Episode #24 - Q&A #4

In this episode we answer a bunch more questions and get into some really cool topics concerning performing under pressure, meal prep for high performance athletes, and the power and structure of journaling. We discuss what we would tell our younger selves, and how being patient, curious, and authentic, can be hugely beneficial to success.

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Transcript

0:00

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Pittsburgh podcast. This is episode number four in our Q& A series, where we answer all of your burning questions. Today, we discuss strategies for journaling, how to find your ideal performance state under pressure, why quantity is sometimes better than quality in terms of nutrition, and what we would tell our younger selves if we could do it all over again. Before we get started, I'd like to introduce our newest partner on the Pit to Pro podcast. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to hit harder and score more points. That's why we've decided to partner up with the athlete wellness Academy to deliver you guys the best in arm swing training With their new Arm Swing Academy, you'll receive personalized video analysis and feedback, along with individualized workouts and on court drills. for joining us. Continuous technical support and a dedication to this process will have you hitting harder and playing pain free. AWA has worked extensively with the three of us at the Pit to Pro podcast, as well as the top university programs across the country. If that sounds like something you want to be a part of, sign up for the Arm Swing Academy using the link in our show notes or Instagram bio, and get 10 off every month of your subscription. The Arm Swing Academy offers a 7 day free trial, which you can cancel at any time, and if you're not seeing progress after one month of joining the Academy, you will be refunded. It's completely risk free, so click the link in our show notes or Instagram bio and start your 7 day free trial today. But now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome us. Hello and welcome to the Pit the Pro podcast. Jesse, Matthias, and Aaron Elson. This podcast is meant to guide young athletes on their journey to high performance. Join us as we share our first hand experiences in an effort to help you reach your own valuable goals.

Mathias 1:35

And we're live. Welcome back everyone to the Pit to Pro podcast. Um, obviously today's gonna be a question episode with the three of us and uh, we're gonna start here. First question is from Superfan Blaner and he asked, throughout your careers what was your favorite Canada West Championship moment?

Jesse 2:01

I think it's not really from the final, but one of my favorite ones was. Can was final in Edmonton last year. We had a 7:30 a. m. serve and pass and Me and Dev woke up at probably 5:30 walk to the corner store grabbed eggs and hot dogs and two rock stars each and had Breakfast at 6 with like eggs and monsters showed up at the gym, and we're just like firing by 7:30 Everyone else is tired. The crash was hard, but like raw eggs. No, like we had a, we had a little like kitchenette in our room. Oh, okay. Okay. And hot dogs. You just like cracked an egg in your mouth. That's disgusting. No, we, we were just absolutely buzzing by 7 30. The crash came down hard, but that serving pass was probably one of the most fun in my career. I got a lot of good memories from the canwest seasons. One of my favorite ones was that game against ubc Where the night before we lost 3 0 at UBC and then we lost the first two sets The next night at home ended up winning in five. That was a really good memory. That was a fun game and Five terrible sets of volleyball before that for us.

Mathias 3:33

Dude, that kind of reminds me, one of, one of my best or favorite Canada West memories was in my third year when our team was like Jackson Howe, Derek Epp, Jordan Schnitzer, Brodie Jesse, and who was the other one, Colton? Colton. Yeah. Yeah. And then one weekend we were traveling to UBCO and we left all of our starters at home and you guys just stayed back and just Recovered for the weekend. And I think it was just me. I was the only starter that went, um,

Jesse 4:09

yeah, I think

Mathias 4:10

it was just me. That, that was the starter that went with, uh, with the guys. Cause I needed to set. And, uh, anyways, so we're playing all of our young guys and, uh, it was super fun. Good opportunity to play a good game. And the first night we just got dusted three O like hour and shower, super quick. And we were watching video back the next day. Um, and it was, it was honestly like filled us with so much confidence because we couldn't have played worse. Like the amount of errors that we put up was ridiculous. Um, but we still had the, like, a solid mindset the whole time and we were having fun playing, playing together. And then second night, we come out ready for a battle. It's back and forth the whole night. And, super tight down to the wire, we end up winning in five. And, It felt like we won nationals. Yeah. Yeah, like it was the biggest win of the season. Like, I, I've, yeah, I felt so much emotion, like cellying so hard. Um, because that season we had a lot of wins that were easier for us. And so it was just cool to be in a massive battle with a, with a group of new guys. So that's a good memory for me.

Jesse 5:34

I think one of, one of, actually my favorite memory is when all three of us played together like that sask weekend When I was libero, you and TS are both left sides. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I happened to get against Winnipeg. I think those were really fun. All three of us just passing side by side. Yeah. That's cool. Those were awesome.

Mathias 5:54

Alrighty, next question. A lot of different opinions on the collared jerseys TW used to rock. Personally, I think they were unreal. What were your opinions on them? What is it like to play in them?

Jesse 6:08

I think it's like playing in any other jersey. Yeah, yeah, but they were nice and baggy. I liked that and the material was unreal.

Mathias 6:15

I thought it was kind of baggy. Interesting. I don't have the numbers on it, but most of the guys I talked to loved the collar jerseys, but most of the women I talked to did not like the collar jerseys. So there's something to consider.

Jesse 6:36

That is something to consider. That's very important. An often overlooked statistic, if you will. Do you guys like

Mathias 6:43

sleeveless jerseys? I don't, I don't mind when teams wear them, but personal preference.

Jesse 6:52

I got hairy shoulders, so I don't really like flaunting those to the whole world. I really like the U of S jerseys. Granted, I haven't played in them. But they're like, just a nice texture. And I think that's important. Like, feeling comfortable in what you're wearing is like a big part of being able to perform. If you're uncomfortable, you're just, your mind's always thinking about how uncomfortable you are.

Mathias 7:25

It is a good feeling when you've got a nice jersey and you're comfortable in it. Putting it on in the locker room before game day. I love the national team jerseys. I think, I think we have some of the best jerseys in the, in the world in terms of all the countries. No collars though. Alrighty. Will we see you all playing together on Team Canada in the near future? Super exciting to see the program make big strides, big strides in recent years.

Jesse 7:59

I don't think. I don't know, maybe not national team, but maybe pro. well. T's gotta get healthy. T's gotta get healthy. Yeah, I gotta get healthy.

Mathias 8:09

Yeah, but I would say probably not, but we've had good times playing together already. Like that one year of school was pretty cool. Jesse and I have played national team. How many summers? Bunch, right? Maybe three, four?

Jesse 8:26

Two junior teams and two SVB teams, maybe?

Mathias 8:30

Yeah, we played B team and then also the one A team summer. We were together for that first. VNL Yeah, we played against France

Jesse 8:40

together. I got you subbed out because I didn't pass the seams.

Mathias 8:44

Yeah, no problem, man.

Jesse 8:48

That's funny. I did tell my agent though, I said, if there's ever a chance to play on the same team as one of my brothers, we gotta take it. How do you feel about Norway? Kinda cold. Or further south of France. Do you want to play pro League, do you think? as of right now, I don't know. I have a lot of goals. That I want to accomplish that don't have anything to do with volleyball. I also realized that I have like a, a gift, if you will, and I shouldn't just throw it away while I can still play like I can play. I also have a lot of things in my life that like I want to do and accomplish that have nothing to do with volleyball, so I think that's awesome. I think that's awesome.

Mathias 9:40

That leads us into our next question here, which is, What short and long term goals do you have? And in parentheses, it says club and national team.

Jesse 9:52

Well, my short term goal is I would love to spend the whole summer with the A team. I've been like in and out with the A team for the last two or three years, kind of training with them and then competing with the B team and stuff. So I'd love to travel with the A team, go to some VNL events. That would be my short term goal. Um, then my long term goal, I would love to win a league in pro. I think people back home don't really realize how hard that is to do and how big an accomplishment that is, especially over here. Like if you win the French league or the Italian or whatever, any league, that's like a huge accomplishment. Yeah, that's really cool. I think like for me, obviously short term goal is, I mean, I'd love to win esports this year. Like I think that's always the goal. Um, but with me not playing, I just want to. My short term goal is to make the guys that I'm playing with better than they were the day before. Like if I can, if I can push them harder than anyone has, then I think we're in a good spot to accomplish our team long term goal, which is, I think for every team in esports is to win, win the chip. That, dude, that reminds me of a good story. In my first year, it was my first year, when Derek transferred from Sask, he had the red shirt, and uh, Maddox was our second slider behind Adam. And Derek worked so hard. And if, if Derek was getting reps after practice and Maddox was getting reps after practice, Maddox was getting reps and Derek had to do one more. They just had this battle of like who could get better and Derek couldn't even play, you know, like, I think that it was such a cool Uh, work ethic that he had, because he just worked so hard and pushed everyone on the team and he had nothing to gain from it other than making everyone else better and trusting that he was going to be better when he could play the next year. Well, I think it's like in that, that, uh, the year that we went to UBC, just the young bucks, that whole year, the best opponent we saw was at practice. Like, it's the guys in the gym that you play that make you better for the weekend. Like, games aren't won Friday and Saturday, they're won Monday to Thursday. Great quote from Ben Josephson. But, I think I have more influence on the team from Monday to Thursday than any other. Match play well. I think that's kind of the same thing like Derek understood that and he was like, no I need to need to make everyone around me better, What, what's the, do you guys know what the history behind why it's called the red shirt?

Oog 12:49

Nope. No, that's a good

Mathias 12:50

question though. Thank you. I think for me, my, my short term goal is basically just to get healthy and I can't have any long term goals until that happens. At least in volleyball, um, I'm trying to come up with some goals outside of volleyball to try to, you know, have a, uh, contingency plan if, uh, if I can't get healthy, but I would still love to, to come back and carry on from where I left off back overseas and play for the national team. Does that make you nervous?

Jesse 13:37

or like, maybe not nervous. Do you have any doubts that you won't be able to reach the same level that you were at?

Mathias 13:46

Uh, no, I don't. Okay. I think, I think sometimes that happens after a injury to like a body part where you don't trust it right away. And there is actually a process of regaining the coordination and the strength and being able to use your body properly. But I think with the concussion, uh, I didn't suffer any like downgrade in my play, even while I was like having vision problems and half my vision was cutting out and I was still playing in practice. No one in the gym would be able to know or to be able to tell so I think that I was I was still improving When I stopped playing and I feel like obviously there'll be a maybe like a month or two where I'm catching up to where I was But I feel pretty good about being able to get back to that level pretty quick. The unfortunate part is that I have Given up a year of improvement. So I probably won't be able to I could probably catch up, but I won't be where I could have been had I not stopped. I think I can get back to where I left off pretty quick.

Jesse 15:15

That's cool. I think you can't do, I'm probably, I think you'd probably lose strength and speed, like that'll be harder to come back than skills.

Mathias 15:26

Yeah, I think that stuff even comes back pretty fast. Like your body has a pretty crazy memory system, if you will, of the actions and also like the even muscle mass comes back really fast after losing it.

Jesse 15:44

That's true. That's actually really true.

Mathias 15:47

Alrighty. What did you guys eat most during university? What do you think was most, what do you think was most beneficial, efficient, et cetera?

Jesse 16:02

Dude, I think, I actually think, I was thinking about this the other day because, um, like price and budget as a university athlete is actually a huge factor. Like even now I'm making money, but it's expensive. So I think like basic, real foods, like potatoes, you can get a huge sack of potatoes, but really cheap, like ground beef and chicken is pretty cheap. That's efficient fuel that you're not like. You're not putting junk in your body, but you can't like, unless you have a lot of money, like you can't buy the best quality steaks and can't buy mangoes every second day and avocados. Like they're so expensive. It's crazy. Yeah. One of my like go to's was just rice, some sort of meat and like a vegetable, whether that's a pepper or a carrot. we were all on the, on the beef and rice grind for. A couple of years where it's just like, yeah, it's the fastest thing you can make little cleanup. It's cheap and you could eat a lot of it. Yeah, like cooking time was another thing you got to consider, especially with a busy schedule at university. Actually having the air fryer that last year was so huge. Air fryer and rice cooker. That's an investment. I think student athletes should have. Like that saves a lot of time where you can be studying or recovering or sleeping. Yeah.

Mathias 17:38

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. I think it's, uh, So important to have high quality nutrition, but maybe athletes need it the most out of anyone But we have the least amount of time to invest in that and so I agree. I was a chicken and rice guy I probably averaged one and a half meals of chicken and rice a day for over four years Um, Yeah, it was ridiculous. Um, but it's fantastic. You toss the chicken in the air fryer, rice in the rice cooker, wait 20 minutes and It's all good to go. Um, and then obviously fruits and vegetables good to toss in there as well.

Jesse 18:23

Yeah, I feel like one of the, so I'm doing a project right now on Like how much meat people consume in Canada. I mean average is like a hundred and fifty pounds of meat a year Which is like, I think it's a half pound a day almost, a little bit less I think as athletes, like, we eat way more meat than average. Um, well dude, I was actually, that's a good point about the meat and like the protein because protein is super important. Um, but like also there's a lot of things that have a lot of protein in them other than meat. Like I've been on like the Greek yogurt and chickpea grind this year. Like, I just put chickpeas in everything, man. And they're so good for you. Greek yogurt every morning. Like, I just get like the plain stuff and mix a little honey in there. And eggs are a great example. But sometimes I just get sick of eggs. You know? Yeah. And I think we can do a better job as like a group of people, mostly athletes, of diversifying our needs. Like, we don't need to think about, Okay, you're only getting protein from meat. Like, you know, Let's say you have a protein shake and then you have a vegetarian meal like that's very similar to what you would be doing. Obviously, I'm I'm more of a get your protein from the real thing. I don't really like taking protein powder or supplements like that. But that's just me.

Mathias 19:51

Yeah, we should get a real nutritionist on here, but another thing to consider is sometimes quantity over quality is necessary. For athletes, specifically, because of how much training we do, um, with the national team there, we did studies on reds, which I believe is like relative

Jesse 20:22

energy deficiency

Mathias 20:23

in sport. There you go. There you go. And it was basically again, relative,

Jesse 20:29

relative energy deficiency in sport.

Mathias 20:33

And it was basically people who had not eaten enough over a very long period of time fell into reds, which was basically your, your bone density went down, your testosterone went down, um, all these performance markers in your body went down. And, um, When they coupled the those studies with like questionnaires on what guys were eating those who eat who ate The least healthy were also the least likely to be in red just because they were getting the calories they needed into their bodies So I think that's something to think about is that keep it as clean as you can But make sure that you're getting all the energy you need Um, to perform at a high level every day. And I think that probably comes more for university pro and national team athletes, because you're probably not going to get going to reds unless you're training multiple times a day.

Jesse 21:34

Well, but also if you're a youth athlete, you're, you use a lot of energy growing.

Mathias 21:39

Yeah. Fair.

Jesse 21:41

Like you gotta eat a lot, but that's a really good point. I was actually going to add before you said that, that you got to match what you're eating with your goals. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, like you can't eat the same way if you're rehabbing versus if you're in hypertrophy versus if you're in the off season, like you kind of have to tailor that a little bit to, to match your performance, whatever the performance is.

Mathias 22:06

Yeah, I think it, it, it is quite simple. Um, there's a lot of things that go on in the background, but if you're trying to gain weight, you have a few more calories than you're burning, if you're trying to lose weight, you have a few less calories than you're burning. But I think the constant is the protein. I've heard roughly. one pound or one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Um, you can go a little bit less, I think, but as long as you get in that protein threshold and then changing the the calories for the composition you want, that's the way to make changes, I would say. And there's massive value in actually tracking that. I know it's annoying and people don't like to be counting calories, so to speak, but I think that's the only way you can make changes is knowing exactly how much you're eating. Every day. Yeah. I agree. And I always go to practice with food in your stomach. Yeah. Hi, everyone. Two questions for Matias. Matias is one of few people who sets and hits at a national level, similar to Micah Ma'a. How do you mentally and physically prepare for your role on the team? And do you know ahead of time if you would be setting or hitting beforehand? Okay, I'll answer that first, I guess. Mentally and physically. Um, Uh, yeah. I would always know what position I was playing, except for my first time playing left side with the B team. That's kind of when I started switching back to left side. I was a setter down in a tournament in Mexico. And a bunch of our left sides were getting COVID. and I was setting in hitting warm up and then our assistant coach just walks up to me and goes, Hey, um, I'd considered getting a few spiking reps in this warmup. I was like, all right, cool. Why not? And then within, I don't know, the first couple of points of the game, I had been subbed in as a, as a left side. So that one, I had no idea. You're welcome You're welcome. That one, I had no idea, uh, was coming really. Um, but since then it had been pretty clear what my, what my roles were mentally and physically prepare. Um, physically, I think as a setter setters, we don't understand actually how demanding it is to be an attacker, um, because setters, we jump a lot, um, but they're smaller jumps. And I always thought in my mind that those were kind of. equate, but they do not at all. So the physical toll on your body as an outside is significant. So I had to do a lot of, um, prevention work with my knees and my shoulder and my back and all that stuff in order to be able to play at the, at that level. And then also I realized my first time, my first summer playing VNL, that I was just not nearly strong enough. I had, I was getting the skill that was coming along, but I just wasn't physical enough to play at that level. Because it's, it's all the most, it's all the best athletes in the world in one gym at that point. So I need to, had some work to do there. And the second part of the question is, In one of the episodes Matthias mentioned, he knew he wanted to go play professionally and that's why he left TW earlier. Now that he's going to assistant coach at TW, what made the change because he had a really good first pro season? Uh, yeah. Yeah, I left early to go play pro. Because I wanted to continue to get better. I felt like that was the place to do it. And then, uh, the only reason I came back was injury. Um, in hindsight, it's probably a good thing for me. Especially getting my degree. Um, because it all will end at some point. But I just had expected that that would be, you know, 15 years down the road instead of one. Um, so I'm, I'm glad to be back and recovering and working with the team here and finishing up school. Um, but

Jesse 26:38

dude, how's it going? How is the coach life?

Mathias 26:42

It's good, man. I think it's rewarding in different ways, but the general feel is very similar to being on the team. You show up every day and you do the best you can, even when you don't want to, even when you don't feel. Like it just like an athlete, you got to show up and put in the work. And some days you mess up and you have a bad day coaching, just like an athlete might. And then some days you're killing it and you really feel like you're helping the guys and they're getting a lot better. And so in that sense, it's, it's similar

Jesse 27:26

when you say you mess up meaning like with feedback or like, or you only think you mess up because the athletes aren't getting better or visually getting better.

Mathias 27:35

Yeah. Maybe, maybe you design a drill. That just doesn't flow properly and the guys are getting frustrated and the mood gets dampened and the whole practice is not ruined. But that section you weren't getting better or you approach a situation or given a piece of feedback in a certain way and it doesn't land or anything like that. I think sometimes that's what I've learned. Asking questions is always Super important thing much better than telling because there'd be times at the beginning where I would give them a piece of feedback, something to do. And then I'd find out later that that's not even the area they were focusing on. And it was something else that actually looked pretty good. So just going up to someone and say, what are you, what are you working on? What are you focusing on? And then they tell you and they say, okay, yeah. And then you work together on what, what that piece is supposed to look like. Um, I definitely miss miss playing the, the influence you have as a coach is obviously the Minimal in games and in practice. It's fun to be around and to help the guys get better But in games is when I really miss being on the floor and just competing.

Jesse 29:08

Mm

Mathias 29:10

one thing that I'm, that I'm trying to help guys understand is. That playing volleyball is just fun, that there doesn't have to be an underlying goal or accomplishment or anything, really. Because I think that's part of why I got into trouble. Which I think it's normal to think about those things, but the reason I got into trouble is because I wouldn't stop playing because I wanted to be an Olympian. That was basically my rationale. I didn't, I couldn't take the time off from training to recover because that would set me back on my path to try to get to the Olympics. Thanks. And now, now that I'm not playing, I would give up every win, every championship, every medal, every accolade or award I've ever gotten just to train, honestly, just to be able to be in the gym and play, play volleyball. And so, yeah, kind of showed me that maybe, maybe I was playing for not the wrong reasons, maybe a little bit the wrong reasons, maybe a little bit selfish reasons, but I think that's normal. I think that's normal. That's kind of how athletes are wired. We try to win, we try to be our best, which is, I don't think a problem, but I just wish that I had, um, realized how much I actually love playing the sport and not just, um, accolades and medals and wins. Yeah, that's powerful. That's cool.

Jesse 30:56

All right.

Mathias 30:57

Do you talk about the mindset before games? It's always so intense and hard to play at a normal level. Do you guys listen to music or have other ways to deal with the pressure?

Jesse 31:09

for me, like, I like listening to music, but like, calm or slower music. because I know that calms me down and takes me to my like, not happy place, but I enjoy slower music. And that makes it seem like it's just any other day. And then I'm going to play, like Tias just said, you're going to play. I think if you can really, um, wrap your head around the fact that it's a game, and you're going to play, like you wouldn't get that nervous if you're playing Monopoly with your family. You know, like, you just want to play. And I think that has helped all of us at some point.

Mathias 31:45

Yeah, a couple things that have helped me is that everyone who has ever played the game of volleyball gets nervous before games. Or has got nervous before games. I don't like it's, it's so unbelievably normal. Um, and then the second piece for me is, is, um, almost acceptance and curiosity and authenticity. And by that, I mean, whatever, whatever you're feeling, it's not worth it to fight it. Because then you're, you have a, you already have a battle going on in your head before you even start battling on the court. I think I'd rather just accept everything and then you can kind of filter through it and let it go. Instead of trying to block it out, just let it in and then decide if you wanted to keep it there or not. Um. And then curiosity approaching the game with a mindset of, uh, you don't know what's going to happen. And that is, uh, why we play. If you knew you were going to win, it wouldn't be fun. It's like when you miss, uh, when you miss the Superbowl or something and you had it recorded. And you're going to watch it later, but then you saw the score on your phone. You know, if you knew, if you knew the outcome of the game, it wouldn't be fun. So approaching the game with a bit of curiosity and then the authenticity part for me is just finding how, how you play best, what kind of mindset you play best in, because at the beginning of my university career, maybe in the middle as well, I always tried to be, I saw these competitors like Kobe Bryant. And Tom Brady and Michael Jordan, and they were just absolute stone cold killers. They went out there straight face, no emotion, aggressive, got their job done and acted like it was nothing. And so I thought that was like the ideal competitive state. So I was basically lying to myself to try to put myself in that state, like pretend I'm the best. I'm the man I'm going to go. Dominate in this game, but I realized that's not how I actually perform my best and I perform my best when I'm a little more relaxed Enjoying the moment taking in the whole atmosphere, you know, maybe engaging with some fans a little bit not You know, it's keeping a light mood while staying focused. That's kind of when I perform my best. So I think finding, finding what that is for you. And for some guys, it is that, that stone cold killer mindset. I've, there's some guys on our team right now where they perform their best like that, and that's awesome, but I think you can't just take someone else's mentality or character and try to. Force yourself into it.

Oog 34:46

Authenticity is key. That's what they say.

Mathias 34:50

Alright. Oh, this is a good question. How do you journal? And what are your prompts? Or do you guys just write whatever comes to your mind?

Jesse 35:03

I've done the prompt thing, I've done the prompt thing with, uh, like the Daily Athlete Journal. Um, but I find it wasn't as helpful as just, I just write whatever comes to my, my mind. Sometimes, uh, it'll, I'll just write like, I feel like this because, and then this happened, I don't even use periods. It's just like a constant flow of thoughts. Because like, I do that when I'm really overwhelmed or really anxious. Or sometimes I'll, Like write myself letters. I've done that in the past where I was like, we're having a tough week. I'd be like, Hey Jesse, I've noticed that this week was pretty tough and this like affected you. And do you know why that if I ask myself questions that way, But like to remind myself of things like after the summer, this past summer, I had a pretty good summer, like performance wise. And I wanted to be able to capture that. So I wrote a couple of pages on like what I did and what it felt like when I was, um, performing at that state and how I was interacting with the coaches and what I did on a day to day basis so that I could remember. So I don't really have a strict format. I just kind of write whatever I feel like wants to come out of my brain, you know, sometimes I make up words, draw pictures, I'll write like diagonally on the page. I don't know, sometimes I'll write in the dark, so I can't see the pen, and I can't see the lines or anything. It's just my thoughts going into paper, and then I'll go look at it the next morning. It makes absolutely no sense, but it doesn't matter because I got my thoughts onto paper. So I don't know, I don't have any formats, but I think journaling is awesome. Like, creatively, creatively, and just, um, like decluttering of your mind. one of the things that I do is just like, I have a lot of things going on in my head at once. I'm always thinking about Usually stuff that does not relate to volleyball. And if I transfer those thoughts into writing before a game, before a practice or something, then they'll still be there when I get back. And I don't have to keep thinking about them. So I don't really use it as like a tool to whatever, recount my, like my successes or anything. It's mostly just a tool. It's like a little memory or like a storage bank for my brain. I almost find. It's like an external hard drive. Yeah, exactly.

Mathias 37:42

Yeah, that's cool. I think it can be super personal and how you use your journal, but I, I could journal a lot more, especially as of recently. I, uh, I always feel so refreshed after I do it. I'm looking through my journal right now just to see if there's anything that I could read. Okay, this is, I can read kind of the, I've talked about this before, the day that I realized, um, that I can get out of slump by doing the opposite of what I had done previously. this is, this is what I wrote. February 28th, 2023. Of the year that we ended up winning nationals. And I wrote, Feeling, feeling kind of trash going into the CanWest semis. cause none of my skills feel good. Progress from last year though, I've been able to disconnect my competitive mindset. From the quality of my play. Still feel judged and pressure from being bad. I've already let the team down once. I don't think I could do I don't think it could get worse. That was me talking about the year before. And then I asked myself the question, Can I get out of this? Answer, Yes, why wouldn't I be able to? If I turn it on again, It's gonna be scary for the other teams. That was my conclusion. And then how? My question, How? How do I turn it on? And I just wrote, Do the opposite of what I'm doing right now. So then I wrote down all the things I was doing right now. Thinking about setting all the time. Telling myself I'm in a slump. Worrying. Feeling small. Thinking about the consequences of failure. Don't think people are being genuine when they tell me I'm good. Respond negatively to failure. Think about everything I have to do on every set. Go into practice expecting to fail. That's all the things I was doing. And then so I wrote down what the opposite was. Don't think, just ball. Act as if you're playing the best volleyball of your life. Be big. Don't try. Act out the actions of success. Buy the hype. Failure is a stepping stone. Don't change anything on your serve. You know how to serve. Don't think about setting. You know how to set. Go to practice expecting to dominate.

Jesse 40:24

That's cool.

Mathias 40:25

I asked myself the question after that. I said, Will I let myself out? Getting out would show the world how deep I was in and that's why it's scary. And then I wrote vulnerability in all caps.

Jesse 40:43

Dude, that's awesome. I didn't know you have that many feelings.

Mathias 40:47

Well, yeah, that's why yeah, I don't know that's why you or why I use my journal, because I think as soon as those things are down on paper, they kind of, you don't have to hold them anymore. Yeah. That's the external hard drive piece is that, yeah, you're kind of offloaded onto paper. And even though you didn't do anything besides write it down now, and now I think it's, there's gotta be some science to that, where Your mind doesn't have to, or doesn't feel it has to remember it anymore, so it can let it go. Yeah, that's cool.

Jesse 41:27

I'll read, I'll read you one from this summer. Today is my birthday, but more importantly, I want to talk about practice. Thanks. I started off super awesome and having fun and then the A team coaches came in to watch and I got so so nervous and started to get super internal and my actions and words were super forced. How did I turn it around you may ask? I had one of the best spiking practices of my life and I was using lots of variation and spiking high. I turned it around by trusting myself, competing, anchoring, and reminding myself of the keys that are simple and repeatable. I had lots of fun, I was doing things and interacting the way that I wanted to be remembered, and then I signed it.

Mathias 42:13

Nice, dude. That's cool. And, okay, that brings up another point. One of the best things about journaling is, like, just the memory log, too. Like, the way you can go back, I have all the way until, like, grade 12, and it's like, how did I think about that kind of stuff back then? Yeah.

Jesse 42:32

Let's see if, oh, here. This is, yeah, this is the memory log part. This is the review of the summer that I was talking about. I don't wanna, Yeah, I'll read it, I'll read it. Well, the summer is coming to a close. You were named captain, MVP, best server, and you won the Pan Am Cup. Those are huge accomplishments, but don't let it get to your head. Use it as fuel to get better, to gain confidence, and to realize your value. Never stop being creative. I think part of your success comes from feeling valued, by coaches and players. Knowing that others need or want you is important for you to play well. How can I fabricate that? And then I'm not going to read the rest. A journal is a powerful tool. Underutilized, I'd say.

Mathias 43:23

I guess I would just say experiment. Like, I don't know. I guess like Jesse's, Jesse's style and my style sounded a little bit different, but, It is weird reading them back. It doesn't, doesn't always make sense. But I don't think that's the point. I almost never read back. No, my journal entries like ever. And I, I don't think that's the point is the point is not to go back and, and read them. You can for sure. And you can probably learn from that. But I think the point is just like, uh, Like you're saying, offloading thoughts and working through them on paper.

Jesse 43:57

Yeah,

Mathias 43:58

yeah,

Jesse 43:58

for sure. A lot of mine start with like, like this one starts with like, there's lots going on in my life right now, but it's, but how can we get better? It's time to perform. So let's be grateful for those around me and this amazing opportunity. And like lists a bunch of things that I can like do. one of my favorite

Mathias 44:14

things though. Yeah. You start with the question. What am I, what am I feeling or say what's going on? Why? I think why is really good. Why? I think why is the most powerful question. It's like, Oh, I feel this. Why do I feel that? Oh, because of this. Okay. Why that? Yeah. And then I think you can dig down to more of a root cause.

Jesse 44:33

having somewhere where you can legiticize or legitimize Legitimize your your thoughts and your feelings and collect them all Without having more pop in is just chef's kiss.

Mathias 44:54

All right, next question. Great question, by the way. Would love to hear all your responses to the last question you asked Lepke. Knowing what you know now, if you could go back and give your younger self some advice about volleyball, life, and the process, what would you tell yourself?

Jesse 45:13

I feel like the same thing Graham said, like, it doesn't matter. The amount of times I've wasted just being angry at like a practice or at a game. And just have it ruin my night or I just, no, what does it matter? Really? Like in the grand scheme of things, it's not, it's not worth all the, all the missed things because you're mad. Yeah, that's a good point. I think for me, I would tell myself to be patient. I think I always wanted to play on better teams or bigger teams or in better leagues. I wanted to be older. I wanted to be taller. I wanted to be stronger. And dad always used to say like, don't wish your life away. Like you're exactly where you're supposed to be right now. And, and then like TS has been saying, like to enjoy it and to play. And I, I remember cause I always played up a year or two in club and all my teammates were playing or trying out for team Alberta and dad didn't let me try out for team Alberta. I didn't understand it at the time. And he was like, for your longterm development, And you're the health of your body. You shouldn't be playing at a high level in the summer. Like you need to be a kid. You need to, to take the rest and stuff like that. So, and then like, even now, like when you're, when you're signing your first pro contract, you want to get into the big leagues, but be patient because you're, you're where you're supposed to be. You're in the league you're supposed to be in and then be patient with yourself. Be patient with the process because if you play and you have fun and you enjoy it, and you're patient. You're going to get better, you're going to play better, and you're going to reach those goals that you have set out for yourself.

Mathias 47:13

I like that. I think I would explain to myself that It feels the same all the way through your career At least until the point that I made it to. Like I used to always watch older setters Brett Walsh specifically when when I was in club volleyball, I'd watch him Man, he sets the ball good every single time. Like, it must feel so amazing. I can't wait to get to that level. And then I got to that esports level and how volleyball feels to play and train. Never, never, uh, never changed for me. And so I think that kind of just points that that's how it is. That's the process. That's what volleyball is. It's not as glamorous as maybe a word you could use as people might think from the outside. And it always looked easier for other people, I think. Um, but yeah, I would just, I would just, I really started to enjoy the process of You know, not being able to do things and then learning and then being able to do things and the losses and the wins and the knee pain and the shoulder pain and all that stuff that is just volleyball. Like it's, there's not, it's not good or bad. That's what volleyball is. I would have, um, tried to learn to accept and enjoy that earlier in my career. And the second piece, I would have loved to teach myself how to be a winner earlier. I was, I lost a lot in club volleyball and In team Alberta and junior national team and even whatever COVID year playing against Jesse and blue whites and my first couple of years, my third year losing nationals like I, I didn't know how to win. And I still don't understand necessarily how to teach that. But I had to go through this massive discovery process in order to find that the competitor within me that could stay present in those big moments and perform under pressure. So. I would, I don't think you can tell someone how to do that, but I would put myself in a better mindset going into games and experiment more with how I approach those games, because I would just go in with fear. I would just go in with fear. I didn't like game day, because I was scared to play bad. I would just go in with more of a curious mindset, like I talked about earlier, and actively work on, how do I play my best, under pressure.

Jesse 50:00

Cool, that's really cool. I really like the first part, the, what you said. That's kind of what I was saying with the patient thing, you just said it way better. Classic. Um, how many more questions do we have? My wifi is bugging out here. I kind of want to go hunting.

Mathias 50:17

Okay. Well, answer this one, then you can go. How, how'd the first regular season game go for the Dawgs? How have you been enjoying Saskatchewan and the team from the linesmen from the MRU game?

Jesse 50:35

yeah, no, first regular season game is sweet. We played like it kind of was like a, an amalgamation of our preseason. I think we played the best we had in our preseason or the best we had so far in the year on our first night against MRU. It was some pretty clean volleyball. The boys were firing, the crowd was excited. Like it was just a really neat experience. Um, kind of weird sitting on the bench, but, uh, Like not being able to contribute at all, but it, uh, yeah, I don't know. I think it was a good, a really good opening weekend for us. And we just took or split with Brandon. So that was another, another big win. And then we got Alberta next weekend. So that's also also going to be a, uh, kind of a test and see how we're stacking up against best team in the league. Um, yeah, no, Saskatchewan's great. Like, uh, my school is more than I could have asked for. Like, it's super fun. And I've met a lot of really, really neat people within agriculture and within, um, like our, our program. And yeah, no, I've, I've been having a great time. It's. Obviously it's different going from a 4, 000 person school to a 30, 000 person school, but, uh, yeah, team's great. School's great. I have no complaints. Thanks for the question, Seth. Cheers to that. Yeehaw, as they say in Sask.

Mathias 52:15

Okay. Second, last question. This may have been addressed in another video, but you guys reference books and podcasts quite often. Do you guys have a standout slash favorite podcast and book and what made them stand out to you?

Jesse 52:32

I don't listen to podcasts as much as TS does, but for books, I would say the two or three that I think every athlete should read is the inner game of tennis. I, I've read and re read that book many times and I often journal about it and write down quotes from it. And it's all about detaching emotion from performance and from skills. And it's used in a tennis context, but it's super applicable to any sport, any action, any, yeah, any action in life. It doesn't have to be sport specific. I love sports. that book because it's all about the like eliminating judgment self judgment from performance i think it's super powerful and it's small all the books i like are small the second one is called uh ego is the enemy that's another one that i think a lot of athletes should read which is all about how to control your ego even if you're not like a very egotistical person reading this book you realize how many selfish things we do day to day And how those actions can affect the people around you. So especially in a team context, getting your ego in check is really important. And I learned a lot from that book. Um, and then the third one, all three of these books are really small. And honestly, no, I'm saying them out loud. They're all basically the same book is the towel who like Pooh as in Winnie the Pooh. And it's Taoism, uh, explained through Winnie the Pooh. it's about, it's learning how to be alright with the way things are, and to take things at face value, and to, well, basically it's about not attaching judgement to performance, is what it is, but not in a sport context. Those would be my three books. Daoism is all about the, like the interrelationship between things and how things just happen. And yeah, I think that's exactly like, it's let it happen. Yeah. Like I think the most common, I took a Eastern world religions course and this was in it and they were talking about the most common way to explain it is it's like a river and the river just has its course. For no reason other than it's a river. It's, it's actually crazy. I really, I really enjoyed that course. it's like not over complicating things, taking things at face value and appreciating them for exactly what they are, who they are, who you should read the book, man. It's cool. It's really cool. Yeah. But all three of those books are like under 200 pages. Like they're really small. Yeah. Luke, what about you?

Mathias 55:45

Books and books and podcasts.

Jesse 55:46

I actually don't listen to any sport related podcasts really. I mean, aside from the occasional Joe Rogan that he's talking to someone, but I usually just go through there and like, I read the first, like the abstract. And if it sounds like something interesting that I am curious about. Yeah. I don't know all my podcasts. I really liked the meat eater podcast. I think it's, it's a hunting podcast, but they talked to some really interesting people. It doesn't, it's not all about hunting or, or farming or anything like that. So. That's kind of neat. Um, yeah, I'm not a big reader. I like learning things like I like reading books about like informative books Like farming for dummies. Yeah, pretty much farming for dummies. That's the only book. I know how to read actually Um, yeah,

Mathias 56:40

Yeah for me I have read a lot of books in the past, but almost none sports related, which I like. I think you can learn a ton from all different kinds of books. I like reading in business books and psychology books and that kind of stuff. I don't, I don't have any super strong recommendations off the top of my head. Um, for me, it's been the biggest, the biggest learnings come from the connections that are made between books. and my life, not actually the content of one book. So I would recommend volume of books in whatever you're interested in. And then I think it's cool to kind of different connections you can make and the, the threads that come up, um, through in different ways, through different books. I think that's when, and then the application of that to my life is the only time I've actually learned stuff. That's huge. I've read a ton of books and don't remember a single thing from a lot of them, um, because I didn't do anything with it. The podcast that I love listening to is Modern Wisdom by Chris Williamson. He's just a podcaster, asks really good questions, and has really interesting guests on. It's really fast paced, so There's not any chit chat. It's just information. Unlike this episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just information for however long the episode is. And I've got some of my favorite ideas and reframes and things I've shared on this podcast have come from, from him. So I'll check out Modern Wisdom for sure. Last question of the day. Good question. Again. How do you genuinely enjoy the game when you're under pressure? For example, rankings, expectations, stats, anything like that. Because it is certainly easier said than done. Because it's been feeling stressful to play the game. Especially during tournaments.

Jesse 58:55

Well, I think the first thing is, like TSU said a couple minutes ago, it's just like You're not the only person feeling those things. I bet everyone else at that tournament is feeling the same thing you are. So I think like getting it out of your head, accepting that, realizing that that's a normal thing, telling a teammate, your coach, your parents, journaling about it. That's a great start. Um, but to genuinely enjoy it, I guess you just ask yourself, like, would I rather be anywhere else? Probably not. I assume if you're Playing volleyball and you're going to these tournaments like those were the best days ever they ask yourself Would I rather be somewhere else? No, then soak up every single minute of it I think my philosophy kind of comes And it's yours, Jess, where it's just like, enjoy the moment for what it is and not what you think it should be. And what I mean by that is like, you're going to have all these premeditated ideas of, Oh, I need to hit 400 or, Oh, I need to get three blocks or, And I always say, as soon as you get wrapped up and thinking about stats, you're done. Like, it's, that's drawing your, your focus elsewhere from being present, I think. Just enjoy the moment and, and realize where you're at. Taoism. Taoism.

Mathias 1:00:27

Yeah, okay, I kind of touched on this earlier, like the way I think about is acceptance, curiosity, authenticity. And that's really helped me learn how to perform under pressure and enjoy pressure. And it's so cliche, pressure is a privilege. But I think the most, that's one of the most powerful switches that I made in my career was that I actually started to believe that. And like you said, much easier said than done. But that's the only reason to play, I think. Is the pressure. It's supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be a challenge. It's only fun if it's a challenge. And I honestly, that's might be the thing I miss most about playing is the pressure and the chance of Losing at something knowing that I could have the opportunity to win

Jesse 1:01:34

and knowing that you'll have an opportunity to do it again But you might not like to use in your case. You might not so you might as well enjoy it Also, last point, like for youth athletes, I'm assuming like, this is a club person. I don't remember very, very few games from my club years, but I remember like hanging out watching other teams and like doing the fun like booths and like talking to girls and stuff, you know, like put your phone down and enjoy the experience because it's, it's It's fun. And it's very rare that you're after your club years where you're ever going to be around that many athletes again, and that many volleyball games happening at the same time, like soak it in. And cause it's like, it's like a carnival. Like I loved after when I was in university, going back to youth nationals, whether it was with the national team or just on my own and like walking in and hearing like 60 whistles and all the kids screaming and all the balls bouncing. And like, those were the days. And that, you don't get that anymore. You don't. It's not even close. Well, that's kind of like the, when you look at club volleyball as a whole, it's like those tournaments are designed to be fun. They're not designed to be the end all be all of your youth volleyball career. I remember being sad and disappointed that we lost, but at the end of the day, just hanging out with your boys, goofing around. Like that's what it's all about.

Mathias 1:03:21

Not about numbers on a, on a stat line. I think, I think that can be said for Any level at any point though. Yeah, true. A hundred percent. I think that's weird. Yeah. It's easy to think about the things in the past that don't matter to us anymore that we wish we had enjoyed more But I think everyone had an opportunity to realize where they are right now You hear the same thing after guys graduate university, even if they go on to play pro. They're like man. That was the life. I I could have taken it in more. I could have enjoyed it more. I could have not been so stressed. Um, not been so angry, not taken it so seriously. Really good point.

Jesse 1:04:01

But the reality is if you're stressed and anxious, it means you care. And that's a really good thing. It means you care. It means you want to play. You want to perform. You want to get better.

Mathias 1:04:14

So that's a huge positive. Back to my point of what I would have told myself when I was, Younger. That's, that's how it is. That's volleyball. That never changes. You're never going to not feel pressure. You're never going to not be nervous. your mind's never not going to drift in game to think about stats, to think about what people are thinking about you, to think about who's in the crowd, who's watching. That's, that's being human. And that never changes. So, um, I think it's normal. Learn to accept it and strategize, find a way to play your best under that pressure because that's not going to go away. Hell yeah. Beautiful. All righty. and that wraps up episode number 24 of the Pit to Bro podcast. Thanks everyone for listening, signing off.

1:05:08

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