Speaker 1: I made a conscious decision a few days a week
Speaker 1: to actually spend time with a blank sheet of paper,
Speaker 1: and sometimes I would write things down, sometimes I wouldn't,
Speaker 1: but just reflecting and meditating on what is.
Speaker 2: My role as a coach, what is my role as a.
Speaker 1: Parent, How do I want to carry myself?
Speaker 2: And what do I want them to learn by watching me.
Speaker 3: This is the Reform Sports Project, a podcast about restoring
Speaker 3: healthy balance and perspective in all areas of sports through
Speaker 3: education and advocacy. This is Nick Bonacor from the Reform
Speaker 3: Sports Podcast. Today, I'm speaking with Jason Gore, wrestling coach, pastor,
Speaker 3: and sports parent. A former captain of the North Carolina
Speaker 3: State Wolfpack wrestling team. Jason's career path took him from
Speaker 3: the business world into full time ministry, and eventually to
Speaker 3: serving as a pastor. Through it all, he has remained
Speaker 3: connected to his roots on the map, serving his community
Speaker 3: as a youth wrestling coach and instilling the life and
Speaker 3: leadership skills that meant so much to him growing up
Speaker 3: into another generation of kids and teenagers. Jason and I
Speaker 3: discussed balancing competitiveness with a healthy mindset, determining your value system,
Speaker 3: and approach as a parent before your child steps onto
Speaker 3: the field, or matt In teaching kids how to be
Speaker 3: adults in today's world. Back in the Saddle, I got
Speaker 3: a guest that I'm really excited I had opportunity to
Speaker 3: connect with him this past wrestling season. My second oldest son, Tyler,
Speaker 3: was finishing out a senior year of high school and
Speaker 3: got to compete against his son. And man, he's a coach,
Speaker 3: guy's a pastor, he's a former absolute stud for the
Speaker 3: NC State Wolfpack, was a multi sport athlete in high
Speaker 3: school himself, and I'm just super pumped to have him.
Speaker 3: Jason Gore coach Gore, Pastor Gore, Jason Gore, thanks for
Speaker 3: hopping on bro oh.
Speaker 1: Man, listen. Couldn't be more excited to spend some time
Speaker 1: with you on here. Love what you're doing, and man,
Speaker 1: you got quite the family yourself.
Speaker 2: Love.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed watching you guys interact and compete and
Speaker 1: just really enjoy something that some people seemingly get super
Speaker 1: stressed out about. And you guys are a joy to
Speaker 1: watch from afar And yeah, man, couldn't be more stoke
Speaker 1: to be on the podcast with you.
Speaker 3: Well, dude, so that brings me to you know why
Speaker 3: after we you know, we met briefly. Of course, my
Speaker 3: son wrestled your son twice, but I just saw your engagement,
Speaker 3: right and and and and you know a lot of
Speaker 3: sports parents who listen to this, you know, youth coaches
Speaker 3: and of course athletes as well. And where you really
Speaker 3: caught my attention is, first of all, you're a physical specimen.
Speaker 3: You're you're excessively intended to look at. I'm like, do
Speaker 3: the cage fighter, what's going on here? But but you're
Speaker 3: also a gentle giant, right And and what I love
Speaker 3: most about everything is watching you coach is you're passionate.
Speaker 3: You want your kids to do well. But this seems
Speaker 3: to be a tremendous balance. How do you balance, man,
Speaker 3: and you have a daughter that wrestles, you have a
Speaker 3: younger son that's wrestled. How do you balance your competitiveness
Speaker 3: as a former athlete, a guy who wants to win
Speaker 3: see your kids be successful, while also looking at the
Speaker 3: big picture, especially man in a sport right wrestling, where
Speaker 3: it is so intense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a great question and one I'm actually passionate about.
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you the way that I balance it, honestly, Nick,
Speaker 1: is by learning from doing it the wrong way, just
Speaker 1: being perfectly honest with you. You mentioned, you know, competitive athlete
Speaker 1: in college, and we've got three kids to do it,
Speaker 1: and so our oldest are twins eight and Natty they're fifteen,
Speaker 1: and then Connor's twelve. It's not something I'll tell you that,
Speaker 1: and I certainly don't always get it right now, but
Speaker 1: I didn't always get it right. But what I've realized
Speaker 1: over the years, and this kind of gets into sports
Speaker 1: psychology and something I've kind of nerded out about over
Speaker 1: the last few years, but the reality is none of
Speaker 1: us compete well, none of us do anything well when
Speaker 1: we're really feeling the pressure. And then the flip side
Speaker 1: to that is all of us are usually at our
Speaker 1: best when we're laid back and relaxed. And so what
Speaker 1: I've learned as a parent and as a coach is
Speaker 1: you can go into these whether it's a wrestling tournament,
Speaker 1: a football game, and dump all these pressure and these
Speaker 1: high expectations on these young athletes or even on our
Speaker 1: elves as adults. Maybe that's all different podcasts, or we
Speaker 1: can go in say listen, I've prepared, I've trained life
Speaker 1: is supposed to be fun. Let's just go out there
Speaker 1: and let it fly and let the carters fall where
Speaker 1: they may land. And I'm telling you, man, the relational connection,
Speaker 1: the success, all that stuff comes when you just approach
Speaker 1: it with a bit more healthy mindset. So I guess
Speaker 1: that's a long way of saying I think I learned
Speaker 1: by doing it the wrong way and learning, hey, this
Speaker 1: isn't really yielding us the fruit that we want to see.
Speaker 1: So man, let's just uh, let's let's take the pressure
Speaker 1: off and let's just go out there and let it
Speaker 1: fly and have a good time.
Speaker 3: You know, it's not called the Reform Sports project. You know,
Speaker 3: initially started off as a reform sports parent before it
Speaker 3: evolved and you know, trial by fire, you know, like
Speaker 3: I vividly remember, you know, my background. I played collegiate baseball.
Speaker 3: Out of the audience knows this, and I remember my
Speaker 3: son Tyler in particular. You know, he started getting into
Speaker 3: All Stars at the young ages, and I was coaching,
Speaker 3: and I'm I mean, I'm like, wow, I'm such a
Speaker 3: great coach. Like my ego was totally involved. I mean,
Speaker 3: it was like ridiculous. And then of course I realized,
Speaker 3: you know, fast forward a couple of years, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: what in the God's name am I doing? Like it's
Speaker 3: not about me, you know, it's not about me, but
Speaker 3: it is hard at times to separate that. And you know,
Speaker 3: I remember, man, I mean, I know you met Tyler.
Speaker 3: Now he's eighteen years old, but I mean I remember
Speaker 3: one time. Man, I can't forget it. I remember being
Speaker 3: in the in the car on the way home with
Speaker 3: him and telling him I was disappointed because the ball
Speaker 3: went through his legs. I think it was eight years old,
Speaker 3: and it was quote unquote a big game, you know,
Speaker 3: recit baseball game, and I was disappointed, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: I can't believe I said that. You know, I was agitated.
Speaker 3: It's like, here's a kid who's seven eight years old,
Speaker 3: who's probably got if I can visualize it right, he
Speaker 3: probably had an orange Gatorade mustache at the time. He's
Speaker 3: probably eating a hot dog, and I'm sitting there telling
Speaker 3: him disappointing him from a ball going between his legs
Speaker 3: and and you know, but that was kind of like
Speaker 3: that moment I reflect, I'm like, what an absolute inbecilla was.
Speaker 3: So I appreciate you getting vulnerable and saying, man, I
Speaker 3: know I messed up, So how do you juggle though
Speaker 3: that car ride?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 3: I mean go from coach to I've had people coaches,
Speaker 3: you know who are sports parents say they literally pretend
Speaker 3: they have two different has and they talk about the
Speaker 3: how do you juggle the car ride?
Speaker 1: So for me, the way I juggle the car ride.
Speaker 1: And this is for all of us parents out there,
Speaker 1: if you don't prepare ahead of time as a parent
Speaker 1: and a coach, just the way we expect our athletes
Speaker 1: to because I actually view like my I coach on
Speaker 1: the field or in the matt room, and then I'm
Speaker 1: a coach slash parent on the way home. But you
Speaker 1: would never show up to a football game as a
Speaker 1: coach unprepared, unplanned, without a game plan. And so, man,
Speaker 1: if we don't spend time as parents ahead of time
Speaker 1: saying okay, this is going to be my mentality after
Speaker 1: this is why we're competing. This is what we hope
Speaker 1: that our kids get out of this, this competition. And
Speaker 1: when you get in the heat of the moment, if
Speaker 1: you haven't planned, like what, and if you haven't really
Speaker 1: thought about what your values are and what you hope
Speaker 1: to get out of it. When you get in the
Speaker 1: heat of the moment, you don't stand a chance because
Speaker 1: the reality is we are a little bit disappointed when
Speaker 1: stuff like that happens. But I'll tell you one thing
Speaker 1: that I tell myself and I encourage other parents, you know,
Speaker 1: if I'm coaching their kids, especially at sport like wrestling,
Speaker 1: you got to realize, just by having a kid that
Speaker 1: was willing to go to practice every day this week
Speaker 1: and then show up and walk out on the mat
Speaker 1: with one other person, with tens hundreds, maybe at state
Speaker 1: term of thousands of people watching, they're already doing something
Speaker 1: that the majority of the kids on the planet would
Speaker 1: just wouldn't have the guts to do.
Speaker 2: To be honest, we wouldn't have them intal toughness.
Speaker 1: So just by doing that, and listen, I'm not a
Speaker 1: participation trophy guy at all. Okay, so don't hear that,
Speaker 1: But we got to realize, man, just by them taking
Speaker 1: that step, they're already growing well beyond what the majority
Speaker 1: of the young people in our world are doing right now.
Speaker 1: And so when you can get that attitude of you know,
Speaker 1: and you can get your value system before you actually
Speaker 1: get in the moment, it really helps you when you
Speaker 1: get into it.
Speaker 3: So I know that you. I want to shift gears
Speaker 3: a little bit because you brought up you know, competing
Speaker 3: kind of like that free spirit, like in the mindset
Speaker 3: of you know, having fun. And I know this because
Speaker 3: you know, it's one of the things I was like,
Speaker 3: Holy cal, I can't believe this dude actually did this.
Speaker 3: You wrestled Kyle Sanderson. I don't know how many times,
Speaker 3: you know, for those that don't know, if you're not
Speaker 3: familiar with wrestling, Cale is like, you know, he's he's
Speaker 3: the Goat. I mean, I would say he's the greatest
Speaker 3: of all time, undefeated. I mean, he's the head coach
Speaker 3: of Penn State Wrestling. It's unbelievable. And you wrestled him,
Speaker 3: you competed. How were you you were still what nineteen
Speaker 3: twenty twenty one years old at that time? How are
Speaker 3: you not nervous a standing in front of a guy
Speaker 3: like because I think it's important for people to realize,
Speaker 3: like it's okay to be nervous because we're all you know,
Speaker 3: you were wrestling the goat, but you know, we might
Speaker 3: be fifteen years old, you know, Tyler and Aidan wrestling
Speaker 3: to see who's going to wrestle for a third like
Speaker 3: they did for them in that moment that might have
Speaker 3: been that nervous moment. How do you mentally get yourself
Speaker 3: ready in that situation?
Speaker 1: So a lot of time Pactor. First of all, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: going out, I've never felt so out of control of
Speaker 1: my life, probably as in moments in that match wrestling
Speaker 1: against Caley. Funny quick story. Then I answered the question, man,
Speaker 1: we go out there, we were wrestling Iowa and listen.
Speaker 1: It took me a while to get my head game
Speaker 1: right in college.
Speaker 2: I got hurt when I was a freshman.
Speaker 1: I was out for a full year. I was originally
Speaker 1: I beat out the starters here before it got hurt,
Speaker 1: was out for a full year. And then you know,
Speaker 1: wrestling Division one, you come back, you've been off the
Speaker 1: map for twelve months, that's you're gonna take a beatn
Speaker 1: when you first come back. And so I went from
Speaker 1: being incredibly dominant in the state of North Carolina to
Speaker 1: just being an average joe. And that really took a
Speaker 1: toll on me mentally. So it took me a few
Speaker 1: years to really get the right mindset. But wrestling Calee
Speaker 1: my senior year, I had kind of finally landed the
Speaker 1: mindset thing a bit more healthy. I'm telling you that,
Speaker 1: as sure as I'm sitting here right now, I knew
Speaker 1: I was gonna be the one. I was gonna be
Speaker 1: the guy that beat him. You can probably go back
Speaker 1: and watch the match on YouTube. Anything but that happened.
Speaker 1: He kicked my butt up and down the mat. But
Speaker 1: I will tell you that I had the mindset going
Speaker 1: into this thaying like I'm not going into this with
Speaker 1: the mindset of I must win and beat Cale Sanderson.
Speaker 1: Was to train and to do all the little things right.
Speaker 1: And I believe I've done all the little things right
Speaker 1: up until this point. Now it's time for me to
Speaker 1: go out there and trust my training and have a blast.
Speaker 1: The funny story about that is we go out to Iowa,
Speaker 1: we got this duel meet against them, and I come
Speaker 1: out on the map. They call my name and it's
Speaker 1: there's there's thousands and thousands of people at their home
Speaker 1: wrestling matches, right, And so I go out the lights,
Speaker 1: The place blasts out all right, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you just hear people are stomping on the
Speaker 1: bleachers and clapping. The spotlight comes up, it goes down
Speaker 1: on him, and it's like, for a moment, it feels
Speaker 1: like this feels like a gladiator.
Speaker 2: Is entering the ring to slaughter a lamb.
Speaker 1: I mean this a bit and but you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's all part of the deal. And uh, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean in that situation, it was just I'm here
Speaker 1: to compete and let a fly man, it's an honor
Speaker 1: and a privilege. Like we get to compete, we get
Speaker 1: to wrestle, and if we have a competition mindset, we're
Speaker 1: telling ourselves, hey, just being out here competing is helping
Speaker 1: me sharpen my skills that aren't just valuable here on
Speaker 1: the map, but also valuable in life. As it relates
Speaker 1: to my kids, I really try to give them the
Speaker 1: same Montra man, like, competing is an opportunity to actually
Speaker 1: show what our training really can do. And so just
Speaker 1: to be out there is the opportunity. So take advantage
Speaker 1: of the opportunity. Win, lose, draw, try to win every second. Now,
Speaker 1: I will say I've learned over the last two years
Speaker 1: and then this year specifically as it relates to wrestling,
Speaker 1: we don't talk a whole lot anymore about winning matches.
Speaker 1: We talk a lot about controlling the second, being aggressive
Speaker 1: in the moment. Let's win the second, let's score the
Speaker 1: next point. The wins and losses will take care of themselves.
Speaker 1: And what happens is that takes a lot of pressure
Speaker 1: off because if you're losing four nothing, all you're doing
Speaker 1: is worried about winning the next second. If you're up
Speaker 1: five to nothing, you're just worried about winning the next second,
Speaker 1: And so you don't have to carry all the pressure
Speaker 1: of what's going to happen at the end of the match.
Speaker 2: You just do what you need to do in the moment.
Speaker 1: And we've found a lot of success with our kids
Speaker 1: and then with some other with other athletes that I've
Speaker 1: worked at, specifically in the last couple of years, just
Speaker 1: focusing on the next second.
Speaker 3: Listen, no one has more impact than the parent. I'm
Speaker 3: the child, you know most of the time, but a
Speaker 3: coach is right there as well. So do you try
Speaker 3: to coach when you're at practice and parent at home? Like,
Speaker 3: for instance, when you're doing the mental preparation, is that
Speaker 3: something that you're really intentional about, Like you know with
Speaker 3: all the kids that you coach at the high school level,
Speaker 3: or even you know your younger son, like you mentioned Connor,
Speaker 3: your daughter Addison, like, are you intentional? Because I feel
Speaker 3: like it's so easy to go and you drill and
Speaker 3: you do all the physical components, the conditioning, go live whatever.
Speaker 3: How much time do you allocate towards really doing you know,
Speaker 3: the mental the attitude, you know, focusing on effort and such.
Speaker 1: Yeah, great question again, man, So two things I'll say
Speaker 1: about that. So remind me to come back to wrestling
Speaker 1: mindset and hopefully hopefully well remember to come back to it. Sure,
Speaker 1: so we just going into Chris just before Christmas time.
Speaker 1: And again this is going back to me being honest,
Speaker 1: but I don't always get this right. My daughter and
Speaker 1: I we were at Mark Adams Christmas Tournament, and I
Speaker 1: don't think at that point she had lost. She's wrestling
Speaker 1: in the finals against Teresa Kennedy, who is a just
Speaker 1: a dear child.
Speaker 2: She's a great, great young lady.
Speaker 1: She's a senior. She was a state runner up last year.
Speaker 1: And Patti took her down in the first period, as
Speaker 1: went into nothing in the second period. It was kind
Speaker 1: of even. Third period, Addie goes down quite honestly, makes
Speaker 1: a pretty dumb mistake, you know, reaches back for a
Speaker 1: leg gets a little sloppy, leaves her head by her knee,
Speaker 1: and Teresa's a very savvy wrestler, slapped a cradle on her,
Speaker 1: took her back, and pender and, man, I'm gonna.
Speaker 2: Be honest, I was. I lost my cool a bit.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: She came up to matter, what the heck? Well, I
Speaker 1: won't use the word, I probably use you know, what
Speaker 1: the heck are you doing doing something sloppy? You know,
Speaker 1: we don't teach that. We don't. And she looked at
Speaker 1: me and she said, why are you acting like this?
Speaker 1: I made a mistake. It's like, okay, wait, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: this is uh. I got to call I gotta calm
Speaker 1: down a little bit. And so it's probably I'd liking
Speaker 1: that to the ball going between the legs. And so
Speaker 1: that happened just before Christmas. And so if my wife
Speaker 1: are on here, she would tell you the truth. I
Speaker 1: told her. I said, man, I've got to do some
Speaker 1: work myself. We ask these athletes to prepare mentally and physically,
Speaker 1: and as a coach and as a dad. And I
Speaker 1: would say this to any parent who's listening, or any coach,
Speaker 1: if you expect your athletes to perform well.
Speaker 2: In the heat of the moment.
Speaker 1: You know how much work it takes to get them
Speaker 1: ready to do that, Expect the same amount of yourself.
Speaker 1: And so I made a conscious decision a few days
Speaker 1: a week to actually spend time, like with a blank
Speaker 1: sheet of paper, And sometimes I would write things down,
Speaker 1: sometimes I wouldn't, but just reflecting and meditating on what
Speaker 1: is my role as a coach, what is my role
Speaker 1: as a parent, how do I want to carry myself?
Speaker 1: And what do I want them to learn by watching me?
Speaker 1: And when you spend that time in preparation, I mean,
Speaker 1: and the brain, and the mind is just like any
Speaker 1: other muscle, it's stronger in the moment. And so I
Speaker 1: would say, how much time do you need to spend
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean a couple guys here talking
Speaker 1: how big of a bozo are you as a parent?
Speaker 1: I mean, are you the guy that's sitting behind home
Speaker 1: plate hounding the official after every call? And whether you
Speaker 1: know it or not, you're teaching a kid that they
Speaker 1: can go to work one day and badmouth their supervisor.
Speaker 1: Like at some point, somebody's in charge and it's not you,
Speaker 1: And you got to learn how to deal with that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, man, I actually literally I had to spend time,
Speaker 1: you know, throughout our Christmas break and over China and
Speaker 1: throughout the month of January, and I'll tell you it
Speaker 1: radically changed my perspective. And if my daughter were on here,
Speaker 1: she would tell you like her second half of the
Speaker 1: season with me as her coach Dad was so much
Speaker 1: more of a joy. She did end up wrestling Teresa
Speaker 1: again as a side note, in the regional finals, lost
Speaker 1: to Teresa again, but I think it was much closer match. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean it was close until the end of the
Speaker 1: first one, but but yeah, it was like, man, We're
Speaker 1: just going to go out here and have a good
Speaker 1: time and let it fly, and totally different feeling come
Speaker 1: at home after that tournament.
Speaker 3: When we return, Coach Gore and I dive into the
Speaker 3: wrestling mindset before we go to break. I've got another
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Speaker 3: two million daily active users and nineteen thousand sports organizations,
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Speaker 3: visit WWAW dot teamsnap dot com and set up a
Speaker 3: free demo to learn how Team Snap can help your
Speaker 3: organization this season. Where we left off, Jason and I
Speaker 3: were about to discuss his approach to helping his athletes
Speaker 3: prepare mentally almost as much as they prepare physically before
Speaker 3: stepping onto the map. We'll get back to the wrestling
Speaker 3: mindset everything in a minute. I want to touch on
Speaker 3: Addison right there, Like, man, kids have a way of
Speaker 3: teaching us.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: It's like, just when you said that to me about Dad,
Speaker 3: why are you doing that? I'm like I felt that,
Speaker 3: and I'm like yeah, because i know I've done that before.
Speaker 3: You know, Like and if whoever's listening out, there's a
Speaker 3: sports parent. You know, if you've never felt that way,
Speaker 3: but like the maturity it kind of you know, it's
Speaker 3: got to make you feel like, man, I must be
Speaker 3: doing something right for my daughter to feel confident enough
Speaker 3: in that moment to kind of humble me, or to
Speaker 3: be or to be able to help advocate and share
Speaker 3: her feelings in a very appropriate way. Because how many
Speaker 3: times do we see kids lose? They're throwing stuff off
Speaker 3: the met they're cursing out this one and again. Kids
Speaker 3: make mistakes, right, just like adults do whatever, but kids
Speaker 3: have should have more leeway. But I mean for her
Speaker 3: to be mature enough in that moment, that's still got
Speaker 3: to feel pretty good as a parent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it does. I mean she said to me like
Speaker 1: after that, the next thing she said to me was,
Speaker 1: I mean, really, do you do you think that I
Speaker 1: wanted to lose? I was like, oh, gosh, no, I
Speaker 1: know you. I know you didn't want to lose. So yeah, no, absolutely, man,
Speaker 1: I mean, and that's that's what this is all about, right,
Speaker 1: We're not I mean, look, I'm gonna say this in
Speaker 1: in complete humility here, by God's grace, you know, our
Speaker 1: kids love to compete in athletics, and they're they're pretty
Speaker 1: dang good, you know, given their age and and so
Speaker 1: there is a possibility that they and even a likelihood
Speaker 1: that they will compete at the next level in whatever
Speaker 1: sport they continue to apply themselves to. But the reality
Speaker 1: is most kids aren't going to be professional athletes, and
Speaker 1: nobody really wants to hear that. But even if they
Speaker 1: are professional athletes, how many professional athles fleets do we know?
Speaker 1: To make a ton of money, blow a ton of money,
Speaker 1: end up on somebody's social media, end up on the
Speaker 1: news clips because they handle themselves in an inappropriate way.
Speaker 1: So it's just so easy to lose sight of what's
Speaker 1: really most important, which is really teaching our young people
Speaker 1: how to be adults in today's world. And because there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people in today's world that don't know
Speaker 1: how to be adults. So that's a long way of saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: incredibly proud. I mean that was a that was a
Speaker 1: moment of like, man, we slipped up in this wrestling match,
Speaker 1: but yeah, she's got some good things.
Speaker 2: Going for man.
Speaker 3: I freaking love that, and real quick, I think it's
Speaker 3: important because it's just as important for kids to learn
Speaker 3: from a competitive mind to learn about the used to
Speaker 3: call that the wrestling mindset, but I think that can
Speaker 3: apply to any sport. How far do you take, you know,
Speaker 3: being intentional of really helping these kids become better in
Speaker 3: their mind to prepare to compete.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so here's here's the thing. But so wrestling mindset.
Speaker 1: And you may or may not know.
Speaker 3: I know the company, Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah so, and.
Speaker 1: This isn't a I don't work for them. I've had
Speaker 1: some conversations with some people that do. We've actually considered
Speaker 1: becoming a client of theirs. We haven't done it yet.
Speaker 1: But one of the things that they point out is
Speaker 1: we spend so much time focusing on the physical side
Speaker 1: of any sport, all right, so it doesn't have to
Speaker 1: just be wrestling. This group, you know, primarily focuses on wrestling,
Speaker 1: and like, if you think about it, probably ninety nine
Speaker 1: percent of what you do at a wrestling practice, or
Speaker 1: at a baseball practice or a football practice is working on technique.
Speaker 1: It's working on the schemes, it's working on the philosophies
Speaker 1: and working on conditioning. But most people would say a
Speaker 1: sport like wrestling, let's just make up a percentage here
Speaker 1: because we can do that is at least fifty percent metal. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: if you go into a match knowing you're going to lose,
Speaker 1: or if you go into a match super stressed out,
Speaker 1: the likelihood of you winning that match is greatly reduced.
Speaker 1: And I would say, if somebody thinks they're going to lose,
Speaker 1: it's like you have no chance of winning. And so
Speaker 1: we've got to find ways to spend more time focusing
Speaker 1: on the mental aspect. Now, when you ask me specifically
Speaker 1: how much time I would say in the room, I
Speaker 1: really with our head coach at the at the at
Speaker 1: Garner High School, so I was technically the assistant there
Speaker 1: this year, the head girls coach. By the end of
Speaker 1: the year, I would say we were spending maybe the
Speaker 1: last five to seven minutes of a two hour practice
Speaker 1: just talking about the mental game. Probably not enough time,
Speaker 1: but I will tell you there's a number of athletes
Speaker 1: on that team that went out of their way to
Speaker 1: let me know how much that actually changed the way
Speaker 1: they approach competition. Now, for me personally, at home, I
Speaker 1: have the luxury of having, you know, our athletes, our
Speaker 1: children in our house, and so we very rarely talk
Speaker 1: technique at home, but we regularly talk about the mental
Speaker 1: approach to the game. So I don't know how to
Speaker 1: quantify it, but I would say as a parent and
Speaker 1: at home, I spend more time talking about the mental side.
Speaker 1: And I would say to a parent out there, especially
Speaker 1: if you're not a coach, get your athlete around coaches
Speaker 1: that you trust. If you don't trust them, that's a
Speaker 1: whole nother problem. But get your athletes around coaches that
Speaker 1: can build into the physical side and hopefully touch the
Speaker 1: mental side. But nobody is going to really be able
Speaker 1: to speak to the mental side to the emotional side
Speaker 1: like a parent, because a parent really knows the athlete,
Speaker 1: probably better than the coach does, so you actually know
Speaker 1: what their real insecurities are. You really know what their
Speaker 1: true hopes are in life overall. And so I would
Speaker 1: say at practice, you probably need tend to like inresting mindset,
Speaker 1: will probably say, man, let's try to get closer to
Speaker 1: twenty percent mental. That can be a lot. You got
Speaker 1: a limited time. But I would say at home, as
Speaker 1: a parent, I think we need to focus more on
Speaker 1: the mental approach, way more than we need to be
Speaker 1: talking about the physical side. And even the Wins and
Speaker 1: Losses coach.
Speaker 3: I freaking love this. I love listening to you. You
Speaker 3: got a podcast? You know people want to follow you,
Speaker 3: they want to see what you're doing. Where can they
Speaker 3: connect with you and listen to your stuff?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm on Instagram, just Jason Gore. It's pretty
Speaker 1: easy to track down. And then if you're looking to
Speaker 1: track with this on a podcast, We've got We launched
Speaker 1: a new podcast last year. It's just called Hope in
Speaker 1: Real Life with Jason Gore and Our Desire. We've got
Speaker 1: a whole team. Their primary focus is actually bring hope
Speaker 1: into the real, everyday moments of our lives. And so
Speaker 1: whether that's talking about marriage, whether it's talking about parenting,
Speaker 1: where it's talking about finances, where it's talk about leadership
Speaker 1: and success in the marketplace, we bring in different subject
Speaker 1: matter experts and just talk about man, how can we
Speaker 1: find growth? How can we find hope in the everyday
Speaker 1: moments that all of its experience in everyday life. So
Speaker 1: you can go wherever you download digital content, you can
Speaker 1: find us on Instagram or wherever you check out podcasts,
Speaker 1: just Hope in Real Life with Jason Gore, and you'll
Speaker 1: see a bald guy with a beard, and yeah, man,
Speaker 1: check us out.
Speaker 3: You know, I can attest to the bald guy with
Speaker 3: a beard and the cauliflower ears and the shoulders that
Speaker 3: look like a damn eighth And I will tell you
Speaker 3: that from my run ins with you, you're a guy that
Speaker 3: I want to have if I was walking down a
Speaker 3: dark alley and a guy wouldn't want to run into.
Speaker 3: But just like most guys like you who can tie
Speaker 3: someone up in a pretzel, you're extremely gracious, humble, and man,
Speaker 3: I'm really grateful that I got the chance to meet
Speaker 3: with you, that our son's got to connect Tyler couldn't
Speaker 3: speak high enough about Aiden, and we didn't get to
Speaker 3: talk much to your daughter Addie and such. But I mean,
Speaker 3: it's gonna be fun following your family and keeping up
Speaker 3: with you as the years continue on. So I really
Speaker 3: can't thank you enough for coming on coach and means
Speaker 3: the world, hey right.
Speaker 1: Back at you. They can listen. These types of conversations
Speaker 1: are conversations that need to happen, man, So I applaud you,
Speaker 1: and I've enjoyed checking out the podcast as well, So
Speaker 1: keep it up and let's do it again sometime soon.
Speaker 3: That sounds like a planing coach. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: That's Jason Gore, former NC State Wolfpack wrestling team captain,
Speaker 3: high school wrestling coach, pastor, and sports parent. Thanks for
Speaker 3: listening to the Reform Sports Podcast. If you've enjoyed this episode,
Speaker 3: we would appreciate it if if you took a moment
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