AUTO-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT

Brianna Battles  00:01

Brian Welcome to the practice brave podcast. I am the host Brianna battles, founder of pregnancy and postpartum athleticism, and CEO of everyday battles. I’m a career strength and conditioning coach, entrepreneur, mom of two wild little boys and a lifelong athlete. I believe that athleticism does not end when motherhood begins, and this podcast is dedicated to coaching you by providing meaningful conversations, insights and interview topics related to fitness, mindset, parenting and of course, all the nuances of pregnancy and postpartum, from expert interviews to engaging conversations and reflections. This podcast is your trustworthy, relatable resource for learning how to practice brave through every season in your life. Hey everyone, welcome back to the practice brave Podcast. Today I’m doing a solo episode on something I get asked a lot about in a variety of capacities, whether it’s like online or just as a mom now that my kids are in sports, and that is, how are we going about raising little athletes? Like, what is the approach for some background context, obviously, you’re probably here because of the coaching that I do. I work with a lot of female athletes through pregnancy and postpartum. I specialize in that help certified coaches to also know how to do that. But beyond that, I’ve coached a lot of different levels, and from youth athletes to professional athletes and literally everything in between. I was a division one athlete, a division one coach, where I did a lot of recruiting and I picked up on a lot of different themes that you see among 18 to 22 ish year old athletes, and then, like, I’m still an athlete myself, I’m pursuing what I call, as you all know, a lifetime of athleticism that’s a huge part of the value system in my home. And when we think about becoming a mom and raising kids, especially if you’re here because you identify as being an athlete mom in any capacity, whether you are new to the game in terms of like, maybe you’re newly pregnant and you’re not quite in this season. Yet, there is a life cycle that I like to talk about, and that is the life cycle of going from, like, being a female athlete to eventually maybe a pregnant athlete to then a postpartum athlete to an athlete mom. And once you become an athlete mom, you are ultimately becoming a coach, a coach mom, because you are now raising your kids. Parenting is just a different form of coaching. You are coaching your kids in a lot of different ways, of course, but ultimately, we are getting to raise the next generation of little athletes, whatever that might look like now. And that doesn’t mean that all of our kids are going to be super athletic, but I think if you’re here and you’re listening to this, fitness is likely a foundation of your life. It is, it is part of your value system, health, fitness, overall wellness for you and for your family. And if we’re doing that, when we think about how we want our kids to participate in sports and what their experience growing up as a healthy, hopefully well rounded human sports and fitness have so much influence on that and so much impact. Yet what I have seen now as not just an athlete, not just as a coach, but now as a mom and my boys are 11 and seven. They’ve they started playing sports probably around four

Brianna Battles  03:32

ish, I would say, is the youth sports world is a hot mess, and once you’re in it, and you’re exposed to it, even at like the youngest of ages, you will see parents are absolutely unhinged and are ruining sports for kids. And I think that we have an opportunity coming into this conversation and this season of life, as mothers, as parents, as coaches, as former athletes, ourselves to do better for our kids, and because of, I guess, my semi unique scope of being a coach for so long, my master’s degree is actually in coaching. So a lot of life experience, a lot of education and a lot of professional experience. I’m coming at this conversation, not, I guess, just a mom with an opinion, and I want to share like, what we’ve done in our family for our boys to become little athletes, because they are very athletic. They are intrinsically motivated. And while, of course, there’s a genetic component to all of this, I also think that there are little things that Jared and I have done, whether it was like consciously or subconsciously over time, that has helped to create this energy, this life force that our kids have in how they participate in sports, and how we’re going about navigating raising two kids that are athletic, that are highly interested in sport, and now I want to. Preface this by saying I understand that not every kid is athletic, not every kid is going to be super motivated and interested in playing sport. And in that very same breath, I want to say that there is a sport or a physical outlet for every single person, every single kid, and it is our responsibility as parents to help facilitate the opportunity to figure out what that is for our kid. And I know that it’s not always easy. I know that is not always accessible. I know there’s a level of privilege to that. I absolutely understand that. If you’re listening to this podcast and you’re like, just so frustrated because your kid hates baseball, they hate soccer, you can’t get them to do X, Y or Z, fine feedback, right? And on to the next. We’re gonna keep exposing until we find something that they like. And I think that that is going that is what helps instill a life lesson of adaptability, of being able to like, try new things and being uncomfortable. And it’s ultimately a really good thing. Again, there is something for everyone, even if it’s more along like the non traditional sport route, and I think we have huge opportunities to try to help our kids discover what that may be. Again, if you’re listening to this, you’re probably coming into it from some sort of self interest in fitness, and and that is going to be a part of how you raise your family. And moms, we have a really big influence on that, a really big influence. So I just wanted to preface you know that sentiment of like, hey, like, my kids are not athletic. They’re not interested in sport. I understand that not everybody has to be athletic. That’s actually very unreasonable to expect, but we need to teach our kids how to be recreational, because the recreational and, like well rounded motor skills are things that sports help instill at a young age, and that will serve them across their lifetime, not just lifetime of athleticism, but their lifetime of, like, a high quality of life, so that they can play, like pick up sports in college, so that they Can recreationally golf when they’re older, whatever it might be like be able to have some sort of baseline knowledge of sport and fitness and motor skill that stays with them throughout their lifetime. And kids have lost the ability to develop their motor skills as well as they used to. There’s probably a lot of reasons for that. I’m not going to go into all those reasons, but I think overall, you know, we obviously have a generation of kids that are, you know, on screens more than maybe you and I were, that’s for sure. So I think that using sports as an opportunity to help these kids develop more motor skill is the way here is that that’s the focus point, not just like, hey, let’s like, raise athletes. I’m all for raising athletes. I’m doing it myself, but I like to, like, kind of preface this conversation. For those of you that are like, I just wish my kid could give a shit. Like, I get that. And that can be something that is slowly taught over time. And you know, it’s like focusing on the the micro aspects of that, of like, effort, trying hard, finishing a season if you don’t love it, things like that, that I think, ultimately go a really long way. So in our house, these are a few things that we have done from a really young age to help our kids develop greater levels of athletic maturity for the age that they actually are. I don’t expect my kids to be mature when it comes to their sports like they are two wild little boys. Little boys, like there’s no getting around that. They’re wild. They are intense, especially K, my older one, he’s much more intense, much more competitive right now at the age that he’s at, whereas my younger one chance is a little bit more free in how he participates, but also like his ability to lock in is like, Wow, where did that even come from? And it’s been interesting seeing them both develop differently, but also have so much in common in how they participate in their sports, on their teams, and then be able to contrast that with a lot of other kids that they play with or they play against and again, it’s just, it’s observing behavior, not just athleticism. And that I’m really trying to, like, get the point across that that’s what we’re talking about here, through the lens of talking about raising athletes. So one thing that we’ve done, I mentioned this a little bit earlier, is we started our boys in sports around four Cade started with gymnastics and jiu jitsu at four years old. Gymnastics was absolutely not for him. He was like, way too distracted and would just like, veer off to the side and jump into the ball pit. Could not follow directions at all. High energy kid, just not his thing. Jiu jitsu was really positive for him, and he was the youngest by far back then, I mean, that was 20

Brianna Battles  09:43

year was he born? I don’t know, like 2017 some maybe like 2017 Yes, he was four, because chance was a newborn on the sidelines. Okay, so like 2017 so it like jiu jitsu was, like common, but not that common, actually, for kids, it’s grown so much. Over the last few years, and so he started that at four years old, and so did chance. He started at four years old too, but also played soccer. And I’ll stick with Kate here so I can, like, stay focused. He also learned, and I did surf lessons when we were living in California. He also did recreational like, hockey in different camps. They played basketball, baseball, literally all of the sports, even water polo. And he really wasn’t into that. That was a sport that I loved, but, like, I’m not gonna be pushing that on him.

Brianna Battles  10:31

And dabbled in so many sports between like four and like eight. Ish did so many sports when we moved to Idaho, sports was the very first thing that we knew we needed to get our kids involved in so that they could have a group and make friends and have routine. Routine is key. Again. My kids are crazy. They are crazy boys. They need structure. They need routine. So then when we moved here, he did soccer, and then it would move into basketball season, and then we move into baseball season. And jiu jitsu for both boys is a sport that is sort of sprinkled in throughout the year, because it is a year round sport. My kids do not play any sport year round at this point in life, at 11 and at seven, my job, and this is what I recommend all parents, and frankly, a hill that I will die on is our kids need to play multiple sports for as long as possible. And it is not always realistic the older that they get, for a lot of different reasons, but for as long as we can. The goal is to expose them to as many sports as possible, diversify them as little athletes. Again, it’s so much more than Oh man. Well, he, like, just really loves baseball, though, or he just really loves football. Like, cool. I understand that, like, I really, I do understand that they love that sport and other sports will make them better at that sport, especially when they are young, because it is developing their overall athleticism, their overall motor skills. Again, once they get older, that conversation shifts a little bit, but at a young age, we’re really focusing on developing athleticism, which is then transferable to a variety of sport that is taught the best by having exposure different sports, a team environment and an individual environment, a sport that’s maybe traditional and a sport that’s maybe more non traditional, a sport that’s more eye and foot coordination versus hand and eye coordination. Lot of different elements here that we can expose our kids to at a young age, and that’s really what we’ve focused on doing, is they play a different sport every single season. And again, jiu jitsu is something they started at four that is sprinkled in throughout their sports. There are some weeks where maybe we only do, like, one practice a week, and that’s it, because we have other sports going on, but that’s an incredibly important sport for them to do, not to, like, take it totally down a jiu jitsu rabbit hole. But I also feel that it is, you know, especially now, especially now that I do it, now that, like my kids have been doing it since they were little, I’ve been able to see how positively it has affected their participation in other sports, because jiu jitsu is intense, and it’s so much body awareness, body coordination, their ability to react and respond, but also control. It really creates a well rounded athleticism. And with, you know, a lot of parents being afraid of their kids getting concussions, I feel like jiu jitsu has been a really great way of preparing Cade for football. He played tackle tackle football this past year for the first time. He had only played flag prior to them, you know. And I had like, kind of mixed feelings about it, but ultimately, I I’d made the decision with his dad, and also like with him, because he just so desperately wanted to play football that we would and one thing I noticed is Cade knows how to hit and he knows how to fall, and he knows how to shoulder roll so well, and that is a skill set that is not taught, that is not always intuitive, but because of Jiu Jitsu, it’s been something that’s been very transferable into a contact sport, where, if you know, and that’s not just football, that is basketball, that is soccer, that’s any way there’s physicality involved, where you could get head butted, where you could have a fall, or whatever, the ability to know how to fall and how to fall well, is not always taught, and I feel like It is a critical skill for our kids to learn, especially when they’re little and like a little bit more, they’re just like Little Noodles, you know, like us falling as adults, like, really, absolutely not No thank you. But for them, it’s key. So that was a really positive sport, and I’ve seen the power of how it. Transfers so well into literally every single sport that they do. And so that’s why I tell every parent like, no matter what kind of kid you have, athletic, unathletic, any kind of kid, Jujitsu can be positive for them. And I would say that even if I didn’t personally do it, because I have seen it with my kids, and I’ve seen it with a variety of different kinds of kids being involved in that sport and seeing how it positively affects their life in terms of

Brianna Battles  15:29

mental and emotional health, their confidence levels, God, especially for little girls. Are you kidding me? If you have a daughter, put her in Jiu Jitsu, I’m like, it literally will save her in so many ways, ways you can’t even anticipate right now. And that’s just a sport that I highly, highly recommend if you are looking to give your kid a solid baseline of fitness. And I know that we’ve always kind of like refer to gymnastics as that, but gymnastics can also be loaded in other ways, sometimes like a high pressure environment, and where it does become like the center, the center of the universe for a lot of young gymnasts. But again, everybody’s on their own path. I’m sharing about my opinion and observations with my own kids from my own scope. And so along those lines, like, yes, the traditional sports, but also like hobbies and things that they can do recreationally, where their fitness is not just attached to a sport, but their fitness is attached to like quality of life and activities and the ability to say yes and to try new things, for example, skiing, snowboarding. And I say this as somebody like we were way too poor to ever do those sports growing up and not have the opportunity myself. And if you have the opportunity, like, take your kid skiing, put them in a ski lesson, same thing with like wake boarding or wake surfing, like these activities that like these kids can learn at a really young age, if given the opportunity, if given the exposure. And again, these are not always going to be available, but there’s a lot of different hobbies you can take your kid to go play pickleball, tennis, whatever it might be, where they’re getting exposure to slightly different sports that are maybe not the traditional team sports that are offered at a lot of different schools. Again, so many opportunities to provide exposure to your kids, and I just will harp on that all day, put your kids in a lot of different sports at a young age for as long as possible. The next thing that I would recommend is, yes, putting them a lot of different sports. And also, like if they’re school age kids, you need to have them in an activity after school so they’re not just coming home and they’re like, bored and they’re wanting screens. They’re wanting to, like whatever. Like having them busy, having them occupied is so incredibly key, and that’s another way that, like sports, can come in. It’s a physical activity, something for them to move their body after they’ve been in school all day,

Brianna Battles  18:04

like they’re antsy. They need to move. They need to move. And we have to instill that habit of them wanting to move, craving movement, craving that sport after school. And it does not have to be every day for my family. It kind of does have to be every day like they they need that. They crave it. We are active every day. If they don’t have their own practice. Frankly, they’re coming to my practice where they’re still kind of, like moving around. We don’t allow any screens in our house, especially during the week, and then very infrequently, mostly like when we travel, or, like, I don’t know, in terms of, like, an iPad or video game that is like, we don’t really allow that in our house. It’s just it’s pretty limited and used strategically. I just do not like, I can tell, like, my kids feel like it poisons their little brain, and I sound crazy saying that, but I can tell when they’ve been on a screen too long. It is not good. Everyone is raging. Adam is not positive. So we really, really, really limit screens here. That means when their friends come over, and if you watch my Instagram Stories, you’ll see that there’s just always, always kids in my house. I am not the house where they hang out and they just like, play video games like, I’m not naive enough to know that when they go to other houses, that they’re like, I know that they’re gonna play video games, and that is fine. I’m just not going to facilitate that really, in my house, the only video games that we do have are, like, some like basketball or and I don’t even know I, like, just didn’t, I never played video games, so I don’t even know that that well. But like, in a football game, like Madden, right? Something like that. So they really don’t play that often, and if they do play video game, it is sport related, for a reason. I don’t want them getting into that different kind of brain that I think a lot of video games and a lot on a lot of screen time does. And that’s not to say that they don’t have screen time. They absolutely. We do, there’s some YouTube that happens for them, but ultimately it is pretty limited in this household, and that’s just that is just my preference and no judgment. Otherwise, I just don’t like it for the kind of kids that I have, and if we do have TV on at all during the week at all with the kids, it’s only sports. It’s like, what football game is on, what basketball game is on, what baseball game is on? Are the Dodgers playing Lakers playing stuff like that, like we’re we’ll have that on, but that’s if we’re even home. And most of the time our practices run kind of late, but I would prefer it that way, where we are busy, where we are occupied, and it keeps it like, channels that energy appropriately. And, you know, it’s not to say that we need to, like, overkill. It again, these are my kids that are have a lot of energy and a lot of interest in sport. So it works well, but you do have to walk that line where, like, they’re not burned out. And out. And that can be really hard too, because sometimes, usually, like, I don’t want to go to Jun too. I don’t want any of this. Like, okay, yep, and you’re only going, this is one hour of your entire week. You’re going and holding that line, and then also knowing, like, some days, like, okay, the volume has been really high, the intensity has been really high. Like, we don’t we can bow out of this, but if we’ve made a commitment where it is a seasonal thing, where they’re on a team, they’re going, they are going. And there’s no, I don’t give I need to be careful with how I say this, because someone’s gonna come for me. But there’s just, I don’t have a lot of grace when it comes to flaky people. I will not raise flaky kids like, No, you make a commitment, you’re going to show up and you’re going to show up on time, and you’re going to be a good teammate, you’re going to be respectful to your coaches. And again, sometimes there’s there’s flexibility there in something that’s like year round, for example, like I said, jiu jitsu for us is that sprinkled in throughout the year, and when they’ve had a high volume week of other other sports and games and whatever, okay, then maybe fine, we’re not going that night that you have a night off, but we, we just when you make a commitment, I think it says a lot to actually stick to it.

Brianna Battles  22:13

The other thing to kind of like riff off of that, I would highly suggest instilling in your kids, if you can, I’m noticing it’s like, it’s not a thing. You might think it is, but it’s not. Is showing up, making sure our kids show up to practice early, and if they are not in their games too. Of course, it is wild to me how and of course, shit happens, guys, okay, like I am not perfect. If I’m running late. I’m sending a text to the coach, I’m sorry, like my kids, whatever, maybe like, five minutes late. Cool, but it’s like that ownership level. There’s other you will see over and over. There are kids that are showing up late for games, late for practices, all the time. That’s like, almost embedded in the culture. And that is just not something that our family does we are try to be very on time, because it shows a level of give a shit. And again, this is probably not always popular, but I do think that like teaching kids to give a shit is a lost art, and we have to uphold that in the ways that we can, the ways that we can, because we they’re going to do their own thing ultimately, but when we’re still contributing as parents and as leaders and trying to guide them, we we have to show them the ways and the tools and how to take something seriously, how to be taken seriously. The other thing that we have our kids do after every single practice, and now I don’t have to, like, ride their ass about this. They know this now. So I don’t have to, like, micromanage it too much. Is thank your coaches after every single practice, in every single game, I don’t care how you’re feeling. I don’t care if you love the coach or what your dynamic is with that coach. You thank them. You shake their hand. You get my high five, whatever it might be, you thank them that opens up so many opportunities for your kid in terms of getting comfortable having, like, clear communication with gratitude and with just being able to start conversations right, and because most coaches are going to notice that they’re going to notice The kids that are going up to them consistently and thanking them as a coach, that means a lot. And I guarantee you it is noticeable. You want your kid to stand out. It’s the little things. Get the little things right effort, not just on the field or on the mat or in the pool. It’s like effort of character. That’s the shit that sticks, and that’s what will help them grow up as an athlete in any kind of sport, and Beyond Sport like what’s gonna help them in their life, that’s what’s gonna give them a competitive edge as they move on and into whatever area of life that they are interested in, and that is taught at such a young age by. Simple things. Again, it’s not about being the best athlete. It’s not about being great out there. It’s not about loving the sport. It is about making little effort. Along those same lines, it’s offering to help clean up and break down after every after every practice in baseball, there’s a lot of that to do, for example. So it’s like little to get there help, set all these things up. And sometimes, if we still know, like, we’re good, we don’t need anything. Other times, it’s like, yeah, you notice who the helpers are. And again, this extends so far beyond sport. It extends so far beyond sports. But we have an opportunity to teach that. And you think again, yeah. Bri, this is like, freaking common sense. And it is not. It is not, I’m telling you what I have set and observed as like, both my mom hat on and my coach hat on and my the little things we are not getting right in support culture, we are not getting it right. So along those other lines, another key for showing up and supporting our kids is how we conduct ourselves, whether it’s how we conduct ourselves as parents in the car ride there, on the car ride home, or on the sidelines, the best thing you can do as a parent raising a kid is knowing how to shut the fuck up. Seriously, that is the greatest gift you can give your kid, is knowing when and how to stay quiet because your behavior, your body language, your facial expressions, your kids catch all of that. I’m gonna tell you, there’s, there’s these incredible moments where your kids do something awesome. They make a basket, they get on the second base, they finish their swim race, and they and they look at you. They lock eyes with you. They look at you and they have a big smile on their face, and you’re so happy, and you’re cheering for them, and they feel that, and they see that, and it is visceral for both of you. And there’s an equal and opposite reaction when they get disqualified, when they miss, when they’re having a shitty game, when they’re getting whatever, like, they just get owned, whatever way it might be, and you look frustrated, you’re yelling at them. You’re like, Oh my God, and it’s like theatrics on the sideline that is toxic, that is unacceptable, that is ruining sports and your kids performance period. It is ruining how they participate, how they’re going to be growing up in that sport. And I guarantee you, with the kids that get burned out so much of the time, it comes from their parents, role is in their experience. And again, this is highly I’m having a very candid conversation from you, from all angles. This is not just mom version of me talking to you. I’m talking to you as a division one coach. I’m talking to you as a division one athlete. I’m talking to you as and that person who has coached the highest level of athletes, parents are a huge reason why kids succeed in sport and why they struggle in sport, why they burn out. And we have to, like, look at ourselves and say, How are we supporting our kids? It’s not the bat that we get. It’s not the lesson, the private lessons we put them in. It is our behavior. It is how we show up for them. It is telling them I love you. No matter how you do out there, I just want you to try. That’s all I will ever ask of you. If you fail, if you struggle, if you lose, I don’t care. I just I want you to get out there, and I want you to be best that you have today, period. And it is not going into coach mode, even if you’re, you were an Olympic level volleyball player, and your kid is playing volleyball, shut up. You have an opportunity to sit down to give them grace. And the the phrase I like to use with my boys, and most of the time, it’s not even like sports specificity. It’s more of like sport experience is, do you want me to be a coach with you right now, or do you want me to be your mom? Like, I’ll go like, I can go either route, you know, with like sports like our like, walk in, like, you know, like whatever, and it’s more of like general themes instead of, like, keep your old bows up, keep your eyes here. Like, now, that’s what his coach is for.

Brianna Battles  29:09

But I think ultimately giving them the choice of how they want to interact with you, especially when it’s like, when they’re down, you know, like that post game debrief. If you are an athlete listening to this, or you grew up as an athlete, think about your car rides home. Did you get like, reamed? Did your parent, whether they meant to or not, like, say things that just like, made you even more frustrated with yourself? Like your kids are feeling that they’re already frustrated, maybe they’re already embarrassed, maybe they’re already ashamed, so like drilling them on the way home. Of like, Hey, why’d you take that shot? Or, hey, you could do this differently next time. Just be quiet. Usually an hour later, if you go to them and you’re like, hey, is there anything from the game that you want to talk about? Is there anything from that practice today that you want to talk about? And if you do, like, I mean, I can listen to you as a mom, if you want. I can listen to you as like a coach and give you. Some constructive feedback. It’s kind of like what you’re open to. It’s kind of like, you know, I’m here to like be where you are, and that’s how we like raise emotionally intelligent kids, while also raising tough kids. It is a fine line, I tell you. It is a very fine line where we’re at right now, and how kids are participating in sport, their longevity in sport, and their behavior in sport. It’s there’s a lot of problems that I’m seeing and from my colleagues who are coaching at the collegiate level, kids are having a really hard time regulating their behavior, their participation. They’re like levels of give a fuck. They’re shutting down, or they think that they’re like God’s gift to whatever. And of course, that’s part of the athletic experience. You’re always going to have a variety of like athletes in their experiences, but we’re just seeing a lot out there. And I think before coming at this through this lifetime of athleticism scope that I try to truly speak through in a lot of different ways, we have to find the avenues of our participation as parents raising kids in sports, because that’s ultimately going to be the driver for what their participation looks like in a lot of ways, the opportunities we help create for them, and then how we behave in showing our support for them, the support that they need is from you being able to hold the line as a parent, a supportive parent, not a critical parent. They have coaches to help give them that strategic feedback and guidance and help them rise to the occasion. Your job is to like, be that steady person that they can look to in the stand when they’ve missed and they’re frustrated and they have tears in their eyes that you’re not like looking irritated. You just like, you know you can just make eye contact and like, hold it, hold the line with them. And that’s really powerful. I also have a really intense kid, like, again, chance is younger kids a little bit older, but kid has been intense his whole life. Oh, my God, his entire life. Like, just so intense. So he does not lose, well, he doesn’t, and I would never change that. Because, again, teach, like, having kids that, like, give a shit is like a dying art. So I love that he gives a shit so much that, like, there’s tears and there’s frustration and there’s anger, and it’s like teaching him how to sit in that and not dismissing it. I want him to be mad. I love that he’s mad. I love that he hates to lose because again, like that, that is a great life skill set, but it’s teaching them how to manage it so that it doesn’t just like, it doesn’t become self sabotaging. Then that’s a fine line. And so I think it’s also like knowing your kid, if you had an intense kid like that, you have to be the steady place. You cannot make it worse with, like, probing questions, with you should have this, or should have that, or like, what happened there? No, you’re just a I love you. I love watching you play. You did great out there. Or you’re gonna have another, you know, like you have another opportunity to get out there, you know. You know, one thing I tell Kate all the time is, like, this moment right here, when you feel like this, this is what makes you great. This is the very feeling that this is the rep this right here. This is the rep that will make you great, because losing and failing, messing up, sucking whatever it might be, like, those collective reps, those are the things that help create the great moments. You don’t get the great moments without the shitty moments. And like, I try to have, like, those really candid conversations with him. Again, that’s the coach mom packing. But also like, this is motherhood. This is motherhood and supporting our kids and holding space for them throughout all these different experiences. And again, sports are a vessel for creating these life experiences at a young age that are going to fuel them as they grow older and they have to interact with a variety of a variety of people and different adults and different pressures and demand, whether the team sport, individual sport, whatever it might be, they’re getting reps of exposure that we cannot always teach within our the walls of our household. That is why it is so important for our kids to be in sports. So another thing we do is, I try to do like Friday or Saturday nights when we’re home,

Brianna Battles  33:58

downtime, like not everything is a grind. Like we’re, we’re a very high energy, high performance household, just kind of naturally. But we, we like to have, like downtime as family. Of course, we do like a Friday night movie, usually, and typically, we pick a sport based movie. This shocks Nobody I know. For example, like last week we watched miracle, which, like, I love that movie as a kid, still so good. And throughout the movies, like, there’s so many different sport movies to choose from. Like, we just kind of stick to, like, the Disney everything on Disney, plus there. And when we watch these movies, I extract moments. Do you see why that coach did that? You see why that player acted like that, and why that wasn’t cool or whatever? Like, I just I and again, like, my boys, like, oh my gosh, shut on Mommy. Oh, but like, I don’t care. Those are the moments. So we can pick when they’re enjoying a movie, when they’re entertained by it, they’re entertained in these moments where you can, like, pull out the like. Lessons that are applicable to their age and their level of comprehension. And I feel like that’s a it’s been a really positive way for us to talk about sports in moments of like, you know, you know, say, like, oh, Michael’s room got cut blah, and like, how he turned out, Mamba mentality with Kobe. Like, there’s so much that we can take from these outside people and entertainment and movies and interviews and whatever it might be, and things we can extract from that and actually have a conversation about it, and a conversation that is more on like them. The mental development side, again, trying to teach this like athletic maturity that usually comes so much later in their life. But that’s why we, who are moms that are coming into this from a different perspective, like the know better, do better kind of thing. Like we can come into it and say, like that, athletic maturity can actually be taught, can be taught at a young age. And then we’re just building reps there where it’s not like new news, they’re like, Okay, I have been exposed to this way of thinking or these experiences and these feelings and all this. I’ve been exposed to it because I’ve been made aware of it from my mom. You know, again, they can’t always put words to that yet, but I know there’s just these little moments where I can see, like, okay, like, I can see it working. Whether it’s something that cage says to chance, it’s moments, it’s exchanges, it’s whatever it’s like growth in ways that it’s so hard to define, but you just start to see it. And it shows up in different sports and different situations over time, but it really is like the sum of how we’re participating in exposing our kids to health, fitness, sports, winning losing, being competitive, knowing how to give a shit, having a growth mindset, all of these things dosed appropriately, and we have a big opportunity to do that. That’s why sports are so important. That’s why they are the vessel. That’s why there is a sport or physical hobby for every single person. It can be a tool. It is one tool in our parenting toolbox, and I feel like it’s a really important tool to have, and something that we have to keep really working to instill in our kids, and ultimately, it comes from our own self awareness and development as people and as athletes, ourselves as the thing that’s why it’s really important for us as the parents, to have physical activity so that we’re not like, whether it’s like, purposefully or not like, vicariously living through our kids like, Oh, my God, you don’t want that. And that’s a huge problem that I see is like, parents like, make their kids sports, their whole personality and look, I freaking love my kids, but I am more than like Cade’s mom. Of course. I’m freaking proud of them, and I have my own thing, so I’m not just living vicariously through their experiences. I will show up hardcore every single game, every single practice, and their participation and their success. Like is theirs. It is not mine. I’m trying to support it, but I also have my own things that I love, where I’m being tested, where I’m improving myself, physically, mentally and emotionally, and then I’m not just like almost dumping all of that pressure and expectations on my kid, that’s like a hard thing to convey, but I really truly feel that the parenting sport culture could be made better if parents actually participated in their own form of fitness and self development, whether that’s they go to CrossFit, they go to Jiu Jitsu, highly recommend. Or, you know, they run and they do something. They have a physical outlet themselves. They test themselves. They know what it’s like to be tested, and that takes the pressure off. It’s certainly humanizing.

Brianna Battles  38:54

It’s a whole other thing to be in the arena. And maybe you forgot what it’s like to be in the arena, but if your kid is out there, you have an opportunity to get out there too in your own ways, in your own capacity, and that might help take down some of that energy that you’re putting out there, whether you intend to or not. Ultimately, our goal is to help our kids pursue a lifetime of athleticism. It is not about being the best. It is about being it is about the opportunities, the opportunity to try. It’s about the ability to say yes, hey, do you want to try hiking this whatever next weekend, and their ability to say yes, Hey, you want to go take a tennis lesson with me? Yes. Hey, you want to go to this swim thing? You want to learn to surf? Cool? Yes, because they have that foundation, they know how to do all these things expose your kids early and often, because that will stay with them throughout their lifetime of athleticism, throughout their lifetime of participation in different physical efforts, that’s going to make a big difference in how they expose. Experience sports, how they develop, both like the motor development, but also their cognitive development, their confidence, their mental and emotional health. Sports are a vessel. They’re an opportunity. And we have opportunities as parents to improve what that looks like for them, and so much of it has a lot to do with what we create, what we condone, and how we conduct ourselves. So we’ll see how this episode is received. That was pretty like I personal for me, sharing, like, some of the behind the scenes stuff of our household. But yeah, this is my favorite season. This is my favorite season of mom life so far. Is my sport mom era, especially knowing what I do as a coach and what I do as an athlete like this is really special years with my boys, and I want it to be amazing for them, and I want to do everything in my power to help facilitate positive experiences and good opportunities for them, just to have exposure, you know, like, this is a really, this is the best. I say this to everybody, but like, this is so much better than coaching. It’s so much better than being an athlete. It’s like, I love watching them, and that’s why I care so much about this conversation, because I see, I see little kids out there falling out of love with their sports, and they’re too little. Okay, my boys are 11 and seven. That is too little for these kids to be falling out of love with sports or saying, well, like, No, my kids just not athletic. Or, you know, he’s just gonna do this year round, like there are so many opportunities we’re being missed out on. And as parents, we have the opportunity to create these opportunities, to create these moments to the best of our ability.

Brianna Battles  41:53

So anyway, thank you for listening to this pretty forward, pretty direct, pretty raw rambling

Brianna Battles  42:01

of mine, and hope you enjoy it. I would really like feedback. This is something that I’m becoming increasingly more passionate about. If I wasn’t prior, I certainly am now that we’re kind of further into the sport mom era. So thank you for listening. I appreciate you all. Have a good one. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the practice brave podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review and help us spread the work we are doing to improve the overall information and messaging in the fitness industry and beyond. Now, if you are pregnant and you are looking for a trustworthy exercise program to follow, I have you covered. The pregnant athlete training program is a well rounded program for pregnancy with workouts for each week that are appropriate for your changing body. That’s 36 weeks of workouts, three to four workouts each week, and tons of guidance on exercise strategy. We also have an at home version of that program if you are postpartum and you’re looking for an exercise program to follow, the eight week postpartum athlete training program would be a really great way to help bridge the gap between rehab and the fitness you actually want to do. From there, we have the practice brave fitness program, which is an ongoing strength conditioning program where you get new workouts each week and have a lot of guidance for myself and my co coach, Heather Osby, this is the only way that I’m really offering ongoing coaching at this point in time. If you have ever considered becoming a certified pregnancy and postpartum athleticism coach, I would love to have you join us. Pregnancy and postpartum athleticism is a self paced online certification course that will up level your coaching skills and help connect the dots between pelvic health and long term athletic performance, especially during pregnancy and postpartum, become who you needed and become who your online and local community needs by becoming a certified pregnancy and postpartum athleticism Coach, thank you again for listening to the practice brave podcast. I appreciate you, and please help me continue spreading this messaging, this information and this work.