Speakers: Geoff Bragg. Matt Ritter. Talia Bateman. Erika Yoder. Adam and Jill Pitre. Jen McCain
Jen McCain: Hi, my name is Jen Mccain. And our daughter, Katie has been coaching with Southwestern Coaching for almost four years now. We love it. Katie's coach Whitney has been with her from the start and she's amazing. The thing we like the most about coaching is my husband and I, we can tell our kids what they should do or how they should do it. And for some reason, it just isn't well received. However, if Whitney Katie's coach says the same thing, Katie takes it in and take it, does it and accepts her advice. So we've gotten to know Whitney over the years. And she's, you know, we've just one more adult influence that we know is positive that's gonna be giving our daughter the right instruction, the right direction, the same as what we would. But for some reason, our daughter is more receptive to it. So if you're on the fence and you're thinking about coaching for your own kiddo, I encourage you to do it. It's been an amazing adventure and good thing for our family.
Geoff Bragg: Hello, my name is Geoff Bragg. My son Braxton has been in these coaching sessions for about a year now.
Geoff Bragg: The opportunity for Braxton to become, a candidate for this coaching program came to us through his wrestling club. You know, Braxton was a rising sophomore at the time and it seemed like a really good time for him to have an opportunity to focus on his mental acuity as well as, you know, his physical prowess as a wrestler. I've always believed that, you know, the ages between 12 and 18 are the formative years of what makes us who we are, for the rest of our lives and it seemed like a really good time and a really good fit for, for our son.
Geoff Bragg: One great tool that Robert gave Braxton was his ability to focus on a vision and not just to focus on the vision, but remembering the reason why you started something. As an example, Braxton is pursuing scouts. We had a conversation a few months back where he was considering dropping out of the scouts and it was kind of a heated discussion at first, but we both fell back on the tools that Robert and Braxton have been working on as far as remembering why you want to complete a vision, remembering your inspirations of not just what makes you want to complete a vision, but make you, but your inspirations for becoming the person that you want to be. And we fell back on a lot of that language during that conversation and we Braxton came to understand, accept and realize it was his own dedication to himself and was should have been reason and his reason enough for him to finish his pursuit of his eagle in the scouting program. And I was very thankful to have the vocabulary to have that discussion with Braxton after his mentoring with Robert.
Geoff Bragg: I believe the style of coaching they are providing for our son has given him a casual confidence in his own ability. And regardless of what his pursuit is, I feel like the type of mentoring that they're doing is showing them how to be a holistic, good human all the way through. Very, very much focused on achieving their goals and whatever athletics they might be focused on. But beyond that, that single sport is not what makes the totality of my son. And that is something that this coaching program recognizes and, and helps to develop them, not just as an athlete but as a human. And that's probably one of the greatest benefits that we've seen from this program.
Erika Yoder: Hi, my name is Erica and I've got two boys in coaching. Our oldest son has been coaching for well over a year and our next son is coming up on a year with coaching.
Erika Yoder: In high school, my oldest son made some decisions that created some obstacles for him. And that's what initially brought us to coaching. And after we saw how helpful it was to our oldest son, we thought it would be good for our younger son to have coaching as well. His reasons were completely different. He had some really lofty goals that he wanted to attain. And we thought coaching would be great for him and it has been
Erika Yoder: Our boys have been in coaching for a while now. So they've gained a lot of tools whether it's from, you know, visualizing mindset, writing goals, setting goals, the power of our words, it's just been a lot of really great things to help them navigate their lives.
Matt Ritter: Hi, my name is Matt Ritter. And my son Davis has been doing coaching with Andrew for about a year and a half now.
Matt Ritter: Our initial motivation in getting Davis into coaching was he was at that age, at 15 where I felt like his long term strategic objectives were not aligned with his actions. And I felt like it would be helpful for him to get on track and have someone as a resource to talk about how he could put those two things together.
Matt Ritter: I think the one thing that Davis has learned in his coach and his accountability. An example of that is he's a hockey player and, you know, he constantly talks about what he wants to do, in his hockey career. But aligning that with his actions of shooting 100 pucks a night is a great example of accountability. And it's just been really cool to see him do that on his own with his coaching. Um, uh, see him go out there and shoot pucks every night and try to align his actions with his strategic objectives.
Matt Ritter: I think the biggest advice I'd give someone considering coaching is considering it an investment. I think that it's a large investment. It's a large amount of cost on a monthly basis. But from my perspective, if you weigh that cost over a couple of years, again, the impact to a kid's life over 75 80 90 years. Um It's such a great investment but I'm sure there's a lot of people who look at it and think that the cost is too great for them to uh to do, but I just consider investment and think that the reward will pay off for sure.
Talia Bateman: Hi, my name is Talia and my son Owen has been in coaching for about two months.
Talia Bateman: My initial motivation for putting my son into coaching is because he's going into his senior year of high school. And there are a lot of really big important decisions that he's gonna have to make this coming year. And I wanted him to have someone in his corner, not a parent, not a family member, not a teacher, just someone who's there just for him. Giving him a third party perspective and just kind of an advocate. They're helping him like get some clarity around these big decisions and create a vision for what he wants life to look like after high school.
Talia Bateman: In just a very short amount of time, I have seen Owen change significantly. He's become more focused, more self-aware and that's because of the activities that Todd is encouraging him to do. One of my favorite things that I've been able to watch Owen do is to create a vision for what he wants his life to be like, not only now but within the next five years, I mean, how many adults know and have a vision for what their life is gonna look like five years from now, it's really giving Owen some clarity and an advantage. When it comes to his peers, not really knowing where they're headed. And another thing that Owen is, really learning from the coaching program is to how, how to create positive habits. I think sometimes teenagers just fall into negative habits because of peers or just because of their current situation. But it's really helped Owen target, what's important to him so that he can create habits around this, that he can really carry with him through the rest of his life.
Talia Bateman: My advice to any parent considering putting their kids into student coaching is don't hesitate, do it. Now. It takes a village and, and we as parents have so much going on that we cannot be the sole influence in our children's lives. We have to let other people come in and really provide mentorship to our kids. And and if we are not proactive about that, it's going to come from who knows where. When our kids are in student coaching, they can be assured that they are matched with someone who is there for them. They are in their corner, they are helping provide them clarity to make those big decisions to help navigate huge life transitions.
Adam and Jill Pitre: Hello, I'm Adam and this is Jill Petrie. And our son, Luke has been in coaching for over two years now with Andrew.
Adam and Jill Pitre: Luke. Luke implemented the vision board and I believe that helped him set goals and make plans and stick to those plans and see him follow him through and he's seen those plans and those visions and those dreams and those goals uh come to life. Absolutely. Watching Luke set those goals, reach those goals, make further goals because he reached those goals have been amazing in watching his excitement as he reached goals that in the beginning, he never thought he could incredible, couldn't have done it without you. And I think it's caused us to maybe encourage us to set goals and kind of have a future vision to also help us work to, to those also. Thanks Andrew!
