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Jenn Ireland | Mental Skills for Soccer Players

@expandyourgame

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Building brave players that believe in themselves 🤩
🏟️ pros + ⚽️ coaches = EYG team
Hidden agenda ➡️ DISRUPT the systems
NEW MAIL CLUB 📬 @moxiemailsoccer

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There’s a different way to do this,
(AND IT’S ABOUT WAY MORE THAN SOCCER)

Expand Your Game exists to wake up female soccer players to a way out of the high-achievement, perfectionism-driven culture that makes them feel that their worth as a person is directly associated with what they produce on the field this weekend or how much playing time they get.

We help girls opt out of the systems designed to keep them small — and build their own path to becoming confident, gritty, joyful young women. Through mental skills, soccer development, and life skills, we help players cultivate a healthy relationship with the game, with competition, and with themselves.

Mentorship + Mental Skills Training: MMA 

We teach players how to build real confidence, bounce back from setbacks, and separate who they are from how they play — through proven curriculum and 1-on-1 mentorship.

Message MMA for more info 🔥 

A Community that Gets It: The ASSIST  

We’re building a space where parents, players, pros and peers can come together to challenge the status quo and prove that athletes can compete at high levels, be mentally well, and find true joy in playing.

Message ASSIST for a link to try it for free 🔥

☮️🧡⚽️
Expand Your Game team

#mentalskills
#soccermindset
#soccerplayers
#girlssoccer by @expandyourgame

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3 months ago

Every single player who shows up and does the work inside the Mindset Mastery Academy makes real shifts — in their confidence, their resilience, their bravery, and how they feel about themselves as a person and a player.

DM us MMA if you want to see how your daughter can get results like these.

☮️🧡⚽️
MMA Team by @expandyourgame

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4 months ago

We’re here to help female soccer players rethink the narrow definition of success they’ve been fed, opt out of the noise, and build a healthier relationship with the game.

Swipe to see what we stand for.

☮️🧡⚽️
Expand Your Game team by @expandyourgame

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4 months ago

As much as we love the beautiful game, we also know that these days it can be HARD being a female soccer player playing at competitive and elite levels of the game. The pressure and expectations can take a huge toll not just on confidence and performance, but on overall wellbeing, sense of self worth, and love for the game 💔⚽️ 
As a parent, it can feel overwhelming because you just want to see your daughter believe in herself and play with confidence, bravery, freedom, and JOY. You’ve tried everything you can think of, but you just don’t know how to help her get out of her head, stop overthinking, stop being so hard on herself. 
The Mindset Mastery Academy is our 12-week mental skills program built specifically for youth female soccer players ages 9-17. We combine proven curriculum with athlete mentorship — pairing every player with a coach from our all-female staff of current professional athletes and experienced youth coaches, with guaranteed results. 
Your player CAN learn to COACH themselves through hard things, they CAN learn to switch from self-doubt to SELF-BELIEF, they CAN learn to build unshakeable CONFIDENCE. This program is here to help her not just SURVIVE in this environment of pressure, expectations and comparison culture, but THRIVE. 
When families join MMA, they join more than a program. They join a movement to shift the culture in youth sports away from the win-at-all-costs mentality and back toward what it’s supposed to be: an opportunity to learn life skills, grow character, and expand as a person.
 Want more info? Message us “MMA” or comment “MMA” below.
 ☮️🧡⚽️
Expand Your Game

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#soccermindset
#soccerplayers
#girlssoccer by @expandyourgame

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a day ago

First things first: having big feelings in a game is normal. Frustration, nerves, even excitement.   Controlling your emotions doesn’t mean turning them off. 
It means not letting them make your decisions for you! 
🔴 REACTING = you feel it and act on it right away, without thinking
 🔵 RESPONDING = you feel it, pause, and THEN choose what to do next 
You have the same feelings either way. The difference is who makes the choice: you or your emotions.
 Here’s what that looks like:

😬 You’re nervous to shoot because you don’t want to miss.  Reacting: You pass it off just to get rid of the ball.  Responding: You look up and check the facts. Do I have space? Do I have a good angle? Or does a teammate have a better one? Then you decide. 
😠 An opponent is in your face all game, talking trash and shoving after the whistle.  Reacting: You fire back and lose your head.  Responding: You feel it, but take a breath, and decide to stay locked in on your task. And guess who ends up frustrated? HER. 
Good soccer is problem solving, and it’s hard to solve problems when your feelings are in charge. Look at what’s actually happening on the field (where the space is, where your teammates are) and make your best decision from there.

☮️🧡⚽️
Autumn Weeks, pro player and mentor at Expand Your Game

#mentalskills
#soccermindset
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2 days ago

Come hang out with our Mindset Mastery Academy mentor team of professional players! These live events are laid back, collaborative discussions and Q&A sessions lead by Expand Your Game, with members of our MMA coaching staff dropping in each month. 
October — More Than an Athlete: Identity beyond Performance
A conversation with Ali Hall of the US Beach Soccer National Team
Monday, October 19th at [5pm PT] [8 pm ET] 
We’ll talk about how knowing who you are BEYOND soccer can actually lead to more success AT soccer.
 How to join: message me ASSIST and I’ll send you the link to join our community. Free for 30 days, just $9/month afterwards.   These calls are open to all players, parents and coaches. We would love to see you there!

☮️🧡⚽️
Expand Your Game

#mentalskills
#soccermindset
#soccerplayers
#girlssoccer by @expandyourgame

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3 days ago

Trust building is the groundwork of making things land by @expandyourgame

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3 days ago

Negative thoughts during a game? 🧠⚽️

One mistake doesn’t have to turn into five.

Instead of dwelling on what just happened, ask yourself: “WHAT’S NEXT?”

A simple mental skills tool to reset, refocus, and stay in the present moment. by @expandyourgame

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3 days ago

This season we officially launched our Club Partnership Program — bringing a limited number of clubs access to the Mindset Mastery Academy, sports psych & mental performance guest workshop series from @athmindset.io, and our ASSIST community for parents and players.  
Our 2026 official partner clubs are:
Arizona Surf 🌊
NMD Beach Soccer🏖️
Flagstaff Revolution 🌲 SC Gjøa Soccer ⚓️
 We are SO excited to be building something special with these communities.

More partner reveals coming soon. Stay tuned. 👀

Think your club might be interested? Download the program info packet at the link in our bio and forward to your director or board members.

☮️🧡⚽️
Expand Your Game Team

#mentalskills
#soccermindset
#soccerplayers by @expandyourgame

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4 days ago

From @alyssarbwalker 
One of the hard things about soccer that people don’t always see is doing everything the coach asks of you and still not getting the playing time you hoped for. 
You show up every day ready to train. You work hard. You stay professional. You focus on the details you’re told to improve. But sometimes the minutes still don’t come. 
This was my story while I was playing for Carolina Ascent. At a certain point, I realized the only thing I could control was my mindset and the way I approached training. 
So I decided to put my energy into the things that were in my control. I started challenging the top players on our team every day in training. I made it my job to compete with them, push them, and make training as difficult as possible so they would be prepared for game day. 
I also got really curious about the game. Training became a place where I could experiment, learn, and sharpen my understanding. 
Somewhere along the way, training became fun again. I stopped focusing so much on the minutes I wasn’t getting and started focusing on the impact I could still have every day. 
A lot of players feel like they aren’t part of the team when they’re not getting minutes. But that’s not true. I still played an important role on the team. And it’s important that I let myself recognize that and feel good about that because THAT IS SUCCESS. 
Sometimes your role isn’t always the one you imagined, but there is ALWAYS a way to contribute to your team and expand your game when you focus on the things you can control 🔥 
☮️🧡⚽️
Alyssa Walker, pro player and mentor at Expand Your Game 
#mentalskills
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#girlssoccer by @expandyourgame

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4 days ago

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5 days ago

Being IN the recruiting process is hard, it brings with it a whole bunch of challenges that don’t really get talked about beforehand. This mindset can help when you are inside of everything: focus on the controllables and let go of the outcome, of NEEDING things to happen any certain way.   1. Put all of your energy into the controllables. What can you control? Emailing coaches. Getting in front of coaches. Taking responsibility for the outreach and doing all of the work to get in front of as many people as you can. Put all of your energy into it.

Then try to keep your attention there, instead of letting your mindset get distracted by expectations about how this is ‘supposed’ to look or how things ‘should’ be happening.   Meaning: 
2. Let go of the how. When we need it to happen a certain way, we feel disappointment left and right. Being stuck on outcome might sound like: “It’s fall already. I thought I’d have this all figured out by now.” Or, “this isn’t how this is supposed to go, it should be different.”   The truth is, you only think that because you are comparing against someone else’s timeline. And when we get sucked into that way of thinking, we stop doing the controllables. And THAT is what ends up limiting us.

If you’ve been playing soccer forever and are an invested athlete, you CAN play college soccer, there is a spot for you somewhere. Trusting in this and then putting one hundred percent of your energy into the controllable parts is how you manifest this and make it happen. DON’T try to micromanage the outcome, believe it needs to happen any certain way or be tunnel-visioned in your pursuit of this goal.   Here’s what TO do: Focus on what you can control. Take action in those areas. Be open to everything. Explore all opportunities. Be curious, be growth-minded and be EXCITED to see where all this takes you.  
If you don’t have an expectation about the way it’s supposed to be, you will never be disappointed. You will only be surprised and grateful when something does happen.

☮️🧡⚽️
Jenn & Autumn

#mentalskills
#soccermindset
#soccerplayers
#girlssoccer by @expandyourgame

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5 days ago