John Boruk: [00:00:00] And thanks for joining us on the podcast that focuses on the ever changing world of youth, sports and athletics, and how we can do it better for everybody involved. I'm your host, John Boruk. Thanks for being with us. This is arguably one of the best times of year as it pertains to sports. You got baseball that just concluded the World Series, the NFL's at the midway point, NHL, NBA are a month into their season.

Youth athletics with high school football high school volleyball, basketball, getting ready to start up. And just a nice chill in the air, especially I think where tonight's guest is located. He's a consult to professional and college sports teams, a performance skills coach.

He's also performed Sports Psychometric assessment, middle Game Analytics, and the founder of Self-Aware Athlete. I'm very intrigued and very interested to hear what Andrew Party has to say. Andrew, thank you so much for joining us on Raising a Champion. [00:01:00] 

Andrew Pardy:Hello, John. Pleasure to be with you.

John Boruk: Yeah, talk about, let's just, I just wanna get into how you started Self-Aware Athlete, the reason behind it, why you. Now or when you started, it was a good time to introduce something like this into youth athletics. 

Andrew Pardy: Yeah, no, that's a great question. A big one to a big one to get us going here.

So be being involved, in various youth sports over the course of my life as a, as an athlete, as a coach, as a dad. I guess what I noticed about the general landscape out there was just an over-emphasis in athletics in general on, on physical skill development.

And I guess I just noticed a a huge gap there, a huge opportunity. And I can remember the moment when I thought that the software athlete or [00:02:00] the market was ready for the software athlete was I was giving a presentation in a tier one major junior hockey dressing room.

Just kind of mental skills one on one. And I asked for a show of hands in that video room. Who has had any exposure or any formal training on mental skills and no hands went up. And that was a room with eight NHL drafted players in it. So I could just see the gaping hole there in, in, in the sport of hockey.

But also was able to see that being basically every sport across the board. 

John Boruk: Yeah. So just to give people some background here, you're based outside Toronto, so obviously, hockey being the number one sport up there in Canada. You can see why hockey athletes would be probably your number one prospects in terms of the people that you work with.

But clearly across the board this could apply to any athlete boy, girl in any [00:03:00] sport. When you talk about some of the things that you implement and how did you decide to take what you wanted to. And actually put that into processes and other aspects to make it something real and something tangible.

Andrew Pardy: Yeah, so I think the, maybe the thing that differentiates us at the Self Aware Athlete is we have an expertise in in something called psychometrics. So psychometric evaluations, some of your listeners may be familiar with them from business context or professional context, but these are tools that actually allow me as a practitioner to measure an athlete's mental gain.

And just to be able to make all of those kind of gray fuzzy intangibles tangible. And once you can, measure these things, then it makes it relatively straightforward to figure out what is standing in each [00:04:00] individual athlete's way. I think the, the key thing maybe for your listeners to realize is that when it comes to.

Coaching and athletes, the mental side of that. Athlete's, that athlete's performance, every athlete's unique, every athlete's different. So to be able to, to measure things and get an orientation, sort of a diagnosis that way has been very helpful.

John Boruk: So does that start with an interview process? Does that start with testing? Does that start with getting to know, getting some background information into the individual athlete.

Andrew Pardy: Yeah, so the process, basically it's pretty straightforward. It really, all this is, it's 144 multiple choice questions that the athlete would answer.

And really what we get back from that exercise is really a roadmap, a blueprint everything that is measurable about an athlete's performance, psychology [00:05:00] and really all the information we need. Clear hurdles and help an athlete to enhance their performance. 

John Boruk: How early or what's the youngest age that you begin to work with athletes?

Because I think that when you're young, you're 6, 7, 8, you're just out there and you're having fun at what stage, and of course you could probably elaborate more as it pertains to hockey in Canada because the. Builds at a very early age, but at what point what is the youngest age in which you start to, to work with athletes and you start to see that there is that, I don't wanna call it mental impairment, but there's certainly a mental block when they're playing the game.

Andrew Pardy: Yeah. So I think my philosophy there is no matter what the sport, the, the number one priority is, has gotta be fun. And certainly when you were working with younger athletes I think it's too early to layer something like this in until the [00:06:00] age of probably 13 is the right time to, to start to layer things in.

And even at 13 the name of the game still has to remain fun. But when an athlete gets around that sort of magic 13 year old mark, there's enough maturity there. There's enough self-awareness there where you can really start to teach an athlete about the cognitive, mental emotional. Variables that impact their performance.

So I think, maybe 13 would be the time to, to layer this to layer this in. 

John Boruk: what percentage, once, if you take it, if you were to take a sample size of the 13, 14 year old athletes that are out there what percentage do you think really lack I guess the mental capacity to take their level to another or take their performance to another level.

They are inhibited mentally or there is a mental blocker in place? 

Andrew Pardy: Yeah, so I guess what jumps to line there is the nature of [00:07:00] the block. Like my, my, my philosophy is that every athlete already has everything they need to perform at a higher level. And typically, the way you go at this is you use the psychometrics to find things that are out of balance.

So it's not necessarily a matter of something being missing or anything like that. It's really a process of self discovery. So just, bringing an a athlete through that process of self-discovery so they can figure out which aspects of their performance psychology are maybe out of balance.

And then, that sets the process creating self-awareness, which is really the genesis or the name of the company. Just allowing an athlete to see themselves from a different perspective allowing them to, compare themselves to pro athletes in their sport. Starting at the age of 13, that process really turns the lights on for a lot of athletes and just allows them to step out [00:08:00] of their own way and, become more confident, become more consistent have more fun.

John Boruk: Yeah. One of the things I remember growing up, obviously everybody knows NFL quarterback great Joe Montana, and he was raising kids and , his kids were playing football. One of the things that Joe Montana said was, the interesting thing is my kids don't listen to me when it comes to playing football.

I may be the greatest quarterback in the world, when it comes to your own kids, sometimes there's that disconnect where they don't they just look at you as dad, not necessarily your resume, your background, or where you came to be. And I think that extends to a lot of parent child relationships where Yeah they're being coached by somebody else, but the last place that they expect or they want to hear any sort of dialogue as it pertains to guidance the sport or in, anything [00:09:00] critical in nature is from their parents.

So it's hard to create that dynamic. And sometimes I think it's to have get a third party involved  

Andrew Pardy: Yeah. It's funny you should say that. I was on a podcast recently where the host told me that, the great Raymond Bourque from the Boston Bruins said the exact same thing about coaching his kids.

But yeah, if there's one thing that every family I work with has in common it's exactly that. There's that push and pull that tension where you know I don't think mom or dad are, pushing the athlete or anything like that, but they can just see that, there's an opportunity to be at your best and to move things to another level and for whatever reason, I guess it's a teenage thing.

The vast majority of teenagers don't want to hear that message from mom and dad. I joke with the parents. They're at an automatic disadvantage simply because they gave birth to this athlete . [00:10:00] 

John Boruk: Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes they just want words of encouragement. Kids just wanna know that their parents love them and they're supporting them.

But let's take it from this aspect and something that I gained off your website. Is truth is our kids are more distracted, more anxious, more unfocused and frustrated and self-critical than ever. And as parents, that's where we're somewhat lost in the woods. But let's take it from the focus element of things because to, I think there's so many, whether it's distractions social media, There's so many different elements out there that can take away from that focus that maybe our parents and grandparents didn't have 20, 40, 50 years ago.

The things that exist today are out there. What do you guys do from a focus standpoint to really lock in [00:11:00] kids to. You almost have that tunnel vision no matter what it is that you're doing. It could be schoolwork, but from your aspect it's playing sports. How do you take it from the focus angle?

Andrew Pardy: Yeah, so focus is an interesting word. And I think it, potentially a dangerous word because there are probably as many definitions of focus as there are, people who hear the word. So what, when I hear the word focus, what I think of is attention. And I think one of the areas that is, really important for any athlete to dive into and learn about is something called attentional style. So I mentioned earlier, every athlete's unique. So every athlete has a unique attentional style. And it's very important for any athlete who's learning to perform and performance to me [00:12:00] maybe come, can come back to this, but the pinnacle of performance for me is knowledge of how to enter optimal states of performance.

So how, as an athlete, to get in a flow state on demand. So to be able to get in that flow whenever it's required. Now, for most athletes, that's a random thing. Some games are in the flow and other games, they're, they're in their head or they're nervous or worried or getting in control, gaining that amount of self control is really all a product of self awareness.

And when one's self-aware, then what that does is gets you in a position where you can get in control of your attention just to be able to block out distractions, to be able to silence your own mind and find that focus you've been talking about That really is the doorway to, to optimal states of performance or flow states.

John Boruk: so I think that focus for today's kid is [00:13:00] obviously I is something they can always take with them. Another element that I brought up the frustration level is self doubt. Obviously self doubt can creep in at a very early age when you're not having success. And how do you deal with that when you see young athletes dealing with that frustration and trying to overcome that self doubt, because that can be a very big inhibitor to success.

Andrew Pardy: No, no doubt about it. No doubt about it. When you look at the recipe for success the, I guess the emotional cognitive recipe for a success for for athletes, there are a few variables in there that need.

Understood and kept in mind because a lot of athletes are very self-critical characters. And when you think about it, that is something that comes in handy for an athlete, but [00:14:00] it's also something that when it gets out of balance, can be quite destructive. Another one of the big variables that's in play from a performance psychology perspective or from a performance perspective is anxiety.

And it's like the same sort of thing. Athletes tend to be anxious characters. Anxious statistically than the average person. And you think about it, anxiety can be a blessing and a curse. It can be the fuel for a performance and it can also be the thing that destroys performance.

So it is really a matter of developing the skill to keep these things in balance so that an athlete can perform. 

John Boruk: Tell me some of the positions or some of the positions or some of the sports. And position specific. And maybe it's that of hockey gold tenure because you're almost on an island, Correct.

Where you're you can be alone in your thoughts. And if you [00:15:00] allow yourself after you give up a goal a goal that allows the other team to take the lead or something, and if sitting there, you can allow your thoughts to just eat away at you. And I would think that's one position.

A baseball pitcher may be another. You give up a home run, you make a bad pitch. There's not, there's nothing that anybody can do for you, and so you're on that island to where your success or failure, it could be solely dependent on how you pick yourself up mentally and move. To the next phase.

Andrew Pardy: Absolutely. I think what you're describing is resiliency. You have to have a superman level of resiliency to survive in, some of the positions that you mentioned, I think, some of the more mentally challenging positions in all sports, tennis, I like to throw in that category as well.

But no you're absolutely right. And I've worked with a lot of goaltenders, a lot of pro goaltenders [00:16:00]  and, that is the hot seat for sure, because the margin of error is extremely small, and if you make a mistake, there is nowhere to hide. So yet you really, again, getting back to the, what comes in handy in that situation is just being in control of your attention.

A goaltender who's not in control of their attention once the puck gets behind them, once a mistake is made, and I suppose this goes in any sport. You know what an athlete is really wrestling with is you look at the research, 50 to 70,000 thoughts a day. That's what the average person thinks.

For athletes it's more 80% of that's thinking for the average person is negative. For athletes, it's probably more negative. So I think what it really comes down to it's being able to control the content of your mind. [00:17:00] And to me that's a skill anybody can learn. But once you learn to silence the mind, then resiliency becomes much more attainable.

John Boruk: So elaborate on that because I think it, part of your work is that you have worked with the elite golders at the top minor league levels or the Canadian Hockey League, and you've seen those results happen. And I think we all even in the professional world, we'd all like to silence our mind.

We go to bed with a hundred thoughts going through our head. How are we gonna solve this? How are we gonna deal with that? So I think not only could athletes benefit from the silencing of the mind. Some of the parents who feel an undue stress of trying to, living on a week to week basis and taking care of kids because life is overwhelming.

How do you do that? How do you find a way to to silence the mind. 

Andrew Pardy: I, so I offer a [00:18:00] program that really I think if there's the core of the program is probably exactly how to do just that, because I think John, you hit the nail in the head the 50 to 70,000 thoughts that I mentioned earlier.

So I have a name for that in the training pros programs that I offer. I call it the, I call it the monkey. And everybody has a monkey mind. And some people have a mind that's busier than others, but certainly all of us get up in the morning and are hit with this wave of thinking.

So it's very critical to, to understand that the nature of that, the origin of that, the content of. So I think the first level of getting there is self-awareness and psychometrics is a great way to learn about this, flow of content in your mind and why it's there and what its purpose is.

And I think it's interesting [00:19:00] for, for people in the business world that they've got a noisy monkey behind, maybe they can close the door in the office and they can go hide and nobody notices. But if you're a goaltender for an NHL hockey team and you've got a noisy mind, that's going to be a pretty obvious to anybody in the, in the arena watching the game.

So I think that, one of the things that probably a lot of athletes. Is, you just gotta get outta your head. I guess is the, probably the way it's put most often. But I think the big missing piece of the puzzle here is how to do that.

And that, that's the process. It's a skill but certainly a skill that anybody can learn. 

John Boruk: From the time that you start working with athletes how quickly do you start to see change, even if it's just a slight change and, the mental aspect, but how long does that take? 

Andrew Pardy: [00:20:00] Maybe the best way to answer that question would be would be a story experience working with one particular, we're on the topic of ice hockey goalies here, so why don't we, why don't we stick with.

So I'm working with a major junior goalie. This was a couple of years back. So a 16 year old who came into the league and was made a starter and obviously a very. Talented athlete, physically gifted early round draft pick, came into the league and six games in, had the, literally the worst stats in the league.

And I think it was somewhere around 4.98, so almost five goals a game. And 8 26 save percentage. So look, looking a little. So I went in and started working with that athlete and, my first meeting with this particular player they were a mess. We're talking about a 16 year old boy who had [00:21:00] never experienced so much pressure in their lives.

They were facing adversity like they've never had before and just were lost. So I brought this athlete through the assessment process that I'd mentioned earlier, and just spent an hour or so working through what we'd found from the assessment. And this particular player, his next start was his first career shutout and six weeks later he was OHL goaltender of the month.

So it dropped the stats down to a 1.98 with a 9 26 a percent. So those are the type of results I get to see and have a lot of fun with. And I'd say, John the only thing that I need to help an athlete find results is just the willingness of the athlete. If the athlete wants to find the answers, then the answers are there to be found. 

John Boruk:  That's great. And that's a that's a pretty quick [00:22:00] turnaround to go, one week and then to be a goltender of the month within six weeks. So it's and look that's the mental game is something that we maybe we don't talk about or maybe we don't address enough.

But I really believe it starts at an early age. And I really think that it starts, with the parents. And I'm sure there's some parents that probably come to you. Look, Andrew, what can I say to my child? What can I do? Even at an early age, because they wanna have such an influential impact in their kids' lives.

But they probably want your advice on what do they say to their kids? How much do you get? Just from the parents wanting to get that response from you on how to get into their minds. 

Andrew Pardy: Yeah, that's a tough one. I think, like I said earlier, almost every parent struggles.

[00:23:00] With that I've got three teenage athletes in my house and I struggle with that with my own kids. Now you'd think that my my daughter would listen to me when it comes to performance skills or mental skills or it's a struggle. And and, I've learned just to, to step back and I pro, I provide, love and transportation and I listen and I invest in her career.

But I don. Try to go down, ironically, try to take her down the performance skills angle. It's a fascinating thing, 

John Boruk: but can you tell early on when you're interview, you're going through the questionnaire process with some of these young athletes which ones have been impacted negatively?

By maybe a parent that's been in their ear from a very early age, and it's, they've, maybe it's been a parent who's been writing them to try to achieve a level that maybe they're not capable of or [00:24:00] they're not ready to at the time. Can, do you get that in your assessments early on that Yeah. This kid's I could tell that he's been impacted. Maybe his early years of playing sports. 

Andrew Pardy: Yeah, for sure. That, so that type of an idea would show up in assessment results. And I think the other thing that I would layer in there is that there are a lot of coaches who are having similar impacts on athletes. And, my perspective is there's far too much negative reinforcement out there in, in coaching right now.

Most athletes, not all, but most athletes just don't respond well to, to, to negative reinforcement, to punishment. So yeah, I think that maybe that's what's important to address there. Happy to expand on that if you wanted to pull that question apart a little 

John Boruk: more. Yeah, absolutely.  Because I think that's something that you're seeing more and more where [00:25:00] parents are becoming probably stepping over the line. I think that we see it, whether it's in personal attacks with referees, whether it's in the way that coaches are handling their kids I'm sure hockey in Canada, it is , it's under the microscope.

They see that their kids are on the wrong line. They're not playing with the right. They're not getting the ice time, they're not getting power play time. I could go on and on because I see it down here in the us and so I, I think that it's even more pronounced up there in Canada. 

Andrew Pardy: Yeah I think, every culture has its own.

Every sport has its own unique culture, I think and hockey's definitely got some work to do. No doubt about it. But, I think in general, what I wanna say here, parents have a way those, parents that are of pushing and it's, it is a it is a delicate [00:26:00] game because sometimes, sometimes your teenage athlete needs a push or benefits from a push.

But in general, what I see with, kids who are being pushed too hard by parents or coaches, that'll really show up as anxious. Obsessive self critical distracted teenager who really is, I know the, typically the parent's heart is in the right place, but you know that pushing, that's the impact it's having on the athlete.

It's creating anxiety, it's putting an athlete in their head which is really the last place an athlete wants to be. The flow states are really characterized. The athlete being able to find a quiet mind and a lot of time the anxieties, the thing that, that fills up the head and, with thoughts and prevents some athletes from performing.

John Boruk: I think that I've found over the years that I'm [00:27:00] better served on saying less. And part of that is because not only do I, I don't want to be the overbearing parent, but I think that we have also become more of a culture, and maybe it's a generational thing. We all, we almost coddle kids a little bit too much.

And by coddling kids, we feel like that we've gotta figure it out for them when they need to figure it out. Let them think, let them play this scenario out in their head. Let them play the situation out in their head. That's why I think baseball's a good mental sport because it forces you to think situation, where are your runners?

How many. Where do I go if the ball's hit to me? Play all the scenarios out in your head. And I think that as parents now, we want to sit there and reinforce all these things. It's almost like reminding a kid on a golf swing, Make sure you do this. Make sure, you keep your head straight.

You, you do all of this. And I think it, to some [00:28:00] degree you have to let the kids figure this out. 

Andrew Pardy: No, no question about it. And I think that here's what I'll say about that. Athletes need to fail. They have to fail. There's no path to success without failure. I completely agree that it's tough.

It's tough to watch your kids suffer, but they need to suffer and they need to fail. And if you deny them the opportunity to fail and suffer you, as a parent, you are denying them an opportunity. To become better performers, to become better people. So that, you can't clear all the hurdles, right?

You've gotta let them fail. And that's really how they, that's really how they learn. It's a critical in ingredient. I think what the other thing that I'd say there is it's also okay to provide a set [00:29:00] of tools or a toolkit. That expedites development or minimizes failures.

And I think that's one thing that a suite of robust mental skills can do for an athlete. When 

John Boruk: You're talking about some of the things that you just described and parents want to, Parents do want to have a say. Sometimes the coaches have a rule. The 24 hour rule, don't come up.

Don't come to us within 24 hours. Do you recommend something like that for parents as maybe don't refrain from saying anything prior to a game, or give it four to six hours after a game before you say something. Certainly the last thing that I think a child wants to do is to think, Oh, the game's over.

We lost. I didn't play. Now I'm gonna hear it from my mom or dad. 

Andrew Pardy: Yeah, that's tough. That's probably the last thing that any teenage athlete wants to have to deal with that they're already [00:30:00] extremely. They're already balancing on the edge of anxiety and self criticality.

And the last thing they need to be is criticized after a loss or after a performance or really after any after any performance win or lose. This is supposed to be fun. This is about learning life skills. This is about teaching to be their best.

And so I think, for the average athlete, I think the hands off approach. Love, support, transportation equipment. That sort of thing is a lot of times where you need to think about drawing the line. Now, I know for me personally as a dad, there are times when, you know, my, my young kids didn't want to get up and go to practice, so you encourage them out of bed and you give 'em a little nudge where they need it.

Other than that, I think that if an athlete's gonna make it to an elite level, it's [00:31:00] got to be coming from within them. It really isn't gonna, you're not going to be able to push them through that. 

John Boruk: At what point do you see social media in some of the elements involved in, their iPhones or whatever smartphone that they have, where they're interacting with?

It's very easy to come across, some your opponents and somebody chirps you out on, online and some of these social media circles. How much of your work is dealing with that? Because I've seen it at the professional level and a lot of these pro athletes it gets so overwhelming that they just have to delete an account.

So I can only imagine that, and they're obviously a little bit more mature than some of these teenage athletes, but what do you tell them or what's the guide when it comes to the social media element of today's athlete? 

Andrew Pardy: Yeah, so I think [00:32:00] the frame of reference that I provide athletes is how to maintain and cultivate a quiet mind, a quiet inner.

And that, that's a practice and it takes time to develop. And, when it comes to social media, I think social media would be the exact opposite of the thing that you need to maintain a quiet space in your mind. One of the pitfalls that, that teenagers fall into I think particularly yeah, teenage girls.

Is caring too much about what other people think? I think that's a huge that's a huge issue out there, I think in general with teenagers, certainly with teenage athletes. And I think that there's the the, I think just in general, the world of social media right now, it's [00:33:00] difficult to tell which way is up and which way is down.

And I encourage my athletes to just to minimize contact with social. 

John Boruk: That's good advice. I'm talking with Andrew Pardy, founder of the Self-Aware Athlete. How long has that been around now? How, when I, in case people are joining us midway through, how long has self-aware Athlete been around?

How long did it really take time for you to get it off the ground?

Andrew Pardy: Yeah, so I think that there were various I guess permutations of the self-aware athletes. I'd say I've been doing or working with athletes with this assessment or, with these assessment tools, like a metric tools, psychometric tools for around a decade. And I think that in terms of how long it took to get traction, Honestly, it was pretty much immediate traction because, I've been doing this for a while now, and I look around the [00:34:00] landscape and I just find that a lot of the mental skills work or sports psychology work that's being done out there.

It's far too general to be effective. I think, again, the theme that I would bring everybody back to if there's anybody on the call who's looking to help their teenage athlete be the best performer they can be the best athlete they can be. I think that all starts with understanding your own unique you're unique footprint as an athlete.

Everybody's different, everybody's unique. If you want to have success and move the needle quickly, it's really important to understand yourself. At a deeper level, and then really the opportunities start to present themselves from there. Yeah, 

John Boruk: I'd like to get into the latter part, understanding yourself, because I think sometimes young kids that, that doesn't happen until they get into their twenties to really understand their self and on a deeper level [00:35:00] is taking self responsibility.

And as kids it's sometimes it's very easy to point the finger at the referee. Say the, Oh, the referee screwed us over. Or, we their players are trash or whatever they say. It's very easy to deflect a lot of deflection, I think, in sports, but to overcome that big hurdle where they can somewhat look at themselves in the mirror and say, Okay, what did I do wrong?

Or what could I do to improve? That seems like it. The, that's where you can really distance yourself from some of the other kids is having that maturity in your mental game.  

Andrew Pardy: Yeah, no, no doubt about it. There's actually a measurable aspect of performance psychology out there that, really goes to and speaks to coachability or openness.

And I think one. The key characteristics of any athlete is they have to [00:36:00] be open to feedback. They have to be, I what I find the athletes who are really going, the distance potential pro athletes they're going around knocking on doors looking for somebody to tell them what they're doing wrong.

They really want. to get feedback. They really want to know what it is they need to do to improve. So that is certainly it's a trait of a, of an athlete that is a critical one in terms of, how far they can go in their athletic career. And you could definitely, contrast that with the athlete who is totally closed off, does not want feedback, is not open to feedback, isn't going to listen to anybody.

And as talented as an athlete like that may be physically gifted they're going to hit a roadblock at some point. And probably not, You probably have a shorter career because. Unless the athlete goes through a self-discovery process or a self-awareness process, they can actually learn that [00:37:00] is something that may be standing in the way.

They're not as coachable as the, they need to be. They can compare their coachability to pro athletes and their sport to get a perspective on, how coachable they are and how much more coachable they, they need to be. 

John Boruk: Team sports compared to the individual sports. Is there much more? Does your mindset have to be much more locked in if you're playing golf, if you're playing in tennis, where it really, it's all on you and your failure or your success is determined by what you do from 1.1 shot the next play whatever the case may be. Did, do you come across some really distinct differences in those who determine and play the individual sport as opposed to the ones that play the team the team sports? 

Andrew Pardy: I think there are definitely some differences that come to mind [00:38:00] from from an intentional perspective. An individual sport like golf. Is definitely gonna be different from an intentional perspective than a, a team sport like hockey or a team sport like, like volleyball.

So an, an athlete that is knowing that a team sport context needs to understand more about spatial awareness. Be being able to track all the moving parts that are going on in a competition, in a performance, to be able to, find the open teammate or to be able to see what's going on around you 360 now.

Now obviously in a game like golf, it's a little bit different. The idea of being aware of your surroundings is not quite as important. It's a different context. So it's more of a, of an in, I'd say more of an internal game with golf. But I think no matter what the. I think my philosophy is whether you are a, a quarterback or [00:39:00] or a PGA pro, the really, the secret to performance in either of those contexts is really learning to foster that quiet mind.

Because if you do have that busy mind, it makes a flow state very difficult. To, to move into. But if you're out there with some tools and skills in your tool belt that allow you to quiet your mind under pressure, then that really opens up the possibility to find that that flow state that is really, I think what every athlete plays their sport to, to achieve.

John Boruk: Now you personally, you had a four- year collegiate athletic career, correct? That is correct. Yeah. So you went through this process of high school, four years in college and was it at that time where you learned that not only you had physical, the obvious physical skills to excel out of the field, [00:40:00] but to put yourself in that top 10%?

Or to, to really Get that extra two or 3% is when you found how important it was to have the mental performance. 

Andrew Pardy: Yeah, I think, when I look back on, on my athletic journey so I was my main sport was volleyball. And I, I, for anybody who is a volleyball fan on the call, volleyball is a sport of tall people.

And so I don't know if anybody has seen photos of me, but I'm five foot 10. So I was definitely an undersized volleyball player. So really I really didn't have any business being successful as a volleyball player. But for some reason that was my passion and that was the game that I chose.

And I ended up having a very successful high school career represented my province here in Canada. Went on and played four [00:41:00] years of university volleyball. And the thing that allowed me to survive was I understood I understood how to get in the zone. I understood full states.

And I could I could create them for myself and that allowed me to be successful as an athlete. It, in my case, it certainly wasn't my physical abilities as average at best. But it was really those intangible skills that I, you know I guess I learned or taught myself through my athletic career that I am passing on to athletes right now through through my Game Academy training program.

John Boruk: Yeah. And I'm always intrigued when I see the smaller athlete in some of these sports. Tyler Ennis in hockey, David Eckstein, if you can remember the name that played baseball football Darren Sproles who played locally for the Philadelphia Eagles. Here he is, he's a five foot six inch [00:42:00] running back.

There has to be a metal component to help almost overcompensate by their lack of size. 

Andrew Pardy: Yeah, no doubt about it. The undersized athletes are going at it a different way because, the, if you wanna continue to play the game you love, you gotta figure out some way to compete.

And I think for a lot of us we'll go find that that, that mental advantage. I think for. Maybe the more talented athletes or the more oversized athletes these may be the, these may be the athletes who don't investigate the mental side of things. Maybe it's come a little bit too easy.

But I, even those athletes, I think at some point in time when they reach the pinnacle of their sport, they're going to run in for, to mental challenges and adversity that they'd never faced. And they're gonna have to have knowledge and tools and skills and their tool belt to be able to handle those high pressure situations. 

John Boruk:  All [00:43:00] right. So if there's a parent out there or somebody who has a young teenage athlete and they want to, they say, Maybe this can help my son or daughter. How do they get started in your program? How does, you talked about a test to get started, but take me through, For those parents who want to get involved, how do they go about that?

Andrew Pardy: For parents out there and I'm actually I'm preparing a webinar for tomorrow night for parents who are looking for a way to help their teenage athletes be the best athlete. The best the athletes they can be. And that's my specialty. That's what I've been doing for the last 10 years.

So the best way to investigate that I'd encourage just parents to get curious about it because I think. The mental side of the equation is something that is drastically overlooked. I think it's way more important than [00:44:00] most people realize. So I just encourage you to get curious. And if you wanna have a conversation with me about that, I'd be happy to be happy to connect with you.

You can go to self or athlete.com. . And on the website there, you can just book a free 30 minute strategy session and we can, we can talk about your son or daughter and, maybe what challenges you're seeing or what they're facing and talk about potential solutions.

John Boruk: All right, Andrew Pardy, founder of the Self-Aware Athlete, thank you so much for joining us on raising a Champ and appreciate the time and the knowledge. And I think that's something that every single parent can certainly take out of this is that there's something that they can beholden to their young athlete at a very early age in something that obviously is gonna stay with them for as long as they play sports

Andrew Pardy:, No question about it. I think athletic skills are life skills, right? I think the way I look at it is I'm using a teenager's passion for their [00:45:00] sport to teach them not only performance skills that'll help them in their sport, but these are really life skills at the end of the day as well.

John Boruk: Absolutely Andrew Pardy. Thanks so much. As we like to do. Every show is end with our quota, the quota of the day, and this comes from a hockey coach, John Tortorella, who said, it's hard to teach thinking when you have a player who has smarts and goes to the right places. That guy is well on his way to being a good pro.

And with that, thanks for listening to Raising a Champion. However you listen, please subscribe to us. It would go a long way and we much appreciate it, whether that's on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, wherever you listen to. And thanks for listening to us and hope you join us next time.