Your Mental Weight Room

The Importance of How You Show Up

In Episode 30 of Your Mental Weight Room, host Desi, a mindset mentor and certified life coach, explores the importance of how athletes show up mentally. She challenges college athletes to embody the mindset of the player they want to become, rather than defaulting to their current circumstances. Drawing from personal volleyball experiences and coaching calls, Desi explains how negative mindsets can become self-fulfilling prophecies. She encourages athletes to identify limiting thoughts, visualize their ideal mindset, and intentionally practice showing up as their future selves — because lasting confidence must be built from within, not dependent on external validation.

Mastering Performance for Athletes When Facing Things We Can't Control

In episode 28 of Your Mental Weight Room, host Desi explores how athletes can mentally handle uncontrollable circumstances. Drawing from a personal experience playing in a sand volleyball playoff — where she battled strong winds and severe calf cramps — Desi shares four practical tips: Stop hating what you can't control Breathe into your experience Release uncontrollable factors to refocus your energy And identify what you can control She also highlights a powerful mindset moment from a ten-year-old baseball client. Ultimately, Desi emphasizes that accepting difficult situations, rather than fighting them, leads to better performance and personal growth.

5 Practical Mindset Hacks to Manage Overwhelm and Boost Your Performance

In Episode 27 of Your Mental Weight Room, mindset mentor Desi tackles the overwhelming feelings many athletes experience. She clarifies that overwhelm stems not from the number of tasks but from how we think about them. Desi shares five practical tips to manage overwhelm: calming the nervous system through deep breathing, reflecting on what can be simplified or delegated, doing a thought download to separate facts from thoughts, giving yourself grace, and setting a clear intention. These tools help athletes regain focus, reduce stress, and perform at their best.

Four Proven Strategies to Build Confidence and Crush Mental Blocks

In Episode 26 of "Your Mental Weight Room," mindset mentor and certified life coach Desi shares four keys to building confidence for college athletes. She explains that confidence stems from practiced beliefs about oneself and outlines four strategies: being willing to question limiting beliefs, stepping outside your comfort zone, recognizing and validating personal progress, and reshaping your internal narrative. Through relatable examples, Desi demonstrates how applying these keys can transform self-belief and athletic performance. She concludes by inviting listeners to a free 30-minute coaching call and encouraging them to connect via Instagram at @ThisIsCoachDesi.

Don’t Shut Down: How to Embrace Correction and Avoid Burnout as an Athlete

In Episode 25 of Your Mental Weight Room, host and mindset mentor Desi explores how college athletes can better handle correction from their coaches. She addresses common negative reactions—such as self-doubt and shutting down—and reframes correction as a sign of a coach's trust rather than inadequacy. Desi also distinguishes between constructive correction and emotionally-driven criticism, offering strategies to shift negative thinking. She encourages athletes to stay open to feedback, embrace discomfort, and view correction as an opportunity for growth to avoid burnout and maintain their love for their sport.