I am a Certified Mental Performance Consultant® with a Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology. My mission is to help athletes ages 14 to 22 be themselves when everyone is watching. Learn more about me.
“Yeah, but the umps were squeezing me!”
That’s what one of my athletes said after a rough outing.
Walks.
Runs.
A tough first inning.
And still — the umps were the problem.
I’ll tell you why that quote matters in a minute. First, some context.
I had the privilege of speaking at the 2025 Youth Athlete Summit on January 18, 2025. Other speakers covered financial literacy. NIL. Athlete self-care.
My topic?
Coaching Gen Z athletes. Makes sense — all of my clients are Gen Z.
“Gen Z” athletes generally run from 13 to 28 years old.
They grew up online. That shapes everything.
Curious.
Well-informed.
Visual learners.
Those are the strengths.
Short attention spans.
Trouble handling negative feedback.
Weak in-person communication.
oor time management.
Those are the challenges (Gould et al., 2020).
The title of my presentation was “Serving Gen Z Athletes: Don’t Be the Old Person Yelling at Cloud.“
I could’ve called it “Hey you kids, get off my lawn.” Same idea. Adults get frustrated with a generation that doesn’t operate the way they did. “Back in my day…” — fill in the blank.
Coaching Gen Z Athletes: 3 Key Takeaways
Eight years in this field will teach you a few things. Three, as a grad student. Five, in private practice.
Here’s what I landed on for coaching Gen Z athletes:
- Meet them “where they are at.”
- Be curious about them as people — not just athletes.
- Help them understand WHY.
My 2025 Youth Athlete Summit Presentation
Curiosity and explaining “why” — those are pretty straightforward. The one that needs unpacking? Meeting them where they are at. That principle got drilled into me back in 2017, day one of grad school. It still runs everything I do.
So what does it actually mean?
It means you don’t force them into your mold. You figure out what they need from you — not what you need from them. In my world, coaching Gen Z athletes looks like this:
- Texting them to check their email, because they won’t check it on their own.
- Sending short videos instead of long explanations, because their attention spans are shorter and they learn visually.
- Letting a last-minute cancellation slide, because scolding a kid who forgot doesn’t build trust.
Uncomfortable? Sure. Most of us grew up with adults who demanded compliance, no questions asked. Coaching Gen Z athletes this way takes patience. A lot of it.
A Real Example of Coaching Gen Z Athletes: A 14-Month Journey
Now for that quote.
I’ve worked with a freshman Division 1 pitcher for 14 months. First session: November 2023. His training facility referred him. Undeniable talent, they said. Struggled with the mental game, they said.
They were right on both counts.
Baseball was his identity. Almost entirely. That made him brutally self-critical — and not ready to actually work with me, even though he had a coach sitting right in front of him. His mom was ready. His coaches were ready. He wasn’t.
He didn’t know what to say in our sessions. He didn’t distrust me, exactly. He just kept me at arm’s length while he figured out what I could actually do for him.
So I kept showing up.
The Turning Point
Six months in — May 2024 — I drove 45 minutes to watch him pitch. He had no idea I was coming.
What I saw: real talent. The ball sounded different coming off his hand. It looked different. I also saw the struggles — trouble finding the zone, trouble managing his emotions when things went sideways. But I saw him fight through adversity too. That gave me hope.
After the game, I texted him. Told him I was impressed with how he bounced back from a rough first inning.
“Yeah, but the umps were squeezing me!”
There’s the quote. Fixated on what he couldn’t control. Classic. It told me exactly how much work we had ahead of us.
But it also told me something else — that showing up mattered. He started to trust me because I’d made the drive. So we kept building. We started meeting at his summer training facility. I watched him throw. I got to know his pitching coaches. I spent time in his world, not mine.
By the end of summer 2024, he was talking. Still guarded about what he shared, but talking. About his mental approach. About his freshman season. About baseball, mostly — but talking.
Earning the Right to Challenge Him
Just before Thanksgiving, I happened to be on his college campus for something unrelated. I texted him. We walked to the baseball field, talking for close to an hour.
Fall ball hadn’t gone the way he’d hoped. His relationship with his coaches had shifted since recruiting. He wasn’t sure where he stood. He was nervous about his role heading into his first college season.
He didn’t realize it, but he was finally sharing exactly what I needed to hear.
We planned to meet again over winter break. He agreed.
That session happened over Zoom, right after Christmas — right after his first bullpen of the break. His velocity was down. It worried him. Was he hurt? He wasn’t in pain, but something felt off.
For the first time in over a year, he was actually ready. I could feel it.
So I told him straight: “For the first time since I met you, I feel completely comfortable challenging you. You need to do something different to get the results you want. Are you ready?”
He said yes.
That’s it. That’s the whole story, boiled down. He’d spent a year trying to do it alone. Now he was ready to let someone in — because I’d spent 14 months meeting him where he was, staying curious, and explaining why any of this mattered.
What Coaching Gen Z Athletes Teaches Us About Patience
Fourteen months later, he gets it. He’s ready to put in the work heading into the most important season of his career so far.
That could change tomorrow. It probably will, at some point. Coaching Gen Z athletes means showing up again — whether he’s moving forward or sliding back. That’s the job. I accept it. Gladly.
FAQ
What does it mean to meet Gen Z athletes “where they are at”?
It means you stop forcing them into your mold. Coaching Gen Z athletes this way means figuring out what they need from you — pace, communication style, patience with missed sessions — instead of demanding they meet you on your terms.
Why is coaching Gen Z athletes different from coaching older generations?
Gen Z athletes grew up online. That shapes their strengths — curiosity, visual learning — and their struggles: shorter attention spans, tougher relationships with feedback, and weaker in-person communication (Gould et al., 2020).
How long does it take to build trust when coaching Gen Z athletes?
There’s no formula. This one took 14 months — consistent effort, showing up, and letting the athlete set the pace — before he was fully ready to engage.
What are the biggest keys to coaching Gen Z athletes effectively?
Three things: meet them where they are at, stay curious about them as people, and keep explaining the “why.” Skip any one of those, and trust doesn’t build.
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References
Gould, D., Nalepa, J., & Mignano, M. (2020). Coaching generation Z athletes. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 32(1), 104–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2019.1581856