Growth Mindset Sports was created to fill a gap in youth sports and is the passion project of Cortney and Johnie Williams, a married couple and parents of 2. They have tested and refined this program over the past 10 years and are excited to make Growth Mindset Sports available to youth athletes throughout Ventura County. At Growth Mindset Sports, we believe that sports have the power to establish life-long behaviors and beliefs that lead to academic and career success later in life. Our vision is to provide the tools and support young athletes need to develop grit, the best predictor of future success.
Background
How it started
When their eldest child was struggling with confidence, self doubt and lack of accountability at age 10, they turned to sports for help; after all, the research showed that kids who play sports are more confident, have more friends, are more accountable, do better in school, etc etc, etc...They signed her up for basketball and after 3 months it was declared a complete failure; she was giving no effort, happily riding the bench and dreading every practice plus her confidence was at an all time low.
What went wrong, what was missing?
The answer was two-fold...
- Grit - while sports can certainly contribute to developing grit, it requires a mindset shift driven by a combination of successes and challenges in the right order and at the right time and while there are fantastic coaches in Ventura County (we have had the pleasure of working with many of the greats), organized sports teams are simply not typically structured to address this.
- Athleticism - some people have a natural ability to mimic athletic movements in extreme detail and inherently do the things that cannot be seen, like tightening the core, shifting body weight and loading up power, but most do not pickup on the finite details of form and are missing out on biomechanical advantages while a third group struggles to mimic movement based on examples altogether.
The Solution
Rather than doubling down on basketball, the family pivoted to volleyball to start with a blank slate and endlessly researched mindset, fear of failure, muscle memory, mirror neurons, form drills, and biomechanics to build a program that would result in athletic success and ultimately, grit by combining mindset and biomechanics. After training at home for only a few months, their daughter gained the confidence to join a rec league, after which she tried out and made the team at her middle school. She went on to develop an incredible swing and played outside and opposite hitter in high school and college.
Applying the same concepts to their son resulted in early signs of confidence and accountability, starting at 18 months. By Age 6 he was well on his way to trying every sport: basketball, volleyball, water polo, surfing, tackle football, track and soccer. His growth mindset is blooming, he is willing to try anything and his work ethic is unmatched.
Cortney and Johnie have since applied the focus of mindset and biomechanics while coaching dozens of youth athletes with consistent results in both sports performance and mindset.