Athlete Maestro | The Ultimate Podcast For Young Athletes | Sports Education | Sport Psychology | Mental Toughness | Athlete Development | Mental Training with Tola Ogunlewe

"If you're dedicated to something and you put the time in, why should anyone have an opinion on it?” – Claressa Shields Greatness can sometimes be thrust on your shoulders and you must be ready to accept it. Claressa Shields shun at the Rio Olympics for obvious reasons. She’s a champions who worked hard for everything she achieved. Probably like you she did not have it easy, it was not a stroll in the park but from the minute she decided that she wanted to be great she was ready to give it everything. I talk a lot more about her troubles and struggles to the top of her sport. She is a two time Olympic gold medal winning champion and is the first woman to retain her Olympic title. 3 KEY LESSONS - Luck is where opportunity meets hardwork - Find your inspiration - Never be afraid to dream Episode 46 is about an athlete who didn’t defy the odds but created the odds to work in her favour. She built it around herself and has created a legacy. It is time to create yours. Lets go. ACTION FOR TODAY Here are a few questions to ask yourself: 1. Am I ready to take advantage of my opportunity when it comes? Am I truly ready? If the opportunity came today, would I be able to produce my best? 2. Do I see the dream or vision ahead? Am I even dreaming? Your answer to the two questions above tells whether or not you are on the right track. I want you to be ready. So start giving it everything you got even as you prepare for your opportunity. You would thank me in future. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates. Subscribe on itunes, stitcher radio and Tunein

“You are doing your best only when you are trying to improve what you are doing” ― Mae West I heard a great story on the need to push yourself to the limit to see the best you can actually do. Many of us are accustomed to doing good work but never aspire to do great work because it is never asked of us. Well today I am asking, is this the best that you can do? All your training and preparation and everything you have put into your career begs that question. Is that the best you could have done? If the answer is no then push yourself one more time until you are fed up with producing any better effort. Episode 45 is asking you, is this the best that you can do? Go on and take a listen. ACTION FOR TODAY What is something you are trying to achieve or improve on? A skill or a technique? Associate the lesson of the story and ask yourself if you can do any better. If you can, then put in the effort. I challenge you to be great. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates. Subscribe on itunes, stitcher radio and Tunein

“Once your mindset changes, everything on the outside will change along with it.” ― Steve Maraboli, Like everything in life it all begins in the mind. Your mindset controls what you do in sports. How you train, how you handle failure, how you recover from your mistakes and so on. The list is endless. Episode 44 targets the mindset you have in sports and how you can change and get better. It all begins in the mind. Go on and take a listen. ACTION FOR TODAY Ask yourself what type of mindset you have. Be honest. Growth or fixed? Do you see success in sports all down to talent or do you believe its more about the hard work and perseverance. All the answers are contained in this episode. If you have a fixed mindset, use the tips to gradually change to a growth mindset. Its all down to you. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates. Subscribe on itunes, stitcher radio and Tunein

"She’s proven to be the best in the world but she’s still looking to get better” – Russell Mark Did you find yourself admiring the great performance of Katie Ledecky at the Rio Olympic games? Did you wonder what made her special? What made her tick? What made her so successful? If you did then today’s episode is for you. If you didn’t then what were you watching exactly? Just kidding, you’ll learn a lot from this episode as well. 3 KEY LESSONS - Have an innate desire to do what you need to do to succeed - Set big goals - Devote yourself to self-discipline Episode 43 is about a great champion who continues to improve at her craft. I have learnt a lot from her and you certainly can too. Go on and take a listen. ACTION FOR TODAY Here are a few questions to ask yourself: 1. Am I willing to do anything to succeed? Would I really go far enough? (In other words, what is your limit? What is it you can and cannot do in order to reach your goals?) 2. Do I have my goals set out? Do I know what I want next year and the year after that? Or am I just going along with my career without any real destination. Your answer to the two questions above tells whether or not you have the third leg which is discipline. Now I know this is a big challenge. This process is not for the faint of heart. How committed are you really to improving your career? If not so much, skip this. If you are really serious about becoming a better athlete who deserves the goals you have for your career, this exercise is essential. I challenge you to be great. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates. Subscribe on itunes, stitcher radio and Tunein

"success is where it all begins, but what type of success do you plan for” – Tola Ogunlewe I have often said that my success is different from your success. We all start out with different goals, we all start out with different visions. So, why is it that we often find ourselves comparing our success to the success of others? We are casting glances. We are trying to see what strides the other person has made so we can use that to measure our own success. Big mistake. Define your own success, know what you want to achieve in your sports and what would make you happy. The fact that you didn’t get to play for a certain club doesn’t not mean you are not successful. If that was your goal in the first place then you have achieved everything you could ever imagine. Episode 42 is fruitful Friday and we urge you to define your own success. Go on and take a listen. ACTION FOR TODAY Have you defined what success means to you? If you haven’t, I want you to do that now. I challenge you to be great and to define your success. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates. Subscribe on itunes, stitcher radio and Tunein

"They say motivation does not last, well, neither does bathing, which is why we recommend it daily” – Zig Ziglar We all got involved in sports for a reason, to achieve our goals and dreams. But the real truth is time and time again we find athletes who struggle to stay motivated in the pursuit of their dreams. Now this can happen for various reasons. At the end of the day what is important is staying the course. The greatest myth about motivation is that the super star athletes are always motivated and never lose focus. News flash, that’s not true. If you a fan of the podcast you would have noticed on Monday episodes when we talk about other athletes and what you can learn from them that they all struggle at some point to stay the course. Usain Bolt is a prime example. He hates training, he thinks about not training everyday, he is not motivated to do so. But over and again he finds his focus and motivation and rises to the occasion. So can you. Episode 41 discuses everything you need to know about motivation, the good and the bad and how to channel it correctly to stay the course and win. Its very straight to the point and you will see what separate the great athletes from the athletes who struggle. Go on and take a listen. ACTION FOR TODAY I want you to think about why you are involved in sports. I want you to think about what goes through your mind when you get bored with training. Write down all the things that motivate you to get up in the morning to train. Are they internal factors? If they are then you are on the right track. If they are not then find a way to cut them out. For example if your motivating factor is pleasing others, a better way to motivate yourself would be to seek to be a role model to others. So rather than pleasing them you inspire them. Get the point? So get to work I challenge you to be great and to motivate yourself to greater heights. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates. Subscribe on itunes, stitcher radio and Tunein

"Find a way not an excuse” – Unknown In sports you often find great motivation from inspirational stories of athletes who have overcome so much to achieve their goals in the end. At least they didn’t die so they would have lived anyway. Just kidding. The story of Kathleen Baker makes every excuse ever given as to why success was not achieved by some athletes mediocre. The reason is this. At the age of 13 she was diagnosed with Crohn disease and doctors plainly told her you will never play sports again, focus on just living a good life. You know what this firecracker of a young lady went and did? She went to the Olympic games and won two medals. A gold and a silver medal. Isn’t that special. Even if you don’t admit it is, I do. And I want you to draw inspiration from her today and learn from her story. Every reason you have given to give up on your dreams is a waste of time. Yes it is. A complete waste. 3 KEY LESSONS - Have a phenomenal will to succeed. - Never ever ever give up. - Control what you can control Episode 40 challenges you to wake up to your dreams and crush them regardless of what you are going through. I challenge you to develop a phenomenal will to succeed. ACTION FOR TODAY Think about the excuses you have given in the past as to why you have not succeeded in your career. Then compare that excuse to what Kathleen Baker has gone through. If your excuse is not as bad as her own, then you are just wasting time and you need to get up and get going on accomplishing your goal. Put the excuse behind you and start seeing things from a different light. If your excuse is worse then guess what, I’ll probably talk about you on the show in future regarding what you have achieved. So you see it is a win/win. I challenge you to be great and to overcome. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates. Subscribe on itunes, stitcher radio and Tunein

"Action is the foundational key to all success” - Pablo Picasso The key to success is action. if you do not take action in sports, you cannot succeed. If action is lacking so is success. I have never seen a successful athlete who didn’t take action. Have you? Certainly not. Episode 39 is Fruitful Friday and its all about encouraging you to take action today. ACTION FOR TODAY Start by taking action. Let your mantra today be “take action”. And as you do it improves your chances of succeeding day after day. I challenge you to be great, I challenge you to take action. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates. Subscribe on itunes, stitcher radio and Tunein

"I’m not the next Usain Bolt or the next Michael Phelps, I am the first Simone Biles” – Simone Biles Arguably one of the greatest gymnast of all time and a star of the Rio Olympics. I personally looked forward to her performances at the games because I has heard so much about her. And she did not disappoint, except in one event. Nevertheless it was clear that this is someone who has mastered her craft and continues to master her craft. What you don’t know about Simone is that she did not have the greatest start but still at the age of 19 she has made the best out of it. So its not too late for you. In 20 minutes I guarantee you that your perspective of what you can achieve in sports will change. If you put your mind to it you’ll learn a lot from this episode. Don’t be left out. Take a listen. 3 KEY LESSONS - Master the art of deliberate practice - Be humble - Have a supporting team around you Episode 37 expands on all the lessons you can learn from Simone’s career. Take them and go to work. No kidding. ACTION FOR TODAY Start by taking things one step at a time. Identify that skill you want to learn and start working on it deliberately. Don’t just practice for the fun of it. Have a goal you want to get from that practice and don’t stop until you do. In less than a week if you put this into action you’ll see the changes roll in. I challenge you. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates. Subscribe on itunes, stitcher radio and Tunein

"Ideology knows the answer before the question has been asked. — George Packer Your ideology is what you believe in. It’s what you live by. It is what guides you in the pursuit of your goals. Like the quote says, the answer is already there even before you know the question. So you might believe anything is possible or you might believe that some things are just not for you. You see you might wonder why you operate in a particular manner or just see some things in a particular way, that’s because you have built up an ideology over time that has become a part of you. More like instinct. What you need to do is identify and be sure that your ideologies are working for you and taking you closer to your goals in sports every single day. Episode 36 is fruitful Friday and its all about building the right ideology.. ACTION FOR TODAY Write down on a sheet of paper all the things that you believe in. be honest with yourself. Now take a second look and see if those ideologies are positive or negative. With that can you start focusing more on the right ideologies and principles as you continue on your journey. For starters I want you to believe that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates.

"The Olympic games is a celebration of competition, discipline and learning." — Tola Ogunlewe The Olympic games have come and gone but what can you learn from it. I hope you didn’t just watch it for the spectacle it was (well that’s great as well) but I hope you watched more to learn and be inspired. If you didn’t then athlete maestro is here to cover that angle. The Olympics provide a crucial opportunity to see a collection of different athletes together at the same time. What better place provides an array of different things to learn. Over the last few weeks, I have talked about Olympic legends Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps but there are thousands of athletes out there you can learn from. That’s what todays episode is about. A general look at the Olympics and what you can learn from it. Episode 35 puts the Olympic games in the rear view as we reminisce on the many athletes and things we can learn going forward. ACTION FOR TODAY Find your Desire and Dedication. What is the vision that you see? How committed are you to achieving that vision? You need to discover that vision, thing you want to achieve. Because it is not until you do that, that you can plan. So first things first find the desire and vision. After that support it with the dedication required to succeed. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates. Subscribe on itunes, stitcher radio and Tunein

"I think goals should never be easy, they should force you to work, even if they are uncomfortable at the time." — Michael Phelps The word great is often thrown around in sports these days and has become somewhat over used. But not in this case and not today. Michael Phelps is not only great, he is a legend. The greatest Olympian of all time and an athlete that is one in a generation. At the just concluded Rio Olympic games, Phelps shone again and added more medals to his collection. Quite honestly he is one of my most favourite athletes and it was a joy to bring this episode to you. Learning from legends is the way to improve your sports career and get better. Phelps is up there with the greatest of them all. I hope you learn something today that helps you change the course of your career. I am positive you will. 3 KEY LESSONS - Be focused on achieving your goals in sports - Be passionate about what you do - Always see the vision ahead Episode 34 gives you a behind the scenes look at Michael Phelps and all the things that make him great and the athlete he is. Learn from this legend and change your life. ACTION FOR TODAY Start to reprioritize your goals so that your focus is not divided. What is the most important sports goal you want to achieve as at today? Now channel all your focus into achieving that goal. Use all the other tools we have shared on the podcast to achieve that goal and improve your life. I challenge you to be great. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates. Subscribe on itunes, stitcher radio and Tunein

"the more risks you take the more confident you get" — Unknown Confidence is the name of the game for every athlete. Nothing can be achieve in sports without confidence. Confidence is what would push you to take action and go after what you want to want. In that regard you cannot learn confidence except you actually take action. Episode 33 is Fruitful Friday and its all about taking risk and improving your confidence. ACTION FOR TODAY Start taking more risks today. Step out of your comfort zone and build that confidence to tackle the challenge ahead of you. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates. Subscribe on itunes, stitcher radio and Tunein

"everything starts with a vision. You have to see it even before it becomes a reality." — Unknown In life if you cannot see it before it happens then you might as well go in blind. Visualization is a powerful technique that every athlete must master to aid your success in sports. The fact that you don’t know this means you are missing out on one of the biggest secrets to success in sports. Ask any successful athlete and one of the first things they tell you about their success is that they saw it coming a long mile away. You must see it before it happens. VISION When you envisage your future in sports, what do you see? Are you worried about what might go wrong or are you seeing negative things? When asked about his preparation for his races, one of the key things Usain Bolt emphasizes is that he tries to visualize the perfect race. That is where it all begins. Ignore the naysayers who would say it’s a waste of effort and time. You see with everything in life comes its challenges. Am I saying if you visualize then everything you visualize would come to pass? No! But guess what, each time you practice it you become more confident and you take that confidence into your performances. Episode 32 takes you through what it means to visualize and see into your success in sports. You will learn what visualization is and why it is important for you to make it a part of your preparation in sports. ACTION FOR TODAY Imagine yourself having the best performance of your life in a particular event or competition. Now imagine all the surrounding factors such as the fans, teammates, coaches and even obscure details such as the smell of the place. Now imagine everything going right for you. Imagine yourself doing everything right. See the crowd chanting your name and your teammates congratulating you on such a dominant performance. How did it feel? Do you feel the confidence surging through your veins? And it didn’t even cost you anything. That is visualization. Keep practicing it and improving on it. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates. Subscribe on itunes, stitcher radio and Tunein

"don’t think about the start of the race, think about the end of the race" — Usain Bolt Last night Bolt cemented his status as the greatest sprinter to ever grace this earth. He stormed to a third consecutive 100meters victory at an Olympic games to officially become Immortal. Bolt like every other athlete started somewhere. He was young, he was upcoming and relatively unknown. But over the years he has made his mark on a sport that has suffered doping controversies for some time. None of this has stopped Bolt from doing his job. Bolt said “For me, I'm focused on what I want to do. I know what I need to do to be a champion, so I'm working on it.” So what do you want to learn from Usain today? His career is perfect in teaching you how to master the craft of being an athlete. He has had ups and downs, he has learnt from his mistakes and he has also recovered from his setbacks. Most importantly he has the dedication and drive to keep improving every single day. 3 KEY LESSONS - Play to your strengths while you focus on your weaknesses - See your setbacks as a positive - Put the work in even if its not fun Episode 31 is packed full with lessons from Usain’s career you can take home and be sure would change your life for good. I hope you realize how simple they are to implement and get to work on them. ACTION FOR TODAY Start by making it a point to work despite the pain or the bore you feel. Once you have done that you can begin to play to your strengths. So I know its boring to train, I know its annoying to get up in the morning to train and all that. But if you want to master your craft and be better, learn to work despite it not being fun. Get to work on that. Get in touch with me. tola@athletemaestro.com P.S. Are you sharing Athlete Maestro with your teammates, friends and colleagues? Do so by clicking the share button in the audio above: If you love the Episode share it with your friends and teammates. Subscribe on itunes, stitcher radio and Tunein