The Mental Approach To Youth Sports

Youth sports has become a nearly $40 billion industry in North America, bigger than the NFL. Private equity is buying up leagues, tournaments, and rankings while five-year-olds get "scouted." In this episode, host Todd Arkell sits down with Victor Bergonzoli, who spent a decade building elite performance-tracking tech at Dartfish (used by Olympic broadcasters and athletes like Novak Djokovic) before pivoting to lead Sports Ed TV, a platform that gives away high-level coaching content for free.

In this episode of The Mental Approach, host Todd Arkell sits down with Jeff Kyrzakos, freshly named the 26th Head Coach of the Kitchener Rangers following their dual championship run to capture both the OHL Championship and the Memorial Cup. Drawing on over a decade of coaching experience and his own journey as a player through the OHL, NCAA, and professional ranks, Kyrzakos shares valuable insights into the evolving landscape of junior hockey. He breaks down how coaches can cultivate resilien

Jake Valentine is the assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator for University of Michigan Baseball, and we unpack the mental side of college recruiting. We talk about why every recruiting journey is unique, the four core principles Jake believes should guide school selection (academics, people, opportunity, and finances), and how social media, recruitment services, and showcases really factor into a player’s future. Jake shares what coaches quietly notice about athletes and parents—on vis

Val Whiting is one of the most decorated college basketball players of her generation — two national championships at Stanford, Pac-10 Player of the Year twice, a pro career that took her from Italy and Brazil to the ABL and the WNBA. But behind the highlights was a player who was silently drowning, with no tools to combat performance anxiety, no one to talk to, and a coach who called her unmotivated. It took two hospitalizations, a pandemic, and a TikTok video for Val to turn her pain into purp

What happens when a million-dollar dream is derailed by a hidden addiction? In this candid episode of The Mental Approach, host Todd Arkell sits down with Jake Sanford—the highest MLB draft pick ever to come out of Nova Scotia (3rd round, New York Yankees). Jake takes us through his incredible journey from an unrecruited walk-on in small-town Nebraska to signing a $600,000 bonus with the most famous franchise in sports. But behind the scenes, a growing gambling addiction—sparked by innocent casi

Todd Arkell sits down with Brad Dalton—mental performance coach, educator, and bestselling author of DNA of a Winner: 8 Steps to Building the Soul Print of a Winner. In a youth sports culture increasingly obsessed with stats, rankings, and immediate outcomes, Brad makes a compelling case for shifting the focus away from what you achieve and back toward who you are becoming. Whether you are a young athlete trying to filter out the noise, a coach building team culture, or a parent supporting fr