in San Diego, CA and he works remotely with athletes at all levels and in all sports. If you would like to train your resilience, you can follow training programs by downloading the WellU Mental Training App on apple and google play devices. WellU provides engaging mental training opportunities to help athletes develop peak performance. Visit www.wellumentaltraining.com to download the app!