It saves so much energy that you can put toward being productive. We have to understand that doesn’t mean you’re weak or that doesn’t mean you’re an idiot. “People ask ‘So what do you do when you doubt yourself?'” Thompson explained. It can be difficult to communicate to some people exactly how mental coaching works, she said. An understanding of why your brain can aim you in unproductive directions is the first step toward avoiding and diffusing those situations. Mental skills, Thompson said, come down to front-loading them early. We can train our minds to not let that hijack us.” “People want to be confident, but how do you actually train yourself to be that way? Some of it is understanding how our brains work when we’re stressed. “Growing up I always heard ‘Go be confident.’ But what does that mean?” she said. Thompson makes an attempt to dig a little deeper. Typically, athletes will hear slices of advice on competitive attitude from coaches, though it is most often woven into messages involving tactics or effort or an upcoming competition. “That’s the name of the game,” Thompson said. Can people find a way to like it? To embrace it? That comes down to developing a relationship with stress and challenge. “I try to help them understand that the ups and downs are part of the fun.” “My overall goal is to help give kids the tools to enjoy the pursuit of what is possible and enjoy the process of getting better,” Thompson said. On that count, Thompson is also a professional. More importantly she worked with the girls with their volleyball skills and talked with them about developing a positive and productive attitude toward volleyball and sports in general. She was also part of a Pentagon demonstration of the NeuroTracker, a video training game that can hone cognitive recognition and is utilized by the Sanford staff. She said later she never plays, but no one who saw her competing would have guessed. Thompson’s recent visit included a pickleball match with Pentagon staff. “I’d shoot Courtney a text and ask if she’d call this kid sometime and talk through a few things. “We’ve had times where we’ve had kids who were struggling during the season,” he said.
![neurotracker demo neurotracker demo](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/galaxy-brain.jpg)
When he recognizes a situation where counsel and encouragement from a two-time Olympian might help, he doesn’t hesitate to ask.
![neurotracker demo neurotracker demo](http://www.civil-defence.co.uk/wpimages/wpca80fdca_05_06.jpg)
She is an Olympic-level friend to many of the girls involved in the Academy according to Mark McCloskey, club director of volleyball at the Pentagon. She also coaches them on the mental and emotional challenges of competition. Thompson, whose primary occupation is as a mindset coach for Compete to Create, an organization co-founded by Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, addresses fundamentals of the sport with local athletes. Two-time Olympian Courtney Thompson won a silver medal with the United States women’s national volleyball team in 2012 and a bronze in 2016 and makes periodic visits to Sioux Falls to work with the Sanford POWER Volleyball Academy.